The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 2: Logan Paul Survives, Milwaukee Advice, and Dame’s Future in Portland with Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

In Part 2 of the two-part Sunday podcast, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the Logan Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match, as well as their shared interest in other obscure sporting events (3:00). They next discuss the Nets (without James Harden) winning Game 1 against the Bucks; the hero of Game 1, Blake Griffin; why the Bucks still have a chance to win this series; and more (23:00). They touch on the upcoming Jazz-Clippers and Suns-Nuggets Round 2 matchups, the Trail Blazers' offseason, fake trades, Parent Corner, and more (48:00). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Ryen Russillo Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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grab some Miller Lites today? Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. We're also brought to you by TheRinger.com as well as The Ringer Podcast Network. We did part one. That went up a couple hours ago with me and Rosillo. Wanted to wait for part two

in case anything crazy happened with the Logan Paul Mayweather fight, which we just watched. We're going to be talking about that as well as a lot of extra basketball stuff. Want to cover Bucks nets, wanting to cover the Dame Lillard situation, what we would do if we were the Portland GM,

what we would tell Dame Lillard. And we even have a little parent corner here at the end. So, and some, some really rock solid Blake Griffin. I gotta be honest. I like part two a little bit more than part one. So there you go.

It's all coming up first. Our friends from ProJab. All right. Taping this part of the podcast, the beginning of part two, it is 845 Pacific time. Russo and I, I forced you to do this. I feel bad. I forced you to watch Logan Paul, Floyd Mayweather, the eight round exhibition. I'll just tell you this. I have never seen my son is in his entire life, more riveted by a hand to hand or MMA or any sort of combat

match. He was so into it. He couldn't believe Logan Paul lasted eight rounds. Um, it was really, it played out like the reverse of, of, uh, Drago Creed, which was supposed to be an exhibition. It was supposed to be an exhibition. This one, Logan Paul actually made it. And I really genuinely felt like Floyd Mayweather tried to knock him out in the fourth round. He was throwing bombs. He just couldn't get them.

Yeah. And Ben, your son's a combat guy. So, you know, he, this isn't like he's just turning on. So Taylor Tate,

Floyd 44, Logan, AKA Jake, they call them Jake about 44, Logan, a.k.a. Jake. They called him Jake about five times during the fight. I loved it. 26. 155 pounds, 190. He probably was bigger after the weigh-in. He looked huge next to Floyd.

Huge. 5'8", 6'2", 72-inch reach, 76-inch reach. And, you know, it's one of those deals. Like, when you're our age, we don't have favorite YouTubers. Okay. So I think we're all like, I always joke that for those of us that are in the opinion business, for the most part, I get that a lot of people don't like us because nobody ever says, you know, I like is that guy has an opinion on literally everything, but that's what we do. And a tier below that is YouTubers. Cause I think there's even more resentment because they're

so young and they make all this money that people don't really like them. So going into it, I was like, who am I actually like rooting for? What am I rooting for? And I guess I probably wanted Floyd to win. And I feel guilty about it now that I wanted Floyd to win because look, even though Floyd's older and everything, the fact that all these people out there always talk shit and want to do this guy walked out of the tunnel, trained his ass off. And, you know, whatever, like I'm with you. I thought Floyd popped him a bunch of times. It was clear that Logan could take a punch. So, you know, whatever this was, exhibition a waste.

I'll spend 50 bucks worse. I promise you that I was moderately impressed. So for people like others, the worst is the worst is the worst. I mean, we already. So for people who are like, oh, this is the worst, this is the worst, this is the worst. I mean, we already knew it was the worst when you hit bye. But I mean, can't there be any moment where you would allow yourself to be like, I'm impressed with a guy that has zero boxing background except for training recently and actually took a bunch of shots, again, from a smaller guy, but went eight rounds?

Like, he should feel good about himself. My friends Desus and Mero were in there with Mara Ronello. They needed like a fourth guy in there just to explain for 30 seconds, how impressive it was in the fourth round. Cause it felt like Floyd bet on himself to win by knockout and fourth round. Cause the fourth round, the way he fought just for those three minutes were completely different

than the rest of the fight. And he went in and he threw, he threw one bomb that Logan kind of leaned back on and it missed him. And I think Floyd was like, Oh shit. Like I, I, I thought this would be the round when that punch landed. But I think just when you're fighting somebody who's six inches taller than you and weighs 45 pounds more than you and you're Floyd and you're in your mid forties, like, could he have knocked him out when he was 25? Probably. I would guess he would have, but I, there's really not a lot you can do because you don't want to leave yourself so open that Logan just lands this crazy uppercut or something. And all of a sudden you get knocked out by Logan

Paul. So he has to kind of, you know, do that balance of how far do I want to go to try to get a knockout? But he did try to get a knockout? But he did try to get the knockout. I was impressed. I also was impressed from a stamina standpoint because it's really hard to fight for eight rounds. Even if you're not throwing a shitload of punches, it's still from an exercise standpoint, it's pretty rough. I thought he was going to be dead the last two rounds. He was not. No. And I actually thought he got a little energy there again at the end. Um, these are some, i know they're there for the jokes but i mean it's clear that they're not going to be into logan paul so they're making fun of the whole time but they were right they

were missing the point like i don't know i don't know what their boxing familiarity is but when they started making fun of him saying like oh this guy's hugging more than you know whatever whatever yeah that was that was smart that was logan that yeah that's exactly what you do when you outweigh the opponent when when you're the bigger man, is that you sit there and lean on him. And it was funny too, because Logan did it once, I think in the first round where he was leaning on him and then he was kind of like, all right, they're breaking.

And he was letting himself be broken up before they were broken up. And Floyd popped him really good. And you could see Logan be like, oh, okay. And that's like Floyd does that in real fights. Like if you're're not ready to protect yourself he's not going to wait for you that's something you have to understand so i thought even logan realized okay well i gotta make sure that i stay engaged even when we're wrapped up but he leaned on him he held him i mean i know this isn't a real fight but if logan's out there trying to win the thing as much of a joke as it is

and that was tactically the exact thing you would do and there are other times too where floyd was holding his arm in and i don't even know that the official was catching he was kind of on logan again the whole time so i don't know like i know those guys are there for jokes it was so obvious like they didn't want to give logan any credit whatsoever until the very end when they're like oh yeah good for him he went eight rounds and you're like well yeah like where were you guys on the other hand i like that they were like, we're not giving this guy respect. He's Logan Paul. No, they didn't like him.

It was not surprising. We're not respecting this guy. I will say, though, it did make me wonder, do we need to reconceive what boxing is? Because there's really no matchup that would get my son's interest like this. And I asked him why he liked this so much. And he was like, because I'm really interested in both people. I enjoyed Logan Paul's videos for years.

And I love Floyd Mayweather. I like seeing the photos of him. And I just like both of them. And I wanted to see them fight. And you think like the whole concept of weight divisions. And I've always said this. I always thought like to see an awesome like 140 pounder against like a half decent 210 pounder. There are all these like weird matchups you can have

that'll be more compelling than just two random middleweights just, you know, that are fighting for the boxing diehards. So I don't know. Like we didn't have judges for this. I'm not sure why. Cause on the one hand boxing super corrupt, they'll let anyone fight. You see people like these ex-champions who are clearly punch drunk and they're still fighting

in Vegas or Atlantic City or whatever. It's like they kind of pick and choose what they can get precious about. And I don't know, I wouldn't have minded judges. I would have loved to have known how they scored that. I had it 5-3 Mayweather, but maybe somebody would have had it 5-3 Bill Capaldi. I don have had it 5-3 i don't know what would have been the bad thing about having judges for that maybe i don't know like floyd said at the beginning he goes i can't really win and he made a good point because he's like if i knock him out too early then everybody's going to be like this is a joke he's like but then if i go the distance then it's gonna be like all you did

was carry him um but there was also a part of this where floyd could only win because it goes the distance and if you're i mean it just comes down to like what you wanted ahead of time and if you're a floyd fan you're like okay whatever it just went eight rounds because he didn't care fan you don't want him to get knocked out that's that you're just like you just wanted to get through this without any sort of legacy we're also talking about a guy who i think in his prime was the toughest person i've ever seen like as far as trying to hit him yeah so in a weird way it sucks that you would be fighting floyd and when he was right it was unbelievable like i know people

think the fights are boring and i get it but he was impossible to hit he could stand right in front of you and turn that shoulder and deflect every punch and he didn't even have to move that much but then on the other side because he never really could knock guys out that that might be the perfect guy for somebody like a logan paul to fight because it's not like you're going in there against just an older tyson who just has to get you once and it's over well he's probably left boxing with more brain cells and more money than everyone ever. Definitely the combination of the two. But he, for a champion guy who's been in a bunch of fights, I just feel like he maybe got really hit probably four times, three times.

Nobody like really tagged him because he was Floyd Mayweather. He was, even if you hit him. He got hit once. I forget. I forget what it was. He got cracked once at the end of a round and he got shook up a little bit. But again, I don't, I don't, I don't know. I know. I remember I was, I was watching it was. He got cracked once at the end of a round, and he got shook up a little bit. But again, I don't know. I remember I was watching it once.

