The Bill Simmons Podcast - Steph in Purgatory, a LeBron Mini-Mailbag, Jaylen Trade What-Ifs, and the Revived Red Sox With Joe House and Bill’s Dad

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to discuss the biggest losers of LeBron going to the Sixers before diving into a mailbag. Then, Bill’s dad pops on to talk about the Red Sox turning the season around, the World Cup in Boston, the Jaylen Brown trade, and much more! (0:00) Intro (3:02) Losers of the LeBron signing (25:46) Mailbag (01:19:01) Catching up on Boston sports with Bill’s dad Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Joe House and Bill’s Dad Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Brought to you by PayPal. Learn more at paypal.com The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My name is Peter Parker, but I'm also Spider-Man. This Thursday, we're faced with a threat. That can be anyone. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker. I'm just a neighbor, friendly neighbor. But he hasn't forgotten them. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing. That's my responsibility.

Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand-new day in theaters Thursday. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by PayPal. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network where I had an unexpected Friday podcast. If you missed it, LeBron picked the Sixers. I had Zach Lowe coming out anyway to take redraftables for this podcast, but we're running all of it on Friday.

So if you wanted to hear our gut reactions to that, that's what went up on Friday. Zach did something on his podcast as well. Rewatchable's obsession live on Netflix at 7 o'clock Eastern, 4 o'clock Pacific. going to be me and Chris Ryan and Joanna Robinson, who is fresh from Comic-Con. Can't wait to talk about that movie. It is the first same-year movie we've done for 2026. I'm sure we're going to end up doing The Odyssey at some point. But we try to do one movie from the year itself every year.

And this seemed like a good one. There's been really fun movie to talk about. I loved it. So that is tomorrow. Stay tuned for that. Coming up on this podcast, House and I can talk about the losers of the LeBron saga. And then I have a big ass mailbag with a lot of good questions. So thanks to everybody who mailed in that stuff.

And then after House, my dad finally agreeing to come on three weeks after the Jalen Brown trade. Was so mad about the Jalen Brown trade, refused to come on. And now he's going to finally come on. And we're going to talk about the state of Boston sports for the last 35, 40 minutes of this podcast. So it's a little Sunday surprise for you. I know I said I was going to have a podcast on Sunday, but we're going to do it. I am not sure about the rest of the week yet, so stay tuned on now. You might not be seeing me until next Sunday, but we will see.

Anyway, let's take a break. Pearl Jam, and then my buddy, Joe has. This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by PayPal. You know a clutch move when you see one, a no-look pass, a buzzer-beater, big steel. Well, imagine if your wallet could pull off moves like that. That, my friends, is PayPal. Now you can find offers from hundreds of brands like Sony, Allbirds, and Viator, and save offers before you check out. Earn unlimited rewards.

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Joe House is here. Our baseball teams made a trade last night. Yeah. Early for me. You liked me? I liked early. I'm happy for both of us. There we go.

And I'm happy to have baseball back in my life. Washington hasn't been competitive since 2019 when they won the World Series. And they weren't supposed to be competitive this year, which is why they have a historically bad bullpen. Yeah, really bad. I saw it when they played the Red Sox. You didn't have a single guy. You enjoyed it.

Yeah. You saw it and you enjoyed it. Yeah. We made a trade. It's good. Baseball. Let's go. We're going to do a mailbag.

But before we do that, I want to talk about the LeBron signing to Philly happened on Friday. And I wanted to do a quick thing about the biggest losers from the LeBron signing. Well, hold on a second. It's warm. Let me get a little warm up here. It's a little warm. Oh, my God. I didn't know they actually sold those.

I thought that was a joke. Well, now they need to do the Caleb Wilson Jizz Room one. And we'll really be cooking. What a July. That was a fun one because that got aggregated in a way that made me sound like a psycho, which I kind of enjoyed. Aggregated. I was trying to make a joke about how excited the Bulls fans were. Then I was trying to make you laugh.

But then all of a sudden, I'm going to sound like a mania. Ejaculagulagrated. I love that. As you know, I don't care. Of course. The LeBron Saga, biggest loser in your opinion. I have a list. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven losers.

Who is the biggest loser of the LeBron Saga? It's close. It's close. But I'm going to say the Golden State Warriors. That's so I had number one. See, this is why. We wavelength. I mean, Steph Curry had as my number one loser.

It's Steph. And, and. ownership didn't help by coming out, you know, over the last handful of days and making a non-commitment. Like, are we putting Steph in NBA hospice? Is that what we're doing? It's his last chance for relevance and it's gone. I wrote down, it is the saddest older NBA superstar situation since 2011 Nash on the Sons

and 2007 Garnett before he got to. traded to Boston of just guys now in purgatory who clearly have more to offer and it's not going to happen. There's a couple of pieces to this. One is, why didn't they trade for Jalen Brown? They weren't interested in it. They weren't interested. They were like, they didn't even counter.

That was when the Celtics were canvassing the league doing the Jalen fire sale, which I'm going to talk about with my dad later, words by all accounts, both sides, just not interested. for Jimmy Butler's expiring and some picks. And the irony is if they do that, I think LeBron goes there. Right? I agree. I mean, the stories of LeBron playing golf with Draymond every single day in Los Angeles, those are true.

And not only are, you know, from sources on the ground, our own Nathan Hubbard observed it with his own two eyes. Right. Right. So there's so many things I don't understand about that. One is like, who do the Warriors think they were going to get with Jimmy Butler's expiring in first-round picks if it wasn't Anthony Davis or Jalen Brown? And why are you so desperate just to waste the end of the Steph era?

You already did this. You held out in a Wiseman and Cominga too long. Right. Do they just think maybe Steph can't be the best guy in a championship team anymore? 22 can never happen again. So even stack in the deck, they have no chance against San Antonio. Okay, see. Isn't it, isn't he entitled to find out? Well, he's never, the best thing about him is he's like, Duncan, he's never going to bitch about this. Right. Yeah. He's just not. He's not going to go.

But we'll do it on his behalf. We'll bitch on his behalf. I think it's outrageous. We saw it in the Olympics. Like, this is somebody who should have more relevant basketball moments and it shouldn't be in a playing game. And I don't know what they're doing. I don't understand Butler's not helping them this year. even if he comes back, it's not like he can play 40 minutes a game. It's almost like they know they're going to get their money from Steph for the season tickets and the suites. They make the most revenue in the league. They make more revenue. I think they make more than the next two from their situation with the stadium and the tickets and everything.

So it's like they don't want to live the afterlife of, oh, we gave all this stuff away to have Steph have one last run and it didn't work out. I would have traded for Davis. Well, the only feasible and reasonable explanation is that they think that keeping their powder dry now gives them an opportunity once the season gets going. And we can do a ranking at some point. We are in these summer months of who are the top three or four guys that will be discontent and malcontent over the first third of the season that the warriors can drop in a long list. Yeah, no doubt. Well, but if you look at the conference odds on Fanduil, they are, let's see, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota, Houston, Lakers. Golden State is seventh best odds to win the conference at 27 to 1.

And honestly, I would book that bet right now with, because I don't, I don't think there are moves left. Is there like a Duren sign-in trade move? I don't know. Anyway, Steph will never say it. And maybe he doesn't care. won the four titles. He got his 22 title. He wants to end in the Bay Area. And you see it when San Antonio made that run. And Duncan's there and Manu. And, you know, that like when you go start to finish with a team like that, you're just there for your whole life. And maybe that's all he wants

and doesn't care. Very fair. You know, it's not fair. Not fucking trading anything. You and I feel the same way. What would you have, what would you have traded Davis for as a whiz fan? What would have commanded your attention from Golden State? Yaxil and Picks. I would have taken Yoxel in Picks. So you wouldn't have taken the Butler expiring? You have to take the Butler expiring. That's the requirement for the money.

But you would have taken like a 30 swap, something like that, no Yaxil. I don't know. I mean, Anthony Davis doesn't really play basketball. The problem is you need a commitment from Jimmy Butler to do some. mentoring. This team is super, this Washington team has a very rosy picture of the mentoring role. Yeah. The Davis is going to play. We'll see. He's a good guy. Everybody likes him. Yeah. I thought trading for not trading for Jalen was irresponsible. My next loser was Jalen Brown, who could have been the guy in Brooklyn or Milwaukee, could have gone to Gold State, could have gone to

Charlotte, could just stayed in Boston, but clearly was feeling it. And now he's the fourth. He's the fourth option on the Sixers trying to figure out how to be like basically there do it all, big minutes. Okay, I'll take over these three minutes in the third quarter. But, you know, the fourth scoring option on this team basically, right? I, I dramatically disagree with you. Okay. Yeah, he's not a loser in any way, shape, or form.

I think you are in the first place. I think he's going to get the extension that he wants. So that makes him away. I do. If he gets that, he's off the loser list. I would find that hard press to think they're going to pay him, Max, and Edgecombe max contracts. I think that's part of the calculus for bringing him in.

But more importantly, in terms of the basketball proposition, I don't know that I really agree with this idea that he wanted to be the lead guy on a team. His expression of enthusiasm for the way that this particular, particular Celtic Celtic circumstance played out to me doesn't extrapolate into

this is what he wants in his basketball career. It was a unique circumstance. He was really good. He played a great role in dragging a team that was forecast to be much worse into a

superior position. And how fun is this that he's about to embark upon this situation in Philadelphia? They are the traveling road show. Everybody in America can't wait to see them. Hopefully, good points. You know, LeBron and Embed can play some games on the road for some of these high wattage

matchups. But you think he's going to enjoy his 18.2 usage rate this year? It's fine. It doesn't matter. Winning is what matters. All right. I'm being respectful. All of it is what matters. All right. So let's make these guys the second biggest losers then. Miami. They got Dick T's nice and hard by LeBron and his camp. They really, yeah.

They have, they had that eight and a half million spot burning a hole in their pocket. And now they're looking at Bradley Beale and DeBardo Rosen. Well, those guys deserve eight and a half million. LeBron deserves 80 and a half million. But, yeah, those, I almost said Miami as my number one biggest loser because they,

There's nothing they can do. They're so fucked. Like there is nothing in terms of assets, roster moves going forward. They just needed. They just did it. They made all their moves. Yeah, that was it. Right now, so they're still seventh, 13 to 1, seventh best odds to win the east.

That feels right. Yeah, it's interesting. I'd have Indiana over them too. Right now it's NICS plus. 320 all the way through Philly, Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland's 12 to 1, Miami's 13 to 1. Indiana, Indiana's 14 to 1. Okay. I mean, that's fair.

Like, if I give you a choice, bet on the conference finals, you can have Miami or Indiana. Are you ever taking Miami over Indiana? Under no circumstances. Would you take Orlando over Miami? No, no. We got to see Franz Wagner play. Would you take Atlanta at 20 to 1 over Miami? At that price, I might.

because Atlanta is not done. Atlanta is trying. They have done a really interesting job in terms of building a team. And it feels like the ceiling is pretty high. 20 to 1 is kind of a good price, in my opinion. It's not bad because they have room to do other stuff. Yeah, they have room to do stuff. I have to say at gunpoint right now,

I would have Nick San Antonio, the rare finals rematch. Oh, how great would that be? Yeah. Somebody asked him that this weekend. Who do you think would I, like, if you had to guess right now, what would the finals be? And I was like, I think it's a run-it-back. Almost like Miami-Saint-Antonio in 13 and 14. I'm going to go on to Fandle.

They offer the final matchup market. It's probably not there yet, but I'm definitely- I'll tell you what it is right now. Who do you want? Oh, Philly and O KC. Philly in OKC. Yeah. That would be

11-1. Oh, no way. No, bad odds. No chance. Zero percent chance of bed. Bad odds. No, thank you. Okay.

Well, I didn't, Miami forgot the part that it ended badly with LeBron there and he won two titles there. And it became clearer and clearer that, you know, he wants to win the title. That's why he did this. I admire it. Great job by him. It was a title chase pick, and Philly had more to offer than Miami.

