The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Westbrook Renaissance, LeBron vs. Zion, NBA Commish Bernie Sanders, and Gym Corner Returns With Ryen Russillo | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the surging Rockets, Lakers-Pelicans, playoff matchups if the season ended today, the Clippers’ plans for the future, continued Bucks success, mailbag questions, Gym Corner, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight's episode of the BS Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network brought to you by ZipRecruiter. You know what the difference between working hard and working smart is? What we just watched with the Pelicans Lakers just now. How many points for the Pelicans in that last couple minutes? Almost just under four minutes to go to close the game unless they get a late garbage bucket here. Yeah. They did. So it was almost one point over like a four minute stretch.

Well, they lost the ball 20 times. ZipRecruiter has the tools to make hiring more efficient and effective, unlike the Pelicans tonight. Smartest way to hire. Learns what kind of candidates you like. Invites more to apply. So effective. Four to five employers have posted on Zip Recruiter to get a quality candidate through the site in the first day.

Try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash BS. Check out the Ringer Podcast Network where you can find a bunch of awesome podcasts, including the Ryan Rosillo podcast, including the Rewatchables, where we did Vision Quest last week, started a feud with Matthew Modi, and we're going to talk about that in a second.

Book of Basketball, last episode of season one is coming late Monday night. And we have, I think Oceans 12 is on the rewatchables this week. I'm not on that one. Check out all the other great podcasts we have. Coming up, Russel and I are going to do our little Sunday night thing.

We still don't have a name for this. The pod, we never came up with anything last year, huh? No, it's just kind of like Sundays with Russel. Like it's the sequel to Tuesdays with Maury. I feel like we can do better, but nobody ever sent us the right name. So we can definitely do better. We can do better than that. Last thing before we get to the pod, my friend Maura Mant died unexpectedly on Friday.

And, uh, I don't want to go into a whole thing about it here, but, um, Aaron Cohen wrote a piece for the ringer.com about it that I thought summed up a lot of what made her so memorable to know. I've known her for the last 15 years. We won an Emmy together in 2014 for a short she did for 30 for 30, which was the only primetime Emmy that we ever won for 30 for 30 while I was there. They won one after, but she was a force of nature and just an irreplaceable person. I can't even imagine ESPN without her. She's somebody that just thinking professionally,

forget the personal part, but somebody that you would need five to six people to replace because that was all she did over 365 days a year. Just, just a really talented person and really connected and really cared about all the right things and did a lot of good stuff for the company. So it was not a great weekend from, from that front.

So wanted to give a shout out to her and her family and check out that piece that Aaron wrote on the maker.com. Cause it was really good. All right, here's Pearl Jam. All right, we are taping this. We just watched the Pelicans. Lakers came together.

We're in person. That means this pod will be at least 22% better. Priscilla is here. We're going to start talking about Houston. This is the biggest L I've taken in a long time. Long time. Okay. Long, long time.

I guess I was going at it with Maury on Twitter as well. So that was always. He's like a pig in shit right now. He loves us. So go ahead. The floor is yours. Covington Capella. They do the trade.

They've now given away three first round picks. They're all in on this season. It just feels like Daryl's going to get fired. And Fertitta is going to clean house the whole thing. It is the Titanic heading toward Niceburg. I'm watching them on TV. It's just these five little guys spreading the floor, just trying to get rebounds and protect the rim. Nobody's taller than 6'7". It's ridiculous. I hate watching it. They're taking 53s. I'm out. I'm just like,

not only is this not going to work, I don't want to watch this. I'm out. I'm completely out. So then Houston Rockets rockets twitter hey man fuck you we're gonna shove a rod up your ass they do their whole thing i love and then i'm like well this is gonna be great now now the the rockets fans they're testy it's gonna be fun when this gets rammed up their assholes and then here's what happens the rockets just look awesome they're kicking ass they have a chance to get a two seed. They've rejuvenated Westbrook to the point that this might be the best he's ever looked

in his entire career from an efficiency, dominance, taking advantage of all his strength standpoint. And now I don't know what to think, Priscilla, but I just know that it feels like I was wrong. Whether I was wrong about whether this is sustainable physically, whether an undersized team can play with this kind of intensity and this kind of burden of having to do offensive rebounds, protect the rim, all that, whether this is sustainable for four playoff rounds, that's another debate. But short term, this is working.

Yeah, it's definitely working. And I have spent a lot of time kind of going through all the numbers for this this past month. They're at 49 three-point attempts per game in February. So they were 44, just over 44 threes a game over the course of, you look at the whole season, right? Yeah. That was number one in the NBA. And now they've cranked it up. They're 12-2. The seeds of this is the G League.

How many years ago? Years and years ago. 75 threesed it up um they're 12 and 2 the seeds of this is the G League how many years ago years and years ago 75 threes a game whatever they're doing and I don't want to repeat it because I feel like I just repeat myself on this stuff too much but this is where Daryl you know fires off a tweet at me or we'll get into it a little bit um where you know he does these different things and everybody rips it and I remember game one Golden State Warriors in that series they probably should have won and maybe have a title and you know everybody on tnt because it just was a really bad rockets game and everybody going up this doesn't work it's not gonna work it's not gonna work and they still almost won that series so they're 12 and 2 uh they had a loss at phoenix westbrook didn't play and then a one loss one point loss to utah they are i looked at the the splits. They're the number two offense on the season.

They're the number 15 defense. But if you look at just February, they're number seven defensively. So they've jumped up on their defensive efficiency sizing down. I think the other part of this that's completely overrated is that we just looked at Capella not being there and going, oh my God, they're small. They're already pretty small most of the time anyway. And they've just hit the turbo button on the whole thing.

I feel like they've gotten bigger by losing Capella, which I can't really blame myself for thinking it might hurt to lose the one tall guy you had on your team. Yeah, especially when you stopped using them in that offensive pick and roll stuff that you'd wanted to because they just weren't doing as much uh we all all of us did not do a good enough job giving their perimeter guys uh credit on how how strong they are how strong they are individually like trying to watch some of the celtics like this celtics team i got to see him in person in utah we'll talk about that whenever but to see like tatum and Jalen and all of these guys not really be able to get clean drives on them is just that in Brad Stevens had even said it in the pre

game he did this really good interview I was like wow this is actually really insightful um a coach saying something he goes this is a team of linebackers and for PJ Tucker to also have the mentality of like what do you want me to do okay done I'm just gonna go ahead and do it now the defense is better the only number that I could find and i'm sure there's maybe a little bit more if i really want to dig in and all this stuff is that their last and rebounding rate for the month of february so the 30 out of 30 teams the rebounding rate yeah but yet they out rebounded the south by 17 the other day and that was probably the game all those offensive rebounds that they grabbed even though the game probably shouldn't have gone in overtime and it was funny because i was like

okay you know the first boston matchup out there houston looked like the better team they tried to play canner you're like canner can't play in this game and he didn't play any in in the boston home game houston comes out harden doesn't even bother closing out on two guys immediately and then has another thing where he lets hayward get past him in transition and then fake pretends he's jumping a passing lane knowing like oh i just let hayward Hayward go. And I'm like, how late was this guy out? Because I mean, in the beginning of the game, it looked like- I have the answer. It looked like Houston- I know some people at the Encore of Boston. But in that first half of the game, you're like, this is the worst first half they've had.

Like Houston's just mailing it. Like they're due for one of these and Boston's been playing so well. I'm just to summarize, and I know we have more on Westbrook the level of toughness that they showed this perimeter defense just all of it that was a really really impressive win at Boston especially with how bad the Rockets looked in the first half so that's what it is right now the toughness thing is the number one important point because Westbrook, Tucker, Covington were, other than maybe Marcus Smart, but even they're bigger physically than he is, the three toughest guys on the court. Like Covington's rebound numbers, he's averaging like eight boards a game. Let's start with him because I think this is really important. And I don't know whether Houston knew this.

I don't know how they would know this because he's never played center. They're basically using Tucker and Covington like they're McHale and Parrish. And Covington, I looked it up. He's 6'7". Tucker's 6'6". On a good day. Would I realize watching, and I swore I wasn't going to watch the Rockets and I got sucked in the last week a couple of times. Covington, maybe this was the right position for him. Maybe he's been like a power forward center type guy all along. Maybe he's actually miscast as the small forward on the Sixers team that also has Embiid and Simmons. Because I thought he was a liability in that playoff series against Boston. With this, he's starting to look like Sean Marion in the mid

2000s. And I don't't know the Rockets can say oh we knew that was going to happen that's why we got him I don't know how they would know that because we've never really seen him play the kind of minutes and being used this specific way it's a really good point like I don't I don't know if they knew that but I think what we do know is they were like we're gonna get something really good for Capella when we don't want to use them anyway so think about that like and I don't want to use him anyway. Think about that. And I don't think Boss never had any interest. I think Daryl was doing a really good job

of trying to get the market up for him. But they must have had some number, data, inclination, whatever, that if they played Tucker and Covington together as their big guys, with Westbrook kind of crashing the offensive boards, doing all the stuff he does, that they'd be okay with rebounding defense compared to what they had.

And what they had was pretty mediocre. This was when they traded Capella and people like you and I reacted to it. And then the case for them trading Capella was like, well, look at our stats. Look at our defensive efficiency. Look at our rim protection rate. Look at our rebounding.

It's not like we're trading away Bill Russell in 1966 here. This guy wasn't making a big impact for us. We'll be able to switch on D. We'll be able to do all this small ball stuff. I just felt like there's no history ever in the league of somebody being able to actually win a title this way. The thing I think both of us were alarmed by immediately, in a good way for the Rockets, is how it would throw teams off that they were playing. Where game after game, these teams are like, well, what do we do? We have so much space.

Oh my God, should we do this? Wait, on the other end, oh God. Teams just seem really, really uncomfortable. Last night, Boston, Gordon Hayward just promised me we can get through this podcast without me eviscerating him because I think he's a nice guy and I feel bad that he broke his ankle two years ago. But basically the mismatch yesterday for the Celtics was at some point, something's going to shift your way. And yesterday it was Gordon Hayward should be able to go by James Harden whenever he wants. James Harden has no legs. This is your best match. He didn't want to do it for whatever reason.

So now you have Tatum going against Covington and Tucker. Those guys defended him really, really well. The other guy was defending Brown, defended him really, really well. Smart's taking 15 threes. That's always a terrible sign for the Celts. The three-pointer that Marcus Smart took with a minute and a half left in regulation

was those are like, and you know, being around the team on Wednesday, like one guy in particular is like you need to like my marcus smart more like you need to like him more he is everything with this team he is the heart and soul he's the team that fight he's the and i you know and i'm sitting there and i go you know what too many guys with the celtics have told me this over and over again yeah i'm like they're right i am wrong i need to i need to let up a little bit and then he takes that three with a minute and a half left and i go you know what i don't want to hear it you know because it's then he takes that three with a minute and a half left. And I go, you know what? I don't want to hear it.

Because it's just such a bad three. And by the way, he did his great job ripping the ball out from all those guys. They have the ball. They're up one. 30 seconds left. After the Gordon Hayward, that was almost an air ball in the corner. And then he just smart, just stood up. He just stood up and Harden makes a great play, knocking it out from behind.

