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You might be forgiven for not knowing that hip-hop superproducer Metro Boomin claims St. Louis as his hometown. After all, thanks to his work with trap rap mainstays like 21 Savage, Future, Migos, and Young Thug, his looming, thunderous instrumentals have become the de facto sound of Atlanta. But although he’s made his mark in the Peach State, he still counts the Show Me State as home.

And now that St. Louis has added a sports team, the St. Louis City SC, he’s all-in on showing his support — even if he’s never been the biggest soccer fan. The club is kicking off its inaugural home game with the “CITY Block Party” at the CITYPARK stadium Friday, March 3 at 6 pm CST and Saturday, March 4, headlined by Metro Boomin with a special DJ set from Anderson .Paak as DJ Pee .Wee (they’ll be supported by local acts Mvstermind, Kennedy Holmes, and DJ Mahf).

Metro was kind enough to check in with Uproxx via Zoom to talk about the sound of St. Louis, his connection to his hometown, the cross-regional impact of his music, and of course, his burgeoning soccer fandom. We also fell down an anime rabbit hole and talked about ASAP Rocky’s upcoming album Don’t Be Dumb, which Metro contributed to so heavily that the Harlem rapper nicknamed the album Flacko Boomin.

For more details about the CITY Block Party, check out the St. Louis City SC website.

How’d you get involved with the City Block Party and what made you say yes to kicking off the St. Louis City SC season?

Because of St. Louis, more than anything, me being born and raised there and always looking for great opportunities and the right opportunities to bring awareness and shine more light on the city. Definitely excited to be a part of this. This is big. This is historic. St. Louis getting a soccer club, that’s major. I’m just grateful that they even reached out and I jumped at the opportunity.

Yeah, yeah, I understand. Anything Compton-related, I’m on it. Were you a big fan of soccer growing up at all? And if so, who was your team?

Actually, no, I was a fan of soccer, but I just always been such a fan of St. Louis and I still am. But I actually started going to some soccer games a few years ago. It was just a new experience and I remember after the first one I just kept going because it was just a different kind of excitement — just the fact that you know how most games, there’s pauses in between play? It’s just nonstop. That was new for me and really just piqued my interest and opened my eye up to that world.

Now that St. Louis has its own team, are you going to get season tickets?

Man, hopefully. Hopefully, man, I don’t want it to be a one-and-done thing. I definitely plan on just getting as involved with the club as I can.

And of course, another name for soccer is football. We know our Super Bowl just passed. Were you rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs?

Yeah. Even though it’s not the Rams (Metro roots for the Los Angeles team), it was still Missouri. I had to go with that over Philadelphia. It’s still like, Show Me State.

Yes, sir. Speaking of St. Louis, I wanted to ask you about how St. Louis has figured into your music, but it occurred to me that for someone my age if you say, St. Louis, we’re going to think of Nelly, St. Lunatics, and Chingy, but when people hear Metro Boomin, a lot of times I think they may associate that with Atlanta, like Migos, Future. How do you reconcile that in your music?

That’s one of the main reasons I jumped at this opportunity and why I wear a Cardinals hat all the time: Just to remind people, you know what I’m saying? I’m born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Atlanta is my second home. I moved there at a young enough age that I grew up there as a man, but I went to school in St. Louis.

And as far as the music, even though I worked with a lot of artists, a lot of my come-up was with a lot of prominent Atlanta artists and aiding their come-ups as well… I’m all automatically in the Atlanta conversation, but I feel like just how I was doing that with the Atlanta artists, the next step for me is just bringing and shining a light on St. Louis talent because there’s just so much of it. It’s so much raw talent. That’s one of my next goals for sure.

What would you say is the thing that sets St. Louis apart from most other cities in terms of the sound musically? Right now, you guys have Smino who’s very spacey, like Parliament-Funkadelic almost. Whereas for yourself, you have the trap, 808 thing. Does the city have a signature sound? And if so, what is it?

Man, St. Louis’s signature sound is, more than anything, soul. We put feel in. It’s no gimmicks in our music. Everyone always talks to me about my production, just how dynamic [it is] and just the ranges of where it can go. And I feel like that comes from just growing up in St. Louis. Traditionally in hip-hop, it’s like, okay, you got the South, you got the West Coast and the East Coast, mostly the West Coast and the East Coast.

