Pablo Torre Finds Out
Exclusive: We Found the Knicks' Top-Secret Tapes for Kawhi, Kyrie and KD
19 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. I heard three K's and I... Listen, I'll take a ring any way possible, okay? I'm not asking questions. Right after this ad. I'm not going to even tell you what I did for you. Come on, man. Frank, it's an honor for you to be here. You said, I can do it over Zoom.
And I said, you have to be here in person. I respect that. I respect that. Drove in. You drove? Yeah. I asked him who's paying for these. He said, well, you know, do that. I don't know how to do that stuff. So now I'm going to be out of money anyway.
And you had to do the congestion pricing.
I said, Venmo me, Frank. I sold it. I have NYP. I have New York press plates. So I park on 37. Then I walk to 48 to Sirius. Then I took the train down here. Real New York stuff right there. I mean, just the most... Like a diplomat. He parks like a diplomat. I'm sorry. Testing, testing. One, two, three. Oh, close on me. That's like this family at Yankee Stadium this summer. Got it.
They drove and parked on 42nd Street and then took the Metro North up. And I was like, that makes absolutely no sense, but you have your reasons. Like, I guess you don't want to go to the heroin McDonald's across the street from Yankee Stadium like the rest of us. On River, right? Yeah. They have NYP parking there. Okay. But you have the mall there. I waited people out for them to leave.
A guy came with a bunch of, like, groceries. Pull it out and put it right there.
Pull it right there?
I'm not paying for parking. I need to get one of those. I'm like George Costanza. There you go. Another New York legend. This is already the most New York conversation we've had on the podcast. We're just talking about parking strategy in and out of Yankee games. Frank, you don't know Desus. You've never met him before. No, I'm supposed to be really phony and say I really admire your work.
No, you're funny.
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Chapter 2: What role did marketing play in the Knicks' approach to signing superstars?
So that is certainly a big part of it. And part of the whole thing with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, People were... The All-Star game that year, I'm going to forget where it was, but it was in February, and everyone... It might have been in Charlotte, and everyone was saying Kyrie and Kevin Durant have already decided they're coming to the Knicks.
Yeah.
That was in February. Yeah. As a delusional Knicks fan, that sounds like something I would have believed just from... With no sources. Just someone in my barbershop said it. In fact, the two of them, before the All-Star game... talked in, like, a hallway where everyone could see them, everyone in the media, and they were kind of whispering to each other. In the tunnel, yes.
It was in Charlotte, by the way.
Chapter 3: How did the Knicks attempt to recruit LeBron James?
Yeah, it was, yeah. That viral video of them just, like, having a sidebar. Yep, I was standing right there. It was Mike Francesco, which I was there.
Yep, I saw the whole thing.
Mike Francesco, the God, the Pope. So 2019... It's not LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. It's Kyrie, it's KD, and Kawhi Leonard. And the Knicks, Frank, had a ton of cap space. And I've been looking at the summer of 2019 because that was a summer when Kawhi Leonard chose to go to the Clippers. That's the rabbit hole I've been in for pretty much all of this year.
It's a summer, by the way, that in retrospect kind of changed the NBA. Kawhi goes to the Clippers. Paul George goes to the Clippers. The Thunder get everything the Thunder needs.
are now in position Kevin Durant blows out his Achilles the next decade and yeah people's ligaments blow up what I didn't know about that summer though was how big a player the Knicks were in terms of free agent superstar recruiting in terms of like You saw what they did in 2010. What did they do in 2019?
What I am told that the Knicks spent seven figures as part of a top secret campaign to not just get Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but also Kawhi Leonard. And you guys are both here because we're going to watch these videos that no one has ever seen for the first time today. Let's go.
So 2019, the Knicks, what they do, as they often do, and Frank knows this, they turn to a marketing and music mogul. With the initials S and S. Steve Stout. Steve Stout. Yes. Oh, that's right. I thought you were going to say PD. I was like, I got to go.
I got to go.
That's right. That was the guy that was best friends with LeBron. He was going to get him here. Then the Knicks hired him. He was arguing as a Knicks surrogate on first take at one point.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did the Knicks face during the 2019 free agency?
Okay? Board man gets paid. Let me know if you need me at the Mecca. I got your back, Kawhi. Yo, come on, y'all. Let's play, man.
That part was good. That worked. That worked. You could have just had that scene right there. You could have made all the other stuff. And I would throw in a couple of good-looking women. Seriously. It's very dude-friendly. There are women who live in New York and are Nick fans. We have no female Nick fans in this thing.
