The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 109: NBA Free-Agency Reaction Pod With Joe House

Episode Date: July 7, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on longtime pal Joe House to discuss Dwyane Wade's decision to sign with the Bulls, star players ending careers with different teams (17:00), the battle for Al Horford (22:00), the Knicks' plan for the future (32:00), OKC's new look and next move (40:00), debunking Kevin Durant's "weakness" (48:00), 'The Decision' vs. KD's self-determination (57:00), and House's impending eat-off against Danny Chau (1:06:00). 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 the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music with just two taps on your phone you can instantly buy SeatGeek tickets to an event you can have them delivered to your phone you can enter the event technology is amazing drop your old ticket app use one that's built for 2016 again you can do everything on your phone download the free SeatGeek app or go to SeatGeek.com. Today's episode also brought to you by our old friend, SimpliSafe. Newsflash, burglaries skyrocket over the summer.

Right now, SimpliSafe has a phenomenal security package with entry sensors, motion sensors, and glass break because you want to know when glass breaks. And everything else you need to stop. Burglars. From getting into your home. Get $100 off that package by going to SimpliSafeBuild.com. We're also brought to you by The Ringer's awesome podcast network.

That includes The Ringer NBA Show, The Ringer MLB Show, The Ringer NFL Show, Keep It In 1600, The Watch, Channel 33. What am I forgetting, house? Check out! And speaking of TheRinger.com, we announced on Tuesday that our old Grantland family members, Shea Serrano and Mark Titus, will be joining our staff this summer. I miss those guys.

Finally. Wow. A couple real OGs. Yeah. Yeah. A couple guys who can go in and put up points, rebounds, and assists. Finally, my new HBO show is called Any Given Wednesday. We just did our third episode with Chris Bosh, Anthony Anderson, and Joe Rogan.

Really fun. We are starting to work out all the kinks. Watch the replays on HBO Now, HBO Go, and HBO Demand. And HBO On Demand? Yeah, HBO On Demand. I, yeah, HBO On Demand. I wrote that wrong. Sorry, HBO. Find bonus clips there as well.

We always put up like two or three bonus clips every episode. And we're actually going to, in mid-July, we're going to run all of the bonus material as an extended podcast here so you guys can listen to it. All right, I'm ready to talk hoops. Let's do it. Yeah. All right. I'm ready to talk hoops. Let's do it. Joe House. Yeah, it's Wednesday. We're doing a little rolling. It's Thursday. You don't even know what day it is. What's wrong with you? I'm completely discombobulated. God. You know what? I know it hasn't even been a week since the last time we talked. Yeah. And everything is different.

That's why I'm just combobulated. Let's talk about... Oh, yeah. KD hadn't picked a team yet the last time we talked. Yeah, Al Horford was still a hawk last time we talked. Yeah, a lot of stuff happened. D. Wade was still on the heat. Let's talk about that first, and then we'll talk about KD.

Okay. I'm stunned by the Dwayne Wade thing. I just can't believe it. I kept thinking it was this game of chicken, and then somebody was going to fold, and he ended up on Miami. And the cars kept driving toward each other. They kept driving toward each other, and then they just collided head-on, and now he's in Chicago. I can't believe it. The thing about it that surprises me is the Heat and D. Wade couldn't figure out a way

for D. Wade to be the franchise guy forever the way that Dallas and Dirk have figured it out, apparently. Because it seems in this day and age unlikely that they just parted ways over $10 million. That they couldn't figure out a way for D. Wade to get that $10 million sometimes down the road. I think it was more than just the $10 million. I think this goes back to 2010 when he sacrificed. Levitard did a good breakdown of this in the Miami Herald on July 5th. And it seemed like he had real information that this might not go well. That was the first time I was like, whoa.

But Wade took less to accommodate Bosh and LeBron. And then two years ago was the first time i was like whoa um but wade took less to accommodate bosh and lebron and then two years ago was the big one he took less because he thought um he thought lebron was coming back and then remember bosh almost signed with houston and then they had to redo their offer for bosh and give him the max and all this stuff and wade ended up taking a little bit of a backseat. And I think last year, same thing. This year, all of a sudden, white side. I get all that. I understand it.

But I think it was just six years. We're talking about basketball money. That's just basketball money. That's not how he's going to make his living. I think he was like, I'm tired. I'm tired of this. Just give me my money. I'm not taking less anymore.

Just give me money. Yeah, it was respect, ego, emotion it 100 okay um i just think i just think he'd had it and well it seems weird for it to break down over that for a guy that that's the face of the franchise he's the face of miami i know well the one of the weirder tidbits of this whole thing, I think it's true. I read it on Twitter from a reporter that Riley never called Wade during this whole process. That can't be true. It doesn't seem like it could be true, but it was reported that for whatever reason, maybe he was talking to Mickey Harrison, maybe he was talking to Riley's assistant. But my guess is that Riley, who's 71 years old, who's pretty cold-blooded,

was looking at the big picture here and just wanted to be one of the few GMs who wasn't paying for past performance. All these guys always give the one last past performance paycheck, and he just didn't want to. He just wanted to do it. He wanted to rebuild. They have their first-round pick this year, and then Phoenix eventually gets two from them.

So if they're ever going to rebuild, it would be this year. And I think he was just like, screw it. I'm out. It will either be a retooling because Bosh will be healthy and able to play a whole bunch of games, or it will be a rebuild because Bosh can't play and their starting five will be, I guess we'll see whether or not they match

the Tyler Johnson offer sheet. My guess is that they're going to. Oh, okay. The moratorium ended at 12.01 midnight. I mean, 12.01 this morning. Yeah. So I don't know where that puts everybody in terms of actually being able to sign deals

and folks who have to match. And I don't think... Where that leaves them. Bosh, I talked to Bosh before we did the show. They did not want to talk about anything about his condition on the show, which, you know, I wanted to talk about Golden State. That was fine with me.

I wasn't going to ask him a question that he had just been, oh, it's just bad TV. Yeah. But he seemed really confident that he was going to play because we talked beforehand, and he said all the right things. We're rooting for it. I want to see him play basketball. I love watching Chris Bosh play basketball.

Well, he said something interesting when we were talking. He was just like, he was like, I just miss it. He was like, I haven't played for like almost a year. I just miss it. And you forget, like, these guys have a shelf life and then it's over and they're retired athletes. And to just pull a whole

year out of somebody's career is on top of all the health stuff. I'm sure it was pretty i don't know a roller coaster ride for him he was great on my show though i mean he's he's i agree he was outstanding he's like the number one draft pick the thing is i don't know if he's so smart and he's so measured i'm not sure how that works on a studio show if he's just you know if these little four minute segments where you have to say your points as fast as possible that's not his vibe like i inside the nba i think

would be i think he could succeed on that show because they'd have more time he'd have more time to think about what he said but really long form i think is better for him. He's so smart. Like the way he was able to tie in the warriors with what happened to him and his situation and taking a back seat. Like we, we didn't talk about that stuff ahead of time. Like he just did that in the moment. I was pretty impressed. It was excellent. And it really was a point of view, an informed point of view that helps set the stage for how I'm going to think about what KD is up against going along with the Dubs

this coming season. The challenges he's going to face, it's going to be great. I realized as we were doing it that he was probably one of only three people on the planet who could really have an educated opinion on what KD and Curry are going to go through.