But man, growing up in the Midwest, it’s like we was catching all the East Coast, the West Coast, the South. I grew up listening to Tupac, but at the same time, Cameron, Dipset, Outkast, Eminem, just from everywhere. Back then, people on the East Coast was really just listening to East Coast rap. People on the West was really listening to West Coast and so forth. But through the way music traveled, I feel in the middle, we was just catching everything. And I feel like that has a big impact on my sound as well as just everybody in St. Louis because we all come up just listening to everything.

I know you do a lot of interviews. I do a lot of interviews. We both get sick of hearing and asking and answering the same type of questions over and over again. If you were going to ask yourself a question for an interview, what would it be? What’s something you always wanted to talk about but never had the chance to?

Damn, that’s a good one. I ain’t going to lie. I got a lot of respect for that question. That’s a good one. That’s the first time I got that one. Something I always wanted to be asked. Ooh, damn, I’m trying to think of something good.

Well, I’ve had people tell me about all kinds of things. Anime, sports, sneakers, clothes, all of it.

As far as anime, I just got into that in the past year.

Oh, really? Cool. What you been watching?

My introduction was One Punch Man. I just fell in love with that. It just became a theme for me. And in the process of watching that while I was working on Heroes And Villains, someone had told me, they was like, “Man, you need to watch My Hero Academia.” I had started that. And then as I was finishing the album, I didn’t have that much time, but my little brother, he’s eight, he ended up flying through the season, and now he’s on season six. I’ve been binging it for the past couple of months, and I just caught up to season five today on the plane. I got to season five, and I’ve been loving that show. I ain’t going to lie, I’ve been watching that a whole lot. I started Attack on Titan, I got to get back on it, and somebody told me to watch Death Note. I’m supposed to watch that too.

Those influences are strong. May it give you lots of inspiration for your next project.

Nah, without a doubt. It gave me a lot of inspiration, even on the last one, just on the morality and the duality of just Heroes And Villains, and just even watching that stuff every day, it put a lot of stuff in perspective on the point I was trying to get across with the album.

You are a truly groundbreaking producer in your own right. And for me, one of the most groundbreaking producers of my generation was De La Soul. Are you looking forward to De La Soul hitting streaming tomorrow? And if so, which project are you streaming first and why?

Well thank you, I appreciate that. De La Soul? They hitting streaming tomorrow?

Yes, sir. For the first time ever in the whole history of streaming.

Damn, that’s crazy. It’s crazy that if you really think about it, it’s really a bunch of stuff that’s not on streaming, that growing up, it was so regular. I was always so big on a lot of the Death Row albums.

I would probably say, what’s that one? … I was in fourth grade, sixth grade. I remember it had the cover with the blue. It was a calendar. What was that?

Yeah, The Grind Date. I really recommend that one. That one’s really tight. That one’s actually not part of their original deal so it was actually already on streaming, you can check that one out now if you want to.

Meanwhile, ASAP Rocky is jokingly calling his next tape Flacko Boomin, which I think is really clever, but it also highlights how closely you’ve been working together. Are you able to reveal any details of that project ahead of time?

Man, it’s crazy. I was talking to Flacko yesterday. I wish people really knew the details of our history and just our brotherhood over time, between me and him, and linking with him through Yams back in high school when I was in St. Louis still. That’s how I first linked with them. I just feel like right now it’s just an accumulation of everything lining up for us to finally just do our joint. We always do so many songs and I feel like we just done got used to just them stashing and piling up and not putting them out. But what can I say, man, you got to stay tuned. I promise we won’t waste your time.

On the surface, it seems like TikTok is just a silly little app that features dancing moms and cats with jobs, and to some, that’s all it is! But as with any social media app, there are dangers to the social media craze, and it goes beyond just embarrassing yourself in front of Bernie Sanders.

For years, there have been rumors swirling that predicted that TikTok would one day be banned in the U.S. due to its China-based parent company that Texas governor Greg Abbott believed was stealing “sensitive information.” On the other hand, more officials are worried about the psychological effect the app is having on younger users who are often bombarded with false information.

Last month, The White House announced that government agencies would have just 30 days to wipe TikTok from government-issued devices and systems. That means Joe Biden probably won’t be trying out any viral hair trends anytime soon unless he wanted to fund his own phone bill. But what does this mean for us normal, non-government folks who just want to catch up on the hit Calico Critters soap opera, Sylvanian Drama? For now, nothing.

Even though social media users have been in a frenzy, for now, the ban only applies to government agencies due to security concerns. So everyday users can still get their daily dose of dance trends… for now!

