Ryen Russillo, Week 18 Picks And Antonio Brown Drama

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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take, week 18 preview and picks. The drive to the 405 is coming down to it.
We'll break it all down. We'll give you our picks.

Speaker 1 We'll talk a little bit about Antonio buck saga we have ryan rasillo on the show our good friend ryan rosillo we talk nba we talk college football we talk everything great interview over an hour long with ryan rascillo because he's the best uh and we also have fire fest of the week and we are brought to you by our friends at chevy when cool creamy ranch meets tangy bold buffalo the hole is greater than the sum of its sauce say howdy partner to new buffalo ranch sauce only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 2 At participating, McDonald's.

Speaker 2 Now in the street, there is violence,

Speaker 2 and then a lot of

Speaker 2 work to be done.

Speaker 2 No place to hang out or washing.

Speaker 2 And then I can't blame all on the sun. Oh no, we're gonna rock it down to Electric Avenue.

Speaker 2 And then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 2 Oh, we're gonna rock it down to Elan Trick Avenue.

Speaker 6 It's part of my take.

Speaker 1 There's another part to sports.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Part of My Take presented by Chevy, the all-brand new Chevy All-Electric Silverado is coming out. The ZR2.
Check it out. It's going to be awesome.
Today is Friday, January 7th,

Speaker 1 and it is week 18, the first ever week 18, and it's coming down to it. The drive to the 405, which also might be the drive to Dallas-Fort Worth, is coming down to it.

Speaker 1 And we're going to do our picks and preview. How we doing, boys? Are we feeling like it might be in Dallas now?

Speaker 2 Well, so here's the general vibe of the studio. Big Cat's in Chicago right now, but Billy has already taken Big Cat's seat on the other end of the table here.

Speaker 2 So he's kind of breaking in the ass groove for himself later. But Big Cat, there is a palpable bit of nervousness in the studio today.
There are nerves because these picks mean something.

Speaker 2 Hank said that he changed his picks like four times, and he's never done that before. So people here are deep inside their own heads.

Speaker 1 So let's recap real quick because it's been a season-long competition. So if you miss it at any point, we'll recap it for everyone.
The deal is this.

Speaker 1 Every single week, All six of us have picked four games. A favorite, an underdog, an over, and an under.

Speaker 1 The rule was that the last-placed person and the second-placed person have to drive from New York City to LA for the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 We are now facing week 18, and everyone is still alive to potentially drive. So, the standings are as such.
I'm going to do it by points because it's easier this way.

Speaker 1 PFT and Hank are tied at first for 40.5 points. Pushes are

Speaker 1 pushes a half point.

Speaker 1 Jake is in second with 37 points.

Speaker 1 Myself and Liam, we are tied for third with 35.5 points. And Billy is in last with 33.5 points.

Speaker 1 So everyone, depending on week 18, could potentially, like, obviously PFT and Hank can't finish last, but both of them can finish second.

Speaker 1 I can't finish first, but I could finish last. So everyone is, or I couldn't finish second, but I could finish last.

Speaker 1 You got yourself.

Speaker 4 You're Steelers. You're a half ahead of Liam.

Speaker 2 You're Monday Night Steelers.

Speaker 1 Okay. So what am I now?

Speaker 4 So you're four games behind PFT and Hanks. So technically you can still tie for second.

Speaker 1 Okay, so yeah, there it is. It's chaos.
It's chaos with everyone's picks. We had memes.
Everyone protected memes separately.

Speaker 1 So there's no funny business going on because we know that Billy would cheat if he could figure it out.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 it's definitely tense right now because I think, facing it, people don't really want to travel.

Speaker 1 all the way across country in a few days and maybe go to Dallas too, which makes the drive significantly less fun.

Speaker 2 I mean, Dallas would be a lot of fun to make the road trip down there, hit up Nashville, maybe stop on Bourbon Street, hit New Orleans on the way. That's pretty sick.
Yeah, Billy's right. It is sick.

Speaker 2 Also, fair warning to you, Big Cap. Billy said that he's in danger of having all four of his picks be correct this week.
Oh, feels like he just went 4-0.

Speaker 1 Also, PFT was trying to get me to spoil.

Speaker 1 He came up to me at the office earlier when I came in and was like, hey, Hank, I submitted my picks already, so you can tell me what yours are.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Nice try.
And Hank was like, like, Hank correctly said that's cap. I was cap.

Speaker 1 Nice try.

Speaker 1 It will be, though, it's going to be exciting.

Speaker 1 It's going to come down to it. We've all submitted our picks.
Before we do our picks, should we talk a little bit about AB and the recent news?

Speaker 1 So Antonio Brown obviously came out today or yesterday and said that he was injured. No, he was hurt, not injured.
And Bruce Arians cut him on the sideline because he was hurt and refused to play.

Speaker 2 No, no, no, he was injured. And then Bruce Arians told him that he was hurt.

Speaker 1 Hurt, right? Not injured. Right.

Speaker 2 And then Bruce Arians cut him and did the throat slash to him allegedly on the sidelines. Also,

Speaker 2 I was reading some of the screenshots that A.B. put on Twitter or on his Instagram story this morning.
He said

Speaker 2 the screenshot was a text from Bruce Arians. And it said, hey, Antonio Brown, what's up? This is B.A.
here. Before he...

Speaker 2 proceeded to say like how are we feeling Antonio Brown was like I hurt my ankle I think I'm gonna give it a go coach I just want to to do whatever it takes to be ready for the team.

Speaker 2 And many people are saying that that wasn't a real screenshot from Antonio Brown and Bruce Aarons. Antonio Brown doctored it.
I just want to say I stand with A.B.

Speaker 2 I don't think that he's done anything in the past that would indicate to us that he would make up something like this. So we freed A.B.

Speaker 2 He got released today. The big question is like,

Speaker 2 is anyone going to actually sign? Antonio Brown?

Speaker 1 Is that a possibility? The Cowboys will sign him for my future.

Speaker 1 What about the Chiefs?

Speaker 1 I do have to give Antonio Brown credit. Who knows where the truth is in this one?

Speaker 1 I tweeted out earlier, but I think the truth is probably Antonio Brown and Bruce Arians are both assholes. Like, that might be the truth because it seems like a lot of people

Speaker 1 are taking the side of Antonio Brown because you have to take the side of player safety.

Speaker 1 Then you have people like Stephen Che that are bootlickers and essentially saying the Bucs could never do any wrong and putting out facts that don't prove anything whatsoever. I think

Speaker 1 the truth is somewhere in the middle here. Bruce Arians never wanted Antonio Brown on the Bucs.
That was Tom Brady's idea. So

Speaker 1 it's not totally unbelievable that Bruce Arians would be like, you're out of here because you won't go back in the game.

Speaker 1 And also Antonio Brown, let's just say he hasn't been like maybe the model citizen in terms of teammate and dependability on the football field. You know, what that's the fake factor

Speaker 2 that told you that, big cat.

Speaker 1 But isn't it crazy? Like you have to pick a side here. It's like, no, I think they probably are both just kind of jerks.

Speaker 2 I think there's a very high likelihood that Antonio Brown came back from his ankle injury, played a couple weeks ago against the Panthers, played really well, and over the course of an NFL game, maybe tweaked that ankle again.

Speaker 2 And so at halftime at the Jets game, they were getting their ass kicked. He was probably pissed off.
He wasn't getting the ball much. And he probably said, like, feed me the fucking ball.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 And there might have been somebody in the locker room that was like, hey, shut up. And then they get to the sideline.
He just quits.

Speaker 2 I think that might be like, he's probably not 100% on that ankle. That part, I don't think, is, you can't say like, you're not injured because he definitely had a significant ankle injury.
Correct.

Speaker 2 Probably tweaked it again.

Speaker 2 I thought the funniest screenshot that he posted, though, was in his text with Alex Guerrero, the TB12 guy. So he put this online too.

Speaker 2 He said, hey, Alex, if we're not going to work anymore, that's fine. Let me know about the $100,000 I paid you.
Only fair to get back half my money. Let me know how to proceed.

Speaker 2 First of all, shout out to Alex Guerrero for getting cash from Antonio Brown and not just like relying on him to pay the bill after the fact.

Speaker 2 But then the reply from Alex Guerrero was very funny because he was like, Antonio Brown is a million percent going to put this reply on social media at some point. Right.
And here's his reply.

Speaker 2 Good morning, AB. I appreciate you reaching out to me.
I completely understand that you want to go in a different direction. Thank you for the opportunity to work together.
You are a wonderful person.

Speaker 2 I hope for your continued success on and off the field. Please let me know where you want me to send the balance.
Big hugs, my friend.

Speaker 6 There it is.

Speaker 2 He's like, that's going to be read aloud in court one day. And it was.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 The public, court of public opinion read it out loud. And they're like, hey, this is actually the coolest thing Alex Guerrero has ever done.

Speaker 2 Yeah, seems like a good guy. And Antonio Brown also.
tweeted out a screenshot of his

Speaker 2 routing information and account

Speaker 2 at Bank of America. He quickly deleted that.
But yeah, shout out A.B.

Speaker 2 He's the most online wide receiver in the NFL these days, I think.

Speaker 1 Don't you think if he was hurt, though, he would have said something to Danny Boy Hustle Hard?

Speaker 1 Ooh, interesting.

Speaker 2 Well, no, Danny Boy Hustle Hard told us that he's not going to share all the conversations that's true.

Speaker 1 I just, it's but the parts he shared are on the other side. Like, the parts that he did share help the Bucs case and not Antonio Brown's case.

Speaker 2 So why would he do that? So you're saying that Tom Brady, your hero, made a mistake by bringing Antonio Brown in?

Speaker 1 Well, no, I mean, listen, you got, he, like, he took a chance. It didn't work out.
They want a ring. They want a ring.
Yeah, yeah. And that's the thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you could say that it absolutely worked out, but I just find it so funny that there are actually people who are like, A.B. made this entire thing up.

Speaker 1 Like, no, Bruce Arians, he said he didn't want Antonio Brown on the team, and then Tom Brady was like, no, I want him on the team. And then he was on the team.
This is Tom Brady's signing.

Speaker 1 This is also why Tom Brady was like, he needs to get help. And we're like, we just care about the person because he knows it's his signing.

Speaker 1 And AB also has not been completely dependable in terms of the fake vax card and the fact that he just ran off. Who knows? Like,

Speaker 1 I'm ruling it both might just be a little bit of assholes, and it was going to end poorly either way.

Speaker 2 What if he goes back to the Steelers for Big Ben's last game?

Speaker 4 That would be cool.

Speaker 2 Get the band back together.

Speaker 1 That would be cool. That would be awesome.

Speaker 2 Also, it just wouldn't be fair if he went to the Chiefs. I hope he doesn't go to the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 I don't think he'll go to the Chiefs. I mean, I don't think.
I don't think he's going anywhere. Yeah, I don't think he's going anywhere.

Speaker 1 The only reason I said the Cowboys is because Jerry Jones definitely has the stomach for,

Speaker 1 like, Jerry Jones would see this and be like, I wish I was getting all these headlines, good or bad. People are talking about the Bucs today.

Speaker 1 So I also appreciated Bruce Arians in his press conference because there was a claim that Bruce Arians did a throat slash to AB.

Speaker 1 And then he mimicked it in his press conference. He's like, does this look like a throat slash? And he went across his neck and pointed out.
Like, no, I was telling him to get out, get off the field.

Speaker 1 I was like, yeah, but that is across your neck. But yeah, I guess that's how we get a he said, he said thing.

Speaker 2 Maybe he was loosening up that chest device that he wears.

Speaker 2 If I was Bruce Arians, I would always be like around my neck trying to fiddle with

Speaker 2 the tightness of that weird strap that he has on his chest.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't think Antonio Brown would be back on an NFL team. I guess you could never say never.
Maybe. Actually, you know, the most likely team he could be back on is probably the Bucs.

Speaker 1 If Tom Brady just said it to Bruce Arians next year, like,

Speaker 1 hey, we need Antonio Brown.

Speaker 2 It's really changed this offseason.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he runs that organization. I don't think that's unfair to say, and it's not unfair for the Bucs to let Tom Brady run that organization.

Speaker 1 But this was Tom Brady's decision, and that's why it makes sense that Bruce Arians and Antonio Brown never really got along.

Speaker 2 I also respect Antonio Brown's commitment to playing his song on all of his Instagram stories to try to get that, try to get as much exposure for the pit to the palace.

Speaker 2 I'm starting to sing along to it. Like, that song's been stuck in my head all day.
It's pretty good.

Speaker 2 I worked out to it. And he's pretty good.

Speaker 2 He's hoping it took the palace.

Speaker 1 He's hoping it becomes a new, like, everyone uses this for their Instagram story when they're hiking in some mountains.

Speaker 2 Yeah, from the Pit to the Palace, baby.

Speaker 2 He's going gremlin mode.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right, let's do some picks.
Let's do some picks. So, are we ready? Is everyone feel good?

Speaker 2 I feel great.

Speaker 1 It will be very interesting if we share picks because it will change the course of Sunday. Hank

Speaker 1 as always or Saturday. Hank, as always, would you like to start with your favorite?

Speaker 2 Hank's eyeing me down right now.

Speaker 1 I do. Well, it's tough because you're wearing sunglasses, so I can't really get a read on you.

Speaker 2 I mean, the die has been cast already, Hank. You can't change anything.

Speaker 1 I know. I'm just like trying to get a read.
I'm just trying to get

Speaker 1 any edge I can get.

Speaker 2 All you need to know is I'm also going gremlin mode, so fair warning.

Speaker 1 My My first game is Saturday night. Good.

Speaker 1 And the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys minus five is my favorite.
Four and a half.

Speaker 1 Four and a half.

Speaker 1 I don't hate it. It does feel like the Eagles are going to sit a bunch of guys,

Speaker 1 and it feels like the Cowboys want to win because they don't want to go in on a two-game losing streak in a bad note. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 What do you think of the Cowboys?

Speaker 1 Artner Minshew, maybe?

Speaker 1 I mean, I'm not going to lie. I'll be perfectly honest with you.
I I don't think I've really shared a lot of what goes into my picks for this. And to be honest with you, I didn't.

Speaker 1 This is where I've been second-guessing myself. And it's too late.
My picks are submitted. They've been changed.

Speaker 1 I did what I usually do is just go through the board once, write down my picks. I did that last night because

Speaker 1 I've been thinking about this.

Speaker 1 Then today, before the show, I was like, fuck. Let me double-check these picks.
Started second-guessing everything. Went on a website that shows you where the public money is on.

Speaker 1 And the most public money is on the Eagles, so I picked the Dallas.

Speaker 2 I would be worried if Garder Minchi is playing. Yeah, Garder Minchi wins this game.

Speaker 1 Because he's playing for his future.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and also he just, he's awesome.

Speaker 1 But he might be a pick machine.

Speaker 2 He might be a machine.

Speaker 2 He might be a pick machine. Now, is this pick one of the...
You're saying it wasn't your original favorite, right? What was your original favorite? Would you switch from?

Speaker 1 I think the Cardinals.

Speaker 2 Because we should also track Hank's potential picks.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 His original picks.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Yeah, the original picks just to see what you could have done.

Speaker 1 You have Cowboys. Yeah, this game,

Speaker 1 the Cowboys don't, I mean, they obviously could potentially get as high as a second seed. It would take the Rams and the Bucs to lose.
I don't think that's going to happen. So

Speaker 1 they also are in a spot where they don't want to get guys injured. I don't know.
Weird. It sucks that we have this week 18.

Speaker 1 And there's only a few games that really matter. There's only one game that truly matters.
And then the other games are kind of through seeding and stuff.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and we did find out for the game that truly does matter, the Sunday night game between the Chargers and the Raiders, the teams are not going to do the kneel-downs.

Speaker 1 They're not going to do that.

Speaker 2 I didn't think that was going to happen,

Speaker 2 but

Speaker 2 it's not soccer. You can do that in soccer.
That's why they switched up

Speaker 2 the last round of games for the group stage in the World Cup where teams have to play at the same time. Because you can just pass the ball back and forth amongst your fullbacks and get away with it.

Speaker 2 In the NFL, there's always going to be a couple guys that really try.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they might break my touchdown. Yeah.
My original favorite was the Patriots, but I didn't want to do a double-loser situation.

Speaker 1 Ah, okay. All right.
So, Liam, your favorite? Mine is the Patriots.

Speaker 1 Mine is six and a half, I believe?

Speaker 1 Yes, minus six and a half.

