Lakers-Warriors Takeaways, Wilt Chamberlain, 'White Lotus,' and Half-Baked Ideas With Rob Mahoney and Kevin Wildes

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Speaker 1 Coming up, Warriors, Lakers, White Lotus, hat-baked ideas, action pack.

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Speaker 1 Hey, I got a new rewatchables coming this week because Kyle Brandt and I, we decided to do the Saint because Val Kilmer passed away. And we want to talk about Val Kilmer.

Speaker 1 We want to talk about a very bizarre movie that we both love. So we're just putting it up this week.
So Monday's podcast will be this weekend, The Saint. Be ready for it.

Speaker 1 You can watch it as a video on Spotify or you can watch it on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel. And then Sunday night, White Lotus,

Speaker 1 season finale, right after it ends, we're going live on Ringer-TV,

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So you can watch us live on YouTube on Ringer-TV or just wait.

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We'll see. I'm like LeBron.

Speaker 1 Can I still play at that kind of pace?

Speaker 1 Can I still be a 40 minutes a game guy in the playoffs? We're going to find out on Sunday. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1 Coming up on this podcast, Rob Bahoney and I, we wanted to talk about Lakers Warriors tonight. because it was an important game.
It had a lot of playoff implications.

Speaker 1 And also just to see those two teams, who they are right now after the trades and what they looked looked like against each other. So, we talked about that.
Plus, White Lotus is a finale.

Speaker 1 And then, my old friend Kevin Wilds came on and we talked about: is April the greatest take month? Talked about Will Chamberlain, talked about a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 And then we did a slew of half-baked ideas. So, that's the pod.

Speaker 1 First, our friends from Pearl Jam.

Speaker 1 All right, recording this a little before 10 o'clock Pacific time. Rob Mahoney is here from the Prestige TV podcast.
Oh, wait, you do basketball too. I forgot.

Speaker 2 Occasionally, yeah.

Speaker 1 So we watched the basketball just now. Warriors, Lakers.

Speaker 1 A game that they used to kind of shove down our throats and we used to like it because Steph and LeBron were playing, but they were two ultimately harmless teams. And now they're actual contenders.

Speaker 1 And it was a fascinating enough matchup with a lot at stake. And we decided to wait until afterwards to do a little pot about it.
So what'd you learn? What was your number one thing you learned?

Speaker 2 This game was sick. Really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 Everybody involved has still got it to the extent that they needed to prove that they still got it. And I mean, the game of Brandon Pojemski's life, one of the games of Austin Reeves' Reeves's life.

Speaker 2 This game was weird, but I think representative of both teams in that it was half absolute slog. Like the middle part of this game, I thought was really slow.

Speaker 2 The rhythm of the game felt really disjointed, and yet the shot making was at such a high level.

Speaker 2 And overall, like the veteran execution was at such a high level by both teams and spots, by obviously by the Warriors in greater numbers.

Speaker 1 I wanted to figure out one thing to overreact to. Yeah, which is what we do on these Thursday night pods after I'm a little groggy.

Speaker 1 I don't know if the Lakers can rebound and defend at the level you need to be to actually win four straight playoff rounds for nine straight weeks.

Speaker 1 And that was in the back of my head this whole time that these guys were so talented, the three guys together, that maybe it wouldn't matter.

Speaker 1 And then you watch a game like this when they're getting, you know, how many, the Warriors had

Speaker 1 14 offensive rebounds. Yep.

Speaker 1 You know, they, they were, I wouldn't say hunting different matchups, but they certainly got a lot of threes that they liked. They ended up going 19 for 42 from three.

Speaker 1 And defensively, they basically was small ball against small ball, which the Warriors are like delighted to do that.

Speaker 1 So if I'm the Lakers, I'm not too upset because Luca didn't play well, right?

Speaker 1 On the other hand, I didn't get anything from my bench. And I really have an issue at center.
I don't have, I have Hayes and that's about it. And I'm playing Rui and I have this oversized.

Speaker 1 I have some size, but it goes back to that Mark Williams trade, which is still,

Speaker 1 you know, could be a sliding doors what if for the for the season for them.

Speaker 1 But if he came into the game today, with what we saw from him after the trade deadline, that's at least changing what the Warriors have to do a little bit. Now they're like, oh, shit.
All right.

Speaker 1 I guess we've got to play Looney for a couple of minutes here. I think small ball against small ball, I just like the Warriors' chances more.

Speaker 2 I think so, too. They're just, I mean, they're better practiced at it, Jimmy Butler included.

Speaker 2 Like he was playing this way in Miami for a long time too in stretches, especially as like a small ball four.

Speaker 2 But when you think about the Mark Williams element or the Jackson Hayes shadow element, however you want to define it,

Speaker 2 they're guarding Steph so aggressively that he's having to cut and he's having to drive against that kind of top locking.

Speaker 2 And so if you have a rim protector there, all those Steph drives don't look so cute anymore.

Speaker 2 Now, although those are, that's a really complicated premise to have to navigate for Curry, especially when he has a pelvic contusion or whatever it was he's coming back from, not words I like in conjunction with one another uh but he he played really well and he was able to play really well because ultimately the lakers are they are small ball they also have a certain kind of beef and size in terms of a lot of small forward and power forward shaped guys but i just have constant questions as to whether that size is is real or not is it tangible in a way that's going to impact games because they are not by rule like an offensive rebounding juggernaut.

Speaker 2 They are not a team that really pushes people around. Like they can create advantages offensively with with that size.

Speaker 2 But if they're not leveraging on a defense, how are they going to survive against some of these higher leverage matchups? Yeah, they're not tall, but they're big.

Speaker 1 They're big, but then in games like this, where it's just you see the other team that has that can move the ball around, that can get to the rim, that has a bunch of different options, that has bench scoring, that can exploit their bench against the Lakers' bench, and you start to get a little nervous.

Speaker 1 I mean, Curry finished with 37, 10 for 21, is starting to play his way towards second team LMBA, I feel like. Might already be.
Especially because

Speaker 1 it does seem like Brunson's coming back in time. Yeah.
And do you believe in legacy stuff at all with this?

Speaker 1 Like, do you feel like almost like in boxing where you got to actually beat the champ to take the title? Like, if it's he's on the bubble second team or third team, same for LeBron. It's like,

Speaker 1 I'm going to edge you towards second team for the pedigree.

Speaker 1 I don't, maybe that's not the right way to think about it, but I think for both of those guys, that's what I'm probably going to end up doing because of the pedigree.

Speaker 2 It's very generous of you. And if you're going to be generous towards somebody, make it the all-time legends who are in our midst.
So I can't really argue with it too much.

Speaker 2 For me, it's more like if you are LeBron, if you are Steph, and I see you sliding towards a team that feels not representative of who you are for your career, maybe I give it like another look.

Speaker 2 It's like, okay, that doesn't feel quite right. Let's make sure I'm picking Jaron Jackson Jr.
over LeBron James, and I feel okay about that. No disrespect to Jaron Jackson Jr.

Speaker 2 is amazing, but he's not LeBron. So

Speaker 2 they do deserve that, if nothing else, a little courtesy.

Speaker 1 Well, the Warriors are 20 and 4 since that Butler trade in the game that he's actually played.

Speaker 1 He was quiet today for the most part, but also wasn't quiet. Felt like he was present in the game.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 And then there was a couple spots where he took over and he would get to like, he just, he has a sense for when they need him. I really like the way this team plays together.

Speaker 1 The Kaminga piece was the question for me, trying to shoehorn him in.

Speaker 1 And you could have, like, I even looked at his props today heading into the game and like his over-under for points was 13 and a half. And I was thinking like,

Speaker 1 that feels way too high to me, but I also wouldn't be surprised if that's way too low. It was one of those.
And then, you know, he was out there for big stretches in crunch time.

Speaker 1 They were playing him and Draymond, Pazemski, Curry, and Butler. And that was their five.
And it was. It's interesting because

Speaker 1 I don't know if we've seen those five guys together in a big situation like that before. They had size.

Speaker 1 Kaminga was doing the thing where he's kind of floating around the baseline and doing these weird little backcuts.

Speaker 1 They could switch a little bit on defense with all that, but it also helps that Pazemski had, you know, as you said, one of the best games of his career. But the Kaminga thing, what'd you see?

Speaker 1 Would you notice?

Speaker 2 I think this was the best that he and Butler in particular have played together. And they haven't had it.

Speaker 2 It's like nine or 10 games maybe that they've been able to actually be out there at the same time. And

Speaker 2 it's one of those things where Butler is such like an intuitive player in terms of the flow of the game. You put him out there with Draymond and Steph, like he gets how to move.

Speaker 2 He gets how to connect and make the right passes and find the flow. I would not say Jonathan Kuminga is a terribly intuitive player.

Speaker 2 It took him like three years to figure out how to play with Steph Curry.

Speaker 2 The idea that he's just going to jump in and now Jimmy Butler, another kind of like iffy spacer, a funky player to have to find your way with, like Jimmy Butler makes spacers and bigs better.

Speaker 2 Does he make players like him better traditionally? It's a little bit more of a mixed bag. And so the data with them two on the floor before coming into this game was mostly terrible.

Speaker 2 Like, those minutes just had not worked. This felt like some real signs of life for a combination that, if the Warriors are going to make any kind of run, actually does need to work.

Speaker 2 I think what was funny about what you said about the Lakers, of like if that they may not have enough to string together consecutive series with their defense, I feel the exact opposite way about the Warriors, where it's like they need to prove they can string it together offensively to not just beat anyone in a series, but to beat four any ones in a row.

Speaker 2 Like, that's that's a lot to ask. Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 Well, the Kaminga, the on-off numbers with him were pretty rough, even though it was a limited sample size. They were really good with Santos,

Speaker 1 kind of strangely good with Post, too. And Post was out there today doing the whole, I'm not afraid of anybody.
I'm not afraid of you, LeBron.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Talking shit. LeBron was like, what's going on with this guy?

Speaker 1 But Kaminga against the Lakers has always been interesting because athletically, size-wise, physicality-wise,

Speaker 1 he can kind of battle and bounce with those dudes.

Speaker 1 And I always feel like Kerr likes throwing him out there against the Lakers because, you know, Kamenko, the best thing about him is he's like, oh, LeBron James and I are equals.

Speaker 1 You guys didn't realize

Speaker 1 we're in the same plane in the NBA pyramid.

Speaker 2 Well, sometimes that works out. Like there have been parts of the season where Brandon Pajemski thought he was the player Austin Reeves is right now.

Speaker 2 And that's now paying off. Like he's now figuring out his way into the lineup and it's really working this new starting group for Golden State.

Speaker 1 So I think I'm a little higher on the Warriors than you, it sounds like, Frank,

Speaker 1 from a ceiling standpoint. I actually really like where they are.
What are your hesitations?

Speaker 2 I think it's just stringing it all together. And I think the toll it takes on anybody to play small, right? Like, and you see this with the Lakers too.

Speaker 2 Like, I'm still trying to figure out, are the Lakers the elite defense that they were for like the first month after the Luka trade or the garbage defense we've seen over the last month or so? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Golden State isn't that polar, but there are going to be matchups that are tough for them.

Speaker 2 There's going to be matchups that just require a ton of Draymond Green in particular, a ton of Jimmy Butler in particular. And then you're playing multiple small guards in a lot of these looks.

Speaker 2 And so all of a sudden, the toll of that for three series in a row, I think might just be a little bit too much.

Speaker 2 And so it's the kind of thing where I would, I think they can beat, they can upset anyone in the first round. I think they have that in them.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 But chaining those series together against really formidable Western Conference opponents where everyone's kind of in the same relative class, I I think that might just be a lot.

Speaker 1 Well, they interviewed JJ before the fourth quarter with Ali LaForce, and he was friendly and curt.

Speaker 2 I mean, unfriendly and curt. Unfriendly.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. He just was like, you could tell he was just really pissed off about how the game was going.

Speaker 1 And I was trying to figure out what pissed him off, whether it was like, I can't believe Podzemski, really, he's going to make all those shots, or I don't like something we're doing defensively.

Speaker 1 Maybe it was a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 The thing that was pretty weird about this game, and again, trying not to overreact, but

Speaker 2 I thought we were trying to overreact.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm trying not to now. Okay.
Because it's Luka Doncic and he's one of the best players in the world.

Speaker 2 That's fair.

Speaker 1 It was a pretty uninspiring performance by him tonight.

Speaker 1 I'm not really sure what was going on with him. He seemed out of it.
He wasn't even like really bitching at the refs as much as he usually does. He didn't seem upset at anyone on the Warriors.

Speaker 1 And just in general,

Speaker 1 it was a strange performance for him he was the third best guy in his own team yeah and yeah and arguably the fourth best guy because rui was really good tonight too and uh that's the one i thought the warriors were gonna have so much trouble matching up with him but they seemed like that matched up really well with him he was still doing some good kickout passes and of course he was throwing his size around but it just was not your typical luca game and lebron who started out slow i think sensed it pretty early and he really came on and was just able to flip the switch and ended up with over 30.

Speaker 1 but i so i don't know what to to make of the Luca thing. I think the Luca Laker experience has been pretty weird.
There's been like flashes of just all-time crazy brilliance.

Speaker 1 He'll be amazing and not that great in the same game and up and down. And it seems like he's in better shape than he was.
Defensively, it's still not good. He was, he was really rough tonight.
And

Speaker 1 I'm going to say work in progress, but we've had, this is two plus months now.

Speaker 2 For sure. I just like work in progress.
Luca, though, is still pretty damn good.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 He's still creating opportunities that basically no other players on the floor can create.

Speaker 2 I thought he did a good job of at least of not stopping short on drives and especially in transition where he can tend to slow things down and want to reset the offense.

Speaker 2 And he was going all the way to the rim, whether to set himself up, whether to set up threes, whether to set up lobs, really like continuing to push himself a little bit.

