Pardon My Take - NBA Preview With Ryen Russillo, USA Hockey Is The Best, NBA All Star Weekend + Who's Back Of The Week

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

USA Hockey is back and better than ever. We talk about the Four Nations absolutely crushing NBA All Star Weekend (00:00:00-00:19:47). Jets move on from Aaron Rodgers (00:19:47-00:22:45) and Richie Incognito finally gets his named cleared in an article about Jonathan Martin (00:22:45-00:33:41). Who's back of the week including some College Basketball talk and Giancarlo is hurt again (00:33:41-00:46:32). Ryen Russillo joins the podcast to talk NBA, World War II facts, who's going to win the title and more (00:46:32-02:15:49).You 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/pardon-my-take

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 are back sort of. We're not all together yet. We'll be all together on Wednesday show, but we are back to talk about the weekend. And we also have our big NBA preview with our favorite guest in the whole wide world. Ryan Rosillo. Excuse me. I got something in my throat. That was a chip. I've been eating

a lot of chips. Ryan Rosillo on the show, NBA preview. Can't miss it. Also talk about all kinds of things. I think we talked maybe 20% basketball, 80% everything else. So it's great interview. And we're going to talk about this weekend, Four Nations, the NBA All-Star Weekend, everything else that's going on, a little hot sea cool throne. It is brought to you by our friends at DraftKings,

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Today is Monday, February 17th. And guess what? We're the best fucking country in the world in hockey. Again, USA, we're so back. USA, until, until. Well, we we got to the only cup. We have, we right now as of the second we're the, we're still and still the best hockey country in the world. We got the cup. They're not getting it back. That was an ass kicking. Uh, now the NHL got it right. Hats off to the NHL. Oh, I mean the NHL this this entire sports weekend. So the first weekend without football and I did see our good friend Chris long making fun of everyone who posted like I miss football. Guess what? Dude, I do miss football

Sunday was weird today. It was weird waking up and not being able like, you know, I wanted to get in on the football action. It's just so it's weird to have our bodies change. But you guys can miss football real ones misses football because we're married to the game. Yeah, exactly. The story, though, for the first weekend without football was and listen, he's our good friend, Adam Silver. Now, because we did have a great interview with him on Pardon My Take on Wednesday,

but the NHL absolutely bodied the NBA in terms of getting it right and what they did, what they've done with the four nations tournament instead of the all star game versus everything that's been going on for the NBA all star game. It's not even close. That was such a cool, I mean, it's still going on. We have a game Monday night. There's the finals on Thursday, but it's it's the NHL knocked this out of the park and it was the guys cared a lot and it was so much fun to watch USA Canada on Saturday night. It was the complete opposite of the All-Star game right from the first whistle. I think were there three fights in the first 10 seconds of the game? That's

awesome. First nine seconds. There's nothing like a little pure unadulterated nationalism to really get people going. Yeah. The NBA scratched the surface a little bit with that by doing the different teams with the guys from TNT. But it's not the same. It's not the same. Having just USA against Canada, it gets the blood going. I don't think the NBA...

The NBA didn't even come close to scratching that, being like,, who cares about Chuck for Shaq? That dad doesn't do it at all. They should try to do the countries. One of the teams was like European international guys was the rising stars. So it was like the young guys. No, but there was there were four teams, right? Right. I think there was a team Chuck, team Shaq, team Kenny and then the rising stars. One of the one of the teams was I want to say it was team Mitch. I don't know. Either Chuck Chuck or Shaq had the international

guys. They were they just he just drafted them because they did a draft. So he just did that on purpose. Yeah. Got it. And we also had LeBron James decide he's not playing in the All-Star game two hours before the All-Star game, which look, I don't I mean, I'm not going to people. People made this is huge debate. Like, I can't believe he did this. It's more just like, dude, just say you're going to do this

five days ago. You know what I mean? Like, don't do it two hours before the All-Star game. And people do want to see you play. And it's probably you're at the end of your career. It's just kind of a lame move. He's probably injured, but still just give everyone a little more of a heads up. He was sitting out with foot and ankle

discomfort. I don't know about you, but we have a producer on this show that broke their foot and didn't miss a single episode. Yeah, that's a fact. And the Bron James has to bow out at the last second for the All-Star game. But yeah, the moral of the story is that the NBA cucked the NFL during Super Bowl week and the NHL cucked the NBA during All-Star week. NHL is king. Yeah, NHL is king. They crushed it. They absolutely crush it. They should never go back to anything else. It should always be four nations every

single year. I know Olympics coming up next year, but that's this is this is the best. What about Russia? Trying to make a motion. What about Russia? Trying to make a motion. What about Russia? Russia got banned because of they got banned because of the whole war in Ukraine. Next question. No, I know. I do. You think that Russia should have been let us talk. You players are Russian if we're doing a talent showcase like, oh no, that argument was made because it was like Germany was, I think, in the top ten in the rankings. Yeah. Germany was in the top ten in the rankings Russia, and they Germany didn't,

I think, have enough current NHL players to feel the team. So that was why they didn't get in. But yeah, expand it and make it better. Just do the Olympics every year. It would be fun with only NHL players. I agree. And somehow Freebird has become our national song again. What back in like 1977, it was once King. Now it's King again. I don't know how that became the USA song. I think it was in the juniors, right? It was like the song that played after the goals, but it just fucking rocks tweeting out a clip of Freebird every time we score.

Where do you guys land on the booing of the national anthem debate? I think it's very funny. I love it. I want sports to have more bad blood. There was a lot of hurt feelings online and I get it. There's obviously a political element with like the US candidate relations. I just love the fact like they don't like us. We don't like them. We're going to boo them in the finals. If we meet them in Boston, like I don't I have no problem with it. I like all of it. Yeah, no, it's a I'm fine with it. Don't boo vote. I like the fact that they that there's some bad blood there. Like for a while USA Canada. We've been buddy buddy. I think after after the game's over, they're probably cool with each other. We're, our nations have a long stored history together, but to like actually drum up some hate for your opponent, I think is

really good. It's awesome. Yeah. I, I completely like, I just, it was fun. I, and, and, and just seeing there was, it was a weird mix of like, it was actually very funny because it was perfect for both countries. It was it was I saw people being like, I can't believe they booed. This is absolute bullshit. And then there was Canadians apologizing for it being like we shouldn't have booed. It's like no fuck that everyone like this is fine.

If you get your feelings hurt over your anthem being booed, you're an absolute pussy like that. It's enemy territory. It would obviously be a different story if it happened in America and they booed the national anthem in America, but it's enemy territory. I like this. It makes you feel like you're in Rocky 4. That's what I want all sports events to feel like. Yeah, I like that there was some booing and then there was

people that booed the booers. Yeah, so you had no idea who was booing who by the end of it, but just boo. I'm a big fan of booze in general. I said, I hope this starts a major boo off and I hope that on Thursday, if USA plays Canada, it's the loudest booze you've ever heard. I don't want to even hear a second of Oh Canada. I just want to hear booze. Yeah. That would make me so happy. Boo Canada. Yeah. Remember when we were rough and rowdy

when I tried to do O Canada and I just started getting booed and I started laughing so hard. That was an awesome moment. National anthems need to be easier to sing. I could understand booing the Star Spangled Banner just because it's a tough one to get through. But I can't believe we didn't lead with the fact

that Wimby made a mockery of the All-Star Skills competition this weekend. That's what people are really upset about. Yeah. Well, I'm more upset that Wimby didn't... He had literally the greatest fall guy of all time in Chris Paul as his teammate. For people who didn't watch, so on Saturday night, they do the dunk contest. Shout out Mackleung. That's pretty much his whole job in life is just to win the dunk

contest. They had the three point contest, Tyler hero, white boys are having a moment. Cooper, Jean, Tyler hero, Mackleung all in a week. And then they had the skills competition and in the skills competition, it's like, you know, pass a basketball dribble basketball, go take three shots at the top of key at the side, whatever. And when we figured out that he didn't actually have to take the shots, he said to throw the ball at the rim as fast as possible. Um, and it made it look completely ridiculous and a complete mockery of the thing. But my biggest issue was he was teamed with Chris Paul and everyone immediately assumed Chris Paul was the mastermind behind this because Chris Paul does that type of shit. But when we took full ownership of it and he was like, yeah, it was my idea. Yeah. We thought that Chris Paul was foul

baiting the skills competition. Yeah. And then afterwards, when he was like, no, I went around, I asked like all the refs and they told me I could just throw them. And how come when Ben Simmons attempts a shot that looks like that, we all feel bad for him when Wemby does it, we kick him out of the tournament. Doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't add up. I agree. It was very funny that they thought that they had a loophole.

And then they were just like, no, this is Bush League shit. Get out of here. But yeah, Chris Paul, I think everybody thought it was Chris Paul's idea until after the fact. Yeah. And then when B and then it turns out that when B he did go around basically asking every ref if this is okay and can he do this? And they all were like, okay, yeah, I guess so. And then as minute they did it, they kicked him out by the way, uh, team shack is about to win. So congrats to team shack. They're going to beat Chuck's team. Um, that's huge upset. Huge upset. Yeah. Where were you for team shack? They were like, I think maybe one and a half point underdogs. So where were you

for team? Shacks big upset. Okay. So I do like the play to 40 rule. I think that's a good rule. Mending., well, no, I think they're just not. Yeah, it's just first to 40. The court looks like shit. The court I do not like. But yeah, I like that as well. Also, do you see that John Morant saw Mac McClung and he was like, Yeah, we got to do this shit next year. I'm in count me in. And then he tried to get Zach Levine to say that he was in and then I think Yanis also tweeted that he'd be down this happens every year though something cool happens in the

slam dunk competition and then all the stars that you want to see and are like yeah we're gonna we're gonna definitely do this next year and it's a good night because like you can you're just making a future problem for yourself that you're gonna cancel anyways but for that night you feel like you're a hero it's like thank you for saving the slam dunk competition job. Right? I've been. Yeah. So once you do it, I mean, there are people complaining about there were people complaining about Mac McClung being like a two way guy shouldn't get to compete in the dunk contest. I got to tell you, if you if

you're thinking that hard about the dunk contest, like, and you're that much of a stickler for the rules for the dunk contest. You can't take this away from Mack McClung. It's literally all he has. He's three times in a row. He jumped over a car. He did the Blake Griffin. He did the Blake Griffin. I mean, that's kind of justice for the kid I was hanging out with on Christmas, who just wouldn't stop talking about Mack McClung, deserving to be on an NBA roster. Get him, get him on our active roster.

Because I think he's on the two way contract right now. Yeah, yeah he is. All right, so yeah, shout out team Shaq, huge. Where were you when team Shaq won the NBA All-Star game? Everyone will probably put that down as one of the greatest All-Star games out there. Beat team Chuck, which was the, it was a semi, it's a semi foreign team, not all foreign guys. Yeah. I mean,

if if the NBA All-Star game, Shaq versus Chuck in the in the final game started out the way that USA versus Canada started out where there were three just full on brawls on the court in the first 10 seconds, we would be having a discussion for six months of like has what is Adam Silver need to do to save the NBA and its image problem? Here's the thing with the NBA. And if they wanted to, they have one thing they could do to, to, to replicate the four nations. And I think we all know what it is. Yeah. But they can't do it. We should talk about it. Yeah. They can't do it, but that, that would replicate the, the, the like hype for four nations. Listen, it would be very, very bad for the world. But it would be fun to watch. Let's just say we would. We're not going to say it, but I would enjoy watching Alex Caruso play in the NBA All-Star Game. He would. He would put forth a lot of we'd have to get minutes from him. We'd have to get some minutes. I mean, can you imagine? No way would LeBron James back

out an hour before that game. All right. So other things that have been going on. Max, how you feeling? Your one week anniversary for the Super Bowl. You feel good? You're about to go on vacation when we all get back. Yep. I mean, some people had to do some stuff while you guys were on vacation. That's fine. What'd you have to do? Edit DND. You just didn't plan your vacation the same week. Yeah. No, I fucked up on my day. Sometimes you get you get bad scheduling and it happens. I didn't even go to the parade which oh yeah. Tell us about the parade.

What was the highlight? I mean, I saw how he Roseman got, got, uh, hitting the head in the forehead with a beer. That was kind of bad ass. He probably got some football guys street cred in the locker room. Uh, yeah, no, there was a lot of beers being thrown. No one went on the floats. They all just decided to get absolutely wasted and just walk the entire parade, which was cool. Quinian Mitchell was super fucked up, had no idea what he was saying when getting interviewed on the side of the street.