Speaker 2 Are you a little bit worried about that? Or is the Dolphins? Something funny always happens between the Patriots and the Dolphins. Yep.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's why I took it. Oh.
Because I didn't like it. Okay.

Speaker 1 Because there always is. Yeah, there always is something weird that happens at the end of the season with them.
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 PFT.

Speaker 2 I got the Rams minus four.

Speaker 2 Took the Rams minus four against the 49ers.

Speaker 1 So close to doing it. Four and a half.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 Why didn't you do it, Hank? Why don't you pull the trigger, coward?

Speaker 1 I wrote that down, and then I went to the website, and I was like, if the Rams have a higher percentage, I'll do the Rams. But they didn't.

Speaker 1 So you're under the idea that Trey Lance just is bad?

Speaker 2 I'm under the idea that, I mean, the Rams have the 49ers number. This seems like an easy pick to lose.

Speaker 1 No, isn't it the other way around? The other way around. Yeah, I'm not sure.
No, you're trying to go. You're trying to.
You're trying to lose.

Speaker 2 As I explained last week, yes.

Speaker 1 Okay, that makes it fun. So far.

Speaker 2 Four and a half.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Rams minus four and a half, I guess, is my pick.

Speaker 1 So you're trying to lose all your picks today.

Speaker 2 This week and last week, as I explained on last week's show.

Speaker 1 You're trying to lose so that you can drive.

Speaker 2 I did pretty good last week. I ended up going one and three.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 We don't need to do the conversation again, but it's not fun when the whole competition comes down to people trying to intentionally lose.

Speaker 1 Next year, we have to figure out something that has no upside whatsoever, so we avoid this.

Speaker 2 I don't know why you're upset that I want to go on a road trip.

Speaker 1 We've done this conversation a million times. I'm not upset you want to go on a road trip.
I'm upset that we did a competition that was supposed to be punishment that the viewers wanted to listen to.

Speaker 1 And then in the last two weeks, you're like, I want to lose.

Speaker 2 There's so much chaos that goes into these last two weeks. Even if you were trying to lose this competition, you really couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 Right, but you did.

Speaker 2 We're not good enough at gambling to be able to

Speaker 1 lose.

Speaker 1 Okay, Billy, or I'll go with my favorite. I'm taking the Bucs minus eight.

Speaker 1 Not only is there so much controversy going around, Tom Brady riding the ship. Also, Tom Brady can get the passing record with 488 yards, I want to think, I want to say.

Speaker 1 So he's definitely going to try to get that. So Bucs minus eight.
It feels like he'll just keep trying to throw late,

Speaker 1 even if it's a blowout, to try to get that record.

Speaker 2 How many more records can Tom Brady possibly get? He gets so many records. He's collected all of them.

Speaker 1 Yes, he has.

Speaker 1 Billy.

Speaker 2 Chargers by two and a half.

Speaker 1 Is it still two and a half?

Speaker 1 Three. Oh.
Three.

Speaker 1 All right. Wait.

Speaker 1 Try to buy that half point. Try to buy that half point.

Speaker 2 I don't know. No, this one is just like, this is the only real game on the schedule.
So I was like, where it's not like these guys are competing to get into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 So you don't think it's going to come down to like a field goal, you know, a one-point win because they're so close.

Speaker 2 Yeah, well, now it's three. I'm sort of like, because they're like in a push.
That's fucked.

Speaker 2 I don't know. I'm still going with it.
Chargers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you have to. So thank you.
This game is going to be awesome.

Speaker 4 I am going with the Cardinals minus six and a half at home against the Seattle Seahawks. For me, this just comes down to motivation versus no motivation.
Or more motivation, I should say.

Speaker 4 Because the Cardinals want some momentum heading into the playoffs.

Speaker 2 The Chargers, ironically, would kind of rather play on the road for the first round of the playoffs.

Speaker 2 You mean the Cardinals? Sorry, yeah, the Cardinals. Because they stink at the moment.
That's true.

Speaker 1 But a win streak.

Speaker 4 They won last week. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So now we're going with the underdogs. So everyone's got their favorites.
No overlap, which is kind of crazy. Underdogs.
Hey. my underdog.
I'm sure PMT Stats and Info could pull up this stat.

Speaker 1 I've ridden them all year, they've been one of the best covering teams all year.

Speaker 1 They don't care about their record, they're going to be out there fighting and scrapping for every inch, every claw, every nail. Lions plus three and a half.
Yep.

Speaker 1 PFT is going to look like he also did that. No, I did not do that.

Speaker 2 Thank God. I did not take the Lions.
It's a good pick, though.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Jordan Love versus TB12.

Speaker 2 Is it going to be TB12 or is it going to be golf?

Speaker 1 I don't know. Goff, yeah.
Goff syrup.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that game, a game that doesn't matter at all exceptions

Speaker 1 to the Lions and John Campbell. And

Speaker 1 their draft, I looked it up briefly, but I don't think their draft pick can be affected by a winner or loss here. Maybe a loss, they can get one, but if they win, they're not going to

Speaker 1 go from the two to the six, so it doesn't matter if they win. So they're going to want to win.

Speaker 2 Now, do we know that it's going to be Jordan Love? Because Aaron Rodgers, maybe if he plays well enough this week, he might be motivated to go out there and try to get that vote back from Hub.

Speaker 1 Yeah, shout out to Hub Arkish.

Speaker 1 I don't know why Hub Arkish wrote a whole entire blog saying sorry. Aaron Rodgers is a bad guy.
He should be in prison. His voting sounded correct to me.
Sounds like Aaron Rodgers cancel him.

Speaker 1 Aaron Rodgers called him. He pro-cancel culture.
He did.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he canceled Hub.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That's a real shame.
I love that very anti-cancel culture. It was such a great story.
Hub having to then apologize and be like,

Speaker 1 I embarrassed all the other voters. It's like, no, dude, like, you should vote for whoever you want.

Speaker 6 Maybe you shouldn't.

Speaker 1 No, you know what? Aaron Road is a bad guy. He should be in prison.
Good on you, Hub. All right.

Speaker 1 Liam, your underdog.

Speaker 1 I took the 49ers plus four and a half. Okay.
Or is it four or four and a half?

Speaker 2 Yeah, what'd we get on that one?

Speaker 4 Four and a half. So you're head to head with PFT.

Speaker 1 Okay. Okay.
Yeah, I don't know. They just have their number.
Yep.

Speaker 1 All right, PFT, pick you try to lose.

Speaker 1 My underdog

Speaker 2 is the Jets. I got the Jets plus 16.
These guys get paid to play 16.5, even better. These guys get paid to play football, too.
They're professionals. The Jets.
They might win.

Speaker 2 The Jets might win outright.

Speaker 1 I'll be pulling for the Jets.

Speaker 2 This is also my underdog, and it's going to be a statement game. I've rode the Jets, I think now it's going to be 11 times

Speaker 1 every week.

Speaker 2 And they've taken me to the bottom. So they're either going to take me, you know, get me out of this or send me off with another letdown.

Speaker 2 But 16.5 is a lot of points, and we saw how they played last week.

Speaker 4 They're electric.

Speaker 2 They're gearing up for an awesome rebuilding offseason and coming out strong for week one against the Bills, where they're definitely going to shellac them.

Speaker 2 Are you sure that they don't want to put too much tape out there for the Bills to know how they're going to play them in week one of next year? It's going to be a totally different team by then.

Speaker 1 We're, you know,

Speaker 2 burning the ships, going after it.

Speaker 1 I was so close to taking that just because I I knew you were going to, but I don't.

Speaker 2 I knew Billy was going to take it, too.

Speaker 1 He's like, that's a lot of points.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Billy's mind says if the Jets are underdogs, I'm going to bet them. Yes.
And this is like close to 20 points they're giving him.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, it's 16 and a half. Still got to go over 17 to get to 20.

Speaker 1 Close to 20. We'll get there.

Speaker 1 All right, my underdog, I'm going with the Raiders plus three, so I'm going up against Billy on that one. I don't know why.

Speaker 1 I just think Derek Carr, I just had a vision that Derek Carr is going to have a big, big throw laid against the Chargers on Sunday night and like that interview after where Derek Carr could basically say, you know, everyone counted this out.

Speaker 1 We had so much adversity and everyone just starts, you know, fawning over Derek Carr and what an incredible season, Rich Pesicia. That's in my vision board.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're going to get make or break with like a fourth down conversion. A few fourth down

Speaker 1 conversions by the Chargers because if they convert them, they might go up 20, but if they don't, then they should be up 20 and they're down 10. Right.

Speaker 2 And they're definitely going to try to go for it on fourth down because you can't beat the Raiders. These aren't the Broncos.
You need touchdowns to beat them. You remember last year's game?

Speaker 2 I think it was a Thursday night game? The Chargers and the Raiders. This game kicked ass.
I'm hoping that this game is like 50% as cool as that game was.

Speaker 1 Yes, that was a cool game.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 Jake, finish us off with your underdog.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm taking the Houston Texans plus 10 at home against the Tennessee Titans a couple of weeks ago. They were big dogs at home to the Chargers, and they won outright.

Speaker 4 So maybe another win to close it out.

Speaker 1 They've beaten the Titans before. Even though the Titans are playing for the one seed, they've beaten them before.
So not a good pick. Mills Mafia.

Speaker 2 There was an article that came out today about Deshaun Watson. Apparently, his trade value has gone way up over the course of the season.
So at the trade deadline,

Speaker 2 it was rumored that the Dolphins, I think, were trying to ship...

Speaker 2 either two or three first-round picks to Houston, but they wanted some guarantee about the legal matters that Deshaun was going through

Speaker 2 that they would be resolved or that it wouldn't have an impact on those picks. But apparently now there's multiple teams that are very, very interested in

Speaker 2 trading for Deshaun Watson this offseason.

Speaker 2 So that's going to be just like looming out there for months at a time, I think, because I don't think we're any closer to resolution on the legal matters, are we?

Speaker 1 No, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 We haven't heard, so who knows? Who knows at this point?

Speaker 2 Last I heard from Florio, I think he was saying it's going to take two years to sort this whole thing out.

Speaker 2 But a year of sucking at football for most NFL franchises is enough to overlook whatever fucked up thing you're accused of.

Speaker 1 Yes, there's a lot of teams that could potentially want Deshaun Watson this offseason.

Speaker 1 Okay, you're over, Hank. I will be betting the Jets plus 16.5.
I will be rooting for the Jets.

Speaker 1 And another way to root for that is taking the over 41.5 in this game. If the Jets are going to win,

Speaker 1 you assume that that over is going to hit, right? That's just logic. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, sure. Why not?

Speaker 2 Walk me through that.

Speaker 1 Jets win.

Speaker 1 It's Zach Wilson off-platform bombs. Got it.
If the Jets can score like 14 points, then that's going to cover because the Jets will, the Bills will either blow them out.

Speaker 1 This is just, this is a Jets bet. This is a pro Jets bet.
If the Jets score one or two times, this can cover. Okay.

Speaker 1 41.5 is what you said? Yeah. All right.
Still there. Okay, Liam, you're over.

Speaker 1 I have Eagles Cowboys over 42.5. Saturday night.
I had that. That was my first over as well.
Keep that. Gardner Minshew.
Yeah, no, no. I saw Saturday night.

Speaker 1 43. This feels like points.

Speaker 2 This does feel like the perfect game for Gordon Minshew to go off in.

Speaker 2 A statement game for him where he's like, yeah, I deserve to be paid a lot of money.

Speaker 1 But I also think the Cowboys, like, they want to... not be losing going into the playoffs.
I mean, obviously they don't want to be losing. That was dumb.
But get a win before.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 And the NFC Beast. Yeah, have some momentum going.

Speaker 1 All right, PFT, you're over.

Speaker 2 I got Colts Jags, 44, taking the over on that one.

Speaker 1 Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 1 Trevor Lawrence. Because you want to lose?

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, I could explain why I took this when I'm trying to lose, but I've already said, like, I want to, just like last week, I want to miss all these picks. So

Speaker 2 feel free to fade me. I'm taking the over, though.
Colts Jags, 44 points.

Speaker 1 Okay, Billy, you're over.

Speaker 2 The Please Don't Fire Me game, Bears, Vikings, 44.5. The coaches are going to try to fight.

Speaker 1 Both guys probably getting fired. Yeah.
But

Speaker 2 they try to keep their jobs with the statement. I don't know if they put up points.
I don't think Mike Zimmer wants to be coaching the Vikings next year.

Speaker 1 I think I saw Justin Fields went into COVID protocol, but there was a moment there where Matt Nagy could have made a first where Justin Fields was named the starter.

Speaker 1 And if Matt Nagy had won that game this game Sunday, he would have been the first coach ever to win three straight games with three different starters. Wow.
Which would have been hilarious. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Greatest coach ever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 Like, you don't see that. In the NFL, it's all about the quarterback position.
Matt Naggy is a guy that can get it done with anyone.

Speaker 1 Three different starters trying to prove it at the last second that he can do it with anyone. Yeah,

Speaker 2 I don't think Mike Zimmer wants to be around next year. So that's where my hesitation with that one would come in.
I think he wants to be fired. He wants to be fired already.
Yeah, he's tired of it.

Speaker 1 He's definitely tired of it. All right, my over.
I'm doing Cardinal Seahawks over 48.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Just a fun game.
And I think Russell Wilson is definitely going to try to get stats. 48.

Speaker 1 Is it not? 48. What is it? 48.

Speaker 1 What did you think it was? He's better.

Speaker 1 What did you think it was? I thought I had 46 written down. Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I just, Russell Wilson's going to try to get stats.

Speaker 1 There's nothing else for the Seahawks to play for besides throwing it deep to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

Speaker 1 Okay, Jake.

Speaker 4 I am with Liam, Dallas, Philadelphia over 43.

Speaker 1 Oh, so it's 43?

Speaker 4 Yes, not 42.5. a half.

Speaker 1 Okay, Saturday night. We got some Saturday night action to start figuring everything out.
All right, we'll wrap up with our unders, Hank.

Speaker 1 This is Card Seahawks. My reasoning is that today I had a different under, and then I was going through with the Barcelon Sports Advisors.
You guys talked about this game.

Speaker 1 Stu gave a very passionate pitch on the under, and I'm riding with him. This is my Stu Feiner under of the year.

Speaker 2 Under of the year.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And you liked it at 46.
You love it at 48. Yeah, that's when you said 48.
I was like, oh, even better.

Speaker 2 So what goes into, are you just like riding Stew on this or are you actually thinking?

Speaker 1 No, that's what I said. I'm all over the place.
I've just been looking for signs in different places.

Speaker 1 And it was one of those things, you know, we go through the show, he makes five picks, there's five different games, and something stuck out with, you know, his, his passion, the way he talked about it.

Speaker 1 It just seemed like he knew something, and I'm riding with him. It's not like he always picks hundreds.
So when he does, you got to take it.

Speaker 2 There's certain games that stick in your head for a while. And the game that sticks in my head with this matchup is, I think it was Monday night football.

Speaker 2 It was a night, maybe Thursday night, a couple years ago when it was like that overtime game that was, I think, 6-9 or something like that, where every team kept missing field goals. Or was it a tie?

Speaker 1 It might have been the tie game.

Speaker 1 Was that last year when Kyler got hurt?

Speaker 2 No, no, this was several years ago where

Speaker 2 you had kickers missing all the short field goals at the end of the game in overtime, too. I think it might have ended up in a tie.

Speaker 2 So even though these two teams can score points, every time I see them matched up, I always think under.

Speaker 1 Love that. Love that for me.
October 23rd, 2016, 6-6 tie.

Speaker 2 There we go. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, you're under Liam. I'm going Giants football team under 38.

Speaker 2 That's also my under.

Speaker 1 Okay. Smart pick.
I think that's. Wait, what's the total? Is it 38? 38.
Does that guarantee that's pretty? Billy loses, basically.

Speaker 4 Billy was two behind Liam, so now Liam would have to lose out and Billy would have to win out. But me and Big Cat are technically, if we go 0-4, we can still catch Billy if he goes 4-0.

Speaker 4 So that's big for Liam, bad for Billy.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 we both have Jets. Because

Speaker 1 if I went 1-3 and you went 3-1,

Speaker 1 you guys both have Jets, too. No, I don't have the Jets.
Oh, no.

Speaker 4 No, Billy and PFT. No, I took the 49ers.

Speaker 2 So if we're doing win probability here for loss probability, Billy is at like 90% that he's going to go.

Speaker 4 Went from like, yeah, it probably made it closer, but it doesn't lock anything in.

Speaker 2 It doesn't lock in, but Billy's like, you're 90%.

