Green Light with Chris Long - Ryen Russillo on NBA Restart, Bubble, Ben Simmons Injury, & NFL Dress Code Fines.

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

0:37 - Open and Ryen's Birthday. 15:30 - NBA Handling Restart. 28:30 - Talking Western Conference. 1:08:38 - Talking Eastern Conference. Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This feels like a regional game in the NCAA tournament. It feels like an Olympic game type of thing. Like, you know something's off, but it's meaningful. You know what's meaningful. And maybe that's because we know these are seeding games and that sort of thing. Or you're just enamored with the fact that, like you said, they're pulling it off. Like, it's a big deal what they're doing. And I think they should be applauded.

All right. So we're here. We are reunited. It's been a while. Me and Ryan Rusillo. Ryan, what's going on? Well, you know, just take care of business out here on the West Coast. I haven't left L.A. since, I guess, end of February, beginning of March.

That feels like another year completely. Yeah, it's usually the time I really start getting out there exploring the world. But no complaints. You know, I don't really have any complaints. So it's good to catch up. I know we've been we talk quite a bit, which is kind of funny. Does your wife ever go like, how did this guy become kind of like your go-to best friend this late in life? Because it's weird.

No, just a willing FaceTime participant. Here's the thing. I'm the biggest FaceTime person. And most of my family is. Yeah, most of my friends don't appreciate it. So, you know, the fact that you are willing to opt in, no pun intended to the FaceTime League of Charlottesville, we appreciate that. But we're going to talk, we're going to talk a lot of NBA tonight. And like, you know, I always joke Ryan's like my podcast dad.

I say that. He's one of my podcast dads. And as far as like NBA knowledge, he's one of those as well. And I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's because the NBA is the only thing on TV, but I fucking love it now. And I've been so passive about it, maybe because I'm a Knicks fan for the better part of a decade. Maybe I was busy. But I am on this shit.

I was afraid to do the pod, though, without running. So I also broke another cardinal rule, me talking about the NBA being one, The second is I took a big fat candy before this pod. And that is like the first rule of fight club at the Greenlight Pod for Chris Long. Chris Long does not take candies before he records podcasts. So we'll see how this goes. I'm candy free. So I'm ready to go.

But you had a birthday, which I want to hit first. Start there. Yeah, I have it written out of my notes. Birthday. Ryan turned. How old? 45 yesterday. But so youthful.

You know, for you guys who are out there listening on the various platforms, you can digest the Greenlight Pod, I'm on Zoom. And Ryan looks at least 37. I don't know if you say at least going backwards. But I would say you get that mostly, like late 30s, Ryan? It was a weird lead up to the birthday because I had an agent call. And it was funny because it was a very, about something else and then, you know, they think the agents, like, the agents get really upset

if they forget a birthday, you know, and you're like, just make sure my deals are good. I don't care if you guys miss a birthday. I'm not. Yeah, dude, I am fucking over. Like, I missed the shit out of your birthday. Like, I found out in a group text that's your birthday. I don't, I don't expect. I don't expect. Yeah. I don't care about people's birthdays. Very few people, you know, especially when you're, I've had a couple of my 40s where I forgot. I'd be like, oh my God, that's today, you know. And that's one of the, things about, you know, living alone where you, you know, you don't have people reminding you. And I'm not trying to make it depressing everything. Like I'm straight up, uh, Sarah Walsh,

when we were neighbors, she would always try to make it, you know, I came back from work once and there were, there was 40 balloons outside and, you know, she, uh, she, you know, like, I don't want to make it sound like some sad case here, the whole thing. But yeah, it's weird because you would think, this is really funny. And I'm going to get your feedback on this. You would think that when somebody goes, well, how old are you? You would think. You would think that when somebody goes, well how old are you like my agent said is this 40 is this 40 and then I was out to dinner with a mutual friend and he goes what are you like 37 38 and I go no man this is 45 or I was like I don't I turn 45 next week and it it was met not with like a whoa you look great it was a whoa

that's halfway to 90 yeah it is it's half time essentially like I see you as a living till 90 guy and that's pretty good I don't see everybody that way I don't know though You know, was it Deschambeau was like, I'm going to live to 130, 140. I don't think I want to do that. I mean, look, I'll admit, this is a bad thought. But I'll just share it with everybody because that's what I do. I'll see guys in their late 70s in the gym. And I go, eh, if I'm dead by then, I'm fine.

You know? It's so fucking dark. It is. Those guys are in the gym in their late 70s. They're probably going to be around at least another 25. Yeah. And I understand that the guy's looking at me like this asshole. Yeah. Who's this guy? So I say that just because sometimes I share those weird thoughts that I'll have on my head.

Thanks for picking tonight. Thanks for playing Greenlight Pod. There you go. But, you know, right, you want to do a pod about the NBA? I wish you happy birthday. You tell me you hope you're dead by 78. Yeah, what do you want to do it? Thursday. So the seating. Yeah, I mean, how about the, look at these fake fans. Holy shit. You've got a TV going on. I can see you probably have money on this game.

I went to hook up my TVs here in my little work studio, but I usually like to stay upstairs. So I haven't really, I moved recently as you did you. But, you know, the birthday thing's cool. Joe Kim Noah is wearing number 55. He's on the Clippers. Did not know that. You didn't even know he was back in the league.

I knew he was in the league. I had a feeling, you know. He was a late signing. So that one slid under the radar a little bit and with everything was going on. Losing track of Joe Kim Noah is not a huge deal. Well, listen, and with all due respect to him, he was a hell of a player. And he was fun to walk. I love him.

I love his personality. I love the way he plays the game. I would say early returns on this. It was a little tough. It was definitely tough for him against Anthony Davis. Not a great matchup for him. But Noah's going to give you everything he got. And from what we've heard, a great hang.

a legendary hang oh dude i've heard some things about him have we heard things that we can't share about how awesome his life is but you can also i remember watching him at florida i was like who this guy he used to kind of i was like what is his deal and then you don't realize like no that that that whole thing is is why he is who he is and you got to kind of buy into it and then i always thought it was kind of funny that he went at lebron and i thought it was funny when they were getting into it with cleveland and he just was like you think cleveland's cool and shout out Like, no offense to Cleveland, but the fact that he just was looking at the reporters going, wait, what? Like, you think Cleveland's cool?

Like, who have you? And that anybody would even say that. Guys would be so afraid to say anything anymore. He's just straight up going like, what? No filter, and I can respect it. And it really never got him into big trouble. Like, he never said anything like where he's crossed the line, you know? He never said anything that he got, like, in trouble for.

I don't feel like unless I miss something. I don't know. I mean, it's hard for me to keep track of everything everyone's ever said, ever. But he, him going at LeBron, knowing he's not in his neighborhood, made me respect him. We're a lot of guys who do that, that neighborhood jumping thing where I go, I don't need, I don't need you mouthing off to him. Okay. I don't need that. Whatever reason with Noah, because I thought it was real.

And he's like, fuck this. We're trying to beat you guys. and I'm not going to kiss the ring and I respected it more with him and a lot of that had to do with the fact that he was that good player I think he did finish fourth in MVP voting that one year before. Wow. It was random into the ground.

Listen, in football it's usually the fifth corner that says that thing. It's always the fifth corner. You can bet money on it being a guy that's been getting toasted with the threes all week long. And then he's the guy that pisses off Calvin Johnson.

You know what I mean? Like, so I've seen that movie. Joe Kim Noah, he's above that. We need to stay on this. We need to stay on this because I'll never forget, as I've said, numerous times, the highlight of the ESPN career and all the cool shit I get to do, coming out of the tunnel, not like I was coming out of the tunnel with the team, but I would be in the tunnel and they were coming out.

Yeah, me just running full speed. And we were sitting there and there was this huge tight end. He was still in his baby fat stage. Some freshman show up to campus, it's like, all right, you kicked everybody's ass because you were huge in high school, but now you're actually going to get like in his shape. Yeah, and that guy always needs facial hair. Always, especially when now it's cool. You always use it.

And he was in the tunnel and he's freaking out. He's like, not today. Not in our house. Not today. Oh, they got a reservation. And none of it was cool. It was like, they got a reservation. reservation and it's a table for four and you're like are you do and none of it made any sense and like no one

three movie talk yeah and no one on the team is feeling it right no one the team's feeling it and stand for steve who is as real as it gets just as looks at me he goes pay attention to 81 i bet that fucker never plays no he did not play and he didn't he knew it he goes that he goes nothing pissed me off more. And Stanford Steve's the most humble, the most, you wouldn't even know what his resume was. He doesn't even want to talk about football. He went to Stanford and blocked for four years. He did. He didn't catch any passes. He wasn't on the NFL radar despite his Hollywood high school thing where he was like the number one guy. That's going on the ticker tomorrow. Rissilo takes a jab at Stanford Steve's receiving abilities.

No, that's the offense. Willingham brought him in. Stanford Steve should have been in Florida's offense under Spurrier, split out wide, running past everybody. Instead, they were like, can you add 40 pounds, get slower, and never go. And we're going to just, we're going to go power. We're going to go jumbo on first and 10 every single time. And so it was like the worst fit for him ever from a football thing. But my point is he is the most, it's not even humble. It's a stage below humble where he doesn't even talk about it.

It's resistant. It's resistant. He doesn't want to be talked about. He doesn't want to talk about any of that stuff. And when he finally opened up like, yeah, you know, Notre Dame wanted me to go to play quarterback. And I was like, what? Because, yeah, they wanted me to be like QV, but he's like, man, Notre Dame. He just was such a bummer of a time.

He hated. Then I was like, where did you hate the most? He goes, Penn State hated him, still do. Why, why, though? Because the recruiters at Penn State, and that was that previous regime that was there forever, he said they called him so much that it just wasn't cool. It was, if you don't come here, you know, you're not going to be anything like that kind of shit. And he's like, all right, you can, you can have this. So my point is, is that when he was pointing

up this kid, this college kid, and then he says to me, he's like, I, nothing made me more mad than practice squad guy who gets a home jersey trying to act like he's, you know, you can put you in a bad, it can put you in a bad spot. Yeah, yeah. A bad spot as a team. I never wanted to be some, a lot of the reason that sometimes I wanted to talk shit like because I on the field I talked it we've already started the game you know so I might have been the reason that I pissed you know pissed somebody off to run for 300 yards but nobody knows except for us uh if I go out there and I make an ass of myself leading up to the game during the week people interpret it like that's the reason that you lost so the risk reward on that it's kind of pointless it really is unless you're just trying to get in a dick

measuring contest you know what i mean like with the quotes and guys aren't interested in that so did you ever have a moment where you had a guy who maybe was a third stringer as you mentioned and he's talking all this shit and then a starter on another team like is in your neighborhood right a guy that's taking all 80-something snaps and goes to you about your boy being like hey what's up what's up with 24 oh for sure oh for sure So like, what do you do? You say, I got, I got him. Like, depending on how he's acting. You know, like guys that know each other.

And there's also kind of a code, like what's over the line or what if a guy's being ridiculous out there or like, you know, repeated personal fouls or doing something dirty. You know, there is a fraternity in a sense between some guys. They're few and far between because for me, like later in the league, like if I was in a position to check a younger guy, that would mean I was old. And by the time you're older, there are less of your classmates left. So this situation would be rare. But if I came in a league with a guy in 08 and in 2019, that dude's like, hey, get your boy.

