Denver’s a Mess! Plus, Live at the Masters With the Simmons Crew

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We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. If you liked White Lotus, go check out Prestige TV.
Go check out The Watch because we covered everything that happened in the season finale. I put up a new rewatchables, The Saint.
That went up over the weekend because Val Kilmer passed away, so we want to pay homage to him. I am at the Masters right now.
I have a bunch of people we did not expect when we were walking off the course and got our phones back today that Denver had cleaned house. So I'm going to talk about that at the top with Joe House.
We're going to talk NBA. We're going to talk Western finals odds and a whole bunch of stuff with Sal and house.

And then we did a bunch of master stuff.

We created a little, uh, draft that you can bet on a FanDuel sports book and, uh, a whole

bunch of other fun props, bets.

And then last but not least, James baby doll Dixon.

He comes in.

We've talked about him on the podcast a bunch.

And, uh, and we talked to him and Chang and Sal about Augusta and smoking and, uh, some

on the podcast a bunch and we talked to him and Chang and Sal about Augusta and smoking and some of the stuff that makes Augusta what it is. So that is all

coming up. First, our friends from Pearl Jam.
All right, we're recording this on Tuesday, early evening in Augusta, Georgia, East Coast time. We're here for the Masters.
We brought a whole crew, including Nathan Hubbard, your fairway rolling partner, cousin Sal. He's going to be joining us later.
David Chang and baby doll James Dixon, who's still talking. You can't hear him.
But we're going to do a bunch of segments for this pod. We did not expect what happened when we left the Masters.
Because when you leave the Masters, you have to give your phone. You're not allowed to have your phone on the course.
We didn't have our phone for six hours. So literally anything can happen.
And we're thinking we leave the course and we're going to find out the market has dropped like 150 points. Just another day that ends and why.
Yeah, some sort of bad tariff news. And instead, all these texts about, oh my God, Nuggets, can you believe Denver? And they fired their coach and their GM.
And we're going to be one of many podcasts who talks about this tonight. But a true stunner.
I don't remember. I have a bunch of thoughts on this.
But to fire your coach and GM with a week to go in the season, when you have a chance to be like a top four playoff seed, this is like the NBA we grew up with. The NBA is like going nuts again.
Well, I mean, it is and it isn't. There is no precedent for teams firing.
We have now in 10 days two playoff teams with legit aspirations for getting to the Western Conference Finals firing their head coach.

And Denver. Memphis being the other one.
Yeah, Denver went a whole step further. They're like, we don't like the internal turmoil of this identity crisis fight that we've been having for what feels like to me 18 months now, at least between Calvin Booth and his instinct to try and build a team with young guys.
And Mike Malone, who has in front of him most of the pieces of guys that won an NBA championship a couple of years ago. Right.
And this tension has been affecting this team for two years now well but think back to the 80s though i remember didn't larry brown like he was coaching the nets and he just left for kansas city with or for kansas university with like two weeks ago in the season they fired him it was the kind of thing that would happen all the time with the league we loved in the league even though it still has your Sacramento's and these, but now I feel like, here's my theory.

I'm going to throw this theory at you.

I'm listening.

The league is so deep now and there's so much talent.

It ties into something we talked about when we did the over-under pods with Brasillo.

It's like, shit, there's going to be some unhappy teams.

Teams that thought they were going to be really good.

Teams that have max guys.

Teams that have this model that used to work of, we have three stars, we have two really good stars, and they're going to be like two games under 500 in February wondering what the hell happened. And I'm looking at the West because the West is a way deeper conference than the East.
The East is more like a traditional, you have the really good teams, you have some good playoff teams, some mediocre teams,

and then crappy teams, right?

That's the motto we're used to.

The West, everybody's talented,

and everybody thought they were going to be in the mix.

So look at all the teams that were unhappy just this season.

Dallas traded their best player,

one of the five best guys in the league.

They just said, fuck it.

We don't like where this is going.

They traded him.

The Lakers were unhappy too. They were trying to do all kinds of stuff mid-season.
They make a trade. Memphis fires their coach.
Denver just fired their coach at GM. Sacramento fired their coach, traded their best player.
Phoenix tried to trade everybody on their team but Devin Booker for four months. They fired their coach last year.
They're probably firing him again. That's six teams in the West House.
You left out Golden State. Who knew that they needed another piece and went and paid a high price.
But at least that's not like... That's not a Hail Mary.
This Denver thing is a Hail Mary. It's a what the hell is going on to me.
We're going to the playoffs and we're going to get smoked and everybody wants to play us and we're in a situation where we're in Saturday, Sunday. Teams might be tanking to try to get a matchup against us.
That's the level Denver was at with the way they were playing lately. That's true.
So what does firing the coach and GM have to do with the performance on the floor? It's a good question. I'm going to try to answer it.
Good. I think they thought their season was shot.
I think they decided. I think they're right.
This coach GM situation, they were going to get rid of both of them. Josh Kroenke basically said that in the press conference.
We're going to do something after the season. Why not now? Why not see if we can save it um this is a hail mary well what again let's do it precedent wise point to a team that's done this with a week to go yeah in the last 30 years that's had yokich as as their best player during like this half decade he's having that's one of the great half decades anyone's had offensively in in the history of the league.
And they have one title to show for it. I don't begrudge the instinct of wanting to do something to change the trajectory.
But the problem is, it's the players. They're not good enough.
They don't have a team that's good enough to compete to your observation earlier.

Their top five is good enough.

They don't play defense. They haven't

played defense in two months.

That's why they have a losing record

over their last 25,

30 games. It's why they have

their 5-9 over their last

14 games. Their last three games

of the season. Are they 5-9 over their last 14?

Yeah. I saw their 12-13 last 25.
Yeah. They don't play defense.
19th net rating, 22nd defensive rating in their last 25 games. And we like looking at the net rating stuff.
It's a nice little snapshot. Yeah.
You know, sometimes you can overreact to it one way or the other. Sometimes you have teams that are in the vicinity of where their playoff spot's going to be.
Maybe they cool the Jets

a little bit. Other times,

it's a real sign

either something's going really wrong or really right.

Like with the Clippers, with Kawhi back,

all their net rating stuff is really good here

for two solid months now. And it's like,

let's take this team seriously. Detroit,

who I think is going to be

a sixth seed, I'm not taking them 100%

seriously, but the math is the math

and the math says they're a pretty good team.