Speaker 2 I think if Big Cat goes 0-4 and I go 4-0.

Speaker 1 Yes. Same with me.
I'm screwed.

Speaker 4 You need either me, Liam, or Big Cat to lose every pick, except that one you guys have the same in.

Speaker 2 Could definitely happen.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Absolutely.
All right, PFT, your last one under.

Speaker 2 Bubba, I think that's a good pick, by the way. Football team Giants.
Thank you. This is the clown franchise bowl.

Speaker 2 Which Joe Judge will not do any media calls to address the fact that he called the football team a clown show, which he's correct in, by the way.

Speaker 2 100% correct, but also just kind of ignoring the fact that he has led the Giants to also become a clown franchise. Glennon is not starting.
Jake Fromm is.

Speaker 2 I've been more confident if Glennon was starting on the other, but remember

Speaker 1 Jake Fromm got benched for Mike Glennon. I know.

Speaker 1 Jake Fromm is technically worse than Mike Glennon.

Speaker 2 But how many passing yards did he have the other day?

Speaker 1 Negative 10. Yeah.
He did that cool ball spin. That's definitely why Billy likes him.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, he's also quite liable to get a fumble six against him. True.
Yeah. It just feels like there's going to be some turn.
That's going to be an ugly game.

Speaker 2 Congratulations to anyone that chooses to watch that. I apologize to everybody in the New York metropolitan area that is forced to watch that game on Sunday.
I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 2 My under is going to be Chargers Raiders.

Speaker 2 49.5.

Speaker 2 Is that it? Yeah. 49.5 under Chargers Raiders.

Speaker 1 Means it might all come down to Sunday night. Is that that what it is? It might all come down to Sunday night.

Speaker 2 I actually know. I wasn't thinking about that at all, but that is a fun little addition.

Speaker 1 All right, I'm taking the Packers, Lions under 44.5.

Speaker 1 TB12 versus Jordan Love. Just give me the under.

Speaker 1 And Jake, you're finishing us up.

Speaker 4 Yes, the final pick of the year is going to be Browns. Bengals under 37.5.
I know Burrow's out. I believe Baker's out too, right?

Speaker 2 Mixon, too.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so backups.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's some ugly games on Sunday. Some real ugly games.
Yeah. Good luck betting week 18.

Speaker 2 What do you think is going to happen with Baker this offseason? You think he's going to be traded?

Speaker 1 I think they'll bring him back because his fifth year, like they might as well just roll the dice and see how he performs fifth year because he's already, you know, you have him locked up if you want him to be.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Right?

Speaker 1 Haven't they already offered him? Have they already offered him the fifth year? Didn't they already have to do that?

Speaker 2 I don't know if that's been offered or not yet. I think they might, they probably have until March.

Speaker 2 They exercise quarterback Baker Mayfield's fifth-year option, locking him up with the franchise through 2022.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, because they have to do that earlier. Right, right.
So they'll keep him because what are you going to do?

Speaker 1 I mean, you're not going to be able to trade him, and you might as well see if you can do better.

Speaker 2 I think some teams will make an offer for Baker Mayfield this offseason. I think they'll at least take a couple phone calls.

Speaker 2 They might not do it because you're right, having a guy that has been proven that at least

Speaker 2 he can be good when he's locked in, to have him at that price tag is probably a net benefit for the Browns, no matter what you think about him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 Okay, anything else for week 18? Good luck to everyone. This is a tough week to handicap, to bet, to do everything.
Also, a reminder: if anyone ties, the tiebreaker is those two or even three guys

Speaker 1 go into wild card weekend where they have to pick a spread or total on every single game. So all six games, you have to pick,

Speaker 1 you have to make one pick on every single game. That's the tiebreaker.
And then, if that gets tied together, you have it behind the game.

Speaker 1 So, then total picks, so there's no three and three ties situation.

Speaker 1 Like one game, you have to pick a spread and

Speaker 2 you can still tie if it's seven total picks, though.

Speaker 2 You can both go four and three. If I tie, can I still just go?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 Actually, that's what you guys should have done to fuck me over. Be like, okay, PFT can't go.

Speaker 2 Like, flip it back and forth.

Speaker 1 I said that. I said you'd have to take a flight and do a bunch of delays, and you got upset.

Speaker 2 No, I'm saying, like, have it be, force me to try to win to go.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I'm lost at this point. I thought we'd just do a competition that we had for 16 weeks.
It was going well. It was going well.

Speaker 2 I'm just being honest. That road tripping sounds like a lot of, especially if it's a Dallas, which I actually don't think that the game is going to be played in Dallas.

Speaker 2 I think it's going to probably stay in Los Angeles unless it's a scenario where they like actually can't have the game, can't have fans in the game.

Speaker 2 That's going to be what it takes to move it to Dallas.

Speaker 1 Okay, so should we get to our interview? We've got a great interview with Ryan Rosillo. Great interview, and then we'll do a Fire Fest so we can send everyone on their way.
PFT, you got a quick...

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Speaker 1 Take.

Speaker 1 Okay, Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend. It is Ryan Rosillo.
Been too long. We want to have Ryan on.
We're going to do some NBA preview. We're going to talk a little football as well.

Speaker 1 Go subscribe to the Ryan Rosillo podcast right now. Just so we can give some context, we're going to be running this on Friday.
Today is January 5th. Do you have any big plans for tomorrow, Ryan?

Speaker 6 Well,

Speaker 6 you know.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 first real question.

Speaker 6 I'm going to look at boats.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You're going to join a parade? And we're going to

Speaker 6 single file. All right.

Speaker 1 So we do have you on to talk sports.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. NBA.
Let's start with,

Speaker 1 is anyone beating the Lakers this year?

Speaker 6 Look, I haven't watched any games yet because of football.

Speaker 6 But I'll tell you, just taking in the offseason, there's two things I feel strongly about. And I'll have to go look this up later on.
But I'm not as high in this Lakers team as everybody else is.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 Russell Westbrook, though, I mean, this guy is a generational talent.

Speaker 6 Yeah. I mean, he's a problem.
He's a problem. He's a walking bucket.
We know that.

Speaker 1 In all seriousness with the Lakers, though, because I.

Speaker 6 So we're not doing this for the first time.

Speaker 1 No, we won't do the whole time. Okay, no, we won't.

Speaker 6 I'm just going to see how long we could go.

Speaker 6 You know, I sneaky like the Bulls.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I think DeMar DeRosa is going to be clutch for them.

Speaker 1 All right, real talk. Yeah, real talk.
Lakers, real quick. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's two lines of thinking. One, this team is a mess and it never will fit.
Or two, Anthony Davis is hurt and LeBron's still LeBron, so never bet against them.

Speaker 1 Once the playoffs start, they'll figure it out.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I think both can actually be right, by the way.

Speaker 6 You know, they're one game over 500 now.

Speaker 6 They actually have the same record as the fifth seed, so they're there with Denver and Dallas, just percentage points behind behind as the day of taping this, right? LeBron's been an absolute tear.

Speaker 6 They, like a lot of teams, have had to deal with a bunch of different things. But Anthony Davis, when he played, was arguably like the worst jump shooter in the league.

Speaker 6 Based on how many shots he was taking, where he was taking them from, and the lack of converting them.

Speaker 1 I mean, they were horrible, horrible stats.

Speaker 6 Like there was one stat out of so many guys have taken four attempts, you know, from this distance in the entire league, out of 108, he ranks 108th or something. I mean, they were terrible.

Speaker 6 And I don't know if he put on too much size. It's something Simmons and I have talked about a little bit too, where I feel like everybody called him a pussy last year.

Speaker 6 And he gets, you guys get sick of it. You know, I can't imagine how mad I would be if I were a pro athlete and I turned on TNT and it's like everybody thinks I'm a pussy the whole time.

Speaker 6 So I just feel like, all right, well, now I'm definitely lifting more. And I think he came back and I think the bulk has actually slowed him down and it just didn't work.
So, I mean, I'd ask you this.

Speaker 6 If Anthony Davis were just, you know, moderate levels of Anthony Davis, not a terrible version of him, which is what he's been so far this year, if he were healthy and a decent version of him, isn't that good enough for at least five more wins?

Speaker 6 And that would kind of put him in the four seed spot. All right.

Speaker 6 I don't think any of the teams outside of the top three in Utah, Phoenix, and Golden State, I don't think those three teams are going to get caught by any of the standings behind them.

Speaker 6 But the Westbrook part of this is why I can sound so annoying and repetitive, but it still happened again today. I watched something from ESPN.
It was a former player.

Speaker 6 They were talking about all the great things Russ brings in.

Speaker 6 And I'm just like, how many fucking years do you have to watch this guy do the exact same thing that never leads to winning and think that it's just magically going to work out at some point?

Speaker 6 Like, most of us don't change. And a basketball player that's as stubborn as he is isn't going to change.

Speaker 6 So I liked Westbrook in the offseason to the Lakers for the regular season because LeBron, AD, Mello, the older guys, they were going to need to coast at times. Russell Westbrook's a great energy guy.

Speaker 6 But then in the playoffs, I go, it doesn't make any sense. He doesn't offer up any spacing for A.D.
and LeBron. He's never set a screen in his fucking life.

Speaker 6 And, you know, on top of it now he's even a worse shooter and more turnover-prone than before. So, the Westbrook thing,

Speaker 6 the only way they solve it is by having A.D. and LeBron focus on what they do and hopefully them both being healthy at the end of the year because I still think there's a chance.

Speaker 6 But Westbrook, I don't see basketball-wise how he's involved in that success because he's just not a good fit.

Speaker 1 So, would it have been a better fit if they had gotten someone who's like won a ton in his career and a bunch of rings, like Chris Paul?

Speaker 6 You guys froze.

Speaker 2 Your son.

Speaker 1 You love him like a son.

Speaker 6 Wait a minute. You froze.
You froze.

Speaker 1 No, we actually freeze. I didn't actually freeze.

Speaker 6 No, you did. You froze.
You froze. I got the Chris Paul joke now, though.
Go ahead. Do you want to just tee it up again?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 You love Chris Paul.

Speaker 1 I see comments. My question was: Would the Lakers be in a better spot if they had a guy who has a bunch of rings and a bunch of winning pedigree like Chris Paul?

Speaker 6 Yeah, no, I get that the Westbrook people, because Westbrook can't get out of the first round

Speaker 6 other than the time they beat the Thunder when it was Chris Paul on the other side of it. But Chris Paul, his exits in the playoffs are because of injury, not stubbornness.
All right.

Speaker 6 Go through all the years where he and Blake lost. One of those guys was always hurt.
So when I see a lot of these things about Paul not being able to win, I actually think these things are malleable.

Speaker 6 Like you can go, wait a minute, is this guy not getting out of the first round because of him or is it because of other circumstances? This is not.

Speaker 6 being hypocritical.

Speaker 6 These are just facts. Look them up.
I think that was who was available.

Speaker 2 Westbrook just has a branding problem. If he was in football, they'd call him a gunslinger.
Like, you saw him after the game when he was saying, I'm allowed to turn the ball over.

Speaker 2 It's part of my game. I'm allowed to miss shots.
It's part of my game. I think that

Speaker 2 obviously got taken as a quote that was splashed everywhere. But

Speaker 2 there's some element of truth to it. But it's like, how much, how much can you limit Russell Westbrook being Russell Westbrook? Because if you can even cut that down 20, 30%

Speaker 2 in the playoffs, then he might not, he might be able to figure it out. Who knows?

Speaker 6 No, I already know. The answer is no.

Speaker 6 Why is he just going to, like, this is what's insane to me? And again, PFD, you didn't play in the league, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 We know your story.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 6 But I'm talking about the people that played in the league that still will go on TV being like, ah, you know, you know, little trim here, a little shave here off of this corner.

Speaker 6 Be like, no, this is who he is. And it's what got him to this point because he was a kid that didn't have a lot of offers out of high school.
He was a guy at UCLA.

Speaker 6 They're like, we don't really even know what to do with this guy. And how when he got drafted, I remember talking to Carlissimo about it because he and Presty were arguing.

Speaker 6 Carlissimo wanted them to take Brooke Lopez. And Presti was like, I think we got something like really special, like another level.

Speaker 6 I think Westbrook's the best athlete I've ever seen play basketball, ever. Okay.
I think he's the best athlete I've ever seen play basketball. But there is a...

Speaker 6 There is a buy-in for the 38 minutes that you're out there or whatever that you have to pay attention. And this is why I just laughed because I'm like, I didn't play.

Speaker 6 I didn't coach, but I noticed his shit. And guys that did it for a living can't even see it.
He off the ball in huge spots defensively almost always fucks up. Almost always.

Speaker 6 I could pick the next game they're on.

Speaker 6 I'll just wait until it's close at the end and I'll see him miss somebody in a rotation just because he decides like, nah, I'm just going to spaz out and do this.

Speaker 6 Those mistakes to me are worse than just an ill-advised three or a long two off the side of the backboard.

Speaker 6 So I don't know why anybody thinks it's just going to change because I think unfortunately the curse of Russ is that his personality got him here, but his personality is what prevents him ever finding a way to adapt to the things that are around him.

Speaker 6 And yeah, I'm like, I'm sorry, but when I talk to people about it and they start telling me like how it can all work and a little this, a little that, or LeBron will get him to listen, all this stuff, I don't really want to listen to that person talk about basketball anymore.

Speaker 1 Hmm. Okay, so this interview's over.

Speaker 2 Well, it sounds like, it sounds like Ryan is really mad at somebody in particular.

Speaker 1 Who?

Speaker 2 You got real mad early in the name.

Speaker 1 Big mad.

Speaker 2 Ryan, big mad, when you were like, he's just not going to fucking change, right? Say it.

Speaker 1 Who is it?

Speaker 6 It's everybody. It's everybody that either coached the league or played in the league, and they're afraid to say the truth.

Speaker 6 Because if I'm at home, again, who never played in a game anyone cared about, they can figure out in the Patty Mills thing, be like, why did you just lose Patty Mills in a Switch for no fucking reason?

Speaker 6 It's because you just couldn't help yourself. You're like, I'm going to help.
I'm going to break our assignments.

Speaker 6 I'm just going to, Patty Mills only made like seven threes tonight, and I'll just let him like, that's just, that shit happens every night. It happens multiple times.

Speaker 2 It sounds like he's got ADD.

Speaker 2 Sounds like you're shaming him for a learning disability.

Speaker 6 Well, now I feel bad. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now Now you take it all back. All right.

Speaker 1 Biggest free agent acquisition, Clay Thompson or Kyrie Irving?

Speaker 1 I love whenever we frame guy coming back from injury as, you know, who actually won free agency?

Speaker 6 This is the old Kevin White.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the Warriors. Yeah, the Warriors did because they got Clay back.

Speaker 6 I know, I know. I hate when guys used to do that.
You have a segment built out. They're like, well, the biggest acquisition of the trade deadline is Clay.

Speaker 1 And you're like, all right, cool.

Speaker 6 No one's ever thought of that.

Speaker 1 So tricky way. Yeah, so give us new.

Speaker 1 Who wins more right now? Clay?

Speaker 6 Because Clay, Clay, it's not even close. Clay's a better player, and Clay's more dependable.
And Clay's available for all games, and he's not banned for half of them.

Speaker 2 It's such a funny situation, that's it. It's like, guess what, guys? We're back.
Kyrie's coming back to play with us on a limited basis. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Until he feels like such a time where he can join the team on a full-time basis.

Speaker 2 Until Kyrie Irving is allowed to play in the state of New York, then then I don't know if you can really say he's going to make that much of a difference.

Speaker 6 I think the whole thing is like,

Speaker 6 you know, I mean, Kyrie barely plays full seasons anymore.

Speaker 6 You know,

Speaker 6 he was one of the voices that was like, we should just do our own thing, start our own league guy.

Speaker 6 You know, he's your friend that hangs out at the beach and looks at the horizon and goes, can't believe people think this shit's round.

Speaker 6 You know, and I'm not even talking about his flat earth joke that he then later on, by the way, said was an experiment to try to see how we would react to it, which sounded very much like his vaccination status.

Speaker 6 In that, it wasn't that he was anti-vax, it's that he wanted to be a voice for the voiceless because they were trying to figure out some sort of PR spin.

Speaker 6 As everybody's like, fuck this guy for a couple of weeks. They were like, no, no, actually, we're doing this for the waitresses out there.

Speaker 1 It was like, oh, all right, word.

Speaker 6 Facts.

Speaker 6 I feel bad for Nash in a way, even though, you know, he was kind of gifted a championship caliber team here.

