Steph in Purgatory, a LeBron Mini-Mailbag, Jaylen Trade What-Ifs, and the Revived Red Sox With Joe House and Bill’s Dad

We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network where I had an unexpected Friday podcast. If you missed it, LeBron picked the sixers. I had Zach Low coming on anyway to read draftables for this podcast, but we're running all of it on Friday.

“So if you wanted to hear our gut reactions to that, that's what went up on Friday, exacted”

it's up on his podcast as well, rewatchables obsession live on Netflix at 7 o'clock Eastern, 4 o'clock Pacific, it's going to be me and Chris Ryan and Joanne Robinson, who is fresh from Comic Con, can't wait to talk about that movie.

It is the first same year movie we've done for 2026.

I'm sure we're going to end up doing the Odyssey at some point, but we try to do one movie from the year itself every year and this seemed like a good one. There's been really fun movie to talk about. I loved it, so that is tomorrow's stay tuned for that. Coming up on this podcast, House of Agra and talk about the losers of the LeBron saga.

And then I have a big ass mail bag with a lot of good questions, so thanks to everybody who mail them that stuff. And then, after House, my dad finally agreed to come on three weeks after the Jailum Brown trade was so mad about the Jailum Brown trade refused to come on. And now he's going to finally come on and we're going to talk about the state of Boston

“sports at the, for the last 35, 40 minutes of this podcast.”

So, it's a little Sunday surprise for you. I know I said I was going to have a podcast on Sunday, but we're going to do it. I'm not sure about the rest of the week yet, so stay tuned on now. You might not be seeing me until next Sunday, but we will see. Anyway, let's take a break, Pearl Jam, and then my buddy Jo has.

This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by PayPal. You know, a clutch move and you see one, a no look pass, a buzzer beater, a big steel. Well, imagine if you're wallet could pull off moves like that. That my friends is PayPal right now. You can find offers from hundreds of brands like Sony, all birds and vieter, and save

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apply, see PayPal.com/rewardsterms, credit card points, subject to issuers, terms and conditions. , you like to meet, I like Darlay, I'm happy for both of us. There we go, and I'm happy to have baseball back in my life. Washington hasn't been competitive since 2019 when they won the World Series, and they weren't supposed to be competitive this year, which is why they have a historically bad bullpen.

Yeah, but really bad. I saw it when they put the red socks, you didn't have a single guy. You enjoyed it. Yeah, you saw it. You enjoyed it.

Yeah, we made a trade. It's good baseball. Let's go. We're going to do a mail bag, but before we do that, I want to talk about a little brown signet to filly happened on Friday, and I wanted to do a quick thing about the biggest losers

from the little brown signing.

Who do we'll hold on second?

That's more. Let me get a little one up here, too. It's a little warm. Oh my god, I didn't know they actually sold those, I thought that was a joke. Well, now they need to do the Kale Wilson, Jiz room one, and they'll really be cooking

to what it's a lie. That was a fun one, because that got aggregated in a way that made me sound like a psycho, which I kind of enjoyed. I could get it. I tried to make a joke about how excited the both fans were, and then I was trying to make

the laugh, but then all of a sudden I'm going to, it was something I knew. It was something I knew. A Dracula graded. I love it.

As you know, it was a good, the first, the Lebron saga.

Biggest loser in your opinion. I have a list. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven losers. Who is the biggest loser of the Lebron saga? It's close.

It's close. But I'm going to say the Golden State Warriors in specificity.

“That's why I had number one, see, this is why we wave length.”

I mean, Steph Carter had as number one loser.

And ownership didn't help by coming out over the last handful of days and making a non-commit

“like were we putting Steph in NBA hospice, is that what we're doing?”

It's his last chance for relevance and it's gone. I wrote down, it is the saddest older NBA superstar situation since 2011 Nash on the Sun's in 2007, Garden App before he got traded to Boston. Of just guys now in Purgatory who clearly have more to offer and it's not going to happen. There's just a couple of pieces to this.

