Tatum's Return, Celtics Trade Targets, and Mediocre Life Updates

Summary

Podcast Summary: Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast

Episode: Tatum's Return, Celtics Trade Targets, and Mediocre Life Updates
Date: February 2, 2026
Host(s): Will and Greg
Notable Guests: Alex Gonzalez (Producer, special "Mediocre Life Update" segment)
Episode Theme:
This episode centers on Boston Celtics’ recent games, the approaching NBA trade deadline, updates on Jayson Tatum’s potential return, and entertaining personal stories from the hosts’ lives. Will and Greg break down the Celtics' week, trade buzz, shifting league dynamics, and provide detailed commentary on the recent All-Star selections.

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Episode Overview

• Recap of Celtics' dominant win over the Bucks
• Discussion of recent trade rumors and insights on key players, esp. Anthony Simons
• Jayson Tatum’s injury recovery updates and the shifting narrative on his possible return
• NBA trade deadline predictions with theoretical scenarios
• All-Star selections: Analysis, surprises, and notable snubs
• Lighthearted “Mediocre Life Updates” from hosts and producer

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Celtics vs. Bucks Matinee: Blowout Win (00:31–12:15)

Game Recap and Key Players

• The Celtics routed the Bucks 107–79 in a Sunday matinee, taking advantage of Giannis’ absence.
• The Bucks opened with a 12–0 run, but Celtics righted the ship quickly.
• Anthony Simons' standout performance: 27 points, 6-10 from three.
• Jalen Brown continued his strong play: finished with a double-double (30 pts, 13 rebounds).

Notable Moments:

• “The inferno gets rolling, watch out.” – Greg (04:03)
• “Some of Anthony Simons’ shots are, in fact, quite audacious.” – Will (05:53)
• The hosts reference Mark Jones’ call: “The audacity of this shot.”

Game Dynamics

• Celtics recovered from an early deficit due to small momentum plays and Simons' hot hand.
• Milwaukee's only bright spot was Ryan Rollins, but Boston's depth wore them down.
• Jalen Brown’s physicality and rebounding stood out, including his friendly rivalry with Bobby Portis:
  • “Bobby Portis and Jaylen Brown are buddies ... just want to compete.” – Greg (11:32)

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Celtics’ Trade Deadline & Anthony Simons Speculation (06:08–13:39; 32:55–38:48)

Anthony Simons’ Future

• Speculation abounds: Will Simons remain a Celtic after the deadline?
• Bulls reportedly offered Nikola Vučević for Simons—offer was declined.
• Celtics unsuccessfully pursued Ivica Zubac, offering Simons, a first-round pick, and a pick swap.
• The future of Simons may signal the Celtics’ belief (or lack thereof) in a Tatum return this season.

Key Quote:
“If Simons is on this team, you can make a strong case like, hey, they want to see Simons and Tatum together. Or ... maybe they don’t think Tatum’s coming back, so they didn’t flip him.” – Will (08:08)

Trade Targets & Predictions

• Celtics’ frontcourt depth is a concern; hosts discuss backup bigs and versatile wings as priorities.
• Theoretical trade targets: Day’Ron Sharpe, Daniel Gafford, Bobby Portis, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, Taylor Hendricks.
• Bold prediction: “Maybe they go after Bobby Portis ... he’d bring some physicality and wild-card energy.” – Greg (35:46)
• The value of keeping Sam Hauser is debated, even if it means passing on Portis.

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Jayson Tatum Injury Update Drama (20:41–27:28)

The Rumor Mill

• Tatum appeared on The Pivot podcast: shared uncertainty about his return and hinted at mental/emotional factors.
• ESPN’s Chris Haynes: “Sources—the Celtics’ star is reevaluating and considering sitting the entire season.”
• Immediate reactions: Defiance and frustration, but also recognition that the narrative never promised a return.

Key Quotes:
“He’s always been evaluating. He’s still evaluating whether he’s coming back this year. No one has, like, said to Jayson Tatum, ‘Are you coming back?’ and he said definitively, ‘I will be back.’” – Greg (21:47)
“It’s always been that way ... every single member of the Celtics has always said it’s a process.” – Will (23:48)

The Psychology of the Comeback

• The hosts explore Tatum’s mental state from being “the guy” to watching Jalen Brown get more attention.
• Will notes Tatum’s tendency to shoulder “Superman” expectations and wonders if he can ease back into a smaller role.
• Tatum’s unique pressure as the “face” of the franchise after an injury, and possible impact on team chemistry.

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NBA All-Star Reserves Reaction (38:48–43:07)

Eastern Conference Starters/Reserves

• Jalen Brown named starter alongside Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Johnson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell, Scotty Barnes, Jalen Duren.
• Notable questions: “How is Embiid not an All-Star, but Norman Powell is?” (39:32)

Western Conference & Snubs

• Notable reserves: Anthony Edwards, Jamal Murray, Chet Holmgren, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Deni Avdija, LeBron James.
• LeBron over Kawhi Leonard deemed “a travesty.”
  “Pull up Kawhi Leonard and LeBron’s stats, and it’s going to be pretty jarring ... Kawhi should be on this team.” – Will (41:08)

Generational Shift in the NBA

• Hosts note a clear “changing of the guard” as younger stars rise (e.g., Chet Holmgren, Deni Avdija, Maxey, Barnes).
• “A few years from now we’re gonna look back at this year and be like, this is where the NBA really started to change towards Gen Z problem players.” – Greg (43:07)

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Celtics’ Schedule & All-Star Break Outlook (43:07–45:06)

• Upcoming games: Dallas, Houston, Miami, New York pre-Super Bowl, and Chicago before a week-long break.
• All-Star break will likely clarify Tatum’s status and the team’s direction post-deadline.

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Mediocre Life Updates: Fun and Personal Stories (46:07–64:46)

Alex Gonzalez: Wizards Game Interning

• Alex recounts his experience participating in a pizza box-pool noodle game and T-shirt toss at the Wizards’ game.
• Failed spectacularly at both pizza box game and almost gave a T-shirt to a friend in the stands.
• “I don’t think I swung my pool noodle once. I just was immediately taken out—both times.” – Alex (47:58)

Haircut Trend: "Llama Cut"

• Zach Lowe podcast referenced the “Ugo Gonzalez cut.” Greg jokes about the new hair trend and hiding receding hairlines.

Greg’s Parent Story

• Greg shares about his son James’ love for bubble baths and a recent switch in tubs leading to dramatic reactions and shower-related trauma: “Don’t turn on the shower to torture your kids!” (56:30)

Will’s Papa Shot Saga

• Will describes a work event where he posted a high-score 139 at pop-a-shot, but lost the public head-to-head matchup.
• “I felt conflicted the rest of the night. I had the high score, but I lost the head-to-head showdown that everybody saw. How should I feel, bro?” – Will (62:08)

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Memorable Quotes & Segments with Timestamps

• “The audacity of this shot.” – Mark Jones call, referenced by Will (05:53)
• “Some of Anthony Simons’ shots are, in fact, quite audacious.” – Will (05:53)
• “If Simons is on this team ... they want to see Simons and Tatum together. Or ... maybe they don’t think Tatum’s coming back.” – Will (08:08)
• “Bobby Portis and Jaylen Brown are buddies ... just want to compete.” – Greg (11:32)
• “This is why I said Tatum should come off the bench, man.” – Greg (24:03)
• “Pull up Kawhi Leonard and LeBron’s stats, and it’s pretty jarring ... Kawhi should be on this team.” – Will (41:08)
• “There’s a real changing of the guard here ... a lot of younger guys.” – Greg (43:07)
• “Don’t turn on the shower to torture your kids.” – Greg (56:30)
• “I felt conflicted ... I had the high score, but I lost the head-to-head showdown.” – Will (62:08)

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Tone and Style

The hosts sustain a lively, conversational (sometimes hilarious) tone while offering deep basketball analysis, candid personal stories, and a clear camaraderie. The episode flows from serious Celtics analysis to offbeat speculation and finishes with relatable, self-deprecating stories about family and life.

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Conclusion

This episode is a must-listen for Celtics fans seeking context on the team’s direction before the trade deadline, insight into Tatum’s injury narrative, and a dose of humor and humanity from the Green With Envy crew. The show embodies passionate fandom, well-informed speculation, and plenty of good-natured banter.

Transcript

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[Will]

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[Greg]

This is Mike Gorman, and you're listening.

[Will]

To Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right, everybody, Celtics route the Bucks in a Sunday matinee 107 to 79. We'll hit that. Plus the games we missed from earlier in the week. Our thoughts on Jason Tatum's comments comeback maybe on pause. We'll let you know what we think about that. All Stars are announced earlier today as well. Plus, we will take a look at the latest driver trade buzz leading up to the deadline on February 5th. This Thursday trade deadline coming up. So a lot going to be happening this week. And of course, we've got America's favorite mediocre life update. All that and more coming up next here on Green with Envy. You guys know the deal. Let's lock in. Oh, What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Green with Envy. As always, this is your boy Will. We're checking in. How you doing? How you living? Joining me on a Sunday night as he does each and every time, my best friend, co host and the coach of our podcast, the one and only Greg mine, Greg Little, little Sunday matinee action for the Celtics today. I like it. I like, I like the Sunday afternoon games.

