The Bill Simmons Podcast - 2019 Zion vs. 2007 KD, Aaron Judge for MVP, the 2019 Masters, and Trump vs. Biden With Joe House and JackO | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: March 27, 2019

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to talk Bryce Harper, the 2019 Masters, golf story lines, the NBA, and more (6:25). Then Bill calls up JackO to talk MLB, early MVP bets, March Madness, James Dolan, 2020 presidential odds, and more (53:55). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast on the rigor podcast network brought to you as always by ZipRecruiter, the best team start with great talent. I include the BS podcast in this. Two of our most talented people, House and Jacko, my longtime friends. Two of my favorite people on the planet to talk on a podcast with because I would do it anyway. You know, that's how we came together. Holy Cross, Wheeler 2, 1988. Yeah, we were doing podcasts back then. We didn't even realize it.

Well, no one knows the importance of talent more than ZipRecruiter. They deliver qualified candidates fast. So effective, 80% of employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through the site in just one day. My listeners can try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. It's the smartest way to hire. Meanwhile, State Farm. Unlike your friends, State Farm agents love talking about home and auto insurance. In fact, there are 19,000

agents ready to help your life go right through the ups, downs, and everything in between. Check out StateFarm.com today to find an agent in your neighborhood. State Farm, here to help life go right. We're also brought to you by theringer.com, the world's greatest website, where it's just a classic ringer today. Andrew Gurdar wrote about cruel intentions, how it became an instant classic.

Kevin O'Connor wrote about Kemba Walker. We have our daily Game of Thrones coverage, getting everybody ready for Game of Thrones when it comes back next month, which Mallory and Jason are counting down the 25 greatest moments, which we're putting on our Twitter and our YouTube channels.

We're running pieces every day. We're ready. Robert Mays wrote about the Kyler Murray decision, which is just fascinating how they're going to dump Josh Rosen. What would you take for Josh Rosen, Kyle? Draft picks? We have a million draft picks. Second rounder? Yeah. We have a second rounder for Josh Rosen. Yeah. Get that

done, Belichick. Chris Ryan wrote about The Insider, one of our favorite 1990 movies, 1999 movies. It is actually 1990 movie week on The Ringer. College basketball, all that. And we got everything going right now.

Check it out. Check out, uh, all of our great podcasts as well against all odds with cousin South sweet 16 picks the rewatchables. We did pretty woman this week. Um, fantastic. One of my favorite ones that we've done.

And we also have all of our MLB previous stuff and the guys in the ring are MLB preview show. We have two of the OGs, House of Jacko, coming up talking college basketball, baseball, Masters, my golf comeback. It's all happening right now. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, we're going to call House in one second. Quickly on Pearl Jam. Their Twitter account today

asked the question, name a Pearl Jam show you wish you saw live. And that got me thinking about I saw them in 1998 at Great Woods in September with my girlfriend who I'd only been dating for a couple months, Kyle. How'd that go? My girlfriend of like 10 weeks who ended up becoming my wife. Wow.

You're on. So it went well. Took her to this Great Woods concert. I think we went with two other people and it was it was right around I personally think 1998 was the best year to see Pearl Jam because they had they had a library of

five or six years of songs at that point they were at the peak of their powers it was just like you knew the songs by heart at that point so anyway during that concert somebody threw something at Eddie or something songs by heart at that point. So anyway, during that concert, somebody threw something at Eddie or something happened and Eddie got really

pissed and threatened to end the show. I don't remember the full details because I might have had some foreign substances in my body at the time, but Eddie got mad and he was going to leave, but then that anger came into the rest of the show.

And, and it was just incredible. It was like one of the greatest concerts of my life. So I picked that 1998 one. And then I went and looked at the set list and the encore was amazing. But then I actually was like, I got to Google this. And I Googled it. I found some article that it's considered to be one of their greatest concerts,

like in the best five to 10 concerts they ever gave. So just randomly, I was there that night. I was very proud of myself. But then that got me thinking, what are the best times to see a band? So I think we might do a podcast. I was texting with Kevin Clark and Robert Mays about this. We might do this on the podcast.

I think it changes for each band, because sometimes you want to catch them young. I think U2 was like that, where if you saw U2, the Under the Red Blood Sky concert, which is on YouTube, which was one of the first MTV concerts ever. But when you saw that, just the energy and the youthfulness

and just they still had a little anger. I probably would have picked them for that. Some other people would have gone later. Sometimes you want to catch people super early, I think. I think Nirvana was like that before Kurt Cobain started to fall apart. But for the most part, you want to have a few years with the library.

So it's just 1998 to me is clearly the answer for Prodrip. And just randomly, I was at that concert. I'm really proud of myself, Kyle. Yeah, it all worked out for me because of that concert too. Yeah. I really think that was when I was like, maybe I should marry this person.

We could have some kids that will not listen to music and just watch YouTube all day. So we might, might do that as a, might do that as a pod. I'm just throwing that out there as a thought balloon. All right. We're going to call house. He's in Mexico. All right. On the phone line right now from an undisclosed tropical location, a colleague of James Beard Award nominee Danny Chow. Joe House, how are you? Viva la Mexico!

I'm spectacular. There is tequila running through my veins my hungry homie Danny Chow is getting proper recognition from the James Beard Foundation for his heavy food and travel lifting it's a beautiful day

in Mexico what could be better he's a nominee I didn't even understand what it meant when I saw it on Twitter and then it's like they picked three nominees and he got nominated for best writing in the travel category. And

I couldn't be prouder. He's like 26, 27 years old, something like that. What a job by him. I can't believe we know him. It's a BFD. And how about this? I tweeted at him already. I hope that it's a BFD. I can't believe we know him. It's a BFD. And how about this? I tweeted at him already. I hope that he'll still come on House of Carbs.

I mean. Oh, you think he's too big for it now? This James Beard. I'm worried about it. Believe me. Yeah, he might be. I mean, he might have a PR team. Who knows what's going to happen with him?

I love, as you do as well, anybody who really loves something and just throws themselves all into it, which we are fortunate to have a lot of people here at The Ringer who are wired that way. And he's one of them. He just loves food. And he loves food the way you love food. You love food more than I love food. He really loves food.

He'll go to these weird places in the extended LA area just to try stuff, which is something that has bonded you and I now for 30 plus years. What are you eating in Mexico? Don't get the shits. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is a super well-equipped facility. I'm down at Mayacoba in the Riviera Maya, which is about 45 minutes south of Acapulco. Oh no, Cancun.

Acapulco is on the other side of the country. You fly into Cancun, you come down south. And this is the site. I'm actually going to go play golf this afternoon at El Camaleon Golf Course, the site of Matt Kuchar stiffing his great local caddy here, El Toucan,

David Ortiz. Do you think that I already put in a request for David Ortiz to be on my bag today? You know that's right, and I have a gigantic wad of cash I'm going to give this man if we're able to hook up. Believe me. That's phenomenal. Great job. F you, Kuch! I love

your confidence with the Mexico food isn't going to go badly for you. This is always how it goes. You're going to be on the bowl the last day. Yeah, it's going to get you. The food is spectacular. The last three times I was in Mexico over the last 12 years or so, me, my wife, at least one of my kids, or all of us all got Montezumas.

So it just happens. I don't know what it is down there, but you just have the wrong little kiwi or something. Hey, house, this is really our time of the year right now. It is the best time of year. We have madness. We have

the NBA season wrapping up and dumb award arguments. We have the Masters looming now. I saw an ad for it recently. Got a little woozy. Got a little hop in my step. Yeah, the narratives are getting started.

Masters narratives are underway. Opening day, you get to hate the Nats. Like, this is really your time of year. I love the Nats. Eh. We got rid of Johnny hairdo. Johnny hairdo moved on to greater environs.

Best of luck on Broad Street with your fancy hair, Bryce Harper. Yeah, we didn't talk about that on the pod. Let's start there. I always get nervous when my team signs somebody for a lot of money and then their fans from the team that he was just on

get just delighted by the whole thing. And they think it's hilarious. And they have the attitude of, good luck with that guy. Because I remember most vividly J.D. Drew when that happened. When the Red Sox signed him

last decade. And I was excited. I was like, oh yeah, it's OPS. It's on base, homers. And then I think he was in the Dodgers at that point. And, uh, and all the, all their fans were like, ha ha ha.

Good luck with that dude. And, uh, and it was just a red flag. You are in that position now with Bryce Harper, correct? That yes. Uh,

from a pure, like what contribution is he going to make to the Phillies? Is he going to put the Phillies in the playoffs this coming year, which is the expectation that everybody in Philadelphia has. That's not a patient fan base. They say, oh, we signed a guy for $300 million. Let's take our time. We'll be in the playoffs two years from now. No, that's not how it works in Philly.