Nolan Smith Jr., I think he got sent home early. He was so drunk. Yeah. Like he was just going up to every single person in the stands. And every time someone said shotgun this beer He would shotgun that beer. So that was cool A lot of f-bombs and the speeches that the local news just had no idea what to do when

Broadcasting the game or broadcasting the speeches They would cut out like audio for the entire speech and then they would come back in and then an f-bomb would immediately come After it, So that was good. There wasn't any big like Jason Kelsey speech but it was it was good. It was fun. I like Saquon when he went to the he went to the side. I think he was doing a lot of walking and he saw one of the ball boys was just on the on the side and he grabbed and pulled him over the stands. It was like, yeah, you're walking with us. That was awesome. I saw that. That was cool. He also went to Barstool Sansom right after. Oh, yes. And was just partying right next to all of my coworkers

I would have liked to have been there with. And you would have been there with. And I would have been there with, correct. You would have been there with. Would you like to say anything about the hanging of Kermit the Frog? Classless. I honestly didn't even see that the only thing I saw was a debate. I was like

booing the national. We're having a serious debate. What's that's like? Yeah, there was like this is racist and I was like I I get I get why you could like get there but like it's also just a frog like they're just there. It's Philly and they're just they're hanging a frog. It's literally Kermit the frog. I honestly didn't see that. The only one I saw was the the pig roast that someone put 15 in the side of that was that was that was the guys that I saw that people are

getting angry of. I think that's fine. Yeah, the only the funniest thing I saw the trend I saw was it was a lot of Chiefs fans essentially being like when we win championships, we don't take shots at anyone. And Philly is just taking shots at people like the CJ Gardner Johnson doing the Taylor Swift. Swifties can licks my balls like that kind of stuff. They're like they're just taking shots at us and we never take shots at people when we win titles. I was like, are you having a class off on how to win a fucking title? Who cares? Yeah, they're doing act like

you've been there before. If you win, you can do whatever you want. Also, isn't Kermit the Frog? Isn't it one of those marionettes? So it's like always kind of hanging. True. Good point. And I just can't stress this enough. If Philly wins a championship, it's an NC 17 movie when you're when you tune into any coverage of like if you if you have any type of soft softness to you in terms of like I don't want them making fun of my team or my players don't tune in any of the coverage because it's

Philly and they're going to do that. They're going to roast they're going to roast a pig with number 15 on it and say Swifties licks my balls. Yeah, this television show is rated Philly. Yeah, exactly. So I had no problem with with Philly just being all Philly. What are you gonna say, Max? The CJ Gardner Johnson shirt was hilarious. Oh, so good. It was hilarious. I mean, you're only going to get LIX once for the zoom roll. It's perfect. You have to just tip your hat and it's

Swifty. Swifties have to be able to take it the same way they give it. They fucking go after people and they gave all the terrible reviews to his mom's restaurant. I didn't see him complaining about that. He just went back at the Swifties. This is all this whole episode is just like at fairs fairs fair boo. Tell people to lick your balls roast pigs do it all it's sports. It's fun. Agreed. Yeah, I don't know. I have nothing else to say other than funny is funny and I respect funny. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, Swiftie licks my balls. I like that a lot. Um,

memes Aaron Rodgers officially not yet It's good that you guys decided to part ways. He's officially gone gone forever Top three Aaron Rodgers moments As a jet him walking out with the flag while running out with the flag was yeah That's a good one the most I did I've ever been to watch a football game. The first drive on that Monday night football game of this season. I thought we were going to Super Bowl and the Devante Adams. Hail Mary. That was OK.

OK. Yeah. What were your bottom three moments? Him tearing his Achilles. Mm hmm. That's pretty much it. Mm hmm. Uh, that's pretty much it. Mm hmm. That's the only bad time. Yep. Yeah. The Denver Broncos game. Mm hmm. That was brutal. The Vikings interception. That was brutal. Mm hmm. That's rock. And you guys won that Broncos game, right? Didn't you? No, we would have if Greg Greg's are aligned made the kick. If Greg changed, it would change everything. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers probably still be a jet if Greg's airline

was made. Okay. What one of the craziest what ifs in sports history? Six fourth quarter leads. You win those games. You're in the playoffs. And then yes, true. All bets are off. And then get me and Max in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. Oh man.

What if what if you're so close? We're so who do you want memes? Yeah. Who's the quarterback? Justin Fields. Sounds like you're very confident in that one. Oh, no, baby, baby. No, no, no, no. Yeah, but if he comes and does good, we have no big guy.

You didn't think about that. What if he was good? That's a really good. That's a really good point. I did not consider. No memes. No, no, no. Don't do that. Don't do that. That's a really good point I did not consider. No, memes. No, no, no. Don't do that.

Don't do that. Get him rusty. If it's Kirk Cousins, I'll kill myself. Oh, no. It could very well be Kirk Cousins. Everybody else is better than Zach Wilson, so that's fine. But Kirk Cousins is just a lateral move from... What about?

...Kirk Cousins. What would be worse, Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold? Kirk Cousins. But Sam Darnold. Kirk Cousins fell off a cliff. I mean, he had his Achilles injury. Yeah, but he started the season off so good and then he fell off a cliff. I mean, he had his Achilles injury. Yeah, but he started the season off so good and then he fell off a cliff. Also, Shepard said that Sam Darnold's most likely

Raiders or Vikings. Also, he didn't really start off the season so good. He had two incredible games against the Bucks. Beat the Super Bowl champion. He had that one drive where it was like, okay, Kurt, go out there and we're just not going to run anything from the playbook. Just do no huddle. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. Uh, last story I had before we do who's back, uh, Richie and Cognito. What, what, what a day for, for Richie. I mean, that was so for people who missed it, uh, there was this pretty good article, uh, about Jonathan Martin. I think we're right around the 10 year anniversary where he essentially was like, yeah, a lot of that stuff. I, I, I never

really thought I got bullied. Um, and that, by the way, that was kind of our take from, you know, we, we had, we've had Richie on the show a couple of times. I actually texted him. I was like, this day's gotta feel really good. He's like, thanks. Thanks for having my back. And he like Richie is not for everyone. Richie also, I think was put in a spot where he was an easy target to be the face of bullying. And this story that just came out essentially explained it that Jonathan Martin's mom put the words bullying onto the whole thing. And then it just kind of took an entire left turn where it became this thing that was so much bigger than just a locker room. Uh, and

Richie incognito became the face of like, you know, this, this anti bullying campaign that was, was just not real for what Jonathan Martin said today. Yeah. So in this article he was like, yeah, yeah, I was not bullied. Bullying was never really what it was about. I think Jonathan Martin's he's had his fair share issues off the field in the last 10 years. I hope he's doing well. He seems like he's at least in a space where he wants to like clear everything up and try to move forward. There was a lot of stuff, a lot of meaning that got put onto the story that probably

should have been, it should have become like a wide cultural issue. Correct. That NFL players and fellow office linemen were talking a lot of shit to each other. And some of the stuff went like way over the line for sure, but like it was not ganging up and, and bullying one person and like driving them to the point of going insane. It was dude's shit talk of each other. And, uh, it became so much bigger than just that story. Like I feel like it this same thing has probably happened hundreds of times in

the NFL. And if anything like a player might get like a one game suspension for conduct detrimental to the team, or they might get fined, and then you never hear about it. But it became a fucking Ted Wells report. Well, you had like the FBI investigating it. It it became a fucking Ted Wells report where you had the FBI investigating it. And it just got insane. Yeah. And I think my interpretation from the jump, and we've talked about it on the show before. And like I said, we've had Richie on the show multiple times, is that

if you ever, when you try to take the outside world and judge a locker room and how it operates and basically put it into corporate America or a classroom or any type of place where people gather together and there's a little bit more decorum. You're always going to be shocked by the locker room. The locker room is not the same as everything else in the world because it's a violent sport. It's guys

all together getting paid a lot of money, busting each other's balls. Shit that gets said in the locker room. If it gets said at your Fortune 500 company, yeah, people would get fired, but that's not... You can't judge it that way. It just never works that way. And I thought the whole thing was a lot of people trying to put their workplace into an NFL locker room and having the standards match and they just won't. They'll never be the same. Yeah. Do you walk around naked after lunch break with like the other people in sales?

Yeah. You guys shower together? You guys? Yeah. Like 99% of football is technically bully. Right? Well, it's even it's even, you know, if you had your text message, text messages with your closest friends in the world, just put out there. People like, do these guys hate each other? Do they like each other? I can't tell, you know, and there's relationship. These relationships are deeper and have a different complexity than just a text message

or a snippet that you take a capture of and you're like, Oh, that's exactly how they acted all the time. They would know that we hated Hank though. Before she came out. That's true. But yeah, it was, I I I'm happy Richie got a little satisfaction where I do hope John and the Martin's doing well. It seems like he's doing well. He's, he's big into Bitcoin. He's got like a ton of degrees. Seems way smarter than I'll ever be. But it did. And even the did you read the story? Pft. Yeah, I did that part where he I think he had a falling out with his mom over this. It seemed like they hadn't talked, you know, for a while. And I understand his mom was

trying to protect him, but also he's it's a mother trying to protect a grown man, which that gets a little weird, but the whole situation definitely went in a direction that removed itself from the reality of what a locker room is and what those guys were going through together. Yeah, the narrative at the time was like Richie Incognito basically killed one of his teammates by being such an asshole. And it was not at all based in what the truth of the situation was. And it does suck for him that it took 10 years for this to come out. And so he's doing a victory lap as he should at this point, which is like, yeah, I was, I was painted as like

the worst person in professional sports. Yeah. He was made the face of it all. Um, still the, still the funniest when we went funniest when we went to Buffalo and interviewed Richie after the game. Remember, we went to the tailgate. So this is for old AWLs will remember this, but we went to the tailgate after the Bills have like a players tailgate in the players lot. It was basically Eric would other offensive lineman and Richie

was like, meet me there and then we'll go to my house and we'll do the interview. And we went there and we sat there drinking beers and hanging out with the Bills offensive line for like two hours while I kept on texting Richie. And then finally he's like, oh, dude, I went home right after the game. He's like, oh, okay. Okay, we'll meet you there. He's like, I've been home for two hours. I don't know why you guys have been standing

there in like 20 degree weather drinking beers in the parking lot. But I am happy that Richie got some little vindication in this. Yeah, he was definitely made the face of it because Richie, everything that went along with Richie, it was like he was the easiest person to believe that could be a huge bully just on how he played sometimes. We can always be like right up against that edge. So I hope he's feeling good today. I hope that Jonathan Martin is doing okay because it seems like he's kind of all over the map. And I hope

he's happy right now. Yeah. And I bet you Richie, if Richie talked, there's probably some things that he would like to take back as well because I don't think Richie ever said that he was a model citizen that never did anything wrong. It's just he became the face of like this, you know, horrible bullying campaign that just wasn't really based in any reality. Okay. Anything else before we do? Who's back the week? There was a report from Pete Thamel, I think, on expanding the NCAA tournament. So he says that for the 2026 season, the tournament could expand. And the likely option would be to 76 teams.

76 teams in the NCAA tournament. At first I saw this. And I thought I thought dear God, no 64 to me is still the perfect number. It just it's a nice clean bracket. I like I'm a simple man. I can divide by eight. I like looking at a 6014 bracket. Now, the only way that I would be okay with it if it was 76 teams is if you had the eight teams outside of the 64 that were all at large bits.

Well, that would be what large bits. Well, that would be what they were. No, no, because sometimes you get the conference tournament winners. What do you mean? I'm saying like if in the playing games. Oh, in the playing games. I didn't. I didn't understand what you're saying. I think you meant just the extra eight are all at large because they would all be at large. Right, right. No, but I mean that we have obviously the Dayton play. Yeah. And then they would do another site that was not on

the East coast. It would be somewhere out West for, I don't know, time zones. But, um, yeah, if, if all the playing games were at large teams, that'll be okay with it. I think it's less that and it's more that if they expand it, so they expand eight teams, it has to be, there has to be a rule that it's foreign for big conference, small conference, because what I don't want is an expansion of eight teams. And then you get the seventh best ACC team and the 10th best big 10 team over an Indian estate from last year. So if they made it, Hey, we're expanding it to eight, eight more teams, but it has to be four teams that are lower, you know, lower conference teams. And I could deal with that because that would be fun. A team that got their bid

stolen their automatic stolen in the chair. Yeah, I don't want it to be just a, like a middle of the road, big conference team that everyone complains about. It is really not deserving of it. I would rather have it be like a Villanova or something where they're on the bubble and I don't need them in. I'd like Indiana State. Right? I, yeah, I just don't like, I hate it when they have the conference winners and they have to play in the playing game. That sucks. Yeah. Agreed. Uh, Max, are you, are you on the bubble or is not on the bubble? They are very well below the bubble. Wait below the bubble. Are you inside the bubble or outside

of the bubble? They were starting to creep up into bubble land after beating St. John's last week and then they just got absolutely smoked and embarrassed by Providence on Saturday. Oh man. Good news for the sickos and perverts who are left edging from Max in the Super Bowl. I officially believe that this Badger team could make a run. So that will be where you get the heartbreak and the sadness and me lashing out. That's going to happen. I think they are really good, really fun. They were projected a three seed. They did a mock committee thing and then they went out and beat Purdue at Purdue. I fully believe they could be a like elite eight team and that's always a disaster for me. Hey, are you going to get imagine this year?

No he's he's Cooper flag. An elite eight run would be fun. Yeah, you you want me to yeah, you want me to you want you need it. Everyone you because when I say sickos and perverts, Hank is definitely like the number one leader of the sickos and perverts and he knows that he got blue balls for Max's Super Bowl run. He's just got to put a future on your on your squad. Yeah, no, I love. That's the difference maker.

All right, let's do who's back of the week, and then we're going to kick it to Ryan Rosillo. And like I said, we'll be back in studio altogether for Wednesday show on Tuesday. So we'll be back from vacation then. But before we do that, who's back of the week is brought to you by our friends at Truly Truly Unruly is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good.

Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules, drinks light, parties hard with 8% ABV. It hits hard, but still tastes amazing. Strawberry Smash. That's my personal favorite. I love it. We were drinking it in New Orleans. It's great. You have a

truly unruly. Maybe on the golf course, you feel great. And it's the official hard seltzer. Pardon my take. Find truly unruly at a store near you or visit www dot truly hard seltzer dot com shout truly. By the way, they were on the ice for four nations. I saw it as one of the sponsors. So big stuff. Love truly unruly. All right, Hank, who's back the week? My who's back of the week was about to be cable, but I just found out that a deal has been made between YouTube TV and Paramount Plus.

Yeah, it's I don't think it's a I don't think they made the deal. I think they just I made this one. So you TV like two months ago and I like it and then I think it was on Friday or a couple of days ago. Oh, that YouTube TV said they weren't going to be carrying Paramount Plus, which could be an issue for March Madness. Oh, not a bit of disaster. Right. Yeah. So they I think they have the structure of

an extent. It's like what the PGA tour and live keeps doing where it's like, we have, we have an agreement to framework. So there might not be much madness on YouTube TV. That would be a, that'd be a disaster. Yeah. it would be a complete disaster. I mean that's especially because YouTube TV you can watch on your you know on your phone, pull up on your phone for people at work or on your computer and you get the four boxes like total disaster. They got they can't. I I'm not going to get political, but that does feel like something Trump should just get involved in. If we get to that point, if we're right before

it, I feel like one tweet from him could solve that. Yeah. So cable cable might be back. Yeah. Uh, okay. Pft. Your who's back the week. My who's back of the week is John Carlos Stanton. Mm hmm. He's back on the injury report. He's going to start the season on the injury report. Might not play in the first game. He's going to start the season on the injury report. Might not play in the first game. He's got a double elbow tendonitis. Both of his elbows are fucked up. That's what Blake had. So if he does play, he's going to be in a cone and probably sedated a little bit.