Speaker 2 And any time that he and LeBron and Reeves get involved in the same like triangulated action, it's fucking terrifying. Like you can see the bones of something that is really, really scary.

Speaker 2 It's just to your point, not there every single play with Luca. The burst isn't there every single play.

Speaker 2 The touch kind of comes and goes depending on the game, especially if he's hitting the step back threes. That's always been a huge variable for him.

Speaker 2 But he's still good enough. And ultimately,

Speaker 2 it's not a real concern for the Lakers relative to the fact that they have this completely turned over team.

Speaker 2 that is not going to make sense until they have a chance to go into an offseason and build a Luca style roster around him. One of the things,

Speaker 1 I agree with you.

Speaker 1 One of the things I noticed with them, and I'm wondering if the Warriors unlocked it a little bit, because JJ, this team is such a weird team to coach that I think he was doing some math formula stuff with them almost where it's like, Luca is going to take over the first eight minutes of the game.

Speaker 1 I'm going to play Luca by himself and LeBron and Reeves together. And I'm basically, I'm turning the game into like 10, nine, 10 different segments.

Speaker 1 And the segments are going to to go like this. And then in the fourth quarter, we'll do this.
And it felt like the Warriors were kind of ready for all the segments.

Speaker 1 It's like, oh, we know what you're going to do in the first eight minutes. You're going to get Luca going.
Well, we're not going to let him going. Get going.
And just on and on it kind of went.

Speaker 1 And the one variable they couldn't really prepare for is LeBron just all of a sudden was just playing great.

Speaker 2 Yeah, just turning up.

Speaker 1 But I do feel like it's just a little bit gimmicky still with the Lakers, as talented as they are, because to not have rim protection,

Speaker 1 to play those three guys at the same time. And LeBron has been so much better on defense.

Speaker 1 I don't know how sustainable that is when we're playing every other day in the playoffs, but Luca and Reeves out there at the same time.

Speaker 1 It's just, it's really tough when you're playing a slash and kick team like the one today. Plus Butler, there was a couple times he was like, oh, you're putting this guy on me?

Speaker 1 And he would just go right to the basket. So it's a weird team.
I'm still afraid of them. If you talk, I've talked to a couple former famous players who are,

Speaker 1 all the famous players who used to play are really high in this Lakers team, I think, except Barkley, just because they see like the talent and the potential.

Speaker 1 But I wonder, could that end up being this team's legacy? Are we seeing things that

Speaker 1 maybe aren't quite there, but we're projecting what we think is there? Or is this just a team that can't really rebound or defend anybody?

Speaker 2 I think the defense, it does come and go.

Speaker 2 And I think the rim protection thing is really instructive here because they don't have, by not having a traditional defensive anchor, the only way they play elite defense is flying around playing with incredible effort and focus all the time yeah and so it's not a huge surprise that they can't do that every single game it's not a huge surprise they can't chain it together for five games at a time sometimes like it's just going to be a little bit more of a you know a peaks and valleys kind of experience for them on that end i think ultimately you're banking on the playmaking and this is where i can kind of see the logic in the segmenting the game that you're talking about it's like if you have two of the most creative people in the sport the idea of, oh, I'm going to put these very orderly boxes in place and I'm going to trust these geniuses to navigate it.

Speaker 2 That's a pretty good premise as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I watched the Indiana Laker game with my dad last week. And the one thing I don't think this Lakers team is going to be, and the Pacers wouldn't do it all the time.

Speaker 1 We were going nuts because we're just rooting against the Lakers. We're just like, spread them out, go to the basket, spread them out, go to the basket, spread them out, go to the basket.

Speaker 1 And then sometimes Indiana would just settle for these 26-footers. Like, dude, just go to the basket.
You're going to get to the basket. And I think more and more teams are starting to realize this.

Speaker 1 Just go to the basket. There's going to be nobody waiting for you.
We're going to get there. On the Lakers side,

Speaker 1 I just think LeBron's playing unbelievable. He's so good.
I just, I don't really understand it.

Speaker 1 From an all-around standpoint, it's probably this is the most he's looked

Speaker 2 like.

Speaker 1 2013 range LeBron.

Speaker 1 Like he was 10 for 15 tonight. It's not like he's taking a shitload of shots and has the ball all the time.
He's like picking his spots. The defense, he's trying to rebound.

Speaker 1 He didn't really rebound tonight as much as he usually has, but the all-around stuff's been really great. I also don't know if that's sustainable when we get to mid-April going every other day.

Speaker 1 Big picture. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Neither of these teams wants that play-in game.

Speaker 2 No, definitely not.

Speaker 1 That's just extra miles on the car. That's like, oh, we're going to go all the way across country to L.A., but on the way, we're going to go this way and stop at the Grand Canyon.

Speaker 1 Like, they don't want to stop at the Grand Canyon. It's just like, we want this trip to be as straight as possible.
Lakers are four. Right.
Golden State is five.

Speaker 1 Normally, that sounds great, but the T-Wolves are seven, one behind the Warriors and the Lost Calm. And then the Lakers are two over them.

Speaker 1 And the Grizzlies, who won an amazing game tonight against Miami. It was like, it was one of, I watched it.
It was one of those, I don't know who's winning this game.

Speaker 1 And then Ja, once again, comes through at the end.

Speaker 2 Crazy shot.

Speaker 1 Right when it seemed like Memphis was just going to free fall into the eighth seed.

Speaker 1 And it was like, oh, shit, OKC Memphis. We have our NBA TV series.
I don't need to watch one second of this. We're going for a sweep.
But Memphis wins. And now this is a mess.

Speaker 1 And I don't know how much you want to do on Western Conference playoff roulette.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 1 the only thing I can think is I would just much rather be in that 2-3 area so I don't have to see OKC for a little while.

Speaker 1 And I wonder as we get into the final week, who starts getting a little chicanerous,

Speaker 1 made up that word, to try to nudge their way.

Speaker 1 Like, I have my eye on Denver.

Speaker 2 Well, they certainly don't seem to care about the standings too much.

Speaker 1 Yeah, after they lost that Minnesota game,

Speaker 1 I think they're like, whatever. May the chips fall where they may.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 1 I don't, if I'm the Lakers, I don't want to see OKC until round three because that's the one team I don't think the Lakers compete. And do you think I'm crazy?

Speaker 1 I just don't like that matchup for them in any way, shape, or form.

Speaker 2 If you are any basketball team, you don't want to see OK

Speaker 2 round three or the NBA Finals. Like, those are the only options that you would prefer.
So, but as far as the jacannery goes, that's a real fine line you're trying to walk.

Speaker 2 To basically get to six and lock in at six is the ideal spot if you're going to be in the four, five, six range.

Speaker 2 Because four and five, yeah, you're going to be potentially roadkill for the Thunder, who look just increasingly incredible, to be honest with you. And I want no part of that team

Speaker 1 64 12

Speaker 1 plus 13.4

Speaker 1 i mean i think they beat everybody they're so good and yokich is having the best year of his career and

Speaker 1 with six games left i don't think i'm gonna vote for him for mvp oh you're you're sealed up i'm not sealed up but i'm like 98 there okay I just feel like we're going to be in the high 60s with those OKC team.

Speaker 1 And it's not, you can't do the thing where,

Speaker 1 wow, you know, you could put anybody in that top spot. That team's still really good.
Cause every game I've watched and all the games I've seen OKC in person, nobody can guard Shea Gilgis Alexander.

Speaker 1 No. Nobody in the league.
I haven't, I saw that in the Against the Clippers game I went to last week. He had a bad shooting game, but he, all the shots were good.
They just didn't go in.

Speaker 2 And that's a team with, I would say, three all-defense caliber players on its run.

Speaker 1 And they made him work for everything. He still got all the shots he wanted.
Doesn't matter. Wanted.
And he's like shaking his head because he's like, I can't believe this isn't going in tonight.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 1 with that said,

Speaker 1 I don't think Minnesota would be afraid of them at all. I'm not defending it, but I just don't think that team has fear of any matchup.

Speaker 1 And I think they would waltz into that series and be like, Yeah, sure, let's beat them. Um, and that's the team they could see.

Speaker 1 And I think the Clippers know they can play with them because they've had really good games against them. Yeah, whether they can beat them, I don't know, but they're not going to be afraid of them.

Speaker 1 So, I would, if I'm OKC, those are the two I wouldn't be like super pumped about.

Speaker 2 Well, the Clippers

Speaker 2 are no fun to play against for anybody. And frankly, when Kawhi Leonard plays, they just do not lose.
Except I think they lost randomly to the Pelicans one time. We don't have to talk about that.

Speaker 2 Other than that, really just have turned into an offensive buzzsaw in a way that should be terrifying because they were already such a great defense.

Speaker 2 The Wolves,

Speaker 2 I am really becoming a believer.

Speaker 2 Whoa, maybe

Speaker 2 this was a team that I was... I was really down on come December or so.
I just thought the energy with the team was so off. I thought the defense was so underwhelming.

Speaker 2 I didn't really see the vision in the Randall thing at all.

Speaker 2 And then all of a sudden, everything's starting to click. Like, all the everyone who was hurt is suddenly back and playing well.

Speaker 2 The new additions, both Randall and DiVincenzo in particular, are both really hitting at this point. Randall's playing, I think, some of the best basketball of his career, frankly.

Speaker 2 I don't know how to feel about the kind of person who is telling you and many people on a podcast they should believe in Julius Randle playoff performer.

Speaker 2 That's a big ask of anybody.

Speaker 2 But I find myself as we're kind of charting the western conference landscape and i'm looking at teams like golden state and the lakers teams that could win a round but maybe not two or three i'm seeing teams like houston that i think can win with the right matchup but otherwise might be out on their luck if they if they pull the wrong one teams like denver that frankly not only do they not care about seeding they don't seem to be terribly interested in playing defense in a lot of games and I expect the playoffs will be different, but even still, the personnel is what it is.

Speaker 2 And I just find my way back to the Wolves. And I'm thinking they have the high-end talent.
They have the depth. They have the defense.
They have the bodies.

Speaker 2 They have versatility to actually roll with the punches of a playoff series.

Speaker 2 And frankly, we've seen all this stuff in action in a slightly different form with Kat versus Randall and, you know, no DiVincenzo.

Speaker 2 I just, I really like what they're putting together. And I think they're playing great basketball right now.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And all the advanced stats back it up and they can shoot.
And I'm with you. I'm never going to love Randall,

Speaker 2 but there's a physicality.

Speaker 2 If we're all being honest.

Speaker 1 But there's a physicality with him lately that I think there's a little bit more of an identity to the team as a whole when you watch them, where they've got size identity, and Ant is just,

Speaker 1 there's no player on any other team that he doesn't think he's better than for better and worse. And that's just the way it goes.

Speaker 1 I thought Denver, Minnesota, I thought the other night.

Speaker 1 I had already put my pod up with Zach on Tuesday before those two games. And to watch Curry and Jokic do that back to back, I know you guys talked about it in your pod, but

Speaker 1 just that five hours of two of the great offensive players in the history of the league really, really having a night. And it just was all in a row.

Speaker 1 And it got to the point with the Nuggets and it seemed like so many different times they had that game or they were going to lose that game. And then it really seemed like they had it.

Speaker 1 And then Russ, who

Speaker 1 is just wandering around with a fucking pitchfork ready to just stab somebody with it. You're seeing these crunch times.
You're just terrified.

Speaker 1 He's the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy if you're rooting for Denver.

Speaker 2 But he's not even doing that. He's stabbing himself.
He's like falling on his own break over and over. It's a disaster.

Speaker 1 He was already horrible in the crunch time overtime section where there was eight times. You're like, just take him out.
You're better off just not having him out there. He just didn't have it.

Speaker 1 And then he has that stretch in the last 10 seconds. And it was one of those games where you're like.

Speaker 1 When we get to game 82 and Sunday and we're trying to figure out all the playoff matchups, I feel like we're going to go back to that game and be like, remember that stupid game when Russ screwed up the Denver game and now

Speaker 1 Denver's in the four spot playing the Lakers in the 4-5 and then the loser or the winner plays OKC and they could have been three and played Houston in round two. And just felt like one of those.

Speaker 1 And conversely, Minnesota,

Speaker 1 who if they can get to

Speaker 1 the even if they're in the 7-8 and they can get that seven. But I just want to play Houston.
That's where I've landed with all these things. I want to play Houston.
I want to play Memphis.

Speaker 1 Those are the two teams that I just think are a level below all these other ones.

Speaker 2 I think the exception to that would be if Denver slides and ends up somehow in the play-in, which is not incomprehensible. These teams are really bunched up.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they'd have to drop two more, it looks like. They'd have to drop a couple spots.
I think the Rockets could give the Nuggets a real run. I think that's a tough matchup for them.

Speaker 2 And I say this knowing

Speaker 2 the Rockets just blew a game against Denver with no Nikola Jokic. I'm acknowledging it.
It happened. I don't think it's representative of the matchup.

Speaker 2 I think if you give these perimeter demons a chance to make Jamal Murray's life a living hell for seven games, I think they will do it. I think they have enough size to really gum things up.

Speaker 2 I think they're so physical. And that's really the question with Houston is what teams would really be bothered by high-end athleticism and high-end physicality?

Speaker 2 And I think Denver might be one of those teams, despite the fact that their lineups are quite big themselves.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and the other thing that really helps Houston is their half-court in the last six, seven, eight minutes is pretty brutal. It can be.
But against Denver's defense, then you have some money.

Speaker 1 It doesn't have to be that brutal.

Speaker 2 Not going to take away. But then you have the Russ turnovers working in your favor.
You know, you got all the opportunities on the board.

Speaker 1 Well, those guys,

Speaker 1 they're going to have their team, hopefully, in this last week. Russ, I just can't imagine he sees crunch time again.
You can't do it. It's too risky.

Speaker 2 Probably.

Speaker 1 By the Warriors on Friday night. Yeah.
They end the season with the Rockets, which could be an all-time. Wait, what are these two teams up to? We're just guys,

Speaker 1 one team's just scratching multiple starters right before

Speaker 1 right before we go.