So from that perspective, it's best of luck because here's the thing. I could run down Bryce Harper and I will in a second. But if I'm being properly generous and properly thoughtful about it, we had the single biggest star in baseball in Washington for the past six years. Yeah, he is the only recognizable face in baseball. Like if you put 10 of baseball's top 10 players in a bar, the only one that most people would recognize is Bryce Harper. I disagree. I think Judge too. I think those two would be the ones.

Because Judge is so tall. You would recognize Judge for the height and everything. It's a great point. Great point. Yeah. Judge and Harper are really the face of baseball. And then Harper had a few holy shit moments was when he was with the Nationals. He hit a home run against the Giants. That was a meaningful home run. He won the home run derby.

I personally watched him hit three home runs in a day game. He had a lot of wow factor. He won the National League Rookie of the Year, the National League MVP as well. He brought the wow factor, but it was a team that never got over the hump in terms of the playoffs. We still haven't won a playoff series since the franchise moved to Washington. And fairly or not, he gets some of that, that blame. Um, even though baseball like hockey, super team sport, hard to say any one player is responsible or not responsible, but they didn't make the, they didn't win a playoff series and he was here and he was, you know, supposed to be one of the top three players in baseball. The concerning thing with him is batting average.

And more years than not, he's around a 250 hitter with great slugging. And, you know, the advanced analytics that you see out of folks like Joe Sheehan and our own Michael Bauman and so forth have him, you know, positive as like a top 30 kind of player. But salary-wise, he's now a top three kind of player. but salary-wise, he's now a top three kind of player. Best of luck with that. You didn't even mention the postseason stuff.

What do you mean? Just how bad it was. He's been in four series. You lost all four, as you pointed out, but he had 211, five homers, 89 at-bats, 47 slugging, 315. I don't have the post-season war, but I'm sure it's not great. But just never had one of those get on my back, everybody runs,

which I think I know baseball is a team sport, and I know it's hard to do, and I think it's particularly unfair with pitchers, and everybody chimes in. I don't know if you know, but the Red Sox have won four times this century so I have some experience with what it takes when you're watching a team get over the hump. Do you know that house?

I don't know what the Red Sox are. What are the Red Sox? I don't know what you're talking about. But at some point, the best guy in the team usually throws people on his back for whether it's a series, whether it's a five game stretch, whatever. That's why, that's why Ortiz, that's the number one reason he's going to get into the baseball

hall of fame. Um, Harper just never did it. Now that doesn't mean he's never going to do it, but we have four series now where he just didn't do it and they kind of needed it. You had it with Ovechkin, right? In the cup before he took him 12 years. Right, but you had it last year. You saw it firsthand.

The get on my back kind of syndrome, or whatever you would call it. He really did it. He really did. Ovi came through. And now? Is he still celebrating? How's that working out? Are they even making the playoffs? Oh, they're great.

Yeah, they're leading their division or second in their division. Oh, that's great. They're going nip and tuck. Yeah, they're, you know, it's lining up. They had a very competitive, physical, great playoff kind of game last week against Tampa. Tampa's the best team in the East. The Caps and Tampa are like the early, you know, at this stage of the game, the favorites to compete for the Eastern Conference. It's going to be great playoff

hockey. Fuck yes. All right. You got 98 points. You're looking good. I, as you know, I'm a casual regular season hockey fan, especially because I don't have Kings tickets and then the playoffs, I get into it. So regular season hockey, it's fun to watch as a diversion, but i'm not

all the way um you know bought in the same way as baseball i don't the only reason to watch regular season baseball for me is like to go to the games and sit outside and have a great time and take the kid and have some beers and stuff like regular season baseball i don't care yeah i still like the rhythm of and i i'm sure people are like this with hockey too because I know I'm like this with basketball but I like the rhythm of just following my own team with baseball day after day week after week

reading about it this guy's getting hot this guy's showing signs of life what do we have here with this starter I'm just I like having it on as I'm doing other things sure you know absolutely

even basketball when basketball's on I just want to watch the basketball it's hard for me to do a second thing I'll do it like I'll go through emails or do a research pod or whatever but I'm usually like concentrating

and flipping around with baseball it's just nice to have on. It's nice background. It's like a podcast. It's like this podcast. It's the way I feel with hockey, honestly. So you're not going to, you feel like Bryce Harper, Ewing theory potential for you? No, it's not even going to be Ewing theory. The, the, the Nats are loaded in the outfield. They hadoto was competitive for National League Rookie of the Year, and the kid from Atlanta just beat him out in the last month. And they have this guy coming up, Robles, from the minors,

who's been banging on the door. He hurt his leg 18 months ago. But he's going to come up. They have Adam Eaton. Hopefully, I'm knocking on wood, he can stay healthy. The Nats, they picked up this, this Patrick Corbin pitcher. This is, this could be the best,

the best Nats team of the past five years on paper. Yeah. But doesn't that, you still qualify for the Ewing theory. If you won the world series without Bryce Harper, I'm sorry. That's you. He's a classic Ewing theory guy.

The Ewing theory is okay. A media overhyped superstar who, when he leaves the team, people assume they're not going to be as good as they were the year before, but then they win the title. Like that's the definition of it. The only part of it is I'm not sure that anybody assumes the Nats are going to be worse than last year because they stunk last year. Yeah. I guess you, you have the third best odds in that. I still,

I'll talk to the Ewing theory committee, but I still want to pass it through. You have to talk to the Ewing Theory Committee, but I still want to pass it through. You have to talk to the committee. He seems just like a textbook dude. Let's talk Masters really quick. And then I want to talk about Zion and I want to talk about Giannis versus Harden. You're going to be covering this on Fairway Rowan, your golf podcast for The Ringer, a bunch.

But the Masters odds right now. Oh, I love it. I'm going to rattle off the first 10. Just let me do that and then you tell me what jumps out. Rory's 8-1. Dustin Johnson 10-1.

Tiger's 12-1, which is ludicrous. Brooks, I lost some weight. Kepka is 14-1. Justin Rose 14-1. Bryson 16-1. Tigers 12-1, which is ludicrous. Brooks, I lost some weight. Koepka is 14-1. Justin Rose, 14-1. Bryson, 16-1. Justin Thomas, 16-1. John Rahm, our dude, 18-1. Spieth, 20-1. Ricky Fowler,

20-1. And I'll give you two more. Fleetwoods, 25-1. Mickelson's 28-1. And Molinari is 30- one along with Jason Frankie Onion, Frankie Chipola. Any of those jump out. Just just just listening.

The two guys as we sit here, it's March the 27th, 2019 that I have a feeling for for this upcoming Masters. Justin Rose at 14 to one. Justin Thomas at 16-1. So the Justin's.

Each of the guys ahead of them. So I feel it's kind of ridiculous at this stage from what we've seen out of Rory McIlroy. He has been burning down the house. His victory at the Players validated the entirety of what he's been working on really the past like 18 months he finally got healthy he's finally got uh an equipment uh deal that he seems like he can he can work with um and he's had you know a string of top six finishes that is you know at the very upper it's like not completely unprecedented but it's like way up there in the history and handles of golf, this run that he's on. You just don't go against him. At 8-1 odds, though, at the Masters,

for whatever reason, it's the last tournament for him to achieve his career Grand Slam, and it has, in the past, seemed to have represented some kind of a mental challenge for him. It's a hurdle for him to get over, and I just don't feel like I'm being compensated enough for that risk. He was in the final twosome last year with Patrick Reed, and he gacked off the first tee. It was like a miracle saved by him to save Bogey. So I like Rory.

I love the run that he's on right now. I just don't feel like I'm being compensated enough at eight to one odds for that risk. So that's why I'm, I'm down in this Justin Rose, Justin Thomas. I'm on the Justin's. We don't recommend for a master's bet really anybody who's less than 15 to one, because there's no dominant golfer and there's too many good guys. And that's just absurd to think like eight to one is good odds on anybody. That's why like, you know, somebody, it's almost like the Belichick strategy with the NFL draft where they just want to accumulate draft picks and get value. And you never know if you're going to hit a third rounder, that's going

to be your first rounder. I look at like Fleetwood at 25 to one. That makes so much more sense to me because those are good odds. You put $200 down on that, even $5,000 if he wins. I'd much rather do that. Yeah, now he has to string together four rounds. He's been around the hoop all season. He just can't get across the goal line here in the States for whatever reason. He's still yet to win a PGA Tour event.

I'm not sure that the Masters will be his first victory, although that was the case for Danny Willett when Danny Willett won the Masters. Yeah. But, like, we just – there's something that's holding Fleetwood back. Maybe this week they're at the – they're playing in the match play competition down in Austin, Texas.

