Games with Names - "2019 NBA Western Conference Semifinal: Game 6" with Ryen Russillo | Warriors vs. Rockets

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Ryen Russillo is in studio! We're breaking down an all time playoff clash between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors from the 2019 Western Conference Semifinals. Ryen joins us on the couch (2:25). We go back to May of 2019 (35:28). We get into the Rockets and Warriors' rosters (49:40). We get into the game (1:06:51). We score the game (1:21:00). We wrap up with some Top 5 talk (1:28:15). Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in.

Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps or wherever you get

your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Bella check. Oh, there's a couple turnovers there late

because we got out of the way so I tried to clean that up. That is a good Bella check. Thanks. Look, like, fellas, we can't go out there playing the game the wrong way.

I saw a guy at Adam Rowe Jr. the other day that makes that pass. On today's episode, we have Martha's Vineyard's finest. How many times did the PA guy announce your name incorrectly tonight? Ryan Rosillo. Yep, Rosillo's going to talk about Harden again. We break down Game 6 2019 Western Conference semifinals,

the Warriors versus the Rockets. It's one of my favorite games ever. Durant goes down in game 5. And he's hurt, he is. Steph, he goes scoreless in the first half, and he is absolutely destroyed. At some point, like, greatness just breaks whatever you're doing. Steph Curry from downtown!

Curry launches a three-pointer. In Curry's generation, we've always talked about LeBron. I'm going record. Steph Curry, this is his generation, bro. He's literally revolutionized the game. Is Harden ever going to win a championship? As the main guy? Never. Never?

Second straight year, they eliminate the Rockets. Dude, Clay's a f***ing nasty shooter, too. He's up there in the top five best shooters of all time. Oh, no question. But he's with Curry, who just so happens to be the best. Yeah, right, right. You know what I mean? So, I don't know.

It was like Ewan Welker. Get out of here with that. What are we talking about? Games with Names is presented by Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Boston Harbor and is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to Games with Names. On today's episode, we break down the 2019 Western Conference semifinals with Ryan Rosillo, a man that loves basketball. He loves basketball. He loves basketball.

Loves it. Warriors, Rockets. We get into his love of Steph and Chris Paul. His catching a touchdown over Deion Sanders and celebrating in front of, we won't say, we'll save that for the episode. No, it's a good one. Those celebrity games get wild. Celebrating, pissed him off.

He wanted to fight him, he said. He wanted to fight him. A little Belichick impression off. This is pretty good. He's got a good one. But he'll be coming up into my studio trying to out Belichick me, boys. The master, baby. Come on, boys.

And we'll wrap up the show with our top five of top fives. Top five, top five. Top five, top five? It sounds so much like, what is that, Topgolf? I want to say Topgolf. We should go do Topgolf. I'm down. Team building.

Make sure to check us out. Games with Names on your YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok, at Games with Names. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Comment a game you want us to do and rate and review. Games With Names is brought to you by Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Boston Harbor.

Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Boston Harbor are the ultimate destinations for sports lovers. Enjoy the sports book, play golf, eat at a great restaurant, and stay in luxury accommodations. Sign up for win rewards and redeem for resort

credit. Let's go. May 10th, 2019. Toyota Center, Houston, Texas. With Katie out, James Harden, the Rockets look to force a Game 7. But an icy Steph Curry starts to catch fire. This is Game 6 of the 2019 Western Conference Finals. This is better.

Hell yeah. I like that. Welcome to Games with Names. Today we have a very, very, very special information sport encyclopedia kind of guy on the show today. He's the pride of Martha's Vineyard. You don't really hear that. You don't know a lot of people from the vineyard unless you're from the vineyard. From, yeah.

He's a big Boston sports guy. He loves... Don't you love Chris Paul? Do. I do. You love Chris Paul. Hung out with him a couple months ago. Not a big deal. No big deal. He loves Chris Paul. And he's the host of the Ryan Rosillo Show Podcast.

Ryan Rosillo, thanks for joining us, man. What's up, Jules? Good to be here, man. Yeah, it's just a couple guys that lived in Boston, now living in LA, shooting the shit on a couch, talking about games with names. Yeah, it sounds like our timeline in Boston, we just missed each other, but I wasn't going to bring a lot to the table, so it's probably better for me and you that we missed each other. No, I think it would have been fun yeah but i'm in because of association back then you would have been like what what do you do you're like why is

this guy is he barbacking yeah but you always got there's always like one or two guys that you that are in that aren't part of the team that you know yeah because you had to get a pass i remember like what a big deal it was because i was there like as soon as brady was taking off right so we're almost i think i think he's two years younger than me and so it was such a big deal like i was doing daily boston talk show and they're like tom's moving away from foxborough why would he do that does he not care about the team and you're like dude he wants to not live in Marlboro like give me a break like Belichick has everybody else convinced you shouldn't move outside of the facility

and then it was like wait Edelman's gonna do it now and so it was like hey it's not the end of the world but I was just I was just very proud of you guys for being like hey maybe there's nicer properties yeah near stuff I lived in the Foxborough area i lived in plainville for probably my first six years right and like how many times can you go to bass pro shop you you can't but the plainville deli was really good i'm sure then i would travel to dedham to go to the whole foods because they didn't have to get like a burrito or something you know the fact that you just lit up talking about going to dedham is amazing yeah well they put it in that denim place yeah it's like new but uh welcome to games with names hi i'm julian i'm 5 foot 10 195 pounds my lap pull down is about 300 and my nfl comp is delhi wait a minute

nba comp nba comp okay yeah. Jack, what about you over there? The Wombat, baby. Ryan, I'm Jack. Nice to meet you. Okay, Jack. 5'7", in shoes, 130, leg press max about 220. I'll go with J.J. Barea as my NBA comp. J.J. Barea.

And Kyler? Hi, I'm Kyler. I'm 5'10", 250, max on any leg press machine. My MLB comp is Prince fielder wait let's have you actually done lat pull down 300 pounds no okay i've never first of all i've never seen one that goes that i i thought maybe i mean look you guys are freaks you're a freak so i i never i would never put a cap like i like to say don't put a salary cap on your life yeah you know i don't know no i i don't know that's one of your things well honestly like when we do the when we do the life advice part i feel a little like dan patrick show that was what they did yeah people just went height and weight

they'd hit a bell and they'd get it moving when they called into his radio show and i thought dan show is one of the best talk shows of all time and you know look i have massive admiration for the guy so somehow like i give him credit for it because guys now are doing it constantly but now the nba comp thing is hilarious because nobody ever says somebody that sucks ever i mean i went to delhi and that's just because of yeah but that's max effort that's people overlooking yeah but i'm more athletic than delhi i just had to do that that's more you know like there's a right but he's a white guy and i know you had to be a big effort guy to get to where you got but he had so much effort in 2015 he almost died just playing hard wasn't an injury yeah the guy was like in the hospital trying to chase steph around and that's where i think that's

a good comp did he get rapto what is that isn't that like like when you don't get enough recovery and your blood boils up in your muscle? Rabdo? Rabdo? People think I'm kidding when I remind people of that. That series eight years ago. And it was like, no. He wore them out. It wasn't an injury.

He didn't get hit. He just tried so hard he almost died. He almost died. I remember that. I think in a way that he didn't what was that 15 yeah it was 15 so everyone was comparing us at the time because we just won a super bowl that year in 14 and so everyone would say stupid shit like that but today we're looking at game 6 2019 western conference semi-finals the warriors versus the rockets why we picked this game okay we picked this game because

it's one of my favorite games ever you know I did grow up a huge Boston sports fan and I remember you know if the Pats lost on a Sunday I didn't have a lot going on in my life during this phase but you know that's why we love sports like I want to care about something right got it and so if this is before you but you know if they had lost to the Dolphins not be like wednesday thursday until i've mentally recovered and i didn't even play right yeah and uh red sox blow a blow a save and i'd be like you know derrick lowe hadn't hung that that two seamer you know like they would have won four out of five they'd be two up like i was really weird about it okay this is before i was

in the business or anything and then once i got in the business everybody'd say like it goes away it goes away and i'd be like not me it record fast. Like 2003, when Wakefield gave up the home run to Boone, I was already doing local radio in Boston at that point. I would have ended up in jail in my early twenties if that had happened. And at this point I was like, whatever, that sucks. And got up and went to work the next day. So there are very few moments now for me where I actually emotionally care about the outcome of something. And a lot of that is connected to how much investment I have in a position. And my position on Steph was early.

It was strong. And he had already won a title in 15 when a lot of the Cleveland Cavaliers had gotten hurt. They blow it in 16. 17, 18, Durant's there. This is the 19 run. Now, granted, they ended up losing the finals, but Durant goes down in game five, and they're up 3-2. Houston's headed home.

It's Harden, who I have very little position in. I'm not a huge fan. We'll just keep it at that. We can get into it a little bit later. Is it a strip club night before, maybe? Well, if it was in Houston, there's definitely a chance. But this game in particular, I'm staying in New York City, and I'm anxious about it.

I'm anxious about it because I just know if he has a bad game, and Harden, of all people who I have no faith in in big spots, ties up the series. Like, who knows? Does it mean the Rockets are going to go on? You were going to face Portland on the other side in the Western Conference Finals. So he goes scoreless in the first half and he is absolutely

destroyed like remember steve harvey announced the wrong winner miss universe yeah like it was the kind of that was what was going on in social media for steph the first hour and a half of the night i couldn't even look at my phone i had to leave my hotel room i went and got a steak dinner at that spot on grant street that like makes you think you're in panama for like three hours and i was like is there any way i can just get like just a small flat iron steak and sit here in the corner by myself whether there's a full-blown fiesta going on behind me and i was like can you keep the tv up on this game and they were like no problem he goes for 33 environment that's a good sports and well people were like what and this happens to me a lot they're like what's up with the fucking hit man over there by himself?

Like not interacting with this 300-person party going on behind him. So the reason I always think of this game, it's one of my favorite games ever post years of kind of removing the fan emotion because that night I was a fan and I could have been happier about what he did in the second half. That's a great reason. That's probably the best reason we've had on anyone picking a game that they're not even associated with the team is this the greatest game of all time to you and you we wanted to

pick this game greatest game of all time all right well all the time no it's it's not it's it's not but you just want to make your mark on this game you want to highlight this game well because we still have more evidence you know when when Steph won it in 22 i imagine there's a moment in how emotionally were for his fourth ring you know post durant and you know it's kind of a weird season getting through that one i'd imagine if you ask her curry clay 22 probably means the most jaymon isn't there too yeah no jaymon's still there yeah it's those four yeah no it's a good point. Nucleus. If you'd ask them the one that, you know, the first one's obviously really special.