Well, the Hayward, if he makes that, they're up four, 30 seconds left. They win the game. There was no way that shot was was going in he almost killed somebody who was such a brick but the smart thing look kemba's out that's why i'm not gonna say oh my god they can't be the rockets they were missing their other all-star and if he's in there now none of the watermaker minutes are happening that's not what it's about right smart's the sixth man. This is about the Rockets, though. I'm with you. Yes, no Kemba, but I just... Well, so the Covington thing is the first surprise in this, right? That this is somebody that plays bigger than his height and has never really been in this position as a pro

that you could get away with this. Now, if they're playing Joel Embiid or they're playing Jokic, I don't know what they do at that point maybe they just swarm him they the one thing i've this is i swear this isn't sour grapes so he used to people don't get back yeah simmers baggie's trying to make excuses while we're winning i'm not saying that when you go small though it might be the worst texas accent yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna work on that i'm gonna workshop a little bit more when you go small, though- It might be the worst Texas accent. Yeah, I'm going to work on that. I'm going to workshop a little bit more. When you go small like this, when you're the scrappy underdog,

I do feel like you get officiated a little differently. I do feel that Chris Paul has always been like this, right? Throughout his career, he's always been allowed to basically rake people over the arm, steal, try to do whatever. It's like, oh, he's Chris Paul. He's only six feet. He's not really fouling these guys. These guys, they're swarming.

They're jumping over people's backs for rebounds. They're coming behind and stripping guys. And they're just kind of they have that mentality. It's like a pack mentality. It works. I'm impressed. I am. And there's still other stuff that we can do on this. But it's specific to like, did they see something with Covington

and like, this guy is perfect? Or here's the other argument that i would make i mean they brought in what damari carroll jeff green jeff green i asked my dad or is daryl just obsessed with like who's six eight and long and is sort of like a a hybrid power forward small forward and in our setting a center maybe at times like that that could be this more simple thing instead of specifically like covington checked every single little box like covington's a good player but i actually felt like felt like before the trade deadline because there weren't really any big

names he's becoming incredibly overrated i mean it's not like he's lighting this up this whole thing is about westbrook right now yeah so it's audible to him this is the best he's ever looked i had given up on seeing this version of him. I thought he peaked three years ago as a player or whenever he won the MVP. That version of him, I thought, was the best athletically, stats, all that stuff. And then it was just going to be kind of a steady decline from there.

Now he's basically dumped threes. He's exploited mismatches. He's been able to get to the rim either way, left going left, going right. He takes better shots than he used to. And he's got that attitude back. He's got that motherfucker attitude back that really made him special in the Durant years, right?

He was the motherfucker guy in Durant. Yeah, the Westbrook camp was always, and I think there's some truth to this. I mean, in the Durant years, right? He was the motherfucker guy in Durant. Yeah, the Westbrook camp was always, and I think there's some truth to this. I mean, I prefer Durant, but the Westbrook camp was always kind of like the things you would hear is that, hey, if you're the guy, why are you letting somebody get position on you

in a huge possession late in a playoff game? Like, what are you, come get the fucking ball. Like, let's go. And then Westbrook would like go well i'm the alpha and then he would go ahead and take his bad shot he's got it it's weird that he's kind of taking that from harden well don't you didn't you feel that a little bit this these last two weeks i went through look at the stuff that he's doing right now in the last two months is nuts so you know when he first came in he was only taking for him 16 and a half shots a game

and then it was 20 shots a game that it was half shots a game and then it was 20 shots a game that it was 24 shots a game and you and i you and i thought this trade was a disaster six weeks in it was oh my god this is the worst possible fit when we did the all-star thing i was like wait you people think westbrook's making the all-star team yeah and he shouldn't have it was arguably the worst year of his career the way it was. And a lot of it still has to do with threes. I mean, he was taking six threes a game one point one month this season, and he was hitting 26% or 22%. It seemed like he was getting worse at threes.

Yeah. So you're like, okay, so what happens now? And it's like, so I'm going to be this three-point outlet, and I'm not even going to be cracking 25%. Now, Westbrook is somebody, and I don't know if this is just some different version of him where now he's unlocked at 31 years old. And maybe he realizes like some of the stuff you did in Oklahoma city was stupid. Like you shouldn't take a million threes, man. You're just not good at it. And somebody that had worked with him, I asked about Westbrook once I go, what? Like whenever I watch Westbrook in Oklahoma city, I go, you know,

if he just took out like the six or seven, what the hell are you doing shots? It would be a different player and other people be a little bit more engaged. And like, we, what the hell are you doing shots? It would be a different player and other people be a little bit more engaged. And like, we know what the raw stats are, but the rebounding stuff's a little weird. And I feel like everybody hands out assists now, like it's free t-shirt at a game. But he would say, and this is the way it was explained to me,

is you would go like, hey, Russ, like here's where you're really efficient. Here's where you're not. And then again, this is like somebody trying to go to Russell Westbrook and Westbrook would be like, well, whatever, I thought I was going to make it in a moment. And be like, okay, but you're really efficient here's where you're not and again this is like somebody trying to go to russell westbrook and westbrook be like well whatever i thought i was going to make it in a moment and be like okay but you're not ever like you're not making that shot ever and for whatever reason wait a second finally he's bought in and he's taken two a game now in this month despite the fact he's taken 26 shots a game what you just said that was so important because at some point

you are who you are as a basketball player. I just thought that's who he was. I'm going to take those seven terrible shots a game, and if you don't like it, fuck you. That's basically his whole approach. That's what he was like basically since he came to the league. For him to change and actually become smarter about the shots that he's taken at this point in his career is almost borderline inconceivable.

And just to put 25 shots into perspective. Per game. Per game, the last two months. Now, faster pace, but still. Right. And the Rockets were a slow-paced team last year. They've cranked up the pace again this year. You're still playing with one of the most ball-dominant players that we've ever seen, which is why, you know, whenever we look at Harden historically, I think you always have to kind of look at it a little differently in the approach that this is. Like, you know, Houston's approach is, hey, you're awesome and you're a really good shooter and you get to the free throw line a million times. Why are we running more stuff for other people? Like, you're just going to have the ball the whole time. So it skews things a little bit.

But Westbrook at 25 plus shots per game in these last two months. And again, now he's 40% from three, by the way, in February and two and and a half attempts i went through 20 years of stats this morning the only other guys to crack 25 like 25 shots a game is an insane number it's like kobe in 2006 it's kobe 2005 2006 27 and iverson in 2001 2002 took 28 shots a game those are the only two guys for an entire season to average over 25 shots a game in the last 20 years. And Westbrook is doing it right now in these last two months. And he's doing it well. And I actually don't look at him like,

if whatever we're doing, like, oh, can he keep this up? I never worry about his energy. I worry about his decisions. But I'm never going to worry about Westbrook's energy. Well, his last 26 games, 8 and 7 51 field goal percentage 25.5 field goal attempts and when you watch them and i have watched them way more the last week or so they're all good shots and they're and they're shots you would want them to take and if you're rooting against them which i had to do twice because they put in celtics twice you're like oh fuck don't let him go left damn it they let him

go left and he's doing his he's either bouncing off the guy making that bank shot with the foul or he's doing that thing where all of a sudden he's making a lefty layup you don't know how he got to the rim that fast then he can audible the other way in transition he's deadly and he just looks this is vintage westbrook and i don't even think it's changed the court. It's changed the ceiling of them. As I think a finals team, it's indisputable. I'm not sure about that.

And that was Daryl's disagreement. Cause I was like, look, this team is tough. The other thing, Westbrook's leading the league now in points in the paint is like 20. I have those numbers. All right.

What are they? When I say change the ceiling as a finals team, before I had them in a one bedroom studio, one floor. That was the ceiling. You had no scenario did you think they were getting out of the first round? No scenario. Zero. No, maybe one round.

Three straight rounds, no way. Now it's like, I don't know how many ceilings the apartment building has, but it definitely has a few floors. Points in the paint leader since January 1st. This is from my old friend, Kurt Goldsberry. Westbrook, 20.3 points in the paint. In the paint.

So this is the last two months. Zion, 17. Giannis, 16.8. Ben Simmons, 16.1. Aiton, 15. Harrell, 15. And that backs up what we're watching. It's layups, it's little pull-ups,

and it's stuff where he's bouncing off people. And there's so much space now. I haven't seen a lot of people stay in front of him. No, and that Celtics game, it wasn't like, oh, bad switch, bad switch. I mean, a lot of this stuff is just all isolation. Depending on how Sy, you know, classifies isolation plays. Houston's running like twice as many isolations as the number two team in Portland. Now, I think there could be some discrepancy on like, okay, what truly is

isolation? But by this metric, they're so far beyond what everybody else is doing. I didn't think it was really bad switches against Boston. They had like two, I think maybe two bad switches. And I think what happens with Westbrook is, and you can see it too off a miss. It's almost like the Giannis thing now. You try to get those three guys at the free throw line extended. You know, like one at the center, two guys off the elbows, and you're trying to contain it a little bit.

So there's no step through lane, and you want them to have to flare out and make this decision. But what happens with Westbrook, because he's so damn quick, is that you'll almost win on the first drive defensively. And then he's like, I'm not done, though. I'm not done with you. And you kind of let up a little. And then he goes right back at you.

And it's one stepping up and he's finishing off the backboard. It's like a beyond a hesitation move. It's like a... He stops the drive and starts it again. It's like a reset. But then it's going again. He did it a couple of times in that Boston game. And the thing is,

Harden's stats haven't really suffered. Like even just the last 10 games, he's still at 31, 8, and 6. No, and he didn't get hooked up by the officiating, which, you know, again, he decides to fall and he turns his hips in to the left side all the time now.

He hit Romeo Lankford so hard, like Lankford was checking his head for blood and Harden was looking for the call. decides to fall and he turns his hips in to the left side all the time now he hit romeo langford so hard like langford was checking his head for blood and harden was looking for the call like harden got one call in the beginning and then you could see that officiating crew was like you know what we're not we're not giving you these calls now and it didn't like when when houston wins and harden isn't getting those calls so are are we... Wait a second. Important question. Do we think this is sustainable? Can you do this for four more months? Because every instinct I have says no, but

yet they're just doing it really easily. Yeah, I still worry about what's a matchup going to be? I went and looked at Dallas and I was like, alright, what about Przingis and Luka? And they've split the two games they've played this year. First game, Dallas won. They had Luka.

Luka didn't play in the second one. And that was right at the beginning of this stretch because I think Capella's last game with Houston was the 29th of January. Przingis against them is averaging like 29, 12 and a half. So he has good numbers in those two games against him. Another one that I would look at is Denver. I mean, because it could be Houston the 2-7 with Dallas. and do they just go oh no we're just going to spread you guys out and luca and in porzingis are going to have to chase us around or over the course of five six

seven games does it just get exhausting having to box those guys out all the time why wouldn't you just play zone if you had porzingis and luca i i also worry about zone just doesn't work against these guys. My feeling is... Just put Porzingis in the middle and just... I love the zone switch it up thing that we're seeing more and more of. Yeah. I think what people are afraid of,

and maybe I'm too stuck in my ways on it, is that if you stayed in zone for like really, really long stretches, a good shooting team's going to murder you. They get used to it. Yeah. What about Denver? Okay, so Denver played Toronto today,

and Toronto's had... Toronto's kind of doing the Houston East thing here because Gasol has missed so much time and Ibaka was out against Denver. Well, they also know Van Vliet, which, so the three of those combined, it was fucking great. Toronto's had these games where it's like, they're actually just kind of doing what Houston is. And they're smaller on the perimeter when it's Lowry and Van Vliet, as opposed to Westbrook

and Harden and Jokic went bananas so could you really shut down Jokic if you're Houston or are you abusing him because he's chasing around PJ Tucker all the time you know um well if Robert Covington can continues to just gain superhuman powers I don't know could he guard Jokic? I'm not ruling it out at this point. The guy, now he's 6'10". I think he grew three inches. The team likes Texas. The Texas Heat made him grow. No, they need to. When your team, if you're listening to this,

when your team plays them next, watch how good they are at just using their strength to get you off the line that you want to take on drives of the hoop. It was glaring against Boston. And that's the other thing. When you play them, they're officiated.

It's just so hard to play to play, determine whether it was a foul or not. Westbrook is lurching into guys, hard on all the stuff he does, and it makes a team. It puts them off balance. They're upset about this call. They're upset about that call.

