The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NBA Regular-Season Observations, Plus Chris Ryan on the Sixers, Embiid, and the Super League

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

Russillo opens with his NBA regular-season observations, including the evolution of the MVP race and more, before a “Worst Dude Ever” title contender edition (1:30). Next, he talks with The Ringer’s Chris Ryan about his confidence in the 76ers come playoff time, where Joel Embiid ranks in his list of favorite Sixers, and how he sees the rest of the playoffs playing out (16:30). Then, Russillo, Chris, and producer Steve Ceruti talk about the the idea of the Super League and how it could impact American sports (37:30). Finally, Ryen closes the show with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:02:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Chris Ryan Producer: Kyle Crichton Producer: Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

that's as hard as it can get that's as hard as it can get from like intense high pressure situations like the Steph LeBron play-in game will probably I would think outrate the game seven of the NBA finals like that would be so intense to see that happen even if the Lakers win by like 30 like it would just be just the anticipation of that moment. I can't even believe it. And then for them to march through that, that gauntlet would be unbelievable. Like I would seriously tip my hat.

That was Chris Ryan, who stopped by today talking a bunch of stuff with him, but specifically the Lakers run. We're going to do that and some other stuff on the Super League with Saruti, life advice, and an NBA regular season review in the open.

Chris Ryan, Saruti going to join us. Want to talk Sixers with Chris Ryan. Also some other stuff. He's going to pitch me some TV show ideas. Some shows I haven't watched. And then I want to do some of the Super League stuff and if this kind of thing could ever kind of happen in any American sports. All right. But before we do that,

we're finishing up the NBA regular season. It's been a different one. It's felt like two in a row with a very short break because it kind of was. But I want to go over a few things. Now, the start date itself was one of the biggest unknowns because for the longest time, it felt like the NBA was going to just try to push this off as much as they possibly could. If you asked around, the owners were in favor of waiting because the longer they waited, the better chances once they actually get started, they could have fans in the seats inside the arenas.

But as they started to look at it more and more, they're going, hey, you know what? We don't really have, we don't know. We don't know that that's going to happen. So if we wait even longer to get this thing started and we still can't have fans in here, then it wasn't worth the wait. So we might as well start earlier to try to preserve a full and normal 21-22 season, which is exactly what they did. And it worked out. I also think it's a bit of a lesson too in the last year plus because of all the unknowns, which has really been my position for the longest time about the pandemic and everything that

everybody's had to go through here and the challenges around the globe. But specific to this country is that once you could kind of figure out some of the things, and there's no version of this, there was going to be 0.0% risk. But once you kind of figure out some of the controlling factors of how can we make this safe, how can we keep our product going, these were actually the right decisions in the face of so many who felt like, no, just shut everything down, close the doors forever until we know everything. It's like, I don't know that we're ever really going to know anything. I still think years from now we're going to look back at this and go, all right, well, now we understand this a little bit better. I mean, it's impossible to understand anything in the moment

when it's this unprecedented. So credit to all the leagues that found a way to keep pushing and getting this thing going because this was a success just like the bubble was a success. So to the basketball part of it, the Lakers, much better on paper. I think we'd all agree. NBA champs, yes, less rest. I thought that they were probably going to have a better team, but not really a better record,

but that had more to do with the injuries. So that was even the right call because they were better on the paper. The Houston Rockets were not better on paper, right? We knew Westbrook to Wall, despite Tommy Shepard coming on from the Wizards with this podcast, really enjoyed his visit. He said there were a lot of offers out there for a while. I'm not sure if that's true. I just think the Westbrook Wall deal might have been the only one that could really happen. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's a much better way to answer it than a GM from a team coming on and saying, yeah, there was no other deals out there. That was the only one. And actually, it's worked out great for the Wizards. But Harden was the key piece because every six months or so,

it's been going on now for years, the excitement about the NBA isn't just the games, the championships, the young rookies that you're all excited about. It's who's going to get mad and who's going to ask for a trade, and that was Harden. So Harden was traded on January 14th. I remember that day, a lot of information flying around that it was Philly, that it would be a Ben Simmons deal. And then later on, guess what? It wasn't. It was Brooklyn and Harden got his way. Now watching those first Harden games with the Nets, I remember going like, okay, what's going on with them defensively? Let's look at the fourth quarter splits. Oh my God, these defensive efficiency numbers in the fourth quarter is

like the worst I've ever seen. And then when you start watching them get rolling on offense, you're like, I think they could actually be bad on defense and win a title. That's how horrifying it was. But they didn't play many games together. Their offensive rating was heading towards number one of all time. But this is a continuation of some of these offensive metrics that we've seen where year after year now, the league just gets more and more efficient offensively. It's number one all timetime offensive efficiency in this season, and the top five seasons in offensive efficiency in NBA history are all the last five years. We've been on this on this podcast, and when I say we,

I'm meaning me, right? Forty players average 18 or more points per game this season. Ten years ago, it was 28. We've never seen scoring like this before. And why is that? Well, part of it's the three, part of it's the impossible shot making, just the evolution of the player itself. But it's also a lack of defense, crammed in schedule, back-to-back seasons in a way that we've never seen before. And just with no fans in there, when I started asking around, I'm like, what's going on with some of these games? Just absolute blowouts, 80 points at the half again, up 30 like that. It's like, man, when you're down in some of these games and you're tired and you know, you get another one in two days against the same exact team, just no fans. There's just not the same amount of juice. And I think all of that was accurate. We know that rest played a big part of

the season. The nets use 27 players. The rockets use 29. Look at some rockets high scores. If you want to just just just be challenged on the idea of like that guy who is that guy not is he in the league oh he's in the league who is that guy that's in the league even I'll have moments with the Rockets from like wait who is that guy let's go over the rest list of all the players because this matters when it comes to not the MVP debate but the all NBA debate because when somebody is arguing for a player and against another guy, and he's like, well, he missed too many games. I'm like, all right, well, that's not going to work this year.

Durant missed 37 games. Kyrie missed 18 games. Harden's going to miss 43 total games, I believe. Or no, excuse me. Harden's only played 43 games total to this point this season. Embiid's missed 20. Simmons has missed 13. Giannis missed 10.

Drew Holiday missed 22. Jimmy Butler missed 18. Kemba's missed 27. Jalen missed 13, Giannis missed 10, Drew Holiday missed 22, Jimmy Butler missed 18, Kemba's missed 27, Jalen Brown's going to miss 12 or more, same with Bradley Beal, 11 or more, Donovan Mitchell's 17 missed games, Mike Conley 21 missed games, CJ McConnell's missed 25, Jamal Murray's missed 21 so far, obviously shut down the rest of the season, Kawhi's out for 18, Paul George out for 16, LeBron's missed 27, and Anthony Davis has missed 36. Part of me does wonder because of this season and now the standard where it's just far more accepted, even though there was a pushback from the networks, understandably, hey, we're paying you billions and billions of dollars. Is it okay if like

three of the four best players want to play on our Thursday or Saturday night showcase. Is it OK if we do it? It seems like the players never care about that nor understand. And that kind of gets back to like, well, look, my contract's already done. Yeah, I don't want to play on a Saturday. This season, there wasn't as much angst because everybody understood the networks were going to say anything. Silver was at least publicly no one was going to say anything. anything. Silver was at least publicly no one was going to say anything. I do wonder, though,

if this run will have kind of a lasting impact where this is the new normal where guys can just not play, you know, 20, 15 percent of the season and everybody's OK with it. The networks won't be privately. I just wonder how much they will be publicly. The MVP debate was unlike anything I've ever seen. I don't know. And this is going to get to another point about potential championship title contenders here. It's a wide group, all right? That's a bigger group than we've had in a long time. I've never had a season where the MVP part of this changed as much as it did. In the beginning, the preseason favorite,

I believe in a lot of the betting sites, was Doncic, and then it was LeBron. Like, hey, this guy hasn't gotten one in a long time. He may have gotten it last season if it wasn't shut down. You could feel that sentimental momentum of getting LeBron another MVP. Giannis goes back to back. I think Giannis was more deserving,

but I do think there was a movement there before things were shut down in the middle of the season where you started to hear more voters say, you know what, I make lean LeBron. And let's face it, voters love a story. So it was Doncic and then it felt like it was LeBron's and then there was a little Embiid in there and then it was like hey have you guys been paying attention to what Jokic is doing and then Harden was the guy because even with the other

parts of the Nets missing Harden was putting up absurd numbers again like a lot of guys at the top of the league because of the season but also because of Harden. Harden played last night I'm to the point where I don't think Harden even has to be in shape. He didn't shoot, and he was passing. That guy can make sick passes in a nap. And then he started shooting towards the end a little bit more. So the Harden factor of like, oh, he's tired, he's out of shape, I don't even think any of that stuff ever matters

because his passing, his vision is so incredible, and it was on display. Last night in his return, but also on display in that stretch where people were like, look, I don't know if this guy was ever going to win an MVP award again after playoff failures because the voters are going to hold that against you. It's just kind of the way it works. And then all of a sudden he's on a new team, and it's like, oh, this is fun, which is also pretty annoying if you're a Rockets fan.