I mean, the stats on this, Floyd landed 40% of his punches as opposed to 13% for Logan Paul. Would you say the jabs? Floyd only threw 14 jabs at eight rounds? Yeah, 14 jabs. The thing that he was doing once, I thought he was like,

okay, let me see if I can get him a couple times, and and he could but he would put his hands out in front of him and he would take the jab that never was going to get through and then he would swing and hit him with a left but you know look logan took a couple really good shots to the face his conditioning was really good he's young enough and i think those guys have that kind of psycho gene in them like those high school kids that you grow up with that are just a little weird and they eat, you know, live animals. And I think those guys, I think that's part of the alert. Like now, you know, they'll eat a frog and be like, whatever. Like, I think that's what these two kids are about a little bit where there is. I don't know if they were tough in high school and beaten up guys or anything like that, but I do think that they're wired in a certain way, um, that very few people ever would be. And that's part of that, you know, deep down when you're hurting and you think you're tired and you're out there with Floyd Mayweather. I mean, I don't know. I don't think many guys could do what, what Logan Paul did that don't box. There is something to be said of the possibility of like a celebrity boxing champ who just fights all the other non-boxers. And it could be an

ex-athlete. It could be an actor. It could be an influencer, whatever. But, you know, basically Logan Paul saying, out of all the non-boxers, I can beat anyone else in a fight. You know, where it's like, remember those tough guy contests they had when, in the 80s, they even made a movie with Dennis Quaid about it.

Did you ever see that movie, Tough Enough? It's good. Good sports movie. Sounds really good. Sounds really good. It was like one of those tough man contests. It sounds like a Bill Simmons movie. Oh, it's really good. I guarantee you'd like it. It's really good.

Yeah, I'm positive. But could you do that? Could there be like celebrity, could there be basically a celebrity division? Because I guarantee this fight today made a shitload of money. I guarantee it. But this is the future. Like when you said earlier, you know, what it, I actually think that somebody should do this.

Like FanDuel should start a promotional arm of the company where they just go screw it. Because if people want to watch it, then it should be on. I'm serious. Like that's kind of how I feel about stuff. I want to see Alabama play the Jets. I want to see Kentucky play the Hinkies Sixers. I want to see UConn women play a college bat. You know what I mean? Like I, I would just want to see it from an entertainment standpoint. So I want to see

different. I'd, I'd pay to watch Conor McGregor fight somebody else. So why wouldn't somebody just say, Hey, look, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is the future. And you can be a boxer who's mad about, Oh, well, this is bullshit. This guy's cutting the line. I mean, that's welcome to life. Like there are people that get gigs at ESPN that I'd be like, oh man, this guy's ahead of me. But whatever they had done before in their life, put them in a position these different things. Boxing has done enough stuff to disrespect itself. So I think this is what people want. And I'd expect more and more of this stuff and putting on these events because clearly people are watching me. You know how many friends I had that were fired up about Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson? And I couldn't believe it. Well, the other good thing is when you have you have the fight like this that pulls in people to the card in the pay-per-view. But I think the key is to put a couple of the real fights before that, which we had tonight, the Arias fight was good. That was, yeah, that was a really, really entertaining fight.

And, uh, I think there's some sort of needle you can thread with this, where you can promote some of the up and coming best people you have in the sport, or you could put, you know, two of the top welterweights together to the top light heavyweights together, whatever in the undercard. And then your main event is something else. So back to UConn women's point. So UConn women are playing Williams college, the men's team from Williams college tomorrow night. you watching absolutely i think i'm absolutely also watching but see the problem is is that whenever i brought this up before the people were like well they have nothing to prove like why would they do it has nothing to

do with like i just want to see what would happen yeah i would just i want i want abnormal matchups all the time look the billy jean-Riggs deal was a monumental sporting event. And I would like, and I'm not even talking about the gender part, like I want to see Alabama play an NFL team. Like I just think, and I know what's going to happen, right? The only time I've ever allowed myself the idea that it would be a competitive game between a pro team and a college team, because 99.9% of the time it's the dumbest question you could ever ask is one of the hinky squads I legit think would have lost to

Kentucky. Kentucky had seven pros and five lottery picks. So when you look at from talent standpoint, that Kentucky team was actually more talented than the hinky crew they were putting out there. Every other time it's not worth listening to, but even if it's not worth asking the question, cause we know what's going to happen. It doesn't mean, look, you know how many Pistons games I watched this year? You don't think I wouldn't watch an NBA? So look, it's never going to happen because it's CBA and collegiate rules and all that stuff. But I do think you're onto something that when it comes to combat, this is just the beginning because it's profitable. People want it. And once people get over the idea that you're not supposed to do this, well, who cares? Like sign me up.

I think somebody should start a company that's solely focused just on this, but another promotional company is already, you know, going to figure it all out and have, yeah, I'm sure with the amount of money pouring into the gambling space, I'm sure we'll see more and more of this stuff. You know what I was speaking of abnormal stuff. I always thought there should be a golf tournament. That's like the fifth major and it's men and women and the women hit from where their teas are and the men hit from where their teas are. And you have like, you play the twosomes, but it's a man and a woman and they play and it's like the best of the best. They're playing the same course. I just would want to see it once just to see how it unfolded.

Cause like the U S open was on this week and it's good. Like it's exciting. The golf's really, really, you know, it's the best you're going to get, um, on the woman's side.

And it'd be fun to see that merge and just to see the dynamics of it and all that stuff. I would watch that. I think it'd be good because it would bring in an audience maybe that isn't familiar with one side. And then, I mean, that's really all it is. If we've learned anything from the F1 documentary on Netflix is that once you start to learn the characters and the storylines, then you become invested. I would never think I was going to get up at 5am to watch an F1 race. And I've done it three times this year. You did it today, didn't you?

I did. And today was awesome. And the only reason I care about it, I've watched it before and gone, why do I care about this? And I think hockey needs to do it. Maybe baseball needs to do it. I think the reason why a thing like Logan Paul, Floyd Mayweather works is that we know the characters. We know the backstories. There's a soap opera element to it, which I think deep down is what really people want. And you mentioned the golf thing. I had something else for golf. They should have something at the beginning of the year. Like a couple

skins match, but go ahead. It's a draft of every golfer and maybe whoever won a tournament or something as a captain and they draft their foursomes and then those foursomes are part of a bigger standings based on how they do over the course of the season so it's another

version of the standings that you can keep track of and then whoever the top foursomes are then they play maybe some two-day event on the schedule towards the end of the season where you know hell play you know how funny it would be to watch guys play best ball as pros and what the scores would be but that your foursome so basically you'd have the captain being like i want to pick this guy or that guy like the draft itself for hardcore golf people that would be so much fun to watch and then you'd be keeping track of those teams kind of like you keep track of mercedes or you know i'm a mclaren guy everybody knows that though well we had it with the golf, the skins match when Brady. More stuff like that. Like, I guess my point is every time somebody does something like this,

I'm more likely to enjoy it than not enjoy it. Anytime it's super gimmicky, but there's enough substance to it. And the telecast is actually well done and seems like an actual sports telecast. I'll probably watch. And this one was like a no brainer today. It was like, Oh, okay. All right. I want to see it. What if Logan Paul hits him with a right? Who knows? So I think the one, the one sport you really can't do it. I don't think is MMA. Cause that's like, there's just no scenario with MMA where it's like, if you're not a trained assassin in that thing,

you're, you're just destroying anybody else. So you could be like a 55-year-old ex-MMA champ. You're still beating Logan Paul in the octagon. It's just there's no way he's beating you ever. You have a special set of skills. The boxing's a little bit different. Ben, come here for a second. No, you can go shirtless. It's fine. Oh, so let's go in shirtless. Oh, no, Ben. Take go shirtless. It's fine. Oh, so let's go. Sure.

Oh, no. Take your shirt. Yeah, here we go. That was unbelievable. What's up, man? Look at those traps. My son, Ben, is here. He's shirtless.

So took his shirt off. He was so excited. Was that the that was your number one fight? Yeah, that was, I can't believe that. You thought, you thought Logan Paul was going to get knocked out. I thought it was going to be a fourth round knockout, but Logan survived. I'm very proud of him. So do you feel like this would make you watch more boxing events?

Yeah. I like when celebrities box. I find it more entertaining. See, there you go. Hey, Ben, are you growing out a little Logan Paul right now? What's going on with your hair? He needs a haircut. Uh, Ben just took off. That's what he does. So yeah, celebrities, kids like celebrities. There you go. Um, all right, we're going to take a break. We're going to put on our shirts and then we're

going to come back and, come back and talk some basketball. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too.

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Just search Movember. All right, let's talk Bucks Nets. As I mentioned in part one, I had the Bucs Hawks six to one parlay. Harden goes out 43 seconds in the game, just walks off the court. And I'm watching him. I'm with my son and we're just kind of looking at each other and I rewound it. He's trying to figure out where he got hurt. And I'm like, did he, it was like one of those, he's just never seen again. And you think like, oh man, this is just what, what an unbelievable gift for the Bucs. Then the Bucs, Lopez is looking good. Giannis, their, their front five's really laying it to Brooklyn. And you look up near the end of the first quarter and Brooklyn's like down too.

And Milwaukee's bench hasn't come in. And it's one of those, uh-oh. And Milwaukee just gives it away. Middleton was a complete no-show. Blake Griffin was the hero. I am trying not to, you know, the home team's supposed to win game one. Milwaukee is only a two-point underdog in game two. I think there's a real feeling that, you know, there's some lineup stuff they can do, which we can talk about. But I do feel like if you're going to win when you're the underdog,

if you're going to win a series, it's so nice to grab game one like the Hawks did. So now, now, well, I guess look at this. Like we have to win four of the next six, basically,

against this team that even if they don't have Harden, still has two incredible offensive players. And we don't have a bench and we're not going to get random roll guys. And it's gotta be these five guys that are have to come through. I'm really worried about my bucks pick. And I think they might've blown it. I think it's another one of those,

like where the game one might've might've decided a series in a weird way. I think the nets are in great shape now, even with Harden and Ify. Yeah, I'm with you. I have some positives that I have for the Bucs here, but I really wanted them to get game one if they're going to win that series. So much more fun.