(Via ScreenRant)

Marjorie Taylor Greene finally pushed President Biden far enough — after heckling him during both of his State of the Union addresses, once about his dead son — that he publicly reacted and emerged with a solid dunking. As we have acknowledged, Biden’s usually not so adept at these things (and it’s good thing that a president isn’t tweeting insults all day), but he got Greene good.

After Greene’s grievous immigration flub that felt like more than a typo, and her false claim that Biden is to blame for fentanyl deaths that occurred during the Trump administration, Biden pointed out her lies with a sarcastic, “Isn’t she amazing?” He added, “She was saying that a poor mom that lost two kids, that I killed her sons. The interesting thing is that fentanyl they took came during the last administration.”

Did Greene hear about this? Oh yes. And she completely (and falsely) decided that Biden was not laughing at her but at grieving mothers.

“It’s shocking that Joe Biden laughs at mothers of children who have died of fentanyl poisoning,” Greene tweeted. “What’s funny about Americans dying from fentanyl, Joe? The families who have lost loved ones from fentanyl aren’t laughing.”

You can probably guess that this tweet has not gone over well. In response, people are reminding Greene of the time that she appeared to laugh at Covid deaths, and of course, they’re pointing out out that Biden wasn’t laughing at fentanyl deaths but laughing at her.

Billie Eilish may have a song titled, “Bad Guy,” but that doesn’t mean she has any intention of stepping into that role in her personal life. However, the online narrative that she is has forced her to walk away from social media although. The singer and her brother Finneas, whose also a frequent collaborator, discussed how becoming famous and being lied about made Eilish question how honest anything on the internet really is.

In the teaser clip for Eilish and Finneas’ upcoming appearance on television host, Conan O’Brien’s podcast Needs A Friend, the pair share how their outlook on social media has changed since their breakout success.

When asked by O’Brien about how she deals with everyone’s opinion of her on social media, Eilish replied, “I don’t look at it anymore. I deleted it all off my phone, which is such a huge deal for me.”

The singer later added, “…being a pre-teen and a teenager on the internet, those were my people, I was one of them. I’m a person who goes on the internet and to change nothing about the person I am or the life that I live just keep doing what I do over the years, and slowly the videos that I’m watching and the things that I see on the internet are about me. ‘Eww, stinky.’ I don’t like that.”

The songwriter was clear to emphasize that she’s not upset with others voicing their opinion, rather, “It’s these definitive statements that THEY know are right. Somehow they know, somebody told them — God came down and said this is the truth about Billie, and you know it for a fact. You don’t know her, but you know that this is the truth and you have to tell everybody about it. That’s the other thing that freaks me out about the internet is how gullible it makes you.”

However, Eilish did express empathy, saying, “Anything I read on the internet, I believe. Me. I know for a fact that’s stupid, and I shouldn’t do that because I have proof it’s not all true. Almost none of it’s true. Small white lies.”

Conan O’Brien’s Needs A Friend podcast episode featuring Billie Eilish and Finneas is set to drop on March 27. For more information, here.

Listen to the interview clip above.

Remember in Jurassic Park when they put the goat in the pen with the T-Rex?

I don’t know that Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm (R) is getting enough out of his decision to try and match wits with Jon Stewart in the above segment on gun control from the latest episode of Apple TV+’s The Problem With Jon Stewart. On one hand, it’s a bigger platform than he might have if he was just sticking to conservative media, but he’s not exactly being exposed to an open-eared audience as he tries to shill his gun-rights-above-all-others shtick. He’s not exactly making a compelling argument, either. Dahm keeps presenting his little anecdotes and pro-chaos talking points like a kid showing off their epically bad macaroni art, and Stewart keeps putting it in the paper shredder (but wouldn’t the macaroni gum up the shred… Shut up, I’m working here.)

This should feel pretty routine by now. Jon Stewart has made a career out of telling truth to power, sometimes with eloquence and sometimes with a bluntness that is a real crowd-pleaser. Politics as sport is bad news for everyone, and it’s not like these takedown videos ever change anything, but I’m still pumping my fists when Stewart asks when we’ll have enough guns to see things switch to safe, as opposed to the current state of being where people are all of the time — hoping today isn’t the day while at the grocery store or waiting for our kids to come home from school. I guess that small kernel of a good feeling is the gain for anyone watching who feels passionate about the issue and frustrated by the lack of even minor, we-should-all-agree-on-this protections. Easy wins like the ones this guy whose name I’ve already forgotten is fighting against with talking points pinned to his collar by the NRA.