Like, how many do you have? Three. Okay, so how would you rank the ones that are special to you? Go through them. It's tough. I'm really interested. Spend time on this answer. Well, you know, the first one, like you're explaining, when you get the first one, it's the first time feeling.

It's pretty insane. You've been dreaming about it since you were eight years old. And then you're- What were you doing at seven? We're at seven, six, five. I'm just wondering why. That was amazing specificity. Eight was my first year of football.

Okay, so there you go. 1994. That's the answer. So the second one, we had, it was the 28-3 game. So, like, we had an insane comeback. So, like, the hill we had to climb because we put ourselves in such a hole to win that game is, like, crazy. And then I also had the catch thing.

So you're always hearing about that. Yeah, you have arguably the biggest. I mean, there's a lot of big plays over the course of a game, but that's the one where it's like if it doesn't happen. So regardless, I'm hearing about that catch so that that one's pretty cool and special and the last one you know we're we're kind of older you know i tore my acl the year before i got suspended and then they get a super bowl mvp like and you almost died in that game i almost died like like now i was on i was on that game. I almost died in that game. Like, like, like, nah, I was on.

I was on that game. No, there was a stretch that I thought you might have not known. But I know this is all been covered. Was it in 19? Did I take a hit? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Oh, the, that one ram route on that third down.

Where then I, I ran across the field. And then you came back to, didn't you come back to basically the same, same thing? It was like, well, it sort of worked, so. Well well if you're hazy on that one i'm not shocked wait that that's in the you're thinking of the cam chancellor one oh yeah yeah yeah okay yeah the kid that was the first one that i what i felt like i was tired i was really like deli on that that game because just an iv good to go oxygen tank we were so we're talking about the cam chancellor here everyone thinks i was knocked out i wasn't knocked out we were doing two minute drill for we did two first downs so like that's like you're at like nine plays and so you're seahawks falcons rams seahawks falcons rams okay yeah yeah i've got an inverted it there for a second no but like i'm i'm interested in this i know i think we casually talked about it, but it's brought up all the time.

And granted, all of us became concussion experts on Twitter overnight. Everyone, yeah. Yeah. We had probably like nine plays going, or like maybe five, six. But I had a lot of downfield routes. And that's like, I was fucking beat. You know, like, and we're sprinting. In the Super Bowl, you're going max effort fucking every time.

You know, it's literally like life or death in the Super Bowl. The game is that much faster. Every play you're trying your hardest. So I was fucking dead. And I took on the punt that I caught right before that drive, I took a hip pointer. So a guy came in, got me at the end, held me to the hip. And a hip pointer is crazy where it like singes up and it like pulls all your muscles.

But then like during the play, you can kind of like your fucking pure emotion and adrenaline is so high that like you don't feel it. But then when the play's over, you're like, oh, fuck. Like it pulls back down. So I got hit on that play i got up and i started running because i didn't know if i was fully down and you're gonna do it regardless and then i get back down and if you see i try to get up my fucking hip pulls and i'm like ah my hip and then i get up and amandola's like dude are you all right are you are you there i'm like yeah it's my fucking hip it's my hip hip. You know, was it a bet?

Was it? Did I take a big shot? Yeah, but I wasn't. I've taken fucking. I've been hit by Brian Dawkins where I saw a star for three fucking weeks. That's when I had a concussion. You know what I mean? Like my rookie year in Denver, he hit me on a crosser so hard.

I saw a star for three fucking weeks. I learned how to catch with it and everything. Because I couldn't say anything. I was a young player. I was trying to get fucking reps you know what i mean so i know what it is when you get lit i got lit up on that play but i wasn't out yeah that's that's one of those moments i just remember because like you guys what i loved about that offense with you and what actually seemed like pretty simple but it was either a tom factor it was either your route

running but just those little inside slot, like pivots, you know, five yards and it's just take it. I'm going to take it. And maybe other teams weren't patient enough for it. And obviously they kind of like reinvent it, but that's something. I think it worked very well because Gronk was hitting seams. So he was taking that. And so there's a lot of stuff under if you could read it.

And so you'd get a lot of two-shell because of that. And there's a lot of holes in two-shells, which are just like you got to find the spot. You got to know where the vulnerability of the zone is, and you sit there. And so Tom's so patient where he would hit those. And then we would get them in like a third and three or something, and you're always getting man coverage on third and tight, third and short, third and medium. Because they're just trying to screw up the timing off the snap, right? Well, yeah, they're either bringing someone or they're –

it's just usually tight man. Whenever it's like a key situation, it's always some sort of man. Like that's just how it goes down. I mean, it was really how the Patriots need to try to find a way to play now. I mean, you have a good defense. You know, you stay ahead on the down and distance, right? Let's stay on track. Let's be patient with it.

Let's not, like, fucking throw the ball downfield on second down or first down into a team meeting. Let's just, like, control the game, you know what I mean, and win the situations. Win third down down and you win fucking the red area. And that's how you win. And that's, that's, I don't know. I just got back into like why the Patriots aren't doing good right now. I love it.

I'm so mad. I'm so, you know. No, but you, you brought up a really good point in this. Actually, I'm not going to segue for you because you're the host, but there's something about what you said on the routes. Right. segue for you because you're the host but there's something about what you said on the routes right and it's funny because like i'll have moments where i get so mad at wide receivers right and i get that it sucks it sucks for 70 plus snaps where you're supposed to run hard and then you

get a block and then it's like if i'm not getting a couple looks so when i think about like you having to and granted you weren't a number one receiver as far as like coming out of college and all that kind of stuff first round so i get i get like that part is a little bit different but what you just said about like gronk like you're clearing out or his gravity is pulling all these different guys around right and it's like if all of those dudes aren't on the same page and for bill and with tom like you knew that was going to happen like you're not going to be out there running routes if you don't know what you're doing you're taking plays off you're just not going to happen we've seen

some big name receivers come through being like wait what am i supposed to do it's the exact same thing about steph and the warriors and everything that i've loved about this team is that they play every possession to the last second when i watch them play a possession offensively they run a screen the defense jumps it 14 seconds left on the shot clock most teams pull it back out let's go one-on-one or somebody will just take a three they'll just reset run the same thing guys keep moving they'll move off the ball until the last possible second and that was part of their success and my admiration basketball right and i know it sounds like old school and it's it's

your dad wondering why they're not bunting more right but for what you're talking about with the gravity of running routes and all that stuff like none of that shit works unless you know all four or five guys that are going out are doing what they're supposed to be doing and it's really easy especially during the regular season not want to do it the warriors have been doing this now for 10 years and that's what made me fall in love with them yeah it's the warriors i'm from the bay area so are you into this like you know what no i wasn't you were like what did he pick no i could have no i could i'm into this game. But I thought you were talking about the Warriors in general.

Like, when I left. Am I the first guest you've had on that's not played in the game? No. Oh, okay. We've had multiples. We had Rich, Eisen. We've had Mark Cuban. We've had, I don't know.

Did Cuban pick an intramural game? No, he picked the Dirk game. That makes a little more sense. This one's for Dirk. He does own the team. I did catch the game winning touchdown against Deion and Desmond Howard for a Celebrity Beach flag game. We could run the footage of that.

We did something eerily similar to that, the stupidity level with Big Cat. Just for the record, I've noticed very little interest as that description came out, so we can move on. Yeah, we'll move on to that one. Big Cat did the Barstool TBT Championship at the first one at BU way back before TBT was even on ESPN. I've seen the footage. I like their jerseys.

Yeah, the starfish. It was fun. They showed up just giving off a professional vibe. You know, we always want to see what the guests want to do. No, this one's a bit – I mean, look, it was the game-winning catch. I had to talk Joe Montana into letting me get out there and run routes because he had me playing corner the first half. And my big thing was like, hey, to whatever thing I'd play now.

Montana threw you the ball? No, Jesse Palmer was a quarterback, which helped because we had a decent relationship. So I was like, I felt like if I get out there, I get a couple targets. And I went up to Joe Montana. And people, anyone that's listened to me has heard started the story before i just wanted to tell you because it's one of my favorite things ever i love you is we're at halftime and i fucking love joe montana i love joe montana my dog's name was dwight montana as a kid after dwight howard uh dwight

tim dwight no that's cool though you're living in la now. I get it. So I... My kid's out here, okay? My kid is out here. I'm out here because of my kid and my podcast. That, too, is also a good reason. But, you know, I didn't play offense the whole first half, and Jesse's like, hey, you know, he's like, are you going to play any offense? I'm like, I don't know.

So I'm like, fuck it. I go to Joe Montana, and I'm like, hey, is there any way I could just get a couple routes? He's like, well, Ryan, you know, you get a couple fucking Hall of Famersers LaDainian Thomas and Tony Gonzalez playing offense right now but sorry we can't get you a couple Joe Montana said that yeah it was unbelievable because it was like I had done two events with him so it wasn't like cold who was this guy least famous guy at a celebrity thing because that's kind of like the funny thing is

like Markle and I were like two of the least famous people so I thought we really hit it off we did not so I um I just go like can i just get in jesse's like you know let him get a couple and i went max effort like just throwing guys down off the line just the whole thing and then we came back after a touchdown joe's like all right he's like i think i got something here and then you know i ran a route and deon's like whatever to this guy and then i celebrated in desmond howard's face and honestly he hasn't spoken to me since then not that we hang out a ton but i went so overboard of like just stare down put the ball on the ground and like didn't break character and he was like oh really and i was like for a day and i you know honestly if i'm desmond howard i would hate my guts too because

you'd be like what a loser you took this way too seriously nah i would have i would have had to go after you i wouldn't have i would have gone after oh i think this is the route right here let's see it um you may see me just circling circling circling hand up hand up hand up that's dez dion just passes me off and then i put it down i look at dez dez at this point is like that's on dion what year is this you got hair uh i think it's 10 years ago now. It looks like 2014. Yeah. Direct TV Celebrity Beach Bowl.

I was deathly hungover, too. Dion could run. Dion, you can see Dion. He didn't have the toe. Dion's pushing. He's saying it's Dez's guy. But when I spiked the ball down. He passed you off.

