The Bill Simmons Podcast - A Late-Night NFL Draft Party and NBA Talk With Ryen Russillo | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 358)

Episode Date: April 27, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to talk about the first round of the NFL draft—from the quarterback selections to the merciless booing of Roger Goodell—and topics from the NBA playoffs, including: Jaylen Brown's potential, the Pelicans, Philly's chance to come out of the East, issues with the NBA lottery, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight's special Thursday night doing this during the last part of the first round of the NFL draft edition of the Bill Simmons podcast on the rigor podcast network brought to you by ZipRecruiter. I wish we had used ZipRecruiter to hire the 23rd pick for the Patriots. It would have been Lamar Jackson. That's what ZipRecruiter would have spat out. Brian Rossell is here. ZipRecruiter would have said, Lamar Jackson, take that guy. Your quarterbacks could be 42. And of course it was a tackle.

I didn't think it'd be that sexy. I didn't think they'd make it as sexy as a tackle. Hold on, I got to keep going. I'm sorry. 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within a day. They're the best at distributing your job to the best boards, identifying the right people,

inviting them to apply. My listeners can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. With Google Assistant, you can complete over a million actions on your phone, in your car, and around the house like this. Hey, Google, tell the Patriots to draft Lamar Jackson. Hey, Google, please. How about this?

Hey, Google, get directions to Major Domo restaurant. The best way to get to Major Domo by car is via Riverside Drive and will take about 34 minutes in moderate traffic. Oh, look how easy that was. Download the Google Assistant today. Speaking of Major Domo, the Dave Chang Show launched this week. Episode one is up. The pre-opening diaries you can subscribe on apple or wherever you get your podcast we're so excited because bill clinton is yeah there's there's so much going on so that's why i don't

apologize right uh sorry the dave chang show big hit episode one subscribe support the franchise pre-opening diaries we talked about this on wednesday Very excited about that. I want to give a shout out to TheRinger.com. We have a ton of NBA, I'm sorry, NFL draft coverage. We had people at bars. We had social media stuff. We taped a video of the 23rd pick in my office with Rosillo and Nephew Kyle, where we thought the Pats were going to take Lamar Jackson.

Instead, they took a very, very sexy, exciting left tackle. All that's coming up on TheRinger.com all day. And this podcast is coming up right now. But first, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, it is 8.03 Pacific time, 11.03 East Coast time. Seattle's on the clock, pick 27. Ryan Rosillo is here. We've been hanging out in the office. Do you want to set the scene?

You want to talk about the last four hours? I got really excited. Okay, first of all, they just showed Bill Clinton leaving the Bucs-Celtics game, which we'll obviously spend some time on. And a mom had her daughter take a picture with Bill Clinton as he was going out of the tunnel. They take the picture together, and you can see, and this will be a big thing by the time the pod is launched, the daughter looks at the mom and goes,

Who is that? That's why I was freaking out earlier. I thought you were freaking out because Bill Clinton was around a mom and goes who is that that's why i was freaking out earlier i thought you were freaking out because bill clinton was around a mom and a daughter no that is also a good good observation on you so the other part is that we ate some thai food it was terrific except for fried meatballs deep fried meatballs deep fried meatballs which were uh the most disgusting thing either of us and of course nephew kyle had to he, he's bringing them home. Right. And he had no idea what meat,

what the meat was. No, it was just chewy and it wasn't good. And it like, it wasn't a good chewy. And then really, I think I'm just going to tee you guys up here. Cause you were both really excited to pick 23.

It felt like everything was falling into place for Lamar Jackson. And now the Pats are four picks away here and he's still on the board. It seems like he's going in the second round. He's already got that kind of, I can't believe my life is falling apart like this, green room kind of feel. The 24-hour think piece. Which is great.

But I think this is great for his career. You know what's good? Being underestimated and dropping too far in an NFL draft. I just think it's going to be tough to listen to a ton of talk radio tomorrow. It's always tough to listen to talk radio. Yeah, but this one's going to be like extra. Coming up, I'm going to tell you why Lamar Jackson is going to kill a homeless person right after this. Screeny tease. I shot it early. We have a lot of early ones here.

So I don't know where to begin, but we might as well start with the NFL draft because we saw four quarterbacks taken in the first 10 picks. Not in the order we thought cleveland took baker mayfield first which felt like a prank from somebody who had seen draft day too many times and then it actually happened it took him first you weren't as horrified as i was no because i've had a hard time with all these guys like i personally think rosen's the most i saw him do the most nfl things over the last couple years okay but if he pisses everybody off and nobody likes him, then that's probably more important than how good he is on third down. And then I thought it was,

when you say pisses everybody off, who's everybody. I just feel like when I hear stuff about him, I'll go, is this one of those things where he's young and he's outspoken and he's a little too confident, you know, you're like,

nobody likes the young guy at the office. That's totally full of himself, even if it's deservedly so. Even if he's a justified arrogant guy, like, yeah, that guy should be arrogant. Nobody ever likes that guy in the workplace. We don't like it at the ringer. We don't like when anyone under 25 talks. Your whole staff is under 25. Well, no, half of the staff.

But yeah, if it's a 23-year-old and they're spouting opinions, we take them in the back and we hit them with a bamboo rod. No, we don't have annoying people. That's one of the things with the ringer culture that we've built. But yeah, the Josh Rosen thing, you were talking about how he played tennis. Yeah, this is Bruce Feldman. Yeah, Bruce Feldman wrote a whole chapter. Do your whole tennis thing about this. Has anybody ever played tennis?

And I'm not any good, but you get in your head like no other sport. You get in your own head because you've got to talk yourselves into these points. Like, okay, I'm down a point. No matter what, I have to win this. And you don't have anybody else to talk to. You don't have teammates. You don't even have a caddy. You look at a coach and sitting there in a couple rows up in his visor.

And I think it makes you insane. I think tennis makes you insane. Yep. Yep. I also think the other thing is the other thing is tennis this is why i didn't want my daughter to play tennis because you're practicing for four hours a day either with a ball machine or some coach and you're not with other people What else would you add to that though? I'm just saying. But you're by yourself a lot and you're on your own and you're not a teammate.

You're not interacting. Did you think I didn't think that already? I'm adding. Are you sure? I'm adding to your point. I'm finally on. But I really wanted my daughter and my son too. I wanted them to be on teams. So that means if you were a GM, if you were a GM,

the first thing you'd ask is not, do you like men? You'd ask, do you like tennis? I definitely would have asked, do you like, yeah, that's crazy. They ask that. But yeah, how much time did you spend by yourself? Like, has there ever been a successful only child quarterback? See, but then sometimes I think how selfish only children can be. And maybe that's the way you need to be wired. You know, you have to think how selfish only children can be. And maybe that's

the way you need to be wired. You know, you have to think like, okay, this is all on me. Like nobody else is going to. You're better as an only child as a tennis player though and a golfer. Like Tiger Woods. Yeah. I find only children to be fascinating. I was, well, I'm one of them. Breaking up with only children. I'm one of them. Oh, really? Yeah. You don't carry yourself that way though. No, deep down I am. You are? Yeah, I have a lot of only child thoughts. I'm always fascinated by my daughter's and son's friends who are only children. I was also an only child of a divorce. So you're just playing the parents against each other.

You become like this devious mastermind when you're like 11. Man. Yeah. I don't know. But you're not a selfish guy. Eh. No, I'm not. No. I think you're pretty, I mean, look, I'm I don't know. You're not, but you're not a selfish guy. Yeah. No, I'm not. No.

I think you're pretty, I mean, you know, look, I'm sitting here with you, but whenever I've worked with you on any project in the past, you, I don't know. I'm a giving partner. This has gone off the rails early. Very early. All right. Take us back. Cause we were still, we're a couple of picks away from what you guys want.

The Josh Rosen thing. one last piece though. Yeah. He's playing tennis. When does he start playing football? I don't know the story. I gotta ask Bruce Feldman. Okay. His book is great on it.

It's such a, I've never heard of a tennis, football quarterback combo. It's so weird. He's Manhattan Beach though. Manhattan Beach too. So he probably plays some beach volleyball. His parents are like really, really accomplished. And that's the whole thing but it's funny it's it's kind of like the anti-steph thing you're like oh you had a great upbringing and your dad was rich and cool and then the steph

turns out to be awesome yeah like that kind of oh you had to yeah you don't have to fight for anything you guys paid your electricity bill yeah that sucks so uh i don't know. I like Rosen. I like Darnold. What was your rankings? My personal rankings? Rosen 1, Darnold 2, Baker 3, Allen 4, Lamar 5. Lamar is probably one of my top three

most favorite players I've ever watched in college football. I've got Peter Warrick in there maybe too. And now it's pick 28 with the Steelers on the clock and he still hasn't been taken. I'd said to McShay, the Steelers will take somebody who's really good and then three years complain about his contract

or touches right before a playoff game. Again? You're just going to run that back? Tell me about Lamar right now, where you're at mentally, because this is what you guys want to have happen here. I always gravitate in any draft toward people who

go lower than they should for reasons that i feel like five years from now we're gonna go back and go oh man that was stupid it's like his mom was today's his agent he's gonna drop 20 picks because of that or or if he'd come out a year ago people would have felt one way about him but he stayed the extra year and we got to watch him an extra year. He was actually just as good. But people, they, it's that,

it's that whole thing with college where you, the more you watch a guy, the more you kind of talk yourself out of them versus these guys, these fast risers who come up at the end. I think Josh Allen's a little bit like that, where there wasn't a lot of tape on him to You could kind of talk yourself into things about him. And then today you end up talking yourself out of him maybe because of some stuff that happened.

But I think I love this draft because I think it's basically 50-50 with every draft quarterback you could take. That's the history of it. It never changes. Football can change. The rules can change. We can know more. We can have any, you can take any sort of money ball thing you want.

And it's still 50, 50 every time. It just is. And so many factors go into it, where the guy got drafted, what team you went to. Did he, did he break up with his girlfriend right before his rookie seat?

