The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 103: Friday Rollin' With Joe House

Episode Date: May 27, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on longtime buddy Joe House to talk about Bill's trip to Oakland for Game 5, the ceiling of OKC-GSW, the meaning of 73-9 if Golden State loses, the Russell Westbrook-Stephen Curry battle, Kevin Durant's steady rise up the pyramid, and Bill's bold Game 6 prediction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's episode of the BS podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek our presenting sponsor and the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music and I want to give them a quick shout out because they have been our presenting sponsor for a while I think it's like six months seven months whatever they've been awesome to deal with it's a great company they're very receptive to different ideas. We just like working with them. And they helped me this week with Hamilton tickets with my wife and my son, which is going to be the greatest moment of my son's life. He loves mac and cheese, wrestling, and Hamilton. And SeatGeek helped us out. SeatGeek is awesome. Check out SeatGeek. Other sites have the nasty habit of showing you lower prices

and charging you huge fees at checkout. At SeatGeek, the price you see is always the price you pay. It's right there. It has the price. Then it says like $3 extra for shipping or whatever it is. And that's it. There's no like extra $100 at the end. There's no extra $50 at the end.

There's no secret fees. You don't have to worry about showing up at an event and not having your tickets or ticket fraud, any of that stuff. SeatGeek is great. Use SeatGeek. It is the official sponsor of the entire Ringer Podcast Network for tickets. Download the free SeatGeek app or go to SeatGeek.com. And thanks so much to SeatGeek for supporting not only this podcast, but a bunch of things that we're doing at The Ringer. They've been a great partner. Thank you. Today's episode is also brought to you by Stamps.com.

Stop relying on the post office. Just buy and print official U.S. postage using your own computer and printer. Sign up for Stamps.com right now. Use the promo code BS for a four-week trial. Plus a $110 bonus offer that includes postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps.com. Click on the microphone at the top of their homepage and type in BS.

I should also mention my new HBO show, Any Given Wednesday, launches Wednesday, June 22nd at 10 p.m. You can follow the show at facebook.com slash anygiven, W-E-D-S. We have another Game of Thrones postgame show, After the Thrones on HBO now at 1 a.m. ET after the West Coast airing of Game of Thrones. Don't forget about the Ringer Podcast Network. We just launched the Ringer MLB show. I did the first one with Jacko and Mallory Rubin. We talked about the AL East.

I know it's basketball time, but go check out the baseball show. We're going to have a bunch of great people on there, including Michael Bauman, Mallory Rubin. about the AL East. I know it's basketball time, but go check out the baseball show. We're going to have a bunch of great people on there, including Michael Bauman, Mallory Rubin, a bunch of our writers, a baseball writer that we're going to hire next month. We'll eventually take him into that podcast along with a couple other people, but check that out right now.

And finally, we are launching the Ringer next week. It's happening. You can still sign up for our newsletter at ringer.com. But this site is happening. There's no stopping it. We have like almost 50 people. We have writers. They've been writing fake pieces.

They've been writing real pieces. They've been banking pieces. We are hoping to launch in the middle of next week. And I am super excited and super grateful for all the hard work that everybody's done. Um, we started out with four people in the first 10 days of October and we have now grown to almost 50 people and we continue to grow. I did not think that we would have this many people for the website, uh, this early. We, we, We thought it was going to be in phases, and we thought we'd have the initial smaller group of writers,

and then we'd go up and we'd have more writers. It just kind of snowballed, and we have a site right now that we're about to launch with that is, I would say, 90% of the headcount we had at Grantland. And it's going to be a different site than Grantland. You'll see when it unfolds. We have sports, pop culture, and tech. It's going to be a little more reactionary than the old site was. These are different times.

When we launched Grantland in 2011, and I had been planning it for a year plus before that. Um, it was a site that designed toward desktops and you know, the reading experience that the blogs at that point had, had gravitated toward, um, more immediate, quick quantity over quality, things like that. So a lot of what Grantland was at the time was, was a reaction to some of that and the reading experience and not caring about word count as much and not caring about just getting page views and things like that. We really tried to go after strong individual voices, a mix of features, columns. We got a reputation as a long form site, which I never liked because I always just wanted the site to be entertaining. I mean, the third day that we, after we launched Grantland, the lead story Friday morning was a

reality fantasy league. So I don't think it was a long form site. I think we did have good long form pieces, but we had all kinds of pieces this time around. Um, you know, the internet's changed. It's 2016. Uh, People are reading content on their phones more than they read it on their laptops. Even as we had Grantland, the iPad, by 2014, that's how I read the site. So you're talking about phones now as the dominant place that people read stuff. And you got to create a site that, that, that kind of reflects that a little bit. It's really hard. Like if I had a column right now that I had to do every week, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be writing 7,500 word columns anymore. I just don't think people read that way. So I think you're going to see a site that has a lot of up-and-coming writers,

a lot of people that we're catching at the right times, which we were able to do at Grantland, and we're doing that again here. And it's definitely a younger site. The site's going to grow with the writers. I think we did an unbelievable job of finding, um, people to work with and good people to the culture was, was a huge part of everything we're doing. Um, and we're all really excited. I mean, it's, it's honestly, you know, I've launched a few things. Um, I launched 30 for 30 launch Grantland. I was involved with the Jimmy Kimmel live launch. Uh, the launching part is the most fun part. And know it's it's honestly like having a

baby it's it's not really any different i mean you know there's this moment i've had two kids and there's this moment when you're just in the hospital and you're like man this thing's gonna come out i don't know what it's gonna look like i hope everything goes okay and you're nervous and and you just hope it comes out and everything goes well. Usually it does. And with this site, I think we're pretty confident. We're working with Medium. Medium built the site for us.

