The Bill Simmons Podcast - Fixing OKC, Sad D.C. Fans, Saving Giannis, Amazing LeBron, and Didi vs. Jeter With House and JackO | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 359)

Episode Date: April 30, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to talk NBA playoffs, including the Wizards-Raptors series, and what the Bucks need to do in order to keep Giannis happy. The two also take a swing at how to fix OKC this summer, and talk about LeBron's superhuman performance in the Pacers-Cavs series (3:05). Then Bill connects with JackO to talk about the Yankees, Red Sox, the return of 'Jersey Shore', and the return of Mike Francesa to WFAN Sports Radio (1:00:55). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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week. Did one last night, Sunday night, Heat Check with John Gonzalez. That went up late night. Tonight, Kevin O'Connor, Chris Vernon, they're taping Monday night. We'll be in your, wherever you get your pods, early Tuesday morning. You can listen in bed, at the gym,

in your car, on the train. However you get your pods. I'm not judging you. Check that out. Don't forget to check out theringer.com. We are covering NBA playoffs, the Avengers. Lots of Avengers stuff. Kyle, did you see the Avengers yet?

No. Kyle is doing stuff all week. I'm not judging Kyle either the Avengers people are fired up about it who's in the Avengers Kyle why are you doing this how many is Captain America yeah I think so I'm out on all superhero movies yeah Kyle's out too anyway the

ringer.com they are not out on the Avengers they're ready to read about it talk about all that stuff. And you can check that out on theringer.com. Coming up, we are talking to Joe House about a bunch of unsettled NBA stuff from round one and a slight look ahead to round two. And then my buddy Jacko is going to call in

and we're going to talk about the Yankees, the Red Sox, and more importantly, the dramatic return of the Pope, Mike Francesa. That's all coming up first, Pearl Jam. On the line right now, Joe House, host of Shack House, host of House of Carbs, sitting out round two of the Eastern Conference Finals. His team, the ugly stepchild of the East Coast sports scene, gets to watch Philly and Boston, two cities that I think Washington at once upon a time

felt like it had a rivalry with, but now is just kind of on the outside, freezing in the 20 degree weather, just watching other people have fun. Is this the lowest moment of Washington DC sports or has the Capitals being alive tempered that a little bit? Yeah, come on. It's not a low point for Washington sports.

The Capitals are still playing. It's going to be May tomorrow. You're going to lose. You lose to the Penguins every year. You know you're going to lose the Penguins series. Probably, but still. We're still in the playoffs. Two teams made the playoffs.

Great. One of those teams is still playing in May. The bar is very low. Just remember. I mean, first of all, by the way, it's not 20 degrees here anymore. It's beautiful. We're going to get some, it's going to go straight from winter to summer, which is where we're at right now.

But that's fine. Spring is in the air. We're happy. It's always fun not to have a spring. The Philly thing has to hurt. Philly's having a moment. Philly's having a moment. Philly won the Super Bowl. Philly has this Sixers thing

that we jumped on the bandwagon at 7-1 and now it's plus 125 to win the East. And it just seems like Philly's having a moment and DC has not had a moment for a long time. You have to admit that. Well, DC, there hasn't really been a rivalry with Philly for a long time you have to admit that dc there hasn't really been a rivalry with philly uh in a long time it's very episodic the rivalry there have been uh washington professional football team eagles moments over the years you know the nfc east you basically hate everybody in

it uh yeah but it there hasn't really been any kind of sustained uh animosity between the cities the best you could come up with is probably like the caps and the flyers there was a time in the early 2000s but it's so sad how far away is it like 90 miles it's it's uh maybe a smidge more than that but it's close yeah less than two hour train ride that's embarrassing it's it's the worst rivalry of all the rivalries that should be a rivalry. Why, why, why is that?

And why is it a bad rivalry? Cause you just, you just explained for three minutes why it's a bad rivalry. You say, you say there's no animosity between any of the teams. It doesn't need to be a rivalry. Why not? I don't understand what,

what the point is. People in Washington. Can't we just have our very modest. We want to do our thing and try and get good at our stuff. Because we don't need rivalries for it. People worry about you. Just worry about us. That's it.

Look in the mirror. That's our motto here in Washington. Yeah. Well, that hasn't worked. Maybe you should start some feuds. It worked. yeah well that hasn't worked maybe you should start some feuds it worked the dead skins made it to the one the NFC East two years ago oh congratulations

yeah that's it we hang our hats on our modest victories it really you're running out of cities that have it worse than Washington DC for sports. I think you're in denial. Let's, let's really talk this out. When was,

when was your last title? What title of any sort? Yeah. 90, 91. The dead skins in 91, unless you count the Maryland Terrapins NCAA victory in 2000 or 2001, whichever year that was. So there's a 30. The Terps wonins NCAA victory in 2000 or 2001, whichever year that was. So there's a 30- The Terps won the NCAAs.

I'm not counting that. The 33, there's a 33-year-old fan who grew up in the DMV right now who has no idea what it feels like to win a title is what you're telling me. I feel really bad for that fan because it's been an especially tough 33 years. It's been the Dan Snyder era.

It was the finger guns version of the almost bullets was in there. The crushing disappointment of the Alto Obechkin era is in there. I was going to say 20 different capitals disappointments. Some nationals letdowns.

Everyone in D.C. turning on the Orioles even before you got a team. That happened. The Ravens won two Super Bowls. The Ravens won two Super Bowls after they moved there. That's just the Cleveland Browns. Congratulations. It's pretty rough.

I don't know. I think you're handling it too well. It kind of scares me, actually. I'm telling you, the sun is out. Momofuku here in D.C. had a pit beef and crawfish boil yesterday. I mean, there's plenty of things to be happy about here in DC. The white house is going great. Might as well be on Mars.

I don't even care. That doesn't even count as Washington DC. What do I, we're going to talk about Celtics Sixers in a second, but I did want to spend two minutes talking about a classic wizard series that culminated in the quote I was waiting for from Markeith Morris, claiming that the wizards were better than the Raptors. I was waiting for it. I knew it was happening.

It finally happened. I don't know why he would think that. Everyone on the planet knew that this was going to be a series that Toronto won in 5, 6 and maybe even 7 I didn't think that where you guys should have

won some of the games but you blew it and did dumb things like that it was a lock how was that not going to happen that part was a lock it was nice of once out of every 3 games Keefe to chime in since he decides to show up once out of, that must have been the one out of every three press conferences that he decided to say something interesting at. Yeah, he's like one of those character actors in a cable drama that only signed a contract to be in five of the 11 episodes. That's how he approaches his basketball career.

That's exactly the way that he plays. We have, somehow, we have the better brother now, the Celtics. And he's a rollercoaster ride too. Yeah, let me be honest. This is, I don't want to encounter

either one of them in person because they're both big, tough, mean mother effers. Yeah, they would be. By appearance. They would hurt you. How about this? The Morris brothers stink.

How much more do I have to watch of half-ass effort? Now, Marcus has been good on the Celtics this year. His problem is he always thinks he's the best guy in the court, which is the best quality for him and the worst quality. President Stevens had to drag that out of him. I mean, he's been in the league, what now, five, six years? It only took President Stevens had to drag that out of him. He's been in the league, what now, five, six years? It only took President Stevens. It took all of his resuscitation skills to drag this out of him.

Let's hold that thought. DC, what happens with the Wiz? What do you do? You have to pay like $85 million. You got Wobbele and Porter for $85 million next year. I honestly have no idea. There are at least six, if not seven, NBA teams that were in these playoffs that now feel like

they're in an absolute no-man's land. And I just have... Obviously, my Washington almost bullets fit that category. Yeah, but at least... I'm not sure how... At least you have Beal and Porter who are young guys. Porter's contract's too much, but I like Beal and his contract's fine.

And somebody who's dumb enough to trade for a while. There's a young core that you can kind of get yourself excited about. Wall, Beal, Porter, Sadoransky, Oubre. Oh, boy. You know, there's... Oh, man. You're just damaged. You're just damaged. Sadoransky, Oubre. Oh boy. You know, there's, there's, there's, there's, man, you're just damaged.

You're just damaged. This is a thing, right? Let's, let's throw him into the core. Sadoransky. You know, he couldn't beat out Ty Lawson.

I want somebody to, to do a deep dive. You need, we need one of the ringer investigative reporters to go to China and do an investigation as to what happened with Ty Lawson in China between Ty Lawson and Scotty Brooks, that they made some kind of deal. Something happened in China. Ty Lawson came over here and immediately is playing, you know, 25 minutes a game. He's getting every single minute. They, the, the almost bullets cultivate their bench throughout the

season to, to, to try and address the obvious glaring deficiency of last year, which was bench depth. And then as soon as the playoffs come up, Ty Lawson, China tie is getting all the minutes that the bench got. What the F is going on here? Your coach was, I mean, fortunately for him, Joe Prenti was also in the playoffs. So he, he wasn't the worst coach around one. Billy Donovan wasn't great either. There was bad coaching. I tweeted this yesterday, so apologies for repeating it, but I've loved basketball my whole life. I've played basketball. You've loved basketball your whole life. You've played basketball. I've never seen anything dumber that worked for two weeks than Cleveland doubling Victor Oladipo 40 feet from the basket and Indiana having no idea how to solve this. This is like, my daughter was in a eighth grade title basketball game and everybody was seventh grade or lower. And we had a point guard who was our star. And this is what the team that we played

in seventh grade basketball did. And it kind of worked, but then we figured out how to adjust and put people in the right spaces. This is an NBA basketball game in the playoffs. And they had no idea how to address it or fix it. I just can't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I feel bad. I feel bad for all the disrespect I showed Indiana over the course of the season. On the other hand, there was two fatal flaws, maybe three. Lance Stevenson. Yeah. Dave Robbins.

