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The Bill Simmons Podcast
Boston Gets Clocked, Round 1 Predictions, and a Mega-Mailbag With Chris Ryan and Joe House
02:01:30
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- [00:01]
A
This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. With playoffs around the corner, now's a good time to create a tournament of your own. Compete to see who can predict the best playoff series or put your own basketball skills to the test. And the prize? A crisp Michelob Ultra Plus. They're giving fans a chance to win courtside tickets, prizes and more. Michelob Ultra Superior is worth playing for. Enter now at michelobultra.com courtside Michelob Ultra Courtsite 2526. No purchase necessary. Open to US Residence 21 Plus. Begins on October 1, 2025. Ends on June 30, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules@michelobaltra.com courtside for free entry, entry deadlines and prizes and details. The Bill Simmons Podcast, brought to you by fanduel. We are also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network where I put up new rewatchables. On Monday we did Ghostbusters. First time ever. We did that one. It was me and Chris Ryan and Van Lathan. That one you can watch on Netflix. All the movies that we're doing for basically the next 10 weeks are all gonna be available on Netflix, including in May, a bunch of comedies. And we actually got them to license them. And I'm not sure which ones we're doing out of these, but I know what we're doing next Monday because it's gonna be there. Something about Mary. So that's available on Netflix. In May they're gonna have Animal House, Borat, 48 hours, Tropic Thunder, Splash, Tootsie, just a slew of them. So when May hits, go check it out. And we are gonna do them all through May. And then June moves into From Hell month, which is the month I'm the most excited about and rewatchable sister. I'll explain more when we get to June, but there's something about Barry Monday. Yeah, um, Legata, which is our narrative series that we're doing, Episode five dropped today. It is, I think, a seven episode series, but please catch up on that. If you haven't been listening to that, don't Forget about Todd McShay did a bunch of great NFL draft stuff. He has his too early mock draft newsletter that that went out, I think today. And then Sean Fantasy, who was on this podcast on Thursday, he's doing his projections newsletter. As we try to ease into newsletters a little bit more. I like newsletters. I wish my finger still worked. I would have a newsletter coming up on this podcast. Me And Joe House and Chris Ryan we recorded right after the three Tuesday night playoff games and then we go on a time machine. House and I did a mailbag. I had so many mailbag questions I had to rip through them. So House and I did that actually before the Tuesday games. So it's gonna be me, CR House basically live right after the games and then we go backwards in time a few hours and we're doing a mailbag with Joe House. So that's the podcast. We're gonna take break and then Pearl Jab. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA post season is here and FanDuel knows the only thing better than watching your favorite team win is winning along with them. Fanduel the best place to bet the teams players and plays during their playoff run. Build a same game parlay or try live betting and jump in after tip off. Don't forget, with FanDuel you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app now and play your game. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Game problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat. All right, little past 9:15 Pacific Time. We're presented by new era for this first segment. CR is here. Chris Ryan fresh off a dramatic Sixers win. Joe House also here, fresh off a non dramatic Spurs Blazers game. The spurs wrapped it up. We made the fatal mistake of waiting for the entire game to end before we started this segment. I'm sorry guys. You just never know with with Denny and the frisky Blazers what they were capable of. Let's talk six or Celtics first. Sierra, do you expect a win tonight? What were you expecting?
- [04:30]
B
No, I expected this to be my customary cuck position where you know, Boston defeats Philadelphia in something and I have to come on and listen to you talk about Jordan Walsh. But you got big heart. Don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise. Bill, here we are going back to Philly for game six and what did Joel embiid night? That was really great. That actually was like a really great sports moment for me.
- [04:51]
A
What was the story for you? House as a non biased, non Sixers
- [04:55]
C
and non Celtics fan, another guaranteed loser on an all chalk parlay. Sit down. Oh, let's sit down and look at these favorites. Okay. Boston closeout, spurs close out, Knicks, Atlanta, I'm not sure. Let's see. Let's just go ahead and parlay all the favorites and give some money away. To the sports book.
- [05:17]
A
I mean, honestly, throwing the Celtics as a big favorite at home. I was texting you guys on the gambling thread. Just a mistake. The Celtics in the last five playoffs, including the 22 when they made the Finals, 25 and 11 on the road and 24 and 17 at home, just over and over again. I don't know how many times they've lost as big favorites, but it's already happened twice this series. This went beyond a. Like, regardless of if they finish Philly off or if they just have an Unbelievable, dramatic 1982 reverse. I guess it would be 1981 reverse of going up 3:1 and then blowing the last three games, which Chris's Sixers did in 1981 against the Celtics.
- [06:00]
B
This is ridiculous. If we flip that and you guys
- [06:02]
A
come back, no big picture. I have some. I'm developing some real concerns with the Celtics team. Okay. And I think you saw some of them tonight. Like, this Derrick White thing is a real problem. He's averaging 8.2 points a game in the playoffs. He's shooting 29.8% and he's made 5 of 21 threes. And it felt like cr. The Sixers were just leaving him open tonight.
- [06:26]
B
Yeah, I mean, I think that this was a little bit more about what the Sixers did right than what the Celtics did wrong. But Derrick White has definitely not blow my mind in this series. He's obviously like, acrd enough credit in the NBA that. That, like, it doesn't really matter if he has like an off series or something like that. But it wasn't even like I was. When I was watching. I wasn't like, well, it's not like he's on VJ island or something like that. Like, I couldn't really figure out if he was being shut down with by somebody in particular. He just seems like he's just. He's just missing something from his game right now. And. And the Sixers, like, you know, the Sixers hit their threes tonight. That was the. The big badassage from Embiid.
- [07:02]
A
Yeah, this confidence swoon happened for white in 2022. House in the fi. In the. Basically the whole playoffs.
- [07:10]
B
You remember that, Joe?
- [07:11]
C
Of course, 2022. I was there.
- [07:13]
A
Well, this is a weird one because it was on the fringe of happening the whole year. It was probably the reason he didn't make the all star team. Cause his shooting stuff wasn't good enough. And it felt like it was getting worse. And now. Now it's a problem. I mean, my dad was at the game and he was saying that the fans are really mad they didn't bring Pritchard in sooner. They brought him in. Four minutes left, really after the game and end the Sut Smith's and rode down the stretch in the fourth quarter and they put big minutes on Brown and Tatum, which I thought was also weird. 40 plus minutes for each. And I guess the part I don't understand watching this and we can talk about the Sixers in a second. They had this whole bench mob thing and all these different lineups they could do and they were going small and big and all these different looks and it just feels like they're going chalk against the Sixers in a way that I understand. Whereas Nurse, I feel like has changed stuff as the series went along and now he's like, and Bead's back. We're playing six guys tonight.
- [08:08]
B
Yeah.
- [08:08]
A
Drummond played seven minutes, Barlow play five. They really went six. They went big minutes for everybody and they felt like they had real advantages. Right?
- [08:17]
B
Yeah. And this was one of those games where I, I think that if you're a Sixers fan, if you watch them, you can see sometimes when Embiid comes back into the mix, he seems to discombobulate the guards a little bit. Like they're not playing at the pace that they want to play at. That happened in games more. Well, yeah, so. But seeing him out there tonight, he was the best player on the floor the whole night. And when he went out with the knee scare, that was. I was like, oh, that's the end of the series. That if this is it for him and that's really tough but like pretty, pretty amazing him coming back in now. Like he's got Keda and Garza and you know, he's not like exactly facing Olajuwon, but like he's doing a really nice job against those guys. And I thought defensively he was awesome tonight. The kind of turning point was that. That layup he swallowed on Tatum where he just kind of like. Yeah, changed his mind mid. Mid air Maxi stole it. PG gets it on the wing and pops it out to Edgecombe on for three. And that kind of like every time the Celtics threatened to leave the earth's atmosphere, the Sixers pulled him back in. And it was mostly because of him beat.
- [09:16]
A
Yeah, my dad was saying he thought they were going to go up 15, 16, 17 in the first half. Never got there. Sixers hung around and Bead stopped chucking three's house. That was the other thing.
- [09:27]
C
That was the only thing once he
- [09:29]
A
started playing around the basket. The whole offense changed. It felt like, yeah, the only way
- [09:33]
C
for the Celtics to stop Embiid was to encourage him to shoot more threes. And at halftime he went in having missed six of them and said, you know what, maybe I should step inside the three point line, distribute some. The Sixers shot 7 of 12 from the three point line in the third quarter and Embiid made 7 of his first nine shots in the third quarter. And that swung the entire game. They were down 13 in the third quarter. The Sixers were. And the Celtics were mainly scoring inside in the first half, all of their points. This was, this is a reminder of who this Celtics team is. It is a team very much in transition. This wasn't, this wasn't a team built for a championship run, a deep run. It is by happenstance, good fortune, good planning, that this team was as competitive as they were this season. Tatum's return is really a goddamn miracle. But this is not a team, a Celtics team built for a championship run. They're going to live and die on three point variants. And tonight they died. They had three guys on the entire roster with double digit shot attempts and they had three guys who scored in double digits. That's not a recipe for success. And they don't have anybody to guard Embiid or to really take advantage of his immobility except for the three point shot. And if it doesn't fall, they're vulnerable.
- [10:56]
A
But that was weird about it. First of all, I'm fine with Embiid getting twos. When you start doubling him and giving up threes, that's when I think stuff can multiply and Sixers guys can get hot. So I, I just like let him be score. If he's going to have 40, he's going to have 40. But don't let the other guys get going. And then on offense I just like just go at either go at him, attack him or go smaller and pull him out, make him have to guard somebody. And they didn't really do either. He was kind of just floating around in the middle. It seemed like they were really afraid to challenge him. And then a couple times when they did, it was like those half assed challenges that he swallowed up. Hey listen, there's a weird Jaylen Brown thing happening in this series too that the stats don't totally back up. I'm just going eye test. From what I watched during the season, I thought the Sixers have done this whole series that they made it really hard for him to go buy people.
- [11:47]
B
It's also been a bit of a vintage Paul George defensive quarter.
- [11:51]
A
He's been really good. He was really good again today. He played 43 minutes. This guy. We thought this guy. House and I talk about him later in the mailbag. We thought this was a guy on his way out of the league. And I think he's been a real asset in the series. But Jalen's had. Jalen was he. I think he made the most two point baskets of anyone in the league this season. Was really good in the getting to the paint and getting these good shots and was doing it all year against Lou Dort. All these A list defenders and Philly has really, I think, throttled him a little bit. Even when he's scoring. They're really tough shots. You know, Tatum's been up and down, which you can expect, but I think he's probably been the most consistent player. And then the fact that they're getting no offense from weight. If they get a game like Pritchard today where it's 12 points. All right, well, now where am I getting the rest of my offense? Well, it's not coming from the bench with the defense going nuts back and forth. So I feel differently about this series than Hawks Knicks, where it's just like,
- [12:47]
B
there's just been a complete reverse in like the talent kind of show.
- [12:50]
A
Yeah. Where I think the Knicks figured out the series and it's 3 2, but the Hawks won two 1 point games. I don't, I don't necessarily think the Celtics are going to lose the series and they're -2200 to win it, but I also think Philly has a lot of confidence against them. And I thought the only thing that makes me feel a lot of confidence,
- [13:08]
B
the only thing that makes me think it's not going seven is just that Philly tightens up playing in, in Philly. Like I, I don't, I don't know what the record is in the playoffs over the four years, like you just said, but like they, they feel like they play a little more free on the road. And this was like a very.
- [13:22]
A
Celtics certainly do.
- [13:23]
B
Yeah. And this was just a great anti cancun game. Like these were a bunch of guys who were just like, we don't want our series, our season to end tonight. I think you could see also for as much backroom stuff as Sixers fans engage with of like, oh, should we, you know, is this, is this it for Embiid? Should we trade him? Should he ask out whatever like that team was really playing for him as Much as with him. And I think that, I think that was like a really nice, meaningful capstone on what it's been like a very troubled season for him.
- [13:52]
A
Yeah, I think that's fair. He looked really good today. The Celts have some moves. I think a little more picture. Yeah, I think they really have to figure out the bench. Like Charman once again didn't play a lot and I think he's important, but it just feels like they need more energy and some more fight. The problem tonight, the Sixers had the two best guys in the game. So when I think like you're up three, two in a series, but you just played a game five that you didn't just lose, but there were two guys in the game who stood out and you had neither of them, that's a problem. And then the three point variance with the Sixers, you know, if they're missing threes, it's going to come down to whether, you know, Embiid just can put the whole team on his back, which I'm dubious of because I thought he looked exhausted.
- [14:40]
B
Yeah, I mean, fourth quarter, it's been a little bit of the thing with Nurse is that he ground Maxi down a lot during the season. Nurse plays his guys a lot. He played them a lot in Toronto. And then tonight I just felt like the team was gas. I mean, I, Luckily Boston didn't have that much in the tank either, but turning around and playing on Thursday does not inspire me with like much Cinderella confidence. You know, like I, I, I'm not excited about seeing Joel on, on what?
- [15:06]
A
48 hours rest right after big minutes House. I thought the move tonight, I thought for sure Missoula was going to do this was go back to kind of the regular season kind of lineup rotation that the Celts had. Go big on the bench, try to get some confidence for Shireman, for Walsh, maybe even Hugo, a little Garza and try to do this was a team that in game 82 they benched everybody and beat Orlando with their G League team because they had these guys that actually played really well together. I thought they would do that. Instead, they put big minutes on Brown and Tatum. And I almost wonder if Missoula's like, we're going to close them out, we'll get rest, we'll put big minutes. And now they're playing 48 minutes later and Tatum's played big minutes in this series. So I think this series has already been like, turned out not awesome for the Celtics. Like this should be over already and it's not.
- [15:55]
C
I Agree with all of that. Except the thing is, you know, again, that that's who the Celtics team is. Like, tonight should have been the night that they did the kind of hockey lineup, kind of rotation. Right. All those guys play good at home. They all feed off of that home crowd. That, that, that bench mobile. And that might have changed the energy, but Missoula's playing, you know, kind of a long hand here. Right. The long hand is to get well, but you want Tatum and Brown on the same page if you're going to make a deep.
