The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 88: Willie Geist and JackO

Episode Date: April 8, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons eulogizes “The Process,” then brings on NBC’s Willie Geist to discuss the 2008 election vs. the 2016 election (16:30), how Cruz's campaign seems rational compared to Trump’s (20:15), the lack of late-night political takedowns (27:00), Trump's cable-TV success (30:00), and Geist’s new show, 'Sunday Today With Willie Geist.' Then, JackO calls in to discuss the promise for the Pinstripes (39:00), UConn's dominance (48:00), Trump's difficulty in grabbing the nomination (51:30), and LeBron's bizarre run in Cleveland with the RNC ahead (58:00). Finally, Bill's son stops by to recap the highlights of ‘WrestleMania’ (1:06:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the BS podcast. I'd like to dedicate this to Sam Henke, whose 13-page manifesto was the weirdest thing I've read all year. Tate, is your mic on? Yes. Tate, how long did it take you to read the 13-page manifesto? It was just more of like a brief... I'm a skimmer. I'm a skimmer. Yeah, I tried to skim it, but I found myself so fascinated by the weirdness of it that I just kept reading and reading. It was just incredible.

He bragged about how great his plan was, and yet at the same time left out all the reasons the plan didn't work, which in my opinion came down to the fact that he created a losing culture. He put players in a position to fail. He antagonized GMs and agents. He made it a place that a free agent would never want to go. And on top of everything else, he didn't really do well with the draft picks.

And yeah, it comes down a little bit to bad luck, but at the same time, if you're throwing away three solid years, and that's your plan plan is to just bottom out and be terrible and build for the future and try to find assets, then why would you take Michael Carter Williams, who was 22 years old at the time, over Giannis, the Greek freak? Why not take a flyer in the Greek freak? Why not instead of taking Joel Embiid, which I thought was the right pick, but if you think you're going to suck for three, four years, why not trade backwards with the Celtics, who are offering the sixth pick and one of the Brooklyn picks, and and try to pick up more assets. Why are you trying to build a team around Okafor, New Orleans Noel, and Joel Embiid when they're all big guys in a league where everything is drifting to small ball?

Why aren't you using all your cap space to make deals to add assets from other people like the way the Celtics were able to trade for Isaiah Thomas? Why are you letting people like Evan Turner just leave? Don't you want to just give people like that a flyer, try them out for the rest of the year? I didn't really understand the logic behind anything he did. And I think he antagonized a lot of people. At the same time, I don't think the logic of what he was trying to do from a big picture standpoint was all that terrible. Because in the nba you either want to bottom out or you want to go for the title you don't want to

be in the middle i get it i just think he did a bad job executing that plan tate what do you think yeah i if you draft a little okafor i mean the guy doesn't even play defense they had nothing i don't even understand what the whole plan was in general like when you're drafting those guys like sure they're the most talented person, I guess, but they can't play basketball together. It wasn't even a basketball move. It was all on paper. It didn't make sense.

He wasn't putting together a basketball team. He was just collecting assets and making trades that, in a vacuum, made a ton of sense. The Drew Holiday trade made a ton of sense. Trading for the Sacramento pick swaps and taking on a bad contract, that made sense. Taking a fire on Embiid, that made sense. Okafor, I guess, made sense if you were just thinking he was an asset. But with the collection of players they

had, it made no sense whatsoever. Stockpiling a million second round picks, I guess that made sense. I don't know how many you need. But just collectively, it didn't make sense. There was no overall plan. It was just like, we're just going to be terrible every year. And we're just collecting assets. And we don't know what we're going to do with them. But when you trade Michael Carter Williams. And you let Evan Turner go.

And you make every player on that team feel like they're just an asset. And they're not actually part of something that's building towards something. That's a terrible idea. And, you know, after three years, I think, whether you agreed with what Henke did or not, after three years, you look at that roster and they don't have one guaranteed blue chipper on it. Tate, that's amazing.

They don't have one guaranteed blue chipper on that roster. New Orleans Noel, is he even a starter? He's an athlete that doesn't really know how to play basketball. He doesn't know what he's doing. I guess he could be, could he be Bismack Biambo in five years? Maybe. Okafer, I like him. He's a low post guy.

I'm not totally sure where he fits in in the current NBA. I mean, basically he's Brooke Lopez. Or Al Jefferson. Yeah, okay. You'd have to put the right kind of team around him. And Embiid, you know, they had bad luck with Embiid. I think a lot of teams would have taken him third. I think he was worth the risk. Bad luck to some degree, but he also, you know, picked the wrong guys. And you could argue about, well, the odds, the odds, the odds, but it just didn't work. And now you're looking at the best asset they have

is their draft pick for this year so the question is could anybody have just been hey guys we're gonna lose 10 games a year and done a worse job than this i'm not sure um it was definitely a fascinating experiment uh i'm sure it'll be a documentary at some point because we've never seen a team be that bad for three straight years. It's just never happened in the history of the NBA as far as I can remember. But what's really sad is the NBA brings in the Colangelos

as kind of the saviors. I knew Henke was done when Jerry Colangelo came in and we even said it on this podcast. It was over from the moment that guy came in he's super political connected to the league and he was clearly going to push hinky out it was obvious if i was hinky i would have quit the moment colangelo came in now colangelo's in and now his son is in brian colangelo's they are both colangelo's uh which is hilarious on a variety of levels b Brian Colangelos is one of those. He signed Steve Nash, which was very smart.

I think he drafted Stoudemire, which was also good. Then did a bunch of things with the Suns that didn't work as well. Went to Toronto. Traded for Kyle Lowry. Drafted DeMar DeRozan. Found Shunis wasn't a terrible pick. But he had a couple really, really stink bomb ones. Like the Bargnani pick turned out to be awful.

The Landry Fields contract. He had a lot of misses in Toronto. And I just feel bad for the Sixers fans. I don't know if they're in a better spot would be, would be my takeaway from all of this. I think they just threw away three years. If you're going to sacrifice three years like that, just throw them away. You got to be in a better spot coming out of it than they are.

And you have to have better people running the show around you than you do. And you have to have more faith in your owners because they just threw three years away and banked a shitload of money. Their cap, I think they spent like 70 million bucks less the last three years than the average NBA team. And then on top of that, the value of the team tripled. So everything they wanted to do for gutting the team, turning it into almost the way a VC would just, or not a VC, a hedge fund would just come in and gut a company and keep all the parts, but then rebuild it.

It's all basically what they did with the Sixers. It was really super smart, except for the part where they just shit on their fans. And I think the whole thing is terrible. I'm glad Adam Silver finally stepped in and forced them to do some stuff and not just, you know, be the black mark on the NBA schedule for every team. But at the same time, the Colangelos are not the answer. And I feel bad for the Sixers fans. Anyway, hang in there. Today's episode of the BS podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor and our favorite app for buying and

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We're getting rave reviews. Just do it. And don't forget the Shack House podcast, which we ran on here a few days ago. They're going to be coming off the Masters on Monday with a total recap slash breakdown of everything that happened. And it will be the best golf podcast you listen to on Monday with a total recap slash breakdown of everything that happened.

And it will be the best golf podcast you listen to on Monday. So check that out. Shack House. Subscribe now on iTunes, SoundCloud, or on Stitcher because it's on Stitcher now. And we're off. All right, on the line right now. Calling from somewhere in the tri-state area, our old friend Willie Geist, who has his own show coming.