They just never had anybody other than Oladipo. Way too much Darren Collison. You can't be saying, oh, Collison didn't have a great game, so the Pacers lost. Like, what? Yeah, he's Darren Collison. He's been on eight teams. Yeah. And then, yeah, there was a couple Lance moments, especially last Sunday night,

the game four that Cleveland pulled out on those Corver threes. When Lance came in, and he's just like a runaway freight train sometimes, and it's actually, I mean, this isn't rocket science to say this, but it's not detrimental to his team sometimes. I mean, this isn't rocket science to say this, but it's not detrimental to his team sometimes. I mean, it is detrimental.

You live by the Lance, you die by the Lance. Yeah. And, you know, I think Indiana's at a really interesting point right now because I don't think they can play Turner and Sabonis together ultimately. I think they have to pick one of those two guys. And I think both of those guys have trade value.

So the move, if I were them, I would shop Turner this summer and try to get one more dude. You mean like, well, they did a great job. Maybe they would take Mahinmi back. They have all that experience. They know just how to use him. I don't think- Mahinmi?

Anybody? I don't think Jan's on the table. But what about Porter makes too much money. You can't even trade him. I was going to say Porter and Turner in a trade would make sense to me, but there's no way those salaries match up, but they need to turn Turner into a wing because I think they'd be able to get a lot more for him than Sabonis. One of the things I was thinking, I just think there's going to be good guys available this summer. I think it's going to be

a unique summer. But they're not as screwed as OKC is, though. Indiana's in great shape. Indiana has cap space and guys to trade and a future superstar in Oladipo, who I voted fifth for MVP this year.

I look at the OKC situation. I have no idea how they fixed that. Well, this is, I have seven teams that kind of fit that category. Yeah. Maybe six. Maybe I'm not being charitable enough to Minnesota, but those teams are Oklahoma City, Washington, Portland, Milwaukee, Miami, and the San Antonio Spurs.

So Portland, that moves easy, right? They have to pick between Lillard and McCollum, and I don't think they'll have the balls to trade Lillard. So they have to move McCollum. What about Miles Turner for McCollum? Is that possible? I don't know how McCollum and Oladipo fit together. Although maybe they would.

We just said a wing. They need a wing. McCollum and Oladipo fit together. Although maybe they would. But if... We just said a wing. They need a wing. McCollum can play wing. The thing is, Portland needs... What Portland needs to do is trade McCollum's contract and also put another contract in the trade and get back a pick and a lesser contract because they got to get under the tax.

So it's almost like you get CJ McCollum, but you also have to take Evan Turner. That's how I would be thinking if I was Portland. That's the murder of my team. My team needs to get under the tax also. Well, you need somebody who's dumb enough to say John Wall is a superstar

and we could build our team around him. That's rude. You need your version of the Blake Griffin trade. No, it's doable. Detroit was like, hey, we could build our team around Blake Griffin and gave away a lottery pick and a really good contract in Tobias Harris and Boyan, who's an expirer next year. Now they're stuck with Blake Griffin for four years. Yet you need to foist John Wall on somebody.

Remember the Curb episode? But like if you did a John Wall for a Kemba and Cody Zeller type thing. No, no, no, no, no. What do you mean no? Why? I don't know. I don't need

Charlotte Detritus. Detritus? Detritus? Whichever. You can't pay John Wall mid-30s million dollars in two years. You just can't. You can't succeed that way. And you need a coach. I don't understand why not.

Get a better coach. That's the answer. Correct. Right. You just hit the nail on the head. We need a better coach. Here's the problem I was having over the last three weeks to a month. I went to people and said,

name me one thing that separates Scotty Brooks from Randy Whitman. Tell me one thing. Right? Randy Whitman was taller? Whitman's taller. That's the best we could come up with. It's the best we could do.

Scotty dresses a little bit better. Why can't you just bring in David Fisdale? That would be great! I'm in! Sign me up! We need a new GM too. I want to talk about OKC. We're going to take a break. Alright, every

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to save an additional 15% off your first order. Just do it. It's Mother's Day. Come on. Come up with a gift. Framebridge.com promo code BS. Back to house. All right, we're back. All right, so you had the Milwaukee thing. That's a real danger zone for them because unhappy Giannis is eventually not going to be a good thing for them. And it won't happen this year. And I actually feel like after having watched every minute of that series and rooted against him and all that stuff,

he's still a year, maybe even two from being who he's going to be. Sure, sure. I think it's so early in the honest. I think he's going to win the MVP probably in the next three years.

But there's still a lot that he needs to figure out about a basketball game and the flow of it and a playoff game and things like that. The problem for him is the team they were putting around him combined with the substitute teacher coach, that was the best case for the Celtics to win the series.

It was just like Brad Stevens is better than Joe Prunty and we have home court. And that's actually how they won the series with just those two things. That's true, that's right. I think that with Giannis, they cannot keep Jabari. And I actually think Jabari showed just enough in that series and is obviously somebody

who needs the ball in his hands. And isn't somebody meant to just kind of stand there when Chris Middleton and Giannis are tired of shooting. So they need to flip him into something. They have so much dead weight. You know, Della Vadova, John Hanson, they just have guys who

they're just throwing away $40 million in their salary cap for guys who aren't worth a damn. And then Bledsoe. Listen, the series is over and the Celtics won, so this isn't sour grapes. I thought Bledsoe was like the worst kind of guy to have in a play is over. And the Celtics won, so this isn't sour grapes. I thought Bledsoe was like the worst kind of guy to have in a playoff series. And the best kind of guy when you're going against him.

He's just, he tried intermittently. He really only tried on offense. He tried every once in a while on defense. He was better when they were up 20. When they actually needed him, he was a no-show. In the fourth quarter, it was so weird hearing Barkley praise him after the game. I really respect Barkley.

And he's like, you know, Eric Bledsoe showed up today. I'm like, Eric Bledsoe's the reason the Celtics won. He wasn't guarding anybody. In the fourth quarter, his defense was atrocious. There should be a name for what he became. He's a prime example of a player with talent arriving in a rebuilding situation at exactly the wrong time and catching loser-itis. And not being able to get rid of that loser-itis when the lights come back on. Because he played like he was still in Phoenix a bunch of those possessions.

You know what I mean? And like feuding with Terry Rozier for no reason was wrong. He played like he was still in Phoenix, a bunch of those possessions. You know what I mean? Yeah. And like feuding with Terry Rozier for no reason was stupid. All that did was get, they had to win a game in Boston. But it's just a lack of awareness. I thought he did a lot of hero ball. Like who does he make better on the Bucs? That's the other thing.

You're the point guard. Who are you making better on your team? Made nobody better. And just had weird body language. You're supposed to be a leader. There's no leadership at all. That's the coaching point. I mean, what if Fizz ends up there?

Well, I watched that team and I saw a team that had zero leadership and zero chemistry and kind of made it work because not only is Giannis, he's one of the five, six best players in the league, but Middleton is an assassin. He was the big revelation for me in that series.

I felt like every time he took a shot, it was going in. The lights came on and he was ready for it. They need to flip Jabari and figure out how to get some sort of guard. I mean, they have to play Jason Terry in a game seven. Jason Terry wants to come back next year, by the way. He shouldn't have played one minute in that series. And the key to them in that series, which Prunty only intermittently realized,

was how much can we get from Jabari? I just want to play Jabari 35 minutes a game and let him take his lumps because they couldn't have won that series without him. You needed three guys. They only had two. But I don't know. They have Giannis, which is great.

Maybe they have to sacrifice Middleton to get rid of a salary and bring somebody a little different. And I wouldn't. I don't know what their... I think their chemistry stuff could be solved by a great coach. And if I was a great coach,

I would want to coach Giannis. Yes. So I'm not as worried about them. I think Portland's moves are fixable. I think your moves, you're fine. You need a better coach too. And maybe you need to trade John Wall. The OKC situation, I don't see how it's fixable. And unless, The key with Westbrook is, why did he resign last summer? Was anything in place last September that made him want to commit

all that money? Did they promise him anything? Is there a Paul George deal already in the works? I have no idea why Paul George would go back to that team. I'm right there with you I can't think of a single reason unless they agreed to it a year ago well

you're not allowed to agree to it the previous year so they'd be facing a Joe Smith kind of penalty situation I hope that that's not what's at play here but he could also back out of it and back out of a wink wink and just do whatever the hell he wants. Which is exactly what he should do.

They've won three playoff games in the last two years. They have a guy in Westbrook who is this electrifying talent who would be one of the least fun people to play with in a playoff game when he gets into that mode of, all right, fuck it. I've got this. Get out of my way. I'm going to shoot 43 times.

I was tweeting this during the game. There's no track record ever in the history of the NBA for somebody shooting that time and their playoff team continually succeeding. And people are like, well, it happened once with Jordan. And it's like, what? This is what he was doing when their backs were to the wall. He was like, here's our best solution. I'm going to shoot every single time. I'm going to play all the time. I'm going to play every minute. Nobody else is going to do anything. You guys are going to stand around until I decide that I'm going to get you involved. It was breathtaking. It was amazing to watch, but there's no track record of it ever working. It's never worked, ever.

Yeah, because it doesn't work. Because it doesn't work. This is the just desserts for Oklahoma City. And by the way, I know I've done this rant many, many, many times, but all the hoops perverts out there, I want to publicly, is there a way to dig up everybody

that voted for Westbrook as MVP last season? Make a list. Every media person that voted that way needs their credentials seriously examined. I want an examination of exactly who these people are and what the circumstances were under which

they thought that a guy and an approach to the game that produced three playoff wins in two seasons. And they shouldn't be in one game five. That's right. That was ridiculous. Came back from a 25 point. Well, that's the Westbrook, you know.