One is, why didn't they trade for Jaylom Brown? They weren't interested. They weren't interested. They were like, they didn't even counter. That was when the Celtics were Camus in the League doing the Jaylom FireSale, which I'm

going to talk about my dad later, where's by all accounts, both sides, just not interested for Jimmy Butler's expiring and some picks. And the irony is if they do that, I think Lebron goes there. Right? I mean, the stories of Lebron playing golf with Drainman every single day in Los Angeles,

those are true and not only are, you know, from sources on the ground, our own Nathan Hubbard observed it with his own two eyes. Right. Right. So, there's so many things I don't understand them about that.

One is like, who did the Warriors think they were going to get with Jimmy Butler's expiring

and first-run picks, if it wasn't Anthony Davis or Jaylom Brown?

And why are you so desperate just to waste the end of the, of the Steph era? You already did this. You held on a wiseman and coming to too long. Right. Do they just think maybe Steph can't be the best guy in a championship team anymore, 22

can never happen again. So, even stacking the deck, they have no chance against San Antonio, no KC. Isn't it, isn't he entitled to find out?

“Well, he's never, the best thing about him is he's like Duncan, he's never going to”

bitch about this. Right. He's just not, he's not going to do it on his behalf, well, we'll bitch on his behalf. I think it's outrageous, he saw it in the Olympics, like this is somebody who should have more relevant basketball moments than it shouldn't be in a playing game.

And I don't know what they're doing. I don't understand Butler's not helping them this year, even if he comes back, it's not like he can play a 40 minutes game. It's almost like they know they're going to get their money from Steph for the season tickets and the suites.

They make the most revenue in the league. They make more revenue, I think I think they make more than the next two from their situation with the stadium and the tickets and everything, so it's like they don't want to live the afterlife of, oh, we gave all this stuff away to have Steph have one last run and didn't work out.

I would have traded for Davis. Well, the only feasible and reasonable explanation is that they think that keeping their powder dry now gives them an opportunity once the season gets going and we can do a ranking at some point. We are in these summer months of who are the top three or four guys that will be discontent

and malcontent over the first third of the season that the war is controlled to be a long list. Yeah, because you look at the conference odds on Fandel, they are, let's say, San Antonio Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota, Houston, Lakers, Golden State is seven best odds to win the conference at 27 to one.

And honestly, I would book that bet right now with, because I don't think there are moves left. Is there like a Durin sign-in trade move? I don't know.

Anyway, Steph will never say it.

And maybe he doesn't care. He won the four titles. He got his 22 title. He wants to end in the Bay Area. And you see it when San Antonio made that run and Dunkins there, Manu, and you know, when

you go start to finish with a team like that, you're just there for your whole life. And maybe that's all he wants and doesn't care. Very fair. You know, it's not fair. Not fucking trading anything.

You and I feel the same way. What would you have traded Davis for as a waspan? What would have commanded your attention from Golden State? Yaxel and Picks. I would have taken Yaxel and Picks.

“So you want to take in the Butler expiring and you have to take the Butler expiring.”

That's the. But you've taken like requirement for the money 2931 and a 30 swap, something like that. No, Yaxel. I don't know. I mean, Anthony Davis doesn't really play basketball.

The problem is, you need a commitment from Jimmy Butler to do some mentoring.

This team is super. This Washington team has a very rosy picture of the mentoring role.

Davis is going to play. We'll see. And he's got to do a little more. Yeah. I thought trading for not trading for Jalen was irresponsible.

My next loser was Jalen Brown who could have been the guy in Brooklyn and Milwaukee. To have gone to Golden State could have gone to Charlotte could just stay in Boston. But clearly was feeling it.

And now he's the fourth option on the sixers trying to figure out how to be like basically

they're do it all big minutes. Okay. I'll take over these three minutes in the third quarter. But, you know, the fourth scoring option on this team, basically. Right?

I. You think this is a matter of. I think this is a matter of. I think it's a matter of. Yeah, he's been just being a by anyway shape or form.

I think you are in the first place.

“I think he's going to get the extension that he wants.”

So that makes it clear. I do. I love it. He gets that. He's out the loser list.

I would find that the hard press to think they're going to pay him max in Edgecom, max contracts.

I think that's part of the calculus for bringing him in. But more importantly, in terms of the basketball proposition, I don't know that I really agree with this idea that he wanted to be the lead guy on a team. His expression of enthusiasm for the way that this particular Celtic circumstance played out to me doesn't extrapolate into this is what he wants in his basketball career.