You're like, wait a minute, this version that we had down here that everybody got sick of for years? Then it was Steph, because the beginning of the year, it was like, wait, even Steph, as great as Steph is, they're going to double him. There's not a lot of offense around him. Can he really carry this team? I think Steph's year this year is as impressive as almost any other year, despite the 73 win season,

where he was just another level beyond the level we didn't think anyone could get to. 15, 16, we're like, this is incredible what we're seeing from Steph in this moment. But this year, to see him kind of switch on a more aggressive, not even really selfish, but him deciding, I just need to be more assertive offensively instead of deferring when I had better players around me. So there was a push for him to get it. But let's face it, he missed a couple games in there. The team doesn't have a good enough record. It wasn't going to happen. And then because Steph was brought up, then Dame was brought up.

And then Julius Randle was brought up because MVP chance, I don't think official, but when you get enough of them, you start to come on the radar. And then Nick's new success with a new coach and everybody being surprised about how good they finished the season. Then there was a little Chris Paul love in there. And then there was even a mention of Kyrie, which didn't make a ton of sense.

Then you're like, what about Jokic? And then there was even a Westbrook element where I'd heard on a national broadcast. It's like, how come he's not getting, well, because the team isn't 500. And I know Washington had their challenges with missed players and missed games and COVID and being three and 15. But I'm going to guess, even though the triple doubles are cool, being under 500, isn't a great argument for a guy to win MVP. So it is, again, Jokic. How many teams could win? If I'm being nice, eight. And if you want to be dismissive, your list can be smaller too. And you'd probably be right, but it's a lot easier. It's a lot easier to do that. It's a lot easier to sit on a TV show or behind a microphone and start dismissing teams left and right because the odds are in your favor that most of these teams are not going to move on. So if I'm running through it, but doing

a little worse guy ever attached to it, you go Philly number one in defensive efficiency after the all-star break. And it is a wide margin, but then you go, Oh, I've never been out of the second round teams. Never won anything. By the way, when I said on Bill's pot on Sunday, Philly almost pencil them into the Eastern conference finals with the way Miami's been moving up. Miami, Philadelphia, second round. Is that impossible to think the Heat could beat Philly in the second round? Brooklyn, all-time offense. Big three's

played seven games together. Milwaukee, number five in net ratings since the All-Star break. Drew Holiday doesn't play that much. Well, he's back. He's healthy. That wasn't even that good of a one, but remember the bubble and them losing to the Heat in the second round 4-1. Everyone's going to hang on to that one, which is a common theme with a lot of the contenders. Utah is number one in net rating since the All-Star break. Utah, nobody likes the Jazz. I like the Jazz. Nobody seems to ever just like

Jazz, and they lost in the first round last year, even though they very easily could have gotten past Denver. Phoenix, we know they have their five. We know who they are. The Chris Paul redemption part of this, the most wins for a franchise since 2010. That's what they're going to have. They get one more win, but Chris Paul can't win. And this is actually a real, not really just worst guy ever here. They're 20th in defensive rating since the all-star break. The Clippers, historic three-point shooting, just under 42%. Six regulars that shoot over 40%. Never been done before in the league. Remember last year?

They have the diet blew a 3-1 lead compared to the Warriors. And Paul George, some guy keeps calling him 30-13. Forget who that is. Denver, 24-9, best break since the All-Star break. No Murray. Lakers, I know they're hurt, but LeBron now just wants to make movies. That was a dumb headline then. It was a dumb headline last year, and it has nothing to do with any of it,

so I shouldn't even really bring it up other than just pointing out how dumb it is. But I don't know what to do with the Lakers instead of, or I would say put it this way, I don't know what to do with the Lakers other than I just don't want to doubt them. Knicks fans, what about us? Fair question. I love your grit. I love what you've done. But I don't know if I'm picking you against anybody.

You've had your guys. You know exactly who you are. And I'm not sure if there's just enough there. I'm just not sure if there's enough talent there to get past anyone. But maybe you can ignore me. Definitely ignore 538 because 538 has the Knicks' 16th

among teams' chances of winning a title. That's this year, not last year. This year, if you go through 538's model and chance to win the NBA finals, they have the Knicks 16th behind the Pacers and the Celtics. But don't worry about it, Knicks fans, because last year I kept checking it. 538 needed a restraining order against itself against the Philadelphia 76ers. I still think the Sixers had the six best odds to win the NBA title after they were eliminated on the website. And if Philly were to win this, as I've mentioned, there are many narrative options out there

because we have so many teams. Oh, I thought Chris Paul can win. I thought this guy can do this. I thought all these, I thought this guy couldn't play together. I thought Kyrie's approach, you know, like we've been over it. There's a lot of stuff there that people have been saying for a long time, me included, that we're probably going to get a result. We're like, oh, I still don't think

Embiid and Simmons can play together great offensively and they might win a title. But if the Sixers do win a title, what I don't want to hear, and I think this will remove this part of the coverage. Think of it this way.

If the Sixers win a title, we never have to read another story about how Ben Simmons has been working on his outside shot, which is never going to happen. Sixers are a one seed here. And I just broke down some of the stuff where with Bill on Sunday, I'd said, Hey, you almost got to pencil them into these conference finals. But then you're like, wait, Miami's kind of on this run here. And I don't think it's impossible to think of Miami were to come out of the first round if they're playing Philadelphia. Like, I don't think that's an easy series, although people feel like last year was pretty

fluky. So Chris Ryan joins us, Sixers fan, aficionado of many tastes. So you said something to me recently that I thought was kind of funny because when the Celtics went on that West coast swing and they're like fixed and I, you know, when you watch all the games, you go, and I don't know about fixed and guess what?

They weren't fixed. Philly didn't need to be fixed, but they, they went eight in a row. Sure. It's lesser opponents, but there seems to be some, some doubt.

I hear a tinge of doubt with you right now. What's going on? I think I'm vibing off the team. I didn't think they were coming off that eight-game win streak like we have it all figured out, partially because just like every other serious contender in the league, they haven't really played their best lineup consistently all season. So it seems like you get these kind of false positives

where you're like, oh, well, look at this. They just rattle off five, six in a row. And it's like, yeah, Joel's in and out, Ben's in and out. This night, it's not, you don't get Furkan and Shake. So you never really have like the full arsenal, which I guess is just, you have to be okay with that. But I can't get a feel for whether or not this team can routinely beat competition in the top half

of the Eastern Conference is what I guess I'm worried about. And, you know, I mean, the big thing that jumps out when you watch them is like the Pacers game is a perfectly good example. It's like, oh, they're shorthanded. I didn't have high expectations, but they go out and they whip ass for like a whole first half

where it's like Benny and the Jets. It's like Simmons with guys spreading the floor. He's doing these tomahawk dunks for the first half. And then as soon as stuff gets a little tight in the second half, I just think the creativity just kind of leaves that team. And I guess Embiid is the creativity. And that will be

their sort of skeleton key whenever things get tough. But the Heat thing's a perfect example. Watching Bam come barreling at those guys on defense is actually terrifying to me. I don't think they have an answer for something like that. That being said, the one seed, it just does make me feel so much better

than going through the gauntlet like Brooklyn or Milwaukee is going to have to do. See, what I remember talking about, at least last year with the finals, is that Miami run is, hey, that's great. They all of a sudden felt like they had depth on the fly. They had different ways they could attack you because it felt like, hey, there's seven guys I kind of like that can do some different things. And depth is a weird thing in the playoffs because some people are like, hey, you're just playing your five guys.

