# Prime Cuts - Can Luka Power Lakers To A Title, LeBron Is LOCKED IN, David Ross On Cubs Magical World Series Win

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 28 Mar 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/384bc106-e68a-423d-b649-b41a0115b7bd/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin’s top takes of the week. First, he’s joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” They start with the Lakers & the red hot play of Luka Doncic and debate whether the Lakers high powered offense can overcome their deficiencies on defense in the playoffs (4:00). Colin argues that under JJ Reddick, the Lakers now play in a highly motivated and intentional way and compliment Luka & LeBron (11:30), and Jason believes that LeBron has been uniquely focused in pursuit of a fifth ring (17:00). Then, Colin is joined by MLB legend David Ross to discuss the launch of his new podcast “Loveable Reunion” with Anthony Rizzo on The Volume. They start with the 10th anniversary of the Cubs historic 2016 World Series win and why he and Rizzo wanted to launch a podcast to revisit their World Series run (23:00). They discuss the 108 year title drought for the Cubs and the pressure that comes with the entire country rooting for them to break the curse (28:15). They move to the final game of the Cubs World Series Win and talk about navigating a tense final three outs to finally achieve that “we did it” moment (35:30) and Colin asks what that championship means to David after a decade to reflect (38:30). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume. Today's show is brought to you by are
[0:05] Speaker 1: presenting sponsor American Beverage. If you think about some of
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[0:31] Speaker 1: America's hometown. So two hundred and seventy five thousand men
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[0:52] Speaker 1: We deliver for America dot Org. Let's start with the NBA,
[1:03] Speaker 1: the Lakers and I think a lot of when a
[1:07] Speaker 1: team is losing, they listen to their coach, right, and
[1:12] Speaker 1: the Lakers had lost a couple of straight, had some
[1:15] Speaker 1: bad late game possessions, and Luca was, for the first
[1:19] Speaker 1: time as a Laker, getting heat. And I was one
[1:22] Speaker 1: of the many people saying, I think Lebron's still great,
[1:24] Speaker 1: but I don't think he fits with Luca and Austin Reeves,
[1:28] Speaker 1: and they Lebron's got rabbit ears. He reacted to it.
[1:31] Speaker 1: He has played unbelievable. I think Lucas scored thirty plus
[1:35] Speaker 1: in all of their wins, which I think is an
[1:38] Speaker 1: NBA record. That's what the Laker account said, and so
[1:42] Speaker 1: I think you and I would agree with this. We
[1:44] Speaker 1: know they're a great half court offense. They have multiple
[1:47] Speaker 1: ball creators. Outside of Marcus Smart, everybody's an offensive player.
[1:50] Speaker 1: They have length, they have shot creators, they have excellent passing.
[1:56] Speaker 1: Austin Reeves has established himself. It's no longer he's a
[1:59] Speaker 1: nice number four, like he's a real good playmaker. The
[2:03] Speaker 1: question for us has always been, okay in the NBA playoffs,
[2:07] Speaker 1: it's the only professional league in this country where it's
[2:09] Speaker 1: officiated differently. You don't get the whistle. You have to
[2:13] Speaker 1: play collective defense almost every possession of second halves, and I.
[2:17] Speaker 2: Don't know if they can do it. Do you?
[2:20] Speaker 1: And I think we've agreed on that that they're a
[2:21] Speaker 1: tremendously offensive gifted team. The rules in football and basketball
[2:26] Speaker 1: over the last decade have moved offense for both smartly
[2:29] Speaker 1: to make the game more appealing. Does this Laker team
[2:34] Speaker 1: gifted offensively? Do we feel differently today? Does it translate
[2:38] Speaker 1: to the playoffs? Are they maybe a little more profound
[2:42] Speaker 1: offensively than maybe we thought three weeks ago?
[2:46] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's been improvement on both ends of
[2:48] Speaker 3: the floor. I want to start with JJ because I
[2:51] Speaker 3: think the work that he's done has been really important.
[2:54] Speaker 3: I mean, this was a team at one point Colin
[2:56] Speaker 3: they had lost twelve out of thirteen times, again, teams
[3:00] Speaker 3: that had at least a sixty percent win percentage, Like
[3:02] Speaker 3: they could not beat good teams, and they were just
[3:05] Speaker 3: rolling over and getting killed in those games. Now they've
[3:08] Speaker 3: won five of those in a row. They've won seven
[3:10] Speaker 3: straight against playoff level teams because they just beat Miami
[3:13] Speaker 3: and Orlando, both of which are feisty teams. And it
[3:16] Speaker 3: really comes down to a handful of complete reversals. First
[3:19] Speaker 3: of all, JJ has them completely bought in. When we
[3:21] Speaker 3: last talked about the Lakers column, we were talking about
[3:24] Speaker 3: how they cannot win in any way other than winning
[3:26] Speaker 3: with their offense. They are now generating margin in several
[3:30] Speaker 3: key areas now pre All Star break twenty third in
[3:33] Speaker 3: defense post All Star twelve. Nothing to write home about,
[3:37] Speaker 3: but considering their personnel, that's pretty good.
[3:39] Speaker 1: They're just Denver won a title in that space. Remember
[3:42] Speaker 1: that Jokis team, they were like thirteen. You don't have
[3:45] Speaker 1: to be a great defensive team to win a title.
[3:48] Speaker 1: You have to be competent situationally.