They can't believe this. Now they're a little more tentative. There's a whole bunch of Jedi mind trick shit going on. And I think they're just really hard to play for nine different reasons. Now, did they know this when they made the trade? They can say they did. I'm not belittling them. I'm not discrediting them, whatever. I just can't believe they ever in a million years thought it was going to work out this well so far. When they made this trade, they're like, we did it. Here we go.

The plan is unleashed. Because to me, it always felt like a Hail Mary. It's like, well, I'm getting fired if we don't make the finals, meaning Daryl. And D'Antoni is like, well, I'm definitely getting fired if we don't make the finals. They're like, fuck it. Let's do the thing we always wanted to do.

No center. Let's go. go right if everybody's going small and look there's there was another team that i talked to that said no this is stupid this is stupid and they're like of course our analytics department fucking loves it so i had like the old school guy telling me how stupid the approach was and then he was also at the same time being like all of our nerds are like couldn't be happier about that they're doing this well just so people know i still i still hate it i hate the isos i hate the 53s like i just don't like it but i respect that it's working and i respect what it's done for westbrook but let me add and tucker let's let's add to this because the beauty of it is hey did they know hey, do they know? Do they know they're going to go 12-2?

Or is this the risk because of what their individual futures are as far as being employees of the Houston Rockets, whether it's Darryl or D'Antoni? Or did Westbrook have to be this bad to start the year that they go, we have to change something. We have to be dramatic about it because this version of Westbrook that we have right now is an absolute disaster. And considering we have three more years of this money. And has he matured a little bit too? Because as you know, I love to read the quotes from the teammates about the other teammates,

beloved teammate this year, Westbrook. Even Austin Rivers was raving about him. They were talking about that during the broadcast on Saturday night. He just seems like he seems happier. He seems like he's clicked with his teammates. It seems like he really does have something genuine with Harden. And there's something going on here. So they play the Knicks on Monday night and then Thursday night you down on that one Thursday night

Clippers at home and if this style works against the Clippers I think we have to really evaluate what whether there's some real finals potential here. Yeah, because I'm not there yet. We've gone through all of this, but I'm not saying, hey, they're my favorite to get in the NBA finals. No way. You think the Clippers will go like, cool, we'll play Kawhi, Paul George. We'll play Morris. Beverly.

We'll play Beverly, and we'll just put a shooter, and we'll go small ball, tough guy, toe-to-toe with you, and we have Kawhi and Paul George. Good luck. If it works against them, then you go. Because the thing is, Harden hasn't had one of those Harden hot streaks in a while either, where he has those 12-game stretches where it's like James Harden's averaging 42 points a game

for the last 10 games. So if they can ever get him turned up maybe five percent more with whatever westbrook's doing holy shit i'm really impressed want me to do one more houston accent before we go to commercial i'm just trying to think of the collection of like you and i doing this now a couple years and we all have our own battles but like what what five fan bases because the problem is the longer you do this the longer you become like in the crosshairs of different fan bases yeah i've got like four or five right now i think i had like 32 there's only 30 teams in the league that if you were to rank like what would be the worst team to win a championship based on the heat that you will be getting?

Houston's clearly number one for both of us. For me, it was Miami 2012 was probably my number one all time for basketball because I did the whole decision thing. I was like, there's no way they're winning the title. They only have three guys. That's never worked in the history of the league. They didn't win. Then I was like, ha, I told you. Even though they made it to the NBA Finals, you were taking a win? Oh, totally. I was like, yeah. His approach doesn. And then even though they made it to the NBA finals, you were taking a win saying

Oh, totally. I was like, yeah, this approach doesn't work. You need eight guys to win a title. I was right. And then the next year it's like the Seltzer one went away from just shutting them down. They would have traded Chris Bosh and then LeBron steps up and then all of a sudden Miami was in fucky mode with me. But with the Houston

thing, this will be the most insufferable fan base that ever won a title. And by the way, partially earned because everybody has shit on the way they played. They've shit on James Harden. They've shit on their last two playoff losses. Westbrook's taken more shit

than any superstar of this century. I mean, out of this decade, really since Iverson. But all of that stuff deserved like I just I do this thing where it's like if if I have no money in the bank yeah and you tell me I'm broke and then a year later I have 50,000 in the bank and I'm like oh see Bill you're still right because when you called me broke I was broke yeah it wasn't inaccurate and so for all the shit that the the fan base like it's not like they're they're winning all the time and it's not like west westbrook's been bounced out of the first round three straight years so you know look i'm

not gonna ever this is a really nice run it's working it's awesome they're beating good teams that celtics win was really impressive because they went in there and i know there's no kemba and all that and they came back we have we have done yeah they looked disinterested. Like that first half, I'm like, oh, I guess they're just going to lose tonight. Like they're just, they suck tonight. Wow, this is weird. And it's like, oh, actually now they cranked it up immediately.

But Houston would be probably number one. I think Denver might be two for me. I think that's a Denver is just a, that's like a personal thing with you. I've always been all right with the Denver fans. Oh no, I'm not saying that it's, that you're i think this is like it really specific to you we get shrapnel on these things but it's funny i watched the denver game today against toronto again they blew them out they're late but then i saw the guys that worked for the nuggets

as part of the broadcast that were coming after me that night when it was all going bad and i was like wait a minute i almost responded to this guy like look at his jacket like why would i why would i ever fucking engage with this guy and so that's there was always a little bit of a lesson like i was like oh wait i'd like to think we're two of the people in relatively high profile media spots that when we when we're wrong we'll admit we're wrong yeah that's it's not like i'm like no i actually i meant it's like all right i was wrong i was complimenting westbrook because it's he deserves to be complimented it was a disaster for a long time and i got aggregated when i did the pot about like there's rumblings that daryl knows this thing isn't really working i for one am 100 convinced that russell westbrook

was not daryl's idea okay Okay. It doesn't make any sense. It's so unlike any other player he's ever wanted. And he's 40 million a year for the next three. Okay. Over that. But I can also go, hey, you know, who's been awesome right now is Westbrook. And it's funny because I think the audience is so conditioned to guys that

do this, that are in the opinion business are just unforgiving. You know, like, like look i like kellerman but his brady take has been a clown show okay right he's like he's heading off a cliff he's won two fucking superbowls since he said it and instead of just being like hey this is that take has not gone well for me on first take he said the throws were easy right so when guys like you or i change our mind people blown away we almost get ripped for it when it's like no no like don't you see that everybody else does this thing where they just get married and not just married like attached this is my take yeah like and i cannot like a politician where this is my position on health care i'm never

wavering right and so i i yeah there's times i'm like holy like i got that really nobody wants to be wrong but the business you're it's such a good point by you the business has become like well i just say something in 2004 and i never waver like what do you do the only thing i'm never wavering from is kairi is not fun to play with well uh i've decided where i'm i'm banning kairi is Kyrie's not fun to play with. I've decided I'm banning Kyrie for us. We're not allowed to talk about him anymore. He might have taken care of that anyway. Hey, companies around the world, they're solving their most important challenges with Google

Cloud, like PayPal, who's solving for millions of daily hopes, dreams, and financial ambitions. And Google Cloud is helping them achieve their mission to transform the prosperity and opportunity of millions of businesses around the world. So smart, there's rumors they might've convinced Daryl to trade for Robert Covington. Who knows? Google Cloud's really good. With massive scale and processing power,

PayPal is connecting Main Street to every street with a lot of help from Google Cloud. Google Cloud, what are you solving for? Visit g.co slash cloud slash solving. Once again, g.co slash cloud slash solving. So we watched Lakers-Pelicans. There was a weird story this week about LeBron and Zion this weekend.

People thought it was weird that they had no relationship. There were actually pieces being written about this and it was a thing on Twitter. I didn't even realize it until I read this stuff this morning. I was like, oh. It was like a thing? I think it coming off the heels of him being so glowing about Ja Morant.

And then it was like wait a minute have you not done your post-game speech anything you need with zion right young king did we see that i gotta check because we got i don't think he did the young king speech for for zion yet but then it was like with something going on with these guys and it's like yeah obviously obviously clutch tried to sign zion and zion's family wanted no part of it and they haven't talked really since i don't think there's a feud but you know how's lebron lebron's not going to keep in touch with every young star that enters the league i enjoyed it oh they hugged it out oh they hugged it out great yeah big time was there a whisper do you get a whisper no it's

i'm watching the whisper video right now what do do you think he whispered? Yo, young king, keep doing your thing, man. All right. If you need me, call me. Something like that? He's like, when can you ask for a trade? Yo, Davis might be out. He's going to have a two-year option. His next deal.

Call me. Don't freak out, Pelicans fans. Kyrie was the first one ever. He was the first one ever he was the first one ever where guys in nba and that should have told us here i just said we're banning ourselves we're talking kairi but you know i'm so glad we're back the whole thing about like you know no one ever doesn't do the extension off the rookie contract yeah you do the extension then you ask for a trade and the carl towns there was there was a a strong vibe, and it didn't happen,

but there was like, if anybody would do it, it'd be Kyrie. It's like, well, you can't really do it. But I don't know. It was weird. It was weird. By doing it, you're just basically giving away $25 million. Yeah, I'd have to look into all the numbers, but nobody does it.

So the Lakers-Palacans thing, which really probably is going to be the 1-8 seed. I think the Pelicans are going to catch the Grizzlies. I know the Grizzlies had a big win this weekend, but I still think Pelicans catch them. And the strength of schedule. Memphis has the toughest schedule the rest of the way. And all the teams behind Memphis have the third easiest. The Lakers are going to beat the Pelicans, but I think it's going to be a fun series because the Pelicans can score with the Lakers,

and it'll be one of those things where they're going to get to 110, 115 points. Those games will at least be fun to watch. You go on the other side with, I think it's going to be, I have this written down, Bucs-Nets, where there's going to be lines for those games

or the Bucs are going to be favored by like 22.5 points in game one or 18.5 points or whatever. Here are playoff matchups right now. I want to do this every week on the pod to set the stage for what's coming because what do we have like five weeks left? Five and a half weeks?

Bucs Nets, Raptors Magic, Celts Pacers, Heat, Sixers. That's going to be our four in the East. And then the West, Lakers, Grizz, Nuggets, Mavs, Clips, Thunder, Rockets, Jazz. Clips, Thunder, a lot of subplots in that one. I don't know if you know this, but Paul George, Gallinari, and Chris Paul were on the opposite teams last year. Then they would be meeting again. Chris Paul would be playing the Clippers

in a playoff series. Plus, there's... You know what that reminds me of? Did you know that Matthew Stafford and Clayton Kershaw know each other? They know each other? Yeah. I don't know. Phil Rivers has eight kids did you know that josh smith and dwight howard played a you ball together out of those eight series which ones get you the

most excited i'm i'm i go 1a nuggets mavs 1b clips okc nuggets mavs like i feel like people one B clips. Okay. See nuggets maps. Like I feel like people are off the maps a little bit. Yeah. A couple of injuries. Cause Luca, you know, has been in and out a couple of different times. Przingis was incredible again today.

Um, he's, he's, you know, hit the beginning of the year. You're like, Oh my God. Like what did Dallas end up with here?

And I think now if you're Dallas, you feel really good about him. It's two years since the knee injury, which I think is important to mention. But yeah, Porzingis every once in a while, he'll have like 37 and 19 rebounds. Yeah, he went crazy. I think he had one today that was kind of like that. Yeah, he had 38 against Minnesota.

And Minnesota, again, Towns has been missing now with that wrist injury. Towns is like, I'll see you guys in October. A week or so, maybe two weeks ago, I would have told you, Houston, Utah, let's go. Utah is, I don't know, it feels like a mess is too strong, but it's not good. And that really great stretch was like, you know, sometimes you go, Hey,

they finally put it together. And you're looking and be like, Oh, Sacramento, Brooklyn, the next twice. And I'm not saying off the top of my head, that's what it was.