But it's so perfectly John Carlos Stan to like go into the spring training. Yankees feeling good about themselves again and then oh yeah, he's still John Carlos standing. That's like Rendon having another surgery as well. Yeah, all time finesse job. Yeah, how many games has he played? On this contract, yeah, I think I think three or four is I mean you can look at his highlights on the angels and it's

when he like when he slapped that fan. Yeah, that's pretty much the coolest thing that he's done. Yeah. Okay, my who's back of the week is National Sports Podcast because I want to talk real quick. Did you guys see I had two things from college or three things from college basketball Saturday. Auburn goes into Alabama, beats Alabama. Awesome. Awesome game. Two incredible teams. That was like, there was a moment in the last maybe four minutes where it was just trading deep threes back and forth. That was just so much fun to watch. Um, so credit to Auburn. They're

really, really good. And then did you guys see Terrence Shandons Jersey getting retired upside down all time? I don't know how that happens. I really don't. How do you put that? How do you attach the Jersey upside down and then actually pull it up? That means that it's in distress when they raise it upside down. I don't know. The gasp from the audience was very, very funny when they all realize at the same time, oh shit, this whole thing's upside down.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. But what I do, the discourse that I really like after the Auburn Alabama game is people immediately saying, let's do this again three more times this season. Like if we don't get Auburn Alabama four times total in college basketball this year, people are going to be very upset. And I think the schedule makers will do everything

in their power. If it does come to like, you know, bracket time, make sure that we have an, uh, a strong possibility of seeing those two teams match up in the elite. Yes. Uh, I think also Carl Ravitch did fall for the SEC is 500 since January 4th stat. He said that live on air a couple days ago, but the SEC is very, very good. And that showed it. Also in the Illinois Michigan State game, I don't know if you guys saw the end of the game, but I can't remember. I think it was with about five minutes left in the game. It was 6,766. Sorry. It was like six and a half minutes left in the game. It was 6,766 Illinois

over Michigan State, and the final score was 7,965 Michigan State. So in the last six and a half minutes, Illinois actually had minus two points because they went and reviewed a basket for a goaltending from earlier and took off points. So you can see there's a screenshot where they're up 67 66 with six minutes left and they lost 79 65 never done before. It was crazy. So infuriating if you bet on them. So infuriating. But yeah, that Auburn Alabama game was awesome. And I don't know if there's any other college

basketball also shut out pug. Oh, yeah. Oh, boy. Was that awesome. Oh, boy. Was that a bad ending for you, Con? Holy shit. They just pissed down their leg. Pug, you're back. Seeing all one game win streak. We could get hot. You could get hot. Let's build off that. Just put us on the bubble. Just put us in the biggest tournament. Anything can happen. Okay. Is it the base? Everyone makes it right? Everyone makes it. Yeah. Not the big tournament. Are you is it the big tournament? Everyone makes it. Yeah, not everyone makes a big 10 tournament

really? Yeah, they've had to because we've had so many teams now. So there's a few teams don't make it. You should do bracketology for the big East tournament last four in Seton Hall. Okay, you're in. Yeah. Yeah, we're in. We're going to win it. No, that was a bad loss for you, Con, because he knows not good at all. Seton Hall is horrendous. Yeah, very, very bad loss.

Very, very bad loss. Okay. Any other national sports podcast? I mean, we got Rosillo for an hour and a half plus. Yeah, he's going to get to a lot of national sports podcast stuff, mostly about World War Two. But yeah, I think one thing that I saw that caught my eye earlier today was Calipari. Just yelling at that people for he was basically saying my team sucks. Yeah, that's a great time. He's having a bad time. He says like my team sucks. They're soft. I have to treat them delicately. This is me treating them delicately. But I need to get in their ass somehow so I won't be hard

It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good for Cal. No, it is not not not a great first year for him in Arkansas, but uh, all right, we're gonna be back all of us together on We'll meet Max. When do you leave for your fitness vacation? Wednesday night. Okay, so we'll be back all of us together on Tuesday and we're going to try to get biz on to talk. Hopefully USA Canada. Now. Oh, last thing. If the Canada Finland game goes to overtime, does the US basically take a dive and let Sweden advance? So

that's how the tiebreakers work out. So Canada, I think I think the US game on Monday night means nothing if Canada wins their game in regulation. Regulation will just be USA Canada. We're already in. We're already in Thursday night. So I think if as long as if Canada wins in regulation, our game means nothing. But if Canada wins in regulation, our game means nothing. But if Canada wins in overtime, I think they get two points and then Sweden could potentially jump them by the U.S. taking a dive and Sweden beating them, beating us in regulation. Do we do it?

My United States of America is not a coward. Oh, I'd do it though be so funny if team Canada even get into the finals I just want to say for the record. I want to you got to beat the best anybody anytime anywhere Yeah, but yes, we should definitely take it. We should definitely take You're just you paid off by Putin Hank we're in an article Are you paid off by Putin? Hank read an article. Hank is so mad. I'm like, four nations, I mean, what are the four nations? Obviously Russia is one of the four nations.

They have to be in this. And they're like, no, they're not. I was like, that's crazy. They are the four nations, you're right. Well, no, but like- I want to hear about this article you read, Hank. No, I- It was a fucking banger.

That's a raw reaction. I was just like, I feel like Russia has a great hockey players. They're probably heated if it was up to me, I I would play against Russia right now. Yep. Right. Me too. That's it. Like agreed. I don't want the

asterisk. I'm not putting an asterisk. True but Russians, you know, Russians might come at you. How many Russians do you see on a day to day that are going to be like, well, that Four Nations was bullshit? True. I think you'll be okay. Yeah.

Hey, I don't even know. I don't know what Russians you're coming across that would be that passionate about it, but I am sorry for you if you're going to get shit for it. It's the ones that you don't see coming that you have to worry about with the Russians. True, true. We gotta find a Canadian for Thursday night that we can heckle. Do we have a Canadian guy at the office?

I was trying to think if we had one. Yeah, there's Greer, there's Biz, but he's gonna be there, right? Yeah, do we have a Canadian? It was just rent a Canadian for a day. I'm pretty sure Greer's rooting for America anyway. That's funny to nobody except for the people that are in this. Yes, yes. But listen, we judging by our laughs, you know, that was funny.

Is it Brendan Walker, Canadian? Yeah, let's make him Canadian. I like that. Yeah. We should tie him up and put a Canadian tuxedo on him. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's get to our interview with Ryan Rossello MBA preview. Okay, before we get to our good friend, Ryan Rossello for MBA preview, we're brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Chevy has packed more capability into the Silverado Trail

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a parlay or a pick six or a buzzer beater. Now there's basketball season, hitting your free throws and one and one while hitting a three four point play. That's a Mountain Dew Baja blast. Mountain Dew Baja blast is the four point play of sodas. Say it right now. So ride the Baja wave on game day and grab Mountain Dew Baja Blast is the four point play of sodas say right now So ride the Baja wave on game day and grab Mountain Dew Baja Blast for you and your crew Wherever refreshing beverages are sold. Thank you to Mountain Dew. Thank you Mountain Dew Baja Blast for changing our lives That's the meme right memes you you you change my life and then she says I'm literally Mountain Dew Baja Blast So that's how I feel when I talk, I'm literally Mountain Dew Baja Blast. So that's how I feel when I talk about Mountain Dew Baja Blast. OK, here he is, Ryan Rassillo, NBA preview.

OK, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. He's one of our best friends in the whole wide world. It is Ryan Rassillo from the Ryan Rassillo podcast. Go listen right now. NBA preview. So we're running this on February. We get the combine maybe. 17th, February 17th.

NBA preview. What do you think is gonna happen? Is Luke gonna get traded? Look, I'm not an insider. I think just there was a younger version of me egotistically Maybe a little insecure in the business where I was like, well I heard Then I got to know woach I got to know his daily sacrifice and I was like it's wrong of me To dip my toes into his world. Yeah, just valor right just because I have access right like I don't go on

CNBC right because I have access, right? Like, I don't go on CNBC, right? Because I day trade. Are you good at it? Here's what I'm telling you. If I put the right, if I had more screens, I'd be better. Yeah. But I'm hearing big time rumblings. Of Luca. My favorite was when Shams was on Sports Center the other day, and they had a camera on him backstage when they were getting ready to bring him out to the desk. And it was like a tunnel entrance to an NBA game.

The camera was going around him 360 degrees. He was shaking his neck out. They're like, we're going to Shams in a second. He's getting pumped up to go out there. Then he goes out there. He sits down all fired up. He's like, league circles just can't believe what they're hearing right now.

What is a league circle? Just whoever you have a contact with in the league because I've never talked to more teams than those 48 hours after that trade on Saturday night. Like I was hearing from guys I hadn't talked to in years. It's still, I know that the dust is settled. It still makes no sense, right? So look, we've been in New Orleans all week.

Every single thing I've gone to, all anybody wants to talk about is Luca. Yeah, because it's, I mean, the original reporting of it, when Shams reported, he's like, I'm not hacked, because it was so bad of a deal. Bobby Marks had to be like, he's not hacked. He's like, I need a third source to confirm this about the original tweet.

This is not NBA Central. This is an actual trade. Right, because if it is sental, we joked on Saturday after it happened that Bronnie would have been in it. Yeah. Yeah. That would be a much better trade.

But what do you think LeBron would have said no? They would have had to let LeBron know. He would have said yes. He'd be like, Luca, send my prime. Trade my own son for Luca? Yeah. Is it like everything I've read, it just basically boils boils down to Nico Harrison the GM for the Mavs almost went rogue and he doesn't like Luca probably doesn't like fat people and

I know that must have hurt. Yeah. Well, I mean I've been defending Luca when everyone's like you're just But he's like he's 270 6 7 270 is bad. 270's not bad at all. On 6'7"? I'd be 270 if I could. Yeah. If you look at BMI, he's like morbidly obese. Yeah, but BMI, there was a new thing I read today. It was like, finally, you're like, oh, you think it might be a little outdated for Jack people? Yeah. Scientists. Muscle. But is it just he hated Luca? It seems like it I mean, I think everything is out there's other conspiracy theories and I love you know when somebody's really smart and They're really good at making a point and then everybody was like, hey Did you hear about this like casino thing and like they're moving around and then you're like, okay, maybe yeah Maybe or because it's so convincing, right? But I always have this issue with like making this simple thing

because it's so convincing, right? But I always have this issue with like making this simple thing difficult. And I think those of us that do this for a living like to do that at times. And that's not even, this guy wasn't even, I don't even think a media member, but you're like, do you think they want to leave Dallas? You think they want to leave the Dallas market?

And so we get a major league on our hands here? Like, of course they don't. They want the expansion teams. Yeah, but they want the money paid. When you expand those two new owners have to write these massive But they can still do that. They move to Vegas and then the expansion team is Dallas Yeah, I don't think you heard about this one, of course I've heard about it I I've had it sent to me by people being like checks out

That's just makes sense That's the thrill of a conspiracy theory because if you see early enough you can tell other people they're like wow you're a deep and then they think that you came up with it like yeah big cat just told me this thing I like when somebody shares it with you like they got it and a source that no one else has already seen a like hey like one reddit post yeah right everybody sees it for 69 came up with it and everyone's like he's had a good track he makes like points yeah another put another nickel in the fart center for 69 was right, Jar.

Yeah, but it's crazy. This trade is crazy. It makes no sense. Here's what I think is the funniest part about it, is that I guess Nico wanted to keep it a secret because he was afraid people would get mad if they found out. I don't know, but he was like, don't tell anyone.

Yeah, he thanked Polinka for keeping it quiet. And you're like, what did you think Polinka was gonna do? Start telling other people? The other thing that I always think is insane with like rebuilds in the NBA is like, we need everybody to be kind of on the same timeline, like age-wise. So you go, so if like in theory, Ant were available,

he's too young to play next to Kyrie. Now granted, positionally a fit center when AD and Kyrie. It's very clear that Nico's background in the guys that he's had relationships with, like he said, I don't do anything scary. I'm like, you did the single scariest transaction in the NBA two years ago by being the one team that's like, yeah, we'll trade stuff for Kyrie Irving.

And it's worked out. And I think it's worked out because of that relationship. Clearly the AD relationship goes all the way back. The Polinko relationship goes back 20 plus years. Everybody's read all the same stuff about how like Nico was obsessed with Kobe made it work to polinka Kobe deal or Kobe's like telling polinka go start your own thing I'm coming with you like these guys have been you know and not a weird way but like collectively in bed in this basketball

world for a really long time but like at some point you have to have someone close to you that can that can go. Hey, even if you don't love Luca, even if you love a D, silence is not the play here. You know, like every time there's a big trade in granted, it's more in the NBA, the in a lot of sports, but it used to happen in baseball when it was a more active trade deadline. But when the insider goes on TV, like just happened with De'Aaron Fox, Shams goes on, when horse goes on, whoever goes on, it's like, look, people around the league

are starting to tell you, Sacramento, definitely looking at offers and maybe open for business on De'Aaron Fox. A lot of times that comes from the team. They want the guy to go on, advertise to the rest of the league that this guy is available. The idea that if it got out, it hurts their leverage is bullshit.

This is unfathomable to so many different teams around the league. This should be an auction. It should be a public auction. It should be updated every fucking day. The Lakers, as Winhorse reported, saying that they went to Dallas and said, we can't give you the second first

because we don't know if he'll sign an extension. Then if you're Nico, you go, okay then, then you can walk away from acquiring Luca Donchich at 25 years old in a trade that is unprecedented historically. Yeah, I'm offering you gold and you're gonna break my balls. You can say no to me. Yeah, instead, Nico was like, Yeah, you're right. Okay, so the other thing that calls my mind the other thing that could make sense with is that he's just

obsessed with AD. And he just loved AD and needed him on that team. I don't know, get somebody else involved. It's also crazy because he's like, oh yeah, we just went to the finals with Luca being an absolute force offensively. You know what we should do is go defense. Well, that's the other thing is that I spend a lot of time,

I mean, I don't really talk to anybody about it, but they're like, oh, look at this guy's numbers. And be like, that guy's a loser. Oh, he has 30 points again. Cool. You watch all the other shit that he does wrong. This guy has a laundry list of losing plays inside of a basketball game. Like, I know you're upset about the Zach Levine. No, I'm not upset. But, you know, he's played in what, four playoff games in his career.