Maybe he'll show us something this week because you have to basically win seven matches to win that thing. If he makes another good showing and his odds still are around that 25 to one, it's worth a little bit of speculation. What's the biggest story in golf right now other than my golf comeback as I head toward my 50th birthday. The incredible golf comeback I've had. Four pars yesterday playing with Nathan at the Mountain View course. Terrific. I'm very excited.

There's no bigger golf story to me personally because that means that we're going to play together. I'm looking forward to the next 20 years of our lives together. I've been waiting. I've been begging you for a decade to get the game going again. So that's my biggest golf story. But the second biggest golf story. Nathan couldn't believe that

I don't think we've ever actually played 18 together. That's a fact. We have not. Because you started playing after college and I quit after college after my infamous 37-54 or whatever I had that time when my dad didn't give me the putt for par 36 and then I scuffed it. I still blame him. And then there might have been some broken clubs.

And then I decided it was a good idea for me not to play golf as much anymore and then just stopped. And then I had back issues and it's been a dramatic comeback house. What is the best normal golf comeback or golf story? Well, it's always the exact same story. It's Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is going to be playing in the Masters healthy. We hope we're knocking knocking on wood he has been biding his time he set the golf world expectation correct at the end of last season at the tour championship walking up to the 18th green green with throngs of thousands of people convening behind him like it's 50 years ago arnie's army falling in behind their golf hero. It was a beautiful moment.

He's back. The Tiger is back. And ever since that victory at the end of last season, all we've been doing is biding our time and watching him intently to see what kind of shape he's in, how his brain is. And I'm telling you, he's just been chugging along here at these events, collecting his top 15, his top 20, his top 30, just making sure things he's played a variety of different courses with different, you know, topography and different grass conditions. He's just getting himself ready for this upcoming Masters.

It's it begins and ends with Eldrick Tiger Woods. There are other great stories. Rory is a great story. He's calves on Instagram and Twitter. And that to me is the second biggest story behind Tiger Woods. But those are the storylines right now as we sit here. So the 10 oldest major champions ever. The 10th youngest guy was 43 years old. Ted Ray won the 1920 US Open. I know you're a big fan.

Raymond Floyd. I think that was in Washington, DC at Columbia Country Club. So I am a big fan. In 86, Nicholas won the 86 Masters at age 46 and Raymond Floyd won it at age 43. I mentioned this only because how old is Tiger Woods now? Is he 42?

He's 41, I think. 41? 41 or 42, right? I'm going Wikipedia. Thank God for Wikipedia. 43. 43. So Kyle says he's 43. Yeah. December 1975, he's 43. So my point is, this actually isn't something that happens that often once you get to a certain age in golf. Correct? Sure, you're right. I just listed 10 guys, 43 and over,

who have won a Masters, and it really hasn't happened for the last 20 years. That's not great. It's not great, House. How many of those are the greatest golfer of all time? Well, that part's great. Other than Jack Nicklaus. I'm excited for that.

Jack Nicklaus is the greatest, and Tiger's the second greatest. Yeah. I wonder, what would you put on odds 0.5 Masters, Tiger Woods, rest of his career, what would the odds for over be for you? Minus, or

plus 300? Because it's got to happen the next four years, right? To be really properly compensated for that risk, for, like, how hard it is going to be, and you expect it to be increasingly hard as the time goes on, not decreasingly hard. Yeah.

It's probably, like, 12 to 1, honestly. And that's being, like, it's probably closer to, like, 18 to 20 to 1, the true, like, odds. Yeah, but he's 12 to 1 this year just to win this master. So the odds have to be better than that. You're getting every masters basically. So he would be right now. He'd be the ninth.

Well, the 12 to one odds for this year are a joke. The real odds for him to win this year are like 25. Oh, so you're, I see what you're doing. You're, you're saying the actual odds that you think.

Yes. So the last guy older than Tiger to win a major, to win a major, not even the Masters, was Hale Irwin, 1990 U.S. Open. He was 45 years

and 15 days old. So we're talking now we're on the 29th year of nobody has cracked this top 10 of oldest major championship winners. So, all right, what are the reasons for that? I think over the last 20 years, golf has become a younger and younger man's game with the clubs are better, the weight training, the nutrition, all this stuff, all of it favors

younger people, I feel like. Whereas in the 70s, 80s, 90s, you could sneak the Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, bi people a little bit. Now it's like to ask somebody who's 44 to go against, I don't know, Brooks Koepka, just physically, it's no contest. They're just not going to be able to physically get there to where somebody like Brooks Koepka would.

Am I right or wrong on this? Well, here's my rebuttal. In the same way that diet and equipment and just what guys are capable of physically, the same thing applies to older guys, which is not precedent as well. Case in point, Phil Mickelson won at Pebble Beach six weeks ago as a 48-year-old player. And he beat a bunch of the names, all those young guys that you could line up and say are his competitors. So I think the door is slightly more open for guys in their 40s than previously. And the average age of winner this season is in the just under the 35. It's like 33 or so because veteranum of experience the way that the big tournaments have been going. You have a lot of major winners with victories on tour this season. So if experience and a basic level of physical capacity, because everybody can hit the ball 300 yards now through the combination of the can hit the ball 300 yards now through the

combination of the equipment and the ball. So you're not seeding anything as a 43-year-old Tiger's age. He's not giving anything back to the field in distance. He can hit it as far as anybody. I think the experience factor is what comes in when we start talking about the majors. That's been the amazing thing for me with playing golf again, which by the way, I don't know what took me so long,

but I guess mentally and physically, I'm just in a better spot to be able to play. 18 is still hard with my back, but I can't believe how good the clubs are now. Now, I don't mean this to be an endorsement of our beloved Callaway, who sponsors Fairway Row. Why not?

And does a lot of ringer stuff. Endorse. Endorse Callaway. It's going to be an endorsement because these are the clubs I'm using. They sent them to me. It's just unbelievable. This epic driver they sent me, if I hit it fairly well, it just keeps it

straight and I almost feel like I'm cheating do you feel like you're cheating with some of these clubs? that's the epic flash with flash face technology Bill Simmons they used artificial intelligence and machine learning to help yeah that's exactly right though

that's the point it feels like I'm taking HGH or something. I'm hitting drives as far as I did 25 years ago. And the hardest thing for me playing again is relearning the distances. Because in the old days with shitty clubs, it would be like, oh, I'm 150 yards away. That's my seven iron.

And now it's like, I'm 150 yards away. What club is this? Is this my eight iron? Like we, Nathan and I, yesterday we played this par three and it was like, I don't know, one 62 or something.

I'm like, is this what it is? So I ended up, I hit a six iron, but I didn't hit it as hard as I could. I did like an 80% six iron. Sure. Baby six, little soft six.

Soft six and put it like 12 feet away. And I was like, 20 years ago, if I hit a soft six, it would have gone like 130. So I do feel like these clubs, I'm just amazed by the technology. It would be fun to have, they should do this on the PGA tour. They should have a tournament where everyone's forced to use clubs from the 1980s. It is funny. You see a lot of guys will do this down in Florida. Dustin Johnson did this.

He hit a driver with a wooden shaft. Now, he still hit it 300 yards. So I don't know what head it had on it and all the rest of it. Um, but it would be cool. They, they do these vintage sets exist. And I agree. That would be a cool exhibition to see guys play that old technology, especially, especially the young guys, like a big part of the narrative for the success. The young guys have at such an early age is they've been able to, they've grown up swinging golf clubs that are so accommodating. They have no fear. They don't know what it's like to hit a ball that goes 120 yards to the, uh, you know,

to the right because the technology is such, and this is the interesting thing about the advancements in equipment. They've gotten so much, they have the data set to understand how an average golfer plays. They want average golfers to have fun playing the game. So they've modified the equipment in a way to make it more fun for the average player to play by, you know, evolving with this face technology, with lighter shafts, with things that help normal people like us keep the ball in the fairway so we can enjoy the game. Yeah. So we got fitted at Callaway. And my thing, especially because sometimes I don't push all the way through

because my lower back isn't great. So I'm prone to slice it a little bit. So when they fit you, they're like, oh, we'll just make the club do this. And then you won't slice it as much. It really does feel like cheating. I forgot. No, cheating in a good way i love it i'm so i'm so i'm so happy i don't slice it as much as i'm so happy i don't slice it as much as i normally would be slicing it uh yeah i forgot how much i love about uh like just the whole golf and the hang for four hours. And, you know, people,

a lot of these courses, they ban the cell phones completely, or, you know, you're really not supposed to use them. Um, just the hang in general and people's personalities. Like, so our friend Nathan playing with him yesterday, like he's just all or nothing. Like he he'd be the best, best ball par ever. Cause he's just trying to smoke like he he'd be the best best ball par ever because he's just trying to smoke drives but when he smokes but he'll talk as he'll be like oh that one's smoked sitting in he's complimenting himself i was dying i was i was like trying not to laugh oh that's a good one that's right that's point. Welcome back. I'm so happy to have you. It's so funny.

