NBA Preview - WC With Rachel Nichols, EC With Richard Jefferson and Army HC Jeff Monken

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
On today's Pardon My Take, we're sending everyone off for the rest of the week. There's no show on Friday that is Christmas, but we have an extra long show today.
We have Jeff Monken, Army head football coach of Army, trying to get him a bowl game, which they got. but we talked to him about

basically have Jeff Monken, Army head football coach of Army, trying to get him a bowl game, which they got, but we talked to him about basically being the toughest guy alive. We have Rachel Nichols on to preview the Western Conference in the NBA and Richard Jefferson on to preview the Eastern Conference of the NBA.
So the NBA is officially back and we have a full preview for everyone. then we have a quick Monday Night Football recap hot seat, cool throne guys on chicks, send you off for the last couple weeks of 2020 before we do all that, part of my take is brought to you by the Cash App, not only is it the easiest place to send money to your friends, it's the safest go download the Cash App right now use code BARSTOOL.
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Okay let's. Boy! Boy! Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of stuff, work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't blame all on the sun Oh Oh no.
We're gonna rock down to electric avenue. And then we'll take it higher.
Oh, we're gonna rock down to electric avenue. It's Part of My Take.
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Today is Wednesday, December 23rd, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are dead. The worst 11-0 team of all time.
Dead-ish. Dead-ish.
Ben Roethlisberger is not healthy.

Good anymore.

This is tricky because now we're biased.

We do like the Steelers and Pittsburgh, the city of Pittsburgh,

and Ben Roethlisberger, so it's hard.

But in fairness to every other team that we bash,

the Pittsburgh Steelers are frauds.

Straight up frauds.

11-0 to 11-3, losing as 14-point favorites to the Bengals. They are broken.
They are hurt. They are damaged.
And I don't know, like, has there ever been a team that's gone 11-0 and finished 11-5 and still gone to the playoffs? It would be very funny if they ended up with five straight losses and then limped into the playoffs. They're in the playoffs.
That's the craziest part. Yeah, So they're going to get into the playoffs.
There's a chance, and like we talked about, the Browns' chances, even though, listen, it's still extremely likely that the Browns get in, but if the Dominoes fall the wrong way, they might not. But there's still a very good chance that depending on how that week 17 game goes, the Browns and the Steelers, they could play each other back-to-back weeks not only that PFT but the Browns and I think that there's I think most Browns fans know this but there are still a certain amount of Browns fans out there that haven't fully realized it because they think and understandably so they think well we beat the Titans and we beat the Colts so we have the tiebreaker if there's a four or five way tie at 11 and five the head-to-heads don't matter that's the problem and the browns get basically booted uh from the playoffs so week 17 there could be there's a potential for week 17 and this would be like hell freezing over the cleveland browns could be playing for the afc north title and if they lose they could potentially be kicked out of the playoffs.
Yeah. How crazy is that? There's a lot of weird stuff that could happen.
That's so fucking insane. It could work out where if they lose that game, then that means that they have to go to Pittsburgh the next week.
It could work out that if they win the game, Pittsburgh has to go to Cleveland the next week. It's going to be weird.
It's going to be a very strange ending of the season for sure. Either way, I think the big takeaway for Monday Night Football was I don't remember Big Ben ever playing that bad.
It's bad. It is very, very bad.
So the first thing I noticed besides him just doing a two-year-old protest and saying, I never want to play under center, so I'm going to fumble the first snap that I get there, was when they were setting him up for handoffs, they were calling handoff plays where he would not have to take more than one step. In fact, most of the handoffs Big Ben was doing was just turning his fat belly to the side and putting the ball out.
Just rotating. There was one in the first half in particular where he had to take maybe a step and a half to a half to his right.
And he took like half the step and then stretched his arm way out. And we joke about like, is Big Ben hurt? Because Big Ben's always hurt in some way.
Actually, no. This week he wasn't hurt.
He was coming back from the world's shortest retirement of all time because he made Adam Schefter announce on like Saturday or Sunday that Big Ben will return for next year. We're like, thanks, Adam.
Yeah, no one was. Okay.
Thank you, Ben, for letting us know. But I don't know if he's actually like injured or hurt or if he's just lazy.
I think he's just old. He just might be old.
I think we're seeing this and it's and it's happening like this is the end of time. Of all the things that have happened in the in the last couple years you know who actually is coming out the biggest winner philip rivers eli manning oh yeah yeah eli manning retired first he was the first to leave the party now he was obviously when he got bad at the end it was bad yeah but our lasting memories are now going to be bag bad big ben bad phil rivers if he plays for another year or two tom bray's gonna play for 10 more years so he'll be bad at the end drew breeze like all these guys getting old and trying to hold on as long as they can eli's just sitting eating whatever like sloppy joes that aren't sloppy joes that i guess new jersey has its own sloppy joes even though everyone else eats a different kind of sloppy joes and loving life and he's gonna end up being like oh remember eli he was awesome he never got bad yeah he's like yeah it is a great lesson like leave the party be the first to leave instead of the last right he's like if uh when tiger woods retires from golf he's not going to go play on the seniors tour right right but there should be a seniors tour for quarterbacks yes shouldn't there how awesome would that be so we could still have the guys these guys like slinging around until they die it's over it's it's so i don't know where steelers fans i think most steelers fans and i'm going to give them credit because i think they are some of the best fans in in football i think most of them realize it like from judging from social media they all know what's going on here no one is making the illusions that the steel and a, and a lot of it is because of injuries.
They've really been ravaged by injury on the defensive side of the ball, and a lot of it is because they cannot run the ball whatsoever, and their offense is essentially Big Ben trying to throw short passes and sailing all of them over everyone's heads and throwing bad picks. And Ben even the like the picks are one thing he was getting guys killed they were hospital passes last night left and right like ebron got killed like the juju smith schuster who was doing a tiktok before the game he got killed like so i don't know this steelers team it feels like they're gonna limp in and probably sputter out in you know the first or second round yeah i don't see them unless i mean obviously like mike tomlitt's never out of it because he's you know he's been there a few times and he knows exactly which buttons to press on big ben who by the way speaking of buttons to press big ben has sucked at quarterback since he unblocked everybody on twitter true i think maybe he's reading like good point all the negative stuff might be the toxicity of the internet good point might be affecting ben uh who as we know is dealing with porn recovery yep so maybe he should go back to blocking most of the internet what did mike thomas say we got to run into the kitchen or something we got it yeah we got to start running into the kitchen instead of running out of it okay so uh your guess is good that's where the heat is that's where the flames are um yeah i don't know that's where you eat big ben there a fire in the kitchen big ben's just gonna interpret that as like i need to eat more more pf i need to be heavier also credit to the bengals that was a nice win they played like there is something about playing your rival at the end of the season in a lost season and winning a game like that like if you're you're a Bengals fan, you can kind of put your hat on and be like, yeah, we fucked up maybe the AFC North for them.
Well, it is something to build on because you do have a franchise that you're trying to build. You're no longer in tank mode.
You've got the initial pieces. So, yeah, winning a game like this is pretty important.
We did get an overload of throw out the record books. The record books were thrown out by Lewis.
Totally thrown out. Within 30 seconds of Kermit the Frog dropping the mic.
Like this was. I thought I was so high.
I was like, wait, did I smoke today? Because what is going on? I was not ready for that. I didn't know that that was happening.
The Muppets were just fucking talking to me. I tuned in early.
It worked on me because I tuned in like 10 minutes early to see the Muppets. Oh, see, I just had the game.
monday nights i like to sit down on the couch like around 7 45 and have the pregame on because i don't really watch pregames otherwise and really kind of feel in the moment and then they're like all right in cincinnati and then all of a sudden it's kermit and i'm like wait what what what's going on yeah did i change the channel what happened here oh that's what i was looking forward to i was hoping they have Beaker giving an injury rundown, wearing the lab coat and not being able to understand anything. But, yeah.
What's up, Billy? Mike Tomlin actually made more sense with his, like, running to the kitchen than the Swedish chef would have. Yeah.
Ryan Finley looks exactly like Meep from the moment. Yes.
He also was smiling way too much. He might have been concussed.
He might have been. Because he'd get hit hard a couple times.
But that's a game where,'s going to tell his kids about that game. Oh, he gets a contract from this.
He gets a backup contract from this. He will be able to stay in the league for a few more years because of this.
It was also good seeing a few Bengals fans. They're always dressed up.
Yeah. I miss that one Bengals fan, though, that dresses half as a Bengal, half as a Miami Dolphin for a very specific rivalry.
The guy with the beard Yep, that guy and then the Stormtrooper Bengals guy. Yeah, the Bangalorian and they also have Stormtroopers like official Stormtroopers So it was, yeah, interesting Monday Night Football game.
Alright, so here's the deal for this week. We have No Show Friday because it is Christmas Day We're going to do a mega NBA preview in a minute, so we're going to talk to Rachel Nichols and Richard Jefferson in a minute.
We have we're back on Monday for week 16. We're not going to miss a week of football and then the following Wednesday.
So whatever day that is the 30th will be our best of. So that's the schedule.
No, no Sundays are going to be missed. No Mondays are going to be missed, but we will not have a show on Friday.
So quickly, let's do a quick, very abbreviated version of a Sunday preview.

So we have a Friday game.

Thanksgiving.

Sorry, Christmas Day game, which is great.

NFL should absolutely try to steal Christmas Day from the NBA.

From Jesus.

Yeah.

The NBA stole it from Jesus. NBA has it.
NFL has got it. You steal it and then give it back to Jesus.
Yeah, so Viking Saints, that game, I mean, in Week 16, we have a lot of playoff implication games, but not a lot of head-to-head playoff implication games because the Vikings are essentially out of it. I guess it's really just the Saints trying to look good.
I mean, you can't bet against the Saints on Christmas. No.
And then Saturday games, the Dolphins-Raiders game on Saturday night will be very important for the AFC playoff picture and whether the Dolphins, like essentially all the Browns doomsday scenarios. They end if the Raiders beat the Dolphins.
The Dolphins winning out is like the most unlikely of the doomsday scenarios. So if the Dolphins win this game, Browns fans get ready for...
It's just... I don't want to keep bringing it up.
But I do think there's a lot of Browns. I think there's a decent amount of Browns fans that still don't realize it.
Like they still have not fully comprehended because they think, rightfully so, we'd be 11-5, we'd beaten the Titans and the Colts, how could we not beat the playoffs? It's so criminally unfair. It's very stupid.
But, again, it's like a 5% chance that the doomsday scenario actually happens. So it's probably not going to go down.
Yes. What other big games are you looking forward to on Sunday? The Colts-Steelers, like, are the Steelers just going to die? Like, can the Steelers opt out from the playoffs? You know what? So they look so very bad in prime time.
Yeah. I'm going to bet on the Steelers.
I'm going to bet on the Steelers. I can already feel it right now.
Because you said these are the two old dogs of the NFL. I know.
Yeah, Phillip Rivers. Like, if you think that you're going to bet against Ben Roethlisberger because he doesn't look healthy, what does Phillip Rivers look like? It's true.
How old does he look? So, yeah, I'm going to bet on the Steelers on Sunday. That's how bad they looked.
The game, I think the line, the Steelers looked so bad. It was Steelers minus 2.5 yesterday before the game, and now it's Colts minus 1.5.
So that's how bad they've looked. Other games that are of note.
I mean, we're obviously looking for our teams. Bears have to win.
They will win. They better win.
If they don't win, I'm going to cry. And then Washington football team, which we'll get to Dwayne Haskins in a minute.
Football team wins and they're in. Officially? Yeah, they win and they're in.
Is that true? I believe so. I thought that there was still a way for the Eagles.
I guess not. Maybe not.
No, I don't think so with the Eagles after that loss. The Eagles.
Oh, yeah, because the Eagles. Wait, what about the Cowboys? Can the Cowboys get in with 7-9? Let's see.
No, because I think the football team beat the Cowboys. So, let's see.
We win and we're in. If I just keep saying it enough.
Wait, but if the Giants win out, I think they can finish 7-9 and they have the tiebreaker. I'm advancing to Week 17 right now.
You know who's definitely not in? Who? Billy. Patriots.
Oh, damn. Burns you, Hank.
He got you again. He's really proud of that one.
Okay, so by win winning we're in, I had baked into that assumption that the Ravens would beat the Giants.

Right.

Which I think is a fair assumption.

Well, no.

Hank's probably going to bet on the Giants.

The NFC East is too crazy for it not to come down to Week 17. So, yeah, if the football team wins and the Giants lose, then the football team's in.

Yes.

