The Bill Simmons Podcast - Mahomes or Allen (Again???) and a Clippers-Heavy Mailbag With Nick Wright

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Nick Wright to debate whether Josh Allen is the best QB in the league and the Chiefs’ ceiling this season before diving into a Clippers-heavy mailbag. (0:00) Intro (2:26) A Josh Allen and Chiefs discussion (36:24) Mailbag Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Nick Wright Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Download Uber Eats and order now. http://ubereats.com The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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anything 30-30. Get almost, almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. Order a minimum of $30 required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only, terms and conditions apply. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to by the Ringer podcast network. I am not on the rewatchables this week because I handed it over to the fantasy guys,

Craig, Danny, and Danny, and they did Talladega nights. Craig is also the producer of the rewatchable. So every once in a while, we let him get in the car and drive it around. Very fun podcast. Go check it out. I am doing four podcasts this week. If you miss me and Sal, we did guest aligns. We did our NFL futures draft.

We did a really funny parent corner. great start running it back. We're going to do a mailbag with Nick Wright. And then on Wednesday and Thursday night, I'm going to be live on Netflix right after the game with this podcast after Pat Seahawks. And then on Thursday, Joe House and I are going to be doing our week one NFL, but we're going to do it after Rams Niners. So the Netflix, the post game show, I think it's going to go a half hour.

And after the post game show, they're going to throw it to us. And House and I will be on live talking about the game. and we're going to do our Ringer 107 picks and the whole bunch of things. I love Football Week. This is the best. I have my fantasy draft tomorrow. The Red Sox are on another winning streak.

It's just good times in sports right now. Hopefully the Patriots will sign. They're all pro cornerback. We'll see how that goes. All right. Take a break. Pearl Jam. And then our friend Nick Wright,

nail back time. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by Fandul. The NFL is here and it's the most rewarding season ever. on Fandall with the all-time Fandall Rewards Club. Every eligible bet can earn you points. Win or lose, you still get points. The more points, the bigger the rewards you can unlock. Head to fandle.com slash BS to start earning with Fandul Rewards Club.

21 plus select states are 18 plus D.C., Kentucky, Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-Gand-Gampbell. Call 888-7-7-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Nick Wright is here. You see him with my buddy, Kevin Wouts, on First Things First, every day on FS1. He's also the host of the What's Right podcast. Competing podcast, but not really, because we're all friends. Wow.

Yeah, that's one. That is, it's also, you know, also not competing because I think you have the most popular sports podcast in the world. So I don't, so I also don't consider you a competitor. But I appreciate you mentioning. I do with my son. There's room for everybody. Everybody has spots. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. There's room for all of us. Yeah, great to see you. You were supposed to come on during the summer to do a mailbag with me. And the timing never worked out. You got riled up a couple times. You got mad that I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. I did.

I sent you. So I preempted it. So here's the thing. Because you always talk about getting aggregated. Yeah. And I don't. Sometimes the aggregation, you know, is good in regard like, it's almost free publicity, like some of the clippers or whatever.

It's like, oh, I didn't put. that out there. And sometimes I say certain things that I'm like, we're not going to put this out because I don't want to be publicizing, you know, this shot I'm taking at someone. But I anticipate someone will put it out on my behalf.

And then I'm like, hey, I didn't publicize it. I just said it. Right. It's like a no look pass. You're like, exactly. Like, oh, I mean, I said it, but I wasn't boosting it, but I knew it'd get boosted. But I was worried that there was going to be like a headline, Nick

right eviscerates Bill Simmons for the seatbelt thing. So I did a front run on it which is I immediately clipped it and texted it to you. So you knew even if you never watched it, what I was saying was in good my heart was in the right place. And that was

before I knew you can't see anymore because your contacts. This way, it sounds like Wednesday. Wednesday I'm going to be able to see. We'll see how I can read. You're going to do a mailbag with me. We'll be able to see if I can read later when we do this. I'm very excited. I'm glad you're worried about me though. I'm worried about you because once again, once again, you're just all in on this chief season with all these

different variables. You wanted to argue about Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes yet again. Well, here's what I want to. It's not even about Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes. Okay. It's, I just want to ask you this in your entire life as a football thing. Because do you think, I think right now Josh Allen is the majority opinion best quarterback in the league. I don't think it's consensus. I don't think it's unanimous, but I think it was family feud. He would get the most votes. Safest bet to be a really good quarterback game after game. Right. And on most quarterback lists, you did it before the season last year. And I was aghast.

But at most lists or pyramids, whatever, he's number one. Has there ever been another time in the history of the NFL where the consensus, if you will, number one quarterback was someone who, who had never been to a Super Bowl, had never been first team all pro, was not the reigning MVP, was not, didn't have the most, second, most, third most MVP's of any active player,

was not coming off the best season of his career. And in fact, in the most recent game he played, was arguably the most damaging loss of his career. Has there ever been another time where a quarterback with that resume, it's like he's the best. I would argue no.

And so it's just baffling to me that people, it feels to me like the cycle with Josh Allen is. Every year, the hype gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then he gets outplayed by the opposing quarterback in a playoff loss. And for about a week, people are like, oh, man, Josh could have played better. And then we're right back to, you know what? Josh Allen. If only he had, I don't know, the rushing champ. had that.

Better defense. Well, they had top five defense four years in a row. The best offensive line in football. And so that part is baffling to me. And I don't know a historical corollary for it. It's really interesting because if you go back, I guess maybe Marino would have been the last one, but he did make a Super Bowl his second year. Snap went to a Super Bowl and was like coming off like the, he was MVP that year and

was the defending. And it's like, oh my God, the sky's the limit. And then Montana. overtook him. I will ask one other Josh Allen question for your listeners and viewers who aren't driving. If you're driving, don't close your eyes. But for everyone else, if I say, hey, what's Josh Allen's signature win in the NFL? Well, think of it. You know what everyone... It's the loss. It's the 13 second game.

It's a signature wins a loss. His signature win is a round two loss five years ago. Yeah. His best, his high watermark is a divisional round loss from a half decade ago. I've been so, it's like, there's a lot of guys who are far much further down the pyramid that we can point to a signature win or two or four. And Josh's best, like, he is the greatest wild card round quarterback I've ever seen. He is. I mean, the wild card round, like he, the, you know, nobody has benefited more, statistically speaking, from the NFL adding a seventh playoff team because they're the two seed every year.

Right. He plays Mac Jones or Mason Rudolph or Skyler Thompson. This is your guy LeBron. This is, this helps LeBron the most, all these extra playoff games that he got to play. Okay. Well, that's fair. All these first round series that he boned up on if we're going to do that. I mean, Jordan didn't have as many first round like, you know,

whipping bags that he could have gone through. Okay, except Jordan and LeBron, the playoffs were 16 teams for both of them. I'm just saying, if you compare LeBron versus like Bill Russell, who Bill Russell's playing 11 playoff games a year, like he's never going to have this many players. That part, yes, we're doing, yes, or, you know, Babe Ruth versus Barry, or, you know, somebody. Let me unpack what you said here, because I think there's two really fun things about this. One is that, and I don't know how I became a Josh Allen on the Josh Allen Camp because I don't even think the bills are going to be good this year.

I did pick them to win the Super Bowl last year and they didn't. But this did. We hit all the beats of this with Manning versus Brady in the 2000s. I know. And I was hard core on Brady. Hardcore. I was like, what are we doing?

This is why we have playoff games. But part of the problem was that Manning was really coming up short in those playoff games to the point that it started to feel Carl Maloneish. And then in the in round 05, it started a flip. And then he finally got the Super Bowl. but that's the last time I can remember this happening other than Mike Trout

but that's baseball we make excuses for baseball because it's like well it's 25 players I think Josh is in this it's almost like we have that group with the superstars where we do the yeah butts and it's like yeah he's great yeah but with Josh it's the other way

it's like a reverse yeah butt where it's like it's not his fault it's everyone else's fault don't blame him he's doing everything he can which is the best place to be as an athlete, where you get no blame at all. It's literally everyone else's fault. I mean, they had the Goddog rushing champ last year, and I got to watch Get Up being like,

can they get him some help? I'm like, James Cook's pretty good. Right. The prior, you know, people are like, well, you know, look at the receiving courts. Like, well, he had a number to one with Stefan Diggs and they had a falling out. The defense, he had great regular season defenses

that Mahomes eviscerated, so they became bad postseason defenses. I guess. But here's my other, the, the Brady Manning thing, that's honestly closer to if Patrick is Brady in this instance, but Patrick also has multiple MVP. Right. And the steps. Yeah.

Manning would be Lamar. Lamar is the more decorated regular season player between Lamar and Josh. And Lamar does come up short in the postseason. Yeah, but did anyone ever think Lamar was the best quarterback in the league? I don't think there was a single season where we felt like. this is the guy, this is the bar to get there, because Mahomes or Brady was always there. So I agree with that. But Lamar has three first team all pros. I know. But it's regular, the regular season stuff, I think, versus playoffs. It's the two

different seasons. So that's how I feel, I totally agree with you, which is why I don't understand some of the Josh Allen, Hey Geography, I think I mispronounce that word. Hegeography. Hegeography. You're asking the wrong guy. you misperments the word. Definitely asking a wrong guy. I'm not helping you here. I, because here is how, and we don't have to spend a ton of time on this,

but I get fired up. Post-13 seconds game, here is the four, the way Josh's season has ended, the four years. 2022, at home, round two against the Bengals. Tough one. Gets beat up. Like, they lose 27 to 10. Okay. Asking.

20, 23, at home against a Chief's team that nobody believed in that people thought Tua and the dolphins could beat the previous round, plays well, but gets outplayed by Patrick. Didn't make the biggest series of the game. Did it make the place? Got the ball down three. Had the ball with a chance to win it. Had a ball with a chance to win it. 24 on the road against Kansas City, down three with the ball, three and a half minutes left, everything in front of you. Perfect scenario of go score, Patrick won't get the ball.