There's really only two other people that could have even weighed in with real experience on it. It's incredible. Well, let's go back to Riley real quick. Yeah, so you and I, neither of us really thought Dwayne Wade was going to age well as a player because he can't shoot threes. And he's a guy that it's athletic ability, it's the herky-jerky stuff,

it's getting to the rim. And as that starts to go athletically as you get older, then what do you become? You become Kobe in those last couple years, just firing up 20-footers and threes. I think Riley probably, do you think he looked at what happened to Kobe these last four years and was like, I don't want any part of that? I don't know.

It seems like a weird, to use that as the barometer, the performance as the barometer. It's been sort of widely known that all you want out of D-Wade during the regular season is 60 games anyways. What you really want is a healthy D-Wade in the playoffs. You're willing to give him his rest. You're willing to indulge the injuries that occur because of how physical he plays. And so you know going in that's your best D. Wade. That's all you aspire to.

It seems so curiously enough, strangely enough, that it's about the money. Well, it's about the money for Wade. I don't know if it was the money as much for Riley. Because if it's two years, what does he care? Two years 40 versus two years 47. Basically, they would have had to sacrifice Tyler Johnson for it. I really think that he maybe thought Wade was going to hit a different point of his career. The only thing that would make sense from a GM perspective

is you have a point of view on your young players and their opportunity, and you think that you're ready to give those young players a real test drive. You want to see what Justice Winslow and Richardson and Tyler Johnson if they bring him back. Dragic. Yeah, and you just signed up Whiteside to

an extended deal. So this is the core group you're going to ride with and you just want to see what they're all about. You don't know whether or not Bosh is going to be able to play a whole season. And you just watched what happens in a season where you have Bosh and Wade, do you really want to just double down on that? It's 46-47 wins in a regular season, and then a first-round or second-round exit.

Your ceiling, is it worth going through that again? So Wade's 855 games regular regular season 166 in the playoffs and as you said do you want to go through it again well what did you go through you made the second round you had a game seven against Toronto a game that Dwayne Wade would have been the best player on the floor for four years ago. And this time around, no. Couldn't get by that. I don't think the team they have this year is going to be better than last year's team. So where are you?

And, you know, Riley's probably looking ahead and looking at, like, here's Wade. Wade in the playoffs in 2013, 16 points a game. Wade in 2014, 16 points a game. Wade in 2014, 18 points a game. Last year, 2016, played 14 playoff games, 21.4 points a game. Obviously not the same guy. That's peak Wade. I mean, that's what you want. That's the best you're going to get out of him with the current roster that you have?

It's not peak Wade. It's post-peak Wade. And he's probably looking at it like... No, no, I'm saying that this is the very best you could hope for out of him at the stage of his career. Yeah, like he's not going to be better than those numbers. So if I'm paying $23, $24 million a year for those numbers, where am I going? I don't know. I respect it.

What surprised me is just I thought Wade was one of those Miami for life guys. He just seemed like he's one of the best 25 players ever. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, though, because if you look back at the list, a lot of guys have left their teams near the end of their career. Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler. If you just go through the top 40, Ewing left. These guys all leave at some point. It's pretty rare to just stay from start to finish,

do the Reggie Miller-Dirk thing. That's less likely than more likely. And a lot of the guys, including Barkley, left their very last situations to go try and find a ring I mean Barkley it was funny for him to go out go after KD for chasing a ring when he blatantly did so with the Rockets after the Rockets

had won two in a row so I'm looking at my old pyramid right now just after you get through the top set like Duncan stayed the whole time Kobe stayed, Jerry West stayed, Oscar switched teams, Hakeem ended up in Toronto, Shaq bounced around, Moses bounced around, Havlicek stayed, Baylor stayed, Doc stayed, Pettit stayed, Malone went to the Lakers, Barkley bounced around, KG bounced around, Isaiah retired early, Pippen bounced around, Stock early Pippen bounced around Stockton stayed Barry bounced around Rick Barry

Dwayne Wade is gonna bounce around it looks like Robinson stayed yeah so it seems like it's 50-50 I guess we shouldn't

be that surprised George Garvin bounced around I it still feels it still feels weird to me that we're gonna watch

a Miami Heat game without Dwayne Wade in it. Just as it would feel weird if we watched a Dallas game and Dirk wasn't there because Dirk was on Phoenix. It would just be weird. 13 years ago, we were in our sort of early to mid-30s. Right. You lived in Boston 13 years ago. I know. Or you had just moved to LA.

I just moved. But here's the weirder thing about this. Dwayne Wade is now on a team with Rajon Rondo. Those two guys hate each other. Wade almost broke his elbow once. Stylistically, it's a complete failure. It's a team that's built out of 1995. Neither of them can shoot from more than 18 feet.

And in this whole world of spacing and how important three-pointers are and all this stuff, you're now putting two guys who aren't pace and space guys from a team that just said they're going to play pace and space. And then on the other hand, who's going to guard like Steph Curry? Who's going to guard Damian Lillard? Neither of those guys want to play defense anymore. That's a backcourt that could lead to a 100-point game. It's a glorious train wreck. I mean, I'm so happy. The combination of Hoiberg, Rondo, and D. Wade, with Jimmy Butler, who's also on the come here, a guy who has been in trade discussions for what feels like six months now, and he was sort of asserting some alpha dog there at the end of the season.

Wow, is it going to be fun to watch. Yeah, and somebody who probably thought he was going to be the face of the franchise, this is my team now, and now Dwayne Wade shows up with Rondo. Rondo, not that. I'm always going to defend Rondo, but there's a lot of evidence at his last couple stops that he's not the easiest teammate, and that he might steamroll the wrong coach. That's your analysis, counselor? Yeah, that's my analysis.

The evidence suggests that he's not the easiest to get along with. And he might steamroll the wrong coach. Fred Hoiberg looked completely overmatched last year. I don't know if Rondo is going to be the right guy for him. And then you have stubborn old guy Dwayne Wade. And then you have on top of that the whole Dwayne Wade was Mr. Marquette and then Butler went there. And when I did the podcast with Butler,

I got the feeling that it wasn't a big brother, little brother relationship. Tate, did you get that feeling? I got it. Yeah, all right. Joe, you were there too, right? You got that feeling? Yeah, it didn't seem like it was like, oh, yeah, Dwayne Wade took me under my wing. So you have that, and you just have this weird team that's got Robin Lopez

and Taj Gibson, and who's shooting on this team other than Doug McDermott? Amiritich will be the shooter, right? But he doesn't make shots. He doesn't make threes. He's their best shooter. I don't know what to tell you. I think he's in their starting five. Good luck playing defense with Meritage, Dwayne Wade, and Rodno.

I'm looking for ways for my almost bullets to crack the playoffs, so I'm fine with all this weird stuff. But I look at the East. Let's do the East real quick. It's going to be hard. Wait, hold on. Before we do that, what's your favorite home run that you've ever seen in person?