Denver, the math said this team can't guard anybody. The on-off stats with Jokic, which I mentioned Sunday with Russillo, and are the case if you're going to talk MVP for him, which I think today probably hurt that cause a little bit.
But the on-off for him, where they were the best offense in NBA history when he's on the court, and they're 30th in the NBA when he's off the court, that's all you need to know. There's never been a disparity like that in the history of basketball.
That tells you all that you need to know about the team-building effort. And look, I think this is...
Well, when you say team-building, though, do you blame Mike Malone at all? Because you and I both watch a lot of Denver. I don't blame him one bit, no.
I mean, when you have the best player on earth and you have most of the nucleus of a title-winning team, then the appropriate thing to do is try and, in the first place, defend that title. And then in the second place, try and win as many as you can while you have the best player in the world playing at the level that he's playing at that seems like the right kind of decision and I think that head coach you know built a game plan for the season these last two seasons around the that that thesis around the idea of we should try really hard when we have this guy to be as good as we can in this moment.
They just, I do think that this new collective bargaining agreement is a real culprit, is a real- The apron stuff. Yeah.
Because they were, so they were like 5 million under the second apron, but next year they're going to get killed by the apron. And I think they seem really scared of it.
And there's some real money stuff with this team that has to be mentioned. I think around the league, if you talk to people who know shit or who have a vested interest in it, they're like, thank God Denver's not spending more money.
They have this incredible asset and they seem pretty good being middle of the road. It's the same thing people felt about the New England Patriots during the last 10 years of Tom Brady.
Thank God they're not spending more than they are. Then you look at the Philadelphia Eagles in your division and they're super aggressive and they're trying to maximize the moment.
I think that's what most fans want. I would not say Denver's doing that.
I wouldn't call Denver middle of the road. I wouldn't characterize...
I'd say middle of the road. They have the best player in the league, and they're not even a second apron team.
Well, they're going to be middle of the road this season. They were not middle.
They went for it last season, and I think they paid the price. I think that they flamed out the way they did because they saw the one seed as a viable possibility.
They played balls to the wall at the end of the regular season, and it took a toll on them because Minnesota ran them out the gym. I have a couple other theories in this.
The play-in I think puts a crazy amount of pressure on these teams. Not only do you not want to be in the play-in, you're in a situation where you could just lose two play-in games and then you're not even in the playoffs, which was a real thing for Denver, right? True story.
So this is why it's not a panic move, but it's a total panic move where you're like five days left. Everybody wants to play us.
Our defense is in shambles. We lost a catastrophic game in overtime to Minnesota that really feels like that tilted their season in all these different ways.
Does Malone still have a job if they win that game? Maybe. Well, they didn't play two of their guys that game, right? I know, but it was just how they lost and how bad Westbrook was.
It was agonizing. And how great Jokic was.
It was agonizing. So you have that piece.
You know, a lot of times when we're hinting at stuff in pods and we're talking about stuff and we're talking about scuttlebutt around the league and people go, where's that coming from? And shit gets aggregated, but it always seemed hazy. This Booth Malone thing.
I mean, I talked about it. Everybody who's had a podcast has alluded to or talked about it.
I almost, and I really regret I didn't do it. I had it.
You know, you have the tweet lined up and you have the draft? There was something, Malone got something for, he won the most games in Nuggets history. There was some sort of ceremony and it was a short video and it was Calvin Booth giving him something.
And I had this really sarcastic tweet and it was like, rare footage of Calvin Booth and Mike Malone interacting. And I was ready to tweet it out and I was like, you know what? That's not worth it.
That's going to become a thing. People will be mad.
And I was just like, I didn't do it. But that's how bad it was.
I had this tweet lined up because just that they interacted seemed like it was an amazing event. I don't like that whole kind of storyline and that dynamic.
Which part end of the day, the media part of it or the coach GM part, the coach GM part, the media part of it is perfectly fine. Well, you know, we're getting the now they tell us piece TM, Brian Curtis, you know, that's coming.
It was an open secret. Like, you know, Ramona kind of wrote it in the beginning of season.
I think Zach, if Zach had been writing for ESPN, I think Zach would have had something pretty major. Matt Moore at the Action Network, who's a, you know, does a pod on Denver, has been talking about it.
It's not a secret of that. No, all the Denver fans.
Internal tension. They've been observing it.
But really, it's more than tension. They didn't fucking talk.
I don't like it because that's on Kroenke. That's on Josh Kroenke.
They're like, somebody needs to be the boss. At least he owned it today.
The boss is the boss, right? You see guys not getting along. You need to sit in a room and reconcile whatever the differences are because again, you have the best effing player on the planet on your team playing at his absolute best.
So the thing to do is try and capitalize on that. That would be my instinct.
So you don't think you don't think it's Zeke Nagy extension, Reggie Jackson, Peyton Watson, who could be something eventually, maybe someday. There's some really bad team building.
We knew there might be signs of trouble. Kevin O'Connor when he was writing for The Ringer did that big piece about the Nuggets and their team building and Calvin Booth gave all these secrets in the piece, which is like GM 101, don't do that.
If you're doing stuff that's working, don't talk about it. What is the upside? What's the upside of let me tell this reporter all of these things we're doing that we think are cutting edge.
How are you winning with that? Now you're just giving your secrets to the other 29 teams in the league. Again.
And he does this whole link thing. And it was just weird because it felt credit grabby.
And anytime something's credit grabby, you know like, well, why is this guy doing? Obviously, he had a thing with Malone and it was already their jockeying where's the moment on when that story came out on the ringer which is what 18 months ago 16 months ago remember he tried to disown it after he was like i don't know i thought i was off the record and oh right yeah he's ludicrous and it was fucking bullshit because kfc did a good job with that story um anyway so that this thing was a problem year. I think it affected the team and then they finally acted.
I'm going to throw this at you. The great NBA asset wastes.
Oh no. So remember when we were kids and Kareem was just on shitty teams for like seven years? Yes.
He was on the Bucks forever. They had nobody, like basically Bobby Dandridge and that was it.
Oscar was washed up. And he was still great.
And then finally he's like, I'm going to LA. Goes to the Lakers, but they trade a lot to get him.
Then the Kermit Washington fight happens. And it's just, it felt like there's seven years there where it's like, Jesus, is Kareem? He's the best player in the league.
Is he going to be on a really good team? And then magic shows up and the rest is history. But there's been some good ones over the years.
Like even LeBron in the mid-2000s on those Cleveland teams. I was like, oh man, they're traded for Ben Wallace now.
Oh, they're paying that much for Antoine Jameson? Kobe, mid-2000s. Partly his fault because it's your check out.
TMAC for basically the entire 2000s. That makes me sad a good one moses when we were kids on the rockets t-mac could have but y'all broke down on him yeah y'all broke down but t-mac for all that orlando run when grand hill was hurt makes me sad um yeah and i don't think this yokich thing is as bad because gordon's obviously really good christian brown's been good murray when he's healthy is good turned out to be good.
Porter's a good three-point shooter. It's not that bad, but at the same time, it does hurt.
Their entire fate is tied to Jamal Murray's health. And we said this at the outset of the season.
I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I went under on them getting the 51 wins this season. You went over on the Sixers.
No, I'm just saying we're talking about the Denver Nuggets. I didn't want you to applaud yourself because you did go...
By the way, I went under on the Clippers and under on the Lakers. Why are we going through this? Nobody cares.
The observation I'm making is that the concern at the outset of the season for me was Jamal Murray. Do you trust that he's going to be able to play at the level that this team requires through the balance of the season for them to get into like the mid 50s and wins? And I didn't trust it at any time that he's not.
He has been excellent, Jamal Murray, for a good stretch. And they won eight games going into the All-Star break.
It was like, welcome to the season, Jamal Murray. Yeah, but, you know, it was like, okay, so Denver is legit.
So we love Denver at this level playing at that. And then Gordon went out with some injuries, and Michael Porter Jr.
has been doing Michael Porter Jr. stuff, and we have too much time and too many high-leverage moments where the basketball finds its way into Russell Westbrook's hands.
Well, he just shouldn't play in crutch time. That's true.
I almost don't blame Russell Westbrook. I don't either.
I don't blame him. When my son leaves the pantry open and my beloved dog Murph is just like, cool, I'm going to eat all the potato chips.
Is that Murph's fault or is that Ben's fault? That's right. Russ, sometimes in crunch time, he's just going to eat all the potato chips.
And it's like, you left the pantry open. He has to be on the floor doing that, though, because they are trying to do this rotating rest thing with their guys.
I get it, too. They're just not good enough.
Here's Russ's value. We're giving everyone the night off.
Russ, can you do everything and try to keep us close for this game against Charlotte who's tanking anyway. Sure.
Can we bring in conspiracy

bill for a second? Oh, I'm here. I'm listening.

He turned his hat backwards.

It's like an over the top

slash the long conspiracy bill.

I wonder

if Jamal Murray's healthy.

Oh, okay.

And if they feel

like their team's going the wrong way in the playoffs and Jamal Murray is not 100% healthy and they lose and then that becomes the excuse for why they fell apart down the stretch and then it becomes harder to clean house and fire everybody. And now you just do it now so there's no excuse.
You 50-50, maybe he's going to be where he was in December for the playoffs. Maybe not.
But either way, it's a reset button either way. Listen, I'm not saying conspiracy bill.
I'm still conspiracy bill. It feels like you're workshopping.
I'm out. Good.
Listen, conspiracy bill just came in. I'm not saying he's always right.
Sometimes he's crazy. But something doesn't pass the sniff test about the timing with this i don't well because it's ludicrous the timing is ludicrous there's nothing i mean josh krocky said four times we're going to see what we can squeeze squeeze the juice we're going to see if we can squeeze some juice out of it there ain't no juice buddy your team ain't good enough he needs to squeeze the pd juice out of it he should be he's all the way around he needs to be squeezing the leadership juice he should have squeezed squoze you know before the season started and sat down he needed it needed to be squeezed before the season started they needed to come up with a game plan uh and not have this internal turmoil they got a best case scenario out of christian Christian Brown this season.
They really did. A very good scenario.
Dodging the KCP bullet. They got a very good scenario out of Jamal Murray, honestly.
Yeah. I mean, considering his injury history, they have three max contract guys.
They can't keep all three. They can't keep Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr.
and Jamal Murray and stay you know where they want to be your wizards flag no no no no no no flag star Porter no the new big three no no I still wonder why would didn't we hear more about them and with Miami why why did was Miami not interested Miami wanted any part of Michael Porter Jr. It must be.
It must be right. Would you

have traded for Michael Porter Jr.?

Would you want to pay him $40 million?

He's redundant for that team anyway.

He doesn't help them.

We're going to

take a break

and bring in Cousin Sal and we're going to

do the West where

Denver fits in and whether

we think there's any chance.

Where Denver fits out. Or where Denver fits

out. Let's go.
Let's take a break and then Sal's going to

Thank you. the West where Denver fits in and whether we think there's any chance.
Where Denver fits out. Or where Denver fits out.
Let's go. Let's take a break and then Sal's going to come in.
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All right. Cousin Sal is here.
Our friend. We walked the course today.
We're going to talk about that later. The Masters.
Your agent, James Babydoll Dixon, is here.

What a day.

So much fun.

We'll talk about that next segment.

We're going to talk about the Denver Nuggets and the West and basketball and the NBA playoffs.

Can I just first thank you guys for giving me some winning futures in the beginning of the year?

I heard you talk about how you bet your own futures and lost. Maybe you should come to me after your podcast so I can tell you who to bet.
Houston makes the playoffs. Yes.
Pelicans, no playoffs. Yes.
Denver underwins. Yes.
Spurs underwins. Yes.
Suns over is a loss. Wizards under.
Yes. We did above average on our locks.
I'm really upset about how we handled the Pacific. The LA teams, Sacramento, and Phoenix.
The Lakers. Phoenix and the two LA teams ruined my over-unders.
Yeah. Anyway.
It just went over. Those two went to crazy transformations.
So it's not really. Anyway.
So the Denver Nuggets. Yeah.
We have FanDuel. I introduced these to you.
Thank you. Kind of buried on the FanDuel Sportsbook NBA page where they have two advance each round.
And I don't remember seeing those last year. I was incredibly fascinated by them.
So round two, to make round two, that means you're winning in round one. And we're taping this before a couple of the Tuesday night games.
There's going to be some standing shenanigans. We have five teams that have 32 losses.
Denver's one of them who just fired their coach, G.M. Is Denver in a post-Malone time period right now? This is good.
Where's the drummer? OKC is minus $1,300 to make round two house. And that jumped out to me immediately because what if they played Minnesota or the Clippers? I think OKC would beat either of those teams, but I don't think they're 13-1 favorites to beat the Clippers if that was the series or Golden State.
What do you think the price is? Because those guys, both the Clippers and Minnesota, super short prices as dogs. It must be that they think Memphis is going to be the eight because Memphis is plus 350.
And honestly, that does make sense. I should have mentioned that too.
So Clippers are plus 130 to make round two. Minnesota is plus 154 to make round two.
Memphis is plus 350. But OKC is minus 1300.
It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.
Memphis is even the eight at plus 350. Fandle screwed up.
Thanks for sending us out here, but they screwed up. You're not smart people.
We let you Fandle, but you added something wrong here. And then the Lakers are minus 172.
Gold State's minus 152. Denver is plus 106.
And Houston is plus 114, which is another one that jumped out to me because they're going to have, we know they're the two seed. They're playing as well as they played all season.
And it's 2-7. And I just think they're going to be favored.
So if I get them a plus 114, that's great. But I think that whole list, what shocked you the most out of those eight teams?

That's weird now that you bring it up. If Houston is

going to be a two seed as an underdog,

right? If you're guaranteed,

not guaranteed, but looking good,

two seed. Has that happened

in a while where a two seed's an underdog?

I mean, that jumped out. Every once in a while,

Memphis had that year where they were the

two seed, but nobody believed in it, and there

was good value in them. Let's price it,

because let's say it's Houston against Minnesota. Right.
They won't be an underdog to Minnesota. It'll be very close to even odds, don't you think? Right.
They'll be a tiny favorite. Because they'll have home four.
Yeah, yeah. now, Minnesota's seven and Memphis is eight.

