The Bill Simmons Podcast - America Gets Bounced, World Cup Picks, Knicks Fan Bliss, ‘Heat 2’ and ‘The Odyssey’ With Chris Ryan, Anthony Dabbundo, and Jason Concepcion

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Join The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Anthony Dabbundo LIVE on Netflix to react to the USMNT losing 4-1 to Belgium in the World Cup's round of 16. Then, Jason Concepcion joins the pod to give more World Cup thoughts, discuss what the Jaylen Brown trade means, break down the TV landscape, and much more. (0:00) Intro (1:15) Belgium defeats Team USA 4-1 (41:57) More World Cup thoughts (01:07:01) What the Knicks win meant for Jason (01:14:33) The TV landscape, ‘The Odyssey,’ and more! Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Chris Ryan, Anthony Dabbundo, and Jason Concepcion Producers: Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Chris Wohlers Brought to you by PayPal. Learn more at paypal.com As the Official Beer Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 26, Michelob ULTRA away $1million in FIFA World Cup tickets and prizes. https://www.michelobultra.com/superioraccess/FIFAWORLDCUP26 MICHELOB ULTRA® FIFA® WORLD CUP 26TM SUPERIOR ACCESS. No Purchase Necessary. Open to US residents 21+. Begins on 12/1/25 and ends on 7/31/26. Multiple entry periods. Visit https://www.michelobultra.com/superioraccess/FIFAWORLDCUP26 for free entry, entry deadlines, and Official Rules. Message and data rates may apply. Void where prohibited. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Download the PayPal app today. Save those offers. Start scoring rewards. Terms and exclusions apply. See PayPal.com slash rewards terms, credit card points subject to issuers, terms, and conditions. The Bill Simmons podcast, we are live on Netflix right after Team USA got knocked out of the World Cup. I have Anthony Dubundo and Chris Ryan here. I wanted to mention Ali, new rewatchables, is now up.

And Zach Lowe and I did a basketball podcast yesterday, if you missed it. All right, guys. I don't know why, but I had hope. I was excited for this game. I, especially when Balligan got thrown back in with the Seattle crowd, I watched a whole two-hour pre-game show. Ironically, I also saw The Odyssey today, a three-hour, just a grueling trying to get through it

watching our hero try to land the plane at the end and was hoping maybe there was some parallels just trying to land the plane man was hoping there was some parallels for America today and CR there was not it was a terrible terrible terrible performance by us another pot another colonoscopy here

for us yeah that was a real talent disparity and maybe a little bit of a wake-up call it's been an awesome tournament I think that the country has embraced the sport. It's been really, really, like, one of the greatest couple of sporting weeks of my life. But that was Real Madrid's goalkeeper and Manchester City's winger came on in the 60th minute. And, you know, Telemans just won the Europa League with Aston Villa.

And I thought maybe that extra 15 to 20% of talent really kind of put us in our spot. What did you think, Anthony? What about you, to Bunda? we wondered what would happen the first time this defense actually got tested because the three games that the starters played were not against teams who were going to test them and I couldn't have imagined they could have failed that test anymore. I mean, it was every single time. It was very simple.

Belgium played a long ball. They won the long ball. Our defense panicked, desk panic, ream panic, Richards panic, Freeman panic. And they gave away the ball over and over again. And any team, I mean, Belgium were fine. I thought they made it way too easy. It's ridiculous. This was, it felt like karaoke of all the things you would be worried about in a bad

America game, right? Most guys, we talked about this before the tournament. The guys I was the most worried about were Reem and Dest. Dest was unplayable. I mean, that was like, he was so bad that it takes about a half time. Ream looked every bit 38 years old. The keeper had one of the worst F-ups we've had in a long time in a World Cup game. And then the other piece was, hey, it would be nice that Pulisic just was awesome and stayed healthy for an entire game.

And he stunk in the first half and then got hurt in the second half. And Sierra was almost wondering, everybody talking about Balgan when he got the red card, he was out. And then the dialogue for three, four days was, he's our best guy. We can't lose our best guy. And then he comes out. Our best guy is back. And, you know, it could have gone one of two ways for Pulisick where it's like, oh, he's going to show everybody who the actual best guy in this team is, or he was going to have the game he had

today where he looked like he was a freshman in high school playing varsity. Yeah, I don't know whether or not Pulisic was still carrying that calf injury and whether that had anything to do with it. Obviously, he kind of kicked through a Belgian player on that foul and basically hurt himself, but you feel bad to see his tournament end that way. I still go back to what I just said originally. It was that even our best player. It would be kind of middle tier Belgian player. Our best of our best would be

maybe Belgian bench players and I gotta say one thing that kind of jumped out at me was more than even the Balagan Red card being overturned was when they announced the starting lineup and I know each one of these guys has different reasons

but when Belgium didn't start DeBrona, Lukaku or Dooku I was like, I think they're getting ready for Spain. Like I kind of wonder what, I mean DeBrona didn't come on but Kaku comes on at the end, scores the final goal. Doku was basically toying with us. And I think it could have been worse, honestly.

Yep. Yep. Like, I think we got lucky a little bit to get out of there without giving up six. Dubundo, can you explain resting the three guys and like what would be the NBA equivalent of somebody doing that? How about Joe Maz? Never mind. Too soon. Too soon. No, it's not. No, it's not. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, if you go back to the round of 16, round of 32, Belgium was down 2-0. They were getting punked, like, swarmed by Senegal. They had no answers. And they pulled off Doku and DeBrana in the 65th, 70th minute.

And it literally felt like Rudy was waving the white flag, Rudy Garcia. And you're like, all right, that's it. I even tweeted, like, his final move, his manager of Belgium is removing his two best players. They didn't actually play better. They just scored two goals. I mean, Senegal's goalie had a mishap. They just started chipping balls up to Lukaku. And then they survived. So I guess the plan was like, we're going to ride with the guys who brought us here.

And it was Luca Bakio. But they clearly made a change too. They changed up their midfield completely and played more defensive midfielders. And the first 10 minutes of the match, I think Onana, the guy who ended up getting hurt, may have won every single ball in the middle of the park for about 10 straight minutes. And I'm just like, oh boy, this is not going well. And then when he got hurt, they actually played better. That was their only good 15 minutes

was right before halftime and still just didn't matter. Because was it his sub who scored the crazy freeze mistake? Yeah, Vinakken. And he started the last match too. And he plays for like club bruges. He's a fine player.

But the tactics were just they shredded our press. And that was the one thing. It's like, we can press them. We can press them. And they were like, no, you can't. We're kicking it over the press over and over and over again.

And they had, I mean, just no answer. They lost every second ball. Yeah, we lost all the 50-50 balls. The passes, it felt like we couldn't get three or four straight passes in a row. Everybody, the 1B1 stuff, like I was thinking back to the Paraguay game, which feels like it was 100 years ago now,

and Poussick just destroying their left side for a half hour straight, I don't know if anyone beat anybody 1V1 for an hour on our side. Nope. And the only guy who felt athletically, like he could be on the field with those guys was about.

And it felt like over and over again, they almost unlocked him. He would make this run, but then the pass was behind him. And then finally, what was that, 12 minutes left. He's ripping down the left side. It was interesting that he went toward the close post on that shot, but he hit it about 700 miles an hour and it almost like was so hard, it almost went in. But it felt like if they had gotten that goal,

then maybe the crowd gets into it. Who the hell knows? Yeah, anything's possible. They needed a little bit of like, you know, something like what Mexico had last night. First of all, I feel like the crowd kind of got taken out of it a little bit.

I mean, maybe a goal in eight minutes will do that. Maybe all crowds would sound like that compared to as tech. Yeah. I mean, as much as Belgium is better,

they panicked. They gave a ball. I mean, there's a ball that lands. Three U.S. defenders are standing in the penalty area. All three of them just watch the ball bounce in their penalty.

That's like 101 soccer defending 101. Never let the ball bounce in your penalty area. And the one Belgian, one Belgian guy gets on it. Guy Raskin, I watch a lot of soccer. I had to Google him. Like, he plays for Rangers in the SPL.

Like, he's not, you know, this is not like they ran into a world-class team here. Belgium was played off the park a week ago by Senegal. It's unbelievable. So they have four goals in this game, Belgium, CR.

The first one, screw up by three defenders, just all the, I thought you, oh, you, and then they score. Second goal, it's a 1V2,

Guy beats both guys, goes baseline, crosses it wide open, gets it. Third goal is in the running for worst goals. This country's ever given up in a World Cup. And that was the backbreaker, yeah. I don't know what the top five is, but it has to be in the top three where you have just multiple things collapsing all at once. Then the fourth goal, which the game is over at that point, but that was also something that you would see in like, you know, a JV soccer game.

Well, I will note that Belgium went for that fourth goal too. So we should not underestimate the maybe how much they hate this team or hate what happened over the last couple of days and how much that might have

I mean it's the World Cup those guys don't need extra motivation but we may have you know the balligan thing may have just created a certain sense of like these guys think that their president is going to fucking try and beat us like no way like that fourth goal they didn't

need that one and and I feel like that was pointed You're saying that was the F-U goal? Yes. The Spygate 2007. The middle finger to the crowd. Doku could have been out in the corner, like dribbling around in circles and we wouldn't have been able to take it off of them.

That felt like they were going for a fourth. Yeah, the one narrative I'm not going to accept is like, oh, we would have won if Trump had gotten bowing back. Like, we sucked. That had nothing to anything. The team was terrible. That was the worst we've played. Not only was that the worst we played all tournament, but I've watched.

a ton of soccer as you guys have. That was the worst anyone's played for like about a week. When we were talking about like these final 32 final 16 games, that first hour was about as bad as we've seen any, but like couldn't complete a pass, defensive screw ups, nobody was dangerous. Our best guy was invisible.