- [16:28]
B
Oh, so you feel like he's like almost. He's almost like pressure testing the partnership in a game where he's like, I bet we're going to win this series if we just win one more out of the next three.
- [16:38]
C
Yes, that is exactly what I think. That. That's the truth. The strategic call that I think he made instead of doing the thing that would have changed the energy in the first half, which was going in that bench mob direction that's been successful for the Celtics all season long. I think they, they need JT and JB to play together. I mean, JB was shot 39% from the field today and, and could not do anything in terms of that. That penetration. It's the point that the Bill made where he was getting those twos all season long. It's playoff time, and the one thing the Sixers have is good perimeter defense. If Paul George is healthy. Yeah. And he is. And so there you go.
- [17:17]
B
Hits his threes. Then like.
- [17:19]
A
Yeah.
- [17:19]
B
I mean, Zach.
- [17:20]
A
I don't.
- [17:21]
B
Whatever the reverse of Zach Lowe's stat from the other night where it was like, VJ Edgecombe is over 16 in Sixers playoff losses this year. So.
- [17:28]
A
Yeah, right.
- [17:28]
B
It's like if he's hitting three out of six, like, we're, we're looking pretty good. And I gotta say, I mean, for as much as Bill, like, I, you know, admire what the Celtics have accomplished without Tatum and then bringing him back into the fold. Like, if you have Embiid Maxi, Paul George playing well and Edgecombe rising and Grimes having a hot night, I'll put them up against the Celtics.
- [17:48]
A
Like, you can hang with four or five? Sure.
- [17:49]
B
Yeah, we can hang.
- [17:50]
A
You know. Yeah. Grimes was really good today. I, I really liked. I thought he should have been playing more in this series. Played 24 minutes tonight.
- [17:58]
B
He was plus 18, addicted to Kelly Oubre.
- [18:00]
C
I know he had two four point plays.
- [18:04]
A
Grimes is one of those. When he's open, I feel like it's going in it's like, fuck, this is happening. So yeah, they had. They have some momentum. You. We haven't have. We had like an incredible maxi game yet, I guess game two, sort of.
- [18:18]
B
I think his finger hurts. I think he's. He still has like a kind of busted hand and I think he's tired. But I think there was more zip in his game tonight. And I felt like the. Even if it wasn't exactly like Denver level, it was the dribble handoff stuff that him and BE were doing at the top of the key and whipping the ball around like, it just felt like they were like, we're. We're not going home tonight. Like, this is not the end of the season and. And if they can bring that Thursday, you never know.
- [18:44]
A
My dad was.
- [18:45]
B
I'm excited. This. This has rekindled my excitement.
- [18:47]
A
You know, my dad was pretty disgusted afterwards. Although the Bruins. I don't know if he's a pasternick. Big overtime goal. So that kind of lifted his spirit.
- [18:55]
B
That was on my smaller tv.
- [18:56]
A
Yeah.
- [18:56]
B
Beast.
- [18:57]
A
But he. He was pretty. He was just like. You could feel it that the game never had the right flow even when we had the lead. And it just. Something felt off about it. House. I'm going to go glass half full on it, though. I do think this Celtics team, I'm. I'm okay with them having some adversity and seeing if they can ride through it or not with. With the Tatum just being thrown back into this like this. Tatum and Brown together, them trying to like, let's see it now. Let's go to Philly for a game six. Philly's got confidence. Embiid is probably the best center they're going to play in a playoff round until the. Unless they can somehow get to the finals and play whoever comes out of the West. And let's. Like they found out tonight, Vucevich against some of these big scoring centers, he's just not. It's not happening. He's not stopping anybody and he's a real liability. So what does that mean? Are they smaller, et cetera, et cetera? Who knows? The Hawks, Knicks. So I gotta say, like, who would you. Let's say the Celtics get through the Sixers series and the Knicks finish off Atlanta. Who do you think would win a Knicks Celtics series? Because I almost. Even though Game 7's in Boston, I almost feel like the Knicks would have to be a slight favorite in that serious house. How would you have the odds they
- [20:18]
C
won't be favored because the Celtics have home court advantage?
- [20:23]
A
Well, Home court advantage that has not mattered to them as much as it should have for five years. Like, I don't know.
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B
What's the first reason why you say that, Bill?
- [20:32]
A
The Knicks were built to beat the Celtics. I think they have a lot of confidence playing the Celtics, and I think they have a little more cohesion like you saw tonight, when they can turn on their defense and Brunson, you know, can have a game like he had tonight. They're really good. Like they have. The Celtics are a little live by the three, died by the three, or some of their bench stuff. The Knicks feel like a little more consistent to me for a series, but the Celtics, I think I really want to see them battle through the adversity here. What do you think?
- [21:02]
C
I have the Knicks in the finals. So, I mean, you know, my, my prediction for this NBA Finals was the Knicks and the Nuggets, good luck. That's not happening. Well, but the, the Knicks part of it, you know, this, this, this little odyssey, this mini experiment with Atlanta, when we were sitting back looking at the playoff matchups before the, the games got started, we, we kind of circled this. Knicks Hawks is like, if you're looking for one where it might be surprisingly competitive. Yeah, this might fit the bill because this, this Atlanta team is like, kind of multifaceted. They can definitely defend. The one thing they can't defend is Carl Anthony Towns. And Carl Anthony Towns, the most important thing the Knicks did was make sure that he got touches in the first quarter. Yeah, I mean, he, he ended up with, he didn't score 20 points, but he was a very, very important part of the offense in the, in the first quarter.
- [21:58]
A
He got off. Yeah.
- [21:59]
C
Yep. And, and that really set them up. They, they, they basically got out to the lead that they never really relinquished over the balance of the game from
- [22:08]
A
the first quarter on, even bringing an Alvarado for these little cameos, it feels like it supercharged them, which is what I was saying about the Celts before. Like, the Celts used to get that from the bench, even like the little Alvarado run. Brunson was masterful tonight. The C.J. piece was really interesting. Cr.
- [22:24]
B
Yeah, so I was mostly watching Sixers, Celtics, and by the time I flipped over, this was pretty much over. So he only had six points. What happened here?
- [22:32]
A
Yeah, he just was a non factor. I think what happened is he's 34 years old and old guys in the playoffs just, you know, they're going to have nights where they just don't have it. Like you said, Drew Holiday tonight in the San Antonio game was another one. It can look great in a game two. All of a sudden in a game five, it's a two for 15. But they I guess the benefit house was that with CJ now they're not going to have to pay him $35 million a year in the free free agency. If they're losing six and he kind of pet the end, maybe they get him on a better deal. Atlanta, Atlanta made some interesting industrial. They put Daniels on cat. They put a congu and OG and they put Alexander Walker on Brunson. And watching in the beginning I was like, oh, I like this. I like Daniels on towns. This is good. And then the Knicks figured it out in about 10 minutes and that was that. But I think CR I think we can retire the CJ McCollum on the Reggie Miller villain MSG storyline.
- [23:28]
B
To be fair to him, I think he was like listening.
- [23:30]
A
I think he didn't even want to settle down.
- [23:32]
B
Juice. Like I'm 34. I do wonder whether or not the front row of Stiller, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan and Chalamet was.
- [23:42]
A
Don't forget Jenner.
- [23:44]
B
And Jenner and whether that was like kind of like a. A hat tip to Adam Silver. Like this is. This is. We can't lose in front of these guys, like kind of situation first.
- [23:55]
A
Great to see Chalamet back out there having fun again. It feels like the Oscars were a million years ago.
- [24:01]
B
When was he not?
- [24:02]
A
I'm glad he's living his life and I'm glad that I'm glad he's not wearing his Knicks concerns on his face. But this playoffs really feels like the Knicks fans have passed the Laker fans. From a star power standpoint, that was a pretty impressive five some that they had trotted out. I was like, wow, this is. This is good. I don't know what the Lakers equivalent that the Lakers are really struggling as Jack is getting older. I think they really true.
- [24:29]
B
Who's the mayor of the Lakers right now?
- [24:31]
A
It's really tough. Like you. You hope Denzel. But Denzel is like also a Knicks fan. He's like a sports big missed.
- [24:36]
C
Does Flea still make it on the screen?
- [24:38]
A
Yeah, you have Flea of Diane Cannon. Like they can't.
- [24:41]
C
Oh gosh.
- [24:42]
A
They're in a knife fight with like butter knives. Yeah. They really need to double down on. On their fan base. Yeah. So I guess going forward with the Knicks. The only thing is Bridges just seems like He's a Section 8 at this point offensively and that's just how it's going to go. But they. What the Knicks had in game four with the bean down two one. This is a real People staring at each other, the fans freaking out. All right, what do we got? And us, Are we going to come together? And they did. It's not far away from where the Celtics are these next couple days now, where they really look. They legitimately lost tonight. That was not. Oh, we didn't hit our threes. That's why we didn't win. It was like they got their butts beat tonight in the second half. So what is that going to mean? And what adjustments are they? Spurs, Blazers. Thanks anyway, Portland, thanks for. Thanks for all your efforts and your concerns. Thanks, Denny. Thanks, Denny. You. You tried. You got mad at people a couple times. You lost half of a tooth. Thanks, Drew Holiday. Enjoyed your performance. Thanks, Scoot Henderson, for that quick little cameo that boosted my stock before Dylan Harper took it to him.
- [25:52]
B
Donovan clinging. Can he make a three point shot or have I just not seen it?
- [25:57]
A
He'll take them.
- [25:58]
B
Yeah, he'll make. He'll make you think about him.
- [26:01]
C
Yeah,
- [26:03]
A
yeah, he'll take it. He's no Drummond. Drummond's just automatic from the corner now. I mean, Jesus. Yeah. So, House, is this a sweep without the Wemby concussion?
- [26:13]
C
Yes, yes, it is. I agree. But, you know, I, I'm. I want to give some flowers to this Portland team. They were in it like, you know, they fought. That was. They showed the value of, you know, pushing all the way to the end because there was kind of an inflection point moment for their season where they could have found themselves in the lottery again without too much effort. But I mean, I love this revelation of Denny and I'm interested in their off season. They have cap space.
- [26:44]
A
They kind of need a point guard because I don't know if Scoot's going
- [26:48]
C
to be the point guard.
- [26:49]
B
Isn't Damian Lillard supposed to be the point guard?
- [26:51]
C
Well, that. Well, Denny, what's he going to do, right? He will be something to them. He will be a very important, meaningful piece to them. But they have some money. They have some interesting pieces. They have 15 million bucks. You have to ask? Maybe Tom Dunan thinks he gets to keep that.
- [27:08]
B
I was gonna say, you're like, I'm gonna give them their flowers. I think Dundon might be like, I'm not paying for those flowers. These guys don't need flowers. They're basketball players.
- [27:17]
A
I got this email from a guy named Parker who had more ideas for Tom Dundon to save Money. And one of them, he had stuff like on the bench only have seats for the coaches, for the two best coaches and everybody else give to paying customers because you could make more courtside stuff use unpaid people to clean up the court. Halftime shows just don't have a halftime show at all.
- [27:43]
B
Honestly, there's a couple of these things that I'd be pretty into.
- [27:45]
A
Yes. Like he could really zag the other way.
- [27:48]
B
I just think that like, like Dundon is obviously going to drive. Like if, if this keeps going, like it'll be an embarrassment for the league. But like if he was like, you know what you guys, we don't, we don't need somebody unicycling around during halftime. Like just go, go to the bathroom, get a beer, come back, we're just
- [28:03]
A
going to play some music. He could have the scores table, could just have two people on it. Try to sneak some courtsides in there. What else could he do, House?
- [28:12]
C
I mean the, the halftime is easy. That's kids playing basketball.
- [28:15]
A
Yeah.
- [28:16]
C
And you know you can. Depending on how cynical you want to be about it, you can set odds like you know you can, you can bet on kids. That's a thing.
- [28:24]
B
Same game, parlay within the game.
- [28:26]
C
Yes, that's right.
- [28:28]
A
He thinks, he thinks he can say. Parker thinks he can save money on the exercise warmup bike and maybe just use real bikes because they're cheaper so the guys would have to actually pedal around.
- [28:37]
B
Well, you could do that. You could just basically say to a guy, you'd be like, you're either in the game or you're out. But riding a bike is not going to change it.
- [28:44]
A
We've gotten rid of the bikes. We save $590. So yeah, this will be some Blazer summer. They're going to be cheaping out on a coach. They do have some cat, some, some maneuverability with some trade stuff. They didn't have Shaden Sharp really for this series because he had a stress fracture thing and he barely played. He wasn't the same. And I do wonder like with his scoring, could they have made this a six game series?
- [29:08]
B
But fun team though. I'm excited. I do hope he doesn't destroy like I'm. I'm excited.
