The Bill Simmons Podcast - Larry Wilmore on Good-Natured Hatred, the New-Look Lakers, and Segmented Audiences (Ep. 320)

Episode Date: January 31, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by 'Black on the Air' host Larry Wilmore to discuss the young L.A. Lakers under Luke Walton (6:00), George Gervin's playground game (15:00), Blake Griffin's goodbye (25:00), N.Y. traffic vs. L.A. traffic (34:00), the age of "agreement culture" (42:00), the power of differing opinions (50:00), and Kendrick Lamar's accessibility (1:05:00). Then The Ringer's Juliet Litman joins to discuss all things 'Bachelor' (1:11:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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House of Carbs this week because I wanted to give my review to a very hungry and jealous Joe House about David Chang's new restaurant, Major Domo and some of the dishes there. So if you're a food nerd, I would highly recommend that one. Plus house does a lot of grunting and salivating. And then we talked about the ringer NBA show on the ringer NBA show. I went on there right after the Blake Griffin trade to give our instant reactions. We're going to talk about that a little bit more right now with our old friend, Larry Wilmore. But first, Pearl Jam.

He hasn't been on in a while. There was some Lakers Celtics bitterness we had to work out. He has his own podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network back in the year, which you've enjoyed. Yes. You like doing a podcast. I love doing a podcast. No commercials. Well, you have a couple stops.

Yeah, but it's fine. You don't have to leave for four minutes. You just go out with the guests. You don't have to put on makeup. You don't have to be camera ready, as they say. You just show up and you do it. It's great. You had Kareem.

I was jealous. He hates me. He won't come on mine. Really? He doesn't like me. I mean, Celtics, man. Come on. Celtics.

I called him a ninny 40 times in my book. And you've trashed the Lakers too many times. Trashed the Lakers. I made fun of the fact that he has a statue. But I wrote that he's the third best player of all time. But then you forgot how sensitive Kareem is. I know. You can't just try to say something nice. He very sensitive yes loved him an airplane i think his performance

an airplane was groundbreaking arguably underrated one of the most underrated comic performances yeah how many laker fans are in your life how many laker fans yeah how many friends how many laker friend fans do you i don't know how many are not laker fans how much texting are you doing well most of the people who are not laker fans. How much texting are you doing? Well, most of the people who are not Laker fans are from somewhere else like you. Yeah. You know, people that come from somewhere else and they bring that. Assholes from other cities. Yeah, and then they act like I'm the

oddball because I'm a Laker fan. You're a Laker fan? I'm like, motherfucker, you're the one from somewhere else. I'm supposed to be a Laker fan. I'm from here. Like, if I went to Boston and said, you're a Celtic fan? They would look at me like I was crazy. They'd probably punch you. But people do that in LA more than any other place.

Too many transplants here. Yeah, like if you're a Dodgers fan, they go, you're a Dodgers fan? We're in Los Angeles. Right. What is wrong with you? I'm supposed to be a Dodgers fan. So how much out of all these people you talked about the Lakers, how would you rank this biggest topic of discussion?

Lonzo, LeBron coming, we're going to lose our lottery pick maybe to the Celtics. How would you rank the power rankings for those? Oh, and Kuzma. Let's throw him in. Those four things.

Kuzma is number one to me. Kuzma. People love Kuzma. Well, Kuzma is the biggest revelation, but Kuzma proves a lot of things that I love. Like, it proves how important college really can be to a young athlete. Yeah.

Which has been completely devalued. This whole one and done thing and the whole that these guys are ready for the big leagues when they're 17, I hope is being disproven for the most part. I believe those are freaks of nature, your LeBrons, your Kobes, your Garnets, the people who really came in the league and became superstars, right? Yes. Without that, Moses Malone did it earlier. There's certain people who absolutely should have come into the NBA right away.

LeBron James is one of them. Completely. Completely. But the one and done is still really, in my estimation, going from high school to the pros. It really is. Because I don't think there's much you can learn as a college player with one year when all you're thinking about is that next year.

Can I tell you what it should be really called? The seven months of done. Yeah. Because these guys, they show up in September. September, October, November, December. January, February, March. Guess what? I'm dropping out of school.

I got to start training for the draft. It's seven months of done. And think about the transition from boy to man, too. College is a great transition because it's the first time many of these kids are on their own. Especially if you come from a poor environment where you had nothing, the leap to college is so overwhelming already. There are so many things that you're adjusting to because you're given a lot more than you've ever had. And you're responsible for a lot more things. But what if you're a poor kid from the inner city like think about that yeah well that's exactly what i think it's an adjustment for everybody but i think for

athletes it's way bigger it's way bigger for athletes because so much of the world is given to you and you're expected to be responsible at the same time you know these two dynamics are playing on each other college gives you the opportunity to fuck up a little bit and not have all the radar. Actually, you're wrong. You can no longer fuck up. You can't fuck up at any point in life. I don't mean the type of fuck up.

You know what I mean. I don't even know if you're allowed to get drunk in college. You know, we're getting your life together. Are you allowed to get drunk in college anymore? What happens? Sure, absolutely. You just have to stare at each other? You just can't do anything after that.

You drink coconut water. Yeah, you just have to go right to bed after that alone and three coconut waters i'm going to bed exactly i had to rant talk about your intentions very clearly when you get drunk oh absolutely um durant when i think the fourth podcast i did with him i somebody asked why he's so attached to the university of texas because he went there for a year yeah and he was like you know he really feels like he went you would have thought he was there all four years right and he's basically because you know i went from like living in the dmv yeah um you know sleeping on a couch to all of a sudden i had my own room and i was on my own and i had all these people who loved me and i got

to wear colors for things right like he just loved it he had never had an experience like that in his life it's huge. You know, plus someone like Durant kind of found himself in college. Yeah. Even if he's there for a year, it's still like, oh, I have to make food. How do I do this? And that's an example of somebody. Yeah.

Somebody like a freakish athlete like Kevin Durant, he can do one and done. Like someone like Lonzo, two years minimum in my estimation. Lonzo almost the first couple months almost broke him. This is something I've been thinking about a lot because- I think he's got more in him than people give him credit for. Well, I think he rallied from it. But I think he hit almost a rock bottom there for a couple months. But I don't think we consider enough how hard it is to be in the spotlight for some people.

Especially when things go wrong. Because I've been thinking about it with Markel Fultz, this kid's like his whole world, his whole world collapsed on him. And on top of it, like he's, you know, for whatever reason,

he forgot how to shoot or he changed his shot. He changed his shot cause he was injured. It's like a Steve Sachs thing. Like a Tiger Woods thing. Yeah, something. His new swing hurt his back. His shoulders hurt,

whatever's going on. Yeah. And now he's trying to work his way back, and he's shooting jumpers in these practice gyms, and these people are videotaping it from the corner, and then they're just putting it on Twitter. And he's taking shit, and they traded Jason Tatum and the Lakers pick.

I know. And he's starting to... It really feels like he's melting down. Yeah. And I don't think this is the first time this has happened. I think this has happened to a lot of guys. Yeah. I felt he was a questionable number one, though.

He was. Yeah. Well, just from the standpoint of, he had played like 20 college games. But the team didn't. His YouTube clip looked awesome. But the team was just aight. Yeah, well, that's the thing. I think your team's got to be a little better when you're a number one pick i think when you're when you're putting that much capital into

a top pick yeah immaturity ability to withstand um some sort of you know adversity for the first time in your life maybe and it's this insistence that guards are going to lead you to the promised land because we've had some freakish guards do that you know harden and curry you know but how many of those are really out there right i mean curry changed the game and harden is redefining it and refining that change that curry brought to it you know well now we're in this situation with trey young in oklahoma who yeah has kind of those similar skills but he's another yeah he'll be another one and done guy yeah he doesn't fit some of the profiles for what we want from number one pick but the the path for him if you think he'd be

great is steph curry yes at the other end he could come into the league right and maybe he doesn't shoot well the first year and everybody's going wait i thought you were steph curry he's not living in oklahoma for the first time in his life yeah he's like playing for you know now he's in philadelphia and people like oh my god do we have another bust and he's 19 and he has all this stuff pounding on him it's changing very fast in a lot of ways that aren't scientifically proven to be correct yeah yeah it's all i know that's a weird statement yeah you know what i mean like because like this whole insistence on the guard culture yeah but it could be a trend you know i don't know how much of this is going to lead people to a trend you know i don't know how much of this is

going to lead people to the promised land like i can't believe how much shade gets thrown on players like blake griffin for being a big man right who plays down low why isn't he shooting three point shots well why does he have to i get it that you're telling me that that's the thing but if that's not in his skill set you're devaluing what makes him a good player by stretching him like that you know i would take advantage of his strengths and then pair him with people you know around that you know to make your team yeah that for me you can't be snotty against a player with that kind of skill set if he's on your team is what i'm saying hold that play thought because i want to talk about that trade all right but swinging it back to kuzma because that's how we started this. Yes. Four years.

Unconventional, right? People just pick him apart. Yeah. And meanwhile, he's a basketball player. Yeah. He's a competitor. But what he's really good at is he's super competitive, as you just said.

He handles his business. He's consistent. Completely. He's like an adult. I was going to say that. He's an adult. 22-year-old man. I'm taking this to the whole good luck stopping me.

Right. Like when the Lakers beat the Celtics, Tatum was terrible in that game. Yeah. And some Laker fans came at me, which usually happens. Right. You notice I was restraining him. You were nice. I didn't do anything.

You were nice. You didn't do anything. I was waiting. I predicted that we were going to beat you in Boston, though. You did. And you almost did. But people were like, Kuzma, he ate up Tatum. And I was like, he's three years older than tatum yeah that's the thing is like tatum is now a 19 year old kid he played well for 30 games

they played the warriors on saturday night guess what he's in gold state going oh shit i'm playing the warriors and he like shit his pants basically but that's my point it's he put like as you said seven months he had in college he really is a high school student going to the pros. Yeah. Whereas Kuzma is a man now. He's gone through four years of college. He has an adjustment period. If anything, I'm surprised he hasn't gone for more 30-point games

and really been let loose. A lot of that, I think, is the way that Luke is coaching the team. Is that a shots fired at Luke Walton? Well, I think he holds Kuzma back a bit. That's my opinion on it. Laker fans don't seem like they're totally in on Luke Walton. I like Luke. I'm not mad at Luke.

But I think for whatever reason, I don't think Kuzma is leading the Laker train like I would have him leading it. So Kuzma, Lonzo, Ingram. I'm not big on Ingram. I'm not big on Ingram. I'm not. Oh, now you're just, you're just, this is porn for Tate over there. Look at him. No. Do Cater, Tate over there.