No, but the Gobert fouls were awful. And that was embarrassing. Of course. As I discussed on my podcast before that game, I was like, I'm worried about game five because Gobert can really be officiated any way the league wants. And if, you know, it's not a conspiracy. It's just like, they'll see stuff on the video

and they'll tell the refs, hey man, watch out for Gobert when he goes in for that block. You got to call that. And it's in the ref's head. So he got just called on a bunch of touch fouls. It was stupid. But they were better, and they should have won in five. It's embarrassing that Rubio got hurt in game six,

and OKC couldn't even really figure out a way to pull it off. And then, you know, Paul George isn't an are-we-sure-he's-good candidate. But I don't think. Yes, he is. He's definitely an are-we-sure. That's what I mean. He's not an are-we-sure-he's-good candidate. I guess my question is, are we sure you can win the title

if he's your second best player? I mean, he, what is his body of work since the injury that distinguishes him? This is the thing. I have a lot of empathy and sympathy. I have both of those feelings for Paul George and his situation because he came back from a devastating injury and has, you know, for extended periods, um, seem to return to form

the problem I have with Paul George's. Uh, and this is the problem I have with a lot of my guys here in Washington. I'm not sure he knows how to win. I don't know that he knows anything about winning basketball. Like what's his pedigree that would, would, uh, suggest to you that he's going to be able to come into a situation and help that team, you know, reach its kind of highest possible ceiling. Oklahoma city won two more games this season than they did last season with Mello and Paul George. Well, the, this is something I said last week about Westbrook. And I don't think it's something we put enough thought into just when we think about basketball. And it's the difference when you watch somebody

like Donovan Mitchell. Westbrook had never been the best guy in his own team until the year when Durant got hurt. He'd always been kind of the overachiever and the second guy. And he just, he'd never gotten those reps of, oh, I've been in this situation. Oh, I know what it's like to lead a team. And you can really see it. The thing that people don't seem to understand, and I see both sides of the Westbrook thing, and I'm not really on one side or the other,

other than I don't care about triple doubles. And I don't think you're ever going to win a playoff series if your guy's shooting 40 plus shots in consecutive games. But the thing that I think is really important to understand is that his solution to quote unquote, things are going wrong right now in this series, or things are going wrong in this game, is to just do it himself. He doesn't have another plan. It's not like he doesn't go into these games going, I'm going to get Paul George going tonight. I'm going to do this. I'm going to get Adams. He's just like, I'm going to score every time. And I'm going to play a hundred miles an hour and everybody will follow my lead. And that doesn't work. I think that's an indictment of Oklahoma city. That's an institutional problem. That's a mindset problem. That's a, that's a long range

planning problem, right? If you work for a company where you had a star performer who, uh, you know, like a star salesman that like nine, nine, nine months out of the year, um, you know, hit, hit a, a 110% of the sales target, but basically, um, couldn't get over the hump to bring you four quarters of sustained sales. Now, maybe this is a bad analogy, but you have to figure out how best to use that talent. And the deal with the devil that the Thunder made, this is my estimation, was to unleash him on the 2016-2017 season. And that was a way of smoothing over all of the hurt of KD

affirmatively choosing to leave that situation. Smart move. I credit them with that strategy. It saved their franchise. That franchise moves if Russ leaves. Yeah, I'm with you. That's right. But the Paul George thing,

I just don't think he's an elite offensive player. I hate to use the Sports Talk Radio, Elite QB, all that stuff, but I just don't think he's an elite offensive player. I hate to use the sports talk radio, elite QB, all that stuff, but I just don't think he's an elite. I think he's a good three-point shooter when he's open. I don't think he's a great offensive player. I don't even think he's a very good offensive player. And the stats back it up. All the analytics back it up, of course.

We know it. We watched it. They didn't win that series because they couldn't make baskets he's he was a fantastic defensive player before he got hurt he's still very good but he's also not the type of defensive player that's like Donovan Mitchell's torching us

I'm going to shut him down because he didn't nobody shut Donovan Mitchell down no but I thought that's on paper that's the kind of thing Paul George would do, right? Well, and I like, you know. Slow him down, whatever. All you have to do is take out Donovan Mitchell in that series and you win the series, period.

The same should be true of Westbrook. Well, that's the thing. Westbrook gets no shit for that. Westbrook, here's your challenge. Stop Donovan Mitchell. If you take out Donovan Mitchell, you win the series. You have better players. He chose Ricky Rubio.

Rubio was the guy who was going to shut down. It was weird. Hey, Westbrook. So here's the rub. Just so it doesn't sound like Westbrook bash session. What he did in that 25 point comeback in game five and the ferocity that he played with and how fucking crazy he was.

I thought that was one of the best things. I was so blown away by it. I was like, wow, this guy is playing as hard as anyone I can ever remember. I'm going like vintage Jordan, any of LeBron's stuff, any of the Bird Magic, all those dudes. I'm like, this guy is, cares more and is trying harder than as hard as anyone I've ever seen in my life. That's why he won the MVP. I know. But the thing is, it's, this is the,

that's the best thing about Westbrook. And it's also the flaw of Westbrook because he doesn't understand when he's doing that, the whole point of basketball is you're a team and everyone's involved. And if guys aren of basketball is you're a team and everyone's involved. And if guys aren't involved and they're just sitting there as like ornaments, they're not going to play as well. They're just not. That's why Victor Oladipo sucked last year. He was an ornament. I just don't think it's fair to keep hanging it on him. You know, I'm with you. I

don't want this to sound like Westbrook bashing. And we both think he's amazing. It's just what we've watched the last two years is not going to produce a successful basketball team. Right. It's just disappointing because I'd love to see that talent channeled for the forces of good. I'd love to see it paired with a winner. I want to see some winning.

And it's turning a situation where if he doesn't have the basketball, he just quits on the play unless he can get an offensive rebound. But it's like, you can watch their offense. You go, oh, here's the Carmelo play. Wet Russ is just going to run over 30 feet from the basket and stand there. It's very easy to defend. And I think Carmelo is done. I don't think he's aged well. Is that your professional opinion? No, no. I think it, I don't know it because we have a lot of evidence that these role guys playing in this Westbrook or Kobe,

or these got these ball dominating guys that some of them can't handle it. And they get in their own heads and they need to play basketball with a certain feel, game to game, half to half, quarter to quarter, play to play. And some of them are just bad at it. Because the thing is, if you watched OKC, especially in the second half of the year, Carmelo was getting great shots. He was wide open on a lot of those threes. He was just not making them.

So it's like, well, why is that? Is he done? How does somebody lose the ability to shoot wide open threes? Are his legs gone? He's 33. And I just wonder if it was almost like a mental thing. He's 28 million next year. And I'm going to tell you what I think happens to him

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For $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase on any game or sporting event, music, whatever you want. Use promo code BS, download the SeatGeek app or go right to SeatGeek.com. I didn't love how my daughter dressed for the concert last night, in case you're wondering. We had our first, it's the style dad argument. I might disappear. I might leave the country for the next few years might do my podcast from some remote location that you won't know where it is

like Kerala Bop I'll be like living with him in his in his in his basement doing podcasts anyway

back to house here's how I think OKC's gonna play this Carmelo thing I think here are my predictions I have no idea if I'm right or not

you ready? I'm sitting down you make your predictions oh you're sitting down keep your pants on I think Paul George goes to Lakers me too I think the only chance that doesn't happen is if he goes to the Sixers

okay and they basically turn I think the Sixers are going to realize at some point over these next six weeks that Covington is the spot they need to improve as good as his defense is I just think he's the liability on that team everybody's got the one guy

who's like oh man I hope he doesn't get a little wonky in these games and he's their guy but anyway I think Paul George goes to Lakers and I think OKC moves immediately on a pressure slash buyout

on Carmelo. If you come back, you're coming off the bench. You're going to be our ninth man. You're going to play for eight minutes each half. And that's how it's going to go. And you can be as mad as you want. You can try to poison the situation as much as you want. But if you want to get paid, that's what we're doing this year.

Or option B is we'll buy out your contract for half the price. And you can go sign whatever you want. Option C, trade him to the Washington Wizards for Jan Mahinmy and Marcin Gortat expiring. And John Wall makes everybody better. I mean, he would get touches. Like what you're thinking. It's the best I could come up with. I can't give up both centers.

Why would you want Carmelo? What's your sad curiosity? Just because it would be interesting. I honestly believe in the redemptive power of John Wall. I think of what he's done for guys on the wing. He's made a lot of wings, a lot of money over the years. I think it would just be an interesting experiment, and I honestly don't have anything else to root for next season

because it's going to be a repeat. I'm just kind of up for anything. Remember, I wondered aloud last off season whether Dwight Howard would be interesting here in Washington. Well, you, yeah, you did do that. It was one of the darkest moments in BS podcast history. I wonder, I wonder, so could they trade Carmelo to a shit team

that doesn't care about next season and as cap space, like what if the Hawks, what if the Hawks said, we'll take his whole contract. No, it needs to be somebody that, that,

uh, where it's a draw for that city. Okay. So what are those cities? I don't know. Brooklyn. Like I like Brooklyn. That's not a bad one.