I know him better than the guy who just showed up and is staying at the holiday inn, you know, down the street. And I might have met him two days ago. So like, I'm going to check that guy, especially if he's being a total dick. Did you ever have one moment where you're like, I can't believe my. teammate just said that. Is there cringe-worthy? Give me your best cringe-worthy one that you can share. We had a guy in St. Louis and any of my former teammates who remember him.

And he was like a Madden football game, you know, like as far as the sound bites. I like this kind of party. Yeah, like that, but he had kind of like the scorpion voice, like the alpha male in every 90s action movie, like very stiff. and he's a good player, real good player. But he made a tackle on the sidelines and we're down 30 in San Francisco. And it actually gets picked up on the TV copy. That's how we heard it because they're on the opposite sideline.

And guys will go home and watch a TV copy sometimes because you can't get in the facility on Sunday night. And we hear that this guy make a tackle. And he points at three people like in sequence and says, where are you going? Pause. going nowhere and walks off. And I'm saying to myself like, dude, this is not a fucking action movie.

This is not varsity blues. That's the reason we hate football movies because the one-liners and shit. And to me, that guy broke a cardinal rule on the opposite sideline. Yeah, we crinched it in team meetings and fried him for a week. You don't talk like that.

Down 30, you can't do that. Down 30, you definitely can't do that. You definitely can't do that down 30. So don't talk shit 101 in the NFL. Like if you hear in a movie, probably don't use it on a football field. As far as the NBA is concerned, Brian, do you think that they'll emerge better for how they've handled this and the product they're putting forward? Because I know the ratings aren't great. Some people aren't crazy about some of the social justice stuff.

That's fine. Go watch something else. But like, I think the product is very good considering. Blown away with the product. I thought it was going to look worse and I was okay with it. I felt like I was kind of prepping myself and then in the podcast, I did, you know, there's going to be moments, especially as the stakes are raised. When you're watching a finals game, it's going to be on the announcers. It's going to be, but the way they, whether it's the stage setup or however they tested things out,

here's an idea. Let's just get rid of all the empty stands, build these walls, video boards. We can make fun of the virtual fans. You can make fun of some of the audio. But I think the NBA audio has been so much better than some of the regional baseball stuff that I've watched, because I do this time of year, usually throw on some baseball because I still do, like the sport. Get back to the room. Yeah, you know, 0202. But I would I would tell you that even though my expectations were low and I'd be watching it no matter what, and the ratings thing is, is kind of all over the place. Like what do you really expect in the middle of the day? Right. Let's compare these when they're real playoff games and they're slotted different time-wise.

I still think this is going to be pretty good ratings. And some of the ratings that I've seen are similar to playoff games that we've had before when, you know, everything was normal. So I'm impressed with the players and how seriously they've taken this. I'm impressed with the league because throughout all of this, and I know this has turned into kind of these different camps where there's a camp that thinks there's other camps rooting against the return of sports, but I don't know that it's that, but there seems to be a twinge of like this enjoyment if there is failure.

And people that are like, oh, baseball is stupid. They did it the wrong way when I don't know that's entirely. I'm not sticking up for baseball, but let's be fair about it. what baseball is trying to accomplish and the numbers of players and the fact that they can't just do a bubble or they voted against a bubble because it was just going to be hard logistically to have that many teams. It's less players. It's less teams. So the NBA had an advantage to kind ramp this up and then keep it all in-house with less teams and most of the playoffs start. But the whole thing, I just love that there's, well, I don't love that there's so many pessimists.

I just feel like there's so many pessimists. It's almost like advice in life where when you're younger and you have aspirations, you're going to be so many people that tell you, ah, that's too tough. Like do something else. And you go, well, what? What is that? What kind of mindset is that to have as a young person in life? And so when you look at it with the NBA, like, what would you have rather done, then give up or not even try? And I'm not saying that I think there are people rooting against it, but it just was, I can understand the pessimism, but I think at the same time, you have to give them so much credit

for two, three months, the NBA, when I'd be talking to different sources going, how are you going to do this? How are you going to? And they're like, we don't know. Every day we have five answers. We have 10 more questions. And they just grinded through it the whole time. and now we're at this point where it looks like it's going to work out.

And I don't know if I'm proud of them. I just think that it should be acknowledged. Listen, I think it starts with the players, you know, number one, because like everything that league does, it feels like coming from the NFL, which is not a player's league. And nor do I think that, you know, the players have exhibited that they deserve a lot more responsibility. And that's tough love coming from a former player. but this year when you're voting on a CBA and there's that large a portion of votes that are just absent, it's crazy.

The NBA, less players, more communication, more friendship, it seems like between teams, more leadership, like clear-cut leadership. And it shows, and it also shows that on the other end of it, because I don't want to shit on the NFL's student body, but the NFL's up against way more from an ownership and commissioner. standpoint and just like the mindset. So I love that the players have taken control of this thing. And I love that Silver and the entire group have listened.

And I had pessimistic thoughts. You know, I didn't know what a bubble looked like. You know, I didn't know if they could really enforce that stuff. I thought there would be a Lou Williams situation every fucking night because that's just like what pro athletes are like. We're above the rules, right? These dudes have not been above the rules. Guys you talk to in there seem like they're pretty happy.

with it. So, um, and listen. And something could go wrong too. You know what I mean? Like at least I look at it as here was the plan. Here is the execution. And they put themselves in a position to pull this off. And it still may not work. But at least they've given themselves a chance and the product looks, the visual part of it with its limitations looks better than I think anybody could have expected. Oh my gosh. The guys that did the, you know, the backdrop here are geniuses. And I'm not being, you know, like you, you made us feel normal. Like, we went from having no sports. And baseball has done a good job. But this, and this is more doable than baseball due to a lot of factors.

But this feels like a regional game in the NCAA tournament. It feels like an Olympic game type of thing. Like, you know something's off, but it's meaningful. You know it's meaningful. And maybe that's because we know these are seeding games and that sort of thing. Or you're just enamored with the fact that, like you said, they're pulling it off. Like, it's a big deal what they're doing. And I think they should be applauded.

it's been a success and I kind of wonder if they're going to come out of this thing and learn anything like as a league like to make their product even better like is there something they could take away and be like you know what that's something we might apply to the future I don't know like a play in game type situation I don't love the playing game I think that's why you play 82 for this I think they were trying to be ultimately fair where it wasn't eliminating a team that may have caught another team if they had more games like a Portland or something like that but it still weighted towards a team that it finishes an eighth if it ends up being the playoff game thing, which looks like it's going to happen anyway. But the biggest thing has been something that I've talked about now for a couple years was getting out of the way of football, conceding the fall of football, starting on Christmas, and then running it through the summer and owning these six weeks where you can see the last couple years, especially when I was at ESPN, you can see all this different programming, the basketball leagues, there was going to be a hockey league as well, different people trying to find a way to own those kind of six empty weeks when it was really just regional ratings for baseball.

And when I would ask the NBA about it, they were very specific. They said the research that we have, we have this stuff that we do, we look at how many televisions are on. It's pretty basic. How many televisions are on during those traveling weeks in the summer where kids are out of school and people are all over the place? And I think the league was scared to death to ever try that. Like, how are you ever going to get the opportunity to try shifting your season? Yeah. Then, here you go. That's exactly what's going to happen. they're going to have all of the data that they need to look at that long term. So that could be something that changes forever.

Or maybe it comes back if things are back to normal. Again, we're talking a year from now. And it's everyone in an arena. Things are normal. There's competition on television. How are those NBA ratings pushed not from the end of June but into August? How different are they? Is a lower number, but a higher share?

They're actually going to have real research because that's what's going to happen with this next season. So that's the most important thing because it could change the NBA schedule forever because of it. Yeah, I mean, like they should at least talk about it. I think that most people would probably vote like fans. I don't know too many people who wouldn't favor that, you know, like starting, you know, after Christmas. I'm scared of death of it because I go 10 and a half months straight. Never mind my school for you. No, no.

But, you know, my vote doesn't count. and my vote is selfish and I'll adjust. I'll figure it out. Yeah, I'm being selfless here, okay? Right. I'm being selfless. You are a selfless person. I know, exactly.

Thank you. But it's been fun. Like you had the Houston comeback in one day, which was, I didn't even realize how historic it was. You texted me, you know, just how crazy of a comeback. The Dallas comeback? Yeah, down seven with 45 seconds. Every team in that situation had been two wins, 711 losses.

Oh, however many years since they kept track of it. You didn't realize what you saw. all. I mean, because you kind of, I think, like, look at Houston and you're like, oh, they can score. They're not golden stateish necessarily. I don't know, but it's a different kind of golden stateish. And you're like, they can do anything. So you're watching intently, but I had no idea how it reminds me of, man, God, this is a throwback. I think it was Maryland Duke. There was a huge comeback when I was like maybe gone in 60 seconds. Yeah, which is a Maryland game. Yeah, yeah. But in that, you knew how unlikely that was when that happened.

I had no idea how unprecedented that was going to be. I hated Duke so much back then, and I was a big time. I've come around on it quite a bit. But I think I was bartending and losing my mind, just because I was so anti-Duke. I was a huge big East guy, so it wasn't like I was running from Maryland. Jay Will, is it like 2000? Golly.

There's a weird juncture in my life. I was watching from Disney World and I have no idea why. Why were you at Disney World? I have no idea. No fucking clue. No idea. I just remember thinking Disney World ain't all that. And I'm sitting in my room watching that comeback.

Yep. It's 2001. Yeah. So I was still up in Burlington. Here we are full circle. Okay. I was bartending and I would just stop. Like when things were going down, it was, I was a good bartender.

I worked my ass off. or the owners love me, but they knew... When there were certain moments, they'd be like, ask somebody else. And I would just have my back turn. It's sports. This guy's going to be a sports mogul at some point, so let him watch sports.

You had the Booker shot, which felt to me like an NCAA tournament moment. It was like, I can't remember another buzzer-beater like that in the NBA regular season. You know, not technically per se, but I can't remember another moment like that. Can you?

Wait a minute. I mean, it was a good shot, no, but what are you talking about? Regular season buzzer beaters. When's the last one that was that dramatic and exciting to you? I was moved. Maybe I'm just like really fun. The Steph OKC one was incredible. That's an, yeah, the NBA heads that, you know, that I remember every buzzer beat.

Well, I'm not going to allow you a week into the restart. Say the Devin Booker shot is the best regular season game winner of all time. I didn't say, well, I might have exaggerated. But like in recent memory. That's crazy. Are you, are you, are you, are you, uh, shorting the, I mean, that's historically, that's a historically significant shot. You'll always remember the bubble.

You'll remember that shot. I'm going to quiz you a year from now to see if you always remember that shot. Well, by the way, if they're in LA life here, go ahead. LA lifestyle update. I was invited to a very high end Chandler Parsons party, Malibu, Santa Monica, sort of. and it wasn't because of Chandler. I had an end with his guy. Chandler's guy. Chandler's got a guy.

You would like Chandler Parsons as well. But I don't have a guy though. Yeah, but you don't need a guy. Like you could have shown up to this party and it would have been on. It was a little tougher for me to be like, hey, Devin Booker, how's it going? I'm going to be 45 in a couple years. Well, it's going to be really fucking for you to come up to Devin Booker after you've just totally slandered him and his greatest shot of all time in the regular. You got some heat.

You got some heat on your shit. You get some heat on, man. Hey, that's some heat right there, man. How about these ladies? They'll lay, man. Huh? Nice. Crazy.