[3:50] Speaker 3: That's the formula. If you have an unbelievable, unguardable offense,
[3:54] Speaker 3: then you just have to be pretty good on defense,
[3:56] Speaker 3: and they've established that over the last few weeks. Secondly,
[4:00] Speaker 3: and this is the big one that's been shocking to me,
[4:02] Speaker 3: they are generating a lot of margins scoring off of turnovers.
[4:07] Speaker 3: JJ's been way more aggressive, and this is what I
[4:08] Speaker 3: think has been really smart, because, like say you're a
[4:10] Speaker 3: coach and you're trying to figure out how to get
[4:12] Speaker 3: a team to play defense when you don't have good
[4:14] Speaker 3: defensive personnel. You have to like track down, Okay, what
[4:17] Speaker 3: is the thing that we have that is a strength
[4:19] Speaker 3: for our defense and what it is is their basketball IQ.
[4:23] Speaker 3: They have a lot of really smart players, including Marcus Smart, Lebron,
[4:26] Speaker 3: James Austin, Reeves, Luka Doncics. They have a lot of
[4:28] Speaker 3: really smart players and so JJ's been way more aggressive
[4:32] Speaker 3: with their coverages. They're putting two on the ball more
[4:34] Speaker 3: than ever. This has put an emphasis on their defensive
[4:38] Speaker 3: IQ because in the four on threes that ensue after that,
[4:42] Speaker 3: it's a lot of anticipating what happens next, and they're
[4:45] Speaker 3: jumping a lot of those passing lanes and they're forcing turnovers.
[4:48] Speaker 3: They were seventeenth in steels pre All Star Break, eleventh
[4:52] Speaker 3: post All Star Break. Then you have this incredibly fast
[4:55] Speaker 3: attack and transition, something Lebron has been a huge part of.
[4:59] Speaker 3: Pre All Star Break, the Lakers were losing the points
[5:03] Speaker 3: off of turnovers battle by one point six per game.
[5:06] Speaker 3: Post All Star there plus six point two. That is
[5:10] Speaker 3: a huge margin and points off of turnovers that now
[5:13] Speaker 3: is helping them build lots of margin for error. In
[5:16] Speaker 3: every single game. They were negative and overall fast break
[5:19] Speaker 3: points pre All Star now they're positive post All Star,
[5:22] Speaker 3: so JJ deserves a lot of credit for just getting
[5:25] Speaker 3: a very offensive minded group to buy into finding ways
[5:28] Speaker 3: to win games outside of their offense. But also their
[5:32] Speaker 3: offense is amazing now in large part because one Luca
[5:36] Speaker 3: has finally ascended to that best player in the world
[5:39] Speaker 3: level of basketball. When he has it going from three especially,
[5:44] Speaker 3: he just brings this combination of like the Steph Curry,
[5:48] Speaker 3: I'm taking twelve thirteen threes and what if I make
[5:51] Speaker 3: seven of them kind of thing that brings to the
[5:53] Speaker 3: table while also being as physically imposing as Jokic, as
[5:56] Speaker 3: good of a passer as Yokic, and having the mid
[5:59] Speaker 3: range shot making piece that shake shake goes Alexander Brieks
[6:02] Speaker 3: to the table. So Luca has been unbelievable. Austin has
[6:05] Speaker 3: found his rhythm finally. He's struggled a little bit with athleticism,
[6:09] Speaker 3: but table that because that's where Lebron comes in. And
[6:11] Speaker 3: as as Austin and Luca have taken so much more
[6:14] Speaker 3: of the offensive load, that has finally allowed Lebron to
[6:17] Speaker 3: slot into that like evolutionary Draymond Green role that we've
[6:21] Speaker 3: all thought he would do at this phase in his career,
[6:24] Speaker 3: but he just needed the right amount of ball handling
[6:26] Speaker 3: around him to slot into that role. To Lebron's credit,
[6:29] Speaker 3: for all to talk about him not doing enough of
[6:31] Speaker 3: that stuff, Austin was hurt most of the season. He
[6:34] Speaker 3: had no choice but to step into that role. And
[6:36] Speaker 3: by the way, like in the Houston games, Austin can
[6:40] Speaker 3: get a little overwhelmed against some of these athletes. A
[6:42] Speaker 3: mental question A number against Austin and the Shue Houston game, yeh.
[6:46] Speaker 3: But then here comes Lebron. I can give you thirty
[6:49] Speaker 3: against a smaller athletic team because he's so big and strong.
[6:52] Speaker 3: That's where he can become more Carl Maloney and he
[6:55] Speaker 3: can do his physical bullyball.
[6:58] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the downside to being gifted offensively, and
[7:01] Speaker 1: there's not a lot of them. But the Warrior team
[7:04] Speaker 1: was a great example when they had Clay and Durant
[7:06] Speaker 1: and Staph The first year they were all.
[7:09] Speaker 2: In every game. I mean they just blew throopy.
[7:11] Speaker 1: The second and third years, it's like there's Knights like
[7:15] Speaker 1: we'll get our points and you get caught into a
[7:17] Speaker 1: cycle of you know, defense, even if you're Draymond Green,
[7:22] Speaker 1: defense is hard. It's hard for great defensive players, and
[7:27] Speaker 1: to be great defensively collectively is rare. That's usually teams
[7:32] Speaker 1: that don't have offense. That's why Oklahoma City is such
[7:35] Speaker 1: a pain in the ass. They're good offensively and collectively
[7:38] Speaker 1: they give you such an effort that's rare.
[7:41] Speaker 4: Right.