He's back in New York. There's nothing that he could do. No, not for the Spurs. Can't help the Spurs. It's not good. I don't have anywhere for him. Would you trade Ryan Anderson at $20 million, one year of Ryan Anderson at 20

million for one year of Carmelo at 28? Sure. Houston. That's a bad deal. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I would,

I just on the possibility. What if he can still shoot? You've, you've, you've kind of open, you've opened my thinking up. Well, you just got to look at the track record of why did these guys

why did this recent slew of guys improve so dramatically as soon as they got out of OKC? I think it's worth at least kicking their tires on. Fair point. Who were your other teams on your list? The blow it up list? Miami and the Spurs.

So, I think the Spurs trade Kawhi to the Clippers. Oh my God. I did. Why? Why do you think that? Because knowing nothing, I think it's crazy that he didn't go to any of those playoff games.

That tells me he's not coming back. What if he was really doing the rehab? We talked about this. No, I thought about what you said. We did talk about it and I've rejected it. I've rejected it like a bad kidney. I think he wants to leave

and I think he's going to pressure them to trade him. And I think he's going to pick a spot. And I think it's going to be- What can the Clippers give the Spurs back? So if he says, look, I'm leaving in a year anyway, you can keep me, but I'm going to leave after the year. And they're like, fine, we'll trade you to this spot, this spot, this spot, or this spot. And then he does the Kyrie Irving and says, well, if you trade me to that team, I'm not

going to resign there. And then his agent calls that team and says, hey, if you trade for Kawhi, you're only getting him for a year. He's not going to resign. But if he's nudging them toward the Clippers, now if you're the Spurs, you go, fuck, all right. We'll get Tobias Harris back, who I like Tobias Harris, by the way, but he's not Kawhi. Okay, looks good in a Spurs uniform.

I can see that. And the Clippers have the 12th pick and the 13th pick. So you get those two and you get a future unprotected lottery pick in like 2021, 2022, whatever,

down the road, unprotected. Can't even put a top one protection on it. I would want that sooner because the Clippers are going to suck in the next couple of years. Well, that's the thing. The best thing you can do in the NBA is trade for a future unprotected pick from the Los

Angeles Clippers. That's the best move you can make. Agreed. So if I could do all of those things, I get Tobias Harris back, I can replace 80% of Kawhi's points, obviously not the D. But I can get the 12th and 13th picks in this draft and I get a future pick so I can kind of rebuild on the fly.

And then I have the cap space of I got an extra like $8 million from getting rid of going from Harris to Kawhi. Maybe it's like $4 million. I lose Parker. I lose Manu. Now I've saved another like 30.

And that's when I go to LeBron James. Oh, interesting. But why would LeBron want to go there? He wouldn't. I'm just, that's the worst part of my plan. It's the only part I haven't figured out yet. That's when Pop goes to LeBron. He's like, I want to come back and coach.

I've had a rough year. I've wanted to come back and coach for the next three years. Come do this with me. I mean, here's the real thing with the Spurs. Isn't this the right time for Pop to just hang it up? Yeah, hard to say. I mean, you know, it does. What's he want to come back next year for? I mean you know it does what's he want to come back

next year for I don't know other than loyalty to his to everybody in the organization but it wouldn't make him disloyal to not come back

I just mean he would do that out of a sense of you know the love for that group yeah and he I don't know I don't want to speak for him but he

you know when you have a loss like the one he had maybe you need the family of the organization and the team to keep you going. That would be the reason. That makes sense. But he's definitely getting up

there in age. He's done everything you'd ever want to do in basketball. The basketball situation feels enough in flux. It's like, who needs this? Winning the 2014 title, arguably he could have left when Duncan left the next year. I think he still loves it I think

I respect him hanging in with Parker and Manu like as long as those dudes are around why not come back let me throw this prediction at you are you sitting down still I'm still sitting am I going to marinate on this or am I going to have a

I'm just going to throw all this stuff hey this is like an eight team parlay of a prediction I love those Kawhi to the Clippers okay LeBron and Paul George

to the Lakers hate it keep going Steve Kerr retires and goes and goes to TNT yep Luke Walton goes to TNT yep Luke Walton goes to the Warriors

fine the Lakers hire David Fisdale sure Boogie Cousins stays in New Orleans I think that's going to happen and um

the OKC buys out Carmelo for 14 million out of the 28 we haven't really shaken things up other than LeBron going to the Lakers I'm so against that Jeff Van Gundy gets one of the jobs

Mark Jackson gets the other one and Doris and Chauncey become the new A-team on ABC with Mike Breen. Well, I like Doris and Chauncey. I'm fine with that. I wish we had them right now. They're definitely better than me. I don't know. God bless Hubie. He's been amazing. It's really hard for me to accept that Hubie has that number two spot over Doris at this point

in life. I think that's just out of respect. I mean, maybe this is the end. Maybe there's something behind the scenes we're not aware of. Put Doris in the chair. She's ready. She's ready. We know that she's ready. We've heard her. Three to four years. Who else did you have on your list?

The Heat. Which is really just have on your list? The Heat. Which is really just a Hassan Whiteside problem. He really damn near is playing his way out of the league. You mean the Washington Wizards, Hassan Whiteside? That is so not funny. Let me see if it works in the trade mission.

That's exactly what my 15-year GM, my GM for life. Apparently, you have tenure here in Washington if you're a GM. Like a college professor, you can't fire him. He has tenure. Well, Ernie drafted the future of the Wizards, Sadoransky. Ernie, yeah, he did.

Yes, that's true. He did draft Sadoransky. Hold on. Before we go, we got to look at, so Whiteside makes $23 million. And Jan Mahimny makes 16 million try this trade no I have to adjust

the trade let's see who do you wanna throw in do you wanna throw in Mike Scott would you throw in

actually I love Mike Scott he's the best shooter on the team I don't wanna get rid of Mike Scott how about one last year

of Markeith Morris? Oh, Jason Smith. I'm throwing in Jason Smith's contract. Try this trade. It's been successful. Jan Mahimny and Jason Smith for Hassan Whiteside. Congratulations, House. You did it. You're back. John Wall's going to

throw in Allie Oops. It's going to be awesome. You're going to talk yourself into it in one day. I hate you. Who was the last team you had? Miami was the last. Oh, Minnesota's on borderline. Nah, they stick around for another year. The Jimmy Butler injury screwed that up.

But the problem is, the Jimmy Butler injury is directly linked to old school Tibbs playing everybody, you know, 47 out of 48 minutes. And they have a perpetual Wiggins problem. What are they going to do with Wiggins? I wish this is where we need a consulting service for NBA teams. Why don't we do that? I'm going to launch a consulting service. I want to just be there as an impartial party for when Minnesota is like,

hmm, we could either lock Andrew Wiggins down for $150 million or make him play for the contract this season. And even if another team comes in with a restricted free agent offer, we'll just match it and everything will be great. I wish they'd come to us with that house. Well, I wish somebody had asked my opinion on whether or not to match the Nets contract that was offered to Otto Porter with all the poison pills and

everything else. I would let Otto walk. I like Otto. He helps them win, but he doesn't help them win enough. This consulting business has legs legs I'm with it I think you guys would have won the Toronto series if he hadn't

if he hadn't been healthy if he played I know I know he was dinged I know that's right he's talented I love him he's just overpaid that's all he was in that series he played yeah he played limited minutes and then he couldn't play in game six he finally went and had the surgery

I was being himself the second to last game of the season I was being sarcastic that pretending that I didn't realize he played I saw him out there it's just it was like the ghost of what I knew last thing who do you have for we think Warriors easily yeah

I think the Pelicans Pelicans had to win game one they just had to Utah if Rubio was healthy I would like them at least to extend a little bit yeah me too Cleveland Toronto

I'm sorry Canada I'm sorry Toronto but I can't imagine a scenario where LeBron loses to your team I need to see it I need to actually see it happen before I believe it's possible. Toronto's going to win a couple of games. This is going at least six, maybe seven, definitely six. Yeah, it feels like the last series where Cleveland has the inferior team, but LeBron just pulls the series out, just does it.

Old school. It's like he's in that 97-98 Jordan phase now where he's just winning these series he shouldn't win and then uh celtic sixers we both think the sixers um i don't have them as prohibitive favorites because it's they're you know they're still relying on two younger guys and the coaching matchup who knows but i would be shocked if boston won the series i thought boston was gonna win the last series i'd be shocked if Boston won the series. I thought Boston was going to win the last series. I'd be shocked if they won the series. This is just the point where the talent disparity

finally catches up with Boston. Yeah, exactly. Just so we're not accused of being haters, we should talk about LeBron for two minutes before you go. Who's a hater? I love LeBron. Yeah, okay, great. I love LeBron.

He was awesome. He was incredible. It's a really devious game plan to assemble a horrible roster that you can then carry and be incredible with. And then the narrative is either LeBron did everything he could possibly do to win despite this shitty roster that he had

or LeBron lost it was the roster's fault it's really it's smart it's fucking smart this is this is this all goes to your theory that he's leaving and that all of this has been orchestrated behind the scenes I was doing that I was doing the haters version of the LeBron argument no I think LeBron that was one of the best series I've ever seen anyone have in my life. You can't argue it. He was just unbelievable. He played the whole first half.

The 36 minutes. He had like a 26-7-7 in the first half and played all the minutes. The minutes is the thing that's unbelievable to me. I hope he went straight from the stadium into a hyperbaric chamber and stays there. I hope they can fly him in a hyperbaric chamber to me. I hope he went straight from the stadium into a hyperbaric chamber and stays there. I hope they can fly him in a hyperbaric chamber to Toronto and then he doesn't come out until 45 minutes before the game starts. I think when he went back to the locker room

between the third and fourth quarter, they actually poured the hemoglobin of various kids in the Cleveland area into his body. He just drank like a hemoglobin milkshake. I hope they have one of those Han Solo things like in Empire Strikes Back where they freeze him inside of a thing

and they just ship that thing around. He probably did that. No, he probably went in a hyperbaric chamber for 90 seconds. The guy's amazing. These Instagram videos he puts up of his workout routines are, I've never seen anything like it.