This really is vintage Stewart, rising in restrained fury as Oklahoma blah blah minimizes the deaths of 50,000 people and sits expressionless as Jon wrecks him with blitzes that he just didn’t see coming, swiping away his weak jabs and calling out hypocrisy when it comes to “protecting the children.” It’s pretty embarrassing for this dude who, I swear to goodness, is fading from my memory like a fart in a wind tunnel, but he still managed to get on TV. Is it worth it? Maybe. These guys keep playing the volume game — showing up, shouting out, and getting talked about. All we get is a little pop of joy from seeing them leave a stain on Jon Stewart’s knuckles. Is that a fair trade? Question for the ages, that is.

In this week’s episode of Indiecast, Ian and I looked ahead to the next three months and picked our most anticipated albums, tours, and trends! That’s right — we hashed out future trends this time. It was quite an experience.

But before that, it’s the banter segment: Ian and I had very different experiences with live music this week. I went off to see the English prog-rock band Muse for the first time, and came away thinking that 1) The concert felt like a video game; and 2) There were a ton of metalheads in the audience. Ian meanwhile went to the World War Tour featuring hardcore bands Show Me The Body, Zulu, Scowl, and Jesus Piece. Though at his show, he also encountered some metalheads. Metalheads rule the world!

Then, in the meat of the episode, we talked about whether upcoming albums by Blondshell and 100 Gecs will live up to expectations this spring. Then we looked at the “Indie Rock Road Trip” tour set for June that has an interesting assemblage of bands: Weezer, Modest Mouse, Future Islands, Spoon, Momma, Joyce Manor and White Reaper. Is this the solution to the over-saturation of the live music market? Should we expect to see more traveling festivals that package together sort-of-but-not-really-alike bands?

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talked up A New Tomorrow by hardcore band Zulu, while I raved about Girl In The Half Pearl by avant-R&B artist Liv.e.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 128 here or below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Donald Trump hasn’t appeared on Fox News since he announced his 2024 campaign, and it’s raised questions about whether or not the former president is banned from the network amidst reports that Rupert Murdoch is done with Trump’s antics. His last interview was in September when he infamously told Sean Hannity that he could declassify documents just “by thinking about it.” Since then, the network has noticeably given him the cold shoulder, and there’s reportedly a reason for that.

Via Semafor:

“Everyone knows that there’s this ‘soft ban’ or ‘silent ban,’” one source close to Trump told Semafor. “It’s certainly — however you want to say, quiet ban, soft ban, whatever it is — indicative of how the Murdochs feel about Trump in this particular moment.”

According to Semafor, Fox News has been elevating potential primary challengers to Trump including Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. While Haley has announced her 2024 run, DeSantis has not, but that hasn’t stopped Fox News from propping up the Florida Republican, which Trump has definitely noticed. He’s been lashing out at Fox News on Truth Social and calling the network “Fake News.”

Those attacks have only increased as court documents revealed that Rupert Murdoch doesn’t buy Trump’s stolen election claims and set out to make him a “non-person” following the January 6 attacks.

“If Rupert Murdoch honestly believes that the Presidential Election of 2020, despite MASSIVE amounts of proof to the contrary, was not Rigged & Stolen, then he & his group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS should get out of the News Business as soon as possible,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “Because they are aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA with FAKE NEWS. Certain BRAVE & PATRIOTIC FoxNews Hosts, who he scorns and ridicules, got it right. He got it wrong. THEY SHOULD BE ADMIRED & PRAISED, NOT REBUKED & FORSAKEN!!!”

That’s sure to get the ban lifted.

(Via Semafor)

Demi Lovato‘s new album Holy Fvck was a big moment for the singer. Leaning into heavier sounds, she grappled with heartbreak and her near-death experiences. The record was so unafraid that it scared Christians into trying to get promotional posters banned.

Now, she’s back with “Still Alive,” a blazing song for the Scream VI soundtrack that she teased last month. It’s an anthem about perseverance: “Still alive / I don’t wanna just survive / Give me something to sink all my teeth in / Eat the devil and spit out my demons,” she sings in the chorus.

