The Bill Simmons Podcast - Can Wemby’s Spurs Shake Off a True Gut Punch? Plus: Adam Friedland on NYC Coming Alive, Trump at MSG, and the World Cup.

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Join The Ringer’s Bill Simmons LIVE on Netflix to give his thoughts on Game 2 of the NBA Finals and to discuss what the Spurs will need to do being down 0-2 in the series (1:15). Then, Adam Friedland joins the pod to talk Knicks, the World Cup, and much, much more (50:27). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Adam Friedland Producers: Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Chris Wohlers Brought to you by PayPal. Learn more at paypal.com 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

This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by PayPal. You know a clutch move when you see one, a no-look pass, a buzzer beater, big steel. Well, imagine if your wallet could pull off moves like that. That, my friends, is PayPal. Right now you can find offers from hundreds of brands like Sony, all birds, and Viator, and save offers before you check out. Earn unlimited rewards. Plus, you can add those rewards on top of credit card points.

Now that is clutch. 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. All right, we're coming to you live on Netflix between game two and game three of the NBA finals. Adam Friedland coming up in a little bit. First time he's ever been on the BS podcast.

I'm excited to talk to him. I have a bunch of random reactions coming off game two heading into the rest of this series. and because I'm an experienced professional who's had a podcast for over 20 years. I feel like I can do this on the fly. I wrote down a bunch of stuff. First of all, most incredible Knicks playoff win game two since LJ's four-point play. Brunson goes seven for 25 for 20 points and they still win. They don't get a single call for 90 minutes other than a challenge that they challenged

and won the challenge to get the OG3. They still win. they blow a 14-point lead in the last six minutes of game two, they still win. They have towns absolutely destroying Wembe in the first half of the game to the point that at halftime, Shaq and Kenny had to do like a long Mia Copa. I was right there with him to cement his sudden arrival is one of the 12 most important guys in the league. We will talk about that a little bit later.

Yeah, Bridges leaving his own body and officially making everybody who's ever criticized what they gave up in that Nets trade. Myself included in the last year, just because they gave up all the assets, they would have needed to get Yannis. But who needs Yonis now? Your two wins away from the title. So you had this incredible Bridges game.

And then you had Wemby closing with a really horrific three-point airball that got lost in what happened next. A horrible two-for-one fallaway 22-footer. The Spurs did two things in the last 40 seconds of this game that I hate. One is we got to get a two for one and you end up getting a terrible shot. I'd rather just get one awesome shot. And then the foul to give, I just have always hated. And they did the foul to give, which of course when Wemby Fowles Brunson went 10 seconds left,

you have no foul to give and suddenly he's shooting free throws. You have an all-time iconic people screaming out loud as it's happening bad turnover with Wembe, which we'll get to in a second. You've already heard people talk about it for two days. I have some additional thoughts. And then you have a wide open 18 foot miss from a 22-year-old guy that was actually a really good shot. The question is whether that's the right play and the right moment for somebody like that who's been kind of skidding backwards in the last two minutes of the game. But the castle play throwing the ball off his back.

I think was the closest we've seen in the NBA to the Chris Weber timeout play in college against North Carolina for a bunch of reasons. One, the coach is standing next to Wembe, and he's doing this. He's telling him to go to push it because he doesn't want to call a timeout to set up a play. I don't know why he was so excited to have his 7 foot 7 center dribbling the ball up with 10 seconds left in a must-win game. I probably would have rethought that. There's a great angle of Wembe from the other side, and he's got both of his point guards to his right. Doesn't even look at him. Looks forward.

Castle, I'm torn on this because I think Castle thinks Wembeckon. Wemby's going to take the ball down, which he's done in the past. So he's starting to put his head down and run. But I also feel like if you're a real point guard, you want the ball, you're going to come to the ball, you're ready for the ball. And Castle's, you know, he's a guard. He's not a real point card. If that's Fox or Harper, they're turning around. They're trying to get the ball from Wembe because they want the car keys in that moment.

And it was just an absolute cluster fuck. And I kind of couldn't believe it as it was happening. It was, I think, one of the all-timers for an, oh, no! And everybody had that reaction. There were great reactions that people captured all over the place. But when I think about you'd throw that play in and then how the game ended and just blowing an incredible comeback, the most damaging, non-clinching, non-injury finals of the last 50 years. So we're removing all the game sevens.

We're removing stuff like Halliburton last year against OKC, because that's probably number one, like losing your best guy in a game seven. I went to the J.R. Smith game in 2018, which was another, oh, no, where they get the rebound and just, okay, and you couldn't even believe it as it was happening. The Ray Allen shot Game 6, 2013 against Miami. I was at that game, too. The crazy Celtics game four comeback in 2008, the totality of coming back from 24 and then feeling like they completely broke the

at the end. Wade Salvatore Game 5, Miami Dallas 2006. Now, we've blended game three and game five together in our heads and just thought Miami got all the calls for both of those games. And they did get a lot of calls in Game three. Game three was a much better game and also had I think Dirk missed a big free throw at one point. But the heat climbed back. A lot of people are involved. It was just more of a traditional awesome comeback. Game five, um, was pretty awful in the moment and culminated in Miami winning and Cuban doing the thing

where he just stared at David Stern from the court. He was so angry. I wrote a very upset column about after that game. That was pretty egregious and you just felt like he felt like the house was done after that game. The Nick Anderson game which a lot of people brought up in 1995

is another one, the four-miss free throws. I see the comparisons with the 95 magic and this Spurs team what happened, but you can't really compare those two games for this reason. The Magic had the game. It was over. And he missed four straight free throws.

And three and four were like, you're watching somebody's career flash before their eyes. And when he missed it, then it goes into OT, I think. And then they end up losing. But that was much more of a, we had it. Oh, my God, I can't believe we blew this game. Whereas the Spurs game, they clawed back. They almost won. They had to make a couple, you know, play, stops.

It was a back and forth game. And even though it was devastating, trust me, it was not like the Nick Anderson game. Isaiah's sprained ankle in 1988 where the Pistons are up three, two. They're better than the Lakers that year. Isaiah gets hurt still as a 25 in the third quarter. And then they end up blowing it late. Magic Junior Skyhook. I was at this game, 1987, game four.

Seltzer up six with two minutes left. And it just becomes an operatic collapse culminating in the junior skyhook. And then Bird missing, which we captured in the Celtic City documentary, Bird missing the three-pointer to win it by about one one-hundredth of an inch. That was the most devastated I've been after our game. And then Henderson's steel in game two of the 1984 finals, the Lakers are going to finish off the Celtics and probably sweep or win in five. And then worthy throws at Henderson, goes into overtime.

So that from the last 50 years, those are the worst ones. And I really do think that game two with the Spurs is on that list. Because having your best guy and the guy who's supposed to be the next guy, like LeBron in 2007 was 22 and he made the finals, they just got their ass kick. Nobody remembers a single thing about that finals. There wasn't anything you could really hang on LeBron and be like, oh, that play.

Wembe is just about the best player ever to have, like a really dopey play like that happened to him. And we'll see how he responds over the next couple games. But that was about as bad as it gets for a great player. And I think if I'm doing Blamepie, Castle 20% for just turning around and running forward. I'm just trying to get the ball from my center. Mitch Johnson, at least 50% for not calling a timeout.

And then Wembe, who I just think brain farted and kind of panicked when he should have, have been like, where, where's Harper and where's Fox? Those are the two guys I need to get the ball to do. So I'd put him at like 30 to 35%. That's probably too much blame pie. That might have been 105% of a blame play, whatever. Here's another thing that came out of this game that I was stunned by even that night as I was thinking about it. The Spurs have five of the worst playoff losses. And I think their five is worse than anyone else's five. They lost the Ray Allen shot game, which is the worst loss anyone's had in the history of the NBA finals. The Derek Fisher

0.4 shot in 2004, where the spurs were just better than the Lakers that year. And that's still a pretty stupid series. And Fisher just getting a jump shot off in four-tenths of a second. I don't even know if that's legal by the rules we have now. But that was definitely. devastating, especially because Timmy had made a big shot right before that to give them the lead. That's two. Manu fouling Dirk up three in the last like 20 seconds, Game 7, 2006. And we love Manu, and Manner's a great player. And it was just he was trying to challenge the play.

I actually don't think he did the wrong thing, but he fouls Dirk. Dirk gets the three-point play. It goes in overtime. Dallas wins. The Wembe Castle Pass has to be up there. and then that famous Rod Strickland, 1990 play, I was in college for that one, although I think I was probably out of classes by that point.

But that was an all-timer. It throws it over his head backwards, and ends up, Portland ends up. Not only did he turn the ball over by throwing it over his head with like 30 seconds to nobody. Portland gets a fast break, which he then hard fouls the guy in the fast break, and I think it ends up being two free throws it in the ball.

So those five plus you got to go with the Spurs in 1979 blew a three one lead to the bullets. And in game seven, Bobby Dandridge kills them with 10 seconds left. Now, that wasn't like a screw up, but it was a really horrible like collapse. We thought George Gervon was going to be in the finals. And then Dandridge matches him. I think Gervyn had 42. Danjers had like 35, 37. And he made the big shot with 10 seconds left.

I think I put some. thought into this, that's the worst five losses. If you're going to top five worst losses by franchise, nobody can touch that. Ray Allen, Fisher, Manu Fowley, Dirk, the Wembey Castle Pass and Rod Strickland. I needed either one or two words to explain each of those moments and you knew what I was talking about. So that part's nuts. Another one, a next final sweep, which I think was 16 to 1 on Fandul before the finals. I think would be one of the two craziest outcomes in the history of the finals. If you're just talking, I'm not talking about upsets, craziest team that won.

I'm just talking about outcome, a Nix sweep. The only thing you can compare to that is 95, the Rockets sweeping Orlando, which I can't remember. I bet on Houston and that is one of my favorite bets I ever made betting on Houston that series that did not have the sweep, I don't think. but that Pistons in five over the Lakers in 2004, I think if you thought the Pistons were going to win that one, you wouldn't have thought it was going to be that decisive. And then I think the 91 Bulls beating the Lakers in five would be another one

because that was a classic. It was a little like this series, actually, is the young team ready, the old team with know-how veterans, who do you have? I picked the Lakers that series. I bet on the Lakers that series. in the Bulls 1 and 5. But I would think this is one of the two most shocking outcomes

along with the Houston-Rolando sweep. The other thing is, if they win the title, I think this becomes our premier NBA example of experience over youth, because it used to be the 95 Rockets over the magic. I think it would now flip to this. Because that 95 Magic team did have it at Brian Shaw, that Horace Grant, wasn't like this.

It was this completely young team. I think the Spurs feel younger to me than that team. A writer named Noops Christensen, a mailbag writer, said, I had a thought about Nick Spurs. I present the YMCA test. Imagine if it were the championship game for the best league at your local YMCA. Team A has five very talented players ages 21, 22, 24, 25, and 28. They're playing Team B, which might be slightly less talented, but still talented, and their players are 28, 29, 29, 39, 31, and 30. Are you taking the more talented but younger team A or the veteran team B, the YMCA test?

I kind of like this. There's been some other YMCA battles. Like I think a really good one was the 2011 Thunder against the 2011 Mavericks was one of my favorite ones for these. But then you'll have the next year where the 2012 Thunder, we thought that was another YMCA test series. And they beat the spurs. So it doesn't always work, but I did enjoy this. All right, so what do the spurs have to do to flip a series down to games? So you can either be down 2-0 or 3-1 in a series.

I went back and I looked at all the times we've been in this situation in the finals. And what you learn is you need some sort of dramatic, karma-changing, momentum-changing, something. And you don't know what it is. It could be as simple as the president decided to go to game three. I'm sorry, too soon. 2,021 Sons. They won, I'm sorry, they won the first two at home and then blew the series to the bucks, right?

Well, what happened in that series? Post-COVID, a little weird. That was the, that was, we're sitting in the stands with some people were in mass, other people. It was just a weird vibe for that whole thing. But game five had one of the craziest sequences. That game's in Phoenix. The series is tied to two after Milwaukee won their two at home.

And then you have that one where Drew Holiday comes flying in, steals the ball from Booker. They get the fast break the other way and the awesome, crazy, all-time athletic alley up to Janus. And it was one of those sequences. You're like, holy shit, Milwaukee's going to win the finals now. So that's one. But 2016 Cavs was a bigger one.