Who cares? It doesn't matter. But I love that a team can go, well, this is this kind of matchup. But then when I saw it was the Lakers, I go, I don't care. Myers Leonard's not getting it done against this front line. It's over. It's not happening. The Miami momentum was tricking me into being like,

do you want to be a Miami guy? Do you want to pick him? Do you want to pick him? I remember a half-day stretch. I was like, am I just going to pick him? And then I was like, why would I do that? Look at the front line. So as you share concern about a guy like Bam,

isn't there also a part of this where if you're Miami going, what the hell do we think we're ever going to do with Embiid with the way our front line is? Yeah. For some reason, even though Embiid is an all-conquering center, I don't know why, but I've never really been a cocky Sixers fan. I wonder if this is residual process stuff. I wonder if this is from whence we came. But I don't really like ever feel

like super confident going into a game like that. The way I like have Lakers friends who are just like, oh, we got this tonight. We got this. I went to the Suns game with a friend of mine who's a big Lakers fan on Sunday night, the Lakers-Suns game. And he was just like, I think we got this. I think we got this. And it's just like you guys have been

eating shit for two weeks now. And you just beat this and they beat the Suns by like, they were at least up by 20 for most of that this. And it's just like, you guys have been eating shit for two weeks now. And you just beat this. And they beat the Suns by like, they were at least up by 20 for most of that game. So it's like, I never have that confidence about it, but I hope that Miami,

I hope Miami's nervous too. I think also there's a little bit of Jimmy stuff there. There's a little bit of like, like post-traumatic Jimmy stress syndrome of this guy having somebody's number on our team. You think there's any chance

your Lakers friend is just a dick? I forgot to mention, he's the guy in that gif who's like, Lakers, baby, Lakers. We have that all the time. I don't want to sound dismissive as we're penciling in Philly to a second round matchup here with Miami because it could

be Atlanta. They have DeAndre back. He wouldn't close with them in the Wizards game. And the rest of the playing components here, I don't want to be... I think this sounds a bit like... You're sounding more negative than I think for a team that's going to be the one seed here in the East. But I think it's more about what the hell is Brooklyn going to look like

when these guys are actually playing together. That's where I think the tone is coming from, right? Yeah. And so there was also another thing that I noticed when I was at that Suns-Lakers game, which was that just in the same way that basketball, I think, pretty clearly changed a bit going into the bubble last year. I think it's going to be different going into these playoffs now. I just feel like watching that Lakers-Suns game, watching the Lakers-Knicks game,

just watching even the way the Pacers were playing against the Sixers the other night, watching that Warriors-Suns game the other night, the intensity level and actually the defensive intensity is kind of something I just don't feel like I've witnessed this year. Maybe it's just not being at games. I don't know. But

I felt like guys were like in devon booker's shirt on sunday night and i feel like uh watching like watching the pacers get after it in the second half with the with the sixers even though i think the sixers kind of threw that game away i was like oh yeah like in the same way that the bubble was sort of like everybody's like all of a sudden the lights out shooter because it's just it's quiet and they're playing in small high school gyms now. I feel like there's going to be this added intensity with crowds back and with a defensive kind of passion.

I don't know. Have you picked up on that at all? I don't know what to expect defensively because I would think this is going to sound like an old coach, but how could you play this poorly defensively for so many of these teams for this many months and now all of a sudden you're just going to turn it on?

Right, turn it to Dennis Rodman the brooklyn thing will destroy any coach's philosophy if a group that played seven regular season games together goes on a tear and wins an nba championship with not really knowing what the rotation is not even with your main guys forget like hey we get creative with six seven eight nine here and a team that defensively at times has looked horrible and now no one cares i think that's going to be the let there's so many lessons but then again will it mean anything or do we just go hey brooklyn put together this title run and won one so it doesn't mean hey never play your guys together it's just right the circumstances and challenges of this year i mean back to your defensive point though phil Philadelphia is off the charts better than everybody else since the all-star break defensive efficiency in a normal season. The way we talked about basketball just five years ago, we'd be

like, oh, well, Philly, look at Philly, look at their defensive numbers. And I don't even know that anybody even, I was sorting through it this morning going, look at their, they're like three points better than the second best defensive team since So that's a huge, huge gap. And it's like, yeah, no, like it's just met with what indifference because nobody knows what to do. Like guys are going,

yeah, Brooklyn's going to have the worst historical defense ever if they want to. Yeah. Okay, cool. Whatever. Like they're just going to make threes. It's,

it's also funny. Like the flip side of that is like, I feel like people talk about the Knicks now, the way we talked about the Warriors like six or seven years ago, where they're this delightful anomaly. You know what I mean? And that their intense defense is actually now what free-flowing,

35-foot jump shooting was like in 2015 or something. Yeah, I guess I always felt like the great thing about that Warriors team was that they always defended. They had the number one defense, I think, for the five years, and then it was number two. So they were switching. They were doing stuff. I mean, I think everybody gets really excited about the depth of the top of this draft because you go look at all these big switchable guys which is what you're always trying to do with the Warriors where I look at Brooklyn is they're switching like they switch like crazy they may not care like they

just may not care and even Harden and as I was joking about at the top, was so out of shape in the return game, which you would expect. And he controlled the whole game. Didn't matter. You know, it wasn't like they're playing somebody great in San Antonio, but I can't wait to see what happens. I think that's probably where the doubt comes in. Hey, give me your kind of like quick hitters.

Like, where does them bead for you as an all-time Sixers fan? Like, what is he to you oh he's i think he's like third for me fourth you know i think iverson barkley and irving yeah yeah i mean i think that iverson has like a really special place in my heart just because like he hit right when i was kind of like maturing i guess and like was really defining for that era in a lot and like off the court too, just as being a huge hip hop fan at that time. And he just meant so much to me.

But yeah, Iverson, Barkley, Irving. And then I think Embiid has just kind of become that kind of iconic figure. Partially also because I think of how much he's embraced the city. That's a pretty rare quality. One of the things that's sort of tough with a lot of these guys now, which is not really a knock

against them, but there isn't really that connection between the player and the city that they're playing in anymore. That's fine. We're not like children. We don't need that to happen. I think it's interesting. I know that you wanted to talk a little bit about soccer in a little bit. That's one of the main factors in that

whole story about the European Super League is the connection between teams and cities, which is pretty, pretty powerful over in Europe. And in, in the States is like, I think fading a little bit outside of like the NFL. Yeah.

I mean, I think there's also the movement, the player movement all, all along too, is, is a big part of it. And with him deed, I mean, it took so long to get this thing going.

You're still not there. I mean, he's 27 now. I love him. I mean, he's one of my favorite players to watch. And the criticisms of him, I don't know if these criticisms are for like, when he looks like he's out of shape in a playoff game, it's like, ah, this guy's just not in shape enough, right? Or, hey, you can't win with a traditional guy like they're giving him more post touches they're

running the offense through him i think there's a clear clear difference when you watch a doc rivers coach team versus a brett brown coach team because i saw it firsthand and what he did with paul pierce in boston it's like oh look paul's taking much better shots or setting him up better and look at this his efficiency is off the charts where pierce had even told me at the time he was like you know at first i was like ah come on man like I want the ball more I want to be able to do some of these things and Doc was like yeah but you want to be better and like do you want to win like you've been around a long time do you want to be better and win a bunch of games because yeah let's do it this way and he was absolutely right so I thought that that would happen happen where they showcase

him you know Tobias Harris I think I sent you a text a few months into the season where I go I don't know about it man I'm like how do you do this and then I think I sent you a text a few months into the season where I go, I don't know about him, man. I'm like, how do you do this? And then I think from that moment on, he had had this incredible offensive tear. So his run, I think in the second half of the season, I mean, his overall numbers are really strong. And he always has decent numbers, but you don't know what to do with those. And then you add in the Simmons part of it, where I felt like there was a big push that Simmons was his improved guy.

I think defensively, we know what it is. But offensively, it doesn't look that different to me. It looks like Embiid's better. It looks like Harris is better. It looks like you have better shooters. You have different wing options. I would say the Simmons Embiid offensive part of that just, it may never work, but it doesn't mean that they can't win because it doesn't look that different to me in crunch time moments at all. That's the problem is that so like, I feel like it flows really well up until the last three or four minutes. And then I'm sort of always watching Ben and trying to figure out where he's going to stand

and what he's going to do. And what happens when they just basically like, he gets treated like Tony Allen in certain moments. You know what I mean? When he's down on offense and it just really clogs up the court. And there's even against the Pacers the other night, even though Embiid wasn't out there,

it was just kind of like, who's supposed to take this last shot? Because reputationally, it should be Simmons. He should be getting some looks in these last few minutes. But when you think about half-court opportunities, you just don't really want the ball in his hands. You'd almost prefer it be somebody like Shaq Milton.