Finally, you got your own show. Congratulations. It took me a while, Bill Simmons. I actually had one a couple years ago, but it was on at 5.30 a.m., so it's if a show falls in the forest, you know what I mean? So maybe this is the first one. I don't count that show because you were in a coma when you were doing it because you had to wake up at like 2 in the morning. I don't even think you remember doing the episodes. No, I have no – and the scary thing is it was three and a half years,

and I only remember being there for like a week and a half. So I don't know what happened. The good part about being on at 5.30 a.m. and being live everywhere was that it was on at 2.30 a.m. So I would say at least 60% of my audience was just west coast drunks coming back screaming at me yelling at the tv just tweeting horrific incomprehensible all caps bad grammar stuff it was great as opposed to the rest the rest of the time on twitter right uh so it's april 17th sunday today with Willie Geist.

And I don't know. I like the life symmetry here because your dad was a Sunday staple for years and years and years and years and years and still is on there. And now you're continuing tradition. Yeah, it's kind of a weird thing. It's like, that was of course

the first thing a lot of people jumped to. Oh, he's going head to head with his dad as if that was what was happening. But I think it's a good story. We were kind of talking about this a few weeks ago in development and somebody leaked it to page six that we were doing this show. So I hadn't even talked to my parents about it. I called my dad, like, hey, dad, I'm going to come see you on Sunday mornings. And of course, my dad's chill. He was like, yeah, I don't care. He had no interest whatsoever. But it's funny, having grown up around Sunday morning, I used to go into the studio with my dad at CBS

because he used to live rap some of his pieces. And Charles Kuralt was still doing it then. So we'd go in at like 6 a.m. Kuralt's just ripping cigarettes in all the commercial breaks. And they'd be like, three, two. Kuralt just fires the butt across the room, blows the smoke out, and reads his next introduction. So I've been around this Sunday morning thing a while, so it'll be fun. Have they had a Sunday Today show before?

Is this the first attempt at it, or were there other failed attempts or different attempts? What happened? Yeah, they've got weekend today. So they have a two-hour show on Saturday and a one-hour show on Sunday morning that kind of leads into Meet the Press. And I guess they wanted to mix it up. So they came to me and said, take that space. It's still Today branding. But the best way I can describe it is kind of a little bit of Morning Joe, a little bit of Today Show, and a little bit of CBS Sunday Morning.

And by that, I mean the first half of the show is kind of, it's news, but it's conversational. You know, it's not like the weekday Today Show where you're getting a high story count, you have people on, you just talk. It's like you do. Hopefully it feels a little bit like a podcast or as much as you can on the network TV show. And then the second half is longer profile pieces. So the first show, I got the cast of Hamilton, which is great. Nice.

Second week, Ice Cube. Third week, the guys who started Warby Parker. And fourth week is Chelsea Handler. So to me, the biggest frustration, and you don't have this problem because you can talk as long as you want on your podcast, is you go out for the Today Show or wherever and you do these day-long interviews and you come back and they get chopped down to three and a half minutes or three minutes or whatever. You're like, God, that did not capture what happened that day. So I'm continually looking for spaces where I can do longer stuff.

And this is, you know, it's marginally longer, but it's still twice as long as what I'm doing now. So you'll get real profiles. So it's marginally longer, but it's still twice as long as what I'm doing now. So you'll get to, you'll get real profiles. So it's, it's fun. Are you going to have the whole, you open the show at eight and you have the coffee, like you just started drinking it, even though everyone knows you probably had coffee two hours earlier. Right. And the prop newspapers that haven't been touched, they're just sitting there fanned out on the desk that no one even looked at. And they're probably three days ago. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, I'm not big on contrivance. So I may have an actual cup of coffee, but none of the prop stuff. Well, I'm just trying to put myself in the shoes of your dad.

So if this was my son, now, granted, this is a huge leap of faith for the analogy, because I don't think my son's ever going to have a job. Um, I think he's going to live at home until he's 60, but just in the rarest. Yeah. Look, I mean, he, he,

you know, he was at, we were at WrestleMania last weekend and, and he was just locked in for seven straight hours. He never peed. He never ate. He was all in our whole section was entertained and that's probably his destiny.

He's that kid. Um, that's fine. So you like hanging out with them, so 60 years is cool. Hopefully I'll have enough money to take care of him and support him and he'll have a nice little attic room and all that stuff. It'll be great. But if he did get a job and it eventually ended up being a TV show

and I was on another network, I would want to be on my son's show. So how does that go over at the family dinner table that that is very interesting so he so my dad is he's turned 70 last year he's gonna be 71 in a couple of weeks so he's already kind of like thinking about the winding down of the career cbs has been great to him he's had my dad's at parkinson's for 25 years yeah and they've and so it makes it harder and harder for him to work, but they've, you know, our world where everyone's terrible, they've been amazing. And they're like, dude, you tell it, you tell us when you're done, you keep doing as many pieces you can do as many or as little, whatever. So they've been good to him. So he'll, I think he'll probably just stay there

until he decides he doesn't want to work anymore. But at that point, if he's not retired how great would it have be to have him be like andy rooney on my show and just have like throw to my dad at the end of every show for a two-minute commentary on the pencil sitting on his desk or the penny he found walking down the street that day he'd have to grow his he'd have to grow his eyebrows i think you know maybe you use eyebrow extension something like that but um i love that nobody ever like hopped in with just like an eyebrow comb on Rooney. They're like, you know what? That's his brand. Let's let those things run wild.

Well, I think now the TVs are so good that it would almost be, I don't even know if you could list follow what he's saying, because in HD on a 65 inch TV, those eyebrows are like coming at you. Yeah. Yeah. Right. It's almost like a 3d experience. You don't need the glasses, but they're just coming through the screen.

I do find that. Don't you find that on HD in a way now, like I'll be watching someone doing a news hit from like Raqqa, Syria and all. I'm like, like, God, look at the pores on that nose. I know. I know. I don't. It's almost distracting.

The big loser sideline reporters right now. The big losers. Sideline reporters, because they have, especially in the NBA, the cameras have to be close. Right. And everybody's just caking on a ton of makeup. It's almost like a mortician is doing everyone's makeup now. Right. I know.

It's like five pounds of makeup. I know. Because everyone's vain, you know? You don't want to be like, oh, that small white hat I have on my left cheek is going to be 15 feet on somebody's TV. You know what? I am generally, I cannot stand makeup. I don't know how you felt doing TV all those years. Oh, my God.

It was the worst. It actually made me not want to do countdown anymore. It was one of the many reasons, but we'd have to wear for eight hours. We'd, we'd, we'd, we'd put it on at three o'clock. We'd still have it on at 11. It's like, it's terrible for you. I'm convinced it like made me sick. No, I can't stand it. And you're right. I get mine on at like 5. I haven't put as little as possible,

but you need some base minimum or else you look like a horror show with the lights. But then, you know, all of a sudden I'll look up and it's like 2 in the afternoon and your face is hanging down. By the way, the women are like Cromier River right now.

It's their entire lives. But it's the worst, I would argue it's the worst part of the job. And then, you know who they're, they're the humble brag people. Like Clooney and Bradley Cooper. This is like the best move you can pull. And you see it just there's like four or five guys and they come on the Today Show and they sit down and our makeup artist goes out and they just look.

I'm good. I'm good. It's like Clooney and Cooper, like not even powder. You know, just no, no, I'm good. I'm going raw. They look fine. Going bareback. Yeah, it's.

Yeah. I'm always jealous I'm good. They look fine. Going bareback. Yeah. It's yeah. I'm always jealous of those people. I think what I've found is that it really breaks down to white people need more makeup. Like I would do, I would do a countdown with Jalen and magic and Wilbon. They'd be in the chair for like two minutes, you know? Yeah. But, but sometimes you just have the wrong, the wrong makeup artist. Oh, are you kidding?

