Pardon My Take - Former VP Of The Spurs Kirk Goldsberry, Game 2 Rockets/Warriors, And Guys On Chicks

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

NBA Playoffs are officially on and we taped after the late game to recap Warriors/Rockets Game 2, the Bucks flexing their muscles, the arrival of James Butler, and Nuggets talk for our friends out in ...'Rado (2:27 - 15:01). NHL Playoffs and Hot Seat/Cool Throne including our beloved pile of junk in the office (15:01 - 29:57). Former VP of Strategic Research for the Spurs and Author of Sprawlball Kirk Goldsberry joins the show to talk about analytics in basektball, how teams are using the 3 point line, how it can be fixed, and who will win the 2019 title (29:57 - 71:58). Segments include Sheesh update Lebron, Sabermetrics the Rockets complained, Respect The Biz Mike Francesa, and Urban Development (Urban Meyer's new job) + Guys on ChicksYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we have former vice president of strategic research for the San Antonio Spurs. He also did lead analyst for USA Basketball, and he has a new book out, Kirk Goldsbury, one of the smartest guys you've ever had in studio. We talk about the NBA, the three-point line. What about Johnny Bananas? Johnny Bananas, actually Johnny Bananas. One A and one B. Dude, don't come at Johnny Bananas in his intelligence. I'm not. I'm dead serious. He plays the game to win. We have him in studio. We stayed late for all you people, for all you
Starting point is 00:00:44 award-winning listeners, so we recap all the NBA games, NHL games, who's back, or sorry, HotSea Cool Throne and Guys on Chicks. Before we get to all that, it's time to talk about the Cash Card from the Cash App. The number one finance app in the App Store for a reason. The Cash Card is the most powerful debit card in the world, and the only debit card with boosts, a money-saving feature you can't get anywhere else because Cash App invented it. Just select a boost in your Cash App, swipe the Cash Card and save 10% or more at Whole Foods, Shake Shack, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Domino's, and Coffee Shops. You want to go organic without paying for it? Well, you can save 10% on every bag groceries with the Whole Foods boost. It's not hard to spend
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Starting point is 00:02:19 And then a lot of stuff will be done. No place to hang a low washing. And then I can't leave all on the sun. Oh, no. We're gonna rock down to electric revenue. And then we're taking higher. Oh, we're gonna rock down to electric revenue. It's part of my take, and it's set to buy at school. Welcome to part of my take presented by the Cash App. Use code Barstool and you get $5 for free and $5 to ASPCA. Help some animals. Today is Wednesday, May 1st. Welcome to May. We sleep in May. That's right. Hey, it's actually 1 a.m. right now as we're taping. Hey, quick Justin Timberlake impression. It's gonna be May. Yeah, there we go. Did you get it? Yeah, I was gonna be like, uh, fuck. That was gonna be people saying it's gonna be May. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:03:18 Justin Timberlake. Okay, so it is May 1st. It is 1 a.m. We are here after the Rockets vs Warriors Game 2. Unbelievable spread drama at the end. Not really drama in terms of the game. I feel like the Warriors, they were like up all game and it felt like they had control all game. It got a little close in certain moments. James Harden's eye was the big story. Steph obviously did another injury just to make sure people were paying attention because the ankle injury wasn't enough. Right. So he also dislocated a finger. It looked pretty cool. Did you see it? Yeah, it did. It was a very cool looking injury. Yes, but James Harden eye was the big story. And the refs, I'm sure someone will complain about the refs afterwards. I think the refs were
Starting point is 00:03:59 a non-story line. You're right. It's the eye. And to be honest with you, I like James Harden. I feel like he looks better with red eyes. It's when he doesn't look high that I'm concerned about James Harden. Yeah. The party James Harden. We also had Austin Rivers. It was about to be like the Austin Rivers game. And then you remember you can never trust Austin Rivers for more than like 20 minutes. But I do love his confidence. He's like Kyrie Irving after Kyrie got visited by the Monstars. Yes. And as a Dubbs nation guy, the Warriors are looking pretty good. Spread it around. Everyone scored, but Kevin Durant continues on his scorched earth. I'm the best player in the world. Tor, which is officially what 2019 is. Here's a little thing to keep in the back of your head,
Starting point is 00:04:40 though. Draymond Green got a technical. I always love how you say Draymond. Draymond. Yeah, I just love it. I put a little spice on it. Little flavor. Yeah, little English. But keep an eye on him because he got another technical tonight. Draymond got another technical tonight. So he's on his way to earning a one game suspension at some point during these playoffs. You should take it now. After he gets now. He should take it now. But no, then the problem is every other technical that you get after that is another game. Okay. So don't take it now. Spacing it out. So the Warriors need to find a way to stop Draymond Green. Yes. Are we thinking sweep? No. No. No, they're going to take at least one. I just wanted to throw it out there.
Starting point is 00:05:22 At least one in Houston. But it is the Rock. The Warriors are doing the nuclear warriors thing. They did the third quarter Warriors thing. Actually, at the end of the third quarter, the Rockets kind of came back, but everyone's scoring. That's when the Warriors, like when, when, when Kevin Aran has 29 and Steph is putting in shots and Clay gets hot for like 10 minutes and Draymond is, is dunking the ball and Jarebco even had a couple baskets in the first half is like, what do you do to stop them? You can't. There's really nothing when they're playing this well. I mean, Iggy's looking like he's a spray. Iggy looks like he's like 25 again. I like that you call him Iggy. Yeah, he got to that's right. I call him AI. You know, real AI. Hey,
Starting point is 00:06:01 this might just be the one I am talking about. Remember Iggy Azalea? She's just like not, doesn't exist. Quick Iggy Azalea impression. Remember that video, huh? Has she put out another song since that last one like eight years ago? Not that I know of. Damn. She's going to make it come back. So the Warriors have a two oh commanding lead. Dubbs nation. They have defeated not only the Rockets, not all will know the refs are on their side, but the bad chemistry Warriors. And of course, a big this league thing happened on Tuesday morning when Scott Foster was announced to be part of the Rockets Warriors gave me as a long standing feud against the Rockets, especially James Harden and James Harden. And then everyone pointed out that these refs get decided before
Starting point is 00:06:49 the series. But I'm not going to let these little facts get in the way of a good narrative. This was clearly David Stern saying, I'm going to fuck you up Rockets because you guys have been complaining too much. Well, just because they didn't have an effect on the actual game on the court doesn't mean that they didn't get inside the Rockets heads by just putting Scott Foster on it. Correct. Begin with. They were they were rattled. You can tell the I think the best thing that we saw was the birth of a meme tonight. James Harden's red eyes. James Harden's red eyes. I think that's he looked like Bob Costas after a weekend in Sochi. Couple, couple pink eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Nice bearing it right in there. Maybe us after a home on Derby. Rick Riley joke. Hey, hey, big cat.
Starting point is 00:07:28 What's up? Steph had a dislocated finger, but it looked from Harden's eyes like he was the one that was struggling with a hastily wrapped joint. Nice. Nice. Nice. How many boobs Hank? Who pokes who poked hard in the eye by the way? Was it Dremond? Yeah. Yeah, we're just going to go with Dremond. Yeah. It's his very Dremond people. Yeah. Let's talk about the other game. Hank. 1.8 boobs. One point. The stats. Hank, the first place Milwaukee buck showed up finally to the second round. First game. Obviously, it looked very bad. Giannis looked weak, which is crazy to say, but he was awesome tonight. They shot 47 threes. They did bucks basketball. What? That's what they do. They just jack a bunch of threes and Giannis just dominates down low.
Starting point is 00:08:18 Are you worried at all? No. The bucks will not shoot that good for the rest of the series. Kyrie will not play that bad for the rest of the series. I kind of agree with that part. They are leaving Milwaukee with a win, which is all you can hope for in one of these series. They still won. It was weird. Kyrie was like he had an unbelievable game one and then just was a total no-show. I'm okay with that because that means, I mean, it's not like you don't have a shitty series. If you have a shitty game, that's almost better because you know for the rest of the series, it's going to be honest. I don't know. I don't think that you can beat these, but as I've said, these bucks are unbeatable in this playoff. They have not lost. They are going to dominate
Starting point is 00:08:52 the East. Clearly the best team. Yeah. It was, I mean, they did shoot really well, but they kind of, they didn't start out shooting that well. No. It took them a while to find their footing. They went on that crazy run in the third quarter. They were up 39-18 in the third quarter. They went on like runs like 27 to two for like an eight minute span going from the third to the fourth quarter. And that's what they could do. They just basically nuke you with threes and Janus just Euro steps his way halfway across the world to a dunk. Yeah. The Euro steps spelled G Y R O. Yeah. So do you think that Janus is going to at some point do a three point layup? I think he'll be the first person to do it. Like take off from behind the three point line. You
Starting point is 00:09:29 could do it. Just like a nice little finger roll. Yeah. There's always, you've seen those like still frames where, where he has the ball at half court. And he's like, this guy only took two more dribbles to dunk. Yeah. No, I love the Janus still frames. They're like the NBA equivalent of the Trent Richardson screen grabs where there's a giant hole that he doesn't see. Yeah. It's always like outside the three point line when he collects his dribble, and he ends up dunking it. Yes. So that series is one one. It feels like the NBA playoffs have finally officially started because every series feels good, even though the Rockets are down to a, what are you gonna say? That series kind of stinks. Which one? The Warriors Rockets.