They got 17 yards and ended up punting or, you know, turnover on downs. Pardon me. Doesn't do it. And then last year, the path to the Super Bowl is beat Bo Nix and then go to New England where you had just won a month prior. By the way, you never should have beaten Jacksonville. You got through them somehow because Jacksonville gacked the game. You're lucky to even be in round two.

But he did in the Jacksonville game. He did play great and I give him credit. And in that Buffalo, in that Denver game, had the single worst playoff turnover from a star quarterback we've seen in a decade, the one before the half, two more egregious ones. Yep.

And then, and this people, another thing people forget, Denver got the ball first in overtime and Buffalo got to stop. Right. Ball in overtime. You need three points. Go get a field goal and you are playing what's left of the Patriots to go to the Super Bowl and you don't get it done.

And you have four turnover playoff game and your stock's never been higher. That's the part I don't get. Here's the problem. This reminds me of the year after Jordan retired when we had the lockout season. Do you remember who won the M. during the lockout season? Carl Malone, his second of two. Carl Malone edged out Alonzo

Morning for MVP, right? And everybody's like, what's going on? Should we even hand out this award and Carl Malone wins it? And it was just basically like this vacancy void until Duncan wins in the finals. We're like, oh, okay, maybe he's the best guy. Then the next year, Shaq runs a block.

It's like, oh, Shaq, maybe he's the best guy. Duncan takes it back. I just feel like there's a void, and we kind of don't know who to put in this best QB because Mahomes got hurt and sucked last year for what he usually is. Correct. So that the problem, the reason is because Patrick had the worst, you know, the Patrick's season last year is so interesting because nobody remembers this. Well, people think he heard his ACL in September now.

Now that we're a year removed, they forget. There was six and nine when he got hurt. The six and eight when he got hurt in the game. They were six and seven going into the game. Yes, six and a name where he got hurt. But here's the thing that I think you probably, like, the Chiefs last year at, after week eight were the favorites to win the Super Bowl. Patrick was the favorite for league MVP.

And at week eight, Patrick led the NFL in yards and second in touchdowns. And then- I like how you call him Patrick, like your college roommates with that. I mean, close personal friend, but Patrick. He also, his mother doesn't like when you call him Pat. I'm calling him Patrick. I'm paying, you know, it's like an Edward Norton thing.

Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. But yeah. Don't call him Ed. He's Edward. Okay. Then week nine up before, until he got hurt, those next six games were the worst worst stretch of his entire career.

He played terribly. And all the talking heads like Nick Wright, making excuses for him left and right. Well, you know, it's hard to go to three straight Super Bowls. Andy Reed's fault. Where are the skill guys? I didn't blame Andy Reid. Chelsea looks slow.

The running game, they have the worst running backs to the league. They missed a couple O-line picks. I did this all with Brady a couple times in the 2010. It's fair to say that I, that both of these things are true. They had an offensive line ravaged by injury. The receiving core was disastrous. They were absolutely exhausted. from the three straight trips to the Super Bowl.

It's the Warriors. It's that 2015-19 Warriors where you're playing all these extra games. They finally catch up to you. And your coach probably should be sent out to pasture at this point. Well, I don't know about, and by the way, just like, just because you were talking, you already invoked him once. Like you're talking about, yeah, those four straight finals really or five straight finals really wore down the Warriors.

Imagine how great you'd have to be to go to eight straight and just be at your best at the end of every season. But that's neither year or there. And so they got, Patrick played, yeah, LeBron, just went to age straight. Just went to age straight.

Against the Leastern Conference? Against, okay. I'm rooting for some of the teams. They played in round three. They were terrible. Let's get Jake Carter guarding them in a conference finals. Oh, I mean,

my God, you love those Celtics team. The young Celtics, my God. We almost beat them with Terry Rozier and Rooking Jason Tatum. Yeah. I still don't know how that. Marcus,

I still don't know what happened. And then LeBron said, so, George Hill and Timothy Mosgov, come on, come with me. I got you. Climb on my back. Get on my back. But no. So listen, so it is, the void is, the answer to the best quarterback alive question should just be Patrick because he has so many more accomplishments than these other guys. But because he played so poorly, the final two months of last year, and he's coming off the ACL, it feels up in the air.

I want to see how it moves. Don't you? Don't you want to see what happens with five minutes left in a fourth quarter and third and eight when he's got to scramble for our first down? All of it is fascinating. Like what where he, what he looks like post injury, because this is something we talked about last year. Yeah.

That the corollaries of the 2007 Patriots were a game away from being the greatest team of all time winning their fourth championship. They were two plus minutes away. They had the lead. So plays away. But they walked into that game knowing if we win it, we are the greatest team of all time and it's their fourth ring. They lost.

And then the next year, Brady got his knee blown out. The 2024 chiefs were a game away from being the greatest team ever. Winning three Super Bowls in a row. They lose it. They lost very differently than you guys. The next year, their quarterback gets his knee blown out. It's scary. What's scary is a chiefs.

fan is that those following two seasons are the kind of forgotten part of the Pat's dynasty. 09, you guys were 10 and 6 and mediocre. And 2010, you were awesome, but then lost to Mark Sanchez in your first playoff game. Got our ass is kicked. We got our asses kicked in two straight playoff games. Yeah, I think those two seasons are really instructive for this Mahomes thing. I've talked about this on the pod before because you basically, you're at the end of whatever era that was. And what was great about what Brady and Belichick did was they figured out had it

create the second era, which was around the tight ends and Belichick actually hitting some draft picks on the defense. But Brady was so good. They were always 10 and 6, 12 and 4, whatever was. They always had a top five offense, no matter what was going on. And they were able to patch it together until the town showed up. And it feels like you're in this right now. I'm, I wanted the whole summer. was ready to go under on the chiefs. This is one of the reasons I want to have you on. Because I really, we haven't really talked about Mahomes on this podcast that much. No.

I wanted to go under on them. I felt like this was a transition year. I didn't know what I was getting out of read. You missed a couple drafts. You had the rice thing. I don't know what you're getting out of him this year. I don't know if Worthy's good. I don't know if Kelsey's going to be, you know, even remotely the same anymore, etc., etc.

And when it came, like we did the futures draft last night, me and sell. and I was going to do these, Fando has these bets, like this team will win more than that team. And I had two Chiefs bets and I pulled them because I was like, you know what? I just, I could just see the Chiefs somehow go on 11 and 6, 10 and 7 anyway.

To me, it's just a stay away. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't even really have a strong opinion on it anymore. So I, listen, what if you're a Chiefs fan, the hope for this season is the comp is 2022. post-trading tirade. So 2022, they were coming off the indefensible playoff loss to Cincinnati when they just blew it in the second half of that game. You know what happened in that game.

What, Patrick was concussed. Patrick got concussed. Like that's like, that's what happened. I mean, he's, let me listen, I'm not as comfortable saying that as you. What I will say is we've seen him play. I don't know why it's a bad thing to say it, though. I think there was a clear before and after in that game when he, he got hit in the head and he was never the same and was the most made some of the most

inexplicable decisions he's made in his career all over the span of an hour and a half and a half and blew the game we've never seen a half like that before he definitely was hurt or compromised or something he was something was wrong and so they you know they had the year before they got blown out in the super bowl then they lose to cincinnati then they trade direy kill and people are like oh okay you know chiefs good for you you won the one super bowl you're now in a different time. They went all in on this young defense and a wide receiver core where every single guy that was in that wide receiving core is out of the league now, except for Sky Moore,

who's a punt returner. That's what the Patriots had the same thing, where you go back and look at some of the receivers. Like, where are they? They're gone. And that young defense got better and better as the year went on. Patrick was unreal that year throwing to nobodies, but with a good offensive line. And they turned it around like that. They spent three picks in the top 40 on guys to defensively impact the passer.

The top corner in football, Peter Woods, the D tackle, R Mason Thomas, the D end. They are rolling the dice that Josh Simmons is going to be healthy and available for the majority of this season. The reporting this morning that he might miss week one is terrifying for the chiefs. Oh, no. Yeah. I didn't like you anyway in that game. And so potentially not having him. your left tackle for week one against Denver, Patrick's first game back is concerning.

But what the Chiefs rightly or wrongly, what they believe is, if Patrick has a solid offensive line and the defense can get off the field on third down, the rest of it, he'll take care of the rest of it with, and this is the part that I think has been overlooked in how, what's happened to Patrick's numbers the last couple years. Teams certainly last year and a little bit the year before. It did not matter what formation Kansas City was in. Teams were like, run it all you want. You guys can't hurt us running the ball. We are just playing the pass. And that's why I think the Kenneth Walker edition changes things, not because Kenneth Walker is a special player, but because if you just do six men in the box like teams are doing its Kansas City for two years,

they'll be able to punish you there. And does that clean things up for Patrick a bit? So it's like having a center where you get a really good three-point shooter to give them a little more space and room to operate. But they are also, here's where they're also similar to your pets. They're not, you know, big spenders. They're not, they don't do void years. Well, we're the cheapest. You guys, you guys, who aren't even paying Christian Gonzalez. When his agent is the same age as Witherspoon who got paid six weeks ago.

What are we doing? It's unbelievable that you guys won't pay Christian Gonzalez. He's so cheap. And nobody wants to talk about it because we've won so many Super Bowls and he kept the Patriots in New England, right? We owe him a lot. But I don't understand why he's this cheap with this stuff. And we're compared to how the Eagles are always like pushing the envelope,

spending, spending, spending, and looking for every nook and cranny. And the pats are the opposite. He's just pocketing money. The Gonzalez deal should have been the easiest. deal in the history of sports. I don't even know what the rationale is. They're like, they're so far apart. It's like, every guy would kill to have Gonzalez.