And then the two big games in the afternoon night, Ramsahawks Titans Packers Rams Seahawks like I don't know the Rams have to look at least the Rams are kind of they're not like the Steelers in that they haven't lost three in a row and they haven't looked as bad as the Steelers but when you lose to the Jets kind of all everything's out the window. You immediately might be in fraud territory.
That's bullet point number one on your resume. Regardless of what your best win was.
You don't get to go to the college football playoff when you lose to the Jets. You lose to the Jets.
That would be like if Ohio State lost to Rutgers, and they won the rest of their games. It's like, sorry.
That's really mean to Rutgers, by the way. Well, I mean, the people know himuckers fan here better than the jets i was saying that ruckers could beat the jets brand brand wise i would take ruckers over the jet absolutely you got greg sciano you got everything she was a better coach than gase dunzio the legacy there uh-huh but yeah so if if i look at this game the rams and the seahawks the rams may have actually done themselves a favor by losing to the Jets.
Oh, okay. A little wake-up call? A little wake-up call.
A little salts? Way better that it happened to the Jets than it happened in the division. Yeah.
That's number one. Number two is there's a possibility that that would make the Rams play against the NFC East winner in the playoffs.
They've beaten every team in the NFC East. They're 4-0 against the NFC East this year.
Fun fact, they're 1-3 against the AFC East, which is kind of weird. That is weird.
Yeah, they've lost to the Dolphins, the Bills, and the Jets. That's incredible.
They beat the Patriots. Wow.
Wow, they beat the Patriots and lost to everyone else in the division? Lost to the Jets. Yikes.
And then Titans-Packers, which is going to be... This game, to me, is everything, unfortunately.
It is everything. Because if the Titans can't run the ball down the Packers' throat and score at will, I'm going to start having very bad feelings about the Packers being frauds.
Yeah. Well, I think either...
you know what? Whichever team loses this, I'm going to call officially a fraud. Yes, this is the fraud alert game.
Fraud bowl. Yeah.
Fraud bowl because the Titans have flirted. I can handle that.
They've flirted with fraudulence. Yes.
Well, their third down defense is quite fraudulent. Yes.
Well, actually, it isn't. It's just bad.
Well, unless they got the boy out there doing boy things. That's right.
Boy of the week. Boy of the week.
Yeah. Loser of this game is a fraud.
Yeah. Billy, will you have your parlays up? I will have them up in time for Sunday.
There will be a can't lose parlay. Are you? It will be on barstoolbighat.net.
What? Well, I have enough. There's a little URL situation going on.
What's going on? PardonMyTake.net has been replaced for, reused for a different reason. For what? If you have any grievances with Jose Canseco, please file them at PardonMyTake.net where you can put your name and grievance.
Oh, you're doing my idea of a class action fight. A joint idea, I will.
Okay. I will be your champion.
I think I said it. Wait, I need to know.
Are you stealing this or is it big cat to steal it from you? No, I said it on the rundown yesterday. I said it's like a class action lawsuit.
I said if you've personally been victimized by Jose Canseco. I said it first.
I thought of it in my brain. That's why I said if you've been personally victimized by Jose Canseco, please, I will be your champion.
So, Billy, you said if you've been personally victimized, then Big Cat was like, that sounds like a law firm class action. I'll give that a collaborative effort.
Yeah, for sure. All right.
So go to pardonmytake.net? Yes, and file your grievances with Jose Canseco, and I will be your champion collectively.

There we go.

I love it, Billy.

All right, let's do Hot Seat Cool Throne,

and then let's get to Jeff Monken, Rachel Nichols, and Richard Jefferson.

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Hot seat, Cool Throne. Hank.
My hot seat is James Harden. Yeah.
He's fat. Whoa.
He's fighting with his teammates. He's larger.
There's been a bunch of reports about him arguing with his teammates to the point where he got in a fight with a rookie, whipped a basketball at him. It's called a pass.
So, okay, he threw a ball at his teammate. It's called passing ball.
Either you call James Harden a ball hog when he's not throwing the ball at his teammate or when he is, then you just say it's assault. That's a good point.
It's a good point, PFT. I just, you know, it is, this will, people will be listening to this over the course of the next two weeks.
I feel like he's going to be on a different team by then. I want to get your guys' official predictions.
Why would they trade him, like, in the first two weeks of the season? Because he wants out. He wants to fight everyone.
Yeah, but wouldn't you just, like, tell him to stay home for a little bit and then wait for another team to develop a need? Sixers. I think it's like they're on the same page that this is ending shortly.
Right. Okay, so I was going to say Sixers, too, because I think we saw the same DM earlier this week.
I didn't know. I just feel like Daryl Morey's been saying, like, hey, you want Ben Simmons? Just do it straight up.
All right, I'm going to go with the Celtics. Oh.
People are saying that. Really? Are people saying that? You would want that? No.
Fuck no. You literally made that up off the top of my mouth.
There are people who are saying that. I think the Wizards.
Oh, yeah. Wizards? Reunite him with his old teammate? But, yeah, if it's the Celtics, I'll be depressed.
Yeah. That'll be tough.
That would suck. James Harden would absolutely hate DC.
What's your cool throne? What's my cool throne? Yeah. My cool throne's John Mulaney.
Yeah? Turns out, you know, I saw he's kind of a goofy goofball. Turns out he's a fun party guy.
Well, he's in rehab. Used to be a fun party guy.
Well, yeah. Again, it's kind of like Snoop Dogg.
I was shocked when I saw it. That puts you at notch one.
That was like when I saw the news, it was like, oh, I didn't know John Mulaney got down like that. Yeah, no, I agree.
I was shocked by the news as well. Hopefully he gets better.
Yep, yep. Is he like super old for how he looks? No, I think he's in his 30s.
Yes, but Billy's right. Billy's right.
He's got like the vibs look. Oh, he looks young.
He's like 40, but he looks like he's like 25. He's got the opposite of butthole eyes.
He's got clitoris eyes. But I feel like, you know, obviously rehab, I hope he gets better.
But I feel like his street cred went through the roof. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess so. You know, let's hope he doesn't have to use it after.
Why? For what? His street cred. Yeah, because he went through.
Cash and his street cred. Because he went through rehab.
Well, no, you keep the street cred. Street cred isn't like a drug thing.
No, street cred is just like, yo, I just...

Like, if you beat up Hozak and Tego, your street cred will go through the roof.

Right.

You will have so much more street cred than you currently have.

Right.

And you'll be able to buy so many cool drugs.

Like winning fights, drugs, like, you know, getting arrested for partying.

That's how you get your street cred up.

Beast of a person.

Twice.

Yep.

Type person.

No, you are now. Yep.
You're a street cred guy. Everyone just compliment Billy on his street cred up.
Beast of a person. Twice.
I'm not a street cred type person. No, you are now.

Yep.

You're a street cred guy.

Everyone just compliment Billy on his street cred.

Hard.

He's hard.

Billy's big time hard.

Last of the hards.

Last of the hards.

Yeah, a little preview there for the interview coming up.

All right, PFT, what's your hot seat, Cool Toronto?

My hot seat, my first hot seat is the news, just the news in general,

because the boys of Hard Factor are striking out on their own so go subscribe to hard factor they worked with us here for the last two and a half years did uh the last six months also doing the lead-in on serious to the dozen and um they're four of the funniest people i know and they are going to be uh doing i'm not sure if it's patreon or if they're getting a new deal with a different company but the bottom line is if you just subscribe to them right now, you're still going to be able to listen to them in the future. They're keeping all the RSS feed or whatever.
I think so. I don't know how that shit works.
Yeah, but just subscribe to them right now. They're very funny.
Like 15 to 45 minute news doses every morning. Better than New York Times.
I know that's saying a lot. I know you guys think they're hilarious at the New York Times.
But the Hard Factor Boys. Check them out.
My other hot seat is Dwayne Haskins, I guess. I guess we're shaming Dwayne Haskins for being horny.
He had an idiot. Street cred, though.
Street cred. He attended a strip club.
He no longer has diarrhea, so he's relatively healthy now. Went to a fine establishment on Sunday night after the game.
Probably just to get food. Probably to pick up food like Lou Williams and he was not wearing a mask or whatever and his coach is undergoing chemotherapy so he's like, hey, I'd appreciate it if you didn't get me sick and actually become a coach killer dwayne um so this is the second time this year dwayne haskins has violated protocol because he's horny so uh i don't know if he's going to be a football was it a football team football team member exactly you need a fucking mask on the uh right there'll be a football team ryan ryan leaf saying uh it it's like i'm looking in the mirror when talking about duane haskins not good yeah ryan leaf said that he's looked in a lot of mirrors yeah uh i think well listen here's where i question his decision making and a lot of people could misinterpret this i said going to a strip club on sunday is just in general not a smart idea.
Sunday's not a good strip club day. That's a fact.
Big Cat? No. If you go Sunday, you got to go Sunday morning for the breakfast.
No, no, no. But here's the thing.
I don't know what's going on in a pandemic year, but if you're in an NFL city, Sunday night is actually pretty fucking sweet because everyone knows the NFL team goes out and essentially you have like the city to yourself. Well, I'm just saying you smart quarterback in my book would either go Monday for $5 buckets or you go on Thursday for the lunch steak and shrimp combo, maybe Sunday for breakfast.
But yeah, so listen, we're, we're saying, I guess we're just horny shaming Dwayne Haskins. He's the horniest quarterback.
Like you putting also the whole, like, putting his coach at dying. No, it's just sex shaming, big cat.
Yeah. You know what? You know what he's doing? No one's ever needed to go to a strip club that badly.
Dwayne Haskins does. Nope.
All the time. And so I recreated his night.
I did a little forensic investigation. He had strippers over to his house during the game.
They were wearing his jersey during the daytime. Okay.
So he comes home, and he's like, I've got strippers at my his house during the game they were wearing his jersey during the daytime okay so he comes home and he's like i've got strippers at my house i know where we should go i we should go to the strip club with the strip i have to bring them home why the strip club where they live he was dropping them off yeah at work he's like well we got to bring them back to where they came home he was dropping them off at work and he decided that he would go in and make sure that in safely, is what I'm saying. Makes sense.
But, I mean, we don't think about the pandemic affecting dancers, exotic dancers. That's true.
Because it does. Like, what Dwayne Haskins is doing is no different by means of drawing attention than what Dave Portnoy is doing with restaurants.
Dwayne Haskins is just drawing attention to the plight of the unemployed exotic dancer right now. All right, I can get down with that.
Yeah, he's helping these young ladies out. He's probably going to be cut this week.
Yeah, he should be. And he probably should be.
Yeah. And then we're going to have Montez come in who has not played.
Well, no, Taylor Heineke. Montez Sweat.
We got two Montezes.

Yeah.

Two Montezes.

Wait, is that your hot seat or your cool throne?

That was my hot seat.

Okay, you have a cool throne?

My cool throne is Big Cat.

Big Cat's on my cool throne

because somebody sent me a picture of the front row of Iona,

the Iona Gales college basketball team.

Yeah.

And they're doing the cardboard cutouts. Yeah, I'm not in there.
And you're not in there. Well, duh.
So cool throwing you. They're not thinking about you.
No, he probably hopes I'm dead. Because I saw it and I was like, I'm in the splash zone in front of Rick Pitino every game.
Don't do this. And he's probably just staring at me because you've told him that I'm the one that's continuing to make the record.
I haven't said anything. I have not said anything.
You keep making it because you want me to keep getting harassed by a stalker. I'll just remember next time you're stalked and I'm like, hey, stop making jokes about the person who keeps stalking me.
I'll remember how many times you just ran through that stop sign. You're like, I'd rather you just die.
You've never asked me to. I have definitely asked you.
I said, please don't make these jokes anymore. will i will stop right now i don't want to die from a fucking rick patino stalker however if you were killed by rick patino it would be the best story of all time it'd be whatever it would be very very funny hank knows i don't want you to be killed but it'd be very funny yeah no you'll get me killed probably by making the to be crazy.
Yeah. I can't wait for that one.
But the problem is if it was Rick Pitino, I'd be cool with that, but it's not going to be. It's going to be some fucking loser who's obsessed with Rick Pitino, which might be the lamest thing in the world.
Let's set the record straight right now. Big Cat has been anti-talking shit about Pitino.
I actually want Pitino to be successful at Iona. Sure.
I would love that. How great would that be?

Yeah.

But Big Cat has not been making jokes about Rick Patino in the last year.

Don't want the stalker bothering me anymore.

Stop texting me, dude.

He's probably going to text me right after he listens to this.

All right.

My hot seat is the Pro Bowl.

I don't even.

Who cares?

People are getting mad about the Pro Bowl.

Who cares?

Did you see people get mad about the Pro Bowl?

Yeah, a few people got mad.

Who the fuck cares?

Who cares?

Did it get canceled?

No, yeah.

It's not being played.

So who cares?

What did it tweet?

Oh, it's so good. People are getting mad about the Pro Bowl.
Who cares? Did you see people get mad about the Pro Bowl? Yeah, a few people got mad. Who the fuck cares? Did it get canceled?

No, yeah, it's not being played.

So who cares?

What did it tweet?

Oh, it's not even being played.

No, right.

That's why I was like, who cares?

And people were tweeting me like, bro, how are you not mad about Roquan Smith?

I'm like, I don't know.

Why am I?

What?

I should be mad about that?

I don't know.