Starting point is 00:10:01 It's been a let down. I don't know. I always, I mean, as a, as a long time Warriors fans since Monday, I love when they get going. But I feel like they didn't really get going tonight. Like it was like moments, the third quarter, start of third quarter, they definitely got going. They got going a little bit in the first game too. Yeah. They get going. These boys are frisky, Hank. I don't want you to discount them. These underdogs, underdog Warriors could beat the, could beat the Celtics. Actually, any of the three teams, the Warriors, the Warriors or the Rockets, I think match up very well against the Celtics. So in the other series that we have, James Butler has arrived. Not Jimmy. No. James Butler, a man. He scored 30 against the Raptors
Starting point is 00:10:40 in front of Drake's face. Drake, let's do Drake for a second. He's upset. I'm so sick of every, it's like every single, it's one of the worst. You know how they're like masters, one of the best traditions, a tradition unlike any other. Drake screaming at the opposing team while the Raptors get the shit kicked out of them. Not a tradition I care about. No. I do want him to bring back the huge, loose fitting Cougar sweaters and those weird glasses. A limp roller. Yeah. That was really nice when he used to do that. I just don't, how about the ending of that game though? Lowry? Yeah. Trying to nutmeg the guy. Oh yeah. I give him points for the confidence. Chris Paul nutmeg the guy tonight. He did. Yeah. Lot of nutmeg. But James Butler, this is what,
Starting point is 00:11:19 this is why the Sixers went and got him because he is the man. James. And when Joellen Bied has diarrhea and Ben Simmons can't shoot every single game, I think he had six points. But James Butler is your closer, also known as Jay Butler. Yeah. Jimmy Butler hangs out and like goes up and down slides with Mark Wahlberg's daughter. James Butler signs for permission slips. Yes. Exactly. The other series we had, so I noticed something funny. PFT. We went out to dinner with some other people on Monday night. Not, we're not, we're just people. Dinner mugs friends. Yeah. You might know Malcolm Gladwell, the Bennett brothers. Yeah. Charlemagne. Yeah. Charlemagne. The God. Jesus. We, I book a
Starting point is 00:11:58 pd at everyone beforehand. The guy from Grey's Anatomy. Yeah. Exactly. But anyway, I got home late. We got home late from, from the dinner and I was watching the end of the Blazers Nuggets game and I was throwing out a few tweets. Nuggets fans are very upset with the lack of respect that they get. So we should do a little respect the Nuggets segment here. You know, for the Rado people. Okay. The Sea Rads. Yeah. I like Colorado. Yeah. I'll say this about Rado. Best state flag. Yeah. Okay. So let's do some nugget talk. So Rado best state flag. You can smoke weed there. Everybody there has tattoos and a dog. Did you know little fun fact for you. The Nuggets were actually called the Larks when they were founded.
Starting point is 00:12:42 Did not know that. And then they were also called the Rockets for a little bit. The Denver Rockets. The Denver Rockets. That makes sense. Yeah. And then they became the Nuggets in 1974 also. Because there was another team called the Rockets. Yes. Jokic, who is awesome, and we will give him credit too because he is one of the best players in the NBA. I like him because he used to be a really fat kid and he had an addiction to Coca-Cola, three liters a day. That is a shitload of Coke. He stopped it about a year and a half ago, but he fucking loves Coke. He would, he was asked about it and he said that he wouldn't drink it before practice either. So he would do three liters a day from like three o'clock on. Was he
Starting point is 00:13:22 also the guy that complimented the reporter in the post game for typing so quickly? Possibly. I think so he respects the biz. Yep. They also have some of the coolest throwback jerseys. Easily. Yeah. Pepsi Center. Yeah. He came in with a tumble. You remember when he cried with a basketball? Yeah, he put the basketball under his head. On top of the dream. No, over his head. Well, no, but then he was in the paint, remember? And then he put it under. I think I can remember. I just remember him crying on the basketball. Yeah, he was crying. He ate beat the one. Somebody said I have him putting it under his head, but I might not remember. Yeah, when he beat the, when he beat the Sonics. Yeah, people in Colorado forget things.
Starting point is 00:13:52 Yeah, Rada. In Rada. C-rad. Why don't they do C-rad? C-rad is pretty sweet. Here's the thing about the nuggets. Not only do they have great throwback uniforms, they have awesome current uniforms. Yeah. Also original ABA team. Yeah. Shout out to Nugs. Okay. So we're big fans. Number one, Rado C-rad sports podcast. What do you got, Hank? Carmelo, J.R. Smith, and AI was an all-time gangster team. Yeah. Yeah. They were just G's, three G's on the team. And the light blue, the light blue nuggets, three G's in a rod. Yeah. People forget that Carmelo, probably the peak of Carmelo's strengths was that Western Conference final against Kobe. He was awesome in that series. And he played a lot of
Starting point is 00:14:30 defense, not known for his defense. Also the thin air. Thin air. It's pretty cool. It's like a natural high. Oh, Hank, here's another one quick fact. The Pepsi Center where the nuggets play in C-rad. The Colorado mammoth of the National lacrosse league also play there. Getting cooler by the second. So there's our nuggets talk. I still am rooting for the Blazers because I love Damien Lillard and C.J. McCollum is our Hezzie Hay recurring guest. I always just think of the nuggets as the Utah Jazz with a little bit of cayenne pepper. Yeah. Utah Jazz with a little drink. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little drink on the side. Yeah. Utah Jazz with maybe a beer and a shot. I like it. I like it. So go nuggets. I want nuggets against the Warriors.
Starting point is 00:15:10 What do you got, Hank? Just held it straight up. Oh, he did. Okay. For some reason, I thought maybe he put it under his head as like a, as like a, you're sleeping in the lane. You're thinking of when Tio scored a touchdown and then took a nap on the ball. Well, no, what I'm thinking is I'm pretty sure DeCembe said he dreamed that he was going to, they were going to upset the Sonics. So I combined the dream and the ball to him being resting on the ball. No, no, no, no. One of the, he is one of the best recurring guests. All right. So that's our basketball. He speaks like nine languages. Yeah, he does. He totally cucks the shit out of Pete Buttigieg. We have Kirk Goldsbury coming up in a minute to talk a little more basketball. Let's talk a
Starting point is 00:15:45 little hockey real quick. Another recurring guest Logan Couture with a hat trick and a bow, which was a fucking classy move to the Denver fans. Mr. Clutch staying on Seerad. Hank, the Bruins down to one now. Are you nervous? Nope. Okay. It was funny because going into tonight Hank was real jazzed up about the Boston sweep. There's been a lot of Boston sweep talk going around this office recently. Hank, you know what we get? Another, another, not out of my mouth. Another breakdown of a possible suspension when Brad Marchand, uh, like hit someone behind from behind the head. Yeah, that was bad. Yeah. Well, that didn't look good, but if you remember correctly, my favorite part about the NHL playoffs is just taking still frames and slow mo replays of everything
Starting point is 00:16:29 and deciding whether there should be a suspension or not. People always forget that hockey is played on ice skates. And so there's a lot of times when people are slipping, falling down as they get hit. You lose sight of the fact that the entire game is played on the slickest surface, no demand. So when you see a guy like Tom Wilson accidentally hit a guy on the head, it's usually because they're just slipping. I think the one thing I'll say Brad Marchand, like his job is to be a pest, and that's pretty much the most pest move you can do is to punch someone in the back of the head when no one's looking. Also, Tucker Rask, Tuka Rask. I like what you said. Not great. Not a great, not a great goaltender, it turns out. Pretty sure it's like,
Starting point is 00:17:07 you got it. You got it. Statistically, one of the best goalies of all time. Yeah, well, especially in the playoffs. No, that's, that's a very, that's a misleading stat, Hank. How so? Because a lot of great goalies don't necessarily play on great teams that make it far. Garbage time saves. And when you're talking about, you're talking about goalies are the reason their teams lost. You're talking about goals against Hank. How could it be a great goalie in your team? Goals against, you can have a great defense and not let in that many goals because the other team doesn't get quality shots. But if you let in a softie, everyone gets mad. The Islanders, I feel like, haven't played in forever. And the Blues, who I'll admit, I have a
Starting point is 00:17:44 personal bias here. I just cannot live in a world where the St. Louis Blues win a Stanley Cup that would break my heart. I'm just going to pretend that they're not up to one and they're playing really, really great hockey. Because if I just pretend it's not happening, hopefully it just goes away. Here's the flow chart for me in terms of who I root for in the, in the playoffs and hockey. One, the Capitals to whoever's playing against the Penguins. And then three, I just root for the NHL to have the shittiest possible matchup in the Stanley Cup for the ratings. So right now, we figured out that would probably be San Jose and Carolina. Carolina. Yes. So those are my two teams right now. San Jose, Carolina would be a very, very funny. Shark, shark hurricane.
Starting point is 00:18:23 Once they're a sharknado, when they come out of the shark, it's pretty awesome. Sharkacane. What do they call it? The tank, right? I think they call it the tank. I don't know what San Jose. If they don't call it the tank, they should think about that. Big hockey town. Hot seat, cool throne, Hank, what's going on? My hot seat is Usain Bolt. Oh, really? So this kid, a high school kid. Oh, I saw this. Matthew Bowling ran the hundred yard in 9.98 seconds, which is only 0.40 seconds behind Usain Bolt's world record. Wait, it was at 9.98? Yeah, that's really fast. Really fast. You know what? Here's a fun, well, it's not a fun fact, but here's a fact. When a French guy ran the 100 meter dash in under 10 seconds, he became like the first white guy in, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:19:07 like 50 years or something like that to break 10 minutes. The KKK offered him free membership for life. That didn't seem like a fun fact. It's not a fun fact. It just is. And the French guy just turned it down, obviously, because it's the KKK. What does that have to do with this? I'm just saying, this is another white guy. Oh, I didn't even know his race. I didn't. Well, I knew I did. It was 100 meters. It was a blue streak. Well, I knew it was 100 meter race. So I feel like it's got to be only a matter of time. Yeah. Did he beat Usain Bolt? Yeah. Well, Usain Bolt should come out of retirement and play football, which would be awesome. That's true. Or just run against him. Yeah, that too. What else? You got a cool throne or you got another hot seat?
Starting point is 00:19:45 Also, I'd just like to say for the record, I'm glad that the French guy turned him down. Yes. Yeah. We are an anti KKK podcast. Also, KKK, what a bunch of losers you're having to invite French people into your club now. Yeah, kind of weird. Like the French guy probably was like, what is this? Yeah. For my cool throne, I had Justin Timberlake because it's May. I also had aliens. I'm sure you guys saw this as well, but the US Navy is changing the rules so pilots can more openly report UFO sightings. What is, okay. So like before, if you were in the Navy and you reported a UFO sighting and it wasn't true, like you got in trouble, blah, blah, blah, they're making it so that they want to encourage people to come forward.