My next loser is Philadelphia has a place to live. And this comes from Jeff and San Francisco, this email. Isn't LeBron choosing Philly and then immediately declaring the need that he'll be living in New York City, the ultimate pooling a pond, the pond is good for you moment, Katashak. Philly is some of the proudest, dedicated fans in sports. I can't imagine this will sit well with them. I just wanted to read that email because Philly's definitely strutting around. He doesn't even want to live there.

He wants he's going to live in like New Jersey or New York. Settle down. Golden State in general as a loser. They have Butler coming back in March. They have K.P. and Horford as their center combo. I don't trust either guy. Nope. Dremont opted out.

Now they're going to have to, you might just leave or they'll have to opt back in. and they have no actual point card in their roster right now that I can find. You know who needs a backup center? The Sixers. Draymond? You know who likes playing golf together? Draymond and LeBron. He's not,

he's still in the money accumulation mode. Yeah. Understandable. I'm just saying. I do wonder if there's a, if there's some sort of Jayland Duren, Drehman, something.

because he, you know, he went to college of Michigan. It would be fun on the pistons, put him in the east. But yeah, the Golden State in general. Here's my question. I know he doesn't want to get traded. I know he wants to retire there. Are there Curry trades you would entertain? Absolutely, yes.

I mean, I had this conversation last year. It was on the table last year, really as soon as Jimmy Butler got hurt, why wouldn't Golden State? I understand all of the economic impact that goes well beyond, you know, just playing basketball games. Well, the tickets are paid for this year. But yeah, I mean, that would, that's the most rational move, the most rational, the rational economic actor, the rational basketball franchise move is to trade Steph Curry. So, undeniable. If he's getting traded, is he going for a ring or is it just he goes home to Charlotte? I don't think he's ever getting traded just for the record.

I understand. But I don't think he's going to trade either. Who knows? I think he would want to play with a competitive team. It's not, I wouldn't call it ring chasing. I wouldn't, you know, impugn Steph Curry's motivations in that manner. He wanted to play with a competitive team. The same way that the bronze choice was the most competitive team, according, you know, and not Minnesota.

That's all. Can I throw a scenario at you? I'm listening. It's not a ring chase. But what if San Antonio with Fox and all of the picks they have just said,

fuck it? And went to go and stay. I'm like, we'll do Fox. You put the picks together or any way you want for a couple years of stuff here. And now we're trying to acquire

2004 Olympic Steph. And he goes to San Antonio and tries to grab a couple more. It's pretty interesting. I mean, speaking of the traveling circus, it's already, San Antonio is already, you know, must see when they come to your town. You have to go see them,

hoping that Wembe's going to play. Yeah, because people always say, like, oh, they traded them back to Charlotte. He's not doing that. He's not winning anything in Charlotte. But with San Antonio, who has Atlanta's first round pick, they have a swap with Boston,

they have swaps with Dallas or Minnesota in 2030. They have a 2030, swap with Sacramento and they have all their first and they have other stuff too you know i don't think they'd put castle and dylan harper those guys would not be on the table but maybe carter brant would be i don't know but you think sam presti's working on a package right now for i think he has a staff package like just so you guys know i have a package because prestes on a heater he's he he he loaded atlanta He loaded Atlanta. He squeezed the shit out of Denver.

And then he squeezed Denver with that Spencer Jones thing. I love it. Yeah, he did. We've talked about that. I tweeted about this today. We talked about this forever. Why don't teams try to screw each other over, right? Just go for Jay Wendurran.

Day one, a free agency. Just offer them four years, $230 million, whatever the max is, knowing that they're going to match it anyway. Why not? You're competing against all these teams. You're trying to win a title. Couple more losers, quit Cleveland. Yeah.

Left at the altar by LeBron for the third time. Eh. I will always, for the rest of my life, think that his plan was to go there. And he was under the assumption things would be able to change on the team before he got there. And nothing can change because they can't trade James Harding because they absolutely did a wink, wink deal with him. Nobody wanted the other guys. And he just wasn't playing for Dan Gilbert on the minimum. Okay.

Yeah. From a basketball standpoint, much better chance to win a title in Philly than I think Cleveland, right? We agree on that. No doubt about that. I never liked the Cleveland fit. If Brad Stevens hadn't given Jalen Brown away at the very first moment, he could come up with it. Brad Stevens is a loser. I have him and I have the Celtics who basically traded Philly, Jalen Brown and LeBron James

for Paul George the two first. That's what he did. Tough trade. LeBron to Cleveland makes more sense because Cleveland was in the Eastern Conference final last year. And then the narrative plays out a little bit better. Jalen Brown f f f the whole thing up. I have a couple Celtic fans in my life who saw The Odyssey and think that Jailen Brad Philly trade has Trojan horse potential.

Oh. Here's our gift. It's Jailen Brown. Good. And then you'll get LeBron too. Listen, we're grasped for straws here. Keep enjoying those edibles. Last loser I have is the Lakers.

This is an email from Peter in Orange County, California. Hi, Bill. You've spent a material amount of your professional capital fairly and unfairly dunking on the Lakers. Not untrue. The Lakers tossed you a Carmelina's meatball and you didn't even swing. LeBron signing for $4 million here at the Sixers

is an enormous fail for the Lakers. when are we supposed to see the Mark Walters effect? This feels like a continuation of the bus kids in their delusional ineptitude. From Peter and Orange County. It is interesting. It does make you think, like, could they have played this LeBron thing better?

Or, which would be my theory, they clearly wanted it to end. Right? It feels like from January and February, they were like, you know what, we're good with this whole LeBron thing. We've kind of had it. but they could have had Walker Kessler and Reeves and LeBron.

And to be fair, like LeBron did deliver a playoff series win for the franchise as his parting gift. Like, it's not a small thing that they beat Houston. Yeah. With just effing LeBron. I mean, it's stunning. It's a real indictment of Houston. It was a real indictment of Houston.

No KD, but. It's funny. I didn't see any of those games being replayed on NBA TV. It's like, oh, it's game three, Houston Lakers. Oh, sit down. It's just rock fight. Did you watch the WNBA All-Star game last night? Ooh, I saw the video.

That was a rock fight. Speaking of. I do wonder if there's a what-if with that, though, if the Rockets just win that series, does LeBron even say that's it? Maybe I don't have it in left to offer. I do think that gave him the idea that he could, maybe be a bigger part of a championship team. It felt like to me no matter what, he was going east.

As he, taking in all the circumstances of the way that these playoffs played out, I forgot to give you your victory lap. On what? You said on the podcast last week, you said he was going to Philadelphia, and I mocked you and made fun of you, and we bet dinner. Well, the victory lap is dinner, and this is the funniest thing. I didn't get a chance to text our good buddies, Chang and Nathan, but you know where we're going.

no we're going back to capo that's the dinner motherfucker oh my god I mean that's a pre-spec credit card limit that's hilarious

a lot of rigor NBA people by the way Jay Kyle man had it in early July even Rahim the Dream Rahim the Dream had a dream was driving his car and had a vision both of those preceded me coming on your show and saying that I thought

was going to go to Philly. But I'm the only one that bet with you. So we're going to have a great dinner. I wish I had thought of the whole he could live not in Philly and playing Philly piece. That would have at least, because I was just, no way. Philly, get the fuck out of here. But he's

clearly going to live in New York and then have some I don't know, some nice condo in the Philly Ritz or wherever and he'll can stay there some nights or live in New York. But, yeah. The other element of that, super short flight down to West Palm. So there is magnificent golf in Philly, New Jersey, and New York. Of course, it gets to be cold.

And then there isn't golf. But jumping in the PJ and going down to West Palm and then knocking out all the bangers that are down there. Or you go to Charlotte. He could go to Charlotte. Right. Anyway, he go to Georgia. Yeah. Tremendous golf, short PJ ride away straight down the East Coast.

I have a mailbag. There's a lot of LeBron question. So I want to take a break. Let's go. And then we're going to do a really fun mailback. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales,

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Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. New episodes week over week, watch the Hulu original series Furious, Now streaming only on Hulu on Disney Plus. All right, mailbag time. Thanks to everybody who sends in questions.

I truly appreciate it. It is BSPodcast33 at gmail.com. First one comes from Martin. He asked, like you, I want to see LeBron and Golden State. But it seems like he realized he couldn't win a ring there without staying tied with Steph. Any chance that was a disincentive to go there. This is something I heard for the last month about LeBron not wanting to go to Steph's team, Steph's city.

And anytime I mention the expendables, people always poo-pood it because of that. I think he was going to go. The more we learned about this, he was going to the team that gave him his best chance to win the NBA title and there was no other reason. I agree with that.

I don't think that this notion of going to Steph's team was a disincentive. I think the idea of him coming, those two guys joining forces. What a magnificent story. I don't think that he thinks about, you know, that it would be a coattails kind of situation. Yeah. So the three best teams in the league didn't want them.

Oklahoma City, San Antonio and New York, right? So those three are out. He's never going to Boston. He hates Boston. He's not going to Detroit. So there's five teams. He decided he couldn't win in Miami. They're out.

That leaves Cleveland, Minnesota, Philly, Golden State. Minnesota's too cold. He's not going there. They're out. Cleveland can't trade hard. he's not playing a minimum for Dan Gober. They're out. Golden State won't trade for AD

and didn't trade for Jaylon Brown. So from a pure, I want to win the title, Philly was the move. Of course, I realize that now. I could have realized that five days ago. The fifth title, he took some ring chase abuse.

I don't think it was fair because I think he loves playing basketball. I think a ring chase would have been going to San Antonio. Sure. Agreed. That's a ring chase. Or Oklahoma City. Those are the two ring chase teams. Or the Knicks. He could have gone to the Knicks.

At the price, he agreed to go to Philly. He's not doing that. No, he's not doing that. Dude, we won't without you. And we could have come here 10 times. No, it is a different Knicks team. And we'll have the opportunity to talk this through. The impact of Mitchell Robinson not being on that team is it's not immaterial. It is material. And they don't have an answer yet. I, you know, sort of trust. I implicitly.

Did they get drumming? They got drumming, right? Okay. I mean, they have a live body, is my point. He doesn't lead the NBA in offensive rebounding rate. This happened with the Celtics when we lost Posey. And even though it was probably the right move, he sounded like a five-year deal with New Orleans and I think was good for maybe another

year and a half and then his career kind of died. but we would have a much better chance to know 9 if we had Posey, right? You have to make these decisions money-wise and second apron or not. Next question's from Rob. It's a Steph-related one. He asked for a conspiracy bill.

Conspiracy bill has had a great summer. A lot of people checking in with him. What if LeBron was secretly being a double agent to the Warriors to keep Steph stuck at four rings while he chases his fifth? Conspiracy bill looked at this one. I don't think, I don't think LeBron's measuring himself against Steph with rings or any of that stuff.

I don't think so either. I'm going to pass on that one. I got another email. Oh, I accidentally deleted. I'm sorry I deleted. The person who sent this was asking if LeBron could win the assist title on Philly. So my bad for not giving you credit. It's a great question.

I forgot this because I forgot everything that happened in 2020 because I don't remember one thing that happened that year. He won the assist title in 2020. Do you remember this? I did not remember that. He did 10.2 assists a game on the Lakers team that won the title. That is phenomenal. Won the assist title.

It wasn't by like, you know, an inch. He won by like the next guy was like 9.3. So our leaders that year, to send me down a rabbit hole, the 2020 leaders, James Harden, 34.3 points a game was the points leader. Andre Drummond, 15.2 rebounds a game rebounds. Yeah, believable. LeBron and assists.

Hassan Whiteside in Blocks 2.9. George Hill, 46 percentage for out threes. 46.0. Can you guess who led the league in steals in 2020? you're not going to be able to so I'll give you the answer. No. Jimmy Butler. Ben Simmons.

Oh, amazing. So I tried to figure out that was the weirdest combination of people that ever led the league in the major categories. Don't ask why, but I went through basketball reference. I went through everybody. And I landed on 1978. Does that count? I knew you would like this. Yeah, there's some bullets involved.