Medium is going to be the technological home for it. They're providing the digital infrastructure. It's our site. We control everything. We control the look. We control the pieces that go up. And they've been an awesome partner. And we are absolutely over the moon pumped to have this site.

And it's a site that we hope will be around for, I don't know, as long as they have websites. It's pretty cool. It's definitely a dream come true for a lot of us, including myself. So there you go. All right. We're going to call Joe House right now. Check out the ringer.com. We launched next week and you can still sign up for our newsletter and you can still sign up for all our podcasts. Uh, you know, we need you. We need you to spread the word. We're not doing a lot of advertising. We're doing no

advertising actually other than Twitter and Facebook. So there you go. Uh, let's call Joe house. Talk about the NBA playoffs oh yeah you know with the ringer launching next week we thought we'd do a little old school ringer

Friday rolling with Joe House old school how are you guys rolling with Joe House. Old school. How are you, guys? Yes, Friday, we're rolling. We are about to conclude month eight of the BS podcast. I can't believe it. It's been month eight, and we've done over 50 million listens for those eight months.

Not bad. Joe House was responsible for many of those listens. So I went to the game last night. Yeah, can you hear anything? How's your hearing? It was all right. I'll tell you one thing. Those sphincters in the Golden State sections got very tight when all of a sudden it was

103.98 with like four minutes left, three minutes left, whatever it was. And I'm so glad I went because OKC is going to win this series, and I didn't realize that until I went. But we're going to talk about that. So flew in for the day. I did inside the NBA for the first time ever. I saw that. I crammed in a – I mean, that table is tiny. I did inside the NBA for the first time ever.

I saw that. I crammed in a, I mean, that table's tiny. I'm sitting next to Shaq. Shaq's like twice my size. He takes up half the table. You tweeted this. You should have just gotten his lap. That would have been the right move.

I should have. I should have. I was hooked into those little headphone thingies, so I was afraid I was going to knock my thing out. But I was actually thinking about halfway through of just climbing onto his lap and just sitting there like a little boy as he held me and we talked about the games. But yeah, there was real history last night. If Golden State lost that game, it's so much worse than the 18-1

Pats, right? At least the 18-1 Pats made the Super Bowl and had the lead with two minutes left and got robbed by the helmet catch when there's six holding penalties in the play. To lose in five in the Western Finals after you go 73-9, I feel like that would have been first on the list

of collapses during a season that we've ever talked about or am i overthinking this i think you're overthinking and i also don't like really comparing it to the to football it's just that's a tough one why talking about the past just because like you know uh the the achievements are um you know noteworthy for the regular season dominance part of it, but it's just impossible to compare postseason runs in football to basketball, I think. I don't think you can—there's too much random— there's too many variables in basketball compared to football.

See, I disagree. I like when we disagree. We usually agree too much. I think the 18-1 Pats, the similarity is that nobody gives a shit that they went 16-0 now. It's irrelevant because they lost

the Super Bowl. I don't think it's irrelevant. It's irrelevant to all the Pats fans. We don't feel good about it. You know what I don't wear is my 16-0 t-shirt. Never see that on my body. There's one big difference, right? That Warriors record

is going to be held in esteem and revered, the 73-9, you know, for as long as it lasts. It's an impossible mark. I agree and I disagree. It will be held in esteem, but people will say they won

73 games, and then it'll be comma, but then they lost in round three. And that's just part of that record. Part of the record will be they didn't make it. They exerted too much energy.

I mean, I really think looking back at everything that unfolded these last eight months, I think they had to go for it because they had already won a title. Now they're going for immortality. I felt the same way about the Patriots. You gotta go for it. If you do it... You gotta go for it. You don't question it.

You gotta do it. You gotta try to break the record. They were mostly healthy. They had all the right kind of factors. The stars were in alignment for them to go do it. You got to try to break the record. They were mostly healthy. Yeah. They had all the right kind of factors. The stars were in alignment for them to go for it. So they had to go for it. But here's the problem. It wore them out. It 100% wore them out.

They can spin it any way they want. But when you watched how they played in game three and game four, I mean, Steph Curry was so dead in game four that everybody thought he was hurt. I'm telling you i went to the game last night steph curry is not hurt and it's not just the fact that he played better last night but just watching him cut around picks and how he was moving his feet and stuff that guy's not hurt he's not i i would say at this point in the playoffs all these guys are a tiny bit hurt like westbrook westbrook had has tweaked his knee a couple times during the playoffs.

And there was one time yesterday he crashed in the basket support, got up, limped around. It looked like he was hurt. All these guys are banged up. And I think for that report to come out that Curry is 70%, no way. He fought for it. Oh, I didn't see that. When did that come out? It was like two days ago.

But everybody was talking about it after game four. He must be hurt. He must be hurt. He was awesome in game two. That's right. I heard that theme. What's crazy is you're attributing his, I don't know what you want to say, flat-footedness, lack of offensive efficiency. Lack of energy. Lack of energy in game three, game four. He just didn't have his mojo.

Yeah, but he's the dude that got a two-week break. He just had two weeks off to let his knee rehabilitate. I know. Right? None of his teammates had two weeks off to rest. So I honestly think it's like injury-related stamina. It's like there definitely um impaired stamina that's attributable to him having that two weeks off and not really being able to um you know keep up that that high intensity i think he's hurt by having that rest i think i agree with everything you

just said except instead of injury impaired stamina iired stamina, I think it's Westbrook-impaired stamina. I really do. I think the injury is that he's playing Russell Westbrook in a series. Yeah, that is interesting. You know what I thought about it? Kirk has been a little stubborn with that, hasn't he? Well, I thought about it last night because talking to Barkley and Kenny and those guys a little bit

in the green room and then when we were on TV. And, you know, I've learned to trust the former players with some things, right? They have a sixth sense of something about the mano a mano side of things. And Barkley's been on this corner the whole series. Like Westbrook is a beast for Curry. And, you know, there's a real possibility that it's just like, it's almost like Clubber Lang, Rocky III, where it's just like, I can't keep this guy off me. He's just relentless.