You brought up the role guys between Blake, Mike James, and Joe Harris. They had 49 points, the three of them, on 54% shooting. You could make the case Blake was the third best guy in the game for either team. And Kyrie carried him in the first. You know what? I'm going to ask you about this. That Durant hard dribble baseline pull up

from like 15 feet out and he's basically perpendicular to the rim is that as impossible as anything because nobody's over there nobody takes that shot he takes it he I bet you he has well obviously with his limited games this year he's not going to have the more total but like I would imagine he has the highest percentage of shots, like 15 foot baseline jumpers than any player in the league. And I think it's a really hard thing to defend. Not only because a it's Durant with the size and can shooting. I just don't know that anybody's used to defending that part of the floor and it's filthy. He was awesome in game one and did some really good stuff defensively too. But I'm with you. Like I was really worried. He wasn't just as a long time to rant fan and somebody who just enjoys

him. I was worried we weren't going to see what we saw in the 2019 playoffs again. I feel like he has all the same shots. He, the same level of ease. And you talk about that little baseline pull up, you know, the sky hooks, the greatest shot of all time. That's a ranch shot is in like the top seven, might even be in the top five. Do you have your top seven? No, I would have to like really think about it and have it for next week, but holy shit, man. Yeah. Like the McHale sky hooks in there, the dream shake, all those other ones, like that to ranch shot doesn't even have a name. I, you never even see anyone come close to blocking

it. And it seems like it doesn't ever touch the rim and he can get it whenever he wants. And if there's been a criticism, you know, of him the last few years, it's like, sometimes he doesn't look for his shot enough. He's the best scoring forward we've ever had. And it's the other problem with it. Yeah. Defensively is that you're usually thinking, okay, well, somebody is initiating from there. They're driving and then either driving. Every time. Yeah, you think he's going for a layup. Or he's going to drive and kick to somebody else.

Like, no one pulls up from over there. Here's a slight positive. Because Milwaukee shot 6-30 from 3. Middleton had one of those Middleton games where the Middleton haters were like, we told you. Although, if you really dig through all of Middleton's playoff stuff,

he's been kind of below average. For a guy that you're like, look, if you're an all all of middleton's playoff stuff he's been kind of below average for a guy that you're like look if you're an all-star and he's not a one no one's ever arguing he's a one he's a classic you know middle tier quarterback depending on the sunday everybody comes in on monday you're going to be right at some point in the season right and that's who middleton is middleton's that quarterback who's like you know is he somebody's like how come he's not top 10? And then he sucks and then he has a great game. So anyway, I'm going to belabor the point here. Alex Smith? Chiefs Alex Smith?

I don't like criticizing Alex Smith anymore because after watching... No, I think Lyon Stafford was better than people think. But then again, there's some people that think he's worse than people think. Titans Tannehill? I'm not as high on Tannehill. I'm not.

Although Greeny doesn't get enough credit for how absurd some of his takes are, the hyperbole button. Greeny said this week before the Jones trade that Rossini reported, he goes, if the Seahawks end up with Russell Wilson, Metcalf, and Julio Jones, I'm saying that might be the best three in NFL history,

and it might not be close. That was a take he had? I was like, who's what? I'm like, DK Metcalf's really, like, he's good. He's not fucking Jerry Rice, dude. Also, Julio Jones, 33. Like, I don't even know if he's going to be in an All-Pro team again. The triplets, anybody?

Yeah, that's pretty tough. I think Greeny, it's so early in the morning, I think you give him some leeway. When somebody's waking up at four in the morning, you got to give him some leeway. I need the public, I need the audiences out there to respect the absurdity of the greenie take. Because I don't think he ever gets thrown into the group with other guys.

You're like, if you guys kept track of these more, you'd be like, dude, greenies. Greenie lets it fly. If you were a fisherman, he'd just close his eyes and let it see what happens. In the mornings, you just get a lot more leeway. Maybe you're right. The scariest thing if I'm a, well, there's two scary things that I'm a Bucks fan. And I have a couple of Bucks fans in my life. One is that their bench was atrocious and DeFinchengio, whose name I have my, uh, my name speech impediment thing. Um, I'll call him Dante. That's the list we need is we need your names. You can't get right. It's my name speech impediment thing. I'll call him Dante. That's the list we need is we need your names.

You can't get right. It's my name dyslexia. Your top 50. My verbal dyslexia, guys. It's not that he's awesome. It's just that it him not playing now has Jeff Teague

playing 14 minutes in a playoff game for you. Like, did you like the Jeff Teague down 10 Giannis running in transition with the angle Lopez about to seal Kyrie at the rim Jeff Teague down 10, Giannis running in transition with the angle, Lopez about to seal Kyrie at the rim, Teague sat, let everybody run past him,

let everybody catch up defensively, thought about it, and then bricked a three down 10. Did you like that play? I brought flashbacks to the first part of the Celtics season. I think it was 103-93 or something. Would they have six points from their bench? Eight? It was something like that.

It was a number that was less than 10. I'm going to look it up now. Deef and Senzo. There's some garbage time stuff. I thought was incredibly uncomfortable in the playoffs last year. Yes. Had the uncomfortable shirt on. Wore it well.

You're right, though. Defensively, he does some really good things that you just would love to have as an option here. But that's not really what it is. This is where the positive for Bucs fans. Not that Middleton had the bad game because he's going to have a good one. Not that everybody shot it like hell because they're going to shoot it better at some point. The things I still love about Giannis are there. That guy will go at you. He's never going to back down. And I think that's at least something Giannis needs to get more credit for, despite everybody kind of turning. There's a Giannis turn now that's happening, where if he loses this playoff series he's gonna be like oh I thought this guy was the MVP

they're the beginning of that game Bill I'm like look how big they are look at the offensive rebounds look at the second chance points look at these short bunnies that they're screwing up now they shot it awful outside the paint but I think there's a size advantage that played out in the first quarter that's going to play out again that should at least give you a little hope that this series can get turned around if you're a Milwaukee Bucks fan. Well, that was the second frustration thing I was going to say. First was the bench. Second was just how they did the lineups. He basically came out of the gate with his best lineup, right?

Yep. and once you withstand that, now we go to the second quarter, the Nets are just whatever team they're going to put together is just going to probably be more successful than whatever Bucs think. Didn't play Giannis enough minutes. Only 35. You know, it's so crazy. Nash plays Kyrie 45 and Durant 40.

Like, Nash gets it because, you know, he played. He gets it. The minutes thing is, you're right about the minutes, but I do think a couple get shaved off there because it was a blowout there late. But the overall point is, you're right. No, but it was 29 through three quarters.

I think they need to stagger it. I actually wouldn't start Lopez. I think they have to play Giannis or Lopez at all times because they had the non-Giannis, non-Lopez lineup out there kind of anchored by Portis. And the nets are just going to destroy that lineup. And then they're not going to have enough scoring.

They're never going to have enough scoring. Um, I think they need to time it so that they're closing those last six with Lopez and Giannis together. And Lopez FYI should have a huge series is eight for 11. And it felt like they were all easy shots. It felt like he could have been 11 for 11. You know,

I thought it was interesting. DeAndre didn't play at all. They played five, they played 14 guys. DeAndre, I guess, is just the Durant tax. Is that,

should that be his nickname? He was like, Durant, Kyrie, but you have to take our buddy. It's the double date where it's like, ah, we actually have to bring her friend too. So you're going to have to come. It's going to be the six of us.

But I guess DeAndre's just not going to play anymore, which leads us to Blake Griffin. So look, I have some blind spots. I'm not perfect doing this for a living as a writer, as a podcaster. Former writer. Former writer.

I have some blind spots with high school or foreign draft prospects in the NBA. People that I can't watch in a normal conventional game setting. I have some issues with that. I also have issues, apparently, deciding somebody is washed up and they're not. Because I missed on a couple guys here that are factors in these playoffs. But to him,

I thought was one of the worst players in the league last year and his career was over. And to the bitter end, I was like, there's no way this guy's going to have an important moment in a playoff series. Played 42 minutes in a game seven tonight. Missed on that one.

Uh, Blake, I thought he was bad. I don't think we were wrong that first week of watching 42 minutes in a game seven tonight. Missed on that one. I thought he was bad. I don't think we were wrong that first week of watching Batum. He played 42 minutes in game seven. He's been incredibly productive

for them. The fact that he's closing on a good playoff team in a game seven is a huge score for the amount of money. He moves the ball on offense. He knows who he is.

He doesn't take dumb shots. He's been really helpful. Body's big enough too or switches. He's at least in your way a little bit. I was wrong on that. I was wrong on Batum too. Blake Griffin looked like his career was over in Detroit. It looked like he's at least, you know, in your way a little bit. So I was wrong on that. I was wrong on Batum too.

Blake Griffin looked like his career was over in Detroit. It looked like he was physically broken, that he had no athletic ability left. He has now reinvented himself as like kind of the perfect blue guy for a team that can play small ball five with him. He's got toughness. He throws some cheap shots.

There's elbows. There's, he's hitting guys in the back. He's diving for loose ball. Offensive fouls. He's about to take somebody's ACL. Yeah, he's lurching around. And here's a guy who, A, I thought was washed up, but B, has been in a lot of playoff games. And it's like you have this guy as a quote unquote roll guy, glue guy, who isn't really afraid of the moment. Who's been in a lot of big games, who probably thinks he's a little better than he is. Cause he was, you know, a first team all NBA guy six, seven years ago, but it's still a really,

really important asset. And, uh, I was just dead wrong. I thought he was going to suck for them. I thought he was done. I'll look, I'll admit, I have a hard time with some of that too because guys can look done, but then you have to understand how much better it is playing with all of these awesome players. Not even when it's the three guys because it wasn't that. It's two of the three and how much it opens it up for you.