That was the Draymond suspension after game four. And I've talked about this before, but the Cavs lose game four at home. to Golden State. It's one of the best games of the 2010s. The Warriors are better than them. They finish them. And then at the end of the game, LeBron goes straight on into the technical. And that flips that one. 2006 heat. You have that game three comeback I mentioned earlier, where they're down 13 with six minutes left. The heat scored 22 points in the last six minutes, and they get Dirk to miss the one and two free throws in the last 10 seconds that gets them to win it.

that flips a little. They win game four and then game five is the Bennett Salvatore game. And then the 1970s, the 1977 Blazers is the other one. They're down two out of Philly. And at the end of that game,

there's a huge fight with Daryl Dawkins and Maurice Lucas. And Dawkins is so mad after the game that he, like, destroys the locker room. He feels like the Sixers didn't help him. And it kind of fucked the team up. So I would say that counts for some sort of momentum.

ship. There's one time out of all though, so I have the 2021 bucks, 16 calves, 06 heat, 77 Blazers, which is your best hope for the Spurs because almost 50 years later, they're very similar to that 77 Blazers team. Young Cor, Wembe is Bill Walton, fall down O2 in the finals. Everybody thinks the series is over. The 93 sons go down 02 to the Chicago Bulls. They have a crazy game three, that's like one of the lost great NBA games, triple overtime, triple overtime game three and the Suns win. They beat Michael Jordan in Chicago, right? Feels like they flipped the momentum back. What happens? The Bulls have Michael Jordan. And he scores 55 in game four and basically just says, no way. You're not coming back. So that's the one time when the momentum shift happened and then

the team that was up to O that I could think of. staved it off. So how do you flip a series down two games? You need something crazy to happen in game three. I don't think it can just be a win. I think it has to be either the Knicks collapse, the vibes are weird. Wemby puts up a 50-30.

Something crazy has to happen Monday night for this series to flip. It can't just be, oh, the Spurs played better and they won. It's got to be like a tangible flip because no team has ever lost the first two at home and then won the series. So you would need something really dramatic.

The goodness for them is they do have a really great player, even if he hasn't 100% played like it in the finals so far, which brings me to Wembe. So this is something I remember talking about two years ago with Anthony Edwards after game three of the Dallas series, which was really bad for both him and towns. And on the Sunday Night Pod was talking about how there are levels of this with the playoffs

and you don't know it until you're in it and it's just really hard for guys 20, 21, 22, 23 as everything gets harder as you're seeing the same same team maybe seven times in two weeks there's levels to it there's ways you get pushed mentally and physically

that you've just never dealt with before and sometimes you can see young players no matter how great they are you can feel it start to break their brain. And it happened a little with Edwards. He did rally back in that Dallas series and his last two games were pretty good. LeBron in the 2007 finals, he was 22, he shot 36 percent, had almost six turnovers a game. Tatum at age 23 in the 22 finals against Golden State is a good example. He just really unraveled. And it was fatigue and how the Warriors were defending him. He shot 37

percent, but you could feel it in the last few games. You just could feel him losing, losing control of all the stuff that he was so good at. Shaq in the 95 finals, just getting killed by Hakeem. KD is a good one. He's age 22 in that Dallas series, I mentioned. Both him and Westbrook, just felt really young in that series. Katie only shot 42% in that series, but Dirk really took it to him. An underrated one was Derek Rose in the 2011 Miami series when it was like, is it too early

for Derek Rose? Like, that Miami team was pretty limited. I mean, they basically had the three guys in Haslam. Rocheat 35% just couldn't put it together in that series. The one example of somebody pretty young that I thought acquitted themselves well and actually I didn't feel at all like they were young was Luca in that Golden State series in 2022. He's pretty good in that series. Go back and look at the stats.

He was not the reason they lost. And his stats, in general, Luca has never. really been spooked by the finals. The Celtics probably did the best job against him in 24, but, or not by a playoff series, not the finals. But Lucas, the only example. The point is when you're a young player and you're great, there's still levels to this and it's still like solving the video game. And I think you could really feel that Webby. Webby was so bad in the first half. Tows just took it to him. And he did respond in the second half. So if I'm from the Spurs, you know, I'm, I'm

to get to that one second. Dan Klimko, a listener, wrote in, where does this Wembe game two collapse rank for you on the Tragic Johnson, C-Web timeout, Freddie Brown's pass to James Worthy in 82, bird steals the ball from Isaiah, et cetera, scale. We don't know yet because we don't know how the finals is going to turn out. This is a sweep. I do think that play gets mentioned, big picture. I do think Wemby Castle, I just think you'll know instantly what it was. it will take you right to that moment. And it'll just be one of the weirder brainfire plays that we've ever had. There was a really good slowbo from behind the hoop where Castle's turning as Wembe's throwing it.

When you slow it down, you're like, why is he throwing a castle's already turned? But in real time, he's dribbling. There's 10 seconds. There's a bunch of stuff going on his head. And he's like, I should give that to Castle. And he's throwing it to him, but Castle's already turned around. it's just the kind of play that would never happen if he was 27, 28, 29, he's been in the league for a few years.

He would have looked for his point cards. This goes back to the whole youth versus experience thing. This was why we were wondering whether they were the 90 bowls of the 91 bowls all season. This is my hesitation with them for a long time and that I finally bought in on them the last couple rounds of you just can't quantify it until you're there. And that play to me is the perfect example of you just don't know until you're in a moment like that when you're on a stage like that with that many people watching when you've had a crappy first half when you're trying to climb back when you're tired when you feel like you have to do

everything and you just kind of panic magic magic Johnson's one of the seven best parts of all time you go back to the 84 finals he's terrible like his worst play in that whole finals was the end of game too he dribbles out the clock versus giving the ball to kareem they didn't even get a shot off on the last player regulation he just like brain farted and this is kind of stuff to happen All right. So if you're the Spurs, what's your roadmap for coming back? I think you have to look at it this way. You didn't get your ass kicked. You're used to the speed of the finals now. Like you understand what it takes. You really found something in the last six minutes of game two. You've had big leads in both games. You double digit leads, I think in both games. You led game one with two minutes

left. You came back from 14. You led game two with 57 seconds left. So this wasn't like, like I was there for Spurs Heat in 2014 because I was on the ESPN show. And I felt like that series was over after game three. Like it was like the spurs are just better. Like this is a wrap. This is that Miami's not coming back from this. So you feel one of the things you look at when you're looking at a matchup deciding whether a series is over yet is, is the team just laying it on the other team, right? Are there 20 point leads? Is it? What are the, this has been a pretty even back and forth series. The Spurs lost two 50-50 games, right?

Pretty small sample size. So you would talk yourself into that. You would talk yourself into you completely threw away a game too. It was one of the more ridiculous losses in recent finals history. Your Brunson defense has worked. He's 19 for 56. He's taking 56 shots from 51 points. So now you could say all the stuff you're doing to stop Brunson has now led to people like

bridges getting hot. Towns has been borderline dominant. But still, that's, if you had said after two games, 56 for 51, I'm feeling pretty good about that. I'm feeling pretty good about maybe a little less Castle going forward. I love Castle. He's probably one of my 10 favorite players in the league. The fear with him was always that there was this little bit of a Westbrook side with him, this irrational confidence side, that no matter what the moment was, he has so. much confidence in himself. He's going to kind of meander in situations you shouldn't be in. And you could really feel that game too. I just think Harper has been their second best guy. And is the guy I probably trust the most other than Wembe? And it's weird because Castle is a

great player. But I think they need his defense and his intangible stuff way more than the ball handling. Like I wonder, well, you figure they're going to make some adjustments. Would they put him on towns in game three a little bit. What are they going to do to try to disrupt towns? Castle has been the guy disrupting Brunson, but do they try to flip it around and move him around and just try to unleash him as this like intangibles force versus somebody that's, you know, it seems like he has the ball a little bit more than he should and Harper doesn't have

the ball enough. So when I think of the moves, less castle usage, lower castle usage rate would be my first one. I would use Carter-Bryan as the backup center against Towns. I like Cornett, but we've just seen too much of the playoffs. Cornett comes in and you immediately feel like the spurs are going to go on a two to ten the opposite of a run. I would use Brian against Towns.

I love Bryant. I actually don't think they're using him enough to this day. I know he's 19. I know he's a baby. And I mean a baby, like literally he's like a young, a young NBA players two years away from being able to legally drink. I think they need his physicality because if you're talking about the one thing this first team has been missing all season, it's been that prototypical physical four

that you could put next to Wembe that could guard like the towns, Julius Randalls, those type of guys. It's really Carter Bryant. And if I were them, I would lean on him more and I would lean less on Cornyette. And then the biggest thing is Harper has to be on the floor even more and they have to use Harper crunch time. I think he only would lean on him more. I think he only played four minutes in a fourth quarter game one game two played more he ended up 32 minutes but he's the least afraid guy they have on this team i don't know why but he just is the guy is like born for this it i i really am careful to bring this up and i i think i've even said this before but the 2000 Kobe game four indiana which was like really the beginning of the legend of kobe um

Shack fouled out. And I was living in Boston back then. And like so many people my age and younger, like really, really thought Kobe had a chance to be the next Jordan or close. And when Shack fouled out, I think everybody had the same thought. Like, huh, what do we have here with Kobe?

It's time. Let's see it. And I think the thing everybody thought in the moment was this guy, whatever happens, this guy's not going to be scared. Harper is not scared. he's the opposite of scared. I actually feel like he's the most aggro ready for this of anyone on their team. It doesn't make sense.

He's 20 years old. We've talked about on pods on the past about young point guards. This doesn't make sense. It just doesn't. But it's the reality of the situation. This guy is not scared. He needs to play more. And he probably needs to have the ball.

Like you think about some of the terrible shots they had in the, the last three minutes of the game, which are always like these fallaway 22 footers, these contested threes, like these shots in traffic. I like all the decisions and situations Harper isn't with the ball. I just feel the best about it. I don't understand why they don't want to pick and roll with him and Wemby. I just would have the ball in his hands way more than they do. And maybe that would be the flip.

A couple other things for them. You already know you can win on the road in the hairiest situation is possible. They won a game one and a game seven in OKC. I know this next game's going to be a madhouse tomorrow and game forward. The crowd's going to be incredible and I honestly can't wait. OKC's crowd is really loud. It's not really going to be a louder crowd than OKC. Like if OKC, if you could criticize their crowd or anything,

it's like a constant loud noise that you're kind of head, your head hurts after two hours of it. But it's not going to be louder than that crowd. And they went in there and they won. So I don't think they're going to be scared unless this game two loss was just the most damage anything ever. Trump's going to screw up the game three. And I don't mean it from being there.

I'm not talking about politics. It's going to take two hours to get in there. The game will probably start 15 minutes later than it should, which means like these games are already starting around like 840, 841 East Coast time. The game will probably start closer to nine. And if you remember, like in the 22 finals, they were starting the East Coast game super late. And I went to game three and I went to game six.

I didn't go to game four. I thought it affected the crowd. The game would start at like 9.15. The crowd's out. They've had dinner. They've had drinks. Like they've kind of peak around that 7.30 to 10 range. And by the time you get into the second half, it's late.

It's like past 11 o'clock, you feel like you've had all this energy. And it's a weird dynamic. I just think, I think this is, if I'm the Spurs, this is the kind of crowd slash time situation you're going to want where it's just going to feel disjointed. And you want disjointed when you're on the road. And then the last thing is Wembe. Wembe is a great player. Wembe in the second half of game, too, at 22 points.

I thought he was all over the place defensively covering the rim. He's taking some shit because when he's 25 feet out from the basket, guys have gone by him. Guess what? he's the center. Maybe anyone over seven feet that that would happen to. I just think like, if you're criticizing Webby's defense in this, you're nuts. But he hasn't been the best part in the series,

and I'm not even sure he's been the second best part of the series. So is he going to dig deep? Is this going to be like that game two is the before and after of, oh, that hardened him, that taught him how to win, or is he just going to go sideways like Shaq did in 95? We will see. If you're the next, you got no calls in game two. You still won on the road.

You got no calls. And I actually, I didn't do a fan to a pick for game two. I did bet on the Spurs money line with an adjusted over because I thought the officiating was going to be what it was in that game. And it was what it was. We all saw it. They even rescinded the Mitchell Robinson technical after the fact, which was an idiotic, ridiculous technical at the time.

The town's game, the third and fourth fouls, towns were atrocious. So you still win that game, and you could argue if the officiating was a little more balanced, maybe you win that game by 10. If you're the Knicks, you have to assume Brunson's shots are going to start falling. That he's just, even down the stretch, they miss some wide open threes. Brunson missed some shots he just normally makes. So you have to assume he'll be better.

You have to assume the crowd's going to be incredible. that's almost definitely to your benefit. We'll see. We'll see what the, how disjointed it is. And you're going to be ready for more Harper in this game.