Here's the only thing I cared about is Yannick and Gakwe did not make the Pro Bowl, so the Jaguars don't get an extra pick. That sucks.
Yes, that does suck. And then the cool throne is Dana White because he released the coolest video ever basically dunking on all of the fucking haters who said that he couldn't make Fight Island or have the UFC go through the pandemic pandemic that was pretty damn cool I love that Dana White is just keeping people employed making highlight reels of himself yeah it's awesome it was a sick video I got so pumped up like if you can have if you can ever make a highlight video where there's just a significant amount of people doubting you and then you you prove them wrong that's a cool thing to.
The most shocking part was that a certain media member from Northwestern university was not included in that. We're not even going to say his name.
Cause I think that, I think Dana knew that that certain person would be looking like a fine tooth comb through that video, just like getting ready to bust a huge load hearing Dana say his name. Yes.
And the fact that he was left off entirely was a massive disappointment to him. Yes, yes.
All right, Billy, what do you got for Hot Seat Cool Throne? My hot seat is my Excel spreadsheet parlay system. It lost this week.
I'd like to apologize to everybody who's running with the spreadsheets, but you didn't lose all your money, and that's all I promised. Going to be better next week.
My cool throne is CJ Bethard, who's supposed to get the start this weekend. And I have a certain affinity for swaggy quarterbacks.
I think C.J. Bethard I think he's pretty swaggy.
He looks like a pirate. He went to Iowa.
That's the no swag. No swag's real swag.
No, Billy, you can't have it both ways because you say that you have an affinity for swaggy quarterbacks like Swag Kelly who would never be. This guy's just one of those guys who's just freaking cool.
Whoa, Billy. I think he's cool as fuck.
No. I think he looks cool as fuck.
He drives like a mid-sized truck and he'll help you move your couch. You said that Trace McSorley or the other quarterback, like when he walks into a frat, all the girls turn and look at him.
Not CJ. That does not happen to CJ Beathard.
No, but I just think CJ Beathard's cool. I think he's cool because the last couple times he's gone into games, and I remember we did that one Thursday night recap.
He's got swaggy, though. When he threw a touchdown.
Not swaggy. To our friend.
Billy, your cool throne should be Nick Mullins if CJ's starting because we established on Sunday's show that it's always the backup quarterback that gives the Niners a spark. Correct.
Right, but I think CJ Beathard's actually going to play really well because he's scored like twice from the top of my head. Yeah, that's what they do.
That's the whole stat that I said. I know, but he might start.
Right, so then it's going to not work. It flips.
Nick Mullins is now the guy. He's now the swag guy.
Whoever comes in is the good guy I know but I know I saw who's getting to start I've been on I've been pro CJ Beathard For a long time And it may not be Since when? What did you You can pull it from earlier In the season I've been like We've had a lot of Three months Long ass time Just look in the descriptions Of part of my take Out of One of the dozens of extended C.J. Beathard conversations we've had.
Is C.J. Beathard on TikTok or something? What happened? I've talked about C.J.
Beathard before on the show. Really? Yes.
I don't know about that. I like him.
I think he's a perfectly outstanding young man. I'll be honest.
Jimmy G walks in a room. Heads are turning.
Yep. Nick Mowens walks in a room.
Heads are like, damn, that's a big head. C.J.
Beath G walks in a room, heads are turning. Yep.
Nick Mowens... He's not going to fuck you, bro.
Nick Mowens walks in a room, heads are like, damn, that's a big head. CJ Beathard walks in a room, nothing.
Iowa. Yeah.
He's kind of got a wild card look, though. What? That's what I'm trying to say.
Slipknot starts playing when he walks in a room. I don't think you know who we're talking about.
I'm thinking about the exact same guy. Hank also bleeped out when he said...
And then when I just said it right there. Mm-hmm.
All right, let's get to our interviews actually we got jeff monken uh army football head coach and guess what he's brought to you by the toughest strongest most advanced silverado ever silverado strong advanced dependable hard-working silverado is dependable like the people who drive them i bet you jeff monken drives a silverado because he's a tough, gritty guy. The design is big, bold, and commanding.
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All right, here he is, head coach of Army football, Jeff Monken. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest, an ultimate football guy.
It is Coach Jeff Monken from Army. They have a bowl game.
So, Coach, we actually reached out to you yesterday before you got a bowl game because we were a gung-ho, let's get Army a bowl game. You got a bowl game.
We still wanted to talk to you because you're an electric football guy. How are we – let's start with the bowl game.
How are we feeling about the bowl game? How did that all come together in the last 24 hours? We're thrilled about the bowl game and the opportunity to play West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl. And I really think it was just a lot of people like you guys really supporting us and saying Army deserves a bowl game.

And I think the first opportunity that kind of flew open was the one in the Liberty Bowl, and they jumped on it, thankfully.

And we're just thrilled.

Yeah, we're thrilled, too.

That's going to be a perfect matchup for you guys, I think.

What was the communication process like between you and your team yesterday

as you found out that there would be

an opportunity to play in a bowl game?

How did you let everybody know?

We didn't officially have word

until last night about,

oh, I guess it was about 7.30.

And we were gathered together.

We were having a dinner

and just getting the guys fed.

And, you know, I didn't want to tell them anything and give them any false hope. So it was really hard to kind of hold on to it.
But we knew all afternoon and kind of leading up to that point that there were things working. And they were reading the Internet and seeing things that were happening.
I'm sure having conversations. But when we announced it to them, they went bananas.
They were just really excited for the opportunity to play. And that was it.
They just wanted to have a chance to play again one more time. And for people who don't understand, for Army this year and for you, Coach, specifically, this is the winningest senior class that has ever gone through at Army, at West Point.
So you guys have had 35 wins. To be able to play together one last time is very, very important.
And on top of that, and this is crazy, I was actually talking to our co-worker, Connor, who went to West Point. He said that the team has been there and has not been able to see their family since May 31st.
Is that right? So we had guys arriving on May 31st, some on June 1st. We had a report date back on June 1st.
And our travel squad, which is 72 guys, we've taken on three road trips this year to Cincinnati, to Tulane, and to UTSA. And not everybody's parents.
A few of the parents were able to make it. Obviously, those are cross-country trips for some of our parents.
So a handful of our guys got to see their folks, but a lot of those travel squad guys didn't. And then all of the guys that aren't on the travel squad who were left at West Point, they haven't seen their families since June the 1st.
And that's a long time for a college kid. And we know people at that age really rely on their parents and their families, and to go this long is really a testament to their mental toughness and their character.
By far the most mentally tough team in America, maybe the most mentally tough. Coach, you actually said – I'm curious this.
The famous pregame speech against Michigan, which you guys took michigan to uh overtime unbelievable game last year you said we're about to introduce the state of michigan to the last of the hearts when you said that did you get chills on your like you know on your arms and down your spine because i think everyone who watched that got chills and were like wow that's the last of the hearts might be the coolest phrase i've ever heard a coach you know utter before a game that's the last of the hards might be the coolest phrase I've ever heard a coach, you know, utter before a game. So the last of the hard is, uh, is a saying that, that, that has its roots to Georgia Southern and the, the, uh, the teams under Eric Russell, that those were some hard teams.
Those, those were some great teams and, and Georgia Southern, as you guys know, has a tremendous football history. And I was fortunate enough to be an assistant there under Paul Johnson for five years and then the head coach for four years.
And that term, the last, the hard was, I believe, the 1989 or 1990 team. And they just, they kind of took on that moniker.
They were a bunch of tough guys. And, you know, I've kind of admired that saying, and I never used it with any other team until 2018 here.
And that team really, I think, to me, epitomized that saying. And these guys and I think our young men at West Point and their classmates who have taken this pledge to serve their nation, and frankly, the over 1 million men and women who serve in the United States Army that we represent when we go and play in this bowl game and we play every week, they are the last of the hard.
They're the people who are willing to do the hard jobs that other people don't want to do, to stand in the

gap between freedom and those that want to take it from us. And that takes a hard person that's

determined and has a spirit about them that's different. And I really felt like our 2018 team

had earned that. And so that's kind of where it came from.
And I believe this team this year has

I'm going to go ahead and get some more questions. And I really felt like our 2018 team had earned that.
And so that's kind of where it came from.

And I believe this team this year has really earned that as well.

It's quite a saying.

But couldn't you make the argument that the 2020 team,

since they're now the last of the Hards, that the 2018 team,

they weren't the last – they were two years before the last of the Hards?

Well, I think just in general, there's a, there's a last few people in every generation that, that are like that. You know, they, they call those that went in world war two, the greatest generation.
And, and perhaps they were, I had three members of my family, my grand grandfather and two great uncles that served in that war. And that's a great source of pride for me and my family.
But but each each new generation of soldiers and each new generation of, I think, army football players has the opportunity to to bear that moniker as well. And that doesn't mean those that went before us weren't.
But there's a dying breed of those people. And I'm glad we still got them because it allows us to lay our head on a bed at night and rest well and know that we're going to wake up being able to enjoy the way of life that we have today.
I think because of the nature of our job of our job we're podcasters we live on twitter i think we're technically the first of the softs like i think we're the first of the softs right i'm kind of i think we're the hardest of the softs no i think we're just the first we're the first generation of the softest people in the world is that okay to say like you Like, you exist to help us. You take on whatever title you want.
I just imagine, like, someone being like, you're the last of the heart to meet. I'd be like, eh, I don't know, man.
I'd rather just kind of sit on the couch here. I mean, I really enjoy watching the last of the heart play football.
You guys have a really fun style of football to watch. I don't think that I'd want to defend it either if i were another coach out there so you were saying earlier how you know it might be a little bit of you know these guys don't really want to take the time to prepare for uh for the triple option how much of that do you think actually goes into the scheduling process where other coaches it's just it's it's too different from everything else that they see all year that it becomes a more, the, the lift isn't really worth it to prepare for the triple option.
I know that's a fact just, just in the challenges and scheduling games as it is, it's an independent and, and it's a, it's a pain to, to prepare for. It's a pain in the butt for us to prepare for.
Even though we do it and we face it in preseason practice and spring ball, it's not what we do throughout the year. We're playing all these other teams.
They're typically not triple option teams or under center double wing teams like we see against the other academies, and when we get to play in those other academies, it's a pain to get prepared for them. So I can absolutely understand that other coaches don't want to do it.
They don't want to change their entire philosophy on defense. It literally, for some guys in a defensive scheme, it's almost like playing a different position or playing a different sport.
They do things in their position against everybody else. And then when they play us, they got to do something entirely different than what they've been taught and what they've been coached to do.
And they can't just line up and run a base call and it fits against us. It's one of the reasons we run it.
And it's probably a lot of the reason that people aren't real fond of scheduling us or playing us or having it pop up in a bowl game like this with very short time period to prepare. Have you thought about just one time coming out and just being like, all right, now we're doing the air raid and they prepared all week for the triple option.
Now you're just throwing every down? Oh, yeah, it's fun to think about, but I wouldn't do that. I mean, it would be fun.
It would be fun. It might not work, but if you spent all week preparing and then it's air raid right in your face, do it.
Yeah, it'd be fun for the other team. They'd transition right back to what they've been doing all year.
In the Army-Navy game, when you call a pass play, do you close your eyes or can you bear to watch it? Crossing my fingers and hoping, no. I'm very confident when we call a pass play.
The thing about the offense that makes it unique is we almost always know what the coverage is going to be or one of a couple of coverages. It's because people have to defend the run on every play, they've got to have a way to support the run from the secondary and include secondary players with guys on a perimeter.
So we don't always know and we can't always dictate it, but we have a pretty good idea. And so when we call a pass play, we've got a fairly good idea that it's going to be open.
In the Army-Navy game, we called that one switch route down there on the goal line. We tried to throw it to the tight end on the seam, and the wheel route was wide open.
If he just turned and tossed it out there to the wheel route, we scored a touchdown. Or I guess that was the – they're all running together.
That was the Air Force game this past weekend. It's something that over the years we've used as a way to balance out the run game and to keep people from just completely forget the pass.
We're going to just play the run. We've got to have something to answer that.
And that's all it is. It's just an answer to counter what we're doing in the run game.
Do you get extra excited when you take up, like my favorite is when Army

goes on like an 11 minute drive.

Do you notice when you get to like

9 and 10 minutes and you're like,

this is awesome.

What are they going to do? They can't stop us.

We might hold the ball for the rest of the

game. Do you get a little extra excited

when it gets to like 10, 11 minutes and you're

like, yep, we still got the ball. We're still driving.

Love it. I love it when it's 10 or 11 minutes and it's first down.
You know you're going to be able to run a couple more minutes off the clock. Yeah.
That frustrates the other team. If we can limit the possessions of the other team, they've got fewer opportunities to score.
And it's been the tool that we've used to keep us in games. Two years ago, three years ago now, I guess 2018, we we went down and played at Oklahoma and they had the Heisman Trophy winner as the quarterback I mean he's a great player and and we held the ball for I think over 45 minutes in the game and and that's what we had to do to win had we given them their normal number of possessions it wouldn't have been 21 21 want at the end of regulation.
It's just a tool that we use, and when we're able to control the ball, it's pretty effective. The longest drive that I've ever been a part of was over 20 minutes on the clock.
Oh, my God. Where was that? Was that Georgia Southern or was that was that army no that was at the school down south

when uh coach johnson was the head coach okay uh 24 minutes uh and some change 26 plays and we kicked the field goal that's incredible so would you rather would you rather run let's say you get the ball at the 20 yard line uh would you rather run for eight yards on first down or run for 11 yards move the chains? I just as soon score on the first play uh makes it all a lot easier but uh always getting first downs that's always what we're looking for is to try to turn the first down okay you mentioned the school down south how long did it take for them to fully trust you as an army guy and be like okay he's not just a an undercover mole from his time at Navy. No, I've always learned you better be loyal to the paycheck.
And I think they knew that too. So I was, when I'm signing the back of the check and they're signing the front of the check, my loyalty is going to be to, to those sign in the front.
So I was really thrilled for this opportunity here. My experience with Coach Johnson at the other academy was extremely valuable in preparing me for this job.
And I'm glad I had a chance to work for Paul Johnson. Just a tremendous coach and so much success and a lot of the blueprint that we've used and my philosophy comes from him.
So this has just been an unbelievable experience to be here

and to take over this historic program

and to be able to experience success with our players.

So we're just working to continue that.

Yeah, I'm mad that Paul Johnson moved on from Georgia Tech.

He's going to take me probably about five more years

before I fully understand that Georgia Tech's not running the triple option.

It's tough to comprehend that. I had one last question, Coach.
So the other famous speech that you had, it was after, I think, the Temple game. I got famous speeches.
I didn't know that. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. We'll put this clip in there just so people don't know what we're talking about but i think it was after the uh temple game in 2017 that i'm gonna fight till i can't fight no more i can't fight no more i can't fight no more i'm gonna lie down i'm gonna bleed a while i'm gonna get up fight some more i'm gonna fight i'm gonna fight I'm going to get out.
Fight some more. I'm going to fight.

I'm going to fight.

Fight.

I can't fight no more.

I can't fight no more.

I can't fight no more.

I'm going to lie down.

I'm going to bleed a while.

Get out.