Dest was so bad he had to come out. It was really rough. But I think Belgium, I like the beer. Chocolate's been pretty good. Waffles. Other than that, The waffles are solid.

Other than that, I don't have a lot of tolerance for these Belgian C.R. I think that's it. The movie in Bruges? That's a good one. Love that movie. What else? What else? Is there anything else to like about Belgium?

I can't say I've never been. I think at this point in the World Cup, there's no, there's no like friendly, friendly opposition. You're going to figure out a way to get mad at everybody. I thought one of the things that Belgium kind of exposed for us is a lack of identity. I mean, it's sort of hard because you're here, you're watching all the stuff about the USM&T, and you're like, right, yeah, like, we believe in this and like this is incredible and this is happening.

But I don't really know if, like, I could tell you how the U.S. wants to play, you know? And I thought Belgium kind of exposed that. Like, not that I would want to be Paraguay from the France match, but they obviously had an idea. They were going to, like, kick the hell out of France and try to, like, make it into a refereeed match

that might come down to pens. We did not seem to have that game plan coming into this. I'm sure Pochitino had something in mind, but as soon as Tim Ream got kind of put on skates, the plan seemed to go up and smoke. What did you think about the way that Pochita set us out, Anthony? You know, Ream getting dunked on really did feel like the turning point in a lot of ways because they had played so bad.

Yeah, 33 minutes in, Tillman hits the free kick. You know, like we have our own Leo messing out. Yeah, we're back. him were back. And it felt like they felt like they were back. And then they, like, switched off again. And they didn't stop the cross. Dest, the first time he was asked to defend the entire tournament,

completely disaster. And that's why he's, you know, that's why they had to change the formation. So he didn't have to play right back. You go back four years ago. Same exact thing. It was Dest getting picked on over and over again by the Dutch. And they beat us with very similar-esque goals. If you go look at those goals.

So it feels like the same pattern. They're running into this same wall. But, you know, Pochitino did have this team playing so much better and more cohesively. I just think they got surprised. Rudy Garcia threw a change-up and they got out class, but they got,

there's no way you can tell me that this was just Belgium. This was the U.S. giving them the game. I also wonder, I thought I really liked Burrhalter, and it felt like when he came in. Sebastian, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When he came in,

and then all of a sudden we had more speed on the outside, and he's a little point guard-ish, and, you know, all of a sudden the corner kicks, he only had, I think, one or two, but the corner kicks, he's just the best guy in the team of those. He had the shot from distance and tried to cheat the crowd. I thought that was going in. Yeah, I just thought he, you know, and he's kind of gritty, which that was one of the things that you really noticed today was there was not a lot of

nastiness, like Paraguay, who was a disgrace on Fourth of July. Like, that was just an abomination of a soccer game. Yeah, but if that was us, we would have been like, I was there, a hundred degree heat. just loving every second of it. Screaming. Yeah, their entire goal was to 2004 pistons, you know, a much better opponent, basically. And it worked.

But, you know, for us, we had this great crowd. It was something I bet on England yesterday. And one of the reasons I did it was because of something CR said over the weekend about, or maybe it was when we did the Cole and Asprey pod about these guys are in pressure stadiums all the time. Like it's not like they're going to be, oh, my God, the crowd siked me out. you know, all of these guys have played in the worst possible locations

everywhere. England did a PR like masterclass. As soon as their previous match it ended before Mexico, they were like, well, we're not going to have enough time to get used to the altitude and we know it's going to be tough and we're going to be the underdogs in Azteca. And then after the match, Harry came was like,

yeah, or Declan Rice was like, altitude wasn't that bad. Right. You know, like it was fine. Right. And I'm sure there's 10 stadiums that those guys are playing and all around. Same thing with Belgium. Like, oh, the crowd's going to be nuts in Seattle. But guess when they're not nuts,

after you give up a goal in eight minutes and you can't complete a pass for 40 minutes. All right. So big picture, what do we build on from this to Bundow? Because it feels like we have two-thirds of a core of something really good and built around Balgan, who I thought was just dangerous and awesome the whole tournament.

And there's some speed now, there's some young legs, but it feels like a stopper. maybe they have to figure out once and for all is sorry guys, I have two Philly fans on here, but is Poulosick Embed is just like he looks great in February when we're playing Charlotte or New Orleans,

but when we actually need him in April, May, June, you can't count on him. Like, what are the three things you're looking at that we'd have to build out from this? That does feel a little harsh on Poulosick. I mean, he's bad in this tournament, but he has carried the U.S. through some really dark times,

really dark times in the last five to six to seven to eight years. So I think it's Baligan, Tillman, and Pulisic that come away from me as like the core you can build around. But it starts at the back. I mean, they have one good centerback, maybe two with Freeman. But goalkeeper's a problem. Who replaces Tim Ream? The backup defenders look pretty bad against Turkey. That's where it starts.

It has to start there because they are not going to be able to defend good teams with the guys they're rolling out. Dubund, do you think, too? I think McKinney and Adams are the, like, are they unassailable as a central midfield partnership? Because I do think to your point about, like, we were unable to kind of, like, route away through Belgium at certain points. Like, you wonder whether or not someone with a little bit more composure on the ball. And, like, you know, those guys give so much effort.

They're, like, all engine. But I don't know if there is a guy in the England, the America setup that could do that, that is a little bit more of a playmaker. But I think we were kind of crying out for something in the midfield there. That's the number one issue with U.S. talent development right now. I mean, they just don't have that guy. There isn't a Kevin Debrana.

There isn't a Kiguri-Tilman's even. There isn't a Leandro Trossard who's going to come in and playmake like that. McKinney did a pretty good job the first team games, but then today he was bad. And you do wonder, are McKinney and Tillman too similar now and what they do? And do you have a passer, who is that,

person, I don't know that that person exists. I don't think he does. At least I haven't seen him. People hoped it was going to be Gio Raina. And honestly, like, you know, Gio Raina is a very polarizing figure. But when Raina's the sob at half, you don't feel great about the second half. Because Raina is a bigger name than he is a performer at this point in his career. And he had the great goal in the opener, but he gave them basically zero in the second half.

Well, so what are the goalie stopper on the horizon prospects? Do we have people that are like brewing? there was a guy, Slanina, that people hyped up, but that hasn't really come to fruition yet. It's probably not going to be Matt Fries, long term. He's already 27.

This is where it gets hard. I don't know. It's also about like, what, you know, I hope and I guess assume Pochitino's going to stay on. Fingers crossed. For at least half of a cycle,

if not another full World Cup cycle. That might be a little bit much to ask because he's pretty young. And it's hard for me to imagine he's going to do, what, five or six years then as the U.S. coach. And to be fair, like, by the time we get to 28, say, like, you could maybe go and try and get, like, you know, if you put enough money in front of one of these guys,

you could get somebody, you get Marino, you could get, you could try and go for PEP or whoever. Like, you could go for somebody and try to bring in, like, one of the biggest managers in the world, which is what they just did. It's just, you know, he had, He had a really nice run of games, and then the team kind of fell apart.

And I don't know if he had like, I don't, he seemed like a little surprised by how bad things were going and didn't really have like a counter move yet, you know? And that's what he really needs to develop. I got to say,

I was really surprised. I don't know why. I really thought they were going to play well today. I don't know if that meant they were going to win, but I was surprised they stunk. I didn't, I got to say, I didn't see that one coming.

I really thought like, especially getting balling back and Belgium had looked so bad in that Senegal game for two thirds of the game and it was like maybe we can catch these guys. I thought maybe it was going to be a little bit like the Canada, Morocco match where it was like we play our asses off and really do well

but there's just like a class difference and they wind up turning it on at the right point in the match. I did not expect to get boat raced. All right. So let's go glass half full for a second. Sure. So they made the sweet 16. The tournament, although we do this all the time, with the World Cup where everybody decides this was this watershed. This has been going on since 1994 in this country where every time either America makes a run or when we had it here,

everyone's like, this is it. This is the moment for soccer. I feel like soccer's been happening for 20 plus years and especially Premier League, La Liga, and once the HD on the TVs and once ESPN started showing it and all these other channels bought in, like soccer's here. Like people know who Holland is. It's not like he's like, oh, who's this guy. Who's this guy? Who's this? guy in Norway who came out of nowhere. People fucking know who all these guys are. So soccer's here. We're one of the best 20 teams, which I think

considering we didn't make a World Cup recently, that's a bonus. And then, I don't know, I do think, I think those three guys you mentioned earlier at Dubundo, like, that's a good foundation. And now we just have to steal somebody else's really good player and make them come

here and live here in America. Michael always said. Is it a rom-com? Is it a Netflix rom- You know, Messi plays in MLS. Can we acquire him by eminent domain and make him suit up? This would be a really good Netflix romcom where the person who runs the U.S. soccer team, they decide they're going to try.

You know those rom-coms where there's some sort of, there's a bet or there's some sort of like there was a ploy, but then the person actually falls in love with who they're supposed to attempt and then they find out 20 minutes left? Let's do that. Let's get one of those people. I'm ready for those. My wife would watch that movie. I don't know. Let's steal somebody, though.

There's nobody? We've already kind of done that. We've already did that with the German, like with the, did your dad ever serve in Germany? Please come for us. Let's get more of them. Yes, Tillman, Balagan are all dual national guys that the U.S. convinced to play for us. I mean, that was one thing, you know, Burrhalter doesn't get a lot of credit for much these days. Greg Burhalter, but maybe one of the defining features of his coaching and his running of the program was getting more talent in the front door.