Yeah. And they're like, I'm going to make you orange. You're going to be orange. You're going to be on TV and you're going to look orange. I had a couple days in the first season before we found the right makeup because apparently I have olive skin. Oh, do you really? Yeah. I never would have thought that about you.

I know. Who knew? Who knew I had more olive skin? But the first year, I had a couple people that were just making me orange and i would go on and and i would check this was during the days when i checked my twitter replies people nice spray tan hey who brought the orange guy and i'm like we're doing something wrong people are saying i'm orange and then eventually but i'm sure you've had similarly horrendous experiences but it's weird you sit in the chair into that that makeup artist, like, I did a good job.

Get out there. And then you're looking at it thinking you're orange, and then you hear from those people. I have sources close to Mr. Trump telling me that they've tried to take his orange down a little bit. He likes it. He's like, nah, that's kind of my brand, guys. Let's keep it right where it is.

Let's keep it right where it is. Let's keep it right where it is. So sometimes they win. Is this the best time ever to talk about news and stuff for a living? Yeah. I mean, the best time since I've been doing it on the political side, no question, which is the last 10 years or so. 2008 seemed like you were never going to beat that. It was Barack Obama came out of nowhere, stole it from Hillary Clinton. And oh, by the way, here comes this person named Sarah Palin, who just like has an entirely different dimension.

You couldn't believe how great that election was. And this is like impossible. was like this South Park version of a Republican primary where you had Ted Cruz literally going to a matzah factory to show that he's in touch with the Jewish vote. It was like, could you think of anything more like, what's the most extremely Jewish thing you could do? Go to a matzah factory. So there he is rolling out matzah with the guys in the back in the bakery. And then you had somebody who was on the Joe Piscopo radio show knocking him. Like Piscopo's somehow in the back in the bakery and then you had somebody was on the joe piscopo radio show knocking him like piscopo somehow in the middle of this like the guys are going on his

show it's amazing it is amazing it's truly amazing and it's real it's happening like one of those guys trump or cruz is going to be the nominee to be president united states it's incredible cruz is like cruz was on Kimmel's show and didn't seem like as much of a frightening robot as usual. It's almost like he's learned how to assimilate human behavior, which is interesting.

It's fascinating. It's AI. Yeah. He's gaining personality intelligence somehow. It's like, oh, this is dangerous. He's learning how to fake laugh at the right times. Jesus. You know what? It's funny you say that.

I watched that, and I had no expectation of him being good on a late night show. And I thought, you know what? He wasn't that bad. By his standard, it wasn't a great political appearance. But I thought there was some humanity in there. He made a couple jokes that weren't terrible politician jokes about the backup light. He didn't know what pedal he'd hit if Trump were in the backup camera of his car. I don't know. I thought he, he's, there are people who say in private and like none of us will ever get to this layer of him,

that he is charming and he's obviously smart and all those things, but he is so, you talk behind the scenes to Republicans, people who've worked with him, people who've worked around him, and he's the most, perhaps the most universally loathed politician I've ever come across among his own people. I mean, and like Trump, you ask him about Trump and they still kind of roll their eyes and laugh. And there's some feeling like this still isn't real and he's not actually going to be the nominee or president. But Cruz, like their eyes narrow and they're like that guy, that guy.

Like I will work to make sure that guy is not the nominee of our party. But because of Trump, he's become like the rational alternative, you know, in this parallel universe. It's like Ted Cruz was the crazy one a year ago. And now it's like, well, you know, Ted Cruz, you know, he's good on foreign policy. He works in Washington. It's like everything's turned upside down. It's crazy. Yeah, it was only four months ago that Trump hosted SNL. I think four, maybe five.

And it was like, oh, this is cute. It didn't cause a riot. Now that looks like one of the worst decisions Lorne Michaels ever made. Right, right. Yeah, because I think, honestly, that's part of the ongoing problem with Trump was that no one ever took it seriously enough to think, well, this isn't going to happen. Like, this is a show and it's going to last the summer. And then it went into the fall. in the polls, like the conventional wisdom in politics was, yeah, people say they're going to vote for him because they're mad at Washington. But when they actually go into a voting booth, they're going to come to their senses and

say, oh, my God, he can't have the nuclear codes. Yeah. And he started winning all the states and everyone. Then slowly people came around to the idea that this was real. And that's when all that stop Trump and never Trump stuff coalesced. And like Jeb Bush dropped out and all his staffers started a group. And then, you know, Marco Rubio, same thing. They all got together.

And their mission in life is not to elect someone that they actually like, but is to prevent Donald Trump from being president, which is a strange place for a presidential election for a party to be in. At this point, we'll take Hillary and we'll just ride out the four years or the eight years. We know who she is. We know what kind of president she'll be. And then we regroup when she's done, which is stunning. It's crazy.

Do you ever worry about how heated this is getting? Just as you, as somebody who's on television, and this has turned into just these two sides that are so diametrically opposed to each other that it actually there's an air of violence in the air at all times. Now, do you just worry as somebody being on TV? Do you watch yourself stepping carefully as you say things? Yeah, I mean, I don't personally. But when I watch some of the stuff that goes on in particularly on the Trump rallies and all that stuff, I mean, I think it's always overstated. We have to cool our political rhetoric. Like when Sarah Palin put out a fundraising email in 2008

and it had targets on the district that she wanted to win, like gun sites. That's inciting violence because everything's taken so literally. So sometimes I think that rhetoric thing is overstated. But in Trump's case, I don't you know, he's talking in a way about immigrants and he's talking in a way about minorities and he's talking away about people in this country who are sort of on the outside of things. He's talking to those people, to his supporters in a way that concerns me sometimes. And you see some of it at rallies. But again, I think Donald Trump is a guy who maybe he becomes the nominee. There's still a

good chance he won't be. But I think even if he were president, I have to remind my hysterical friends on the Upper West Side, we still live in a country where there are checks and balances, and he can't just ban Muslims from entering the country and all those things. So the rhetoric can be scary, my point is, but it's a long way to go before it turns into something that is truly scary. What about your old co-workers, Joe Scarborough, your old co-worker who's taken it, you know, he's become pretty polarizing this year. Were you surprised that it played out that way?

You know what? I knew what he was doing. Joe is like a, he's a really smart political strategist. Like he loves looking at the chessboard and figuring out why people are going to do well or who's not going to do well. And he's pretty good at looking ahead to how things are going to turn out. He's been in the middle of it for one thing, but he's also just a smart dude who gets politics. And he was saying from the beginning that when everyone was laughing at Trump, but we're just talking about, he's like, I wouldn't laugh at Trump because he's talking to

some people who need someone to hang on to. And it's not Jeb Bush and it's not Marco Rubio and it's not Ted Cruz. And there's a lot of those people. Yeah. And so he basically his view was like, I'm I'm just telling you what's coming down the pike here. And that was construed and has been construed as him like shilling for Donald Trump. And I just tell you from the inside, like, does he know Donald Trump? Yeah. Like, do we all have some relationship with him? They, you know, Donald will call or text after the show and get pissed off about something. So there's a relationship.