Speaker 2 Are we still doing the last day of the season? Like, all the games are basically happening at the same time to prevent this sort of chicanery? Is that still

Speaker 2 going on? I haven't checked. Did that work?

Speaker 1 But didn't they do like the

Speaker 1 non-games and then the important games? Didn't they stagger them in some way?

Speaker 2 I mean, all you're really doing is forcing an assistant coach to sit on the back row with an iPad. You know, like they're still going to be watching.

Speaker 1 Well, so then the other piece is

Speaker 1 this Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix factory of sadness and Portland somehow still alive, even though they're just like, can we just get Cooper flag? Oh, no, we won again.

Speaker 1 Dallas at 38, 39, Sacramento, 36 and 40, and Phoenix at 35 and 41.

Speaker 1 I mean, I've gotten to the point where I'm rooting against Phoenix because I don't want to see them in the play-in, but I don't want to see Sacramento in the play-in either.

Speaker 1 And I don't want to watch Dallas at all. I mean, Dallas might host a play-in game where the crowd is chanting Fire Nico about the general manager as the playoff, as the play-in game's going.

Speaker 1 So I just kind of want to get to the final eight and see where it goes. The Clippers thing, the Clippers thing is the most interesting where they land.
Because if that's, that's just

Speaker 1 a horrible 1-8 draw for a team that goes 69 and 13. Oh, my God.
Here's your reward. The Clippers.
They're healthy.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 they're healthy for now.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're healthy for, yeah, I guess today.

Speaker 1 Wait, before before you go, Draymond Green, Defensive Player of the Year.

Speaker 1 I'm sure that helped today. He had a nice big, awesome

Speaker 1 nationally televised game, was all over the place. I thought that was the most against the Lakers.

Speaker 1 He's always a little weird because I think, especially when it was against LeBron and AD, and you always felt like he was kind of a tempered Draymond because those were his friends and he wasn't doing like usual Draymond shit.

Speaker 1 Tonight, he was not tempered.

Speaker 1 I thought he was very alpha-y and looked like the Draymond that we've become accustomed to.

Speaker 1 Defensive player of the year,

Speaker 1 yeah, I think he's going to win. Is he a defensive player of the year for you?

Speaker 2 I don't think so. I mean, look, he's Draymond Green.

Speaker 2 He deserves consideration, probably deserves a place on the ballot at the end of the day. I'm more of an Evan Mobley voter at this point.
Wow.

Speaker 2 Just the utility of what he brings to that defense,

Speaker 2 how many people he's like constantly bailing out on every defensive possession. Yeah.
The flexibility between the 4-5 is not dissimilar from Draymond.

Speaker 2 I just think he is an absolute monster on that end.

Speaker 2 And Draymond, if Draymond had been playing defensively the way he's played the last, I would say 15 to 20 games all season, we're having a very different conversation.

Speaker 2 I don't think the first part of the season, especially the first half, he was quite at this

Speaker 2 peak elite level. This is still really high-level defensive play.
I'm not disparaging Draymond Green. He's incredible, particularly on that end of the court.

Speaker 2 I just don't think he's put together the total body of work for it.

Speaker 1 I think it's a great point because the other one I was looking at was Lou Doard. I talked about that with

Speaker 1 Zach.

Speaker 1 Just separating everything, he's the best defensive player I've seen this year, but they're so afraid to give the perimeter guys

Speaker 1 that award. But I just, he's done the most interesting stuff on defense for me.

Speaker 2 Do you take any responsibility for the perimeter gun shyness after the Marcus Smart debacle? Do you think that's what radicalized all of us? It might have.

Speaker 1 But that was a little bit like this year. This year, I mean, the problem with this year is Wemby should win Defensive Player of the Year every year.
And he got knocked out.

Speaker 1 And it's, you know, it's just almost like

Speaker 1 a political convention where the candidate that everybody thought was going to win is out. And now it's all of a sudden there's 10 people arguing on stage.

Speaker 1 I just,

Speaker 1 I don't feel like any of these are like the greatest possible candidates. The same thing with rookie of the year, where it's like, ah.
All right, I guess we got to vote for somebody.

Speaker 2 There's like 50 people deserving of all defense consideration.

Speaker 2 And I i don't feel great about any of them necessarily as like the definitive defensive player of the year you're right like it's without wemby there is a vacuum it's unavoidable it's the most fun

Speaker 1 um award subplot since it looks like mvp is a rap coach of the year is just like just do a shot and do a whip it and then just pick one of six guys i don't is there a wrong coach of the year choice like i'm leaning toward dagnalt right now and he's definitely not going to win but it's like if they win 70 games, I'm probably going to vote for him.

Speaker 1 Atkinson's good. Bickerstaff's good.

Speaker 1 You just pick five guys.

Speaker 1 It's easy.

Speaker 2 I feel like the Thunder,

Speaker 2 like Shay, I agree, is the favorite to win MVP, probably will win MVP.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, they suffer from that problem where their team is so good and there's credit going in so many different directions that Mark Dagnalt probably isn't going to get the credit he deserves.

Speaker 2 Lou Dort probably isn't going to get the credit he deserves. They have so many good players who are probably going to be under the threshold for games played.

Speaker 2 And so they won't get consideration for various teams and things. But holy shit, like there's so many places to assign credit for what OKC has done.

Speaker 2 And I think if you, if you want to talk about the reason why they won as many games as they did, it's the professionalism and the intensity they play with every single fucking game.

Speaker 2 And that either comes from Mark Dagnal or it comes from Shea or both. And if you want to credit either of those guys for that, I think it's more than deserved.

Speaker 1 I'll throw in this too:

Speaker 1 Caruso, 50 games, Hartenstein, 54, Chet 28.

Speaker 1 Jalen Williams, 65. It's not like this team's been a healthy juggernaut all year.
Like they, they hit the first two months of the year, they didn't have a center for like one of those months.

Speaker 2 None of it matters. That was Jalen Williams.
He was their center for a fucking month.

Speaker 1 None of it mattered.

Speaker 2 Crazy. There you go.

Speaker 1 Well, for the listeners.

Speaker 1 You can skip forward from right here if you're not watching White Lotus because I have to talk White Lotus with Rob for one minute.

Speaker 1 So if you don't care about that, just skip forward ahead to Kevin Wilds because we're going to keep going.

Speaker 1 But if you do care about White Lotus, stick around because I'm going to ask you about White Lotus. 90-minute season finale.
Yep. They won't send us screeners.

Speaker 1 Joanna Robinson, Mallory Rubin, and I are going to be downtown LA, watching it live, going live right after on YouTube. Have no idea what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 Is this going to be crazier than we expected? Or is it going to be like weirdly disappointing and more like

Speaker 1 thoughtful, existential, Buddhist? like we're going to have like almost like a philosophical religious experience, or is there just going to be bodies everywhere?

Speaker 2 It is going to be a religious experience. Also, first of all, thank you for inviting me on now the third white lotus splinter pot.
We've had every permutation of host possible.

Speaker 1 This is the only, this is the only one left.

Speaker 2 This is the only one left for the finale.

Speaker 2 I will say, I don't know if this is great PR and marketing by them, but all the little quotes that are coming out from the cast hinting at the ominous results of the finale had me a little spooked.

Speaker 2 And again, maybe I'm just being played.

Speaker 2 I think the body count or the philosophical fallout is going to be pretty significant. I don't quite know which one yet.

Speaker 1 I went back and watched the first app, the first scene. Gunshot.

Speaker 2 Yep. Pause.

Speaker 1 Gunshot.

Speaker 2 Pause.

Speaker 1 Gunshot. Gunshots.

Speaker 2 But did you see any monkeys holding a gun?

Speaker 1 Didn't see any monkeys. Well, I mean, I don't know.
They're going Tarantino, where three different groups of people are all shooting at each other.

Speaker 1 Who knows?

Speaker 1 But in the trailer, which came out for the last episode, they really play up the poisonous fruit in the first 20 seconds, which we had talked about in our pod and you talked about on the deep dive pod about

Speaker 1 the fruit, the blender. They just kept coming back to it, how annoying the blender is.

Speaker 1 But now they put that in the trailer. And now, I don't know.
Is that a red herring or what's that? I know.

Speaker 2 Especially because I think we still have one Tim Ratliff vision yet of him wiping out his entire family at one time.

Speaker 2 And maybe that is where the blender or the fruit come in is like the visualization of this terrible thing, but not actually happening. I don't know.
I mean, he's not a good place.

Speaker 2 He's just been walking around for days, stoned out of his mind,

Speaker 2 ready to do something to somebody.

Speaker 1 I got to say his usage rate's probably been a little too high. Yeah.
I probably would have put him in the corner more just for spacing.

Speaker 2 Just been

Speaker 2 run plays for him. I think he can run some plays, but like when Shay's out, you know, like make him Aaron Wiggins, and then we're all going to be fine.

Speaker 1 Was this the right number of episodes for you, or was this six episodes stretched to seven so far?

Speaker 2 I think it was a little too many.

Speaker 2 It's not really a pacing problem so much as when people are off-screen or kind of set to the side, they just idle in place for an indefinite period of time.

Speaker 2 And so that eventually, I think, starts to wear out its welcome.

Speaker 1 I think it should have been seven episodes, just in general. I think I thought first season was too short.

Speaker 1 The middle season was the right length. This feels a whiff long and you probably could have gotten away with 65 minute episodes and had six of them instead of seven.
But

Speaker 2 just a classic Goldilocks scenario.

Speaker 1 With all of that said, I love this show.

Speaker 1 I've been defending it to people who have, you know, it's year three. People start to get used to the format.
They start pitching and complaining about certain things.

Speaker 1 I'm just like, this show's great. I love the show.
I love being on vacation in some weird place. I love the characters.
I love the mystery.

Speaker 1 It's always keeping you on your toes, and I'm glad it exists.

Speaker 2 Extremely glad it exists. I think, too, I think this finale is going to win some people over.

Speaker 2 I think the calamity has been bottled up for this 90 minutes, and maybe that's just the wrong read, but I kind of feel it in the air.

Speaker 1 Who is your favorite character this season?

Speaker 2 I love, I mean, I love Carrie Kuhn, so I am Lori pilled, and everything chaotic happening around her right now is just a joy to watch. I can't be mad about any of it.

Speaker 1 Lori is also my, she's my second, nah, she's my top three i'm not gonna pick a favorite but my top three are chelsea wait you you literally just asked me to pick a favorite you have well it's my podcast no uh no all right i'll pick my favorite chelsea's my favorite okay

Speaker 1 lori second saxon third saxon's coming off the power rankings watching joanna do a 180 on saxon was was my highlight of 2025 so far one of the great joys

Speaker 2 saxon's just bringing people together as as his enlightenment processes within his tiny little brain.

Speaker 2 He's just bringing people together in

Speaker 2 really a celebration of everything that he's all about.

Speaker 1 So do you think Lockheed

Speaker 1 Do you think he actually took the drugs

Speaker 1 before the threesome?

Speaker 1 Do you think he was actually drugged up? Or is this some sort of weird power play with him?

Speaker 2 I thought I had escaped the wake of talking about brothers jerking each other off. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But we get dragged back into these things.

Speaker 2 I think he did take the drugs. I think I think it's maybe like paying a little too close attention to think that he spat them out, but I don't know why Lotus is a show that cares about the details.

Speaker 2 Maybe it's not impossible.

Speaker 1 You know, I asked, because my daughter, who not only watches this show, but is intently following the TikTok conversation around it and always tells me this is a big thing on TikTok right now with some dumb aspect of the show.

Speaker 1 She claimed there's a TikTok where it doesn't seem like he took the drugs.

Speaker 2 It definitively proves that Lockheed did not take the drugs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but because TikTok would never lie to us and there's no, there's no devices to, you know, twist any footage around and anything.

Speaker 2 Of course not.

Speaker 1 So I can't wait.

Speaker 1 White Lotus. So we're doing the live one and then you're doing the deep dive a couple days later with

Speaker 1 Joanna and then we go right to the playoffs.

Speaker 2 I know. Rolling right into it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, Rob Mahoney, great to see you.

Speaker 2 Thanks, Bill. Thanks.

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Some things they're just unnecessary.

Speaker 1 You see this in the NBA all the time. Why do you keep talking to that ref? He's going to tee you up.
Stop doing it. Stop doing it.
And then they keep doing it. And guess what? They get a technical.

Speaker 1 It's just as unnecessary as tedious business meetings. Good thing you can use Loom instead.

Speaker 1 Use Loom to simultaneously record both your screen and yourself to share a quick update, provide feedback, train a colleague, everything in between, whatever.

Speaker 1 Plus, add Loom AI to your meetings for instant written notes and recordings. Try Loom today at loom.com.
That is L-O-O-M.com. All right, we're taping this part of the podcast.

Speaker 1 It is late afternoon, East Coast time. Kevin Wilde's just got off the set of first things first.
It's like talking to Clark Kent right after he got out of the phone booth.

Speaker 2 Wow. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 you still have your little handsome sports TV outfit. You just finished slinging takes.

Speaker 2 Slinging takes like they were hash. I'm feeling great.

Speaker 1 Feeling great. Great time of year.
Is April the best take month?

Speaker 1 Is this the most going on? NFL draft. Nobody really knows what they're talking about, but we all feel like we have to have takes on that.
NBA playoffs are coming up.

Speaker 1 There's already NBA trade stuff happening. First month of baseball season.

Speaker 2 Some baseball takes.

Speaker 2 There's some adventure.

Speaker 1 Some March Madness is still in there.

Speaker 1 Masters is coming up. I think it's the best month for talking out of your ass when you don't really know what's going on.

Speaker 2 Are you sure? It's either if

Speaker 2 April is your first draft pick for takes, I would say week one

Speaker 2 after week one NFL season, that Monday, or that Tuesday, once the Monday night, overreaction Monday. Oh, the first overreaction Monday is just magnificent.
Yeah, because this is a good one.