- [29:13]
A
Interesting team. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by fanduel. We are right in the middle of the NBA playoffs. I'm making picks left and right. Did. Did an unexpected one on Monday night. Cause I really liked the slate. So we did okc moneyline sga 25 plus points. K25 plus points tobias harris 15 plus and it hit it was 2 to 1. Gonna try to every time I like any sort of parlay or any situation, probably just gonna tweet it out and if there's additional FanDuel value like there is tonight where all customers get a profit boost. Oh yeah, you love those profit boosts and if you can match that with the parlay or the bet that you like, your win hits bigger. FanDuel giving you better payouts on same gay parlays on NBA playoffs all playoffs long. Lock in your bets, boost your odds, make the playoffs payoff with FanDuel official sports betting partner of the NBA head to FanDuel.com BS to get started. FanDuel play your game 21 select states are 18 DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Restrictions apply. See terms@sportsbook.fander.com, game problem call 1-800- gambler call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat this episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. You know what my favorite thing about the playoffs is? I like Durant. And it's usually maybe a Game four, might even be a Game five. Game seven, everyone's nervous. There's a different level of energy. But Game four, Game five for one of the two teams, there's this realization with like five minutes left in the fourth quarter where it's like, oh, our fate is suddenly in real flux right now. Who's stepping up? What are we going to do? What's calmed down? Can we rise to the moment or are we going to shrink from it? And you can kind of see it with different teams. It's definitely like, for instance, going to happen in this Denver, Minnesota series. There's going to be a moment in one of the later games when all of a sudden either Minnesota's taking it from Denver and at some point somebody in Denver is going to have to hit a shot and you're going to look around and go, who's going to do it? Or in Minnesota's case, maybe Denver is is is punching them back. And now Edwards has to step up or defincenzo. And you just never know. And you never know how somebody's going to respond to pressure. But that's why we love the playoffs. Every spring. It's as great as opening up a Michelob Ultra, a nice cold one, crisp, refreshing, the ultimate prize. Plus, as the official beer partner of the NBA, they're giving fans a chance to win courtside tickets, custom merch and more. You could be at One of those games when the pressure rises. Michelob Ultra Superior is worth playing for. Enter now at michelobultra.com courtside Michelob Ultra Courtsite 2526. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residence 21 Plus. Begins on October 1, 2025. Ends on June 30, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules@michelobultra.com Courtside for free entry, entry deadlines and prizes and details. We're going to play a game of which underdog would you rather be? Lakers. Rockets. The Rockets are plus 750 for the series. Celtics, Sixers. Sixers are plus 1100 for the series, which seems way too high. And then Knicks, Hawks, plus 560 for the Hawks.
- [32:42]
B
This Rockets idea is Durant. There's no Durant, right?
- [32:47]
A
I don't know. Is there Durant?
- [32:49]
B
Well, even if there isn't, is it better without him? Right? In some crazy way, better without him.
- [32:56]
A
Like, do you want him on the bench or he just laughing it up
- [32:59]
B
with Reed, shepherd and Jabari last night. So, I mean, it seemed like. Or the other night, so it seemed like everything was cool. Joe, you go first.
- [33:07]
C
So are you reading the prices as they exist right now in the FanDuel sportsbook? Bill Simmons.
- [33:11]
A
They are where? Where? I. I saw them a half an hour ago. Maybe they changed a little bit.
- [33:16]
C
And what is the Rockets price?
- [33:18]
A
The Rockets price? I'm going to give it to you right now. The rockets price is plus 730.
- [33:26]
C
Okay? So that's because no team in the history of the NBA has come back from a 3, 0 deficit.
- [33:32]
A
Philly is still 11 to 1, and Atlanta is plus 570. And weirdly, I probably feel the worst about Atlanta. I feel like they had their. They're. They're like the Turk and the Godfather. I missed my chance. I am mounted one now. They. They had. They had the. He's like, Salazo. Yeah, I missed my chance. I. Who would you have? House? I think probably the Sixers. Just because there's a world where Maxi has one awesome game and Embiid has another awesome game, and then all of a sudden, the Celtics are going home. And it's like, what just happened?
- [34:11]
C
We got Edgecomb. I mean, at the price. That's right. We got one great Edgecomb game. He's capable of two. So if Edgecomb and Maxi together go off and they did do this a couple times in the season. I mean, we even have. We. There's. There still could be like a vintage Paul George game in there. I guess that's the one that could be.
- [34:31]
A
What does a vintage Paul George game look like?
- [34:34]
B
Honestly, though, he's right.
- [34:35]
A
It's like saying, like a vintage Nell Carter performance.
- [34:38]
B
It's scoring in the high 20s, early 30s, and locking down one of Boston's wings.
- [34:44]
C
That's.
- [34:45]
B
I'm going to regret saying this. I agree. It's. It's the Sixers. It is. It is. Like, let's win game six and then game sevens are weird.
- [34:54]
A
Great theory about how the Rockets. I mean, the Lakers didn't want to win game four because they wanted to extend the series so that the next series would start later to buy Luka more time. I don't believe this. I just say Caucusy Bill's attention that the Lakers would lose Game four and Game five to push the next series to, like, Tuesday.
- [35:15]
C
Oh, they would lose both.
- [35:16]
A
Yeah. They basically throw multiple games. I don't believe this. But conspiracy Bill, it did come across his desk. I did hold it up to the light. Didn't pass the.
- [35:25]
B
Do you think every time Luka watches Lou Dort trip a guy, he's like, ah, you know what? This is getting a little tight.
- [35:32]
A
One more second here. It's going to be fun watching SGA against I don't even know who. And the Lakers, if that ends up being the series, who. Yeah, that. That's not going to last too long. Okay, next question. Which team would you rather be? Denver minus 142 or Minnesota plus 120 right now, heading into Game 6? If your life depended on it, which team would you rather be? Which team would you rather back?
- [36:00]
B
So I missed it. What's the state of Naz Reed?
- [36:04]
A
He came back in the game. I think he's okay.
- [36:06]
B
Okay. Man, that's really rolling downhill against Minnesota. Would I rather be Denver or would I rather be.
- [36:18]
C
Who?
- [36:19]
A
Minnesota. Denver's -138. Minnesota's -plus.
- [36:23]
B
Oh, I thought it was a different series. Yeah, I would rather be Denver House.
- [36:28]
C
Why is that a question? I don't understand.
- [36:33]
A
It's a question. Which team would rather be?
- [36:36]
B
Minnesota just has to win one game.
- [36:38]
C
Yeah, but they don't have Anthony Edwards. They don't have their best player. They're not going to be. I mean.
- [36:44]
A
Well, can I give you that what
- [36:45]
C
you're doing is you're saying that the version of the joker that we've seen thus far, even with, you know, an empty calorie triple double to stave off,
- [36:56]
A
that was not an empty calorie triple double. Why you say that? He was great in that game.
- [37:00]
C
He Was fine.
- [37:01]
A
Here's my fear the game 5. Spencer Jones, Cam Johnson were really good at home in a game five. What is that going to look like in a Game 6 in Minnesota when you're on the road and, and your team actually needs you? I just think it's easier for guys like that to play at home. That's one of the things that. Frustrated with the Celtics tonight. Like home games are the time to bring out your bench guys and hope you strike oil with one of them. I don't really trust that many of these Denver guys if Gordon's not going to play, you know, and that. And I don't think Minnesota needed that game. I just think that's the way the league works. It's like we're up 3:1. It would be nice if we could steal this.
- [37:45]
C
They don't have Anthony Edwards, but they're game. No giveaway games for them.
- [37:49]
A
I'm not saying it's a giveaway game. I just think there's a level of desperation that one team has versus the other. You could feel a little in Philly, Boston, but especially in Denver, Minnesota, where Minnesota's like, all right, we don't really need this game. Like game six is the one they need.
- [38:04]
B
But they. That's. Wouldn't you call that a must win basically though, that game six for them?
- [38:10]
A
I mean, I wouldn't because I don't, I don't. I think it's conceivable to go in somebody's building and win game sevens. We just see it over and over again now. I like Kaus. It's not like what we grew up in the 80s where it was like game seven at home.
- [38:24]
C
You won.
- [38:25]
A
And if you could win a game seven in somebody's building, it was like a fucking miracle. I feel like anybody can win anywhere now.
- [38:31]
C
If Anthony Edwards was playing for Minnesota, they'd win this series. This is a Minnesota team that went to the goddamn Western Conference finals two consecutive years. They have no problem be Denver. And they, they demonstrated, you know, the, the idea for this series was that this is a new Denver. Denver reeled off 13 straight wins coming into the playoffs. I don't know the last time they lost three consecutive games. They just lost three consecutive games to this Minnesota team. Yeah, because this Minnesota team has. They. They know how to beat Denver. They are built to beat Denver. They know how to beat Denver. They have no issue beating Denver, but they don't have Anthony Edwards. So I think that Denver's going to win three straight games and they're going to beat Minnesota in the series.
- [39:12]
A
Well, it sounds like you should bet the Denver moneyline for this series then. Done. I'll tell you this. Say less. I think the line for game five is out of whack. Tampa. Minnesota is plus five and a half at home in game six. I think it's a 50, 50 game, and I don't really trust Denver without Gordon with him either playing hurt or not playing at all. They don't have five guys that I trust in a game like this, and I think that's what worries me with them. So if you have with Minnesota, even If it's just IO, McDaniels, Reed, Randall, and Gobert and you get lucky with one of the bench guys, I think you could beat Denver in a game like that. So I'm. I'm leaning Minnesota. I mean, I would take the points, but I also. I. Something's a little off with Denver. I don't. I don't like it. I think Gordon's too important to them, so you would really have to see Joker just go bonkers.
- [40:03]
B
Yeah, but don't you think he has that game in him? Like, don't you. I mean, unless he's got some secret injury or.
- [40:08]
A
Or.
- [40:08]
B
Or a horse he loves dies like he's got at him.
- [40:11]
A
Of course, I don't know. He's. The fact that he's just not hitting threes anymore worries me that the. The NBA did the. A little bit of the playbook in game four. McDaniels had two fouls in the first three minutes of the game, which was just a classic. And I don't. You're not getting that in this game. And I bet McDaniels is all over the place. All right, so we disagree on that one. Um, this one's probably a little easier. Which team would you rather be, Cleveland or Toronto? Cleveland's -460. Toronto's -380. I would be very worried if I was Cleveland, though, because I think Toronto's found something with the muck it up small ball thing, and Cleveland has James Harden. Those would be my two concerns.
- [40:55]
C
Zach Lowe called this one correctly. This is going to go seven, and the home team is going to win this series, and it's kind of unnecessary that it's going to go seven. It doesn't need to go seven. Cleveland has advantages in a lot of different ways. Except is Evan Mobley a bitch? I mean, I think it's time to
- [41:15]
A
go ahead and put it. Put it on the table. If I would use that word.
- [41:20]
C
What word? Would you like to use? Because maybe it's step up time. It's step the fuck up time. This team was built to be a 55 win team. This series, this, this season coming in, they were supposed to be comparable to the team from, from, from last year. Yeah, they hit the reset button and brought in some really important valuable assets at the trade deadline because it wasn't working, the formula didn't work. And I just would like to see the guys that were adorning with the here the leap is coming, here it comes. This is what this team supposed to be on paper and I'm still waiting. We're playing playoff basketball games now. That's where their advantage is supposed to reside. Is that dude with his inside, outside, you know, capacity. I don't know. I'll just sit tight and wait for it to happen, I guess.
- [42:15]
A
I said this to Zach on Sunday. He doesn't seem to have these games where it's like, wow, Evan Mobley is running amok. He's just destroying Toronto tonight. Like, he's kind of there. He does some nice things, but I don't know if there's that last level for him. This might just be who he is here.
- [42:32]
B
Yeah, I, I, I've not spent a ton of time with this series. This is always the one that seems
- [42:37]
A
to be not locked in. The Raptors caps on to be at
- [42:40]
B
like 1:30pm you know, like, I'm never sure. The Mobley thing, though, is strange because you would hope that something like the Harden trade is the exact thing that would be like, look like, I mean, Harden was very, very, very good for Embiid. Like, I mean, it's just like playing with a big man and being able to like, facilitate that kind of stuff and it just doesn't seem to have made an appreciable difference. I do kind of feel like Cleveland's playing with their food a little bit here and will win the series, but it is, it's an unnecessary amount of labor for these guys.
- [43:11]
A
I think I picked Cleveland in six. The two series ones I liked were Cleveland in six and the Knicks in six. Cleveland in six is now minus 105. So it's even Cleveland and seven is plus 170. And if you wanted to get nuts and think Toronto upsets Cleveland in game seven and we have another James Harden moment that is seven to one. I do think they found something with Murray Boyles, though, on going smaller. Like they've, you know, they, they basically have turned it into an athletic rock fight and they made it really difficult for the Cavs. And I. I'll be interested to see what the, what the adjustments are. I'd probably lean Cleveland in six still, but if it goes to a seven, I would just be really nervous. The history of Cleveland sports, the history of James Harden, the Donovan Mitchell. Eh, okay. And then Orlando. Detroit. Orlando is minus 2. 40 and Detroit is plus 1. 98. But we did find out that Franz is yet the latest one. Oh, now it's minus 290. Minus 250. Orlando plus 205. Detroit. We did find out, even though Orlando's up 3:1, that Franz has a calf thing and is going to miss game five.
- [44:24]
B
Bad calf thing. Like it's like probably for the rest
- [44:26]
A
of the series it's a calf thing where you're missing a game, which tells me that's at least a week and it's not a hundred percent. And the way that I thought that team really found something with the five starters and Kane and a little black, but really like six and a half guys. So this, this changes that a little bit. I. I don't know. House, where do you stand in this series? House.
- [44:47]
C
It's the most impossible one to figure because of the schizophrenic magic. They were schizophrenic coming down the stretch. They lost seven straight games. Then they, they finished the season on a seven and three over their last.
- [45:02]
A
They lost to our G League team
- [45:05]
C
when they needed a win.
- [45:06]
A
They played all their starters. G League team.
- [45:08]
C
And then they lost to Philadelphia right in the play in and really didn't even show up.
- [45:15]
B
Yeah, they did not want to be in the playoffs against us.
- [45:17]
C
Yeah, that was a 1, 2, 3 Cancun vibe they were giving off for sure. Paulo. But Franz reminded us when, like, he was really important to them. He really can score, he really can create. But he's Franz. Questionable Wagner. Tell me take the cue out of. Out of the, you know, next to his name and go play. Just play. He can't play. You can't be on the floor. Chris.
- [45:44]
B
There's hard to imagine because Detroit's so new to this and this is all happening so soon for them and playing as a one seed that I don't think they have like the institutional knowledge necessarily to claw themselves out of this. So even without Wagner, it doesn't feel like this is Detroit ripping off three in a row and it. And, and they don't. There's no guy on that team where I'm like, well, he's going to put it together. Cade's been Playing like he's had a lot of turnovers but has been playing fine. It just like, it's exactly what you've been talking about where it's just like they, they stood pat at the trade deadline. Maybe in three years they'll be able to be like, see, that's why we did that. But this year they're going to regret it and it's going to be a little bit of like a bruise going into next season where you're like your number one seed. You were the number one seed, almost like wire to wire. I think they were pretty high up there, at least for most of the season. And to get beat by the eighth seed of a bunch of guys who most people were like, Jamal Mosley's gonna get fired in between play in games,
- [46:38]
A
still might get fired. He might win this season.
