The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 7: NFL Picks, NBA Bets & John Wall w/ Joe House

Episode Date: October 9, 2015

HBO's Bill Simmons makes best bets for Week 5 NFL, talks DC's hottest restaurant, NBA Division bets, NBA off-court incidents, Rockets-Clips 2015, and John Wall racial coding with Joe House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A big thank you to Universal Pictures and their upcoming film Steve Jobs for sponsoring today's episode of the Bill Simmons podcast from the director of Slumdog Millionaire and the writer of the social network Universal Pictures brings you Steve Jobs. Critics are calling it must see one of a kind cinema that cannot be ignored. Now playing in select theaters today and everywhere on October 16th. Today's show is also sponsored by Howl.fm. If you love podcasts with Howl Premium, you get exclusive access to original audio series, comedy albums, and archives for Marc Maron and Comedy Bang Bang and How Did This Get Made? And if you're a Game of Thrones fan, definitely check out Howl's Hardcore Game of Thrones. Bill Simmons listeners can try Howl for free for a full month. Go to Howl.fm.

Use the promo code BS for a one-month free trial of How Premium, how.fm, promo code BS. Joe House, what is happening? I love podcasts. I know. We'll get how.fm. We still don't have entrance music. I'm working on it.

It's weird to do a podcast that does that music. I'm going to have to go find Ronald Jenkins if this other plan I had doesn't work out. Last week I had LL Cool J not calling it a comeback. I didn't tee anything up for this week. We're going to take it down a notch a little bit. Last week I was really amped. I was using a lot of third person Joe Houses out there. I was dropping some crazy stats. We're going to take it down a notch and act like we've been there before. Joe House, don't let four people in your Twitter replies get into your head, for God's sakes. If you missed the Bill Simmons podcast earlier this week, we had Cousin Sal. We guessed the week five lines. And yesterday we had Chuck Klosterman

talked about a whole bunch of stuff. At the tail end, we ended up talking about Donald Trump for 20 minutes, which I did not expect. But that was not expect but that was outstanding i can't wait to listen to that one yeah and i should also mention uh i have an hbo show coming next spring and we are starting to to think about that and plan it and think about hiring some people so that this is getting fun football's heating up basketball starting i'm Yeah. That's brain right brain. So I saw you in Washington, D.C. We had dinner on Sunday night. Monday. Well, yeah, we did have dinner Sunday night.

You're right. Yeah, we went to that Greek fish place. We had a nice, healthy dinner. And then on Monday, we took Uncle Tony out. We went to a place called Rose's, which is allegedly the hottest restaurant in America is allegedly the hottest restaurant in America.

Definitely the hottest restaurant in Washington. Yeah, Rose's Luxury. Rose's Luxury. Tony was in disbelief that we got a reservation there and is now starting to think that you are some sort of a Washington Jedi, which I like. Well, I'm a food Jedi. I definitely will take that on. And we ate, we ordered, we just, they kept bringing food out.

You always find these places in Washington where they just keep bringing food out and you have no idea how much you ate. But then at like 1130 that night, you're just, I almost did the Joe House move of just taking off all my clothes and lying on the bathroom floor, but I didn't. I wondered. You said it as we were walking out. You're like, oh, that's it. This is a tile floor night.

The clothes got to come off. Yeah, so the nice thing about Rose's Luxury, they have one of these menus where the portion sizes are pretty small. So we just tried the menu. It was the first time for you. It was the first time for TK. So let's just see what they have to offer. And they do some off the menu stuff. It's very, very enjoyable experience. And then it turned out Tony somehow knew the chef's dad and he was just, he was so happy and so pleased and delighted with everything that I had to bring up a couple of people in his professional life that he doesn't like just to kind of bring him back and bring some of the Tony

Venom back. Yeah. He's the best, though. It was great seeing him. Missed that guy. It was good seeing you. Good being in Washington, D.C. One of my favorite cities. I enjoyed it. I flew out of-

You went from- Yeah, I'm interested. Go. I flew out of the good airport. Yeah. There's two airports in D.C. You have to fly out of D.C.A. That's right.

The one that's dullest is a million miles away, and you have shuttles. Everybody hates that airport. And if you get out of the other one, it's kind of life-altering. Yeah, it's like from the moment you get out of the car through security and you're to the gate, it can be, if you're lucky, like 11 minutes. It's just spectacular how close the gate is. And that's because you have all the folks from Congress coming in and out of that airport. So those guys, you know, they're not standing in line.

They're not waiting around. They're not going and getting on shuttle buses. And from door to gate, 35-minute experiences. They don't stand for that. So, yeah, Reagan National is always the one to do if you're in hot chocolate city. You're numb to this now, but every time I go back to D.C., I'm always just blown away. I always feel like I'm visiting a movie set that they're just filming this giant movie with all the politics happening. And normal people are just kind of passing through.

It's like, oh, yeah, there's the White House. Hey, there's the monument. It's like, oh, yeah, there's the White House. Hey, there's the monument. It's just strange. It's the only city, I think, that's like that, that feels like it's not just a city, but something that exists as this alternate universe where things are happening. Yeah, and for the most part, the alternate universe doesn't affect the daily lives of most of the people that live in the city. I mean, people come in, you know, every day, D.C. goes from like 650,000 residents up to like 3 million because folks come in that work for the government. And people that work for the government populate all those marble halls.

But, you know, for people just trying to work and lead their daily lives, the big monuments don't have a lot of impact on what we do, but they're certainly nice in the background. Yeah, you don't notice them after a while, but for people that come in and out, it's great. So I was there. The Washington professional football team had a big come-from-behind win that fired up absolutely nobody.

Nobody believes in the Washington professional football team. That's not true. The fan base is fired up absolutely nobody. Nobody believes in the Washington professional football team. That's not true. The fan base is fired up. The sentiment here, the prevailing sentiment based on the radio and TV and written word that I consumed this week was disbelief. And disbelief because we were all prepared for the ending that's been delivered to us so many times over the last decade, which is here's a winnable game. We have the ball.

We need to drive and score a touchdown to win the game. So you just think there's clench at that point because you just assumed something terrible was going to happen. The worst possible thing is going to happen. What variety is it going to take? Is it going to be a pick? Is it going to be a fumble at the goal line? Is it going to be a blimp dropping down from out of the sky? I don't know what calamity is going to befall us.

Kirk Cousins pooping on the two-yard line? Yeah, anything's possible. All right, so we talked about how to do this Friday podcast because we want to talk as much NBA as possible. We want to give the people what they want, copyright Jalen Rose. But we also want to do our football picks. So what we're going to do is we're going to blow through all the games that aren't part of our big five picks and then we're

going to make our big five picks and we're actually going to start keeping track I'm having a good season I am you are after yesterday where the Colts were inexplicably getting five points against Ryan Mallett and the terrible Texans the Texans are one of the worst four teams in the league. Yeah, they're off. I'm done with them. Yeah, because we go from Luck to Hasselbeck. All of a sudden the Colts are five-point underdogs. Why is he worse than Ryan Mallett?

So I won that one. I post those picks on Instagram and Twitter on Thursdays, but I am 36-26-2 for the season. And my Sunday best bets, which I put on Instagram and Twitter, I'm 9-4. So I'm having a good year. But I'm a little worried about this week. So let's blow through. We marked the picks that we're not, or the games that we're not picking.