But when they had that good stretch, it was, it was a really incredibly easy stretch for like two weeks. I think when you have stuff like Mike Conley is going to be benched and then the owner intervenes. And then it's like, Hey, Mike Conley is actually going to still be starting tonight. When stuff like that starts happening, that's a bad sign. I think the Conley trade worked out so badly.

It's a huge contract. They gave up a first round pick. It's a trade that I liked at the time when they made it. I didn't realize it was the year when he was going, basically his post-prime year, when he was moving into a different phase of his career. But on the other hand, there's a lot of history with this stuff, especially with point guards that are hitting like a thousand games

when they just hit a different stage of their career, and that's that. And unfortunately, it looks like that's what happened here. It looks like he's just kind of past his prime. And you know, you throw that in with Gobert going against the Rockets where you have this guy who has a chance to win defensive player of the year again, and you might not be able to play him in round one. Like you might not be able to keep them on the floor for more than 15 minutes a game. Yeah. I think that's a real threat because we've seen that with Gobert a little bit. Jazz fans get really mad about it.

But that one, even the strongest, the biggest Gobert fan, you have to be freaked out. This asset that we have, our other all-star, how is he going to look? And I always feel like with these big guys and some of these weird size matchups, there can be versions where that guy looks really good. You know, the Tristan Thompson Golden State Warriors series in 16 is a really good example because i thought there were times where tristan looked like he couldn't be on the floor against golden state and for whatever happened part of the turnaround that series like nobody boxed out tristan thompson

like he worked his ass off he got better position and he kept possessions alive and then there'd be other times you're like you gotta get him out of there so i'm not always convinced like every single time a big looks bad but i'm i'd be really scared about're like, you got to get him out of there. So I'm not always convinced like every single time a big looks bad, but I'm, I'd be really scared about him being out there. And I think Gobert's, I don't, I don't think it's all on Conley. I think Gobert is incredibly frustrated too, but I also think his teammates get sick of passing the basketball and it goes when you really like, I've been watching him closer and closer.

It's like, you know, he's not great with the ball he brings it down like i was really disappointed with him against houston where you know it's not like they're gonna run the offense through him yeah but he had six rebounds in that game and like westbrook isn't gonna back down to anybody and if you're gobert like you need to go right at westbrook and be like hey get out of the way. And there was a mentality thing there that bugged me. And that building was dead on Wednesday. It really was. And it's a great building.

We should say you went to the Utah game on Wednesday. Yeah. And they ran into a Boston team where Tatum's got 30 like that. Marcus Smart hits three threes in a row and starts going to Quinn Snyder being like, better call a timeout. And then I sat next to a heckler. I don't know if he's a professional heckler and his wife they're having a couple beers and he was one of the worst hecklers I've ever heard and then Gordon Hayward was totally checked out of that game I don't know if it was the booing every time

he touched the basketball but like the heckler said i know your mom i was like wow that was mean jesus the rest of his material wasn't very good i know your mom is a weird one yeah i know your mom is a weird one and then every time the heckler would say something the wife would be like stop it and he never listened to her the whole time um well i love that building going to a game in there a bit but you could just sense that like the crowd was kind of like you know this is the worst they definitely didn't say any swears but um this is the worst we've looked for you know stretch most amount of white people you've ever been around i did go to uvm you did live in martha's vineyard you did go to uvm and see martha's vineyard you did spend some new hampshire time hey look when i martha's vineyard more diverse than people know yeah in the summer

are you kidding martha's vineyard i believe was the first tourist destination in the united states uh where black people could buy property no i'm serious like i think i think it is so they have they have a great um history there and when i bartended in the 90s at atlanta connection the only white people in the dance club were the three bartenders. Utah, not as diverse. No, Park City doesn't have... Tell you, amazingly attractive female clientele in the Utah, state of Utah. Good looking state. Want me to tell you a story?

Sure. So I went for a hike on Friday and I didn't have the proper gear, but I was like, whatever, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. And I wanted to pick something moderate, not easy. I want short distance, but I want peak. I want to get up there. So I picked a trail.

It was like two miles straight up. I'm like, I'm good to go. Work boots, steel toe, NBD, used to frame and uh within a few feet I'm looking at this trail and it's packed down like a bobsled track yeah and I go I'm this is gonna be brutal no snowshoes no crampons no pole you're just worried about a torn groin muscle every time I stepped I was like I feel like I'm gonna rip my groin apart here so I'd walk along like the, and sometimes I'd be up to my hips in snow. And then a girl, pretty attractive, goes flying past me with a dog and crampons, just flying. She's like, hey.

I'm like, oh, jeez. She had the gear. She was running, too. Just a machine. So I make it like an hour. This is like the start of a rom-com. Yeah, yeah. It really felt like that.

It was kind of like- Clampon. It was like the breakup before things went bad it was zoe deitch ran by with their clamp ons so i get to like this flat area where then it the rest of the way is the peak so it's not a great i'm pouring sweat just drenched and i'm like i'm not gonna make it and even if i were to make it there's no way i'm not gonna fall a hundred times on the way down here because it's gonna be all the way straight down i'm like you're you're dripping sweat this is bad you're thinking you can't hurt your hands because you're

a writer yeah that i've got some typing to do i'm really close on this time travel thing it's a time travel show but it takes place but it's about Robert Covington right but uh I just turn around I'm like nobody saw me I'm coming back down people are snowshoeing poles the whole deal and then I explained to somebody like I don't really have the right gear for this and she looked at me like what are you doing and as I'm exiting the trail the girl that ran past me with the crampons flying she comes over she's like hey are you on the bobsled team and i was like no she's like but you're a pro athlete right baseball why didn't you just say you were a linebacker i'm too small to be a lot well maybe not how does she know that yeah but it's just i want to let the pro athletes out there know there's no more like it's nice that she thought that but it's such a it's just i want to let the pro athletes out there know there's no more like

it's nice that she thought that but it's such a it's such a bummer when you have to be like no i'm not anything you should have said you're ryan bosa the third bosa brother i should have playing for tampa bay i'm the old one the xfl uh attractive state she's like you're not a you're not pro she's like i just thought you know pro. She's like, I just thought, you know, walking behind you with your build. And I was like, thank you.

That's really nice. I was like, but yeah, I'm not. I'm just in town hanging out. She's like, yeah,

okay, see ya. So that was the highlight of the week for you. The low light was Matthew Modine coming at you

a little bit on social media. He was upset about our Vision Quest podcast. Yeah, what's his thing? You were debating whether to escalate it on social media which would have been definitely the weirdest twitter feud of the week yeah can can we get a ruling from you on this what was modine was going nuts like this is the most activity he's had in a while but he does

tweet a lot i think i think he's just a little unhinged on twitter it's part of his deal right so i always feel like there's there'll be certain people where I'll look at and be like, hey, if Matthew Modine has tweeted 45, 50,000 times, he should have more than 70,000 followers. It's Matthew Modine. He was in Full Metal Jacket. Yeah. Great career. Like he needs to get to a half a mil here at some point.

But every single- I'm a fan. Vision Quest. He was really... Because there were some real, I don't know, aficionados about Vision Quest that didn't like the idea that I hadn't seen it before and didn't think I brought anything to the table, which is fine.

I thought you brought a lot to the table. I like my role on it. He's got 76.8 thousand followers, but a lot of tweets. But I feel like he should have more. That's my point. But what was his deal with me he was he was saying i think he i think he was under the impression that we you did the

podcast but hadn't seen the movie and i think that's what it was yeah because you said in the beginning you hadn't seen the movie before you saw the movie to do the podcast yeah i'm not that much of a jerk where i was like i'm just gonna come on the bed and then i talk out of my ass the whole time i go but then what happened this is the biggest rival modine's had said shoot so then i kind of thought like do i fire one off to him true or false you might have screenshotted a possibility for me in house true like what do you think i'll just share it with everybody uh he said somebody said something like ryan blah blah wasn't any good and then modine had said opinions are like you know whatever everybody's got one and or i forget i maybe somebody else said it and then modine was like

an approval of the ripping me so then i was gonna say Modine, how long will it take you to get up to 225? It would have been great. Well, you know, I didn't want to get into a fight with him though because I honestly had no hard feelings towards him because you're right.

I don't think he understood what was going on. So we did run the video of you making fun of his lat pull downs. Well, that's a three minute rant about how bad it's been 30 years.

He should see that video and go, you know what? I like that Ryan guy. Yeah, right. He should look at that and go go i should have put more thought into my lap pull downs i don't blame him i blame the coaches he's a high school kid who's a little off and has no friends and he obviously doesn't have a workout partner to be like hey lat pull down this isn't how many you can do in 10 seconds we We have a couple more quick basketball topics. It was announced today that Steve Ballmer is in advanced talks of buying the forum,

which is how this was always going to play out. You have James Dolan, Nick's owner, cable vision guy who owns the forum, Irving Azoff, legendary music guy, partners with Dolan on that. Ballmer is going to try to build this basketball arena next to them, which is going to kill the forum the moment it goes up because any band is going to want to play in the slightly bigger basketball stadium versus this other place. So it's a stalemate chess match. We all know how it's going to play out. And now it's playing out the way people thought it was going to play out. Balmer is now just going to say, fuck it. Okay, you dicks. We can spend five years suing each

other and just give you money lawyers, or I'll just buy the forum from you. I'm going to buy the forum. And now he's buying the forum, which means the Clippers are going to have this beautiful state-of-the-art stadium in Inglewood, which the Lakers definitely did not want them to have because they're in the Staples Center, which was built really at the tail end of before they figured out how to build basketball arenas. Staples Center, not great. Not terrible. Not great.

I actually like it. I don't. It's fine. I don't have. I think the way they do the lighting and everything. I mean, have you been like the Warriors one yet, though? When you go to the Warriors one compared to Staples Center, it's like, oh, my God, this is like night and day.

So you've never been to Utah, right? No, but that one's the way they have the end lines behind the back and how steep it is and right now. It's awesome. I love it. Indiana is like night and day. And you've never been to Utah, right? No, but that one's- The way they have the end lines behind the basket and how steep it is and right on top. It's awesome. I love it there. Indiana's like that too, where they built it just for basketball. I've been to, is it still Conseco?

So here's my question for you. He's going to spend all this money building this new arena for the Clippers. I don't think it is. It's Conseco Field, unless they changed it. I feel like it's something life. Oh, you're probably right. It's one of those.

So here's my question. This is important. Bankers life, Fieldhouse now. We've just established yet again that this is a Lakers city and nobody really cares about the Clippers. In my opinion. Having been here for 18 years,

I would say it's 99 to 1 Laker fans to Clipper fans. Clippers have this team that's a possible title contender. Everybody here cares more about the Lakers. We just saw it with all the Kobe stuff as we discussed last week. They're going to spend all this money on this new arena to try to get... He's already in for almost $2 billion for the team. He's spent a ton of money on it since he's gotten it. Now he's going to build this new arena from scratch. So now he's in for at least 4 billion, maybe more. And it just feels like, at what point is this a no win? Unless the Lakers completely bottom out, which seems, it would have to be what

happened with them during that last couple of years of Kobe through the first year of LeBron's stretch. Unless that happens for 20 years and the Clippers are just this dominant force and you're grabbing bandwagoners and things like that. Otherwise, as a business plan, I still don't totally get this. It's never really fully been explained to me why LA needs two basketball teams. And I've looked at it a lot of different ways, and I've had season tickets for the Clippers for the last 15 years. It's obviously sustainable, but can they actually supplant the Lakers? No. Yeah, but can you still be, and I think this is almost like when we talk about players and how worthless, and I don't say that you or I do this,

but how worthless their careers are deemed when they don't win anything. Is it bad to be the number two team in this city? Would you rather be the number one team in Las Vegas or Seattle? Or would you rather be the stepbrother in LA with the Lakers? Well, you wouldn't have gotten Kawhi probably. Yeah, maybe. I know your point because you're right. Now that I've been out here, I see it. It's like, man, and this Clippers thing is unbelievable.

