The Bill Simmons Podcast - San Antonio Gets Fox, Luka-Lakers Day Two Angles, and Super Bowl Props With Kirk Goldsberry and Cousin Sal

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Kirk Goldsberry to discuss another big trade, which sends De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs and Zach LaVine to the Kings (2:32), and more thoughts from last night's blockbuster Luka Doncic–Anthony Davis trade (22:29). Then Bill joins up with Cousin Sal to run through their many Super Bowl LIX prop bets (1:11:10) before closing the show with Parent Corner (2:00:25). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Cousin Sal and Kirk Goldsberry Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, second part of the weekend. Let's talk more Luka. Let's talk Super Bowl props next. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. You know, Amazon Prime is not just a shipping subscription, right? Amazon Prime isn't just one thing, but a collection of excellent services. Amazon Prime offers a range of services, including Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Prime Fast Free Shipping.

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If you missed it, Ryan Rosillo, Rob Mahoney and I at samsung.com. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. If you missed it, Ryan Rosillo, Rob Mone and I, on Saturday night, out of nowhere, Luca Donchich gets traded to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and other stuff, and we just hopped right on. We did a podcast. You can find it on YouTube

on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. You can find it on Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. This is the second podcast of the week. We'll get to that in a second. Don't forget, Super Bowl 59 is happening. It's all happening on Feindel, too. You can opt in and bet on a player to score an anytime touchdown.

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So remember, Sal and I come in later with our annual Super Bowl props. We did not expect that to be the second segment on this podcast, because I'm bringing in Kurt Goldsberry. There's just some extra stuff since that trade happened last night. We're reacting to that trade in real time.

Now it's Sunday afternoon, PT, and we've learned a lot, we've read a lot, we've heard a lot, we've talked to some people, and we're gonna lay down a second set of thoughts, a day removed from the most shocking trade, I think, in NBA history. So, Kurt Goldsberry next, then Cousins Salad doing Super Bowl props first. Once again, our friends from Pearl Jam

All right, Kirk Goldsbearer is here. We are taping this a little before six o'clock PT on Sunday night. I invited Kirk to talk about day two of the Luka Dantric Lakers trade because we covered it last night. A whole bunch more to discuss, more meat on the bone. But as we were preparing to the pot, of course, there was another major trade. That included a team Kirk used to work for the San Antonio Spurs, Fox to the Spurs, Levine to Sacramento with some picks. Chicago basically gets their 2025 pick back and take some, some contracts. And the headline Kirk is that San Antonio did not give up a lot for deer and Fox. So why?

They're in a different regime But I think they're in they're officially now built in and try to win mode Which is sort of a big paradigm shift for the San Antonio Spurs that have been in rebuild mode But now there's a try to win mode. I think this is the symbolic threshold of a team that's ready to compete. Okay, so why didn't they give up more picks to get Deere and Fox, who I had like number 20 on my trade value list? Because I didn't have to, was the short answer. They gave up some draft capital, obviously. I think those are some nice picks they gave up, but I expected maybe to see Devin Vassell's name, maybe see Jeremy Sohan's

name. I think, yeah, you're right. The headline is that none of those guys as, as we have right now are included in this deal. So they kept Wemby Fox. They added Vassell Castle, who I think was a non-starter. Sohan Harrison Barnes, Kelton Johnson, CP3, Champena. Pretty nice nine. Now CP3 coming off the bench, maybe playing with Fox.

We've seen CP3. In OKC he was playing with Schroeder and with SGA. Like he weirdly knows how to play with other small guards. If I'm a Spurs fan, I'm out of my mind that this was the trade. Because they gave up the 27 Spurs first. I don't care. I have Wemby. I'm going to be one of the best 10 teams in the league in 27. They gave up the 2031 Minnesota first, which hurts. That might be a real pick. They got this, um, they gave up this 20,

25 Charlotte pick that is basically one through 14 protected and it's going to turn into two seconds and Sacramento gets two first five seconds and they get Zach Levine, who I think we both really liked this year. I actually think he's an asset. I love it. But again, they don't have a North star. The Sacramento Kings have been like this my whole life. I don't know what they're trying to do.

Now they've reunited the great DeRozan Levine duo. They reunited in eight seed for multiple years from the East. But the East Coast eight seed is back for vengeance. This time. Vuch has to be feeling left out. Come on guys, we could have gone 43 and 39 together. Why am I still in Chicago? Yeah, for me, the story here is in San Antonio, Bill.

The Spurs have a sort of a stopgap point guard in Chris Paul, who's been great. Harrison Barnes has been great. Harrison Barnes has been great. But this is a player in Fox that is a young, great offensive weapon that I think will pair very well with Victor Wambanyama. This is a team that I think was going to have a very high defensive ceiling just because of Victor for years to come.

But the offense was the question mark. This helps them address that. And now I think it's like, we have Victor at the five, we have Fox at the one, let's surround two, three, and four with defense and shooting. I think there's a clear team building project in front of them that they are thrilled to have. It's a pretty simple problem now as opposed to a bigger problem. Yeah. And they still have a bunch of picks. They have the two, three, four spots, a lot of length, some potential shooting. Although they haven't been shooting the ball this year, but ultimately you're

hoping there's going to be some shooting and, uh, and they protected their nucleus and they still have another trade to make. I still feel like the only, the only, no way they're trading these guys on the spurs would be Wemby, now Fox, and Castle. And everyone else is still in play for me. And they have contracts they can put together. They're not gonna trade for Jimmy Butler, but if, you know, he was a little more enticing,

that's the type of trade. Maybe they could trade for Luka Dacic if he fails his physical in the Lakers, and it turns out he's 290 pounds. But this is an awesome trade for them. In my head, this was a four or five firsts and probably Sohan or Vasell in it. Seemed like that was it. But I guess if you're the Spurs, you're like, look man, we're not giving up a lot for this dude.

He wants to come here anyway. He's from Texas. We'll just get him in a year and a half. So we can do this now and you'll get some stuff or we'll just wait. We're on no rush. We're not gonna win the title. One thing Eddie Johnson said in my pod on Thursday

I thought was a great ex-basketball point was about Fox as a lefty with Wemby as a righty versus Fox as a lefty with Sabonis as a lefty, which I thought was cool. But I liked the idea of Fox, you know, not great when players push their way out of a team, but you know, he gave him a heads up. I'm not going to resign here. He's been pretty clear about that for the whole season. He picks San Antonio. He picks this whole Wemby circus that will become a circus in a good way because you're attaching yourself to one of the generational superstars in the league. You fit in nicely with him.

Now you throw those lobs. That's a righty as Eddie was pointing out. And, uh, it just feels like an incredible career move for Fox. It really does. It's like, wow, I totally get what you're thinking here. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, obviously we had the big piece on Victor on the Ringer last week.

I went all in on this guy. And then he had a great game in Paris right after, so I felt good. But everybody around the league is seeing the same thing that we are, Bill. De'Aaron Fox among them. This is a superstar. And the Ringer 100 100 he's gone from

number 67 to number six in less than two years, you had him as the number one trade value asset in the league. Do you agree with that? Of course. I mean, he's 21, he's a 25 point a game score and he's the best defender in the league and he's, this is the worst Victor will ever see as his famous quote about himself. And he's not just the best defender in the league and he's, this is the worst Victor will ever see is his famous quote about himself. And he's not just the best defender in the league. He's decidedly the best defender in the league already.

He absolutely disrupts and devastates games with his defense and really fucks teams up already. There was a sequence in Paris at the end of the third quarter that I'd ask everybody to go watch at the first pacer's game in Paris where Victor blocked four shots in a row. One was a goaltend and then he made a three, threw a lob and caught a lob on the other end of the court and that was just like, all right, that's crazy. That's what Deere and Fox is seeing. That's what everybody else is seeing. This dude is only getting better. And I think the Spurs are really excited today to have another piece in place,

another All-Star level piece for the future to build an offense specifically, Bill, around a guy who, and I think this is your turn, looks like a giraffe on ice a little bit sometimes, on offense. Darren Fox is gonna take care of some of that and they can grow together. And is there a better, just a lob game than Fox and Wembe? I love it. I don't know if Fox is on a, if this is going to be like a Chicago Bulls run for

Wembe someday or a Lakers run or, you know, a Kobe Gasol run or a 2010s Warriors run. I'm not sure. Fox to me seems more like a Clay Thompson, Draymond Green level star. He's not like a true number two. He's not the Kobe to Shaq, something like that. It still feels like there's room for them to get one more awesome wing. And then that's the threesome. Wemby, awesome wing, Fox. and they have two years to figure it out.

They're not going to win the title this year. They're not going to win the title next year, but they have the pieces to figure this out. And as we're seeing now, not just with Fox, Wemby is becoming a seductive spot in San Antonio for if you're a player that wants to win, that wants to kind of be along for the ride for some titles and some playoff appearances and a place with no state tax, a really good organization, it becomes pretty enticing. So here's the small market model working.

Well, yeah, and I wrote this in the Webby piece, but there's like two guys under, you know, 26 in the, in the ringer top 100s, top 10 rankings. Victor Wembenyama is by far the youngest and the other one is Luka Doncic, who is about to be 26, right? So, I mean, Wemby has, he's gonna be Doncic's age in 2029, I wrote, which is just crazy.

Just think about how much time he has to get better. And look, yeah, he is there. He's going to be this great player. I don't want to sort of belabor the point, but this is a deal that the Spurs, they don't make a lot of trades. They don't do this kind of thing historically. So this is a big deal for them, and I'm sure they're, they're pretty happy with it. They didn't, like I said, I think the other headline is they didn't give up Castle. They didn't give up the cell.

That didn't give up so on. And they still have Atlanta's pick this year, which is, is looking really good. Well, by the way, how is that picked out in this trade? Cause Jaylen Johnson just goes out and that Atlanta pick is going to be somewhere probably between nine and 14 in a really loaded draft. Maybe even better than that. I would have wanted that one. Atlanta is is cratering right now. Unsurprisingly without Jalen. So yeah, I think they're in really good shape and you know, nobody's

nobody's truly surprised by that. But this is the kind of move that a pop organization hadn't typically made. This is a team that builds through the draft, through savvy free agency signings, doesn't usually go after a big trade piece like this. So it's a big deal for the San Antonio Spurs. I'm just relieved that,

and we got some of it with Chris Paul this year, but I am a big, if you have a big guy, you have to have a good or very good point guard that can take care of them. If I have a good eater in my house, I want to have a good chef to cook for the, if I have a hall of fame eater in my house, not going to go to the crappy grocery store, I want real meals for my guy. Um, Sacramento now has a team of Sabonis, Levine, DeRozan, Malik Monk, Keegan Murray, basically as the, I guess the crunch time five.

I guess that means some Monk playing, playing some point, DeRozan having the ball. This is just turning into a let's just play our best five guys together. They don't really have another point guard. Maybe they'll try to get one. Maybe they can try to flip an ass and something. But it's just a weird team. And you mentioned earlier, it's a directionless team.

It's a team. When we worked at Grantland together 10 years ago, we got a lot of comedy out of, they took Stauskas. What was that with the eighth pick? And it was that video of Vivek going around the table like Stauskas, Stauskas going around and we all got a kick out of that. They've just been in train wreck forever. Really since 2000, it's been 20 years of this. Then two years ago, they get the two seed, light the beams happening. They got a little something with

Sabonis and Fox together and it feels like they're on the right way. And this year they fire their coach, they bring in Doug Christie, they start winning a couple games. It's like, whoa, okay, feeling good again. And then Fox has that trade request and it craters everything again.

They lost by 180 points to OKC yesterday and became clear something was going to happen. What would you tell Kings fan? It feels like the same old thing to me, Bill. The West has been brutal since we've been covering basketball together. You're looking at teams like Memphis, Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio for the foreseeable future, not to mention the LA Lakers. Luca Edwards. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just, okay, what are you trying to do to get past teams like that? So it's not a slight against the Kings, but it is, do you really think this is going to beat the Grizzlies or the Rockets or the Thunder. I don't see that with the team built around Demar DeRose and Zach Levine. And it was a cool story when they were like... Because we've already seen it. That's right.

Yeah. I think you're right. Because we have seen it. So bonus playing with those guys is a fun wrinkle. I mean, the right kind of sophisticated offensive coach could probably have fun with this team. I'm not sure Doug Christie's our guy for that. And if I'm a Sacramento fan, I'm just bummed.

I'm bummed that we didn't get the Atlanta pick. I'm bummed I didn't get at least three firsts. I'm bummed I didn't at least get, I don't know, so hand back something. Could we have turned Keegan Murray into them? Vasell, you know, makes the spurs. We just didn't get any of it. And then from the Chicago side, you know, this is the, the, this is the Reinsdorf

middle, that's what they call it. Can we be between 36 and 44 wins every year? Can we have the illusion of hope? I think in their case, like that team's not a contender. I wanted to see Bud Zelas play more. I actually like him. Yeah, you like him. They had to carve out some minutes for him.

They got their first round pick back. I would assume the next move is Vucovic. Yep. Being traded somewhere. Maybe they moved Josh Gidey, I don't know, but it would seem like this is a move toward let's now finish in the bottom 10 in the league and try to get another good pick. Right. Yeah. And I think they reclaimed their own pick, which is great. Um, so they can be there, but yeah, Vuchovic has some value on the market.

I know teams like Phoenix or Golden State have been looking for shooting bigs. Uh, and he, he, he matches that description. This guy is one of the best jump shooting bigs. Defensively, he leaves a lot to be desired. But I think he's, he's a good player. And I wouldn't be surprised to see, you know, by the end of this week that he's, he's playing in a different uniform. So when you say a lot to be desired,

you mean because he doesn't play defense? I think his nickname was Layup Line, if I'm not mistaken. But I might be mistaken on that. You're being kind. I like how you are cutting guys down sometimes in the nicest possible way. He leaves a little to be desired.

