The Bill Simmons Podcast - May Mega-Mailbag: LeBron, LaVar, Harden, Pop, Dom, and More (Ep. 215)

Episode Date: May 19, 2017

Is LeBron a baby? Could Boston trade for Anthony Davis? Is James Harden the Peyton Manning of basketball? Are the Lakers really taking Lonzo? What should Chargers fans do? Why are dogs allowed on airplanes? Earl Woods vs. LaVar? Did karma injure Kawhi? Who is 2017's Jerome James? Was the Boogie trade good for the Kings? How tall is Dom? What's the opening scene of a Clippers 30 for 30? Where will CP3's Clips statue go? Is it OK for Pop to be mean? Is CT one of the greatest Boston athletes ever? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the BS Podcast brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor. I don't even remember how long it's been. Find the best tickets for round three NBA, before round three NBA ends, for round three hockey in the Stanley Cup Finals. Hopefully Ottawa's not involved. If Ottawa's involved, you might be able to find those tickets for cheap, cheap deals on SeatGeek. I have SeatGeek on my phone.

It is by far the easiest way to shop for the best tickets thanks to their revolutionary grading system. I've actually been looking at Dodgers tickets lately because I wanted to take my son to a game because he suddenly loves baseball, which I don't understand. But very easy. You just look at the colors. The darker the color is, the better it is for your tickets buy and sell in just two taps on your phone everything fully guaranteed try it out download the SeatGeek app today

or go right to SeatGeek we're also brought to you by a new book by our old friend Rafe Bartholomew it's called 2 and 2 McSorley's My Dad and Me a new memoir Rafe and I worked together at Grantland for the

entire four years that I was at Grantland he was one of the original OGs he wrote a lot of great stuff for us features boxing he was uh our features editor for almost the entire time and uh and he's a wonderful writer check out this book especially if you're from New York City I there's probably like a 90 chance you've been to McSorley's. So check it out. It's on Amazon. It's in bookstores everywhere. And it's really good. And you know me, I'm a sucker for father-son stuff. So anyway, Rafe's new book, it is called Two and Two, McSorley's, My Dad and Me. Check it out. Get it wherever you get your books. And finally, we were brought to you by Wilmore's new podcast, Black on the Air. He talked about Cosby at the beginning of the one.

Really good breakdown of why Cosby should just shut the hell up. And Trump's three degrees of lying. Larry Wilmore, Black on the Air. Subscribe now. Same for Cousin Sal, Against All Odds. Our cousin, Jimmy Kimmel, was on that podcast on Wednesday. Tate, you went and produced that? It was great.

In his office? Yes. Great times. Good times? Very funny. You were available? And chippy. Learned a lot about and chippy.

Okay, great. Check that out. Cousin Sal's against all odds. We're going to do a mailbag today. It's a May mailbag. We actually have a Cousin Sal question in the mailbag, but we have a lot of good stuff. There's so many things I want to cover that I just said,

screw it, decided not to have a guest. So the guest is myself, but Tate's going to chime in. We're going to do a mega May mailbag. Here we go. All right, let's do it. I'm going to rip through these. So I listened to the first couple times we did these.

And what I need to do is read the question and then say my answer. So you know that I'm done with the question. I'm actually answering it. But if you want to send any questions for this down the road, either for the written mailbag or the podcast mailbag, just send them to themailbagattheringer.com. That is not hard to remember. Themailbagateringer.com. That is not hard to remember. The mailbag at theringer.com. Before we get into this, I wanted to talk about, I went to Boston for game seven of the Washington series, which I discussed with Joe House.

I apologize for the terrible phone connection. My fault. I forgot to bring the equipment. I got a couple emails like, how do you guys not have better podcast equipment? And the reason is I forgot to bring it and made the mistake of thinking that my cell phone would be better than the hotel phone. And I just blew it. So my apologies, but I went to Boston. I was there for three and a half days. I brought all the good weather. Everybody was so happy. It was nice out, Tate. It was like you're walking around Charles River and people just couldn't run and bike fast enough.

They saw the sun. They're like, oh my God. People were half naked running around. It was like freedom. It was great. So you're welcome for bringing the great weather. So I went to the game seven on Monday night, which was spectacular.

Watched the lottery at my dad's house, and we won. And we were holding his new puppy, Winnie, who's like eight and a half weeks old. I was like, we got to get the puppy. She might be good luck. Win is in the title of her name. So we win the lottery. Then we go to game one. We're like, oh, this is great.

This is the greatest week ever. You're going three for three. You're two for two going for three for three at this point. Yeah. And then LeBron just kills us. Here's what I want to say to the Boston fans going tonight. I've never seen in my life anyone bitch for more calls than LeBron James does. He bitches four calls.

He bitches when fouls are called against him. He talks to the ref. He talks to the coaches. It's just a constant yap session which he has earned because he's the third best player of all time in my opinion but i would the crowd was the crowd really hates lebron the boston crowd like it's it's a real hatred it's respect mixed with like genuine uh dislike of just watching him be a baby for six to eight nine years however long it's been.

And everybody was so angry. It was almost like just people yelling different things. Nobody could galvanize behind one chant or whatever. Yes. It's easy. Just chant, you're a baby, Adam. When he starts whining, you're a baby, that's it. Just get it going because I don't think it's going to affect him

because he's like a robot. Well, he's already embraced it. He has that commercial because he's like a robot. Well, he's already embraced it. He has that commercial where he turns into a baby. Yeah, he loves it. So it will affect the refs. Yes. The refs are the key to this, not LeBron. LeBron's going to do his thing.

He loves the hate. He feeds off it. He learned from his Miami days. But the refs shouldn't be able to be more afraid of LeBron than 18,000 people. I agree. And the Boston fans have to affect the game tonight. They have to yell at LeBron. They have to yell at the refs.

Anyway, that's my advice. Just chant you're a baby, Adam. If you want to chant other stuff, come up with that stuff too. The Celtics fans have to mobilize tonight because the crowd could not figure out what to do. And the other thing is when Isaiah doesn't get going,

the crowd kind of, we can't win without Isaiah. It was like Isaiah and Horford were both one, I think they were both one for eight to start the game. So when you have that, it's like two for 16, you're two best players. That's tough. When he's passing up 12 footers, Isaiah, you know, he's in trouble.

All right, we're going to get to the mailbag. Here we go. Ryan from Brooklyn, New York asks, you are Danny Ainge. You have the number one pick. You want to trade it for a star. Which stars are worthy of trading this year's first round pick for?

My answer. So you'd have to be careful with somebody who has a chance to get out of his contract. So normally it's like, oh, Kevin Durant, let's trade it for him, but he's a free agent. So you got to rule out basically all the guys who can get out of his contract. So normally it's like, oh, Kevin Durant, let's trade a friend, but he's a free agent. So you got to rule out basically all the guys who can get out of their contracts in the next couple of years. I would not trade the pick for Jimmy Butler.

Wow. I'd rather keep it for this reason. I don't think they can win the title anyway for as long as LeBron's LeBron. I would rather see them try to sign Gordon Hayward, keep Fultz, It's a better asset. And just kind of build for the next five years versus like trading for Jimmy Butler, who we could sign two years from now when LeBron's, you know, two years older.

Was there buzz for Hayward in Boston? There's lots of Hayward buzz. Okay. That's good. That's what I expected, but I just didn't know people really wanted them that bad. The Stevens, like Titus covered it on our podcast the fact that stevens recruited him and he was like 5 11 and hayward grew and stuck with stevens like there's some loyalty it's amazing that mark titus thinks he's better than gordon hayward still to this day he absolutely thinks that and and he's wondering why the celt aren't pursuing him. So here's who I would trade the number one pick for.

I made a list. Anthony Davis, obviously. Jokic, Towns, Giannis. Ready for this one? Klay Thompson. Who got snubbed. Got snubbed from the All-NBA team. He feels like the fourth man.

Yeah. The odd man out. So maybe it's an option. And the more I'm thinking about it, probably Jimmy Butler. I wouldn't trade it for Paul George. The difference, the key thing with that pick is it's $7 million a year for that salary cap slap. Whereas Jimmy Butler makes like 20. Yeah.

So if you're actually, like Belichick wouldn't trade, whereas Jimmy Butler makes like 20. So if you're actually, like Belichick wouldn't trade it for Jimmy Butler. Belichick would say, no, this is great. I got a $7 million asset that I can groom into a star. And then a year from now, I'm gonna kick Isaiah to the curb and I'll move this guy in here. It's a good thing Belichick's not running the team.

But, you know, Jokic, Towns, Giannis, there's no way they get those guys for the number one pick. Davis, they would have to do, and I don't think New Orleans would even do this, but you'd have to do Jalen Brown,

this pick, the Brooklyn pick, and, you know, Jay Crowder, and something else. You'd have to go all in. Would the Pelicans even be good with those options?