Crazy out here. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Drinking tonight? You talk to anybody? You talking to anybody? That girl, I think, noticed you. It's not because you're six, five.

Blake was there, too. Oh, well, Blake, Blake is the man. He's like, he's just got that magnetism. He's the man. My buddy's asked me, they go, what was it like? I go, I've never, I was like invisible. You were Kevin Bacon and Hollow Man. Yeah, I go, it wasn't even when they're like, did you even tag up now?

It wasn't, there was literally no point. You get Kauai and PG having a rough week until they won, I think they pulled away at the end tonight, right? What was the final score? Yeah. When I came down to start it, it was still pretty close, the last seven minutes or so. I think it was relatively comfortable. I taped it. Yeah.

So, spoiler alert, they won, and I won $300. So I'm back at it. Nice. But, yeah, I, like, it's been a fun week, is all I'm saying. And I think they've done really well with it. Let's start in the West, because we were talking about the playing game. And I think that immediately, if you look at that kind of log jam that was piling up, you know, 8, 9 out west, it was the Blazers and the Grizzlies right now.

Josh says he doesn't like the playing game. They've been terrible since the All-Star break. So I get what he's saying. It's different, but they kind of put themselves in this position. And they have an injury, all that stuff. But I don't feel bad for Memphis having to play Portland if Portland plays well to round it out. I feel bad that Jackson's down now because he was so much fun to watch. And he's a really important part of what they're going to be.

And he was playing well for a kid so young. But, again, people are selfish. So Jha is in the A seat. He's been in the A seat the whole time. And he's thinking, well, why would I like anything that gets in the way of us making the playoffs? Especially he's a rookie in Memphis. Like, this is an unbelievable accomplishment for that team. And he's so likable.

He's so likable. Yeah. I mean, they've lost five in a row. They were actually 32 and 30. Yeah, they were 500 when this whole thing stopped. So, of course, he's going to vote that. And if you were to ask him, if you were the 10th seed and they had momentum, he'd be saying, I love the playing game.

This is really easy why that's happening. I think the fearful thing here now is that with Portland, having Nurkich back and seeing what they look like and the different line of combination they come at, Gary Trent Jr. has been big for them. He hits threes. He's really important that guard rotation because you wouldn't consider Lillard and McCollum, great defenders by any means.

And now you can assign Trent to like maybe the lead guard to try to slow them down, which is what they've done. And Zach Collins, who I'll admit, sometimes down the court, I'm like, I can't wait to see how many also. game's this guy makes and then other times I'm like oh wait that's why he hasn't made any yet again he's really young and the mellow part of it like yeah sometimes mellow clogs them up but he can still he can still hit shots he's still really tough to guard and to have him for him this week I mean like i i got to feel like he's one guy I'm glad you went there because I'm watching and I'm thinking

about okay C and I'm thinking about Houston and just like how he's matured throughout the league and the fact that he doesn't have a ring and you know I'd love love to see him get one. He's kind of turned into this guy that I think that people, as he's assumed, this leadership role. You ever met him? No. You'd love him. Really? Yeah. Yeah. He's, when you talk to him, it's not that I'm best friends with the guy, but a couple times. No, maybe you, Melo, who else was, Devin Booker? Booker. Yeah, this actually sounds like I was turning it. I just love sharing these stories with you. No, I know. I know what the good thing about Ryan is for anybody listening is he's not, he never, and he's going to hear this and be like, am I name dropping?

me he's not a name dropper he just literally is dropping names like these dudes were around me i'm not friends with them but they were around yeah yeah i'm making i'm not getting pictures with this is so deprecating yeah yeah yeah i'm telling you like because my friends are just so fascinated by the whole deal and they're like well they must know he are i'm like no no not not unless it's for the wrong reason that i say something bad and then it gets put on the score and you know that i'm like who the fuck is ryan rsillo so uh okay c Houston didn't work for him. Well, who do you like? I mean, do you think, because Bill and I did this exercise? The Blazers are my side team. They're your side team. They've been kind of your main team lately.

Well, when you're a Knicks fan and we'll get to them, your side team sometimes becomes your main team. It's just how it goes. That's law. That's happened a lot in life. Yeah, it's happened to a lot of people and it's happened to me with my NBA fandom. I'll still be there. Like, hey, Knicks, I'll be there when you work on you. You know, when you. Yeah. get your life together because I don't want to enable this behavior and I will be there when you fix your problems. I'll be waiting loyally at high school sweethearts. At Portland.

You get me in a way that we, no one else will ever get me, but right now is not the time. I'm having so much fun with Portland. Yeah, it's Portland's where I need to be right now. And actually, this is me being unselfish. And I'm saving my relationship with the New York Knicks. So I love Portland. And I do like Mello. Lillard, who of course wouldn't shit on him because of the respect factor,

just off him being a great player, you know, when asked about Mello's leadership, I mean, he glowingly endorsed it and glowingly endorsed his like role on the team. So I know he slows him down, but it was cool to see him hit those big shots. And you think they can, can they hang in, I mean, they're not going to hang with the Lakers necessarily. But right now, who knows? Like, it's better than seeing the Grizzlies secure the eight seed. It is better than that because this would never be an eight seed if Portland were healthy and they got off this horrible start. And even though them being a Western Conference final team last year felt, I use this analogy, no offense to Mark Sanchez.

But when people are like, hey, Mark Sanchez, oh, well, you know, played in two FCC. I actually think Mark Sanchez, I was actually surprised it was over that quickly for him. I think it's too tough now. I think it's no, you're right. It did. It did. But when that happens and you play in back-to-back AFC title games with the Jets, it's like, okay, we have. this guy that we can build around and for the trailblazers some of the analysis was or especially

now as they play better like well you know look as a western conference finals team you're like yeah they played in the western conference finals yeah but i don't think anybody ever thought of them as a second best player or second best team in the west and they're just so scrappy and i fucking love mccallum i love lillard like i love the way he carries himself and just like the foot is never off the gas pedal And I just, I love the instinct to that team. So I don't know. They're bad at forward though. They're really considering this is becoming a wing heavy league,

despite the depth of point guard, like the real difference makers feel like these big, you know, Kauai's, the Duran, Paul George, although I wouldn't really put him in the class with Duran, Kauai or LeBron. Yeah, I mean, I would love to see him slide in. Another team that you're like, man, I wish they had a ninth spot is the Sons. I mean, Devin Booker, greatest shot in bubble history. I'll give you that. But like they literally have showed up and they're undefeated.

And like I think unless you're an NBA head, you don't watch them play. They're exciting. It feels like if they slid in, they'd at least be exciting. So I like the whole playing game thing. The West is way more fun than East. Actually, I feel like the NBA failed with the Zion thing. I mean, you would suspect they'd want Zion in. And I thought maybe they were building in a strategy to get them in the playoffs.

I'm sure you're probably going to zag on that one. But everybody said it and then they go, look, this is about fairness. Okay, so every time it's almost like the conspiracy things in lottery where they go, oh, well, you know, no kidding, Patrick Ewing ended up with the Knicks. Okay, well, they could have put Tim Duncan in Boston. They put him in San Antonio. Right.

Oh, Derek Rose is with Chicago. All right. Well, Anthony Davis is in New Orleans. Yes. So every time you give me one example that seems fishy, I give you five that don't make any sense whatsoever. Listen, it's unhealthy for you to bring up the Knicks. I've moved on to Portland and I just go backwards. I'm sending you pictures of her in the 80s right now and you're getting really bummed out when I bring up here.

Yeah, in the 80s, she was great. In the 90s, she was great. And the 90s, when I met her. Yeah. But we've grown apart. So listen, on the other end of it. No, but I want to continue the Zag on the Zion thing. Oh, that's what everybody said and they go, oh, the NBA just wants them in.

I think the NBA should have checked with the Pelicans be like, do you guys want to be in the playoffs? because what's going on. You guys aren't a defense? It's not even a Zion thing. You're right. It's a layup line against that team. But then if you look at the east, you go, why the hell are the wizards there? You go, because the NBA didn't want anybody to say, hey, actually, mathematically we were still in this, this is unfair to eliminate it, despite the fact that the wizards don't have any of their players.

And they've had some scrappy moments and the nets. I think the wizards right now are behind Charlotte, who wasn't invited to the bubble. Listen, when you when you like sail your little you sail over the end of the earth and then you just keep going, that's where Charlotte was. And you just the wizards are definitely the team you forgets in the bubble, right? I was going to ask you that. Like, who's your team that you forgot's in the bubble? Is it Washington? Only except that I knew that they were in there.

So I haven't really forgotten. I would just tell you I didn't set an alarm for Nets Wizards the other day. That was early. I think it was a 10 a.m. start out here in L.A. and I go, you know what? You just, why don't we get out of the house? for a little bit. We'll come back and see it. That's not advisable. That is not advisable. At the top of the standings, you've got the teams in L.A., so, and I haven't watched, admittedly, enough Lakers. I'm watching them for first time tonight, but LeBron's

sitting still, as we're recording this pod, this game presumably doesn't matter. It might matter. Does it matter to the Rockets here, Ryan? Yeah, it does, because the Rockets are trying to escape where when this whole thing started, they were the sixth seed. And now they are right in the mix where they could be as high as the four. I don't know if they'd catch Denver, although Denver has been able to pull off a couple wins despite missing their back court for a good part of this. But that win against Oklahoma City when they came back against them was huge.

And it was unbelievable watching Yoakich and Adams. Like Stephen Adams, this big burly guy. I was kind of thinking of you when I saw this because not because he's big and burly, but maybe it was just a sort of weird thing. I mean, a lot of people think that when they share my name. Shout out to Thor and pads over there in Seaville. But you could see Adams. You could see Adams get like, okay, all right, Yonukes just got the ball.

It's not like Yokic is going to beat you with his quickness, and Adams couldn't do anything with him. And Adams would get, like, hyped up and try to get physical and Yokin should just give him a fake or give him a jab step and all these different things. I can imagine there's probably times, although it's different from you as an edge guy where you're doing that to the offensive lineman. but I'm sure there's some offensive lineman where you knew every play like I've got to be a little bit more juiced up and focused on everything I'm doing here. Yeah, no, no doubt about it.

There's guys that finish it to pile. There's guys that really are technically sound. So when you think you win inside, you know, like a bad tackle. If they get beat inside, you don't get washed. They don't turn it into a run block. They're on your back.

And like a good tackle, you can't relax. So you have to finish your inside move with like three more little mini swims. You know what I mean? So there's definitely players who are just, way more active and you know I can't let my guard down how much does it suck with guys that finish the pile it's terrible I mean like there was a guy named breton jacquimini in Seattle and me and him used to get into it all the fucking time I I had a couple hat tricks on him

like but pass blocking wasn't his thing like his thing was he's a fucking right tackle I'm gonna go get after your ass I got marshawn lynch behind me Tom cable's my fucking coach right and if you know if he dies, he dies. And he's kind of got that like, he's, he's tough looking, you know what I mean? But eyeball, eyeballs off a little bit. Yeah, it's like something's a little, now if Brenno ever listens to this spot, I still, I love the dude. We, you know, we would. That's a good little scared of him, dude. No, he's fucking, Brenno, I'll tell you he's scared of me. He's scared of me. That's the Chris I love, though, that never, this is the Stanford C version of Chris, where Chris, like one night we were out with some of the hockey dudes and Chris was like I wonder what would happen with me and that guy

I was like where's this coming from because this guy we were with was a brew I actually brought it up to him I brought it up to him recently I was at his house I said yeah it was more that he was just mean mugging me yeah but he was he was just shit-faced and no I know but you know drunk hockey guy can look you can be lost in translations he he just staring at you and he wants to be friends but it looks like he wants to fight you so yeah it looked like he wanted to eat all of us and I couldn't figure it because I don't really now have become a little more friendly with him. And it is funny because I brought up the night. And he's like, are you bringing it?