He's got balls. He's balancing himself. He's carrying weights. They're like, cars are driving at him that he's fending off. He's jumping from buildings. I'm making up the last two. He's truly superhuman. Superhuman LBJ.

The stamina that he's had and Westbrook has had, just so everybody knows has no parallel in the history of the league. I'm knocking on wood. I always, I, all I root for is that he stays healthy. Please stay healthy.

Well, he's Toronto has nobody to guard him. I just want to point that out. His team is, is hot garbage. And the fact that Tristan Thompson, who was in the witness protection program for months and then played pretty well against a team that was surprised he was coming and didn't have the right

people out there and came through and had that one block and reacted like he was anything was hilarious. The scary thing for Toronto is how terrible J.R. Smith and Kevin Love shot for that entire series. I would be worried because whether that's an aberration or whether

that's who they are though. I don't know. Historically, there's always a regression. I didn't like what I saw from Kevin Love in the series and he seems doesn't seem like himself. Made a couple of big shots yesterday. It was funny watching everybody fall all over themselves for George Hill yesterday.

Guy makes $20 million a year and, you know, they... They had to give him an epidural. I mean, it's like he was about to have a baby. His back is so bad. Yeah, but FYI, he's George Hill. He's hurt all the time. What the fuck did they think was going to happen? This is the whole point.

When the trade deadline pieces, which are funnier by the month, about how the Cavs saved their season, all this stuff. Where were all those guys in this series? Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance. Rodney Hood. Rodney Hood. Oh, wow. Rodney Hood sucked in a playoff series?

Oh, I wish we had no evidence. Oh, wait. We did have evidence of that a year ago. He sucked in the Clippers series. Yeah, that guy. So they end up, they do all these trade deadline moves that eventually, that are allegedly going to save their season. And meanwhile, Jay Crowder and Dwayne Wade are playing, played much better around

one than anyone they brought in. And then on top of it, when they, it was game seven, LeBron even said, he's like, we wanted guys who've been there and, you know, Tristan and JR and Kyle, these guys have been in wars. That's who we wanted to ride. That all makes sense. But that's also why you don't trade for Jordan Clarkson and Rodney Hood and Larry Nance, guys who have never been in big games in their lives. Maybe don't get those guys. There is a story to be had. I hope that we see it over the summer. What was going on in Cleveland that turned Crowder into such a dick and made D Wade want to go eat. We, we, we criticized, we ranked Cleveland as a 16th out of 16 NBA playoff food cities.

D Wade found it was found a place to eat or two in Cleveland during his time there. Yeah. D Wade ranked it as a top three food city for him. Cause he sampled all the restaurants. He sampled them all. That was embarrassing. Dwayne Wade should be embarrassed.

What was going on there? Why did those guys, you know, and Isaiah Todd, like what happened? I don't know. Why was it such a distasteful experience for all of them? That's my question. The second trade the George Hill trade is the trade they shouldn't have made. The Clarkson

Nance trade I get, they got rid of Isaiah Thomas. You need to have Wendy or Dave McManaman on one of those two guys. Wendy's coming on. I'm going to have Wendy or Dave McManaman on one of those two guys to come on I'm going to make Wendy come on this week I was emailing them Wendy we're overdue for a Wendy appearance he's yeah ask him that question

what the heck was going on early in the season why did D Wade want to just eat I mean believe me I understand very relatable it was funny instead of workout videos of him and LeBron the videos were like of them drinking wine at 11 o'clock at night it was like you you and I hanging out. It was like you and me at the Waffle House in Georgia at 11.30. It's all his part. He was like, hey, I'm with LeBron. We're at the Waffle House.

And then Dwayne Wade goes to Miami and had the worst body fat percentage on the team. And Udonis Has Haslam had the what the hell is happening to you conversation. And then he was pretty good. Dwayne Wade should be good for another four years. It's not like he's had all these knee surgeries and stuff. He's been pretty lucky with injuries for the most part. That game that he won by himself was incredible. That

D-Wade throwback, I enjoyed it so much. You know what was my favorite moment of the entire Bucks Celtics series was when I think it so much. You know what was my favorite moment of the entire Bucks Celtics series was when I think it was game five, Shabazz Muhammad made his first two. And it's normally Just saying the name is hilarious.

Normally you're rooting against the opposing team making shots, but with Shabazz or Shabazz, Shabazz? Shabazz. With Shabazz, it Shabazz, Shabazz, Shabazz, Shabazz. With Shabazz, it's like he makes his first two and he thinks he's the best guy in the court. It's exactly who you want out there for the fourth quarter.

It's called the Lance Stevenson rule. Yeah, I got this. Giannis, get out of the way. We're good. I'm back, baby. And then the other one who I just, I just irrationally detested was a Thon maker who made a couple of threes in a home game and then thought he was,

you know, Sam Perkins in the mid nineties. It was like, keep shooting Thon, please. We have a game seven coming. I really want you to think you're going to make all those. That team.

I don't, I don't blame Thon for that one. That's the coach. All right. House. I'm sorry about Washington DC sports. Ion for that one. That's the coach. All right, house. Uh, I'm sorry about Washington DC sports. I look forward to talking more hoops with you.

Oh, plug up, plug any of your podcasts. Yeah. Coming up this week on house of carbs, trace Zeller, a inventive and innovative bourbon purveyor. We're getting some brown liquor on

House of Carbs. I'm going to try not to be drunk for that one. Next week on The Shackhouse, we'll be doing a players, the PGA Players tournament is down in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Is that Sawgrass? The Players GF. Sawgrass is next week.

That's why I'm going down there. That's my favorite course. I'm going to hit 50 balls into the water on 17 uh but hopefully i think they're paying me in cheeseburgers to be down there so that i think that's a w for me i video game golf has kind of died except for golden tea but i will tell you in the in the 90s with the PGA 94 that there was no put hair on your balls course more than sawgrass. Having played it? You be up, you're playing a buddy

and it's like you could have the three stroke league heading into 17 and just hit nine balls in the water. You just don't know. It's true. It's a bully. I left, it stole all my lunch money when I played it. The most intimidating course or the most intimidating hole from the Masters

that I'm still thinking about was that 12th hole. The par three. I had no idea that hole was that hard. I can't believe how small that green is. Yeah, the green is five inches by seven inches and it's 500 yards away from the T apparently. It's like an optical illusion. I couldn't believe how hard that was. And then you walk over there and nobody's over there. It's silent. You're like in a ghost town. Yeah. All right. Nephew Kyle says goodbye.

House, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, buddy. All right. We're going to call Jacko. But first, I've been shaving since college. In fact, Jacko used to make fun of me. He used to say it should have been a TV show of me putting the shaving cream on my face and watching me shave. That's how bad I am at it. You know what changed my life? The Gillette Fusion Ultra Sensitive Skin Shaving Gel. Also, I really enjoy the Gillette 5 Razor, which is pretty new. Five-bladed razor lubrication strip provides great gliding performance with less irritations. 15 soft micro fins help create even and smooth shaving surface by gently stretching your skin. And a 360 AquaGrip handle speaks for itself.

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How are you? Have you fully reconciled the fact that Didi Gregorius is now the best shortstop in Yankees history? That's got to hurt, deep down. Gregorius won, Jeter two, Rizzuto three, Lazeri four. What's your ranking? Well, Jeter is still at the top, obviously.

Let's not get crazy. And first of all, if calling me for a podcast today is an attempt to jinx the Yankees' winning streak, it's really unnecessary because Sonny Gray is pitching tonight. So there's really no need to try to jinx me because I think the streak ends today. Yeah, I'm amazed by what Didi has done. I mean, if you had told me that he was going to be tied with Trout for the lead in home runs, have been the hero of multiple games, and be seemingly impossible to get out on April 30th,

I would have, if you told me that a month ago or several months ago, I wouldn't have believed it. I mean, I know he blossomed last year, had a phenomenal year, 28 home runs, I believe, which was the record for a Yankee shortstop. And he's only gotten better. It's really an amazing start. I'm not going to go crazy and say he's better than Jeter. We're not there yet.

But he's been an amazing, amazing replacement for Jeter. Better than I ever could have hoped, certainly. I think amazing is the right word because I was looking at his home run totals year by year. Right. Seven in 2013. Uh- Right. Seven in 2013. Uh-huh. Six in 2014. A whopping nine in 2015 for the Yanks.

20 in 2016, 25 last year, and 10 this year. I have a question. Has he peed in a cup that everyone has seen and taken to the right, right scientist? What's the deal with that? I'm sure he has. He has been helped. Obviously Yankee stadium helps. And he's certainly been helped this year by batting in between judge and

Stanton because he's seeing more pitches. Oh, so I think that's been humongous for him. It sounds like humongous is definitely a word I would use. Yeah, there you go. What else have you been delighted about with this Yankees season? Well, it started off a little shaky, but I've been delighted over the last, let's say, week and a half, two weeks.

So, I mean, their lineup is as advertised. There's nobody you can pitch to, and that's before Stanton and Sanchez have really gotten as hot as hopefully they will be. I've been extremely pleasantly surprised by the rising of Miguel Andujar. That's how you pronounce his name. It's not Andajar. It's Andujar. He's been huge.

