The Bill Simmons Podcast - Quarantine Nation, Sports In Limbo, NBA Awards and Brady’s Decision with Ryen Russillo | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

HBO and The Ringer's BIll Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss how COVID-19 rocked the World and everything in it including sports. They discuss the possibility of a lost NBA season, how the playoffs might work if the league resumes play, NBA players and owners covering arena workers wages, NBA Awards if the season ended right now, and ask "What will sports analysts talk about after a month of no sports?" They also give some TV, movie, and book recommendations, answer mailbag questions and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit surface.com slash laptop3 to learn more. That is surface.com slash laptop3. We're also brought to you by TheRinger.com and The Ringer Podcast Network. We are not stopping content. We know there are a lot of people out there who are stuck in their houses, their apartments, wherever, and are just kind of laying low right now.

So we want to give you guys something to read and listen to and whatever else. So check out all the pods you normally check out. Check out the website because we're still writing about sports and pop culture and everything else. I have a new Rewatchables coming Monday night godfather three and then another one i think we're going to move to two rewatchables a week starting this week i also think we're going to dust off uh two book of basketball podcasts that i've been saving for season two but we might just run uh over at some point over the next couple weeks so stay tuned for those coming up rusella

and i obviously this one's a little different we're trying to find the right tone between at some point over the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned for those. Coming up, Priscilla and I, obviously this one's a little different. We're trying to find the right tone between not completely freaking out about everything that's going on right now, but also talking about stupid sports stuff, trying to entertain you in a couple of different ways. So hopefully we find that balance.

He's coming up in a second. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right. So we said last week we were going to be doing this in person. God, last week seems like it was about a year ago. We were talking about LeBron versus Giannis for the MVP and just where the rest of the season was going. It was so hopeful. And now, a week later, we all hunkered down at my house. Rasul is at his house.

Kyle's at a third location. None of us are allowed to even look at each other for too long at Google Hangout. We don't knowillo's at his house. Kyle's at a third location. None of us are allowed to even look at each other for too long at Google Hangout. We don't know what's going to happen. Rosillo, you've been preparing your whole life for this.

Yeah. The isolation thing for me has really just been about training. So this time by myself, I'll do a month. Whenever I see those movies where the guy gets sent to solitary, I'm like, let me know when the punishment starts.

My family and I have been together for the last three days. It's getting a little rocky. My wife's starting to get frustrated. My son is losing his mind. He's just playing video games and hopping around. He's got his foot in a cast. And we've just been watching movies

and trying to avoid people, which I guess is going to be the new reality for the next couple of weeks. I can't believe we're even doing a podcast. Like, can you imagine if we were just listening to the first five minutes of this podcast two months ago? We would have been like, what happened? Was there a nuclear bomb?

But this is kind of what it feels like. It certainly never happened in our lifetimes, right? No, I mean, the only disruption we can think of is 9-11 and how different things were right after that. You know, sports were delayed, but not to this undetermined amount of time that we're going to get to with all that. You know, I think that like a lot of people, you know, I'll read stuff one day and I think, okay, you know, maybe this is what this means. And, you know, if you read stuff one day and I think, okay, you know, maybe this is what this means. And, you know, if you're coming to this podcast for solutions on the coronavirus, I'm not your guy. Um, I know a lot of other people are out there pumping that content out, um, as, as new experts on it, but it just, you know, it's, it's one of those things where you go, okay, what am I

supposed to do? Like friends invited me over for dinner on Thursday. It was a small group. We had dinner and the restaurant was, you know, kind of slow. And then you're thinking, all right, wait a minute. Now everybody's kind of getting like everybody on social media is like, stay inside, stay inside, stay inside. And then you're like, do I go to the gym? Do I not go to the gym? And now the gym is totally out. I did go one day when there was nobody there just because honestly, I just needed to get my body moving, but I'm gonna have to figure out the jumping jacks in the house. And then today, I live in Manhattan Beach. I live right in town. And it's the first time I've seen the sun in like four days in Los Angeles.

And I thought, okay, you know what? I'm going to go out to the beach, read. I'll be away from everybody. Manhattan Beach was packed. Everything was packed. So if this thing continues on its path, I think like a lot of people we're seeing in different cities and different states, they're just going to start shutting this stuff down, whether it's businesses or curfews, because there's just a lot of people we're seeing in different cities and different states, they're just going to start shutting this stuff down, whether it's businesses or curfews,

because there's just a lot of people that aren't going to listen. They're not going to disrupt their lives at all. Well, do you want, I was going to do this later, but we might as well do it now. Do you want to, do you want to talk to our younger selves? This is your idea. You want to talk to 25, 25 year old Rosillo and 24 yearold Simmons, you can go first. Yeah, right. That was, this is the Players' Tribune thing where you just, just all of a sudden, you're like, is there any way we can get Pooh Richardson to write a letter to his younger self this month?

I would obviously handle this a lot differently at 25. So I would just start by saying, hey, you know what? It's not that big of a deal if you miss a Friday. I remember the first time after college meeting guys and I was like, wait a minute, you guys stay in on Friday or Saturday? They're like, yeah, we just pick one of the nights. I'm like, that's weird. But again, I was still in my college town. So it would essentially be like, look, call home more often. Don't go out as much. Don't buy as many shirts as you think you'll need

because you're going to end up hating half of them in about a week. And then finally, it would be the first thing where it's like, and if you're creating a Madden franchise, play out the season and don't simulate it. I would tell myself, look, you're making some poor choices right now, just in life. You're smoking cigarettes. You probably shouldn't be doing that. You're going out way too much. Your belief in who you should be with, with the opposite sex, maybe you've made some mistakes there. You've gotten behind the wheel a few times when you probably shouldn't have. There wasn't the kind of awareness back in the mid-90s that there is now.

Don't do that. Don't do most of the things you're doing, actually. And one of those things will be don't feel invincible. Don't think, ah, it's fine. It's just the older people that are worried about this. Because you're right. You're probably not going to die from the coronavirus. You're 25.

You're feeling great, but you could get it and then you could pass it along to your uncle or your dad or somebody in a store who's 72 who's going to be dead in two weeks. So stay home and don't do that stuff. That would be my advice. That's good. And on the dating part of it, I wouldn't have to tell my younger self this by any means, but there's a lot of guys like, don't get engaged because of boredom here in these next two weeks.

Right. Don't talk yourself into 50 years of a relationship because you're just spending a lot of time with somebody right now. Yeah. Yeah. So let's break down the weirdest sports week of our lifetime because listen, we could talk doomsday stuff. We could talk about how the nation is probably going into a national lockdown. Um, we could talk about what our responsibilities are as human

beings. I, I would hope that people know at this point. Um, and if they don't, I would hope that people know at this point. And if they don't, I would encourage people to listen to the podcast I did with Gladwell on Thursday or read any of the 25 pieces The Atlantic has written about this or The New Yorker or The Washington Post or The New York Times or basically anything. Everyone's saying the same thing. This is going to get worse. This is going to hit a tipping point where we might have too many sick people and not enough hospital beds and not enough equipment. And really the only way we can help this is to flatten the curve. And that the only way we can do that is by social distancing, by not spreading it to each other. So I don't feel like we need to talk about that for an hour. Is there, can I jump in and just ask you, is there one piece that you read or is there a piece of one of the things that you read that like really stuck out to you and you feel good about that the information's felt like it's held up more than 24 hours? I think the stuff that's happened in South Korea, I think has been encouraging.

Now that's a country that somehow is way more advanced than we are with a lot of the stuff. Testing at least, yeah. Testing, equipment, everything. But they moved into the social distancing fairly early enough to stave off things getting a lot worse. Everybody's saying the same things. People are going to get this. People are going to pass it to other people. The problem is you don't want to hit that tipping point

when too many people have it at the same time. Whether most people understand that, I don't know. I mean, we saw Friday night, Post Malone concert in Denver. There was 19,000 people there. We saw videos from all over the country yesterday of people at bars, crowded bars in big cities, kind of letting loose, letting off steam. I've heard about quarantine parties, all this stuff. And again, I'm not one to judge because I made a ton of mistakes in college and in my twenties. I get it. Uh, you feel like you're invincible and you feel like it's not going to be you, but I think we've never seen anything like this before. And

the best thing everybody can do is to just hide indoors for two weeks. Just do that. That's the move. There is no other move. So I don't know if people are getting there slowly, medium style, or fast. But the people in my life who are all more mature, most of them have kids, are in lockdown mode. I just can't speak for the people in their 20s.

What are you hearing? What are you thinking? Well, it was weird for me because, you know, my father was in the hospital. It was fine. That was kind of what I was referencing in the podcast before. And, you know, he's in Boston for the week. So that's what I went back for.

And, you know, some of you guys know, my family lives at Martha's Vineyard. And he was talking to me today and I'm checking on him because he's just after this major thing. And I'm like, how are you doing? What's going on? I'm making sure people are bringing them food and stuff. And he's like, well, apparently they cut down the boats. And so you're like, wait a minute, the boats are done?

And apparently gas and food are still going to be transported over on the ferries. But the vineyard is saying, okay, we don't know of anybody that's tested positive. So like, let's just keep this island self-contained, but what's happening, um, which is always any place that's a resort area is that people that have second homes there are deciding to fly there. And now the locals are getting pissed about it and thinking like, okay, so wait a minute, you're going to be flying in from the city. Um, you know, a lot of people that are at these-end areas going, all right, I'm going to go out to the vineyard house and we're just going to hunker down there for a little while. So that's just something, look, he's in great health. He's good to go.

But that's something that's just totally different than I think a lot of experiences because you're on an island that's disconnected from all this stuff. And apparently they've just decided they're not going to keep shipping people back and forth, but whether this is a full-time flight ban, I heard rumors about like interstate travel altogether. Um, I have one friend that's awaiting a test result that, you know, felt terrible for two days, feels better now, but it's still going to be quarantined for 12 more days. And so, you know, it's, I don't know what we're going to be talking about. Like everybody else listening to this right now. I don't know if in a month we're going to be going, oh my gosh, this is the worst thing we've ever seen. Or if we're going to go, you know, look, precautions were made and they figured out how to go ahead and turn this. I'm not going to pretend I'm an

expert. No one should. I've read a lot of stuff like you have too, but I'm not going to get real preachy about it either because, you know, it's, it's a bit like climate change, right? Like I always think about when will climate change be to the point where people are like, okay, you know what? Maybe I start recycling now. This stuff has to be in your driveway. We just are programmed a certain way. I don't know if it's this country because I think different societies operate differently. But when it comes to this country, we just don't seem to really believe something until it's absolutely staring us in the face. And for people to be able to go to nice gyms and nice restaurants and sit outside and see the sunlight, like it's just

the immediacy is not happening in my neighborhood. And I think it's, you know, it's, it's going to be this thing that maybe happens overnight where it's a massive wake up call. Well, it's been alarming that, I honestly do not want to make this too political of a podcast, but you think of the press conference on Friday and the ways that the president and his staff have basically done 180s on things they said two days ago and weren't even really honest in the press conference. He promised his Google website,

made it seem like it was going to happen. And then it comes out a couple hours later that it was a website that was in development just for people in the Bay Area. And when you have somebody who's supposed to be in charge of everything, who's not even being honest and is clearly doing it because he's giving this press conference

a half hour before the stock market's about to close, he's trying to give a little bump. That part's really disorienting because think about it. We've seen this happen with sports and we get so mad at the people in charge. And then it's happening in real life with a hundred times the stakes. And it's almost hard to put into perspective. But even you see how things were handled on Friday. People are still in that mode of digesting things in this

day-to-day life that we have following sports and sports fans, where we just get mad about these things that really aren't that important. But now the things people are getting mad about Thursday and Friday, like how mad people were at Rudy Gobert, how mad people were that the players weren't responding fast enough to get money together for the arena workers and things like that. And at one point it was like, all right, I get it. And then the other hand, I'm like, do you guys realize we have way worse problems than this?