Could they even make that work? This is a team that drafted Austin Rivers, number 10. No. I mean, if you're the Pelicans, you're keeping the day of it. That's why I think the Celtics are keeping the pick. The only thing I could see them doing, I think they're going to keep their cards close to the vest. We're not going to know who they want, what they want to do.

And they're hoping that somebody is going to do something stupid and make some crazy offer. And I think Philly is the team I keep looking at. So Philly's three. Yep. Philly moves up to one and they get Fultz or Lonzo. Probably Fultz. Yes.

You put Fultz with Ben Simmons and Embiid. That's like, that's it. That's it. If you keep Embiid andmons healthy that's you those are your three guys for the next 10 years and false doesn't need the ball in his hand so that that eliminates the whole problem of like who needs to hold the ball simmons simmons can have the ball faults can roam around hit threes stretch the floor it makes sense so if they love faults and i don't know if they do would you offer the number three pickich, who you don't need because you have Ben Simmons coming,

and next year's Lakers pick to move up two spots? Next year's Lakers pick might not be a great pick because who knows? They're going to try to get better this summer. They're not going to have it anyway. It's not like they're going to do something stupid like what Brooklyn did. And it takes the pressure off the Celtics, right? Be honest. If you disagree, tell me.

No, I'm just saying. Is that enough? Is that too much for that pick? I don't think it's too much. I just think that there is pressure on the Celtics right now to take Fultz because he's the unequivocally right, the best player, the number one guy that everyone thinks, which I'm not necessarily sold on that. I don't know if they are either yeah so if you so

basically if they could bait that situation where they they can sell that number one pick off to the sixers they get that they don't tell anyone what they're thinking yeah and then they get what josh jackson at three yeah and then tatum i think i think they like tatum. I mean, I like Tatum. They've always loved Duke guys. Yeah. So basically you turn that pick into Jason Tatum or Jackson, Sarich, and next year's Lakers pick. And so what does that lineup look like with that team?

Sarich at the four? Yeah, so basically you're replacing Amir Johnson with Sarich. That's an four. Yeah, so basically you're replacing Amir Johnson with Sarge. That's an upgrade. Yeah. You would, I think, trade Jay Crowder at that point if you do that trade. Which is fine. And do you have Gordon Hayward still in this scenario? You might.

So if you have Hayward, Sarge, Horford, Avery, Isaiah, that's your starting five? Yeah, something like that. That's not bad. It's pretty good. not bad it's pretty good yeah it's pretty good i gotta talk myself into that but what are the what does brian colangelo think do you think he's really sold on faults i see i don't think i think that they're thinking i think they take fox i think they're and they even if they even they may even try to trade back right because they're just like we could maybe get fox at five maybe they try to

trick the kings into moving up i think Fox doesn't go lower than three. Wow. Because he's going to work out for these teams, and they're going to freak out. They're going to be like, oh my God, this guy could be Westbrook. I'm a fan of Fox. Might be too high. Yeah, I think it's too high. I think he's perfect to the Kings at five.

That's what I see happening, but I don't want him to get stuck there. Did you see him wants to go there? No. I don't want him to get stuck there. Did you say he wants to go there? No. I don't want him to get stuck there out in Sacramento. The buzz is that he wants to go there and he's friends with Collie Stein. I don't know if I believe it because who the hell would want to go to Sacramento? All right, next one. From Mickey in New Brighton, Minnesota.

Was Harden's listless game six against the Spurs the worst performance ever by a star in a crucial playoff game. It reminded me of Pippen's migraine game, but he was an MVP candidate. It's way, way up there. And it goes on his NBA resume, and it's on the short list. Off the top of my head, Rick Barry in 1976, Western Finals. Warriors are the favorite to go back to the finals. They'd won the year before.

Gets in a fight in the first half i wrote about this in my book with ricky sobers who just starts punching him at half court both of them stayed in the game by the way because this was 40 plus years ago and what the warriors didn't really defend rick barry because they didn't like him yeah so at halftime he saw apparently he saw the replay of what happened and he noticed they didn't defend him so in the second half he comes out he just doesn't shoot and he's just doing these really angry crisp passes and just doesn't shoot for like a quarter yeah and i know it because i got the tape from the nba and i watched this and it's crazy and and they lose this game to phoenix who never should have beaten them and they're home yeah so that's up there for me the Pippen migraine game I went to those LeBron 2011 finals games in Dallas especially four and five and he was so far in his own head it was like a meltdown I think you gotta look at that in LeBron

uh game five 2010 against the Celtics are the two where it's like he melted down I was thinking the Delonte West that's the that. Yeah, the Delonte West season. We'll leave it at that. And then, you know, Kobe gets off the hook because he was good in the fourth quarter at game seven, 2010. But because he started crashing the boards,

he got some calls. But that really would have been the all-timer if they lost that game. Yes. Because at one point he was like three for 19 or something. He was just single-handedly shooting them out of the title, and it would have completely changed his –

Yeah, well, everyone's like, this is the Kobe ball hog. He has four rings. He completely lost it by going back to – he reverted back to his own problem. Yeah, he couldn't handle it. Yeah. Next question. I have to think about that one more. I have to comb through history

and see if there are any other just complete meltdowns. I will say the Harden thing. This next question is now a fair question from Bakir Mertza. I hope that's the correct pronunciation. Is James Harden the Peyton Manning of basketball? Big stats. pronunciation is james hart in the pit manning of basketball big stats um a storied history of not doing well in the playoffs 2012 finals he was terrible 2013 against okc didn't do great even

back to college at arizona state it was the same thing that was the wrap yeah when he got to the ncaa tournament it kind of looked like he was already one foot out the door. Herb Sendak was like, what are you doing, James? Can you help me out? 2015 Clippers game six. He's so bad that they just take him out and he sits on the bench with a towel over his head. And Josh Smith and Corey Brewer bring him back. A real champion, Corey Brewer. Yeah.

Brings him on. It's a little early to call him the Peyton of basketball, but it's certainly in play. Now here's where the Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning has two Super Bowls. I think that's like giving some credit to Harden even to give him that yet. Yeah, probably is. He is putting up big stats.

Alan from Alabama asks, how many years until we look back on the extinct position of Coach GM and all realize how idiotic an idea that was. I think we're here. I think we're here right now with Stan Van Gundy and Doc Rivers. You know, once upon a time, like the Red Auerbach days,

he was Coach GM, traveling secretary, trainer. He did everything. And then eventually teams realized, well, this is stupid. But we had player coaches and through Dave Cowens in 1979. In my opinion, I think a player coach makes more sense than a coach GM. A GM is its own job.

You shouldn't have any other job than being a GM. Player coach. It's like, could LeBron coach the Cavs conceivably with just a bunch of assistants? Like, yeah, probably. I think he already does that. I was there the other day and it seemed like he was coaching the Cav tyloo is kind of pointing at people a couple times tyloo just has to act like he's doing something at all times right so he has a job so i i mean my guess the owners especially in the nba because it's young money coming in the owners keep getting smarter

and smarter i can't imagine i can't imagine this is going to continue. You just look at like, somebody's got to do a piece of like, here are the last nine times somebody's tried to run and coach an NBA team. I guarantee it would not be good. Slink. That's his name.

He didn't even give a city. He said- Like a slinky? Slink. That's his name. I'm watching Black Hat and Chris Hmsworth's accent is the only thing i can pay attention to not sure what he was going for other than quote

american unquote it's like someone is doing an impression of someone doing a fake american accent it has to be one of the top 10 worst movie accents ever why didn't they just make him be from australia i saw this movie in the theater with Chris Ryan. And that was what we left the theater asking. Why not just make him Australian? Why can't he be an Australian hacker? Why was he talking like this? He was doing like a slice alone.

And it really sidetracked the movie. What's crazy is it was on, I think, FX or TNT. I was flipping channels last weekend and said, Black Hat director's cut. There's a director's cut of black hat? Do you think it's just them just making sure he stays with his accent at all times, just yelling back at him? If there's a director's cut, they should have CGI'd his old accent back. That was terrible.

Adam M. asks, what are the chances LeBron Sr. plays seven to eight more years, waiting for his one-and-done son to enter the draft, then pull some GM LeBron shit to make sure they draft LeBron Jr., and then they obliterate the league as the first father-son NBA duo? So this cannot be ruled out because I went to a game on Wednesday night, and LeBron is in his 14th season and has played 50,000 minutes, and he played the entire game. He came out for two minutes in the first half, played the whole second half and came out

with like a minute left. And I'm sitting there going, this is, I don't even understand how this is physically possible. So I think he could play until he's 50 and LeBron, senior and junior, I would say if I gave you 10 to one odds, would you put $100 on that? Yeah, I could see it. I mean, that's sort of how his mind works. And I think the Miami move, like, he preserved his career. Like, everyone thought that was such a ring-chasing, wants to grow up.