Like despite our concerns of what the Clippers may or may not be, what they did on Friday to Denver when they're right is like, oh, hey, by the way, like this is what we can do. And yeah, it was a weird game today against the Sixers team missing both Simmons and Embiid. But when they needed to turn it on, they absolutely turned it on and won that game. And their numbers across the board on all the important stuff has been really good despite not having all

these guys so yeah they're never gonna i can't imagine like you know we'll just talk about boston if a new baseball team started up the braves they moved back to boston yeah nobody would care no one would care but would it still be sustainable is the but it's not really even the cheaper option it's not like it's like minor league and they're giving tickets away i mean i guess my question is does bomber think the lakers can be had i bet you he thinks that like i really think he does i think he's one of those guys that like i think so many guys from outside of the sports world look at things and go well this is what i did and so you know walk around like sometimes, I don't know, I don't know how many managers you've

actually had because you've done, but you know, like managers will set these benchmarks and you're like, that's, that's not going to happen. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, but you know, I read this book, the Harvard business review, and I get to make you get numbers that are impossible to reach. And that's the only way to motivate you and do all those things. I wonder if Balmer like looks at the city that way, basketball wise, because I'm sure that's everything he did when he was with Microsoft. I'm not against it. I don't think it's like, you know, it's not the equivalent of putting, you know, spending a ton of money on some team in a city that has no chance. I'm not saying it doesn't have a chance. I'm just saying

for him, it's so much money. And I know he's a competitive dude. I had him on this podcast. I respect him. I respect the way he thinks. I think he's trying to put together this really competent, well-run, expensive organization that competes for a title every year. My question is, will anybody in LA ever actually care? And I guess we'll find out this spring, but I'm leaning toward probably not. You know, what's funny about this is how this ties into the first Daryl story.

Do you know the story? So when he was hired by the Celtics ownership that had just bought the team, Wick, Steve, and the rest of their group, they wanted, double check this. I'm pretty sure this is right but they wanted him to run kind of like an analysis on building their own arena like getting out oh yeah this is right i know yeah right you're right and so daryl like everybody's convinced oh my god it's gonna be amazing the celtics are gonna have their own arena they've got a bad setup because the bruins and you know everybody's anti-bruins ownership

especially at that time because the bruins really hadn't had that kind of success that they ended up having a lot later on uh in a way and like the city was kind of cool like whoa they're going to have their own thing like this will be awesome and then daryl comes in and is like yeah it's stupid don't do it here's all the reasons why And it was so convincing and the work was so brilliant that they're like, okay. And that's that. That was what he wasn't out scouting. Like his first assignment was to do this whole idea. And then all these people were pissed because it ruined all this extra real estate that salespeople would have to sell. Right. Because if you're on the ground floor with a team and you now have all of this inventory to sell as a sale, you're going to make all of this money.

So I guess there was a bunch of people that were like, oh, great, this Daryl guy showed up and convinced them to stay in this current setup because it's way more beneficial to you to do that and stay here than it is to build your own place. I guess if Ballmer was here, he'd be like, look, I'm the second- class citizen of the Staples Center. The Lakers get all the good dates. I get all the scraps.

I have to play on New Year's Eve and I have to play these Sunday matinee games against NFL playoff games and all these things. I get all the shit, shit calendar things. If I build my own arena, now I can play on Friday nights and I can play on Sunday nights and I can just go head to head. The Knicks and Nets, they'll have games on the same night. It doesn't matter. It'll be the same thing in LA. He'll be like, I'll control my own destiny. And I'll be able to have all these musical acts. It's a good business investment. That's why I'm doing it. It's not just because I'm trying to beat the Lakers. There are all these other reasons. I get it. It's just weird when the upside is if you won the title, nobody here is really going to care. It's a really unique situation.

There's no other NBA situation like this where when the Kings won the cup the first time, and we had season tickets that year, and the Kings have awesome fans, but it's, you know, 50,000 fans, 45,000 fans, whatever it is. And then a bunch of people that jump on the bandwagon, you have this parade. It's nice. There's a few people when the Lakers are in it. You see what happens this spring. You haven't been here when the Lakers are in it. All of a sudden these cars have fucking Laker flags on it. And it's just Lakers everywhere. It's purple. Everybody's got a jersey on.

So we're going to see a jump in flags. Well, it's like the Red Sox in October. It's like, you know, in October with the Red Sox in the World Series, there's like jerseys everywhere. Yeah. You take a ride in the street, there's 200 jerseys walking toward you. That's what it's like when the Lakers are good. The Clippers will never be like that.

And it's the only the lakers are good i don't the clippers will never be like that and it's the only nba situation like that but if he likes being in la if it's profitable which it is valuation continues to go up i don't know what their tv deal is i know the lakers one is his own arena with a bunch of awesome stuff in it right and they're near the rams thing right they'd be near that so so maybe that's he's thinking I'm here. I'm part of this new wave of LA sports. The Lakers could be yesterday's news. That's a 10 year vision. We know once we're into that building, a 10 year vision of like, you know, what are we doing here with the Rams? I don't think that guy ever spends a day accepting an L. Well, can you imagine? So you're at dinner with him. This would be great. I want you to do this dinner with him.

There's 10 people there. It's a little dinner. Just been some wine. His whatever, his COO, her husband's there. He's had like six gin and tonics, two glasses of wine. Gin is the cousin. 11 at night. It's about the time people are going to go. And some guy's like, hey, Steve, I got to ask you.

Nobody's ever going to fucking care about the quippers here. You realize that, right? At some point, somebody has to look them in the eye and say that. Steve, you realize this, right? You're good with this, right? They're never going to care about the quippers here? You get that, right? Anyway, let's take a break.

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privately secure connections today Norton.com slash VPN Simmons go there protection starts at 333 a month for the first year of the annual enrollment Norton.com slash VPN Simmons terms do apply all right I have a couple uh we have a lot of dumb shit to get to so we're gonna go quickly the bucks have the best point differential ever still through 60 games your thoughts 12.7 i have a hard time um i know we've talked a little bit about like and that's that's the theme of this whole year is that every single team is doing this in a new version of it so it's steroids on stat or stats on steroids yeah but it's not i agree with that part of it but like yes there's a little you know what are we going to see from yannis in the playoffs because if yannis by the way that's that's what's at stake here because a lot of different stuff is happening where

you know it's like oh the hardened yannis thing it's going back and forth and like hardened fans arguing about playoff success versus yannis like hey why don't you guys just simmer down with the memes okay because the only deep run you really had was when he was like sixth man on okc all right that was tough yeah so to to claim that one is like a hardened playoff W is pretty weak. But with Giannis, if something weird were to happen with that team this year, and Eastern Conference Finals isn't bad,

but if they were short of the Eastern Conference Finals, Giannis is going to get a taste of that thing we do. We put you through the cycle a little where we start to go, Wait a minute. Yeah. Does this guy take it serious enough? Mr. Smoothie, huh? You know, it's all fun.

Oh yeah. You know, is he really adapted to the States? You know, like we'll start making up all these theories. It'd be like, you know, he didn't play enough hard high school games. Yeah. Like, you know, he didn't compete enough. He's only 30 minutes a game in the regular season. Like what's Bud doing?

You got to get up to 38, take some elbows. I get reps. I get reps and all. He missed the AU experience. All that stuff's going to happen. Maybe if he had understood getting recruited, he'd understand the attention on him a little bit more. Pick a hat out on a table.

He never had that. Greek freak? How about Greek choke? So every time I watch him, though, the combinations of things they do and little reminders like, man, Middleton has been awesome. I have some Middleton stats for you.

He's been on a tear. Last 19 games, 25, 7, and 5 percentages. 56, 52, 91. He's in the 55, 50, 90 club playing 32 minutes a game. That would be the craziest stretch if not for Brad Beal, who's now second league in scoring, who's averaging 30 points a game in his last 16 games, 37.1 points a game, 50, 38, 86 percentages. True or false, DeAndre Ayton is averaging a 22-13 in February. True.

His numbers are really good. True or false, Trae Young's last 25, 32-10. Well, I don't think you're going to make that up. Wait a minute. Is that what the guy gets that he's guarding? It's either or. Hey, speaking of Giannis, new segment. New segment.

New title, new everything. Kyle, play our music. Oh, wait. We don't have any music. This new segment is called Wait. So when did this happen? Okay. I didn't even know about this.

Yeah. Because you started it with a tweet you had about when Giannis took a three with five seconds left of the shot clock and the announcer said it was Bushley. Go do your thing. So another plucky game out of your charlotte hornets speaking of going small they're bridges pj martin i like pj rosier and graham that was their closing group biombo couldn't get a call today poor guy so that wasn't great against janice and brooke lopez to close and they basically fouled him a bunch of times.

Milwaukee got every call there down the stretch. But as the game was about to end, there was five seconds left in the shot clock. Giannis with a nice 40-20 game. Ten seconds left in the game clock, so the shot clock's going to expire, and Giannis pulled up from three, missed it, and then the game was over.

And the announcer was like, oh, a little surprise Giannis took that I think the I think they both basically like one of them said it and they both agreed we're like I was kind of bush league I don't know when it happened I don't know when it happened but the effort I will see from guys being like oh my god that guy took a three at the end of the game and they were winning well I better get really pissed off about this because these are the rules. Like, hey, you know what would be fun? Use that effort boxing out 20 minutes ago when the game was still close. Use that effort on a defensive rotation. Use that effort verbalizing something that's happening in the half court. But instead, it's this contest to show how mad you can be about the other guy taking a fucking shot where the shot

clock was going to expire the entire NBA. I would like every rookie seminar from now on. I would like to be invited in to go. Hey, you know what doesn't matter is if a guy takes a shot before the shot clock expires game clock. It's different, but people still lose their minds about that one. But this whole idea that everybody on the staff is supposed to put the clipboard down and walk over the guy like center court after the game is over because he took a shot before the shot clock expired is insanity. And it needs to stop.

It's okay if the guy takes the shot. All right. So it's garbage time. There's a minute left, then 30 seconds, 15 seconds. And you have a couple of guys in there who may be playing the last two minutes. In high school, this is when the scrubs will come in and you might be able to get your one shot off, maybe get a three. Now we're asking these guys to just be like,

oh, we got the ball at the 25 second mark. With one second left, I'm just going to put the ball in the midcourt line and take the 24 second violation. Because why? Because you're going to be upset what's more entertaining you putting the ball on the at midcourt or me just getting you to watch you take a 28 footer there are 50 or seniors that are 5 10 usually white all through college basketball where it's

the only time they're ever going to get a bucket and now you're supposed to show like how much you understand the game by taking the shot clock violation. End of game, different. Anyway, that was our new segment. It's called, So when did this happen? I'd still like to know.

I can't wait for next week's. If you have any suggestions, email them at themailbagattheringer.com. I'd love to know the origin of dapping between every free throw. Because I hate it. And you know what? If I made a free throw,

I don't want to move coming up next week on so when did this happen when did we start high-fiving guys who just missed a free throw whatever happened to just letting them stand at the free throw line waiting for the ball in their own shame right and like the other guys cross half court like sorry just clanked it but i'm to wait until the guy walks 40 feet over to dap me up before I take my second free throw. Oh my God. All right, quickly, couple more things.

