The Bill Simmons Podcast - Brady vs. Belichick, Sad Spurs Fans, and Best New Action Movies With Shea Serrano | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 354)

Episode Date: April 18, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons talks about the bleakest Patriots outlook in recent memory in the wake of Tom Brady's hesitation to sign a new contract (4:12). Then Bill is joined by colleague and Spurs fan Shea Serrano to further discuss the Kawhi Leonard situation (16:33) before talking about the best new action movies and sequel hopefuls (45:45). Warning: There is a lot of 'John Wick: Chapter 3' talk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the Bill Simmons podcast on the Ringer podcast network brought to you by ZipRecruiter, where I was just looking at ZipRecruiter the other day and Tom Brady's resume was on there. He's looking for a new employer or somebody pretending to be Tom Brady. I'm actually making this up. I'm very worried about Tom Brady right now. 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within a day. They're the best at distributing your job

to the best boards, identifying the right people and inviting them to apply. My listeners can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash BS. Meanwhile, SeatGeek, the best app for buying and selling tickets to sporting events, concerts, and more for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase on any game or sporting event for NBA, NHL, baseball, whatever you want. You know what to do. Just use promo code BS. You can buy your

Red Sox playoff tickets right now. They are on pace to go 145 and 17, something like that. It's amazing. Download the SeatGeek app, go right to SeatGeek.com. Finally, Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans wants to help you. Whether you're looking to buy your first home or your 10th, they will give you a transparent online process and the confidence to make an informed decision, get a real mortgage approval in minutes, adjust the rate and the length of your loan in real time to get started.

Go to rocketmortgage.com slash Bill Simmons, equal housing lender, licensed in all 50 states, NMLS, consumeraccess.org, number 30. 30. Don't forget to subscribe to the Ringer NBA show. We are taping it. It's Wednesday right now as you're listening to this. Ringer NBA show taping Wednesday night.

Three great games tonight, and the crew will be on after doing group chat, posting it late tonight, so you'll doing group chat, posting it late tonight. So you'll be able to listen to it late tonight or early tomorrow morning. And if you go onto the ringer.com right now, Kevin O'Connor lays out the blueprint for upsetting LeBron James, Justin charity, charity.

I'm sorry. Writes about the ambivalent tell all of James Comey, Roger Sherman breaks down Saquon Barkley's worth in the modern NFL. And Brian Curtis writes about the Denver Post sports section, which is finally falling into shambles. Check all of that stuff out. If you missed me in-house yesterday, we broke down all of our thoughts on where the basketball playoffs were.

We did this before last night's incredible Pelicans game, as well as the Celtics-Bucks game we went to, where I had predicted yesterday, yet another bad prediction from me. I had predicted a monster game from Giannis. Did not happen, but more the fault of his teammates and how he is being defended than anything. But I think the Bucks are in real trouble. I did not like their body language. I think Bledsoe, and I'm not even saying this because he had this stuff with Terry Rozier after the game.

Bledsoe in person, he's not a leader. He doesn't make his teammates better. His body language was terrible, and he was getting his butt kicked. Considering they traded a first-round pick for him, and Greg Monroe, who, by the way, would have really helped them last night, that was not a great trade. They do not have – I don't know what the right five-man lineup they should be playing, but it definitely wasn't any of the lineups I saw last night.

I don't know why they don't play – I would go down in flames with Bledsoe and Brogdon and Chris Middleton and really any other shooter as the fourth one just to spread the floor and just hope that worked. But I don't think they have a five-man lineup that works in this series. Who knew? The Celtics, amazing. Coming up, gonna talk about Tom Brady

for a little bit right at the top and then calling Shea Serrano to talk about the Kawhi Leonard situation in San Antonio. But more importantly, Shea and I both love action movies and we're gonna break down the best and the worst of the last two years. The stuff we love on cable, on demand, all that stuff. It's a fun one. But first, Pearl Jam. All right, it is a Wednesday. I'm still in Boston, Massachusetts,

my favorite city on the planet. Very cold this week. Great buzz in Boston right now. It's a very strange time in Boston sports. The Red Sox have a really, really good team. They really did a nice job. I'm actually fired up. The lineup, they added J.D. Martinez.

Bogarts, who went out recently, who was hurt last year, but was healthy before he cracked a little thing in his ankle. He's back soon, but looked like a different guy this year. And the top-to-b to bottom lineup now is ridiculous. So you have that. They have two starters that look like they're going to be good game one, game two starters in a playoff series. Chris Sale and Rick Porcello, who's back, who's figured out whatever was wrong with

them last year. David Price, I don't know what to make of him. He looks great. Then he can barely make it to the second inning in a Yankee game. And then Eduardo Rodriguez, who I have the highest hopes for as their number three guy. I think

if he can just stay healthy, I think he's really good. They have good arms in the bullpen this year and a great closer, and it's just a good team. And if Mookie can really put it together this year, three homers last night, I think this team, this team could make some noise.

Unfortunately, they're playing in the American league with the Astros who look like they're going to go 137 and 25 or something, but this looks like a really good Red Sox team. The reason I bring this up is this is the first time that I can remember. You'd almost have to go back to like the year 2000 where the Patriots have the bleakest future of any of the four Boston sports teams. And I don't even know how bleak that future is because they made the Superbowl last year and really had a legitimate chance to win that game in the fourth quarter and led with 10 minutes. So it's not like the team has completely fallen apart, but the Bruins,

this is a really good Bruins team. I don't talk a lot about hockey. I don't tweet about hockey. All the hockey people are crazy. I know what's going on. I watch them, but I'm not going to give you my expert opinion on the Bruins because I think it's really hard to know anything about hockey unless you're living and breathing it. It's a really good talent to Bruins team that can score and as a good goalie and they have a chance to win the cup. They, they are in the mix. So you take that, you take what's going on with the Red Sox and you take the Celtics season where they lose Kyrie Irving with 20 games to go in the season. Basically they lost Hayward five minutes in the season. They lost Marcus smart who,

you know, I don't, he's probably the fourth best player in the team and kind of the backup playmaker slash creator for what they had. They lose all these guys. They're up to nothing in a series next year. everybody's coming back. The East is a lot worse. The only team that's really going to be noticeably probably more dangerous next year is Philadelphia, just because there'll be a year older and that team's going to be really good. And it really looks like it's going to be Philadelphia versus Boston the next few years here. And that's before you factor in, they have the Sacramento

Kings pick next season, probably the Celtics, which could be in the top five. So future incredibly bright for them. And then you go to the Patriots. Story comes out today about Tom Brady, where allegedly he has not made up his mind yet, reportedly. Adam Schefter, who's usually right on this stuff, is reporting that Brady doesn't know if he's going to play this year.

And this is the culmination of something that really started last, I don't know, before round one of the playoffs. ESPN wrote a big piece about Brady versus Kraf versus Belichick and real dissension and craft telling Belichick basically that he had to trade Garoppolo and that there was no way that, that, that they were doing a transition plan from Brady to drop all this stuff. I wrote a piece about it at the time. I still find it hard to believe that craft at his advanced age is ordering Bill Belichick around. I do not. It does not add up to anything that's really happened during the course of the Belichick era, but there are unanswered questions. There really are there. It's something that I have not

heard the right theory about this other than this is starting to fall apart. I didn't want to believe it last year. I didn't want to believe it last year. I didn't want to believe it during the playoffs. Didn't want to believe it after the playoffs. But when you think about Brady and Gronk, they seem to be aligned. Alex Guerrero is super important to both of them. Belichick doesn't want Guerrero around anymore. So they're battling about that. Brady and Belichick have worked together now for two decades.

And it's never been the easiest marriage, I don't think. I think a ton of respect, a ton of professional respect, obviously. They've loved all the winning and everything and they've gotten along great. There really hasn't been any rifts, but I do think they're different people. And Belichick is cutthroat and he's been cutthroat for 20 years. And when he thinks you're done, you're out. And he's usually cutting bait a year before anybody would even think to do it. He's done this over and over and over again. He did it with Bledsoe when he gave Brady the job. He did it with Laura Malloy.

He did it with Ty Law. He waved Trey Brown. He traded Deion Branch. He traded Richard Seymour. He's over and over again cut bait. And with guys that were great Patriots. And the question, as you watch this stuff with Belichick was always, when he's doing this, how does it affect the people in the locker room?

Why are they so loyal to the Patriot way? Why do they believe in this program so much when they know as soon as they don't become as useful to Belichick, he's going to gut them. He's going to shank them. That part, I never totally understood. And this is the first time in two decades where it seems like there's resentment for the Patriot way a little bit for we do all this for you. And yet the first chance you have to cut us loose, you will. That the players feel that way. Amendola yet the first chance you have to cut us loose, you will that the players feel that way.

Amandola, the stuff that he said to Mike Reese, where we're just talking about how the players were like legitimately bummed out about the Malcolm Butler thing and how that was handled in the super bowl. And that they felt like that basically the implication was, we don't know what happened. He owed us an explanation and that probably cost us the Super Bowl and we haven't earned anything and we still don't know what happened.

