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The Bill Simmons podcast live on Netflix, we're doing the first hour live anyway,

Rob Behoney is here. So I have new rewatchables coming on Monday, there's something about Mary, we're doing. You have the ringer and be a show, I do in multiple episodes a week and then the prestige TV podcast. As well, Rob, I invited you to discuss with turned out to be one of the most bizarre

nights of basketball we've had in the playoffs in some time. It started out with the next being up by 50 points in the first half of a game. The Celtics just completely falling apart and filled out feeling we might have another

“Jason Tatum injury and then Nicole Yoke, getting bounced and what was it for you?”

The Jator McDaniel's game or the TJ Shannon game? I think it's got to be the Jator McDaniel's game with all due respect to Terry and Shannon. I think McDaniel's played 45 minutes, 32 and 10, and snatched your mama or soul. So we'll start there. They have no Io, didn't know he wasn't playing until today, no in, obviously, and no

different chenzo and they're like seven point underdogs, I think, seven and a half after Io went out and just a classic awesome playoff homewin where they just everybody showed up. Is it fair? Is it two sports talking to say it looked like they actually wanted it a little

bit more? Would you know that far? Well, I mean, it's laid out. Like the nuggets had the best player in the series, even before Anthony Edwards got hurt. They had an all-in-be a caliper garden, Jamal Murray, who did not show up for this particular

game or was smothered out of it by Jeden McDaniels. They had one of the runners up for six men of the year, they had a deeper roster in theory, at least versus the version of the timber wolves that was down four rotation players by the end.

“I think you could say they wanted it more.”

I think you could say the wolves were like more committed to the way that they execute and were executing more relimously. And we usually think of that defensively, right? But when you watch Jeden McDaniels go around every handoff, every ball screen for 45 minutes, when you watch Rudy Gobert and the intensity he played with all throughout this series, call

it what you want. They like flat out, played these guys. And the nuggets don't have any excuses for losing a series like this. Could not get over the hump either. It felt like it was 1.2.3 points, then we ate back to two, back to three and they could

never get the basket that got it over.

They had, it's 98, 95, four minutes left. Murray, wide open three misses, they get the ball back. Murray hits the backboard, nuggets rebound. Then Jones has a wide open three or three-third of he misses and then at 1097, they clear out for Shannon and they've been targeting Murray all game.

They've been going left the whole game, didn't matter if it was Shannon and McDaniels. Everybody's just going left, left, left. I don't know if there was some hole in the offensive line for the nuggets that set up. The pass rush for the tip rules are exploring. And Shannon just, he can't hit shoot, he's playing five feet off him, blows by him anyway,

that gets a three-point play and that feels like that flipped the game. This is why you got to love play up basketball though. You just never know.

You never know when you're going to have the Terran Shannon game.

You never know when Jay to McDaniels is going to be the best player in the floor in a game that hasn't a call of yoke, it's in it.

“And if you're Minnesota, you got to come and back hopefully next week you think?”

Hopefully. Hopefully soon. It seems optimistic he'll at least be able to play in that next surround series. And then I/O probably come and back to Yamcha, so obviously not coming back, although it was nice to see him on the sidelines, playing the world of Paul Walker and varsity blues

cheering the guys on. Well, in the whole team showing up in his jersey, I thought that was a really nice touch. Yeah, it was an interesting one because I thought the line was going to be way lower. I think it ended up at least seven, but to me this was like a 50-50 game until I heard about the I/O injury.

And then I was like, well, I don't, I don't know, players, how are they going to do this?

94 feet with him, like how's he going to do that, if he has to play 45 minutes? Well, he actually did it. So we talked about the leap guys that we have in round one, every, every playoffs, have we had a better leap guy than him. I think this is the guy.

Did McDaniels? Yeah, I think every year we have the one guy who's like, whoa, I guess you're a star now and it feels like he's actually a star now.

“Well, I would say not even the leap, but if you want to go back even further into the regular”

season, his long-term development over the course of this year as a ball handler and as a mid-range score, like that's been kind of germinating this whole time. Yeah.

He was never in the mix for most improved player nor should he have been like he didn't

make that kind of jump. But in terms of the most important developments in the entire league, it's kind of hard to argue that this was so critical given everything that the wolves had stripped away from them in the series and if they didn't have a Jid McDaniels who could handle the ball, they're not going to win this game.

And so he handles, he delivers, he puts up 30, like tough contested shots, what a fucking awesome game from him and also just throttles Murray. Yeah. And then on top of everything else, backs up on the shit talking, he did for two weeks over and over again, shit talked to nuggets, when at your ad Joker and was not afraid of him,

I'm like some other guys, so when they see Joker get the crazy eyes, he just laughed on it off. And kind of set the tone for them. Yeah. So you have him and you have aunt and now, I mean, aunt has to be out of his mind.

This is like, they've been conference finals last two years in a row. This was a pretty major upset. I mean, they were, I forget what the odds were, heading into game five.

“But I think the nuggets were like minus 400, minus 500, some plant heritage.”

Yeah, like the series had flipped. And then, you know, I got to ask this about Denver, you know, weird way was the Gordon injury bigger than any other injury in the series, because it kind of, you realize all the stuff that he did for them and all the deficiencies that he massed that as soon as you took it out, they just couldn't replace it.

It's a huge deal.

Aaron Gordon has basically always had an outsized place in terms of importance with the nuggets.

And they are not the same team without him, yet the wolves are not the same team without Anthony Edwards. You're like, like, losing the driver of your entire offense and then your second most athletic guard. And then I would assume who has the I would assume who game and then he gets hurt.

Like, I'm already can't wait for like what other fan base tricks themselves into thinking that they have a parent shand and like fourth string guy on their bench. Cities of so goes going to pop off for 30 for us in a must win playoff game. Like, this stuff just doesn't happen. And so yes, Aaron Gordon, being out for the series, for the latter part of the series,

not getting paid wants and back for the series at all. Those things matter, but the wolves just had bigger hurdles. And that's where I like, I just have a hard time giving the nuggets any rope here, including Nicole Yokech, who I thought like played well individually in this game. But his job is to anchor this offense.

And this offense with the nuggets getting bounced is going to go out with a worse offense of rating than like the Houston rockets this year. So whatever you may think about like, you know, Emoe Doka's coaching and flow, the nuggets weren't able to bust or anything better than that with one of the best players in the world at the center of it.

Yeah. And he saved the load all the last two games because that thought he was really good in game five obviously.

And then the second half he played today was we're not going down like this kind of half.

Yeah. And honestly, it only felt like Cam Johnson was joining him for a lot of that half. And then even Cam Johnson kind of ran that guess. But Spencer Jones was okay as a two-way guy. But yeah, it was it was not an inspiring Denver effort.

There's a lot of questions that I guess we're going to have to start asking over the summer. They're going to provide a lot of podcast content for us. Yeah. Maybe that will. Maybe that was their goal this year.

“Maybe that maybe that's what they had to offer for us.”

But, you know, they're kind of stuck with this roster. And when you went the last time we were talking about, you know, Gordon heading into year 13 with some miles on him and some, and some body damage and Murray with the giant contract, jerk with the giant contract, not a lot of flexibility. Christian Brown after the recent round with the giant contract.

Yeah. Yeah. That extent, they elfated Christian Brown extension. So not a lot of maneuverability for this team. And they're in a conference that has okay say in San Antonio, Minnesota team that has a chance

to make three straight conference finals, plus some, some other teams coming who knows about us is going to be really good in two years. Sure. It feels like the feels like we hit the finish line with this nucleus. I don't see.

I don't see a world where this bounce is back because this is bad. I could see it living on a little bit just because the alternative options are so hard to navigate in terms of like making a dramatic change this summer. But you're right. They did not have it.

They didn't have the extra gear watching Shannon come in and just look five steps faster than basically any nugget on the floor.

And I think when you look at this team in the series, you're right.

“From the moment ant went down, the nuggets were the favorite felt like the favorite.”

But you watch this game. And I felt the real indicator of whose favorite is like which team is in the other teams head.

And I never got the sense that the wolves were afraid of the nuggets at all in this game.

Meanwhile, you saw nuggets across the roster smoking layups. Jamal Murray threw a runner off the side of the backboard because you were so afraid if Rudy would go Bears contest. It was like, that was the battleground. And Minnesota had it.

They dictated terms didn't for never really felt like they had enough answers. Even when they did have more bodies. Yeah. Sometimes a team just feels like they have the other teams number and Minnesota certainly carried themselves that way.

Even the altercation when who's going to try to fight the whole park. Yeah, just inexplicably try to go to him into a hockey fight. And Nasri comes from behind and gives it the big shove and like it felt like 10 guys were ready to fight. And Joker smartly realized like, oh, they're trying to wrote me into this.

But that that was their attitude, the whole series. They're kind of like, fuck you dude, we don't care how good you are. We think we can be tougher and better than you. And that's why we love them, honestly. Like it's one of the best things about the wolves is they do just want to say, fuck you

to everybody. There's one other thing that happened in this game. Somebody else, we have not given our flowers to zombie. Mike Conley. Hell yeah.

I didn't know where came it.

“I think he's missing like part of his neck and maybe like three fingers and might”

have gangrene in his right leg. But he's omitted up hit a couple big shots took a couple, he took at least one charge almost that way. Sure some offensive fouls came. Which is kind of in the mix to do an old school zombie.

Mike Conley things. And they needed that too. I don't how many minutes did he play? He played 26 minutes. Oh my lord.

And they played like a really tight eight man rotation where they could not have afforded to give them my Conley minutes anywhere else. Like they really needed him to be that competitive. So credit to Mike who just shows up was almost not on the timber wolves. Remember he could bounce around at the trade deadline, end up winding back here as a result

of a buyout. And they really needed him. That weird rule that nobody knew existed. I remember flagging a couple of things we flagged during the season. They were like, huh.

I wonder if that will not matter. And the you can trade a guy and then if he gets wave by that team and the second team trade and also need to come back and then that game 82, which we thought in the moment like, wow, I guess Denver's not afraid of being a soda and Minnesota was certainly delighted by that.

So I would say better Minnesota law, better better Minnesota win than a worst Denver loss. But a terrible Denver loss. Regardless. But I don't want to take away a lot from Minnesota because all the injuries they had

to win this series. We're going to do it in six, not in seven, I thought that was crazy. Like what this has to be one of the best Minnesota moments ever, like for the Timberl's franchise, right? This has to rank up there with 2004 and beating Joker a couple of years ago, this is up there

with anything. I mean, the roller coaster just in terms of the hope that seemed to be there and seemed to disappear and seemed to vanish with, you know, Dante de Vincenzo's rupture to kill these, like, yeah, it just been such a tumultuous series and for it to end with, you know, like, Jade McDaniels is a guy who's like, not going to carry a franchise, but it's very

clear at this point. He can win you a playoff series and when you a game like this one with the two way effort, like, became a superstar for a week, for a moment, for a game, like for just enough to really dominate this thing. And between for him and go bare to collect pretty definitively, be among the best players

in this series regardless of who was in or out of it, yeah, I mean, just an incredible turn

of events for Minnesota. Well, then think, think about their last 10 months. So last summer, really trying to get the ramp, right, trying to, and I don't know who is in that trade, but I assume it would have had to have been either go bare or Randall. Think Randall was the rumored one often with at least, McDaniels wouldn't have been in

that I don't think, but at least, like, a couple of the guys we saw tonight were probably in that trade. And then they were in the honest mix pretty famously in February, and I thought it affected their team a little bit after the deadline, because the reports were that they were in it. They were trading all of these guys and all these different places.

“And in that case, I think McDaniels probably would have been involved.”

He would have been like, maybe for that one. Yeah, because they would have needed enough picks and assets to come back. That doesn't happen. I thought that affected them, at least for a little while after the deadline. I have no evidence other than just watching them play.

They seemed a little, yeah, little spook by that.

We've watched him go up and down all year, but it always felt like their ceiling was really

good. Denver was a little different where they started out great. They were 500 for basically 39 games, and then finished the year really great. I think they won 13 straight. They sold me.

I believe. But I also believed that a team that was going to have a health area in Gordon. Yeah. Gordon does, let's say everybody stays healthy.

What do you think the result is, just had a curiosity? I mean, based on the way it went, I still would pick the wolfs.

“I think it has as much to do with who's out there and more about how are they responding”

to the runs by the other team in the moments of adversity. Yeah. The nuggets just did not have a lot of wind in their sales at any point in the series. That gets harder when guys are out of the line up, and you feel like you don't have options. But I don't know.

Minnesota just seemed to find that. They had an endless reserve of that sort of inspiration and energy. Like that seems like a fuzzy, a femoral, and tangible thing until you watch a team like the wolves punk the nuggets over and over and over. Yeah.

I became, when Minnesota, they lost Game One and then they won Game Two, right? Is that what happened? That Game Two, I'm looking back. Yeah. Why do they feel like a year ago?

It feels like a year ago. Game Two was the one where I felt concerned for Denver because I thought Minnesota had a race. It was the same way I felt, actually, after Sol Thicks Philly on Tuesday night. I felt like Minnesota had a recipe that was a recipe that made sense.

And once they, once a quick for them, we just have to have to have Murray. Yeah. Let's try to wear them down. Let's try to beat up Joker and let's really, really, really wear these guys down and see if that, that works.

It worked. Murray, Murray was who had a pretty good statistical series for the most part. The fourth quarter stuff wasn't great, but then tonight, you finally wore down. So McDaniels, MVP of the series. I've no problem with that.

If not that, why not give it to Rudy Gobear? I think they built a survey.

Yeah, Gobear, it always felt like on the verge of getting 3,000, like a minute and

filling out, but an elbows flying, but he was able to land the plane for them. I thought Joker had figured about a little bit more in the last two games. I figured, kind of figured out the geometry of going against them and had a little more success, but it was still always a challenge. Always a challenge.