Wait, I have an important question playing off that, and you're probably the only person on the earth who can answer this correctly. Cause I was thinking about this. I was really trying to figure out Blake Griffin. What happened here? How do you go from being done in December, January, where it's like actually kind of painful and I feel bad watching you to now being the guy I saw in that game one, you figure like, if you got nothing to play for, you're making a ton of money. You've had eight surgeries. You're physically broken down. There's a process that you'd probably have to do to get your body ready, right? To play right now,

you're a guy who's known to lift some weights from time to time. And I feel like a steroid accusation is coming. No, no, it's not a steroid accusation, but there's a process to get you ready, right? Where you have to do certain things for your body. Is it possible that when your season's going South in Detroit, the grind of like, Oh fuck, I got to get up at six 30 and work out with my personal trainer for three hours. Maybe you just kind of start punting on stuff, but now you get to Brooklyn and you're like, Holy shit, I have a chance to win the title. And it's almost like the person who got divorced who is out there single again. And now it's like, oh, I'm getting a trainer.

I'm cutting out sugar. No more carbs for me. I'm going to fucking look good because I have to start dating. Is that possible what happened to Blake? Because it doesn't add up who the guy from the start of the season was to the guy now.

Yeah, but we just found it out with Batum. I think it's the motivation of your surroundings. So it might've been working out. It might've been him changing something. I mean, look, maybe it's different with Blake. If it were a different player, we would have heard about every single dietary change and it just, you know, every single sideline reporter would bring it up and then like a month straight, we're like, okay, you're on a fucking plant diet. I got it. You know what I mean? I've heard every single person bring it up at this point i haven't really heard any of that stuff with him but i think it's a motivating factor being around those guys as opposed to you know the detroit thing got so bad every time he'd watch the pistons on a league pass game which was every night

because i think they played 180 games this year i swear to god every time i'd start my routine four o'clock who's on oh detroit's on again um it was it was like everybody was it was like broadcasting a game with a dead guy like oh like right there you know it was done since 2019 so i think as much as we can have a hard time figuring out if somebody's done or not we're probably in too much of a hurry to say somebody's completely done and can offer up nothing and especially at 32 like i get the injuries part of it yeah but i think that's i think he's a good reminder that as bad as somebody can look if they're still young enough and they pass their physical and if they're motivated and they have a better chance and they're not really

asked to do anything and they want to accept a completely different role from who they've been somebody who has you know he's played in a lot of big games he hasn't been there for a ton of them some of those disappointing clip of her exits but he still played in a lot of big games. He hasn't been there for a ton of them. Some of those disappointing Clipper exits, but he still played in a lot of big games. I wouldn't say he was always comfortable, super comfortable being the number one or number two option in some of those, but it was, it was tried really hard.

And I think that's what he's carried over this next thing. Yeah. I think he's always been really aggressive. I never saw him like mailing games, anything. So I was trying to think like, there's different ways this could go, right? Like Brandon Roy, who was a great player who eventually had to become a role player. His

knees were just so fucked up. And then eventually he couldn't play anymore. Blake never had like the, he had niche, niche stuff. And I thought his niche stuff was so bad. It changed who he was, but now we're watching him and obviously he's been able to manage it. I was wondering like, who else would be, so what are the reasons this is working? And it's what you said. He's only 32. He's not, he's not 38. He's not 39.

He's not, he doesn't have 50,000 miles on him. It's not Karl Malone in 2004 coming off a major injury. And it made me think like maybe somebody, maybe Kevin Love is the next guy. Cause Kevin Love hasn't had a career. He's been banged up, but hasn't had a career-ending injury. He's young. He's around the same age as Blake. He's skilled.

And is that somebody that could you rejuvenate him? Much like the Blake Griffin thing has been rejuvenated. I was thinking about with the Mavs. If it's like Porzingis for love and they throw in something to get Cleveland to take Porzingis or however that works out, and you think, could we rejuvenate love playing with Luka Doncic? Could we actually really get something out of this guy?

I think Blake's a good test case for never give up on pedigree talent if the age is quite young enough. Yeah, I mean, the other thing with love is you would go, all right, he's 32, he'll be 33 this fall. He played 21 games in 18-19, played 56 games last year, played

25 games this year. He still shot the ball well. He could have played more. I think they took their time with him and they're trying to tank all that stuff. I'm talking about him with the Celtics. I think I'm saying it as a positive. I'm saying it as a positive. Look, I already know what you're doing. You're scouting Porzingis and Kevin Love for this Kemba deal

that you're hoping is going to happen. Three-way? No, I'm just saying like, you watch the playoff games, but you also... Love to the Celtics. Kemba to Dallas. Who says no the fastest?

Porzingis to Cleveland. If you want to move Kemba in 70 plus million, it starts with a first. And then it may, the conversation may have to Cleveland. If you want to move Kemba 70 plus million, it starts with a first. And then the conversation may have to continue. I think Blake has made me reevaluate whether Love could be the guy. You like the extremes, though. You like to be able to say he's gone.

He's done. He's the best. He's done. I had no other evidence watching Blake Griffin other than this guy's career is over. We both watched those Detroit games. They couldn't move anymore. So I just can't believe what happened because the guy yesterday was like the ultimate

glue guy. It was like that guy could have played on any championship team we've watched last 10 years. I'm going to be more motivated as a 32-year-old glue guy living in Brooklyn playing with Durant, Harden, and Kyrie than I would be watching Jeremy Grant take 20 fucking shots a night and Killian Hayes

being like, I got this. Blake had 14 rebounds. I thought he did a, you know, Giannis was still 16 for 24, but he still did a half-decent job. At least he stayed in front of him. He was physical. He wasn't like overrun by Giannis was still 16 for 24, but he still did a half decent job. At least he stayed in front of him. He was physical. He wasn't overrun by Giannis or anything.

I was impressed. They need more from Drew Holiday. I think if they asked for my advice, not that they would, I would say even though Holiday had 19 shots, I didn't love the shots. I like when he's going to the basket. I like his floater. I would just kind of tap into him more. And then get love the shots. I would have, I like when he's going to the basket. I like his floater. I would just kind of tap into him more. And then,

uh, you know, get to the line, 19 free throws for them. Get to the line. They have no rim protection. I know the defensive stuff. Just get there.

The defensive stuff is going to be tough. Cause you know who we're talking about. Although the hardened injury made me think it was really bad since it was the same hamstring. And he immediately just left. The fact that he just left, it wasn't like a sit down, like, oh, let me feel this out. Hold on. All right. Pick me up. OK, we'll see what happens here.

We'll go to the back. Like he just was gone immediately. So I don't know what that means. Yeah, but there was a play. If you're watching the Nets go right to left on TV in the second half, where Mike James was with Middleton, and there was kind of this switch. I think Middleton got back or something. I think Middleton actually, the moment I'm thinking about it, the play. Middleton ended up in the switch, and Mike James just went right around him. And you're like, Mike James is a nice piece, and he had a nice career overseas.

And they were talking about him coming back because he was like like i'm out of here but i've also seen him get benched in nets games because he's only doing his own thing like he can be so single-minded offensively and middleton at that point you're like you just let mike james just blow right past you like you weren't even ready for it like what what'd you think was going to happen so i you know maybe that's being down even though they did actually cut it to 10 there it was 103 93 again later but um i love the ball movement it's really as somebody who loves basketball it's really hard for me to root against the nets but i've managed to figure out a way i'm still rooting against them

at some point i'm going to talk myself into this is inevitable I love Nash this would be so cool if Nash won the title and I'll kind of jump on the bandwagon but I'm not there yet no I think you're going to do a full Trey redemptive arc if they were to beat Philadelphia and you're going to go I think Trey knows he belongs

he sees four players and he thinks he's the best of the four I could do the Bill Trey segment Trey's not afraid and he thinks he's the best of the four. I could do the Bill Trey segment. Yeah, and then you pick him. Trey's not afraid. And then you're in season four of Atlanta. I would not be picking Atlanta over Brooklyn. Whoever wins this Brooklyn-Milwaukee series, I would be picking Deng Shuren. I think

Atlanta getting to the conference finals would be an incredible achievement for them. Can I add this reminder though? Yeah. Because I said it in the first round to everybody that listened to me here or listened on my pod, but the game one freak out is usually always a mistake. Utah lost game one. The Clippers lost the first two games.

People were already trying to figure out if Kawhi was going to end up with Miami Heat. Denver lost the first game, and it looked like they had this amazing game plan for them. And Phoenix won game one, and I think if Davis is healthy, Lakers win that series. You could have had the four teams that moved on to the second round

all lose their first game. So despite the two and a half hours of evidence that we have about Philadelphia, that we have about Milwaukee, there's also a really good chance this game of basketball, we come into game two and we see a completely different storyline play out. Milwaukee. You know, there's also a really good chance this game of basketball, we come into game two and we see a completely different storyline play out.

Milwaukee is a great, that's why the line is only Milwaukee plus two, because they have moves to make and Middleton and Holiday aren't going to be that bad again. And they, they can do stuff with their bench. And I think I'm not writing off my Bucks bet. I think they can win game two. I just think it's really hard to beat a team with that kind of offense four out of six. And if I was a Bucs fan, I would just be furious. I thought the lineups are really weird. And that's also the other thing to like the offensive numbers that I was talking about a little bit earlier

is this season in this playoff season maybe just about can we do we have enough offense to keep up and do we have a couple defensive options? We like our last two or three minutes. There's right. There's been football seasons like that, right? Where it's just like, all right, this is one of those seasons where it's just like, who has the best offense?

And that's going to be our champ. Maybe, maybe that's what it feels like. Yeah. All right. We're gonna take a break. Talk about Portland. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to powers your scale with no preset spending limit.