That stuff you just really haven't heard that much with the Patriots over the years. So it's a complicated situation. And then on top of it, they trade Garoppolo, Brady at going to be 42 next season. I think it's, I think we can say pretty safely that he had concussions two years in a row in the playoffs. He definitely had one in the Atlanta Superbowl because his wife spilled the beans on that one. And I've always heard that he had one in the Denver game the year before. And it certainly would explain like how strange his play was in that game. But the word on the street was always that he got one in that game too early in the game. And Lord knows how many other concussions he had.

And I think it's something that his family's worried about at this point, especially he's won five rings. He's made a crazy amount of money. And I watched the Tom versus time, which had its ups and its downs. It had some good moments. I thought the second episode in particular was great. I really liked it. I think if you're a Pats fan, it's at least worth watching the first two, maybe even the worst first three, but the last episode leaves it kind of open

for Brady to walk away. And, and I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but watching it, you're like, what the hell? What are you talking about? Maybe it's time to, maybe this is it. I don't know. Maybe it's time for me to be with Mario. All the stuff he says, he leaves the door open. It was really hard to tell whether he's doing it for dramatic purposes or whether he really

thinks he doesn't want to play anymore. And from what I've heard, his wife definitely doesn't want him to play anymore and doesn't understand it and thinks he's too obsessed with football and we should, you've made enough, you've won all these Super Bowls, it's time. Get out now, why are your body still healthy? All that stuff. And if he has other people in his life, like his parents and things like that, and maybe some of his friends, maybe he is thinking about it. And I think, you know, Schefter wrote today that he wasn't sure if he was, or tweeted today that he wasn't sure if Brady's coming back.

In my opinion, I think Brady's watching what they're going to do with this draft really carefully because they got rid of Malcolm Butler. They traded Brandon Cooks. They got rid of Nate Solder. They got rid of a couple, Deion Lewis is gone. You know, they, they definitely lost some guys. They, they lost more guys than they added. And there's a scenario where they just start rebuilding during the draft where

they, they have two first and two seconds. And there's a scenario where they just say, all right, man, or Belichick says, Hey, they told me to trade Garoppolo and I need another quarterback long-term if I'm going to be here and Brady's going to stay for not going to stay forever. I'm not sold on him playing a couple more years. I'm just going to start rebuilding. Now I want to make one more run at this before I turn 75. And if Brady thinks that they're actually rebuilding, maybe that's what he's waiting for. I don't know for sure. Just a theory. And maybe it's a little cat mouse game. Like, hey, we have all these picks. Use this for immediate help. Use these for guys who can play next year. I want to win a

title. I threw for 505 in the Super Bowl last year and we almost won. So man, I hate admitting it, but it really does feel like there's smoke and fire now. And it really does seem contentious. And the way Gronk and Brady are leaving everything up in the air, it seems like they're in a staring contest with Belichick. And I'll be interested to see how this plays out. But going back to my original premise, for the first time, I would say since 2000, the Patriots, the bleakest future in Boston sports. Wow.

One last thing. I had such a good time at the Celtics game last night. Great crowd. Great seeing everybody. Great to be home. Everybody's really nice when I come back. Thanks to everybody who yells out or comes or talks or all that stuff. It's always great to hear from everybody. Thanks for all the nice words about The Ringer, all that stuff. Coming up, we have my

friend, The Ringer's Shea Serrano. We're going to talk kawaii and we're going to talk about action movies as well. First, let's talk about Clear. I've been using it for flights this year. It's been absolutely incredible. Clear uses biometrics to help you bypass the long lines and get through security about five minutes. It's like your own personal security line. Create your account online before going to the airport, then finish enrolling when you get there with the help of a Clear ambassador.

Use the Clear lands immediately. It works great with PreCheck too. I use them in tandem. I can get to the line immediately. It's in some of the busiest airports in the country, LA, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Vegas, many more. It's the best way to get through airport security. Here's why I'm telling you this. I started using Clear in 2018. I already had TSA PreCheck and I was like, what do I need Clear for? They sponsored something on this podcast and offered me a subscription. Hey,

try it out. You'll love it. I tried it out. It's great. All you have to do is it's easy to sign up. And then when you go to the airport, the last thing you have to do is get fingerprinted. And once you have that, you go to that little clear line next to the pre-check, you walk over, you show them your boarding pass, you put your two fingers on the fingerprint scanner, you look into an eye scanner for one second and boom, you're on. And they move you to the front of the line. And it really does save time. I do think it's worth it.

The cool thing is right now, listeners of my show can get their first three months of clear for free. So you can try it out yourself. Then you go to clearme.com slash bill. That is clearme.com slash bill for your first three months of clear and see for yourself. I think it's a pretty cool product. Anyway, here's Shea Serrano. All right. On the phone from a remote location in Texas, undisclosed, almost like an action movie hero. Our man Shea Serrano, how are you?

I'm good. I'm on the hunt for Kawhi. That's why you don't know where I am. Yeah, we're going to talk about action movies, but I want to talk about Kawhi Leonard first because we, how should I discuss this on the BS podcast? Yesterday, more information has come out in the last 24 hours since we discussed that about that he's reportedly

not even responding to texts and emails anymore. What is it like? You're a lifelong Spurs fan. What's it like watching this unfold? And what the hell do you think is happening? It has been, I don't know why we got to start with this one. It's been bad. It's been hard to watch happen.

Nothing like this has ever happened with the Spurs, ever. This would be like if all of a sudden Greg Popovich just started saying a bunch of racist things. That's how unexpected something like this was to happen. So I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know what to do or what to say. It's bad, though. Do you think he's on the team next year? I want to say yes, just because I don't want to jinx it,

but it doesn't feel like... I don't understand why he's not with the team. That's the part right now that makes me think, okay, this is kind of over. Like, he's just not going to go to the games. You're going to be in a whole other part of the country. Feels bad. That feels like a bad time.

Yeah, it feels like a bad time. Yeah. It feels like there's been a breach. It feels like whether, whether he's to blame or the team's to blame or both, both sides or whatever, that now that now there's more stuff going on because house and I talked about it yesterday, house made the theory that maybe he feels like his rehab has to happen in

New York and he doesn't want to mess it up and he's really worried about his leg and he just doesn't want to ruin whatever progress he's making. But I just I can't imagine what machine they have in New York that they wouldn't be able to get in San Francisco or San Antonio. You know, there's there's no way that it's because he's worried about the rehab at this point. If that was the case, it's not that hard to record a video like, Hey, look, I'm in New York. I'm fine. Go Spurs go. And then that's it.

It takes five seconds, but it feels bad, Bill. It feels real bad. Yeah. And we've seen this happen before with athletes who are recovering from injuries and they're not happy for whatever reason, but they've, they've always kind of kept the fans in the loop a little bit. And especially with social media these days, it's pretty easy to just send out one, you know, one, I don't even know if he's on Instagram. I don't even know if he's on social, but one thing like, Hey Spurs fans, it's Kawhi. I just want to say, I love you guys. I'm working hard to get

back. I hope I can be back at some point this season. But he's shut out everybody. And it's really strange. It's certainly not something that we're used to with the Spurs. You know, it always felt like a family. And this is the first time it's really felt messed up. I don't know what to do or say. I mean, Gordon Hayward is showing up to every Celtics game and giving a 12-minute speech at halftime.

We can't get one 10-second video from Kawhi. This is super-duper sucky. Do you feel like... because I'm starting to deal with this too with the Patriots. You know the end is coming at some point. You don't know what year it is. You had a great run. You can't complain about anything. I mean, and I can be talking about the Patriots or the Spurs right now. But at some point it's going to, at some point it's going to end.

And you start almost becoming wistful about, oh man, I should have appreciated this more or that much more, but it's when it ends, it ends fast. And I feel like we're both in the same situation as fans where you can kind of see the finish line now. And it's a little scary. Yeah. I thought I was going to be, I don't know. I guess I'll just use wistful again. I thought I was going to be most wistful about like, Oh,

the Spurs aren't winning championships for a while, but it turns out I just want a guy to play in one game. And that's an unexpected twist. What else is, there was an article, I think it was in the Washington Post, about Spurs fans in Texas having trouble dealing with Popovich and how political he's gotten and stuff like that. Was there anything to that?

Is that a thing in Texas? That's a thing in Texas among the 1% Spurs fans. That's it. There are 45 people in San Antonio who are very rich and upset that pop the thing. But the rest of us, we are very pro-pop. Is it possible the Spurs are more dysfunctional than we kind of, we always think, oh man, everything seems so stable, all that stuff.

But then when you go backwards, there's been some weird stuff with the Spurs, right? Like Tony Parker, Brent Barrett, that was weird. Steven Jackson getting shit canned a week before the playoffs started that one year, that was weird. The Richard Jefferson thing, that was always weird. The Marcus wanted to get traded last year.