Speaker 1 Overreaction Monday, it's just percolating that whole day of the first

Speaker 1 games back.

Speaker 1 Everyone's just ready to go nuts.

Speaker 2 Right teams off. Yeah, it's great.
The Eagles could lose by one point. Like,

Speaker 2 I don't know. They probably peaked last year in the Super Bowl, weren't ready.
It's just great.

Speaker 1 I'm proudest of myself of the NFL draft because I watch maybe one or two college football games a week, if that, and have no idea what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 But then I read all the mock drafts and I watch YouTube clips and then decide I'm an expert.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 what? Who do you want the Patriots to take? Because I've convinced myself I'm happy with four guys.

Speaker 1 Four guys.

Speaker 2 So I'm at Hunter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, trade down.

Speaker 2 Oh, really?

Speaker 2 I'm happy with Will Campbell, and I'm happy with, I don't really want T-Mac,

Speaker 2 but I kind of, if we go offensive lines, I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1 I mean, T-Mac now, this is one of the draft takes that's emerged is, are we sure he's the best receiver in the draft?

Speaker 1 Matthew Golden buzz.

Speaker 1 McShea is pro Matthew Golden on the newsletter and the podcast he's doing. He has Golden as the best receiver.

Speaker 1 It's really fun when you have quarterbacks, because it seems like Cam Warren is definitely going to Tennessee.

Speaker 1 But when you have this quarterback situation with the two teams that desperately need a quarterback, Cleveland and the Giants, but then nobody really seems to think Sheror Sanders is a top eight pick.

Speaker 1 And just how desperate it's the age-old philosophy. Some things change.
Sports changes. Basketball, we're shooting more threes than ever.
Baseball, we get a torpedo bat.

Speaker 1 You know, everything evolves in every sport. And then in football, should we take this quarterback this high, even though we're not positive he's a good prospect, is like the eternal question forever.

Speaker 2 I'm almost positive Shador is good. I think Shador does, if, if, if both teams pass on Shador

Speaker 2 and he has the Shador slide, I think that would be insane. If he ends up on the Steelers, I think it'd be great for the Steelers, but the Giants cannot pass on him.
That would be bonkers.

Speaker 1 Well, the one thing that happens is if the first couple teams pass and the guy falls out of the range,

Speaker 1 sometimes then the guy almost has a little bit of a stink on him.

Speaker 1 And then the fall starts and it's like, oh, and then, I mean, Rogers is the most famous example of this, but this has happened in other years where it's like, oh, all of a sudden the guy's going to go to 17.

Speaker 2 I don't have it in front of me, but then after the Giants, there's a run of teams that don't need quarterback, starting with us. We don't need a quarterback.

Speaker 2 Then there's a run of teams, and I guess you get to now with Gino's deal, the Raiders are out. Then it's the Saints.

Speaker 1 Well, you could say the Jets, but then they just paid all this money to Fields.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 yeah, the Jets would be interesting.

Speaker 1 I can't imagine he'd go by the Saints because the Saints are so handicapped by the cap that I don't understand how they would not pass up a chance to get somebody, but you'd have to really think he's going to be not good.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you know,

Speaker 2 all right.

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 2 You read like

Speaker 1 pocket presents, tough as nails. Yeah.
Read stuff fast. He's been in the spotlight for a few years.
There's all this intangible stuff with him.

Speaker 1 Then other people are like, he's just not a good enough quarterback. So yeah, the draft's fun.
We get to argue about arm length.

Speaker 1 Basketball, we're talking about a playoff picture that just changes every day. It's ridiculous where you're like, coming up,

Speaker 1 what happens if Denver plays the Lakers? It's like they just might never play the Lakers.

Speaker 2 Coming up, are the Rockets the second best team in the West, which they are, are, or are they just a first-round fodder? Yeah. Ready to go home.

Speaker 2 Hey, are the Grizzlies a dangerous playoff team or should they blow the team up?

Speaker 2 We don't know.

Speaker 1 Never know.

Speaker 1 I was thinking with LeBron, if anyone's generated more takes than him, and it has to be Will Chamberlain has to be the answer, but I don't think the take infrastructure was in place at that point.

Speaker 2 Great, great. But I think take infrastructure.

Speaker 2 The take infrastructure was not there.

Speaker 1 We just had newspapers and we had local networks and some magazines like Sport and Sports Illustrated, and then just people arguing in bars.

Speaker 1 But I still feel like he's the most polarizing NBA star of all time. He's still polarizing now.

Speaker 2 Wilt? You think Wilt or LeBron? You think Wilt? I think Wilt.

Speaker 1 I think it's 100% Wilt.

Speaker 2 Do you count the

Speaker 2 take infrastructure? If two guys are arguing in a bar, do you, it's a little bit if a tree falls in the woods and and no one is around. Anyone hear the take? Does the take still count?

Speaker 2 Or does it have to be recorded on someone's podcast that, you know, a lightly listened to podcast that two buddies are doing from a local bar?

Speaker 2 That counts for the two guys in the 60s take doesn't count.

Speaker 1 Well, what's crazy about the 60s, and this is how I ended up deciding to write a Chamberlain Russell chapter when I did my book.

Speaker 1 When I was doing all the research, so many people weighed in on Wilt and it was players.

Speaker 1 It was stuff that never happens happens now, like long paragraphs from like Bill Bradley saying, Here's why Wilt's a loser, just laying out like in the book that he wrote.

Speaker 1 And you're just like, Holy shit, like people could just never decide who this guy was, whether he wanted. Even Russell was pretty critical of him.

Speaker 2 I'm ready for the Wilt, the Wilt Renaissance.

Speaker 2 It's already happening.

Speaker 2 You think so?

Speaker 2 They has a, he has a

Speaker 2 lightly managed YouTube presence where every once in a while, the algorithm will serve me up. Like, here's Wilt blocking one from the top of the backboard.
What? Here's Wilt jumping over a guy.

Speaker 2 Here's Wilt hitting four hookshot corner threes for fun. Like, oh, I'm ready for the take of, you know, it was the best player actually of all time.
It was Wilt.

Speaker 1 That's going to come back. because we're in the so-and-so was a problem era of social media.

Speaker 1 This is how I was thinking about Wilt last week because one of those accounts fed me game six: Bucks, Lakers, 1972. Bucks are defending champs.
They have Kareem. Kareem's like just killing everybody.

Speaker 1 Wilt in the seven, in the last game.

Speaker 2 Is it the blocks?

Speaker 1 He's blocking Kareem's sky hook.

Speaker 2 This was fed to me. Yeah.
This was fed to me. It was riveting.
He was twice on one position or something. It was riveting.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I watched it. I was like, oh, my.
And then it was like, Wilt had 22 points, 24 rebounds, and 10 blocks. I was like, he did?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 Why are we being fed the same stuff?

Speaker 2 I know.

Speaker 2 It was the for you.

Speaker 1 It's the for you tab. They know we like basketball.
So this set me on some deep dive rabbit hole. I went to basketball reference.
When I did my book, they didn't have the box scores past like 1986.

Speaker 1 So I went to basketball reference and I was like, I got to find out more about this series. It was.
Oscar Robertson and Kareem on one side and West and Will Chamberlain on the other.

Speaker 1 So it's four of the best 12 players ever in a series. That seems like a big deal.
The Lakers won 33 games that year. Milwaukee had won the title the year before.
Kareem's killing everybody.

Speaker 1 So I went and looked at the stats, and it made me even more confused. Wilt's shooting like three times a game, four times a game.
Like for real, you can go in the box scores.

Speaker 1 Even in this last game, when he was awesome, he was like seven for 10. It was like, why did Wilt stop shooting? He scored 100 points in a game.

Speaker 2 That's odd.

Speaker 1 Why did he just turn into a rebound block shot guy? And then Kareem was like 35 and 20 the entire series. What year was that 1972.

Speaker 2 okay so the 70

Speaker 2 the yeah the 71 72 lakers we just did a thing about the thunder uh right

Speaker 2 winning percentage yeah and it was um

Speaker 2 the warriors team obviously then it was joy two bulls teams yeah thunder in the middle then that then that lakers squad with like it was like jerry it was jerry west was on it and then i guess elgin had a cup of coffee i was looking at the thing got hurt

Speaker 2 Yeah. And who else was there? The guy that no one talks about that brought

Speaker 2 Gail Goodrich that I didn't, I don't, I'm a blank slate when it comes to Gail Goodrich, but Gail Goodrich averaged like 26 points in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Well, I read every Sports Illustrated story about it, and it was 2-2 after four games. And then the Lakers won the last two.

Speaker 1 And one of the keys to the series was Jim McMillan, who bat, who struggled with weight during the first part of his career.

Speaker 1 His teammates called him pudge ball, but then he like lit it up in the series. And I was like, imagine this now.
Like, this would be like two days of Jim Macmillan.

Speaker 2 Jim McMillan.

Speaker 2 I was going to be having him.

Speaker 2 He got rid of the donuts and he came to play.

Speaker 1 But the league back then, like, they just, you know, it was a pretty, it was doing okay.

Speaker 1 But you have this series that really, if it happened now, would be this incredible series where you have like some of the greatest players of all time battling, like real stakes, back-to-back versus a 33-game winning streak.

Speaker 1 I didn't know anything about it. So yeah, Wilt.
I have no idea why he stopped shooting. I would watch like a 15 episode of Will Chamberlain thing if it was done correctly.

Speaker 2 Start working on it.

Speaker 1 Because then he did. Start working on it.
Then he did,

Speaker 1 he just quit and started playing volleyball.

Speaker 1 He had that whole stretch.

Speaker 2 Very interesting. Was he playing professional volleyball?

Speaker 1 Yeah, played professional volleyball.

Speaker 2 Could you imagine lining up and seeing Wilt Chamberlain come in for the first day? The first day where it's like, you know, there's no social media. You don't even know who's going to show up.

Speaker 2 And all of a sudden, it's like, you know, is that Wilt Chamberlain? Right. That is him, right? That's Wilt Chamberlain, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 There was another thing that got fed to me with

Speaker 1 it. Was Wilt Chamberlain when he was 16 playing with pros.

Speaker 1 And he's the same Wilt Chamberlain body, but he's super skinny and just like completely dominating everybody.

Speaker 1 I think Wilt's underrated as a Twitter because sometimes young Shaq will have a moment on social media too, where he's just like going full court and dunking over guys. And they're like, oh, Jesus.

Speaker 2 You know what

Speaker 2 the young Shaq moment that gets a lot of play on social media? All-star warm-ups is Jordan guarding him, I think.

Speaker 2 It's just a warm, it's just they're like joking around and he has like some sort of crossover. He looks like Stan Van Gundy, like a crossover spin layup on Jordan.
It's like, yep, that will work.

Speaker 2 Like, yes, young Shaq.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because I'll go to Twitter and now it like defaults to the for you page, but the for you page is getting better and it's just serving me basketball now constantly.

Speaker 1 So, like the other day, I went on and it was Kobe against Rip Hamilton in a 1996 McDonald's All-America practice. And I was like, watch Kobe light up Rip Hamilton.

Speaker 2 I'm like, absolutely.

Speaker 2 I'm in.

Speaker 1 How many minutes is this? Can I watch this?

Speaker 2 This looks great. This is great content.

Speaker 2 Shout out to the algorithm. The algorithm is starting to work.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 instagram it gets they definitely instagram is a little gamier with the stuff they push if it's uh it's a little seedier it's like two in the morning kind of wandering around new york city kind of seedy but twitter twitter

Speaker 1 they'll push you mostly the sports and then something horrible that you don't have any interest in like some sort of hardcore political or whatever but i like the basketball stuff so what what sports there are what sports storyline right now are you the most fascinated in

Speaker 1 what is it is it NBA related?

Speaker 2 Well, I'm a little bit, I'm, I'm a little bit obsessed with Will Campbell's arm length, but I'm gonna put that aside. That wing probably crested for me.

Speaker 1 How about that? There were two different measurements. One was 32 and a half, and then the other was 33.
And he's like, I'm actually a 33.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and his wingspan got the longer his arms got, the shorter his wingspan got.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I didn't get it.

Speaker 2 It's just absurd. I talked to Jeff Schwartz about it.
He's like, it's nothing. He'll just be able to go like that and be fine.
I guess guess it's

Speaker 2 i guess it's the it's not i want to be positive i guess the number one story it's not super like out of the box is

Speaker 2 can the luca lebron experiment if you want to call it that

Speaker 2 gel fast enough yeah to get a championship i still

Speaker 2 have the number one story yeah and there's no answer so you could just talk about it in circles forever and nobody knows until we see the playoffs and the fact that they were the number one one defense for a good stretch,

Speaker 2 how did that happen? Was that just a string of luck and hustle?

Speaker 2 And is that going to come down? And then I guess the other thing that we're trying to figure out is

Speaker 2 the thing about the Thunder that I just mentioned.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 if they are truly like on paper, a historic team. If they don't win,

Speaker 2 did they underachieve? No one seems to be saying like, yeah, they don't win the finals. They underachieved.
That's the 2016 Warriors, right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but they ran into a, they, they lost because they ran into a legendary performer. So are they going to?

Speaker 1 That's not what.

Speaker 2 That's not what they lost.

Speaker 2 Go ahead. Why are you lost?

Speaker 1 They lost because they suspended Draymond for game five.

Speaker 2 No, it's, you know,

Speaker 2 that's fair.

Speaker 1 It's a tough suspension.

Speaker 1 It's funny because Adam Silver has been in the in the circles recently because there's this growing conspiracy thing that I don't know how this would be true, but it's been a fun one to monitor.

Speaker 1 That the league pushed for the Luca trade to the Lakers.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 1 it's a great one, though. It's turning into this generation's version of the frozen envelope with the Ewing Lottery.

Speaker 2 I just can't.