But it was genius because he could defer at times, and now it's elongated his whole career. It's like now he can stretch out his prime because he didn't have to kill himself to make sure he had to get there, which was, that just shows he's making chess moves. I think it was that and only that that's elongated his career.

Just that. Tim wonders, couldn't the Celtics shop Lonzo around and see what the highest offers are, then tell the Lakers they're selling the number one pick, comma, Lonzo Ball, comma,

until the Lakers trade up to one and send the Celtics an asset. Great theory on paper. I am not convinced the Lakers are taking Lonzo Ball. I don't think we have any evidence other than Lonzo Ball's crazy dad repeatedly saying how he's playing for the Lakers and the fact that he's a fun passer

like Magic Johnson was and he went to UCLA. So you have these three peripheral reasons, but we have no actual evidence the Lakers want to take him. They already have a point guard. Two years ago, they spent the number two pick on a point guard. We have no signs at all that they want to take Lonzo Ball. And we're not even sure he's the second best player in the draft.

And his dad has been a crazy person. And they celebrated the pick on the local news. I watched the local news here in California and they showed the video of the Ball family and them doing that celebration. I just think that's bad. That's bad karma. You can't do that. You can't celebrate before it's already happened. You can't just celebrate the pick being there and expect yourself to be taking it too. I mean, what they really should do is flip picks with Sacramento. Oh, drop back to five? Drop back to five and make Sacramento take the Dang contract.

Make them take some bad contracts. At five, they're going to get somebody good anyway. But cut some of the cash. Rudy Gay would call Luau Dang and just be like, I'm so sorry, man. I'm so, so sorry. Don't try to squash the trade. I'm not sold on them taking Lonzo. think it'd be really fun if i mean if for nba fans it's the most fun if they take lonzo it's the it's the biggest uh sideshow whatever how how long how long is the podcast

right now over 20 minutes 21 minutes let's talk about our friends at zip recruiter i i can't top the uh the read that jimmy kimmel did for zipruiter. I can't top the read that Jimmy Kimmel did for ZipRecruiter on Cousin Sal's against the Lots pod. It was really, it showed the difference between the true professionals and people like us. Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates?

Well, posting your job in one place isn't enough anymore. With the perfect hire, you need to post your job on all the top job sites, and now you can. ZipRecruiter.com. Post your job to 100 plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. In fact, over 80% of jobs posted on ZipRecruiter get a qualified candidate in just 24 hours. No juggling emails or calls to your office. Simply screen rate and manage candidates

all in one place with ZipRecruiter's easy toto-use dashboard. It is easy. I did check it out. I like easy-to-use dashboards. No juggling emails or calls to your office. Quickly screen candidates. Rate them. Hire the right person fast. Find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by over one million businesses and has been featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The New York Times, TechCrunch,

and CBS. Right now, my listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free by going to ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. All right. Before we get back to the mailbag, I wanted to mention we're putting up this piece today on The Ringer. It's a game we like to play for Upfronts where we create shows. And it's a salary cap. And you have to create the show within $50 of this fake salary cap

that Sam Shuby made up. You know Sam Shuby. Big fan of Shuby. Yeah. The oldest 27-year-old in America. Yeah. Just always holding it down. But he easily could pass for a 47-year-old.

He's a weathered soul. He's an old easily could pass for a 47-year-old. Just say he's a weathered soul. He's an old soul. He's a wise man. Wise man. So he did this salary cap game, and I came up with a fake show, and I'm going to read it right now. It's called Chicago Juice. Okay. Have you heard this?

No. Okay, good. Is Tupac in it? No. Or is it Hologram? Chicago Juice, the latest spinoff series from Dick Wolf. You know how they have all those Chicago shows? Yes.

Adam Driver and Jay Pharoah are lifelong buddies from Chicago who moved to LA to become actors after college. Neither of them caught their big break, so they had to work at Creation. You know Creation? Yeah. It's like that gluten-free, organic juice place. It's a juice place, yeah. It's a juice, it's a juice but

they have like salad wrap sandwiches and healthy salad salads with fake chicken yes so they start working there to cover their rent rent they become gluten-free health freaks yeah they just they they buy into the lifestyle now they're moving back home because their acting has failed to open their own creation franchise in downtown chicago where they quickly become outcasts in the land of deep dish pizza, heavy beer and two pound Wrigley Field hot dogs. They have nothing in common with their friends anymore. In the first episode, Driver's character gets knocked unconscious at a Cubs game after telling an overweight Cubs fan that he should stop eating bread. Goes to the hospital. An adorable resident doctor, played by Nina Dobrev, treats him and happens to be the only other

gluten-free person in Chicago. See, really, nobody's gluten-free in Chicago. She starts moonlighting at the creation store. She has a little chemistry with both guys. You don't know which way she's going. Every episode is filled with gluten-free shaming and someone trying to either

rob their store set it on fire outright trying to shoot either driver or pharaoh think two guys a girl in a gluten-free pizza place crossed with chicago pd with extra turmeric chicago juice that was coming this fall coming this fall if you want to read everybody else's fake shows go to the ringer.com i was really excited about Chicago Juice. I think it has a chance. Wesley Maddox writes, Here's my crazy theory on how the C's can exploit their home court advantage. LeBron isn't going to be intimidated by any hostile road crowd.

But couldn't he be psyched out by an extremely over-the-top supportive crowd? What if they cheered every time he touched the ball and chanted MVP at the free throw line? Cheered whenever he brought the ball up. And just a whole bunch of LeBron love the whole game without throwing him off. I say no. I think LeBron's immune to the crowd.

I think they should just show the 2010. They should just show the highlights of LeBron choking in the garden. And they should just throw it up on the big board. Everyone cheer at that. Obviously, it'll make him mad, but it also will get in his head. Because he's like, oh man, I do remember those moments. Or show the 2011 finals. Yeah, you're right.

Just show moments of LeBron's career that didn't go well. Show 2007 finals. Just show Tim Duncan. Just zoom in on him. Getting rebounds over LeBron in the finals. That's a good idea. Yeah, that's what they need. Do you know what they do, the Celtics?

LeBron, anytime he commits a foul, he looks up at the Jumbotron. Yes. So the Celtics never show the replay, which drives them crazy. So when he's looking up, they should just show the 2011 finals. Yes, anything to get in his head. Yeah. Zach Taylor asks, with Harden and Westbrook having great regular seasons but not being able to get it done in the postseason, who are the best players that have never won at all? My answer.

I came up with a starting five and a second five. Center, Patrick Ewing. Forwards, Elgin Baylor, Carl Malone. Guards, John Stockton, George Gerben. Ooh. Second team, Charles Barkley, Nate Thurman, Dominique Wilkins, Steve Nash, Chris Paul. I like that. I will say I like Dominique on the first team.

So you'd bump Elgin or Mailman? No, I'd bump Gerben and put Dominique there. I'm not playing three forwards. Yeah, come on. Don't try to do weird positions. I'm positionless basketball these days. No, I'm not positionless basketball with my fake teams. Joel in Jerusalem. How about

that for Joel in Jerusalem? Keep emailing us, Joel. Great alliteration. I was a Chargers fan until effing Spanos moved them and now I hate them. I need to find a new team. Can you help me? So I've gotten this question a few times actually, including Dakota, who's working for the Ringer now. He's a Chargers fan who has dumped the Chargers

and is trying to figure out what to do. I think it's really hard to just start rooting for a new team. You can do it like if you move to Nashville and everybody's Predators crazy and you start going to a couple games, like, ah, I kind of like the Predators. I don't think you could just go, I'm a Chargers fan. Now a now i'm a panthers fan i'm gonna root for cam newton now that's just weird to me i also don't like that because the chargers when they came here like philip rivers

and all those guys i feel like they've been really you know they've they've been active and vocal to say we still love san diego yeah we didn't want to leave we we we wish that we could play for those fans. So why are they turning on them? Phillip Rivers... He would have Phillip Rivers do it. All he did is have kids. Phillip Rivers is like, I just want to play football, and I wish I was still in San Diego. It's a lot nicer. It's less traffic. They're all traumatized.