Every team would kill to have him. And same draft, same position, same agent. It's like, okay, here's Wetherspoon's deal. We're going to add 2% so he's now the highest. And it's done. The terms, whatever the agent agreed to do for Wetherspoon would be agreeable for Gonzalez. I'm worried they're going to trade them.

That would be. I'm not kidding. I'm honestly, I'm prepared for anything with this because clearly they didn't want to get the deal done. And I don't know what to expect. Who the F knows. So I don't. So can we before we do a mailbag, can I ask you a Pat's question? Well, I had one more chief's thing for you.

Sure. Yeah. Go. I just think the Kelsey thing is a huge part of this. Just the fact that he got old and he's had a full NFL career and he's going to the Hall of Fame is one of the best tight ends of all time. The best, but that's okay. Go ahead. Well, he's definitely.

not because he's he was a C plus blocker, C minus. So have you put, I like blocking with my tight ends. I understand. Do you like playoff production? Best tight end of all time. Grom is the best ever. No, he just is though.

Gronk is the best ever. Hold on. Do you like playoff production? Is Kelsey receiver or a tight end? Was he a receiver that lined up as a tight end or was he actually a tight end? Well, so here's the thing. Amongst receivers and tight ends, he has the most playoff everything. Yards catches touchdowns except for Jerry.

He was great. But my question now for in 2012, especially after watching him last year, and he got married, like I just... Why is this he got married thing all of a sudden going to hurt him on the field? It's planning a wedding.

It's got 1,500 people there. Did you get to go to the wedding? That's done. That may be heard him last year. Did you get to go to the wedding? That's actually an argument as to why... Like you... Were you there?

You were there, weren't you? No, I didn't say that. I should do to you what you did to Zach. No, I didn't go. I wasn't there. But let me ask you, your argument is planning the wedding is a drag. Let me agree with that. That's now off his shoulders.

Now it's done. Now he's got more time. He doesn't want to play football really that much anymore. I don't think he doesn't want to play football. I think his wife wants him to play football. I think that this is Kevin Wilde's take that Taylor, that Kevin Wilde's take is life. is high school. And Taylor Swift in high school was, you know, the band girl or whatever, like,

didn't, it didn't have, she's in drama classes. Yes, all those things. And so there was a part of her that always wanted, you know, to date the football star. And now she's an adult and she's like, I can date the football star. And they fell in love. And so when people are like, Taylor's going to, Taylor's going to want him to retire. Wild's take is, no, the opposite. She wants him to keep playing.

She loves sitting in the seats. Yes, she loves seeing her husband. By the way, I was reminded of one of the great Kevin Wilds takes. I was at dinner with Dave Jacoby two weeks ago. And one of Wilds is saying, you know when people order and like you order like whatever, like a smash burger,

you know, strip steak, whatever. And then the other person that's, the table or the two people are like, they don't want to get the strip steak because you just ordered it. So like, I'll get the chicken instead. And Wilds is like, I actually want to order what everyone else ordered because then we can talk about the order because we're both eating it. And it's a botany experience. We both have the chicken. We're eating the chicken and we're like, is this chicken delicious? It sure is. And he thinks it brings people closer together and that

whenever it has different orders, it keeps people apart. It's a classic wild steak. He has a lot of restaurant takes. He really does. He walks more towers. He wants more things. He's all about towers. Yeah, when Wilds has, if you ever have a first thing's first restaurant, it would just be all towers. So what is interesting about KW is he is, he, so he has all these great, you know, he's this mag.

Oh, you know what? Forget this. I'm going to do. He's going to be so mad at me, but I don't care. Please. Anything that embarrasses him before the end. NFL season I'm in. I can't believe I'm going to tell this story on the air on the most popular podcast of the world.

Because he doesn't really do like group dinners with us. He's like I spend, he's like, I spend more time talking to you guys than my wife. Like, I don't need more time. It's like a cat. He just jumps on your lap when you don't expect it. And then he's gone for three weeks. And he's like, I think Wild's in the garage. I feel like that's the, is it wilds and.

Paul George now you've compared in your career. Well, it's just like Paul George is a cat. Yeah, exactly. They're both cats. But like three years ago, four years ago, there was a dinner that he had no choice but to go to because the bosses were in from L.A. Right. So we all go to dinner. Dinner goes a little later than usual.

I think there's, you know, maybe one extra cocktail and then, you know, coffee, a real long, good dinner. The type of thing I love, but Wilde's usually out on. Can I guess where the story is going before you finish it? Yeah. Because he is the king of the Irish goodbye, Kevin Wilds. So he did that at a different dinner years later, which is we all ordered dessert. And then he was like, I'm going to use the restroom. And then he came back to the restroom.

He just said it. He was like, I don't have to stay for this, right? And just left. But that's not it. This one, he did stay. Okay. And I used to smoke the occasional cigarette or two. And so I were outside.

But I have to wear a seatbelt. Fine. Great take. Great take. We're outside and I don't know how, but I peer pressure wilds. I'm like, come on, man. I was like, have a cigarette with me. It'll be good bonding.

Oh, the K-Man will have every so often. So he smokes half a cigarette. Okay. Gets his Uber to, you know, he lives in Westchester County, I'll call it. It's a long drive from Midtown Manhattan. Halfway through the Uber ride, that cigarette's not sitting well with him. Oh, no. Makes the Uber driver pull over so he can throw up from the cigarette.

He's gotten so soft in his whole age. Not even from drinking. It was from the half cigarette. From the half of cigarette. And he swears he hasn't smoked one since. He says he has his... This does not surprise me. Because Wilds was always destined to be an older guy who was going to be grossed out by a half cigarette. Oh, that was one of his destinies.

Oh, man. This is great. He's all in, though. He thinks the Pats are going to beat up on the Seahawks Wednesday night. I'm nervous for it. I said this last night. They're a live dog tomorrow night. Unless they trade Christian Gonzalez for two first round picks.

So to sum up, before we go to the mailbag. Yeah. Allen is the consensus best quarterback in the league but I don't think anyone feels awesome about it. I think it's a, it's the 1999 NBA

MVP version of that. And when I said last year, I thought he was the best QB in the league, I just felt like, I really felt like he was the most consistent at that position and there had been some slippage with Mahomes.

And this is why the Mahomes thing is so interesting going forward. It's like, how is he going to, who basically elevate himself the second part of his career like Brady did, because Brady's second half of his career was better than his first half of his career. Just was. No doubt.

For all these different reasons, is Mahomes going to be able to do that, or did we already see the peak? I think is the sneaky most interesting question of the season other than what's going to go on with the Rams. So I and what I, listen, I think the chiefs are going to be good. I also think the media is much further down on them than the odds makers. Like you see a lot of people. They are, it's almost surprising when you see someone in the media picked them to win the division.

I might be the only person who picked them to win the Super Bowl. They have the fifth best odds. They have a total of 10 and a half. They're the favorites in the AFC West. So Vegas and the media fan sentiment is misaligned there. The interesting thing about, here's what I will say is using the Brady comp. If Mahomes has a year this year,

that is similar to Brady and 09, his first year back from the ACL. Yeah. The overreactions will be, the general consensus will be, he is. The king is back. Yeah. No, no, the opposite. Brady and 09 wasn't great. I'm talking about the-

Brady stats were good that year. It was just the team was not good. I thought they were great in 2010. No, his thoughts were always good. It was the 09 team just wasn't good. That was, they were too slow. There was a bunch of different reasons for it. So I just, if Mahomes has a great statistical year, then I think we'll be right back to where we're supposed to be.

But if he looks different coming off the ACL, even if like you've said, it's a two-year injury, it takes whatever, the overreactions will be massive. And there's, you know, people are so eager to make this Justin Herbert thing happen. If God forbid, if the chief slip and the chargers actually do something, which won't happen. There will be a lot of he's not even the best quarterback in his own division takes anymore. But I'm prepared for all of it. You're going to take a break. We're going to come back, do some mailback. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fanduel.

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cigarette. We're ready to do some mailback. Shout out to the K-man. These are all actual questions. You can send in questions to BS Podcast 33 at gmail.com. I got a lot of Clippers questions and I grouped them all together and I figured you'd want to do them with me. I mean, what's more fun than the Clipper story? All right. First one is from Lance from Detroit, now in L.A. He says Steve Ballmer is the The richest guy in the NBA is out of picks, but he's never going to be out of money. Why not go scorched earth on the second apron? Spend a billion dollars on payroll for the next couple years. The fans are rightful anger right now, but if you go all into win, they'll forgive you.

He says, this would be the sports version of one of my favorite moves. He calls marrying the nanny. When you not only commit the biggest mistake you ever made, you then embrace it. Ethan Hawk and Robin Williams both had affairs with their nanny and married them. Both men are still beloved. Gavin Rostale, Jude Law, many others slept with the nanny and left them and are pretty fucking far from beloved.

Steve Balmer needs to marry the nanny and go over the second apron. I love married the nanny. It's one of the best things anyone's sent in a while. I mean, I've never heard a phrase like that. Me neither. By the writer.