Get out. Fight some more.
Fight some more. When you did that, was that the most electric locker room of all time? Because if you watch that video and you don't get, like the hair doesn't stand up on your arms, you don't have a soul.
You know, it's always fun to go into a locker room after a team has won the game. And there is a level of excitement.
I don't know if there was a locker room more electric than the one on Saturday night when we brought that Commander-in-Chief's trophy back in there. Our guys were going bananas.
It was awesome.

But Derek Moore, who was the director of player development for us at Georgia Tech, who's just an unbelievable guy, great motivator, that was something that he used to do with the teams at Georgia Tech. And I mean, I loved it.
He was just awesome. He's a dynamic speaker and just an engaging personality and, and, uh, and chant justice.
But he did that, and I loved it. And our guys really have latched on to it.
But that's part of the culture of West Point football. So Greg Gatson, who played here, was a team captain alongside Chuck Shretzman in 1988.
They won the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, played for Jim Young. And they had a sign, a plaque that they made.
It was a homemade sign that was attached to the wall on the way going out to the field from the locker room. And it was much of that same chance.
So that's a poem, an old poem that was written, an English or Scottish poem. And it basically says that, you know, fight on my merry men all, for I am merely wounded, I am not slain.
I will lay me down for the bleed a while and rise and fight with you again. So we kind of took that and changed it a little bit.
But that is also on a piece of plywood with some sticker letters that Greg Gatson brought to our team. Oh, two or three years into my tenure here and presented to the team, we immediately put it up on the wall.
And so it's on the wall going out to the field from our locker rooms. So that's not something that I started.
That's something that's been here in our program for decades. And we were just, we were really happy to kind of rekindle that fire.
I love it. Yeah, it really is.
I watch it every now and then just to get pumped up. So it's something special for sure.
So, Coach, before we let you go, we got some good news for you, maybe the second bit of good news that you received in the last 24 hours. Every year here at Pardon My Take, we give out the Loman T Trophy, and the Lowman Trophy is awarded annually to the nation's top college fullback.
So we respect fullbacks. I know you respect fullbacks up there in your offense as well.
The nominees are just in right now, so I wanted to let you know that you do have a finalist on your team, a Lowman finalist. Jacoby Buchanan has been officially uh officially confirmed as a finalist for the low man trophy if you want to pass that along to him uh feel free to but we're uh we're going to be giving out the award in a couple weeks and who knows who knows maybe he'll put something on film during the uh during the bowl game and uh dodge him across the finish line there well the guys on cbs saturday i guess we're calling him the wrecking ball so So he's kind of like that.
He's a big load and he really did a great job of carrying the weight of the team for us this past weekend. We had some guys heard and some guys out and that last drive, he was banged up and had to come out two different times limping off and he just slugged it out and and was a warrior.
I was so proud of him. So I know he'll appreciate the nomination.
Yeah, I'm just confused why they would call him the wrecking ball when the Buchanan ball is right there. To me, that makes way more sense.
That is too. You could change that to C-A-N-N-O-N, Buchanan ball.
That would be very fitting, wouldn't it? Yes. Well, Coach, thank you so much.
Best of luck in the Liberty Bowl. We'll be watching.
We'll also be watching because hopefully Army can take home the low man trophy. And thanks so much for your time.
We really appreciate it. Appreciate it, guys.
Beat Navy. I love it.
Beat Navy. Thanks, Coach.
That interview with Jeff Monken was brought to you by our great friends at McDonald's. It's McRib season.
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BK, you know what that means? McRib Day. I made you say it twice because I'm getting two McRibs.
I'm getting a McDonald's Sprite, and I'm getting large fries, and I'm going to eat like a king. It's my favorite day of the week.
Billy just got, what did you get, 20 McRib? I gave you 20 McRib gift certificates? I've been handing them out kind of flexing on people. To who? Like if I needed like, you know.
You've been using my McRib gift to you for clout? No, I've been just sliding them to people and be like, hey, get a McRib on me. It's been pretty awesome.
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Get yourself a McRib today. And now here's Rachel Nichols.
ESPN. And now for something completely different.
Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend. You can see her every single day on The Jump.
NBA is back. That means Rachel Nichols is back.
Back, baby. Very much back.
A little too early. I'm not ready for it, but that's okay.
It's late December. You always get the NBA in late December.
I know. It just feels like the season just ended because it kind of did.
But we're going to do Western Conference with Rachel and then we're going to have Richard Jefferson do Eastern Conference. So let's start with the top of the Western Conference.
Can LeBron win his first championship with the Lakers? Yeah, I think we really need to dig into that one because it's unclear, right? Is he ever going to get it done in LA? Yeah, so you agree last year didn't count. No.
Having been in the bubble, I'm repping for the bubble. I'm going to rep for the bubble too, by the way, the bubble is for real.
None of this others like, come on. It was fake.
The bubble is for real. Do you miss any parts about the bubble? Um, no, I like eating my food on real plates.
So I'm, I'm good. Um, we, we can get even real silverware there for part of the time, uh because, you know, can transmit disease.
So you have to be very careful. I would say I found out today that more people have bet on the Lakers to win the title this coming year than have bet on any other team combined.
Well, okay. So they are the odds-on favorite.
It makes sense. Now, a real question, did LeBron, was he the reason why they're playing less games this year so that he can just have built-in load management? It feels like we're just catering the NBA to LeBron James in the twilight of his career.
You heard him. If we were catering to LeBron James, we would not be starting this week.
He was definitely pushing for a late January start. Maybe even like May.
I don't know. But, yeah, they basically showed him and the rest of the Players Association that if they started on Martin Luther King Day instead, that the league would lose an additional half a billion dollars in revenue.
And that money eventually comes out of players' packets too. So, yeah, that's why we're starting this week.
Yeah. What about – here's a hypothetical.
What do you think about the Seattle Supersonics coming back? Because Adam Silver said yesterday – Dude, first of all, I'm so relieved that's how you ended that sentence because knowing you, that sentence could have ended any which way. Yeah, you're right.
It could have gotten very, very scary. But I heard Adam Silver yesterday talking about expansion of the NBA.
It feels like, and I know a lot of people up in Seattle that would like very much to have the Sonics come back. Our friend Spencer Hawes has worked on that project as well in the past.
But is it a possibility for our friends in the Pacific Northwest that they could be getting the Sonics back within a couple of years? Well, I'd like to say that this decision or these comments by Adam Silver are driven by the heartwarming realization that Seattle just definitely deserves a team and the league has done them wrong all these years. The truth is they need money.
And if they expand again, it's about a billion dollars a franchise. So it would definitely be a way right now they're talking about, oh, should we put more Jersey patches on stuff like that to make up the extra revenue they're not getting from ticket sales uh the Seattle student personics coming back that would be a hell of a jersey patch you would definitely um rake in the cash so that's why they're talking about it now he says it's not on the front burner I don't know what burner it's on like the sixth burner the middle burner but um I know a lot of people in Seattle woke up happy today.
Yes, that would be amazing. Where would you guys want to see the second team? Because they come in twos.
So would you want Vancouver? Would you want Vegas? Pittsburgh. Vancouver would not care at all.
They would not give a shit about the NBA. Vancouver would be cool just so we could do big country, Bryant Reeves.
Oh, the jerseys were nice up there. San Diego.
San Diego. I think New York deserves another team yeah i think i think so too i think that's a good call best basketball city in the world all right so there so la does have two teams let's talk about the clippers real quick it seems like so the clippers were a disaster in the bubble uh they all hated each other what it seemed like uh well yeah they spent the entire season being like hey we just flip the switch, and then it didn't happen.
So the plan that, as far as I understand, is pay Playoff P a bunch of money, and they're probably going to just trade him next year, and then bring in Serge Ibaka and hope that his cooking show and general niceness will make everyone get along better and play better. Is that right? Have you seen that? Have you seen that cooking show? It's awesome.
No, I'm being serious. Like I actually think they brought in Serge Ibaka and they're like, Serge can figure out a way to get everyone to get along.
And hopefully that makes us better. I think the episode he had Kawhi on, he asked him to eat cow penis, right? Or was that a different episode? No, that I, you, you are correct.
You are correct. Yeah.
So that's an important part of the Clippers this year. No, look, it's what are they made of, right? They got embarrassed in the bubble.
Do you come back sort of pissed off, as Patrick Beverly says, and hungry? Or do you come back and show you can't really hack it, right? I don't know. What do you guys think they're going to be? I think they're going to be.
Yeah.

I think they won't be.

Hold back, guys. Hold back.

I mean, I kind of feel like I have to be a little bit harder on them this year

because I did start to buy into them last year.

I was like, no, that perimeter defense is going to show up.

Those guys can really put the clamps on you.

And then they made me look foolish, Rachel.

That's what I have a problem with is, like,

I don't know shit about the NBA or basketball. I watch it and I enjoy it but I'm not an analyst so when I get something in my head that I'm then proved wrong about I'm gonna hold that against that team for forever yeah so like the Clippers like between getting rid of Blake Griffin and then making one of my takes wrong last year I I just can't look at him the same way.
But PFT, you forget Paul George is back with his trainer to return to his MVP caliber, which again, just to remind everyone, he has never won an MVP. First of all, I'm impressed that PFT used put the clamps on.
That was really verbiage right there. Do you have anything, any other new cool saying that I can overuse? Everybody in the NBA, I was about to say one, everybody in the NBA when they come back from an offseason, they say, oh, I put on 10 pounds of muscle.
So to your point about Paul George or anyone else, you guys can say that you're entering this new NBA season with 10 pounds of muscle. That's exactly what I put on.
Which is what those 10 pounds are, I think. I think the Clippers...
Definitely from looking at you guys. Yeah, I think the Clippers are probably not...
Like, it's... What PFT said is kind of correct.
Like, you think... There'll be a stretch in the season where you'll think they're a really, really good team, and then when it comes to crunch time, you have to expect Paul George to make big plays.
And, yeah, I just... i unfortunately i think the lakers are by far the best team in the west it's not close you have other teams there yeah yeah let's talk about them so so the so the the darlings of the bubble there were three darlings of the bubble in the west uh well actually no there were four but the mavs with luca the nuggets with their, and the Suns who didn't make the playoffs, any of those three teams, can any of those three teams actually make a real contention with the Lakers for the top of the West? Well, don't forget about the Trailblazers.
Yeah, they're bubble darlings. But they also, like, we kind of know what they are, and they're awesome to watch and really, really fun to root for.
But until they can play, like, even a lick of defense, you can't really take them seriously, right? Well, I think they had a very good offseason. Robert Covington should help their defense.
I don't know if that makes them a contender in the West. The West is so kind of stacked and crowded there after the Lakers.
But I am curious to see what happens with that team. The Suns with Chris Paul should be really good.
I'm not expecting them to contend for a title, but I think they would solidly get in the playoffs there. You know, we have no idea what the Rockets are going to be.
Like, are they going to play with John Wall and James Harden? I don't know. Speaking of, I don't know.
Are we in the point of the episode where after the Dwayne Haskins strip club? Because this will now be the third time. Yeah.
If I'm about to bring up James Harden strip clubs. Although we didn't really bring up the Lou Williams strip club from the bubble.
So. No, we just.
This needs to be the all strip club broadcast. We discussed Lou Williams a little bit earlier today on Part My Take.
But yeah, James Harden is, I don't think he liked the strip clubs in D.C. I don't feel like that's like his, that doesn't seem like his thing.
He did put on a solid 10 pounds this off season, maybe a little bit more. 10 pounds of something.
Is he like actually purposely eating his way out of town? Because if he is respect, I don't know. I do know that one of the ESPN reporters asked him when he gave his press conference, he said, why did you go to Atlanta and Las Vegas? What message were you trying to send? And James said, I'm training.
And the reporter said, Tim McMahon, he said, what were you training for? The 4th of July. Yeah, that's something.
I don't know. So they're a question in the West too, right? What are they going to be? What are they going to do? I think what's cool about the West, especially this year,

is the play-in tournament, right?

You have the last two spots in the playoffs

will be determined by this play-in tournament.

So you're going to have this big cloud of teams

going for the top seeds,

and I think the Nuggets will definitely,

to answer your other question,

will be in there.

But then you also will have this huge cloud of teams

at like 7, 8, 9

that will be competing for the play-in spot.

It'll be pretty good.

How long do you think James Harden

will be in the West?

I mean, look, they have to wait for a team to be desperate.

And how long is that going to take?

Right?

So the reason I say that is to get a Paul George type package,

to get an Anthony Davis type package in trade,

which is what you want if you're the Rockets, right?

