I mean, how excited are you for this game and, and what are you th- sort of looking forward to most being in Australia?

Yeah, I mean, let's start with the football itself.

It is, what a way to kick off the season.

You've got the Super Bowl rematch on a Wednesday, and then Thursday night here in the States you get this really a, a, a bonanza it feels like on a Thursday night.

And the Rams, uh, you mentioned it's Super Bowl favorites.

You add Aaron Donald back to the fold, but you bring in Trent McDuffie and, more importantly, Myles Garrett.

Uh, uh, to me you've got Myles Garrett, who is the best pass rusher and reigning Defensive Player of the Year, one of the all-time greats already, and is tracking to continue to put himself in position to be in that level of conversation.

[laughs]

Uh, what are you learning around the house, and what are you hearing around the house that makes it so that you know that you wanna do this forever?

Yeah, in terms of the actual job itself, it's more so just sitting in his office while he would prepare for games.

Uh, there was a leather chair that our dog would, for whatever reason, had an infatuation with, and so it, it probably wasn't the most sanitary chair, but I decided I would sit in the corner and watch him.

He had a desk on the left side of his office, then he had, like, a floating desk on the right side, and a TV on the other corner.

And I would sit in the one corner and just kinda watch him.

I would sift through media guides, when those actually existed, and read about Marcus Tuiaasa-Suspo, because that was a fun Tuesday for me.

And he just enjoyed the job.

Okay.

I'm just ranting in front of you, but yeah, it just, it frustrates, frustrates me when people just see your name and think, make it, make an immediate judgment without knowing the full story.

Yeah, well, first of all, I appreciate you.

I appreciate the passion, even without the cursing.

It feels like a nice throwback to the OG beginnings of your career before you became Mr.

Positions.

For anybody who's listening, shout out to Mr.

Positions.

Flacco, right?

Yeah

... were going back to Miami where he won two championships earlier in his career, going back to Cleveland, of course, where he's from, and ended a long title drought.

Those were really the three that you heard the most of early.

And then there were the dark horses, and Philadelphia and Minnesota being those two dark horses.

But Philly was the most intriguing because it felt like the situation based on Eastern Conference, feeling like you had more of an opportunity maybe without teams like San Antonio and Oklahoma City, these young up-and-coming teams that a lot of people feel are gonna be challenging to bring down.

You have an Eastern Conference, despite the Knicks being the defending champions, where he felt like maybe he could go and make some more noise.

And so this Philadelphia team, a newer look with Jaylen Brown ending up there over the trade through the off-season.

Yeah.

Right

... weren't getting blown in the first two games.

We see that over the course of series.

And, and I think that just talking to a lot of the officials around the NBA through the season, they are meticulous in their preparation, and those who got chosen to do the finals are the cream of the crop in the NBA.

It is an honor to get to do the NBA finals as an official.

And so they come together as a group.

They talk during the game, at halftime.

Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about your journey from Syracuse now to the NBA and the NFL.

Yeah.

Look, I, I would tell you that first and foremost, when I first started looking at schools, guys, it, it, I think everyone just thought it was a, a, a guarantee that I was gonna end up at Syracuse, and it just made sense, and it was the logical thing to do.

Or...

And I think my initial thought was, "Well, my parents met there.

My dad has a, a clear legacy already there.

I, I should go somewhere else.

Uh, what were your thoughts to those two, uh, just coaching, uh, chaos that you saw?

This is the money shot.

Come on, man.

This is- this is the future of basketball, okay? This is entertainment.

Hey, don't hate the player, hate the game.

Whoa, another freak show candidate.

And now, Call Your Shot.

[upbeat rock music] I'm not a X's and O's guy, right? I'm not a tactician.

I'm a motivator in the classic sense of the word.

[laughs]

I should do something on my own.

I should...

So I looked at Maryland, and I looked at Miami, and I looked out west at UCLA and USC, Indiana.

And I, I went back for a second visit at 'Cuse, and I'm like, you know what? I gotta do this.

I gotta go here.

And so I applied early decision, went there, and it was the best decision for me.