And you watch last night, like how hard Curry had to fight for every point that he had. What did he finish with, 31? Nothing was easy. Yeah, he definitely got 30. I know that. I went with Weinberger yesterday. We had a nice seat in the corner. About 6-7 rows up so we could really

see the court. To watch it in person, I know they've shown a couple replays on TV, but to actually watch what OKC was doing to Curry in person, it reminded me of what the Patriots did to Marshall Falk in the Super Bowl 36, where any chance they have to elbow him, push him, knock him, shove him, clip

him, they're just taking it. And the refs aren't calling it. J.J. Redick was on Rachel Nichols' show yesterday or the day before and made that same point. He said they went from OKC's defense went from like pointing out switches to physically getting in the way of switches, to making their switches through grabbing and knocking Steph around. That they went from like here comes Steph, move over there, like pointing defense to actual like physical defense. Right.

They're chipping them. And when you're there. There you go. Yeah, and when you're there, because on TV you can't see it all the time, but when you're there watching it, it's constant. It's four quarters of it. It's Adams. The guys are Adams, Ibaka, Durant, and not as much Cantor because he hasn't been playing as much.

And then Roberson. And all of them, anytime they have a chance to bump or push or hit Curry, they're taking it. And you could see him in the game. He's so frustrated by it because they're not calling it. I'm not sure they should call it. I think it's playoff basketball. We want it. We want an old school playoff basketball.

Exactly. You know, this is the point. You're describing all of the things that are helping us, you know, put some words to what our eyes are seeing, which is a combination of Steph being exhausted from chasing Russell Westbrook all over the court. And by the way, Russ hasn't been, hasn't been an incredibly efficient offensive player this series. The defensive numbers for Steph back up that he's playing pretty good defense on Russell.

Now, I know that Russell would get a chuckle out of that. The stats kind of support it. So you have him chasing Russ on the one hand, and on the other hand, him getting knocked every single time he tries to run through on any of that screen and roll action that they do as he goes from one side to the other. He's getting grabbed, he's getting pulled, he's getting chipped. And yet, he is tired. It's exhausting. And he, more than anybody else, if you look at his numbers compared to the regular season,

he's way down in shooting percentage from three and from the field. And his overall scoring average is down as well. Now, games three and four really undercut that efficiency because they got run the F off the floor in OKC. But I think that's what we're seeing. We're seeing a level of physical exertion that he wasn't required through the entirety of the regular season, really, because they don't have to play OKC every night with all these giant-limbed human beings and incredible physical specimens.

It's the worst possible team for him to play because they have all these big dudes. They have long arms at the rim. Everything is work. Roberson's done a really nice job on him. Roberson, Westbrook, they can throw Durant on him. And they're chipping him. They're making him work.

And then the other part of this, you know, I like advanced metrics. I think you can learn a lot from them. And, you know, I was pretty early on the NBA advanced metrics corner. Michael Wilbon disagrees with you. I know. We should talk about that at some point. Poor Wilbon. Come on.

Or not. Let's not talk about it. Or maybe we shouldn't talk about it. Oh, man. Poor Wilbon. But two things struck me last night in that game, and the stats can't account for this. I don't think. I mean, maybe there's some stat I don't know about,

but Westbrook didn't have a very good game. I'm sure the advanced metrics, you know, like his efficiency, all that stuff. The pressure that he puts on the other team with how freaking relentless he is, I don't know if you can quantify that. I don't know if there's a stat for that, a stat for just the other team, not being able to take a breath for four quarters because of the way somebody on the other team plays,

you know, it's like if you miss a shot, he's going to go one on five and try to take it down the other way. And how is, there's no staff for that. It's a great observation. And, and Charks did a great sort of treatment on that in his Facebook post today, which will soon be on a website.

I'm so happy. I know. I mean, I don't mind going to Facebook to find Charks, but come on. I know. The website's going to help Charks. Go ahead. The way for Golden State to combat that is to control pace a little bit better. And I actually thought watching the first half of the game last night,

it ended up at halftime 58-50. I was like, yeah, this is the way for Golden State to have a chance at keeping this close because that's really, at the end of the day, the best they can hope for in a game six in Oklahoma City is to have it close in the fourth quarter. And speaking of sphincters, let Oklahoma City maybe revert to some of the fourth quarter trouble that they were having. But, you know, Golden State can control Russell Westbrook by not letting him get that full head of steam running down the other way through early shot clock shots.

Don't try and say that 10 times fast. Yeah. Early shot clock shots. The shot cock. The shot cock was coming. That's my favorite NBA porn movie. Yeah. You know what else helps is if the shots actually go in.

Because then they have to take the ball out of the basket, and then Westbrook's not going 48 miles an hour. I mean, Westbrook wasn't good last night because I would compare it to, oh, you have a five-and-a-half-year-old son. You'll understand. If your young son has a Coke, and they just become, and it's like, no, it'll be fine. He can have one. And then they hit a point where they're just a little too hyper and you know there's no going back you're like oh boy uh my son's just out of control my son's literally out

of control my son is now he this is going to be the way it is for the next hour he's just going to be a lunatic and that was i felt like westbrook he wanted it so badly last night, which is great. It's a great quality. He couldn't channel it. He was out of control. They opened six for 26 from the field last night. He wanted to score. He wanted to have 50 points, 20 rebounds and 25 assists. That was his mindset

going into the game. It was interesting. I said on the pregame show, I made the point about how one of the fascinating subplots of the series is that Westbrook really thinks he's better than Curry. And I think it pisses him off that everybody's had this Curry love fest, unanimous MVP, all this stuff. I think Westbrook just sits in his house and gets mad about it. And Barkley, like, interruptively as I was making the point. He was like, of course he thinks that. He thinks he's the best player in the world.