So like we're sitting around. This league has a lot of dudes that put up huge, huge numbers, but they do it on their own terms. They don't pay attention to anything else They've never even heard of an off-ball cut to save lives talking about Jordan pool. No sounds very me Well, Jordan pool is like I joked that if he went to confession he'd be like, what is this? There's just no no conscience. There's zero. I mean, he's the most dangerous player in the NBA. I love I love It's actually not not entertaining. No, it is just like this is I can't imagine being a teammate like I'd want to get on the plane at one point like are you fucking serious man? So anyway the point is is there's a lot of players that get a lot of pub that were like whoa he must be good because look at his line and look at all these

things he's done and they've done nothing they've never sniff anything. Maybe a playoff flukey run. Luka with a team three years ago that's third option was Reggie Bullock. OK, like that team made it to the Western Conference Finals. And then this team gets through OKC. It gets through Minnesota. And it plays as a bad matchup against Boston. That Boston team is really, really good. But this guy was actually going on the playoff runs.

Right. So all these other guys are like, I can think. Sometimes I think there's guys that are good that are on bad teams and other guys I think that are frauds. This guy's not a fraud. And I think it was, uh, Harold Bob. I say his name wrong. Horrell Bob Horrell Bob, who said it, which was, I feel like it had to be said, even though it's very obvious. He was like, yeah, you'll post clip. People post clips of Luca being a traffic cone and getting blown by Post the same amount of clips if not more of Luca having three guys guard him and still hitting the shot Yeah, that's that's what he brings right? I mean that was alarming. It was also weird because I think the Celtics knew

Because I mean it's pretty obvious by their approach. You're like we're gonna just kill this guy right now The Celtics also had like Five to seven guys with a ball in their hands that you actually have to worry about off the dribble, not just spot up guys. So you can make a target that you're hunting move more when you're as good as the Celtics are. So those video clips like, okay, fine,

but I could do the same thing with a ton of other players that don't even sniff the first or second round. Right, right. And I don't think his defense was that bad late on in the playoffs I feel like it once he started to play hard he wasn't a great defender But he wasn't a complete liability all the time that matchup was tough for him But I think just team to team it was a tough matchup because it was like the first team I mean they had Tatum guarding their center while Tatum was playing point guard. And like I was at two of the games and it was funny

because Dallas at one point is like, oh wait, maybe we can attack Tatum on the post. And it's like, cool, you're gonna run Gafford post-ups and take the ball out of Lucas hands, take the ball out of Kyrie's hands. Like you're playing right into what they wanna do. But I think PFT, your point is this like, okay, you wanna call him fat?

Fine. You wanna say he's not committed enough? Fine. You wanna say he argues the refs rest like dude, pick a guy that doesn't argue with the rest. Like it's always shocking when you go Oh, so and so doesn't argue all that much. I mean, sure. Okay, fine. All all great stuff. Call other fucking team. Right? Right. The process is bad.

You're 100% correct. Like, if they knew that Luca was was up for being traded, you would have every GM, most GMs in the league making their final best offers and you would get an enormous haul for him. I think Ainge would have done like Tatum after he won an NBA championship with him. Yeah. I don't know that, I mean, he never would tell you the truth or anything. I don't know if Boston could after just winning with Tatum, knowing that Tatum is always in shape, plays every game, plays defense.

You just want a title. Their window is still open. Brown's the alpha. He's got the aura. Batman Robin talk. Yeah, Max aura. Not not your max unattainable aura. Do you want to do Batman Robin for the Lakers now? Who takes the last shot? I love that. I love that. Whose team is it? Yeah. Whose team is that Ronnie when Dwayne Wade spent like two years doing interviews and like another 10 years after he's like, well,

the team didn't really click until I sacrificed. Yeah. He's like, oh, you sacrificed against the guy who at the time is the best version we've ever seen of him. That's arguably like, again, we know we're sitting here. He's number two, probably all time. There's definitely a clip that runs in two years, right?

Luke is out of shape, he gets hurt again. There's questions about the extension. He's miserable. He actually doesn't like LA, which would be shocking to me. I think he's probably going to hang out with all the hockey players and move to Manhattan Beach. But we know what it could be. I mean, maybe Dallas goes on.

I really liked this team when they were healthy this year. It was a good team. They had an awesome off season. The trades were great for them. There is a version of events that can definitely happen. It's like, remember how everybody thought this and Nico was right, whatever. That could happen.

I'm open to it. The fans showing up and protesting, like trying to kill them, bringing the casket out. Yeah. Then the Mavericks go on and win a championship. Dude, how about Allie LaForce on the call of the Mavs Celtics game last night, like having a moment where she was like,

you know, everybody just wants to remind you that Saturday night's home game for Dallas, like these people have families. I think it was. Be responsible. Right, I know, and like this is quite the message. Everybody just wants to remind you that Saturday night's home game for Dallas like these people have families Responsible right I know and like this is quite the message anyway having said all those things You still will never be able to defend the process right to process But the execution of this is indefensible But then I think about Luca like is this this wake-up call for him? And he's gonna be next to LeBron. He's going to get him in shape.

Right, like Sula. Yeah, that's not really that much of a wake up call where it's like, hey, we're going to send you to LA. You're going to play with LeBron and you're going to be the face of the Lakers. More taxes. Like that. That'll show you. A lot more taxes. A lot of taxes. 13 and a half percent.

13 and a half state? Yeah, I think so. Over a million. Yeah, but. The one thing I'll say in defense of Niko is that he does have a job for life probably now because Rob Polinka will just hire him. He has to. Like if that we find out if he gets fired in two years and then he's just part of the Lakers organization, I think they'll be part of me being like, all right, I guess he was just looking out for himself. That's not the worst. This does remind me of Roman times though. Yeah, same. was gonna say same Sula where he was like, I thought you're talking about Jim. No, there's no friend that's ever served me

no enemy that's ever wrong me who whom I have not repaid in full. It's powerful. That is powerful. That's what that's the first thing I thought about when I saw that Luke was going to LA. Yeah. Are you doing Roman Empire right now? Just finished the trilogy, but I can't get the authors on I wanted to do like a three part. Why part weather dead. No, I did packs I did Rubicon I did storm before the storm. So I just wanted it like you know, what I do is I chart it out. And

then I'm like, which years am I missing? So are you still single? It's when somebody says like, how often do boys think about the Roman Empire? That's just you weighing it down for everybody else. I never think about it But no, I actually when I saw them when I saw the memes I felt a responsibility I was like, you know what like a lot of people think this is funny Yeah but it isn't and if you look at like the different forms of government like is it better to live under the guise of democracy with

You know ultimately a dictatorship. Yeah, you know, ultimately a dictatorship. Yeah. You know, which again, speaks to Bread and circus. Do you feel strongly about the, the Republic versus democracy debate? You know, I don't know, man. I think at some point, I mean, not to go full dictator on you,

but I think at some point, somebody has to make the final decision. Yeah. Yeah. Why'd you use that term? Well, cause I just think that, just think that there's a lot of stuff in history, you go through it, and you're like, you think this is a collective. Have you been to any good museums recently, Ryan?

Yeah, World War II Museum yesterday in New Orleans went by myself. I was shocked. I wasn't busier with people from the media. Some people like to party with booze and drugs and women, and I like to party with history. Ryan sent me a picture of just an airplane yesterday. Yeah, he was sending me a picture of like a...

Just an airplane? I took like 20 pictures of you. You know, there's airplanes, there's dollar bill. Speaking of. Oh, you got us stuff from the World War II. Well, thank you, Ryan. The shirt, and that's my dog tag. Oh, wow.

A one bar from the World War II. Yeah, that's an MRE right there. Oh, wow. This is a beautiful shirt. We're splitting this shirt? Look at this. This is for me and Big Cat. It's a keep them flying US Army Air Force's shirt. Love that. It's so good. I was there. I love planes. Yeah. I'll wear it on odd days you wear it on a year. Okay I love it. At first I was afraid I would die and then I was afraid I

wouldn't. Oh that's scary. Anonymous soldier of World War II. We'll get back to Ryan Rossellone in a second. He's brought to you by Sleep Number. Listen up, we're talking about something that's just as important as game day, sleep. Did you know that 80% of NFL players have a Sleep Number Smart Bed? That's right, these guys aren't just elite athletes on the field.

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who's who? And who's the one title? I feel like there's five teams, 16. I like that. We just did this the other day, the surprise list. So who's not a surprise? Okay, she's not a surprise. Boston's not a surprise. Cleveland's not a surprise. I think Denver is the fourth team. When Denver has Aaron Gordon and this version of Jamal Murray, even with a diminished bench. It's like you can't rule especially, you know, look at the depth, the extra days off depth is as big of an issue. You know,

Michael Porter Jr. is like hit or miss to me. I think I like him less and less even though he's so important to what they do because of stretching the floor. Westbrook has been like really good in these minutes because of the energy. I think he's finally kind of accepted who he is a little bit so it doesn't force the issue with the way he would with some of the other guys. I think he's more differential to Jokic than anyone he's ever been playing next to.

And the great thing about playing with Jokic is like, dude, if you just keep moving and cutting, like there's free baskets all over the place because he's gonna find you. So I would put Denver in there because that's just how special I think Jokic is. Memphis? No, I'm not quite there yet.

Houston? No, no. I have a hard time believing Houston will win four series the Knicks I probably have the Knicks over Houston Even though I enjoy watching Houston the most as the taping of this Houston's really going through a weird stretch They haven't had Van Vliet. They have these awesome clutch record numbers, but they have some awful like clutch metrics Which is really weird how off the two things are. And I wonder offensively if they would have enough to like keep up with some of the other high profile teams.

But you know, one of the questions I have about OKC is will there be a second score that is more reliable than the first version that we saw in Jalen Williams, which is totally understandable because it was first time. I feel like Chet has to, yeah, because they do have, I feel like they do get killed by big power forwards right now. Yeah, the rebounding stuff has been an issue now for a while

with them, but I worry more, their defense is so good. They are so smart. Like they made Wembe look terrible. It was very early in the season, but it was, if you hold the ball and you wait around against OKC, they just swarm you. And everybody's bought in, the culture of that team is almost like an unobtainable thing in the NBA.

So I'm impressed with all of it. I just want the second or maybe even another guy, which isn't gonna happen now, someone to be that reliable third creator in those minutes where maybe one of the other guys has subbed out or some of the things bogged down. But now I'm nitpicking, I'm nitpicking with him. There's little things that I can nitpick with Cleveland.

But I thought that DeAndre Hunter trade addressed probably the biggest issue is that when they start a game against the Celtics, Struce is getting defensive minutes against Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum because they want Struce's spacing. And then the rest of the assignments, you're like, what do we do?

Do we put Mobley on a wing and feel like we're wasting him? Because you kind of have to. If Boston doesn't want to play with double bigs, like they do sometimes. So I'm really, really impressed with Cleveland. And even though Hunter's expensive as far as what they'll have to pay him and all the tax stuff, it's a no-brainer.

Not that he's a lockdown guy, but it's just a way better defensive option. Because playoff series are crazy, man. You can see a game one result, and everybody sits there and be like, oh, this is over. And then game two with the same guys plays out an entirely different way. So at least they have an option as opposed

to what they had before. So in the West, you got Denver? OK, see. Yeah. Who else? That's it? I think after that, it would be a surprise to me if the Houston Rockets won an NBA championship this year.

It would be a surprise to me if Memphis won an NBA championship. And the Lakers, yeah, I think it's a surprise. To me, this is a reset. Doncic becomes available. You stop worrying about how you match up in the 25 playoffs. And it's pretty clear. And even if they spent real assets on acquiring Mark

Williams, he needs to be better. Now, Grany's only played like half the available games of his career. But the defensive numbers for him are atrocious and when you watch him, the good sign might be, I just, like, you not care? Yeah. Like I don't, I know it sounds crazy. I want guys to care all the time,

but is it easier to fix it when it's like, hey, your effort sucks and now you're playing. And you're with LeBron. Yeah, you're playing with the Lakers now. You can hide in Charlotte on league paths, but you can't anymore. What about the box? I hate just missing Janos, just because I think

on the best nights, he's the second best player in the world. He's been even better this year. Last year, he wins the MVP in a lot of seasons, if it's not for this epic run that Jokic is on You know, they've reinvented themselves a bit Kuzma's probably get a little bit more juice to him than Middleton does at this point I think Middleton defensively and some of the wing matchups Worries him but like Kuzma doesn't necessarily solve those problems How do you evaluate Kuzma when he's basically in Siberia with the Wizards for so long?

I mean that team was such a mess and in the minutes were all over the place and the priorities were different than you know Kuzma. Like when Kuzma's been good he's pretty good man. He's not the most athletic guy. It's not like you're letting him initiate a ton of offense like off the dribble on his own and defensively he can probably get caught in some stuff where he's not athletically matching like another guy that he's assigned to. But I like them because I think they can just count on them more than they could Middleton at this point.

Right. I'm worried about the Dame stuff at the top. I think Brook Lopez, it's kind of over, man. Yeah, it's getting up there. Yeah. So the Giannis thing is terrific. And I just fucking love that guy. I love like, you knew when it was the Wemby matchup earlier.

You're like, oh, I can't wait to watch this game tonight because he's going to be like, I'm going to go right at this dude. And Wemby blocked him twice at the start of the first game. And Yanis is like, all right, now I'm even more pissed. Where a lot of guys with his profile be like, all right, I don't want to get embarrassed. And I'm not going to do that again.

He couldn't wait. So I always kind of guys, like with his profile, be like, all right, I don't want to get embarrassed. And we're not going to do that again. He couldn't wait. So I always kind of like, I think I probably stubbornly have respect for Giannis so much that normally I would keep him live in this. But I think the reality is the NBA story is the way they go. Like their window is probably already closed. Damn. So Boston, obviously.