This is a pandemic that might wipe out 4% of our country. I just thought it was the strangest 36 to 48 hours I could remember doing this job job how'd you feel about it well i know you said you didn't want to get political and i don't even think this is i think it it is first of all it is but you'd like to think it was everybody just going hey okay look we are in the unknown and i think that's going to play into some of the sports stuff that we talk about because i was calling around different nba people trying to figure out like hey is there anything i can use that's going to make me sound remotely intelligent about the nba part of this tonight with bill but you know i

think what happens is if you're a supporter of trump and trump at one point is tweeting about the virus like a teenager that's pissed off at his parents you know like making fun of the stats and again you know what i mean like look a lot of people were doing that at first. I even was like, okay, what is this really? Like, are we just, are we just renaming the flu? But then I started to think like, if the swine flu happened in 2020, would it be consumed the exact same way? And the numbers would tell you at least just again, the most recent thing I read is like, no, no, this is different. And you know how contagious it is and how it just is going to infect all these different people and all these different approaches to it. But what happens if you're, you know, a Trump supporter, then you

kind of want your guy to be right. You know, it's, it's not that different from us debating all time greats in sports, like any evidence that I can use that my guy's awesome and your guy isn't as awesome as the stuff I'm going to use Monday after a weekend of games. And so when it happens where, you know, the administration downplays this from the beginning and then it becomes more and more serious, like the people that didn't take it as seriously at first, and I'll admit, I still didn't know what it was at the inception. You may find yourself kind of like rooting against the alarmists. Now, the easiest way to summarize that is like, okay, so what's the worst thing that

we overreacted and got this thing corrected in 30 days and, and the market lost 30% and all these, you know, financial things happen and everybody's trying to sift through and figure out what, what this means and what kind of financial decisions can you make? Like, I think that's just our human nature to decide like, well, initially I didn't think this is that big of a deal. So I'm going to keep hoping for that outcome. And yeah, like I think once social media becomes part of it, it's like, wait a minute, three days ago, you're bitching about Barb on the bachelor and now you're a fucking virus

expert. Right. Well, let's go in order with some of the sports stuff that happened because we went from a week ago today, arguing about the MVP race to Tuesday, Wednesday night range, wondering if we were going to play without fans

to Thursday, it becoming very clear that we weren't going to have sports at all. But some stuff happened along the way. The first thing that I just could not believe as it was happening was how Rudy Gobert was villainized. know, yeah, he did the dumb thing where he touched the mics. He was screwing around and he didn't take it seriously. And that was dumb. Um, but now he's, he's being paid, painted as like patient zero. There was, you know, that guy in the Pistons, Christian Wood, but became the third guy who got it. And he played against Gobert on Saturday night. It's like, well, how do you know who gave it to who? And how does this help anything? Like, obviously he wasn't out there going,

man, I can't wait to give the coronavirus to people. Like he didn't take it seriously, which gives something in common with seemingly half of our population right now in America. Because I still am not sure everybody's taking it seriously. But I was just amazed how vilified he was and the media was kind of pouring on. I thought that it had a dangerous element to it what did you think as you were watching that part well were you were you and i were both texting because we were watching

that game right like that was one of the games the marquee games you know dallas and denver later on but like when i looked through the schedule like okay jazz thunder that's what i want to watch and yeah seen it all play out and again we've already been over this whole, but the Gobert thing is like a lot of us are like, okay, what does that mean? Like, where was he? Like, does that mean the whole jazz team? Like, and by the way, the Gobert thing changed everything, which I, which I know we'll get to, but yeah, I, I saw some people and we're so bad with punishment and discipline in the moment. We're awful with it. Like just awful. Like Miles Garrett suspended the rest of the season. Okay. You know what? That seemed to make sense. but then people thinking like it should have carried it

the next year because when you think about it today you're like yeah miles garrett did something bad and you know what who knows how it was motivated we could debate that i don't want to but he's gonna be ready to go week one when the nfl season starts again so what's the big deal like people were asking for gobert to be suspended and i was like oh wait a minute. Does that make sense? Do more guys have to contract this? Because more guys are going to for us to then go, oh, wait, this happened. And when he touched the mics and that video was played over and over and over again, look, I guarantee more than half the people listening to this right now are treating this and think of this differently than they did 48 hours ago. So yeah, go bear,

you know, did something that after the fact looks immature and stupid and dangerous, but I, I don't, you know, I don't know that we had any other examples. So because he was the first guy, people lost their minds. But the irony of the whole thing is that he probably set some things in

motion that look like are the right decisions. Now, when at the time it's like, wait a minute, the season's over? The NCAA tournament's over? And then everybody had to follow suit, because once a player tested positive for this, there was no way the NBA could say, well, hey, Jazz, sorry about your season,

but your 20 games are, like, your team's quarantined, but we're going to keep playing. Yeah. It needed, it actually weirdly needed to happen, because I do think they would have kept going for a couple more days at least obviously by the weekend uh once you got into saturday sunday as cities started to limit how many people could be in one place and all that stuff i think the schedule would have organically gone by the wayside but at least thursday and friday everybody

who had been playing we would have had all of these arenas filled with people and stuff. But I said this on Thursday's pod, and I feel even more strongly about it now. It was certainly the craziest day in the history of the NBA. And whether it goes down as one of the most meaningful days

in the history of the NBA, I guess we're going to find out. But I do think it was the moment that it made whatever was happening real for basically everybody that follows sports. And then it crossed over into the mainstream in a really big way. And the only thing I can compare it to, it's totally different circumstances. But I remember in the mid eighties when Rock Hudson tested positive for HIV or AIDS, I can't remember which one, but he had been on Dynasty at the time and he had been hiding his illness. And I just remember that being like, that was one of those, not to use the word tipping point again, but that was a tipping point moment for the AIDS virus in America where it was like, wow, Rock Hudson has it. That was the first time I remember as a kid going, oh my God,

anybody can get it. Rock Hudson has it. I just saw him on Dynasty. And for younger thing. And by the way, just for younger people that understand like Rock Hudson's the guy, your parents are like, are you kidding? Like think of the, the biggest, it'd be like the rock. I mean, not to like use the same name here but uh maybe it's not even the rock but it would be no it'd be like it'd be like george clooney dicaprio yeah clooney like this somebody at that level right like and just adored by women everywhere and you know the the women want to be with them men want to be him type of thing like i remember my mother i think it was a national inquirer. We're checking out the grocery store and rock Hudson. And you're like, what? And she's

just going like, Oh my God. Oh my God. And like, as a kid, you're like, I don't really even know how to process this. You're a couple of years older than I am, but it was, it was a major, major thing. It was, it was huge. So go ahead. Yeah. Well, that was with the Gobert. This needed some sort of catalyst. And I think Gobert and the NBA have to act quickly, but the NBA is in flux in 90 different ways. The biggest one, just from a pure competitive standpoint, is the season is going to go away potentially. And I thought there was a world in which if you told me Thursday, Friday, even Saturday, what would you bet on? I would have bet on no more regular season playoffs at some point, maybe June 15th, July 1st, July 10th. I don't know. Maybe they, maybe. Maybe they do what they did in 1999

when they kind of packed the playoff games. Maybe they would have shorter series and so on. I think the one thing we can all agree on is that the regular season is gone. That's history. If I had to bet, I would say it's more likely this season gets canceled than it isn't.

What do you think? So you're saying everything. Regular season, playoffs, the season is over and we wait to see how next season starts. That's where you're at right now? That's where you put your money? Yeah, because I think this is at least a three-month thing and possibly a four-month thing. And that's a best-case scenario in my head. Because I think this is going to get worse. And I think we're headed for something really, really awful and really traumatic with how this plays out.

And I don't think that's alarmist to think that. I look at what happened in Italy and you look at all the stats that we have and all the hospital beds per person and per hospital. And the stats are pretty similar similar and we were just as far behind as they were. So I, I, I am definitely, uh, pessimistic that this season comes back. I could tell from talking to teams, you know, whatever optimism there was last week, um, it's dramatically reduced despite, you know, I don't know that I've heard anybody be that dire about it. I was talking to somebody with the league today and saying, okay, look, as of right now, it's the 60-day mandate for any gathering over 250 people now. I think because at first it was

500 people, 250 people. That would put you to May 5th start date. Woj has reported since we started taping this that it's at least three months, possibly four to what you're saying. And then you just start thinking, okay, well, how far can you push this thing out? Because March to April, April to May, May to June, June, July, and then you pick it up in mid-July. And then if guys haven't played, it wouldn't be really fair to just say, say we haven't lost the season yet. You'd have to play a few games to figure this thing out and said, okay, you guys got round one.

But what I think is important here is that, as far as I know, nothing has been decided and that they really are sitting in a room, owners, the commissioner, every advisor that they trust, whether it's tonight, into tomorrow, and trying to throw every single possible idea against the wall. But the thing is, is that I've been told, and this is just common sense, it's hard for any league to come to any kind of conclusion when they're dealing in something that, like, there's no map here. There is nothing. So, like, they could sit there and meet and say, okay,

fine. Like they'll probably just announce, okay, it's three months knowing that that's, that's not a solution, but it's the only thing they can do because they can't say, Hey, no problem.

Um, you know, we're going to start game 62. That's going to be June 3rd. And you know, everybody get your tickets. Like they, they can't do that.

So there's no way there's ever going to be that kind of an announcement. And I think, you know, losing a season, having a season just end without any record of it other than it just stopped at the game mark between like 64 and 67 games, depending on the team,

which would basically the 94 baseball thing would be the only other time that's really happened in our lifetimes where hockey had a whole season canceled, but that one never even started. I think they're going to avoid that even if there's any way that it can come back, even if it's a shorter tournament or whatever they would have to do to try to play it, I think they're going to do it. The question is from a health and safety standpoint, when can that even start? And they're just going to obey how this plays out over the next few weeks. So are we going to get to a place where two months from now, let's say this plays out pretty badly and we have a lot of death and a lot of people sick and the numbers aren't as catastrophic as the worst case scenarios, but they're not good.

And this is not a fun next two months for anybody who lives here. It's kind of hard to be like, Hey guys, the NBA is back. Like, so I think they have to wait and see to see what these next six to eight weeks are like. And then I think there's an end date for how far they can push this, where the guys are going to, how do you make sure your players are in shape? How do you make sure that first round, if they came back and just had this kind of instant playoffs, how do you make sure the quality isn't too bad? Are there fans in the stands? There's so many variables and so many moving pieces. And then the last piece would be, all right, if we do this, but then when would the next season start? So you'd have to be shortening

the next season too and starting that like around Christmas. And this, again, this is all best case scenario. So I think the difference with what's happening with the NBA, and I think to a lesser degree, the MOB is that at least you have smart, successful people making these decisions and talking to experts and trying to get real expertise involved. Whereas, you know, what we saw on Friday with, with our actual president, I think that made me a lot more

nervous. Um, but I do think, I think it's, I w I would bet on the season getting canceled if I had to bet, which is really depressing. Uh, if we looked at this though, as like, okay, what, what could come back, you know, like say it's, say it's the 90 days, say we're starting in June or push it to the end of June, you know, so now you're past what originally would be the draft and the end of the finals. There's all sorts of things because the league is already calling around about arenas through August. And then one of the things I was reminded of today is that the DNC conventions in Milwaukee in the middle of July, you'd have to worry about seeding where you just go, okay, the eight seeds in the east. Does that mean, hey, it's just you eight seeds? The eighth seed in the west, is it fair to just say, sorry, everybody, but Memphis is still in? That's going to be one of those things where for the greater good, despite your competitiveness and owners missing out on money, you can't, you know, David Griffith probably can't go like, this is ridiculous. This is totally unfair because it's all unprecedented.