Is it possible that they're just the average NBA team, but we don't think of them that way? Yes, that's exactly what's going on. We are just better at keeping secrets is all that it is. You might be. It does seem like they when things happen, if they had happened

on the Knicks, it would have been five times a bigger deal. Like that Tony Parker thing, that should have been a massive deal. It was just kind of pushed under the rug and everybody kind of ignored it. And that never happens in sports. That should have torn the team apart is what it should have done. If that happens, if that's like Derek Fisher, that's a wrap for the 2002 Los Angeles Lakers. How much blame do you give Zaza? 100%.

I don't even know what you're referencing, but I blame Zaza. You just blame him for blind blaming of Zaza? Yeah, because... Whatever is wrong. I did some investigating yesterday, and I talked to a couple little birdies I have around the league. Within the league,

what people seem to think is happening is a combination of Kawhi's family and friends basically being like, you should be bigger than you are. You can't rush back for them to see you have one chance to sign a giant contract, all the stuff that's easy to figure out.

But then there's another piece that I've heard a couple of times now, so I don't mind mentioning it, that he just doesn't feel like his leg is healthy. And whether it's psychosomatic or whether he's feeling something that nobody else is feeling, but he's become kind of obsessed with it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. You can't tell me it feels right. It doesn't. And that might be this whole thing that he just disagrees with the doctors and that's it. And it can't be fixed until he feels right.

Yeah, that seems like a very real possibility because that does happen. Like you can convince yourself that your ankle hurts or there's a splinter in your finger and you don't see it and there's no evidence, but you feel it and nobody can tell you. I would get that. I would 100% believe that that happened. I would 100% believe that it wasawaii that it would happen too and it's just weird that he doesn't have a way to like explain this to people because that's just not who he is that would make a 100 sense and then also he's got to be thinking about that he's got to be thinking about isaiah cost him a hundred something million dollars. Yeah. To be like,

you know, playing through a thing. Like I wouldn't come back. I wouldn't come back at all. I would wait. If I felt even a 5% not correct, there's no way I'm risking $200 million. If I'm Kawhi.

We talked about house. And I talked about yesterday about whether Isaiah becomes kind of a watershed moment for this situation, because he, he unquestionably cost himself over $100 million. He played when he was hurt. The injury was misdiagnosed. He played through pain.

He did all this stuff that people like us go, that's a warrior, man. That guy, all he cares about is the team. He's great. And then all of a sudden, that guy's making $5 million next year instead of 30. And I wonder from this point on whether athletes are just going to be more caught. Like he, he becomes the example they point to, you know, like, Oh,

I don't want to end up like that, dude. I really think that's going to change how people think about this stuff going forward. Yeah. It's that plus it's the whole, the players have been grabbing more and more control of their destiny, for lack of a better word. They have been making that a priority. And then now you have the Isaiah thing. Yeah, it's all coming together. Like, this is just what's going to happen now. And I don't have a problem with it. I just, can you send a text ago, Bill Walton, they win the 77 title and I think they're 15, 15 eight or something the next year. And he, he goes down with a foot injury and they don't really know what it is. He comes, he tries to come back for the playoffs.

They shoot up his foot with a whole bunch of painkillers. So he doesn't feel the pain. The foot's just bothering him and they shoot up his foot with a whole bunch of painkillers so he doesn't feel the pain. The foot's just bothering him. And they shoot up his foot. He ends up playing. He makes it worse. And he basically derails his entire career. He's never the same.

He ends up suing the Blazers. He goes to the Clippers. That's a disaster. The whole thing is covered in Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam, which is still the best sports book anybody's ever ever written including both of us um but but this was this is the all-time example of somebody going no no no my body doesn't feel right and the doctor's going you're fine you're fine get back out there and the athlete was right and you know, I guess the thing that's hard for me to understand is the whole, where the injury is, that it's a quad,

that somebody could have a quad that's injured for this long. It's bizarre. This is very much John Voight talking Paul Walker into shooting up his knee in front. And I like, I mean, I like varsity blues. Varsity blues. That's what this is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, just give him a shot. He'll be fine.

Don't listen to a kip. Last question on Kawhi. What was the Spurs relationship, Spurs fans' relationship with him before, during, and now after the Kawhi prime? Like, he wasn't as popular as Duncan, obviously, but would you say he was on the Ginobili Parker level

or was there like a lack of a connection with him because he's so quiet? What was it like? No, he was, okay, Ginobili is the number one most beloved spur in history. Wow, over Duncan. Over Duncan, yeah. Wow, really? Duncan is the best of all time,

of course, but just as far as cultural figures in San Antonio, Manu is first. By a small amount, but Manu is definitely first, and then Timmy, and then under him, you get the David and then Tony Parker. That's the top four order right there.

Kawhi is still he just didn't have the longevity like if he left tomorrow people would put him in the list of like you're putting together the greatest spurs of all time but he would never be top five they just he just never got to that point he just didn't allow it to happen like with Timmy that's what we felt the same way in the beginning of his career, like the first 10 years or something. It felt more like a relationship you have with a very good dentist. And you're like, this is the dentist I want to use above anybody else, but I don't want to hang out with them. That's what it feels like with Kawhi. And that's where we are. He's a great

dentist. Every time I go, great magazines in the office. Awesome nurses, super personable. I would say if you're making the top five, I think the Ice Maid George Girvin has to be probably ahead of Robinson would be my guess, right? He'd be number four. Yeah. If you're talking to older people, he's number three.

Yeah, because I would say for the over 40 fans, he's got to be high up the list. He's up there. I remember when I was doing my book and I was ranking all the dudes, I was astonished by how good his career was. Because it ended abruptly and by the time it ended, the league was just

taken off. So he was kind of the guy for the generation before that. He was the tape-delayed finals generation, basically the cocaine generation. But he, he was kind of the guy for the generation before the, he was the tape delayed finals generation, basically the cocaine generation, but he was just cranking out first team on BA is his, his scoring was basically what Harden is doing right now, year after year. Like Carter Griffin was in the thirties every year, incredibly fun to watch. And I used to love him as a kid. I used to just love him and he was never on TV.

They came to Boston once a year and I probably saw him play 10 times as a kid when nowadays you think, I've probably seen Drew Holiday play more in the last three weeks than I did my entire childhood of George Kervin. But the Spurs are to be done soon. What bandwagon do you see yourself jumping on

for the playoffs? I'm pushing anybody but the Warriors. So whoever the Warriors are playing, that's who I'm rooting for. Any reason? It's going to be extremely sucky in the Western Conference Finals when they play the Rockets

and I have to cheer for the Rockets. But because they're the champions and it's just fun to watch a champion lose. And also they're going to beat the Spurs. And the thing that I want to avoid at all costs is I want, you know, the championship DVD that comes out at the end of the season? Yeah.

I want for the Spurs to not be on the DVD. On the cover, like guarding somebody. Yeah, I want somebody else to win a championship. So like 2013 when the Heat beat the Spurs in the finals, super sucky because they were on the DVD for like 30 minutes when you watched it. Oh, no. I don't want that to happen. That's why like Derek Fisher's.4 shot,

it doesn't matter that that much because they lost in the finals, so we didn't have to be on the DVD. It's fine. That's a lost moment in NBA history for like fork in the road titles. It's probably the most ridiculous shot other than the Ray Allen shot. That's when the 2013 finals, it's probably the most ridiculous shot anybody has made to basically save their season.

And I still don't really think it should have counted, but I, you would have gone into the finals that year against Detroit in 04. You would have caught them a year before you actually caught them in 05. When you beat them in 05, and Duncan was really kind of broken down by the finals. He played so many minutes over that four years. I think you would have beaten them in 04 too. I don't think the Pistons would have won.

We definitely beat them in 04. Yeah. We definitely beaten them in 0-4 too. I don't think the Pistons would have won. We definitely beat them in 0-4. Yeah. We definitely beat them in 0-4. But yeah, that was a great one. Yeah. One last thing, since we're talking Texas basketball, because you live in Houston and this Rockets thing, everybody has kind of talked themselves into them as a contender.

And then in game one against Minnesota, they don't look great. Chris Paul almost throws the ball, almost throws the game away that would have sent it into overtime if Minnesota made a play. And kind of that residual stuff started to surface up of, oh, yeah, none of these guys have won anything, including the coach. And these guys have a storied history of not coming through. What is the mood like in Houston? Are they defying about it, or are they a slightly bit worried about this team?

You know what I think? The way it feels right now is that that was the best possible thing that could have happened. And I mean that because you've got a situation where it feels like if that was the Clippers playing, and Chris Paul throws that ball away, the other team comes back and hits a three, and the Clippers playing and Chris Paul throws that ball away, the other team comes back and hits a three and they, and the Clippers lose it over time. Right.