You know, that's like the one thing the Spurs can do is unleash Harper a little more. So you've got to be ready and got to plan for that. Okay. Last thing,

Carl Anthony Towns, been thinking about this a lot because I don't really remember anything totally like this happening before in an NBA playoffs where somebody that was a really good, pretty flawed star, who I think made the last three worst contracts draft that I did with House and Wiles. But we all thought he was good. Anytime we did a ringer 100,

he was always in the top 30 or 35. He's made two second team OmbAs, or one second team all MBA and two thirds. He's averaged 23 and 11 for his career for the regular season, 52, 40, and 84 shooting percentages. If you just look at the guys in the history of the league who've played at least 700 games and average 22 and 11, right? Not crazy.

22 and 11, 700 plus games. Yokage, Will, Elgin, Barkley, Kareem, Bob Petit and Carl Anthony Towns. So this is somebody that the stats always favored. Somebody that I think after his career we probably, like in the basketball

reference looking back era, the stats would have been more favorable to him. And yet, was somebody none of us trusted? And that's just the way it is. But when you think about the Knicks make this trade two years ago, and they're basically, they don't have a center because they lose Hartinstein. Hartinstein getting poison pilled basically by Oklahoma City and the Knicks losing Hartinstein leads to the town straight. They're heading toward this season, and they decide we have no chance unless we have some

Sorda Center. Towns' contract is scary. We can give up Randall and DeFichenceau and get him. And they basically just bet on the pedigree. They bet on a guy that Wes and Leon had known since he was 15 years old when they were, when West was trying to recruit him at Kentucky. They'd known him forever, right? They're betting on the pedigree. Now, sometimes this doesn't work. Didn't work with Darko. Remember, I think Orlando traded for Darko? Didn't work. The Beat. Did Fabit ever have pedigree? He was taking second. Michael Beasley's a good one. Michael Beasley always one of the best

two or three high school players in his class all the way up. Put up, I think, 25 and 10 in college. It was a little out there, to say the least, personality-wise, but there was pedigree there and a bunch of teams took chances on him. Never happened.

And then Ben Simmons was a good one. Oh, he's fine. The Philly thing didn't work out. You just got to change the scenery. Well, that didn't work. DeAndre Atene, sort of, Portland and the Lakers. So it just doesn't always work.

And there's a million more examples than that. But this is something GMs think about. If somebody was a top five pick, a top three pick, the first pick in the draft, maybe they were in the wrong situation. Maybe you could flip them in another situation. It works way better in baseball. It's worked in football sometimes, where, especially with quarterbacks where they flip teams and things can change.

In basketball, Wiggins was a great example of this in Golden State. Wiggins, we'd all kind of given up on as a meaningful player and he had a bad contract. Goes to Golden State. He's their second best guy in the 2022 finals team. Aaron Gordon's sort of like this. He was the fifth pick in the draft. We all loved Aaron Gordon. But just never really had it in Orlando, right?

Goes to Denver becomes this crucial guy in their 23 team. Rashid was a good one. Rashid had been in some big moments and had had probably more success than town. pounds, but was too much of a hothead, set the technical's record. And by the time he lands in Detroit, the question was, wasn't for me because I like the trade, but is that too risky? Do you want to be in business with Rashid Wallace? Well, they end up beating the Lakers that year. Chauncey Billups is a great one for this. Chonsie Billups, I was in Boston going to all those games because my dad never wanted to go, Patino's first year. We traded him after 50 games in a

Kenny Anderson trade. And I remember kind of liking the trade when it happened. I didn't know what Chauncey was. I couldn't tell if he was a point guard or a shooting guard or what he was. And he could go to the basket. He was a really good athlete. But I learned a valuable lesson from that, which is don't give up on young guards and especially young point guards

because he bounced around. He went to Toronto. He went to Denver, with the Minnesota, and then finally ends up in Detroit. Detroit bets on the pedigree. And guess what? He becomes one of the better playoff players we had in the 2000s.

Robert Parrish is a good one for this. He was, I think, the six pick in the draft. Golden State kind of cooled off on him. And when Red Arbacquake wanted Mikhail, ends up trading back from one to three and getting Robert Parrish. So those are probably Wiggins, Gordon, Rashid, Billups, Parrish,

are five really good examples of this, a bet on the pedigree. And it makes you wonder when you're watching what's happening with towns. Two lessons. do you look at a couple guys we have in the league now a little more closely? Like, I don't think Evan Mobley counts for this because Evan Mobley's already good. I think he's been on at least one all-N-B-A team.

Cleveland made the Eastern Conference finals. Like, he's a max guy. And I don't, I wouldn't put him in the Towns camp. Jabari Smith, Scoot Henderson, not nearly, neither of them had most success as Towns has had over the course of his career. Zion, higher peak than towns, but no playoff footprint at all and not as durable as towns. John Moran. There's off the field, off the court stuff with John that I think, I don't think towns had red flags like that. So maybe it's Zion as somebody, because the thinking is when somebody hits their mid-late 20s,

do they mature? do they round into something different than what we know now, right? So the case for Zion would be, well, what if he just became more mature and got an awesome shape and went to the right team and could be unleashed as this different kind of force? That's one lesson. Think about the pedigree. Are there other guys like this? The other one would be don't overreact to a bad series.

So in 24 against Dallas, Towns was awful. like really awful. And when Towns was bad, he's bad. Like towns, people, a lot of people in my life, some people that have had pods for the ringer or have left the ringer, were just completely out on Towns. Towns in that series was 20 and 8,

but he shot 38%, 24% from 3. Dallas was fucking with him in all these different ways. And it just felt like the dumb foul stuff was never going to end. And I remember after 3-0, I went and I actually found this text. I, Minnesota's down 3-0 to Dallas in 24

and I started texting House at halftime of game three that Towns was going to be on the Wizards next year and House was really mad. It's like, stop it, that's not funny. It was like a lot of epithets from House. That's how bad it got for Towns. So when they traded for him, huge contract, and we were just coming off the worst series of his career.

Well, what happens? This playoffs, he's unleashed. And I don't really fully have an explanation for it because I can't think of another example like this of somebody that I had already decided on as a player who then dug deep and completely surprised me in a completely different way. I got an email from Mike from Toronto. After game two, Charles Barkley said he was criticized in Minnesota, criticized in New York. Cat is the finals MVP. I actually think he might be the fun. Now, there's two more games,

but I think he would be the leader for me. Parkley said it was the best two games. I've seen a big man play. That feels a little strong. Is this the greatest change of opinion about a player we have seen? It's a really good question because I think all of us had decided on towns

and what we had decided is good stats, seems like a really nice guy, but is pretty flawed and is going to have dumb fouls and do dumb things at the worst possible times and that's just who he is as a player. Right? I decided that.

So I was thinking about an actual change of opinion there's got to be three qualities here. Has to be somebody we were really down on. Has to be somebody who is good enough to at least make it all NBA team or be in the mix

in a conference finals or even a finals. It has to be somebody that either won a title or kind of came close. So that rules out Vince Carter. Because Vince Carter, to me, was the most disappointing player of the 2000s, just for what the potential was. But, you know, the peak of his career

was probably losing the seven to Philly in round two. It wasn't ever like he got close. Chris Weber is a really good one. I thought Chris Weber was going to be the best forward of the 1990s. And the timeout, I think, changed him in a bunch of different ways. I don't even think that's an opinion. I think that kind of sapped him of something.

And, you know, the Golden State thing got weird. He went to Washington and just was really disappointing, right? And gets traded to Sacramento for an older Mitch Richmond. And at that point, it felt like a good flyer. Sure, Chris Weber, maybe. And then he turned into one of the best five guys in the league there. But they never even made the finals. And then the one that's probably the closest to this is Dirk.

post 2007. After they lose 06 finals and then they lose to Golden State and the 07 playoffs. And eventually that leads to him doing the Australian trip. But I had just given up on Dirk being the best guy on a championship team. I didn't think it was possible. And then in 2011, he had one of the great resurgence slash rejuvenations in the history of the league and blows through everybody. I think he beats the Lakers.

he beats OKC, maybe Memphis or San Antonio, and then Miami in the finals. But just, it was a murderer's row, and he just went through it and demolished everybody. So Dirk is still the number one thing for this, but in Dirk's case,

he'd won an MVP, he'd made the finals, he was one of the best players of the 2000s. Towns was never as good as Dirk. The Dirk thing, the Towns thing, towns becoming this cerebral awesome, never has not made

dumb plays at all in the entire playoffs. It's like, it's almost like, like you, if you changed your meds for a little kid or something, like you had a like a hyperactive little kid

and little kid went on meds and just became a different kid. You're like, hey, what's different about that kid? Towns, he's having like, somebody changed his med series,

even though I probably isn't on meds. But it's been so dramatic. I almost can't believe what I'm watching. That first half he played in game two was one of the best halves. I've seen best both end halves. I've seen a center play. And I think the guys that halftime were told it red, I think Wembe was shook by it. He's like, I thought I was going to have huge advantage of this guy. I went into the series thinking Towns was going to be the number one reason that they that they were going to be in trouble for this series. And it's been the opposite. So,

watching this town's resurgence has been fantastic. A couple more emails. Then we're going to get to Adam Friedland. Max V says, Living in Manhattan, and I can say this is the most excited I've seen this city about a possible championship. People are going fucking nuts. The odds are obviously against it. But knock on what, if the Knicks below this series, not putting that out there, but he wrote this as an email.

If the next below this series, would this be the biggest gut punch loss of the 21st century? All right, I thought about this. The formula would be how long was the drought? How gigantic is your fan base and how great, just was the collapse. So the 86 Red Sox is a great example of this. The Red Sox hadn't won in 66 years. Is that what it was?

68 years. 68 years. I can still do math. Red Sox hadn't lost in 68 years. 13 strikes to win the World Series and lost. And that was the biggest gut punch, I think, of the 21st century for a sports team and a fan base. Years to recover.

I think it was actually genuinely damaging for a whole generation of younger fans, including myself. The 94 Rangers are a good example of almost having this happen, but they didn't, because you forget, they're up 3-1 in the finals against Vancouver. They come home for game five.

It's almost like this Nick series right now. Prices are through the roof. Everyone wants to be in the building for when they win. They blow game five at home. They lose game six in Vancouver. and now there's two days off before game seven. And I knew some Rangers fans and still do. That was in all time people freaking the fuck out,

48 hour span. And then they end up eking out game seven and winning it. So it was all fine. But I would say if the Knicks blow this at this point, I don't know if it would have a parallel of this century. Because it's unlike the Falcons Patriots where it's 23, you blow a game in a number. hour and a half. This would be, you would have to blow this over a week and a half. And it would

be an all-time historical lapse because nobody's ever won the first two on the road and then lost the finals. So, James from Brooklyn wants to know if Towns wins a title, would Minnesota fans be more bitter about trading my cat or Garnett? And then he says, how long until aunt leaves for a title somewhere else? That was, that was me and James. I'd be more bitter about the cat trade. Garnett wanted to leave. The team, the team should have traded him even two years before they did, and he had no chance to win a title there,

and you had to trade him and you had to rebuild. That was the right move. The cat thing really did seem more financial than anything, and they had had success with him already. They had just made the conference finals of them. I mentioned that was a tough series for him and for the team. But that, to me, was a financial trade. it was a chance to reset a year from now with new ownership

and try to get Randall on a lower deal and just not have to pay in the 50s for Kat and Anthony Edwards at the same time. And I don't think a lot of teams would have made that trade. I think teams would have probably tried to suck it up with Towns for another year. It was a financial trade. But it was also a trade that happened

because he sucked in the Dallas series. So I would be a little more bitter about that one. Ricky wants to know with the way Kat is showing how the best antidote to Wembe is someone who could stretch them out to the three-point line and leverage their strength to get to the basket on offense. Can I introduce you to Joel Hans-Mabed? Hans-Nabeed? Joel Hans-Nabeed? He's a longtime Sixers fan, by the way, this guy. He said in their matchups this far, Embed is averaging a meager 38 and 11. He needs multiple, if not all, athletic, high-level, long-wing defenders. A few West teams have just that more to trade for Embeded.

is a savvy team in the West looking at what Kat's doing and thinking this might be a decent idea. I laughed at this when I read this and then I put some thought into it and I was actually wondering if this might make sense for somebody. The problem is you go look at Embed's contract

and it's a catastrophe. But maybe a year from now, it's a possibility. Scotty and Phoenix wants to know so everyone knows the Knicks haven't lost since April 23rd. two days later they start the wind streak. It was also the same day

poor Dante DiFincenzo tore his Achilles. Was that like a sacrifice in the 53 year drought? Poor Dante. I do think they should have him at one of these games. He got the raw steal out of everybody, right?