You've got to think that way. And that's true. I think a lot of these guys have huge egos, but I think he really thinks he's the best player in the league. Like, I think he genuinely believes that. I'm sure Durant does too, but I think Westbrook really believes it, and I think he's taken this series so personally. I think he just wants to destroy Curry.

Don't you think? I'm glad to have it. I mean, this is exactly what we've been begging for, you know, out of OKC this whole season. This particular fire that we're seeing out of them in this stretch of games, it's about time they take it personally, for Christ's sake. But it's exactly, I think you're right. I think that're right.

I think that they feel disrespected by comparison. I think that they are playing with a chip on their shoulder, all of those cliches that I would love to try it out right now. All that's true. They really are playing that way, and that fuels the fire for the physical play. Like, I'm not going to let this little homie just run right through here. Get a knock on him. I mean, all of it. Last night was the first game that Golden State out-rebounded OKC.

OKC had been relentless on the boards. They out-rebounded them by 21 in Game 4. Yeah, so Bogut was huge last night. And I don't think Golden State can win this series unless he does that in game six. Because they started him. He had his presence immediately. He finished with a double-double. I thought he reached back into the well.

He was a little more, I don't want to say invested, but that was his A-plus game last night. And it also helped that the refs called two fouls on Adams in about a minute. Because Adams, Haralabob and I talked about this on Wednesday. Adams is one of those guys you could call for 40 fouls or three. Because he's going over, everyone's back for every rebound. And he does it in a really smart way. But you could call it any time. You could call it when he chips Curry.

You could call it when he's coming over and doing the Roy Hibbert hands up, trying to block it. He's a really hard guy to officiate. And last night the refs were just like, too fast, you're out. Donovan was so mad in the last three minutes of that first quarter. That guy Mark Davis was there. You see that guy and you just know somebody's going to be unhappy in one of the two teams.

And Donovan was just staring at him. He wasn't saying anything. He was just death eye, stink eyeing him. And they called a timeout and he just walked out and he just kept staring at him. He just stared and Davis walked away. He was trying to glare through his head. But it was 8-0 with fouls in the first quarter, and nobody on OKC was playing well.

Westbrook was terrible. Durant was OK. And yet at halftime, it was only eight points. I really thought at halftime OKC was going to win. Did you think they were going to win at halftime? No. thought at halftime OKC was going to win. Did you think they were going to win at halftime? No, I did not think that OKC was going to win. I thought it was at no point did I feel comfortable thinking one team or the other is going to win until it was three and a half minutes left and Golden State was up 11.

And then Harrison Barnes decided to give Kevin Durant a four-point play. Oh, you know what I noticed yesterday in the crowd? You know how every basketball team has the guy the fans kind of get pissed at? They just get grumpy at? It's Harrison Barnes for the Warriors fans. He's had a garbage series. I don't know if it will ultimately impact the paycheck he's going to get in this offseason, but he's really been a disappearing act.

He hasn't really been meaningful in this series. One of my takeaways from being there last night is that there's not going to be a lot of tears shed if he signs with the Lakers. Warriors fans aren't going to be consoling each other and sobbing in each other's shoulders, Ferris and Barnsleaves. I want to get your opinion on, you know, you're talking about the way the refs called that game. And I think, you know, this is the real danger for Golden State,

having found a little bit of something that works with Bogut. He had really limited minutes in games three and four because he got in foul trouble and then Curtis didn't put him back in. Right. You know, what happens if he gets a couple fouls early on? three and four because he got in foul trouble and then Curtis didn't put him back in. Right. You know, what happens if he gets a couple fouls early on? You know, if the same thing that happened with Adams and early foul calls happens to Bogut? They're in trouble.

What do we see out of Golden State? Yeah. Well, they're in trouble because— That's the answer, right? Yeah, yesterday he phased out Azili, which I thought he should have done earlier. But at least they figured it out in time. They got nine unbelievable minutes from Spates, who really feeds off the crowd. which I thought he should have done earlier, but at least they figured it out in time. They got nine unbelievable minutes from Spates, who really feeds off the crowd,

but I'm not sure that happens in OKC. I mean, I was glad Curry said this, and I don't think it could be emphasized strongly enough. This is an all-time nut check game for the Warriors. This is when you find out what your team is. I know they won the title last year, but as has been discussed a million times, they really lucked out with some of the injuries on other teams last year. And they played a Cavaliers team that was a one-man team.

They've never had to play a game in the history of this Curry franchise other than Game 7 at the Clippers. It was the last time they had a nut check game like this. And I think that was 2013. But this is it, man. Those OKC, I've been to finals games at OKC. That crowd is so loud that your head hurts. You literally get a headache. That's the one where if we try to do a podcast, you'd have to have the headphones on because you wouldn't be able to hear.

No, I don't even know if you'd be able to do a podcast. It's so loud in there. And, you know, I just think Oklahoma City's going to win. I rarely do this. I rarely go, like, all in on a pick. I think they're better. i think they can smell it i was watching them i was really watching their body language and all that stuff really carefully last night i can't believe how re-engaged abaca is like abaca three weeks ago looked like a guy

who was just planning his departure and trying to figure out what team he was going to be on next not only is he back to being serge ab, he's the guy that was like clapping. They're down eight. He's tapping guys on the ass, trying to get people going, trying to keep them focused. He's totally back. Wait, wait. Three weeks ago? It was like four games ago.

Yeah. It's, you know, he's getting the minutes. 36 minutes in game one, but, like, right, he's been prone to disappearing. His game two was one for six from the field in 30 minutes for three points. Yeah, that was a throw. They were due for one stinker, that OKC team. I just mean your point overall about Ibaka,

we thought he was the one with the disappearing act, and all of a sudden, you know, here he is again. There's been a collective view, I think, during the conversation you were having with the fellas on the set yesterday. This point was made. There's a whole collective resurgence among this group. It's really fascinating. Saturday is such an important game in the future of two franchises, right? Yeah, hold on.