“Yeah, he was able to get to his float, or I think a little more easily over the”

least last two games, getting into post-ups more comfortably, or he didn't feel just like absolutely smothered by Gobear. There weren't a alarming number of times in the first couple games where he would get deep post position, try one of his fakes, try one of his pivots, not get anywhere. And just have to pass out, not to create a advantage, but just like what I'm about to get

three second violation, we got a bail in this possession. Rudy was sensational, I got, there's so many other fakes in the road, in addition to the ones you talked about with like Janice and KD, like almost trades and whatnot, like how many times have we just gone around the carousel with like, do they need to break up, like their big man rotation, do they need to invest in different kinds of players?

Can they afford to have Rudy Gobear and Julius Randall and Nas Reed on the same team when

playing all three of them together was one of the, you know, the critical moments of this

game, it's, it's amazing how many wolves found ways to redeem themselves in addition to trading for Iowa to zoom with the deadline and I don't think they win game five without him, holding on to Terence Shannon, who was supposed to be a big part of their plans in the preseason, never quite paned out, had some injury stuff, but sat on the bench and didn't get moved.

And if they had, maybe they don't want to game like this, like so many things had to break their way, but they broke their way because they were patient with a lot of the right guys. Yeah, Connolly, his only really bad move was the, uh, the Dilling Hand pick. Yeah.

I'm traded in the future first for Dilling Hand, but he was able to spin him into the Zoom. So in a weird way, he salvaged it. I remember joking at the time, they gave up so much for Gobear and I just hated the train.

I hated it. I just, I still kind of can't believe how much they gave up. But I remember when they, when they were, it was somebody like, woosh, who clearly was being fed from the Timberlitz and it was something like, it was very important for the Timberlitz that they kept Jated McDaniels in the deal.

And I remember joking about that and probably like, yeah, thank idea, kept him. And meanwhile, I just want to repeat the series. So I guess I'll take the belated loss on that one. Got you. Uh, joke or big picture.

Yeah. This is now starting to feel a little Moses Malone, 1978 to 1983-ish of somebody who was,

either the best or the second best player in the league year after year for a really

long stretch. And Moses's case, it was, I think it was probably 5, it was 79, 83, where he was just the best guy in the league. Only one title that last year in Philly made the finals in '81 and that's it. Joker wins one title and that's it.

Like a couple conference finals and there's other reasons like Murray basically misses two years. But you think about first Janis, then Joker with the one title and it felt like there was going to be more.

“I remember talking to Doc in 2023 after the finals, like could this be a little dynasty?”

These guys are young. How many can they win? We felt that way a little bit with Janis too and that this is just the league now. Yeah. You could win one title and you're done.

Look at the Celtics right now. They went in 24, feels like they're going to have, and then all of a sudden you might

So is this just the league now that we have too many good players?

I mean, I think it's always been something that's easy to take for granted, especially when

you're a younger team, the idea that, oh, we still have this much of a prime window ahead of us, we're going to get back like we have the right players. We're going to get back contracts, pull teams apart, injuries, pull teams down. There's just like too many variables to ever think that you're just going to get back, which is part of why when you see a team that's anywhere close, you just have to go

for it literally every time you can. Even if that means giving up some of the picks that you hold really tightly, you know, giving up some of the guys that you drafted on your team that you still believe in, but just may not be there for the right moment when you desperately need it upgrade on the wing or whatever, and I think especially at this moment right now, if you're not the thunder or the spurs, it's just really

hard to look at the next couple of years and feel super bullish, super optimistic about exactly

“where you are right now, like you have to do work, you have to keep improving, and that's kind”

of the the most dizzying part about the nugget situation is even if they got everybody back, even if they made some marginal upgrades, probably still wouldn't be enough. It wasn't enough to beat the wolves without Anthony Edwards. Yeah, and you got your guys get a little older, too, and you can start to feel it in a series, right? Minnesota still with the younger legs, and if you were talking about which team's upside,

which is just rather want for the next couple of years, the greatest Joker as you take Minnesota, at this point, especially if they can, you know, they have the right to, you know, pay to assume, I don't know what the rules are with how much they can give him. Well, that's just immediately sending them over the tax, well, they have to cut some stuff, but I assume they're going to make a big effort to keep him.

Yeah. And if they can keep him and McDaniels, and then go bare and Randall on smaller contracts with Ant as the franchise guy, that might be sustainable. I mean, it's, it's hard. It's a decade. It's pretty good. It's already been among the most bankable things in the West. Like you talked about, you know, looking back at the Rudy Go Bear trade,

“if you want to think about this, is like the Rudy Go Bear, like error of the Minnesota”

Timberwolves led by Anthony Edwards, of course, but since they traded for Go Bear,

they lost to the nuggets in the first round, happens to, you know, play a really good team.

Really? Back to back Western Conference Finals, and now you just beat the nuggets with Nicole Yokech, and, you know, sent some, some, was supposed to be a contender packing, right in front of everybody. So who are you betting on to be a more consistent Western Conference contender than this outside of that front of the first range? Like right there, right here, and they consistently just turn up and beat people and push great teams to their limits,

just kind of proving to be who the Wolves are. And a team that, as we've talked about for years and years, was being built to beat Denver specifically, a little like the next with the Celtics, which, which you want to get into that. Yeah, we should get into that. Wow. As if it was a bad enough that the Celtics stuck, I can feel a comment from Game 5. I really was worried after Game 5 when we talked about it in the pot. I thought there were

some, was not your typical loss at home, where you just, oh, we just didn't make our threes.

It's fine. It happens. This was like, there are offense fell apart in the second half,

and Philly had a lot of confidence, and Paul George was outplaying Jaylam Brown, which he did again tonight. So I was concerned about today. Tatum left the game, and was having issues with his good leg, and they were like, is it a cramp? Is there a strain? What is it? He was asked after the game, if he's fine, and he said, yes, I flagged it immediately, and his lift was gone from the moment it happened. He took a few shots. I'm sure that you could find the clips on social, but he took a few shots,

at least three, and was in there, and he just was at a different speed from the moment something was wrong, and then the game got out of hand, so they supported him. If he even has a slight strange, I'm sitting in a game seven, but that's a wrap for me. You cannot fuck with the Tatum part of the season, and that to me is if he's even 96% I'm out, you're sitting, and we'll

“try to win without you. We did it all year, and maybe we'll have you for round two. What would you do?”

I would not play him, but I just want to acknowledge, I really appreciate what you did here, which is the Celtics got this game handed to them, and how quickly you pivot at the narrative to like, oh my god, Jason Tatum's leg. Well, what I came to do, but this was, they got their asses kick. They detected home. They were underdogs. I want to talk about how good they were, but to coming out of that, it's like, oh my god, Tatum's hurt again. Yeah. And it's the other calf.

Like, this loss was bad enough. Right. Now I'm on Twitter, Googling, string, calf, cramp. I'm texting people. Like, this was just, this game was a three hour nightmare. It was a nightmare for the Celtics. I mean, Tatum did look different in the first half. I thought he was more successful, certainly. He had some really smooth drives and really good full of jumpers. Well, I'm not quite the same guy, but even then, I mean, Philly's perimeter defense and their

wings in this series have just been sensational. I Kelly Ubrae, on like guarding Jalen Brown

maybe ever. Yeah. The combination of those guys plus just all the interchangeable parts where, you know, it's been so telling that every time a Tatum or Brown wants to get ahead of steam and transition, wants to like take advantage of those moments where these smothering wings might not be on them, Quentin Grimes just slides over. VGA Edge come just slides over just an Anderson just slides over. They just have so many of these guys, like just an endless pit of good

wings where they can plug and play and it's proven really difficult for Boston to do basically

anything with. So, worst part of the of everything you said is that Paul George outplayed both guys in this game straight up. And Paul George has been really good this whole series. We've talked about it. Every part I've done, I thought this was the best game he's played tonight. He was

“2012 on Paul George offensively a few times defensively, I thought he thought, I think they've just”

throttleed Brown. I mean, Brown was terrible tonight. And I didn't think he was very good in game five either. The stats were a little deceiving. I thought even the shots he made were in great shots. Got to get another offensive foul, but I thought, you know, this was a guy that during the season was scoring on everybody and getting the shots he wanted on every good defender in the league from Lou Dord on down. And in this series, cannot seem to get the shot he wants against any

perimeter guy in Philadelphia. And they seem really confident on it. And I tweeted something at

half time about, I just couldn't believe how bad the Celtics were in that first half, where

it was all the things you're worried about. If you're a Celtic fan going in, where it's like Derek White looks a little rickety. Yep. We're going too slow. We're walking it up, hate that. Missura has now quit on the bench. I think in the first half, the picture was the only guy that had any bench points. None of the other. This whole bench mob, these guys that would swing these games, just punted on that. Playing Tatum and Brown, big minutes. Well, what happens? Tatum may have

“gotten hurt in the third quarter. He's playing 42 and 40 minute games this year. I think it was”

averaging 40 minutes a game or 38 a game or something like that. What about a, an image going to may not have control of his limbs? I had dumb catapult ramp down. Is Vouch terrible? I think has been lurking as a question with Celtic fans. And he, he's basically been unplayable and, and then on top of it, like this bad version of Jayland Brown that just hasn't been there all season. All of this sudden shows up. So, it was another legitimate win. Here's a staff for you, Rob. Please,

low-escoring quarters, the Celtics of Had all season. 14 in the second quarter against New York on October 24th, 13 in the third quarter against Milwaukee in December 11th, 11 in the fourth quarter of Game 5 and 14 in the third quarter today. Yeah, two of the worst quarters they've had, two of the four worst quarters they've had all season happened in the last two games. And they had a stretch of the second half of Game 5 into the entire first half of Game 6, where they just got their

ass kicked for a full game, leading to the third quarter. So, you know, I know Game 7's at home,

“but I don't like the way they're playing. I think Philly has a ton of confidence. And beats”

a variable, I don't, I didn't think he was nearly as effective in this game as he was in the last game. And I thought, actually, like, if he had shot better, they could have won that game by 30. But he's still impactful. You're still thinking about him. And I guess, would you say the gamble of playing him game forward and basically plunking on that game? Because he, they couldn't figure out how to incorporate him. I guess has paid off, right? Well, they, I mean, they had to

ease into it. Clearly, you figure out how to manage their offense firing on all cylinders at once with and beat involved. I think, I mean, introducing him in mid-series has given the whole dynamic a really interesting jolt. Because right now, usually when you're a favored team by the end of it, I mean, we're going to talk about what happened with the nicks and the Hawks, for example, you see the superior team kind of like tightening its grip overall. Like they learn which players

they need to play, they learn which buttons they need to push and by the end, they feel like they're in control. Yeah. But they're going to be like changed everything about how the series is played, who is guarded, where like how the Celtics are aligned. And you could see it in this game, or even though he isn't scoring well, he's getting guys in foul trouble. He's bating the Celtics into overreaction with double teams. He gives the sixers a good way to steady their offense,

where they don't have to just like go through max, he's so much, or go through Paul George, so much, they can actually kind of counterbalance this stuff. And I have to think he was a huge help keeping the Celtics off the offensive glass, where through three quarters, they basically have like two or three offensive rebounds. And the Boston is not a team that can really

survive that way. Yeah. And it's funny because that I always felt like it was a weakness with

him beat, especially as you got older, is you could crash the boards on him, get all these second chance stuff. They had, they had, I think they had one offensive rebound, was that the entire game are just in the first half, but they picked some up and like they picked some up and got a garbage

Yeah. All right. The filly piece of this, Maxie's been the best part in the series. And I remember Zack and I, in a, most intriguing players in the playoffs pod that we did that seemingly happen about 20 years ago because we've had so many playoff games. And Maxie was the one I picked for like the leap. Like, could this, could this happen? The guys relentless, he feels like he's faster than anybody in the Celtics. He even went if he, you look up, he has four points,

all of a sudden, who have 10 points in like four minutes. Clearly seems like the leader of the team. He's been great in the home games. And if they went in game seven in Boston, which is conceivable

“with the way the Celtics are playing, I think it starts there. I think that to me, it's a Maxie”

Paul George. And then whatever you get from him beat is, is a bonus. Yeah. I mean, again, I really don't think we can say enough great things about Paul George, but with Maxie, the ease with which he toggles between attacking on ball, like really, really aggressively. And also just spacing out to let other people shine. It's a really unique combination. Like, that kind of speed and that kind of shooting just don't come together in the same package very often.

And he doesn't even necessarily need to be Steph Curry flying around the floor, like doing

all this up-all movement, just his gravity on the weak side is a really, really powerful thing,

especially because if you do kick to him, I don't care how well you contest or close out. Like, he's going to blow by you on the counter drive. And so he just gives the six or so many options. And he feels more and more powerful as all these other guys are being established, right? The better Paul George plays, the more dangerous Maxie becomes, the more in beat is a real threat. Right. Oh my god, what are we supposed to do with Tyrex's results? So it's, they proven to be like a

really formidable combination. And the other thing to just kind of keep doing what you're doing when you introduce this crazy and beat variable and the usage rate for him and it hasn't affected his stuff at all. Yeah, I had him, my last ring on 100 that we handed in, I had him 16th.

“I think it's really tough to keep him out of the top 10 best players in the league at this point.”

Like, I know, I don't know when we turned on our next list, but it just, if you're watching all these guys against each other, we're missing a couple guys that aren't enough. Like, Hawaiian people like that. But it's just hard for me to believe Maxie's not in the top 10 now.