And Houston's two.

Arguably playing one of those.

Golden State has two easy games the next two.

It's bizarre.

Denver just fired their coach.

They've lost four in a row.

And they're going to be playing

the Kings,

the Grizzlies at home,

and then at Houston

in the last game of the season,

which Houston might not care about because they'll have the two seed locked up. So I don't know.
I think Minnesota versus Houston, just fundamentally, if that's a 2-7 series house, where would your money be in that series? I'm definitely betting on Minnesota. There's no ways to bet it.
That's how I feel about it too. I guarantee you.
Because they've screwed us enough. We have this big parlay that needs Minnesota to run the table losing-wise to pay off.
And it actually might be over by now because it's probably over. Tuesday night.
Yeah. Yeah.
So we just want to figure out how much we want our teeth kicked in by Minnesota this year. What would you set that line at? Minnesota.
I think your house is right. Like Houston only because they're home.
But it'd be tiny. Minus 125 or something like that.

So maybe that explains these prices.

I guess the problem for Fando and just trying to set these prices in general

is if you have one upset, one anything happening.

Yeah.

Now all of a sudden I have Denver plus 106,

but all of a sudden they're in the seventh spot playing Houston, And maybe they'd be favored in that series because of Jokic. That's a great question.
Who would you have favored in Denver-Houston? Yeah, so now you're talking. I think Houston's good.
I'd be a little, I'd bet Minnesota, but I don't think I'd put a lot of money on that one. I saw too many games with Houston where from the eight-minute mark in the fourth quarter to the end of the game, they turned flaccid.
Did you see anything? They turned limp. Did you see anything of what Ahmed Thompson did to Curry in that game, though? It was awesome.
Absolutely awesome. I thought that was impressive.
He just took out. Now, Curry, the problem with Golden State and why they're going to be so hard to figure out is they're an older team.
Right. Their best three guys are either old or getting old.
And they have a situation like they play two really hard Thursday, Friday games. And then they play Sunday against that young, big, powerful Rockets team.
And they just looked old. Yeah.
But at the same time, I thought the Rockets, they beat OKC and Golden State in the same weekend. That's not nothing.
They're good to play for and they talk a bunch of shit they're good i was talking shit to steph i mean this just shows me that fandle hates houston to make them a plus number as a but two seed most likely and then we don't have to go on to the next round but to make the West finals at plus 470 playing the four or five seed.

Right.

So I'm sorry,

the,

the,

the 360. we don't have to go on to the next round, but to make the West finals at plus 470, playing the four or five seed, right?

Or the, I'm sorry, the 360.

And my, I should have flagged this for you.

Houston was plus 790 like five days ago

to make the Western finals.

Really?

As a two seed.

They were basically getting eight to one odds.

And if you just price that out,

they're going to be the favorites are close

in both series, right?

Houston's plus 470 now.

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I think looking at the odds, the shocking thing to me is how much respect they give the Lakers and how afraid. And I'm not saying it's right or wrong.
I'm just saying the Lakers are being treated almost like they're a defending champ type situation. They're minus 172 to win a round.
They're plus 168 to win two rounds. And there's a chance they might, you know, maybe they don't even have home court in round two.
Right? Potentially they couldn't. But to me, that's like a lot of people.
That might be respect. That might be different from you.
There just might be a lot of tickets on the Lakers.

Like right after that Luka trade,

everyone must have just dialed into them and bet them to win the West.

So they're so scared of that.

Yeah, so there's a lot of liability there.

But I do think for the West finals, all right, OKC minus 290,

throw that out of there.

If you think Denver's done,

you got a nice opportunity to make some money here,

picking either the Lakers or Golden State or the Clippers. Well, the problem is if Denver drops to seven out of nowhere, and it's Houston versus Denver in a 2-7.
I think, looking at the odds, the best odds to me seem to be Minnesota to make the West Finals. I think the odds have adjusted correctly, but Minnesota basically 7-1 to make the West Finals to win two rounds.
We need to take a take a break for this podcast so I can go I'll be right back I gotta go make a bath I thought it was a bathroom thing it could be both I could do it in the bathroom we did eat a lot of pizza today I really wanted the clips to have better odds because I thought maybe they would be the sleeper pick but plus 420 to win two rounds there, there's no value at all. No, no value.
And there might be underdogs both rounds. That doesn't make sense.
And if you really wanted to get nuts, do Memphis plus 1550 to win two rounds. That's insane.
It's just throwing money away. But there's a chance they could get the seven seed and be in the 27, right? Yeah.
That would be the case. Memphis Houston houston would be awesome that would be an awesome

series but that's two series at plus 450 and plus 300 would that be what they are in the first two series so that's basically what 1550 is so how's it for that first round the advance to round two if somehow the Clippers are the eight seed

and OKC's the one seed

and you have OKC at minus 1,300 to advance to round two, I would be fucking nervous with that. I agree with that.
I don't think the Clips can beat OKC, but I think they can make you nervous if you have a lot of OKC money, right? Absolutely, positively. I want no part of that.
If Kawhi, it seems

like we're going to, I want us to knock on wood. There's some

wood in this house, some fine marble

I see, but I'm going to knock on some wood

because we want

Kawhi healthy for the first round. I don't

think they're going to drop, though. The Clippers are playing

too well, and

their last three games are reasonable

for them. So here's the real value

sell to make the finals.

So this is three rounds.

OKC is minus 145.

Lakers plus 650.

I just don't think that's...

They're going to be underdogs in two of those.

You have to win three rounds.

So this is to win the Western Conference.

Yeah.

This is the bet.

You have to...

Lakers plus 650.

Golden State 7-1.

Denver 10-1.

Clips 16-1.

Minnesota 21-1.

Houston 24-1.

Thank you. Lakers plus 650, Golden State 7-1, Denver 10-1, Clips 16-1, Minnesota 21-1 Houston 24-1 and Memphis 70-1 so the case for Golden State or the Lakers is this other than that they have famous players and a good infrastructure and all that stuff what does your record have to be what's the worst possible record you could have to make the Western Finals? A little math question for you guys.
I mean, including the playoff? First three rounds, what's the worst record you could have and still make the Finals? 4-3, 4-3, 5-3. Yeah, 12-9.
12-8. 12-9.
Yeah. So if you think of it that way, it's like, could a team with Luka and LeBron go 12 and nine over 21 games? It's like, yeah, that seems realistic.
Like Golden state could go and say, go 12 and nine for three rounds. And it's like, yeah, they're going to have a game like that Sunday where they look old.
Steph has three points, you know, even think of like when they played Memphis a couple of years ago in 22. Yeah.
they got blown out in game five, and they just won in game six.

When you think about 12 and 9, it's just not that hard.

I like the way you're going with it. It's because we usually look at this at this point of year like,

all right, who's the toughest out?

Who's the toughest to beat four times?

If you do it that way, 12 and 9 is doable.

Think about the Lakers, like 12 and 9. Let's say there's three incredible Luka games.
There's three. Let's give LeBron two incredible LeBron games.
Alright, now I have five. Let's give Reeves one awesome game where they win just because Reeves is great.
Now I have six of the 12. Alright, now let's have a LeBron and Luka are awesome in the same game game.
There's two more. You can get to 12 pretty easily.
I think you're right. I think those odds are – it's weird because we just said a lot of people might have Lakers tickets.
But when we talk about the toughest out, Oklahoma City is the toughest to beat four times probably, but not six times as tough as the Lakers to beat four times. Well, so here's the case for OKC.
Yeah. They're going to finish the season 68 and 14, 67 and 15, and then it becomes math.
Right. So over six months, they lost 14 times.
Right. And now we're going to get to the playoffs, and they're going to lose nine times in 21 games.
Right. That's where it gets stupid.
This was the case for the Celtics last year. At some point, the math takes over.
But OKC did get their ass kicked the other day against the Lakers. And it's like, why did they get their ass kicked? Were they showing anything? Did they call off the dogs? Or did this actually mean something? Right.
I don't know. Houston seems to be, I would say, most disrespected in the West.

I think it's appropriate.

I think it's fine.

But they're going to be the two seed.

Yeah.

And they're going to have home court in the first two rounds.

True story.

24 to 1 is a good price.

The two seed getting the seventh best seed odds is remarkable.

It doesn't make any sense.

24 to 1. Yeah.
Yeah. For all three of those categories, Houston's getting ripped.
All right, Sal, a couple other things for you. Yeah.
Who do you want Dallas to take with the 12th pick in the draft? Yeah. I want a lineman.
I know there's like two. It's just crazy.
I know we're going to screw this up. We're doing football now.
I know. I kind of love it.
We're talking about the Arizona receiver. This is a team that needs everything in my head.
Everybody who roots for their team, we need eight positions. Not you, House.
You're free agent at every way. We need eight defensive positions.
Give us a lineman. I don't know exactly which one is going to drop to us because we lost one of the best in the game.
I was looking at the draft odds. Sadly, it seems like the draft has shook out in a way that's not great for the New England Patriots.
Cam Ward's one. It seems like Hunter's going to be two.
He's minus 280 now to go to Cleveland. Then Carter is now minus 170 on FanDuel to be the third pick.
Oh, you were really hoping for Shador to sneak in there. And I don't think it's happening.
And Sanders, he's four to one to go third. He's 17 to one to go second.
And I think the odds are probably better that he's going to fall. There's a team to draft Shador Sanders.
ads that I thought was pretty fun because you can really take it I mean Dallas is 26 to 1 so you can take a couple of these this is like a nice roulette thing right we put money on a few numbers I never get it right though well if people are right and it feels like as somebody who's watched a lot of this draft stuff, and a couple of people have kind of like, eh, I'm not sure, he might be closer to Andy Dalton than people realize. But nobody really wants to come out and say, I don't think he's a top five pick.
He's not good enough. Nobody has come out strongly, but I think that's coming.
And if he does the Aaron Rodgers slide into the late part of round one right and we start going into like i don't know um miami range 27 to 1 sure maybe even some before that colts 22 to 1 colts Seattle, Colts, yeah. Seattle 22-1.

Mm-hmm.