Desmond looked at me like, he was like, I may kill you. Yeah, bro. There's a model. I think it's it's uh hannah davis goes to high five me and i'm like no no i don't that's not what this is about right now regardless of if it's a charity game or not these dudes charity where is it what is a charity just celebrity oh celebrity regardless wasn't i didn't have something wrong with me i just they were like we need some Celebrity. Celebrity. Oh, celebrity. Regardless.

Listen, I didn't have something wrong with me. I just, they were like, we need some athletes. You know, one of those. Yeah, no, I get it. Thanks. You get an athlete in there, dude. You get an athlete in there. The mentality of an athlete.

Yeah, I mean, he's a pro. It doesn't matter. Oh, I thought you were talking about me. No, I'm just saying, I'm saying you're stepping on a gridiron. He's right. He shouldn't like me. Just look how I acted. Yeah, you got to act like you've been there.

Well, it was a game winner. I mean, it is a celebrity thing, too. You got to show some swagger. A couple guys said, don't ever put your hand up like you're Randy Moss for the entire route. That's a no-no. You got to be Randy Moss. You got to. Yeah. I remember. did you ever put your hand up always and i would yeah but you were pretty good so it'd be more of like uh but i remember i did it once and and tom i used to do it early in my career and tom came up and

he goes julian i fucking see you don't put your hand up Like he yelled at me When I was like A young player about it And so I didn't do it Until I got older And I started catching Like a hundred balls

And I Then I would be doing it again And I would only do it In like the red area When like You get a little scramble And they would pee us You know

If they pee drop They're only rushing three And Brady He'd have time So I'd always put my hand up Because he'd see that red glove'd always put my hand up because you see that red glove that's a touchdown i want a touchdown red gloves what's the maddest he ever got at you he never really like i was fishing for a story yeah i don't got anything you got

along that well that's a great credit to your friendship i remember my first day though with them or my first my first spring practice with the team they put in four wide and you go into rookie camps and you're about with rookies you know and then then the bucks get there and you know then the top dogs get there and like your reps go down and stuff and like you you sit and you're watching fucking tom brady execute at a high level throwing fucking beautiful balls to randy moss and you know that was crazy but the first day i go in they put in a 4y package and i was the y and i ran this hook route and tom threw it to me and i dropped it and like he just says jules catch the fucking ball and i was like tailing between my

leg that i was getting cut like that's that's the one time like we it was just nuts that's the only time i remember him because it still had to be surreal it was still very surreal i mean like yeah i was watching him how could it not be i was watching him win superbowl is in eighth grade i know on the asphalt saying like hey i'm tom on the fucking you know because i he was a bay area guy and i never liked indie when i because i i i got the tail end of that whole thing the indie pats sure but i never liked you know i never liked peyton manning he always he was always the guy he was the best guy in college he was the best guy in high school his dad was a pro you know what i

mean he was just how he's he was the guy and he was a fucking stud i like tom because everyone always at that point early in the uh the the super bowls people were still saying peyton was the best quarterback remember yeah look i i had a phase even as somebody who loved tom because i just was like i loved it the same reasons you brought it up too just an underdog and. He was fucking hungry. Honestly, like, towards the end, I started, like, rooting for guys I knew or guys that, you know, would come through and work with us in the offseason or something.

It became more personal. But, like, I started rooting for, like, his resume, you know? It wasn't even about the Pats anymore. It wasn't about being from there. It was like, I just want the resume to keep going. And I'll admit that yeah earlier in that window even when he got his first one which was crazy to me because i mean that was a huge deal all of us still kind of loved bledsoe even though the writing was on the wall was sort of

the evolution of the whole thing i remember we had bledsoe on the show once and i was like let's do a deep dive into this he was like all right cool whatever no problem just mention the winery couldn't be a nicer guy and my co-host that was filling in that day was from Dallas. He's like, okay, so on the same lines, like when you got Venturomo, and I was like, oh, my God, this is the worst 12 minutes ever. We're like back to back. Like I get the first one, and this kid was a Cowboys fan. So he's like, let's do the same topic but different location.

So that's just an aside on Bledsoe. But I was guilty of the Manning thing because I don't know that I really you know football is weird because I think most of us to talk about have literally no clue we don't know what the protections are supposed to be we don't know what the coverage is supposed to be we don't know what the routes are supposed to be we don't know what the reads are supposed to be like it's you have to really know and we're all watching the wrong angle and so I'm always a little admittedly unsure I'll be like hey I think guy's good. I think this guy might not be. But there also could be a version of things that I don't quite understand.

And hell, if I were a quarterback and just point to a guy to make this route thing all the time like Romo used to do, then you're watching on TV being like, I wasn't on Romo. It's like really smart to do all the time. Just like, hey, hey, hey, like the cut symbol with your hand. But when I was watching Tom early, I'm like, well, he's not as good as Manning. And then it was like, wait, you want to see what I – and then every year he'd come back with a piece. Like his play action was incredible.

Then the pop on his arm, like what he did to build himself up and then to turn to this guy. Then it's like, oh, you want me to do a Randy Moss season? I'll throw for 50. You want it to be about me and not the defense and special teams and all this stuff? And it's like he had three different careers in the same career. Granted, longevity is part of it. but I know Brady wasn't the main focus.

I just knew I couldn't help myself. Hey, I'm Gianna Prudente. And I'm Jamee Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?

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because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life by digging into unexpected questions. Listen to Inner Cos with david eagleman on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts but you know what you want to segue it again to curry let's segue into curry no i can do it i can

do it because of the doubt part of it because of the doubt part yeah it's very undersized davidson you know it's weird there's always a guy that, like, in Curry's generation, we've always talked about LeBron. Which we should. Which we should. It's better. But I always argued, like, I thought Curry, maybe not somewhere now with the 22 ring,

but leading up to that, I felt, and maybe I was more in tune to the criticism, but I felt like he was more dismissed as a contemporary star by the other guys. You know, like LeBron, I felt like times times made it weird everybody's cool now they get older i don't know how if it was like that with brady like where other quarterbacks like well it's bill it's all these things it's all these i don't know i've only been one yeah i'm sure there's probably some haters out there i'm sure we can find and that's another lesson i'll like if you want to find

criticism your favorite guy you just need a phone in two minutes like you're gonna find it especially nowadays i i think there are some similarities and even your thing like i just loved that because it wasn't supposed to happen with curry it wasn't supposed to be this each time he did it the second we maybe like even in this series in 19, he didn't shoot it great in game three. Game five, he closed really strong. The final numbers weren't that great. But going into that game six, it was like,

oh, well, you know, everybody was hurt in Cleveland in 15. They blow the lead in 16. Durant shows up 17, 18. Can he do this? Can he get through this? And look, again, they got to the finals. But that's what that game meant to me because he was still, I felt at that time in 19, not now, he was the most disrespected star.

And I don't mean just like really good player. This is somebody who's back-to-back MVPs, and people were kind of pissed about it. I'm going record. Steph Curry, this is his generation, bro. He's literally revolutionized the game. He is literally – like the game. There's no more Shacks. And even if there's a guy that's like Shaq, they're only getting two points.

These guys are lighting up fucking threes. And it's crazy. I don't know basketball, Ryan. No. I played when I was like 12. And then after that, I never really, you know, like, did you only play football from 12? I played football, baseball and basketball. But basketball wasn't my natural sport.

I was just always rad athletic, and I could get to the hoop. I didn't have the vision. I didn't know the etiquettes and the little nuances of when to cut naturally. I knew if I had a coach, and I was really good at defense, obviously, good at defense, but I could get to the hoop. I i didn't see things the way i saw it on a football field could you shoot i had to practice i i was a practice guy like i can't go shoot right now naturally right but if i were to have to play right i would i was a gym rat so then i would be i would be shooting yeah i'm sure i'm sure you're probably pretty good and

you're you're comparing it to your other accolades but i would agree that look lebron's the better player as much as i'm going to sit here and i could rave about step all day long he's the better player but he's yeah but the impact part of it because and this is this is a simple body thing all right steph's the first guy kids looked at being like oh maybe i can do it some and this is this is a simple body thing all right steph's the first guy kids looked at being like oh maybe i can do it some of this like you don't ever look at like there's no teenagers sitting around like we're looking well i just maybe say junior high because there's some massive high school kids but you're not watching lebron going maybe i'll be 6 8 and have the greatest vision since magic johnson you know it's not it's not obtainable where steph was the first

guy in what you know i remember a gm years ago. It's one of my favorite quotes. I used to go to all the draft stuff. I still do go to the combine and everything for the NBA. And he was like, Ryan, we're in a height business. We are in a height business and there are the exceptions and we can talk about all the guy, but like Steph was the first guy that physically felt obtainable as a star. There's just like that sport's not supposed

to let this happen yeah so i would agree with you on the impact part of it because as soon as he started coming around and i still like to play pick up whatever you could tell i'm like what the hell is going on here like guys are just pulling up from all over the place and like pickup basketball that's what i mean everywhere yeah it Yeah, it wasn't about trying to do any cool layup or try to emulate some Jordan thing up until the no dunking part, but guys would be cradling layups and all this kind of stuff, and then all of a sudden you're playing pickup going, wait, so dudes are just pulling up from a couple feet behind the NBA line?

And that's just what happened. I mean, men and boys. It kind of sucks. There's also that. If you watch basketball basketball now like i watch basketball right now and i'll watch like i watch teams just shoot threes back and forth they don't even and like when they're not making them it looks bad i would agree with you you know as much as i love it it doesn't mean i can't be open to like legit criticisms and you know i love league pass it's part of the job you know it's not a bad life watching basketball all the time but there's

certain nights where i'll go this is just who's going to make more threes it's not about you know the reason i love college football so much is i feel like i can throw on a game and know which conference is playing like granted i'm going to know who the teams are but if you just you know made the uniforms blank i could probably go like oh this feels like a pack 12 game this is a big 12 it's an sec game yeah and basketball growing up you know depending on what your roster was what your your strengths weaknesses were you would try to play around that and basically basketball has been solved and you know for years when some of these cut like rick patino in the 90s in kentucky was like take more threes threes, take more threes. A lot of people are like,

what is this? You know, Barkley during the beginning of this Warriors run, I love the guy. He picked every single team they went up against because his NBA, this isn't supposed to happen. This isn't supposed to be successful. It's about post play.

It's about the big guys and all that stuff. And then we realized it actually isn't. And you just have to outperform the other team with threes. So Steph was part of that. The analytics was part of it. And look, no one's ever done it better. And Steph's the best shooter ever. And he's part of the best shooting backcourt that we've ever seen.

