Hour 1: Basking in the Knicks' Championship Glory & Craig Gets Big Mac Owner's Box Tickets!

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
It's The Carton Show with Big Mac. Number to join as always, 888-808-1019.
Got a great show for you on a gorgeous Friday, the day after, in New York City. And I'm not sure about anybody else, but I'm still loving what the Knicks did. Obviously, today's the day we start moving on to other things that are important to you as New Yorkers, namely the New York Yankees, who took one on the chin yesterday, first time in a while. And obviously, the White Sox have some self-respect, so all good there as well. Pull the big fella on the mound tonight, though.
And you will be in the building for that, so that'll be great. We got lots cooking for you. The wheel is back today. We got replacement staff on the other side of the glass as well that nobody cares about. So more on that when we play the wheel. Good afternoon, Big Mac. How are you today, kid?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:50)
I'm doing well, Craig. How are you the day after?

**Craig Carton** (0:52)
I'm doing, frankly, amazing.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:55)
Really? Still feeling it, still in the vibes, you don't know if it's all over, nothing else to look forward to?

**Craig Carton** (1:00)
No, I think Monday is going to be like, man, I missed the Knicks. I wish there was a Knick game today. But even though the parade took four days to happen, the anticipation of the parade, who's going to be at the parade, and how many people are going to be at the parade. Now, obviously, losing for us, we had to talk about the parade yesterday. But if there's any kind of hangover for you, or if anyone has a story that you're making, and I gotta tell the guys this story, that story, we'll obviously take that. I don't think today, and I disagree with some of my colleagues here, today to me is not the day to worry and talk about the second apron, or is Carl Anthony Towns gonna take a discount so that we can keep the core together and all that? Because when you get to those conversations, it's like you've moved on. And I'm not ready yet to move on from the joy I got from the Knicks Championship, from the excitement that the Knicks brought me.
And I want to push that back if you don't mind. Today is not the day, because as soon as you start talking about next year and the salary gap and the draft and all that stuff, then that means we've moved on from something that brought us such great joy.
I'm not ready to do that.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:10)
A couple of things. One, to be fair, the owner mentioned it on this show.

**Craig Carton** (2:14)
Yes, he did.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:14)
He didn't.

**Craig Carton** (2:15)
Yes, he did.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:15)
When you asked him about keeping the group together, he could have easily just said, I'll try.
He specifically said no 2nd April and referred to it as NBA suicide. So when that happens on this show, Yes. from the owner of the team, That's right. talking about I'll sign checks as big as they need, except that big, like it's contradictory, it's news breaking, and it's part of how this team is built. So listen, you want to push it all fine, but it's a significant point that he chose to bring up before the break.

**Craig Carton** (2:45)
To me it's not, the 2nd April is not a conversation we should ever have on this show, because it's so convoluted, and nobody really understands it or wants to hear about it, because it deals with math, and most of you guys suck at math.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:56)
You don't want to hear that this rich owner, who just made a boatload of money on this championship run, can't sign a check, because that's what we've always said. Despite all of his failings, despite everything he's ever done, despite facial recognition, Isaiah Thomas, anything else, the one thing we know is he wants to win, and he'll write the biggest check, he'll spend the money.

**Craig Carton** (3:12)
But there's also smart spending, right? The New York Mets doesn't write the check, doesn't spend the money wisely. And that's the thing, I think fans sometimes get that confused. I understand why, we're in New York City, we have wealthy owners, we want our owners to write every single check that we want them to write, and smart business be damned. And I feel the same way, I'm not saying anyone else. But the reality is that, haven't we learned a valuable lesson from the New York Mets, and I guess to an extent, the Yankees as well. Just because you have the ability to write the check, just because you do write the check, does not guarantee or equate to success. Like, if I'm a New York Mets fan, for the last five years, I was so pumped up and happy because I had an owner, unlike the Will Pons, who's not only capable of it, but willing to stroke the check, no matter what the cost. And what has that done for the Mets?