[Greg]

You know, my favorite thing about podcasting with you now is, is because the baby's in a new, because the baby's in a new room. You're bringing your volume down. So you have this like different energy about your intro and everything about the way that you're speaking. It's like a little bit more npr, but I'm into it. I like it.

[Will]

Is it going to be like, like disc jockey, like soft rock, like smoother?

[Greg]

Yeah. A little David Allen boucher magic.

[Will]

Yeah, you gotta, you gotta get versatile. So a little, little behind the scenes here. Baby girls in the, in the next room these days. So nighttime recordings, daytime. So it's gonna be, it's gonna be kind of interesting to go back and listen to an afternoon podcast and you're gonna get probably loud, boisterous, you know, hyper energetic here it's gonna be a little bit more calm and reserved. Gonna give it to you a little bit more smooth jazz here on the one your request. You know, that type of vibe. So we're still gonna make it, you.

[Greg]

Know, some Marvin Gaye, some Lutheran.

[Will]

Exactly. Hey, Kanye's back. He's writing apology letters. So, you know, we're. We're getting them. Getting him back on the ones and twos here. But for today's episode. So we didn't have an episode during the week. I was doing some traveling for work. So we'll catch up on what we've missed here leading up to this matinee today. But then, of course, we got to hit Jason Tatum's car. Not even his comments, but the reports about coming out from his camp earlier in the week, we gotta hit that. All Stars were announced earlier today. A little bit of trade news out there. So we'll hit that. And then of course, on the back end, we'll have that mediocre life update for you. But, Greg, let's start today with that Sunday matinee. No Giannis. So kind of what we expected from the Bucs. Although the Bucs did get the Celtics earlier in the year without Giannis, but they got their revenge today. Celtics 107 to 79 over the Bucs. Back to back games, if you include that Friday night game where, you know, this team's obviously had an unbelievably impressive season. I think these last two games are one of the only times I would classify it as. These are two pretty easy wins, Greg. And they felt that way. Watch. They felt that way the entire time.

[Greg]

It's sweating a little bit against the Bucks, especially after the last time we played where Bobby Portis and Kyle Kuzma just went bananas and they get up to like a 12 nothing start in this game. If you missed the game, Bucks came out hot, Celtics came out cold, and, you know, 12 nothing. Missoula calls the timeout and we start to write the ship a little bit from there. And there are these, like, little momentum plays early on where I think Jalen Brown, there was like a. A long rebound that Jaylen was able to like, knock away from Ryan. Ryan Rollins, that led to a three pointer and just like little. Little things like that. Just the last time we played the Bucks, I felt like they would have went the other way, but this time they started to go our way. And then the Inferno, man, when the inferno gets rolling, watch out.

[Will]

Yeah, that was turned up today for the Inferno. My. My cousin was at the game so he sent me. Sent me a picture of it because, you know, he's a big Anthony Simons fizz. Every time he goes off, I always get a text message from him about it. About Anthony Simons today, he was spectacular. 10 of 18 from the field, 6 to 10 from 3, ends up with 27 points and, and 3 rebounds. And you know, Greg, you mentioned beginning of the game, 120 bucks run. You know, that first game, it was Portis and Kuzma. Beginning of this game, it felt like, oh, we're just replacing Portis with Ryan Rollins and we're gonna get the Rollins and Kuzma battle that's gonna happen here. And. And Ryan Rollins stayed pretty. I was Ryan Rollins. I've been very impressed with him all year. He's been a surprising spot for the. For the Bucks, but it was really. He was kind of the only bright spot once you got beyond the first quarter for the Bucks. And then Anthony Simons coming in to kind of change that energy, change that momentum. He got real hot early. And you can tell, you know, we talked. I remember we talked about Sam Houser either last episode or the episode before. Before where when his shot goes in, it feels different. When Simons gets a certain level of confidence, it feels different. And I, I know Mark Jones was on the call today, and I loved one of the threes that Simon said. I think tore. I think it was maybe the buzzer beater at the first quarter where he said the audacity of this shot. And I love the way he said it because some of. Some of Anthony Simon shots are, in fact, quite audacious.

[Greg]

Yeah, man. And it's a bummer that we got that report about Jason Tatum. You know, Tatum comes out with. He didn't come out and say it, but as you said, there was a report about Jason Tatum apparently rethinking whether or not he's going to come back this season, which we're going to dive into a little bit more here in a second. But I keep wanting to see Anthony Simons play with Jason Tatum. The trade deadline is this week, this Thursday, and I'm just praying that Anthony Simons is still in the Boston Celtics and that Jason Tatum gets a chance to play with him.

[Will]

What's your. What's your gut react? What's your gut take on if. Do you think past whatever it is, three o' clock on Thursday, whatever. Whatever time it is on Thursday, do you think Anthony Simons will be suiting up Friday when the Celtics play the Heat?

[Greg]

Man, it's that hopeful optimism that I have within me as a black sheep optimist. And I think he's going to be on the Boston Celtics, you know, Thursday, Thursday evening we'll still see Anthony Simons. I think you'll hear reports of teams offering, you know, deals for Simons. Like we heard about the Bulls offering Nicola Buchebic for Simons and the Celtics apparently turn that down as they should have. I think that he's playing himself into a worthy playoff asset right now and he seems to want to be here. I don't know if you caught the old the young man in the three pod will that had the a few Celtics players on it, but Simons was talking about how this is an opportunity he's just been waiting for in, in his like grown up NBA because he was early in his career with the Trailblazers. He was just a young kid.

[Will]

Yeah. And so, you know, it's with Simons, like you said, to your point, turn down whatever the Vusevich offer was. On the flip side, there was also the report the Celtics did go after Vika Zubac, who we've talked about many a time and they are their offer was turned down which supposedly that offer was Simons, a first round pick. I believe it was a swap and then it would have been Zubot. Plus what a bad contract to kind of make the numbers work and the Clippers, who, you know, depending on when this offer was made, probably I think for both sides, I think it's the appropriate offer for the Celtics and I think it's also probably the right move for the Clippers to turn that down depending on when that happened when they were 6 and 21 or now where they're, you know, back in the play in and making a charge. So it's going to be interesting this week to see what happens. My gut take is I, I think Simons is going to be here. I just, it's hard to see a move that's going to make sense now. Again, this is going to tie into I think what worked up when we talk about Jason Tatum here in a few. Whatever happens this week is going to be very telling, I think for how the Celtics feel internally about whether or not Jason Tatum is coming back this year and if I would honestly lean and this is where it's a little weird, right. Like you could make the case either way. If Simons is on this team, you can make a strong case like hey, they're doing everything that you've been asking for, Greg. They want to see Simons and Tatum together or I think you could pretty easily make the inverse argument where Simons is still here. Daniel, think Tatum's coming back. They didn't try to move him or flip him for a future asset. Right. Or, you know, so it's, it's going to be an interesting week to see what happens and what tea leaves we get. But games like this tonight, you know, and especially you look at, you know, Jalen was great tonight as well. But. But in the Kings game, you know, Pritchard was great. It's like, it's nice to have these nights where you're playing a team that's clearly inferior and you don't need. Even though Jalen was great, like I said, in this Bucks game, he didn't have to be as good. And you still would have won this game.

[Greg]

Right.

[Will]

Because you have Simon's flame throw and you had Pritchard flame throwing against the Kings. Right. So you can have different guys step up to just ease the burden on your, on your stars. Right. And so Anthony Simons is kind of a key guy for that. And when you bring Tatum back, it's just going to be nice to have that extra level of a guy that can get hot and maybe Tatum can just do some of the small stuff as he continues to potentially ramp back up.

[Greg]

Yeah, Jalen was great in that third quarter as well. He was five for nine in the third, one for one from three. I think he ended up hitting one or two more threes in the fourth quarter. We got really hot in that second half. Four threes. Fours in the game.

[Will]

Yeah, exactly.

[Greg]

Yep. So he was. He was great. He ended up with double. Double 30 and 12.

[Will]

Was it, I think 13, 12 defensive rebounds, but 13 rebounds overall.

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Yeah.

[Greg]

And he was, you know, I think he had that double double by halftime. He was really going for it. He was just. We talk about Jalen all the time with, you know, his MVP level play. Is he at the MVP levels? He just. Below that. It's just. It doesn't really matter whether or not he's in that conversation. It's. He's doing everything that the Celtics need him to do on a nightly basis. And tonight they needed him to be physical. They needed him to guard Bobby Portis from time to time, and they needed him to rebound because.

[Will]

Did you see the. Bobby Porter's clip, by the way?