Speaker 6 So you can't feel bad for him there, but this has to be getting old pretty quickly in only his second season. Yeah.
Where, you know, they were like, look, I mean, this is even about the owner, too.

Speaker 6 The owner visited with Kyrie before the season started and said, hey, when you have a championship caliber team, there's some buy-in here that we have to have.

Speaker 6 And so let's talk to you and educate you on everything you need to know so that you're all comfortable. But this needs buy-in from everyone around.
And he was like, nah, fuck that.

Speaker 6 I'm just going to post weird shit on Instagram instead. So when he was available for road games because of the city ordinance, the team's like, no, no.

Speaker 6 So the funny thing is, he's still going to make half of his 33 million because they have to pay him for the games that they've banned him from on the road games, even though he's ineligible for home games.

Speaker 6 All right. So then we're at this point where he returns this week and you go, oh, all right, wait a minute.

Speaker 6 Like Nash and the team are probably like, look, if we have guys that are like borderline G-League players.

Speaker 6 And the whole thing's a mess now with Omicron anyway, we might as well just bring him back and have him be a part of the mess.

Speaker 6 And the thing is, no one Kyrie and his skill set, he'll probably come out and it, you know, it won't matter. And then that team's scary again.
So I think basketball-wise, it makes sense.

Speaker 1 When you were just talking about this, a thought popped in my head.

Speaker 1 What is the link between Kevin Durant and Kyrie? Because on the surface, they do seem like completely opposite people in the fact that I think Kevin Durant is

Speaker 1 the number one

Speaker 1 guy who loves basketball. Anything he ever says, you know, whenever he wants to play all the time, he is truly in love with basketball.

Speaker 1 Even when he's he's like critiquing like 14-year-old kids on Instagram, calling their moves trash. Like that's coming from a place of like love.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 He actually loves the game to a level I think a lot of guys don't. Kyrie, maybe not.
Like he doesn't, he's okay not playing. So how do those two guys, like just on a relationship level, fit?

Speaker 6 It's such a good question, dude. I'm serious.
Like, I think about this.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Don't you love when guys in in interviews and it's like they don't really have an answer and they stall? They're like, great question.

Speaker 2 They're not stalling, though. They're always actually genuinely complimenting their questions.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 It might not happen to you that much, but for us,

Speaker 1 experienced interviewers.

Speaker 2 But it is. It's fascinating.

Speaker 1 I don't know why it took me this long to just think about it. It was you explaining Kyrie, like, not.
playing a lot of full seasons.

Speaker 6 It's because it doesn't make any sense. That's why it's so interesting.
Because you're right. KD is all about hoops.
Hoop all the time. And by the way, we should do something.

Speaker 6 We should all send basketball clips. DM Kevin Durant right now.
Let's make this a thing from now on. If you're just taking jumpers, you're trying to get wet out back, you know, send that.

Speaker 6 DM that video to Kevin Durant and let him know that you love hoop too.

Speaker 1 That's how I initially started talking to him.

Speaker 1 I did an Instagram video. Look at this guy.

Speaker 1 No, I did an Instagram video of a pickup hoops game that I was playing in, and he just, he, out of the clouds, responded in DMs saying, get this trash off my court.

Speaker 1 Wow. So, yeah, he loves hoops.

Speaker 6 He loves hoops, but I think the fact that he even has that in him, like, can you imagine other NBA superstars like taking the time to do something like that?

Speaker 6 And so the fact that he would be like, no, I'm hitching my wagon to Kyrie, it never made any sense while it was happening. Guys that kind of knew the deal with Kyrie.

Speaker 6 And look, I'll tell you this about Kyrie. The guys that really know what's up are actually more like,

Speaker 6 they're less critical because they just want, they hope. They hope he kind of sifts his way through whatever it is that he's going through.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 Like, hey, if you love hoop, and Kyrie's like, oh, man, I love hoop. I love hoop.
How could you ever take this away from me? You know, Rod Strickland, who's his godfather, right?

Speaker 6 Rod Strickland, who was an absolute motherfucker of a guard, all right? He said,

Speaker 6 you know, Kyrie might be the most talented player ever, and people crushed him for it.

Speaker 6 When in fact, like, when you really put all the talent parts of Kyrie together, his handle, his shot making, the difficult shot making that is an acceptable shot for Kyrie, all of the stuff that he can do, wrong foot, wrong hand, all that, like it's actually not crazy to talk about him being actually one of the most gifted basketball skill people that we've ever seen.

Speaker 6 Now, would I want him to be the face of my franchise? Of course not, because you just don't know what you're betting on.

Speaker 6 And the fact that Durant would be like, okay, I'm down for this for like the next four years in my prime championship window or extending my prime championship window never made any sense.

Speaker 6 Now, for people to say, hey, he turned down the most stable thing ever and the most selfless teammate of all time of the superstars and maybe Steph Curry.

Speaker 2 But KD.

Speaker 6 Couldn't fuck with it because it was like, this is all still Steph's. It happened before I got here.
They won the title before me. They played in the finals before I got here.
I got my titles.

Speaker 6 I had fun playing basketball. But if I want my own thing, I got to get away from Steph.
But the fact that he did it with Kyrie, I can't explain it, but people seem to love him.

Speaker 6 Like, ask Blake next time you have him on, not Bortles. But when I ask somebody who's close with Blake Griffin, I go, why is he going to the Nets? He's like, dude, he loves Kyrie.
These guys love him.

Speaker 2 I think if you're that talented at anything, so with Kevin Durant, he's better than everybody, right? He's probably the best player in the NBA right now.

Speaker 1 I agree with that.

Speaker 2 Best player in the world right now. But there are things that Kyrie Irving can do that Kevin Durant cannot do.

Speaker 2 And if you're that good and you see somebody able to do things that even you can't do, even though you're the best, I think there's like an inherent level of respect where you want to be around that guy.

Speaker 6 Yeah, that might be it because there was a clip that was out with the Knuckleheads guys, Darius and Quentin, where they had Durant on and they were asking about like, just what's it like being around Kyrie?

Speaker 6 And Durant couldn't even get his thoughts out clearly. Yeah.
Like he's just shaking his head.

Speaker 6 He's like, man, we'll be doing shit where it isn't like part of the practice where he just goes off and does something on his own. And you look at some of the stuff he does.
So that might be it.

Speaker 6 It might be just being in awe.

Speaker 6 But here's what I would say to Kevin Durant if I were really close with him, you know, prior to the decision, which already happened, but then also influencing whatever decision I make moving forward.

Speaker 6 It's like,

Speaker 6 is this the guy that you want as your number two?

Speaker 6 Or, you know, whatever his ranking would be with the hardened part of it there as well, is hardened still can't get back into shape.

Speaker 6 Like you're...

Speaker 6 You only have so many years left. So at what point will you look at your window saying, I need some guys to ride with that I am

Speaker 6 like 100% sure of where their head is at when it comes to basketball? Because you're right, big cat. Durant, it's never a question about how much he cares about basketball and being part of a team.

Speaker 6 And despite what on paper could be a champion, I still think if the Nets were healthy last year, they would have beat everybody. I don't really know how there's much debate to it.

Speaker 6 So, maybe it still works out despite how frustrating it's been the whole time.

Speaker 6 But I would have to think, Durant, in some private moments, is going, if I have X number of years left in this whole deal, do I still want it to be with guys that don't seem to be as locked in as I am, which I think is a completely fair question to ask and surprising if he never did.

Speaker 2 What about the other big addition that they're going to make in free agency, which is your other favorite player, Joe Harris, the best catch and shoot player in the NBA playoffs for the first two rounds?

Speaker 2 That's going to be a pretty big surprise, right?

Speaker 6 Look, I like Joe Harris going back to college.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, we do too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we've had him on the show.

Speaker 2 I don't want to give you shit for the take that you had about him, but I will say that you might have cursed him last year because ever since you said that he's like the best shooter in the NBA, then he just kind of took a nosedive.

Speaker 2 You sure that was me?

Speaker 6 I wouldn't say anybody's better than Steph.

Speaker 1 We're having you on just to roast your takes, if you haven't figured that out. Oh, all right.
I don't remember Joe Harris. I remember we had Kirk Goldsbury.
Kirk Goldsbury.

Speaker 1 He's got COVID brains still. I do.

Speaker 6 I knew it wasn't me.

Speaker 1 I just wanted to see where this was going.

Speaker 1 Long fall. Kirk Goldsbury came on the show and we talked about how the Nets are like so insane offensively, and then Joe Harris never hit a three after that.

Speaker 1 The Kyrie point, though, I still remember we went to

Speaker 1 the game that PFT actually lost his wallet in the Cleveland Cavs arena. We went to, I think it was like Celtics Cavs game four or five-ish in 2017 when he scored 42, and he scored like 18 in a row.

Speaker 1 And it was... We were just sitting there with our jaws on the floor because every shot was insane.
Every layup was insane, and it was like this guy can just do whatever he wants.

Speaker 2 So it is.

Speaker 1 He's an incredible, incredible player.

Speaker 6 He's the best small finisher I've ever seen at the room. I've never seen anyone like him at his size consistently beat guys in the way.
You know, again, people would be like, oh, what about Iverson?

Speaker 6 Like, look it up.

Speaker 1 Look up.

Speaker 6 Iverson had a two or three year stretch where it was crazy. You know, I mean, it's AI.

Speaker 6 But Kyrie consistently, whether it's showing it and taking it away from you, crazy angles of release, understanding all that.

Speaker 6 You know, look, I'm not even like, people could be like, oh, you're from Boston, you don't like Kyrie.

Speaker 6 I didn't like watching it at the end because that team was so like full of themselves and they weren't that good. And he's a tough guy to sign up for every night.

Speaker 6 But if we're just talking pure basketball skill, it isn't crazy, I don't think, to put Kyrie up there with everybody else. It's just a different conversation.

Speaker 6 We're just talking about like, hey, well, does that make him top 10 of all time? Well, no, no, that's not what we're doing. We're just talking strictly about the skill stuff.
And you're right. Yeah.

Speaker 6 He has stretches where you're just like, you have to be fucking kidding.

Speaker 2 And the spins that he puts on his shots, too. He'll like switch hands at the last second in midair.

Speaker 2 And then he'll put side spin on a shot as it goes up to the glass, you know, behind his neck and somehow be able to perfectly bank it off. And then it's crazy.

Speaker 2 I actually do think that people would think he was a witch if it was the 1800s and they saw him playing basketball. They'd be like, this person's not.

Speaker 6 This is not. Basketball wasn't, dude, basketball wasn't invented though.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's why they'd think he was a witch.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like, what game are you playing right now?

Speaker 6 What do you think would be the weirdest time travel situation of like, I think boxing.

Speaker 6 We talked about this with Chris Long, but if you just went in a time machine and it's like, all right, let's let's find a heavyweight who'd be like 185,

Speaker 6 and he would just sit there with his fists like upside down and just kind of doing that.

Speaker 6 And then you just went in militant style against him. They'd be like, who the fuck is this guy?

Speaker 1 I still think he'd be like taking Reggie White to like 1925.

Speaker 1 Could you imagine? He'd just throw the entire offensive line.

Speaker 6 Yeah, that would be our Reggie White.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 6 I was just talking like random guy.

Speaker 1 I was playing against like Yale in 1902.

Speaker 6 Mine is like if Eddie House played in the 1950s, we would have Eddie House documentaries and specials, and Eddie House would be, he'd be up there with Micah.

Speaker 2 What if you took like Aroldis Chapman back to

Speaker 2 1881?

Speaker 1 Babe Ruth is trash.

Speaker 6 I I don't like the Babe Ruth is trash stuff.

Speaker 2 No, he took away his pinstripes. Did you see that

Speaker 1 swinging a miss that he had? He sucked. Awful.
Awful.

Speaker 1 It is that line of like, you can understand, you're absolutely right. Like, basketball has come in such a way that

Speaker 1 you watch highlights from 1950 or 1960. You're like,

Speaker 1 these guys aren't that good.

Speaker 6 Do you think you could score when you watch those highlights? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, sometimes.

Speaker 2 The ones where they're just like dribbling the ball straight up and down and just they're kind of like pivoting around the ball. They're not even moving the ball.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I think the other problem is if Eddie House went in a time machine, they'd call him for a carry the first seven times he had the basketball. So they'd be like, wait a minute.

Speaker 6 That was always Jerry West's big thing. He's like, you can't even, you know, he goes, the way you don't call carrying.

Speaker 6 I mean, I like Giannis, and it's back to your earlier point, PFT, like I agree with you on Durant being better than Giannis if we're going best player in the world, even though Giannis, you know, got him last year, sort of.

Speaker 6 Because I just think it's still crazy how we'd be talking about Giannis and the Bucs and whether or not Bud would even be there if Durant's foot is behind the line, because he was doing that with a couple guys down.

Speaker 6 I think from a basketball standpoint, as much as we can all love Giannis, and I love Giannis, I love that Giannis has the personality.

Speaker 6 And this is one of the things like when it comes up with Ben Simmons, like I can, this is back to like my Westbrook where you sort of expose yourself where somebody's like, well, if you just took Ben Simmons and turned him into the Giannis thing, it'd be fine.

Speaker 6 Be like, if you've been watching Ben Sinnis and Giannis this much and you can't tell the difference between their mentality when they walk onto a basketball court, then I can't fucking help you.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 6 I love that part of Giannis so much.

Speaker 6 But then if you were to watch Giannis and Durant just play basketball and go, wait, I'm supposed to think this guy's better than the guy Durant who can dribble and is just like has the same height and can shoot like this off the dribble.

Speaker 6 Like I wouldn't do that, would I?

Speaker 6 And honestly, this turns into the only people that would think we're crazy are the people that are from Milwaukee who are Bucks fans and they're emotionally attached to the whole fucking thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So

Speaker 6 what was the point again?

Speaker 1 No, you just agreed. I agree as well.
I think Kevin Durant's the best in the world, and I know LeBron. This is just rat poison for LeBron.
Can you?

Speaker 6 Oh, it's a Giannis carries the best.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, he does, yeah. So they should call that.

Speaker 6 But everybody kind of does.

Speaker 2 Can you fix if

Speaker 2 we put Ben Simmons on a psychology couch in your bedroom there? Is that a bedroom? What is that? A futon?

Speaker 6 Yeah, this is a futon. You can have friends over, you watch TV, and then if things work out, you sleep over.

Speaker 2 Cool. All right.
So if Ben Simmons was on your futon hanging out, listening to Van Halen with you,

Speaker 2 how would you fix whatever's going on inside Ben Simmons' head?

Speaker 6 I don't even know. First of all, we all know he wouldn't listen to me, right? So let's start there.

Speaker 1 Well, you've already given up, so you have a Ben Simmons personality. Maybe you got to be who he is

Speaker 1 to fix him. You got to mimic his personality.
So good job so far.

Speaker 2 You got to hug him right when he walks in the room. He needs somebody that'll hug him, I think.

Speaker 2 Just show him that

Speaker 2 he's supported and loved.

Speaker 1 Like, what's gonna happen? It's crazy. You've never seen someone demand a trade when they have been the problem.
What's up, guys?

Speaker 1 It's Big Cat here, making my Irish entrance with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. How do you make an Irish entrance? You ask?

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mix it up with some ginger ale for a classic and refreshing proper ginger.

Speaker 1 In the mood for something smooth, but a little sweeter, try proper Irish apple, a delicious blend of proper's award-winning Irish whiskey with crisp, fresh notes of apple.

Speaker 1 So get out there and make your Irish entrance. Anything else just wouldn't be proper.

Speaker 6 Yeah, and he had four years left on the deal.

Speaker 6 Like this was why from the beginning of the Ben Simmons stuff, I'd go, you realize this is a little different. Yeah.

Speaker 6 Like this is, because people people were starting to cover it like, all right, well, I wonder where he's going to go. And at first, he had some destinations that he would have liked to have gone to,

Speaker 6 particularly in California. Yeah.
We could probably rule out Sacramento. Yeah.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I would talk to different people and I'd be like, wait, he thinks he's going to be able to call his shots while having four years left on the deal, too.

Speaker 1 And not taking a shot in the playoffs layup.

Speaker 2 Sucking at basketball, I think, is probably another big factor that goes into that. Yeah.

Speaker 6 Right. Just be like, imagine it's the fourth quarter.

Speaker 6 He's like, I don't want to go outside.

Speaker 2 Do you think that he's the best player in the world if there was no hoop in basketball?

Speaker 6 He'd be unbelievable. First team.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He really would. Yeah, first team.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's just, I don't know what's going on in his head. He's afraid of baskets.
So you have to do some sort of immersion therapy where you just put baskets all around his apartment or his house.

