The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 85: Diana Taurasi

Episode Date: April 1, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Diana Taurasi to discuss her WNBA return from Russia, UConn's dominance (6:00), the stupidity of lowering the rims (13:00), GSW's selflessness (16:30), playing pickup with Westbrook and Draymond (21:00), and the struggling Lakers and D'Angelo Russell (30:00). Then, The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman break down the Russell scandal (38:10), NBA coaches/players on the move (53:00), and the 2016 'Sources Say' MVPs (1:06:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Or visit their store at 129 Prince Street in Soho. Untucket.com. Use code BS20 for 20% off. And we're off. Yeah. Clear enough for you. All right. Yeah.

Well, this is exciting. This is the biggest time zone difference we've ever had on a BS podcast. Calling from Russia, the greatest women's basketball player of all time, Diana Taurasi. How are you? Is your intro song really Tupac? Yeah. How about that? That's amazing.

That's amazing. I figured you'd like that. How are you? That's great. I like that. I figured you'd like that. How are you? That's great. I like that. I'm feeling great. I'm over here in Russia. You know, the grind continues. You're in the playoffs, right? What is the playoffs called and what round

are you in? So there's two playoffs. Russian League playoffs, which start tomorrow, the quarterfinals. And then we have our EuroLeague, which is the big boy. That one is April 14th. And then after that's done, you fly back here and you start the 20th WNBA season. You're back, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Our first game is the 15th, I think. So I'll probably get back to LA around the 5th and then go straight to Phoenix from there. And then during that season, you're going to Rio to try to win your four straight Olympic gold medal, which only one other person has done, Lisa Leslie. That's happening too, right? That's the plan. Hopefully I make the team. Oh, stop it.

Don't say that. Come on. And then after that, probably WNBA playoffs. What a run. That's a lot of basketball. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much been the cycle for, you know, the last decade for me and for a lot of other players. And I think lately it's been, you know, talked about a little bit more how, you know, that

vicious cycle is really, really something we talk about because it takes a toll on you mentally, physically. But I took last summer off, and I'm ready for that journey. So, yeah, I was going to say you took last summer off, and people thought that was not a great sign for the league, that the best player in the league decided not to play a season. But I don't think people realize that going year-round, basketball-wise, year after year.

Like, it sounds like you just needed to refuel physically and mentally. Yeah, I think, and, you know, I think at one point in your career, you have to make a tough decision. Like the other day, I saw Chris saying he's not going to Rio to play in the Olympics. And I'm sure that's a decision. But at a certain point, you not going to Rio to play in the Olympics and I'm sure that decision but at a certain point you really have to listen to your body and knowing we're getting up there in in years played you know those three four months off can really help you for the for the

next three or four years right um all right we have some stuff to talk about let's talk about UConn first um there there was a was a little media momentum going this week, started by Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe, who I usually disagree with. I thought this was an interesting take, that basically Gina Auriemma and UConn are ruining women's basketball because they're too dominant. Can you be too dominant as a women's basketball team. I mean, I really just think that's such a silly argument. And I hate to always agree with Coach Ariema, but on this one, I mean, he said it perfect. I mean, you have so many dominant, not only individual players,

but sports teams over the years. And no one would ever accuse the Lakers and the Celtics in the 80s of being bad for basketball. No one ever in the 80s of being bad for basketball. No one ever accused Roger Federer of being bad for tennis. I mean, greatness stands on its own. It's something that, if you're a true sports fan, don't you want to see that? I do. I love seeing it. I love people who dominate.

Because that's showing you that they're doing something that no one else is doing. Whether it's preparation, whether it's something innate they have. I mean, that's beautiful to watch. I agree with you. With that said, I think it was better. I think it was better. Like you mentioned the 80s, the Celtics and the Lakers. Well, they had each other.

And they could measure each other by each other. And they were trying to push each other. This is starting to feel like, you know, I would always hop in for the women's Final Four. I don't even know if I'm going to care this year because it just seems like UConn's going to win both games by 35 points, so why do I even need to watch? That, I don't know if that's great. And it's never, you know, Pat Summitt was there for a long time

and that was the big rival. Then Notre Dame got in there for a couple years. But it would be better if they had a rival, right? Yeah, I mean, I feel like when we were in college, we did with Tennessee, Notre Dame. But, you know, the funny thing about this year's Final Four, so you obviously have the most dominant program of all time, and then you have three teams that have never made the Final Four before.

Yeah. So you have, like, the most open Final Four, and at the same time people who look at it through a little keyhole, the Final Four that it's already a foregone conclusion. So, you know, it's kind of a double-edged sword right now with the women's Final Four. Can you name the four teams that are in the Final Four, Bill? Please tell me you can.

I can't. I can't. Are you kidding me, man? I haven't because I know UConn's going to win. So, you know, there's a lot going on. I got fantasy baseball. I got NBA. I got WrestleManias coming up.

I got D'Angelo Russell starting Snapchat. WrestleManias. D'Angelo Russell's in a social media thing. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, that has nightmare written all over it. I want to get to that in a second. So let's say you're 17 years old right now.

Let's say time machine you. We're throwing you in a time machine from when you were one of the top recruits. I can't remember how many years ago. And you're picking schools now. Why would you pick any other school than UConn? I mean, any kid is just going to be like, yeah, I want to win titles. I'm going to UConn. I mean, isn't this done now?

Well, I mean, you know, I think, like, that's UConn's strength, but at the same time, I think the era we're in is just a little bit different right now. I don't know if the whole I want to win championships is more important than, like you said, how many Snapchat followers you have. I don't know if that's on the same level right now. So you think there's a chance some of these kids are looking at this like, well, if I go to UConn, I'll be lost because they get the same five best players every year. But if I go to this school, I'm going to be the lead dog. You know what?

I've watched a lot of women's college basketball. A lot. And this year probably more than ever because I've watched a lot of women's college basketball. A lot. And this year probably more than ever because I've just been really interested in it. I really wanted to kind of get back into it to see if everything that I hear is true. And you know what? Yes, we have Breonna Stewart, the best player in the country. Mariah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck. But Coach gets the most out of these players.

And I think it's more of a challenge to the rest of the country, players, coaches, programs. You've got to eventually find a way to beat them. So when does he get bored by this? I mean, I think this one's huge for him. And, you know, coach, as he's gotten a little bit older and, you know, all these things have come his way, he's gotten, you know, very humble, but he's still the most competitive coach out there. You know, he could talk about, you know, the women's game and all this, but coach wants to win. And I think getting 11, you know, whether he's a women's coach,

a golf coach, that puts him alone. Yeah, seriously. Yeah, that's red Auerbach territory. That puts him alone. And, I mean, whether you want to respect it, whether you want to look at it, whether you don't want to watch it, he's on his own now. Well, there's two separate things going, right? So if he wins

this year, it's four straight, which is ridiculous. And then he's got the 11, too. I'm trying to think, other than UCLA in the men's, I don't think any... I can't imagine anyone's won four straight. Four straight's ludicrous. I mean, and how competitive

was it when UCLA won? Was that really competitive? It was basically the same thing. It was the same thing with the men. And that's why when Houston beat them in the Astrodome that year and then a couple years later when Bill Walton's team lost, it was momentous. Maybe that's how this plays out.

It's almost, from a jinxing standpoint, this is bad for UConn that everybody's like they're unbeatable. Like I said, and it's funny how tricky this Final Four is because like I said, you have UConn, which you think, obviously you said is not going to lose. And then you have, I've never been to the Final Four.