Or if James Harden has a bad game, it feels like they lose that game one, but you've got Chris Paul who says, I played a horrible game and I made a very bad decision at the end and we still won. And that's got to feel very refreshing to him to where he knows he can make a mistake and james is there where james knows he can make a mistake and chris is there like they feel good about it right now that's what it feels like talking to people

in houston you go like they're seeing right now that they don't have to do everything 100 perfect 100 of the time to win a championship that's what it felt like after game one. So Chris Paul has learned a valuable lesson that he can choke and the team can still win. Yes. That's good. That's a step up for him. Harden is remarkable. I know you hate the Rockets.

Where, where is Harden rising up the rankings for you? Where do you have him? And like NBA players? Yeah, like guys right now. Because you're still a LeBron believer. Like when the chips are down, that's the guy

you'd want. But is he on the corner? Is he ahead of Durant? Where do you have him? He's number three right now for me. It's LeBron, Durant, because the way that he's been playing against the spurs is stupid and then harden so that's why the west of the conference i guess if if harden wins the championship this year and finals mvp he becomes the default number one guy now which would be

an incredible thing to have happen over you know picture three years ago we're talking about that there's no way and then here we are. He's looking at it. It's right in front of him. He can do it this year. He become the best player in the NBA on planet earth. That could be James Harden in July. That's what we're looking at, which is horrible.

And, and I think that there's some top four guards ever stuff at stake. There's a lot of historical stuff at stake too, because his statistical resume this decade is ludicrous. And I think he's only 27 or 28. He might be maybe 28. I don't know. But at this point it's true holidays league and we're all living with it. I,

you haven't jumped on the Pelicans bandwagon a little bit. Yeah. I really liked the Pelicans. I watched them last night. I, it feels like you let James, I mean, not James, you let Anthony Davis win a playoff game and then he goes, Oh fuck, this is, this is kind of great. Let's keep doing this. I like this. Now they're trouble.

Yeah. Um, do you think LeBron is underrated, overrated or properly rated? I think LeBron is underrated. Okay. Why? I think why I think if you get to a spot where you are not talking about the greatest basketball player of all time like he there's no way you can't make that argument now but people are still putting him like fourth or fifth of all time

that's crazy to me I think LeBron is underrated because if you put him at anywhere under second in the history of the world, then he's underrated. I have him third. I have him third too. Okay. I just put the Russell 11 and 13.

And as the years go by and the stats get better and they started, well, he did score, he did this. It's just like, just, I trust the accounts of the people who were there. I think it's really important. I know when I wrote my book, it's, there's barely any footage. And I really, I went back, I read every book that anybody ever wrote about basketball, um, fifties, sixties, a little bit after all the different quotes,

the stuff that was in sport magazine and stuff like that. And people just revered Russell. It's the same way we felt about Tiger Woods as a golfer last decade. People were just like, that guy's amazing. You're not winning a game seven if he's on the other team. Just the reverence that everybody had for how dominant he was and what a great teammate he was and all that stuff. That's the stuff that fades as guys get older, as fans get older, things like that.

I think the thing I'm going to remember about LeBron, and I think history will remember him fondly for this. And I think it's something that somebody 50 years from now could look at LeBron's body work and get it in a better way that maybe we would get it with somebody like Russell is just how fucking consistent he was and how just, he just, his inability to get injured ever and his ability to just, just keep,

just take a pounding year after year. And it didn't never really seem to affect him that much. You know, all of his issues were more mental than physical. And like if he didn't have the right team and he'd get frustrated or a couple of times he would just get like the 2011 finals, he just would melt down.

But it was never physical. And I don't, the only other guy I can really think of is Karl Malone, who was just this consistent year after year after year, where at some point you're like, man, this guy's just different, you know? And I think that would be the one thing I remember. Whenever you're putting together your list like this, are you, how are you doing this? Are you saying, okay, we're only comparing players in the era that they played, or are you saying just across all eras like if we if we switched bill

russell and lebron james like are you doing that in your head are you just going no only i'm only talking about bill russell with regards to the bill russell era yeah i think for me i mean there's no right answer to this and i know i know it's something that you're you're a little anti-ranking guys from different eras and i don't love it either because I just don't think there's any way to compare basketball in 1966 to basketball now. It's ridiculous. But I think you have to look at how far ahead the guy was in his era compared to somebody now and the body work and the consistency. And also if you're just starting a team from scratch and you could have this person's entire career, would you want that versus somebody else's entire career? Like that was for me, the toughest one was who's, who's higher magic or bird.

And I ended up picking magic because magic just played three more years. He had three more good years basically. So if I get magic, I get 12 years. So I think that's the case for LeBron against Jordan. Like if he does this for 20 years, you really have to start going, well, would I rather have 13 years of Jordan or 20 years of LeBron? What would I rather have? And that becomes the argument. So what do you look at?

That's fair. I drop them into the different eras, which is, I think, unfair to the older guys. Just because of how advanced everything is now. Like, if you put LeBron in 1962, you're putting a tornado in the middle of fucking Target, is what you're doing. He's just destroying everything. But Bill was so far ahead, like you mentioned. He was so good. He could play in today's NBA no problem, it feels like,

which is a crazy thing to say or think about. But, yeah, I don't know. It's always back and forth about what to do. Well, and especially now, the last couple years of the league, that just the way guys play is just so inherently different. I was at the Bucs-Celtics game last night, and just watching how guys, instead of in the old days, their instinct was, oh, we have a three on two. Oh, we have a two

on one. I'm going to try to get a layup. And now they veer out to the three point line. And that's just how we play now. And so much of it is geared around, can we get a good three? Can we get an open three, all the slash and kick stuff. And, uh, and I, when you watch a game from the eighties now, it almost doesn't feel like the same sport. It really doesn't. You watch, you watch like the Philadelphia Boston, 1981 Eastern finals. And it's like, it feels like Vince McMahon created this crazy physical sport with tall guys. But you know, it was funny about last night with Boston and Milwaukee, like, cause Stevens is a genius. As you know what's funny about last night with Boston and Milwaukee? Because Stevens is a genius, as you know.

He goes billy ball old school and starts pounding them down low with Monroe and Horford and really trying to take advantage of Milwaukee's lack of size. And it worked. I'm watching it going, wow, there's still a place for this.

When we talk about guys like, the dumbest argument is, oh yeah, if Shaq played now, how where would you play him? How could you just just get shooters out there and shoot him off the floor? It's like, no, it's actually it would be the opposite. Shaq would do whatever the fuck he wanted. So I don't know. There's some guys from the I've talked about this before on pods, but there's some guys in the past that I actually think would have been better off in this era. And then other guys who were probably in,

in the right era, like somebody like Robinson would have been ludicrous. You took 1992, David Robinson and put him now. And that's like the way basketball is played. Oh my God. It would have been crazy. He would have been great.

Shaq would have been on Shaq would have averaged 48 points a game if you put him in the NBA today. How would we, like, how would a team like Milwaukee have stopped Shaq with John Henson? Like, get out of there. Yeah, exactly. You've monitored the disrespectful corner for us

for a long time. And I was wondering, we were only six days in, is there anything you've seen more disrespectful than Eric Butzo pretending that he didn't know what Terry Rozier's name was after he got his ass kicked by Terry Rozier last night? No, that was great. I think that that one doesn't count as disrespectful because he's just getting beat.

You can't be the guy, the disrespectful guy, when you're the one who's losing. Oh, that's a getting beat. You can't be the guy the disrespectful guy when you're the one who's losing. Oh, that's a good point. You're right. Yeah, you're right. It comes off backward. I think the most disrespectful thing we've seen in the playoffs so far is Drake calling Kelly Oubre a bum in the middle of the game. And it happened during the Wizards

game last night. He's running down the court. Drake courtside in Toronto as usual stands up very clearly in Kelly's ear as he's running by, just calls him a bum. He just screams bum at him. Wow. Just fantastic. Yeah.

Wow. All right. Well, we haven't had like the, we haven't had like the ridiculous dunk or block yet. Drew Holiday had a really good dunk last night, but it wasn't a hundred percent over somebody, but he had this great lefty and traffic slam in the first quarter. But I still feel like my number one candidate, if we had to rank who's most likely to have the disrespectful dunk moment in round one, I would say Davis.

Because Davis just seems like he's intent on dunking on everybody at all times. And he's just waiting for his victim. It's kind of like a serial killer right now he's perusing the streets the thing i liked about the about the drew holiday dunk last night is he dunked on nurkin right yep okay so that was a anthony davis tried to dunk before then he was near the rim and nurkin sort of shut him shut him off. I think he might have blocked the shot or bobbled the ball or something. So you've got that. And then Davis passes it to

Drew and it's like he called in backup or reinforcement. He's like, you stop me, stop this guy. And then fucking boom, right in your face. It was wonderful. I thought Drew, I just think he's been a revelation. I honestly, I tweeted this last night.