We're all talking. It is the hang. You're absolutely right. I was like, do you do this during sex? You're like, oh my God, I'm so good. Hubbard doesn't need it. He knows he's good at sex. I was dying though.

But everybody's personality is different. I have to be super calm because as you know, I will throw clubs and break clubs. So I've tried to kill that part of me where I'm almost like I've had a lobotomy almost. This really presents a conundrum for me the next time we play, whether I try and induce you into getting mad or whether I just play it cool.

I'm going to try and take the long view because I want us to play together for the next 20 years. Yeah. So I don't want you to get pissed and immediately associate playing with me with a bad thing. I won't get pissed. I'm too old. There is a part of me. There is a part of me. Speaking of playing golf, I have a tee time in 15 minutes.

Let's talk some basketball. Oh, shit. 15 minutes. Let's talk some basketball. Oh, shit. 15 minutes? All right, hold on. Let's talk quickly about Microsoft Surface and then we'll get back to this. The new Microsoft Surface Pro 6

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of the new Surface Pro 6. All right, quickly. Speaking of old people, LeBron James not making the playoffs. Does that change your opinion of him as one of the three greatest players of all time? No, he's one of the three greatest players of all time. We can finally never, ever, nobody ever dare say Michael Jordan and LeBron James in the same breath again. Don't you dare say it.

Never say it again. There's no point to it. You know I agree. I've always felt this way. Yes. This is for anyone to argue against this being an embarrassing

blemish on his resume, I don't know what to tell you. They're going to win 35 games. It just seems like he picked a team for really no reason other than he just wanted to live in this city. Didn't put any rhyme or reason into it. Perfectly fine reason, by the way. Perfectly valid reason.

Not if you're also telling people that you're the GOAT. Pick a lane. You can't be the GOAT. Not the GOAT. Not the GOAT. Never going to be the GOAT. Because guess what? Michael Jordan, during his apex, extended apex, whatever, never would have picked a team because it was the good place to pursue all of his other interests.

Like, I'm sorry. No GOAT. That's fine. No GOAT. You're number two. And I think there's a... I really need to go back and dive through the whole Kareem thing again before we just shove Kareem thing again before I just, before we just

shove Kareem aside as the number, number two guy. Cause Kareem was the de facto number two. Um, we just got to figure this out. Um, anyway. All right. So LeBron James, we're down on that. Um, Giannis or Harden, seven games left. I personally, I said this on the Rosillo pod this week.

I just love both candidacies. I think this is a rare year where there's no loser. And these are two of the better seasons we've had this decade. And I don't think, I don't feel personally the acrimony that we had like in say 2017 when there was no right candidate we're all trying to talk ourselves into our candidate but none of us felt great about it this is like two awesome candidates so who who do you have nudging ahead of who right now it's it's the finest of lines it's a great point you just made um nobody has to be a villain here i explain i expressed

previously with you my slight displeasure with harden chasing that 30 uh point game you know consecutive game scoring 30 points yeah he chased that streak a little bit i didn't love it um i like i personally subscribe to the new guy narrative i love the pressure was on and i think it's kind of ironic in a way. I feel like more pressure was on Giannis than on Harden this season because everybody put on the table in October. Is this the year that Giannis has the breakthrough? Is this his MVP year? Does he arrive on the scene?

And I believe that he's answered all of those questions in such a definitive way that I like that new narrative I like the the guy he didn't just it's not like it's a debate about how close he got to his potential he showed us everything we all asked for out of a player that can play all five positions and took his team to heights. Milwaukee hasn't seen this level of competence in, you know, however many years since the Green Bay Packers won the Superbowl. And that's the only, you know,

time in any recent memory, he, and especially the Bucks franchise. This is, has to be the single best Buck season since when, I don't know. It's been a long time. And I't know. It's been a long time. And I will say this. It's been a long time.

They had the fear of the deer season where they made the playoffs once, but we're talking Ray Allen era where they've had a team that was an actual contender. Yes. I'm going to talk about this more next week on my podcast. I'm just going to say this to the people out there. There's this rush now

with everything, and I'm sure the ringer's going to do it too. It's not. There's this rush now with everything. And I'm sure the ringer is going to do it too. It's not like we're not innocent, but everybody's got to jump, jump ahead to hand out the award, the best of the year. Like sometimes in movies, the best of the year, the movies are, they're doing it in November before we even had all the movies out yet. In this case, I really need all 82 games to decide on the MVP. I think it's that close. I want to know where Houston finishes in the top four. I want to see everybody's stats.

I want to see if Harden can break Kobe's total points record, which is really like the non-MJ, non-wilt record for just total points in a season. I want to see the totality of the stats. I want to see how totality of the stats. I want to see how many games Milwaukee wins. I think it's okay to wait until after the 82nd game. We don't have to decide it now, tomorrow, Sunday, Monday to get the column ready. Use all the games.

This is one of the best MVP races we've had. So take your time. It's okay. The season ends. We have four days until the playoffs. Take your time, look at the evidence, and then make your time. It's okay. We can, the season ends. We have four days until the playoffs. Take your time, look at the evidence and then make your pick. I love it.

Totally fair. Let's see where everybody ends up. Zion Williamson. Last thing. Where does he rank for you now? Best prospect of this century with LeBron being the standard in 03 of just like there was no fucking way he wasn't going to be awesome. Anthony Davis, 2012.

Derek Rose in 08, I think was way up there. There's been some others. Do you think Zion's the best prospect since LeBron? Yes. So for me, it goes LeBron, number one. And then I have 1A, KD, 1B, Zion, and then Davis and Rose at a level below that. So you have Durant a shade above Zion? Just a shade. But just because it was so evident.

It was so evident that year he had at Texas. His inside out was so incredible, and he was getting so many rebounds. That's the only guy I can think about this century where I had to watch a whole bunch of college basketball games to get a feel for the guy. Yeah, I think that's fair. I'm going to steal that one from you.

We'll say since Durant, best guy. And Durant versus Zion is interesting because you and I, we were both in the first seat of the bandwagon with Durant. The one thing with him was about how skinny he was.

We always knew he was going to score. We knew he was going to be a 30-point scorer. But the question was, where was he going to, like, what position was he going to play? Was he always going to be too skinny? Was there going to be some meat on his bones? There were criticisms of him that I was like, okay, I get that. That's a fair criticism.

I personally think he's a can't-miss generational talent, but I hear you. With Zion, I don't know what the criticism is. He really, he's like a 10 out of 10 in 20 categories. It's like, oh. The only thing I hear is speculation around whether that soft, like still the youthful baby fat, or I don't know what the right way to call that fat that he possesses,

whether that goes in the direction of making him too heavy or whether it goes in the direction of turning into muscle. That's the only thing that I hear speculation-wise around that. It's ludicrous. I mean, honestly, if we want to talk about a real fear with Zion, it's like his playing style is just dangerous. Like when you're up in the air that high around legs and feet, that would be my concern with him. With Durant, I really didn't have any concerns other than, oh, yeah, he's skinny.

You're right. Yeah, he'll have to put on weight. But it's like, of course, he's going to put on weight. He's 19. Like he's going to get older. He's going to put on weight. He's 19. He's going to get older. He's going to put on weight. With Zion, I do worry about some of those moments when he's five feet in the air

and you're just like, oh, you're holding your breath. That's it. That's my only concern. It's your Blake Griffin. It's a Blake Griffin concern. Yeah, exactly. I'm excited to see what happens with him. I really loved... Did you see the game when they almost lost Sunday?

UCF? I did. I was traveling, but I saw a good bit of it. I really loved when he tried to take over the last couple minutes. When the season was on the line and he kind of had that I got this

mentality to how he handled the last 30 seconds. And just really wanted, he answered some questions that I didn't have, but it was nice to see him do that anyway. All right, House, enjoy Mexico, enjoy the golf, and overtip Matt Kutcher's caddy. I'm going to go find El Toucan. Talk to you soon. All right, we're going to call my buddy Jack Owen in a second to talk about the crumbling Yankees. That's what I like to call them heading into every season, the crumbling Yankees.