I mean, they pop up these stats about his extra base hits that he's had in his first X number of games, and it's like only he and Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle. Anytime you're watching Yankees broadcast, you're like, he's the first guy to do that since Gehrig or Mantle. You're an obviously phenomenal company. So he's been great, and Glaber has been as advertised. He's been red hot. And it's really leading to a situation where the Yankees are going to have

some semi-emparishment of riches because they're doing all this with Greg Bird on the DL. And he's obviously counted on to be a big part of their lineup. And then he's going to come back. And Tyler Austin, before he was suspended, he's got five home runs and has been huge in some big spots. So it's really a good situation to be in where, you know, and Drury,

unfortunately he's suffered from migraines and double vision and he's coming back, but I don't know where they're going to play him because he's been Wally Pipp by and do hard. Wow. And Neil Walker, who they signed Neil Walker and he was going to, you know,

that was, everybody was drooling over that signing and he's been horrible and Glaber's there. So, you know, they got guys coming back and there's, there's no place to play them. I don't know what they're going to do.

Wow. It's a good spot to be in. Yeah, it really sounds like the 1927 Yankees have merged with like the 1946 Red Sox or something. I don't know how you're pulling all this off. I mean, their lineup is phenomenal. It's really good. And it's been as advertised.

After a slow start because of the cold or whatever, poor spring training or something. But they're starting to gel now, and it's coming together nicely. So Giancarlo's home-away splits are pretty interesting. 3.26, 4.20, 6.05 splits on the road. Right. And at home, he's hitting 1.82, 2.57 on base. It's almost like he can't handle the New York nightlife.

That's predicted, right? He's better off than Anaheim. He had the problem with his furniture. Did you read about this? No, please tell me. There was a New York Times article where they talked to, and I should know his name. This is a horrible job by me,

but Giancarlo Rooms in New York, lives in New York with a guy who's a reliever for the Mets. They played together on the Marlins. He is a horrible job by me, but Giancarlo Rooms in New York lives in New York with a guy who's a reliever for the Mets. They played together on the Marlins. He's a roommate? Oh yeah. They live together. Doesn't he make like $30 million a year? Sure. Sure. But they're buddies and they're in the big city and they, you know, whatever, they feel comfortable. They want to live together. And so the guy for the Mets. I feel comfortable with you. I don't want to live with you. Well, maybe if we were 27 in New York city, maybe we would have lived together.

I still wouldn't have wanted to live with you. Not if I was making $30 million a year, you know how I live with myself. Yeah. I wouldn't want to either. I don't quite understand it, but they're happy. And so the guy for the Mets had this article, he was interviewed by the New York times. And he said, well, one of the reasons for Giancarlo's slow start was that he did not get his furniture delivered to their apartment. And that Giancarlo did not have time to watch film or talk with hitting coaches or practice because he was constantly on the phone with, I don't know, the furniture maker or the delivery company about getting his furniture. Which I was like, $30 million. Does he not have an assistant? Is there nobody else that could call Ikea and say like, where's the couch? Like what's going on? Raymoor and Flanagan? Like, where's my chair? What's up with this? But he had to do that personally. And that was shaking him

up apparently. So I just shook my head at that, but. I shouldn't have more help in my life than Giancarlo Stanton who makes $30 million a year. Nephew Kyle, you should just go and you could be Stanton's personal dude. You could be his furniture guy. Go out with him on five nights a week. Like a couple couches, yeah. Yeah, that could be...

Nephew Kyle is sending his resume to the Stantons. Nice. So once he gets on board and he can track down his packages and things, he'll be able to relax and really get into the groove. Do him and the Mets reliever, do they have bunk beds and sleep in the same room? How does that work? I don't know. I don't know.

I'm curious about it now. That could be a good reality show, like Giancarlo and the other guy in the city. You know, like a real world type show. I don't know. The guy's going to go to sleep and Giancarlo puts the sock on the door, which means he has to wait outside until the girl leaves. Exactly. Yeah. I know. I find the whole thing odd too, but I don't know. Who knows? Anytime I hear a reference to that, I think of our buddy Chip Cain from college. His freshman year, his roommate immediately got a girlfriend and the sock was on the door all the time and Chip would be sitting outside the door

like doing homework but he's like the nicest guy alive and he'd be like I want to tell him to fuck off but I can't he'd be outside in a green bathrobe smoking cigarettes at like 2 in the morning and he couldn't go to bed in his own room he'd just be lying in the hallway

oh man maybe that's what's happening to the Mets reliever who is the Mets reliever the morning and he couldn't go to bed in his own room. He'd just be lying in the hallway. Yeah. Oh man. Maybe that's what's happening to the Mets. Who is the Mets reliever? I don't know. Somebody Google it. I, there was a story in the New York times.

The guy that used to play for the Marlins. Now he plays for the Mets and he had Stanton live together. Maybe Stanton can hire Dylan, but Dan, but Tansa says his assistant after he gets waved. It's a possibility. It's a possibility. He had, he turned things around the other day though. He had a possibility. It's a possibility. He turned things

around the other day, though. He had a really good inning on Thursday. I actually watched it because, unfortunately, my daughter was sick at school, and I had to go and pick her up because I was a little more flexible. It worked out for me that the Yankees had a day game that day, so I watched that whole game, and

Dillon came up big, kept the game close, and that was like his first clean thing of the season. So maybe he's turned the corner. He seems like he's the number one possibility for you to turn on him on social media in July and August this summer. I would say he's the favorite in the clubhouse. I did tweet out the other day that I, last week I said, I hope he enjoys Scranton because he came in and Yankees had a big lead and he made it much more interesting than it needed to be. I was watching. He's on my fantasy team.

Yeah, he couldn't control anything. He's got like, who was the guy? Steve Trowder. Who was it? It was a guy that majors that just couldn't throw strikes anymore. He looked like that. It was horrific. But then the next outing, he turned it around.

The difference is I kind of, as miserable as he makes me, I kind of root for Batances. The guy that's the subject of my ire is Sonny Gray. Because Sonny Gray, the Yankees traded prospects for him, and he was going to be the next great thing. They get him. He's a nibbler, which I hate. He throws all this junk. That's like Drew Pomerantz. Yeah, and it's 100 pitches after four innings.

Exactly. And then after the game, they talked to him after he got shelled a couple Fridays ago, the last game the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays, I believe it was. He gets shelled. He's horrible. And after the game, he's like, well, I feel good. So it's great. My stuff is there.

It's like he takes no responsibility. He doesn't seem to beat himself up. And Yankee fans are like pulling our hair out because he's so awful. So I despise Sonny Gray. I'd like him to turn the corner. It'll turn the corner and leave town to go to another team. He's horrible. He's my Tyler Clippard of this year, Sonny Gray. I just can't stand him. And the other day I'm watching the game and it's Michael Kay and Paul O'Neill are doing the game and he left after like four innings. He couldn't make it enough to get a win.

He threw like 104 pitches. He left guys on base that Chad Green had to come in and clean up. And Michael K is like, well, he pitched a lot better. They talk about him like a toddler or somebody who's on their fourth relapse. Like, Jim's really turned the corner here. He's doing great. He's doing better. Down to three bottles of scotch before the breakfast.

Just a real improvement. They talk about Sonny Gray. He's down to three bottles of scotch before breakfast. It's really an improvement. They talk about Sonny Gray. He's a major league player, and he's horrible. Hey, the good thing is you guys finally learned your lesson about not to trade for a small market pitcher who never felt any pressure whatsoever and give up prospects. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. This has happened 100 times in Yankees history.

And then they got gun shy about doing it to Garrett Cole. And I get tweets every day about Garrett Cole strikes out double digits again. It's the first time since Walter Johnson. So he's my new Anthony Rizzo because at the time I made the joke about the Red Sox didn't give up anything for Adrian Gonzalez. Longtime listeners of the pod will remember. So I now have Anthony Rizzo and Garrett Cole as the old takes exposed for Jack O. I'm going to buy both their jerseys and have them framed and hung on my wall. There's way more than that for the old takes exposed. Yeah, but those are the two big ones. Yeah, well.

I haven't looked, but the Yankees probably face Garrett Cole when they face the Astros this week. So it will be fitting just as when he probably throws a one-hit, nine-inning, 15-strikeout game. Yeah, we have in the League of Dorks, we wanted to get an Astros starter because we thought they were going to get 130 wins. And somehow we ended up with Dallas Keiko, who's going to go 11-14 on a team that's going to win 130 games. He owns the Yankees, though. They play in four games. Hey, I have a question.

Yeah. Do you think Rick Porcello can go 30-0? If you had to guess. If I was betting money on it, I would bet against it, but anything's possible. Right now he's 4-0. Yeah. He looks like, I mean, I thought he was good when he won the

Cy Young, but now it's like how many Cy Youngs can they give out in the same season? Could he win like three Cy Youngs this year? He can't? It's just one trophy? Wow. Talk about a roller coaster. So he won the Cy Young, and then last year, what did he lose?

Like 40 games or something? He was horrible last year, right? And now this year, he's back to old form. Maybe he's one of those every other year guys. Yeah, like the Giants or whatever. He's another even year guy, apparently. I like our 1-2-3. Obviously, Sale is great.

I have been an Eduardo Rodriguez guy for three years, and he's really starting to show signs. Wait, is he one of the, is he one of the one, two, three? What about, what about the $217 million man? Isn't he the number two? I don't really have him in our one, two, three, Jenny. You do not. Interesting. Wow. I do. If, if we're playing, if we're playing Kansas city in July, I feel great. Yeah. If it's a,

if it's the Yankees at Fenway on a Friday night, not feeling as good. Not feeling as good at all. Or the Angels on a Sunday night ESPN game. Not as confident maybe. But if it's Detroit in June,

40 degree weather. Actually, he can't really pitch in cold weather. He doesn't like the cold. He has this problem against the Yankees. He had problems feeling the ball or something. It's always good to have a he doesn't like the cold guy when you're in Massachusetts. That's what you're looking for. When the key month of the season is October.