It sucks for Klay, too. Does it? Dude, Klay's a fucking nasty shooter, too. Well, of course he is. Dude, Klay can shoot. I think Klay is one of the rarely wired NBA guys. It's like, I'd rather just be with this and dominate and not be the headliner, where I think a lot of guys end up leaving going, hey, I want to win,

but what I really want is everything to work for me. And then if the winning happens, that's cool. Yeah, it's true. But I mean, it's so different from football. But he is. I mean, he's up there in the top five best shooters of all time. Oh, no question question that's great and but you never like he's with curry who just so happens to be the best of all time yeah right right you know i mean so i don't know it was like you and welker

get out of here with that what are we talking about dude inside routes third man i was just covered it i was different he was he was smaller i i was in different spots i had like 60 percent of my catches on the outside there i wasn't serious but i do i do let's go back to may 10 2019 it's a segment we do we talk about it okay 2019 may 10th let's do it avengers endgame was the number one movie you watch those are you marvel guy i gotta tell you i grew up uh i have some i have some slight, I know I come. You're a writer and stuff, so you're in the biz. No, I get it.

I show up in the studio and be like, man, this is one of the coolest guys I've ever had here. Everybody relax. Like, I can see it. But there are some things about me growing up that are like dork central. I used to fucking love comic books as a kid. Spider-Man, Peter Parker line. I actually like Better Than The Amazing Spider-Man. dork central i used to fucking love comic books as a kid yeah spider-man peter parker line i actually like better than the amazing spider-man so like when all these movies came out i did a

thing for a film class uh in college where i had to come up with my own movie and i had to cast it and i was like this whole marvel thing has to pop at some point this is in the mid 90s so you called the i wrote well i don't think it was I was the only one. You called it. So I said, you should do Spider-Man. I should cast it. And this is the whole thing. The guy was like... You said Toby. You wanted Toby as well.

No, I think I went with Jason Patrick because I always felt like Peter Parker was more important to cast than Spider-Man. Like you couldn't have somebody... Whatever. I loved Wolverine. I loved The Punisher. I loved all this stuff.

So the point is, it's a bit like Curry, honestly. Like when I went to the first Spider-Man, I walked out deed i was like what the did they just do i got i think i got like a scene you didn't like the first one uh i just my my hopes i was very protective of it my hopes and everything were way too intense so then once i started to realize like what the marvel thing is but i just felt like it's like a lot of stuff i couldn't keep up with it anymore and then i felt like it was a bit like set up set up joke, joke, set up, set up, joke. And I feel like the dialogue.

And now I'm just going to get in trouble. Like this fucking asshole hasn't even sold anything. He's telling us Marvel isn't working. So maybe we edit this out. Nah, it is a little Disney now. Well, because it's owned by Disney. Yeah, I know it is. But you can't go to Disney.

I know it's owned by Disney. I know you did. I just couldn't help myself. Like the original Iron Man. The original Iron Man. The original Iron Man is incredible. Yeah. I just think, you know what I think? but you can't go to disney i know it's owned by disney i know you did i know i just like the original iron man the original iron man original iron man's incredible yeah i just think you know what i wasn't it didn't have the disney touch to it yet i'm gonna give you a great example of this and it's not disney it's not marvel it's not anybody that's involved they're all great people i love disney okay but when i was at espn at one point i was like you think we're overdoing this tebow thing a bit and they were were like, ah, the numbers show.

You know, like it's a really polarizing topic. And like I remember at one point I like told Van Pelt, because we were doing the show every day then, I was like, I think he stinks, but I fucking give up. Like they win every week and it's some miraculous thing. I'm like, I just don't, I can't possibly fathom, like this can't keep happening. And then we were in New Orleans for an event

and he throws the overtime 77-yarder. And I'm like, are you kidding? And then it becomes like something you can't quantify. It's just this. It's whatever. And then you guys played him. And I was like, oh. Like, this kind of feels a little bit more like what I thought.

Bill was just licking his chops, being like, I get to prep against this for a playoff game. But the point, the reason I'm going to make this analogy, is that we kept talking about it non-stop trying out for the jets right he's he's i think in camp with you guys at one point he did he did right i wouldn't let him throw to me well i don't want the lefty ball you ain't gonna ever play with me i don't even want to get these sight lines well no because it's a different some it spins different way i don't want to get used to that i like i want my i want my right-hander throwers really so you couldn't catch now you can catch it but i don't want to even fucking i don't want to do you don't even

want it you don't even want to get it out of there don't give me gimmicks there's a pretty good chance he wasn't gonna give me a lot of first first team reps anyway so espn would be like you know what are you guys doing on tebow this week and i'd be like there's no way the audience still likes this they love it there's no way and they did they loved it they loved it they loved it until they didn't love it and i think what happens is that you keep going to you just keep feeding the person and then you don't realize that they've been fed until they're sick and so again not to say like marvel is tebow but there's a point of like, I can't keep up with it anymore. And then everything's intertwined. And once I got so confused, I was like, I get it from a marketing and the money that you're making because you kind of have to see them all.

But it was just tough for me to keep up with. I'm just so far behind. I have anxiety. Like Ant-Man, the new one. You're like, no way, dude. I get anxiety. I'm so far. i can't commit to it i can't even fathom like i think that's a bigger problem i have commitment issues maybe

i'll tell you that's that seems solvable though of all the issues anyone can have a good life segment you talk right yeah i think of having any problem like you just have to get them like in order but like okay 18 this one came out you can just bang that out in a bad week like what'd you do i watched 20 marvel movies like it's jules okay yeah it's it's that's a lot of time though like i feel if you could do that i'd be more worried actually it's that's dude you got to be committed right right so what else happened in 2019 what happened in the sports world we we beat the the rams that was cool giannis got the mvp i was with uh your boy c long in atlanta for that super bowl were you yeah we made it to uh this dive bar this what was c what was long saying oh they don't have fun there

they don't have fun oh these guys don't ever have fun. You know what's fucking fun, Chris? Winning Super Bowls. I, for the record, did not say that, Chris. After he left in 17, and they went out there, and I love Chris. What, and won a Super Bowl with Philly? They won a Super Bowl with Philly. I don't think he had a bad time. No, but they had the headlines, you know, Lane Kennett. It was Lane Johnson. Lane Johnson said, like, like oh we have fun or something

and so then around our facility we when you lose a super bowl going in the next year you know you're like oh that you're starting to hear it's not fun people are starting to talk i went on the chalkboard there's a chalkboard right when you walk in the fucking the building i was like what the fuck is everyone talking about i just put winning is fun on the first day we left there and went to fucking super bowl Bowl. We all had fun. Like, it's ridiculous. That sounds like a t-shirt. Everyone thinks everything's supposed to be fun.

Sometimes you got to do dirty work. Sometimes work sucks. It's like what you're trying to work for is the fun. You know, not everything's fucking fun. This is people's jobs on the line and shit. No, I mean, look, anything that I'm trying to do that's, like, hard to do, you go, oh, this is why everybody jobs on the line and shit no i mean look anything that i'm trying to do that's like hard to do you go oh this is why everybody quits yeah so i look you're speaking to somebody who like again your shit's a little cool super bowl mvp is a little bit cooler than good first take segment back when i they had me on as a guest but i mean same same village pizza

by that no i wasn't no i ended up No. I ended up getting banned from first take. They were like, see you later. Did you? Yeah. Why? Skip didn't like me. I'd wear that as a badge of honor. That show sucks these days.

Oh, I don't know. I mean, it wasn't like I was going to long term be a part of it anyway. But they were like, yeah, Skip doesn't like you. And I was like, honestly, that's great. Like, I'm doing something wrong. If he's like, I actually really like that guy. I'd be like, ugh. How is he?

I'm in the Fox family now. If I see him in the- Yeah, I'm going to leave you out of it then. If you're in the Fox family, good for you. I like Fox. I have a lot of friends that work there. The working environment is pretty fucking cool. Look, man, a lot of people that I've worked with

and once they're there, they love it. They love it. That's good. I'm not bullshitting you just because we're on the air there. That's a true story. Remember when Tiger won that Masters in 19? That was... You ever go to Augusta?

Huh? Yeah. Did you get to play it? I played it. Who were you there with? Brady. RKK and Brian Montgomery, I think from uh did get a birdie did you really what's the uphill on the the par five uphill is it eight towards the is it eight or is it like people that know it know it i've been i went a bunch of days i went three days

in a row i don't know what that i mean it was fucking awesome you so when you go to the when you go there so have you been to play and the tournament? I never went to the tournament. I just played there. I'm not the biggest golf guy. I'm not a hard-o golf guy. Whenever I go out and golf, I'm like, am I supposed to just compliment this stranger on a par every 12 minutes?

That's weird. Granted, every 12 minutes would be a pretty good round. But when I went in, my expectations were through the roof, and that's one of the few things that have ever exceeded like okay whatever expectations you can have for augusta and like not like i didn't expect to have this spiritual awakening because i'm not i don't have a million polos that are striped at home and so when i went in it they're so like you made it you like the whole collective is like now that you're here and you're inside the gates we want you to have the best time i want you to appreciate it it cannot be oversold and they keep the menu

pretty cheap don't they they do ice cream sandwiches like a buck yeah we had a buddy that was english who looked like ian polter and people were so fucking thrown off they were like what happened he's like i didn't make the cut that's the bad accent i didn't warm up for that accent and uh they were convinced that i Poulter just decided to join the gallery and pound beers. And then finally, he would be like, hey. And the guy was like, I get it. He's like, oh, you don't want anybody to know.

And he was just hanging out with us. Golf fans get after it, don't they? Big time. And that's the other one, too, where they don't let you bring your phone. No, no, no. No. And so you spaz the first you know whatever yeah 30 minutes you're checking for your phone thinking you lost it but

you know depending on your setup you can there's like these hosting areas you can go in and out grab some beers it was great for us too because like the average age i think was 85 and we were all in there in our 30s so dude you're not even allowed to bring the phone on when you when you stay there like we we stayed there overnight we stayed at one of the little houses huey lewis was in there it was fucking awesome news sans news yeah the news right but were the news there or no it was just just him just him just him i was gonna say it's a big house no but when you go so you have to wear like jacket tie for dinner you can't So you did like the full blown.