And that has led to, yes, they've established. themselves is like a pretty consistently teens-ish team in the world. How you get to that next step, I mean, there's been a lot of teams that have tried for many decades. And it tends on to be like the same eight teams almost every time. You said that before the tournament. What's it, eight teams ever that won the tournament. Yeah, Uruguay is one of them. And they were like...

And now when you look at... Uruguay was one of them. You look at the Fanduads now. Round of 16 was par. That's been par for this team forever. I mean, I think the frustration. thing is like you get one on home soil, you get the best manager you've ever have, you get the most dominant group stage, and then you still look, I'd argue they looked

worse in this match and they did against the Dutch four years ago. Like that match was more competitive than the final score leads on. This match was less competitive maybe than the final score leads on. Yeah, this felt like could have been worse. Yeah, you look at the Fandil odds right now, France favorite minus 175, Spain plus 340, Argentina plus 450, and CR Zinglin at 5 to 1. And then Norway, just like 17 to 1. Come hither.

Holland during the day in Miami. Yeah. Yeah. That's like you're really fun. I'm putting everybody on my back bet. We need to go sell some sunscreen in Miami this weekend. That's a good business idea. So did this come down to that Senegal didn't hold on to that lead?

Senegal didn't hold out to that lead to nothing? Because that's what we would have played, right? I felt like we matched up better with Senegal than we did with Belgium. and I know everybody wanted to call Belgium washed and like they kind of are but it's still a big difference in passing quality from what Belgium can offer versus what the Senegalese did

I would have preferred to have played Senegal we still like that. What's your relationship with number 10 on Belgium the left wing? The little guy. Trosard? He plays for Arsenal. Yeah, he just won the Premier League with and was very instrumental at the end for Arsenal.

So I recognize him and acknowledge him, but I'm not an Arsenal fans, so it's a little bit tough. He really schooled us. He was getting doubled at times and just seemed to be able to get the ball where he wanted to go. I hate Arsenal, but I actually like Trussard quite a bit. He's probably my favorite Arsenal player, but I'm allowed to have one these days.

You know those wings are scary when they're just completely still and the defense is paralyzed and they haven't even done anything like, oh God, what's he going to do? It's going to do something? What do you think about the like the, just, in terms of your question about like, where do we go from here? I mean, it's interesting that the three host nations of the Cup went out in three successive days, right? So Canada, then Mexico, then the U.S. I don't think it's going to diminish people's interest in the tournament just because there's still so many incredible players playing.

And this has been a tournament that's been defined by the fact that, like, Jude Bellingham, Erlingham, Erlingham-Holl and Leon Hamesi, Killeen Bappe, Harry Kane, are all dealing. Like, this isn't like, oh, yeah, I have to learn who this guy is. It's like, no, these are the best players in the world and they're playing like it. So I think that this will remain a really kind of central sports story for another 10, 12 days. But it is disappointing that all of those host countries went out over the weekend and we're not going to get any of them in the semis.

Or the quarters, rather. What was the highlight of the tournament for you, Dubundo? I know what it is for CR. Oh, England, 3, Mexico, 2. It's one of the best games I've ever seen. The 3, Cabo Verde, too. That was also one of the best games I've ever seen. all happened in the last week. I mean, it was unbelievable. But those two matches,

that's why we love the game. Yeah, we go into the Azteca. Darren Fletcher, I want to give a shout to Darren Fletcher. He has called so many different sports now. He calls a lot of stuff in London. He's called baseball. But he has been so good these last two international tournaments. He did Euro 2024. He did. And now he's, you know, I think the number one guy, no disrespect to strong and Stu. But like him and Hargraves are so fun. They make the game interesting. He's always working in these NFL or other sport references that kind of work, but don't really quite work, but you can see what he's trying to do. I love those guys.

And then, yeah, I mean, it was just the scenes. I mean, I was singing along to the anthems last night in my living room. It was so much fun. C.R. you well up during Wonderwall after the game or now? No, I didn't. I think the bar that I was in was not quite an England bar, believe it or not. Oh, in L.A.

barely got out of their life? No, it was fine. Everybody was cool, but I think there were a couple of, like, silent fistpumps to myself. So walk us through the night last night for you. You got a red card with 30 minutes left. This turns into pre-2004 Red Sox territory of like, oh, God, here we go. Here comes the fuck job. Well, and then Tuchel puts on all these centerbacks, not all these, but he puts on, like, he basically decides,

okay, like, this is what it's going to be. We're going to defend Fortress, and we're going to put all. like we're going to put Dan Byrne, who can just head away everything, John Stone's out there, we're going to pull off Kane at a certain point, we're going to pull off Saka. And it just was like, if we're going to, we're going to either live or die on these, the 90 minutes plus 11 minutes of stoppage time. And I thought that was brilliant and incredibly brave to do it that way, because if they had gone to extra time or depends, he doesn't have the best players

on his team out there to get a goal or even to kick penalties. I mean, he's got centerbacks taking penalties. So I thought it was amazing that they were like, I don't think these guys can get it over our heads and we're going to prove it. Who was the 6-7 guy you brought in? Dan Byrne. A lot of people made fun of him for big,

a lot of people made fun of Tuchel for taking Dan Byrne. And it was like, this is why you bring him for this one reason is you bring him in for this. It was amazing. It was like watching the NBA center just clearing out the paint throwing it around. I thought that game was awesome. I really loved it.

I think England's really good. I'm not just saying that. CR's here. I don't see why they couldn't win at Sierra. It's a really weird set up right now. There's like some stardust around Messi. France definitely looks the most competent.

I don't know what's going on with Spain. They kind of seem to be playing with their food like in a lot of these matches. But I think right now I just I think it's France's tournament to lose. Like they're just, it's so overwhelming how much talent they have.

What do you think, Dabundo? Well, that's very convenient. You say that's CR, because I wrote a piece for the ringer today, is this France's tournament to lose. And, you know, everybody has crowned France. France has not yet played a team that will challenge them in midfield, that will try to keep the ball, that will try to press them. And that's because most teams can't.

Paraguay can't do that. Sweden certainly can't do that. Norway's backups can't do that. And so France looked very good and always does against those kind of teams. But we have seen Spain in the past, couple years, beat France by saying, we're going to keep the ball and your press isn't good enough to win it off of us. And that has worked for Spain.

I think it could work for England. I think it could work for Argentina. I mean, people forget, it's four years ago now, but Argentina was kicking France's ass for the first 70 minutes of that World Cup final. It wasn't until Mbapace sprinkled the pixie dust that that game turned around. And certainly, if you get into an end-to-end contest, nobody is beating France. but I think all three of the other favorites have like a decent matchup to just say, hey, we're going to keep the ball,

and you're not going to be able to get it off of us. And good luck. Because they shop, they don't want to press. They don't like to press. Spain's defense has given up. What is it now, one and a half total expected goals in five games? It's ridiculous how good their press is. And so they get Belgium.

Who does Morocco, Morocco, France, right? England, Norway. I would be shocked if it wasn't France and Spain. Yeah. I only saw the second half of the Spain today because I was at The Odyssey for three hours. Classic Portugal, though, I wasn't surprised at all by their not scoring a goal at all. Not pulling Rinaldo off is an embarrassment. I mean, we talked about this in the pod we did before the tournament.

That Dubundo was like, are they going to accept that this guy shouldn't be out there when it actually matters? And all I know is I watch the second half and the little added time, all that. I never saw him come out. He was out there a long time, right? They kept making subs and the broadcast, Dar kept saying, you know, is this the time that C-L-7 comes off?

I mean, it was like, he should have been Lukaku for them. He should have been the closer. And or even if he's capable of that, I really don't know what he really is able to do. I mean, he started patting himself on the back for scoring on his Beckistand and scored the penalty. And meanwhile, not necessarily his generational cohort,

but the guys who he would consider, you know, he's a part of that group, all those dudes have like seven goals are leading their teams. And Ronaldo's divisive and Ronaldo can't run anymore. It was really funny. I mean, the stat that came out at the Croatia game, he had one touch in the penalty area. And it was the penalty that was, you know, handed to him. And then his backup comes in, Gonzalo Ramos,

who, again, four years ago had the hat trick at the World Cup. People seem to ignore that. And he scored on his first touch and the winning goal for Portugal. So we're like, oh, maybe Martinez will sub in and we'll go with Ramos. No. And there were opportunities today. If he wanted to be critical of Spain, there were chances like we're a more functioning attack. It's not just Rinaldo.

Liao was bad off the bench. Netto gave them nothing. Felix gave them. Like, all of their attackers were bad today. Yeah. But, you know, competent team might have created some chances because their midfield hung in there. I mean, those two midfields went toe to toe today. was pretty even game.

And Norway with their keeper and with Holland, they have no chance to do it, 2011 Mavs? No, they certainly do. I definitely think Norway is a shot. Oh, I don't. I don't think, I think Norway is very, very well organized, know exactly what they want to do. They have Odegaard, they have Holland.

Like, they could do one there. They might be the best coach team in the tournament. Their coach has done an incredible job of maximizing what they're good at and trying to hide as much as possible what they're bad at. It's like we can't defend wide. So we're just going to like, we're going to turtle up. And then the minute we win the ball, it's go, go, go, we're sending a bunch of numbers forward.

Holland, Holland, Holland, where's Holland? Oh, he scored. Oh, he scored again. It'll be interesting to see if Tuchel when they get Norway on Saturday, whether Tuchel starts stones or even Dan Byrne to deal with Holland lurking back there because even Gabrielle, who plays for Arsenal for Brazil, like, seemed small against him. and they're going to need to muscle up with him.

