Aug. 2, 2025 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
01:05:16
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Through COVID, through suspension and cancellation and lawsuit for the last sixteen months of my time at ESPN that was public against the company for which I was still working, I did my best work. | ||
| But in the middle of this, you were also getting a divorce. | ||
| Okay, end the show, end the program. | ||
| I think when you get a divorce, it's a failure in some ways. | ||
| I just had to forgive myself and I mean from a spiritual aspect, like, I thought God was going to be really angry with me. | ||
| I look back on that time into fear because then you have to go to work. | ||
| So I remember, you know, you get a difficult text message or talk, a conversation with an attorney. | ||
| Sometimes in commercial breaks, then you're back on that light comes on. | ||
| And whatever's going on in your personal life has to go in the back.. | ||
| I was on air with another one of these women, whom I idolized, and at the end of our two hour sports center show, she said something nasty in the last twenty seconds to me. | ||
| Oh, it was on air. | ||
| Oh, it was live on air, yeah. | ||
| When you've been controlled by a machine for thirty years with network television, but now to try it on my own and be able to say, hey, Dave said, come on down, you know, an hour or so drive from where I live in Fort Lauderdale. | ||
| Like, I don't have to ask permission. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I can just go do what I want. | ||
| When the team Trump called and they're like, you want to come with Laura, I was like, what? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Let's just go. | ||
| Let's say yes to everything and try it. | ||
| when you say yes, crazy things can happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
*music* | |
| Okay, Sage, first off, you're past intros. | ||
| You're past it. | ||
| There's nothing. | ||
| What am I possibly going to say about you at this point that I don't think we're real friends now. | ||
| We are. | ||
| Literal, real friends. | ||
| As everyone knows, I'm off the grid right now. | ||
| So let's be very clear. | ||
| This is the end of July as we're taping this, but it is August. | ||
| I'm gone. | ||
| No phone. | ||
| I have no idea what's going on. | ||
| You were gracious enough to bring me back last year, which was so great. | ||
| Which was of all the years that I've done it, I think it was the most sort of impactful and spiritual and, you know, the story about the birds and all that stuff. | ||
| Right. | ||
| So I am MIA right now, but we're doing a little bit of, you know, you have to stay in front of the algorithm. | ||
| So I thought, who can we talk to that that we can talk about some other stuff during August that's not so political and everything else? | ||
| And we're sitting here with my whole crew right now and one of your daughters is here and they're using all their young language. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And they're telling us all about the TikTok and all this stuff. | ||
| And we're we're of a certain age. | ||
| We both, I just realized, also have our glasses on. | ||
| What's happening to us, Sage? | ||
| It's over. | ||
| What is happening here? | ||
| It's over. | ||
| Although it's been over for me longer than you. | ||
| Because I You have two years on me or something? | ||
| 52, 53 this year. | ||
| I know. | ||
| Next year. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Oh my gosh, blowout. | ||
| For the big five. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Like, I hope that David is planning this now. | ||
| I believe that me and my two best childhood friends are going to do like a week in Vegas. | ||
| I think I'm just going to foot that. | ||
| That sounds awful. | ||
| But I feel like we have to do something like that. | ||
| I don't even really gamble, but just we'll go to the sphere, we'll eat some steaks. | ||
| Okay, well, the food there, to me, is so underrated. | ||
| I think it's incredible. | ||
| That'll be fun. | ||
| But it just seems very cliché, and that's not who you're. | ||
| Well, because I do like the beach thing all the time. | ||
| I do enough of that. | ||
| So what else can I do? | ||
|
unidentified
|
First of all, I just feel like you're a woman of the finer things in life. | |
| Obviously, someone needs to be following you all the time. | ||
| Oh, that I'm invasive. | ||
| You are invasive. | ||
| Whatever that even means, I'm like, so past all that. | ||
| Like, no. | ||
| First of all, there just needs to be a bash. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Here in Miami that you're not hosting. | ||
| That you're not doing any work for. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, that's just because you didn't come to the last Dave Rubin birthday bash. | |
| I was in Costa Rica. | ||
| Ask her. | ||
| I actually had a good excuse. | ||
| Why don't you ask me before you plan your birthdays? | ||
| Like, you should be asking me. | ||
| I should be. | ||
| My whole schedule should be based around your own. | ||
| Basically, yes. | ||
| So a big party here, please. | ||
| Next year for Fab.IBO, in addition to your Vegas escapades. | ||
| Did life change for you at fifty? | ||
| Well, you had a lot going on. | ||
| I mean, work wise, person wise. | ||
| You've had it. | ||
| You've had quite a, let's say, five year operation. | ||
| I have. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Forty seven and fifty two has been memorable. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And some things I'd like to forget, but actually, no, it's part of the journey, right? | ||
| You know, again, cliché when people say, Oh, at fifty, it's just, it's the best decade. | ||
| Don't they say that about every decade? | ||
| Thirties are your best. | ||
| Some start in your twenties. | ||
| Four, forty. | ||
| It's all in your forties. | ||
| Fifty so far, so good because I don't care anymore. | ||
| I and I think you got there a lot longer ago than I did. | ||
| I don't know about that, but I can see that in the 50s. | ||
| I can really see that. | ||
| I don't know if it was longer or not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I mean, I feel like just in general for what you're doing and to give your thoughts and opinions every single day, at some point you have to block out the crap and the noise and you take some of it and maybe learn from it. | ||
| But overall, you're like, okay, if they hate me, it's their loss. | ||
| It's fine. | ||
| I got there more recently and now that I'm, you know, two years in, yeah. | ||
| It's beautiful. | ||
| It's such a relief. | ||
| And I think, God, all those years wasted worrying about pleasing everyone else. | ||
| So I love it. | ||
| And I mean, professional, it's something like you've been a huge part of and such a great help to me to, um, just keep taking those steps and not be afraid of it when you've been controlled by a machine for thirty years with network television. | ||
| And you know this. | ||
| I've said it many times. | ||
| I wouldn't change anything of it. | ||
| I'm so grateful for all of it. | ||
| But now to try it on my own and be able to say, hey, Dave said, come down, you know, an hour or so drive from where I live in Fort Lauderdale on a Thursday. | ||
| Yeah, I'll be right there. | ||
| Like, I don't have to ask permission. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I can just go do what I want. | ||
| And who knew there was that freedom, which I do think comes with age and wisdom and experience. | ||
| Well, you also do live in the free state of Florida now. | ||
| So this is, this is Freedom Central. | ||
| But you, I mean, people know the sort of, uh, the public side of all this and leaving ESPN and the COVID stuff and canceling and all that. | ||
| But in the midst of this, you were you were also getting a divorce. | ||
| You were also living on your own for the first time in I assume plus 20 plus years, right? | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| And all that and moving down here and everything else. | ||
| And I've seen, you know, one of your daughters is here. | ||
| I've seen the relationship that you've managed with your girls and everything else. | ||
| And when I come back from the grid, I have to take a trip within two days of coming back because on September 3rd is your ish. | ||
| That week. | ||
| Ish. | ||
| Maybe I got it wrong slightly. | ||
| But ish, first week of September ish is your wedding to, of course, Dave. | ||
| Another day. | ||
| I love Dave's in my life. | ||
| So that, I mean, that's a lot of stuff to happen in a short period. | ||
| It's a lot. | ||
| What did you make of those two things happening at once. | ||
| I mean, basically going through the personal side, divorce and all that and the career stuff. | ||
| I mean, that's a lot of stuff to just be up in the air. | ||
| It was the craziest time of my life. | ||
| And I do look back and I'm actually trying to give myself some grace. | ||
| I'm frustrated with some things that I didn't do quickly enough. | ||
| Yeah, I think we beat ourselves up when we fail. | ||
| And I think when you get a divorce, it's a failure in some ways. | ||
| I was married for 20 years, almost to the day, together for 27 years, from 20 to 47. | ||
| I met my ex-husband in college and first boyfriend, you know? | ||