Rams 11-1. That makes a lot of sense to me, honestly.
Steelers plus 450. But it seems like there's some sort of value there that we're not seeing.
The other thing I was looking at was if the Pats trade back. I think Gente is seems like he's going to have some real juice

as the draft gets closer. Raiders are minus 145 for him.
They're picking sixth. And if they get scared, somebody's going to leapfrog them.
Maybe they just move up two spots with the Pats if the Pats want to take a left tackle. Right.
But him going to the Raiders is minus 145. Saints is 9-1.
And then your team, Sal, 15-1. It's so funny because I would even look further down because to me it's still like, all right, if these GMs wisen up, a running back that early, just even in the first round, but that early, should only go to a team that's one piece away from making the playoffs or making a deep run in the playoffs.
I'm sorry. That's not your team.
That's not the Raiders. Probably not the Bears.
The only case for my team for sure. But the only case for my team is if they're like, this is a Peyton Manning, Edge James situation.
We'll have our two guys. We won't be able to block for either of them.
But we have, this is an Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, like there's a model here for this. I'm like, I'm pretty consistent with this.
Like if you're picking that high, I need to get somebody that in free agency in four to five years is going to be like a $30 million a year guy. And running backs don't make that much.
You know? Tackles do, cornerbacks do, pass rushers do. And I just feel like if you're picking that high even if they took mason graham it's like that's a guy that will if he's good will be like a 25 to 30 million dollar a year player yeah a running back will not but once you're in the range you're in it starts to get more interesting then you're in that jameer gibbs range right yeah i don't think know, I think you got your player that everyone needs to be excited about.
And that's a coach. Yeah.
Yeah. It's your coach.
So now you don't have to, you know, kowtow to the fans. You could draft smart and go back to drafting smart.
Like you do. I mean, I think like Denver at 75 to one, like kind of one ish piece away from, from doing that, you They did running back by committee, and it was

not very successful.

I like that price a lot.

The Dallas Cowboys are

7-1 to take a running back.

To take a running back first.

To take a running back first, plus

230 to take a receiver.

Yeah, you can do that.

Fando has all these positions.

It's a lot of fun.

The kid from North Carolina

has been getting a ton of buzz.

So they're starting to do this thing about, you know, is this a B. John Robinson, Jameer Gibbs kind of year? What position do you think Washington will take? I pray edge.
I pray one of the guys that they like at edge. That's plus 170 on Fando.
Makes perfect sense, right? That's the lowest odds for the position. Yeah.
The one that they don't have yet that I think they should have is who's going to be the second quarterback drafted. Yeah, they usually do.
Because Dart versus Sanders is a really fun one. Because couldn't you see the Saints just taking Dart ninth out of nowhere? Like, whoa! Like one of those? Yeah, for sure.
And Dart, it's so funny because now we see how many people show up. Everybody reports on how many Giants showed up for Shador Sanders Pro Day.
It's like 37 Giants with 14 players and 3 front office guys. It ends up being like ratings for this, and that affects the odds.
Like how many, you know, so that's why people think. But yeah, the same thing for what you're saying here.
I could see it. Well, speaking of affecting the odds, you know, Fando, they've been an awesome partner to us.
They're the reason we're here at the Masters right now. And occasionally I'll text them and badger them and make them do props and that sort of props and including some golf ones that we're going to talk about in one second but uh i made them do an exact order bet this is my dream scenario for the pats which was cam ward sanders hunter we get abdul carter fourth so they put that up they priced it they had their uh their trading desk priced it Yeah.
And it's plus 750 for that foursome. This was two weeks ago.

It's now $17 to $1. Did you make them change it? No, they're just dropping.
They're increasing the odds. What happened? Did they send in some tariffs? No buyers? It was their Shedors to Enders tariff? It did not turn out.
Dropped them. Killed the market.
Wow. What happened that made that go up? Aside from no one's betting.
I think what happened is Sanders, it became clear he wasn't going to go two or three. Okay.
But for the top five pick bet was the other one I was looking at. Yeah.
And Mason Graham is minus 140. And I just don't see how he falls past Jacksonville at five.
Either the Pats take him which I'd be fine with because then they would have an awesome D-line with hopefully Barmore's healthy. Guy they signed from Philly they spent a lot of money on and Graham, that sounds great.
Let's have an awesome D-line or Jacksonville takes him. But that's minus 140.
Seems like good odds. It gets a little scarier after that.
Like Will Campbell, the left tackle everyone thinks the Pats are going to take. I just don't think they take him at four.
It's minus 135. I think they trade back a couple spots if they're taking him because nobody else is going to take him.
Is the NFL draft or the mock draft the biggest? Alright, we're full of shit, but you have no choice but to follow us. No, I honestly, I think it's like the Denver, the Malone booth thing.
I think there's so much scuttlebutt. And I think they talk to so many people.
And I think these guys get real info. They end up six out of 32.
And if there's one trade, it screws everybody up. No, but I'm saying info about who's kind of...
Who's looking for what? By now, we know if Sanders is going to be a top four pick or not.

He's just not.

It's not happening.

Right.

All right.

So maybe if you... So we know stuff like that.

You could outline the top three or four, but after that...

Like we know Cam Ward, like Tennessee's taking him.

Like we've done that for a little while.

Yeah.

No.

I'm just saying, Joe Linardi goes 67 to 68 and gets death threats.

And then everybody else, like Kuyper goes seven for 32. It's like, yeah, great job.
All right. Well, because the NFL has teams like Atlanta who draft Michael Penix Jr.
Right. Number nine.
Right. Yeah.
Everything gets like no, like, hey, I'm zagging. Pretty good pick.
No, but that's what I'm saying. You might as well.
Michael Penix might be the first pick of this draft. It's a great pick.
It's a great pick if they just hadn't spent 90 million on Kirk Cousins if you just don't care about money don't bet minus 170 on anything because of this that's great advice with that said Gentty plus 850 I think think, is a really interesting bet. For where? For top five pick.
Nah, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.
You can't have a running back in top five. If he's B.
John Barkley that level and everybody thinks that, and people think the Raiders are going to take him at six and they want to leapfrog him and get to four or five to take him. That's the path.
Plus 850 seems like pretty good odds for that. That is a Raiders move.
That would be fun. Get the hell out of there.
So you like that one? Would Tom Brady permit that? Did any of the, since we did the NFL over under pod and we, so we did the, uh, Sal and I did that. I listened and we told, we told house, yeah, here's the Niners price.
And you would have thought I told house, Trump's about to do tariffs. Assume all these short positions.
I haven't heard house that excited about a win total. in my life.
Did it stay the same? No. It's down.
Oh, it's still 10 and a half, but there's minus 135 juice now. That's still not a bad price.
I caught my breath and I thought about it. And I don't think they're very good.
And I think they're going to have with this huge overhaul, it's not going to be the same team we're looking at and everything. But I thought about it and I was like, I still don't think they should be favored to win the division.
But I said, boy, if you had your choice of being in any division with any schedule, you would want to play a fourth place schedule and against the AFC South and the NFC South. And that's what they're doing.
They do have the easiest schedule as we sit here today. We haven't seen what the rest situation and all that is and how it will affect it.
But I don't know who's on that team. I don't know what the skill positions are.
You took everybody from their team. It's Brock Purdy and it's Trent Williams and it's McCaffrey on how many on half a leg on one leg.

I mean one leg.

Yeah. Does he even have one leg anymore?

Fred Warner plays defense.

You know, that's it.

We're going to do some master stuff.

Yeah. Before we do the draft

we're going to do.

We have a bunch of ringer specials that are

on the FanDuel Sportsbook right now.

Including

House's Frog Frenzy Region Parlay, which is Matsuyama Top Asian and McElroy Top UK plus 460. Why is it the Frog Frenzy House? Because those guys are teammates.
They're teammates on the Boston Common TGL team. They're ball frogs.
You might be the only person that knows this. Hideki, I think, played in like half a match.
I don't remember seeing him. They weren't very good.
I'm so glad that's the explanation. It is.
They've gone so many different ways. Frog frenzy.
That's it. I thought you were going to get canceled for a second.
I thought something horrible happened. No, no, no.
It's like, why did he frog frenzy it? I explained it when I put it in going to get canceled for a second I thought something horrible happened I explained it

when I put it in there

anytime you have the ball frogs

as a potential parlay you gotta do it

so House you have Justin Thomas

winning the Masters

I do

what's the case

in the first place

22 to 1

so that's the most important aspect of this

I think it's a great price

for where he is

Let's go. in the first place.
By the way, 22 to 1. So that's the most important aspect of this.
I think it's a great price for where he is in terms of his success this year. His biggest problem over this drought, this winning drought that he's in, he hasn't won in over two years, has been putting.
He putted very poorly last season. His putting has greatly improved and his numbers he's been competitive I mean he he choked down the stretch uh two weeks ago in Tampa Florida he had a three-stroke lead going into the final five holes and lost to Victor Hovland who birdied two of the last three also I mean it was it was a sensible loss but I love where JT is in terms of his off-the-tea numbers.

I love where he is in terms of approach.

And the key thing for me is the

price, because I don't think you're

getting any return on Scottie Scheffler

or Roy McIlroy. And I will

pivot immediately if one of those guys comes out

and shoots 66 on Thursday.