No, I was just wondering. Because I don't like the Bucks, but I like Giannis. Like Giannis is so much fun to watch when he's Right, you know Yeah I he's everything that I would want like all the stuff that we've talked about with Luca and the funny part too is like there's Been way more rumblings about Yanis's fragile future in Milwaukee Then Luke, I mean, you know the Luca thing was like maybe, maybe, you know, oh, 26, this team's clearing cap space.

All right, fine. But this Yana stuff has always been this weird lingering, like, oh, they have to do this. This is why they did the Dame deal. You know, this is why they did the coach thing. And you know, who knows? And would he ever say, hey, I'm at this side of 30, like, I'm out of here?

Because it doesn't mean it's never gonna happen, but like, the American guys are usually the guys that do it. The international guys don't. Again, an international guy at some point who's a superstar is gonna be like, get me out of here. Yeah. Go ahead. I think we've talked about this.

Maybe we haven't, but I always thought the Dane thing with Portland, not to be harsh, kind of made him a loser. How so? He liked like the man in a team that really never had expectations or had to compete for anything. He's like, I'm the man, I've run this franchise, we're not going anywhere, and then it gets spun as loyalty. It's just like, I don't know, I don't know.

I mean, it's probably harsh because it's hypocritical of me because I don't love when guys are like like I gotta go team up with another superstar, but maybe towards the end where it's just like, dude, be a little selfish while you have some some gas left in the tank. You're an unbelievable player. Go compete and try to win a championship with someone. Isn't it funny that I mean, it's like, okay, then he can't win. He can't win at all. I know. I know. That's what I'm saying. I know it's a little harsh and it's hypocritical, but I always was like, dude, especially at the end, like, go get it somewhere. You're so good. You're fun in crunch time. And it's like game time stuff. Like, I don't want I don't care about game time in the middle of February when you guys are a 500 team in Portland. Well, there's definitely truth to him liking his role with the Trail Blazers all those years. Right. And whenever you talk to people out there, granted the regime has changed over, but it was, you know, is he ever going to get a little like annoyed with all this stuff? It's like, no, he likes being the main attraction.

Right. Like everything's sort of on his terms. Not in like a, like I think the OKC stuff with Westbrook was like absurd towards the end where everything was so on his terms and they had just lost a rant. I mean, he had Biggs just getting out of his way so he could get extra rebounds. He's the highest usage rate in modern history. And you start to realize he still gets rebounds other guards will never get because he's so incredibly gifted, athletic, and his determination,

all that kind of stuff. But everything started feeling so catered to Westbrook here like all right is this actually the recipe for success now that team didn't have any success in the playoffs Dames certainly had a couple moments the okay C-shot once Paul George was there the Houston series there's just a lot of stuff in there that I thought was a lot of fun they had a western conference finals run that I think is one of those that falls under the kind of fluky category. Yeah, like those COVID, right? Well, no, 19. Yeah, it was year before. That's right. So I totally get your point. And like there was always this Bradley Beal thing that's very similar. It's like, this guy's not asking out yet. That's not good. And then people go, well, you know, he's pretty content guy. And he's pretty close to like qualifying for the five year max. Right he may just get that and then he's gonna bounce

and that's exactly what happened. So I don't think you're wrong, it just feels so fucking unfair. I don't really wanna say, oh yeah, this guy actually was a loser the whole time. You know what's crazy? He wasn't a loser the whole time, yeah. Imagine if he had gotten his way and gone to Miami.

I know. Like do you think Butler would have been like, okay, I'll chill out now Yeah, I mean I I like it when players do that when they say I like this city I want to be a one Jersey guy I want to stay here if we're gonna try to win But if we don't win, you know, I'm gonna give it my all and that's okay. I think that's good I think that's good for the league as a whole. I liked it too I was a solid all the good players like years, where it's like you still,

because he did, he was already past 30 when he went to the box, right? Like, and he's, I mean, yeah. So it just felt like, oh man, if you'd maybe asked out like a year or two earlier, this could have been something. The one you can get on Dame for, though, and this was starting to happen, and I remember

the first time it was explained to me, they were like, this is just the transfer portal now, because people don't care about getting to free agency to maximize their opportunities or leverage, all that stuff, they're just signing the extension and then saying, okay. And then saying, I want out. Yeah, and that sucks, that sucks.

Yeah, and he had four years to go on his, the same way Durant had four years to go on his when he decided he wanted out of the Nets and they wouldn't trade him, they wouldn't fire everybody, then they had to trade him to Phoenix anyway, and they ended up getting a haul. And honestly, looking back at that, it's an unbelievable deal for what the Nets

were able to pull off for a guy that's unhappy within 18 months of every place that he's gone. Like I was kidding around the other day, but I was like, do you, who's been happier at like his peak basketball moments throughout his career, Kyrie or Durant? Kyrie. Kyrie with the 2016 Cavs? I think Kyrie is at his peak basketball moments throughout his career, Kyrie or Durant? Kyrie. Kyrie with the 2016 Cavs?

I think Kyrie on his peak, I think Kyrie. By the way, I'm gonna take back my dame take, you guys convinced me, that was probably a take. I understand the sentiment behind it. No, but the four year extension not kicking in and then saying I wanna be traded here and I only wanna go to Miami. Right.

And that's not a blast. Yeah, no that's not a blast, but I do think Durant was genuinely happy in Golden State. I know that everyone was like, oh, well, it's always gonna be Steph's team. I do think Durant is so addicted to just the game of basketball and not all the other stuff that the basketball they were playing was so beautiful

that I think he was happy there. I think he was probably happy in OKC at the start when it was all new to him. Yeah, you know, 12 finals run. Yeah, we don't have pressure yet when he wasn't online as much. That's when he was the happiest. You don't think he was happy in Golden State? Just basketball. I know he left, but like from a from a basketball perspective, that team was just playing like, yeah, the highest form of basketball you could play that starting five I've ever seen. Yeah.

Make it sure I just thought you're gonna argue. No, I know. I was thinking, I don't know. Dream team, the piston for pistons. Yeah, yeah, that's great. All all stars. Yeah, rip. That was the best debate ever. Should they all be all-stars? I love that. That's not even the worst one.

Remember the Atlanta Hawks team with all those guys? Yeah, Corver? Yeah, Corver and Joe Johnson. Horrible, they're like, well, they're in first place. Was Josh Smith on that team? Josh, it's pronounced Josh Smith. Smith, he was my all-time, he's just gonna chuck a few threes.

I think he was on Detroit by then Yeah, might have been yeah, maybe like 27% from I loved that. He would do it though He'd be like you just got a pencil in that he's gonna chuck some threes and they're not gonna go in I like those guys. That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion Henry the fifth. Okay, you're dropping knowledge on yeah, you are you've been reading a lot Haven't you a lot know what people don't talk about enough is Shakespeare's depiction of Henry The fifth is so fucked. I agree. I told ya Actually, we're talking about that early. It is that's good. Yeah, cuz it's like oh Billy Shakespeare. He couldn't get it wrong

Are you serious? Yeah, you ever fucking talk to writers? No, have you ever read anything about Henry the fifth? It's complete. It's completely misleading. Yeah, I agree. You know what it is, it's an oversimplification of him. Yeah, when he was just straight up efficiency. I mean, granted, he got a bit of a gobbled complex and just saying France was his and it was his right. I would love to be arrogant enough, like we're here Super Bowl week

and there's some guys here like, we need to fucking simmer down. Like, cool daytime ratings. But. It's one very specific person. I, I look at Henry the fifth. And I think, imagine just being like, hey, this isn't me just being a dick. It is my birthright. France is mine. God told me. Yeah. How do you how do you run errands

that day with that kind of with that kind of like, idea of where you are in the world? Yeah, nobody. It's hard to negotiate against that position. There's really nothing you'd say. Yeah, like, hey, this sucks. We're in the woods still. We're digging ditches and guys have malaria and dudes are dying and we don't have any food and we might have to start eating the horses and I haven't even seen a boob in two years like this fucking sucks. And he's like, Don't worry worry about it God said we're gonna yeah we

got it God's got God did yeah probably had one chick that he liked from France and he was like I kind of want the whole country now yeah well he did marry the daughter of the Mad King which was arranged he did seem to like her though yeah they were good They were squad goals Our company totally like k-on St. Jay's II. Yeah, you're like Kate's, you know good for Kate I think Kate Middleton's approval ratings through the roof. Yeah, but I Don't know dude Henry the fifth. I Just think it's funny to look at maps. You guys don't ever look at maps. I bought a shirt with a map on it yesterday Yeah maps are the best. What's your favorite projection? Are you micator guy?

You have to explain to me, you know, you're talking about maps about projections you seem like a map casual I kind of like fun to look at they're fun to look at but they wildly distort how big Greenland. Oh, yeah Yeah, you ever do that. You ever see that site where you can pull Greenland and it's like the size of you know It's that Greenland like Louisiana isn't that trump.com? Will you just pull Greenland? That's right? Yeah, you bring it That's ours. That shit's yeah, I do want Greenland. I do you yeah, why not? Greenland want Greenland? No, there is something to be said. Well, I don't know this would probably bring up something else but like Go on when you read Henry the fifth you're like we do invade each other less. Yeah Yeah, that's a positive and that never gets talked about well the wars then were a little bit different, too

It's like if there's big countries world powers invading other world powers right now It's like eventually you're gonna start a nuclear war back Then it was like we're gonna send seven horses and five guys with swords And then they're gonna duke it out on the border for I'm shocked about like some of that stuff from Agin core and like late 1300s early 1400s and you're like you invaded France with 2,000 guys and some boats Like what the fuck like yeah, imagine and like we're good Yeah, like we're going into the whole country and the numbers were like really limited and then they started like going nuts

I mean granted you get to go with centuries beyond Napoleon just being like let's go for Russia but yeah I don't know maybe I'm just more top of mind right now after the museum visit yesterday and everything but yeah I don't know that that back to the Henry thing completely miss misjudged Shakespeare Shakespeare fucked him. What were your blind spots in the Pacific Theater? Do you know about the ice cream boat? I don't think I do. Explain it to me. The US had such incredible industrial power

during World War II that we were creating boats at such a level that they created a boat that just served ice cream to the Navy that was in the Pacific Theater. I don't feel bad not knowing that. It's a real thing. We just were shitting out boats. That's how fast we were making them.

They were like, all right, this one will just be soft serve. I think, I mean, if you want to be completely serious about all this stuff. No, the ice cream boat is serious. I don't really like how you've kind of diminished it. What flavors do you think they had? I think they had them all chocolate and vanilla in 1945 I think they had them all. I bet they had strawberry or malt. That's cool. That's just running up the score though I mean Japan's fighting with wooden boats and we're like we have an ice cream boat. Japan's resources were strained pretty quickly Pretty quickly. Small islands. It got a little over their head. First time they had surrendered in 2,500 years.

Yeah, it's crazy. They thought the emperor was God. Well, he was called the God Emperor. Yeah. Another guy, probably read Henry V. Yeah, he did. He's like, this guy. Oh, this guy too?

The naval battles in the Philippines. There's some crazy shit that went on there too. Yeah, I was watching the videos about it yesterday, but I don't know. I mean, this is where being the war historian, like you say a fact and I'm gonna go I didn't know that No ice cream. No, I didn't know I went to a World War two museum. I'm supposed to know all of it I'm so every maneuver from the runways to Manila the Manila decision. I think it's vanilla and chocolate.

That's my only bad thing. That is so good that we can't even do anything now with it. The one thing that you contributed to this was ice cream. Ice cream boat. It was ice cream boat. Lyle, with that line. You should know Lyle. We need to take a moment to understand how good that line was right there.

It's solid. Is that the capital? That's even the capital of the Philippines. The whole World War II theater is just me thinking about ice cream. But when Oppenheimer came out and like, just you know some people just can't they you know they send a tweet and it's like oh We're celebrating this now. It's like do you want to fucking do this? Yeah, do you want to do this? Do you want to do this? Are we gonna do this? You want to talk about?

The coast of China yeah, you want to talk inland are we gonna do the thing where we just ignore the rape of Nanking? Dude, there's video, they didn't show the video, but there are stills of like practicing bayonet work with live Chinese prisoners. So look, history is littered with all of this stuff, but like the artsy person that decides they're taking this stand without ever reading a fucking book or deciding that they're just going to ignore. Yeah, like I'm not saying necessarily like who's right, but who put you in charge of saying who's wrong? Right? Yeah. Is Cooper flagged the real deal? I haven't watched enough of them. Boss, you've watched a lot of you probably watch more Cooper flagged than almost anyone.

No, that's definitely not true. I don't have a ton of time for college hoops right now I've watched I don't know two full games and some Boston College seemed to not like him a couple weeks ago They're letting him have it elbowing them in the face. He's a duke. He's a perfect Duke guy I did this is where I wish guys could stay had to stay for a couple more years Especially especially a Duke just because I want to get the hate up for Cooper flag. But one year's not enough. Yeah, you're right. It just doesn't feel, you know what I mean?

That he's a main guy though for me, like I'm just gonna have a hard time being anti, like what I hate, Duncan Robinson, I couldn't do that, New Hampshire guy. Duncan Robinson's a good dude. He'd be the first, what was it, the first white American since 1976, I want to say drafted one overall Cooper the white flag. Yeah

We were on this a few years ago, which is kind of weird that we're on this but we were That'd be the first white American. We were like the number one. This is our future Flag would also be a much better name for a French player. Well, by the way, yeah, it would. And I hate the whole capture the flag thing that they're doing for like, you know, the suck for luck. They're doing capture the flag. It's lame. Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah.