Holy Fvck also dealt with her struggles with survivor’s guilt. About the track “Dead Friends,” she said in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, “I’ve made friends of all ages. I’ve lost friends that were around my age, and those hurt so deeply because we’ve been in the trenches together. I had a lot of survivor’s guilt after my overdose because […] right after that, Mac Miller died, and it just put everything into perspective for me of, ‘That could have been you, that almost was you, and how are you going to live your life now?’ And it affected me a lot.”

Listen to “Still Alive” above.

Seattle rapper Lil Mosey has been found not guilty of rape after a two-week trial, according to XXL. The trial, which began on February 22, concluded with the rapper cleared of all charges, which were brought in 2021 when the then-18-year-old rapper was accused of having intercourse with a woman who was passed out during a party with Mosey and a pair of associates, Joshua Darrow and Francisco Prater, who will be tried in separate cases.

Mosey pled not guilty in 2021, but was still ordered to stay away from the alleged victim. If convicted, he could have faced life in prison and up to $50,000 in fines. According to the victim’s statement, the rapper and his friends invited the woman to a cabin party in 2020 (when Mosey was still 17) and passed out from alcohol consumption. When she came to, she said that the men had taken the opportunity to have sex with her, although she could not give consent.

Today, Mosey wrote in an Instagram post, “Spent 2 years of my life going thru the storm and I’m happy to say that God finally brought the truth to light. Thank you.” Meanwhile, his defense attorney, Shane O’Rourke, gave a statement to XXL in which he said the rapper had been “completely vindicated.”

Bomani Jones isn’t into poses. Earlier this week, he told us that being disingenuous in front of your audience actually offends him. With HBO’s Game Theory (back tonight on HBO at 11 following a brief hiatus), Jones is here to consider the oft-colliding worlds of sports culture and the news of the week, ask questions, and make cases. Not takes, cases. There is a difference. One is more challenging than the other, demanding discipline and dedication. Jones craves the challenge.

For most, the results of this approach don’t come fast; sometimes they don’t come at all. But for Jones, whose show is in the middle of its second season, it seems like everything is coming together as he cuts through the noise, popping up in your feed when he stands in against a Jake Paul tantrum and when he casually reminds the world about Karl Malone’s tainted legacy. He’s also opening up discussions about Overtime Elite’s compensation model for teen athletes and the effect of the NFL’s activism. These moments, in particular, speak to the style and substance of Game Theory, a show that he’s trying to turn into an institution.

Uproxx spoke with Jones about those efforts, the marketplace of ideas in sports media, his reaction to Paul’s loss last Sunday, whether the destruction of the Brooklyn Nets will cool teams on the notion of super teams, and why he is all in on owners actually spending money in baseball.

So, how’d Jake Paul do?

It was funny, man. Walking through the office with the fight coming up and people telling me like, “Oh, you going to watch the fight?” I’m like, “Of course not.” Like, I’d never watched this dude fight before. I have no interest in watching him fight, and I don’t have an emotional attachment enough to want to watch him lose. But yeah, it did not go in an unexpected fashion, shall we say.

I enjoyed it afterward when the excuses just came down like rain for why he didn’t make it. “I was sick. My arm hurt.”

Yeah. You know what’s funny about it is, as much as he can talk about (how) he makes money regardless and all of that, which is absolutely true, in the end, nobody wants to get their ass kicked on television. And when that happens, you kind of need to explain it. And so he did what anybody else would do in that situation, whether they’re making the money or not.

Very true. So that interview (with Paul) was a moment, obviously, and then the Karl Malone thing obviously blew up. Is it starting to become clearer to you how much of an impact on the conversation you’re having? That it’s continuing to climb. What’s it like when that happens?

It’s interesting because I don’t really traffic so much in the TikTok space. But that Karl Malone video got something like four and a half million views specifically on TikTok, a couple million more on Twitter. And the part that gets me is I don’t have a great handle on what the thing is going to be that people are really going to latch onto and decide it’s going to be the one. Because with that, if you go back and watch me and the way I sound in there, it’s not like I’m giving some passionate screed. I guess maybe the observation that the NBA probably thought it would be safer to have them show up than not have them come there, maybe that’s uniquely insightful, but when those things happen and people are like, “Oh, man. It’s like a new Hannibal Buress moment,” I’m like, “Ah, that’s interesting.”

I think to answer your question, I come back around and start asking myself, “Wow, was this thing really such a thing?” And I mean, I guess it’s not my place to decide, but I mean, I did figure out a long time ago that it’s different when I say things than it is for a lot of my colleagues. I know who the people are that get nervous when they hear that I’m talking about something that they’re into. I’ve seen people put out releases because they’ve seen me put stuff out. And it’s just always weird because I’m like, “Dude, does what I say matter that much?” And I guess to some people on some days, it does.