I felt back because I was like, no, I'm not giving you shit. You were fine. Like, nothing happened. It wasn't bad. No, no, no, no. And by the end of the night, everything was cool. But there was a moment where Chris revealed some of those inner gears that I like to have people expose every now and then. I wonder what I wonder what happened with that guy.

The only reason, the only reason that I do build up somebody like Brenno, because like people don't know who he is. So I don't want somebody listen to this pod be like Chris Long was down in somebody's craft because he was a fucking good player and like some people are more like listen I know that guys get paid to pass block and and and pass rush but this was a guy that was paid to make your life uncomfortable and he was great at it and he had a big ass 240 pound back behind him. There were number 24 and there was a 12th man and there was Tom Cable. So that group was fun to battle with. But I guess like, and you probably never got to finish a point, but we did a triple tangent. That's fine. The Lakers, what I'm hearing, people are saying they can't fucking put the ball in the basket, which is just shocking to me, the worst team offensively in the league.

They shot it awful last night. I mean, they were terrible. And against Toronto, so it's weird. The two games that they've lost, where they looked awful. the Toronto game where they were in it at halftime, so it wasn't like it was a blowout from start to finish. But then the Thunder game, they shot 15% from three. And I went back and watched the fourth quarter.

And the point I made on my podcast is like sometimes when a team just shoots poorly, yeah, they were 13.5, they were 5 or 37 for 3. I mean, that's hard to do if you're trying to miss that many. So the first thing is like, okay, it's fine. And I looked at some of the shots they got in the fourth quarter, and I did really like them. So there's two points I need to make here. Number one is when a team shoots at that poorly

and they say the same things over and over again, I don't blame them because they're going to try to stay positive all the time. I mean, you're going to like this because of the athlete, like if the defense gives up 41 Sunday, it's almost like the public wants you to absolutely shit all over yourself. Hey, we gave up 40. Nothing is working. We have no plan.

I'm dreading this week. I'm unattractive. I tip 11%. My wife doesn't like me. and what else can I say? Like, can I, what are the things that you need to hear to feel better about my remorse

about our bad shooting? St. Louis Post Dispatch headline 2012 long not crying after game in locker. Like, like, you know what I mean? Is that real? Did that happen? Oh, fuck no.

Well, I wouldn't be surprised. That's like, no, actually those people. In St. Louis, in St. Louis, that was surprised. Shout out to Jim Thomas, Randy Carrier, all my dudes in, in St. Louis. They were actually very cool.

And you can tell if a guy gives a fuck or not. You don't have to be crying on the plane. You know what I mean? You don't have to be, we talked about bad losses before on the football pod. Like, there's some guys that they've got to throw tantrums so that they show the coaches they care.

They got to, like, be dramatic at their lockers. Like, you fucking take your medicine and you move on. So, yeah, that's my football rant on that. So that's my first part of their reaction to it. Now, the AD thing, Toronto, they were trapping them. They didn't work well off of the trap. And in the closing moment, moments against Oklahoma City.

First of all, they had a lot of problems on defense because Chris Paul was searching out Kuzman's some switches and Chris Paul is just working them. And the great thing with Thunder half here is if Chris can't get it going or you try to slow him down with extending a trap or something or staying two with him after a screen, he can just flip to Shay goes to South Alexander and nobody can stay in front of this guy. And no one can stay in front of him. Yeah. She's under like people and it's slower.

It's weirder watching him in person. Shea glides. It's actually kind of cool because it just, If you never watch basketball live, you'd be like, why is that guy looks so different and smooth? So the point that I'm making to finish here is there are certain teams, even a number one seed team like the Lakers, that are searching out their closing rotations.

And that's concerning. And we can also, yeah, it's a bubble games. It doesn't matter. But if I don't really know who you're closing five are in a tight game, that's a problem. Toronto knows who their five are. And they can actually change it, but everybody knows their roles. Boston's having some issues with it.

Philadelphia is having issues with it. Milwaukee isn't, even though they've misplanned so a couple of times. The Clippers haven't really had their team together the whole time, which kind of has this thought their ceiling is this much higher, despite how well they play. They'll be the two seed. And maybe I'm, I think I'm picking them to come out of the West.

But Dion Waiters and some of these guys that see the minutes that are available, they're, this is again my observation and opinion on it, some of these teams that don't really know what they're doing to close the rotation, and maybe they're experimenting here in the bubble, the guy that doesn't have his minutes locked in or he doesn't know if he's going to be part of that five, it's not always hero ball, but you're seeing moments

with different teams, guys that probably shouldn't be taking that shot. It happened with the Spurs the other day with Jean-Tay Murray after Rudy Gay and Tamara de Rosen were terrific against Philadelphia, where you're seeing guys kind of try to seize this moment to stand out a little bit to prove it to everybody else. They got to run their minutes. Yeah, and it's a working theory, but the comp that I would use is I kick it back to you is just,

if you're in a defensive line rotation, there's four guys, but there's really six guys that play. It feels like a few of these NBA teams. It's like they're rotating in eight defensive linemen week 17, knowing they're going to the playoffs. And a lot of you guys would probably be wondering what the fuck is going on here. And it feels even with some of these really talented NBA teams, they're still searching for that group.

Well, I thought it was a great analogy or metaphor. I don't know which one at this hour. But I liked it when you said that because it does ring true in their situations where guys aren't getting as many snaps, and they're pressing, and you jump out of a gap, you give up a big run. That happens all the fucking time in the NFL.

So the Clippers going through a lot of the same shit. Well, not the same shit, but they're trying to settle into what their lineups are going to look like, the minutes are going to look like they've had injuries. They had what, Harold and Pat Beverly out. No, Lou Williams out. Yeah, I mean, Beverly wasn't all the way back. And if you're a Clippers fan,

you look at that Lakers loss, which kind of shifted everything. As bad as the Lakers have looked in two of the last three games, like, oh, man, I'm off everybody. Hey, not everybody, but you know how it works. Hey, are we off the Lakers? Are they just not even that good? Well, if I'm a Clippers fan and say, okay, well, you just beat us when everybody was excited. But you're also thinking of your Clippers fan, those 10 plus minutes with Noah trying

to chase Anthony Davis around. Those are mantras. Those are his minutes when he comes back. And look, nobody's shutting down Anthony Davis unless you change everything like Toronto did, and it worked. But in a series, I think that's the kind of stuff where you're like, you know, in a series. Series are just different. Series are different because by the third game, you know exactly everything everybody's trying to do to you.

Is it like, I was thinking about that with Milwaukee. You know, like any given night, they can have an off night, right? Because they do give up a lot of perimeter shots. And like somebody could get hot. But like over a course of a series, the right team would have to be, you know, like consistently. You know, so I don't know. I'm careful judging these matchups in just one game down the stretch because I'm kind of learning this season.

So out of the one and the two, you've got kind of a logjam in the middle with like Denver, Utah, OKC. Is there one team out of the middle, Houston included? I know you love Houston. That could come out of the West. I picked Houston as the third best team, even though there was six coming back in. And it has to do with what their record was against 500 teams.

I looked at all the numbers across the board. Denver, Utah, you're kind of writing off because the Bogdanovitch injury is a really big deal. And I think Gobert has some matchup issues depending on who they go up against. And so if you go, OK, see who I like their five. I like their six man. I think Adams is also. There's just some of the traditional centers I worry about some of the matchups and deciding on who wants to go small. I mean, the crazy thing was when the Lakers were playing Toronto. Toronto had some minutes where they went small with Ronde Hollis Jefferson at center. And you're like, okay, well, this is where the Lakers are going to go on a little run. And then they don't. and you go, okay, would that happen to you, in theory, if you were playing Toronto in the finals? Like, wouldn't you be more amped up for that the second time you play? So that's why I mentioned the adjustment of the series part of it. But Houston, and I don't know what will happen. We were taping this before we see the outcome, but would know Westbrook. And then, of course, Eric Gordon hasn't played this whole time and then no LeBron. So I don't know what the result of this one will mean.

But going into this, I think Houston's 18 and 10 against teams over 500. And Oklahoma City had a bad record against teams over 500. And that was enough despite, look, I don't enjoy the Houston thing. But I can't deny that the ceiling for them is a little higher. But back to, you know, defensively, it's not great. But that hasn't been their issue. And they get outrebounded every single night. Since Capello is out of the mix, go back to early February, they have the worst rebound rate in the NBA.

And yet it doesn't really crush them. And it's something that I've noticed more and more where you get that switch with a big and a small guy on them in the post. And you go, okay, go eat. You know, this is your thing. The more I look at it, I think the big gets it, the small guy is so charged up to defend the shot because he knows that the shot's coming. And then everybody else stops running the offense and they stare and watch. And then the big guy just takes the shot no matter what all the time because he knows,

oh, I have the mismatch and the possession is ended with me. I don't think teams, and specifically Houston, I don't think they're getting burnt in those big, small mismatches the way it used to work out. And guys just aren't as good and clean with their post moves. There's just not that many guys that are just insanely great post position players anymore anyway because nobody plays it. And you could even say the other thing. Like I've seen small guys look for switches, search for them. They get the center on them.

They're 30 feet away from the hoop. You're like, okay, this guy's going to drive or he may just drive and kick. And then it'll settle for like a step back three. You go, what the hell is the point of working all that other stuff to get the switch in the first place? So I am very big on a working theory of size mismatch as being kind of overrated. and I texted name drop, a GM. And he goes, he was like, who is this?

No, yeah. He was like, he's like, is, were you calling the WNBA games? I'm like, no, that's Ruko. It's Ruka. That was a recent thing. No, somebody did that to you. Oh, it was nasty too. It was an ESPN executive.

It was like, so proud of you. And I was like, all right. Thank you. It's great. You have somebody be proud of me. That was weird. He's like, incredible job on the WNBA draft. I was like, oh.

Didn't get that job. I go Ruko. Yeah, same first letter. And ours are tricky. So, but yeah, like, what if O KC won a title? Like, how, how fucking weird would that be for everybody who left? It would be, now, I, in the biggest Chris Paul guy going, you know that. I thought they still make the playoffs.

I still thought that'd make the playoffs. And when people were like, oh, he's going to get traded, he's going to get traded. And the only thing that I heard that had any merit to it was that I, I I think he wanted to go to maybe one of the top teams in the east, whether it was in Milwaukee or Miami. But he's 41 plus million this year, Chris, 44 million next year. That's a massive, massive contract. Oh, you get a yacht with that.

Even if you wanted them, you don't want to have to trade, you know, within the trade restriction to add up the salary there. I mean, we're talking a ton of money. So that's such a big deal. It wasn't even, even if somebody else wanted him. And somebody should have wanted him. And Paul from the get-go was like, let me do my thing here. and Billy Donovan bought into it immediately.