Well, even the season, I mean, he was an all-in-be-a-second team guy. Like, rock solid all year long

for all of the weird roles that the Sixers had in their seasons with injuries and suspensions of what not, he was the constant piece of it. And I mean, I think his buoyancy, too, as a personality is a really important part of this. Like, if you're going to have that kind of year, you do need a guy who can just help people like help keep people spirits up. And Joelle and Beat is not necessarily that. Paul George is not necessarily that. I think King Vijay just gave this

team an energy. And like a shot in the arm at some of the precise moments over the course of

“you're where they really needed it. And certainly in these playoffs, like, the more I think about”

the series, the more I think about game two. Like, that's the one that Boston, everyone with that team should like have in their nightmares if they do end up losing the series because they lost it. And they lost it because they didn't take the Sixers very seriously enough. They just didn't, like, play their game and work hard enough. Like, that was an effort loss. And if they lose this series because they let up one too many effort losses early,

like, that's the kind of thing that sticks with you. Lazy, lot of threes. It was all the same shit that sunk them last year. Today, actually, today was a little more concerning because I thought they actually played hard. And I thought, yeah, it just played, I thought we played harder and wanted them more. The K to piece of it, they were lying on these guys that made sense in the regular season. Now you're throwing K to against Joel and Beat and it just seems like he

does not have control of his limbs half the time. I feel like we zoomed past the most important part,

which is like, on a scale of one to life alert, like, how are you doing? What is your current mental state? Not great. I was, I'm telling you, I was after game five. I was, and then the next day talking to people and texting with my super nervous dad, we just were really concerned after that game because it felt like the team had lost its identity. Like, we were talking about Minnesota's identity before of they just kept it, even with these injuries. And they just, we're going to ball

pressure and we're going to attack and we're going to have a chip on our shoulder. Boston, the big part of their identity was this bench. Yeah. And the benchmark coming in and the bench, shifting games and being able, you know, they're whole season. It's Jaylin and White and Prychard are the three reliable scores. Very rarely we're all three of them good in the same game and sometimes only one of them was good in the game. But the bench was able to switch stuff. And it was interesting

in the second half when they kind of punted and he finally played Garza, Sharman, Prychard, Harper, and Walsh, a lineup that I would have played every game. Guys that have played together for stretches.

played, you can't do it. Here's what you can't do. Play Jason Tatum 42 minutes in a playoff

game. That's a problem. It's a torn abilities. 40. Like at some point, obviously that wouldn't be the five, but that what you have or you either put brown in there or one of them, or

“I don't know. I honestly would have thrown that out and just said, "Muck the game up for four”

minutes." The first is some of the stuff we were watching. That lineup actually almost felt like they were going to bring them back. They were down 12. I was like, oh my god, they could do it. But Ron Harper, somebody that I actually think you could make a case should have played a little Walsh definitely should be playing more. Like no question. I think he's the one guy that's given Maxi real trouble. And then Shireman, he just punted on in the playoffs and I don't understand it.

I said this, every pot I've done, I don't understand he was coming on as like the super sub for them.

And they just basically punted on as minutes and I don't really get it. The stuff

mass is done in this series. I don't really understand. They're not playing through the guards enough. They stop doing the little picks at the top for the guards. And it's just all this face up one on one stuff or the two forwards. It's like watching battering ramps. It's not,

“it's a really ugly offense. And this wasn't how they played this season. I think it's some of”

the stuff that's baked into just like the construction of the team in its current form. And then some of it being Tatum Brown's worst habits coming home to Bruce, all swirling together in the worst possible way. Against the defense, we should add again. It's just like equipped to switch a lot of these actions. And so if you did want to run, you know, like a little bit more of a guard heavy offense, a little bit more ball screen oriented. Like it's not like the sixers couldn't

handle that for the most part. I think they're pretty, they're pretty well suited for it. And Maxi's defense, I think, is we've seen Maxi guard bigger guys and fight people. You know, the trade deadline, they traded assignments from Bruce O'Bitch. And assignments was really important

for this team as this super sub off the bench. He didn't always have it, but he would sometimes,

but he was a good monkey wrench guy. Like a better version of what bones Island has been doing in Minnesota. And there were quarters that he would swing. And they lost that. And they feel like they're a guard short. And the reasoning was what we think, Booch, we have more center depth. Obviously, there was tax stuff. But really, it was a money trade. And they were keeping their fingers crossed that Booch still had any gas in the tank. And he just doesn't. And there

has been no sign for the moment they got him that he can help them. And I thought he was unplayable tonight. And I don't even, I don't even know if we're going to see him not much in game seven. So you go from Simon's who's this wild card. Oh, white doesn't have it. Oh, this guy sent three to Vuchu just, he, it's just a growner. I don't think any of his shots are going in. I mean, that's another benefit for Philly in terms of just having and beat on the floor in this series.

Is it just changes the way the Boston has to think about its rotations? And you feel, if your Joe Masula feel compelled to put Vuch out there, just like we have to have a size appropriate body to hurl in front of Joel and bead. Because, I mean, just who knows what would happen to Luca Garza if he had to do that for 30 minutes? Right. Versus if it's just Andre Drummond and a dim bone out there, like you can get away with all sorts of other lineups.

You can play small. You can play different. You can play variations of what already works for them. And you don't feel like so reliant on Vuchu's. I thought Philly should have even could have won Game 3. And Boston had to make a couple really big shots to save them off. And there was some better and play of experience. But Philly has figured out the series from Game 2 on what to do. And you have the Celtics now. It's a game seven. So be the ninth, six or

Celtics game seven, Rob. Is that true? Yeah. Celtics won. I mean, 59 and 65 and 68. Sixers won in Philly in 77. Tough loss for for young Bill Simmons. 83 to 77. 1981. Celtics come back from 31. I was there. 1982. Celtics come back from 31 again. And the sixers win Game 7. I was also there. 2012 was that weird Derek Rose here when he got hurt. Yep.

“And we ended up with Philly in Boston. And I think it was round two. And that was Rajan Rondo's”

greatest shooting game ever. Celtics won that. And then, uh, 2023, when the Celts were down three two, they went in Philly in Game 6. Tatum has a big game. Then they killed them Philly in Game 7. So this is our ninth one. And if I'm Philly, I feel like I can win the game. Like 100%. They definitely should feel that way. Yeah. Harder on the road. Like it. I mean, it's, it's still going to be a task. But I think you're spot on that they have really seized onto a couple of

really like key strategic things in the series. Plus we'll see whatever becomes of Jason Tatum's leg and how ready he is to go and be the best version of himself. But Philly has everything they need to win. Like clearly they can really put the screws to the Celtics. Whether they can do it

themselves in this position to begin with. When you think the line is just that curiosity. I would bet it's Celtics, but fairly slim. Maybe like three and a half four and a half points. It's seven and a half. Seven and a half. Incredibly too high. But this, I would make this a four point game because, you know, we've just, we've seen this pretty huge sample size. There was the outlier picture game in Game 4. Plus a beat coming back into that. But I thought the one mood the Celtics

had. I would have been interested to see if they did in the second half today. But then Tatum got

“hurt was. What about Tatum at the five shooters everywhere? Yeah. What's making bead work?”

It's not like the centers are playing well to begin with. Let's just see what this looks like.

But we never got to see it. And if Tatum's healthy, I wonder if we'll see that.

Like are you just better off playing him at the five than voicemitch for those minutes and playing them as guards and shooters? And that's it. I think it would, it would have been worth a look, especially because if beat is not super immobile right now. Not to the extent that he has been over the last couple of years when he's played. But you can drive around him defensively. You can roll around him defensively. And so yeah, I would have liked to see that version of the Celtics

give it a go. But I don't think that's very realistic to ask of Tatum at this point. Do you realize that the Celtics blow game seven at home? This will be 2023 against Miami. Pretty big favorites in that series. Yeah. 25 last year against the next. Pretty big favorites in that

“series. And then this series, they were favorites all the time. I think they were like minus 1800”

after game four minus 2200. So this would be a title and three just dramatic devastating collapses in the last four years of the Joe Bazool era. And that don't, I don't know what to make of it. Well, and it will have officially transcended like whatever Miami complex exists, right? Like this is no longer a heat Celtics thing. This is just a Celtics thing. I fear for you. I fear for you at everyone in your circle Bill. It does not seem like a good thing to have to live with if it does

come to that. Let me add this component, right? You have children. I do not have children. You don't have a child yet? No. All right. I have a 21 year old child on Saturday. Okay. My daughter turns 21 years old. Yep. On May 2nd. I am not doing a podcast on May 2nd after that game winner lose. So I'm just saying that now. I'm not going to have a podcast till Sunday. I can't decide if my daughter turning 21 that day. We're going to be with her. Is a good sign or a bad

sign for the Celtics? She loves the Celtics by the way. I feel like it's a good sign, but I don't know. I'm going to say it's a relevant sign and you'll talk yourself into some divine meeting and either of it. Nothing's irrelevant, right? Nothing's irrelevant. Well, this is a good thread though. Like, do you have any particular game seven superstitions? Do you approach a game like this any differently than any other Celtics playoff game? Yes. I asked my mom, whose 100% Italian will

make a little shrine thing. Very good luck. And I only ask her for specific kind of sports moments. What is in the shrine? She's got a whole weird Italian thing. I'm going to have to might have to shrine it up. I mean, if Tatum doesn't play it, this might kind of solve itself unless we get like this crazy Baylor Shiner game or something. But I really am imagining the closet shrine with like the Burning Candles, the Baylor Shiner, and Portrait in the middle. Like,

“I think, you know, you really got to go all out for an occasion like this. Well, I also have the”

karma piece of it. Like, I can't be like, oh, that dinner we were going to have for your birthday. Like, I can't, we got to just stay and watch the game. I'm going to have to do whatever she wants. Oh, Bayol, father daughter rules. Yep. And let her control the process in a way that she feels good about because that will help the Celtics. I'm going to do my part. Karma, why subduing my

part. I don't want to blame myself years later. And first I thought you were just being a good dad,

but no, it's just so you can get the karma so the Celtics will win. Yeah, I want her to be happy on her birthday. Okay. It can be both. Yeah. Um, this is just a nightmare. First of all, if they lose the fillet, that's three home losses in a seven game series to a team. God, that was a play and team. And then we're in a situation. Zach Low asked us the on his podcast. Like, who's going to win the East? They're a lando magic. Is that the answer? I don't know. It's since every, well, actually, I think

we have our clearest indication yet of the answer. And it's in the last game that we haven't discussed tonight. Yeah, the next, the next turn it on. I mean, I thought they solved that land in game five. I thought that that was an easy bet tonight. Um, they were like minus two now. I didn't think

they would be up by 50 points in the first half. No, but they're running out of all cylinders. And

it feels like they're the only team that would actually have a chance to land one or two punches.

get some jabs in and maybe a couple of right crosses. Well, this high gear that they showed is just

better than anything we've seen in the entire Eastern conference, maybe all year. Like, maybe even above and beyond with the pistons were in the regular season or the, you know, the shiniest version of the Celtics. Like, this was an incredibly impressive win, a historic win in a bunch of different ways. I didn't know you could show this kind of violence on TV anymore. Like, just getting this kind of lead and holding it in every time I seem to check back on the game. It was just getting worse and

worse and worse for Atlanta. It's hard to not be blown away by how good the nicks can be when

“they have it all together. And after this, I think they've certainly deserved the benefit of”

the doubt as far as when they're able to do that. Is it possible the regular season just doesn't matter? You can't say that in that we just because we get podcasts content out of it for six and a half months, we're convinced these little signs and this means this and that means that, like, the one thing that I think mattered all season was San Antonio rising to the occasion again, so call him a city. That felt like, okay, this is significant. We didn't think these guys were real yet. They are real

now and they feel like they can beat this team and this is a thing now that's happening. Other than that, or we just gotten a rollercoaster ride with the up and down. Like, look at like Orlando and Minnesota, the two most frustrated teams in each conference are now teams you could conceivably see just, I don't know how far either of them will go, but I could see them keep going. And then you look at that team like the nicks that over and over again, we've wondered,

what's wrong with this team? Do they like each other? Oh my god, they're they're going to blow it up after the after they get bounced. Now they look great. So can you just turn it on and bask them on now? Like, I had to know where for two weeks and then all of a sudden come together,

“because it seems like that's the case. I think if the magic could have turned it on,”

they would have turned it on in that play in game. Like, I think there's there's more in play than that.

It's on point. Here's what it is. Like years, years ago, the big picture stuff used to tell

the whole story. Like whoever wins a ton of games in the regular season that's going to translate pretty seamlessly to the playoffs. Like the dominant teams are the dominant teams are the dominant teams. Now I think you like really have to pay attention. Like, I think it's it's so much more than who is the first second and third seed in each conference. It's where are those meaningful steps forward for a guy like Jayden McDaniels? Where are the literal vulnerabilities where it's like,

man, it just seems like when push comes the shove, this team doesn't have enough spacing or doesn't have enough size. Like when you look at this one matchup, when you look at, okay, see versus San Antonio, for example, like what is that tell us about both teams? I just think the lessons of the regular season require more and more of a magnifying glass to find. But they're there. It's just not as big and in flashing lights as it used to be. Yeah, the Celtics thing really

wrote a dope to me, especially the Jalen part who was just really good all season. And now can't see the score against any guy in the sixers. Here's another topic from the Nick Sox. I know O. J. Ananobi, O. J. Anobi isn't the best forward in the league. But if you just watch round one, you would think he was. And then you would think Paul George was the second best forward in the league. So that's, I guess, one of the round one's sort of lands. But this is

the best he's ever played. He was incredible tonight. I thought he was going to be pee in the series.

I think he is the MVP of the sea. Well, I can't give him a good argument there, too, as well. Like the triple doubles, the playmaking, like towns, even as defense all proved really important.