But it got me thinking immediately. It is interesting that the most pure, punitive parts of the second apron. And the thing that in theory, teams are most afraid of is that we will freeze your pick seven years out. So the clippers have a small window of like, go bleep yourself. We don't have a pick seven years out. Right. Like so. Oh, you can't, you don't won't have the same roster movement. It's like, we're fucked anyway. Right. So that, I do wonder if he could in the short term like hedge,

his financial advantage in order to acquire, like what would be the way to do this? Acquire players whose contracts are underwater. And then like, will he take on bad contracts to get picks attached to him? I think that's what you have to do if you're the corporate right now. So that's what Brooklyn did when they finally eventually figured out what to do. And they did like the D Angel Russell trade,

got some picks in there. like if the Philly thing doesn't go well coming out of the gate or Embed gets hurt maybe that's part of what you do is you like give me you have been ready to trade and bead since the moment they got LeBron I mean he plays 40 games

a year like I think it's a fair conversation Yeah I might have 10 games in a row the yeah well that's I don't know if you have Philly mailbag questions

you you there's but so I won't So you're down with Steve Marion the nanny and basically just spending crazy amounts of money the next couple years. If he can, absolutely. I think that's what he's got to do. I also think he owes that to the fans. Because I think your, was it, was it you that said

he should have had the option, sell the team or take the penalty? Yes. Yeah. I think Adam Silver should have said that publicly. We gave him the option door A or door B. Because that would have even crippled him even more, Balman. I don't say this to kiss

your ass. I thought that was one of the smartest, like, individual opinions I heard on this whole thing. Because it is true that he is, he is the villain here. He is the person that authorized all of this. Like, he is, he gave the okay. He still claims he didn't. I think they might sue, they might end up suing and, like, they're still adamant. They didn't do anything despite the 36-page report that painstakingly spells out all the things

they did. Well, certainly, I guess my point is, let's assume the claim. that the NBA is correct that the Clippers did do all this, it wasn't done without his knowledge. Like, it wasn't Lawrence Frank. Like, he, I'm going to believe the NBA that he greenlit it. Well, can you imagine how mad he would be if he knew nothing about any of this? Right. It wouldn't be if all those people would be fired.

You would have fired those people a year ago. And so I do think, though, that saying to the owner, hey, you're like, we are going to destroy your ability to compete unless you sell the team. So make a decision. It's about you or is about the fans. Make a decision. I think that would have been really interesting. They obviously didn't go that way.

It also does, is this, is like, I don't know, you have more Clippers mailback question. So let me keep going. Go ahead. From Clay Grossman, why can't Bomber just show up to the home games and pay the fines? He has enough money and he'll sue if they try to take any more money from him. Stack, what me thinking, what if

what if he did show up to the games, but he was wearing one of those, like remember when Michael Jackson got really crazy and was wearing those disguises when he was at concert tours? Yeah. And he was going out in public, but he would have this like elaborate,

elaborate thing on. And so people wouldn't recognize him in public and he could go to them all. What if Palmer just did that? And we're sitting at games. It's like, man, that guy's kind of built like Steve Balmer, but he's... And acting like Balmer,

The problem is, I don't think it's true. I think we would snap. No, there's no, there's never been an NBA fan ever that acts like Steve Balmer. True. So you see this giant guy, no matter what the disguise is, acting like Balmer, you'd know it was him. You'd have to be heavily sedated, I think. I do really, I do wonder what the mechanism is if Balmer's like, I'm, guess who owns the arena? I do.

Guess who pays the security? Guess who, all this. What is the NBA going to do to keep me out of the arena? If Balmer actually says, I'm going to call your bluff, not even a bluff, but I'm going to start showing up. I don't know what the league would do. Yeah, how far could he push it to be like, well, you already screwed me anyway. So let's keep going.

I'm going to escalate this. Because I do think that if you power ranked the punish, like if you, let me ask you this, if the NBA was like, okay, you can take a whiteout. If kids don't know what white out is, it's just a match of a racer. To one of these punishments, would he, and it's like you can either get two of the five first round picks back. We'll give you two of them back.

Or we'll remove your ban. which one is he getting rid of? Like, I bet the ban hurt him all, like, maybe not as much as the five first round picks. Yeah. But if it was like, hey, you can pick the punishment. Five first round picks stripped and you're not banned. Or three first round strips picked and you are banned.

I think he'd be like, uh, we'll, we'll do. Or I said that backwards, but you know what I mean. Yeah. I know, it's me. I think the ban in not being able to go to the games is the most is. About as harsh as the base. This arena that he built, that he planned for four years and built this little palace and had a great time. But it is pretty sick, right?

It's pretty great. It's a real home court advantage. It's pretty great. And now it's going to be a morgue. These two emails are together. I want to read them both. And then we can discuss. The first one is from Patrick Cummings.

He asked for a conspiracy bill in this one. ESPN came out with a report that the NBA didn't find any smoking gun in the clippers and the punishment would be next to nothing. This in turn made two forms of talking head takes. Number one, Pablo Torre looks bad. Number two, the commissioner is weak and the NBA is afraid of their richest owner. Well, what happens? A report comes out four weeks later.

They publish it. The punishment comes out. It is the largest in league history. Now the talking heads are saying, ESPN looks bad and Pablo is owed an apology. But couldn't both ESPN and Pablo have been correct at the time of the reporting? I believe what happened is the NBA was going to go soft on the clippers.

It got leaked and the outrage caused them to go in the opposite direction. Basically, ESPN and Pauble were correct and the league changed it. So that's one theory. Then the other one is from Ian Wagerd and Winnipeg, also for conspiracy bill. My friend John thinks the NBA released that bogus clips punishment report to ESPN to gauge the public backlash they decided to be leaning on the clippers. When social media went crazy about it, they decided to go hard on it. what does conspiracy bill think.

I'll give you my, I have really strong thoughts on this, but I'll let you take the floor first. No, I mean, I think that, and listen, I am, I'm not against, you know, the occasional poking fun at Pablo Torre. I'm not even against, you know, someone occasionally being a little, you know, everybody has their smugness limit

and some people have different levels. With that said, I never thought the ESPN report made Pablo look bad. I thought that even if that ESPN report was true, it's totally to me was possible that everything Pablo reported was accurate and the NBA was simply going to look the other way. So I didn't look at that ESPN report as, oh my God, Pablo screwed this up. It was pretty clear Pablo's information all along was accurate. it. Like he wasn't the, and so that, to me, the question was whether or not the NBA was going to take it as seriously as they did. I read that ESPN report as they, they were fed information by the clippers

and that the, and when they asked the NBA about it, the NBA didn't confirm or deny, and they went with it. And I think that was, again, that's just my gut feeling. and that was obviously a massive mistake. But that wasn't like lightly source. It had multiple bylines on it, including Ramona, who's a real reporter, Don Van Nata, who's a real investigative reporter. And that was, it was a little stunning that they would. And Baxter Holmes.

Oh, Baxter Holmes. I forgot. Who is a really good investigative reporter, too. So what's your take? I'm curious. I don't even think this is a take and this is not conspiracy bills take. this is my take and I think I'm right. I think they were very close to a settlement and I think the clippers knew they were close to a settlement and I think what was going to happen was the punishment

was not going to be nearly as bad as it was and they were hammering out all the details and the clippers felt like they were going to be home free and instead of just waiting until the settlement they wanted to start pushing and changing the narrative sooner than the settlement they pushed the ESPN story. There's no question, right? Right. That ESPN story comes out, but the settlement wasn't done yet. And I think the league and Adam Silver flipped out. And I will always believe that's what happened. I think when that story came out, I think Adam Silver was like, you motherfuckers. Like, we've just been trying to figure this out for the last, well, however many months. And you're going to do that? Well, the settlement's off. And then through the hammer at them.

And I feel like where this was headed was they got in trouble with they did something similar with DeAndre Jordan in 2015, which was way, way, you know, way less big of a deal is one thing. And they got slapped in the hand. They got fine. And they were going to push this as maybe the report never gets published. This is their second offense. We investigated this.

There was a lot of stuff, but there was no smoking gun. And I really think that's what happened. I'm not I'm not reporting that. If you aggregate that, I'm not reporting that. That is my theory for what happened. I think they thought they had a settlement. And I think once they did what they did, I think the NBA was like, okay, fuck you guys. So a couple things, because I can add to that in real time, just again, just my gut feeling.

But just to clarify, so you're under that line of thinking, had they reached a settlement, there's never a public report. I don't think so. It's just like we, the, or. I don't know that. I'm just guessing. Because you can't release that report and not think the clippers didn't do it.

Right. So correct. That's what I was going to say. You couldn't have a slap on the wrist. And like, and then like here's the report. Like so they would have had to give either a sanitized or a much shorter version of it.

So here's what I wonder, because I'm trying to figure out if they were that close to it. you know, a settlement, a favorable settlement, why would the clippers leak this to ESPN? Because they're dumbasses. They shouldn't have done anything. They should have just waited until the settlement came out.

So that, what I was wondering is if these penalties are a nine out of ten, and the settlement was going to be a four out of ten. And maybe a three out of ten. Yeah, and the clippers were pushing for a two out of ten. Did they leak it to try to show the NBA? People don't give a shit. Like if it's reported that we didn't, because what I saw is the reaction to that ESPN report

was a lot of people talking shit to Pablo. Not a lot of people outraged the clippers might get away with it. So did they leak it to try to show the NBA? Look, people don't care. They think this happens all the time or whatever it is, but the NBA's reaction was galled by the fact that they would try to front run whatever settlement or agreement. You said it perfectly.

That's my theory. I think that is what I would bet happened. And I think I also think all the Pablo podcast, I think probably drove the quippers a little bit crazy too, that this was just every time this died down, it would happen again. I still feel like, like I probably used hyperbole when I was saying I thought the Dodger story was a thousand times bigger. But I do think the Dodgers story was way bigger because that swung two world series.

That changed the entire landscape of baseball and is going to lead to a lockout. Ultimately, what did this Clippers thing really changed? Like, they won two playoff series with Kauai, right? It was more incompetence versus, like, the Dodgers thing actually shifted the sport. Well, the Dodgers thing also, the other reason I agree with you,

I think the Dodgers thing is a potentially far bigger deal is the Dodgers thing also might have real implications, not exaggerating it, on the American economy. Right, on the American economy. You're right. Like, there's a possibility that that was like the canary in the coal mine of like, wait, hold on. How much of these businesses are being propped up through what's supposed to be super safe insurance money?