| Wow. | ||
| But like, look what came of those. | ||
| There were the majority of beautiful years. | ||
| And I have three awesome kids from that. | ||
| And but I think when it fails and as a Catholic and you have Catholic guilt, Catholic guilt, Jewish guilt, black guilt, white guilt, oh only half black guilt, like I'm all of it. | ||
| And like, I just had to forgive myself. | ||
| And I mean, from a spiritual aspect, like, I thought God was going to be really mad at me. | ||
| I had to I talked to my priest and was very helpful in saying, okay, have you prayed about this? | ||
| What has been your process to get to this point? | ||
| And then afterwards. | ||
| And then, by the way, when you have three kids and at the time they were all in high school, you know, like trying to make life as good as possible for them and then to co parent, which we did well, especially at the beginning we did really well when they were younger. | ||
| I look back on that time and the fear because then you have to go to work and support everyone, right? | ||
| So I remember, you know, you get a difficult text message or talk, a conversation with an attorney, sometimes in commercial breaks, then you're back on that light comes on. | ||
| And whatever's going on in your personal life has to go in the back. | ||
| Everybody does that every single day when you go into work. | ||
| Everybody's got something. | ||
| Did it ever bleed? | ||
| Do you have one moment where it bled into it? | ||
| Like actually on television? | ||
| Not on television. | ||
| Not on television. | ||
| I think, you know, COVID happened at the same time. | ||
| It was literally three months after my divorce, COVID hit. | ||
| Like it was insane. | ||
| And living in the Northeast, not in the free state of Florida, completely shut down and winter at the time, awful. | ||
| I actually believe that from that moment on, like the beginning of those personal difficulties through COVID, through a suspension and cancellation and a lawsuit for the last 16 months of my time at ESPN that was public against the company for which I was still working, I did my best work. | ||
| I just learned to become a master compartmentalizer. | ||
| Is that the word? | ||
| That sounded like a word. | ||
| I know how to compartmentalize really, really well now, which can not always be good. | ||
| That can be a bad thing, I think, if you just put things away in your personal life and even professionally too. | ||
| I will say this, I had I hadn't given up on love or finding someone, but I had stopped thinking about it. | ||
| And I never knew how to date, Dave. | ||
| Like I married my first boyfriend, like I never knew. | ||
| So at one point my kids used to mock me. | ||
| They're like, you're the only single one of us all. | ||
| And then one time I only dated one guy kind of seriously during those five years that I was single. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And Quinn, my oldest, one time she saw me texting him back and she's like, Is that what you're sending? | ||
| Do not push that on that mom. | ||
| Give me that. | ||
| This is what you need to say. | ||
| And then she's like, Now, wait half an hour. | ||
| Don't send it yet. | ||
| Like, they're stressed. | ||
| Yada, yada, yada. | ||
| That's not the guy you're marrying. | ||
| Oh, no. | ||
| But like, I didn't know what I was doing. | ||
| And maybe my kids were like laughing at me and mocking. | ||
| Again, I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it. | ||
| And now to have met someone who went through something similar, you know? | ||
| He has two kids and my three. | ||
| So you guys are like the modern Brady bunch. | ||
| Kind of. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And I I'm just I'm so grateful, but I know and sometimes I think, man, I wish I'd met him earlier. | ||
| I wish we always say, I wish we wish we could have had children together. | ||
| They would have been really tall, athletic, curly hair, like all that. | ||
| And I've met your kids, you're doing okay. | ||
| They're phenomenal. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But like to continue, I'm like, well, we're all dried up, babe. | ||
| There's nothing left in here at this age. | ||
| Menopause fully in it. | ||
| Like, no. | ||
| It wouldn't have worked. | ||
| Just like you with David, right? | ||
| It takes every step of that sometimes painful journey to get to that day and that moment where I happened to be in Nashville, Tennessee, at a charity for veterans because I'm a daughter of a vet and he is a vet and the son of a vet happened to be there that one day on a Tuesday that if I hadn't stood up to ESPN and Disney, I would have been in Connecticut doing sports center not at this event where I met the love of my life. | ||
| And it turns out you have a crazy connection between your moms, right? | ||
| Your moms somehow knew each other for thirty plus years ago. | ||
| Our fathers were stationed together at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. | ||
| So in the early nineties, they graduated from West Point a year apart. | ||
| My dad 1970, his dad 1971. | ||
| Fast forward to the early nineties, and our moms actually used to volunteer at a convent for retired nuns in Kansas. | ||
| And I'm three years older, so I was in college when he was in high school. | ||
| And fast forward to 2024, and we're at this event, and he recognized me for me as Penn and came up to say hi and said, By the way, we we kind of know each other. | ||
| And I'm like, Oh Lord, don't give me this cheesy fline. | ||
| I've kind of heard them all at this point, the last couple of years. | ||
| And when he said that and gave my mom's name, basically, I was like, Excuse me? | ||
| And you're really cute. | ||
| Okay, let's talk. | ||
| It sounds so lame and you know this, but I knew that night. | ||
| Got engaged five months to the day later. | ||
| Crazy. | ||
| Yeah, I mean it is. | ||
| It's not always easy, right? | ||
| And people will judge. | ||
| And I have had dear friends and family members in my life who are, who are, you know, have been concerned, like, wait, wait, wait, slow down. | ||
| Kids have been like, wait a minute, mom and dad on his side. | ||
| When you're this age and have gone through it, you know. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And I've never been more sure of anything in my life. | ||
| And I'm so excited at this second chance, you know, it's a second opportunity at love and being a great example for my kids and others to not give up. | ||
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| So in some sense, Are you kind of thankful that the career and the personal thing happened at the same time? | ||
| You know, usually if this was a movie, most people it's like, oh, the career is going great and that's why the other thing falls apart. | ||
| You kind of lost them both at the same time, which maybe leads to like the peace that you have. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's the word. | ||
| It's the peace. | ||
| You also know that Florida, the free state of Florida, helped me with that. | ||
| During COVID, I bought the condo in Fort Lauderdale Site Unseen because it was during COVID and the HOA is strict and way too expensive and stupid. | ||
| They wouldn't let us in to see the unit. | ||
| So my realtor talked her way in for ten minutes. | ||
| I was in Connecticut FaceTime to me. | ||
| All I saw was behind her the view of the ocean. | ||
| And I'm like, let's do it. | ||
| Good timing. | ||
| It was like in May, June 2020, before everything in Florida really began to skyrocket, especially at the beach. | ||
| And I would come down every other weekend when my kids are with their dad. | ||
| I was devastated to be like alone in this big house in Connecticut. | ||
| Like you create this home and this life for your children and then you're alone. | ||
| And I couldn't handle it. | ||
| I would just melt down because I missed my babies, you know, even though they were where they should be at that time with their dad. | ||
| He was great, you know? | ||
| So. | ||
| I would just escape down here for 48 hours, get off the air, go straight to the airport. | ||
| And the water and the sun and the sand like healed my soul. | ||
| It sounds so lame, but it healed my soul. | ||
| And it had to happen this way. | ||
| I think you find out who your friends are. | ||
| And that really, that was probably the hardest part is just realizing, gosh, I guess I was only there for that person because I carried some weight in ESPN and could help out over here. | ||
| That was probably the worst. | ||
| After the cancellation. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But man, it literally, it just had to be this way. | ||
| New Year's Day, 2024. | ||
| I got in the water. | ||
| I had to fly back home that day. | ||
| I had Evan with me, my youngest daughter, and I had been out on a date on New Year's Eve. | ||
| Horrible. | ||
| Like so stupid. | ||
| So stupid. | ||
| He was too young. | ||
| It's fine. | ||
| It's a story for another day. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Well, it could be a story for today. | ||
| I need your tequila. | ||
| We're all right. | ||
| That can be arranged too. | ||
| And I remember just being like, you're so dumb sage. | ||
| Like why? | ||
| But my friends are like, hey, who cares? | ||
| You're single. | ||
| Like, go for it. | ||