Speaker 1 It's because there's no other explanation for the trade. So now

Speaker 1 conspiracy people have nudged that way to that one. And I can't wait to get aggregated incorrectly for it.

Speaker 2 Did the conspiracy community already move off of

Speaker 2 they were trying to purposely sour the fan base to move the team to Las Vegas? I thought that was the first conspiracy. That was the first one.

Speaker 1 I listen. Did I hop on that tricycle and take it around for a little spin in my living room? I did.

Speaker 2 I did. I tested it out.

Speaker 1 It's pretty ludicrous.

Speaker 1 I like the league brokering a trade is pretty funny. Especially because they killed the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers 15 years ago.

Speaker 2 So it's conspiracies me.

Speaker 1 But that's the thing. When there's no explanation for something, that's when conspiracies start.
When it's just like, this is the dumbest trade ever. There has to be a reason this happened.

Speaker 2 None of the reasons fit. That's just when you have conspiracies.
Just bad call.

Speaker 2 Just bad decision. Here's the thing.

Speaker 2 I was going to do a thing on, it took me a long time because everybody had their

Speaker 2 everybody had their own Luka take.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And I didn't, I knew I'm like, what's my angle on this? It's such a bad decision.
And I came up with it. It's a little story.
Okay.

Speaker 2 One day, uh,

Speaker 2 I was working on, we would do like commercial maintenance and like painting and stuff. We take care of like parking lots and stuff.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 my boss got a job power washing. We were power washing, ironically, a car wash, the outside of a car wash.
And the first day I went, I had sneakers on and socks. And I'm getting soaked.

Speaker 2 It's a real, it's not even power wash. We're like stripping the cinder block with this high-powered pressure washer.
Yeah. And I had socks on and wet shoes and it was the worst.

Speaker 2 I'm like stomping around. It's just I had like trench foot.

Speaker 2 Next day I said, I can't do this again. I'm going to wear sandals because we're going to do a two-day project.
Next day I wear sandals, pressure washing, pressure washing.

Speaker 2 The only thing worse than having trench foot is having all these little paint chips

Speaker 2 in between my toes and I'm stepping and they're sharp sharp and it's bothering me and annoying me so much. I have this pressure washer and I look down at my foot.

Speaker 2 I said, ooh, this would feel so good if I take this pressure washer and just

Speaker 2 and I just looked at it and I just did it.

Speaker 2 And I, it was,

Speaker 2 and there was no conspiracy to it.

Speaker 2 There was no like, maybe Wilds wanted to get off of work and maybe he was upset with the job and maybe he wanted to go back and work on a different project no you know what it was just an absolutely horrible decision on my part to blast my own foot and some skin off

Speaker 2 oh you knocked some skin off oh of course of course it's blasted my own foot that is the luca trade there's it's just a really bad decision that i think immediately you recognize whoa

Speaker 2 bad call on my part.

Speaker 1 So skin's hanging off Nico Harrison's body, right? As As the trade's being called in.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 wow, I didn't realize that. I did realize now that I think about it, if I could go back,

Speaker 2 I would not do that again. That was

Speaker 1 the only move for him is just to resign.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 at some point, you only have one life, we think.

Speaker 1 And if your life just for the next two years is you've, you've committed this reviled transaction and the whole point of like being a GM or whatever for a team, other than running the team, picking the players, but you also want to go to the games and be like, yeah, that's my team.

Speaker 1 And now that's been, I just don't understand what the win is for him at this point. Can't he?

Speaker 2 No, he's pot committed. He's in.
He's all this. He has to be all in.

Speaker 2 You can't resign and then all of a sudden you get Cooper flag

Speaker 2 and someone else is like, man, we did it.

Speaker 1 So wait until after the draft. Make sure you didn't get.

Speaker 2 I think you have to be like, you have to come out with some messaging like, look,

Speaker 2 defense wins championships. I'll never waver from that.
I'm resolute. That's right.
Tell me I'm wrong. Like,

Speaker 2 when this next time this franchise wins a championship, it will be because of defense. And that's what you're doing to Anthony Davis.

Speaker 1 This is good. So the best case scenario for him is the Lakers suck in the playoffs.
They underachieve in some way or it doesn't work out.

Speaker 1 And there's more questions about Luca, even though there shouldn't be questions. But a little like after the finals last year, like, huh, he wasn't that good in the finals.

Speaker 1 And the Celtex really attacked him on defense.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like, oh, warm a little bit.

Speaker 1 Maybe, maybe this could be a James Harden of this generation kind of guy. He'd have that, and then you would have whoever wins the title.
It's like, man, like, OKC wins the title.

Speaker 1 Holy shit, their defense. Wow.

Speaker 2 That's right. That's defense wins championships.

Speaker 1 Then Nico's like, see what I mean? I'm just trying to tell you guys.

Speaker 2 We're just, you know, a little bit unlucky with Kyrie. One draft pick.

Speaker 2 He can't, He can't move.

Speaker 2 He has to give it a shot.

Speaker 1 You know what's funny?

Speaker 1 I have probably a hot take off the trade.

Speaker 1 If they had gotten Reeves in it with how good Reeves is,

Speaker 1 and it was Reeves and Anthony Davis and two firsts, like we're in the ballpark of like, I can, now I can start to see it. You can at least talk me into it after two drinks.

Speaker 2 That's the other part of it that's bad. It was just also

Speaker 2 trading. I can't believe we're talking about this.
It's so funny.

Speaker 1 God, its face is bad yeah but then you still didn't get enough yeah that it's the not getting enough is the is to me if we're doing a seesaw it's 70 you didn't get enough and then 30 i can't believe you traded luka doncichich but it's still the 70 of you just didn't get enough mikael bridges got was it five first round picks yeah two of them are kind of wow but yeah it's still davis is davis is like a top 12 guy but he's a little injury prone but yeah it's it's uh I don't know what you do because you've you've hurt the sport in a city in a way that we've kind of

Speaker 2 time out never never seen just to bookmark, just not to book it, just to bookend conspiracy bill didn't hurt the sport.

Speaker 2 Did not hurt. Well, that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 It's hurt the sport in one city, but it helped in the other cities.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It really

Speaker 2 helped the sport.

Speaker 2 I'm not gonna, it really helped the sport, but did hurt the team. Also, not ruling out Anthony Davis.

Speaker 2 Pelican's Anthony Davis, can he come back? And Anthony Davis, like when we were having real conversations, about

Speaker 2 his PER numbers are Wilt Chamberlain-esque. It's like, remember that? It was, I don't know how long ago that was, but he was having those killer seasons and then kind of flame out in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 But man, I don't know. I kind of believe in Anthony Davis.

Speaker 2 I have an announcement for you. I have an announcement.

Speaker 1 They traded Mookie Betts, I think, February 2020. It's like a couple weeks before COVID.

Speaker 2 I saw this tweet. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm going to do the tweet, but then I'm going to dive into it a little more.

Speaker 2 Love it.

Speaker 1 The Red Sox were never the same for me after that trade. They'd won four titles.

Speaker 1 Baseball was changing. My basketball, football fascinations were growing every year.

Speaker 1 All these different reasons for it. It just was not life and death for me like it used to be, but it was really about the trade and not having.

Speaker 2 Was that the beginning of

Speaker 2 was that the beginning of the end or the or the final like straw that broke the camel's back?

Speaker 1 I think it was like five straws that broke the camel's back because I love Mookie bets.

Speaker 2 Like the whole point of sports is to

Speaker 1 you want Tom Brady for 20 years, you want Jason Tatum for 20 years. Like you get one of these guys, it's like Dallas of Luca.
You get one of these guys.

Speaker 1 This is like one fourth or one fifth of your life potentially that you're this guy's on your team.

Speaker 1 And Mookie was like everything I wanted from a good player. Yes.
So they trade him. I'm never the same.

Speaker 1 And it really made me, but now with this, with the Red Sox, with Christian Campbell and with Roman Anthony Gumming, and hopefully Mayer, but especially how much fun it's been to watch Christian Campbell these first few games.

Speaker 1 And it's very similar to Mookie's rookie season where he just like, he's swinging from the heels on everything, but his bats hitting everything.

Speaker 1 And you just, you don't want to miss his at-bats, the way he carries himself. He had this thing the other day, Cora talked about, where he said,

Speaker 1 he doesn't call his teammates teammates. Did you hear this? No.

Speaker 1 He doesn't say teammate. He says friend.

Speaker 2 Love it.

Speaker 1 He's like, these are my friends. My friend, Raphael Devers, he doesn't use the word teammate.
I was like, this guy's at a central castings. He's 22.

Speaker 1 He's the most exciting rookie they've had since Mookie Betts. But then Roman Anthony, who's coming at some point this year, who's the best prospect in baseball.

Speaker 1 And you know what? I'm like, I was on the Castaway Island with Tom Hanks.

Speaker 2 You're bad.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was, you know, I was doing some spear fishing,

Speaker 1 sleeping in a cave, talking to a volleyball, but I think I'm back.

Speaker 2 Okay, welcome back. Yeah.
But I, uh, you got to start following the Woosax. That's where I'm getting my like, my uh, the Roman Anthony.

Speaker 1 Roman Anthony.

Speaker 2 I'm like, oh, another home run. I'm just seeing highlights.
I never see the guy strike out or ground out. Everything looks great.
Well,

Speaker 1 it's the only sport where when somebody's just an awesome prospect,

Speaker 1 it makes the most sense in baseball. When you just see somebody, you're like, that guy's fucking awesome.

Speaker 1 I guess that could happen in basketball too, but not in the same way because they're a little younger and they're competing against like grown-ass men.

Speaker 1 In baseball, sometimes you have these dudes come in.

Speaker 2 You're like, wow.

Speaker 1 You see some of the Roman Anthony highlights and you're like, wow.

Speaker 2 Are you worried about Devers on the flip side?

Speaker 1 My dad is. It's a big conversation with my dad.

Speaker 2 He had a hit yesterday.

Speaker 1 He was like, he came in fat in camp. It's his fault.

Speaker 2 He was like offset about it. I like it.
I like all the stories. It's like, it's one part injury.
It's one part, certain amount of bats. It's one part he opened up his batting stance.

Speaker 2 And then I forgot, was it Papple Bond said it? Yeah. Now, too many carbs.
I'm like, oh, too many carbs would actually be the best thing.

Speaker 1 I think baseball has become the new David Stern NBA, where every first month of the season, they have some sort of controversy now. Like this year, it's the torpedo bats.
I was all in.

Speaker 1 I read every torpedo bat thing i've been watching the yankees clips of them i was like wow this is why why is this legal how are they doing this why don't other take like it's really fascinating loved it i'm surprised i didn't even know that we didn't

Speaker 2 i didn't know that was a thing considering like if you have a kid in little league and there's new bats coming out every three months yeah bats are like it's uh iPhone updates like new bat this bat's no good anymore this bat is hotter oh you need this bat This bat's out of hits.

Speaker 2 We'd have to get a different bat. There's three different bats.
Like, the bat technology and youth baseball is out of control. So it's about time it caught up with Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 You kind of graduated out of baseball bat parenting. You saved, let me tell you something.
Hundreds of dollars.

Speaker 1 I look back at some of the kids' sports that I had to sit through.

Speaker 1 And baseball's way up there is the worst.

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Like, was he any good?

Speaker 1 No, no. It wasn't about whether he was actually good.
And I think the COVID thing kind of ended the baseball career.

Speaker 1 It was just, it's, it's the, the seating, like the worst possible seating situations, the long drives everywhere, the games. Um, nobody has control over the pitches over the mound.

Speaker 1 The ball's going everywhere. Kids are crying.
Like, if you go 10, that sweet spot with the boys between 8 and 11, anyone's a candidate start crying during the game. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Everyone's like, it's just a roller coaster ride. But the sports I missed,

Speaker 1 thank God gymnastics. That sounds horrific.
Swimming sounds awful, just from the parent standpoint. And then track and field, those are the big three of the ones you don't want your kid to do.

Speaker 2 Baseball.

Speaker 2 I'm a baseball guy. I like being a baseball guy.
Get to be outside at least. Yeah.
Well, the other thing is, I think you're a little spoiled.

Speaker 1 in Southern California with just like we can't appreciate it.

Speaker 2 I also just like sitting outside for two hours. I won't do it in my backyard, but I'm happy to just sit outside in the sunshine.
Like, oh, this is delightful.

Speaker 2 Also, nowhere to hide in baseball, which is nice. Play a lot of sports like soccer.
Hey, how'd the soccer game go? Oh, it's this person did this. And this person like, no, dude, like, you're at that.

Speaker 2 You have to hit the ball.

Speaker 1 You know what was part of the baseball thing for me? I thought the parents were especially annoying.

Speaker 1 It's a tough parent crowd, but the guy who has to go right behind home plate and videotape all his kids' pitches, and he's blocking everybody.

Speaker 1 And then the two parents who get a little chirpy with kids on the other team, you're like, dude, these kids are 10. Shut up.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 1 it's a pretty bad scene for that.

Speaker 2 Confession, although I like all you're one of those parents, no,

Speaker 2 I'm a center field parent.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's really smart. By myself, that's great.
That's really smart. I just like heroes and things.
I like watching the game. I like watching the game.

Speaker 2 I like watching my kids' games. And like, if I could have a

Speaker 2 like a man cave, it would be

Speaker 2 like an isolation chamber. It would be like something that would be against the Geneva conventions.
It would be just me in a room all by myself with,

Speaker 2 I would like to have Twitter to follow along, but I don't need anyone. I just like to be all by myself consuming the game.
I don't like to hear.

Speaker 1 It's funny you mentioned this because when Ben was playing third base, I would sit in left field and I really enjoyed it because nobody was out there.

Speaker 1 I was still close enough to see what was going on with him. He'd occasionally get the foul ball hit toward me.

Speaker 2 I don't know. And there were no parents.
Yeah. I don't know.
Oh, I hear this. And if you're talking too much about the game,

Speaker 2 I just want to watch. And if you're not talking about the game, I'm annoyed.
So it's a kind of a.