But Joe doesn't, Joe would, he wanted to vote for Jeb Bush. Like, he thought Jeb should have been president. And then now he thinks Kasich should be president. So, you know, he's been at the middle of, there's a lot of people in the press who cannot bear the thought of Donald Trump being the nominee because he's so repulsive to them, not just politically, but culturally. And he's, they like to remind themselves how smart

and haughty they are. And they write for important magazines and they can't believe the country would pick Donald Trump. And all Joe's been saying to me is you can, you got to get outside the upper West side, Manhattan bubble in the. bubble and understand what's happening here. Do you feel like anybody, you know, if Jon Stewart was here, we'd be like four nights a week. Well, we have Jon Stewart. He's here. Now it's like there's a touch of Jon Oliver. He doesn't do politics every week. CMB's on now.

She's hitting it some. Yeah. Doesn't seem like Trevor Noah's gotten there with people. Yeah. Colbert, still trying to figure out his show. I think if he was hosting The Daily Show, I think maybe he'd be that voice. Yeah. I agree.

Do you feel like that voice is – who's that voice? We don't have the voice. The voice of reason almost. Yeah. No, I think some of the people who could be are still figuring it out, and they're new. Like you mentioned Sam Bee. I think she's good. I don't think Trevor hasn't broken through.

I mean, I thought that was going to be an impossible job for whoever got it. Yeah. But especially a South African comedian that people didn't know commenting on American politics. That's a tough road to hoe for him. So to me, he's not a funny guy. It's just tough to dive into the middle of politics and, and pass judgment on it from where he sits. But yeah, I don't know. You know, I think, I think Colbert is trying to like, I agree with you.

He should be the guy, but he's also up against like, I'm doing a network talk show with movie stars. You know what I mean? Like, I think he has great moments, like the Hunger Games things, and he's got the moments, but he can't just sit and do a 30-minute screed against the political establishment and what's happening right now. Yeah, it made me think when Oliver did the thing about Drumpf

and the momentum, just that 14 minutes of comedy and really great writing and all the stuff that was in there, it was a really, really good job by him. Yeah. And that had got so much momentum afterwards. It was amazing to watch.

And it was like people were just dying for something creative and smart and biting and funny to happen. And that ended up being it. But just from day to day, it doesn't seem like it feels like we're a little rudderless with somebody to put this stuff in perspective. SNL. Yeah. SNL hasn't totally gotten there. I think the stink of having Trump post hasn't helped them.

Some of their the last couple of months, some of the parody stuff they've done has been excellent. But this is election so crazy. I don't even know. How do you parody something that's already a parody? Exactly. That's it. No. You know what? That's exactly right. And that's what the SNL people would tell you. It's almost hard to outdo Trump. You can't believe the stuff he's saying is real. And I think that that that Oliver thing was so good. And i think you're right it pointed to the vacuum of like okay there's that piece that john stewart probably would have been doing some version of every night so i think it's falling honestly to like totally different world but you know rachel maddow is doing those long like nine o'clock every night on msnbc it's, obviously, but she's doing the long takedown stuff, you know? And so

in some ways it's cable news. It's people, um, cable news is in a funny position because Donald Trump unquestionably has been great for business and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. And, but, but also a place, you know, there are a lot of, you know, progressive news people who are like, we've got to keep our credibility. And so that's where you see those kind of takedown things that maybe Stewart would have done. Not as funny, but I think that's the place where that's happening. Well, I'm looking forward to your show. I already watched Meet the Press.

Shout out to Chuck Todd. Chuck. I mean, Chuck is one of, if you do the winners and losers of the last year, I think Chuck's one of the winners because he just has

these crazy people on his show that he gets to interview that are actually running for president. I know. Every week, he's got a parade

of them every week. It's amazing. That's a nice block. I look forward to your negotiations with your dad. I think how, here's how it should play out.

He, when he retires from CBS, he should retire but then come on if he's just done he doesn't want to do it anymore he should retire with them and then come to you and do like one more piece like his last piece should be for your show you should start working that one now oh so you're saying like the guy retires and then he signs a one-day contract with his whole team and like waves goodbye. Yeah, because you're like, you know, it's like Shaq going back to the magic or something. I don't even think he did this. But yeah, he's coming back.

He has the press conference, holds the jersey and does the one four-minute piece for you and then he's out. I like it. They put him up in the ring of honor. They put his name up in the rafters. I like it. They put him up in the ring of honor. They put the, his name up in the rafters. I like this. This is good. I have a one Bible prediction for you. The warriors are not going to win the title.

What do you think about that real quick? There's some, there's some 18, there's some 18 and one pats potential. There's no question. It's tough, man. It's got that bullseye on you every night,

you know? And from the moment they were like 17 and now they it was a playoff game and right right every and you watch this we were talking about this at work yesterday game after game after game it's the biggest game of the season for the other team unless it's somebody like san antonio but like right they played the celtics on a friday night it's biggest game of the season for the Celtics. They win. Three nights later, here's Minnesota. Young team going nowhere. Uh-oh, they're trading haymakers with the Warriors.

Oh, Towns looks like the next Chris Webber. Oh, Minnesota's winning. And you just see it. I think it's what happened with the Pats from 7-0 on. It was a playoff game every game. And I think it wore them down mentally a little. That Minnesota game was the first time because they're on

I go to bed about when they're starting to play so I wake up every morning go to ESPN app check it out and I saw that T-Wolves game I was like oh man like this is everyone's gunning for them every game and it's just a long

damn season man you know what I mean it's like there's no guarantee this regular season at some point doesn't mean anything anymore you turn the corner and it's all of a sudden you got swept in the NBA finals it's crazy their bigger issue is just that Iguodala's not back yet

cause he's they were a team that overachieved when they had the right pieces just because those five guys in the last eight minutes played so well together. And you remove any of them, it's going to knock them off from that invincibility ladder a tiny bit. But they've had a lot of luck with injuries. Curry and Thompson and Draymond have been healthy the whole season. Yeah, that's true. To get your top three through a season is pretty good.

Are you rooting for or against them breaking the Chicago record? I didn't want – Or do you care? The only thing I cared about was that the 86 Celtics being 50-1 at home, including the playoffs. I wanted that, so I was really happy when the warriors lost at home and i don't i don't want anyone to get through this season with zero or one home losses because that was always one of my favorite 86 celtics marks but other than that uh i'm just excited for round two round one's gonna suck i'm excited my team's good again um yeah you're done was i

mean you were in at this point in your career where you could have drifted into sports pretty easily but now I feel like you're politics new I think it's too late I think the ship sailed for you I think this is all you're going to have this is it for sports talk for you right now wow

just little doses on my podcast never say never man we got the Olympics over here although that's not quite the sports we're talking about. That's a little bit. It counts. A little bit. Well, you get the NBA guys, but it's also a lot of pole vaulting and figure skating,

which is great. Do you just stare at Costas hoping he's going to retire? No, no, no. Why would Costas retire? He wouldn't. Do you imagine leaving that job? No. Why would you ever consider leaving that job?

They're going to have to drag him off the set, him and Al Michaels. And the funny thing is both of them are still great. I don't know. Al Michaels is getting better. I'm convinced he takes PEDs. I love Al Michaels so much. When he calls your team's football game, it just feels like a bigger game. It's more exciting.

It is. It is. And you know what? He loves politics. He would, he'd grab me at the Olympics four years ago in London. Yeah. We had like, his wardrobe room was right next to the make, whatever. Is that Willie out there?