Hold that thought. Hold that thought. All right, all right. Because as I've mentioned many times on this podcast, I hate shopping and I'm lazy as hell. That's a rare combination that usually leads to dudes wearing the same set of clothes for six to seven years at a time. I include myself in that group. Oh, I thought we were going to talk about underwear.

No. No, no. Underwear six or seven days in a row. I'll do that. No, we're talking about our buddies at Trunk Club. Oh, Trunk Club. I love Trunk Club. Yeah, if you feel like it's time to upgrade your wardrobe, I have a really good idea.

Let Trunk Club handle all the work for you. Trunk Club takes the hassle out of shopping by finding the best clothes for you and your style. They mailed me a trunk of clothes a few months ago. It was like Christmas come early. Here's what you do. You go to trunkclub.com slash BS. You answer simple questions about your styles,

preferences, and size. You'll be assigned an expert stylist who's not in Joe House, who handpicks clothes from the best premium brands. You approve of what you like, send back what you don't like. A few days later, a trunk arrives on your doorstep. It does not have a body in it.

It has fantastic clothes, handpicked clothes that are perfect for you. Try them on, keep what you like, return the rest in your prepaid trunk. And if you live in New York, LA, Dallas, Chicago, or wait for it, Washington, D.C., you can even stop by a Trunk Club store and meet your own stylist for free.

It is not a subscription service. Get started today. Trunk Club will style you for free even better. Free shipping both ways to take advantage. Go to trunkclub.com slash BS. So the All-NBA teams came out yesterday. Loved it, loved it. DeAndre Jordan was the first team All-NBA center,

which is an all-time travesty, and I think 100 years from now, we're going to regret it as much as some of the great atrocities that have ever happened in America. No offense to you, DeAndre. Did you have Boogie or did you have Aldridge? I never would have voted for Boogie. Why would I?

You know I love Boogie. Boogie played 60 games this year and his team won like 28 games. Why do I have to vote for Boogie? He had 17 incidents behind the scenes with his coach and players and all kinds of things. Like, really? He got suspended. Who was your center? Was it Drummond?

I picked Draymond. Oh, okay. That's right. There's no such thing as a center anymore. Why do I have to pick a center? It's ridiculous. But I put Durant and Westbrook both on the second team. Sure.

And I did this because OKC won 55 games. And I just couldn't accept it. I knew they were more talented than that. And they have two of the best five, six, seven, whatever list you want to make, players in the league. And it just bothered me. I thought their team should have been better. I was frustrated watching them.

I didn't think they were well coached. You vote punished them. Yeah, I did. I didn't think, you know, Westbrook, who had a great statistical season, but I think it's on him a little bit that Ibaka was checking out and that Deion Waiters just stands in the corner

and doesn't feel engaged and all those things. So I penalized them. And I feel vindicated by how they've played these last three weeks because this is the team I thought they should have been. If they played this way all year, they would have won 70 games. Don't you think? Well, the really frustrating thing for somebody that had a monetary interest in them winning 58 games

is they were ahead in so many fourth quarters. They had this anomalous run of losing games that they were winning in the fourth quarter without any sort of obvious explanation other than lack of focus and lack of intelligent basketball and closing out

games. They should have won 61 games. If you look at the games they gave away in the fourth quarter, 61 is right there in the sweet spot. But this team playing this way with this energy, that's a 68-win team right there. I think it's a 70-win team. They are so frightening.

They are so long-armed. That's like my takeaway after watching the person. Just arms everywhere just arms protecting the rim they reminded me like the teams we grew up with i remember that the mid-80s celtics teams when we had mikhail and paris and walton and it was always some combination of those two and they're just arms over the rim at all times and this team like curry was driving to the basket and passing up layups that he used to make routinely during the season and trying to kick it back out for threes to Harrison Barnes because he didn't want to get shot blocked.

You know, that kind of got in his head. Although they did dominate points in the paint, finally, Golden State did. It was 48-30 last night, and they were up by much more than that as the game was going on because they were able to get Adams ISO'd out on Steph and Steph went by him a couple times and the help was late rolling over. Adam's missed some time

too though. Yeah, that's right. I know. Your overall point about Steph giving up layups that he'd been taking all season long and missing some of those, too, is absolutely on point. He's rushing them. Haberstroh did a little video piece that sort of proved the point,

that Golden State's been getting good looks. They just haven't been making them. And some of that's got to be because the OKC's are in their head, right? Yeah. And you saw some of the shots Curry made in the fourth quarter were the way he's played all season. I mean, he made a couple incredible drives. He's just got to do that. The problem is when we get to OKC, their big guys are going to be so out of control, locked in, flying around, doing everything.

It's really dangerous for Golden State because Draymond, I thought Draymond played as well as he could play last night from a protecting the rim, rebound kind of athleticism thing. And they still barely won. You know? You made the point that I think is really going to be the determining factor, which is the difference in benches. Oklahoma City's bench predictably stunk. Waiters didn't score.

Roberson had six. Guys have been making meaningful contributions. Morrow threw up. He made four. Including, it should have been a four-point play towards the end of the game, but he had ten because he didn't miss. But – and on the other side, the combination of Spates and Azili and Livingston had a good game.

You know what I noticed last night? And this is one of the many reasons I think OKC is going to win. I love the way they handled themselves in the fourth quarter. At every point of the fourth quarter, no matter what the score was or what was happening or shots that weren't going in, they acted like they were better. They carried themselves like they were better. They didn't get rattled. Even near the end, like Durant, I don't know if they showed this on TV, but Durant, he'd missed a three.