I did the full blown. This is pretty cool. You go there, right? I'm talking about Augusta and I'm sitting next to you. No, I'm going to just lay out here. No, when you go, it's crazy. Like they don't have menus. You just tell them what you want.

And I like, yeah, there's no menus. They cook anything. It's fucking crazy. You just go shark ceviche. It's on it. I don't know. Maybe it's fucking crazy you just go shark ceviche it's on it i don't know maybe it's like that it's fucking it was it was crazy though we went there and mr craft was wearing uh i don't know if i should say this but he was wearing his aircraft ones oh yeah those are tight and you know it's it's very uh old school there you know And the guy goes up to Mr. Kraft. He goes, hey, Bob, I guess you didn't get the memo on our shoes.

And Mr. Kraft was like, oh, so he was like so offended. Like he was like he was embarrassed that he was like it was so awkward for me. I don't even know what happened. Did he have to change his shoes? No, he kept them on. So he kept them on as the power move or was he embarrassed like i don't where's the embarrassment come from that he wore the wrong shoes or that someone would dare challenge him i think it was i think if nike makes you your own custom shoe that should break all

they don't give a fuck at augusta no they don't they don't but in a weird way i think crafty won it yeah i don't doubt that but when people bitch about the golf thing. They're very, yeah. I didn't grow up with it. I just started playing again recently just because I was like, whatever, you're getting old and you have no friends. So I was like, the things that people don't like about the uptightness, I'm at a point like if they want to be uptight, let them be uptight.

Like in these small little pockets of uptightness i actually think it can be okay but i do think if you have a signature nike shoe and you own a football team you probably should be able to just trump any of that yeah i don't think they care there but it's such a weird community those golf people you can't i think women aren't even allowed at the bar that i don't know no i think that's like one of them like are a certain days you can't have there's like they're real good old boys over there in that golf community tough membership i heard tough very tough what was going on in the social these days uh may 2019 rassilo what do you got it's amazing to see the motivation and the energy houston is playing with

after katie left these are just a little little salt this is from game five yeah yeah yeah so katie goes down with the injury uh curry ended up having a great close to that one and then i was already look this is over four years ago and i already knew the label because i mean we all have to be something and for me it was a Curry apologist. That's why I said yes to this game. But they did a really, really good job defensively. And even when you go back and watch, I was watching game six this morning coming over here. I was like, dude, at some point,

greatness just breaks whatever you're doing, as you know, right? And they were selling out. They were doubling him. They were trying. Then he just basically raised his own level of risk of going. It's like what I love about great quarterbacks is I don't want a guy with zero interceptions. I want somebody that's going to give somebody a chance every now and then.

You can't just sit back there saying, hey, look how great my QBR is. Every now and then you have to kind of raise your level of risk depending on what the game situation is, and Curry definitely did that in game six. What's the other one? The other one seems a little more vicious. This is, I was doing a little bit of a deep dive. This seems to have been from the pod the day after, the day after the game.

And there was like, there were a couple articles on it of you being a pretty impartial guy. And then going on record is just yeah that I can't stay in the rocket that was a rare one I now remember this open um now a couple things that happened my hardened stuff is well documented and I feel good about that position if anybody watched the Celtics series uh I know we had two game winners we all get accused of being biased about everything and I I think I'm pretty good with it you know i think i'm pretty good like i can admit there's some places in my body i still need to work on i'm fucking biased right right but like i towards patriots and okay but that makes way more sense because you're part of the family i did not play for the warriors so of all the bias i get accused

of all the time most of it if i see it i'll be like that's total bullshit so i go i'm just gonna 180 on all this i'm just gonna tell Rockets and their fan base from the jump. I opened that podcast being like, I can't stand the Rockets and I root against you all the time. I love that move. So there you go. And they also had done something where they went back and did their own private study on the officiating after the fact. That was in 18. And then they released their own study as impartial

and then leaked it to members of the media to then get it all out there. And I was like, this is the kind of stuff with you guys, like, you know, whatever. We wouldn't talk about officiating. We had... Was everyone against you?

I don't know. But what game did we do? Oh, yeah, we did the... With Bibby. The 0-2. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the... With Bibby. The 0-2. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the rigged one. That was literally...

Kings Lakers. That was for real. Officiating was fucking awful. I remember that as a kid. I remember watching that game, and that was... Because my big thing with all the conspiracies is like, okay, then what do you think would happen in sports if there weren't all these pre-planned things?

Like, what would the outcomes be? Like, what would happen? I think that's why people fall in love with it it's because it's not scripted that's my point i agree with you and that's why i just don't buy into it is it scripted and by the way like it's such a thing now everyone talks because it isn't first of all let's just start can't be scripted eventually someone would crack and talk to 60 minutes it's too good it's too good there's too many moving pieces that go around and by the way when i watch like a lot of these no offense to younger kids on instagram you have this account and it's

like awesome you have internet at your house but you sit there and you throw out these videos and then you edit it and narrate it in a way where it's like everyone wants to believe everything's like way more fucked than it is and sometimes i feel naive or i'm not asking enough questions but when it comes to sports i'm gonna put all the other stuff because I don't know. I don't know enough about the other stuff. I believe in people. But in sports, it's just coping, man. It's a coping mechanism. Yeah.

I just dropped some knowledge. That was good knowledge. That was a good bit right there. No, I could just see you're stunned. You're a pretty smart fella. Only on this topic. Games with Names is brought to you by my friends at Wynn Lasgas and encore boston

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Enjoy it all in a luxury resort setting with five star accommodations and all the amenities you can dream up i will see you in boston or las vegas soon jack why don't you set the stage for the houston rocket i will sorry i went down a rabbit hole over here on the uh the 2018 game 7 internal audit which is just it's so absurd it's absurd because if you really dig into that audit they were like oh this call cost us 1.8 points and then i was reading through it and i i was like freaked out about it because i was so fucking mad which led to that open i started like tracking their audit to the in-game stuff of the program i have and i'm like you guys just like rounded up on everything in your favor it's

fucking absurd and they leaked it they're the ones that did it then they fucking leaked it and i look that was five years ago and i'm'm still mad about it. So keep it moving. It's insane. Hold on. 81 instances of calls or non-calls that resulted in 18.6 points taken off the Rockets. By the way, they never point out the absurdity of, like, there also could have been some missed calls for them. It's just, that move is just so wise. Who did this? The Rockets.

The Rockets. Yeah, the Rockets did it. And let me just tell you, the league, I don't think, was thrilled. Yeah, I can only imagine. And I know who they gave the reports to because I worked with the people. And then they were like, oh, us? Like, you wanted it out. And the fucking series was over.

Don't miss 27 threes in a row. We all remember that one. In a row, and then come out with this stuff. So that's what was the genesis of that rant. Look, Daryl Morey, I've known him longer. We're not tight, obviously, you can probably tell, but I've known him longer than any other guy that has a front office job.

He was in Boston. He could have been cooler than me. We got along, and there was no thing. I'm sure he didn't love some of this content, but he shouldn't love it. I admire the guys that are doing this every day, working every hard, fucking competing, having a goal, everybody trying to row.

I love sports for that reason. Sometimes I think I'm wasting my fucking time because you're not on any of these teams. You just watch them all. Anyway, the point is, even with all that, I was so pissed off. This is kind of where the whole hardened. It all got ramped up after this stuff that was the 18 series little origins a little origin story for you in case you can't see the stories you got some good ones i

love that um we'll run through the rockets here real quick finished west in the fourth or fourth in the west that year harden had his his little 30 point streak that season ended up averaging 36.1 a game um they uh this don't forget they had mellow early in the season this was mellow short stint in houston um chris paul's second year after that trade lost trevor ariza who was kind of a key piece in that you love you love chris paul i do i do he's greatest winner who's never won huh greatest winner who's never won i can imagine a guy with three super bowl rings would be like yeah that's cool i look he's one of the smartest players of his generation uh i imagine at this stage of his career he's going to figure

it out he obviously doesn't want to come off the bench so you know i don't know how that's going to work because he can be a ball stopper and this offense is all about movement but i think he's smart enough and i think he can play off the ball because he's still a you know where he had been the shooting numbers are leaking a bit there i'm just worried about his health because you know how old is 37 38 i think he turns 38 in the season is it may that's tough dude that hardwoods your knees they run so much yeah 38 right now 38 now it's the birthday man may 6 great man no in the birthday that's a real fan that's terrible you fucking love chris paul you just love him no because i think i remember a guy rounded up i was like take it easy yeah so that was this rockets team coming off uh

he balled out in this game too like yeah watch the like he was he was he was pure he was carrying these guys in the second half um just couldn't outstand that Curry onslaught. And then, yeah, as we alluded to earlier, this was coming off that year where they lost in Game 7 to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals the year before. And there's kind of that narrative around that two-year span of, like, where do this Rockets team rank amongst the greatest teams to never win one? Where I think it's a little bit ridiculous, but...

I hate those stats. I don't really like those kind of those kind of arguments ryan where do you stay on those arguments the greatest team never to it's just like i don't know the greatest team to never win one would be the warriors the year before this stuff so two years before in 16 right 73 win team you know look what lebron and kairi did was off the charts games five six and seven and curry stunk down the stretch they couldn't score there's some injury excuses if you want to get to it whatever the calves have a million injury excuses for 15-2 so we could go in circles all day with this shit but the idea that anybody is better than that 16 warriors team that won 73 games that lost you know it's kind of

like that pat's team like whatever whenever i see like the top 10 greatest teams of all time in the nfl i'm like just put them six for christ's sakes you know but you're just not you're not allowed to but that team the weird thing about that team is like i felt like offensively the first half of the season it was just horrifying how good it was and then it was like the league felt like it caught up a little bit but that was just me watching tape you get tape yeah those the first four weeks are always see what wrinkles they implicated in the offseason what their emphasis is right because if you had played the giants like they were shitty at the beginning of that year they're those giants teams were always like it was a coughlin team so those

those teams are like we're not trying to be our best right now. You know, that whole Parcells thing, we're trying to play our best football at the end of the season. And those, I mean, I lost to them in 11. They lost in 07 that year. But, like, they were never the hot team. Like, I think Coughlin was on the seat both of those years. Both of those years, those teams were pretty average.