They wanted to rest him more. Chris didn't want to rest, and now they're still healthy. Nobody should be tired. Nobody's in a plane for three plus months. And we probably thought Chris or Danilo would get hurt at some point, but Shay's even better. I don't love some of the other wings outside of Danilo, but there were so many people that were completely off this team that I go,

how do you think that Chris Paul isn't going to get this crew at least in the top eight? So I would love it. I would personally love it. And the Laker Guard matchup is an issue, but I think that's where you look at the clippers. And when the clippers are right defensively and you go, okay, I got Beverly into a switch into Paul George. Oh, I got Paul George into a switch into Kauai. I mean, it's brutal when they get that thing humming. Yeah.

With that kind of money, we wouldn't even have to finance a yacht. Just buy it cash. What's your next dumb purchase going to be? I am deciding between a 2020. Toyota Tundra in that beautiful green color that they've debuted this year. What is it? Is it a forest? It's like a forest green.

My favorite color. Forest green is your favorite color? Oh, hell yeah. Do you have a lot of J. Crew, Forest Green sweaters? Because that was their, that was when they had the, this is probably too old for you, but the old roll neck, J. Crewe, do you get that in Forest Green? No, if I had a roll neck, that was a vintage. No age joke, but that was vintage.

Like, that was cool. Like, people pay top dollar. for that shit. You know, that's what the cool, like, stoner kids at my high school had. They're like, man, that has a rip in it. Is that your dad's? That's really cool. You know, like, that guy smokes pot. Yeah, but guys who smoke pot love guys who smoke pot. Yeah, they do. There's a kinship there. But I mean, like, Denver's fun. I, I've enjoyed watching them. I had no idea who the, the Michael Porter Jr. kid really was. I'll admit that. I mean, like, I'm a Missouri guy. Yeah, I mean, well, somebody had to remind me.

It wasn't like I watched a lot of Denver games. I mean, watch one at your house when I visited you. But of course, like you watch every NBA game. So Denver's on TV. They're legitimately fun. And Yoak is like fucking skinny now. And fucking pop called him Larry Bird. I mean, like, what's going on there?

Is he that good? He initiates everything on offense, Chris. I mean, his passing, his reads. and then it'll just stick you. I mean, he took a one foot step back the other day, and it was a big shot. I think that was in the Thunder game. I've had a hard time separating some of these things.

Yeah, it's running together. It really has with no home courts. Yeah, yeah, because I'll go back and I know the shot, and I know where it is, and I'm pretty sure that Adams was trying. Like, Adams had such a hard time with them in that overtime game. And again, my boy, Chris Paul could have hit a free throw that keeps it out at overtime.

So it was a big win for Denver. Also knows Chris Paul. Mavericks. What did I call him? I said my boy Chris Paul. so I was like also knows Chris Paul. Oh, I get. But I love Chris Paul.

I'm like, he just seems like, you know, Chris Paul looks like a guy that I don't mean this like body type wise, but he could play football mentality wise. No doubt. Oh, I was afraid we were going to body shame because I don't body shame. No, he's just like he wouldn't have a position on a football field. You know how everybody says like I'm sure LeBron would be good in football. Okay. I don't know. I'm sure he would be pretty fucking good.

But like, let's not put him in the Hall of Fame. There's certain guys though they have like football mentalities. I would have put Tony Allen in that category. I'd put Rashid Wallace in that fucking category. I put Chris Paul in that category. Just guys with some shit to him. I like the competitive. Damian Lillard, you know, like.

Westbrook would have been. Westbrook for sure. Warner, no doubt. The LeBron one I've always had a hard time with because he actually spent so much time like hating any kind of contact. But that could also be the theatrical side of the NBA. It's different sports.

I think LeBron would be. a killer football player. I just think there's other guys too that actually would be pretty good. Like Russ would be one for sure. He's one of the best athletes I've ever seen on TV. What about Joe Ingalls? Joe Ingalls. Edge guy, third downs.

Definitely be a specialist. Look out Johnny Hecker. He's too big to punt. No, you know what? Fuck that. Joe Ingalls is a fucking safety. He's Brian Dawkins. Can you imagine if Joe Engels was about that?

I don't know about that. Yeah. Weapon X plays. Could you imagine if he, Joe Ingalls, crawled out of the tunnel on all fours like weapon X. I can't believe you guys didn't do more shit like the mirror visor. Like how do you not tell your equipment guy to be like, I want a mirror visor this week and I'm coming out?

It's like it's hard. It's easier to get weed from a doctor than it is to have a fucking mirror visor. It's entirely too hard. And I think it's too hard to get weed from a doctor. Okay. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. But how do you have to get a doctor's note to get the visor?

Yeah, you got to have like, I don't know, glaucoma. or not like bright lights or some shit like something really has to happen for you. What about the dark one? Can you do can't just get the dark visor for no reason? No, but the reason I always stayed out of the visor guys would tell me, dude, try the visor out. Your swag will just be taking to the next level

because I was a best. The next level. You would have looked amazing out there. I can't, what about like ultimate warrior? Halo with me. Oh, tassels. Nah, no tassels. No tassels.

You know what would be, you know what would have been good. See, you were too mainstream in the fact that you were I used to fucking find every week. I used to be the guy. The guys would walk by and like check my swag at all the de-linement. I promise you this. This isn't me being like naive and like people were making fun of me and I thought they were actually like, but people were like, what fine is Chris going to occur this week?

Is his towel going to be too long? Is he going to be wearing high whites? If we played on Monday night, I found a way to wear high white socks. And I was hurting in the pocket every Monday. How much would high white socks? cost you. I don't want to say that because some people call me like they're going to say 15 grand. 15 grand. I think it's like 15 grand. Here you go. Trying to just get me to say the truth. Who cares? You made a lot of money. It's okay to. I mean, they'd hit you for a couple thousand in the

first offense and then it doubles and then it doubles. Yeah, that's what I heard. Effectively, they're tripling that motherfucker. So you know what would have been cool. White T-shirt cut up into tassels dipped in fake blood tied around your arms. mirror visor. Kyle Vandenbosch, I think you'd look too haloish. And, you know, I didn't want to get, like, looking haloish or, like, create a player in Madden.

But Kyle Van der Bosch used to wear the red contacts. No way, no way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not a violation because it's like, hey, man. No, that's your body, dude. And so, like, people on the other team and, like, sometimes referees, supposedly according to Jeff Fisher would be like, hey coach can you come here a second

like yeah what's up he's like is that guy okay just like very concerned about this cat's well-being no he's uh he's just wearing red contact lenses they help him see supposedly they make the sun less bright okay they just also look they make you look like a serial killer and he was an animal in practice i mean just marathons running to the ball nonstop and kyle van derbosch used to run all the way down the field.

You know how they said, like, certain legendary skill players would finish in the end zone, running backs run all the way. I forget who they said that shit about. They say that shit all the time. Guys on coverage team, and they're like running through.

Well, that's like, that's like a rule. But I'm talking about when they talk about a Hall of Famer, oh, you know what made that guy great? He used to run through the end zone every time. You don't many practice squad guys I've seen run through the fucking end zone every time? That's just not how it works. No, I've seen many of them.

Oh, I thought you were going to say none of them. No, I've seen so many. So that was not the key to being great. It's just a guy that runs through. Oh, I see you're saying. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm just saying like... I always thought it was kind of one of those things.

They romanticized it a bit. Now, there's certain guys like Kyle Van der Bosch was a psychopath. Used to chase every play 60 yards and tag the runner. Like, that's like shit you do as a rookie for your two reps. He'd do it for 10 played your eyes in practice. But I also see, too, like, yeah, the Red Conno. contacts. That all adds up. But if you're if you're on the coverage team with the new kickoff rules and you don't ever get to tackle anybody now, I would run. I would do a lap.

Yeah. Check me out. Yeah. Because you're not in that's how you know a guy is not like if a guy is hyping up the crowd after like a touchback to start the game and like running around and jumping. He's not going on the field for a bit. You know like and players on special teams play offense and defense. So if you're somebody who's going to be on the field, say in the first. couple of plays. Maybe you should just jog back to the sideline. It's like it's like when the defense scores a touchdown. Say the defense scores a touchdown in Denver, which is a mile in the air, which I was on the Patriots when we scored a touchdown in Denver. It was zero degrees. You don't catch your breath for five minutes and you got to go right back out there. So celebrations

just tread lightly, you know. Where are you going? Yeah, nowhere. Let's hit the Mavs and then just and just flirt with the East and get you to bed because you are 45 now. All right. So it's been very gracious. Are you in the mailbag? We can see how we're doing when we get there. I don't care.

Let's do one mailbag. Let's bang out the maps. They don't think we can do Joe Rogan? Shit, let's do a six hour pod. I'm ready. The crazy thing about the future and time travel is if it existed, wouldn't someone have already traveled back to tell us? Yeah, man, but they don't,

they don't tell you that stuff. Or maybe the timeline that we're on, we are at the front of it. I'm pretty fucking high right now, man. That's how that show, I love that show, what if oxygen is just really mildly poisonous and that's what's killing all of us?

You know what solve world hunger? Just turn air into food. I like Joe Rogan, so I hope you love Joe Rogan. But you know how people turn it into a caricature thing? Like they just like they love to imitate him and all that shit. There's not too much. No, but here's the Joe Rogan thing though. Like once you become that big, then then it's like, oh, well, let's point out all the things

that he sucks at. But when you are him and you're that successful, the video game was a perfect example of it. He said video games are terrible. But he meant that as somebody who is an addict and spent way too many time, way too many hours, thousands, thousands of hours playing video games. I too have had some runs with video games where it was like all I wanted to do. And I had a thing where I just was like, look, I'm going to be a writer, unplug it, get it out of here.

I gave it away. That's it. Okay, but when Rogan said, David, the only thing anybody listened to, and great, I don't think I caught the whole thing. But then it turned to, like, gamers and Twitch people being like, fuck Joe Rogan, and you go, wait, he's a guy, like, if a heroin addict said, hey, it's not the best thing to be shooting up,

take it from me, would you as another heroin addict? Yeah, would you be like, asshole? now that's an extreme extreme that's such an extreme comparison but it is it is and I'm admitting that but that turned into like oh stupid Joe Rogan he doesn't know anything but no no he just he just did that so anyway no you you know what

not too many people can keep the fucking ball in the air for three hours and my man does that very well and he just got the bag so I'm sure Joe Rogan listens to our pods congratulations Joe Rogan huh let's give it off for Joe Rogan at some co-worker. Yeah, he's like a peer of ours.

No, Spotify. Yeah, I'll drop him. I'll just text him the link to this pod. Perfect. Yeah, I'll just text that to him later. The Mavs, they blow every fucking game, dude. Like, I read something that they've blown a more, yeah, more double digit.

Yeah, more double digit leads than anybody in the league this year. And I know they're younger and I'm sure that's like, a thing where, you know, it's hard to close out games and the execution at the end of games, all that stuff. Is it something more than that? Because you feel like their one, two punch is pretty fucking good. They should be better down the stretch, or is that just an experience?

I wish I knew. I mean, the Houston game was so frustrating because it was very simple. Like Cleaver, who's a nice rotation player for them, he didn't box out. I mean, they had Covington double team of the boxed out on a free throw, and he lets Covington, as you know, as a power forward that was more physical. Feel the guy's body behind you.

It's the biggest box out of the, the entire game and they just let Covings go and then tip it in. So like that's, I'm sure if I went through and looked at all the mistakes, I don't know that there's one identifying thing from it all. They're the number one offense in the league. They're certainly not the number one defense. And so maybe that's where everything tightens up. Their offense isn't good enough to cover up for their defensive lapses.