Wow. Barry Bonds hit a home run in RFK Stadium against Chad Cordero, who was the best Nats closer when the Nats opened up here. And Barry Bonds hit it about 793 feet. He hit it into the top shelf of RFK Stadium. Did you feel like it was enhanced? Well, I felt enhanced. I was invigorated. I was stimulated. The three best homers I've ever seen. Actually, before I tell you my three homers, I want to mention T-Mobile. They've changed the wireless game for good.

They've doubled their LTE coverage over 2015 and 2016. Today, they reach 309 million Americans. Their extended range LTE signal reaches two times farther and it's four times stronger in buildings than ever before. And I mention this because now they have the Home Run Derby covered as well. If you fill out a Home Run Derby bracket at mlb.com slash bracket challenge, you could win a trip for four to game one of the World Series. No purchase necessary to enter and win ends July 10th. Open to legal residents of the World Series. No purchase necessary to enter and win.

Ends July 10th. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and D.C. where you live. 18 plus. Void where prohibited. For official rules and complete details, visit mmob.com. Slash bracket challenge. My favorite homers are McGuire's home run and the home run derby

that went out of the Mass Pike and almost caused a 40 car pileup that went like 900 feet. I was sitting in the bleachers and the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And we thought the balls were juiced, which was the funniest part.

Darryl Strawberry, I went to a Mets-Astros game, a Mets-Astros playoff game. I think it was game four. They came back and won. I think Backman or Dykstra scored the winning one. But Straw, they were down three runs. And he hit a homer that I think went out of the stadium.

And it was just majestic. It was unbelievable. Poor Daryl. And then Ortiz in the Yankees series, the 2004. He, in game four, he finished. He finished the Dave Roberts- game with a home run. So those are my three. Anyway, T-Mobile, changing the game for good.

Back to the East. You and I went head-to-head with Al Horford. I won. Yeah, that was... My offer was better. That made Saturday exciting. You called me up. It was Saturday, right?

Yeah, it was Saturday. Yeah, I called you up. I said, we're going head-to-head. And then you immediately conceded because the Wizards slash Bullets always lose head-to-head situations. You were like, well, congratulations.

I guess you're getting Al Horford. I went on Twitter and tried to persuade Al just based on the weather. It's just too damn cold in Boston. He's got to go outside at some point. Winter starts in September and ends in May. If you're okay with that, then fine.

I mean, Al Horford's Dominican by origin. I don't think he's been in cold like that. Yeah, so he would have liked the D.C. humidity a little bit more. That was the best I could come up with. I was driving around Saturday, catching up on a whole bunch of shit, and all of a sudden it seems like we might get Al Horford. Then it seems like the Hawks are going to get him.

Woesh had a tweet. I'm looking at my Twitter timeline. Woesh had a tweet. Al Horford now strongly going back, leaning toward going back to the Hawks, whatever. And then like four minutes later it was like, Al Horford now strongly going back, leaning toward going back to the Hawks, whatever. And then like four minutes later, it was like, Al Horford's going to Boston. I don't know what changed, but it was incredible. I went to add this swing of emotions from, oh, my God, we lost Al Horford.

Oh, my God, we got Al Horford. And then there's about five hours there where I really started thinking about the Durant, Horford, Jimmy Butler threesome. Because I think if the Celtics thought they were getting Durant, I think they would have just overpaid for Jimmy Butler and made that the big three. And I'm reading into it like, well, they finished their meeting with Durant in the Hamptons and 20 minutes later, Al Horford signed with the Celtics. What does that mean? My dad and I were like out of our minds. And then, of course, the rant goes to the Warriors.

But Al Horford, second best free agent. Yep. Right? Second best free agent. Would have really put a sweet taste in folks' mouths here in the DMV after. I mean, basically here in Washington, the basketball fans with their ear to the ground understood that the minute that that TV deal was signed, that there was no chance that Washington was getting Durant because the advantage that Washington had built for itself was all the salary cap room. And then the entire underlying infrastructure for that went right out the effing door with the new TV deal. How embarrassing you didn't get a meeting, though. I mean, seriously, that was embarrassing.

What would have been the point? Based on the teams that he was talking to that he did take meetings with, they all had a certain profile, a certain similarity. What was that? What was the profile? The chance to win the effing NBA championship next season. That's pretty tough for the Wizards, though. That's right. Two years of rhetoric.

Why would you give them a meeting? Two years of rhetoric that he might come home. I know. You do your best, you make your best plans, and you end up with Jason Smith. Pat on the back. Jason Smith, congratulations. And when is John Wall's contract up? Not for a while, right?

18, 19. All right, you've got some time. Yeah. You know where this is headed. Hold on. But deep down, you know where this is headed. He's making $40 million less than Beal over that. Oh, we forgot to talk about that.

Go ahead. Yeah, no, we forgot to. Bradley Beal for $133 million. Uh-huh. All right, let's say that's a five-year deal. That's 410 possible regular season games for him to play. You're paying him $133 million. What is the over-under of games that he's going to play out of those 410?

If I said 290, if the bet your life that Bradley Beal will play over 290 of those 410 games, would you bet your life on that? I don't like bet your life. Would you bet? I prefer to just be, I'm not going to bet on it. I just want to be an irrational homer for 10 seconds. The kid just turned 23 years old. Maybe he's done growing.

Maybe whatever the leg ailments are are all part of and attributable to him still – there's a lot of incidents where professional athletes are still growing. So maybe he's finally in the body that he's going to be in for the rest of his life. And all that stuff's behind him. He's got a new training regimen. We're going to see 77 games out of him this coming season. And the five he takes off will be for rest.

Why can't that happen? During that whole rant, Tate was laughing. The entire time. Not even half of it. The entire time from the moment rant, Tate was laughing. Like, the entire time. Not even, like, half of it. Like, the entire time from the moment you started, he started laughing. Just wanted you to know that. I don't like Tate. I don't care.

Maybe Bradley Beal's done growing. But you know what? It's a $133 million gamble to find out. Lord have mercy. Oh, my God. I guess it doesn't matter. They didn't have a choice. They had to do it.

Yeah. It doesn't matter. They do have a choice. You didn't have to sign Yeah. It doesn't matter. They do have a choice. You didn't have to sign him. You could have traded him. Could you have signed and traded him? No, he's unrestricted. Was he restricted or unrestricted?

He was restricted this season, unrestricted next, which is why they had to get it done now, I think. I don't agree. Why not just make him restricted? Make somebody come in and give them a restricted offer and then just match it, and then you get them for four years instead of five. Why not do that?

What's wrong with that idea? Don't ask me. I'm not in charge. You saved $40 million. Now you're sad. Now I just made you sad. They have a point of view that they want the guy, as he's turning 23, for the five-year lockup.

What have they done over the last 10 years to make you trust any decision they'd make? They did acquire Karan Butler. That was the best thing that Grunfeld's done in his entire... That was like eight years ago. Well, you asked 10. 10 years is the best I can come up with. Why are you trying to defend the Bullets? Because it's the offseason.