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's a really good point. And I swear to God, if I mix up shake milton and alec burks one more time i just come whenever i'm watching nixer sixers games i mean i know who's on which team but i i don't know i don't even know if they look like each other side by side but i'm always kind of like oh i don't think yeah shake mill at one point i think was scoring 17 a game

yeah for your squad um okay give, give me two quick things. Then I want to do some different NBA things with you quickly. What's it like watching Thibel all the time? Because that Phoenix game, even though they lost on the Booker shot, to see what he was doing to Booker throughout, and it's also a credit to Booker for figuring some stuff out and getting free, even though he didn't really get Thibel all the time. He got him on that last shot on the right side of the baseline.

But what's that like watching? Because we hear about guys that lock up people defensively or, oh, look at this guy. He can guard one, two, five. He can switch. He can do all these different things. When Dybal decides he's going to be in your shit all night, there's not much you're going to be able to do about it.

Yeah. My favorite kind of player, whether it's to watch, is the Simmons, the Nash, the Kids, the Lucas, the guys who can see, the Hardens even. I don't like watching Harden, but I acknowledge that you can do this. It's the guys who just see passes

that other people can't see. And watching Dybul is like that guy, but on defense. Like he sees defensive plays that I can't even conceive of. He understands like, oh, this is going to be a skip pass. I'm going to jump this. Or like, this guy's lazy

when he thinks that nobody's paying attention at the top of the key. I'm going to jump him from his blind side when he just changes hands for a second. It's like this intuition on defense that is almost like watching a brilliant point guard, but he just doesn't have the ball.

It's cool, man. You're right. There are the little things where he's already like, oh, point guard, but he just doesn't have the ball. It's cool, man. You're right. There are the little things where he's already like, oh, you thought we were going to switch here, but actually I'm going to jump this for you. Whereas I was watching the Wizards, they still couldn't figure out a corner switch last night. I mean, the season's almost over.

They were like, no. And then a couple of guys got mad at each other. I'm going to leave that one alone for now. All right. So do you have any idea of the West? Because I've been tempted now for weeks to pick Phoenix to come out of the West. But I know you get a little nervous watching them this week, this last week at all. It's just like, is Cam Johnson really that big of a deal?

Like, how are you feeling about them? They have a weird thing, though. There's some weird number with Cam Johnson really that big of a deal? Like, how are you feeling about them? They have a weird thing, though. There's some weird number with Cam Johnson, like giving them like just a little bump or it's a really great record. And I know we can play with all those all the time. So my actually my answer is no. I don't think Cam Johnson is now the difference between Phoenix. But they have some weird thing. I should say I'll double check it.

I'm not going to. I'll do other stuff today. But I remember watching one of their broadcasts. It's like when Cam has this, it wasn't like when Cam has 30 or something ridiculous. What worries me is simply the Lakers game and what Anthony Davis does to that front line. Because I like that they all kind of know who they are,

even though I know Aiton's not going to be a stud. He is a guy that still works his ass off. But then after that, there's no depth. So if they face a healthy Lakers team, I'm not going to be a stud. He is a guy that still works his ass off, but then after that, there's no depth. So if they face a healthy Lakers team, I'm not going to pick them. I'm just not. But I like Phoenix better than Utah. I thought Golden State,

that game was so strange because they couldn't make anything, and then they made everything in the last minute and a half. Seriously, they missed shots for 46 plus minutes. So I'm not falling for stuff. That was like a crazy college game where you for 46 plus minutes so i'm not that was

like a crazy college game where you're just like how how is this not over why won't i change the channel and then you're just kind of like they're inching they're inching and then they all of a sudden it's just toscano it's curry it's wiggins it's like it was just a barrage it was kind of awesome but it really felt like a march madness game who would you pick then like would you pick utah or phoenix in a seven game series? Against one another? Yeah. Like, let's just do a little rapid fire thing here

because I'm just trying to get a gauge of where your Phoenix. I think I'd pick Phoenix. Yeah. Yeah. What about like Clippers Phoenix? I think I would pick the Clippers. Do you have any Denver?

Like, is there any part of you with Denver? Oh, I love it. I mean, like, I love watching them. So, like, if you give me the chance, I would go Denver over Clippers again. You would? Yeah. Yeah.

I love it. I love those guys. If the Clippers lost to the Nuggets again. So, you're not writing off the Lakers, though, are you? No. In fact, I'm pretty bullish on them although I mean I think they like I mean this will be with so if the Lakers were somehow to run this back would where would you put that in terms of an accomplishment do you think you

would knock them for not having a good regular season or you think that would just be like the most amazing thing to come out of this new play-in situation and then run the table? Last year, as I've said a few times, they won it. It was great. That was the weaker slate of opponents that you're going to see in a finals run. It just was.

But they were also pretty dominant. Once it was Houston, I didn't really feel like Denver had much of a chance. And then against the Heat, we can say it was six games. I don't know. Sometimes there are six-game series, and I'm like, man, that was so close. I think the Oklahoma City-Miami

finals was really close, but it wasn't a long series. Right? There's other series. There's a Toronto-Cleveland one in Eastern Conference Finals years ago that went six, and I'm like, that felt like three games. Oh, yeah. You see what I'm saying?

So if the Lakers were to do this, let's just say it's day with the seating now. Okay? They beat Golden State in the playoff game, which they have to beat Golden state in the play-in game which they they have to be golden state in playoff game even though i you know i think steph in one game that golden state team is just not that good then lakers would beat phoenix in the first round which i still think the argument about getting the lakers early is i've been swayed to that's probably the way to go but i still think of your phoenix you're like can you just not be the lakers in the first round

like this is the first time we're here in a decade. Can we not play you guys? And then they would get the winner of 3-6, which would be, let's say the Clippers if they beat Dallas. And then they would have like Utah or Phoenix. Or excuse me. I mean, they would have already taken Phoenix out.

They'd have Utah and then like a Brooklyn or Philly or Milwaukee on the other side. That's an absurd run of teams. That's as hard as it can get. That's as hard as it can get. From like intense high pressure situations like the Steph LeBron play-in game will probably, I would think, outrate the game seven of the NBA finals. Like that would be so intense to see that happen.

Even if the Lakers win by 30, it would just be just the anticipation of that moment. I can't even believe it. And then for them to march through that gauntlet would be unbelievable. I would seriously tip my hat to them. Anything else? Anything else we need to touch on basketball-wise here?

No, because I feel like everybody's talked about All-NBA and the awards. Yeah, I don't want to do All-NBA. Because if I don't have it in front of me and I haven't done it that morning again like I Bill makes me do it too much and I just I have to be like I don't have a vote man he was trying to get at me yesterday he's like I'm sorry I just have to do I have to put Jokic in all NBA and beat is not a forward I'm like it's okay man it's all right no he's we've gone at it twice on that one and I know what he's doing too and I think it's it's okay, man. It's all right. No, he's gone at it twice on that one. And I know what he's doing too. And I think it's, it's a credit to anybody that takes the all NBA voting

seriously, because you need to take this seriously because there's a lot on the line and it matters. And when you're all done and retired and you know, you want to be able to get it right and not look back and say like, why the hell did that guy have this many or not? But again, year to year. So I know that Bill Kershaw, I know that he's really, he's talking it out with us, wondering if there's something we're going to throw at him where he's going to change his mind on something. I think he just thinks I'm going door to door with a petition

to get Embiid on first team all NBA. And it's like, it's all right, man. I understand. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, because I've been pushing for that one. And he's like, no. I'm like, okay.

Well, then I guess small forward Luka Doncic makes the team. We're going to come back. We're going to talk Super League with soccer, but how it applies to American sports and what changes we could ever see. That's coming up next. I wanted to have Cerruti jump in here because I know that Chris is a forward-thinking guy.