He's like, oh yeah, more. Here's my problem with Ingram. More Wilmore. I believe, okay, if you're going to compare him to somebody, you know I'm old school, right? So my comparison, people like to compare him to kevin durant but i i think that is not a good comparison it's not to me first of all how about this let's not compare anyone to kevin durant correct let's not let's not try to pretend more seven foot no one has ridiculous

scores no one's existed who are like george gervin cross with tracy mcgrady with three point range that's not happening again okay so you mentioned george gervvin to me that's the closest who brandon ingram style wise is kind of like but he was george girvin but the difference was gort like girvin had an unconventional jump shot you know but he was a scorer he knew how to put the ball in the basket and he it looked like he was moving slow but but girvin what he had was his understanding of the game like i call it angles when you look at the good players like magic players who change the game steph is like this um cp3 probably the best right now in the league you can always look at how they space in the game yeah they keep the right amount of space between them and their defender the right amount of space on certain sides of the floor so someone is going to be open in the right position at the right time it's one of those it's a geometry thing it's a

geometry bird was great at that too. Bird was excellent at that. In fact, that team, that Celtics team. Good geometry team. Oh. Because we had no outside shooting. You can look at the charts and see people always in the right positions. But they were all like within 20 feet of the basket.

Yes. Yeah. It was a different game. If you put Bird in this era, it would be all over. Because like Bird and McHale, how would you stop that? If they actually had real shooters that were like, you had somebody in the corner. So could my Lakers, though, too. Showtime.

Yeah, you would have it, too. Well, Worthy would shoot more threes. Yeah, but Cooper was already a good three-point shooter. You had everybody else, but Worthy would have had to move back probably five feet. Yeah, his game would have been affected the most. Kareem would have left him where he was. He doesn't need to shoot.

Kareem would have loved this era. That's the thing when people talk about the centers. Well, that's the thing. It's like if you put four shooters around Kareem and it's just era. That's the thing when people talk about the centers. Well, that's the thing. It's like if you put four shooters around Kareem and it's just your single coverage, it's all over. Done. Yeah, exactly. But I hate when we compare.

Like to me, there's original prototypes. So when you're like, he was the next Kevin Durant, it's like, no, we've crossed that one off. Ice Girvin's another one like that for me. I told this story last week. I'm going to tell it again. One time we were doing the TV show, and Jalen and Wilbon and somebody else started arguing about Chicago

versus Michigan for basketball talent. Basically, we get everyone from a time machine, and they play pickup. I love that. And so we're going through the teams, and he it was, I imagine what's your first pick? He's like ice. And we were like ice, George Gervin? Magic sounds stupid.

Number one. And he's like, he is the best basketball, pickup basketball player I've ever seen. And we were like, ever? And he's like, ever. It was like, you've ice on your team. You're scoring every time. Nobody can stop ice ever. It's like Earl Manningo.

Right, right. Right. So Gervin, like we always hear about these pickup basketball guys that never made it. But Gervin was actually a pickup basketball guy that did make it. Started in the ABA, of course. Yeah. Yeah, right. And was one of the greats.

So, anyway, I think there's original prototypes. But my problem is, here's, so going back to Brandon Ingram. Right. So, what is Brandon Ingram? He has some of that energy that Ice had, but he's too slow. His game develops too slow, and he can't, he doesn't have the finesse that Ice has. Because Ice looked like he was slow like that, but he was past you. It was always.

Yes, and he could score from so many. He didn't block a shot. Yeah, and he had finger rolls. He could score from so many different types of positions. So Brandon's game, like when he drives to the basket and does that ice type move, it develops too slow. Even if you look at his jump shot, his jump shot develops too slow. He's predictable right now. And for a young player like him, like I remember his first season, he was walking the ball down the court. It was driving me crazy. And Lonzo was doing that in

the beginning and Magic almost lost his mind. Now Lonzo pushes it hard. Now he pushes it, because Magic almost lost his mind. He's like, Magic, what are you doing? The other thing I don't like is- You're losing 10 seconds already of offense that you could have. So you're a young kid. You should be down there in four seconds. Lonzo's biggest advantage is pace.

That's his whole advantage. Ingram, the thing I don't like about him is what's he 6 10 6 11 yeah when he goes to the rim he doesn't seem 6 10 so his body kind of goes down it's not an imposing 6 10 he doesn't he's not vertical he's kind of like crouched and so when he's going to the rim it looks like he's 6 6 yeah he needs i don't know how he figures that out nastiness in his game to go to the next level i think think. I'm glad that I finally have something to talk about George Gervin with, because what I found following sports, especially in the

Twitter era and the 24-7 sports era and all this stuff, is everything is greatest ever, best ever. I was driving in the radio. I was driving in my car listening to the radio after round two of the NFL playoffs this year. And there were some

hosts on espn and one of them said and and they were young i won't say who it was and they were like i'm sure i could guess i think this was the greatest nfo playoffs ever through two rounds yeah and i'm thinking like i wish one person could be like can you name anything that happened since 1995 like do you know who the, do you know who the, the giants beat to get to the bill Superbowl and the Scott Norwood game? Like, how can you even put that in a context? Like to say something like that,

at least pretend to know anything that happened before like 1995. But I feel like we're doing that more and more. And the biggest thing right now is this LeBron versus Jordan thing. We'll be like, well, LeBron's the goat. And it's like, most of the people arguing this weren't there for Jordan

and didn't actually experience it. And I just don't trust anyone's opinion who wasn't there. Just like I don't trust anyone's opinion who's like, Jackie Roberts is the greatest bass dealer I ever saw. It's like, I can't give a counter. I wasn't there. I don't know. I tell people, you may be a researcher, but I'm a witness.

It's just a difference. I can just tell you, when we were there, we all agreed that by the end of it, we were like, Michael Jordan'm a witness. I mean, it's just a difference, you know? I can just tell you when we were there, it was like, we all agreed that by the end of it, we were like, Michael Jordan's the best. Nobody's ever, there was no consensus like that with LeBron. At least not yet. Now, if he wins a title this year with the crappy team he has, maybe we'd have to reconsider it. I don't think so.

Why? I'm just, I personally wouldn't have to reconsider. I'm saying, nah, it's like, all right, four or five, eight straight finals, four titles, four MVPs. Well, I would say no too. Yeah, but what is he going to be, 500 in that? Well, his best case- If you're going to make a case for the best,

he needed to dominate that with winning, not dominated by stats. I don't think he cares anymore. That's why I think you have a chance to get him. I think he knows like the goat thing. You know, this a chance to get him. I think he knows the goat thing. This is going to surprise you. I'm not on the LeBron train. I would be nervous about it. You'd be getting him in year 16.

Yes, thank you. It would be like, we've got Al Pacino for our next movie. But it's like, yeah, but it's 2003. Yes, exactly. You have the really crazy Al Pacino. We're not getting Godfather Al Pacino. We got Brando. He's been dead for a few years.

You know he's dead, right? Yeah, I'm not on the LeBron train. I know that people think that's crazy, but I want to see these young players. It's a young players game. It's a faster game. I think, yeah, LeBron. What about Paul George? It depends who else is there.

From Long Beach. No, I like Paul George. He's a good player. Supposedly a Clipper fan. He's not a dominating player, but I think he's a good complimentary star. I think the Laker fans like this team. I'm not mad at it. It's the first likable Laker team really since Kobe,

that one year when Kobe decided to play 48 minutes a game and then blew out his account. I know, that was crazy. That was fun, though. Kobe's like, I'm playing every minute. It'll go great. But that was so much fun. It was amazing.

Because it was pure Kobe. Yeah. He's like, don't take me out. I'm fine. He was firing 80 shots a game. Then he blew out his Achilles and then shot the free throws. I was at that game. It was the best.

I was like, what could go wrong with this guy? This tells you all you need to know about Kobe. Kobe blows at his Achilles, but shoots the free throws because he's still got a score. Yeah. I mean, those are two points. He needed the two. Anyone else could have shot that. You're not coming back. But no, those two points go on his ledger, you know, on his score sheet, because that's

how Kobe operates. He needed those two. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I think this Laker team, I mean, they've been picking the top five for four straight years, so I would hope that it's some talent.

Here's why I'm high on Luke, okay? I like the way he has them playing defense and hustling now, and they're learning the value of that type of play. Your Celtics are doing that, you know, in defense. We're like, we're probably, we need at least one trade and we need a legit player to play alongside we need a second scorer definitely we have no bench scoring like all the stats now i don't love the advanced metrics but we our bench scoring is awful but i think you can come out of the east well that's the thing the east is wide open i think every team

in the east thinks they can come out of the east. But I think the Celtics. Milwaukee is like, we can come out of the East. Well, here's why I'm saying that. Because I think when you get into the playoffs, yeah, you have great players playing against each other, but that's when coaching really makes a difference.

And I think you guys have the best coach in the East to take you. It's not Ty Lue? Come on, man. And he's the next Laker. Ty Lue's pulling strings, man. He changed the lineup.

Come on, man. Changing the lineup. That's a story thatLaker. Ty Lue's pulling strings, man. He changed the lineup. Come on, man. Changing the lineup. That's a story that's not being talked about a lot. Well, in what respect? Because people are talking about it a lot. Are you talking about the Ty Lue part? Yeah.

He's pretty bad. He's just throwing J.R. Smith out there for four straight months. He's been a disaster. There's no excuse for that team to be playing the type of defense that they are. That, to me, is a coaching problem. Well, not trying is a problem. That's been a disaster. There's no excuse for that team to be playing the type of defense that they are. That to me is a coaching problem. Not trying is a problem. That's a coaching problem. From what I heard though, they don't really practice ever. That's a coaching problem.

But I don't think LeBron wants to practice. I think he's a leave it on the court guy. Doesn't matter. That's where you're going to be like, LeBron, you're fucking practicing. We'll be practicing at 10 today. You're going to be there. Pat Riley is a Hall of Fame coach because he managed personalities, star personalities. Phil Jackson did in Chicago and in L.A. If you're going to have talent, you better be there.

You better know how to manage that talent and keep them motivated. That's what separates great coaches with great talents and not great coaches with great talents. I hate admitting you're right on Pat Riley. He was great. Yes. But people never gave him credit because he had magic and cream in his team. But you put a coach that doesn't know how to manage those personalities. Sorry, you're not going to be in the finals eight out of ten years.

You're just not. Riley gets credit. Riley won the respect after the Lakers with the two Knicks teams that went head-to-head with the Bulls. It really made them sweat. That had no right to. That had no right to do it. And then winning a title with that crap Miami team. Yeah.

That was just a bunch of old guys and Dwayne Wade going to the free throw line. Yeah. And they somehow stole the title. An overweight Shaq. Yeah. To win the title. And that was like just all toughness coaching Dwayne Wade

and veteran guys by him. Managing personalities. Hold on. Hold that thought. We got to take a break. You've heard me talk about our old friend stamps.com. They can keep your rates down with postage discounts up to 40%. You know what that means?