[7:41] Speaker 1: Usually even the great Spurs teams Duncan and Bruce Bowen
[7:44] Speaker 1: gave you defense to get six seven guys in rotation
[7:47] Speaker 1: to care. But offense is different. It's easy for the
[7:51] Speaker 1: great players. Offense is easy for Luca and Austin. I
[7:54] Speaker 1: mean even Ruey Lebron still like beating people off. The
[7:59] Speaker 1: dribble is just a bulley. And so I think the
[8:04] Speaker 1: downside to being as gifted as the Lakers are is
[8:07] Speaker 1: that it is easy to lull yourself into hang around
[8:12] Speaker 1: and it's tied at eighty eight and will go on
[8:15] Speaker 1: a spurt.
[8:16] Speaker 2: I think this is my interpretation of what Reddick has done.
[8:20] Speaker 1: He has forced them to be really focused early. They
[8:24] Speaker 1: don't fall into holes. He's taken these gifted offensive players,
[8:28] Speaker 1: and JJ was talented. I think they're a much more
[8:31] Speaker 1: motivated team now. Some of it is probably the criticism,
[8:34] Speaker 1: and I'm sure JJ has reminded them that Lebron you
[8:38] Speaker 1: don't fit Luca. But when I watch them play, there's
[8:43] Speaker 1: real they're very intentional. The possessions really like they come
[8:47] Speaker 1: out of the half. That's my take on the Lakers, JJ,
[8:51] Speaker 1: these are stars, two of the biggest stars in the game,
[8:53] Speaker 1: maybe the two biggest stars, Luke and Lebron. And their
[8:58] Speaker 1: complimentary Lebron it's been a great I mean, Luke Kennard
[9:02] Speaker 1: the other night, he races over to him, and I
[9:05] Speaker 1: do think that's the art of coaching Phil Jackson, the
[9:08] Speaker 1: art of coaching superstars. Joe Tory with the Yankees when
[9:12] Speaker 1: he had a Rod and Jeter, being able to ride them,
[9:17] Speaker 1: you know, to their you know, just enough push the buttons.
[9:21] Speaker 1: And I think JJ's you know, it's that, it's that
[9:24] Speaker 1: Duke education, whatever it is.
[9:27] Speaker 2: JJ is really good with stars. He's a really good coach.
[9:32] Speaker 1: That's that's how I he's great at pushing buttons. I
[9:36] Speaker 1: think this is as good as Lucas played in three years.
[9:39] Speaker 1: I think the last eight games, that's the best Lebron's
[9:42] Speaker 1: been in two years, three years. I think they're I mean,
[9:45] Speaker 1: to me, Jason, there's an art to coaching stars, and
[9:47] Speaker 1: not every coach can do it.
[9:49] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I think I think JJ has found a
[9:51] Speaker 3: way to kind of resonate with each player on an
[9:54] Speaker 3: individual level. Like JJ obviously built rapport with Lebron through
[9:58] Speaker 3: the podcast that they did together. JJ was Luca's teammate
[10:01] Speaker 3: for a little while in Dabllas, so like they have
[10:03] Speaker 3: a little rapport from their locker room time spent together.
[10:06] Speaker 3: JJ and Austin have clicked from the very beginning. I
[10:09] Speaker 3: love that you brought up the criticism, because I think
[10:11] Speaker 3: that's an important part of this, Like it has pushed
[10:14] Speaker 3: all of them to another level, because all of them
[10:16] Speaker 3: are sick of it. They're all sick of all the
[10:18] Speaker 3: stuff that's been being said, and all the criticism was valid,
[10:21] Speaker 3: and maybe not all of it, but a lot of
[10:22] Speaker 3: the criticism was valid. There there were real areas of
[10:24] Speaker 3: opportunity that needed to be brought up. And so Luca,
[10:27] Speaker 3: you're getting this unbelievable not just his own kind of
[10:32] Speaker 3: individual peak. This recent last couple of weeks is like
[10:35] Speaker 3: an all time NBA regular season run. He's averaging forty
[10:38] Speaker 3: over the nine game win straight Colin like a hundred
[10:41] Speaker 3: points and two and on points in two games like
[10:44] Speaker 3: he's been absolutely unbelievable and so and you know.
[10:47] Speaker 1: He's also, as you've pointed out, he's trash talking fans. Yes,
[10:51] Speaker 1: So Luca is so gifted. He's moved off officials to
[10:55] Speaker 1: some degree, He's moved into opponents and fans. And by
[11:00] Speaker 1: the way, that's just part of basketball culture. Like Michael
[11:04] Speaker 1: did it, everybody did.
[11:05] Speaker 2: It, BYRD did it. I mean, it's just you know,
[11:07] Speaker 2: it's you can't complain about that.
[11:09] Speaker 1: I mean, everybody, most of our stars, Kobe Bryant chats
[11:13] Speaker 1: with fans.
[11:14] Speaker 2: I think. I think JJ.
[11:16] Speaker 1: Reddick has told Luca, I don't mind the trash talk,
[11:19] Speaker 1: just directed to other people.
[11:21] Speaker 3: Oh absolutely. Like it's actually crazy because his relationship with
[11:24] Speaker 3: refs was getting borderline toxic. I actually dug into the
[11:27] Speaker 3: numbers because I was curious. There was a twelve game
[11:29] Speaker 3: stretch around November December where Luca was attempting thirteen free
[11:33] Speaker 3: throw attempts per game because that was what he was
[11:35] Speaker 3: doing every game. It was like entirely a ref game.