That might be the touching science though. You know that? No, I'm serious. I think Wall Street Journal Sports does some really cool stuff, but there was this thing where these guys are like teams that touch each other more and more successful. And I was like, or do you think that like the Golden State Warriors

high five more when they're winning 73 games than say the Sacramento Kings do when they're winning 17? Hey, have you heard about Square? They make that little white reader. Just use it. Lots of businesses take payments like Kyle's Barbara Fernando. Yeah. Who also cuts Ben Simmons's hair.

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All right. It's time to play in or out. Ready? I love that you had those eight numbers. Marcus Smart is a top four guy in a finals team in or out. Top four. He's at least the fourth best guy. Well, he's not on the Celtics. He's the fifth guy, right? I mean, he doesn't start.

Would you rather have him or Gordon Hayward out there with five minutes left in a game seven? Actually, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think you could argue Tice is the Celtics' fourth best guy. How great is Tice? I need to see like a therapist about hayward do you want to bring him no i've never felt worse about being so frustrated by a player like when jeff green was on the celtics and i could just target all my ire and he would have 29 points one night and two night two points the next and you know just completely disappear in the fourth quarter of a game and i could just get mad i'd be like what are you doing we argued you're jeff green we argued about it yeah it's just like whoa oh my god you're so frustrating you're like i'm gonna give him a year hayward i feel bad as i'm

getting mad that he has 16 points at halftime and then doesn't shoot in the second half and that i know he's gonna airball the corner three so i would argue maybe he's not their fourth best player yeah he boy i mean he was going to be an all-star he probably was going to be an all-star so that part is like and then he's had a little you know when he came back beginning I'm like oh man and then I thought he kind of gotten out of that and had some better

stretches at times but I just think it's you know some of the times like when the ascent of a guy like Tatum you know maybe that's that's part but it doesn't mean you have to be so it should make it so easy for hayward he's being guarded by the third best perimeter defender on every team the thing i've always should be getting better liked about you know the celts is that if you went who are their top four guys and i didn't include smart because look i just thought kemba tatum hayward and brown were better than him um and tice has

been so freaking good for i would say would say Tice is the last. I don't think he is the fourth best player, but the last three weeks, he's been one of the best four players. Yeah, I'm going to say in, and I'm shocked I'm saying in, but I do understand all the things that Smart does. I do understand what he means to that team,

that you have to be around it to truly appreciate him. And I'm doing that more and more. I just wish he didn't think he was the best shooter on the team and massive possessions. Well, as we've said many times, if, if he has,

and he's a much better shooter now too, you know, than he was when I used to really lose my mind. If you're playing a good team and he has more than eight threes in the game, you probably lost. Yeah. Next one. I,

I think he could be the fourth best player in a finals team. So I'm in. Melly. In or out? You love this guy. I just want to talk about Melly. I'm all the way in. 29.

He checks every box that I love. Looks like an extra in Days of Confused. Six foot nine foreigner. Looks like he hasn't showered in a while. Dead eye from three can post up well you just see he looks a little he looks a little gamey hey it's just a different lifestyle bro looks like he you know his hair looks like he needed a haircut a week ago but he said fuck it yeah it's got that like just italian vibe to him i'm half italian loves the

strokes i couldn't he's like have you guys heard the new one? It's pretty good. He's wearing a white satin jacket leaving the locker room. I'm just into his game. He only dates people from Instagram. Sasha Vujicic has adopted him as his mentor. And then you're like, wait a minute. He lives with Cam Jordan of the Saints?

He's like, yeah, they have a penthouse on down by so we're both in on belly yeah i was just trying to think of like a cool street like canal street but uh if you had to pick top five players most likely to have a cigarette after the game as they talk to reporters is belly one two or three on the list and like one of those long cigarettes, like those old school. Virginia Slim? No, no, like those old Marlboro. What are those old long Marlboro Reds, Kyle?

Or like those Italian ones. Yeah, like an old Chesterfield type cigarette. Yeah, whatever. My grandmother used to smoke Marlbors. We're both in on Melly. I wish the Celtics had a guy named Melly. He actually didn't shoot it very good against the Lakers. was one of those things but he's he's been getting steady minutes now and everybody seems to like him i like 20 year old 20 year old rookies uh

instant replay in or out i'm giving you a chance to just be out if you want it i've never been more out i've always been out replays the dumbest thing in all sports ever there's all these people that are bored that see reaction on social media and go okay we gotta fix it because everybody that's pro replay always says to me hey well what's wrong with just getting it right hey I'd be all for that except you don't okay we had an unbelievable replay situation at the end of the Pelicans Lakers game

close game fun Pelicans decide that they don't really know what to do with LeBron defensively and that's why that series I don't think would actually be that good except for the Zion part of it and it goes it's a swat off of Brandon Ingram and they call it Pelicans

ball there's no review that showed you that it was off of Ingram none but Tony Brothers was involved so all bets were off so a day later Brothers comes over since actually lakers ball for the amount of times that it's wrong and we're all wasting our time and destroying any emotional momentum that we have at the end of basketball games or football game winning

touchdown am i supposed to be excited no wait around for four minutes hey baseball let's do more replay let's catch up let's be modern or it'll be the the foundation of a massive cheating scandal replay we are convinced as a society we need it we don't let's go back to guys just making mistakes because they're not getting it right enough and it's only taking longer what if we just put a 40 second shot clock from the moment tony brothers take seven seconds to put his headset on but once that headset's actually on his ears 40 seconds he's looking in replays they show him three replays he has 40 seconds to decide whether to flip it or not if he can't figure out 40 seconds probably shouldn't overturn it anyway

it's either like look it right away oh didn't see it i'm out yeah because that's what's happening is that the the officials are doing this thing to be well well, I got to make sure I'm thorough. You're looking at it and you go, I don't know. Like, okay, well, let's make sure it looks like we're really thorough about this and spend five or seven minutes on this play. And it's like, no, no, we can tell that you can't really see it on that. And honestly, like this out-of-bounds thing where it's off of your fingernail last, like that was never a thing.

It was never a thing in basketball. It was understood if I had the ball and you swiped it out of my hands that yes, maybe if we broke it down to the slowest camera ever, it may touch a cell on my finger last, but you probably found me, but you probably found me in like, you're the reason the ball went out of bounds. And now we're actually, because of replay rewarding the guy that swiped at the dude. And some people are listening to me like, oh, that's it emphasizes defense all that stuff no no i like just being able to say okay well no that was out on you well i think var is the biggest disaster i only this is what i

know about replay is that everybody complains about not having more of it and then everything you get i don't see anybody going like hey var has been awesome for soccer i don't see anybody going like you know what i'm has been awesome for soccer. I don't see anybody going like, you know what? I'm psyched it's taken seven minutes here. Some of the college basketball reviews at the end of games, like tournament time, it sucks.

I don't mind human error. In or out? Devin Booker is your best player. You've got a thing for Devin Booker. Just asking. He's in your crosshair. I'm fine with it. He's, you know.

Then just say in. What do you have to make it personal? Yeah, but I can't really say in in the sense of like, he's not one of the six guys that changes everything for you. So I'm going to abstain. What do you mean?

It's in or out. I'm not going to vote. What are you talking about? Yeah, I've just said, I'm not going to stand up in the Senate. I'm going to get a sandwich, come back after the vote's been taken. Devin Booker against Golden State. Golden State wins 115-99.

I'm just going to read you Devin Booker's box score. 38 minutes, 6 for 16, 21 points, 0 rebounds, one assist, six turnovers. Are you saying Devin Booker is your best player in a team that grows into something that's competing in the playoffs? I'm saying- And it's a no, because I don't think there's that many guys in the league. It's barely a handful. I still stand by my he should have played on Team USA thing.

You love- I'm going to go down with the ship. You're like Mel Gibson over there the Patriot you think that like the Team USA experience changes the course of players well all right I would only be right if Tatum and Brown were much better this year oh yeah you switch it on me yeah uh right because didn't you do like the Donovan Mitchell could have been this thing? You've done this. I've heard this.

I know you're, I'm familiar with the content. Do we do one, two, three, four? I'll give you either Alvin Gentry or Shake Milton as our fifth one. In or out? I don't know if Alvin Gentry hates Drew Holiday or what. I'm going to say in on Shaq Milton. 25 points with eight minutes to go in the second quarter.

I think I'm in on Shaq Milton as well. Yeah, he set a record for most consecutive threes made. He'd made 14 in a row, and Van Gundy on the broadcast is like, that's going to be the record. What's the record? And they're like, that's the record. And the Clippers, there was a very specific point in that third quarter where they go,

hey, do you guys want to play ridiculous defense right now? Like, yeah, let's do that. 24-5 run. Game is over. But Shaq Milton, not afraid. Didn't you have some early intel on him? I know you're not going to say who said it,

but one of your most trusted sources was very pro-Shaq Milton before any of this, right? Like a year ago? Yeah, but he was like a second, what did he go, like 50th? I don't remember. All right, it's mailbag time. And I'm really excited for this first one.

It's from Alexander. Ooh, nice. He says the Houston Rockets are the Bernie Sanders of the NBA. In principle, you want to, and should like them because they start from a good place, analytical approach, taking risks to try it and win a, threes, playing with pace, et cetera. It's all based on good intentions, but they're so obnoxious, aggressive, abrasive, whatever about it, that it makes you hate them. Very similar to our boy, Bernie. Only if Bernie demands a recount and has his South Carolina, right? Where he, he has his own staffers do the recount and he's like well look at all these votes that it costs now you got to do the bernie accent if you're doing bernie you want me to do it yeah i do i was going to do my impersonation of bernie as the coach of the houston rockets

when we have russell westbrook in, he's almost unstoppable with either hand. And then James Harden, who should have won the MVP a couple years ago, he's great too. Why do we need a center? Do you have any good impersonations? Have you always been like a... I thought that was pretty sick.

Kyle liked it. That was a good birdie. Thanks, Kyle. You're just jealous. First of all, you were coward. You wouldn't do yours. I had to do my birdie. I've never tried. I don't... You're good at. First of all, you were carried. You wouldn't do yours. I had to do my birdie. I've never tried.

I just, I don't, like you're good at a lot of things. And then it's dawning on me now that maybe you're just not a good impersonation. No, I can only imitate Boston Rob, which is the same imitation as my Brett Brown. I've been working on my Brett Brown a little, but it's not ready to be showcased. Brett Brown on Survivor, talking about Amber. Okay, go ahead. When Amber lost the immunity idol,

I was very disappointed. That's actually more of a Boston Rob. I thought my Bernie was pretty solid though. You're a huge Boston Rob guy, huh? I do like Boston Rob.

I count his title as one of the titles. That's a Boston title. So do you like this Houston Rockets Bernie Sanders corollary? I do, but I was going to finish the point there is that it would have to be Bernie asking for a recount done by his own staff members

and then leaking it to Zach Lowe and Rachel Nichols that the recount numbers actually screwed Bernie Sanders over for me to do the complete buy-in there. That's the problem. How many people that aren't Rockets fans are like, you know what I really like? All this Rockets stuff the last few years. So that's why I wake whenever...

Because a couple of Rockets... There's been a couple of guys that work down in Houston that have really crossed the line with me and I've never responded to it. In the media side? Yeah, where I'm just like, wow. You've got some big ones. Maybe at the finals. We'll have to yeah maybe there's one pistons reporter that i think i do want to smack in the

face this is kind of kind of content right here yeah like i i'm gonna say something to him when i see him if i ever see him fucking nerd we've got robin commutator nobody realized was the center and now he's playing center and he's as good as any of the centers okay but if if bernie and houston really were the thing wouldn't there's no way he'd let two guys take those first and second most shots in the league. He would he'd want he'd be like, I'm sorry, you can only take 12 shots. Oh, you did that. I'm so happy. This whole thing is it's 25 shots of games, too many shots, too many shots. Too many shots. I think the point is Bernie's preaching something that can't actually win the presidency. And the Rockets are preaching a style that can't actually win the NBA finals.