More cash on hand to grow your business with up to 55 interest-free days. And the ability to reach further with access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of american express terms and conditions apply visit amex.ca slash business platinum on fanduel right now the nets are plus 160 to win the title the jazz are plus 310 the clips are 5 to 1. Bucks plus 650. Suns 10-1. Hawks down to 26-1. I bet them at 85-1.

Feeling good about that. The Bucks are plus 172 in the Brooklyn series. Denver Phoenix. Do you want to guess who's favored in Denver Phoenix? Yeah, I don't know what the line is, but I'd imagine the way you're setting it up now I'm wondering if I'm wrong but I'd be surprised if Denver were favored

Phoenix is a 2-1 favorite yeah that sounds about right so there you go on that one let's talk about Utah and the Clippers really quick that line is not up and then we can talk about Denver Phoenix really quick gun to your head who comes out of Utah Clippers really quick. That line is not up. And then we can talk about Denver, Phoenix really quick.

Gun to your head. Who comes out of Utah Clippers? I'm going to go with Utah. Okay. Totality, offense, home court? I just want to pick them. I just want to pick Utah. I think the Dallas series, although

I got every series right because I don't count the Lakers one as a loss. I'm 7-0-1. But the Clippers-Mavs series scared me a little bit. You know, as great as Luka is, as we talked, like you get done looking at all the different moving pieces, the team isn't that good. And you needed Hall of Fame Luka performances

to close six and a good chunk of seven. And I don't know. I guess it's weird. Like Brooklyn still may not know who they are to close six and a good chunk of seven. And I don't know. I guess it's weird. Brooklyn still may not know who they are and it might not matter, but I'm going to go with Utah. Sounds like you're going Clippers. I'm taking the Clippers.

I saw something those last two games that I think is transferable. I think they figured out what their team was and who to play and just what to do. That was my big concern with them the whole season was I just, watching them, I just didn't feel like they knew who they were. And now

I think they know. So whether that's enough to beat Utah, I do think Utah is going to be so susceptible to a team like the Clippers, a team that can go a little smaller than them and use Gobert against them a little bit. We'll see. Denver, Phoenix.

It's really hard to take Denver with some of the guys they played. Like just the dudes that are involved. Now, Barton might be back, right? They're, they're talking like he could be back like midway through this series. I mean, that's why you,

you know, people that pick Portland, I didn't think they were crazy. I just liked Denver because of how big they would be in spots. And, you know, it still could have gone Portland's way if Nurkish doesn't foul out all the time,

but the back court part of it where I go rivers and Morris with, okay, whatever version of Barton against Booker and Paul. It seems, yeah, it seems far-fetched, but who, who's guarding Jokic? Well, they, their only option, they're going to have Aiton. Right. Aiton will work his ass off, but Jokic is still going to get all his points. The, the big thing is, can you hold up enough in single coverage against him

that he doesn't kill you with the doubles? So this is what we saw with Fien saw with Denver Lakers last year, right? The Lakers had enough size that they could make Jokic just a little uncomfortable enough, you know, and they just were really physical with them. They would throw Dwight at them. They'd throw Davis at them, McGee, even LeBron would be on there. They just kept throwing muscle at him and knocking him around. Phoenix can do that with Aiton, but then after that it falls apart. Then you're talking about Frank the Tank and you're

talking about Sarich. Sarich and I guess Crowder? Torrey Craig maybe? This feels to me I think it goes seven. And I like the, I like the,

on Fando, there's a Phoenix plus 350 in seven. And I like that one. I think it's Phoenix in seven. And then your Chris Paul dream is still alive. We're over here. We're planning.

We're going to have a Western Conference Finals parade. Even though he has made the one. It is weird. Atlanta Phoenix and Trey Young against Chris Paul as your finals. I kind of want to harden. I want to Nets Hawks finals in a weird, perverted way.

I shouldn't say perverted. Perverted doesn't really have anything to do with it. They've had some good games this year. But just to watch hardened fans complain about Trey Young calls and Trey fans that complain about hardened calls. Because Van Gundy had a great line with the Trey part. This is the 20% of the Trey shit I can't stand is that size is penalized and lack of size is rewarded in the game.

Yeah. So if you're actually little and you fall down and it looks like you've got mopped, you just get the call all the time. Where if you're big and you hold your ground a little bit and don't flail on the way down, then you don't get the call. So I kind of want that next Hawk series to happen to watch both fan bases become incensed for the other team being rewarded for what you've been rewarded for the entire year. I never asked you if you thought Rick Carlisle was going to be the Mavs coach next year.

Forgot to ask you that in part one. He's a great coach. So if they want to go in a different direction because of voice getting stale, that's fine. But he is in that group of coaches that is not a long list, maybe five deep that other other teams will constantly bring up how, how great he is. So, uh, I, you know, it's kind of like the Brad Stevens thing. He moves on. I think he's a good coach who had a bad year, but there's a real, you know, Nick nurse is the guy that always seemed to get the most love, but Carlisle for 10 plus years has always been somebody that's been brought

up. They're like, well, you know, Carlisleisle that team sucks but he'll get him to 41 wins because it's rick carlisle i've heard that so many times in the last decade so his job in the 05 playoffs against the celtics was one of the single best coaching jobs i've ever seen where the melee team he had like six guys it just just somehow didn't the celtics have like the two best players in the series and then they still. Yeah. I'd have to go back and. It was like Jermaine O'Neal with, with one arm. Yeah.

Right. Reggie Miller. It was just, it was just a complete mess. Crozier, I think was on that team. Anyway. All right. So let's talk about the Blazers. I've looked at this. I've studied it.

I think it goes one of three ways. Either one, they just hire a new coach and they say, it was all Terry Stotts' fault. Whatever, we need a new voice, fresh voice, fresh perspective. We really believe in the talent that we have. We're going to run this back new coach. Second would be new coach,

but we also have to make a trade. This CJ Dame thing, having your best players be two guards, it just hasn't worked in the West. The West is bigger. We have to shake it up and they trade CJ for whatever. The third would be,

this just isn't going to work. Heading into 2022, if you just look at the talent we have compared to everybody else, we have less talent than either everybody else, we have less talent than either LA team. We have less talent than Golden State with, if they get that Minnesota pick. We don't have Jokic. We don't have Luka. We don't have as good of a team as Phoenix. We don't have as much young talent as Memphis or New Orleans. what are we? Dame's 31, he's going to be making like 50 million

in three years. Maybe we should call quits and rebuild and really start this over. I would say those are three roads. What do you think is the most realistic? The first one, hire a new coach, have him stamp of approval, run it back, be competitive, see what happens.

And I think that's the one that'll happen. Is that the one you think should happen? If I'm running the Trailblazers, I'm not trading Damian Lillard. I know he's 31, but I want players like that. Now, there's always another streak, depending on how aligned you are with ownership, where you

preserve your own job, where you go, hey, let's tear this thing down, so that way I get another three years of money. It, I don't, I don't think that's what's going to happen. It's an unbelievable move. You talk ownership and it will rebuild. So that way you get to sit around and lots of picks because your picks, you can play. If you say, Hey, let's stay status quo and you fired the coach and then it's no better next year. And you're bounced out in the first round, then maybe you lose your job. Um, but I don. But I don't think Lillard gets traded. And the only way we get traded, he would have to also set a precedent.

As we were talking about the rookie scale stuff in part one, he would be setting a precedent like a four-year extension about to kick in where it's massive money. But I don't – the way it's been described to me is that he is a king there. All right? And I know it's frustrating, but some of these rumors, like what do the Lakers have, first of all? He would want to go there and then be what?

The second option? The third option? Maybe the second option? I don't think so. I mean, everything is kind of run by... Wait, can I stop you? The Lakers are not in this unless Davis is in the trade.

Right, okay, so moving on. They have no draft picks. What are they going to do? The Knicks have nothing that they'd want so and from what I can gather wait hold on on the Knicks because I don't think they would do this

but they could do Barrett and 100 picks for Dame and just be like have all of our picks for the rest of the decade here are all of them they could basically do what you know what New Orleansleans did for davis without the and rj barrett becomes the brandon ingram of the deal yeah but i don't think they want to do that and i don't think i don't think they want to do it either because i think dame

wants to win so then it's like he wants to win but i also think he still wants to be the guy and he's the guy in portland and the way it's been described to me is that, you know, this is an organization that takes him very seriously with his stature with this team. And that, you know, I was, I was hearing stuff that I thought was really interesting about how, you know, different things come up trade wise and they run it by Dane. You know, I'm like, this is his franchise. And I think that's important to him. And, you know, I, obviously things can change and we're always surprised by stuff. So I'm not saying like, oh, he's definitely, definitely staying in Portland, but I don't think, I don't know, maybe the coaching thing goes wrong and he ends up making some demands,

but I'm just telling you from a, Hey, we're not good. Let's reboot it thing. We do that too often with too many franchises. And when you have somebody, especially with Lillard, I actually think as a front office, as frustrating as all of these bounces from the playoffs have been, I don't think you should be in a hurry to try to trade these guys. You know, I don't think there's, if you don't have better options, I don't think you should be completely discouraged.

You know, like, all right, maybe we'll win 50 next year, make the playoffs again and see what happens. See who's healthy and see who isn't. I know that's boring, but I think it's a more likely option. You're not going to be shocked to know that I agree with you. I do not think they should trade Dan Lord because he's one of the 11, 12 guys who matter in the entire league. I'm not getting anything back from him. There's two trades. We're going to say like, all right, I love this. What are the two trades that could actually keep them competitive in some way? The two are Philly and the Lakers.

Philly gets bounced. Simmons, Maxie, and a bunch of picks. Basically what they were going to offer for Harden. I think they'd have to offer more because Harden was a distressed asset. For Lillard? Yeah. Okay.

