It's always great bringing really neat people, cool people, successful people on the show, but when you've known those people for 30 years, I got to be honest, it's not as cool as it might be for other people. The only requirement I had for our next guest today is that because of our relationship, if he had gone on any other show here first, he would have been dead to me and I would have been very upset. The founder and CEO of Fanatics, Michael Rubin, who I'm very proud and privileged to call a very close friend, is here. How you been, buddy?
I'm excited to be here. Mostly because I think this is really the roast of Craig Carton. Like I didn't come here to talk about Fanatics Fest July 16th. I came here to just abuse you.
Yes. Listen, everybody that works with me and for me loves that because they can't do it.
I mean, you're pretty easy target if we're honest with each other.
You're talking about you slimmed down a little bit finally.
I am slimmed down. Yeah. Well, every year... Anything help you with that? Ever since you chased me around your office with a Mounjaro needle, I've decided...
I mean, I just couldn't look at her anymore. So I had to stab you a few times.
And by the way, that's a true story.
And I get thank you notes from your wife. I mean, she's appreciative.
She's very happy that you got me off my ass to work out, to box, to use kettle bells, and to eat healthier, which is what it's all about. Mike, you know that?
Yeah, I'm here to help you, brother.
You are. So, one of your guys, Brandon, actually sent me a text the other day that the New York Knicks are the most popular team in the history of Fanatics, which I always knew they would be because I think the Eagles had the record. You're Philadelphia Eagles before that and the Cubs obviously were very popular in 2016 when they won the World Series, but nothing like what you guys are seeing with Knicks fans, huh?
There is nothing like Knicks fans. I mean, first of all, New York fans are incredible. They've been a little bit starved here from big championships, but they've shown up in the biggest way possible. And it's been fun to be around the city.
Were you with them last night?
I was not. I was not out with them last night. I tried to be young and vibrant and I actually realized I was old, but Sunday night and last night, I said, "I'm coming." And didn't come.
You didn't go to the Fly Fish Club on Sunday night.
I said I was coming. I did not come. I was... you know, listen, the problem is I get up by like 5:00 to work in the morning. I'm always working that early. And so you have all the aspiration like, come on, I'm young. I'm fun. I can still do this. And then you're like, oh god, I'm going to be dead. Like I need to sleep five or six hours. But the Knicks fans have been incredible. This is in the history of Fanatics, the single biggest hot market we've ever had. And we've had some really big ones when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016. We've never seen anything like that.
That was the record set. Absolutely. The record set. Yeah, we... you know, and they were... I think they had one since 1903 if I remember.
Yeah, it was over 100 years. Yeah.
Yeah, it was okay. Then it was even early. Yeah, it was... Yeah, I think it was 1903 then... Eagles enormous like when they won the first time it was incredible. Okay. And by the way, Dodgers last year pretty spectacular. But this is just another level. I mean the fandom. I actually took a jog Sunday morning from where I live in West Village to the NBA store that we own and just watching people in there just grabbing everything. Shirts, asking what do you want? Like anything. I want everything.
I mean, there's a line at the NBA store around the block for the last two and a half days. And you didn't jog. You probably walked.
I actually jogged. A man of my weight 168 pounds can actually jog there. A guy of your size would probably need a wheelchair or some type of scooter to get you there. You haven't jogged since I've known you.
You know, I can tell you I'm actually jogging later today because I missed my workout this morning. I'm going to jog later this afternoon. I'd like to say you should come with me. It'd be good for you.
You know, fool. I'm not jogging anywhere and I don't live in the city anymore.
We'll get you a city bike. See if you survive. You'd probably crash inside.
I could do a city bike. You know, it'd be great motivation for you. I'll have a bullhorn and I'll just bike right behind you on the bullhorn. "Jog, fatso, jog!" That'd be good for you.
The last competition I remember we participated in together. Do you know what it was?
We might have gone to the Kentucky Derby's probably 20 plus years ago together and we might have gone to White Castle after we had about 14,000...
Yeah, that's when they had stretch limousine. Yeah. And it was who could eat the most burgers. I tapped out at nine. I think you did 20. Wow. I won. It shows I was competitive.