And then you're like, is it even best of sevens? Would you have all 16 teams? Um, the quote that I got today, we're a hundred percent looking at any possible scenarios, but we honestly don't know anything. And then, you know, back to one of the things that you and I talked about a couple of weeks ago when I'd said, you know, if I just, if I were the NBA, I would, I would really, really consider starting on Christmas and pushing this through August and own that two month dead period. Now that doesn't have a great national television product. Baseball is a great local television product, not a great national product. And when I called somebody in the broadcast side of it with the league, I was like, hey, we did this thing with Bill. And he's like,

yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the research that the league has always gotten is that people at home watching games during those summer months, especially when you have your travel in the Northern Hemisphere, there's just not enough people at home. And that's always been the counter is that, yes, you may own the time period of that part of the summer, but you're still dealing with just less people in front of televisions during the colder months. And that's always been one of the counters to the whole thing, which, by the way, I guess was presented by one of the Atlanta Hawks owners at the Sloan conference after we talked about it, but I'm not presenting it as if it's the most original idea that I've ever

come up with. No, it's Adam. He obviously listened to our pod. Yeah. Because he actually, I think used the quote that said, give, let football just own that.

And I was like, man, that sounds like word for word. Yeah. He said, you know, and then if we really wanted to keep doing this stuff where you're in the room with the league office and they're going, okay, say we can start again in three or four

months. Because if I just agree with you here, then it's like, we have nothing left to talk about, but you know, we have a lot left. No, I know. I know. But I'm just saying like, I don't, you might be right. Like, I'm not going to say that you're wrong, but if you're holding out any hope and you're constantly coming up with plans, cause I think that's what the league is doing.

They're coming up with plans or letting the teams know, and then they're adjusting and they're just not going to go ahead and say, hey, on Monday, we've canceled the rest of the season. But one of the things I thought was really interesting is that you could have a viewership that is so excited that basketball's up, you get an artificial rating, or you could have a viewership that's at this point so excited that they've moved past, the curve has been flattened, and all they want to do is get out of their house that your rating is destroyed during that whole time and again you know we can do this with the psa of yes we understand the most important issue of this whole thing but you know we're just two guys talking sports and i want to

be depressing for two hours yeah and one other thing to mention just with the nba i think you know obviously they're trying to save their season and figure out all the different variables and contingency points and all that. But from the people that I've talked to, I think a lot of what they're talking about is the health of their players, the safety of the players and the people who work for the teams and around in the arenas, stuff like that, and how they can help. And I think what you're going to see with the league over the next couple of weeks is a big initiative with the NBA Cares thing, because I think, you know, they know that they have the platform and they have so many heavy hitter players ranging from LeBron to,

you know, the fourth best guy in the Sixers who have audiences and fans and people who actually listen to them. And I think you're going to see the NBA specifically use that power for good and try to get the right messages out and try to convince people, hey man, it's actually the coolest thing for you to do is to stay home.

And the coolest thing for you to do is that if you're not feeling well, here are the symptoms, read this thing, go to this website, make sure you don't have this. If you do, do this. I could see them over the next three weeks having a real impact because I think for better or worse, a lot of people in this country follow athletes and they listen to them and these people mean a lot to them. And I think we're going to see a lot of those people use that power for good. We've already seen it with the stuff Kevin Love and Giannis and people like that are

doing just by the charitable stuff. But I think their voice could be more important. But you made the key point. This is, in the big scheme of things, certainly not that important. And you could talk about all the other things that are being compromised right now from the economy to the restaurant industry, which is an absolute crisis. And David Chang, I think is going to talk on his podcast about that tomorrow, uh, to airplanes, to travel, to people that rely on, uh, you know, retail customers, or there's 40 to 50 different things that are being impacted.

Unfortunately for us, this is a sports podcast. So we're going to talk about a lot of the sports related stuff. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back. Hey, companies around the world are solving their most important challenges with Google Cloud. Like PayPal, who's solving for millions of daily hopes,

dreams, and financial ambitions. Google Cloud is helping them achieve their mission to transform the prosperity and opportunity of millions of businesses around the world with massive scale and processing power. PayPal is connecting Main Street to every street. Google Cloud, what are you solving for? Visit g.co slash cloud slash solving. Once again, that is g.co slash cloud slash solving. All right, we're back. You had one more thing you wanted to talk about relating to the last topic.

Yeah, I want to follow up on media members that I have a problem with. I know that's a shocking development, but this is so off. It's just wrong. And I'm going to try to help people that can't understand this. Kevin Love donating, Blake Griffin donating, Steph Curry, Giannis. I know there's some other names that are forgetting. Awesome, man. I mean, incredible. Today's NBA player is probably as good as anyone in pro sports when it comes to kind kind of paying it forward. They really are like

these, these are like some of these draft classes. It's amazing every year. I'll be like, you know what? I keep hearing how amazing every one of these dudes are. Like you just don't hear about that many bad guys. The league has so many good guys in it. So that inevitably leads to the people that see a donation from Kevin Love and within minutes, try to find a way to be negative about it. Congratulations because so many of you have done this. And again, that's about ownership. I never root for the billionaires, okay? I don't root for owners in any CBA. You think I'm rooting for NFL owners during this CBA thing? Absolutely not. But the NFL players have almost no chance in any negotiation against these guys. So when a player donates, it's immediately followed by, what about the owners? Here's a thought process. Put yourself through this scenario. Hey, I own one of

the 30 NBA teams. I have thousands of people that work for me beyond the players or a thousand people that are dependent upon the revenue that comes in through all of these games. I may share a building with another franchise like we have here in Los Angeles, multiple franchises is it okay if i get more than say six fucking hours to satisfy your need for a perfect compensation plan it's so absurd bill it's absurd and i said immediately i'm like man is there any way we can give these guys a day and guess what almost everybody is stepping up and i guarantee you there won't be well well, I can't guarantee it, but I'm sure there'll probably maybe one owner that we hear about later on that didn't really kick them. The owners so far, it seems like everybody's going to be taken care of. All

right. And because it didn't happen within hours after a few players decided who can then go ahead and do it on their own. First of all, if the owners had said immediately, Hey, here's exactly the plan. Then, you know, the same people would tear the plan apart and be like, Oh, what about the parking attendance? Like, why don't you do that? And then when I had said, hey, can we give it a day? Can we give it a day? It was like Mark Cuban didn't need a day. Mark Cuban was on TV in the moment as this whole thing was happening and the season was suspended. And Mark Cuban, who I like, that was Mark Cuban 101. Like, hey, I'm on the camera. I'm ready to go. And hey, we're going to, he didn't come up with a plan. He just made a statement that they're going to compensate all these people.

People are going to be compensated. It didn't happen as fast as Twitter needed it to happen. And another thing for those that were critical of the NCAA, which is everybody's favorite topic, the tournament hadn't started yet. And people were asking if to be canceled hours after the NBA suspended their season at the time. And guess what? The NBA, the NCAA, it's ended up saying, Hey, this thing's just straight up canceled. Now we're not even suspending this. And then the same people that were critical that they didn't suspend the tournament immediately.

We're then mad that they canceled it instead of suspending it. These people are out there saying these things. All I'm saying is that in the face of something that is unprecedented in history, a disruption, unlike anything that we've ever seen. Is it okay to let some really important people gather the information that's constantly changing, by the way, and try to come up with the best plan to take care of the most people? What they come up with will not be perfect, but to spend your time constantly criticizing these people before they even know what they want to do and how to execute it seems like a pattern that I am incredibly tired of. That was well said. And you know, I agree. I think it's really hard to be in charge of stuff. I'm in charge of something that has less than a hundred people and that's really complicated. It's hard. These people are in charge of things that are way bigger than that and also have other businesses and are also trying to figure out legalities and 900 different things. I can't believe we're

defending owners like this. But it isn't about defending owners. It's about just going, hey, look, if in a month we find out some owners didn't step up, okay, let's go. Let's go put them in the crosshairs. But people wanted all 30 NBA teams. Everybody had to have the perfect solution for compensation days after something where, look, whatever we think they know tonight may be completely different in 24 hours. And back to your point about being in charge, it's tough. And almost everybody doing it and criticizing has never been in charge of anything. And on a much smaller scale, I have friends that own restaurants. And I'm like, hey, what's the plan?

And they go, well, I'm a franchisee. So everybody thinks I'm a millionaire because I own a franchise of a multi-franchise, a billion-dollar company. But I'm not a billionaire. I'm not even a millionaire. I pay the bills. And now I've got 20 people that are looking at me to cover this. And insurance isn't going to cover it.

And, you know, the workers comp, well, if you stop working, they're going to deny claims because they're going to say, you know, this isn't under it. And I said, you know, do you have any insurance for this? He goes, no, absolutely not. He's like, if a water pipe breaks and floods the place, then sure, you know, I have insurance for that. So, you know, I know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck. It absolutely sucks.

I did it for a lot longer than I probably ever should have. It was up to like 32 years old. It absolutely sucks. I did it for a lot longer than I probably ever should have. It was up to like 32 years old. It's brutal. It's brutal. And I'm worried about everybody out there that's living check to check. But the people in charge are stressed about this too, man. And I know that doesn't seem to be popular to ever think that maybe they have problems as well. Yeah. And Twitter is tough because, especially during a week where people feel completely powerless in ways that they've never felt powerless before, where talk about not being in charge of your own destiny. I'm here in LA. I have no idea if I'm going to see my dad again

anytime soon, if either of us are going to be able to get on a plane, he's 72. He's been in pretty good shape at the last couple of years. He's, you know, hasn't been a hundred percent healthy. And you know, he's, our parents are in the demo of this, you know, and you think like it's one of the few times where, you know, you get older and your parents get older and you think, you know, at some point it's, you realize like, oh, it's my job to look out for my parents and make sure they're, they're, you know, in good hands. And this is the first time I can remember thinking like, oh shit, like I have no way to protect my dad here or my stepmother who are living in Boston and now there's no restaurants and no delivery and they're going to be cooking for themselves. And all it takes is the mailman to touch them.

And you start thinking all these scenarios, you go crazy. So the powerless part of this, I think then trickles onto Twitter and all these weird ways where we're all freaking out. And then you, you latch on to something like, Oh my God, why haven't, why hasn't owner X decided to said what he's going to do about the arena workers yet? It's like,

wait, first of all, give him a couple of days. And there's a lot of other things going on that are, are, are probably super important. The league is losing her mind, by the way,

the league. And I, I felt that way. I tweeted like I've been tweeting much, you know, just cause just because you know i don't i don't really know what to say uh i'm i'm usually a layout guy um when it comes to this stuff and you know talking to someone with the league today they were like hey we saw your tweet and this wasn't me like you really think i want to sit here and stick up for owners i don don't, but I want to stick up for common sense. And, you know, with everything that's going on in the first instinct is let me see if I can fire off. Because the thing is, is that is, that is like, it's total. Everybody loves it. They're like, yeah. What about those guys? Like, what are they doing? And the league office is like, holy shit. Are you guys nuts? Like, can we just get through the next, like, can we get through the next couple of days?