Is he a guy you could maybe score 70 points against in the right game? Yes, he is. Anyway, Chicago now we can add them to the whole, to the capture the flag sweepstakes, try to get in there. Last thing I'll say and then we can move on to the Luka trade,

because I really have other stuff I wanna say about Luka and everything that happened. This interesting moment for Darren Fox. We see these guys call their shot, these guys that push their way to another team. They're usually about half a level higher than Darren Fox or they have some sort of playoff pedigree like in Jimmy Butler's case. In this case, he doesn't have it. I think he's a player we've all thought was really talented. He's about to hit his late twenties. We've seen him in the playoffs.

You know, he didn't leap out in any great way. There's not some, it's not like some Anthony Davis that one year in the playoffs when he just laid waste to the Blazers. He doesn't have any of that. And I think we all think he's really good, but now this spotlight is completely different. You're playing in Sacramento, you're buried, you're just another team in the West with all these famous players and teams. Now you're playing with the most famous international player that this league's gonna have.

And it's a different level of scrutiny and everything. Yeah, and it should be symbiotic. These guys should make each other better. Yeah. And it should be symbiotic. These guys should make each other better. Uh, the Aaron Fox's strengths should play into Victor Wemba-Yama's strengths and vice versa. Yeah. The dude is, you know, lightning. He's one of the faster players with the ball in his hand in the league. Do you think the Spurs want to play like that? I think when you have him, you have to.

Are they going to want to push and run and go? Is Wemba going to want to do that? I mean, the first pass you look for, Victor Rumbayama gets a defensive rebound. Now that first pass is, okay, can he get Fox at mid court on this sort of Bill Walton style outlet pass, or, you know, this Kevin Love over, yeah. So I think when you have Randy Moss, you throw the ball deep.

And I think when you get this, this is not Chris Paul, right? Like they've been playing with Chris Paul. He I think when you get this, this is not Chris Paul, right? Like they've been playing with Chris Paul. He's slowing everything down. Yeah, cause he's old. Yeah. In a good way for him, but you know.

So I think they will play fast. And I think, you know, Victor at the five is one of the more, you know, agile five men in the league. So I think they will, you'll see that pace number creep up in San Antonio. You have a bunch of young guys now, so I think they will play to his strengths and he should get some easy buckets, you know, when we block the shot. And he's a crunch time guy for them too, would be the other piece.

Crunch time. Yeah, for sure. Um, the shooting has always been his, his, his challenge, but like, if you look at his free throw number, which is what us nerds look at, it's great. He shoots 80% from the free throw line. That should be a 40% three-point shooter. It just hasn't been there. I'd love to see him as he goes into sort of his late 20s,

become a 37, 38, 40% three-point shooter. He hasn't done that yet. And that's the thing that could take him over the top and make this a triumph for the Spurs. But he has, he has a lot of potential here. And you're right. It's a, it's a laser focus for him. Crunch time Fox, Castle, Vasell, maybe Sohan, Wemby. It's a pretty good defensive team. It's not gonna make a lot of threes.

They're gonna be some bad shots, but defensively that's a pretty interesting team. And you'd probably, I guess, target Fox and go after him and try to put him in pick and rolls. But other than that, those are all guys that I think would be in pretty good shape. Anyway, interesting trade. Anytime you can get San Antonio, Sacramento, and the mediocre Bulls together for a three-teamer, you just thank your lucky stars.

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All right, Kurt Goldsberry, you're sitting home on a Saturday night. Luca Dacic is being traded to the Lakers. What's your immediate reaction? Like everybody else, this is hacked. It's embarrassing for Shams. I can't believe that the, uh, the hacker didn't come up with a realistic trade. Right.

This, if the, if only the hacker had come up with a realistic trade, this would have been a masterpiece. Put Reeves in it, put Reeves in the 2031 first and a swap. And then I might think this happened. Literally. That's my reaction. Um, I think it says it all that everybody I know legitimately thought this was a hack,

and now are like digging into David Stern style conspiracy theories, trying to rationalize it afterwards. Those are the two points. When it happened, this guy got hacked. After it happened, this is a conspiracy theory. What explains this in reality? Shocked.

I mean, count me among the people, Bill. This is the biggest, craziest NBA trade of my life. Uh, this crazy thing. I was saying that last night to Rossella Mahoney, just we're reacting in the moment. I had some time to sit with it. I'm like, this is definitely the craziest NBA trade. There's never been anything like this.

There's never been an inkling. I'm going to walk you through. I came up with the six levels of massive NBA trades, and I'm using mostly the 21st century trades as a litmus test. Cause I was really trying to figure out, has there been a crazier trade than this level one big deal, but we definitely had an inkling. So that's like I ever said to Denver, Carmelo to the Knicks, Chris Paul to the Clippers, even Kevin Love to the Cavs. Big deal, but we knew we had a feeling and it wasn't like massive and we weren't going to be telling our grandkids where we heard the news.

Kyrie to the Boston, et cetera, et cetera. Level two, big deal, immediately one sided and stupid. So it's a trade, you maybe add an inkling, but then you see and you're like, wait, what? That's all they got. So that's like Vince Carter to the Jersey, T Mac to the Rockets, Joe Johnson to the Hawks, Hearted to Houston's a great one for this.

Go Bear to the T Wolves are like, wait, what? What happened? That's level two. Level three is the big deal out of nowhere that you feel like something tilted. That's Jason Kidd for Stefan Marbury in 2001. It's like, Whoa, those guys might be the two best point guards in the league. They just traded them for each other. Uh, Gasol to the Lakers, Darren Williams to Utah, where he had a feeling wasn't going great there.

And all of a sudden they're trading them for Derek favors and two firsts. And it was like, Whoa. But then we move into this next level, level four, the mega deal, but we knew something was coming. So that's like Shaq to Miami. That's KG to the Celtics. That's Anthony Davis to the Lakers, hard into the nets, Durant to the sons. We had a feeling.

We knew, but it was still like, holy shit, that's a monster trade. Then you go to level five, the Mega Deal out of nowhere. This is where it gets pretty rare. That's Paul George to the Clippers. We know Kawhi's picking back and forth between Lakers, Clippers the whole week. We don't see the Paul George piece. Now all of a sudden they're on the same team and they're trading Shade Jilgis Alexander, Danilo Gowinari, four firsts, two swaps and another protected pick and we're just like, what happened?

And I think that was the biggest shocking trade at least this century until we get to level six last night. What the fuck just happened? Did the reporter get hacked? It's never happened before. This is the first, did the reporter get hacked? Megatrade. So you go backwards to the seventies, eighties, like will to the Lakers, cream to the Lakers. They, every time we had a feeling, maybe somebody that a guy was available, but you talked to a bunch of NBA teams. Had you heard Luca was available? It was even conceivable.

Hell no. Okay. Hell no. I talked to people who were involved with. Had you heard Luka was available? It was even conceivable. Hell no. Okay. Hell no. I talked to people who were involved with this deal. I had no idea. This was possible. And I think you had them fourth in the trade value. Yeah.

Generally when anybody's, I would like to do a historical analysis of what's the highest person on that list that's ever been moved. Like, well, so a good way to somebody sent this to me that Bob McAdoo is the only real comparison we can ever do who was around the same age range. He'd won the MVP twice all NBA guy. And it's the only one that's even in the ballpark of, from a talent resume standpoint already, but in that case, they were trying to save money

and they basically sold them to the Knicks. What about Kareem out of Milwaukee? Like that reminds me of this too. It's like Moses Malone, but that, but those, like, we knew those guys were getting traded. Those guys were like, trade me or I'm going to do fragility. Moses Malone signed with Philly and they had to then come up with a deal. So that's like the caliber of dudes. Davis is another one in 2019 with the Lakers.

We knew that though. Not like this where the guy didn't know he was getting traded. This has never happened. Yeah. Nobody knew that this dude was on the market, which to me is the legacy of this deal. And it actually helps explain it now 24 hours later to me is that the Dallas Mavericks valued Anthony Davis as much as Luka Doncic. Say what you want about that assessment. is that the Dallas Mavericks valued Anthony Davis as much as Luka Doncic. Say what you want about that assessment, but that is the only justification or rationalization

that explains how we got here right now, Bill, because they only called one team, which you and Rosillo and Mahoney did a great job of calling out that part of this. They really were zeroed in on getting Anthony Davis to their team. And I disagree with that assessment. I think most people around the NBA wildly disagree with the assessment, but that is

the only explanation of how we got here today that the Nico Harrison looked at Anthony Davis and says, I want that as much as I want. Luca Donchich. Yeah. People I've talked to reading stuff, hearing stuff. It really seems like this starts in the finals last year when Boston kicks their ass and Lucas defense is a problem. finals last year when Boston kicks their ass and Lucas' defense is a problem.

And I think kid was just like, we, we're never going to win the title unless this guy takes a little more seriously on the other end and gets in a better shape. Right. That's so that's something they're talking about internally all the time. Comes into this season, still not an awesome shape gets hurt, gets hurt again. still not in awesome shape, gets hurt, gets hurt again. And you have Polinka and Nico Harrison, who have this whole crazy long relationship together. Like these were two, two of the guys they, Kobe was the closest to, so they've known each other

like from the height of the Kobe era. And they just start talking and they're reporting all said, they started talking in the beginning of January and they've been talking ever since. And I think it's a masterful job by Polinka to convince Nico not to shop them. Now, if you're going to be fair to Nico, they're going to trade Luca. They know what they wanted. They wanted a big guy.

There's no other big guy that they could have traded him for. Right. So if you're going to make calls, you're calling Milwaukee for Yannis and you're calling Boston for Tatum. So when people talk about how do you not shop them around, they feel like, like Nico said in the press conference, whether you agree with it or not. They felt like they have a team that has a chance to win the title. They wanted to add somebody who could help them win the title this year.

So that rules out basically everyone in the league and brings you to Tatum and Yannis and they didn't call Boston, they didn't call Milwaukee. Now, if they called Milwaukee and said, do you have any interest in trading for Yannis and Milwaukee's or do you have any interest in trading Yannis? And Milwaukee said, I mean, the only way we'd ever even consider doing that is if Luca was on the table and then Nico goes, well, hold on, what are you thinking? And then you kind of stumble into it, but they didn't make the calls. Luca was on the table and then Nico goes, well, hold on. What are you thinking? And then you kind of stumble into it, but they didn't make the calls.

It's staggering that remains and will always be the staggering part of this transaction. And I think when the dust settles, that's the biggest question that Nico Harrison is going to have to answer to for years is sure. You reach the conclusion internally. Again, I'm not justifying this, but they reached the conclusion internally that we do not want to pay this person $350 million. We don't think his calf is going to hold up. We don't think his body is going to hold up. We don't think his nutrition is good. Whatever.

They reached the conclusion that they're out. That's part one. And Nico said, we felt like we were heading toward a tumultuous summer that we couldn't avoid, so we're trying to get out of this now. Which leads me to believe they, maybe they were split internally on paying him? Or the ownership is involved.

And I had one executive experience, me like this. The why is pretty clear. They didn't want to be in the business of Luca Doncic long-term. They think he's more like Joellen Bede than the rest of us. They think that this is a big long-term risk and they don't want that Joellen Bede albatross contract hanging over their cap table for the next whatever, five, six years. But you reach that point and I think Ryan did a great job with this too.

Okay, now what is the process? The how is the problem. We can disagree with the why, but the how they executed this is the problem. You have a generational trade asset. You have to canvas the league. You have to cast the wide net. You have to get two or, you have to cast a wide net, you have to get two

or three parties negotiating against each other to get the best deal. You're trading Herschel Walker, dude. You got to get the dynasty coming back to Dallas. You got to get all those offensive line, all those Vikings pricks for those of us of a certain age. And they didn't do that, dude. That's going to be the thing he has to answer to for the next few years. I was talking to my wife about it last night after we did the podcast.

And she was just like, I don't understand why they traded Luca. Wasn't he in the finals? Like she knows nothing. She doesn't care. And I was like, yeah, they just, you know, they just felt like, I guess they didn't want to pay him. I still don't know anything. And she, and she goes, well, did they did they they try to trade him to other teams?

Was that the best trade? And I was like no they just had one team and she's like that's weird, right? Like she she was just like trying I was trying to explain it to her Like she was like a little kid in elementary school. It's like yeah, usually Usually when you're shopping a guy you tell the other teams and then one of the funniest things I got this morning was one of my friends was like, Dallas is the team in your fantasy league that they just trade and you fucking lose your mind and everyone's on email threads arguing about it because they can't believe they wasn't chopped.

And that's basically what Dallas did here. A couple of kickers though, with this, that makes me wonder if maybe the general public has completely overrated the talent in this trade or were, or these two teams are just insane. Dallas put in a second round pick. So we're sitting there going, how is Max Christie in this trade instead of Austin Reeves? How is their 2031 first not in there? Why wasn't there like three years of swaps?

And as Rosilla made the joke last night, which was great, about Poincare like holding firm on the 31 pick, like the deal was going to go away. It was even crazier than that. He's like, not on my own firm. Give me a second round pick. And he got it. So that's how bad the Mavs, A A wanted to get rid of Luca, I guess, and B wanted Anthony Davis. Yeah. And there's a week long process. One of my sources inside the Lakers was indicating that the deal was bigger.

And I think you guys were literally joking about this last night, that there were two firsts and there was Dalton Connect. And the deal got whittled down because I think Rob Polenko was able to convince the Dallas Mavericks that Luca is a lot of risk. You guys are right for trying to look at this this way because this guy, oh, he's drinking, there's whatever, his weight problem, whatever it is. So they were able to convince it.