[11:39] Speaker 3: Every play was like a foul baiting type of he
[11:42] Speaker 3: was just along the lane line, trying to draw contact
[11:45] Speaker 3: and jawing with officials, and it was like producing a
[11:47] Speaker 3: lot of free throw attempts, but it wasn't producing a
[11:49] Speaker 3: lot of impact in terms of what he was bringing
[11:51] Speaker 3: to the game. Now he's focused on making shots and
[11:54] Speaker 3: talking shit, which has been amazing because not only is
[11:56] Speaker 3: it way more entertaining to watch because he's got this
[11:59] Speaker 3: like energy to him that's almost infectious, but it's also
[12:02] Speaker 3: causing him to focus on all the right things because
[12:04] Speaker 3: now you got to back up your trash talk, right,
[12:06] Speaker 3: And so he's really like, even when Luke Canard hit
[12:08] Speaker 3: that game winner last night, everyone's mobbing Luke, and Lucadacci
[12:12] Speaker 3: is literally blowing a kiss to the crowd because he's
[12:14] Speaker 3: having a moment at the crowd's expense. It is so funny.
[12:17] Speaker 3: But which takes me to Lebron because I think the
[12:18] Speaker 3: Lebron thing is fascinating here because Lebron there's an energy
[12:24] Speaker 3: I see with him that I think stems in a
[12:27] Speaker 3: lot of ways from the luc apiece. Lebron has won
[12:29] Speaker 3: four championships and in every single one of his four championships.
[12:34] Speaker 3: Maybe Ad was close to his level in twenty twenty,
[12:37] Speaker 3: but Lebron was the best player in the world in
[12:38] Speaker 3: twenty twenty. He should have won MVP that year, Jiannis
[12:40] Speaker 3: robbed him of it. So Lebron knows you've got to
[12:44] Speaker 3: be one of the guys like you've got to be
[12:47] Speaker 3: at a special level to hoist the trophy. I think
[12:50] Speaker 3: Lebron looks over and goes, this is the Luca I
[12:53] Speaker 3: can win with. This is the Luca that I am
[12:57] Speaker 3: actually capable of reaching, this dreamed fifth ring that he
[13:01] Speaker 3: wants so bad, right, And so I'm seeing a level
[13:04] Speaker 3: of focus and engagement from Lebron because I think he
[13:07] Speaker 3: believes that this group has a shot now in a
[13:10] Speaker 3: way that he probably hasn't felt since twenty twenty one,
[13:13] Speaker 3: because he's known that either he didn't have the juice
[13:16] Speaker 3: or AD didn't have the juice because he was old,
[13:18] Speaker 3: and because AD had been kind of underwhelming as he
[13:20] Speaker 3: entered that phase of his prime. So you have a
[13:22] Speaker 3: Lebron that is doing things defensively, fighting, like even that
[13:27] Speaker 3: late play last night, he forced the turnover on Pala
[13:30] Speaker 3: buoncaroal that led to the eventual game winner. And it's like,
[13:32] Speaker 3: I haven't seen Lebron flying around denying the basketball on
[13:36] Speaker 3: an inbounds play like that and forever. Some of the
[13:38] Speaker 3: rotations he's making at the rim on defense, the effort
[13:41] Speaker 3: that he's putting in possession to possession. Lebron is locked in.
[13:44] Speaker 3: I don't know if you saw the quote from the
[13:46] Speaker 3: Miami game. Early second quarter, they're down fifteen. JJ calls
[13:50] Speaker 3: a time out. He gets in the top huddle and
[13:52] Speaker 3: he's like, hey, guys, I know we're tired, and Lebron
[13:54] Speaker 3: steps up and goes, I'm not tired. And all of
[13:56] Speaker 3: a sudden, like everyone's looking around like, well, if this
[13:59] Speaker 3: dude's not tired, Like we've got to meet this level.
[14:01] Speaker 3: There's a level of engagement with Lebron that I haven't
[14:05] Speaker 3: seen in a half decade. And so it's just made
[14:07] Speaker 3: this team like this team, call it. This team was
[14:09] Speaker 3: such a chore to watch a month ago, and now
[14:12] Speaker 3: it's like I can't wait for the Monday night game
[14:14] Speaker 3: against Detroit. Like it's just there's so much more fun
[14:16] Speaker 3: to watch now because there's an energy that is coming
[14:19] Speaker 3: from the top down that is making them play with
[14:23] Speaker 3: a very entertaining brand of basketball.
[14:25] Speaker 1: Well, and I think, you know Lebron is always and
[14:27] Speaker 1: I say this respectfully, is that Lebron's very aware.
[14:30] Speaker 2: Of the media.
[14:31] Speaker 1: He listens, he reads. He's one of the smartest players
[14:34] Speaker 1: of my lifetime. I mean, he may be the smartest player.
[14:37] Speaker 1: Magic Johnson had the ability to not be a little
[14:41] Speaker 1: bit of a part time psychologist.
[14:43] Speaker 2: You know, Magic had to deal.
[14:44] Speaker 1: With the stoicism of Kareem and you know the Norm
[14:49] Speaker 1: Nixon stuff Byron Scott. There was a lot of stuff.