This could be an interesting dynamic in a weird way. And you know, as a super competitive athlete, the worst thing that can happen to you as an athlete is everybody just telling you that it's done and you're going to win. You never want to be in that spot. Yeah. Because you've got to. No, but the beauty about the program at UConn,

they have this bubble where when you put that jersey on, you still feel like an underdog, which is crazy to think about. So who, where, the girls on this team, where do they rank for you? Like, what's your Mount Rushmore of UConn players during the Geno era? Oh, well, I mean, you'd obviously have to put Lobo on there because Lobo and Rosati kind of got the machine start where they were two pretty highly recruited players and they got them to number one, won a national championship. So I feel like there's the early group that really put them on the map. And then I'll fast forward now where obviously Breonna Stewart,

what she's doing, if she can win four in a row, I mean, she's probably in the middle of that. And then I'd have to put Tina Charles and Maya up there. I mean, if I leave anyone off, it would be silly. You know,

you talk about Sue, the best point guard to play the last 10 years in women's basketball. Swing Cash. I mean, I can go on. And Nikesha Sales. Renee Montgomery. So, I mean, you can't just have, I guess, one mountain.

Let me ask the question differently. You're on a starting five. You get to pick four other players, and you get to kick everyone else's ass in the history of women's basketball not just college what is that what does that team look like just if you're making it for fun and you're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings what would it have to be you're talking about any five players any five players from the geno from the geno era any you're putting together a starting five from the Gino era that you just feel like from a chemistry, from a spacing, from everything, that would have just been really phenomenal. I put Sue at the one. Okay. I would have Tina at the five.

I put Maya at the four. I put Nikesha Sales at the five. I put Maya at the four. I put Nikesha Sales at the three. And then I would put Shea Ralph at the two. Wait, you didn't put yourself on the team. I'll be six, man. I'll take one for the team. You're such a great teammate. That's awesome.

I've heard that before. How do you watch this game in Russia? Are you like 12 hours ahead? I mean, I don't want to bring up those big four letters, ESPN. Oh, you can. That's fine. So you have to get up at like 6 in the morning? 6 in the morning?

Yeah. All right. Yeah, like the game, the first game will be at 3 a.m. here, and the second will be at 5.30. So, you know, just get up, watch it, and then go back to bed. Do you want to waste time talking about this stupid lower the rims thing or no? Because I think it's stupid. You think it's stupid?

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's funny because it's been brought up so many times. I mean, I had this argument with Coach Rim about four years ago, Sue and I did. And he's the one who actually put on the forefront. He was talking about it in articles and interviews. He was like, are you really talking about this as a valid solution to get more viewership? Yeah. And, you know, I've been thinking about it a lot.

And in our game, that's what we're always fighting against, right? We want more media coverage. We want same pay. We want, you know, the same channel exposure. And then, okay, the three-point line is not the same, correct? Ours is shorter. Yeah. The ball, ours is smaller, correct?

Yeah. So the one thing we're equal at is that the rim is 10 feet tall. That is the one thing that we do have equal rights on. I'm not willing to give that up. Well, it's also, all right, let's say my daughter, who's going to be 11 next month, so she's going to go shoot on hoops in her gym, but the hoops are six inches taller than what the hoops that the WNBA players play on.

It's just illogical. I don't get it. I mean, and logistically, every single core, every single playground, every single high school. I mean, and, you know, it's funny because I think that would be just a Band-Aid over whatever wound we're trying to fix and trying to heal. And that's almost parallel to when they wanted us to claim sports bras and spandex. Is that going to really fix anything, a mindset that there is about women's sports out there? I don't think that's fixing anything. I think people just need to be patient with the product

because the product has gotten so much better in the last 20 years, and it's going to keep getting better. And you've got to think of it like if you watch men's basketball in the 50s and 60s, that product all of a sudden started to accelerate, and the game got vertical, and stuff started happening. And I think you can definitely, if you watch women's college basketball highlights from 30 years ago, it feels like a little bit of a different sport. The spacing's all messed up and, you know.

Definitely. I would give it time. How much of the Warriors were you able to watch this year? I would feel like they're like your nirvana for basketball, right? Huge. And talk about basketball coming full circle you because when you when you talked about the nba a little bit ago not too long ago what was it about you know the alley-oop with the clippers you know the power game and you know the the spectrum of

basketball shifted to the warriors dribble passble, pass, shoot, movement. You know, once in a while you get that fancy high, but everything is kind of, you know, below the rim the way they play. Yeah. Yeah, and the stuff. And that's really being appreciated right now. And, you know, that's kind of how we're taught at a very early age how to play the game in the women's game.

It's very you play for the next person. Where in the men's, you play for you. Yeah. I always blame really that's Jordan's fault. I mean, it wasn't anything he did, but he had so much success as a one-on-one player. It led to 15 years of people trying to imitate that and now i do feel like the worst thing will be good and bad because the good thing is that people will be emulating the ball movement and just the general movement and some of the ingenuity they

have but i do think i do think there is going to be a whole generation of kids who just feel like there's no bad shot anymore because steph curry can all these shots, so I'm going to do that too. And I'm going to be interested to see how that plays out because think about this. Well, you know, yeah, ball movement's a funny thing because, you know, ball movement for the Warriors is different than ball movement for the Lakers. Yep. Yeah. Because if you're moving the ball to Harrison Barnes, Clay Thompson, Steph Curry, that's a whole different ball game than if you're moving the ball to Harrison Barnes, Clay Thompson, Seth Curry,

that's a whole different ball game than if you're moving the ball to Mehta. Right. So, you know, coaches these days, they love their ball movement, but, you know, if there's nowhere for it to move, it's better for one guy to have it. Yeah, I've made this point before, but I'm going to make it again. This is not replicable what's going on with the warriors to to the degree that they have the best shooter of all time and one of the best 10 shooters of all time so when you when you have that it's easy to have awesome ball movement but at the same time i do like where this is going and i never i always

thought like just everybody clear out like i can't't watch the Rockets. I think James Harden's one of the best 10 players in the league. I just can't watch him. I can't watch him dribble for 12 seconds as everybody stands there. It's everything I'm against as a basketball fan. So. Well, that makes basketball so hard to play. Yeah. Well.

It makes it hard to win games. It makes it hard for your teammates. It makes it really easy for the other team to guard you. You know, it's just not sustainable. And he's amazing. Like, no one can say anything about James because he's one of the most gifted players in the world, hands down. Right. It's just that he's turned his team into the movie where he's the star of the movie and everybody else is just like extras. Like last night, we're taping this on a Friday, Dwight Howard last night took four shots. And anyone who's ever played basketball at any level knows that one of the things you have to do if you have a big guy is to make the big guy happy

because the big guy is going to block shots and rebound, but you have to feed him. You have to throw him some breadcrumbs every once in a while. And if he's going to take four shots. You've got to throw him bones. Yeah, you just have to. You've got to rub his belly every once in a while. And to only have him take four shots in a game, that is not a lot of belly rubbing,

and he's not going to try as hard. So it's just funny to watch a team like that and then see a team like the Warriors that there's such a selflessness with what they have going on. I'll be interested to see if they can sustain it. I think it's what you just said. The Warriors have a willingness to play together. Yeah. And you can't, you can't, like, you can't emulate that with just any five players. Do you ever? No matter if they're all great shooters, great passers, there has to be a willingness to

make the next pass. There has to be a willingness to, you know what, I'm going to turn down this offense rebound and kick it out the step. Like, that is a willingness to do. And I don't know if there's enough of that in basketball, a willingness to do it for someone else. Yeah, it helps when your best player is selfless, which is one of the reasons why you've had so much success.