In there, closed the door, like 45 minutes deep. Did you read Tom Friedman's column today? He's a moron. The best. The best. He can go deep on today oh he's a moron the best the best he can go deep on anything passionate oh it's the best al michaels is a top five human being i really totally makes everything better he really does it's like any interaction you have with him it's it's you're not going to regret it it's the best no it's true and he always drops the the the over under into the game which makes me happy it's a lot of

a lot of people happy and the wise man in the desert are pretty happy right now last thing um last thing before you go your show is uh uh sunday april 17th what's the official title sunday today with willie geist all right there you go i wanted to mention two members of your family were two of the five favorite people that I worked with at ESPN. Really? Yeah, everybody's always like, oh, Simmons hates ESPN. First of all, I worked there for 14 years, and I made a ton of relationships with a lot of people, a lot of whom I still email with and text and talk on the phone with,

and I still love a lot of those people, but your sister Libby and, your brother-in-law Wilds, two of my favorites. And I really miss working with them. Your sister was awesome to work with and was incredible with 30 for 30. You're nice to say that she is. And they've got that OJ doc coming out,

which I haven't seen, but people are freaking out. Klosterman said it was the best thing ESPN had produced. It's excellent. I'm very excited for her because she was prominently involved in that and she'll get some love hopefully. But she's just great. I mean, I miss working with her. You know what's funny about your ESPN thing is all I have in my life is the 100% pro Simmons ESPN. So I don't quite even understand. They're like, no, he's the greatest.

And every like, what do you mean? You know, like, that's all I'm just so I'm I'm on the hashtag Team Simmons. Yeah. Well, I miss working with them. Good talking to you. I'm rooting for your show. I'm available for a guest appearance at some point. Oh, dude.

Don't be afraid to hit me. I'm not even kidding. Don't be afraid to hit me up. All right. Well, thanks for talking to you. Yeah. We're going to call Jacko right now. But first, studies show that security systems deter burglars. It's a fact. And yet somehow there's a burglary every eight seconds in America. So how do burglars give up just because some houses have security systems? Of course not. They find a house that isn't protected. So securing your home is truly a necessity. And let me recommend this brilliant security system that my buddies at SimpliSafe built.

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So there's no reason not to try it today. Go with the only home security I trust, SimpliSafe, by going to SimpliSafeBill.com. And if you go right now, you save an extra 10%. SimpliSafeBill.com. All right, we're calling Jacko. Johnny. What's up, buddy? Long time, no time.

I've been letting you cool off. I know this is really one of the worst times of your life. But I figured when Starlin Castro started off hot, I figured, you know what? Johnny's going to be in a better mood. It's time to have him back. Rebounded nicely. He's out of a dark place. He doesn't care about the future of the country anymore

because he has Starlin Castro. I'm just worried about my future with Starlin, yeah. It's looking good for the Yankees, man. Once Chapman comes back from his 30-day suspension for doing terrible things and you have the seven eight nine and people like a rod again it's all good it's all good for you you know what the best sign is and this is from an irrational fan perspective is that dd gregorius and starlin castro like best friends. I've seen things on social media. They have Instagram.

They do Instagram antics or Snapchat, Twitter things, and they're always, like, attached at the hip. When they were flying back from spring training, they were both on the plane. They had, like, matching solid gold Dr. Dre Beats headphones. And they're like, you know, you like that. You're second baseman and you're shortstop. They should be tight.

Welcome, Starlin, you like that, your second baseman and your shortstop, they should be tight. Welcome Starlin to New York. You know, DeeDee was following in the footsteps of an icon last year. He can help Starlin follow in the footsteps of the iconic Stephen Drew. So help him get his feet wet in Manhattan, you know. Plus the A-Rod two-year farewell tour is really going to capture the nation. Absolutely. I'm glad he gave everybody advance notice so they could get all their gifts and their retirement nation. Absolutely. I'm glad I gave everybody advance notice so they could get all their gifts

and their retirement tour plans ready. Listen, if we could do it for Kobe, we could certainly do it for A-Rod. That's right. Everybody just bite your lip and pretend you like this guy. Yeah. It's the A-Rod-a-sance.

That's what I'm calling it. Nice. I like that. It started in October when he was freaking awesome on TV. He was really great. Right. It was fantastic.

And everything he's, the way he's handled his business, it's like, ah. I also think when you have like real villains like Trump. Yes. Somebody like A-Rod seems so much more palatable. It's like, why was I so upset about Trump? And I mean, why was I so upset about A-Rod and Lance Armstrong and all these people? Yeah. Now we have somebody who's like, I should really be upset about A-Rod and Lance Armstrong and all these people. Now we have somebody who I should really

be upset about. Right, close to actually being the president. That's something to really be worried about, not about sports villains, true. How are you feeling about the Yankees these days compared to what I think is going to be a pretty good Red Sox team?

We just need a second, third, fourth, and fifth starter. We're right there. We just need a second, third, fourth, and fifth starter. And we're right there. We're so close. You know, the question marks were on the Yankees offense because they're like 150. But, you know, granted it's three games, but Castro has been a pleasant surprise. He had seven RBIs in the first two games. And the only other people to do that were Yogi Berra, Babe Ruth, and,

and Congress Lee Tino Martinez. So that's a good start. It's a good company to be in. And he is such an astronomical upgrade over Stephen Drew that it can't even be measured by science how much of an upgrade he is. So that's huge in their lineup. And their bullpen, even now with Miller and Patances, it's good. I mean, it's great. And then when Chapman comes back, it's, you know, all-time great.

So the starters are, you know, it's an odd collection. And I'm interested to see what Severino does today against Detroit. They start in about 20 minutes, so that will be interesting to see because there's a lot of expectations for him. In his second year, you know, Tanaka was okay. He was good, actually. And then, you know, Pineda gave up too many home runs, and so did Ivaldi. But it's kind of tough to judge when it's like 25 degrees here in April in the Northeast.

So it's not the best of conditions. It really should be a 148-game season. They'll just never do it. It should start a couple weeks later. Yeah, it should start second week. It should start the day after the Masters. And it should end on September 20th. And the playoffs should start second week. It should start the day after the Masters and it should end on September 20th and the playoffs should start on September

23rd and it should finish in mid-October. And they'll never do it. Or have all the teams from the North play at the West Coast and the South. That's too logical. You can't do that. That makes too much sense. They put the Red Sox in Cleveland right off the

lake there and it's always miserable in Cleveland, and they think it's going to be fine on April 4th. The game was called on account of cold one day and then snow the next. It's a good idea. It's tough to judge. Their starters have been a little shaky, but the lineup has been pretty good. They put up a lot of runs

the other night. They scored 16 against Houston, and they put up an 8 spot yesterday to come from behind. So early season surprise there. Teixeira, who usually doesn't heat up until, like, June, he's looked pretty good. So it's not bad. It's not bad at all.

I'm cautiously optimistic. This is going to be a big baseball season for me because we have our whole office set up right now where it's the website people. And then the TV show people are on like the same area. And I have this office that has basically there's a part where I can write, but then there's a second part that's more of like a little meeting room with a big TV, which is where I'm going to hang out and TVs in both.

And it's just going to be one of those things where I know, I know I'm going to have the Red Sox on every day. I'd kind of fallen out of the habit of, cause I had been working so much at home and all that stuff. And I just feel like I'm going to watch a lot of baseball. And it's really the best use of baseball is to have it on in the background as you're doing something else. That's really baseball's destiny. A little background music. Yeah, it's great.

What's better than baseball to just kind of have on as you're doing something else other than maybe golf so so I had it on the other day and we were having a meeting and Poppy went deep which just every time it's a homer

it just tugs at my heart I gotta say it just tugs at the enjoy it while you can speaking of farewell tours yes this might be one of those rare farewell tours

where the guy might hit 35 homers in the farewell tour you know i'm sure he's i'm sure he really uh don't say it johnny don't say it johnny don't do it i'm sure he wants to go out with a bang so i'll bet it he'll be a real shot in the arm to that team this year oh come on and then he hit a homer then And then Hanley came up because we have Hanley for two weeks until he gets hurt. Back to back and belly to belly. It was great.