Like there's 40 things. Were you tough to break up with as an only child? Were you selfish? Were you like spy? And then the girl would have feelings about it. And you'd be like, why are you? No,

cause the only children are narcissists. So you're're gonna break up with me i'm great everyone's told me i'm great for my whole life i'm just gonna move on you have like six siblings right i'm the oldest of five yeah right so you're caring you look out for people i am yeah i'm great with children yeah the people in bristol yeah you're looking out for the espn news anchors okay man let's go get some chicken wings i wouldn't do that a ton okay but uh yeah people people would ask me about like contracts and stuff and they'd say hey like i always felt like espn or if i decided to never be on air like work for an agency yeah and i'd say this is gonna be my job i could do it at espn or i could do it for whoever you could have been like an agent that represents media people no no no no no i

wouldn't even want to be the agent okay i would go i'm going to be your consultant a conciliary yeah and you're going to pay me for this by the way you mean like one percent no i don't even want the person's kind like you can rep them take 10 of their contract even though that's all screwed up and what's going to happen is like when i gotta pick somebody who's my friend. So if Will Kane shows up, right? Will Kane shows up and says, I want to host NFL countdown. And I would go, hey man, that's never going to happen. Right.

So instead of the agent having to tell their client, that's never going to happen. Because the agent would go, I love your aspirations, man. I love you're shooting for the moon. Ryan Shazier. Oh, walking out. Oh, unexpected.

This is intense. jesus this is really cool ryan right now the steelers are picking ryan chaiseir is walking out doing a pretty good job he is this is so sad because he's so freaking good it's great that he's walking though amazing that's brutal um yeah so anyway i would just i would, I'd be like, look, instead of the agent having to tell the client you're delusional, I could tell the client, hey, that's a really good goal or that's stupid and you're wasting your time. I did a little of that when I was at ESPN. Yeah.

I think you should do that. I was pretty good at career advice. Yeah. Like, hey, I want to, I would like to be, you know, I want to host the six. You'd be like, we're still on game night. You're hosting NBA Coast to Coast with five other people. Like, I'd like to be a senior golf writer. That was my favorite.

During the Twitter era, when ESPN and NBA Coast to Coast and the highlights, the extended looks were tape delayed. They were like three minutes later. Yeah, yeah. Are you talking on your show? No, I'm talking about Coast to Coast. Yeah like three minutes later. Yeah, yeah. Are you talking on your show? No, I'm talking about coast to coast. Yeah, so when I would do, yeah. So like seven, eight years ago. It was after Twitter had started.

Oh no, I was on it three years ago. And they were still doing it three years ago? It was actually in concept. It was a great show, but you're right. Like if you do the tape delays, because there were rights things with the live rights and jumping in. It's like, let's go into this Minnesota game

from five minutes ago. Yeah, Twitter ruined that one. I have a, let's go into this Minnesota game from five minutes ago. Twitter ruined that one. I have a, here, here's who I liked for the QBs. I've cooled off on the Josh Allen thing. I didn't like the tweets so much. The tweets bugged you?

The tweets bugged me. He's 14. I was just, I don't know. It's, it's cause when I'm taking a quarterback, I want my fan base to just feel like the savior has arrived. I don't want any baggage whatsoever so you wanted

the path to take him no actually if they got him at 23 i would have talked myself into it he was 14 come on he's a kid uh but uh i just thought gun to my head i feel like lamar jackson is gonna be the best quarterback of all these guys. Wow. Okay, so this is back to your five-year thing. I just really feel like he's going to be the best one. And I might be wrong, and everybody might throw it in my face,

but I just think he's the most talented one. And the way the game is being played now, what I thought Deshaun Watson showed last year was the way these rules are now, if you have the athletic guy like that, who also is a quarterback, that might be the number one weapon you can have now. I really wonder if we're moving away from the era of,

you know, the Brady types. Because Rodgers kind of is like that, right? Yeah, Rodgers can move when he needs to move. Rodgers can move around and fly around. It can't be the foundation of who you are as a quarterback. a quarterback but if it's a big piece of what you're doing the way football is played now and everybody's spread out and there's always four receivers and five receivers and the only thing you get worried about is whether the guy's gonna injure you disagree with me i can tell no i i this is the thing i i'm always asking myself is that you know whatever we're

doing are we doing it wrong because can you see the way media changes or you think of just I, this is the thing I'm always asking myself is that, you know, whatever we're doing, are we doing it wrong? Because can you see the way media changes or you think of just basketball and it's pretty clear like team should have been taking threes earlier on. Yeah. Should have been doing it. You know, Daryl was right. And people resisted it because they want to be told, hey, you know what?

The way you're doing it, you're doing it wrong this whole time. It's hard to get people to change their minds in anything that they're doing. Business, whatever. Baseball has kind of evolved, but I don't know if baseball has evolved because pitching evolved. Like if everybody was waiting on pitches, then it didn't make more sense to just swing for home runs. And so, you know what I mean? Like I kind of look at all these different things. Football, I always kind of thought, is it really that big of a deal to just run it three times? Like, I guess that's great, but isn't that like capping what your

ceiling can be on any single play? So when I think about the quarterback part of this i feel like the media and you know it's just kind of the other way people like everybody wants to believe everybody's stupid and everybody's doing it the wrong way and they just rip it like it's all these mock drafts everybody hates the mock draft expert right like every all my friends are like oh mcshea sucks kuiper sucks i'm like actually they're both awesome guys yeah not nearly as bad at the job as you think they are. And now not everybody could go ahead and do this. So when you point out in the last however many years, and I've done the numbers too, that it's a 50-50 crapshoot on these first round QBs

and that 50% are going to suck. People like to do this thing as if the way the NFL is doing it is they're just idiots. And maybe that's the Lamar part of this whole thing. But I wonder, okay, so what if you totally overhauled it? What if you prioritize things you've never, what if you just went Costanza and did opposite approach to how you evaluated quarterbacks?

Does that mean that there's this system, there's this thing that has not been tapped that can be reached where all of a sudden 75% of quarterbacks taking to the first round would be successful? And I just don't think it can be. I think it's like parenting in a way. Like you can try all these different approaches

and you can be hands-off and your kid can be great. You can be hands-off, your kid could suck. You could be too much of a disciplinarian and then it totally backfires. I just think that position is so screwed up. Yeah, but here, alright, so we agree. Yeah, we do. But yet you see... I watched him though for two years. We saw multiple teams

in this draft spend multiple picks to trade into the top seven. The trade where Arizona moved up, they didn't really give up a lot but the other ones they gave up a lot for a 50 50 chance when now it's pick 29 are we sure lamar jackson's not better than josh allen i'm not sure absolutely i'm not i'm not sure of it but If each guy is 50-50 and we actually, Jackson performed much better in college and seems like his skills would translate to the pros,

why would I want to keep those extra picks? The thing I've learned with all these sports is I just want more shots at everybody. Especially in this draft. Yeah, but the thing with the process that I think people have kind of, has kind of gotten lost to some degree. Hinckley just wanted as many shots as possible.

It wasn't even just about tanking to try to get the number one pick. It was about trying to take whatever, turn losing into an asset and then turn those assets into more assets and that was what was so weird about the false trade. It was the opposite of what Henke would have done. Henke would have looked at that and said,

I'll just take Tatum and then I'll have another chance at a superstar next. And you go back and you look at the picks he took, Michael Carter, or I'm sorry, New Orleans Noel, bust. Right, for Julio, who everybody loves. Over Przingis. Right.

Dario Saric, who it could have been Alfred Payton at 10. He gets Rob Hannigan to blink. Takes Saric at Dario Saric, who it could have been Alfred Payton at 10. He gets Rob Hennigan to blink. Takes Saric at 12. Saric is a starter. But then the next draft, Embiid. Embiid was the number one pick in the draft six weeks before the draft. He was hands down. He was number one.

Gets hurt. Falls to number three. If he doesn't get hurt, now he's got Andrew Wiggins with the third pick. Then the year after, they finally luck out and hit on one of these things with ben simmons because you were saying parker was always going to milwaukee yes yeah always right so because i'm sure some people listen to me like wait a minute you guys are forgetting about wiggins on the one hand super lucky that mb gets hurt because they stumble into two franchise guys on the other hand not lucky because all they did was load the dartboard with darts and

they knew they would get two. And I feel like Belichick is the only person who approaches the draft that way. He just wants darts on the board. He doesn't, he would never trade up. He's only traded up, I think twice in the last 15 years, right? It just doesn't, I don't, it doesn't make any sense. Like when the Bills did the Sammy Watkins one a few years ago, it was a deep receiver draft. And you're desperate.

And you're the Bills, so you're probably not going to be good the next year. I love when GMs on bad teams make trades and then go, well, we'll be good next year. And you're like, actually, you traded another really good pick because you guys stink. And it was to move up a handful of spots for Sammy Watkins. And look, out of Clemson, anybody that watched Sammy Watkins who said he wasn't going to be any good.

He looked awesome. He was unbelievable. It didn't work out. It hasn't worked out really for him. Some of it's health. Some of it's kind of him. But I could be staring at a player five spots ahead,

and if I'm a GM, I'm not giving you my first the next year to go ahead and do this stuff. Well, that's what we saw with the Saints traded up. Yeah, the Saints traded up 2019.

Yeah, they gave up their number one pick to move up 13 spots. That's the Saints traded up. Yeah, the Saints traded up 2,000 by a team. Yeah, they gave up their number one pick to move up 13 spots. That's the kid from, he was a tennis player. Oh no, he was a wide receiver. My bad. I don't like trading up ever. And yet, I think if you're close, if you feel like you can win the Super Bowl and there's a guy and the situation presents itself

and it's like, wow wow that guy fell to 14 we had him third on our board what if we're picking 27 we move up yeah i'm okay with that yeah i mean what if minnesota takes lamar jackson don't hurt cousins so the jaguars so then they took a detackle cousins is like hey just torturing cousins right away? He's like, not a racist, but I just, you know. What the hell? Speaking of, do you think if Josh Allen had tweeted out when Buffalo had that other pick, be like, Lamar would be a great fit here.

I love Lamar. We were talking about when he did his interview after he got picked, all the things he was going to say to try to throw people off the set. Can't wait for that new Kanye album. But I have to say I'm disappointed in him. What did you say?