This was a weeks's long process. That's another thing that came out today is this wasn't, this was, Oh, and Dallas started it, dude. This is, this fell in Rob Polinka's lap. And then he was able to reduce the outward Lakers assets to such dude, Mikhail Bridges commanded five first round picks. Well, so the thing with Polinka, I've just been marveling at,

he's like a character out of a succession or something. He is over and over again, figured out how to blame whoever was coaching the Lakers for whatever was wrong with them over any of his moves, right? The Westbrook trade, like he could point all these different things at point-cup, but he always survives. And then he somehow Jedi mind tricks Nico Harrison with this Davis thing and talks to him for three weeks,

convinces him not to shop him anywhere else. Now, no, if you're going to trade Luca, like it has to be for Davis. Who else in the league would it be? You have to get an all defensive center back. If you're going to trade Luca, like it has to be for Davis. Who else in the league would it be? You have to get an all defensive center back. Like you're going to shop them like Milwaukee. Luca's not going to go to Milwaukee. Like Milwaukee is not going to trade Giannis for him because.

Luca's never going to sign there. They know that Boston loves Tatum. They're not turning Tatum into Luca. They love Tatum. That's their guy. Like, so now it's like bam out of bio. Like you can't trade Luca for Bam out of bio. It's got to be Anthony Davis.

So he's just like, like kind of tilting it so that Nico's like, yeah, you're right. I guess you guys are the only suitor and it worked. The other thing is they think this team is going to win. They think that the Kyrie Clay Thompson, Anthony Davis trio is a big three. They think that. They can't think that. They think they're going to win. Otherwise they wouldn't have done it.

But I think the only way again, that you can explain why they would only call the Lakers is they wanted Anthony Davis. They started off this process. Hey, we think we can get Anthony Davis and Nico has this preexisting relationship with Anthony Davis. And Jason Kidd has this preexisting relationship with Anthony Davis and Jason kid has this preexisting relationship with Anthony Davis in the Lakers and Again, I don't agree with these things But I like everybody spent the whole day trying to understand how this could have gone and how they only called one organization

And it's one of the like they want a tough defensive team, right? So they're thinking we can run our offense through Kyrene AD. We have a bunch of shooters and tough defenders, and we could actually hang in the West in a real way if those two guys are healthy. They might not necessarily be wrong, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't trade Luke Gdachin. I think they're gonna be pretty good this year.

I'm not gonna say this is a disaster. No, they're going to have real size with the two centers and Davis. They have wings that can play D. They have Kyrie who's a crunch time guy. Oh, this is a pretty big offensive burden for him, but I can see how you talk to yourself into this, except for the part that you're giving up a generational talent who's having one of the first seven years of his career. There's only four other guys in the history of the league.

Wilt, LeBron, who are the other two? Wilt, LeBron, Kareem. Magic. No, there's one other one. But anyway, that are on this, oh, Oscar Robertson. That have the first seven years that Luca had in the history of the league. We're talking almost 80 years.

Yeah, Stephen Curry hasn't made first team all NBA as much as Luca has. It's crazy. Stephen Curry took him three years to even become Stephen Curry, right? Luca immediately and he made Western finals and finals. So I'm gonna run through a couple of things I'm gonna throw at you.

Just from reading, listening, talking to people. A couple of the narratives that didn't pass the sniff test for me or just things that I didn't hit yesterday that I wanted to. The first one, the AD and LeBron and Clutch being blindsided by this trade, having no idea that it was in the works, finding out like we all did after the fact. As you know, I'm a, I'm a conspiracy guy. I'm a sniff test guy.

This does not pass the sniff test for me for this reason. Buried in all of this stuff was Anthony Davis waved his trade kicker to go to Dallas. Yep. And he did it pretty quickly. So you have Anthony Davis blindsided by the trade who loves Los Angeles, who's in his little clutch triangle with LeBron and Rich Paul and out of nowhere gets traded in Dallas. And he's so upset about it that he decides to forgo $5.9 million and wave his trade kicker, money he's entitled to. And he's like, I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. Forget it. I want to help you guys out. It just doesn't pass the sniff test for me.

LeBron James, same thing. LeBron, you would think he took, would take this so personally. You trade my guy. This is my hand pointed sidekick. You got to trade me now quietly today. It's like, nah, he's going to be here after the trade deadline. And then clutch, same thing. Shams has a relationship with clutch. Shams gets the scoop. I just think they knew before the trade and I, I, I wouldn't get my life on it, but that would be my bet.

Yeah. I think the idea that this traveled in silence the whole time. It's absurd. It's a lot. It's absurd. Uh, now that we know it's been since January 7th, it's absurd. It's a lot. It's absurd. Now that we know it's been since January 7th, it's absurd. That's right. That's what I learned today too,

is that this was a month long process and the idea that this was as quiet, it is hard to believe, particularly the way that Klutch and LeBron have inserted themselves into Lakers basketball operations. And I agree with you that the idea that Anthony was so quick to wave that thing. That's the big deal.

And seems kind of fired up to go to Dallas, which this is why I wanted to do a second day pod. It raises a bunch of questions for me. It's like, you seem pretty pumped about this. You're not sticking them with the trade kicker and you seem like you like where you're going and you have this long relationship with Nico Harrison and you're getting away from the Lakers and and you seem like you like where you're going and you have this long relationship with Nico Harrison and you're getting away from the Lakers and maybe you feel like you're selling high and your Laker experience, you won a

title LeBron's 40 years old. Eh, new challenge Dallas. Maybe I'll be the guy there in Texas. Just seems like if he, if he was pissed about it, you're making them pay the 5.9 and he didn't. Yeah, that's a great point. It's also a big compliment. I think when he all said this last night that he is the piece for Luka Dacic and I think that's almost flattering to a point.

Right. That they had to throw in a second round pick from Dallas' side just to get this done. And there's some intel that intel that Anthony was not in love with playing in Los Angeles the way they were playing basketball. I think it all comes together, that he might have been, he might not have been as satisfied there as he was letting on.

And then if LeBron was truly blindsided by this, just from his, let's say some passive-aggressive behavior over the years from him with roster moves and lack of moves and He just seems pretty fine with the events at least so far. It's 630 now on a Sunday night. We haven't seen him Really like leak anything say anything and just seems okay because he's smart because he gets played Luca Donchich and now There's a scenario where hey Luca. let me teach you some diet stuff. Hey, Luka, this is called the Versa climber. What do you think of this thing?

Hey, Luka, I see you're wearing about two 65 right now. Do you realize if you weigh two 50, this, this, this, this, this happen. Hey, Luka, here's why you keep hurting your calf. You're not doing like Luka basically inherits the greatest personal trainer in the history of the league. The Brown doesn't get hurt. Ever tried red wine instead of, uh, these, uh, you know, the check Pilsners that you've been crushing over the last 10 years. Right.

I think that's the scary thing of the tradesman. This is what my dad said today is like, I don't want Luca and the Lakers for a million reasons, but what if he figures it out? What if he's in better shape? What happens then? Well, dude, and he is, and I think a lot of us feel this way. This is, they poked the bear, and that's not a fat guy.

Yeah. I meant to say, that's the FU potential now we have. Huge FU potential, Bill. Huge, this guy, he talks like, when I first got into Luca, when he would run his mouth against dudes like Pat Beverly and stuff, and he was a kid and he would just give it right back and sometimes more than he was getting.

And I was like, this guy is a competitor. And now I, yeah, you guys did say this yesterday, but it's true. They poured a bunch of gas on this dude's fire. And if he, if he's able to channel it the way that I think, and a lot of Mavs fans think right now, look out, dude, because you're right. He can come in in like LeBron 2012 mode, you know, after that Mavs series and just be like, all right, I'm here and I'm mad. And I can't wait for February 25th

to play the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas. I'm getting the craziest shape of my life. I remember for page two in 2004, when Shaq got traded, I wrote a column called the Vengeance Scale and I ranked the Vengeance Scale from zero to a hundred because I thought like, I was like Shaq, at least for the next couple of years, is gonna get in shape and dedicate his life

to trying to win a title and stick this up the Lakers' ass. And he eventually did. Wade got hurt in 05, he did in 06. I think Luca, the competitive, he's both like crazy competitive, but also frustratingly competitive, because if he was that competitive, he would be in better shape.

But I think he's competitive enough that when somebody trades you, you're just gonna be pissed. When you're playing for the Lakers in LA and this incredible franchise and you get, you know, bathed in love from all that. You see the 77 jerseys, all that stuff. Um, it has a chance to really ignite them. And that would be the thing. I mean, I feel so bad for the Mavs fans.

I've talked to a couple of them today. Like they're just so devastated. They just can't believe this. And if I'm Mavs in the worst part of this trade is what happens if we lose in round two and Luca just goes on a heater for the next like eight years. And we're like, we fucking lost Jalen Brunson and Luca Doncic. And I was on a thread with some Red Sox fans. We were arguing about the Mookie Betts trade versus the Luca trade. And Luca, I think is a more important asset because it's so there's four untradable

NBA guys every year and baseball. There's 25 guys on a team. But Mookie was our Luca basically. Yeah. And he, we'd actually won a title with them and he really was a unique, amazing top five, top eight player. And we got, we didn't get Anthony Davis firm. I'll just tell you that we got, we got Connor Wong and Jeter

Downs and Alex Ferdigo, and we got rid of David Price's contract. That was a trade. And it made me not like baseball. Like I don't really watch the Red Sox in the same way anymore. So for the Mavs fans, like I know some Mavs fans, like Jason Gallagher, who we used to work with. Um, like he's, he's talking about like his son is like, I'm following Luca to the Lakers.

It's like, it's like a life long Mavs fan. It's like, now I am a Laker fan. That this is like that whole fucked up side of this is crazy. No, it's totally true. Like so many fans, like when Mbappe goes from PSG to Real Madrid, they're just like, I'm going to Real Madrid. I'm a Real Madrid fan now, I guess. This is a generational talent who is going to bring fans like Jason Gallagher's son with

him. That's not going to be a unique story. And that message board, poor Gallagher. Sorry. But yeah, dude, that met, I went to the Mav subreddit today and it was like Sons of Sam Horn in October 2003. It was so bad, dude. Shit, they were going to the arena with like props, somebody brought a coffin, like they

were having like a protest. Somebody brought a coffin to sing about it in the Mavs. It was like 30 threads of just visceral pain, dude. They were having like a protest. Something about a cropping to stick them out of the maps. Of just, just visceral pain, dude. Well, and there's also some incredible conspiracy stuff already. I mean, God only knows what's true, half true, 10% true, but people think. What are your favorite conspiracy theories? I love this one that the owners have always wanted the Vegas team and

their eventual goal is to basically flip franchises, move Dallas to Vegas so they can have their old casino thing. The expansion team that was going to go in Vegas would be the Dallas team. They'd pay whatever. And the first way to do this was to be basically the Torpedo, the Mavericks franchise relationship with their fans by trading Luka Dachitz. And it's like, I have no notes. That's one of the best conspiracy theorists I've ever heard.

And I'm in Texas right now. One more layer to that one is like gambling in Texas may or may not happen, right? Probably not happening. So yeah, like this family made, for those who don't't know this family made its money in Vegas like yeah They're a casino family. Yeah, so That's a good one There's definitely some other ones about just trying to get ratings up and the Lakers back But yeah, there's a lot of how do we help the Lakers? That's what my dad said

My I mean the father of conspiracy bill That's what my dad said. I mean, the father of Conspiracy Bill, Conspiracy Bill Sr. was like, this just feels like the Lakers were about to die and they had to put another star in their team. Because my dad was like, how does this team keep pulling this off? Like all the Celtic fans were just getting pissed about this today because this is the team we hate the most. And it's just like, this team just steps in shit.

And they're born on third base in the ultimate way they fuck up the entire 2010s, the entire 2010s, even like they take Lonzo ball over Tatum. Like you can point to a million things. And it all leads to LeBron being like, yeah, you know what? I really want to live in LA. And they just miraculously lay on LeBron. Then they have this clutch Alliance where like we're putting Anthony Davis on the Lakers. Nobody else trade for him.

The Celtics are like, here are all these picks and we'll trade you Jalen Brown. And they're like, nope, he's gotta go to the Lakers. So now they get Davis and LeBron together. And then they get six years out of Davis and turn him into Luka Donchich, the best generational offensive prospect slash star slash heading into his prime guy since LeBron.

Ah, and they got, yeah. And you guys did a little of this yesterday, but they got Shaq and they got Pau Gasol exactly when they needed him. And like, yeah, what we said in San Antonio is like, there's three teams, there's three ways to build an NBA team, the trade, free agency and draft. Um, and the Lakers really have access to all three of those levers in a way that no other team does, specifically trades and free agency.

And this is just another example of that. And the Spurs or the Grizzlies or the Thunder will never get a trade for somebody like Luka Donjic or a free agency play like that. So they do start on third base. That's exactly right. And this is the updated version of them getting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 50 years ago. Right.

Uh, this is just wild, but it is kind of cool in that sense as an MBA historian. It's not cool. I hate it. In line with this, but as Celtics fans, not, not exactly thrilled with that historic like parallel, I guess. Yeah. You could do an all time nine man rotation of NBA 75 guys that they've traded for, signed in for H.C.

Wilt, Kareem, Shaq and Kobe. Cause they traded for Kobe, Gasol, Dwight, LeBron, AD, Luca. Those guys are the top 75 guys that they acquired. Yeah. And pick any other NBA team and say, who's the best, who's the best player your team's ever traded for? Right. And it's like, For us, for like, the Celtics would be Robert Parrish and KG, I think would be the two best.

And that's in 80 years, unless you count the Bill Russell trade, because they flip draft picks, but yeah, it's really rare. The Bucks or the, even the Sixers or the Magic, he just, these kinds of players don't, don't just show up on your doorstep. Yeah. And then the flip side for the Mavs, this is, I mentioned the Mookie Betts trade. This is Edmonton trading Gretzky in 1988, right? Which we did a 30 for 30, but that was actually the first 30 for 30 ever. But Gretzky had already won titles for them.

The whole point is Luca had not won the title for them yet. He had the promise of, Oh my God, we have this guy for the next 20 years. Then we have the other weird piece Kirk about the Lakers who were playing well. They still have to do the trade. But the irony of them doing the trade right now was they had just started to look like a contender and they had an identity and they were big and physical and they'd figured out some of the spacing. Christie and Finney Smith were both playing well at wing so they finally had competent wings they could put out there.