- [46:42]
B
That's crazy. So, I mean, I think that that's pretty unnerving for Detroit.
- [46:46]
A
Well, you get a stink on you because you have this great regular season, then you flame out in round one and then you go to the next season and no matter what the result is, for the first three months, people like, well, you, this was what happened last year. Like, we've seen this happen with the Cavs. We saw it happen with the Phoenix Suns. There's these teams that can have these great regular seasons and it just evaporates overnight when you, when you have like a flame out.
- [47:11]
C
Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm willing to be a tiny bit more generous with Detroit. They did like Jaden Ivey might have played an important role in this series. It's, it's possible. You can't dismiss it out of hand.
- [47:24]
A
You. Meaningful minute for TMZ headlines.
- [47:27]
C
Well, for. No, for. I mean, you know, he's, he's could have been a viable starter. And it's the case that, like, you know, we complained that they didn't do more at the trade deadline, but they thought they were going to have Malik Beasley last summer. They thought Malik Beasley was going to play basketball for them. The best, one of the best three point shooters in the league last year.
- [47:47]
B
Yeah, but they've known for a long time.
- [47:50]
C
I know nobody put a gun to the trade.
- [47:51]
A
Nobody put a gun to their head and told them to sign Caris Leverton when there are other free agents. I mean, they, they. I don't think they covered themselves in glory. I think Orlando won 60 games. No, but I'm saying I think that's pretty good moves. Yeah, you can feel it now.
- [48:05]
C
Right.
- [48:06]
A
I really like the Orlando -2:40. And I just think they will win one of the next three games because I don't. I. Their defense, the rock fight nature of this, I just don't see Detroit winning three.
- [48:19]
B
Yeah, and Duran seems like he's on another planet, so.
- [48:22]
A
Yeah, like they, they fit if he
- [48:24]
B
was like, if he was balling and like it was just like they just are losing close games or something. But he seems like he just.
- [48:32]
A
Yeah, yeah, right. We cover that later. Last thing. The lottery proposal. Shams wrote this three, two, one lottery proposal that they leaked out. Lottery is now 16 teams. This would be the idea. Teams four through 10 in the lottery order get three lottery balls. But if you fall into the bottom three, you only get two. And then everybody else nine and 10 playing seeds in each conference also get two and the losers of these seven, eight playing games get one. And then they had some other stuff about no team would be able to win the top pick in consecutive years, which I like. No team would be able to win three consecutive top five picks. I like that as well. And then you would not be able to protect picks in the 12 to 15 slots going forward.
- [49:23]
B
Oh, interesting.
- [49:24]
A
So I thought this was too confusing. The only ones I really liked out of this were the ban on winning top pick and the ban on winning three consecutive top five picks. This other stuff, I still feel like there's going to just be different ways to tank. Like would Golden State have rather been a playing team or would rather be in the fourth through 10 spot with more lottery balls than anybody else than the other six teams? I, I would rather throw away the playing game at that point, which to me sounds like even more severe.
- [49:56]
B
So going into the playoffs, I was chatting a little bit with Zach about whether or not like the. The teams in this, in this play in tournament, if that's what you want to call it, were like a validation of the concept of the plan or a repudiation of it. And like would you ra be in the. The AJ Peterson, you know, a cuff sweepstakes or would you rather, you know, go get your teeth kicked in by Oklahoma City or I thought Detroit and now it's like, you know, not only is Orlando now made this a series with Detroit and that's super fun. Like, you know, it'll probably be a little bit hard in the second round but like, I don't know, man, like I kind of think that improving the enticing teams that are like mediocre or low mediocre to duck the playoffs or be worse than they actually are because they might get into the, into the lottery. I, I even, even if it's weighted that way, I, I still don't love it. And, and I, and again, I know this is kind of a superficial critique, but if you can't explain it to me in an elevator ride, it seems like it's not going to really be popular. And that's also one of the problems with this is it's like the, it's not like the NFL draft where everybody is like, I can find somebody at 3:30 that could help my team go to the playoffs. Like you kind of tune out after the first four picks. What about, what about you, House?
- [51:17]
C
Yeah, I mean this is the inherent challenge that's super unique to the NBA. And as long as the incentive structure rewards teams that fare worse over the course of the season with a higher draft pick, then you are stone cold. You have created an incentive structure for teams to go try and get that because the impact is outsized. The impact of getting a player that can change your franchise, you know, in a split second. I mean, you know, Wemby isn't a good example because he's a once in a whatever kind of a player.
- [52:01]
A
And Detroit had the highest number that year and didn't get him.
- [52:04]
C
Yeah, that's right. I mean, and Washington has been up there in the mix for a handful of years, but you know, Cooper flag to Dallas completely resuscitated, like saved the franchise a dead situation. It's a miracle that they got that lottery really get over.
- [52:23]
B
I'll never get over.
- [52:25]
C
It's a miracle.
- [52:26]
A
It's going to be a miracle when Golden State wins this year. When Golden State gets the top four pair, it could be miraculous.
- [52:32]
C
It's going to be a miracle.
- [52:33]
A
I don't know why we can't just have the top 10 worst teams each get 8% and anybody in from the 1 to 10, 8% and then we split the other 20% with how many teams you want to go and then put in those other things about the top five pick consecutive years and all that stuff. I'm fine with that. The thing I really don't like about this bottom three record being penalized thing, what happens if you just have the year from hell and a bunch of guys get injured? Like Indiana. Yeah, Indiana. I actually watched those games and felt like they were trying to win most of the time. For the most part they weren't doing a lot of the chicanery of other. They just had a lot of the
- [53:14]
C
first part of the season, the second part of the season. I mean, let's. Let's be.
- [53:18]
B
But there were teams earlier in the season and earlier they just didn't have
- [53:21]
A
a choice with what was happening.
- [53:23]
B
Yeah, but then there were teams, like, with no disrespect, Utah, who. Well, I felt like we're.
- [53:30]
A
Utah definitely could have been better than. Yeah, why would they want.
- [53:33]
C
No disrespect?
- [53:34]
B
Because they get very touchy about that,
- [53:37]
A
but Utah should have done that. Like, if the system is going to tell you to do this, because this is the only way to get a player.
- [53:44]
B
You got to do have marketing and JJ J and be awesome next year, you know, like, they could be really exciting.
- [53:50]
A
I still wonder if there's some way to. To split, like split the seasons in half for the lottery balls. And if, like in that second part
- [53:59]
B
of the season, like Argentinian soccer.
- [54:02]
A
Well, if you're. If your record is just way out of whack with what it was in the first half of the season, then maybe that. Maybe that should be. But. But this gets into your elevator thing. CR I do think you were going to have to be able to explain this in a sentence. It's like anything else. It's like good TV shows. You should be able to explain in a sentence. A movie pitch should be a sentence. A pitch I have for a company should be a sentence. And the latter should be one sentence. And it's like, hey, top 10. The worst 10 teams, 8% chance each. You can't win the top pick two years in a row and you can't get a top five pick three years in a row. And those are our new rules. And that's what we're doing. I think people would accept that more than what we have now. This. 3, 2, 1.
- [54:45]
B
The only danger is just like the teams that are 13th, 14th worst try to try to dip in.
- [54:52]
A
Like, look at this. This is the proposal. This is fucking 400 words. I mean, that can't be your proposal. So hopefully this will not be what they end up doing. House just wants to win one more lottery before they pack it in.
- [55:07]
C
This is the one.
- [55:08]
A
What are your big ones, John?
- [55:10]
B
There's a big culture change happening in Washington. I was reading.
- [55:13]
A
Culture change.
- [55:14]
B
Yeah, they're doing one on ones with, like, the whole staff of the players. Like, I was reading about it. It was kind of cool. I was like, ted, well, how's that?
- [55:23]
A
We have a great, great Washington wizard question in the mailbag that we're about to do. CR what's life been like after CR month? Just. Just searching for Answers after that.
- [55:36]
B
Searching for meaning. Yeah, no, it's been pretty high.
- [55:40]
C
What are you talking about?
- [55:40]
A
Yeah.
- [55:41]
C
No, I'm Ghostbusters, baby.
- [55:42]
B
Yeah, Ghostbusters was great. Bill, did you see the PSG Bayern Munich game today at all?
- [55:50]
A
I did not. The Champions League game, Sadly, I was doing work.
- [55:53]
B
I highly recommend you check it out.
- [55:55]
A
What was the final score of it?
- [55:57]
B
5 4. PSG. It's one of the best soccer football matches I've ever seen.
- [56:02]
A
Oh, really?
- [56:02]
B
This guy Michael Olise, who plays for Bayern Munich is played out of his mind today. I was hoping he would go to Liverpool next season.
- [56:09]
A
You know what I did see was the second division Spanish goalkeeper clock. That other guy jumped by 20 guys. I watched that. I watched a bunch of angles of that one. Can that happen more? Because the go like the pads too. Send me that one.
- [56:22]
C
I want to see that one.
- [56:23]
A
Oh, it was great. He cold cocked.
- [56:24]
B
Good stuff. Yeah.
- [56:27]
A
Is that what's going on?
- [56:29]
B
I mean, like, it's. I think it's. It's heating up obviously, but no, the PSG Bayern game was like the, like revived my. My soul. It was amazing.
- [56:37]
A
Do you have a Champions League pick for.
- [56:40]
C
For House?
- [56:40]
B
And I. I just think PSG is going to win.
- [56:43]
A
You think they're going to win the whole thing? You got House's attention.
- [56:46]
C
Okay.
- [56:46]
A
He just.
- [56:47]
C
What are the odds?
- [56:49]
B
I don't know. But I think the tough thing for Arsenal is if they beat Atletico, the
- [56:54]
A
Spanish team, they're plus 185.
- [56:57]
C
Pass. Okay, good. I'm in.
- [56:58]
A
Done.
- [56:59]
B
They're running. Arsenal's run in is tight because they're. They're going nose to nose with Man City for the. For the title, so.
- [57:05]
A
Got it.
- [57:06]
B
It's a little harder for them than it would be for psg.
- [57:08]
A
Sierra is just as. As soon as the Sixers get eliminated, whatever round, he moves right into World cup mode in England. Just thinking about everything, where we're gonna go.
- [57:18]
C
Is that. Is that the. Well, who's your. Your World cup pick?
- [57:21]
A
I.
- [57:22]
B
My World cup pick.
- [57:24]
A
He hasn't done all the, all the research.
- [57:26]
B
It really depends because a bunch of guys have gotten hurt recently, so I have to kind of rethink it. A couple of French guys got hurt.
- [57:32]
A
He's doing. He's preparing for. Sean's doing a movie draft of the best Philip Baker hall movies, and so they're running out of movie draft ideas, so they're doing that. He's hoping to get happiness with the second round pick.
- [57:44]
B
Hey, I don't want to keep House up very Late. But I have to ask him one question.
- [57:48]
A
Groggy House loves this. What are you talking about?
- [57:50]
B
Yeah, for the last, like, 10, 12 days, maybe a little bit longer. He's been kind of trolling me about how unquestionable it is that REM Is better than the Replacements. And. Oh, my God, I didn't know where you stood on this, but I know you must think it's a closer fight than Bill.
- [58:08]
A
No, that. That wasn't what I said. As usual, classic CR you twisted my words around. I said at the time, cr that REM Was a much bigger band than the Replacements and it wasn't arguable and we didn't put them next to each other.
- [58:22]
C
That is true.
- [58:22]
A
And now, as the years have passed, bigger is different. People are like, no, actually, the placements were better.
- [58:27]
C
Right.
- [58:28]
A
And that's been a thing that.
- [58:29]
B
Those are two different arguments. And you following me down the hallway and being like, the bums lost is not convincing me. Because you said, they're bigger. I said, I know they're bigger. And you were like. And they were better. And I. It's like, I just don't agree.
- [58:42]
A
They had a more successful career.
- [58:44]
C
Okay, again, two different. Like, you know, who had a more. NSync had a more successful career than Minor Threat. Okay, now we're talking in sync. Had a. You know, made more money. Was more well known. You know, more critical. Not more critical acclaim, but when we
- [59:04]
A
were in college, REM Was the crown prince of alternative college radio. They were the band.
- [59:12]
C
I was a DJ. I know WCHC, the College of the Holy Cross. The hip stuff. 99.1 FM from the day I arrived. You know, the first time they let me on in that radio station, within the first couple weeks of school, they gave me, me and. And Jeff Macer, the 10am, 10pm to 1am Friday night slot. Hey, freshman, go suck a fat one. Here's your radio slot Friday nights at Holy Cross.
- [59:42]
B
It's like Marlboro Lights and Mountain Dew with Joe House and Jeff.
- [59:46]
A
That's great.
- [59:48]
C
And I'm here to tell you, I didn't play REM in four years, from the fall of 1987 to the spring of 1991. I didn't play a single REM song, not once in my entire college because
- [60:05]
A
they were too mainstream and you were against that place.
- [60:10]
C
Say it again, C.R.
- [60:11]
B
how much, Tim, did you. Did you do bang? How much?
- [60:15]
C
Of course. Of course. Goes without saying.
- [60:18]
B
There you go.
- [60:18]
C
That's the only metric Mission of Burma. You know, Replacements, Lemon Heads, back like Also all amazing stuff we could do. Volcano Suns. Bang it, baby.
- [60:30]
A
So what's your answer, House?
- [60:34]
C
But what REM was more has more has established a lengthier career. But the replacements are irrefutably, incredibly impactful for the moment that they they in what they did. Okay, I agree. On the same page. We're all on the same page.
- [60:51]
A
So is Fugazi.
- [60:53]
C
Fugazi surpasses the replacements to be respect. I mean, respectfully,
- [61:00]
A
you know, it's coming back much longer. Conversation early 2000s music is back. Ben Simmons went to Coachella. Number one reason was because the Strokes were playing. He was more excited about them than anything else. All that music is back from the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Strokes. All that stuff is back. Lcd.