[Greg]

I don't know which clip you're referring to. No.

[Will]

So he was mic'd up during the game and, and he was. I think that it was early on and like, they, they got like a, A Tie up or something. And Bobby Portis, who, what you. You call him Crazy Eyes, right?

[Greg]

Crazy ass Bobby Portis. Yeah.

[Will]

He smacked Jaylen Brown's ass saying, like, let's go. But like, it was very, very aggressive. Like, yeah, yeah, he kind of did one of those. He was like, let's go, me and you, let's go. And just like, but like, I'm a little surprised. Jaylen, who got in that dust up with Giannis. Was it last year? I think when, when Giannis, like, smacked him on the butt or something like that, I was surprised. Jaylen didn't really react. Aggressive move by Bobby Portis.

[Greg]

Well, they like each other. Bobby Portis and Jaylen Brown are buddies, so that they always compete. They go at each other. They got a ton of respect for each other. So it's not like a beef stew, Jaylen Brown thing where they, they want to fight. Jaylen Brown and Bobby Portis just want to compete. And I think that was one of those, you know, masculine ass tap things that guys do.

[Will]

It was, it was very masculine. Very masculine. But, yeah, in this game, you know, Celtics end up with the blowout here again, back to back, kind of nice wins. Greg, give me your thoughts here quickly on earlier in the week. Celtics, Hawks. I was traveling during this one, so I only caught some of the highlights. My take from a distance was Celtics just never got their mojo going in this one, but, but very curious to just get your quick thoughts on it.

[Greg]

Yeah, it's just a stinker of a game, man. And me and Phil were texting about it in the first quarter. We were just like, this is one of those games where it feels like we're due for one. And the Celtics just never really had a chance to get it going. There's like a, A run. I forget. It was even in the late third or the early, early fourth. That had me hoping, but for the most part, I caught that part.

[Will]

That was the one. It was like, this is the moment. If they're gonna get back in this game, it's right. I think it got to like seven minutes left, and it was like someone. I think the Hawks hit like back to back threes. It was like, yeah, yeah, this is just not gonna happen.

[Greg]

I, I honestly, man, I can't remember all the intricacies of that game, but I'm pretty sure we were short handed in the, in the front court. I think that was the game. Either Cato or Garza was out, one of them two was out, and we just. The Hawks were. They're a really Physical, lengthy team. You know, Jalen Johnson can. He's a. He's a freak out there on the court, like six, nine, jump out the gym. He was giving us a lot of problems. Alexander Walker had a great game. He was hitting some banana shots. Dyson Daniels has given Jalen Brown problems. Jalen had a bunch of turnovers in that one. And it was just one of those games where I chalked it up to the Celtics being tired. Jaylen Brown sits the next game, which I thought made a lot of sense because he looked exhausted in that game. And it was just, you know, full season catching up to them. Bunch of guys, you know, fighting out of their weight class for an entire season. And I think it's one of those games you just throw away. I wasn't concerned about it.

[Will]

Yeah, I agree with you on that. And, you know, now with this game, Milwaukee in the rear view, where, you know, a couple games away here and we're hitting the all star break, so Celtics are going to have that reprieve. So just a quick look here at the week ahead, which is going to include the trade deadline, which we'll get to moves that have already been made and anything that we're hearing here or we're seeing across the Internet. But coming up this week, Greg, back to back, they're coming to Texas. They're coming to our home state here. It's going to be Dallas on Tuesday and then then Houston on Wednesday. Interesting matchups for the Celtics, specifically, as Dallas and Houston played last night in the national televised game. And, dude, I mean, I've watched a couple Cooper Flag games, but, you know, obviously Cooper Flag made massive news this week when he dropped 49 points. Him and con canipple went back and forth. I think last night his numbers were like 32, 12, and 5. Cooper, flag is so impressive, man.

[Greg]

Like, he's so really good. He's really good. And he's so young, man. And, you know, seeing him play in the NBA. And I caught the DebonSA versus Peterson game this weekend, Kansas versus BYU.

[Will]

I caught some of that. Yeah.

[Greg]

Yeah. And it was just like when you see Flag and what he's able to do on the court with the size that he has, there's just like a savvy to his game that you don't see from a lot of kids his age because he's. He's supposed to be his freshman year in college this year. Right. He. He ended up reclassifying so he could end up 19.

[Will]

I saw, because obviously he was the youngest player to Ever score almost or score 49, whatever. And he was 19 years and 39 days.

[Greg]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will]

Everyone else was like 19 and was like about to turn 20. Yeah, 39. He was on barely a month over being 19. That's crazy.

[Greg]

And it, it reminds me a lot of watching young LeBron. Honestly, man, like, I don't want to make those comparisons just because LeBron, you know, the chosen one, he was, he was that guy coming out of high school and with flag the 49 points that he dropped the other night, it just like had me having flashbacks to LeBron against the Pistons when he just like unlocked that, that jump shot and he was just like, oh, like, if I'm hitting these jump shots, there's nothing you can do. But I'm not just going to be a jump shooter. And Cooper flag his game. Like his feel for the game is crazy that he has it already at 19 years old. And if he ever develops, you know, a consistent mid range jump shot, I don't even think he needs like a knockdown three point shot. He just has to have like a go Midi and he, you know, Kawhi Leonard made a living out of that. Plenty of guys have made a living out of that.

[Will]

I mean, LeBron never really developed a knockdown three. Like, he was still going to live with the three. Like, you know, I mean, LeBron was in his low, low to mid-30s at best. Usually.

[Greg]

Yeah, it was like, will LeBron develop a post game? That was the question. More than will LeBron develop a three point shot? So he's fun. I'm excited to watch him against the Celtics. You know, Jalen Brown's going to be ready for that matchup, so that'll be fun to watch.

[Will]

How crazy. That dude's from Maine. Like, being from Maine is just, it's, it's still hard to wrap my head around.

[Greg]

Do you have a twin brother?

[Will]

He does that. Plays at the University of Maine right now as a freshman. Because to your point, he. They're. They're. I think they're twins.

[Greg]

They're twins.

[Will]

Yeah.

[Greg]

He had like the crazy growth spurt and his brother never had like that six, eight.

[Will]

Dogs are crazy. Who knows?

[Greg]

Six, three, maybe.

[Will]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Excuse me. I said burp.

[Will]

Isn't that. And that's weird too. I feel like, I feel like twins are always at least usually the same height. You know what I mean? Like, it's.

[Greg]

Twins freak me out. Dude. Let's not go there.

[Will]

Yeah, they're. They're a little bit. Sure. I saw the Morris twins were actually at that KU BYU game you're talking.

[Greg]

Dude, I was actually thinking. I was like, thinking a lot about twins recently because my. My cousin out in la, his name's Beau Profit, He. I forget what high school he goes to, but he's a junior this year and he's killing it. And he was like named one of the top 50 players in the state or something like that recently. And he's just like, crushing it, like, getting steals, breakaway dunks, alley. Oops. Like, the kid's really good, but he has. He has a brother, Bryce, who didn't have the growth spurt that Bo had. Bo's like six. Six. I think Bryce is maybe like six two. And I was just thinking a lot about, like, the differences. Bo ended up choosing basketball. I think Bryce plays tennis. And it's just like they're. They're so different, you know, like personalities and everything. They're so different. If you think back to like in high school, shout out to the Burke twins. Like, they, you know, fraternal twins, they didn't look anything alike and they didn't really act anything alike either. And then I was thinking about the Harrison twins on Kentucky, because I was watching Kentucky this weekend. Remember the Harrison twins when they were supposed to be like, the big thing.

[Will]

And then they didn't really do anything until the tournament. And then they. I think it was them maybe plus Julius Randall, like, led them to the Final Four, to the ncaa, even them in the NBA.

[Greg]

Like, they didn't really have an NB career. And they were supposed to be these hyped, you know, super hyped twins. And I was thinking about Thompson twins and all these twins that are involved in. In the NBA. And, you know, Lopez, we're going to be the greatest twins of all time is the. The real question that I've been thinking about.

[Will]

So I've seen a lot of, you know, the Royal Rumble for WWE was this weekend. So a few people had, like, WWE Royal Rumble, all NBA All Star ideas, a twins Battle Royale. Or even just maybe we just called a brothers Battle Royale. So we can expand it out a little bit. Like, that'd be kind of cool. You get Lonzo and Lamelo, Seth, and you get the Lopez brothers. You get the Morris twins can come out. They're kind of the guys out of retirement. Here come the Morris twins.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Will]

Blake Griffin and Taylor Griffin start coming out. Like, you can get really fun with it. Like with some of the deep cuts that you could go to. I think that would be. That'd be a fun NBA All Star event. But just back to this week for the Celtics here. Dallas, Houston coming up. And then we'll have the trade deadline so we'll know what this team will look like by Friday when the Celtics are back home against the Heat. But Greg, let's go back to what was easily the biggest story of the week that we did not have a chance to give our thoughts on. And that's what has seemed like a foregone conclusion, mostly based on his own comments, to be fair, that Jayson Tatum was going to be coming back this year.