It's most dysfunctional. I'm looking at the eight teams that are going to make the playoffs in the East. And there's two teams that I feel like are going to drop out. I feel like Atlanta is going to drop out. And I feel like Miami is going to be right on the edge because of Bosh, the unknown with his health. And there's five teams on the bubble looking in. It's the Bulls, it's the Magic, it's the Knicks, the Bucks, and my almost bullets all on the

outside looking in. Five teams fighting for two spots, if that's what we're talking about. Congratulations. And I like our chances as much as anybody. Great. I just want to say that the Celtics, who are now probably the second best team in the East, and have the fifth best odds to win the title,

which I thought was interesting. It's not a complete team yet, but they have the ability to make one more trade. And they have six really good defensive players now. Horford's an excellent defensive player. Amir Johnson's well above average. Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, Jay Crowder. And now there's Jalen Brown, kid, who's probably going to give me a drinking problem.

I'm just throwing that out there. Have you been watching him on summer basketball? There's this Jalen Brown mixtape that they did have from the first summer league game, and it's amazing. He's a freak athlete, and he has three different finishes, and each one is majestic and beautiful, and he misses the layup in all three. And he gets fouled in all of them, but each time he doesn't make it. And I just know that's the next 15 years of my life, is just me being tantalized by Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown learned how to finish! No, I'm very encouraged by him.

When you watch him match up with Ben Simmons and you just see like just the length and just the fearlessness of going. Like I think he has a chance to be a really special defender. And I'm going to talk myself into that pick. I think I already did. He's arriving in a wonderful situation to learn defense. And he's going to have absolutely the best opportunity to make his mark in the league first on defense.

If we're going to be able to get stops, you put out Smart, Bradley, Crowder, Jalen Brown, Horford, we're getting stops. We're locking teams down with that, unless it's like the LeBron type. I forgot to mention my prediction for the boulet. It's all destiny. It's headed for Boogie Cousins. It's headed for you doing the Boogie Cousins overpay trade. That's where this is going.

I'm fine with that. Yeah, I think it's good for you. Who do I have to give up for him? Him and John Wall. Give up a bunch of first-round picks and a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm fine with that. Yeah, I think it's good for you. Who do I have to give up for him? Him and John Wall. Give up a bunch of first-round picks and a whole bunch of other stuff. Whatever you need to do. I'll give up Beal. Beal for Boogie.

Beal and some picks for Boogie? That's great. That's what you should do. I would do it now. Do you like this? I would do it right now. Do you kind of secretly, deep down, like this Knicks roster? Just a little bit?

I like it the same way I like the Bulls roster it's going to be fascinating I think you know it's so bizarre what are they trying to accomplish? what's the goal for this season? is it a credible basketball team

so that maybe they have a chance at making the playoffs? is that the goal? I mean what's interesting, what would bother me if I'm a Knicks fan is they just threw out just a slew of four year deals. And Phil Jackson was basically like, I just want to be good the next two years. I'm probably, I'm not going to be here four years from now.

So let's just worry about these next two. Right. That was my takeaway from those moves. No, I don't mean to be a dick, but it's like, you don't need to give all of these guys four-year deals. You don't need to give Lance Thomas a four-year deal. You're just throwing cap space away for three, four years from now to build this team that's probably like a 47-win team. With that said, I really like the Brandon Jennings signing. I thought that was a fair price for Courtney Lee. Like we talked about when we talked on the phone on Saturday,

you just got to divide the contracts almost in half for what we're used to them being worth. So like Courtney Lee, four for 50. Last year, that's four for 30. And you would do that. Sure. So I don't know. The Brandon Jennings thing was really sneaky. I think he's got a lot of basketball left.

You put him with Courtney Lee and Carmelo and poor Zingas. Well, you have to have Jennings because you know that you're not penciling in, you're not using a pen to put down 75 games for D. Rose. Yeah, and I really think that D D Rose thing was more about just getting an expiring contract, taking a flyer on them. If it works, it works. But really, they were able to get rid of Lopez and Calderon in that deal,

which opened up the cap space to do a couple more things. And then if Rose turns out great, the Bulls and Knicks, if they're on TNT in November, I'm probably going to watch the game. There's just a lot of players I'm used to. It's like, oh, there's Derrick Rose.

Oh, there's Dwayne Wade. Is Kurt Rambis still the coach of the Knicks, by the way? No, they signed Jeff Hornacek. Is Kurt Rambis the coach? He's an assistant. Oh, that's right, that's right, that's right. Yeah, we went through this. That's right.

He's an assistant. The big losers of free agency and really the last year were the Orlando Magic. I don't know what the hell they're doing. There's no rhyme or reason to any move they made. I'm so confused. They give away Tobias Harris last February, who had a great contract for what we saw, all the contracts, where all they're headed.

They give away Sabonisis the sabonis pick with oladipo who i'm still all in on number two pick in the draft to get a year out of abaca then they bring in bismack they already have vucevic and they have aaron gordon i don't know how all those guys are going to play together. Then they go and they pay $9 million a year for DJ Augustine when there's a million fringe point guards out there. They take Jody Meeks for like $7 million.

They pay Jeff Green one year $15 million. What the hell are you doing, Orlando? What the hell is Orlando doing? What are you trying to be? What is this? It's really, really, really confusing. We have an Orlando fan.

We have Kevin Clark in our office who's an Orlando fan. And every time the magic come up, the life sinks out of his body. He's like, I don't know what we're doing. I don't know. I don't get it. The other one that was really confusing

was the Clippers. They basically just brought everyone back without Cole Aldridge who played huge minutes for them and without Jeff Green who they gave the number one pickup for what is that team? they have the same problem they had before they have no perimeter defense

so the trades and you mentioned your team being poised to trade before. They have no perimeter defense. So the trades, and you mentioned your team being poised to trade. The great big names that are out there on the trading block. Millsap. Russie. And

Blake, right? Millsap's feelings have to be hurt. There's eight hours there where they're just openly shopping them. You know? What was weird is, so,

why would you want to have Al Horford over Millsap when Millsap's contract was so much better? Because they locked in Millsap at last year's dollars. Horford, they were going to give like five years, $130 million or whatever

would it end up being? They offered that to him. Why wouldn't I just rather... According to the report. Yeah, but why wouldn't I have Paul Millsap at like three years for $50? I thought Paul Millsap

was the best guy on that team last year. I really like Al Horford, but Millsap, I thought, was the guy on that team. Well, isn't Millsap? What's his contract? What's left on it? It's three years at a much

more palatable price, and he's also a better fit with Dwight. Did you like that for them, Dwight? I liked it when they had Horford on the team. I thought, oh, Atlanta, you know, this is at least a move to crack that upper tier of the East, but you can't lose Horford in the process.

Now what are they? Now who the hell are they? It's Schroeder, Dwight, Millsap, Bazemore. Korver. Korver. I think that's still a playoff team. Who still hasn't recovered from what Della Vadova did to him. That's still a playoff team.

Let me throw this out to you with Dwight Howard. Has he ever played with a good point guard before? Ever? Jameer Nelson? That's his best point guard. We talked about this last week. Is Schroeder going to be his best point guard? Yeah.