He's like, I thought we're all doing this Philadelphia. What happened? It is weird that he got hurt the same day of this. And then Kevin and Portland wants to know if the Knicks want to guarantee

their first champion, championship in 53 years. Dolan needs to invite Oakley back for game three at MSG. Can you imagine how the crowd would react? Seeing him there, San Antonio wouldn't stand a chance. This would be a great, great, great. This would be like a pro wrestling moment. They hug at mid-court or they bring out Oakley,

almost like a wrestling entrance where they play, I guess Oakley doesn't have music. But this would be a pretty good idea. I think if the crowd had the choice between Oakley and Trump, they'd probably pick Oakley. All right, that's enough foreplay. We're going to bring in Adam Friedland and things are about to get wacky. That's next.

All right. So we banked this part of the podcast early afternoon. And this is take two. This is the first time I think this has happened since COVID when we were having these audio issues. We did a whole, we did like 100 minutes this morning. I could have gone my entire life, Bill. It disappeared. It's ironic, Adam Friedland, because this is a lot of,

your first appearance on the pod. You were excited about it. And somehow you brought like a black cloud with you and it vaporized the technology. Why are you blaming me? I'm blaming you. We're running. That was, Bell, the producer here said that was the greatest podcast. Literally, she said the best podcast. We're going to run it back. We're just doing it. We're doing it in a second time. I was so sad. I text the boys when I realized afterwards that this is what I've been preparing for my entire life. I didn't even know what just talking about ball with it. Listen, honestly, here's the thing. Now it's gone to history, only like seven people know the magic of that first time we did it. And now we're just going to redo it.

It will be better. We'll be worse. The only ones that are going to know are us. It'll be most certainly worse. But on a sincere note, I grew up, my podfather ran out on our family as a kid. And I felt like for 90 minutes, I'd found a real podfather? I won't tell him. I won't say his name.

He's become, but his show, his podcast is called the Joe Rogan experience. But I don't want to, but he left us. And he said it was my fault. And I was growing up by biological podfather, of course. But, and I was like, you know, he's, he's not the step podfather. He's the podfather who stepped up. Yeah. Bill Simmons.

No, but I realized it was like, yeah, it was just, it, I was telling you at the beginning of the last one, but it's just so, it's so sick you get to just do this for your job. Yeah. So the first time we did this, which we're just going to do. do again. You were interrogating me on what my life's like. We'll get to that a second. Well, I opened with a comment about how beautiful your eyes were. Oh, I appreciate. Did you remember that? Yeah. That got us off to a strange start. It's stunning. Listen, important business first. The Adam Friedland show is joining Spotify in July.

You're relaunching your third season with us. So you're technically on the ringer team, but more importantly, next month on the Adam Friedland show, you're doing a special soccer podcast. podcast, a miniseries called The Beautiful Pot. Okay. We are off to a disaster start. I screwed this up. On Wednesday, we are starting. You said next month.

Well, this month. Yeah. June. I meant this month on Wednesday. Yes. The Adam Friedland show will be, we're going into pre-production on season three. When we return, we are now part of the ringer or something or other. Yeah.

Do you get classier ads? They do classy ads, right? I think it's a win for everybody. I've been selling boner pills for 10 years. I've been selling some disgusting offshore gambling scams and... Yeah. Your boner pill days are over. I had the mayor, Mom Donnie on the show,

and we had an erectile dysfunction ad like in the, like, booked. So I was like, we got to just, we got to lead off with the, do you have trouble getting an erection? Yes, but I'm, yeah, we're doing, we're going to what was it a Rigger

Spotify partner the Advertrefer of the show is now Spotify partner but beyond that I am now we're doing the World Cup coverage for the Ringer

I couldn't be more excited and we loaned you CR Chris Ryan yes you did well I mean it was like when soccer they loan the players right they can do that

for like a year I just loaned my striker I'm a second division team I loaned my strike I got relegated we didn't get relegated but we're loaning CR to you anyway

well you loaned like a young guy that you want to get minutes to like a crappier team. The thing is, Sierra has the most minutes at the ringer. I think he's on 17 podcasts, but he's adding out of vet. Yeah, you're like, we can't find space on the roster for this guy.

This is like messy. This is like messy going to Miami. Yeah, this is where he's going to end his career on the beautiful pod, a Taft's original mini series. Yeah, so I, no, I genuinely, I'm so excited to talk just about sports

instead of whatever the hell I do regularly. Actually, I really enjoy doing that and Freeland Show. It's like pretty cool, but it'll be a nice change of pace. But like, now that I've like, yesterday I was like writing jokes for it all day and it's just, I'm like, this is

just what I should just be, this is what I wish I would do for the rest of my life. Yeah, come to the dark side. Just waste your life talking about sports and getting paid for it. It's great. Yeah, it's really nice. You probably don't even know what a tariff is. You probably, your life is amazing. Yeah, I don't know. See, your life is incredible.

Do we have a president or a prime minister here? I don't even know. I regret to inform you that things are terrible right now. Well, we have that. One of the things I want to talk to you about was you're in New York City. You live in Brooklyn, but New York with the Knicks, there's been a unifying thing happening in the city that all my friends are saying they've never experienced anything like this ever. Yeah.

Well, first off, New York's been, it's been. difficult here with the mom donnie's institute of Sharia law and Ben the Knicks have given us I'm sorry. See the first joke was funny what did I say? Oh yeah this is an anti-Semitic you're like how is New York? No no this is it. The anti-semitism I'm now remembering all the jokes and you can't tell him a second time

I said they Bill was like how is it in New Yorker and I was like well the anti-semitism is rampant and no but honestly what's happening right now is like special I've never lived in a I've been here since 2014 and I was in D.C. before that but I've never lived in a city that's just like going so hard for their for their boys right now. Blue and orange everywhere, watch parties, people wearing homemade jerseys. Wesley Morris was talking about it.

He was delighted by this. He felt like, because I remember in Boston in 2004, during the AOCS and then the, and then the World Series, it felt like the entire city just mobilized into this giant redsox machine and you could see it. It was like everywhere you went, you just saw hats, jerseys. And it feels like New York's like that right now. people are like out on the street. That's the cool part about it.

Like people are like just running outside. You have outside of your window, you hear people screaming and stuff. Fire, people are lighting fireworks right now. It's like pretty cool. Yeah, literally benevolently.

What do you mean? I mean, I mean, I think fireworks are a good thing. Yeah, they're mostly benevolent. Oh, oh yeah,

people are doing crimes after every naked. Yeah, crime is through the, no, no, yeah, people, you're seeing fireworks.

It's really just genuinely it's really special. I mean, New York should have a better basketball team, you know? They should be like a dynastic, like, you know, it's New York, right? And it's, I guess there was those Larry Johnson years in the 90s, but like, it's, it's like kind of wrong. You're calling the Larry Johnson years? The Patrick Gimmons?

No, I was saying the Greg Anthony years in the 90s. Yeah. The Anthony Mason years in the 90s. The John Starks years, right. I remember as a kid, it was just, I remember the fights. I remember the heat Heat Knicks fights and those were

that was really cool but yeah beyond that I you know what was it 78 was the last year no that I mean they had good stretches

they yeah 73 was the last title three yeah good stretches in the 80s like I think the Bernard King stretch before he got hurt was great yeah a couple couple really good

bumps in the 90s like when they battled MJ the first time the physical Knicks teams in the 90s and then it just ever since I got TSP in there, it kind of died.

When I got there in 2001, it was like they were relevant one playoff series. The Novak years. Yeah. That was in 2013, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I guess that's even later. Yeah.

Yeah. I guess I, yeah, I like, uh, it's like going to the garden is special, right? Like, it's, it is like a cathedral of the game. I would even admit that as a Celtic fan. It feels special, right?

I mean, you're not necessarily rivals even with it. It's your rivals. us. Why do you live there? I'm not going to move to Boston. But outside of that, outside of that, it's like the stadium where the star and the other team,

fair question. You have disgust for all the people going to. Well, when I grew up, I hated the Lakers. And the moment I moved here, I was like, this is weird. It's nice. But it's nice. Yeah, it's really nice. The weather's pretty great. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Anyway, but yeah, it's the

stadium where the star and the other team, like has his 50 piece, right? It's like the stadium where Kobe like has his like, you know, like, like just takes bows, you know, like it's like a place that brings out the best in the other teams. But it's cool. Even if they're out of playoff contention, it's the end of the year. And someone does the half court shot at half time.

Like everyone's, and he misses it. Everyone's like, go fuck, yes out. It's got an energy about it. And like the stadium is still sold out. And it's, uh, but it's like spilled outside the streets. It was really incredible to see. Yeah. I was there that's been a long time coming too.

It got to the point where you started to wonder, is this ever going to happen again for this team? Between the mismanagement, the bad luck, some of the dumb contracts. And it really was like, it took COVID to really shake the Knicks out of it. It was post-COVID, all of a sudden things got better. But there is something about like, yeah, Kat, I mean, I've just never seen him at this level. I went to the first round against the Hawks and I didn't see it.

I genuinely didn't see it and there was something that was missing there and I was like what's the philosophy of this team and then something clicked when's the last time they lost a month ago? More than that. Yeah, it was April 23rd. Yeah, and it's been like remarkable.

Like they've had these like as we were saying in the best podcast of all time. We're really, are we hitting it? Can I ask you a question? No, I think we're very close. Every woman I've ever had sex with. How was that for you? I had a great time.

Have it a great time. No, but yeah, there is, there's something that clicks and, like, you know, like, like, it's just, yeah, I don't understand. Like, Cat, I've never seen him at this level before. The stuff with the mom is, like, made me cry. It's like, I lost my mother. There's just something special. And you were saying in the last show, but, like, as they, seeing them collectively defend

and deal with Wembe. Yeah. And, like, and then seeing the level of the basketball just in these five. It's like, I just keep saying this is such good basketball. And it's like, it's been such a fun series. And then the guy that's about the Darth Vader that's in waiting about to take over the entire like league for, he'll probably play 30 years. We'll probably be still waiting for him to get hurt. Right.

We're like, oh, yeah, at that size. He's 52. And he's unbelievable. Yeah. But, yeah. Yeah, it never happened. It never happened to Kareem. So that would be the role model for Wembe.

And he, he wasn't bulky too, right? No, he stayed, Kareem stayed skinnier. He did yoga and karate and all this stuff to kind of stay limber. We have a new karate guy. Yeah. They're both karate guys. Well, it's funny. I wrote, I had a bunch of people in my life because I picked the spurs to win the series.

And I had a bunch of people in my life who were like, this is crazy you didn't pick the Knicks. Like, you wrote this whole basketball book and the premise was the secret of basketball. and how it's not a good about basketball and it's unselfishness and teamwork and fighting off the disease more and putting the team ahead of the person. And I had multiple friends say this to me. Like, how do you not see that this is what's happening

with the Knicks? And I was just, I was in that motive. Well, it was the Knicks. And I was also in that motive, wow, it was Cleveland. It was Philly with like breaking down Embed. It was Atlanta with three players. Like, I just think San Antonio is a horrible,

matchup for you. And as it turned out, the Knicks are probably a horrible matchup for San Antonio as well. Yeah. I mean, I guess Mitch has dealt with Wembe kind of maybe, maybe the best. Is that fair to say? And Towns is really taking it to him. Yeah.

So, I think, and also there's still just terrible when he's not playing. Like, it's remarkable what he's done at 22. And like, yeah, we were talking before about like, it's not a real sweep, right? Like, It feels series over, but like it does also feel like anything could happen in this series.

Well, we, game three is going to be weird because Trump's going. It's going to take two and a half hours to get in there. Right. And the game will probably be delayed. The game's already starting like 840, so it'll probably start closer to 9. And I was found like this happened in in 22 with the Celtics when they, for some reason, the games were starting at like 9, 10 p.m. Eastern time. And it definitely, the crowd got a little weird as it got later and later and just didn't have the same energy as it in the beginning.

So I'm going to be interested to see, does the crowd peek too early? Is the Trump thing like this crazy wild card that is the game like disjointed? Is the crowd disjointed? Or is it going to be like the romantic version of it is this is the end of the Shawshank Redemption for the Knicks fans? This is two games of bliss. The crowd's incredible. The spurs are scarred from what happened in game. too and it's just a sweep.

And I honestly don't know. I don't even know how to pick it. It's still, it's like, you still, you just have seen this franchise like fuck up so many times. It's like, I'm an Arsenal fan.