[14:53] Speaker 1: Jerry Bust the Playboy owner. You know, Magic's coming into
[14:56] Speaker 1: his own feeling his oats like you know, the Fabuls Forum,
[15:00] Speaker 1: the women that Magic kind of balanced it all. It
[15:04] Speaker 1: kind of showed his layered ability to be great at
[15:09] Speaker 1: several factors as a teammate, right as a player, as
[15:13] Speaker 1: a spokesman. A lot of egos back then in Los
[15:16] Speaker 1: Angeles with the Lakers and West and Riley and Kareem
[15:19] Speaker 1: and Magic and Jerry Buss the owner, and Lebron has
[15:24] Speaker 1: that ability. Lebron understands the world's watching. The Lakers are
[15:29] Speaker 1: the biggest. I mean, he didn't move to LA because they
[15:31] Speaker 1: had the best ownership group with the best front office.
[15:33] Speaker 1: He moved here because it was great for business and
[15:34] Speaker 1: he figured he could power through it and move Anthony
[15:37] Speaker 1: Davis here. So what I find interesting about this streak
[15:40] Speaker 1: is that we're all pointing to Luca, but in large
[15:43] Speaker 1: part it's Lebron. His IQ is understanding. I bet you,
[15:47] Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know this, but I bet Lebron's
[15:49] Speaker 1: been unbelievable at practice. I bet He's been unbelievable on
[15:53] Speaker 1: the team plane. I bet he's been unbelievable at.
[15:58] Speaker 2: Dinner.
[15:58] Speaker 1: Like I think Lebron understands. He's like, he's like the
[16:02] Speaker 1: old Justin Verlander is a pitcher. He didn't have to
[16:05] Speaker 1: pitch to have value in the locker room in a
[16:07] Speaker 1: playoffs there he's like he'd seen every batter, every moment,
[16:10] Speaker 1: and I think there's there's a greatness.
[16:13] Speaker 4: Look.
[16:14] Speaker 1: One of the things Lebron was criticized early in his career,
[16:18] Speaker 1: and I thought it was totally unfair. He always did
[16:20] Speaker 1: the right basketball fiting, He always made the right pass.
[16:25] Speaker 1: It was always about winning the game. And over this
[16:28] Speaker 1: nine gay winning streak, you don't have to necessarily see
[16:32] Speaker 1: all of it. I guarantee you Lebron behind the scenes
[16:35] Speaker 1: has been magical coaching practice. You know communication, Dinners, Well,
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[18:21] Speaker 1: All right, So I started the volume over four years ago,
[18:24] Speaker 1: and you know, we went heavy because when it first happened,
[18:30] Speaker 1: it was around COVID and we got sports gambling was legalized,
[18:36] Speaker 1: so that that kind of funded it, and we did
[18:38] Speaker 1: a lot of NFL and football because that's the sport
[18:42] Speaker 1: American's bet and it was a natural way to open
[18:46] Speaker 1: our company. And over the course of years, and I
[18:51] Speaker 1: had said this before, is that I thought I grew up.
[18:54] Speaker 1: My first job out of college was I got very
[18:56] Speaker 1: lucky doing one inning of play by play for the
[18:59] Speaker 1: Las Vegas store. So I'm a baseball guy at heart.
[19:03] Speaker 1: I used to like baseball America was my bible out
[19:06] Speaker 1: of college. But then I got opportunities in TV and
[19:10] Speaker 1: other things, and I became very much a pro football
[19:13] Speaker 1: guy and a football guy. Course, I've always loved college football.
[19:16] Speaker 1: And then a couple of years ago, I thought Rob
[19:18] Speaker 1: Manfred made a couple of really necessary changes, and I
[19:22] Speaker 1: think baseball's had a three year renaissance where and I
[19:26] Speaker 1: never try to overthink it in my business, just what
[19:29] Speaker 1: does it feel for you? I have watched more baseball
[19:32] Speaker 1: in the last three years. I feel like when I
[19:33] Speaker 1: came out of college. The game is faster. The big
[19:37] Speaker 1: markets are fun, the Cubs, the Phillies, the Dodgers, the Yankees.
[19:40] Speaker 1: There's also Milwaukee, Seattle, smaller markets, and there's more personality.
[19:45] Speaker 1: Baseball had a weird, kind of a weird run for
[19:49] Speaker 1: a while where thank god for the Cubs that had personality,
[19:54] Speaker 1: because you know, the way to play the game. Stuff
[19:57] Speaker 1: kind of where's fans out like people just want personality.
[20:00] Speaker 1: So about a year and a half ago, I went
[20:03] Speaker 1: to this team at the Volume and I said, we
[20:05] Speaker 1: gotta have a baseball podcast.
[20:06] Speaker 2: And I wanted to have personality. I don't want to you.
[20:09] Speaker 1: Know, I want smart guys who can just talk the game, bullshit,
[20:13] Speaker 1: have fun, buddies laugh. And it was pitched to me.
[20:17] Speaker 1: Somebody said, you know it's going to be in like
[20:19] Speaker 1: a year, a ten year anniversary of the Cubs World Series.
[20:22] Speaker 1: And I'm like, what are you thinking? And they just
[20:25] Speaker 1: threw the names out. They said Ross and Rizzo. I went,
[20:30] Speaker 1: there's no way we're going to get that as our
[20:33] Speaker 1: first baseball podcast.
[20:34] Speaker 2: I said no way.
[20:37] Speaker 1: And so of the many names that were throwing, people
[20:40] Speaker 1: were throwing actors at me that liked baseball and players.
[20:44] Speaker 1: And then David Ross, the former fifteen year career Cubs
[20:50] Speaker 1: manager for three years, he was just the bullpen coach
[20:54] Speaker 1: for Team USA and a one of the most beloved
[20:58] Speaker 1: Cubs ever. So he and Anthony Rizzo our first baseball podcast.