He's a competitive eater. 20 burgers.
But you have to understand, so there's about eight of us in this limo. Kentucky Derby was great. We had drinks and mint juleps and all the thing, you know, go along, get along. That particular White Castle is not in the greatest part of town near the Kentucky Derby, right? And we didn't care. We're drunk. It's 1:00 in the morning. Imagine a stretch limo pulling up into the drive-thru, right? With a bunch of a-holes in the bag. "Y'all take 10. I'll take 20." And then he challenged me as he typically does and I had to win. It's what we've learned through this whole process at Fanatics. We think about all the different competitions. He needs to be in the Raising Cane's eating competition. That is his strength. That's where he excels. That is his sport of choice.
Yeah, it used to be. But now that I've lost 30 lbs with just hard work and nothing else.
Yeah. Now he beats the old men in warehouses.
That's right. That's what he does. Just go with that. That's the story. By the way, you and I, before I get to Fanatics Fest, which we're going to be a part of as a radio station, and I have some other things going on, too, which I'll talk about in a second.
Yo, you and I talked a few years ago. Boomer and I had a concept for clothing for non-athletic regular people, newer clothing. And we kind of talked around the idea, how cool would it be if we created some clothing and tried to sell to see if non-athletes would have an interest in Narpware and we just kind of died on the vine. But now that you're sitting here, is that a project that we can bring to life or is it totally... you have two of the best non-athletic endorsers in you and me here, correct? Maybe we get... I mean I fit that mold.
Okay. So you said you were the best athlete in your high school.
I was athlete of the year 2001. I guess that is true.
The problem is 2001 was maybe 25 years ago. Just saying.
Not maybe, it was 25 years ago.
Things depreciate quickly. You've seen how someone could be a great athlete one... you're like man best running back ever and two years later he sucks. Yeah. By the way, Fanatics Fest is July 16th through the 19th. I know we're doing this show there live on Thursday and Friday. The fan will be there throughout. And we had announced where we just read a few minutes ago that you've gotten... I didn't hear OG, but outside of OG, every single Knick from the championship team will be appearing at Fanatics Fest coming up in July, which is pretty awesome.
Yeah, it's incredible. And I think Craig, you've been with us since we started. I mean, you've been with me since I started everything. Yes. Because I have known you for legit... How long have I known you for?
We're going on 30, almost getting close.
It's pretty... How old are you?
57. It's pretty amazing for a guy who's in his mid-30s like me that I've known you since you were some little baby. Yeah, it's kind of incredible.
I look better for 57 than you look for 32.
That's questionable. That's questionable. You're a little less brown now. But now Fanatics Fest, look, we started this two years ago. It's the single hardest thing we do at Fanatics because it's such a great give back to the fan. And we do this once a year only in New York City. And this year we actually planned it to be around the final of the World Cup. We just thought, you know, so many great things happening around soccer, global football, you know, what a great way to do this. And I'll tell you, the first year we did it, it was spectacular. And then we said, okay, let's figure out everything that was wrong and how to make it way better. We took a huge step up from year one to year two. And I'll tell you, I was just going through the content schedule earlier this week, and it's blow away great. And this is something where tickets are actually really inexpensive. We'll have 200,000 people through the building over four days, but you're going to have every big star in sports across every sport with us at Fanatics Fest. You will, to the point, have all the Knicks that just won the championship, but just about all the Knicks, many of the former Knicks doing so many different things. I saw Jaylen Brunson, Josh Hart interviewing for their podcast, Aaron Judge one day. And by the way, you got now what's happening around sports, just everyone's convening around Fanatics Fest. So, you have the ESPYs moved the ESPYs to New York the night before Fanatics Fest.
Because you guys are here.
Absolutely. And we're working with them. We're honored to work with them on that. You've got the Dodgers playing the Yankees in New York. I think WWE is doing a big event. You've got Time 100 doing a big celebration. So everyone's just really converging around Fanatics Fest as we kind of create this is the place to be in sports. But if you just think about... I'll do this one from memory. Basketball. I mean you've got LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, you've got Anthony Edwards, SGA, Wemby. You've got Cooper Flagg for a second. You sure he's coming to New York City?