We, it'd been 22 years. And we'd like been in first place and then finished second for three straight years. Yeah. And this season, this season was terrifying,

every match because of the prospect of finishing second, a fourth time. After, we were up nine points on the table. Like, we almost fucked it for a fourth time. I don't know how we would have been able to manage it. And, like, I also, like, none of us believe that it could ever happen to.

Like, I'm sure, like, a lot of Nick fans are too. Yeah, I mean, whatever. There was this moment I talked about in the first segment of the pod, the Rangers in 94, when they had won in 54 years. And they took a 3-1 lead heading in a game five. And game five was in New York. And everybody's like, oh, my God, I got to be there when they win the cup. And then they lost. And then they lost game six.

And people were just, it was the, every Nick fan or every New York fan I knew is that it was the most horrifying like four days, but then they ended up winning game seven. I felt like I had a nightmare scheduled. I'm like, yeah, tomorrow three, I'm going to watch a nightmare. I'm just like so scared about it. It's like, and it's, I have to watch. Yeah. Question for you. Like, bloody soccer was like, that must have been.

Yeah, it must have been the most incredible thing that you've ever seen in sports, right? The beating, the four days in a row against the Yankees is my highlight as a sports fan. Yeah, that series was unreal. But it meant more, right, because of the curse, right? Oh, yeah. This is, this is the, it's the losing virginity as a sports fan of, it's the only way you can do it when you've had a drought for this long. And then all these great things happen.

And it's never going to be as good as the first time. It's just not. Like, how do you like, but you like as a Pat's fan? Like, how did you like keep getting boners? You know what I'm saying? It has to like not diminish. I took those ED drugs you did on the. You took that.

I took the sports ED drugs. Promocode if you add. Promocode Tom Brady. Adam 420. No, but I'm saying like does it feel it diminishes in its like excitement or you or Boston guys just like if we don't win it's just a. No, the past thing was great because we went from we were basically like if the Jets had won the Super Bowl, right?

We were like black sheep losers. He was like a child. He was a backup. Yeah. And it was so improbable. It was right after 9-11. So there's a patriotic thing. So I think people are rooting with us.

But by the third one... What do you mean? It was right after 9-11 because they were named the Patriots? Well, it was, you know, the beautiful day, you two at the Super Bowl halftime show. It was like... Very American Super Bowl. It was because of your name the Patriots.

They did it for 9-11? Yeah. Yeah. It was part of it. You remember the U-2 halftime show? The Green Head. The streets have no name with all the 9-11 names is emotional. I remember the Janet Jackson halftime show for...

Well, that's when it probably turned. Then the third one. everyone got tired of us. We became Duke. And then spy game happened and we were villains. The best was Prince in the rain in Miami. Do you remember that? Doing purple rain.

Oh, yeah. But you were saying, but like, America turned on us, which actually was great because then all we had was each other. The other Pats fans was galvanizing. Then we were like rejuvenated. It's what we were talking about with Kobe. It's like you're heaped with praise.

And then, yeah, that's the arc, right? Brady was like this backup, right? And it was like a romantic thing. And then eventually we're like, fuck those guys.

They win all the time. Well, there's different kinds of titles you win where like that one, nobody ever, they were two touchdown underdogs in the Super Bowl. And I think they were like 13 point underdogs in the NFC title game. The Knicks one's a little different because it came late. But once we got to the finals, I think the spurs were favored. But I knew a lot of people that thought the Knicks were going to win. And I think it's not like shocking that they're winning, you know.

I think. I had no idea how to call it. I just didn't know. Because you don't know. Because the best guy in one team is 22. Yeah. He's 22, but he's that. I don't know what that is.

He threw the game deciding pass off his teammates back. Well, he's 22. He's 22. And his teammate was 21 and he threw the past team. They're incredible when he's playing and they stink when he's not, I mean, they stunk last year. How many wins did they have last year? Who did?

Those first. Well, Wembe didn't play half the year. I know. Yeah. The turnaround is like, is it the biggest turnaround ever? It's one of them. The first bird Celtic year,

they gained like 31 wins, I think, from the year before. This has to be the record. Oh, really it is. I ask you, because you live in Brooklyn,

we got to stop saying that we talked about this the last time because nobody heard the other time. I know, but it breaks my heart. I know, it's fine. Because you already heard it. It's dead.

You have to fake laugh? No, I haven't fake laugh once. I know, I'm just kidding. You live in Brooklyn. You live near Barclays. And I was asking you with what you've seen from the Knicks

and how this city rallied around the NICS, if you're the Nets, like, what's- Prudential Center, Newark, we're going home? Yeah, what's the Wednesday meeting like where Joe Cyes, like, hey, man, we have to figure out, like, the Liberty are more popular than us in Barclays. The NICs have 99.9% of the NBA fans. What's our plan?

We can't keep this going. I mean, he had to have known already, right? No, this is worse than he ever. could have imagined, I think. The atmosphere at any home game is, and they play, like, they play every game as, like, kind of a road game for the,

for the players on the Nets. It's tough. I feel bad for them. Yeah. The last year, and it's a, I still think about Kyrie and Duran being on the same team and how cool that was,

and we never got to, it was a toe, right? Yeah. And it was over. And, uh, that was the, that,

that I was at the, uh, the game one, the blowout against the honest. And that was like, uh, there was something like, happening and it was exciting. But it just

since then, it's kind of, the toe is kind of the end, right? There's no question. It's the before and after. The potential of those two guys being on the same team, though, at that stage in both their careers, it was like, it's such a what if for me still. Well, it wasn't just that they were on the same team. They,

the Knicks also wanted the two guys and they chose Brooklyn over the Knicks, which had happened repeatedly. Like Durant didn't want to go there to the Knicks and 16. LeBron turned them down famously in 2010. They weren't even a choice for people.

And I think that's what changed. They made a soprano's video for him. Right. You saw that. Oh, yeah. But I think what's changed, regardless of whether they win the title or not, and they're big favorites now.

But they're now a destination again, I think, for players, which was just not the case for 20 years. It's crazy. I almost forgot that they chose the Nets over the NICs. That's how toxic that brand was. Yeah. That's insane.

It feels like, how is that possible? You're right? But yeah, it was a better situation over there. And, like, yeah, it's such a what if, because Kyrie just does the impossible and makes it look easy for him. And then everything that Durant does looks easy, but it's really hard to do what he's doing.

Like, they're like the opposites. Like, Durant is just making everything look effortless. Kyrie's making everything look so insanely hard and he's somehow doing it. And it's like the combination of those two, like, offensive is like savants, like on the same team. It's just, it really bums me out.

I was like, I wish we got to see more of it. And Hardin got hurt the one time he actually cared about that team. Your favorite player ever is Kobe? Yeah, so what? Oh, yeah. There was a question. No, nobody missed it. This is the first time they're overhearing.

Bill gave me a full-throated apology for his mistreatment of Mr. Kobe. No, no. Not true. I just said I was late to the party of appreciating how good he was. I know. You were, you were. But something about you is like, I've always been like, how dare he say that about Kobe?

But then I'd be like, if I was Bill, I would be rocking with my boys in the same way. Yeah. There's always like this. Do you think you were like the first to disclose your allegiances in media? Sorry, I asked you a question back. Sorry, I did the thing where I interview you back. Well, it was kind of a new thing. Definitely was a new thing.

Because when I came up when I was writing for ESPN, and I was writing from like the sports fan perspective, it was basically just newspaper columnist and that's it. Everybody was supposed to be very down the middle. and you weren't supposed to have favorite teams. And I always felt like the people that I enjoyed reading, I always felt like we're fans of the sport or the team. And like I talked about this William Goldman book that I loved called Wait Till Next Year,

where he wrote from the perspective of the New York fan. I was like, that's kind of how I want to write my column. Now it's pretty common. It's also bullshit. Like you would have to be like right down the middle. Like you could, if you love your team and you love your guys, like you should rather just be honest with it. And so people can see where you're coming from, right?

I think it's different if you're like Brian Winhorst and you're in locker rooms and you're talking about it in a different way. I think it would be tougher to be like, I'm also a giant Cavs fan. But he loved LeBron, right? I don't know if he loved him, but he covered him forever. I asked Nick, I asked Nick right, I said when they had that the Winfew LeBron thing, I was like, did you say to yourself? And then there was one. What do you say? He laughed.

That was it? He's like, Wendy, he's a great guy. It was diplomatic. Yeah. But, yeah, but it's definitely different now. I think it's, and it's basically because there's way more media, there's way more opinions,

there's all kinds of ways to get, to become noticed and build like at least a small level of fans. So there's no one method now. In the 2000s, there really was only one method. You did. I think it's kind of a trail, Blazor kind of thing. I don't know about that.

Listen, I have no respect for you. You were very unfair to Kobe. No, no. But I mean it. I think you kind of changed things. Like, I don't know. We didn't know where Walter Cronkite's

like allegiance is. I mean, not saying that you're doing more of like a, you were just a writer about sports from a perspective of a fan, I guess, right? Yeah. Like I was reading the, I remember the article in 2002. I read it like when I was in high school,

the 9-11 one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was like, this is, this is, do you think, do you remember back to that? I'm not asking you questions. Now this is bullshit. I don't want to do that.

But yeah, do you remember like, did that feel like a seminal kind of like moment for you? I don't, I remember not being happy with what I wrote, but feeling like I had to write something. But the bigger thing is I remember. Beautiful. I remember wondering like if I was still going to have a job. Like I didn't. 9-11 was was so horrible and so impactful. that everybody, even people, you know, that had, didn't know one person that died there.

But it felt like just everything was going to be different from that point on. I had never experienced that before. So I was like, well, nobody's going to want to read about sports and, you know, fucking bad takes on movies. And then I remember at some point, everybody just started to be like, all right, I got to do my job again. And I remember within like a week, I went to go see Hardball with Keanu Reeves with my buddy Jacko. And I wrote a column about it. And I was just like, this is my job.

You have the coolest job. This is like maybe people read this and it'll take their mind off shit for 10 minutes. But I think that was, that's the only time in my life I ever remember America like that where everybody was kind of like, what do we do? Like, are we all going to work tomorrow and then you kind of figure it out? you just got me really afraid because I've had to you know I'm recording the world trits center right now

I was scared enough as it is the first time it's that would be a fool me shame on me situation it's weird to go there and not think about it though like yeah

because the Spotify offices are there that's where you are now and you go and when you read the word on the text this is where I have to go I'm like really and it's just 25 years ago so long

so you grew up in you grew up in California I grew up in Vegas, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But I'm an LA sports fan, yeah. But you weren't in, you didn't get to New York until the mid-2010, so you weren't there for 11. Right, right. I wasn't there.

But I remember in high school, I was a freshman, and I was like a no-it-all asshole. And I was like, actually, it's probably the Al-Qaeda network of terror because they recently did an attack on the USS Cole. Someone was like, shut up. I was like, sorry. I was like looking back on it like everyone likes politics now and it used to be like

something that if you liked that you were a loser and I think it kind of should go back to that right I think too many people are obsessed with politics now I got made fun of for it as well I should have

right but it's weird to see that nowadays but yeah no I wasn't here for that but yeah I was born in LA I'm at LA sports fake because my dad

immigrated in 81 to L.A. and he got into American sports to have something like share with his kids. My dad was at the Gibson game. Wow. In 88. How amazing is that?

I was a baby. Yeah. More amazing that he stayed. Because you go to Dodger games and people get the F out of there before the ninth inning. It's really like you're making a choice. It's like if you stay,

it's an extra two hours. It's the world's here. I mean, yeah, it's true. No, you'd be surprised because I went to the 18 inning game in October and I was surprised. And I was surprised how many people left after 89. My friend was there.

Yeah. And he said that it was weird. He said that ball wasn't carrying because there was like a high pressure system or something. It was like an insane like vibe there. It must have been agony to be sitting there for for hours and hours. I loved it. No, I really had a good. We had great seats.

But I really had a good time. Oh yeah. They stopped serving everything. You just, if I had another beer, I'd be fine. I'd be like, can you guys open it back up? we're going to be here another, yeah, nine innings of extra innings. What you said was the key thing because I forget, somebody had, would just clearly seem like it was going to be a homer and the thing just died.