So we'll just go through them quickly. Falcons at home, 7.5 over Washington. I'm probably taking the points. I don't feel good about it. How quickly over washington i'm probably taking the points i don't feel good about it quickly do you have i'm taking the points okay uh bucks minus three jags what an awful game don't bet on this don't pick it don't don't watch it don't do anything i'm taking the points in this too but i hate it i'm taking the points in this one too eagle saints minus five and a half this is in the Vegas zone, as we call it. 4.5, 5, or 5.5.

That's when Vegas wants to sway your money one way or the other. When they put Lions in one of those three spots, that means the general public has no idea what's going to happen in the game. I'm probably taking the points in this one, too, even though I don't think the Saints are very good. What are you doing? It's super confusing. Why are the Eagles giving anybody in the National Football League points?

Have you watched the first four games? Yeah, it doesn't make sense. They're atrocious. Yeah, they're not good. I don't think they're as bad as the Texans, but I think they're the next level higher, but still less. I have two don't watch until further noticeil-further-notice teams. Those are the 49ers and the Texans.

Like, honestly, if they're on, I'm going away. I'm doing something else. I am not watching one second of games involving those teams any further until something changes, something drastic changes. The Eagles are right above that. And the Eagles are interesting in a car wreck kind of way. I mean, this Chip Kelly thing is spectacular. Chuck and I talked about it yesterday.

A lot of Patino similarities when Patino was in the Celtics. Just terrible front office moves, hubris, everything you're looking for for a potential 30 for 30 down the road. What's the best example of somebody on the other side who's had success? Who's the best GM slash coach? I mean, there's 15 examples of people who are terrible at it. And, you know, it's always you drag out those names because it's every single time somebody, well, the team's going to give this guy all, give him the reins,

let him go ahead and take a, it so rarely works out. Who has it worked out for it's a terrible idea it's two different jobs it's insulting to the other gms you know who loves it is my friend daryl morey he he wants as many coach slash gms as possible because he you know he's out there scouting in freaking russia and zimbabwe while somebody's coaching their team and not looking at anybody they're two radically different jobs. Yeah. And they're, they're onto themselves. They're each all consuming jobs, jobs that you could easily do for a hundred hours a week. Yeah. It would almost be like if, if I ran Grantland and wrote for it and did podcasts for them, it was also an NBA countdown. Um. The Packers and the Rams in Green Bay,

I loved what I saw from the Rams last week. They're getting nine points against the Packers, who had a lot of trouble moving the ball against the Niners. And I was talking to somebody who knows a lot about football, who I'm not going to mention. Oh. And he was intrigued by my James Jones, somebody who knows a lot about football who I'm not going to mention. He was intrigued by my James Jones, I wish the Patriots had

gotten him comment. He said James Jones would not be as good on the Patriots because the reason he's good on the Packers is because Rodgers scrambles around and buys time. James Jones' best skill is when a play breaks down,

making little subtle moves one way or the other to get open by a yard and then catching balls in traffic, basically. And that's a lot harder to do if you're only having two seconds to throw the ball. That's pretty interesting. Yeah. I really like this Rams team. And the problem with this game is that they're coming off an awesome win. And Todd Gurley's feeling great.

And the defense looked pretty good and the whole thing. And it has letdown game potential. What do you think? Yeah, I hate the spot for the Rams. I like the Rams team also. Why do they have to play this schedule? They have a really hard schedule this year. NFC West. Part of it's because of the NFC West. I understand that Rams team also. Why do they have to play this schedule? They have a really hard schedule this year. NFC West.

Part of it is because of the NFC West. I understand that part of it. But I hate this spot for them. I'm taking Green Bay. Yeah. I don't even have a decision on this game yet. I'll decide on Sunday. But I would lean toward taking the points only because I thought the Packers

had a lot of trouble moving the ball against San Francisco last week, which didn't totally make sense. Well, San Francisco's defense is good, by the way. But the Rams is better than San Francisco. That's true. And I know that San Francisco, you know, on paper gave up 175 points to the Cardinals two weeks ago, so I don't need to see that in a Twitter feed. But that was all, that game was over the first

two times Kaepernick touched the football. Does it worry you that Green Bay is 4-0 against the spread? No. That's one that I like. I'm going to treat that as something that supports my, yeah, I'm riding them. Alright, two more games. We've got to keep going.

The Bills are giving 2.5 points in Tennessee. I watched the entire Bills game on Sunday trapped on a Virgin America flight. And I don't – is Sammy Watkins playing? I haven't seen. I think he's, like, questionable, right? Yeah. They can't move the ball if he's not playing.

Tyrod Taylor I don't think is healthy either. So I'm probably going to wait until Sunday to see if he's playing on that. If he's not playing, I'm taking the Titans. And if he is playing, I probably will still take the Titans. I'm not sure the Bills are that good. That's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm not sure the Bills are that good. And I just like the idea of that's just a home dog play for me.

That's all. Let's go through the B's schedule really quick so they they beat the colts convincingly in week one as it turns out congratulations the colts aren't good uh week two lose to the pats and they were getting killed and came back late in that game made it respectable they destroyed the dolphins in game in week three congratulations on that and then uh and they got killed by the Giants yesterday. And here's the part of the podcast where I excoriate you for bullying me into picking the Dolphins in London over the Jets and then making me feel better about it by saying,

no, no, we'll bet on Joe Philbin, first coach to get fired, and we'll cover our bets. It was like, that's a great idea. Let's do it. And then you never emailed me. You never emailed me or texted me and told me, hey, let's put in that Joe Philbin bet. And then I had to watch the Jets game. And I was just filled with hatred for you by the end of that whole thing.

I'm supposed to do all of it? I mean, you know, you want me to walk you up to the toilet, unzip your pants, pull down your underpants. I told you what to do. We told America what to do. If you're going to play the Ding Dong Dolphins, the other side of that is you've got to take the Philbin angle. The Philbin angle was spectacular. I think at that point it was plus 225 or plus 240.

You got great odds on Philbin, and that was the right hedge for taking Miami. If you took that advice advice you came out ahead on on the five plays or you could have taken the advice that i plan on giving out heading into that podcast which is they're gonna fire joe philbin take the jets and you bullied me out of that you're not bullying me out of another pick this year and i'm still mad about it monday night chargers at home giving three and a half to the steelers. And that's a pure Michael Vick line, but I have a newsflash for America.

The Chargers aren't very good. They're just not good. They can't block. Their defense isn't good. They don't really have that much of a home field advantage in San Diego. I wouldn't call that a raucous crowd. Sorry, San Diego, it's true.

You're too happy. It's too great in San Diego. It's 80 degrees every day. You're not like football's never going to be life or death. You wake up, it's 80. Uh, I like the, I like the half point and I actually think the Steelers can win the game. I don't, but I do like the half point. I, it, it hurts my eyes. I have Antonio Brown on two different kinds of things. It hurts my eyes to see him Antonio Brown in two different kinds of things. It hurts my eyes to see him out there with Michael Vick. Well, the good news is it could be worse. His quarterback could be Colin Kaepernick.

So I don't like them enough to put them in our most important part of these picks because Michael Vick's their quarterback. All right, so here are the games we're going to talk about. Chiefs minus nine against the Bears. This is one of your five picks. This game is in Kansas City. We have no idea if the Chiefs are good or not because they just lost three straight games against three of the best four teams in the league.