[21:05] Speaker 1: It's going to be called the Lovable Reunion at debuts
[21:08] Speaker 1: in a week and they're going to look back. Not
[21:12] Speaker 1: only are they going to talk baseball. They're going to
[21:14] Speaker 1: look back at the ten year reunion of probably the
[21:16] Speaker 1: most memorable world series.
[21:20] Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of my lifetime.
[21:22] Speaker 1: It's I grew up with a seventy five, seventy six
[21:24] Speaker 1: Cincinnati Reds. You know we are family, pirates World Series,
[21:30] Speaker 1: the Yankees now, o Tani, I don't think anything surpasses
[21:34] Speaker 1: the Cubs. And David Ross is joining us. Anthony Rizzo's
[21:37] Speaker 1: doing the baseball and Netflix stuff, so he was going
[21:39] Speaker 1: to join us, he's not today. So first of all, David,
[21:44] Speaker 1: we've never met.
[21:45] Speaker 2: Obviously, I know you.
[21:47] Speaker 1: Multiple Red Sox World series, Cubs world series. So let's
[21:53] Speaker 1: start with this. Because I didn't want us to talk
[21:55] Speaker 1: before we did this. I wanted us to kind of
[21:57] Speaker 1: meet each other as we're doing this. I want the
[21:59] Speaker 1: audience to be along for it. When when did you
[22:04] Speaker 1: and Anthony Rizzle? When did the idea come up? Because
[22:07] Speaker 1: it was pitched to me a while ago. When did
[22:09] Speaker 1: this come up for you guys, this ten year anniversary thing?
[22:13] Speaker 4: Yeah?
[22:13] Speaker 5: Well, first of all, we're pumped to be on this
[22:15] Speaker 5: right like, we're so excited. This has been a journey
[22:18] Speaker 5: that's taken on a life of its own. Already with
[22:21] Speaker 5: the guys, but we started talking. We had the same
[22:24] Speaker 5: agents playing, and so we started talking about this after
[22:29] Speaker 5: I was done a little bit and what was baseball
[22:33] Speaker 5: gonna be like for us or life after us after
[22:37] Speaker 5: baseball and you know, him just retiring two years ago.
[22:41] Speaker 5: We started talking about this probably around that time of
[22:45] Speaker 5: we've got such a great relationship and we work well
[22:49] Speaker 5: together and we're just good friends, and so us having
[22:55] Speaker 5: a little bit of like we should do some of
[22:57] Speaker 5: the podcast world has taken off obviously with our history
[23:01] Speaker 5: and how we met and just how we like to
[23:03] Speaker 5: be around each other, and we're very different in our
[23:05] Speaker 5: thoughts about baseball. So it's been really fun to kind
[23:08] Speaker 5: of banter a little bit with some of our old
[23:10] Speaker 5: teammates and talk about some of these.
[23:12] Speaker 4: Stories we've had. But this has been in the works
[23:14] Speaker 4: with us for a little bit.
[23:16] Speaker 5: And then when you guys, you know, we kind of
[23:19] Speaker 5: met with your group, and how excited Logan and the
[23:23] Speaker 5: team were. It just it just was such a fit.
[23:26] Speaker 5: They were so excited and there's so many there. It
[23:29] Speaker 5: was it was it was like a note. We got
[23:32] Speaker 5: off that call with you guys, and it was like
[23:35] Speaker 5: that's the group that's the group we've got to be
[23:37] Speaker 5: with there. They're one how professional you guys are on
[23:40] Speaker 5: top of your stuff. But my goodness, the excitement or
[23:43] Speaker 5: in the room when we had those conversations were.
[23:46] Speaker 4: Uh, were at the top they were.
[23:48] Speaker 5: There was nobody more excited and kind of on board
[23:51] Speaker 5: with whatever we wanted to do and our vision. Uh.
[23:54] Speaker 5: And so we're we're super pumped this thing. We we've
[23:57] Speaker 5: been we've kept kept it under rats for a long time.
[23:59] Speaker 5: We're so pumped to break this thing out next week.
[24:01] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[24:01] Speaker 1: I told I went to dinner with Tom Ricketts about
[24:03] Speaker 1: six weeks ago and I said, listen, you got to
[24:05] Speaker 1: keep this under wraps. But we're doing a baseball podcast.
[24:08] Speaker 1: And I said, and I told him about it. He goes,
[24:11] Speaker 1: oh shit, you guys got that. He's like, that's like,
[24:14] Speaker 1: I can't miss prospect. He goes, So I want to go.
[24:17] Speaker 1: I want to go back to this to the World
[24:21] Speaker 1: Series team. So you had this one hundred and eight
[24:23] Speaker 1: year drought and listen, baseball superstitious. And you can say
[24:28] Speaker 1: nobody's talking about it, but it's one of the only
[24:31] Speaker 1: times in my life the country, even outside of Chicago,
[24:36] Speaker 1: the country was rooting for Chicago. So that's even as
[24:40] Speaker 1: popular as MJ was. They didn't like him in Detroit,
[24:42] Speaker 1: they didn't like him in LA. There were a lot
[24:45] Speaker 1: of non MJ guys, you know, a lot the Celtics
[24:48] Speaker 1: didn't like him. Everybody wanted the Cubs to win. Beyond Chicago,
[24:53] Speaker 1: there's never been a championship in any sport in my life.