So that was part of the trade last night was the timing of it was like, I just watched this team and they look really good and now they just made the most shocking trade in the history of the league. So a defense of the Luka from Dallas, the side, I just want to do this as a thought exercise. If you're trying to zag, what's the defense?

If you're like, you know what? Nico Harrison has figured this out and he's going to fucking show you. Okay. His trade was really smart. What's the defense? The defense is that the Luca Donjic is the next Joe Ellen beat. He is a person whose body isn't going to hold up to these crazy pace and space games that happen 82 times a year.

Plus playoffs like Luca played a hundred games last year. He's repeatedly strained his calf. We think there's an Achilles terror risk here. We think there's a weight. We think the lower body's gonna go or the back's gonna go and we're gonna be on the hook for that Joel Embiid equivalent and we don't want to do it. And this is the last trade deadline opportunity we have to turn him into something. I don't take that stance, but that's the case. And I think that's what they saw. Moreover, I thought specifically they wanted Anthony Davis. And I think they think they're a better team with Anthony Davis,

then with Luka Donjic. That's the only case. All right. I'll add to the defense. Anthony Davis anchored a finals team in 2020 that won it all. Defense wins championships. Anthony Davis anchored a finals team in 2020 that won it all. Defense wins championships. No defense stars don't win titles.

Go find me one. Seen a lot of no defense superstars take teams to round three, maybe even round four, but they don't win. How do we know he was signing here in 2026? We don't know. Got to get out early. The way to do this is to do it now. And we feel like we can get a lot of value. And then, uh, AD was the only guy we wanted.

Luca was never going to Milwaukee, Boston when they tate him. Bam's not good enough. Katie's too old. Edwards makes no sense for either side. Jalen Brunson. No. So where are we shopping him to? We're going to trade him for a bunch of picks.

Like we didn't want to do that. We feel like our team's good. I think that's the defense and it's moronic. It's yeah, we'll see. I mean, I will leave a sliver, a sliver of hope for the Mavs fans that they could be hoisting up Larry O'Brien in the next year or two. I don't think that's gonna happen.

They're so mad they'd probably boo the finals trophy ceremony. Listen, throwing their Luka Dantius jerseys at it. Fuck you. It's almost like Ohio State football. Like they won the national title and they're still pissed off that they lost that Michigan game.

Right. We won but they're still pissed off that they lost that Michigan game. Right. It was, but we're still mad. Yeah. Like they could literally boo the parade. Uh, but yeah, I don't see it. I think they really believe that Anthony Davis, and I think this is Niko Harrison believing that Anthony Davis can anchor a top defense in the NBA and that with Kyrie and Clay and their role players, uh, that they

can, they can compete for a title. That's the defense. They still need one more trade. I think they need a little, somebody a little more, uh, heat checky who can create their own shot and they still have time to do it because they have some tradeable contracts. Who? Jimmy Butler. Is he from Dallas or Houston? Where's that from? I forget. Well, Saruti just texted us that the

Warriors Jimmy Butler trade talks have finally ended because the Warriors did not want to commit to an extension and Jimmy Butler said this is uh who reported this Saruti? It was uh. Wendy. Oh Wendy. Yeah. So there you go. Um, yeah, I was thinking about the one thing we didn't talk about yesterday because we were so dumb, dumbfounded by the trade. Are there moves for the Lakers this year to become an interesting playoff team because I'm positive. I, if LeBron is playing like he did last night and he can just stay somewhat, uh, healthy and fresh for a couple of

rounds. That's not a team I want to see in round one or round two. Then Luca with him, and you just have these two freaky physical six foot eight, six foot nine guys who don't really have a position, who can, who both have crazy hoops IQs. And then if you can put the right team around them, which they're inching closer to having, except they don't have any rim protection at all. And could they go get Nick Claxton was a rumor today. Could they take a flyer and Robert Williams? Could they get Clint Capella with the Hawks want to trade a Congo for, for the 2031 pick, which put Austin Reeves on the table.

What could you get from him? Yeah, Austin Reeves is expendable now. I mean, why do you need Austin Reeves? You have Luka Dancic. You need him, House and I were talking about this today. You need him as your six man injury protection for one of those two guys, somebody who's 25 minutes a game. You always have to, you know, obviously the other two guys

are way better offensively, but you always have two really good creators. and Reeves is turning into a pretty good creator at all times. So could you, could you turn like Gabe Vincent, 2031, something else into like Nick Claxton? Claxton and Time Lord are the names that keep coming up. And I would guess that one of them will be on the Lakers. I would guess that, um, they need a five. Obviously they need a five. They don't have it.

You're not sold on Jackson Hayes. Christian, Christian Wood. Yeah. I'm a professor at the university of Texas and Jackson is one of our, one of our guys. So I'm a big Jackson Hayes guy, but no, I want, I want a five man. And my question for you, Bill is like, do you believe that this Lakers team thinks they're going to compete for a title now this year in the next five months? Here's the thing.

They should think that way. And I didn't think they had a chance to win four straight rounds with the team they had because it was putting too much LeBron look good against the next. Like he was awesome against the next to ask somebody to do that for 10 straight weeks to me at age 40 is not realistic, but now they have a guy who can, we've already seen him single-handedly beat teams in a series who's now going to be pissed off trying to shove it up somebody's ass. So if I'm the Lakers, I feel like I could win the win three rounds now.

I feel like we're going to get into okay. Say, and it's like, we have LeBron and Luca and you guys are small and we're going to just try to bully ball you and you can, you know, do whatever, but you were still going to be a bitch to play. I can't believe I'm saying this, but like they have the six best. They were 21 to one last night. Now they're 18 to one. So people are betting them, which is not surprising. But if they get, if they get a rim protector and they can play LeBron and Luca

with some sort of shooting point guard, Finney Smith and the rim protector at crunch time with Reeves coming off the bench and some other pieces, like I wouldn't want to see him in a series. That's where I'm at, but it hinges on that rim protector. Cause right now they're just not built for a playoff run without rebounding and rim protection. Well, they have the miracle of Palenka keeping Reeves and the 2031 picks. So they, I mean, they go get that and that almost could be part of the trade, right?

Yeah. And every call I'm sure you had today that I had today is like, oh yeah, they might trade LeBron to Golden State too, which I don't think will happen, but came up so many times today, uh, that we have to. It came up last night too. Yeah. It's, I think he stays. It's a better career move.

And I think he likes LA. Right. You get traded, your son has to come with you. That's weird. Going to Golden State. What, what ultimately are you going to happen? You get to play with Curry. It's an older team. You have a better chance at winning the title with you. That's weird. Going to Golden State. What, what ultimately are you going to happen? You get to play with Curry. It's an older team.

You have a better chance at winning the title with the team you have now. If he's all about titles and like in, and, uh, an unbelievable out of nowhere title run, which still dubious, but you go through all these teams and all right. They're playing Houston in round one. Are you going against Luca? Pissed off with LeBron as his sidekick? Right. Against like Fred Van Vliet?

Like, what are we doing? Yeah. And there's still the buyout market too. And these guys just became the biggest magnet and that market is always irregular and unreliable. Don't, don't get me started, but every once in a while, there is a valuable piece on the buyout market and they will get really attractive potential buyout pieces looking at their team.

So I think they have two moves left. This is a big four day period for the Lakers front office. They're gonna look at sending out that pick. They're going to look at sending out Austin Reeves, maybe even Rui Hashimura to try to turn it into something at the five, especially, but around these two generational playmakers, two generational playmakers and two guys who do, don't shrink in the playoffs. Yeah.

So I think they are going to try to go, but they are, I think they're going to do a little bit cautious. I'd be, I'd be surprised if the pick went, I'll say that. I think they're going to try to do it with personnel. Well, they're going to meet a situation where they're going to have to sign Luca this summer and LeBron's going to opt into his deal. So they basically have one chance to align all the money because they're going to get crushed next year no matter what happens, but they're the Lakers

and they shouldn't care because all of a sudden they have this meal ticket of LeBron was about to end with the season tickets, the sweets, everything else, the Clippers in their new arena, which is awesome. They Lakers playing in a shitty Staples center. was about to end with the season tickets, the suites, everything else. She had the Quippers in their new arena, which is awesome. They, Lakers playing in a shitty Staples Center. And now it's like, now it's now here's come see Luka Doncic. And it's a guy that, you know, there's always been a weird thing with Lebron and the Laker fans because it's right after Kobe and there's this whole Kobe contingent.

And Luka had this awesome early relationship with Kobe and I could just see them being all in on adopting him. And also he won't be the first guy to move to California and immediately lose 20 pounds and look awesome and be tan and get in shape. It's happened many times. This is what happens when you come out here. Perfect place for it. Who's he gonna be dating? TMZ is getting ready. But yeah, in all seriousness, that 77 jersey in purple and gold, how long till we start seeing the tweets, the number one selling jersey in the NBA? It's already done.

Like, again, this is a team that just finds money. And this is just an updated version of that. It's a born on third base team. It's frustrating as hell. The thing with the Lakers though, they do have really good fans. I got to hand it to them. And they have an expectation. It's annoying that it's always going to somehow work out. Right? Even if they're in the 2010s, they kept ending up with these picks and it was a mess and Kobe's last two

years weren't great. And it was always like, we're the Lakers. This is going to work out. The Celtics used to have that in the 80s and 90s. It was like, what now? It'll work out. And then all of a sudden it didn't work out forever. And I was always like, just wait with this Lakers thing when LeBron leaves. Just wait.

And now they ended up with Luka Dacic. Yeah, it just feels like that. And he'll probably be pissed off. Yeah, cause it felt like they were heading towards an era where they were going to have a 34 year old Anthony Davis as their focal point. Just breaking down. Yeah. It felt like- Austin Reeves and Max Christie. era where they were going to have a 34 year old Anthony Davis as their focal point. Yeah.

It felt like. Austin Reeves and Max Christie. And now they're going to have a 27 year old Luka Donsic, uh, just angry at the world, uh, and hopefully, you know, they are able to extend him. And I do want to say that. And one of the sort of main points here is like, there's no guarantee he's going to sign that extension in Los Angeles. What if Miami is like batting their eyelashes at him? What if San Antonio?

Like what if Oklahoma city? Like there, there are, there are teams that are going to let him know that they really want him to play there. Oh, come on. The NBA doesn't allow it to do that. Kirk teams aren't allowed to talk to players from other teams. That doesn't happen. God. But it's like, so I think that that's something I haven't heard talked allowed to do that Kirk. Teams are allowed to talk to players from other teams. That doesn't happen.

God. But it's like, so I think that that's something I haven't heard talked about enough is there is a chance that he will not want to be there. Um, I think it's a small chance. I think he's now at the New York Yankees and he is sort of that A-Rod character is going to settle into that. People don't leave the Lakers. They, once you're here and you're on the Lakers and they're spending money and you're, you're in the sunshine, you don't guys have not left the Lakers.

Great players. They stay. That's what happens. All right. Let me ask sports guys. Let me ask you this. Where is, how far did the Lakers go this year? Let me ask you this. Where is, how far did the Lakers go this year?

I feel like I'm gonna throw it. Right now there are five seed. They are tied with Denver and losses for the four seed and they're only three back from Memphis. I think they have to get in the top half of that top four, right? So they can have at least one home series. I'm just, I'm all in on Luca. I completely believe in him as a terrifying offensive force. And I think he needed a kick in the ass like this. I'm all in on him. Like I feel like they could make the finals.

I don't think it's crazy. We watched him do it last year and he owns Oklahoma city. That's right. That's what I was just going to say. That's the one team they have to beat and he plays great against them. And even this year he had a good game against them. But, uh, you know, and then you take a team like Denver, how do you beat a team like Denver, um, with two really gifted offensive players, you know, and

then there's the LeBron piece too. This is like an amazing out of nowhere, you know, life raft for a chance to get another title and rewrite some of his shit. And dude, I think his odometer benefits from this. I think off ball LeBron is, he lasts a little bit longer. He's a little more durable than on-ball LeBron. And I think just him setting screens is a crazy concept. Like he-

Right, them running pick and rolls, right? Yeah, he's the new Karl Malone. He just becomes Karl Malone for them. And he's- Well, that was the thing last night in the Knicks game. Physically, he was so impactful compared to everyone on the Knicks. It just didn't feel like they had a big enough athlete to handle him.

And LeBron hasn't felt like that in a while. It really feels like maybe he knew that Luca trade was coming and that's why he was playing with a little, uh, little pep in a step. But, um, I just think those guys are going to be really hard to play. There's a flip side of this where those two are disaster on defense. You can't play the two of them with Reeves together. JJ, who is now realizing the weight of, holy shit, I took this Lakers job and now we have Luka Donchich.

He's like, his hair's fucking falling out by April. They aren't able to get the right rim protector. Like I would say it's 65 35 for me that they could actually be an incredibly dangerous playoff team versus, but I was, I was surprised with the people I talked to today. Like people kind of weren't seeing the immediate title picture. I think Luca, as long as he's healthy, he has to be, it's like Jokic. It's like when Denver looked like shit in the start of the season and we were all

worried about them. It's like, well, they still have Jokic. Like I'm not counting them out yet. Yeah. I mean, Oklahoma city gets my respect. They deserve it. Me too. Beyond that Houston, who I adore Memphis, I love, I just think they're both too young really. And if you're telling me I have Luca and LeBron against either of those two teams, there's a case for those Lakers to just, to, to, to get them with wisdom.

There's a case for those Lakers to just to get them with wisdom. Well, I would say the Clippers from a defensive roster standpoint are actually built the best to kind of battle this team, which means maybe we'll finally get the Clippers Lakers series we've been waiting for forever. But yeah, I just think in a series, it's going to be really hard to match baskets with them if Luke is right. And I don't know why he wouldn't be right. He was averaging 28 a game by the way. I know he's having like his worst statistical year, but yeah, this is an amazing term of events. We put it on wax. Your season tickets for the Clippers. We put it on wax like three weeks ago

that we was like, let's not forget the Los Angeles Clippers. Then Kawhi comes back and they've looked like the best team in the NBA at times. Until today. What happened today? They lost. Oh, yesterday. No, they didn't they lose to Toronto? Oh yeah, that's right.