Yeah. And if there's, you know, if we assume Mark Walter isn't the only person in that line of work that is doing these types of things. Like, is there, is that something that if you keep peeling away at, you're going to have major, major problems across a wildly important sector of the economy? I think a lot of people are worried about that. Correct. That like transcends the sports piece of it. But here's the thing, and you hit on this a bit, but this is the Clippers piece that I am. I don't want to say I'm most interested in, but I feel like my interest level has the biggest

difference between how much people are discussing it and where my interest is. Yeah. Kauai is a huge villain in this. I agree. And so the Kauai Linder trade and transaction now goes down as the single worst transaction in the history of the sport. In order, Kauai wouldn't come if you wouldn't give up, get Paul George instead of just waiting, a bit and you give up five first round picks and Shay.

And now it now got worse. Right. And now, and evidently he also wouldn't come for the maximum. You had to find extra ways to pay him money. I almost would feel a little differently if it was if Kauai had taken like the mid level. And they're like, we'll make up the money on the back end because he wanted to build some super team. But it's like, no, I want the maximum and then some. And he and he, you know, he. Listen, people can, it was new balance, whatever.

He really did put his chin out there on the king of L.A. Hey, LeBron, I'm the best player in the league. I'm running this ad campaign. I'm taking your town with this whole thing. And then the only time they made the conference finals was when he got hurt. And he got hurt the previous round. And it was the return on investment on he, he tore his ACF. while playing for them.

And Skip Bayliss knew before the Clippers knew. Skip reported that. His lack of commitment to that team availability, plus, at the very least, just allowing Uncle Dennis to run ramp roughshod, but it's hard for me to believe he wasn't at least somewhat aware of it. Well, and the lack of communication, too, where they just, this was years and years of them being like,

yeah, we don't know. We don't know anything that's going on with this guy. We don't know when he's going to show up, not show up. We don't know if he's healthy. I have more Kauai stuff, so save that because I want to keep going. From Bo and the LBC, do you think you, Wazer House will select your clipper season tickets and next year's worst NBA contracts draft?

I think it is eligible. It's not as bad as Joel Embed, but it's bad. You mentioned Uncle Dennis. Caleb and Tucson wants to know if you exclude every NBA player, employee or owner is Kauai's uncle Dennis the biggest off-the-court villain in NBA history because he basically demolished the Quipper's franchise for almost a decade and a half. I still think it's Tim Donahe. Well, yeah.

I'm trying to think of who else, because you were like every player owner or. It's basically all NBA employee, basically non-player, non-front office person, non-owner, which rules out Sterling and some other classics. Are retired players eligible? Because if so, Enos Canter's rising up that fucking list pretty quick, but that's a separate thing. That's a good one. The utter embarrassment.

But yeah, I mean, Donagie is an all-time one. Also, like, for, he's changed his story. I did a podcast a couple years ago about this. Like, he's just a pathological liar about even what he did when he raft. And all of. I think he's been so. damaging that some people, you know, because people believe fake new shit. I also said the Pistons guy who threw the bear at run our test might be up there.

John Green. The melee changed the course of the 05 playoffs because you could argue the Pacers might have the best team that year. And then David Falk, I do feel like Jordan's age in the 90s, who just got too much power and too much influence. and that all led to the 99 lockout and some really damaging contract stuff. And he just flew too close to the sun as an agent. So those would be three people I thought of, but maybe there's more.

That's a good list. Go ahead. You're going to love this one from Wally. Conspiracy bill is needed. Based on the 35-page report, it feels like there was often haggling between Balmer and Uncle Dennis about if Balmer was getting enough

endorsement money to pay Kauai. Do we have dates on those correspondences? Is it possible many of Kauai's prolonged injury abscesses happen because him and Uncle Dennis weren't happy about the money they were promised that they weren't getting? You got to admit, when all this came to late and was being investigated, magically, Kauai was as healthy as he's been in 10 years. His two healthiest Clippers years were the first year in the last year when the scheme was exposed.

Do you think he withheld playing services from the Clippers during certain points of his Clipper career because he wasn't happy about the side money? What do you say, conspiracy bill? I get that is an all time great pretty good that's a great conspiracy bill question and I am I am comfortable saying if the dates if we were to get those dates and they lined up I would just flatly believe that's what was happening me as well like that's a great email this has been covered a little bit already but Matt S wants to know if Kauai just goes back to Toronto in 2019.

They won the title. He's the best part in the world. He's playing with Lowry, Van Vuit, Siakum, and Obie's coming on. Marcus also there, Sir Jabaca. Does that change the course of 2020?

And does LeBron not get the fourth one? Yeah. Listen, you and I feel very differently about the 2020 NBA season. Before COVID shut everything down, the Lakers were the best team. There was three.

L.A. L.A. and Milwaukee, were the three best teams. Yes. But I think the Lakers had a better, I know they had a better record than the Clippers. I'm not sure about their record versus the bucks. LeBron and AD, that was, you know,

peak AD, healthy AD. LeBron was awesome now here. LeBron was unreal. Yeah. And then in the bubble, they were, I understand it was the bubble, but they had earned home court.

So they don't get, it'd be one thing if they were like the seven seed that took advantage of the fact that they didn't get, to have play road games. They were the homes. They were the number one seed. and they annihilated everybody. They, you know, they, they went, people, I remember,

they were like, oh, that Portland team's dangerous, gentlemen sweep, that Rockets team, it was never really going to work, but Russ and Hardin were working. And then David, Davis demolished them. Demolished them. And the Quippers immediately got the fuck out of Dodge. They didn't want to be in the bubble at all.

The Clippers, the Clippers were up three, one on Denver, and up big in all those games and just gave off. Well, the Quippers were the ones. runs when they had the vote. The Quippers were the ones like, yeah, we'd like to vote to leave. We tried to get out of here. And Lou Williams stopped by the strip club and get the chicken wings, so he had to miss time. So I think that LeBron and the Lakers were, I think the more interesting, what if, it's not

quite related, is if Solomon Hill doesn't fall into Braun's ankle the next year when they were again, I think they had the second best record in the West. Yeah. What does that championship defense look like? and more importantly, does that then prevent them from ever trading for Russ? And do we have an entirely different LeBron in the Lakers era? It's hard to like... Well, what's incredible is that's probably the number one LeBron injury, what if?

And it's not fairly an injury. Like, I mean, he's had... It's partly because of how much work he puts in and the fact that he's a super freak. But it's just had no injuries ever. Like Russell, Russell sprained his ankle in 58 in the finals, and that was the only finals he lost. he's playing on one leg against Bob Pettett. So it was, it's hard to be like, oh, man, LeBron got unlucky with that injury when he's played

a quarter century and it's the only unlucky injury. Like how many times, like he avoided that. Honestly, I said this a couple weeks ago. His unluckiest thing ever was Orlando just being on a heater in that 2009 series. That's like, you go back. Nine and nine. He was unbelievable. I thought it was like 35, nine and nine.

No, it was 38.9. 38.99. Yeah, it was over. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. Um, yeah, not 30 dash. He was awesome. And Orlando was just on a team heater. It was crazy. You just have a bunch of, you know, Haydoo Turk, Loon, Richard Lewis and nobody, it skipped to my loo. Nobody can miss. That was a, that was an, an unbelievable one. One more. Two more. He was quick. James in Chicago. He said, Kauai burned the quipper ship down with everyone still aboard. Balmer, Uncle Dennis gone. Nobody saw it coming.

By the time we blink, the limp was gone. He was already in Canada. Kauai is actually Kauyser-Sosei, isn't he? That's from James of Chicago. I love Kauyser-Sose. That's what we have to call him from that one. So is he, so because he's back in Toronto. Bombers dropping the coffee cup, slow motion.

Does Kauai now have a chance? All right. here's my question. Also, going back to the only place that likes him. So that's what I was going to ask. Yeah. More likely to have a statue in a city. Kauai Leonard or Kevin Durant. Oh, Kauai Leonard 100 times. Duran's, Duran's messed that up 19 times just since he left. Right. Like, but no, in any city. I'm saying. Oh, Durant. Durant doesn't have a city. I'd still feel like, there's a Seattle move for him.

He's got to stick around. Maybe there's a team USA headquarters in Colorado, wherever it is. Maybe he can get one there. He's too good of a player not to have a statue, but I don't know what city's putting it up. Max Kee wants to know what if Kauai is the one who ultimately gave the NBA everything? This relationship

of the Quippers was over. Toronto is next. If the investigation put him in real jeopardy, contract voided, suspended Toronto trade gets frozen. And what if he decided, why am I protecting the clippers? You know, Dennis knew more about blah, blah, blah.

What if he realized the writing was on the wall? I think this belongs in the Bill Simmons conspiracy theory Hall of Fame. Basically, he was the whistleblower. He was deep throat. I've talked about this last week, but I do think it's in play. So I don't think he had to be the whistleblower.

I think he simply had to say, I won't fight it. like the, I will basically cop to all of this, which he did in his statement. He just said it wasn't him. It was the people around him. Yeah. But, and you talked about it last week, the NBA needed desperately, the players association, to not fight this.

And which means Kauai had to be okay with it. So Kauai oddly had a lot of leverage in what he was willing to and not willing to accept. and he wants him comes out the big winner. And I do find, I think one of the funniest parts of the punishment is that instead of giving Uncle Dennis a lifetime ban, they clearly had a meeting and they were like, all right, about five years. What's the longest Kauai's career is going to keep going? Yeah.

Because we're pretty confident that once Kauai is out of the week. Nobody else is hiring Uncle Bass. And Uncle Dennis's client list is down to zero. I heard Wilds was looking. looking at him. He's next stage. He's bringing Uncle Dennis and Fiswood. And go home with Uncle Dennis.

And so I thought, yeah, I mean, I don't know that Kauai had to, like, give him a bunch of stuff. It seems like they had it. I just think he had to be like, yeah, I'm like, so wait, let me just make sure I'm quiet. Let me make sure I have this right. Everyone else gets crushed and you're taken for me. 700,000.