[24:56] Speaker 1: I mean there's Olympic stuff obviously, so I always like,
[25:00] Speaker 1: oh god, that's the most pressure ever the country.
[25:03] Speaker 2: It was almost Olympic feeling.
[25:06] Speaker 1: At what point in that season, did you guys, and
[25:10] Speaker 1: let's just talk specific you and Anthony Bruzzo, Yeah, did
[25:14] Speaker 1: you guys start talking about shit? We're did you sweep
[25:19] Speaker 1: a couple series? You know you got the bullf ben right,
[25:23] Speaker 1: you're sitting there, you know you're hitting for power well managed.
[25:27] Speaker 2: When did you start thinking, god, this this could be it?
[25:31] Speaker 5: Well we goes back to twenty fifteen. That's what's kind
[25:34] Speaker 5: of cool about this podcast of the journey, and we had,
[25:39] Speaker 5: you know, got Joe Madden signed, John Lester I came
[25:42] Speaker 5: aboard in fifteen.
[25:44] Speaker 4: You know, the Chicago had been through.
[25:46] Speaker 5: A lot of losing at some young guys, Jake Ariett
[25:48] Speaker 5: of the trade Pedro Stroke with Baltimore the year before,
[25:53] Speaker 5: and you start to look at the season in fifteen
[25:57] Speaker 5: and we came together. We had a lot of guys
[26:00] Speaker 5: in this podcast. They all got the same answer, when
[26:03] Speaker 5: did you think we were good? And there was a
[26:06] Speaker 5: turning point in a in a series in San Francisco.
[26:10] Speaker 5: We played San Francisco at home late in the year,
[26:13] Speaker 5: I think it was in August twenty fifteen, and we
[26:17] Speaker 5: went on our run. They were the defending champs, were good,
[26:20] Speaker 5: Bomb Gardner, Posey, they had all the dudes, and we
[26:26] Speaker 5: started and everybody kind of points to that time back
[26:30] Speaker 5: end of the season. All the young guys kind of
[26:31] Speaker 5: coming up, shoreber Addison, Russell, Hobby was kind of getting
[26:35] Speaker 5: Hobby bias, starting to get his feet wet, KB, Chris
[26:39] Speaker 5: Bryant obviously, like I mean, these guys were coming along
[26:43] Speaker 5: and young, and we had some veteran guys and we
[26:45] Speaker 5: just took off, obviously making the playoffs and going deep
[26:48] Speaker 5: and getting beaten by the Mets in the Championshies in fifteen,
[26:51] Speaker 5: and then when we went into spring training the next year,
[26:54] Speaker 5: we knew we were good. They added we brought Dexter
[26:57] Speaker 5: Fowler back, which amazing at it. Guys like Ben Zobe Ris,
[27:00] Speaker 5: Jason Hayward, John Lackey. I mean we added some pieces
[27:03] Speaker 5: in sixteen. THEO went out and did his part, and
[27:08] Speaker 5: we got to spring training. I remember Miguel Montero tweeting
[27:12] Speaker 5: out like we are good, the hashtag we are good,
[27:14] Speaker 5: and that was like the whole We started off so
[27:17] Speaker 5: darn good. And then we lose Schwarber early on in sixteen,
[27:21] Speaker 5: so you're like, wait a minute, how are we gonna
[27:22] Speaker 5: how are we gonna navigate that? But we were we
[27:25] Speaker 5: had the pitching staff, our guys stayed healthy. I think
[27:27] Speaker 5: we were one of the best defensive teams that year,
[27:30] Speaker 5: number one.
[27:31] Speaker 4: I mean we were. We were really good.
[27:32] Speaker 5: But it started in fifteen a lot of people we
[27:34] Speaker 5: really hit that momentum, and I thought it was so
[27:36] Speaker 5: important the way Joe handled the group and for our
[27:39] Speaker 5: young guys to get a taste going deep into the playoffs.
[27:42] Speaker 4: Whenever you get that, you get so hungry.
[27:44] Speaker 5: In the off season that you knew going in the
[27:47] Speaker 5: target was on our back. But Joe did a great
[27:50] Speaker 5: job of messaging and the expectations and how that's a
[27:54] Speaker 5: good thing. And just embraced the target was our slogan
[27:58] Speaker 5: going into sixteen, and and we took all it was.
[28:01] Speaker 4: It was. It was amazing. It was amazing. But I
[28:03] Speaker 4: think it started in fifteen.
[28:05] Speaker 1: Let's go to the final game. Three outs is what
[28:09] Speaker 1: the Chicago Cubs need. I want you as closely as
[28:13] Speaker 1: you can remember. I don't even know if it's goosebumps anxiety.
[28:21] Speaker 1: Three outs to go? What is that?
[28:24] Speaker 2: Dugout?
[28:24] Speaker 5: Like?
[28:26] Speaker 4: It's tense. I mean we brought in CJ. Edwards to
[28:29] Speaker 4: start the end. First of all, like Chappie had gotten
[28:32] Speaker 4: us through.
[28:33] Speaker 5: You know, he went back out after giving up the
[28:35] Speaker 5: home run and gives us a clean inning.
[28:38] Speaker 4: Obviously the rain delay. We come out, we score two.
[28:41] Speaker 5: Nobody, you know, everybody talks about Ben's Obra's hit, and
[28:45] Speaker 5: then Miguel Montero got another base hit to at a
[28:48] Speaker 5: at a run, which we actually needed.