They lost to Toronto. That was. But yeah, like over the last two months or I should say January, just look it up. Like their indicators scream, this is, we're good and their defense has been good all year. Um, and as we said, yeah. Um, yeah. Clippers versus Lakers.

We could see it. Amazing trade. Uh, congrats to the Spurs for getting Fox as well. I don't know. We have four days until the trade deadline, Kirk. I don't know what else to expect. We don't know where Jimmy Butler's going. Um, there's still, what are the things should we be watching?

Jimmy Butler. I think the Nats have a for sale sign up in the front yard. Um, I think both Claxton and Cam Johnson are, um, on the move, if I had to guess. Miami, God only knows what they're up to. Are Memphis and Houston going to feel like they should do something, which is we'd be great for the Lakers if they didn't. Is Cleveland going to take her with anything at all? Vucevich is another one.

Can the Suns get up, Nurkic just deal with the pick and try to, uh, try to get, uh, a better rim protector. And then, uh, Grant, I think is one to watch in Portland. If Portland can find a taker for Jeremy Grant and Ken Milwaukee figure out anything would be my other question is that, are they just stuck with the team? They have my classic Bill Simmons trope that was relevant this crazy weekend is new owner syndrome, which by the way, when the bucks changed owners,

that's when this Lillard thing happened and the Drew holiday thing. This is like the owners remain the most underrated characters in pro sports sagas. And this is another example, would Mark Cuban have done this deal? So I was texting somebody about that today saying Cubans got to be this consulate. Because first of all, he trades the Mavs as the French or sells the Mavs as the franchisers are going up. He's seems like he had a feeling like he might be involved. He's not.

And then Luca, this is handpicked. Like if they win the title, he gets to take credit for that forever. Now they trade them. I remember one of the, we, we did a grandland feature with Mark in 2013 or 14 on, you know, at that time he was like symbolic of this new era of bad boy, tech owner guy, and we talked about how the Mavs were laughing stock before him, you know, and no, no disrespect to Mark Aguirre or Orlando Blockman, but they were never a great franchise. Then he gets him to the finals two or three times.

And it sure looks like this new ownership group is taking things in a different direction. So yeah, he's gotta be just so destroyed. Kurt Goldsberry, great to see you. Looking forward to your next piece. And we'll see you in Austin in a few weeks. Yeah, that's right. Can't wait for that. Big live show coming.

Hell yeah. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you, brother. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing.

MUSIC Hey, guys. Back at the playground again, huh? Yep. You know what this playground could use? A wine country. Heck yeah! And some waves. So we could go surfing. Oh, I love that! A redwood forest would be cool.

I'm in! Ski slopes! Let's do it! Um, can a girl go shopping? Yeah, baby! Wait! Did we just invent California? Discover why California is the ultimate playground at visitcalifornia.com

Alright, we're taping this on a Sunday afternoon. Sal, you hate this. It's Super Bowl week. It's supposed to be all NFL. And then the NBA holes come flying in with the most shocking trade in NBA history. Now you got to like take a side, take a seat on the side. I know a seat on the side. Disgusting, disgusting that this is the most important sports podcast you're gonna do all year.

And how many minutes of NBA wholeness did you air before me? It's a double pod this weekend. Yeah, I know. Yeah, but you put the Luka stuff before me, didn't you? Yeah, you did. You're like the second guest. Son of a bitch. Yeah, but we're still going, we're still doing our thing.

It's just, you know, Luka and Dodgers got traded. Your league is back. You can go back to 17 minute quarters and 100 games in the regular season. We kept 12 minute quarters. We're good now. Yeah, that's what happened. Silver's like, hey, man, we got to, we're thinking of changing the size of the court and how much time is in each quarter. Can we just do something to make Boston, New York and LA great over the next three years?

Come on, Dallas, can you step up here? Unbelievable. Yeah. What if we put Luca and LeBron on the same team? Will anyone complain about the ratings again? The good news is, though, I will say your trade machine and trade thoughts, which I thought a lot of times were nonsense, like when week seven, when we had to do 10 minutes on Yanis to the Nets, and I was like, okay, good. But now people should listen to you because nothing is too ludicrous. There's not one trade that could be too crazy to pass muster here.

It really is true. Like the now at this point, the only person I would refuse to believe got traded is Wemby. Yeah. I think everyone else in the league, you could talk me into a trade, uh, in a ridiculous scenario involving any player. Superbowl chiefs Eagles. We've had a week to either think about or not think about it. There are a ton of props. Fando has amazing pages and pages of great stuff.

Great links. We're going to have ringer specials on there later. Ringer Sunday pregame is going to have some stuff. Like we're, we're good. Um, do you have a feel for the Super Bowl yet? And has it affected your Super Bowl props? The things that you think will happen in the game? Are you steering that way already? Yes, I think so. I think you and I will give our official picks who's going to win towards the end of the week. I did notice that I don't need two weeks. I don't let's get to the

part where I'm depressed already. Like I don't have to be depressed about being depressed. Right. So I don't like this extra week in between. It makes me analysis leads to paralysis. It was like a lot of ways to determine how old we are. Like, Oh, babe Ruth won the home run title closer to when we were born than today. You know, and that sucks. And is that you and I'll send something. Oh yeah. Is that sure he's three's company premiered 48 years ago. It all sucks. But I was thinking today, I was like,

we at most have 30 more Super Bowls left if we're lucky. Like I take care of myself. You don't, you know, you, you're going to start doing cocaine. I know I'm at it. I'm nuts. Yeah. But there's going to be a thousand more Super Bowls and we're only going to see 30. That's disgusting to me. That really made me feel sick. So, uh, join in in that. I think about that all the time. How, when, when I'm finally dead, how mad I'm going to be, not just that I'm dead,

but I'm not going to know what's going to happen for the next 25 Super Bowls, FBA. It's like, oh shit. I am, my lean is close game. I have two leans so far and I'm still debating where to go with the game and probably we'll decide on Tuesday, but it feels like the line is off and it feels like it's going to be a close game. Those are my two leans. I actually think the Eagles should be favored the more I stare at this.

And I don't know what the Mahomes tax is at this point, but it feels like it's a field goal. Right. At least. Can you say both those things? Like I know most people like Rahim has a model and most people have models might even have the Eagles by three at this point. And so, but can you also say, but I think it's going to be a close game. Cause if you're going to lean model and Eagles and you think it's going to be a close game, how dare you go against Mahomes in a close game.

Right. Then the Chiefs should win the fourth game of a close game. I guess more like I don't think it's going to be a blowout. Like I don't think either of these teams is blowing out the other team. Could one of them win by 10 points? 12? Sure. But it feels like it's going to be a relatively close game, no blowout. And I just think the Eagles should be favored by like two and a half on a neutral field. Yeah, they have more good players all over the place. They have an easier way to win than the chiefs do.

And you go back and you look at as great as the chiefs were the fact that they were 17 and two thrown week 18, they're basically 17 and one to throw every week 18. But it just was harder for them week to week than when you watch this Eagles team just seems to be really cruel. I mean, the Eagles have won 15 of the last 16 pretty easily. So you're taking the Eagles, that's okay. I'm leaning toward the Eagles

and I'm just afraid to go against my homes, which is why the line is where the line is. That's why it's the whole point of this line is nobody wants to bet against the Chiefs. I wouldn't look into the line too. By the way, I'm going to pretend to get texts from NFL GMs during this pod. I felt that was very effective with Rosillo last night with the NBA guys. It's a great wrinkle for him. Yeah. But I am. Oh, the Memphis GM. But I would disregard the line because I do have facts here in the first 58 Superbowls, only seven times as a favorite one and not covered.

It happened with the Rams Bengals most recently. Right. It happened twice in the last 17 years. So take Casey minus one and a half or take Philly money line. You're you'll probably be okay. Right. That's a playoff manifesto stapleples, especially at this time you're just betting who you think is going to win. Don't worry about the line. Yeah.

So that's what I'll say about that. But I think you're right. It might be off, but I also think it doesn't matter because of that fact. I just, well, it matters for teasers and stuff. Yeah. So you can get Philly above seven. Pretty tasty. Um, all right.

So every year, and we've been doing this forever. I actually researched this. We were the first people, the first two people ever to like Superbowl props. You researched it really? In the media. Yeah. We were the first ones. I don't think a lot of people were... Nobody ever talked about Superbowl props. That's true. We felt like we were really going on a limb. We did a pod and like maybe the 2007 Super Bowl and we floated some props and everybody in the world was like, what are these? What are these guys talking about? No, all these years later, it's a cottage industry.

I don't feel like we get the credit. There'd never been a Super Bowl prop before we did a pocket. I love it. We willed it into existence. As far as we know. Right. They actually didn't even exist. Like first touchdown?

What? What are these guys talking about? We started everything. You couldn't find it. You couldn't even bet it. So eventually we forced the books to actually come't even exist. Like first touchdown? What? What are these guys talking about? We started everything. You couldn't find it. You couldn't even bet it. So eventually we forced the books to actually come up with these. That's actually not true, obviously.

And the first time we watched the Super Bowl together, when it was the first day Jimmy Kimmel was doing a show and we were in charge of monitoring the Tampa Bay Oakland game and coming up with jokes. And we were in a van and you had this whole printout sheet of Super Bowl props that was like 58 pages. And we're just going through and there would be silence. It'd be like, Hey Simmons, what about Rich Gannon over under completions?

And that was just the whole ride. So we've loved this forever. That was a great find when you could, you had a sort of the internet wasn't what it is now. And if you could find a PDF where you could print all the props, right. And it would send your printer into a tizzy, you know, it'd be like 25 pages. Yeah. Cause it'd be that all the HTML would be off. It would be like the margins would be too small.

You'd have like these little crazy, beautiful mind notes on each page. Now we just go to Fandl and there's all these hyperlinks. Come a long way. Beautifully separated. It's great. Can we just go to Fandl and there's all these hyperlinks. Come a long way. Beautifully separated, it's great. Can we start with MVP? Yeah. Because there's a couple, Mahomes is plus 110, Barclays plus 280, Hertz is plus 370.

And the most interesting one was the field versus Mahomes is minus 150. And we always look at this and we always like it. But if you think KC's not gonna win, this feels like, uh, a fun MVP back because you basically get everybody else. Yeah. That's true.

You could parlay it with other stuff. I didn't look at it that way. That is good. And I was thinking though, so we have to get in their heads, right? Is there Mahomes fatigue if the chiefs win for MVP? Like, uh, he didn't have a great game against Philly. Now it's against Philly. No, the last game.

So he stayed under 200 yards, but had three touchdowns and they had to give it to him. Right. So I'm trying to write a script for how my homes doesn't get MVP. If the chiefs went, is it Kelsey announces Thursday that he's going to retire after this game and he gets Xavier worthy, like eight for one 20. There's that like Julian Edelman type of game that's sitting there. There's like the big Kelsey game.

I don't know if any, the way they use their running backs, I don't see how either running back would be in it. Right. So you're looking at a crazy Worthy game, a crazy Kelsey game or Mahomes if Casey wins. The funny thing is- Mahomes plus 110 is nice. You talk about how like long,

come such a far away, however you say that. We, you could live bet the MVP, right? I remember like Kaderius Tony was like a punchline now. He had like a big game. He had a big punt return and a touchdown. Like, oh man, but Mahomes was still favored. I remember looking at that. Like, you know, so that's something to look at that.

I think choosing between Barkley and Hertz is really tough. If you take in the Eagles, I might just rather take the Eagles. I did look at defensive MVP is plus 1500. Once the game gets to the forties, you're kind of cooked, but nine out of 57 defensive players have won. And so that's like one out of six or one out of seven and you're getting 15 to one. It's not bad. The problem with the problem with taking the field versus Mahomes, I guess you get everyone on the Chiefs too

with that minus 150. So it's a parlay of the Eagle side, which you could just bet straight up for plus 110, but then you're covered on every other non-Mahomes thing. But I think the best value is Barkley at plus 280. Because I think if they win, I think he's gonna be the best player in the game would be my assumption.

Like he gashes them a couple times. He's been the best player of the playoffs. It's a narrative that makes sense to me. And I thought the odds were pretty good. What would the Hurts game have to be for MVP? So he's throwing two touchdowns, probably one deep one. It's probably 20 for 27 for 255. He probably has one long run of like a 40 yard run. Maybe it's like seven for 52 running.

And he's just, it's something like that. Right. I think you're right. But plus it's Barclays birthday, you know, on the Superbowl. So I don't know how much that factors in. Yeah. Turns 28. Is that what it is?

And plus if it's plus 280 and he turns 28, am I wrong to say he's 28? That's a, that's pretty good numbers, but I think you're right. I don't know if Hertz getting the touchdowns on the tush push. If he gets like three of those and puts up good yards, if that's going to put them over the top. But it's, it's been Barclays year. I think that's, that's probably the case for Barclays. Yeah. Plus 280 is still good if it's going to put them over the top, but it's, it's been Barclays year. I think that's, that's probably the case for Barclays. Yeah. Plus two 80 is still good. If it's close to three,

the Barclays bets that jumped out. So I've never monitored this, but there was a 25 plus rushing yards each quarter for plus seven 50. Yeah. That I've never bet on and I have no idea if that's a good bet or not. It seems terrible. Two touchdowns is plus two 80. So you'd have to, you'd probably have to break one of those. Then maybe get one around five or six. That the odds were pretty good.