The only normal one was George Gervin, 27.2 points a game won the scoring title. Made sense. He won like five or six scoring titles. Our rebounding leader was Truck Robinson at 15.2. Leonard Truck Robinson. Good job, truck. Assists.

Kevin Porter, former bullet, 10.2. Ron Lee led the league in steals, 2.7, and George Johnson was our block leader at 3.4. So if you're going to make a starting five of points, steals, rebounds, assists, and blocks, and you make the weirdest starting five possible. It's 1978. George Gervin,

truck Robinson, Kevin Porter, Rodney, and George Johnson. Is that even like a 35-win team? What was that? Yeah, what was that,

82 and O game or whatever? The 82 and O game, yeah, that had a fun run. Let's see how many games they win. Who wins a series with them or Drummond, Ben Simmons,

LeBron, Whiteside, and James Harden. They win in four. Yeah, sure. That's a sweep. Nobody's beating 1970. 20 sweeps it.

Yeah. All right, this is one of the best questions I've got all year from Leo in Seattle. I hope you get a basketball team soon, Leo. Who do you think we'll play more games for the 76ers franchise from this point today going forward? LeBron James or Joel Embedd. So from right now going forward, he says, let's say LeBron plays 100 regular season games and 16 playoff games over the next two years.

When Bede surpass 1-16, not just for the next two years, but for the rest of the is Sixers career. This is amazing. So Embed's last three years, 39 regular season, six playoffs in 24, 19 total and 25, 38 and 7 last year,

put 109 total last three. So let's be generous and say 45 regular season. They'd play the same amount of playoff games. LeBron's going to be 57 of 60. Yeah, that's why he can't win the assist title, by the way. He's not going to play enough games.

Isn't it 55 for the assist title? Oh, is it that low? Well, even if it's 55, I don't think LeBron's playing 55. So who do you have? That's amazing. Rest of their career on the Sixers. Also includes one of the guys can get traded. Joel could get traded to your team tomorrow.

Yeah, yes. I think I'll take LeBron. I'm going to take LeBron. I am going to take LeBron. It makes a lot of sense for Philly to, to have eyes and ears open to MB trade deals. It really hurts me to say, but I listen to you with Zach,

and then I listen to Zach with Washington and CR. Huh? With the Washington? There is a type of logic to it. Again, it will not be before Christmas of this upcoming season, because Washington wants Anthony Davis to play. See, I disagree. I think if it happens,

it has to happen now, because if Embedd's playing and playing well, they're not going to trade them. And if Embed gets hurt again, they won't be able to trade them. But right now we're in this kind of no man's land with it where it's like, well,

you look pretty good in the playoffs for a week. Well, then it's not going to be Washington. That's all. Okay. It'll have to be for somebody else. So you wouldn't take Embed and all the rest of their picks and phylon, whatever they have left for picks and phylon and some swaps.

And for Davis, it's not enough. it's not up to me, first of all, because I might countenance that, but really, I really, I have my head around the idea of AD as mentor. I love it. He's flying out to Vegas, I love it. I love that you have talked yourself into AD, somebody you've made fun of over and over again for not being able to stay healthy. You. Or Joel and B. I just forgot.

Or Joelle and Bid, which one? You sent me a picture once, and I probably still have it, of when, they announced the NBA 75 and Anthony Davis made it. And you were so upset, you ate like five pieces bars and you sent me a picture of all the rappers. And you said, I'm so upset. I just stayed off his chagas bars. And now he's on your team.

Well, those are two different deals. He could be a great mentor to Alexander Sarr and not being the top 75. He's going to be a mentor for ice packs. Oscar from Kansas City had an NBA, uh, LeBron question. He said, LeBron joined in the Sixers. Feels a lot like Tom Brady going to Tampa, an all-time legend signing with a completely new team. $20,20 were loaded, ready to contend. Brady brought them the leadership experience, made them champs.

Do you think this is a valid comp? I've seen this online. A bunch of people mentioned it. I completely disagree. And I think it's insulting to Brady. Wow. Okay. Brady.

So I went back and I looked at my 2020 NFL prep for that year. Brady had the third best MVP odds for that year. He had just been the best guy on a Super Bowl team two years before. They're over under. People weren't a believer in the supporting cast. They're over under for wins. It was a 16 game season, was eight and a half. They were plus 160 for their division, 10 to one conference, 12 to one Super Bowl,

minus 210 to make the playoffs. They went 11 and 5. They were underdogs in the last three playoff games. He won Super Bowl MVP. He won the MVP of the entire field. fucking league the following season. LeBron's not doing any of that. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's why it's not a perfect calm. I have a better one. Okay. I'm listening. Well, another one I thought of was Brett Farve on the 2009 Vikes. Okay. But they went 12 and 4 with him.

Yes. And he throws the interception and the Saints, the bounty gate. He's probably got nine concussions in the same game. He was fourth MVP last year. That's not happened with LeBron either. So that's not a good one. let me give you Montana and the Chiefs. Oh, wow.

Way back machine. Goes there in 93. They have Marcus Allen who ends up sixth MVP that year. They have Neil Smith and Derek Thomas, who were two of the best defensive players in the league. They had a really good team. And he was like the last piece, 10 to one Super Bowl odds that year.

They go eight and three with them and he gets hurt. They make the AFC title game anyway, Dave Craig and they lose to Buffalo. Wow. And then the next year, they go nine and seven lose to Miami in a wild card game. But to me, it feels like Montana Chiefs. That's pretty good. That would do what I went with.

I like that one. Yeah. He's like the last piece. He's not the piece. You know what I mean? Yep. Rob from Perth, Australia. Oh, love Perth, Australia.

I like the Australian emails. Me too. Are the Sixers now an overbooked WrestleMania match? Down by 10 in the third hit LeBron's music. He comes running down, Sharon Hand, a whack brunt's in the back. Oh, the next of Brunsson. back in it. He gouges J.B.'s eyes. Hidden Beads music.

It is funny. Like, they do have an embarrassment of guys who can take over a game and make something fun happen. Yeah. I like that. Me too. I think the concept of that. All right, this is a multi-part question. This first one's from Nate from Richmond. Listen to the Fight Club rewatchables

featuring me in CR and realize that the Tyler Dirt and split personality is reminiscent of how you talk about conspiracy bill. when someone invokes conspiracy bill in a mailbag, you act like he's a completely different person with his own agency and beliefs. He acts on his own accord and proposed his ideas,

regular bill would not. I wanted to fight that you in conspiracy bill are the same person before he enacts his own version of Project Mayhem. That is true. When I become conspiracy bill, it's like Mr. Miyagi, and Mr. Miyagi would talk about himself in third person.

Yes. He becomes a different person. Different person. Well, Tim asked, for conspiracy bills take. Winning the vote in Ohio, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania would net LeBron 120 of the 270 electoral votes. Is LeBron gearing up for a presidential run in 28?

I mean, Pennsylvania would get him there. 120. It still feels like he needs some work. Well, now, Governor Shapiro is taking some credit, by the way. Governor Shapiro said he was lobbying to get LeBron there. Governor Shapiro wants a victory lap. Should we pour him a little settled down juice? You think he was the one

swing in this one? He tipped it. He called Rich. They were like, King, Governor Shapiro had an amazing idea that we should go after LeBron James with our free agent buddy. All right.

Now we really need conspiracy bill for this next one. From Mike from New Orleans. Can I get conspiracy bills take on this new Blazers owner? The league wants to get back to Seattle. The expansion buying can be that much greater if the new owner knows they don't have to share

the Pacific Northwest market with the Portland Trailblazers. This new Blazers owner seems to be following the playbook. Owners take when they want to make their teams, take their teams out of town and then blame the fans for making them do it. Cutting costs, going war with the community, saying he needs taxpayers, giving a new arena. Where have we seen this before?

Oklahoma City. We did the Sonic Boom podcast about that. Maybe he takes the team to Vegas. Maybe we get one expansion team instead of, too in Seattle rejoins the NBA. This did get conspiracy bills attention. I've been on this Portland thing. I had a guest scheduled in mid-June.

I was going to, I was immediately fascinated by what was going on. And then had to bump because there was so much basketball going on. So maybe I'll have that person on the next pod. But there's been a lot of like, huh, hmm, where it just feels very familiar to the OKC situation. and antagonistic unnecessarily. That's the word. That's literally the word. Like he arrives, the paperwork is,

the ink is barely dry. And it is one fuck you after another. From the moment he got there. To the good people of Portland. Like disrespect after disrespect after disrespect. Do you blame Adam in the league for you bring, because this is very similar. I'm going to criticize Stern.

20 years ago, which I did over and over again. I have to criticize Adam for this. They bring in the OKC group to buy the team from Howard Schultz. And they were like, no, we want to keep the team here. And the moment they got it, they're trying to get it out of there. And Stern was complicit. It's hard not to think Silver had no idea this was a possibility when the team didn't have a lease.

You know, they didn't have a lease in three years. Yeah, I think that the league was fully aware of the circumstances. of Portland and the relationship with that state and the city and the community. And it sure does feel expendable because we haven't seen one thing come down from the league. This feels like it's beyond posturing and gamesmanship and feels very fucky-ish now. I really agree with this. And also, I've said this. I said this on the last pot.

I'll continue to say this. I don't think the city should have to pay for jack's shit. You know I agree with that as well. That's bullshit. These guys are all fucking rich. Build your own stadium. What are you doing? Why are you making Portland's...

By the way, I can't say the city of Portland's been doing that great the last 10 years. Like, the last thing they need to do is send money toward a basketball arena. The people of Portland agree with you. This is where if I was sports are, one of my rules would be if you win a title, you can never leave the city. So you'd be protected forever with Washington. You win. for life unless the people vote you out. But yeah.

So conspiracy bill, this would be, this would raise the price of the Seattle team if Portland was moving out. And we only had one team in this whole corner of the world. Because I think they've had an easier time getting the Vegas money than the Seattle money. Well, it's, what do you mean raise the price? He's not paying expansion. I'm not talking about for him. He has to pay for relocation.

for the Seattle expansion. I'm buying the Seattle team. And I know I'm the only game in town now. Yeah. In Pacific Northwest, because this guy's blow-torching his Portland relationship. Right. I like the Blazers fans.

This is brutal what's happening. I agree. And I don't know why Adam's not saying anything about it either. It is such a breach of that social contract between the franchise. When you're the only franchise in town and the civic pride that comes from that. Right. When you let somebody walk in and just take a shit, on decades of that commitment by that community to that team.

That's a bad look, bro. And I mean, look, the track record here of what the league is done in admitting new owners, these fucking people down in Dallas, what they did, and we're right on the heels of that, and this guy's going to come in and light Portland on fire. Fuck off. I really appreciate you not bringing the Celtics owner up there because I like him. But he could have, in the wrong hands, he could have been thrown into that conversation. Straight to Jalen Brown.

Let's give it some time. They won 56 games last year at least. They didn't. This guy, so it's funny because some of the stuff he's doing, I said this to Zach on on Friday, some of the stuff he's doing, I actually, you know, like do we need 20 assistant coaches? Do we need to do we need the overboard stuff? Like he's cutting costs and aware.

It's like, all right, I can see his point there. But this is, he's like he just gutted all the broadcast teams. I think it's shameful. He is a coach on a one-year deal. Nobody's ever done that before. I think that's shameful. I think what he did to Micah Nore, it was shameful. Now, I mean, a million times out of a million times, Micah should say, yes, I do want to be

the head coach. Right. There's 30 jobs. And now his is his opportunity. Just do a two-year deal. Like, why is that a one-year-old? deal. There's some line between whatever happened with Mike Booneholzer and Phoenix, right, where he's one year and out and he's just gone but gets paid for four. And this,

Mike of Nore only being, I don't know, I am going to, my pledge to the people of Portland, I was, I tried to be an asset for Seattle and it didn't work in the team moved in 07 and 08. I promise to use this podcast to shine a bigger spotlight on this situation over the course of the summer. Yeah, this is bullshit.

They won the 77 title and the 50th anniversary is coming up and that's all that city should be talking about. They shouldn't be worried about this fucking guy. Okay. Mitchell Sherwood from Indianapolis. Oh, this is a good question. Actually, let's take a break.