What do you think? I love the Chiefs here. I love the three straight losses as an angle for coming in here. This is all focused on Chiefs and their performance in this kind of situation. But, you know,

the Bears, it feels like by winning last week can revert to their Bear-like ways, which is not being able to defend anybody under any circumstances. So nine is just crazy, right? It seems too high, but just lay it. I'm with you.

This is one of my five picks, too. I'm going to lay the points, and if the Chiefs think so be it. Because the Bears had their Super Bowl last week. They're not going to go in 16. And the Chiefs have talent. I don't think they're an elite team, but I think they're a competent team. And this is a nice little – I think if this game happened three weeks from now, they're probably 12-and-a-half point or 13-point favorites against the Bears. Yeah, right.

So I'm with you. Always, when in doubt, bet against Jay Cutler on the road anyway. I agree with you on that. All right, next game, Pats-Cowboys. So this is another – around the road anyway. I agree with you on that. All right, next game, Pats-Cowboys. So... Oh, I should mention, in Dallas, Pats giving nine and a half points.

Oh, I had it at eight and a half. All right, let's say eight and a half. Great. But you know what? To me, it could be 13 and a half and I'd still take the Patriots. I love the Patriots. I love this angle.

I love them coming off of rest. I love betting against Brandon Whedon. Me too. I love the Patriots. I love this angle. I love them coming off of rest. I love betting against Brandon Whedon. Me too. There's a wonderful stat out there, thanks to my good buddy Big Al, undefeated teams, playing week of rest, 16-4 against the spread since 1991, against teams off back-to-back losses. That's a great angle. I just love the Patriots.

The Patriots are one of my until further notice teams. I mean, the only game that was even remotely close was Pittsburgh Week 1, and Pittsburgh got a backdoor cover at the very end of the game. That game wasn't close. I was never worried. Otherwise, Pat got the pedal down. I wasn't worried for a split second in that game. I'm with you on betting against Brandon Whedon.

Also, remember this part. If the Pats are up, I don't know, 23 to 10, then Brandon Whedon's got to put points on the board. Good luck. Yeah, we love that. Yeah. Listen, if he spoils this with a backdoor cover, so be it. But I don't think the Cowboys are very good.

You know what's interesting with them? How much Dez affects them. Well, I would say Dez and Romo. I mean, their offense is eviscerated. But just Dez. That guy Terrence Williams and everybody raced to pick him up. And he finally made one great diving pass near the end, but he's not a number one receiver.

He can't get open. No, that's exactly right. I've been down to Terrence Williams. Cole Beasley's like a fourth receiver who's now the number two receiver. Their change of pace back was Lance Dunbar. He tore his ACL, MCL. He's out. I mean, it's just a bad situation.

They don't have skill guys that are going to really concern the Pats. I mean, they did have them. They did have them. They're all hurt. And this was a godsend for the Pats because this was the scariest stretch of the schedule. Right here, you're at Dallas. And then the next week, you're at Indy. Although, this Patriots team will not lose to Indianapolis this year, even if they were able to bring back all of the great Colts from years past and put them in a time machine or something.

It's not happening. They're not losing the Colts this year. Hey, Whedon's not horrendous. Right. I feel like this is the best he's ever looked, and he's still not good. He's not singularly responsible for them losing games but when a guy hasn't won an nfl football game and however many whatever the number is up to these these times i just i just you know i can't back that guy yeah this i put it this way if the cowboys end up

spoiling this bet then i'm not going to feel bad about it. Yeah, more power to them. That'll be fine. Be happy for style. So here's another road favorite that you like. I am staying away from this game. Yeah. Broncos minus five at Oakland. Who do you like in this?

Oh, boy. I mean, it really just comes down to this. Chicken parm, you taste so good. I mean, I can't stay away. I love it so much. I love Peyton so much. I love regular season Peyton. I know what my eyes are telling me. I watched that awful effort last week. You know, the forte of the Broncos was supposed to be their defense, and they were up 10 or 13 early enough in the game. So, good. This one's going to come through

no problem. And I missed the end of the game. I saw you. I say, what happened to the Broncos game? Oh, the Minnesota came back and tied it up. The Broncos had to kick a field goal at the very end to win. That was awesome. Come on, Chicken Parm. Anyway, I love the Broncos.

They're 7-0 straight up and 6-0-1 against the spread the last seven against Oakland. That's enough for me. I'm going to stubbornly get back on my boy Chicken Parm and hopefully ride it off into some delicious marinara sauce. I'm staying away. I understand. Oakland, by the way, is pretty good. Oakland might not be bad.

And this is a classic put-ourselves-on-the-map game that has the potential, at least, for it. Derek Carr's doing things. And that rivalry is so good. Oakland-Denver has all that history to it. Manning's going to have a game soon, and I don't know when it's going to be. But he's going to have a game soon, and I don't know when it's going to be, but he's going to have a game where he throws like four picks

and a pick six and makes the Manning face 27 times, and then we have the whole sports talk 24-7 debate on whether he's done. Should he walk away? Is he disgracing his legacy? That's happening at some point this season. I don't know the week. It feels like this't know the week. It feels like this

could be the week. I'm hoping that it's not. I don't disagree that that's going to happen at some point. It's going to happen this season. I just don't know what week. And I also know that no matter who's in the game, Manning could be throwing his 10th, 11th and 12th picks of the game and Phil Simms, Troy Aikman, all these guys, they're just going to look the other way and pretend it's not happening. And we've talked about this. I really respect what Manning's doing

because physically he just doesn't have it anymore and he's doing it all on guts and guile and all this stuff. Leadership. Yeah, and just savvy. But to announce these games and not mention how bad some of these throws are and how defenses are playing them. They're treating him like in softball when the 5'2 person from your office

is up at plate and the whole outfield moves in. That's what the D-backs are doing. They're all standing on the edge of the infield. Yeah, it's embarrassing. But yet, he knows where to put the ball. It might take a while to get there. And he has guys who may, you know, Damaris Thomas can jump up and make an awesome 40-yard catch

that three other guys in the league can make. Right. I mean, Thomas and Sanders have both been incredible. Incredible. Really, the whole season. Incredible. But I'll tell you this. One or both of those guys is going to get hurt with some of these catches they're being asked to make.

They're spread out all the time. I hope not. Well, it's just the way that position goes. If you have guys just spread out and falling out of bounds at full speed and going over the middle, and it's just not where you want to be. It does seem like we're seeing them in extraordinarily vulnerable positions with a heightened frequency. I don't know if an advanced stat guy would back that up, but it looks like that watching the game. Is C.J. Anderson the number one fantasy football murderer this season,

or is there somebody else? It's got to be him. Well, Andrew Luck was He got hurt and like whatever. C.J. Anderson's just been terrible and people, I think he went for like $53 in my league. Well, look,

this is the thing about fantasy. You can't do enough research to reach a conclusion about how good the Broncos offensive line is going to be when the real games start. They start playing. The Broncos' offensive line is atrocious, horrendous. You had to see them actually playing real games.