Starting point is 00:20:24 It's like calling for golf. Yeah. They took away, which is bullshit. It is bullshit. Yeah, they took that away. You can try. I try a lot, but they don't listen to you anymore. So if you're like, now there's going to be more UFO scares, more UFO information. Navy aliens will come down. I'm kind of in favor of the Navy disciplining pilots for reporting fake UFO sightings. Call me old fashioned, but that could trigger a national security emergency, if you're just like some pilot that's, uh, you know, flying your F 18 off the coast of Seattle and you're like, Hey, it's a UFO. And then no rad scrambles and turns out the pilot's just hallucinating. Right. Yeah. That would make sense. I feel like there's probably going to be a lot of
Starting point is 00:21:06 alerts, but I'm okay for that. Yeah. We do need some more UFO sightings. I feel like it's been pretty much just like Siberia. They'll do the dash dashboard cam of the UFO. We need some more of that. Yeah. That was it. Cool drone. Yeah. Okay. PFT. Okay. My hot seat is Avengers. No spoilers. The event. No spoilers. The Avengers are on the hot seat though, because the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer was just released and it looks incredible. It's got teeth. It is going to be the movie event of the millennium. I'm very confident in saying so people are really mad because Sonic looks like really scrawny and lanky instead of the jacked up sonic that we all do. We ever decide if Tails is a girl or a boy? No, I think we just decided it would be best to
Starting point is 00:21:50 leave that question unanswered. Hot as fuck. Yeah. No matter what it is. Right. It's a little thick at that bushy tail. It's so cute little tails. Yeah. The old Sonic used to be like Darren Sprouls. What was red Sonic again? Knuckles. Knuckles. Yeah. Sonic and Knuckles. So yeah. Sonic is back. They should actually have KD play Sonic. That would be good because Sonic's a ring chaser. Yes. That's literally what he does. Yes. That's true. My also hot seat of the week is the Earth because NASA is planning a simulation of an asteroid. They're also saying that we're way overdue for an asteroid collision. So this week there's an account that's- Wait, wait, wait. We're going to deal with aliens and asteroids? Yeah. We're going to fight this
Starting point is 00:22:34 war on two fronts. Well, all the UFOs, those are just basically Elon Musk launching cars into the sky. But we are overdue for a collision and they're going to be doing a live simulation of an asteroid impending asteroid collision with the Earth. This week there's like an account out there, a Twitter account that's going to do the play by play for it. Can I just throw this out there? An asteroid hitting Earth? Not that bad. Like I wouldn't mind if the Earth just- That's how we ended. It'd be pretty badass. Like a Michael Bay movie. Thinking about what the alternative is just cooking ourselves alive in the next 200 years. Asteroid, not that bad. Not that bad. Thank you. I actually- I'm kind of pro asteroid in that
Starting point is 00:23:15 respect. As long as it does the job. Like I don't want an asteroid hitting us and then we have to deal with like a nuclear fallout and bullshit and all we have to do is eat Twinkies and fight off cockroaches, all that shit, cockroach. I just want the asteroid to hit us. Boom, done. You know, I kind of agree with you on that take because if it wipes out half the populations, that's a lot of funerals that the living are going to have to do. A lot of sadness. It's a mess. It's a mess. We won't have cable for a while. There's a lot of things. The Direct TV satellites, you would be trying to watch football and it would just pause and say, oh, there must be a storm in your area. No, it's an asteroid that slacked off and didn't finish the
Starting point is 00:23:57 job. That can't close. Yeah, I'm being serious. Like if you threw it out there, you're like, all right, asteroid hits earth, you get to survive, but you don't get cable for the next five years. It'd be like, nope. No deal. Just take it all out. You know what though? If it wiped out all the bookies. Well, yeah, that's the other thing. You don't have to pay your book. Go back to zero. But of course, with my luck, I'd be up that week. Yeah. For once. My cool throne is decibel truthers. So it is playoff time. That means that people are going to arenas and cheering very loudly and the scoreboards are showing exactly how many decibels the noise level is reaching in the arenas. And every year it seems they go up. It's like the radar gun and baseballs. Now people
Starting point is 00:24:37 are throwing 103 miles an hour. Now decibels are reaching 140. And that's just impossible to do. And a lot of people have started to download their own decibel readers on their phones, going to games, comparing them against what the scoreboard is showing. And guess what? Turns out it's like 30 decibels quieter than they're showing. They also pump in for the NBA and the Seahawks. No, yeah, but the Seahawks as well. But I'm saying like they legally pump it in basketball arenas. I get the feeling that hockey arenas are actually much louder than basketball arenas. It bounces off the ice. That's what I'm saying. Like that's why the hardwood floors kind of hurts that whatever. No, but I do believe that
Starting point is 00:25:19 on the Titanic, the band played on the deck, right? Because it was like a natural amphitheater bouncing off all the icebergs out there. That's why it was- It was actually the first stereo ever. That was like their firefest, music festival. My other cool throne is Game of Thrones cinematographers because everybody was asking them what the deal with the last episode being very difficult to watch was. And they said, guess what? It's because people don't know how to adjust their TVs. It's not on us. So it's on everybody in America that did not properly calibrate their TVs to a very specific Game of Thrones watch. It was too dark. It was just too dark. It was way too dark. I also think that they might have been in bed with some TV companies because I bet a lot of people ordered
Starting point is 00:26:07 new TVs during the episode thinking that it was their TV that was screwed up. So stay woke on this. All right. My hot seat is- What? Tales of the Dude. That's fine. I'm still- I'll stand by it. Hot as fuck. I'm sexually attracted to tales. Hot as fuck. If that was me, like finally coming to, you know, acknowledgement of who I am. Yeah. Where does that put us on the Kinsey scale for attracted to a male video game character? Yeah. That's not, that's not a human. Tales really is a dude. I feel like we've done this. Mint candy, tinkering with machines. Wait, what? How the fuck do they know what Tales likes? Mint candy? Despite overcoming most of his fears and becoming very bold,
Starting point is 00:26:47 Tales also has a fear of lightning. Oh yeah, me too. He's like a dog. Give him a CBD dog treat. He'll be fine. That's what Tales should chase. A little, a little, a weighted blanket. CBD snossages. Imagine if it would matter if they did the Sonic movie and Tales was just a big pussy and a weighted blanket the whole time. Can't go outside. Dude. 30% chance of rain. Listen, you can say what you want. Oh yeah. You bought a weighted blanket. I bought a weighted blanket. The knockoff that's going to kill you. Yeah. The one that's filled with lead. It's going to give you lead poisoning. Uh-huh. That's fun. It's, it feels exactly like what they put on you when you get an x-ray. Yeah. Bruce Aaron's almost won a Super Bowl as a head
Starting point is 00:27:23 coach. So, and he drank a lot of lead. Lead paint. Yeah. Right. So, uh, all right. My hot seats is uh, the pile. So the pile is dead. Uh, we are moving offices. If you followed anything, Barstool headquarters is moving down the street. We have a new office, but today, uh, the team went through the pile. We found a lot of hilarious things. We're going to be doing an auction on charity for charity, uh, of a lot of the items, but it was like a time capsule of the last three years. Just, uh, weird stuff, random stuff, skyline chili, Jeff Fisher, mustaches, Jared Goff's calendar for senior season of Cal. The pile is no more. It was interesting diving through it because it's like when, uh,
Starting point is 00:28:09 when archaeologists go into the earth and they go down levels and down levels and the, the farther down you go is how long ago it was. It gets, it gets older and older. And so at the bottom of the pile, it was like a bunch of Harambe 69 jerseys. Right. And it was like, damn, sweet prints. Very long time ago. Also shout out to the person who sent us something that was very perishable and it was sent in 2016. That was a really weird package to open. Did you see that? I like, you just, you opened it, you smelled it and then you handed it to spiders and spider get rid of it and then spider immediately smells it too. It was bad. It was some wet and it had been wet for three years. Just think about that. Uh, my cool throne. I got two, uh,
Starting point is 00:28:48 the warriors, the good chemistry warriors are on the cool throne cause Guy Fieri, uh, is cooking a meal for Kevin Durant to keep them in golden state. An inspiration meal for Kevin Durant to see. I don't know if that's going to work for Kevin Durant. I think it's just extra donkey sauce. He's, yeah, just a big vat of donkey sauce. Kevin Durant is, I wouldn't call him a big eater. That's okay. He's just, he's all, you know, he's skin and bones. He's very sinew. It's about the sodium that, uh, gets you addicted when it comes to Guy Fieri. Okay. Well, I mean, maybe he could use some more donkey sauce, pack on some of those pounds. Either way he's staying because of Guy Fieri. Uh, our other cool throne is us,
Starting point is 00:29:28 because, uh, Christian acknowledges heart shame. He is a 10 to one. He's not the favorite, but he's 10 to one. Either way, we love him. So we hope he gets better. It's just a shame. Yeah. No, I, I so, I hope that he sets all kinds of records this season, hits 80 home runs and he's smart and he's smart about it and doesn't risk re-injury. Now you know, like Christian, look, you get, you're back as someone who's had back injuries. You don't want to add anything to the plate here. Well, food wise you can, but otherwise don't. So all star game out. Don't do it. My neck, my back. I'm not licking big cats crack. Yeah. So don't do it. Um, okay. Let's get to our interview before we do that. I want to talk to you guys
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Starting point is 00:32:17 Extract Labs has an awesome deal going for all the stoolies out there. Use the code Barstool at ExtractLabs.com for 25% off your next purchase. Make sure you follow at Extract Labs on all social media channels for more awesome deals and giveaways and tell them Barstool sent you 25% off ExtractLabs.com code Barstool. Okay, here he is. Kirk Goldsbury. Okay, we now welcome on probably one of the smartest guests we're ever going to have. It's Kirk Goldsbury. He was the VP of Strategic Research for the Spurs, the lead analyst for Team USA, and he has a new book out. It's called Sprawl Ball, a visual tour of the new era of the NBA. Welcome to the show, Kirk. You're a nerd. Thank you. I am, and this is an honor. I am an award
Starting point is 00:33:07 winning listener myself. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, I'm excited. You also left out the Harvard guy, I think. Oh, what? I mean, we got to throw in Harvard too. I didn't do enough. Well, mostly, I have not done anything, but no. Okay, so you have a new book out. It's today. You are a nerd, though. Sprawl Ball. Okay, so the new book, so for layman's term, you were basically, you got your degree in data visualization. If you've seen, you probably have seen Kirk's work, you've seen the cool maps of how guys shoot and where they're efficient in the NBA, and you created those. You worked for Grantland, you work for ESPN now, and your book is out, and basically talking about the evolution of the NBA and where we're at. We're fucked,
Starting point is 00:33:53 is what I understand. You're basically like the climate change guy for the NBA. That's perfect. Yeah, I'm the climate change guy. I'm the guy going to Glacier National Park and be like, do you guys like these glaciers? Because they're not going to be here in 10 years. I'm not complaining much about the state of the NBA right now. I actually think it's good, but the trends are so alarming where we're going, dude. I'm not a big fan of where that is. If you like the landing area foul, you're going to love the future of basketball. Okay, so yeah, 20, 30 years from now, what is the worst case scenario? What's the doomsday scenario for the NBA? There are no ice caps left, and we're all dead. Okay, so it's the same as in real life. Kevin Costner has a boat floating around,