- [61:21]
C
I saw back a bunch back in the day. They were a little wet farty for me. Like I saw them with Guided by Voices. That's the problem.
- [61:32]
A
Crazy.
- [61:33]
B
And Guided by Voices kicked their ass, right?
- [61:35]
C
It wasn't even close.
- [61:36]
A
Yeah, so that's the problem.
- [61:38]
C
First time I saw the Strokes where they played with Guided by Voices.
- [61:41]
A
All right, can we. Can we schedule like a late 80s early 90s alternative rock?
- [61:46]
B
Is this the first time Minor Threats ever been mentioned on your podcast?
- [61:49]
A
Yeah, that was pretty impressive.
- [61:50]
C
Definitely.
- [61:51]
A
There's 100% chance. All right. House is going to stay because we're doing a mailbag. CR is going to go and celebrate with a couple of VJ Edgecomb brews, some VJ Edgecombe lights.
- [62:04]
C
That sounds delicious.
- [62:06]
B
Some VJ lights, guys. Thanks so much.
- [62:08]
A
Talk to Sierra.
- [62:09]
C
All right.
- [62:10]
A
We are in full swing for the NBA playoffs. Great teams, great players, great action. Every single night. The stakes are the absolute highest. And when I watch, I love to bet on FanDuel, especially when I'm on the east coast back for Celtic games that I could just jump right in. FanDuel, a brand I trust, easy to build by bet. I know I will get my winnings instantly. So Wednesday night, couple really fun ones because we have. We have Orlando, Detroit, Toronto, Cleveland and Houston Lakers. And honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with the underdog money lines in any of those. I'm going to send out an official pick if I really love one of the matchups or a parlay situation. But I think all of Those series are 5050 series, especially like Orlando might just be better than Detroit. Toronto has really figured out a small ball lineup to bug Cleveland and Houston Lakers. Who knows? I mean that series should be 2 2. It's 3 1. Anyway, I will figure it out. Check out my picks in the FanDuel Sportsbook app and on my social feed. Don't forget to boost your potential winnings before you place it. Fanduel Play your game this episode is brought to you by PayPal. We've seen some legendary athletes don the number four jersey. Now, I can't name names, but you guys know who I'm talking about. In fact, if you look at my studio, there's a framed picture of one of my favorite number fours. He played hockey. Anyway, you know what else is game changing for PayPal? Pay in four. No fees, no interest, no impact on your credit score, just the flexibility to pay the way that works for you. And it's available at millions of online stores. Pay in four with PayPal subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com payinfor paypal inc.nmls910457 this episode is brought to you by State Farm Upsets Buzzer beaters Game Changing plays what happens on the court keeps us on our toes. And life isn't any different. That's where State Farm comes in. With over 19,000 neighborhood agents for when you want to talk to a real person and easy to use digital tools, State Farm is there to help when facing the unpredictable. Because in life's uncertain moments, big or small, you need to know someone is ready to assist. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there with the assist. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Price and eligibility vary by state. All right, you just saw a house with CR. Now we've gone in a time machine backwards about 10 hours house and we're going to do some mailbag questions. I had so many good mailbag questions. People sending them into bspodcast33mail.com you came on and did the mailbag with me, I think last month and you said after I just had a great time.
- [64:57]
C
It's a true story. I love the mailbag. It's one of. I mean, I'm not sure that I'm allowed to talk about your re apex, but the reintroduction of the mailbag into your steady stream of content is welcome. And America loves it.
- [65:13]
A
Yeah, when I started my column on this Boston sports guy in 97, I think the mailbag was like the third one I ever did that was encouraging people to send emails. So I'm glad they're still happening. I have a bunch of good ones for us. First one is from Chad H. Who made a request, would prefer if you could answer this one with House for obvious reasons. Uh oh yeah. Where do you think this is going?
- [65:38]
C
There are Two or three possibilities, none of which are good, he said.
- [65:43]
A
I was so excited for Arby's Steak Nuggets when they came out last year, and then it seemed like they dropped off the face of the earth. It was over before it started. I think this should be an NBA award. Who is this year's Arby's Steak Nuggets NBA Player of the Year, named for the player that showed such early promise and then for one reason or another, completely fell off the map. Wow.
- [66:07]
C
Tremendous question.
- [66:08]
A
Really good. I have a good answer for this that I can go first. Unless you want to jump in.
- [66:12]
C
I need you to go first. But I will say in Arby's defense, part of the allure of the Nuggets was their scarcity. It was a limited time run, a limited edition. Now, I'm not suggesting that whatever player you have in mind and one that I'll think of in the next 35 seconds also should. Should be scarce or should be a limited run. Um, but there's nothing keeping Arby's from bringing back the Steak Nuggets in the same way that this player that we're going to talk about could ascend yet.
- [66:42]
A
So the scarcity, I think we. What we're. We're landing on here is it had to be somebody we felt like was going to be in our life more consistently, and then it was abruptly over.
- [66:53]
C
Okay.
- [66:54]
A
Right. But we know next season the player's going to come back much like the RB Steak Nuggets. So the. The candidates to me are. Are basically anyone on Charlotte. We could go with. We could go with con caniple that we thought we were going to get a great playoff run from him. All of a sudden it was over. He didn't win rookie of the Year. And we're. It's just abrupt, but I think the answer is Jalen Duran, who I voted for second. I voted for him. Second team on B A. I really.
- [67:22]
C
You're getting daily content out of this now. Well, he hurt your feelings. You're. You're really in your feelings about this.
- [67:28]
A
I really believed I had him. Second team all NBA. I want to. I want to write into the NBA and see if I can change my vote, even though I already sent it in. He's been so bad in these playoffs for him. For somebody that I thought was just impactful and consistent night after night and now just seems like he's a mess that I wonder if it's. But he's still playing, so I don't know if that qualifies.
- [67:49]
C
So I was trying to think of teams that came out hot and then fell off. At the beginning of the season, we thought, oh, at this team, and then they fell off. But I can't really come up with anybody that fits that very well.
- [68:01]
A
Is.
- [68:01]
C
Does Giannis qualify like the version of the Bucks that we all lost money on because we thought that the Bucks were going to be really something this. This season. And we get tiny tastes of him and like, oh, Hollins, look at what. Look at this. You know what. What he's done in terms of the. Like, they've got the role players. It looks like this Bucks team could be something. It was very fleeting. It tasted good for a minute, and now it's gone.
- [68:26]
A
Yeah, that's pretty good. I think that's probably the answer. There was like this when Giannis came back and the Bucks had hung around and it. But the thing is, like, the RB steak nuggets came out of nowhere. Giannis, we'd had for years and years. So I do feel like it has to be, like a fast riser guy.
- [68:44]
C
Oh, a player. Yeah, that we. Yeah, that we didn't answer.
- [68:47]
A
Well, you know, it could be Lamelo, too. Like, we didn't realize this. Yeah, I think it's pretty good. That's the answer.
- [68:54]
C
I like that one.
- [68:55]
A
Yeah, it abruptly ended and then we were mad at him and he just did a bunch of dumb things and we don't know where he went. All right, we'll go with Lamelo. Alex from Virginia said, I know you and Zach are old white guys. Good start. And maybe you need Van Lathan to inform you of important information that the beautiful Angel Reese used to date Jaylen Duran. Now she is the proud girl of Wendell Carter and has taunted Duran on Instagram during the series. So Carter may have taken Angel Reese outplayed Duran in a series and potentially even sent him home as a 18 underdog. Wendell needs respect. So I didn't know about this till yesterday, so maybe that is because I'm an old white guy. Because she did an Instagram of. Of Kane on the Magic who raising Cain came out of nowhere and dunked right on Duran's head. And she did an Instagram post about it and has been. I guess I'm not really on social like that. So sometimes I miss stuff and I definitely miss this storyline. I wish we could have incorporated into our bet. I feel like we might have even taken Orlando Moneyline if we had known this was a factor. But anyway, did you know about this as another old white guy game by game.
- [70:10]
C
I'm familiar with the. The who she's dating now. I'm familiar with this current relationship. I didn't.
- [70:15]
A
I don't.
- [70:15]
C
I didn't know the entirety of the history. I will say since game two with Orlando, I've thought that Orlando's been super live. And I'm. I'm sure we. We're covering it. Yeah. In. In the. In the portion with cr. So I won't elaborate right now.
- [70:33]
A
Okay. Zach wants to know for all the times you mentioned people saying Denver beat no one on the way to their championship in 23. I mentioned. I didn't say I felt this way. But this is a thing that people are saying now that Denver's only won one title. They didn't beat anyone that year. Zach wants us to remember that all the experts picked both the Lakers and the Suns to win the West a year. And the Sun's team was allegedly stacked. And the whole reason I started listening to your podcast in the first place is you were the only voice outside Denver that genuinely believed the Nuggets could win. I just feel like I need to defend our only championship as we potentially fall apart this year. It is one of those stupid narratives. Cause Denver was not on the radar like that. And people did think it was going to be Lakers. I don't remember what the Sun's Nuggets line was that series, but I think people felt like that was going to be even. Right.
- [71:21]
C
I loathe this. I loathe it. That is to say, the storyline about a team with an undeserved NBA championship outcome, the only one within modern era that you could possibly take issue with, poke holes in is the bubble, the summer camp. The summer camp championship that the Lakers won. That's exactly right. I mean, did you see everything else come on.
- [71:44]
A
Did you see what Davis said about that he felt like they didn't even really, totally win and it was so weird there. And. Well, that's just completely different.
- [71:52]
C
Sounds like every other Davis. That makes sense to me. Yeah. Yeah. Shocker.
- [71:57]
A
No, I thought. I thought Denver, you know, when they played Miami, Miami was like a giant killer at that point. They'd taken down a lot of good teams and you could make the case. The. The only thing you could really ding Denver on It's not their fault is Dragic got hurt and Dragic wasn't the same in the finals. And I think that would have been a really live finals for Miami. If Dragic is healthy, I don't know if they would have won.
- [72:17]
C
We have examples of. Of of teams that. That suffer an injury in that way, you know, either as the finals get started, during the course of the Finals, that the history, NBA history is replete with those examples. Denver earned that title. It was legit. They. That's. You can pave it however, you know, so the path. Because they didn't counter this and that, like every champion of the last 50 years has those kinds of.
- [72:41]
A
And by the way, if we're going to do that with teams and pick them, the 24 Celtics or another team are like, oh, who they play. If we're going to do that with half the titles, then we should swing the other way. And we should talk about the 2011 Mavericks title reverentially, where they went through every good team in the West. I think they were underdogs.
- [73:01]
C
They.
- [73:01]
A
They beat Portland in a series they were down on. They swept the Lakers. They beat okc and when OKC was really scary and then right. Upset this Miami team that every thought everybody thought was going to win eight straight titles. Then we should talk about Dirk reverentially. We should talk about the 2011 Mavs all the time. You can't have it both ways.
- [73:20]
C
That's fine.
- [73:21]
A
All roads aren't equal.
- [73:22]
C
We. But they're all hard. I mean, I'm not. Why were you trying to win 16 playoff games? Yeah, we're on the same page with. Want to get into the business of. Yeah, we're on the same side.
- [73:34]
A
Yeah. Because you look at OKC this year, they get Phoenix in round one, they're going to get Lakers, Rockets, you know, that winner in round two. And then, you know, potentially San Antonio, Denver, Nuggets, whatever happens. And maybe who knows if one of those teams is even going to be fully healthy in that series. So I don't know. You could do this all the time. This one I did not know about and I checked today and it was not a big deal. It was. It was brought to my attention by Dave Workman who said, did you hear Jay Moore's latest pod with Vlad Divots? Now, there is a really funny part of this where Vlad explains why they took Marvin Bagley over Luca. Because they already had this leader in de' Aaron Fox who was happy to be in a small market and he thought Luca was a big market guy and might not be a fit. It was like insane. It was like he had six years to workshop it. Anyway, Dave says obviously he's married to Jeannie Buss. When they were talking about Luca, he said, quote, I knew about the Luca trade for like Six weeks because of Jeannie. Had to keep my mouth shut. And I was like, don't trade A.D. that's crazy. And then he asked thoughts? Okay, so this goes back to a great conspiracy bill thing that I've even tried to badger Rich Paul, who does a podcast for the Ringer about. I feel like way more people than everyone claims knew about this Luca trade. I'm just always gonna believe it.
- [75:07]
C
You've been saying it from the very beginning.
- [75:08]
A
I'm always gonna say it. I'm always gonna Cuban pretends he didn. The Dumonts pretended they didn't know until the last minute. Jason Kidd, who I wouldn't say has like an awesome truth history, he claimed he didn't know. J.J. redick said he knew at the last second.
- [75:28]
C
It was basically of every single person so far, I believe JJ the most
- [75:32]
A
and I think Jeannie even said, yeah, we didn't know until the last second. Well, now your boyfriend just went on. Or now your husband went on a podcast and said he knew for six weeks.
- [75:41]
C
So, I mean, the proof was in the pudding. You, you spell it out immediately. 80 way the trade kicker. That's it. That's all you need to waive the
- [75:48]
A
trade kicker almost overnight for reasons that remain unclear. Because he was fine with the trade because he wasn't 100% happy in LA. And I just, I, I what would you say over under people that know I'm going, if I give you over now, over under nine and a half, would you.
- [76:04]
C
I thought you were going to set it at 15 and a half. Because think about everybody in that on the two ownership groups. Right? Those ownership groups are, you know, have minority owners, whatever. Yeah, nine and a half isn't over for me. Okay.
- [76:18]
A
This is one of the reasons I wanted to have you on. A fantastic email from Fergus Collins.
- [76:23]
C
All right, Fergus.
- [76:25]
A
I'm from Ireland. I mostly follow Irish sports, but I'm also a Celtics fan. Why does following Rory McElroy and following the Celtics feel like the exact same emotional roller coaster? They both give me the most hope for success to a fan, while also giving me the greatest chance of a dramatic collapse. The Celtics lost two 20 point leads against the Knicks last year. McElroy ties the round with Scotty in the 18th and Ryder Cup. The Heat upset the Celtics in the playoffs. Rory throws a four shot final round lead in the Masters in 2011, going up six on Saturday in Augusta. Countless articles about how no golfer is ever sort of major. Then he's talking about the Celtics favored to win the East. Scrappy team but always blows lead. He goes on and on and he said, how did I end up with both of these people in my life? Basically? What a great analogy. Because Rory is the most talented. I mean, other than Scotty. He's the most talented golfer.