| Just say yes. | ||
| Go on a date. | ||
| What were you going to say? | ||
| Well, no, because we covered it the story. | ||
| I don't want, well, also your daughter's in the room, so I don't know how much I'm going to do right now, but we covered that story about Charlize Thoran talking about having sex with that younger guy. | ||
| So it's, and you went on a date with a not younger guy. | ||
| I'm not implying anything here, but like, I can sense some like, well, I just, because I could see you're a little like, ah, he was too young in the first place. | ||
| We talked about her at 50, I think, having sex with a 26 year old. | ||
| Like, there's multiple layers here. | ||
| Multiple layers, for sure. | ||
| We were talking about this earlier. | ||
| Just, I mean, I knew better before there were a couple of dates. | ||
| I knew better beforehand, but I was like, again, okay, who cares? | ||
| I said this earlier when we were going to meet up somewhere, dinner, and he suggested the place. | ||
| I was like, okay, I was 7.30. | ||
| He was like, bet. | ||
| I was like, what? | ||
| Bet? | ||
| Like, I thought I misunderstood. | ||
| Bet. | ||
| Guys, you know what bet means? | ||
| B-E-T, Black Entertainment Television. | ||
| Yeah, but they don't like me there. | ||
| No, bet means like, cool, yeah, sure. | ||
| I'm like, bet? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I hung up and I was like, what the hell am I doing with my life? | |
| What does bet mean? | ||
| Right. | ||
| So, I... | ||
| There's just it's it's a different generation. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like, no. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So, so you got me off track with, oh, so I was in the ocean. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| On New Year's Day after that crappy date. | ||
| And I literally got in, which is what I always did when I had to go back to Connecticut. | ||
| And I said, Lord, don't bring me anyone until you bring me someone. | ||
| I make it really clear. | ||
| That was my prayer. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Because I didn't trust myself. | ||
| And I was like, well, you know, you're lonely. | ||
| And you, you do like, no. | ||
| Why are you lowering your bar? | ||
| And so, um, that was my prayer on january first, 2024. | ||
| And when I say it was like the Sahara Desert from january first. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Until November 12, 2024 when I met Dave, it was. | ||
| And I had asked God, don't bring me anybody until you bring me someone. | ||
| Make it clear. | ||
| It was clear as day. | ||
| And I, that night when it hit me, I thought back to being in the ocean on January 1st. | ||
| And I'm like, he's literally answering my prayers because I said, make it really obvious. | ||
| I asked him to make it very obvious. | ||
| And I'll shut up after this. | ||
| Like, Dave asked me a weekend. | ||
| He's in Nashville. | ||
| I'm in Florida. | ||
| You know, four or five hour phone conversations. | ||
| All three kids had gone off to college, which was why I made the full time move to Florida only after they were gone and okay. | ||
| And he said, what do you want in a relationship? | ||
| Like, what are your requirements? | ||
| And for the first time, I was unafraid to say what I really wanted. | ||
| And the first thing for me was that I needed someone to walk this faith journey with me, because I always had a strong faith, but I wasn't fully committed to it, I don't think, and fully living it in every aspect. | ||
| But I want someone that will pray with me. | ||
| And let's resort to that before other things, before therapists, all these things. | ||
| So I finally could say that and mean it. | ||
| And it was what he wanted to do. | ||
| Like there's just so much God that's involved in this. | ||
| And I was never open about my faith. | ||
| As Catholics, you stay really quiet. | ||
| You know, you pray on Sunday, you kneel, you stand, you sit, you do all the things. | ||
| And then you pray quietly on your own. | ||
| And I'm not saying I'm out of a Baptist church waving my arms and passing out or anything. | ||
| No, it's not me. | ||
| But the fact that I can share that with someone. | ||
| Again, my only sadness is that it didn't happen sooner because this person is so he's just incredible. | ||
| But I wouldn't have met him if it had happened sooner. | ||
| And I do believe that God made it happen this way. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And you got these three great kids. | ||
| Yeah, who, who, you know what, get to see their mom fail, um, personally and professionally in many ways. | ||
| Um, dad too, right? | ||
| All of it. | ||
| But then get to see us pick ourselves back up and still remain positive and grateful and smile and have fun and take chances and look like an idiot and not know what that means and get back up and try it again. | ||
| And then to find love again. | ||
| I actually really am so grateful that they get to see a different version of me, you know, and their dad who's happ happy with someone else, like they get to see that you don't settle. | ||
| And I think quite often that's what we're told to do. | ||
| I think that's changing in society. | ||
| But sometimes it's not right. | ||
| And you have tough decisions to make, even if they are difficult for others. | ||
| But what's on the other side can be beautiful. | ||
| And that's what I hope that they take, ask questions differently than I did at the beginning in their twenties. | ||
| Stay true to what it is that's super important to them, even if it's hard to say. | ||
| That's what I know my mistakes, I pray, will do for them. | ||
| How was it to close the door on the house in Connecticut for the last time. | ||
| Oh, that's because that's something like I can't even imagine that now raising these kids in this house. | ||
| Like the idea that one day I will say goodbye to this house, you know, move downsize, whatever it might be like, just to say goodbye to the place where your family. | ||
| You've raised your family. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Because it's not a house, it's a home. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You have created a home here for you and David and your boys. | ||
| Like it is home. | ||
| And I think I learned that as a military kid where we had to move every two years and with no money, my mom and dad, they figured it out and did it and every house was a home and that started with, you know, personalizing it and letting us pick our comforters. | ||
| And even though we knew we had to leave in a year, you know, I did that to that last house with the kids, every house that we lived in. | ||
| And when Evan went off to college as the last one, last year I had all three in college. | ||
| Thank God one graduating has a job. | ||
| But like, it was, oh, it's make me cry now. | ||
| I was devastated. | ||
| Because it was the end of that entire chapter of life. | ||
| Like it was, it was over. | ||
| And then you talk about empty nestor. | ||
| And also it was very unsure on the other side. | ||
| Now it's, now it's getting a lot more sure for you, but careers. | ||
| But career wise and personally, it was very interesting. | ||
| I put the house to sale. | ||
| And you were moving to a new state. | ||
| I mean, it was pretty much everything. | ||
| Everything sold the house in like three hours. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Sold the house, sold everything in it, had an estate sale, kept things that were important to the kids and have a small storage unit in Connecticut. | ||
| And I thought, well, one day I hope to have a house, a home again with someone. | ||
| And when I do, I'll get the stuff out of storage. | ||
| And Evan had one, I said, everyone gets, you know, one big thing that they get to keep. | ||
| Small things fine, but a big thing. | ||
| And she wanted to keep her bed and nightstand that she got when she was fourteen from Restoration Hardware team. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, oh, very funny. | |
| Very frustrating. | ||
| That was a big one. | ||
| And that ESPN money. | ||
| I know. | ||
| I was like you're killing me. | ||
| Okay, bye. | ||
| And I can't wait to put that bed and nightstand in a bedroom for her. | ||
| Probably soon. | ||
| A bedroom that looks very different than any of us imagined with Dave, you know, and we're going to have bedrooms for all five kids somehow. | ||
| We're going to figure it out. | ||
| But like to drive away from that, I went through each room and like prayed in each room and just was very grateful. | ||
| And then I remember taking a video of myself walking down the driveway for the last time to get in my car. | ||
| I had two suitcases. | ||
| Um, a case of wine, some tequila, and the one plant that I hadn't murdered. | ||
| And I just started driving, and it was 23 hours by myself. | ||
| I'd never driven more than three hours without like crashing, because I'd fall asleep at the wheel a lot. | ||
| It's not a problem. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Um, and you know, you're not supposed to drink the wine before you take the drive. | |
| Do you know that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just get my I just fall asleep when it's when it's like, uh, highway. | |
| Um, it was the most amazing therapeutic drive by myself, like starting alone in a white sedan, just driving. | ||