“That's what it is for me. Like the Nick's offense got whatever it wanted in this game. He”

don't get up by 50 points without doing that. But their defense was just like soul crushing in the first half in terms of breaking down everything that Atlanta does. And they had and running after they got turned the ball off. And O. J was a huge part of that, right? He's creating turnovers. He's getting stops. He's getting out on the breaking, getting easier and easier shots. And then even when they guard him, he's hitting threes over these wings who are like good defenders, but not O. J. Ananobi

sized. And so they had no answer for him, really at any point in the series. And he is the exact kind of problem in that Aaron Gordon shaped mold, where it's like, if you don't have a counter for this kind of player, he's going to make your life a living hell over seven games. I think they have to be the favorite to win these. Yeah, that feels more than fair. After you go on a 67 to 13 round in a game against a good team, they're not the favorite. They're not

unfindled. They're plus 128. The Celtics are minus 102. Oh, and the calves are minus 172. I don't get it. Oh, wait. And then for the font. Yeah, they're not the, they're plus 310 to make the finals. So they're plus 128 to make the next round plus 310 to make the finals and 16 to one to win it. I would buy far. If your life dependent on it, the next have to be the pick from what we've seen so far, especially if we don't know what we're getting with something. Right. Which I want to acknowledge,

about the next all year, where I think they, they've been under a lot of scrutiny,

some by their own doing in terms of how they would respond to adversity. And now we know they lost two games by one point, came out with a monster win, and then a historically monster win, in which they put up, I think the biggest winning margin. Like the biggest lead of any game in the six to one point. Yeah, 61 is the biggest lead of any playoff game in the play by play

“era, and then ended up with one of the most decisive closeout games ever. So that's why I”

think the playoffs were happy. After Friday, we're like, oh my god, Saturday and Atlanta game for we'll see what happens to the next. They might be blowing it up and now all of a sudden three days later, it's like, how are they not the favorite of the conference? What's happening? I thought they were awesome today. And they were really fun to watch. They were. And I think, you know, as a Celtics fan, I look at some of the athleticism and how creaky the Celtics kind of looked that just not getting

really fast break points at all. And then you watch that next team flying around and making plays on defense, it's not looking good for the Celtics. Now this is where we go, like, you know, Tatum came back, we got under the tax, some more of the summer got to figure it out. Do they hate the banner for getting under the tax? What do they do for that? I don't know if that's build chism. I hesitate to bring this up, but I'm not going to have another podcast till Sunday. Okay.

I do wonder what happens with with Jalen long-term if they lose the series. In terms of what the team will do or like what will happen to him internally. No, I wonder does he become a trade possibility? And I don't say that like to be aggregated or to start Reddit threads and if they want that. I'm just, I really generally wonder where last year they lost that Nick series before Tatum got hurt. They were going to lose that series.

Getting got hurt at the end of a game. They're going to be down 3-1 and they were going to lose that series. They weren't going to come back from that. I don't think. So you basically, you flame out in that series. And then you flame out in this round one, too. And you have two guys making a

combined $120 million dollars. And it's like pretty rocky the past couple of years in the playoffs.

I just wonder what they look at this as a chance to reset. I have no idea. I have no

“inside of formation, but I think it has to at least be a conversation, right?”

I'm fine with the conversation, but I still think he's closer to the guy he was in the regular season than he is to the version. I'm not talking about Ben right now. Yeah, I'm not talking about like, oh, we got a bail in him. I'm just talking about big picture. He just played his 10th year. Yeah. He was awesome. He's going to be a first team on BA. Is this the highest we could possibly sell? Oh, should we? Could we rebuild around Tatum, Richard, some of these other guys we have

trying to get a haul back, try to reset our salary. Maybe go after a free agent or another piece. Yeah. And I think it's at least going to be a topic if they blow a 3-1 lead to the 7 seed. Look, if you get, if you blow that lead and lose all these home games under this circumstance, even with all of the caveats about, oh, this is supposed to be a gap year. Oh, Jason Tatum is not still not fully himself yet. All of that's fine. You should still win a series like this.

I still would want to bet the future of my team on Tatum and Brown. Like, that's still a core that I believe in. It's still appearing that I think works as long as those guys want to make it work. Yeah. And some of it is just the alternatives, right? Like, it's it's much easier said than done to go out and find a better fitting component part or to to bet on someone like Peyton Fritcher who has great games, but then have like 14 points on 16 shots in this one where they desperately

needed more scoring. So there are a lot of good, but limited players on the Celtics roster who need help and need to play better than they did tonight. Changing the core of it, I don't think solves the problems and they just need to keep adding pieces around the edges. I think more than anything. This is where I give my annual disclaimer or, or I do not annual. My guaranteed disclaimer every time this top becomes up. I do not want them to trade either guy. Please keep them together. I like

rooting for them. I want them to finish their careers in Boston. I'm just worried that this will

“become a topic. Yeah. And I think it's at least worthy of a topic of like, hey, what do we have here?”

We just had two devastating playoff losses at a round. Like, and I think you have the conversations and you land on. Tatum came back at March. Yes. You know, Jalen had a huge bird and obviously we were down in the playoffs. Let's try to build a better team around them and let's come back full full scale next year. We've had an incredible amount of success with this. That is the correct answer for Adhandle this. I just don't know with the new owner who knows. I think like the

question is, it's always like, does this work well enough to suit our needs? Does this work well

enough to beat the best teams in the league? More than it ever is like, oh, this needs to be blown up immediately. Like, an interrogation of seasons that go sideways every team in the league that loses in this fashion should be doing that. We're talking about the nuggets in the same way for the

by looking at the players on the floor and the coaches who coach them and like, is there something

in these component parts that doesn't make sense in the way that we need it to? Yeah, what happens with that's another team that's going to have to add that conversation that we take the Yoke of Gemini Gordon thing as far as we could take it. And now what do we do? We'll see. The Celtics could easily win by 15. Do you have any, I know you did this on ringer and be ready, but pistons magic, pistons favor in this one, they got a superhuman performance from Cade,

ad home, and barely one. Yeah. And that was without France. I don't know if France is coming back or not.

“I think the magic are going to win game six. I don't think the pistons have enough,”

and I don't think Cade can do that two more times. So I just think the magic are going to win the series. Do you disagree with that? I think the magic are going to win the series, but I think they

do need France back at some point. Like, if not for six, but the defense on Cade is super important.

And he's just been so much better at it than even, you know, like a hard working role player like Jamal Kane or like a good lively athlete like Anthony Black, like it's just not the same thing. Do we get zombie Jonathan Isaac? See, alive. Where is he? I think he's also still on the injury report, being perpetually, but I think including right now. Can can my Conley's doctor go go see him? Cavaliers raptors. I just feel like this goes seven. I pick calves and six.

My only two series picks were Nixon six, which hit and calves and six. And yet, I think the raptors will win this game. What do you think? I think the calves might have it, not because they're. Tell me why. I don't think they're so much better. I just think that they've gotten just enough progression from their bugs as far as being actual contributors to these games. Now that it's like, okay, now there is a balance to the roster and to the line up that makes sense.

And so if you're getting Evan modally to play like an actual big, which they did, Jared Allen to play good interior defense, which he did, and you're getting some good supplementary

“shooting from like, I think Sam Mariles been really important to this rotation. Like Max”

Bruce's movement, adding him to the starting line up. I think was a step in the right direction. And also like who knows what Brandon Ingram status is going to be? Like the raptors are another team who are short on bodies, so don't have a manual quickly. Scotty Barnes got dinged up in that game too. He did not look himself at all afterwards either. And they like really need him to be hyper aggressive. So I think there's like a little bit too much of an accumulation.

Okay. Lakers rockets. Who knows? I have no, I have no feeling on calves raptors. I'd probably lean raptors. I don't think I would bet on that. I've kind of stayed away from that series in general. I think the rockets are going to be the Lakers. And I think this is destined to go seven. And I just has that feeling. But I do feel like the rockets found some sort of something with their young guys. And especially Jabari Smith like, okay, I guess I'll try to have to

make some field goals now. He was really good. Just good enough. And Thompson was a maniac. And Thangoon was fine. And I just think it's this Lakers team. Some of the stuff they did with them strategically, you know, Khanard had did the CJ McCallum. We had a couple of good games. And as the series went along, he died. I just think it's going to be really hard for the Lakers to get the right kind of offense. So it feels like seven. I think seven is fair.

I mean, this is kind of a test of duble even the attrition of a seven game series. Because it looks like the Lakers are just getting kind of like gradually worn down bit by bit by the athleticism and activity of Houston's defense. And by the end of it, like who knows what LeBron is even going to have left who knows how comfortable Austin Reeves is going to be as he's still kind of finding his legs. And so if you believe in that kind of like cumulative thing over a playoff

series versus the any game anything can happen sort of like gunslinger mentality, that kind of tells you who you think is going to win it. I just like in my heart of heart. You don't trust the rock. I don't trust the rockets. And so it's like I acknowledge all of the ways that this is weighing down the Lakers. And they do not look like a team that's in control. And they certainly look like a team that's giving up a lot of just like speed and power and physicality and size.

Basically across the lineup, I just I do think the Lakers will win. I think it will be ugly.

I just I just don't trust the rockets collective execution. Minus three and a half favorites in that one. And then I guess six or something. So we're down. We're down to four series. This was still a lot of basketball. I know. Do you know the timing of the first day? Yeah. Usually, by the time we get there, so for the playoff's big picture, the Minnesota is saying, oh my god.

San Antonio is a minus 3000 favorite against Minnesota. Yeah. I mean, he had to come back. Yeah. Can't come back fast enough. Like they're just desperately going to need everybody they've

“got. What's the go bear? When do you ride? I can't remember. What's their relationship?”

They played on France together when we kind of go bear a little buried on one of those teams.

a little bit, but I think it to be a little frostier. Well, I mean, go look, go bear's a proud guy. It doesn't take a lot to get under his skin and he tends to show up when things do. So I hope things do go that way. I need a new favorite player for the playoffs. I'll get back to you on who I make a favorite nine selfie. Can fully lose the selfie. Yeah, joker and we don't have Steph Curry. I'm just a man a drift at that point. I think if they lose to the six or

“you should just have to like root for Kelly Ubrae, the rest of the way. Like you should just have to”

adopt a six. I, you know, they aren't really fun to watch because this is one of the more bizarre basketball stories we've had. Like we did the best the worst contract strapped in March. And

in beat and Paul George were the two worst contracts. They're the first two picks. And by the way,

not controversial at all. It really felt that way. Yeah. And now both of those guys, I mean, the Paul George coming back from the 25 game. We're still not sure what he did suspension. Yeah. And immediately we're voting to 2020 on Paul George. I don't fully understand, but it's a thing that's happening. It is the main reasons why the basketball play have some been so strange. I go a step further. I don't even think it's just like reverting to the

Paul George that we know and admired in versions past like there was something about the way that he does a little bit of everything that makes this like weird, hotge, pod, six or two and make some kind of sense. Like I just don't think they function really without him. And you could see it

even in the stretch where he was out. And it's he's not okay C. V. P. Paul George. He's not even

quite like the score. He was with the clippers. But it's like the connecting pass is the defense, the complexity, like the contested rebounding. He's like he's like a super charged warriors on Dr. Igwoodala at this point. And it's like the, that's a really valuable player to have. Well, and also being able to run plays for him. And he's actually getting good shots and scoring. So we, if they win game seven, is Darrell Mori? See back. Winner of the playoffs is Mori back.

He's like, "I told you Maxi Paul George would be that told you guys." I can't wait for the victory lapse of really all of this playoff round. Like there's just so much crow to be eating all around. Yeah. Including by guys like us. So I look forward to it. Well, if the beat can come back from appendicitis and plays Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and play big minutes and do a

lot of different stuff, that would be one, not even one of the three most incredible things.

It's happening this playoffs because we had zombie, Mike Conley and Jay to make day news and whatever else happening. All right, Rob Honey, when are we going to hear you on ringer and be again and see you? We'll be on ringer and be a Monday morning talking about the weekend's game. So looking forward to, I mean, hopefully, you know, get some game seven actions coming on Sunday, as well in addition to the Saturday ones. All right. And I'll text you what happens on my daughter's

21st birthday. What ends up? Hopefully, I don't end up in a gut or somewhere. I've been 10 shots wondering what happened in the South Texas. Rob, thanks for staying out. We're going to take a break, come back with Billy Gill, talking a little baseball. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by

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All right. The Duke Bill Gil is here. You can find them on a bunch of ringer things, including ringer tailgate, the biggest hit show of 2026. Before we go to baseball because we're going to wrap up the month and baseball April. I guess we technically started to march. I asked last week why do people go to the NFL draft and got a bunch of different responses. I'm just going to cold call you on this one. 320,000 people in Pittsburgh. It's free.

There's food and drink. It's a big clusterfuck and you get to watch some guys pick. Would you ever do this? Maybe once. I think they said for the weekend it was like 800,000 for the for the three days, right?

maybe but day three Mike Raeble didn't even show up too. So like why are fans and Pittsburgh showing up to day three of the draft? You know who showed up? Michael Keaton came out and made a pick. Pittsburgh fan.

“Yeah. Batman was out there. Day three. Maybe that's why you go. You just don't know what's going to happen.”

I don't like that. I don't like that for Michael Keaton. I feel like it's your weekend.

Yeah. I mean, first round okay, like, you know, the commissioner does the big picks,

but you can't be more than day two if you're Michael Keaton. Once they say day three, it's like, no, thank you. Yeah. That's a pass. All right, baseball. Really kind of fun crazy season so far. Do you want to go with the teams that are in complete shambles? Um, because I asked you to a top five. Actually, no, no. You know what? I'm turning this over to you. I asked you to a top five list. I was going to say do do glass have four glass have I've do with some of the teams. But let's do the list.

And then whatever's left, we'll talk about after. So you're going to do a list top five biggest things. I said top five most you just. Yeah. That have happened last five weeks. Yeah. This is what has happened with our baseball discussions in preview so far. It's your little vague. So first one, I treated kind of like a cocktail party where as I guess this is a cocktail party. Go to where baseball comes up for whatever reason. These are topics that you could talk to.