It was a unique circumstance. He was really good. He played a great role in dragging a team that was forecast to be much worse into a superior position and how fun is this that he's about to embark upon the situation in Philadelphia.

They are the traveling road show. Everybody in America can't wait to see them. Hopefully good points, you know, the Brown and being complacent games on the road for some of these high-wattage matchups. But you think you're just going to enjoy his 18.2 usage rate this year?

It's fine. It doesn't matter. Winning is what matters. All right.

“So let's make these guys the second biggest losers.”

Miami. They got dick teased. Nice and hard. But the Brown and his camp. They really.

They have they had that eight and a half million spot burning a hole in their pocket.

And the other look at it. Bradley Bill, the board of the road said, well, that's those guys deserve eight and a half million. The Brown deserves 80 and a half million. But yeah, I almost said Miami is my number one biggest loser because there's nothing

they can do. They're so fucked. There is nothing in terms of assets, roster moves going forward. They just did it. They made a move.

Yeah. That was it. Right now. So they're still seventh, 13 to one, seventh best odds to win these. That feels right.

Yeah, it's interesting. I'd have Indiana over them, too. Right now, it's next plus 320 all the way through Filly, Boston, Toronto to trade Cleveland 12 to one. Miami is 13 to one.

Indiana's 14 to one. Okay. I mean, that's fair. Like if I gave you a choice, bet on the conference finals, you can have Miami or Indiana.

“Are you ever taking Miami over Indiana under no circumstances?”

Yeah. Would you take a land over Miami? No. No. You've got to see Franz Wagner play, you can take a land at 21 over Miami?

That price, I might because Atlanta is not done. Atlanta is trying. They have done a really interesting job in terms of building a team and it feels like the ceiling is pretty high, 20 to one is kind of a good price to my opinion. Because they have room to do other stuff.

Yeah, they have room to do stuff. I have to say, at gunpoint right now, I would have Nick San Antonio, the rare finals rematch. Oh, how great would that be? Yeah.

Somebody asked me that this weekend. Who do you think would like fit to guess right now? Well, the finals being. I was like, I think it's I'm running back almost like Miami San Antonio in 13 and 14. I'm going to go on to the final matchup market.

It's probably not there yet, but I'll tell you what it is right now. Who do you want? Oh, Philly and okay see. Philly and okay see. That would be 111.

Oh, no way. No bad odds. No chance. Zero percent chances. No thank you.

Okay. I didn't. Miami forgot the part that it ended badly with a broadener and he won two titles there.

That's why he did this. I admire it. Great job by him.

“It was a title chase pick and Philly had more off of the Miami.”

My next loser is Philadelphia is a place to live and this comes from Jeff and San Francisco,

this email isn't the brown choosing Philly and then immediately declaring the need that he'll be living in New York City, the ultimate pool and upon the pond is good for you, moment catishack. Philly is some of the proudest dedicated fans and sports I can't imagine this will sit well with them.

I just wanted to read that email because Philly is definitely starting around. He doesn't even want to live there. He wants to live in like New Jersey in New York, settle down. Golden State in general as a loser. They have Butler coming back in March.

They have K.P. and Horford as their center combo. I don't trust either guy. Nope. Dream on up that out.

Now they're going to have to, you might just leave or off the up back in and they have no actual

point guard in the roster right now that I can find. You know who needs it back up center? The sixers, Dreamer likes playing golf together. Dream on on the broad. Dream on.

He's not. He's telling them money accumulation mode. Yeah. Understandable. Just the same.

I wonder if there's a, if there's some sort of K when they're in Dream on something. To see, you know, he went to college of Michigan. Would be fun on the pistons, put them in these. But yeah, the Golden State in general, I, here's my question. I know he doesn't want to get traded.

I know he wants to retire there. Are there curry trades you would entertain? Absolutely. Yes. I mean, I had this conversation last year.

It was on the table last year, really as soon as Jimmy Butler got hurt. Why wouldn't Golden State? I understand all of the economic impact that goes well beyond, you know, just playing basketball games. Well, the tickets are paid for this community.

But yeah, I mean, that's the most rational move. The most rational, the, the, the rational economic actor, the rational basketball franchise move is to trade Steph Curry. So undeniable. He's getting traded.