But JT at

22-1 doesn't match up with the caliber and quality of his play thus far this season. So that's why I did it.
And then, Sal, you jumped on a bandwagon. Why is that? He's a bandwagon guy.
I haven't heard anyone else take him. Bandwagon pick.
Oh, so many people. Really? I love it.
16-1 on Fando. What was your case? Fourth in the world.
Came in third last year. He came in 10th the year before.
Came in fifth in 2022. He's never missed a Masters cut, so you know you're going to see him Saturday, Sunday.
He's going to be on the board. I think people are down on him because of that outburst with House.
You say that's not even an outburst. No.
When he blew a three-stroke lead with five left in the Arnold Palmer last month, and he wouldn't talk to the press. Who gives a crap? Don't talk to me.
I'll talk to you when I win here. He didn't talk to the press because he was waiting for the winner to finish, and he was waiting, and he was waiting, and he was waiting, and the tour never got him and said, come, here's how we're going to sequence this.
He just left. Very misunderstood.
He signed all these autographs. Torpologist, Joe Hess.
I'm a Morikawa stan. He finished in ties the top 20 in all four majors last year.
I think he's a great bet. I have some Morikawa exposure.
I just love the price for JT. That's the reason that I went with JT.
We did hit one bet already at the Masters that we'd run into Scott Van Pelt and he would take us to the Butler Cabin and we would get a group photo. which I put on my instagram that was that was like the butler cabin I haven't seen house that excited probably I I'm trying to think of a scenario where you would have the look on your face and I think it involves the word free massage I won't go there it was stunning I'm not I can't overstate how like the set of the sequence of events first of all having eight seconds we walked all the way up 10 to get to the top of the hill to where they're all the social scene is happening the media people all that happens at the putting green where one and 10 come together it's a big scene kudos to nathan hubbard who's asleep right now because he had 14 pieces of pizza um but he he was like let's go up there we'll run into someone he's like good call we'll run into somebody but we had to stop halfway up because the cousin Sal has never walked up 10 it's hard it's a real walk forgot it was like the Denver Nuggets bench with all the rookies we forgot that Sal was a rookie and didn't realize we're just going uphill for an hour.
Ridiculous walker by eating pizza and oysters. That's how I dream.
The sequence of events went from that moment. He was great.
Yeah. And then we're up there and they're like, hey, there's SB Baby Doll takes charge.
Oh, he knows me. He knows me.
He's going to fucking love this. SBP, good job.
Baby Doll only got scolded three times for smoking. Anyway, we ran an SVP.
Saw the Butler Cabin, which was about the size of the room we're in now. It's weird.
But cool brick fireplace. Amazing.
It's a TV studio. It is know floor to ceiling outfit for perfect um tv you know for video audio it's like walking into you know any a proper studio where you guys know how to do tv shows i was surprised by that aspect yeah it's like there'd be a ringer studio right outside small world ride in disneyland it's like what the why is this here you know it's also always fun to run into Van Pelt because he's gigantic.
He's so tall. 6'5".
You always forget how tall he is and just famous. What a homie.
Great guy. My Masters winner is Rory McIlroy at plus 650.
I always make fun of you for being sentimental about Rory. You do.
Somebody that drove us around a little bit the last two days, Matt, who we've been fortunate enough to get to know a little bit. And he had some Rory intel about.
Rory was kind of popping back here and play the course and just making a couple extra trips. Yeah, Gus the native Matt.
Keeping his eye on things for us. Just that Rory seemed especially focused this year.
And I just like the moment. I mean, he's running out of time.
He's in his extended prime now, I would say. I don't think there's a lot more years where he's in the mix like this as a favorite.
And this feels like to me, like if it's going to happen, it's going to be like, got to be like this year or next year. So that's interesting because we are in this era where we see athletes, you know, extend their career.
And he has been very fortunate in terms of avoiding injury. He does seem like with his swing, he's been able to get more out of it.
He hits the ball even further than ever in his 30s. And he doesn't have these injuries that pop up that much.
So I think there's a window of time that I would say it's at least like five years. But your point is right.
There is not a long history of Masters winners once you hit age 35. If he could avoid injury like he avoided Babydoll today.
So 35, four years left? I would give him like six or seven. When we get into our 40s, are we still in your prime at this point in golf? I mean, Tiger 1 in 2019.
He's got some time. I'm not ready.
This is the moment, though. This is a crucial moment.
And it's not going to be any better because he's never come into I'm not ready this is the moment though this is a crucial

moment it's not going to be any better because

he's never come into a Masters having

won twice on American soil

and his numbers are through the roof

in terms of the quality of his

look in our defense House and I bet golf every

weekend and we've had money on Rory blowing

round four a lot right

I mean that's the hesitation

36 years old Rory yeah I don't know. We're around when it should happen again pretty soon.
It would be great. I'm rooting for it.
I'll live bet it if he comes out. His biggest problem has been Thursday.
He hasn't scored well on Thursdays. Is he the number one player or team you've

live bet the most?

Oh, wow.

And then I'll ask Sal. I think for Sal, it's the Chiefs.

It might be

Alex Pereira, but it's funny. We discussed

this on Against All Odds. If you had to

assign a point value from 1 to 100

on guys and teams that

you've bet on the most.

Pereira, McIlroy, Chestnut. Those are are my three I think mine are the Brady Pats oh that's a good one like halftime bets stuff like that we're fucking back man I miss those days we're going to take a break and come back and do a little master's draft this episode is brought to you by Vrbo Private Vacation Rentals with Vrbo you can save over $200 on select homes when you stay for a week or more.
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All right, for this last segment, I always make fun of NFL pregame shows when they have too many people on and we're about to have a six-person segment. But we only have four mics, so I think it's going to work well.
Dave Chang joined us. Hello.
Hello. Nathan Hubbard joined us.
Hello. And James Babydoll Dixon is here.
Yo, Babydoll. So glad to be here with you guys.
We have never been at the Masters together. No, we have not.
Never been in the Masters with Sal. I've been with Chang.
I've been with Nathan. I've been with House.
Obviously, he no longer has a mic. Maybe that's a good thing.
You guys don't need to share the mic. We're going to bring Chang in.
But I want to share the mic. Chang has a mic maybe that's a good thing you guys don't need to share the mic

we're going to bring Chang in but I want to share

the mic. Chang has a bum shoulder

he's got like a separated shoulder

they surgically

removed his shoulder and now he's leaning on his

left side here. I just want to make you

as uncomfortable as possible

and he's also like cooking

like a wild man with this really

bad shoulder it's impressive yeah he's playing hurt he's an cooking like a wild man with this really bad shoulder. It's impressive.
Yeah, he's playing hurt. He's an inspiration to all of us and to everybody except Tiger Woods, who's not here.
But there's a lot of good golfers here. Nathan, we didn't talk about – we both picked Rory to win this Masters.
Yeah, we did. What was your case quickly? He, 10 years ago, got 60% of his shots gained from off the tee last year 51 percent this year only 37 percent and he is still first in driving which is to say the rest of his game has gotten way way better see that was much better and much smarter more stat driven than my take which is like more rory's now hitting his mid late 30s and the vibes are good If it's ever going to happen, it's happening right now.
Matt, our guy, told us that he's been here a couple times. That was my case.
Plus 650. We're going to do a draft.
You didn't trust Matt with your phone, but you do with the master's pick, huh? No, I wanted to put my phone. I like getting my phone from the pub house.
We all left our phones with Matt. I don't know where Matt's going to go.
What if his car gets stolen? Okay. We're doing this draft and FanDuel is going to put odds on it.
We are going to do a Thursday Friday draft. The 48 hour frenzy I think we're calling this.
Each of us are going to be two golfers. Lowest score wins and people can bet on this on FanDuel Sportsbook.
If you like my pair more than everyone else's pair, put some odds on it. Hush, you don't have a mic.
You can't talk. You talk when I talk to you.
You sound like Alec Baldwin's wife. You're sharing babies, Mike.
Do you have something to say? No. You're doing the Justin Tipperlake Barry Gibbs show.
Hold on. Can I just say

we haven't figured out what the booby

prize is, but whoever comes in last has to

do something stupid.

Something humiliating Friday.

I think you have to mix

all of the sandwiches on the

course together and then eat them.

Egg salad, pork. Great idea.

I think I might have done that anyway today,

but that's fine.

You guys might have trouble with that. right, let's do the draft, and then we're going to interrogate Baby on some stuff.
Chang, I'm going to give you the first pick of anyone for Thursday, Friday. So it's not to win the tournament.
Just who do you think is going to be the leader Thursday and Friday or have a really good score? Well, I know you guys are choosing Rory, but I'm going to go with Scotty Schaeffler, number one pick. I don't think he's going to win, but for the first two days, yes.
That's my pick. Okay.
Make a case for Schaeffler. I don't see.
Where's this guy coming from? All right, that's good. And it's the lowest combined score, right?

Yeah, Sal, you have second pick.

All right, well, I did, you know, the last half hour,

I said Colin Morikawa.

I'm not wavered from that pick.

I like him.

What are his numbers?

Third last year, 10th the year before, 5th in 2022.

Never misses a master's cut.

We had a buddy who said he had lunch with him yesterday.

Delightful fella.

Dead set on winning this thing.

Welcome to Team Sal, Colin Morikawa.

Is that like a name drop? But it was like a mystery name drop. It's a mystery name drop.
All right, Nathan, you go third. Give me Rory McIlroy.
It's his time. It's his time.
That was my terrible take. It's a bad take because Rory has struggled on Thursdays.
And that's really the narrative of this tournament. If he plays Thursday well, he's going to win this golf.
Thursday and Friday. Fair enough.
Baby, you get to go fourth. Who's your pick? I'm doing the Swede.
Aberg. Ludwig? Ludwig Aberg.
It's kind of Oberg, isn't it? It's Oberg. I don't think if he wins, you shouldn't get credit for that.
Wait, it's freaking Swedish. Oberg, Aberg.
It starts with an A with that little dot. I'm not supposed to follow this.
All right. I'm going fifth, and I'm taking Beefy Bryson, Bryson DeChambeau, with my fifth pick.
All right, House, you get to hold the mic down. You get two straight picks.
Great. I'll take Jon Rahm, and I'll take Justin Thomas.
You got the best spot in the draft. Want to make the case? Want to make the case? Yeah.
Jon Rahm is a complete wild card because he plays on the live tour. Now, he hasn't finished worse than sixth on any of his live events for the most part.
But I like him this year as opposed to last year. He had a tied for 45th last year as the defending champion.
And he was in disarray. His game was in disarray.
His life was in disarray. He's calm now.
Nathan gave me a very fine report of how he conducted himself at the press conference. He is poised.
He's ready. He's locked in.
I like that he played Doral last week. Tough golf course.
Played well. You know, ready for a major.
And then Justin Thomas is my pick to win this golf tournament because I love the odds of 22 to 1, but Thomas has been gaining strokes on approach for about nine months now. And the key with Justin Thomas is that his putting is greatly improved.
Now he is playing with a new caddy for the Masters. I hope it's the guy that Ben Crenshaw used.
We're on the 30th anniversary of Ben Crenshaw winning in 95. He has that guy.
You might have a chance, but I don't love the idea of a new caddy. Why is that? Why do people not like a new caddy? Everybody gets the sours on a player who has a new caddy.
I think the caddy's actually dead, but... Yeah.
Yeah. All right.
R.I.P. Well, then he had to change caddies.
All right. I'm up.
I'm taking Xander. God.
Wow. Steady pick.
Best guy on the board. Wow.
Big year last year for him. Maybe it'll continue at the Masters.
So, House has Rahm and Thomas. I have Beefy Bryson and Xander as my two.
Baby, you're up. I'm going with the...
Say it right. Always.
This one's easy. I'm going with Kapka as my second pick.
Eberg played so, Oberg played so impressively last year. Eberg or Oberg? Both of them played so impressively.
Berge, just call him Berge. Berge, Ludwig, he hits the ball a country mile, number one.
He's got the short game. He finished, I believe, second believe second last year if i'm not mistaken and i think he's one of the absolute future stars of the tour and will win many majors in his career kepka i listen i love on this podcast when people suck up to the swedes yeah right in general but i think he he's always a threat in the majors.
He's had a very good recent

history, Koepka, in

the Masters. I'm

not sure where his game is because

I don't watch Liv.