There was one where him and Kareem hunt 200 plus rush yards is three to one. So you figured he, if he got over like one 31 40, if he thought hunt was going to be in the 50s, sixties, that could get there three to one's nice. 40, if you thought hunt was going to be in the 50s, 60s, that could get there. Three to one's nice. But I think the one I like the most is 169 plus rushing yards, which would be a new record is five to one. So you just bet on that. And basically the bet is I bet that Saquon Barkley will break the record 169.

Boom. Five to one. It's pretty good. Yeah. I was looking at, you said Barkley two plus touchdowns is plus 270. So that's the same. No, it's plus 280. Yeah. So that's the same odds as his MVP, right?

Right. So you just take that instead. That's interesting. I think I might want to take that instead. I don't think there's a game where he's stuck in the much. Do you have any other broccoli bets? Yeah. Well, it's funny.

Um, you said that actually this one, uh, was just texted me from less need of the Rams, uh, GM. He said, um, Kelsey, Kelsey, 25 or more receiving yards in each half. Is, uh, is a good number there. So that, that happened already this year. And if that- What's the odds on that? It's like plus 220 or something.

Oh man. All right, yeah, yeah. So it's 307 yards over the last three Super Bowls. So I kind of like that. And I'd already hit against the Texans this year. So. Okay. Yeah.

So I had the barky one, the hurt stuff. There's an anytime TD for him for minus one 15. And that's just one tush push, right? If it's first and golf from the two third and golf from the one. I, I gotta say, I was surprised that was the line. I thought that was going to be like minus one 40. It's just, it's almost like surprising if he doesn't get one. That one jump out to you?

Yeah, we go crazy about it on the Ringer pre-game show. And I don't know if there's like a million props so they'll throw in one you can win on automatically there, but it's so easy there. It's minus 110, all right, right in there. 10 of the last 13 games he scored a touchdown. So why should that be almost even odds? And they have a play designed for it.

So it's almost suspicious. Here's another one that goes along with it. Shortest touchdown under minus one, uh, under one and a half yards. No, we used to love this one. Oh, wow. We bet that a bunch of times. Yeah. So the VIG is a little high.

It's minus 172, but we loved it before the tush push. And now it's like, you know, it was, he did a twice last matchup, twice first San Francisco, first time, four to the five in the Superbowl. Seven of the last nine Superbowls have seen a shortest touchdown under one and a half yards. What are the, what are the odds on that? It's minus 172. It's not great. So you might just want to take Hertz for the touchdown minus one 10, but for seven to the last nine Superbowls, it didn't hit last year. So that's why I like it especially now. I really liked that. So Fando has, they have that, uh,

that anytime touchdown that like either first one or last one of the game that they're putting a pretty big thing on that you could get in. If it's an anytime TD bet and it ends up being the first touchdown in the game, you end up in this bonus bets pool. If it's the last touchdown of the game, same thing. And I think Kurtz was my favorite anytime touchdown bet. I bet that goes up. I think that's going to be like minus one 35 by game time.

Um, two other things with him. I bet. I bet that goes up. I think that's going to be like minus 135 by game time. Two other things with him. Longest run was 11 and a half yards. And it feels like every game they have that one run where it's like the delayed QB draw and he's running to the right or the left and he just goes for like 30 yards. And I can't believe that wouldn't happen in this game once. So 11 and a half I really liked. believe that wouldn't happen in this game once. So 11 and a half, I really liked. And then longest pass of the game for him, 32 and a half yards. So, and this ties into some, some AJ Brown stats too, but, um, when you look at the chiefs, so they gave up in GEDS Buffalo, they gave up a 34 yarder, a 24

yarder and 23 yarder against Houston. They give up a 34 yarder, a 24 yarder and 23 yarder. Against Houston, they give up a 34 yarder, a 24 yarder and 24 yarder. So they do give up big plays when you watch where it's like that bend, but don't break, but you can get the, you can bust one on them. So I was thinking, I like that one too. The, the just longest one 33 yard pass to somebody, AJ Brown, Devonta Smith. Maybe it's got it. Maybe Barkley on a wheel route. Don't you think they'll bust one?

Yeah, I like that a lot. I mean, I love Spagnola's defense, but it does, um, you know, it takes a minute to settle in sometimes and I think you could break a tackle or something in there. That's a good one. What'd you feel about passing yards? There's two, there was 210.5 is the over under four Hertz. You could go 175 plus passing yards for him as minus three 10. I, I think they're too goofy.

I almost feel like the total pass yards is a stay away for him. Cause we've seen games where they just run the ball at the time. We've also seen games where they varied out. I don't, it doesn't make sense to me. Yeah. So I think you have to like script it out in your head, right? Because for a lot of these last games, he was winning with 154 yards passing. Right.

And then last week, he kind of surprised us. He's like throwing on third and six. We're like, what are you doing? You have a fourth in one play that never fails. Why are you throwing on third and six? Right. And he would complete it to Vonta Smith and, and AJ Brown, they had big games. So what do you feel?

Do you feel like they're going to play catch up if you feel like they're going to have to play catch up at some point or that, Hey, it's a super bowl. Just scoring just gets out of hand. Uh, and I think you go over, but otherwise if you're a pro Barclay on everything, I mean, his three plus touchdowns hurts is 36 to one Barclays. Three plus touchdowns is 15 to one. So you can have fun with those too. So out of those Barclay Hertz, what's your favorite one?

I think I like the rush yard record for plus five to one on Barkley. Just for the hell of it. I like your two touchdowns and I like the anytime TD and the longest past longest run for Hertz. Like I feel like you at least split those. Yeah. I also like Saquon or Hertz to have two or more touchdowns at plus one seven. I was like banging my head against the desk, trying to figure out which of these two is going to have two or more touchdowns at plus one seven. I was like banging my head against the desk trying to figure out which of these

two is going to get two or more. And then Fandl has a spot for it where either they have like an either or guy thing, uh, Saquon or hurts two plus touchdowns plus one 70. You're almost definitely. Wow. That's, that's, those are way better odds than the Berkeley plus two 80. Yeah. You're going to get, you're going to be one away at halftime, right?

You're just going to need some luck to push it over the top. Too bad you can't hedge that. AJ Brown, I didn't really have any stuff I like for him. Some of the, some of the stuff isn't out yet. That usually comes Wednesday, Thursday, like the completion bets and things like that. Right. But, um, AJ Brown just seems hit or miss to me. I'm staying away. Any other Eagles bets that you're fired up about? Uh, I like the Vaunte Smith. I think they, um, they have, uh, for Eagles, not, not too much like 70 plus for him is plus two Oh five 80 plus is plus three 20. So if you've got that long play in there and you think it's going to be him.

Um, we haven't done chiefs yet, right? That we're going to know what our, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's really it. So I also, um, kicker prop here, Elliot over seven and a half. Like you think to yourself, Oh, this team's always going on fourth and one. They don't have, you know, they're not going to kick.

He's gone seven straight games where he's got had seven and a half or more points and he had nine in the super bowl. So the tush push doesn't really factor into like their scoring chances with Jake Elliott. So what are the odds on the seven and a half? It's just even odds. Yeah. Minus one time.

Yeah. Cause one of the ones, one of the bets that's not out yet is the Miss field goal thing for him. Cause he's always feels like he, uh, he has one at some point. All right. So on the chief side, some of my home's bets that jumped out to me over 29 and a half rush yards, just too many times with his legs. Like if you look at the biggest games he's played, the completions, I'm sorry, the carries are more exciting to me.

Five and a half carries, because you get that 29 and a half rush yards. You have the potential that Neil's not going to back. The carries are the carries. That's minus 140. So there the Neil's not going to bat. The carries are the carries. That's minus one 40. So there's some cheese. They'll help you with the carries. Yeah. This year he was 11 for 43 against Buffalo.

He was seven for 14 against Houston, including the three Nails at the end. In 2023, nine for 66 against San Fran, six for 15 against Baltimore and six for 19 against Buffalo. So the last five times he's had six or more. And then if you look at the super bowls, the other super bowls, the Philly one, six for 44, the Tampa one, five for 33, San Francisco nine for 29. So the only time he didn't get five and a half out of. You know, eight of the biggest games of his career and all the super bowls is

that one Tampa game when he had five, not six. So to me over carries minus one 40. I'm putting the juice on. I'm doing it. I like that a lot. Yeah. He infamously went under and yards when he had that eclipse, right? Against San Francisco and the super bowl when he started taking Neal's.

I like much like you do. It hurts. I like over 11 and a half longest rush from my homes. He's hit this in four of his last five games, uh, averaging 13 for a longest over that stretch. So yeah, I mean, I think that's how you play my home. Yeah. I'd be a little nervous about the actual yardage, but.

So the other one, if you want to do a yardage bet, I would recommend the 40 plus rush yards from Mahomes. That's plus 180. And again, 43 against Buffalo, 66 against San Francisco, 44 against Philly. So he's done it a few times. You're basically getting two to one odds, but I think he's going to need to do it in this game because Philly's, the way they're going to probably play defense on him. They have those four guys. They play everybody else back, they fake blitz, they do all these different things.

But if you're just rushing those four, he can just slide out and over and over again, find these pockets. Yeah, I like that. I like him with his legs in this game and he's healthy too. We know he's healthy. He's healthy. He's also, there's a stat for him or a bet for him under one and under two and a half sacks that he takes. He's hit this in four of his last five, you know, as I mean, he knows when to take

off. He's just the smartest there is. So my home's under two and a half sacks. That's a good one. Cause if he's over two and a half sacks Casey's probably not winning. So Kareem hunt is somebody that really fascinates me. Anytime touchdown for him is plus 135. He's scored in the last four games. Two touchdowns for him is plus 950.

And the reason I mention it is because Mahomes, they don't run sneaks with him. So unless Mahomes scores from like the four yard line or the seven, like when it's around the goal line, they go with running backs. His 50 plus yards is plus one 15 for rushing 70 plus yards is plus three 20. Most rushing yards in a game. If you like KC is seven to one for hunt. But I, you know, I was looking back at the Houston game and then especially the Buffalo game,

he was 17 for 64 in that Buffalo game. And they threw it on once. Pacheco is five for 12. I think the Eagles are big. Pacheco is five for 12. I think the Eagles are big. Pacheco is like a little guy. I actually think hunt's going to be the guy for them in this game. And I feel like it's gravitating toward them anyway, or for that anyway, when, uh, the bigger the moment it is, it just seems like they like having hunt out there. So I kind of like all the hunt bets. Yeah, he's their tush push, right?

Like he's a wrecking ball at the one or two yard line. So they give it to him. He goes in, um, Pacheco. I would only take his like receiving props. I don't, I don't think they trust them. I don't trust them as a running back over four and a half longest reception for Pacheco's hit 13 at the last 17th. Um, he averages like nine over that stretch, but let me,

let me throw this by you. I'm putting a little on my homes for first touchdown at 18 to one. I know because he got injured, they don't do the tush push. Um, a little talked about play. It should be spoken about more is when he rushed to the line of scrimmage against Buffalo and did that, um, end around that, basically that bootleg to get the first down. I think Andy Reid wants to have an FU moment here,

whether it's a Philly special or something. I think I could see him wanting Mahomes to score from the one. I don't know if it's early on or late in the game, but you might get a sneak. I mean, I don't know why. Is he more likely to get injured? I know he got injured on the sneak years ago, but.

Yeah, they've just never tried it since he got here. Right. Along those lines, there was a chief's prop I liked. It was over four and a half guys that rushed the ball. And this basically goes down to P Ryan. If P Ryan, he runs the ball, they get to five because worthy has at least one carry every game. Hunt and Pacheco. Mahomes is going to run. So you basically bet on P Ryan. P Ryan has no runs in the playoffs and the chiefs always zag when they get to the super bowl. So I wonder, is there like the one it's like third and nine? Oh my God, it's a draw, draw play to P Ryan, but I like the four and a half over. I did the, it's going to come down to like a stupid replay because Mahomes, you might get P Ryan, but it could be just like a little flip play where it counts as a pass.

Yeah. Yeah. The, the Mahomes stuff, I love this stuff with his legs, the hunt stuff. I think he's going to actually, you know, be pretty prominently involved. The guy that I can't get a handle on is Kelsey. Who's, oh, you just figure the yards for all of his props are five yards higher than they should be. Because he's the most public prop bet there is. You can do 80 plus yards for him is plus $2.35. Seven plus receptions is plus $1.35.

And then there's that 25 plus yards each half is two to one. To me, he's a stay away. I didn't like how he disappeared in that last game. No, Nicole be Dean. So maybe that's, maybe that's a way for him to, but I just feel like they're going to take them out. Yeah. I'm torn here because maybe they stole enough money from us in the

AFC championship game, cause we all bet Kelsey props, right? So maybe that's okay. So maybe he comes back and we know I gave you his Superbowl numbers, right? Like three Oh seven, I think in three games, but there's another way to do this. I like, I'm looking at Noah Gray for a long of 10 or more yards because the Eagles weren't great against the tight ends, right? Like, um, what was it? It was Zach Ertz went for 110.

They have like 10 catches or something last week, something crazy. Noah Gray's 10 or more for a long, uh, he's hitting 12 of the last 17. So that could be, I mean, it's just even, even up. Uh, but you know, that could be something that. That's a good one. They go to him a lot too. Yeah. I like that one.

So you agree that Kelsey's a stay. Yeah. I think the yards is just tough with him. So I would do the first half, second half. That's it. Um, game props, my favorite ones. Both teams get a fourth down conversion is minus one 24. I don't, I can't remember the last NFL game I watched where both

teams didn't get a fourth down. The Eagles seem to get at least one every game. Minus one 24 seems like a layup. And I had this written down. They, I mean, they've gotten a fourth down conversion in every playoff game this year, both teams. So that's, that's five and O and they're 70% plus on the year. And that's top three in the league.

So great. There's another one that I wouldn't recommend, but I thought it was interesting just cause I thought the odds would have been like more better for the better. Um, fourth down conversion in your own territory, minus one 14. Oh wow. Like why is that like plus one 60? Oh wow. It's so weird to go, go in your own territory, but if that's minus one 14, then why wouldn't I just bet on both teams to get a fourth down conversion?