| And when I pulled into my, uh, condo and, you know, like had the thing on my. | ||
| car and the gates opened. | ||
| I'd sobbed again because I'm like, I and happy tears, as I say, said to the kids since they were little, these are happy tears because I'm choosing what I want this to look like and I actually don't know what that is. | ||
| I know that it's going to start here in a small condo compared to the big house and by the ocean that has helped me through so much and given me that escape. | ||
| And I went on my balcony with a glass of wine and took a selfie so I can look back on that knowing that that was like, you know, driving away was hard. | ||
| But again, I want the kids to see that. | ||
| Like you can sit, you can say goodbye. | ||
| And instead of like focusing on the sadness of saying goodbye, let's celebrate the amazing memories that we got to create in this awesome house. | ||
| Like there's so many memories and videos, you know? | ||
| And that's what you're creating here. | ||
| And fortunately, like when Mike Quinn was born in 2002, you didn't have your phones everywhere and videos everywhere and documenting everything. | ||
| That has changed. | ||
| I did a lot of that at the end there. | ||
| But it is. | ||
| And then I just said, I'm going to say yes to everything. | ||
| And so when the, when the Trump team, Trump called and they're like, you want to come with Lauren, I was like, what? | ||
| Yeah, let's just go. | ||
| Let's say yes to everything and try it. | ||
| I said yes to that. | ||
| I said yes to being able to just come and sit with you and talk and be okay crying and looking like an idiot. | ||
| I said yes to going to Nashville that night on November 12th, even though I actually canceled something else to go just for the hell of it. | ||
| Like when you say yes, crazy things can happen. | ||
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| Yeah, I mean, so you were at Mar a Lago on election night, we had you on. | ||
| Obviously, you're basically running down the hallway in a selfie with this thing going in and out. | ||
| But I know that's so consistently true for you because even from the first time that we met, which now it feels from the second we met, I felt like we were old friends. | ||
| I know. | ||
| But I felt that literally we were standing right there, you turned around, and I just immediately was like, I've known her forever. | ||
| And then that's got to be less than two years ago, basically, probably about two years, something like that. | ||
| And then subsequently in these two years, our worlds just kept colliding. | ||
| And that's one of the other interesting things about the internet or whatever it is that we're part of now. | ||
| Like you start, like good people keep finding each other or keep getting pushed together in a weird way, like by some other forces. | ||
| Yeah, it's not an accident. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But you from a distance before I even knew you, um, it was inspiring me and I didn't quite put that together at the time. | ||
| But with your journey and what it took for you to say, okay, enough. | ||
| We're selling the house, we're out. | ||
| I'm taking you guys with me. | ||
| Are you gonna, you know, are you gonna be on this train? | ||
| Like, that was a massive risk. | ||
| I don't care how successful you were at the time or had been, it was still a huge risk to go and start over. | ||
| And then you have a responsibility now because it's not just you and David, right? | ||
| It's the team, people who are depending on you and depending on your success so they get a paycheck. | ||
| And you continue to create that for other people. | ||
| I mean, just our actual Friends show, you know, like having such a blast just saying yes to it. | ||
| But it, that's what I hope people look at and take when they see you. | ||
| See you and see me on a much lesser level as I'm just really starting out in this world. | ||
| Just like, just try it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| What the hell? | ||
| Look what can happen. | ||
| Well, that's why I said for to, I said it on the first episode of the show with me, you and Russell, like, we're all doing it for nothing. | ||
| We haven't made a dime on it. | ||
| And the idea is, let's build it for a while. | ||
| Let's have fun. | ||
| See if we enjoy it, which we really are enjoying. | ||
| I love it. | ||
| Yeah, like, every time it ends, I'm like, that was good. | ||
| It was different. | ||
| It was real. | ||
| It was raw. | ||
| We've brought in, you know, Roseanne's done it, a couple of other people have done it. | ||
| But like, that you just keep trying things. | ||
| And I think if you just keep trying things with good people, like, good things just happen. | ||
| I actually don't think it's much more complex than that in some sense. | ||
| And it's all about the people. | ||
| That's literally all I care about right now when it comes to business. | ||
| Am I working with good people? | ||
| I worked with so many, hundreds and hundreds of great people through 29 years in network TV. | ||
| And there are a lot of jerks too, man. | ||
| And those are the ones who are like, whoa, why? | ||
| Like, what, why are you so miserable and hateful? | ||
| I don't want to get too much on this tangent, but we talked about him once before. | ||
| I don't mean to make about him exactly. | ||
| But like when you see someone that really seems to go over the deep end in our world. | ||
| So Keith Oberman, for example, like, do you think that is just like, is that fame going go into somebody's head? | ||
| Does that money go into somebody's head? | ||
| We don't even have to make it about him specifically. | ||
| Feel free to say what you want, obviously. | ||
| But like, because I've seen a lot of that. | ||
| I've seen people that I thought were so incredible who've completely lost their mind. | ||
| I've seen and then I've seen people who I thought were kind of average that really turned out to be spectacular and every version of that. | ||
| Right. | ||
| But like when you see people that really like had it all seemingly and then just like go just nuts, like what do you think is going on there? | ||
| To say, okay, KO, I don't like to say his full name. | ||
| I think there is a true mental illness with him. | ||
| I do. | ||
| And it's sad because I remember looking up to him so much and so uber talented. | ||
| We all did. | ||
| I told you I wanted to be that. | ||
| I was watching in college, heyday of SportsCenter with him and Dan Patrick and Craig Kilborn, who I thought was, he was the one that made it funny. | ||
| And I was like, I was like, that's what I want to do. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So talented. | ||
| But big picture aside from whatever's going on in his life, sadly, I think people forget where they come from. | ||
| They lose perspective, yes. | ||
| the fame gets to your head listen there there's always going to be a part of that um when the light comes on there's an adrenaline that comes with it and then you continue to go search for it, I think. | ||
| And I like, I miss live TV. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And do it, I guess, in many ways, you know, but do you feel that so you feel live streaming is different than live TV just because it's not as produced and there aren't as many key grips and gaffers and it's just a different thing. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, you live stream literally every day. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't. | ||
| Mine's taped, but I but it's as live as we say, right? | ||
| I mean, with my show, there's no editing. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Zero. | ||
| It would help me sometimes if I allowed it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know. | |
| You know? | ||
| But I'm like, no, this is me authentically me. | ||
| And even if on actual friends, I'm singing the wrong theme song to the cartoon, like whatever. | ||
| It is what it is. | ||
| I can mock myself. | ||
| I have people in my life who would never have allowed me to get over my bridges and to forget my roots and humble beginnings. | ||
| And I shudder when I see people and you are watching them evolve in the wrong way. | ||
| You're watching them change before your eyes. | ||
| And then when it gets to them, the fame, the recognition, money, whatever it is, I'm like, oh, no, no, no. | ||
| I believe that you can be famous and uber successful and still be kind and still be respectful and be humble. | ||
| Like it doesn't mean you don't have confidence, but that some. | ||
| But that self deprecating vibe at times, we all need a little more of that. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know? | ||
| So I just, you see it everywhere. | ||
| And it's not just in our industry, right? | ||
| I mean, it's corporate America and these CEOs and, but it's a choice. | ||
| And I remember feeling a certain way sitting next to certain people on the Sports Center set and people I used to admire and look up to and women. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And I'd be like, oh my gosh, she's so good on camera. | ||
| And then the second the lights go out, how are they treating the intern or the producer who is afraid of her? | ||
| Never, ever will I allow myself to get to that point. | ||
| And so I'm glad I got to witness that. | ||