Last one, I was just nerding about about the world baseball classic. This one, I thought, you know, what? This is a thing this weekend. You have a big celebration of wedding or something, maybe see people you haven't talked to in a while. You know, there's sports fans. Let's go back to the cocktail party. Let's just talk about the things that are going on. You don't have to be paying too close attention to baseball. You just throw out these stories and

like, wow, this person is really in on what's happening this season and baseball so far.

“Okay. So you're going to go one to five or do you want to go five to one?”

Let's go one to five. I mean, these aren't these aren't necessarily like a top 10. Like, this is like the biggest story. That's the worst story. These are just five things that are going on. And you can kind of rank them in your own importance based on who you're talking to, based on the demographic that air you're in, what you think they might find interesting. So this is just, this is just for you. This is a little appetizer. You like pick it up, get this,

then regurgitated to your friend. So the first one. I mean, this is a big one that's been happening

this week. Firings. I mean, it's April. We have two managerial firings already. Including one of the weirdest managerial slash coach firings in the history of Boston sports, since I've been following into my teams. Firing Alex Corra, two games into a three game series in Baltimore after they had a blowout win. I just don't understand the timing of it at all. Why they didn't just wait until after the series? The thing is, I mean, you would know better

than I would. You're watching all the Red Soxam to a Red Sox fan. Obviously, they're not happy. They've been chanting sell the team. Want John Henry's there in the stand. So something was

“going to change, but it was not, I think, what anyone was hoping for would change, or especially”

not the managerial thought they would fire. So the fire Alex Corra, he has obviously a great track record. He had this is technically a second stint with the Red Soxas. He has the first one, and then they had the whole Apple Watch situation where he was suspended for a year and they parted ways and they hired poor Ron Reneky. And then after a season and the fake suspension was over, Ron Reneky was gone, and they brought Alex back immediately. I think that the best summary of this was by

the anonymous alum of the Red Soxam, which I'm sure you saw, which was, it's like shitting your pants and changing your shirt. That seems to be kind of the attitude so far with how this higher went. I don't know if you saw the pictures that went out there, but then, you know, Veritech was one of the coaches that was let go. They picked them up in like these charter vans down. The charter's vans said coaches for higher, because they were coach vans, whatever, which is like not intentional.

He then gave the thumbs down, which Veritech, like this, says be careful, you know, you've been part of this family for 30 years. There's rumors that they're just reassigning you. You'll be back. Let's not upset anyone too much and cost yourself a future position. So Corra was an awesome No. S5 years. He was fine, but, you know, he won in 2018, which is also eight years ago.

As I don't think he was the problem, the problem is the roster. What's been interesting is all the

stories and stuff that's come out after. And it really just seems to me like the GMs, not that good, but spends a lot of time with the owner. And they've had like signings or young guys or young guys that've gotten behind who have done well or a couple of pictures, so they've traded pictures away like Kyle Harris and this year, who's now really good on the brewers. So if you're in job protection mode and you're the GM, you're just throwing the coaching staff under the bus. You were like,

I told you Kyle Harris, I'm just going to be good. I don't know what we were doing with them. I had to trade him before he was wasn't asked. And now he's good, but he should have been good here. And I just think he undermined the manager in the coaches, because they got rid of all the hitting

because the GM is a robot. Nobody likes them. And the team just feels right or less. And I don't

know why John Henry even wants to own it. Nobody thinks he's doing a good job anymore. Well, that takes us to our next manager of firing, which was the fillies, which was also surprising. And Alex Korra's connected to that, because they offered Alex Korra that job after they fired Rob Thompson, which is kind of weird. And he said, no, I'm going to take time, which is probably good, because then he doesn't have to just send up right back and managing the fillies, which are struggling.

They're one of the two teams. It has a 10 plus game losing streak the season along with the Met. And then who do they hire? They go to their bench coach, Don Maddingley, who before the season. Don Maddingley, I'm not a fan of Don Maddingley. But before the season, Don Maddingley, Benchcoch last year

“of the Toronto Blue Jays, I'm surprised, honestly, that he hasn't managed since he managed the”

Marlins a couple of years ago, and he's just been bench coaching ever since. But Donnie baseball was asked before the season. If he was interested in managing again, and he threw out the generic, oh, you know, I don't have the energy to keep managing. I'm just, you know, I don't, I don't still have it in me. And then Dave Dubrowski said, hey, Donnie baseball, you want to manage this team. He said, absolutely. And then they asked him in the press conference,

they're like, hey, what happened there? Because we asked you before the season, if you had any interest in managing again, and you kind of hinted at him and said, you didn't have the energy to do this anymore. And he's like, yeah, Rob was here, so I didn't want to kind of ruffle any

feathers. So I just kind of said that thing. But I'm good. I'm good to manage. Then he wins the first

day. And they're like, did you give any big speeches to the guys, drill the troops? What do you say? And then he was just kind of like, I just congratulations. It's just another game, like, for supposed to be winning these, like, what do you want me to say to them? It's, you know, it's Donnie baseball. Well, you think like, when you came on before the year, we were talking about all of these big market teams that had a chance to be good and how it wasn't an unusual

spot. It was for baseball, right? Big cities, big marquee players, and it just felt like it was going to be an awesome season. Then the season starts, Red Sox suck, Metsuck, Philly suck, they're just start out okay, but not certainly not a threat to win 120, but that's just baseball. I didn't, I didn't follow what was going wrong with the fillets, but it seems like it seems like mirror image of what was happening with the Red Sox. Just completely was appointment.

They've been disappointing, the another disappointing, not a manager of firing yet, but on the hot seat, and probably will be fired soon. His crowd has been dose of Mets. They lose 12 straight 10 and 20 this season. He's had his two seasons of his management winning season, but they had that epic collapse last year. They've gotten off on the wrong for this year. He had a couple days ago a situation where he got ejected. He was just going out of his way to bump the empire.

That's the best picture. That's picture goes and feels a ball that's right on the line, throws it into the... Now, it didn't go into the stand to stay in the play, but just like swipe set it with his glove to try to shoot it foul. It's called fair. Three pirates end up scoring on the play because they instead of going after the ball, just decide to argue with the home play to Empire. So the pirates just keep rounding the bases and scoring. Mendoza comes out.

He's screaming. He's chest-to-chess. Like, actually, like, physically bumping the umpires. He gets ejected. He knows he's on his way out. He's like, I got to do something here.

“I got to show some fun. I need... Yeah, I do too. I honestly, that's the one thing about”

replaying that APS. We'll get to that later on. That's the one thing I miss about replay is the managers getting ejected because you can't really argue anything. And if you go out and you argue something that's reviewed, you immediately get wrong. So there's no theatrics anymore. I miss that.

How's our dude in San Francisco who came from college and had five team meetings in the first eight

days or whatever? I'd said they're like 500, right? Well, we thought that he was not going to make it out of week one and they already started going and they were like, kind of putting out like the PR like, no, trust this guy. Their four games under right now, they're last in the West. I mean, the problem with being last in the West is you have the Dodgers there. Yeah. You have a better looking Rockies who are at the bottom two and the podries are going to be contenders. So it's uh,

it's definitely a tough division for him to be in. I mean, he was a big comedy. I did. Has there been comedy with him now or is it just kind of depressing? It's just been like nothing that stands out. That's like, wow, this guy really doesn't know what he's doing. It's just, he wasn't offering his

“pairs and I owe money or anything. Okay. No, and I honestly, I think that he might, and we talked”

about this last time. He may be the one that gets Buster Posey fired, which is kind of like then he'll be double-hated because Buster Posey is so beloved by the Giants fans out there. I hate him too. I have my base, well, he's not a fan of Buster Posey. I like Buster Posey. He ruined this. He ruined the catching position. He ruined the play at the play because he had to go and he had to get trucked by Scott cousins and then he injured his leg and then they just changed

all the rules for patchers forever. Then you had like three seasons where you needed to give the runner a lane and you had no idea like, well, does he have a lane? Does he not have a lane? They were

have a lane and they didn't even try to slide. Buster Posey, one of the people who has ruined base ball, but we'll digress in that case today. Think of all the fights he cost us. I mean, I barely know the catcher was a top three baseball fight starter. I mean, guy barreling into the catcher was one of the greatest playoff baseball moments ever when it was the Giants against the Marlins down here, put right, Riga's JT snow hits him, he holds on to the ball and goes

it out and the NLDS, which is like, of all the series is like the whatever series, right? Now there's

all these wild card rounds, so NLDS is a little bit better, but the NLDS always kind of felt like

these are the day games that you get out of the way early on, no one's paying attention. So good stuff

“to bet on that's it. All right, so we got managerifying, what's your next thing?”

Are juice balls back in baseball? A lot of home runs this year. You have eight guys, I believe, who already have ten home runs. You have Aaron judge with 12, you have more economy with 12, Mike trout, by the way, is back. Anyone who wrote off Mike trout and said, "You know what? This guy may be the greatest of all time until his teammate Choheotani came and he's definitely the greatest of all time. We kind of forgot about Mike trout." And he's just been existing out there

in Anaheim. I guess I'm right here. Well, that's the thing. But he's probably this year, already has ten home runs on the season. Then you have like another six that have nine home runs already this season. We could have, I mean, the pace probably won't keep up. But Drew Romo got caught up to the white socks the other day. I know this because we picked them up

on my own, keep your team. Switch hit catcher, home runs from each side in this first game. That's

what I was like, what's going on with these balls? Okay, where are you, not that this is the topic, but where are you on your budget for the year? Because I've got enough days throughout the year, and it seems like you're constantly putting flyers out there and spending money. And we're a one thing, and I don't think that you're budgeting this property. Now, we've spent 40 of our 100, but we've spent smartly including Aragetti on the Astros for 17, which we really needed.

We have Brian Beow, who has given up 26 earn runs already this season, which is four more than anyone else in baseball and has one of the highest DRAs heading into May of any starting picture.

“I think this century. So it's the say we needed some help. Was he a keeper or did you like that?”

Was he a $7 keeper? And my least favorite part of 2026, because he's killing my favorite team and my AL keeper team. It's a double murder. Yeah. Well, which is worse for you? Do you hold grudges based on fantasy like failures? 100,000%. Yeah. There's I still hate Jose Ramirez, because we had his one bad Indians here, and I just still hate his guts. So I hate Jordan Walker of the Cardinals, because he's been doing great. And I hate him because I drafted him

four seasons two early, and then I would keep him year after year after year. And then he found out two years. And then I was like, I've given up on Jordan Walker. I'm done with him. This isn't going to work out for me. And of course, this year. He's coming out. And he's just

young on on the Rangers who's finally lighting it up. We had him forever. I had him for the entire

2020s. Yeah. I had James Wood last year on my team from the Nationals and opted to keep Jackson Merrill instead of him because I thought, you know, this will be the year Jackson Merrill finally turns it around for the pod days. Yeah. And I would be keeping him at a higher round than James Wood. So I'm like, I'll make it up. James Wood ends up going in the first round and has like 10 home runs already. So it really hurts. No, it's really painful. Yeah. It's you put a lot of time

in these guys for your fake baseball team, and they don't respect it. Well, I invested them. I believe them before anyone else. I believe in them more than they believe in themselves. And then they let me down. And then when I say, you know what, it's not you. It's me. Like, let's just kind of end this. Then all of a sudden they become like the hottest person out there dating again rubbing to my face. This is the worst one though. And we didn't have them. But you know, the guy who had Mason Miller

in our league, who now goes to the National League and becomes having one of the greatest pitching seasons of all time. That hurts even more where it's like that. That just got stolen from you. Okay. You know what? We're going to go out of order here. And we're going to bring we're going to bring up that topic, because he's on the list. There's been really good pitching this year. Yeah. We have all of the home runs we're just talking about the ball being juice. Mason Miller,

he's out there for the Padre. He's going back to last season has 34 and two thirds consecutive

“scoreless innings. It ends kind of like not in the best way this year. You have Jose Soriano who”

had 150 strikeouts last year. But he had like mid four ERAs like 500 records. Get that one as a picture. Yeah. On the angels too. On the angels. Five and one point eight four ERA. Third and league and strikeouts. On under one whip. Just comes out. I mean, you would think it's going to catch up to him. They'll see, you know, taper whatever figure out whatever it is that he's changed this year. But you have these things every year where you just have this kind of like average player

just come out of nowhere. And this if you go back to catch them. But Trevor Rogers last year. Like

that was a Marlin back in the day. And he made the all-star team as a rookie because every team needs

“to have an all-star and it's like, okay, this is like a good starter. And then he was just like a middle”

of a road guy. He's like a six ERA year in and year out and it's like, okay, whatever he ends up on on the Oreos. And then he's like a side young award. One of the only reason he doesn't win any of the actual like ERA titles or strikeouts or any of that. He wasn't in contention because he didn't start the season. He didn't have enough innings pitch. But he was electric last year. Now he's back. Now he fell back there. Well, and show he Otani, too, in terms of pitching. He's great.

I don't know what else to say about it. So we have like, we have some awesome starters. And we have a couple awesome closers. But there is this middle ground of pitcher that's just getting hammered. And yeah, those are the guys giving up most of them. The middle ground guys are the ones that are crisp, passing. Those guys are just getting destroyed. They're supplying the maybe multiple 60 home run players this season for us. So God bless them, too, because they're in there to really

kind of save the game. Honestly, they're probably more entertaining than the guys who are striking everyone out. They'll get us out of the game quick. And it'll be like a two hour and 15 minute game. But the other guys that one's providing the fireworks. What's your next one? All right. Next thing is ABS. The greatest thing to happen to baseball since the wild card. I was trying to think back. What's the best year? I was trying to think back. What's the best year that something is happened?