We knew it week one. Yeah. All right. Bengals-Seahawks, Bengals minus three at home. We both had this game marked. Who do you have in this game? I like Seattle. Every single trend that's out there favors Cincinnati,

and I have been very impressed with Cincinnati all season long. I just feel like this is a game that means more to Seattle. They're ready for one of their patented statement games of the last, like, three seasons where it's early in the season and it looks like they're still working some stuff out. They were given a gift on Monday night, an undeserved gift. By all rights, that game should have been won by Detroit. And yet, I like the Seahawks in this position.

I vehemently disagree. I appreciate that. I have no problem with it. Every trend tells me I'm wrong. I'm taking the Bengals minus three. I think they might actually be good. Sal and I talked about it on Wednesday. They can actually block.

When you block for Dalton, he's a different guy. They're pretty well-rounded. I think this is the game of the year for them in a lot of ways because, you know, it's a – is it a night game? Is it a Sunday night or is it not? No, it's not. But here's their sked the rest of the way. I like to say sked.

You do. It's not great. I wish I didn't like to say sked, but I do. So they go the rest of the way at Buffalo by at Pitt, Cleveland on a Thursday night, Houston at home on a Monday night, at Zona, St. Louis, at Cleveland, Pittsburgh, at San Francisco Sunday night, at Denver Monday night, home for Baltimore. So the three best games they have left are this one at Arizona,

which I think might end up mattering, and then at Denver in week 16, which could be for the number two seed potentially. But this game, nobody takes them seriously. It's still Andy Dalton. They don't win in the playoffs. It's like we've seen them do this before. We've seen paper tigers in September. Like Barnwell wrote today that, you know, after four games last year, Phil Rivers was the MVP.

They didn't even make the playoffs. So, you know, we've learned not to overreact to September. And that's why I think their incentive in this game is more than Seattle. Seattle hasn't, like, they won last week. They haven't hit that urgency rock bottom yet. Like, oh, you think we're done?

Watch this. Oh, here we go. This is when we're going to show up. I think that might be the week after this game. It's a short work week for Seattle, too. Like I said, every time I was against them, I just... And going west-east. Yeah, but they have Carolina at home next week. And after that, they're at San Francisco on a Thursday night.

And my feeling is they lose this Cincinnati game. Everybody is, oh, what's wrong with Seattle? They do that whole thing. And then they rally back and they have two wins in five days and they laugh at everybody. That's what I'm picking. I don't have a good rational rebuttal for selecting Seattle. I'm just selecting them.

That's all. All right. So I have two picks left because you used your five. The Cardinals are giving three points in Detroit. I like the Cardinals. I'm not going to get spooked by last week's game. And if Palmer completes the pass over the middle on fourth and two, which you just overthrew and you kind of gacked and it made me nervous about them long term,

they win that game probably. The guy kicks the field goal they're gonna win so i'm not i'm not giving up on them they're three and one i don't think detroit's good i don't like anything i've seen from their offense uh not a jim caldwell fan and i just this is the kind of game if you're're a playoff team, you win. You go into Detroit, and you win the game, and I'm going to lay the three points with that. Thoughts? I'm going to go right there along with you. I don't, I feel like Detroit is getting increasingly dangerous.

Every game that they lose makes it more and more likely. They played a great game, I thought, against Seattle. I mean, that was exactly how they gave themselves the best chance to win, that low-scoring, ball-control kind of deal. Their defense was good. Their offense wasn't good, though. Well, that's right. Yeah. But Arizona's been pretty impressive. That was a good situation for the Rams last week, and we both were on the Rams last week. We jumped on that one. But that doesn't necessarily impugn the credibility of Arizona. I like Arizona here in this game.

I agree with your thesis that this is a game where they have to go out and show everybody that they're serious about making a deep playoff run, and so they have to go take care of the business up in in uh ford stadium or whatever it's called these days here's the last pick and i can't believe this wasn't one of your five picks and i feel like i don't know you anymore and our whole friendship's been a lie the giants minus seven at home over the 49ers this is a night game this is uh this is a sunday night game colin kaepernick is on the verge of of you know and i don't mean to sound like i'm delighting in this because i actually feel bad for him he did my podcast once i liked him i i don't i as i've said this a million times i always want more good

athletes than less good athletes i used to like watching Colin Kaepernick play football it was fun to watch him he's in such a funk right now that I just have to keep betting against them until they replace him or until something happens

yeah I agree with that it has to be the Giants right yeah and this is a Sunday It has to be the Giants, right? downs, which I think, you know, they have Vereen, they have wide receivers, they can do stuff. They make big plays. Like, they'll have, like, 35-yard play, 35-yard pass, 40-yard run. Like, they do stuff. And I think their defense is pretty good. So, this to me seems like a nightmare scenario for Kaepernick.

Especially, like, can't you see Collinsworth? Like, Al, I just, I don't know what Colin Kaepernick's seeing there, Al. I just, I don't know what Colin Kaepernick's seeing there, Al. I just, I don't know what he is seeing with that pass. Well, wasn't that just Joe Buck and Aikman in the Green Bay game? It was, it was. I know, but Aikman's not going to crush a quarterback. He's going to be like, oh, Joe. You're exactly right, Joe. That was a bad throw.

That was very hard to watch. All right, so our recaps. On Sunday. We both like Chiefs minus nine. We both like Pats minus nine. You like Broncos minus five. Oh, we left out Ravens-Browns. You marked this one. We did leave out Ravens-Browns.

So who do you have in this? I like the Browns getting the points. What I like is the points. The Ravens, this is another show-me game. They have not beaten anybody soundly this season. No, I call them the either-or games, the games that either team could have won, either-or. And they've had four either-or games.

They've had four of those so far. Yeah, they've had four either-or games. So until they stop having either-or games, I'm not giving them six and a half. Yeah, I think that line's too high, too. I just want to remind you, I'm legally giving them six and a half. Yeah, I think that line's too high, too. I just want to remind you, I'm legally required to remind you that you've now made Josh McCown one of your five picks. This is two weeks in a row, by the way.

Brown's on the road. I have Bengals minus three. You have Seahawks plus three. So we went head-to-head there. So our title is at stake for this week. I have the Cards minus three in Detroit, and I have the Giants minus seven at home against Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers, and you are a dumbass for not doing that with me.

So we'll see how those turn out. I did like the Giants. All right, some NBA stuff for us to get to. But before we get to that, you know what it seems like it's time for us to do? Oh, I don't know. Tell me. Let's talk about our friends at squarespace they make it easy to build beautiful websites without breaking a sweat regardless of skill level no coding needed not only does squarespace provide easy to use tools

their state-of-the-art technology incures insurers security and stability millions of people and some of the most respected brands in the world trust squarespace and you should too 24 7 online support Oh, that's interesting. first purchase and you get to show support for the Bill Simmons podcast house, you should build a Squarespace site with your pics. I mean, you're one of the biggest idiots I know. If you can figure out how to use Squarespace, then I'll know this is a good product. So I think you make that your project this week. That could be a funny YouTube. Me trying to set up a Squarespace. I mean, you can barely order an Uber.

So I'm interested. Oh, how dare you? I whisked us all around town. Actually, you you can barely order an Uber. I'm interested. Oh, how dare you? I whisked us all around town on Monday. Actually, you are good at ordering Ubers. I take that back. I'm good at ordering Ubers and ordering food. Those are two of my strengths. All right, so here's your task for this week.