Speaker 1 Well, and the parents who don't understand baseball, isn't that a strikeout? No, it's three. It's two strikes.

Speaker 2 I think most people, I mean, that's a really basic. Yeah.
No, it's only two outs.

Speaker 2 We're not adding any yet. Actually,

Speaker 2 I haven't had three outs yet.

Speaker 1 We'll take a break and we'll do half-baked ideas.

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All right.

Speaker 1 So you've been doing half-baked ideas with me pretty much ever since I've had a podcast.

Speaker 1 For whatever reason, none of them have been sold for millions of dollars.

Speaker 2 They're happening, though. Every once in a while, one of them happens.

Speaker 1 Well, one of them got turned into a movie, The purge we didn't get any credit

Speaker 1 we did our leapier movie became the purge i'll always

Speaker 2 yeah the um the

Speaker 2 the um

Speaker 2 watch watch tv like in a surround sound like you're in first base like you're in like the front a front row seat it's like yeah that happened baked idea that just happened that happened i think getting any credit for that one all right Start ripping them off.

Speaker 1 I have three bonus ones too, but I'll intersperse mine later because this is your show and your gimmick.

Speaker 2 Wow, thank you.

Speaker 2 I have two odor-based ones. Great.
The first one coming off of what happened to me last night.

Speaker 2 Supposed to take the dog out for a walk, midnight-ish.

Speaker 2 It's kind of cold. I'll just let the dog out.

Speaker 2 I just let him out. He goes out.
I hear

Speaker 2 a bark that is reserved for cartoon dogs, like

Speaker 2 yowsers.

Speaker 2 So what's going on here? Come back downstairs, open the door. The dog's making like,

Speaker 2 he's like making noises. He's like drooling kind of like, as soon as he gets close to me,

Speaker 2 he has already been sprayed by a skunk. I realize he's sprayed by a skunk.
Now he's in the house and he's slobbering.

Speaker 1 It's almost like getting a concussion.

Speaker 2 Oh my, it's, it's now, and he's moving around and he's bringing this stink everywhere. Oh, so you brought him in the house.
That's the worst thing you can do.

Speaker 2 He was making noise. I didn't realize he had gotten sprayed until he was in the house.
And now he's like freaking out. And I'm like, and I got to take care of you.

Speaker 2 I'm not just going to, you know, just communicate him to the garage. I'm like, all right, we got to get in the tub.

Speaker 2 I bring him upstairs.

Speaker 1 Now you stink of skunk.

Speaker 2 I stink of skunk. I bring him upstairs.
My wife wakes up. What smells? He got.

Speaker 2 He got sprayed by a skunk. Now I've got the ragu in there.
I'm pouring it on him, and he's like, kind of likes it. He's like, ragu? Tomato sauce?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's a thing.

Speaker 1 That's what you do with dog gutscotted?

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's some sort of something about the.
So did you Google this? No, I kind of knew that. Oh, I didn't know.
I think it's like peeing on a jelly, like a jellyfish thing.

Speaker 2 I think it's just convention, like common knowledge. Okay.
I don't think you're supposed to use marinara sauce. I think you're supposed to use like tomato.

Speaker 2 I don't know. In any event, now I'm covering the dog up with tomato, with marinara sauce.
My wife's like, it smells like skunk and garlic in here. I'm like, I know.

Speaker 2 I'm making pasta in the tub, covering him up.

Speaker 2 He stinks. The place is a disaster.
Moral of the story:

Speaker 2 I needed someone to call, and I had nobody.

Speaker 1 Like the wolf from pub fiction for skunks

Speaker 2 nailed it. Oh,

Speaker 2 wolf of skunks. That's exactly what I want.
Some sort of wolf skunk thing. Call a guy, comes in, because now I'm going home.

Speaker 2 And everybody else who went to work today is going home and is going to say, oh, I'm so happy I'm home.

Speaker 2 You know, home is where the heart is. And my entire house smells like something that God created to get animals away.
And I'm just living in it. Also, I smell a little bit right now.

Speaker 2 It's like, it's, it's, it's like days.

Speaker 2 What isn't it?

Speaker 1 Like seven eight nine days? It's like burning popcorn multiplied by a hundred.

Speaker 2 So what and he moved all around and it was on his mouth. So as he was drooling like the skunk smells in the rugs, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
Call

Speaker 2 the wolf.

Speaker 1 Here's so what else? I feel like that can't be the only job for the for the animal wolf. It's got to be there's got to be a couple other things like bit by a rattlesnake.

Speaker 1 He knows what to do with that.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. He can do all yeah, he has got like five specialties.
Yes, that's sure. But I really enjoy.
I would just like to call him,

Speaker 2 take care of the skunk smell. But also, if you also, you know, coincidentally got bit by a rattlesnake,

Speaker 2 that would also work. So then that goes into.
So that's just a kind of that's a one that happened last night. Here's the real one that I actually thought of.
Tough one for the dog, man.

Speaker 1 This getting sprayed close by a skunk.

Speaker 2 It's a

Speaker 1 honestly a concussion.

Speaker 2 He actually started to like it. He liked the attention.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 He's going to court skunk stuff.

Speaker 2 Okay,

Speaker 2 this one is called

Speaker 2 Home Odors Association. This is just a coincidence from the skunk thing.
Okay. Okay.
This is gonna upend the real estate market. All right.

Speaker 2 Real estate is usually based on visuals, right? Curb appeal of the home.

Speaker 2 What type of view do you have? Do you have a view of the water? A view of the, you know, nice forest, perhaps. And if it's, so it's one part, visuals, probably the top dog.

Speaker 2 Sometimes real estate's based on sounds. Oh, it's, it's a quiet neighborhood.
Or if you're too close to the highway, it's loud and that will hurt the value. Yeah.
It's,

Speaker 2 it's never based on smells.

Speaker 2 So I came home the other day. Someone was having, cooking up several cheeseburgers.
And I was like, wow. I was just walking home.
Like, this is

Speaker 2 develop a property and maybe you got to figure out the wind patterns or you know you have a little pop-up barbecue places yeah and then we're gonna have to make money because the money is within the smell so it's like a grilling a cheeseburger smell just a lot of the time a bakery we have a bakery oh in uh in porchester there's a bakery it smells wonderful ride my bike around like wow should i go get some fresh bread was there another level of this where it's almost like you have a surround sound system in your house but instead it's a surround smell system and you're like today

Speaker 1 I'm going to pass out the smell of burgers being grilled.

Speaker 1 And they just go through your house.

Speaker 2 I love it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, that's just can't AI come up with that? AI can do everything.

Speaker 2 AI is overrated.

Speaker 1 Pizza, pizza burning on a wood grill smell.

Speaker 2 Here's another one.

Speaker 2 This is not artificial. I'm doing the real thing, you know? Not just like a fake, I'm not a Yankee candle out here.

Speaker 2 An old man with a pipe, he comes to your house because I don't, I don't want the nicotine. I don't want

Speaker 2 the chance of diseases and I don't want the secondhand smoke. But while you're at work, an old man with a pipe will come and sit down in a chair just for two hours and then leaves.
And then leaves.

Speaker 2 But you go in there like, wow, smells like folk music here. Smells great.

Speaker 1 You made me think of LA Live

Speaker 1 walking to where we both used to do TV and do TV shows, and Grantland was there.

Speaker 2 That

Speaker 1 there was that restaurant and would spew out the hot air from the air conditioning that smelled like food, like burgers and dogs, but it was like this hot, humid, disgusting version of the smell.

Speaker 1 And when you walked through it, you got hit by it every time, and you would always forget it was there.

Speaker 2 You know, I'm talking about it. No,

Speaker 2 bad smells, like a sauce from

Speaker 1 hot, heat, like kind of food that was already made, gross smell.

Speaker 2 I don't remember. And I got hit by it last week.

Speaker 1 Did not like it.

Speaker 2 Okay. Well,

Speaker 1 all of your odors sound much better.

Speaker 2 Yeah, if it has to be positive odors. That's what it's called.
One part Winston Wolf of Skunks, one part Home Odors Association. Really great.
Great start. You want to go on another one? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Combine.

Speaker 2 I'll start here.

Speaker 2 One of the legendary pro days story,

Speaker 2 Kobe's Pro Day, where Jerry West brings in Michael Cooper. Yeah.
And Michael Cooper was 40 years old.

Speaker 1 Kobe cooked him up.

Speaker 2 Jerry West realizes that Kobe is a superstar. I think he knew it, but

Speaker 2 that is a legendary pro-day story. I'm seeing Cam Word.

Speaker 2 Nobody's there. He's just throwing to no one.
There's no opposition. Ashton Genty, we had his pro day.
He took his shirt off. Looks great.

Speaker 2 But he's running against literal garbage cans and jumping over little cones.

Speaker 2 So here's the idea: remember Iron Mike Sharp? Yeah.

Speaker 2 That he would just come in and get beaten up, and you're like, ah, that's entertaining. Iron Mike Sharp S.

Speaker 2 You're talking about wrestling jobbers. Yes.

Speaker 2 Four-year pro day.

Speaker 1 Come in. Wrestling.
So football jobbers.

Speaker 2 Yes, but stars.

Speaker 2 Like, like Michael Cooper S.

Speaker 2 Like Aaron Donald. Look.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 he's not working out lately. Any interest in suiting up and trying to get past Will Campbell? Like, worst case scenario for Will Campbell, you hold your own against Aaron Donald.

Speaker 2 And I know what you're thinking. The pushback is going to be

Speaker 2 pushbacks and be like, ah, Aaron Donald's been out of the league. Like, oh, so what? You tackled Barry Sanders.
He's 45. I get it.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 the, I forget which Jake Paul, Jake Paul Tyson. There is a glitch

Speaker 2 in sports fans' minds, and it's happening right now with Aaron Rodgers, that sports fans, and maybe this is because of Tom Brady's longevity and LeBron's longevity, that the glitch is we cannot process

Speaker 2 aging of our heroes, aging of superstars. We just can't quite.

Speaker 1 I talked about this two weeks ago. Brady screwed it up in football, and now we just assume Aaron Rodgers shouldn't be watching.

Speaker 2 Of course he's going to be good.

Speaker 2 Because Tom Brady was good. We're not like, no, he was one of the.

Speaker 1 It's really only Brady and LeBron. That's right.
They're the only two that made it into their 40s and stayed good.

Speaker 2 But if you are, you know, if you are a little bit younger than me, that was, they were the main figures of your entire sports universe. So, of course, the great players can go.
Same with Mike Tyson.

Speaker 2 When I saw Mike, I'm like, oh, I don't know. Mike Tyson's got a chance.
Even now, it's like, no, Mike Tyson was pulling punches. Mike Tyson is

Speaker 2 older.

Speaker 2 Yeah, of course you can't absorb a punch. So that's why, wow, look at Travis Hunter tracking down.

Speaker 1 Look at him lighting up Darrell Rivas.

Speaker 2 It'd be great. Wow, tackling Barry Sanders.
Oh, get Calvin Johnson out there. Can you lock up Calvin Johnson? Yeah.
I think it would be great. So I have to-make some money.

Speaker 2 And next thing you know, like maybe you guys get another shot at it. Right.
Hey,

Speaker 1 Yeah, like Terrell Owens trying to cook Will Johnson.

Speaker 2 Yes, that would be tremendous. You shut down, shut down T.O., that would work.

Speaker 1 Do you want my worst one, a decent one, or one that I'm actually afraid to give out because I feel like it's an actual idea?

Speaker 2 Like the one that you're afraid to give out. Your worst ones are usually pretty bad.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 Remember Masterclass when all the would be like, Malcolm Gladwell teaches you how to write a book.

Speaker 2 And is that still a thing?

Speaker 1 Dave Chang. I don't know if it's still a thing or not.
And you would watch these tutorials, but it was like they would just get all these awesome people.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 What is the biggest question couples ask one another every week?

Speaker 1 The number one thing couples who are married who are somewhere between my age group and your age group, even though we're pretty close to each other.

Speaker 2 The number one question.

Speaker 1 The number one question we ask week after week.

Speaker 2 I mean, this sounds so lame, but like,

Speaker 2 what is our, what is our schedule this week? That's a good one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's probably, I had that number two.

Speaker 2 Number one,

Speaker 1 should we watch this?

Speaker 1 It's like, hey, Netflix,

Speaker 1 go check Netflix.

Speaker 2 What's on there?

Speaker 1 Temptation Island.

Speaker 2 Hmm.

Speaker 1 Should we watch this? Just one episode? What's this new show, Adolescence?

Speaker 2 Oh.

Speaker 1 Celtic City on Max. Ah, sports documentary at a team.
I don't know. Is this a good one?

Speaker 2 Should we watch this? This is theater.

Speaker 1 There's so much content. You never know what to watch, what not to watch, what's good, what's not good.
Okay. And then you end up like you're on Google.

Speaker 2 You're checking out, like, oh, did Vulture write a recap of this?

Speaker 1 Did, oh, wait, the ringer wrote a piece that said, they said this was good. Oh, I heard on the, like, there's this extra step.
Well, not with Master Critic.

Speaker 2 Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 1 We're doing all AI

Speaker 1 for movies, TV,

Speaker 1 reality. So reality, it's like,

Speaker 1 should I watch Temptation Island? Dave Jacoby hasn't watched it either. He's the czar of reality.
But what we do have is AI Dave Jacoby, who's taken all of his takes on reality ever and then can

Speaker 1 take Temptation Island, the synopsis, what they've heard of the show, synthesize, and then you click AI Dave Jacoby, and AI Dave Jacoby says, I think Temptation Island is going to be pretty good.

Speaker 1 I was a big fan of the one in 03 and just talks to you like Dave Jacoby, but it's AI.

Speaker 1 Same thing for AI Roger Ebert. Roger Ebert's back.
He's reviewing movies again.