Like, we're, like, everyone, whether it's the NHL, NBA, the NFL League year supposedly starting this week, which they're saying they're going to, which we can do some stuff on that if you want to, baseball, trying to figure out spring training or even having a start date. This is constantly changing.

And, you know, we're used to being able to say, I can't believe they're starting this quarterback, or why don't they get rid of that coach, or how come they do it? Those are things that we've been doing for decades because it's easy, and it makes sense, and it's all kind of explainable. And we're applying some of those debate show applications to stuff that we've never, ever faced before. Yeah. Speaking of the debate shows,

so we have football here for the next two weeks, basically. You know, there was actually football news today. It was refreshing to be like, oh, the Titans signed Ryan Tannehill. Here's something where I could just, my brain could drift in this direction for five minutes and I don't have to think about all the super depressing stuff. They signed him to a pretty good contract. They

signed him to probably maybe 40% of what Tom Brady's going to get or 60% somewhere in there. Um, but I think we're going to have football basically for the next 10 to 12 days. And all those sports radio podcasts, TV shows is just going to be riding the football news and then wondering if stuff's going to get canceled for good and things like that. But once that's done and we get to the end of this month and all the football stuff has played out,

if you're running, I don't know, first take or get up, you're the producer of one of those shows. What kind of segments are you doing? Okay. I got a few. I'm glad you asked. Okay.

First Take, pre-show meeting. Skip's mad because Stephen A wasn't there three hours before the meeting started. Oh, hold on. I like this. I like that in this fantasy world skip and steven are back together this is good yeah they're back together and like steven a would just be like hey when the red light is on steven a is on yeah and skip would be like well i've been here for three hours looking at myself in the mirror you should be here early too like that was always one of the

things like they actually do really like each other, believe it or not they do. Um, and I just would always hear that, that after, you know, like if one guy works hard and the other guy, the other guy sort of, but it's like, if the other guy doesn't need to work harder, you know what I'm saying? It's awesome. Like Steven agent be like, Hey, I'll show up at, at nine 59. Tell me where my chair is. So here we go. Show producer, just start kicking around some ideas. Blame pie? Okay.

We saw pictures of Pat Mahomes out in Cabo, taking a bunch of pictures, IG posts. Can you build your team around a quarterback that goes to Cabo during a pandemic what does that say about his decision making like is he really the face of your franchise that's coming up next it's coming up next does pat mahomes trip to cabo have you questioning his decision making and then if it was a fill-in canny went to super bowl he won one oh oh shit okay um if somebody picks this up mid thing they'll be like i can't believe those guys but this is what we're doing

sorry if the season gets canceled should we count this as another ring for lebron because he was the favorite and they would have won anyway definitely definitely i think somebody a couple guys will say that with a straight face and then they'll be like, does that mean we can get Tristan Thompson for an interview next week? Yep. He won two with Miami. He won one in Cleveland. And let's be honest, guys, we should be counting this one as the fourth because he would have

won. We all know he would have won. It's like three and a half i believe somebody called into 710 here in la and said that this suspended play screws lebron out of the mvp because yannis knee is going to heal oh that's i like that take that's a good take all right this would be my favorite one moderator sitting there at the desk. Skip a Stephen A. NBA owners have stepped up with financial contributions, but was it too slow? How would you have handled an unprecedented global pandemic as a billionaire?

Ooh. That's, I would want Will Kane's thoughts on that one. Not a billionaire. That's a really good one. I had another shit. I had another good one. Everybody would be so serious In their answers They'd be like well You always gotta start

With the canned beard people Because they've worked their way up from cotton candy and popcorn This is all gonna play out this way Just FYI These guys Personally I can't believe they're gonna have the shows Cause once the football stuff plays out going to play out this way. Just FYI. These guys, personally, I can't believe they're going to have the shows

because once the football stuff plays out, I guess maybe you throw yourself into the NFL draft. What would you do? If you were on, let's say, you're on Speak for Yourself.

You're on five days a week. You have to go on for an hour with takes and topics. And in April, it's just football. Is it just draft? You're just arguing about Joe Garrow? No. I'd be like, look, we need to work really hard on show prep. I always thought that, especially when you're national,

because I did local too, and if you show up to a national show going, there's nothing to talk about today, you shouldn't have the job. And this is different, okay? And I'm talking like slow Julys and Augusts, but I'm list heavy. Hey, top five point guards right now. I'm doing all the generic shit because people still like that stuff. Ranking stuff. That's what I'm doing. Hey, we're putting up together a weekly plan. Scott and I used to do dumb stuff like just ranking the five positions in the NBA. And then

we'd have like, I mean, when people, we talk about baseball, we just go like, hey, let's do best at every position and best pitcher and the whole thing. And then, you know, Darren Woodson comes by, all right, give me your top five NFL receivers. Like I would be hammering that stuff. I do think, like one thing I want to do with you is I want to rewatch the Cleveland-Boston-LeBron triple-double in the loss in 2010.

The game six. Because it is the classic fight of you look back at those numbers and you go, people thought he had a bad game, and I'm constantly like, who's worse? The person in the moment that is watching it, experiencing the buildup and then how they feel after the fact or the person that looks at the numbers 10 years later going, no, that was actually a pretty good game because he had a triple double because it felt like a terribly disappointing game. And I would love to go back and watch it

10 years later with you and see how we feel. Like, would we go, wow, he was actually a little bit better than we thought because in the moment, it felt like a massive failure. And I don't know if that was just because of the expectations and thinking he was going to get the Celtics finally. I have a first take segment that would actually be the entire show.

But we're talking like April 29th. The draft's done. We've already done all the grades. Actually, maybe it's like May 3rd. Um, can the Brooklyn nets win the title of the season starts again?

Cause you figure it's a, and a couple of people, a couple of friends of mine have actually texted me because the nets are like 150 to one to win the title and a Nets-Lakers final is a 750 to one. But if they postpone this for three months, the Nets are like a seven seed

right now. This is amazing right now. This is a great segment. You'd be a great producer. No, no. This is a whole show. We're going two straight hours on this.

Yeah. You know what? Right. Perfect. Yeah. We're doing this and we're rationing this out over the course of two hours.

KD comes back. Kyrie comes back. Now they're a seven seed. We're starting with an instant playoffs. It's a five game round one. And now we have KD, Kyrie, Dinwiddie, Joe Harris, Jared Allen, DeAndre Jordan, et cetera, going against Toronto, who hasn't practiced. Neither team has really practiced.

So now that's the 2-7. If they get by that, all of a sudden, they're playing the winner of Boston-Philly. Who knows? Simmons, Abid, Celtics, Kemba's knee. Maybe they went, and then all of a sudden, they're going against Milwaukee. KD's starting to round into shape.

Two-time finals MVP. All of a sudden, we have a Brooklyn Lakers final. That's a two-hour show. That's perfect. No, I'm so jealous. And I'm like, this is, I don't know if this is a gambling thing. Did you come up with this? Did somebody text you that said, look at the number on the nets and what were to happen if dot, dot, dot type of thing? I've had a couple people text it to me. And what's weird is the number has not moved. It's going to move after this podcast. Yeah, yeah.

If you're going to get into it at all. I mean, the catch would be Katie and Kyrie. What are the odds they'd actually be healthy? But the other thing with the playoffs, assuming they would get rid of the regular season and go right into it, I don't know how many days you'd have to practice. Like if I'm a player,

how do I feel comfortable going from doing nothing to being in a playoff game? How many days do you think you'd need? Like 10? Eight? And what if you weren't allowed to practice with other people? Or if you're just like you're in a gym,

how do you practice? Are you just by yourself? It's just not the same. Is somebody rebounding the ball for you with like latex in a gym, how do you practice? Are you just by yourself? It's just not the same. Is somebody rebounding the ball for you with like latex gloves on? Like how does that happen? How do you stay in shape? How do you work your craft?

You would need games. You would need some kind of games. And I know nobody wants like exhibition, but you can't ask these guys to just turn it on like that. Because even if you're putting up a thousand shots and running yourself, it's just not the same movement.

There's nothing like being in basketball shape. It's just- Well, I remember- When you played with us- The 99 playoffs. Oh, never mind. Back in the day. I remember in the 99 season, there were a lot of dumb injuries that season and a lot of plantar fasciitis and sore knees and stuff like that, And then repercussions afterwards. And you look at the guys from the mid nineties who were kind of either rounding into their prime or whatever. And some of them didn't have the same longevity that you would normally have. I always thought that season was pretty dangerous. I remember we did for book of Basketball, we broke down that Knicks team that made the finals and they

played something like 72 games in six months or five and a half months or some crazy number like that. And not great. Let's take a break. Then we'll come back with more. Hey, cyber criminals are coming up with plenty of innovative ways to rip us off. New account fraud, a tactic in which someone opens account and your name is on the rise. Another new type of identity fraud tricks victims into thinking they've received a two-factor authentication text from their bank. Thieves continue to troll public Wi-Fi networks, watching for new victims to rip off, especially now that you're home or wherever you're getting your Wi-Fi. Be careful of that one. Every time you bank shop or browse online, you can be vulnerable to cyber criminals.

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We might as well do this again. Our job is just to entertain you here. We got, uh, you know, not the most uplifting month here in America. We're just looking to, uh, divert your attention,

take your mind off stuff for a little bit. If the NBA regular season is done, and I think it is, what would the awards be? and I think it is, what would the awards be? So, I think Giannis is the MVP and LeBron would be second. I filled out the rest of my top five

and it looks like this. Kawhi Leonard third, Jokic fourth, James Harden fifth. What did you have for your top five? It's not, you know, the push by LeBron, I think he could have caught Giannis. I actually think even though I would have voted Giannis still after we went through with what you were great on pointing out, like how this stuff happens, you know, how

the storyline, something I've always believed in with the MVP, but I still think LeBron had ground to make up and maybe he would have, and maybe that would have been enough for the voters. Despite all the stuff with LeBron, Giannis won, LeBron too. Kawhi's season has been unbelievable and he's only played, what, six less games than Giannis?

So I don't know why I wouldn't put Kawhi third. So Kawhi's 51 games out of 64. So I think over 50 with the shortened season is probably enough. Yeah, if Giannis has played 57, I can't say Kawhi can't be eligible for this at 51. So I go Giannis, LeBron, Kawhi, Anthony Davis, and Trey Young fifth. Trey Young.

No, Jokic fifth? Yeah, Jokic is probably fifth because they have the record. And despite that brutal start by his standards, not that they were terrible raw numbers. What he had done once he kind of got in shape. I mean, he'd had this stretch here. Both he and Murray was really impressive. So, yeah, we can put Jokic fifth. I'm sorry if that wasn't definitive enough. Well,

it's kind of a half-assed segment by us. I wasn't expecting greatness. I just thought it was interesting to commemorate that the regular season really might be over. And this step is probably going to be the top five, whether Jokic is ahead of Harden or I don't think Harden could get to three because of the way the last few weeks went for him.

But Jokic green arrow is pointing up as the season ended. So anyway, it's, it's going to be in that order in some way. Did I disappoint you on that segment? I feel like I did. I know the back. I just think that people need to look at Harden differently.