Yeah. So why do they lose their fans? I'm with you. And Joey Bosa was excited, and Phillip Rivers told him he couldn't comment on it. He was like, he was only there for one year. He can't comment on San Diego. Here's my advice. If you're really looking for a new team, of course it involves gambling

because I have a gambling problem. Pick a team, pick an over-under, win total, and just bet on that team and ride that team and then also put a bet on them for the Super Bowl. So bet the Tennessee Titans. Bet on their over and just every year adopt a team and root for the super bowl so bet you know bet the tennessee titans bet on their over and bet and just every year adopt a team and root for that team and have a financial incentive i would do that over just randomly i think that's the nfl's dream too because then they don't have

to worry about like you know catering to fans perfect roger goodell's like that's great daniel and austin writes i read your tweet making fun of emotional support dogs on airplanes to my wife, and she's ready to vote for you to be our next president after Trump gets impeached. So I flew to Boston on Monday morning, and this family was on my plane, and they had two 75-pound chocolate labs that were, quote-unquote, emotional support dogs. This was a very normal adult couple. Yes. Seemed totally fine. Actually seemed like a little

on the wealthy side with like a four-year-old kid who was nothing wrong with the kid and here's why i tweeted that because people are like how do how dare you emotional support like some people need those dogs i'm not saying like some people don't need those dogs i'm saying anybody on the planet can go get an emotional support dog license you just just got to go on the internet. There's been all these stories. Go read them. It takes five minutes to go create some fake excuse to get your fake dog. And why people are doing this is they're trying to save money either on shipping the dog or if you go away for three weeks and you have to hire a house sitter to walk your dog.

This is amazing. I had no idea these were real problems. Yeah, this is a real problem. these people had to fly to boston they had these two 75 pound chocolate labs in the in the in the bunker where do the dogs sit i don't understand it it's just it's crazy to me that two years from now i'm not going to be able to bring my laptop on an airplane but i could bring all three of my dogs all i have to do is get a license from from some random internet site that i have emotional problems and i need my three dogs with me at all time what kind of country are we creating tate well do you have to pet the dog a certain amount of times for it to qualify you have to

look like give me a break all right listen i nobody loves dogs more than me. I have three dogs. We just adopted a third dog, Willie, who wakes me up every morning by biting me in the head. I love dogs, but we can't break the rules with dogs. Don't exploit the system. Don't exploit the system. Don't ruin it for us. Don't ruin it for the people that actually need an emotional support dog

because they're blind and they need to bring a dog on a plane because they can't see not not just because you didn't want to pay for a house sitter for three weeks you guys are the worst matt colorado asks in your isaiah lebron column you mentioned the inevitable trilogy shouldn't it be called the three match my answer no i like the trilogy three matches matches, kind of fun, but not really. Snatch from America. So far, we've had a snatch and a slink. I don't know what's going on with these emails. I thought it was the movie Snatch that you were going to ask.

I was like, wow, what a random person. Snatch in Marin County. Let's say Trump shut down the NBA because he thought the acronym was too similar to the NRA. New league started next season. The entire NBA players and coaches went into a draft. One season, 20 teams, 60 games. New league started next season. The entire NBA players and coaches went into a draft. One season, 20 teams, 60 games. Eight teams make the playoffs.

It's a great idea. The championship team wins $1 billion to split between players and coaches. I still like this idea. How many players would get drafted before Popovich gets picked? My answer. I don't think he goes in the top 15

Popovich doesn't go in the top 15 no wow but I think around 16 to 20 because at that point you're like I don't have a superstar

I'm gonna build a team he's a mid first rounder you know who he is you know but I think he goes four spots higher than that I think somebody it's like fantasy

somebody just like when Grock goes nine picks too early somebody just jumps on him early and grabs him taylor from pachogue i think i said that right wonders multiple times over the last couple weeks you've claimed it is the most popular celtic since larry bird i think paul pierce would like a word with you don't be a prisoner in the moment the truth shall set you free my answer paul pierce was never as popular as isaiah thomas's people love paul pierce it ended really great it's it's the cherry and the

hot fudge sunday of just the guy who stayed with the team for a long time he got the number one pick this year got the number one pick it's great he was there the first couple years. After they made the playoffs, 02 to 05, he got very strange. And I think there were some residue effects of when he got stabbed and maybe hanging around with the wrong people. And it reached a point where in 05, there was like, should we trade him?

He had a meltdown in the Indiana series and people wanted to trade him and Danny tried to trade him for Chris Paul. And then he had two nondescript years, lottery year. KG shows up. KG was the most popular person on that Celtic team. I hate to break it down. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

I feel like he kind of took his- I love Paul Pierce. I just want to say, none of this reflects my feelings on Paul Pierce. I'm just saying what people, like there were more KG jerseys in the stands during that time. Then that five-year run ends and then he gets traded.

And now people are very nostalgic. He was a great Celtic, all that stuff. Isaiah's on another level. I mean, Isaiah's like any kid under 13 has an Isaiah jersey. The crowd feeds off him in a way they never fed off Paul Pierce. And I don't think it's close.

I think it's the parallel for me is more like ortiz when ortiz started to take off with the red socks in 04 um cameron and austin wonders the fact that kawaii was injured on the bruce bowen special is pretty damn funny you gotta admit right my answer is it's not funny but i do think that i don't know if pop should have gotten as self-righteous as he did about it when Bowen made a career out of doing that. Yeah. Because you employed that guy on your team. You never intervened when he did that stuff.

And he was the dirtiest player of the century so far. He kicked someone one time. He was just flat out dirty yeah and part of what he tried to do was put it in the shooter's head like when i take a jump shot this guy might go under my feet that's not what zaza did zaza is a big i i don't know whether he meant to do it or not he probably did it felt like it was intentional but he didn't he hasn't made a career of like when you shoot a jumper i'm gonna jump under under your feet which is what Bruce Bowen that was part of his calling card.

Yeah. So I'm a big karma guy. I just think it's interesting that their best guy got knocked out on and Bruce Bowen. And Kawhi questionable for game three tonight. Officially questionable. I love Kawhi.

I mean why did it have to be Kawhi? Couldn't it have happened to another Spur? I wanted to watch Kawhi try to beat the Warriors by himself. Tim from Woodridge, New Jersey asks, if Castaway really happened, there's no way Chuck and Kelly don't eventually wind up together. In 2010, when it came out, Chuck just goes on his own way.

They never see each other again. Ten years later, they're both on Facebook. They wind up connecting and getting together after Kelly's inevitable divorce. My answer is that's the plot of Castaway 2. But the problem is Chuck at that point has gone to a really dark sexual place with putting volleyball masks on girls' heads. Yeah. He can only get an erection if you have a volleyball mask on your head.

Wow. Yeah. So she's got to work with it. Yeah. It's much darker. Castaway 2 is much darker. Johnny in Minnesota wonders, does the Nets Celtics trade officially top Hershel Walker as the most ill-considered of all time right now?

We've been waiting for a long time for somebody to take that mantle. It was not ill-considered when it happened. The trade made sense. They were dumping, for them, they were dumping Gerald Wallace, three years, 30 million. They were giving up three picks that they didn't think were gonna be in the lottery,

and they were getting Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. They already had Joe Johnson, Darren Williams, and Brooke Lopez, and we all thought that that team was a championship contender. They didn't know KG was luggage. They didn't know that Darren Williams was just going to come out of shape and not give a shit. Now he looks like a middle linebacker.

Spent two months with LeBron. Yeah, he's in great shape now. Best shape I've seen him in. Unbelievable shape now. It's the Versa climber. LeBron introduced him to the Versa climber. And now he's in great shape. Yeah, whatever the kids call it these days.

It's the Versa climber. It's a great great great machine we got to get one for the ringer but um but you know the big mistake they made was the pick swap yeah because that got thrown in at the last second and the reason they do it is like well we're going to be better than boston four years ago you don't know that you're already giving them three first round picks. My only thing that people should remember about that trade is the price to dump salaries because the cap was much lower. If you wanted to dump salary, the price was two first round picks. The Warriors dumped B. Adrians and Richard Jefferson and two first round picks to Utah. So that established a market for if you want to get rid of a terrible contract it's

two first rounders yep so i had to get rid of the two of them the third one is worth it for pearson garnett i don't understand why they did the pick swap that's a duke grad billy king just coming in uh trying to make it happen so then yeah duke grad and then uh the other problem with that is you know the picks didn't have to be this bad. They didn't have to buy out Darren Williams and Joe Johnson last year. Like, the Celtics shouldn't have gotten the third pick last year. They should have kept Darren Williams and Joe Johnson. They're paying Darren Williams anyway.