Do you ever have the urge to just slap down the women's college basketball best player ever card and just call the Warriors? Like, when you're in town, you're just like, can I just play with you guys for two hours? You could probably do that. Would you ever do that? No, I'm good. You know, I'm good where I am. I feel like that's just having to prove something that, to me,

I don't need to prove it to myself. I'm good. I've played with a lot of great players, and I don't need to be I don't need to prove it to myself I'm good I've played with a lot of great players and I don't need that I'm not even saying that for a spectacle I don't need that I'm good I'm not even saying it from a proving standpoint I'm just saying it as somebody who genuinely loves basketball just out of a curiosity standpoint would it be fun for you to play with them for 90 minutes? I mean, yeah. Actually, this summer, which I took off, I would work out in the same gym as Draymond, and we played a little five-on-five scrimmage.

You know, it was fun to be out there with those guys because, you know, there's this passion that they love basketball. Yeah. And, you know, Russ was out there. Ray McCollum was out there. So, I mean, I got to get a little bit of that this summer, which was fun. Wait a second. Draymond's on the court, Westbrook's on the court, and you're on the court?

Yeah, this summer. Oh, yeah. So what kind of – I mean, that's like your dream scenario. Like those are two of the biggest trash talker, chest thumper. I mean, didn't you, you must have gone at them a little bit, right? No, Draymond and I talk a lot of shit. Sure. Draymond's kind of. There was a little 5'9 guy.

Obviously, I was the one going to the little 5'9 white guy. And Draymond was just like, go at her, go at her. And I'm like, this freaking guy. And I would give it back. And then Russ is unbelievable. Yeah. Well, he's possessed. He's a crazy person.

He goes all out at all times. He can't not go fifth gear at every moment of every game. He just has to. And this is what people don't see. Every summer he'd get to that gym at 830 and he'd play like it was game six. Yeah. Well, I think Draymond and Westbrook, probably a hybrid of them, is kind of how you're wired too.

So I'm sure you have fun playing with those guys. Draymond especially. Yeah. Well, it's funny when you play basketball for a long time. There's guys that have it and there's guys that don't. There's guys that walk into the gym and they might as well be going to a funeral.

Yeah. And you know. And there's guys that love it and want to be in the gym and want to engage. And you know. And there's guys that love it and want to be in the gym and want to engage. And those guys, they don't have to be the best basketball player. That's the thing. Right. Well, you know what's funny?

So it feels like NBA teams are starting to figure this out a little bit finally. That competitive engine is one of the biggest parts of success if you're a basketball prospect and we're seeing now with ben simmons because ben simmons is the most talented guy in this draft and people are concerned that he's not competitive enough and it's the first time i can remember in a draft somebody might actually fall a spot or two spots because people are worried about that, what you just talked about. Does he love basketball? I mean, I don't understand how it fell so down the list. I don't either.

But this was your, I mean, Draymond went 37th. The guy had a great college career, and really the only red flags with him were he was heavier in college, which we should have learned by now that it's easy to get in shape when you're a professional athlete and it's your job. And then he was an inch too short. And it's easy to gain 10 pounds in college, really easy. Yeah. I mean, Abby Wambach's a great example, right?

She was 15 pounds heavier in college because she was in college. And you're eating bad food. Bill, I weighed 185 pounds in college. I weigh 155 right now. What? I weighed 185 pounds in college. Oh, my God. Yeah, I was a middle linebacker.

Straight up. It makes sense. The two things I would always look at if people were following a weight thing, Yeah, I was a middle linebacker, straight up. It makes sense. The two things I would always look at if people were following a weight thing, like, oh, yeah, of course, they're in college. But the competitive thing. So Ben Simmons, because he might end up on your favorite team. I know.

We need him. I want Ben. Okay, good. So you're not worried about his competitiveness? Because he was in a bad situation. No, no, no. Okay, good. So you're not worried about his competitiveness? Because he was in a bad situation. No, no, no. Okay, good. I'm not worried either.

That's a kid who should have spent his first year as a Laker or a Sixer or whatever this year. There's no reason why that kid should have went to college. It's a joke. That was just silly. And I feel bad that he got put in a position where now he looks bad for somewhere he should have never been. Right. Bad coach. Not a great supporting cast.

I mean. Yeah. You know, like, and then they threw him out to the wolves and they made themselves look good because that's what the NCAA does, right? Yeah. I mean, he was in college for a whopping six months and dropped out immediately after they got knocked out. I don't know what kind of system that is.

You graduated, right? Let me. Yeah. Yeah, I graduated. Actually, so after my four years, I had to go back and finish a couple classes. So I took the next semester, I went back to school and knocked that out. But if you were the male version of you after freshman year and you know you're going to be one of the top two picks and you're going to make money and you're going to get a $70 million shoe deal,

what do you do? Well, I'm out of there. I mean, that's not even a question. Like, what people forget is this is a – I mean, you can talk about college going, yeah, you go to get an education, you go to grow up. But I mean, once, once you're there, that was at the age of 16, I felt like it was my profession. Yeah.

And you still love it. How have you stayed so healthy? Well, I mean, I've, I've, I've been really lucky because i haven't had one major surgery or injury since not ever in my life so that i've been really lucky and you know little by little i've kind of understood that you know what i eat the weight room you know all the stuff that you do before you get on the court all that is so important especially when you get to be 33. Those are the things that keep you going. Right. Well, then you look at guys in the NBA like Dirk.

Dirk's in year 18. He's still carrying Dallas to a playoff seat. He's played over 50,000 minutes. Dirk really is amazing. Yeah. Dirk's amazing. You kind of take for granted how good he was because he you know he played in the air with so many

one dominant teams and players but damn he's really good and he still is alright this is a question

you probably won't answer because you're a Laker fan and I don't want to put you in an awkward spot but would you ever would you ever put yourself

through a season like the season Kobe just had or would you try to yourself through a season like the season Kobe just had? Or would you try to walk away a year earlier? I don't know if I can go through what Kobe's gone through. I know. And he's done a – I think he's been amazing.

And I think he's – I don't think he could have done it any better by going through it. Because he's been pretty amazing. When he's played, he's played pretty well, actually. Yeah. When he's been on the court, he still looks like, oh man, if he wanted to, he can go another year. But what they've done is almost a shame to every Laker fan.

Elaborate. Well, I mean, I pick a team like the Blazers that lost four starters. They're pretty competitive right now. Yeah. You take a team like Utah who, you know, you would say is rebuilding, but at least you can see some sort of foundation where they're going with their young players.

I don't know where we're going. I don't know where we're going with it. It seems like there's so many people with an interest on which way to take the Lakers that it doesn't seem like there's one road for everyone. And that's a shame because that's, I feel like, what they've always been really good at. So I'm guessing you wouldn't play Meadow World Peace 28 minutes a game? That wouldn't be on your agenda? Meadow's one of my all-time favorite Lakers.

He's like the dude you want on your team. Right. Seven years ago. Not anymore, though. He broke my heart. He made that three with a minute left in game seven. I wanted him to take it. Take that shot, and then he made it. Yeah, he made it.

He made it. Kobe didn't want him to take it either, though. No. I wanted either of them to shoot it. I would have been happy and Meta made it. So, all right, the Snapchat thing. So Russell does this. I don't understand all of the details, but it was a locker room teammate betrayal.

All right, let's say that happens on your team. Could you play with that person? Yeah. Oh, I mean, isn't this just indicative of the era we live, like where everything's getting videoed and photographed and passed through phones and Snapchatted? Like, you know, to me, this is a moment that should have stayed in that moment, you know? Yeah. And, you know, he might have made a mistake. I don't personally know the details.