You definitely want that guy in this cold weather. Tends to be chilly in Boston in October, yeah. Yeah. I like the 1-2-3. Bogarts is back. Yeah, Hall of Famer. They've decided to dedicate the rest of the season to Christian Vasquez, who died apparently last winter.

Not sure what happened to him. And then the biggest struggle for me and the thing that hurts the most about what's been a very fun Red Sox season so far and very enjoyable, and I like this team and I think it's the best team in a couple years, is Benatende. Yeah. He cut his hair. I don't know why he cut his hair. I don't know who advised him on this.

He looks like a different guy. I've had trouble recognizing him for the first month, although then I eventually recognize him when he has a terrible at-bat and either strikes out or hits a slow grounder to second. And he's just completely murdered them this season. And it's the classic sophomore, just I don't know why this always happens. It's the classic second-year, things-go-downhill thing. Every time I see him or look at his stats, I think about Nesson last year before every game,

they would run this Red Sox montage of their opening for the game. And there was something in spring training where Tom Caron was like, they say he's going to be rookie of the year about Benintendi, and they played it all year long. So every time I see Benintendi, I think of that clip plays in my head. He's going to be rookie of the year. No, he's not going to be rookie of the year. No, he's not going to be a rookie of the year. He's horrible.

No, he's slumping. The problem is, if you look at his actual stats, if you just look at the basic stats that we looked at when we were growing up, he's not having that bad of a season, but you kind of have to watch the team. Does he only have one home run? Yeah, he's got the... He's a corner outfielder with one home run. He's got the 18 strikeouts and one home run ratio going right now.

Yeah, that's not great, right? Yeah, but it's just... I don't trust him when he's up with guys on base. And last year, I actually trusted him. I thought he would have good at-bats. You have a lot of automatic outs in that lineup. Hall of Famer Jackie Bradley Jr.

is not really setting the world on fire well he's he's been horrendous and he and that dated back to the the uh

stretch of last year the thing is Hanley's hitting this year and the Hanley JD is kind of Hanley Ramirez he totally did and then

Mookie is hitting too speaking of guys they should probably pee in a cup I'd like to see I'd like to see some of Hanley's test results. Nah, he's happier. When Hanley's happy, he produces.

They like the manager. The manager's good. Right, because the inmates run the asylum, right. Because Pedroia's going to come back and be the manager, effectively. He's going to tell Oxcor what the lineup is and what to do. I can't wait until he comes in and it just destroys everything.

That's my prediction. P.D. Roya is going to come back and he's going to run the show. There's no question about it. Why don't you wait until D.D. Gregorius' first test comes back from last month before you start casting aspersions on Mr. Pedroia?

I think the best thing that's happened to this team is that they don't have a corpse managing it this year. We had the corpse John Farrell last year who was just getting propped up like a mannequin. He was like, are you watching Jersey Shore? Well, I've DVR'd it. I've seen

Vincent Jesus, but I haven't really. Sammy Sweetheart wouldn't be on the show this year. They brought us a 200-pound Sammy Sweetheart mannequin that they dressed and they talked to. And I was like, this is great. I lost John Farrell's mannequin and now I have Sammy Sweetheart. I'm glad I'm able to roll it along in 2018. Jersey Shore is off the charts all time.

I had no idea it was going to be this good. It seemed like one of the worst ideas of all time and Ronnie has taken it to 17 other levels Ronnie's like my worst nightmare for Nephew Kyle because I don't know what Nephew Kyle's really up to on the weekends and my worst nightmare for it

is whatever Ronnie is doing this season and then the situation who doesn't drink anymore and who might be headed to jail he's like a car that's been stripped down of all his parts And then the situation, who doesn't drink anymore and who might be headed to jail. He's like a car that's been stripped down of all his parts. It's just a skeleton of a car. He's no personality.

All he really offers is he goes, it feels like it's going to be a situation, but he's not in the situation because he's not fun in any way. He can't have any more situations. Right. And then Snooki, who had kids and who's looking at this one month as like, I'm going to get out all my frustrations of being trapped at home with kids. I'm telling you, Johnny, thumbs up. Great, great theater.

Really great. You know what happened at my house? My wife and I were watching something a week or two ago, something that was DVR'd. And when it ended, it went back to our list of DVR'd shows. And my wife goes,

are you taping the Jersey Shore? And I was like, yes, yes, I am. I am going to be 48 years old, and yes, I am taping the Jersey Shore. It was kind of a low moment. Her look to me was not a good one. I have to watch it surreptitiously, and I haven't really had a chance to devote as much time as I would like to it. Surreptitiously, And I haven't really had a chance to devote as much time as I would like to it. Surreptitiously. Great word. Well, we're the same age as everyone on the Jersey Shore. So don't feel too bad.

That makes me feel a little better. Yeah. I don't think the Simmons family isn't watching X on the Beach either on MTV. Fantastic. I saw a preview for that. Fantastic. They took basically all the crazy people who are on all of these other shows who just want to hook up and threw them on a,

on a show together with their exes. Smart. Really great. Although I still wonder why we should get credits for this though. We said years ago that they should have a real world of all the people that were kicked out of the real world house. Yeah. Like just puck and whoever the other people were,

anybody that was kicked out of real world. Like, tell me that wouldn't be appointment television. We were so ahead of the curve on that. We listen, we've been ahead of a curve on a lot of things. One of them was the fact that we always insisted Mike Francesco was coming back to the fan.

And now it actually happened. It caused a riot. Everyone's so angry in New York. They feel like it's one of the best media stories in a while. Obviously, people know where I stand and you stand. But the funniest thing is that everybody's outraged that they're getting rid of the Drive Time show, which had Bart Scott on it, who openly admitted that he didn't watch baseball until last December. Openly admitted it.

He's like, I'm catching up. It's not that hard. These are just professional athletes. I'm used to studying professional athletes. It's like, so you never follow baseball until December? You're going to be at a drive-time radio show? June, July, August, September, October

is just all baseball, basically? Well, the good thing is New York's not really a baseball town. So, you know, not like you really need to know it. They'd much rather hear you talk about Giants minicamp in July than the Yanks race or anything.

I can't think of a harder sport to catch up to late in your life and try to figure out on the fly than baseball. A sport that is so boring that we have to just go backwards all the time and compare things that are happening now to things from 100 years ago and say, this

guy reminds me of this guy. That's like all of following baseball. The funny thing about this is the Francesa thing is now that show has been elevated. The show he's replacing, and they've all become martyrs. And it's like a martyrdom.

And when I read all the New York press about it, and be it Phil, Mr. Sunshine Mushnick, and then New York Post, who hates everything on the planet, or Erasement and the Daily News, it's like they've elevated this show like it was the height of radio. It wasn't given a chance to succeed. If it was working, the suits at the fan would have told Francesa to get lost. Right.

So they've had four months and it's horrific. It's unlistenable. And so, of course, you're going to jump when the previous guy comes back. And it's amazed me to the extent that he's been made to be this villain in this. Yeah. Well, I love Francesa Well, it's a little, I love Francesa, but it's a little villainous.

He did a whole retirement tour and then was just like, I'm back. And not only like burned bridges, but nuked bridges behind him. I get all that. I fully support it. Team Francesa! The guy was the king of New York media along with the Mad Dog,

New York Sports Radio for 30 years. Yeah. Made the station a mint. The station literally would not exist without him. Yeah. Because especially after they lost the guy in the morning who got arrested. And, you know, I miss left and everything else under bad circumstances. So the station was flailing.

And then Francesa leaves and they have no top talent. They're losing the Michael Kay show in the afternoon. And, you know, I think Francesa's mistake was leaving and then, you know, he played it up like he was going to have these grand plans that were going to revolutionize, you know, podcasting or sports radio or what have you, only to come back to the station in four months. It's not a great look. I'm not going to lie to you.

Not great. I like it. It not a great look. I'm not going to lie to you. Not great. I like it. It looks a little rough, but I mean, the station, now whether he did it through Chernoff, who's the GM, or whether he went above his head

to some corporate guys, if you're the station and you're like, this guy can come back, it's going to generate massive publicity and we're going to make a mint again.

I mean, why would you not do that? And if he's willing to swallow his pride to come back and do it, I mean, I don't know. I guess he just doesn't care, but you know, like, everybody at the station despises him. Every show, they've been openly bashing him, which is

unbelievable to me. It's like a Seinfeld episode. It's great theater, though. It really is. It's going to help the ratings for all the shows, and he comes back. We're taping this on a Monday. He comes back on Tuesday. I think it's weird.

People always thought I'd negotiated with him or talk to him or anything. We never talked about his career plans. He was very close to the vest because I was like, if you want my advice on digital stuff, I'm happy to help you. And we never really had a conversation about it. The one thing that I heard, and I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes sense,

is that he was going to leave the fan and buy some other AM station. And just run it as his own. And like, hey, he had financial backing and he was going to be the drive time chauffeur and basically create this third sports talk station that he was going to be the focal point of. And by the way, I did not hear that from him and I've never asked him about it. And I don't even know if it's true, but it makes sense. Like if you have that piece, if I'm just a detective trying to figure out what happened here, it makes sense that he would have been thinking that

way. I know that the only things I really did talk to him about was he just was like, I want to do more than have a radio show. I want to try stuff. I want to get in the digital space, try all these things. It seems like he used the leverage that he had. He's working less hours

than the fan. Now it's like three to seven, right? Three to 630? He's making less money. He's working less hours on the fan. Now it's like three to seven, right? Three to 630. He's making less money. He's working fewer hours. Yeah. We're fewer hours, but he's got this, uh, the Sunday thing is going to be digital only. And maybe he'll get, be able to sell stuff from that and live shows and things like that. CA is involved.