I'm sure New York City is right. Yeah. We might give him a little more security, but I think at Fanatics...
Make sure no eggs are allowed.
Make sure he doesn't foul anybody on the way in.
Listen, Knicks fans got exactly what they deserved.
A championship. And now they need to honor him when he's here.
They need to show him some love. Show him some love. We will get him some extra security, but I know in our house of Fanatics, we're going to have respectful fans.
Oh, for sure. He has to remember life.
And by the way, you know what? It's what makes sports fans amazing. I mean, it's why all of us are so lucky to work in this business. But I was just giving you the idea of that's just in basketball. I think we have three to 400 of the greatest athletes in the world. And by the way, then you've got people across culture. You've got like yourself and Wayne and Jay-Z and Travis Scott and unathletic people like Kevin Hart coming.
So, we've got, you know, we've got, by the way, he does a show called His Balls there. You... I just saw you've got Novak Djokovic there. I was just seeing a back and forth between him and Tom Brady about who was going to win the Fanatics Games this year.
I think Brady won it last year, right?
It's pretty incredible. We came up with this idea last year. We said, "Let's do something where you take 50 really great athletes, a few celebrities, artists versus 50 average Joe fans and have a competition with 100 people." And we did, I think last year was seven sports. So, it was like a three-point shooting contest in basketball, a pitching competition. Last year was a basketball throwing competition. This year will be field goals, hockey competition, a kicking competition, a FIFA putting competition, and a punching competition, WWE walkout. So, I guess there were eight competitions last year and we had 50 athletes, celebrities, artists, 50 average Joe fans. Last year, by the way, I watched Brady go out with Eli because they were paired together because you go paired in twos.
And Eli tore it up in baseball. He looked like Ohtani pitching.
Yeah. It was kind of stunned.
And then I saw Brady pitch. He looked pretty horrible.
Okay. And so I left. I'm like, "Ah, Brady, he ain't got a shot of winning." I never looked at the scores again.
End of the day, Brady calls me. He's like, "Who's the champ?" It was only the first day, but he was in first place. I was like, "What?" Like, you were very competitive, huh?
That would be the understatement of all statements. So last year, Brady won first place, won a million bucks. Actually, donated it. Second place was a Ferrari. Justin Gaethje who just won the UFC championship Sunday night...
He got second place. Okay. He's sneaky athletic by the way.
Yeah. And a guy you don't mess with. Like if you beat him, just tell me, you know, you win. You won.
Third place was a gym teacher from Pennsylvania who by the way beat James Harden by like a smidge. James was very, very unhappy.
So they took it seriously. They like what's the juices?
Really seriously. Yeah. Of the top 10, I think four were professional athletes. Six were not.
There's thousands, tens of thousands of people compete to get one of these 50 spots.
And then you have 50 athletes, celebrities, artists. You wouldn't fit anything.
I guess I'm an artist in a way, but no, I don't fit. We said high quality artist.
Oh, my bad. Like you never asked me to announce anything. I could announce it.
We could use your good summer to announce to make fun of people, abuse people. For sure. I'm in that. We'll get you a key role in just abusing people.
That's it. I'm in on that. Is look, this is year three and this is not a big money maker for you guys. I know that this is more...
Definitely this is a give back.