And even though they're big and it was very apparent in that Houston game, they play small. They still play small. They play five out. Donchich, who's a monster, but I've noticed, like, there's times where I think he has the layup, and he's still kicking out to the corner. This league is so much about drive and kick, especially to the corners. Like, every action is like, oh, we did all these things. Now let's just whip it to the guy in the corner.

Yeah, like, I'm like, yeah, shoot it, man. And he's just like behind the back to the fucking corner. Yeah. And the last thing I want to do is maybe like, you know, Donchitz really needs to change his approach to the game. But there are moments where I'm like, you've had the layup. The layups guys give away now to pass it to the corner. I think we're past some of the rewards of the three two math.

Oh, listen. Listen, LeBron served up more open threes. Like for no reason. I'm just like, dude, you get it. You're like the most unselfish superstar ever, but fucking just dunk it, dude. Luca, I was looking at this thing that said, he's been just jacking up forcing these threes that he's trying to create himself, like particularly like stepback threes. And everybody thinks James Harden.

Tatum takes a lot of them too, but is it better to just not imitate James Harden and just try to do your own thing? I know that it's more of a trend to take unassisted threes in the league, but maybe should Luca just let Hardin do it? Hardin is in his own class. Just when you think Hardin's going through the stretch, he wasn't playing great the last month or so before he didn't get shut down. And it was at the beginning of this year, too,

where he was missing a bunch of shots. And then he went bananas and Westbrook was bad the first few months. And then Westbrook turned into somebody who, like, is playing better than even Hardin was. But you just never worry about it with him. It's just, it's his shot creating. And then, you know, this is the part that frustrates me with Hardin is that if you contest, he kicks his legs out.

He keeps getting the call. He keeps getting the call. Yeah, I remember the whole thing last year. You know, and then when no one's contesting, he somehow magically goes straight up and down. And then when somebody side contest, because you can't even, like, get a face. You get it like, you got a play off to his side. I don't know why he still gets that call, but then you don't even know what to do with him because if you get up too close on him, his handle is probably as good as anyone other than

Kyrie. I think Hardin might have the second best handle and his shot making. And he's always been great with his vision. So when I first watched Donchich, I said he reminds me a little bit of Hardin. And I remember I was on TV and I almost got laughed off the set. So shout out to me on that one. Yeah, shout out to you know Ryan Rusillo? Yeah. But De Ancich just doesn't shoot it to Hardin's left.

So it's cool at all when you want to pull up from 30 feet to outchage, but you're shooting 31%. Right. And I know that's what makes Harden Great is he's such a great creator. Like if certain other players maybe don't, you know, they don't threaten to create their own shot. So they're not going to have that shot. But the space he's able to create is so great. When I saw Kyrie play in person, I went up to a Nets game.

And he's one of the most impressive basketball players I've ever seen in person, just handling the ball and just like the skill level is just insane, dude. insane. And one of the things I'd love to see would be hard and play in person. I mean, he's just so... It's not that great. I've done it. It actually isn't that interesting. It was worse when I went to go see him a couple years ago. So the Sixers. So the Sixers. Ben Simmons got hurt and it didn't look good. I was fucking, you know, I do root for the Sixers with my time in Philly and all that, rung the bell with Lane Johnson. Ben Simmons, partially dislocated kneecap. I'm thinking to myself, is it the Mahomes thing?

you know, that put Mahomes out two weeks, which is a bad comparison. Like cross sports is just different. I know you might be thinking, I'm saying it'd be harder to come back from that injury in football. Not necessarily. I think, and by the way,

Simmons is not as severe as, hopefully as Pat Mahomes even, but like for a cutting athlete on hard court, for a guy who's running that much and cutting and jumping, that's really fucking tough. And even if it's not as bad as Mahomes, I think that's what a lot of people say tomorrow's like oh well my home's back in two weeks and all and stuff like my homes runs

around on grass and throws a football which is really challenging and that was a mother fucker to come back from hats off to pat mahome but to run and jump on that if that's what it is and hopefully there's no damage once they do the MRI he could be out a while so what's their lineup situation because they just moved him inside right to get more shooting and now they got to start from scratch again yeah um i first of all i think the quarterback thing is really interesting because even though Mahomes is out for some time, I think quarterbacks have come back from some devastating leg injuries

just to figure out like, hey, as long as I can throw it. Byron Lefwich. Simmons. Yeah. Byron Lefich played in like the cheese at bowl, like with a broken leg for Marshall. That was to remember the Titan shit.

Remember that? Yeah, like, no, it was actually carrying a bowl, I believe. Was it? Look at you. I don't know that I believe you. Well, I'm about to tell you, November 2nd, 2002.

I was in the living room with Pops. watching a game, Marshall took on Akron in the Mac regular season championship. Just a regular season game. So it wasn't a ball game, it wasn't in January. It was November. Because I had no heat in this cottage that I was supposed to fix up. I was supposed to do the construction on it. And I remember I bet all these games, even though I didn't have any money.

And I would then do siding during the day. And I remember watching that game and him getting carried. Bro, he fucking, they lost the game. He finished with 300 yards passing. And he broke his tip, I mean, which you can play with. But I mean, holy shit, you like a Mac game. You played in a Mac game. I thought it was a Super Bowl, basically.

Wait a minute. So they lost. 3420. Shout out to Byron Lefwich. Hopefully a head coach, and that guy, I hear great things about him down there. So we were talking about the Sixers. Okay, so back to the Sixers. I've had a theory about a couple different teams.

And I think the bubble delays some tough, tough questions for certain franchises. If Hughes were to read it had bounced early, would they split up the Hardin-Westford thing? Would whatever, I could run down, would just make the point. Philadelphia has to make a decision to a coach. Everybody thought Brett Brown was his job last year. And it's like, oh, okay, they're bringing them back. They're giving them money. And as much as I think Philly fans argue that Horford's the reason the Simmons and B thing doesn't work.

when it first started out, the numbers with those two guys in the court together wasn't great. It got better this year, but then the Horford thing in the mix, who signed it for three more years after this. I feel like Philadelphia, if they were to get bounced early, although if they played Boston in the first round, I think I still like them with all the uncertainty just because of the size advantage.

In the size, I mean, Boston struggled to defend inside. They do, they do. And Philly, in the regular season, it was just, they were better than them, I thought. And I went to one of those games, and I was like, man, this is tough. Tough sledding for the Celtics front line. But if it's Simmons hurt, it's a bubble and they have an early exit from the playoffs.

Do they still go, all right, we had all these weird things. And Ben got hurt again. Bring the whole group back together one more time. And I say this understanding that people can get so frustrated about NBA teams that end up failing. Like the Philadelphia 76ers to this point have been the most disappointing story in the NBA. As far as the on the course of. You feel it in NBA circles in Philly. I mean, like, does it really know the NBA?

when you mentioned the Sixers, they're like, fuck, the Sixers, like, it's right there, you know? And it was like, I'm watching them against Toronto last year and there's terrible possessions to end the game and then Kauai shot. I kind of wonder, and it's revisionist history.

That whole game was ugly as hell. It was terrible. But like, the possessions were bad at the end of the game, and I'm just like sitting there thinking, what are they, like, anyways, fucking, that shot goes down. Say it doesn't.

Is the leash like way long? for Brett Brown and like just this whole arrangement because I feel like they'd have had a fighter's chance in the next round. Yeah, they would have just, but it's pretty clear that they have limitations. Like Philadelphia just has limitations. They haven't figured it out. They thought they had the shake Milton thing. Look, they've won the last two.

This first thing was a little scary. But Rudy Gay and the Rosen played out of their minds. They were hitting an amazing shot. So when Philly lost to the Pacers, I thought it was because they sucked on defense. and then when they lost San Antonio or excuse me when they hit the they were going to lose to him Milton hits the game winning three

I was like yeah I'm not really as down on their defense this time around but Simmons had fouled out on kind of a dumb sixth foul where he chased somebody from behind and transition and then the guy stopped he ran him over and he had like one of those disappearing Ben games where you go oh that's right he had like no what happened to him tonight

when everybody's been so excited about the shift so at some point if this team never figures out it's going to look different but if it were a regular season, normal circumstances, everybody healthy, and they were to fail. And that's an if. But I just, I feel like the organization has to look at themselves differently through this kind of season versus a normal one, depending on like if it were to end in the same way. Does that make any sense? This is something I've been on now for a while.

Basically, it's not, shit is not standard. Just that, and part of this is who's available. to dance with too. You sit there and say, all right, let's start exploring what's available if we're going to break up some of this team. Well, you might not like anything. You may go, all of these deals actually make us worse and these are stupid and this guy's far more talented than any the pieces of the package. You do it with coaches. You blow things up just to blow things up because you're, you know, you're impulsive. It's like, you know. You bring a Jeff Fisher. No, my guy. Could he coach basketball? Jeff Fisher? Yeah. Which NFL coach would be the best NBA?

coach. Gotta be easy going, right? Fucking Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll, yeah. For sure. He'd be out there. Hi, five.

Hey, let's get another dunk, guys. Chewing the fuck out of gum, just slapping the bottom of his hands together like that. You know what you're doing two to the refs? He'd be doing this to the rest. Hey, both ways, guys, but he'd laugh about it. Yeah.

Bro, there was a time that, like, they had 27 personal fouls in, like, a minute, and none of them got called in Seattle and then the flag started flying as soon as we pushed them and I looked over at the sideline and Pete Carroll like almost like bro what the fuck is going on here and he did that fucking laugh with the gum shoe

and I can't get it out of my head I'm like he knew you were right he knew they were getting away with shoes just like ha ha ha ha ha you know like I'm going to have a speaker come in this week and you know like but he seems like an awesome Hey Chris Chris you and I diderad guy yeah a couple of dogs are coming in Tuesday

I love it Bro, I love the image of him coaching basketball. It would be, and by the way, I love Pete Carroll, okay? So don't get this misconstrued. I know he plays. Every time you do this, by the way, you barely say anything that's even remotely a criticism. And then you're trying to get back to him.

Listen, you know, like he's not a bat. He's not, just because there were some fucking dirty ass Seahawks teams, I don't think he was out there. Like, I think that was like Tom Cable, okay? Tom Cable was the one, you know, putting the battery in those guys' backs. Pete's cool. But I guess, you know, like... Hey, Chris, remember those minors?

We got a bunch of them coming in. What are there? Like a million miners are stuck in the ground? What are you talking about? I'm just thinking of Pete Carroll, who his speakers would be. Oh, the Chilean miners? Yeah.

You know those Chileans? You see that movie? It was a good movie. That was a true story. I got all the Chilean miners coming in to talk to you. Like 89 of them, I think. They ran a marathon. Hey, you see that guy that walked on tightrope that one time?

Niagara Falls. No, I didn't. You see the guy in the barrel, though? He's coming this week. Yeah. The guy is a barrel guy. All right. I think we,

this is like when Michael and Holly start doing that. Well, I can't do anything because I'm seeing you. She's like, all right, enough. I don't want to do that. You're doing it by pointing that out.

So we've already did. We were already two minutes longer than we should have been on this. So basically, all I can do is think of Pete Carroll's fucking guests and it's stuck in my head. Just booking the most like inspirational guests that you were not excited about listening to, but then by the end, they have you captivated. That's who Pete Carroll brings to the table, and he would bring it to the NBA. Markell Foltz. Hey, Chris, you got, I'm just kidding. And I know you like- Markle Foltz, are we, we're on the Markle Fultz part of the rundown?