And, uh, maybe that makes more sense. Can we go back to the Bart Scott thing for one second? Yeah. This is from late December. These are some of his quotes. To me, football and basketball are like breathing. I've watched it my entire life. In baseball, I'm going to struggle with that.

It's up for me to do the research and do my due diligence. And then he said, the writer says, Scott said he views the challenge as no different from coming out of a non-major program and having to get himself up to speed against NFL competition. He said, I look at it the same way. It's baseball. It just means I have to pay attention to it. That's all. It's all in the details. I'll get the details cleaned up.

You seem to drive time host in New York. Well, I heard him. Amazing gave this show a brief chance. I tried to listen to it in December when it started up. And that was when they had an interview with Eli Manning because he did a regular spot with Francesa and he must've been contractually obligated to continue it after Francesa retired. And so they were doing this interview with Eli and they're like, you know, basically they thought this could be Eli's last interview because they didn't know what was going to happen in the offseason

if the Giants were going to release him or whatever. And so they do this interview, and Bart Scott says, you know, Eli, I just want to say thanks. It's been great sharing this city with you. I was like, does Bart Scott think, like, he's, like, equal to Eli Manning in New York City? Well, he might be. It was like Jeter's town or even Porzingis or Eli's town and Bart Scott's town.

Bart Scott. It's Bart Scott's town. It's Bart Scott's town. Bart Scott's not in the top 500 people that run New York City. Are you kidding me? The thing is, what they should have done, I don't know why they did it the way they did it. And it was one of those things when I saw what they did, I was like, wow, those seem like three people who wouldn't hang out together.

But what they could have done is had Carlin and Maggie Gray together and then had the third seat be multiple people. And it's like if it's a football day, yeah, it's Bart Scott for football. And then if it's baseball, then you have this person. And if it's basketball, you have this person. And actually I think that might've worked. Yeah. But you can't have the thing with, with sports radio and especially draft time is you have to know everything about everything.

You can't. And the reality is those were huge. I mean, it's like the guy that followed Lombardi. You're always going to have the guy after the guy or the person after the guy. So that was always going to be tough. And then they just threw these three people together with, you know, probably no natural chemistry and expected it to work. And, you know, if it was a wild-eyed success, they would have gotten rid of Francesa and

said, thanks, but no thanks. So obviously it tells you everything you need to know. But their martyrdom has been interesting to me. And just the level of vitriol has been interesting to me. Boomer Esiason's outraged. He's so mad. Yeah, he's really fired up. And like, Boomer Esiason, take it easy.

Are you kidding me? Like, that just is ridiculous to me. It's like that old Chris Rock joke of, the last time I saw this many white people mad, it was when they canceled MASH. I feel bad for Princessa though. Like, you know, they're going to have office parties, like a birthday cake for a secretary and he's not going to get invited or

he'll come in and it'll be like the needle going across the record and just, you know, scratching it, just silence, anger. He doesn't care though. He's just going to parachute in there with his driver and then he's going to do his show and own the city and then he's going to leave. It's going to be like when I went back to Bristol in 2014. It's like she's in a record scratch.

I don't care what Boomer thinks. I got Minko. It's just I got to be so uncomfortable. I don't know how you would do it, but. I love that. Chris Russo had some good stuff this week. I've actually,

I actually listened to it when he talked about it right after the, I made it a point to listen to the beginning of his show when he talked about princesses return. And he's like, yeah, you look like a horse's fanny. And then I can't believe he hasn't gotten more grief for this. He did this big thing about how it wasn't the right time for Frances to retire because he has young kids.

And he's like, he can't do anything. He's like, you can't go to the Kentucky Derby. You can't go out to Pebble Beach because you've got kids. You've got young kids that are in school, so you just can't do anything. And he quoted some other guy who I forget who it was, but some other media personality. And the other guy said, my weekend starts at 9 a.m. on Monday, because that's when I go to work.

And Russo's like, same thing for me. I go to work, and he's like, if my kids have a math test, that's on Jeannie, his wife. Or if they have a doctor's appointment, that's all on Jeannie. Like in 2018, Russo is like, basically barely knows his kid's name, and that's all on his wife. Or if they have a doctor's appointment, that's all on Genie. Like in 2018, Russo is like, basically, he barely knows his kid's name, and that's all on his wife, so he can go to work and make money for them. It's an unbelievable

job by Russo. I couldn't believe. Didn't he try to compare it to when a great athlete retires, and then they're home with their family, and then they're... Yeah. They realize they hate their family. It's like when Red Favre retired. Red Favre, they didn't want to be around his family. He didn't want to be around them.

Right. He's like, Francesa retired, he's home with his kids, and the kids are like, Dad, come to my Little League game. And Francesa wants to be on the radio talking about Saquon Barkley, you know, getting picked, or the Yankees light up, or what Boone did in the seventh inning. And he's got his wife saying, can you take Jeannie's deal? Take Susie to the doctor. You have to be at the, at the dance recital at five, Mike, five o'clock sharp.

He's like, uh, I'll take my pay in half. I can't watch another music lesson. You pick up the laundry. I told you I got to get out of this. I mean, that really has to be driving him nuts. And he said that, not the kid thing, but he has no platform to talk about things.

Like he's home watching a game all weekend and dissecting it. He's sitting at breakfast, like breaking it down for his wife, and she's probably just like rolling her eyes. You know, like he wants to be on the air and have a platform to talk about how to be driving him nuts with the Giants with the number two pick in the draft and the Jets having the number three pick. Oh my God. Who are they going to pick in football?

You know, which quarterback, you know, the whole thing. He would have gone over that for two months. The Yankees having a great lineup. You know, they start off cold. He could have been murdering Boone. And now they're red hot. He picked a bad time to go away. It really is like, it wasn't like adult time in New York sports, you know?

So that had to be really killing him. I had him on, I don't know, two, three weeks ago and he was so ready to go. And we're just talking about everything. We're talking MVP and Tiger and all that stuff. And he was, you could just tell he was home with his wife at like 730, getting the kids ready. And she's like, Mike, where's the half an F? He's like, here's the thing about Tiger.

Starting arguments with her. Exactly. If Sam Donald goes to two, the Giants got to take him, right? This six-year-old kid looking at him. Right. I'm glad he's back. Listen, the world's a better place with him having a radio show. It just is.

And people are going to like it. It's going to make my drive home a lot better. It's going to be, you know, it'll be entertaining as hell. The awkwardness is going to be entertaining as hell. And the backhanded sniping in the newspapers will be interesting. And he's there for a Yanks run here in the summer and into the fall, let's hope. So it's all good. I think tomorrow is must appointment listening. Yeah, absolutely. I can't even imagine how he attacks everything that's happened here. I have some things to say. He's going to be mad about Carlin because I happened to watch,

I DVR'd the high heat when he was on with Mad Dog, and they did this jokey thing at the end about, which was really instigated by Mad Dog, or Mad Dog's sidekick who was reading tweets, and said, what's more likely, a Ray's Marlins World Series this year, or you guys working together on the fan? They started, you know, banging on the fan. And then I guess Carlin sent them a snotty text. So I think that got Frances's back up, too, that, like, you know, they poked the bear,

and the bear didn't like it and the bear was looking to come back anyway and that was the you know the straw that broke the camel's back or the final match that lit the flame

to get it going so I think he's gonna come back and then you know probably murder Boomer and Carlin and their show unless management's

told them to make nice but um he was he was watching Shooter with Mark Wahlberg when Mark Wahlberg said he was done and they came back to get him to do one last job. He's like,

I kind of feel like Mark Wahlberg and shooter. He's going to go with Godfather three. I thought I was out, but they pulled me back in. I got one last job. My last job is to be number one again. The Michael K versus Francesa is great. That's a good battle.

I'm surprised. Francesa's doing the, I feel it's going to be a good one. I'm surprised Francesa's doing the, I feel it's kind of condescending. I'm sorry, Michael Kay doing the condescending. I just feel bad for those guys. Meanwhile, he's like killing them in the ratings. Right, right. I just feel, you know, that's not enough time.

And he's probably deep down like punching the wall that he doesn't have three more ratings books to establish his dominance. Because I mean, you know, the first show for Francesca is going to be, like you say, it's appointment listening, so it's going to kill on the ratings. For soon thereafter,

everyone's going to be listening to him to see what he's going to say. He's got four butts of stuff stored up that he's got to get off his chest. Johnny, look forward to my return tomorrow. Absolutely, Mike. It'll be great. You think, who's more relieved, Mike or his wife?

They're both happy. They're both happy. It's got to be great. The happiest guy is the driver that drives him back into the city again. He got rehired. Julio or whatever. That's good. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Julio. Well, I, yeah. Julio. Well, I might go on this week. I'm fired up for Mike. I'm glad he's back. And if this is now a turf war, you know what turf side I'm on. Absolutely. Johnny, good luck with the Didi Gregorius drug test, and we'll talk to you soon.

All right. Take it easy. Bye. All right. Thanks to House. Thanks to, bye. All right, thanks to House. Thanks to Jacko. Thanks to ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire my listeners. Can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash BS. Thanks again to SeatGeek. Don't forget $20 off your first order.

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recapping a doozy of an NFL draft, I'm really excited about the Braxton barrier, Sarah, just in case you're wondering anyway, good luck to the Celts tonight. Good luck to my dad. Be nice to him. If you see him in the arena and we'll be back later in the week with more BS podcast until then. On the wayside, I'm a person never lost And I don't have to ever forget