I think it's like a 25% bump. And he actually, Westbrook's carried that team now for the last month. Rookie of the year, Morant wins it. Who would be second? Because Zion barely played enough games to be in the top three. And I have no idea. And I don't really care. But I just wanted to flag it.

I guess like who, who, who's the second best rookie. If it's not Zion, who played 20 games, I guess maybe it's Zion anyway. Yeah. Um,

this class has been, yeah, let's move on. I don't want to talk about it. Coach of the year. I went Nick nurse, Budenholzer Vogel is my third. That's my top three. I don't know if you have any opinions on that.

I do. I would vote Vogel one. And I, I continue to be so kind of secondarily impressed with Nurse. Like, when you talk to guys in the league, do you find people consistently going like, Nick Nurse, man, Nick Nurse. So it doesn't always mean you're going to win it. I think Spoh, had they not had this bad stretch in the fourth quarter,

and they still are five games under 500, Spoh might be the best coach going. I think he was in the mix here. But still are five games under 500 you know Spoh might be the best coach going I think he was in the mix here but Vogel think about this Lakers fans were let down when they got Vogel instead of some of the other options and you know Lou's got the resume um Monte Williams has a lot of fans and for Vogel to go, look, Orlando was a disaster. I need to update what I'm doing. And then Jason kid gets named to the staff where everybody's like, how long is it going to be until Vogel gets fired and kid gets his job.

And LeBron is not exactly always ever been somebody that's like really embrace coaching or authority figures. And they're the one seed. And I thought they might coast a little bit and they're still kind of figuring out the rotation the whole time. So I would go Vogel because of circumstance more than me just thinking he's the best coach in the league. Compelling case.

Also throw in the, got the Lakers to play good defense, even though, you know, it's an older team for the most part. And the, the two way play he got out of LeBron this year, you know, LeBron,

it's one of those things with LeBron where he gets all the credit if it's going well, and if it's not going well, everyone just instinctively blames the coach and his teammates. I think Vogel, I think they've been a really smart defensive team, you know, for the first 70% of the season.

When they need to get stops, they've been able to do it. I like how he was sparingly using Davis as a five, depending on the matchups, but when he really needed it, he would do it and things like that. I'm with you. I think Nurse, Bodenholzer, and Vogel in some order is the top three. I went with Nurse. I'll go Vogel, I'll go Nurse,

and I'll go Boylan because of just, he never gives up. Never gives up. He just never gives up. If they're down 10, 40 seconds to go, he's calling a timeout to set the tone for the rest of the week.

Well, the worst thing that happened to them was when they actually had that crazy comeback win because then it made him think he could always win when he was down 10 with two seconds left. First team All-NBA, this is where I landed. And I had to do some chicanery, but I'm going to defend it.

So I have Jokic as the center. I have Giannis and Kawhi as the forwards. And I have LeBron and Harden as the guards. And the defense for LeBron is he plays point guard for them. He doesn't guard the other team's point guard, but he is their point guard. So if he's playing 50% of the point guard position on one end, and then he's guarding perimeter guys on the other end, he's a guard and a forward, which means I can put him at guard. But I think if you're trying to grab a snapshot of who are the best players in the league this year,

I think you would say those five in Anthony Davis. So then it comes down to Jokic versus Davis, and Jokic plays center more. So again, first team, Jokic versus Davis and Jokic plays center more. So again, first team Jokic, Giannis, Kawhi, LeBron,

Harden. That's my first team. What did you have? So I went 80 over Jokic, even though I think there's a trickling of 80 playing more as the five by himself out there, but they've been pretty, you know,

they've played them more at the four than, than I think any of us thought, unless we were like, are they really that committed to doing something they probably shouldn't be doing in the playoffs just because they want to make sure he's happy and re-signs. Although by all accounts, he's going to sign like another one-on-one, um, you know, but I don't know. We'll see. I mean, everything's nothing, nothing seems predictable now at this point. So I have him over because defensively, man, having him there to anchor that defense and what he can do for other people and the way he shows to the perimeter player and goes out and challenges shots. And then off of that, he can get the break going. It's just another level.

So I have Davis. I have LeBron. I have Giannis. I have Harden. And I went... The real debate came down to Doncic or Lillard. So I have Kawhi like third in my MVP, but I have him behind the two forwards

and really another one. So I went... I can't believe I'm doing... But I'm doing Lillard over donchich wow wow which feels stupid wow okay interesting well just go ahead yeah kill it because i expect you to no i i thought the guards were tough i'm just giving you my case for Doncic. The Nuggets are 43-22. He's the only all-star in the team.

Jokic, you mean? I'm sorry, Jokic, yeah. I was going to say, was there a trade? Nuggets are 43-22. He's the only all-star in the team. They only have a.3 point differential. So, you know, you think like the Celtics are 43 and 21. They're plus six.

Toronto's 46 and 18. They're plus six and a half. The Clippers are 44 and 20. They're plus six and a half. Denver's 43 and 22. They're plus three. So, you know, I can't, they're not that good. And he's the best player in the team by far.

I thought he got better as the season went along. And I guess the thing I kept coming back to is, if you just flip this, if you put Anthony Davis on the Nuggets and you put Jokic on the Lakers, what would happen to the records of each team? I feel like the Lakers would be around the same. I think the Nuggets would go down because of all the stuff Jokic does for them. And I'm not, I'm not, we've seen Davis in this situation where he's the only really good guy in the team and it never really translated to the kind of record Denver has. So that's my case.

It's admittedly flimsy, but I thought it was a coin flip and that's what nudged me to Jokic. Does that make any sense or no? Who would you rather have tomorrow? Who would I rather have as my one all-star on a playoff team? I would rather have Jokic. Who would I rather have if I was trying to win the title, I'd rather have Davis. I don't feel like you really answered that. I did answer it. I think Jokic is where he should be, and I think Davis is where he should be. I have trouble putting two guys from the same team on first team all NBA

when it's not like a completely dominant team, I guess would be my point. You know, they're 49 to 14. They're going to end up like 61 and 21 if we had actually had the whole season. I don't know. I just couldn't totally get there. But again, I thought it was a coin flip.

I think either one is acceptable. I had for second team all NBA, I had Anthony Davis, Jimmy Butler, Pascal Siakam, Donchich, and Lillard. Who'd you have?

I didn't know we were doing second team. All right. But I do want to follow up on two things you said. The point differential for the Nuggets is alarming they're 10th in the NBA and yet people still want to kind of talk themselves into a team that potentially

comes out of the West I just look I'm consistent on this Denver thing and I feel good about my position although if Dallas were to

well again none of us know but if Dallas were to like overtake Houston and it ended up being like a Houston Denver first round series talk about the all time Rosilloillo-can't-lose first-round matchup.

But another thing, too, that's always the counter. Basically, point differential tells you what you should expect to happen to your team the rest of the way out. What homers will tell you is that, oh, we just know how to win close games. Like, yeah, not really.

Like it's kind of like football teams with, with turnovers, like having a great turnover margin. Rarely the Patriots always seem to be on the right side of it, but rarely do teams kind of repeat their turnover success, especially in college football. And if you're 10th and you think you're a legitimate title contender, that's a bad number.

I would rather have Davis, but I always look at Davis as, like Davis feels like this guy that is this movie with this incredible cast, amazing writer, the best director, like everybody you would ever want to put together this movie. And you go in and you want this movie

to be something you've never seen before. And it's still really good, but you're like, am I a little let down? I know I'm guilty of that with Davis. He has these little moments where i'm like is he a little soft and i know the anti davis stuff like hey he was down there in new orleans they never did anything well they were never healthy i don't think it was a great organization and what he did in that portland series is still one of my favorite kind of like wake up everybody this is what i'm capable of type of series um even though it was only a first round series. But again, they weren't supposed to win that. They smashed the Trailblazers.

I'm almost too hard on him because I like him so much. But there are little moments where I go, is he really up to this? And then I'll look and be like, oh, he had 32 and 17. Okay, I guess he did all right tonight. So, you know, I think there are those,

are you with me on that? There's like these little moments of hesitation. And yeah, you're right. We haven't really seen. Does Jokic feel like the much more seasoned playoff guy because the run that they had last year? Like, no. They should have won that series against Portland.

It's actually pretty bad that they didn't win that series, really. And we'll see what Davis is like. We hope. Every time I say a sentence like that, then I go, Oh, that's right. Maybe we're not going to see it again this year. I had for my 13 mile NBA, just for the posterity, Bam Adebayo, Jason Tatum, Chris Middleton, Kyle Lowry, Chris Paul, and the tough omissions were Westbrook, Sabonis, and Bradley Beal. I just couldn't get Westbrook on there. I couldn't get there mentally.

I know if the season does get canceled and they do end up doing it this way, I think Westbrook will make... He's going to get on there probably over Chris Paul. But I thought what Chris Paul did for Oklahoma City was pretty great. So either one is acceptable to me. And then Adebayo versus Sabonis versus Embiid. Whatever. Oklahoma City was pretty great. So either one is acceptable to me.

And then Adebayo versus Sabonis versus Embiid, whatever. If the regular season does end today, this is what the playoff matchups would look like if we eventually have a playoffs. Bucks Magic, Raptors Nets, Celtics 76ers, Heat Pacers is now the 4-5. And then the West, Lakers, Grizzlies, Clippers, Dallas, Nuggets Houston, Utah, OKC. Nuggets, Houston would be like a social experiment

with just overpowering everybody on Houston on the one end and then Houston just trying to get him and mismatches on the other. So I really hope we get a playoffs. Let's take a break. We'll come back. Hey, if you were to guess on average, how many days people in the U.S. have to wait to see a doctor, what would you say? Americans have to wait around 29 days to see a doctor in major U.S. cities. And if you're dealing with a condition like erectile dysfunction, you want treatment ASAP.

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struggling with ED, go to GetRoman.com slash bill for a free online visit and free two-day shipping. GetRoman.com slash bill for a free online visit and free two-day shipping. All right, we're going to do a recommendation corner, but you want to clean up one thing. Yeah, right now, the three sixes you mentioned is Denver, Houston, the can't lose first round. What I was looking at as Dallas

and Beaubon smashed the Nuggets the night the league announced it was spending play is I could have had Dallas taking on the nuggets and who knows and then that would have moved Houston down because they're only a game and a half behind Houston and I think we both would admit it probably looked like Houston was a little lethargic after that amazing stretch uh for a few weeks but you could have had Houston. I mean, imagine if Houston threw all this stuff

and then they're 7-2 against the Clippers, especially what we saw when the Clippers were like, hey, you guys really going to play this way? Because guess what? Now, granted, the Rockets were brutal, but if the math is always, hey, the Rockets, it just feels like no matter what, like the Rockets are going to have a couple nights

in every series where you're going to go, okay, you guys are going to shoot 21% from three, like this thing's over, you know it doesn't matter like it doesn't carry over it doesn't necessarily mean any of those things but um that was just something i was looking at as only a game and a half between six and seven there in the west but again um all right we're gonna do recommendation corner this is a new segment we're gonna do for uh as long as we do these sunday night pods probably be a little bit longer the next time we do it as there's less stuff to talk about. I'm going to recommend a TV show, a book, an older movie,

and then a newish movie for people to watch as they can stream it, pay-per-view it, get the book, whatever. Start with the TV show. I can't remember if I've mentioned this on a podcast before, but High Fidelity is on Hulu. And they took the movie, the Cusack movie, and basically 2020'd it, changed the lead character,

turned the lead character into Zoe Kravitz, and kind of modernized the story and flip genders with it. I really liked it. I plowed through it. My wife and I watched it in one night. We were not on self-quarantine because we didn't know about the coronavirus yet. We just plowed through the show and watched all of it in like five and a half hours. I've always liked Zoe Kravitz. I thought this was the best thing she's been in. I love the Parker Posey episode, which I think was like the fifth one, but that's my favorite episode of TV so far this year. And I thought it was a good binge.