Over the next seven days, you have to build a Squarespace site. That has your picks. Oh, no. Yeah, you do. Seven days is not nearly enough. I need seven weeks. Over the next 21 days, you have to build a site and do that. All right, no. Yeah, you do. Seven days is not nearly enough. I need seven weeks. Every next 21 days, you have to build a site and do that.

All right, we're going to talk NBA. The Cephalosha trial came back not guilty. He was found not guilty of provoking New York City police officers to break his leg. I think this now becomes a civil suit. And, you know, echoing what other people have said I guess because there was video of James Blake and there wasn't really video for Cephalosha but

in general this just feels like a much bigger deal like this actually affected the NBA playoffs this guy was one of their you know was their best perimeter defender and it really does seem like the police just randomly broke his leg I don't know if they went into it intending to break his leg, but that's what happened. I agree with other people. This feels like in a sports media climate where we blow out every story and beat everything into the ground. I don't understand why this hasn't become a story.

Who says it hasn't become a story? The news of his acquittal just uh maybe it will today we're taping this on a friday morning and maybe this will be maybe the snowball finally get wrong i saw bamani over at espn he had a whole thing about it yesterday i saw an nba reddit i was glad he talked about it but it is it's strange it's it's a really strange story that in the moment was strange it affected the nba i i think the calves series might have been a tiny bit different i still think the calves win but uh whole thing was weird and not great not not a great story i well i i don't even feel comfortable talking about it. I still, and, you know, I recognize the, you know, the kind of biases that I have on this. Yeah.

The wrong place, wrong time stuff. You know, why are they out? They're on the brink of, you know. I know, they're in the playoffs. Can defend nba players for a second go ahead this is how it's been explained to me by my friend jalen rose and some others their schedule their body time their body clock i should say is not a normal human schedule because they have everything they do is has to be geared toward them peaking from like 7 30 to 10 o'clock every night right so it's not like you and me it's not like from 7 30 to 10 o'clock we've already eaten dinner we're on the couch we're watching tv we're doing emails we're

putting our kids to bed and kind of grinding toward a conclusion for them those hours for them those hours are midnight to three in the morning you know and they play this game they eat after and they're out and they're just up and their their schedules are different so i think that's i think that's part of it i understand all of that it doesn't mean he has to go to the club it's it's it's the playoffs there's a lot of ways to blow off steam between midnight and three in the morning. Yeah, but you can't be surprised that some NBA players would decide maybe it's a good idea to blow off some steam. In your New York City, like go to a club, maybe just want to stand around.

Hey, maybe he wanted to find a young Lassie to fornicate with. Who knows? I want to stop this because I don't want to unduly direct away the true culpability here. He's a citizen, you know, in the United States of America who has the right to be out at that time in the evening and has the right to be on the sidewalk. Way to go, Haas. Very well done. He didn't, you know, need to be thrown to the ground and have his leg to be on the sidewalk. Way to go, House. Very well done. He didn't need to be thrown to the ground and have his leg broken by overzealous police. I'm glad he was acquitted.

My biggest disappointment in this is Pero Antic, who I always felt like could have easily been an action movie villain in any Taken movie or anything. This was the perfect scenario for him to just clean house. Roadhouse 3 with Pero Antic. movie or anything and it feel it this was the perfect scenario for him to just clean house roadhouse three parentage just him knocking people around and saving his teammate i think we have

plenty of evidence that the police are not afraid to use their guns no and they have they have sticks too um and and tasers i i love the police and i'm very happy they protect me and my family week after week and day after day and I'm pro-police this was not a good thing for them it's indefensible it just seemed like you read all the facts for it and now that he's been exonerated

of any wrongdoing then this is a really effed up situation and I don't like it I think it's going to keep going and I hope people keep talking about it and writing about it. I just want him to come back 100% healthy. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I thought he was good last year. I actually wasn't a huge fan of him on OKC,

but I thought he was good this year. Good fit in Atlanta. Derek Rose, a lot of weird stuff happening with him this year, and then Jimmy Butler and some story comes out that Jimmy Butler doesn't respect his work ethic. And then Jimmy Butler comes out and he's like, hey, man, that's my guy. But we're warriors and all that stuff. My spidey senses don't like anything happening with this Bulls team.

Yeah, this is exactly the time of year for these stories to be coming out, too, by the way. I mean, the whole week was a dirty laundry week. It felt like the specter of David Stern was hanging around in the background. You had the Karam Butler book came out. Oh, that was my next topic. Wait, save that. Keep going. I know. We have the Thabo acquittal. We have Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher.

And I just think we can cover that in a second. The highlight of that, at least for me, this New York Post headline, Nick's Derek Fisher's love of the triangle extends beyond Madison Square Garden. I mean, come on. Nobody does it better. The post is incredible. So the facts are... Well, wait. Let's talk about Derrick Rose first.

Because so many... I don't like anything I'm seeing. And now we are four years removed from his MVP season. And I thought it was just perplexing and ridiculous that he talked about an extension. I think the, the way Bulls fans and Chicago fans feel about him compared to three, four years ago, when I think I wrote in 2012, I thought he had the highest approval rating of any city with their own athlete. And that has now shifted. And it feels like this is all headed to one of those situations where, you know,

this feels like a classic Knicks trade like a year from now, you know, where the Knicks like taking a chance on the broken down superstar hasn't really shown in a couple years. And if I was a Knicks fan, I'd be very afraid. Oh yeah, we got a superstar. It's Derrick Rose.

I'm watching the Bulls thing. It's funny because they're getting thrown into this playoff contention picture. New coach. They're not going to have Tibbs anymore. We don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Noah's in a contract year. They have a lot of players. They have Gasol. They have did who who plays in crunch time they have mcdermott's gonna want to play

and i want to see how they assimilate all those guys in the same thing and then the rose butler thing it really feels like jimmy butler is now in the mode of this is my team and it feels like like a big transition season for them it's a either-or situations, this one could go where they're competitive, they win 52 or 53 games, and they're right there in the mix. Or it could go completely off the rails and completely fall apart, and they barely win 40 games this season. All right, so the Karan Butler thing. He he wrote a book which i am going to get have you read the tough juice book yet no no i i mean all these books all came out in a row we had tough juices book we had uh jalen's book i mean we you

know dirty laundry week the the we haven't even gotten to the biggest story, which was the one that came out of Jalen's book about how ESPN tried to get him to help them fire you by offering him a year's worth of lobster tempura. I mean, did you see that story? I did see that, and I was very glad that he stayed away from that whole situation. He's a good friend. Because I know how much he loves lobster tempura. Good friend. whole situation because i know how much he loves lobster tempura uh so this this book this excerpt i'll just read i'll read the end they have a big big argument on the team playing gun gun threats are involved the next day karan butler says gilbert and javaris are in the locker room

gilbert says hey mf come pick one i'm. I'm going to shoot your ass with one of these. And he has four guns basically on display. Now, Butler says, Javaris turns around and says, oh, no, you don't need to shoot me with one of those. I've got one right here. Turns around, pulls out his own gun, already loaded, cocked it, and pointed it at Gilbert. And then Butler writes other players

who had been casually arriving laughing and joking with each other came to a sudden halt their eyes bugging out um dot dot dot they all looked at each other and they ran the last man out locking the door behind them and tough juice says I didn't panic because I'd been through far where I've heard gunshots more times than I could count and seen it all before this would have been just another day on the south side we We knew the story was crazy. I didn't know it was that crazy. I didn't know it led to players running out of the locker room in abject fear of what was going down.