I mean, especially the 08 one before you were there. They built their teams. You know, i always hear with the nfl it's like hey there's like three seasons in the season there was a stretch during this warrior season where if they had played in the finals like say you know you know this is stupid but in december like they would have won the nba finals in three games they wouldn't even play a game four against anybody but it's just and look even the way that final series started in 16 against cleveland i was like this thing's a wrap and you know you could get to the dream on part of it and everything but yes you shouldn't be arguing no we were the best team that lost because eventually i would just be like hey dude i don't

cool you win you win that one i've never been to the oracle arena and i'm i'm from this was the last year of the oracle yeah you want to hear a stat uh i've been to three warriors playoff games and their own three during this stretch you're drake that's hard to do you're the warriors drake but you got to go when they play the celtics in the finals man i did go i did go i went i went to game three and the Warriors lost. And I was there with a buddy of mine. And then I had game four tickets. And I felt like I got to do this for my dad. You know, he's the guy that got me into all this stuff.

And then my brother's like, well, I'd like to go. And I was like, fuck. So I was like, you guys can have my tickets. And I flew back to L.A. And then Steph went for like absurd. What a fucking, what a mensch. Or family first, dude. That's good. a mensch yeah but or family first dude that that's good oh the mensch is like a stand-up guy the way you said it the tone of it it was selling oh yeah he's a mensch okay yeah yeah now see i'm kind of mad about that is that is that kind of one

of those like aloha words though where it can mean no mensch is always solid salt of the earth always i should know that by now what a mensch all right thanks man gives up his seats i regret it i do i'm i'm mad at you i'd rather i hadn't it's already done though it's done it's part of history they get to see it see ryan that leads me to another point of like my conflicted relationship with steph like i'm a davidson guy i know steph a little bit love him oh wow but but wait a minute what's your nba fan base celtics that's what i'm getting to okay i'm pissed like i'm i can't root for him anymore after the fucking series and 22 i can't i mean it's like it's one of those celtics fans who thinks the better team lost that series yes 100 you and grant williams yep i'm pissed he's gone

i'm pissed he and marcus i just thought their offense stunk and down the stretch yeah i will i will agree yeah but it's just i just had to throw that in there i just i can't hey i get it we all have our passions it's a weird confliction i don't understand so like it just seems when the key situation ever came out with those southwakes teams like they just never performed at the end when they needed a bucket but they kind of did though all right because I think what happens is we just keep as you get on Tatum got hurt right but like as you advance in rounds it's just like I have this idea of quarterbacks right there's the five to seven guys like I have one tier for my homes

where if I were doing my quarterback tiers it would be like I don't want to hear about any fucking interceptions. That would be the first tier. Mahomes is the only one in it, and he gets to be there. Like I don't want to hear about it if he has a bad Monday night game of like do we need to recalibrate this, right? So I think there's maybe the list is five. You know, Josh Allen, it feels a little turnover-y, but you're including the first two years where I wasn't even sure

he was going to be a long-term starter. But there's that group of like five to seven that I don't want to hear about. I want to update this stuff every single week. And then there's like 10 that stink. And then there's that middle pack where you're going to be right. If you think a guy's great or you think he's awful, you're going to be right in one of the weeks. You come in Monday, you go on the shows, you'll be like,

I told you my guy was the – yeah, okay, but in week four he's going to be bad and then I'm going to feel like I'm right. In the NBA, we do it with the stars. we don't have that like penthouse level of stars well like tatum goes crazy against the sixers he breaks steph's game seven scoring record from a week before that he had at sacramento and then it's like wait the celtics get to the nba finals and lose to i still think it was a better Warriors team. We'll just disagree, Jack. That's cool.

No, I mean, I don't think it's an unreasonable one. We just disagree. Oh, yeah, and full disclosure, I'm a full Homer guy. Right. I think that Heat series is a joke because that was, look, the Heat could have had a parade and I was going to joke about, like, I still don't see it, you know, because I just couldn't believe that they were doing something that's not

done. But if they were, here's, here's the point. Like if they were a mess, how are they even getting this far? They're not a mess. Okay.

But how you're saying like, Oh, well, right when it gets to that point, no, there's been, you're ignoring the other awesome parts. Yeah.

But you got them to there in the first place. Yeah. You, yeah. But in Boston, his championship or disappointment. and it's the fact you got steph and you know you guys i mean that's just how it is you're right you're right and that's a great standard right like we're all trying to get to the championship right but like what if something's have that fucking standard yeah everything's disappointing unless you win a championship

and they've been so goddamn close that's what you gotta learn from this you know three four years were like okay but but let me let me put it in your terms like you are and i mean this is a compliment you're spoiled you've got three of them all right in a city that that has that standard that we're talking about for an organization that essentially has like a modern day celtic standard if you hadn't had any all right and you lose in the AFC title game to somebody, it's a 35-32 shootout, and then guys like me are like, there's something wrong. Their culture, there's just something about this team.

Maybe. But you also could be in the locker room being like, we had a late turnover, man. A fumble that went the wrong way, and they recovered it. So sometimes there are these massive statements attached to the the psyche of these teams and maybe you're right about the Celtics or what maybe it is true sometimes I just I put I'll always push back on it because like if something was really wrong they'd be 40 and 42 but it's been three seasons now we're like so what would you do I don't know I don't know basically I would I would go hey

I'm asking you these guys give you a chance yeah these guys give you a chance so if you think you're going to improve on the chance go ahead but more often than not you're not going to improve your chance they should have been in the finals last year i think denver would have beat him though god i still can't i still can't believe the miami freaking max strew speed like what game seven in boston in oh dude Dude, Gabe Vincent turned into clay. It's fucking annoying. There were like some crazy, crazy Miami numbers. It was like no team's ever done this. They did it like game one.

No team's ever done this. They did it in game two. The game he won, the only game they won in the Denver series, their fourth quarter was the single most efficient offensive fourth quarter of any game regular or postseason of the entire year yeah they got to be standing on their heads to like and they but the thing is doing it they did it look and suppose great and there is an edge there the culture thing i totally buy in with them i i give them a lot of credit because in basketball

you don't win an nba title they seem tough they are but inferior talent i think i think the celtics need a little that toughness yeah i would agree with that you know what i mean like when i'm just saying when when when the team needed something they got some really good ball players they got someone's got to step up and make a play that okay players win your games coaches lose you the game you know however that's what we used to hear in new england bill used to say all the time players win the games coaches will lose you games you know and it means the player needs to go out and if the coach isn't doing the right thing putting them in the situation and it's different in coaching coaching is way

more important to your thing than basketball like i'm not a big blame the coach guy i just think it's stupid i think it's easy same way fans will blame reps you know because it's like identifiable like one of the things i always bring up that's funny is like most of us don't really know what the fuck's going on. But if somebody doesn't call it. Get me in the building. Right. But if somebody doesn't call a timeout and it looks like it was a bad call to knock out the timeout, then all of us are like timeout experts. Like, should have called the timeout.

Do it. Instead of like, no, we should have played man on that or this dude shouldn't be over here. No, situational football. I'm out there to get people. You should be. I will call them out. Oh, you are? I'm going to get back to the game.

Oh, man. All right, we'll run through the Warriors here real quick. This year, they were going for the three-peat to contextualize this game. This was, as we alluded to earlier, final season at Oracle before they do like all teams and leave Oakland in the dust. They went to the Western Conference Finals for the fifth straight season. No They went to the Western Conference Finals for the fifth straight season. No, they won the Western Conference Finals.

Excuse me. Steph was balling. It was Katie's last year there. So you've been to the new one? No, no. I didn't go to that. I went to Boston for the finals. But I'm just saying I'm 0-3 for Warriors playoff games

through the entire Curry stretch. It's an impossible stat. Yeah, I thought you were at the one in San Fran. I went toacle and then i went to boston i have not been to the new one okay i mean that's supposed to be pretty cool you know clay thompson he takes his boat to work loves the ocean he lives in like tiburon that what a fucking what a life you got a boat here yeah i don't take it to the crypto.com place to suit up. How cool would that be? I feel like you're dismissing my boat ownership,

but yeah, that would be cool. I want to hear more about yours. What kind of boat you got? 46-foot Prestige, twin Volvo Pentas. Where are you? You driving in the marina or out in the ocean? Yeah, right out there. You don't really hear of boating a lot in LA. Yeah, because you got to, like people told me,

they're like you know you have it then you just sort of go out and it's like all right well are you going to catalina are you going down to newport but i don't know man i go up around malibu cruise around i love it do you know you have you know the waters and stuff here it's actually not as you know i'm trying to jinx myself but just stay away from the coast is a good rule. Yeah. And then go around it. I think you have a Hyperb on there. We've got the whole deal, man. Joystick.

You know what the Hyperb is? I thought I did. It's like the signal. If you get lost at sea, it shoots the signal. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've got one of those. I ordered that. We had a fucking.

First week, this guy was on Amazon ordering every safety device going. Dude, you want to know i know about hyperb because remember when those football those football guys got died on the fucking boat in the gulf yeah yeah bill gave us a 45 minute lecture on hyperbs and if we're gonna go boating you should have a hyperb bill's a noted boater every detail with that guy every detail like he like it was fucking out so every time i i talked to boater, you got a hyperb. I do have one. I do have one. Yeah, because in the beginning I was like, ooh, how many accessories can I get on this thing?

It's terrible that those guys did that. No, that sucks. But, yeah, this was also a postseason marred by injury with the Warriors this year. DeMarcus Cousins going down. KD injured. Steph banged up with a finger, Clay gets hurt in the finals. I was at that one. Clay blew out his ACL.

I was there for that. I took the free throws. And that was also the same series when Durant went down. The Toronto Raptors fans, who are fucking terrible, cheered for Durant's injury. And it's funny, too, because the Raptors fans would be like, you know, you go back and look at it, it's not that bad. You go back and look at it, it's even worse to remember.

Yeah, because they get sort of like the Raptors, oh, they're just passionate. I can't put that together, though. Like, Canadians are nice people. Not all of them. Like, when you go to, I went to Toronto, I've been to Canada, like, twice, and, like, everyone's pretty fucking nice.

Yes. Like, awkwardly nice. Like, sorry, hey, sorry. No, I would agree for the most part, but. And then this game itself was a tale of two halves. like twice and like everyone's pretty fucking nice yes like awkwardly nice like sorry hey sorry no i would agree for the most part but and then this game itself was a tale of two halves curry scoreless held in check in the first they were blanketed him all over his first one was 949 and then his second it's insane five minutes to go in the second didn't miss a shot in the paint in the second half the hardened inbounds is oh the hardened inbounds is legendary of just like it kind of encapsulates how I think of James Harden.