Are you a change guy, Chris? Because as people get older, they don't like change at all. I think you're more savvy than that. I think I'm open to change. Yeah. I think that there are certain things that I want to have stay the same. But I think that we're about to talk about the European Super League. This is an incredible, it's an incredible example of watching people who are and are not ready for those changes, even if they're inevitable. Great way of setting it up. So for those that don't know,

and I certainly didn't know until it started to happen is that all these different clubs in European soccer decided we're just going to do a super league, 12 teams and leave whatever leagues they were in. And I've always wondered if it would happen in college football where you just had like the 12 best programs go to a network and say, we're just going to do our own thing. Screw this FCF stuff, you know, all these different people. The problem with that is like, all of a sudden now you're in this super college football league. You're like, you know, it was a

lot more fun going 10 and two and like playing for a conference championship than being the 10th best team when we were winning our conference the entire time there's small little change things that'll happen with the nba because we all know how much silver loves looking at international soccer and being inspired for potential change so i always kind of like instead of being dismissive where i was oddly dismissive more when i was younger but then i realized like you know all these things that you dismiss and the things that were successful, the only reason you dismissed it is it was new. You didn't put any research into it. You didn't think about it. You didn't challenge yourself to think about it differently. And you ended up being wrong about some of this

stuff. This is a much smaller deal, but the patches on jerseys in the NBA, it's a 48-hour cycle of outrage. People probably forgot they were even mad if they've even noticed them on jerseys anymore. Nobody cares. And the NBA was right about that. The only reason I don't like the play-in game is I think there'll be a 50-win-7 seed that's like, are you serious? We're going to play this under 500 team one more time to prove who we are? But I know the game is going to be terrific. I know the ratings are going to be good and the Lakers-Golden State part of that. So I think there's more support for it and people are excited. And if it helps deter tanking, then great. So I do think changes like this are coming. I just don't know if it'd be this massive. So Saruti, what was the reaction? Give me the breakdown of like how the leagues

work, how many teams are left out, who these 12 teams were, and then we'll kind of take it from there. Yeah. Um, and I mean, I Chris, you know, jump in too, but I would say it's 12 teams from, I believe, it's Spain, Italy, England. Germany was left out and PSG, which is in France, is also out. But that's mostly because they're with Qatar, who's sort of backed by FIFA. And there's this whole sort of there's always politics going on, obviously, in European soccer. To my knowledge, there's three clubs that are still sort of holding out. It's Juve, Juventus, which is the team that's won nine straight championships in Italy, who are actually going to lose this year. Inter Milan is going to win that one. And then Barcelona, Real Madrid, which Barcelona, I would argue, is the worst run club in the world currently. They are hemorrhaging

money left and right. I think they're $1.3 billion in debt. Now, we talked about this a little bit, like a lot of soccer clubs in Europe aren't in debt. Most of them are, actually. Just how the transfer fees work and things like that. The number, though, 1.3 billion, is jarring. But all the other clubs basically bailed because of public pressure, especially the ones in England. And the German clubs, as I mentioned,

were never in it because they basically have this 50 plus 1 rule, which the fans have some control. And shout out to Germany, BVB and Bayern, who are both two really well run clubs. So that's kind of where we're at right now.

And I believe, Chris, too, Juve, like the Italian League has said that if Juve doesn't leave, they're going to be kicked out and basically relegated. They're going to be suspended from Serie A. Yeah.

So, I mean, I think it's worth mentioning also just that the Super League was supposed to replace the Champions League. Those teams weren't intending to leave their domestic. If Manchester City had joined the Super League, they still wanted to play in the Premier League.

They just wanted to play in the Super League instead of in the Champions League. So when they have the Champions League, a lot of the times, now we're right up to the final where Chelsea is going to play City. But it's been months of City playing some team from the Czech Republic on a Wednesday night where they probably are like,

we have to go through these pro forma games of like beating these smaller teams in Europe. It costs, you know, some, our guys get injured when they do it. There's, there's like,

the interest is waning in these games because it's sort of, it's our, it's already kind of decided who's going to win because of the disparity of talent and the disparity of money in world football. Why not just create a situation where we are giving people the matchups they already

want to see all the time? Instead of it maybe being possibly we get to see Juventus versus Real Madrid in a final, what if they played four times a year? It's that thing where they're kind of basically trying to gerrymander it so that they have the biggest matchups more frequently. But the consequence of that is that it completely rips out

the element of a Cinderella team coming out of nowhere and getting into the Champions League final or a team rising up through the ranks in any way, which is sort of the promise of the pyramid system. Yeah, because at the end of the day, all those clubs have to qualify through their domestic leagues to make the Champions League, right? This would completely eliminate that. So Arsenal, who are sitting at like 10 close to mid table, yeah, 10th in the table, have had a terrible year, haven't been relevant in five years. Same thing with AC Milan. Some of these clubs,

they're super close, but they're actually not well-run and they're not very good. Tottenham is in that group as well, although they've had a couple years ago, obviously, when they were in the final. Shout out to the Hotspur. But they would basically not have to qualify.

So all the other teams in this league were like, well, what are we playing for then? So we have no chance to make this league, even if it was very improbable, which it was. The same six-ish teams and seven, I guess, if you include Leicester in the Premier League, they make the Champions League. And then the order just shuffles every couple

years. Manchester City is usually at the top. But there is still a cool thing about a West Ham or an Everton, or as I mentioned, Leicester weren't in that group, having some sort of hope that they can strive to be in this competition and just make it there. Just making it there is almost like a trophy for them. So taking that away, it really ruined it for most of the fans in a lot of these leagues. All right. So as that applies to American sports, like whenever we hear about relegation,

you go, man, I'd love that. Like, I always hear that from fans. Like, oh, I'd love it. And I go, you know, would you though? Say you're a huge Anthony Edwards fan right now and you love what they're doing. Would you be thrilled to see him playing some of the G League teams or something? Whatever version of relegation would be where it's 20 NBA teams

and then there's like 10 NBA B teams and then we take the 10 best G League teams. And granted, like, again, the worst 10 NBA teams are so much better than the G League teams whatever that level would be and whatever that separation would be would you guys just be cool with these 10 bad teams being forced and then when they get top draft

picks that they're not playing against the real NBA teams yeah let me add one more thing to that as soon as that happened Anthony Edwards would be like I want to go play for somebody else yeah that's how it works in soccer where it's like the best players on the worst team do not go down to the championship or the second levels with the so it's just understood even if you're just like i mean first of all actually kind of sounds like the nba now but but the biggest problem is is that as soon as you get relegated like you have to completely change your salary

structure because now you're not playing in as big stadiums you're not getting the huge tv deal there's a parachute payment to like soften the blow of getting relegated but you're usually what happens is when a team gets relegated the first thing they do is sell two or three of their best players because they're not going to be able to afford to keep those guys around and since it's not like the contracts aren't the way they are in american sports where there's pretty there's like a lot of like there's not a lot of stability in those contracts. If a player is like, hey, man, I don't really want to play here anymore. Nine times out of 10, the club's like, yeah, we'll work something out. We'll sell you on.

Yeah, and I think basketball, I think, is uniquely a terrible situation for relegation for promotion relegation, because basketball is probably the sport which talent dictates the most of what happens. In soccer, there are some teams in the Premier League that don't have great talent. But the way that they play, they can sort of stick around and figure it out. If you don't have talent in the NBA, you're gone. And the teams that would get then promoted from whatever that second tier division of the NBA 2 league or whatever, those teams would be so incredibly bad. And you'd have to, you'd have to sign players and who knows what cities they would be.

And that takes the whole small market, big market thing. And it probably makes it even worse than the NBA. So you don't want it in the NBA. I think it'd be terrible in the NBA. I think, I think college sports, there's an argument for it.

I think a college football would be pretty cool. Cause I think in college football, I think you already have it. Yeah. I mean, and you do, but I do think that it would be pretty awesome if USC and Alabama played once or twice a year,

no matter what. You know what I mean? That would be kind of cool. I understand the conferences we're watching are only five or six years old really anyway. Because they're so different than the ones that I grew up with like i i do think that you could argue oh well this will just um this will just calcify like the the top of the college football pyramid but like it is calcified you know like it is alabama it is these sec teams it is it is notre dame and and and some

of the pac-12 squads so and tex teams. So why are we pretending like it's not? Why not just make a conference where these teams actually do play each other throughout the year? And maybe a college football champion winds up being 7-3. Who cares? Why do we have to be perfect? Well, I don't think guys would want to go 7-3, but I also think there's a geographical attachment to college football.