Speaker 2 And just every time he looks at one, you give him a treat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, his door is a basket, so he has to walk in and out of it every day.

Speaker 6 But it has to be the shot clocks have to be simultaneously linked to start at three seconds. So every time he doesn't have time to think.

Speaker 6 I'll tell you, there's one shot from Ben Simmons. It's a couple years ago where I remember it specifically because of just how smooth it looked.
It was at the end of the shot clock. He had no choice.

Speaker 6 He had to get the shot up and he did like a turnaround baseline jumper and it went in and it was it was terrific. And it was because he wasn't thinking about any of this stuff.
And unfortunately,

Speaker 6 You know, this is true for anybody. I mean, this is why I don't like when people say, oh, well, you know, the studies say there's no such thing as clutch.

Speaker 6 I'm like, okay, but if there's no such thing as clutch, do we agree that some guys lining up a certain putt start to feel a little different or free throw starts to feel a little different or certain guys are comfortable in tight spots and other guys aren't?

Speaker 6 So if that exists, then I believe clutch exists. And for Ben Simmons, it can be a really hard thing to dig yourself out of.

Speaker 6 And clearly it's going to start somewhere else. I don't think he cares about where he goes now.

Speaker 6 It might be a bit like the Favre thing where Favre wanted to go to Minnesota so bad, he went to the Jets first.

Speaker 6 And Simmons may be like, Look, I'll do anything.

Speaker 6 Like, just throw me anywhere, and then they'll figure it out on the next step because he just needs to start feeling comfortable out in a basketball court again.

Speaker 6 So, I am sympathetic to some of it because it was really weird to watch somebody completely fall apart mentally in the playoffs like that.

Speaker 6 Like, this guy won't go, he will not go near the rim or even attempt at the rim because he's so petrified of getting fouled and having to shoot free throws. He just is over it.

Speaker 6 He's not going to do any of this stuff anymore. But then again, it's like, all right, yeah, but you had, you know, you signed a max deal for four years.

Speaker 6 It's not all on Philadelphia that you never developed as part of your game. And, you know, spare us the Instagram workout videos where it's like, oh, here you are again, LA Fitness pulled up.

Speaker 6 You hit a three at lunch. Awesome.

Speaker 1 That wasn't.

Speaker 2 What about, do you know anything about the metaverse? What if you put them in some of those Oculus glasses?

Speaker 6 I don't know anything about it. That ad, is that supposed to get me pumped with those kids in the museum? I think so.
What's that supposed to do?

Speaker 2 I think it's supposed to change the world.

Speaker 2 That's as much as I know about it. Billy talks about it all the time.
I don't understand it. But I do think that you can...

Speaker 6 That's a tall task.

Speaker 2 You can put Oculus glasses on him and then just run programs of him seeing all of his shots go in. If he had to do that for

Speaker 2 12 hours at a time for a week, I'm sure just seeing enough of your shots going in would give you a little bit of confidence.

Speaker 6 This feels like clockwork orange therapy that all PFT is bringing up here.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 6 You want to just haze him into becoming a shooter. No, but all his shots are going to be a shot.

Speaker 1 All I want him to do. Yeah.
Right.

Speaker 6 All I want him to be is

Speaker 6 a five, like a stretch five sort of point guard. I want no big, because that's the other thing that sucks about the whole matchup and why Sixers fans are wrong about this forever.

Speaker 6 And the reason they were wrong is that they'd be rooting against their current roster.

Speaker 6 But even at the best version of Philadelphia, the ideal version was to never have these two guys playing with each other.

Speaker 6 Like, it's actually the worst combination of, hey, and anybody that disputes this, I'm going to explain it to you really quickly.

Speaker 6 Joel's the best post-offensive player probably in the game today,

Speaker 6 other than Singun, man. Frank Kaminsky.

Speaker 6 Another worthy adversary.

Speaker 6 Like, hey, what pairs well with that? Oh, a huge point guard that can't shoot and will never shoot.

Speaker 6 Yeah, definitely that. Definitely that.
Like, okay, who's Ben Simmons? All right, well, what would be the best thing for him?

Speaker 6 Ball in his hands all the time, wide open floor, surrounded by shooters, nobody in the way. All right, well, let's stick the best post.

Speaker 6 Like, it's just anybody that argued against it, even if the Toronto series and all the shit, like, hey, could it have possibly worked out?

Speaker 6 Could they back their way into a final or something like that? Yeah, sure, fine. Over time.
I just want to see Ben Simmons playing in a system now where he at least just feels comfortable.

Speaker 6 Because however mad you may be at him, you know, I don't want his entire career derailed from this. And that's kind of where we're at right now.

Speaker 1 Sorry.

Speaker 1 He needs like the Dwight Howard magic. He needs to just be shooters everywhere and let him be in the post because he's not going to do it.
You're right. He's never going to shoot.
So he needs...

Speaker 1 He needs

Speaker 1 full space in the paint. No other big man and shooters everywhere.
And I actually think.

Speaker 6 He needs Draymond. He needs a Draymond approach, but he doesn't have Draymond's personality, and that's always the mistake with him.
Well, very fast.

Speaker 1 He is a. He's too.
I mean, Draymond's like a one-of-one kind of guy.

Speaker 6 Tougher roommate, Kyrie or Draymond? Beach House.

Speaker 2 Oh, Beach House, Draymond.

Speaker 1 Oh, I think Kyrie. I think Draymond.
Draymond seems like

Speaker 1 you just get the best out of everyone. It would be tough for a little bit, but then you'd just be like hit a spot where you're just having the best parties.

Speaker 1 Everyone's getting along.

Speaker 2 I think Draymond would be an awesome beach house roommate in your early 20s. Kyrie, great beach house roommate in your late 20s.
When you want to chill out a little bit, he's always got the mushrooms.

Speaker 1 I think Kyrie could throw a banger, though, at like four in the morning right in your face. And he's like, what's going on?

Speaker 2 Yeah, he just doesn't live by the normal time. Right.

Speaker 6 Constructs, yeah.

Speaker 2 Hours are hours, man.

Speaker 1 Also, Draymond, you know who the alpha dog is. Like, it's good to have one guy kind of in charge at a beach house, right? He would be the guy.

Speaker 6 It's not an easy answer because, you know, with Draymond, if you were like, hey, I want pizza tonight, he'd be like, I told you we're getting fucking wings. And it would be like,

Speaker 6 he wouldn't think there'd be any more discussion. And you'd be like, come on, dude.
Can't we get pizza once? And I don't think Draymond's ever going to give in.

Speaker 6 Where Kyrie would be like, I want you to make a decision that makes you feel better about all of your decisions. So you'd be like, hey, that's super easy.

Speaker 6 But then Kyrie... It might be nude week.

Speaker 1 Right. Right.
Or vegan week.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right. Right.

Speaker 6 And you're like, wait, you know, that's my mom's mom's couch. Like, she let us have it for the summer.
Can you throw some drawers on? And Kyrie would be like,

Speaker 6 why would your mother want to constrict anything about my life?

Speaker 2 I could see Draymond also just wanting to set up fireworks every night. You know,

Speaker 2 he does it for the first time on the 4th, and everybody's like, this is awesome.

Speaker 2 That was legendary. Draymond went out and got $2,000 worth of fireworks.
Awesome. And then it's July 4th, and he's like, I got $5,000 tonight.

Speaker 6 Because if it's in your 20s,

Speaker 6 you want Draymond, because people would be like, you can't mess with those guys in that house. Right.

Speaker 1 That's also true.

Speaker 6 Draymond's the better. Little Edge.

Speaker 1 All right. We've gone this long.

Speaker 1 I do, this is obviously biased, but I do think the Bulls, 35 games in, are the best story in the NBA just because no one thought they were going to be the one seed right now, and they're playing great basketball.

Speaker 1 Is there,

Speaker 1 what's the ceiling?

Speaker 6 Maybe in the Eastern Conference finals. I love watching him play.
I love the story. I was wrong about him.

Speaker 6 And I think to this point, clearly, I've been wrong about the DeRosan contract.

Speaker 6 We'll see, you know, when you give an 85 million to a guy who's 32, where there were a lot of stats that told you, like, yeah, he puts up some numbers, but what is he really? And now he's incredible.

Speaker 6 Um, it's weird. I looked at some 538 database they have, they have this metric where basically they kept track of everything since the merger.

Speaker 6 So, we're looking at 3,527 players that they've tracked with this metric. There's only five players that hit their career peak at a later age in their career than what DeRosa just did.

Speaker 6 Ironically, Lowry's the other one this year,

Speaker 6 which speaks to kind of my frustration with Toronto and people revisiting what that team was that kept losing to the playoffs all the time because DeRosa wasn't very good. He wasn't.

Speaker 6 And, you know, they didn't trade him because he wasn't good. They traded him because they got a chance to get Kawhi Leonard and it completely worked out.

Speaker 6 And then Kawhi used to have these numbers that looked good and he started getting more assist in the Spurs system.

Speaker 6 And then there were some weird plus-minus numbers, guys, where you would put it together collectively and be like, wait, so you're telling me in the aggregate they're better with this guy in the bench all the time so i remember i was going to vote for him for something and then you know i was talking to some other people again i don't have like a real vote that matters so it doesn't doesn't matter but i was like god that's such a weird thing like so just over the course of a couple seasons the team's better when you're not on the floor like that's fucking crazy even though he's a really good scorer we know that but what he did is he started changing into kind of a instead of the long twos he did shorter long twos

Speaker 6 and i'd imagine with the shot chart like he's never shot it this well he He was at 15%, 26%, and 26% from three the previous three years. Now he's at like 37 or something with Chicago.

Speaker 6 I think it may have been cutting down on certain things he's doing. So the DeRosan story is incredible, but it is still a little unlikely.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, it is. Go ahead.
Well, like

Speaker 1 the NBA is very hard to kind of wrap your head around sometimes because you have to admit that

Speaker 1 to win a title, you need one of the top five guys, right? Like, you just do.

Speaker 1 You can't win a title.

Speaker 6 Yeah, it's kind of, I mean, it sucks.

Speaker 6 It's like not having a quarterback week one. You're like, all right, we're going to tackle guys for the next 17 weeks, but whatever.

Speaker 1 Right. And so the Bulls don't have a top five guy in the league.

Speaker 6 It's probably even worse to your point, by the way.

Speaker 1 Right. But what AK, the GM did is essentially say, listen, we're going to try to change what people perceive the Chicago Bulls as right now.

Speaker 1 We're going to build around Zach Levine, which I think a lot of GMs would be like, that's crazy. He's clearly not the best guy on a championship team.

Speaker 1 But every move he's made has helped Zach be better, you know, getting Vuch, which people didn't like, getting DeRosen, getting Lonzo, like all these moves.

Speaker 1 I don't know if they're probably not a championship team.

Speaker 1 They probably won't ever be a championship team, but it's a lot of fun to watch them play, and people are now looking at the Bulls differently.

Speaker 1 And I think that's the only thing you can do instead of sitting around and waiting for the first pick in the draft and having that guy be the most incredible player in the league in five years and also want to stay.

Speaker 1 So I love what they've done. I just think that it's a fun team to watch.
And I'm also realistic knowing that the chances are they probably won't win a title with this team.

Speaker 6 It is a great point that is not given enough credit all the time.

Speaker 6 There's this obsession.

Speaker 6 And I remember when I was covering the Celtics and I would work on the Celtics TV station forever.

Speaker 6 And when I was younger, I was convinced, you know, the weird thing about being younger is you just haven't been around long enough to realize how wrong you're going to be so many times.

Speaker 6 So when you're younger and you're in the business and I'm like, oh, that move's stupid and this doesn't mean a championship and whatever. And I remember Bob Ryan was like, who cares?

Speaker 6 He's like, how about just being better? How about instead of every deal being judged on, well, that's not going to win you a championship. How about just make the roster better? Be more competitive.

Speaker 6 I don't know, win more games. And he just laid into me.
And I love Bob Ryan. And it kind of changed the way I thought because I was like, you know what? He's right.
And sure,

Speaker 6 you know, we had a third of the league tanking before the season even started because it was like stupid to even try and compete. And I get too, like, hey, you had a run.

Speaker 6 Oklahoma City's in their tanking window. They're trying to put it together.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 6 Hanky ended up losing his job because he was so unapologetic about it and so like vulgar in his process.

Speaker 6 And he just wasn't good at playing the game. But Chicago just looked at it and said, okay, who are we? You know, we made some major investment into Vuch.

Speaker 6 We like who he could be when we're healthy. But if we add Zoe, we add DeRosan.
We keep him around Levine.

Speaker 6 So now Levine doesn't feel like he has to close out every game offensively, which forced him into some bad decisions. They pick off Caruso because the Lakers brass.

Speaker 6 I think the story there was a Palinka. He wasn't really a Palinka guy.
So they were okay moving on from him, which is a huge mistake as we've seen now what Caruso brings to your team.

Speaker 6 So I give the Bulls a ton of credit for just going, hey, all we want to do is just be better. Right.
Because this play-in game stuff, like this is ridiculous.

Speaker 6 So going into it, I didn't know if we'd be better. I'm still worried about how they match up with a Giannis or Durant in a playoff game because of the personnel, not even having a Patrick Williams.

Speaker 6 Who knows? Maybe it'll be an option. That's still asking a hell of a lot of a guy who's played very little basketball.

Speaker 6 I still worry about, you know, Vuch, even though I love who he is, that's big, who can shoot. And the numbers aren't the same as they were in Atlanta because he has less opportunity.

Speaker 6 But, you know, will he be a big that can get a little exposed maybe at times? And then what are your options? So there are certain matchup option things with playoffs. But think about this.

Speaker 6 If this is where we're at in December and January of this season, based on where I was after they gave DeRosan 85 million, and I'm like, hey, I don't know if they're going to be any good.

Speaker 6 Like, I like a couple of their guys. They should probably be good enough to be in the playing game.

Speaker 6 So now they're sitting there at the one seat, even if I like Brooklyn and I like Milwaukee better than them. Like, that's incredible.
That in itself is a big accomplishment.

Speaker 6 And those accomplishments, those steps in the NBA are almost never given credit. And so that's why I think everybody should feel great about this.

Speaker 6 And I don't want want to come on being like, because there's another side of this too, where it's like, oh, you don't think they can win a title? I'm like, can you guys chill out?

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, the not a title part is just the realistic, like I said,

Speaker 1 if you look at the history of the NBA, if you don't have a top five guy, who is it? The Pistons?

Speaker 2 I was going to say, that's the last team. And they just had some of the, you know, four of the best defenders

Speaker 1 in the NBA.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 Like, it's just, it's just the reality of it. And I understand the reality of it.
And when you play in a series, usually the team with the best player in the series is going to win out.

Speaker 1 So I know the Bulls are up against it. I just think that it's,

Speaker 1 they deserve a ton of credit for changing what was, I mean, you, you know, Ryan, you have a ton of people that you talk to in like the league.

Speaker 1 Chicago was a place that everyone looked at and was like, that place is so dysfunctional. Why would I ever go there? You have to change that somehow.
And this has started the change.

Speaker 1 And it could happen. You can change that perception pretty quickly with a couple seasons that have winning basketball.

Speaker 6 Yeah, and when you looked at the Drosan deal by itself, like it was a pick in the sign of trade to give him 85 million, and then it kind of turns into like, hey, who are you actually competing against?

Speaker 6 But again, I don't know.

Speaker 6 You know, we can be unfair with that too. Right.
It's like, oh, so you know every single fucking transaction that didn't go down. Like, that's not, that's not realistic.
I know I don't.

Speaker 6 You know, I'm talking about maybe guys that, you know, have to be on the line with all of these people.

Speaker 6 I just think when you look at it and you started to watch him play, you go, you know what's cool about this is that Zoe trusts, you know, Lonzo's a deferential player. Right.
Right.

Speaker 6 As talented talented as he is, he's, you know, I don't know if it's the younger brother or the dad, but they, they,

Speaker 6 they drained the alpha out of him.

Speaker 1 No, it's putting it at some point. It's perfect for exactly.

Speaker 6 But it works. Exactly.
And so you've got Levine, who's probably, you know, the way his decision-making was to where it is now is a massive improvement.

Speaker 6 There's still going to be, you know, a couple times here or there, but I don't care because it used to be so bad. I was like, I don't know how you close with him in your lineup.

Speaker 6 And he's, you want to talk athleticism. I was talking about Westbrook.
Levine has movements where you go, wait, what did he just do?