A little lean out of you. Yeah. But no, that's Alexander. That's his point. The Rockets are like, everybody's going to have a seat at the table from Daniel House to Russell Westbrook. We're all going to have a seat at the table from daniel house to russell westbrook we're all gonna have a seat at the table uh next he would love that you want the salary cap to be lower though every nba player should make forty thousand dollars well the fight of the day the nba is the opposite of what bernie would want right the nba is like

the longer you play you could make up to 40 million dollars a year at the expense of like basically two-thirds of the league who has to make four million dollars or less right he'd be like what does westbrook make we're gonna give some of that to daniel house every let's i'm gonna cap the salaries at eight million dollars. Nobody makes more. Free socks for everyone. Bobby wants to know how would you fix the NFL schedule?

How many regular season games would you have and how many playoff games? I don't like only one team getting a bye because of how much it has favored the buy teams. I mean, the simple thing is to say, well, yeah, the teams that get the buys are the teams that are better, but...

So you're saying if it was seven playoff teams per conference, you don't like only the one team gets a buy? No, I like... I understand everybody... Here's the problem. Here's what everybody needs to understand first and foremost. Every single business that is traded publicly your stock price is primarily based on what do i think you can be as a company in a bunch of years okay so everything is growth it's why you have

these established businesses that have been around for decades that have a stock price that is the 10th of the next new thing, because you're hoping that the next new thing ends up being some part of our everyday. Uber hasn't ever done it. But was it the Beyond Meat stock that was insane? And Tesla's been all over the place. And Tesla isn't about the car. It's about the technology. It's about all the different things they can do. Right now is not a great time to be talking stocks, but that's the whole point. Well, it's like fantasy, right? Where somebody who goes for 48 hours because he might be able to do with the guy that just went for 29 does every year right so when when i look at the nfl the nfl like yeah the london games are weird okay i don't

watch them i don't i don't especially in the west coast like i'm not doing the all right 5 45 alarm 6 a.m nfl when i already have been up all night watching college games and know I'm going to sit and watch 11 hours NFL anyway. Okay. So I don't care about that game. I've decided long ago. I'm not watching that. You haven't missed much. No, I know.

But that's about growth. And the extra playoff game is about growth. And the extra regular season game is about growth. And that's why baseball does the world baseball classic and they've added and it's it's do i have more inventory to sell so i can also say like hey we were a 10 million dollar company and now we're going to project to be 15 you know all these different things that you want to be able to do and that's that's the only thing and the funniest part about the negotiation because when i looked at the whole deal and i expected especially from the nfl owners i expected the proposal to be terrible and i'm like wait a

minute like that's pretty good for the, that's pretty good for the players. That's pretty good for the players. That looks really good for the players. They're like, oh, the 17th game? But you can only make $250,000 off the 17th game? That doesn't make any sense. And then guess what? That went away.

You want to know why? Because it was negotiating 101. That didn't make any sense to only be able to make $250,000 capped on the 17th game, no matter what you made. It was, we want the 17th game. So we're going to offer up this horrible clause to it that we're totally going to cave on to only get the 17th game. So we can sell that to the networks and we can make more revenue and we can be a growing

business because instead of just saying, Hey, we do really well, the playoff format's perfect. The scheduling format's perfect. The players don't want to play the extra game and all these different things this is a great product the ratings were great again this year if you're not growing then you're dead even when you're not why not just go extra week 16 games but have two bye weeks instead of one and then you could do the playoff game and have the seven playoff teams in each conference and do that, add the extra playoff game there. You're making another week from TV because now there's 18 TV weeks instead of 17. Now I have two extra playoff games in round one.

Now I'm growing a little bit. I actually would like that as a football fan. You know what I thought was weird is people are was people like well what about when you play nine and the other team plays eight home games you're like who cares like that one that would like you're gonna it's gonna even out over time um i i don't i don't know i i'd have to understand like i think some of the older players that are like hey man we don't we don't want that extra game because it's just so much more dangerous. Yeah, but I think if you're going to be compensated at a higher revenue split,

which is what's been proposed once that cap thing went away. I think 17 games is ludicrous. You do? Yeah. If anything, I think they should be going backwards and doing 15 games. The argument used to be, hey, we get rid of the preseason, just tag on.

Nobody plays preseason anymore, you know? So. Yeah, true. But then that ends up week one, week two, week three becomes like a glorified preseason. Yeah, because everybody's. It's terrible to watch. Yeah.

Pat from Buffalo wants to know, is Pau Gasol first bout Hall of Famer? I'm in the camp that he is, if you combine his European career and his Olympic career. With Grizzlies, the two Laker titles, and the Hall of Fame soft structure. I actually think Chris Bosh was a little salty that he didn't make it. I don't think he had a chance,

considering the Hall of Fame class that was coming in. I think in normal years, he might have had a chance. I think Pau's a better candidate than Chris Bosh. I agree. Powell was the best player in the 2010 finals. He didn't win the finals MVP, but he was the most important player in that series. Yeah. Well, look, every time anyone asks, hey, is this guy going to get into the Pro Basketball Hall of fame before they finish the sentence i say yes because everybody gets in well let's let's say they had actual standards for the basketball hall of fame yeah i think he would get in but you know my argument is always the quicker you have to go to the olympic resume the weaker your resume is i hate that when

we do with american players like oh you want to go metal like bosh to me should not be whatever first ballot is he just shouldn't um in his career you know and unfortunately for him he had some health issues but he played 12 years in the first five were at toronto or the first seven pretty forgettable like he had the four-year miami run which was an iconic yeah he had some nice numbers and not one memorable moment. I wouldn't be upset if he was a first ballot, but I think his second ballot is fine for him. We have to take one more break.

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plan with Roman, no commitments cancel anytime. Stop wandering aimlessly through the allergy treatment aisle at the pharmacy. Go to get roman.com slash bill for a free online visit today. Get roman.com slash bill eligibility requirements and additional terms apply. We are getting damn close to gym corner. I have a couple of good ones for you. But before we do that, great email from Mark in Madison, Wisconsin. You're really going to like this. Okay. He asks, why isn't there distance throwing competitions kind of like longest drive competitions in golf? You wouldn't sit down and watch people try to

chuck a ball as far as humanly possible. I'm thinking a heavy racquetball-sized ball. Also, add in some professional athletes. Could Patrick Mahomes throw further than a Raldis Chapman or someone else? Which professional athlete would be the odds-on favorite? Please discuss. I got to say, if this was on TV, I would watch it. I would want to see how far people could throw things. Just what would you call the show?

Chuck stuff? Chucking it? You don't think think they get a little stale like all right week three i think it should be different this week guys we have brett boone the retired second baseman an absolute masher in the center of that great mariners lineup remember that team in 2000 um yeah all right now we have alex bregman is going to be throwing a watermelon oh my god 45 yards last week's winner michelle we returns to defend her crown right because they'd be like trying to figure out like who are we going to get for what object would you want them to throw um golf balls too light how about a football but not like a full football like one of those junior footballs like that when my son would play with rubber

like a junior a junior pro football yeah like do you think my homes could throw that 100 yards they let us play with that in our mural yassi we lose a game for two years yassi i don't know he's still not signed he's like he's he's a little uh little shaky in the clubhouse right yeah that's a little erratic that was the word i always loved that it was just that people didn't understand him it was like no everybody kind of has like a puig thing we're like this guy's not the easiest i don't know you wouldn't watch this orange softball uh no softball's too big i think i would watch this but i do think that baseball should have done something like this remember like i want a best arm i want a skills thing although the number of outfielders that actually

can throw it to home plate now is like four guys i don't know what the hell happened there remember like growing up guys had hoses. Raul Mondesi? What happened to that guy? Every time I watch baseball now, I see throws where I go, you guys all suck at throwing from the outfield now. Remember Dewey Evans growing up?

Are you kidding me? Playing that right field corner? Dude, that was his corner. Dewey's got the best fucking racket arm. The entire area was under his deed. Throughout Joe Morgan, game six, 1975. I remember Jody Reed one time. We had a couple of low and brows, and Jody Reed was sitting there,

and he goes, I'm telling you right now, fucking on the road, Dewey, Dewey evans groupie central and he's he's a he's a straight shooter but i'm just telling you if he ever if he ever wavered girls were all over him i don't know why i'm doing jody reed i liked it though i think he was well i would like to see some sort of some people throwing something uh ethan chuck stop. Ethan wants to know is in the most obvious trade possibility Ben Simmons for Bradley Beal this summer?

It's pretty good. It's pretty good. That Beal deal was weird because you couldn't trade him with the way his contract worked. It's pretty good. That is pretty good. Would you do De'Aaron Fox for Ben Simmons? No. He's not good enough. I don't think so.

So you're back on the Simmons train. I just think Simmons is better. Would you do... I think Simmons and Beal is nice. That really solves the problem. What would be the worst guy you could trade Simmons for? Draymond? No, it'd be like a two for one where you're getting like Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier,

like one of those type of deals. I don't know. What? You know, add up the numbers. I'm just kidding. No, I'm kidding. That's, that's pretty good. I feel like the good thing about this for the Sixers this year is that it, like there

are a lot of teams that felt like they're really down on Simmons before the year started. I think Simmons is kind of, we'll see what happens here in the playoffs, but I think there's a part of it. If you're the Sixers front office, you probably feel better about what the perceived value of Simmons. I think he's reclamated himself here a bit. I think there's a path where if he's on a team that's built around him and all the stuff that he's good at, you're going to be probably pretty good. If it's like we're building a team, Lamar Jackson style around Ben Simmons and all of his strengths, I think you could do that. Yeah.

Next one. I sent this to you. You were lukewarm. Topics for Sunday night weird pod with Russillo. Top 10 generals, World War I and II combined. Overrated, underrated alexander the great julius caesar in kangaskhan i thought for sure you'd have an alexander the great opinion i just i don't think i have enough depth on on each of the maybe maybe a week from now maybe i'll tell you caesar awareness lacking his awareness rating was a lot lower than some of the other guys you know what i'm saying like hey take the temperature of the room brother but some of these guys you know you get kind of this god status this god complex thing and you just you just you can't read a room caleb this is a question for me how about a duane wade pyramid pod for book of basketball now that his

career is done i know you aren't the biggest d Wade guy, but I feel like he's become weirdly underrated because of how his career ended. Maybe you could do an Oh six finals. He retired as well. Listen, I actually was going to do a Dwayne Wade thing, but after the 17th piece of content about how he retired, I think it might be like season four, Book of Basketball before we can get to Dwayne Wade. On cassette? How much? He had a three-day retirement. He put out a hagiography documentary about himself. He's been retiring for a year straight.

Somebody on Twitter asked me, how come you didn't do anything on the way to retirement? And I said, I'll just do it. Which one? I said, I'll do it next year. This is unbelievable. Somebody once said that about a wedding. They're like, are you not going to so-and-so's wedding?

But like, I'm going to go to the next one. That's a good one. Yeah. Never heard that before? That was a true story. I'm not going to say who said it. Anyway, don't hold your breath on the Dwayne Wade pod. I think we need to detox from the one-year on the Dwayne Wade pod. I think we need to detox from the one year long Dwayne Wade retirement. Patrick, parentheses, I'm a real scientist, Patrick.

Oh, all right. Well, then I'm going to really pay attention. I'm just going to tell you, you're going to love this email. Listening to Bill and Ryan talk about Zion's weight made me think about this idea in psychophysics called Weber's law. You know what Weber's law is? No. If you're trying to steal a cookie, would you rather steal it from a plate with 10 cookies or a plate with 100?