I have this written down. Make Ryan talk about Markle Fultz. I don't really have a lot for you, though. Huh? I don't really have a lot on Markle Folt, so this is going to be about the question. Aren't you kind of, is he doing, is this good for him? Like, do you feel? Do you feel? good for him? Did you ever feel bad for him? I felt bad for him. I felt terrible for him. Are things trending in the right direction or are the announcers just being nice?

No, I mean, he looks like he's going to be a rotation guy, but it's just still so weird that, you know, the Anthony Bennett thing was like, oh, okay, it's a weird draft at the top. And I knew the Cavs liked him. But if he hadn't gone there, Woj did a story on it. It's like, he may have fallen to like 12th. Okay. Foltz was in a draft with Lanzo where some other teams argued Lanzo would be the number one pick. Those were not teams that were in the mix. You know, a draft with Tatum and despite how Josh Jackson totally fizzled out, people really liked him too. And there were people that scattered Fultz more in the international stuff that told you, I mean, this guy, he was number one going, he was the number one guy in the draft going into that year. And they didn't play really well. And Washington's had to run like some nice. players that you're like whatever and then to just see it fall apart like that and then some of the

footage that we got to see at him practicing his shot and you're like oh my god yeah that's what got kind of fucked up yeah yeah like i feel terrible it's the same thing is when like honestly it reminded me of like okay christian hackenberg who is a great kid and was a really good college player and you know ended up in the league and i actually he's actually from right down the road really good dude. And, you know, big arm and all that stuff and kind of tantalizing from that standpoint, but his accuracy was lacking. And somebody saw some footage of him sailing it. It was like his first NFL pass at practice and that sort of thing. And then he just didn't quite make it. I mean, he more than didn't quite make it. But people get so play baseball now. People get. Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, I think so. Which is not a bad way to go. I'd rather be a fucking star baseball player and a star football player. People get so personal on stuff like that. If there's a meme, if there's a video, and like Fultz kind of fell into that category where you'd see just some shot, something was wrong, and it got personal. And there were guys who were plenty worse

out of that draft. The Jets part doesn't help. Going into that last year at Penn State, though, there was talk that he was going to be like a high first round pick. The quarterback stuff. It's unbelievable how you go from. Like Barclay, Matt Barkley, USC,

had he come out a year earlier, I think he was going to be a top 10 pick. And then it's like, actually, you know, we were wrong about this guy. The quarterback evaluations will forever be one of my favorite things to talk about because no one ever is able to kind of crack the code on it. I think it's an uncrackable code and not realizing how a guy is going to react when he actually has to play on Sundays. But then people just fuck with the kid, the kid that's just doing it. But you're inanimate.

You're inanimate objects. I know you hate this. And I don't believe that. I don't act that way. I've been guilty of it. Okay, but you, like I got to really hate somebody to rip them. And I'm usually because like, hey, you don't show up in the big spot and other people, you know, like you and I have talked about it. A lot of times my reaction is to the reaction.

And so if somebody's dumped, you double react. Right, right. My brain is spinning. Oh, but if somebody pumps up somebody and I'm like, well, that's bullshit. That's not who he is. My thing isn't even directed at the player. Like sometimes we have to be asked like, hey, what about this guy or what about that guy? All right, well, I'm taking this guy.

Now I'm going to argue against this guy, even if I kind of like the guy I'm arguing against. But the Tradavius White example with the bills is a perfect, perfect, perfect, look at this. I mean, he's thinking to opting out. He's going to leave millions on the table. And he's thinking to opt it out and people are like, you're fucking selfish. And I would love to say to him, this is bullshit and it's the shitty part of the deal for you guys, but you're not real people. Like you guys as pro athletes are, are. make-believe action figures that people are entertained by.

And it's bullshit, but it's the trade-off of the life that you get to live. And it's like, well, hey, and I don't feel this way. I'm simply translating it in that, hey, you're millionaires. You get to be rock stars.

You mostly all get to do something the rest of us would have loved to have done. I would have loved to have been a fucking pro athlete just to go out. Forget the games. But I, my friends are like, you basically go out like a pro athlete. Well, Hey, for 45, it looked pretty good.

But I hate seeing the player get upset about it, but I can't tell them to not be upset about it, right? I can't say, hey, don't be upset about all this different criticism. But if there's anything I could ever learn in being in some version of this just with a talk show and all the shit that I've dealt with, you go, yeah, but you're not, these people, like, they're just mad because of their own selfishness. You can't take it as personal, but it's impossible to not want to. It's even a step further than like you share opinions for living and your opinions are very good. And, you know, like sometimes you're going to say things that somebody disagrees with. And sometimes you're going to be wrong. And I'm learning that, you know, like over the last year, it's fucking hard in its own different way than football.

But football can be so unfairly personal because there is no correlation between somebody being good at football and then being a good human being. No correlation. It's like the running through the end zone thing, you know, you got to sometimes glorify the greatness of a football player or like, you know, you just have to believe that that guy's as good as a guy as he is a player. And on the other end of things, you have to justify how much you can't stand somebody's game by just dehumanizing certain dudes. And not you, I'm saying like certain fans. And my thing is like, I'm just like, you know, there's a difference between and I've done this before. I fell into this trap with other industries. Okay.

As a podcaster, I like to have fun. And sometimes I wade into the territory of being like maybe a little mean. And I'll be like, am I being just kind of an asshole right now? And like what if this person was in the room, would I say this? You know, so that's like a code that I wish fans would live by a little bit. It's fair to criticize somebody's play. But I felt like sometimes with certain athletes and Fultz would be one where he might feel like he has to be embarrassed walking around.

That's not. There's no embarrassing about. being the fucking NBA. And just because he lost his shot for a year or two, it's just, it makes you feel bad sometimes for the way the sport and fandom works. The longest Mark Hill Fultz answer ever, maybe. Yeah, dude, we spent some time on Markle Fultz.

I might even put it in the fucking in the description of the pod when I type my little tweet out tomorrow morning. What's Brooklyn doing? Why did they do this to us? Why are they, it's not like anybody in the East. And I fuck with, like, listen. I got some of my dudes on Brooklyn.

But that is really the roster is all over the place. They're not going to win a playoff series. I mean, you talk about the L.A. teams and what they're going through. They need some time to gel. It would be nice if they were in the east. It's not like that in the West. They were 19 point underdogs historically. So, and got the win.

And then people got hooked against Boston. They were plus nine. They could have tanked and used the pick. like a trade ship. Why didn't they do that? Oh, I didn't know we were doing 10. Well, they're going to be in the playoff. I mean, all those other teams behind them are so bad. No, I know. They're basically are, you can't imagine they were going to do this. My guess would be it's twofold. It's, well, it's a few things. It's bubble,

relaunch, holy shit, the nets are missing all their good players. We're not taking this seriously. We'll get them in the fourth quarter. And then the threes are the great equalizer. And that's what happened. I think Boston probably went into that going, hey, these guys have actually been playing kind of hard. Yeah, so they don't care. There's no pressure. And then every guy on that team is trying to get the next contract because he's getting minutes and shots he normally would never, ever get.

Because it's not just Katie and Kyrie not showing up. The other guys didn't show up either. So like score three, four, five, and six were around. And Karas Lavert is, you know, he's played. But I don't think he's played all the games. I don't want to get too deep in the Netsweeds here and get something. Yeah, we're way too deep in the Netsweeds. But I do want to shout out, and I got us here.

but I want to shout out Justin Anderson, Wahoo-Wa, dunking on Janus somewhat. I mean, the coolest poster. Justin just showed up, I think just joined the Nets off the street. And fucking, you know, that's a hell of a video that he's going to cherish forever. And it's up there with the Devin Booker shot. It's probably one of the best dunks in NBA regular season history. Yeah, Dr. Jay. Yep.

And my boy, Justin Anderson. Justin. bucks. It just wrapped before we started off. It felt like the bucks were down most of the game. And I know they've been they've been up and down since the restart. And I'm thinking to myself like are the heat the sexy like hipster pick to go all the way? But they can they can be a lot of different ways. I mean the Duck and Robinson story has been terrific. But they did that without Butler and Dragage too. Yeah, dude. That's why I didn't take that. They were they were like plus nine tonight. I didn't take it because all the injuries. There was a really, they were up big. They're up like 20. And then Milwaukee just kicked into another gear and kind of reminded them like, hey, this is actually how intense we can play. And you just see it.

You just see it in the last few minutes. That's why the last few minutes, granted, this is breaking news. But you just see the way the offense can completely get bottled up. And then you have to apply that and be like, what do I like in the last five minutes offensively that I think carries over to the playoffs? And whenever anybody's up 20, I'm always surprised how people can watch the NBA their whole lives and be like, oh, man, they were down 20. Everybody comes back. It's weird to be up 20 and then just coast to like a 25 point win. Because it's just, it's human nature. It's the same way,

it's the same way as when you defend zero zero and kicking it off or when you like, you're up 21 nothing and they haven't converted a third down. You just know your 11 guys aren't going to be the same way. It's just. It's so scary because you're just like, there's no worst lead than they say like what, the two two score lead in football or is it three? I don't know because I haven't had too many until like late in my career but it is fucking kind of unsafe the first time we have one I was like damn this kind of feels just as insecure as being down 40 in St. Louis like what is going on here and then you're in two minute and people are just you know Deshawn Watson is just pulling shit out of his ass and throwing the ball like 60 yards on the

you're like oh it's a close game but in basketball there's no truer saying in my opinion just watching especially in college too it's a game of runs like you know it's like it's so easy to be like okay, it's over, and next thing you know. And a team like the heat on the other end of it, they can get hot. I mean, they were shooting the lights out tonight. So I feel like they're still really. When they were up, they were plus 27 from the three point line. Yeah.

Okay, and that's against a Milwaukee team that should shoot out of the three. Well, yeah, at that point. But then I'm joking. Yeah, all right. Sorry, I didn't know. No, I'm playing on the, I'm an idiot. I don't know about basketball. I was kind of like a zoothing.

what's he asking? What's their PPE minus 27, minus 2.7? Now you've lost me. Plus minus. What? The plus minus? You want a box score?

I'm just joking. Oh, is that basic shit? Is plus minus the basic shit? No, plus minus is, I think it tells the story of extremes really well, but in a game, I think it can be really misleading

because it can have as much to do with who the other guys are that are out there with you. But if somebody has a really bad 12 minutes, say it's a bench rotation guy, and he has a really bad 12 minutes, and then you look and you go, oh,

he had easily the worst minus on this, then it can be. But it's not the end-all, be-all, but there's a lot of stats that. That's good. I'll be careful with the plus-minus when I tweet about all the NBA action here. Be Mr. Plus-M-M-M-M-ness.

Yeah, I'm just going to plus-minus everything. And hopefully people listen to the pod to know, I'm fucking with you. But unfortunately there's going to be a lot of people whose heads it goes over. Like when you were a hockey watcher, Chris Long. Oh, man, did I get a lot of shit for making fun of hockey, even though I fucking love hockey? People were like, they were writing articles in Saskatchewan about me. If I had to walk through the streets of Calgary, I would have got my fucking ass kicked,

you know? Well, Calgary not so much. Maybe Winnipeg. In the cold. Yeah, definitely Winnipeg. I would have froze to death, you know, like, uncontacted. just in an alley in Winnipeg. And it wouldn't have been dark because it's so far north,

even though it's 3 a.m. It's daylight out. That's what would have happened to me. Superlatives. Worst matchup for the best team. Worst matchup. Philly Boston. I think that's going to be a real problem for Boston.