But I get my contract for this year and I get to go to. Toronto. I get to go to Toronto. I get my contract. You guys have on, you know, on the record, I made essentially 50 times what my fine is. Yeah, you know what? I'm okay with that. No problem. Honestly, this was the peak of player empowerment era. We thought it was like the decision or LeBron going back to Cleveland or Durantle and Golden State. This was it. Kawhi just running a mock, making all this extra money and then escaping Scott Free to Toronto where you can hang out a drink. It's really unbelievable. Last one. How long do you think the clip of curse were last and what do they have to do to do to make it happen, make it go away from a karma standpoint,

from Josh from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I honestly think I don't see, I think they have to move, right? I think they have to move. And I don't, maybe, maybe out of the country. Like, maybe they're the first London team. Like, maybe they just need a new country. Maybe they need a new continent. I don't know if there's anywhere it works there. Maybe they have to merge with somebody else. I just, now we're going to go into the 2030s. They've lost so many of their fans. People are so mad about this. That now there's a backlash against the people that are mad about this where the diehard's like, hey, this is got to stick with your team.

It's like, no, you don't. This team's a train wreck. You don't have to stay. I got to tell it. Listen. And I made, I don't feel like there was enough, again, this is going to sound very self-congratulatory. But I think you and I are two of the only people that really laid out that this just nuked the next decade of the Clippers. That their next, their best hope at fielding a competitive team, if these penalties stay unchanged, their best hope is around 2036.

Like they need, so it's 10 years in the wilderness. It is the NBA version of the SMU death penalty. It's like you're just finished. Yeah, because you're never getting a free agent ever because you have no future. Correct. You're never getting a free agent to augment the good guys you have. And by the way, guys don't hit free agents. The only like guys.

So the first round picks are used to either, you know, find your next star or to trade for your next star. You don't have them. So you're just nuked until 2036. Like the next great clipper, other than Wagler, honest to God, is probably right now nine years old. So like that's like that's the world that we're in. Yeah, you have to basically copy the Brooklyn model, which they belatedly started figuring out what to do.

And from 16, 17, 18, 19, knowing they weren't going to have the picks. But they basically tried to pave the way to get to that Durant Kyrie summer and then bet on the wrong guys. Right. Yeah, I was going to say that Brooklyn model. model, which is because we talked about them marrying the nanny

and going over the second apron. They could also go the other way and basically spend $1 more than whatever the floor is. Try, basically be as bad as you possibly can be. Make those Embedd-type trades to try to get more draft picks

and really try to bottom out because nobody's going to care about them or think they have a chance anyway. So here's the other thing that is maybe interesting only to me. but I'm curious about, and I don't think anyone's reported it. With the new lottery system,

I don't want them to have to redo the math and remove the clippers from the draw, like let's say the clippers on the lottery from the draw. So if they were one of the bottom three teams, they'd have two balls, but they don't have a pick. So the next three teams basically would be the... Right, but that's not what I want.

What I want is for them to do, even though they don't. have a pick. They are still, they're still, so, so they actually have to see. So we play it out. It's like, you play it out. And if they have the fourth pick, then at the, like, it's picks one, two, three or. It's like a placebo pick. I like this. Fourth pick is, you know, vacated. And we go to the fifth pick. And then you can really see what picks were taken. But I do wonder in all seriousness, if there is a world where in three years, the NBA essentially or in two years or at some point, brings to Balmer what your suggestion was, which is, listen, the market for these teams is outrageous.

Yeah. If you sell, these penalties are gone. Like the new owner, like the, and we can try to bring. bring some of these fans back. I don't see him doing it. He's got a lot of money. He's had a lot of success. I do feel like he doesn't feel like he was that involved with whatever bad things happen. If he maybe trusted the wrong people, maybe had people like Gillian Zucker telling him, no, no, everybody in the league does this. It's not just us. And just it was a lot of unforced errors, but the intent wasn't there in the way it seems. So I don't know. You want to do a couple more

mailback questions? Yes, please. All right. We're going to take one more break and then do them. Fan Duel is making this your most rewarding season ever with boost, promos, a new rewards club, bringing the teaser back and so much more. So they wanted me to do a same game parlay for Pat Seahawks. And I was looking at this one, just for fun. AJ Brown, he's got to score touchdown the first game. Come on. They'll go out of their way to make this happen.

AJ Brown touchdown. I'm bumping the Pats up to four and a half. because I think this is going to be a close game, but I want to buy myself either the field goal or they lose by four or they win. But Pat's plus four and a half and then the under 51 and a half because I think the defenses will be further ahead of the offenses. That is plus a 452. So if you like it, go ahead and place this SGP on the Fandle app. And don't forget to also place Fanduil's super boost for the game during your most rewarding season ever. coming.

All right, a couple more mailback questions. Max M from Santa Barbara is a diehard commanders fan and he said after the OSU cease and desist with Jada Daniels, is this the most pressure of QB has ever had to get to six wins? To get to six wins. Because if Jaden fails to get there,

if he's at four, if he's stuck at five, the jokes and the memes will be out of control. I'm not saying it's going to be a distraction, but I'm hesitant to say it won't be nothing. That's from Max. So it's pretty good. So if they're like five and ten, the jokes are starting.

Yeah, the jokes are starting. And that team I expect to be really bad. Me too. And I have a general, I don't know why there wasn't, sorry Joe House, why I was one of the lone voices in the media that going into the draft with him

was simply, I was playing one note and it's a boring note and it's a kind of a bad take strategy because when you're proven right you don't get to celebrate it. But the note was this guy is too skinny. Yeah. And I don't think he can hold up.

And I am, I put him in the same bucket, but riskier one that I put Chet in when Chet was coming in. And I read this long ESPN profile. And they're like, listen. Chet works out all the time and eats a billion calories. And I came over it and I'm like, now I'm more concerned. Like, if you told me like the guy, ah, the guys is eating Doritos and he's not on a good, you know, regiment, fine. But what you're telling me is he can't gain weight.

Jaden is coming off a year where he missed games four separate times for three separate injuries. And he is the same frame. like if you it's just and I don't think he doesn't work hard. I've been saying this for two years too. It makes me too nervous. He's too skinny. I get nervous about Drake May who's 40 pounds bigger than him. He's,

I don't like he is just too skinny. And the fact that we're now into year three and he hasn't balked up, it is a huge concern. The fact that they can't fix the offensive line, like I think that. Well, and then they lost their left tackle who is their best linemen by far. Or is Tice, Bicyp and whatever.

We did the futures draft last night. I had multiple Washington beds. Under's adjusted unders. Jeffrey G. and Marina Del Rey said the Niners opened the season in Australia where prostitution is legal and there are legal brothels all over the cities.

What if Jed York was visiting East Palestine, Ohio, as his own personal training camp, was he just trying to get in game shape to open the season strong in Australia? I got to say, I didn't know that there were legal brothels all over the place in Australia. I didn't know that either.

I didn't know that either. What a rock in place. I've been to New Zealand. I have not been to Australia. I do think, you guys talked about this yesterday. Yeah. I do, I am really fascinated by the different approaches in. Oh, my God.

It is, it is, I mean, listen, I, And I flew non- This is the number one storyline of the year. Dude. However this plays out is going to be amazing because I got this, I got another email from somebody who does a lot of long flights

who was saying that San Francisco is actually going to be in the long term more trouble. Because when you stay far away from where you live for too long, when you come back, you're screwed up for weeks. So he's like,

the Rams are going to lose this game, but in the long term would be better. The Niners are going to win the game but be fucked up for two months. So I, so I think that's super plausible. I, so I have, I have taken what is, I think, the second longest nonstop flight that is offered. I have flown New York nonstop to Auckland, New Zealand. Wow. So that is 18 and a half hours. Okay. And it, it is a real mind in that like, get on the plane, have a couple of cocktails, take an Advil PM, sleep deeply for six hours,

wake up, watch a movie. And it's like, oh, we got 10 hours left. We got 10 hours left. Yeah. Like, and so the, so I understand, you know, that there isn't necessarily an exact right way to do this. But I do find it super fascinating that the Rams, because it's not. just getting it. I can't imagine if right after that flight the next day, I was flying again. That's the other piece of it. The other piece of it is postgame. Like, they're going to spend 36 of 60 hours on a plane. It's one of the rare stories I can't get enough of. Like, Dana White had a whole thing about how he's solved flying because he has to fly a lot. And he was basically saying you can't eat on an airplane. You just got to hydrate. You got to do all these different things.

but once you eat food, it screws you up. So you got to basically fast when you're on the plane. I don't think that works for football players. I don't think that's going to tell you that much. Ben from Connecticut, this is a rewatchables question. In the aliens podcast, you guys discussed a potential new award based on Bill Paxton's incredible character of Hudson. And I was saying it was more than a Deanne Waiters heat check because he's in the whole movie, but he's kicking ass of the movie. he suggests the Scotty Pippin Award

for the movie isn't winning any titles without this character from Ben from Connecticut. I really like the Scotty Pippin Award. I think it's like only a few movies. It would have to be like an iconic movie. A few good men. A few good men, so that would be...

Nicholson. Because he's only in the movie for like eight minutes. He's Scotty Pippins the movie though. Yeah, I mean there's... I mean, the two that come to mind immediately for me as far as two movies where someone is barely on screen, but is the reason the movie. But you could argue Nicholson's Dion Waiters

because he's only in the movie for like 15 minutes. This is more like, this is more like a sidekick. So like Kevin Bacon would be the Scotty Pippin in a few good men. Okay, so then that's a bad example. So do you have an example? You've had more time to think about this than me. So do you have an example of this?

Well, in general, I like a Scotty Pippin Award because I think Scotty has really been struggling with his place in NBA, you know, history. I think, I still think he's one of the best 30 to 35 players of all time. I think I have him still in my top 30. And probably the most underappreciated superstar we've had because he was on the Jordan team.

I think a good. Sorry to interrupt not to do this. But the most, the most underdiscessed season of my lifetime, his, like as far as looking back on it. The first no MJ season. Correct. Yeah.