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Day. If you're mailing a little package for somebody, go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in BS. That's stamps.com. Enter BS. Sign's stamps.com enter BS. Sign up today. You know, speaking of Pat Riley, that's where I wish Blake Griffin had gone. To Miami? Yeah. That would have been a good destination. I think that would have been a good destination for him. Kind of like LA of the South. And Riley could have gotten in his head

and been like, nobody likes you. This is why. And turn him into a man. Also, Riley can work with a player like that. With his skill set, completely. I agree completely. Blake was here nine years. It was a very strange nine years. It starts out, he hurts his knee,

he misses his rookie season. Yeah. We did an emergency podcast after trying to make sense of the trade. I've been thinking about it since. And that first year when he played, Baron Davis was still on the team. I can't remember who the coach was, but it vinnie del negro was he the coach then vinnie del negro was yeah okay

because i know he was before it wasn't great times yeah and blake comes in i had had season tickets at that point i think for seven years more for the comedy of it i had season tickets to clippers in the 90s for a few years fun right like they were at the sports it's like going to the comedy store you see some weird stuff but they had mark jackson for a while well you yeah that was the one fun clipper season then blake comes in and it was just electrifying to watch him that year yeah and he doesn't jump the same like that anymore he's had a lot of a lot of injuries athletic players have six years in the league well especially athletic forwards yeah where they can play off of their athleticism they've got six years in the league. Well, especially athletic forwards. Yeah, where they can play off of their athleticism. They've got six years.

After that, if they don't have that skill set, sorry. Or you need to really work on your body. You need to have good luck with injuries. Look at Stoudemire, man. He was never the same when he had those injuries. That was the comparison I made on the podcast to this Detroit pickup, where it's like, it looks good right now. And you might get a year, two good years with him,

but I think his body's going to break down. Yeah, I agree. And the history of the NBA says- There's nothing to prove that. It's not the case. Forwards with lots of surgery, it does not a bet you want to make when they get in their 30s.

Nope. I wouldn't make that bet. But it was weird. He's turned into such a polarizing guy. And he's definitely the least liked player in the league from a competitive standpoint yeah i think teams love going at him they love trying to get in his head his own teammates don't seem like they liked him like i really do think that's why chris paul left yeah and uh it's just a very

strange career and i think it seems like a million years ago when he was this young guy jumping over everybody i know and clipper games are really fun yeah lob city i think that's his legacy like even before lob city started with chris paul that year before to me was the year with out of shape baron davis yeah this weird fucking team and there's blake griffin and we're like i really wanted to go to every game i want to see this guy i want to see him dunk from the foul line my favorite clipper team was back in the Lamar Odom days. Oh, the with Q-Tip and D-Miles. So much fun.

Yeah. That was a fun Clipper team. I had league pass that year and I was staying up till 1.30 in the morning watching them. Yeah, that was a fun team. D-Miles is another one of those guys that should have made it but didn't. But it kind of makes sense that he didn't because. He's a good player, yeah. Yeah.

So you're not gonna miss blake griffin no i'm a laker fan did you enjoy the two years when i thought we were you know i'm a laker fan right yeah well i have a lot of well that's why i was setting you up for there's two years there were the fans were always so snotty towards i know during the lakers you know down period during the little swoon you had i would, well, I think you need to get out of the second round before you start, you know, being snotty towards me. And don't try to be hiding Laker banners while you're playing games. That was embarrassing. Because we.

You're playing in our stadium. Yes, they're still up there, Clippers. Go get your own stadium and put your own banners up. Pay for your own rent and electricity. Yeah, I told my friends, say, hey, man, you guys won the Pacific Division. You should put that banner up. You really should. You know, but they never your own rent and electricity. Yeah. I told my friends, I said, hey, man, you guys won the Pacific Division. You should put that banner up. You really should. But they never did.

So humiliating. Yeah. But there were two years where people were like, could the Clippers take over LA? It's like, no. No. The Lakers have fans that have been here for 60 years. Yeah. And they hate the Clippers.

And they have no respect for them at all. And you can see the Dodger games when they do the, which guy, which team, and they do the little quiz. And then it's like the right fielder. And it's like, who's your favorite team, Clippers or Lakers? And if they say Clippers, the fans would boo. And this is in LA. Yeah, those are Dodger fans. But I have a different analogy.

To me, it's really that the Clipper fans hate the Lakers. The Lakers fans never think about the Clippers. No, it's the same relationship that San Francisco and Los Angeles have. San Francisco hates Los Angeles with a passion. Los Angeles never thinks about San Francisco. And when you say, if you ask an Angeleno what they think about San Francisco, they go, what? And say, San Francisco.

Oh, yeah, that's, it's great. Yeah, it's like they have, isn't that Golden Gate Bridge up there? Yeah, it's pretty nice. Like, that's your opinion of San Francisco. Oh, yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's like they have, isn't that Golden Gate Bridge up there? Yeah, it's pretty nice. Like, that's your opinion of San Francisco. San Francisco hates Los Angeles with a passion and is always thinking about how much they hate Los Angeles. This is, by the way, this is Philly with Washington and New York.

They won't let it go. Philly's like, yeah, we're feuding with New York. And New York's like, what? Where are you? Really? Can we get there by train? And New York, I said, Philly's kind of, yeah, it's kind of cool. I got drunk there a couple of times, I think. Yeah, that're feuding with New York. And New York's like, what? Where are you? Really? Can we get there by train? And New York might say, Philly's kind of, yeah, it's kind of cool. I got drunk there a couple of times, I think.

Yeah, that is true. It's the complete apathy and lack. It's apathy. Lack of even being on the radar for Clipper fans and Laker fans. That's really the most inferiority. That's really what it is. And now it's over and they should probably move to Seattle. Yeah, they're really sad.

I don't know what they do. I don't know. Move to Seattle. Why are you going to build your own stadium? Yeah. This is a good segue too. I want to talk to you about that New York Times LA article. Okay.

That I made you read before. I thought it was so strange. And the thesis was basically the LA Times, which has been written about a million times, has fallen apart. Yes. And this is by, according to this New York Times piece, some reflection of the problems in Los Angeles,

that Los Angeles is basically this disconnected city of weird neighborhoods and there's too much traffic. This put the most cliches in one piece of anything I've read in five years. And I feel, I don't even care. I'm from Boston. I love Boston. I don't really feel any real attachment to LA,

but I think LA is kind of an amazing city and it feels like there's a real energy here and all these people are moving in these neighborhoods. More and more neighborhoods are popping up because so many people are moving here now. Uber's been a game changer. All the chefs are coming here. They have two basketball teams

and a million football teams. People are building buildings left and right. I think what's going on with Los Angeles is actually incredible. And I couldn't believe when I read this piece, you've been here longer than I, what do you think? Well, I believe you could have made this observation about Los Angeles in the

twenties, forties and fifties, you know, right. Even you could have made the same observation in the seventies there. If you take a snapshot of LA, yeah. You're comparing it to New York. Yeah. It it is a decentralized city it is sprawled out but it's kind of what

makes la la the fact that there are distinct neighborhoods that aren't really connected in the way new york is and and adds adds to that but but southern california los Los Angeles has always had a culture here and a feeling that you can do whatever you want. And New York and the East Coast more has a feeling that you have to somehow game the system. That's how you make it, by gaming the system. You have to figure out what the system is and then game it. It's the hustle game. L.A. is more about dreams. It's like, that's on you.

Whatever you think you can do yeah why not you probably can't do it right and that spirit has always fueled los angeles dreams and like no ceiling for what you could do on a given day but i'm gonna go to vegas really completely yeah i'm hopping my car i'm gonna go right now that's why most trends new yorkers are going to disagree with me but most trends and my friend brett came up with this, that most trends start in L.A., they get validated in New York, and they get archived in London. That's basically how it works. That's hilarious. And I believe then they get mass produced in Japan, you know.

Wow. But that's how trends. That's great. That's where they usually start on the West Coast, because there's less judgment about having to work in any kind of system that is an institutional type of living, you know, and that's more of an East Coast mentality. So the absence of that, it looks like, what's going on here? There's nothing happening. We're the civic leaders. It's like, well, a lot of people here are from other places. So there's not that same sense of history from people who are emerging, like you talk about chefs and those people who are emerging at the top,

usually they're imported from somewhere else. So they don't have those same grassroots here. But I think what's nice about the city is I like Garcetti a lot, you know, and I think he's the type of leader that is good for Los Angeles and is good for bringing the city together. I like him too.

He came on the pod last summer and I was really impressed. I do agree with their observation of the Los Angeles Times. That part I do agree with. Yeah, that's weird. But I think... But I said to you, I moved here 15 years ago.

The LA Times wasn't relevant when I moved here. Completely agree. But I think the death knell of the LA Times was the loss of the Herald Examiner. You know, I think when that went away, it was just a matter. The LA Times just became more and more, it felt more and more insignificant. And also, but a lot of that has to do, I think, Bill, with the culture of print journalism itself and what's happening to it with a lot of bureaus being closed down. You have a lot of local news that isn't incorporated in that anymore. So you would have your own personal local news that was incorporated in LA Times, depending on what section of town you lived in. A lot of that stuff goes

away, your metro sections, that type of thing of thing reporters reporting on different parts of the city and that type of thing no money for that really yeah and it's a shame because they need it right now because the biggest issue with la right now is the homeless yeah the homeless things just skyrocketed yeah and you see it even like where our offices are in hollywood now they changed the rule where they could if you have a tent you basically can go wherever you want. Oh, really? Yeah. And you can see it on the sidewalks and it's much worse than when I moved here.

And it seems like it's getting worse and worse and worse. We have crazy things too. Like there's some war on straws or something going on. Yeah. Which I'm not sure what that is. And the war on bags too, where we can't make up our mind if paper or plastic is the right way to go or claw you know it's like why are we putting so much energy into bags i don't understand there's so much to make fun of with la right i would say it is yeah i would say the lack of a

major successful major newspaper meaning that la is decentralized is not where i would go not these i mean people in Southern California care. And I have three dogs, so I feel like I'm privileged to say this, but they honestly care more about dogs than human beings here. It can feel that way, depending on where you are in LA, I would say. Yeah, if we put one-tenth of the energy we put to saving like 20 beagles, as we did with like the homelessness nightmare, now we'd be in awesome shape.

See, I would come back to you that I think white people care more about their pets yeah that's fair that's very fair i think i think you could go any anywhere in the country and white people care about their pets that isn't white people more than anybody absolutely that's a white people problem you kidding me you if you go to manhattan you it is the exact same thing it's like white people calm down about your pets calm down well now it's like we just had in this lot they sent out an email that like that rat taking dogs aren't allowed in the office anymore like that rat taking a shower that was hilarious i'm sure some white person gave them the soap you know and there's probably a loofah that we didn't see in there too i will say i'm I'm going to attack New York City for two minutes.

The whole thing about LA traffic is so terrible. I've never been in New York City where the traffic was completely reprehensible. If you were going traffic, I don't know if there's a way to scientifically prove this. I think the traffic is actually worse in New York than it is in LA. In LA, at least we can do side streets. Yes. And get to point A to point B in an hour or less. If I land at JFK at four o'clock.