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[Greg]

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[Will]

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[Will]

Now, over the week, there were really kind of two separate moments in which it made it seem a little bit unclear as to whether or not this would be the case. First, Tatum appeared on the Pivot podcast with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor and talked a little bit about his mental mindset and what it would be like. Like should he come back, is he gonna mess it up. Things that we've kind of hinted at that we want to start getting into, but it's kind of difficult to do. Feels like a little bit of a waste until we know. I think once you get past the trade deadline, whether or not we know, we can start to really hash out that conversation. But the mentality behind that was where this kind of started and and then Chris Haynes on the association show that he does with Robin Lopez and I don't remember the the woman's name that hosts the show as well. This is where he talked about that sources and read just the. The tweet that he put out. Sources. Boston Celtics star Jason Tatum Achilles recovery is reevaluating his situation and is now considering sitting out the entire 25, 26 season. Final decision has yet to be determined. If you can. Great. Go back to the moment. Just give me your initial thoughts when you. When you saw this. I know we had a few friends that texted us this clip as well.

[Greg]

I was a little defiant at first where I was like, this is like, there's no way that this is, like, a real report that's coming out right now. It's just like, we've. We haven't gotten a yes or a no whether or not he's coming back. So, like, he's always been evaluating. He's still evaluating whether he's not worthy. He's coming back this year. No one has, like, said to Jason Tatum, like, are you coming back? And he said definitively, like, I will be back this season. So it's always been an evaluation. He's been putting himself in the best position possible. So I was a little frustrated with, like, the timing of the report, and I didn't really understand why that report would, like, come out right at this time. It. You know, the conspiracy theorists out there will tell you it was to put pressure on the Celtics to make a move or not make a move or something like that. So I was a little defiant at first and frustrated at the report. But overall, you know, I think it's. What matters is the quotes from Missoula that came out afterwards where I don't know if you had a chance to catch those quotes, but he was like, this is just what. What we've been doing all year. Like, this is. This is nothing. Like, Jason Tatum's been working hard, and he's gonna be back, or he's not gonna be back, but he's gonna work hard every day.

[Will]

Yeah, I think for me, it was probably more of my. My own fault. There was, like, a slight disappointment, like, ah, man. Because. But then I realized, like, if I go back in time, I was saying louder than anybody, like, just sit out. Stop talking about coming back. Like, just sit out. And I think because the team. And then you mix that with, you know, his comments, which, to your point, he's never said one way or the other, but they certainly threw the tea leaves, made it sound, kept continually made it feel like this dude's picking a date. Like, this guy's, like, getting there, and it's all but interpretation there's never been one defiant like, or definitive, you know, hey, here's when I'm coming back. Here's the plan. It's, let's see how we're progressing. We'll see how we're doing. And every single, you know, member of the cells organization has always said that, like, we'll get to a point where rehab hits a point of should he come back, should he not? And we'll see what the options are. You know what I mean?

[Greg]

Right.

[Will]

And so it's always been that way.

[Greg]

This is why, like the there. Because there was that one quote that Tatum put out there that led to a lot of people like start looking at dates because he said something about like the team will have played 50, 50 some odd games.

[Will]

Like the games.

[Greg]

Yeah, like when I come back. And so people start targeting like all these dates because he said he wanted to come back at home and all that stuff. And it just had me thinking like, this is why I said Tatum should come off the bench, man. Like come off the bench for the first 10 games that you're back. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. The team is already rolling right now. Like, there's a lot of, there's a lot of great things happening with the starting lineup and all the advanced numbers with Kada on the court and Hauser on the court and you know, the stuff that they've been doing and the improvements they've made this season. And like Tatum, you don't need to come back and like be Jason Tatum. We just want to see you on the basketball court. That's all we need to do is see you play basketball. Right. Like, I don't need you to be Superman right now. I just need you to have a jersey on instead of like the fresh fits that you're wearing every night on, on Garden. You know, that's all I really care about is like seeing Jason Tatum back. And then I think he's only going to be additive as long as the Celtics aren't putting undue pressure on him to be Jason Tatum of years past. You know, just let him know, like, hey, go out there and like, not to be a role player, but you don't have to be who you were. And he's, he's been the guy in the past that has filled in the gaps already. So I'm not worried about him like needing to put the Superman cape on because he is such a versatile player.

[Will]

Yeah, it's interesting because he certainly doesn't need to. And I think what you just said is all the things that you're going to hear from Missoula, you're going to hear from, from people who are realistic on what, what is to be expected. But you look at some of the quotes, some of the stuff he was saying on that podcast, right? You talk about his mentality and like he is Superman. And I said he literally was Superman in a commercial like the day after he beat towards Achilles last year. Like, that was a very ill timed commercial. But like, that's who he is. And again, you hear, you know, some of these comments about the Olympics and stuff. And Tatum's had a lot of time to think, man. And sometimes that's your own worst enemy when you have that much time to think and you're sitting there almost in your head playing these games. And it sounds like, you know, mentally that Tatum is playing some of these games himself because he's had so much time where I wonder for, for him if he comes back, it's going to be hard for him to do exactly what you're saying, right, and not try to just be like, hey guys, first time I step on a court, I'm back to being top four five player in the world, first team, all NBA and try to be that guy, which eventually he likely will be. But more likely than not, it's not going. Whatever version of him comes back this year is not that. But I think it's going to be tough for him. And only he knows this mentally can he balance. Like, listen, I'm going to come back, I'm going to do what the team needs and I'm going to be, you know, you said not a role player, but I don't know what else to call a super role player or whatever, whatever it might be, like, that's the appropriate way to kind of ease him back in. But none of us are going to be can ever imagine mentally what it's like to be that guy that's at the top, that's the best player on championship team. But now him and Jalen have in a weird way almost flipped roles a little bit where he didn't get the finals MVPs. And now there's the doubt on Tatum. He didn't play in the Olympics, so now it's like what happened to this top five guy, you know? And so now it's like everything that Jalen was fighting for, for the respect for the acknowledgment almost. In a weird way, Tatum was closer to getting everything that he always wanted and now is probably more in Jalen shoes than he's ever been trying to fight back for all of those acknowledgments.

[Greg]

Yeah, it's pretty interesting. And that's why I was so surprised when I saw some of the. The trades that came out or the. The trade that came out with. With the Cavaliers.

[Will]

Yeah.

[Greg]

And thinking.

[Will]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Thinking about the way that they moved DeAndre Hunter for Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroeder, where I'm thinking, hey, they got DeAndre Hunter last year because there's a game against the Celtics where they had nobody to cover Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown. That was like the whole reason they. And I'm like, okay, now they trade DeAndre Hunter for two undersized guards when they already have two undersized guards that are like the engine of their team. So I was really confused by it. But as. As we're talking this through, I'm like, maybe this is them looking around at the Celtics and being like, you know what? Jason Tatum's not coming back. We don't necessarily need a DeAndre hunter to guard Jason Tatum and match up with him. Like, we. We have other guys that might be able to match up more with Jaylen Brown just because he's a little bit smaller than Tatum is. But that. That just like, really had me thinking, as we're talking this through right now, could this potentially be reading the tea leaves as to Jason Tatum and what other teams are thinking about whether or not he's going to be back?

[Will]

Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, you look at the east, right? And a guy like Keon Ellis, who Celtics were rumored to. To be in on as well, you know, you look at his particular skill set, 3 and D more. So he's going to be guarding a lot of perimeter. Just look through the East. You know, Kate Cunningham is probably a little big for him, but Cade Cunningham, you look at the Knicks, Jalen Brunson, you look at the Cavill, he's on the Cavaliers now, but you look at the 76ers, Tyrese Maxey, you know, those are going to be a lot of the guys that you're going to be looking at to go up against to get through the East. And you know, Garland, certainly not guarding those guys. Donovan Mitchell, you would like to think could take some of that responsibility. But he carries so much of the offensive burden that you don't want to put that on him because you know what you need offensively. So it.

[Greg]

Schroeder's a really good 94 foot defender. He can, like, really get up and guard in people's jerseys.