They really might be crumbling this year, though. Some MVP picks, March Madness, a little Trump. But first, let's talk about The Zone. The old way of watching sports is over. Stream over 100 fight nights a year featuring the biggest names in boxing and MMA without the pain of pay-per-view fighters like Canelo Alvarez, Triple G, Daniel Jacobs, Anthony Joshua, Michael Venom, Paige Rory McDonald, and more. Plus, behind-the-scenes content leading up to fight night, a library of

classic fights, and original programming, everything live and on demand, available on Thank you. be live whip around show. It's called Change Up. It's on every night of the week. Jump in and have the best plays and moments as they happen. Get expert analysis from hosts who bring a fresh personality and new perspective to the game, including my old ESPN

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Sign up by creating an account and then start watching across nearly any of your devices. D-A-Z-N. Go find it right now. And since we're here at the Rewatchables podcast, we did Pretty Woman. We have Fast Five coming next week, me and Shea Serrano.

It's the most important podcast of my entire life because it's the best movie of all time. So we have that coming too. So subscribe to that when you can. And let's give Jacko a call. All right, on the line right now. We always call him

right before the baseball season starts. He's been on this podcast since 2007. He's one of my best friends in the world. We've shared rooms together in bunk beds. Jacko, how are you?

Good, thanks. How are you? The bunk bed thing made me laugh or something. We've shared bunk beds. We've shared beds. Yeah, I don't know that we ever did share a bunk bed, actually. I've put shaving cream on you as you were asleep. You woke up and got mad and started throwing punches in the dark.

Baseball. Baseball starting. Who are your starting pitchers? Do you have any? Sure. Okay, let's hear it. Let's hear the list. Well, as of now, right now, given injuries and what have you,

we have Tanaka. Okay. Tanaka time. See, see 40 years. We have James Paxton. We have the big maple, James Paxton. Hmm. We have the always reliable, crafty J.A. Happ.

Crafty. Journeyman crafty. Crafty. Yeah. We have another crafty lefty veteran, heart, heart of the team, CC Sabathia. I thought he retired. Did he unretire? No, he never retired.

Now he, well, he made some noises about retiring last year, but he didn't, he came back for one more run and he's retiring after the season. Okay. run and he's retiring after this season. So he is with the team, but he is serving a suspension for five games because he threw at the Rays last year while pointing at their pitcher and saying, that's for you, bitch, which was just a phenomenal moment. That's worth it. Proud day for all Yankee fans. As a Red Sox fan, I'm glad he's back.

Because he couldn't even get into the fifth inning. And then once he services five-game suspension, he is going on the injured list because of his off-season heart condition. Oh, no. So he's going to be back in a little bit, yeah. So James Paxson... And filling in, we have the always capable Domingo German and Luis Cesar, I believe.

Congratulations on all of those guys. So how long is Severino out? Well, I think he could be out for as much as a month, maybe a May 1st return. I'm sure they will tread gingerly with him, given that he's the ace, such as it is. So I think they're going to go easy with him. And once you stop throwing for like two weeks, it sets everything back. So I think the hopeful response is that he'll be out a month. But maybe the good news is that he'll get more length on the season that he won't tire because he's, you know,

starting sort of a month later. So that pushes him a month further out before he gets winded or whatever. So, so I've tired arm. I've done this dance many times, usually with people on my fantasy team that I was counting on. Um, this is like me and hedge this league of dorks team.

We have year after year, we somehow managed to have the starter who was supposed to come back. I was counting on, this is like me and Hedge, this League of Dorks team we have. Year after year, we somehow managed to have the starter who was supposed to come back on April 20th or April 25th. And then you have the red flag next to their name in the fantasy team. And you're like, oh no, what happened? And you click and it's like, there's been a setback. They've decided to not have him throw for a week. I was like, okay, great. Then it's like a little news update next to it. He did some long toss today. Things looked okay. And you're just held hostage by these updates for weeks on end.

And we had this guy, we were trying to win our league this year. We had this guy in the Angels, Andrew Heaney, and he had elbow tightness in mid-March. Or early March. And we had him for five bucks. And we're, Hench and I are texting each other. We're both lunatics. And both of us are like, we just don't want

to do this again. So we actually traded him for a draft pick because we were like, we don't want to be held hostage by the long toss updates with this guy. We just want to go into one year where we're not being held hostage for eight to 15 weeks by the guy who's already at a setback. And things are looking good.

Oh, he's got a rehab start today. I just don't want to do it again. So I'm glad you're going through it with Severino is my long-winded point. Thank you. I really, good luck. Good luck with those little red flag updates. Oh, he might pitch in a single game. He might throw three innings today.

It's the worst. It's the absolute worst. And it's his shoulder, which is never a great sign. So, yeah, we'll just hope for the best. And, you know, hopefully it's just a minor bump in the road and nothing to be too concerned about. They just signed Gio Gonzalez. So we've got him waiting in the wings if anything is necessary.

I couldn't believe you didn't sign Dallas Keiko. I thought that was like the lock of the century. He seemed like just a classic Yankee. I actually didn't want you to sign him. Plus, he's been a Yankee killer. I mean, just addition by subtraction that we wouldn't have to face him if he was on the Yankees. That would have,

that would have been good enough. I don't, maybe he was unwilling to shave the beard. I don't know what quite happened there. He's holding out for more money, longer deal. I don't know what the story is there. He did a no,

no beard is the deal breaker. If I, if I have to shave the beard, you better put another zero on the check or whatever. So, yeah, I actually, uh, I did not want you to sign James Paxton.

That was a trade, actually. We traded our prospect just to Sheffield for him. I'm happy about that. That was a big price. I did not want you to get him, though, because he's had a couple games over the years against the Red Sox where he just

looks like the best pitcher of all time. This guy's so young, but he can't stay on the field is his problem. Yeah, he's injury prone. So, you know, Tanaka always seems to have some injury. Severino now with his shoulder. And then you got, you know, Paxton who's got injury issues and Sabathia with a heart problem. So there's a lot of, you know, we're hoping and praying on a lot here,

and let's hope it all works out. James had 121 innings in 16, 136 in 17, and 160 last year. He's thrown two complete games for his entire career. Well, see, the beauty of the Yankees, though, is they have probably the greatest bullpen ever assembled. Yeah, that is true. We're not going to ask a lot out of our

starters. You can go five innings and that's going to be good. If you leave five innings with the lead, we should be in good shape. Yeah, that is true. Of course, we have Aaron Boone managing that bullpen, so it's a little bit like having a Ferrari

and letting my seven-year-old drive it. Let's hope that works out too. We're doing a lot of hoping today. That's what the new season is all about. Hope. The best thing you have going for you this year is the Aaron Judge MVP train. Yeah, let's hope.

Back from the broken wrist and looking to exact his revenge on the league. As you know, I don't like the Yankees. You what? As you know, I dislike the Yankees. I actively dislike them. Yes, I'm aware. I made two wagers this year.

Did I tell you what these were? I'm nervous, but sure. You're nervous? Why are you nervous? Yeah. I'm worried you're trying to put some sort of a jinx onto things here.

That's why I'm nervous. I wagered on Aaron Judge 8-1 to win the MVP. Okay. So here's the case for it. He finished second two years ago. Yep.

There's a lot of you can kind of he's in year four which I like. There's there's been a lot of you can kind of he's in year four which I like there's there's been a lot of like he's now the face of the team kind of stuff

floating around the last two months like they're without a question they're really positioning him as like this is the next great Yankee this is

we are now we are now in the Aaron Judge area here we go so yes so the narrative is there. Two years ago, his first full season, he had 52 homers.

He had the 422 on base, finished second in the MVP, played all the time. Last year, you know, he missed 50 games. Yeah. And had the wrist thing and whatever. But then in the postseason, you know, kind of looked like Aaron Judge again. Mm-hmm. He did.

So you figure, like, what is the ceiling on the ultimate Aaron Judge season, which I'm personally invested in because not only did I bet on him, but we have him on our League of Dorks team for $15. This worries me. You've got too much invested in him. I have a lot invested in Aaron Judge. I have a lot of chips on the Aaron Judge table.

The reason I don't feel bad about it is because the Red Sox have won four World Series in the last 15 years. I have no problem having Yankees on my fantasy team. I've missed that. I wasn't paying that much attention. 0-4, 0-7, 13, and then last year we won again. So we have four.

Really? So I don't mind having Yankees on my fantasy teams anymore. So the ceiling on an Aaron Judge season, it really does feel like it could be like 4-30 on base and like 63 homers

or something, right? That's not like unrealistic. He had a huge spring for whatever that means. He had like, every hit he had was an extra base hit. I think he finally got a single

on like the last day of spring training, but he had like multiple homers and doubles and maybe even a triple thrown in. So yeah,

he had a massive spring from a power perspective. So hopefully that's a harbinger of things to come. So you're down with my bet? Yeah, I love Aaron judge. Cause trout was plus one 25.

I still, I mean, he's always a, he's always a, you know, safe bet to win the MVP, obviously, especially with his new contract.