I think Schroeder might actually get him the ball on fast breaks. Might actually look for him. Is he going to run? Are we going to see Dwight run? Maybe. If he thinks he'll get the. Is he going to run? Are we going to see Dwight run? Maybe. If he thinks he'll get the ball, maybe he'll run? Maybe. Whatever situation it is, it's going to be better than the one he was in last year watching James Harden just go one on five. Hey, I want to talk about headspace. Okay. Most problems begin in your head stress depression fear sleeplessness they start in your mind they worm their way into the rest of your life well how can

you change that house i know how you can change it some people play golf i like to play golden tea i was on facebook live yesterday i tried to shoot a 60 and golden tea. I shot 62. People have their things. Some people meditate. And with Headspace, you can meditate for 10 minutes a day. There's a mountain of science showing the positive effects of mindfulness. Headspace is an app that provides guided meditations that you can use whenever you want on your phone, computer, or tablet. Sessions focused on everything from dealing with stress, depression, to help you eat more mindfully, to help you get to sleep easier,

to help you forget about... You know what I could have used some Headspace after Horford signed with Boston? I was going to say, after the B-133 million dollar contract, you could just put the Headspace app on for 10 minutes. That wasn't stressful. It's 1% of your day that can change the other 99. So download the Headspace app on for 10 minutes. That wasn't stressful. It's 1% of your day that can change the other 99. So download the Headspace app. Start your journey toward

a happier, healthier life. Learn more at headspace.com. Headspace is cool. I urge people to check that out. Trades. Is there any way Russell Westbrook is on Oklahoma City a year from now? I can't imagine it. I can't come up with a scenario.

That doesn't mean that he won't end up there. I just can't right now sift through the variables and come up with a scenario wherein he stays there. All right, you're running OKC. Would you trade him right now? No, absolutely not. When would you trade him right now? No, absolutely not. When would you trade him? Once the season starts.

We have been observing with the new money and the irrational ways that teams are behaving, that opportunities are showing up, and there are so many chapters yet to be written on player movement all the way up until the February trade deadline. I don't think there's any urgency. Like the price of Russell Westbrook isn't going to change unless he gets hurt between now and February. I don't think. It can only go in one direction.

I don't think it's going to go down is the way I ever think about it. What if I offered you Isaiah Thomas in my 2017 Brooklyn pick? No way. F off is what I would say to that. F you. What if I threw in the 2018 Brooklyn pick? Go S a D. That's what I would say to that.

Okay. What if I offered you D'Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, and Julius Randall? Hmm. Oh. You paused on that one. I would sit down and say, I would think about it, because that's a young core. Yeah. That has an enormous upside.

You want to get a little bit of intelligence of how the three of them may play together. Because, for instance, we don't know yet. Ingram might not quite be NBA basketball ready. He might not physically be up to it because he's so slight of frame. Russell, I think, is ready. I like Russell. And Randall, post the leg injury, looked pretty good at a couple stretches. But it was really impossible to get a feel for those young Laker players last season because of the utter abortion that was the Kobe Bryant exit tour,

coupled with Byron Scott's Mensa Strategery, Mensa Basketball Strategery. So who the hell knows whether those young guys are good? What if I offered you Chris Dunn, Andrew Wiggins, and Zach Levine for Westbrook? Yeah, that's really interesting. I think that's really, really interesting. Because I think Wiggins, now you're starting to get some real value there.

I actually think that's too much. I think, okay, so you would have to throw some stuff back. But for Minnesota, it's like part of the art, if Westbrook really does become available, is do you have a chance to re-sign him? Are you mortgaging the future for one year and then he doesn't stay so you'd almost have to you'd have to have a real feeling for whether he's going to stay i there's part there's a part of it they go ahead they can't do what they just did they can't risk it they can't risk that he might change his mind based on things that

happened two weeks before he's supposed to decide. Because they've now tried both approaches. They tried to get value for Harden before the season started, and that didn't work out. And they tried to wait for KD and use all of the intangible leverage that they could bring to the table. He's the face of the franchise. He's the face of the city. They're right on the brink of a title. So they've tried the two ways of getting value for guys,

and neither one of them have worked. They can't repeat either of those mistakes with Westbrook. If you're Westbrook, can you ask for a trade, or do you just stay silent? How do you play it? Or I think there's like a 30% chance that he goes into like all-time alpha dog bone. He's like, you know what? We're going to win without KD.

Fuck that guy. And he just throws himself into the year. This is my team now. That's an entertaining Westbrook. And FYI, that OKC team is still pretty good. Still pretty good. I agree. It's still like a top eight team.

They got Westbrook. They got Old Depot. They got Sabonis and Cantor. And Steven Adams, I think, is probably the best. If you're picking centers, I'd probably want him for the next seven years over any other center, any other pure center. They have cap room and some assets that put them in the conversation for trade acquisition of those guys we mentioned. Maybe Jimmy Butler, maybe Blake, maybe Millsap. And any of those three guys, along with Russie?

Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. Interesting. That's what I say. Waiters Island probably not coming back. Good luck. The problem is we saw that team without Durant when Westbrook was in his crazy 30 shots a game thing a season and a half ago. Yeah. They missed the playoffs.

And everyone went nuts about how great his stats were, but they weren't winning. And the force of his personality, I thought, really affected his team. I didn't like that style. This team is much better than that team, though. I hope so. I think Oladipo is going to be really important for them. I'm a believer. I think Westbrook and Oladipo is going to be a great backcourt.

I'm really all in on that backcourt. And I think Sabonis is going to be good right away. I don't think they're going to miss Ibaka nearly as much as it seems because they weren't using him correctly. And the thing that hurts, and this is like the all-time stupidest no-brainer of a comment, but it's also really worth mentioning. They lost Durant and Ibaka. And it's not just like losing those guys on paper and all the shit they do and the fact that Durant's one of the best three players

in the world, but those guys had length, and the length was what made that team special, and that length is just gone now. Now it's just a conventional basketball team. On top of all the other stuff they lost with Durant, but losing him and abaca together just fundamentally they're not the long athletic crazy thunder yesterday nba tv had um

game five of the lakers thunder from 2012 um which is a forgotten series it was really like the nail in the coffin of the lakers era brian was still in the Lakers and just saw all those people. And they blew him out in game five in OKC. And it seemed like it was 20 years ago. Skinny Harden was out there. His beard wasn't as long. Young Durant. Westbrook, like just this, you know, at the peak of how crazy of an athlete he was. Abaka.

It's just hard for me to believe it's over. That team should have dominated the decade. It's just hard for me to believe it's over. That team should have dominated the decade. It's crazy. You look at the all-time what-if teams, and they've got to be in the top four. Every decade's had one, right? The Blazers were the 70s what-if team. The Rockets were the 80s what-if team. Orlando was the 90s what-if team.

I think Shaq and Kobe and the Lakers were the what-if team in the 2000s because they only won three titles. They really should have won like seven. And then this decade, it's the Thunder, and that's how we're going to remember them. We're going to look back and go, how the fuck did that team not win a title? It's amazing.

Yeah, right. It is. That's right. It's a combination of bad luck and some decision-making, some poor judgment. Yeah, although that decision-making has been— They are a great what-up team. Two things about that decision-making that's just been spun. I don't want to talk about the heart of trade again, but—

I know. They could have kept him that season, which nobody mentions. They didn't have to trade him. They could have just kept him for the 2012-2013 season, made a real run, and then he was a restricted free agent the next summer. And either people make the offer, you match it, it would have been four years, 64, or you let him go. But they could have had him for that summer. That's one thing. And two, they never amnestied Perkins. They kept him on the roster for three more years. They never amnestied him. They never used their amnesty.