- [77:21]
C
Yeah.
- [77:21]
A
And it's always like over the last
- [77:23]
C
20 years he's really, you know, he's been in that upper, upper, upper echelon and he.
- [77:27]
A
The greatest enemy to Rory is himself. And in a lot of ways I felt the same way about the Celtics the last few years. Even the other night in Portland, in, in Philly when they're up in game four by 25 and I'm like, I'm fucking, I'm. I still have my seatbelt on. I'm fully prepared for them to just take 10 terrible threes in a row. And all of a sudden we're up 7. There something about their style of play. I just never feel safe, which I think is exactly the same feeling as Rory. So I actually think it's really good.
- [77:57]
C
Everybody knows it's great. Never feel safe with Rory. Any lead whatsoever. I mean, going to bed Friday night with that six stroke lead, you know, the conversations in my threads were like, you know, how, how is this going to get tightened up? We, we all know that, that it's, you know, that the six strokes are going to evaporate by hook or by crook. The only thing I wonder about, and it is a tremendous job by Fergus. Rory has an element of unmet potential because there was a 10 year gap between the majors that he won. Was there a point since, you know, the Celtics won in 24. So they finally got the Jays the championship. But it felt like that was on time. It didn't feel like the Jays should have won a championship earlier than that.
- [78:47]
A
To me, they should have won in 22. They just weren't ready to win it.
- [78:51]
C
Yeah, I agree.
- [78:52]
A
They were better. They had a better Curry. Just that was Curry and the warriors infrastructure and the cells not being ready yet. But I think if you go back and watch those games, it's like, oh my God, how did they not pull this off? It was just Curry was the know how you couldn't compete with it.
- [79:09]
C
That's right. I agree.
- [79:10]
A
20 in the bubble is interesting because I don't think they were really ready that year and they had the Kemba Walker piece of it. But they really went toe to toe with all those teams that year and that was easily one that could have made the finals. And then 18, that game seven against Cleveland where, you know, one of LeBron's greatest games ever. He plays all 48 minutes and it's basically just LeBron against the Celtics. What did they miss? A hundred threes. So they would've made the finals. So if you say this whole run from when they got Al Horford all the way to now, and it's basically they've only made the finals twice, I would say that's a slight underachieve for the potential. Yeah.
- [79:48]
C
Because I mean, you would point to, for Rory, the US Open that he coughed up against Bryson when Bryson snatched it, you know, on the 18th hole with Rory missing a short putt or Rory lost the open championship. Cam Smith a couple years ago shot a super low score and Rory couldn't get any birdies to roll in. So was right there on a Sunday on the back nine of those championships and couldn't get it, get it across the line. Okay.
- [80:10]
A
And last year too, like, they blow two 20 point leads to the Knicks and then Tatum gets hurt and they, you know, squander that series. Indiana ends up making it and taking OKC to seven. And OKC is young and not totally ready yet. And who knows what the Celtics would have been. But I, I think that's a, I think that's a good analogy. I think we're going to look back at how they had Tatum and Brown basically coming in at the same time a year apart, which is impossible now in this day and age to keep two guys like that, who are that expensive together. But they also had cap space and a great GM and like, man, they only made two finals. That's why I think there's some pressure on them this year.
- [80:51]
C
That's a great point.
- [80:51]
A
You know what I mean?
- [80:52]
C
It's like, wow, I like this idea.
- [80:54]
A
More finals than that. We had these two guys the whole time. It's important. Speaking of Tatum, Xavier in New York says Dante DiVincenzo, they said he already went full Tatum surgery. Are we at the point where that should just be what it's called? Like how Tommy John became T.J. terrett. Fix it immediately. No debate. Tatum bounced back. Have we now created the JT surgery? Because so much of it depends on how fast players get it after they tear their Achilles. You have to repair it immediately. You have a better chance to come back. Will this be called the Tatum surgery?
- [81:29]
C
I can't stand for it. And it's not because I have any particular feelings for the player that I think it's appropriately assigned to, but we did, we lived through with Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers was threatening coming Back and playing football games. You know, the, the, the, the season right after.
- [81:50]
A
But he got a different. Aaron Rodgers got the different surgery, though. He got the quickie surgery. Tatum got the one where he did it immediately.
- [81:58]
C
Yeah.
- [81:58]
A
But he got the one that allowed him to come back faster. Tatum got the one where they did the full heel, but they did it within 10 hours of the injury. And they feel like that allowed it to come back 100%. I do feel like he might have. The doctor who did it might have created some new version of this. All right. I don't know. I don't like having Tatum's name involved with the surgery is my least favorite part of this.
- [82:21]
C
I wanted to take Kobe. I feel like Kobe was his company.
- [82:25]
A
But then he got hurt again.
- [82:26]
C
Okay.
- [82:27]
A
Yeah, he came back, but then hurt something else. I threw this at Zach. I wanted to get your take from Rob from Peniscola. Could you consider renaming the Ewing theory after Trey Young? Got a few of these about the Hawks without Trey Young are eligible. And my, my take was pretty steadfast. Like he wasn't good enough to be eligible for the Ewing theory. And I don't feel like anybody thought the Hawks were screwed when they traded him. You, you're, you're down with that, right? No.
- [82:50]
C
And, and also I feel like an element of Ewing theory includes a kind of immediacy. Like the, the player is supposed to be part of your plan and the player is lost and you're not like,
- [83:01]
A
like Edwards getting hurt right now. If Minnesota makes the finals without Edwards, that's the Ewing theory.
- [83:06]
C
That would be the Ewing theory. Exactly. Trae Young had already been marginalized. Like the direction of the team with the trades that they made, the acquisitions, the off season acquisitions, the direction of the team they were looking to. I feel like they knew what they had with Trey. You know the answer to this because they didn't extend him. Like if they, he was the most important player to them, then they would have extended him. So I, I, I don't ever criticize anyone for trying. You know, let's just be creative here. Everybody's innovating with, with the theory. But I feel like we have to visit first.
- [83:39]
A
Yeah. Don't forget what the bones of it are, which was a superstar that the media felt was the single biggest reason the team would win the title gets hurt. Everybody writes off. Gets hurt or traded or whatever. Everybody writes off the team and then they do better without it. Him. That is fundamentally what the Ewing theory is. Edwards would be an example. Another one would be like if Jalen Brunson sprained an ankle or something and all of a sudden the Knicks started running stuff through towns and were much better without Brunson, basically. And we were like, whoa, it's a different Knicks team, but are they better? And that would be an example of the Ewing theory, like, oh my God, we're so screwed. We don't have Brunson. He's better.
- [84:17]
C
And it would be the Knicks. I mean, that would be pretty interesting.
- [84:19]
A
Or if the Celtics last year, if Tatum had gotten hurt and they came back from 3:1 and made the finals. And then sure, yeah, that's that. It has to be that level of player. Will Hanselman from Chicago writes, I didn't know this. He said, a lot of people talk about Ripken's consecutive games played a streak that you love dearly or Wilts 100. I will always think the most unbelievable Sports stat is LeBron averaging 277 and 7 over 1600 plus games, but never playing a single game that had the stat line 27, 7 and 7. I feel like it's more likely his points record gets broken than whatever the hell that record is. It's the perfect metaphor for a guy whose historical consistency never stops changing and evolving. I had no way to look this up because I'm not smart enough, but if this is true, if he never actually had a 2777 while averaging 277 and 7 every year, that's fucking crazy. That's the single that's crazier than Bam's 83 point game. So please can somebody tell us once and for all if that is true or not.
- [85:25]
C
Get somebody to look that up. 7 and 7 for all the games that he played. When you think about it, he made eight straight finals. So you're not just talking about regular season games, you're talking about playoff series after playoff series after. And they weren't like, you know, four O's or four ones. Like, that's a lot of games to not get a 2777.
- [85:47]
A
It can't be true. John Palmer asks, you'll love this one. Will pulling a Paul George become a thing? Every aging star dealing with injuries should be taking tons of alleged hch. Another alleged banned substance, get stronger and recover faster. The penalty if caught is a 20 plus game mid season vacation, which you probably would have missed anyway via load management, leaving you more time to recover and train. They come back healthier and better just in time to spin up for the playoffs. They're giving up money, of course, but what were the other negative consequences For Paul George. Again, this is from John Palmer. So here's the thing. Paul George has looked really good in this Sixer Celtics series. Like, he, I talked to this with Zach on Sunday night. It's like, I feel like he's resuscitated his trade value. So he cost himself, what, 10 million with the suspension, but he's resuscitated himself as an asset. Whereas in March with Big Woz, he was the second pick at our worst contracts draft. I don't think he would be the second pick anymore. So I, I, I love the concept of pulling a Paul George in general and trying to guess who would do this next year. It's like, oh, Zach lavine, He's pulling a Paul George.
- [87:02]
C
No, it's gotta be somebody good who needs the rest. Somebody like Draymond. Like somebody. Yeah, yeah. Somebody who needs their 30s. We're in that stretch right before the playoffs. That would be, to me, if you're looking for an opportunity for there to be genuine salary cap circumvention, that would be one where the team and the player and its representatives are all like, you know, if you felt like, you felt like just taking a look. Because, like, in terms of NBA public consumership, I feel like it's, it's, I. You don't get as mad at the player for, oh, he got popped for a piss test, as opposed to he's sitting out deliberately because he's resting up for the playoffs.
- [87:48]
A
True.
- [87:48]
C
I feel like it gives you a pass a little bit to fail the piss test.
- [87:52]
A
Plus, he brilliantly played the mental health card immediately. Right when he came back, people are like, okay, didn't realize. And that was it. Like, Barry Bonds was like, fuck, why did I know that in 2004?
- [88:02]
C
If only. If only he knew.
- [88:03]
A
Yeah, I was thinking of some of the best pulling of blanks ever. And I think my favorite one is Vince Vaughn and swingers saying, I want to grab two cocktail waitresses and pull me Alfredo or whatever. He said, like, when he did the pulling a Fredo was my favorite pull in a. But pulling a Paul George, pretty good. And now it's time for our new segment called ERA Comp. It is brought to you by New era, the official cap of the NBA. Today's players. I know they're incredible. It's also important to recognize the legends who shaped the game we're watching today. As you know, I love to do this on my podcast, constantly. Bring up the past, bring up the history, everything. The New Era NBA Hardwood Classics collection celebrates a lot of those iconic moments in players who made that era unforgettable. So let's put the era side by side. The 80s and now they wanted me to pick up top player now and compare him to a player in the 80s. And this is a little unconventional, but I think there's a lot of jokic and late 80s Magic Johnson. Who Magic Johnson was allegedly a point guard. He really wasn't. He couldn't guard the other point guard on the other team. He controlled the game. He could post up. He did a lot of stuff with his back to the basket. He controlled the pace of the game. Unbelievable passer. He could score 37 points in a game. He could score 20. He could have 20 assists in a game. He could have eight. He could rebound. He could get triple doubles and was just all over every single game offensively. And I think Joker, even though he's a center, when I watch them, they really remind me of each other. Joker is like the the kind of spawn of Bird and Magic, but really closer to the late 80s magic side I think is the comp. And when I watch Joker, it's hard not to think of late 80s magic as Kareem is bald and old and everything had to run through Magic. Anyway, you can relive vintage logos and timeless icons with the new era NBA Hardwood Classics Collection headwear available in a wide range of fitted and adjustable styles. I'm personally an adjustable guy cause I have a giant head as well as Hardwood Classics apparel. Here's what you have to do. You have to visit neweracap.com ringer that is neweracap.com ringer and you can shop now and you can use one time code ringer for 20% off your first order. Go do it. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype? Well, marketers know the feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great. Impressions Reach reacts. But when they don't show revenue, well, that's not such a great conversation with the CFO. LinkedIn has a word for that. Bull spend. Instead, why not invest in what looks good to your CFO? LinkedIn Ads generates the highest roas of all major ad networks. Reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. You can target by company, industry, job title, and more. So cut the bull. Spend. Advertise on LinkedIn, the network that works for you. Spend $250 in your first campaign on LinkedIn ads. Get a $250 credit for the next one just go to LinkedIn.com rewatchables. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Sephora. You know moms, obviously the best, whether you have a mom or you're married to a mom or you have both, uh, they definitely deserve the best. When it comes to Mother's Day gifts, you could just go basic. You could do flowers, chocolates, whatever. But if you want to get a little more inventive, here's what you do. It's very simple. Just head to Sephora. Choose a gift that shows how much she is appreciated. It could be a skincare set for a self care ritual. It could be a fragrance that's uniquely her. It could be any kind of beauty gift from Sephora that will make it easy to put a smile on her face. Think outside the box. Shop Mother's Day gifts at Sephora. D Bob in New York. He says, I think the streaming resolution. I'm sorry. The streaming revolution of the last seven years was secretly pushed by big advertisement. Before streaming, I never watched a commercial in my life. When the game went to break, I flipped channels. If I was watching on dvr, I fast forwarded. Now I'm taking every second of commercials in because it takes too long to get out of the Amazon or Peacock app.
- [92:21]
C
Thoughts it is true is on the money here. I can't touch it.
- [92:28]
A
We're on Peacock. First of all, if you leave Peacock, you can't get back for another seven minutes. It auto locks you out.
- [92:37]
C
I thought it was me. I thought that I'm a pretty caveman TV person. So I thought it was because I'm using the Internet to pull up my streaming. My streamers are all Peacock. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I'm doing it. And I thought, oh, I must be the only who can't switch from there to, you know what, ESPN to see what's going on in the, in the hockey game. Because it will take me, you know, another four and a half minutes just to get over to espn.
- [93:04]
A
So good.
- [93:05]
C
This makes me feel better.