Lopez is there still. They're paying him. They bought him out for like $35 million. Why are you buying out players when you don't have a pick? Yeah. Make him play. Make the guy retire. Isn't this just a way to make sure that Prokhorov is always remembered like in the lineage of

NBA history when it comes down to it? He's the worst. One of the worst owners of all time. Let's talk about SimpliSafe. Man, we haven't talked about these guys in a while. I love SimpliSafe. Our longtime buddies, when you order SimpliSafe home security system online, you're taking the first easy step in protecting your home and family entry sensors motion sensors glass break sensors your

home will become a burglar's worst nightmare setup takes under an hour simply safe comes pre-programmed to work out of the box plug in the base station it'll talk you through the whole process even someone who isn't the slightest bit handy can install it and the entire system is wireless no need to drill holes in your walls or do other permanent damage once you're set up simply safe makes it just as easy to stay protected month to month no long-term contracts no hidden fees $14.99 a month for 24-7 professional monitoring and emergency dispatch service don't wait another day to take your home safety into your own hands. SimpliSafe is even offering my listeners 10% off your home security system

when you go to SimpliSafe, BS.com. Tate, like three years from now when you're really raking it in. But you're not, you have like your first house, your starter house. You're on ESPN2. You're like arguing with Bill Monte Jones. His show's been canceled but now he's with you he's making a comeback and uh so if your starter house you'll have your simply safe yeah that'd be good i hope they're

still with me at this point yeah simply safe be like you know what i'm just gonna get i need an alarm system my old friends at simply safe i'm getting it right here. SimpliSafe with two I's. Get 10% off. Protect your family the smartest way. SimpliSafe. BS.com. Alright. This is a big one. From Jamie in Toronto.

If Tiger came up in the age of social media, would Earl Woods have been the golf version of LeVar Ball? Earl once actually said the words tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity pretty bold right is there all the closest we have to lavar in terms of overbearing fathers to up-and-coming athletes i think it's a fair comparison my answer yes i mean he's like earl woods in the social media slash 24-7 sports talk age yeah i don't think a little crazy i don't think people could have handled earl woods in today's world oh he

would they would have gotten him with the whistles on the course following tiger around at school blowing whistles like so he would never be affected by i mean he was actually all up in his business like i think laar actually probably means well. Like, he has more well-meaning and goodwill towards his kids. Like, Earl Woods was trying to build an actual, like, superstar that was almost not even a human. He was trying to build, like, Jack Nicklaus crossed with Gandhi. Yes. Like, untouchable.

He was trying to heal all racism in America with his son. I tweeted about this a little bit this week. I have a real problem with the LeVar Ball, like ESPN and Fox just putting him on over and over again, hoping he says something dumb so they can get content out of it. I saw an awful announcing. They had all the times LeVar Ball

has been on one of their platforms in 2017. Care to guess how many times? I'm going to say 21. Oh, that's high. I feel like I've seen him everywhere. He's been on FS1 eight times. Wow. And he went on podcasts and or other platforms for them five times.

And they've tweeted about him over 100 hundred times so just keep having him on and i gotta be honest like you know they kill him when he's on that show including christine leahy who's from boston so i'm not saying anything bad about her but she did kill him on that show he watches the show he watches all the shows he tapes all the shows and just fast forwards until they talk about him he sees the show he watches all the shows he tapes all the shows and just fast forwards until they talk about him until he sees the name lavar ball so he's seen everything she trashed his parenting yes she trashed his shoe plan all that stuff was just a hater which was his point was you're a hater and he flipped the line on her because she said that lonzo was scared of him and he was like i'm scared of you so that's how that's how he like

right that's how informed he was on the conversation going into it. And his attitude was, I'm here to talk to Colin Coward. You're sitting 50 feet behind me. Which is weird anyway. Which is like, that's a problem with your set. You're not treated as an equal on this set. I'm just looking at Colin Coward. Why are you talking?

You hate me. And then said it badly and came off like an ass. I'm not defending like what he said, but he was then said it badly and came off like an ass. I'm not defending what he said, but he was put in a position to come off like an ass, and then they get three days of content out of it. Yeah, it's still going on. People are still talking about it. And she's on the next show talking about it.

It's like, oh, at 5.30, I'll be on talking about my conflict with LeVar Ball. It's like, yeah, of course LeVar Ball's going to get into it with your show. I thought that was ridiculous. And it's just a microcosm of how these shows work now. Bring the person on. I got in trouble.

I got suspended from Twitter when I was at ESPN, which I thought was hilarious because Richard Sherman went on Skip Bayless' show. Yes, I remember this. They promoted it. They're going head to head. They're going to fight, all this stuff. And they come on, and Richard Sherman was terrible to Skip. He was actually to fight. All this stuff. And they come out. And Richard Sherman was terrible to Skip. He was actually kind of mean.

And it wasn't fun. He didn't even let him talk. He was like, I'm coming at you, Skip. I'm coming at you. Yeah, but it wasn't fun. No, no, no. It was an attack. It was a plane attack.

It was mean-spirited. And my whole attitude watching it was. And at that point, I'm team ESPN, right? I'm doing Grantland. i'm doing 30 for 30 like i'm actually really care about us doing good stuff and i'm like how is this on our network why are we promoting somebody coming on and embarrassing somebody who's on one of our television shows and i tweeted something about it and then i tweeted that it was embarrassing for everybody involved and then espn's like you're suspended from Twitter for two weeks.

We can't have you questioning this horrendous programming choice we made because that's causing a bigger shitstorm. I'm like, what about the shitstorm itself? Why are you mad at me? I just want to do good work. Yeah. Anyway. Do you think the Lakers, I just want to ask, do you think Palenka, Magic,

they're obviously seeing all this LeVar stuff. in LA FS1 Fox Sports is around it bounces around people see it on TV when they see all this stuff do you think it affects them because I don't think magic I think magic stays in his happy bubble on a lot of the stuff and like sees Lonzo as the player is that he is but I think Palenka I feel like he has a better feel for like he is a yeah he has a bigger picture kind of angle to see what this will actually impact and what he's going to have to deal with. Because if they don't take Lonzo too, say they take Josh Jackson, I don't know what happens then because people are going to lose their shit,

especially LeVar. They'd have to condition people over the course of a month. It can't be like a sneak attack on the day of the draft. They don't take him. But I'll tell you this. But what do they owe to the Ball family? They owe nothing. They don't have to take Lonzo.

I know. It's ridiculous. That's what I'm so confused where everyone's already like preconditioned to believe that he is going. Even he is. We covered that earlier though. There's no actual evidence that they're going to take Lonzo Ball. It's all like material stuff.

I'll tell you this. Magic does not care about any of this shit. He doesn't. He has somebody who does his tweets for him. He texts the person what to say. He doesn't go on his Twitter. He doesn't read his replies. When he was, after I did content with him the first year,

he was away and his guy was away. And his agent, Lon Rosen, emailed me asking to do three tweets for Magic after Dwight Howard left. You should have tweeted some Boston stuff from his account. No, no. I did it from my account. Okay. So I set it up like, hey, Magic has to do these tweets.

So when they call me, I'm like, oh, man, Magic's really going to go in on Dwight Howard. And the tweets were like, good luck to Dwight Howard in Houston. And they were all like these generic tweets. I'm like, he's on a vacation. He needs me to do this. Dwight Howard is a great rebounder. The Lakers will be fine. I'm like, okay, I'll do that one.

Is it a bad sign for the Celtics? This is from Austin in Watertown, New York. Is it a bad sign for the Celtics that their second best offensive player is a ponytail-wearing Canadian with a pube beard? Pube beard. I've never heard that one before uh my answer it's a terrible sign it's one of the number one reasons that uh they're not gonna win this series Daniel H writes can cousin Sal's god-awful gambling karma save our country

Trump serving a whole term is plus 120 if Sal throws his bad gambling karma and some dollars on it, I think Trump gets impeached by next Tuesday. Also, if Sal saves our country, I think his gambling karma would make drastic improvements. My answer, I asked Sal about this. I was like, maybe you need to do this. He'd already bet on Trump not serving a full term. So we're screwed.

We're getting eight years of trip, basically. Cousin Sal made that happen. Oh, man. This is a good one from Jordan, a suffering Kings fan from PA. Kings fans don't even write long suffering. They're just like, I'm suffering. I'm in pain right now. I'm hurt.

Please help. Send first aid. With Boogie in the fold, it's highly likely the Kings would have finished in the bottom 10 and their late lottery pick would have gone to Chicago as a result of that game-changing J.J. Hickson trade from 2011. Good point there. Also allowed Scott Labasse to get playing time. He showed signs of potentially being the steal of the 2016 draft.

Knowing all this and knowing how it played out, would the Kings rather have DeMarcus Cousins or Buddy Heald, pick number five, pick number 10, and pick number 34, and a better Sky Labassia, do we all

owe the flying V's Vivek and Vlad? That's a funny nickname. I'm an apology. I think that trade worked out pretty well for them. Yeah, I think it was great. The problem was the way they handled it was terrible. That they didn't wait until the deadline to trade them was terrible. That they did it so abruptly.

It was more how it was handled than the concept of the trade itself. Because it's a good point. If they had boogie, they would have lost their pick. And the Vlade concession that he had better deals on the table. because it's a good point. If they had Boogie, they would have lost their pick. And the Vlade concession that he had better deals on the table was just him saying that. That can be true. Yeah, you don't have to say that to the people because then people are like,

oh, these guys really don't know what they're doing. So even if it does work out that this is great, they already admitted that they didn't know that that was going to happen. So they can't even take credit for it. It was a... Buddy looked good, though. And Scal's going to happen. So they can't even take credit for it. It was... Buddy looked good, though. And Scal's going to be good, I think.

Listen, if they end up with Darren Fox, Buddy Heald, Laurie Markkinen... Rudy Gay's out. Caleb Swanigan. Scal. Scal Labossiere. Yeah. Buddy Heald.

I don't know. I think I'd rather have that than Boogie leaving in a year. Right? Yeah. And plus, you know, Boogie's a lot. So, Tate, we're doing some stuff with the NBA award show that's going to be on TNT. Yep. Monday night, June 26th, live from New York City.

Hosted by Drake. Begins at 9 o'clock. The whole inside the NBA crew will be there. All the all-NBA awards, some of which I voted for, are available, and they're also doing some fan awards too, like Best Dunk, things like that. Yeah, Assist of the Year, all that kind of stuff.

They're announcing the All-Rookie Team, Most Valuable Player, all that stuff. Good times. Oh, the fan awards are Best Style Block of the Year Game Winner, Assist, Dunk, Performance of the Year. So we thought we would help them out

by coming up with some fake awards that didn't make the cut on this podcast over the next few weeks. We're gonna have little spots in here where we come up with a fake award. This fake award is brought to us by Tyler from Lulongwe Malawi, M-A-L-A-W-I, where's that? Malawi? Yeah, I didn't get my-W-I. Where's that? Malawi?

Yeah. I didn't get my geography degree from Carolina. I'm sorry. Tyler. All right. We'll just call him Tyler. After his Game 7 performance against the Wizards, Kelly Olenek has to have the lead in the Tyronn Lue Memorial

Overplayed Player for One Player Performance Award, right? Is there anyone else that has a better shot of getting three years and $55 million from Phil Jackson than the Knicks? First of of all that's not called the tyron lillard award that's called the jerome james award in 2005 jerome james on seattle when seattle's making their little playoff run he was this overweight center who stayed in shape for two months played well and then as it was happening i was joking in my column on page two at the time that Isaiah was going to sign him to a stupid contract and how funny it was going to be. The summer comes, the Knicks signed Jerome James to a terrible contract, like $30 million

for four years, something awful. And then he started eating again and it was a terrible idea. He had millions of dollars to spend on food, which is never good. So the Jerome James Memorial Contract, I think Kelly's in the lead. Kelly won game seven. It's the Kelly Olenek game. I will never get over watching that happen

and how hilarious it was at the time. How about being a Washington fan? You can't even be mad. The whole Wizards team wasn't even mad. They just were like, I can't believe this is happening. So our first NBA award that actually won't be on the show on TNT on June 26th is the Jerome James Memorial playoff performance.

I earned myself $40 million extra award. It goes to Kelly Olenek. Nice. Matt Giesemann asks, if LeBron loses in the finals and mysteriously retires the next day, where does Larry Bird rank on the all-time forwards list against him? LeBron already passed Larry Bird.

I hate to break it to myself and all other Celtics fans. 14 straight years of this is just more impressive than what Bird did. Four MVPs, one less title, incredible durability. It's not a contest anymore. I hate to say it.

Danny from Chicago wonders, you often talk about how Chris Paul would not be fun to play with because he is such an asshole. On the flip side, arguably the least serious player of this generation, Dwight Howard is perhaps the most disliked NBA superstar ever. So what is the ideal temperament fored NBA superstar ever so what is the ideal temperament for a star LeBron is the best player of this era who you'd also want to play with in a

playoff game yet he's still criticized for being too passive and for bitching at his teammates maybe you just can't win I think you can win his name was Tim Duncan yeah exactly and and maybe possibly Kawhi is building on that same foundation. Tim Duncan. Just study Tim Duncan's career for 20 years. That's how we want our teammates to ask. Matthew from Sydney, Australia wonders, when's the next trade value column? We've waited two years. People need to know who you'd rather trade for,

the Brow or Giannis. You're going to have to wait for the trade value column. It's a good one. Giannis is in the conversation. Which is amazing. Matt from Buffalo, New York says, In Fast 8, remember the scene where Mr. Nobody is bringing the team together to explain who Cypher is? Cypher was played by a Charlize Theron.

Yes. They showed Dom's file on a screen. It lists his height at 6'1". Is this the largest misrepresentation of height you've ever seen? I used to laugh at 6'4 Charles Barkley being listed at 6'8", but that's nothing compared to Dom's Interpol file. My answer.

I think that is the most... Isaiah being listed at 5'9 is pretty funny because he's 5'7. But Vin Diesel being 6'1 is pretty good. Do you think that they asked him what he should be listed at? Is that 6'1? 6'1. 6'1"? 6'1". 6'1". I'm like six feet and three-fourths, but you put me down for 6'1".

Okay. Okay, Vin Diesel. James from Hartford. This is a good one, actually. Do we really need a 16-team NBA playoff field? Since the Knicks were the eighth seed and made the 1999 finals in a lockout season, no team seeded fifth through eight has made the finals, and only one made the 1999 finals in a lockout season. No team seated fifth through eight has made the finals and only one made a conference finals.

Fifth seed Memphis in 2013 who got swept by San Antonio. So James says in an 18 year stretch, 71 of the 72 conference finalists are from the top half of seats. Other than money, is there a competitive reason to have such a, such a large playoff field no and that's why i wanted to do the uh entertaining as hell tournament open open the other seeds to a one game playoff and why not make make the first couple rounds more fun because

we're going to end up with the top four anyway in some order and the seven game series just for those in round one it should be it should be five games yeah and the way to do that for a five game is you make the one in the two seed get four of the five at home so they still have a major advantage but get it over faster but people don't even talk about like the scoring the points like how it rigs the the record books like lebron you know is like creeping up on... He's playing 20 playoff games a year. Yeah, exactly. He's playing more games. Chuck from New Hampshire wonders, there's an old quote in soccer,

a good manager can make a team 10% better, but a bad manager can make a team 30% worse. What's the formula for NBA coaches? I think it's about the same. I think... I would say an NBA coach can make a team 20% better, though. Brad Stevens makes the Celtics 20% to 25% better. Popovich makes the Spurs 20% to 25% better.

Scotty Brooks made the Wizards 30% worse in Game 7. So I would say it's a 20% to 30% balance. Jeff from Natick asks, If Westbrook was an NFL QBb you're gonna like this one tate he would take off running 75 of the time make a ton of spectacular plays and barely squeak into the wild card because every defense would know what's coming the sports media would blame his receivers wondering how can you expect westbrook to be great if his receivers aren't even trying to block for him in the playoffs they would flame out and the narrative would be how could westbrook would be great if his receivers aren't even trying to block for him. In the playoffs, they would flame out, and the narrative would be,

how could Westbrook pass to those shitty receivers? They weren't even trying to get open. It's like they were blocking for some reason. Also, in this analogy, Westbrook would be the team's slot corner and blatantly not cover anybody. It's a little harsh. It's a little harsh for Jeff from Natick. I do think the whole thing of, and we saw it with Harden too,

of the offense built around one guy doing the same thing all the time. Yes. Has a shorter shelf life in the playoffs when you're seeing it game after game after game and you just kind of figure it out. Yeah, because people have their spots. Regardless of what,

like Russ knows where he's trying to go and eventually you realize what he's trying to do. Yeah, and it's like, oh, he's going to do this, he's shooting. Last break to talk about my old friend, MeUndies. I don't want to pick favorite sponsors of the BS podcast because I love them all. I love them all like my kids.

But I will say that I wear MeUndies every day. I probably think about them the most. It was the first read we ever did when we first started. It was the first thing you ever said in a microphone. Yeah and these i wear them every day i think so i they're in my mind every day they're in my they're in my heart every day and if you've been settling for store-bought underwear five packs i just feel sorry for you just words on some great underwear me and these are made out of sustainably sourced micro modal a fabric three times softer than cotton unbelievably comfortable the top drawer of my dresser is

filled with me and these I like this the the they're like kind of the big boxers that they have but they're not boxers they're soft and you just kind of let the boys roam around the ranch it's great I love me and these once you go me and these never go back save up to 33% off me

and these with the monthly subscription. Select your style, size, and plan. I have the boys roaming around the ranch. Yeah, I was going to say, that's a great slogan. You should sell that to them. MeUndies will send you undies that they think will make you swoon for each month if you're not ready for that. You still save 20% off your first pair

plus free shipping by just going to MeUndies.com slash BS. Once again, that's Me meandys.com slash BS. Once again, that's meandys.com slash BS. Yeah, they should name that underwear after me and have a picture of me riding a horse. Yes. In some...

Let the boys roam. Let the boys roam, man. The Bill Simmons edition. Christopher D. wonders, is anyone in the history of the league better at chase down blocks than LeBron? That's a great question. I thought about it. Jordan, i still have above lebron because he was like three inches shorter and it was more amazing when he did it yeah but it was same same thing it was like you you could see it coming at

half court you knew what he was going to do the other guy knew and he did it anyway lebron when he does it it looks like he's doing it like he's thinking about how he looks as he's doing it if that makes any sense like he's like he's like hesitating a little bit to it, it looks like he's doing it, like he's thinking about how he looks as he's doing it, if that makes any sense. Like he's like hesitating a little bit to make sure it looks right. It's a different thing. I hope I said this guy's name right. Oh, no, this is different. Sean Ferrarini.

He wrote this on May 2nd, so just as a caveat. It's May 2nd. The fact that a caveat, it's May 2nd. The fact that five 38 is giving the calves a 3% chance to win the NBA title is ridiculous. Did they watch LeBron destroy the Raptors last night? I'm a huge Celtics fan, but giving Boston a 46% chance of making the finals compared to Cleveland's 23% chance.

Oh, it's I'm sorry. 23% chance, not 3% compared to Cleveland's 23% chance is just wrong. It's the worst prediction 530 has had in the last year, and that's saying something. Wow, shots fired. Yeah, wow.

Shot. God, put the gun away. I mean, that's why win expectancy and all that stuff drives me crazy. Yeah, I just watch the game. I hate win expectancy. Win expectancy to me is the emotional support dogs of stats. And playoff, all that stuff. It's just stupid.

You can't judge a team like the Cavs. When they have LeBron, you can't put that in a normal formula. If we were simulating the games, yes, then it would make sense. But we're not. We're going to play them in real life and things are going to happen. And we'll see what happens. My win expectancy of hating win expectancy is 100%. Ian Warrington wonders if the Warriors face the Cavs in the final, should they take heart from the fact that no one knows how to limit a LeBron led offense like Mike Brown?

Wow. I answer shots fired. The guns are out. The bullets are firing jesus wouldn't it be amazing though if mike brown and like gets to go up against lebron in the finals like a man that lebron james basically put it all on when they were winning 62 games whatever 61 games whatever it was in 2009 he basically was like mike brown can't get us past the over the hump yeah and then mike brown gets to coach against him in the finals to stop him from destiny.

That's beautiful. I really am. Everyone says Mike Brown is the nicest guy ever. He seems like it. People love Mike Brown. Yeah. He seems like a nice guy. I wish he could coach.

Me too. Danny from Brooklyn wonders, on Area 21, did you see Big Baby praise Rondo while pushing CP3 under the bus and then backing over him a few times. Should that ever happen to someone called the point guard? God. So Big Baby had already trashed Doc Rivers and Chris Paul. And then Doc Rivers showed up on the screen on Area 21 and Big Baby was mortified. It was hilarious. But there was a really interesting part. And I think it was online only when they start talking about rondo and big baby just goes out of his way to talk about i love this guy right here this guy

made me a better player i would have fought through a wall for him that's how you have to be and chris you just not like that with chris he doesn't make you feel that way he doesn't make you feel had this whole like a minute and a half yeah i actually thought it was going to be a bigger deal when i watched it i was like wow this overweight bench player who seems like a head case somehow managed to put into words all the reasons I'm suspicious of Chris Paul as a great player because Chris Paul didn't make him better. He's like, this guy might have the stats. He didn't say the stats part, but it was just like,

this guy just doesn't make guys better. You have to fit into what he does. That's not what a great point guard does. He's passing to you where you should be in his mind. And then he's mad at you and you miss it. Exactly. And Rondo's getting you to your spot to get you your shot. It's a totally different situation.

So, Justin Pagano writes, Since 1969, these are 10 guys that won finals MVP more than once. Jordan, Shaq, LeBron, Magic, Duncan, Hakeem, Kobe, Larry, Kareem, and Willis Reed. Take out Reed and swap in Bill Russell, since the award is named after him. And there's your top 10 for the 2,300-page paperback 19th edition in the book of basketball. I feel like this is an almost perfect measure. Everyone I want in there is in there except maybe Wilt. And everyone I'd want to exclude for some reason is already excluded

because they didn't win a second one. I even like that Steph doesn't already have even one. I want two more out of that guy before we even talk about him historically. And then he talks about the guys with one are D. Wade, Parker, Pierce, Dirk, Kawhi, and Iggy. Pierce is retired now, obviously, but Kawhi would be your only chance to get in that group. That's a really interesting measure. I like that. The two finals MVP club.

So Duncan should have four. In 07, they gave it to Tony Parker because he played well for a couple games. the two finals MVP club. So Duncan should have four. They get an Oh seven. They gave it to Tony Parker cause he played well for a couple of games, but I was personally insulted by that. They're going to win it anyway. Like plus like who's guarding Tony Parker on the calves, you know? And also it's Tim,

Tim, it's Tim Duncan's team. You don't give anyone else the final unless Tim Duncan just sucks. But, uh, that's a great measure. I really liked that. I went, I don't know if i did this in my book or not but i think i figured it out in my book i think russell would add eight finals every piece

that's so ridiculous um we're gonna wrap up soon Justin from Austin, Texas wonders do you think Ja Rule is more pissed off about the Fyre Festival debacle or missing out

on the remainder of the Fast franchise easily the Fast franchise yeah that was a huge the Fyre thing will go away nobody will remember it somebody will probably

make a documentary about it but he missed out on a huge payday with the Fast franchise yeah when he was in Too Fast Too Furious when he was in the opening

you know car race scene I think he thought that he had a big deal. He had a big thing going for him. He had murder ink behind him. It was a good time for Ja Rule. Huge mistake. John from San Francisco wonders, please tell me how long Greg Popovich is going to be able

to treat people like shit without being called out on it. Is it because as a society we've determined that sideline reporting and press conference questions are dumb professions and no one cares what happens to them my answer i think people use pop as their proxy for how much they hate this stuff but he is acting like an asshole i told you what i would do if i was a sideline reporter yeah no ask him about wine ask him about anything battles yeah what civil war battle is this game right now i love it yeah okay i mean what's he really gonna tell you that's gonna matter in the moment anyway just ask him

yeah or why not use it to find out other information like pop what was the last movie you saw and he's like hacksaw ridge okay back to you Yeah. When's the last time you called Boris D.L.? What kind of car does Tim Duncan drive? A Kia? Okay, back to you, Mike. On a recent BS pod, your producer Tate predicted that CP3 will get a statue at Staples along with Magic Chick, Kareem, Jay Shack, Gretzky, Luke, Oscar, and Sarkozy. I did not predict it. I said that's what he wants.

That's what he said he wants. All right. Well, the clarification. Where would a CP3 statue go and what does his statue pose? I think his statue pose is him yelling at a ref. And I'm trying to think of the – because the Clippers are second-class citizens at Staples. Where is the most second-class citizen-y place that they could put that statue?

It should be across the street. You know, it's like the little, like, you know, Staples is right in front of the stadium. He should be across the street on the other side where LA Live is. No, that's too prominent. I would say when you're walking down Figueroa. Yeah, on the backside right there. That backside where it's super windy and terrible

and it's like everything is too, the lines are too long where LA Live is, so you got to walk around to the other side. Yep. And it's just a sad, dark, windy walk. I would put the statue there. They should put like Danny Manning, Chris Paul, just like have them all.

All the Clippers should be on the windy walk. Other Clippers question. What would be the opening shot of the 30 for 30 on the Clippers moving to Seattle? Great, great lead. Here, this is from James in Dallas. Here are his choices. Doc Rivers on the first tee at Brentwood Country Club. Doc Rivers throwing his arms up in disbelief at a foul call.

Literally any other Clipper throwing his arms up in disbelief at a foul call. Ballmer fidgeting in his seat. A bad State Farm commercial. A Mayflower truck. V Stiviano. A Starbucks or other. I would go with other. I would start with a montage of guys riding on the floor right after they got injured.