Why is it different, in your opinion?

People respect where I come from, and I think they respect my sincerity when it comes to these matters. And so not everybody obviously, but there are going to be some people that when they hear that I am talking about something, it takes on a different importance because they don’t think I would talk about it in those terms if it wasn’t something that was important.

You’re not saying things just to get attention. Like you said with the Karl Malone thing, you weren’t making a play for it. It was just an off-the-cuff remark that kind of blew up.

I don’t believe in the idea that attention is good for its own sake. What are you looking at me do when I do this thing for attention? And I’m just not shameless enough to be in a place to be like, “Ooh, watch, once I say this, everybody’s going to be all over it.” No, I’m actually looking for the least hot way to look at something possible because I’m trying to find a space where the discussion gets to the things that are inarguable, as opposed to the things that there are for us to fight about.

Because of your view on that, do you have a harsher view towards people that are more inclined towards attention for attention’s sake?

I have a harsher view towards them depending on what it is that they’re willing to do in order to get that attention. So for my colleagues, once you’re willing to say something that you don’t believe, I’m out. That’s the biggest thing. I’m never going to say anything that I don’t actually believe. And yes, I do incredibly harshly judge the people who say things they don’t believe because I believe that that’s disrespectful to your audience. You don’t believe this. I will never make an argument to people that I, myself, would not believe. And once you do that yourself, I just feel like you are patronizing the people who consume your product in a way that I just find to be offensive.

Do you feel like you have an innate or learned ability to pick up when that’s happening with your colleagues?

Well, I mean, it’s not hard to figure out who doesn’t mean it, right? People can say whatever they want about Skip Bayless. Skip Bayless means every word that he says. There’s nothing that he says on television that he does not absolutely mean. My buddy, Nick Wright is in the same space. He gets out there and he says what he’s talking about. He means the things that he says. It’s not that hard when you listen to somebody to figure out like, “Oh, man, they’re just doing a routine.” They think this is the thing that’s going to get them over. The thing that’s so ironic about that to me is nobody has made their career off of that one thing they said, but plenty of people have broken their careers off of that one thing that they’ve said, and I wouldn’t be willing to take that risk.

Skip might be a little choreographed when he does the jersey burn video with Dak Prescott. I feel like that might have been two or three takes.

Now, that part I think is fair. I think that some of the antics are certainly choreographed, but the sentiment, he means it.

So, one thing that came out before the All-Star break was obviously Kyrie going to the Mavs, Durant getting traded to the Suns. What’s the legacy of whatever happened in Brooklyn with the super team (with those moves) and GM Sean Marks almost losing his job? Is this a ghost story to scare teams off from trying this kind of thing?

Nah, it’s a ghost story to scare teams off from Kyrie. Look, there isn’t a single general manager who if given the opportunity to get three players as talented as James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant, isn’t going to do it. There isn’t a single one, and anyone who wouldn’t should probably be fired. If there’s a lesson to be learned from it that is larger, it’s not about the assembly of the team. It’s you got to rein it in early when you feel like you got somebody like Kyrie who actually thinks he’s in charge here, and he told you from the very beginning that he thought he was in charge, and they didn’t do enough to hold that up. They just kept crossing their fingers and being like, “Hey, it’s talent. Hopefully, it’ll all pan out in the end.” And so the vaccine thing comes around, “Hey, we’re going to cross our fingers, hope that the law changes and everything else,” and at every turn, they probably should’ve let him go.

Now, maybe they did not because they didn’t want to offend Kevin Durant, and that’s where these things get to be extra tricky. But this is without question the biggest failure that any NBA franchise has ever embarked upon. I don’t think there’s any other way to look at that, but I don’t think it’s in such a way that it’s going to change the direction of basketball. Now, Kyrie Irving and his general tendency to not want to play games and not show up to work and everything that came with that, oh, that’s going to come up in the collective bargaining agreement. Stephen A. Smith has been saying that for a long time, and I’m inclined to believe him when it comes to these matters, and I think he’s probably right. But just the particular idea of the super team, nah, people going to keep trying to get as much talent together as they possibly can. I mean, Phoenix just went and got Kevin Durant to put him with Chris Paul and Devin Booker. Nobody’s turning down good players.