I thought it probably should have been eight episodes. I think it's 10. They could have tossed out at least one of them. But for the most part, if you're just talking about, I want to hunker down for five and a half hours or something, I thought the show was really good.

I thought it was well-written. I thought she was really good. So that would be my first recommendation. What do you have? So you went with the non-quarantine endorsement. That's a high endorsement. Yeah. I wasn't even desperate yet. This was just us home one night just getting sucked in, thinking other stuff was going to happen, and it just didn't. We just ended up watching the same thing for five and a half hours. All right. I like that. Okay.

Mine's been out for a little bit, but I was late to it because it was a little harder to find how to stream it. But that's Yellowstone with Kevin Costner. It is, uh, why is that too? Is that, what are we talking about here?

Oh, this is great. Okay. I'm so excited. Have you watched it? Well, we have a soft spot for it in the Simmons family because one of my son's

friends' mom is on the show. That's her house? So we're rooting for it. Yeah, good times. Wait a minute. Who's the mom? The mom is...

Not the daughter. No, gets involved with Costner a little bit early, like in the first episode. All right. Yeah, yeah. She's a local official, Bozeman. So if anybody, apparently when I was out doing a lot of

just feet on the ground research in Park City, ran into a guy who was like, yeah, actually they film a lot of Yellowstone here, even though the storyline takes place in Bozeman. And I imagine south of the city of down the gallatin which is a spot i know real well and it's written by taylor sheridan who is the best who did sicario heller highwater and win river and he was in sons of anarchy as kind of the deputy um it wasn't a big part he didn't necessarily like really stand out and And then all of a sudden

he like quit acting, but he does have a role in Yellowstone as like a horse trainer. But he just, it's like, wait a minute. So this guy who was just kind of this guy that you may not even remember as an actor turned out to be this absolutely brilliant writer who's putting out some of the best stuff. And then he's like, I'm going to do a TV show. And when you watch some of the behind the scenes stuff with Koster and Sheridan, he's, he's incredible. Cause he's just going like, look, what we're doing here is we're taking the concept that he sells it as is, you know, those old shows that our parents grew up with, like Bonanza. What if you modernized it where it's an old rancher, a little on the gray area of the law and the Native American angle trying to get the land back and then all the town politics and a a family, you know, checks all the different boxes as all the different siblings are. I love the way it's shot.

And, you know, Taylor Sheridan, honestly, the guy could do a Teletubbies episode and I would pay for it. You know, when he gets that kind of respect from another writer, it's got to mean a lot to him. Well, you know, we're a very supportive industry, Bill. I'm glad you liked that show because I've always wondered why it was so successful and I didn't know anyone who was watching it, but now I know somebody because the show is, it's always, it's, I think it's the biggest new show of the last two years on cable from but it's it's just because it's paramount network and whenever i recommend it to somebody i mean and this is just everybody being like oh i can't find her or whatever you know it had it landed i think somewhere else it would be part of the consciousness i mean it's it's succession in the woods right like if it was just a new Netflix show,

people would be treating it with a different level of respect. I get it. Yep. All right. My book that I'm going to recommend is called meet me in the bathroom. It's by Lizzie Goodman. It is about, uh,

the rise of alternative rock in the early two thousands in New York, led by the strokes and the yay, yay, led by The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol and a bunch of other bands. But just about how rock had kind of died there in the late 90s. Grunge was over. We entered this really weird time of pop music that just wasn't that good and solo acts.

And just nobody was sure what was going to happen to rock music meanwhile we had spin magazine probably at its heyday back then um desperately hoping for anything and then here come the strokes and then here come a bunch of bands around the same time being influenced by the strokes and then 9-11 happens and there's this artistic boom that is at the real, the early, early stages of the major internet, not just where the internet was in the nineties, but the early 2000s internet that led to the whole blog scene and all these bands. And there's like this five-year moment that's really cool. And you know, the Strokes, the first album was influential and it's still an amazing album to throw in there and listen to. It just feels like an actual album. It's one of those

rare ones that all the songs make sense. They make sense the year it came out and what was going on at the time, all that stuff. Then all the bands, the influence. But I really like Oral Histories. I think you almost turn your brain half off. They're just fun to read. It's just a fun romp. There's a lot of stories. There's a lot of drugs. There's sex. There's feuding. And you get to find out about LCD sound system and Kings of Leon, all that stuff. And, um, you know, it's probably the last era we're going to have with, with rock bands, with a real, for lack of a better, a better word revolution. Um, and I don't know if we're ever going to see it again, but I enjoyed it. It's, it's about 600 pages. It's not short, but, uh, I plowed through it and I really enjoyed it. So there you go. What's your book? Does it have to be brand new?

No. By the way, I started- That book's old. That book came out like five years ago. I'll check that out. Although after I read that punk rock one where it starts Lou Reed and those dudes, like Lou Reed is the biggest piece of shit ever. Like he's just, every story would be,

Hey, here's another terrible Lou Reed story. And after I got done with that one, I was like, Whoa, um, that's cause I didn't know a ton about like the birth of punk rock. There's a void in my us history when it comes to music,

by the way, I love the strokes. That first strokes thing is perfect. It was a perfect time of my life. Bartending sick at Madden, you know, zero maturity, nice little spot downtown.

When that came out, it just made you feel good. It was like, yeah, like this is different. And I go back to that one still all the time. I made a comment about like looking like a dude who goes to a stroke show. I had a few people reach out.

They were very upset. I thought I was making fun of it. I have all the respect in the world for the strokes. And if you can ever set up a meeting, um, I had a few people reach out that were very upset that thought I was making fun of it. I have all the respect in the world for the strokes. And if you can ever set up a meeting, I don't know. I don't know if they'd be a fun hang now 20 years later.

That's always, you know, don't meet your heroes, kids. So I don't know. All right. What's your book? Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty, the French economist,

where he argues that the uh rate of wealth distribution is headed to unhealthy levels some would argue we're already there and he has some proposals but essentially saying that the developed economic parts of the world are just far and it's in french too so enjoy wow it's in french what are you talking about yeah you really look it's in French too So enjoy Wow It's in French? What are you talking about? Yeah You really Look It's quarantine

So you know Dig in How did you read it When it's in French? I don't understand I took French for six years That was a flex Alright I'm going to pick a new movie It can get slow That was a flex Alright

I'm going to pick a new movie It can get slow I'm not going to argue It can get slow at times New movie Watch this on Friday with my son Who immediately declared this His new favorite movie

Replacing Good Boys Which had A really nice A two month run? No, no And that got replaced too Because initially it was Good Boys Which which had a really nice... A two-month run? No, no. And that got replaced too, because initially it was Good Boys, which had a two-month run.

And then surprisingly got supplanted by Mid-90s, the Jonah Hill movie, which my son has been watching for two months straight. He likes that? Oh, yeah. That's a little old for him. He's messing around with the skateboarding thing. He's trying to figure

out new ways to break a bone. So it went from Good Boys to Mid-90s. And now this new movie, which we watched on Friday, and he was delighted the entire time. I got to say, I really enjoyed it. It's on Hulu. It's called Big Time Adolescence. It's with Pete Davidson. It came out like a year ago well now you got me now I'm interested and I don't know it was a Sundance thing I think in 2019

and it got bought I don't know if it was released or not but it is about Pete Davidson plays this guy who was really cool in high school and adopt kind of takes under his wing this kid who's like 9 or 10

who's the little brother of the girl Pete Davidson is dating. And then that kid is now in high school. It goes six years forward and he's now in high school and navigating the whole social scene. And Pete Davidson's character is still his big brother, but now he's like the 23 year old who still kind of hasn't grown up yet, big time adolescent and is still high every day. And he's like the 23 year old who still kind of hasn't, hasn't grown up yet. Big time adolescent and is still high every day. And he's working at a fast food place and he's just a fuck up. I was shocked that Pete Davidson is really good in this movie.

And I know he has a big Judd Apatow movie coming. I think this fall about Pete Davidson and Staten Island, all this stuff. And, you know, I've only seen Pete on SNL never really struck me as an actor and he's really good in this movie. I thought the movie was really, really well-written. I liked the characters. Um, Sidney Sweeney's in it, who's also in euphoria and there's a couple other good people, but it's just like a stoner hang movie. And there hasn't been one in a while. It reminded me it had the same kind of vibe as Outside Providence.

Just a bunch of fuck ups. Nothing incredibly important happens. But it's just well done. I really like the characters. I liked hanging out with them. And my son loved Pete Davidson. So I think he's watched it two more times during the quarantine weekend. So there you go.

Big time adolescence on Hulu. Hey, was Slacker like a stoner movie? Do you remember when that one came out? 1990. Yeah, I never loved that one. Right, because singles had come out. Reality Bites is 94. I just, there was this, for those that don't know,

you know, Douglas Copeland was like one of the first authors i really really got into and he wrote the book generation x and shampoo planet was the first one i love microsurfs was awesome and then and i kept reading him and reading him he was like the first guy that i just was like oh man this guy's awesome he's canadian guy and he just was kind of observing things around him and turning him into great stories but there was this you know early 90s everything was gen x so it is kind of nice to around him and turning him into great stories. But there was this, you know, early 90s, everything was Gen X. So it is kind of nice to have some of those stoner movies around because True Romance nails it with Brad Pitt's character.

Yeah. Which, you know, I think you could argue is one of Tarantino's, maybe the most well-written script that he's done. I mean, look, I'm probably going to consume it differently than just the layman, the lay person. he's done. I mean, look, I'm probably going to consume it differently than just the layman, the layperson. You would like this movie. I'm excited to get your reaction for it. What's your new movie? Okay, it just came out,

Call the Wild. Now, if you don't know this one, it is a movie about a man and a dog, but what you may not know is that it's Han Solo in Yukon, Alaska in 1890, and he's aged a bit, and his sidekick Chewbacca is now a dog named Buck, and Han Solo goes looking for Chewbacca, but it's hard to recognize him because now he's a dog, and they get into all sorts of mishaps and whatnots, and it's a to recognize him because now he's a dog and they get into all

sorts of mishaps and whatnots. And it's a, it's a good family thing. Was this the one where they CGI the guy from planet of the apes? Yeah. And he's like the dog. That's the one. How did they do it with the CGI with the dog?

Computers. But what, but why did they need a human to play the dog i i don't understand that part yeah i think it's just mostly computers but what did what is a human being add for a dog like facial reactions yeah a little more personality okay that sounds super weird it's not i gotta say it wasn't on my radar. So you're saying I would like it. Yeah. Just don't like have an open mind. Okay. Um, my old movie. So the fourth one we're doing is it's a movie that had to have come out at least 20 years ago. I picked, uh, basically based on the circumstances we're in right now,

a movie that I think is one of the best TV movies of all time. It's called End the Band Played On. It is a movie about Randy Schultz's book about how the HIV-slash-AIDS epidemic spread in the 80s and how it spread when it shouldn't have. And, um, it's a TV movie that HBO made,

I think early nineties. And it was one of the first big TV movies they ever made. It's got a huge cast, a bunch of people, including, uh, your old rival, Matthew Modine plays the hero in it,

but Richard is in it. Yeah. Ian McKellen. Um, there's, there's literally 20 people in it. And it's basically about that stretch, probably the first three to four years, late seventies, early eighties, when HIV is starting to really happen and a lot of people are in denial. The president won't acknowledge it. The CDC is trying to not only get bathhouses shut down because they figure out pretty quickly what are some of the things causing it, but also the blood banks with the transfusions. And there's this 18-month stretch where they're just basically screaming out and it's going nowhere. And people aren't listening to them. And everybody's thinking, we're fine. We're fine. These guys are crazy.