Atlanta season two has been great. He just turns to Susie Culver. He's like, I just think they nailed it with that Lando Calrissian character. In Star Wars. God, that Ryan Coogler's amazing, isn't he? Susan's like, what's going on? I just wanted to find out if you're good at Buffalo. Have you had wings before?

Man, I got to tell you, free thought isn't fair thought. Did you agree with my theory that when you're a team like Buffalo or Cleveland, when you take somebody who's been in just as bad of a cold weather situation, they're not going to be bummed out to go to Buffalo or Cleveland. They'll be like, oh, whatever, man. I'll roll with anything. Whereas, like, who grew up in Manhattan Beach? Josh Rosen?

Yeah, Rosen. And he's going to Buffalo. He's like, fuck. Yeah. Vikings on the clock. All right. Well, they're. They took a cornerback.

Oh, a corner. He was a borderline first runner. Yeah, Mike Hughes. Pat's on the clock again. right. Well, they're. They took a corner back. Oh, a corner. He was a borderline first runner. Yeah, Mike Hughes. Pats on the clock again. Here we go. High. You know what he does? He high points it.

We're going to do. We're going to make history here. We're going to FaceTime my dad. I loved your dad's tweet about game five. We're going to Face. I'm going to. Hopefully the mic picks this up. Nephew Kyle is in the background on my FaceTime.

Oh, he's probably in the bathroom. Hey, you're on the podcast. On the podcast? Yeah, I just wanted to see. It's Pick 31. We're taping it as the draft is going along. How excited are you for Lamar Jackson right here? I'm really, really excited.

I'm devastated if we take a corner after what about if we took a second left tackle I want Lamar I wanted him

all along I don't know you're the you're the only place in Boston with bad wifi that I know we have to go

I'll call you after. All right. Bye. God forbid his Wi-Fi. I know. That didn't do him any justice. People are going to be like, what's wrong with him right now? It's late.

I'm going to flip this around. Now that we know where the guys have gone, who has the best chance of being a bust? Baker Mayfield's in the lead, right? Number one, how'd they take him this high? Oh my God, the Browns, they've done it again. See, I like to clean slate it with front offices. New front office. They have a new front office every year.

True. It's like a weather change. So you just think no matter what, Cleveland just will screw it up because they're Cleveland. Because it's ownership. I think there's real baggage. That there's real baggage. I see, but you are always much more to the emotional side of this stuff. And sometimes I think you're nuts. And real baggage. I see, but you are always much more to the emotional side of this stuff. And sometimes I think you're nuts.

And then other times I go, you know what? Pay more attention to what Bill's talking about. Like you think- Fans bring baggage. Yeah, you think there's like juju as soon as you get off the plane. I do. And there's nothing you can do about it as a player.

I don't believe in that stuff. I do. You might be right, but I'm just, you know. First of all, it goes in with what I like when I look for a Netflix movie. I love that there's something wrong with the house movies. And I think with Cleveland, there's something wrong with the house.

And on that note, coming up, I'm going to tell you. You want to do your greeny teas now? Yeah, well, we still have a couple of picks left. Do the greeny teas now, because the bats are on the clock and I've got to read something. Here it is. I've thought about this one there's one prospect one that can change your entire defense and prevent your wife from leaving

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The pick is in. Here we go, Nephew Kai. You can turn around. I'm going to give this a little volume. This is really exciting. This is one of the most exciting moments in the history of this podcast. The pick is in for the New England Patriots. It's 826 Pacific Time.

They're not going to take him. Actually, I'm predicting the trade down, which is even more insulting for Belichick. Yeah, definitely trading down. It's not even just we're picking someone else. It's like we're trading back five spots there's no way he's taking him now when he didn't take him before you know what i mean like doesn't that like that means he'll take him he's he's so in my head jedi wise i just the only thing i know about him is he had a really bad stretch with corners and he's terrible with receivers uh the outside guys right right

drafting them good with the slack guys but i'm i'm i'm fearful for the think pieces if lamar's sitting there for 24 hours it's gonna be oh i didn't even think of that we got two picks left that's what i'm saying if lamar's sitting around what's wrong with the nfl this is an nfl that left out kaepernick and we're like okay we're just like a bunch of teams passed on him i'm in the what's wrong with the nfl camp i think it would be crazy. Would you call him collectively racist? I think it would be crazy if he fell out of the first round. What do you think he'd be motivated by? Tape?

It's completely illogical to me. This whole thing's illogical. I think he's going to be the best one of all these guys. I still haven't heard a good reason. They don't like how he handled the interview process? Who cares? He's really inaccurate on clean pocket short throws. It's really weird.

I'm telling you. Like, I've watched him for two years. And somebody, when they hear this, gonna be like, oh, whatever. It's first to five. Dude, there's so many throws. Daniel Jeremiah did it. I mean, the guy worked in a front office, NFL Network. He's terrific.

He's draft 365. That's every day of the year, Bill. And he was, I was like, finally, somebody that has more credibility than me. That it's just odd that he whiffs on some of these really easy throws. So you're out on Lamar Jackson. I'm not out, but I understand the, like, You understand the hesitation.

Like, I always feel like accuracy is a thing that you don't really fix. I agree with that, actually. But I know that people look at completion percentage all the time and throw it back in my face. And I go, But is Cam Newton accurate? Forget.

Oh, I don't think so. Right. And he's been good anyway because he does so many other things. My thing with Jackson is I think sometimes we have fixated. It's like the Westbrook, the 90-10 thing. People have been fixated on what isn't good about

Jackson. They're missing all the stuff that's good about him. Oh, the pick is in. I thought we changed the Westbrook from 90-10 to something else. Well, now it's like 70-28. Roger Goodell. Here we go, Kyle. 31st pick. Goodell is up.

Wow. Two guys from Georgia. He loves Kirby Smart. He took a running back named Sony. Yes. This guy's good. Well, this was the guy everybody said don't take barkley at two just wait and take one of the georgia guys later sony was uh the same class as chubb and that was at one point before chubb's injury even though chubb's still i think good um that's the best one-two punch in college football and georgia just goes to these running backs it's

nuts but sony put on a bunch of size this year and he can catch the ball like this is mr versatile this is a more athletic very like you know deon lewis is terrific as far as making guys miss but he's a little this guy's a little sturdier now because he's put on some size this is just a hobby over here breaking it down i've heard the georgia running backs everybody likes them yeah but let's go through the picks because i want to uh because this leads to a barclay discussion that we want to have. I can't even imagine. So the draft starts. Goodell comes out, and people boo him in just the most lusty way possible,

like gladiator, like Joaquin Phoenix, Russell Crowe-level booing. And Goodell has this pre-can line. He's got these cowboys out there, and he goes, I can't believe you guys are booing the cowboys. Like he had been practicing it for three weeks. And it's just such hatred and vitriol for him. Draft starts. What if I said a girl like me and a guy like you?

So Baker Mayfield, nobody was going to go first. he actually does well it changed i give schaefter credit on that one man he had like three days ago and i was like is he getting worked you know yeah you thought it was a johnny manziel ram situation yeah because the rams lied to everybody about manziel and everybody was buying it and i didn't i didn't think it was i was you know i think that was more of an anecdote as far as saying it was the exact same thing but no but i mean when you hear that from schaefter like you going, are you just giving me pointless stuff on a day? Or are you getting rope-a-doped by somebody? Yeah, and like Schefter was on this so like early this week and was like, this is like, I'm not just updating you on something the Titans passed along.

It's like, hey, check this out. Yeah. That's a good get by Schefter. So he goes one, which sends the draft into complete flux. I thought the Giants were going to take Darnold at two. I would have taken the quarterback. I just assumed. Yeah, I'm not a... I think Saquon's terrific. I wouldn't take running backs.

So I'm torn on this. I would never take a running back, and I think we've learned our lesson now that you just don't need to take a running back that high. Even if they're great. The lifespan is too short. If I'm taking a top five guy, I want a guy who's on my team for 12 years. That's the one thing I've, in 2018,

that's how I feel about a top five pick. And with the quarterback, the reason that it's worth the 50-50, if the guy has a chance to be a franchise guy, is you end up in the Phil Rivers, Eli Roethlisberger situation, where 15 years later, the guy's still your quarterback. And just cross that position off for 15.

There's no running back where that can happen. How likely is it, if you're the Giants too, that you're in position like this to draft somebody? Unless the Giants go, hey, you know what? We think everybody's nuts and these guys aren't that good. That's totally possible. Maybe they thought that. And if that's what they thought, then I would defer to them.

I mean, Gettleman would be the last guy to give himself credit for figuring things out that nobody else would, but I just wouldn't do a running back at any point because you can piece the running back thing together. They've tried to improve. We've seen teams do it year after year after year. All the time.

Who are the Philly running backs? LeGarrette Blount. Clement. Smallwood. So the Ravens acquired the 32nd pick from Philly, and this makes me nervous because this feels like we're in Lamar Jackson range right now. See, from a content standpoint, I mean, look, I don't have to deal with it tomorrow,

but like Twitter, Twitter, hey, I'm super mad about everything, Twitter. It would be on fire if Lamar is sitting there for a day, and it would become a social examination of the sport again. And which, you know, look,

so get your think pieces ready is what you're telling us. Yeah. Um, so Saquon Barkley, Josh Allen tweets out this at 14 Lamar sits for day two. Hmm. Coming up next. Uh,

so with all that said, I would never take a running back top two, especially you like to pick i kind of like to pick i just think like but this is why the draft is so stupid because you talk yourself in here you're going oh man barkley and odell holy shit whoa evan inger two of the six most exciting guys in the league he's already top six in excitement oh my god imagine what's something gonna be like it's fun. What's Sunday going to be like? It's fun.

I also remember loving the Pats and being pumped when it was a receiver. Or like Robert Edwards. All right. I remember when we traded up for Irving Fryer. All right, last pick. This is Lamar Jackson's last chance. It's 8.33 Pacific Coast time. Good doubt still getting booed with the intensity of hour one.