Right. You know, that's the way to do it. So successful two point conversion, a bet that I think we've done the last couple of years and the odds still haven't shifted enough on it's plus one 75. It feels like we have one every year. You know, I looked at it and it felt like it, but it's not, it's not, it's plus 175. It feels like we have one every year. You know, I looked at it and it felt like it, but it's not the case. It's not true?

No, it's not. Did I just, I tested that? Yeah, I mean, look at the scores. They're all like 20, you know, I think you need a kicker probably to miss at some point and some weird shit to happen. But are you looking for both teams or one team? Is it, you said one team converts or both It says any to any successful two-point version is is my plus 175

Yeah. All right. So I think you need like five touchdowns again, and one of them is a two-point conversion Maybe it's a stay away. How about a 60 yard reception for either team plus 435 60 yard plus That's like one worthy down the sideline or one AJ Brown. I wanted the odds to be better for that. Seems like a Super Bowl play maybe, yeah. And then this is one of my favorites. Philly wins the time of possession. Minus 128.

I went back and looked and they've won like almost every week. It feels like, and if you think they're going to win the game, then they're going to win the time possession. I had the eight, seven points as well. Did you have Jaylen Carter over three and a half tackles and assists for plus 120? I did write that down. Yeah. I mean, how is he not going to get four tackles and assists? Yeah.

I had the John over or thean over one and a half assists. He's hit this in five straight and had Quinyan Mitchell under a half of assist. He's five out of six. If you go under there, by the way, I did have, sorry, Kelsey, this could be a good, uh, Kelsey one. Oh, go Kelsey. First catch for Kansas city. Plus two 30 last two Superbowls.

He's had the first catch. What was it? Plus two city plus two 30 last two Superbowls. He's had the first catch. What was it? Plus two 30 plus two 30. Last two Superbowls. They had a one yard catch and a 20 yard catch. My favorite product. Yeah. And then we're going to take a break and then you're going to go through all your

crazy props. All right. Chris Jones sack. Ooh. Plus one 36. So what do we know? What have we seen from the Eagles? Chris Jones sack plus 136. So what do we know? What have we seen from the Eagles? Hertz will go back and if it's not there,

he holds it on too long. We see guys go up the middle and get them. And it seems to happen twice a game. That's exactly what Chris Jones was put on the earth to do, is to push the line back and every once in a while, he gets to the guy. And I just was surprised. I thought that was gonna be, I don't know,

even odds plus one 36 pretty good. Just free value. I like that when they're switching in centers during the game and that means you can't really double team a Chris Jones. So it's pretty good. I'll have more to say about that. A bigger moment, but yes, that there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. All right. So those are all mine. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back because it's going wrong with that. Yeah. All right. So those are all mine. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back. The cousin is going to rip through his favorites and then the most important

part of the podcast, the Gary Russell bet can't wait next. There we go. All right, cause you have the floor rip through your bets and then Gary Russell. Let's do it. Any quarter to end zero zero plus three 10. This has happened 25% of the games, like 14 times. Like I think for the last nine, the first quarter's ended zero zero. I love the zeros everywhere.

You can go on Fandl and buy your squares now, right? You don't have to get stuck with two five at some shitty Super Bowl party and pretend you have a chance and do the math all day with a girl who's selling Girl Scout cookies, someone's great niece ends up winning it without paying attention anymore. Or Daniel buying four squares

and then three other squares for little kids and then just winning it. Yeah, they haven't looked at the screen at once. So I love that, that you could buy your own squares. KC 7-0 is plus 650. Philly 7-0 first quarter is plus 650. I'd take a chance on those. Plus 650? Yeah, for first quarter. Yep. What, is there a seven to three? Of course. Yeah. Seven, three, zeros, mix them all up. Have some fun. There's one for game left. That looks great. That sounds way more fun than being in a pool. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Do it up. I would think you would like this, the triple crown bets. These are like the anchor bets you and Halsey were doing, right? I couldn't land on the right one for the right odds. I was looking at, you say you can bet

Mahomes throws for the most pass. Good. Barkley does the most rushing. Easy. Oh, I'll get nuts with Xavier Worthy as most receiving. And that's my threesome. But I had 650 right there.

But if you anchor the two, if you could be at peace with the fact that my homes is going to have more passing yards, you know, not a, not a certainty, but you know, like just live with it and Barkley should be the rushing yard leader. Then put Worthy in, then put AJ Brown and then put the Vaunte Smith in. You can have like a nice little, uh, you know, three or four bets there. So you're saying just do a whole bunch of them. Yeah. They do your, my home is everything, man. We got one game left. Yeah. Exactly. And then we have the Lakers to bet on. Like we're fine. Yeah, we're good. The NBA is here to save you. Crazy bets.

Luka first Ozempic shot plus 160 on Monday. I don't know how that happened. Luka first gluten-free diet consultation. He's going to be like the Jonah Hill after. This is going to be such a practical joke. Being in a really nice sunny city does have a way of making you feel bad when you're, you know, when you're, when you're pulling over the t-shirt and it's a little tight because you're about to walk around.

Not me, but yeah, him. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right, we got to do the Sal special Eagles first half chiefs game plus seven 50. It hit the last two years. She chiefs were at halftime against the niners. One. Yeah.

And the Eagles. So plus seven 50. And if you want to go the other way, chiefs, first half Eagles game plus 800. So a tie does not help you at first half chiefs game plus seven 50. I mean, I could actually see that happening. I would have thought that would have been like plus 500. Yeah. That's the one.

Great one, Chris. Cousins South Special. Fando should fucking give that to you. They should name that officially the Cousins South Special. People should know what it is. Thank you. Thank you. Both teams complete the first pass, minus 120.

This one I got from GM John Schneider just texted me for the Seattle Seahawks. We got it. So, uh, yeah, both first pass. First completion, both teams. This is hit four in a row. All four, five, six, one yard passes. These guys don't screw around. I don't know.

I don't see them going for the home run ball early on. Right. So this is like second and seven. Let's throw the quick out to Noah Gray for four. We'll take Goddard really quick. Little shovel pass. Just let's keep the clock moving. Confidence builder.

Only minus 120. I really like that one. Not great, but still. Exact scores. This is fun too. Casey to score exactly 30 is 17 to one, 27 is 11 to one, 24 is 10 to one. Five times this year, it's hit on those three numbers.

For the Eagles, 28, 27, and 26. You got 22 to one, 11 to one, 23 to one. Five times those numbers have hit. Live it up, man. Live it up. Let's see, what else do I want to do? Oh, here's something interesting. So they have the playoff leaders, right?

Yeah. Up until like wild card. I saw that. So who's the guy who's still winning for receivers? De'Ami Brown. Yeah. 229 yards. He's plus 360.

I think he could hold on. I think this is where he shines. I think he shines next Sunday by not being in the game. He is a Goddard has one 88. So if you don't think Goddard will have 46, you're good there. Kelsey has one 36. He would need, you know, 90 something and worthy as one 30. I just think plus three 60 for the leader at this point might be a, a decent way

to go. I was wondering if the move is to bet the over on Goddard, but then you also bet the Dami Brown and you can hedge it either way, right? You're smarter than I am with that. So playoff leaders. That's such a fun one. I can't believe so Goddard's the favorite of minus one 25 Dami Brown is plus two 80.

Oh, it was two 80 now. And then, uh, wherey's 10 to one. It keeps going. It keeps going. Yeah. Well, if you think that 60 yard of Worthy's coming, maybe that's the way to do it. But all right. Braden Mann, Eagles punter, under 55 and a half longest punt,

only over 55 four times all regular season. Who knows if he'll even punt, right? He had two against Washington. That's a weird one. That's a long punt long punt like you'd almost that would almost have to bounce and I didn't pick it up Yeah, I got that one of those that question though. Fomentza the not Viking She-am That almost would make me nervous that that line is so high like Fandl knows something. Oh really It's like a giant pun. Yeah.

It is a lot. All right. Jersey number for the first touchdown. Over 15 and a half. You lose the quarterbacks, but you get almost every defensive player. You get Barclay, you get Goddard, you get Kelsey, you get Hunt. You get Peyton Hender shot. I love it.

Over 15 and a half. Even odds for that. Even odds? Yeah. Well, they have to have a number. They put it right at the Kelsey line there. 15. Yeah, but there's got to be some other player that's under 15.

Devonta Smith is under 15. No, Hertz is under, both quarterbacks. Yeah. Devonta Smith. Yes. He's number six. AJ Brown. Yeah.

And AJ Brown's number 11. I just like having Barclay and Kelsey for almost a year. He's number six. AJ Brown. Yeah. And AJ Brown is number 11. I just like having Barclay and Kelsey for almost a year. And Noah Gray. Yeah. And my guy Noah Gray. All right. Let's see.

What else do we have here? They have next gen stats. Did you see? I don't even know how they would do this. Cause worthy to register fastest is plus 285. And he is the fastest. But so what if it's like an eight yard catch? Do they really just measure how fast? It wouldn't be able to get speed probably in that spot.

So you're basically betting that he's gonna have the longest play at plus 285. And it's freaking fast. It would have to be a pass that's at least 25 yards, right? Or a run that's at least 25 yards so the guy can get the full head of steam. Right. So that's why Barkley is the favorite for that one. So he's supposed to have the longest play.

It's that simple. Yeah. I'm going to bet on Travis Kelsey. I just feel like he's looking fast lately. Just seems like, just seems like, no, I would bet I'm worthy on that in the three to one odds and then hope that he gets lucky. I mean, it's crazy.

Imagine Jimmy the Greek looking at this. Like you could have worthy at 18 and a half miles per hour. Like that's minus 172 to do that. Jimmy the Greek would probably end up saying something racist about the bet and it would make him very uncomfortable. Position first touchdown. What would you say? Which would you go with? Probably running back.

Running back is plus 185. Titan would intrigue me though because you have Kelsey, Gray, and Goddard. Titan is plus 420. It's not bad. That's what I was looking at there. Titan plus 420 first touchdown. I like that. Right. I think it's still 420. You know, we were talking about the FU moment for, for Reed against the Eagles. I know he's played him ready. Any quarterback to receive a touchdown,

70 to one alignment, a score 18 to one, a quarterback, either quarterback catches a pass is 21 to one. That's pretty good. I know these things don't happen a ton, but this is it. There's your last chance to use the trick play for the year. Right. Yeah. I can't see Casey doing it with my homes.

So it basically come down to Jaylen hurts. And then if you're Sirianni, do you want to rip off the Philly special or play like that? And then it doesn't work. And like, Oh, look at fucking serianity trying to do the goal line. Right. Yeah. But maybe, maybe the 21 to one just to catch a pass could be interesting. Right. Right. Uh, then you get the stupid stuff. I mean, I I'm going purple Gatorade. It's gone down already. It was plus two 40. Oh, there's been action. You could bet it on Fandl now, which is a frigging miracle. Uh, purple's down to two to one. It was purple the last two years.

The chiefs won the last two years. It was purple. Why would they screw with a good thing? Um, purple has a chance to catch orange as the high, uh, got orange is five. Purple is four of all the super bowls. Uh, you know, we've got the Kobe thing. It's been five years since Kobe's gone. You could go Kurt purple there.

If you're the Eagles, uh, you know, I think I just also, let's just talk about Kendrick Lamar has like an Easter thing going, maybe it's in his rider that there has to be purple Gatorade. I don't know. Purple two to one seems like a good, uh, that sound I could probably get inside info on that. There's, there's some sort of purple something. There's too much action on purple. Maybe it's, maybe it's that Luca went to the Lakers.

Now it's like a whole purple week. Oh yeah. That's the other thing. Yeah. That this is going to be, throw up again. You don't like that? No, just Luca. It's going to be physically ill. Yeah. They're like, Oh my God, he's lost 25 pounds. And LeBron has him using the Versa climber. It's like, cool. Nobody's going to win the title now for the next seven years. Listen, no one was more surprised than LeBron. He found out what was he getting, like a bacon wrapped hot dog in New York

after the next game. He had nothing to do with this at all. Nothing. He had no idea. It's good. No, no idea. He's completely shocked. I'd like to see big Dom get involved in this Gatorade scandal. Doesn't this seem like something like big Dom switches it out and some mobsters hit

big on this prop. I think that's how this one's going down. Uh, John Batiste anthem. This one, you might not be able to find that fandal 120 and a half seconds. He did a minute 35, which is 95 seconds at the NBA all-star game. Yeah. In 2017. Does he show off 30 seconds worth?

How many? 120 seconds? That seems like a lot. It's two minutes. So it's been under two minutes and five of the last six years. I'll never forget when Lewis K gave us the inside info and risked his job so we could win that prop. Is Louis going to be at this thing again?

Did we win? Yeah, we won because he told us what was going to happen. He was in the building. Yeah. It was like the best inside info. I had the flip side of it though. Nick Khan, my friend Nick Khan, who runs WWE, we saw his son at, uh, UFC a few weeks ago and we're talking Royal Rumble. And, uh, his son, Sonny, who's a great kid and it was like, Sonny, what's

going to happen to rumble? And he goes, John Cena is going to win the Royal Rumble. And then he's going to wrestle Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania. Oh no. And we were like, holy shit. And then John Cena was one of the last two and then he lost. Right. Sonny swerved us. He's learning from the best.

Wow. Wow. If you can't trust WWE inside info. I can't trust a nine year old son of the guy who runs WWE. What can I, who can I trust? Come on, Nick. Nick's patting his son on the head right now. He's like, great job. Good job, son. Did it again. Uh, well I'm trying to figure out, oh out two or more diss tracks from Kendrick Lamar regarding Drake is minus 400. Wow.

Well, he's definitely playing not like us. Right. So then they would have to maybe does a medley count? What if it's a medley with like four songs in it? Yeah, they have to because everything's a medley now. They don't really stop down for new songs. And then there's dumb shit. There's Taylor Swift to announce pregnancy during or after super bowl 16 to one.