And then you know what happens. But it's a really, really well done movie. It's really informative. And I would say timely considering everything that's going on right now. So that would be my pick. What about you? Wow. That is timely. I'm going to lighten it up with a movie that takes place in the ocean, Dead Calm, 1989.

Yeah. For whatever reason, Dead Calm has always been one of my favorite movies. Three people are in the entire movie. Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, who you'll know immediately, And then Billy Zane. And I'm not going to tell you anything about the movie other than you'll enjoy it. And I've always made a joke with some of my other writer buddies, but with everything being remade, would the worst TV pitch ever be dead? Calm the series. Just three people on a boat,

right? Like what happens in season three they're still on the boat like what do you what what do you mean what happens in season three did you see the movie do i need to do you think there'll be enough there for three seasons of course there will be um i think it holds up it's an 82 on rotten tomatoes 1989 i don't know what it is about that movie i love it and whenever i meet somebody that hasn't seen it and i go look just you know it's not it's not the godfather but you're gonna like it and they'll call back and be like you know what that was that was really that was cool

it was it was intense movie well you left out it was nicole nicole kidman's breakout movie you know that stuff better than i do you're you're you're like to put Nicole Kidman on the map. Cause she was this super hot Australian. Nobody knew who I did. Certainly didn't know she was. Uh, you also left out a part that you didn't know. I saw that movie in the theater with Jack O in Worcester, Massachusetts,

1989. Yeah. That's incredible. That's good stuff right there. And yeah, cause you know, we went to the movies. It was one of the things you did in college. right there and yeah cause you know we went to the movies it was one of the things you did in college cause we didn't you know didn't have half the things

they have now we barely had video games but yeah we saw that in the theater came out of it going wow Nicole Kidman she has a chance to be something and then she got hooked up in the cruise machine like a year later I don't remember when Days of Thunder was, but it was somewhere around then. And then I'll help Roku.

So that's it. That's Recommendation Corner. Hope you enjoy that as you're stuck in your house. We're going to take one more break, take a couple more mailbag questions, then we're done. I want to talk about something that puts me in a good mood. Toccova's cowboy boots. I can't help but feel like I'm Tim Holt when I'm wearing these things. Just call me man with no name or maybe man with

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Everything made with the same quality standards in everything they do. So do what I did. Do what Nephew Kyle did. Get yourself a pair of Decova's cowboy boots today at decovas.com slash BS. That is T-E-C-O-V-A-S dot com slash BS. All right, we'll do this fast. Trevor had a good question. I like this one. Do you think whenever basketball, sports in general returns, it will be one of those unifying moments that we'll all collectively remember when we look back on this 10 years from now, similar to the 2001 World Series after 9-11. Thanks and stay safe from Trevor. this cycle with sport, the sports calendar is just so perfectly honed at this point, right? Where you have, you know, we're heading into this mid-March section where it's like, all right, I know the beats now. Now we're going to NFL free agency, basketball. We're going to have to start figuring out the playoff picture of the awards. March Madness is coming. Masters is around the

corner. And you just, and then once that gets going, then it's like, all right, now we're in the NBA playoff stretch. And then Kentucky Derby is coming up and we just kind of move from one thing to the next and we take all of it for granted. We just assume it's like meals on a table. It's like, all right, what is it tonight? You get disappointed. There were nights when we're bitching because there's only three Tuesday night NBA games. It's like, what the fuck? Where are my games? There's only three? Or you think about Sunday's NFL when there's only two, two, four o'clock games, when Dallas versus Green Bay is the national game. And then they'll have the Arizona versus Jacksonville game on some

random channel. And then that's it. And you're like, oh man, only two games? I do think we got a little entitled with the sports calendar. And I do think when sports does come back, hopefully sooner than we've said on this pod, and life gets back to normal and we kind of work our way through this and sports are back in our life, I do think there's going to be a real healthy appreciation, not just for the games being back, for having these people back in our lives, these athletes that we care about, these teams we care about, and sports as like an escape.

Because right now we don't have any escape. So I'm with Trevor. I do think there's, I think it's going to be weirdly emotional whenever we hit that point. What do you think? 100% agree. It will be,

well, you know, I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know what it's going to be like but we are going to appreciate it all I mean we always you know things can be so great in this country that you know it's just sort of weird like it's almost like bringing up kids right if you're brought up a certain way even if you try to shield your kids

from money there's going to be a certain level of entitlement that's almost impossible to prevent. And, you know, despite the criticisms and things that we all probably wish are better, even if we disagree about them, we have it pretty good here. And to be facing whatever we're facing here and a kind of reminder of how good we have it when things are really good, you know, I don't know, but I don't know, like, how long is this going to go? How long is it going to happen? So I do think when it comes back, it'll be different than 9-11 because 9-11 was this stretch of like full-blown patriotism on 11. And believe it or not, I actually kind of felt good to be like, hey, let's, we're all kind of rallying around the same thing here because um the people attacked us but this is different

because the enemy isn't is identifiable and um depending on how long this goes i think it's gonna be like oh man it's like this was awesome like we had all these games to watch and then it'll be like i'm trying to figure out what what the grace period will be before like day five of basketball being back and somebody going, LeBron is not a one. You know? Right. Yeah.

I can't believe James Harden didn't donate to the arena workers. Right, right. Or like... Those kind of things. Yeah. You know, I was driving around Boston the day after they blew the Thunder game.

And, you know, if you listen to talk radio in Boston, you was driving around Boston the day after they blew the thunder game. And, you know, if you listen to talk radio in Boston, you think Brad Stevens is the worst coach in the league. And so, you know, how long, like if Brad Stevens is back and then they blow a close game,

like six games back in August, we'll guys call in and be like, Hey, you know, I know about this virus and whatever, but you know, you're really going to wonder about his questionable play call in a tight one.

So that's what's going to happen. I mean, everybody will feel good. Everybody will feel good. It'll be like a big group hug. And then eventually we'll just sort of revert back to the way we were. Ryan in Sacramento wants us to know, can you talk about how terrible

it is that the Kings had one national TV game all year and they didn't even get to play it because it was canceled at the last minute. Feels like just the Kings the last 20 years, says Ryan in Sacramento. That's pretty tough. I didn't realize that was their only national TV game. Because you're not supposed to. No, no, no one's supposed to know that except for a Sacramento fan. And I guarantee you most sacramento fans didn't even know that um what i think more people needed to know about sacramento we were early on this is that they were only three and a half games out of that eighth spot they yeah were eight games under 500 and we did this on the pod i i maybe did i do it i think i did it solo where i was just kind of doing my tails from the couch thing and

i said hey by the way do you you realize who's actually a lot better? Because what happened was they were playing better since he only come off the bench. There's other factors that go into it, too. Some nice Giles moments. But it was right after the Athletic had come out with this thing basically saying the Kings are a mess. And here's the thing. You can be a mess and still be good.

You can be an awesome locker room and still suck. Okay. We, we only think that those things are exclusive sometimes, and it's not the case, but it was this very like, oh, here go the Kings again. The front office is terrible. And they passed on Donchik and all these things. And I'm looking up going, hey, you know, they're not 15 and 40. Like they're eight below 500, three and a half out of the eight spot still with Portland and New Orleans in front of them. Well, they're actually, all three of them are three and a half back, but they had, they were one back in the loss column, or excuse me, they were behind in the winning percentage.

I'm rambling here a bit, but they're all right there. Those next three teams bottled up. Really, four teams of the Spurs, a half came behind them. So they're actually, they've been better this year than I think people realize, which I don't really blame anybody for overlooking the 10th seat or 11th seat right now. Billy Murphy wants

us to know that Dr. Anthony Fauci, is that how you say his name? I hope so. I hope so too. Holy Cross Crusader. No kidding. Wants to know where he ranks amongst Clarence Thomas and Bob Cousy

and also wants to know if Chris Matthews now drops out of the top five. Ooh. I'm too close to it. Yeah. I'm just excited to be 100 spots higher than Dan Shaughnessy. Who else do we have on the cross? I think if Dr. Anthony Fauci, first of all, the fact that I can't remember how to pronounce his name probably means he's not in the top five.

Let's get IT on this. Let's get IT on this as in the moment, real time. All right. I have one. I'm going to read you and Kyle might have to edit this out, but we're going to keep your reaction. John Favreau. I'm going to read you an email. We'll decide afterwards if we're editing the email, but I'm keeping your reaction.

I'm just looking up Holy Cross people right now. Neil Hopkins. Oh, God. Joseph P. Kerwin, astronaut. Timothy Leary. Oh. Yeah. No wonder.

I mean, Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, is pretty good. That is pretty good. Lewis. Apparently played basketball with Michael Chuck. Oh, no kidding. Ted Wells. Tim Bishop. Anybody ring?

Does Kristen Higgins ring a bell? Kalief Raymond. Favreau. Johniggins ring a bell? Khalif Raymond. Favreau. Jon Favreau. Todd Arujo. Yeah. All right. I'm going to read you this.

We're only keeping a reaction. We might have to edit the email. Here we go. Kyle, get ready. Get ready to have to edit this. Hey, Bill. Oh. That's great. That's great.

That's really good. We probably can't run that one though, right? I don't know what to do. I mean, other people like this is my, we're not running that. All right.

Nevermind. I thought I was really jealous of that one though. Um, that was good. Oh, we have a gym corner for you. It's about Jim speak. This is from Josh and Rogers, Arkansas. Rosilla, what's your favorite bit of Jim speak things.

You only hear people say to each other at the gym. What are your go-tos? I don't even really understand what that means. Well, there's a bunch of, there's a bunch of things. One of the all-time go-tos, if you're a decent-sized guy and you like to work with a spot. Although I started doing less of that later on as I started just forcing myself

to get the bar off of my chest. But it's perfect timing for me too because I thought with the shutdown, I'd maybe rehab some injuries, but I realized I just couldn't not do anything. But if you're benching, you ask for a spot, 275, 315 on it. And if the guy says how many, you're better off just saying, I'm just going to keep going. Don't worry about it. I'll let you know. But guys are really bad with spots. But what you have to do is if you end up kind of sucking like you only get 315 a couple times um you got to go you got to do

like a little bit of an arm rotation like a rodney dangerfield like oh my arm i think it's broken you got to just do a little bit of like oh man i've been battling some stuff yeah and you're just gonna shake your head even if you're by yourself like if it doesn't go that great just rack it and then kind of get up a little defeated like lebron james would be great at this just kind of like dramatic like don't have it today man usually i do way better so that's that's a go-to um lebron getting insulted somehow no but i mean lebron is a theatrical person and every moment that he's on the court he knows he's on a theater and he he plays it out that way i mean he's he's an entertainer and he would be an amazing gym guy to be like oh you know i don't really or like i'm

just doing quads today like i'm not going as deep or as heavy. Cause I'm just really trying to blast the teardrops. So you could do that on the squat rack. If you don't want to go too heavy, just put your feet together and just be like, yeah, you know, I'm focusing on range more today. Uh, what else, what else, what else? Um, yeah, it's not my heavy day is a good one. If you're worried about people looking at you. Cause I mean, with me, I always have people looking at me. I catch people videotaping me. And if I'm not crushing it and trust me, I'm not crushing it at all in anything right now. It's just, I already have all these. I'm actually telling you what I say to people pretty much every week.