Can we play it? Yeah. This is late in the game when they're down five, but still kind of alive. So is it 107-102? Oh, yeah, he just hit a three. So this is... Yeah, watch this inbounds.

And then Harden goes to blame him. Oh. If you're the Rockets, you don't want to blame him. Oh. If you're the Rockets, you don't want to foul. E. That was, honestly, that is, that's everything. In a nutshell, first half, you think it was going to seven? Yeah, well, look, it was still a tight game. I think it was 57-54 at the half, was it?

57-57, so it was 57 at the half. It was tied. But it seemed like Houston had control, didn't it? It felt like Houston has to win that game. Durant's gone out. Okay, the window's kind of open. They're like thinking, okay, last year we missed all these threes. So, you know, they have to figure in a weird way.

You know, I don't know if they were going to beat LeBron. But look, man, that game was like Harden has to come through. He got off to an incredible start, so give him that. It was a little different from when the first layup against Boston this year, his first drive on the right side, I just immediately, I could see I went, nope, he's not up for this right now and he didn't even take the layup i don't think i think he passed out of it this one he was way more active in the beginning but that inbound thing at the end like i just don't know what it is like have you ever played with guys or you just felt like it's one thing to not produce but you felt like

they were just whatever their wiring is that makes them special that in that spot there's just something that was a little they just weren't super comfortable i don't know man i don't know if it's as visual as basketball you can see it football it's kind of hard for us yeah it's hard to see it in football and you're usually like if if you're off too you're in danger yeah this is a little different yeah everything's pretty rehearsed and so you kind of know situations you know yeah that's good for what to expect like there's a lot of improv in basketball you know like you can you can hone down a two-minute drill you have zero time out this that and you can practice those situations

and you can see through guys and practice if they're going to be confident in the game yeah that's different it's different in football and And in the times that we didn't have it, we lost. You know what I mean? Anyway. Anyway. They swept Portland. I felt like in that series in the Western Conference Finals, they didn't even want to sweep them.

And then they were kind of like mailing it in. They knew they were going to win the series, even without Durant. And then they went like, do you guys just want to sweep them now? Because I remember watching that one specifically. And then, look, Durant goes down again. That's when Clay blows out his knee. You know, so look, the Raptors pulled it off. How strange is that locker room with KD when he leaves?

That was him in the KD-Dramon kind of beef year. I think it's all out there now at this point. Like, Dramon was too much for KD. And honestly, Dramon's a little bit too much for kd and honestly draymond's a little bit too much for a lot of people but a cool kid too right yep but at the same time like in basketball i have a big big belief that you need one guy that's a little crazy in a good way a little unhinged and it's not just about heart failure you need somebody because as much as i love this warriors team the rest of the guys are very passive dudes like durant's kind of a passive

guy steph can be a passive guy clay can be a really passive guy so I think he's kind of their emotional center at times so you know look I still think these guys would be successful in another version of this roster but the Durant showing up and then being like I got my rings I'm out of here looking back at it too I didn't have as much of an issue with it because I thought he wanted to leave Westbrook and Westbrook isn't really one of my favorite guys to watch play hoops. So I understood it, but this probably went as long as it was supposed to go. I mean, that's the world now. That was excessive.

That was a lot. I mean, the team wins 73 games, loses in Game 7 of the finals, and arguably the second best player in the NBA is like, I'm in. How do you make your team better? You can never get mad at a team trying to get better i don't blame i don't blame the team were they gonna say no because there was also a really weird thing where the cap spike went up because the tv money so had that happened in any of the other off seasons the warriors would have never been able to get KD wow so then by the way they since changed that rule so they can't just have an out of nowhere spike of 30 million dollars it has to be you're still going to get the player money it's still going to be broken up based on the CBA see

I don't know I don't know the the CBA it was really caps and stuff I don't don't guys just spend over it anyways and pay a luxury tax or something there's a soft cap the new rules weird like tougher right the new rules are much more something. There's a soft cap. The new rule is weird, like tougher, right? The new rules are much more restrictive. It's basically a hard cap for the teams at the top, which you're not going to realize until you're kind of in it. But this was just really, really weird. The TV money exploded, okay?

So it's the 16 summer going into 17. And the league was like, hey, we want to smooth this out. And the Players Association, which at the time was being run by michelle roberts who i thought did a bad job she was like no you know it basically comes down to like any cba in sports like owners say tuesday now we want it wednesday i mean it's just the way it is because it's been you know i don't i don't blame anybody for not having trust on the other side of it so as soon as the league's like we shouldn't just have all this money be in the cap space we should we should smooth it out the players association of media is like no but i don't think the players association really understood what it meant so now all of a sudden like if

lebron could have gone on a time machine being like we better push that that can't happen so that durant doesn't end up on the warriors and I have to go up against maybe the greatest five of all time. So that's another tidbit. And they've since, the new rule doesn't allow for that to happen again. So that's another part of this that's pretty crazy. Is that like public or did you like, you know this? No, it's public. But like, do a lot of people know this theory?

Nobody cares yet because it hasn't happened yet. It's like recycling. I recycle. Fucking right, man. Once I seeing like do you did you grow up recycling big time i don't know it's not that hard to do man i didn't realize it was like that people didn't do it until i left california right somebody came over to my house and i was like you know those two bins one of them has like bottles and stuff in it and the other has like garbage blue bag you know usually there's a blue bag for recycling when we just had a blue i'm blown away when somebody doesn't recycle a plastic bottle i went to ohio they didn't know what it was that's my favorite part of the podcast i went to ohio they didn't even know what it was i'm

telling you it was crazy is hard never gonna championship? You know, he could have a late. If you watch it. As the main guy, never. Never? Never's a long time. Now, would he tag on with somebody else later on? I'm not going to rule that out. By the way, that guy's still trying to figure out where his max contract is.

So, you know, who knows how the financial chase will go for him down the road. Hell, he might be. Is he going to get another max? I might be nicer will go for him down the road hell he might be gonna get another max i might be nicer because if we start hanging out he could be your neighbor it's gonna get awkward is he is he was one of my coaches for a basketball celebrity game oh no way you're a celebrity the best thing with harden being your coach i just i wasn't getting enough touches i just checked myself in i mean i was like hey i gotta go in he was like what i lebron'd him i'm a tough guy to coach as we've discovered today you gotta be coachable i'm not i'll show up for you but i'm gonna ask questions i would have never been a patriot you know who was kind of like that martellus bennett oh i can't imagine dude he came in

because like you know there's a way you know an offense away there's a way yeah yeah absolutely marty he would be just he'd be asking questions they were fucking great questions but like you never heard people asking like why are we doing like marty would be like hey mcdaniel why are we doing this and he said he sounds like fucking he sounds like samuel jackson yeah yeah like when he breaks up the. Like we're in offensive meeting and he would say something. And he's like, I don't know why the fuck are we doing that? You know, like. But you can only laugh at Marty.

Because he'd back it up with like, if we're doing this. And why. Like he knew. They were good questions. They were good questions. But you just never heard that. Especially a new guy that came in. How many years was he there?

I think he was there two. But dude, we won a Super Bowl. No, I'm not. That dude is. He he was nasty he was a great football player man he because we didn't have grunk that year and he was he was our guy in the playoffs man he was a fucking stud he could block his nose off you know he had a bad shoulder so he couldn't get his arm up a lot of the times but he was such a force with the ball in his hand too and he can he he was a match-up problem dude martellus bennett is a very underrated tight end i just know enough of being in the the mix of talking about the pats and again the first three years i was

in the business we were talking about him every day but just the idea somebody comes in that's new and it's like why are we doing this Because it's like eventually everybody knows this. That's Marty. Right. You can you can be asking good questions, but eventually I don't want to hear those either. Dude, it was it was but it was it was so fun to have that energy. That's cool. You know, because, you know, when you're in a certain routine and you got a guy like Marty come in, kind of give you a laugh.

That's good, man. Any Jack, we miss anything No I was just over here Going deep on the CDC's website Reading up on rhabdo After we talked about deli Yeah rhabdo Yeah I didn't even know about it

You never heard about rhabdo I may never exert myself Physically again after Reading about this You exert so much That like you're What happens It's like

Like the proteins And electrolytes Get released into your bloodstream And then I guess They can end up causing like organ failure and i'm surprised there's some instagram guy who like is seeking rhabdo and telling us that's the way liver the rhabdo that means you're not working hard enough like yeah you even rhabdo bro yeah that's that that should be a term i love that you knew it you were looking at me i was like i don't know i mean you you look like you're a gym guy you're i don't want to i don't want to do that no thanks this kid

he got it i'm like oh my god bro go sleep you and deli go to the same gym take a day off yeah you can't you gotta go two on one off two on two off two on one off two on two off body needs recovery hell yeah nah that was about it. We're pretty clean this up. Hey, I'm Gianna Prudente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer,

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Learn more over at grimandmild.com slash curiosities. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? I mean, the Boone County rebels will stay the Boone County rebels with the image of the biscuits. It's right here in black and white in the prints of a lion.

An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader. You choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these

charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts what do we name this game ryan what is the name of this game uh second half steph oh steph's game okay yeah i thought we were talking about the celebrity football game again

um so let's see here. Stakes. Stakes de la Sol were hot. What's the name of the game, though? Oh, what's the name of it? What's the name of the game? Is it a second half staff? We hate Houston. Steve Kerr at that moment said it's his favorite game he's ever coached.

The favorite game of Steve Kerr. We can work on that. But yeah, General Prentice. Move the words around a little bit. Steve Kerr. The Steve Kerr game of favorites. Of i love it all right let's score the game the stakes in this game out of one out of ten one out of ten uh it's probably an eight they were up three two they still were going to go home to close it out but durant goes out the stakes though individually for steph's rep for a night at

halftime when he had zero points in this game like they were a lot higher but i you can't put like a nine or ten on this right because they still had a game in their back pocket to go home so seven not a yeah i go seven star power we got there's a lot of stars here we had beyonce and jay-z at the fucking game he was there sitting courtside. Khaleesi? Khaleesi? She was, I don't know why she was in Houston. James Goldstein was there. He's always there.

Players, what do you think on a star power there, right? James Goldstein, he'd be like a main Red Claws game. That dude just loves hoops.

He loves hoops. I would love, like, he's like a white whale of guests I want on this podcast. I don't, I think he'd probably do it.

He's, you know, cool enough. His big thing is no access badge. He just walks and it's like he's cool enough his big thing is no access badge he just walks and it's like he's kind of waiting for somebody to fuck up that's fucking sick he doesn't have an access badge?