Did you know that? No, no. All of this is first time I've heard it stuff. The most chilling thing now in retrospect is having learned what kind of guy Jabaris is, you know, how close we came to a shooting in an NBA locker room. We really did. We came because what was his, what was the crime he eventually committed?

He shot somebody? Murder. Murder? Yeah. He's in jail for murder. He's in jail for murder. He was a significant figure in a drug um ring down into the atlanta era and shot a woman and who may have been pregnant i don't i don't recall

whether or not she was pregnant but well when you have when you actually do murder somebody that means you were capable of murdering somebody earlier than that and you're right this this was now it feel this i always interpreted that story as these guys are idiots, they had guns, they're threatening each other, but nobody was actually going to do anything. And you're right. Now it's like, wow. Gilbert Aranis almost got shot to death in the Washington Wizards locker room. Like, easily the craziest sports story of all time yeah part of the reason why i think we have been comfortable treating it as though you know knuckleheads um with with you know guns completely inappropriate like you know just

just stunted adolescence with the um the the the means uh and the lack of common sense to actually travel around with guns as though that's part of something that should be in your gym bag. You know, he sort of treated it a certain way. And they did the whole finger guns, that whole thing, you know, Gilbert. So it seemed from outward appearances as though it was sort of one level of a dispute. You know, gambling deck on bed, you know, guys, all alpha dog guys, you know, mixing it up. That kind of a story into, right, you know, this week, reading the details the way that Quran tells it. And, you know, just luck of God, grace of God stuff that a trigger wasn't pulled in an NBA locker room. And I've heard stories relatively comparable before just from NBA circles.

And I remember there was a time last decade, I won't name the players, but there was some sort of issue between two players who were pretty prominent in the mid-2000s, at least one of them was. And there was gang affiliations and some girl and, and there was one game where one of the players, his friends sat courtside across from the other player to intimidate him. And they were flashing gang signals at him. And this became really dangerous. And the team that was the home team during this story ended up talking to the

NBA security got involved. Like they had to bring these guys in and talk to them under the radar individually. And, uh, and this was like a real thing that just nobody knew about. And it went under the radar. I was like nine, 10 years ago. Um, this stuff happens. These guys stuff gets ugly. And you saw it with Barnes and Fisher too. And I want to be careful talking about that story only because it doesn't seem like we know what the actual facts were. Other than that, Matt Barnes drove to his ex-wife's house for some reason because his kids had intimated something to him and saw Fisher there and stuff went down. And I think that's how we should leave it. The remarkable thing about the Fisher, the Barnes thing is it was, he wasn't five minutes away. That's the part of it that, that struck me.

It seems like he was 15 minutes away. Oh, I thought he was a little bit further away. No, no, no. See, that's the thing. There's been a lot of different, nobody's been able to settle on the right version of this story. So I want to be careful talking about it but derrick fisher um the stories are just piling up with this dude you know and whether some of this was his fault or some of this wasn't this is somebody that i think the public perception of him was he was always this awesome guy and he's a great teammate and whatever and then you look at some of the stuff that happened like like he forged his way out of Utah because his daughter,

remember she needed the surgery and had some understanding with Utah. Like, Hey, you know, I want to get her closer to hospital. It was a really sad story. And everybody felt terrible for him. And then he ended up signing with the Lakers,

which I think, I think, and it's all been documented, but I think Utah felt like they were double-crossed because this was one of the teams they were trying to beat in the playoffs. Then there was another story where he went to Dallas. He signed with them, didn't like what he saw, basically pushed his way out of there. I think it was the year after they won the title and all of a sudden landed in Oklahoma City,

one of their competitors, and Cuban was all mad about that. His performance during the lockout was reprehensible. He did a terrible job. I didn't like how he handled that stuff at all. I didn't think he did. I just thought he was awful as the Knicks coach last year. And everybody was saying, well, they're tanking that. Well, I actually watched basketball.

I was watching how he coached, and he had no idea what he was doing. I don't think he knows what he's doing. This Barnes story is weird, just in general, and just, I don't know. I don't know what's going on with that dude. He's finding himself in the public eye on the wrong side of stuff here. He's had a little string here. I mean, the divorce with his wife, people, you know, that happens's got three kids right people get divorced i get it yeah that's fine but matt barnes he played with him i think it's weird to date somebody that you played with who's also a

reality star on basketball wives like of all the people there fisher could date that was his best choice that i i just think uh this guy's supposed to be the coach and a modicum of stability for a franchise right this is weird behavior oh what what's gonna happen when grizzlies play the knicks yeah it's are they gonna suspend both guys so neither one of them is in the arena this is one of the crazier stories we've seen like spreewell choked carlissimo and that you know it made at least a little sense because they spree carlissimo was coaching him he was riding him spreewell didn't like it spreewell was a little crazy and and things kind of snowballed i don't remember an opposing coach and a player from another team getting into it like this i'll be interested to see how the NBA handles it.

I wouldn't be shocked if Matt Barnes got suspended for five, six, seven games, something like that. I don't think the league wants no part of this stuff. They want no part of it. They can't have it. They can't have it. And you're right. I think Barnes is the one that gets the suspension because he initiated it by getting his car and driving over there.

But Dave Fish has got to get a stern talking to about his judgment, about using a little bit better judgment. Last thing I want to talk about quickly, and then I have one more trick up my sleeve. Oh, boy. more trick up my sleeve uh oh boy dwight howard came out that he played with a torn mcl and a torn meniscus in round three against the warriors we said it last week on the podcast now i didn't know the diagnosis but he was hurt it was obvious that he was i didn't know he was that hurt he he wasn't moving well we knew that there was something going on. It is impressive that he, you know, it helps with the narrative that applies to him. You know, he gets criticized and a lot of it fairly for not necessarily being a team guy and not being the kind of guy that seems to want to

push through pain in other circumstances. That's an impressive performance now looking back on it, right? And add that to the list of lucky breaks the Warriors got. And I still think they deserve the title, and I'm still picking them again in the West this year right now. I might change my mind over the next two weeks, but I still like them the most. All right, I have one more trick up my sleeve, but before we do that,

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It was cool. It popped out. And is your son bouncing on it does it bounce yeah he'll probably if anyone can break a casper mattress it'll probably be my son because he's a little stuntman uh rookie of the year here are the odds okra is plus 400 mudia is plus 450 towns is plus 550 stanley johnson plus 550. Get out of here. I was going to say Jamarcus Russell. D'Angelo Russell is plus 600. Justice, I would have been on the Celtics

if Michael Jordan had just traded Frank Comiskey for four first-round picks. He's plus 1,500. Porzingis is plus 1,500. And then, a pick I really like. I don't know if I'm even I can't remember I think I'm still I think I still have an awards vote I'm so I'm just talking about this as as a fan and just being fun Hazonia on Orlando is plus 1800 I like this guy I think this guy's gonna be really good on Orlando and I think that's an interesting play I think Okafor is the pick, though, because he's going to put up points and rebounds

on a bad Sixers team. I think he could be actually a 20-10 guy on that team. And unless Moutier can slap it together and put up a huge season, it just seems like 4-1 with Okafor is the best pick, right? I would hedge that with Towns. And the reason is because both those guys,

the Orlando guy is interesting. He was off my radar. You've got to watch him on YouTube. That guy's a star. For both Towns and Okafor, they're going to get plenty of opportunity. They're not fighting with anybody for minutes. Right.