It was really great. It was like, oh, this is going to be a great season. Now, there's a 50% chance I'll have it on in the background when Hanley slides in the second for a double and has to be carried off. They're waiting for the trainer. It doesn't look good. He's not getting up. Oh, boy. Oh, what's going on here?

But no, it's good. I think this is going to be a really fun baseball season. I think the Royals now are kind of a real team to have in the league. I'm going to be excited when the Red Sox play the Royals. I'm sure it's going to feel like a big game. So that part's fun. Texas, I think, is going to be fun. I'm sure it's going to feel like a big game. So that part's fun. Texas, I think, is going to be fun. I'm just looking at American League teams. I don't care

about the National League. I went to the Masters on Monday to the practice round. A little humble brag there. I can't believe you... Joe House was there. I didn't know he was going to be there on Monday. I just went to the... I was kind of... It was a whirlwind. I was staying in Columbia, South Carolina. We drove in to an hour and change to be there on Monday. I just went to the – I was kind of – it was a whirlwind. I was staying in Columbia, South Carolina.

We drove in to like an hour and change to Augusta for Monday, and then we flew home Tuesday. So it was just a whirlwind tour of the Masters. But at the Masters practice round, a lot of Kansas City Royals stuff. Wow. Guy in a Kansas City Royals shirt and hat at the same time. Oh, my God. Yeah, really like the full NASCAR look there.

And a lot of Royals hats. I was really taken aback by the number of Royals hats. Most of them shiny and new, mind you, but still, Royals fans waving the royal blue proudly. A little bandwagon-y, maybe. Yeah, so the Royals, maybe that's a feel-good story. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Augusta's not in Missouri. It is not, no.

No, it's still in Georgia. So, yeah, a lot of royal stuff. When people are talking about whether UConn women's basketball is just too dominant in that whole storyline, is that your seventh circle of hell or is it Trump? Well, when Shaughnessy went after UConn women's basketball, it was a little bit like the Iran-Iraq war or when Nazi Germany invaded Russia. I was like, is there a way that this could be protracted

and they could both lose? So I just wanted it to go on and on and on. I actually, you know, I've grown to loathe 90% of Shaughnessy's pieces. It's in my DNA at this point. I thought he, I don't know, I thought it was a fair column to write. I didn't agree with it, but, you know, there were some points in there, right? Like, I didn't care what happened in the women's Final Four because I knew UConn was going to win by 30 points a game.

Of course. So that can't be good. When we were in Columbia, South Carolina, we went out on Sunday night after we got there, and we went to some hipster bar near the University of South Carolina, and we were eating dinner, and on the TV they had the UConn women's game, the Final Four game against Oregon State. And it was the Final Four, so I couldn't look away

because the TV was right in front of me. And they ended up winning that game by like 30-plus points in the final four. And so we had a discussion about this, my buddy and I, and I said, is the pool of available high school girls basketball players so small? I mean, there's got to be, like, women have played basketball now for a long long time every single high school in the country has a girls basketball team

are there only like so many good ones that Oriyama just goes and gets everybody I mean isn't there anybody that's competitive it doesn't make a lot of sense

I've never read the right piece about it but on the other hand like if you're a star basketball player and you're a senior and you're and you're a senior and you're a girl. Yeah, you want to play for him.

It's like going to Alabama and playing for Saban or whatever. Yeah, I mean, it's even kind of bigger than that. You're basically looking at it and you're going, well, I could go to UConn and I'll win multiple titles and win by 30 points a game. Or I could go to this other school and I'll just lose in the final four by 38 points yeah every year I'm there you just think some coach would have arisen in the past 20 years that would have said like I'm gonna build a program and just you know go out there and be like a great salesman or saleswoman and try to get the best players into your team just say like so there could be somebody on the radar with UConn. I mean, I guess a couple teams through the years, like Notre Dame was a rival,

Stanford was a rival, but, you know, way back when, they at least had Tennessee with Pat Summitt. But now, I mean, you know, they just won 94 games in a row or something on some ungodly number. And then when they lost before that, and then before that, they had, like, a 73-game streak. I mean, they're,'re like 168-1. It's ridiculous.

I know who that coach is going to be. It's going to be Pat Summitt's son. I think he bounces back from this. You think good things? Yeah, I think, look, this is the only time something like that's going to happen. You're not going to do that twice. No, you've learned his lesson. So now he's fine.

He learned his lesson. You can't have sex with the players. Right, plus he's like 25. You're you can't have sex with the players right plus he's like 25 you're around like 22 year olds you know come on it's too much temptation

really that is the craziest story in a while it's really unbelievable I just can't if the reports are true that he had to leave because

he impregnated a player it just goes into some really deep dark psychological stuff of this kid they remember that that documentary we loved in the late 90s the year behind the scenes of Tennessee women's basketball remember right he was always there he was always there and they're talking about him and just it was either girls crying after a game or Tyler like playing with the with somebody so he had this so now he's like 13, 14, he's going through puberty,

starting to get weird feelings. He's kind of, the whole thing is like just crazy and dark and weird and awful. And maybe we shouldn't even be joking about it, but I just couldn't, I couldn't believe that story. Cause we always joke about that. That was how Gino was. That was the only way to stop Gino was some sort of scandal with a player. And then I didn't, in my mind, I never thought that would actually happen with a team, with a coach. It's like impossible.

Maybe the child that comes out of that pregnancy will be the one to finally challenge UConn because he or she will have the basketball ability from the mother and then the strategy from the father from the summit genes and they will rise up to vanquish UConn. Tate's dying right now in the background. That's it. So what?

That kid is not born yet. So we're like, you know, 22 years and nine months from the end of Yukon's run. Something to look forward to. Well, the thing with Gino is, like, how many titles can you win? I know. It's like watching somebody just complete the same video game over again. You know, when I was forced to watch this Final Four game, though,

and they were up like eight or ten, you know, right off the bat, and it was like maybe, I don't know, eight minutes left in the first half, and they're winning by a lot. Fifteen or twenty, and he and his assistants all looked angry. Yeah. And it's like, you know, I guess like whatever it was, they didn't run plays perfectly or they missed a couple of shots that he thought they should have hit, and it's like you know i guess like whatever it was they didn't run plays

perfectly or they missed a couple of shots that he thought they should have hit and it's like yeah after a while wouldn't this just get to be old hat like just sit down and let the machine run for itself you know what more is there to prove it's really unbelievable i mean it's you know it's almost beyond john wooden at this point i think if i had been coaching the women's basketball team when we were at Holy Cross, if I was like two years out of college, I just don't think it would have gone well. Yeah, there would have been similar

circumstances, I would think. That was really a big risk for Louisiana Tech, and I guess it came up snake eyes for them, so to speak. Remember the center on the basketball team our senior year I had a little sexual tension with? Yeah. We had that.

This is a long, terrible story. So can we talk Trump really quick? Sure. Where are you right now? Are you dead emotionally? What's your emotional you right now are you just you just are you dead emotionally like what what's your emotional state right now just yeah i was dead emotionally probably i was probably dead emotionally about three weeks ago and you know i would have literally been out on a ledge when you called me but now there's some glimmers of hope that maybe the republican party will not nominate

donald trump there's been some some cracks in the, as it were. And I think that if he does not get the 1,237 delegates required to win on the first ballot, I don't think that he's going to be the nominee because I think he and his people are going to get outsmarted at the convention. And I think there's a good chance that it will be Cruz as the nominee. I mean, that doesn't really, that doesn't make you pump your fist. No, but the thing is, like, if you run Cruz and you lose an election, like, okay, you lose an election, we're going to get four years of Hillary. It's going to suck for the party.