Here we go. I heard the Eagles wanted to trade this pick. I can use it now. They're shopping it. They're trying to trade to the ringer. Oh! Cancel. Oh, man. Good for him, man. This sucks. I really like him. cancel oh man

good for him man I really like him I like like a couple times I've got to interview him really like him god now you're bomb

why do you have to go in the AFC oh oh and now he's gonna have a chip on his shoulder I fucking hate this do you think god damn it

the chip on your shoulder I 100% believe in that 100% i think it was great for donovan mitchell how many guys how many people do you think in philadelphia that were saying ben simmons and anybody else was a moron how many sixers fans that watched mitchell let's admit for the first time in the last week went hmm right so definitely there's nothing but simmons was yeah he by the end of the year we both agreed simmons rookie of the year my only point was donovan mitchell nina lincoln went ahead of me malik mock who um and then uh and then the worst one was luke canard went ahead of him i

know and ahead of him but and taken by a team that really needed a point guard. Is the NBA racist? Why does Kennard go that high? Well, that was weird. Here, try it. But man, if Detroit takes... What is it about the Pistons? If Detroit takes Donovan Mitchell with that pick, they don't make the stupid Blake Griffin trade and their whole... It's like this chain of events.

You did that in Grantland. It's sliding doors. When we did the Grantland TV show for hoops. We did the what ifs. Yeah, other than the tennis one we did, which no one saw um the what if stuff you guys would do with the grant when you did the whole chris paul and anthony dave stuff like that's that's not really even it's all real like hey this thing happened and boom like i remember reading spider-man what if aunt may had died and Uncle Ben had lived? When I wrote my basketball book, I had 33.

And this is through 2000. The book came out in 2009. It was the 33 best what ifs. And since that chapter came out, this was nine years ago, I think there's probably like 12 or 13 great ones. You should just keep coming up with paperback what ifs. Well, one of the best ones is- That's just coin for you.

What if Klay Thompson doesn't go nuts against the warriors i would get to say okc game 6 2016 is a fucking awesome what if totally because the thunder okc wins the title i don't think durant can leave at that point the warriors have to re-sign harrison barnes it's this whole chain of event all these different trades don't i mean it's the whole league's different. My big, what if is what if the Sixers didn't trade Moses Malone? Oh, the Jeff Ruland,

Cliff Robinson trade. That's a good one. And Cliff Robinson, who also played for the real Globetrotters. And then they traded the number one pick that was Brad Doherty for Roy Henson. So it would have been Barkley, Doherty, Moses.

Well, you know what the, you know what the big, biggest, what if of this decade is? This past decade? This decade in the end. There's one that stands out.

What if Perry Ellis wasn't 40? No, not Perry Ellis. All right. The Harden trade. Oh. It's easily the best what if of this decade. Easily. I still never understand why they said they had to do it when they did it.

Because they lied. Oh, that's a good question. They want to say not pay the luxury tax. They lied about it. It was like four million bucks or something. They lied about it.

They could have amnestied Kendrick Perkins. No, there's a bunch. I've gone, yeah, I remember reading over it. They could have done all this stuff. They could have just taken another shot at it.

They could have taken a shot and traded him that summer. Right. And then I love that the Rockets- They like the trade. They've lied about it ever since. Yeah.

They like the trade. They like Jeremy Lamb. They like the draft pick. They. Yeah. They like the trade. They like Jeremy Lamb. They like the draft pick. They got Adam's side of it. And they like Kevin Martin. And they really said the words, Kevin Martin can replace James Harden's offense. Boy, that doesn't seem accurate now.

That's a tough take. That's what's so tough about that job is you can be right out of the gates for a year on the decision. So you can get like credit for a year going, you made the right call. And then you'll really look at what you did. And five years later and you go,

you're an idiot. And I don't, not the same, like Presti's. No, he's one of the best GMs. That was a terrible trade. It was.

And the other thing is, here's another thing I've learned over the years. We talked about how don't trade up and you want as many darts and dartboard as possible. Here's another thing I've learned. Don't do the thing that your best opponent is going to go, oh, thank God they did that. Like San Antonio, who James Harden destroyed in the series before and knocked them out when San Antonio was a one seed.

Everyone on San Antonio, they're throwing a party when they traded. They had nobody on their team who could guard James Harden. And then when I had Bosh here, when we talked about that finals, and he was saying how their whole game plan was to stop Harden in the finals and give Westbrook and Durant their 52, and they knew they had to take out Harden. When the teams you're trying to beat to win the title, that's what they're saying, you can't do the trade.

You can't trade that person. You just can't. I wonder how many teams look at that though like hey did you see how the smartest teams in the league spo and pop and how those guys were prepping against us yeah see what they were doing maybe that should tell us something right they were stopping that it's kind of like that dwight shrewd thing where he goes whenever i make a decision i ask would an idiot do this and if an idiot would do it, I would not do that thing. Right.

I'm amazed. It's actually kind of smart. I'm amazed by the lack of intelligence sometimes with some of this stuff. Like the whole thing how Ben Simmons needs a three-point shot and jump shot, which, yeah, that'd be great if he had it. I wouldn't, I broke this down on a pot of kibbutz. It wouldn't be one of my top three things

I would add to his game. Because if you play off him, he just finds cutters and makes great passes. No, he's kind of like scary. He's scary. How good he is. And you know what I love the most out of this Heat series? Is that they are messing with him. Or, you know, we're trying to mess with him.

The whole series. And he's like, nope. It's so composed. I mean, he's nuts. And I don't really know what you do with them. And you know, whenever I think back to, you know, how much we both love the draft, the best guys in the world get this stuff wrong all the time. I know that when I watch Dwayne Dedman video and go, I kind of like this. I know I'm good at it. Cause I go, how come more people aren't talking about him? Like, I just know that i'm i have way more hits than i have misses and when you're

watching simmons and you're listening to smart guys that are way better at basketball than than i ever was or that coached in big games coached in tournament games are going oh i don't like this about simmons and this and lazy you gotta ask these questions and the team to go to the tournament, all this stuff. And you guys, and you just watch him and go, how can you not see that this whole thing that LSU is doing is dog shit? Like this kid's getting, you're calling him lazy and he's getting 11 boards a game in college and he's lazy. Like look at his movement size combination. Like this thing is really, really special. And I think it gets back to what I always try to tell people. Like whenever I talk to a team and they get mad about what another guy said or what another guy wrote, I go, there's so many dudes that do this, that don't

watch even close to what you would think. And they're totally comfortable going on the air and going on to, I'm always still shortcuts. Yeah. Like I'd be scared to death to come tape this podcast with you not watching the celtics game before yeah and there's other guys that i'd almost admire and they'd be like hey when you get here four like i'll get there at eight i'll listen on the radio yeah like i will say the one thing with simmons and i've been following him since i was 15 since my wife was googling our son's name and a ben simmons popped up who was the best 15 and under guy and she's like did you know there's a ben sim Simmons is great.

So from that moment on, I discovered him. My wife discovered him and we were monitoring him. I followed him to Monteverde in Florida. And I'm like, what happens if this guy's really good? And that's, I've talked about this before. Were you guys tweeting with each other? Yeah, we started tweeting. I met him at the ESPYs and, and so I really, and the Celtics had a chance to get him and I was like,

could this be my Celtics destiny for them and Ben Simmons? And I watched a lot of those LSU games, way more than I would normally watch a college team. I thought the fire went out of his eyes the last month and I didn't like it. That was a real concern for me. I thought there was, I get it,

it was a terrible situation, the worst coach ever, teammates who were just bad fits i didn't like that he checked out i really didn't because i've just like if if this kid has a chance to be an all-timer i'm trying to put other guys in this situation would they have checked out like jordan no um hakeem elijah no like you just go on down the line i was like why did he check out? And then you see two years later and it's like, that situation must've been so bad that he hit a point where he was just like,

I just don't want to get hurt. It was basically, you're in the pickup game in college and there's, it's or the intramural game and it's the kids who don't know how to play. And you're just worried that one of them is going to undercut you. And you just play differently because you don't want to get hurt yeah that's i think where he was at lsu he was just like i just don't want to get hurt because when i watch him and i think about him bead because you know i i loved him bead but you know the language in the contract can protect him a little but for the most part he's going to get his money like they would have

to do something really weird here to cut him it would have to be a new injury or no it can be a new injury if it were a pre-existing injury then it saves him like the last year of the money so i was like all right so there's a little they did a little thing to try to make themselves better because i was even talking to the teams i'm like how scared would you be about giving him be the full max and you know teams i talked to were like i don't know what you do but then you'll kind of i was scared yeah you 31 games in three years yeah like how could you not be so then you come back to the same conclusion in the way this league works you go he's that special you probably just do it and cross your fingers but i feel like simmons now is probably the most important piece

like his path and what he becomes takes me to what the sixers will become and i think you and i are sitting here both agreeing you know watching watching the Celtics series and watching how the Cavs look. Sixers are going to kill everybody. I really think they're going to come out of the East now. Yeah. I thought that way since early April. And then my turning point was game three, midway through game three,

headed fourth quarter. They just had a run. It was like, oh my God, they're, they're definitely making it. That was the second half. Yeah.

There was just a moment in a beat and they're just ridiculous. But the one thing I'll say about Simmons, and I haven't said this yet in the pod, I actually think they can't get LeBron now. And this is a really good argument. You'd be like, oh, if they make the finals and they don't win, you're telling me that adding LeBron James isn't great? I actually am. It might be great for one year. It might be great for two years. But what they have in Simmons and Embiid, I would not fuck with it. I wouldn't bring in any other person who's going to have the ball a lot, who's going to think he's the guy,

who could potentially mess with Ben Simmons in any way. I wouldn't do it. I would build around those two guys and ride the next 15 years. Hope Fultz gets better. They have the Lakers pick that could be like 7, 8, 9. That could be like Bridges from Villanova. You know, somebody like that. They could sign some more free agents.