And we were like, are we ever leaving? There was so many warning trash shots. I remember, yeah. Yeah. I was like, I was a big Dodger fan initially, but then, yeah, I guess my team's out are the Lakers and Arsenal. And I, I watched like soccer a lot now, which is the, I was, as I was saying in the last podcast, the worst kind of American you could be.

it's like something that's I shouldn't it does feel lame to be an American soccer fan I just think of because America because we haven't really had a truly great player because the team

in the World Cup the whole World Cup our chances feel like we're in a worse spot than we were 15 years ago even though everyone I know who likes soccer insists that we have the most talent we've ever had

it's just that everybody has more talent I don't know what's true that that's why Yeah, they have no swag. They have no swag. They don't have that one dude that, like, a nine-year-old could would be like, I want to wear that guy's jersey. Maybe it'll happen in the World Cup, though. The centerback Tim Ream, I saw on my Instagram algorithm, he was like doing advocacy for, he said, when I was a kid, I wet my bed. And he's like, one in five kids wet the bed. I'm like, done before the cup.

Not before the World Cup. Don't do bedwetting advocacy. It's like, come on. Do a cigarette commercial. I don't even know if they make those anymore. Do beer. Who would make us look cool? Who would be if he was in our country, who would be the coolest? Like, who would be the guy that actually owned soccer for America? What? Out of any player?

Yeah. If that person, it just happened to be American. Now, Messi's too old now. It'd have to be somebody younger. Someone younger? Someone cool? Yeah. I don't know.

I mean, it has to be. Messy's, you register that it's the best, it's the best we've ever seen ever. I'm aware. I was there. He's like twice as good as Ronaldo. And he still might cook this time around. It's weird. How old is he now?

Is he 40 yet? I think maybe. Late 30s? Somewhere in there. Yeah. He's kind of hurt. He doesn't have to go back on defense. He gets to just walk around.

And then there's this thing that happens inside of him. And then it'll be like 12 seconds of chaos. And then it'll be in the back of the net. He's like a bizarre guy. I think he didn't speak until he was like 11. There's something like he was just given by God for this one purpose. But no, I mean, who would be cool to be American? I don't know.

I don't know. It would be cool if American athletes were played soccer. I speculated on that. It's like speculating what would if LeBron played tight end or something. Or like, I don't know. Thinking about like our best athletes, like if Kai Reef. played soccer. I mean, I would imagine he'd be like one of the best.

Kyrie's a great one. I always thought Iverson was my favorite one for this game. Because even there's high school football footage of Iverson where it's like he's incredible. And it's just like any sport that he played, he just would have been incredible. It's my favorite YouTube. Just Washington. What do you think? Do you think he would have been like

top five football player of all the time? Was he like Dion? What do you think he would have projected us? I think he would have been like everything. I think he would have been like almost like what we want Travis Hunter to be except he just would have been at a whole other level athletically. Travis Hunter is an awesome athlete.

Like he just sort of like a running back receiver type of person I think. Well, he was like an option quarterback as well, right? But I guess everyone's a quarterback in high school. Yeah, you could tell his throwing motion was a little, but he had a big arm though. He did, but it wasn't

like the mechanics were off, but then when he took off, he would just run through people. It was like when the gym teacher gets to play with the fifth grade class. and he's just dusting everyone. Yeah. Oh, it's, it's, I, I watch that video all the time. I also watch, there's a video I really like of Derek Rose doing a Chicago footwork when he was,

like the dance battle against someone in high school. And he's an unbelievable. Yeah. If a guy like Derek Rose played, played soccer, I mean, it'd be, yeah. Conversely, Randy Moss playing basketball was great. Like, there's some guys who are just like the greatest athletes who've ever produced. Yeah. They were on, it's the same team with white chocolate, right?

Yeah. Unreal. Yeah. There was that commercial. Do you remember the Nike commercial? Oh, yeah. Just a good old bowl. Right.

Yeah. I love that shit. I think Kyrie would have been interesting because, you know, he's basically ambidextrous, right? He does everything. So he would have been able to kick perfectly with both feet. His footwork and everything would have been great. I don't know.

It's his center of gravity, too. Like, he gets in these weird angles. He's six three, though? Like, who's the best six three soccer player? So many, though. So many. All right. There's so many.

Yeah. I mean, like, Zlatan is doing. It was a lot of time 6-5, I think, right? Yeah. What's cool is that you could be 5-6 and be the best in the world. Well, that's why I saw it. So Ivers of it was 5-10. You could be 6-4 and be the best in the world.

Like, yeah, they've had guys that are, like, close to 7-footers. And, I mean, Peter Crouch was amazing. And he was technically gifted, too. He wasn't just doing headers. He could use his feet. But you know who would be amazing? Who? As like a sweeper slash a six castle.

Oh my God. Like that's like he's an absolute maniac, super physical, like 10 out of 10 athlete and relentless. And if you just put him at the six, he would have been out of control. Yeah. I mean, yeah, thinking of like a like a, like a, I guess a free safety or like a linebacker. playing like in the back line. I think of guys like that. I mean, I don't know.

Yeah. It's actually we, that's the disappointment is that it's just, I guess, I guess we haven't been able to sell it yet. You were saying in 2002, we thought that it was like a moment where we could sell it.

But we don't like. I thought it was coming because it started at 94. That was like the first real moment. We're like, oh, maybe. And then, um, yeah, the 2002 World Cup,

that was when my first year DSPN, like writing columns and it felt like people cared and, um, 2014 was another one when it felt like... That was a year we lost in Portugal, right? Yeah. I liked the land of Donovan. Oh, yeah.

2010. There was a spirit about them. And it felt there was a moment when Josie felt like he was going to be the next guy. And it felt like we actually had older guys and younger guys and guys in the way up. And then all of a sudden, we were not qualifying for the World Cup and wondering what happened. Good subplot in the World Cup this year is the Canadian coach as Burrhalter was our coach. I remember. He is just talking shit.

He said that. what it is is the athletic association. He said the U.S. soccer has an issue. It's structural, he said. But he's also just running his damn mouth, which is kind of a cool

subploc because we're a co-hosts in this World Cup. But yeah, I just don't, I don't know. Maybe I'm completely wrong. There are people that disagree with me, but I'd see them underachieving. There's always a bump by being a host nation, though. But it's like,

weird. It's like, are you seeing where they're doing their, where they're doing the, like, training camps, like base camps? Where? Oh, my, it's amazing. They have a, well, they have, like, Bosnia, Herzegovina is in Salt Lake City. They have Ivory Coast in Philly, which is sick. Just imagining that is sick.

Yeah. Qatar's Santa Barbara. I appreciate it. Makes sense. They bought the nicest place, obviously. There's so many, I have a list. Bob, there's one that was just killing. me.

Now it's bad podcasting, but I've got to find it. Yeah, this is, I thought you were a better podcast from this. I'm sorry, dude. I didn't have this prepared. Can I ask you a question about the Canada co-host thing? Yeah. Is this like in college, you're having a party at the main house and you're having it with somebody else, but it's kind of their houses over there and more people are in the

big house? Are they an actual co-host? Are they an actual co-host or are they kind of glomming onto us, Canada? which Canada I think that they have hate in their gut and I think that Mexico is a mess right now

Mexico I see them completely honestly one of my spices is that as Mexico crashes out of the group stage because their fan base is toxic

right they don't have any players that like have any pedigree and play in Europe they act like they're Rail Madrid and they've never won shit

they lose to America now they should be ashamed of themselves and Canada has this like resent that comes from their coach. Yeah. We have like this pressure of like, it's kind of America's World Cup still, right?

What is they in Vancouver and Toronto? It's like two places, right? Like, it doesn't feel, I think we're the main show here. Yeah. And I think it's the most pressure. Don't forget Canada. It's our show.

Yeah, it is kind of our, but there's, I feel really bad, but it's going to be worth it. No, we're going to be audible. There's just so, wait, there's one that is so funny.

They have. So you like, right. They have Portugal, Portugal is in, Palm Beach, which is like, Cristiano's definitely going to go Mara Lago. For sure.

Argentina, this is real. Argentina is in Kansas City, right, in the summer. So apologies to Nick Wright. That sounds like shit. And they'd, like, there literally there was a tornado warning first day they were there. Like, Messies were just like standing silently and still in the middle of a tornado.

They're like, it takes also, there's another aspect that, like, in Europe, the stadiums are closer to the metropolitan areas. So, like, you have the fans that kind of marching towards the stadium. Kind of like how MSG is. Like it's in the middle of the city. And yeah,

like going like three hours to fucking met life. Like it's just like, you don't have that same atmosphere like around the stadium and stuff. And it's a also I'm like a little bit worried. I'm not going to, whatever.

You know they banned water bottles? That's the other funny thing. Can I just say? Just banned water bottles. Can I say something? Yeah. What? Is this off to the record?

Don't ever apologize to Nick Wright. Not on this podcast. All right. Whatever. Screw that. guy. Just sucking up to fucking liberal. No, no, I'm just kidding. No, we like Nick Fred. We like Nick Red. They ban

water bottles? Yeah. FIFA's not letting them bring in water bottles, so they have to buy water. It's like the ticket prices are really expensive. What's going to happen is this? We're going to say and I'm doing a podcast about it. We're going to say like, oh, guys, like, it's too

many teams as well. That's the other issue. They like expand to the field. There's no groups of death where like a big team doesn't qualify because they want the big teams in the group stages. I hate that. I love the groups of death. I love seeing Germany crash out of the groups. It's like it's really, and it makes it exciting

from the beginning. Yeah. And, but something is going to happen and we, that the world is going to explode. Like, there's a high probability we're going to see Messi and Ronaldo in a knockout, right? And I don't know if I can handle it. Like, it's

really just like, he has to lose. Renato has to lose. I can't see, he's going to so self-satisfied and spoke about it. But he has a better team. Also, there's just like, yeah, I was telling you before, the element of Iran being here in the middle of a war, and

them potentially, if they get second place, the U.S. getting second place in the groups, they play in Dallas. You know, is it on the 4th of July, or is it not? I thought it was, it was in the vicinity of it. Yeah, they would play America. And, by the way, America getting second place is conceivable. Like, that's

Turkey are in favor. Turkey are a flop artists also. I'm not as afraid as Turkey as people are giving them credit for. People are always like, oh, Turkey has something and they always them in Belgium, they're just like chronic underachievers.

And Egypt during Mosul has been the same way. Like, they're all in the cup and I think they all kind of play stinkers. Are you going to try to go to a game or you don't care if you go? I'm going to Norway, Senegal. Okay. I'm only going if it's free, Bill.

I'm not going. If you're invited. I'm only going. I mean, what is it? It's $100,000 for what? It's less than the game four next tickets. Well, that's... The game four, if the Knicks win game three,

game four and next ticket will become the hardest sports ticket of all time. Because I'm like football or baseball. It's 20,000 seats total. Yeah. It is really... We were saying before, but it's crazy... I'm just to stop saying that. It is crazy to conceive of where Trump is going to be sitting.

Like, if he's courtside and, like, just watching it the whole time. It's going to be distracting for a viewer. He's just like sitting there. I imagine he's going to be in a box of some sort. See, I'd completely disagree. I think he's going to absolutely be courtside.

Imagine like his secret service guy standing in front of Timothy Shalemay. Well, it's going to be like when Floyd Mayweather goes, when he, Floyd Mayweather sat courtside, they would have his security guards would be behind him. Yeah. And so I guess that would happen. Timo can't watch the game, his girlfriend.

Well, the funny, the thing I was thinking, If he's court side, you know, the way Trump sits because he doesn't cross his legs and he sits with his legs out with his doing the... With the diamond. Doing the diamond. Yeah. But on court side, the seats are like this. And you can't spread your legs out at all like that. It's like the subway.

Whoever's on either side of him is going to be miserable the entire game because Trump's going to take up three seats. Kendall Jenner is going to be like splished. That's the other thing. There's, you know, court side. you're walking by people, there's handshakes. There's going to be people who aren't going to want the handshake. It's going to be. And everybody filming it.

So if you do the handshake, it's on film, you know. I just don't, the thing that's nice about sports is we don't have to deal with politics. It's like, it's like a crazy time right now. It's like, there was like a Jewish. There's like this player that we don't, we named Max Dowman for Arsenal. Yeah. And I was like, I told my friend, I was like, just look up if he's Jewish. It would be huge.

He's up next, right? I was like, can you imagine? Like, if we get one. Because for us, it's just insane if we get one,

right? And then I realized, I was like, I don't want him to be. I'd rather him not. Because it's like, yeah, he's going to have,

they're going to ask him about the war in the Middle East and stuff. And he's going to, just don't, like, don't, like,

it's too much pressure. Like, just don't. Be like an evangelical or something. Like, be like Sunni Islam. Just please. don't be. I always talk to my friend

Chang about this because he loves when there's any sort of Asian. And Mina Kimes is big on this too, but we were texting this week and about Dylan Harper Filipino mom. I know. Yeah. And I feel like they haven't gotten gotten excited enough about this.