I didn't know he had this in him. I knew he'd had trouble staying on the court. I knew he had upside. He seemed like one of those guys that when he's playing is above average, but has some durability issues and can go in little funks and stuff. But once they moved him to the off guard, basically with Rondo, so something's happened to him this year. The ferocity that he was playing with last night,

the thing I liked was him and Rondo really genuinely seemed to believe that they were better than Portland's backcourt. You know, they were carrying themselves more confidently and differently, like really taking it to those guys and fighting for everything. And I think Portland's in a world of trouble. We're going to take a break. Then we're going to talk about action movies. Hey, with the Google Assistant, you can complete over a million actions on your phone, in your car, around the house.

For instance, hey, Google, book me a table for four at Major Domo. Sounds good. Let's make a reservation with OpenTable for four people at Major Domo. Wow. You better get in on Google Assistant right now while I have the chance because it is getting linked up with anything and everything. I feel like in a couple of years, you're just going to be walking into an ATM going, hey, Google, hey, Google, take money out for me.

Hey, Google, will you feed me? It is going to be all over the place. It's going to be attached to your car. Lord only knows what they're up to. The Google assistant, it's really great. It's awesome. It will answer any question you have. It'll tell you what time it is, weather, whatever you want. Download the Google assistant right now. Back to show. All right, we're back. The only person, so just some background for the listeners. I love renting all movies, especially action movies and thrillers. And especially when I see Liam Neeson on a train, I'm just in. I don't need to know anything more. I just see the train. He's concerned. I'm like, that's it. I don't need to see a trailer. The only person I know who probably loves these movies more than I

do is our friend Shea Serrano. And we thought we would go over basically the last two years of action movies. Because look, there's a lot of people like us. Shea has three kids. I have two. I have three dogs. We're home on Friday nights. We're looking for stuff. We're looking for stuff to watch. Shay and I both treasure the 11 to 1 a.m. hour when everybody's asleep. That's when we can sneak in that one last bad movie that maybe our wife doesn't want to watch. And we just have a lot of opinions on stuff. So what we thought we would do is we're going to play a game that is

basically like the prices, right? Crossed with on demand where there's certain movies where it's like, John wick too is on demand. And there's like this two week window before it goes on the actual, you can just pay per view for 48 hours where Amazon will have it or Apple. And they'll make you pay the full price. They kind of test you.

They stare at you. They play a game of chicken. Like, do you want to wait two more weeks for this to just become available for $5.99? Or do you want it so badly? You're going to have to have it right now for $14.99 or $19.99. And that's when they really,

Shay, how many times do you fall victim to that? Every time. Okay. So they eyeball you like the, the, uh, the commuter was on, I missed it in the theater. They release it on Apple and Amazon, all that stuff. And they're just eyeballing me with it. They're like, you know, you want it, you know, you want it, you know, you don't want to wait the two weeks.. Needless to say, it took me two seconds to order it. What we're going to do is we're going to go through some of these action movies. This is a combination, recommendation slash what we would have paid, how high the price could have gone before we blinked,

which I think is a really interesting game. For instance, John Wick 2, if that's on Amazon, I don't know what my blink price would have been, but it would have been triple digits, right? It would have been, I don't know, maybe 100, 110. What would it have been for you? I can get to $49.99 for John Wick 2. $49.99, okay.

I can get there. Let me ask you this. John Wick 3 is coming out. It's coming out in the theater, but they decide we're going to on-demand this too, and it's $99.99. New release, John Wick 3. Get this in your house right now.

You don't have to leave your house. You can watch it with both of your boys, whatever you want to do. What would you pay? How high would you go for that? Yeah, I could hit $99.99. For a John Wick movie, I have not seen yet. Right.

The only reason I pay $49.99 for John Wick 2 is because you can watch some of the scenes on YouTube, but they're always better in context. So if you want to watch the subway shootout with him and Common when they have the silencers and they're going at each other, that's fun to watch on YouTube on a Tuesday morning. But if you watch all the way up into it, it's just better.

So 49 99 John Wick 2, 99 99 John Wick 3 for sure. I think Common's career has been really funny where on the one hand he's in John Wick 2 and he has like one of the great stretches in recent action movie history with Keanu. Really great. Really taught the stuff coming out of after Keanu convinces the lady to kill herself in the bathtub. The little game they play getting out of that nightclub and shooting each other and then the subway, all that stuff. It's otherworldly, but yet at the same time, he's the guy who is reinvented himself in award shows as Saturday, Saturday at live called him like the Dr. Seuss of hip hop,

where he's socially aware, like kind of pseudo hip hop things that he does that he's made a career in that too. But at the same time, he's out of the subway, trying to shoot John wick. I don't know what's going on with common. I'm kind of enjoying it though. He's claiming a lot of quarters. All right, first one. That's the good thing about Common. You're either going to get that fight scene he has with John Wick

when they end up busting through the Continental, one of the best fight scenes of the last 10 years in a movie. You're either getting that, or you're getting a spoken word for him about civil rights. You get one of those two things, that's all that's going to happen. It's those two lanes right now. All right.

The commuter, let's start with the commuter. I, you know, I probably would have gone not knowing anything. I probably would have gone into the $30 range for this on a Friday night. If I was desperate, it,

it made me realize I kind of have Liam Neeson season tickets. I always talk about season tickets for actors. It's like the season ticket representatives calling me being like, hello, your Liam Neeson season tickets are up in April. Would you like to renew? I'd be like, yes, please just charge my account. I don't know how much longer he has, though, because I think he's like kind of secretly 64. I don't know how long he can keep doing fight scenes or how long that's going to age. I did not love the computer. I didn't think it was very good. And yet I loved it because I love all terrible action movies.

I give it a solid 8 out of 10, even though it's probably a 3 out of 10. What were your thoughts on the commuter? I feel the same way. That's a good call on his... He mentions it in the movie when he gets fired. He's like, I'm 60 years of age. He's telling the boss. He's actually 65 in real life.

So they did a good job there. They do those super quick cuts. They move the camera and vibrate the camera to make everything seem a little more violent. But as far as the commuter goes, I put Liam Neeson on any form of transportation and I'm going to watch it. I will pay. I will get into the 30.

I would have paid $34.99 to watch the commuter if I'd not seen it in the movies already. Right. I will say on the subject of Liam Neeson, I think Taken 2 has slipped through the cracks of history. I am a complete believer in Taken 2. I think it's really good. I think in some ways it's better than Taken 1. What? it has some really good stretches it really like when his daughter she's trying to locate him

because Liam Neeson he can close his eyes in a car after he's been kidnapped and remember all the sounds on the way to being held hostage and then can tell his daughter like go to the bell go if you when you hear the noise take a left and then can tell his daughter like, go to the bell, go. If you, when you hear the noise, take a left. And, uh, and then she's, and then his daughter who's completely terrified and useless and

taken one is now jumping buildings like Vin Diesel and taken to just hopping from building to building to go find him. Uh, I really enjoyed it's dumber and more ridiculous than taking one. Taking one is just great from start to finish. Taken 2 is more like kind of campy, but I really like them. I think that's a great the 1-2 combo of that is really good.

You're not as high on Taken 2. I don't like it a whole bunch, no. Really? I'm stuck. Tell me why. When the first one happened, I need for it to be at least if you're going to present yourself as first one happened, I need for it to be at least, if you're going to present yourself as a serious movie, I need for it to be at least a little bit believable.

I can get behind, a daughter goes to Europe and she gets kidnapped and now you've got to go get her. I get that. But it happens again and then again. At some point, you've got to be like, you know what, we're not going on any more trips. We're going to hang out at the house and we're not going to get kidnapped anymore. I just couldn't get there with it.

Also, I think that's the one when he jumps a fence for like 10 minutes straight. He just fence, fence, fence. Quick shot, fence, fence. Like, okay, I get it. Taking three is bad. Taking three is bad. You know what's a fun thing to talk about? I was talking about this maybe like a week ago with my wife. We were watching

Run All Night, which is another Liam Neeson action movie. He plays a guy named Jimmy Conlin, I think. Yeah, not great. Is Liam Neeson a good dad or a bad dad? Because all of his kids, terrible shit seems to happen to them. And I just don't, I don't know.

It's hard to figure out if he's a good dad or a bad dad. Yeah, you know, first of all, great question. I love how you're thinking with this. I would say a loving dad, but kind of an incompetent dad would be where I would go with that. And I do think this point doesn't get made enough. I think Taken is one of the best father-daughter movies that's ever happened. You have all sons. You don't, you're not, you

have all sons. You're not going to understand. There's lessons with this where if you don't listen to your dad and if you tell him a white lie, you might get kidnapped and potentially get thrown into a prostitution drug ring and your whole life will get ruined if you

lie to your father. That's really the lesson of that movie. Don't lie to your father. She goes to France. That's how you present it? Yeah, she tells him like, oh, we're staying with our friends and we're going to Utah. But no, she's basically staying in this crazy place with just her and her friend.