| And there's just too many people and, you know, at some day in the book, it'll all be there. | ||
| It'll all be there. | ||
| Well, I guess partly that's also changing because the nature of having a phone in everyone's pocket is changing. | ||
| So in the old days, you can think of like the TV host who was perfect on camera, but then yelling at the guys off camera, where now they can't really get away with it the way they used to because everyone's recording everyone and everyone's got an ear on something. | ||
| So it's not it's a little trickier these days probably to be so outwardly evil, I suppose. | ||
| There's probably a way ways you could be underhandedly. | ||
| True. | ||
| But then even if it's not caught on camera, word of mouth, man. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And that word gets out and you hear things about like Charlie's there on and how through the years, I don't know how she is now. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Before she talked about sleeping with the 26-year-old and how great it was, which was I'm like, what? | ||
| Ew. | ||
| Like, not that he's 26, that the fact that you have to sit there and brag about it, but go ahead, you do your girl. | ||
| But like the behind the scenes person. | ||
| And again, how do you treat the crew? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| How do you treat everybody else? | ||
| And now, like, that'll get out to everybody on Axon and on whatever platform. | ||
| But I just feel like all those people who. | ||
| have, who have lost it and changed, what's in here, like in your heart that is allowing you to act that way? | ||
| And one time I was on air with another one of these women, whom I idolized, and at the end of our two hour sports center show, actually it was like a three hour sports center show, she said something nasty in the last twenty seconds to me. | ||
| And then in a commercial break, she said something about my clothes to me. | ||
| And this is at 2008, probably. | ||
| So I was much nicer then. | ||
| Now it was Linda Cohen. | ||
| It was not Linda Cohen. | ||
| It was not Linda Cohen. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| No, it was not Linda Cohen. | ||
| So it's easier to narrow things down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch it. | |
| Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, I'll have to think it through. | ||
| Yeah, there's two of them actually. | ||
| One of them came shortly after I arrived there, but whatever. | ||
| I like this, you're laying out all the bad news for us. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It's a CZero adventure. | ||
| Right, super talented, but like, oh my gosh, why? | ||
| And I remember getting in the car and calling my mom right away because she had seen it live. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And I was like, my mom was almost in tears. | ||
| Oh, it was on air. | ||
| Oh, it was live on air, yeah. | ||
| I was like, Mom. | ||
| And she's like, That was awful. | ||
| And then she said, You know, what was the reaction? | ||
| I said, Well, Purdue's forgotten my year and actually apologized for her, blah, blah. | ||
| And I was like, I was like, But I look up to her and she's a mother. | ||
| And I thought like her children were a little older, she could give me some advice to survive at the Worldwide Leader. | ||
| And again, this is 0708, very different time. | ||
| And she's like, Sage, this has nothing to do with you. | ||
| She doesn't just like you. | ||
| Right, right. | ||
| She just likes herself. | ||
| Or there's something, maybe, difficult, sad going on in her life right now, which is no excuse. | ||
| But as I always said to my kids, like, there's no excuse for bad behavior, no matter what's going on in your life. | ||
| But there might be a reason. | ||
| And I do think that those are two different things. | ||
| Like, it doesn't excuse your behavior, but maybe that's why she was off that day and snapped at me and tried to show me up online to be embarrassed me and it worked. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But it is, I've always kept that with me, that when someone's nasty in traffic, if they flip you off, is you accidentally cut them out, like, okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Is that about you per se? | ||
| Probably not. | ||
| And that's been helpful. | ||
| And as Jerry Seinfeld points out, all they're doing is showing you their finger. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like at the end, like you're offended by that, my God, they showed me their finger. | ||
| Holy devastation. | ||
| It's terrible. | ||
| It's terrible. | ||
| Whoa. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I just want to jump back for a second, because when I asked you the question about closing the door of your home, since we're here with a lot of twenty year olds and we're of a certain age, do you, do you remember the last episode of Three's Company by any chance? | ||
| John Ritter. | ||
| Who was amazing, amazing. | ||
| And we really loved him. | ||
| He was so great. | ||
| But the ending, the last episode, he walks out, Jack Tripper walks out and Janet walks out. | ||
| And then the blonde who was the nurse, it wasn't Christie. | ||
| It wasn't Christie. | ||
| It was whoever that blonde that came in for those last two seasons. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| She closes the door. | ||
| She shuts the light and she gives this nod. | ||
| She's kind of like as if she had done everything she was supposed to do there. | ||
| And it reminded me when you were saying that you had sort of closed up that chapter and moved on, it felt sort of complete. | ||
| And the reason I'm doing a little callback. | ||
| The reason I'm doing a little callback with that is because everything that you've just described in your career since then, then you dove into this whole new world. | ||
| You didn't know what the hell you were doing, but then just kept taking these chances and it worked. | ||
| You didn't know what you were doing in the dating world and it worked. | ||
| And it's like, that's the lesson that I was trying to illustrate for people on this August show. | ||
| Yeah, on this August show. | ||
| Yeah, you're right. | ||
| And there was a moment when I did drive away from that house. | ||
| And also when when when you sell it and I sold it, like I said, in three hours for like so much over asking, I was like, you're an idiot. | ||
| Like why would you? | ||
| Well, people were still trying to escape New York City. | ||
| Little did they know Connecticutut was probably not going to go the right way? | ||
| Yes, no, exactly. | ||
| But it was almost like validation that you did a good job because if someone went into your home and loved it so much that they wanted to bring their children in and raise their two little boys and raise them there and not change anything and keep whatever they could that I was willing to leave for them, I'm like, okay, I I did a good job and now someone else feels comfortable enough to do that. | ||
| And then you can walk away knowing that gosh, it wasn't perfect, but I did my best. | ||
| And I also felt that leaving ESPN, I knew that I had already gone beyond what I ever dreamed of to be a hosting and be a countdown. | ||
| And to me, during the greatest run since the Jordan era was with, you know, the Warriors and the Cavs. | ||
| I would did all the finals from twelve through nineteen. | ||
| And it was the best run. | ||
| And it's like, okay, after that, there was, I came back to Sports Center with my roots. | ||
| I knew there was nothing left there. | ||
| That's not why it ended. | ||
| But I could leave that knowing that, man, I left it all out there and did my best and learned so much and changed so much. | ||
| And I thought, as I'm driving away in tears, I started at ESPN with my kids ages 11 months, 2 and 4. | ||
| And I left and they were 18, 20 and 22. | ||
| It's a lifetime. | ||
| And I wouldn't have had so much if not for those years there, which is why you don't change anything. | ||
| But it was healthy. | ||
| I don't have a desire to go back and visit. | ||
| I kind of, I'm good. | ||
| I obviously didn't love it there anyway, between the weather and the taxes and the people. | ||
| And I mean, there were certainly some awesome people. | ||
| But like, I think moving my whole life as an army kid, leaving is hard. | ||
| And to go back, it just brings back all these things, some of which are really good, but they're past. | ||
| And you can't go recreate it even if you want to. | ||
| So you have to go recreate it elsewhere with other people. | ||
| It's not like you're going to walk into the office in Bristol and they're going to be like, Sage, it turns out you were right about everything. | ||
| We've missed you. | ||
| Oh, I know. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| I saw Aaron Rodgers on the other day and again, we're taping this in July with the with Pat McAfee, of course, who now is one of the kings of ESPN, who I do like Pat. | ||
| And talking about how, yeah, I stood up and, you know, ends up I was right. | ||
| I was talking, I got canceled a month before Aaron got canceled. | ||
| And we got to be closer friends during that time because as soon as I saw his cancellation, I texted him and I pushed in and he was immediately writing back because we were all in this like fearful crazy thing. | ||