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Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotia bank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. God damn, this is a good question from Mitchell Sherwood in Indianapolis, Indiana. What would be the best LeBron Sixers comp in 1999? If Michael Jordan's bulls imploded like they did,

but he decided he didn't want to stop playing and he wanted to find basketball happiness somewhere else, would it have been the 1999 spurs with Duncan as Maxie and Robinson is in Bid? The answer is no. Oh, okay. I did do the research. There's a really obvious pick.

Any guesses? No, I'm not going to. The Knicks, that would be, that would be my guess. Next would have been a good guess. The 1999 Lakers. Okay, remind me. Shack in year six, Kobe in year three. They had on the roster to start the year, Robert Horry, Eddie Jones, Rick Fox, and young Derek Fisher. It's a pretty good team. It was the strike season. They rolled the dice with Dennis Rodman,

complete disaster. Yeah. Midseason, they traded Eddie Jones, Eldon Campbell for Glenn Rice and J.R. Reed. They also fired Del Harris after 12 games. That's right. They did do that. Really not a great coach. They end up with Kurt Rambis, an even worse coach. They make the playoffs.

They beat an old Houston team that had Pippin and Barclay and Hakeem on it. They beat them in round one. Round two swept. Sent home packing by the San Antonio Spurs. Duncan, 29, 11. So that team could have been Shaq, MJ, Kobe, Rice, and Robert Horre as your starting five. And MJ ring chasing for a seven.

That's pretty good. They would have, who would the, we, they need a coach, though, because, well, Phil Jackson comes back if MJ is back in,

right? Okay, there we go. He's like, I'm thinking about signing with the Lakers and Phil Jackson's like, I'm in. Speaking of ring chasing.

Yeah. Would you have held that against Jordan? I mean, the Bulls are basically like, we don't want, we don't want you anymore. No, no,

no, no. He, he more than anybody in, in, you know, modern basketball, had the perfect out to go to a different team

and try and compete. I mean, what the bulls did was shameful. The first summer of the ringer, which was 10 years ago, I wrote a whole piece about how Michael Jordan didn't necessarily want to retire when he retired. It's a great point. And I agree. Part of it was the Bulls imploded. They didn't want him back.

And he didn't really know what to do. Pippen wanted money. So he left immediately. He didn't really have a team to go to. But then the other thing was he sliced his finger on the cigar cutter. So he would have been out until March. And it was a lockout. And it just ended up.

happening. That Lakers team would have beaten the Spurs. That would have been something. Can you imagine all of a sudden that would have been the best series of all time? Oh my God. He was still, I mean, the whole thing ended up with him in Washington. Two years later. He took two years off. I know. I know. Exactly. So yeah, I think it's the 99 Lakers is your answer. That's cool. Another LeBron question from Malics and Cincinnati was looking back at the rewatchables. We did those rewatchables. I'm going to put those on the book of basketball podcast feed. But we did

one about the 95 Bulls Magic series. And one of my big points was everyone misremembers that series. The Bulls was actually, they're pretty good that year. They're better than I think people remember now. His case for LeBron was that 2018 when he was at his absolute

peak, 3499 in the playoffs, then has 51, 8, and 8, game one of the finals. And people remember that J.R. Smith. He called it the J.R. Smith lobotomy play, which I think is a good. It's good one for it. But his question is, if they win that game, could they have won the series? Which is something we've talked about, oh, that sucked. That would have been a much better finals. Could that play have actually changed LeBron's legacy? Because if he beats the 18 Warriors by himself,

he probably takes the goat thing for MNJ. All that would have done is turn that series into a 4-1. I was thinking it goes six. I think they win one in Cleveland, but I think it's a two, three, two. I still think they lose in six. But I do think it makes the worries go. And that worries wasn't,

they weren't the happiest team near the down the stretch that year. That's right. Could that have unraveled them a whiff? Maybe. There's still, that was an incredible team. Great playoff. Eamon from New York wants to know

what exactly will take for Sixers, LeBron, to avoid becoming memeable like Celtics, Shack, or Wizards Jordan, where the jersey looks weird and we don't remember it that fondly. And then Joseph sent an email, how far away is LeBron from his, okay, maybe I played one season too long season. So I'd like to combine those two together. I don't think it's this season.

We are moving a little closer to the finish line. I was looking at as per 36. And the numbers, like if you, as both of us have done, we look at these basketball references. And once it starts really going down near the end, it just keeps going. There's no like bounce back. In 22 per 36, he was 29, 8, and 6. Last year he was 23. The three point was 32%.

All the other numbers, like his, you know, some of the advanced stuff, not quite, as good, but it wasn't bad. Like, it was in the ballpark where it should be. But if it goes lower than it did last year, then we'll be, we'll be off. My point is, I don't think it's, I don't think we're in 2011 Shaq Celtics. We're not even, we're two years away from that, I think. I agree. The most important element to, to answer this question is tell me how many games he's

going to play. Because I thought last year was masterful. Yeah. The sciatica for the first, however many games that was. Yeah. was literally brilliant. And so they need to come up with the functional equivalent of that because it just, he needs cover to not play.

His version of the Paul George suspension? Yes. Like he just goes away for 25 games from February and March and comes back, ramping up. That actually is kind of fun. That would be like what could we invent for LeBron? What would LeBron's transgression be? Well, he's old.

How been a back problem? Well, he just, that's what the sciatica. Nobody blinks. If anyone over 40 tells me they have sciatica, I'm just done. I trust it. But the problem with that is he can't play golf. Does he really want to take three months off from playing golf?

How do you figure out the golf thing? That's a tough one. That's a tough one. You know what? He could wait until it's freezing cold on the East Coast and then just quietly, like, go to play simulators. He loves the simulators. And that could be it.

I love you might be the world's preeminent expert on LeBron's golf career. Oh, no, I mean, I'm telling you. There's the simulator thing. It's coming. Wait till you see. It's going to be amazing. But, yeah, that would be one way. He can't be seen down at Apogee, down in West Palm, out on the, or at Grove 23 with MJ.

Right. You can't be faking the injury, but then you're also playing 27. Can't do it. Can't do it. So Joseph's question, he talked about that maybe I played one season too long, and he had examples of Shaq at the end, Duncan at the end,

Dirk at the end, the last three KG, the last two Paul Pierce, last six Vince Carter seasons, et cetera, et cetera. I went a step further. I did my one season too long team.

Okay. I thought you'd enjoy this. Didn't prep you at all. So it wasn't just about I hung on too long and I played too many. This was like a specific. It had to be like the actual season itself

made them realize, oh shit. Maybe I shouldn't have done this. Hakeem going to Toronto in 2001 has to be the center. Yeah. He could have played his whole career with Houston. Oh, I wouldn't prefer that one last year. Like, Ewing did it too, but Ewing bounced around.

He was in Seattle, or he had him multiple ones. So that's my center. Pippin ended up on the O3 Bulls after the Portland run, which I forgot. Yeah. I kind of wish that didn't happen. I wish he had just ended with Portland. This is a good one. Elvin Hayes for the 1984 Houston.

Your guy at the Big E. He came home. He came home and he's having his last season where he's washed up, but then they're trying to tank, and he has the famous game where he plays all 48 minutes because they're trying to tank and they run him into the ground. So with that, he has to be on the team. I want to watch that.

I forgot. The 48 minutes is legendary. He plays the whole game. Never comes out. They're like, Elvin, stay out there. He's like having a heart attack. Alan Iverson, Grizzlies. Oh, yeah, for sure.

All time. It just, that made everyone just sad. Yeah. So that's one of my guards. And then I'll give you a choice for the other guard. I can give you Magic Johnson on the 96 Lakers when he came back and it was fun for a second. But then when we got to the playoffs and it just, the team was unhappy and it just was like, why did this have to happen?

Or I could give you Chris Paul this year playing for the quippers and having the birthday party and only having two quippers show up. it's Chris Paul. Okay. By a long shot. I still, it is, that's a worse misstep by the Clippers

organization than circumventing the salary cap to pay Kauai. Allegedly. Allegedly. Still going on. I like the stuff about, they're mad now that this is taken too long. I have one more for the, they have a right to be bad.

Go ahead. The best one season too long guy ever. I only did guys, people have heard of. But the number one was George Miken on the 1956 Lakers. Miken retires. He's like the best basketball player of all time. He wins four titles.

He retires when the shot clock comes, takes a year off, and then comes back with the shot clock. Now we're playing faster. And by all accounts, was a complete disaster. So I'm going to add him on there, too. Okay. A couple more. Paul Peters was listening to me and CR talking about World Cup and England's

baggage and teams in baggage, teams coming in and basically fixing the baggage. And Paul says, we should call these guys baggage handlers. Oh. The baggage handler's whole thing is say, fuck this baggage and kicked away as far as you can. And he said, who are some of the first class baggage handlers? So for Boston, we had three. We had Big Poppy, obviously. We had Tim Thomas, the goaltender for the Bruins in 2011, who just went on an absolute all-time heater and then Bill Belichick. People would say Brady, but it was Bill Belichick was our Baggage Chandler. Sure.

This is awesome. I love this concept. So all-time baggage handlers across sports, I have Big Poppy, LeBron, 2016. Yeah. Jalen Brunson a couple months ago, Mark Messier with the Rangers, and Johnny Padres on the 55 Dodgers. Two wins. Game seven shut out. Flips it.

They're just getting their ass kicked by the Yankees forever. And then finally flip it and he wins. So I had five. Who is your number one Washington baggage hand, though, Obetchkin? Wow. Probably Joe Gibbs. It took Obetkin a long time. Now, you know, the Washington Capitals came into existence in 1974 and they won the Stanley

Cup in 2018 with Ovechkin, you know, sort of three quarters of the way through his career. But, you know, he keeps playing. I think that the arrival of Joe Gibbs with that Washington, because that Washington franchise, it was a, you know, it was a little brother to the bully Dallas Cowboys. And that rivalry between Washington and Dallas, Joe Gibbs arrived and really changed that whole arc. Washington was dominant.

How about on the Nats? You didn't really have a lot of baggage with the Nats. No, I mean, that has 2005. 50 years old. Joe Gibbs is a good one. I have franchise cities most in need of a baggage handler. Buffalo Bills,

Josh Allen. They've been throwing him in Central casting for that for 10 years. Please be our baggage handler. Could it be Joe Brady? Joe Brady taking over as the baggage handler and ushering Josh Allen through.

We're doing our research now. I'm quietly bullish on the bills. I know we're doing our football research now. You're bullish on the bills? I'm bullish on the bills. Because the schedule? That's one element of it. Vikings, Lions.

The number one team is weirdly the Maple Leafs. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. They really need a baggage hand. They need a baggage handler. The Canadians are getting close and the Canucks have been there forever because they've never won. But really, and pick a Canadian NFL team. They all need a baggage handler.

That's true. Canadian hockey needs a baggage handler. KWT sent in is Bill calling Telemachus from the Odyssey Temeculous for my entire MVP Pall draft first pick in the pop culture speech dyslexia redraft

I did call him Temeculous the entire thing I knew I was doing it I couldn't remember what his name was I wasn't going to look it up but it was Telemachus Listen it's the Odyssey We're going to have some messups Okay Jeremy said Butler over Clay in the

2011 redraft. I know it was Zach's pick at number three, but you signed off on it. You're the guy who wrote an entire book about the secret. You're taking the poor man's version of Torel Owens over the poor man's version of Bill Russell, question mark. Bill Russell is a little strong. Poor man's Bill Russell.

I would go Sam Jones, maybe. There, Bill Russell. So I had, when I did my rankings when we were about to do it, because you've done the redrafts, you rank your guys, and then you hope you get them in the order. I did have Clay ahead of Butler, and I kind of let Zach bully me on it. And now I feel like I kind of had my pants pulled down a little bit. I regret it.

I'm going to stick with having Clay above Butler. I'd rather have Clay. I mean, better teammate can fit in with anything. And Jimmy Butler flamed out in four franchises. He didn't flame out. He quit on a couple. Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking.