There is an audience of one mentality here where you're drilling down to what would this guy like. And I do feel like there are some obvious cards left on the table here.
Yeah.
But Tracy Morgan showing up to block a kid's shot, I enjoyed it. If you're wondering what it's like to tape with Tracy Morgan at Rucker Park, well... By the way, Jay Pharoah, again, is trying to be so restrained in his impression without like crossing the line. Right. So he's like kind of a, he's a good dude. He doesn't want to be insulting.
No, he's like helpful to the kids.
It definitely feels like an SNL sketch that at any moment is about to go very left. Very left. And something that went left was an experience taping with Tracy Morgan as one of the creatives from the translation agency named Chris Mendez decided to tell us about. Tracy Morgan pulled up in like a half a million dollar Ferrari.
As you've heard, he's done.
He pulls up to Rucker Park. He parks his sideways and just like gets out the car. He's like, where do I go? And we're like, yo, go over there. And people are like, are you worried about your car getting towed? And he's like, that car is too expensive to tow.
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Chapter 5: How did celebrity involvement impact the Knicks' recruitment efforts?
That's right. I used to work at the library, the Spite and Diver library. And Tracy Morgan's kid went to school across the street. So he would just come in like a drop-top Bentley and just park it in front of the library. Not locking the door or anything. Roof it off. And who's going to steal his drop-top Bentley? I'm like, I don't even know how to drive that.
I thought he did that during the playoffs last year. He has so many cars, and he's so rich, and he just drives around, no security, just chilling. Outside MSG, you'll see him, like, dap up kids. He gave, like, an inspirational speech to, like, one of those kids or something like that. He'll change your life. I think he would resonate with Kawhi. So far, nobody else. I'm sorry.
So, at this point, with, I think, that being a concern... the assembled actors and entertainers decide to basically just break the fourth wall and appeal directly.
Yo, what's up, Kawhi? Listen, I'm Jay Ferrell. As you know, I'm the guy who plays you this whole thing. You should come to New York, man. Look at the garden.
You see all them people in there? I'm one of them. If you are here in New York, I will personally come to your home and give you a forecast every afternoon.
a humble New York Knickerbocker fan, and we need you at the Garden, brother.
I don't need to tell you about basketball, but I can tell you about New York. First of all, the weather's awesome. He's holding umbrellas. The Knicks won a championship when I was eight.
So I'd like another one before I die. Time is running out. Man, you need to come to York, man. You need to chill your ass out in New York. Come play, you know what I'm saying? You gonna get all the women. I mean, I know you're married, but you know, everybody have a little sad piece. Know what I'm saying?
You can't have a value man without having a little, you know what I'm saying, some Whopper fries. But yeah, come on to New York, man.
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Chapter 6: What unique strategies did the Knicks use for Kawhi Leonard's recruitment?
I don't know if it's going to impress him, but it's not bad. And when you press play on this thing, what it was designed to do was show you this.
Kyrie Irving was made for the New York Knicks. New York City basketball is in Kyrie Irving's blood. It was roots of the war. Here's a guy that played in the park. When Kyrie was young, his father used to bring him to the gym, and he was too young to play with us. That boy used to watch me. He has that mental toughness, a heart of the lion. The grit, the hunger.
All that stuff he does, it came from the playground, the crossover, the jelly. He has New York City flair. And the DNA of New York City is Kyrie Irving.
This is very streetball-oriented. They decided to appeal to that. Speedy Williams, record park legend, Earl de Pearl Monroe, who's also, yes, legendary on the outdoor court. Blackjack Ryan, also very famous in the streetball world. That's the angle they're going with. And it's sweet.
It's like, okay, they're appealing to tradition, and then they're going to imagine also a future for Kyrie Irving if he decided to join the Knicks.
Hey, my name is Kyrie, and I was named after my favorite baller of all time. Why do you think I named both of them after him? Kyrie. Kyrie's so gifted, he wrapped it. Living in the future. The present, he passed it.
Kyrie. Kyrie Irving, man.
I love that it's just like, oh, we're going to get Kyrie and there's going to be so much unprotected sex in New York City. My God, we're just naming the kids left and right. That one's not, that's actually not bad. It's a vision of 2027. They put the aftermath on there. Like, this is what happens if you win in New York, you get a Wheaties box.
I will point out that the Wheaties box lately is less sort of, I mean, do we have the? Timothy Chalamet's on it.
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