| And I remember telling him telling me that he would get text messages from some of the other top top top quarterbacks in the league and players, but specific quarterbacks who were like, dude, I'm with you. | ||
| I'm right there with you. | ||
| Not one said it though publicly and let him fry. | ||
| They were fine with that. | ||
| So there was nothing more that I hated than that during the height of when I was saying a lot of things about the last year. | ||
| Now everyone says, but when it was tough to say it at that time and I was getting all the hate for that and all that, there was nothing I hated more than going open it up Twitter, have a DM and every time I'd be like, I know what this is and it would be someone usually more famous, more successful, more money, saying, I love what you're doing, love what you're doing. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| You want to get in on the party, pal? | ||
| Yeah, help me out. | ||
| Yeah, it's that Bruce Willis Diehard thing. | ||
| Welcome to the party, pal. | ||
| Like, come on, you see, I'm up here, got no shoes, my feet are bleeding. | ||
| It's Christmas day, all hell's breaking loose. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That, that broke my heart for Aaron because I was in it too. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But his was so much bigger because he's Aaron Rodgers and just got crucified and continued to. | ||
| And then, I mean, I think it very much affected him and he Oh yeah. | ||
| He does things, I mean, it affects all of us, but like, you've seen him change since that time. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And it breaks my heart for him, but he was right. | ||
| who pointed those kind of hypocrisies out and things that just didn't make sense, even though we didn't know why it didn't make sense at the time. | ||
| It just didn't feel right, you know? | ||
| So yeah, I look back on that along with Aaron and you and a million other people and like, yeah, damn it. | ||
| I was right. | ||
| I was right to question it, you know? | ||
| And I, and I also look back and I, I laugh at the things that people on their airwaves are allowed to say now. | ||
| Like, I'm like, wait, I got suspended for what? | ||
| And what? | ||
| But man, I I was there at the best time. | ||
| Thank goodness I was there at the height. | ||
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| That's rumble dot com slash premium slash Rubin because truth shouldn't come with a filter. | ||
| You showed me a clip right before we started, so this will be a couple of weeks old by the time we start. | ||
| But this is at a WNBA game. | ||
| Guys, we'll throw the clip in and post. | ||
| I don't even know the broadcaster's name. | ||
| Maybe you know her name, but she just made a joke about getting the D. Most people know what that means. | ||
| And she did that clearly pre-packaged and pre-planned on network television. | ||
| We hope it gets a little bit more competitive because like a girl's trip to Cancun right now, there's no D. I would assume the WNBA wants 13-year-old girls to watch. | ||
| I'm going to go out on a limb and think that the 39-year-old parent of that girl is not too thrilled with that. | ||
| Am I just an old fogie? | ||
| No, you're not. | ||
| I was blown away. | ||
| But not surprised because of who it was, that clip tells you everything. | ||
| Like, yeah, I mean, I think it's hard for the course for that person who I don't really want to call a woman because it's not very feminine or womanly to, I think, act that way. | ||
| Specifically plan that kind of a joke on national TV when you, to your point, you have young women who are watching because the numbers of the WNBA continue to increase and the ratings were bringing so many fans into women's sports, women's basketball. | ||
| And you got to say that so you can get some clicks, like just the lack of couth and class. | ||
| But in some way, does it feel like the next extension of the internal struggle that's happening with the WNBA now, like this thing that's between where there's this sort of, well, there's clearly a racial tension. | ||
| Then there's the financial tension, which I guess is the meta tension above everything that they claim that they're not being paid enough, even though the league loses $40 million a year. | ||
| But so you have the financial tension. | ||
| There seems to be some racial tension. | ||
| There seems to be some sexuality tension. | ||
| There's just general like we're not the NBA tension, right? | ||
| Like, I don't even mean it financially, but the skill level is just different. | ||
| Guys and girls are different. | ||
| That's not to say girls aren't awesome, obviously. | ||
| But in some way, when I saw it, when you showed me the clip this morning, that clip that we're talking about, I was like, oh, well, this just kind of feels like the next obviousious step. | ||
| Now the broadcasters are all will act the same way. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| It's just like it's just everything and nothing at the same time. | ||
| Yeah, but the question is why? | ||
| Right. | ||
| It's so unnecessary. | ||
| I can't do that, but that's the thing. | ||
| When you go back to our prior conversation, when you make it about you and you make it about yourself in that moment on a really big stage, especially based on how much WNBA has grown with Caitlin Clark and many other women, they just keep shooting themselves in the foot. | ||
| And it isn't just the athletes and not supporting each other or not supporting Caitlin Clark or whatever it is. | ||
| If it's the broadcasters too. | ||
| Like guys, just it's it's bad business. | ||
| So what do you make about the racial element to it? | ||
| Because if you, so I'm a child of the eighties, so of course I remember the magic bird thing and it was there was there was a racial element to it in that bird was white from Indiana and magic was from Michigan, but but LA magic, but it wasn't racial really. | ||
| Like there was like a tiny tone of it, like one of these guys is white and one of these guys is black, but that really was it, right? | ||
| Do you think that's a fair estimation? | ||
| It wasn't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| It wasn't really thought of as race, like they weren't they weren't race fighting. | ||
| Where now there's this feeling of they are hitting this girl. | ||
| because she is white. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It was my favorite time in basketball. | ||
| And I know we have this in common too. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And those Detroit Piston bad boy days, like late 80s or whatever. | ||
| But they'd take the shit out of anyone. | ||
| It didn't matter if you were white or black or if you were. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It was such a great era. | ||
| You didn't look at it that way. | ||
| I mean, obviously when people say, I don't see color, certain on the left get mad. | ||
| Of course you stop taking me literally. | ||
| Of course I see it. | ||
| I just don't lead with it. | ||
| I don't lead with the race aspect of whatever this is. | ||
| With that, I mean, it was great marketing too. | ||
| And you have, you know, big white, aweshucks darn. | ||
| Right. | ||
| You know, Larry Bird from French Lick, Indiana. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And then Magic Johnson and, you know, I mean, the show that the Los Angeles ever liked. | ||
| The smile, everything about it. | ||
| It was just perfect. | ||
| And it was, it was unintentionally, I guess, maybe racial, but you never heard it brought up. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Nobody said anything about it. | ||
| It was like, this is just great basketball with Caitlin. | ||
| And certainly nobody cared on the court. | ||
| I guess that's the overall audience. | ||
| Of course. | ||
| Nobody cared on the court. | ||
| No, how are you kidding me? | ||
| Like, we're going to feed Larry the ball. | ||
| He's the best person, one of the best to ever step on the court, of course. | ||
| And they just wanted to beat each other because they wanted to beat each other. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's the goal. | ||
| And when, and you also want to be the greatest, you want to be the best. | ||
| And that's what they were doing to each other for all those years. | ||
| It was beautiful. | ||
| I like that they want to beat Caitlin because she's one of the best player that the league has ever seen. | ||
| And one of the, certainly the best, the best college basketball player for women that we've ever seen. | ||
| And statistically, look at the numbers according to, you know, comparing to men as well, even though it is a different game. | ||
| But they've really not even tried to hide that racial aspect of it. | ||
| And I, I, I don't understand why the only conclusion I think we can come to is jealousy. | ||
| And at the end of the game, they're not even trying to hide that racial aspect of it. | ||
| and at the end of the day if she's bringing more eyeballs to not just her team in indiana but to the entire league isn't that a win for everybody yeah look at the the increase in the value of all of these wnba franchises right now is they're able to expand actually you know so so why the hatred why the negative well we were good before she came okay yes you were good basketball your game probably hasn't changed too much but at the end of the day she's like she is | ||