So big picture we're parachuting above this tournament. It feels like it's been an A or an A plus. Yeah, all world cups have black guys and like things where you're like, whoa, that happened. And certainly this one has. But as like a sporting event

and as like a piece of like a spectacle, it's just been incredible. How was that late? What you made earlier about all the best guys are playing their best is the number one thing. you would want with any of these things. Like, I hope that's what happens in 2008

when they have the Olympics basketball, right? You want all of these guys to also be at their best when they're going against each other. It feels like that's been happening. And then the Cape Verde thing was incredible. Yeah. And even America, just even getting to where they got to today was really fun.

I just ordered a jersey. I can't wait to wear it. Cape Verde. And the fact that Messi can still do it at this level, but it feels like out of anybody in the tournament, even though all these guys are absolutely super famous, it feels like Holland has won over the casual fans the most. Because the people that aren't watching,

you know, Sunday at 6 in the morning on Pacific Time and just kind of parachute in these cups, people are just like kind of dumbfounded by this guy. Yeah, he's probably the newest addition to the kind of super galaxy of stars that we have. Yeah. Him in Bellingham.

So if you watch England and you watch Real Madrid, Jude's not like a new name or anything, but I think his performance in Mexico was like, that's the kind of thing they write songs about. And both guys embrace it. Like you said earlier, they play up to the startup.

You know, Jude does the patented wide arms and Holland has all of his celebrations. He's hilarious on social media. I saw his tweet got like 22 million views in the first like two hours that it was posted. His selfie after the way. It has 91 million now. It's maybe it's 100 by the,

this point. And he's just hilarious. And he's so, he's so quintessentially Norwegian, right? It like fits every stereotype that people think of when they think of like the Vikings and then they're doing the rowing and everything. And they've definitely probably been the fan base that is one over the most people too because of the iconic row. For sure. Or people on Dr. Love Street in Philly rowing yesterday right after Norway won. I can't tell you guys, like living in Philly where we've had, you know, Ecuadorians, we've had the French, the Iraqis, we've had the Paraguayans. Just seeing the different communities. The Croatians were awesome. Seeing the different communities cycle in and out of the city for like the last two, three weeks.

And then the 4th of July being Saturday with France game and then downtown center city was just absolutely jumping all night Saturday into the wee hours in the pouring rain. The city has never been more fun. Being a host city has been a dream. And I can't wait until we get to do it again in 12 years. Yeah. The games are on the other side of town for L.A., but it's been so cool to see like the Mexico fans showing out, especially.

on the east side of LA. And like, I was at the, I watched the Ecuador game at a bar and it was just like, this is what it's all about. It's so fun. Well, and the best thing for us here, it's not the case everywhere, but for here, the games are on at normal times that we can construct days around. And that's been, you know, something we lose when the thing is overseas. The games are on in the middle of the night and weird shit like that.

And I think that's going to happen with the Olympic basketball, too, which will be a shorter version of this. But same thing. All the primetime games and all that stuff, everybody will be watching. I think it's been an A-plus. I've loved it. I've loved the gambling. I love the irrational confidence I have now. I was like, there's no way

Portugal beat Spain today. It's not happening. I don't see it. It's a dream World Cup for this. I mean, the sports books have gotten crushed. The back-to-back times where Mbapé, Cain, and Holland, both scored two goals. Or Mbapapé, Messi, and Holland, both scored two goals.

People are just, I mean, if you bet any good player, they automatically score. It's like, this has been a dream. Well, the two goals, too, right? If you're doing the Holland two goals with Norway to win, which is usually like four to one, five to one. Yeah. And you're just cleaning up on those. What were we going to say, C.R?

I was just going to ask whether or not you thought there would be much of a post-tornment kind of accounting of like the Balagan red card and Trump getting involved in sports karma or anything like that. I think if the game wasn't such a blowout, I don't think. Right. If he scores, if he scores the, like, and we went to one, or if he scores the final pen, yeah, it's a much, much bigger story. Trump could have done anything he wanted that we weren't going to beat Belgium in that game.

The fact that they were just resting guys that would have been like two of our best five guys, like, I don't know. I think that one will come and go. I do think it was interesting, though. It's interesting precedent being said. of the president be like, huh, sports. What if I should get in and throw my elbows around a little bit here?

I think he has a very open audience in FIFA. Yeah, I mean, they conjured up a prize for him. Yeah, I think there's a two-way street. And, you know, one of the things that makes the World Cup so fascinating as a historical object is like the sort of in the crossing of the streams of politics and governments and different, you know, from these different countries and how, they get involved with what happens on the field. So it's not the first time that's happened,

but it was certainly like, holy shit, he's really doing this. Can you imagine if he had also gotten involved in the Jalen Brown trade? Yeah. I don't like this. I have a full investigation, trying to figure out what the Celtics are doing here.

He called it a veto. Yeah. Do you have a Jalen Brown trade opinion before we go? I know you did this on Gamelick Show probably. I've always loved Jalen Brown. He loved him. I'm so happy to have him. I think it's,

it is going to be weird. I'll be on it. Like, we'll be a better regular season team. It's going to be fun. They had to do it. It makes a lot of sense. I'm pleasantly intrigued.

But I don't know. Things just always end badly. I'm programmed to expect the worst with the sixers. Much like I am with the U.S. men's national team in the round of 16. But you know what? I already have my eyes on it. Cop America, 2028. We need to get more matches against good teams.

We can't just keep beating up on Concaf. And that's going to be the chance to do that. Well, even in the 2020s having, you know, this is a big difference between where we were 12 years ago, which a lot of the guys that we had out there are guys that are, you said this before the tournament, guys that are in good leagues playing on good teams. So, you know,

you figure that keeps going. That's going to be an interesting development over the course of the next couple of years. I saw a couple of MLS teams have been talking about, like, they want their model to be like, we develop young players and sell them to Europe. And that's going to be both financially good. And it's also good for,

like, US soccer because those guys will then get experience in these, in these leagues and making it less about the designated players and seeing if they can get a messier or Levantowski to come play for them. Those kinds of developments are probably good for the USMNT, if bad for MLS, maybe, or maybe not. But the ultimate thing that they're going to really want is to create, how do U.S. national teams play and create this kind of playing identity that I think Poch could probably do.

I just don't know if he's going to stick around for the long haul. I hope he does. I love Marisio Pugetino. He has done such a great job with this team. and I know today went really badly but I still think he's the man for the job and look he's bought in we like him he likes us

kumbaya let's have some fun the Netflix audience we did a little poll who's going to win the World Cup and Netflix audience says France but only 54% who was second I don't know how it didn't tell me who was second I'll tell you this if Norway sticks around 16 to 1 17 to 1 that's just

a fuck it bet for me it would be very England to go win at the Azteca and then show up flat Saturday. The Bundo, we can hear on the Marineer gambling show. Keep doing those social media clips you're doing as well. And we'll have to have you on one more time before the end of the World Cup.

I'm sad, but we press on. There's more soccer to be had. We're going to take a break and I'm going to come back with old friend Jason Concepcion right after this. This episode is brought to you by Mickelope Ultra. We're in the heart of the World Cup. Look at these little special.

bottles for Mikhailabultra. Every play matters here. FIFA World Cup 26. For you, the stakes are just as hot. Mikhailobotra, the official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 26. It's giving you a chance to win $1 million worth of tickets and prizes. Mickelope Ultra from the pitch to the poor superior is worth playing for. Enter now at mickelope ultra.com slash superior access slash FIFA World Cup 26.

Mikkelobaltrow, FIFA World Cup, 26, Superior Access. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. Residence 21st, 21st, 2025. ends on July 31st, 2026, multiple entry periods. Visit www.m.micholobulter.com slash superior access slash FIFA World Cup 26 for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. All right, CR is still here. I am.

Old friend, Jasonaubeltriot is here. you can hear him on the wait a second podcast. I made an appearance early. I'm due for another appearance. Ironically, cut back a little on the pods the next couple weeks, probably one to two a week for the next three weeks. One of the reasons is I got to do my zodiac deep dive. I got to get ready for this, my zodiac killer, wait a second appearance.

Jason, you just watched the USA game. We just covered it for 40 minutes, but give us your takes watching from afar. My main takeaway was I knew we were in trouble when we were doubling Leo Trussard early. I knew we were in trouble when Leo Trussard, who is one of my favorites for Arsenal super sub microwave score as an Arsenal supporter, love him. He's maybe 5'7. I don't know what the stats on him are, but he's holding off our defenders like he was prime shack. And I knew at that point, like, we just didn't have the physicality to be in this game. We came out soft.

We looked like we were afraid of contact. We didn't initiate any contact. We weren't getting up in the air. And it's just a bad performance all around at every level. You know what I realized? Actually, just over the last 40 minutes, Jason. What's that? Sierra's team England.

No, that's the second one. This is the good son. Be respectful. No, you're sad. You're sad we lost, but really deep down. I have dual citizenship in the globe of soccer. In England thing. No, you let go McCauley Culkin tonight and you're holding on to Elijah Wood, England.