It's going to suck for the country. It's going to be terrible. Oh, come on. It's our first female president, Johnny. Yeah. Why are you writing her off? She's been serving the United States for years and years and years. Yeah, serving it with quite the distinction.

So I don't have high hopes for a Hillary presidency, obviously, for the country. But if you run Cruz, at least he knows what he's talking about. He's not a complete blithering idiot. And you will not have to wear the stain of his, like if he loses, he loses, and then we'll get him in four years. If you run Trump as the nominee, I mean, that is the destruction of the Republican Party for generations. Yeah. Because it's just a complete debate ender in future years. He is such an ignorant, racist buffoon that he will just, you know, the Republican Party will wear that taint for the rest of its existence. So if you lose an election, you lose an election.

If you run with Trump and it's a complete disaster and he probably loses, certainly loses the Senate, maybe the House. And then every single debate going forward for the next 30 years, Republicans, any debate with a Democrat, Democrats will say, well, didn't your party nominate Donald Trump? And a Republican will just sag his or her shoulders, bow their head and walk away. There's no response to that. So you nominate Cruz, you take your chances,

but you nominate Trump and it's the destruction of the Republican Party. I had Willie Geist on before you and we were talking about how Cruz was on Jimmy Kimmel's show. Yeah, he was actually pretty good show yeah he was actually pretty good and he was actually pretty good and I was wondering like is he gaining social intelligence like almost

like how an alien when they land from the planet like Jeff Bridges in Starman they just study other human behavior and they learn how to assimilate he's learning how to assimilate a sense of humor and self deprecation he was actually pretty funny he was it was shocking He's learning how to assimilate a sense of humor and self-deprecation.

He was actually pretty funny. He was. It was shocking. There are people that say, if you know him personally, he's pretty down to earth. But he has this style of speaking where it's like a mega church pastor. I don't know. It doesn't really sway me. He does long pauses, and it's breathy.

It's just like, just talk normally to me. Like, you know, it's okay. Just talk normally. He's also the most loathed within the political circles candidate. I mean, obviously Trump is a bit worse, but just somebody who's actually been in it and been serving. He just seems like people hate him. Except this year, like that probably helps him, you know, because everybody has this, let's burn Washington to the ground theory.

Like, be they Bernie Sanders voters or be they Trump and Cruz voters. It's like the more, you know, anybody that's ever set foot in Washington, they're like, kill him. So that may actually help Cruz that all his senators, fellow senators hate him. Yeah. It seems such an odd thing. Like you're involved. We don't want anybody that's like knowledgeable about politics or gets along with politicians because we hate Washington. We hate those people. Like any other job would be like, I've never done that job before in my life.

That's why you should, you should put me in there. I don't have a clue what I'm doing. It's about time we'd shake it up and do some changes. Give me a break. Can you think of a better city for all this to come to a culmination than Cleveland, Ohio? No, that's the thing. I mean, that's perfect. I mean, yeah, exactly. Between

the home of the Cleveland Browns, it's perfect that it will end in, you know, ugliness and recrimination and a dumpster fire. Yeah. Perfect. It's actually in play. It's not inconceivable that LeBron loses in round two or round three he opts out of his contract he leaves for miami on like july 9th yes um robert griffin starts

minicamp like two days later and is a disaster right away and then the republican convention happens a week later and it's just this just a a tsunami of just self-loathing for the Cleveland fans that will never be approached ever again. If, God forbid, the city of Cleveland is burned to the ground, it'll be always a question as to whether it was from LeBron James' jerseys being set on fire, or it was the Trump people, that he was denied the nomination and they set the city aflame. That'll be an interesting theory for future historians.

It'll probably be Trump. I think if LeBron left again, I don't even know if they might have to move the convention. I think the fans would just be like, no, get out of here. LeBron is such a weirdo. I just don't understand the way he operates in life. I'm just so confused.

I think he's too much of a politician and he wants to be loved. I can't see him leaving again. He'll just force Kevin Love to be, you know, he's going to I think he's too much of a politician and he wants to be loved I can't see him leaving again he'll just force Kevin Love to be a free agent they'll just get rid of him and LeBron will stay he basically coaches the team now

Love and Irving are both under contract but I think they trade one and probably both of them but Love doesn't have the same value Irving will have value. I mean, there's always the, to the extent I follow basketball, isn't it always a thing that, you know, LeBron doesn't include Kevin Love in their group Instagram shots.

Sometimes he does and veiled messages and everything else. It's the veiled messages. That's become a running joke in our office. Like if I did the stuff on social media that LeBron does, where I would just tweet out stuff like shouldn't be that hard to find a podcast producer and then take like what was that directed at me it's like i don't know was it you know you see people walking on eggshells the whole time it's like the old days of the kremlin when they would have like you know parades and if you were like people who would be next to stalin and then the next parade that guy wouldn't be there

and they'd be like oh you know he's out of favor because he's not he's not in the picture anymore he would move back in the line so social media is terrible for this stuff yeah i am i might start doing that for my account just be like i wish a little i wish people could be a little more professional sometimes. People are like, did you see Bill's tweet today? What did that mean? Shouldn't be that hard to write jokes.

What? It'd be nice if you didn't leave the Keurig machine empty of water. Just saying. Look, Brad. He's just terrible on social media. Hey, here's a good idea. I'm going to be in Miami.

I'm going to work out with Dwayne Wade and post an Instagram video of it. My teammates won't read anything into this at all after I've just been sulking for the last week. This will go great. I'm going to unfollow the Cavs. Is he going to get a job again or is he done for life now?

Dave Blatt. Very controversial subject with my Jewish friends. They're very upset about this. He's an Israeli hero for Israeli basketball. He really is. Grantlands, Julia Libman, very upset. The guy I share season tickets with for the Clippers, Mike Tolan, didn't like how it was handled.

It's a big thing. It was a bad situation for him. The country of Israel? Yes. Out on the Cavs. No support whatsoever anymore. Just out. Rooting for anyone else.

LeBron probably can't set foot in Jerusalem. Yeah, and that would have been one of his weird LeBron moves. Yeah. Like, I'm going to Jerusalem for my new social media video channel that I've created. You know, one of those terrible ideas that his camp comes up with. As we scout locations for Space Jam 2. Just play basketball, LeBron. You're good.

All right. So it sounds like you are a 3 out of 10 worried about the Yankees. Oh, yeah. That's a pretty good one. And a 29 out of 10 worried about the Republican Party? Absolutely. In the country? Yes.

I've had some time to handle the Rubio loss because I think he's the only one that really could have won. So, you know, you go through whatever it is, five stages of grief, and I'm totally at acceptance. And I'm already accepting the next Clinton administration, and that's what we're going to have. You know, since I've known you, I don't know if you've ever, um, had anyone let you down that, that horrendously like Ruby has Rubio. Yeah. I mean, maybe there's some girl I'm forgetting 20 years ago, but I mean, probably just for the, for maybe the rattle and hum movie. No, I liked rattling home. I was the one guy that liked it.

You liked the album. I mean, the movie of us were really in front of the movie. Yeah, it was self-parody. What do you mean, used to make fun of it? I still make fun of it. Well, true, yes. But Rubio, wow. Yeah, we were in South Carolina coming back from the Masters, and we saw Rubio's sign on the side of the road.