You got a player who, no matter what you think of James Harden,

if you like watching him play basketball or not,

he has been top five in MVP voting six of the last seven years. He holds a ton of scoring records.
He is a walking playoff berth. So he is a guy who you want to get huge value for if you are trading him away.
And the problem is the Clippers were desperate when they made that deal for Paul George. The Lakers were desperate when they made that deal for Anthony Davis.
There is no desperation from anyone else in the league right now who's like, oh my God, what we really need is James Harden, and I'm just going to hold my nose with how much I got to give up and make the deal. So I don't know when someone's going to get desperate.
It could definitely happen before the trade deadline. There's like a team that's expected to do well that sucks, or there's a team where some guy gets injured.
Someone could definitely get but until someone gets desperate i don't know are you guys desperate like until someone gets desperate i don't see james harden moving because the rockets know once they give him up there's nothing left yeah yeah uh what about the other side of the weight gain weight loss coin zion i've heard that zion is like actually slimmed down quite a bit i don't know if that's like he's in the best shape of his life stuff, which everybody says every training camp, or if Zion is actually looking lighter on his feet. We heard going into the bubble that Zion was in great shape, and then he didn't play like it.
So I don't know what we're getting this year, obviously. If he can keep himself sort of on the leaner side of what his range is, they've taken the minutes restriction off of him.
I mean, those guys could be dangerous. I don't really know what we're going to get from that team though.
You know, it's a fun fact. Zion is the longest tenured Pelican right now.
Yes. That's a fun fact.
You got to say that every now and then. Just be like, hey, people forget that Zion actually has been the longest tenured Pelican because their team is all new guys or guys that came after he was drafted.
It's just funny because, I mean, the longest tenured Pelican is not a phrase that reeks with majesty or drips with history. Oh, it doesn't? I think it absolutely does.
It absolutely does. If I'm hearing the words tenured Pelican, I'm just thinking of the Pelican with the biggest beak in the world.
That's a pretty cool answer. The great pelicans of days past.
Yes. The grainy footage in the 60s of the pelicans taking out the Celtics and the Lakers.
Yes. You got it.
Remember the Warriors? I've heard them. Yeah.
So, Clay, obviously, that sucks. But the Warriors will have Steph back.
I feel like we just forgot that the Warriors exist. Are they going – like, what is the feeling about the Warriors' prospect this year? Obviously, it sucks that Clay's hurt.
But they have James Wiseman, Draymond, and Steph. Are they going to be in the mix or no? I don't know, man.
I've been burned. I thought they were going to be good last year, right? I was like, it's okay.
I mean, you know, Clay will come back like middle of the season, and those guys showed when they played without KD in the playoffs the year before for that stretch. They're still a great team.
You know, they swept the Blazers without Kevin, all that stuff and then of course they absolutely completely fell apart and part of that was steph's injury but even before that it wasn't pretty so i'm i'm it's it's tender for me still i feel like you with the with the clippers like i just i don't know if i can put all my eggs in that basket again but i want to yeah i just don't know yeah i want to i want the warriors to be back in the mix it's fun i want them to be good right yeah i mean i think we i think we got so exhausted from them uh for their run by the end we're like oh we're so sick of the warriors are so good but it was weird last year not having steph in big playoff games in big moments and like watching that team and having fun,

like seeing what they were doing. So I I'm ready for them to be back.

I'm ready for the Warriors to be back in the mix.

Well,

it's kind of nice.

I want it to happen.

Yeah.

It was kind of nice last year,

being able to fall asleep at halftime of a Warriors game that started at like

1030 at night and not have to worry about waking up in the morning and

finding out that they scored,

they outscored him by like 40 points.

And Stephon scored 80.

Yeah.

In the third quarter. So that was, that my personal peace of mind.
Now, we just had the NBA's annual general manager survey, and Steph Curry was named the best point guard in the league again, but 90% of GMs called him the best point guard last season, only 30 this season. And our guys, you talked to Richard when you talked to him,

Richard was like, well, if Steph's the best

point guard, what's LeBron James if he's the best

player and he's listed at point guard?

Yeah. Is he actually listed

at point guard? He was last season.

I mean, I don't think of him as a point guard

still, and the GMs put him as the best power

forward, so, you know. Yeah, that's just

a LeBron thing. He's probably

going to list himself as a center so that

just everyone is reminded that he also plays

the five sometimes. Father.
He's going to list himself

I'm sorry. forward so you know yeah that's just a little thing right he should probably he's probably gonna list himself as a center so that just everyone is reminded that he also plays the father he's gonna list himself just his father that was a nice way did you see lebron kind of getting his way you know like everyone was talking about charlie woods and lebron then did an instagram post who's like look at the biggest honor is like teaching them and it was charlie woods and then i think uh was it serena's daughter as well he just inserted himself into that we get it lebron your dad yeah aren't you aren't you gonna be like that though no absolutely not my son is probably gonna be remarkably average in every single way right but then that's exactly what i'm talking about he could really follow in your footsteps just being remarkably average that's yeah kind of our way around here.
That's true. Right? The most perfectly.
Yeah. Yeah, I can see the emotional Instagram post from you.
Look, he almost took his first step. I like that.
Yes, I like that. He is walking.
He's fully walking. We've had this theory on the show for a while.
Do you think that if LeBron James could, like if there was a medical for him to to get pregnant or to like get pregnant with his own baby and then carry it to terms that he would do it i'm sure i don't know any man who would be willing to do that schwarzenegger the species would be done yes i it's true i'm not saying he would like give birth i'm saying he he would just like to carry it and then have a c-section there's that easy you know he would you know he would Rachel you're protecting him one thing I am concerned about with LeBron is the short off season so he's spent his not as much wine drinking you can get in but he's really been he's been fitting a lot into a short amount of time because he's just been doing nothing but watching sports, drinking wine and then live tweeting sports as he watches them. Like, I don't think he's ever sat down and watched a full NBA or full NFL season or like the MLB playoffs in his life.
But he's like obsessed with watching sports now. Do you think that he's his sedentary lifestyle is going to impact his first couple weeks on the court i mean come on he was also uh instagramming reshoots of uh of the movie right oh space oh yeah yeah he's laser focused yes very focused baby braun exactly baby braun alert for every it really was the first time he's ever watched sports it was crazy he just was tweeting about everything too much everyone's stuck in their homes man yeah how many that is true how many assistant producer credits is lebron james able to get on space jam to circumvent the salary cap for new free agents that come in that would be a good one actually i mean they did take some guys at the minimum yes yeah yeah see a future here it's interesting um yeah't Marc Gasol? Marc Gasol's on the Lakers now.
They swap him out. That sucks.
Because I love the Gasols. So that's going to suck to watch him on the Lakers.
Wait. As opposed to Powell? Yeah.
I've always liked Marc more than Powell. I like Powell as well just because I like his game.
But Marc is the chubby brother. So.
Right. I mean, who doesn't like that? Modestly average.
Right, right. It's like, oh, okay, well, it's just pal, but just chubbier.
Mark drafted as a Laker, as you know. Who is? Mark drafted as a Laker, as you know, I'm sure.
Yes, yes, yes. And then the league basically conspired to help Kobe get a ring.
Now we're going deep. Give us your team that is going to shock people.
It can't be the T-Wolves because I'm sick of everyone being like, look how much they got Kat and they got Anthony Edwards now and they have all these guys and it's going to be great. No, and D'Angelo Russell.
The T-Wolves are the T-Wolves. They'll always be the T-Wolves.
Well, I don't have a shocker. I think the Suns are going to take a big leap, but that's not a surprise to anyone.
And I'm probably not allowed to dip into the Eastern Conference because that's Richard's territory. But I would say I'm very curious to see what the Wizards do, right? You've got Bradley Beal, Russell Westbrook.
Literally anything could happen with that team. They could start winning games and go on a run.
They could start losing games by 50. I have no idea what's going to happen with that team.
So that's the one I'm just sort of, is my biggest mystery. They're currently dealing with a pink eye outbreak.
So as soon as we get done with that, I think this is like Rui Hachimara's second year in a row, starting the season on the IR with a case of conjunctivitis. So not a great start, but yeah, anything can happen.
It doesn't say allow for your COVID protocols if there's pink eye spreading through any team, right? No, Dwayne Haskins is probably going to show up with some pink eye based on one of the pictures I saw. Yes, yes, that's a good point.
I know you guys have already talked about it, but I have to ask, why was everybody so upset? Like the part that cracked me up was that it was like, and he was there without a mask. Yeah.
You're really not focusing on the main problem, are you? Right. Well, honestly, I think the reason why people are upset about that, at least here's why I'm actually upset, because you can fake and be pretend and get mad at a player going to a strip club, but guess what? Players are going to go to strip clubs going to happen all the time uh the fact that like ron rivera is getting over cancer treatments that yeah and the fact that duane haskins has been busted once before this year breaking the covid protocols and he got fined and basically benched for doing it and then he went out and did it again that's to me it's like okay i think i think i'm done with this guy i get what he's not going to be able to do his maturation process so i've uh i've made a clean break in my heart with duane sorry duane we have some judgment issues that's all i'm saying the mask is just a little tiny tiny tiny part yeah i had one last question for you rachel i saw rudy gobert got a max deal everyone clowned on it on Twitter I actually don't hate it as much as everyone else what is like the people you talk to what have they said about Rudy Gobert getting paid like 205 million dollars dude first of all it wasn't a super max so they didn't pay him as much as they could have so they did I don't know if you save money when you're paying over $200 million, but there was bargaining there.
But the bottom line is the Jazz can't lose Rudy Gobert, two-time defensive player of the year. He's a cornerstone with Zoneman Mitchell.
They have a new owner. A guy just bought the team.
If they lose him, if he became a free agent next season, next offseason, who's replacing him? Utah does not attract free agents, and that's not my personal big on Utah. It's just a fact from what we've seen over the last 20 years.
So it's like buying a house, right? There only needs to be one buyer for you to sell your house. They only needed the Utah Jazz to think he was valuable, and obviously he's valuable to them, so he gets the money.
Good on him as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree.
I know everyone was shitting on it, but it's like he is a very, very good – wow, that was a crazy flag toss by the – we're watching bowl games right now. It's bowl season.
This is what I'm talking about. NBA's back a little too early.
That was – I know it's late. Everything is happening all at once.
All at once. Everything is happening all at once, all the time, which is amazing because we spent four months earlier this year with nothing happening all of the time.
Alright, so give us your winner out of the West if it's not the Lakers. I don't predict! Come on, how many years have you been doing that? Predict, predict, predict.
No, no, no. Just give us a prediction.
Do not take my joy. My joy is not knowing what's going to happen.
The best part of sports is not knowing how the movie ends. Everything I watch, every fucking thing, I know how it's going to end.
I love superhero movies. I know how they're all going to end by the time I sit down.
I don't know how this is going to end. You cannot make me.
I love the F-bombs. When Rachel drops an F-bomb on part of my cake, that's like you reach the God moment.
She did that as a bargaining for not predicting. Yeah, exactly.
Like, I'm not going to predict. I'm not going to fucking predict.
Yeah, smart. Smart.
You can't make me.

At the very least,

we're going to have Richard on

and he's going to talk about the East.

He'll predict anything.

He'll throw out six predictions.

Give us something that he's been saying a lot

that we can say before he says it.

Yeah.

And we'll sound really smart.

He'll be like, hey, that's my line.

It's impossible to embarrass Richard Jefferson

because of all of the efforts he makes.

The tattoo?

Because the tattoo he has? Yeah. Yeah.
No, we know. That tattoo is the worst tattoo of all time.
There you go. He's very proud of the fact that he's calling two games on Christmas Day.
So you definitely want to ask him about that. Okay.
What? Because he'll tell you all about it. What? A lot at length.
What two games? He will be calling both the early game and the late game from his house. They are having two of the five Christmas Day games as remote games.
Wow. And, yeah, the last one I know is Denver Clippers, Nuggets Clippers.
I don't remember which is the first one, but it's on the ESPN ABC Christmas slate. But Richard is going to be the analyst for both of those games, and he's very excited, and

we'll talk to you the entire segment about it.

How many options did we have to burn through

on the production side before we landed on

like, we'll have Richard Jefferson in

his house call the game?

I mean, you should ask him that.

I will. We're going to preemptively tell him

that that's not that impressive, because

honestly, he's probably

not going to watch the middle games. He's probably going to spend spend time with his family whereas the real ones will be watching every game so that's hard his line on the jump today when we brought up again he's very proud we brought up what he's doing he said that they had to find the person at espn who liked their family the least and that they settled on him and therefore he's calling two games on christmas.
I got to agree with him. We're going to steal that line from him right off the top.
That's perfect. Thank you.
Boom. All right.
Well, thank you, Rachel. Happy the NBA is back.
Thank you for joining us. And who did you say was going to win the West? Good luck getting to that average middle friend.
Damn. Okay.
Who's going to finish exactly averagely? Exactly average. Oh, That's a good one, right? Who's going to try to emulate them? Yeah, my entire life.
I like that. That's where you want to be in life.
Never too good, never too bad. Alright, well thank you Rachel.
Bye guys. Thanks Rachel.
See ya. That interview with Rachel Nichols ESPN was brought to you by 3Chi, our great friends over at 3Chi.
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And now, here's Richard Jefferson. Okay, we now welcome on, friend of the program, recurring guest.
It is Richard Jefferson. He hosts a sports satire digital show found on YouTube.
It's called The Sports Gap. He also has a podcast, Road Tripping, with Channing Frye and Allie Clifton.
So check that out as well. And we heard, is this true? You're calling two games on Christmas Day.

How much do you, does your family hate you, man? Well, you know, the good news is, is that I get to actually be home for Christmas Day.

So if the trade-off is not me traveling to Canada and leaving Christmas Eve,

but I got to be home, but downstairs in the basement for a few hours,

you know, they still hate me, but it's just like I care less because I'm here. It's like, you can hate me, but downstairs in the basement for a few hours, you know, they still hate me,

but it's just like, I care less because I'm here. It's like, you can hate me, but I'm still here.
How many people passed on the opportunity to do these games before they landed at Richard Jefferson from his basement? We'll call this one. I don't know.
I think a lot of people, you know, it's a long list, but it moves fast. so I would say that Mark didn't want to do it

Doris then you got Jeff. So it was really, it was more of just like, hey, this guy, he wants to do that.
But I'm excited. Honestly, I kid you not.
Christmas Day is the biggest game and the biggest day. So for them to be like, hey, Richard, you're going to be doing it twice.
So for people that don't like hearing like hearing my voice for you know six hours on christmas day they just have to suck it up so i always have had a theory that christmas day bet the under because teams guys are uh out of rhythm they're with their family they're eating a big meal they're spending time with their kids christmas morning except for when the season starts on christmas day which had happened a few probably like what 10 years ago when there was the lockout and then this year you you'd have to imagine guys aren't going to have like it's not going to be this break Christmas Day because they got to get excited for the start of the season so it won't be as slow and uh you know like drawn out By the way, this is a a very long theory but it's right it's always right as it when you played on christmas day did you not see that uh to be true yeah but it's different now like again like the first time i played on christmas day there was like two games now there's like an all-day slate so guys are kind of in it plus there's a level of knowing that everybody's going to watch like these games it's really it's opening day it's christmas day and it's postseason so like there's a you know that there's a lot of attention on christmas day so even if guys are a little bit like full if guys are a little bit you know you know happy from christmas or family in town they still know that there's a lot at risk right like you don't want to to get dunked on on Christmas Day because that's all that's going to be seen. You don't want to have a buzzer beater or have a bad game.
Guys, I think, are more in a mode of understanding that there's a little bit more at stake. Okay.
Okay. All right.
Let's talk Eastern Conference. Okay.
You know Kyrie Irving. You were a teammate of Kyrie Irving.
How crazy is Kyrie Irving?