| something that we have not seen no one had it doesn't mean maya moore wasn't great or sue bird this is a different kind of great and it's okay to celebrate it either Even if she's a white girl from Iowa, I told you I was watching in 1995 and Cynthia Cooper, I was like, this girl is and she was old at the time by the time the WNBA started, but she was unbelievable. | ||
| But do you think there's something maybe a little bit more about the female temperament or about the way females generally behave with each other as it relates to jealousy or something that's leading to this? | ||
| Where so like you have Magic and Bird, they're, you know, they explode the NBA. | ||
| And then in some sense, I mean, they talk about it in the book about the dream team, they knew it was time to hand it to Jordan. | ||
| And now Jordan was going to take the league. | ||
| And then he did unimaginable things with it where the girls, for some reason, seemed to think it's going to take away from them as opposed to that this could all add on together. | ||
| Well, yeah, I mean, that's I know that's like a kind of broad stroke, but well, it's probably true. | ||
| You just look at women in general and women get petty and have these little fights and arguments. | ||
| Men are like, dude, what the hell did you do that for? | ||
| Okay, sorry, let's go get a beer. | ||
| Like it's just you guys are much better about that than we are and probably ever will be, certainly always have been. | ||
| I also think that there is the sexual tension that goes along with the racial tension. | ||
| I I don't know exactly how that how this works itself out. | ||
| And if she were black though, it would I believe it would be different. | ||
| I think this is all tied to the woke culture. | ||
| You certainly see, you know, how that was handled with the WNBA a couple of years ago. | ||
| And remember, oh gosh, Kelly from Kelly Leffler from remember she used to be one of the owners of the Atlanta Dreams. | ||
| Yeah, I saw her I saw her speak yesterday at the end. | ||
| Yeah, she was so impressive. | ||
| She's wonderful. | ||
| I really enjoyed being around her, but how she was treated and it's, and, you know, God forbid you have a different opinion than the WNBA. | ||
| I know people in that league who have very conservative views would not dare say it out loud because it's the WNBA. | ||
| So if you are white in a league that certainly has majority black players, I think it's safe to say I don't know the numbers and a heterosexual and getting all the attention. | ||
| This is the result, I guess, which is shameful because But it's the it's the logical conclusion of wokeness basically is what we're saying that you would you in some sense be happy if the white straight girl who is the star was taken out. | ||
| Like actually that is what equity would be if she broke her leg. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But look, look at the reaction. | ||
| to her and obviously you're going to play plan to try to slow down the best player on the other person's team or double team, whatever it is. | ||
| But the physical nature of it and the attacks and the going after. | ||
| I'm not saying she's innocent. | ||
| She's a hell of a good trash talker and good, like that's part of the game. | ||
| Larry Bird was probably the best trash talker ever. | ||
| He just didn't see it right. | ||
| And he's like, oh, it's the country boy from Indiana. | ||
| Oh, no, get out of the way. | ||
| He is filthy, dirty. | ||
| He was I was in Indianapolis covering the Pacers in 1998. | ||
| I think it was when he took over as the head coach and he was savage. | ||
| She scared the crap out of me as the coach, much less Larry Legend. | ||
| So get it, girl. | ||
| You know, that's part of the game. | ||
| But I don't understand. | ||
| I mean, I think we know why we've talked about it, right? | ||
| But I, I, someone needs to get in the ears of these girls, women and coaches and at the top levels as well and say, you're actually turning people off from your sport because of how you're choosing to treat one person. | ||
| It just looks petty. | ||
| And I believe there's so many women who are so good and so talented, who are now being lumped together with the idiots who are making it about race and divisiveness. | ||
| But hey, I do. | ||
| I think if she were lesbian, it would be a little bit easier for her, easier for her. | ||
| Right. | ||
| The sexuality component of it is, is, is legit. | ||
| It's, but it's also like really complex and hard to talk about also because the racial element, it's become more comfortable to talk about in some sense. | ||
| The sexuality part, because there's also, because it's not seen necessarily, also adds like a weird tension to it. | ||
| And the fact that the, I don't know what the exact numbers are either, but like it is, it is something psychologically or sociologically to think about that, let's say gays, the supposedly around ten percent of the population, but if they're like half the WNBA, like how does that? | ||
| Does that change the perception of the league in some sense? | ||
| Like, it shouldn't on the basketball court, but if all that shit is leaking onto the court, then it's something. | ||
| But if you look at some of the most successful female athletes in other sports, I mean, they are sexualized, And some of them willingly. | ||
| I mean, you look at some of the outfits and the fashion that, you know, Serena Williams. | ||
| Who was the tennis girl, the blonde years ago? | ||
| Anna Karnikov. | ||
| Anna Karnikov, who wasn't an, she was pretty good, but not like, amazing, but she I don't think she ever won. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| anything significant as far as tournaments are concerned. | ||
| And so then, you know, hey, usually the more masculine you are as a woman, the less you're viewed as attractive, it's fair to say. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You have a lot of masculine looking women, maybe predominantly masculine looking women in this sport, any sport. | ||
| Everything's different. | ||
| The marketing's different, right? | ||
| And there are many who are not, who are very feminine and have, you know, lashes and braids and nails and makeup and are very proud of that, you know? | ||
| I don't care. | ||
| Actually, you do. | ||
| Right. | ||
| I'm just saying what comes with that is maybe not something that you can put your finger on exactly, but it's not, it's not shocking. | ||
| I mean, how many of those WNBA players are getting makeup cont and clothing and all those things. | ||
| Right. | ||
| also just the all of it shows that there are differences between people because if you like if I was taking my boys are 13 we go to a basketball game we go to a men's game and and then there's a fight or something you'd be like ah that's not the right way to play but something something where it does strike me and maybe this is | ||
| guys are the ones that fight after school. | ||
| And if you were the girl fighting after school, then you were ghetto, you were trash, you were whatever, you know. | ||
| In general, I don't know. | ||
| Do we want our daughters doing that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's different. | |
| It's different than on the ice in the NHL. | ||
| It just, it just isn't. | ||
| That's okay. | ||
| It doesn't mean we're lesser. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It means we're different, you know? | ||
| So I hope it gets better. | ||
| Caitlin is, is coming out now more and more. | ||
| And you can see it in her game, you know. | ||
| And obviously she's had some injuries here. | ||
| And we need to keep her healthy. | ||
| But there's many people. | ||
| And I think I've heard you say this before and maybe on our actual Friends show where you're like, at some point she's just going to be like, why am I putting up with with this? | ||
| I'm going to get severely injured and it's going to affect everything in my life. | ||
| Let me go start my own thing because you talk about having sponsorships and support and support of Middle America and people on the coast who, guess what? | ||
| They don't even care that she's white. | ||
| Of course they do. | ||
| They love the fact that she can ball. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And her handles and her shooting and her courage. | ||
| That's all we really care about. | ||
| I mean, most people, just like everything else, it's common sense. | ||
| She can play. | ||
| Get it, girl. | ||
| Well, that's the funny part of her wearing the shirt during the All Star game. | ||
| It's like, you are right. | ||
| Actually, maybe that you are not. | ||
| paid what you should be paid. | ||
| But you're also subsidizing all those other people and they want more of what you're bringing them. | ||
| And then they're also kicking the shit out of you. | ||
| So like, put the pieces together. | ||
| And then did you see what Kelsey Plum did? | ||
| No, not sure. | ||
| She used to play for the Aces. | ||
| I think she's with LA now, I can't remember. | ||
| Can't keep track of all but and don't really choose to in some ways. | ||
| Oh, you don't watch the WNBA, do you? | ||
| I don't make a habit of watching it. | ||
| I watch clips and highlights. | ||
| I don't sit down and watch WNBA games. | ||