Oh, you're screwed. I'm not getting into the city till 630. I'm going 20 miles in two and a half hours. But the one advantage that New York does have. Don't defend these people. No, I live on both coasts. The one advantage New York has is the subway system because which which is completely falling apart the subway system's going to hell you can see rats taking showers the subway system everybody's like this is actually going to

completely collapse in the next 10 years yeah it's possible you know tommy what has worse traffic new york or la new york yeah i i don. I'd like to meet the person who doesn't, and people think the LA traffic's bad. It's not great, but Boston traffic's awful. Houston traffic's awful. Every city has horrible traffic. The traffic covers a larger geographical area than the New York traffic.

The New York traffic is more condensed. It's traffic concentrate is what it is. LA is the one thing, like west side or east side, Traffic is more condensed and is more, it's traffic concentrate is what it is. Right. And so it's, you know. Well, LA is the one thing like west side or east side, you're kind of stuck on one place or the other unless you want to be in the car for an hour. You know, it's the worst traffic of anyone and nobody ever talks about it. San Francisco. Yeah.

Go anywhere in San Francisco at any point in the day and you're going five miles an hour. Nobody's ever like, oh, the traffic in San Francisco. Right. Because nobody's really thinking about it. Yeah. Nobody. People people just think about it's kind of back to my original point yeah it's like where is that where's silicon valley where are they going why is it so bad where are they going i think uber i've talked about this before but i think uber is the biggest game changer this decade uber and lyft for la especially for young people because you had no

way of having a good time. Especially for young people. Like Tommy over there, he's in Ubers constantly, just going from bar to bar and club to club and living his life. He wouldn't have been able to do that 10 years ago. I was having drinks with friends last night, and everybody except me, the stupid one, didn't take an Uber. I only had one drink, so that was fine. Well, I've seen you.

You like to make a big deal about pulling up in the valet. It's LA. I'm from here. You beep the horn. You want everybody deal about pulling up in the valet it's LA I'm from here you beep the horn you want everybody to look diamond in the back sun rooftop beginning the scene

with the gangsta lean you like the valets to talk to you park that car nigga LA I do get nervous in the valet thing though

yeah I don't like valet cologne I don't like that my keys are on my car my car you know it just seems like that would be the maybe i'm scarred from the miami vice episode in season one for the valet service for the valet service they ended up being the killers of course but it makes complete they get the things they would duplicate the car keys come back and then they'll go break in yeah this is bad but anyway i think la gets i i wouldn't even

say a bad rap. I just think people that don't live here don't seem to understand LA at all. Yes, and it does get a proper rap for how superficial it is and how ridiculous it is in a lot of ways. That is completely proper. But it doesn't get as props for like,

we got the best burgers here. Sorry, sorry, New York. Mexican food is great here. Chinese food. Pizza's a loss. Pizza's horrible here. You can't get good pizza here. The New York pizza battle. Well, New York. Mexican food is great here. Chinese food. Pizza's a loss. Pizza's horrible here. You can't get good pizza here.

The New York pizza battle. Well, New York has the better food overall than any place I've been to in an overall sense. The best case for New York is that 24 hours a day you can do whatever you want. Yep. Pretty much. There's no way to really put a price on that. L.A. pretty much shuts down by this time. Let's take one more break. I have some good news.

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of the union no matter who the president is or the two guys behind them who know they're on camera the entire time, that would drive me crazy. I don't know. What would be my move? What if you had to scratch your nose? What if you had to play with your hair?

How do you stay perfectly still like that with that completely intense kind of half smile on your face? Really hard. You must have to practice that, right? Or don't have sugar like in the afternoon

and then you're like crashing. Just like you're half asleep. It was... That would be me. I'd be like... I don't like getting political too much on the podcast. That's why we have podcasts like yours. But it was a distressing hour.

Yeah. Wasn't great. It just wasn't great. And everything's not great. I guess the stock market't great. It just wasn't great. And everything's not great. I guess the stock market's great. Everything is awesome. Stock market's going well. Yeah, it's doing great.

But yeah, so we're in year two. If you had a show and you were on four days a week, like you once were on Comedy Central. Like the nightly show? Yeah. What would be the breakdown? What percentage of, how far would you go? four days a week like you once were on Comedy Central. Like the nightly show? Yeah. What would be the breakdown? What percentage of, how far would you go?

What do you mean? Just trying to make a difference. What would you try to do? Oh, I don't know. I liked what we were doing before, you know. But you didn't have Trump. Yes, exactly. I know. I do like the format

of having a discussion i like that format a lot you know um it's funny now having done a podcast uh you know talking to someone for a half hour might be an interesting thing that nobody's really doing on television you know and just having a flat out conversation about this stuff would probably be a lot of fun, you know, especially having done this, you know, but I don't know. I mean, you kind of, you know how it is. I'm the type of writer and creator that depending on the situation, I try to rise to the occasion of it. So it's hard to think of it in limbo.

It's like, I remember someone was playing around with Jack Nicklaus and they were like $150 and said and said jack what club would you hit here he goes i'm sorry what do you what do you mean said well what club what what club you choose is i don't know well yeah but the distance is 150 he goes i don't know because jack needs to know how many shots behind am i am i ahead you know right what tournament is this what day of the tournament there's so many factors that go into what he would use there that have nothing that he can't he just can't make up in his head and know what that is you know so when i'm like for me if i'm in that situation i have

to actually produce something i might do something different than just thinking about it idly have you been surprised that um it's actually myself to jack nicholas i loved it i was gonna i was gonna mention that i love jack nicholas i love the comparison with uh jimmy really kind of i don't think he revamped his show jimmy kimmel as much as changing isn't he his show's changing a bit right it he's gonna get mad if i use the word evolved um well i saw this bit he did but i think it did evolve a little bit i think he did stuff last year that he just wouldn't have done and started talking about his son yeah but he did it in his voice which i think is important i think everything he did

came from him and it wasn't like i am now trying to do this as a strategy it was like right how do i get more eyeballs right right it was more like i talk about my life on my show and this is part of my life and i feel this way. And it was authentic. myself to america on that type of basis you know having a a real cool conversation with you know comedy stuff thrown in probably or whatever you know well how do you how do you it's hard to say how do you guard against the fact that it's so there's such a schism now that everybody who has their audience it's their audience and then everybody else who has their audience is their audience and the audiences don't seem to collide anymore really people are either one way or the who has their audience, it's their audience. And then everybody else who has their audience is their audience. And the audiences don't seem to collide anymore.

Really? People are either one way or the other. Like, I feel that more than ever. Really? You don't agree with that? I don't. I haven't thought about that. Do you think people listen to your podcast that completely disagree with you?

I hope so. That would be great. That'd be awesome. I don't know. I get people sometimes who disagree with me on certain things but yeah i think we're in an agreement culture i agree with that you know i like to follow people who i don't necessarily agree with on twitter i follow a lot of people on the right who are maybe a bit controversial i follow you for lakers lakers tweets that's

so i've done that as well i like to hear different opinions and people, I'm going to go, what the fuck are they talking about? You know, and read it, you know, and that type of stuff, especially young voices or people who are kind of emerging new voices and that type of thing. So my personal taste is I like to hear from a lot of different people, you know. I don't know if a lot of people share that philosophy. I think you're right. You're probably right. I think people compartmentalize for agreement culture is what a lot of it is. And you'll see it like what's happening in some parts of the Me Too movement when people comment on it.

If they're not lined up completely in a very narrow box, sometimes a very small window of agreement, they get lambasted like nobody's business on some of these issues because it's such an emotional issue and a very you know it's a tough issue and people people aren't playing around with their opinions about it too you you're not allowed to make a mistake if you say things the wrong way or you said a little too yeah a little too much gusto or whatever you can't't walk it back. It's very difficult. 15 years ago, you could. Yeah, it's very difficult to. The Twitter army comes after you. I thought SNL actually did a really good sketch about this on Saturday night.

Yeah, I saw that, yeah, yeah. About, for people who haven't heard, it's like six people having dinner and the babe.net Aziz Ansari piece comes up and somebody starts talking about it and it cuts to every other person at the table, just in complete horror. Like they're in a horror movie but that's what it's like and i thought that really captured yeah you know i've been at dinner since the me too stuff started and you can feel it if it comes up everybody gets fucking tense well if he knows even dave chappelle

gave a disclaimer at the beginning of his act where he said, I am not here for you to agree with me or whatever. I'm paraphrasing. And he acknowledged that his job was not to get agreement. It's to make you laugh. And he's not trying to be on the same side of an issue with you. He's just trying to make you laugh, you know, from his point of view. And he made it clear he was not up there to proselytize or do agreement, you know, things or whatever, you know. And, you know, a lot of people disagree with him, but he's fine with that.

I don't mind disagreement, by the way. I welcome it. I think it's the only way to really learn something. It's through disagreement and discovering the areas where you do have blind spots and you haven't thought things through you know well i wonder if that's why people like sports now more than ever the argument part of it well the argument part of it has blossomed really in the last 15 years first take 100% of culture right the barbershop culture but there was remember if there was a backlash to it in the middle of last decade in the 2006-7 range with like oh the steven smith steven a smith

he's just shouting on opinions and jim rome and oh my god this is and now it's now it's kind of swung around and people kind of dig it yeah and they like takes like sometimes the takes are too crazy but yeah people like arguing they you know let's say tom brady and bill belichick they lose on sund in the Super Bowl. There's going to be takes. And people will look at it and they'll go like one of four lanes with it. And like, this is it, end of the dynasty. Or they weren't that great in the first place.

Like, they're going to come up with them. The thing is, what's interesting, Bill, is that like when I say barbershop, the thing about barbershop takes when you're like yelling at somebody and it's like, you don't know what you're talking about and that kind of stuff. It's always with respect to the other person. It's never meant to demean or it's you're busting somebody's balls or whatever. We're all good afterwards. We're going to meet next week in the barbershop again and have our takes. That only, unfortunately takes that only unfortunately that

only exists in sports right now yeah like in politics you can't do that you can't because you actually lose respect yes people take that away from you you know and it's ridiculous and you can't take a side you can't make it seem like you're on the wrong side of something like there was the issue with uh nicky haley um michael wolf like put out this rumor that nicky haley was sleeping the president or something i find that repulsive you know that that that would be out there the way that it's kind of weasley been put out there yeah and i'm not you know me i'm not a fan of the trump administration um but i am a fan of doing the right thing you know and that's not fair to nicky

haley to put that out there and let alone cnn run it like it's breaking news as i said earlier cnn literally is breaking news you know by the types of stories that they're doing you know how dare they put tabloid a tabloid thing like that about nick Haley. That's ridiculous. And what the inference is, what the implication is, is that somehow she needs to sleep her way up to the top. We're talking about someone who's a governor, for Christ's sake. Stop that, CNN, let alone Michael Wolff. But, you know, what he's doing is already tabloid. You know, a lot of the stuff in his book you have to take with a grain of salt.

