Josh Hart grabbed the microphone, sat down in his chair in the center of the stage and pulled up the brim of his baseball cap. He looked to his left and saw former NFL quarterback Tom Brady and rapper Lil Wayne on a black leather love seat. He looked to his right and saw his New York Knicks teammate and close friend Jalen Brunson in a matching easy chair.
Then he looked past Brunson to the only person on stage who needed an introduction.
“That’s the man, the legend, the legend: Matt Hillman,” Hart said. “If you guys know Pod, you know Matty Ice.”
Hillman replied, “I’m the only one on stage that you guys don’t know.
“You’re going to know who he is,” Hart told the crowd.
It was a Friday in mid-August, and Hart, Hillman and Brunson were recording for the first time Live episodes From his podcast, “The Roommates Show,” at Fanatics Fest NYC. The show, which debuted in February, has drawn a growing audience in part because of the popularity of a young, rising Knicks team and personal connections: Hart and Brunson are among four Knicks players who teammates at Villanova. (They were also, as the title suggests, roommates.)
The show exists in a relatively crowded space. There is no official list, but some online tallies put the number of podcasts hosted by current or former NBA players at around 60. Last season, active players hosted at least two dozen podcasts, meaning roughly one in every 20 players had a show. Beyond their ubiquity, another interesting feature has emerged in this small corner of sports media: More than half of the podcasts feature relatively anonymous co-hosts like Hillman.
“There’s no show without Josh and Jaylen,” Hillman said. “It’s about their names and their stardom and their chemistry. I’m here to make sure the train stays on track.”
For Hillman, recording the live show was the latest in a long series of surreal life experiences that began when he was a high school basketball teammate at Sidwell Friends School in Washington when he met Hart. Hart eventually lived with Hillman’s family, and the pair have been best friends, business partners and, now, podcast co-hosts for more than a decade.
On the podcast, where Chemistry can be complicatedMany of these co-host relationships are rooted in long-standing friendships.
Davis Reid, who hosted “Long shotAlong with Miami Heat guard Duncan Robinson, Phillips met Robinson at Exeter Academy, a private school in New Hampshire. Robinson was later a groomsman in Reid’s wedding, and they would FaceTime at least once a week as Robinson went from an unknown, undrafted NBA player to a star to a perennial championship contender. When Robinson was offered the opportunity to host the show, he asked Reed to share the sound booth with him.
“It’s a wonderful time in media that players can take their stories into their own hands, but it’s completely unrealistic to think that they can pour all of themselves into it,” Reid said. “Duncan wanted someone he could trust. He didn’t want to think about the show until we sat down to record.
Shows like “The Steam Room,” with Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson, and “The Big Podcast” with Shaquille O’Neal and Adam Lefko build on the dynamic that retired players established with their co-hosts through their NBA studio shows. on TNT. But the model of famous athlete and obscure sidekick is a relatively recent phenomenon.
JJ Redick and Tommy Alter were the first to find success with the template. Redick launched it The Namesake Podcast In 2017, when he was a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. The show ran for three years on Bill Simmons’ sports-and-pop-culture website, The Ringer. During that time, Alter went from producer to co-host. Together, he and Reddick left to make The Ringer Three for twoa media production company, and started their wildly popular podcast, “The Old Man and the Three“which has over a million subscribers on YouTube. ThreefourTwo would later produce “The Long Shot”.
For players, the show can be something of a lark. They are an opportunity to promote their brand and showcase their media for future camera opportunities. His fame attracts viewers. But most of the behind-the-scenes work falls to the co-hosts, who can handle everything from booking guests and scripting segments to editing episodes and cutting clips for social media. The average show will air one new episode per week during the NBA season, but some produce episodes more frequently, which can mean more money — but also more logistical work.
CJ Toledano, who hosts “Point gameAlong with free-agent guard John Wall, they didn’t know Wall before starting the show. He got the gig because of his background in production — he owns his own studio, Follow through – and social media. He worked with iHeartMedia to find an NBA player to team up with to produce the show.
“There was this really funny moment at the beginning where I was watching him fire up his laptop and adjust his webcam, and I thought to myself: ‘What has my career turned into where I’m doing IT support for John Wall?'” laughs Toledo. said with “She had the same problems as my mom when she was trying to zoom in with us during the pandemic. It’s funnier when he’s a millionaire athlete.”
When there is friendship, however, there can be friction. Dallas Rutherford, who hosts “Podcast pWith Paul George of the 76ers, proposed starting a podcast together — but then had to audition for the job. He and George had known each other since they were on a youth basketball team in Southern California, and Rutherford liked to ask his rich and famous friend for money or favors.
“I would have done the podcast for free,” Rutherford said. “Money has never been a part of me and Paul’s relationship, and I didn’t want that to change. No matter how much I make, I have all this footage of me talking to these NBA legends that I grew up idolizing. I get paid to talk to my best friends and famous athletes. I really can’t believe it. “
Most of the hosts said that working on the show alone provides enough money to live on. “Except in New York or LA,” joked Toledono. In some models, hosts are paid wages by production companies; In others, they get a share of advertising revenue. Some hosts own a portion of the intellectual property or business, but others do not.
Eddie Gonzalez, who hosts “ETCWorked with Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant for Durant’s media company, The boardroomin various part-time and full-time roles. He met Durant via Twitter direct message and now sometimes stays at Durant’s house and flies with him on private jets.
“There’s definitely this sense of awe and wonder,” Gonzalez said. “I think that’s why the co-host role works so well. Listeners live nomadically through you. You’re giving them the experience they want, where you can just sit across from Kevin Durant and ask them about LeBron. It creates a sense of community among fans and listeners.”
The show has slowed down this year, allowing Gonzalez to focus on other opportunities. He is now head of sports at the media company Complex, and is working on a scripted TV show about his life.
“There’s a friend-work balance that I had to find,” Gonzalez said. “We went from being friends to being the bad guy to me who called him to sit down and read the ad. Now we’re back to being friends 24/7. When we talk, it’s a podcast — whether we’re recording or not.”
The show sometimes comes to an abrupt conclusion. During the two-season run of “The Long Shot” with Robinson, Reed quit his full-time job in behavioral science, moved in with his parents and took a 50 percent pay cut. Then the show went on hiatus.
“There’s this moment of, ‘What now?'” Reid said. “We stopped recording in July 2022, and by August I was back in a 9-to-5 corporate job. One month I was interviewing Mark Cuban in summer league, and the next I was sitting on a desk looking at spreadsheets. I love what I do now, but that experience really made me realize: being the co-host of the NBA Podcast is the best job on earth.
A few minutes into the live “Roommates” show, Hillman noticed that his microphone stopped working. He tapped it frantically and tried to get the attention of one of the stage producers. Hart saw and called for help. Brunson noticed, too, and handed Hillman his microphone so he could question Brady and Lil Wayne about career longevity.
“Of all the people on stage,” Hillman joked, “it was probably best for my mic to go out.”
Later, Hillman asked Brady how he stayed competitive now that he had retired from football. Brady, who made a living as a ruthless competitor in the NFL — and won a record seven Super Bowls to show for it — openly told Hillman, “My competitiveness is over.”
After the show, Hillman took a helicopter to La Guardia Airport with Hart. Hillman has plans beyond the show — he’s its chief executive pathA company for fitness influencers — but trying not to lose the simplicity of what they started. When they boarded their flight to Miami, Hillman and Hart sat next to each other, but decided they had talked enough for the day. Everyone put on headphones and Hillman turned on Lil Wayne’s acclaimed 2008 album “The Carter III.”
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