“Is he going for a ring or is it just he goes on to Charlotte?”

I don't think he's ever getting traded just for the record. I understand, I don't think he would be the better who knows. I think he would want to play with the competitive team. It's not, I wouldn't call it ring chasing. I wouldn't, you know, impute Steph Curry's motivations in that manner.

He would play with the competitive team, the same way that the bronze choice was the most competitive team according, you know, and not Minnesota. That's all. Can I throw that scenario at you? I'm listening.

It's not a ring chase. But what if saying Antonio with Fox and all of the picks they have just said, fuck it. And went to go and say, I'm like, we'll do Fox, you put, you put the picks together or any way you want for, for a couple years of Steph here. And when now we're trying to acquire 2024 Olympic staff and he goes to San Antonio and tries

to grab a couple more, it's pretty interesting. I mean, speaking of the traveling circus, it's already, San Antonio is already, you know,

“Musk's C when they come to your town, you have to go see them hoping that Wendy's going”

to play. Because people who say like, oh, they tried to make the Charlotte, he's not doing that. He's not winning anything and share that. But with San Antonio, who has Atlantis, first run pick, they have a swap with Boston, they have swaps with Dallas or Minnesota in 2030. They have a 2030 swap with Sacramento and they have all their first and they have other

stuff too. You know, I don't think they'd put Castle and they don't Harper. Those guys would not be on the table, but maybe Carter Bryant would be on it. But you think San Presti's working on the package right now? For Vicky has a staff package, like just so you guys know, I have a package.

I pressed his on a heater. He's, he, he loaded at Lanna. He loaded at Lanna. Yeah, he, he squeezed the window in her pick and then he squeezed Denver with that Spencer Jones thing. I love that. We've talked about that. I tweeted about this. We talked about this forever. Why don't teams try to screw each other over, right?

Just go for Chaywood during day one of free agency, just off from four years, 230 million

You're competing and saw these teams. You're trying to win a title. Um, couple more losers. Quick Cleveland. Yeah, left at the altar by LeBron for the third

time. I will always feel the rest of my life think that his plan was to go there and, um,

they, he was under the assumption, things would be able to change on the team before he got there. Nothing can change because they can't trade James Harden because they're willing to winquaint deal with them. Nobody wanted the other guys and he just wasn't playing for Dan Gilbert on the minimum. Okay. Yeah. From a basketball standpoint, much better chance to win

“a title in Philly than I think Cleveland, right? We agree in that. No doubt about that. I'd never”

like the Cleveland fit and then Brad Brad Stevens hadn't given Jaylin Brown away at the very first moment. He could come up with it. Brad Stevens is a loser. I have him and I have the Celtics who

basically traded Philly. Jaylin Brown on the Brown James for Paul George at two first. It's what he did.

Tough trade. LeBron to Cleveland makes more sense because Cleveland was in East and Conference final last year and then the narrative plays out a little bit better thing, LeBron, after the whole thing up. I have like a couple of stuff that fans of my life who saw the Odyssey and think that Jaylin Brad Philly tried as Trojan horse potential. Oh. Here's our gift. It's Jaylin Brown. Good. And then you'll get LeBron too. Listen. We're graduating for Strasse.

Keep enjoying those animals. Last loser have is the Lakers. This is an email from Peter and Orange County, California. Hi, Bill. You've spent a material amount of your professional capital fairly and unfairly dunking on the Lakers. Not untrue. The Lakers toss you a

Carmeline is meatball and you didn't even swing. The Brown signing for four million year at the

sixers is an enormous fail for the Lakers. When are we supposed to see the Mark Walters affect

“this feels like a continuation of the bus kids in their delusional ineptitude for Peter and Orange County?”

It is interesting. It does make you think like could they have played this LeBron thing better or which would be my theory. They clearly wanted it to end. Right? It feels like the January February. They were like, you know what? We're good with this whole LeBron thing. We've kind of had it. But they could have had Walker Kessler and Reeves and LeBron and to be fair, like LeBron did deliver a playoff series win for franchise as his parting gift. Like, it's not a small thing

that they beat Houston. Yeah, with with just Epping LeBron. I mean, it's stunning. It's a real indictment of Houston. It was a real indictment of Houston. Okay. Okay. But I, it's funny. I didn't see any of those games being replayed on NBA TV. It's like, oh, it's game three Houston Lakers. Oh, sit down. I mean, it's just rock fight. I didn't think the W NBA All-Star game was. That was, I saw the video. That was a rock fight. I'm speaking up. Yeah. I do wonder if there's a

what if with that though, if the rockets just win that series does LeBron.