It's interesting, but in a very, you know know tawdry kind of way you know so there are many different opinions i think you can have about some of these things that don't necessarily fall in strict ideological lines but they can be honorable opinions you know that you can well and seeing the other side too i and see the other exactly yeah and i think i've probably talked about this way back when but like this podcast like i didn't really talk about politics that much. Right. Sometimes people would ask why. And I found like with sports,

there's nuance. And if I could say something, you might disagree with it. Or I could have fun with something. And in politics, it's not fun. And it's either I'm on this side or this side. And it's like,

it would be like if we were arguing Lakers Celtics. Yeah. My Celtic hatred is good natured hatred. Right. But like, but like Kyrie Irving's really good. Yes. If this were politics,

you'd be like, actually Kyrie Irving isn't good. And that would be the argument we have. And you'd basically be just, because I'm over here, I have to prove my Kyrie Irving stance versus. Right. Admitting that he's good.

And I'm the same way with Kuzma. I'd be like, no, here's actually why Kuzma's not good. And here's what's going to happen with Kuzma. And let me tell you something, that guy, and I'm just trashing him, but that's where we've been with politics basically my entire life. And I don't think that's ever going to change. And if anything, probably going to get worse because there's more ways to mobilize around if anything probably going to get worse because

there's more ways to mobilize around one way or the other as we've seen yeah and a lot of the arguments aren't correct arguments they're arguing the wrong things you know so you know they're not even fun arguments half of the time you know the thing whether you're for or whether you're republican or not with trump the thing that i don't understand that people could not even concede this point is that his whole job is to lead and to be a leader and to lead both by example and by his words and by inspiring people. And we've seen presidents,

I can't remember how many I've been alive for. We've seen every president we've ever had has kind of tried to do this for both sides. And this is the first one we've had that hasn't. Who's basically gearing everything he's doing to one side and pretending it's for everybody, but it's not. And that's, I think, I don't understand how people

wouldn't even concede that point. You know? Well, to not see how, That's, I think, I don't understand how people wouldn't even concede that point. Well, to not see how, like I say he's a narcissistic sociopath. Would you become Orange Noriega? Yeah, I mean, he's so interested in the promotion of Trump and Trumpism more than anything else. And that's my take on him. And so everything takes a back seat to that, whether it's diplomacy or whether it's, you know,

leadership or whatever, you know, kind of takes a back seat to that, even when it's against things that he actually personally believes. Like for instance, I think, I think that Trump personally does have some pot of coal for the DACA movement.

I think he, I, you know, I can't prove this, but I think he and his daughter kind of agree on that. Like, I think she may have talked to him about that or whatever. And he probably has some experience from work or whatever. But against his own beliefs on that, I think he keeps going to the other side.

But he keeps betraying himself when he's off the cuff of how he really thinks about that. But when he was going to make that deal with Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin, then they rushed over there. Wait, Mr. President, this is not what you believe. You can't do this. You know, wait, what do I believe again? What do I believe again? You know, they just canceled that deal.

It was amazing to me because I think he betrayed how he really feels about it. I think that's one area where Democrats can make a deal with Trump because I think he really does want to do something on DACA that the Republicans are really against. And one of them is path to citizenship. Did you believe the premise of the Michael Wolff book that he didn't think that he would actually win the election and that he thought, you know, run it, do a great race, and it will lead to the Trump TV channel, all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I actually think there's some stuff in the Wolff book that, you, you know, you take with a grain of salt, maybe a whole salt shaker. That's the tough thing.

Right. Especially the book like that. Both of us have been written about, like, you know, from firsthand experience. Somebody will write something and be like, wow, that's not true. And that's published. And now people think that's true and it's not. Because it's written down. So I can't even imagine like in a Trump book like that

where you definitely have more liberties, but that thesis of him being completely blindsided that he won, it makes sense because he was a four to one underdog. It would be the equivalent of if the Eagles were, you know, 10 point underdogs this week in the game. And the tea leaves at the time, even his own people

were believing those tea leaves you know right previous was ready to go back you know i mean all those people who were around him at the time they were thinking about their other jobs post that you know it's a pretty good what if yeah it's really the world's that election is fascinating it's the biggest we've had great sports what-ifs. That might be the biggest. I guess the other big electoral what-if is 2000. Yeah. But, however, though, I believe Gore would have done the same thing as Bush and gone into Afghanistan. I believe that would have happened as well.

We've certainly seen the history of the presidency. I don't know about Iraq, but I think Afghanistan would have happened. The history of the presidency suggests that. That know about Iraq, but I think Afghanistan would have happened. The history of the presidency suggests that that definitely would have happened. Democrat, Republican. Democrats historically have been more hawkish than Republicans when it comes to war. When it comes to dropping bombs on people, that's a fact.

What, 2018 we're a month in, what are you passionate about right now? 2018? Yeah, what is the, just what's sticking in your craw right now? Oh, you mean upset, passionate about? I don't know. What are you fired up about?

That's a good question. You know, I am excited about the NBA, believe it or not. Yeah, all right. Remember, we talked about it last summer. And I'm excited for the next couple of years. My prediction this year, this is my bold prediction. I think Houston has a chance to win the championship.

I think Houston... It's not bold. Vegas agrees with you. I think Golden State is a little bit asleep right now. I think they're sleepwalking a little bit. They lost to Utah by 30.

Even though we know regular season, that isn't a big indicator. That's not a good sign. But it's not a good sign. Right. It's not necessarily a bad sign, but it's certainly not a good sign.

You know what's really going on with Golden State? Draymond was their engine. Yeah. And Draymond is not reliable in an 82-game season anymore like he once was. Why do you think? I just think he's won titles and he's getting paid now, and it's like anything else. He still has that hunger and he can ratchet it up.

Yeah. But night to night, getting ready, I think he was like the emotional energy of that team. And sometimes he doesn't have it. Yeah. I believe it comes down to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, really. I mean. Well, those guys, they do love each other, though, I think.

I'm convinced on the partnership with them. Yeah. And they play really well together. I think Thompson's still a little left out in my mind in terms of being. He'll be on your team in two years. That would be awesome. I would love that. I don't think, because eventually they're not going to be able to afford all four guys.

Probably not. They'll be like the Thunder where they gave it those good players. They're going to have to. Yeah. But here's the thing, Bill, that people underestimate how hard it is to keep winning. That's why that Bulls team was extraordinary in the 90s to do that as many years. They say, yeah, but Jordan, I don't care. It's not easy to do.

Look how great your team was in the 80s. Three championships. And it was a team that would just not show up some nights. The difference now is... But three championships. And you're that good a team? Why didn't they win five, you could argue, right? Yeah.

The league was top heavy. It was different, but still... Your team was great. I'm saying it's hard to keep winning is what I'm saying. It's hard. You need injury luck. You need a lot of luck. But you also need attitude.

You need these players who understand and can handle success. Success sometimes is harder to handle than failure for some people. It's not easy. And the amount of money that these guys make. I mean, and you've won already. If you don't have that in you like Durant and Curry have, and I think Draymond has it too. Everybody else is a little questionable, all the other pieces, you know. Yeah.

So you're going back to the 60s, the Auerbach Celtics, and they won 11 and 13. One of the things Auerbach did was every year he made the year about something right so it'd be like it's Bob Cousy's last year we gotta win one for him then next year

it's like it's Heintzen's last year then next year it's Casey Jones we're never gonna play with him again and he would always make it some sort of thing

and then eventually it became his last year and it's like this is the last time he ever seen me right and this is something Riley also figured out how to do with the

Lakers because if you remember they win in 88 and I'm sorry they win in 87 and he does the back to back thing and I remember talking to Magic about that because I was like we got to the point where we stuck in this room for 8 hours watching games

and there's Magic Johnson so by like 7 30 after i've had you know my second coffee they're like magic what was the deal with it we just basically it's like having an nba encyclopedia so be like magic you were pissed when riley did that right like they you guys couldn't have been happy about that you're at the praise like we were so mad like he was they were like they know how hard it is. Well, they were like, what the fuck, dude? We just won. Can we enjoy this for a week? Exactly. Exactly.

But it worked and he said it and it, and it all of a sudden the back to back thing and that became a thing. And, and I think the Warriors, it doesn't feel like they have their thing this year. And I know that's like a weird way to put it, but it's kind of like everyone knows they're the best. They have the same team back. Yeah. What is their hook this year?

And I think that's what they're having trouble finding. Who is their competition? They don't really have any. Well, it's LeBron. The Cavs are falling apart. Well, it's Houston. Well, come on. All they do is shoot threes.

And they just seem like they think now, man, we're fine. We'll show up in April. We're going to win every playoff game. Houston's hungrier than Golden State. 100%. Hungrier. It's hungrier than Golden State. I, a hundred percent. Hungrier.

It's Rocky three, right? All things go back to Rocky three, Clubber Lang. Rocky wasn't hungry. He had to go back to the gym. Rocky wasn't hungry. Wasn't hungry.

Lost it. He was living in a mansion. Adrian was looking the best she's ever looked. He got soft. Yup. But yeah, I think that's the thing with Golden State. Yeah.

I hope you're right about Houston. I give them the edge, you know. And Harden, he's that type of leader. I think he could take them to the promised land. I think the most fun thing about the NBA, and it's been great for the ringer, we'll just put in on the schedule, like, NBA piece by Haley.

We don't even know what it is yet. Because something's going to happen. It's like john wall oh john wall's got knee surgery or or this guy got traded there he's out for two months but it's like every nba story matters the nfl have it okay like alex smith gets traded that's a real story sure it's like oh what'd you think of what'd you think of the alex smith trade and oh i thought this the nba has like that four times a day it's like what do you think the blake griffin trade what do you think of the Blake Griffin trade?

What do you think of Kevin Love? Kevin Love broke a sand. You think they'll make a trade? It's just constant. And it's great. It's 12 months a year now. Are you picking Pats over Eagles? There's kind of a pause there. Was it a horrible question? I'm doing the wissiest way possible. I think the Pats are going to

win, but I also think it's a three-point game. So I think the Eagles are going to cover. I think the Eagles have a better team. They have a better team. But I think the Pats have the best player, you know, with Brady. I think even at 40, he's still the best player on the field. Well, he's turning back time, Larry. That's what he's doing.

No, he's amazing. You know me. I'm no fan of the Patriots but Brady is he's ridiculous I mean his mastery of just reading defenses and just making the right play at the right time but if they don't protect him properly it could be over by halftime it's we're gonna be doing a lot of dink and dunk yeah I think he's gonna throw like 55 times 55 yeah I think he's gonna throw a lot a lot A lot of Dinkin' Dunk. They did that against Seattle. He threw like 58 times in the Seattle Super Bowl. Yeah, that's a lot. Really? You run like

80 plays, you do no huddle. Yeah, that's true. You're constantly doing it. See, if this was You mean the Super Bowl they were handed? Which one? The Seattle one. I think Pete Carroll gave it to us. Yes, Pete Carroll did. He wrapped up that gift for you guys. They're in the one yard line. That was ridiculous, man. They ran a play over the middle with a short quarterback.