Starting point is 00:34:28 and he's trying to save people. James Harden is, no. No, in all seriousness, it's three-point shooting, three-point shooting, three-point shooting, and not much else besides the layups and dunks and free throws. And that to me isn't great. Like, I love Dirk Nowitzki, I love Michael Jordan. When I picture those guys shooting, I think of them shooting what would now be labeled a stupid shot. And I don't want to believe that those guys were stupid shooters. And so I want to sort of figure out ways that the league can use analytics to create the best sport possible. So explain to us how we got here. Like, what the evolution of the NBA, you know, there's been rule changes as we've gone along. But I read the stat that you had that's in your book in 2018-19. So
Starting point is 00:35:10 this year, there was 27,000, almost 28,000 three-point shots. That's almost 4,000 more than all of 1980s. Yeah. That's insane. It's insane. And people don't, because it, because Big Cat, it went like kind of gradually, man. It was like frog and boiling water sort of situation. It was year over year over year. It's like a melting ice cap. But there's two things that I would point to sort of legislatively that engineered what we're watching out there. Number one is the three-point line itself, which was introduced in 1979. It's 40 years old. Like a lot of us, it's having a midlife crisis. And then the second one is in 2004, after the Pistons beat Kobe in the Lakers, what does the NBA do? They make defense illegal, essentially, by outlawing hand checking and defense of three
Starting point is 00:35:54 seconds. So that opened up the game a lot for guards. Steve Nash is suddenly an MVP after that. And now these guys are running wild, creating three-point shots all over the court. Okay. So we're going to get to the background of like what you've done with the league and and your various jobs. But I'm just going to throw this out there. Are you a spy sent out by Pop to try to ruin the Houston Rockets? No comment. Okay. That's the theory that we've been working on for a while. That makes sense, right? Pop has spies, though. Psyops. Yeah. I think we call them Psyops. Yeah. It actually does bring up an interesting point because, you know, you were, what was your title for the Spurs? Vice President of Strategic Research. That's the fucking spy name
Starting point is 00:36:35 right there. That's a spy name. So how did you go about getting that job? Was Pop reluctant at first to, to listen to what you had to say? Or you go, you come in the door and all of a sudden they're, you know, you're a valuable member of that team. Well, that's a great question. You guys know Ernie Adams, the Patrick, the Patriots guy, Ernie. Yeah, of course. Hank does. All right. Pete Stripes. Shout out to the Pats. I stole my title from him. He was like, he's like something of research at the Pats. I was like, Oh, that sounds cool. I want that Ernie Adams kind of thing. So that's how the title came. But yeah, I loved working with Pop and the chance to do that was obviously, I couldn't turn that down. Right. It was right when ESPN killed Grantland and I was like,
Starting point is 00:37:13 I don't like this company right now. And that was double birds he just gave to me. To me. Well, you were symbolizing ESPN. I was spreading it around. I was spreading it around. But yeah, like, of course I'm going to work. And Pop is who he is because he's super open-minded, man. And so he's not head over heels in love with analytics, but he's open to some of the insights that it can. Anything that can get an edge. Did he ever take you out for a nice wine dinner where he spent $20,000 on vino? No comment. We had some really nice times together. I've heard he's quite a gourmand. Including here in the city, nice restaurants that I could never go to, that he showed us. And that's part of him as a leader and as a guy that people love is like,
Starting point is 00:37:52 he shows you these things. So I'm always curious, analytics obviously has been, there's kind of been an explosion of it in all sports in the last 20 years. If you are someone who is in the front office, that's working on data and analytics, how does the chain of command go when you find something like, aha, this is something we need to implement? Do you tell Pop? Do you tell specific players? Do people listen to you? Yeah. I mean, people at this first, it's like a really functional organization for the most part. So people are open-minded and listening. And you know, you say, if you see something, you say something and depends on who it is. I didn't talk to the players very much about analytics. I had my coaches, some of the
Starting point is 00:38:30 assistant coaches are really sort of wonky and nerdy, some are not. And then some of the players are the same, I know. And then my relationship was mostly with the front office. So helping them with draft, helping them with free agency, helping them with personnel decisions and in-game strategy. Is there one guy that you can remember where you were like, this is something, I think everyone loves like the money ball, you know, analogy where it's like, like, oh, they got these guys that no one liked, but they can work it in efficiency. Did you have one of those guys where you're like, I saw him, something in him that no one else saw? Well, it's funny. It wasn't something that nobody else saw, but I saw Bryn Forbes and we did a bunch of shooting number evaluations. And he was
Starting point is 00:39:09 undrafted out of Michigan State. Player had no business playing in the NBA for most people. Most people didn't think twice about him. We got him on draft night, undrafted, in part because we thought he was a really, really special shooter. And at that value, yeah, and now he's starting games for the Spurs a few years later. So that's really cool because undrafted guys usually don't smell the league. Right. One of the most interesting parts of the book I thought was when you dove into how teams can change the lines on their own home courts, like as a possible way to kind of like get around some of the stuff that's been happening recently. You're a big advocate of making the three-point line farther out on the wings, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:48 As it gets closer to the sidelines. Well, yeah. And I think there's a bunch of stuff we can do, man. I think drawing the home court lines is controversial. People think it's either the stupidest thing I've ever said or the most brilliant, but I think it would be fun. And sports are supposed to be fun. And I like to go to Fenway Park and look at this giant green monster and be like, wow, that's wild. Like, let's see how baseball looks here. And then you go to Wrigley and it's got the Ivy and the brick and the dimensions. And it's fun. And why doesn't basketball have something like that? Imagine if the heat could draw their own line or the the Warriors are playing at home and they have one line, then they go to Houston,
Starting point is 00:40:19 there's a different line. And the players are, they have to calibrate, they have to strategize. And it gives a home field advantage. It's fun for the fans. So I think that would be interesting because right now, dudes, the shot is too easy for too many guys and the shooters are too comfortable despite the landing area controversy. They're still very comfortable out there. And like, if you try to play post-up ball, you get bullied and you, it's more like rugby, dude. But, you know, the shooters are so delicate. Let's make their lives a little harder, whether that's making the line further away, making it less consistent arena to arena. Let's, let's, let's make it a little harder for these guys.
Starting point is 00:40:50 So I had an idea for you because you, you have those fixes where teams could draw their own lines or possibly setting up where it's just two feet back or eliminating the corner three. What if we did two and a half points? People are really good with decimals. No, but here's the thing. Yeah. We have a problem with math education in America. Now we're solving two problems. I love teaching. As you, as you referenced, I love teaching students and I think that would be a really powerful way in all seriousness to help young people learn math. And basketball has helped me learn math. It's helped a lot of young people learn math. So I don't,
Starting point is 00:41:24 I don't think it's to be scoffed at, but yeah, it's funny. The thing about the denominations of two and three, it's super influential. Like if it was three and four, all of these margins would be wildly different. Right. And so yeah, exploring that I think is worth doing. We got into it with Baron Davis when Baron was on the podcast. I brought up your idea, your big proponent of when you play pickup hoops to play by twos and threes instead of ones and twos, because the difference between one and two is so much different than like a two or three. I don't think you really understood where we were coming from, but it makes sense, right? It stands to reason that you, you're putting way more value if it's worth twice as much.
Starting point is 00:41:59 Yeah. First of all, anybody who plays ones and twos in their pickup game at home, they're a monster, man. You can't do that. It's ridiculous. It's bastardizing the game and the economics of the game. You should be shooting twos the whole game if you're playing ones and twos. It's just ridiculously, unless you're a terrible shooter like I am, there's very, yeah. So ones and twos is a travesty and it just encourages terrible shooters like me to shoot twos or threes over and over and over again. So hook them up. Yeah. All right. So tell me how James Harden has ruined the NBA because he has. Oh man, he is. That's really what it comes out to. Like your whole entire book,
Starting point is 00:42:33 James Harden and what the Rockets are doing. And I'm a diehard Warriors fan, been since Monday. James Harden though, and with the, the, the style of the Rockets run, because I think when you, when you think threes, you think Steph Curry, right? Right. But the Warriors still run an intricate offense and it's, it's beautiful. It's ball movement. It's picks. It's off, off, you know, ball movement and screens and everything. The Rockets literally just run James Harden at the top of key four guys standing. Yeah. Zach Lowe calls it math ball. Pablo Tory says, uh, he plays basketball like a tax attorney. Uh, I think these are both sort of fair sakes, but you know, they deserve a lot of credit before I, I'll throw shade. Okay. Let me say
Starting point is 00:43:11 something. No, that's fair. Um, he deserves a lot of credit for being the most analytically correct player our league has ever seen. He's super smart. He's super savvy, like a tax attorney. The shots he takes are the right ones. The shots he doesn't take are the wrong ones. Um, but the logical extension of that into this sort of gimmicky, I want to get to the line too much. This landing area crap. Um, it's not fun. And it's, I think people get mad big cap because it's like not within the spirit of the game. Right. It's the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law and, and the Rockets are correct in a way. Like by the letter of the law, these should be three shot fouls, but by the spirit of the law, it's not like no basketball,
Starting point is 00:43:50 dude, I know is like, yep, gotta, gotta send him in the line every time if he jumps into these landing zones that, you know, Sean Livingston already occupies or whatever. Right. And it's also, I mean, you know, the spurs were a similar way where the ball movement, everyone touching the ball. That's when basketball is at its prettiest. Yes. When the Rockets are playing, they're literally your four guys just standing still and Kevin Rant's almost like a quarterback throwing the ball to like, you know, he makes the pick happens at the top. He runs to the lane and then he just passes to someone. It's like, you, it's almost every single pull, every single possession is predetermined to do the exact same thing,
Starting point is 00:44:27 either a layup or three pointer. Yeah. And it's not for me as an analyst to determine what beauty is, but I've heard a lot of people echo that sentiment, you know, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There's a lot of beholders right now that don't like love the Houston rocket aesthetic. And again, I think we have an opportunity, a really exciting opportunity to use analytics instead of like how Michael Lewis prescribed us to fix the Oakland A's batting order, pitching rotation or whatever to apply to the rules themselves. How can we optimize the game? If we want to see player movement, if we want to see diverse tactics and shot selection, we can make that happen. Let's explore some things. The contact allowance is the game is
Starting point is 00:45:01 really soft on the perimeter and really hardcore on the interior. Like I think we could smooth that out a little bit. Like if Lamarcus and Carl Anthony Towns can get clobbered in the post, then Clay Thompson can get a little bit more physical behavior in the spot up area. So hand checking is something that should be evaluated. Moving the line, allowing goal tending on threes is probably the biggest stone or ideas I have. Yeah, that's crazy. So, you know, there's just, let's make it fun, dudes. Yeah, it could be really fun. Yeah, I will endorse this book as my official Father's Day pick for a gift this year, especially if your dad's like my dad and won't shut up about George Miken and how great he was.