I don't think Kyrie's crazy by any means. I think he's, you know, eccentric.
But, you know, I think Kyrie's a person that he really wants to be viewed more than just, like, as a basketball player, as a human being, as a father, you know, as an artist. Like, he's been using that term quite a bit.
But, you know, look, we'd be lying if we say that Kyrie is the most eccentric person to ever come across in the NBA we'd be lying we say he's the most eccentric superstar right I don't even know if he's the most eccentric superstar like in the game today uh Kyrie is just an individual that just Kyrie is Kyrie that that's who he is and I I think as much as like things that he does, whether it's the sage and, and like, you know, but then Kyrie will get on and just like, Hey, this is what I believe in. This is it.
If you guys want to make a big deal about it, that's on you, but this is just a part of who I am. So I just take them for that.
You answered the question, by the way, when you said Kyrie is Kyrie, anytime you say Kyrie, you know, Kyrie being Kyrie or this person being like that Manny being man that answers it right there so thank you I I agree you're welcome I agree just Kyrie being Kyrie let him be himself so which head coach of the Brooklyn Nets do you think is most likely to win coach of the year this year god I love your questions I miss you guys can I tell you how much I I miss you guys? We miss you too, man. We miss you too.
Which head coach? They're going to be doing that weird thing where Steve Nash might be the head coach some days, and then Kyrie said, I might take on coaching responsibilities on another. Kevin Durant, Mark L.
Tony. Again, this is a political answer that I know you guys don't always like to hear and stuff, but look, I was once told that great players show coaches how to coach.
Right. So when you say it, when you say that standpoint, it's more of like, look, Kyrie is going to see things.
Kevin Durant's going to see things. LeBron James, Dirk, these guys are going to see things that coaches don't necessarily always pick up on.
So I think that's what he was trying to say. It's like, hey, look, we know how to play basketball.
A coach's job is never to teach guys how to play basketball, especially superstar. There's nothing Steve is going to teach KD or Kyrie like per se, but their, his job is to teach them how to play within the group of players that have been assembled.
So I think that's where you got Dan Tony, you got Jack Vaughn who was there, you know, you know, Steve already had a relationship with Kevin Durant for via their time at the Warriors. So I think it's always a collective unit.
If you think that, oh, you could have said the same thing for Lakers. It was like, whether it's Jason Kidd or Frank Vogel or Lionel Hollins.
And you're like, well, which one's the head coach in this? And then you got LeBron James, who was also like a coach on the floor. But you can bring a collective unit together and they can do well.
Do you expect the Nets to perform like kind of up to those expectations that we have, given the amount of talent that they've assembled on the court and on the bench? Yeah, I think their expectations should be, you know, a high level playoff team. To put like a championship on them when you have their two best players coming off injury you have a first-time head coach and a brand new coach like in their system with this group uh i think the expectations i think look if they get to the conference finals and lose to milwaukee or lose to a hot boston i think that's a great season i don't think it's championship or bust if they have championship or goals.
I think the Clippers taught us that last year. You can have two superstars.
You can have a loaded bench with the sixth man of the year. You can have a veteran coach in Doc Rivers and not have everything pan out the way you want.
But when you have a new group together, it's not one-year championship or bust. And so I'm kind of taking the Nets that way.
Okay. So another team in the East that we're not forgotten about, because I think the Nets do take a lot of the headlines right now with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving coming back, but the Bucs.
And Giannis signing the mega deal, and Giannis staying, and all Bucs fans being relieved. But do you think there's added pressure now that like, okay gotta you gotta do it now you gotta get to the finals you have to like get to that next level when you get to the playoffs instead of being a 50 win team in the regular season winning MVPs and then bouncing in in the first or you know the second or third round yeah there's expect but look man like that's the crazy thing about like this about this league and professional sports is Giannis didn't work every single day to push himself to be the MVP twice.
He's in such a league category. So to say that there's pressure on them to get to the finals, damn well there should be.
You didn't work this hard just to be a 50-win team. You worked this hard, but that's where the tears come in.
That's when the tears come in and the loss. That's where the tears come in and wins.
Whereas when you see grown men crying, it's like, dude, you lost sleep over this. You were working four or five hours a day during the summer just to maintain your fitness.
So when you put it all on the line and it doesn't work out, that shit sucks. When you put it all on the line and it works out, it's the greatest feeling that you'll ever experience.
So I think for the Bucs, I think they have years. Right now, you want to keep progression.
You want to continue to see Giannis grow. They got to put better players around them.
And that's not a knock on Drew. That's not a knock on Lopez.
It's not a lock on any of the guys that have been there. But ultimately, it's not getting it, right? It's a great regular season team and their job now is to transfer that into a great postseason team.
What is it about Giannis though? Cause I, this, maybe you can explain it to us. The difference in playoff basketball versus regular season basketball, cause you've seen it with James Harden as well, where these prolific scores, these guys that are dominant in the regular season, you get to the playoffs and everything changes and their style of play and being able to get easy baskets just goes away what why is that and how can Giannis like fix that well I think it's some some of it has to do with the way that they play in the regular season it's the way that they play um you know um the style of basketball they play now understand this a lot of people say that like, oh, basketball slows down come the postseason.
Well, that's not true because you just have better, you have teams that take better shots. You have teams that play better defense and you have teams that, that don't turn the ball over.
When you don't turn the ball over, that leaves the transition buckets. Good teams don't turn the ball over.
That's why they're a good team. So the game slows down because the play improves.
And so I think for guys like Giannis, you have to work game one on things that will help you guys win come game, you know, you know, 83, which is ideally the postseason. And so it's like, if you're just like, oh, we're going to play this and we're going to dominate, we're going to win every single regular season game, but you're not working on anything that will help you prepare for a longer term series, then that's a failure.
And I think a lot of people put that on Coach Bud. That's why he was on a little bit of a hot seat.
I think for them, it's more about just like, hey, okay, Giannis, this second half, you're not going to be the point guard. Well, what if we lose coach? Doesn't matter..
Our job is to prepare our team, or we're just not going to play you in the fourth quarter so that these guys can get minutes playing this style, or so we can work on, we're just going to have you in the post, or we're going to space you out so guys are able to handle all the different styles that can be thrown at you come postseason. But that might cost you regular season games, right? But it you for the postseason what about the uh what about the heat they seem to be another team that i don't know if we've forgotten about the heat because they were you know obviously we talked about them a lot at the end of the bubble uh but they were a team that seemed to perform better in the conditions of the bubble where everybody else kind of like no one no other team embraced the bubble like the heat did i'll put it that way like jimmy butler being like no disrespect to families but i'm glad that i'm here without my family so that i can win uh are they going to like be able to use any of that momentum that they got from last year do you think that that's going to carry over into this year or do you think that they might take a step back because that confidence once you get that confidence like for guys like tyler hero duncan you know, Bam out of bio, that young core that they have when you add Jimmy and Goran.
It's like once you've seen it, it's like, yo, there is no big game. Right.
There's not a big game on a Thursday in OKC. Why? Because you played in the NBA finals.
So that confidence is now instilled in them. They know what it takes.
They've played that many games. I think that group, though, they played well because there was no crowd.
And you saw it. It was more of young players really excelled, whether it's Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell, what we saw from Tyler and Duncan Robinson, even guys like T.J.
Warren. And you saw Devin Booker.
These guys played really well in the bubble. And, you know, other the superstars obviously played well, but the noticeable jump and like high level play was from the younger players.
When you don't have travel, when you don't have to deal with crowds, when you don't feel that pressure of like, oh, we're down, you know, to one going back. You know, we got to play another road game.
That's a lot of pressure. and so when you take away that out and it's just basketball but that's where experience for

older players typically come into play but that wasn't applied because it was one one big neutral site with no fans right and i actually think this might be a little bit of a hot take but i think it's right that james harden no longer being in the conversation for miami i think that might be a good thing for the heat. I don't, I don't see how he would have fit in with their team and how they, how they were playing at least last year when they showed that they can compete out of the East.
And now we're talking, I think, look, I think that's tough. I don't think we, I think we discredit James Harden partly because of some of his own doing, but he's one of the great basketball players of this generation.
One of the great scorers of all time, MVP, top five in MVP voting in the last six years. So it's like to say that that man couldn't adjust his game, right? Like he played with Russell.
He played with KD when he was coming off the bench. He played with superstars.
He played with Chris Paul. Now there's been some things that have happened, but ultimately what you've seen with Anthony Davis, what you've seen with guys like LeBron James, D Wade, Chris Bosh, when you see Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, when you see these superstar team up at a latter part of their career, it's because they're really just focused in on winning and not like numbers, not stats, not all of that stuff.
So if James says he wants to go to Miami, no, Pat Riley runs a type ship, Spulture runs a type ship, Jimmy Butler, the way they compete there. So I think he could fit in.
I think it's just a matter of whether or not that would be the long-term place that you would want to give up your assets that can carry your franchise for the next 10 years. Do you want to give up Tyler and Bam out of bio, which would be your focal points for the next 10 years for James Harden, who would be your focal point ideally probably for the next five.

So out of the teams in the East,

there have been a couple others that have been rumored to be looking at James

Harden at least.

I think the one everyone's talking about at least recently is the Celtics,

right?

So the Celtics and the 76ers,

if there's a team from the East,

where would you power rank them in terms of winning the James Harden

sweepstakes?

The team I want to see him there with is Milwaukee. I think he is the player he needs.
I do. I stand by that.
They might not want to shift. They might not want this.
But at the end of the day, I got in a little bit of a heat because I said that Giannis might be a Pippen. So everybody blew up.
And I was like, no, the context is Giannis might be when it comes down to the last two, three minutes of the game, he can't be your best player because of the style of game that he has. He's not a great free throw shooter, not a great jump shooter.
Everybody packs in the paint and the guys that he kicks it to, they can knock down shots. They can do this.
That's why they're good, but they're not that they're, they're not that fearful of them beating you. And so if you put James Harden on that, on that team and late game, right, where it's like, you need a bucket, you need free throws, you need someone that can create for himself and others.
And he spaces the floor. I think James Harden, or let's say even guys like Dame Lillard would be a perfect fit for Giannis.
No different than Anthony Davis is a perfect fit for Braun.

You know, I think some of these pairings that you see, I think, you know, Porzingis is a great fit with Luka. So I think if you all of these teams, unfortunately, have young superstars.
Do you want to give up a Jalen Brown? Do you want to give up a Marcus Smart? Do you want to give up a Ben Simmons to get James Harden, who is in the latter third of his career with guys that are in the first third of their career? That's kind of scary. Like it's a hard one, especially the way James has handled this situation in Houston, knowing that he only has two years left on his contract.
So you're giving up a lot with a lot at risk. So that's where it becomes a little dangerous.
Counterpoint, there's only one ball. Yeah, I don't worry about the one ball situation.
What do you mean? There's only one ball. There is only one ball, but I just don't think that James Harden is like that guy that I know he's accomplished this, but when he's talking about he wants to team up in Brooklyn, he knows that there's only one ball.
So when he says that statement, he's basically saying, like, I'm willing to give up being a 35 point a game score and losing in the second round or possibly trying to squeak out a conference finals. I'd rather score 22 and go and win a championship.
Oh, yeah. I don't doubt that he's willing to say that.
That's the easy part, is saying it. I can say that.

Like, yeah, you know what? I won't say... Tell you what, don't even worry about the Supermax deal for me.

I'll survive on 150 million but like yeah you know what he's selfless when he says that he's really just he's like hey look i don't need 280 you give me 225 and like we'll call it square yeah but when it comes down to i mean even you have to admit that like when you when you think about the lineup of the Nets and then adding James Harden. So you got KD, Kyrie, DeAndre, who's the lost triplet that we don't talk about that much.
And then James Harden, like your mind, the first thing you think of is there's only one ball. Yeah, you think of that.
But I also I'm excited to see what these superstars are willing to sacrifice. There was only one ball for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and, and Ray Allen and Rondo, right.
There was all, you know, there was, there's only one ball for a lot of the, for D Wade, LeBron and Chris Bosh. And Chris Bosh ended up having to sacrifice the most, you know, who he's going to be a first, second ballot Hall of Famer, should have been a first ballot Hall of Famer in my opinion.
I think it was just part of that class that he was a part of with you know kobe tim duncan kg and all them but there is all there's always only one ball and i think we've seen this over the course of history so look i want to see these guys sacrifice i think one thing that james knows that if he shows up on that team sorry it's kevin durant's team it is until kevin durant proves that he can't carry that load the and you're going to go into the scene. It doesn't mean that he couldn't all of a sudden become the primary scorer because Kevin Durant might miss time or they want to be very cautious with them.
So James can go out and play, you know, 95% of the game. So inadvertently the team starts to kind of be structured around that scoring space.
But ultimately like that's Kevin Durant, like Kevin Durant is the guy that was like battling to be the best player on the planet with LeBron James. And so it's going to be his team.
So if he's saying he's willing to go there, he's also, he turned down a hundred million dollar extension. He was going to get 50 million a year at the last part of this contract if he would have signed the extension.
So for a guy to turn down 50 million a year for two years you're saying something to me you're saying that you're willing to sacrifice I know that just says something but like no I'm gonna wait on this 100 million that's that's tough that's a lot of money uh what give us a team in the east that you're excited to watch that people aren't really talking about as much oh I'll say the wizards I say the wizardsards. I'm excited to watch Russell Westbrook.
This man carries a load. When we talk about carrying the weight, like he did in OKC, John Wall's had a ton of injuries.
Bradley Beal hasn't been the most healthy guy. And I know that Russell has, but if you look at how much he's played, the way he's played, this is a man that plays a ton of games and plays a ton of minutes.
So if he can stay healthy, I think the wizards can, can crack the post season, which, you know, is, is right where they need to be. I like that.
That's very optimistic. Yeah.
Can you say something nice about my bulls? But your bulls. Oh, well, you got a good coach.
You got a good coach.