Simmons, Maxie, you tell me how many picks and you get Dame. And if I'm Philly, I'm like, I haven't been in Dame. A little cork moss sweetener in there? Maybe cork moss. I'd probably hold out

until the last minute. Really, really try to dangle him. So that's one. The other one is Davis. Straight up. I don't think that happens, but it's an interesting,

hmm. Wait, would you consider it? Is that a no? No, it did make me wonder. Davis is, what, three, four years younger than Dame? Is that

potentially, like, who says no first and the answer's both? I think they both say no fast, but if you think about it... I think they both say no. It's a trade that kind of makes sense. I don't think it'll happen. I think it's ridiculous, but it's

like, all right, now if I'm Portland, I have Davis, CJ, all these other guys, I'm probably in the same spot I was in before, but I have Davis under this longer contract and Nike's right there, whatever. And if I'm the Lakers, it's like, what is Nike being right there? I don't know. I do. I'm just, it sounds for Portland. Thank you. Like Davis is just sitting around like, what do you guys want to do today? Nike's right there. Let's go.

Let's go get some free stuff at Nike. And then if you're the Lakers, you could basically, you know, you're basically solving your issue with LeBron and Davis playing together as LeBron gets older and is just clearly a power forward now. And it'll never happen. Then,

and ringer social team, don't carve this out into a social media video. You have to tell your own company. Simmons wonders if Dame, Dave, I'm just saying like, I think those are the only two trades that make sense because otherwise you're just looking at like RJ Barrett and a hundred picks.

And I'm not doing that. If I'm Portland, I'm getting, I need to get somebody really good back to even consider it. And I still don't and a hundred picks. I'm not doing that. If I'm Portland, I'm getting, I need to get somebody really good back to even consider it. And I still don't want to do it. I'm keeping Dave. So that leads to poor CJ. Who's been in trade rumors for a hundred years.

There's one way to avoid trading CJ. And that would be if you could talk to Celtics and to Covington and smart being in some sort of trade together, but then that doesn't solve the, how do you play CJ smart Dame at the same time? So I think with CJ is Tobias on the table. That one's was thrown around a little bit, right?

Does that change my destiny? If I have to buy us instead of CJ, I've appreciated Tobias this regular season. I think he's been a steadying force. I think he's been a guy that's carried them in more games than maybe I would expect from him at times when they didn't have the other guys ready to

go all the time. And look, we just realized that Simmons is going to have offensive nights where it's just not going to be that great. Having said all that, I'm really fearful of a playoff tobias harris correction that could be coming where it's like oh remember how like when people doubted this guy a little bit like it might be happening i mean he didn't do i don't know i don't even know what the box score was if you told me he had four points today i wouldn't be surprised and i know it was

more than that but it just felt like he was was such a non-factor that I even think with the frustration of, hey, who is CJ? I think I like CJ better than him. Oh my God, Tobias Harris had 20 points in this game today? It was a quiet 20. Well, it's funny. Middleton was the other guy I was going to throw at you. They could basically be like,

if Tobias or Middleton sucks in round two, could that be who you flip CJ for? If you were trying to mix it up, my guess is they're not going to do anything. My guess is that they're just going to bring back a new coach and you know, whatever. Um, there's another one I wanted to throw at you just for fun,

just cause I'm a Celtics fan and I've been making up fake Celtics trades, smart Pritchard, Thompson, and a first for CJ. It's a quick no, right? Smart, Pritchard, Thompson. Thompson's contract. How do you get him for a year? Another body and a first.

That would be great. Trying to move Thompson's contract where it's actually something that is like... It would just be so funny to be like, hey, you guys would have loved having him last year against Jokic. You never know. He could run into him again.

Use his six fouls. He throws great parties. He was such a bad signing by Ainge. It was tough. It was a terrible signing. It wasn't tough. It was awful. It was one of the many reasons

Zayn quote unquote retired. Yeah, I couldn't really come up with a Boston. I think smart. I don't know what his value is in the league. Some people love him, but I don't think his value could add up to being the centerpiece of a CJ trade. I did come up with a CJ trade I liked.

And again, sorry, CJ. I really do like you. Okay. It involves the New York Knicks. Obi Toppin. Ooh, super interested so far. Was that sarcasm? Tons.

Obi Toppin and both first rounders that the Knicks have. They have their own pick in Dallas. So they're in the mid-teens for CJ. And here's why you do it. If you're in Portland. If you're Portland, here's why you do it. If you're in Portland. If you're Portland, here's why you do it. It's a terrible trade. If you're Portland, here's why you think about it.

Because you want to get fired? Because you went to a Washington job? If you're Portland, here's why you think about it. You're saving $25 million next year. So you're rebuilding a little bit. You'd have to really like Toppin, which I don't think they would enough to do the trade. So maybe it's quickly instead of Toppin with those picks. But basically like the Knicks can take on a huge salary, right?

So they're a unique trade partner because they can flip quickly for CJ and Portland shave $28 million off their salary cap and then has the flexibility to do something else. So I would watch the CJ next thing. I have no inside information. I just think that Nick's have the ability to take a big contract like that and give up a couple assets and allow a team to potentially use that giant trade exception and then do something else,

which is as you've pointed out many times, sometimes the trade exception does not pay off. 75% of the time it doesn't lead to anything. I was going to say like 78%. I got to update it. Could be right. 77%. I'm still shook that Tobias Harris had 20 points today. I can't believe that. So yeah, that's it. He shot it well too. But the, the CJ, I mean, there's, I was looking at Indiana. I was like, Oh,

Indiana, like Sabonis is, I think has just more value than CJ does. But then why would you take Brogdon back? And cause I, I just feel like Indiana's trade. If I could get, wait a minute.

Now you got me excited. If I could get Sabonis in some version of this, but I don't know. That Pacers team should be good enough to make the playoffs in the East. CJ and Nurkic? I'd rather keep Sabonis. I think Sabonis is so rare.

I'd rather have Sabonis. I'd rather have Sabonis. I'm out of fake CJ trades. I love CJ. I hope they don't trade him. I like the Dame CJ backer. CJ was hurt, by the way. So that's got to factor in. Didn't he actually call you out and say,

that fucking guy's been trying to trade me for years? Well, he came on my podcast. He made fun of me about it. I actually think the smarter move would be Covington. It would be funny if he got traded again. Yeah, well, they desperately needed to address the small forward situation defensively, and that's why they paid what they paid for Covington.

And, you know, maybe a little better than people want to give it credit for. I think people want to trash it. I mean, it's kind of funny. Like, when you look at some of the Portland transactions and you go, well, you know, none of that stuff worked out. Those guys should have done a better job, which I think you've leaned towards a little bit more. I would look at the West and go, okay, who are they supposed to be? What were they really

supposed to do? If people picked them in the first round, fine. Against Denver, I can see it. I didn't. If they'd won that series, I don't sit here being like, I'm so smart. I knew everything. I thought it was close. I just liked Denver's size a little bit better. And I thought they had the better player, which is crazy because Lillard had one of those performances that we're never going to forget where we were for it in game five but okay fine they get through that then what happens like you think you're winning the west do you think that team's winning the west so my expectations of them are always a little little tempered and it's kind of funny like the Portland ending is disappointing so then we kind of retroactively go back and look at some of the transactions to start giving them

all worse grades we were doing the exact same thing to the Atlanta Hawks when they had a terrible record the first half of the season. And then it's like, wait, you know, I don't love Danilo. I don't love that money, but I get it. Even if they don't even need them all the time, the Bogdanovich thing looks like the heist of, of the decade. Um, and even with Rondo, which I didn't like those numbers, they turn it into something else. And now you watch Atlanta and you go, Hey, the same guys are out there for the most part. And when they had a bad record, everybody was making fun of Travis Schlenk saying the guy's going to get fired. And now you're going, what a great job they did putting this roster together.

So I know the wins and losses are what we keep track of, but I think we can change our criticisms pretty quickly, even though the transactions are the same. The Bogdanovich thing was great. Gallo signing was a little rough. Rondo signing was bad. Chris Dunn signing was bad. Chris Dunn signing. The Bogdanovich signing was so good. It made up for all the other bad signings. And then Herter was a great draft pick. Capella in the trade. I mean, Capella trade was excellent. Right. Um, did you say Hunter was a good draft pick? Is that what you just said? Herter. Herder. Hunter was a good draft pick. Herder, Hunter.

They nailed both of those. They didn't panic trade John Collins last year, which was really smart. I still don't think he fits in with them. That's going to be so funny. Like, Collins is going to be part of this team. He's going to have a couple, like, 23 and 12 games, and people are going to talk him up,

and it just never seems to fit in the flow of what they're doing, and the scary thing is it doesn't really matter. Right. Are you with me on that? I like that he's not scared in these games. Yeah. I do think they have a lot of dudes out there who are just like, I belong here.

I'm really good. He had a big three. They trapped Trey. Went to him. He had to make it to alley-oop to close it. I have to ask one more Portland thing pretend you

you're Dame's best friend and I'm Dame how do we meet? we've known each other since we were kids have we ever dated the same girl? no

we never would do that we're so close do I owe you any money? no never okay alright it's good.

Now I get it. You've used my recording studio many times. We're really tight. And I ask you, what should I do? What should I, Dame Lillard, do right now? Because I just made a list of all the players in the other team and I'm trying to figure out a path that I could win the NBA title. And I'm not going to do it unless I have, you know, an all NBA teammate and there's no roadmap for me. What should I do? I would,

I would ask him like, look, are you happy being the number? You can be disappointed, but are you still happy being the man in this market? Because first of all, like him being in a bigger market, I don't know how much bigger it's going to get for him.

The guy's crushed it off the court. He's crushed it. And we've learned a lot over the years that you don't have to be in New York. You don't have to be in LA. I'm not saying it's negative, but it, um, I would just ask him a really simple question.