I don't know how it got out. I don't know how, you know, if he sent it to a friend in the friend letter. I really don't know. But, you know, it's not as much as a bro code, but it's a teammate code. When, you know, teammates are talking, whether it's in the locker room, on the bus, all that stuff, it kind of, it doesn't get repeated. It stays in-house. It's almost like an understanding. Like, I'm sure there is in any office building, in any Best Buy.

Like, you know, you talk with your coworkers, your teammates, and that kind of just dies there. Yeah. What was the... But, I mean, you don, and that kind of just dies there. Yeah. What was the... But, I mean, you don't got to crucify the kid either. Yeah, I actually felt bad for him because he's only 20, you know, and who doesn't make mistakes when they're 19 and 20? This one seemed... I think people felt this might have been malicious,

which was a different kind of mistake. I don't think... I personally don't agree. I think he's just stupid. You know? Well, I think he's 19. And when he's 19, if the things I did when I was 19 were on video. Right.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have me on this podcast right now. Yeah. I think we've all been there. So what was the worst thing that's happened? You don't have to name names, but did you ever play on a team where something happened behind the scenes that threatened the actual fabric of the team? You know, I've been on, you know,

I feel like a lot of dysfunctional teams, tell you the truth, where the dynamic of personalities just don't match. And, you know, you have this bickering behind closed doors, you have this bickering behind each other's back. Um, but I've always been able to, the minute I cross the court, to cut all that out. But you know what? It always puts a strain on the team. Yeah.

Because that fluidness of that camaraderie, it's not there. And you can tell with the Lakers, even though they're irrelevant right now. I mean, the kid's making plays and no one's acknowledging him. That's not... So what would you do if you were on this team? Let's say you were – let's say you were you.

You're just – you're still an all-star. You're on the team. This kid's taking a ton of shit. How would you handle it? Well, I think Kobe said it best. We're like, only time is going to make it better. I mean, really, it sounds corny, but that's all you can do. You apologize.

If there's one thing that I've learned is when you make a mistake, you stand up and you take it. Yeah. And, you know, it's one thing. It's like, how much stuff is being covered up? Oh, my God. What are these guys doing? Like, oh, I mean. All right.

Rank these events in the order of probability of them happening. UConn National Championship, 2016 USA Women's Basketball Olympic Gold Medal, Phoenix WNBA title, and that's it. That's all I have, those three. I mean, I like my chances on all three. Really? So you went three-team parlay?

You went parlay all three of those? Can we do that? Yeah. The four gold medals Yeah And I'll throw And I'll throw Throw in Nate Diaz in there too He's gonna get another win

Okay Four team parlay Throw him in there too Four gold medals is pretty amazing And Misha Tate And throw Misha Tate in there too Throw Misha Tate in there too I like her

Alright The comeback kid I like her So you're MMA now too, huh? I mean, I just it's growing up, my dad and I, every Friday night, every Friday night on Prime Ticket

we'd watch fights at the forum every Friday night. Loved it. There's something just so raw about two people just getting in a ring and fighting. I mean, I really like it. I need you to get out of Russia and come back to America so you can do more stuff with us.

Because I always enjoy talking to you. Yeah. But you're in Phoenix. Can't we get you traded to the Sparks? Can't you just live in L.A.? No. No, no. Why?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's you're talking, you're talking about those two teams don't get along. I don't care. You're a Laker fan. The Lakers and the Sparks, they're like brother and sister and you're not, and yet you're not in the family. And it's like, you're spitting on the Lakers when you play on Phoenix. I know. I know. I know. Well, it's funny. The first Suns game I ever went to, Cedric Ceballos comes up to me, and he's emceeing the Suns game. He's like, who's your favorite team?

The Lakers. And I look up, and I have 20,000 people just booing the shit out of me in Phoenix. I'm like, I need to change my tune. Doesn't Magic Johnson own the LA Sparks? Yeah, he's part owner. So you don't love Magic Johnson? I don't understand.

He's my favorite later. So why would he want to play for his team? I don't understand. Why are you doing this? I mean, I personally don't have a choice in it. If you read our free agency contracts, there's not much movement in the WNBA. It's not really a 10-day event like it is in the NBA.

With Chad Ford. You're kind of drafted with a core tag on you. Yeah. Well, so at least you'll be here. Alright, well, when you come back, you're definitely coming on my HBO show. We'll have to come up with some sort of something. Can we bring Bill Maher in, too?

Sure. We can do whatever you want. We'll figure out something. So when do you get back to the States? So I should be back around May 5th. Okay. Hopefully we take care of business in the finals. All right. Good luck.

And you're going to watch NBA playoffs, right? All right. Feels good. So you'll be able to come on and talk NBA playoffs and stuff? For sure. For sure. Awesome. All right.

Good luck in the playoffs. We could talk about how the Warriors are just killing men's basketball, correct? Yeah, we could do that. We could do whatever you want. The league has pretty much said they're going to win a championship. That's true, yeah. Nobody's

interested anymore. Yeah, but the difference is the Warriors have a team in their conference that might go undefeated at home and win 70 games. So I guess that would be the one. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. They're the best second team ever.

All right, good luck in the playoffs. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you, old man. Take care. All right, bye. Before we keep going, building a website can be daunting. Creating something that looks good and works well is a time-consuming affair, whether it's a business site, a portfolio, a restaurant, or whatever else in this day and age. We'll see you next time. Lewis Kaye launched his own PR brand new biz, covert creative.com. He used Squarespace.

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Squarespace.com. All right, I'm here with Chris Ryan and Julia Lippman from The Ringer. Big week in the Sources Say community. One of our biggest weeks ever. I would say the biggest. It's really a lot to cover. This is incredible. i've been waiting for the gigantic social media controversy that could actually like affect the landscape of a team

and it finally happened with the los angeles lakers and i don't know what they do i don't know what they do either i mean it sounds like some players on the team have said that d'angelo russell addressed the entire team and that he looked at us like men and we appreciate his. I mean, this is just also ridiculous, but they appreciated him standing up for it. But then there's also stuff about how he hasn't actually directly apologized to Nick Young yet. It's crazy. D'Angelo Russell's 20 years old.

Nick Young is over 30. This is so ridiculous. I feel like we've lost our moorings here on what's going on. Like, this is crazy. Okay, so I guess, like, the biggest unspoken rule is no snitching in the NBA. Sure. So D'Angelo Russell broke that unspoken rule. But again, like, Nick Young is the one who's cheating.

Like, I don't understand. He's the victim. He's the victim. It's so crazy. Like, are the Lakers going to trade D'Angelo Russell, the future of their franchise, over this? They're not going to trade him. They're not going to trade D'Angelo Russell. I think it's possible they trade him.

To who? For what? I think teams would trade for him. He was the second pick in the draft. He's very good. Marcus Morris has come out today and said he's never speaking to D'Angelo Russell again. Let's cross them off. Stan Van Gundy, put away your trade package.

D'Angelo Russell's lucky he's cross them off. Stan Van Gundy, put away your trade package. D'Angelo Russell's lucky. He doesn't have to deal with Marcus Morris. You can maybe get something for Jerebko, but that's about it. I think there's a second part of this, though, is if you're a free agent, if he's really poisoned, maybe it affects their chances to get free agents. There's a Celtics fan. That's what I'm hoping for. Or maybe Ben Simmons is like, oh, the Lakers.

I don't know. Russell's on that team. Ben Simmons is from Australia. He's just like, oh, mate. Are we snitching? Couldn't use the Snapchat, eh, mate? It was Snapchat, right? Yeah, Snapchat.