That's always encouraging. That took way too long.
Yeah. The guy that's going to teach them how to be better is good.
First of all, you got a new GM that is very good. Arturis, he was in Denver.
He was in Denver. And you saw the player development there with Jokic, Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Malik Beasley.
you've seen, you know, they had bringing in Porter Jr.

Draf Bull Bull. So if where he's leaving Denver and you've seen what they've done and what they've been able to accomplish and you see the young talent there in Chicago with Laurie Markkinen, shout out, bear down, go Wildcats.
Then you have so many other kind of Zach.

You see that young talented.

Yeah.

Wendell Carter,

Patrick Williams drafted.

Yeah,

maybe,

but I don't know.

I'm,

I mean,

they're not going to good.

Let me say,

let me say this.

There it is.

I don't think they're going to be.

I don't think let's put it this way.

I don't think they'll have a top five draft pick which means in the right direction yeah no that's not true what you just said that's not true like you think they'll still have a top five pick no no i'm saying not having be if you say the bulls will not have a top five draft pick and that means they're trending in the right direction i say that's not true because they'll probably have the seventh pick and be stuck exactly where they are hey hey hey i said top five but if they end up let's say let's say they win 35 games this year which what if they what if they improve i think they have a proven coach they have a proven coach this guy is proven he did it in okc he did it with different lineups different superstars he obviously won in college he knows how to handle talented players. He knows how to develop talent.
So when I look at this, I truly believe that they have a good coach. They've got a new GM that comes from a good place.
So you should be optimistic. But on opening night, everyone should be optimistic.
So I'm going to be optimistic. I'm not going to be a downer on anybody.
Okay, I like that. In the top five spots in the East, I think most people probably have like some combination of the Nets, Bucks, Raptors, Celtics, and Heat.
Would that be fair to say? If you were to pick another team that might, there's always like one team I feel like that finds themselves in the conversation for like the fourth or the third seed towards the end of every season, who would your surprise team be in east i don't have a surprise team to tell you true because i look we talked about we talked atlanta i'd say atlanta okay yeah atlanta because you look at what they added you look at what they added um you look at the talent that they have if they're young talent like john collins trey young if they make that Rondo. So, like, now you have that veteran guy that can help keep people in check, that can kind of direct guys when it gets a little out of sort.
Because, look, I love Trey's numbers and his staff, but he's a very offensive guy. So you need someone to help him on the defensive end.
I like that they brought in Bogdanovich from Sacramento. So you add another score, another shooter to that team.
So I like the Atlanta team. They're the team that if they play well, and they're one of those teams too that like they might not get off to a great start, but in the middle of the season around, they all start breaking, they'll finish strong.
And then all of a sudden they start moving up the ranks. So I like Atlanta.
Okay. I think Atlanta is definitely one of those teams that everyone's excited to watch like on on league pass.
So who's your pick out of the East? Are you going with the Nets?

That's a tough one. Okay.
So I always preface this whenever I pick champion or whenever I pick like who I have coming out, if they are healthy. If they are healthy, I believe it's the Nets and it's the Bucs are the top two teams top two teams and if they are healthy i think the nets will if craziness happens with covid i think i i think bucks are celtics and this is before no james harden trade we can't like oh i pick this team and then james harden goes there and throws a wrench in it that's not it okay but you said earlier that it's not fair to put any expectations on the Nets out of the East.
Right. But you just now – you're giving – that's your Stone Cold Leadlock.
Nets out of the championship. Anything less.
What I heard from RJ was that anything less than a championship is a disappointment. What I'm trying to express is that just because I believe they could doesn't mean like if you don't meet expectations kind of like a lot of the clippers where you're like blasting them and like you guys what did you guys doing like this was a debacle no i'm not going to put those type of expectations like championship or bust if the nets can get there with have two brand new head coach and three other head coaches on their staff and two superstars, especially with the trade rumors of all the other guys, when you look at, you know, when you look at Spencer Dimwitty, Karis LeVert, all of those guys that are on that squad, then I think you start to put like pressure on them.
But I'm not going to say if they don't win the championship this year was a failure. Those are the type of expectations that you on lakers bucks clippers uh and and i would say the nets are on the outside just because this is their first year together did you just accuse us of putting those expectations on 100 you guys are putting negative expectations but that's no when you put together superstars on a team you're supposed to win like the nets the nets to to say the nets aren't trying to win the championship this year would be insane they are well yeah they are trying to win the championship this year but what i'm trying to express to you is the way the clippers and the nets if we look at last year's clippers and this year's nets right so last year's clippers frauds championship all this other stuff.
They had the sixth man of the year. They had the deepest team.
They had two superstars. They had the reigning finals MVP.
Paul George was a top five MVP finalist the year before. So you look at all this talent and then the way they feel with the Nets, two guys coming off injury.
This is their first year, especially Kevin Durant coming off a major injury. And this is your first year with a brand new head coach.
My thing is this, if they lose in the conference finals, I'm not going to blast them the way I did the Clippers. And I mean this in a respectful sense, because the Clippers up 3-1, let themselves and, you know, got the coach fired.
They didn't play well. Paul George didn't play well.
So like, you're going to get a lot of heat. I think they're two different type of expectations.
Okay. All right.
So let me ask you this. This is my last question.
And it's the final question is brought to you by Cross Country Mortgage. America's crazy good mortgage company.
Go to ccmlens.com slash take to learn more about your future home buying experience or refinancing needs, equal housing opportunity. You've been on a ton of basketball teams in your career.

How much does it actually matter for guys to get along and be at least maybe not friends, but enjoy being around each other?

Because that does feel like what part of their Clippers, you know,

falling apart last year, it felt like they never were like a team.

So how much does that actually matter? Or is that just from a a media perspective a hot take thing that we like to try to say oh okay let's take the clippers out like let's look at let's look at you know we all watched the last dance right you all watched we all watched the bulls in this like six run era and even the first three p versus the second three p and they were mad Horace Grant, and Scottie Pittman was back. You cannot have growth without expansion.
You can't have growth, and you can't have high-level players without some sort of friction. Because friction can motivate.
And even Phil Jackson would kind of push that and kind of make sure that guys were always pushing each other. You saw Michael Jordan talk about fighting Steve Kerr like these are guys that ultimately respect each other so I think if the last dance taught us anything is that there is no championship team that are just holding hands and skipping their way to the finals there's going to be moments where you don't want to talk to each other where you can't stand each other where you have you know beefs here and there so I think you need to have a level of respect for each other more than you have to get along with each other.
I think it was like when you heard the Clippers talking about, well, I didn't like, you know, the guys, anonymous sources didn't like the treatment of Paul George and Kawhi. Well, that's stupid because Kawhi, LeBron and Kyrie, they got special treatment when I was on the team, right? Michael Jordan and Scottie Pittman got special treatment.
Dennis Rodman was given a week off or given days off before the finals or before the play postseason to go like travel around and do whatever he want in Vegas. And so it was like, Phil Jackson was like, I know that this man needs a rest day.
He needs a mental health day. He needs to go do what he does.
So like, if you know that there's going to be special treatment for superstars, when I heard that out of the Clippers camp, whether it was anonymous sources is real or not, that's silly, right? Everyone's going to be treated differently. So I think that you have to respect each other.
You don't have to get along. I think that's been proven time in and time out.
You don't even need to get along with your coach. You just need to have a respect to get the job done so what you just basically said is kawaii is a bad leader because the the michael jordan was the leader and i agree with you you don't have to get along but the respect and the friction is important kawaii just kind of let paul george like walk around and say he's playoff p so yeah richard jefferson just called kawaii a bad leader well this is the thing you're not going to get a soundbite from Kawhi if you ask him about that.
So my thing is, like, no, I did not say that. And one thing that you need to understand and one thing that I've learned as I've gotten older and as I went my way through, like, sports, just because you are the best player doesn't mean you are a leader.
And that doesn't mean not. There are great leaders that aren't great players.
There are great players that aren't great leaders. It's really about what your team needs.
You don't need Kawhi to be this vocal person if that's not in his nature. Tim Duncan was never that.
Jason Kidd was never that. You just need players that are willing to lead by example on the court, whether it's effort, practice habits, how they work with their teammates, how they respect the coaches.
That's what you need from a leader. So I don't think, I don't need Kawhi to be a great leader.
He didn't say he wasn't a leader in Toronto. He wasn't a leader in San Antonio.
And I mean that as like, it was Kyle Lowry was the face of the leadership group. It was Tim Duncan and Tony and Manu were the face of the leadership group and Coach coach popovich so i don't need kawaii to be this like hey we're getting everybody together and we're doing a team dinner at my house and make sure no that's just not who he is he's kind of a quiet introverted person that's fine but you have to put people around him that will play the leadership role okay i like that answer i agree with that robots follow commands well they follow instructions they don't they don't have artificial intelligence to the point where they can go ahead and would you though agree though everything you said i i agree with what you what you uh just laid out there but would you agree that having your best player also be your leader probably makes it a little easier a thousand percent but now you're just being greedy right you're just being greedy it's like well i need you to be you know again like a lebron james a michael jordan a kevin durant like all of these guys you look at them and you're like yo they're amazing players but all of us as people that love sports can point out flaws right we can point out you know kevin durant having a having a burner account we We can point out Kyrie spraying sage around the arena.
We can point out Braun being too emotional at times. We can point out, you know, Chris Paul, you know, having, you know, an injury history in the postseason.
You can say, yo, you can point out flaws with all of these great players. And that's why it's so fun to kind of watch the NBA season kind of go about and see which one of these players are going to be able to put their flaws or put their things aside and really excel and be the best version of themselves.
I actually like the two things that you mentioned first, though. I like the fact that KD's got burners.
That is actually endearing to me. And he says he still has them, which I respect.
He says he still has it because look, sometimes he wants to interact and talk trash because people do get reckless online. People do get reckless.
Some dude was talking trash to me the other day and was like, why is Jefferson there? He's a bum. And I was like, dude, I was going to say something smart, but it was like, why is it like I've made nine figures playing basketball? Why is it that you want to call me a bum? I'm okay with that.
But it's like, if we were sitting together at a barbecue, if I show up at, you know, cause I'm dating your sister, you're not going to call me a bum. Like if we're sitting here, but you want to get all excited on Twitter and you want to talk all this trash and have everybody laugh.
And so I'm okay. If you want to have a burner account and just kind of shoot back at some people, because you know people shoot recklessly all the time yeah you gotta let it off steam somehow I think it's probably a good like all things considered it's probably good for his mental health to be able to log on if that's what if tearing down other people and if that makes you feel better about yourself then like cool man like that's more about you than it is about me so like I said everybody everybody's got something about them that they have to either overcome or suppress in order to maximize themselves as an individual.
Whatever that is, it's fun to watch it go on in the sports. I also like Kyrie burning the sage to cleanse the arena.
I hope he does that all year long. It's good to have these types of personalities in the NBA that you can like get behind or you can root against.
Like if you hate Kyrie and you hate the Nets and you're a Celtics fan, like you're going to be talking about that every year and you're going to hate that. But that's what makes sports enjoyable.
Yeah, it does. And this is the thing.
With no fans currently in NBA arenas, I think it's going to be you're going to see players i don't want to say get away with is not the right way but it's just like when you're having to do things and you're being heckled at every place you go it definitely does add a different element yeah yeah um all right well richard thank you uh good luck on christmas day two games we want to preemptively say we're not that impressed. I know everyone will be talking about it and being like, oh, my God, RJ, he did two games.
I'm probably going to watch five games, so that's the real athlete here. That is really impressive.
I'm actually sitting in the seat that I will be calling the games in. Are you going to take a piss while you're calling the game? That'd be cool.
No, no, no. I'm not going to go put my piece in a bottle.
Wear a diaper? This is dumb and dumber. We get bathroom breaks.
What's your meal plan situation? Are you going to eat a heavy meal? Yeah, be careful. That's going to be the tricky one.
But luckily, because it's a 7.30 tip-off, I'm out west. Like for my partner, Ryan Rucco, it's going to be a 10.30 tip-off.
So he's got to – you know, the key thing is, is like you got to get that early game in. You got to eat, then you got to take a nap, and then a light dinner.
Then after the game's over, eat enough to put yourself out. Hey, get out of here.
Hi, buddy. Hi, buddy.
What's up to RJ? No, outside. Yeah, what's up? What's up, RJJ? See, this could happen.
This could happen on Christmas Day. What if this happens on Christmas Day? You can't say that.
That's true. But see, the real reason why is because his Christmas presents are down here.
All right. Well, thanks so much.
We really appreciate it, RJ. Good luck on Christmas Day.
Always good to catch up with you, man. Oh, man, you guys are still the best doing it, man.
Always good to be on here. All right, thanks so much, man.
Nets are bust. Yes, all the pressure.
We didn't talk about the Knicks. I can't believe that.
Oh, who cares about the Knicks? Okay, there, we talked about the Knicks. Boom, that counts.
Mecca's here. Obi Toppin.
Ain't no stopping. Ain't no stopping.
Yeah. Ain't no stopping.