Speaker 6 Like, every nine other guys are stopped, and Levine's doing something where he's reacting in a way that the other nine guys haven't even processed. That's how special he is.

Speaker 6 So, when I see them, I'm like, you know what's cool is there's no, there's no pressure for the three. It's, hey, whoever we feel like we want to get going, we all trust each other enough.

Speaker 6 In a very short amount of time, you could see these guys with this team where I was just a couple weeks in, I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool. Like, they're all cool, deferring.

Speaker 6 And, you know, know, even though Zach probably is a guy that doesn't want to defer a lot based on his style of play,

Speaker 6 I got to imagine he's looking at an LA guy and DeRosan and going, all right, you know, this is somebody I used to watch. And

Speaker 6 I know Zach's from a different part of the country, but you could just see it. You could see it play out that there's a real buy-in for a group that's together for a very short amount of time.

Speaker 6 That doesn't happen that often. And I also think this has to happen.
And it's why there's other younger teams that are struggling.

Speaker 6 But you need to get over yourself in the NBA at some point. You do.
And the best example I can ever give you is that 2007-08 Celtics team. You'd already had Pierce getting his ass kicked.

Speaker 6 Garnett can't get out of the first round. Ray Allen's coming off an ankle injury, and they can't win any playoff games.

Speaker 6 And so they'd been through it enough almost 10 years where, like, individually, it didn't happen for us. So I now need to be kind of over it in a very unselfish way.

Speaker 6 And there are teams you can see right now. It's like now these guys aren't, they're not over themselves yet.

Speaker 6 And I think Chicago has a little of that where DeRosan's like, what do I have left to prove? Like, of course I can score. Let's start winning some games.

Speaker 6 And I think Levine's like, you know, it's not fun is scoring 40 and never winning games. And Lonzo's now been on, what, three teams in a very short amount of time.
So

Speaker 6 I do think, and even Vuch too, you know, cool. I put up 20 and 12 and hit threes with Orlando and we're one of the worst teams in the East.

Speaker 6 I think you have a group of guys there personality-wise where I think it's playing out as if, hey, we already know what we're we're capable of, but we're kind of over it in a very good sense of the word, a team, which sounded like, you know, that sounded like a Disney movie there at the end.

Speaker 2 I also think that the Bulls are well on their way to becoming the favorite team in the playoffs of all the dads out there. You know, you played the game, these guys play the game the right way.

Speaker 2 It's teamwork. It's not hero ball out there.

Speaker 2 Or the guy who might not be the biggest NBA fan in the world, but just hates the fact that there are superstars, that superstars exist. The Bulls are going to be a team that.

Speaker 6 Why do dads.

Speaker 6 What do dads hate the most? Dads hate hate superstars, right?

Speaker 6 They hate traveling.

Speaker 2 Traveling carries, actually. My dad was, my dad, it took him a long time to be able to admit that Allen Iverson was good at basketball.

Speaker 1 They love post-moves. They don't like

Speaker 1 post-moves.

Speaker 2 Chest passes. Chest passes.
Chest bounce passes specifically.

Speaker 6 But if a chest pass doesn't work, a bounce pass after is awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah, some layups off the right foot, good picks.

Speaker 6 You know, all that stuff.

Speaker 6 They love kids staying in school.

Speaker 1 Kids staying in school. Oh, you want to talk opt-outs real quick? The power dribble.
They like the power dribble.

Speaker 2 Two-handed layups.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Where their hands hit the backboard.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 No, you know what they love with two hands? Catching flies. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You trap it. Oh, following your shot is number one, actually.

Speaker 6 And the funniest thing is, is following your shot in the NBA is like the dumbest thing you could do.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because

Speaker 1 you get them to have transition on your face every single time. But it is.

Speaker 1 Every time, like, I'll just be like, oh, shit, he followed his shot well there. As they like running.
Yeah, the ball bounces over their head and it's rebounded by the guy who's standing where you're.

Speaker 6 Larry Bird. Larry Bird, the book drive.

Speaker 6 It was like, I think it was one of his first practices with the Celtics. So I might have the timeline wrong, but Bird takes a shot and follows it.
Red Arbach's like,

Speaker 6 you don't follow your shot in this league, man.

Speaker 1 They don't.

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Speaker 1 Warriors, are they going to win the title?

Speaker 6 Wait a minute. Opt-outs?

Speaker 1 Oh, you want to do opt-outs?

Speaker 1 Nah, we all agree on opt-outs.

Speaker 1 Do we? I think we do.

Speaker 2 We hate them. We think that kids that opt-out should be

Speaker 1 anti-football pussies, is what I think we've said.

Speaker 6 Herb Street had to do like six appearances on our show.

Speaker 2 He was here and he was like,

Speaker 2 I thank you guys for the opportunity to let me say that I love players. To all the players out there, I love you.

Speaker 1 I heard your take, and I actually,

Speaker 1 it's a good point. Like, eventually there will be someone who opts out of a playoff game.
And that will be an interesting dilemma that we all face because that does feel like it means something.

Speaker 1 Right. And people will be mad about that.
And we'll just have to deal with it.

Speaker 6 I appreciate you listening.

Speaker 6 It's kind of like the pregnancy thing, right? Where like when a guy leaves and misses a game to be with his wife, everybody in the media now will be like, oh,

Speaker 6 that guy gets it. And I'm like, okay.
I'm like, all right. Hey, he's going to miss a playoff game.
Nothing's more important. I'm like, okay.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 6 If a guy opts out of the Super Bowl because his wife's pregnant, I want to know how that goes over.

Speaker 1 Probably not well.

Speaker 6 Because I'll know what everyone will be forced to say. Like, people will feel like the safe zone here is to applaud this when you know.
And again, there are, of course,

Speaker 6 times where it's like, if something's complicated or something like that. Again, I get the whole point.

Speaker 6 But I think there's a line on a lot of these conversations that we have where we think we're all on the same page. And then I present scenarios and be like, okay, what about this, though?

Speaker 6 Would you then be on a TV show going, yeah, starting quarterback misses the Super Bowl, wife's on kid number three? That's the right call. Right.
Because family first.

Speaker 1 No, it would. It's a good point.

Speaker 2 It's going to be Greenie being like, you know what? Fuck, fuck his wife. Like, that's pussy shit.

Speaker 1 You need to get out there and play.

Speaker 1 It is. Yeah.

Speaker 6 That's pretty aggressive out of you.

Speaker 2 No, Greenie's going to be like, I got two of those little shits running around. Fuck them.

Speaker 2 We're talking about a ring here.

Speaker 1 I do think college football is just in a very severe, severe transition period where everyone's gonna have to suck it up for a couple of years till things normalize.

Speaker 1 No, seriously, because I have friends who've

Speaker 1 friends who hate the NIL and like not hate it, but like they're like, oh man, now this school is going to pay for this player. It's like, well, what do you think was happening before?

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Like it was all happening. Now it's just we can actually see it and kids can make money and not feel bad about themselves.
So I just, it's all in a flux right now.

Speaker 1 And college sports are the one thing where it's like the fans hate change because it's all tradition and it's all old school and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 You just have to suck it up because it will all normalize and we'll look back in 10 years and be like, remember when we thought NIL was going to ruin college football? No, it didn't. It's fine.

Speaker 1 Remember when opt-outs were going to ruin college football? No, it didn't. It's fine.
It's just right now people think the sky is falling.

Speaker 6 Yeah, we are really predictable on this. Like, I remember when Candlestick Park, San Francisco Giants, was the first one to change its name and be 3Com.

Speaker 6 And you thought, I don't know, do you guys have an IT guy to get on that?

Speaker 6 Because then they started having anchors on Sports Center like freaking out about it. And they called it Commercial Stick Park.
And it was like, how can you change the name?

Speaker 6 to something that isn't a park? Like, how can it not be named after something cool when it's just a commercial? It's just a naming rights thing. And people were fucking pissed about it.

Speaker 6 And then guess what? It was the norm. People actually spend a lot of time arguing about patches on a major.
Yeah. You probably don't even notice them anymore.
All right. Think of the transfer rules.

Speaker 6 And I made this point in my podcast where I remember like being offended that Stefan Marbury was only going to be in school for a year. I'm like, who's this kid think he is?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 6 I was younger. I was like, I don't know.
14 and I'm going, who's Stefan Marbury think he is? You know, like,

Speaker 1 who gives a shit?

Speaker 6 And then it got to the point where I didn't even want these guys to even have to become one and done. So we in the moment will have things changing around us where we freak out about it.

Speaker 6 Like, think about the transfer rule and the arguments about the transfer rule. Now, it feels like almost everybody's on the same page.

Speaker 6 It's like, wait, if coaches' salaries are going to quadruple in a decade, guess what? You can deal with some transfers. Yeah.
You can deal with kids leaving and being eligible immediately.

Speaker 1 I love the transfer rule because it's just whatever coach complains, they're essentially saying, I have to work harder. And it sucks.

Speaker 6 Yeah. And so

Speaker 6 even just a couple years removed from some of these things that we thought were such a big deal. And I just feel like the NIL is another one of those things.

Speaker 2 it's going to be normalized here in a very short amount of time the only one i remember that that got actual pushback and it it didn't happen was when baseball tried to put spider-man on all the bases do you remember that

Speaker 2 i think it was when like spider-man 2 was i'm actually working on a documentary on the spider-man

Speaker 1 you should well let's shout out bill plaschke by the way because he's still mad about uh stadiums changing that was an all-time take when it when the staples changed to crypto oh yeah and he was like how could that yeah he didn't like it it's like it was named after a fucking office supply company.

Speaker 1 What are we talking about?

Speaker 6 And by the way, office supply warehouses in general are struggling right now.

Speaker 1 Good point.

Speaker 1 Great point. All right, Warriors.
Warriors are going to win it all.

Speaker 6 No, no, no. We still had one more thing there, though.
I felt like PST.

Speaker 1 Do you have anything about anything on opt-outs?

Speaker 2 I don't have anything else on opt-outs. I have a hypothetical, though, if you want to talk about it.
Who?

Speaker 2 Okay. The Curry brothers against the Jokic brothers.
So they get three. The Jokices get three, but the Curries get two.

Speaker 2 Who wins in a basketball game?

Speaker 6 Okay, so I told you, I talked to one of the guys of the Nugget staff that said the Jokic brothers got thrown out of the staff pickup game because it was so vicious.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 6 So I think I'd actually go with the Jokic's because there's three of them.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 6 Jokic, the one we know about,

Speaker 6 The shit he does on a nightly basis to carry this team around him.

Speaker 6 And there are some stats that tell you, like, he's the runaway MVP.

Speaker 6 I don't think it's fair to say runaway in comparison to, you know, some of the steph tough, although Golden State's fallen off a little bit offensively the last few weeks.

Speaker 6 What Jokic does to carry that team and the way he plays, and it's just funny, too, because he gets taken in the second round and they're like, well, what was your deal?

Speaker 6 He's like, man, those first few practices, I was so out of shape. He's like, I used to drink three liters of soda every day.

Speaker 6 So I don't know if GM should find like really skilled guys that have the worst diet, right?

Speaker 6 But can we find anybody with a horrible diet that's completely out of shape, that actually is just a really good passer, though, and good hands? Like, that's what we should be focusing on.

Speaker 6 So, I'd love to pick the Curries because the shooting and stretching the floor, but defensively, and the fact that one of the other Jokic brothers would probably kill someone

Speaker 6 to get to 11, from what I've heard from guys that played in pickup games with them, again, that they were banned from.

Speaker 6 I'm going to go with the

Speaker 6 guys from the Eastern Wall.

Speaker 2 Full court, you go with the Curries.

Speaker 1 do you know i went to go play the other day and two guys are playing full court one-on-one i love it so cool and i had to wait awesome good you should wait

Speaker 6 just trying to get some cardio in were there any fat was one of them just like fast breaking no they were in good shape man they they went they do that all day that's such a funny thing to do at like a local gym yeah stake up the entire but waiting and then guys guys are like waiting like you guys should do it and see how long you should run a video of it.

Speaker 6 You guys play full court someplace in the city, and then when a couple guys show up, be like, What's the plan?

Speaker 6 And then your video guy, and then maybe Hank goes, or maybe Billy, and says, Yeah, they've they've got the court, and then they'd be like, Okay, well, this is ridiculous.

Speaker 6 And they'd be like, Well, look, you know, gain point. And they'd be like, What are you playing to? And Billy says, 101.

Speaker 1 You want next? Yeah.

Speaker 6 And then you're going to lay up and be like, All right, 12-6.

Speaker 1 All right, so wait. Warriors, yeah, Warriors.

Speaker 1 I mean, they're awesome.

Speaker 1 They're awesome, and they have Clay. I can't believe they're this good.

Speaker 6 It's crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 6 to be this good without Clay, and part of it is that five guys all of a sudden got way better.

Speaker 6 This is the best Wiggins has ever played. The depth around them, the development from where a couple guys were last year, although Poole was really good last year, too, statistically.

Speaker 6 This is scary. And so I'd love to see something out of Wiseman just to give him some kind of size that can hang with Aiton.

Speaker 6 Because if they don't have any size other than Looney and then Draymond having to play a small center, although, you know, look, Aiton can have his nights.

Speaker 6 He can also have some nights where, and I like, I like Aiton a lot. I just think that you wish it were just always like superstar level from him to take that next step.

Speaker 6 I don't think that's ever going to happen. And even if Aiton has a physical advantage over somebody, it's just not the way the game is played anymore, even with Chris Paul getting him the ball.

Speaker 6 You know, it's not like Ayton's going to destroy you for 30 on the block the whole time. The game's just not played that way.

Speaker 6 So sometimes when I look at like size, advantage, disadvantages, I have to remind myself, like, okay,

Speaker 6 I can think this guy has a huge advantage because of their front line, but is that really how the game is going to be played? Probably not.

Speaker 6 So, the golden state part of this with Clay coming back, because there's just this absolute sellout now defense against Steph, that, you know, we've always seen blitzing where two stay with the ball off of whatever.

Speaker 6 They're coming all the way out now to do it to Steph. And sometimes it's throwing it to Draymond for a four-on-three, which is terrific.
Iguadala is a valve as well.

Speaker 6 But now that Clay is going to be an option off of you selling out against against Steph, good luck with that.

Speaker 1 It's a good point because it is. I went to the game when they played the Knicks.
He broke the record. It was like the defense they were playing against him,

Speaker 1 it was crazy. It was like they had two guys out there.

Speaker 1 You don't see that. They just never let him shoot, and he still had like 25.

Speaker 6 No, it's there are certain nights and certain possessions where you're just kind of laughing, being like, hey, double team at half court. Yeah.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 there's more of that. You know, I even saw it it with Ja Morant, who's been on an absolute tear now since he's been back, since the injury.
And that guy's awesome. I love watching Memphis.

Speaker 6 A lot of fun. So check him out.
Shout out Grizz.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 6 you know,

Speaker 6 all right, go ahead. You want to sell out and stop Steph and get the ball out of his hands.
They've had this record with these defensive statistics with this improving around him.

Speaker 6 Like, I thought, you know, they'd ride it and then kind of be in that five to six mix. And then Clay would come back and then we'd see what we have.
But this is scary. This is scary.

Speaker 6 Although, as good as they've been, I still don't think this is the kind of team where Wiggins or Draymond are your second-best player that

Speaker 6 that would be the model of a team that wins an NBA title, I wouldn't think.

Speaker 6 I think I've even talked myself into kind of liking Phoenix better than them, liking Phoenix better than them without Clay. But, you know, they beat him again.
So, you know, with Clay back,

Speaker 6 it's hard for me to find Utah. It'd be hard for me to pick either of those teams against Golden State if everybody's healthy in a series.

Speaker 2 All right, so give us your finals.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 6 I'll go Golden State, and

Speaker 6 I'm going to say Milwaukee again. And it's kind of a bet against the newness of Chicago, not loving Chicago's options defensively for the size of Middleton and Giannis,

Speaker 6 and that the Brooklyn thing,

Speaker 6 I don't really like picking against them because they almost proved this all.

Speaker 6 They basically proved to us last year that if they'd been healthy for the playoffs, the three guys could play for eight games in the regular season and then win a title.

Speaker 6 Like, that's not something that's supposed to happen, but they're better. And then you add the Joe Harris part of it.
Patty Mills has been huge for him.

Speaker 6 You know, if the Nets ended up winning the East, I'm not going to sit here and tell him to be surprised, but I'll just pick Milwaukee again because maybe I wonder if the Nets thing.