Starting point is 00:45:36 You talk a lot about like George Miken. He was a great defensive player, but he just goal tended so much that they had to change. It was legal. He should have. Yeah. But why shouldn't he have? But Miken is interesting too, if you have to, because he went from the best first superstar in the league as a big man to the guy who ended up setting the death letter for the big man, because he was the one as a commissioner of the ABA that introduced the three point line, which essentially killed the center position. Poetic. Poetic. Yes. So, fathers who like poetry, they like George Miken, but if you also hate James Harden, this is the, this is the book for you. Okay. I have a question about the book
Starting point is 00:46:11 and through all your research, who is, who has the most unusual heat map? You really sprung that one on me, man. You should know the answer to this. Well, it depends on what you mean by unusual. Which one looks fucked up like a asymmetrical Rorschach test? Well, the most asymmetric guys in the league are like Lamarcus Aldridge, who posts up almost exclusively on the left side of the court. So he's always got this huge activity where he's like the leading scorer from one side of the court on the left, on the left block. And then on the right block, he's much less active. So if asymmetry makes it a weird thing, then I would say Lamarcus. I mean, other guys are like really weird in terms of their shot
Starting point is 00:46:47 selection and their patterns. But what's, you know, Harden is interesting because he's, if you just look at his shot chart, he's a pretty average scorer. But the free throw, the line, the best place to score on the basketball court is the free throw line, guys. And he's drawing more fouls than anybody in the league and led the league in free throw six to the last seven years. And that's where he really gets his efficiency. How much, so you've done a bunch of stuff. Obviously, this book is, is the thing that's out right now. But you, you obviously were writing for Grantland. You've been talking about the evolution of players and all kinds of weird things that maybe the casual fan doesn't see. You wrote something about Kobe misses being basically
Starting point is 00:47:25 the Kobe assist. How much did Kobe pay you to write that? The premise was that Kobe misses are actually a good thing. So Kirk found the only bad thing in Kobe's game and made it a positive. You know, you know, that ring he got Vanessa. Yes, I got one of those. I mean, it was insane. I read it, I remember reading it at the time and I was like, what is going on? This guy's basically saying Kobe, when he misses is actually good. So that was me just trolling the state of basketball analytics and one of my first essays for Grantland saying like, you got, you know, you can't like sort of separate all these events. We can't pretend basketball is baseball. Like when Kobe draws a bunch of defensive attention and bricks a shot and then triple team Kobe's a good shot with Lamar
Starting point is 00:48:04 Odom and Paul Gasol's nearby to clean up the mess. That's actually not a terrible shot. So like, you got to connect these events and people, and he had an often like harden does this now too. If he misses a shot in the paint, the Rockets almost always get the rebound because he's drawn so much attention. Interesting. And so you can't just look at field goal percentage and say, hey, man, so the Kobe assist was like, because he didn't get a lot of traditional assists. Right. The Kobe assist was a nice way. It was great. It was the greatest article ever. I remember reading it being like, what? I had a theory. Now assists. I had a similar theory about Deli a couple years ago that his shots were so unusual that they would bounce off weird parts of the basket in the rim
Starting point is 00:48:42 that it would more often than not lead to an offensive rebound just because the players that were set up traditionally to get it would be out of position. The ricochets were so violent. It was like the opposites that are similar to the dead spots in the old Boston Garden where the Celtics knew where not to dribble because the ball would just die on the floor. But yeah, if you're rebounding for Deli for a year, you know that that's like a 13 foot rebound. Yeah, it's coming out. Very violently. Right. That's really interesting. So the other interesting part about your book and where the NBA is going is the superstar, probably the MVP this year, Janus, is kind of contradictory to that because he's now scoring like old school Shaq and not
Starting point is 00:49:22 shooting threes. But then the team just basically built a three point shooting team around him. So it's essentially the reverse of James Harden. Yeah. Am I getting that right? You got it. You know, pardon my take here, but it's like LeBron did it first. So LeBron was the most ferocious interior scorer of the decade. And he also led the league in three point assists in the decade. He did it first. The magic team. Yeah. But what I'm saying with Janus and LeBron is Janus was fourth in the league in three point assists this year. To your point, they built a three point shooting team around him. And that's what's really put this team over the top, maybe over the top of Hank Celtics. We'll see. But you know, LeBron was the first one to do that. He
Starting point is 00:50:00 dominated the game from the interior and people are like, Oh, he doesn't shoot threes. He doesn't fit in. But he leads the league in three point assists this decade. He's created more threes for his teammates than any other player. So he's actually been part of the story as well. And the honest, I think is close to do that. And the second point there is that, yeah, the best shot on the court is still a dunk. Right. To your point, he's playing like Shaq. He's getting more dunks than anybody. Why would I shoot threes if I can dunk it so much? And so between the three point shooting that his teammates are getting because he's pressuring the rim so much and his own interior prowess, they're a very money ball aligned team. Yeah, it's, it's funny. They're
Starting point is 00:50:34 just doing it a reverse way because you have everyone shooting threes now and then the best player in the NBA, or at least the regular season is the opposite of that. And slam dunks are still awesome. And that's why you honest is my favorite player to watch. Cause like the dunk is still way better than the three point make in my opinion. It's like disagree. Oh, wow. Yeah. When you get wet, when you get wet, when you get wet from three, I agree that big cats never done before. So he doesn't get it. Yeah. Guys like me and you that have been above the rim, we understand the allure. Man, that dunk you had a couple of weeks ago. He was there. He saw me, you saw me dunk one time in Austin, right? How'd you get up between the legs and yeah,
Starting point is 00:51:07 it was incredible. That was a layup when I went to play pick up down in Austin. That's right. It was funny. You played basketball at PFT. Yeah, he's really good. Really bad. Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good. The dunks are just the price of a mission. So we, we used to watch basketball together sometimes. Yeah. And it was before you sold out, before, way before I sold my account and definitely before I sold out. But what I always wondered about you when you're watching a game on TV like that, how much of it are you watching and just be like, this is awesome versus how much are you watching and like all the numbers are running to your head? It's, I've been poisoned by my own research. Like, yeah, I watch it and I'm like, you know,
Starting point is 00:51:42 the beautiful mind guy and the number goes through my head and it's terrible. That's what I thought. I can't enjoy it as much as I used to. That's why I like to watch other sports like college football or pro football or baseball because I'm like, I'm just watching it again. Are you going to bring your nerd powers to those sports? No. Never? No, I don't think so. Maybe football. We might do something with football, but I think, what do you guys think? Football doesn't need to be fixed. It's perfect. Well, football, you could do an entire book that just says, run the ball and play defense. So the Giants draft, I wanted to ask you about this. They obviously have some models there that are really advanced. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:12 Yeah, right. Gentlemen, really advanced models called Archie Manning. Gettleman analytics is, yeah. Yes. Yes. He's like, this guy is 6'4 and the pantone of his skin is like Eli Manning after a long winter where he hasn't taken off his shirt. And this other guy is exactly like the guy that we traded for a fifth round pick and also stopping the run is not like no one's running anymore. So stopping the run isn't that important. Yeah. And you guys also, you know, you found, you've, you scratch the surface on, it seems like the Broncos have some good analytics when it comes to identifying players. Basically John L. Way being like, I want a guy that's as much like me in my worst season as
Starting point is 00:52:49 possible. Yeah. So they don't need me, man. You gotta figure it out. You ain't at all smart. You guys all this. Is Jimmy Butler a top 20 player? He's right on the edge there. I think Jimmy Butler is a very good player. What about James Butler? I think in the situation, I don't think we're getting a lot of Jimmy Butler value. They played really well last night, but in a lineup with all that scoring that they already have, I don't think. The Sixers have a shit little piece that don't fit. Right. Nothing. Agreed. It's crazy. So good that they might still go all the way to the finals. Who knows. But yeah, I don't love the geometry of the Sixers as they assemble together. So explain that a little bit
Starting point is 00:53:22 more for dumb people like myself. Well, some guys get value because they're on the ball a lot. Like Ben Simmons needs the ball to be valuable. So does Jimmy Butler. Like they're not great off-ball players. Joel Embiid pretty good on the ball too. So, you know, when they had Sarge and Covington, I thought they had really good low usage guys who could space the floor and open it up for Ben or Embiid. And you bring in Butler who doesn't shoot threes. Although last night he shot 10 threes, which was a big thing for the Philly fans or the Sixers fans. So, you know, I don't know when you pay a guy that much money, you got to make sure, you know, you're putting him in the right situation to thrive. And this is a guy who likes to create
Starting point is 00:53:55 his own shot on the ball. And they have a lot of those guys to your point. So Ben Simmons, using what you've seen over the years of like how players have developed their outside jump shot after the rookie season, is there a possibility that he becomes an average three-point shooter at some point? Oh, for sure. That's a great question. And, you know, he could use his clutch roommate LeBron as a model because LeBron was a terrible jump shooter his rookie year, arguably the least efficient scorer or jump shooter in the league in his first year in the league. And became competent. Nobody's going to be like LeBron's great. He had a couple of really good years shooting the ball. But like Giannis, Simmons could really pattern some of his pathway to efficiency after LeBron,
Starting point is 00:54:37 pressuring the rim. And he's such a good passer. But to Big Cat's point, I'm not sure the Sixers are putting him in the right position to succeed because it's what Milwaukee did to have this awakening was get out of the way, man. Right. Get out of the way. So you're saying basically the Sixers need to create Milwaukee, but with Ben Simmons as the Giannis role. I think that's the way that Ben becomes the biggest, best version of himself. I'm not sitting here saying with Joel and B, they should do that. But like if you're asking me, how does Ben Simmons become a superstar? That's the kind of environment I would interpret. Or you could do it with Joel and B, right? Like you could theoretically do the Joel and B as the Giannis role. Both of them makes no sense.