I just do. Hmm. How about most awkward hallway conversation? Does it go bear and fucking Mitchell? Mitchell? Is it just like? We just know that. going to talk.

Kyrie and anyone. Who's going to the ice machine the most? I want those reports because there was a broadcast today that said the hotline, the hotline's like a dead issue. It's not a story anymore. We thought we were going to hear about the hotline or not. And then the report was that players are calling silver directly. Like every player has silver cell and they can call them and complain about other people. I want that info bad.

I want it now. I want to know what's going on because it's 300. plus guys. You know somebody's doing stuff. Like fucking Dionne Waiters is at the ice machine again, Adam. Did you ever penny anyone in their dorm room? Do you ever do that? You ever penny a door? No. What is it again? What you do is you push the door open against the lock, the bolt.

Got a great memory. As much as you can. And then you tap pennies in. So there's so much pressure, you can't actually open the door from the inside because the bolt is slammed against the inside of the bolt frame and call him petting him in and we did it through a bunch to do's tidal waves were big. With the thing on top of the door, yeah. Well, not on top. You just lean it up against the thing. I got a tidal

wave in the middle of the night one night. It was not optimal. That was big in Chicago, uh, circa 2012. Somebody put a tarantula in my brother's room. Like, that was an NFL prank. Like, rookies got tarantulas. That seems counterproductive if that goes wrong. Are they fake tarantulas? They were defanged. Defanged.

Can you get defang? What's the market for a defanged tarantula? How quick can I get one? It's like driving a Rolls Royce off the lot. Yeah. Depreciates quickly. I had another friend Hal who used to just walk into your room and light a poster on fire and leave. That is completely unsound.

I mean. He just wanted to see how you were going to deal with an emergency. That's the guy that goes too far. I cannot stand. How was it go-to far guy? But everybody really liked him. How about, well, you never said who would be at the ice machine, but who's most likely to eat a fish out of the Disney pond?

Melly from New Orleans. Okay. How about worst NBA finals matchup for the league and for you? I guess that would probably be. Personally, for me, well, everybody in Toronto is going to freak out. Like, they act like no one in America likes Canada. It's not the case at all. I love Canada, but, you know, people.

Come on. I picked him to go to the finals last year. And so, but if they weighed it this year after all the stuff that was said about him, I can't believe how well they're doing. Nick Nurse is a legend. But to watch Kyle Lowry and Hardin go one-on-one, that would be my own personal health. Yeah. What's your best NBA finals matchup?

I want to see Yonis go at the double wings of the Clippers. Just to see Kauai and George trade him off. That's a lot of big athletic dudes. Yeah. That's really what I want to see. Although I love Anthony Davis. And shout out to our friend Big Cat, Laker, Dan. I know how much another ring would mean for him

after going through all of these down years and not making the playoffs. I mean, you know, especially this year, I'd love to see something happen for a guy that's loved the Lakers as much as this. Yeah, they had to wait a while. this year to secure the one seed. Like with the stoppage, I mean, you really have to feel for Lakers fans. I really feel for all the fans here in Charlottesville that drive around with Lakers and Cowboys window flags on their sedans.

Those guys must have had it hard through the last couple decades. And like Coosma tweeted out, like the real ones know. They went through all the losing. And, you know, Coos was in the league a couple years. He knows what it's like. Yo, I hate to be like NFL or just any fan. being like your life must be awesome, like dehumanizing athletes, but I think it would be the coolest thing to play for the fucking LA Lakers.

I mean, you, I just would never, obviously this is unrealistic, but I don't think I'd ever frown. I'd be walking around like I was stoned off my ass. I would be so fucking happy. I can't imagine. I can't imagine being some of those younger dudes who got bounced. You're like, you're playing for the Lakers, but you're not. You're not now.

That's like getting drafted by a city that you would hate to hang out in. And then at the last second, getting traded to the opposite. So you just switched it. Yeah, basically is what I did. The inverse of that would also be interesting. Let's wrap it up and get you to bed so you can get your metamusal and turn on the life alert. Well, actually, ran a cocoon on VHS. So I'm excited, but I got to rewit to return it.

I got to return it tomorrow. So I'd like to make sure. What are you going to Hollywood videos? Yeah, there's a place. Or a fucking blockbuster? What do you do? Do you even know Be Kind rewind, what that even means? Yeah, when they used to, yeah, because when you turn it back in, people didn't have to do it, you know, for your lazy, unethical ass.

Do you remember? Do you remember people like when you'd read a video and then you get it? Like, God damn it. It's not fucking rewile. Like, that was a real struggle. You're like, the end of course. Carlito's way turns on and he's just like dying in the subway and you're like, show up.

Whoa. Well, easy. Yeah. But, you know, I just, I don't know. My dad didn't get too upset about too many things, but I think I remember one time, like, probably rented but tune and you just get it out and you're excited. You got pizza going. You're like, fucking A.

Your dad just throws what about Bob into the sound at Martha's Vineyard, just tosses it in there like Joe Montana. I saw that in the theater, and the whole theater cheered when he was like, how are you doing out there on Martha's Vineyard? And we were there. We were there at Vineyard Haven, watching it. And everybody cheered. No. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's pretty great. That's pretty great. Is this your brood? Oh, my God, dude. I just was reading, I got a great story for you. I'm reading one of the S&L books. I think the older one. I sent the excerpt.

So Chappie was up. on the first year. I'm going to close with this. Good content for those that are still with us. Chevy was on the first year. Retention. And Chevy was like immediately an overnight success, biggest star in the show, covered New Yorker magazine, easily the most famous. And all the Saturday live people, they didn't make any money. The writers didn't make any money. The actors didn't make any money. And Lauren Michaels is the head of this whole thing. And that's a whole other amazing. So many chapters on Lauren's focus, vision, and kicking ass. And Chevy's like, like, you know what, I'm out of here. I'm a huge star. I have these specials, these network specials.

I may take over for Carson one day. And he leaves after the first season, but then I think was on maybe a couple episodes into the second season to try to make the transition a little bit better. Lauren Michaels had always had interest in Bill Murray. Bill wasn't on the first season. But then Bill comes in like five episodes after Chevy left because they didn't want to make it seem like he was replacing Chevy, even though that's basically what he was doing. Yeah, they just, yeah, it's like waiting a week to go hang out at Portland's house. Right. And then Bill Murray, who I still think is one the funniest human beings ever in the way that he can do it without trying to be funny, just in some of the movies he's done. I just loved him. And he isn't funny. And it's not working. And the crowd's

turning against him. And they even did this other stupid skit where he like kind of apologized for not being funny. And hey, if you wouldn't mind giving me a laugh, I got to find it. Because as I was reading the monologue, I was cringing reading it. And I'm like, there's no. And I'm expecting in the book, that they have it in there. And that's when it turned for Bill Murray and everybody liked him after. And I was like, I'm really going to hear

that this worked out for Bill Murray. This is the worst idea. And then they go, and this made it worse because that didn't work either. And I'm like, oh my God. And then he had this skit

where he does this thing in the shower where it's hilarious and it worked. And then things started to turn for Bill Murray because, again, he just has to kind of find his voice and find the characters and the writers have to figure out how to write for him,

all these different things. And Chevy comes back to host, like right towards the end of the second season. And Bill Murray's feeling himself, Belushi's out of his fucking mind. And Ackroyd

is killing it, but he's weird, like in a different way. Like, Dan Aykroyd actually worked the door as a bouncer at a blues bar while he was on Saturday Live, because he just liked kind of liked this outlaw thing, right? And Chevy shows up, and everybody's turned against Chevy Chase, because he's like, this guy's selfish, he went ahead, and he was a dick while he was here and all

this stuff. And that's kind of debatable, depending on who you believe. I don't know, because I'm just reading it from the book. And then Bill Murray kind of feeling himself a little bit is like anti-Chevi and they get into it and Chevy was having some problems with his wife and Bill Murray in the book is like

why don't you go fuck your wife? She needs it. And Chevy's like, it looks like Neil Armstrong landed on your face because he's making fun of his pop marks on his face and then they get up and Chevy's like, let's go. But apparently everybody thought

that Bill Murray is kind of a badass from Will Met, a little north of Chicago. because they said he used to love to fight. He used to love to fight. And he's Irish. That's what they said. They were like, he's like a young Irish boy who liked to drink and he liked to fight. He didn't do any drugs apparently.

I don't know. So this is all in the book. Yeah. Well, there's guys that do them and then aren't really drug guys. And they're guys that are just all about it. Belushi was like all about it just when as hard as he possibly do it. I'm not thinking like cocaine or anything like that for Bill Murray. I'm thinking the fun stuff.

Well, whatever it was, they exchanged blows. and Belushi's in the middle of it trying to break it up and Belushi's the only one that ends up getting hit in the whole exchange. Really? And yeah. Both of them. They were just throwing.

So then they went to go do the show. This is before the show starts. And they say that Chevy was just off and Lauren was watching from the studio. He's like, Chevy doesn't have it tonight. And then I guess, I don't know if there's video of it. But when Chevy's saying goodbye, like how they do at the end of the Saturday, I know, the host,

you know, six by and the castes all around him. Murray's in the back just, pacing and they thought that Murray was going to jump him as soon as the camera on live TV. No, he was going to wait so the cameras went off and then he was going to go ahead and jump. Again, this is me quoting pages that I read from the book today. How long did it take him to really blow up then? It was good. When the host is there, he's there most of the week leading up.

Yeah. And, you know, it's a place at Chevy event every day working that first season, turning the show into this thing that nobody thought was going to work. And it's critically acclaimed that wins all these Emmys the first year. They need to make a movie. They need to make a movie. Reading these chapters, they're absolutely, it could be an amazing,

amazing movie. But again, it has to be done right, because some of these biopic things that happen, whether it's the Biggie movie, the Tupac movie, I mean, the Motley crew one's kind of fun,

but it's a Netflix thing where I was a huge crew guy in fifth grade, you know? Yeah. So I, maybe I was hoping for a little bit more. Here's the deal. You don't have to fucking,

don't fret, Ryan, before we leave. They're going to make the movie and it's going to be a huge budget. They're going to spend the entire budget on the Irishman treatment for all these guys. And they're going to play themselves. I don't know if that's going to play. They've aged a bit.

Yeah, but that Irishman stuff, although expensive, worked kind of well for De Niro until he was like fighting. And that might be the problem. That fight scene there. When he went to the grocery store to kick that guy's ass, I was like, yeah, it just doesn't look right. one of my friends made a comment he goes it was it was you know how when people say like artsy stuff to try to stand out in the conversation he's like it's it's our imitating life he's like this is legitimately art like they're making these guys look younger than they are and then in the moments you can see and I was like you know what that's I think you read that somewhere else and you're sharing it with all of us I like to catch my friends I like to catch my friends and those and be like that's a really an interesting thought but you read that on Twitter where you share it or just search it just search it immediately I like the Irishman I just just didn't like the aging. So anyways, when it comes to aging. Yeah. Ryan just had a birthday. So again, thank you, Ryan Rassila for joining. Check him out. I don't need to plug your pod because you're fucking like the bigger fish, but he has a tremendous famous, world famous pod

that allows him to go to NBA, NFL parties. So go give it a listen and thank you for joining me. Thanks, buddy.