But I feel like

he's always

looming and

could be a threat this week.

All right. We got a lot of Liv guys already.
That was two. Nathan, you're up.
You have Rory and who? God, this is a tough one because the money says you should take Joaquin Neiman here, but I just don't trust him based on the way that he played at Liv last week. So I'm going to go totally off reservation and go Shane Lowry.
There's a small select group of guys who can actually win this golf tournament. And it's people who come in with great ball striking and Shane Lowry is coming in with great ball striking and he generally starts these tournaments decently.
Well, so let's, let's see how he does. All right.
Speaking of great ball striking cousins. hey now.
I'm going with the shaggy dog, Cam Smith. Taking him right there.
Ninth last year. Top 10.
Top 10 in five of the last seven Masters and never missed a Masters cut, which means he's going to have a nice score on Friday, by Friday. And he shaved the mullet.
He shaved the mullet. That worries me.
Mullet or not, here we come. Welcome to Team South, Hans Smith.
Dave Chang, you have the last pick. I asked our good friend, Chachi PT to help me on this and I asked what if you were Cousin South but successful? At betting? At betting, especially when it comes to the Masters, and what would be the best long shot? I sort of did, and it also helped me with alliteration.
So we got Scotty Scheffler, and we're going to Sepp Straka, who finished 16th last year. We saw him today.
Great approach shots. He looked good.

And I'm trying to make Cousin Sal look good.

Okay, good.

Good luck there.

I mean, that might be tougher than actually winning.

All right.

So here's who we have.

Chang has Scotty and Straka.

Sal has Morikawa and Cam Smith.

Nathan has Rory and Lowry.

Baby has Bergy and Koepka.

Yes.

I have Bryson and Xander, and House has Rom and Thomas.

FanDuel, at some point tomorrow,

will have odds on all of these pairings with our names.

Yes.

And people can bet on this for Thursday, Friday.

And I'm getting all the info from them.

Who got bet on the most?

I really want to have the most bets.

You do?

Yeah.

You'll get that.

People like you, I think. Looking at this, I think House is going to have the most bets.
You do? Yeah. You'll get that.
People like you, I think. Looking at this, I think House is going to have the most bets.
Rahm and Thomas. Yeah, I think House will have the most action, which makes House public, which means he's not going to win.
They're public. So there we go.
That's it for our big draft. Check it out.
I think we're calling it Ringer 48-hour frenzy. What do you want to call it? I think that's good.
Yeah. And then we might do, we were talking about maybe something with the 16th hole number of people that hit the water.
Oh, the Ringer Rinse. The Ringer Rinse.
Yeah. Thursday, Friday.
Something like that. Good times.
That's where we go. All right.
We're going to take one more break and then come back with some more master stories. This episode is brought to you by Ultra Running.
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And now for a special part of today's show,

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All right. Now it's just the four of us.
Nathan and House have Fairway Rollin. They're taping tomorrow.
They're doing their big master's preview. So I want people to listen to listen to that what you can't get on fairway rolling is what it was like to uh walk the course with baby today what a day um what a day so was it fun it was a lot of fun it really was i had a great time with you guys i really did yeah because you wouldn't shut up you talked about your shot and your shoulder and your your strokes and how you were as a 25-year-old golfer.
I really was. You're right.
The walking would have been easier if he wasn't in my ear. But, you know, I do like talking golf with house.
Yeah. I think we have a very similar handicap and also a somewhat similar passion for the game.
He was listening. He was very intently listening.
No, no no i don't think he was intently i listen this is a real highlight of my day because i didn't know that you were such a golf lunatic oh i'm a lunatic i'm and number two i kept on walking in front of you guys with sally here and i kept on telling myself like this is insane yeah because you spoke nonstop, relentlessly. This is not a compliment, baby.

Describe your entire golf history of- and I kept on telling myself, this is insane. Yeah.
Because you spoke nonstop, relentlessly.

This is not a compliment, baby.

Your entire golf history of how far you would hit

every club in your bag at different ages of your life.

I did.

It was like the evolution, you know,

the evolution of my game from age 12 to 60.

It was like a sports documentary narrative series that nobody signed up for. I didn't mean to annoy you guys with it.
I just get so excited when I- You're getting upset now. No, I'm not upset.
When I walk those hallowed grounds, I get this energy about it. I just, I can't help myself myself I'm like obsessed how do you know that house was enjoying listening to this I think house was I think house really loves listening to anyone talk about golf you gotta give him a break tomorrow all right tomorrow you didn't know I'll walk with you guys tomorrow well here's the thing like you and we were here keep up with Simmons you can't keep up with Simmons so it's gonna be someone else his pace.
But he's talking about his golf game and everything. And this would go for 40 minutes.
And then we'd get a break from Baby. Like, oh, thank God.
We don't have to listen to the golf talk. He'd go to the bathroom where he'd go to smoke somewhere.
Or he'd go to the fucking pro shop for the fourth time of the day. And then he'd keep us waiting for four.
So half our day was spent waiting for Baby. Right.
Well, I only dropped, what, 4K today? That wasn't bad. It was right it's right around the over under well so sal yeah baby does this thing where he's convinced everybody who's ever met him oh yeah knows who he is most famously when he accosted oprah winfrey in jimmy's dressing room right and did oprah oprah you remember me you remember me and she didn't and then he Oprah, you remember me.
Right. And it's a famous story.
So we were wondering if he would do that today on the golf course, and you take it from here. There were a couple, right? It was Cam Smith, who was on my team.
Yes, it was. Because it was a Wake Forest connection.
Your daughter went to Wake Forest. Yes, two of my daughters did.
Yes. And he was eating a banana after his tea shot.
And what'd you do? Well, so can I get the background? So 17, and he's like, I'm going to get Cam Smith's attention. Yes.
Yeah, with the Wake Forest thing. Yes, I do.
And we're like, baby, definitely don't do that. He's doing a practice round.
He's trying to figure out distances. He's not going to acknowledge you.
No, no, no. I think I can get him.
Yes. So he's walking by eating a banana.
And what happens? Cam, Cam, Wake Forest. Wait.
Oh, I said, first I said, Cam. We're rooting for you.
We're rooting for you. Best of luck this week.
Didn't look up from peeling his banana. Working on the banana.

Right.

And as I said, as I said, Wake Forest guy, Wake Forest connection.

He continued to peel the banana and stick it in his mouth and look the other way. He seemed like he paused for a split second.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But he at least might have paused.

And then there was a follow up.

Well, so then there was another one that I thought was a better one. So Rory McIlroy.
Chang, how dubious were you of this? When Baby said, I can get Rory to come over on the 18th. I can't express how I felt truly because I didn't know I'd feel embarrassment on that hole because you said you were going to do it and I didn't think you were going to do it with Cam but you did and it was embarrassing quite frankly for you and us because we were there I wasn't embarrassed at all he'd be lucky to know me now I knew you weren't joking that you were really going to talk to Rory because you have had interactions in the past.
I have had multiple interactions with him. Not today.
I don't want to say we're neighbors at the Bears Club, but we're neighbors at the Bears Club. So you position yourself.
He's been a wonderful guy to me and very kind. He's a gentleman.
Can we unwind that for a second? Yes. I don't want to say I'm neighbors with him at the bears club,

but I'm neighbors with him at the bears.

Yeah,

because it sounds so ridiculous.

His house is so incredibly beautiful.

Does that mean your neighbors with him at the bears club?

I mean,

he's around the corner.

Yeah.

There's only 80 houses.

Sounds like neighbor.

All right,

but that doesn't mean he knows you.

No,

I didn't say he knows me well,

but he knows, he knows, he doesn't know me well, but when he sees me, he knows who I am. How's kind of a neighbor.
That doesn't mean he knows you. No, I didn't say he knows me well, but he knows

he doesn't know me well, but

when he sees me, he knows who I am. How's that?

So that Bears Clubhouse, that was like

the fourth Colbert extension?

Like when you try to

assign fees

to the houses? My dad is the

Simmons wing. What are you complaining about?

Cousin

Sal's my outdoor grill. Come on.
that just means you're a shitty agent um so go ahead uh who is he playing with i can't remember oh amateur i believe yeah and he hits a bomb of a drive on 18 and you know to bill's credit he got us to look at how narrow and how stressful it is to actually play 18. The TV doesn't really do it just.
There's like five things you kind of have to see at the Masters, and one of them is you have to stand behind the 18th tee to see how hard that is to just thread the needle with the amount of pressure that you might be facing on 18. It's easy dead uphill.
Giant trap. Only really one spot to hit it and 19 things can go wrong.
Not to mention all the people lined up that you feel like. And it's 18.
And Rory bombs his drive right down the middle. 300 plus.
And you know, you say you're going to talk to Rory and you have like this prime spot as he's gonna walk past yes and i had to turn my back to you we backed off and gave him we backed up like like it was a yo mama fight or something space yeah i just i just couldn't see this car crash so sad you want to reenact what baby said side of it imagine if he came over how great that fucking moment would have been right but that would have been cool what did you say over you said rory rory baby doll yes i did that was it it was just three words and he heard real he didn't not only didn't stop, I think he sped up when he heard Davey.

He cracked a little smile.

I don't know.

Maybe I'm imagining it.

Like, oh, this is my prison cellmate from 750.

So you were helping.

Just in my defense.

Yeah.

He wins the players two weeks ago or three.

How many weeks ago was that?

Three weeks ago now.

And you guys are neighbors.

And I saw him in the men's grill.