So there you go. Can you go back to the part where people are videotaping you? Not all the time. I've had it happen a few times. Yeah. People just videotape me. To do what what are they gonna do with the video where does it go what do they send to like one of their friends yeah show it to their buddy i don't know is this is this like a porn hub is there like

a risillo search for you lifting yeah i don't know if there's a i doubt there's that i just like one time a guy i saw a guy it and I was doing like triceps. I was like, are you serious, man? He's like, Oh, I thought it was funny.

I was like, all right, whatever. Just like when AOC was, was complaining about being a picture taken of her, which was amazing that a famous person was at dinner and somebody took a picture of her and she freaked out and tweeted about it. It was like, Oh wow.

Like what, what did you think? How did you think it worked? Cause that's what out and tweeted about it. It was like, oh, wow. What did you think? How did you think it worked? Because that's what happens. Whatever. Yeah, you can't have your own documentary about you and then be surprised when that happens. A lot of people have emailed wondering what's going to happen to you if nobody can go to gyms. And I know we talked about this earlier, but I just assumed

it would be like in prison movies, like the Denzel movie about Hurricane the Boxer, where he's just doing pull-ups in the cell every day. And you just, where the prisoners figure out how to stay in shape and work on different things, even though they're inside. I figure that's what it's going to have with you right yeah i'll get i'll figure something out um i got some stuff i can i can uh i'll probably throw the the the gloves on maybe that's what i'll do i'll freak out my neighbors i'll hang a bag from the middle of my garage and park my car on the street and just you know put in the work that way and then there's a little there's a little like i don't know there's a car on the street and just, you know, put in the work that way. And then there's a little, there's a little like, I don't know, there's a thing on the strand over by Bruce's beach, Manhattan beach, where it's like some poles and you can do

those fake CrossFit pull-ups that aren't really pull-ups. And people are like, pull-ups, I do a hundred. And you're like, you mean you swing forward a hundred times? Uh, I don't know. I don't know. I'll figure it out. Like, um, you know, honestly, man, it's just about the movement. I know everybody makes me have to be this meathead

and all these different things. It's just, you know, you got to get out of your own head sometimes. So I'm more worried about that part than having jacked arms. I could see some sort of new look for you. Like when LeBron got skinny and strong that time, a couple years ago.

Remember that? Yeah. He just completely changed what his look was for a year years ago. Remember that? Yeah. He just completely changed what his look was for a year. I could see that with you. Just a new look. Something different. I don't know.

I mean, I'm pretty. Like a Fu Manchu? I'm like 225 now. I come back, I'm 210. The thing is, everybody's going to say, oh my God, you look great. No, I don't. I don't feel great. We'll see. We'll see. Uh, you know what, honestly though, you know, I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. Yeah. All right. I think we're wrapping up.

You're going to do at least one podcast this week on your feed. We did have a lot of people ask for what our opinion was of where Brady was going, but it really seems like it's either the Patriots or the Bucs at this point. It seems to be all the intel as we taped this on a Sunday night because Tennessee has a QB. Tampa is the only team that's overtly leaked stuff saying they really wanted him and that they're ready to spend money on him. And then, I don't know, that's a pretty interesting decision for him

because they have two awesome receivers, you know, and an offensive coach, offensive minded coach, I should say. And they want to put themselves on the map. They have a lot of empty seats, et cetera, et cetera. So, um, I wouldn't be like shocked if he went to Tampa Bay, would you? No, because I think this thing is way worse than we realized. And for all the Boston fans, and this isn't about arguing with fans, because I get it, man. I would be the same way you are

if I didn't work in this and didn't know anybody and just was like, look, I don't want you talking about my team. But for all the shit Seth Wickersham took for writing about what was blatantly true, that there was a divide here, that there were things that were happening but like we said before like you can have some cracks and still win and so when

you win it's like ah fucking wickersham whatever you know you suck dude um you know he was right about this stuff i've gotten to know seth he's incredible writer and he was pointing out these problems and if if we're led to believe and with the patriots you don't know really what you can believe but like think about some of the stuff that's happened brady doing that hulu ad is kind of messed up but he did it because he wanted to mess with people and not mess with a fan base that loves him for 20 years but mess with guys that clearly aren't treating him with the level of respect he feels that he deserves and you can sit here and it's hard to argue against the Belichick tenure and the viciousness

of his decisions, but you'd think at least there was one guy that you would talk with. It doesn't even seem like that's happened. Like Field Yates, who used to work for the Patriots, okay? Daddy SPN basically tells us that they made an offer in August of last year. Brady didn't like it, took the year, had the clause in there that they couldn't franchise him, that he'd be a straight up free agent for this off season. And then Brady's like, where are we at? And they go, where's your counter? And he's like, what are you talking about? And they're like, well, the offer we made in 2019 in August. And it's like, you're really going to do that to Brady. And by the way, when the cap

goes up basically 10 million every year and you get like a 5% get out of jail free card and you can move the numbers around as much as you want, like cap space is almost always there if you want to make it happen. And the fact that they've gotten him at this massive discount for these years, which doesn't really make any sense. And let's face it, as he gets older, he needs a little bit more help. And they haven't wanted to do that with the weapons because Belichick's bad with receivers. He's just terrible at it. So it's hard to ever argue against Bill's thing, but I cannot emphasize this enough. If you are somebody who is great, but yet there's somebody that allowed you, brought you in and maybe was the origin of your greatness, the person that kind of found you and made you into who you are is always going to think of you from that entry point.

And there comes a time for the next person, a guy like Brady, who's like, look, thanks for everything, but Jesus Christ, man, like I'm awesome. Think about what I've just done. And they outgrow the way you think about them. And when it comes to athletes and alphas and all of that stuff, this feels more and more like Brady leading up to going, yeah, I'm fine. If you seriously are going to do this, I'm going to bounce. And it may be a temporary satisfaction, but it might be something that Tom's never felt before. But I still can't believe he'd want to start all over again somewhere else. I think that was really well put. And I actually agree with all of it, except you left out one piece. Belichick for 20 years has not paid for past performance. Yeah. And I think this does feel like a game of

chicken now. Because I think Brady, he wanted to create the drama of this whole thing. I do feel like he's filming a documentary or something. He's capturing this in some way. I don't think it was a coincidence that last week he announced his new production company.

Absolutely. Absolutely. To this. Absolutely. Leading the week before we're going to find out where he lands. And I do think he's enjoying this whole, I might go look at this. Now my suitcases are packed up my hands on the, on the doorknob now. And I do think there's going to come a point where if Tampa, Tampa can kind of steal this now, if that's the team where they can be like, we got Mike Evans, we got Chris Godwin,

decent coach and, you know, division's not too overwhelming and we're going to overpay you. We're going to pay you 70 million for two years. All cash. We'll guarantee the entire contract. Here it is. And I just don't think Belichick's going to match that. That would defy every single decision he's made over the last 20 years. He's always walked away one to three years earlier than he should have with a player.

Every time. And I think he was ready to do it with Brady. Well, he was with the garoppolo thing like that's the one time you go did craft step in here and i've been told and i know you have too right like been told that craft kind of stepped in and was like look this this garoppolo transition isn't happening right now and and trust me bill like i think you feel the same way on this one this is not an anti-belichick thing it's really hard to go hey bill you know that like your whole philosophy that you've executed a perfection here

for two decades and done something that just isn't supposed to happen i'd like you to not follow that like right don't do the opposite do the thing that everybody else does that you've preached consistency on but i just i mean unless he's in the film room going brady's more shot than we want to believe but i i don't understand the nickel and diming with him but i also will admit like any of us that assumes we know every piece of the inner workings of a belichick brady and patriots deal like we'd be making a mistake there too but i you know tom kern is pretty good on this stuff seemed to tip not tip his hand but he was basically leading in the direction of like hey this guy's probably out of here and you know i had kern on the pod here with the ringer not that

long ago and you know i don't know we'll see what happens but trying to read this from the outside is probably a mistake but i mean i just was saying all that stuff and laying it out there like you cannot underestimate ego and going all right maybe i'm going to do something that isn't great but fuck this if these guys are going to mess with me i would say it's i'm going to do that to you. A couple years. It'll hurt my feelings. I'm going to be like, look, Ryan, I don't pay for past performance. I do feel like...

I do feel like Belichick... Belichick really, really, really, really, really cares about his principles. You know? Why wouldn't he, right? And until this year, Brady, it always seemed like they could nudge and push him

and get whatever they needed out of him to help them with the cap because they were always waving over him these Super Bowl ranks. If you do this, it gives us a better chance to win and it'll get better for your legacy and do that whole thing and and it doesn't seem like that's working anymore i think brady's good now i think he's good with his legacy now he's just like you know what this is about respect now for me and this documentary i'm filming so it's all going to be hilarious when he goes back to the patriots i'm like wow that worked he he roped us in for two months. We've talked about it in eight different podcasts.

But I guess we'll find out. We'll find out in the next 48 hours. I legitimately believe he's bothered by all of this stuff. And rightfully so. Because every order... I mean, imagine if he played for the Cowboys. Jerry, give him $100 million. Yeah, I agree.

And for those that are wondering where Dak's money is, Dak has already been offered a ton of million. And Dak is is betting on himself he's going to kind of reset the average annual salary and I think he'll be able to get it now with a 200 million dollar salary cap can I say this before we leave yeah if you really have this time to yourself learn an instrument maybe even the trumpet Your neighbors won't be upset about it. Wouldn't that be amazing? Like, no, but you could, there's drum kits out there

that you can figure out how to play that are all soundproof now. One of my favorite lines ever from the Sopranos is when Chris, Christopher Maltesani, when they're talking about like maybe getting out of the racket and he goes to Adrian, he's like,

maybe now I can stop my fucking memoirs um you have if you're if you're somebody who's always wanted to be creative in the face of this tragedy you would be given you're given like right now in just an unprecedented amount of time to explore that and figure that part out and i would i would urge you if you've been thinking about doing any of that kind of stuff to, uh, to try to, even though I know if with families and everything, it's going to be tough, not all of you guys, but some of you out there, um, you know, try to try to turn it into a positive if you can and stay healthy and stay safe. Uh, Rossello talk to you next week. We can hear in your podcast. I'll be back at least on Tuesday and with a couple of rewatchables as well. Thanks for listening. All right. Thanks so much to Zipcruiter. Thanks to Kyle Creighton,

who engineered and produced this podcast. And we were not in the same place. It was kind of sad. We decided to do a little social distancing. It was weird to do a pod without Kyle in the room, hearing his little giggle from time to time. But these are the times we're living in right now. Stay safe out there, everybody. Seriously. And we'll have some more podcasts on this feed and on the Rewatchables feed this week. Not to mention TheRinger.com, Ringer Podcast Network, Rosillo's feed, everything else. Just listen to pods, watch TV, watch movies, eat some frozen pizza, relax, hang out.

Let's try to get through all this. Talk to you soon. On the wayside I'm a bruised soul I never was And I don't have To ever forget