Giant middle fingers. Jack's very intimidating. Would you see him throw out the first pitch at the Mets? game. Zach? When did that happen? Yeah. Yesterday.

Zach Lowe. Was it a strike? The Saturday game. Look like a strike. A little high, but it was down the middle. I was proud. Okay, great. It's a good one.

So it goes straight how much online I've been. Tim Lane wants to know, be somebody a long text, but basically like, why wouldn't they do a sign and trade with Detroit and B'd for Duren and Philly throws in a pick? I will say this. He said there'd have to be some other stuff. They'd have to cut somebody. but I will say this. Celtic fan bill got terrified by this.

I understand. Celtic fan bill did not like this trade. Celtic fan bill is counting on Joe L&B to do the same kind of up and down injury plague season that he always has. Duren is a beast. I mean, you know, part of the allure I've been talking about Jalen Brown's magic elixir, the secret sauce is how much playing time he can consume. High level playing time.

Right, 2400 minutes. Ooh, Duren could do that. Now, obviously, the ceiling and what he's capable of and what we saw the playoffs, but under the tutelage and supervision of LeBron James, maybe that could be rehabilitated a little bit. I hope that doesn't happen. That's an interesting one. Rob said, I'm a fan of LeBron's decision. Go to Philly.

I was listening to your podcast with Zach about it. You mentioned Kauai was the best part in the world in 2019. I think that's disingenuous. One summer before you said 2018, LeBron played the best game you've ever seen in person. So how could Kauai pass LeBron? The answer is he did. I don't know how to tell you.

LeBron went to the Lakers and basically took the year off. Kauai went to the Raptors and kicked everybody's ass and won the title. And it was the best part of the league at the end of the year. So that was, LeBron was in year 16 at that point. I mean, LeBron had been the best player in the league from basically the 0-8-09 season all the way through to the 17-18 season. He had been the best player for 10 years in a row.

And even when Curry win the MVP, everybody kind of is like, LeBron's still the best player. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 2011 redraft. Colin from Connecticut wants to point out, we missed this. Corey Joseph went 29 to the Spurs,

one pick ahead of Jimmy Butler. The Spurs had just won 61 games. They could add Kauai Leonard to end Jimmy Butler. Wow. That's a wow. Spurs culture and Jimmy Butler are not positive about this one, but yeah, but maybe they could have gotten them in early and gotten some good habits. I bet they could have. I bet they could have.

That's, that completely changes the next three playoffs. I mean, maybe he doesn't play in 2012 playoffs, but 13 and 14, he's playing. That team was an absolute no fuck around team. He would have been, I think he would have been fine. He would have walked in and like, oh, I'm surrounded by all these winners. Right. This is how winning. This is what it looks like to be a winner, the discipline, the commitment. Matias sent in the question, I've been a fan of your content since the Anthony Bennett pick. I don't get that a lot. You saw you on television.

My question, is this officially Chris Ryan's year? Is he the big winner of 2026? Can anyone beat him in the next five months or is this over? This is great. What a great question. So I'm going to give you four choices for the next. that could happen for CR. Eagles start out 12 and 0.

Michael Mann casts him in Heat 2, just calls him up and says, you're going to be in He 2, I have good news. Netflix just hires him to run TV. Or we do an Aliens rewatchables episode up for September 7th for that episode, most likely out of those four.

I mean, the most likely is that aliens, you control that. Yeah. Well, that's happening. Aliens is happening on September 7th. Eagles 12 and O, the other three aren't happening. But yeah, that'll be the next, for the year of CR,

the next year of CR moment will be the aliens rewatches. GFM said, he's been listening and reading and watching me since the early 2000s. And he thinks my apex for homerism content occurred during my Damon versus Leo conversation with CR. The categories for that comparison favoring Danes, in so dramatically, reminded me of a ranking of best U.S. presidents using criteria like most use of the word huge, best nicknames for political opponents and most orange.

I have no counter. The fix was in. Question for house from Greg and D.C. Are you following this weird story about Brandon Ayuk basically stalking the commanders trying to get them to sign them? He just bought a house of Virginia near the practice facility. Should they make a movie called Single Black. receiver about Iyuk trying to befriend Terry McLaurin and then take his job.

There could be a Tanya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan angle. That's effing hilarious and wonderful. I am almost to the point where I don't want to make fun of this guy. I think he's seriously, mentally... Not all there? Yeah, he's got mental health issues. Yeah. Did he really move to Virginia?

Who the fuck knows? He's like an insane person going on to social media. and basically every time he does it, takes his wallet and sets it on. He has to buy a new wallet every time he goes on because it diminishes the interest of the rest of the league in him playing any football whatsoever with anybody. Like the best he's going to get from any team,

and I don't think it's going to be Washington, is a tryout. And his ass, they'll cut him at the first sign of any nonsense. I don't understand it. And I honestly think there's something. going on that's that's not funny. What did you think of the Kyle Shanahan car accident, which seemed terrible, not getting reported for 14 days?

I thought that was weird. That seems like that's, how is that not going to affect their season? I thought that was a terrible story. That was the other weird NFL story. I hope every, the other driver was in like a legitimate car accident. Was not hurt, right?

That's the thing. But Kyle Shannon got fucked up, though. The concussion. Yeah. Like you, it says, severe concussion. And that he can't, that takes a long time. I thought that was, I felt bad for him.

I don't like it. I feel bad for him too. Matt from North Hollywood is upset that I applauded Matt Damon's beard. He said, this is an so shated Damon. Let's stop giving credit to men who grow shit beards. Clooney and Siriana, great beard. James Hardin, bizarre, but a strong example. Christian Bale and DiCaprio, great actors with shit beards.

Our society needs to stop giving. every man with three hairs on his chain of fucking participation trophy. A plus. I don't have a lot of notes. I thought Damon's beard was good. Brian W. wants to know the one-name athlete Hall of Fame, Nomar, Messi, LeBron, Madonna, name anybody. What about the two-name Hall of Fame?

Oh. He said the charter member is Harry Kane. I don't think I've ever heard him referred to as anything other than Harry Kane in any broadcast. This reminds me of our friend, Nick, Hey, that's a great. You're right. We always had a joke about Nikaieta, which just became one name, and he was just Nikita. And I was trying to think of other athletes who are one name guys, and I came up with Bo Necks. Does anyone ever called him Bo or Knicks? He's just Bo Nex. He's just Bo Nex. He is Bo Nex. It works, too. Grant Hill. Did you ever call Grant, Grant or Hill?

No, never. Kevin Love? Yes. There's some K-love with him, I guess, but nobody ever called him Kevin. Chris Paul was either CP3 or Chris Paul, but never Chris or Paul. Pretty strong. Pretty strong. And then my favorite one, Isaiah Joe. Oh. He's just Isaiah Joe. Nobody's ever called him anything other than Isaiah Joe.

But it's like Nick Aida. But it sounds like a nickname. It's an amazing name. It sounds like a nickname. Any I miss though? Well, it's two words, but it's not a name. Which one is it? Big Poppy.

Oh, that's a hit then. Okay. This is an incredible, I've been saving this email from you. It's from A from Paris. Oh, I like Paris. He said, everybody thinks the Spurs and Thunders are playing in the 27 West Finals, correct? We would certainly bet on this. Left hand up, yeah.

He said there's been a bunch of East Finals rematches over the years. 22, 23, Boston, Miami, 17, 18, Cleveland, Boston. There was Miami, Indiana, Miami, Detroit, Indie and the Knicks, and the 90s, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, 87, 88, Philly and Boston, 801, 82. We've had in the last 45 years seven finals rematches, Golden State Cleveland, Spurs, Miami, Chicago, Utah, Detroit Lakers, Boston Lakers, Philly Lakers. Okay. Can you guess the last time we've had a Western Conference Finals rematch?

Oh, this is outstanding. Western Conference Finals. Because for a lot of that Golden State era, they were rotating. It wasn't just Golden State. Give me this. What decade do you think this happened in? Well, when you put it that way, it makes me think we're going all the way back. We're like going back to the 70s.

It's like we're going back to the 70s. We are. We're going back. to the 80s because the last time this happened was 1982 and 83, the Lakers and the Spurs. Wow. Somehow this has never happened since. How does the Spurs over their run not encounter anybody a second time?

Because it was always, there was a couple times with Spurs' Sons or Spurs Lakers where they would meet in like round two instead of round three. Portland was in there. There was Minnesota, Sacramento. Somehow when the Lakers and Spurs, I think they played five times, but it was always in different rounds. or staggered in some way. Yeah, 44 years.

That's insane. So if it's not one of those two teams, who is it? In the West? Yeah. The odds right now are, it's funny, San Antonio's plus 145, OKC's plus 140 to win the West. The next three are Denver 12 to 1, Minnesota 13.1, Houston and the Lakers, 20 to 1, and 22 to 1.

I'll book either of those bets. Golden State 27-1 Portland 30 to 1 Yeah the West is like The East is so much better Than the West It's like staggering The answer is Denver

Yeah I think so too I feel sadness in my heart for them I don't They have to move Jamal Murray Sadness in your heart Because speaking of You know losing years of Steph We're gonna we're on a run here

Losing years with the Joker How many teams conceivably Could you see in the Western Finals because for me it's four because I would throw Minnesota in there. Okay. I don't think it's, they've done it twice. Yeah. But is there any other team you would even give a conceivably to in the West?

Not me. OKC, San Antonio, Denver, Minnesota. No one, you wouldn't say Lakers, definitely not. Luke on a heater, Kessler. No, no way. No. Nope.

Nope. Have you seen how many white guys are on that team? Clippers? Clippers? They're over under is like 29 or something. They're the fourth worst odds in the West right now. What do you mean? Like at the bottom of the entire thing?

Yeah. Well, that's deserved. Have you looked at their roster? They stink. On Fando, the worst is Sacramento. And then Clippers, Memphis, New Orleans, basically. I thought that was weird. Okay.

Wait, I think I have two more questions for you. I just lost my track. Are you hungry? I am hungry. It's dinner time here. on the East Coast. I want to shout out Justin from Dallas. I guess we have one question left.

As a Mayevs fan, the Luca trade felt like in Game of Thrones when Ramsey Bolton cut off three on Greyjoy's dick and balls and then mailed them to his family. I'm guessing for you that the Jalen trade wasn't quite castration bad because you still have Tatum, but what is it? Is it Lieutenant Dan getting his legs blown off?

Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off by his dad or the British guy and Madman getting his foot run over by a lawnmower and in the office. It was none of those things. We won the title two years ago. I'm fine. But he compared the Luca trade to Theon having his Franks and beans get cut off and mailed to his family. The Dallas fans are never going to get over this. Why would they?

Why should they? They have Cooper flag. Move on. You've Cooper flagged down. Start moving on. Move forward. Start healing. How can you?

The team went to the finals and then the leadership was like, fuck that team. We're going to be god-awful for a handful of times. I'm just trying to put them in the right headspace. I mean, I appreciate your encouragement, your gentle psychological ploy here, but that ownership and leadership, that they, that is,

they did a bad thing. Good bag of mailbag questions. phenomenal. How's the summer going? It's great. I'm so happy to get LeBron settled because now I can, what should I watch? Like today, tonight, this Sunday night, July the whatever, my July the 26th, I can start watching TV again.

What am I going to watch? LeBron was putting on hold or it was because the majors ended? There's golf. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The golf majors finally ended, but yeah. First of all, thanks for thinking of me with this question.

I obviously watch a ton of TV. Cape Fear is the worst well done show I've ever seen. Okay. I think it's almost worth watching, but it's really, really reprehensibly, like you can't believe

how bad it is, but it's incredibly well done. Okay. I've never seen a show like it where it's like really well done and awful. Like awful. I don't think I can do it.

Okay. That's not going to be at the top. Some people like that Widows Bay show, which I gave two episodes. My wife and Sondon. and watch the whole thing all the way through, so I'm not going to watch that. My wife and I were in Hawaii, we watch five-star weekend on Peacock, and it's really awful.