Yeah. There haven't been any good ones that I've heard yet, I don't think. I just, I haven't heard anything that's all that great. I would root for the New England guy no matter what. But we, look, the white guys have had a weird stretch in the NBA. Yeah. There was a time when you were like,

okay, who are the five white American guys, one through five? And dudes who get to four are going, is it still Doug McDermott? Who we love, shout out to Doug McDerm going is it still Doug McDermott who we love shout out to Doug Yes, but buckets I This is you know Trump's back in office flag goes one You know you get a wonder you had that Baron Baron Trump could he could also go one next year the That woman in the Walmart ad with Busta Rhymes around Christmas when she dropped the verse at the end

Yep, so things are I don't know. I don't know where we are on the pendulum. It's all happening wait, so would you so you don't know totally you haven't watched enough but like The way that people talk about him and people you trust like is he one of those guys like guaranteed? He's gonna be awesome in the NBA because that that does happen, you know, in the draft every couple years we were like, okay, like Zion. But Zion, if he played. Yeah, it's not that guy. Well, yeah, but I mean the thing is,

is like the more you really dug into like Zion when he was at Duke, I mean, not that it was breaking news because everybody knew he was going number one, but I think for me there was this whole other level of like, oh my God, like this is gonna be awesome. And the thing is, is once he played, he was that number one, but I think for me there was this whole other level of like, oh my god Like this is gonna be awesome And the thing is is once he played He was that dominant of a player and you didn't really have to do anything with him except just make sure there was a little Bit of spacing for him, which they could have with this new version of the team, but whatever. Uh, I don't think he's talked about

Like we're coming off a women Yama deal where the build-up to that Even though flag has been on everybody's radar here for a couple years, and I think that there's the other two guys that are kind of part of the conversation. Like you'll hear every now and then of somebody, so I don't think it's this unanimous praise, but if I'm comparing to Wim Benyama, Wim Benyama is the most anticipated pick since LeBron, so it's been 20 years. So this is not, one, I have not watched him enough. I don't feel comfortable talking about it based on what I think and I think it's been assumed that he's the number one guy and for good reason because he side the size and the athleticism and a little Bit more of the vision where it's not just he's a straight scorer

But I mean look you've watched him more than I have he's very good. He's very very good And I also appreciate that you were like hey, I didn't watch so I can't I can't give an expert opinion We're the opposite. I think you agree PFT. He's probably the best prospect ever. Oh, yeah number one Yeah, do you think that's sort of part of that like prideful nationalism that you're feeling right now? No, I know I've no I don't know what you're talking about. What's prideful nationalism? So wait I had another question about Cooper flag too, oh yeah why no I think you'll find this interesting. He's got a twin brother. Oh, I didn't know that He's got twin brother. I think they might I don't know if they're identical, but they're

He's also like big he's huge. He's in the stands. He wears his jersey. That's his identical twin art or his twin brother Yeah, they he plays basketball, too He's not very good. Well, I guess he's not as good. Well, he's in the stands They didn't article about I think it was in the athletic a couple months ago, but it was like it was like this guy kind of Stinks at basketball, but his brother's really good. How does he live and Damn, we should do an episode where it's like interview Cooper flags brother Trevor Lawrence's you gotta go opposite You gotta go like Trevor Lawrence. Yeah, you're like I'm just gonna do something totally different than what my brother does. Ace Flag?

Is that his name? Ace Flag? That's a cool name. Yeah, but it's not... He's not twins? Um, oh they are twins. They're twins. What? And he's not even playing?

He's not very good. He's transferred around a bunch. I think he's like a... Well how's he transferred? They're the same age. Maybe it was high school. Okay. He moved to a couple different schools, yeah.

He was committed, or he's committed to Maine? I don't know. Yeah, I mean that's gonna be tough. That's gonna be tough. You don't know anything about Cooper Flagg? Let's ask about his twin brother. Yeah, I know, I didn't know. I just always feel, like no matter what,

your mom's going like, hey, your path is different and you know, you're special in your own way and you're like, yeah, my brother's gonna be the number one pick in the draft, so. Yeah. Yeah. Just become best friends in what? So I think Cooper reclassified so that he could go

to college early. Oh. So that's why. So he's still in high school. So he's still in high school. Got it. That's why he's committed to Maine. Got it.

I'm like 80% sure that that's that's what happened By Max I got a question for you about the NBA as a whole is the NBA in trouble good question Trouble how so I can answer it properly I don't know. I I'm not a ratings guy, but it does feel like I Don't know, I'm not a ratings guy, but it does feel like, I don't know, the league. The ratings are down. The ratings are down. The ratings are down, and it feels like there's obviously, there's a few teams

that can win every year, there's not as much parity, and there's also, I don't know, like when you turn on a game in the middle of February, is it the best product? I don't know. I mean, the three point, the debate about the three points where it's like, Hey, everyone's just chucking constantly. Um, is the NBA in trouble? I'm going to sound like somebody who loves the NBA and therefore is going to protect

it. But I think what I would do because you know me is that I would like defend something against what I think are bullshit arguments. One, the first ratings quarter that was destroyed by everybody went up against all of our election coverage. And the most important election of our time was the T's I believe. Democracy was at stake. Do you realize I've been alive for every one of the most important elections of our time? Yeah. That's fucking incredible. I'd be that lucky.

Carter Reagan. That was the one. I was there. I was there for that. And I was like, shit. And then the next year, in four years, excuse me, the next election, they were like, no, this is, and I was like, I'm on the hottest fucking streak of elections of anybody you've ever known. So I think that that was a little unfair.

I think the three point thing, even though there's nights where I kind of feel that way, I also don't miss Mark Jackson post-ups that took 17 seconds yeah I think whenever people start comparing like all these clips of like what it is today what it is back then like yeah every Jordan clip looks fucking awesome you know what there was also a million other games that Tuesday night that sucked yeah as visually appealing is that clip why are we comparing that clip to a full slate of games on a Tuesday I also think that there's a very,

like I've talked about this before, it's the polling of one and it's not just one, but it's still a really small sample size of people who are like, I haven't watched it since they did that bubble woke shit. And it's like, okay, is that true? Like in that moment you went Group Economics Jersey, which again was stupid,

but you went Group Economics Jersey and you were like, that's it, I'm fucking out on these guys. Now those people were never in. like, that's it. I'm **** out on these guys now. It's just we're never in right that person exists certainly and that person loves telling you that they exist and they've

done all of those things but what I would argue is did that make you change the channel or did you already change the channel and now you love pointing to that as the reason why you've already done something. Okay. Same thing

happened with all the Kaepernick **** right right wing people going like I'm never watching that sport again and remember there was a bit of a ratings dip, and there was a decline. And right-wing media was all over it being like, see, see, see. All right, well, at some point, there's going to be some ebbs and flows of ratings

and all that kind of stuff. So look, if you tell me, all right, Ryan, compare the finals to 10 years ago finals. Well, am I comparing it to LeBron and Steph in that window? I mean, we're also talking about LeBron and Kawhi. We're talking about Steph going up against LeBron in that one where everybody kind of got hurt in the entire series. So is that the best way to do it?

I'd also ask people, have you ever cared about sports or games or teams today the way you did 20 or 30 years ago? But do you care about movies the same way? How many times you go to the movie theater this year? How many times you used to go? Is there an appointment viewing on television? Is there anything that's like the soprano options?

Remember the sopranos? You stopped what you were doing. You made sure your phone was- My TV went out. Right. You watched it live. You made sure your food was ready to go, whatever you were grabbing.

I'm sitting, nothing is disrupting this moment. I don't know if those moments exist anymore. So I think the NBA has some things aesthetically about it that are concerning. I think there's some ratings Intel that is a small piece that if it were to continue is alarming. But I also think there's just so many people that love dunking on that league

for a variety of different reasons that I think it becomes really skewed coverage I think the NHL is down 28% is it too woke? Like of course not. It's it's also like the NFL just is swallowing everything. It is. I mean, that's why they're going to 18 games That's why they were like, you know Christmas football family. No, it isn't you just like fuck the NBA Which is within their rights to do I think at one point we'll have NFL on every single night I think that's what their goal is and that's what they'll look to do. So that will rock Yeah, nobody's lost money on a team in like 40 plus years

They want to add more teams because people want to get into the business the television contract was Reported to come in like 3 billion less than it actually did so Maybe maybe looking at traditional ratings Like as much as you can go look at that or look at that number, this product sucks are all these different things. I think the global part isn't discussed enough. I think the new consumer and the younger consumer, the idea of sitting down at 25 years old and watching a two and a half hour

game start to finish is like absurd to them. Agreed. So I think there's a lot of factors here. But I think unfortunately, the loudest voice is usually the one that already hates the NBA telling you this league is dying, and I don't think that's true. And I think most of the people that are saying, I used to watch, the games changed so much, I can't watch this shit anymore.

You know, they're like 45 and above, I would say for the most part, and of course you like shit that you got to watch when you were 20 years old better than the stuff you get to see. Yeah, right, I mean, you ask that guy, do you like going to Vegas still? And he'd be like, ugh, no shit. Right, yeah. The Steph LeBron KD thing too, right. I mean, he asked that guy to be like, like, you're going to Vegas still? And he might, oh, no shit.

Right. Like, yeah. The Steph LeBron KD thing too, I think is important because they are in a transition. This happens in the NBA. It happens every league where it's like, these guys are getting older. They were, they had this run that is, you know, LeBron's 20 plus years. Yeah, I don't think the NBA is in trouble. I just, because I still love, I mean, the playoffs especially, I love the playoffs. I think there's just the biggest, the best argument I think you made is there's just so much stuff now

and it's so hard to capture a massive attention unless you're football. I can never tell if I'm like the best taste like, I should have screwed this up. Yeah, you're the best. You are the best. Just stop. You have the best taste.

Thanks, guys. If I am the one you should listen to or the one you are the just stop you have the best taste. Um, thanks guys if I am The one you should listen to or the one you should listen to the least because I'm watching no matter what right? This is my job. I have a good job. I have a good life. I'm lucky to have the life that I have Okay, but there are times where when I'm watching all these games There's all these stoppages and they add a challenge and you know they have the time out before the three minutes that everybody's figured out all this stuff like the dramatic back-and-forth moment and it's happened in football too where it's like is that the game-winning touchdown oh my god it's the game-winning touchdown

wait let me wait for a review and now I'm excited but there's no way the excitement after the delay of what you think of happening you've seen the replay and getting confirmation there's no way that excitement ever match what we used to have in that moment where you were like, this is like, oh my God, it happened. And basketball, as much as I love the NCAA tournament, like there can be a score and scenario where you get maybe that possession, possession, possession moment, but it feels like it never happens anymore in basketball. And I think that's a problem, except they just are going to tell the TV partners

like yeah we'll figure out a way to get another stoppage in there. You know college football like we can't call it the two minute warning but we'll call it the two minute timeout because you know we're our own thing. It's like no we'll just call it the extra stop because ESPN just renewed the package. Yeah I actually think they should ban following up three. I'm up for any of the the Elam ending thing in relation to Matt. I thought like at first like a lot of people like oh whoa that'll change everything. Okay. Yeah. Like I would love to have those dramatic back and forth moments. Like I think baseball may actually provide the best drama tension because you can't disrupt it. Right. The way you disrupt these game winning football

plays and all the basketball stuff So when I say like I can't tell if I'm the best of the words like I can be on game seven And I'll know like here we get another stop you do all this stuff and like I start dicking around I'm looking at my phone. Maybe I'm like looking up something like what is Deandre Hunter shooting? You know like I'm sitting there And then I look up and like four plays have happened because I'd already kind of like remove myself paying attention to the game. So I'm like, if I'm doing that, what the hell is somebody doing

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That's E-R-O-X-O-N dot U-S to learn more. Now here's more Ron Rosillo. What seems in the worst spot right now? I think Charlotte's actually in a pretty bad spot, even though they've done a good job of, cause they've gotta make a LaMelo decision. Yeah. You know, I mean, I looked it up the other day,

his shots per 100 is the highest we've seen since Kobe Bryant since 2006. Well, LaMelo's just the same player as Kobe. Yeah, it was like he's the number one fan voting. Like if I were to ever get in an argument with somebody who's a Hornets fan, I'd be like, do your parents know you have the phone? So Hornets are in a bad spot. Bulls are in a terrible spot.

Well, I think the Hornets in like a a weird Atlanta Hawk spot where it's like we have this attraction and we have something we can put on billboards and we have something that makes the fans excited and sells jerseys and everything. But like is this really going to be a guy? Can you explain to me why we're still doing All Star Weekend and why that's a big thing? Yeah I think it's a huge corporate thing. What happens at All Star Weekend? What kind of conversations do you have? I don't it's a huge corporate thing. Yeah, what happens at all star weekend? What kind of conversation I don't go anymore. Um, you're not going this year. Where is it this year? It's San Francisco. I think yeah

Well with the no game week thing. I did the live show in Utah two years ago, and then I went why am I working? There's no games, right? I'm gonna take I'm gonna take some this time off. So I went to I went to Aspen last year it's pretty nice yeah I've heard very nice rich yeah a lot of rich people PFT how's the powder ah is that a cocaine joke it was it was trying to fuck with me but also ski I'm just really excited that Josh I'm on the MVP Before they announce use Platter feels small again I Don't know man. I We're not even on it. Well, it's kind of like a mini Super Bowl week

Yeah, honestly, they try to market it like a mini Super Bowl Yeah, but every year is the same thing where it's like, oh, yeah shit the weird skills competitions on and the dunk contest That's gonna suck is here. I do love though when people complain about the all-star game sucking now. It's like, okay You were that invested. It's unwatchable. I don't watch it. I mean, I can't even tell you the last time I watched it I'll start game. I don't watch it. I think it's for kids. I think it's for kids. I think it's for corporate sponsorships. I think it's like whatever we deal with every night of like your options in New Orleans or Super Bowl week. It's like I can go to this party. I can go to this dinner and like there's plenty of shit I can't even get into. But like if you go to the hotel lobby at the Four

Seasons, you're like cool I'm gonna see like 20 people I don't get to see unless I come to this every single year. So to me, it's a mini version of that for NBA people. Complaining about the game, it's just not fixable. It's not fixable, because these guys do not give a shit. There has always been something about basketball that's bothered me, is that if you're good, it's like lame to try at times. Like the guy who's really good in a pickup game that almost thinks it's insulting to try against you,

and you're like, this is way more insulting than you killing us. You're really good. And now you're pretending you don't care. Just in case somebody were to cross you up or somebody were to stick a three in your face. Like this is your never look uncool moment. That's why none of the guys do the dunk contest.

That's why some of the guys don't do the three point thing. I think a shot at Mark Titus. Oh, why? We're talking about Mark. No, I just kidding. No he actually does try when we pick up he just kills all of us. I could see him being a not try guy. No he tries, no what he does is he reminds you? No he gets into the game and he's a not try guy and then as soon as the game starts he's like wait I'm trying and I'm gonna win and then he wins.