And Clarkson too. We got two in the finals. But Harper might be, I mean, he's one of the best young guards that's coming to the league in 30 years. He's unreal. I think we're forgetting, we're missing how good he is because it's just a Wembe. there was that game in the last every series of theirs

has been must-see TV the Spurs I love watching them I said in the segment before you came on I think this part of the key to the series with the Spurs

is realizing that Harper is their second best guy they just have to accept it he's 20 he comes off the bench like you just throw it out the window it's it's like where Kobe was

you ship swip you just got to like accept it this is your guy do it yeah I think you ship swip a ship swiper

that's what I would do. Well, I mean, they got to figure out how to win this series. They can't think about it next year yet, but ultimately, I would guess Fox is in there. The team is really bad when he's not playing, right? When they add a couple of pieces, it's terrifying. Yeah. In fact, the Knicks have to win because it's not fair.

Well, that's the thing. If the Knicks lose game three, then that will open up. There's only 48 hours for game four, and that will open up the hole. They have to do this now. This is the best chance they're ever going to have. OKC is going to have everyone back. San Antonio would be a year older. Indiana's getting their guys back.

Boston's getting theirs guys. Like, this is your window right now, New York. And it's also just the ghosts of the past. The ghosts of the garden. I mean, it's scary. It's very scary. If they lose game three, it will be terrifying again. Because they were so 50-50, both of those games, right?

Oh, yeah. Like, they could have lost either of them. Yeah. And it's like, usually you win away, it's game over, like, in a series. They're not going to win four or five, but I'm like, I don't know. Well, it could, it feels like this series,

anything could happen. And it's like, every game is just so, it's like just actually the best basketball I've watched in so long. And it's like, yeah, there's like, we were saying before, but there's, ah, there's so much tibs in the team. Right?

There's so much like a hard-nosed, like, you know, they just get to, like, play less minutes. No. They don't have to play, like, in, In March, they don't have to play 48 minutes or whatever, you know. One of my weird sports theories is that the more baggage you have, the more likely it is that stuff will happen along the ride to the end of your exorcism journey. Like for the Patriots when we beat the Rams,

we had this game-winning, game-winning defensive touchdown that got called back because of a penalty. But as guys run down the sidelines, like there's 10 minutes, oh my God, we just won the Super Bowl. And then it got called back. And all these skeletons popped up. And then the Rams scored. And it's like, oh, why did I let my guard down? I should have known. And I think for the Knicks, you got a, you got a quick taste of it when Brunson, when they fell into his knee in game one, it was like, oh my God, why didn't have my guard up? And it's just there's no, there's no easy path to getting rid of all the skeletons. You have to have a couple of those as it goes.

Because you think it's going to happen again and you know how bad it is. Yeah. Like with Arsenal, the saying is the hope that kills you, right? Because every single year, I think something good might happen. Yeah. And then it doesn't. And it's kind of a reminder you're going to die one day. Right.

Like if you're like a fan of a team that wins every year, you are like, you're like, I'm going to live forever. I'm going to cheat on my tax. I don't cheat on my wife. I'm like, yeah. Your life is a cocaine, just fever dream. and you're so happy. And you don't think about death ever.

Yeah. But if you're a team of like a team or fan of a team like that, you're like, you're just expecting everything to fall apart all over again. And you're like, I haven't talked to my family in months. It wasn't worth it. Like, like, I've just been sitting in this living room.

And I've, yeah, and my wife's like, did your team lose? And you're like, what does that mean? Did my team lose? Like, yeah. And then you get mad and you yell. You go for a walk. You go for a stress walk alone.

Yeah. I used that a lot. I was younger. A lot of dog walks after tough losses. I went for a walk in the neighborhood. I went for a walk after the tuck game. I went for a walk. I'm a raider fan. But like, I think actually I'd

stopped liking football kind of after that. I was like, fuck football. I was like, this sucks. Like, Charles Wilson was my favorite player. Good for you. Good for you. Good for you. So, Dee, if you had to guess with game three, do you think it's going to be an all-time

memorable game? We're going to say it's a must win? Would you go memorable game, disappointing game or just fucking weird all night from start to finish? Because that's where I would live. I think the vibe is going to be super weird the whole game.

The vibe is off. I think it's the Trump of it all. And Big Z's there. Mom Donnie's there too. Big Z. Are you the only one that calls it Big Z? Is that his nickname? Is it Drunus El Gauskis?

No, no. Mom Don. It's just like, yeah, If Trump is court side and he's making out with Kendall Jenner and Timothy's crying, what are we going to do? Are we to be watching that game? Can you imagine? He's like, I played Bob Dylan.

The truth is he, you didn't even pay for this ticket, babe. I mean, that did I, but they're giving it to me because of me because I go to the Oscars now and you're making out with the president. How dare you? No, I mean, it'll be weird, but I think. The truth is he shouldn't go. Because it's just like it's too much of a distraction and too much of a hassle for a game that's already complicated enough. Like in the league, obviously if the president wants to go to the game, you should go.

But like no normal president would go to this game. They would go to a game in February against like the Raptors. They're not going to go to like game three of the finals uproot the entire four hour infrastructure before the game. And it's just, well, you go to a game where they're going to go nuts if you walk. You go to MMA, right? You don't like. Yeah, but he might think that's. People don't think he's doing a good job.

He got booed when he went to the polling station in 2016. And he, like, changed his residency to, but he misses New York, I think. Actually, I've heard that, yeah. This is, like, his way to get back in this. Trying to start dating us again. Yeah. Hey, guys. I've been in Palm Beach.

It's like when Jaylo and Affleck got back together. I'm living my best life in Palm Beach, just so you know. I don't know if you saw the pictures. Wait, both. Staples preferred business membership built for busy business owners, because you've got bigger. things to think about. With Staples Preferred, get free delivery.

No minimums. Staples Preferred unlocks up to 3% back. Plus 10% savings on print and exclusive wireless offers. One less thing on your plate. Actually, a lot less. Visit staples.ca slash preferred. That was easy. We have to do something quickly on your podcast.

Yeah. Sure. So you were on Comtown on ABC. one of my favorite sitcoms. It wasn't a sitcom. It was a podcast. It was called home improvement. Your initial podcast was Comptown

and you guys never realized ever that you'd actually make money from it. And then all of a sudden you were making money from it and turned it into an actual, you know, a way to... Everything that's happened in my life has been an accident. Well, you thought the podcast was going to promote

like your comedy and the weekends and all of a sudden people liked it. Yeah, we didn't know that you could make money from podcasts. And then so that we kind of like, I think, yeah, we didn't know how it was growing. They used to ask us for like interviews and stuff. And Nick had like a no media policy. Smart.

And I didn't. And it's just like at a certain point then you're like, I had to work two hours a week and I became the laziest man in the world. And so like. Welcome. Yeah. But it sucked. But I mean, you're watching sports for work. Yeah.

I'm so jealous of you. Now that's you. That's going to be you during the World Cup. Hosting beautiful pod. She's not going to respect it. I'm telling you, she's still, she's not going to respect it. I'm a sports pundit. No, no.

No. In reality, yeah, this new show started and it was a joke. And it's really credit to my old co-host, Nick. Because our Stavros, who's our friend, he was exhausted and he left Comtown. And I was like, but we should keep doing it, Nick. We have a brand. You know, we should keep going. And he was like, no, you got to.

There's more common, cum town. We got to keep going. I'm going to turn you into a public intellectual, into like in the vein of Dick Cabot. But like we put very publicly pronounced, I think it was a joke. I mean, it's like,

I was the least, uh, beloved member of the three by far, but probably least talented by far too. And not probably, definitely. I mean, they're like geniuses,

the two of them. And, uh, and then I guess I decided to try for the first time. I never had, I think I was 35. It was, it's really scary to,

you know that? It's scary because if you try as hard as you can and then it sucks and you feel bad. That's why it's, that's why it's sport. Like, Wemby was like this because he tried as hard as he could. Right. And yeah, it sucks. Like if it doesn't go well. That was Shaq in the 2000 season.

He's like, I'm really going to go for this and try to win the MVP in the finals. But it's scary because if it doesn't happen now, well. You feel terrible. Right. And it's like, yeah. And so then I just somehow it fell in, we didn't know how to make a 10. television show. We publicly pronounced to the world we're making a TV show and then we're like, so we should get some cameras maybe. But we got an office in like some building and then we build

out a set. It was like all happening in real time. And then eventually it's become a real thing. And one of the best things is you have a crazy guest list. I would say eclectic is the right word for it. But you'll basically, you'll interview anybody. You don't care. I had Sarah, Jessica Parker, and then I had one of the Nelk boys in the next episode. Yeah, I kind of like that, is having an unpredictable kind of, like, rollout of guests. Yeah. It kind of makes it fun and feel fresh.

But, yeah, that's one of the things that I enjoy the most about it. But I don't know. I really like doing them because it's, you were telling me you used to do interviews, but it's cool. I do a lot of research. I do like two weeks of research for each guest. and I have researchers that we hire that are some of the journalists and like,

you know, people that we bring in and like do research packets for me. But like, it's what's really cool is like try to account for what someone is like that you've never met. And then like building together to evidence that you find on like, you know, that's been like prepared for you.

It's like being an FBI profiler. Yeah. You want to disarm a guest, right? You want them to be comfortable so they'll open up more. So you have to like kind of try to plan for like whatever trip wires there are. So you can like continue to like, to keep them comfortable enough. I think the way I do it kind of maybe a little bit

is just to present to them that I'm so unsurious. They really don't, like, they don't have to worry, like I'm a pretty dumb guy. They let their guard down. I used to be on a show called Comtown. There's a time I poop my pants during an episode,

and literally I was laughed at by thousands of people. And I went home, and I was like, I just feel like I did, it was like in front of the whole school. And I'm like, Yeah. And they might, I might not have kids that are going to hear about that. They're going to respect me as a father.

She's like, I think her getting a little carried away out. I was like, but dude, why would you even? No, why, and how happy it made them that I poop my pants. Enjoy it. But they got. No, and now I'm talking to like Gavin Newsome. It's really shame on them. I don't, I'm not fully aware of why this is happening, but I'm not asking any questions.

I guess the show is good. But like, it is really. I don't know. Like, it's insane how fast this has been. It's been a year since I relaunched the show and made it weekly. Yeah. And it's grown, like, so rapidly. And now I've got to talk to my hero.

Gavin Newsom? Oh. I built him as posters in my wall. Oh, I thought you made Gavin Newsom. I had sports guy articles. Ah. And pin-up girls. I had your articles and makes a pin-up girls.

And me and the rest of the GIs, we used to whistle. at your articles. No. You had all these, I noticed something was happening because you started to do really smart press. People write these features about you.

I didn't know. Is he the Millennium John Stewart? I knew that. I was like, this is great. He's figured it out. All my friends made fun of me for that because are you the millennial giant?

And the pictures that they use every time. I was just like every single, they use one of me like this. And I'm like, every comedian is going to make, I like went to, this building for the photo shoot. And they like had me go on the floor with a microphone like this.

And I was like, I like stopped them. I was like, can we not do this one? And they made it the main picture. Like every comedian group chat was like, fuck this guy. I was like, but then I guess the other. That's every comedian group chat anyway. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

It's just resentment and barbs. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I like the other couple ones I didn't know they were writing. I think they were like reviews. But it's just a, you know what it is. I think it's really sad. I think it's sad they don't have anything better than this. Well, there was a whole theory post the election about, well, where is the rogue and

manager? Where's the other version of this? And I don't know, I never understood it. A guy that wants to be the president is talking to me. Yeah. To me. Talking about sports is I'm like excited because we're going to go like, I get to take a break from the show and I'm just a banking episode.

I'm going on pre-production. Yeah, yeah. yesterday I tweeted at Hunter Biden apparently he's he's coming on the show and some of like banking episodes I'm building out a rollout for season three and in the meantime I get to do the sports thing and I get to watch

like you know like Ivory Coast versus you know Australia and tell my girlfriend that's important and this is business and she's like my parents are here right now and you think France France and Spain are the two favorites I think that you like Brazil

plus 850 on Fandoah. There's, I do. There's so many arguments for and against everyone. That's what's kind of fun. Brazil has like the magic of Don Carlo. Yeah. The magic of like the guy that's just, he just eats food.

It just tells them just have fun out there. And somehow it's just like has this energy, like this vibe about him that's just like creates this. Just yeah. Like I was, Pep Guardiola, um, like used to just be in a lair next to a candelabra.