But you get to go to Nantucket for eight episodes. That's pretty good. And watch all of these women who hate each other, just get mad at each other and do different events. Here's what I'd recommend to you, though, because I've been watching this. I've been watching Homeland Season 1 on Netflix. Oh, wow. You went back? I went back. It was 14 years ago, barely remembered anything that happened.

And my wife and I, we were just at a loss for anything but wanted a TV show. We're like, we need something to like. And so we just ended up stumbling into the pilot. The pilot is so good. I was actually, I saw Fantasy and CR and Greenwald, a bunch of people last night. I was talking about this last night. It's so good. And it actually made me nostalgic to when TV was more normal, where they were just like, they have three ideas. Brody comes back. Did they turn him when he was over in Afghanistan? Claire Danes is nuts.

And Brody's wife is banging his best friend. And those are like the three things. And they're just like, we're not going to be 50 characters. We're not going to be 40 plots. We're not going backwards and forwards. We're just going to have a TV show that you can follow. That's really good.

And I got to say, I really enjoyed it. We watched five episodes over the last couple days. and I would highly recommend diving back in. I didn't remember anything. I have the fondest remembrances of the quality of homeland for several series, for several,

I mean, several seasons. So, wow, maybe that's what I'll do. Really, really great Claire Danes. I feel like I'm behind,

though, like the cultural, you know, zeitgeist to not be caught up on the shows. You're not behind anything. You're not missing much. I'm trying to think. So I watch a movie?

You told me that I should watch obsession. We're doing that for rewatchables tomorrow, live on Netflix. Oh, how about that? There you go. You should definitely watch Obsession. It's on Peacock.

Okay. Yeah, that's a good one. I'm trying to think of other movies. And you've got to see the Odyssey at some point, right? But I'm going to do that with the 70 M.M. And the IMAX and the whole thing. Yeah,

I would give Homeland a pilot a whirl. I think you'll be shocked. And I would encourage the rest of America to follow suit. There we go. Really, really good. I was just like, wow, we really knew how to do it back then. Anyway, all right, House, good to see you. Maybe I'll see you on the West Coast at some point.

Looking forward to that. All right, thanks for coming on. We're going to take a break, come back with my dad in one second. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. All right. here. It is Sunday afternoon after yet another Red Sox winning series. They have won six straight series. They have turned their entire season around. They have won the attention of Boston.

I've been watching a ton. It's suddenly a very likable team. And it all happens starting really the day after the Jalen Brown trade. The Celtics acquire Paul George and the Red Sox season flips immediately and you have refused to come on the podcast since the Jalen Brown trade. You're upset. You're not upset anymore. You're ready to rationally discuss it. No, I'm still upset, but I guess I'm ready to discuss it. Wow.

That's a dramatic pause. But, you know, I've been really excited about the Red Sox last month, as you mentioned. And I went to the game where they won number 15 in a row with that. nephew Ryan, that was a lot of fun. I'm really down on the trade they made last night. The Curtis Bede trade? Yeah. You have a starting pitcher who you pitched in the playoffs last year.

Yeah. 24 years old. Lefty. Our favorite kind of pitcher. Yeah. And they have about 12 guys who play second or third. They all hit about 250. They're all the same guy.

250. I don't think we needed another guy. I don't get it. it. I never get it. They needed righty pop and they had a glut of starting pitching, I think. And I, you know, early he's on my A.L. Keeper

team, too. His elbow was hurt. There was a minute where it looked like he was going to be out. Oh, good, his elbow was hurt. Well, I mean, his elbow was hurt. And for a second it seemed like he might be out for like 12 months. And then like, no, no, no, no. We need rest. I'm talking about early. Oh, you're talking about early. Oh, early. Yeah. Yeah, he was hurt.

So he's coming back and that, I don't know. I wonder if that was a piece of it too. But I thought they needed another bat though from watching them really for the last four weeks every game. But you texted me that he's a terrible defensive player. So where are we playing this guy? I know. D.H. He's 225 pounds, which is not ideal for an infielder.

Oh, I didn't know he's that heavy. Yeah, he bounces. Well, he's strong. I think he's Australian too, but I think he's going to bounce around and be DH. They need another ready with pop. I don't know if you saw the globe today, but Durbin said he'd be willing to move to second base. I saw that. Yeah, but if this guy is not a good defensive third baseman, that's no good.

Durbin's played a good third. I've been waited to have you on. I didn't want to jinx the Red Sox winning streak. And they won 15 straight, but they had the game that night. That would have been, you coming back from that game would have been good to have on. But I don't want to jinx anything that was happening. But they lost a couple now. So it's going to talk about Durbin, there's a few.

Red Sox things to talk about. We'll talk about the Celtics straight after this, but Durbin. Okay. So I'm in that, I'm in that Boston sports thread with a couple LA friends out here. And Durbin was so bad the first month of the season that we name, you know, you can name the text threads. We name the text thread, Caleb Durbin 600 OBP watch, or 600 OPS watch, right? Yeah. He was so bad, we changed the title to 500 OPS watch, which is like, if you have a 500 OPS, you shouldn't even be in baseball. The first two months, he was the worst batter I've ever watched on the Red Sox since like Jack Clark.

And then all of a sudden he flipped it. And now we keep changing the thread. And now it's like 700 OPS watch. He might get to 750 by the end of the year. He's had all these clutch hits. He's a great teammate. Seems like his teammates love him. And it's been this unbelievable turn of events.

Well, I think I read that he has the best defensive third baseman rating. He does. And, you know, last time I was on the pod, we talked about him not very positively. He was terrible. He was an automatic out. Yeah, he was. You know, they said that he brought his feet closer together and I don't know what makes a difference for the hitter, but suddenly he has a lot of confidence. Well, he dropped the drive-line stuff and got his own hitting coach, which was a big story.

I thought that was fun. Oh, I did not. He got like, he got like, different hitting help than whatever. the instruction was and just started popping it. Well, the key drive-laying guy they had on the roster left the Red Sox. Maybe that made a difference too. So it turns around because of him that all of a sudden, every starting picture they have seems like they're throwing six or seven innings.

Chapman, this Guerrero comes out of nowhere. He's 35 years old. Throws over 100 and has been this lights out setup guy. And then the heart of the lineup, although Abraio got cold lately. But Obrero and Contreras. But I was saying quickly on the Wednesday pot about Contreras has been, in my opinion, Nikita, everything. He's just a maniac. He's our kind of guy.

He's a lunatic. He's been a lunatic from day one. He just really gives a shit every game. Yeah, he does. I think he heard, I watched the game yesterday, and he heard his finger sliding at second. So he probably shouldn't he've been playing. He should be resting, but it's kind of affected his swing a little bit. But he's one of those guys, though.

Yeah. The camaraderie on the team is terrific. But who would have, nobody could have guessed this turnaround. I got to say, I was not watching, you were watching way more than me and I was making fun of you. Because it just felt like it hit rock bottom. Everyone was going to get fired. They already fired Cora. Breslo was going to be next.

The Roman Anthony, I mean, they don't have Roman Anthony, who is going to be the next Ted Williams. They don't have Crochet who got hurt. And Trevor Story, who I think is the most expensive guy in the team, and he goes out, and somehow that made everything better. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. And Meyer, it was supposed to be good, too, and is just stiff, I guess. A month ago, the crowd was chanting, sell the team, sell the team. Right.

And I think Reslo's job was on the line, you know, just my personal opinion, but too many mistakes have been made. And all of a sudden, they're winning, playing. You know, this manager, he's very even keeled. He's making a lot of decisions that Corrin never made. I like Corrin never liked a bun. We had three sacrifice bunts today. And they all meant something in this game. He might have run his course.

I think he's a good manager. He might have just worn out as welcome. Well, we've talked about coaches and managers that eventually the voice, the players get tired of hearing the same voice. It happened with Francona. And honestly, it happened with Brad Stevens. I thought they wore out with him now last year, remember? You mean as a general manager?

No, I meant as a coach. Oh, as a coach. Okay, sorry. Men as a coach. Okay. But yeah, Francona felt like he wore out as welcome. Well, they're 54 and 50. For the wild card, they're right behind the Yankees now.

And I don't know. I don't know. They're seven back from Tampa. they're going on a road trip right now. They're still getting pitching. I don't know if Jake Bennett can continue to throw like this, but Ranger pitched today and was great. I think that's the other thing that concerned me about the early trade.

It's like they feel they have too much pitching, but the game they lost after they won number 15, they threw that guy out there. It didn't even last an inning. The double-hauer guy, yeah. Well, they were trying because they have this Bayo who can't pitch in the first inning for some, this unique situation where if he's, as long as he doesn't start, he's great.

I would have liked to have seen bail in that trade last night. Instead of early? Sure. I don't know. I don't think he has a lot of trade value right now. Yeah, I don't think so. Well, I didn't like the trade, so I decided I'm wearing my Patriot hat today. Which I don't use a protest.

It's a protest. I was going to wear the Red Sox cat when you have. yesterday about coming on the pod, but didn't like the trade. And I obviously can't wear my Celtic hat. You should have brought your younger dog and held the dog during the podcast like Mike Frable for, that was a classic. That was a classic. It looked like he was holding for protection.

So do you think this Red Sox thing sustainable? Because I know you've watched the entire season because you don't have a job. Well, it's not that I don't have a job. I'm retired. Well, you're retired. Yeah, okay. It's a little different. Not having a job kind of denotes that maybe you never had a job.

It is true. You did work for a long time. Yeah, okay. All right, so you're retired. You watched a lot of Red Sox, even when they're bad. I think it's sustainable because two things. I do think the pitching is deep. And they had that IRS and the guy they drafted last year.

And he's lights out down in the minors. You don't think we're going to see him this year, do you? I think we're going to see him. Oh, wow. Because sometimes the Mariners are in the same boat with Kate Anderson, who's the best prospect in baseball now, and they've been really careful about whether they want to bring them up or not. These guys that have all these innings'nings limits.

I didn't know if Aynson would potentially come up. You know what they're doing with Aynson? They pitched them three innings last night. They're not letting them go of the full nine innings yet. See, this is one of the many things I respect about you is your devotion to minor league baseball stats with the Red Sox. whatever's going on in Worcester or wherever else here. In Greenville?

Portland. Whatever. He's in double. Greenville, maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. So I think they have one more trade in them.

And it's interesting because the A's catcher, who I thought made a ton of sense for them. Yes. Got hurt. I think he's out for the year. They said he might be up. Yeah. I thought that was a possible trade. I wanted them to get him or the.

Colorado catcher, like just really take a swing and go after somebody. I don't know. The question is whether they would put Arias in a trade, who's their best prospect, this 20-year-old shortstop. He's a shortstop of the future. Yeah, he could be the next Marcelo Meyer. Yeah. Catching is their weak point in terms of batting average for sure. So are there people that roam the streets every day looking for Roman Anthony or what happens with it? Is this like a Netflix true crime series? What happened to him? If they're roaming the streets in Florida, they're going to look for him.

Finger injury is going to be out for 12 months? It's really strange. And it's like the reporters, the journalists are staying away from it. There's not any reporting about him or criticism or what's taking this finger injury so long. Guy was in the World Baseball Classic in March. Yeah. With big at bats. Except Meyer and both of them have been injury prone.

Well, Meyer and Myers gets hurt every year. We, in our AL Keeper League, we had him. We traded him before the season this year. We didn't want to go through it anymore. Yeah. With our real team and our fake team at the same time. Even his injury is weird. The finger injury nobody's ever had in the history of some tendon or something that nobody's heard of.

Yes. Yeah. And the Roman Anthony injury, it's not 100% clearly explained to me exactly what that injury is. I was talking about that one. Yeah, it was some sort of finger thing. But I mean, for what the hype was with him and how important he was, and plus they gave him 100 million bucks already, it's the equivalent of like if Tatum played his rookie year and then just didn't play in 2018 or 2019.