Starting point is 00:55:14 I kind of agree. But Philly's doing pretty well without my advice. So you need to be hired by the Sixers and clean that shit up. They actually have the largest analytics department. Some of my old students from Harvard are in that department. So they don't need me, man. Oh, you went to Harvard? They got some of my approaches. No, I just taught there. Oh, wow. Nice flex. Nice flex. I didn't pay to go to Harvard. Harvard paid me to go. To quote our good friend who we actually are not friends as we don't even know him. And he's kind of a dick to us, Colin Coward. What about Manolytics? Oh, man. So I did a great hit with Colin a couple of weeks ago, and he asked me about Manolytics. Oh, forget it then. No, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Manolytics. Because we are big.
Starting point is 00:55:50 We are Manolytics guys, yeah. You know those things that Coward obviously talks about when we joke about, but like I definitely agree that when you take it too far with the spreadsheets, you end up with like a team that makes no sense. Right. And I reject the premise. Like a competent organization knows there's human beings at the center of it and knows how to sort of coach them and create an environment that sort of celebrates these humans and doesn't, you know, make them do things or program them with numbers. So I sort of reject the premise there that you can, it's either one or the other. I think the best organization's balance sort of that analytical reasoning with old fashioned human communication. When do you put an arm around a guy and yell at
Starting point is 00:56:25 him or when do you, when do you coach him up and how do you talk to a guy and introduce an idea to him? And I think that's one thing that Coach Pop is really good at is just that empathy he knows when to yell at a guy and get into him. But it's all based on the fact that people trust him and know that he's coming from a good place. And he doesn't overwhelm them with numbers. I mean, yeah, you can take this stuff too far, but it's just, you know, knowing when not to do that is a big part of it. Right. As Collins already knows, I mean, Colin, he knows this stuff. No, I mean, this is the interesting part of sports to me is like, obviously all the advanced analytics have been incredible to watch the evolution of sports. But at the end of the day, you still need guys that
Starting point is 00:57:04 like each other and can trust each other and get along. And like locker room chemistry matters a lot. Oh, no, you're right. And that's one of the things like one of the things of the themes of this season and Kevin Arnavitz had a good story about it on ESPN a couple of weeks ago is like, this is the season like teams falling apart because of chemistry, where there was the Lakers after the trade, the Pelicans, the Warriors, that's why they're beating themselves 100%. And even the Celtics, Hank Celtics to a degree, they've had some bench stuff this year and there's some barking back and forth. But yeah, these guys have to love each other to play well together. Can you quantify the clutch gene? Of course. Yeah, everybody can. No, I don't know what
Starting point is 00:57:40 that you have. We're trying to isolate it. We're doing punnett squares. Yeah. Well, I've mapped every player's genome, as you know, and I've identified the clutch gene 23 and me 23. Is it LeBron or Jordan? I gotta go, Michael, he was 23 first. Do your own thing. Don't copy somebody's number. But is there some sort of analytic formula or some way that you look at the game that makes it easier to understand, okay, this guy does play better in certain types of clutch environments? Oh, for sure. I mean, you know, one of the big differences with the Raptors is they have Kawhi this year and he's a closer and we knew that from the years of the Spurs and he's really good in that. And you need people, Kyrie is obviously good, and you can look at the numbers
Starting point is 00:58:21 and see his stats. And some guys shy away from the moment, like Big Cat's saying, like, sports are human. And that's what's beautiful about it. And some guys are different than others. Kawhi is not human, though. He's a robot. He's the robot that we were talking about earlier, the program. Is that true? Yes. Well, I mean, so you know that you're getting a shock collar right now. From pop. Did you have a formula that would tell you when a player would sit out the second half of a season with a fake quadricep injury? Oh, my collar is getting a little electric in here. I have a little electric over here. I have a serious question for you. All this stuff that you're doing with the pro game, is there a way or let's get this way. What are the challenges for implementing
Starting point is 00:59:04 this type of research and this type of modeling from the program into the college environment? No one can shoot in college. You do a heat map and it's just no one guy. But you take it into account what they can do and what they can do. But yeah, I think you're on to something like sort of analytical firepower at the university level in college sports is pretty low. And I think whether it's college football or college basketball, these programs, I don't think can replicate the shot strategy, the pros. But you can be smarter about how you're running plays, how you're spacing your players out, who's getting what plays are being run for who and when. And I don't think that's as prevalent as it should be.
Starting point is 00:59:43 Yeah, there's not enough data too. Wait, is it data or data? It's both. It is interesting that a big time college program hasn't been like, you know what, we're just going to recruit three point shooters. It doesn't feel like a big time, big conference college program. We're just going to throw a bunch of shooters out there because the line's already so, so much closer and they can hit it and not worry about getting guys that are, you know, center position, not normal power forward position. No. And I think like somebody like UCLA, like a major team that's sort of in an identity crisis right now could do something innovative. Whether it's now it's Micron and so they have an identity and it's called never shoot
Starting point is 01:00:25 the ball ever and play really good defense and flame out in the first round. Like your bad. That's your identity. Well, that's a different one. It's beautiful. It's efficient actually. It's incredible. It takes a certain type of basketball fans to watch the buzz cuts. It's terrible. What was your career from the Spurs out of NBA? Why did you leave? It was really hard, dude. Like it took a lot of my time. I had to wear suits a lot and I didn't like that. And I live in Austin, Texas and I have a really casual lifestyle and was threatening that. Okay. That's a great answer. You sound very laid back. Just want to chill. I was in Austin. Basically just want to chill. Have you ever been in Austin? Yeah,
Starting point is 01:01:06 you've been there once or twice. But yeah, like, you know, I did it, you know, you know, I love the, I'll probably work for a team again someday. But I honestly, I want to get this book out, man. Like this conversation needs to happen with the three point shot and how it's changing the league. And I saw an opportunity to get it out there and do it on its passion project of mine. And it was hard decision to leave the Spurs. Trust me. I think about it every day. And it's true because I've heard you say this and I completely agree that it's not that the NBA is bad right now, right? Because the NBA is great right now. Like the Warriors, I mean, obviously you can not like the Rockets, but the Warriors play a very exciting style of basketball. You still
Starting point is 01:01:42 got a bunch of teams. But in five years, it could be all Rockets. It could be too late. I like the, the climate change guy. I'm a climate change guy. You can still go to Glacier at National Park in 1998 and take pictures of glaciers, but you go there two years later, four years later. You know, let's just say these glaciers are going away guys. Like let's, let's at least think about how to conserve it. The Jeff Green New Deal and just bring back the mid-range jump shot. Yeah. What Jeff Green's the guy you think? I think of honestly Dirk, right? So Dirk just retired. When I picture him shooting a basketball right now, he's got his leg up and he's like 17 feet away from the basket and it's going in. That's not stupid now. What about Carlos Puzer? Maybe get a
Starting point is 01:02:19 little flashier. He loved his, his like, you know, 18, 20 foot. Yeah. Jump shot. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't want to go back to ugly that people are like, Oh, you want to go watch the heat games with the Knicks and everybody's fighting. I kind of want to watch some of those guys. I know you want to watch. But they are kind of horrible when you actually look at them. Like they were great in 90s, 90s basketball is great in the time. If you actually go back and look at it, you're like, why is no one shooting anything? I don't want to go. And the, and the, and the pick and roll covers were moronic and I don't want to go backwards. But I think here, the basic thesis in all seriousness is we can make an even prettier version of basketball. If we think about the rules
Starting point is 01:02:58 in a fun way and we can optimize that sort of diversity that makes the sport so special. And that's what the point of the book is really. It's like not to complain about where we are, where we're going, but like guys, we have an opportunity to make this beautiful. You also worked for USA basketball for a while. Yeah. And you saw a lot of the best players in the world interacting pretty closely, practicing together every single day. Were there any practices that had scrimmages like that old dream team one that you hear about, where it was like Jordan and Magic against Larry Bird and Chris Mullin. Actually Jordan and Magic's team would have kicked the shit out of them. Great question. Nothing that iconic, dude. The 2016 team was fun. There was
Starting point is 01:03:32 a lot of young guys and they were really fun to watch. Dramond, DeMarcus, Clay, they were really fun to watch together. Nothing that intense, to be honest. I don't know if that was just those guys in 92 having these iconic practices, but just to see them get together and Coach K and to be around that was really special. Yeah, what's Coach K like? I wanted to hate him. I'm like a lot of people, I hate a dupe growing up. But then Hank was just a big fan. As he should be, as he should be, graduating there, Magna Cum Laude. You liked Coach K? Well, I didn't want to hate him by the time I got the job. But yeah, I was thrilled with him. He was really cool. He brought the guy. I know. And I was like, one of my techs- That's why I'll never
Starting point is 01:04:16 be a lead data analyst for USA Basketball. Well, one of my techs to my friends is like, I think I have to dupe now coming out of that experience. Because I did love him. He was a great dude. He taught me a lot. What do you even do for, what's the analytics for USA Basketball? Just go out there and dunk over everyone? Yeah, pretty much. It's the easiest job in the world. I mean, you're just like, hey, we don't have to worry about it. We're better. It was a lot of sort of scout research, like looking at the teams we were playing. Who is this guy? Who are their three-point shooters? Yeah, Argentina's wings can't guard Steph Curry. Don't let this one guy shoot. Dunk over this guy. Yeah, have Vince Carter jump over a seven-foot
Starting point is 01:04:54 tall Frenchman. Yeah, Barclay can punch this guy. All right. So I got one last question. Seek-Eek question. Put in promo code, take your $10 off. Seek-Eek purchase. Who's going to win the NBA finals this year? And should we, as analytics guys, be rooting against the Rockets? Ooh, as analytics guys, let me take a look. Yeah, you should root it. They are violating the spirit of the game. The basketball gods need to descend down and give them... It sounds like nerd on nerd crime. I love Daryl. He knows that. I don't have to tell anybody how much I love Daryl Maury. But they are violating the spirit of my beloved sport and the basketball gods will descend down upon them. Or David Stern. Or, yeah, yeah, no comment on some of these things. But the Warriors
Starting point is 01:05:34 are going to win. I hate to say it. I'm rooting against them just for the narrative, as they say. But they are so good, you guys. They have three of the best shooters in a league that is obsessed with shooting. They have three of the four or five best in the playoffs on one team. And Durant is playing the best basketball he's ever played. And it's just not fair. Because, oh, by the way, they also have Steph Curry, who's an MVP two times over. But it might be slightly injured. Yeah, and that's true. Coming out of their Clippers series, they were some limping in the Splash Brothers lower extremities. And so they are kind of vulnerable. And you brought up analytics. I do sense that they're not sort of all on the same page. Correct. And I do think a team could