My dad and I were talking about it today. And my dad was like, I wouldn't go there if I was a free agent. This is my dad's, my 68-year-old dad's thing. Your dad. Your dad's like, your dad and Marcus Morris are done with D'Angelo Russell. Done. Well, but there's a whole subplot here. There was a lot of bad buzz about him this whole season.

That he was a rude guy. He was rude to reporters. That he was a head case. All this stuff. And I think that's feeding into this. This wasn't like this isolated incident. And I think they were a little worried about his day-to-day whatever. His priorities weren't maybe in order. I just don't think he was a great teammate.

But you know what's weird is that sometimes when you see guys who obviously have some maturity issues, that manifests itself on the court or you can tell that they're not very focused but at his best this season you're like this guy's gonna be an all-star for 10 years this is incredible he already was doing like the chris paul butt stuff where he would like stop at the free throw line and stick his butt out and kind of make people ride around him and then find a guy or take a jumper it was like he was really reading the game really well, I thought. And I loved watching him play. It kind of sucks. I mean, you were hoping that they could, if you were a Lakers fan, that they would end

the season sort of on a high with him and Randall. So let's say Philly gets the third pick. You drop down two teams, jump you. Okay. And the Lakers say, we'll trade you Russell right now for the third pick. Would you do it? I would do it in a heartbeat. Would you do it if it was the second pick no you wouldn't you'd rather have Ingram or Simmons than Russell yeah my thing with Russell is this is the last time he'll ever

do a snapchat snitch on his teammate it's like almost like a plane crash like there's never a second plane crash yeah he was sort of getting really, he was starting to feel himself in the weeks leading up to this, and you could see there was that one game where he was running out of celebrations on the court. Yeah, he was in his van. He hit a three the other night

when he was getting booed, and he hit a three, and the crowd actually finally started cheering for him, and he just walked up the court like, it's okay, it's okay, it's one of me or four of you. It was sad. It was a sad game. He's like 20 years old. I'm on his side. I think this is crazy. I mean, it's okay, it's okay. It's one of me or four of you. It was sad. It was a sad game.

He's like 20 years old. I'm on his side. I think this is crazy. I mean, first of all, he should take Snapchat off his phone. Like, just full stop. Like, that's just got to go from his life. And again, like, he's 20. I don't know.

This is kind of insane. Like, I understand the unspoken rule. But, like, I don't know. Kids make this mistake all the time. He's a kid well and that's to me that's the bigger story here is that it just feels like there's more ways for all athletes to get in trouble now especially that generation like he's closer to my daughter's age than he is to nick young's age and when you think about all the different ways things can go wrong

for people online with the social media apps with getting catfished with just being bullied all these different things and it really hasn't trickled into the the professional leagues yet and now it feels like this is the tipping point if you go past the fifth or sixth google result for this story too you'll see that there are some other elements like kind of being rumored to have happened. Whether it was like, how did that thing get off of his phone? Right. And who...

Or like somebody hacked it? Well, or just leaked it. Yeah, I was going to say that. This isn't the first time a player's been caught cheating and someone's put up a picture or whatever. And you have to wonder if he could have been shielded from this a little bit more by the Lakers or by by like his PR people or

Something because it really it kind of had a long life like the video first went up on a Saturday or first leaked on a Saturday and didn't really blow up until Tuesday So I thought it was up like a full it was like a Wednesday or Thursday I don't think people understood who did it. Yeah, and then it became clear that it was D'Angelo So is it possible he forwarded the videos to somebody? Or somebody took it off his phone. Or somebody just lifted the iCloud. Or someone's like, I'm going to screw you over or something.

Like you could go like deep conspiracy because it's a three month old video and you can't upload video to Snapchat. You have to do it directly, but then you can save it. So it was like a video that was saved on his phone from a while ago. Let's go backwards. So this is Snapchat, right, that he's putting up on his private feed, and it lasts for 24 hours. So at some point, somebody saw it and either lifted it from there or just videotaped it and got it that way, right?

Right. Or maybe he had saved it and texted it to someone, and then that person had disseminated it or something. Or maybe somebody saw it on his phone and sent it to themselves and released it when they were upset at him or something. There could be a hundred different things that could have happened. I still don't understand the motivation. It makes him look terrible. Well, I just don't get it.

I always try to put myself in the place of the person who screwed up, and I just don't get it. So he was taping him because – Apparently he likes pranks. Apparently this team likes to prank each other. Apparently there's like a – it's just been a goofball team. So he's going to tape it and then later be like, hey, man, I got you on video. I think at the end of the video, doesn't he say something like, and thanks for telling me all that on video. And Nick Young is like, what?

So I think he was asking Nick Young's like what and I so I think it Like he was asking Nick Young questions. It's a funny phone, and he's actually taping Nick Young He's not hilarious prank. It's a prank Stanley Johnson on the Pistons a lot of Pistons weighing in Said like you know he's known D'Angelo for his whole life And he really like he's not a bad guy, and he's not a malicious guy at all He just he just really likes to screw around a lot Yeah, I don't I didn't feel like if like if this was malicious He's not a bad guy and he's not a malicious guy at all. He just really likes to screw around a lot. Yeah, I didn't feel like if this was malicious, then that dude's a dark guy.

This is just dark. I don't feel like it was malicious. And you can even still have like the critique can be made that, you know, your starting point guard should not be a guy who's one of his main hobbies is screwing around and pranking people. I mean, I know George Clooney likes to do that, but he also takes care of a lot of other stuff. It's just you want to make sure that all the boxes are checked. I go the other way. I think these guys have way too much spare time.

Oh, you want elaborate punked. No, I just think they have – I think this is why they're always online. I think they read every reply to their Twitter feed. I think they watch every TV show and every movie and i think they they because if you're if you're a basketball player it's not like you can walk around the grove for four hours like you're stuck yeah and you you fly from you finish a game and you're on a charter and you fly to the next location you land and you go to your hotel suite for eight nine ten twelve 10, 12, 13 hours at a time. Right. So you end up going into your Nick Young's room,

and you're like, I'm bored. I'm going to start videotaping. I've been messing with them. Right. I think that's what happens. Tate, you know James Michael McAdoo. Tate has a window into the world of, like the Warriors this week, they pranked Festus Azeale, which was actually, I thought mean. Really mean.

I have a lot of takes on that video. I have like a lot I'd like to discuss. It was just flat out me. It was like branding content for Lyft. Watch this as Festus Azeale thinks his career is over. It was terrible. Like why not text him

that he has cancer? Like why not go the whole way? Festus, you have leukemia. It's just awful. Yeah, you have no job. Your job just awful. Yeah, you have no job. Your job's over. And then all the Warriors are like, ah! They're all texting him.

And they had like 10, 11, 12 guys texting him. Hey, man, I just heard. It's like, this is a concerted effort to prank a backup center by a team trying to win 74 games. He's injured. Also, Iguodala is trying to get away from Azuli at the end so he doesn't get a cake in his face. And I was like, this guy's injured. What's he running around for? This team's trying to win 74 games.

But that brings me back to my point, which is that I think these guys just have a ton of spare time. Yeah. I think some of them are supposed to be handled within the team in general. we have definitely reached maximum weigh-in like i'm i feel like people who have no relationship to the nba to snapchat to d'angelo russell to basketball like it's like jeff saturday what do you think about this whole d'angelo russell saturday's like well brother we would have handled that myself like and i don't that's not he doesn't talk like randy savage but it does seem like it does seem like we were going to ask Bernie Sanders like, Bernie, what do you think about

D'Angelo Russell's Snapchat controversy? I know you're in the Bronx right now, but in California there's a big story happening. Well, this is catnip for ESPN. I mean, they just drag out every former player they have for their take. Also, big month with other NBA stuff.