Yeah. Um, much like some of the super league stuff that you're talking about, where there's still like a home for you, even if you think you're qualifying for this, this different thing. And especially college football. I,

I just like that when I'm watching a big 10 game, it looks like a big 10 game. I like when I'm watching an sec game, it looks like an sec game. Um, I, I don't want Texas, Oklahoma, Florida state and USC to all be in the pack 10. You know, when that was something that Larry Scott was promising and you ended up with Utah and Colorado, um, Florida state

was, was more of the SEC thing, which almost had happened to, I think like 25 years ago too. So sometimes I feel like I'm a traditionalist when I'll say, you know, I, I kind of just liked it. This is separated geographically and there's a historyist when I'll say, you know, I kind of just liked it. This is separated geographically and there's a history here. And even though you're right, Chris, the SEC is morphed. The big 12 has changed. Big 10 and all this kind of land grab stuff that we had years ago. There's still something identifiable about knowing where these regions are out of in a hundred years of history. So I don't like, is that kind of the pushback I'd imagine, Saruti, to some of the stuff that's happening there where when I was reading through some of these clubs, and by the way, for like guys that are listening that are like me, that I respect it. I don't have time for it.

I just don't have time to watch. I'm a big F1 guy now. Everybody knows that. But reading, you think we have drama here with sport. Reading about some of the stuff there, like there's one team. It was, is it the madrid team where the owners apparently was ruled in court they owned the team fraudulently but that was like 15 years ago and they still own the team and then when you mentioned the barcelona financials

to me it's like yeah but it's owned by everyone so i was like oh so no wonder it's a board it's not even their money they're just signing the checks and that's why they spend all this money and everybody because nobody's better at spending money than when it's other people's money. So there's more to it if you dug. And again, for those that are really into soccer, listening to this, be like, no shit, Rosillo. I was going through it this morning laughing, going, I can't believe this stuff happens. Imagine all of a sudden the Celtics ownership just being up for debate, court rulings. Hey, we have to sell a player because of this. Yeah, we have to sell Tatum because our owner's Like, yeah, we have to sell Tatum

because our owner's being sued by somebody. Like that stuff is crazy. And I don't think we're ready for any of that. Yeah, I mean, you think like Jim Irsay and Steve Ballmer are controversial owners. Like try checking out what's going on with, you know, PSG and Man City and all these clubs that are basically owned by nations

and they're owned just by the royal families of these nations. Yeah, by the sovereign wealth funds. Yeah. Yeah. And they just pump unlimited money into these clubs, which is the irony about the Super League, too, is that, you know, if you did a Super League 20 years ago, a lot of these teams wouldn't even be in this 12 team Super League. Like PSG came out of nowhere. Manchester City were in like the third division a couple of decades ago.

You know, there's a couple. I mean, Tottenham aren't traditionally a big club. Arsenal's never even won a Champions League. No. It completely it's just, yes, they happen to be in this time right now where they are one of the quote-unquote big six in England.

But Leicester have been a better, more well-run club than Tottenham probably and Arsenal over the last few years and they didn't get the invite. So if you compare it to college football to bring it full circle, that would be like, yeah, sure. Is Arkansas going to be winning the SEC or making the college football playoff? Probably not. But it's cool that there's that pie in the sky. I think that they could potentially still achieve this. To take that away, you're ruining the entire sport. That's what I like. And whenever we do this for the NCAA tournament where it's like, well, we should just have

it be the best 68 teams, forget the automatic bids. I'm like, that's bullshit. That's wrong. That's anti the whole point of the whole thing is that I still want a team that went 10 and 11 in the regular season of a conference to be like, okay, but you're still eligible. And if you win five or six of these games in a row, you get a seat and then they get a seat. And it's like, oh, you know, I can't believe,

I can't believe 18 and 16 Virginia Tech got left out because, you know, Holy Cross made it. Even the Holy Cross used to have great records. But like, that's the point. It's like, you went 18 and 16. I don't want to fucking hear it from you. And that system that exists, I don't ever want to see change.

All right. So as we wrap this all up, I always have joked about it. I think it's more, it's never going to happen. And there's a bunch of arguments against it, which I'm fully aware of. But if the NBA owner said, and why there will never be relegation is those 30 guys are not going to look at each other being like, hey, do you want to not be in this? Okay, because if you vote for not being, it might be you and I know I don't want to be on that and they all just kind of get together and be like, hey, let's make

sure that's never going to happen. I don't even know if it was ever even brought up, but I thought redrafting the entire league every year would be hilarious because then you don't have to worry about losing anyone. That event would be the biggest event in sports for the entire year,

and it would give you hope every single season. If you had a terrible year, you'd be like, who cares? Next year, we're doing it all over again. Yeah, we get LeBron next year. Yeah, we might get LeBron next year. People laugh me out of the room when I said it. I think people are more like,

imagine if you did it, though, dot, dot, dot. And then, again, I've been over all the challenges. But, like, Chris, is there something from soccer or some change, whether it's, dot, dot, dot. And then again, I've been over all the challenges. But like Chris, is there something from soccer or some change, whether it's, hey, the play-in game I think is a sample. And I know you have one, Saruti, too, as you finish up here, but a sampling of potential changes to come.

And what we've realized is everybody freaks out about it. And then when it happens, it's like, oh, maybe this isn't so bad. So then it kind of opens the door. Like what other tweaks can we make? Is there anything else with the NBA or another sport that you'd say, this would be something I think would actually make sense.

So the one that gets brought up all the time is having a cup competition that runs parallel to the regular season. So that even if you're cheering for, even if you are a Timberwolves fan and you're like, God, we just got annihilated. What if there was a tournament, a knockout tournament, that if you guys just got hot, you caught the right team on the wrong night. And so the Lakers in the first round of this Commissioner's Cup tournament

decided to just run out their bench guys against the Timberwolves because they didn't want to be stressed out as the season went on. That's basically what happens in these cup competitions in Europe is every once in a while, Liverpool will just play their reserves

against a team from Accrington and Stanley. And they just get upset. And they're like, Oh, well, we lost. We're not going to win the FA Cup this year. But this would be a situation where, as we're going into the playoffs, possibly Minnesota might have a trophy.

Minnesota might have won a knockout tournament against the rest of the league. And if you're a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, maybe you're just like, I don't understand what do you mean? But like in the back of your head, I bet there was just like a brain chemistry firing. That's like,

we get a trophy. That's pretty cool. Like, I think that that would add a little bit of spice to the season. Totally agree. That would have been mine. I think. He's been on this now for a long time too,

Chris. So I, I think you've even, have you accused Bill Simmons of taking this idea from you? No, because ours are very different. I'll get to that in a second. But to Chris's idea, like imagine if the Rockets. Is your contract signed?

Yeah, we're good. Imagine if the Rockets won like a FA Cup NBA tournament a couple years ago with Harden, right? Yeah, all right. Maybe it's not the championship and I'm sure Twitter would mock it and act like it wasn't a big deal, but it's still kind of cool., right? Yeah, all right. Maybe it's not the championship, and I'm sure Twitter would mock it and act like, you know, it wasn't a big deal,

but it's still kind of cool. All right, you won a trophy. Like, in those years when the Warriors were winning everything, there was nothing else to play for, so that made it really boring. But maybe the Warriors wouldn't care about a play

in about a midseason sort of tournament, and then somebody else could actually take something home. It's not, you know, lifting the Larry O'Brien. We get that, but it's at least something that another team can win.

So I never understood why there were so many people pushing back on that. Why would you not want there to be more things that are winnable for your team, especially in the NBA when it's so top-heavy? Yeah, I just think it's a good way for Michael Jordan to catch Serena Williams if he had multiple chances to win a championship. How many FA Cups does he have? Then you put the Olympic gold medals to the side. But no, my thing with Simmons was he had what was the

Entertaining His Health tournament, which is basically kind of similar to what is happening now. I always wanted the lottery teams to play in a tournament for the number one pick. I always thought that, to me, is a no-brainer. And people say, oh, well, nobody will care. Half the players on the rosters won't really care. But yeah, won't that incentivize teams to not tank as much so they don't sign as many players that don't actually

give a crap about what team they're on i mean i understand free agency is what it is but you know i i instead of rewarding all these bad teams and minnesota is going to have like a top whatever pick for however many years in a row and not go anywhere reward a team and then you could say okay then teams would maybe tank to get out of the playoffs so they can get into this tournament and potentially get a lebron james or whatever but i mean michael porter jr got added to a a nuggets team you know obviously there was injury there but he shouldn't have gone 14th in the lottery that year and he did and it was awesome now he's this great player for them um i just think you know that that would be really cool and i think it would rate like hell me as a magic fan

if my if the magic are playing in a tournament to determine whether or not they were going to pick first second third or like 10th in the, I'd be locked in more than I would be a regular season game. It's also tough because it's like I hear a lot about like, well, how would you incentivize these guys to play? And it's like, I don't know, we're playing sports, right? Like you would want to win. Give them money. Yeah, we could do money. But like, also, I think it would be cool. Like we're always talking about like, oh, that Lakers championship in the bubble made a couple caveats. And you guys didn't play these guys.