They could have done a quarterback sneak. There's so many different plays. They had time out left. Yeah. They could have handed it to a fan and the fan could have run the ball in, which would have been a better play than the play that they did. The thing is like the Pats pulled the last two Super Bowls out of their deep recesses of their assholes. Right. Yeah. But we should have won the two giant Super Bowls out of their deep recesses of their assholes.

Right. Yeah. But we should have won the two giant Super Bowls so it evens out. Completely. I agree with that. That's the thing with football. I agree with that. And you see with basketball sometimes, like, Golden State probably should have beaten Cleveland in 2016, right?

Probably. Golden State. What are you saying now? Remember, they were up 3-1. Yeah. Draymond punched LeBron in the balls. Golden State should have won that year. Got suspended for game five.

They were robbed. Cleveland wins in game five. Kyrie goes off. They win game six. They steal game seven. Golden State gets tight. Yeah. But if you play that series 10 times,

I think Golden State wins eight or nine. Yeah. I think Golden State wins 10. Yeah, maybe. Maybe you have to play it 25 to 30 30 times yeah i don't know so that's the thing that the eagles could absolutely win what do you do for the super bowl do you go to a party what do you do no i'll be what's your strategy i don't have a strategy this year because i'm flying back from san francisco i'm doing an event with michael lewis on saturday and i fly back oh we're running that as a podcast, right? Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.

Who else are you going to talk to this year on your podcast? David Frum is coming up. He wrote the book Trumpocracy. That's my next one. He's one of those never Trumpers on the right. I think he's a CNN contributor. Got a lot of things we're thinking of. Have you had Bill Maher yet?

Have I what now? Has Bill Maher come on? Yeah, he was on last August. That's right, he came on last year. Yeah, it was really good. We had a really good conversation. You know, because he was really, I think most of that conversation was his railing against liberals,

which he likes to do a lot, you know, so it was really interesting, especially in the Trump era. Yeah, he's carved out a really kind of unique spot right now where he's a liberal who's railing against liberals. Yeah, he's kind of alone right now because the right never really liked him and now the left is kind of his show is the toughest thing that happened for his show was he would always have like the two people from one side and then the one from the other side it's becoming more and more hard more and more difficult to find the competent person from the other side to be able to handle the

person who can convincingly tell us that they're for Trump. That person is becoming more and more like an SNL sketch character every time. That's hilarious, right. And I don't know how you fix that because there's not a lot of whatever. Yeah, and it's easy.

You can tell when someone's in cognitive dissonance right away over something. Their arguments just don't hold up too much. How about Shonda? Have you had her? No. Love to have Shonda. She's like right there.

We just got to walk over and just grab her. Shonda's busy, man. She's a busy. I don't care. She's got 13 shows. She's fine. She's got time. No, we'll have people like Shonda on.

I might do something special for the Oscars. We just had Brad Whitford on who was great. He's in the movie. Yeah, yeah. That was a good one. That was so much fun. I love having those conversations. I just had Jk simmons on friday oh really that's another one like i think people have been in like 25 years of movies and tv shows and you just kind of

yeah rip through them and yeah i mean they love talking about things they've been in you know we haven't had many comedians on too you know we had talked last year about having some people on. I'd love to get Rock on sometime. That'd be fun. Well, isn't he touring the whole world making money, right? Yeah, exactly. He's making that Netflix channel. Well, he's on a tour with Jeff Ross and a couple other people where they're going everywhere.

Yeah. He could probably give Monique probably a portion of his money uh who do you think's the best who do you think's the best under 30 that was unnecessary no because she was uh asking for a boycott no i remember that um who do you think's the best under 30 comedian right now wow give me some names i don't know i don't have any i don't i don't know if i'm the right person to say i don't know i don't keep up with that as much i mean the best comedian is still chappelle as far as i'm concerned you know in terms of just your pound for pound you know funny comedian this is the first time we've had chappelle and rock have you had chappelle on your show no we've only tried is he's 10 000 times

oh boxing okay okay when chappelle comes if he ever comes on we're going to say it's one hour and I'm basically going to lock him in the office and try to get like 10 hours. You can talk to him about hip hop. There's a million things to talk to him about. Bill Simmons and Chappelle about hip hop? Come on, man. I think he's got a lot of stuff to talk about. Yeah.

I think so too. I don't think he's, he hasn't done a lot of interviews though, right? No. He isn't in the Raycon interviews. Yeah. Like we had paul thomas anderson on i would love last month which was awesome yeah he was ready to have a fun conversation about stuff he doesn't normally talk about right that's the thing you find you i'm sure

you found this too the right person comes in and they're ready to do it yeah it's great yeah chapelle would be good did you watch the grammys or no yes i did yeah it just made to make me feel older every year oh yes always this year i felt like i was 68 years old yeah it was a lot of like who what's that one who's that i know it's a lot of that i always wonder i wonder how white people are viewing kendrick lamar like because i know they can't understand a word that's coming out of there and it's and it doesn't like when you see this the piece that he does there's nothing really lyrical about it either it's not like it's bruno mars and even if you don't know the words you can at least feel the rhythm of it you know lamar is just out there saying i don't give a fuck about what anybody thinks you know what's weird about him maybe this is just a no i think

but like my son my 10 year old son loves him yeah and something about his music kids think it's it's one of those things like they feel like they're jumping the line on the cool thing it's like i've listened to kendrick lamar yeah like it's a song but he does but his music is a little more accessible for how complicated it is you know and like he my son knows all there so he loves it yeah it feels like you're watching an artist at work truly when it's somebody like Kendrick, you know, not somebody just trying to be popular or, or just trying to put, you know, not that there's anything wrong with it, but somebody who's putting great hooks out there or that type of thing.

I mean, that's what songwriting is, right? And competing out there. So it's not that that's wrong, but. It's been fun to re-experience hip hop with my son who's really gotten into it. See it through different eyes. It's like when you take kids to Disneylandneyland you get to enjoy it through there yeah well i've been introducing him some of the exactly i've been introducing some of the old stuff and it's like i gotta play this song but here's the background a little slick so tupac

and biggie got mad at each other and then tupac thought biggie shot him and then he made this song we're in the car and he's listening to it he's he's like, Oh my, like he was just having a hard, I mean, there are not good words in that song. I'm probably not a good parent. Right. But obviously he loved it. Better that you give it to him than he would learn it from the streets.

That's the thing. He's going to find it anyway. But moments like that. Better he learn Wu-Tang Clan from his dad than learn it from the streets. That's just the way it is. It is funny. Kendrick though. He's amazing. Kendrick seems like the guy right now oh completely i think he has the conch although your boy uh i'm looking at tom allen tyler the creator he's he was getting some play he's the

dark horse pick yeah he's the poor man's version of kendrick right well he's the one when people get tired of kendrick and then i know it's actually right it's actually this guy because it's too easy to say it's kind of common about women though on the show you know it's actually this guy. It's too easy to say it's Kendrick. Big comment about women, though, on the show. It's funny that I agree. I don't know why they wouldn't have somebody like Lorde perform, who was just killing it a couple of years ago. I don't understand the whole, let's bring Sting and U2 into this.

Yeah, that didn't make sense to me. Sting's 66 years old and did not have an album. Yeah. And U2. And he sang a song from an album from the 80s you know englishman in new york right you know i was on the ringer grammy slack that we had and after you two performed i went on and i said i just want you guys to know these guys were really cool 35 years ago and i don't want you to hold the current you two against them and lindsey's all had slack back who's who's

uh one of our great music writers they were cool 25 years ago with octone baby i was like oh thanks that was so nice like i felt yeah i felt really good that it wasn't 35 like some people would do you think youtube though is in a space by themselves where it's okay for them because there's always one group where it's okay when like tony bennett you can still bring him out and nobody's mad at tony benn Bennett do you think I don't think you can bring them out like it's an important musical performance I don't think Sting is in that place no but do you think U2 is I think they're in the place the Rolling Stones were in like the late 90s right that'd be a good example right right right but are they past that was that 10 years ago for U2 the beautiful day that whole when they played the

Super Bowl with the pats rams game they were still cool at that point yeah and they were still doing good music yeah that was 17 years ago but yeah that's the thing is bands shouldn't last for more than i agree to 10 years you two had 25 meaningful years they had a good run that's great they had more than rolling stones yeah rolling stones is basically 15 yeah and then it was but even by angie right right well no it's the undercover the undercover music video i think was or start me up yeah yeah with that tattoo you album right they were still that was still they were relevant in the world but in terms of making music i mean people like steel wheels i guess but in terms of being important no nobody

really wasn't the same. What's interesting now is that you could make a case that Coldplay was the last important band. I guess. Because, and they peaked

at 102 or 103. I feel like they did. I feel like they were really big, those first two albums. Yeah. And now bands, like you watch the Grammys,

it's all individual artists now. Yeah, it is. And there's no, maybe, I don't know why bands kind of went away. I like bands. I like those super groups. Maybe there needs to be a bands resurgence. Yeah, maybe. Maybe we can start one.

We're the right age, right? Larry Wilmore is going to be at the Laugh Factory in Manhattan Beach on the 28th. I might be doing stand-up this year, though. What? Yeah, I may be doing something this year. What happens? Is this like Rocky III? You had to go back to the gym where you started

to get the eye of the tiger back? No, there's a couple of reasons, though. But I'm breaking that for the first time hearing your podcast. People may be seeing me doing some stand-up this year. So how does that work? You can't give details? We'll see how it goes.

You just show up at clubs? I'll just show up and start working on some stuff. Is a is this a bid to get on season three of crashing no yes exactly that's my goal sleep on your couch yes well i'll sleep on his couch in this episode it's all about crashing in in 2018 yeah so you're gonna work on some riffs and some material and then go test them i'm gonna see where i am right now in my stand-up and see what i want to talk about as you as your unofficial business manager yeah i think this is a great idea yeah i've read the stories of what what people are paying for stand-up comedy exactly yeah exactly this is a very smart this is larry they're four blocks away we just walk over and pitch it right now Exactly. This is a very smart pitch. Hello, Netflix. Larry, one more call. Hi, Netflix. This is Larry.

They're four blocks away. We just walk over and pitch it right now. Are they? Oh, let's go. Yeah. Hey, I'm Larry. Can I have some money? Yeah.

Sometimes you just, if you've been a stand-up, it really never quite goes away. Yeah. Even if it's dormant in there. Right. This is one of those times where I feel like, you know, there's a lot more things that I want to get out, and I think stand standup is probably the way to do it. So, so that's what I'm looking at.

Well, good luck. Keep me posted. I would love to be there. Larry Wilmore. Thanks for coming on. Worst of luck with the Lakers. I hope I get your pick.

Three years. That's what it's going to take. We're bringing on Julia Lipman. But first the big game is here. Time to cash in and bet big at mybookie.ag. Have a hunch on who's going to win the coin toss or what color Gatorade the winning coach will be wearing? Don't just watch the game.