But, um, I just don't see that team. The money, you know, the odds are good. Bets was plus five 50. The other guy I was looking at,

uh, Alex Bregman was 12 to one on the Astros. I was trying to think like, what's the case for him? Because he was really awesome down the stretch last year. Yeah. And then you think like, all right, if that team goes like 102 and 60 or something.

Very possible. One of the guys on that team is going to be the MVP favorite. So who would that be? Right. So I thought, I just didn't think the odds were good enough. If it had been like 20 to one, I might've stepped in on that team is going to be the MVP favorite. So who would that be? Right. So I thought, I just didn't think the odds were good enough. If it had been like 20 to one,

I might've stepped in on that. So that was one of the bets I made. And then the other bet I made, which I'm really proud of. And I think, I think history is going to remember me kindly on this. It was Trevor, Trevor Bauer for the Cy Young,

which I have a 15 to one, which has now dropped to 12 to kindly on this. It was Trevor Bauer for the Cy Young, which I have a 15-1, which has now dropped to 12-1. Wow. Probably the most disliked player in the league. No doubt. He's, if you read stuff about him, Sports L-State had a really good piece on him. He's kind of a maniac with

how he approaches pitching, and I mean that in a good way. He's really constantly trying to add stuff, get better, research. We've never really had... He's almost like an evil Greg Maddox. Yes. And I just have never read about somebody who is just more committed to just learning about this one thing, but then been more open about talking about it and spilling his secrets.

Um, but I just think maybe the Yankees will pick him up at the all-star break when Cleveland's looking to dump money. And, uh, maybe that will, you can, their two worlds can collide there with Aaron judge and Trevor Bauer together.

See, I think that, I think they're going to be good. I'm in the Cleveland's going to be good camp. And I think one of the reasons... I know, but I read where they were still shopping him and Kluber because did you see this interview with the owner the other day? Yeah, the weird owner.

James Dolan's cousin. Yeah, the owner's like, we're never spending money and we budget just enough to be in the playoffs and we're happy with that. It's really a way to sell tickets in Cleveland. Didn't he had a quote like, uh, we'll pay a $300 million contract when,

when everybody else is making a billion dollars a year or whatever. He had some, well, no, he said, we'll be giving out $300 million contracts when other, everybody else is giving out billion dollar contracts. Yeah.

What, what better way to fire up the fans? And then the, and then the, I think it was with the athletic and they were like, uh, what about, what do you say to fire up the fans? And then I think it was with The Athletic, and they were like, what do you say to the fans about Francisco Lindor? And he was like, well, enjoy him.

Literally. Like, well, enjoy him now, because he ain't going to be here. So that's great. Boy, I really want to go out and buy my Cleveland Indians season tickets now. Where's the line for them? Yeah, there's articles about this on the internet that people can research.

I feel like Paul Dolan hasn't gotten enough credit as an annoying owner named Dolan. I was just going to say, they shouldn't let guys named Dolan buy sports teams anymore. That's the lesson from all this. Well, he's a cousin apparently. Oh, is he? Yeah. Oh, even better. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah, they're related. And there's some sort of Charles Dolan. Remember James Dolan's dad almost bought the Red Sox that time? Yeah. And then, yeah, something about the Dolan's dad almost bought the Red Sox that time? Yeah. And then, yeah, something about the Dolan thing. This is really the Game of Thrones that we really needed and wanted, the sports Game of Thrones.

The Dolans. I saw his name was Dolan. I never even put two and two together that they could be related. That's fantastic. I wonder if he has a band. You think he does? No, I'm wondering. It's like a ska band.

Yeah, I bet he doesn't have a band, actually. No. I bet him and James Dolan either don't talk or it's been icy for a long time. I know nothing. I'm just guessing. Two rich cousins in the same family. I think James Dolan called him after that interview was published. He's like, hey, great work. It was good stuff. Really

good. Kudos on that. I like how you stuck it to the fans. Yeah. Well played. So tired of those people. If we only didn't have fans, it would be so much easier to own these teams. It's like that Larry Sanders episode

when the last episode of Larry Sanders and Bob Odenkirk is Sanders' agent and they're complaining about talent or something

you remember this? no and he's like man if it wasn't for the fucking talent this job would be so much more fun he's like an agent it if it wasn't for the fucking talent, this job would be so much more fun.

He's like an agent. It's his job to represent talent. Right. Yeah. The James Dolan thing, have you been following that? Oh, yeah. It's a big story. I keep getting asked about it because somehow I was in it because he accused me of.

Right. You were purposely trying to tank them to help the Celtics or whatever, tank their chances with, uh, who was it? Katie or AD or Kyrie or who was it? You were trying to tank them with Kyrie, I guess. Right. All of it was unclear. You really weren't, but well, all of it was unclear because he didn't even, he said I was really close to a GM, but he didn't even say what team he does. So some people thought it was Boston and then other people thought it was Houston, but then Houston, they would be the happiest of anyone if Kevin Durant went to the Knicks and he left the conference.

Right. And just all of it about there's some sabotage play when he's been the worst owner in the league for 20 years now. Right. In a variety of ways, and new ways to be awful. I really loved it.

I just, I felt so honored that I was involved in a story like that, which was so clearly ridiculous. Right. People are like, what are you, what are you going to say to Dolan? I'm like,

what are you talking about? The guy's crazy. What do you mean? Right. Right. Like that, that deranged person on, on Santa Monica Boulevard, what do you mean right right like that that deranged person on uh

on Santa Monica Boulevard was yelling stuff at your car what are you gonna do and I'm like I'm gonna keep driving what do you mean drive by

what are you gonna stop and get out and try to rationalize with them engage with them about the satellites yeah it's really uh

it's really bonkers. And meanwhile, the Knicks are definitely something's going on and they're going to end up with all these players and we'll actually see what he can do. And he has some talent. Yeah. Uh, any March madness teams you were jealous of?

Well, I'm always jealous that Holy cross is not a, you know, it's not involved in this. any way, shape, or form. Is it afterthought? That bums me out because my second choice of schools to go to was Villanova, which I also got into. I was watching the other night, and I'm like, I don't regret going to Holy Cross, which I love. All my closest friends are from there and what have you but like a little part of me is like it'd be really fun to watch this tournament

and have a rooting interest in some team yeah really like be like way into it because you know the years where Holy Cross has made it and even though they're like a 15 or 14 seed it's it's awesome to see you know so that would be exciting I went to a couple of the games in Hartford on the first round last week on the 21st, and I fell in love with this kid, John Morant, from Murray State, who is literally the best college player I've ever seen in person. Not that I've been to a ton of college games. Obviously, going to four years of Holy Cross is not saying a lot to say that this kid, who's a consensus top

five pick in the NBA draft is the best player I've seen. Just a long time watching college basketball. He was just a dominant player on the court against Marquette. It was a legit Big East team. He was just... He could do it all. At times, he was like... Not at times, like all the time, he was too

good for his teammates. There was a couple times he threw it away because, he was too good for his teammates. There was a couple times he threw it away because his passes were too good. You know, some kid that's playing at Murray State, he's not going to be playing in the NBA next year. He didn't know where to be on the pass, but he was just so good. And I was just like, oh my God,

I was blown away by how good he was in person. And so, you know, other than that. You didn't feel that way when we saw Lionel Simmons when he came to Holy Cross in the late 80s? The L train. That was probably, that was a sold out heart center. That was a big deal at the time, a huge deal. And that remains a little bit more impressive.

That remains like top five most excited I've ever been for a sporting event. With the L train coming to Holy Cross. Because we had a good team that year. We did. was the L train coming to Holy cross. Cause we had a good team that year, but that was like, that was like the only time we really got to feel on campus. Like what those, what the freaking Duke people must feel 20 times a year, 15 times a year,

wherever, where it was like, all we talked about all week was the game. People get in there super early. Like, Oh my God. And he was great. I mean,

he was really good back then. I don't know what happened to him in the NBA, but he was a really good college player. I think he was like the number one scorer in the country, wasn't he?

Wasn't that why it was so exciting? Because he was highly touted and I think he put up like 30 a game or something. So, yeah, I remember that.

That was a big game. We thought he was going to be like a top five lottery pick and I think he ended up going like seventh or eighth or something. Yeah.

Yeah, I was thinking watching, you know, the college basketball product is obviously a semi-disaster at this point. It really does seem like there's a market inefficiency now for the team that just recruits all three-point shooters. Yeah. And basically all you need is the one rebounder slash rim protector. And then just have eight other guys who are just good three point shooters.

I really want Holy Cross to exploit the market and efficiency and just go out and just find all of these dudes who they're just really good at shooting threes. And that's it. And shoot like the way the game is now. So why not? Shoot like 70. Take 80 shots in a game and 62 of them are threes and that's just who you are. Seems

like that would make sense. The thing is, in the NBA, all the advanced metrics has drifted toward all these different things that have stopped being trends that are now just the way people play. Like Milwaukee shot 44 threes a game this year, right? Which is insane.