Remember when they almost kind of came back at the tail end and Durant missed a three that would have cut the three? That three was, you know, talking about you thought some sphincters were getting clenched. That three was the moment. So he, he missed that and he walked back to their bench and was just like, oh,

he was so mad that he missed it. And he's like talking to Mo Cheeks and he's going over and he, and for some reason he high fived all the guys on the bench. And my interpretation of it as, as having a master's in body language from Boston University. Yeah. I just, every, everything he did, My interpretation of it as having a master's in body language from Boston University. Yes, doctor. Everything he did made me think that he was telling his team, like, we're better than these guys. Man, we could have stolen this one, but there's no way they're beating us in game six.

The level of confidence on that side, I was staggered. And it really reminded me of the 87-88 when the Pistons played the Celtics. And what was scary about the Pistons in 87, even though the Celtics ended up winning, the Pistons thought they were better. And they carried themselves like they were better. And when you were, I went to game five

and I think I went to game seven. When you were in the building for it, it was the first time in a couple years that a team had played the Celtics where it was clear first time in a couple years that a team had played the celtics where we were it was clear that they thought they were better than the celtics and it was a little disorienting it was like jesus we can't these guys feel like they're more athletic than we are they we we can't kind of keep them off the boards and uh and i just think okay so he's gonna beat him i i really think that the only chance Golden State has in Game 6 is Curry and Clay just get hot.

I think they have to make like 14 or 15 threes. Or Westbrook has to completely shoot OKC out of the game. Other than that, OKC is going to win. I really believe it. I don't think that Westbrook can shoot them out of the games. We talked about this before the series started, I think, and we anticipated that there might be one of the games where Russell tries to take it over and crushes them. He hasn't done it.

I can't think of the last game he's done it in these playoffs. Maybe against the Spurs in game three against the Spurs, maybe. I don't remember. It doesn't matter if he's home or away. It doesn't seem like. I agree with that. I think the big guys it matters. I think for like Adams, Ibaka, Kanter,

those type of guys always play better at home. Like you saw it with Spates last night even. But Westbrook seems, it just doesn't matter. He could be playing in like Zimbabwe. He'd be fine. He's going to play there. He's going to be 110% no matter where he is. He doesn't matter. He could be playing in Zimbabwe. He'd be fine. He's going to play there. He's going to be 110% no matter where he is. He doesn't care.

The way they're playing, everybody's involved. Everybody's getting touches. We're not watching the Russell and KD show down the stretch of fourth quarters anymore. Everybody is making a contribution. And, you know, guys are either going to make shots or it's a make-miss league. And Kevin Durant front-rimmed a shot with, you know, 35 seconds left that would have cut the lead down to three. They were there for the entirety of the tilt. And, you know, it wasn't a fourth quarter where Katie and Russell snatched a feet away

from the jaw of the victory. It was a tussle. It was a matchup between colossuses. The thing I regret is that... Other than not betting on OKC? Well, God, the series at the beginning of this... Plus 440. That series number would have been nice.

Oh, my God, was it really? We're not good at gambling. We're not. We suck at gambling. Why do we gamble? We shouldn't gamble. Having said that, wait until you see how I load up on OKC tomorrow night. Oh, my God.

I've already remortgaged my house seven times. Hey, Saturday night, game six, OKC, Golden State in Oklahoma City, which really has a chance to be an all-timer. Like genuinely, this might be a game that when you and I are living in our complex in Cabo after our wives leave us, and we're just wearing Hawaiian shirts and hitting on women that are 50 years younger than us, and this game comes on Hardwood Classics on NBA TV. We'll watch game six. I feel like that's going to happen. Hey, game six, quick break to talk about our friends at Sling TV.

If you're watching the NBA playoffs right now, like Tate, Tate the producer, who's just begging his friends to Invite him over to watch the games Or he's saving up money to go to a sports bar To watch on TV Because he's a cord cutter You know he's the cord cutting generation Oh sure Yeah right he doesn't have a cable package

Or he might be online Like looking for like a shady live stream That could give his computer a virus Very iffy Here's what Tate should do Sling TV. It's the best way to watch live TV on your turf. And guess what?

They have not just TNT, but they have ESPN, but they especially have TNT. So for $20 a month, you get 20 live channels, ESPN, TNT, AMC, CNN, Adult Swim, IFC, other top networks. You can add channel packs like the Sports Extra Package for $5 a month. Extra. No installation, no extra gear, no annual contracts, and easy online cancellation.

You just need an internet connection and you're ready to go. You could have Sling TV in time for Saturday night. Put on TNT. Did you say it's $20 a month? Yeah. I'm about to cancel my cable package. You should. Nobody should have cable. We should all cut the cord.

So start watching for seven days free. Sling.com slash Bill Simmons. That's my name. My name happens to be Bill Simmons. It's a total coincidence. You can get Sling TV on your favorite device. Restrictions apply.

Sling.com slash Bill Simmons. All right, House. You're not prepared for this conversation, but I'm going to have it. And then we'll go. It's Kevin Durant. He's moving up the pyramid ladder for me. Good. I was so impressed.

I don't even think he's playing that great from like, it's not like he's having heat check moments. It's not like, you know, this isn't like LeBron versus Detroit in 2007 where the 48 point game. We're not having those type of moments, although I think they might

be coming, maybe in game six. Yeah. Well, it was a quiet 40 last night. Yeah, quiet 40. He had to work hard for it. He missed a lot of shots. Well, it was a quiet 40 last night. Yeah, quiet 40. He had to work hard for it. He missed a lot of shots. Like, he really could have had 50 plus. Oh, yeah. I've been so impressed with his two-way game in this series.

I feel like he's gone to another level. And I'm so happy to see it. Remember we were talking before the season about his foot. Would he ever be the same? You know, let's be realistic here. He might get hurt again. That guy has turned into such a fantastic two-way player. He's guarding Curry in a lot of possessions in these series.