The night before the championship is three final. Just with, like, just constructing the most psycho, like, tactics. And, like, this is, he'll never see this coming. And then just lose to Don Carl the next day. It's just that it was a perfect, like, just a destruction of, like, someone that's overly thinking everything and someone that's just, like, just have fun. You guys are so good at sports. Can you imagine when you were little if you knew you were going to do this?

That's awesome. You know, he's probably saying stuff like that. And, but, like, you know, Portugal has the best. best midfield is disgusting. It's a joke. I mean, they have Neves, they have Bruno, and they have Vitina. It's like

there's like so many, the Dutch backline is the best. You know, and it's just, but they're like issues, they're holes, you could convince yourself a bit. I think conventionalism is like the France or Spain do it. And like,

does America get out of their bracket? The bracket. I don't know if, do they get out of the group? Not the bracket, though, the group. I think they win the group crash out for a snockout. That's my prediction. It just feels like that to be. I think that there's something, there's something just, like there's no energy there.

And America, the country isn't just going nuts so for them right now. What under 25 player do you think Tommy Alter is going to say, hey, I'm going to dinner tonight with so-and-so. It's between games. Do you want to join us? Tonight. Which one is it going to glom onto? Yeah, out of any country. I don't know.

Oh, at the World Cup? He knows soccer players too? I just feel like he's going to add it to his arsenal. Yeah, he's going to go to like a hookah bar with the Lamedia Mall. And Bapet, and Bapest, in town. We're going to go to the Bowery tonight if you want to meet us at 930. Yeah. Who would I want to, well, who would I want to chill with with Tommy Alter?

I mean, Saka is my favorite player. Yeah, Bukai O Sacken. He's like the guy, he's the guy at 17 who pulled Arcel out of like just the worst period in our history. and had been there since he was like eight years old. And yeah, it's just like there's something special about that. He's also another guy who he had a rough season. But I'm going to say he's at a world-class talent level in sports. But he's uniquely decent as a human being.

Like there is an aspect of like you have to shed your like humanity kind of sometimes. Like Jordan and Kobe kind of had to build themselves into psychos to like a what they achieved, right? Yeah. And there's an understanding we're like, yeah, if you're going to be like, I want to take the last shot at the buzzer and miss, you have to be crazy. You have to be like, it has to be me, right? You have to like kind of build yourself into a sociopath.

That's what Webby's trying to do. He, Webby has it. We love it too. He took the last shot of game too. I don't feel like Shaq would have done that in the second year of his career. Or third year. What even is that? Yeah.

I don't know. Like he's Durant. And he's, what even is he? But yeah, could you think of anyone in sports who's like just like one of the best players in the world and is just a good guy? I can't think of it, actually. I think of like, you have to kind of build yourself into a monster to be like, does that make any sense to you or no? I think you have to be. I think there has to be a little bit of a zero-sum game mentality to really dominate a sport.

How could you like get ready in the locker room before a game and just be like a lovely person? right it doesn't make sense you have to kind of be like I want to I want to kill today and I do it I want to humiliate other people look at Brady now Brady post NFL and people are like wow he's kind of weird it's like yeah because you got to be kind of weird to be the best quarterback of all time I we had no idea oh you didn't know I had no idea that he was weird while he was playing yeah we we started near the end he's so offended it's so real to you it's so funny oh he's a family remember. He brought us six Super Bowls. Did he kiss you on the lips? No.

Who did he kiss on the lips? The son? Yeah. And so did Belichick and the daughter. There's kind of a nice thing about kissing on the lips. Do you want to leave on that note? No. No, we have to wrap up though. I know. Okay. I've just been thinking about

this last podcast the whole time. No, come on. We're fine. We're fine. We hit a lot of the same stuff. It would have changed everything. Why don't you do this? you told a great story about Kobe and Michael Jackson in the last podcast. I know that story because it was a really good anecdote. I had never heard it.

Yeah. Did you look it up afterwards? I didn't state any facts? I didn't look it out. You just look it up on your computer. I'm not looking up. No, we got to go. Tell the story. We were talking about Kobe and... No, no, seriously.

Well, we were talking about Kobe and about how it took them a while to round into Kobe and all the twists and turns and then you told the story I'd never heard. We were talking about, yeah, there was something about him just having his whole thing

about mentorship, right? And then yeah, but after Bald had Kobe rookie year, Slamdug champion, apparently he decided he wanted to have a man's body. He needed a man's body, not he wanted. But he was a child. I mean, he looked little. Like, LeBron, his rookie year looked

like that was a grown-ass man. But, yeah, apparently he was like at Gold's gym, he's like lifting weights. And he got a call. It was like, Kobe, it's Michael. And he was like, no one He's not, he hung up. And he's like, Kobe, I swear to God, it's Michael.

Like, don't hang out, please, please, please. And so he's like, he's like, you want to come up to Neverland. Like, I want to meet you and say what up. It would be great to meet you. So he went out there and he gave him this book. It's like a child's book, Jonathan Livingston Segal. And he said, this is, you're, I've watched you and you're like me. And people are going to heap you with praise and give you everything you want.

And then they're going to take it away. And you just have to remember that one moment when they take it away. that you can't stop. Like, you can't stop, like, just, like, what's driving you? And it's kind of, that is kind of a good assessment

of Kobe's career, a good understanding of it. But he does this four years before the trial, right? So it was like 1999 range, so it was about, like, apparently, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

So, apparently they were, like, in touch well before that. Yeah, but prior to, since that, and then afterwards, I think when they both had legal trouble, the Eagle Colorado thing

and Michael's second trial, they stopped talking. But yeah, he was like, just you can't forget, like, you have to just, you have to just push yourself as hard as you possibly can. And do not let them, like, take that away. And it's like, it's kind of, for me personally, like, I was so sad. Because how old was he when he had three? He was like 24? Probably, yeah.

Yes. Which is so many chips at such a. young age. And then we were like asking ourselves like what could happen now? Like he could just win a zillion. Yeah, but you know, being back there, like being an adult during that, it was always Shaq and Kobe together. How many were they going to win together? Can they win eight? And they were always a team. And then the catch would be can these guys stay together? And then that eventually became the issue. So my dad who got really into American sports in Los Angeles after the Pistons series, he stood up with about two.

minutes to go in the fourth. And he stood up and he shouted. He's like, we never go on family walks. We're like, what? And he's like, everyone get your shoes on. And he was walking like five feet in front of us, just pissed. This is Joe Rogan? My dad. Oh. Max, my real dad. Yeah, my father, Joe Rogan. No, yeah. I didn't say his name. I just said that he was a host of a show called the Joe Roggan experience. No, but it was so, I have this memory of, like, me, me and my mom and my sister,

we were like, he was like 10 feet in front of us, and we were trying to walk fast. He was walking as fast as he could. It was just so mad. The Ben Wallace Pistons. Yeah. That was an awful, being a Laker fan, it felt terrible. I mean, that was an even more stunning result than the series we're having now because I, even though the spurs were favored, a lot of people, but a lot of people are picking the Knicks.

Their center was six seven. Yeah. How big was Ben Wallace? Well, he was like six nine, but... He was six, three. Yeah. Okay? And he was bodying Shaq.

It was like, yeah, what was that team? It was Billups, Tayshan. It was like, we never saw that coming. And, uh, yeah, whatever. But, uh, yeah, then ever since then, tell me how my ass tastes. And Shaq, Shaq has kind of gifted a fourth ring. D-Wade goes on like a historic tear. everyone's laughing at Kobe now.

Shut up. Shack was pretty important on that team. He was pretty important. He was pretty important. He got to offend Shack. He rides Dewey's coattels to the, to a fourth. And no,

no, but it, did you ever say that? Everyone was laughing at my favorite player. And I was like, but he's a, also I think he was blamed for the breakup of that team unfairly. And I think it was really the buses that, that wanted to break the team up.

And I think that, in retrospect, like, you don't think so. There's been a lot. lot of books written about this. Kobe wanted his own, Kobe was ready for his own team and I think he was incredibly frustrated by Shack. Get Smush Parker on the phone.

No, but I think he was, I think him and Shaq were not meant to be, they were not meant to be a long-term marriage. And I don't think all the stuff that happened off the court didn't help either. But, you know, Shaq had. I'm going to say that Kobe was it Kobe's fault. No, but in reality, I think there's just like, you see it. It's just like LeBron after the decision,

the guy who's beloved, just everyone's like, ha ha, like we love seeing, we love seeing people destroyed somehow in society. And then those are back up. Yeah. In America we do.

In the UK, they don't. It's weird. When I watched like British sports, they don't have a concept of, uh, comebacks. It's insane.

But like when Tiger won, I cried, right? Like, because I was like, I never thought I'd see him again. And I was like, uh,

when I was a kid, he was like in Sports Illustrated for kids. And he was like, he was also a kid like me. and he was winning by like 20 strokes and making Phil Mickelson want to kill himself every Sunday. Dude, just eat shit every Sunday.

This is how I felt when I saw the town. I was like, Affleck's fucking back. We are out of the woods. My guy is back. Let's go for a ride. You reminded me that you did this whole bit about Tibbs and Steve Kern. You wanted to redo it.

So let's pretend we, let's pretend you're ad lib in this from scratch. you. We could start. If you were Tibbs' best friend watching the next two games away from the finals, what would you say to Tips? I would say, first of all, it's great to be best friends with you. You're an incredible guy.

You shout a lot. And also, like, what's going on with your throat? Like, you're always hoarse. Should I make a little tea with honey? I have echinacea. Are you sick? Do you think it was necessary to play everyone 47 minutes in, November.

Why don't you trust shaman? No, but you're trying to lift them up though because the Knicks are two games in the finals.

Your DNA runs through these boys. I mean, that is a fair point, to be honest. Like, he, he,

like, built, like, how hard knows they are, and especially, like, seeing them collectively deal with Wemby. There is something about,

like, they're, like, yeah, he's made them tough. Like, all they, even,

I know cat, cat's been, had a new coach for a year, but like, it's a cat that we haven't seen yet, right?

Yes. And it's like, but I do, I feel bad. I do for like Mark, I felt really bad to Mark Jackson, but he was doing the ABC broadcast the year after he retired. Or retired, he was asked to leave. Because it was just like,

how must he have felt like watching that? It must have been like watching your wife having sex with a man who has the biggest penis in the world and not only shit, orgasm after orgasm, just sitting there saying hand down man that was good deep, but better oh. Just like he's whispering in her ear.

And you have to, not only, wait, not only do you have to watch your wife having sex with her, the guy that's giving her the sex of her life, you have to give a play by play on ESPN and ABC. For the next five years. You have to do, yeah, and now he's, now he's reverse cowgirl. That was, and that's some great reverse cowgirl,

whatever he does. And that's hand, that's good team, but better O. Yeah. Hand down, man, yeah. I mean, I think, I would hope that Van Gundy was just nice to him and said, like, listen.

Listen, come on, man, you're a good guy. You're a good guy. She wouldn't have known that she was going to love it like this until she went through the marriage with you.

She had no way of knowing. I just didn't even know a woman could have to have to have been or gas. Yeah, this would have happened with you if you had just hung around. You were great. I mean, it's, you know, Are you sure for a job you want to be doing the play-by-play?

Mike Breen is saying bang over and over again, excitedly. Every time your wife, curry bang! All right, we're wrapping up. Adam Friedland Show coming back in July and the beautiful pod starting in June on Wednesday. Chris Ryan, many others. Maybe I'll have been popping. Signing ceremony. Signing ceremony, great see.

All right. Thanks, Adam Friedland. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to State Farm for sponsoring today's show. Thanks to Adam Friedland. Don't forget, he is coming aboard. Go check out his podcast. If you haven't listened to it, it's great.

Really fun interviews of the whole variety of eclectic people. He's really good at what he does. Excited to have him with the World Cup. Excited to lend him CR for a few weeks. We don't always do that. A lot of people want to borrow CR. Thanks to Gao and Eduardo and everybody from my side as well. Here's the plan.

Monday night. Game three. It's going to end. And then Rob Mahoney and I are going to be live on Netflix breaking down what is sure to be a memorable game in some respect. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm prepared for anything. New rewatchables is coming Monday as well. We did single white female. We're in the middle of From Hell Month.

Also, we put up a mailbag on Thursday if you missed that one, just about an hour. But banged through some really fun questions for that. I will see you in 32 hours. 36 hours, something like that. Enjoy game three. 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, call 100 Gambor or 1-800-Mai Reset.

Call 88879-77777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or MD gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, MA.org, or call 800-327-57-5. for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 8778 Hope NY or text Hope and Y in New York for Louisiana. Call 877-7-770-7867.