I know you’ve got an episode coming up where you discuss the economics of baseball and Steve Cohen’s spending on the Mets’ payroll. I’m curious, we always see the details for every single player contract, but with ownership, we don’t know a thing about revenue and what owners make. How much do you think that influences the narrative where people get pissed when a player makes a bunch of money, but don’t really seem to have much reaction to owners pocketing revenue sharing and not spending?

Oh, I think it influences everything, especially since owners are good to pretend like they’re losing money. The thing that owners very often pass off, and it happens right when you see a collective bargaining thing come up, is the, “Well, we’re actually not making any money right now” play. And of course, that’s accounting tricks and the lies, and people generally understand the idea of accounting tricks, but I don’t think they really know them by and large.

And so yeah. If people knew just how much money these leagues were bringing in… And what’s interesting is there is a way for people to get a pretty good idea of this in the NFL, and it’s because the Green Bay Packers are publicly owned and therefore have to put out an annual report. And that is how you get an understanding of what their revenue figures are because you can go and work backward from there. But I also think that part of the discord comes up that people in this country inexplicably just side against labor. They tricked them far enough back in the past into believing that the unions were the commies, and then it just all carries out from here. It just blows my mind at every turn when these things happen, they root against the players every single time. And I think part of it is they feel like rooting for the owner is like rooting for the team, and they do in fact have an affection for the team.

It’s just shocking to me that fan bases aren’t more up in arms when owners don’t spend money to improve the product.

And that’s where Cohen and (Padres owner) Peter Seidler come in. They become interesting in this case, because what I love about Cohen and what we want to explore is the rest of these owners are so threatened by the idea of Steve Cohen. And I think the threat in that is not even because they’re like, “Oh my goodness, we’re not going to have any chance to win.” Even Cohen understands that once it gets to the postseason, it all gets randomized, basically. Nah, he’s just going to embarrass them. He is going to shame them, and he has so much more money than them that I think it just tweaks at their egos, the fact that he’s willing to put all this money in. And when I look at Cohen it’s fair to ask the question, is this him angling to try to get himself a casino, is this him trying to rehabilitate his image after what he got busted for with all the white-collar crime stuff? But in the end, why would you own a baseball team if you didn’t want to blow money on it? If you’re worth as much money as Steve Cohen is worth, why do you get this other than to blow money on it? Right? The idea that I’m going to buy a baseball team because I want to make money from it seems like the dumbest thing in the world to do if you don’t need the money. I am just all here for baseball owners who just decide, “You know what? I want to spend a lot of money and have fun with this baseball team.” Which again, is what you see happening in large part in San Diego.

It’s just fascinating how long these (other) owners can continue to game the system, put money in their pockets, and not spend this money. Or they commit to the rebuild. I will never, ever understand fan base enthusiasm for the idea of a rebuild.

It’s basically the Ricky Bobby philosophy. If you ain’t first, you’re last. And so people just believe, “Well, if you’re not winning at all, then you might as well just bottom out.” And I don’t know. Myself as a sports fan, it’s definitely bitter when your team loses, but there’s a lot of fun to be had along the way. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that. And so for me, it’s wild when you look at the Astros, now, part of this was when they had trouble with their cable provider, their cable deal, before they got this thing back on track, they were turning in literal zeros on ratings, where nobody in the city of Houston was watching the game on television. But bless their hearts, when the time came, they had a plan and they figured out how to turn that around. But I would not want those awful years. I just don’t know if that’s a fair trade.

It’s just, I look at baseball like an entertainment product, and it’s like, I wouldn’t want to watch a TV show that was like, “You know what? The next three seasons, we’re going to take all the lead actors out of the mix. It’s going to be a bunch of unknowns. The scripts are going to be terrible but have faith. We’ll get better.” I don’t understand why would I invest my time or money in that?

It’s interesting. I grew up with the terrible Braves, and then one day they were the good Braves and they were good for 15 years. It was only one championship that came in that run. There was never a point at which I was mad that there wasn’t another. Right? There were just the years, I was like, “Oh, man, it looks like we might get another one here.” You know what I mean? But you didn’t, and then you go on from there. So to me, the idea that the only thing that matters is the championship is ridiculous to me. The thing that I would want to have is a sustainable team. Sometimes we’re going to be pretty good, sometimes we’re going to be fairly bad. Sometimes we’re going to win a lot. Just take the ups and downs and go with it.

‘Game Theory’ airs Fridays at 11PM ET on HBO