He's protecting the rim. They can play him at the four. They play him at the three. He's running their offense a lot of the time. You know, he's beating guys off the dribble both ways. The one thing that's missing, the one thing that we haven't 100% seen yet

is there's this last level that you have to go to, especially in the playoffs. And LeBron, it took him a while to learn how to get there. But there's that last I gotta just slit the throat kind of level that you have to get to. Where it's like, all right, the body's on the rope.

Now I have to murder the body. And I want to see it in game six from him. You know, I think. Well, look. Let's see it. This is time. This is it. It's all on a platter for Kevin Durant to become one of the best 25 players of all time.

Because he's going to win the title if he wins game six. So let's see it. It's time. I want to see it. I agree with everything you just said. One element of it that you didn't mention that I've been personally impressed by is a combination of attitude and will.

Will attitude. Yes. You know, he saved this season. He's the one who single-handedly bailed him out against San Antonio. Game four. And completely flipped the script He's the one who single-handedly bailed him out against San Antonio. Game four. And completely flipped the script on the direction of the franchise.

Not just this season, but where is OKC headed the next four or five seasons potentially? He really could have ended up in Boston or Miami. I think if they lose in five, I think he goes to the Eastern Conference because he's smart and he'd realize he had a better chance to win a title there. And now he'd be an idiot to leave OKC. I wouldn't leave that team. And I think Donovan's... I don't know what happened to Donovan, but he's pretty confident all of a

sudden. And they have these big guys. He got 82 games under his belt, right? Coaching in the pros is hard. Durant's going to sign a two-year extension with a one-year opt-out that will allow him to cash in for incredible amounts of money. He deserves every penny. He deserves every penny. I've been watching this guy since he was at Texas.

The Celtics had a chance to get a top-two lottery pick that year. You and I both fell in love with Durant I loved him so much in college that um when my daughter was 18 months old I was watching Texas play on a Monday night in my in my old house and my daughter was walking around and I didn't realize that she knew how to open the front door. And I was locked in the Durant thing, and she kind of walked out. I'm watching Durant in second half. They're playing Kansas or somebody. And then I'm like, where's my daughter?

And I look around, and she's not there, and the front door is open. And she had walked out. The dogs fathered her out, and they saved her life because she walked right on the street. That's how much I love Kevin Durant. I didn't even know where my daughter was for like three minutes. So to watch the evolution of him. Yeah, the dog. To watch the evolution over the last 10 years and to watch him kind of put together this total package of 6'10",

Freddy Krueger arms, incredible shooter, can go left, can go right, has a great handle, can protect the rim, can guard Steph Curry. I'm starting to think, like I'm thinking about my pyramid. I already think he's one of the best 30 players that's ever played in the league, right? Would you put him in the top 30 at this point? Sure, sure, sure. Because right now I had, like I was looking at the pyramid. I did this seven years ago.

Malone and Barkley were 18 and 19. Garnett was 22. He probably goes up a little bit because he had a couple more good years after I did it. Pippen was 24. Rick Barry was 26. And Durant's already played more seasons, really full NBA seasons, at a high level than Rick Barry did.

Girvin's 34. He's definitely going to have a better career than Girvin. So he's somewhere in the 20s already. And if he wins the title title and he's the best player in the title team, I think he moves into the top 20. I think he has to go ahead

of Barkley and Malone. Right? Huh. Those guys never won a title. Wow. That's pretty... I think he moves into like... I have to look at that thing.

He moves into the Dr. J. Bob Pettit group. Wow. I mean, he's won an MVP. J. Bob Pettit group. Wow. I mean, he's won an MVP. Let's just let Game 6 come and see what we get out of it. No, I'm not accepting that. I want to lay the groundwork for what Game 6 means. There's real stakes here.

There are real stakes. That's for sure. And on the other side, with Golden State, right, does it hurt Curry as unanimous MVP? Does it hurt Golden State as 73-game winner? I think it's an asterisk for them. Does it tarnish? Oh, no question. It's like, oh, what a fun season that was, but then they lost in round three.

It just becomes part of the first sentence and for curry you know the thing that's really weird about the curry experience and something that he could solve by just kicking okc's ass these next two games is when jordan was the best player in the league and i know what barkley said on tv last night but deep down all those guys knew jordan was the best guy in the league they knew it and he proved it over and over again in the playoffs he proved in the 92 olympics he was the best guy in the league. They knew it. And he proved it over and over again in the playoffs. He proved it in the 92 Olympics. He was the best guy. Curry has multiple guys who play his position who think that they're better than him.

And, you know, the stats show what they show. He's been unbelievable. It was an incredible regular season. But there's some, you know, he's got to outplay Westbrook in game six and Golden State has to win game six. Or people are just going to be like, yeah, Steph Curry's great, but

and that's going to be the way his summer goes, you know? I don't know. It's a lot at stake. A lot at stake. It's a lot at stake. And we didn't mention Russell Westbrook yet. I mean, Russ could have like 42, 12, and 17 on Saturday night and be the best guy in the game.

And then it will be complimentary. I really do think that KD is the more important of the two of them because I do think that he sets the tone. That will and attitude thing. And he has shown like an ornery streak. Yes. Especially in these playoffs. He's got a little bit of bad motherfucker in him.

Yeah. And he needs all that bad MF, all that bad MF-er for Saturday night. All he's got, he's got to be yelling at the refs a little bit. He's got to be rolling his eyes. He's got to be, you know, giving dudes some stink eye out there.

Yes. That's the thing that's next level, the next level stuff that you're talking about with him, I think. OKC can bully the Warriors out of game six and win by double figures because they have the big guys to do it, and they can just be relentless, offensive rebounds, challenging every shot, crowd going crazy, and they're just tougher than Golden State inside.