“Even say that's it. Maybe I don't have it in LeBron to offer. I think I do think that gave”

him the idea that he could maybe be a bigger part of a championship team. It felt like to me no matter what he was going East. Yeah, taking in all the circumstances of the way that these playoffs played out. Yeah, give your victory lap on what you said on the podcast last week. You said he was going to Philadelphia. And I mocked you and made fun of you. And we bet dinner. Well, the victory lap is dinner. And this is the funniest thing. I didn't get a chance to

text our good buddies. Chang and Nathan, but you know where we're going. Now. We're going back to Capitol. That's the dinner. Mother, my God. Oh, my God. I mean, that's the increase. I kind of kind of card them. That's hilarious. A lot of rigor NBA people by the way. Day call man had it in early July. Even we're heamed the dream. We're heamed the dream had a dream. Dream was driving his card and had a vision. Both of those pre-seated me coming on your show and saying that I thought

it was going to go to Philly. But I'm the only one that that bet with you. So we're going to have a great dinner. I wish I had thought of the whole he could live not Philly in plain Philly piece. That would have at least because I was just no way. Philly gets fuck out of here. But he's clearly going to live in New York and then have some, I don't know, some nice condo and the Philly rits or wherever and he'll can stay there some nights or live in New York. But yeah.

in Philly, New Jersey and New York. Of course it gets to be cold and there isn't golf. But jumping

in the PJ and going down to West Palm and then knocking out all the bangers that are down there. Well, you got a shaggy grove. He could go to Charlotte. Right. Anyway, he go to Georgia. Yeah, tremendous golf. Short PJ ride it away straight down the East Coast. I have a mail bag. There's a lot of LeBron questions. So I want to take a break. Let's go. And then we're going to do a really fun mail bag. All right. Mailbag time. Thanks to everybody who sends in questions. I truly

appreciate it. It is BS podcast [email protected]. First one comes from Martin. He asks, "Like you, I want to see LeBron in Golden State." But it seems like he realized he couldn't win a ring there without staying tied with Steph. Any chance that was a disincentive to go there. This is something I heard for the last month about LeBron not wanting to go to Steph's team. Steph's

city. And now anytime I mentioned the expendables, people always poo pooed it because of that.

“I think he was going to go. The more we learned about this, he was going to the team that gave”

him his best chance to win the NBA title. And there was no other reason. I agree with that. I don't think that this notion of going to Steph's team was a disincentive. I think the idea of him coming. Those two guys joining forces of what a magnificent story. I don't think that he thinks about, you know, that it would be a coat tail's kind of situation. Yeah. So the three best teams of the league didn't want him. Oklahoma City, San Antonio, New York.

Right. So those three are up. He's never going to Boston. He hates Boston. It's not going to Detroit. So there's five teams. He decided couldn't win in Miami. They're out. That leaves Cleveland, Minnesota, Philly, Golden State. Minnesota's too cold. It's not going there. They're out. Cleveland can't trade hard. And he's not playing a minimum for Dan go over it. They're out. Golden State won't trade for AD and didn't trade for jail and Brown.

So from a pure, I want to win the title. Philly was the move. A great course. I realized that now I could have realized that five days ago. The fifth title. This, this, this, this, he took some ring chase abuse. I don't think it was

“fair because I think he loves playing basketball. I think a ring chase would have been going”

to San Antonio. Sure. Agreed. That's a ring chase or Oklahoma City. Those are the two ring chase teams for the next. He cut the gun to the mix at the price. He agreed to go to Pennsylvania. The next thing is to be like, did you want without you and we could have come here ten times. So it's a different next team. And we'll have the opportunity to talk this through. The impact of Mitchell Robinson not being on that team is it's not immaterial. It is material.