- [93:06]
A
These sports on streamers. I think there's been some real ramifications that we weren't really fully able to assess until these playoffs started. Cause when Netflix had the Christmas games, it's like, cool, I'll just pop over and check out the Christmas game or I'll watch the Christmas game. But now in late April, when there's hockey and basketball and baseball on, you really want the ability to maneuver around. And unless like, thank God for me, I have multiple TVs and I can keep stuff on.
- [93:33]
C
Thank God for you.
- [93:34]
A
But if you're a college kid, you have one TV or if you're at a bar, like somebody was telling me
- [93:40]
C
in New York you can go from that portion of where that TV over to this portion where the other TV is.
- [93:46]
A
Somebody was telling me at a bar in New York they could only have the Amazon on one of the eight TVs because they lock you out after it's three devices. So the other seven TVs were tied to ESPN and baseball and there was the one Amazon TV and I was like, that makes sense. Like I can't even watch Amazon with my dad and my daughter hopping on my Amazon at the same time. We really, this is, we need a sports bar. Sports are to really figure all of this out because I just feel like Amazon should relax the device thing for the playoffs. And Peacock same thing where it should just be like during the playoffs 25 people can use my Peacock or my Amazon and and then bar or maybe bars get a special exemption. I don't know. There's gotta be a better way to do this. This.
- [94:34]
C
There's got to be a better way to do this. I just want the back function. How do I get the back function restored?
- [94:40]
A
I can't have two TVs or Tuesday, Monday's game, the first one ended on Peacock and I wanted to go backwards out of it.
- [94:52]
C
Yeah.
- [94:53]
A
And I just went into an abyss on the tv. I was like. All of a sudden I was on like Pluto. I was like, what happened? Yeah, I just skidded sideways. This email is no longer timely, but I really liked it and I feel like we gotta figure out how to use it Anyway. I am a proud female listener and I have been riding hard for the pod for decades now to business. The playoffs start on April 17th and I need to know which matchups are you fully locked in for and which ones are you not Absolutely not drinking any fucking Merlot on. Do all eight matchups have some Pinot in them or do any qualify as a Merlot matchup? Maybe you can spend quality time with your family and miss one. And this is written by Nicole Quotes BJ diamond in Larchmont, New York. I'm just reading the email. Tremendous. Tremendous. What was our what? I like the idea of the Merlot matchup though. I think it was OKC Phoenix was our Merlot Merlot matchup definitely.
- [95:56]
C
I, I, I'm only interested in that to get a gauge on whether I'm going to live bet the the spread, the second half spread or the fourth quarter is is okc.
- [96:07]
A
Going to cover.
- [96:07]
C
How am I going to live bet this? That's it. I would check in. Do I want to live bet it?
- [96:12]
A
I did a fanduel thing yesterday that actually hit where I had K25 plus Tobias 15 plus OKC to win and shade 25 plus. So I was rooting for Shay to score and Shay had five points at the end of the first quarter and it was really fun. Cause it was like, all right, I'm probably Safe here. It's SGA. And then Shay just ripped off like 14 points in like three minutes. And it was like, this is great. I'm having so much fun that it is over.
- [96:41]
C
Yes, Phoenix was very, very, very plucky. They were in that.
- [96:46]
A
But it was, it was a really fun way to watch the merlot matchup between OKC and Phoenix. So next year I'm just going to bet the over on Shay points. But I like the merlot matchup because we don't have NBA TV anymore. So we needed somebody to replace NBA tv.
- [97:01]
C
And it really only applies to round one. Right. Because we're not going to have. Every matchup in round two is going to be a delight. An absolute full, full on banger. Big, big reds. We're going to big red land, aren't we?
- [97:12]
A
Yeah. Well, Lakers OKC, if Luka's not back, will be interesting to watch. But I.
- [97:19]
C
Isn't Reeves likely to be back?
- [97:21]
A
I understand they're not beating okc. No, they would need injuries on the OKC side. Braden from New Brunswick, Canada, checked the average Roger Goodell hug time for the first rounds of 2026 and 2015 and said my instinct, which I said on Thursday, that I thought the hugs were getting longer is correct. In 26, the average hugs were 4 seconds. And 10 years earlier they were 2 seconds. And he wonders if this doubles each decade going forward. In 2036, eight second hugs. Now, he sent this before the guy who stayed in the green room the whole time, didn't get picked the nose tackle and then got picked and came out at 19 second hug with Goodell. So that might have even bumped the hug number.
- [98:11]
C
But you know, that was emotional.
- [98:15]
A
The move is somebody should come out and instead of going for the hug, just a firm handshake. A firm handshake, like almost refuse to hug. I just would like to give you a businesslike handshake. How would Goodell react? Would he pull the guy in Trump style and like just maul him? What would he do?
- [98:33]
C
Yeah, it feels like, I mean, because Goodell isn't Tiny, he's not, you know, he's done. He's not dwarfed by these guys. I feel like, yeah, Goodell, he wouldn't, he wouldn't tolerate it. As soon as he gets your hand. Yeah, he's.
- [98:46]
A
He's Trump hugging you.
- [98:47]
C
Yeah.
- [98:50]
A
Listerness.
- [98:51]
C
Why do we. Why, why, why are the hugs longer, though? What's the explanation for that?
- [98:56]
A
I don't know.
- [98:58]
C
Oh, I thought that's where we were headed on this whole, you know, the
- [99:01]
A
hugs are twice as long as they were 10 years, 10 years ago. So why is it?
- [99:05]
C
Because Roger's more comfortable. He's like, I own all this shit. I am the man in charge. Let me ask you, you want to hug me?
- [99:15]
A
Who have you hugged for more than two seconds in the last 10 years? That was a friend of yours?
- [99:20]
C
I'm not at liberty to discuss this. I mean, wait a minute. A friend of mine?
- [99:24]
A
Yeah, a friend. A male friend.
- [99:27]
C
We've had some very.
- [99:28]
A
When you saw the Holy cross guys.
- [99:31]
C
Happy. Let me think about it.
- [99:33]
A
When you saw Finney in the Holy cross guys, did you have a four second hug with anything when you go
- [99:37]
C
like this hug and then you go to the arm around each other? Yeah, those lasted.
- [99:42]
A
But you didn't go 4 second full body hug with anyone, right?
- [99:46]
C
No, no, no, no, no. Not, not, not, not, you know, not junk to junk.
- [99:50]
A
It's like, it's like the quick, quick hug and then the back handshake.
- [99:54]
C
You're tight and then, and then I like the arms around the shoulders. Yeah, yeah. Because you got stuff to chop it
- [99:59]
A
up on the arms around the should like a full. Nobody goes genital to genital,
- [100:06]
C
which.
- [100:07]
A
That was what. That was my favorite.
- [100:09]
C
Did he do that? Goodell didn't do that for four seconds with anybody.
- [100:12]
A
Full, straight on, like, hugs. This is what, remember, this is my favorite NBA draft moment ever. Darius Miles and David Stern went full waist to waist genitals hug for some reason. And it's one of the funniest photos of all time.
- [100:27]
C
Let's get the clip. Clip. Let's run the clip.
- [100:29]
A
Listener Bill Dahl said, I am a wizard season ticket holder.
- [100:34]
C
I'm sorry, Bill.
- [100:36]
A
My hot take is that LeBron is coming to D.C. this summer.
- [100:39]
C
No, he's not.
- [100:40]
A
Here's the evidence. He was incredibly complimentary of the Wizards young core and Steve Nash's podcast. I like that he called it Steve Nash's podcast. It's LeBron and Steve Nash. Podcast number two, he was seen hanging out with Jaden Daniels post Lakers game. Number three. He's a good fit with Trey and Anthony Davis, his old buddy.
- [101:01]
B
Okay.
- [101:02]
A
It's LeBron's team. Nobody's else. Number four, shifting the Michael LeBron narrative by actually winning in D.C. somewhere. Michael couldn't even make the playoffs. Could not play in the go combo.
- [101:15]
C
Great job.
- [101:16]
A
Now that this is spoken of the ethos, it won't happen, but maybe those of us up in the 400s, we'll actually get some decent basketball here in the nation's capital. A guy can dream. I like the MJ angle. That's MJ finished here. I did, too. And I made the conference finals with Anthony Davis and Trey Young. It is kind of fun.
- [101:36]
C
I mean, that team with him on it, they would be better than any team that MJ played with during MJ's era.
- [101:42]
A
Can we talk it out for a second? So you'd have Trey Young, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Alex Saar, and who's your shooting guard? Who the shooting. It can't be Koulibaly, right?
- [101:55]
C
Keyshawn George. Keshawn George.
- [101:57]
A
Yeah, we like him.
- [101:58]
C
Yeah, yeah, he's. He's good. We do with. We like him with good reason.
- [102:02]
A
And a little Trey off the bench.
- [102:04]
C
Yep.
- [102:07]
A
I don't know. That could be. Talk myself into 45 wins.
- [102:11]
C
It's a low 40s. Yeah. To 45. It's. It's a. It could win. They could win around in the playoffs.
- [102:17]
A
His goal could be like, look, this. This LeBron vs. MJ thing I brought to the table, I've played way longer. I threw an alley oop to my son in a playoff game, and now I've won a Round one series in Washington. I've done three things Michael Jordan couldn't do. Also, I was never maybe secretly suspended by David Stern because of gambling. So there's four.
- [102:40]
C
Great, great point.
- [102:41]
A
Speaking of conspiracies, this is from Peter. L assume the conspiracy theory that the NBA draft lottery is rigged is real and you've just been appointed league commissioner. With these powers, how are you arranging the first four picks in the upcoming draft lottery? Wow, that's a great question.
- [103:01]
C
We had this conversation. What was it a month ago? Who did we say was going to be the funniest to win?
- [103:08]
A
Well, Golden State.
- [103:10]
C
Oh, Golden State.
- [103:11]
A
Yeah, I'm going to.
- [103:14]
C
Well, that's not the funniest. That. That's an actual genuine. Like, that's a conspiracy. Because that's what he's saying.
- [103:20]
A
So, all right, so I get the commissioner job. I'd obviously immediately hire you as my Mark Tatum. I'd Let you announce all the second round picks. And now announce the second round. Joe House. So the lottery teams we have, I'll just give you the top 12. Well, I'll give you all of them. Washington. This is an order of 1 to 14 for odds. So Washington, Indiana and Brooklyn all have 14%. Utah, Sacramento, 11.5. Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee. Golden State. OKC. They're out. Not fixing anything for them. They're too good already. They don't need help. Miami and Charlotte. So if we're rigging this, Golden State has to be in the top four because it's our last chance to stave Steph. So it's more a question of who is the best guy for him to play with. And I actually think it's Caleb Wilson.
- [104:11]
C
Wow. Okay.
- [104:13]
A
So I'm happy just putting them at four so they end up with Caleb Wilson. Even though I'm becoming increasingly concerned he could go not for him, but for. For the Boozer family. I think he's going to leapfrog Boozer. I think his tape is too crazy. Like, I really think you'd have to. If we were in the room, I feel like we would spend enough time scouting these tapes and at some point look at each other and be like, we gotta take Wilson. Like, this guy is a fucking freak, man.
- [104:43]
C
I watched so much Boozer and he was so tough. I thought he was NBA ready every time I watched him play. I understand the limitations. I think there's a ceiling. Right?
- [104:51]
A
He would. He is not the guy I would have for Golden State.
- [104:54]
C
That's totally fair. That makes tons of sense.
- [104:57]
A
All right, so we'll put Golden State four, and we'll give them Wilson. So now we have three teams before. Can we. Charlotte has 2.4% odds, but can we have them jump to three and take Boozer?
- [105:10]
C
Oh.
- [105:11]
A
Oh, wow.
- [105:12]
C
Wow.
- [105:13]
A
Right?
- [105:14]
C
That's pretty good.
- [105:15]
A
Lamelo, Khan, Bridges, Boozer. And. And who am I leaving?
- [105:20]
C
That's pretty good.
- [105:21]
A
Who am I leaving out? Oh, and Brandon Miller. And then Diabate. That's a fun team.
- [105:25]
C
Diabate. That's who I was thinking of Atlanta at 2.
- [105:30]
A
I was thinking because of Peterson. Adding Peterson to what they have now as, like the CJ McCollum understudy eventually moving in. It's not gonna matter if he doesn't have personality. Cause that team has a lot of personalities already.
- [105:47]
C
The New Orleans pick.
- [105:48]
A
That'd be the New Orleans pick. Atlanta moves up. So I'm thinking them at two. And then number one, like, why not? Why not Joe House. Why not? Washington. Why can't you have the Bansa? Why not?
- [105:59]
C
I would definitely fix it. For me, that goes without saying.
- [106:02]
A
But I think the Bansa that's. It's the most fun teams for him would be Washington or Utah for him to go in right away. And then in this scenario, the Clippers get the fifth pick. And that would be really fun, too, in Indiana would not get any of the top four picks.
- [106:16]
C
Right. Cause five to nine, the Clippers keep it. Is that what it is?
- [106:19]
A
Basically five or six, they keep it. It can't go lower than six. Now, I. I do feel. I do love Indiana and I'd feel bad if they didn't get the pick, but I don't.
- [106:28]
C
Why did they put the protection on it then? They shouldn't have put that protection.
- [106:31]
A
Yeah. Also why did you give up all of that for Zubots? There's a lot of.
- [106:37]
C
I think it's going to be awesome on that.
- [106:38]
A
I know, but that's a top four pick in this draft.
- [106:41]
C
Yeah.
- [106:43]
A
I don't know. Now that we're here and that they could actually lose the pick. This draft is fucking incredible.
- [106:48]
C
It's going to be really good. The other one, I was thinking Clippers getting Acuff or something.
- [106:54]
A
Well, the other thing you could do, you put Indiana in that Darren PETERSON Spot at 2, and then you put Atlanta 5th. And Atlanta gets our guy a cuff at 5, who I think a combination of Acuff and Atlanta. His name ends with first letters in a. There's like some. A double A stuff.
- [107:18]
C
Okay.
- [107:18]
A
His game in Atlanta.
- [107:20]
C
Yeah. Yeah.