[28:51] Speaker 4: So CJ. Edwards come in.
[28:52] Speaker 5: We get a quick out or two, and then a
[28:56] Speaker 5: run's given up and RAJ Davis gets on first two
[29:00] Speaker 5: outs and you're thinking, okay, Rajer is gonna steal he
[29:04] Speaker 5: I think he was top in the league that year
[29:06] Speaker 5: in stolen bases, so you're kind of playing through like manager,
[29:09] Speaker 5: or at least I was manager in your brain of like, okay,
[29:12] Speaker 5: we've how are we.
[29:13] Speaker 4: Going to navigate this? Uh? And they bring in Mike Montgomery.
[29:18] Speaker 5: Uh. Another one where you're like, we had Pedro stroke
[29:20] Speaker 5: down there, hex Ron don we had I mean, Arietta
[29:23] Speaker 5: was down there lacking. We had all kinds of bullets
[29:25] Speaker 5: in the bullpen, and Joe uh pulled on you know,
[29:28] Speaker 5: turn these young guys, which as a veteran guy and
[29:31] Speaker 5: even as a manager, you don't lean on. The young
[29:33] Speaker 5: guys are the biggest moments. So you're super nervous about that.
[29:38] Speaker 5: And then knowing the scounery report I did, and and
[29:40] Speaker 5: and Miggy, we're gonna flip a bunch of breaking balls
[29:43] Speaker 5: in and you're just nervous. You know, you're you're hoping
[29:47] Speaker 5: Rajie doesn't steal. You don't want to buy in scoring position.
[29:49] Speaker 5: And then that swinging bunt to KB obviously he slips.
[29:53] Speaker 5: He talks about that in the in the pod, and
[29:56] Speaker 5: Rizzo catches that ball, and then it just all the anxiety,
[29:59] Speaker 5: all the you know, the tension that you hold, just
[30:02] Speaker 5: the relief that you have of you know, we did it,
[30:04] Speaker 5: because it was such a back and forth game and
[30:06] Speaker 5: how we came back down three to one, and there's
[30:10] Speaker 5: so many stories within that that everybody's thinking and sitting
[30:14] Speaker 5: there on the bench watching this all play out, and
[30:17] Speaker 5: I've already played my role.
[30:18] Speaker 4: I don't have any control over it.
[30:20] Speaker 5: So you're just rooting for everybody super hard, and that
[30:22] Speaker 5: balls hit and you're just you're just praying that it's
[30:24] Speaker 5: hit to somebody and uh KB nice and easy throws
[30:28] Speaker 5: into riz and and off we go to celebrate.
[30:31] Speaker 4: But yeah, you're.
[30:31] Speaker 5: Definitely you're definitely nervous when things start going. You've got
[30:34] Speaker 5: young guys. When the young guys on the mound too,
[30:37] Speaker 5: you never know how that's gonna how they're gonna handle
[30:39] Speaker 5: those biggest moments of their career.
[30:41] Speaker 4: Uh And they did it. We did it.
[30:43] Speaker 1: Ten years later. What does the CUB Championship mean to you, man?
[30:53] Speaker 5: Well, I mean me personally, those guys and how they've
[30:58] Speaker 5: how they lifted me up up in that.
[31:01] Speaker 4: I mean I could carry off the field game seven, like,
[31:02] Speaker 4: who's that happened to? You know?
[31:04] Speaker 5: Like, I'm so thankful I got to do so many
[31:08] Speaker 5: things off the field after that. I'm working for ESPN,
[31:11] Speaker 5: getting back to manage. They put me on this platform
[31:15] Speaker 5: to be on here talking to you and to start
[31:17] Speaker 5: this thing with Riz and just baseball is a part
[31:20] Speaker 5: of my life. And a lot of that has to
[31:22] Speaker 5: do with my two championships, but especially at the end
[31:25] Speaker 5: the way those guys, you know, I tell people all
[31:28] Speaker 5: the time, I wasn't telling the media I'm this leader
[31:32] Speaker 5: or I'm this guy or that guy. Just my teammates
[31:34] Speaker 5: were saying nice things about me. And the thing about
[31:37] Speaker 5: doing this pod and reminiscent about these stories is it
[31:41] Speaker 5: just I mean, there's there's laughter, there's tears, there's everybody's
[31:44] Speaker 5: getting emotional at a certain time, just talking about what
[31:46] Speaker 5: a special group we had.
[31:48] Speaker 4: And me personally, my my.
[31:53] Speaker 5: Career backup catcher most of my career career, two twenty hitter,
[31:57] Speaker 5: got to got to go and do so many any
[32:00] Speaker 5: great things and represent that group on so many different
[32:03] Speaker 5: platforms and talk baseball, and my my life has taken
[32:06] Speaker 5: off since that championship, and a lot of that has
[32:09] Speaker 5: to do with the people there, the front office, the staff,
[32:13] Speaker 5: and obviously the players and that that city. It's meant,
[32:16] Speaker 5: it's meant so much to me, and I'm just so
[32:18] Speaker 5: happy to be able to get on here and share
[32:22] Speaker 5: these moments with behind the scene moments with all these fans.
[32:25] Speaker 5: I'm so thankful and grateful for so much. But yeah,
[32:29] Speaker 5: it's a it's a big one. That's That's the only
[32:31] Speaker 5: thing anybody knows before walking through the airport is uh
[32:34] Speaker 5: my my World series with Chicago and Dancing with the Stars.
[32:37] Speaker 5: That's that's two days.
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