They went from 50s. 55 wins to 54 wins. Easily could have made those finals. Yeah. Got screwed by some balls. Scottie is just like Scotty is totally, he has just become for so many people younger than me, a not even supporting actor,

but like a tertiary character in Jordan's story. Which I think bugs him. Yeah. It should bug him. And the money, of course, bugs him. But, like, he was, if, like, if Michael Jordan never existed, I think Pippin would have still had a run as a top five or six player in the league for a couple years. Steve Kerr said he was, like, one of the two or three greatest teammates he ever had. Everybody loved playing with them.

He was completely unselfish. I would defend him forever. I think a good example is John C. Riley and Boogie Nights. Not the star Oh, you haven't seen Boogie Nights Could also do Morgan Freeman and Shawshank Would be another Scotty Pippin Oh, that's a great one

Not the lead character But is just incredibly important And one of the reasons that, you know My Boogie Nights confession was going to be worse Than I haven't seen it But you don't like it Because of your references I finally literally like six months ago

I was like I've got And I love, I think there will be Bloods the greatest movie ever made. So I love Paul Thomas Anderson. Yeah. So right around the time, um, the one battle after another came out, it's like, I gotta see boogie nights. Yeah.

I watched first hour and 20. And then I like had to leave to like go somewhere. I haven't gone back to it. I wasn't taken with it. Like I, I don't, I know. I know. I feel like this might be the final. No, it's going to get you.

Give it. Just keep coming. Keep testing it. Okay. Keep coming back to it. Keep kicking it. All right. Do you care about Tupac's murder? Yeah, of course. This is from Jason P. He said, I know you used to use Picture Me Rowland as your intro, which was true. That was the first year of my post-E-SPAN podcast. But we had thoughts on the verdict this week. And I was always curious to know what Tupac album was your favorite. The answer is obviously all eyes on me, which came out February 96, double album. I was going to say almost exactly 30 years ago. Yeah. It had, I wrote down so I didn't forget all about you. How do you want it?

Life Goes On, California Love, two of America's Most Wanted. Picture me rolling and I ain't mad at you. Double album, which was hugely important in the CD era. Yes. Especially if you had stuff in cars and the first side was better than the second side, but it was still like, it was like 25, 26 songs. And was this new era where people started being like, yeah, I'm just going to give you a bunch of shit.

So when you're buying CDs back then, all you want is like three good songs. Like three or four, it's like a win for $15. You could double album. It's like $22 and there's seven good songs. It's like you've hit the jackpot. So anyway, this is what life was like with CDs. No. So, but I, the, my, the first gift I ever got from a girlfriend, girlfriend.

I was in, I think, sixth grade. Yeah. Was the smashing pumpkin. Melancholy Oh yeah, another sadness, which was a double album. Yep.

This was the era when it all started. Right. And I'm a little, you know, the first hip-hop CD I ever got was the

P. Diddy album right after Biggie got killed. Yeah, I don't acknowledge that album. The, well, I just, that's the song of sting. But go ahead.

Sorry. The verdict. So this guy who finally got nailed for it, he thought he wasn't going to get nailed for the murder and just started doing interviews. I know. And it was like he didn't understand.

He must have thought there were some, I don't know what he thought. But all of a sudden, this dude was going around just giving, like basically to a podcast, like, yeah, so here's what. And eventually it just got nailed. And now I was going to jail. He has to be one of the dumbest murderers we've had in a while.

Well, we had never seen someone treat murder like the way we would talk about like Are the Cooper's cursed? No, no, but the way you talk about like dumb shit you did in college that you know the statute of limitations is going on. You know what I mean? I've talked a number of times about the fact that I right out of college was on who wants to be a millionaire and won 50 grand.

and they send you the whole check and you're responsible for the taxes. And I, you know, gambled a lot. And when the taxes were due, I had what I had and I paid what I thought I could and whatever. I say that knowing that was 20 years ago. I think I'm in the clear.

Maybe I'm not. I don't know. I think I'm fine. I can't imagine someone. You wouldn't talk about robbing a bank like that. This guy's talking about murder. Just like, and it also gives you a really interesting window into the intoxicating glow of attention. Like, this guy's like, I am going, I got away with the most famous murder ever, allegedly, or I do I haven't to say allegedly anymore.

A hip-hop murder ever. Yes. Oh, yeah. Good point. Sorry. Well, but it's also one of the most famous unsolved murders is what I mean. Well, it also was conspiracy bill who's been around. a long time.

Mid-90's conspiracy bill was really, really something. And I had a lot of theories about this, including Diddy and Shug Knight

doing it together because Tupac had already served his purpose. Did he want to get rid of him? Shug got all the royalties for whatever and that, like, conspiracy bill had lots of thoughts on this.

How did this confession sit with conspiracy bills? Like, honestly, a little disappointment because I really like my Diddy Shug theory. I was going to say. Yeah, I was like, it was a no.

Nathan from Appleton, Wisconsin, you're going to love this question. He just asked, how the hell did it take so long for Ben Simmons and the Sacramento Kings to find each other? And I was thinking, perfect matches ever. Jeff George on the Raiders was great.

Great. Bill Walton going to the Clippers when he was destined to have 30-foot surgeries, perfect. Remember when the jail? Boisers drafted Quintel Woods right when they were already having so many problems. They were like, hey, there's a first round pick who's in a dog fighting scandal. You're in.

And then Brandon Whedon, on the Browns, I wrote down too, was just a great one. When the Browns were really starting to seem like, oh, man, this expansion era of the Browns has been really rough. And then they spent a first rounder on him. Those are four. What's your favorite perfect match, though, just up top of your head? I didn't prep you. Right. So that is, I've got to.

It has to be a bad franchise. Could be any sport and somebody who, maybe it doesn't have to be a bad franchise. Maybe it could be any franchise. I mean, I should have sent this one you ahead of time. Can I give you a different take on this real quick? Yeah, go. I don't have a great answer.

I really would have liked, and I'm not trying to take shots here. The guy does good work, and I understand he serves a purpose. but inside the mental negotiation Shams had with himself on, when I announced this, I really have to put three-time All-Star Ben Simmons as the qualifier. Oh, and they send him what to say?

Yeah. If you read the, if you read the Shams bomb on the Ben Simmons tweet, it's three-time All-Star Ben Simmons is signing with the second middle case. And I'm like, man, I really don't think that is getting, you know, the requisite information across as to why he's available for the league minimum. I'm also stunned he wants to play. Stun.

So if you have to say over under for Ben Simmons has left the Kings or Ben Simmons is retiring from the Kings or Ben Simmons has asked for his release or however, does he make it to opening day? So here's, yes, I think he makes it to opening day. And I would also argue if he makes it to Thanksgiving, he'll make it through the whole year. I think it's just, it's, it's the initial piece of it. And maybe it is, maybe he just playing in obscurity for that team, is what in theory he needed. But it is, he seemed to be pretty happy doing his fishing thing, occasionally making fun of the Sixers, like, whatever it is. But I don't, I don't expect him to play when they play in Philly, which, by the way,

I didn't tell you, when the Kings play in Philly, that's one of many games, almost assuredly be at, as you're looking at a very proud Philadelphia 76ers season ticket holder, Bill Simmons. Since when? Since they signed LeBron James. Come on. Yeah, it's an hour and, it's an hour and 42 minutes from my house. You're going to be in the helicopter with them flying back?

No, I'm not going to be in the helicopter. I have mapped out the first things first to the Sixers Arena. And I'm really, I got to tell you, I, considering LeBron's teams have been eligible for 306 playoffs games and LeBron has played in 306 of them, your whole like, ah, well, you know, you lump LeBron in with Embed on, is he going to be available for the playoffs? Yeah, he's going to be available. This is, we've ever seen this ever. In the last three years, those last three years, he's 22nd in the NBA in minutes.

He's played more minutes in the last three years than Jalen Brown, I believe. He's available. LeBron's not an injury risk. He's available. This email was from Todd speaking in LeBron. He's vacationing in Ocean City, New Jersey. There are always Philly player shirts for sale and bead, maxi, et cetera. This week I walked into a T-shirt store and it was all LeBron, nobody else.

I asked the guy at the counter, wear the Jalen Brown shirts. His response, who? Tough start for J.B. That's your Ocean City update. And then here's another one. Speaking of going back and forth. If I was an MBA, this is from Adam. If I was an NBA superstar who lived in New York City but played in Philly, I would 100% rather have my own train or at least my own private train car that I could take back and forth instead of a helicopter. I do think there are legit benefits to LeBron having his own train. train. It would not be the standard Amtrak interior. He could have massage, stretching table, hot tub, ice bath, you name it, it's in there. I would love to be at a real world crossing and see

the look caboose go by. That's a great take. He could get his own car. You knock out all the seats. Maybe it's just one train with the little thing in the front. Or yeah, I mean, or maybe it's part of the regular train, but it's just like just the private car. That's only for him. So it would have to be like the 1115 train back to New York City, but Lake caboose is on it? Yeah, exactly. Just on it.

I love that. I don't know that I, I don't, I don't necessarily, I'm not as convinced as everyone else that he's living full time in New York City. No, he'll do what JJ did. JJ had,

JJ bought a place in Brooklyn because he had, you know, family and young children. And then I think he might have had an, apartment in Philly, but he would drive back to Brooklyn, but then sometimes stay in Philly if they're, you know, he has to do either one. It's time for a new segment. It is called Greatest Plays of All Time, brought to you by State Farm. We've witnessed some truly legendary plays throughout football history plays that can never be recreated because they're designed

for that precise moment on the field. It's the same reason why State Farm helps personalized coverage. You need a plan design to suit your unique situation. I kind of plays. So I'm a child of the 70s, the immaculate reception, which I was probably too young to be watching that game. And there was never the right camera angle for what happened when Franco Harris picked up the ball that got bounced up in the air and runs for the touchdown. But that was like the first famous play I ever remember hearing about. I actually was watching the Hail Mary play at Roger Stauback to Drew Pearson in the Cowboys game. I think it was against the Vikings.