Speaker 6 I mean, if I also said, hey, this thing could get really weird again with Kyrie and the fact that Hardin still can't get in shape. You know, Hardin was so bad the other night against Memphis.

Speaker 6 He's just not interested.

Speaker 6 I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 2 Ben Simmons may be eating his way out of Philadelphia. Did James Harden give the blueprint?

Speaker 6 I wonder, would you trade those two for each other?

Speaker 1 Harden for Simmons?

Speaker 1 If I'm from Philadelphia, yes. If you're the Nets, no.

Speaker 6 All right. Yeah, I think you're right.
I think it's a no if you're the Nets.

Speaker 1 It's a yes if you're the clearly no.

Speaker 2 It's a huge yes. It's a godsend.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 6 Well, he thought he was getting them. I mean, that day was really weird when the trade went down because there were people that were like, no, it's done.

Speaker 6 And Ben's, you know, kicking the tires on what it's going to be like for him in Houston. So I don't, you know, I don't know if everybody's going to be totally truthful about that story.

Speaker 6 Because, again, I'm not saying that I know the truth 100%, but there were a lot of people that were in the league earlier that day that were like, oh, yeah, Philly got him. All right.

Speaker 6 And then it switched.

Speaker 1 So my last question, because we've taken a long time for you. So we're going to see you in LA.
We're going to do a podcast with Titus and you again. So everyone, check it out.

Speaker 6 Nah, fuck that guy.

Speaker 1 I agree.

Speaker 1 My last question, because I know we've already taken taken an hour of your time.

Speaker 1 Georgia, Alabama, Monday night, who's your pick? And

Speaker 1 how much would a healthy LSU team beat both these teams?

Speaker 1 Because they got the recruiting.

Speaker 1 They got the recruiting, Ryan. They got the dudes.

Speaker 6 Were you trying to make fun of me last night about LSU?

Speaker 6 And then did you think I took it way too seriously and came back at you?

Speaker 1 It was just communication error. LSU was playing against Kansas State in their bowl game.

Speaker 1 They had all their quarterbacks who have been either injured or transferred, so they were starting a wide receiver. And I was making fun of, you know, being like, I thought LSU recruited well.

Speaker 1 How, like, this guy sucks.

Speaker 6 Yeah, but see, I picked up on the joke, but I was like, I just want to make sure we're still joking here.

Speaker 1 I guess we were joking.

Speaker 6 Yeah, man. I mean, LSU, the

Speaker 6 amount of talent they've had walk out the door in the last 12 months is

Speaker 6 impressive and also a massive problem.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Where are you guys at now? Are you done with Batman?

Speaker 1 No, I mean, I love Brian Kelly.

Speaker 2 I think

Speaker 2 he's just as funny as Coach O.

Speaker 6 No, the deal was you guys were off the LSU train with O left, and I could have my team back. Everybody thinks you guys are the LSU guys.

Speaker 1 I've actually Joey Molinero.

Speaker 2 I've loved LSU. Obviously, I didn't go to a big state school.
I went to JMU, so we don't have like, you know, now we're going to the Sun Belt, which is nice.

Speaker 6 That's my deal. That's my Vermont deal.
I'm allowed to pick up the ball.

Speaker 2 So all my best friends

Speaker 2 went to LSU. I would go down there every spring break.
And so I did.

Speaker 1 Wait a minute.

Speaker 6 That's not. Is that true?

Speaker 2 For some reason, they just all decided to go to Baton Rouge.

Speaker 1 I don't know if all, but a few. I know a few of them.

Speaker 2 Three of my best friends went there. So I started to like LSU, but

Speaker 6 where are they in your best friend mind?

Speaker 1 One came to us to the national championship, so he's not lying.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I'd say two of them are in my top five. But I'm not saying that I'm a hard LSU fan, but I do like that school, and I always have.
I loved it when Coach O was there.

Speaker 2 There's a big part of me that's rooting for it to completely fall apart with Brian Kelly.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I'm easy.

Speaker 1 I'm out now that O's out.

Speaker 1 I love going to Baton Rouge. I'll go to a game, but yeah, it was a Coach O deal.
I've loved Coach O for before that with LSG or USC when he was winning interim games. Oh, Miss.

Speaker 1 No, but no, the whole thing was he's got the greatest record of all time as an interim head coach. So

Speaker 1 we would just win money when he would be an interim when USC had him coaching. They went like 6-1 to finish that season.
So, yeah, I'm out.

Speaker 1 I can't. Brian Kelly's a different dude.
I still love the people of Louisiana, but Brian Kelly is hard to root for.

Speaker 2 I want it to keep getting worse with Brian Kelly.

Speaker 2 I want the introductory basketball game thing. I want that to just be the tip of the iceberg for Brian Kelly.

Speaker 6 Hey, by the way, all the heat he took during that basketball game last night and the win against Kentucky, or excuse me, on Wednesday, or the game was Tuesday.

Speaker 6 Don't you think he was making fun of himself, though, by saying Boston people think about it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was just joking. Yeah, that's a joke.

Speaker 6 He was joking. Why does everybody think that he was serious?

Speaker 2 Cancel culture, Ryan. The internet is just so quick.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Brilliant Rodgers is right. I'll agree with him on one thing.

Speaker 1 No, Brian Kelly is... Yeah,

Speaker 1 he's not a likable guy. He wasn't a likable guy at Notre Dame.
Like, he's just, he's not one of those guys.

Speaker 1 Like, even Sabin, you know, I do have a, like, Saban, it's crazy to me that he's just not even bored at this point because it's just so, so nuts.

Speaker 1 Like, I likened it to if you're playing it on Xbox, eventually you up the level because you're like, this isn't fun. I keep winning every year.
It's not even fun anymore. But Saban.

Speaker 6 It'd be like, wait, it'd be like Peter North going out on a Thursday. Like, you want to go out and talk to him? Yeah, right, right.

Speaker 1 It's like too easy, right.

Speaker 1 Like, wait, what? Saban still has, like, I like Saban. He's not an unlikable guy.
Brian Kelly's just not likable.

Speaker 6 Sabin's really like. By the way, Saban is really, unless you're his offensive coordinator, Saban is a really likable guy.
You know, I don't know much time you guys have spent with him.

Speaker 6 Every time I spent time with him, now, again, he wasn't going to be an asshole to me for 10 minutes. I'd be like, hey, this is a good idea.

Speaker 6 Have this guy with a microphone in front of his face 15 hours a week.

Speaker 6 Think I'm a jerk.

Speaker 6 I don't know.

Speaker 6 I've always, the Saban thing, you know, it was one of the points that I was kind of talking about with the playoff in general, because we have these blowout games, which the point differential, I think, since the playoff was started, is 17 points on average, the point differential in these playoff games.

Speaker 6 I mean, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 It's been three good games. It's way different.

Speaker 6 There's been three good games in 10 years.

Speaker 1 No, seriously. There's been three good games.
You know what we really need?

Speaker 2 We need an Alabama's quarterback to have his girlfriend in the hospital giving birth on the night of the national championship game, miss a game, and then see how Sabin reacts to that.

Speaker 2 I would love to see that. That would be good.
That would be the ultimate.

Speaker 6 You You know what would be funny is if a guy says,

Speaker 6 I have a problem with him opting out because of a child's birth, but the NIL plays a part.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Who's your pick?

Speaker 6 I'm doing it. I'm going to do it and make a huge mistake.
I'm picking George in the rematch.

Speaker 1 I hate it. Same.
The only thing that keeps going into my head, though, I think George is better. I just think that Kirby's smart.
Like, there will be a moment.

Speaker 6 Stetson isn't better. Stetson isn't better.

Speaker 1 Finish your Kirby thought.

Speaker 1 this is not even on the same page as yeah right like that's not obviously it's not quarterback but like defensively and just more consistently they have been better all year alabama has had a great last few weeks if you watched every alabama game they did not look great every week you know what i mean like they struggled against teams they struggled against lsu they struggled against florida against uh auburn like weird games i just think kirby at some point like the thing that scares me about my pick and and I've already bet it, I'm taking Georgia, but I'm scared that Kirby's going to be like, uh-oh, like, what do I do here?

Speaker 1 Like, it's happening again. Because it does feel like Alabama just has that mental edge over them.

Speaker 6 You and I talked about this for, what, weeks leading up to the eventual Georgia game that we knew was going to happen. And, you know, it's a huge number.
Bama's getting six and a half, seven.

Speaker 6 And then when you're like, oh, so when Bama gets this many points under Saban, they've never lost. You're like, okay, that's scary.

Speaker 6 But I couldn't help myself of being like, man, Bama just can't really block this year. I'm like, all right, so that front seven's all NFL guys.
Like, they didn't block them.

Speaker 6 They got the ball out quick. I talked to Cloud on my podcast this week.
He made a great point.

Speaker 6 He said, you know, it's funny is that Bryce had more trouble against Cincinnati because there was things that were confusing where Georgia is so easy to him because Georgia is basically mimicking what they're doing to Bama.

Speaker 6 Now, again, I'm sure somebody could get into the intricacies of it and saying, well, Georgia and Bama differentiate themselves this way or all these.

Speaker 6 But like, you know, personnel-wise, kind of the standard what you're trying to take away and all this kind of different stuff.

Speaker 6 But, you know, with no Mechie, we didn't see it against Cincinnati because physically it was just two different groups there.

Speaker 6 But No Mechie is a huge deal because as great as Jamison Williams is, the depth for the receiver Sir Bama, you know, unless we have one of these weird bowl things where all of a sudden, you know, some random guy like shows up, like Ohio State, like, wait, Marvin Harrison's kid out there and he's nasty, you know, which you didn't even see him because the other two first-rounders didn't play.

Speaker 6 I'm with you and I'm scared to death that I'm falling for it again.

Speaker 6 And I think you're right because I think every Georgia fan looks at Kirby and goes, are we going to have that moment where you just can't hang with the guy across the sideline from you?

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 2 I have one last thing to ask you about. Your girl, Elizabeth Holmes, unfortunately was yesterday found guilty on several accounts.

Speaker 2 Have you inquired as to what the conjugal visit laws are? Are you going to be paying her?

Speaker 2 Are you going to stop by and say hi to her?

Speaker 1 People don't know that you guys dated.

Speaker 6 I know. I don't really like talking about it.

Speaker 6 But I knew her way.

Speaker 2 I mean, yeah, before her voice changed.

Speaker 1 Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Now, what are your thoughts on the Theranos stride?

Speaker 6 Look, I can separate the two. If you guys have known me long enough, I've done this a long time.

Speaker 6 And I think, look, I pride myself on, like, hey, I can feel this way about somebody, but this is who I think they are in their profession. I think I'm the best at it.

Speaker 2 Maybe you know. Yeah, separate the art from the artist.
Except I'm kind of the other way around. I think she sucks, but I think her inventions were good.

Speaker 2 I think we just need to really dig into those black boxes, and I'm sure that there's some gold in there somewhere.

Speaker 6 Her invention is the same as me drawing a Dolores.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but you admit that if there was a machine that could take one drop of blood and then diagnose everything that's wrong with you, that would be a good thing.

Speaker 6 I'll put it this way.

Speaker 1 I'm always going to care about her, but she made a huge mistake.

Speaker 1 Anything for Billy real quick before we go? Billy's going to stay at your house in L.A. for Super Bowl week.

Speaker 6 There's a lot of people chiming in about vacancy over here during that week. I got to tell you, I don't know that we're going to be, we might be just, might be a soft opening.

Speaker 1 Be a soft opening.

Speaker 1 We do have a night.

Speaker 6 We have a night

Speaker 6 set up for the close friends and family private event away from all the

Speaker 6 glitz and glamour. And we may even start it with a couple beach sunset rades

Speaker 6 and then have us walk up the path back to the so we're gonna have a little pre-thing and then the real beautiful cool we're in unless the unless the hornets are yeah then we got to watch them what are your favorite watches you do watch the games Billy looks like he has something on his mind

Speaker 1 can we just

Speaker 2 can we just park at your house though

Speaker 1 because no we have to park somewhere I'm going on this trip it's a rental car you're gonna drive your actual car no no it's not it's not oh yeah that's right so we're gonna have to park it somewhere.

Speaker 2 Do you have spots?

Speaker 6 You're driving cross-country packages?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so we did a year-long competition of the six of us.

Speaker 1 The loser, so it's four picks a week, NFL, underdog favorite, over, under.

Speaker 1 The loser,

Speaker 1 and this is the diabolical part, thanks to Henry Lockwood. The loser and the second place guy have to drive across the country to go to L.A.
So second place loses as well. So

Speaker 1 it's chaos. Like we're coming down to it, and everyone's still in the clear.

Speaker 6 So third is in the clear.

Speaker 1 First in the clear, fourth, fifth.

Speaker 2 It looks like it's going to be Billy in last place. And then second place is most likely going to be myself or Hank.

Speaker 1 Or Jake or me. Like it's chaos.
Everyone's still alive in week 18 for every.

Speaker 1 So, all right.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I'm going to just say yes.

Speaker 1 Perfect. You can park on your lawn.
Beautiful.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That'd be a good look.

Speaker 6 We don't have many lawns over here.

Speaker 2 What about basements? Do you have basements?

Speaker 6 I got like a half. A lot of basements.
It's hard to even get a basement out here either.

Speaker 1 Billy, like, we're going to stay at a totally different part of L.A., and Billy's going to be like, well, we got free parking at Rosillos in Manhattan Beach.

Speaker 6 It's like, well, yeah, that's actually going to be a huge mistake to park here.

Speaker 1 Where are you guys staying? It would probably be like a $100 Uber to just get his car every day when you could have just valet it for $20.

Speaker 1 But you've agreed. We're parking at your house.

Speaker 6 If he needs to park, then he can park here.

Speaker 1 Just making plans. Way to go, Billy.
No, we got a parking spot now.

Speaker 6 I would do anything.

Speaker 2 I'd do anything for Billy.

Speaker 6 Thanks, bro. Come on.

Speaker 1 I can't. Well.

Speaker 6 How's everything else going?

Speaker 6 How are the bench numbers? Let's get out of here.

Speaker 2 Oh, we're working on it. We're getting it together in January.

Speaker 1 Billy thinks the vaccine sucked all the strength out of him.

Speaker 6 Who knows? Years from now?

Speaker 2 What are your thoughts on it?

Speaker 1 I don't even know he actually does, though.

Speaker 6 I haven't noticed this. Post-vaccine, I haven't noticed a

Speaker 6 significant difference. But we're all different.
We all have different DNA changes.

Speaker 2 We're about to actually work out right now. Billy hit me up yesterday and was like, hey, you want to work out after Rosillo? And I was like, yeah.
And he goes, bring juice.

Speaker 2 So I'm bringing my juice to this.

Speaker 1 By the way,

Speaker 6 what are you guys eating online there? I've noticed just a bunch of people.

Speaker 1 What are you guys doing?

Speaker 2 We're on the subs.

Speaker 1 And Hank's got problems now. You're not feeling well, Hank? No, I'm good.

Speaker 1 Billy's just giving us a random cocktail of pills that we're all taking that's probably going to end us all.

Speaker 2 It's probiotics.

Speaker 1 And other things. It does take like 15 minutes to take them all.

Speaker 2 It's turmeric. There's turmeric in there.
Turmeric?

Speaker 1 It's three sets of three. That's what I do.

Speaker 1 And they're big.

Speaker 6 Dude, you guys don't need to be taking turmeric at this, or at least Billy doesn't. Like, you're doing it for your joints and everything.

Speaker 1 You're too pretty. You don't.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 Oh, so you're getting in front of the joint pain by taking turmeric at such an early reaction.

Speaker 1 Every day I wonder, like, could Billy kill kill me with these pills? And I realize the answer is yes, but I still take them

Speaker 1 because maybe, maybe, maybe it'll work. Yeah, maybe they'll work.

Speaker 6 I noticed the fish oil in there. That's always, I don't think anybody's anti-fish oil.

Speaker 1 No, fish oil is good.

Speaker 2 I mean, I used to give fish oil to my dog. Fish oil is, as long as I've always frozen the pills, so that way when you take it, you don't burp and you don't taste the fishiness.

Speaker 6 Ah, the fish oil burps.

Speaker 1 Yeah, these are burp.

Speaker 6 I take

Speaker 1 wait a minute. What are they?

Speaker 2 anti-burp ones. No, seriously, they sell those ones.
They're the Omega-3. See, I'm concerned I would rather have the ones that make me burp than the ones that they add stuff into.

Speaker 2 It's because they have thicker capsules, so they don't dissolve by the time you swallow them.