Like, is your frustration going to be greater than your joy of knowing that this is still your organization? Because you may win somewhere else, but what role are you willing to play? And do you want to go somewhere else and be the focal point of a team that maybe is even worse? That's why the Knicks thing never made it unless these guys all team up together and a bunch of guys forced away. But that's what I would add. As frustrated as you are now, are you going to be happier being somewhere else, not being the guy you are here? Because he's really special to the organization and they know it. I would say that. I think that's a good

one. I'm no longer Dame Lillard. I'm going to be the second friend talking to Dame Lillard. I would also point out- Where did you guys meet? I'm just kidding. Go ahead. Go ahead. We met in Portland, actually. It is rookie year. So you're newer. I would point to the Hawks and I would say,

hey, look at the Hawks. They have a chance to like make the conference finals and they're built around one really good point guard. They do not have another all NBA player

and they just have a lot of offense. And if your GM made a mistake this year, it was not realizing he should surround you with more offense. That this is where the league is going.

And we still have time to do that. You're only 31. Look how awesome Curry was at age 33. We keep McCollum and let's go get more offense. Let's just get shooting.

Let's just outscore everybody else in the West. That's how we're going to win the West. It's not going to be like, oh, Derek Jones is so good at switching on D and oh, Covington. It's like, we need guys who can fucking score. Let's go for it.

Let's try to be Atlanta in the West. Let's go. And I would get them fired up with that. You have the bad defense part down. Yeah, you've crushed that. The other team's going to score. It's going to happen. Um, all right. I think we did. So, uh, so our verdict is key. So you keep CJ cause I I'm actually have the keep CJ I'm in keep CJ camp, even though I just made up 10 trades for him. Yeah,

I know. That's pretty amazing. Um, I'd have to. Yeah, but I think top and two picks, you think Lillard's going to be psyched about that instead of top and two picks,

but then I get the trade exception that I try to get somebody else. Cool. Waiting around on that one. Kevin Love? Can Kevin Love fit in a trade exception? Look, if you throw me something... Kevin Love can fit in a trade exception.

Cleveland still wants something from Kevin Love. His contract went backwards next year. No, they don't. They're fine. All right. Nate McMillan running next year. No, they don't. They're fine. All right. Nate McMillan running out of timeouts and not knowing how to break a press. We decided not to talk about that today.

That was interesting. Fowling up eight with less than a minute to go. Julio Jones, who people are treating like he's the Julio Jones from seven years ago. I didn't see that last year, but maybe I'm a cynical dick. But at the age he's at, is he going to be that much of a difference maker for the Titans? On paper, it looks great.

I think he is. Okay, so you think he still has it? I think he's still a guy you trade a second rounder for. I mean, the NFL market on the trade stuff is always, it's always amazing to me how often like you go, wait,

that's all it takes. And remember that one year like Belichick just started trading all of his picks for guys that were established. Yeah. I think there may have been a Kwon short transaction in there,

but I'm not 100% sure. So, I'm, I'm, I'm with you in that it's diminishing a bit here but if you're tennessee actually their defense was more of an issue last year than it was their offense um if you've upgraded cory davis into julio jones and it's a second rounder i'm cool with that

i liked it too i think that the salary cap piece i think was tough i think that's what scared off the Patriots because Belichick loves having that flexibility. I think what scared off the Patriots is they never do that stuff unless it's free. Unless it's free. Like Revis. Yeah.

Revis can't make more than Tom. We'll do a fifth rounder if we win the Super Bowl in 2029. Can I do a parent corner before we go? Yeah, absolutely. My daughter went to a party last night. What kind of party? It was a high school party. She turned 16.

It was the first one she really went to with her friends. And my wife drove her to the party. So this is a new thing. I'm trying to figure this out. She's 16. So she's never been to parties before.

She, she Ubered home. And then, um, when she came in, it was definitely, definitely kind of reading and checking her out to make sure everything seemed okay, which it did.

Is that cause like you watch euphoria on HBO? I was like, you didn't go to a euphoria party right like who's the girl zendaya um yeah you know but you know it was i get it look this is your oldest is your first time this is a new new territory like all the times that i came home thinking i was getting away with something knowing i wasn't although i was a really really well-behaved kid until i came back for like summer break. Then I was, then it was on, but go ahead. Well, the thing is, you know, your kids so well that if anything's off, you know, right

away. Right. So it's, it's a tough crowd for her with me and my wife just studying. It's like, you know, Kawhi, Kawhi knowing all of Luca's moves after seven games. Especially your wife too. Like just thinking about her right now, like she's not falling for anything. Well, cause yeah, she knows all the tricks. Yeah.

So, you know, it just was interesting cause we were home last night. We watched Bo Burnham's Netflix special waiting to hear from my daughter who had, you know, a 1215 curfew. And we're just watching. Bo Burnham's special was really, really creative, by the way. I'm not 100% sure I'd watch it twice,

but I really respected it. It was just really different and interesting. So we're watching it. And then there comes a point where you start wondering at around 1130, like, are they going to do the thing where they pretend their phone died? That they left, you know,

and then they just go off the map for two hours because you think of all the things you would have done in this situation, but she hit all the check marks and seemed pretty responsible. But it was my first stressed out Saturday night with my daughter at a party. Where did she cut it on the 1215 curfew? What time did she roll in? Cut it even early, a little early. Yeah. She... We... It was... She can stay at the party

till 12.15, but she was in the Uber by 12.15. So that was good. Did she come back with like a girlfriend and then they recap it all night and talk about who was cute?

No, but there was a lot of like Snapchatting after where she's Snapchatting with her friends. Like the Snapchat world that's like Morse code for 2021 where it's like we don her friends. Like the Snapchat world, it's like Morse code for 2021, where it's like,

we don't know what's going on and the things disappear immediately. And it's this whole secret society to how they communicate with each other. And we can't infiltrate it. You can't get in. Can't get in. The stuff,

and it's just, it's why they're all in there because they can all do it and we can't crack it. Instagram, I can crack. I can look at her texts. Snapchat, it's like, it's just gone. So like Cumberbatch, you're just not, you're not him working on, working on the puzzles downstairs.

Cumberbatch. No, not like Cumberbatch. You show up to your office with an umbrella and a trench coat you sit down at this device you're like honey i'm close i'm close i think z means h i found a photo in her hard drive yeah so she she gets her driver's what's, so she gets her driver's license. What's that mean? She gets her driver's license in August, so obviously won't be letting her drive to parties unless she's the designated driver, but there's an autonomy that's coming that

I'm definitely fearful of. She's just be like, I'm going to leave. I'm going to go drive around or I'm going to go to my friend's house and that's it. They're just gone. Then you just have to cross your fingers and hope it's I know we talked about this before, but you know, whenever I met a kid who grew up in New York city, like grew up in New York city, right. That when they got to college, they were 30, you know, like socially, I'm like, how, what, how do you know that? Like, how are you wired this way?

You know, and you talk to these kids from these more densely populated areas and they get to college. Like the first bar I ever got into, I was a freshman in college. It's the first time I've ever gotten into one. And then these kids in the city be like, what? They're like, oh, my junior prom, we rented out the W and, you know, the meatpacking district. And then we were out till like, and I'm like, what? And be like, yeah, I was 15 though. A senior asked me. And I'm just like, this is nuts to me. It blows my mind. Like you were in a book. Is there any element of knowing, you know, you like me from New England where like how quick do kids in L.A. grow up or is it still somewhat sheltered in the school system? Like I don't I don't know what that would be like, obviously, as a non parent. But, you know, I know where you live and that kind of thing, but also a couple blocks this way or that way. It feels like a real city. So what is that like? I don't think, I think from a party standpoint, they can get a little ambitious sometimes. The parts that I don't understand is you have all these Ubers showing up to these houses, right? Because in LA you get to drive everywhere. So how much fun, how much unfun would it be for the

parents where the party's at their house? I mean, unless they're not there and they have no idea it's happening, but. Which is going to be half the time, if not more. The drop-off standpoint or the drop-off piece of it just is so, so different than if you're in New York City or just taking cabs everywhere. Right. Um, I think the parties are a little more elaborate probably in LA

I think in I don't know Kyle how many elaborate parties did you go to in high school what's elaborate like you go into somebody's house and there's like a theme oh theme it's like the white party

this was like undercover I didn't get invited to those I was at undercover parties and like oh oh shit, you broke my fence. My mom's going to kill me. Like that's the parties I went to. Yeah. I could see Kyle though, like renting out a VFW or the Portuguese American club or something and charging people five bucks a head at like 16. Yeah.

Like, no, this is my party. Be like, what do you mean? It's your party. Be like, it's my party. I rented it out. Five bucks. Red cup. There you go.

Our parties in high school. I mean, Martha's Vineyard. You want to talk about being sheltered. I mean, we would, there'd be parties in the woods. They'd always get broken up. One, I remember one time a guy built a huge bonfire. Yeah. I mean, it would just be different sections of the woods.

It's like, yeah, it's like there's nothing good can happen in the woods. No, because older guys who graduated high school would show up and beat us up because they were miserable. They were still there yeah and then um you know the cops would always break them up because it was pretty hard to keep anything a secret in the vineyard especially if there's a bonfire by lighthouse in january in the middle of the winter but i remember one time a guy loaded up this huge bonfire and then he filled it full of poison ivy and so everybody that was on that side of the fire where the smoke was blowing off the wind, they got poison ivy like all over their faces in school and stuff. But it was very sheltered.