Speaker 1 We're going, we're calling, we're, and by the way, his estate gets a share of masterclass, but we're calling 40 years of Roger Ebert reviews and AI can figure out would he have liked the movie that's about to come out?

Speaker 1 Me, there's a new heist movie, AI Bill Simmons. I'm dead.

Speaker 2 AI Bill Simmons.

Speaker 2 It's like

Speaker 1 maybe I can be alive.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You don't need to be dead for this.
It's like, wait, it can just be a time-saving thing. You don't need to.

Speaker 1 Wait, so it's Chris Evans and Denzel Washington are in Argentina and they have to commit a heist. And then I come in and I just say, yeah, you should watch this.
That's all I got. Master Critic.

Speaker 2 All right. So this would.

Speaker 1 It's all AI.

Speaker 2 This is a.

Speaker 2 I hate to say, because you've done this before in our history of half-baked ideas. You don't totally grasp the concept.

Speaker 1 You think this is too fully baked?

Speaker 2 That's just called a business idea that you should have saved for like some important meeting.

Speaker 1 That's why I was hesitant to give it out.

Speaker 2 That was, that's what you call a real good idea.

Speaker 1 AI Dave Jacoby?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's a real idea.

Speaker 1 What about dive bars with Kyle? Like, it's, it's AI Kyle. That's better.
Nephew Kyle, where it's just the AI can look at the dive bar and the sign and find out how many bars on tap.

Speaker 1 And would Kyle go in there and spend four hours there?

Speaker 2 See, that's yeah, Kyle.

Speaker 1 I feel like Master Critic has options for everybody, but the AI can go and look at the background and figure out exactly what people like.

Speaker 2 And then it's basically you're reverse engineering like supposedly what Netflix was doing, like picking all of these characteristics. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you're just reversing it.

Speaker 1 The thing that I do like that.

Speaker 2 I think you stumbled upon with Roger Ebert. Like sometimes, there's Cisco and Ebert.
I will try to figure out if I want to watch something. Let's read this review.

Speaker 2 And it's this interesting review that the writer is writing all of these things.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 2 all right.

Speaker 2 Here's what I like: old school. Yeah.
Thumbs up or thumbs down. Right.

Speaker 2 It's worth seeing or it's not. That's it.

Speaker 2 I don't, I don't need any

Speaker 2 vagueness. Thumbs up.
Watch it. Thumbs down.
Oh, it's Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaker 2 You ever get like a 77% rotten tomatoes by the fans, but the other one is 62%. Like, huh? Am I supposed to?

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 2 Thumbs up or thumbs down. That's all I want.

Speaker 2 I agree. That's good.
That's a real idea, though.

Speaker 1 Oh, thanks. Maybe I shouldn't have given it away.

Speaker 2 No, that was well, at least I got it on the record.

Speaker 1 Now somebody has to, now I have trademark.

Speaker 2 Did I, if I did this one already, Kyle, edit it out, but I don't think I have.

Speaker 2 Did some caroling over the holidays?

Speaker 1 I don't remember this one.

Speaker 2 Okay, good.

Speaker 2 I did some caroling.

Speaker 1 Well, we haven't talked to you since the holidays, so we definitely haven't heard that.

Speaker 2 This is fresh.

Speaker 1 It'd be funny if you did do this and neither of us remembered it, though.

Speaker 2 No, I do think I have one of those, but

Speaker 2 I'll try.

Speaker 2 This one's fresh. So, did some caroling, exactly what you think.
Some strong eggnog. We got some song books, walking around in the freezing cold, singing.

Speaker 2 Loved it.

Speaker 1 Loved it.

Speaker 2 To the point where I stopped. I said, you know what, Lib, we should carol.

Speaker 2 Like, this should be our thing too. Maybe we go to their house to carol one week.
We go another week. And I was upset that I was going to have to wait 365 days to go caroling.

Speaker 2 There's no law against

Speaker 2 non-Christmas caroling.

Speaker 2 It was year-round caroling.

Speaker 1 Caesar's Chavez Day. Let's get out there.
Do some carols.

Speaker 2 Any day. Any day.
Any day you want. Like, it's what people talk about.
I don't golf.

Speaker 2 I'm like, I don't know. It's a golf.
Like, look, you're out here with your buddies. It's a nice walk.
You're having some drinks. You're spending some time together.
And, you know,

Speaker 2 it's a great time.

Speaker 2 Just move. You want to call it mobile karaoke? Sure.

Speaker 2 Let's all get together. What are we we doing tonight? Oh, we're going to have a few drinks.
And by the way, if you're singing, you're allowed to drink in public.

Speaker 2 That's just a little carve-out of the law. I don't think like bring caroling back.

Speaker 2 But I don't even know if is caroling holiday specific or am I just a door-to-door?

Speaker 1 I always felt it did.

Speaker 1 I feel like there needs to be a specific reason for caroling. Like in the holidays, it's because everybody's in cheerful mood and they're in the giving spirit.
But what does that mean for you?

Speaker 2 But if I showed up on your doorstep on July 4th to sing the star-spangled banner, you wouldn't turn me away. I got a cocktail.

Speaker 1 That's why this is happening.

Speaker 1 I'd probably be like, why is that guy at our door?

Speaker 2 I have lots of friends. I give you a Budweiser.
Let's go.

Speaker 2 And we're just going down. We're just singing patriotic songs.

Speaker 1 It feels like this could be co-opted by bad people who would be like, let's do the thing where we pretend we're caroling and then we rob some houses.

Speaker 2 Well, gee whiz. I mean, yeah.
So could

Speaker 2 I don't know if you look at it through that lens.

Speaker 2 The cynical guy. My goodness.
All right. This one is more basic.

Speaker 2 All right. I'll do the other one that I think I don't think I've done.
Have I done the anti-scout?

Speaker 1 No, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 This is a little bit like baseball because you know you sports right now. Yeah.
Spending a lot of money, a lot of camps, traveling around.

Speaker 2 multiple sports, people gunning for scholarships, a lot of pressure on the kids, a lot of pressure on the parents to keep up. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Oh, then you get to high school. Oh, oh, there's a scout here.
Oh, oh, my goodness. A scout from college or a scout from the big leagues.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Guess what I got?

Speaker 2 Anti-scout. Yeah.
The parents get excited.

Speaker 2 What a scout does, looking around for all the measurables, looking around to see if your kids got what it takes to make it at the next level.

Speaker 2 The anti-scout comes to, you know, basically the parents have to hire the anti-scout.

Speaker 2 Anti-scout goes, watches the games, does the same exact thing, then has a meeting with the parents, says, I want to tell you about a little Johnny.

Speaker 2 Congratulations. He doesn't have what it takes.
You're like, yes, let's go.

Speaker 1 We've saved $48,000 in expenses.

Speaker 2 Good news. Travel, camp.
I've got great news. And he's got like an arsenal.

Speaker 2 Like, you know, when there's ever like, like, it's always like Denzel Washington is always like out on, you know, Denzel Washington's trying to put his life back on the, you know, the straight and narrow.

Speaker 2 But then he has to meet up with his old CIA partners. Like, I can't believe I have to do this.
And they have the one scene where he has all the guns and he's got to choose.

Speaker 2 That's what the anti-scout has, like a table. He's like, come on over here.
And he opens it up and it's just like a chessboard. There's like a clarinet there.

Speaker 2 There's just like, there's just like several books on like engineering and the coding and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 The anti-scout, like you can, there's a, there's a recycling bin for all your baseball stuff, your cleats and stuff.

Speaker 1 Like, oh, you're just out. You're out that day.

Speaker 2 You can be out that day. That's probably too aggressive.
That might, there might be a little more emotional.

Speaker 2 So anti-scout comes in.

Speaker 1 He meets with Johnny's parents. He's like, that's it.
And they're like, what do you think? And he's like, honestly, I watched him run to first base when he hit that line drive single. Heavy legs.

Speaker 1 And I don't think it ever changes.

Speaker 2 He's slow. But he's not upset.

Speaker 1 It's like, yeah, it's like, it's the way it is.

Speaker 2 Yeah. No, you're happy about it.
It's like getting, it's like getting an offer. Like you're saving thousands.

Speaker 2 Like, if you get a scholarship, you're saving thousands of dollars and everyone's thrilled. If you get a positive review, which is

Speaker 2 thousands of dollars, you're like, I've got great news for you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 This guy should pick up. You know, I think he's great with drum.
Maybe that's it. Maybe we just head somewhere else.
Like, I think he's going to be a great windsurfer. Like, really? Like, yes.

Speaker 2 The anti-scout. And parents like text chains are always calling the anti-scout to come in.

Speaker 2 He better play his best. I love the anti-scout.

Speaker 1 Also, it would be a fun sports movie.

Speaker 2 That's a good take, too. Write that one up.

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Speaker 1 Visit the website for full terms and conditions. This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch.
Real talk for a second. You think you're crushing it with sleep?

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Speaker 1 iPhone 11 or later required. I got all right, I got another one for you.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 1 this is probably my worst one, but I feel strongly about it.

Speaker 2 It'll

Speaker 1 baby names yeah

Speaker 1 when you're when you're having a baby we just had a couple of our friends have babies and it there's like this whole thing where you don't really want to ask what what they're thinking about a name yeah

Speaker 1 because they usually like some name and then if you weigh in and you're like ah then you know and you have some sort of take it actually could get a little awkward so now we've hit this world where people kind of hoard the name and they're like ah we don't know but they always know you always know around month eight you got like your three finalists but what i'm always amazed by and i just saw this because my dad just got a puppy because he's a psycho um he's 77 he just got a golden retriever puppy who by the way is a maniac um but he was going to name the dog sophie because they always have these ie names yeah good dogs yeah

Speaker 1 And I was like, I don't know. They're getting like this dog out of, they got the litter.
They got the first pick of the girls. I'm like, this dog's going to be a little bit alpha-y.

Speaker 1 Like, it's a gold, like, Sophie sounds that i and and more importantly there's a ton of sophies right now it's like there is it's like yeah don't do sophie so and uh we talked her into naming the dog ruby so we call her rubes and you get all these nicknames out of it but it got me thinking he didn't realize that sophie was such a popular name right now and what happens over and over again when people have the names they don't do all the work to find out like oh don't don't name your kid olivia there's like a million olivias right now.

Speaker 1 You're just going to be like, Your kid's going to be Olivia W or Olivia because you're out of the mix.

Speaker 2 If you're if you don't, yes.

Speaker 1 So, when we named our daughter Zoe, we were all excited about it because we didn't know any Zoe's. But what we didn't realize is there had been a slow, stealth Zoe renaissance

Speaker 1 right before. So, Zoe gets into whatever.
She's in pre-K. There's another Zoe, like one of her best friends right now is also named Zoe.

Speaker 1 And there was like all of a sudden, Zoe's, Olivia's, Emma's, Ava. They're all, you know.

Speaker 1 So I looked up

Speaker 1 the top five names right now for girls are still Olivia, Amelia, Emma, Charlotte, and Sophia. And then there's Mia, Isabella, Ava, Evelyn, Luna.

Speaker 1 Like you, you have two relatively young kids, so you've seen a lot of these names in action.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 The boys are Noah, Liam, Oliver, James, and Elijah.

Speaker 2 Oh, no trending.

Speaker 2 Charlie, we got a lot of Charlie's.

Speaker 1 Charlie's a big one.

Speaker 2 We got a lot of Liam's a big one.

Speaker 1 Henry is in there.

Speaker 2 Henry.

Speaker 1 And nobody zags the other way. So this is my half-baked idea, baby name consultant.

Speaker 1 So you go in and does this exist?

Speaker 2 I think it straight up exists.

Speaker 1 Shut up.

Speaker 2 I think it straight up exists.

Speaker 1 Like it's like a service?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think there's people that do that.

Speaker 2 Maybe I read about this, that it was.

Speaker 1 Oh, Saruti says 100% exists.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 1 Half-baked idea that's, I guess, fully baked.

Speaker 2 Both of you, you have, you have hit two fully baked ideas. You're a wonderful idea.

Speaker 1 Well, I had a whole other thing where you could go into the baby name consultant and be like, we're thinking of something in like a 1977.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think they go back and they look, and the biggest name in 1977 was Jennifer, followed by Melissa, Amy, Jessica, Heather, and Angela. By the way, names that no longer exist.
Those kids are not.

Speaker 1 Oh, Saruti says it's infiltrated as IG algorithm. Saruti's about to have a kid.

Speaker 2 Oh, nice. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Saruti, what's the name? What name?

Speaker 1 Saruti, just come on the Zoom. So this 100% exists.

Speaker 2 Yep. Yep.
There's, I'll get like, there's three or four different women that come up and they basically, like, you email them, like, hey, I like Sophia,

Speaker 2 but I don't want Sophia. And they'll give you like a list of names that are like kind of similar vibes, come from the same origin, start with the same letter.

Speaker 2 You know, it's very bougie. I don't do that.
I just read lists all day.

Speaker 1 We don't have this ever happened in half-baked ideas where there's been a half-baked idea. And like, I, is this a sign that we're getting old?

Speaker 2 What's here's the thing: no, I think that you just need

Speaker 2 you carve out your niche, Bill, of like sports names. Oh, that's the only thing that's like, do like a sports,

Speaker 2 a sports-specific name, because I think I don't know if the baby consultants are huge sports fans. So

Speaker 2 you could be like, hey, what about Gail? Gail Goodrich, Gail for a Gail Sayers. no

Speaker 2 Gail. Yeah, go all X70s.
Yeah, LGBTI. Like you could be like,

Speaker 2 like that, I think, works. It's like how Jalen Rose, Jalen's name took off.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but now that you should be Jalen Sariti, don't name your kid Jalen if you're having a boy. But Jalen, Jalen,

Speaker 2 the founders of the new business. It's like Jalen Rose, like, trust me, like, I'm the godfather of all of this.

Speaker 1 See, the reason I thought this was a half-baked idea, because the move is just don't do anything that everybody else is doing in the last 10 years. Go back, like, there's no Jenny's anymore.