Or if, I don't know, Drake May didn't play in year of, too. Like that was, this was supposed to be the guy. This was supposed to be the meal ticket of the team. And now Contreras is the guy. I just, the odds were like 100 to one. The contraris thing was, oh, man, they didn't get Pete Alonzo. This is so disappointing. I mean, Anthony was going to be the guy. He was going to be our outfielder that everybody talked about. Now, Raphael is having a good season. Really good season. Duron, he had a good game today, three hits. Maybe he'll get hot. again. I think he would have been probably traded. Well, I think he probably would have traded earlier if Anthony was around. If he could, many outfielders. I think he would have been traded

if he could hit or play defense or throw a ball. That was the three things. I'm not giving up on him. Well, he did it two years ago. Yeah. And then not any of the other years. But yeah. Bray was a what is the O for 20? It's very weird because he carried them. for a little bit. Wanted some games and now he can't hit. Yeah. It's a strange game anyway. Well, regardless, they save the World Cup comes and you watched.

I loved how much World Cup you watch for somebody who doesn't follow soccer at all, but you somehow really threw yourself in it every four years. I think I watched as many games as I could possibly watch. Yeah, so that starts in second week of June, right as the Red Sox season has never looked bleaker. And then all of the Scots came to, came to Boston, and they had games of Foxborough. And it felt like the World Cup just kind of moved attention away for the Red Sox for like three weeks. And then they got their shit together.

And then the Jalen Brown trade. And nobody really even put serious thought into them until July 4th range. And then they started winning. Maybe that was part of it. They didn't feel the pressure of, this is a city with a lot of pressure on sports teams, obviously. And they didn't feel it. I mean, I told you the World Cup story. I walked for two dogs.

I was on Beacon Street near the Cheers around noontime. And about 40 guys came out of the Cheers was Kiltz on and took over Beacon Street singing and dancing. And it energized the city for the whole time. It was great. Great to be here then. It was my daughter said it was her favorite night she's ever had in Boston. one of the NBA finals games at the same time was Scotland's World Cup game and they were out a bar with 200 Scotland people there. I mean, to drink Boston where Boston has no beer left

at some of the bars is pretty unprecedented. I never heard of or read of any altercations. Now. Boston can be pretty cruel when there's 40 to 60 men walking around with kilts and I never heard any problems. Yeah, the stereotype, and we should mention we're part Scottish. We have, we have some Scottish in us, but the stereotype was always like the Irish were like the sadder drunks and the Scots were like the angrier drunks. And that wasn't, didn't seem like that was the case at all. No. In Boston. And if anything, like they're arranging these Scotland, Boston, like these joint things they're going to do. The mayors were talking to each other. It's an unexpected love fest.

Well, and right after that, the Norwegians showed up. And, uh, They have video of them on the trolley car, like 30 of them on the floor of the trolley car doing their rowing thing. You can't make this stuff up in this city. But it seemed like it was a huge success, though. Oh, it was huge, huge success. Even the travel out to Foxborough went well, I guess. Yeah. They sold well the tickets.

Yeah. Speaking of Foxborough, how are you feeling about the pets? Why have my Patriot hat on him, feeling pretty good. You were excited for AJ Brown. You always like having a stud receiver? I feel like we have a stud one and two. I can't remember the last time. I felt we had good receivers, but we didn't have a one, you know.

Moss and Welker, right? Well, Diggs had a good year, except he played half the game every game. And he was a step slower than I think. his heyday. Didn't seem like Seattle had to defend him in the Super Bowl the way these two guys are going to be treated, especially AJ. If they have to double AJ Brown, we're going to have guys open for Drake May. Of course, you and I keep talking about, I don't think the key is that part.

I think the key is the offensive line because that's what let them down in the Super Bowl. To say the least. Well, it seems like it's a little better. And the variable thing is calm down, I guess. Hopefully there's not another story. was super weird. Super. Yeah, negative.

Not, no recent stories in the paper. No, it seems like it's, we'll see if there's one more coming, but, yeah.

Yeah, it's just, there was such good vibes from the Vrabble era and family, leadership, and then it's like, it's not great,

it's not, yeah, it's not, I wouldn't say it's 100% the same anymore. Yeah. It's tough to, uh,

We'll see, though. They'll just. Yeah, we'll see. They'll be, I've been doing all my, my prep stuff. And the schedule wasn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be. Like, obviously they start in Seattle, week one, first game, not ideal. And then they go home stealers at Jags, at Bills. So it could be a one and three.

Or two and two. Two and two would be ideal. But then after that, it gets a little easier. They got the Jets twice. They got the Dolphins twice. twice. They played the Lions, but it's a way. It's in Munich. They have a Chargers game that's going to have a million Boston fans at it. So I don't know. You know, they do these stats on strength of schedule based on how the teams did last year. Yeah. Every team is different this year.

Teams lost players. They're not going to be as strong as they were last year. Yeah, and they have like, they have the chiefs at Kansas City on Monday night, week 15. Who knows? The chiefs might not even be good. They have the Broncos week 17, but that's home. Would you be satisfied with 11 and 6? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I think some of it, they play the AFC West and the NFC North, but they're lucky. They play the Raiders early. They play the Raiders week five. So that they'll still have cousins at that point. They won't have Mendoza in there yet. But that hurt us last year by playing the Raiders early.

I know, but I'm saying they're, yeah. They're cousinsing it. I really don't think Mendoza will be ready by then. And then, you know, the dolphins and Jets both project to be pretty awful. And I also, the bills are like one of the AFC favorites. And I don't totally see it. I don't know why they're ahead of us. I don't say that as a Homer fan.

Like, I honestly don't see it. I don't see with the bills at all. All around the quarterback. Right. But that's the case last year. Yeah. And he doesn't have the receiving core that we have. Well, he doesn't have.

the defense. Yeah. You know, so I don't know. There were a lot of signs before the schedule came out and everything, that it would be a big regression team, Super Bowl hangover. But I don't know. They got A.J. Brown. I think they had a really good draft.

I think that should be right. This is a really fun time of sports in Boston because the training camp is this week for the Patriots. Red Sox are on a roll. They go on the road now. Hockey is just gearing up. up in terms of training camp. There's no hockey combo yet.

No, come on. Now you're pushing it. Oh, come on. July 26th, what are the hockey conversations? Except hockey starts in September now. The Bruins said something you like, though. Well, they made a couple moves I like. I like the goalie they're going to go with the backup goalie.

Yeah, you like the goalie. I like their draft the last three years. Hopefully those guys can contribute, but it's a crapshoot. All right. That was enough four play. Southex trade Jaylon Brown. Is that it? Southex trade Jaylen Brown for

Paul George in two first and he goes to Philly which then intrigues LeBron James enough to go actually sign with Philly for $4 million a year and this is the team my entire life. We've hated the most.

The biggest win we ever had together was the 1981 Eastern Finals, the comeback. I remember we went to the 1977 playoff games when Philly beat Cowens and Havelachek that team, Dr. Jay's first year beat us in the playoffs. Haveletcheck, you remember why we lost the 77 one, right?

Well, because we didn't sign Paul Silas. Exactly. Maybe one of the only mistakes read our back made. Actually, one of two mistakes he made. We beat them and they beat us in 80 and 82. We beat them in 81 and I think 84, 85. I don't think they play in the 90s. We beat Iverson with the Paul Pierce-Anton team.

We beat them in round two after Derek Rose got hurt in 2012, game seven, which was Rondo's greatest game. Then we have a bunch of stuff against the Embed Sixers, which we win every time. That huge comeback game in the playoffs against them. Against them. And then it felt like we had their number. And then they come back and beat us last year in seven.

and then get trounced by the Knicks, which kind of made it worse. I'm still shaking my head. We're up 3-1 and how we lost that series. And you went to all the games. The game two and game five were the ones that lost the series. Yes. At game seven,

we didn't show up. And Embed, let's face it, Embed played really well. He did. He had three good games in them. And then the Knicks did something. something to him be that seemed to knock him out for a loop.

One of the, I think it was a, out of a mommy, somebody elbowed him in the stomach. Oh, Ananova, yeah. Yeah, where he had the appendicitis surgery. And I'm not saying that we should have done that, but it certainly made a difference. Yeah, they're more physical than we should have been. So the season couldn't have ended worse. No. And then, and they lose game seven on my daughter's 20.

your first birthday. Well, every other podcast I've done with you, I had myself to cut on. Yeah. Well, you weren't happy with the coaching strategy, too many minutes for Tatum, all the same stuff I said on the pod. Yeah, we've talked about that before.

Tatum doesn't play game seven, the whole thing. We go into the draft free agency. They're trying to figure out this Jalen Brown thing. Did you want the Janus trade or you didn't? I would have, I would have been looking forward to watching Janus. Yep. So you would have put, because they only made one offer.

I mean, there's been so much written and talked about this. They made one offer. They never made a second offer. They never tried to up Miami up their offer like five times. I would have kept upping our offer. So you would put Hugo in the trade? Well, I don't know what the trade would have been, but some of it is looking back now.

By not doing everything they could to make that trade, we made one of the two worst trades that I, I've seen in my lifetime. So, what was the other one? The Donchick trade. Oh. I put Jalen Brown's trade in the same category. So would I rather seen them put more assets into Janus trade?

Sure. For what happened when we didn't get Janus? Yeah. Or don't trade round right now. Hold on to him for a while. There's no urgency. Well, they could have waited to see where LeBron landed before. I feel like Philly is doing that.

trade regardless? I don't think so. I don't think Philly. If Brown wasn't on Philly, I really don't think LeBron goes there. But I'm saying wait till he goes somewhere else and then do the Philly trade. But I don't even think it was on their radar. Exactly.

Certainly it wasn't on my radar. I never expect him to go there. But I just, we've always talked about when you make trades that the other team not only eagerly says yes to, but we'll also do four months from now. Then why are you doing the trade? And that's the part I'll never get a good answer on.

No, me neither. You know, and the whole philosophy in Boston has been in Brad, we trust. And I think he's been a terrific general manager. I'll never understand this trade. And the other unfortunate part, I really like Chisholm coming in as the new owner. Yeah. As a fan, because he talks about himself as a fan, I don't know why he would have ever approved this trade.

as a fan. Forget being the owner. But it made no sense. I read an article they're going to save money. They're not saving money. Maybe they'll save money down the line. Right. Year three they'll save money. Okay.

Year three. So it's two more years of Tatum and his prime. Playing with an injury-prone Paul George next to him. Makes no sense. And you like Simons too. And then he ended up on Philly too. I was shocked when he ended up in, because we had room to bring him back. Yeah. And we, you and I talked about the playoffs. We missed the third guard in that playoffs.

I know Pritchett played, but we missed Simon's minutes and we got nothing out of the guy we got at center in that trade. My fear, I guess that was another flood by Stevens, too. My fear is that they treated this, Tatum, his Achilles injury. as almost like a two-year window to reboot everything and then go all in a year from now. Is my fear. We said that a year ago when they let go of four of our starters. Well, but that was year one of year two. This year two now is, all right, we do with Paul George, and then he's an expiring next year.

We've reset all the tax stuff, and now we'll go back in and try to compete. But he's not an expiring. He has two years in the country. He has a player option. I know. He's, he's going to do the player option. Nobody's going to sign him. I know, but next year he'll opt in and then he'll be an expiring contract.

They'll have all their tax stuff reset and then they can do. That's the only thing I can think of. And I don't agree with it. Well, again, I don't agree with it for the reason I just said. So you're talking three years from now. Tatum's three years older. Two years from now. If Paul George isn't expiring and you have these picks,

listen, you took a long time to come around on J-Len, Brown. He was probably the most frustrating Celtic of the last 10 years for you. I need to be clear on something. I thought Jalen Brown carried us last year in many ways. The eye test, I know they keep talking about the stats versus the eye test. And I went to all the games, most of the games at home. He carried us. His numbers weren't always that great. His efficiency wasn't that great, but we won 56 games. I probably had had enough for watching Jalen Brown. After 10 years? Yeah, I'm not opposed to the fact they thought it was time to trade him. Yeah. I thought the trade was horrendous. And I'll never understand why they

accepted that trade. Well, you said on the streets of Boston, as you roam around, people are really because I don't have a job. And you walk the dogs. But people and people, you know, they talk to the Celtics about you, but across the board, people are pissed. There's no other side on this trade. It doesn't seem like. Yeah, people obviously talk to me.