This is my team. I'm not thinking about LeBron. The only thing I would do if I were them, if they had a chance to turn Covington into Paul George, I would do it. Well, what you got to do though- Because I think Covington's theul george i would do it well what you gotta do because i think covington's the weak link of what they have oh and he's i mean he's really good he's really good but i don't trust him off offensively and i don't know how smart of an offensive player he is i guess if i could turn him into paul george i'm doing it covington for

paul george would be one you probably say yes to i would agree with that it was like covington and some of the foreigners they've stashed and yeah but when you start when you start thinking about the lebron thing like let's get back to that all right i i hear everything like that's not a internal recoil where i'm going what the hell yeah what do you mean they can't use lebron because i get your point on this but like i don't and you're talking about lebron from kind of like an attitude and entitlement thing like hey i'm not i'm not saying he's a bad guy no no i'm really not no i don't think you're saying he's a bad guy. No, I think you are, though. No, no, I'm really not. No, I don't think you're saying he's a bad guy, but like... I'm talking about the cult of LeBron. Right.

He's coming in and it's now LeBron's team. I don't want this to be anyone else's team. Yeah, but these are the things that I think were... This isn't just about a basketball fit. And I think some people have suggested, you know, Simmons and LeBron. It's not a great basketball fit, though. I think LeBron always figures it out.

I just do. I just think he would always find a way to figure it out. You know who I want the ball in the hands of? Ben Simmons. I want him in the hands of my 21-year-old superstar. Here's what you've got to do. Before you start having to pay the rest of those guys, you've got to go ahead and go over the cap and sign. You've got to figure

out how to bring in one of those massive chips. I would think instead of just waiting to sign all the guys that you have on your roster. Paul George. Yeah. But even Georgeorge sometimes i mean look what they did in game uh five is yeah yeah game five is great for okc they're gonna lose in game six what if what if paul george goes to them and says goes to ok and says um oh i guess he can't because he's unrestricted right yeah he doesn't have the op yeah he doesn't have it it's

not like a boogie cousins thing no or like chris Chris Paul who said, Hey, what I'm going to do is opt in and you're going to trade me. Or DeAndre Jordan could do that too. Right. Yeah. Or LeBron could do it. LeBron could do it. And it's crazy to say now they don't need one of the three best players. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying next year's year 16 for him. He's not going to play 25 years. You're talking about a two or three year window. And I care about the 15 year window with Ben Simmons. Yeah, but when you're doing the- By the way, they can win the title with him anyway,

without him anyway. They're not beating healthy Golden State. I'm not saying this year, I'm saying next year, year after. If you build around Simmons and Embiid with the right supporting cast, they could be the favorite anyway. So you'd say no to LeBron.

I mean, on the record right now, LeBron's like, hey, I want to go to Philadelphia. Because I believe, based on the people I've talked to, is that Philadelphia- I think they're in play. Oh, they're definitely. I'm telling you right now. They are in play. I wrote this in February. It's 100% in play.

Right. Okay. So we agree on that. Yeah. And by the way, Ben Simmons and LeBron, same agency. Owned by LeBron. You're Colangelo. Owned by. It doesn't have, didn't put any money into the agency though. owned by LeBron. Your Colangelo owned by,

it doesn't have, it doesn't have, it didn't put any money into the agency though. It's fine. It's fine. You'd hang up. You'd say we're good. Don't make searches.

We're good. How much do I have to pay him? A lot. 35 million a year? Yeah, like a 30. You know, maybe you could shave a million. Now I have to get rid of

JJ Redick, Iliosova, Bellinelli. I you could shave a million. Now I have to get rid of J.J. Redick, Ilya Sova, Bellinelli. I'm bringing in LeBron. I'm telling Ben Simmons, great job taking us to the finals and becoming Magic 2.0. Stand over here. It's LeBron's team now.

That's what I'm doing? Joel Embiid, we'll get you the ball every once in a while. Every once in a while. We'll still get you some touches. What I'm saying, okay, but if you and I are sitting here being like, this doesn't mean now that because Embiid was healthy this year

that all of a sudden he's just healthy forever. So why wouldn't you go, hey, you know what? Chances are Embiid's probably going to get hurt again. But I don't know. If Philly makes the finals, I got to say that's kind of a lame move by LeBron. At this point of his career. Yeah, before it was going to help those plucky kids from Philly. Now it's like, I'm actually,

I'm making another move that I'm chasing a title. You're the third best player of all time. You don't need to chase the title. So he's supposed to just rot in Cleveland. No, he's not. If you're going to chase the title, don't glom onto the young kids. So what would you do if you can't be in Cleveland? Then what would you? I definitely would leave Cleveland.

OK, all right. So you're saying he needs to leave Cleveland. All right. And the problem is like watching Love play and then the pick falls to eight. You go, what is that? Like, what is that this offseason? Like, was that enough to entice another team that's facing a guy like the only way they end up with a guy like kawaii is like that's the only team i go to and that's the only team i would get the

extension from and then it ruins his market everywhere else so that's that would a lot i have the team you should go to new orleans and mess up what you're gonna chase has been able to do with if you're gonna actually chase titles go play with the best player in the league anthony davis go play with the best player in the league, Anthony Davis, because he is the best player in the league right now. He's the best player in the league, Anthony Davis. LeBron is the greatest player in the league. Anthony Davis is the best player in the league.

That feels a bit like a cop-out. No, no, it's not. LeBron's the greatest player in the league. Do you want MVP and best player in the world? Anthony Davis is the best player in the league right now. He's awesome. You're not, there's no. He has no flaws in his game whatsoever. No, and it's all efficient.

And whenever those theories or those lists come out, like when they were doing the under 25 and who would you take? You go, when Davis is healthy, you realize that he's better than, like it shouldn't be an argument. What he's done the last three and a half months and what he did in the playoffs

was at an all-, all time level. And there was, there was a first take argument that Kellerman said he got, Will Cain tweeted about it. And then Kellerman was mad. They got the tweet wrong. That sounded like a good show. Yeah, it was pretty good. But it was basically, we're talking about the highest ceiling of a power forward, which I guess was Kellerman's case. And he said, Duncan won, Davis too.

Oh yeah. That they were doing. They were like, all right, would you take Davis over Barkley, over Malone? I think Will Kane thought it was just their list of the greatest power forwards ever. Yeah. Cause he got mad. They left Dirk off. Wait a minute.

He, why? Is it the white guy? Well, Dirk's the second best power forward ever. Is it racial? Oh no. Has Will Kane ever been accused of that? You're buddies with him. I am. I am. I mean, he's laughing as he's listening he's like he's just pumped we said his name will kane this is great

uh but i think davis a really good argument is who has the highest ceiling davis right now or duncan in the 0203 range but see this is what night to night ceiling of what they're doing i think davis is actually higher i think davis is more impressive in the stuff that he does. Duncan was not putting up 47 and 15. How about 47? Davis gets 47 just in a game three and then gets 48 the next game. He's awesome. I freaking love him. I love him. And I'm so happy for him to have that first round because it feels like this, I don't know if it's this league or if it's the fan base and the fans are awesome like i love nba fans of the fact that they they have interest and they love teams beyond what their team is right but he kind of needed something like this to remind everybody that oh yeah that

guy's sick isn't he um but the whole the the history thing is is be like it's not fair it's like yes if anthony davis was a time machine and went to 1988 or 1998 people would be like are you kidding me right so like his his skill set duncan o2 is relatively similar yeah but the athletes were around the same no but i get the pace of the game i still think that davis played in an o2 game we'd be well what the hell is this like what is this because of the rounded abilities but just, he just won his first playoff series. So what happens is it turns into ability and who you think has more skill, and then it cancels out a dude's resume,

and that's not fair. Like, you can't do that to Barkley. I look at the, when I say best player in the league, and I think we would all agree, LeBron's night-to-night kind of ceiling of where he can go is still the highest of anybody. What I think makes davis special now is every single night he does everything on both nights and it's like it's if he finishes a

game with 25 and 12 it's like an off night where it's like 25 12 i only destroyed 15 high screens and three blocks think how many bigs aren't dependent on somebody else setting them up to dominate yeah he can get all his points in the flow of the offense. Other people can have good games. But late possessions, close games, you can ISO this dude. Right. Pick and roll in the lobs. I want to keep talking about Anthony Davis.

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Again, it is free. You know what's kind of sad? I want to pour out a 40 right now for something that I think, had you still had your radio show, you'd have gotten a lot of mileage out of. Pour it out. Where is Anthony Davis going next year? The whole summer would have been making up Anthony Davis trades,

rumors, Woj bombs. Will the Celtics include Jason Tatum? Right now they won't. Oh, Heinsen wouldn't put in Aaron Baines. He's not a banger!'s a baron baines here reminds me a little bit of easy and mccauley uh baines is a more skilled cow hey hey ryan did i ever tell you

about the groupies in the tri-cities did you ever do that uh we just it would be weird because he at first didn't like me when i was up at comcast which is now nbc boston because he was just like who's this guy and like if you know like look it was always a tough spot for me i didn't play you know and i was like so this guy just knows a ton of stuff and i was calling the the 84 finals on cbs and this clown's gonna be sitting next to me i won the 74th title yeah right, right. I mean, forget what he called. I mean, you know. So I, you know, some other younger guy would be like,

hey, you know, what's up with Billups' contract? I'd be like, well, you know, he'd probably redo that at, you know, whatever, 12 million and they'll bring him back. I was like, he's one of the most versatile point guards in the league. And it didn't matter what I said. And Heinsohn would be in the back and he'd go, no, he isn't.

He just cut you down? Yeah. So then, you know, somebody would be like, hey, how come they're not playing Milt Palacio more? I'd be like, well, you know, you struggle sometimes in the defensive. He's fine in that regard. You know, so like I was just like, oh, this is awful. And then he started like listening to me a little bit and was like, oh.

So then we started doing all these Heinzen things where we would pretend he was just telling stories that never happened. Yeah. He'd be like, there was this Italian ref in Rochester. And that was the bit. That was the Heinzen bit. So you won him over. Yeah, I won him over. And anybody that knows him knows he's the nicest teddy bear.

He's awesome. But in the beginning- You messed up though at the beginning. This was your fault. I'm not blaming Tommy. Because I love Tommy as much as I love anyone in my family. You didn't suck up to him enough early on. No, I don't suck up to anybody.

I know, that's the thing. I'm bad at it. Especially last decade, you had the chest out. Like, I'm getting in on my own talent. I'm not kissing anyone's ass. I box out in pickup games. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's just who I am.