He's good. I can't imagine how good he is. I mean, if you're good enough to walk on, or was it an offer? I think he was a walk on, but he can hit every time there's an open three. He's big too, I just saw him in the hallway. Did you know he got drafted by the Globetrotters? I didn't know that.

Dead serious. Look at the Harlem Globetrotters Wikipedia page. Feels like a D.I hire though. No does yeah Definitely it does and but I think he thought They would do these draft picks every year as like a promo thing like press release Look who we drafted and mark had like a YouTube channel at the time So they just wanted to include his name be like hey, we drafted mark Titus. You've seen him on YouTube He's funny and then tightest like yeah, okay. Yeah, I'll show up and play and they're like, oh, oh

You're taking seriously and does it like fuck? Yeah, I got drafted by the globe trotters. I'm gonna play Globetrotters. Yeah, it's gonna work out First white American to be drafted by the Harlem globe trotters ever Wow God, you're all over these I just made that one. Oh, yeah, that one was invented, but it's probably also true. Those are the best stats when you just make something up and you're right. Have you ever gotten lucky with a take? Like you say something and then later on you're like,

fuck, that was a stupid thing to say and then it comes true later. No. That's a pretty good feeling. All your takes are right. And we said Josh Allen's gonna be the A-V-G. Yeah. You do have a high rate of eventually. you have a very high rate of just wait

Yeah, I have to be right there at the gates and it's like no way you're gonna be right No way, you're gonna be right like the trade and bead thing I got killed for yeah, you're right I haven't I haven't brought this up yet because it's Super Bowl week. Thanks for not bringing it up first time We won't bring it up. But what but you were right what the fuck do they do? sulk That's it. I mean in beat is like he doesn't what was the stat though? You said something it was he If you look at the course of their careers Tom Brady has a better chance of making it to the Super Bowl in any given year

Than Joel and B does of playing a game on game night in any given year than Joel Embiid does of playing a game on game night. Yeah, right, that's what it was. Percentage of games that he's actually played, percentage of Super Bowls that Brady played in during his career. It's fucking crazy. It's not.

Yeah, there was that other set that was like, it was side by side, it was like, Joel Embiid, 450 games played, 415. Yeah, no, it was his first, it was his 400th game that he missed. Oh, yeah, yeah. So they put the graphic up. Like when he got to 400, dudes were making a his first it was his 400th game that he missed. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so they put the graph Yeah, like when he gets a 400 dudes were making a graphic like it was a accomplishment

Yeah, I've always been kind of like protective of Him and I was out once he started fallabating the Olympics. I was like, are you fucking serious, dude? Like I got mad I was mad at home by myself because I didn't nobody wanted to come over and watch me watch the Olympics during the day Like hey, you said some of them are maybe getting a drink one time. Do you want to watch them play Serbia? It's a good game.

I got so frustrated. And look, I think Embiid played for Team USA because he gets a gold medal, adds to the legacy, because it's probably not that likely that he's winning a title at any point. There's arguments that I would hear about Harden's meltdowns, Simmons having an absolute meltdown in that Atlanta series, just being shot and thinking like, who has Embiid been able to rely on? But, you know, whether it's like there was a situation this week, like not this week, this season, we're going through all the hell stuff.

And by the way, when he had been playing during that stretch, he didn't look right. Okay, even though he's putting up numbers, he doesn't look right. He doesn't move unless he has the basketball. So you hope he's hurt and he was hurt because that's why he shut it down again. The newest news about his knee and then I just like, why were you guys in a hurry to even do this extension with him on top of everything else? You already owe him. But when he basically like sat out the Cleveland game and then played in the Charlotte game, I'm like, dude, I can't, I can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore with you.

And maybe he's done for the city. Yeah, I do feel like we're getting closer to the sit down with whoever it is at ESPN. It's like a countdown. Maybe it's Malika or something, and it's MB sitting there in the stool, and it was like, when did you know it was over for you in Philadelphia? And then it's like black and white footage of like him yelling at the RAF, or him yelling at a reporter,

or the quote saying like, I've done so much for the city. If you were to say this story, like which course it's on, I don't know that redemption feels like the one that's more likely to land on. I love those interviews too, because they always sit so close together and then they zoom out and they're just in an empty room. Yeah.

Why are you guys knee to knee? That's a Jeff Darlington special. I was talking to Darlington last night. He's like, remember when you guys talked about my interview with Antonio Brown and said I was dick to dick with him? He was. Yeah, you were. It was in an enormous room and they were just dick to dick. Yeah, just like right next to each other It was we close to the big we notice

Yeah, no, I know you're on dick to dick with the guy Here and think about like yeah have you Dick to dick There's some pledging shit not Max you have any comments about Ryan's comments regarding Joellen bead I Don't know. That's my that's my take. That's our take your take should be birds right now. Yeah, you're birds Take sure birds, but you yeah, I mean it's it's a it feels like a dumpster fire If you had to guess how do you think this extra season ends this year bad? I?

Mean I it's not gonna be good. What do you mean you like they're gonna beat somebody in the plan? Yeah, I mean that's not if they're all healthy and they're all ready to go honestly like even with all the embed stuff cuz he's the guy He's supposed to be the franchise guy There's a bit of me too. that's just so sick of all the Embiid propaganda people over the years where it's like, you guys are being such dicks about the Jokic thing when Embiid was never better than him. He deserved to win the MVP, I'm fine with it. I never thought Embiid was the better basketball player.

If you voted for Jokic that year for MVP, I couldn't necessarily tell you you were wrong. Sometimes I still think about did Embiid prioritize the MVP and that's why you felt like you went in that direction and Jokic kind of not giving a shit the last few weeks of the season. Was that the deciding factor? I don't know, that wasn't an easy vote.

A lot of the years for me, I haven't had a vote that long. It hasn't been something where I'm like, yep, perfect score, totally right. Zero arguments against any of this stuff. But that wasn't even Joel's fault as much as it was the people around him pushing this thing where it wasn't like just's fault as much as it was the people around him pushing this thing where it wasn't like just sticking up for your guy,

it was shitting on Jokic so much. And that really, really bothered me because I can't understand how anybody could spend their life in basketball and watch these two dudes play and think that it's the same thing. And I also think the MB foul hunting stuff that Darrell loves because he loved it with Harden

and all these guys, oh, look at your true shooting, look at your efficiency, like look at all this stuff, look at your points per 100 and all this, it's crazy. He doesn't play basketball naturally anymore. He's always thinking about like, how can he get the contact, how can he fall? Like there's a very choppy way that he goes about it, but then it's like, oh, he had 34 and 12 again,

he must be fucking awesome. And I think that stuff is easier to pull off in the regular season. I think there are times, even though he had that 50 against the Knicks, there were times he was not comfortable with the basketball late, he still stinks when like a double comes to him. So yeah, I'm just, I'm over it.

And even with all that said, Paul George is Tobias Harris with better branding. Whoa. Yeah, I mean, they're all back tonight, first time back in forever. Let's go. Hell yes. But like Paul George, I know he had a better January,

but he needs to be a dude while Embiid is out through all of this. And instead he's totally comfortable getting his ISO 17 footer up because he's so talented and it's great and like all the shit that he can do but like there's there's no like consistent flow he just like where's the aggressiveness like it's you're being tasked with get them through this really tough stretch and he wanted nothing to do with it from what I saw yeah well he played he was hurt. It was Maxey the whole time.

Yeah, and then Maxey took like 25 shots a game. And I don't think his numbers are a true reflection of like, I don't think he's a declining player, obviously. He was just going for it. You know? It was the only way to score. They needed him. And Yabu.

They should have been selling at the deadline. Whatever, I'll stop talking. But they're going to lose in the play-in. Losing the play-in. Which is, I'm with you too. That's another take that you have, the more playoffs. I hate the play-in. I think it's stupid.

Because it just gives more franchises a chance and the Bulls are specifically that. Are you talking Hoosiers football right now? What? Hoosiers football. I mean, they, yeah, all right, all right. They competed against Notre Dame. They did, they were, they were a lot of spiked 10. I did see the final score. I've never seen a final score more, all right. They did. They were the

I did see the final score. I've never seen a final score more to be honest with you. Yeah. Yeah, you have. I'm sure people made you aware of that final score a lot, but the playing most impressive final score on the losing side in the history of fucking sports. It was a great, great, great final score. The way that Sig got that game to be engineered as a 10 point loss is very impressive. Did you see when he posted his own AP voting results where he had Indiana slash Penn State for Penn State slash Indiana five? That's cool.

You haven't seen that? I haven't seen that. Jesus. I gave Sig one year where I'm like, I'm glad that he got a power five job. Like that's cool. If we're going to be a step. That's your guy. If we're going to be a stepping stone, want to be yeah the best stepping stone right so like

rating I want him to go to Indiana put Indiana in a great place that would be awesome for JMU I think I gave him one year and then he continues to raid the JMU players no I have to wash my hands of them but the plans bullshit the plan But the play-ins bullshit. The play-in is Not something I'm in favor of but I think back to kind of the ratings discussion like March Madness right now is One of the best products in all sports, right? We agree it translates over to the person that would never care about this and Even though the regular season of college basketball has I don't even know what the declining numbers are there but I mean it's just true like I don't watch a ton of it anymore when I do dabble I can't believe how bad the product is there's no continuity

whatsoever I love that about it that's great that's great but it's there there are nights where you're like oh yeah they're gonna score it's bad basketball what is going on here I I don't really know you know you can't team build for a lot of the programs right at least a lot of the ones on TV with the higher profile players and you know I like the one-and-done stuff because I just think it's the right thing to do I think not having to go to college at all would be the right thing to do I just think it's wrong to tell people like you can't just go pursue this because I Don't know

Whatever that's a whole different discussion But college hoops when I've watched it over the years, even though I liked it more than the NBA when I was younger, it's a tough watch, but at least they have this moment. And what you're seeing with what Silver is doing is the play-in was we have this moment, the in-season tournament, which is now the Emirates Cup. That's a moment.

And it actually wasn't very disruptive. And some of those games this year were terrific. So I think what your goal is, like baseball's goal is, OK, make fun of how long our season is. We don't give a shit. We're selling 162 game inventory six months of the year, and it rates really, really high in local markets and all the local market stuff.

Like, this is a product they can put on and pull a better number than reruns of fucking Wheel of Fortune. Maybe. I don't know, the fortune's pretty popular. But with college basketball, they have their moment. I think the baseball playoffs are incredible, but that might just be their moment. You're never going to be able to compete with what the NFL is, but because soccer, I think silver is so influenced by a lot of the international soccer stuff, I think that they want to have these moments that they can sell and package in a different way, like as extra inventory. So I don't like the play-in. There's going to be teams that have no business.

Be like, you just had this season you had, and now you get another chance of potentially getting the playoff. Like in the times that Steph's been eliminated, you're like, cool. Yeah, great. And the owners can just sell it like, Oh yeah, we we made the plan. And like, Yeah, that's bullshit. That's like when they talk about expanding the tournament. You just go now, you don't need to do it. But then the coaches argue for it. It's like, do you guys want to argue for it? So you can say like, Oh, you know, like the bowl made the

tournament four years in a row, given my extension bowl eligible the last five years, you're like, dude, yeah, by the way, what Johnny's are good. Johnny's are really good. Their defense is legit. I was looking at some numbers the other day and their profile is like, you know, you can do, I think it's on Kem Pom,

you can basically do, or it might be Bart Torvik, you can do like, what do they most look like in terms of tournament teams? And it was like an elite eight or final 14. Johnny's are good. People knocked the schedule. Maybe you can help me out with Patino a little bit because family goes way back on the father's side

of the Providence ties. And when Rick was the head coach of that Providence fires team, this is a little early for you guys, Pop Lewis, Billy Donovan. I had a t-shirt that said Rick Pitino for president. I think I was like nine. That age well.

Yeah, he was gone, went to the Knicks, family despised him. Yeah. And then he left the Knicks, right? Kentucky worked out, worked out pretty well, went to Boston, family despised him, even more after that. And then Louisville, And then. Louisville.

You know Louisville, then everything else that goes with it, a lot of stops. I know you guys have some history with it too. But I would be tempted because I'm excited potentially about like the St. John's, right? Cause the guy can coach, I mean he's unbelievable. But I did the Celtics documentary for Bill and HBO and I came in and did the Patino years,

and I wasn't nice. So I feel guilty about being in the documentary and then being offered Patino and being like, let's talk St. John's, oh, but by the way, I wasn't sweet about your Celtics run that's going to be in the documentary. So me and Big Cat had a similar situation. I think it was nastier than what I would.

Yeah, we said some things about his penis over the years. Yeah, I never talked about his penis in the doc. Yeah, so we heavily did. That was most of our Patino content, actually, was the whole ejaculatory system. Are you guys even gonna do this again right now, or do you feel like you've been forked through it? I'm just saying, we had him on,

and we basically said, we've said bad stuff about you. We buried the hatchet. Yeah. You guys are good at that. You have to tell him to their face. And then Rick gets it. He'll laugh a little bit. He might still hate you a little bit, but he'll laugh about it. You just got to be like, I was addicted to you about the Celtics documentary.

But at least I didn't talk about your balls. Yeah. You'd be like, those PMT guys, they really suck. Maybe I start with that. Yeah, you should. He'd probably be like, yeah, you're right. No, but they're good though They're they're good. They're gonna be a force in the in the tournament I told somebody that at the party last night. They said who do you like in college basketball?

I said I like what rick patino's got going on and they just laughed at me and walked away and I was like I'm actually I think I'm right. No, you are. Yeah, which party? Uh caa party Yeah, who would who would laugh at that response? I don't understand. How could you be that offended by it or entertained by the absurdity of... It is very weird. My guess is that he thought I was making a Patino joke. Why would he think that? Because of my history with Patino. Now I'm talking to him. Why would he ever say that? He probably laughed and it wasn't laughing at me. He was probably like, oh, that's so funny classic PFT Ha ha like it's not even a joke, but he's like, oh PFT song about patina again, but I was serious. Yeah

Yeah, I think we got to the bottom of that who is your favorite player that people wouldn't think of like not, you know a yolk itch Wemby to watch night tonight Put us on to someone Put us on to someone you Put us on to someone. You know who I really like is Aaron Wiggins, Oklahoma City. Okay. No, he's not a superstar, not even close, but does his job and there'll be stretches

with the Thunder where I'm like, God, I think I really like Aaron Wiggins, not Andrew. He was traded. Yep, okay. Speaking of trades and where Wiggins, not Andrew. He was traded. Yep. Okay. Aaron Wiggins. Speaking of trades and where Wiggins is now, is that now where the rookie from Miami, from Indiana, he's been terrific since he's been a regular part of the rotation. I've been really excited about Scoots resurgence. Okay. Tough first year for my guy.