“Like, I think the wild card is the best thing that happened to baseball for ABS. But ABS, I mean,”

you have catchers who are out there embarrassing on pires. On pires can't do anything about it. Salvador Perez seems to take joy in embarrassing the on pires. And seems to know the strike so better than any catcher out there. Yeah. Then you have the game that you were watching. The red socks came earlier this year where you had your swars of the reds is called out looking and then he challenges it and they're like, no, that's a ball. Then he gets called out looking again,

challenge it. No, that's a ball. Then he flies out. But it was a little bit of an amazing. Yeah. That

would. It kind of turned the reds season around. Now that the reds are a contender. I mean, two straight ABS wins. One of the surprise teams of the season so far. The reds, they wasn't surprised to me because watching them in that series. I was like, are these guys good? I thought the reds weren't was like one of those. It's like, here's another pitcher throw 97. Well, speaking of the reds, I don't know if that was even their biggest ABS challenge

one of the season because earlier this week, the reds had one of the more memorable ABS challenges of the season where they're up 72 in the ninth inning. And there's a promotion where the reds strike out 11 batters. The fans in the stands get free pizza. Oh, wow. So they're up five runs ninth inning, not a close game. All of a sudden, reds catcher challenges a call. So then everyone's just waiting around because they know we're we're sitting on 10 strikeouts right now. What are we

going to do? Yeah. The momentum, the anticipations building all of a sudden the graphic pops up on the screen. The ball comes in and you see it got a corner. There's a little red circle around the ball strike three. He's called out. Yes, walk back the place erupts. The crowds going crazy because they get free pizza. I love those promotions and baseball where it's attached to like these random things that I guess insurance companies or whatever like figure out probabilities and like yeah,

how many times are going to strike out 11 hitters in a game? So they do it. That's about as

the free throws. And it always seems like it gives an electric surge to the crowd. I like it too.

“I like the guys that this is the case. I think it's Cincinnati. I like the guys who are where”

the promotion and no like, hey, especially the road guys in basketball because basketball is usually attached to like road free throws. And if they miss a two-in-a-row, you'll get like 10 chicken nuggets somewhere or something, right? So the road guy that knows, okay, this is a promotion. My teams down by 15 right now. There's two minutes left. I could just miss these two free throws. What a pretty chicken nuggets. What difference does it make to me? You know, I become a fan favorite

than the place erupts because they win the nuggets. Huge fan. Also, I don't know if you saw this theory floating out there about ABS before we go on to our final topic in our cocktail party. There's been a theory floating around Twitter where obviously for years, catchers framing has been a big thing where you put value in the catchers who catch a lot of the strike zone, bring it in. In our baseball preview, I was saying, you know what? I think that

those guys are going to have a hard time because you can no longer be the catcher that can't hit and can't do anything. But it's great at framing and tricking the empire. There's a theory that's been out there on Twitter. And there's been some minor evidence that may be its in place where catchers can now do the opposite. Where catchers can catch a ball in the strike zone and frame it out of the strike zone. So it gets called the strike. Wow. And they beat the hitter

into wasting an ABS challenge on a ball that's a strike that when they look back, they're like that was definitely out of the zone because the catcher has moved the glove out of the strike zone,

I like ABS. When you talked about the most important things that they've changed

over the years, pitch clock is obviously up there. But the single most important thing ever where it was just the two leagues and it was like Premier League. You just won the league and then you played in the World Series. Whenever they thought to split that up and have division

“playoffs, which is I think like 1969 somewhere around there, I still like that's probably the most”

important decision they ever made. Because the Yankees would be up 25 games in August and literally everybody else would be eliminated. There would be like seven weeks left. How do you feel? Were you big? I mean, you're an AL guy. So you're an AL guy. I hated when they made the DH universal thing. I love the pitchers hitting and I hated it. I thought I liked having different leagues. Well, I liked also when then you'd have like the AL hitters come. I wasn't a huge fan of

interlead play because it took a little bit away from the World Series for me. But whatever, it's fine. But when you'd have the AL's guys come and they'd have to hit in the NL parks and you'd be like, oh my god, this guy could actually hit. Then we lose out on the Madison Bumgarner's little world who were hitting like eight homeruns a season as a pitcher. I love those ricks. That cliff was another good one. Yeah, there's been some good ones over the years. I don't like it.

All right. What's your last one? Final topic here for the Sports Cocktail Party. The rookie class this year has been really good in baseball. Maganagola's like leading

all these different categories. They are in the top two. It's insane. He has incredible. I mean,

he's not a guy that's going to go out and hit you 40 homeruns. I really least not this here. But he has great plates to supplant. I think he has walked 16 times the 17 strikeouts, which is like crazy ratio. Great batting average. Great. Oh, yes. And he's one of four guys this season. And he's one of two that's active that has already signed a contract extension, which is like a very rare thing. He signed a contract extension 20 games into his service time

to buy out all of his arbitration. So he signs an eight year 150 million dollar contract. So it's a steal 20 games in the Tigers are like, you know what? We got to lock this guy up.

“Seven. That's what the Red Stocks did with Roman Anthony who is now in an absolute free fall.”

So, I was going to ask you about the firing if you're down on Roman at all or if you're just kind of like, eh, this is just not the season. Roman's been a complete mess. He's been a mess in the field. It's a big topic with all the Red Stocks fans wondering what the hell happened. And I have no answers. Why does somebody I would have bet anything on that this guy had it the same way you would bet now with McGonagall. Yeah. Last year Anthony before he got hurt. It was like, oh my god, this guy's

going to be in my life for 20 years and he's just been a mess this year. So hopefully he's just going through a funk. Well, he didn't I don't think his is as high as 150 either was it? No, he was like, 800 McGonagall. They were just like, we're all in. This is, well, he's a short stop too, which is, yeah, yeah, a little more important. So they, they also the other one that was signed this year was Connor Griffin who we talked about before the season. Number one prospect, the pirates brought up.

He signed a nine year 140 million dollar contract with five years of service. Him so far, you know, slow start, but he's a rookie. He just turned 20. They bought him a few saw the bottom of

“bounce house that they put in the pirates locker room. Because I think they asked schemes like,”

what do you buy him? And he's like, what do you get a 20 year old a bounce house? And then a couple days later there's a bounce house in there. He's only hitting 231 two home runs, but he has plenty of time to figure it out. Two more guys that signed contract extensions this season. Both of these have zero days service time. So the Mariners signed their shorts up eight year 95 million dollar pull Emerson. And the brewer signed their shorts up Cooper Pratt eight years 50.75 million

dollars. Neither of those have played yet in the major leagues. Both of them also kind of sneaky struggling right now in the minors, but everyone's just locking up their guys first one of the season. We have all this stuff. It's great to get the NBA. We would be doing this. You would do this with Cooper Flag or Dylan Harper or Conknepo. Like you would get the two extra years and give them more money, right? Well, the one guy that I remember like historically this happening with was

back in 2008, Evan Longoria, who the raise locked up immediately when they called up. Do you want to guess what his contract length and amount was at that time 2008? Probably I'm going to say eight years 40 million or something. They signed Evan Longoria. They're face of the franchise player who ended up, you know, being great. Six years 17 and a half million dollars. And that was their big move. That was their big. Oh my god. I mean, listen, if anyone can sign a player for six years

17 and a half million dollars, they're incredible. Well, the reds have stayed Christian Campbell

who had this awesome spring training a year ago and they gave him eight for 60, I think. And then he went, he had a career creator is in triple A now. So they went all in on them and he

look at like, yeah, athletics who are leading the West now and their teams just loaded with

dudes like all these, they're like a triple A all start team basically just kind of tread water.

“Well, I mean, they have the small park. You have to be worried about pitching there because their”

partners can hit because it's a small park. So they're going to hit them out. But the pictures have to pitch there so they can give those up. Did you see there was a leak potentially of what the A's new name might be in Las Vegas? Well, was it? So someone was out there looking at like job listings on the A's website and this is like not confirmed. Obviously by any chance. But there was a guy out there looking at job listings on the A's website and found a number of job listings and then

underneath it, it said the loss. It said Las Vegas black flames and it and then he was like, what is that? So then he kept looking at every single job. Every single job that was listed said Las Vegas black. What does that even mean? I don't know because I thought, and when I think about

a flame and fire, you think like white or red or orange, I've never heard of black flames.

Why wouldn't it be like the Las Vegas hot streaks? I don't know why you can't be the

“Las Vegas shot would be something where you're on like a streak or a bender or went in money.”

I don't know. I don't know. It's the black fire. Black fire, that's even louder. So black fire is a scientific phenomenon where a flame appears black or dark when a sodium rich fire like salt and alcohol is the fuck. The Las Vegas black fire. This could be one of those things. Who words a one word? It is two words. I don't think it's going to. Can I give my big takeaway for the base bus season? Because it's a really sad red sex season. Okay.

And I'm worried that I'm not going to watch enough baseball. I don't know. Hopefully they'll come back, but they're like, they stink. They're 12 and 18. Crochet's on the DL now. It's like, but this is the perfect time. Like this is the time for baseball to stink because everyone's distracted. So they did this thing last year where they would put like this furry helmet on people after they hit a home run. Teams have these different gimmicks when you come back to the

dugout and they put. So did this year, but this team doesn't have the same chemistry this year at all and they don't really seem to have the same kind of leadership. And it's just like a grim. It's almost like our WBC American team. Like just kind of a grim group of guys. So then they they do this somebody at a home run and they put this big green for helmet on him and he goes back in the hit him, but there's like no camaraderie with it and it's just kind of sad. I think they should

make a rule. Nobody can decide on their gimmick until May 1st. Let's buy some time. I don't think the red sex needed any gimmick. And when the gimmicks come, it usually comes when because one of the things we love about baseball is when the team kind of has the magic, right? Where it's like, oh shit, we got something this air. Whoa, they're doing stuff for second base and they're doing little like signals to each other. And no, it's really happening. Nothing sadder than watching a

bad baseball team. We tried to get me here to force gimmicks. I fucking hate it. I wish they would just get the new manager should just been like, we're done. We're good. We're done with all of these.

“Is it like Wally, the mascot? Like it's like a Wally header somewhere or something. Yeah, that's what”

it is. The pirates, I think, have a welder's helmet, which is kind of cool for the pirates, just because it's steel city and all that. But they're not off to the best start. What have I

always said? Like, like, rigid firm handshakes. Like, somebody's tags and goes back to the

1960s and just they just do their stage guy that wouldn't wear that as like Team USA WBC stuff. I think, right, weren't they like saluting or something when they were like celebrating or weird? We love this. Plus, you didn't mention is one of your cocktail story lines. The damage from the W BC, the collateral damage of all these different dudes, then culminating in a 44 year old, getting arrested for having not arrested, getting caught. Do you see the, the short stop on one of

the last of the cameras, I think, right, he's on the Cuban team. Four different types of steroids that decided? Honestly, like, you're 44. You're out of baseball. Yeah, you're not going to like, who cares? What are they going to do? He said, what can you give me? I'll take it. Yeah, are you going to suspend me for anyone games? I got that playing in your league anymore. Come out. We're going to hardware store. What's going to happen? Yeah.

Is it true? I've seen multiple pictures. The Redsucks have like a sign behind home play. The kids eat free after every win. So the rumor that's been going around is the red, the kids in Boston are starving because they can't win games. Yeah. Yeah. Tad time. It's tough. The thing is, there's really no hope either unless Roman Anthony gets going because the crochet piece losing 200 innings of a guy who every five days would just come out and throw seven eight

with a picture, you're always like, oh boy, should you come out there? Can you spin it like,

well, this, you know, if there's a time to get injured, this is the time, he's only got certain pitches in the chamber. Let's not waste them on this like crap season. Maybe. I mean, the good

“thing is for them, like, it's not like anybody's like running away with the wildcard or I think”

like that. So we'll see. Yeah, how are you? How are you? Well, cards now. Yeah. Marlos are fine. They're second in the east right now behind the braze, but they're, I think a game were two in a big series against the Dodgers. They went two with three. They blew the first one. Two could have swept the Dodgers. But I mean, they're behind the braze, but they're like six and a half back. I'm ready behind the braze. It's a bad division, but they're probably going to have to get 10 for the wildcard and there's a

lot of good teams in the NFL. So deal with the cocktail thing you didn't mention was the Ben Rice, Aaron Judge combo. And whatever's going on there. So we traded Ben Rice in our keeper league, and it's just concentrated in less you're talking to us because he's eligible for a catcher. But those guys together. And then whatever Stanton can put together three straight healthy weeks. I don't know, the angst feel like they have a little something this year. I mean, they're off. They have often

sent a firepower for sure. They're a little scary. They just need to, I mean, the Yankees just need to make it to the playoffs and then stay healthy and the playoffs and not collapse, which I thought you're saying for us, the Yankees just need to make it to the playoffs and then they will collapse. Well, no, they, I'm sorry, if you're Yankees fan, if you're the Yankees, they just need to not collapse. Like they'll find in the right cases. We know they're going to collapse in the playoffs. They

collapse. Aaron, Aaron Boone is another one of my baseball crutches that I hate. So like nothing makes me happier than when people were screaming to fire Aaron Boone. Well, how about the fact that he lasted longer than Alex Corra? The odds of that would have been like, I don't know, 10 to one, a year ago. Every year, they want to fire him. It seems like and he just keeps kind of sticking

“around. This is where I think baseball misses George Steinbretter, honestly, because George Steinbretter”

would not have been putting up with Aaron, all of this time. He wouldn't have been putting up with Stanton and the big contract that he had when they brought him over, which now is like one of the best

contracts and baseball is like $300 million for like 10 years at the time. And now he's like

middle of the road salary guy. But he would have been telling to get out there telling me wasn't injured. Like, I kind of missed George Steinbretter going out there and really just being a menace. Well, we asked out the last cocktail part of the thing, the Padre is selling for three point that billion dollars to billionaire Jose Feliziano. No relation. But it seems like that sales going to hold, but holy shit. So baseball's doing well, right? As we head to a massive lockout

that might cancel all of next season. They're doing, and we didn't even talk about more a comedy who's been in credit. Yeah, 12 euros. Who's rookie? 12 homers. I think the concern about him was because he said it. Single season record for home runs a couple years ago in Japan. And the question was, is this going to translate so far? It's translate. I mean, it's batting average is low, but who cares? Chase the lotter came out and he had a great start to the season for

homers and three games. Sal steward is out there with the reds and other rookie who's great. The reds have convinced themselves. Reds feel like that. I do too. The reds have convinced themselves that they may have two, 40, 40 players this season on the same team with him in Ellie Delacruz, who Ellie Delacruz, another guy who I was in on real early. That's a guy where

“like five years ago, I was struggling. I was like draft day and I was like, oh, God, who do I keep?”