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back from the lovely lovely beaches of Mexico yeah you look like you had sunscreen on I'm proud of you thank you I was not that far

from where they filmed Bachelor in Paradise but I didn't I didn't go to the hotel oh really yeah was George the George the bartender

was there he was not but I was like really not that far I could experience it for myself you could have you could have

wobbled down the rock stairs yeah like the contestants do well now that I've been there I'm like there really not that far. I could experience it for myself. You could have wobbled down the rock stairs like the contestants do? Well, now that I've been there, I'm like, they could probably get a better beach. But I think they don't want people going in the ocean because they can't mic them. So they probably want a place where they can't really swim. Well, Mexico is the place because there's horror stories about swimming in Mexico. It's true. I went in the water.

The funny thing about Mexico is like, yeah, they tell you like, be careful. Like the undertow and sharks and all that stuff. Yeah, it's real. The Pacific is kind of scary. Hawaii is the opposite. You go to Hawaii and like you can leave these four-year-old kids like swimming in knee-deep water and be fine. Like nothing's going to happen.

Hawaii is great. Hawaii is the best. It's the best place. You know what else is the best? The Bachelor? The Bachelor. I don't care that ratings are down. Me neither.

I still enjoy it. Oh, I think the season's actually great. It's the best place. You know what else is the best? The Bachelor? The Bachelor. I don't care that ratings are down. Me neither. I still enjoy it. Oh, I think the season's actually great. It's been great. I love Bacca. Bacca. Your wife named her Bacca. Bacca, aka Becca. Becca.

Bacca. One of the best contestants we've ever had. I remember when LeBron was coming out of high school and you just looked at it and you said this. He was on ESPN in high school. I was like, oh, this guy's something. This guy's going to be really special as a pro. I feel the same way about her in Bachelor in Paradise.

Oh, yes. I think it is the biggest no brainer. Number one overall draft pick we've ever had for Bachelor in Paradise. Now, she might end up just being the bachelorette. I would like them to change the format if she's on on paradise like i think she should be allowed to have group dates like it should be becca and like three guys and they just vie for her yes well she's one of those in the bachelor in paradise format they will uh the guys will just be they'll go crazy crazy. They'll be fighting each other. Absolutely. And she plays mind games. She's really good at saying the right thing

to keep Ari interested or whomever interested. She knows what she's doing. If she's the bachelorette, it'll be fascinating because she brings something to the table that we have really never seen with a bachelorette. And I tested it out of my wife. My wife really likes her as a contestant, right? She's got that quality of like,

women like her, they would be friends with her. But when I made the joke about, hey, if she doesn't win, we should hire her as our nanny, my wife got mad. Yeah, of course. And was like, are you serious? We've never had a nanny. And she thought I was serious. And was like, are you serious? We've never had a nanny. You just, and she thought I was serious

and it raised her hackles. And that got me thinking like, that is somebody who needs to be the bachelorette. Somebody that women are both threatened by and want to be friends with is the sweet spot. Oh, definitely. She is just sexual in a way that none of the other women really are

or like ever have been on this show. It's very different. She also doesn't wear the same kind of makeup. She has a different styling. Sometimes she doesn't even wear makeup. I know. It's great. Tate,

do you like Bacca? I don't know her. What? Come on, Tate. You work for the ringer. You're supposed to follow the bachelor. He's watching college basketball on Monday nights.

That's fine. So she's 22. Yeah. Big reveal. Yeah. I think that makes her too young to be the bachelorette. But that's fine. I don't want to box her in. See,

Ari's reaction to that, I'm here to find a wife, all that stuff, would not have been my reaction as a single guy at age 36. I would have been like, I'm definitely taking you to the fantasy suite. You're 22. You don't really want to get married we'll we'll have fun we'll hang out for a few more weeks and your feelings won't be hurt when we break up

she's sort of best case scenario to bring to the fantasy suite best case scenario you could have because she doesn't want to win but she wants to stay for as long as possible she wants to turn incredible twitter feed i don't follow it everyone uh i don't really follow anyone from the battery universe on twitter i follow her She's throwing digs. I'm going to throw another sports pop culture analogy. It reminds me of when The Rock was on WWE. He'd be like, wow, he's too big for WWE. He actually can ascend this and be bigger.

I agree with you. They need a new show for her or a platform for Becca to be Becca that isn't grouping her in with the crowd or making her look a husband. Like let's leverage her into something new and better. I don't even know what that is. Like she's just breaking down so many doors. She's breaking down barriers. She's a pioneer. They did an absolutely marvelous job casting everybody on this show this year. It's pretty impressive. Really the best group of women they've had from a craziness standpoint, from a look standpoint, from a personality clash standpoint.

It brought everything I want. I think it's because Ari was kind of a twist that they didn't really have to like cast in the way that they did previously. Also like a lot of the women are always like, oh, I'm only here because I wanted it to be Nick or I'm only here because I wanted to be Ben. None of these women all just wanted to be on the show. They couldn't have been like, oh, I'm only here because I wanted it to be Nick or I'm only here because I wanted to be Ben. None of these women

all just want to be on the show. Like, they couldn't have been like, yes, give me Ari. Yeah. He's a barely employed real estate guy who is a failed race car driver. Into that. I've hit the jackpot.

But he's rich. He's obviously rich. Like, he's a rich guy. Are we sure he's rich? I'm pretty sure he's a rich guy. We're sure he's rich. He lives life like a rich guy. I studied their Arizona house

pretty intently. Are we sure that's rich. He lives life like a rich guy. I studied their Arizona house pretty intently. Are we sure that's his real house? So you had my wife on Bachelor Party, the America's New Favorite Bachelor Podcast. Please subscribe. Please subscribe. My wife was on early. You've missed her.

She might have to come back because she has a whole riff now that's really, you know what, I'm just going to steal it. Okay. She calls our area the uh the budget bachelor because all the challenges are like hey we're gonna go to tahoe and next week it's fort lauderdale and it's like the worst and it's like we're going bowling and they've spent like five bucks on this guy i feel bad for him max well they had bowling was a date they

wouldn't have done that in the first bachelor season i could have covered the cost of the bowling date myself but bowling and beer i have enough cash in the bank for that fort lauderdale who the hell wants to go to if you told me as i'm going on vacation where you going we're going to fort lauderdale i'd be like what did somebody die well the other thing that's so egregious is they went to lake tahoe nevada and fort fort lauderdale florida both of those cities are adjacent to fancier, more expensive cities. It's like the discount.

It's like you're 26 going away with your friends and you want to go away, but you can't afford Las Vegas yet. So you go to Lake Tahoe. Yeah. It's like in LA when you go to John's instead of Vaughn's for your grocery shopping. Something like that.

Budget batcher. You got to bring that into the pod. It's pretty amazing. Also, apparently what Crystal said on the bus this week or on the episode this week, there was like lost footage of Crystal being rude about Ari. And lost footage. Like that's what they say. And Rachel.

It's like the Trump Billy Bush footage they found. It's that cataclysmic. Rachel claims that they don't fit. They don't record like in between dates or whatever like when they're on the van or on the bus like they don't have recording yeah but i don't believe that like the challenge does that as well i just don't believe that no but the challenge does record it we've seen cara maria get into several i mean that's what i meant the challenge does record yeah so the bachelor would have to record you would think

yeah they're already mic'd up like they're not gonna like going to, like, demic them for the bus ride. There's got to be a way to do it. But apparently, I think they just don't want to air it because what the internet is saying, Crystal said, was she was referring to Ari as hashtag not Peter. So, like, Peter was supposed to do it and they couldn't, like, come to terms. So they called in Ari last minute. And so, like, even she was calling him the budget bachelor in her own way of saying, like, hashtag not Peter.

And they had to force everything. He's so handsome. He's got pillow lips. Yeah. As you know, I barely watch the show, but I like to be in the room when it's being watched. Okay. Says every husband in America. I'm always doing emails.

I would never just sit down and watch The Bachelor. I have to be doing a second thing. Okay. Fair enough. I'm catching up on emails, I'm doing whatever. And my head always will pop up when I hear something like pillow lips, which they clearly, the producers told them like,

look, man, we gotta sell Ari. Like he's got two houses for sale and Harrison, where does he live? At Scottsdale. You've done some good recon. Though the best thing about you and why you were finally ready for your own bachelor feed is you took a good start four or five years ago on the right reasons with Dave Jacoby and you were good. You had potential. Now you understand you have to

work at it. Oh yeah. It's a lot of work. You throw yourself in. It's like, Oh, Ari's selling real estate. You know what? I'm going to go on Ari's website and find out what he's selling. Each week when I watch, I have like a two research section, basically. And you're putting in the work. You're like LeBron James. It's hard. LeBron's getting up at six in the morning to work out. That's what you do.

Yeah. And also, I like to think I won't be subtweeting my producers and colleagues the way that LeBron does. But if I need to, I will. That would be nephew Kyle. So I would take that personally. On that note, can i float something for you yeah so where the ratings are down apparently i don't really care i think it's bachelor fatigue would

be my would be my analysis of it i think doesn't feel that special when it's on anymore because it's always on i think that the the producers need to do everything possible to get a legitimately well-known athlete on this show i I just think it's the number one thing that will help save it. Sports calendars prohibit that, right? It's tough. You basically can't have an NBA player ever. Right.

And they would be the best because they'd sleep with everybody. Totally. And they'd be charming. They know how to talk to the media. They know how to be on camera. Like it's gotta be an NBA player. Football can't happen because of the schedule?

Yeah, so the Bachelor films from mid-September to Thanksgiving. So they're out. Yeah. Literally every league is out. Every single one. But move it. MLS? Make it worth it. Eh, they're not famous enough. Unless it's like, I don't know. Golf can't do it. No. I think we need like a

late second rounder. Like someone from the NBA. And they should just change the filming schedule. What if it was both of Lonzo Ball's brothers? Oh my god! What a great idea! Both brothers are in. It's like a young Bachelor. someone from the NBA and they should just change the filming schedule. What if it was both of the bar? Lonzo Ball's brothers. What a great idea. Both brothers are. And it's like a young bachelor.

That's a great call. Or I'm sure they're available. Kyle Kuzma. He's not going to the playoffs and he's destined for stardom. Well, that so. Let me think about this. So the Bachelorette films from mid-march to memorial day basically the bachelors conceivably they could launch it in september right yeah they could do whatever they want i mean like so they could have an nba they know somebody's gonna be out not make the finals

start filming in may yeah and just get it up yeah absolutely like or like for example kevin love i think he has a girlfriend, but he is injured. The Cavs probably aren't going to win this year. That means this will be a controversy. What'd you say? This will be a controversy. He left the team to film The Bachelor? Yeah, well, that would be a good. With a broken hand? They don't know where he is half the time anyway. So let's just send him to The Bachelor.