Was very invested, had some takes that were watered regularly, not showing a lot of life. That's a great way to put it. It's still making some limitations on the rim finishing and not being like, you know, he's like, oh, he's not Derrick Rose. You're like, well, this is the reason why we were so enthralled with Derrick Rose, he's not Derrick Rose. You're like, well, this is the reason why we were so enthralled with Derrick Rose

because he was Derrick Rose. But Scoot's been really good. Scoot's put together like a nice five, six weeks here. What else are you looking for? Are you looking for like Isaiah Stewart who I think would fight people? I appreciate that. I love what C Kate has done this year

I actually think the Wizards with Kula Bali and bub and even George a little bit I guess you could throw a star in there a little as the number two pick like they stink but they play Really hard. There's like a few guys in that Wizards team. I love yeah So I wouldn't I don't know that you know, somebody's like hey, what do you want to do tonight? I'm gonna stay in because we're solicit the Wizards team. I love Bob. Yeah. So I wouldn't I don't know that, you know, somebody's like, Hey, what do you want to do tonight? I'm gonna stay in because we're solicit the Wizards play a lot of activity. So so let's do that. Been really happy with

Mowgli, but I don't know if he'll hit like some of the scene like Simmons was so crazy about what Mowgli could do when he started comparing to Duncan or KG, then you kind of like, well, I like them, but I don't like him that much. And then you make, makes it feel like you're dissing a guy that you actually like. Like the strokes. Like you like the strokes big cap,

but like the way PFT talks about the strokes, you're like, Jesus Christ, it wasn't that, like the run wasn't that long. Whenever I say that, I'm actually making a Patino joke. There it is. So you're never having him back on. No we will. Yeah we will. That would be kind of nasty. What? That would be kind of nasty. You guys could LSU me. Oh yeah. Oh yeah we'll let you have Mon first bash us and then we'll come on and be like yeah that

Russo guy is losing his brain. I don't know what he said. I did go to the museum by myself so I don't know that you'd be totally wrong on that. Who would be most likely in the media to have joined me if I had said, hey, do you want to go to the World War II museum? Probably me. Yeah, or I'd probably be the second or third option. No, I would never ask you to go to that,

because you wouldn't do it. I would. And it wouldn't be cool enough for you. I'm doing such cool stuff. I've been going to, I watched Weekforce in Stanford till 1230 at night on Wednesday, and then was like, I'm so tired. Why am I so tired? Oh yeah, you watched Week Force in Stanford till 1230 at night on Wednesday and then was like, I'm so tired, why am I so tired? Oh yeah, you watched Week Force in Stanford.

I'm the coolest. Did you win? I did win the over. I did not win Stanford. I bet last night, live odds. What? I was watching Celtics Mavs before I had dinner last night and Celtics was getting destroyed.

And normally I would be like, okay,, they're not gonna get killed like this bad Let me look at the live odds. I feel like Hank has made like millions doing that Yeah, just betting the Celtics when they're down. Is he sleeping back there? Even know he was in the room It's like every other God is sleeping in the back of the room. No, that's his voice when you wake him up. For sure.

But yeah, Hank, every other night he's like, Celtics are down, just put a nuke on them. It just wins every time. It wouldn't work last night because it was like plus six and a half, minus six and a half when I looked at it and I thought the number was too small even though they were down 20. So I was watching it and I waited and I waited

and I go, this might be just a mail it in night from these guys and I ended up laying it on the MAVs and they got up 27 and then won by seven. Celtics won on a 14-0 run. So you covered. I covered but from the point of like, I'm so smart to a 14-0 run where you're like, I'm so smart. Yeah, right. To a 14-0 run where you're like,

there's still four minutes in and all the backups are playing their ass off right now and Dallas has already shut it off mentally. I'm with Hank on that. Like I think if you watch enough, I would look for live odds on the better team that's down. They're going to make the run. Like let me see if they were minus seven before tonight.

Now I'm getting them at plus three. Like I think I just have to do that with a certain amount of time left in the game But I actually hedged myself last night. It just felt good to be back in it Yeah, it's what a 20-point lead in the NBA feels like nothing sometimes. Yeah, I went to 27 Yeah, I would text the guys whenever the Wizards would be up by double digits like hey wizard up by by 14 points Hammer the money line. It usually hit like 90% of the time on the other team on the other team Yeah I wrote down a list of topics and it's just one topic that I think I would like to just hear your opinion on Nothing to do with basketball, but I just want to let you cook on this

What are your thoughts on crypto? Oh Okay, I have no investments in crypto. I've thought about it a little bit more recently, but I think everybody does are like Oh, it's at a hundred now. It's at a hundred and six now I feel like a fucking loser I had to get my brains beaten in a bunch of different times of trades for me to then become numb to the ups and Downs or that stupid math that you do when you invest or like if I had only done this And then I had this many shares like I used to do all that shit when I was younger I've had some bad losses, I've had some nice wins.

My wins have been bigger, like my takes. Yeah. My wins, you may not see how the path, you get there and you're like, how the fuck's that gonna work out? But there's some losses I wish I could have back that ruined me emotionally for long stretches. But also when you're by yourself and you day trade

and you have a fucking horrible, horrible stretch, there's no one to tell you how insane you're being. So you just accept your own demise. It's like Nico. Exactly, it's just like Nico. He didn't have anybody to tell him. He didn't have anybody to tell me. Like I remember I was on vacation once in Hawaii

with a date and I checked the pre-market to like three in the morning because I was so locked into it. And I think I was down like half a million dollars because of just like this news. And I ran out onto the balcony and screamed, motherfucker, motherfucker, motherfucker, like 100 times.

And she came running out. She was like, did your father die? And I was like, no, it's worse. She's like, are you seriously setting your alarm to check the pre-market? So I was pretty into it there for a little while. Anyway, crypto, tried to read everything I could, didn't understand in the beginning like everybody else.

Now I fully understand it. The problem was throughout the entire time, the people I trust the absolute least were all the biggest people that were about crypto. So I missed the window or maybe the window still continues. I think the premise of it, its utility, all of those things make a ton of fucking sense. So I believe in it,

except it has always scared the shit out of me. Okay. I think that's a very, very good take. Yeah. Good job, Rod. How about you guys? I don't understand. What you just said.

That's as much research as I've done right there. Bought a Bitcoin in 2016 don't know how to access it I I bought Doge as a pretty good turn though back in like 2020 or 2021 and then it went up like 7,000% but I only spent like 50 bucks on Doge. Yeah, I was just like look I got 50 bucks with a Doge that turned into like a four grand, which is pretty cool Then it went down to like two grand That's all I know about crypto. I like real estate better

Some of you put your hands on I think it's more fun now other people make new land Sopranos it's free real estate. I just even though people on the other side like love touching a button and then it's done Yeah, now I have it all whatever it says on the screen, I push a button, and then I have it. I totally understand people are like, that's the only way I would want to do business. But I like real estate, because I think it's a little bit, if I were to read all the materials and stocks and stuff and all the different options, I could read it all.

I know that my full grasp of the understanding, like okay, so you now think like, I'm just doing my own research, I don't need any help Schwab. I don't know that I've ever felt truly comfortable going, oh I've read about all this thing, this technology makes sense. A lot of it feels like the wins can be common sense,

but it's always common sense after the fact. At least with different markets and real estate, I can go, this is a desirable place. I know what this house is. I know because I've looked at this town so many different times, or I know people that live here or whatever. So I just think that's an easier understanding,

even if it's certainly not any kind of guarantee. I can't believe we're on this right now. Great job. Do you have another one? No, that was the only topic, yeah. Okay, the only topic I wanna hear. Are you guys doing Life Advice without announcing it? I also had World War two, but we covered that

Yep, thanks for the Napoleon book. I haven't read a single page in the last what you a year and a half ago You sent it love is a distraction of the warrior, but I'm I'm taking it on vacation It's a nice light vacation read the biography of Napoleon. Yeah any of those books that are that massive like the Chernow stuff. Yeah Yeah, any of those books that are that massive like the churn out stuff. Yeah The first 200 is where you fucking that's the wax on wax off There will be several parts in the first I'd say 50 pages where I I will be strongly tempted to throw the book away Look, I love churn out as much as any sports podcaster probably in the country I. I put myself, I'm a one seat of Ron Chernow fans, okay? And I know when I dig in, I'm like,

I've already read them all, I think War Bug's the only one I ever read. I'm like these first 100, 180, be tough sledding. Washington gets off to a burning start. But he, but you know, like me, these these long winded stories and answers. I'm like, I have to give you the prologue before I can give you the answer. I'll get better one day. I hope. But no, you won't. I can't I don't want you to change. Yeah, this is the best. I

can't the prologue is the best part. I need to know what George was like as a rascalion. You know, I need to know, like what and I think Chernow is the storyteller in the same case with Andrew Roberts and Napoleon. You've got to learn that Napoleon was an awkward small dude, failed writer, maybe smelled, chicks didn't like him. No wonder he fucking ran a country and the world for a little bit there. Like what's more motivating than never having chicks like you? Yeah, that's it. He was the first in cell. He was. He's just tweeting away. B minus tweet C plus stuff. Apparently his writing like sucked. Really?

Yeah. All right. Well, I'm going to read. All right, rollback question, last question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code, take 20% off your first purchase, Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rollback.com promo code, take. I know it's February, give us your finals and your winner. Thunder over Boston. In six, seven?

It would be seven, Thunder, get it at home. Okay, okay. This is gonna be fun. Hank, what are your thoughts on that? I can see it happen. I can see it happening. Are you leaving tonight? No, tomorrow morning.

Oh, you're out tonight? No, yeah, I have to stay tonight for dinner, but then I'm free. It's tonight, the night? Yeah. Neil Young? Yeah, tonight's the night? Yeah. Neil Young? Yeah, tonight's the night. Let's go.

Tonight, tonight. Yeah, I put two flights on Saturday, one a little way too early and then one. How early is the early one? I think it's like 8 a.m. You could do it if you wanted to. 10 a.m. Yeah, but I also, I also not going home to sleep

and like just be like oh yeah, now I'm gonna come home and nap all day. I can't imagine how hard you nap when you have kids. It's gotta be the best. You know what the- It's gotta be unbelievable. Yeah, and like you turn your brain off. The best thing that I just had this ability

that came up from having kids is I can crush like a nine minute nap, like you'd never believe. And it's just, and then I usually wake up and I'm like, yeah Hank, I usually wake up and I'm like yeah Hank I usually wake up and I'm like oh shit I was supposed to be watching my kids do you ever wake up and go he might be be honest it doesn't mean you don't love your wife or your family but do you ever have a moment you're're like, I don't want to go back? Uh. Uh.

No, honestly, it's like 24 hours after being away, I'm always like, I want to go back. First 24 hours, if you hit me in the first 24 hours, I'd be like, yeah, this is pretty sweet. And then after 24 hours, I'm like, get me back. That's how it always goes. Whenever we do these trips or go somewhere, like if you, Monday night we went out to dinner,

all of us, it's awesome. It's like, I don't want to ever go back. By Tuesday afternoon, I was like, get me the fuck out of here. This place can do it to you, but I think you guys have been here so many times, and I know we're wrapping up here, but I- We love Louisiana, everything about it.

Yeah. The colleges. And I love that you guys like, I was like, those guys really like it it I'll check it out But once you get like south of poydras All you have to do is like walk five minutes. Yeah south of the canal and you go Oh, this is why like these people that are like successful Yeah, you know big cats known all these cats for a long time

And he's like I got to introduce you to Rosillo and you see all these guys He's graves meet my friend Ryan. I know I mean that was huge for me because I love chicken so much But what I think is just so funny is like you'll meet all these people and then people think that New Orleans is only Canal Street and like urban yeah, and they go dude that place sucks. You're like, you know, there's other streets No, there's other street bars and spots. streets. There's so many cool bars and spots. It's awesome. I'm gonna work my way south. Okay.

All right. Which is uptown, ironically. I'm in. Yeah, I'm staying. All right, we'll see each other tonight. All right. Ryan Risillo, go subscribe to Ryan Risillo podcast. He's the best.

Gotta have new subs. Here we go, Hank. Live studio audience with Hank. Before we get to the lottery ball, brought to you by our great friends at Planet Fitness, everybody can get strong at Planet Fitness. They've got a high value membership that supports any fitness journey as low as 15 bucks a month. Planet Fitness has over 2,700 club locations. Most clubs are open 24 hours. It's a judgment free environment.

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Smith machine. I was on the stair climber earlier today. Treadmill, the core elevate thing. I like doing the upright rows with the barbells. Good workout, always, you feel sore the next day in a great way. We're all strong on this planet. Join today in club online or in the free PF app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club.

Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll or you can be 13 to 17 with parent or guardian. Numbers 1, 5, 61, 11, 3. Let me get it right now. What if you hit it right now have you ever gotten this I guess it one time no you have never fuck you oh hey I'm hitting a hole in one this weekend whoa jelly that's a great thing. Congrats, man. Hank! Good job, Hank.

You got it. How many times you got this? If I could give this to you, I would. Because I already have. I've already got it. Yeah, so generous. You cannot. You can't.

But if I could, I would, Memes. I want you to win. How many times you gotten this, Hank? I don't even know. Probably four, three or four. And Memes, you've never? I kissed it right one time. And Hank was the little guy who never had gotten it now

So easy it took so long Frank to get it. Oh He didn't even stand up. That's so easy. No, it's like I want that. I want memes to feel it It's just so easy. The thing about Hank is he expects excellence. He says wake me up at the end of the show. Yeah That's where it really starts All right. See everyone on Wednesday. Love you guys. So So So So So So Music