No, I know. You give this back to the fans. I'm well aware of that. Is it when you walk through the building at the Javits Center the first year, is it the kind of thing where you've had crazy ideas, they don't all come to fruition. When you walk through that first year compared to what you're gonna walk through now, is it a pinch yourself kind of moment? So, let me say two things. I don't feel much. It's just like I'm always going so hard. You know, I'm starting really early, going really late every day. I do it seven days a week. You've known me for... I've been the same way since forever you've known me. So, I don't really have much feeling towards stuff. I will tell you, I remember the first year I had been up for like two days straight and I got home and I was like so wired. It was Saturday night. There was one day left at Fanatics Fest and I remember taking a sleeping pill and then saying to Camille like this is freaking crazy. That was year one. When I look at how much better year two was and then I just looked at the agenda, I don't think you pinch yourself but when you know you've got everyone around the world that makes sports work, right? It's pretty and there's something for everybody. If you're the biggest WWE fan, you've got Cody Rhodes there and you've got John Cena there and you've got Liv Morgan there and you've got Roman Reigns there and if you're a big UFC fan, you have the champ who just won Justin Gaethje there and if you're a basketball fan, we talked about all the basketball players and you know in think about New York, you've got all the stars in the Giants coming. Carter is going to be there. Jackson Dart, got Cam there, you got Malik Nabers there, you got OBJ there. So that's from a Giants perspective. From a Knicks perspective, you've got basically the entire team there and a bunch of the guys who've done it.
You guys actually did something no one's been able to do. You guys have Leon Rose going.
Leon Rose doesn't speak publicly.
Well, I didn't even know he was coming. Let me say this. Yeah, he should because you know he was an agent who represented... before... Yeah. He had to deal with the Sixers and now the reigning president of basketball who just won championships. So we're honored to have him, we're lucky to have him. By the way, I got to stop and tell you one thing. When Leon left and you know he represented Joel Embiid and he was such a great guy and he was always that guy hustled his ass off like he was always in the arena all the time. I gotta say, and I said this to him last time I saw him like a year ago, like I just didn't like, you know, those are hard transitions. Like you don't normally think someone who leaves being an agent can go do this job and do it so well.
We've seen guys fail.
Most guys fail. And I tell you something, I didn't think he was going to have, forget about winning the championship. I didn't think he was going to have the success. I grabbed him like a year ago and I said, "Hey, I just want you to know when you left, I didn't think you'd do this great, man. I'm freaking proud of you."
And that was before he won the championship. Sure. Now, this guy just won the championship, what he's done for New York. I'll tell you, I was out at a watch party Saturday night, and watching the tears come out of so many people's eyes, it made me one, a bit emotional, and two, like realizing how lucky we are all to do what we do. But like, I mean, it starts with him.
Did you regret not hiring him to be the Sixers president GM when you owned them?
Well, looking back, obviously. And look, we were, look, I was a perennial failure. Like, I was the third largest donor of the Philadelphia Sixers. We were a perennial first, second round exit in the playoffs. We never got it done. And by the way, when you own a sports team and you're involved with a sports team, you have one job: to win the championship. If you don't win the championship, which you have a 3% chance of doing, you failed. Leon Rose did something that nobody else could do for 50 plus years.
Yeah. No, he walks on water in New York forever.
Yeah. And so, and I got to tell you something, the amount of tears I saw and you see that's why this hot market is so big for... I'll tell you another thing. We've had every city, I've had the governor of every big country in America. I've had the presidents, prime ministers, dictators of so many of the biggest countries in the world call me and say, "We want to do Fanatics Fest in our country. We want to do Fanatics Fest." We've had the most powerful people in the world offering the most insane amount of money. You know what I always say? New York's the best city in the world. I want to do it.
Yeah. I have no interest.
Really? So, it'll always be in New York.
You might pick LA or Chicago.
I got to tell you something. So long as New York treats us great, we will always do it. Got it. Okay. I got to tell you something. I live, you know, when I'm in New York, I live 10 minutes from Javits, right? Javits is an incredible convention center. It's got 1.1 million square feet. New York can accommodate everybody. We can allow sports week to take place around Fanatics Fest and all these great events to come. Think about this that you have the World Cup final and the World Cup going on, right? The Dodgers playing the Yankees during this period of time, Fanatics Fest, okay, the ESPYs in New York just absorbs it all and does nothing. So, for me, what I... this is not, you know, this is a give back to fans. This is a way for the greatest athletes and stars in the world to really get in touch with their biggest fans. So for us, we want to do it in the greatest place in the world. And I think New York is the greatest place that want to do it. So I'd say so long. And again, we have had people offer us hundreds of millions of dollars to come do it in their location.