He's in Zurich. He's on a date. It'd be great. Like he would be a really good Bachelor. I like that idea. Thank you. I just think like, let's get a mid tier famous, but not great player on the show. I want to see if Tate's paying attention. Tate.

Yes. What NBA player would you want to see on the bachelor as the bachelor? If you could pick anybody. Oh, that's pretty good. Blake. I think it might be too smart. I think that he would like be in on too many jokes.

He would try to turn it on its heels yeah i mean i don't know but maybe maybe it's something like get him back in la for an extended period of time do you how many people do you think ari will have sex with on this show um all all three in the fantasy suite and i'm gonna go with two before anyone yeah any more incidents before i'm gonna say yes definitely on Definitely. Well, I was shocked that Becca, not Becca, other Becca, they showed him bringing her to his room and they didn't have sex. Like, what's the point of going up there? Like, just go anywhere else in the hotel. Or maybe they did and they just didn't say anything. Oh, no. Come on. That's giving them too much credit. There's no way The Bachelor

would know about that and not exploit it for a storyline. Well, Nick was still the horniest bachelor we've ever had right definitely up there um because he had a lot to prove because there was some controversy about his fantasy suite performance yes and liz on his own what was her name your favorite bachelor andy dorfman andy dorfman yeah you said she was the most beautiful bachelorette I still think it's Rachel and it was an honor to meet Rachel last week she was great good hang talked to Kevin Durant I know she was so cool and open about that

she loves Russell Westbrook was that off the record or on the record the last part the stuff we were talking about I think it was off the record there was one revelation she gave us about i don't even know maybe we i won't spoil it okay it was about something about the mechanics of the actual show that you and i have always been interested in and she confirmed it yes yes so

yeah so we're we're subtweeting this entire conversation sorry maybe add us maybe we'll tell you so bachelor party yeah you've had great guests on this year and you're doing it either once or twice a week, depending on the week, twice a week, twice a week, every week. Okay. B-side on Thursdays. This week is with Mallory Rubin. Oh, wow. We're going to talk about all of the blondes that remain. I bet you can't name more than one blonde. Can you name any of the blondes? There's a lot of them and they all look exactly the same. They were, they did seem in an inordinate amount of blondes yeah he must have been like i like blondes or something like that ari would he lives in scottsdale after all that's the thing he's like bleach wait i have another topic for you please been enjoying the challenge with my daughter all

season this is her first challenge her first one ever her first start to finish throwing herself into it the challenge is back man this season has been lights out and last last night with the uh shall we say promiscuous english contestant english contestant who's not shy about maybe using her sex appeal to help herself in the game was a hall of fame episode. Incredible challenge. I just like the whole start to finish was great. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't watched any of it yet. I know.

That's why I bring it up. Who is the British lady? Used to be on this reality corner that now you've just abandoned. Well, you went all behind bachelor. I'm all in on Bravo right now. I'm really in on Bravo. Vanderpump rules. Yes.

It's the best show Phil you would love it it's so good can I sell you on it? no it's too late there's been like four seasons it doesn't matter

it doesn't matter Amber Valetta's brother's on it is that enough for you? yeah he's dating one of the characters we went to we had a big group dinner where we went to the restaurant

yeah at a pump it was a great time It was a great time. It was a great time. It was also weird. It was super weird. Wait, back to the challenge. Who's the best person on the challenge right now? The challenge has been flat out incredible.

But single Johnny Bananas. Let's start there. Okay. Brad divorced. Oh, yeah. Back and crazier and weirder than ever, but also kind of like a couple years too old to be in the show. How old is he?

It's unclear. Real World San Diego was almost 20 years ago. It was when I was in high school. It was 2004. 2004. Okay. I was my senior year of high school. So he's probably like 24 at that point.

Remember Cameron from that season? Oh, yeah. How did I forget? She's the star of Southern Charm on Bravo. It's so weird. Oh, wow. It's so weird. Oh wow. It's so weird. She's like famous to a whole generation

of reality TV watchers that had no idea about her and Brad disgustingly making out in the hot tub. Well, that's the weirdest thing that ever happened was Bailey from Party of Five marrying the blonde from New Orleans.

Yeah. Kelly. Kelly, yeah. That's a great one. Tony. Oh. Who's always fun. He's my number one.

Cara Maria. And then they added a bunch of English people that have actually been kind of great. Like from what show? And it made me realize, like a couple from Big Brother, a couple from You're the One, or whatever that show's called. And it made me realize, like English people always should have been on this show. And we've been failing. America has been failed for the last 17 years.

What's better than English people on this show and we've been failing. America has been failed for the last 17 years. What's better than English people on this show? They, they love to drink. They speak their mind. They don't take shit from anybody and they act inappropriately at two in the morning. It sounds perfect. It's like, where, where were we all these years? So that's been great. Single bananas has been nice. I really felt like it was kind of a muted bananas for years and years and uh and the challenges have been really good overall huge thumbs up how's tj coming off champs versus pros which was probably the worst thing they've ever inflicted on anybody tj's been good yeah it's good chance versus pros is really bad right chance versus pros was a trap even i stopped watching that and i i am a full supporter of the challenge franchise i'm gonna get back in so you're you're vanderpump rules bachelor top chef real housewives of beverly hills

oh you're still on the bh real housewives of bh bandwagon i will never stop new york or bh incredible they're just phenomenal are you familiar with dorit on beverly hills stop i really gave up on that one she's probably the worst person to ever appear on reality television i hate her like despise but it keeps me watching i liked uh lisa's husband with the with the bad toupee and the dog was one of my favorite characters ken ken ken the least sexual guy alive well they talk about how they only have sex once a year yeah i would that's a terrible thing to admit it's pretty weird but he's basically asexual at this point especially with that hair oh yeah when you have a bad rug and a small dog the women aren't lining up and he's more obsessed

with the dog than lisa is and they're both obsessed with dogs it's pretty it's pretty weird but lisa's an incredible queen i absolutely love her the best could we ever get her on a podcast i bet we could yeah i i bet she's like sneaky hot in person. Oh, definitely. I've seen her up close. I've seen her in Ken and the Dog. And they're like a good looking trio. I saw Kyle Richards in person once and she was beautiful. She was like 5'1". Oh, man.

But then I saw the one that was the shocker was Brandy. Oh, she's like really pretty, right? She was stunning. She was like 5'11". Yeah. She was. That's the thing. It's always fun to see them in person.

See our heroes. Absolutely. Also, I feel like I've known them longer than I've known like several'11". Yeah. She was. That's the thing. It's always fun to see them in person. See our heroes. Absolutely. Also, I feel like I've known them longer than I've known like several people in my life. Yes, the people in your life. Absolutely. Yeah. They've been around for so long. And Kyle, I just love.

I defend her irrationally. She's just done a lot of messed up stuff. But also, Lisa Rinna is on the show. Yeah. And she's nuts. And also, she's married to Harry Hamlin. Like, he is legit. He pops in every once in a while, yeah.

Yeah, successful. It's weird that Beverly Hills gets like legit celebrities to be on the show. Yeah. It's really good. Bachelor Winter Games is coming. Yeah. When's that?

That I think starts on February 10th. Are we sure that's gonna be good? No, but I'll definitely be watching. Okay. Ben Higgins, our favorite is on a friend of the pod friend of the prod friend of the ringer i love yeah love ben great guy um he's on and also there was one woman on i think sean lowe's season named leslie murphy who i'd like just became like major girl crush you know sometimes i just like find like one person i'm

like yes you're the one for me i really always wanted her to be the Bachelorette. She's been out of the franchise. She never was on Paradise, just was on once, but she's back for Winter Games. I'm so excited. Apparently she kills it. Talk about budget. They filmed that in Southern Vermont.

We're both from the East Coast. Southern Vermont. Southern Vermont. It's not really where you go for like the best winter. It's like 10 bucks. Yeah. Why don't they go to like Vancouver or something? Or even like go to-

Montreal. Northern Vermont, like to Stowe or something Southern Vermont they're like in like close to Brattleboro, Massachusetts Jesus pretty ridiculous

there must have been legal ramifications there alright we have to go because Tate is going to try to kill himself in about two minutes Tate's not on the reality scene Tate don't judge us

I'm not judging you're judging over there you're judging us I produced this podcast I love The Bachelor it's a good season and it's because of the women are cool it's not because of Ari Tate, don't judge us. I'm not judging. You're judging over there. You're judging us. I just produced this podcast. I love The Bachelor. It's a good season, and it's because the women are cool. It's not because of Ari.

I agree. The women are fantastic. That's why it's good. Ari is a prop. He might as well be a mannequin. They're propping up on the dates. Totally. Budge a Bachelor.

Can I ask you about one thing? Yeah. He licked the bowling ball this week. Yeah, I didn't understand that. Apparently, it was a Big Lebowski reference. I had no idea. Okay. I just was like, am I really dumb for missing it that's pretty weird i like the piece roger sherman did about

i think it was roger sherman about the uh the history of forgettable music acts on dates in the bachelor i think it was andrew or andrew andrew did i'm sorry andrew they're they're both great bachelor correspondents they're both great i knew it was i knew it was one of our great two bachelors but it was so funny because I don't know where they find these people

and it's gotta be kind of a big gig for the musical act right yeah it's still a top show being seen by 10 million people

yeah most of the time I don't know who they are I can't even remember their name after the episode's over I can't imagine

anything more awkward than dancing with somebody I barely know in front of a musical artist I barely know and a camera crew. I would rather be locked in an elevator closet or something than have to do one of those private concert dates.

You'd rather be Tate right now as he pours gasoline on himself. All right, Tate, we're going to wrap up. Juliet, you can subscribe to the Bachelor Party podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. America likes it. Thank you, America. You might have potential. You might have potential at Bachelor Party podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. America likes it. Thank you, America. You might have potential. You might have potential at this whole podcast thing. Thanks, man.

You're on like seven other ones. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me on today. And you're on the Ringer MBA Mondays. Yeah, Ringer MBA Mondays and every other Wednesday, including today. All right, great. Juliet, thank you. That's it for the BS Podcast.

Don't forget about ZipRecruiter, our buddies, our presenting sponsor for 2018. My listeners can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Stay tuned for a lot of stuff we have coming with that. Don't forget about the rewatchables. We have another podcast coming this week off a much celebrated last week with Good Will Hunting, which was one of the most popular ones we've done, I think, so far. This week, Varsity Blues from our live Largo show.

Goes in a bunch of fun directions. You'll enjoy it. Me, Mallory, Jason, and Shay. And then on top of that, I was on House of Carbs this week, talking about David Chang's new restaurant. I was on Cousin Sal's podcast this week, Against All Odds, Super Bowl props. And then also, as I mentioned, the ringer NBA show, we talked about the Blake Griffin trade. So a lot of podcasts for me, but Hey,

when things, when there's a lot of stuff to talk about, that's where we are coming back on Friday, Mike Francesa for the last time, we're going to do a Superbowl picks. And I think we have a couple of special guests as well for that one. So stay tuned for that. See you on Friday.