It is the most confounding thing. And not just did they not amnesty him, Scotty Brooks insisted on playing him in the playoffs. I know. And it drove the analytics community absolutely bonkers. It was one of my favorite Twitter reads, would be to go on while the Thunder were playing and Kendrick Perkins was out on the floor and watch it get hot. And the frustrating thing is you hear about the small market stuff

and, well, they couldn't have gone over the tax, all the repeater tax, all that stuff. Well, for one thing, they didn't have gone over the tax, all the repeater tax, all that stuff. Well, for one thing, they didn't have to go over the tax in 2012, 2013 if they had just let Harding become a restricted free agent. That's one thing. Second, the amnesty would have helped them a little bit. But the reality is they bought that team for, I think, less than $300 million. And by last year, that team was worth like a billion dollars.

And they were banking profits year after year after year. I figured out in the 2013 column, they probably made $75 to $80 million profit just in revenue from the revenue sharing during the first couple years from 2010 to 2013. I forget the exact number number but it's somewhere in the vicinity of that and oh so you you couldn't take the luxury tax hit for two years like then sell the team your team's worth a billion dollars if you can't handle it sell it i know you can't it feels a little bit like keeping on at this moment i think it's right to call out okay see you and i both um don't have any particular sympathy or empathy for the situation because of...

We're agnostic. Hold on. I want to keep talking about this. We've got to talk about Framebridge really quickly. Our buddies at Framebridge, they're the ones who beautifully frame nearly every poster in my office as well as a couple on our Any Given Wednesday set. Go to framebridge.com. Pick out the frame you want. Let their designers help you choose.

Preview your item in any frame style. You can even upload a picture on the Framebridge site or app, and they'll frame it that way. Upload one from Instagram. They don't care. They'll do whatever you want. They have an expert team. They'll custom frame your item in days, not weeks or months.

They will deliver your finished piece directly to your door, ready to hang, InStyle called FrameBridge the genius site that makes custom framing easy. They even offer a happiness guarantee. Instead of the hundreds you'd pay at a framing store, their price has started at $39. All shipping is free. And I got to say, the TLC that they put in their framing and packaging is amazing. It's one of my all-time favorite companies. I am a FrameBridge groupie. Their price has started at $39. Shipping is free. Go to framebridge.com. Use promo code BS. You get 15% off your first order. Here's why I brought up the OKC thing. Because the narrative

when Durant left, which was pushed out in multiple places I read, made it seem like, well, KD wasn't really like what he made it seem like he was like. He changed. He's impressionable. He had people around him. He had outside forces that pushed him to this. Yeah, we don't have to name names. That's ridiculous. I mean, and by the way, speaking of calling reports of what happened, ridiculous, we do have an apology to make later in this podcast.

I know. We're going to do that at the end. Yeah. But, you know, I saw a lot of that stuff, too. And it's just speculation at best. We're agnostic. I don't really care. I was upset Durant didn't go to Boston, but ultimately, like, I don't care who's right. OK, so you're Durant. What I didn't like was that this was upset Durant didn't go to Boston. But ultimately, I don't care who's right. Okay, so you're Durant. What I didn't like was this portrayal that he was weak.

That there was a weakness to the decision. That he took the coward's way out. And I just don't agree with it. I thought Bosh made a really good point on my show last night. About when you get that close, sometimes that's the hardest. When you get that close, when you can taste it and it really fundamentally like just aches and hurts and you just want to get away from it. And I think there were so many decisions that led to what he wanted to do.

And I didn't feel like they were reflected in the reporting. For one thing, maybe he's just tired of playing with Russell Westbrook. Played with him for eight years. Maybe he loves Westbrook as a friend. He just didn't want to play with him anymore. Maybe he was tired of living in Oklahoma City, which is a really small city where he stands out. He's a seven foot black guy walking around this tiny little town in the middle of America. And everywhere he goes, people know who he is and what he's up to and what he's doing. Maybe he just didn't want to deal with that anymore. Maybe he wanted to live in the Bay Area.

Maybe he wanted to buy some house in San Francisco and just be left alone. Maybe he wanted to be more of a business guy and be around Silicon Valley people. Maybe he wanted to play with Steph Curry and Draymond and these guys. Maybe he wanted to be in a better offense. Maybe he wanted to be on a team that just spends money. Nobody talked about that part. He's on a team that's going to spend

fucking money now. He was not in that situation in Oklahoma City. He wanted to be in the best position to succeed in an organization that put every available resource into spending money on their team. So how does that make him weak? Not to mention the chance to play for Steve Kerr. Yeah.

A guy with a pretty good track record. He's never had a good coach. Never had a good coach. That's precisely the point I was going to make. That's exactly right. I'm in violent agreement with you on all of those things. That's the beauty of what the collective bargaining agreement affords these players. I support it. The players have a right to self-determination when the circumstances

provide the opportunity. And for KD, it genuinely struck me as something that was like sort of week by week, the set of circumstances that led to him heading off to Golden State. If OKC had beat Golden State, he would have stayed. If the Warriors had won again, he might have stayed. I mean, think about how everything sort of changed in great big dramatic fashion from week to week that led to the situation being the attractive thing that it turned out to be just last week. I don't think it speaks to his character one bit. And the loyalty thing is really annoying to me. First of all, Clay Bennett moved the thunder from Seattle to Oklahoma City

that doesn't seem very loyal he tried to hold Seattle hostage for a publicly funded stadium and they wouldn't pony up so you know of course he had the right to do that let's ask Seattle about character in the Oklahoma City Thunder so that's one thing

second he signs a huge extension in 2010 to stay there for five years so does westbrook and then a year later they just trade harden i don't know about the loyalty there they fired scotty brooks a year ago that doesn't seem very loyal sports isn't loyal shit happens you know and i know durant was talking about yeah but the community all this stuff but you know what he's 28 shit changes i changed my mind a million times in my mid-20s we act like these guys are like 45 years old durant's 28 or i don't even is he 28 or 27 27 going on 28 what i think to put in a piece like to to talk about his decision in the context of him proposing to his girlfriend and then changing his mind.

I don't agree with that at all. He's 23. He got engaged and then he called the engagement off. What the fuck does that have to do with him signing with the Warriors? Right. We're in violent agreement about that. You know what? Yeah, I'm sure he has people in his life who thought it was a better situation for him to be at Golden State,

to be at a team that has unlimited resources, to be at a team that now has four of the best 12 players in the world, and to be in the Bay Area and to be around. Well, how about this? A reminder, some of those people in his life are the people that pay him the real money. Nike. He doesn't make his money playing basketball. He makes his money from his shoe contract.