I mean, it was always kind of safe. And you could always hitchhike on the vineyard, too, in case you get stuck and you needed a ride. I mean, you know, look, kids are going to do stuff that you look back on, you go, hey, could have made some better decisions. But I guess the L.A. part of it, like I would just feel weird if your daughter came home with machine gun Kelly and he's like, look, I, you know, I live in LA. It's weird. And you know, stop judging dad. He's a huge fan of the podcast. He loves basketball. Like he's different dad. That, that would be illegal. Cause she's only 16. Oh, right. Okay. Well, a younger version of what it is. I just, I don't know how fast kids, I'm not trying to freak you out here, my man. I'm. I just, I don't know how fast kids, I'm not trying to freak you out here,

my man. I'm just saying like, I don't, I don't know how kids grow up in LA. Cause I know that the New York city kids, I, they always, they always intimidated the hell out of me.

Just their worldliness and how advanced they were and all of this stuff. They'd show up to campus already wired. They'd be like, Oh, college is a little slow. It's true. It's true. The New York city kids, that's why Gossip Girl, which is like euphoria where it was like a, basically a glimpse of the world, but on steroids, Gossip Girl would have these elaborate, the first season, like these elaborate

parties with like 17 year olds. And it's like, there's a glimmer of realness in this. You know what, you know what I did recently? And this is, this is a whole nother, um, a whole nother other deal. Is this a pandemic thing?

No, no. But that, that movie kids. Oh God. Yeah. Okay. I'm not, I'm not trying to ruin once.

Right. Right. But I had never gone into the the harmony corinne rabbit hole with letterman so harmony corinne wrote this movie as a teenager yeah now he clearly got hooked up with somebody in the movie industry but he wrote this script and then they turned it in this horrifying movie for anyone that's ever been i'm turning parent corner into horror movie story here um but it's made in 1995 it's completely like it's super graphic it's off the rails intense and like you said yeah right in 1995 but this this kid who then went on to make some other films he made gummo have you ever seen his run on Letterman? And then ultimately he

ends up being banned from Letterman forever. And James Franco talks with Letterman about, he's like, well, Harmony's a friend. He's like, the story is that you banned him for life. Letterman's like, yeah. So there's this YouTube of every one of the kids' appearances. He has three appearances and he goes on with Letterman and he, the last one, he's clearly completely fucked up, but he just messes with Letterman the whole time. And it's, it's, it's actually incredible to see somebody sit there and like hang with Letterman going at it. You never seen this?

I'll send you the link. I'll watch it tonight. That's why Grodin was so great on Carson. When Grodin died, RIP to one of the greats. They were showing like somebody had a list of like his 13 best Carson appearances. Cause he would go and just fuck with Carson. I think Carson liked it.

Because Grodin could do it in a way where you didn't think he was doing it. That's probably what Carson respected out of it. Or maybe he just liked him when he didn't like a lot of people. So, I don't know. Go ahead. I remember when Cher went on Letterman in the mid-80s and it's always interesting when they try to flip it

on the host like that. Sometimes it goes badly and you never see them again. Other times it's good. So Harmony was done after three? Yeah, so I'll tell the story here unless you want to keep it as a spoiler alert to watch the arc of the link that I'll send you. Yeah, just give, what was the finale?

So Franco, somehow Harmony comes up and letterman he i think he says it in the third appearance when he's looking at harmony just kind of lose it and you know it's a little sad because he's young he clearly was using some stuff and letterman looks at the camera he goes that's why they make them childproof bottles folks oh my god he says it okay his harmony's like really yeah freaking a bit but he's out there and he's on letterman and so franco goes he's a friend he told me you banned him for life and letterman's like yes i did i banned him and he's like what's the story and he goes well what's the story you heard so franco's like, yes, I did. I banned him. And he's like, what's the story? And he goes, well, what's the story you heard? So Franco's like, I heard he may have pushed Meryl Streep. And the whole crowd's like, oh, my God. Like of all the people you could push in the Hollywood industry, like that would be the lowest approval rating of anyone ever being pushed. It would be pushing Meryl Streep. And Letterman's like, no, that's not what happened, but you're close. And Letterman says, I've never told this story before, but

he goes, I went into the dressing room because I was like, what's going on? And Harmony was in there going through Meryl Streep's purse. Oh my God. And he goes, he was supposed to come on and I kicked him out. And that was it. He goes, he kicked him out of the studio. I think he got in a cab and that was it. Why are Franco and Letterman, is this like on a podcast? What was this on? It's on an appearance. So I ended up in some wormhole

on YouTube where, and I think you probably do some of this too. Like I'll look for old Carson stuff. I'll look for old interviews. You know what i did is i did it when you guys did the big chevy chase uh you did the fletch rewatchable and you and chris it was was it with chris ryan chris was on that one right yeah i think so and you guys started doing this chevy chase part of it it was really good discussion because you're you were so locked

into this stuff at a very early age that you have like this almost historic, if you were less successful, you'd be awesome on those kinds of VH one things where you're like, I want to go to get 1500 bucks for this to say, wow. Um, and, and give historical perspective on it.

And so you were talking about Chevy. So I then started going back and watching those Chevy chase interviews and the one with Dick Cavett, I think there's one and it's, it's like Chevy's just kind of like, he'd have this attitude where if you didn't bring it the right way, he was going to let you have it. And sometimes it was justified and other times it wasn't. So anyway, then I ended up on this Letterman thing. And then I started thinking about that. I never really knew much about the kid that had wrote kids, even though I knew about it back then when I was in college.

And then I watched all of the interviews, somebody edited them all together. And it's kind of one of those deals. You're like, I'm not going to watch this. It's 20 minutes. And then 20 minutes later, you're like, I didn't move. So I'll send you the link. You've done the, you've done the deep dive on Norm MacDonald's like greatest talk show appearances, right? All the time. That's a great one. Right. The Courtney, the Courtney Thorne Smith one is the funniest one of all time. Cause he also has the one that's completely uncomfortable especially with the timing of today where he has the other comedians come on and read his bad jokes have you seen that mashup yeah that's tough it's it's it's definitely riveting yeah i mean there's some winners in there but you could

also see why right people are like no that's actually not cool anymore where you know five years ago he probably would get away with some of these jokes yeah norm's a good deep dive i i saw i told you about when i saw siskel and ebert with chevy chase on a carson episode where chevy was on the couch. And then the Carson asked, what was your most disappointing moment movie of Christmas? And he said, it was three.

Ebert said it was three amigos and Chevy was right there. Yeah. Yeah. And it was six. It's got, somebody's got to put it on YouTube. It's great. No, I've seen it.

I've seen that one. You know what? Going back to the norm one, you remember when he tears up when he's talking about Letterman. Yeah. And he tells that story about like the family falling behind the dump truck or something and it's like a really simple joke you know what i really enjoy is i enjoy great comedians when they have this very human appreciation for other comedians because it's so hard to do

and it's going to be a pretty cool club to be in when you're a comedian that everybody else kind of loves. And it's not like Letterman's necessarily a comedian, but for Norm to, he was starting to cry because that's what Letterman meant to him. It was a, it was a rare and cool moment. So I love some of that Norm stuff. You know, it's a good one is the old Eddie Murphy from 82 to 85 when he goes on Carson and Letterman and I, and both of them are just, their go-to thing is what are you going to do with all this money? Or what are you doing? Like, it's like, there's this weird element to it that you can tell Eddie by like the fourth time. It's like, what the fuck are these guys?

Like, like making it seem like I'm not going to be able to handle that. I'm making a million dollars a year, but they always go to it. It's just to say, I mean, like that, like they're almost worried about him and you could tell he's kind of pissed off about it by like 1986. Cause it's like,

yeah, thanks. Right. Cause I mean the Eddie Murphy part from the oral history of SNL book that you recommended to me, that was incredible, which was also something you brought up in the Chevy chase Fletch rewatchable yeah but Eddie Murphy showed onto the scene like the equivalent of LeBron James Saturday Night Live but wasn't they weren't putting him

in to start and he wasn't getting any shots and it would be LeBron James being like are you guys serious like this is what you want to do and they just looked at Eddie being like hey it's great that you're funny and you're 18 and you've already done standup, but like you got to wait your turn. And he's like, nope. And then, I don't know, I think it's by the end of that first season. I don't remember every episode and sequence,

but he was just such a powerful force. And he was that funny. And he basically saved the show post Chevy. Yeah, it started on weekend update. You can watch them there on Peacock. And he hit on one of them. And then they just started bringing him back. And every week he would come on Weekend Update. And then

within five, they were like, oh, Jesus. And that was it. Yeah, like, what are we doing here? We're gonna get this guy more shots. And then he knew he was the deal. But he's so young. He's so young. Because he originally, like, he wasn't an original cast, but he was like the Saturday night live players or whatever they call it. He was 19. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah. I mean, I don't think people, I just, it'll never happen again. Nobody, no 19 year old will ever go on a show like that and dominate it. All right. We took way too long. Um, we're still a fun-parter as always. By the next time we're on this, I don't know if there'll be another two-parter on Sunday night. We'll see. We'll see if there's enough to talk about. We'll know more

about Hawks Sixers. We'll know if Milwaukee ever fixed their whole thing. We'll have some idea in the West and maybe some trade stuff too. You have two podcasts coming this week as well. Yeah. Luke Wilson, Talking Bottle Rocket. He's got a new movie as well.

12 Mighty Orphans. Had it scheduled for 30. We got a solid 18. We got a solid 18 minutes. Oh. He was great. He was great. Yeah, he was great.

Press junket's tough. Press junket was tough. And then we had a couple other surprises up my sleeve. Maybe even a writer's life advice from a real writer. Oh. 20-something years in the business. Credited. Okay.

All right. Good to see you. See you next Sunday. All right, that's it for part two. If you missed part one, don't forget to check it out on the archives. I'll be back on this feed on Tuesday. See you then. I don't have a few years with him on the wayside

on the first I never said I don't have to ever