Starting point is 01:06:13 come in and shock them. And I think whoever comes out of the East will be tried and true in a better team and a more sort of different team than they've had to beat in the finals. Little grittier, little scrappier team. You know, it's hard. I was going to say the Bucks, but then Hank Celtics came in and really had an awesome game one. I'm not going to back down. I still think the Bucks and Raptors are the best teams in the East. And out of that, I think I'll take the Bucks still. And it'd be really fun if they played them. But the Raptors, if they get there, the Sixers, man, whoever gets there will have to have beaten two really good teams, which we don't say in the Eastern Conference playoffs very often. So whoever comes out of there,
Starting point is 01:06:49 I think is naturally ready to give the Warriors a fight that they may or may not be ready for. But in the end, guys, sorry. Warriors. It's the Warriors. I'm shocked that we've gone this long and we haven't really bashed LeBron James at all. How is not even in the playoffs? But from your perspective, how would you fix the Lakers? Is LeBron salvageable at this point? No, LeBron is definitely salvageable. They need shooters, man. I mean, what are we talking about? His best teams have Ray Allen, Mike Miller, like Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Corver, and the Lakers put Lance Stevenson in there and Rondo. Who's so stupid. When they did that signing, it was like, what is going on? And that doesn't give him the space to come in and rain wholly held out in the
Starting point is 01:07:28 paint like he does. And it doesn't give him all those three point assists that I mentioned. He's the best in the world of creating those. So for me, it was a team building failure. And how do you fix LeBron? You surround them the same way that Cleveland and Miami did. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here. So who would you go out and get if you were a lay? Well, that's an interesting question. I mean, the premier, I still think they need a big premier free agent. And it'll be interesting to see if one comes mellow. But on the sort of rank and file side. Yeah, you look at guys who can space the floor and drain, catch and shoot and play good defense on the other side. It's not hard. And there's guys, there's going to be a few of them available
Starting point is 01:08:03 in free agency. So what a last, last question. Then I have one last, last, last question. Have you ever looked at the analytics we brought up Rondo of, I'm curious when teams play off guys, like Simmons right now, when they play off of them to such an extent that they basically open up the whole, like they can see everywhere. Is there a point where playing off someone actually becomes detrimental? Yeah, Rondo, great to get very proud of you right now, because Rondo actually became so good at shooting really open elbow jumpers. Yeah. And then he's such a passer, you keep away. It's like not having a pass rush in football. And when you have a passer like Simmons or Rondo, yeah, not getting in a passing lane, that's a bad idea, giving them free reign to see
Starting point is 01:08:45 the whole court. That's not good. So what's like the optimal, like place to be a guy who you don't think is your like five feet off? Yeah, I don't have a good answer for you. I think it depends on the player like Ben Simmons, not surrounded by good shooters. So you don't have to worry about those passes to the corners too much there. Rondo, you know, when he's in Boston, he was surrounded by such great scorers, you didn't want to let him just, you know, get any pass he wanted. It's one of those big three dudes. Yeah. My very last question. Do I get to ask you guys a question? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. What about just cutting? What about putting one team outside? What about having the Clippers play outdoors? Always 72 degrees. You're a big proponent
Starting point is 01:09:22 of letting teams draw up their own ballparks. Well, I think playing outside, you know, colleges played a couple games outside. Oh, yeah. The Michigan State Spartans have played on aircraft carrier. I love this. I'm an out. I love the game's better when it's outside. I grew up playing outside a lot. So you really can't shoot? Well, it is harder to shoot. Yeah, that's a big time. Like I love playing outside too, because no one can shoot. No, in the rims usually, wind is there. But yeah, and guys get hurt. So that's the real reason PFT, unless you put a real court out there. But I think there should be one experiment game out there like the NHL has done for years. Why not make it safe? Yeah. Are you guys doing the blue checks or not? What do you mean?
Starting point is 01:09:58 Are you guys having the blue checks on Twitter right now? I thought you guys were like anti blue check. No, PFT is I have one. You sold out. I had one for like a day. I had one for a day and I was like, this doesn't feel right. How did you get rid of it? All you have to do, you just change your Twitter handle for half a second and then change it right back. And then it goes away. And my last thing for Big Cat is a couple of weeks ago, you were talking about how you're like some older guys want, you're like one weekend away from having to change your pants size. Yeah, Zion. These pants right now, dude. Too much time in New York. One bad weekend. One bad weekend. Come back to the name of a self-help book. You're going to get home and your rights can be like, whoa. Like that,
Starting point is 01:10:34 because you don't notice your face changed, but over three days or four days, whatever you may be, you're like, shit. Swollen. I really do look like this. It's the plane. I'm here for that self-help book. One bad weekend. That's not a bad idea. It is. It really, like everyone's one bad weekend away from problems. Do you have any last, last questions? Zion. They also emailed me. They said, just reply to this email. Yes. If you want a blue checkmark, I said no. Oh, bad boy. I like it. Zion. Last, last question. Zion, could NBA player? Oh, he's going to be great. I mean, I'm a little bit worried about his body holding up. I mean, he does put a lot of torque on those joints. He's a big kid, but he can shoot the three a little bit. But again, he'll be one of these
Starting point is 01:11:14 rim guys. The best shots in the league are still near the rim and he's going to be able to get there. He's a big boy. Okay. He's athletic. He's, he's, he's a bust proof, in my opinion. Whoa. Bus proof. Bus proof. That's old. What if he goes to the balls and put him next to Wendell Carter and they're like, the lane is going to be clogged up the whole time. Just Spider-Man pointing at each other. Oh no. That's what's going to happen. Bus proof. Oh, he, and he might be a bust then. Yeah. Shit. All right. Kirk Goldsbury, sprawl ball. It's out now. Literally out today. Right? Thank you. Yes. Today's the big day. Today's the big day. A visual tour of the new era of the NBA. Listen, even if you aren't a numbers guy, there's a lot of cool pictures.
Starting point is 01:11:51 A lot of pictures. You're, you are smart to put in a lot of pictures. Color pictures. I thumbed through it and I was like, a lot of pictures. Yeah. And Chase Serrano calls you a sneaky funny, which is like saying deceptively fast, I guess. And me and Shay are going to be at book people in Austin, Texas. I don't know if you've ever been to book people in Austin, Texas. I did a book signing there one time for my e-book. So I just printed out my signature and just handed it to people. That interview with Kirk Goldsbury was brought to you guys by MeUndies. There are two kinds of people in this world. Two types of dudes. Are you a big cat or are you a PFT? Those are the two kinds of dudes. No other options. When it comes to MeUndies, there are those that go through the
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Starting point is 01:13:52 first pair free shipping and 100% satisfaction guarantee. Go to meundies.com slash take. That's meundies.com slash take. Okay, let's do some segments. We first up have a sheesh update. Remember this guy? Hey, member, member berries, LeBron James. He's not in the playoffs, but he's sheeshing out and he's tweeting drunk at night to have everyone remember who he is. So Monday night, he went on Twitter and he said, wouldn't mind seeing Daniel Craig in them in 007 movie as well. Oh, he started with Tori Craig, Moe Harkless, Myers Leonard, All Rock in the Martin, LeBron, 16 on court, still so surreal to see on and off the court, man. So LeBron still in the playoffs? Yeah. Yes, wouldn't mind. Yeah, he is his shoes are in the playoffs. They said,
Starting point is 01:14:43 think I'm going to do a Q&A sometime this week. Stay tuned sometime this week sometime this week. Let me know, forget. No, let me know, forget. Malik Beasley too, because he always rock LeBron's two love the 15s. And then not not not was the best part. And you can always tell when LeBron's been dipping into the vino a little bit. So he's got no and is supposed to be not K and o w. So it's not like he left off the tee, right? You started smelling it wrong. No, yeah. You can tell when he's been dipping in because he gets very heavy on the emoji usage too. Oh, yeah. Like almost all emojis. It looks like wingdings out there. It's very hard to commit a typo with an emoji. Yeah. Six straight tweets with emoji. Hey, man, you misspelled eggplant. No, it doesn't
Starting point is 01:15:32 happen like that. So let's just remember that LeBron is out there drinking probably drunk right now. Probably watch the Rockets Warriors drunk. And he's drunk. So someone please help him. What is he waiting for for his Q&A? Why did he say like, why didn't he just do a Q&A last night? He had just some time this week. That's oh, he was waiting for May. That's when his minutes roll over. This is a power move by guys. I remember Palga saw him still waiting for Palga saw his Q&A from like 2015. He's like, I'm going to answer some questions and just left. Yeah. And he just left the internet. I was all locked and loaded for some power questions. That's a big future LeBron thing that he's doing. Yeah. Just let me do a Q&A later. All right. Next up, we have a Saber metrics.
Starting point is 01:16:13 The Houston Rockets have done some complaining. They allegedly had a report after game seven last year saying that the NBA crowned the wrong champion because as they went through it, the refs cost them 18.6 points in game seven. And they also complained after game one. And sabrametrically speaking, 18.6 points seems like a lot. But I guess this is just where we're at with sports now. Everyone's getting on that Saints train and the Saints actually had a complaint and the Rockets when you fool, when we talked about on Monday, when you like your best player who's phenomenal MVP tries to basically fool the refs at every, every turn. I don't feel bad when you get screwed over every now and then. You can't replicate what New Orleans does in terms of holding
Starting point is 01:17:01 your grudge though. There's no, it's almost like it's a fool's errand to try to replicate what they've done to Roger Goodell to the NFL. New Orleans, say what you want about the city, but they fucking, they remember, they remember stuff and they do hilarious stuff to like the Mardi Gras parade with the blind refs, that sort of thing. Also, it's weird because the Rockets actually technically did do this before the New Orleans game even happened because they wrote the report after the game last year, game seven. Why wouldn't you just release that? Like do your complaining in the moment? No one gives a fuck. Every day that goes by, your complaint loses more and more of its power and becomes more and more of like a crybaby complaint. I like that they
Starting point is 01:17:42 spent the time to compile the report though and even addressed it to somebody at the league office, but never got around to mailing it. Right. Yeah. It was just like one of those letters that, that you're told to write sometimes to get like all your feelings out. And Daryl Morley, even complains like a nerd. He writes a whole fucking report about like, dude, just say we got screwed. We got screwed. You know what you have to do? You just have to tweet like a four second video of a foul not being called. That will go viral and everyone will think you got screwed. Right. So let's update the records. LeBron James lost to both the Warriors and the Rockets in the finals last year. So that's another finals loss for him. Yes. All right.