I think Nike might have had a little say in that matter. Yeah, and you know what? I went from thinking, well, why would a Nike guy, why would Nike want their guy to be on an Under Armour team? Actually, it's brilliant because now instead of being an Under Armour team, that's now an Under Armour and Nike team. Yes. Yes, of course. So course so look i get it you know i totally get being bitter when when somebody leaves roger clemens he left boston i wrote a whole piece five years later is roger clemens the antichrist i get the bitterness it fucking hurts

when when somebody that you love and you rooted for leaves. I get it. The Clements thing for me, everyone in Boston was bitter because he was out of shape the last couple years he was in Boston. Then he went to Toronto, he got in shape, and he went to Cy Young's. And he did whatever else he was up to at that point. This, to me, was different. Durant gave everything he had to that team. I also, are we positive that he didn't like they you know he broke his foot he came back too soon he had to have two more surgeries on it maybe he didn't

trust the team from a medical standpoint maybe that played a tiny bit of a factor who the fuck knows i i thought it was totally if it was a situation of he's grabbing the money, well, he took a two-year deal. What money did he grab? He clearly just wanted a basketball situation, and he wanted a change. He'd been in Oklahoma City for eight years. Maybe he just wanted to live somewhere else. I don't know. People like San Francisco, I've heard.

I was upset. Pretty great American city. I thought when LeBron went to Miami that bothered me a lot more than this Durant thing. Yeah, I'm in the same boat. And it's mainly because he did it the way he did it. You know, if he hadn't done it on a television

show and then the day after the moratorium gone on stage down in Miami and did this whole hoo-ha parade thing with Bosh and D-Wade like they were movie stars, all of that rankled. All of that left a bad taste. That was great. If he hadn't done that, we might have been able to think about that whole thing differently. I hope he gets chaired when he goes back. I thought he gave Ocoa, I thought he was just an awesome ambassador for that city and for that team. And I'm sure it hurts the fans. I feel for the fans. But at the same time, you know, people change. He's in his late,

people change their most in my opinion in their late 20s I think that's when you really start to figure out who you are as a human being and what and where your life

and what you've learned and where your life's going and obviously he just wanted to change he wanted to live somewhere else and want to play for a better team and that's it that's it

good for him it's a fair analysis right we're in agreement and people don't like it that's it. Good for him. It's a fair analysis, right? We're, we're in agreement and people don't like it when we're in agreement, but yeah, of course it's a fair analysis. It's fair to him. He,

he, he had the choice and he, and he took it. I don't have any problem with it. All right. So four months ago, people were circling this clip this week of us. Woj,

and people don't realize like Woj and I like each other. Woj had this report in the vertical about how the Warriors were making a serious run at Kevin Durant. At the time they wrote this, at the time he wrote this, they were 43-4, and from what we knew about the salary cap at that point, they would

have had to have gotten rid of Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, Azealy, and Bogut, and then renounced all their other contracts like McAdoo and Clark just to be able to fit Durant into the salary cap. So we did a podcast, and we reacted to this. And I wasn't doubting the reporting. Not positively. I didn't doubt the reporting.

I just thought he was, you know, I thought it was more likely that other teams were feeding him this to try to sabotage the Warriors and my mindset was why would the Warriors be thinking about next year when they already have one of the best teams of all time and maybe if the way this season is going the best team of all time why would they want it out there with their players that they're already thinking about next year and blowing up the team. That seems crazy to me. Well, now the report, first of all, we were wrong. I'll eat some crow on it. My apologies.

Hey, we come on a podcast. We shoot the shit about stuff. Sometimes we're wrong. It happens. But more often than not. Yeah. More often than not, we're wrong. It happens.

But here's the thing. Did it affect Harrison Barnes? Because now it's come out, all the reporting is like, yeah, they're recording Durant for two years. Yeah, Draymond was texting him all the time. So they really were trying to get him and plant the seed for him to come this summer. Okay, so who is that at the expense of? Well, one guy, definitely Harrison Barnes. Well who is that at the expense of? Well, one guy definitely, Harrison Barnes.

Well, who sucked in the playoffs? Harrison Barnes. Do you think he knew that they were going after Durant this whole time? I wonder if that affected them. I wonder if their pursuit for Durant, which didn't make sense to me in February,

I wonder if that affected their chances to win the title last year. It's an interesting question, right? Yeah. I mean, I would say that if indeed it was the case that Barnes ultimately points to that as something that did affect his performance, then Golden State got the answer that they needed about the size of investment that they were confronted with with Barnes, which is you can't have a guy that withers from the pressure because of rumors that he's hearing. He's being influenced by whatever his career might look like. The dude was teed up for a max contract basically this whole season. He knew he was going to get that money.

And, you know, it can't be a distraction that your team is, you know, thinking about its future and you hear things about it. So I hope it doesn't come out that way because, you know, it wouldn't reflect well on Harrison Barnes and Buick's performance in the finals. Has to be a little bit of a distraction, though. Tate, that a distraction? Definitely a distraction. Tate says distraction.

I don't know. And Draymond and Harrison have a weird relationship. Yeah, and Draymond and Harrison have a weird relationship, Tate says. Well, so that's a meaningful observation, right? It did seem as things went on that Harrison Barnes was a little bit of an outsider. He was not in that, you know,

he was not in the cool clique. He was on the outside looking in at the cool clique. I don't know where I read that this week. So I guess my point is you don't know if you can get Durant until July anyway. Why is it leaking out to people like Woj, who knows everything, who was right on this, and we've already apologized. I didn't believe the report was coming from the Warriors side.

I thought it was coming from everyone else. Obviously, the Warriors were talking about this so much that Woj found out about it. Why are they talking about this in February when the team's 43-4? Why not make this a closed-door thing with three people where it's like, hey, dudes, no matter what happens this year, July 1st, we're making a run at Durant. Why are you talking about this in February? Why are you jeopardizing the team? You don't get it.

Light years ahead, son. That's why. They don't do things the way that you want them to do them. They're light years ahead. That's the worst part of KD signing with Golden State, by the way. That's the part of it that really is grating. When we did that podcast

in February, I was like, Joe Lacob should just come out and say this is ridiculous. We're not thinking about next year. We have a chance to be one of the greatest teams of all time. We're going to think about next year when it's the summer. Right now, I don't want to even discuss these reports that we're talking about next year's team already. But he didn't do that.

And then you realize, looking back, that this was obviously a plan that they had long term. And it leaked out enough that reporters knew about it. So I don't know. I think they handled it poorly. Well, that's your view. Not only are they a franchise that was not making the point that we're focused eyes on the prize on this season. Lacob came out in both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times five, six weeks later with these stories about what revolutionaries they are.

They're revolutionary as long as Steph Curry doesn't get hurt, as long as Klay Thompson's healthy, as long as Draymond doesn't get hurt. That's the part of it that remains detasteful. I'm psyched from a basketball point of view to see KD with those three dudes, and they've really bought what an incredible insurance policy against any one of those guys going down, what KD represents

in terms of insurance. But it does kind of suck that the whole Light Years Ahead thing was vindicated a bit. That's all. It's a pretty amazing team. I went through all the seasons on Sunday

trying to figure out if anyone had ever had four of the top 12. I even sent you my email list of the top 12. Draymond, I had 11. You did. And Clay's in the top 10. They had four of the top 12. I went through all the seasons. And the only time you can make a case somebody had four of the top 12

were the Celtics. They only had two all-NBA teams back then. The Celtics in back-to-back years had three of the top 10. And one year it was Russell Cousy and Bill Sharman, and then the next year it was Russell Cousy and Tom Heinsohn. So I'm guessing between those two seasons, they probably had four of the top 12. And that was when the league had eight teams. So I'll tell you when I thought Durant was going.