They're like 17. It's insane. I'm not saying she deserved to get kidnapped, but I do think we all learned a valuable lesson about telling the truth to your father. Shot caller, we both loved. Shot caller in the moment. Yeah, in the moment, I would say, you know, typical $6.99, $7.99. But if I could take the knowledge I have now and go backwards and with like the right level of you have to see this movie, I'm easily, I'm drifting to the 39, 49 range, right? Easy. I would pay it. I would pay up to $40 to watch it right now.

Like just, I would get off the phone with you to go watch shot caller right now for four hours and I would happily pay $40. It's an unbelievable movie. They just stripped away every single thing. I think that's what I like so much about Shot Caller. They made Shot Caller feel like you're in a prison cell for the whole movie. There's no extra stuff. These are the things that are happening.

Here's why they're happening. And you think you know everything. And you're like, wait, why is he putting this? Why does he have this chapstick? Why is he doing this? And it all comes together at the end and you go, Oh fuck. I had no idea what was happening all the time.

Unbelievable. And, uh, Jamie Lannister with a career, career performance game, Jamie Lannister from game of Thrones. Didn't know he had this in him. He really,

it's a top three prison movie. I don't know. This is probably another podcast, but, and blood in blood out. Is that, are we counting that as three prison movie. I don't know. This is probably another podcast, but in Blood In Blood Out, is that, are we counting that as a prison movie or is it bigger than a prison movie? That's a prison movie.

Blood In Blood Out is a prison movie. That's the number one prison movie of all time. Because I would say if we broke down prison scenes versus non-prison scenes, it's probably about 35% of the movie. It's a little more than that because Miko is the star of the movie. Right. And he spends a lot of his time in prison. It's probably closer to 45%, I would guess.

See, a lot of the listeners out there don't know what we're talking about because, and I haven't even told you this, I made a deal with all the cable companies when we hired you for Grantland four years ago to never show Blood In, Out again, because I wanted you to be productive. I told them, I told HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, the movie channel, TNT, all of them. I was like, you can never show this movie again. I think Shay has a chance to have a really great career. And if this is on HBO two at 11 at night, we just lose him. He's not going to write anything. Yeah.

Alright, so Kidnap. Did you see this one with Halle Berry? That's the one where she's driving the car real fast. I did not see that one. I only watched the trailer. Oh. Well, first of all... Did you watch it? Not only did I watch it, I saw it twice.

My daughter and I were at a soccer tournament and we had like four or five hours to kill between games and went back to the hotel. And it was available in a hotel. And it was $16.99. So that's how high I went for this. So I know for a fact that's my price. I love all kidnap movies. I've said this a million times, but if there was a prison channel, a kidnap channel,

and a heist channel, if Cinemax just created channels for those three genres, I'd be all in and I would always check to see what was on. Kidnap is solid. It's got Halle Berry just, her son gets taken.

She's got to get him. She's going to do whatever it takes. And as a parent, it puts you in that situation, which is what I really enjoy of. How far would I go? What would I do? What would I do in this situation? So you get to kind of transfer in.

So it sounds like you're at $4.99 because this has been available for a year and you never bought it. I'm at $4.99 for this one, but mostly because I didn't know it was out. I remember seeing a big poster at the movies and then it was gone. And then I didn't $4.99 for this one, but mostly because I didn't know it was out. I remember seeing a big poster at the movies, and then it was gone, and then I didn't know anything. How far would you go if you're walking down the street with your kid, one of them, your son, and a car pulls up, grabs him when you turn, and takes off? Do you just write that one off? Do you feel like, I got another kid at home, or what are you doing?

Are you chasing? Yeah, I'm going all out home or what are you doing? You chasing? Yeah, I'm doing, I'm going all out. I'm stealing somebody's car. That's where my, that's where my elite driving skills would have to just come into play.

You just have to get a car and just go to work. I think, I think it's harder to steal someone's car than you might think. Like you'd be like, wait,

stop, stop, stop. Yeah, what if the door's locked? What do you do if the door, if the door's never locked and every car could just, the car door, stop, stop. Yeah, what if the door's locked? What do you do if the door, if the door's never locked and every car could just,

the car door could be opened up. Super easy. I think parents have superhuman strength with their kids. You know, like I never, I had two small kids and when you have kids, you can throw them up in the air

and catch them. You become like Randy Moss. Like there's no scenario where you drop your kid. You can lift cars off them. You can do all these things. So I do feel like in that situation, you would develop these Liam Neeson type skills. Did you see Proud Mary? I watched maybe like the first 30 minutes.

And that's where I am in it right now. And it's not bad. I'm a big Taraji fan. So I wanted to make sure to watch that one. And, you know, so far so good. It's one of those ones where you don't just sit down and get all the way immersed in. It's not that great of a movie. But if you like Taraji, same as like a Liam Neeson character, Taraji puts a movie out, I got to see it.

So that's why. So how high would you go for this? $4.99? $6.99? I would do $12.99 for Proud Mary. Is it available? There's a great scene in it where she... Yeah, it's out right now. There's a great scene where she's doing a John Wick sort of situation

where she's driving the car during a shootout. She's whipping the car and shooting out the window. And it's fun to watch, but not good. Yeah, I'm probably at about 1099. I don't think I would be at 1699 for that one. I did like her in that movie. There's a whole other genre, like the From Hell genre has come back, which started with like Hand That Rocks the Cradle and those movies,

like The Nanny from Hell and then The Neighbor from Hell and The Tenant from Hell. And that just goes on. And now it's kind of come back. And she made one where Idris Elba shows up at her house because it's raining. And you see that one? And his car had trouble, but he's really a bad guy.

And he ends up- He's a criminal? Yeah. Yeah. That one she's pretty good in. And then they made another kind of a similar version of same kind of premise with Rosara Dawson and some dude I don't know. And then

Katherine Heigl, where she's the original mom of the stepdaughter and she's starting to get more and more involved. That one's good too. I like those movies when somebody kind of loses their mind. Yeah, those are always fun. Yeah, the fatal attraction premise, basically. The Accountant with Ben Affleck.

You know what? I have a complicated relationship with The Accountant because my brain is telling me that I hate it, but I've probably seen it 21 times. Every time I'm flipping through the channels and it's on there, I have to look at it for at least a little bit. And I don't know why.

I don't know why. I don't really like Ben Affleck that much. I don't really like the movie that much. But I got to watch it. Yeah, knowing now it's available on cable, so you wouldn't have to pay anything. This was a $16.99 for me. What's interesting about The Accountant is it gets better as it goes along.

And the last half hour is really good, which makes it for HBO Cinemax purposes, like a, like a good one. Cause you can kind of jump in at the right time and really get a nice 40 minutes out of it. Like when his brother shows up and all that stuff. Yeah.

That's a good, that's a good twist. Yeah. We're gonna take a break. Come back. All right. Let's talk about rocket mortgage by Quicken Loans. They understand the home plays a big role in your. All right. Let's talk about Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans. They understand that home plays a big role in your life and family, and that's why they

created Rocket Mortgage. They give you the confidence you need when it comes to buying a home or refinancing your existing home loan. Don't want to fully understand all the details and be confident you're getting the right mortgage. Whether you're looking to buy your first home or your 10th, with Rocket Mortgage, you get a transparent online process that gives you the confidence to make an informed decision. It's convenient. Their trusted partners allow you to share your financial information with Rocket Mortgage at the touch of a button. In addition to getting a real mortgage

approval in minutes, you can even adjust the rate and length of your loan in real time to make sure you're getting the right solution for you. Apply simply, understand fully, mortgage confidently, and get started. Go to rocketmortgage.com slash Bill Simmons. Equal housing lender licensed in all 50 states. NMLS, consumeraccess.org, number 3030. Back to Shay. Hey, here's a movie that's out. I've been eyeing it for a while.

It's starring somebody that I like. And so I would guess my price would be $4.99 because I haven't pulled the trigger yet. And I think it is $4.99 because I haven't pulled the trigger yet. And I think it is $4.99. But it's a movie called Joe Braven. And it stars – I'm sorry. It's called Braven.

And it stars Jason Momoa, who is the guy who married Khaleesi in season one of Game of Thrones. It stars him as a character named Joe Braven. And it's kind of like that Steven Seagal, he's a good guy, but something crossed and something happened. Now he's got to kill some people. It's that early 90s Seagal Van Damme plot. Have you seen Joe Braven? I have not seen Joe Braven.

I didn't even know it existed until you said those words right now. I'm not all the way convinced it's real because that sounds like a ridiculous name. I did think about that when I was texting you last night with movies. I was going to make up a fake movie and see if you believed it was real,

but I didn't want to do that to you. But if I did, I think it would have been Braven starring Jason Momoa as Joe Braven. I'm a Jason Momoa believer. I thought he was good in that one Sly Stallone movie. The Sly Stallone comeback action action movie I liked him in that I like

Momoa I just looked up Raven right now it made Take a guess what it made of the box office And you won't get within 10 million dollars Really I would have guessed like 3 million dollars Okay It made 200200,000.

Oh, no. Which is not that great. So it's probably straight to video would be my guess. You know what? I'm going to watch Braven. You watch Braven, and then we'll compare notes. Sleepless with Jamie Foxx. Oh, man.