[Will]

You know me, I got a soft spot for Schroeder. I always. Schroeder's a little bit underrated. You never. You don't want him closing games. I've said that many times. If you use it. If you. Dennis Schroeder's like alcohol. If you use him responsibly, he can be your best friend. You have to use him. You have to use him responsibly in order to make that the case. But it was interesting to me seeing the reaction from like. Like writers and analysts, a lot of people. I mean, it saved the Cavs a bunch of money, but yeah, I don't know. I. To the point of DeAndre Hunter last year, I thought that was a great move last year. Didn't. It hasn't worked out. Didn't work out. But I looked at that, like, oh, the one thing I was looking at that I didn't take the calves super seriously about. They kind of fixed that hole because I was thinking about it from comparing it to even the Celtics this year, right. And whatever the Celtics do the next couple of days and whether or not Tatum comes back more. So if Tatum comes back, one of the things you got to think about is, okay, if the Celtics are actually going to be a team that can make the NBA Finals. You look at that front line, Keda and Garza probably can't get you through three rounds, never mind four when you get to the West. And I think for the Cavs, at least last year, when I liked the DeAndre Hunter trade, it was because I was looking at their team and I'm like, cool, you got a dynamic backcourt. Your front court is great. You got some. Some depth to it. But then if I look at your wings and there's so many good wings across the league, whether it's the Jays, whether it's OG and Mikhail Bridges, even Cade, who's big, you got to handle him. You know, Giannis at the time, the magic of Paulo and friends, when you're looking up and down and, you know, and it was like, cool. You guys have Max Str and Sam Merrill, like, you know, not bad guys. But you're not matching up with any of those names I just mentioned. So DeAndre Hunter at least leveled the playing field. That was the idea behind it. It gave you more of a chance. And then you used your other advantages and it made me think a little bit of the Celtics. And we'll see what happens the next couple of days here because I think. Think addressing that front court as Good as Luca Garza has been like that. Just he. I, I think Keda can be one of the guys. He can't be the only guy. I think Katie can be one of the guys. I just, I still don't think Garza, once you get to round two and three is gonna play in. In a deep series. In a series that goes six or seven. He's probably on the bench by game five.

[Greg]

Yeah, I, I would probably imagine that with. With all the game planning that goes on how super specific you can get with tendencies and Garza plays at like 110 in the regular season where other guys are playing at like 85 to 90. It's like very rare he's going up against a guy with his motor and in the playoffs like that that's playing field is leveled. People just play super hard. Like even the stars are playing the hardest they've ever played before and Luca Garza's motor isn't going to be at the level that it is in the regular season comparatively to what other guys are. Right. People are going to match up with that. So I would imagine Garza, as much as I've loved what I've seen out of this year, gets played out of a series, as you said, by the middle of that series. Kada, I love what I see out of him, man. I think the physicality that we're seeing, the. The wherewithal that he has to relocate on those drives to the basket, the, you know, being up at the level of the screen playing and drop this. The Spain.

[Will]

He made a great play in the short roll today where he kicked it out for a read. Like he's made some really nice reads.

[Greg]

He's just good. So you know, Keda I think is going to be the starting center. I don't think the Celtics are going to make a move for a center that's better than Keda, but I do think if they make a move there will be another big added.

[Will]

Yeah, I. That's kind of. So let's end here on this segment here of like just a prediction for this week. If the Celtics do anything, I think it's going to be like a day Ron Sharp, like somewhere in that range, you know, I'd have to really think about like who else might be available. Guy I forgot about that's certainly not going to be available now. It would have been an interesting addition. Would have been Clint Capella just watching that, that Mavericks and. And Rockets game the other night. Now with Adam's injury, he's not going to be Available because they need the depth. But yeah, I think it's somewhere along that, that day Ron Sharp look like. I don't think Gafford's coming. I don't really know who else would would be available, but I think that's the type of guy that if the Celtics get somebody, it's going to be around that, that, that area.

[Greg]

Let's make a bold prediction just for the hell of it. Let's say the Celtics do make a big trade and they trade a Anthony Simons and. And a pick and a Jordan Walsh. Who do you think we could get back? Because it's not Zubach. That was like the level, but may maybe it's because the Celtics didn't put in like a Ugo into that trade, right? Maybe the Celtics convince themselves it's worth putting in a new go in that deal and like maybe that swings the Clippers. I doubt it because the Clippers are playing so well right now like that. I think Zubac is long gone. I don't think he's getting traded now because the Clippers have turned their season around. So, like the Gafford is someone that we've talked about. I'm just trying to think of a guy that we haven't mentioned on the podcast yet that the Celtics might end up getting where we're like, whoa, the Boston Celtics got this guy.

[Will]

I. I mean, my mind's almost going towards. They go for like more length, like another, like another big wing. And I was kind of thinking, I'm just looking at the Pelicans here because I just like, is it her? Is it Herb Jones or is it Trey Murphy? Like, Trey Murphy's probably the most expensive, one of the most expensive guys on the markets. That would be like Simon's Ugo in several picks probably, if that even has a chance to get done. Like, that's probably what that looks like. Herb Jones, maybe that's a little bit less expensive. But I'm thinking, like, if you're thinking, hey, we can't get another true big to go along with it, that's really going to make an impact. But maybe we're thinking we're getting Tatum back. Tatum kind of fills at least a power forward void right where you can play him with Cada or with Garza, even in the small minutes that you have, so you still have more size out there and then the moments that you need Tatum to play small ball 5. If you can get a guy that scales up, right, maybe that's the way to go. A wing that scales up and can play in more versatile lineups. That. That would be my bold predictions. They look at one of those Pelicans wings. I don't really see that getting done. But that's. That's my bold prediction. Who. Who would you target or who would you think?

[Greg]

Me, I'm just gonna throw this out there.

[Will]

Yeah, go for it.

[Greg]

Bobby Portis. Hey, Honestly, he makes 14 and a half million in.

[Will]

See, the only problem with. Well, again, I think the Celtics do have a traded a TPE that they might be able to use on that. How many years. If you're looking at how many years.

[Greg]

Are left on that deal, it goes through 27, 28 player options, so we'd have them through next season.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Okay.

[Will]

That's honestly not terrible. And I've thought about. I've seen a couple of deals where Bobby Porters has to go out to make some of these Giannis concoctions work. Right? It's not terrible, right. Just to give the Celtics another option and hell, give them a little crazy. Right? Give him. Give him a little bit of like a wild card. And we saw it earlier. We just talked about it the first game. So let's play the Bucks this year. Bobby Porter's went bananas, right. He didn't like him and Kyle Kuzma shot 85 or some.

[Greg]

If we're gonna match up with the Pistons and their physicality, like, we need somebody else that's gonna be super physical.

[Will]

Oh my Godis. Over seven games.

[Greg]

That would be fun as unfortunately, I do think if we. He went Bobby Portis, I think we'd have to give up on like a Sam Houser. I think like that level of contract would be the contract that needs to go out. I don't know if I would be willing to give up Sam Hauser just to get Bobby Portis and add some physicality because of how good Sam has been and how much of a weapon he is. But that's like the type of guy that I'm just like, there's got to be somebody out there because you know you're not going to be able to trade with anyone that's trying to like, like make the playoffs, right? Like the Bucks are going to be selling. So you're pretty much limited to the Bucks, the Nets, the Wizards, maybe the Pacers. And then you get down.

[Will]

I thought about Jay Huff one time when we watched the Celtics play play the Pacers. I don't know how much different that is really than what you're getting from. From Luca Garza, but that was a guy that I was like, yeah, maybe. But then I just. I don't know if it's different enough.

[Greg]

Yeah, the Kings have already started their fire sale, so maybe there's somebody there. Kings, Pelicans, Jazz, and probably, I guess you could go Grizzlies and Mavs in there, too, because those teams are going to be trying to tank their way out. So it'll be interesting. Man, I don't know if there's. If there's another name out there that I haven't really thought of before. What's that guy's name on the Jazz? He's like a big wing. It's pretty good defender. What's his name? Taylor Hendricks, maybe.

[Will]

Taylor Hendricks? Yeah. It was a top draft pick of theirs, like three years ago, maybe something like that.

[Greg]

Yeah, number nine page in the 2023 draft. But like a big guy like that, like. Like Noah Clowney. I don't think Noah Clowney is getting traded because I think the Nets see him as like a real piece. But Taylor Hendricks, Noah Clowney, like some other big wings.

[Will]

Big wing, I think, is the backup alternative to the. All the bigs that we've been racking our brains for. I think the big wing, that's like 6, 8 to 6, 10, that can scale up. I think that's probably the type of guys. And yeah, I mean, we've named a couple that are out there. Yeah, we'll have to see, but I think. I think that would be where the Celtics would go if they can't get a big. They think makes a difference.

[Alex Gonzalez]

And.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Will]

Will they trade Simons? I'm leaning no, but we'll see. And I think again, when we come back on these airwaves after the trade deadline, I think we'll have a lot more to give our thoughts on what we think this means for. For Jason Tatum one way or the other. So stay tuned. I'm sure we're gonna get a lot of updates here later in the week. Quickly here, Greg. Before we hit our mediocre life update, All Stars were announced earlier tonight. Just want to run through these here quickly. Let's do the first here. So we have the starters. Jaylen Brown is one of your five starters. In the east, we have Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Johnson, Carl Anthony Towns, Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell, Scotty Barnes of your Toronto Raptors, and Jaylen Duran. Any thoughts?