That's what's happening. Have you been obsessed with the World Cup, Jason? What's been your relationship with it? I love the World Cup. I've been, you know, much like Alexi Lollas, I've been waiting with baited breath low these 20 it feels like years but more for the U.S. to kind of finally upshift out of this get one game into the knockouts and then get knocked out mode which it seems like no matter what the talent is and certainly I think this is the most offensively capable team that I can

remember seeing since I've started paying attention we still got knocked out because listen, there's a reason that Tim Ream at 38 is still starting for the squad. And that's because you saw what the team looked like against Turkey, and it wasn't good when he didn't play. And so we're just not, there's always something, and this time it was that we just couldn't get organized in the back and just looked shambolic, had a good strategy, I think, but just didn't execute in moments.

and it all fell apart. It's just like in basketball in a playoff series when somebody's like that guy can't defend everything runs at him. You know, I think they knew

Ream in certain circumstances was going to be a problem for us and, you know, his athleticism is much diminished and I think that they started like saying like, let's test this dude. And obviously,

then he kind of went on tilt a little bit, I think, but it was, it was, he got picked on in that department. Yeah,

it's funny. I really got in a soccer 0809 range. was when I really started to become watching it and trying to understand it. Who can forget your brief love affair with Tottenham Hotspur? Yeah. And if you go back in my archives, there's a couple decent calls. Multiple times to me over the course of the couple of weeks.

Yeah. And then my daughter started playing. And I was in this whole club soccer world. One of her first coaches said something that has always stuck with me ever since. Because when we went to 11s, we, you know, you go from like 9 v9 to 11. and the coach said, yeah, 11s are tough because if you don't have 11, the ball always finds the person you don't want it to find.

And it felt like we had the two for me and was poor Ream, who's 38, not totally his fault. And then Des, who I just didn't really trust. And it just felt like, and they also kept attacking the sides too in a way that I thought seemed intentional in the first half, but it just felt like the ball was always finding the wrong people in this game. And that's what happens in soccer. Yeah.

deaths were completely washed, it was tough. Yeah, and like, that's, if I was going to take like a kind of silver lining, I think these are the kinds of problems that more accomplished nations also face

where you're like, oh man, well, like we haven't quite figured out right back, or we haven't quite figured out the right side of our midfield, or we need a center back to replace a Ream. Like other countries have had to deal with stuff like this.

We don't necessarily have the most eye-popping talent pool where you're like, well, obviously this dude is coming next. But I'm sure there. are U.S. soccer freaks out there who are screaming at their televisions or their phones right now being like, I know who's next, it's coming, you know?

But it's like, I think that, I think we're actually the problems that we have are good problems to have. You know, they're soccer problems, not like, can anybody on this team play? Right. I agree. I completely agree with that. I think that the people forget,

like you look at the World Cup and it's like, everybody mostly plays bad. Even the really good teams mostly play, below their level, I think part of the thing that's so frustrating for the U.S. is like we're bad at minimizing the holes in our squad. And that seems to be a recurring issue year after year. And for instance, like I'm not saying that we should become overnight like a Paraguay style shithousery squad, right? Yeah.

That would be pretty funny. But we're like never pulling a jersey. Like ever. You don't like hardly ever are we pulling a jersey. Hardly ever are we going hard into a tackle on purpose? You know, and it's like those little things can minimize some of your shortcomings sometimes. And we just, we're we play like we're above that sometimes. And to your point, CR, it's awesome.

The fact that while this is the most talent. I can remember seeing, particularly on the offensive side, it's also not great. We don't have any world-class players. Yeah. It would be nice to have a top six premier league player, like a top-six club guy on our team, and we just don't yet.

Do we need like a Draymond Green type? We brainwash? That's a luxury? Some sort of midfielder. He's just getting very close to the line, game after game. You're worried about him? Maybe.

If he could also pass and play, in tight spaces. Like if we could somehow produce a, if we could somehow produce a biscuits like in this country. You want to produce an Argentinian basically. Yes, somehow, you know. J.C., who is your MVP of the World Cup so far? We still have two weeks left.

I think Holland, just in the way that he's captured people's imagination. And in the way that he just always scores. He always scores and you know what's going to happen. he seems to like lollygag through periods of play where he's just kind of strolling around and then he sees a sequence unfolding and he just is in the right spot

the way he runs you know the the way he seems to play up his Viking ogre kind of image at moments and his clear sense of humor I just think he's been unreal he's been dealing at an unreal level.

C.R., no John Wick, bad guy stuff for him or anything? Is Hollywood investigated him at all? He plays for Manchester City, so, you know, like nobody,

except for Woz, likes them. And so it's like he plays for the most sort of like evil empire team that's in the Premier League, I think. Okay.

But, you know, if I, just to go along with what Jason's saying, like, Holland would be my, my number one pick and number two, 1A would be messy, who could be doing

a 2019 Tigers Masters here. You know, like, this could be like going out like, like the goat that he is. Yeah. And Bellingham, I think, is the other one who even the real soccer fans know who that is, but the super casual ones are like, wow, this guy's really good, number 10 on England. I think he's, like, he was just incredible in the Mexico game history. For some Man City context, Bill, they're currently facing 115 Premier League charges

for circumventing like their version of the salary cap. So it would be like if Aspiration times 100 15 quies. Yeah. And you're talking to an Arsenal and a Liverpool fan so yes, we do take it personally. Yes, we do take it personally.

Well, it's funny. When I was thinking about, when I was trying to pick my EPL team in 07, everyone was telling me how they were the clippers. They were like the sad sack clippers. Yeah, and then that quickly flipped. Favorite national anthem, JC? Wow.

Anything really knock your socks off as we hear? We got to here for last night. Mexico. Yeah, Mexico was great last night. Mexico was bone chilling last night. I will also say one note I have for Boch and Team USA, I love, why don't we do the arms around each other? Were you for John Denver or during the anthem?

Just during the anthem. Everybody else is like arm in arm and singing it. It's a good note. And we're like a foot away from everybody. I think France's anthem is still really strong. Yeah. Yeah. Marcellet is great.

Yeah. I think that's way up there too. There's been some clunkers. I don't want to name any countries, but there's a couple we're like, wow. That's it? That's what you're rolling with? You know, the Brazil anthem, when it's in Brazil, you're like, this is the most incredible thing I've ever heard. But when it plays at like MetLife, you're kind of like, where's this one going?

Like this. Like, you know, because like, it just doesn't have like the entire crowd. is into it. So that's- What would be your move? Would you be a, close your eyes and sing, or would you be a belted out,

or would you just be trying to stay cool? I would be an anthem. I think personally, I would go the route of the Mexico players who are just like crying and screaming at the top of their lungs. I am not too cool for the anthem, like in that case.

Yeah. Would you do that, JC, a little crying? Oh, yeah. Some tears? I would definitely, you would see the cords in my neck standing out. That would be the level of intensity. Bill, you would be like Nick Siriani just like tears, like bubbling out of your face, but no, no singing.

No, I would do the head back with the eyes closed, the intense one. I always think that one. That one looks really great. Who do you have one in the cup, Jason? I mean, this is, this is not like some wild prediction, but I think this is France's tournament. Oh, this means that's not going to happen. Everybody's saying that. I agree.

When everybody agrees on that, then the rules of. soccer have to trumpet somehow. I picked Spain to win it, but I picked Spain to win it based on this stupid idea I had that Germany was going to beat France earlier. And obviously that was quite wrong. So don't listen to me.

But it just does seem like whatever game you want to play, France can play it. You want to have a shootout, they'll kill you. If you want to try and kick them, they don't care. If you want to sit back, they don't care. There's nothing you can do to really fluster them unless what Dubund

said, which is like, can Spain keep the ball away from them forever? The only thing you do to fluster France is to give them a lead with two minutes left in an NBA game. You know, just start ripping the ball around. Too soon.

CR, what would how many more wins does England need now? Four and four. Four or seven, three more wins. Would that change your life? Like, Philadelphia. I think it would be incredible for my family. But, and I would just, I wish I would be there.

I'm sure it would be just an amazing experience to be in England for that to happen. That's actually where my parents met was during the 66th World Cup. So it would be very tempting to want to go over there for the celebrations. But it is, it's still like I'm playing dress up a little bit. You know, I can't, I can't shed the soccer hipster accusations. That easily. And who are you rooting for, JC? Who's your team now?

You're just jumping on Norway. That's it? For years I've been, and I remain this, it's France with the Netherlands as a backup. So obviously France, but now I'm going France, Norway. Okay. Okay. I'm going to root for Norway and I'm going to bet on them at 17 to 1 or whatever the hell it is and do it that way. I don't think that's that bad of a bet.

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We're going to go down to less games and then the tournament's going to be over and then we're all going to be staring at each other. Wimbledon's is about as boring as it gets. Hey. Basketball, we are now moving into this. LeBron, he's orchestrated this perfectly. You can't pretend like nothing is happening in sports when we can do a frame-by-frame analysis of Brad Stevens' press conference today. So that was the most exciting thing that happened non-socker today was the Celtics press conference, which I respect that they had to say what they're going to say.

But on the one hand, did the we didn't want to have 70% of the cap tied up with two guys. Okay. But then they also tried to trade for Janus, who would have tied the cap up with 70% and also Paul George makes $50 million a year. So I still don't know. Jason, you haven't, Sierra and I have talked about this on the pot already. You haven't given your take yet. What is it?

Well, my take was, and I'm waiting for it, is the classic Brian Curtis. Now they tell us story because it simply must be there. The only answer to this is all the whispered. about the relationship between Tatum and Brown, all that stuff must have really amounted to something and they really must have felt like, listen, Brown is not going to submit to the kind of team

that this was in the past, and we will not dedicate ourselves to the kind of team that Brown wants. And it's going to be a problem if we let it go any further than this. Clearly they were under the gun. And it's interesting that Brad Stevens said nothing that betrayed them being under the gun. He made it, you know, to your point,

he really framed it as a purely fiscal decision when it's like, don't you still have two players amounting to that much money? And like, so. Well, he did use the word usage. Yes. Which I thought was the one slip. Right.