Starting point is 01:18:20 We have a lot or two more before we get to guys on chicks, respect the biz, Mike Francesa. I actually wanted to throw this out there that it might actually be, is Mike Francesa still alive? The old Pat Riley? Is Pat Riley still alive? Or is Pat Riley dead yet? Is Pat Riley dead yet? Because Mike Francesa is doing the Pat Riley. When we started this show when Pat Riley was going crazy, he was, you know, writing letters to LeBron, all this weird stuff. Mike Francesa is slowly losing his mind and arguing with himself and also the internet, which he claims not to read and shows that he claims not to listen to. And all it ends up is that he's mad because the Giants have locked him out of all secrets. I never said that. Never said
Starting point is 01:19:02 that. I never said any of that. Took out a contact. It was, it was a wild take from Francesa the other day. He was talking about the Giants, what sixth round draft pick that was tragically shot, his, he lost his best friend in the incident. And Francesa was saying that like this is a classic Giants move and that they're not doing a good job of screening players who might get shot. Right. It didn't make any sense at all. And it was like a really, really tragic story. Yes. Because as you read about it, and you did any research, which Mike Francesa probably should have done if he's doing a sports radio show, the like the guy who got drafted by the Giants had to call his best friend's father and the father picked up thinking that they were going
Starting point is 01:19:43 to talk about being drafted and like have a great moment. And he had to be like, your son just passed away. Was he saying that players would rather get shot than play for Gettelman? Pretty much. That take would actually make more sense than the take that he had, which is that Gettelman was bad for drafting a player that would eventually one day find themselves in a circumstance like this. Just circle Mike Francesa though, because I feel like this is also going to be a great study. It's like a breakthrough study on what Diet Coke will do to a person's brain. Yeah. Pickle it. 50 years. Just pickle it. Yeah. Like what is happening now? We don't know. His spinal fluid is half aspartame. Still, still a very listenable guy.
Starting point is 01:20:21 If he gets going on a rant, it's pretty hard to turn him off. Uh, went in by turn him off. I mean, just turn off the Twitter clip because I've actually never listened to a show. Right. We don't have a radio. It's like I only know him through the Twitter. Do people have radios anymore? Yeah. Car radios. Cars. Cars. You forget about cars. I do. I did forget about cars. That's very New Yorker of you. Uh, all right. Last up before we get to guys on chicks. We never talk about another man's job, but Urban Meyer is going to get recruited for the USC job by Reggie Bush and Matt Liner, who he's hosting a show with. If you, if you are not following along, Urban Meyer is on step two of the Urban Meyer. I'm going to go get another job plan. Why don't we call this
Starting point is 01:21:04 segment? Urban development. Urban development. There's another urban development. Step one. Reggie Bush is recruiting him. Yeah. Dig some holes, put in, put in a sewer system slash say that you're leaving the game because you're not well and you want to spend more time with your family. The second part of the urban development, start building the buildings and you do media and you realize you hate media. Third part, you go back to coaching. Reggie is going to have to be very careful to constantly remind them because Urban's very forgetful. So Reggie Matt, just make sure you leave like post it notes everywhere around him being like, Hey, take the USC job like he's the dude from a Minto. Yeah. So he'll, he's liable to forget after just like a couple of hours of
Starting point is 01:21:43 anything that you tell him. Let me throw something out there. The show that he's doing, college game day show on Fox, Urban Meyer, Matt Liner, Reggie Bush and Brady Quinn. So Brady might get him to Notre Dame before they can get him to USC. That's going to be fun to watch. Yeah. We actually, I would love, you know what, Fox, if you're listening to this, here's a little tip for you. Instead of trying to compete against ESPN game day, which is literally like the universally most loved show, why don't you just run a behind the scenes cam every Saturday morning of Matt Liner, Reggie Bush and Brady Quinn trying to get Urban to go to their respective schools. That should be segment number one. I will watch it every single Saturday morning.
Starting point is 01:22:26 Without a doubt. And well, Reggie's an expert at recruiting just by Urban's Mama House. Yes, exactly. Hey, guys on chicks. We're going to get the guys on chicks in a second. But before we do, we actually have a sponsor for this segment now. Hell yeah. It is Adam and Eve. Not only am I an endorser of Adam and Eve, I'm also a client. I've used the website before. It's adamandneve.com. Check it out. It's awesome for guys, awesome for girls, awesome for couples, awesome for single people. It's got all the stuff you need to feel comfortable and aroused and very, very sexy in the bedroom. And they're giving you free stuff. Free stuff to spice up your bedroom is even better than going and paying for stuff. So you can select almost any one item
Starting point is 01:23:09 for 50% off and then Adam and Eve loads on the free stuff in a promo code PMT at checkout, get 10 tantalizing free gifts, ooh la la, a sexy gift for him, special gift for her, and a third item you'll both enjoy, wink, and six free spicy movies. We love movies, big film guys on this podcast, plus free shipping. That's PMT in our promo code PMT at checkout at adamandneve.com promo code PMT. Sup fellas, I'm in the fun part of life where I can be very mobile. That's right. Fresh out of college and in my first job. Unfortunately, this first job brought me to a very rural part of Maine where I've lived for about a month. Growing up in Suburbia slash metropolitan areas, this is a bit of a culture shock. What do I need to do to
Starting point is 01:23:58 survive this place where the median age is 48 and the young guys all have wives, kids, and gun slash truck slash drug addictions. I think you got to get a gun too. I think you got to find in Chili's where you know the waitress and the waiters and become a regular. Becoming a local is a power move. Like one of the regulars where you walk in and everybody knows your drink. Oh, it's her. She'll have a beer. Yeah, she'll have the loaded mark because that's the only thing on the menu. Yeah, in a place like Maine, I don't really know what that seems like. I wouldn't assume that Tinder or Bumble or anything is really popping off in rural Maine. Find a boyfriend before the first foliage harvest. Yeah. Oh, no, here's what you do. Just go hang out down
Starting point is 01:24:45 by the docks. All the lobster fishermen. Yep, they'll get off the boat. They'll be looking. Probably smell great. Yeah. Our testicles just boobs, but in a lower, but lower in a male. Both produce milky substances are different sizes and hang. Am I missing something? No, the nipples, but other than that, no, I think you got it. Yeah, I think you absolutely nailed it. So what do I have? Very small testicles. So what is that? Do I means you don't have moves anymore? Should I have to? Should I wear bra? Sports bra? Actually, could wear a sports bra when you're when you're running for your nuts. Not that I run. You could. I mean, or whitey tighties. Yeah, tighties just bra. It is does suck if you run again, not that I run in like boxers, you get all chafed. Yeah, that's true.
Starting point is 01:25:31 Okay. Hey boys, so I've been talking to this guy and every time I ask him to come out, he says he will. He asks where slash how long I'll be there and then never shows. We've hung out a couple times and he continues to text me, but haven't seen him for a while. What should I do? I don't want to seem pushy, but I don't think he's getting the point. Are you being catfished? Yeah, seems like it says we've hung out a couple times. So the guy keeps saying that they're going to hang out and then not showing up. He does the like, yeah, I'll come meet up with you. Where are you? And then he says, how long will you be there? Hoping that she's like, Oh, not, not like soon, but he just doesn't show up. Okay. It sounds like this guy is a classic case of just being a prick. Here's what
Starting point is 01:26:11 you do. Go to the bar closest to his house on Saturday morning and text and be like, I'm here. I will literally be here till two in the morning. Not in a creepy way. Put that in the text too. Not in a creepy way, but I'm here for the rest of the day. Or you just offer to pick him up and take him to the bar. Yeah, that too. Or you can just kidnap him. That too. Hey, PMT boys, especially PFT. Sup. I recently did say ass looking in front of that one. Nope. Wait, the ass looking is implied. Wait, did the other one say ass licking? Licking. Oh, I thought it said ass looking. I was very upset for the last 30 seconds. No, I recently was showering with my boyfriend and discovered that he doesn't wash his arms or legs because according to him,
Starting point is 01:26:58 the soap and shampoo washes down from his head and reaches his whole body. Is this something all guys do or is he gross and lazy? Nope. I don't wash anything below my neck. This is what guys do. It's hotspots. I hit a couple of hotspots. I'll hit one arm, maybe a little bit on the upper thigh and then a bunch of shampoo and you basically hit all the hotspots. Here's what happens. You got to go double armpit. You got to scrub those guys out and then if you had part of your knee was itchy that day, then you just put the soap on there. If you slid in softball the other night and you got a little dirt there, maybe wash that off. But not if you slid too hard and it's torn up a little bit because you can't get that in the shower. Dude, I had a torn up raspberry
Starting point is 01:27:40 leg for an entire summer. Talk about firefest. All right, last one. Sup guys, especially PF thick. Does it hurt worse to get tapped lightly in the balls or hit really hard? Would you rather get shot in your brain? Wait, I disagree. Or have somebody flick your ear. I think getting hit really hard in the balls as much as it hurts, it probably hurts more, but you're like, okay, this just happened and it's really, really bad. Like you go into instant crisis mode where you have to just contain all your energy, you go down, you're in a ball, you know, you're heaped over. When you get lightly flicked, it's like the kill bill five-finger death hit. You get lightly flicked and you're like, I'm okay. And then it hits you and you're like,
Starting point is 01:28:29 wait, I'm not okay, but you're not ready for it. And maybe if you get hit hard enough in your balls, you'll just like accidentally nut. That's a possibility as well. Or you just got to go, I always go and make sure I'm not, not peeing blood, which I never have. But although I have peed blood, but not because I've been hitting the balls. But pee is stored in the balls. Right. As we know, the only thing I'll give you on that one is that if you get lightly hit in the nuts, you know that it's going to go away within the next like minute, two minutes, but you can really milk it. You can milk this shit out. If people around you know that you just got hit in your balls, you can go sit down for like 10 minutes. But God, sorry, my balls are
Starting point is 01:29:08 still recovering, right? But you're fine after like two minutes. Yeah, people, people will come up to you and be like, are you okay? Sorry, I got hit in the balls. Yeah. All right. That's our show. We have recurring guest Friday coming up. We have Ryan Whitney talk some hockey. And we have the OG Randy Moss to give you some derby. It's part of my take presented by bar stool sports.

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