Right. But they looked at this, they looked at the math, they looked at who they had with Giannis and they said, all right, Giannis is good at all of these things. If we surround him with three point shooters and space the floor, he'll be unstoppable. And it worked.

So if you did that in college and that was just some coaches playing, almost like what Patino was like 30 years ago on Providence. You did that idea on steroids. I would like to just see somebody do it and commit to it. But it would seem like it would be a school

like a Patriot League school or a school like Pepperdine or Loyola Marymount or one of these schools and this is just like, this is who we are if you shoot threes, come here? I don't know. Yeah, why not take a flyer on it? Absolutely. Holy Cross recruiting regular players and going

14 and 14 and 7 and 12 in the Patriot League. What's the difference? You might as well do something experimental. At least it'd be entertaining. At least it'd be interesting. I think it's crazy that the East Coast has basically thrown away college

basketball, like from a success standpoint, you look at, you look at who's good and who's advanced and things like that. And like Boston college wasn't even in it. Then you get like to like the UConn's out, whatever you, maybe UConn never comes back. Who the fuck knows? I mean,

it's gotten to the point where I actually feel bad for you because their conferences. And I kind of like Danny Hurley and their conference is such a disaster and they can't recruit anybody. And it's just, it's just awful. It's just terrible. What's happened to the state, it's just awful. It's just terrible. What's happened to the state of that, that program. It's just horrendous.

So the people representing the, the East coast now that actually do pretty well. Carolina and the East coast, but you're, you're, no, no, I'm saying like,

yeah, I guess Northeast is my point. Um, we're really relying now on New Jersey and Pennsylvania to carry the East coast torch, which I personally fuck both of those states. Wow.

Red in the eyeballs. Give us a war with Pennsylvania. Yeah, the Philly fans. They really, they can all go to hell. Yeah, they can all go to hell. I didn't like some of their comments after the Eagles Super Bowl. It kind of stuck with me. I haven't really enjoyed it.

Don't really enjoy the Six I'm down the gauntlet on one of our biggest states. Don't really enjoy the Sixer fans either. Guess who else I don't like? The Steelers fans. Yeah. FU Pennsylvania. Wow. I just really want the Northeast pocket to step up.

What do you call New England, I guess I'm talking about here? The Acela Corridor. That's what they call it. That encompasses DC too. No, fuck DC I'm talking about here. The Acilla Corridor? That's what they call it. That encompasses D.C. too. No, fuck D.C. as well. All right. Well, shots fired at house. I'm going to reframe this.

I'm really talking about New England. New England? New England basketball really needs to... We need somebody. Can we have one team? Well, I mean, college basketball, you said it's such a disaster. I'm an old guy, so I guess I'm going to do a get off my lawn

but you know like the one and done thing I mean it's just killed college basketball because growing up in the heyday of the big east when you know Sherman Douglas I swear to god was in Syracuse for 10 years forever you know Chris Mullen and Patrick Ewing and the guys stuck around for four years.

And there was guys that you rooted for, guys that were villains. And, you know, you had rivalries where you could really like root against the guy or root for a guy for four years. And now it's like, you know, Kentucky has five new freshmen every single year. You barely even learn the kid's name. By the way, it's been this way a decade. No, I know. It's not just today.

No, I know. But I mean, you know, going back to the eighties when guys were around forever, but, but now it's, you know, I go to these games and I used to have sort of a passing knowledge of who was who in college basketball. And, you know, this year outside of Zion and now my, my, my new favorite, uh, you know, I couldn't name anybody that I saw play in the games the other day. I just wish New England had its Gonzaga. And I wish it was Holy Cross,

but even if it wasn't Holy Cross, it would be great if it was the University of Vermont or one of these schools. Anybody. BC used to have a basketball legacy with Bagley and everybody. It's a mess. It just has not been able to recover the last 20 years from basically anything.

And BC going to the ACC is really the, you know, Northeastern would be fun. That kills them. What about Northeastern? That could, it could be them.

It could be somebody. Which is weird, but I do feel like that's part of the reason I've fallen out with college hoops is just, you know, if we had gone,

if you and I had gone to Georgetown together, can you imagine how nuts we'd go? Absolutely. If they were 16 and 14 one year, we would take it so personally. I had a couple of guys from high school that went to Seton Hall and a good friend of mine walked on to Seton Hall the year they went to the championship in 89. So I have a soft spot in my heart for Seton Hall and I kind of root for them and they got murdered by Wofford. So I'm like, I have no more, you know, Holy Cross didn't make it. Seton Hall got bounced. So I have no rooting interest in this tournament now.

When your friend made it, we made fun of you that whole March Madness. Cause you, every time they showed their bench, you would drunkenly point out that your friend Renee was on there. And there's Renee. And we're like, we get it. We know he's on the team, Jacko. That's right. You're so happy to see him though. Well,

it was pretty good run. And they just had an article I read actually about the 20th. I read that too. Yeah. It was really good. He got a lot of quotes in there too. He got a, he got a lot of publicity for that one.

It was nice. Nice article. Trump, Russia. One just quickly zip through it. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I said this on a podcast a while ago where I said, you know, I never really believed that he would be involved in a conspiracy because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Like, he'd go to Mar-a-Lago and be like, this election's in the bag. We got Russia hacked at the emails. It's all set. He probably would have said that in his speech at the Republican convention, actually. Right. So I was always a little doubtful that there was really this grand conspiracy. Now, you know, perhaps it could have encompassed people around him. That would not have shocked me because he did not have like the, the, uh, most upstanding collection of folks, uh, helping him with his campaign. Yeah. And especially to the degree that it was hyped up by,

by the media. And you had people like, you people like the former CIA director and you figure, well, he might have some inside scoop. And then it all just turned out after all this to be nothing. So to watch MSNBC where they're sobbing on the air and CNN, it's really an amazing turnaround because you always figure Trump's going to find a way to stub his toe on something. And he came out, if not smelling like a rose, then at least not smelling like he was covered in shit. Are we positive it's nothing? Because nobody's actually read it, except for three people. No, I know. People keep saying that. They're still hanging their hopes on, well, we have the report.

I'm not hanging hopes. No, no, I'm not suggesting. I'm not saying you are, but that's what a lot of people are saying. But the attorney general has read the report and he wrote this summary to everybody to say, like, basically nobody's getting charged with any crimes. Now, if he made that up out of whole cloth and it really had listed a lot of potential crimes, you know, either Mueller or somebody from his team, I think, would have, like, jumped out and said, like, well, hold on a second. That's not what we said. You know, it's been a couple, it's been almost a week now, and nobody's contradicting that. So I think even, you know, when the report comes out, will there be some things where people will be like, well, that looked a little shady or that wasn't great,

but it's not provable? Yeah, there could be things for people to hang their hat on, but it's very different than, you know, being impeachable offenses or anybody close to him being charged with crimes. Not to say, you know, Manafort and Stone and other people that have been charged with sort of crimes on the periphery. Not to say nobody was charged, but I mean, nobody was charged with direct collusion with the Russian government. Yeah. And it also seems like he's guilty of just picking some crazy people around him. Yeah, no doubt. Which, by the way, we've seen for the last couple of years. I'm not surprised by any of that.

Yeah, he's not the greatest judge of character, despite saying he always has the best people and hires the best people. I mean, that's obviously blatantly not the case. So, yeah. So, we're looking at six more years of Trump now, five and a half. I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I mean, you know, this, when, when people, you know, the opposition has run around screaming collusion, collusion for two years, and then it turns out to be no collusion that that can only help him. You know, if people were doubtful, they're like,

well, you know, he's pretty, he's clean on this. So maybe, you know, maybe he's not so bad. I mean, I don't know. I, and you can't, you know, in politics, you maybe he's not so bad. I don't know. In politics, you can't beat somebody with nobody, so it depends who the candidate is. I think if the Democrats nominate Biden, I think Biden could give him a run for his money. I'm not sure about any of the other candidates, but I think Biden could beat him. Do you want to know what the odds are right now?

Yeah. Trump's plus 130 to win again really I actually think those odds are pretty good I think I actually think he should be favorite

2016 though in Vegas so Joe Biden 6 to 1 Beto O'Rourke is 8 to 1 he's got no chance Bernie Sanders 12 to 1

he's got no chance Kamala Harris 15 to 1 no chance and then it's a whole bunch of people who probably don't have a chance Sanders 12 to one. He's got no chance. Kamala Harris, 15 to one, no chance. And then it's a whole bunch of people who probably don't have a chance, except Cory Booker's 80 to one or 60 to one. I wouldn't a hundred percent rule him out.