Because our league has like a minor league roster, slot that you could draft a minor league player. So I text Mike Scher and I was like, do you have any names? He's like, get this guy. Ellie Delacruz. I'm like, perfect. Get him in like the 17th round or something. They call him

up that season. God, incredible. This year, I was going to lose him because you're going to

only keep him for two seasons after you draft him. So I traded him at the deadline last year to get a number one pick for this year's draft. And I was like, ah, last year a little bit disappointing. Like, I could afford it. I'll get a first rounder for this year's draft, which I think ended up being spent on like Peter Lanzo or something, which is a disaster. And now Ellie belongs on his team for two seasons, because once you trade for a keeper,

you could keep him for an additional two seasons. So that's another guy that it's like, so that one should be put in your stank on him. No, I like him. I like to think I discovered him. On guys. I like it. Yeah. On guys that are rookies that I draft and I put in my rookie slot. Yeah. I take credit for another guy. Pete Croarm. Shocking discovered him. Yeah. Pete Croarm Street. Pete Croarm strong was another one of my minor league slot guys. And then

I had him for two seasons. And I was like, this guy's not going to pan out. So I let him go last season and it comes out and it's like, oh, wow, this is one of the best players in baseball. That was a mistake. Him at him last year. The two worst guys I decided not to keep. Pete Croarm strong. Cal Raleigh. Both of them on my team the year before that I could have kept. And Cal Raleigh was a free agent pick up that would have cost me a 20th round pick. And I was like, oh, God,

a year from health season. But I think they've rated the ship. And they have the guy that's an arminer league system in the L. Keeper League. Kate Anderson, waiting to potentially come up. I mean, they're in their division is win a bull. They could be a playoff team. They're 500. They'll be fine. We were wondering, you know, world baseball classic. That was looking like the biggest loser of the world baseball classic was the mariners. They're all fighting with each other

saying that they didn't care about win the world series. No, it really was. The signs were there.

“Now, but I think they read the ship. They're okay. All right. There you go. Good cocktail. I like the”

baseball cocktail part of gimmick. I did just take some tidbits for us. Drop them around at a wedding bar mitzvah graduation party 50th birthday dinner 30th birthday dinner. Whatever. Good to see you Thank you. Thanks for having me. All right. Jay skits up saying we're taping this on a Thursday afternoon

before Nick's hawks. It was too risky to do it after Nick's hawks. I just never know what that

team. Although you got to be feeling pretty good. We're going to talk about them. So feeling good right now. But yes, you never go. Oh, Jay and Adobe rising up the rankings of most popular next. Yeah, shits happening. Shits going down. The focal point. Grant that Delvarado some things are happening. Okay. Yeah. Survivor 50. Yeah. An absolute tour de force of the season. We have now nine people left. We had a two-hour episode last night that there I say was one of the best best episodes

in the recent history of the show. We had a Mr. Beast cameo. We had an unbelievable coin flip.

“You're a historian of the show. Where did that one rank on the on the great episodes?”

You know what? I mean, it's up there. It's historic, as Rizzo said, where we saw things

in this episode that we've never seen before. And I was, you know, I think

with regards to the Mr. Beast cameo, like a lot of long-time survivor fans. I had a little trepidation about that. But he made it about the competition, which was really cool. And the twist was really interesting. You know, the way they had, he brought this coin that you could flip. And if it came up, the called side, the person who flipped it is say, it gets immunity is safe. And the prize pot for everyone for whoever wins survivor doubles to to two million failus are out.

So, you know, Devon stepped up. And I think that was probably the right call because it seemed like Devon's was going to go home. So why not? Great call by him. Great call for the new increase to prize pot. I've had an issue about this for a long time. This show started in 2000. It was a million dollars. Yeah. So I don't know what inflation is from 2000 to 2026. But feels like we could have bumped that up anyway. It's been between three and five percent. So, yes, I agree with you. We should have been

two mil should have been popping up. Two mil should have been. We're cutting costs like it's a shorter game now. They're on the island for less amount of time. Let's pump it up, get the stakes, get the juice flowing. And you can see that everybody was excited about it except for Joe, who when his arch rival Devons hit and was immune did not even flinch. No, did not did not look excited about it. You know, it's funny. I mean, the edit can obviously shape some of this as you're

watching it. But yeah, I was completely 100 percent convinced. A that Devons was going to be the one to flip the coin. Like that's just his personality and then B. I really thought he was going to hit it. Like it almost made me want to go to Vegas with him and just do for that. Like you to succeed at any sort of gambling like that. You really have to have that irrational confidence and

exuberance always works in Vegas. So when when he was like, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do

heads because my kids love Mr. Beast. I was just like, yeah, he's going to fucking get this. He really is. It was interesting, you know, because I was wondering, would anybody else try and convince somebody else to do it in their own, I was a little surprised that Joe either didn't take it on himself, or try and convince a Stephanie or Jonathan, somebody in their alliance to do it or somebody Aubrey, so many completely like, I guess Aubrey was their backup. So that was kind of why they

were chill about it. Yeah. But you know, because the ultimate nightmare for that alliance is Devon's hits, which is what happened. Yeah, but Stephanie should have been the other one that threw herself into this because the Shevon's hit that she's out. I don't care that you have your steel. You're

“both thing. You should guess what. You're now going to lose 8 to 2 instead of 9 to 1. You're losing.”

Steph, not a, not a wartime, console Erie figure. She put some things in motion, you know, throwing names out throwing series alliance out and then the second that leaks out is Anna and every move

where Rizzo's like, just stand behind it. You said it or did you say it? You put out names, survive people throw out names, say you threw out the name and just stand behind it, but she couldn't even do that when Devon's put everybody's business masterfully a master stroke to put everybody's laundry out on the table and say, this is what's been going on. She couldn't handle it. Right. So she got pulled in. There were three people. She was pulled in as the fourth. And then she

mows it on over to see if she could get the majority votes. And everybody's entire season has made the fatal mistake of trusting serie at, at some point and being like, let me see if what's serie thinks and then it's like, that's it. You've just fucked yourself immediately. It's like going to see Bito Corleo and the godfather. Really? I have to say this is an all time like Devon's episode. I came away thinking it's a shame that this is only his second time back. Yeah.

And I hope I see him again and again, but serie her ability to like ride out the early heat because of her status as a legend and then just kind of lay back in the cut and pull strings. This is what the third time she's defended Aussie. Somebody somebody puts an alliance

“members name in her ear and she just immediately swings into action. How did they not know at this point?”

Here's an idea. Don't bring a possible Aussie vote to serie. It's not going to work. She's going to immediately slip your throat. It's done. It's incredible. I mean, it truly is the work of a black widow type strategist because for it to be as obvious as it is to us. And everybody, there's her all historians are the game. They know what she's done in the game. Yeah. And for nobody to suspect her or to have a threat level equal to the other people who they're targeting is

it's incredible. It's amazing. She's the type of contestant that I've always hated in this game.

The ones that just ride low under the radar, nobody sees them. They're the most dangerous ones. They're never going to win a challenge and they just get underrated over and over again. And meanwhile, she's been pulling the strings this whole season. She sees everything. She protects her alliance. Her alliance is somehow loyal to her. Nobody backstaps her goes after her. Nobody ever says, you know, she get out syringe. She's the most dangerous person in the game. She's

“fucking queen Cersi. Let's get her out. Well, I think the alliance thing is important, Bill,”

because that's what you need. The reason that people want to work with her is because if you are in that day, want to alliance with her as Aussie is, as Russo is, it's rock solid until the moment where real decisions have to be made. I mean, she's going to the mat again and again and again to defend people. Now, it's a strategy behind it is wonderfully selfish.

She's always thinking, like, what are the layers to get to me? If this person is out, the next person

is me. Like, if Aussie's gone, they're looking to me next. So I've got to protect these layers around me. But the way she goes about it, where nobody ever thinks, gets real and Aussie and her alliance to your point, it's certainly not on the horizon right now, but they would betray her, not right now. One of the keys to this game, it seems to be is not to be the one that's starting the vote idea. You really want to be the one who gets brought to you when there's like four or five in motion,

and then you take that information and then use it against the people who came up with that idea and that's the move. You never want to be the active voter outer. You want to be like the receptor to the vote. Right. You want to be like, "aggressive," with a great return of serve. Totally. This is what Steph tried to argue at tribal, but I think Devon's, again, this guy, he's okay out of it, but so strategic about it, willing to take big risks. The thing I loved about his

put everybody's business out there, here's what Jonathan said, here's what Steph and he said, here's what he also said, and you know what, I threw Rizzo's name out, because otherwise, it's totally not credible. That's what makes what he said credible. Yeah. And they were scrambling after that, 70 then tried to say, "Yeah, but I didn't start with the name," which is like, come on. Well, her move should have been, look, there were three people sitting on the beach. Right.

They came to me and I swear on my parents' lives that they brought up Isaac's name. Like,

that's always the move. If you know you have the truth behind you, you have to basically swear on

“somebody back home, which I think a lot of people are afraid to do, but that's what I would have done.”

I swear on my kids, I'm just having a nice little walk. I just peed in the ocean, come on back in. My three friends are over there and they're like, hey, what if we voted out

two other people. I did not start this. It was those people right there. On my kids. On my kids, my parents, the New York Dicks. That's it. On my dog, Donna, on Jalen Brunson, Carl Anthony, sounds and the New York Nicks. I also Josh Hart in there. I did not bring up Isaac's name. I just

think when you act panicked. Steph has this. It's over. It hurt a weakness in her game and it's always

been a weakness in her game as she can't lie with a straight face. Yeah. So we kind of called it out. She's begins getting shifty. She's looking all around. She's like, yeah, three said she didn't make eye contact with me. You know, that's a tough one. And three, it's like that Hannibal lecture thing when he ate the nurse and his blood pressure never came up. Right. She's like that. And if you are going to tussle with her, you've got to have that level of calmness about you. And Steph

really didn't. And what's interesting to me is I, is her alliance were part of the unanimous vote

“to vote around. So does that mean like the trust and honor alliance, the anti-lying alliance?”

We hate lying. We hate Rick Devons and his tricky ways. Does that mean it's like, it must be completely dead at this point. Right. Well, that's the thing about that's so interesting about survivor is these to watch the 50 where it's a lot of the best people that have played the of the history of the game. Some cases have relationships with each other. And they know how to lie and cheating still and do all this stuff you do. But then you have this human arm and two that

comes in when it's like, we have a letter from home. And then I'll sit in their fucking jelly. And then you know, they're in five seconds later. They're just these political animals trying to assassinate and crush each other. And then it's like, here's the letter from from your dad.

I've been seeing him for 15 days. I always get mad at this. I always say to my wife because

my wife always gets choked up during this because she gets choked up itself. And I'm like, I would never cry. I'm sorry. We'd probably end up like getting separated because you'd be upset that I didn't cry when I got my letter from you. I just wouldn't. It's not a long enough time. This is, this is exactly, I said the exact thing to my wife. I was like, if I was on survivor and they were still doing the family visit, I just be like, hey, what's up? Gameface. Like, I'm,

“I'll see you when I get back. Hopefully with the million. The only thing that would maybe”

cry, if it was a letter from Patriots Coach Mike Freable, Bill, to some stuff happened. I just wanted to prepare you now for when you come back. Our season is now a chip, a stat would have made me cry. That's about it. And no family member would have gotten to me. What did you make of Joe's hatred of Rick? I've just loved the rivalries that have happened. Like, the absolutely inexplicable Aubrey Genevieve beef, which I don't even understand why that came from. It just like they

appeared on the beach together, walked away. And next thing, you know, they absolutely hated each other. Yeah. Joe and Rick, I get, and the thing I like about it is it's like a style makes fights type of situation where Rick really is a master manipulator and oily guy like the fake idol hidden by the fire, all the plotting and thinking ahead, whereas Joe is just like, you know, my word is

bonds. I'm going to be a honorable guy out here. I'm never going to tell a lie ever. And so that makes

it very compelling. Yeah. But I'm also like frustrated by it. I'm like, why did you come on this game if you just never want a lie? Yeah. And does that make it less likely he gets voted out or more? If somebody is just completely honest at all times, does that make it more of an asset to just keep around until there's like five left? Yeah. Yeah. You can just read him down. You know that, okay, well, Joe is Joe's not going to cross his alliance. And I probably know where I stand with

“Joe. And if Joe catches me being tricky, he's going to come after me immediately. Yeah, I think you”

keep Joe around because that's the challenge threat thing makes it complicates it. But he's very readable. I think an MBA coach should try this in the playoffs. Here's our defense of strategy. And here's what we want to do on offense. Here is where you do guys. We're sure a lot of three tonight. At the Jonathan is the one, there's these prototypes that always work on these shows. Jonathan, as as the big muscular guy, so then the theory is, well, he's dumb. I don't have to worry

about him, but he's not dumb. He's been actually one of the smarter guys in the game. And I don't know if it's the editor, whether they're actually not seeing it, but he seems like it's really feels like him and Sereer and the most control. And then Rick Devons as the wild card chaotic guy seem to have the most sway over the game right now, I would say. And then the other one is riso, just because he's so happy to be there, such a fan of everybody, such a delight at all times.