Or this time, Ibaka tore his hamstring. So you guys didn't really see a great Thunder team that year. It's like giving teams an opportunity to double down on how good they are by winning a cup and then the finals would actually solidify your reputation

as maybe one of the all-time great teams. Because that's what happens in football all the time in soccer. If you win two or three trophies in a year, people are like, it's one of the best teams we've ever seen. I immediately go into reaction mode, though, reacting to the reaction,

where if I had to watch an episode of First Take where somebody was up there saying, how could you dog-harden? He's won three FA Cups. And I just go like, I can't. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? am i supposed to be like i know he hasn't won a tie i know he doesn't have the larry ob but three fa cups in a row no one's

ever done that like we started it in 2022 so anyway all right before i say goodbye to you we didn't really get to we'll do another time chris tv recommendations for the crew oh sure so right now the big thing that i'm watching this is a little bit of a reach probably, but me and Andy over on the watch, we've been going through this show, The Bureau, which is a French spy show that was on from 2015 to 2020. There we go. It is basically like Mad Men of Spies. It is so good. It is crazy how obsessed with this show I've gotten. I can't recommend it more highly. It's on Sundance now. So it's a little bit of a reach there.

But if you're into any kind of espionage stories, spy stories, it's not action-y like the Bourne movies. It's more like a John le Carre novel. But I highly recommend that. And I also highly recommend the second season of For All Mankind. So this is an Apple TV show that came started like a couple of years ago. And, you know, it's pretty rare that you see shows get like appreciably better in their second seasons these days.

Usually like they kind of put all their eggs in the first basket and then like this show gets progressively worse as it goes on. This is like one of those rare shows that just takes a huge leap in the second season it's basically like a fictional history or like an alternate history of the idea of this what if the space race continued

so it's basically the US versus Russia and the race for space and yeah I don't want to give too much away because a lot there's a lot of twists and turns in the second season but it's pretty excellent. Have you checked out 000 on Amazon? Are you kidding me? That's your

show? Yeah, that's like I am going door to door with a petition trying to get people to watch 000. I watched the pilot. Yeah. It's incredible. Alright, so we're in. Do you know that the pilot is like the worst episode? It gets so good. I watched the pilot and was like am i do i have the wrong feed do i have an italian hack here how come i've not heard anyone okay so that's that's i think that's one of the best shows the last five years zero zero zero yeah it's incredible so rudy you're gonna love it

because you're italian i just looked it up but yeah i'm all in i haven't even heard of it dude the first opening scene the way it's shot and the whole deal. I felt like it was a little Godfather-ish. So it's the guy who did the Sicario sequel and he does Gamora. Stefano Salima. Yeah. Yeah. So Rudy's in.

Love Gamora. Okay. Thank you to everybody. Check out Chris Ryan on Featured. What's the schedule for all your stuff that you're doing? The Watch on Mondays and Thursdays and The Answer on Fridays on the NBA show feed your stuff you're doing uh the watch on mondays and thursdays and uh the answer on fridays on the nba show feed there you go all right the answer i like the answer um i like the title thanks i forget what you guys did the other day that i liked because

i was like oh yeah that's really good but i forget it was yeah we do one question and we try to answer it yeah yeah all right check it out. And then Saruti's just hanging out. I'll be around. There you go. I'll be here. Thanks, guys. You want details? Fine.

I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com.

You got a ton of these in here now. So thank you, Kyle, for forwarding them on. All right, here we go. This one's weird. Good choice. What's up, huge fan, 2562220 fan 25 62 220 school i don't know i keep reading those so a couple weeks ago i flew by myself for the first time congrats my dad's a pilot for a major airline i've traveled plenty in my past recently when i've flown i've been

with friends so it was weird for me to not have anyone to talk to for four hours on a plane ride southwest so basically all I had was a couple downloaded episodes of different podcasts, by the way, great Southwest office, Michael Scott plot line. I think BJ Novak was tweeting out. He would have ideas for Michael Scott storylines. And one is Michael Scott flies in Southwest and boards early and sits in the middle seat so he could have so he could have two people to sit next to um there was another one where he was like he buys himself gift cards from a cvs or something i'll admit i almost bought myself gift cards once and i didn't realize what i was doing i was like wait a minute what are you doing and that was when i was living in a hotel by myself

for a while sorry so back to the email so our man's upset that he didn't have anyone to talk to. I'm not some chatterbox kind of guy in construction sales, so I can carry on a conversation with just about any type of person, but it was tough sitting there with my mouth shut for the whole flight. I was flying to Denver in March, so I was super pumped already, which made it harder. So he's excited to go to Denver, but it made it harder because he didn't have anyone to talk to in his row or near me. Not to judge, but it didn't look as if the people in his row would have much in common anyway. But on the way back, I sat by someone who seemed my age and seemed as if we probably have stuff in common, just as good as you can judge someone by looking. I noticed he was on Twitter. I saw a

couple of the same accounts that I follow on his feed. So I tried to start a conversation. The dude just shrugged me off immediately. I didn't double down and just understood he didn't want to talk. Is it just a rule to not talk to strangers on planes if you were by yourself? I'm going on another flight very soon to Miami for a bachelor party. So again, I will be pumped already. Do I just need to shut up on my next flight and just accept that this isn't a thing? Or did I just have a weird run in? Love the show.

Kyle, you want to take this one first this one might be the easiest one we've ever had to answer totally i'm always on my on flights by myself especially if it's like a work thing bill and i absolutely never sit in the same section of the plane um so i'm no i don't ever i would shrug you off too. I mean, it's just weird. Most people don't want to talk to anybody on the plane. It's what we're trying to tell our emailer here. So no, this isn't some weird random one-off. Like you just, at 25, you started flying. Although, you know, look, I, I didn't fly very much until, I think the only flight I, first flight I ever took, I think I was like 17.

And then I don't think I flew again until I was in my twenties. But yeah, nobody wants to talk to anybody dude there you go bring a book gotta take your headphones out wait sorry what'd you say oh yeah you're talking about twitter okay yeah oh that's uh hey that's uh is that the is that mission impossible that cruise huh he does his own stunts you know that i mean look i'm not gonna lie a few of us have probably had a few pops on a flight where you know as soon as you land wherever you land you're just going to bed anyway and guys start just chatting it up like crazy but you know same time you follow woge me too yeah well do you see that what do you think what do you think

hardens hamstrings gonna be like yeah it's just most people aren't gonna want to talk to you they're just not i mean i would it seems great that you want to meet strangers and you want to engage but i would not go into i would temper your expectations of strangers wanting to chat with you for four hours it just doesn't it really the way it works. I also kind of feel like the airport is not the place that you want to meet strangers or a plane in general. Airport bar, though. That's fair game. That's funny.