But with Tommy, you just gotta, you gotta put in the 15 minutes of, hey man. No, I'm bad. Because when the book comes out, there's gonna be a whole chapter on not playing the game. Not playing the game. And it's backfired. That should be the name of your book.

Not playing the game with Ryan Russillo. Kids play the game. And I didn't. And you know, so I'd sit there in my awful suit and- Refuse to kiss his ass. Yeah, I didn't kiss anybody's ass. So Tommy went to Holy Cross and I did too.

And every time I met him- I love the cross too. I raved about Holy Cross, what he meant. So every time I see Tommy, he loves me now. But it's all genuine because he really was like this Holy Cross icon from back in the day when people cared about sports. And he's a painter. And then in the off season, you know, he used to sell insurance. Like I hear all these stories about Heinz and they'd be like, oh, well, you know, in 54, you know, and I'm like, what? And then as a coach and then as, and it just like apparently unbelievable he he probably was like

the second no he's the third best center of like the first day or i'm sorry the third best forward yeah of tommy the first decade of russell's career so it's like bob pettit elgin biller and then tommy heinzen is the third best forward in the entire league i also think i actually said to his face i I was like, Tommy, if you play today, like you wouldn't get double figures. Oh, he definitely would. And he was like, are you kidding me? I'd score more.

You should do a Heinsohn sit down. I'm going to have like a seven hour podcast. Yeah. Because I think I could get on the point where it'd be like, I remember in 1961, Red ran over a pedestrian in our van and just kept going we were an act in boxborough and we were like what was that red red it's like it's fine i think it was a deer and it wasn't i also interviewed red when his book came out and that was unbelievable

programming back at your former station the zone oh where we did my former yeah we did we had a eddie annelman red arback book signing thing at the kowloon and we mapped it out months ahead of time and it landed on the day after the red sox won the world series in 2004 wow yeah so hey welcome into the show we get red arback here i'm here with dave jagler and uh dave jagler what a nice guy he was. And we're like, hey, so, Red, tell us about the book. How did you and John Feinstein get it? All right, let's open it up with calls. Like, first call. Hey, you know, not to be a prick here, but the Sox won the World Series last night.

Unbelievable. I've never told you that story. I've told that story. I didn't know that I ever told it to you. We're now into the segment of a podcast called Jalen Brown is actually way better than people realize he is. Now, let me ask you this. Do you like him more than Tatum?

No, I love Tatum. Okay. I love both of them though. Now, if I told you Jalen Brown is going to be Paul George, would you say, no way, I'm shooting too high? Or would you say, no, actually, he's going to be better than Paul George? Or would you say, no, I could see that? Okay, I've been wrong on Jalen. If you watched him at Cal, it was a mess.

Throw that all out. I'm saying right now. He is so much better than I thought that he now is in my head that I wouldn't want to put a cap on him. No cap. I think George's just skill set overall is more polished than Jalen's is. I don't know if Jalen would be somebody 30 possessions a night that would be able to just –

Look, Brad runs too much stuff, and I mean that as a compliment, where you just – George is able to get a lot of stuff on his own because you're also playing off of Russ and they don't run anything. All right. So I don't think it's – I would have told you you were so stupid for even suggesting that last year. So Paul George, year two.

He wasn't great in the very beginning. So year two in Indiana. How long did you run from early? During the regular season, 12 points a game game five and a half rebounds 39 from three in the playoffs if you remember they made it two rounds 10 points a game six and a half rebounds and 27 from three what was it granger doing all the scoring with hibbert it was granger hibbert and paul george was like the young guy who was like, oh, that guy's kind of doing a good job on LeBron.

Yeah. I remember Hollinger was like one of the first guys. And he tweeted out, I think something his second year. This guy's good. Haralaba was in on him early too. But then the next year he jumped to 19.2 when they made the three rounds. And they took Miami, I think to six or seven. All right, so Jalen Brown this year.

Yeah, so if you're doing the comp to comp that way. So if I'm doing the comp right now, Jalen Brown threw five, I don't know what he did tonight, but he was doing 22 a game in the playoffs and shooting 44% from three. But then during the regular season, 14.5 points, five rebounds just my point is the checkpoints he's

hit are better than the paul george checkpoints and paul george took off after year three you could argue jalen brown's taking off right now well he is taking off right now he's a phenomenal athlete i think he has a chance to be i voted for him for second team on defense well he's awesome on defense and i think he has you know especially with some of the young guys like you could sit there like i feel like tatum is engaged maybe more than you do throughout the game for a rookie but jalen has a little fu in his game totally and i love that where it's like hey you know what in the beginning maybe i was uncertain and hey things are coming to me and then it's like athletically like there's not a lot

of dudes out here that are as athletic as i am so now legendary hard worker yeah so i'm going to combine all that stuff with like a real aggression now and a real work ethic now the problem like if you look at tonight's game them losing the bucks like this game became the game that you should be so scared of if you're a celtics fan because you go oh so janice can just sort of win a game on his own and he outscored the celtics basically closed the first half for like the last eight minutes of the first half tonight but the problem though is with the first half tonight. But the problem, though, is with the Celtics team on the road, when you start semi-Augele, you're going four out of five, which I think you can do at home.

Because at home, roll guys step up. The guys on the other team aren't going to shoot well. That's when Thon Maker goes over four from three and snow. All those guys aren't going to do it. Where did you have Thon Maker all NBA? I had him on my 100th NBA team, all NBA team. Thon Maker all NBA? I had him on my 100th NBA team. That's deep. Yeah, I had him on the 100th one.

But I think starting semi on the road, I actually thought it was a mistake. Because I just think the Bucs are going to score anyway. The roll guys are going to step up. You actually need offense on the road. And playing four and five, it just doesn't make sense to me. And they ended up at, what, 85 points? Yeah, no, they struggle.

And the Bucs, you know the Bucs are going to get are gonna get to 100 how i mean this is the part of the celtic story though where you go it's actually all still impressive though because all right if i asked you beginning of the year like where's rogier what what number guy is he we said he was our four and a half guard so ninth or tenth guy tenth guy maybe 11th all right and he's kind of the guy that you're going hey bail us out and what happens is is when he's hitting bricks tonight which he was that actually opens a door for like marcus smart at times it kind of scares me even though i know how great he's on defense well he's playing with one hand that scares me more than anything yeah but he's still that's a problem though it's like okay so you weren't a great offensive player before and now you're

screwed up but keep shooting and then marcus morris has a little like hey let me look around here we got brown second year guy rookie and tatum roger all right so i got this let's get on my back cedric maxwell stuff and then you're like that scares the hell out of me even though he had like a little bit of a run when they actually started coming back so this team this celtics team has had to figure out who they are offensively and it's different all the time it's fine they. They're going to win game seven. Yeah, but they're not going to. Philly's going to kill them. I wouldn't pick them against Philly. No way.

I think Philly's going to beat them handily. What if Brad beats them? I don't really know. Would you want them to coach the Pats too? If Brad beats Philly. I wish Brad had the draft tonight. I think Philly is one of those teams that I'm not sure there's a lot of wrinkles to throw against a team that has that much talent.

You know, I could be like, here's what we'll do. It's like, there's no here's what you'll do against a team that's head-sliding. A lot of pin-downs with Baines. Right. It's like, basically, let's get Embiid into foul trouble or let's go hack a Shaq when Fultz is in. Like, there's little tiny things you can do. Even you could do it with Simmons if you wanted to. You could.

Get some Shane Larkin minutes going. Some Abdel Nader. It's not great. What's your biggest surprise of the playoffs? It's got to be New Orleans just working Portland that way. Yeah, I would say I wasn't surprised that they beat Portland. We did the Ringer NBA show that night and then we talked about the next day and we both thought New Orleans

could win the series. I was more shocked that Portland was that bad. I know New Orleans was playing great and it was a great matchup for them, but it doesn't explain why Portland was so bad. There have been moments in this playoffs where, as you mentioned, the role players and you go like, okay, what can you really expect here? But it happened in this

Milwaukee series a little bit where it felt like, wait a minute, Jabari Parker's good now? Just at home. Like, what happened? really expect here? But it happened in this Milwaukee series a little bit where it felt like, wait a minute, Jabari Parker's good now? Just at home. Like what happened? Okay. But it's still like a piece that you didn't even think was going to be part of this, especially after games one and two and how he played during the regular season. So then if you look at the Pelicans, you got Rondo again,

who's playing like he was playing in 2010. Yeah. And Miritich is nuts. And he's playing defense. He's hitting shots. So I wonder like if you're even a team like Portland that was pretty good this year, where you go, what the hell is this? We didn't sign up for this.

We thought it was going to be one guy and Drew maybe. And now Drew looks like a first-team all-NBA point guard. Would you re-sign Boogie? Let's say they lose to Golden State in six. What would you pay for Boogie? By the way, I think it's going seven. You think the Warrior Series is going seven? I don't think we see Curry again until

five, six, or seven. I think he misses the first four. Yeah, I was told he's not playing game one, but he has another practice. So by the time this comes out, if there's another practice... They're not rushing him back from that injury. Because if he re-aggravates it, now you're jeopardizing the two rounds that actually matter. They should be able to get by New Orleansleans without him i'm not the biggest boogie fan i think you

guys know that um and yet we're kind of figuring something out here this year and i felt like it was you know my my level of expectations for him are pretty low you know so when i saw him a little bit more engaged i go hey you know what like we got a little bit something here he's not just shutting it down like when boogie's out there shutting it down mentally it's it's one of the most damaging players in the league poisoning yeah when he's like super just pissy yeah like hey i don't want to do any of the other stuff and i'll shoot because i'm mad whatever and i thought he was doing a better job um not doing that as much this year but i'd have to know what the injury is. I'd let him go to market. And then I'd probably,

even though I don't like him that much, this league is too tough. Like I don't want to lose the asset for nothing. Would you flip them for Kevin Love? Yeah. I mean, I don't like boogie. I don't,

I don't, I don't care. Like I compliment, that was complimenting him for me. Wow. But I don't want to lose an asset for nothing i think this is going to be one of the weirder summers we've had because you only have like seven teams with cap space and you have a lot of teams that are suddenly happy with their team

that maybe would have been players otherwise like new orleans is a big trade team they're fine that's not how the teams work though when they have cap space the teams are like it's like leaving a casino that you know you're never coming back to with chips in your pocket and instead of being like hey maybe i can leave with 200 bucks and pay for dinner it's like let's go over the roulette really quickly yeah let me just let me throw these in the garbage first that's how teams use cash so you i mean you would keep them if you're the pelicans i i and you like them a lot more than I do I would move on I would try to sign and trade him first of all that injury he got

is I think a really hard one to come back from and be even 70% I think they've stumbled into something that we all kind of knew deep down was that Davis should be playing the 5 and that's been awesome and I also don't think there's a market for him.