| I don't sit down and watch many NBA games right now. | ||
| My life has changed a lot and I watched thousands and thousands. | ||
| I'm like, Ben there, John that done that, I'm good. | ||
| And I watch it at certain times, watch the finals and the playoffs, that's it, especially when the Pacers are in. | ||
| But Kelsey at the podium after the game talked about wearing the T-shirt. | ||
| And then there was a meeting, I guess, a meeting of the minds to talk about the shirt and then what they are demanding or hoping for financially. | ||
| And she called Caitlin out. | ||
| I didn't hear the exact soundbit, but I read, you know, yeah, not to rat on her or anything, but, you know, Caitlin and most of her teammates, they didn't show up at that meeting. | ||
| Like, what's the point of saying that in front of a microphone? | ||
| And then Kelsey Plumb is white. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And heterosexual. | ||
| Like, I don't know what that is. | ||
| That is, is it? | ||
| And fine, maybe you're making a great point. | ||
| But when you do that publicly, you look like a petty, you know what? | ||
| And also at the end of the day, it's the same thing as the Colbert thing we were talking about on actual friends, which is at the end of the day, the WNBA is losing 40 million a year. | ||
| Colbert was losing 40 million a year. | ||
| Your leverage in reality to complain is not that great. | ||
| It's not. | ||
| And I think that sometimes, you know, some of these athletes and in all sports, right? | ||
| You start to believe the press a little bit too much and it's like, okay, can you just scale back here? | ||
| Has it grown? | ||
| Yes, absolutely. | ||
| We know that it's being, you know know, hugely subsidized by the NBA and that's okay too. | ||
| I think people feel safe, especially in this climate, even though it's turning a little bit. | ||
| Think back a couple of years ago, like they could say and do no wrong. | ||
| And who's going to cancel a women's league that's made up, probably more than fifty percent minority? | ||
| You're not touching that, are you? | ||
| No way. | ||
| Maybe they're smart. | ||
| I hope they get it, but I don't know, do they say, oh my gosh, well, so and so deserves, I think the highest salaries are 150 ish thousand dollars a year based on the valuation of one of the franchises, like, I understand that. | ||
| That's why you're in the CBA talks right now. | ||
| And hopefully by the time this air is, it's over and people are happier. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But guess what? | ||
| All those times of flying commercial. | ||
| Well, and it's improved. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| And now you're private. | ||
| Now you get the fancy hotel, but why is that? | ||
| Right? | ||
| Because of people like Caitlin Clark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right, right. | |
| Who have helped grow it and everybody's winning. | ||
| Isn't there some phrase about biting the hand that feeds you? | ||
| I think that's the point. | ||
| I don't get it. | ||
| I don't know how that's all going to resolve, but I'm off the grid. | ||
| I'm off off off officially off. | ||
| Have you announced? | ||
| Does everyone know where you are right now? | ||
| No, no, no, no, no. | ||
| No, this is a secret. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. | |
| No, I'm not saying it. | ||
| No, no, no, no, no, no, no. | ||
| Every year I'm in awe and I'm like, okay, that's on the list. | ||
| And now this is on the list. | ||
| And now this is on the list. | ||
| Why don't you do it next? | ||
| All right, that's my official challenge. | ||
| Next year when you go. | ||
| You're going to be married. | ||
| The career has settled in again. | ||
| You're going to be happy. | ||
| You don't need the grind. | ||
| Who needs it? | ||
| Why not? | ||
| You take one month, one month. | ||
| I've never done that. | ||
| When's the last time you did a weekend without the phone? | ||
| Give me one. | ||
| Yeah, when's the last time you did one day? | ||
| Years. | ||
| All right, Steve. | ||
| Well, okay, wait. | ||
| You like a challenge? | ||
| You come from the sports world. | ||
| I have three kids. | ||
| Like your kids aren't on a phone yet. | ||
| I got three kids in three different states. | ||
| I check their location constantly. | ||
| That's the problem. | ||
| She's right there. | ||
| I know. | ||
| She's got headphones on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She's not even like, will you elbow her to just open? | |
| Hey, I'm talking about you. | ||
| That one will turn off her location on me sometimes. | ||
| And I'm like, oh, what are you doing wrong? | ||
| She's like, well, live 360., I was like, no, no, no, that doesn't work either. | ||
| You cut me off and I'll if you want your tuition fee. | ||
| Life 360 is that a phrase I suppose? | ||
| Oh, that just means I'm living my life. | ||
| I'm living my life. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| I can't be followed. | ||
| I'm living my life. | ||
| Life 360. | ||
| Life 360. | ||
| This is good. | ||
| It's one of the only things I know that you don't because my kids are old. | ||
| Life 360 is an app. | ||
| Oh, it's an app. | ||
| And basically, it's a tracker. | ||
| But not only does it show you their location, it shows you when they're in a car, what, how fast they're going in life. | ||
| Oh, God. | ||
| This is all evil. | ||
| This is all evil. | ||
| It's evil until you have teenagers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And then you're like, oh really? | ||
| The first time when Quinn was sixteen and. | ||
| getting her license, she wasn't supposed to have anyone in the car with her. | ||
| And I could tell she did because of the way she was answering. | ||
| And then it was 35 miles an hour speed limit. | ||
| And all of a sudden I see that fifty and I was like, I mean, this is like, you're going to see her heart rate up and like, what are you doing? | ||
| Like, I don't like, this is, this all ends with Schwarzenegger total recall pulling the thing out of his nose. | ||
| And like, this is terrible. | ||
| I don't care. | ||
| Live thirty seven. | ||
| Okay, so the challenge is, what for over a month? | ||
| Well, my grand challenge to you is, I'm going to work on this with you over the course of the next year is for you to take a month off. | ||
| But I know that's a big ask. | ||
| So my challenge. | ||
| Well, guess what? | ||
| I'm not making Reuben money, okay? | ||
| Did you make Reuben money? | ||
| I didn't get the Sage Steel ESPN buyout or whatever. | ||
| So we're probably in a similar boat here. | ||
| My mini challenge will be that at some point in August, you at least take a weekend off the phone. | ||
| That's the challenge. | ||
| What do you... | ||
| Evan's saying it's not happening. | ||
| What do you have to do to prepare to do that? | ||
| Like, say, I love you, everybody. | ||
| Like, okay. | ||
| Yeah, and you'll be able to tell your... | ||
| your kids hey i'm with dave so if there's an emergency we do have a way to get me if there's an absolute emergency you know what i mean and we had a couple things that there one one of the few things that i said i would come back for is a few years ago, because I knew that Larry King, who is my friend and mentor and like a kind of bonus grandmother, grandfather, I knew that his health was failing. | ||
| And I really felt that if he died, I wanted to be able to just say something, just put something out there and then disappear again. | ||
| So that was like one, you know, one thing. | ||
| But then we have it like if there's an emergency, a death in the family or that kind of thing, we're, we're achievable. | ||
| But you have a husband, you will have a, you have a fiance this summer who you could be with that weekend. | ||
| And that way if your kids need you, need mom, they can reach out to him. | ||
| No, you're right. | ||
| You have a human with you. | ||
| A human is what a phone used to be. | ||
| You have a human with you who will be, it would be nice if he could do it too, but one thing at a time here. | ||
| So before we reconvene. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| That's the challenge. | ||
| That's the challenge. | ||
| That when I see you, I'm going to see the next time I see you from after today is going to be on your wedding day, and I want to be able to kiss you and hug you and know that you took the ultimate challenge of two days off your phone. | ||
| Listen, my challenge now is to make sure my arms look good in my dress, okay? | ||
| And now you're telling me, then that's a big challenge. | ||
| And now you're telling me that I have to leave my phone down for a weekend. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| It's your daughter's headphones in right now. | ||
| Take them off. | ||
| No, no, wait. | ||
| Leave them on. | ||
| No, leave them on. | ||
| Never mind. | ||
| Put it on. | ||
| Because you just got engaged and if you guys take the weekend off the phone, I'm sure you'll find some other things to do. | ||
| Okay, end the show, end the program. | ||
| What? | ||
| If you're tired of the mainstream media circus and want more honest conversations, go check out our media playlist. | ||
| And if you want to watch full interviews on a wide variety of topics, watch our full episode playlist all right over here. |
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