You're like, let's spin the roulette wheel on this and see what happens at the airport bar. That's a good call. Total wild card scene there. Could be great. Could be terrible. But then if the guy likes you, you're kind of stuck talking to him or whatever. He might follow you around yeah you never know i mean the weird thing too is like you'll roll through a big big airport and then you just see like international guys crushing heinekens at 8 a.m and you're like well those guys are in such a weird different deal

it's like and then they're you know guys get rowdy and you're like do you want to hang out with them you're like well no it's you know other people have stuff to do here. All right. Uh, bar ethics question, five, 10, one 70. Luckily with flexible body type, depending on the diet. Okay. This guy's flexible. Everyone. I just wrapped up my second year of law school. I want to get your take on some events that happened last week when I went out with the core guys to celebrate the end of our finals. I was running late to dinner and arrived while everyone was already ordering. The waitress asked me if I wanted to make a drink order

before she left the table. To provide some context, the place we were at, brewery, restaurant type, massive tap beer list. So a lot of beers on tap. I didn't want to separate my order from the rest of the group, so I just asked her to bring me whatever was her favorite seasonal beer. This is a movie I pull from time to time, and 99% of the time I end up with a drink I really enjoy that I would have never thought to try. But this night

was different. This night was different. The waitress brings back a really sweet cider that cost $11 for 12 ounces. I thought this was weird since I asked her for her favorite beer and noticed that this drink she brought me was one of the most expensive on the menu. In addition, we were in a small upper Midwest college town where you can easily get a pitcher of domestics for $3. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and didn't complain since she was a sweet girl and everything else about the service was great. But looking back on it, I'm wondering if she grabbed this drink on purpose because she knew it would pump up the bill a bit. As a former bartender, I'm wondering if this is something in common with the industry and I should have confronted her about this or if I'm just overthinking things. Yes, you are fucking overthinking things. Maybe she likes cider. All right. Like it sucks. You spent 11 bucks on a beer that you didn't really like, but there's not some meeting that all of us bartenders had back

in the day where they were like, Hey, make sure like, yes, I'm sure there are people that try to whack your bill on purpose here, but I'm more worried that you wrote an email about it. That's why I even answered it. I'm, I'm worried that you were like thinking about this for a couple of days being like, should I have said, what were you going to say? Hey, do you really like cider? Tell tell me your favorite cider what was your favorite cider prior to this cider and if she slips up you're like it was 11 bucks you just said you graduated from law school and you only weigh 170 so you probably didn't eat that much so we're good maybe you look like you like white claws dudes like white claws and maybe that's not a huge stress a stretch that it oh cider. Oh, wow. Kyle just made it personal.

No, I'm just saying, like, there's a lot of dudes that I went to high school with. I'm not, like, super close with, but I see them on the gram, and they all are drinking White Claws. Like, I thought it was a joke, but, like, dudes like White Claws. And if it's not a stretch, then maybe you would like a cider if you love White Claws. So, I don't know. Maybe you just don't look like an IPA guy. Ryan, I'm surprised that you see— I'm surprised you don't think there's something weird going on here like i clearly an 11 cider that to me is an upcharge they're trying to if you ask them what the deal is i thought no

no i'm surprised that you don't think that way because that i don't know maybe i'm like you would think me yeah so you think i would have back in the day been a guy that would just start up charging people when I was bartending I think you would be the guy who would think somebody else was up charging them you would be in your head about it I don't think you would do that as a bartender you're not a dick like that but I think you would think someone else would do that you're a dick in a completely different way uh no confrontational like last night I ordered some food and guess what they did they just ate ate it on me. Never brought it, ate the food and then took a picture. I got sent a black tile because I was like, what do you mean? The food never showed up. And then it was like, they sent me a picture of the food being dropped off and it was just a black tile. I don't know. I think they actually just took my food and ate it. I don't know. I think they actually just took my food and ate it. And I was definitely confrontational last night, but there was only so far the confrontation can go because we all know after my tech rant the other day is that no one actually works at any of the companies. They just, they just, the company exists. It's valued at billions. And then that's it. Sorry. Nobody works at any of this stuff we just we go to panels all right so um i think even if you were like okay why did i get the 11 cider what maybe she just liked the cider maybe she

liked cider now the emailer may not even want to listen to the show anymore and he's mad because he feels like he's he's hearing it fly from all sorts of different directions yes you're right like i'll i'll be confrontational when i hey, I think I'm getting screwed over here. I don't think this reaches to that element. You told her whatever you want or whatever you think is good. It could be possible that Waitress really likes cider. Who knows? She might have thought you were cool.

Cool as hell. If you go in there again, you might have something, a real icebreaker. You could say like, hey, didn't like that cider. Ha ha. Just kidding. What's up? What's your handle? You know what I'm saying?

Like there's all sorts of, you know, I always look at it that way. Sometimes it's like whatever. I don't even know why I'm going down this road. All right, let's, let's bring us back onto the road that you've been thinking of. I, I saw this as the emailer going, I got charged $11 for cider. I'm firing it off an email and I need to share this with people. And I would think there's probably other stuff

that's going to happen that would... Maybe this guy's life is awesome and this is the worst thing that's happened in like two years. He's like, I got to get this off my chest. Good for him, dude. You would say something. You would look at the Bill sruti and go no

no i'm not comfortable i so i know people in my life that have problems and aren't afraid to say something to waiters and waitresses and those are i can't stand being around those people they make me uncomfortable i would i would eat something that was terrible before i said something at a restaurant no kidding yeah because i'll remember, I think of one of my lows in Connecticut towards the end, I went to not a great Bertucci's. I think they can have some, I think some variants in there. And I, I forget what I ordered. I don't, but I'm, I'm just not going to be any more specific than I already was. Cause you never know. And the bartender, I was sitting there, I think I had like an Indians twins game on. There was like nothing else on sitting there

by myself eating some Bertucci's. The bartender's like, how i think i had like an indians twins game on there was like nothing else on sitting there by myself eating some patucci's the bartender's like how'd it go i go you know if i'm going to be honest it was it's pretty bad it's pretty bad all around and he was like yeah okay he said okay he's like he's like i'm not you know this isn't i'm not going to be here long term so okay john taft is about two weeks away from walking through those doors if something's terrible and i go yeah that just wasn't that good and they're like no we'll take it off i go no no no i ordered it and it wasn't that good and like unless it was just i'm not doing it to get it off the bill i'll just i don't lie about it anymore i'll just go yeah that wasn't that wasn't very good you're doing it to help the next guy right just so just so they know hey this is a little bit salty you might want to check that i'm trying to just people

helping people i don't know i just stopped i just came to the realization in that moment that night and there was probably other stuff going on where i was kind of like what are you doing what's going on you'll be doing this for like 20 years watching an al central game at bertucci's by yourself 50 something years old and i the guy was like how was it like it wasn't yeah wasn't great wasn't very good didn't go well and he's just he's just looking at me like what the who the fuck is this guy i was like yeah all right he's like what do you yeah you want me to take the meatballs off no no no no it was i ordered them not looking for a discount not looking for any help i'm even going to leave a tip i shouldn't leave i'm even going to tip you more than i should that's how stupid i am i'm going to come here

through the routine i'm going to order stuff i think is questionable to begin with i even going to tip you more than I should. That's how stupid I am. I'm going to come here through the routine. I'm going to order stuff I think is questionable to begin with. I'm going to eat it all. And then I'm going to tell you it wasn't good. And then I'm going to pay full price and tip you more than most people would tip you. So I'll be on my way with my printed out hoops hype rumors notes. Oh, you know what? The other lesson could be here

don't let the waitress or bartender order for you you know have a loose a loose idea yeah yeah yeah like kyle have you ever shown up to a bar in the last 15 years where you didn't know what you wanted not where i didn't know what i wanted um i've done that thing and then felt like a complete asshole like a complete asshole like a second after and the guy was like okay yeah i'll go make you my favorite drink and it's like and then you said something about it like a year after i did it yeah i was like oh i hate myself even more so i'll never don't do that no bartenders are like you know what i love is when it's really busy and a guy shows up and he's like, any house specials or, uh, Hey, make some shots.

What kind of shots do you want? I don't know, man. Dealer's choice. And then you're just like, just pick one. This isn't your first night. I think I said like something with whiskey and I was just like, it plays on a loop in my head now that I think about it. I'm never going to do it again.

Okay. But you learned but you learned you learned you didn't know like these are all the things we're all just trying to help out with each other have you ever done that surdy where you go whatever man whatever's good uh yeah like if i but i won't do it right off the bat if i trust it was a good vibe with the waiter or waitress and i feel yeah there you go my speed i'll be like all right yeah give me a wild card deal and not when it's busy though like i'm not gonna be like hey do you have or you know organic or shot in the background when there's like you know five people deep at

the bar like that's a ridiculous move to make kyle did you hear that term how fancy does saruti just sound or shot love or shot right over my head what is that like a wine no it's like uh it's like an almond extract that you put in drinks they're in my ties wow very good you learn something every day thing i wouldn't ask that at a regular bar. That's a ridiculous thing to do. Kyle, you ever steal a bottle of Frangelico? Kind of the same family. Unless I was lying around at some house party in college, I don't think I've ever swiped it. You may have stolen a bottle of Frangelico

and you didn't even know that you did. Yeah. So, all right. I think we covered it. That was a good day. Good session, guys. Have a great weekend. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com. Thank you.