- [107:21]
A
Could be really special. Yeah. Like, I feel like he'd be a hero in Atlanta pretty quickly.
- [107:26]
C
And they can run. I mean, they can.
- [107:28]
A
So is that our answer for the fixing?
- [107:31]
C
Do it again? I think I agree.
- [107:33]
A
I know. I agree with one to Washington, Peterson to Indiana, two, Boozer to Charlotte, three. And then Golden State gets Wilson, four.
- [107:48]
C
Atlanta at five.
- [107:50]
A
Atlanta at five. Takes Acuff.
- [107:52]
C
Acuff.
- [107:52]
A
And then there's one more team I wanted to take care of.
- [107:55]
C
Oh, we better go bet this.
- [107:57]
A
No. Number six, Dallas has to get top six because they need to get either Acuff or Wagler from Illinois.
- [108:06]
C
I want. I want Dallas to fuck off. I'd like to invite the Dallas Maverick organization.
- [108:10]
A
Their fans are, like, so traumatized. Come on.
- [108:13]
C
I understand. This isn't. They. They. They already.
- [108:15]
A
All right, so that'll be our top five.
- [108:17]
C
Yeah. Okay. All right.
- [108:19]
A
Good question. Glad we talked that one out. Corey writes in. I'm 25 years old from the Bay Area. And a lifelong warriors fan trying to come to grips with the fact that Steph Curry will be retiring sooner than later. My basketball life will be changed forever unless the Expendables have. I imagine this is similar to how you felt when Larry Bird was nearing the end of his career. What advice do you have for coping with the loss of one of the greats? House was in my place a couple times in the mid-90s when I would break out old Bird Celtics tapes because the Celtics were so depressing. It was all I had to go back and watch old playoff games. And honestly, Corey, welcome to your future. If it gets super depressing with the warriors, all you have are the old tapes and reliving Curry games. And I had a 2 and a half foot bong at the time. That was really helpful to get super baked and watch old Celtic games and pretend they're happening live. I've talked about that, but that would be my advice. That's what the post career. Because it's just never going to happen again. This is once in a generation, you get somebody like that. You're never.
- [109:22]
C
And you look at it so fondly. You say, I can't believe I was so lucky to enjoy that. And in the same way that Corey's being prepared, I mean, Steph is missing big chunks of regular seasons now. Yeah. And you know, Bird was. Was so broken at the end.
- [109:39]
A
Right. We knew. Yeah, we knew. We knew. Yeah, Paul. And last I got a few people who mentioned. And this has been on the Internet too, Tatum, Halliburton, Lillard and DeFincenzo all had the number 0 and all tore their Achilles.
- [109:52]
C
Okay. Do you have to even zero from? Did not.
- [109:57]
A
Do you have to be crazy at this point to have number zero? Is this like a jinx number? Would you change your number if you were a zero at this point?
- [110:04]
C
You know, I was making the joke about Gilbert Arenas as agent zero, but he did have a debilitating leg injury.
- [110:10]
A
Yeah, what's up with zero?
- [110:12]
C
And the Wizards did give him a giant extension Anyway.
- [110:17]
A
Are there any more zeros right now?
- [110:19]
C
I mean, the answer is definitely yes.
- [110:21]
A
Oh, no. Tyrese Maxey's a zero.
- [110:24]
C
The off season number change, we need it.
- [110:26]
A
He needs to give Christian Brown koulibaly on your team. I'm just out on zero. Don't get rid of the zero. We've seen too much damage at this point. Kelly from Iowa, I know you'd like this one. Kelly from Iowa wants to know, can we please have baby doll get Waymo to sponsor Tiger Woods. Come on, baby. Who loses here? I love the idea of Baby doll taking on Tiger woods as a client and trying to keep it low and just calling different people in his life and making it seem like you're the only person he's told. And meanwhile, he would tell 150 people in five hours.
- [111:03]
C
Everybody would know and there'd be pictures of Tiger and a Waymo.
- [111:08]
A
Why couldn't Waymo offer Tiger like $50 million to be the first Waymo sponsor? It's actually a great idea.
- [111:15]
C
That is kind of brilliant. I mean, you know, we have to get to the point where we can have a little bit of a chuckle, maybe. I mean, it's tough to have a.
- [111:25]
A
We obviously just reached it right now. Like, let's. I don't know, little Waymo sponsor for him. Chase from Canton, Ohio, I didn't know about this, Said that Cavs had a social media playoff theme in 2026 that they called Be the Fucking difference for their fans.
- [111:42]
C
Oh, okay.
- [111:43]
A
But they blotted out all the letters and fucking and just kept the C. So the T shirts read Be the C Diff. And then apparently C Diff is the shorthand for Clostriodides difficile, which is a bacterial infection, severe watery diarrhea and abdominal pain. One of the most known treatments is mixing your poop with the poop. If someone you share bacteria with.
- [112:09]
C
Oh, no.
- [112:10]
A
Is into a dried up poop pellet they put in your stomach. I'm not even joking. Wants to know where does this stand in your pyramid of poop jokes? How could the Cavs win the title with the postseason theme of Be the C Diff? And would anything funny have ever happened? You know what would actually be funnier is if they got bounced in round one after Be the C Diff became a thing. Yeah, this is. Apparently this is a thing that happened.
- [112:36]
C
This is amazing. Poor Cleveland deserves. But the fans deserve better.
- [112:41]
A
Now.
- [112:42]
C
They did have LeBron for all the time that they had. Yeah, they did win LeBron, but, you know. Yeah.
- [112:49]
A
So if you. If you Google this Be the C Diff. I can't believe they did that. How did they not Google that? Mitch from Carlsbad wants to know you and Zach touched upon Kevin Durant's complicated legacy a bit on Sunday. Too often his Olympic performances aren't discussed. And they should be. He was often the best player on the floor. Can be dinged for a lot of things, including leadership skills, lack of the same team jumping, but I do think his Olympic performances should be mentioned.
- [113:18]
C
You agree Me too. Totally agree with this. And. And the same goes for. For mellow, like, part of what, you know, when those guys play with their peers and their peers find them and their peers, you know, revere the. The performance at that level and let them, you know, sort of take over the way that they have that. That, to me, just says so much about, you know, who that player is in their era.
- [113:44]
A
Yeah.
- [113:44]
C
And so KD's ability to do it across. What is it, 5 golds. Is that what he ended up with? That.
- [113:50]
A
That.
- [113:51]
C
That is something that needs to be mentioned. It's a top line on the resume for me. One of the top four lines on the resume.
- [114:00]
A
Maybe his legacy is he couldn't plan the bachelor party. And he might have been a wild card at the bachelor party, but there's a bunch of different scenarios where he would have been really fun at the bachelor party.
- [114:12]
C
The MVP of the bachelor party.
- [114:13]
A
He might have been the MVP of the bachelor party. Didn't plan it, didn't pick the location yet to kind of fight for him to get there. But then he was tremendous for two straight days.
- [114:21]
C
Yeah. Elevated everybody. Elevated the whole thing.
- [114:24]
A
But if you put him in charge, it might not have gone great.
- [114:27]
C
Sure.
- [114:28]
A
That's fair.
- [114:29]
C
We've all got friends like that.
- [114:31]
A
We'll never go to a bachelor party again. We don't know who says who. I mean, we'd have to have somebody our age, divorced, second marriage.
- [114:39]
C
Yeah.
- [114:41]
A
Do second marriage people have a bachelor party?
- [114:43]
C
I sure hope so. I haven't been invited to one, but I would go.
- [114:47]
A
Chris wants to know, is Zime Adoka getting himself fired the most underrated key to Boston's continued success. I can only imagine how quickly he would have mentally broken and buried Cato Walsh and Shireman. And how the Celtics offense would look with Chris Boucher and Xavier Tillman standing around while Tatum and Brown played isoball. The Rockets are a bad sequel. The 22 Celtics in the finals. Now, I don't think that's totally fair because they did make the finals. They did have some good wins. The offense was really rough, and we blamed Tatum and Brown a lot. And now we're watching the Rockets basically do the exact same thing. Game four, as Zach and I talked about on Sunday was the first time they actually were like, hey, we should maybe attack Luke Kennard and spread out. And it. It was pretty bad. What was your eme take? Well, I.
- [115:32]
C
Honestly, the longer this has gone on, I'm subscribing to the theory that there is some dysfunction in the decision Making guys are not all on the same page inside the building at Houston because the Reed shepherd bit is inexplicable. Our guy Raheem Palmer has been loudly all season long saying, you got to get shepherd his minutes. It doesn't matter whether you know how you feel about his. His contribution. He needs to be ready for right now because Houston, for whatever reason, thought they could, they could play this season without a point guard. I do want to go back, by the way. You guys, you and Zach on Sunday show in entirely appropriately giving CJ McCollum his flowers. You, me and Zach sat in your studio and I said, hey, Houston, go get C.J. mother effing McCollum. These are going to be available October. Yeah, October of 2025. And look at this guy in the playoffs. But be that as it may, emei to me like we. Even as early as November, you're watching end of game sequences and it didn't make sense who was getting the ball. It didn't make sense the way the rotations were playing. I feel like there's something going on inside that building where personnel and ema are not on the same page.
- [116:55]
B
Yeah.
- [116:55]
A
I would look at it when you're talking about point guards that you know you're going to need in the playoffs. It's almost like scuba diving where you need to get X amount of hours to become an official scuba diver that can go a hundred feet under the sea or whatever it is. I don't scuba dive, as you can tell, but whatever it is, you can't do this until you've had this number of hours of instruction and now you're finally allowed to go below this level.
- [117:20]
C
Your body's got to acclimate to the pressure.
- [117:21]
A
All of it. Yeah. To me, it's like, I know it's probably going to be frustrating, not that fun to play this guy 25 to 30 minutes a game. But you're going to have to do it because in April, this is going to be your one chance to do anything because Fred Van Bleet's not coming back.
- [117:34]
C
Yeah.
- [117:35]
A
The crazier thing, though, is that they didn't trade for Dasunmu or, or Kobe White. I just don't understand the thinking.
- [117:42]
C
Nothing at the trade deadline.
- [117:43]
A
I mean, the Pistons too. What? We said this at the time when the Pistons were like, Kevin Herder, we're good. It's like you're not. Not necessarily good.
- [117:50]
C
Doesn't feel like enough.
- [117:52]
A
Yeah. Last question. This is from Chris Krause, who for some reason was thinking of Car centric movies that I could parody with Khan Knippel. Feel free to add your own, he said, but here are the ones he came up with. Driving Miss Daisy. Instead of solving racism, Bill teaches Khan the value of 1980s pop culture and why being on his phone less than allowing himself to be bored is good speed. Instead of having to keep the car at a set mile an hour, Bill and Khan have to keep podcasting what will run out first, their gas or list of topics. And then his last one, Collateral. Bill already has the silver haired look, so he's obviously the Tom Cruise assassin. But in this scenario, it's Khan realizing Bill is driving to the houses of his least favorite Internet trolls. Close shot of Khan looking terrified as Bill beats a keyboard warrior to death with a copy of the Book of Basketball. If any of these are made, I only recruit producer credit. House. Yep, these are my listeners. This guy wants me to remake Collateral with Concanipple, where I beat people to death with a book of basketball that trolled me on the Internet. Pretty, pretty phenomenal. I don't know where these are. I don't know where these questions come from, but I love all of them.
- [119:05]
C
Great job. Krause.
- [119:08]
A
Before we go, how do you feel about Sonny Stiles? You happy?
- [119:11]
C
Oh, I'm over the moon. I just couldn't believe that he fell to seven for this one. I mean, this is why I'm out here repping the squad. I think what Washington did on defense and styles is a perfect fit for our new defensive coordinator. The guy from, from Minnesota. He's so versatile, he's so fast, he's so athletic. It's going to be a great fit. He's already, you know, the team has already embraced him. Amazing job. Two.
- [119:35]
A
Two things dear to your heart. Where he was the only one that noticed $100 at the end of the playbook, allegedly, and mailed it back.
- [119:42]
C
Great story. Whether it's true or not.
- [119:44]
A
Whether it's true or not. Great story. And then unbelievable High school basketball mixtape.
- [119:49]
C
Oh, outrageous.
- [119:51]
A
You love nothing more than that. The football player. High school mixtape on repeat.
- [119:55]
C
I made my.
- [119:56]
A
Drake May had one. You went nuts and you didn't even pitch Drake May.
- [120:01]
C
But that, I mean, you know, that, that, that gives your, your, your brain like, oh, he could do all of these things. Look at this. It's great.
- [120:07]
A
I really, if I was in the war room, I would really factor that in the high school basketball mixtape. Like, look how generous he is with the ball and his teammates like this. Maybe he'll be this way as a
- [120:17]
C
teammate, it counts accounts. I mean hoops IQ is not a small thing.
- [120:21]
A
All right House, thanks for doing the mailbag with me. I appreciate it.
- [120:25]
C
Always a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
- [120:27]
A
See you on Fairway Rolling and on the Ringer Gambling show as well if you want to check out Morehouse. Happy Playoffs. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to House and CR thanks to Eduardo and Gahao as well. Don't forget Ghostbusters. That is the new rewatchables and it's up and you can listen to it and you have six days to watch. There's something about Mary cause that's going to be the next one. I will see you on this feed on Thursday night. God only knows what's going to happen with the basketball these next couple nights, but we will have a big action packed podcast on Thursday, probably taping at least the first part of it right after the game. So I will see you on Thursday. Go suckers. Must be 21 plus on President select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 Plus. I'm present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Opt in Required bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including any token expiration, max wager amount. See terms@sportsbook.fandrew.com gaming problem call 1-800- GAMBLER or 1-800-BYRESET. Call 888-79-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatinconnecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachuset or call 877-8-Hopeny or text hopeny in New York. For Louisiana, call 877-770-7867. It's mushrooms with me. Matty Matheson. You know what's better than thinking about dinner too hard? Not stop that and just choose mushrooms. Five minutes.
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B
Done. Dinner's that easy and you feel like a genius. It's not magic, it's mushrooms.
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