Or he was like, when you have 70% of your cap tied into two players and a high usage for those two players, we came to the conclusion that this isn't going to work. And I thought usage means, we don't need to pay two guys to just trade due dueling banjos anymore

with the way the league is. Was my interpretation? Is that fair? Yeah, that's fair. It's exactly. I mean, he was like, it's kind of like what Kirk said during the colonoscopy pod

when he was just like, they want to be a one. You're the one who called the pod that. I know. Now that is what it's called now. It's like they wanted to be a one contract team. They want, well,

that's what they say they wanted. Yes, they were looking for Janus. Maybe they feel like, Janus was like this big or a better trade asset they could have spun or whatever. I don't think we're going to know who won this trade or whether it was a giant mistake by Boston

until next spring because I think they'll be you were saying this was Zach. They're going to be good in the regular season. They're going to be good. Has good regular season basketball teams. They play it's going to be good. Hugo be better. Shyam going to be better. The J.C.'s point about the now they tell us I don't think it's going to happen just

because I think they're so conscious about what's happened with the Red Sox and Patriots in years past when those pieces come out after the fact. And everybody in Boston is too crazy about sports and knows all the signs and can read between the lines of pieces like that. And I don't think they're going to do it. I think they're going to take the high road if there is stuff.

I don't see them doing it. The only stuff that's going to come out is this ancillary stuff. Like, you know, I talked about this on the pot of a week ago, but Brown and Tatum being in France together, but not interacting. And people that were there like, this is weird. They're one guy's over there and just like,

and, you know, Tatum taking forever. Kind of like how Embed hasn't done the welcome to Philly post you for Jalen Brown. Like, you can read between the lines with some of this stuff, C.R. You just can.

I guess that's true. I mean, I saw that Embedd was at the Brazil match in full Brazil regalia. I was going to say, we might not have to wait for now they tell us because we'll just have to wait for Jalen to do a Twitch stream

where he's like, now I'll tell you. He did one, the night that the trade happened and seemed to be pretty confused and pretty upset. And I think he's getting his head around becoming a rival.

Like, you know, he's going to a rival team. I think that, like, he's a competitive dude and he probably was like, I will be a Celtic probably for life. You know, the Celtics thing is so,

strange to me because there's like on one hand this like mythology about their relationship to their star players and those players relationships to the city but like this modern era has been about turnover. I mean, Isaiah Thomas, the Kyrie and Gordon Hayward iteration you know, Paul Pearson KG

being traded to Brooklyn. Like those guys don't sell late. You know, like whatever they do it would Marcus Smart. Yeah. They don't like it's like yeah we're going to take a beating for two months and then people are going to be back at the garden. So like I respect it.

I think that sometimes they get a little bit of like, like they get like a little bit too much leeway when it comes to like we're like an institution that really respects the players who play for us and keeps them in our hearts. And it's like, you guys fucking trade people when they have like dislocated hips. Like give me a break. But. Oh, geez, Sierra.

I'm just saying. It's a hurtful. I'm in a lot of pain this week. No, I mean, the Isaiah Thomas thing was tough to defend. But that was previous ownership. I will say the new owner, Chisholm, looked like he was getting a root canal during that press conference.

Yeah. You go from like, oh my God, I bought my favorite team. I'm going to bring my whole family. We're sitting courtside. This is so great. I'm having such a good time. And now, you know, the worm has turned. If Jason was not a popular trade.

A writer, we were still doing this. Like, we would probably have like a Tom Dundon, Matt Ishbia, Bill Chisholm group chat post that we were manufacturing. With that in mind, Here is what I would pitch to you and be like, CR, I'm working on a take. I don't, this is all I have, but help me flesh this out because I think this is a piece.

The second apron era has turned every owner into James Dolan. Yes, that's a great take. High turnover. You're drinking Dolan juice. Every contract is a bad contract. Yeah. Yeah. It's like so hard to be smart.

the cap fights against itself. To retain your best player, you have to give them a contract that's immediately bad. Immediately. And it's all about depth now, but like the rosters are squeezed. And inevitably,

everybody's smart looks dumb under this regime. Yeah, even look at Mark Walters and the Lakers. Like the Dodgers would keep LeBron on the team and just to have him like wave at the crowd every every night. They don't care about money, but he obviously knows that that team is going to be decimated

if they have Luca, LeBron, and AR all on that salary tier. So you're right, Jason. It's just like the idea of like a Cuban or a balmer who's going to be like, oh, I'll just spend my way out of it. You know, like, no, it's not going to happen anymore. Well, this starts,

previous version of this, the connective tissue was the Bradley Bill contract where the Wizards are like, well, fuck, what are we going to do? I mean, he's our best player. And the moment they sign it, it becomes one of the worst contracts in the league. Now we have the next version of this, which is you kind of can't have two of these. So the Pistons are, you know, Pistons won 61 games last year.

They didn't even know if they want to bring Durham back because the moment that contract is $8 million a year too high, it has all of these crazy ramifications. The other way, when Brown signed for $304 million, the mistake in retrospect, was maybe trying to knock that number down a little, but it was a previous, it was WIC, the previous owner. He wanted to take care of his guys. They just won the title.

And, you know, it plays out the way it plays out. But it's weird to hear a team say, look, man, I know he was sixth MVP last year, but that contract's a little too rich for my blood. Like, we do Ringer 100. I don't care where you have Jalen, but if you had him outside the top 20, that would have been insane.

And there's 30 teams. Yeah, I think there's a corrosive effect that we're going to see over time too where, you know, there's a connection with players that cities have. And I mean, watching that video of the kid crying because Jalen Brown was his favorite player, it's like that's real. That happens. And I think if you have a system that's based on just, too much of that.

Who knows what you lose? Obviously, the parody era from the perspective of the actual parody is a success. They wanted to create this, and they've created it with eight new champions in a row. It's unprecedented.

But, you know, like the league was built on a specific kind of dominance that allowed characters to develop over time with the fan base, and there is a connection with teams and with the communities around them

that maybe is getting severed, you know, and is that good. And also with this model of having one big star and then a lot of turnover in your two through ten, say, of your roster. It's the football motto. It's the quarterback with everybody else. I mean, like, the Sixers have kind of done that around Embed and Star 2 over the last 10 years. And it's soul-deadening after a while where you're like, who is this year's Marco Bellanelli?

Who is this year's JJ Redick? Who is this year's Robert Covington? Who is this year's XYZ? It's kind of awesome, even though the Knicks were somewhat thrown together, Mitchell Robinson was the longest tenured Nick. It's kind of awesome to watch that core come together piece by piece over the years

and develop and build out. And those guys are now folk heroes. They'll never buy another drink or a Chipotle Bowl in New York City again. And fewer and fewer teams are going to have that if they all abide by this. Like, well, we can have one star. And then it's up to the GM to just find like the right rotation of guys every year. It's a huge issue for the league.

I don't think they see it. I think they're just focused on how much can we make from the media deal. Can we add two expansion teams? Can we grow the league? Can we create NBA Europe? Every decision they're making is financial, which includes this last CBA, where you have this second apron. And I've talked about this with other sports too.

You're basically, it's a protection against yourself. Yeah. It's like if, like I give one of my kids, like a credit card they can use, but it's got a limit on it. And it's like if you go over the limit,

the card just automatically can't. You only use the gas station. Yeah. That's what the second apron is. It's like, yeah, you can, you can go above the second apron, but your picks get frozen, and you can't make two-for-one trades.

There's all these tax repeaters shit that happens and you have to be a fucking idiot. And you see somebody like James Dolan who, you know, has not been shy about spending money. That's for sure. He gives away every court side seat around the team. Like, you know, on the one hand, doesn't seem to care about money at all. But even he understands, yeah, we can't have Mitchell Robinson anymore. We're going to have to replace him with Andre Drummond.

And he'll cost $12 million less, but this is what we have to do. By the way, since Jay C's here, you have been on the podcast since the Nix won the Oh my God. He's been an I-A-Wastka trip since then. Yeah. What happened? You were just like, was it like the end of the Odyssey? What was it like for you?

Don't give away the end of the Odyssey here. Spoiler on a 3,000-year-old story. Yeah, people know the work. I can honestly say that game four into game five was the peak of my life. Like, I'm not even joking. it was the most remarkable period of my life that I've ever felt. I flew back for the parade. It was just like I got to a point in my life.

You know, you watch 20 years of bad Knicks teams after the 90s. And so I got into a point where I was like, you know what, let's just be good. Let's just get in the mix. Get in the playoffs every year. Be respectable. Don't be a dumpster fire. Don't be a scandal plagued 17 wins. team, like just, just compete. And I'm fine with that. So I had put away, for real, any actual

hope that I would ever see this. And to see it as been incredible. So it was like you're in the rom-com where you're giving up on love. And then finally you found somebody on a trip to Tuscany. That is, that was it. That is 100% right. Now, I will say this. And this is very not like me. after we smoked the cabs, smoked that cabs pack in the Eastern Conference finals. I was texting, you know, my next groups, and I'm like, I really, I think we're going to win it. I think we're going to win it.

If you, especially if we got the Spurs, just looking at the underlying stuff, we'd beat them, what was it, two out of three in the season, pretty comprehensively on the same game plan every time. We almost beat them in the game. lost. You guys won the cup against them, right?

Won the cup against them in a game that they were trying to win. The Knicks did the double. They did. Didn't get him credit for it. When do you raise the banner? Do you have to separate the banners? What happens? There should be a double banner with like an attachment where the cup like attaches

the cup banner attaches to the bottom of the regular banner. And let me also say to critique Adam Silver a little bit more. That's his baby, the cup. And the fact that they didn't play up much more, this historic double that has happened. A new bar has been set for NBA greatness. A new bar in an era of parody. In an era of parody, a new bar has been set. The Cup predicted the NBA finals.