You're stealing the same number of cookies in each case, one, but you'd steal it from the plate with 100 because people wouldn't notice the cookie missing as easily. The proportional difference is less and our brain assesses difference proportionally, not absolutely. I think we have a hard time figuring out how much Zion weighs because he's just big. We can tell Russell Westbrook is heavier than Steph Curry, but who's heavier, Joel Embiid or Nikoli Jokic? Maybe Zion is the captain of the Weber's Law All-Stars,

the set of players who, because they're big, we have no freaking clue how much they weigh. Who else is on this team? There's a lot going on there. I don't even really know what to add. That's pretty simple. That makes sense. We thought watching today, we thought he looked 10 pounds lighter since he came back. He does.

He might have been 10 pounds heavier. I don't know. He just runs so weird. It's almost like he's skipping like he's just having so much fun that he's just sort of like plotting along it's weird but then sometimes i'll be like is he hurt again like what the hell's going on there but no i mean that's true like there's dudes there's dudes that i've been around like some of the former offensive lineman guys and be like yeah i dropped 30 pounds i'm like like really you're right yeah i didn't know you know so yeah i'm i'm down with that zion i'm just you and i are both so fascinated by

him game to game he plays like he has those shoes from like my gun like he like he's a normal he's got this normal body but he's got these crazy shoes that allow him to do all this shit and go faster and just that's i forgot that you've seen literally every single is that was that little bow wow yeah now known as just bow with me i feel like kyle's been on my side this whole podcast hey just a shout out to the rappers um enough with the lil there's just too many of you like how li apostrophe yeah you know how bummed out i'd be if they were like all right you're gonna be you're gonna be a little white so when ben was thinking about a rap name i would have thrown my body in front of little ben yeah you can't say no come on you can't so what happens is like there's a few you know little wayne and then it just it morphs into this thing like if i were at a studio i'd be so bummed like hey the producer's here the you

know the record company's here all these guys are here i'm like you're your new name's gonna be little skis like well i was just skis last week but now we're gonna throw a little in there like well there's we could we could do seeding of 64 Lils right now. It's just too many Lils in the game. I like to win a little bow. I changed the little and became just bow. He's like, I'm not little anymore, guys. I'm just bow now.

A lot of people drop it. So pump one day is just going to be pump. You know, it's not young Jeezy anymore, too. It's the same way. Little Rich Paul became Rich Paul. I don't remember him having a little I don't know if I remember that correctly alright two gym corner emails

Noah in Pittsburgh wants to know I want to hear Ryan's opinion on flat bill and winter hats being worn at the gym I live in the hotbed of culture and fashion that is Pittsburgh and have noticed a lot of people wear hats while working out hats being worn at the gym. I live in the hotbed of culture and fashion that is Pittsburgh and have noticed a lot of people wear hats while working out. Is this normal or is there a weird Pittsburgh quirk? I wear a hat all the time. So hats are in at gyms? Yeah. Just a point blank. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. And I'm not doing this because I wear a hat all the time. If somebody

wants to tell me I'm wrong, go ahead. But you know, it's usually hat. And I'm not doing this because I wear a hat all the time. If somebody wants to tell me I'm wrong, go ahead. But, you know, it's usually hat down. I'm talking a little bit too much at my gym lately, though, because I'm hurt. And sometimes I show up with no plan. So I'm like, this is going to suck again today. And then I'll be like, just take it easy, take it easy. And then by the end of the day, I'm not taking it easy. And I'm expected to be hurt again. So, yeah, hats.

I don't even know what to counter. Yeah, there's no... We'll go to the next one. Yeah. We're good. Yeah, I don't really have much else to add on that. That just surprises me. I don't know what...

I mean, LA flat bill, they give you one. As soon as you get your keys to your place, they're like, here's your flat bill hat to walk around Manhattan Beach in. Eric Roseberry has a good one. If you could date somebody with a stroller and yoga pants, it'd be perfect.

Eric Roseberry wants you to know, I've been wondering for months how to handle this situation in the gym. You're the perfect person to answer, meaning you. How do you handle the guy who's trying to circuit train in the middle of a busy gym? He's quote unquote using three to four machines at any given time. And if

you try and get on one that's in his rotation, he runs over and says, sorry, man, but I'm using that. What's the appropriate response? Up to this point, I've simply said, oh, I'm sorry. I thought you're using another machine, which was true because he's using all the machines. Ryan, please help. What's the move? Yeah. So it sounds like this guy's probably bigger than you because if he wasn't he wouldn't be emailing the show he would have already said something to him and that sucks because like when the guy who's really big and maybe actually looks tough um is doing stuff like you're just going to be a little hesitant a little more hesitant that's usually the way the world works but if he's legitimately using three or four machines at the same time some sort of circuit like that's that's just not

happening it's not you just go like okay well look if you're doing a cable row or something and then he's on somewhere else like from the amount of time especially if he's doing three or four things there's no way that you wouldn't have time to do your eight or ten reps or whatever it is on one of the things that's in his circuit so um i don't know but sometimes you'll go like am i making a point here like am i making a point where i don't like what he's doing and i could just do something else because i think we do that sometimes yeah where you see the guy doing something that's screwed up but you actually don't you could do something different but you just you want to mess him up it's probably not worth the energy but if it's

really packed and he's legitimately using four things and he's telling people that they can't use them then i think you have to jump him in the shower and hit him with soap in the head jesse says uh he had some nice things to say about me which i won't read but read him no no read him i would like to hear a few things about you that are nice no he said a couple nice things i appreciate it okay he's a big fan then he said ryan the end of your run at espn got me through some bad times i get that a lot um i guess we had a lot of depressed guys watching my show said some other nice things about you and then he said i'd like to hear those i'll forward it to you i heard an announcement gym corner is making comeback and things were going to get weird in the pod here's my question is there ever a time to ask a girl out

at the gym and second question what do you tell the old guy who thinks air drying in front of the new fans in the locker room everyone gets to see him every time the door opens uh what do you say to him so those are two really opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah, but those have been out there. I feel like, by the way, thanks. I haven't read that email, but I was just messing around. I appreciate it. I would like to ask a girl at the gym.

I don't feel like you've answered that one. I've never done it. Ever. Is there a right way, wrong way to do it? You got to have like you gotta know it's gonna go well like don't be that guy that sees a cute girl stretching and it's like hey what's your story you know like give it i would say give it multiple times where you try to figure out like, are we ever going to make eye contact? I think you can almost always tell like whether or not it's in the cards for you just based on eye contact. Because you'll look and you'd be like, okay, she looked at me a certain way where I think this could even be a possibility.

But then you still, I've never done it. If you are so confident, and honestly, some of you guys are so fucking delusional. You're just asking out everybody anyway and i don't know you know my whole life i've wondered like is the delusional guy who just asks out everyone is he actually doing it right well the rockets would say he is right he's taking more threes yes 50 out six say yes i know i went to school with a few guys like that as soon as you'd walk in they'd already been like asking seven different people to go home with them and i'd be like we haven't even finished our first natural light like do you want to hang out with us

and they'd be like no yeah uh so i'm not saying don't do it so read that read the signals yeah but some people can't some people don't have that kind of thing where they can tell the way somebody looks back at them. Maybe even force the issue where it's sort of like it's not a machine that you want to use, but you ask her how many she has left. But you ask in a really cool way. Maybe even make fun of yourself a little bit. Be like, hey, how many do you have left? And be like, all right, do you mind if I move it down? Ha, ha, ha. You're playful. You're a fun guy. You're a little self-dep hey how many do you have left and be like all right can i do you mind if i move it down ha ha ha you know you're playful you're fun guy you're a little self deprecating guy you know like i've always told guys like i you know if you're trying to figure

out how to talk to girls just watch every vince vaughn movie and rip off his stuff i went through that phase yeah i'm like hey what's your name oh you're cool yo you're a fun one though i bet you're quiet but you're crazy you're the you're a fun one though. I bet you're quiet, but you're crazy. You're the crazy one. And then everybody thinks you're funny. Wait, we got to get to John. No, no, but I haven't finished. Oh, I thought you said read the signals. No, yeah, right.

But the old guy, if you're brave enough to tell an old guy who's 70s stop drying his balls, then you are a pioneer because none of us are comfortable. None of us are brave enough to go up to a 70 something and be like, hey, bro. I'm just just i feel the same way about that as i would if somebody was just taking a shit in the middle of the street i'm just trying to get as far away from as possible exactly exactly so he's trying to avert a crisis i don't know that i've ever seen anyone ever go up to the old guy and go don't use that to drive your balls because everybody's just like you don't know like who is that guy who's that like i'm usually not anyone in my life that would

do that probably my friend daniel i know some people think i'd be that guy i don't even say hey buddy put it put your balls away my friend danny would say yeah because then what's the fault what if he sits there and wants to debate you about it now your balls out yeah you're debating with a naked guy who looks dead probably like i don't want to do i don't want to have that conversation john wants to know there's a guy in my gym in michigan that only wears flip-flops in the weight room he offsets it by wearing gracie jujitsu t-shirts the flip-flops are worn at all times. Even walking to his car in the snow. What is he trying to say?

Well, I like the move. I wore Adidas flip-flops from like age 18 to 28. And I wore them in the snow. I don't know why I did it i just did it i loved him so you support this guy in michigan yeah and look if he has if those are just how old are those jujitsu t-shirts because if they're brand new you know vintage but if they're old and like broken in and they're broken in and soft because they they weren't you know some new version that they got it you know in venice uh you might want to stay away from that guy

matt from metro os boston wants to know um is it okay when guys take two to three lockers for all their stuff after a workout when they double or triple locker it triple lockers aggressive um i've had a double locker okay that's good i mean if you're wearing like a suit or something and you're coming back like you want to hang it up and then it's probably if you're hanging a jacket and pants and you're getting into workout gear from a bag you're probably not going to have room to do it all you don't do it all the time but three is a lot steve from santa monica this will be the last one am i an asshole if i'm considering switching to equinox just to get away from guys working out in jeans and casually farting in the middle

of the weight room at the local y is that a thing that happens uh is there more farting at the local y you know i don't i don't know that i've ever monitored that i used to belong to a why when i when i lived in boston um i did it more for the hoops than it was anything else we joined the way with with because when you have little kids sometimes that's the the best way so they can learn how to swim. Yeah. And my wife would join the Y. I was kind of cool.

There's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of Ys that are great. Yeah. Right. But then maybe there aren't. I don't know. Look, man, the great thing about Equinox, I'm an Equinox guy.

I love it. That's half the reason I moved to Manhattan Beach. We're going to end it. We're going to end with this one. This is for me. We haven't talked about the coronavirus i feel like we should is the coronavirus gonna make people afraid to go to the gym because i feel like we're about a week away from that i know i've only been on

four planes in the last month so you know looking around i've been like that would be i'd probably rather you know what i'm just gonna go ahead and say. If I couldn't go to the gym, I'd rather just die. So, you know, I won't be canceling my membership. That's a great one to end this podcast on. You can listen to Ryan on the Ryan Rosillo show Tuesday and Thursday. And you can hear my podcast as well. And the book of basketball. Last one coming up. Thanks to zip recruiter.

Thanks to Rosillo. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to square more than a little white credit card reader. A whole system of tools built to run and grow any kind of business from point of sale and payroll to invoices and online stores, go to square.com slash go slash BS to see all the ways you can take your business from square to whatever's next. Thanks to Norton Secure VPN.

If you're one of the 26% of US adults that is online almost constantly, you need Norton Secure VPN. It uses bank rate encryption to block companies from tracking your online activity and works on your PC, Mac, or mobile device. Get Norton Secure VPN. Browse privately. Secure your connections today. Norton.com slash VPN Simmons. Protection starts at $333 a month for the first year of the annual enrollment. Norton.com slash VPN Simmons. Terms apply. Russell, I'll see you next Sunday. Sounds good. I don't have a few years with him

on the wayside on the wayside never I don't have a few years