The Kyrie thing we're not going to talk about too too dark right how are you can i ask you how you're feeling about like just lebron this month and because he's secretly not secretly but he's been incredible on the floor but where where are you at with like the way he's been handling these last couple of months in cleveland i think he's kind of lost his mind a little bit. Like imagine we're launching the site, the ringer, but if I was just sub-tweeting you guys and just doing weird shit like LeBron does, people in that ringer office need to learn a little thing about leadership.

I just put that out to the world. Everybody's like, what's he talking about? If you need a computer, maybe you shouldn't be making a website. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or you started tweeting about how much you miss your Jimmy Kimmel Live colleagues. Like, just try it. Yeah, yeah. Sal is such a better co-worker.

Sal is so much more fun than Chris Ryan. Or I'm just hanging out with Showtime people. Yeah. I'm like, Kot out with Showtime people yeah like Cotman and Levine Billions great show I just think he's a weirdo who does this stuff

like if I played for Cleveland and we haven't even come close to being the favorite for the title and we've had these up and downs

and we've changed our coach and then LeBron's in Miami working out with Wade which I think he totally has the right to do. I just wouldn't Instagram it.

Right. Keep it private. Very strange move by him. And then everybody's like, oh, we're making too much of LeBron's social media. It's like, are we? This is part of following basketball now. We follow these guys' behaviors

and these guys are on stage 24-7. He's a brand. He's basically a corporation unto himself. If he does stuff, that's going to affect stock prices of his corporation. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. If Warren Buffett started subtweeting people, that would probably affect the price of Berkshire Hathaway, you know?

Well, it would help if it seemed like Ty Law knew what he was doing. Ty Lou. Ty Lou? Ty Law. Ty Law. Yeah. It also helped. My dad. It also helped if Iman Shumpert wasn't throwing Ty Law. Ty Law. Yeah. It's turning into my dad. It would also help if Iman Shumpert wasn't throwing his towel on his coach. Yeah. And, like, LeBron interjecting as the coach kind of sets the tone for that kind of disrespect. I do think you're onto something.

Maybe we should make Ty Lawson coach of the Cavs. Ty Lawson. He's already in the Midwest. Yeah. He might be injured. Ty Lawson. I mean, there's so many other storylines that have gotten lost because the major storylines have just overshadowed everything.

Ty Lawson, one of the all-time falls I can ever remember. He's 28. He's going to be out of the league. Like three years ago, he was the best player in a 58-win team. I know. And he was one of the fastest guys in the league and the type of guy you'd want in the current NBA. And now he's like a backup in Indiana.

Do they have him for next year? No, he's a free agent. It's just rough. But it's not even a top 50 storyline. Do you think he'll get re-signed or go to China or something? I don't know. This was a bad year. The one thing we've learned with NBA players is when it goes like this,

whether it's Marbury, Francis, whoever, it doesn't come back. Right, you don't get your fastball back at 32. You don't go from 96 miles an hour to 86, and then just all of a sudden you're back at 96 again. So I think it's probably – there are so many weird team situations, like the Indiana thing. They're falling apart. Yeah. That coach is in trouble, I think, if they don't make the playoffs.

Yeah, I do. I think he's – I think – I don't think that's a bad team. Like, I don't think they should be losing to Brooklyn. I think he's done more with less, though, than anybody could have expected. I mean, even though he got Paul George back. He's a top 10 player. Yeah. They have good players in that team.

Yeah, he's got Miles Turner. They're in a shitty conference. It's also not the first time he's lost control of that team. It's like the third year in a row that he's kind of been on the hot seat of, well, he's terrible. I like Fogo. I think every year there's two or three shockers where there's like, oh, wow, they fired him. Frank Fogo gets fired. If I was the Wizards, I'd hire him the next day if you're not hiring Tibbs.

They are similar coaches, similar philosophy. I wouldn't be shocked if Whitman came back. I wouldn't be shocked if – There's no way Whitman can come back. I wouldn't be shocked. His new look is really working for him. The glasses? I feel like his glasses, he's changed his haircut a little bit.

I feel like he's playing the part of a head coach better than ever, but maybe coaching worse than ever. The Bradley Beals thing is great for him because Bradley Beal gets hurt every year, but for some reason the Wizards fans are, oh, well, Beal's hurt again. Bradley Beal called out the team. He was like, we're not hungry enough.

And he was just like, we yell at the coach, we yell at each other, but we're not hungry enough. And a DC sports blog put up a Twitter poll he was like we're not hungry enough and he was just like you know we yelled the coach we yell at each other but we're not hungry enough and some a dc sports blog put up a twitter poll that was like was bradley beal right to call out the wizards and marcian gortat just tweeted no that's amazing can you imagine trying to tell a gortat anything oh my god he's he's the best that's incredible i love it can i ask you one more i wanted to know what you thought about uh this end of the bull season it's got to be one of the most like just depressing malaise filled uh end of the end of end runs for a season and it just seems like this is a team that had they brought in hoiberg and they were like we're gonna fix the offense and we're gonna we're

gonna challenge cleveland and now they're they're fingernails on the playoffs well that's what i was saying with there's so many i'm looking up the standings to make sure we remember to go through all the teams that are like just a mess yeah there's so many teams that are a mess and all of them are getting a pass because of this warrior streak and san antonio's homeless uh undefeated at home and cle, all the drama with them. And then you go through, it's like, Indiana's a mess. Chicago's a mess. Washington's a mess.

Houston's a mess. Milwaukee's a mess. Houston's a mess. I feel like Milwaukee gets a pass. They made the playoffs last year. In Sacramento. They should have gotten better. Sacramento, yeah.

Yeah, in Sacramento. Sacramento, incredible moment of Boogie and Rondo getting one tech each for both sarcastically clapping at the ref. That was incredible. They need a new name for that. They called it a double tech, but that's not what a double tech is. It's like pairs figure skating for techs. It's a pas de deux of techs. I think George Carl could be back.

I really do. I think it's going to be a staring contest, and he's not going going to quit and they're going to be like, screw it. As a way to, I don't know. I'm prepared for anything with that team. They brought back Vlade, but then they hired David Morway. So it would just be like if I hired a second editor-in-chief with Sean. Hey, Sean, good news. There's another editor-in-chief.

Like what? That's also like Philly. Like when is Sam Henke going to be formally out? They had Sam Henke doing like viral videos wearing a hard hat now. Oh, yeah. It's bad. So Philly's a mess. New Orleans is a mess.

Phoenix is a mess. The Lakers are a mess. Just nine teams. They're just outright messes. And the Bulls, which I forgot to mention. And the Bulls are actually... Oh, no. I did mention them.

What about the Knicks, too? They were like – The Knicks are – I didn't even count them. They're just grandfathered into any mess conversation. People were so excited about them the beginning of the season, and now they're just like back to where they were before. Rambis is amazing. I actually try to go over if I'm home.

I always try to go over for them for the last two minutes to watch. He had a classic. I don't know i forget what game it was but he wasn't calling a timeout as this lead was slipping away and then finally carmelo had the ball and they all they all just moved over the other side of the court like they was doing carmelo was gonna go iso and rambis called the timeout come out of the timeout and they set up the same exact iso play for Kurt Mello. It's like,

Kurt Rambis is just quitting at life. You know what I don't understand that's come up a couple of times recently and it happened with Rambis and Aaron Aflalo this week. Isn't it Herring was writing about this in the journal? Was the whole like, I talked to Aaron about this

and he's cool with it and Aaron just, Aflalo being like, we did not have that conversation. Like how can you just straight up like either, how can you lie about having a conversation with somebody I guess sometimes there's like you know I talked to the group about this or whatever but like I love it when a guy's like yeah I've addressed this with him he's cool with it and the guy's just like I did not talk to my coach about this well there's the way the playoffs unfold there's gonna be some

big chess pieces available this summer I would say more than maybe ever before. Kevin Love. Oh, yeah. Possibly Kyrie. Possibly. Throwing it out there. Sources say he is not happy. Sources say.