I've never seen him with one on and like he goes back when I would have media passes for stuff like I never had to do it so I'm lucky he's just that known? yeah so like you go in the back and watch like the post game presser like set up in some fake tent like Dunkin Donuts you know whole deal main Red Claws game WB, you know, whole deal.

Main Red Claws game. WB Mason, you know what I'm talking about. And then he would just be in the back, like hands tucked into the front pockets of the jeans, just checking out the post-game. So that's his thing. He's really into it, man, so good for him. I was at a late-night party.

I was like, how'd you make your scratch there? He was like, well, people know me from architecture. I was like, what? I was like, I think he was kind of like, you can fuck off, dude. He's a real mysterious kind of cat with that. You get pleaded Banana Republic khakis on. It's a good way for me. So that's all I could afford at the time.

Star power, nine? Nine. It was a good nine. Well, Durant's hurt, so he's not playing in it. Yeah, it could have been a 10, but yeah it was a really good game this was actually like uh it went back and forth i mean but then they came back at the end too or you're like they were trying to make those threes they hit a couple yeah they hit like three in a row like you kept thinking like eventually that's also where steph ends up with a ton of points is on the free throws because they'd hit a shot

and have to foul again yeah so if they had missed like three possessions prior maybe steph ends up like in the mid-20s but he started racking up the points with the free throws because they kept letting him get it on the inbound too uh eight eight and even like push back i'm just this is your system no this is yours this is this is you this is we want our guests scores belichick. There's a couple turnovers there late. We've got to go either way. So, you know, we should try to clean that up. That is a good Belichick. Thanks.

Look, like, fellas, we can't go out there playing the game the wrong way. Like, what the fuck? You know, there's a guy, I saw a guy, Adam Rowe Jr. the other day that makes that pass. I love how when he goes and he fluffs the... That was my favorite. He doesn't do it as much. He used to just like...

I remember one time you guys were playing. I don't even know if you're on the team then. The other team sucked. He's like, well, you know, their pump protections the last couple of years. Nobody does it better than those guys. And you were like, you have to be dying laughing when you go back to the hallway and being like i fed them that i love

their punt protection because i always thought there was like a little glimmer of like a rat then i've said that to some people be like nope you wouldn't like them like wouldn't no and then there is none of that and i go i just i don't know that i believe it i think there's got to be a few people out in the world that have connected with him where they get they get kind of something out of him but maybe i'm wrong i don't know like i can dream what's the name score of the day what is the steve kerr game of favorites four game of favorites what's our average? A flat 7 Where does it rank in the games that we've done?

Wait You guys did the Pro Bowl? That's awesome Who'd you do that with? Brandon Marshall, he never played in a playoff game This is right behind the double doink Sandwiched in between the double doink and the Manning 7 Brandon Marshall was the MVP

We worked together inside the NFL He said he wanted to talk about that one That's terrific. Sandwiched him between the double doink and the Manning seven. Brandon Marshall was the MVP. We worked together inside the NFL. He said he wanted to talk about that one. Our naming hurt this game. But you know what? It shouldn't be. Maverick's heat shouldn't be nine and a half. That shouldn't be over Giants' pads. Yeah.

Mark Cuban came in here and gave everything tens. Yeah. We're not going to argue with cubes. I was trying to sell him a couple things, so I had to let his score go that same thing happened to him when the first time he was on around the horn tony reali just gave him points constantly the whole time he must have been pitching him an app after the fact you know like cuba was just sitting there smiling the whole time i told him i wouldn't pitch him anything but i think i pitched him like five things yeah Yeah, Israeli basketball teams. Israeli basketball team. They should do a show where you pitch him stuff.

Yeah. Tank, something tank maybe. Jules Tank. He just comes over like, we're taping a pod, but before we get started, where are you on towels? We missed anything, Jack? No, that was it. That was awesome. Ryan, you want to?

Yeah, I got a book coming out, The History of the Longshoremen. Longshoremen? Yep. So what is that? Pretty self-explanatory. Longshoremen. I don't know what that is. I just don't feel like they've been covered enough.

I want to be forgotten historically, so I'm working on it. But it's going to take a while. Hell yeah. How do you prepare for that? I'm fucking with you, dude. I'm just kidding. I'm working on it, but it's going to take a while. Hell yeah. How do you prepare for that? I'm fucking with you, dude. I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. You seem like a guy that would be writing a book on the long term.

I always like to plug a fake book when I do these. So I'm sorry, man. You had me hyped. Did I have you hyped? Yeah. You were like, I'm not buying that. Season two of The Wire. I would have bought it.

We'll get you a PDF. Do you have it in the voice books? Audio book. Also known as. Maybe you should pitch a few in on that. Books, but voices. Thanks for coming on, bro. Hey, you're the best.

Thanks, man. We're going to do it more. Yeah, less leg. Well, that was a great show. He knows a lot. ryan tv podcast people they just they they know how to store information i don't know if i'll ever get to that yeah i mean it's insane the stuff i gotta google he just right off the dome he's just he's a real he's a fan he's a beast like that that boston fandom but like he you could just tell he he's a fanatic he knows the games he

knows you know he's talking situational basketball situational football and he knows a lot of stuff and he's able to harness it and stay objective and segue us we needed to we're getting long i mean he was running the show it was crazy we need more i mean him rich all those guys yeah that was that was should we uh get into a little bit of a new post-show segment here? What's this post-show segment, Jackie? We're doing a little bit of a top five, top five, which is our top five, top fives. Everyone's ranking everything these days.

It's top five this, top five that, and the TikTok algo loves it. Everyone loves it. So maybe we come up with our top five things to list, and then we'll end up doing those top fives at some point down the line so you got to stick around so we have to do a top five of the top five lists so like an example would be top five burgers i mean we i i mean i'm the burger burger yeah and then at some point we actually run through that list so right now we're

just trying to find our five yeah that's that's on the top five, but I don't know where. That's definitely on there. That's got to be in the hopper, right? That's in the hopper. All right, so we got one down. I like food top fives. I like food top fives the best. I don't know why.

I just go top five of foods. Seriously, I was talking in the kitchen with Kyler. Top five gummies? I'm a gummy guy. You love gummies. Love my gummies. We got to do a top five gummy. Top five gummies.

Top five burgers. We're talking regular gummies here. Oh, yeah we're talking regular are we talking reg oh a little wink action for the listeners we're talking haribo baby top five sandler movies i like sandler movies in there there's so many to choose from so we can read all those things off the dome water boy water boy mr d mr deeds big daddy wedding singer happy i loved big daddy everyone used to call me frankenstein because of the kid's name was julian and he wanted to name himself frankenstein dude how did i never put two and two together that rocks yeah remember he could spit and it would touch the ground yeah suck it back up yeah he liked the stick eating ketchup packets the stick with the the roller bl. I always look for that area in Central Park. I've never seen it.

I've never seen it. Ever. It's a very, I didn't know Central Park had like big steep, steep points like that. Me either. Damn you, Scuba Steve. Scuba Steve. Fuck yeah. I use that every once in a while too.

He's got to. Anytime you step on anything. She just looks at me like, what the fuck are you talking about? She doesn't say that, but I can see it with her eyes. We got top five directors if we're staying in the movie category. We got top five. We're talking dynasties of all time. That's tough.

That'd be tough because then you got to do some researches. It's too much. I'm with you. You don't want to do a top five with your number one on. You're a part of a number one. No, that's... Yeah, who wants that? I like...

Back to our food angle. I love a good top five fast food spots. Fast food? I know we don't need a ton of fast food, but I still like regular. I love fast food. I do too. But it's gotten shitty. I know.

It's in... Especially in a city. City fast food is always worse than suburb fast food, in my opinion. Depends on the suburbs. Well, yeah. But like a big city like Burger King with no drive-thru, it's always going to suck. Not that I'm a BK guy, really. I low-key like BK.

I mean, I used to love their barbecue sauce and their nuggets and their old school fries and the chicken was good. I like their rectangle chicken sandwich. I don't know why it was a rectangle. I don't know, but it would look cool on that submarine type roll. And I loved the Whopper. I loved the Whopper as a kid. And I liked their fries. And they're not McDonald's fries, but they were different from McDonald's fries.

They had a little bit of that crispier and almost like a, I don't want to say like a sheen, but it was almost like a coating. Yeah. They did a little something extra for you. Yeah, we got to do the fast food spots. We got one more. What are we thinking? Food-wise? Tacos?

I like tacos. We are here in L.A. We got to do that. We got to go do some. We got to go check them out. I'm down stands everywhere. Little trucks. I hate this little stand right here in Brentwood.

What is it? Bundy? Oh the main the main kind of drag there right on the side where they be lining up i love a mean lean carne asada barrito yeah now we're talking hell thing is they don't have crema and i love crema in my burritos. You're a crema guy. Their rice is very good. Their frijoles, their beans are very good, and they have good salsas and stuff. I wonder if, would they be offended if I brought crema and put it on my burrito? I don't think so. A little crema. Have you done that?

Kyler does it. You do it? Absolutely. Yeah, because they don't do sour cream here. You got to do it. I like they don't do sour cream here you gotta do it i like the sour cream yeah you need the cream but you gotta get the crema cream what's that uh the table cream table cream yeah it's a little it's a little watery i like that oh i think that that makes the burrito here's my here's my top five list just to put lists out there. I like top five directors, top five pizza places,

top five burgers in LA. In LA? In LA. Top five family members. We can't do pizza. Everyone does pizza. Alright, we'll do these top fives coming up. We'll do them coming up. We'll do them coming up. Definitely. Get ready. We gotta do our research and development on these.

What an episode. Thanks again to Ryan. That was fun. And I like guests that I learn from. Me too. We're lifelong learners. Try to learn something new every day. What did old Frank used to say?

When you're green, you grow. When you're ripe, you rot. Facts. That's what old Pop said. That's been another episode of Games with Names presented by Wynn. Remember to follow us on YouTube, Instagram, X, TikTok, Twitter, and Snapchat. Still don't know the X. I still say Twitter. Twitter, guys.

Twitter, guys. See you next week, guys. Come on, Jack. Later. Let's go get some burritos. Yeah. That's been another episode of Games with Names presented win las vegas and encore boston harbor games with names is a production of iheart radio for more podcasts from iheart radio visit

the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts i'm carrie champion and this is season four Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation,

then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts.