The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Overreactions, Jokic Love, Curry’s Struggles, in Search of Ben Simmons, and Throne Game With Joe House

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by his longtime pal Joe House to discuss every NBA playoff matchup, with topics including Jaylen Brown’s value vs. Jayson Tatum’s, the Rockets' struggles, Denver’s persistence, and more. They also ask what Ben Simmons is doing and what is happening to Steph Curry (3:05). Then, Bill and House recap [SPOILERS] 'Game of Thrones' Season 8, Episode 4 (1:35:17). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight's episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast and the Ringer Podcast Network brought to you as always by DAZN. You might've watched DAZN this weekend. Canelo, Jacobs. I watched it Saturday night. I bet the draw, Joe House, 20 to one. Wow. Well done.

Almost. If Jacobs won the 12th round, I win the draw. Man. 20 to one. Very relatable. I loved Jacobs putting on 15 pounds in one day. Very relatable. Threw away a million dollars.

Yeah, that's right. You put on 15 pounds tonight, I think. I love that cost benefit. Yeah. Well, if you get The Zone, you could have gotten that fight. You could also get access to the brand new MLB Live Whip Around Show change up every night of the week. Everything live on demand at The Zone. Getting set up is easy.

Download the app available on nearly any of your devices, including smart TVs, tablets, phones, and gaming consoles. Go to DAZN.com to sign up. DAZN. We're also brought to you by Navy Federal. Proud to serve over 8 million members open to active duty military. The DOD veterans and their family members receive a lifetime of membership benefits like a credit card APR average that is 4% lower than the industry's member-only exclusive rates and more. Visit NavyFederal.org for more information. Call 888-842-6328 or download the Navy Federal Credit Union app today. Message and data rates may apply. Visit NavyFederal.org for more information.

We're also brought to you by TheRinger.com, the world's greatest website. Had our biggest month last month, us. Whoa. Biggest traffic month, biggest podcast download month. Everything is going really well. You know why? One of the reasons?

Thrones. Thrones. We love Thrones. Binge mode. We also had Talk to Thrones last night, the fourth of six episodes. I wish they had spread it. Well, we'll talk about

Thrones later, but I wish they had cut Thrones into 10 episodes over these 80-minute episodes. They could have had 55-minute episodes. We could have gotten more content. Spread it out. We'll talk about that later. We're also brought to you by the Ringer NBA show. We're hopping on right after some of these games when it's timely.

I know like Monday night is probably, that's the night we might actually hop on there. Sure. Potentially. Two great games tomorrow night. Yeah. House is here because it's his 50th birthday. Hey now! Coming up.

Rusillo is not here because he's at the Willie Nelson concert. We're going to talk about that in a little bit. Is that true? We're going to talk about a crazy basketball playoffs week. One of the great, weird playoff games

I've ever seen in my life. Friday night, you fell asleep. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Game of Thrones at the tail end of this, as always. And a whole bunch more.

But first, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, Joe House is here. He turns 50 what day? Friday? No, a week from today. A week from today. Mother's Day.

So you came out. We're going to do some podcasts. One of the reasons that you came out is we've never played golf together. We've not played 18 holes on green grass. No. We're going to play a little bit of golf with you and I together, sticking a peg in the ground, know letting a little a little shaft out on the first tee that has not happened a little shaft out wait save that for a throne

game later yeah jimmy let a little shaft out i believe he did he let a little shaft out uh we had never played because i quit when i was 24 i was fed up after eight eight roller coaster years i couldn't handle it anymore and then you started playing in your mid-20s, and we never overlapped. Yeah, my choice was law school or golf. Yeah, you did that. I did both, but really the golf was the thing. So you got into it later. Anyway, we'll talk about that later.

I want to talk about basketball first. Where do you want to start? I'll give you choices because I have takes on each of these. I know you do. We're going to call this section Hottest Basketball Takes. Wow. That I actually kind of believe.

Okay. So I'll give you your choice. You can go with, you can do, I have one on the Warriors. I have one on the Rockets. I have one on the Sixers who played today and lost. I have one on the Rockets. I have one on the Sixers, who played today and lost. I have one that I'm borrowing from our friend Hench about the Celtics.

Or a Jamal Murray-related take. What are you borrowing from Hench? Oh, you're borrowing it. I'm borrowing a take. You're borrowing it. I'm renting it. I'm renting it. It's his take.

So where do you want to start? You want to start? I want to get rid of the Celtics now. Now? borrowing a take. If you're borrowing it. I'm renting it. That's his take. So where do you want to start? I want to get rid of the Celtics now. Now? Really? Yes. Yes, of course. Yes. I want to get rid of the Celtics. Let's be done with the Celtics. You just want to cross them off? I want to get that one, get it all wrapped up, put a bow on it

so we can talk about the rest of the playoffs and not be accused of making this podcast as always so Boston-centric. Okay. Should we mention that you had like four glasses of wine today? There were unbelievable wines. My mom came. Your mom.

Yeah, go ahead. Tell the whole story. We have a 97 Brunello and a 97 Amarone on my Instagram at House from D.C. We got the pictures up. Maybe it's at House of Carbs. I don't remember which one. I had four glasses. It was spectacular. She made brajals.

She did make... She made meatballs. She made baked ziti, Caesar salad, and peppers. And you ate all of it, and we're going to finish this podcast, and you're going to eat it again. We had a first dinner, then Thrones, podcast, and then second dinner is coming right after this. Second dinner is going to be... So this might be a half- right after this. Second dinner is going to be-

So this might be a half hour podcast tonight. Second dinner is going to be even better than the first dinner. So I'll start with this text from Hench. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing. I won't even tell you the context. It's so funny how it doesn't matter if it's the playground or the NBA. A guy who loves dribbling and hates defending is terrible to play with. Are we going to give out guesses as to who we're talking about here?

First of all, do you agree with the take? Of course. Great take. Hench ain't wrong. Well, it all could circle back. Kyrie could end up being the hero of the Celtics series. But it is, you know, we saw this a little bit during the Chris Paul era too. When your best player is a shorter guard, it's, it just becomes harder when things are going wrong.

And you're even seeing that now a little bit with the Portland Denver series. You can, you can, I don't want to say take out a smaller guard, but you can make him work for shots. You can contain him a little bit. And it's just harder. And if you're going through the course of NBA history, how many little guys were the best player on a championship team? It's really Isaiah Thomas, 89 and 90. And then I guess Curry,

I don't think of him really in the traditional little guy sense and the spacing and the threes and all that stuff that he creates. My question to you, House, can you win if your best player is a guard? Can you win the title? History says no. I agree with history. I don't think so. The problem with the Celtics, though, is this problem that's been identified and over-discussed throughout the course of this entire season. Which of those many problems?

The identity crisis. Who are they? of what the best version of these Celtics could be when Gordon Hayward started playing a little bit more confidently, a little bit more fearlessly, started asserting himself. And then we arrived in this round of the playoffs. And all that assertiveness is in the rearview mirror. Why is that, Bill Simmons? He went from being a slashing kick guy to a kick guy. He was slashing, but with the intent just to kick.

We've seen that. That is a contagion in these NBA playoffs. There are a lot of guys that prefer to kick than play on. We'll have our chance to talk about the Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons in a hot minute. Yeah, I have that as well. Yeah, I know you do, but it's a contagion. The jumpers and the threes are great during the regular season.

When the stakes rise, you also need the ability to get to the rim. And you need those two things together, ideally. Now, the Warriors won the title in 2015, really as a jump shooting team. And that is the only time that's ever happened that I can think of. That Pistons team that beat the Lakers. Yeah, but that team, that was a great rebounding team.

It was a great defense team. Those are two strong attributes. It's not like they were shooting threes. I mean, they were attacking the hoop. Not in quantity, for sure. I think you have to have the blend at some point. Even Portland, you know, which is a team that revolves around their guard and a lot of jump shots, they'll still get to the rim when they have to.

Like, Lillard and McCollum can get to the rim. When I look at the Celtics team, when it goes south, it just becomes jump shots. And even worse, when people stop stop moving now it's jump shots with guys standing around and i don't know how they it's it's like one of those spirals like when uh like in top gun when the spiral when they when maverick can't break out of it it's that's what happens to the celtics team that you can see it happening it's like everybody stops moving and it's like oh no oh god we're not going to be like everybody stops moving, and it's like, oh, no.

Oh, God, we're not going to be able to come out of this. It's why I'm calling it an identity crisis, because they haven't sorted out who the alpha dog is, even to this moment. Well, I think that we know who the alpha dog is, though. We know who one guy thinks is the alpha dog. He certainly takes enough shots to be the alpha dog. That's right.

But he has to make enough shots to be the alpha that's right but he he has to make those shots to truly earn i mean think about the sequence of events he begs off of a cleveland team that had made nothing but consecutive finals with bebron he misses the playoffs the next year so he doesn't play in one playoff game the year after he paid off that team i understand that but here we are now in you know the year the moment for him to go ahead and assert himself his contract year moment yeah his his you know self-determination in the balance and yeah who you know is he is he up to it is he up to it he has what he's asked for this is his moment it's his, is he up to it? Is he up to it? He has what he's asked for. This is his moment. It's his team. Is he up to it? So there's two things going on here. When you

talk about what's wrong with the Celtics, one is that we, you just talked about the offensive identity crisis, the jump shots, all this stuff that we're seeing, but it's actually the defense that has really hurt them. They cannot, it's weird because the regular season stats don't totally reflect this. It says that they're one of the better three-point shooting defense teams. But then when you watch games,

when teams know what they're doing against them, it's a lot of open shots. And they really miss Smart, obviously, but the Bucs miss Brogdon. I feel like that should

cancel each other out. No Brogdon, no Smart. That's Brogdon. I feel like that should cancel each other out. No Brogdon, no Smart. That's like a wash. I don't know if I would call it a wash, though, defensively. Because Smart has so much dog in him. Defensive dog. He really leads by his instinct in the sense that the energy he brings defensively is infectious to the rest of that team. And it goes even deeper than that. Cause I was texting people during game three as Giannis 22 free throws.

He's just flying down the lane, unencumbered guy. The bucks are feeling themselves. Guys are making threes. A lot of, uh, a lot of swagger. They're open shots. A lot of swagger on the, on the Boston home court and everybody kind of took it. There wasn't a lot of like, it didn't feel like a playoff level of fight counter-response from the Celts. And Smart would have knocked somebody down. He would have fought for a loose ball. He

would have been on the floor. He would have started barking at somebody and he would have kind of elevated the intensity of the game. And that's what they really miss the most with him. They have a lot of passive guys. Hayward, passive. Kyrie doesn't talk on the court, I mean. Tatum and Brown. Brown is probably the most. Honestly, it's Morris.

Morris would be the one. Morris is the only one, but he's the ninth best guy in the team. He ain't no good. So, I don't know. I saw a lack of fight on that Friday night because there was a point when that was becoming a playoff game. And they just didn't rise to the occasion. Last year, in the Bucs series and the Sixers series,

Smart was the one leading the way with the chest out, the testosterone stuff. And that's really what they missed the most. I don't think it's a finals team. You were higher on them than I was heading into the playoffs. Well, it's still yet the entire series is still in the balance. We'll see tomorrow night. If they show up on their home court, put the smack down the way they're supposed to, and then it becomes a three game series and they have to go win one more game in Milwaukee, like they did in game one.

And they still have a Milwaukee beat coming and going in terms of the chops and the experience and the composure. And having been there, they have enough guys, Horford and Kyrie, have everybody on Milwaukee beat. And all their guys of prominence. I mean, I know Ilya Sova's got some playoff chops. No, they really don't. But they don't have that much.

The guys of prominence, there's no comparison experience-wise between Boston and Milwaukee. And so it should be the case that Boston shows up, but I just... Who's Kyrie? It goes back to the identity crisis thing. First of all,

they fell behind by big numbers in game two and game three, which I always look at as the ultimate bad sign. When you're kind of scrambling back from 15, 16, 17, two games in a row, something's really going wrong. But they get in that hole from a sequence. You did this in one of the two games. Game two.

Yeah, game two. 16 straight bad possessions. That's right. But then knocking. What's going on with Kyle? You realize we're doing a podcast, right? You guys heard that. Yeah, you're like doing these loud sighs.

He had some of the Amarone. That was a yawn. He had some of the Amarone. Should we get Ben to produce it? I got headphones on. I can't hear what I'm doing. Me and the Neff were drinking the Amarone. Unbelievable.

I think it's a bad sign when teams repeatedly fall behind. And this is who the Celtics have been all year. I don't know what the, I always thought this should be a stat. I should be able to look up. How many times has a team fallen behind by 15 points in a game? Cause for the Celtics, it's gotta be like 30, 32, 33 this year. I'm not kidding. Like when they're behind, they're behind.

It's not like they're down by two. Like all of a sudden it's 70 to 53. And you're wondering what the hell's going on. That's a good bet. I wish I'd known this. I just don't think they have down by two. Like all of a sudden it's 70 to 53 and you're wondering what the hell's going on. That's a good bet. I wish I'd known this. I just don't think they have it this year. I felt,

even during the Indiana stuff when people started getting excited, I just didn't feel it. I would love to be wrong. I hope they come back, but I think you find out who you are

when bad things are happening and this team tends to kind of fall apart when bad things happen. It's one of those teams, – Philly's like this too. They look great when they're up 18. Who looks better than Philly when they're up 18? And they're getting turnovers.

It's like, wow, these guys look amazing. They got a lot of swag, that Philly team. And then they're down four like today. And it's like everybody's got that look. But with the Celtics thing, we got to give Milwaukee more credit because Bledsoe stunk in game three. He was having a classic, terrible Eric Bledsoe road game. And it had that look of like,

oh man, they already gave that guy his contract extension and he still can't play a good playoff game on the road against a good team. And then George Hill and Connaughton absolutely killed the Celtics. George Hill, if he played like that last year in the finals, it would have been a little, or the, you know. Yeah, they might have lost 4-2.

Yeah, or at least 4-1. Yeah. He was really good, though. And I thought those two guys gave them so much life, and they didn't miss Brogdon. Well, you know who makes them, I mean, it's the MVP of the league has a little bit of a hand in that. What do you think about how he's officiated?

Because I was less upset about this than other Celtics fans in my life. And where it's just like at midcourt, he does that thing. He's like, I'm going to the basket. I'm going to take two giant 10 foot steps and they might not go in the same direction. And you can't really take a charge on it because I'm somehow moving side to side. But I'm definitely bowling over you. I'm going over you. You're in my way.

I'm getting to the rim. You're in my way. And the foul is going to be on you. It seems like even LeBron at his athletic peak didn't do this. Well, that's a good comparison because I think the freak is athletically superior to LeBron. He is.

And he's- By the way, can you believe that's even a thing anyone would say? It's ludicrous. In our lifetime? It's ludicrous. That somebody is more of an athletic freak than LeBron? I never thought anyone would ever say that. It's a seven footer who can buy angles.

You know what I mean? The reason that he's not having charge calls is because he's changing the direction of his shoulder as contact gets initiated. It's very rarely that his shoulder hits somebody squarely in the chest and makes it easy on the refs. And it might be the case that next year

he gets refereed a little bit differently. He has the benefit of this season having the entire league, like, adapt to what he's bringing to the table, skill and athletic league, that combination. You're more coherent tonight than I was expecting. I mean, I brought both bottles of wine in here. I'm happy to keep going. The Celtics team, one of the biggest differences between last year and this year is how different they are at home.

Like even you look at, they were 28-13 at home this year. They were 2-0 in the playoffs. They obviously lost this last one. But even that Pacers series, the Pacers were in those games with Wes Matthews playing a lot,

you know, like they weren't even playing that well. And they, especially game two, like if they hit a couple shots, they probably would have won game two. They just can't, the Celts can't like, not only, they're not like laying the smack down in those ways where it's like, and look at this crowd. They're going crazy. Like that,

that kind of playoff home feeling. It's just, hasn't been there all season. So let me ask you this. Yeah. This is precisely back to the Kyrie. Yes. How many times this season there were 41 home games and then two home

playoff games or the, you know, one more home playoff game. How many times this season did the, uh, artists know formerly known as the Boston garden have a chant of Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie,

or they've done some MVP chance. I mean, there's been some MVP chance. Okay. I think, I think it's a really polarizing topic right now because it's one of those things where obviously I hope he stays, even though I've had moments this year where I've joked about this pod about how I dropped in the airport, all that stuff.

You never want to lose an asset. They're better off he signs and then they at least have the asset and they could trade him. On the other hand, if he left, I wouldn't be devastated. I would probably talk myself into some different, all right, well, Kyrie, now we have cap space. Let's do this. Maybe we do this instead.

I would be in the mode of, all right, what's next? Let's go fix this. Now we have a chance to carve out a different type of team. It wouldn't be like when Durant left OKC is my point. Where it's like, oh my God, what do we do? We have this gaping hole now. Here's my question as it relates to Kyrie. Is it possible for Boston to get Anthony Davis without Kyrie?

I mean, they could trade with him and basically be in the same position Toronto's in right now with Kawhi, who's playing out of his mind, but also just bought a $13 million house outside of San Diego that he can easily helicopter to Clippers games in October. So is that like, do you want to unleash all of your assets to cross your fingers for AD is the question?

It's a great question. I don't know. The GM just had a heart attack. Is he okay? He's okay. It's a little scary, but yeah. Well, it's interesting. Tatum is less of an asset than he was six months ago,

but Brown is more of an asset. And that's one of the other topics we have. You want to get to that one? Let's do it right now because I want to be done with the Celtics. All right, we're going to... Who's a better asset, Brown or Tatum? I still think it's tatum we've seen the

ceiling for tatum it's an mvp ceiling uh i you know i'm saying that under the influence no we saw the seeds of an mvp ceiling right right that's all that's all he's not actually done it i wouldn't dare suggest that he has but he has has enough of a, he has a comprehensiveness to his offensive game that suggests that he can be unstoppable, but it's going to require this season proved. It really requires some nurturing. It requires some, some, some nurturing. It requires some building. He needs to be surrounded by the right human beings,

the right institutional support. He needs to have the right kind of veterans around him. Yeah, but you could say that about anybody. To groom him, huh? You could say that about anybody. No, you couldn't, because not anybody led their team to the precipice of the of the NBA finals as a rookie. I mean,

he didn't leading is that's who led the Celtics last season. I mean, he was one of their best players. I don't, I don't think he threw the team on his back. He had some incredible moments. I mean, look,

I'm the same guy who last summer, I considered him to be one of my three kids along with the two I have like that so much. I love Tatum. It's been alarming. Some of the bad habits this year. And I know he's young and you shouldn't overreact, but here's my big fear with him. And this is from somebody who's watched

a lot of his games for two years. His ball handling is really subpar. And it's something that last year when he hurt his hand and he just kind of, his dribbling ability just wasn't the same. And people would poke the ball away. He would lose it. He wouldn't finish around the rim sometimes. And it was like, oh, it's his hand.

Oh, if his hand was healthy, he would have finished that. But now it's like this whole second year he's been healthy. He doesn't have like that killer handle that I think you need. He doesn't have it yet, I should say. I mean, come on. This is the biggest thing that he needs to work on. I'm telling you. I watch all the Celtic games.

I can't believe I'm in this position of defending Jason Tate. But you know what teams do with him now? I'm on your home turf, clearly. Watch how teams defend him now. They poke at the ball. Because when he dribbles, he does the same. Ironically, my daughter does the same thing when she plays basketball. When he makes moves, he puts the ball in front of him and the guys just poke at it. And I think that's now in his

head. And I think that's why he settles for so many 20 footers. I don't think he wants to lose the ball. This is my weird Jason Tatum theory. He's a basketball youth. What the hell does he know about playing? This is the the thing this is the challenge that this season presented with the return of hayward and and and kairi yeah and the minutes that they're going to sacrifice a nurturing tatum this is you know it it basically uh there was an opportunity the opportunity was lost because you know for the greater good of the celtics in this particular uh iteration of the season the chance they have is a final chance and the price of that came at tatum's development but that's that's the super optimistic view i'm asking you

if somebody has a pretty average ball handling skill, I would say at a scale of one to 10, I would say he's a four right now. How old is he? He's 21. He just turned 21. But my question is, do you get a better handle as you get older or you are who you are with that? A handle?

He can definitely get better at this. Okay. Because I think about this a lot with him. He should be a junior in college. Yeah, but I'm just telling you, this is the thing that is keeping him back now. Okay. This is why he's settling for jump shots,

and this is why he doesn't go to the rim, because I don't think he trusts his handle. All right. This is my theory. Okay. I might not be right. You might be right. So watch the people.

Watch game four tomorrow, and watch his handle when he's got somebody directly in front of him playing good defense and watch how they poke the moment he makes the move because they think they can get the ball. So the Hayward thing, you know, he's done this all year. He looks great. It's awesome. Everybody's high-fiving.

And then he all of a sudden has no confidence. So I don't know what to make of it. This, to me, has the feeling of a five- no confidence. So I don't know what to make of it. I, this to me has the feeling of a five game series. Wow. So I, the question I was going to ask you is who wins tomorrow night? What they need tomorrow night is for the bucks to just miss a lot of shots and get the crowd into it,

get points off turnovers and, you know, flip the game so that the bucks start out like three for 18 from three. Boston's getting turnovers off them. That's the way to come back. I don't think they can outscore Milwaukee. If Milwaukee's playing well, I don't think they can match the points. It's too easy for the Bucs over and over again for Giannis to get to the line. They're getting 15 to 20 free throws a game from him on top of all the open shots. It's that math doesn't work. This is going to

be a problem for Boston. It's a problem. I think they really needed Smart in this series. It cannot be overstated. And Brogdon would have also really helped the Bucs. But I think even though Brogdon's probably a better basketball player than Smart, I think Boston needed Smart more in this series. Yeah, the defensive identity is huge. I'm not optimistic, House. I hear you. I think the Boston slam is on life support. And then you ask about, could you do AD anyway?

I think they have the best package to offer if they put all their stuff on the table. It would be against AD's will, though. That's the risk, right? Yeah. And, and the one thing is, and I've heard a few people say this, it really does. And Jack McMullen said this in my pod the other day, it really seems like the Lakers are off the table with him. Like, like the, the new Orleans is just like, we're not traded in there. Not after everything happened. You're not getting that at this stage. You're not trading there. Not after everything happened.

You're not getting that at this stage. You're not getting it. That's a great, it's fine. So back to, let's put a bow on Kyrie and then we'll take a break. If he's your second best player, I think you win a title.

Who? Kyrie. I agree with this. So if Davis, so if Davis comes in as the best guy, I think that could win a title. If Kyrie's my best guy, I don't think I can win a title.

I agree with you. I just don't. We are in lockstep on this. Okay. Let's take a break. Kyle can get a couple of yawns in. Bud Light is keeping it real by putting an ingredients label on their packaging.

Brewed with hops, barley, water, and rice. No corn syrup, no preservatives, no artificial flavors. You know who else is keeping it real? You know who Joe house? Who? Where's the PJ being played? Beth page black. Beth page black.

My sources tell me house. My sources tell me, House. My sources tell me. You're going to like this. Tiger Woods took his yacht. His yacht's called Privacy. Oh, yeah. And he parked that thing near the Bethpage course. And he's been out there playing the last couple weeks. Oh, it's been.

Or last couple days, whatever. Yeah, your sources and my sources are the same sources, Bill Simmons. He's been on that Bethpage course. You know what Tiger's thinking? A little Tiger slam action. He's thinking about no artificial ingredients out there on Bethpage. I know that much. He's keeping it real.

Cheers to Bud Light reminding you to enjoy responsibly and keep it real. And since we're here, Fairway Rollin' presented by Callaway. Yeah, our good friends Callaway Golf. We're doing a little bit of a pre preview. I have as a guest, the esteemed president of the PGA of America, Susie Whaley, the first female president in the history of the PGA of America. This week, we do a little bit of a preview. Uh, you're not going to believe this, but we talked a little bit about Tiger. Oh, great. And some ideas for growing the game. So it's a very cool podcast this week. Super excited for him.

Okay. Let's go here. We're kind of saving the great takes for a little bit later because I have a couple really hot ones. So we were talking about this today, Jamal Murray versus Jalen Brown in that 2016 draft. Yes. Jamal Murray has been, you know, I had a feeling heading into these playoffs that the Nuggets were going to go as he went.

Because he's really their only reliable playmaker other than Jokic. So the theory was that basically every other game he'd be good and that would be a game they'd win. He's been better basically every other game he'd be good and that would be a game they'd win. He's been better than every other game. And it feels like he's starting to have a blossoming. Can I compare him to somebody? Make sure your pants are zipped for this analogy. Go ahead. Because you and I both loved this more than anything when it was happening.

Mike Bibby, 2002. Remember that? When C web is like, I'm terrified. Could somebody help me? Mike baby's like, I got this. I just want to point out Jamal Murray has been better than every other game by like just a little bit.

I mean, they won game seven and the series against Portland right now is 2-2. So it's like just a little bit better than every other game better. Right, but I thought he was good in the four-overtime game. He was good in the four-overtime game. I think he's gone up a level. I really do. I feel like there's a confidence.

And it was not a coincidence that he had a little free free throw shooting duo with dame lowered and he won at the end of this game and dame lowered is one of the better uh one of the better free throw shooters there is a take out there that has to do with dame i don't know what it is i haven't figured it out yet but he's not what's what what's missing with him in this series so far uh gary harris is doing a really good job defending him. Is he in his pants? It's been surprising. He's in his pants.

Gary Harris... I remember when they gave him that contract that seemed high. It's like $70 million, $75. I don't know. If you can guard small point guards like that, he's certainly better guarding small point guards than when the Celtics have.

It did change the entire trajectory of the Spurs series because after Derek White dunked on whoever that poor boy was that he dunked on, they just said, oh, we have Gary Harris. We're going to put Gary Harris on Derek White. And then I still haven't. We put out an APB for Derek White. So here's the 2016 draft.

Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram. Jalen Brown, three to the Celts. Dragan Bender, fourth to Phoenix. Man. Ouch. Chris Stone, fifth. Buddy Heald, sixth. Jamal Murray, seventh.

Marquise Chris eighth Jakob Pertl ninth Thon Maker tenth and it was bad when it happened it was immediately awful but John Hammond's done a lot of good stuff so he's deserved some bad ones every once in a while

Sabonis was eleventh that draft was not great though after Sabonis Torian Prince, Papa Giannis, the guy the Kings took. Remember that guy? Denzel Valentine, Juan Hernan Gomez, Yabasele in the Celtics, Wade Baldwin, who I think got waived in a year, Henry Ellenson,

and then we had Malik Beasley and Karis LeVert, 19 and 20. So it got a little bit better. But this actually was not a good draft. Not a good draft. And I remember the Celtics, the big question was Jalen Brown or Jamal Murray. They just like Jalen Brown's makeup and they like the idea

of interchangeable swing guys. I don't know. I don't know who I would rather have. I feel like I'm a little biased because I really love the way Jalen Brown's played the last four months. And I think you have to have at least one swing guy like that. You are an unbiased observer.

Who would you rather have? Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown, make the case. I feel like he, it's impossible to segregate his opportunity with Boston, playing with the veterans that he got to play with right away. You can't underestimate the effect of Al Horford. I'll never, ever get over the fact that Boston got effing Al Horford instead of Washington. Yeah.

The entire fortune of my franchise would be different if we had Horford. That's how important he is. He's our franchise. But you guys got Jan Mahindy, though. You son of a bitch. That, that,

uh, Horford effect, the stabilizing effect. He really more than anybody else gets all the credit for the brink of making the NBA finals last year with a cast of young fellas. But so I can't say what if Jalen Brown didn't have Al Horford in his life. Like if he had just gone to the Phoenix Suns or something. Or the Washington Wizards.

You left out having Brad Stevens in his life, too. Sure, sure. But I don't know. Brad Stevens this season. Oh, come on. I'm right here. He might be. He's a good coach.

I'm not sure about the chemistry piece of it. He could figure it out. I don't know if it was figureoutable. In his defense, you don't know what Gordon Hayward you're going to get really within 15 minute increments. In his defense, Kyrie was bizarre

for the first four months of the season and then profusely apologized for how bizarre he was. And now it's, Jackie McMillan just wrote about this last week. Everybody's like, yeah, things got weird. So I feel like I've seen more defensive effort out of Jalen Brown than I've ever seen out of Jamal Murray,

and that would be the reason that I would tilt that way. And that would be the case against Jamal Murray, is defensively, especially Game 3, Portland was just attacking him. Yes. And to the point that there was one section, I can't remember if it was third overtime or the fourth where they just took him out coming out of a timeout

because they didn't even want him out there defensively so he has not been good on that end on the other side though goes back to that Bibby 2002 analogy it's funny like you could win a title if you have a guy who's kind of your playmaker a little bit hit and miss and he's

not the best guy on your team but as somebody who can have those moments like the spurs in 2014 parker is the best version of this right like parker was the creator parker at no point was one of the best five players in the league he might've been in the top 12 there for a couple of years, maybe top 14, but capable of being an MVP of a finals. Right. And capable of creating his own shot and big moments and stuff like that. So that brings me back to the Murray thing.

I think it's hard to find guys like that. I actually think it's a little bit easier to find Jalen Brown types than a guy who just isn't afraid in the last two minutes of a game like we saw today in game four yeah he was really impressive in that game yokage was running on fumes at one point it looked like yokage blew out his knee i think he just had a cramp i hope we're rooting for it to just be yeah it seemed okay um but well sure that game seven shot that he took off the wrong foot after really having a sequence, you know, leading up to that, that made shot of, you know, the collective Denver didn't have a great decision making inside the last two minutes against the Spurs. Yeah.

But, you know, he still was fearless. He still and that three pointer that he took at the bit with two seconds left left on the clock because the Spurs were disinclined to foul, being down four points. Disinclined is an understatement. That was a game where that covering the six and a half was just begging to happen and he missed it. Denver does have kind of a fun playoff team that makes sense, even though it doesn't make sense.

It's like, you kind of need the guy like Will Barton who every time he shoots, you're going, no, no, yes. Classic. No, no. Yes. Guy hit a couple of huge shots in the game today. I was texting with a friend of mine and we were talking about how there's guys on certain teams. Like Marcus Morris was like this for the Celtics where it's actually the worst thing for their team if they start playing well because then they'll take the

biggest shot in the game. Marcus Morris, if he hits a couple threes in the first half, he'll absolutely take the biggest shot of the game. He's not in your top three that you'd want. And Will Barton is one of the guys for nuggets like that. But he made them tonight. They have these interchangeable swing

men who can just kind of get hot for five minutes. Jokic is I mean, he's I would say he's probably the big winner of the playoffs so far. Wow. I thought it was Dame Lillard, but I think Jokic might have surpassed him.

You don't think Kawhi is the big winner of these playoffs? I knew Kawhi was this good, though. We all knew it. You knew it, too. Yeah, well, I said I anticipated he was going to be the best player in the East, and he is the best player in the East, but you don't know it until you know it.

No, but we knew it with Kawhi because he did it. He outplayed LeBron in the finals. We knew it. He's one of the better player performers. He only played nine games last season. No, but we knew it with Kawhi because he did it. He outplayed LeBron in the finals. We knew it. He's one of the better player performers. He only played nine games last season. No, I know. I get that part. But we knew he could do it. Yeah, we knew he could do it. The thing with Jokic that I always kept looking at, I was like, alright, this is great for the regular season. He's going to put up stats.

I'm with you on this. 2012 and 7. And, you know, when we were growing up, Denver had the Dan Issel, Kiki Vandwey, Alex English teams. Fun teams, you never took them that seriously. Super fun teams, never took them seriously, ever. Really fun, but then they'd lose to the Lakers 140 to 128. And everybody would get their points, but you never thought they could actually win the title.

I wondered if Jokic was like that for this generation, where it's like, really fun player, love him. I voted for him for third MVP. You can't win a title with that guy. And now you watch these games and you're like, wow. This guy is unstoppable. And maybe you could make the finals with this guy. Maybe. They're going to, you know, it did set up.

And this is all credit to them for, you know, they lost three or four at the very end, so they really put themselves in a precarious position. But that second position in the West mattered. Them clinching the second spot set them up. And if they play in the Western Conference Finals, irrespective of the outcome, that validates the season, as far as I'm concerned.

The transformative moment of these playoffs. It's funny, Westbrook has had no impact in the playoffs for three years. Who dat? But he changed the playoffs when he got hot in that one game that we bet on. When they're down four to Houston. Houston was about to get the two seed. And Westbrook made that crazy three with his leg spread. Then George made another one.

Then it goes to OT and they win. That's why, that's why I'm, I'm F Houston this year, by the way, that was supposed, that was a must win game for them. They had to win that game and they were up by 14 points in the fourth

quarter of that game. We're talking about the second to last regular season game. They were up quite a bit in the fourth quarter and they went on a cold streak and they lost focus and I just, you know, congratulations that they got the one that they absolutely positively had to get to, you know, save a couple jobs.

But I think this is going to be a four to one series and we're going to see tomorrow night a refocus Golden State. Hold on. We're not there yet. I know, but I mean, we're just... Can I give you Jokic's stats for the playoffs? Because we're now at 11 games. I know I'm going to love them.

I'm going to love them. We're now at 11 games. And I did this in my book way back when. I think 12 games is the... 12 games... 12 plus games is the right sample size for postseason. Great.

Because you have like those Tracy McGrady seasons where it's like, he won a 40 game. And it's like, yeah, they lost in seven. And then he didn't play a second round. Right. Please stop comparing that to like Dirk Nowitzki in 2011. So here's Jokic now. 11 games. Basically averaging 25, 12 and5, 9.5.

I mean, damn near triple-double. For 11 games. This is a triple-double, by the way. Everybody out there, this is a triple-double. Wait, it gets better. 50% shooting. 40% three-point, 85% free throws.

He's almost a 50-40-90 guy right now for the playoffs. This is 11 games. This is a real sample size. This is what a winner, a triple-double winner looks like. One more number for you. He played 104 minutes this weekend. God! I mean, at my advanced age, what can I do for 104 minutes this weekend. God! I mean, at my advanced stage,

I can't, what can I do for 104 minutes? Drink that wine. I honestly like watching him during the 4-0-T game was like watching Kyle do a triathlon. Where it's like, this guy might die because we might need to get him off the court. I'm hoping that I have

my own smaller version of that when I go back at these Brejols in about 20 minutes. Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, I wanted to tweet. I didn't want to make fun of Jokic because he was so great in that game, but I wanted to tweet when he was at 64 minutes that he was at 64 minutes,

but he'd only burned 320 calories. But then I felt like it was a dig on Jokic, but it was like he's one of those guys that he's never sprinting. So it's always like he's at his pace, but it was like, he, he's one of those guys that he's never sprinting. So it's always like, he's at his pace. So it's never, he's like, he's on the treadmill at like three, 3.5 or three, five miles an hour, but never at four. One of my very favorite aspects of, of the, the Jokic revelation, this, this playoffs as all that stuff that's in his run up to this moment. The picture of his

passport that showed up on Twitter. Oh, so good. The stories about all the coke that he used to drink. I mean, it's incredible. Yeah, it's so good. Let's make this list right now. Most fun guys to play with in the league if we were still playing pickup if we weren't retired. I think Jokic would be

like in the top three. If I'm moving, he we weren't retired. I think Jokic would be in the top three. If I'm moving, he's going to get me the ball. I'm going to get a layup. You know who I have on my list right now? You were reminded of this. Kevin Durant? No. No, but his teammate, Draymond. I want this version of Draymond. I would love to play with this. To play pickup with?

Oh my God. I'd vote no on that. What? Because he might get in a fight. I don't want to get punched when I'm playing pickup. He might get in a fight with somebody and then I might get hit by the punch. Get out of the way. Just get out of the way. He might throw a punch. The guy ducks and then I get hit.

You've been on the court when there are fights. You don't have to be part of the fight. Yeah. I want this version of Draymond. This version of Draymond is my favorite version of Draymond. Yeah. Where did it go? Where did,

what did he, him and KD were like hibernating for six months and then they just flicked the switch. They know, they know this is what OGs do. So what? So give me your top five guys. I'm talking about just pickup.

I'm trying, I'm trying to stay in the court and I'm trying to have fun. Jokic has to be one of the top three picks. You're going to laugh. You know who one of mine is? Kyrie? No, Ben Simmons.

That mother ever never wants to shoot. I want to shoot. That's a hot potato brother right there. As soon as he gets across half court, who can I pass the ball to? Who can I pass to? So you like Ben Simmons because you'll get to shoot.

Yes. So I'm going the other way. If you have Ben Simmons, you're going to be mad at him because he's going to keep running in the lane and clogging the paint. So when you drive to the basket, his guy comes over.

Get back. Get back. Get back on D, Ben. Pass the ball and get back. Ben, stay on the other side of the court. That's it. Pass the ball and go back. That's it.

So I have Jokic. I think KD would be really fun to play with. He always tries to make the right decision. I don't have any quibbles with KD. That one yesterday, there was a great moment in the game last night when he was red hot and Kurt was telling him

to take over and make a play. And he had the guy, and it seemed like the classic NBA hero ball moment. And then he found Iguodala in the corner and he made a three. It was awesome. And Durant did the double fist bump.

That was the right play. And I don't think a lot of guys make that play. I loved the trust in Iggy. I loved Iggy. They love Iggy. Draymond and Iggy, this is the thing with the Warriors.

This version of Draymond and Iggy that they have right now is another final effing title for them. And it breaks my heart. Steph Curry. We don't have money on it? Steph Curry. Now hold that. I have a big take. Steph Curry. We don't have money on it? Steph Curry. No, hold that. I have a big take on Steph Curry. Hold that.

All right. So who's your number one draft pick? For what? Is it really Ben Simmons to play pickup with? No. I love Jokic. I love this version of Jokic. Put me on that. Can you call him Jokic because that's his name?

No, no, no. I like Jokic because that goes Joker. Let me be me. Okay. Let me and my Amarone. Mispronounce his name. Knock yourself out. Mr. Mispronunciation. You're on my corner. I get jealous when you're mispronouncing names. Mispronouncing names, a whole career of it. Yeah. And I call a guy by the name I want to call him and I'm not allowed. Jokic would be fun. I'm trying to think who else. I think Jalen Brown would be fun to play with

because he basically, I know exactly what he is. That's just random. I know, but he's never, but if we're building a five, we want the guy who's going to guard the other team's best player. He's going to be, he's going to make open threes and he's not going to be mad if he doesn't get the ball. Like that has to be, because you and I, we're going, now we're going time machine.

We need to do our thing. We need to do Stockton Malone stuff. We do like to do that. So Jokic has to be, because you and I, we're going that, now we're going time machine. We need to do our thing. We need to do Stockton Malone stuff. We do like to do that. So Jokic has to be over there. Somebody has to be responsible. There needs to be a responsible Jalen Brown's in the corner. And who's our fifth? Somebody who's rebounding. Montrezl Harrell? No. No.

Somebody in the playoff. Like somebody's like, you know, in this round of the playoff. Somebody at this stage. We're still putting on somebody obvious. All right. Let's do Kawhi just for the hell of it. Oh, KD. KD, Jalen Brown, Jokic.

No joke. I would rather have Kawhi. Wow. This is the alpha dog moment that we're at. Is it a KD or a Kawhi? That conversation is happening on Twitter as we speak, Bill Simmons. KD or Kawhi? Right now in these playoffs.

I mean, KD just has the resume. Feels disrespectful. I love Kawhi. Kawhi will not let his team lose. The will to win in Kawhi. He let him lose game three. I'm not. It sounds like by making this point with Kawhi that I'm by,

by contradistinction, diminishing KD's will to win. And I'm not doing that. But the difference between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto, because Toronto, holy, we've learned some things about this Toronto Raptors team. They suck.

I mean they suck. What the F is going. This is the very. You know the Sunday evening podcast. We're doing right now. We just watched the very best version. Of the Toronto Raptors today. Against the Sixers.

And they eked out a win. Now it was at the Sixers' place. Well, they had a weird Embiid situation where they were saying Embiid was sick. I personally can the body language doctor come in for a second? I thought he was pouting.

You think he was pouting? I think he was pouting because I don't think they were giving him the ball in the first quarter. And I think he got pissed off and he wasn't feeling that good anyway. And he's like, well, fuck this. You guys aren't getting me the ball. He had five shot attempts through three quarters. I know.

What is going on in Philadelphia? He had 33 points the game before. Here's the thing. How many ailments does this man have? What's going on with him? Uh-oh, drunk house is here, Kyle. What's wrong with him? He had a stomach problem. Today was what?

Can I get you another glass of wine, Mr. House? Yes, please. I'll have the Brunello. It is weird. Embiid does have a lot of ailments. What the F is going on? You win the playoffs, Joel. No offense, but how about playing three straight games where you're just healthy? What about this? They run

pick and roll where the, the, their best option is in terms of getting him. The ball is off at the top of the, of the key. And if the pass comes, doesn't come off the slip right away, he doesn't touch the ball.

He, he never gets the ball in a spot where he can be effective. How about this? And I'm not the only one saying this. If neither of us are Toronto fans and the Toronto fans are mad at you because you just said they suck. They suck. It's not my fault.

Well, see, we're not getting a full feeling for Siakam. Like, he definitely was hurt in the game today. I think, okay. I thought he was one of the best 15 guys in the league by the end of the year. I'm not saying he is talent-wise. If we were just saying who were the best 15 guys, he was playing the best. Out of the 15 guys who were playing the best,

he was on that list in April. I want to be fair. This is exactly what you get with a guy like him under these circumstances. In the playoffs. That's a great point. Regular season versus playoffs. And this is why, and I make this point all the time, and I can't make it enough.

When we're asked to vote on stuff like MVP and All-NBA, we're voting in the regular season. Like, the dumbest thing you hear all year is when, like during that whole LeBron stretch, when LeBron would play really well in the playoffs, and people are like, it's absurd. How does he not have more MVPs? It's like, because the MVPs for the regular season,

like that's what we vote on. He wasn't the MVP of the last couple of regular seasons. Sorry. He didn't play defense. He didn't try all the time. And I'd say the reverse is like somebody like Siakam and Ben Simmons. Sure.

No playoff chops whatsoever. Regular season, great. That's right. You get to the playoffs, it's just a little different. Different game. The pants are a little tighter on your nuts. Well. The pressure's a little different.

The pace is different. Teams know how to game plan for you. You're playing the same team two straight weeks? That's it. Correct. That's right. So this is a good time to bring up Ben Simmons. I feel like you have a take coming. That's right. So this is a good time to bring up Ben Simmons.

I feel like you have a take coming. I have a couple takes. I actually think they should have benched him in the fourth quarter of this game today. And I watch it. I'll put this on Instagram tonight because I taped every possession they had from like seven minutes on in the fourth quarter. He did not do, when I say he didn't do anything, he dribbled the ball up to mid court, gave it to somebody. And then he basically could have gone and sat down in the stands. But the problem is, I'm talking like 14 straight possessions where he's just in the way. He is like, you're playing pickup and there's that one

guy. It's like, oh, my, my buddy's roommate's best friend from college is in town. Can he play with us? Yeah, that sounds cool. Great. And then the guy's a disaster. And it's like, can you just stay out of the way so we can play basketball? Like just go in the corner. That's Ben Simmons in these games.

He's their best defensive option against Kawhi. But the thing is, he's not as good defensively as people seem to think he is. It's not about as good versus, you know. And by the way, he's not doing a good job against Kawhi. Kawhi's But the thing is, he's not as good defensively as people seem to think he is. It's not about as good versus And by the way, he's not doing a good job against Kawhi. Kawhi's scoring on him. He's the best defensive option they have. I think his defense is overrated. I think he's lazy on defense. I think he

tries sometimes. I don't think he tries other times. I disagree. I don't think he's lazy. I think he's trying. I think he has lazy moments. I don't think he's lazy. I'm not going to use that word. I think he's inexperienced. I think he doesn't yet. I think he's trying. I think he has lazy moments. I don't think he's lazy. I don't, I'm not going to use that word. I think he's inexperienced. I think he doesn't.

I think he lets up. I don't think he does. This is, here's the thing. The Philly fans, this has become like, uh, they're like the little league parents.

And this is like one of their kids. And I don't feel like they're fully rational about it yet. I don't see how you can win a title. if Ben Simmons is one of your three best players, unless he figures out how to be able to do more offensively. Because it's like, he'll do it against the Nets, where it's like, he had those two big games against the Nets. Everybody's like, oh, Ben Simmons, here he comes. The game I watched today, they couldn't even figure out how to include him in the fourth quarter because he can't shoot. And you have Embiid.

So, like, what do you do? Because basically the guy I watched today in the fourth quarter was Andre Roberson offensively. Sure. You're not going to get a defense out of me. The way they're using him in the fourth quarter, I might actually rather have Andre Roberson. Well, Roberson will take a three-pointer at least.

Yeah, at least he'll know where to go. Yeah. And it's like they try to cheat the Simmons thing now where they have him stand right outside the paint on the square, and he's kind of lingering in case there's an offensive rebound he can get. And that's all he does. He doesn't really move. He's not doing back cuts.

He's just kind of in the way. And it's crazy because I think the guy's really talented. My thing is, is this somebody who should just be on like a bad team like Devin Booker? Just go get your stats, balls in your hands all the time, no real stakes, and you're just learning how to play basketball basically. Well, he needs to learn how to play basketball that includes shooting the basketball.

But he can't shoot. He won't. He won't shoot. Then he can't play. That was my point. I think they should have benched him the last six minutes. To your point, if he's not going to shoot, he can't play. So they have to come up with an answer for this.

Because your point is right. Well, they're going to lose the series. That's right. You're right about this. I don't know what the answer is. Because, I mean, there was this one play. It was near the end, but they were still in the game, probably like two, three minutes

left and things kind of broke down and JJ was at the top, but they had a lot of shot clock left. Did you see this play? I watched the entire game, so I'm sure I saw the play. And JJ and then he ended up kind of running a kind of makeshift screen and roll with Embiid that he kind of created on the fly.

This was a classic. As soon as it broke down, either Brett Brown has to call timeout, and I don't even think he had that many left, or Simmons has to sprint up as like the playmaker creator guy to be like, all right, reset, I got this. Like that's what Kyrie would do.

That's what Jamal Murray would do. That's what Kevin Durant would do. Somebody in the team has to be like, oh shit, I got this, guys. And nobody did it because he's not thinking that way because once it's a half court and it's a playoff game

and he's getting rid of the ball, he's out of the play. He's not in the play anymore. He's basically Ben Wallace of the 2004 Pistons. It's like, how is this a good use of him? Well, I don't know what choice do they have. You can't run screen and rolls with him because who are you going to run it with?

You can't make him the screener because nobody's going to guard him. No, he comes down with a head of steam off of pick and roll with Embiid. All of his points come. But the Raptors know that's coming with final six minutes. That's the difference. They're just going to put the wall up. He gets away with it six times a game. So he gets 12 points a game in these games. The one thing

that happens, he'll do that little thing where he has a head of steam and he'll dish to somebody. And he did that I think once in the fourth. At the start of the fourth quarter, I looked at it because I was really curious what his stats were going to look like. And he was eight, four and four heading into the fourth., I looked at it because I was really curious what his stats were going to look like. And he was eight, four and four heading into the fourth. And I think he finished like 10, five and four. And the layup came with like 20 seconds left in the game. Like he, when I say he was a zero in the fourth quarter, like he was like a zero, he did nothing. So I don't want to

totally blame him because I think part of it is a systemic thing with just how they use him and how they've just been completely unable to figure this out. And the Sixers fans are like, process, process. It landed us Embiid and Simmons. It's like, Embiid's great. Can he stay in the court? And I don't know what Simmons is. So congratulations. You just threw away seven years.

There was a minute there where it felt like we were going to start getting some Philly booze with Simmons. I almost tweeted it. It should have happened. It felt very close to that Philly crowd turning on Ben Simmons. I love Embiid. I hope there's a world where he stays on the court. I think it's clearly his city.

Actually, I have this email I want to read. This is great. This is a really good email and I 100,000% agree with it. So this email is from Nick in Brooklyn. Dear Conspiracy Bill, how do you feel about Jimmy Butler's strategy of becoming b-ball besties with Embiid to ice Simmons out as a valuable trade asset and remain with the 76ers? I'm not sure it'll work, but I respect the hustle. All right. So let's think about this for a second. Butler joined the Sixers and was very pro-Simmons, but it's definitely the last

month or so him and Embiid have buddied up. And I do wonder if Butler sees a world where if I stay with Philly, that's probably at the expense of Ben Simmons. Everything you just said, I believe to be 100% true. I subscribe to all of this. And by the way, the Philly fans can't get mad at us. We're just two guys who have known each other now for 30 plus years who watch basketball. And this is my opinion. I don't think Ben Simmons is long for Philadelphia, is my genuine

opinion. I agree with you. And if the choice is Ben Simmons versus Jimmy Butler, one player was having his name chanted by the crowd today. Jimmy Butler! It was not a Ben Simmons chant. Has Ben Simmons ever caught a chant

in Philly? Well, then the other thing is, they go all in on Tobias Harris. He had two wide open threes in the corner at really huge moments of that fourth quarter, and he missed both of them. Now, everybody misses threes. People make 35% to 40% of them. The second one wasn't close.

This is another guy, like you trade for a veteran who has not been in a lot of big games and he was two for 12 from three i thought he had a lot of open shots and was kind of the guy who's been the beneficiary of how toronto's playing d he just didn't do anything he he got a rude introduction to proper playoff basketball in game one. I think he had 11 shots blocked. It might be an exaggeration, but every time I looked up, somebody was swatting his shit somewhere.

So you look at what Philly did this year and their whole strategy, as it's been explained to me, and I think it's been pretty public at this point, was we don't know how long this Embiid-Simmons window is going to last. We got to go all in. Championship windows can close faster than you think. We think we have a chance to win a title this year. That feels like a mis-evaluation because unless Embiid

is going to go 35 and 15 for the rest of the playoffs, basically, this team has no chance to win the finals and probably not even make the finals. And I think the difference between Embiid and people like Giannis and KD and all that stuff is those guys are just there at 100% capacity every game and Embiid isn't. That's a fact.

It's just a fact. This is the problem with Philly. Tell me what version of Embiid I'm getting. Is he sick? Does his knee hurt? Did he eat something bad? Does he have gastroenteritis? Did he stay up too late?

Does his back hurt? Were there bad allergies? Tell me what version of Embiid I'm going to have at whatever time the game is. I would have loved to have known at 3 o'clock today before I put something down on the Philadelphia money line. We bet the Philly money line parlayed with Denver plus 8.5, which was minus

250. And the bet was like plus 140. Yeah. And we thought the Sixers were going to win today. Then we watch it. No idea what's going on with Embiid. Siakam somehow plays. I thought he wasn't that good. No, Siakam stunk.

Here's the thing. He was at least a body body though like who else were they going to play no I they don't have a choice they got their the best version of Toronto was was today they got a great game out of Lowry the best kind of game they can get out of him they got a great game out of Gasol he was as aggressive everybody's been begging him don't't pass. Shoot. Stop playing hot potato, Mark. He played very well. Danny Green was, eh. They sat Fred VanVleet's ass on the bench where he belongs.

They found out over the course of this year that he can't really be involved. Serge had a good game. This was the best version of Toronto today. It took an execrable had a good game like this was the best version of toronto today and if it took uh an ex exacra bowl that's only i only had two glasses of wine effort by mb you had like four yeah that's true it took an exacra bowl effort by a bead for for i mean the game was in the balance with a minute left

kyle who's the guy with the beard that I like on Game of Thrones? Who called John? The guy with the beard. Torben, probably. Torben? The redhead guy? Torben. Loves Brienne?

Torben. Yeah, Torben. I like Torben. He's like Fred Van Vliet. You don't actually want him prominently involved in plots, but he's fun to have around. It's Fred Van Vliet. You don't want him involved in plots.

I'm going to tell you what the Sixers should do with Ben Simmons in one second. First, the Sonos Beam is the smart, compact soundbar for your TV. Newest addition to the easy-to-use Sonos home sound system. I've had Sonos for basically this entire decade. You know what's really fun when you watch TV house? Good sound. Surround sound. I have one in my house.

This is how I watch the basketball games. When they film shows like Game of Thrones, they like to have the sounds coming at you in all these different ways. With over 100 streaming services and AirPlay, Sonos lets you play everything you love and enjoy music, radio, movies, TV, podcasts, and more. Beam is easy to set up. It connects to your TV with just one cord and syncs with your existing remote.

Plus, the Sonos app walks you through setup step-by-step. And with built-in Amazon Alexa, you can enjoy hands-free control of your music and more. It connects Sonos speakers over Wi-Fi. Listen anywhere in your house. Go to Sonos.com to learn more and order your Beam today. That is S-O-N-O-S.com. All right. Found the Sixers.

I had this idea in the pod before. I'm resuscitating now. I'm assuming they're going to lose this series. First of all, they should be trading Ben Simmons. I'm not assuming they're going to lose this series. I'm assuming they're losing this series.

For the purposes of this... For the purposes of this discussion, they lose this series to the Raptors. Okay but I'm assuming they're losing the series. Okay, go ahead. For the purposes of this... For the purposes of this discussion, they lose this series to the Raptors. Okay, I'm with you. If that happens. I think you have to kick the tires

on Anthony Davis again. I had this thought a few months ago. If I'm the Pelicans, that's as good of a chess piece as I'm getting back. And you could talk yourself pretty quickly into he's only 22. He's been into a lot of playoff games already. Maybe him and Embiid is just not the right fit.

You want to build a team around his skills. The same way the Bucks build a team around Giannis' skills. Not that he's as good as Giannis, but could you build a team around his skills and all the not that he's as good as Giannis, but could you build a team around his skills and all the things that he's good at and become a really good team? And I think the answer might be yes. The bigger question for me is,

can Simmons and Embiid, do they make sense together? And from what I've seen, if I'm trying to win the title, I think the answer is no. If you're trying to win the title, then you can't have the patience that's going to be required to indulge all of the variables that are at play with those two. And this is a key point, right? So off of what you just said, the Celtics with Tatum and Jalen Brown, guys like that, if they're not playing well, if their matchups are on, they're not

feeling it. Stevens will bench them the last six, seven minutes of a game. But with Simmons, because he's got a little bit higher pedigree, he was the number one overall pick, he's more famous, he's already had some moments, you're a little worried about what happens, what if he doesn't sign his rookie extension and he just kind of leaves his free agent two years. You have to cater to him a little bit more.

And it's not necessarily the right decision sometimes to play him in these games. I don't think they're not benching him, not, not benching him. I'm going to mess this up because they're worried about hurting his feelings. Oh, I think you're a thousand percent wrong in these playoff games. I think, I think is the alternative who's guarding. We put on Kawhi. First of all, TJ McConnell got a thousand percent wrong. In these playoff games. Yeah, I think. Who is the alternative? Who's guarding? Who do they put on Kawhi? First of all, TJ McConnell got a DNP today.

How dare you? Who are they putting on Kawhi? I'm just saying that he got a DNP. It's the fourth quarter and they're trying to win the game at home. What's the point of having Jimmy Butler then? Isn't that why I traded for Jimmy Butler to guard Kawhi? No, you need Jimmy Butler. To guard who?

Nobody. Kyle Lowry? Saving his. Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Because you need Jimmy Butler. To guard who? Nobody. Kyle Lowry? Saving his, yes, yes, yes, exactly. Because you need him to have his legs. I thought Tobias Harris could guard all these people. So Butler and Harris can't guard Kawhi, need Ben Simmons. That's, yes.

That's not a knock on either one of those guys. Kawhi is the second best player in these playoffs, or maybe the best player in these playoffs. Ben Simmons is the right guy to guard Kawhi. I would much rather play Shamit. Oh wait, he's not on the team. Sorry. That's so rude. Forgot they threw him in the

trade for no reason. How dare you. Anyway, could you get could you get Davis with the Ben Simmons package? Unfortunately, they gave away all their other assets, which is what killed them with the Harris thing. They need picks. They need picks for that to work.

I don't know what they do. What if the Clippers came to them and said, hey, we'll take Ben Simmons. We'll give you Shea Gilgis and something else. Why would the Clippers do that? Clippers are in good shape right now. They don't need a problem. Because I'm both criticizing Ben Simmons,

but I also still think he's an amazing talent. I just think he's on the wrong team. I don't disagree with you. I don't know what the right team is, though. Not this team. It's a team that's going to take the one grotesque, glaring error. It's unbelievable that we're this far along in his career and he can't shoot the basketball. This was the biggest game of their season so far today. And he was not involved in any possessions for the last eight minutes of the game. So something's wrong. That to me is like more than a red flag.

He was healthy. He can't shoot. He's afraid to shoot. I agree that something's wrong. Don't play him then. Take him out. He's got to play defense. Well, he didn't do a great job of that either.

Um, all right. Next topic, Chris Paul. Oh boy. AKA Mr. Small shot. I knew you're loaded.

AKA the mailman 2.0. Oh, I asked you why you didn't tweet that last night. I was saving it for the pod. That's nice. I like it. I was going to tweet last night. I feel robbed that we never got to see Mailman and Chris

Paul in the same playoff team. It would have been great. The United States Postal Service feels robbed too. I was like, I've never seen anything like this Chris Paul thing before where at the end of these games, he's just a disaster. It's like, oh wait, Karl Malone. I forgot. I was there the entire time.

You and I used to call each other after the Karl Malone playoff games and just laugh. You get the Botox face. Remember? Who knows? At this stage. Carl Malone was PR in the playoffs. Actually, it was 26.4.

Like, no, dude, I was there. Carl Malone was terrified. Chris Webber was terrified in the last two minutes of every playoff game. C-Web was terrified. Go watch the games. That is hot potato C-Web. Hot potato, big time. And CP, how about when he passed up the wide open three?

That was incredible. There was nobody within 10 feet of him. It was very rude. It was two and a half minutes left. Of ESPN. They put that shit on slow-mo. It was embarrassing. It was like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

This guy's one of the best 40 players ever. There was nobody else on the basketball court. That's how open he was. So when you talk about CP in the playoffs, you have to start with 2014, the OKC game. One of the biggest 30-second collapses in the history of basketball. Two turnovers and a bad shot, I think is how it played out. Then the next year, he was out there when they lost by,

or they were up by 19 against the Rockets in game six. Yes, that happened. And blew that game. That's true. There's not a lot of great Chris Paul playoff moments. The best one was the 2014 game 7 yes

against the Spurs which I went to which he was great um incredible competitor we ran a story in the ringer last week about what an incredible

competitor he is I'm not arguing that I think he actually it starts to mean too much in these games I think he I think he actually, it starts to mean too much in these games. I think he becomes so intense that I actually think it's to his own detriment.

I think so. He just does weird shit. Like for somebody who's one of the best point guards ever, like he has these what are you doing moments that, you know, you should be locked in. Like remember Stockton? I think. Or Isaiah?

Like guys would actually get more locked in in these moments. He gets less locked in, but this is a function of who he's become this stage of his career. He said a different stage, who that team is. And he, he's, he doesn't think of himself as a first option. So him like,

uh, at this stage of, of these playoffs with what's at stake, him, uh, re-imag playoffs with what's at stake, him re-imagining himself like that three pointer, it was dramatic for how wide open it was, but that's not his role on this team. He's not thinking shoot first. Well, that brings me to the next question.

What is his role in this team? Because when I watch these games, and I've watched every minute of all three games, and we have a lot at stake with this Rockets bet, it seems to me, first of all, Eric Gordon is the second best player on the team. Who's going to argue that? Nobody.

It's an unassailable point at this point. I think the casual basketball fan that's not paying attention would think it's Chris Paul. But it's Eric Gordon. It's definitely Eric Gordon. The problem with having Chris Paul out there is that he's still Chris Paul and he's still

wired mentally like he's one of the best 40 guys of all time, which he is. And then you have these moments where at the end of the game, like the interregulation, Chris Paul's like, I got this. It's like, no, you shouldn't have this. He should not have, you should not be the one who has this.

I would rather have Austin rivers over in the corner knowing, you know, who shouldn't have this me over here. If, if you have to kick it out to me, I'll take it. But I know I'm not the guy. There was a funny thing with D and Tony saying, well, I didn't call timeout because James had the ball in his hands. If James has the ball in the hand, his hands all I'm going to do is run a play that says, James, get the ball in his hands. And then James didn't have the ball in his hands.

Yeah. And then you know who did it? How about this? And then Chris Paul. Call timeout, Mike. Yeah. And then Chris Paul drives to the basket, gets tied up by Klay Thompson. Yeah.

Jump ball. I mean, that could have been their whole season. Jump ball. So I don't know. I, listen, Chris Paul. I know he's one of their best five players. I'm just wondering if they want to win this series.

Is there going to have to be moments where maybe he's not on the court? They're not going to win this series. We've, we've seen enough in the series. They'll be lucky if it goes for two. I think the refs can control a lot of this. I don't want to have the referee discussion, but man, I mean, that Harden charge. So you

had Harden hits a 3, 48 seconds left. Coming out of timeout, everyone knows KD's going to take a 3 at the 28-foot mark right on top of the key. I would have bet my life on it. The Rockets are blindsided by this. They foul him.

He makes all three free throws. Harden comes down. For some reason, decides not to get a two for one. Barrels into the lane. All-time charge on Harden. Bowls over Draymond Green. They don't call it.

Scores. Up five. Warriors come down. Draymond is mad about the call. Goes in, sets a blindside pick on Austin Rivers where he stops for a split second and keeps his hands and elbows way up

and clips Austin Rivers in the head. They don't call it. Curry goes, misses a dunk. Rockets have the ball 20 seconds left. 19 seconds left? 20 seconds left? Yes.

And the Warriors just quit. Somebody's going to have to explain that phenomenon to me, by the way. What the fuck is going on? Even Kerr didn't do anything for about 10 seconds there. Why? What is going on? Down two scores with 20 seconds left. Oh, that's the game.

What are we talking about? All credit to Portland and Denver. Portland at least tried their, they were down two scores for the last 30 seconds of the game and they battled and battled and fouled and tried to get possessions. Yeah, they almost got in.

What was that last night? Why did Golden State concede it? So this is the case against the Warriors. That makes them arrogant pricks and that makes me want to root against them. But this is the case against the Warriors. That makes them arrogant pricks, and that makes me want to root against them. But this is the case against them in this game. There's still like a slight something off with them. That was weird that they just rolled over after that Curry dunk.

That was weird. We have great playoff performances from Draymond and Iggy. Those two guys for life. Ride or die, those two. And then Durant is superlative, superlative, otherworldly. Clay and Steph, eh? I mean, Steph especially. I know that 50,000 words were spilled onto the internet last night about Steph,

so there's no reason to talk about it. What's wrong with Steph? I have that one. Okay, I'm asking you. I have a take on that. I'm asking. You'll like it more than my Chris Paul take. I didn't like your Chris Paul take. I just want to have the conversation.

If the five guys the Rockets have out there, if something's off... I want to hear the Steph take. We're done with Chris Paul. Give me the Steph take. I just want to see Rivers, Gordon, Capella, Tucker, and Harden for two minutes in the last

five minutes of the game. Just let me see it. I'm not interested. Ben Simmons and Chris Paul can go play together on a different playoff team. So I wonder, we saw this happen with LeBron and Wade. Jalen came over last night after the basketball game, and we watched a Canelo fight together,

and we were talking about this. So he said he was going to talk about this on his show today too. I want to give him credit, even though he steals points from me all the time. Remember LeBron and Wade when they were like co-alphas? Yes. And they were like buddies. They were butch and Sundance.

Yes. And then Wade got hurt that one year. Yep. And LeBron took the reins. Single best thing that happened to the year. Yeah. And it fell into place. And then it was LeBron's team from that point on.

Yes. Wade was never, I would say, 100% okay with it. That's true. He was smart enough to realize. I agree. We're% okay with it. That's true. But I think he was smart enough to realize. I agree. We're better off this way. He likes rings. Yeah.

This is our best chance to win. I'm a little banged up physically. I'm not the same guy I was in 2009, 2010, 11. I'm heading into a different phase of my career. I'm okay with this. So KD has now clearly the best player in the Warriors. That's true. In 2017, they were the co-guys.

And KD was great in the finals, and that's why they won. The biggest reason. Last year, they were both great in the finals. KD was more great. But Curry did all the stuff he normally does. Then KD goes up another level these playoffs. And I think it's actually weirdly affecting Curry. What?

Yeah. How? Because I think it's weird. It's his team. When they had that game, the game two, the fans were chaining MVP every time Curry was at the line. If you notice, they didn't do that for KD. Like that's his city, his team, his franchise.

And even though KD is the most talented guy in the team, it's still kind of Curry's team. And I feel like in the playoffs, it really feels like it's Durant's team. And I think it's throwing Curry off. I think it's subtle and I think it's weird. But Jalen brought this up last night and I was like, God damn, I wish I had thought of that.

It's weird to, this is your team, your whole thing, but it's not your team anymore. And by the way, KD could leave in July and it's back to Curry's team. The whole thing is just weird because he's healthy, allegedly, Curry. Allegedly. He missed a layup at like, he's playing like he did in like 2010

he missed time that effort converting what should have been a layup into you know into a dunk and misapprehended how far away he was from the basket and that's a glaring and embarrassing moment here's the thing i'll defer to jalen i always defer to Jalen. What I have to wrap my head around is, how does that thing you're describing, which is psychological, make him shoot seven for 23? All he does is shoot. He's not a thinking shooter.

He's a shooter shooter. But here's the irony. The brain ain't in it. The irony is you've played basketball and you get it. It's a confident sport. And you never know it's going to throw somebody off just a tiny bit. Just a tiny bit. Just a little bit.

Where part of what made Curry great was the swagger and the chest out. This is my team. Nobody's done it this way before, but our team's going to do it this way. Watching Durant, he's just been so great. I mean, that stretch he had in the game yesterday, that was out of control. When he scored like 12 straight, the array of shots he was taking, he's dribbling the ball up. He's the point forward. He's protecting the rim defensively. Like he was out of control. If he got any help whatsoever in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter from either Clay or Steph, they would have won last night.

I think it's really hard to do your thing on the same team as somebody else who's playing like that. I just think it's hard. Okay. They figured it out. Because when you have the ball, it's kind of like, well, this is stupid. That guy, the other guy should have the ball. Every time Curry had the ball last night,

I'm thinking like, just give it to KD. He's going to score again. Yeah, but he shot 23 times. I know he did, but I'm saying like, I'm talking about the mental aspect of playing basketball when you're playing with somebody who's in the zone and then you get the ball and it's like, all right, I'll shoot this time,

but you should probably be shooting again. You're looking at the other guy. Something throws it off. It's subtle, weird basketball shit. Because either that or he's hurt. We get to monitor it tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Because Draymond doesn't care.

Draymond's like, I don't care if we go to the club tonight. I'm in charge. This is true. I'm the guy. I'm still like you, whatever. You might be the basketball for that, but I'm the fucking alpha dog in this team. I don't care. Knock is true. I'm the guy. I'm still like you, whatever. You might be the basketball for that, but I'm the fucking alpha dog in this team. I don't care.

Knock yourself out. Katie, you, you, if you play great, I'm happy. And Curry's like, yeah,

if you play great, I'm happy. But deep down, he's like, man, this is weird. It's interesting. I'm like a sidekick.

I missed, I missed Jalen talking about it. I have to look it up. I bet. I agree with this, this playoffs. Katie has been so great that it really does

feel like LeBron 2012-ish. KD was already one of the best 15 players ever, but there's a half level he jumped this playoffs. There's a whole lot to sort out tomorrow night. Tomorrow night is getting very juicy. What are we going to eat tomorrow night?

I also wonder when you're curry do you have to be a little more involved quarter to quarter to be who you are i know he shot 23 times yeah that's a lot of touches but is there some sort of unspoken like for the flow of what you do. Do you just have to be integrated more? I don't, I feel like they have that. I feel like their rotations and the touches and the guys shooting when it's the right time for them to shoot.

Klay got 16 up. KD continues to get over 20 up. Well, the pace of the game was a little faster than the other games. Sure, sure, sure. But that's fine. The Warriors can win that way. Alright.

I thought you'd be with me on that one. I want an No, I'm not against you. I find it very, very interesting. I want an explanation for what the hell is wrong with Steph Curry. And it could be what you're saying. I'm not even arguing with you.

All right. We're going to actually, let's do just any other round two thoughts that we have. We didn't talk about the quadruple overtime game. That wasn't one of the best games I've ever seen because the guys were really dragging in the, in the overtimes and the coaches just some bizarre coaching decisions that game including not using subs. And then Rodney hood came in. And of course, really dragging in the, in the overtimes and the coaches, just some bizarre coaching decisions that game,

including not using subs. And then Rodney hood came in and of course did the Glenn McDonald's out of nowhere star performance out of the 1976 triple overtime game. But I've always wanted to see a four overtime playoff game. It's been on my bucket list. It made me think of some other things that, like Tiger winning the Masters, obviously, was like a major bucket list thing. But then you have this little minor bucket list.

Like I've always wanted to watch a game when somebody hit an inside the park homer. That's happened to me maybe two, three times, but I was like really getting kicked out of it. Yeah, one of them in Baltimore. Yeah, yeah, we were there. And the guy got hit in the head by the throw. As he crossed home plate.

Yeah. That was the gobbler weekend. We can't tell that story. Just know it involved a gobbler. That's all. Yeah, there's this whole story about the gobbler. We can't ever tell. But yeah, there's these little things,

these little things you've always wanted to see. Like, I watched Kobe's 81-point game. I was watching in the moment. It was fucking bizarre. It was really strange. I thought it was awesome. It was awesome, but it was also like Phil Jackson, you could tell how horrified he was. It was against everything he ever stood for.

But one of those things was the four-overtime playoff game. I've always wanted it. And there's been a few doubles. Obviously, there's been a couple triples. And this one actually got there. And then I been a few doubles. Obviously, there's been a couple triples. And this one actually got there. And then I started thinking quintuple. There was no reason that they couldn't keep ending up on ties.

It seemed like Cantor was just going to keel over. The same is true of Jokic. Since you asked me to pronounce it properly. It seems fair to pronounce it correctly. All right. A couple to pronounce it correctly. All right. Couple of mailbag questions. Game three versus the Raptors. Embiid

had all 20,000 fans in Philly in the palm of his hand. Where does he rank amongst other NBA players in terms of controlling the crowd? What other guys had this ability? That's from Wilson. I think a lot of the greats had it. Sure.

I think young LeBron in Cleveland definitely had it. Oh, yeah. Bird of Magic, obviously. I think Bernard King and the Knicks fans. There's been a lot. Yeah, sure. But I do think Embiid's one of the few guys right now that has it. Like, that city belongs to him,

and that goes back to the Ben Simmons discussion we had. It's Embiid's team. It's Embiid's team. It's Emb Ben Simmons discussion we had. It's Embiid's team. It's Embiid's team. It's Embiid's city and it's Embiid's team. He's the best player. If he plays and is healthy, and who knows what, again, mysterious ailments may befall him, they can play in the finals. They can win the Eastern Conference.

He's that effing good. He's incredible. Jason wonders, who's better at cunnilingus in your opinion, Grey Worm or Uncle Junior? Kyle, I'll let you answer this as well. Grey Worm. He doesn't have a choice. Yeah, Grey Worm.

I'm going to say Grey Worm because that's it. I doubt he'd be embarrassed by it. That's his corner jumper, and he can't drive to the rim. He can't do anything else. It's a single skill. Poor Uncle Junior. Uncle Junior at least could get to the rim. I guess that's true.

John from New Jersey knows that I have a fascination for when athletes wind up together. I love it. You mean males and females? Yeah, because I like when they have super kids. Okay. Like the Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf kids.

Sure, sure, I got it. I was really in on that one. I thought they might have a chance to have the greatest hand-eye coordination. I think one of them plays hockey. Just has to have an unbelievable wrist shot, right?

Undoubtedly. But he points out Sloane Stephens and Josie Altidore are engaged. That just happened right yeah so you have tennis and soccer um that could be that could be a great kid that could be john wonders if that's our 2046 world cup captain well didn't didn't robert griffin the third get with a pole vaulter or something didn't or a javelin thrower i don't know about that one

all right i mean i you know i like those those the the tennis and and uh soccer tennis soccer is a nice combo that's like yeah because that gives you like that's a that's a whole body yeah you have you light on your feet but you also power that the hand eye for the for the for the tennis your ability to clear your hips, to generate your power. A lot of things to like. Speaking of clearing hips for power, I never told you about playing at the Pro-Am.

Oh, yeah. I saved it for the pod. This was like inside the last two weeks. Yeah. The LPGA was here in Los Angeles. Yeah, we had it. And I ended up playing last second. They saw me in the course because I was trying.

It was on my course. And I stupidly agreed to play. I show up. My back was really bothering me, which I should have just backed out. A lot of people watching, like 20, 25 people. And my golf game's coming back and I felt really good about it.

Like where I was, the ability to at least stand up and hit a shot straight and stuff like that. The first hole for some reason was the 11th hole on Wilshire. Set the stage. Let's talk about who you were playing with. So I'm playing. They put me in a foursome with Carlota.

Carlota Giganta. Yep. From Spain. Who's a top 10 player. And then Adrian Gonzalez, Dodgers, Red Sox, first baseman. Yes. Who's a phenomenal guy, by the way. Love that guy. Not surprised to hear it.

Also hits the ball really far. Why wouldn't he? So we're playing best ball and there's just no, the other two guys who I don't want to say who they were, but they were people in the, in the music business. Okay, great.

We all realize we're probably not out driving these two. One guy in our five-some had a chance. So then it becomes like, all right, when you go up there, just hit the ball. Just hit the crap out of the ball because we're probably not using your drive anyway. So I decided to do this on the 11th hole. There's a hospitality tent to the left. Yeah. And not

too far left, but definitely left enough. And the guy in front of me scuffs it. It goes like 50 feet. So now that's in my head. They're playing Michael Jackson, Thriller, or some song. They're playing music. So that 20 people are watching me. They introduced

me. Thank God there's no spectators because I wouldn't have played. And now I'm just like hit it straight, hit it straight, hit it straight. And I hit it 300 miles an hour right into the hospitality tent and it ricochets backwards. So they didn't use that drive. Well, let me ask this question.

What was in the hospitality tent? I'm kind of interested. I don't know. Probably some swag. You stop in there and grab a Coors Light. Unfortunately, one of the things that was in there was my golf ball. You have to get it. So then we go and it takes me a couple holes to heat up. And then I start feeling a little bit better. Like I'm off.

I'm just, I'm terrible. I get it. And Gonzalez is hitting like 350, well, 300. And Carlota is just nailing everything straight and perfect. And we birdied the first hole. So around this,

there's like a par five. I hit a really good five wood on the second shot. It was the first time I was like, all right, that was a really good shot. We might actually use that one. Carlota hits one in the trap on the green shot. It was the first time I was like, all right, that was a really good shot. We might actually use that one. Carlota hits one in the trap on the green. Oh. And normal people like us,

we would use my shot. It was right outside the green. Just chip it. Yeah. And she sees her shot in the bunker, which is parallel to the pin. And she's like, let's use mine. Just goes, grabs it.

Boom. Two feet from the pin. Yeah. She wasn't, grabs it. Boom. Two feet from the pin. Yeah, yeah, right. Like, see, she wasn't even thinking twice. I got it. I understand. She just looked at it. She's like, oh, yeah, I can make that.

I'm a professional. I'm one of the 10 best golfers in the world. Yes. So somewhere around, like, the seventh hole, I just completely fell apart. Like, and when I say fall apart, you know, in a golf course, when you fall apart. Yeah. You just unravel to the point like you can't even hit the ball yep and that was me for the next like five or six holes until i had

an 1800 with adrian 1800 and soda that loosened me up a little for why did you wait that long i should have had like seven swing oil brother um i was just horrible. You should have had that in the second hole. We're walking. My back is like killing me. Yeah, you can't have that. It was one of the worst sports experiences of my life. But I still kind of loved it. Cross it off. Because it reminded me to savor when it's actually going well in golf. Yeah.

So I go back, same club. I play the back nine a week later and I shoot a 45. Yeah, I mean, you know. A week earlier, I literally can 45. Yeah. I mean, you know, a week earlier, I literally can't hit the ball 200 yards straight. But the most amazing thing was there's this eighth hole, which is a famous hole on the course. Cause it's,

it's the Howard Hughes house that he used to live in. It's on this hole. And it's like the Creek is, it's a long par four and the Creek's probably like, I don't know, three, three 40. And then it's like a little 60 yard wedge over if you like right in front of the creek. Yes.

Most people hit it, you know, two 50, two 60. And then you have like a one 50 to the green. Right. Adrian, who has a couple of 1800s in him at this point. One of the few holes he can really unleash. And he hits this drive that was like the most magnificent thing I've ever seen and almost hits it in the water on this hole, which was about 350. That's awesome. And we're walking and we're walking.

And he's like, that's my ball up there. And I'm just like, there's no way. That can't be your ball. There's no way. That can't be your, there's no way. Nobody can hit it there. They say we use that draft. Yes. But man, it was

it was the baseball players, the baseball and the hockey players. Baseball and hockey, those dudes know how to play golf. I'm glad you got this one out. It was low stakes. Low stakes, no spectators. And I would have killed a spectator. For my birthday. I know that we're here together. We're celebrating. I know that we're here together.

We're celebrating. We're going to play something together. I want you to stick with the game long enough to get onto the Pro-Am circuit so that there's a couple more. I want you to play enough to get on a couple times a year doing this Pro-Am thing. The problem with me with golf is if my back isn't right, isn't right i'm kind of useless we need you to get to the physio go go make sure when my back is nice and loose yeah when you know you're gonna play get to the physio get the stretching and the you do your uh tactical frog hip drills and all the

rest of it i just need to start using pds and i will oh i'm into that but we're officially at the age well at least i am i think i can get an hgh prescription now yeah well get me one too all right hey if you're a movie and podcast fan like we are check out the ringers new show the rewatchables 1999 available only on luminary we have done two of these we did american pie we did cruel intentions two movies that age very strangely but were really fun to talk about. And this week, House and I are recording Big Daddy. 1999 is a weird movie year. It's a really weird year, and this is another weird one for us to talk about.

I don't want to step on it. It's a transition year. John Stewart's in this movie. Yeah, young John Stewart. Young John Stewart. Handsome. Kyle, you like Big Daddy. I love Big Daddy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are Jon Stewart. Handsome. Kyle, you like Big Daddy. I love Big Daddy. Yeah, yeah.

Are you kidding me? Leslie Mann is in it. So we're dissecting some of the most iconic movies from 1999. All-time great year in film. All the old rewatchable categories, as well as a couple new ones including one that I'm adding for this week's podcast. A brand new category.

Should I give it away now? Yeah. It's called The Christy Swanson Award for Most Predictably Borrowed 80s Movie Trope. Just hold that thought for when we get there tomorrow.

So Christy Swanson now has an award. Anyway, you can check out The Luminary on the rewatchables. There's also some other great podcasts

from Hannibal Buress, Guy Raz, Trevor Noah. They give you access to a bunch of original shows from Innovative Dynamic rewatchables as well as some other great podcasts from hannibal burris guy raz trevor noah um to give you access to a bunch of original shows from innovative dynamic creators you can't find anywhere else free app to download use it to listen to thousands of podcasts including the ones you already love like this one uh sports movies comedy a whole bunch of things get your first two months of access to luminary's premium content for free when you sign up at luminary.link slash Simmons. After that, $7.99

per month. Luminary.link slash Simmons for two months of free access. Luminary.link slash Simmons. Cancel anytime. Terms apply. Alright, it's time. Rosillo could not be here tonight, but we're playing Throne Game anyway. He won't mind.

We can talk about it with him. We can talk. We'll, we'll let him, we'll, we'll let him do his thing when we have a, I think we're doing Tuesday night with him. Yeah.

But we're going to play episode four of throne game, 80 minute episode. They show at the beginning, they show the, uh, the card at the top with the nudity violence. They showed the V for the AC for adult content, V for violence, L for language. And you were immediately upset there was no N for nudity.

So that's how we started. I should add that we watched this episode with my mom and Kyle. And my mom had just made us this feast. And you were complaining about the no end for nudity. What's the matter with this show? Why are they going out with a bang? It's HBO. Phenomenal start by you.

I just want Game of Thrones to stay true to itself. Yeah. You're like, don't lose your identity. Game of Thrones is like Steph Curry right now. That's right. Don't forget who you are. They haven't really killed anybody that matters yet. And we've

been on a on a real you know streak here lately well all i can say is 18t buys hbo and all of a sudden there's no more nudity in game of thrones so i don't know draw your own conclusion only the good guys are winning i'm interested in that remember when oz was on you and i used to have this joke about how the card at the top should really spell out what was happening in that episode. So we were prepared. We needed a lot more information about what was going to happen. GPR for gang prison rape. I mean, there was...

Today's episode is GPR. It would have been very helpful if they could have been a little more specific about what was coming. What was the other one? Take a shit on somebody's head. Today's episode is ranked TSS. We need to know more. Everything involving Adebisi, I need to know more.

I need an Adebisi warning. The card's like just violence, adult themes. It just did not cover Adebisi's behavior on that show. And anything involving Beecher. Tonight's episode involves raping somebody while putting your headphones on when they're passed out. All right. So you're upset about that. So new intro, which Nephew Kyle noticed.

That's why he gets the big bucks. What did they add, Kyle? It's just like the intro that you see. They used to go all around the map, and then it just looked like it was going through King's Landing, basically. So I think it was just sort of foreshadowing like, all right, we're worried about King's Landing now. They started showing some more Crown stuff, it seemed like. Yeah. Wait, wait, it's been the same opening for all? No, they had it.

They did a couple tweaks. Okay. I think so. The show started out, they had all the dead bodies piled in these perfectly symmetrical, awesome piles. Dead body piles. Great dead body piles. Great, best dead body piling. Really good spacing with the dead body piling.. Great, best dead body piling.

Really good spacing with the dead body piling. No Ben Simmons. You didn't have one standing. Ben Simmons just wandering between the dead body piles. There wasn't one out of the three-point line wandering aimlessly. I can't. It seemed like it had been at least a couple days with some of the dead bodies. Did you get that feeling? Maybe like 48 hours?

I thought maybe it was like overnight. Like it's always hard to get the time signature for these things. Well, because they showed a the dead bodies? Did you get that feeling? Maybe like 48 hours? I thought maybe it was like overnight. Like it's always hard to get the time signature for these things. Well, because they showed a couple of dead bodies. They look pretty dead. Looked a little gamey. So already the smell's not great. And you know what else doesn't smell good

is when you burn like 20,000 of the dead bodies at the same time. It is, you know. That had to have been, I would say, the most, I mean, Game of Thrones, a mal-odorant show to begin with. Not a lot of have been, I would say, the most. I mean, Game of Thrones, a mal-order show to begin with. Not a lot of showering, deodorant, perfume. I mean, we're really literally holding our noses on a lot of suspension of disbelief kind of stuff here.

Yeah. But that many dead bodies, the way that they died and however long they were out there, you're not giving speeches. Jon Snow's not standing there. Everybody's convened within, you know, 30, 40 yards of these bodies and we're all going to stand here. It is... It's a stench.

It's the worst thing you could ever smell. We're programmed to not be in the presence of our dead brethren. Yeah, good points. Yeah, Jon Snow's like trying to win an Emmy and meanwhile there's 20,000 dead bodies and the wind's blowing toward everybody. He's like, here's one more toward

they're like, can we burn the bodies? So, I always thought the worst smell on this show would have been the dragon breath. I mean, those dragons, like they're just eating. What are they eating? What do the dragons eat, Kyle? They're like cows and goat and shit like that. that right not a lot of mouthwash with the dragons i'm surprised out of all the bad smells that's not my number one in the same way that our dogs

eat terrible terrible things well don't you say the dry but hot fire breath though feels like it could be a cleansing agent whatever it is that allows them to breathe the fire could have the effect of producing oh that's interesting you think it's so hot it burns all the germs yes it's an antiseptic effect oh that's good well either way it doesn't smell as bad as uh 20 000 dead bodies burning so um they decide to follow that up by having a giant feast as you do as you will what makes you hungrier than the smell of 20,000 burning bodies you know

let's have some food and some drink they did win the war yeah it was a celebratory feast it was celebratory there was

definitely a celebratory feel you had the sarcastic remark I'm glad they turned the lights on for this episode that felt like a dig I mean it was good to see people's faces for more than four and a half seconds.

Did you like the glasses they were drinking out of? Because every time they bring those out on Game of Thrones, I always feel like I want like 20 of those. Those big horn glasses? What are those called, Kyle? You like to drink. Flagons? No, probably not, right?

They probably did have flagons. There was a yeah something like that they probably did have flagons there was a whole array there was a whole variety you like a real marketing opportunity here the game of thrones uh drinking collection so um very festive people busting balls the bearded guy torment he's going around doing stuff. Getting cock-blocked. That was tough. Yeah, well. He's making sure everybody does shots. Doing shots.

He's spilling beer all over the place. Gendry, Gendry. Gendry or Gendry? I think we're going with Gendry. Gendry? So he became a lead Stormhouse guy. Is that what it's called? Dragonstone?

No, they gave him the lead, the head of the Storm. The head of the Storm. No, they gave him the lead, the, the head of the storm. They gave him some head of the storm. So they gave him some new title. They made him Gendry Baratheon. Gendry Baratheon. They gave him, um, Dragonstone. I thought I gave him something great,

but he was psyched. They gave him an accolade. And then, uh, it was the first sign of alpha dog issues with, with Danny and John. Very reminiscent of, uh,

Curry Duran. I felt like. I don't feel like it. Danny's like, this is my team. I have the Dragons. I have the Rings. I've won the MVPs, and yet the team's gravitating toward Durant. I don't like this. That was the feeling I got from her.

Well, you're not wrong. It just doesn't apply to Curry and Durant as far as you know they planted the seeds for this the last two episodes and I like it yeah it's been building to this the entire season that's the whole point of the great reveal

we've been waiting for the effects of the great reveal and you know I haven't checked the odds lately, but I think that I'm going to go look when we're done with this. I want to see where Sansa Stark comes out on some of this. I feel like, you know, if there's a survivor thing out here, I want to put some odds on her. Who kills Dany?

If I can get odds on who kills Danny, Sansa would be my lead candidate for that. Although it could be Jon. Jon might kill her. So they're playing a drinking game. Wasn't positive what that game was. Looked like Truth or Dare. Was that what it was?

Yes, Truth or Dare. It was the 1300s version of Truth or Dare. 1300s was different. So Tyrion calls out Brienne and Tarth's virginity. Went predictably terribly. Yeah. Once again, he's just a dick. We love him, but he's that guy.

That's when it started to feel like there was a Holy Cross late 80s kind of feel to that party. Tormund's walking around. He reminded me of like 30 guys we went to college with. About to get in a fight with the rugby team. 25 of them were rugby dudes. And Terran's just being a dick. Terran was like Horrocks. That's something Horrocks would have

said in college. Truth or dare, he would have called out Brianna Tarr's virginity. She didn't like it. She walks off. Tormund goes to follow her and Jamie gets the upper hand. No pun intended. He

immediately blocks. It was literally a cock block. It was a literal cock block. I almost made a joke, but I'm not going to. You're going to name a name. You know. Your 15th birthday is coming up.

We've been friends for over 30 years, and we're on the same wavelength with a story from the past. We're going to name some names. Some famous cock blocks in history. He knows. He knows what he did. He knows what he did. Wasn't anyone in this room.

So anyway, then we had Hound and Sansa. Yeah. Little reunion scene. Sure. And, uh, and he's like, yeah, if you'd come with me, all that terrible stuff wouldn't happen to you. Like Littlefinger just getting horribly sexually assaulted for however long by Ramsey. And it was just really bad. And, and she comes back with,

well, all that stuff made me the person I am now. That's right. Probably, probably would have chosen a different path. I don't know. She was a little too positive about it. Well,

I think this is the thing is it goes to the point of, of her fitness to be a potential leader. She might, at the end of this thing she's you know who's gonna sit on the throne not ruling her out yeah she's got the the chops she's really took some chops too so then gendry goes to aria who's you know hanging out she likes to just be in the dungeon shooting bow and arrow that's how she spends her friday nights killer gonna kill didn't want to be part of the reverie she's like i'm gonna go down and work on my bow and arrow. That's how she spends her Friday nights. Kill or gonna kill. Didn't want to be part of the reverie. She's like, I'm going to go down and work on my bow and arrow.

Look, shoot or shoot. And he's like, hey, good news. They just made me a sir. I have this new title and you can be my lady. And then gets on the knee, proposes. Yeah. I mean, proposes. Yeah. I mean, pretty quick. It's sex once.

I know she has some superpowers. She can change her face. She killed the Night King. I know you get a little carried away when you're in love, but this seemed quick. So she does the bachelor season finale move where, before saying whether she accepted the proposal or not, recaps how great their relationship is. And it's all leading toward the but, dot, dot, dot.

And you could feel it coming. And then she's basically like, I'm the lady. You know who I am? I'm the fucking Night King killer. I'm not getting married to you. I'm a Stone Cold killer, bitch. You know who I am? I'm the fucking Night King killer. I'm not getting married to you. I'm a stone cold killer, bitch. You know what I do? I go kill the bad guys.

That's what I do. I don't want to be your wife. That's what I do. And she's out. And that's it for Gendry. I'm not nobody's wife. So he loses the Lady of Light, his 450-year-old girlfriend, and then he loses his 18-year-old girlfriend.

Tough times. It'll be all right. Tough times. He's got that big one. He's still packing that big heat. Did they have Match.com in the 1300s or no? Kyle? If they did, all he has to do is say, I got the big one.

They were called brothels at that point. He's in a brothel for the next few years. I know he's got the big one. That's Podrick. I think that's Podrick. Oh, I'm missing up. Yeah, Podrick was one of the big ones. So, Jamie hooked up with Brianne. And that was when my mom, who had a couple glasses of wine in her, when we were talking about, they kind of cut away from the sex scene.

I think one of us made the point, it's too bad they didn't do that with Aria. Because our little Aria, none of us have recovered from that. And my mom goes, that Aria sex scene, that would be like if we were watching this show and Zoe had a sex scene meaning my daughter and all of us recoiled in horror and that was when we took her wine glass

that was horrible that was the moment that was that was the highlight of the show I mean so then Daenerys goes

meets Jon Snow and she's basically like don't tell anybody about this whole thing where I'm actually your aunt and you're the rightful heir to the throne. And he's like, well, what if I just tell my family? And she's like, no, you're not doing that. And he goes, well, how about you can still be the queen, but I'll still tell my family because that's my family. And she's like, no,

actually, if we're going to make this work, you're not going to tell anybody. And then he ends up telling his family. And the irony of this is Kyle's saying those really aren't his sisters and brothers now because they don't have the same mom or the same dad. Him, Aria, Sansa, and the king of comedy, Bran. Yeah, they're cousins. Bran.

Bran's king of comedy tours starting in two months. He just comes out. He acts weird. Everybody laughs. So I think at that point, since she has two dragons at that point of the show, I think maybe you go, all right, I won't tell anybody. That sounds good. Let's keep this one between us.

Now, next scene, he's got his brothers and sisters together. Hey, I got something to tell you, but you got to swear you can't leave the room. He already knows his sister Sansa hates Danny. Yes. I mean, come on, dude. Nah. The rule of women who don't like each other, they're going to take a nugget like that and immediately spin it in the worst way possible. I mean, his judgment is questionable since he was stabbed 37 times. That's true.

He did come back to life. But it did make me wonder if he's fit for the Iron Throne, if he's not smart enough to realize that Sansa's going to tell somebody in five seconds. You might as well just put that in the newspaper. Do they have newspapers in the 1300s? He could be a little more calculating. Bad job by Jon Snow.

He's such a good guy, it works against him sometimes. So, he tells oh I forgot that Daenerys when she said when Jon's like I really want to make this work and she said

we can I just told you how that's right I see S-T-F-U oh and I forgot that we cut to Jamie and Brienne and Tarth in bed

after coitus. Jamie's wide awake, just staring off into the distance, and Brianna's asleep. And that's when I asked you, why on TV after two people have sex, do they always go back to the aftermath and one person's asleep and the other person's wide awake? We never catch two people asleep or both people awake. It's always one falls asleep and the other one is lost in thought, either unhappy with how it went or can't sleep. I hope that's just on television because if it happens in real life, I'm always the one that's asleep.

I was going to say if that's happened to you 500 times in life 500 of those times you were the one snoring 500 times 99 you had the

your partner was lying next to you awake not because they were lost in thought but because they couldn't believe how much you snored or how much I smelled. Those are the options.

Oh, another thing. This year, they really added more jokes about Jon's height. I mean, Tormund just gets in that ass. He said, you weigh as much as two fleas fucking was one of his comments. It's a good line. Yeah, but it's almost like they've read all the internet making fun of Jon Snow's height and they just decided to lean into it this year, which I appreciate.

Me too. Great job by them. Bron made a power play. Not LeBron, Bron. Bron made a power play. He decided to steal the hosting duties from Maverick Carter for this week's episode of The Shot. And also made a power play on Tyrion and Jaime.

And they made some deal. I didn't really understand what was going on. At that point, I was really focused on getting the wine glass away from my mom. Oh, Sam and Jon said farewell. Oh, Bronn. Not Bran, Bronn. Bronn. Yeah, well, because Cersei paid him to come in there and kill those sons of bitches. You know, she's smart.

She knows. And he gave them. He was true to his word. He had promised Tyrion in season whatever. You got to ask Mallory and Concepcion this. That Tyrion got Bronn to give him his word. I remember. They recapped it.

I just wasn't that interested. I was more focused on my mom. It was good play. I mean, you know, I thought there was a deal. There were two instances where I thought Tyrion might catch it this week. So then Sam and Jon said farewell. And Ghost, for some reason, went with Tormund because he needs a dog because he can't get laid. Well, the dire wolf belongs in the wild in the north.

Yeah. I don't know. I felt like I wanted a better farewell for Ghost. It was kind of like the equivalent of on the video screen at the basketball game.

They kind of gave him the one right there in the 22nd timeout, but he didn't get like his own three-minute one that was clearly going to be on the internet after.

Well, how about this? Do you really think that this is the last we're going to see of all those peeps, including... Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, come on the internet after. Well, how about this? Do you really think that this is the last we're going to see of all those peeps, including... Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, come on. Good call.

So then everything seems okay, and then all of a sudden, Daenerys is flying with Bob and Stan, her two dragons. I didn't realize those were their names. Bob and Stan. Bob gets hit by the arrows. So she's riding Stan. Bob's next to them.

And Bob takes the biggest arrow I've ever seen in my life. And then another one that takes his head off and goes right in the water. So now she's down to one dragon. Yep. Tough times. What's the guy's name? Greyjoy. You're on Greyjoy.

You're on the guy with the ships. Yeah. You're on. That's right. Cersei's new guy. He's a known dragon killer. He's the only one that's got the technology. Yeah. Euron. That's right. Cersei's new guy. He's a known dragon killer. He's the only one that's got the technology. Yeah. He's

like the Daryl Morey of dragon killing. That's right. That's why Cersei pulled him in. He's figured out high volume shooting arrows is like threes. I think Cersei is the Daryl Morey and Euron is Hardin. Oh, I like it. Okay. That's fair.

She's down in one dragon. They wiped out the ships. And they took Grey Worm's girlfriend. And Tyrion got knocked out again, which I think is like four concussions for him over the life of this show. He bounced right back. He wasn't even in the protocol.

It was like the NFL. Right back on the field. Chris Nowinski's got a tweet about this tomorrow. Tear hands right back out there. Right after this concussion. Who's the quarterback that did that last season? Tear hands been knocked out at least three times during this show, right?

At least three. Maybe four? I'd say I can count three that I'm thinking of right now. No concussion protocol. That was the 1300s. The Grey Worms lady got taken prisoner. And then Dany, they had this big debate about what to do. And she says, I'm here to free the world from tyrants.

And that is my destiny. I actually felt like her destiny was being Mother of Dragons. But I don't know. She seems like she's a little bit confused these days so then the last 10 minutes was pretty intense house

dramatic Jamie pulls pulls the old adios on Brianna Tarth that was coming you knew it was coming

but tried to sneak out she sniffed it out and then he's basically like, everything I've ever done is for Cersei. You don't understand. I'm a bad person. Yeah. She's hateful and so am I.

Classic bad boy. She's hateful and so am I is more than a bad boy. That's pretty tough. Pathological? That's pretty tough. So poor Brienne of Tarth. She waited all this time

to give her virginity to a one-handed man. It was the wrong one-handed guy. They make the big trip. They take Amtrak to Cersei's island. Didn't take very long. Yeah, all of a sudden they were there. And they do

the unconditional surrender standoff. Tyrion goes for the Emmy, gives the big speech. Tries to talk Cersei out of this. And then let's just say she didn't agree to terms you know why you know I know this because great

Grey Worms girlfriend had her head cut off and then she was shoved off a tall building so that that to me said I'm not really interested in your offer I want to know that's what the Pelicans are going to

do with the Lakers this summer I think with Anthony Davis but hey what about Davis can we rekindle just like beheading push somebody off a tower. The showrunner's got to explain why Cersei,

in that moment, ruthless killer that she is, she made a political calculation not to just wipe out that whole troop right there. Why? What's the downside of killing Dany right there in that moment danny tyrian uh because you don't get john snow so what you got danny the mother of the dragon who's gonna ride the dragon it did seem like a pretty big risk from danny and the gang to uh just be wide widely

exposed right out there in the open right right after they'd just been sneak attacked and one of her dragons got killed. I didn't agree with the strategy. You're supposed to believe that there's, you know, that whatever that sort of honor code where you're having, you know, discussing terms of peace potentially. You explore the peace process and so there's

a protected cone there. But Cersei don't have no rules. She killed that whole city. She blew up that whole city and all those religious fanatics and everybody that went along with it. She doesn't give a fuck. Why didn't she just take them all out right there?

Don't have an answer for you. Oh, okay. All right. I mean, maybe it's there's something in the book, but... I mean, it wouldn't even be one of the nine worst things she's ever done. It runs like, you know, maybe she's there. The best you can come up with to me is like she doesn't know where Jamie is. And in her heart, she wants the father of that baby to be part of the picture. And Jamie could be at risk.

But that's pretty tenuous. Does she give two shits about Jamie at this point? I don't think she cares about anybody. I think she's off the reservation. Me too. She should have iced that whole joint. Cersei, this is the worst hairdo she's

ever had. I'm not a fan of this one. I don't know what she's doing with this particular hairdo, but it is really rough. They're not doing her any favors. I'm not a fan of this one. I don't know what she's doing with this particular hairdo, but it is really rough. They're not doing her any favors. I mean, she looks like a killer. She should kill her. I gotta say, they could have thrown

in one scene with her and you're on Lovejoy. Greyjoy? You're on Greyjoy. They could have thrown in one scene like just them kind of hanging out. Give me an N. Give me an N. Just like... Just give me that N.

Why couldn't I have my nudity? Oh, you wanted the N. I didn't know what you were talking about. That's what I'm asking for. Just give me my N. It's Game of Thrones, for Christ's sakes. Take it up with AT&T. They have all your data,

and now they're taking away your nudity. They're trying to let the good guys win. I'm not interested in that. Well, they did it. They did chop somebody's head off at the end. It's like this is... Again, a bit player. I thought it was better than the first two episodes.

Three was great for its own reasons, but I think there's a second best one. I like this one. I liked it. Three was fine, except for you couldn't see it. I like the whole... I like the smell of dead bodies feast that they had. It was really enjoyable.

Killing the dragon was truly breathtaking and unexpected. Good special effects. Great special effects. Next week's supposed to be nuts, too. Was that Bob or Stan died? Bob is still alive. Bob's alive. Bob's the only one left.

Stan might come out of the water, by the way. Don't be surprised if we get a Stan re-emergence You never know He looked pretty good It looked fatal Stan went in the He went in the ocean but I'm not positive We never saw the floating dragon

That's what I mean Maybe he's got some kind of powers Maybe the king of comedy can bring him back. What's her face? The witch isn't around to bring him back. Melisandre. You don't think the King of Comedy can bring him back? He could, but he's, you know, I'm going away.

They should have thrown him in the giant drunken feast. They should have just had him at a table with two people who didn't know him that well and just make a small talk. So, Bran, where are you from? It doesn't matter where I'm from. I just live in the past. Whatever cause he has in those books,

they've really set it back on the show. He is not likable. He is not likable. Would you rather have him coaching the Sixers or Brett Bran? Is there a difference? So then, yeah, the last thing I wrote was, why not just kill Daenerys right then and there?

Seemed like it made sense. It's almost like they wanted to keep her around because she's a liability. It's almost like they wanted to keep her around so that they could fill out the next two shows. Wow. So you think Sansa's the Iron Throne person? throne i'm gonna go online and see what odds i can get on it i know that much well i just look they don't have us that's okay would you take five to one on sansa oh god yes i would love five to one three to one three to one is like i would also

play three to one and then under three to one it's like yeah why bother i'm gonna i'm gonna hit the cuz i'm gonna text the cuz after this cuz has access to all the exotics all right anything else you want any 50th birthday thoughts you have it's it's coming soon i'm celebrating it for the rest of the year my birthday is in may may the first begins the rest of the year of house i'm gonna eat and drink if i don't put on 15 pounds i will have been a failure i expect 2019 to just go down and go down in ages as a an all-time drunk golf eating i mean i just don't want to stop it sounds great give me your top five your top five most exciting thrilling sports moments of of your first 50 years. Wow.

Incredible. John Riggins breaking away in the 1983 Super Bowl against the Miami Dolphins. Okay. Elvin Hayes making a shot against the San Antonio Spurs in 1978. I was physically there at the Capitol Center. Oh, there you go. You were there for his only clutch moment. He's in the starting five with Carl Malone and Chris Paul.

It was a great moment. I'm not sure which Len Bias moment, but I got to see Len Bias a lot. Yeah. God damn it. That year. I was at a North Carolina game in Maryland. That's three. It's amazing we didn't know each other during the Len Bias thing.

It was right before. Yeah, we were two years away from knowing each other. Yeah, exactly. I was so in a little, I just couldn't believe the Celtics had him for even, it lasted, what, 36 hours or whatever? It was an unbelievable 36 hours. Yeah.

One from which, you know, you'd never recover. Caps winning the Stanley Cup. That was a good one. That's top five for you. Oh, sure. Okay. Like how many titles? Flags fly forever.

And in my life, I have three Super Bowls, the University of Maryland winning the NCAA championship in 2009. I'm going to mess up the year one or two. It had to have been two. Cause I think Duke one. That was like right when college basketball died. It was an all time terrible game. I really watched that entire game.

That was awful. It was a bad game, but I absolutely, I grew up rooting for the university of Maryland. So I loved that team. And that was still a title, still a title. And you know,

seniors like that, that would, that really did mark a moment in time where they were guys that stayed in college for three or four years. It's like the guy who ended up belatedly winning the Kentucky Derby yesterday by disqualification. Guess what? 20 years from now, I'd be like,

you won the Kentucky Derby? The guy's like, yeah. That's it. Nobody's like, was it the one where they were? That's it. You won the Kentucky Derby. You won it. Nobody's going to remember what happened 20 years from like yeah that's it nobody's like was it the one where they were that's it you won the Kentucky Derby nobody's gonna remember what happened 20 years from now that's it so yeah that was your Maryland win and uh the 1987 Gonzaga College High School track and field team inducted into the Gonzaga Athletic Hall of Fame two weeks ago Captain joe house captain will simmons captain marty kates charlie daniels

yeah that's right it's only been you know 30 years in in the offing we're finally there the first ever track and field championship in gonzaga the banner is on the wall flags fly forever and eagles fly high what were you What was your track and field sport? I was a half miler and miler. And I also ran the 3200. I didn't like it. It was a little bit too long for me. But I ran in the Penn Relays.

I was good at track. I had a 157 mile at Penn Relays in high school. And my mile, my best mile time was like in the 423 range. You had a 157 half mile. Yeah, 157 half mile. You said mile because that would have been amazing. That would be fast. That would be like as fast as a horse.

Anyway, that was my fifth. That was my fifth all-time sports moment. I'll tell you, the Washington, D.C. ones were kind of sad. The Washington, D.C. sports. Three Super Bowls. What's sad is John Wall jumping on the scores table might've been like 13th. Not talking about any of that. By the way,

here's the thing that I want. Here's one of my birthday presents. I'm asking for a lot of birthday presents this week. Can we come up with an avatar to replace fat John Wall on my Twitter? That's what I'm asking you to help me come up with a replacement avatar for fat John Wall. Because that needs to be retired now. You need to just tell people to send in your replies.

Okay, there we go. I need suggestions. At House from DC. Send him avatars. At House from DC for Twitter. I'm replacing Fat John Wall. How long do you have Fat John Wall? Like a year?

Well, I mean, when was that picture taken? It was last summer, right? It was last summer when he was nice and fat. Up until this moment now where I'm ready to stretch him. I'm going to stretch him in my life. I'm going to effectively wave him and pay whatever it costs. I decided that's my favorite open GM job. With good reason.

Because the first two years, nobody's expecting it anyway. That's right. The bar is very low. What do you have to do to exceed expectations in Washington? Just don't trade Bradley Beal and don't screw up your top four pick. Well, it might be okay to trade Bradley Beal. No. If you get a bunch of young assets.

No. Maybe. Not okay. I mean, if you get all those Lakers kids. Not okay. And it depends on this draft. Bradley Beal is 25. We'll know when these ping pong balls land in two weeks

what's going to happen. That'll set the course for everything. I couldn't believe Monty Williams took the Suns job over waiting to see what was going to happen in the lottery when four teams wanted to hire him. Well. What if the Lakers win the lottery? I would rather have that job, right?

The bar, again, not very high. And he kind of knows what he's getting it's an interesting team in phoenix yeah but he willingly wanted to work for robert sarver that is a terrible idea that is a questionable decision i have to agree with you now he is very close to pizzeria bianco so he gets all that chris bianco pizza robert sarver watches game of thr and is like, you know who's making some good moves this season? Cersei. I like the way she's thinking. Well, I'm excited to celebrate the 50th birthday weekend. We're going to do another pod later this week with Rosillo.

I can't wait. Who ditched us for Willie Nelson. I just don't want him to squeeze my head in between his giant pythons. And then we're going to play golf. We're going to do the Big Daddy podcast. You're doing House of Carbs when you're here.

And Fairway Rolling. And we're going to have a couple good meals. Can't wait. And I'm probably going to gain like seven pounds. Yes. Thanks to DAZN.

Don't forget to check them out. Great experience with the Canela fight this weekend. Don't forget about our Luminary podcast. Rewatchables 1999 Big Daddyelo fight this weekend. Don't forget about our Luminary podcast. Rewatchables 1999, Big Daddy coming later this week, as well as all the awesome Ringer Podcast Network.

Podcasts and theringer.com, where is the place for all of your Game of Thrones content and everything else. Back with a couple more podcasts later in the week. Until then.