I don't know who's spending $20 million a year for Boogie Cousins this summer because the shitty teams aren't going to use their cap space that way. There's no team that's kind of like hoarding their cap space as a potential contender except the Lakers and Philly. And I don't think either of those teams are doing it.

And then you go on down the line the rest of the way, and it's like, who's left? That's why I kind of always get annoyed when I see the Isaiah Thomas articles. I'd be like, oh, if he didn't ball out for them, well, he's lost $120 million. You know, I really would have loved to have seen what would happen with Isaiah Thomas on the market.

Who do you think gets more money, guaranteed money this year, Boogie or Thomas? Boogie. Yeah. I think somebody buys into Boogie. I just don't know who it is. It's always, you always hear these things. Oh, somebody, and then my answer is always,

go look at the standings in alphabetical orders and go team by team. And you tell me what the team is. And the team doesn't exist. Even a team like Washington, where you'd be like, oh, it'll be Washington. They don't have the cap space. They're paying John Wall like 35.

John Wall and Bradley Beal are making like, and Porter, I think are making like 90. The three of them make like 85 or 90. It's just not happening. And you're just going down the line. It's like, well, that team can't do it. Well, they can't. They can't. So could they get him on a 10 year, $10 million one year deal?

I would do that if I was New Orleans. Okay. Well, that's, yeah, that's different. I mean, 10. Basically, are you healthy? Prove to us you're healthy and wink, wink. What is your prediction for the biggest upset in round two, even though the round two things haven't been decided yet?

Hold on, actually, let's do it this way. All right, let's set a timer with the Google Assistant for this speed round segment. Hey, Google, set timer for two minutes. All right, two minutes, and we are starting now. Ryan, give us a prediction. You have two minutes. The biggest surprise of round two.

Not even knowing what all the matchups are yet. Why don't you go first? I think the Sixers would sweep the Celtics. I don't think that's that much of a surprise. You don't think that would be a surprise? Brad Stevens getting swept by a precocious little team with Joel Embiid and Simmons?

That's how dumb the five games thing is. I've always said this. You guys got worked. You got swept. It's like, yeah, but if I'd won two games, it was a really great competitive series. Or like Minnesota won one game against Houston, so that game was tight.

Yeah, you know what? You're right. Stevens, the way they fight, young guy. But look, Philly didn't exactly... Philly was so not impressed with the heat as that series continued. Yeah. As it kept going, they're like,

oh, wait, you guys aren't even good. We're way better than you. Miami had two monster Dwayne Wade games and still lost in five. Right. And you knew because Wade waved the victory flag after the fourth game. Do I dare say anything about Utah moving on?

Please do it. Oh, Utah's moving on. That's happening. Utah makes it a series with Houston? Ooh, make the case. Let's hear it. I can't. I'm trying.

Rim protector. Yeah, but I don't think that matters as much. Donovan Mitchell, bad matchup defensively. Houston doesn't really have the type of player to guard him. Well, they don't have Mbamute back. Will they have him back for round two? I don't know. I'd have to look that up right now.

We get research on that. Utah has a bunch of... Those meatballs are still there. Utah has meatballs to throw James Harden plus a whole bunch of other stuff. I just don't think Utah has enough scoring to keep up with them. So I can't really do that.

What if Washington beats Toronto? So Washington wins game six and then goes into Canada and wins game seven. That doesn't seem like Washington, does it? Are we done in two minutes? Oh, we are. That's seven. That doesn't seem like Washington, does it? Are we done in two minutes? Oh, we are. That's it.

I don't think that was good. I need to do a better job with that. You want to do it all over again? No, not that. I just, I don't think I have. Thank you. Hold on. Check out Google Assistant.

They complete over a million actions on your phone, in your car, around the house. All you have to do is say, hey, Google, dot, dot, dot. I could have done a better job with that and be like, why the Wizards are going to make LeBron retire? And then you're like, wow, that's pretty bold. He's going to retire? And then SportsCenter would be like, hey, say something crazy. Like, all right. Like, I think LeBron will retire if the Wizards beat him. And then it doesn't. And lebron beats him like coming up next this asshole last week said the

lebron was gonna retire yeah and then you have the radio shows playing what a dickhead you sound like yeah now granted they never said hey say something they'd go give us something bold something bold and i'd be like you talk and compete with houston like that's not really flavor town is it we need something a little bolder i think one of my favorite things i ever did on tv was we were doing the lottery the secondary countdown and cleveland won and it was like cleveland had won the lottery for the third time in four years yeah right yeah i remember i think i remember this and i was so mad i was so mad the celtics didn't win but i was just more mad that cleveland celebrated I'm like you guys

have been jackasses for this entire decade all you guys do is fuck up and you won another lottery like this league is just so stupid do you remember what you did on the air yeah I trashed it yeah but you proposed a rule change on the spot I did I did a whole rule change everybody in Cleveland was so mad they're celebrating the lottery and I was just like not only is this a travesty but we need to change the rules right now you're sitting there looking at everybody on the desk going i think the nba should do something where you can't have the number one pick back-to-back years if you suck and everybody's looking at me like what's going on but i really felt that way and i still feel that way i don't think you i hate the fact that ron filtered simmons well but i hate the fact thank you i hate the fact that Ron filtered Simmons. Well, but I hate the fact, thank you.

I hate the fact that the NBA lottery has become NBA welfare. It really has. It's like you, it's like we are completely incompetent. We're completely terrible. Please give us our top three pick. They should have the GMs wait in line. But every time they go to a store 24 and wait in line for your top three pick. So you want to do the wheel?

You want to do you want to do something? No, I just I don't I don't think you should just be able to pick in the top three every year. I think it's fucking stupid. Even the whole reason they did this, though, like I'll never forget one of the first articles I ever read as a kid, like the whole Houston thing. I mean, you know this with the team. And it's like, read that tanking. That was a tank off. Like 83 was the first real.

So 83, you have this insane tank off for Hakeem. Yeah. And then the league's like, all right, well, we need to start doing something. Let's make a lottery so that not everybody just gets it in order of how

they finish because it was a race to have the worst record. So the funny thing about famous game was right. Well, I remember to have the worst record. So the funny thing about- You know what the famous game was, right? Well, I remember looking at the box score. There was an overtime game where Bill Fitch played Elvin Hayes the entire game. It was like 40. It'd be the equivalent of if Udonis Haslam played 53 minutes right now. Haverstraw would have wrote an encyclopedia.

Like just written- And they lost an OT and it was like, feed Elvin. And Elvin was like 100. But yeah, that was the first year. So what do they do? They come up with some way to solve it. And now all we've done is tweak that a million times. We just tweak it again for the draft coming up next year.

So like- But what's wrong with if you pick in the top three, you can't pick in the top three the following year? Why can't that be a rule? You just, your ceiling is the fourth pick. Is it right though does it does it mean so you think teams would be more competitive you think teams would be less and i'm not saying you're wrong but like you think teams would be less inclined to tank knowing that if they got in

the top three to one year then they can't have it again back-to-back years and what it refreshes they could do it every two or three years right so the lakers were second last year if for some reason they won the lottery, they would have to drop to four. You know what I want to do? I just want to do my idea. What's your idea? Redraft the whole league every year.

Like a video game? Yeah. The whole league. What's funny about the lottery is every- This is the biggest event in the sporting calendar. I did this Grantland article, I think, four years ago. I got to update it. But if you just redo the draft

the top the top pick matters the top pick two out of every three years matters after that it's a crap shoot the difference in number 12 and number nine the you you have just as good of a chance basically donovan mitchell being the latest example yeah well yeah i think you would agree that like in the four or five range is still historically better on value than 12, 11-12. If you look at the way... Yeah, I would say 4 versus 12, but I'm just saying a top four pick versus you might get a guy 27th who's the second best pick in the draft.

I do think we overrate it. There was that one draft. Giannis was the best pick for the draft. Rudy Gobert was the second best pick. He was like 27. I know. CJ McCollum was the third best pick. He was like 27. I know. CJ McCollum was the third best pick. He was number 10.

He was hurt. None of the top guys in the top eight were the best picks in the draft. O-Depot, I guess, was number two. But even then. But what was last year? Tatum was three. Three. Jackson's four.

Donovan Mitchell's 13. Right. Jackson's four. Fox is five. I guess last year was a little more traditional. Isaac's six. Last year was a little more traditional Isaac's six Mila Keenan, Dennis Smith where did that LeBron game rank for you?

the other night? yeah seventh do you think that was a top five game? because I tweeted that I thought for stakes, performance 44 points first round game five dude just like start to finish just had to have been one of the best

at least 10 games you ever played so you like five six and seven and 16 against golden state all have to be in the top 10 right yes and i would say the pistons i would say five is in the top five. The Pistons game. The Pistons game at 07. Celtics game 6, 2012. There's a game in the 2013 finals that was really great. They have a game against the Bulls two years ago that was stupid when they didn't defend. I'd like to read an article about the top 12 greatest games of LeBron's career because that had to be up there.

Why don't you write it? I'm too lazy. I'd rather do podcasts than eat Thai food. Who would you? Much nephew Kyle freak out that the Ravens took Lamar Jackson. The Pats passed on him twice. I know. That's why I'm glad that theory. Cause I was like,

wait a minute, if they didn't take them then, why would they then, if they liked him? So they must love some QB in the second round. Hmm. It can't be Mason Rudolph. I just want to put it out top.

Brady's 42 this year. Maybe, maybe craft thing. Maybe craft things like you told me to trade Jimmy. All right. We'll ride Brady in the ground. Great. When he's done,

I'm done too. You think Bill would do that? That sounds petty. Oh, you don't think he's big? Stop it. We're just one more thing in the topic. Good.