This one came on, and I would have gone to $49.99 for this one. It was a Friday night. I remember the weekend. I had nothing to watch. Daughter had an early soccer game the next day. Really didn't have a lot of options on that Friday night. Jamie Foxx, Sleepless. I was in.

The reviews weren't great. I don't know why. I loved it. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was good. I liked Jamie Foxx. He's where he's, I wouldn't say he's one of my favorite actors, but I think when, you know, he's in the right movie, I just like him. I enjoy him. And, uh, and I like this one. Jamie Foxx is one of those actors who can turn what should have been a bad

movie into a fun movie, like a law abiding citizen, law abiding citizen should have been a bad movie into a fun movie, like Law Abiding Citizen. Law Abiding Citizen should have been awful, but Jamie's great in it, as is Gerard Butler. So I thought the same thing going in Sleepless. I saw the trailer. We got Jamie Foxx as probably a crooked cop. You've got Drake playing in the background of the trailer. I'm like, this is, I'm in. You've got all the things I need in the movie.

And I just couldn't get there with it. It just wasn't that much fun to watch. It wasn't funny. It wasn't cool. It wasn't, there wasn't like any gigantic action scene. It just felt like, it felt like they came up with the name and the star and then they tried to just,

we'll just show up and something cool will happen. And it didn't happen. Oh, I like when they do that with movies where they come up with the title and the star. And then they try to just, we'll just show up and something cool will happen. And it didn't happen. Oh, I like when they do that with movies where they come up with the title and the star, and then they figure out the premises I left out. I I'm probably biased on this cause it's set in Las Vegas and I, I get irrational when,

when action movies are in Las Vegas, I like all action movies in Las Vegas. What was the one? I think Nick of time. Wasn't that the one with the boxing? No, not Nick Las Vegas. What was the one? I think Nick of Time. Wasn't that the one with the boxing? No, not Nick of Time. Oh, Snake Eyes. Nicolas Cage is at the boxing match.

Yeah, that's a good one. Wasn't that set in Vegas? As a bad guy, yeah. Yeah, that was in Vegas too. You're right about Jamie Foxx though, where all that movie needed was a couple of wisecracking jokes too. I get, you're right about Jamie Foxx though, where he, all that movie needed was a couple of wisecracking jokes and it would have felt more Jamie Foxx-ish,

but he'll do this. Like he did this in Miami Vice too, where he becomes serious Jamie Foxx. And I don't know why there's a serious Jamie Foxx. Like he should just be everything in the movie. You know, I liked it more than you did though. Yeah. He's very talented. Let him do all of the movie. I liked it more than you did, though. Yeah, he's very talented.

Let him do all of the things. I mean, I understand drama Jamie Foxx, like Ray Charles Jamie Foxx. I get it. Or even showgirls Jamie Foxx. Not showgirls. Dreamgirls. Dreamgirls. Showgirls Jamie Foxx.

I was like, whoa, was he in that? Yeah, it would have been great. But serious Jamie Foxx, I don't know. I think I liked it more than you, but I think we agree on one thing. I thought this movie would have had potentially a rewatchability component to it, and it doesn't. I saw it the one time. I liked it. It kept my interest.

I would never watch it again. And I think that was the missed opportunity. Like if they had done this, you know, I mean, it's not fair to compare these two movies because they had totally different goals. But I think Enemy of the State is the lost great Will Smith movie. It never gets mentioned when people talk about like the great Will Smith run. And it's really good. And it still kind of holds up.

And it's still in that era when, uh, when people were so scared of the internet and they just thought the internet was going to get to this place where these little satellites in the sky would be able to find out exactly where you were at all time and all that stuff. Now it turns out the internet is just a place where, um, your social media places just sell your information to, you know, other countries. Um, but you can walk around with that satellites falling. I feel like, but, uh, enemy of the state's great and very rewatchable and sleepless.

I would say is not, I did not see American made with Tom Cruise. Did you see this? Of course I saw that one. Yeah. And I, I was surprised at how not bad it was because it looked like it's going to be terrible, but it was also not looked like it was going to be terrible. But it was also not good. They do this weird, like the whole device of the movie is he's recording the confession also every 10 minutes or something they cut. And he's in a hotel room.

And they're building up to finally get into the hotel room. And those sorts of stories are usually a good time. Like when you follow a guy who starts out as a little tiny thing and it becomes very important and like a big drug cartel thing. Yeah. But it just, I, I felt like he didn't lean into it quite enough. It wasn't Tom Cruise enough for me. He was trying to be somebody else and it didn't work.

So what's your price for it to rewatch that one? One 99. Oh no. To, to watch it originally. What'd you do? Ah, no. To watch it originally, what'd you do? Oh, to watch it originally, yeah. I paid whatever the movie price was. $16.99 for my RPX ticket

and $24.99 for my nachos. So I know for a fact that my price is zero because I was on an airplane with this movie for free and made it 10 minutes and didn't really care. And I just think Tom Cruise, I, he was too old for the part. I don't like Tom Cruise pretending he's like a 36 year old guy when he's in his mid fifties. Now it's like, come on, Tom Cruise, you're, you're not young anymore. Uh, the mountain, the mountain between the mountain between us, Idris Elba and Kate Winslet on a mountain.

Starts out with a great plane crash. Then they're trapped on a mountain, which I usually enjoy. I always like when they've got to figure out how to get down. Somebody's hurt. The pilot's dead. It's always a good wrinkle when there's a dog. And in this case, there was the pilot's dog. They got to worry about the dog.

There's always coyotes or bears or some sort of animal that they're going to have to fight with at some point. There's always somebody gives up and then somebody ropes the other person back in. And then, oh, let's go. Oh, there's a cabin. What's that? Oh my God. It's this empty cabin in the middle of nowhere.

And there's tons of food. Wow. We lucked out. I like all the beats of that. This one, um, which I think I did pay $14.99 for, uh, it's too, it also is a love story and they never really made a choice between action versus love story. And the, the ensuing mess is kind of a mess. It has some moments, but ultimately I would not recommend this. I put it this way.

I, if the people out there haven't seen it, I would wait until it's on regular cable and do it that way. Do not pay. Yeah. This is, I like, uh,

if you want to watch a movie that's like this, then watch the edge with Anthony Hopkins. Yes. Which is almost the same exact movie, minus the, there's another love angle in it, but not between Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. But it's all tied up in there. Yeah, definitely The Edge is better. I just want to make it known that if I'm ever in one of these situations, if me and you are on a plane flying somewhere, you'll be crashing the mountains and you hurt your leg. You're leaving me.

You're just going to die on the mountain. Yeah, okay. I would do the same to you. I'm not building a sled and pulling anybody down a mountain. Good luck. Good luck with your leg. Listen, the feeling is mutual. I'm leaving you as well.

Once there's any sort of injury, move on. You're not saving anyone's life. That person's going to die. Keep going. Yeah. Yeah. I love the edge as well. I'm glad you brought that up.

I think it's unbelievably underrated. Some great Alec Baldwin, the guy from Oz and the wheelchairs in it, the guy from Lost, that guy. Harold. It's Harold. Harold Perrineau. And then I think it's the best one of those. I also have a complicated relationship with The Grey, which I thought was kind of over the top when I saw it.

I think we saw it with me and some of the Grantland people went over because it was playing next door and we watched it. And all of us were kind of like okay it was yeah yeah but now when it's on cable i kind of enjoy it i i think i know yeah i have a better idea of what they're going for now i think i would i thought it was like taken on a mountain when we went and it's not it's it's a little more thoughtful it's's good, though. Some good Frank Griller, too. I would pay to re-watch that one. I would pay $69.99 for that one. Oh, The Grey. Okay.

If you knew then what you know now. I agree with you. A couple more. The Foreigner? Jackie Chan. What did you think of The Foreigner? Jackie Chan. What did you think of The Foreigner? Tell me about The Foreigner.

How did you feel? You didn't see it yet, right? No. I watched a couple of the scenes, and I haven't paid for it yet, but I intend to. So your price is zero. I did the $14.99. There's a great explosion at the beginning. There's a great explosion scene that's. There's a great explosion scene.

That's really well done. Some good Jackie Chan. If Jackie Chan's meant anything to you at any point of your life, you'll enjoy it. It's a little like it's the older aging Jackie. It's like the Michael Jordan on the wizards, Jackie Chan, but like very sentimental.

It's not a movie I would ever watch again. It's a little like sleepless in that respect. It's more well done than sleepless, but there's that. There's not a re I would ever watch again it's a little like Sleepless in that respect it's more well done than Sleepless but there's not a rewatchability component to it it's a little grim but I think it's worth watching I like in the trailer they have the one scene where the guy is

like running through the forest and he trips and Jackie Chan is there and he grabs him and covers him up with the camouflage blanket real fast things like that are always I saw that and I was like I'm going to watch this Jackie Chan is there and he grabs them and covers them up with the camouflage blanket real fast. Like things like that are always, I saw that and I was like, I'm going to watch this movie for sure.