[Greg]

I saw Alex put in the chat. He says, how is Embiid not an All Star, but Norman Powell is. I don't think the Sixers want Joel Embiid to be An All Star. I don't think they want him anywhere near that, that, that All Star game and getting hurt shirt. But, you know, Giannis is going to be out, so maybe he's named, and then he's going to be like, no, I don't want to go. Like, I can't go. But he at least gets that on his resume, especially for the setup.

[Will]

Right. Because the USA versus World. So it will have to be a world. A world replacement. He's also played 28 games. Like, you know, it's. It's better than I guess we thought. But I was looking at it earlier actually, because people were saying, why not Embiid? Why not? You know, there's a couple other guys. I'm like, well, he's played 28 games. Norm Powell. Let me see if I look it up here. Year quickly. Like, I feel like Norm Powell's played almost like every game.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Will]

For the, for the Heat so far this year. But let's see here. Nor Powell. Where are you?

[Greg]

I don't even think Knicks fans would tell you that Towns is an All Star.

[Will]

Yeah, Towns. Yeah. 43 games for. For Norm Powell this year, averaging 23 points. I got. I got no problem with. With Norm. I think the Heat, you know, they. They've been pretty solid all year, right? Like, they, they can have one guy. Like, I think that's. I think that's totally fine. Yeah. Towns is the guy that I'm like.

[Greg]

I don't.

[Will]

I don't know, especially the way Nick fans are feeling about him right now. Know, you know, but we'll see. But I don't think in the East, I don't think there's really any major snubs that I would say really jump out to me. I do think, however, when you go to the west, there's. There's pretty big snub West All Star reserves here just rolling through them. We got Anthony Edwards, Jamal Murray, Chet Holmgren, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Denny Abia, and LeBron James.

[Greg]

Greg LeBron made it. This is my first time looking at them. We're getting my live reaction here.

[Will]

Do me a favor. Pull up Kawhi Leonard and pull up LeBron James's stats, and it's going to be pretty jarring when you look at the two and you just go line for line and try to figure out, other than the fact that one of them is LeBron James and one of them is a guy that signed a fake tree contract of the NBA, kind of wants to punish, but doesn't really know what to do, right? And the All Star Games in his home arena, but they're going to give it to the other guy who's not in his home arena, but it is his home city where he plays. Other than those. Those contextual facts, it's going to be really hard to look at those and say, oh, yeah, LeBron over Kawhi makes a lot of sense because, yeah, that's not.

[Greg]

That's tough. Kawhi has been great this season.

[Will]

He's crushing it, dude. His numbers are nuts. And ever since, he's been kind of riding the ship, like, Clippers are making a real run, like, getting. Getting back in this thing.

[Greg]

Yeah, no, they've been best team in basketball the past, like, 20 games. So, you know, yes, LeBron being over Kawhi, that's a travesty. LeBron hasn't been at the level that Kawhi has been at. Danny Abdi has been great, but even Denny Abdia over Kawhi seems crazy. Like, I would pick Denny over LeBron for sure, but, like, Kawhi should be on this team. He's. He's. He's been one of the main reasons the Clippers have been the best team in basketball over the past 20 games. So one. One overall thing, though, man, is like, there's a real change into the guard here. Just in terms of the names that you see, like, a lot of younger guys. The Cades of the world, the Maxis, the Scotty Barnes, Jalen Dern, Jalen Johnson, like, these types of guys. Denny Abdia in there now Chad, like, a lot of guys that. It's just. It's just one of those. One of those moments where a few years from now, we're going to look back at this year and be like, okay, this is where the NBA, like, really started to change towards this, like, Gen Z problem players.

[Will]

I mean, you know, I know what's crazy when you put it like that is so, you know, we still have LeBron, we still have KD, we still have Steph, but kind of outside of that, like, within the next probably year or two, you know, obviously, no Kawhi, no James Harden this year, like, those are some of the guys that were still continually making All Star Games. But when you look to, you know, maybe next year's All Star Game game, the quote unquote, old heads are going to be basically like Giannis, Jokic, Tatum might even be considered Jalen in that group. Jalen, right? Donovan Mitchell, like, those are guys that still feel young, but they're actually potentially the quote unquote old heads by the time we get to the All Star game next year. So, yeah, I think that definitely does signify a big time changing of the guard. So as I mentioned, All Star break coming up here. Celtics just run through their schedule here leading up to the All Star break. I mentioned Dallas and Houston this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, back to back here in Lone Star State. Day off on Thursday, which is the trade deadline. Friday, home for Miami, then it is home to New York, pre Super Bowl. Great, great Sunday lineup, man. Knicks and Celtics early in the day, a little bit of a break. Get your snacks ready. Then we got the super bowl pats Seahawks going down February 8th and then one more game before the break. So really a pretty nice break for the Celtics after Super Bowl Sunday. They get one game against the Bulls on Wednesday and then they are off until the following Thursday when they play at Golden State. A little bit of a west coast trip after the All Star break. So feels like within this, you know, within with the deadline coming up on Thursday and then the All Star break following that about a week right after, we're gonna know a lot about Jason Tatum coming up here pretty soon. So stay tuned. Stay locked in at Green Envy Pod. Make sure that y' all are rolling with us. Let's go to America's favorite segment, Mediocre Life update.

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[Greg]

Arby's.

[Will]

We have the meats and participating Arby's.

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[Will]

All right, we're bringing in producer Alex Gonzalez, fresh off a so okay, let's we're just gonna start here, Greg. I'm just gonna go right to it.

[Greg]

Yeah, that's what I was hoping you do.

[Will]

You are? Yeah, yeah. Alex, you are currently interning for the Washington Capitals. However, you made a surprise appearance at the Wizards game today. Tell us about us.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I sent you guys the videos I believe of me on the court today.

[Will]

We'll post it on social later. So give. Give the audience a little bit of a description.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I mean, honestly, I go to the stadium today and I have no idea what I'm doing. Basically what I did was they had us like hold pizza boxes. There was like a little like, you know, the little games they have people do in between timeouts. So basically we, us, the intern.

[Will]

One of the best parts of league. Pass, baby.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah. So, like, they had me hold a pizza box and a pool noodle. And the objective of the game is to knock off people's pizza boxes with your pool noodle.

[Greg]

Like, just horrible.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, pretty much. They told us like, this is like.

[Will]

A minute Game of Thrones right now. Night of the Seven Kings. It's a lot of jousting. Yeah. There.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Dude, I'm excited for that. That came out 15 minutes ago. I'm gonna watch that later.

[Will]

But yeah, so see Danielle's grandpa in episode two.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Yes, I have. I haven't watched the show yet, but that's all I've heard is that there's some guy horse. So.

[Will]

Shout out to the wifey.

[Alex Gonzalez]

She.

[Will]

She made that joke before even I did. She. As soon as it came out, she's like, oh, my God, is that Danielle's grandfather?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, that was like. That was like the cold opened episode too. That was. That was a complete shock. So I'm can't wait to see this one. But yeah, so that was what I did. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think I swung my pool noodle once. I just was immediately taken out.

[Greg]

Both times.

[Will]

Oh, no.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Five seconds.

[Will]

It's disappointing.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, you really love the second you get you. We got like two chances. So the first time I went up, there was another intern. His name is Amon ra. He's like 6 foot 6. So he just like knocked my thing right off immediately. So that was done there. And then the second time, another intern just like completely whacked my arm. So there goes my pizza box.

[Greg]

So was it actually set up like a joust? Like you're running at each other holding a pizza box in a pool noodle?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, I mean, not like a joust. It's like a free for all, basically. It was like 15 of us kind.

[Greg]

Of like dribble knockout. But With.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, but with a pizza box.

[Greg]

I like that.

[Alex Gonzalez]

And then before that, they introduced us, and we got to do a T shirt toss house. So that was actually kind of cool.

[Greg]

You were the one that threw the T shirt?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Oh, I've always wanted to do that.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Like, it was cool.

[Greg]

How did you choose the people that you threw it to?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Costa was there, so I got. I got two tickets for Costa and his father for his dad's birthday. So they're sitting in section108.

[Will]

Did you have the arm strength to get up to them? Like, how.

[Greg]

I was so close.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I was actually so close. I was like. Like, there's, like, a little railing, and he, like, reached his arm down and it just hit his fingertips, and then it went through the railing into, like, the underneath stadium park.

[Greg]

So they didn't get the shirt, man. So that's on him, man. If it hits the fingertips, that's on him. He's got to make the catch.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, he should have just gone full out and leaked over the railing to catch it. Yeah, dude.

[Will]

So have you guys ever seen that clip of. I think it's Kelsey Plum when she's at the spurs game, like, a while back, and it comes. It shows. It pops up on social media every now and then where it shows her doing the T shirt toss. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Okay, I'll have to show it to you later. But, like, she. She does, like, this, like, crow hop. I think she's throwing left hand. She, like, hits in the upper deck. So I know in my head that's, like, all I'm thinking about is, like, okay, I gotta beat that Kelsey Plum clip. I've gotta do it. That'd be the only thing I'm thinking about. I'm sure. I throw my arm out.