Butler or Rose? White side's going to switch teams. Butler and or Rose. Do you think Butler's available? Oh, absolutely. I think celtics had a real chance of getting him in february i think that was a real thing uh carmelo maybe brooke lopez if you're brooklyn why do you want brooke lopez like brooke lopez has probably been one of the best 16 players in the league this year he's just being wasted on this team uh probably anybody but

yannis on the books durant might switch teams it's in play i would put that percentages at low but no yeah jabari might be available um anyone on memphis jabari well he's he had the acl though yeah i always tate don't you think got away a year and a half on the acl drinking too many gatorades tate just said he was drinking too many gatorades. Yeah, too many Gatorades. What does that even mean? Tate just said he was drinking too many Gatorades. Tate is just resentful that he got his Gatorade commercial while he was injured. He was like, a Duke rookie player does not deserve a Gatorade commercial.

Tate hates all of you. Oh, my God. Harden and Howard. Yeah. I think both have to be in the mix. Everyone at Sacramento. What about if Clippers go out first round or something? I think all those guys, it's not inconceivable.

And then D'Angelo Russell. And then Brandon Knight, too, because Phoenix, there's some good league pass end of the season teams that I've enjoyed. Like Minnesota's been a phenomenal league pass. I tweeted a couple days ago they're starting to feel a little bit 2009 thundery, like just the tag. The Towns, Wiggins, Lev levine like it's just starting to feel like something's playing better yeah something's happening they have an awful coach but um but the

phoenix thing devin booker's great he's really and brandon knight's like no but it's my team and he just they sometimes they just have to take them out so devin booker can have the ball devin booker's awesome i've also really been enjoying Denver and Orlando down the stretch. I mean, Orlando, it's my Knightley Aaron Gordon alley-oop fix. Yeah. And then Denver,

I've actually really enjoyed watching Moutier. Yeah, I don't know what he is yet. I can't, it reminds me of young Tyreek. Yeah.

Which, I never, always felt was a good stats, bad team guy. He's not a great comp, yeah. Yeah, but Tyreek was a

you know putting up 25 and 5 his rookie rookie year oh basically anybody also available would be anybody

on the Wizards oh god except for John Wall you assume yeah what if what if John Wall says like this place is a mess

I'd rather play somewhere else I feel I personally I don't know what's gonna happen anyone who says they know what's

gonna happen is lying. I do feel like Wall and Boogie are going to end up on the same team. I hope so. Did you see Boogie hugging his mom the other night? It was the cutest thing that's happened all week. I love it so much. It was adorable. So if you're the Wiz, let's say you get like the ninth pick.

And you just trade. You do basically the Chris Webber trade. You trade three unprotected first round picks and Gortat for Boogie or something like that. So you don't put Beal in there? I don't think Beal has trade value at this point. He can't stay on the floor. Maybe he's in there, though. He's a frail star.

But I think you go all in on Wall and Boogie and then just figure it out. And Wall might be the one guy who can save Boogie. Totally. That's a fun team. Also, why wouldn't you go to – just like when you want to watch all of those games, like just to see what Boogie and Wall could do together. Yeah. Boogie, Wall, and Tibbs in Washington.

Boogie has not helped himself this season. No. I think teams are concerned about – it's not – this wasn't his fault because it was so dysfunctional for so many years and so much change and we're but at some point you get that stink on you yeah and that's the fear now it's like this is now it's it's almost like uh you take some kid who grew up in the wrong house with parents who are letting them stay up till three in the morning every night and drinking and at some point there's going to be effects. Yeah.

And with Boogie, it's like he's just used to dysfunction for six years. How do you just put that guy in a normal environment? Whereas somebody like Tate is in the perfect environment and actually has a chance to succeed.

I think if Tate goes to the wrong website, he's a head case. Yeah, yeah. Tate's like Kawhi Leonard. He's out of his mind. Shown up hung over for podcasts. Who knows? With us, he's in the right environment.

Boogie and Rondo probably wasn't great for Boogie because it was sort of like a sympathizer. So it was sort of like there wasn't someone to help him fall in line, but more like, yeah, let's clap this out together. So it probably escalated what he was already feeling. Yeah, Rondo does seem like one of those guys where the coach gives a speech and the coach leaves and then rondo like raises his eyebrow and looks at this teammate it's like fuck that guy just kind of a general vibe i feel

like he did that for monte alice last year also in dallas so it's kind of like as a veteran he kind of finds like his i just think that that only means one thing, and that's player coach Rondo. It's like you've got to make him accountable by making him head coach. He'd be better than Kurt Rambis. I know. Who's the sources say MVP for this season? Ooh, sources. I mean, how is it not D'Angelo Russell?

Wow. Just to go back to him. Because there's been murmurings about him all season. So it's kind of like he was— We did a whole thing about all the things that Byron Scott had said about him. And now Byron Scott seems like he was down underplaying it. I also—I just think the Lakers do not support him. Like, we wouldn't necessarily need to know all of these things about D'Angelo Russell.

But they're out there. Like, they get out there. So I just don't—I think it's him. And also, you know, he's just been through a lot of outfits as well this season. I feel like he's just embracing his celebrity. Like he said he loved playing in L.A., which I believe. Like he probably does want to be in a big market. Yeah, I'm sure that's one of the things that's really bumming him out right now is the idea.

It's not like he would be traded from, you know, Milwaukee or Indiana. He's like, I don't want to leave the Lakers, man. This is great. I'm enjoying myself. All right, so you get the second pick. Yeah. I have the fourth pick. Philly, you mean?

Yeah. No, I would have the fifth pick, I guess. Somebody would jump me. I offer you fifth pick, 11th pick, 20th pick, and 31st pick for the second pick. You're offering me the fifth pick, you said? Yeah, but then the Lakers say, if you get that fifth pick from Boston, we'll flip it to you for Russell.

So now I'm giving you Russell, 12, 23, and 31 for two. This is not like, I'm totally willing to be wrong about this, but this doesn't feel like a really talent-rich draft. Even though last year's was really much better than we expected it to be. They should trade down. You think so? Philly. Yeah.

I thought they should have traded down in the MB draft when the Celts offered them six in the Brooklyn pick. They could end up with Smart and Randall and a Brooklyn pick. I almost feel like you have to do that. Just because of what Philly was trying to do. Philly's trying to be like, we're going to throw away the next six years until we hit the jackpot with the superstar.

I bet that they think that to get that superstar, they have to stay in the top three, though. They have to keep picking from this set of two or three players. I think Ben Simmons is going to go first, is my new theory on this, because I think he's the only guy who has a chance to actually be a superstar. And you could talk yourself into all the reasons why it didn't work with him. He's just a terrible situation. Yeah.

Not really set up to succeed right now. Plus, he's priming himself to be a superstar. He seems more emotionally ready than, say, D'Angelo Russell. Yeah. Well, he'sralian that really helps him so sources mvp i think i think james harden's in the mix i was gonna say harden number two you got the chloe factor you got the dwight drama you know he's showing he's showing up with strippers on social media like he's definitely number two lebron is in there yeah i think le LeBron and Kyrie could be like tied for three because I don't know if LeBron is as unhappy if he's not playing with Kyrie.