So, you know, they'll have enough touches to... I know, but the thing is, I know what I'm getting with Okafor. He's going to put up a 20-10. But the thing is, I know what I'm getting with Okafor. He's going to put up a 20-10. So somebody's got to beat that. And he won't, by the way, he won't guard anybody probably. But it doesn't matter. People look at the stats. But that could be the difference, right?

That could be the difference that pushes people towards Towns because, you know, everybody likes to be slightly more sophisticated these days. And we might get some advanced metrics that show that Towns has a meaningful impact on Minnesota's defense. And Minnesota's slightly better than Philly, I would say. So, you know, I would like to hedge. I like the Okafor bet. I don't have any argument with it. I would hedge it with Towns.

But now, Hazonia, I guess I've got to take a look at it, huh? Hazonia. All right. I think Orlando is going to be better than people think this year because they'll actually have a competent coach. It turns out coaching does matter in the NBA a little bit. It always makes a difference. And year two of Alfred Payton, he'll be good.

I like the thought of Payton, Oladipo, and Hazonia together as like a run-and-gun, fun, athletic threesome. They have a couple big guys that can rebound. Interesting team. But Hazonia, I think, is a star. Wasn't there some buzz for Vucevic to actually play in the All-Star game? Didn't he get a little All-Star buzz? Not by anybody who watched basketball.

All right. He had a pretty solid, surprising season All-Star buff? Not by anybody who watched basketball. All right. He had a pretty solid, surprising season. He's fine. He's a good fantasy guy. All right. Division odds, and then we're off. Then we're done. Then we're done with this podcast.

The Atlantic Division. The Raptors are minus 185, and the Celtics are plus 200. I think the Celtics can win that division. I really do. I really do. I genuinely do. You know who thinks that as well? Our friend Zach Lowe.

Oh yeah, I said it. You're allowed to talk to him? He's my friend. Of course I'm allowed to talk to him. We talk basketball. I love talking basketball with him. I love talking basketball with you. A couple other people. But yeah, both of us like the Celtics. There's a lot to like.

Now, the argument there is that Toronto, why are they going to regress? Why are they coming back? So they added Damari Carroll, who should help. They lost Amir Johnson to, ironically, the Celtics. But he was the guy who didn't care if he got stats and did stuff and was kind of the adult in the room. And my fear with the Raptors would be that, you know, and DeRozan's in a contract year.

Now, the good thing for them is Kyle Lowry's in shape. A big story about that this week. Congratulations, Kyle Lowry, on making $12 million a year and deciding in year two that you're going to be in shape. So that great, we're glad you came to that conclusion. Um,

but I, I worry about, is there a little too much people going for their own stats and stuff this year? Because you need the guy, Amir, you need Amir Johnson. It's just like,

you know, set picks and play defense. The reason you need Amir Johnson is, is, is on defense. And they demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt an inability to respond defensively in the playoffs when it came to be crunch time.

And now they're worse. You know, did they win 50? Would they win 49 last year? Something like that, yeah. They died in the second half. Yeah, that's true. I forget the exact number, but they were like 27 and13, 26-13, something down the last 40 games. And, you know, I don't think they're a 500 team.

So you need the Celts to be like a 47-win team and Toronto to drop down to like a 46-win team for that to hit. I actually think with their depth they can be 49-50 because they added David Lee and Amir Johnson. They didn't lose anything. And they got Marcus Smart in year two. They got a full season of Isaiah Thomas who was hurt down the stretch.

President Brad Stevens. I like them at plus 200. I still have the bad taste in my mouth of trying to watch the Celtics score in the playoffs. I know, but Isaiah was hurt and they didn't have Lee. So now you're putting David Lee in the spot of Kelly Olenek. I know, but Isaiah was hurt and they didn't have Lee. So now you're putting David Lee in

the spot of Kelly Olenek. I don't know. I'm optimistic. Don't throw water on me, House. You're always optimistic. House, don't throw water on me. The Central. Plus 200. Cavs are minus 500. Bulls are plus 500. Your Milwaukee Bucks are plus 1,500.

I do like the Milwaukee Bucks this year. I like them quite a bit. I think more stuff would have to happen in the Cavs. Southeast Hawks are plus 150. Heat are plus 200. And the Washington professional basketball team is plus 240. And I think that is a little tasty. There are a lot of things to find interesting there. The one that I like the best out of that one, the Heat.

I love the Heat this year. I like both of them. I like them and I like the Wiz. I wish they. Yeah. The Heat. I love the Heat this year. I like both of them. I don't even, I like them and I like the Wiz. I wish they were in another division. I agree. I wish one of them was in the Atlantic. I really like the Wiz this year. If Dudley can come back in time, they're basically replacing Pierce with Dudley.

And Gary Neal is kind of an interesting fit for them. Yeah, I know. They've made good additions. It's going to hurt. I really... I know, the leadership is going to hurt with the people. If Yeah, I know. They've made good additions. It's going to hurt. I really... I know, the leadership is going to hurt with the pee-pee. If Dad couldn't figure out a way, exactly, to keep pee-pee. That leadership...

But you and I both love John Wall. I love John Wall. And his maturation process, you know, every single year he has gotten better. And he is without doubt the unquestioned leader of the team. He had an outstanding performance throughout the regular season. His injury was the singular reason that they didn't beat the Hawks. They easily could have beat the Hawks in that second round.

And I'll tell you— Before him getting hurt. I feel—I i've done podcasts with them and granted it's a short interaction and you're meeting the service person but you can kind of tell who's genuine and who's not as weird as that sounds when you're just in a room with somebody i really liked him i just think he's he's a really good sweet guy who makes eye contact and just there's something about him i just like I think he has a chance to really blossom into

somebody who's special off the court and on the court yeah well he had that genuine moment last year where he broke down crying yeah I just like and you like him too you've been following him more diligently than I have I think out of anybody in the league the last few years he got the worst rap and you know

I like Howard. I think he did a good job for ESPN. I think it's really hard to do radio three hours a day. I like him personally. I get, you know, some of what he does is shtick. You're not going to bat a thousand. Not everyone's going to agree with every opinion you made. The biggest mistake he's made, other than what he said about Dominican Republic players this summer, which wasn't great.

The biggest mistake he made was not just what he said about John Wall a couple times, but not retracting it. That's the thing. He wouldn't walk it back. He had to double down and triple down and quadruple down. Yeah, you're wrong. You're just wrong on the guy. Yeah, you're wrong, and it makes you look bad. Just admit you're wrong.

And at the very outset, the thing that I, in fact, you and I had a podcast three years ago where I went on a rant that got excised from the cast because I properly accused him of race baiting. All of his, you know, assignations, his problems with wall at the outset and what he was describing it it emanated from this thing where wall was doing the dougie um early on and right not a good look but you know that all of the the criticisms that that cal colin then put on him you know were were classic like racial coding kind of stuff but it was it was most of them and he doubled down on it.