I could see that I think the way the jury is stacking up right now. Rizzo would really have to argue the hell out of the thing if he gets there because there's a generational gap that's happening. And I could see the jury being like, I don't want to hand this kid too much. I was going to talk to him about that said, I've really been impressed by his game. This season, the self-awareness, the consistency of the happiness. And just to, yes, he's just so

honored to be there, like, and it feels real to me. I don't know. Unlike, can I just say like, why did Aubrey come on this game? She's, she's picked it up lately, but my name's Faber. For like 70% of the episodes thus far, she looked like she got called into work on her day off, and that she's here now, and she's like, doesn't want to be here. She's like every time they even,

like every time they go to her, there's never, she doesn't seem gratified, never seems happy about anything

that's going on, is like kind of gritting her teeth through it. You actually saw her at one point, like really like a very strange contrast, and to your point about Jonathan, he's showing the strategic side that it was unclear that he had his first time through. Like he saw that asian surreal close.

“Like he called that out, and I think that was good targeting by him. Yeah, and he's spotted a couple”

of these people. Yeah, they don't really know what to do with Aubrey as a character to your point. So the, when she's doing the auction, I don't know what the auction dollars were this year, but it just seems like everybody could buy everything, and she got the mac and cheese, and she's like, this makes me think of my kids and starts getting choked up, and you can see the producers are like, finally, we got something closing on her even the mac and cheese, she might cry.

What do you think would have happened if everybody would have spent their money? And here comes Mr. Beast, and nobody has money to bid on the, like, would they just be, I, sorry, Jimmy, Mr. Beast, everybody spent their money on grub worms and choked up choked cookies. It's so you got to fly back. What, what was the move in that it happened? What if he had had, like, here's my offer. It's two straight weeks of immunity, highest bitter winds, and nobody had

money left, because they were buying, like, chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, I, I didn't understand

really, first of all, did they have $500? I don't even know if Jeff never said what the number was,

and then the move is just going immediately on food. But my wife and I always talk about, like, don't, like, don't get the milkshake. You're just going to be shitting your brains out in the woods for, like, five days. You're going to deal with for 20 minutes, and then you're going to feel terrible for the rest of this thing. You might have to buy cookie. You might have to buy cookie. Yeah, chocolate chip cookies, another one. I'll do the heroin in the cookie. Jeff, Frank, sounds great. The cake. Right.

The chocolate report was actually, like, a decent idea. Yeah, cake terrible, um, chocolate report to get meat. She's some bread. Like, I can sustain that. But cake. Cake is, is crazy. It's like, 10,000 calories of pure sugar. You're going to eat that after eating

“rice for two weeks. It's really, although three did, did throw up. But remember, they used to give”

these to do beers. I remember, like, rupert at one point. Right. They gave him, like, eight, nine, ten beers, which is. Right. Yeah. That's crazy. Not a great idea. The other highlight of the

auction was, uh, Jeff caught a whiff of serene. Jeff is always coming in, like, from his, like,

fancy, glamping camp. So the odors of everybody really must be, he must be like, wow, get a little, get a little strong in here. Um, sorry. So we have nine left. We have Devon's as a big Jonathan Joe, or the men. Surrey Aubrey Emily, who is my other lace favorite. I just every week hoping she gets voted out. No, no, no real reason. Just kind of ready for her to go. Well, you don't like the way she just gives up everybody's secrets. Yes. As soon as they tell her

and she's that, like, that's shifty. She, she's like a dead poet society. She's the guy who you know

“is going to turn on Noanda. Tiffany. Tiffany and, oh, Rizzo's the other guy, too. Tiffany, I think”

has had a strong comeback. I agree. But we have to do an MVP ballot with nine people left. Okay. To me, clearly, on my ballot, number one, I don't think there's the same kind of controversy of SGA versus one-beverse Joker. I think this is more like a LeBron James 2009 type season, Devon's has been out of his mind. I think he has to be MVP the fake, the fake idol, the fact that he pulled that off and then didn't tell anyone for two more episodes. And then just casually,

just a fucking fake with Joe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that, look, it's nothing. And then how eager

be MVP so far. I'm going to pitch a haircut on that. Okay. My MVP is the Devon's Joe rivalry. I just, oh, it's, it's, it's so exciting, right? It's like almost, it's almost magic bird. It's almost that kind of thing because it's, again, it's two different approaches to the game. One is out there, risk, crazy chaos, plotting. The other one is like rock solid. My word is bond. You can trust me. Yeah. I'm going to leave here and live my life the same way. I lived my life

in the game. That's who I am. And it's, it's just so compelling to me. Every, it's just the hatred, like who's is out of them. Whenever one of them is speaking, I mean, especially Rick. Whenever Devon's is saying stuff and they cut to Joe, Joe looks like he wants to set Rick on fire. And I, I love it. It's so good. All right. My number two MVP is Siri. Yeah. Who I just don't understand

“how she has this much power. I think she sat out at least four challenges.”

Probably more. Yeah. She just, everybody is completely indebted to her afraid of her and sucking up to her at all times. It's unclear why. Every time somebody crosses anybody she likes, it's immediately over for them. And I, it's like watching, uh, I don't know, like a high school, high school class president who actually knows how to work the class and get all the shit they want, make themselves prom queen. And I don't know how she's doing it. Yeah. To me, it's like,

imagine, it's like, it's like if I saw a saw or Thompson had a jumper. Imagine if she was a physical threat. Right. Yeah. For get it. The fact that she is doing this with no physical ability, what's that? Nobody's sweating her in a challenge ever. And they would really have to rig it.

Right. Like in Joe's first season, I'll just say it was very notable that we never saw a puzzle

with Joe until the end. They let him go on a run of five, six challenges. No, and then finally got a puzzle and it was like, oh, yeah, very clearly playing to his strengths. They'd have to rig it with her. But man, if she had that part of her game, I, I completely agree with you. She is my second also. She is just pulling the strings and nobody's looking at it. Well, I wonder if she did have that part of the game. She'd be more obvious as a threat. It's almost like part of what makes her a threat

as she's lying there under the radar. And if you feel like, wow, she'll never win a challenge. Well, there's a window, right? Because if she can survive the first two episodes, then she's, she's going to lay in the club. Because the first thing you do when you get to the out and you can't, you go, let's get her because if she sticks around, she's too dangerous.

And if she survives that part of it, and she always does. Yeah. She's going to be there.

“But that's what I don't understand about this season. What you just said they did to Mike White,”

they were like, you got to get him out. He's two minute below the edge. He has like the special patlets. Let's dump them. So, reason this is the fifth time she's been on the show. We know, we know what this is now. This is, you know, she's like an MBA star who said five all MBAs are ready. Like we know what we know what this is. And they're completely dumbfounded by this. Maybe Mike's, maybe Mike's big error was the fact that he came and shredded. Like he had been

to Barry's boot camp and has been taking each other whatever it was. And it's like, now you're like, oh God, he's got that. He's got the skill. He's got the tools. And he's in shape. Let's get him out. My number three MVP is Rizzo. I think he's a great proxy for the fans and people who really love this show and love all the twists. And, you know, the one of the big gimmicks with this

“year is the fans in the neighborhood of the side, some stuff, which I honestly, Adam Silver's got”

to really think about for MBA. Like, the 202627 season, the fans decide, oh, this year, the one seed now has a two, two, three home court advantage. We just had the fans just get to run one season. I think it would be the smartest thing the NBA ever did. I would agree with you, but I'm going to pitch it haircut on that. I'm going to go with my third MVP is Jeff Probst. Oh, I agree with you with Rizzo. He's the prototype of the type

of contestant and type of fan base that Jeff has been openly courting for years now. He's always

saying, are you 16 and 17 years old? You love to rivalry? Why don't you try out? Send us a postcard. Send us your tape and we'll get you on. But it's the thing you said. His willingness

what are the people who love this show want to see? And how can I work that in? I think that's really smart. How about how about Jeff Probst for Commissioner of the NBA? I'd love to see it.

I don't think anyone, and I always feel like they're VO editing him after, and then they're

really not because when they're doing these challenges and stuff, he's always in real time doing play by play like he's like Mike Green. So my wife, she was Jeff Probst lives it. I guess somewhere now I but he belongs to the same tennis club as my wife. And my wife was pulling out of a parking space and Jeff Probst was waiting for her to pull out. So he could pull in the parking space and she could see him. And so she told me, like Jeff Probst was pulling the club. So I was like was Jeff

narrated in the parking space and going, and Carrie is pulling out of the parking space and here's Jeff pulling into the parking space. And he started into his herds. Like this, he just did two turns. Don't give up now, Corey. Can you make the turn and one turn? Can you do it? She's going to the overhead camera now, and now she's looking back at the mirror. Here he is. He has pulled in and now

“is turning up his car. Does he just practice this all day? How does he do it? Or does he just turn it on?”

He's on and out. It's muscle memory by now, right? I mean, you're talking 20 plus years. What

are you doing this? Yeah, I think that's a really good third MVP choice. But what is season? Who's

going to win in your opinion? I would, if I had to bet, I would like to see Rick Devons win. I would like to see Rick Devons or Surrey win, but I think Devons in this order. Devons, Surrey long shop because of the challenge nature of the competitions come. And then Rizzo third with his negative being, I think he's really going to have to pitch it to the jury. But those three, I'd like this, I think could do it. I think Devons finally gets voted out because the other guys and ladies are

going to realize he's done too many great things this season. And he's going to win if he gets through jury. But I think he wins with that people's choice vote that they when the extra money for best

contestant of the year. Like sometimes they'll do that. They have like the $500,000 prize for

right. There's there was a, see a the pop star, see a used to give money to whoever she liked. Not sure she's doing that anymore, which made me worry about. This is Mr. Beast comes back. He loves him a lot of people. Yeah, but Mr. Beast is the flow in and money. Yeah. So why doesn't he

“should pick up the slack there? So I think he wins that, but I don't think he makes the final three.”

I think it's going to be Surrey. I think it's going to be Rizzo. And I think it's going to be Tiffany. Interesting. Because I think they have the game and everybody else figured out the best and Tiffany can win some of these challenges and hang around. And I think the guys are all going to turn on each other would be my guess. I think if it's Surrey Jeff will break down in tears. Because he is, it's been very notable the last few times she's been on the show.

She noticed, you know, very famously got voted out because of a crazy idol play that Boomerang on her by her allies. And when the has happened, he's this guy. He, he loves a Hall of Fame legend. Yeah. He really does. Like a send off. If she wins it, Ben, I mean, it's going to be, it's like dirt 2011 or something. Like it's just one of the greatest runs we've ever seen. Seven of great season. I'm just glad coaches out. I did that one. You know, like, I don't.

I really don't. If I was on the island with coach, I would just think we got to get this guy out. He's driving me crazy. What is it that IQ? Is it the Tai Chi? What specifically? What's

“more annoying? Like, honestly, he's in that sagal Van Dam kind of area territory of self-parity.”

Like, he's the last one who does a real as it. Yeah. So I think Tiffany has been impressive. And I think with the edit, they're sitting them up. And I think the next step here is for the guys to start taking each other out. Kevin, it's coming soon. Jovers Jonathan and maybe Rizzo's the only one that survives. But they can also have control over this with some of the challenges. If they have like, you know, when they when they really want to get rid of

some of the guys or potential of the guys, they'll do like the stand on a pole and your feet can barely fit on it. And they do that one. Like, there's a couple of ones they can do to rig it a little bit. As I said, if they want to get Joe out, they could do it any time with, yeah, with some sort of puzzle that involves spelling. He'll be gone. And much respect to Joe, he's he was like a very nice guy.

your go-dad. I'm going to go devins. I think he's going to be choppy waters in this very next

“episode. But I think if he survives it, very dangerous guy. Legendary performance by him. What a”

just an all-timer. On way to second, your new podcast with the ringer, which has been excellent,

you covered the White House dinner. And the concept of assassination attempts immediately delving into conspiracies with our own brand Curtis. The most journalistic guy we have at the ringer. So this is a good podcast. I can't wait to listen to it. Yeah, check it out. What does it mean for our current

“reality that so many people are so willing to accept that certain things like the most recent event”

that the White House correspondent's dinner was potentially staged. We talked about that with Curtis.

He was fantastic on it. Check it out. What's my next one going to be for my next video? Yeah, killer. I've got the research packet. I'm compiling it. All right. Week after week. We're just waiting for the moment to drop it. Maybe in July when some of the anniversaries of the murders

comes up or just on the summer. I can't wait. We might have to do it there in the middle of a

“next Celtics playoffs series. That's how it planes out as part of the healing process for us.”

Yes, I'm ready. Zodiac. Be there. All right. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you. All right. That's it for the pod. Thanks to Bihoni and Jason and the Duke Billy Gill. Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo as well. New rewatchables coming for you on Monday. We did there's something about Mary to kick off a comedy month on the rewatchables. Netflix is a joke as well. You can find all the movies that we're going to do at May. They're on Netflix as well.

Starting on May 1st for a lot of them. I'm going to be back on Sunday with Zach Low after whenever the latest Sunday playoff game is. I assume we're probably going to get a game seven on Sunday. But we will see have a great weekend. Happy birthday to my daughter and I will see you on a Sunday night. Must be 21+ in present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18+ in present in DC, Kentucky, or well. My game problem caught 100

gamble or 1-800 my reset. Call 888-797777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org and Maryland. Hope is here visit gamblinghubline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support Massachusetts or call 877-8 Ho and why or text Hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 877-770-787-67.