Speaker 2 That sounds worse. She's just a thicker gelatin.
We're probably going to be dead by the time we get to Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 Or Jack.

Speaker 6 Hey, you know what that means? I'll move up in the rankings.

Speaker 2 Dead or jacked.

Speaker 1 Yes, dead or jacked. All right.
Ryan, thank you. Thank you for giving us an hour plus.
We'll see you soon.

Speaker 6 All right. Thanks a lot, guys.
Talk to you.

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Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap up the show. We got Fire Fest of the Week.
Send everyone on their way.

Speaker 1 Week 18, next time we'll be talking, we'll be talking about playoff setups, playoff matchups, which is going to be very exciting on Sunday night.

Speaker 1 Firefest of the week, Hank, you start.

Speaker 1 Hank said he had a huge one. Huge one.

Speaker 1 This was a pretty big Firefest. It derailed my entire week, but it's also offered me some perspective, a little bit of a some things moment, if you will.

Speaker 1 You know, material things don't matter that much. But on, obviously, we were gone vacation.
I was on vacation. Got back to the office on Sunday and Monday, and there was a bunch of boxes.

Speaker 1 There was a box from Roeback. They sent me like a bunch of new stuff.
Duven, which is one of my favorite clothing companies, they sent me a box of goodies.

Speaker 1 There was a couple jumpsuits that we had got sent that big hat. You gave me one.
And I think something else, like a nice hat. And I took this big on Tuesday afternoon, I took this big tote bag.

Speaker 1 I put everything in there, got on the train, and then on the train, I just zoned out.

Speaker 1 Like I take two trains to get home, and I think on one of the transfers, I just left the tote bag with like basically my entire wardrobe for the rest of the year

Speaker 1 on the train. Oh, no.
And I was watching TV like seven hours later, and I just bolted up. It was just like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. And then I looked around my house and I was like, yeah, now I fucking left that on the train.
And a giant bag filled with clothes. Brand new clothes, like all wrapped.
Nice. No.

Speaker 1 That's the worst thing. And usually, like, the thing, and you know, and again, this is where it's like some things, it's like, whatever, it's just material items.
Doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 I have clothes already. I'll be fine.
But

Speaker 1 usually we get stuff sent and usually just stays on the desk or in the pile. If there's something I actually like, taking the effort, as you know, Big Hat PFT, you guys are pile guys as well.

Speaker 1 If you take the effort to bring it home, like that's something you want.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's also very funny to think that Hank just left a giant bag on the train and somebody probably called the cops later because they thought that there was a bomb on there.

Speaker 1 No, I mean, it was all like, you opened the bag. It was clearly like wrapped up stuff.

Speaker 2 You might see a homeless guy rocking some

Speaker 1 of the swag. I Like, getting some, getting his fits off

Speaker 1 on your subway route. Dude, there was good stuff.
That was, I mean, there was everything. Sweatshirts, long sleeve, collared shirts.

Speaker 1 It was, it was, I took the best of the best, put it in a bag, brought it home. It was like, good.
Don't have to shop for a year.

Speaker 2 So, Hank doesn't have any clothes. If, if you own a clothing company out there, Hank is asking you humbly.

Speaker 1 No, I'm saying I learned this was a learning experience, and it's like, whatever. I don't need clothes.
Just give me, give me whatever.

Speaker 2 But yeah, you're also missing out. Hank is dressed really nicely today.

Speaker 1 Let me see.

Speaker 2 Hank, show it off. He's he's looking adult as fuck he's very adult right now this has got to be new clothes

Speaker 1 look look at this adult ass fit look at this he's wearing jeans shirt with a best

Speaker 1 so for people who are listening right now he's just wearing jeans and a shirt no it's not a shirt though

Speaker 1 yeah it is shirt like shirt if he's wearing a bustle but it's a flannel he's wearing jeans and a flannel it's adult that well that that's a little uh a life hack for all the kiddies out there if you wear sweatpants 90 of the time if you wear jeans and you come to work people are like oh my god you look great Yeah.

Speaker 1 And if I don't wear a hat, people are like, oh my God, you got to dress up today. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Set that bar low.

Speaker 1 That's, yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, PFT, your Fire Fest.

Speaker 2 My Fire Fest is,

Speaker 2 I had a glass of wine last night. Pussy.

Speaker 2 And, yeah, I know. Man card, Joe Buck.

Speaker 2 It was a Pinot Gregio. It was a white wine.
I poured it. I took a sip.

Speaker 2 And it tasted awful.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 awful. It tasted like a rotten margarita, like a margarita that's been left out for maybe three or four weeks.
And I was like, oh, this wine sucks. It must have gone bad.
It must be corked.

Speaker 2 I poured myself a different glass of white wine. That sucked too.

Speaker 2 COVID fucked up my taste bud. I can still taste and smell.
But all alcohol tastes awful to me. Like, real bad.
Like, there's a visceral reaction when I drink it where it tastes like it's rotten.

Speaker 2 Like I can't

Speaker 2 drink beer. I can't drink liquor.
I can't drink wine. It's all fucked up.
I don't know how long this is going to last.

Speaker 1 That does suck. Damn.

Speaker 2 Are you sure you didn't brush your teeth before? A million. I'd never brush my teeth, Billy.
You know that. No,

Speaker 2 I did not brush my teeth.

Speaker 2 But I don't drink that much. I'll usually have, like, two beers on, like, Friday, maybe a couple beers on Saturday.

Speaker 2 But this, especially, like, like this football season, I haven't been drinking much alcohol, but

Speaker 2 it's just a weird sensation that I hope comes back because I do enjoy drinking the occasional beer, the occasional ice-cold Coors Light.

Speaker 2 So I don't know how long my taste buds are going to be fucked up for, but that's really the only lingering effect besides the brain fog, and also now I'm 5.8.

Speaker 2 But besides that, I don't have anything else from COVID. But it's just, it's a bizarre thing to have sticking around with you.

Speaker 1 That's weird because when I had it in February, I lost all taste, but it was like consistently all taste for two weeks straight. Not like a little bit of taste or something taste bad.

Speaker 1 It was, I made that video where I was licking my deodorant bar and it was just nothing. Yeah.
So I don't, yeah.

Speaker 2 That's weird. I can still taste everything else tastes perfectly fine and normal, but for some reason the alcohol tastes.
Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Maybe I'll do sober January.

Speaker 2 Maybe it came back and it's just super hardcore. Maybe I can taste alcohol more.

Speaker 2 Maybe I could be like a sommelier.

Speaker 1 This wine also sucks no.

Speaker 1 This wine also sucks.

Speaker 1 All right. My Fire Fest is I got a new iPhone and I got the new iPhone Pro Max and it was too big and I guess I have small hands, which I didn't realize, which sucks.

Speaker 2 You've measured your hands though, right? They're like quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 they're normal size. You wouldn't.
I wouldn't get a tweet from Ian Rapport being like, holy shit, big cat's hands. Don't draft them.
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 I think it also is just an enormous, enormous phone. It's like, it's very heavy.
The Pro Max iPhone 13. Bubba has it, but Bubba has gigantic hands.

Speaker 2 Freak hands.

Speaker 1 But really, it was like, you know, how most of your, when you're on your phone, the majority of it is like holding it and just using your thumb, being able to get to the top and the bottom with your thumb.

Speaker 1 I couldn't do that. So it was, it was, it was bad.

Speaker 2 What kind of coverage do you have with a full swipe? Can you go like 70%?

Speaker 1 What do you mean? Like, how far? I already returned it. I already returned it.
I already returned it. I had to return the phone.

Speaker 2 Oh, so

Speaker 2 that's a new phone that you have right now.

Speaker 1 This is a new phone. I had to return it because

Speaker 1 this is the regular size. The Pro Max.
Also, when you take it out of your pocket, as everyone knows, I don't use a case. I'll never use a case.

Speaker 1 I almost dropped it like six times taking it out of my pocket because it's just, it's heavy and it's got a lot to it.

Speaker 1 So, yeah,

Speaker 1 it was a wake-up call. Wow.

Speaker 2 I mean, the internet is saying that you have tiny hands now.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 I thought that your Fire Fest was going to be Jokovich. Your king is trapped in an airport in Australia, like the god of the terminal too.

Speaker 2 They'll be fine. It's fucked up what they did to him, I thought.
They invited him. Yeah, of course it is.
And then they told him that you're not allowed to leave the airport.

Speaker 1 They don't want him to win. They don't want to see him win.
It's probably Roger Federer trying to keep him down.

Speaker 1 They know that he's going to break the record.

Speaker 2 His dad got involved. Did you see what his dad said?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was pissed.

Speaker 2 His dad will fight someone all-time quote from serjohn jokovich shame on them the entire freedom loving world should rise together with serbia they crucified jesus and now they're trying to crucify novak the same way

Speaker 1 i'm i mean did jesus ever win wimbledon did jesus ever beat roger federer at wimbledon he's a cross-court all-star no he did not yeah

Speaker 1 yes there you go um okay uh jake

Speaker 4 my firefest hop on on the show it was well documented Why, what happened? Oh, so if you didn't listen to Wednesday's episode,

Speaker 1 which you didn't.

Speaker 1 Yeah, did.

Speaker 1 Got me.

Speaker 1 You got me. Got it.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 4 you guys were talking about the low man trophy. I was digging into the Wisconsin football game notes looking for the pronunciation of John Chanault.

Speaker 2 Pronunciation.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 4 Of you guys talking about the Kellen Mott incident. That was my hot seat.

Speaker 2 Jake, I don't want to pile on, but it sounds like you just made an excuse.

Speaker 4 I mean, that's why. It's not an excuse.
That's just the reasoning.

Speaker 2 It sounds like you included it because it was an excuse. Not an excuse.

Speaker 4 I screwed up. You saw my apology on the notes app.

Speaker 1 It happens. Just move on.

Speaker 4 But that's my firefest of the week.

Speaker 1 What would you say?

Speaker 1 I feel strongly that you will bounce back, Jake. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 I do too.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 yeah. All right.

Speaker 2 I'm just saying, I'm not mad at you, Jake. I'm just disappointed.
Fair. Billy? So I woke up Wednesday morning.
I was feeling great. My body's operating on the highest level because I'm supped up.

Speaker 2 Bounced out of bed. It was about like 7:30.
Got a couple rounds on the bag, boxing, about like 15, one-minute rounds.

Speaker 2 Ate breakfast, was feeling good, got everything ready, was about to head out the door. I hope Billy just keeps narrating his entire day like this.

Speaker 2 And whatever happened to him happened at the end of the day. Yeah.
Keep going.

Speaker 2 Got everything going, took one step off into my staircase, going down into the street, totally wiped out, went totally vertical, slipped. It was an icy staircase.

Speaker 2 Went all the way down the stairs, hit my head, hit both funny bone ultra nerves in my elbows on the side of the same staircase, then slid all the way down the staircase to the sidewalk, and I sat like like was on my back staring at the sky just like both elbows buzzing and I had totally just slipped down wiped out it was terrible did anybody see you yes the

Speaker 1 what I tell you though I know after I I have a long-standing theory that everyone gets one wipeout a year everyone wipes out once during the winter months and it's better to almost get it out of the way earlier because then you're a little bit more cautious because like when it gets cold and there's ice you you don't remember that, like, oh, fuck, I got to start watching where I walk and all these like hazards and everything.

Speaker 1 So, you fall once, hopefully, it's not a bad fall, and then the rest of the winter, you're, you got your uh head on a swivel, yeah.

Speaker 2 The one guy who saw me, Liam knows this guy, he's this dude who runs around the neighborhood yelling all the time, asking people for cigarettes and money for coffee.

Speaker 1 And he goes, Are you okay?

Speaker 2 And I'm just like, Yeah, man, I couldn't really talk that point, kind of winded.

Speaker 1 Did you give him money?

Speaker 2 I, in that moment, he, I'm sorry, but like, yeah, he alphaed you.

Speaker 1 That's what it sounds like. Yeah.
No, no, he didn't.

Speaker 2 I didn't give him money because I was like, I had to like gather myself because I was.

Speaker 1 You have to next time. I know next time.
He was looking out for you. Yeah.
He saved your life.

Speaker 2 He's the only one that checked on you. I know, but then I had to just.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry. It wasn't there.
Yeah. Next time.

Speaker 2 No, it's fine.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 2 I just really wish that there was some sort of surveillance footage that we could see.

Speaker 1 There might be a lot of people. They're cartoonishly sitting and falling.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but it was.

Speaker 2 That was the first I'm fucking old moment.

Speaker 1 You're not.

Speaker 2 Well, I woke up the next morning and I was sore.

Speaker 1 And I was like, because you fell on your ass down a whole flight of stairs. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But usually you bounce back from those. Anyway, 2022 just reminding me, body craves contact.

Speaker 1 There we go.

Speaker 1 Billy, I never want to hear you say, I'm old again.

Speaker 2 Getting old, bro.

Speaker 1 No. Oh, you ever feel like maybe you're just over the club scene and you just want to have an IPA with your dog and just chill on the couch?

Speaker 2 that's that's a little too old

Speaker 2 I don't think I've ever drank an IPA in my life yeah because it gives you tits right exactly

Speaker 1 stay away from that

Speaker 2 thought just occurred to me maybe maybe Billy's supplements fucked up my taste buds oh also could be changed could be that's a definite possibility anything that goes wrong with my body I just need to remind myself I'm ingesting like 40 different chemicals that a 19-year-old gave me.

Speaker 2 I've been giving you antibuse.

Speaker 2 That's the drug that makes you puke whenever you touch alcohol.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Thank you.
Yeah, it's for you. Tails.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do numbers. Send everyone on their way.
Billy, hit it. 8.
22. 88.

Speaker 2 6. 92, 12, 98.

Speaker 2 86, 84, and 32 aren't in. 6'9.

Speaker 1 44.

Speaker 1 Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 It's not plugged in.

Speaker 2 Billy thought he was just going to

Speaker 2 go sit in big cat spot and take his job. It's not that easy.

Speaker 1 8. Billy eating any meals in my desk?

Speaker 2 No, he's just sketching a woolly mammoth.

Speaker 2 Oh, we got to.

Speaker 2 Is that going to go up?

Speaker 1 I swear to God. Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 What was that? Oh, it was fine. That was 99.

Speaker 1 Wow. That's not falling fast.
That's not falling. Do it again.
Got to do it again.

Speaker 2 99 did not make it all the way up the chute.

Speaker 1 Got to do it again.

Speaker 1 Oh, Wisconsin football just posted an official thank you for the low man trophy.

Speaker 2 Oh, nice.

Speaker 1 The actual Twitter account.

Speaker 2 That's awesome. What do we have?

Speaker 2 58.

Speaker 4 Second timer. 58.

Speaker 1 58. 58.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 All right. We'll see everyone on

Speaker 1 Sunday night, Monday morning. Also, the Barcelona Sports Bar will be open in Chicago on Saturday.
So go check it out. Where? River North.

Speaker 6 River North.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 2 Is there a is there like an intersection, or just like go to River North? Just River North. Oh, you see White Sox.
I don't know the exact address.

Speaker 1 I don't know the exact address. She's Google it.

Speaker 2 Love you guys. Turkeys are only native to mainland United States.

Speaker 2 Talking away.

Speaker 1 Though I don't know what I'm to say, I'd say anyway.

Speaker 1 Today's another day to find you. Shy it away.

Speaker 1 Though Oh, I'll be coming for your love, okay.

Speaker 1 Shy it away.

Speaker 1 I'll be coming for your love, okay.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 me,

Speaker 1 take

Speaker 1 me up.

Speaker 1 I'll be gone

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 1 make

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 me on

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 gone

Speaker 1 But I don't want to

Speaker 1 leave as it says

Speaker 1 I've said it's but I'll be stole a little way

Speaker 1 So it learned that life is okay

Speaker 1 Say after me

Speaker 6 better to be safe than sorry.

Speaker 1 Say after me.

Speaker 1 It's no better to be safe than sorry.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on me.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 off.

Speaker 1 I'll be

Speaker 1 gone

Speaker 1 in a day after.

Speaker 1 Hold things that you say.

Speaker 1 Just to claim a worries away.

Speaker 1 You're all things I've got to remember. Keep shying away.

Speaker 1 Well, I'll be coming for you anyway.

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 me,

Speaker 1 take

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 on.

Speaker 1 I'll be gone

Speaker 1 in a day.

Speaker 1 I'll be gone

Speaker 1 in a day

Speaker 1 Take

Speaker 1 on

Speaker 1 me

Speaker 1 Take me

Speaker 1 up

Speaker 1 I'll be gone

Speaker 1 in a day