They recognize from the documentary and podcast. Oh, look at you. And I haven't met one person who was in favor of that trade. As a matter of fact, it's not just. favor or not in favor, people are really upset about it. Yeah. Well, also, he did, he did a lot of stuff in this city, too, which we always talked about. I don't know.

I felt like that has to account for something as you're factoring in all this stuff. I guess it doesn't anymore. Somebody actually cared about your city and trying to get back to it and put real time into it. And, you know, I don't know. And I talked about once, it seemed like once his name was out there. the honest trade, it was inevitable probably that they'd have to move them. But they didn't have to move them so quickly. They didn't have to move them for that package.

Well, I wonder, it seemed a little dicier behind the scenes that maybe were led to let on because there's stuff that pops out after where it's like, you know, there was a couple, I don't want to name people who talked about this stuff, but there were a couple people who mentioned like it bothered him. who knows that this is true, it bothered him when Tatum came back and then Tatum was announced last. And Jalen had been announced last, but then he was announced first. You know, I did notice that at the game. Yeah, it bothered him that they hired a couple of Tatum's friends to work for the team, which is true.

But none of Jalen's friends. And once it gets, once we start going into that, maybe they saw a lot more like little stuff than that that you and I don't get to see. Well, fine. That's no excuse. for horrendous trading. It's no excuse. It'll never convince me, ever, that that was the best they could have gotten if they waited.

Yeah, even when the Red Sox traded Nomar in 2004, both of us were pretty, even though Nomar on paper was Nomar, and he was one of the most famous, biggest Red Sox stars, I think, of the past 35 years. He really got to like a really high level. He did. But he was unhappy that whole year.

I remember writing a column about it in the middle of the air. Like he just looked miserable because they tried to trade him already. His defense was going sideways. And they kind of sold high on him. And I do wonder if the Celtics part of this was they're, they feel like they're selling high on Jalen coming off, like him being sixth MVP, second team on NBA, carrying a team to 56.

Selling high? How does that, how do you sell high? Well, that was the irony. They didn't sell high. They didn't sell high. It's almost like they want to get out of this before they had to attach pit. I don't understand it. I still don't understand it.

People have been asking me all summer why they do this. You must know there must be an inside story. And there's really not. It just feels like they felt like he was going to, if he didn't get an extension in July, it just was going to start to feel like the 2019 Celtics, which was the unhappiest Celtic team of the last 10 years. I think they wanted to avoid it. I know you weren't a fan of just keep loading and loading a deal to get Janus.

You like Gonzalez a lot if he was ever in the trade offer. To me it was more, I don't, I just don't think Janus was a good bet. If you were, if you're telling me this was 2021, Janus, of course. I would have done four picks. I would have put in Hugo, all that stuff. But I just don't think Janus is a good bet. I've done 10 podcast segments about that. this. Like the history, you're betting on this history being the complete opposite of what we've

seen from big guys as they get older and start playing less games and having more injuries. I just wouldn't have done it. And I thought their offer was pretty fair. Like, I look at this step Milwaukee got back. I don't know. They just got back a poo-poo platter. I would rather have Jaylen. I agree. Yeah. So like to me, it's like Jalen and two first for a guy who hasn't really been healthy for, you know, reliably healthy for a long time. And I really, I don't know if you would have been a great fit with Tatum either. That was the other thing. So I didn't think it was a slam dunk. Yeah. But I did, but I just would have waited. Even if they went into the season with Jalen, I mean, the crowd liked them. Boston liked

them. As you mentioned, he did an awful lot of charitable work in the community. And we won with them. We won a title with them. Yep. Yeah. I would have waited. until a fair offer. You know, people I talked, 40 cents on the dollar, we got back, that's the opinion. And it makes no sense with all the good moves

that Brad Stevens has made. It just made no sense. Well, the Zag take would be Paul George was the best of the three forwards in that playoff series. In our series. In our series, he was the best of those three guys.

He was. Yeah. He did play the best. Okay. And then the next series against the Knicks. Not as good. Yeah.

It wasn't bad though. He was okay in the Knicks series, but not in. So we'll get four good games out of him this year, I guess. You know, it's not sustainable. He's always hurt. You had him with the Clippers. I don't think he was your favorite player. He just never knew when he was going to show up.

Yeah. Now he's going to have way less pressure on the Celtics team. but yeah again i don't not to be the dead horse but the the then lebron james decision on top of did the jellon brown going to philly i'm sure he never considered philly until jalen brown was there philly's going to be if they stay healthy they're a monster and they're and we hate philly we've hated Philly for 40 years. Yeah, I do. The funny thing about even if they get 50 games from LeBron

and 48 games from Mbid, those other three guys can carry them during the regular season. We just watched it with Jalen. Jaylen and Max and Edgecombe are all going to play big minutes for them. So, you know, and then they have a bench. They already got Caldwell Pope who, you know, he's an 11th man at this point, but you're already seeing these veterans trying to jump on the team.

And they already have. had Simons. Yeah. And they have Phylon to trade if they want to flip him for somebody. I thought that was a great draft pick by them. He dropped. Well, can you set the record straight for America because you actually went to the games? Hugo, who's not, I think he's 20 now.

And it was the wrong narrative because it was like, oh, my God, Hugo became the deal breaker and the Celtic. That wasn't actually what was true. They just, they made one offer and then ever made a second one. And then somehow he became the linchpin for why I didn't get Janus. Putting that on the side, you loved, you love Tugo. Like you thought he had a chance to be a really special player, right? Yeah, I thought Missoula underutilized him all season.

Especially in the playoffs. Well, I thought, you know, we won 56 games because we went 11 to 12 deep all season long. Yeah. And then we get to the playoffs against Philly and Missoula shortens the bench. to like eight players. And played your guy Vucevich. Oh, terrible. He didn't even play game seven.

He was so awful. Yeah. Yeah. The coaching, you know, that's another issue. But the coach, he got so outcoached in that playoff series against Philly. I mean, Nurse took him to the shed. He really did.

The game two and game five, those two games specifically. Where the Celtics had big leads at home, I think in both games. Yeah. And in game two, the Sixers increased the pace on them. It's a tough one. I don't know. It feels like our window closed, but we kind of knew it after 24 when they loaded up

and they got Porzengis and Holiday, and we'd made the finals in 22, and it felt like that 22 to 25 probably was going to be the real window for us. And then Tatum gets hurt and the Knicks to two big comeback. Tatum gets hurt. Right. 23 to lose game seven. Tatum gets hurt at the beginning of game seven.

You know, when I look back, we never should have lost the Golden State Series. We were the better team. Curry just beat us. That was our, that was a championship we let go. And we, I thought they ran out of gas in that. The four straight rounds, they weren't ready for it the way. Yeah. You know, there is something to that.

Like you could see it with Wembe this year. when you haven't been through that before playing 11 straight weeks and just having these high-level playoff games over and over and over again and teams like honing in on what your weaknesses are. Remember how good Tatum was at the beginning of those playoffs? Yeah. He killed Durant. Remember he like really took Durant to the woodshed?

Right. And by the end of the finals, he was a corpse. Like he just ran out of gas. He did run out of gas. You know, that's the other question nobody wants to talk about. do we have 100% healthy Tatum? Yeah, and what happened in game seven? We still don't know what, did he get injured?

Why didn't he play? That one was swept under the rug too. It's with the Roman Anthony finger situation. Yeah. You seem, all right, so rank your optimism for the four franchises right now. That's a good one. Patriots one? Patriots one.

Red Sox two. Red Sox two. Bruins three. Oh, man. Celtics four? My favorite Celtics four. I think the Knicks and Philly are much better than we are. Vegas does not agree.

I know. I saw the odds. Yeah, they, and there's a flip side of this coin case where you could say, Tatum has all the brown minutes from last year. Hugo and everybody is a year older. They have more depth. Mitchell Robinson, Paul George, being able to do a facsimile of something. I'll tell you, though, what worries me is these Achilles' injuries, players come back.

They're 85%, maybe 90. It's tough to be 100%. And it's going to be interesting to see if Tatum goes to the basket or what his lateral movement looks like. will he always be thinking of the, you know, he didn't, why didn't he play game seven? I mean, we both read the same things. But to sit out of game seven, I'm sure Jalen Brown is thinking he sat out game seven. I was in there playing. I carried the team all year.

Yeah. And I got no respect. I can understand that part of it. You know, if they win that game seven and Jalen has like a. like a heroic game seven to beat Philly, the trade doesn't happen. True, probably. What we never could have expected is him getting traded to Philly.

Like, you're just heading into Seltzer up 3-1 in round one against Philly, and if I said to you, they're going to lose the last three, and then J-1's going to get traded to Philly and play with LeBron. The ads would have been like a million to one. Well, that's putting aside that we've got Paul George back.

If you get to trade Jalen Brown, and you think it's time. Trade him out west. Nobody wanted them. When we see him once at home every year. There wasn't a market for him. That's the other thing. Then wait for the market to develop.

His teams needed to hire you as a consultant. Teams are going to have injuries. Wait for the market to develop. Can you imagine him coming into Boston two or three times in the regular season? Yeah. Well, he's in, I don't know if this is the best situation for him in Philly,

but I guess we'll find out. But he went from, it's time for me to have my own team to him being the fourth most important person on this team. It's a valid point about how they're all going to mesh with they all want the ball. He's basically going to have to be there, Derek White. Yeah. And I hadn't thought of that part. How are they all going to mesh? But I'm thinking about our team and our starting lineup and Paul George getting into.

19 games into the season and, you know. Wow. Did you send your checkout for the season tickets yet? I did. You know, and maybe the Celtics are going to be unhappy with our conversation today. But believe me, I've talked to a lot of other season ticket holders who are irate. Not that they traded Brown necessarily, but the package that came back. Well, I guess the best thing we can say is Brad Stevens has done right by us over and over again.

And if he believes this was the right trade, he knows more about basketball than we do. I didn't realize you work for the Celtics now. No, I'm saying that's the only thing if you're saying, all right, how is this going to work out? You'd be like, Brad Stevens been really good at this. Maybe he knows more than we do. It's the only thing I can grab onto because I wouldn't have made this trade in a million years. I just would have waited. I would have waited until September.

I feel like the trade's still there. And then who knows? Like maybe Detroit's in a contract feud with Duren. And they need to do something. They say, fuck it. We don't want to be bad this year. All right, here are five first rounders. And, you know, who knows?

I agree. Yeah. That's what I mean. There's still free agents that haven't signed, restricted free agents. There's still injuries that haven't occurred yet. on other teams. Brown could have been very attractive to another team in October.

All right, Dad. I'm glad the Red Sox have revived your summer. I'm glad you enjoyed the World Cup. I'm glad we were able to talk rationally about the Celtics trade. I'm glad to, we can text about. Did we talk rationally? Pat's training camp?

I thought it was rational. Go see The Odyssey. It's only three hours. Okay. All right. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thanks.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Howe. Thanks to my dad. Thanks to Gahuehau and Eduardo as well. new rewatchables. Remember, we're doing it live on Netflix. If you want to hear us talk about obsession, me and Chris Ryan and Joanna Robinson. It's going to be 7 p.m. Eastern time, 4 p.m. Pacific. We are doing a bunch of bangers in a row for rewatchables. I'm just, I'm just warning you now. Buckle up. Put your seatbelt on because we're going to tear through some because we're in the dog days,

the dead times of the summer, where we're basically, looking at SummerSlam, what's the FedEx, the golf, whatever the playoff is for that, preseason football, WMBA. I like the links. I'm really into the links. I already have a wager on the links to win the title. I've been into them. But yeah, not a lot going on.

So it's going to be an erratic schedule for us on this podcast. But maybe one more this week. You might not see me again until Sunday. Enjoy the first part of the week. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Give them a problem, call 100 Gambor or 1-800-Map. Call 88879-77777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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