And I think that was where they got the name the Hill of Mary from. But I do remember that one. And then I was there for the helmet catch, sadly. That's one of the most famous plays ever. I think the single most famous play in the history of football is the Malcolm Butler interception because the Seahawks were about to win the Super Bowl. And then the Patriots won the Super Bowl. And it's one specific play that flipped the game.

I still think that's the number one most famous play in the history of the league. Maybe I'm wrong. was also the Patriots won't the Super Bowl, so I hope I'm right. Anyway, when it comes to coverage, you need a game plan that fits your unique situation. State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalized coverage

for your life and budget, like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. Do you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove.

I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow, things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. Okay, this is from C.J. from Long Island. He said, has group chat gotten into the debate over the movie The Mighty Ducks? Not about the quality of the movie itself, which we can all agree is. one of the greatest of all time. We couldn't figure out what was the most serious crime someone

could commit where the judge waves jail time looks you in the eye and says, I'm sentencing to you to head coach a pee wee hockey team. Is it tax evasion, mid-level white collar inciting trading scheme, et cetera, et cetera, let's be honest, managing the group chat logistics, negotiating rotation minutes with angry finance dads, dealing with kids who bring goldfish crackers to the bench, et cetera, et cetera. Are we sure one year at Rikers? Would It wouldn't be easier than two years of coaching nine-year-olds and a hockey team. I'm sure it's somewhere between drunk driving and domestic terrorism for the severity of the offense. And what do you think the offense was?

So I think the offense would have to be one. Like I think anything that is considered like immorals, the wrong word. But drunk driving, you're not like, I understand. You're not coaching a hockey team after that. You're not coaching a hockey team. No. Any type of violence. They're not being like, listen, go go be around kids.

So this is a financial penalty, probably. It has to be a financial crime. And it has to be, it almost would have to be like embezzlement. And part of your defense was like, I'm, you know, I have a family member that's sick and I'm trying to pay for their treatment. They have to feel like you're dead on committed the crime,

but also you're not a bad guy. Your mom needed $40,000 for a liver transplant. Yes, and so you just stone stole it. But it was, you know, you felt, but you didn't feel good about it. You felt bad. I think that's the answer. Because Hardball did this too. Kianu ends up coaching that team.

What did he do? Because he had a rich friend who got slapped on the wrist and they told him he had to coach this team and he didn't want to do it. So he paid Keanu to coach the team. That's what happened. Hardball, an all-time classic. Never seen it. Isaac.

says we talk about certain types of players that became extinct in the NBA, like bruising post up power forwards, big body centers, etc. Shooting guards who can't shoot. With Russell Westbrook officially being retired, it got me wondering if the super explosive above the rim guard is now extinct. Derek Rose, John Wall, Baron Davis, Steve Francis, Westbrook, these aren't players that GMs want on a winning team anymore. Are these guards a thing in the past?

I used to call these guards zero guards, because they weren't a one or a two? They were, and not zero, like meaning they're bad players, just like they're not a one or two. They're a guard who has the ball all the time. They're going to have a high usage rate and their field goal attempts are going to be up.

Can this player work anymore in the NBA? So I have a controversial opinion on this. If they can't, then we need to change the rules. So I, more Russell Rest book type players. I want I want less finesse shooting

and less analytically inclined basketball and more. I'm the best fucking athlete out here and that's my... On balls to the wall and I'm going to get my stats and this is what's going to happen. Right. And I and the dunking piece is actually a big part of it.

I like people talk about Iverson and Westbrook and I understand why. But watching them play was very different. Because Iverson was entirely under the rim. And Russ was, you know, at his peak, so much above the rim. Which brings me to my favorite take of my own when it comes to the NBA, which is we have talked a ton about the three-point revolution. And I think you and I have talked about this before once already. And Goldsberries, you know, let everybody draw their own line, different things.

Yeah. and different things you can do. And my answer and I will bring it up again is dunksworth three. Dunksworth three fixes a lot of this. You can keep everything else the same. I've seen you do this one. It's a really good take.

I'm proud of you. It's one of your best. I did it to you. I know. You haven't seen me do it. No, but you've done it. This is in your, this is like, this is your Seinfeld.

Why don't they make the plane out of the black box? I realized when I was halfway through it, I'm like, oh, shit, I already told Bill this. No, no, no. But I was too deep. It's one of your best takes. I think you should redo it. I just don't, the point that I'm making is very simple. A big part of what I like watching about basketball is crazy athleticism.

And I feel like under the analytically inclined era that we're in, that's less important than ever. you know what I mean like that is and I don't I don't think that is good for the sport we're rewarding Sam Merrill and not Russell Westbrook yes and I don't like that that's the thing I do think though creating your own three point line depending on what team you have because one of the coolest ideas ever I was at Fenway Park last week I know it's so fun yeah which I've obviously been to a ton of games there but every time I go I always I look around and I marvel at how fucking insane the actual park is. Like how they built it.

How, like, behind third base, the fans just come in and there's like no foul territory in the left. You have this giant wall. You have the right field bleachers way back, but you have this foul pole that's like 311 feet that you basically have to curve the ball around and foul pole, anything in the right, any kind of bomb to right field, really hard to hit it out.

But it's cool. It's different. It stands out. It's cool. It's different. It stands out. And the other, there are a lot of benefits to the create your own three point line. Most notably, or the top two would be one, you would need to build a team that can win a bunch of different ways.

You would need, you could have the way you play, but you also would be like, oh, shoot, the best team in the league has Joker and they have decided they're not having a three point line. Like, do we have a way to play in those games? I think you would have to decide before the year. Yes. No, that's what I'm saying. Right? You couldn't do it series to series. But like, no.

But the Knicks maybe would have would have spaced, you know, made the arc even bigger because towns can make 26 footers. Like, I don't know. It would have been a fun one. And then lastly, the other thing it would do is it would make the regular season so much more important because you would definitively care about home court advantage. Well, how about a team? that just said, fuck it. We're not having a three point line. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah. We're not going to have one. So if Denver was like, we're not having one. We just think Joker, I don't know if they'd be the right example. The Bucks with Yannis a few years ago, whomever's. Like, we're not having one. And you're in their conference. You're like, we better have a better record than them.

Yeah. Because we can't beat them. If you're those step warriors, you're like, we can't beat them four out of seven with no threes. We can't. So it just makes things, the regular. season more important. It would be funny if Denver did it where they just, they had no corner

threes, and it was just a straight line 25 feet just for Jamal Murray because he likes that top of the three. So it was like the only decent shot. I like a lot of ideas. I like it just maybe being like a little circle. Like just one little spot, but go ahead. This is really the last one.

Because we've gone too long anyway. This is from Scott Turner. He's wondering when songs reach a certain point of cultural saturation, should they be banned for five years? Not bad songs, overplayed songs. Two great candidates. Don't stop believing in Sweet Caroline.

I like both songs, but we as a society, a society have abused them and wore them out. It's impossible to go to any kind of party or game without hearing them. How great would those songs sound if you just hadn't heard them for five years? I think the killers have hit this point, too, with Mr. Brightside. Oh, yeah. There's two. There's another one that they're playing in sporting events all the time now.

It's making me kind of feel like that killers are a little fucked out now. Also, don't stop believing in Sweet Caroline. Also have to, they either intentionally or unintentionally, if they are played in an event, send a signal, this event's for white people. Like if it's so like that. And again, I'm not saying there's not non-white people that don't love that song. Obviously, there are.

What I'm saying is that is a click, like it is, if that is the anthem of something. So sweet Carolina, you're saying is the whitest, whiteest song to the group. Yeah, it's pretty good. If you feel like this is going to like the, um, I would say actually Rocky Mountain High kind of kind of took the mantle in the World Cup. Maybe the royals briefly, uh, when I was there doing radio post college, um, did, uh, they played every day. game low places by Garth Brooks, like the Red Sox do Sweet Caroline. Yeah. And I was like, guys, this is not good for like our rep as a city.

Like we got to do better there. So I agree. I like your idea of the there or your emailers idea of, okay, we'll appreciate this more. I mean, there have been really bad songs that hit this. Let's give it a break. Let's give it a break. You let the dogs out hit this. It needed that 20 years ago.

There have been songs that hit the... Well, remember Outcast, Hey, just got beaten in the ground as bad as any song ever. Nelly Furtado's song? Oh, that was another one. There was a pink one. I'm coming out because you got to get this party started. Remember that I was in basketball for three straight years? Every NBA game.

But I'm worried about the killers. The killers should stand up for themselves a little bit. If anything from this podcast gets aggregated, I hope it's. just the two seconds of you singing. Me singing? That's fine. That's all I want. Listen, it's part of the deal when we do this stuff. Nick Wright, the what's what? Oh, go ahead. No, you're about to promote what's right with Nick right.

I appreciate that. But I will be thinking about you if Wednesday night looks like the last football game we saw. That would be concerning. There's a lot of ways to be very optimistic. Be more concerned about my starting cornerback who made the All-Pro team last year, who doesn't have a contract. It might just be like, I'm not playing tonight. If he doesn't play,

it's an all-time story. It's an all-time story if he doesn't play. This is such, it's an unforced error not on the level of the clippers just giving Uncle Dennis carplanch to send them crazy bills.

Nick Wright, the What's Right podcast, as well as first things first with half-cigarette smoker Kevin Wilds and Chris Brousard. He's going to be so mad what he hears this. Thanks, Bill. I can't wait.

Good to see you. Thank you. All right. That's it for the pod. to Nick Wright. Thanks to Eduardo and Gahau as well. I am not going to be back until Wednesday night live on Netflix right after the Patriots Seahawks game. We'll see what kind of condition I'm in, but I will see you on Wednesday night. Be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18

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