And for the first time in its history, a team has gone, done the double, won both. And that should be trumpeted everywhere. and it frankly hasn't and that is a miss from Adam Silver. The 53 years felt like it kind of trumped the cup, which I understand. Yeah, I get it. When they were down a lot of points in game four. Sure. Because this, this, I went through basically the same experience you did with the Red Sox

in game four and game five against the Yankees. Yes. Where it's like two, these sporting events that just blend together now where I don't even remember what happened in what game anymore. But there were also like a couple dark moments where you really like look at your past and you think like, oh man, and that the real doubt starts creeping in. What was, that must have happened in game four a couple times, right? Game four, it wasn't the full existential doubt because I still thought, okay,

you thought you were better. I thought, yeah, I thought we go back to, especially after, yeah, I thought we were the better team. And I thought we were going to win the series. So I thought, okay, we go back to San Antonio. I think we could still win the series. series. But that said, you know, down 29 in the second quarter, I just turned the sound off. I'm like, okay, this is a wash. We're not winning this game. Well, you had Trump Game 3 flipping the karma and then down 29 in game in game four.

Absolutely. And despite the fact that I'd seen all these comebacks now going back to three seasons, I was just like, okay, you know, just like, that's it. We're not going to get this one. That's fine. and I didn't start to get like feel that a little I mean it was 2018 like in the middle third and even into that fourth but when they couldn't when the spurs couldn't make it more than that I started to get it you know I started to get really interested and then you know as the run was developing you started to feel it and they just the spurs looked so tired they looked absolutely gassed I thought the one you know, obviously the Knicks don't want to go down double digits early in every single game. But it was very smart of them that no matter how many blocks when Wembe would have in the first quarter, they just kept running at him, run at him, make him jump, make him turn around, make him react to things. And it's like a boss battle where you're just chipping away at the energy bar of like the video game boss so that you get to the end and he's he's tired.

And that's what happened. Every single game followed that exact plan. CR, do you think new Spurs head coach Billy Donovan will be able to fix some of that stuff? I don't know if he has the title yet. Do we not, we forgot to put you on this. Google meet Mitch? My bad.

We're just talking about it. Hey, guys, was there a meeting? No, no, no, no. We just didn't want to waste your time. Honestly, like you got, you got, you know, I just got together with the other assistants. We just wanted to come up with some ideas for you. No, you want to give a speech?

Go for it. Yeah. We'll just circle back afterwards and maybe just clean that up a little of it. That's like we just did from how we did Hand That Rocks a Cradle where she hires Rebecca to Mornay. It's like, Don't hire Rebecca DeMorne as your daddy. It's like,

I'm Billy Donovan. He's only won a couple titles and coached two other teams. That was really, actually, Jason's description of this whole experience was so moving that I'm going to trash the joke I was going to make about them raising not only the NBA finals banner, the Cup banner, but also the contract of payments of dark money payments to Jill and Brunson that they're obviously making.

Can we do that on wait a second? Can we? Let me just say this and I'll say this with it in a complete sincerity that I've just, it's just a thing that I've noticed and I think everything is above board. It is, it is notable like the massive jump in production level that the roommates pod underwent, like kind of suddenly. Yeah. Oh.

The shoot at IMX. But that being said, like I am completely, I believe that everything is, above board and right. Let me ask you this. Did you guys feel like it was a red flag in the moment how much Popovich was talking to the team and making speeches? I didn't think it was a good thing.

Like an old flag. Yeah, it was just, it was weird that they were bringing a minute apart. And I wonder if the Spurs would rather that had not got out or if the Spurs were like, get this out that Pop is still like the new Rochney of this team. Did you? Did you guys hear their film in the roommate's pot

in 70mm? starting in September. 70 millimeter IMAX. They have Nolan's cinematographer. Yeah. Wait a is just like, like this, Mikhail. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows.

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Oh, wow. What are you into these days? Second season of the agency, which is a show I know that cares about. Oh, CR. Which is itself an adaptation of the Bureau de L'Argence from French television is out.

And I think it's not as good as the Bureau, but to me it's good enough. It's pretty good. And the changes they made to make it to kind of like American intelligence it more just hit for me. So I can run that back. I haven't watched one episode.

Can I bang that out this month? You'll like it. I think you'll like it. Yeah. Is it shame Fastbender or just Fastbender? It's fast bender pretending to be an American spy and it doesn't totally work, but it's still pretty good. He's not like weird sex with his maid or anything.

No, he's basically playing like a... Yeah, I mean, he has some weird sex, but still like that. That's part of the course with him. Yeah, he's a spy. CIR, what's been your favorite thing in the summer? You know, there's a show on Apple called Star City. That's been, it's like a spinoff of another show they have called For All Mankind. And it's set in the Russian, the Soviet space program.

in the 60s and 70s. And it's really great. That sounds like CR Mad Libs. It's, I can only be me. They have one of the co-show runners of the Americans. It's the for all man guy guys, but it's really good.

I've been hate watching the Living Hell at a Cape Fear, which I think is one of the worst shows I've seen in the last five, six years. And now it's hit to the point. It's six episodes in. I could tap out right now

and not even, care about what happened or do I just hate watch my way through the rest of this. I'm more interested like when shows like this, when they don't work and they become campy, trying to read the signs of some of the, like they have good actors in this. Like when did Amy Adams felt like around episode four, episode five? I think when Amy Adams showed up on set and she was like, wait, you guys aren't all doing accents? It's just me. Right.

The hope was starting to flicker out of her eyes. eyes, I would say one of the things Apple does amazingly well from a comedy standpoint, it's the worst parenting you've ever seen in your life. And they'll do it over and over again with these wealthy families, some sort of drama crisis thing. And Apple's just like, do you think it'd be weird if these parents didn't care that their kid chopped his toe off and seems like a complete maniac and a destructive force to others? Like might be putting himself or other people in danger. You're like, no. It's like, hey, Bobby, we're going to go out for dinner tonight.

You stay home with the dog. They just, I don't know what it is. So Apple, like this seems like they're a lane now. They have like three different lanes. And one of these lanes of these wealthy, crimey families and disarray, couples that hate each other. Like prestige. That fair? Yeah.

Yeah. It's like prestige divorce. Divorceeep. Yeah. Did you finish the bear, J.C.? I did not. I did not finish the bear, but I'm getting ready to

struggle through it, with all respect to the bear. I was a fan of the final season. I think you'll, yeah. They did pit style. What's that? They did pit style, just like everything in one day.

Set mostly on one day. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. What are we missing now? Sierra, what are we missing now in the TV landscape?

What are we not doing? I mean, there's a lot of genre stuff on Dragons. Pretty good this year, I think. It's just that we don't really have like, I mean, we actually really don't have like a white lotusy succession

kind of like normal people behaving badly show that everybody kind of falls in love with. Trying to think of like what's coming. That's even exciting. It feels like it's drifting back toward movies. I made this point six, seven weeks ago, where I wonder if the creativity is starting. I finally saw obsession. Do you like it?

Oh. it was really good I didn't love the lead actor would be my one question. If Shalamee is in that movie that's like one of the best movies of all time.

I think he, his, his bill is like five times the budget of that movie. I get it. I'm just saying if you put Charame in that lead part, we're talking about this movie

for 25 years ago. Did you, I'm sure you did not see this, but the main actress from that movie, Indie Navarretti. Oh, he too. He too.

What could be happening? Why? Don't you know me at this point? And you're like, I'm sure you didn't see this. But Heat 2 is all day. Oh, like anything happens without me knowing with Heat 2? I have this question, actually, speaking of Heat. It's a mailback question from Victor.

Longtime fan, diehard magic fan in Orlando. Recently, I was rewatching the town. And the entire Fenway heist was for $3 million. Realizing this is what Bisbach-Biombo made for the Spurs this season had me thinking, are the prizes and heist movies too small or our NBA contracts too big? What would Neil McCauley have had to do to get a year of Devin Booker's salary?

You're the best manner to resolve this issue. I have noticed this in some of our heist things where they're like, we got to take this down. And I want it to be like $29 million or something. You almost wonder if they should go back in ADR, like, what's it? Because if you go back to like the 1950s noirs and they're like robbing a horse race track

and it's like, what's the take? 10 grand! We got a 10 grand. And it's like, maybe we should go back in and be like, a million dollars. It's like we were talking about when Jason was on for the Survivor, like, oh, that Mr. Beast bumped it to two million bucks. It's like, this was a million dollars in 2000. Yeah.

The NBA salary cap was $18 million in 2000 or whatever. Like, how is it not $10 million to win Survivor now? So, heist movies higher? Would you bump it up, CR? Yeah, but I think we actually have a lot of really ridiculous ice movies where they go for like, we're going to take a billion in crypto off this guy. It's just that those aren't as good as Den of Thieves and Heat in the town and stuff. Do you want to quickly have the Heat, too, conversation?

Yeah, let's talk about Leo being sureless. This is the thing that has been rumored for a long time. I think everybody was waiting to find out if he was going to be Neil or Chris, and he's, and he's sureless. He's going to be the star of the movie. I get asked this question all the time. And I'm sure both of you do, too, from people in our lives. Like, what do you think?

Is this really happening? I'm, listen, I'm going to go. You're going to go. I'm glad they're doing it. I'm obviously going to see it. I obviously care that it's happening. I am aware of every single casting, anything that's happened with this thing.

I'm just nervous. This one, we've seen this go wrong. I ended up not seeing gladiator two on the advice of many people. Just in general, some of the scary bad sequels that we've had, that you end up just kind of forgetting happened. And Michael Mann, who, you know, our all-time favorite, he's been on nine rewatchables movies, including today with Ali. But when you get directors in their 80s, J.C., gets a little dicey.