Would you know, one of the action movie gimmicks is somebody catches on fire and they always know how to put it out immediately. I would just be like, Oh, Oh, you're a fire. If somebody catches on fire around me, then that's just be 20 minutes later, telling a story about how I saw a guy what to do If somebody catches on fire Around me then that's just me 20 minutes later telling a story about how I saw

A guy burn to death in the street Alright new movies coming out We're going to end on this This is great This is like the best version of the game Because you know We haven't been in this situation yet. Rampage. Rampage with The Rock.

I saw that one. I went on an opening night. I took my wife. I took my three sons. It's got The Rock and a giant gorilla. I'm paying whatever price you ask. Our tickets were $70 we saw it on the big screen the RPX screen we paid $70 for that

we paid $50 something for snacks it wasn't good but I would pay another $120 to watch it again on the big screen great to know the only indefensible rock movie is Baywatch, and he should apologize to everybody for that.

All the other rock movies I enjoy. Baywatch was not a good movie. Lock me down for $16.99 when this is on Amazon or Apple. I'm ready. Just charge my card now. Deep Blue Sea 2 is apparently happening. What do we know about Deep Blue Sea 2 is apparently happening what do we know about Deep Blue Sea 2 anything?

we know that we have the same genetically enhanced sharks thank god we know there's an evil billionaire which is great and I think the sharks might be even smarter this time around than they were last time.

I'm concerned that the cast is not exactly star-studded. No. That worries me. There's no Samuel L. Jackson. It's not going to be good. There's no way it's good. And it's also coming up behind The Meg, which is going to be good. There's no way it's good. And it's also coming up behind The Meg, which is going to be incredible.

What movie? The Meg. You're not seeing the trailer for The Meg? Who's in it? Remind me. Bill! You're not seeing the trailer for The Meg? No.

Who's in it, though? Refresh my memory. Is it Jason Statham? Yeah, yeah. I saw it. Yeah, that looks amazing. I'm with you. Yes.

I'm probably, I'm like somewhere, it's like $79.99 for the Meg. Oh, easily $79.99 for the Meg. Deep Blue Sea 2 is going to be 1.30 in the morning on the movie channel, like three years from now. I might get sucked in. I will say, I will say. Deep Blue Sea is zero dollars. I will say Deep Blue Sea, the original, is in my opinion, a cable classic.

I'm not sure it's a rewatchable. I don't know if it has that kind of vaulted whatever, but really good. Deep Blue Sea is really satisfying. Sam Jackson's death scene is one of the all-timer, I didn't know that was coming, classics. And I love it. I love it every time.

Three more. Wow, I don't even know how to do these. All right, let's start here. The Equalizer 2 with Denzel. That's happening. Max it out. Max it out. I'm trying to think like,

I'm definitely in triple digits for that. There's no question. I don't even know. Yeah. My ATM card has a, you can only take $300 out in a day. That's the most it will let you out. I'm using all 300 of my dollars to go see Equalizer 2.

My dad loves Equalizer 1 or the, I should just call go see Equalizer 2. My dad loves Equalizer 1. Or I should just call it the Equalizer. That is like, for some reason, and he loves Denzel. Denzel's one of his guys. But he really loves the Equalizer. And it made him mad it didn't do better. I was like, it did fine.

He's like, no, it shouldn't have done better. It's a great Denzel. More people should like the Equalizer. He get agitated about it. Equalizer 2, I like that Denzel. I hope he's heading into this phase of his career now where we're heading towards training day 2. I don't know how they would do it, but I think he should start thinking about it.

Maybe it's his brother, his twin brother or something. Now this one, I'm like a 10 out of 10 for. Now this one, I'm like a 10 out of 10 for excitement for this one. Skyscraper. Okay. Oh yeah. I love tall. I get freaked out by tall buildings and heights.

I think the original Die Hard is one of the great ones ever. I never understood why there hasn't been more something bad's happening in the skyscraper stuff. He has a fake leg in this apparently. Do you know this? A fake leg. Prosthetic leg. Apparently he has a prosthetic leg in this somehow for,

for reasons that I'm not sure, but that's in play. It's the rock. It's a lot of like somebody diving out of the window, but somehow catching on to the window cleaning thing and a lot of that stuff and or somebody a fight scene where they're getting closer and closer to the window i i can't wait i'm maxing out my attempt for this one as well i'm gonna tell you they show the trailer i've seen the trailer on the uh you know the internet beforehand but they show the trailer

for skyscraper when you go see rampage and again, we were on the big RPX screen. It's going to be, the movie will be bad. You could tell it's not a good movie, but it's going to be so much fun to watch the shots that they do. They've taken a lot of advantage of the, uh,

of being up that high. Like the, the one main scene from the trailer is when he jumps from that construction rig over to the building. They show the long version of that in the trailer and it's great. It's so great. I'm with you on that one.

Max me out for that one too. Yeah, the thing is that technology is flawless now. We had a stretch there with CGI and all that stuff where it would always felt a little off, which is why I think Cliffhanger with Sly Stallone is so great because that was actually pre-CGI. And whatever they did with the stuntman and the elements and all that stuff, it's a really,

I think that's one of the most underrated action movies. I love Sly Stallone. But now you have the technology to really do the skyscraper in peril. And I'm just out of my mind, excited for that one. The last one we have, it's not fair to put money on this. So I'm going to frame it a little differently. If I told you, I can arrange for you to see John Wick 3 tonight, but you would have to live in an eight by 10 prison cell for the

next four days afterwards. Would you take that deal? Yeah, I would take that deal. Minimum security prison, like not like a dangerous, not like, not like the stuff they show in MSNBC, you'd be in like a white collar prison. There'd be like, uh, there might be one bad guy. There might be one Jamie Lannister gone wrong, but it'd be a lot of people who tax evasion and stuff like that. But you'd be in a prison collar prison. There'd be like, there might be one bad guy. There might be one Jamie Lannister gone wrong, but it'd be a lot of people

who tax evasion, stuff like that. But you'd be in a prison. Okay. Yeah. If I get to go to white people prison, then I would do it. But I don't want to go

to Mexican prison. Okay. All right. So what's your, by the way, what's your move in a maximum security prison? Do you just take somebody

out right away? Uh, no, I be, I become the submissive. By the way, what's your move in a maximum security prison? Do you just take somebody out right away? No. I become the submissive. Oh, you get it. You immediately find, yeah, okay. Because there's two moves. It seems like you either, you have to just kill somebody right away to lay it down, or you have to find protection. Yeah.

Okay. Good to know. I'm a finding protection guy. Should we be worried about John Wick 3? No, we should not. Okay, good. They somehow turned up the volume on John Wick 2 and it got better. And now you have everybody in the world trying to kill John Wick and John Wick 3.

Every assassin. Yeah. Go for it. What is that? I might, we might have to see John wick three together. All right. I'm in. We might have to do that. We can go get tickets today and wait outside the theater until it opens.

We should take Kauai. It'll be you, me and Kauai. It'll be the three of us. I can't believe you're going to end this on Kauai. We're having such a good talk. We didn't talk about Kauai for 35 minutes. And then you're going to take one last shot before we get out.

Plug your basket. Don't lose the next four. Oh, that hurt my feelings. Will you plug... Stop it. Will you plug your basketball book quickly? Yes, it's called The Book of Basketball

by Bill Simmons. Number one bestseller of all time. Basketball and Other Things by Shea Serrano. When is that coming out in paperback? It started in paperback. I'm a paperback guy. That's right. You're right.

When does it come out in the updated, whatever, money grab second version of the same book version, I should have said. You know what we did? We put stickers on all of the remaining copies that say, President Barack Obama picked this book for his 2017 best books list. We did that for the update. Oh, that was really smart. Yeah. By the way, congratulations on that. Oh, thanks.

I can imagine him hanging out with Michelle in some house in Hawaii and be like, I'm really enjoying this book by Shea Serrano basketball and other things. Some great, it's a great book. I really like it. We have my Obama already. Yeah. We've gotten an Obama impression.

We got a Liam Neeson impression. This was a good podcast. I think this might be a good downloaded podcast. I'm really proud of us. Uh, Shea Serrano. I'll talk to you soon. All right.

All right. Bye. All right. Thanks to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to try them out at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Thanks to Hotel Tonight. They help you book amazing deals at great hotels up to a hundred days in advance and top destinations and up to a week in advance everywhere else. Whether you need a sweet deal on a nice room for today, for the winter and beyond, start scoring amazing deals and incredible hotels and download the Hotel Tonight app right now. I will be back later in the week with one more BS podcast. Don't forget about the Ringer NBA show tonight.

They're coming on right after three playoff games tonight. I think it's been an awesome playoff so far. I hope you're enjoying it. I'm going to go enjoy Boston. See you in a couple of days. On the wayside I'm a bruised son Never lost it I don't have To ever forget