Speaker 1 Jenny was the most popular name when we were growing up. And there's like, nobody wants to name their kid Jenny because all the adults all know people named Jenny and they want to zag.

Speaker 1 But really, the move is to zag the other way and go with Jenny.

Speaker 2 I know, but everyone is zagging. That's the problem.

Speaker 2 Everyone's doing the opposite. It feels like it's a big like grandma name phase right now, like names that were popular in like the 20s, 30s coming.
I was going to mention this.

Speaker 2 If you go back to like Rachel, you know, just

Speaker 2 like a name from the 90s or Kathleen.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I looked at the trending names right right now, Wilds.

Speaker 2 Rachel,

Speaker 2 the Bible. I don't know why, but like Rachel was a pot, you know, friends, the whole popularity.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that nobody, I don't know any, do you know any babies named Rachel anymore?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 the trending names right now, Arthur, Bertie, Celeste, Daphne, and Dorothy. So, like, the 1920s and 30s names are coming back.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 We'll probably have a Marge and a Madge, all that stuff.

Speaker 2 I like those.

Speaker 1 Sarudi, the thing you just, you just have to avoid having the name that your kid just has to have the last name initial next to their name for eight years yeah that sounds like severance yeah

Speaker 1 i was zoey was in one class where there were three zoeys

Speaker 1 and we were like we thought like they were maybe we were just name anyway saruti all right that one's fully baked thanks saruti good job

Speaker 1 what's your next one wiles

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 I've got

Speaker 2 moms. No, that one's no good.

Speaker 1 I can't believe they're baby name consultants that this is a job.

Speaker 2 I'm just stunned by this.

Speaker 2 This is a quick one. I just give you a quick take on it.
We went to Duke, Alabama.

Speaker 2 We sat on the baseline.

Speaker 2 It was in

Speaker 2 New Jersey, Prudential Center, I think. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I hadn't been to a, I don't know, when the last time I went to a, well, I went to the, I went to the UConn game at the garden, but this was the first time I sat baseline.

Speaker 2 We were sitting near the Alabama band, trombones the whole nine.

Speaker 2 And it made me realize, and I mean, I think I'm pop, I think I'm right, but I hold out a chance that I'm just not, I'm misremembering it because the band was so, we were next to the band,

Speaker 2 that there was no music playing during the

Speaker 2 during the game, like there is in an NBA game. There was no like,

Speaker 2 oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 It was just in timeouts, the band going crazy. So I'm just putting it out there.

Speaker 2 Bands at NBA games. Bring them back.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like you're Charlotte. You're playing at the string.
Put a band in there and it's happier.

Speaker 2 And it's great. It's just livelier.
Like college games are like bands are underrated at this point. I think bands are underrated at weddings.

Speaker 2 I think they're underrated at sporting events. They're like, no, no, it's the DJ.
They can do it.

Speaker 2 I know the DJ should be better.

Speaker 2 But just do the Pepsi challenge. Have,

Speaker 2 you know, a DJ on a street corner playing a popular song and have a full-on band. The band is tremendous.

Speaker 2 So an actual wedding band. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, full-on

Speaker 2 kick-ass brass band playing in timeouts, getting you fired up, cymbals.

Speaker 2 Like, it's just great. It feels like you're, there's something to it where, yeah, they're not hit songs, perhaps.

Speaker 2 Perhaps they're just big cymbal crashes, but there's something about the liveness of it that, like, they're performing, the game is happening.

Speaker 2 There's something special that college sports captures with a band that gets lost in the NBA because with a reliance on DJs and playing sound during the games, which I am not a fan of.

Speaker 1 Nobody likes it, and they do it because if you don't do it, it gets too quiet in the arena and then people can yell stuff, and then people get upset.

Speaker 1 The band thing, I would say one of the reasons is it's taking up space somewhere.

Speaker 2 Oh, boo-hoo.

Speaker 1 Well, that's, I'm just saying, these guys are all greedy. That's why we have 82 games instead of 70 because these guys are grabbing every dollar they can.

Speaker 2 That does make sense. Balmer could have done it.

Speaker 1 Balmer could have done it. Balmer could have been like, I'm building the best arena ever.
And by the way, we're going to have a band and not like a college band.

Speaker 1 It's going to be like a big ensemble, Doobie Brothers kind of band that during timeouts, it's like when a late-night TV show goes to commercial. Yes.
And all of a sudden the band kicks in.

Speaker 1 That's what we're doing, folks.

Speaker 2 I think Steve Ballmer should do that.

Speaker 2 Maybe he's listening. It's a great idea.
100% he should do that. I think it's good for everybody.
Everyone loves a band. No one dislikes a band.
Great one.

Speaker 2 What's your next one?

Speaker 2 This

Speaker 2 one's too stupid. I'm reluctant.
Oh, this is another quick one. Then I have an insane one.

Speaker 2 What do you have? The jumping three-pointer. This is a little bit of like the torpedo bat.
There's a few things.

Speaker 1 The one-legged three-pointer, like what Tatum does,

Speaker 2 jumping from the three-point line to the foul line. Like when this happens, there's a few things happening in sports that are so obvious.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you jump, but you don't shoot till you're like near the foul line?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 So I'll give you just the background. The tush push.
Hey, I'm a quarterback sneak. No, how about we get everybody and just push the guy forward? Obvious, unstoppable.
Seems like a flaw.

Speaker 2 I don't know why it didn't work before. Number two, hey, torpedo bats.

Speaker 2 Hey, how about with a barrel, the sweet spot, we make that a little bit bigger and make a smaller part where no one ever hits the ball? Wow, that works. No-brainer.
Old school.

Speaker 2 Hey, how about we shoot more threes? Yeah, that sounds good. They're better than twos.
Yep, great.

Speaker 2 The running three-pointer is such an obvious idea. I don't know why it's not happening.

Speaker 2 I'm trying to think of the situations so you would need it would need to be like a three on two every situation pretty every fast break yannis comes down and there's no standing you take off at the three-point line bare minimum you're getting to the free throw line for a little mid-range jumper so you think this is the new euro step it's so obvious and it popped up on instagram and reddit and People have put like Dwayne Wade did it to win a game and he landed near the free throw line.

Speaker 2 There's no, it's good. It's some team, I remember that game.

Speaker 1 That was awesome when that happened. He won the game.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Some team is going to do it. Everyone's going to be like, is this allowed? Are you sure? It's like, yeah, it's where you take off.
It's always been that way. But no one's doing it for God knows why.

Speaker 2 I like it.

Speaker 2 There's no reason not. Is there any reason not? There's videos on the internet.
It's a college three. Guys doing basically long-range finger rolls for three points.

Speaker 1 Tatum's been messing around with this one-legged thing that's the Wendy thing.

Speaker 2 It's like a, yeah,

Speaker 1 I kind of enjoy it. What's your last one?

Speaker 2 This is my buddy's.

Speaker 2 I told him I would do it. I think it's insane, but

Speaker 1 oh, you're performing other people's half-baked ideas?

Speaker 2 I didn't know if we're gonna. Would real bird do this in his Hulu special?

Speaker 1 It's like, hey, guys, while you're still here, my buddy has a whole bit.

Speaker 2 I'm gonna do. Well, you know, sometimes I don't really take requests.
I'm not a DJ, but this one is

Speaker 2 perfectly half-baked, and I thought you would like it. I will read you the text that he wrote me.

Speaker 2 I have a joke premise that's looking for an audience and I'm not sure my friends who like sports nor my friends who like comedy will get it.

Speaker 1 Good start.

Speaker 1 That's what I said. I'm intrigued already.

Speaker 2 This is what he writes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Transfer portal for families.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, it's a lot of, it can go a lot of ways. I'm going to try to keep it above board.
But this is just like if my son has been doing well in sports, handsome kids.

Speaker 2 You know, he comes up to me one night. He's like, Dad, can I talk to you for a minute? I'm like, Yeah, what's up?

Speaker 2 I'm gonna hop in the portal. I'm like, Wow, really? Like,

Speaker 2 I spent, I've invested so much in you, like, my time. And you know, I thought we had something.
He's like, No, you know, you've been great.

Speaker 2 You've been great, but I'm just, you know, I think I can, I'm going to move up to a kind of a better dad.

Speaker 2 When I get to the West Coast,

Speaker 2 you know, just a nicer dad. You know, I got more opportunities out there.
A bigger room would be nice.

Speaker 2 Just like transfer portal for

Speaker 2 people having marital problems. Like, oh, wow.

Speaker 2 I would say for the spouses, that's probably getting divorced. No, no, I'm not getting divorced.
My wife just hopped the divorce.

Speaker 2 I see.

Speaker 1 I like the idea of the transfer portal in general because it works for NBA coaches. It works for sports media people.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but in the portal, it's just out.

Speaker 1 Uh-oh, somebody's in the portal again.

Speaker 2 Hey, we're looking in the portal, see what's going on. Lose your job! Like, I don't lose my job.

Speaker 2 Could you put dogs in the portal? Like, where do you draw the line? Houses? Houses go in the portal? Like, does everything go in the portal? The portal is just like a nebulous concept. Yeah.
Portal.

Speaker 2 Everything's in the portal. All right.
Here's my last one. Okay.

Speaker 1 You know, NBA fantasy has just been destroyed.

Speaker 2 I got the worst.

Speaker 1 It's been the worst for 15 years.

Speaker 2 There's too many injuries. And I was like, this is the worst.
It sucks.

Speaker 1 It is like the opposite of fantasy football. And I think it's really hurt basketball because fantasy basketball was fun in the 90s.

Speaker 2 That's a good thing.

Speaker 1 And then as the years went along, you know,

Speaker 1 whereas football, you care all the way through partly through the prism of your fantasy guys.

Speaker 1 And then you think about the end of the season. guys getting shut down, teams tanking.
Well, how do you make that more fun? That's impossible. Well, that's why I have NBA Injury Fantasy League.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So there's all-star break happens. We have our draft

Speaker 1 and you can draft players that are going to get prematurely shut down, but you can also draft injuries.

Speaker 1 And you could draft either as the rounds go along. So maybe end up with six players and six injuries.
And then if the player you drafted gets the injury you drafted,

Speaker 1 you get triple points. These are fake injuries?

Speaker 2 No, these are the injuries they use.

Speaker 1 I'll read you some of the injuries that they use to shut down players.

Speaker 2 These are fake injuries. They're not real injuries.

Speaker 1 Tyrese Maxson, finger tendon.

Speaker 2 I saw that.

Speaker 1 Zion Williamson, lower back contusion.

Speaker 1 C.J. McCollum,

Speaker 1 bone contusion in his foot. Paul George, some issues with his left abductor muscle.
This is my favorite.

Speaker 1 Laurie Markinen, who's missed some time with patello femora, nine chondriosis with associated subchondrial edema.

Speaker 2 I didn't know what that was. That could be a first-round pick.
Yeah, non-chondriosis.

Speaker 1 Darren Fox, extender tendon surgery. So you just, you have like 25 things,

Speaker 1 25 kind of fake injuries that you couldn't really, the league couldn't really crack down on, right?

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 2 oh, lower back stiffness.

Speaker 1 I guess take,

Speaker 1 I'll take your word for it.

Speaker 2 Neck issue.

Speaker 1 You draft all those, then you draft all the players in the tanking team, and then you try to mix and match and try to, oh, I have Paul George, and I had a left abductor muscle. 30 points.

Speaker 2 And then you go.

Speaker 1 Half-baked idea.

Speaker 1 But you can't draft bad injuries.

Speaker 2 You can't be like two and ACL.

Speaker 2 It's all like the fake ones. Pretend ones.
Like

Speaker 1 corneal irritation. Oh, that's a great pick.
I thought I was going to get corneal irritation in the fourth round.

Speaker 2 Your half-baked ideas in this round have been all over the map. It's real, like you, I think you evened out from

Speaker 2 two 100% ideas and one 10% idea. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It might even be a 5% idea.

Speaker 2 But you evened out to a half-faked idea. So you got it.
Thank you. I know.

Speaker 1 What's your closer? Do you have a closer?

Speaker 2 No, I think that was it. Family portal,

Speaker 2 offensive lineman Santa. No one cares about that.

Speaker 2 Great. Selling phone numbers, that's boring.
That's a real thing.

Speaker 1 Wilds. I had a great time.
You can hear Wilds and watch him on First Things First on FS1.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 Are you traveling for the playoffs? Are you doing anything?

Speaker 2 No. Oh, maybe Indy 500.
We got an Indy 500 on box. So we can go out to Indianapolis.
I'm excited about that. I don't know if that's happening, but I'm into the Indianapolis 500 all of a sudden.

Speaker 1 All right. Say hi to the fam, Satan.

Speaker 2 Hi to the crew. Great to see you as always.

Speaker 1 All right. That's it for the podcast.
Thanks to Mahoney. Thanks, Kevin Wilds.
Thanks to Kyle and Saruti and Gahal for producing as always.

Speaker 1 Don't forget, forget, you can watch this podcast as a video podcast on Spotify, and you can watch videos on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 You can watch me and Joanna and Valerie do the season finale white lotus instant reaction, our prestige TV podcast. We're doing it live on YouTube on the RingerDash TV YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 And then also this weekend, putting up the Saint, the rewatchables that... Kyle Brandt and I did after Val Comer passed away.
We are

Speaker 1 just putting that up early because it felt like

Speaker 1 we could jump ahead three days. So get ready for that as well.
And then Monday night, Celtic City. Catch up on the first five episodes of Celtic City on Max.

Speaker 1 Episode five was my favorite episode. So we'll see if you dig it.
Enjoy the weekend, and I will see you two times on Sunday.

Speaker 1 I wanna see them

Speaker 1 when the way some

Speaker 1 state.

Speaker 1 I don't have

Speaker 1 a few years

Speaker 1 with him

Speaker 1 on the wayside

Speaker 1 on the bruison liver

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