Yeah. And listen, I, I, I haven't batted a thousand either with stuff I've said. And there's things that have come out of my mouth that were constructed in a way where right after I said, I was like, damn, I wish I had said that better. That's going to happen. In this case, the way he said it was wrong. His theory was wrong. And then as you said, he doubled down on it. And again,

I like Howard. He's my friend. I have good conversations with him. I think his heart's in the right place. I really wish he would, he would kind of get off that corner. I don't think it's good for him. And I just think he's wrong. And I, you know, a lot of times in sports, you're right or you're wrong. Um, And then there are gray areas where it's like, yeah, oh, here's the argument. I see your side. Here's my side. And you never really agree. But sometimes you're right or you're wrong.

And he's dead wrong on this. And he should admit that he's wrong because John Wall is an awesome guy. And I think he's in the running for when you talk about approval rating for a player in a city. Just going through the NBA teams, he's way up there. I think Washington fans love this guy. Yeah, we do love him. He's delivered the franchise back to the playoffs, and it's a competitive scenario here in Washington, which is such a rare occurrence when it comes to the professional basketball team.

Well, Colin and I, we're going to do a podcast at some point in the next couple of weeks. And I look forward to talking about this with him because I'm disappointed in his take on it. But I really like him personally. I think he's great at what he does. And I've been excited to see him, you know, in a new home, like just doing his thing. And who knows where his perspective may be at this stage. We'll talk about that. He's either coming on my podcast or I'll go on his show or whatever, but I like him and

I just think he's wrong on this. Southwest, Spurs are minus 150, Rockets plus 300, Grizz and Pelicans are plus 800. I gotta say, I think I would take the Rockets plus 300. I think they're built better for the regular season. I feel the exact same way. There were two teams entering in here

as I've looked at the over-unders and some of the buzz, and I'm slightly crestfallen because everybody that I like and enjoy that I kind of regard as a smart commentator, smart observer of the game, likes Houston, and I thought Houston was going to be a little, smart observer of the game, likes Houston. And I thought Houston was going to be a little off the radar. No, they're not. I really like Houston. They're on the radar.

In fact, I'm going to go the other way. I think there's a chance that they become kind of the bandwagon pick, a la the Colts. It's time for the Colts to make the Super Bowl. I think you can see that here. And I just want to caution everyone. This is a team that's fundamentally built around James Harden and Dwight Howard as their character leader guys so just be careful but I think

for the regular season this team's built to win in the regular season we've seen Popovich doesn't care about the regular season he's going to throw away games they're also built to win in the playoffs they are super deep if they can stay healthy they might be I'll tell you though we we never talked about this,

but one of the craziest games I ever went to in my life, and I've been to a lot of good basketball games, I've been to a lot of crazy basketball games, I've been blessed. That Rockets Clippers game six, which happened right after all my shit with ESPN went down, and I wasn't able to write about it or talk about it, was the single craziest collapse I've ever witnessed in person.

It needs a frame by frame. It's a, it's a sports documentary because I was there and you know, you know, I, I'm a, I'm a fucking weirdo. I'm going to watch the benches and the body language,

all that shit. And Houston quit in that game. They quit in the third quarter and there was a timeout when Harden just had quit on the whole game. They benched him. The body language, like the body language is so bad that I was intently watching the bench. Cause I was like, I wonder like Mikhail is going to get fired.

I wonder if somebody, I wonder if somebody is going to have to be separated from somebody like that's what it was like down the stretch of that game. They benched Harden. They brought in Smith and some of the other guys. And the Clipper fans are celebrating. They don't know any better. They just never knew it was coming. And all of a sudden, the Rockets start coming back. Now, the most fascinating part of this game, and the tape, I don't know if it backs me up i didn't see the telecast but i kept looking over the rockets bench hardin was just sitting there like his team they're they're hit a point in that game where it's like oh they're starting to come back a little the quippers look tired they look tight and hardin was just sitting on

the bench wasn't doing anything like he was sulking and i was there with mike tolan who i shared the tickets with and we're nudging each other going like wow Harden wow my god okay this is this is crazy like everyone else in the team is standing up and he's still sitting there what is he doing and then Josh Smith turned in the left hand of LeBron and then all of a sudden it got to like 10 Blake got the frozen face going Chris Paul looked exhausted and was trying to do too much. DeAndre was terrified. He didn't want to get. The whole Clippers team got terrified.

And right around when it got to like six, all of a sudden James Harden was standing up and applauding and doing the whole thing. But I'm telling you, that 40 minutes of basketball, I've never seen anything like it. The crowd got tight. The players got tight. Josh Smith turned into left-handed LeBron. That's the weight of history. And James Harden looked like this was like, wow, this guy almost won the MVP. And this is going to be his scarlet letter.

The fact that he no-showed this game and then on top of it didn't cheer for his teammates. Hopefully that's the last curse of Donald Sterling on the Clippers franchise. Hopefully that loss helped them exercise a final demon. It was so sad. They, they, they lost by like 10. They were up by like 20 something and they ended up losing by 10.

And like, we're leaving that last minute and all the Clipper fans, you know, a lot of them know who I was cause I'm on TV. I was on TV once upon a time. And, uh, once upon a time, Once upon a time.

They were devastated. And they're looking at me like, we're never going to win, are we? I'm walking up the aisle and they're like, Bill, what do we do? What just happened? It was like watching an entire team get hit by a car. It was incredible. I've never seen anything like it. Anyway.

Well, hopefully you have some time to sit down with a pen and write 6 000 words on it i think i just did i think that's as close as you're getting from a comment from me i'm like cornizer my fingers don't work anymore uh northwest okc minus 5 000 jazz plus 1200 everyone else sucks so unless you think the jazz can finish. 5,000? I know. That's a kind of a stay away. It is. I mean, we should remind everyone. Oh, God.

If you repeat last season, right? If you simply have the exact same bad turn of events for OKC. It's still 45 wins. It's still 45 wins. It's still 45 wins. And that should be enough to win that division, right? I don't mean to be a wet blanket with OKC because it looks like they're locked and loaded. Kevin Durant broke his foot three times last year.

Or he had three surgeries on his foot, so I guess he broke it twice. Or three times, I don't know. He had three surgeries. Right? It happened. Three surgeries. I need to see him play 25 games in a row before I'm looking at a minus

5,000 division title line. That's all I'm asking. That line seems high. It's an obvious stay away. The Pacific is the Warriors are minus 220 and the Clips are plus 180. I think that's obvious stay away. The Pacific is the Warriors are minus 220 and the Clips are plus 180. I think that's a stay away. Those odds are right. I don't think they're worth betting.

I agree. Joe House. Hey. We covered everything. You kept your third person mentions to a minimum. I only talked about Big Al a couple times. He does hook me up, though. And he's my Super Contest partner.

3-1-1 last week in the Super Contest. Yeah. What's your record now for Super Contest? Well, we lost last night. Oh. It was a really low. It was out of pick-em in the Super Contest. Yes, we're stupid.

How are you an NFL expert? You pick Ryan Mallett. So dumb. So dumb. Yeah. All right, Joe Haas, every Friday we're doing this. And if you missed Sal on Wednesday, Chuck Klosterman on Thursday, check that out on bill Simmons podcast.com. Please subscribe to us on iTunes. My feelings were hurt today. This American life passed us

for the number one spot. Um, yeah, yeah. So now it's on you. Now it's on the listeners. You got to get that number one spot back from me you know how competitive I am you should offer them some lobster tempura thanks again to today's

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That's it. Thanks to HBO for letting me do this. Thanks to Joe House. Enjoy the weekend.