No versus Trump. Compare and contrast. What is that article? No. If Trump brought out like the 12 kids from Dallas during the NBA draft and was like, aren't these kids great? More cheers. Isn't this wonderful?

Cheers. He said, how about these kids? Isn't it great here in Dallas? I love it here. I'm kind of what good. No does. Right.

Yeah. If you just switch them, it would be the same personality. Yeah. Look at that kid. That kid's one of the best kids. The kids, that kid special. Yeah. of the best kids of kids is that kid special yeah see something you see they told me when i came here that these kids

are some of the best kids you're gonna find any kids anywhere great kids they said that to me they said that to me on the way in great kids and then he would hug the draft picks but he he'd pull you in he would go he'd power shake you He would get your arm and he'd be like, hey, Minka, let's get in here for the good stuff. Right? That's good. A couple more things on the agenda. We almost had all three teams in the AFCs that weren't the Pats

improve their quarterback position. The Jets have a quarterback. The Buffalo Bills have a quarterback. Miami was sitting there and could have taken... Rosen Rosen. Josh Rosen at 10 and traded out of it. You'd think at some point the rest of the division would go, we need to do a better job.

We need to do a better job. We need to do a better job. I think you look at the Jets and go, I don't care who they bring in. They could bring in like a make-believe guy with a 99 Madden rate. You just think he'll perpetually suck. That's how I feel about the Browns. I don't feel that way as much about the Jets.

Oh, you don't? Okay. I just think the Browns have never had a good quarterback. It's 20 years now. What if today the Jets took a guy that for 12 years is now going to terrorize? What if the tide turned tonight? What if it's over? Well, that's the thing. I made fun of the Jets when they made that trade.

They made it a month before the draft, which was weird. They gave up a ton to what seemed to be getting the third best quarterback out of the top three. And allowing at least a team to prepare for a month to jump them. They gave a shitload of stuff up for it. I agreed with you. And that draft day comes, and they end up getting what everybody feels like is the safest number one pick at number three. Even the most diehard, cynical Jets fans that I know, like my friend Sean Fantasy, who runs

the ringer.com, even he was kind of, didn't know what to do with himself. It's like, wow, this worked out for the Jets. But it worked out. Yeah, but see, I don't like when, I don't like when you make a good point and you're still right in theory. And it's like, well, still worked out, you know? And you go, well, no, but like,

why wouldn't you have just done this trade tonight? Why did you have to do it a month ago? Who are they competing against to move in the top three? I think that's what they underestimated. think they thought denver was trying to get in there and buffalo and all these different everybody had said buffalo for for i'd heard that a month ago buffalo's gonna move up buffalo's gonna move up and then they still didn't move up as high or at the time a little bit yeah it wasn't like hey we have to get to two to go get this guy but i also think that if saquon you you know, if he didn't go two,

he's probably going to go four. So the Giants are like, if we trade back, we may be missing out on this guy. But I never know. I never, you know, I'm sure if you do this job long enough, you'll have drafts

where there's five guys you'd be happy with. And then there's other years where you just look at it and go Saquon, somebody like that. We have to have him and we're not happy with anybody in that eight to 12 range. The Browns ended up with Mayfield at one and then the cornerback at four yeah ward from ohio state who i actually love

but had they just traded out of four and gotten the 12th pick from buffalo along with the two second rounders that buffalo gave up to move up to the seventh pick i would argue that's they're better off than just having this cornerback. I'd rather have three picks. Even if they took Baker, but then traded down from four and got 12 and then two second rounders, I'd rather have that. Yeah, second and third round are deep this year.

I just like corners. I'm back to loving corners. Okay. Because I think this league is so... Because the Patriots lost because they benched one of their two best corners? I didn't hear about that. How many great theories did you get from your buddies in Boston? I had state troopers on the case. I had everybody. Oh, did you?

State troopers were asking you? I had people giving me... You did some Beantown time recently. I did. I was back in town. You were back a few times. Yeah, it was good. Hanging out with the troopers? Hey, you just give the whole state troopers a shout out on the radio. Yeah.

The Bill Simmons podcast. Hey hey what's simmons like it's a good guy yeah you're a good guy he a good shit yeah i was back i was back for four days i'm gonna go back for six or celtics if it happens i i'm gonna go back for five i think yeah i'll get the jet um i'll get the ringer jet. I was back for four days and got to go to game two, but it rained every day. It was freaking cold out. It was mid-April. It's been a brutal spring. I felt like I was robbed.

The mid-April is when everyone in Boston, every girl in Boston is basically like, it's not even warm enough to wear this yet, but fuck it. It's been six months. And there's just this weird energy in the city of, everybody just wants spring to happen so badly. they just start acting like it's spring anyway yeah 60 degrees yeah i got lucky on that i miss it that opener the home opener it wasn't bad i mean it wasn't wasn't terrible we were in the sunlight there it's a fun baseball season by the

way i know i think it's a i think it's a really top notch did you think they're gonna be this good well we don't know if they're they're you think they were going to be this good? Well, we don't know if they're... I thought they were going to be good. I thought JD and Bogarts were going to make a difference. Right, Bogarts isn't even playing. I think the key is like, Borsello's... No, I mean, just going into the season,

I thought like, Bogarts was hurt last year. He's healthy. Yeah, I thought Bogarts would be good. JD comes in, that's power. Those are two bats we didn't have. I don't like the JD contract. I kind of like when he's up. His ball carries.

The thing with him is he doesn't have those Stanton homers. It's like he has these swings and you go, oh, that might get into the gap. And then they cut back and it's like going 10 feet over the wall. If Price is going to be this good. I don't trust him. Yeah, but if he is. I don't trust him. I actually think I trust Erod more than Price. I think Erod. I don't trust him. Yeah, but if he is... I don't trust him. I trust Erod more than Price.

I think Erod... I hate Erod. I hate that name. What is that? Hey, did you know Manny Ramirez is in Hartford? He was at West Hartford today. What are you talking about? Manny Ramirez. I left West Hartford right before Manny Ramirez got there. He lives in West Hartford? Yeah, his son is playing for the minor league baseball team.

The Yardgoats. Manny Ramirez lives in West Hartford? Yeah, his son is playing for the minor league baseball team, the Yardgoats. And Manny Ramirez is in West Hartford. Can we get research on that? Can we double check that? He was taking pictures outside of one of my favorite spots. Can you give me your LA impressions through about three weeks? Alright, so my house still isn't ready and that

sucks. Give me a weather, people, nightlife. I haven't gone out since I've been here. Okay. So, yeah, I hung out in Manhattan a little bit. The first day I was at the gym, I think I already mentioned I ran into Liner. And then I ran into like, Sean Merriman was there. T. Martin, USC staff, former Vol.

There's a lot of dudes there. Oh, Julius Randall was waiting in line. I think he i think he forgot his id this is your la start this is here's what it's like in la you're just telling me about former athletes you ran into yeah i didn't say hi to any of them i said you've really been espn kool-aid because that's like when you're at espn i haven't gone out i haven't gone running in athletes yeah i haven't i haven't like dead lifting i've been lifting but i've been living in hotels which means i'm losing shit left and right uh i did laundry yesterday for the first time in two and a half weeks i went out to denver and then uh this malibu scene it's it's kind of cool but i don't know if i could live there but i

the traffic thing is a massive uh like it just it wrecks you like you were in connecticut yeah but this sucks well new york sucks too not like this new york sucks just as much but there's other options yeah the train that doesn't work and you might die on yeah but if what if i block the punch what if you like the punch uh i love it and uh that i like i feel like there's there's an energy i have i definitely in a better mood you know i'm working on a bunch of different things um so i feel kind of like that coffee shop guy that, that has a bunch of ideas, but do you wake up at four o'clock for the live taping of get up?

Or do you wait until the, I watched the replay. You watch the replay. I do. Yeah. I check it out. Bill Wolf. I like Bill Wolf.

Good guy. So I, I still watch a lot of stuff. I was, I was checking out some shows the other day. I called into Will Kane show two days ago show two days ago to complain about the Thunder. And they came back from 25 down. But it's a very, I'd say it's kind of unsettling

because I'm still not 100% sure. What about the sports coming on at four o'clock? I don't like it. You'll like it. I don't like it right now. You're going to like it when football season starts. You wake up and it's on. That's fine.

But like this whole, I have to be done with my day by four. For the playoffs? Yeah, that that sucks i don't like that yeah but you're you got kids i'm used to it though yeah like i'm supposed to go out to moon shadows in a little bit the famous mel gibson place i'm gonna walk in and just go like hey give me the gibson table all right we're gonna wrap up anything to plug the ryan rossola podcast yeah check out the ryan Hey, give me the Gibson table. All right, we're going to wrap up. Anything to plug the Ryan Rosillo podcast? Yeah, check out the Ryan Rosillo podcast and subscribe. Please rate and review the whole deal.

Next week, we're going to do a full recap of every decision made by the Denver Broncos from 98 to 99. That's part one. I can't tell if you're serious anymore. That's just something I'm pitching. You know what? The way I read the room, we're not going to do that next week. I'll come up with something else. Thanks to ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire.

My listeners can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Thanks to the Dave Chang Show. Don't forget to subscribe. Our new podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, presented with Majordomo Media. Thanks to Gillette. Gillette offers a variety of shaving products for every guy, regardless of his personal style, skin needs, or budget. And whether you want three blades or five, the new Gillette. Gillette offers a variety of shaving products for every guy, regardless of his personal style, skin needs, or budget.

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That is Simply Safe with two I's. Simplysafe.com slash BS. And if you want to hear more football talk, we talked about it on the Ringer NFL show. They taped tonight, GM Street, Tate Frazier, Mike Lombardi. Check that out. Check out all of our podcasts. Check out theringer.com for all our draft coverage.

And you can even see the video that we posted of us watching the Patriots not pick Lamar Jackson earlier tonight. That is up there now at ringer, our Twitter feed. Enjoy the weekend. Talk to you soon. I don't have a few years with him on the wayside of the Bruce

Oliver I don't have a few years