All right, guys.

See you, man.

Okay, we're going to wrap up with guys on Chicks,

but remember, we don't have a show on Friday, Christmas Day.

We're back on Monday, full Week 16 recap, regular show,

best of Wednesday, and coming up the week after,

we got a trophy, right? The most exciting trophy, the most important trophy in all of sports, the low-man trophy. It's for the nation's best college fullback.
You heard us mention it to Army's coach earlier today. And we're only releasing that one because we are collecting all the nominees.
Right now he's received enough votes. So Jacoby Buchanan is a low-man trophy finalist, but we've assembled the

council of fullbacks,

which includes John Kuhn,

Lorenzo Neal, Vontae Leach, Alec

Ingold, Cullen Glaspie,

Anthony Sherman, Jacob Hester.

The list goes on.

Tom Frunelli. Tom Frunelli slash Hank.

So we actually got Hank's vote yesterday.

Okay. And actually, Hank,

you were the first person to nominate Jacoby Buchanan. Nice.
So congratulations. Hank said 474 yards, six touchdowns, but mostly because he's listed at 6'2".
So well said, Hank. Nice.
Nice. So, yeah, we will be getting to the Loman Award next week.
So be on the lookout for that. Going to be some great guests coming out of that.
Some solid videos. And it's all presented by Chevy Silverado.
Nice. So we're like, we should do the low man house at some point.
Yes. As bleep out and when I called it that.
They've got the Heisman Trophy. We've got the low man trophy with a grittier company Chevy.
Chevrolet Silverado Silverado. Hop in one.
Yes. All right, let's wrap up with some guys on chicks.
Reminder, again, I feel like we got a reminder. It's actually like reminding Browns fans that there's a potential you could not go to the playoffs at 11 and 5.
We won't have a show on Friday, but we'll be back on Monday with a brand new show. It will be me and PFT and Bubba in studio.
Rob dogging it. Hank, are you going on vacation? No.
No. But you're just not working? No, I'll be editing the show.
Oh. Oh, okay.
Remotely. We're in a penny.
Do you want me to come back? No, no, no, no, no. Oh.
I want you to want to come back. I don't want to come back.
Okay. Just to record the show that I'll be editing.
Okay. But what about hanging with us? Just talk about sports.
Hang out with us. Watch some games with us.
Get some chicken wings, some Chinese food. We're a little worried, though, because I think it's going to just be me and PFT in the office, and we do not know how to work the TVs.
So I'm very worried about that. Wait.
I'm worried about everything now. I told you, and you're like, we'll figure it out.
I was like, no, dude. I don't think so.
There's the TVs, and then there's this whole thing, our desk. How do we plug? No, no.
Liam's going to be here. Oh, okay.
But he's not going to come until later, so we're going to be here at like 1230 and be like, well, how do I turn on the TVs to watch the Bears game? I think we'll probably just end up turning on every computer in the office and illegal streaming all of them at once. All right.

That's a future me problem.

That's never going to come.

Week 16 is never going to be here.

All right.

Guys on chicks and sending everyone off to a hopefully Merry Christmas.

Hi, Hank PFT and Buffcat.

My boyfriend and I recently moved in together and he works from home virtually.

If his day ends in a meeting, he almost always masturbates right after the meeting and i have no idea why is this normal is he blowing off steam or is it because he finds some of his co-workers hot does he work at the new yorker would be my first question it's just a reflex did he work at the new yeah i think that's just a reflex more than anything it's like okay well i need like it's like almost stretching after after after working out. Well, dirty little secret about guys is this very same screen that we look at when we're working.
It reminds us a lot of the same screen that we look at when we're jacking off. So it's like Pavlov's dog almost.
It's like, wait, I'm on the internet. You know what else is on the internet? Yep.
You jizz. Yep.
I'm here and there's a lot of chicks here too. too okay for christmas i wanted to get my boyfriend a cameo from the two of you guys i've been sliding into dms but haven't been noticed i'll cash up a hundred dollars if you could give him a shout out uh shout out shout out shout out that shout out you and what's beautiful about this is that any girl that's listening right now could be like this is is from me, and I paid $100 for this.
So Merry Christmas. Say thanks to your girlfriend for paying $100 to the ASPCA.
So Cameo, I've always said that that will be, if you see me on Cameo, things have gone terribly wrong. But seeing that Kevin Malone from The Office made a million dollars, that made me be like hmm maybe i should be on cameo that's a lot of cashola sounds like a lot of work to be honest with you yeah but it also sounds like a lot of cashola that's a million dollars billy's getting his eye billy billy's like all right guys i'll run your cameos for you and i'll just ask you for anywhere between 50 and 60 videos every day.
And I'll just keep the money. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I cameo for a second. It sucks because people complain about the videos a lot.
You think only fans and you sucked at them. Yeah, no, you just like do what they say.
And they're like, I didn't like the effort put into this and this. And it's just again.
What? That's that's I'm not surprised that happened to you no it's a thing you went to max effort i did max effort i mean there's a lot of max give us your max effort okay get like all right billy football rebecca rebecca and sarah and we want a birthday shout out from billy football and also like a cool pardon my take joke what's up rebecca and no i'm actually i actually go by becky yeah yeah no exactly and i'm sare bear what's up becky and sare bear what's up how you guys doing hope you guys have a happy no dude this is why do you keep calling us guys also that was a douchebag way to do it like i would complain about i'm going to file a complaint i would like to file a complaint right now on cameo uh The Cameo that myself, Sarah Bear, and Bex... Bexie? Becky with the good hair.
Becky with the good hair. We asked Billy Football and he basically made fun of us and called us guys.
I think you'd need to be very exclusive with the clientele that you chose. It would be like if you are a lacrosse player at Villanova or St.
John's and you're looking to roast your buddy, then you will do that cameo. So, okay, how about now? How about I'm Chad.
I'm Tyler. And this is Tyler, and it's Tyler's bachelor party.
He's got a small dick, and we're going to make fun of him. Make fun of my small dick, Billy.
Before the strippers come over. No, no, no.
My favorite ones to do were to hype up high school teams for games. Okay, do that.
All right. Clarkstown South.
Heard you got a huge rivalry game this weekend. I'm just here to pump you up.
Guess what? I'm working for part of my take, but I'd much rather be about to play to get an undefeated season than— No, no. It's actually like— I read this whole story about this team that was like— Wait, but dude, you don't want to work here anymore? Dude, I'd rather be in high school than work here.
I'd rather be in high school and about to go 10-0 for a championship. Because that's like, those guys are about to run through a wall.
They're going to take six, big cat. No, seriously, they're about to beat their rivals.
Billy is, what's his name from Can't Hardly Wait? Jerry O'Connell, right? Stifler. No, no, no.
What's Jerry O'Connell? Those guys. Is Jerry O'Connell from Can't Hardly Wait, right? That was so hyped.
Jerry's in that? I'm pretty sure. Seth Green.
It was so hyped. No, it was.
I'd much rather. Billy's the guy in Varsity Blues that goes to a high school party and gets hit in the nuts with a baseball bat.
That's the dude. Yeah, that's the guy.
Yeah, Can't Hardly Wait. Trip McNeely.
Jerry O'Connell. No, but just for that week when they're about to play that big game and then like two hours if they win after that game, it's like the greatest.
You're a trip McNeely. But like it's the greatest high ever.
There's nothing else like it. It's hype.
Speaking of Kevin Malone, what's up, boys, especially Dad Cat? You know that scene in the office where Kevin goes up to Pam pretending to cry because when a new mom hears a baby cry, her you know what's fill up with you know what. And then her shirt gets, you know? Yeah.
When does that stop happening? Asking for several stained shirts. What? So milk discharge? I don't know.
I think it's because your boobs get bigger. That's why I did it.
Well, you have to like... Yeah.
Yeah. You have to.
I mean, it has to go somewhere. So when does that stop happening? I don't know.
Ask your doctor, not me. Billy, when does that stop happening? I was just watching that quarterback punt the ball.
Alright, but seriously, when does it... Answer this question for this lady.
I wasn't listening. When did the quarterback punt? Billy, after you give birth, how long do you have milk coming out of your tits? Until the baby stops sucking.
So? You can lactate for multiple years. Wasn't that in grown-ups? Yeah.
There you go. I think there was a mom that was breastfeeding on the cover of Time Magazine to her nine-year-old son at one point.
Game of Thrones. I think it's really good for keeping weight off and stuff.
Yeah, alright.

So there you go. There's your answer.
So keep doing it. You're good.

That was a sick quarterback.

Ask Billy, would you rather pay for sex or be paid to have

sex? He's done both.

What? No, I

don't

waste your money on any sex. Wait, what?

But you get paid. It's not wasted money.

Would you rather be a gigolo? I don't think sex should be involved in capitalism. Boom.
All right. Billy Libbaugh.
What should it be? Billy's going to put a rose avatar in his bio. No, you do think it should be.
Not the act. No, you think it should be legalized.
Prostitution. Or you don't.
He thinks it should be legalized but you shouldn't pay for it which would

not make it legalized. I think that

the government should provide

sex to all the dudes.

All dudes should get their dicks

sucked. It's called a stimulus bill.

How come I can't get any grindage?

Billy literally will run for president being like

yo, you want your dick sucked?

Vote for me.

The other asked Billy was you spot a boat full of people but there isn't a single person on board. How is this possible? It's the Flying Dutchman.
Duh. Ghost ship.
No one on it. Yes, correct.
Or also I saw this one thing that there was like this explosion on a, actually like there was like a rum distillery or something. It was some sort of alcohol related shipment and there was an explosion and all the alcohol

burned up but it

didn't burn the ship but just eviscerated

everyone on board. I actually saw

that too. Oh.
Eviscerated?

No it's if all the people on

the boat are married.

So you spot a boat

Oh there isn't a single person on board.

That'd be the lamest cruise to go on.

Google the boat that exploded and there was no one on it. No.
Someone knows what I'm talking about out there. That's a Jameson Irish whiskey commercial.
No, Kraken. No, because the Jameson guy is like wheeling a barrel onto the port.
Where the fuck is Jilly? Billy ate her. Great question.
Jilly is living her best life. No, Billy actually did.
He pushed

her down his flight of stairs.

There wasn't room

enough on this couch.

Way to go, Billy. Way to get in on the joke.

No, she's around. We'll have her come back.

She's old. We're in a pandemic.

She's not that old. We'd rather not her

risk coming into the

office. Once we all have the

vaccine, Jilly Football will come visit us. She's got a very sweet-looking grandchild.
Also awesome on Twitter, as always. Alright, last one.
Hi Thick Cat, PFT, and secretly hung Hank. Whoa! You wrote this yourself? My boyfriend claims that he's seen at least 10,000 vaginas in his life.
He's currently 27. He claims that through porn thumbnails alone, he's seen thousands.
His other friend swears he's seen millions. Is this even possible? Millions, no.
I don't think there are a million vaginas out there. Thousands? They're so rare.
Thousands. Thousands for sure, yes.
Yeah, especially with the new... Thousands, but I don't know what, 10,000.
But the new thumbnail where they actually, like, they'll play the video, the shortened version, when you hover over it, I feel like that will change the calculation pretty quickly, right? Now, is it different vaginas? Because if you're super into, like, one particular vagina... Right.
...online, hypothetically... You have a porn wife.
If you've got, yeah, like your main squeeze. Billy? Teon Trump.
Billy? How many, Billy? What's your number? I think porn's really bad for society. Yeah? Go off.
Why? I think that a lot of stuff gets... Yeah.

No, I mean... You get unrealistic expectations for sex.

Bad things come out of porn.

Yeah, so I say that too because then girls won't see that every guy's got a bigger dick than me.

It's just an unrealistic expectation.

I'm going to go with 100 again.

A lot of bad isms come out of porn.

Not orgasms.

I'm going to go 8. 40.
31. Liam has...
Oh, you're trying again. But I'm trying not to get it.
31? I don't even remember what I said. You said 31.
8, 8, 8. What is that? What is that? 91.
Oh, shit. Where's almost 31? 91.
All right. We'll see everyone on Monday.
Merry Christmas. Happy holidays.
Happy everything. Love you guys.
Reindeers are also known as. He's making it up, folks.
He's making it up. We can see in his face.
He's making it up now. Reindeers are also known as...
I forgot it. He's making it up.

No, I forgot. It's in Finland.
Yeah?

Snow elk.

Northern elk or something?

Billy.

I forgot the other name for reindeers.

Also, I'm told that your last animal factor was incorrect.

Okay, I like my correction. Cows can go downstairs.

Cows cannot go down steep

long flights of stairs. They can go down three steps, but they can't go down long flights of stairs.
We're talking away. I don't know what I'm to say on stage anyway.
Today is another day to find you shying away. I'm coming for your love, okay? Take on me.
Take me on

I'll be gone

The turn of change

Needless to say

I'm all descended

But I need some little way

You're welcome. Needless to say I'm all dissenting But at least Turn it away Better learn Life is okay Say after me It's better to be safe I'm sorry Take on me, take me on.
I'll be gone when I turn off to you. Hard things that you say And is it a lie? See you next time.
Take on me Take me I'll be gone in a day I'll become innocent.

Take the key. Thank you.