Uh, what were your thoughts to those two, uh, just coaching, uh, chaos that you saw?

I wanna go into just Victor arriving and just what's the thing that's impressed you most about him, especially at this age and this point of his career?

Well, yeah.

Well, first and foremost, this is the one reason why the whole tanking overhaul in the NBA was fascinating to me because you look at the Detroit Pistons, number one team in the Eastern Conference all year.

They tanked for what? Four years, five years, and they built out their young core, and then they signed veterans, and here they were as a 60-win team.

Oklahoma City, defending champions, 64 wins this season, tanked for a good three and a half, four years.

Stockpiled young pieces.

Eventually brought in the right vets in Caruso and Hartenstein.

What, what excites you most about this? Maybe some storylines that you're, like, really into going into this series.

Your thoughts on the format?

I'm excited for it.

I, I think that, look, the Olympic aspect is great.

We chatted during the Summer Olympics in 2024, and I got a front-row seat to see just how different that type of competition is when you do have the pride of representing a country, in the United States' case, and the world, in the world's case.

A- and I think that you're gonna get a full 48 minutes of basketball on Sunday.

To me, that was always the concern.

It's one thing if...

Mm.

Your thoughts on the format?

I'm excited for it.

I, I think that, look, the Olympic aspect is great.

We chatted during the Summer Olympics in 2024, and I got a front row seat to see just how different that type of competition is when you do have the pride of representing a country, in the United States' case, and the world, in the world's case.

A- and I think that you're gonna get a full 48 minutes of basketball on Sunday.

To me, that was always the concern.

It's one thing if...

Mm.

What do you say to a lot of people that raise eyebrows that Notre Dame will be a nine-and-a-half point favorite against USC in a game like this, considering the competition that they've played recently?

Yeah, I mean, I think I'm a little surprised that it's that wide just given how USC played last week.

It's less to do with Notre Dame.

I think Notre Dame's really good.

I think those first two games this season, they're the number two and number 14 in the country.

They lost by a combined four points and easily could have won either of those games.

And so I think you look at kind of the totality of the season with a first-year starting quarterback who's a redshirt freshman who's just gotten better and better and better and better and better as the weeks have gone on.

Plus the new contract, he earned it.

Uh, how do you do it, or what's your approach?

Tightrope is probably the right term.

I, I like to say it's a constant dance, as well, of feeling.

And, and someone asked me this, we did the whiteout game couple of weeks ago, about a month ago now, which is crazy, and going into that game, you know the environment is gonna be amazing.

The crowd is gonna be a sea of white, there's gonna be deafening noise.

I don't think I've ever heard a stadium that loud, and this one right here gets real loud, and so that says something.

And so you don't want to take away from that because you're trying to find the perfect words, or you're trying to make sure that you leave a stamp on it.

But you start to look at these moments that you have, and I'm wondering, when you're growing up and you're listening to your father, and it may sounds, sound crazy to say this, but did you pattern yourself after your dad, or did you have somebody else that you wanted to broadcast like?

Uh, how do you do it, or what's your approach?

Tightrope is probably the right term.

I, I like to say it's a constant dance as well, of feeling.

And, and someone asked me this, we did the whiteout game couple weeks ago, about a month ago now, which is crazy.

And going into that game, you know the environment is gonna be amazing.

The crowd is gonna be a sea of white.

It's gonna be deafening noise.

But you start to look at these moments that you have, and I'm wondering when you're growing up and you're listening to your father, and it may sounds, sound crazy to say this, but did you pattern yourself after your dad or did you have somebody else that you wanted to broadcast like?

(laughs)

No, I...

So there's two things, just to respond to what you just said.

One, if you had said two years ago that there was even a possibility of trading Devin Booker, if someone told you that two years ago, you would've been just beside yourself, confused, worried, concerned about what was happening in Phoenix to lead to that.

Because two years ago, he was probably one of the most untouchable pieces in the NBA.

He had built himself into that, and rightfully so.

And even coming off his Olympic performance, just seeing that up close, he was probably the biggest X-factor on that US team this year.

Who's a non-tournament player that fans should know about?