And it's like Haral Bob and I were talking the other day about sometimes these series come down to the six feet around the rim, and OKC can control that, and their crowd is going to be out of its mind. And then the bigger stakes for OKC, if they beat Golden State, and then you play LeBron in the finals. You beat him. It's a pretty good run. Pretty good run. I mean, I still, at this moment, you're not asking me to make a pick,

but I would pick Cleveland to win the title. Really? If OKC makes the finals, I think Cleveland's going to win. Oh, I think OKC would. I would feel very comfortable wagering on OKC in that series. Maybe we'll get a chance to have a debate about this. You know who's going to enjoy playing Kyrie Irving? Russell Westbrook. Oh, your point guard's not going to guard me?

This is great. And then they're going to have to play Della Dova. Good luck with that. Although Russell Westbrook might get arrested. He might hit Della Dova over the head with a chair. It's in play.

We'll have the opportunity. If we're lucky, we'll get to see all of this. Well, speaking of seeing stuff, one more shout out to SeatGeek, because they hooked up Ben Simmons for Hamilton. I love SeatGe more shout out to SeatGeek because they hooked up Ben Simmons for Hamilton. I love SeatGeek. Go to SeatGeek. That's our partner.

They're our dudes. We love SeatGeek. SeatGeek.com. Use the SeatGeek app. Thank God for SeatGeek. Watch Game 6 on Sling TV. If you don't want to go to a sports bar, stream legal. Tate, how many legal internet streams have you grabbed over the last five years?

Over 100? Probably. Probably, Tate says. God, these cord cutters. It's a tough way to live. It's really, man. They're all struggling. They're eating ramen noodles and cutting cords and downloading illegal streams.

Joe Fuentes hasn't paid for a boxing match in like 10 years. He's just online. Well, look, that's an old school tradition. We didn't pay for those old pay-per-views either. We had boxes back then. Oh, remember when I lived in Charlestown, I had Big Al came over when I lived with Ricky? And Big Al came and souped up our cable box

and I got every pay-per-view for like seven years. It was the greatest. Big Al came over when I lived with Ricky. And Big Al came and souped up our cable box. And I got every pay-per-view for like seven years. It was the greatest. I don't even know if you can put a price on that. That's right. Priceless. I had every pay-per-view movie, every pay-per-view sporting event, every pay-per-view wrestling match. Playboy and the Spice Channel.

It was the best. Thank you, Big Al. One more time. Shout out to Big Al and Se Spice Channel. It was the best. Thank you, Big Al. One more time. Shout out to Big Al and SeatGeek. All right. Thanks to Stamps.com. Buy and print official U.S. postage using your own computer and printer. Sign up for Stamps.com right now.

Use the promo code BS for a four-week trial plus a $110 bonus offer that includes postage and a digital scale. Go to Stamps.com. Click on the microphone postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps.com. Click on the microphone at the top of their homepage. Type in BS. Thanks to Sling TV. All you need is an internet connection.

You can be watching more than 20 live channels, including the third round of the NBA playoffs on ESPN and TNT. Guess what's in the third round? Game six, Saturday night. One of the great games of the decade. Start your seven-day free trial. Sling.com slash Bill Simmons

for the best of life to be on your favorite device. Restrictions apply. Thanks to Trunk Club. Stop shopping for clothes yourself. Just use Trunk Club Stylus and they'll do the rest. Premium clothes. Expert service. No work. It is not a subscription service. Start now. Trunk Club will style you for free.

Even better, free shipping both ways. To take advantage, go to trunkclub.com slash BS. And don't forget, The Ringer. It's coming. theringer.com next week. House, how are you going to celebrate the launch of theringer.com? I'm going to do it the way I celebrate all things Bill Simmons, with a cold beer and a big bowl of popcorn.

That's how we do it. Speaking of cold beer and big bowl of popcorn, all weekend long, friends, Callaway Live, the current episode, Shack House came together and singing a lot of praise for the folks that put the whole thing together. And you might have been one of those people. I'm excited. Did they feed you during this on camera or were you coherent? I was coherent. I actually had a little coffee ahead of time.

I did dance a little bit. I had to edit one thing. There was one moment that had to get edited out. I'm not surprised. I'm surprised there wasn't more than one moment. They fitted you for the clubs that day too, right? The new clubs? They did that.

The All Blacks? Yes, they did. The All Blacks are spectacular. Your destiny. All Blacks. The All Blacks. I'm going to take a picture when they get here. They. The All Blacks. I'm going to take a picture when I get here. They haven't arrived yet, but I'm going to take a picture.

Take like seven pictures. Seriously. Yeah, and you're going to have a U.S. Open pick for us. I definitely am. You're going to win our listeners. There's a memorial next week where I'm going to try my best. You're going to win money. I'm going to sit down.

I'm going to study hard. I'm going to try and help our listeners as always. All right. Well, I'm going to try my best. You're going to win money. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to study hard. I'm going to try and help our listeners as always. All right. Well, I'm going to help our listeners right now. OKC is going to win game six. It is not a reverse jinx. They have a better basketball team, and they're going to win game six. I rarely make on-the-record predictions.

I think they're better. I think they're going to win the title. So we'll see. I'm happy to have this thrown into my face. As always, these are predictions. but I feel strongly about this one. I've been watching basketball for like 40 years. I don't know, 40, 41, 42. And occasionally a team just kind of figures it out and you can, and you can see them figuring out. And I feel like, okay, see, he's figured out something and I don't even really know how to define it. But something about them is clicking.

And Kate Frazier over there is very concerned because he knows deep down. He knows. He's worried. But that's not to say Golden State can't win the series if Steph and Clay make some shots. So we will see. I am so excited. Enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

And don't forget about the ringer launching next week. Joe Haas, thank you very much, buddy. Always my pleasure. All right. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. Close your eyes. And picture me rolling.