[Greg]

Oh, yeah, did. So did you get to warm up at all, like, backstage?

[Alex Gonzalez]

No, I hurt my arm immediately after I threw it.

[Greg]

Oh, dude. Yeah, that would be my thing. I was like. I'd be doing some, like, serious calisthenics to get my arm ready.

[Will]

Ready.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I threw it pretty far, though. I think I. I was like, bottom corner, and they were like, section 108, row R. So they're. They were kind of up there, and I got it close. The first. The first. I got two shirts, so the first one completely missed. Probably went, like, 20 yards left. I might have hit someone in the head. I did not. Look, the second throw was much more accurate than the first.

[Will]

They didn't give you the shirt cannon, though, did they?

[Alex Gonzalez]

No, they didn't that would have been cool, but the shorts are kind of bundled up. They were a little bit heavy, so you're able to throw them a little bit bit.

[Greg]

So, Alex, I gotta, I gotta ask you this second question that's completely unrelated to, to your time on the court. So on the Zach Low Pod, they mentioned the haircut that you have. I don't know if you caught this, but they called it the, the Llama cut and they said I have right now. Yeah, with like the, all the fluff at the, in the front, they called it the Llama cut. And some people are calling it the Ugo Gonzalez cut cut. And as a fellow Gonzalez, I was wondering, is this a Gonzalez cut? Is this a 19, 19 year old cut?

[Alex Gonzalez]

How old are you?

[Greg]

23. Is this just like people that are your age or getting this haircut? Because I gotta tell you, man, it's pretty nice to be able to hide the fact that, like, you could have a receding hairline. Like, my hairline's definitely going back a little bit. And I've thought about trying to, you know, have some bangs or whatever, but I'm just like, nah, I can't do that. But tell us about the haircut and your thoughts on it being called the Ugo.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, my hair is kind of long right now, so I'm actually supposed to. My mom keeps asking me to get a haircut. I don't know. I've, I've. I kind of just like, I never really knew what to do with my hair. I don't put any product in it or anything. Like I just kind of like wash it and then I just am ready to go, so. But it changes day to day. It's cool to know that another fellow Gonzalez has the same haircut as me. I've been rocking it longer, probably because I'm older than him, so maybe, yeah.

[Greg]

Alex, have you, have you ever had gauges in your ear?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Gauges? What is that?

[Greg]

Those like long ass earrings that like.

[Will]

You'Re basically in your earlobe? Basically.

[Alex Gonzalez]

No, I have not.

[Greg]

Okay. Because you're, you're. Your AirPods kind of look like them right now, and I feel like you could rock them if you wanted to go. Gauges.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, I know. I just got these for Christmas, by the way. I don't know when the last time I was on the podcast, but.

[Greg]

Been a minute, man. It's been a minute. I'm excited to have you on. We're catching up live here. Anything else? Anything else you want to catch us up on? Mediocre Life update.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Well, that. The, the experience today was my mediocre life update. It was cool to be on the court, but at the same time, like, I didn't really do anything. I just kind of, kind of got destroyed. But the, the finale, they had like a seven foot trophy for the intern that won the whole thing. But like the final thing was a.

[Will]

We could have added that to the green with envy Trophy room. Alex really let us down today, man.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I mean, I'm quite glad I didn't have to do the dance contest.

[Greg]

So if you had to do a dance, right, Will would crush it in a dance contest. That's what he lives for. What would be the dance that you go to?

[Will]

A lot of practice, but I'd give it a go.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I don't have a dance. Like, I don't have like a. Like, that's my. I don't have like a dance that I would go to.

[Greg]

Would you just like stand there motionless?

[Will]

Would you do the. What's it. What's the Kevin James from. From a Hitch or the Will Smith to Kevin. You live right here. Right here. Just side to side.

[Greg]

You don't need to make no pizza. They got food there.

[Will]

Yeah, yeah, they got there. They got there. You don't need to make it. That could. That could be just always in your back pocket. Just in case. Case. I would. I would have to do in honor of a John Wall. I'd probably hit the Dougie. That's probably the number easiest.

[Alex Gonzalez]

No one did the Dougie.

[Will]

I'm surprised. Yeah, that was cool. I saw the video of all the, all the Wizards fans doing it earlier actually. Yeah, you were in Washington. That would have been. Would have been very appropriate to bust out.

[Alex Gonzalez]

That was a couple days ago. His Honor John Wall.

[Will]

Yeah. His retirement. All right, Greg, what do you got for your Mediocre Life update?

[Greg]

Okay, so I'm gonna go kind of steal Bill Simmons Parent court, Parent corner here. Here with James. He's always loved taking a tub. Loves a tub, loves a bubble bath. But recently, and not that recently, but over Christmas we had people like staying at our house. Well, we had our, our dogs that are also your dogs that are. Virginia, shut up. Virginia. She was staying at her house and I didn't get around to washing the tub like after she left. Like, that's his tub. So I was like, all right. Like, you'll take tubs in our tub. So he's taking baths in, in. In our bath and we have a different shower setup. So in. In the one in. In the guest room. Where he normally bathes, there's just like one shower head and it's removable, but we don't really use it on him. But we never turn the shower on. And in ours, there's like, we have a little hose one that comes off and we also have this like, big ass one. Not quite like a, a, a rain, what's it called? Like a rain shower or whatever. We don't have quite one of those, but it's very different looking from the other shower. Right. And I decided the other day because he took like a real bubble bath and I had to take, I like took the bubble bath with him. So we were both in there. I was putting like the bubbles all over my face and he was loving it, but we were all just like covered in bubbles at the end of it. So I was like, all right, well, we gotta get the bubbles off of us. So I turned the shower on and he didn't love it. He was just like, he's freaking out. And he, like, climbed up my shoulder like a little monkey. So I was like holding him and had to, had to corral him and get all the bubbles off him. But now, because I still haven't cleaned the guest shower, every time he takes the bath, we go into my tub. And he's terrified of going into the tub now because he goes in, he's immediately looking up at the shower head, expecting the water to turn on and oh, no, I, I, I missed it. I, I missed a point. So there was another bath right after that where I turned the shower on just to see what would happen happen. And he like, freaked out and like, he slipped and fell and he was just like, once again, like, clamoring to get out of the tub. So now he's like freaking out every time he goes in there. And today he wouldn't, he wouldn't even go in the tub. I had to go in with him and take the tub with him because he was so scared to take a bath. So that's my mediocre love life update. Don't turn on the shower to torture your kids.

[Will]

So in the original bath where he usually takes it, is it like the, it's usually a faucet instead of like the, the, that's coming from the shower head.

[Greg]

Yeah, and it's a little bit more open and it's a faucet. And we also have this like, whale thing. It's like a whale that covers the actual faucet so it looks a lot more friendly and like, a lot more.

[Will]

It'S like A filter, probably. Right. That's, like, the actual thing it does, but it has, like, a.

[Greg]

You know, I don't even think it's a filter. I think it's just there for. For the aesthetics of it and maybe to prevent him from, like, hitting his head on the metal or whatever. But, yeah, it's just, like, very different looking from our tub. The lighting's different. I feel like the. The.

[Will]

The.

[Greg]

The guest room is just, like, lit a little bit better than ours is as well. It's been fun taking bubble baths again, though.

[Will]

Yeah, I was gonna say that. That actually does sound fun. It's the bubble bath part. We haven't quite got there yet, but I'm looking forward to. I'm thinking. I was thinking of probably doing something with eggs. We're going to the beach end of March, so I'm like, I gotta start getting her more. You know, she likes a bath time, but, like, I gotta get her, like, ready to, like, maybe not go in the ocean full on. But we have a pool, like, at our place that we're staying, so we're doing a little bit of water work over here, so. Good to freaker out with the. With the actual shower head.

[Greg]

Yeah. He's also, like, getting, like. Anytime he hears, like, a loud noise, like, the vacuum turns on or I run the disposal or I grind the coffee beans or like, he hears a lawnmower or something like that there, man.

[Will]

You'Ve been doing this his whole life, but he just didn't know what it was. Now he's like, oh, I know things.

[Greg]

Yeah, he's getting a little bit more scared, but he's typically fearless. It's just, like, loud noises right now. Is the. The one thing that, like, gets him to run over to me, which is cute because he runs over to me with his arms up and, like, wants to be picked up. Yeah, but he. I mean, he's growing, dude. You saw the video I posted the other day, Will. He's like. He's shooting on the hoop that you got him. He's got good form already. He watches basketball with me. He. If I turn the game off and he's watching it, and he yells at me, and he goes, ball, ball.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I'm like, all right, dude, I'll turn.

[Greg]

The game back on. So it's been fun, man. He's growing. He's 19 months in a couple days, so time's fine.