And I, of course, congratulated him profusely.

and like a

Thank you. How many weeks ago was that? Three weeks ago now.
And you guys are neighbors. And I saw him in the men's grill.
And I, of course, congratulated him profusely. Like a thousand people.
And he was sitting with Shane Lowry at the table. And I talked to him for a minute.
And, you know, did the baby doll thing. What is the baby doll thing? I think we saw it today.
That's it. He calls someone's name and they don't respond.
I thought maybe it was semi fresh in his mind. Yeah.
So that's why I had a modicum of, of, of confidence that he was going to like, Oh, baby doll. Okay.
I'll look, whatever. Didn't work out that way.
Well, as it turns out, these guys are practice rounding and trying to figure out their shots and the distances on every drive.

You picked Rory.

The baby doll didn't really trigger him at all.

Wouldn't you have been a little weirded out?

You picked Rory.

If he was so unfocused that he did come over.

I would have been concerned.

I feel like they're actually, I know they're,

but he's played this tournament 20 times, 15 times. It's loose out there in these practice rounds.
So he just doesn't like you. Yeah, I guess.
So 0 for 2 is the legacy. I was 0 for 2.
Sal, can you tell the origin? But there's always tomorrow. Can you tell the origin of the Babydoll story? Because you named him Babydoll.
I don't think there's much to it other than he says Babydoll. He calls everyone Babydoll.
And I thought this was funny. And then so I started calling him Babydoll.
That's exactly right. I mean, it's not fair that he gets to call everyone Babydoll.
We don't call him Babydoll back. That was really it.
There's not much to it. You are the guy who pointed.
But to me, this is like, I don't know why no one did this i met him 25 years ago someone should have done this 40 years ago true this is like wheels on luggage like luggage always should have had wheels right not 1978 and 81 i like that i like that metaphor well that's it you should have Doll. So you were hoping because everyone calls you Baby Doll and you call everybody Baby

Doll.

Correct.

Somewhere in Rory's head as he's figuring out the course, how his swing is, the distances

that the Baby Doll would trigger like a Pavlovian response.

Yes, I did think that.

Oh, that guy I really like.

Right.

Yeah, totally.

Isn't that insane of me?

But yes, that was what was going through my fucked up mind. I have to say, upon reflection, your performance today was inspirational.
Oh, that's why I love you, Chang. Thank you.
You have to try. Failure is not enough.
You just got to try. You don't know what you're going to get.
Baby doll magic is just not being afraid. That's it.
Is that the Wayne Gretzky quote? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take? That's exactly right. And I know he's a really decent guy.
When you talk to him, he's a gentleman beyond belief. Why should we believe you? No, because he just is.
And not some you know disengaged guy and uh he's he's always very polite and right and engaged and so i thought maybe and it was relatively recent that we we bullshitted and uh all right oh for two what can i say i tried but that wasn't really the. Sort of the highlight for me was we were talking to a member of Augusta National, and somehow you just let it be known that you were a board member of Wake Forest right off the bat.
Absolutely. Which had nothing to do with the conversation at all.
You were so proud of that. Why did I bring that up? Well, because you brought that up.
Why did I bring that up? No, I'm like, you're right. I did bring it up.
I hate to add context to this, but we're talking about the LPGA and Wake Forest golfers. Yes, thank you for the refresher.
Yes, and I could he was talking about the ladies amateur being held at Augusta. Which is picking up steam here.
One of the things I learned today is Baby's

very proud to be on the board at Wake Forest.

I am. It's an honor.

It really is. It's an amazing institution.

You told the person who made us a

pimento cheese sandwich.

Pretty much.

What is it?

Your grandkids, your family,

Wake Forest board,

John Stewart, and then way, way lower all of those other clients. Okay, I'll go with that.
Jimmy's like not way down. Oh, yeah, okay.
Jimmy's like under Jon Stewart. No, no, James, of course.
But this Wake Forest thing shot to the top. Remember when the bachelor, Matt James, was in there for like a year? No, and he was like right there with stewart right it's like neck and neck he was you were dropping his name everywhere absolutely well hey you're only the bachelor once right there's one more baby there's like so many baby it's only true joy getting to it's only been one day it just is amazing it feels like what's this gonna be so um you disappeared quite.
You got in trouble for smoking cigarettes. That was also a highlight.
Okay. Fair enough.
Yeah. But the real highlight was you disappeared.
And I think amongst the five of us were like, what's going on here? Why are you not here? Right. And you come back and we all had to sort of eat crow because you bought us all hats yes i did and then it was worth the wait but a funny can you decide what happened because i mean we had we waited like a half hour for him right and i'm like what the hell we had because the sun was hot for some reason he was scared about skin cancer for once yeah interesting and decided to get a hat he wanted this is that what it was yeah because they didn't have it at the Berkman's.
He was in the pro shop for like an hour and a half, and then 40 minutes later, it has to shop even more. Yes, I did.
Worse than my wife. Then he comes out, and like Chang says, he starts throwing, he gives us all hats.
He's like, yeah, take a hat. He spent like $250 on hats.
We're talking to some fans of bills. This is happening, bills.
A guy smoking comes up, talks to Bill, says hi. And baby doll.
And I don't know how you said it, but you had an extra hat because so many of us had bought hats already 20 minutes before. And you throw it at the guy and you're like, here, you're smoking.
Take a hat. Here, have a hat.
You almost knocked a cigarette. And he's like, you almost hit me in the head.
And you're like, well, you got a fucking free hat. Yeah.
What are you complaining about? I mean, come on, dude. A little fucking hat hurt your neck.
What happened? You know? I think one of the masters is so polite. Yeah.
And when people would get mad at baby for smoking in areas that you weren't supposed to smoke in. Right.'t like a, sir, you're going to have to put that.
I was, it was more like a disappointed, sir. Can you please? Can you? So there are smoking areas.
We could lead you to. Yes.
There's, there's a designated smoking area over here. I can escort you.
It's like, I just put it out already. already okay you don't need to escort me i'll be

lighting one in about five minutes anyway so baby what's what's the worst most depressing designated smoking area you've ever smoked in have you smoked in those airport ones where it's like almost here in europe where they used to have the like it's you're almost in like andy dufresne like solitary confinement it's literally a smoke chamber coma yeah yes i have smoked in there of course i i used to go like say to myself why don't they have this in america you know i love that they have this in it smoke chambers yes smoke chambers it's like they all have pet pet walking relief areas why not have smoking areas? Did you used to smoke like on airplanes, trains, everything? Of course. Just going to ask me.
Absolutely. Really? And did people, did you ever like get in an argument with anybody? You know, not really.
No, because it was legal. Legal.
Can you imagine someone lighting up next to you on a plane? Imagine sitting next to a baby on a train. Oh, my God.
You're taking the X-Cela from New York to Boston.

He's just lighting up.

You're like, oh, this cologne.

I can't take this four hour.

What the fuck?

What is this?

A cigarette?

What is he doing to me?

Those were designated smoking sections.

So if you were...

All the planes were the worst.

I don't even understand that.

Not the planes, but the trains.

If you were in a smoking car, not my problem at that point.

I mean, that was an amazing era. Because I would take the train back and forth between my mom and my dad.
Yeah. And you're going to walk to the cafe car and you just walk through the smoking car and it's just like lung cancer for 10 seconds.
The insane were the planes where one row behind. Was not smoking.
Right, You could smoke pipes, cigars, cigarettes.

And if you're one row,

it's like,

this is insane. You're just getting mad.

People would use the actual ashtray in the arm.

Absolutely.

I love that fricking.

I love that ashtray.

I really did.

They had them on the old cars too.

Remember?

But,

um,

no,

wait,

you were asking me about most depressing smoking places.

Depressing.

Yeah.

Because sometimes the smokers get relegated to the kid's table of life. Yeah, it's not fair.
Yeah, I'll tell you, the idea that I could smoke in the office up until like, it wasn't even that long. in 2000, you could smoke in the office.

So 25 years ago, you could,

even as an assistant sitting in a cubicle. in 2000, you could smoke in the office.

So 25 years ago, you could,

even as an assistant sitting in a cubicle in common areas,

and I used to run like a fan under my desk

to just spread the smoke.

But yeah, that was insane to think that you could do that.

Now, in New York City, it's 25 feet away from the building. So if you smoke near a building, you often get reprimanded.
You've paid a smoking fee in a rental car like 50 times, right? Of course, of course I have. And hotels.
Good for you. Baby gets offended if there's some sort of penalty for smoking in a rental car.
He just assumes. For the percentage of how many rental cars I've had that I've smoked in and the times I've been nailed, I've done very, very well.
Chang, what was it like to have a cigarette that your wife probably shouldn't know about with Babydoll last night? You know, every time I see Babydoll, Baby gives me a cigarette. And it's just a joyous occasion.
I sucked that thing down and it was awesome. Thank you you love that i have marlboro reds yeah i mean listen the only way you'd be cooler is if you smoke filterless cigarettes yeah what are you like the italian yeah step it up they get your fingers yellow that's that's the problem with them otherwise i kind of like baby's enough colors yellow fingers You have enough colors going on already.
I changed my orange fingers. They're pretty good for smoking.
My fingers be orange. Another thing that happened, it's been total joy.
By the way, is he going to come on Thursday night too? We'll probably have a thousand baby dolls. It's going to be the whole podcast.
I mean, The Ringer has a great podcast about TV shows and White lotus yeah i think last night i almost pissed my

pants because before we all went to bed we were watching the last episode of season three white

lotus all over again yes and fuck i i just couldn't stop laughing because i think that we need to have

a alt cast of you a manning cast that's the baby cast? A baby cast. It's like a rewatchables, but live.
Yeah, because you were the only one seeing it live. I hadn't seen that episode.
I'm not sure live would be the best idea. It would need about 16 or 17 hours of editing.
But I think it would be good. We watched Last Thing.
We'd all seen it, but Baby hadn't seen it. So we watched White Lotus with you.
Wild. I liked when he told the guy to jump at the end.
Tim Ratliff is looking out. He's going to make them drink that shit? What the fuck are you trying to kill your kids for? It's like you forgot.
You've been trying to kill yourself for nine episodes.

Just fucking jump.

Get it over with.

It's like you forgot that we were in the room with you watching.

Yes, I did.

You were so in it.

I had a few glasses of wine.

I was tired from the day.

Yeah, there was a lot of strays on the White Lotus cast.