Followed by the Mayflower truck. And then you have this montage and then it's Doc Rivers on the golf course. Yeah. And he hits this nice drive and he's walking. He's like, I thought I could change the clippers

and I couldn't. And then he's like, hey, did you see my ball? Is it on the fairway? I like it. I like that idea. David in Oklahoma wonders, at this point, do we have to assume that Big Baller Bland is a hoax developed by Nathan Fielder, right? I like that idea. David in Oklahoma wonders,

at this point, do we have to assume that Big Bar Bland is a hoax developed by Nathan Fielder, right? $220 for sandals? My answer, it's not. You can't rule it out. It'd be awesome. If Nathan, for you, season three or season four, whatever they're on now, starts with LeVar Ball, that would be the greatest thing ever.

How are we doing on time? Doing great. 69 minutes. Okay. starts with lavar ball that would be the greatest thing ever how are we doing on time doing great 69 minutes okay josh bailey wonders i love all the bs pods especially the one with rapaport i feel i must call something to your attention the country that christoph's porzingis comes from is latvia not lativia that makes them the latvian gangbanger not the lativian gangbanger, not the Lativian gangbanger. Feel free to correct Rapaport or not, your choice. He knows. The whole joke is that Rapaport, the first time he brought him up,

called him the Lativian gangbanger accidentally. And I said, he's from Latvia. And Rapaport said, I don't care. He's Lativia, Latvia, I don't care. And that's become the joke. Joe H. in NC wonders, if the Grizz blow it up, is there any possible way to get Conley on the Bucs?

Oh. Please tell me there is. Perfect fit. Jabari, Dele, two first rounders. Is that even close? It would have been close if Jabari hadn't blown out his ACL six months ago. It's a great idea. What happens to Jabari? Just a side tangent to that. hadn't blown out his ACL six months ago. It's a great idea.

What happens to Jabari? Just a side tangent to that. I'm not talking Duke-ass with you. You enjoy it too much. I like Jabari. I like Jabari. I want him to do well. Nobody thinks you're genuine. Yeah, I want him to do well.

Mateus in Jena, Germany. Really getting some great countries in this one. Jerusalem, Germany, Malaya, whatever that country is. He wonders, Andrew Sharp pointed out four years ago, Kawhi may not be the great player he is if another team drafts him. Who is the biggest what-if-the-Spurs-drafted-him guy in the league? I went historical for my answer c-web if you do c-web's career over again and he ends up on the spurs with pop we discuss him as one of like the 11 best players of all time the way we discuss tim duncan his everything about it changes. Well, he is Tim Duncan, right?

Like, that's what he is. Like, he's right there next to David Robinson. And then he's the pillar for the future. And they build from him. And they don't have Duncan. And he's learned all the right ways to play. And he's. They don't tank in 97.

Yeah. After another challenge victory, where does CT rank in all-time Boston athletes? I have him below Bird and Brady and Ortiz, but above or Williams, Pierce, and Gronk. Thoughts. That's from John from San Francisco in California. My answer. Or Brady, Bird, in some order. Ortiz and Williams, CT, in sixth.

Gronk's really taking a hit in Boston. Gronk's got to stay in the field. Yeah. But CT, a couple challenge titles now. By far the greatest athlete in challenge history. Still going. Yeah. I don't know what's left in his tank, but there's something left. And you're pulling for him because of the DM storyline.

Tim Williams has a tunnel named after him i don't know what we're doing with ct um i will end with this one from riley and madison wisconsin back in march 2014 you wrote about the action hero championship belt in october 2014 john wick was released he blew your load a few months too early chapter 2 comes out on blu-ray soon it's time for Keanu to officially take the belt from Liam don't forget this gem you wrote rule number one over anything else I need to believe

our hero can kick anyone everyone's ass in any conceivable situation at any given time and he needs to believe this too this rule disqualifies A-listers like Keanu Reeves. I wrote that in 2014. Riley says, good call, Bill Kuyper Jr. That hurts.

Words hurt. Yeah, it's tough. Words hurt and that hurt. And listen, I have to live with that for the rest of my life. It's one of my worst calls ever. I'll maybe one with this one from Zivana mirror Breckolo. Love it. I hope I said that correctly.

He wonders, I heard you talk about Isaiah Thomas's extension a lot, but you haven't asked yourself the most important question. What would Bill Belichick do? Oh, he's, he's out. He's out after this year. If it's Belichick,ick no way he gets a big deal no way he gets the max belichick definitely trades him yes this summer

he might keep him for an extra year and let him go but i think he trades him this summer and i i think it would be a trade that people are like wow he did not get a lot back for him but he's just trying to wipe his hands clean of all that money belichick trades him this summer. And I think it would be a trade that people are like, wow, he did not get a lot back for him. But he's just trying to wipe his hands clean of all that money. Belichick trades him to a division rival. Like he ups the stakes. He trades him to the Nets. Yeah, here you go, Nets.

Give us some more picks. And everybody in Boston goes nuts. He's the worst. Belichick's lost his fastball. Then he takes Markel Fultz. Gabe, I'll do one more. Gabe in Portland said, my friends and I have a long running conversation

about the most mediocre band ever. Here are five popular suggestions. No particular orders. The Doobie Brothers, they're fine. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I think they're mediocre. My friends like them more. Billy Joe, I love him too much.

My friends think he's mediocre. Steve Miller band, probably the favorite right now. Earth, Wind and Fire, they're fine. My friends like them more. Billy Joel, I love him too much. My friends think he's mediocre. Steve Miller band, probably the favorite right now. Earth, Wind & Fire, they're fine. What? Danny says, I've been reading you forever. I've never had a mailbag question posted. Answer or not, I'm really proud of this question. Gabe, go back to the drawing board.

Earth, Wind & Fire. First of all, all five of those bands are better. All five of those. But Doobie Brothers were iconic. You just got to do better than that. You just have to. Toto is the most mediocre band ever. better all five of those but doobie brothers were like iconic yeah this is uh you just gotta do better than that you just have to toto is the most mediocre band ever yeah i don't know toto won some grammys they were terrible it's like they're right in the vortex but man billy joel billy joel sold out dodger stadium it's like 75 yeah go out moving out come on so if you want to send us a question, you can do that by emailing us at themailbagattheringer.com.

Thanks to SimpliSafe. Remember, it's never been easier to protect your home and family. Thanks to SimpliSafe. Order your home security online. Set up your system in under an hour. Then you can start enjoying 24-7 professional protection immediately. No long-term contracts. No hidden fees go to simply safe bs.com

today to protect your home and get 10 off don't forget about me and these.com slash bs 20 off your first pair plus free shipping zip recruiter.com slash bs you can post jobs there for free tate's podcast gm street with mike lombardi and teed up with Mark Titus you too. That's on ringer University Yeah, well GM Street is on the ringer NFL show mm-hmm teed up is on ringer University ringer University We made fun of our tape. Yeah, we made fun of the combine the the measurables We made fun of all the the fat people that went to the combine and you watch beautiful girls You streamed it. Yeah, because you wanted rap report is we can say he's your favorite bs podcast guest he's you enjoy him the most he's in the hall of fame bs podcast guest you're the most

excited when he's coming in yeah because i just never know what's gonna happen the last one we're gonna have to edit out oh man the last one was something else but yeah too funny so you watch beautiful girls which came out almost before you were born yes and uh and what'd you think i thought it was a hit. I thought Rappaport was the star, though. And you told me that before. Rappaport owns that movie. Yeah, he does.

He's the funniest. They're all sisters, Willie! They're all sisters! They're all in collusion together. They're all talking to each other. Has that movie held up? The themes of that movie? Yeah, it has.

The Tim Hunt and Natalie Portman relationship's a little weird, right? I'm in love with Natalie Portman my whole life. I grew up being in love with her. You're almost the same age. Yeah, we grew up at the same times. And Jackie's a beautiful movie. It was great to see her then.

So to see her at a young age put me back where I was. It was great. But it was a little creepy that 30-year-old Tim Hutton is peering through the window wondering what's going on there. Yeah, I didn't like all that. It didn't bother me when I saw the movie, but after I had a daughter and I watched it again, I the window wondering what's going on I didn't like all that but you know it didn't bother me when I saw the movie but after I had a daughter

and I watched it again I'm like what's he doing like if I had my neighbor like checking out hey my daughter's like in the driveway with her bike

she's like hey what's going on I'm like why is this guy talking to my daughter yeah and please I'm gonna have to fight you leave Natalie alone yeah leave Natalie alone

alright maybe every time we do a mailbag you'll have to give a review on one movie that came out before you were born. I'm in. I'll watch any movie.

Thanks, Tate Frazier. Thanks to SeatGeek. Thanks to everybody. Don't forget Celtics fans. Chant your baby at LeBron tonight. Hope you enjoyed the BS Podcast mailbag. Back next week, we have a bunch of celebrity guests next week. So stay tuned for that.

Until then.