[Will]

Already calling for the ball in the post. Ball, ball, ball. I like it. Like it. All right. My mediocre life update is actually also Somewhat basketball adjacent, so I'll go to it. I was traveling for work. This past week was at a sales kickoff for. For my work, and happened to be just that. We were in Waltham, so just outside the Boston area. But one of the nights, we rented out a brewery that's right next to Fenway. I've never been there before. I think it's called, like, Chugging Monkey or Cheeky Monkey or something like that. Pretty cool. It's just like, a brewery. Ton of food, bunch of, like, arcade games, stuff like that. So, Greg, you know how it goes when me and you get together and we see a Papa Shot, you might as well clear out. That becomes the whole night. So, you know, I'm at a work event. I know some. I know some people. It's a decent size organization. I know everybody. And it's a mixture of, like, sales people. And then also, like, our leadership summit was the next day. So it's like a mixture of, like, other departments that I really don't know at all. So, you know, I see it over there, and, like, they give us some cards. We can go play some games. I'm like, I'm definitely gonna play at some point, but I'm buying my. My time. I'm like, you know, I can't be just running over like, hey, guys, don't talk to me for the rest of the night. I'm just playing Papa Shot. So I'm kind of waiting. I'm waiting. Eventually, I see one of the dudes that actually started the same time that's been the company, like, three years or so. A little over three years. And I was like, oh, nice. My guy Jaren's over there. Boom. This is my opportunity. All right, dump my food. Let's go. Let's go. Jared, me and you. I want the ones. Let's.

[Alex Gonzalez]

Let's.

[Will]

Let's get this going here.

[Greg]

So was it side by side, pop.

[Will]

Shot, or side by side? I actually found out later there was like, if you go upstairs, they had have, like, 15 more. But I. I didn't know there was an upstairs because I was so focused on, like, the seven games downstairs. And two of them were Papa Shot. So me and him are about to play, and then one of these other girls wanted to jump in that. That I hadn't met, and she's like, no, I want to play you first. Like, all right, cool, whatever. So there's, like, you know, maybe five or six of us hanging around. They had already been playing for a little bit. So we jump in, we start playing didn't even realize, like, the high score was like, you know, 1, 115 or something. Didn't realize how much of a heater I had got on. Dropped 139 on that was feeling really good.

[Greg]

That was really good, dude.

[Will]

Dude, it was. I honestly, I feel like it. I. I didn't even. Did not realize that everyone looked up, was like, holy. And I was like, yeah, yeah.

[Greg]

39.

[Will]

It was. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those ones. So the way it works is there was, like, up to 45 seconds. I think it's all twos, and the. The rim does move a little bit, and it's like the last 15 seconds is all the threes or something.

[Greg]

You put up 139 in one minute, bro.

[Will]

It was pretty crazy. So this. So this is what I'm getting to. This is what I'm getting to here. It's crazy. And so there's like, the five or six. Five or six of them that are there. And so we start playing a few more times that, you know, beat a few other people that don't get that score again. But, you know, I get, like, around 100 or whatever or, like, you know, 70, 80, 90, whatever. Doing pretty well. Another dude comes over who's like, shout out to my guy, Jalen. He. He's definitely, like, probably the most athletic guy and, like, works out constantly in great shape. Shout out to you, my guy. I don't know how you do it with four kids. That's bananas. Also has twins, by the way. So just. We were talking about twins earlier, and he comes over and he's like, yo, who beat my high? My high score? And I was like, yo, what's up, dog? So he's like, all right, well, we gotta get it. We gotta get it. So then we, me and him go head to head, and now there's, like, kind of a crowd built up.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Will]

So when I did it, there was only, like, a few people around me and him go head to head. Can't lie. Got belt to ass. He took me down. He took me down, like, probably, like, 100 to, like, 85. 80 or something like that. So I was like, all right, let's run it back. You know, I'm stubborn as hell. We're doing this again. And now I'm, like, pissed off. Beat me again, like 105 to 90. So here's what I gotta ask. And I beat everybody else the entire night.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Will]

Just lost to him those two times when we had an audience. So I, I, I I felt conflicted the rest of the night. I had the high score, but I lost the head to head showdown that everybody saw. How should I feel, bro?

[Greg]

You got 139.

[Will]

Dude. This is, this is what I told. This is why I told Impossible.

[Greg]

That means you didn't miss a shot.

[Alex Gonzalez]

And you were like, guy, that's like cycling the balls with one hand. Just like throwing it.

[Will]

Like, dude, it's.

[Greg]

I've never gotten. I don't think I've ever gotten like over 110.

[Will]

Like, maybe easily the highest I've ever gotten. Easily, like without a doubt, like the.

[Greg]

Rest of the night, bro.

[Will]

Yeah, it was. It was.

[Greg]

I got new clown respect for you, dude. You won the night. 139. You won. Like, that might be like an all time high score.

[Will]

Yeah, I mean, I think each of those games does it a little bit differently. But. But, yeah, but like, it was, it was really good. But this is what I compared it to is I'm Wilt Chamberlain, man. I scored 100. Nobody was there to see. I had a little, little, little note in crayon that says 139. Yeah. And then Bill Russell came in and won with all the lights on. That's. That, that's. End of the day. That's how I felt about it.

[Greg]

What do you think, Alex?

[Alex Gonzalez]

I just looked this up. Do you want to guess what the highest papa shot score was for January this year?

[Will]

First of all, where is this data coming from?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Check the monthly leaderboard, I guess. There's. There's like an actual league for this.

[Will]

So does it, does it tell you.

[Alex Gonzalez]

How long they have a leaderboard?

[Greg]

Okay, I'm gonna go.

[Alex Gonzalez]

There's a video of it.

[Greg]

140.

[Will]

I'm gonna say like 170.

[Alex Gonzalez]

It's 340.

[Greg]

Get the out of here.

[Alex Gonzalez]

There's a video.

[Will]

There's, there's. Dude, I've seen the guys that do it where it's like, legitimately, it feels like their, their hands, they're not even looking. They're just like looking down, but they're making everything and it's one hand and they got it.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Alex Gonzalez]

I will say it's a smaller hoop. They have like, smaller balls. But in this video, this guy is going right hand, left hand, and he's not missing both hands.

[Will]

Yeah, that's. I, I've seen these videos before. That's why I knew the number would be, like, astronomical. Like, it's pretty crazy.139 for a, a for, for a normie. Pretty good.

[Greg]

Yeah. Like, if, If Your whole life is like, you're a professional papa shot guy. Like, get out of here. Like, you don't count. Like, you do something better with your life, dude. But if you're just like a guy that plays basketball and like, sees a papa shot when he's out drinking, sometimes that's pretty good. Will shout out to you.

[Will]

Yeah, not gonna lie, my back hurts still to this. I think it came in a price. It came at a price. All right.

[Greg]

You think we'll one out?

[Alex Gonzalez]

Yeah, I do. I, I have a quick story before we get out, but, like, my friend in college had, there was a papa shot at a local bar. And he like, went up to it and there was like, this girl playing and he like, oh, he played basketball in high school. He thought he could easily win, so he challenged her and like, it was like a paid thing and he got like, hustled out like 40 bucks. She beat him like eight times.

[Greg]

Yeah, that's did because, like, pop a shot. Like, I, I will. Will's a, Will's a good shooter. It's a different, it's a different game. It doesn't matter if you're like a great basketball shooter. It's a different touch, a different ball. Form doesn't matter as much. There's like a completely different form for you see some people that go, like, trying to bank the shot in every time.

[Will]

And so I was gonna say that's where that's depending on which hoop it is, sometimes that is the right move, sometimes times it's not. And that's where, like, I think, because sometimes I get caught off guard on the ones where, like, I'm trying to shoot it like a real basketball, and it's like, there's not enough room for like, that type of like, touch. And like, you're actually just back rimming everything, you know what I mean? And it's like, you're better off because all of these are like, you're almost better just like, aiming for like, either banking it or doing the front rim so that either just scooches over or you get like that soft roll. Like, those are kind of the, the way to play most of them, but, you know, some are different. But I appreciate you guys. Thank you guys for making me feel better. I, I, I wrestled with that with that for a while. So it's good to know that, you know, maybe I still got it here and, you know, let's get some papa shot going with the fellows. Maybe we'll get together and do some papa shot. Sounds like a good time all right, that's that's gonna do it for this episode here of green with envy again. Like we said, trade deadline coming up. Celtics got Dallas and Houston back to back this week. So likely Greg and I will either have something for you after the game on Wednesday or we'll wait to the deadline. We'll see how things are kind of looking. But midweek we will have another episode for you. So appreciate you guys rocking with us as always and we will catch you later this week. Peace.

[Greg]

Every time I get this high I.

[Will]

Lose my mind it don't take much no more.

[Greg]

Until I hit the floor.

[Will]

Every time I hit this high it's you I find it don't take much.

[Greg]

No more.

[Will]

Until I'm at your door.

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