Will he propose Travis after at eight to one? Uh, we might just have to do that so that you don't throw up again. Can we talk about the proposal? Cause why is that still lingering in such a real way? Makes you almost think it's going to happen after the game. If the NFL was scripted, the Chiefs would win and then he would propose. So eight to one seems high. Right.

And he didn't go to the Grammys, which is going on right now as we're, as right. Also that's a better bet than Chiefs' money line because he's not going to propose if they lose. That's true. He's only proposing if they win. It's like the Chiefs have lost by 10. Hold on. Let's go to the field where Travis Kelsey has a special announcement. Right.

It has to be a win. The Chiefs are going to try harder if they know he has plans to propose. I don't know. It gets them confused. Probably not. Do you know Metro Boomin? What about him? He's the first celebrity on stage.

He's plus 125. He's the favorite. Not Tommy Alter? Tommy Alter? Tommy Alter? He's the first celebrity on stage. He's plus 125. He's the favorite. Not Tommy Alter? Tommy's fourth.

I had Tommy Alter. This is my number one. I'm trying to think that might be it before we get to the good stuff there. What are the odds of me being in New Orleans? I wish you would go. What do you do? You have another NBA thing this week or something? I don't know.

There might be more trades. I don't know. Oh, that's a good one. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. What are the ads of me being in New Orleans? Is it the those come out of Vandal? What do you do? You have another MBA thing this week or something? I don't know. There might be more trades. I don't know. Oh, that's right. You got to stick around for these dumb trades. As you know, because you've seen it, New Orleans is terrible for me. Yeah, it's not fun for you. I can't handle it. I can't handle it.

So that doesn't mean I'm not going to go, but I know that it's a bad city for me. Yeah. Well, the bad thing is like, you could not even be looking for trouble and get food poisoning from Roy Oysters. How do you say that? Roy Oysters. Roy Oysters. Roy Oysters is the new state of comedian.

He's touring with Jeff Ross. He's going to be the first diss track. Yeah. All right. So the quick setup for Gary Russell, this was a million years ago. Um, we were doing a Superbowl props, but right around when we invented Superbowl props in the 2000s and, uh, you did the Gary Russell bet. You had this big bet. You're all excited about it.

I thought it was going to be like Ben Roethlisberger, 280 yards or whatever it was. Nope. This was Cardinal Steelers Superbowl. And or whatever it was. Nope. This was Cardinal Stalers Superbowl. And your big thing was Gary Russell. What was it? He would. To not score a touchdown, to not score a touchdown. You had studied it, researched it.

And he's minus one 50. He had like two touchdowns all year. I was like, why is this only minus one 50? Yeah. So he scores in the first quarter. And I think we were watching the Superbow bowl together and we're just dying, laughing. And then we get this email from somebody who said they were at a super bowl party. There's a male and a female.

They both started laughing. They didn't know who each other were. They were like, do you guys listen? Do you listen to BS report? And they ended up getting married. I can't believe. So the Gary Russell pod has led to, this pick has led to a marriage. It's led to a marriage.

It's led to a marriage. It's led to almost bankruptcy for me. I am not very good at it. Now I pick an underachieving no name player to have a reception or a carry. I hit with like Henry Kronowski. It's the least sexy prop you can bet, but you're Adam and Lee. Hank Kronowski was the best one, I think. That was good.

I took your Patriots tight end once that that Michael Huma-Nowali. Oh yeah, that one hit. Yeah, Michael Huma-Nowali. But honestly, I don't think I've hit since Fozzie Whitaker. And I feel like the Chiefs and Eagles have ruined the Gary Russell special because we kind of know all the third and fourth stringers, right? Like, I'm not going to go with Kenneth Gainwell or Jahan Dotson or, you know, you said some Adjiproof P.

Ryan for the chiefs. Otherwise we know the top six receivers. So I had to dig deep and here's what I ended up with. I was never going to count you out. I knew you would find something. You weren't going to quit on Gary Russell. No, I can't quit on Gary Russell. I can't believe we haven't heard from that couple.

It must be a, must've split early on if that's actually how they met. Yeah. Maybe that's like a sad story. Now it's a divorce. The guy's living with his parents. Please reach out to us if that's the case. Are you ready? Yeah.

Chiefs defensive lineman, Mike Dana to record a sack at plus 235 is the Gary Russell special 2025. Hear me out. 27 year old fifth round pick out of Michigan. Yeah, he's on the postseason roster, had a good game against the Bills. He had a sack. He did. His name was mentioned a couple times.

He had a sack and now it's going to be mentioned again couple times. He had a sack and now it's gonna be mentioned again and again and again. He had six and a half sacks last year. He had five in 22. He had two at Philly in 2021. He's one of those guys, Simmons, you talk about who was like really good in high school and then some scouts saw that

and he was really good in college and then he ended up being a pro. Oh, my theory. Yes. Yeah, one of the guys really good high school, college and then the pros. Yeah, they get pro. Oh, my theory. Yes. Yeah. When a guy has really good high school college and then the pros. Yeah, they get recognized. Yeah. Yeah.

Derek Henry theory. Four tackles a sack, two quarterback hits, a force fumble against the Bills. Madden gives them 85 acceleration and 90 tackling ability. Mike Dana, go get it. My Gary Russell special dude of 2025, a sack plus two 35. Grew up in Michigan, played at central Michigan university and the university of Michigan, a fifth round draft pick six foot one and a half two 51. Oh, stud.

He's won two super bowls, resigned with the chiefs on a three year, $24 million deal in April, 2024. He's not chopped liver, that Mike Dana. Yeah, no way. Mike Dana, great one. There we go. All right, that's our Super Bowl Prop stuff. So you're doing a whole bunch of stuff this week.

You're going to New Orleans. We're gonna be doing a bunch of content. And eventually they'll give you a pick. Do you wanna do parent corner quick? I could do it, I have one, yeah. All right, go. Well, first of all, I crashed puberty night the other night. Remember I told you, Harrison and his friends. Yeah.

There's a, there's an instructor and we switch houses every Friday. Um, they gather and there's something going on and this week it was at my house. So it was hard to avoid, even though my wife's like, just get lost. You know, you're not mature enough for this, but so I was going to take my other son out to dinner, but I was like, let me check in on this. And they're showing a birth on TV. It's like on my television, like a birth.

And the kids are like covering their faces and everything. And then they have, yeah, it's really nutty. And they have questions afterwards about pregnancy. And Harrison asks, can the baby poop when it's inside the mother? And I just like snickered and I was like, I gotta get the hell out of here. This is just too stupid. But that's part one.

Part two, you talked about the Royal Rumble. I still love it. I still like doing the pool, as long as there's like four people involved. So I was like, all right, I'll put up $50. My godson was here, my two younger sons, it was me. And then we picked numbers for Archie who's in college, right? So we got six people or no, five people, six picks each. And it comes down to Jay Uso, who Harrison has, and John Cena, who Archie has. And Archie loved

John Cena. It was his absolute favorite growing up. So it's kind of poetic. And like you said, it would make sense that John Cena would at least come down to these two. He would, he would win. He would emerge. They've been hinting at it for a month and a half. And this was the farewell tour of John Cena is going to be leading WrestleMania. And it doesn't happen for John Cena. Jay Uso ends up winning. Harrison wins the $50 and immediately makes a, um, a taunting video and puts it on the, text chain. He's like, your boy lost it for you Archie. That's it for you. $50 right here. Sorry pal. You know, all that stuff. And then Archie a few hours later says, I didn't even get

to congratulations Harrison. I didn't even get to pick my numbers. I will be back better than ever next year. And so that we could go back to these days. And he pans the camera and he shows his laptop of Harrison having a temper tantrum when he lost the role. Oh, he's taunting him for past behavior. So I was like, this is great. This is the best thing I've ever done. You've always wanted this.

Created shit on the family text chain. Melissa's like, what's wrong with you people? So anyway, that's- Wow, she's definitely like, that's outside of the family. Yeah, that's it. So my son was going away this weekend and I drove him, he was going on some skiing trip, even though he barely skis, and I drove him to a friend's house

so he could drop his stuff off there because they were leaving from the friend's house after school. So we ended up, so I drive Ben and his friend to school, which I haven't done in a while. Right. Kid gets in, he gets in, his friend gets in the back. Ben who was sitting in the front with me then goes and gets in the back. So now I have no passenger seat. And I don't know what, what's know, what's your stance on this?

Cause I'm like, what am I, the fucking Uber driver? He's like, well, I didn't want him to be alone in the back. I'm like, cool, this is crazy. There's nobody in the front seat. You guys aren't like eight, like you're 17. Like you should be in the front. He's like, well, I want to sit back here. And you got in a fight.

I usually say something stupid, like in a butlered voice, like would you care to go to the pox, uh, you know, and nobody ever gets it. And now that's it. So what are the passenger, what are the parent passenger rules when this happens? Like, cause I really feel like the kid should, your kid should sit in the passenger seat and then if he wants to talk to his friend, turn around and talk to him, but don't like leave the passenger seat empty. Yeah.

Three basically adults. They're both, they're both juniors in high school and I'm in the front and they're in the back and just fucking weird. Okay. So this is different. I think them from when we were growing up and everything else, cause are they showing each other stuff on the phone for the whole ride? No, they just wanted it. They're both on their phone. I don't even know. Maybe they're texting

about me. It would have doofus on them. I don't know what they're doing. They could do that anyway. They could still do that. You're watching the road. Yeah, it's weird, man. I don't like it. So I'm on the record with that. Another bank complaint. Now, because we're roughly around the same size, he just comes into my closet and just takes, size, he just comes into my closet and just takes, you know, Oh, I need a, I need a t-shirt that I'm tired of my own t-shirts. I'll just grab one of dad's and he just goes in and he picks and then I never see the t-shirt again. And he also like picks out, he's ruffling through them.

So it's like this pile in my shelf. So the whole thing of like, I hope my kid grows and we're around the same size someday. It's actually, when it actually happens, it sucks. Cause he's just starts wearing my clothes. And then the third thing was, he, he wanted to get some ski stuff for the trip and he said, no, I'm going to do it myself. I'm gonna do it myself. I'm like, all right, this is going to be a disaster. So he said, no, no, I'm doing it myself. So he goes and he gets a couple of things and, uh, he thinks he's good.

And then my wife came home and she's like, I thought we're going to get, no, he's like, I'm good, I'm good. So then he shows this bag of what he got and he got like 40% of the stuff. Is there a bigger heat check than the boys in that 16 to 18 range? Or like the, I got this, I got this. And they just are fucking terrible at everything. Yeah. Like they don't have it.

Guess what? You don't have anything. You're driving around with a broken windshield wiper that I told you to fix three weeks ago and then it starts raining and you put the windshield wipers on and you scratch the windshield. Like you don't have anything.

It's like, you're not smarter than me. I am positive I'm smarter than you. Yeah. And ski trip is right there at the top of that. I mean, you can forget a million things, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's bad to jump into first one of the first things to jump into. But it's like you become this basketball coach where you're bringing somebody off the bench and the guys just not listening to the plays and then like

dribbling into a triple team, you'd basically Brownie James. And you're just like, I fucking, you're just supposed to run the pivot action to the side. This heat check age that boys have, it just makes me want to punch Ben like twice a week. And he'd probably take me in a fight. But can't he just reach into your closet and grab some ski clothes? Just fucking listen to me. I told you to get oil. Like I told you, I know you told me.

I have, but you didn't get the oil. Right, I know. It just, does it get better? Like Archie's now about to hit his twenties. Like does it get better? No, it's about the same. I don't know, Archie started cooking for himself now, which surprised me.

So that's good. Does he clean up after? Not that great at that, but you, but it could be a little worse. Because that was another thing with Ben. Our dog was sick for a week because he put the fucking cake frosting right next to the counter and then he blamed the dog. Well, he shouldn't have gone up there and gotten it. Murph has an IQ of 20.

You can't be like, what things he shouldn't have done. He's an idiot. But is this a boy thing? I mean, you have one of each. be like what things he shouldn't have done. He's an idiot. But is this a boy thing? I mean, you have one of each, so I don't know if- I really think it's a boy thing. I don't, I just think they feel like they're always right and they're also still stupid because they're not adults yet and that front part of their brain hasn't fully formed.

So it's the rare combination of irrational confidence and lack of experience with everything. And I don't need help. It's a, it's a moment to choose off us, like never asking for directions. Yeah. Stop suffocating me. Yeah. Yeah. Just leave me alone. And then they're batting 28% decisions. Sitting in the back seat. And then sitting in the back seat as I'm driving. So I'd probably be over driving.

My son did a weird thing real quick about that. Like not sitting, not only did he not sit in the front seat, but I had to take a bunch of wrestlers to a tournament. He let like one of the wrestlers sit in the front seat with me. Like, instead of him? Instead of him.

I was like, all right, I guess I'll talk to this kid for an hour. Wow. In front. Maybe they just don't like us. That might be it. Yeah, yeah, that might be it too. Can they just say that?

Can I ask a bit? Yeah. All right, cuz. Good luck in New Orleans. There it is. We missed you. Come down, man. You can come for a couple nights.

Who knows? Don't worry about it. I can't be ruled out. Let's do it. Good luck with the betting and all the picking this week and I will see you on Sunday night after the Super Bowl. Yes. Good job by you, buddy.

Good job by you. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Goldsberry and Sal. Thanks to Kyle and Saruti and Gahal. As always, you can watch all the clips and videos from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. We have new rewatchables coming for you as well.

On Monday night, we did Before Sunrise last week. Doing Before Sunset on Monday night. That's going up. Brought in a fourth person with me and Sean and Chris Ryan to talk about one of my favorite movies of the 2000s. You can watch that on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. I'm going to see you definitely for another podcast,

Tuesday or Wednesday. Not sure which day, so stay tuned. See you during the week. I don't have a few years with him On the wayside, on the brunson liver I'm saying I don't have in DC. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-887-897777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here, visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8