Yeah, yeah.

Guy talk.

You put some chest hair in him during the show.

Guy talk.

Told him to grow a pair.

Pussy.

I've never seen a bigger pussy hold a gun.

You know?

It's like, come on.

Oh, man.

What other TV are you watching, baby, before we go?

Any other favorites?

He watches on the couch.

I watched the first two episodes of Mobland.

I thought it was amazing. Have you seen Mobland yet? I haven't seen it yet.

How about 1923?

Nah, I haven't seen that.

A lot of smoking in that show. I loved

Mobland. Mobland, okay.

Yes. Second episode.

You know, a lot of setup

in episode one. And it's good.
Second episode, you see where it's going. It's awesome.
Tom Hardy is incredible. Who for your money is the best smoker in movies or TV? As an actual smoker.
You mean like in real life? Who pulls out smoking the best? I'll tell you. Brad Pitt's pretty good at it.
What? Doesn't he smoke in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? He does like the turns of hand. I like the way he smokes in it.
Damon, we just did Good Will Hunting for Rewatchables and Damon's really good in that movie. Is he? Okay.
And Cole Hauser in that movie, Chris Ryan did a whole thing about how he gets rid of a cigarette, grabs a beer, and waves them for the car on one motion. Oh, very good.
I got to check it out. But De Niro is usually- De Niro to me is the goat.
De Niro, Goodfellas, that's the best ever. Probably, yes.
Okay, fair enough. I'll go with that.
Remember the scene when he's sizing up Maury when he decides to kill Maury? Yeah. He's just kind of staring him down, taking a slow drag.
There's been some bad smokers too. All right, who would be an example? Out of movies we've done in rewatchables, there's a really tough Keanu Reeves hardball scene.
Oh, really? He's trying to smoke. He's like a degenerate, but it's clear.
You're right though. But Tom Cruise is the worst.
You can tell who the real non-smokers are who have never really smoked in their life or just smoking because the character I think Keanu's a real smoker though. You think? Yeah, he is.
He screwed up the hardball thing. I don't know.
He smokes a lot. The people like the Cruise type of people are always my favorites.
Could you be brought on as a consultant, baby? You know who was a great smoker? A smoking consultant? Yeah. Yeah, you should.
I'd love to. They have doctors for ER.
Is that a unique job? Because I'm in, baby. I think it kind of is, yeah.
Leo, Leonardo in Django Unchained. Yeah.
Playing Candy. Candy was his last name, but I can't remember his first name but he smoked with that cigarette holder and man he was good at it he was really good at that cigarette holder I have tried them when I was a kid they're fucking ridiculous I don't even Hey, baby, did you ever go through a phase where you rolled your own cigarettes?

No.

Never did.

No.

Uh-uh.

How could you recreate a Marlboro,

a work of fucking art, you know?

You know my old joke, right?

I'm tearing up there.

No.

You know the old joke?

Is it offensive?

No, not at all.

Okay.

Not at all.

You know, baby doll, how much you smoke? I smoke a lot. No, seriously, how much you smoke? I smoke a lot.
No, like seriously, how much do you smoke? Well, let me put it to you this way. I go through two lighters a day.
There you go. That was a Bill Hicks line that I adopted.
Oh, you just said that's your joke. No, well, I adopted it.
May he rest in peace.

Yes.

But it does get people off.

When you do that joke,

they stop asking how much you smoke.

It just diffuses the whole thing.

We asked you yesterday,

what celebrity did you have the most cigarettes with

over the last 35 years?

And Dennis Lurie's name came up.

Dennis Lurie was up there.

Hicks was up there.

Who was the one we decided?

Chappelle.

Oh, tons of cigarettes with Chappelle.

I mean, Chappelle is one of the all-time- He's the greatest smoker of this generation. Better smoker or comedian? Oh, wow.
Right? I mean, I'm going to go with comedian because that's a real talent. And he's- Don't sell yourself short.
But what I love about Chappelle is he smokes everywhere he goes doesn't matter hotel rooms wherever lobbies of hotels Studio 8H on SNL doesn't matter if it's a fire he's always smoking comedy clubs you're not supposed to smoke in there anymore.

He's got a cigarette going everywhere.

And may God have mercy on the soul of anybody who tells him,

put that cigarette out.

And you've actually spent real time with Shiphouse.

So if you did the Ship, Dave, Dave, it's Babydoll,

he would actually stop and come over.

Oh, come on, yo.

He'd come over for, yeah, no, Dave, I've known since.

I think you should have thrown a hat at Rory

like he did that other guy.

Maybe he would have gotten his attention that way.

Don't give me ideas tomorrow.

There's always tomorrow. Baby, before we go,

what is your single favorite thing about Augusta?

And try to turn toward these

guys so you're on the camera at least a little bit.

Just get to the

side of baby's head for 20 minutes.

I have no idea.

Hold on. Let me think for a second because i love so much of it well i'll talk to chang about it as you for some reason think of your answer for two minutes chang what's your favorite thing about augusta because you're like a naturally kind of pessimistic guy yeah we've been friends for a long time this place really where i'm I'm like happy.
Yeah, this place really- But you said a whole thing in the car on the way to the course about how incredible Augusta and the operation and the whole thing. You've kind of been inside the gates.
I'm one of the, maybe the only person that's ever had behind the scenes access because I filmed some stuff in 2019 when Tiger won. And I think that it's, number one, the best sporting event you can go to in America.
Yes. It's the best run operation.
100%. Business or anything.
Otherwise, maybe out there. It's flawless.
Everything is done with intention and it's executed at a high level. Yes.
And I think it's just, I'm happy here. I just am.
And I'm not normally as Bill know. I'm right with you.
I mean, it's golf heaven. When you step on that course, it's like no other, but you don't have to even have to like golf.
No, you don't. You don't.
But, but if you love golf, like, like we do just, it's so unique. It's such a different, everything about it is so, it's like if you died and went to heaven and that was, that was.
Like Field of Dreams, Cornfield. It really, it is that.
And also like, I just love being around anything golf. And that is of the this is the the the cradle and apex of golf and golf fans and it's just my whole vibe you know uh i love i would i was thinking because i was thinking about today because i'd been to uh i went to the u.s open but i went to a couple golf tournaments in the last couple years sure and all these other basically every other course that has a tournament the tournament comes in and out the course isn't built for the tournament it's built for 52 weeks a year of having members and then they kind of shoehorn the tournament into it and there will be porta potties and weird cart pass and the parking's weird and things are disjointed all this place cares about is this week right i mean they have other stuff they have the members and all that stuff but it's all like a long game for this one week and every single thing has to be perfect for the moment you show up to when you walk toward the thing you go through the gates every single thing you see they've really put thought into just, I appreciate that.
I think it was like a combination. It has an immaculate feel of Disneyland and like Central Park.
And there's, like you said, and I think it's because they're not different events moving in and out. There's no wasted space.
Forget about the greens. You turn a corner and you're going to see a shade of green you've never seen before.
That's great too. But even the pathways and everything like you're talking about,

like it doesn't seem like there's any wasted space.

It's all beautiful. Well,

and then we talked about this every time we come,

but the no phone thing is actually a real advantage.

Even Sal,

we were worried about Sal.

I think I did.

Okay.

Yeah.

I had withdrawal for the first,

like you did.

Well,

I went to my pocket like seven times.

Yeah.

You really were like jonesing for that. And then I felt like, you you know, it was a little like a little White Lotus-y when Saxon starts reading halfway through the season.
Right. And it's like, maybe there's more.
Interesting. Maybe that, maybe.
That's funny. Maybe I can test myself.
That's hilarious. And it's like, you were like, maybe I don't have to try to figure out how to bet on this practice.
You're right. You have to just kind of like acclimate yourself

to where you were and accept it and then go, okay.

It helped that we were all talking to each other

and making each other laugh.

It's like when someone's sick and they're going to vomit.

You're like, all right, if you talk to this person enough,

they're not going to get them out of it.

I don't have to focus on it.

Chang, were you disappointed Sal didn't eat more?

What are you talking?

Number one. On the course.
I mean, on on the course but for those that don't know sal is not a big drinker right and the fact that he started today with the bloody mare i was like right this is an auspicious sign it's gonna be a good week number one two he ate a lot of food thank you it was disgusting thank you and then i hit the course you ate a pimento cheese sandwich and i knew you were full i knew you were disgustingly full right but you still wolfed it down i was like this guy an oatmeal cookie he's you're bringing your a game yeah for about 50 he's not wasting that people need to know the food here is amazing it's could buy 12 beers for $12. Where could you do that anywhere else?

Yeah, it's only $3,000 to get in, but then they get, you know, for cheese and Wonder Bread,

they charge it out.

The Masters so different.

Touch on what you said, Bill, which is, you know, it's obviously the only major that's

always in the same location, right?

So that alone sets it apart from all the other majors.

And like everyone's just so fucking happy to be there.

Yeah.

Because it is expensive.

of that alone sets it apart from all the other majors. And like, everyone's just so fucking happy to be there.
Yeah. Cause it is expensive and you have to, you know, get to it.
And like, it's, it's a bucket list place that at least half those people, at least half are there for the first time. And everybody's just like, holy shit, pinch me.
I did it. Well, listen, I listen i all i have to say is as the great carrie coon said in white lotus i'm happy to have a seat at the table but i am going to make a mess at that seat with bread and rice and cheese and everything else when i get up thanks for having us south finishes last in the pics so that we can load down a...
Good chance. Mento, pulled pork.
Egg salad. Egg salad.
Chicken biscuit. Chicken biscuit.
What else? BLT. It's the Masters Club, which is like a BLT.
I mean, that sounds great. I hope I finish last too now.
You put it that way. We're going to be back Thursday for more stuff.
Yeah. Chang, you have a beautiful face.
Sal, you have a beautiful life. What about baby? You're just beautiful in general.
So are you, baby. Thank you.
Thank you to you three. Thanks to house and Nathan as well.
Thanks to Gal and Kyle and Eduardo and Eduardo for helping us out today on the pod. And we're going to be back on Thursday.

Don't forget to check out the Prestige TV podcast and the rewatchables as well.

If you missed White Lotus, if you missed our rewatchables, we did on the St.

with Val Kilmer.

And I hope you're checking out Celtic City on Max as well.

We will see you on Thursday. the wayside.
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