And I think Kyrie on the low is like a big, like I think he's more like hardened than he is like LeBron. We left out somebody who arguably is the MVP. Coach Derek Fisher. Blake Griffin. Oh, Blake, yeah. Coach Derek Fisher is great.

Blake Griffin, who did more for Sources Say than Blake Griffin? That's true. It's been a lot. An amazing run. I would love to get some FaceTime with Matthias Testy this summer. Is he back with the Clippers? I think so. I have a question.

How does Team USA affect both the Sources Say storylines and also free agency with the Olympics this summer? Chris Paul's out. Kobe's out. Blake has no chance now. LeBron out. Kobe's out. Blake has no chance now. LeBron out? D'Angelo Russell's out. Boogie in? Take Boogie to Rio?

I don't know. I'd have to look at all the names. Because, like, is this a big moment for Gordon Hayward? Is he going to get the call-up? Gordon Hayward. Isn't he training? He's training for a superhero movie. He's training for American Ninja Warrior.

He just got to America. Hugh Jackman did X-Men. He put on 25 pounds. It would be great if Gordon Hayward showed up in Rio and was like, oh, I thought I was going to do shot put down here, guys. That's not how he talks. Gordon Hayward, this is your second weird accent. My 2016-2017 storyline, sports of sorts to say, looking ahead, is fame ruining the Warriors.

I just see it coming. It's just going to happen next year. The Ayesha Curry Food Network cooking show got me a little concerned. Yeah, there's that. There's Draymond Green being a legit celebrity. I also think Andre Iguodala agreeing to do that Lyft video is also kind of a sea change. That's not really his vibe. He's not really doing viral videos. No. he's not really, like, doing viral videos.

No. It's common. Next year, they're too famous. I want, my wish for 2016-17 is a Kawhi Leonard gets a huge ego. Starts watching vinyl and is just like, yeah, that looks fun. And he just gets really into, like, excess. I think it'll be like what happened with Durant where it was,

he hits 24, 25 and some sort of sweat. Maybe he already is that. I don't know what it is. I was going to say Kawhi Leonard could be 35 or 25. And I would say, oh sure, it makes sense. Like Durant was like, oh, what are you? And then all of a sudden he started feeling himself a little bit.

All of a sudden he's in photographs at hookah bars. But yeah, Kawhi, that's a good one. I think Kawhi's way of rebelling will be some sort of long, goatee facial hair thing. Yeah. Like a 40 years ago Maravich kind of that long devil.

But that'll be it. That'll be his only move. He should braid it. Beard lock, yeah. So can we all agree, just for sake of sources say, and just fun in general, it's the most fun if the Bulls make the playoffs as the eighth seed over Indiana or anyone else, right? The Bulls, it's so dysfunctional. That's a miserable first round anyway. Bulls, Cleveland, it's just so much good body language going wrong and all that.

But then on the other side, I really want the Rockets to play the Warriors because I think this Rockets team, I really feel like they might get in a fist fight in the huddle or something. Dwight's just done. He's just mentally checked out. Like, Dwight might just walk off the court during a game. Like he did in the Lakers? Yeah.

Like, he'll just get himself thrown out and just leave and just get in the car and he's gone. I would love to see Beasley just bring the the Beasley versus Draymond in the playoffs. That'd be incredible. I'm scared of Patrick Beverly guarding Steph Curry. I don't want to see that. See, this is what I'm talking about. Dallas Golden State is a route.

Those games, it's four games that's done. But Houston has subplots. They have some crazy guys. That's good. There would be a weird, hardened 50-point game, and then there would be the next game he'd score 7 and look like he had been out for 6 nights in a row. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Beasley is the 7th best player in the league? Beasley to Rio! Is Beasley an Olympic candidate? That's amazing. Boogie and Beasley. 16 points a game in 15 minutes. Boogie, Beasley an Olympic candidate? That's amazing. Boogie and Beasley. 16 points a game in 15 minutes. Boogie, Beasley, Rondo starting in Rio. What a great squad.

Another matchup in play that I'm rooting for is Clippers, Blazers, 4-5. Yeah. Because I would love just Dame and Steph for a few games. I think Silver needs to step in and make sure Clippers, Grizz doesn't have it. I've been, yeah. It's just for everybody's sake. It'd be horrible. That could be the first time where I don't want to go to a playoff game.

It'd be like, oh, game two of Clippers Grizzlies. More like game 70. I like the idea of all the point guards who get invited into the Chris Paul State Farm commercials then becoming better than Chris Paul, so he'd hate playing against them. So there's a lot of potential for that with Lillard and Chris Paul. And I would love to see that over like five to six games. Well, Memphis has Tony Allen, Matt Barnes and Zeebo just in like a nothing to lose kind of mode. Scoring diamond.

Trying to get into Blake's head. I mean, can you imagine being Blake Griffin and you finally after all this get back and you have to face up against Birdman, Zeebo and Tony Allen? I'm still not convinced we see him. Blake? Yeah. Okay. Well, he's served one game so far, three more, so he can play four regular season games, right?

Doc said he just needed like two or three to get back into rhythm. Sure. The Austin Rivers heat check last night was incredible. Incredible. 32 points? And right as everybody was about to start tweeting Austin Rivers heat check, like, turnover, air ball, it just completely fell apart.

It was the worst heat check that had ever happened. I want Houston to make it. I agree with Juliet. Portland Clippers would be so much fun. So much fun. And CJ McCollum is now, I think he's the best player in the league at making shots that I don't understand how he made them.

He had this little baseline step away against the Celts that murdered us last night. I don't even know how he got the shot off. He has like this 38-year-old man's game as a guard, but he's like 23. I love that guy. CJ, if you're listening, good job by you this year. I think there's potential for the Ringer to hire him as an intern. Like, I think we can make it happen. I love us.

You should hire him as co-editor-in-chief with Sean. That's what I'm going to do. Let us be your Players' Tribune, CJ. I'm going to tweet, some people in this ringer office think their jobs are secure. That'll be it. It happened to LaMarcus, and it could happen to you, Sean Fennessey. You're replaceable. Well, can you guys do a sources say end of the season all-star team? Like, we need some sort of extravaganza at the end of the year.

Yeah, we'll do one of the playoffs. Oh, yeah. Well, playoffs is kind of our time, you know? Yeah. That's like when the duels come out one-on-one. Yeah, that's when beefs really start to simmer. Yeah, because you have to play each other so many freaking times. Yeah.

So we have have uh that's the channel 33 podcast which you can subscribe to on itunes or on soundcloud which is all time loaded these days really like this week was amazing we got murderous murderous thousand five politics mallory rubin and robert mays doing nfl draft which launched today yeah chris and andy doing the watch as always. Tate and Mallory will be doing one more college basketball podcast next week. Jam Sesh. Amanda and I doing Pop Culture on Tuesdays.

It's just a lot. We're going to launch a little tech pod with our new employee, Molly McHugh. Nice. Strong showing by Molly in the newsletter this week. Great pipes. Great pipes on that Molly McHugh. That's what we're calling that tech pod, Great Pipes with Molly McHugh. No, we just renamed her Molly Great Pipes.. Great Pipes. Great Pipes on that Molly McHugh. That's what we're calling that tech pod, Great Pipes with Molly McHugh. No, we just renamed her Molly Great Pipes.

Molly Great Pipes. And then hopefully a wrestling pod too, so a lot going on. All right, thanks to SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the BS Podcast and Channel 33.

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I think we're the underdog. A little bit. Yeah. Kind of. Not like the Bulls going into a round one series against Cleveland. But anyway, enjoy the weekend and we'll be back next week. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. Close your eyes.

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