Like, I don't know if I want people directing expensive movies or running my NFL team or there's just. This was a conversation I was having with some friends recently. Like, who is the director in their 80s historically who was, like, crushing it? and I think that there are there are different variables, like, but at the top level of AAA type of movie, it's like kind of nobody, kind of nobody. Yeah, 70s even gets dicey.

Yeah. Yeah. Kubrick still had the fastball to the very end. And to be fair to Michael Mann, he's still from everything we've seen Sammy recently, still got it. But yeah, people... I know, but this is sacred IP, though. It is. The difference is, it's not just him making a movie,

what I would support if he was 100 years old or wanted to make a movie. It's just, why haven't we done he too before now? Why are we doing it now? I know he wrote the book, but is it worth doing it? Yeah, I mean, you could say, and I will hear the argument that this is like Ridley Scott returning to the alien universe where it's like, but Ridley-Scott can still make two movies a year. And they're not always that good, and he shoots with five cameras, and it seems like he's getting a little fast and a little sloppy. The thing that gives me some confidence in Heat,

who specifically is the presence of Jerry Bruckheimer, who himself is not a spring chicken, 82 years old, but is like one of the great showmen's. And I hope that the combined forces of these two very old men will make up for whatever deficiencies the other has and make sure that this is like, I just don't think DiCaprio signs, on for this and is like, let's hope it's okay.

You know, like... It is true. He has had impeccable taste over the years. And we do have... There's just got to be some guardrails here. Yeah, and he has to know there's going to be three things in this movie that I do that people are going to be breathless over, you know? And otherwise, I just don't know why, like,

why didn't he just do Ferrari then, you know, or whatever else? Like, he just doesn't make his choices idly. Well, I saw... I won't spoil anything from The Odyssey today because I know you guys haven't seen it. There's also an embargo on it, I think. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. The only thing I'll say is Chris Nolan, guy who, you know, over the course of a long movie,

there's going to be a couple set pieces in there. You know, it's like when you're watching an awesome WW championship match, there's going to be a couple bumps that they thought about ahead of time and that you're going to be like, holy shit. And that's what I'm. a Michael Mann when his movies are really cooking, they'll have like three, four sections in there

that you're just like, wow. The stuff I'm most looking forward to in heat too also is stuff that hasn't, that is not heat. Like it's from, like, it'll be either in the desert or it'll be in Central America or whatever and it'll be like different than heat.

So the city stuff will be cool but I'm looking forward if they bring it page for page out for that stuff. There's, There's another existential, existential question here, JC. You know, CR's obviously known Sean longer than me. They've been friends since when, mid-2000s? Early 2000s, yeah.

You've done a lot of big picture appearances with them. We've seen a lot of movies. We started the rewatchables from a Heat podcast we did. Heat, I feel like, is RIP. And I'm really going to be interested to say I handle this. I'll be interested to see how you handle this. think with he too, I feel like that's, I feel like I should be in pole position for the first pod with CR. You are in pole position, Bill. I don't know. Maybe America decides.

Why not all of you? Why not? Why not? Why not to triumph it? Yeah. Maybe that's maybe that's what needs to happen. Because I think like, let me just say as a fan. As a fan of y'all also, that's what I want to see is that trio. J.C. saying don't choose CR that. That. it should just be me and Sean together, the three of us for heat too. Okay. I don't know. Maybe what, maybe American, maybe we do a poll. America votes.

America votes. We've done, we did we do, we did the three heat or the four heat? Well, we've done two heats in Michael Mann. We have not done four heat yet. I'm ready because I have, I have some thoughts for recent watches. I have more heat opinions. I have more heat opinions, but I actually do. We still have a couple of ways to go.

We can do the blind heat. rewatch, no notes. We can do heat, but we're not allowed to talk about De Niro, Pacino. Like, there's still... Oh, wow. Yeah, there's still a couple of tricks

up our sleeve. Oh, that was my favorite one where we, like, we give De Niro and Pacino a red card in the first minute of the pot. They're just out of the pod. We're resting them for Heat 5. You're not allowed to do a Pacino thing at all. How excited are you for the Odyssey on a scale

one to 10, J.C? I'm excited. It's, you know, it's a... It's going to be a, like an iconic Nolan is one of the iconic guys currently working and you could argue

that he's the best director currently working certainly the only one currently that would be allowed to make a film like this and I mean I'm all in

considering that this has its roots in him not getting to make Troy it's been gestating that long I'm excited I'm excited I said next to somebody you've both potted with over the years many times,

Malley Rubin in the screening today. And let's just say she was digesting a lot. A pop thorn or a lot of things. A lot of things in a wheelhouse. There's books. I don't, you know, there's this whole other level for this movie that if you want to go back and then also dive into, I was going blind. I could barely remember anything from, you know, I read these books in high school.

you know, so I was kind of re-remembering a lot of the stuff that was in there. But I know there's an embargo. I saw people tweeting about it. I think you're allowed to say like I saw it and I liked it, but the like full review and plot points. I thought it was incredible. And most importantly, my guy Matt Damon. You know, I still feel like he's alive in the Damon versus Leo thing. I know I'm like one of the only people holding on to it.

But if we go best best like seven Matt Damon movies versus his best seven DeCaprio. I feel like he's in the mix. This is a very exciting argument to have. It is a really interesting one. I just think his basketball reference page is better than people realize. I think I tried to do that. I tried to make a Damon versus Cruz take case that you guys laughed me out of your

off of a set for like during rewatchables. But Damon Leo is a good argument to make. I remember my HBO show 10 years ago playing that one up right after the Martian. because Damon had momentum. But Leo's been steady. He's a little bit younger. But Damon's career also, like, you go back to basically school ties is 92, 93 range.

So he's been 35 years now, banging out watchable movies. With Leo, I think you would have to say, no Titanic. We don't put Titanic in the mix. Because I just think with Titanic, it takes Leo to a level, that Matt Damon has never seen. Well, honestly,

honestly, it might happen with The Odyssey. Oh. I know Titanic was, okay. Titanic was a billion dollar movie that won a bunch of awards. I don't know if that's not happening with the Odyssey.

Like, it's fucking sold out all through, all through the summer in LA already. But like Titanic was the type of like cultural impact that like the Taliban had to ban it. Like it was that level movie. That is true. You know what I mean?

People going eight, nine times. To be fair, they were banning stuff left and right. So it was kind of. But when they were like, no music, no makeup for women, but and also Titanic, you cannot watch that movie in the borders of Afghanistan, period. Like, I think that is a crazy, crazy, crazy impact. It's a pretty awesome achievement. I'm really happy for Damon.

It is impeccably well cast. Okay. And people know this, I think, from the IMDB. Do you guys know who Charlize Theron plays in this movie? I forget, but I know that she's fairly important. I want to say it's Circe maybe. She plays she plays Calypso. Oh, Calypso.

Okay. And she's well cast. Oh. Yeah. Just going to say that. Also happy for my girl Anne Hathaway. But yeah, no, it was, it's really something. I'll be interested to see what the reaction is.

It seems like everybody had that reaction. holy shit. I'm excited for Bernthal. Just Brentall. You want to know about the horse? Talk about the horse. Your dad wasn't that big of a deal. So I intentionally read nothing and knew nothing.

I knew a couple of the people that were in, but there were a couple where I was like, and when I saw Berndhal, I gasped when Mallory started laughing. I was like, I had no idea. My guy, he's here. But those are the most fun kind of movies. Anyway, The Odyssey. What else you?

looking forward pop culture wise this summer Sierra anything? Me? Oh, I can't wait for Resident Evil. The Zach Kregor follow up to weapons and it looks awesome. J.C. Same. That you've loved the video games. Me too. And the trailer knocked me out.

Any reality? Nothing? Are you out on reality now, Jason? No, I'm well, I'll tell you my most dirty reality secret is below deck. I watch it year-round. Oh my God. My wife as well. My wife is My wife just just inhales it.

What is it about below deck? I don't really understand it. It's a perfect reality procedural. It does the same formula over the course of like two episodes. And it just does it like on an assembly line. It's charter comes in. There is workplace dynamics. And then there is the cool down where they all go.

out to the club or whatever. But for me, the thing is, they're all truly working. They're actually doing a crazy job out there on the high seas. And you can't beat the stakes in reality television of, if this all goes wrong, somebody drowns. Interesting. Has that ever happened on below deck? It's almost happened several times.

It's almost happened. My wife really enjoys the different people that come in. that rent the boat, the different types of people they pick. Johnny Damon? Johnny Damon, she was all excited about that, but she really likes the tipping at the end and the dynamics with that and whether the people, I just, I can never buy into it, Sierra. I got to say, this is the least amount of reality I've watched in a long time.

Yeah, you might be aging out in the little bit. I'm also probably aging out. I think when the challenge just became a professional sporting event and stop having people screaming at each other and hooking up in a closet, Yeah. Nobody's took out a bit of closet or a bathroom anywhere. I was like, I don't know. I don't know where we go with this.

All right, guys. I think we covered everything. I think so. America's gone. The Knicks are NBA champions. The Celtics are in complete flux. AJ Brown is on the Patriots. He too's coming out.

Just a lot of crazy shit's happening right now. JC, I will see you on wait a second in the next couple weeks. Yes. CR, I will see free. We'll watchable is the next way. People can watch us to Ali today. Thanks to Eduardo. and Gahow and Chris and Jack and everybody at Spotify.

I'm going to be back one more time this week, not sure when. So stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching on Netflix. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Game and problem called 1-800-Gambor or 1-800-My-Ret 800 by reset. Call 88879-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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