My buddy's like, want me to get that for you? Thanks. No thanks. I don't think I'll bring that home with me. The good thing about Rubio's candidacy is I can't remember where it fell apart because it just was unraveling for three straight months. There's no famous moment. He had some moments where he sort of rallied there, though. And, you know, there's hopes for him for 2020, I suppose.

And, you know, maybe the party will look to him to save them to come back. Who knows? Politics is funny. It was Chris Christie's last suicide bomber move before he detonated the vest, where he just decided to take Rubio with him. Just went after him. But now he's just an abject embarrassment. I mean, he's just debased himself to endorse Trump and had the thing in South, I think it was in South Carolina.

I forget which state. We've had so many now where he's just standing behind them, like staring off into the distance. And I saw a clip from him on Fallon the other day where Fallon was like killing him for it. So he's never going to live that down. I'm ashamed of that. When Jimmy Fallon goes after you, you know, you feel rock bottom. I'm surprised Jimmy Fallon didn't invite him over to throw eggs at him or something.

Let's have an egg throwing contest. And then Christie was like, he had some response. And he's like, well, you know, if Jay Leno was doing a monologue and you were just standing behind him, he pulled like a Jay Leno card. It was so cringeworthy. It was brutal. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's just a disaster.

And then everybody that gets close to Trump, it's like a freaking embarrassment. I mean, poor Ben Carson, God bless him. But he's like, man, just not a good surrogate. Troubling. Johnny. Troubling times. Troubling times. So many years.

Thank God I've got the Yankees bullpen and Starlin Castro to pull me through. And Frank Gifford died. So many years. So many memories. So many years. God rest his soul. So many years. All right, Johnny. This was fun. I got to go to the Masters, though, so that was cool. So many years. So many memories. So many years. God rest his soul. So many years. All right, Johnny.

This was fun. I got to go to the Masters, though, so that was cool. Dream come true. This is great. I miss you. I hope I get to see you soon. Absolutely. I'll talk to you.

Take care, buddy. We're going to bring my dad in just because he's visiting. So before we do that, let's talk about Helix for a second. What is it about buying a mattress that leaves you feeling violated? Is it the pushy salespeople, the fake President's Day sale? Is it the fact that you know you regret what you bought as you do the walk of shame out of the mattress store? Well, those days are over. Thanks to Helix Sleep. You can buy a mattress online customized for you for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands. Go to helixsleep.com, answer a few simple questions, and they'll create your custom sleep profile to build you the most comfortable mattress you'll ever sleep on.

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Get $50 off your order. That's helixsleep.com slash BS. All right. Instead of my dad, I thought my dad was going to come on, but his grandson bumped him. He wanted the spot and said, Ben, we just went to WrestleMania in Dallas. How are you? I'm good. You were worried that we would get killed in the stadium because it was Dallas and I did the Patriots logo.

What else? What were the other highlights for you? Give us a quick recap. I was in front of Shane McMahon jumping from Hell in a Cell. That happened right in front of us. That happened right in front of me. I was in front of me i was in the front row for that that scared me yeah you climbed in because some people left you jumped in you climbed to the cage how high do you think it was it was 20 feet high wait it was over 20 feet high and what happened tell the people what happened shane mcmahon hit uh the undertaker

with a toolbox twice took off all the stuff from the announcing tables. Climbed on the steel cage. Undertaker was on it. Finally got up. Did a cross with his heart. And jumped off, but he missed. The Undertaker rolled off. And it seemed like when he jumped, he tilted a little bit too far, right?

Yeah. And it almost seemed like he was going to break his neck. It was pretty scary. You were scared. Yeah, I was really scared. I thought he was going to die. I thought he was going to break a leg or two. Right.

Okay, what were the other highlights? So you got to finally see Stone Cold came out for the ring and did a Stone Cold stunner. You hadn't been in the arena when his music had come out and all that stuff, right? So that was cool. One of the highlights of my WrestleMania was Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels, and Stone Cold Steve Austin came out and beat up the League of Nations. Yeah, that was good. A couple stunners.

You got to see The Rock. What was the best match? I think it was... Well, the... One of the best matches... It was probably Shane McMahon, right? Yeah. Oh, the women's championship match was awesome. I don't think that was good. I thought it was really good.

Because I knew Rick was going to cheat. Rick Flair. Yeah. But we met him before. You took a picture with him. Yeah, he's nice. It was a big night for his daughter. Right.

She won. Is there anybody you're mad at right now? Any wrestlers? Let's see. Anybody you want to tell them that they suck? We'll throw that out there. Triple H? Triple H?

I like Triple H now. I don't understand. How do you do this where you root for both sides in a wrestling match? Don't you have to pick a side? No. That was weird because you were rooting for Triple H, but when Roman Reigns won, you started celebrating and jumping up and down like a maniac.

Yeah, because I thought they were showing my post on TV. Oh, you were trying to get on TV? Yes. What are your predictions now for wrestling going forward? Roman Reigns is the champ. Is he going to be a good guy or a bad guy? I think he's going to be a bad guy. So how do they do that?

How do they make him a bad guy? Okay, so he bows down to the 40s. He spears like... Somebody that's popular Yeah Who would that be? Maybe The Rock? Shaquille O'Neal or something

Shaquille O'Neal Come on He came back He wasn't very good though He sucked If he turned on The Rock That would be a good one, right? If The Rock was celebrating

Because they're I think they're a little bit related somehow They're cousins They're cousins, yeah. So if The Rock threw them a party and Roman Reigns beat the hell out of them or something, that would be pretty good. Yeah. Can I tell you what I think is going to happen?

Tell me. I think AJ Styles is going to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Really? Because he's the number one competitor for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Okay. So watch out for AJ Styles. If that doesn't happen, I think Brock Lesnar might win the title.

Can we talk about you got to meet Roman Reigns finally? Yeah. You crossed that one off your list. You got to meet Mick Foley and Ric Flair. Yeah, they were really nice. You got to meet Edge and Christian. They were nice. You got to meet Edge and Christian. They were nice.

You got to meet that giant guy in Bray Wyatt's group. I mean, Braun Strowman. That was pretty cool. All those wrestlers were really nice.

The one guy who we were afraid to approach was Dean Ambrose because he looked so scared for the Lesnar match. Yeah, he was like getting... I was like,

I was like... Lesnar is pretty scary. Yeah. Who's the person you least want to wrestle? The person I least want to wrestle is Bray Wyatt. Bray Wyatt? Really? Because of his smelly beard?

No, I'm freaked out of him. He does that move with his back. Reminds me of like a spider. Do we cover everything? No. What did we cover everything? What did we not cover? I haven't covered what's his name? Oh yeah, I haven't

covered Donald Trump. He's a wrestler. Oh, you watched on YouTube you watched Donald Trump shave Vince McMahon's head. Yeah. And now Donald Trump might be the president. I would hate if he's president. Because he shaved Vince McMahon's head. Yeah. And now Donald Trump might be the president. I would hate if he's president. Because he shaved Vince McMahon's head?

No. Because he's a horrible guy. Okay. Thanks, Ben. Thanks for joining us. You're welcome. Thanks to Untucket.com. They make shirts that are specifically designed to be worn untucked.

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Quick reminder, go to theringer.com, subscribe to our new newsletter. We're closing in on 175,000 subscribers. Actually, we passed that. We passed that number. We're getting great feedback. And don't forget, Shack House podcast on Monday, presented by Callaway. They will break down the masters, Joe House and Jeff Shackleford. Enjoy the weekend.

Enjoy the masters. Back next week. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. Close your eyes and picture me rolling.