Um, but Biden six to one, the guy's going to be 78 in 2020. Yeah. I don't know. 2016 taught me never to anything anything we think we know, just throw it out the window because God only knows, you know, I mean, literally, like, who knows? The news, every day I wake up and the things that happen in the news, I just am like, wow, really?

And then we just move on. We just careen on to the next thing. So, you know, we have a lot of careening to do between now and November of 2020. So you're saying when the host of The Apprentice, who had gone bankrupt twice and just seemed like a full-fledged lunatic, won the presidency, that changed your perspective on what might happen? A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

Call me crazy, but that kind of threw all my conventional wisdom out the window. So you're saying we shouldn't have conventional wisdom anymore? No. I think we should probably bang our head against the wall and then make decisions that way, as woozy as possible. That seems to be the way we're going here. It seems like the only way to beat him would be another old white guy. Because you have to steal the old white guy and middle-aged white guy votes from Trump. Because everyone else you're getting. You need somebody that can appeal to the Rust Belt and the Midwest.

And I think Biden has some blue-collar appeal. The problem is that's not where the heart and soul of the modern Democratic Party is. It's not where the heart and soul of the modern Democratic Party is. It's not even close. So the problem for Biden, you know, somebody like Biden, who is not as woke as the rest of the party or the vanguard of the party is at the moment, their heart is not really going to be with him. And you wonder, like, do they stay home, you know, where there's some Bernie folks that stayed home because they didn't like Hillary and their heart was with Bernie. So do they say, well, I'm not going to go like pound the pavement and knock on doors and make calls and, you know, drive people to the polls for Biden because he's only,

you know, slightly more woke than Trump, but not woke enough. So, um, but, but on the other hand, I don't think like, you know, 80 year old Bernie screaming about wonders of socialism is really going to appeal to large swaths of the country. That's the dilemma for the Democrats. Bernie's a problem. We will know when Trump is afraid of Biden when he just attacks him on Twitter one week. He'll get some report. Somebody will say, hey, we have a report on, uh, who we should be worried about in 2020.

Here are the nominees. And it's clearly Joe Biden. And like that day, Trump will be on Twitter. Like Joe Biden, plagiarizer, plagiarizer, the lying plagiarizer. Joe Biden is thinking of running. Please bring it on Joe. Maybe you could write my next book. Like, he'll just go right in right away.

He had something when there was, you know, the first rumors about Biden a few weeks ago and he called him like crazy Joe Biden or something. You know, he's still workshopping that one, but he likes alliteration. Like he needs like jittery Joe or something. Jittery. Some personal attack, balding Joe Biden or something, you know, so.

Well, Trump can't really go with the hair thing. No, but he, come on, he has no shame. You think that's going to stop him? Come on. It's something with plagiarizing that begins with a J. Like some sort of synonym for that. That he could do the blank Joe Biden, but with the J. Jumble Joe Biden.

I'm sure he's got staff working on that right now. There's like the president wants to have a meeting. I wonder what he's going to talk about this show up. And he goes, hey, I need a good nickname for Joe Biden for my Twitter this week. I have a big whiteboard. Jerky Joe? I don't know. Maybe.

What about Jackass Joe? No, too strong. How about Jerkoff Joe? No, can't. It's too harsh. Way too far. Trump's like, hold on, wait a second. Let's talk it out. Jerkoff Joe. Hold on.

What about if we go with Biden and we give the whole world of bees? They're like bitchy Biden. What that Bozo Biden. What does anybody think about that? Bozo Biden. Bozo Biden is actually realistic. Yeah. They can have the Trump campaign.

They can, that's copyright Jacko productions, 2019. He can go Bozo, Joe Biden, bozo biden joe the bozo oh man yeah see that bozo works because you can do joe bozo bozo joe kind of rhymes then you can do bozo biden so it's alliterative works in a lot of ways you could do you could do posters of him with a clown nose on there's just a lot of ways it could go. Biden, the clown. Yeah. Well, we just unfortunately gave them their whole tactic for 2019.

I can't wait for the secret service to come pick me up in Marine one by helicopter me down to the white house for high level meeting. Continue this nickname search after they hear this podcast. Mr. President, we're bringing in a guy named Jack O from the Bill Simmons podcast. We think he can workshop some insulting Joe Biden names for you he's coming in for an hour Jack O, a pleasure as always

worst of luck on opening day I didn't even talk about my team we brought everybody back one of the great seasons of all time. He's coming back May 1st. I'm not worried about that. All right. They're in a little staring contest with him right now.

He's assigned with a team. There's a lifelong World Series lull. Let's hope there's a nice letdown after the big victory of last year. Are you excited for future Hall of Famer Raphael Devers to have his breakout year? I'm sure. Why not? Absolutely. Why wouldn't he?

Everything you guys do turns to gold, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him be a... You should put some money on him being the MVP. It's just not even fun to do the Red Sox-Yankees thing with you anymore. It's really like how I felt in the late 90s. It's just flipped. Just like a corpse just kicked, just abused. So let's hope we bounce back. Good luck following those Luis Severino long toss updates.

I'll buy to show them closely. I'll be putting them on Twitter. I'm going to, I'm going to be sending them along to you. Ooh, he's thrown from 75 feet today. Oh, here we go. Jacko. I'll read them in our old bunk bed. I'll talk to you later. See ya. Before we go, unpaid ringer intern, Nathan Hubbard is on the line. CEO of Rival. I played golf with him yesterday. House and I talked about him earlier and I talked about your propensity to hit a big drive, and as it's in the air, profusely complimenting how you smoked it and how this is your signature move. I wanted to give you a chance to defend yourself for self-golf flagellation.

It happens one out of every 550 times. No, it was like four times yesterday. I have a brother on the PGA tour. Do you understand the level of insecurity that that instills in a golfer when you suck shit and you have a brother who's winning on the tour? Like, of course I'm going to talk about what else can I do?

Give me a break. Why are you, why is this the psychological examination? It's not a psychological examination. To be clear. I loved it. House and I were talking about how every person, when they play,

they have different personalities. And my favorite thing about playing for you was when you had smoked a drive and they go, Oh, that smoked. Oh, Oh yeah. It's such a rare thing. I have to celebrate the good things when they happen.

I love it. It's better than screaming. It's better than screaming fuckle sticks all over the course, which is what I do when I'm not hitting good drives. Well, the shame of it is that you're not on the PGA tour because you would be the most popular golfer in golf. Cause every time you spoke to Shai,

you'd be going, you'd be going nuts. I think I killed a deer. I think I killed a deer. I think I killed a deer. I think I killed a rattlesnake and I killed a coyote on the course yesterday. You know, one of the great things about my golf comeback is all the wildlife. I had just totally forgotten there was coyotes and there was a deer and I put it on my Instagram today.

There was a deer in the way of my pitch and run. And then a limping coyote started to kind of approach our cart. That was scary. I forgot. Remember the baby rattlesnake? Baby rattlesnake? You were terrified of the baby rattlesnake. I was.

I don't like rattlesnakes. Needless to say, I like giant, awesome drives. And I'm going to talk about it. Okay, good. That's it. That's all I had for you. I'm bringing you back on and talk more about golf at some point, but I just, I just wanted to get your side of the story. I did great with this inquiry. Look at that thing. It's amazing. I didn't prep you.

Oh, I was so good on this podcast. I was so good. What a damn book. You did. I deserve it. No, you did smoke one. No, don't stop. You can't stop doing this because I loved it. I won't. Don't worry. I won't. What was my routine after I hit a great shot? I'm just like kind of icy silence, right?

You grab your back and you do a half stretch towards the ground and talk to me about how you should have taken more Advil. That's your routine. Well, what about when I had the three pars and four holes right before that started, I told you something in my back cracked. I feel really good. And then I had like, I ripped off a couple of great holes and then it started to lock up again. Yeah.

You took a weird swing and you're like L4 vertebrae dislodge. And then you, you started ripping off 30 foot putts. And after the last one, you looked at me, you're like, I love golf. This is great. Three holes earlier. You'd be like, why do we do this? We're too old for this. I want to go home. It was classic. The golf gods fired you back up. They gave you wildlife. They gave you me hitting huge drives. It was a great afternoon.

And then, yeah, I had three pars and four holes. I think I went triple bogey, par, par, triple bogey, par, triple bogey, which is really why I stopped playing golf because I can't handle the swings. Nathan Hubbard, we'll talk about this more later. Thanks for quickly popping on. Thank you, Bill. All right. Thanks to House Jacko and unpaid ringer intern Nathan Hubbard.

Thanks to ZipCrew. Don't forget to go to zipcrew.com slash BS. Coming back, one more podcast this week. Our friend Bill Hader is on. Until then. I don't have a few years with him on the wayside I'm a person never I don't have a few years