When it came out on Sunday that he had called Jerry West after the Warriors meeting, I thought it was over. That was like, because I really thought the Sets had a chance. I didn't realize that he initiated the call. I just knew, I saw the report that they talked. I didn't know that it was KD calling West. Yeah, he asked to talk to him. And if you read the articles, and I think this had a huge impact on Durant.

And this was a bigger impact than really any other factor that probably weighed into this decision. Jerry West, I think Tim Kawakami wrote about what they talked about. And the big theme of what Jerry West said was, you know, I lost eight finals and I ended up winning in 72. And I spent most of my time thinking about the eight finals that I lost. And I've never, Jerry West said, I've never gotten over all of those losses. And I think he put the seed in Durant's head.

Like, I don't want to spend, I don't want 40 years from now to sound like this guy. I'm just dwelling on these terrible things that happened. I want to be, I want that happened. I want some good things to happen to me from a basketball standpoint. I don't want to sound as sad as this guy sounds. And I think whatever Wes said worked more than anything else.

The thing I find most interesting and curious, I would love to see a timeline between whatever time that telephone conversation occurred and what time H-Bob tweeted out that it was all over on Monday. Monday morning. I started hearing from... Oh, it was Monday morning that he tweeted that out?

Yeah, I started hearing from Little Birdie's Sunday night that the Celts were out. The Celts didn't hear from him on Sunday, which was a bad sign. But, you know, if you're him and you're just looking at the two situations and there's a certain level of loyalty to Oklahoma City that you're just not feeling anymore, it's a no-brainer. Of course you're going to go to Golden State. Whether he was feeling loyalty or not,

it's just an opportunity to go play with a great team, with a great coach and a great organization in San Francisco. Pretty good. Okay. I'm interested. Sure. We covered everything? I think so.

I think we covered everything. Tate, anything we didn't talk about that you want us to talk about? Just Barbosa going back to the Suns. Oh, Barbosa going back to the Suns. Let's save that for the next podcast. Yeah. Shout out to T-Mobile. Remember, for a chance to win a trip for four to Game 1 of the World Series,

make your picks on T-Mobile's Home Run Derby Bracket Challenge at t-mobile.com slash MLB. No purchase necessary to enter or win for official rules and complete details. Visit MLB.com slash bracket challenge. Thanks to SimpliSafe. Remember, burglaries skyrocket over the summer. Right now, SimpliSafe has a phenomenal security package with entry sensors, motion sensors, and glass break. Right now, you can get $100 off my hand-picked security package. Go to SimpliSafeBill.com to get this massive discount.

Shout out to The Vertical. Shout out to Woj. Yeah, he just smacked us retroactively. We didn't believe his report. I didn't believe it. I genuinely just didn't believe it. I didn't think the Warriors were talking about that in February. I've learned not to doubt Woj.

I should have known that already. Woj, he's an assassin. He's an assassin. He's one of the greats. We're never doubting Woj again. Shout out to Woj. Shout out to The Vertical. Thanks to TheRinger.com.

Can I give a shout out? Yeah. Shout out to Chris Ryan. He and I had a great conversation about the D.C. music scene when I was in California. We pushed it, pushed that out on July the 4th. Great reaction to that. Yeah. Chris put out the Spotify list of the bands we talked about in some songs, so check it out. I was going to do a tweet for that at the appropriate time. Your dream in life was to talk for an hour to somebody about the DC punk scene. So it finally happened. I'm glad we were able to achieve that.

So that's on the Watch podcast, not Channel 33. That is on the Watch podcast. So check it out there. Thanks to TheRinger.com. Thanks to everyone at Any Given Wednesday. We have another new show coming on Wednesday, July 12th at 10 p.m. Check out bonus clips and bonus materials on the any given Wednesday page on HBO.

Now HBO or HBO on demand. I'm already afraid of whatever the ratings were for last night. This is like the worst TV week of the year for watching. Everyone's on vacation. I'm going to take a rating set this week house and I'm going to take a person. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt my feelings. It's going to hurt my feelings. Guess what? Guess what? No, it's going to hurt my feelings. It's the summer.

Guess what? Guess what we're not doing next year when we have to do 25 shows? Having shows in July. That's not happening. Yeah. I'm going to be somewhere in July. I won't be doing a TV show because nobody's watching TV in July. You've got to leave alone draft week

and free agency week now I mean those are all blocked off those are important weeks now on the NBA calendar I know final weeks we thought we were going to

have this show about sports and pop culture and tech and we did all sports yesterday we didn't even expect to do Durant we had this interview we did that was really fun

with Christina Hendricks and Michael K. Williams who played Omar on the wire and then the Durant thing happened and we were like how do we not do NBA people would think that was insane so we're going to run that at a later date but that was really fun I had Michael K. Williams

and Christina Hendricks on the same couch how about that I don't feel like there's anything that I can say that won't get me in trouble that's a good note to end on Joe House Anything that I can say that won't get me in trouble. That's a good note to end on. Joe House, congratulations on Bradley Beal.

Sorry about Al Horford. Talk to you. Oh, and listen to the Shack House podcast, him and Jeff Shackford. We got one coming up this week. British Open preview with some of my wagerings, which I'll also put out. I've been promising, I've been threatening to update housefromdc.com. It's really happening. If you go on there tonight, you will see restaurant recommendations that I've been threatening. We're going to put the Spotify list of the pod that I did with Chris Ryan up on there.

And next week, Shack House, my selections for the British Open. I have hit the winners of each of the two previous majors so far this golf season. I'd like to give you another winner. Please listen in next week. And we all decided we're flying you out in early August to eat against Danny Chow. Oh, no. Who, all he's saying over and over again,

it's almost like watching, it's like UFC 200 this weekend where they have the styles, and it's like, oh, I wonder what style is going to win. Danny Chow is just like, I'm just going right to spicy with house. I don't think he can handle it. He's too old. Oh, I like this. This is exciting. If we go spicy for long periods of time, I win.

That's his mentality. He's like, he can't beat me with spicy. And I was thinking like, eating is really like a little bit like UFC. Like, you have your submission specialist. You have your punching specialist. You have your spicy specialist. You have your eating for long periods of time specialist. I'm prepared to lose.

I'm, you know, I am past. I'm officially middle-aged right now. I'm prepared to lose. But this is very intriguing. Danny Chow doesn't know that I have an extensive and exquisite relationship with mala in my past. You can look up mala. I encourage everybody, check out the mala style and technique in Chinese food cooking. I'm a big fan of the mala.

And, you know, let's get it on let's get hot so you're coming out a couple weeks we we don't know if we're gonna facebook live it or film it and run it as a video but i think there's a 90 chance it ends with you lying naked on your hotel room bath bathroom floor um almost having a heart attack i think danny chow might that's 100 100 okay fair all right joe house enjoy the week thank you anytime y'all want to see me again heart attack. I think Danny Chow might kill you. That's 100%. 100%, okay. Fair. All right. Joe House, enjoy the week. Thank you.

Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here, close your eyes, and picture me rolling.