And they don't have an answer yet. I, you know, sort of trust implicitly, they got drumming. Okay. I mean, and they have a lot of bodies. One point. He does lead the NBA in offensive rebounding rate. This happened with the Celtics when we lost Posey. And even though it was probably the right move, he sounded like a five year deal in New Orleans. And I think was good for maybe another year and a half. And then his career kind of died. But we would add much better chance of

no-night if we had Posey, right? You had to make these decisions money wise and the second

apron or not. Next question's from Rob. It's a stethylated one. He asked for a conspiracy bill. Conspiracy bill has had a great summer. A lot of people checking in with him. What if LeBron was secretly being a double agent to the warriors to keep Steph stuck at four rings while he chases his fifth? Conspiracy bill looked at this one. I don't think I don't think LeBron's measuring himself

against Steph with rings or any of that stuff. So I'm going to pass on that one. I got another email. Oh, I accidentally deleted. I'm sorry I deleted. The person who sent this was asking if LeBron could win the assist title on Philly. So my bad for not giving you credit. It's a great question. I forgot this because I forgot everything that happened in 2020 because I don't remember one thing that happened that year. He won the assist title on 2020. Do you

“remember this? I did not remember that. He didn't want to assist a game on the letter saying that”

won the title. One the assist title. It wasn't by like, you know, an inch. He won by the next guy was like 9.3. So our leaders that year to semi down a rabbit hole, the 2020 leaders James Harden 34.3 points a game was the points later. Andre Drummond 15.2 rebounds a game

percentage fair odd threes 46.0. Can you guess who led the league in steels in 2020? You're not going to be able to so I'll give you the answer. No. Jimmy Butler. Ben Simmons.

Oh, amazing. So I tried to figure out that was the weirdest combination of people that

ever led the league in the major categories. Don't ask why, but I went through basketball reference and went through everybody. And I landed on 1978. Is that count? I knew you would see this. Yeah, there's some bullet involved. The only normal one was George Girve in 27.2 points a game won the scoring title made sense. He won like five or six scoring titles. Our rebounding leader was truck Robinson at 15.2. Let it truck Robinson. Good job, truck. Assists Kevin Porter,

former bullet 10.2. Ron Lee led the league in steels 2.7 and George Johnson was our black leader at 3.4. So if you're going to make a starting five of point steels rebounds assist in blocks and you make the weirdest starting five possible. It's 1978 George Girve and truck

“Robinson, Kevin Porter, Ron Lee and George Johnson. Is that even a game 35 wind team? What was that?”

Yeah, what was that 82 and 82? Okay. Yeah, that's a fun run. I see how many games I win. Who wins a series with them or drumming, pit and simmons? LeBron, white side and James Harden. They win in four. Yeah, sure. That's a sweet. Yeah. Nobody's beating. 2020 sweeps it. Yeah. All right. This is one of the best questions I've got all year from Leo and Seattle. I hope you get a basketball team soon, Leo. Who do you think will play more games for the 76er franchise

from this point today going forward? LeBron James or Joelle Mbeid? So from right now going forward, he says, let's say LeBron plays 100 regular season games at 16 playoff games over next two years. Well, Mbeid surpassed 116, not just for the next two years, but for the rest of his sixers career.

This is amazing. So Mbeid's last three years, 39 regular season six playoffs in 24, 19 total in

25, 38 and seven last year, put 109 total last three. So what's B. generous and say 45 regular season,

“they play the same amount of playoff games. LeBron's going to be 57 of 60. Yeah. That's why you”

can't win the assist title, by the way, he's not going to play it off games. Is that it 55 for the assist title? Oh, it's a bit low. Well, even if it's 55, I don't think the bronze playing 55. So who do you have? That's amazing. Rest of their career on the sixers also includes one of the guys can get traded, Joelle, get traded to your team tomorrow. Yeah. Yes. I think I take LeBron. I'm going to take LeBron. I am going to take LeBron. It makes a lot of sense for Filly to have

eyes and ears open to M. B trade deals. It really hurts me to say, but I listen to you, is that, and then I listen to Zach with Washington and CR, huh? Well, there is a type of logic to it. Again, it will not be a before Christmas of this upcoming season, because Washington

“wants Anthony Davis to play. See, I disagree. I think if it happens, it has to happen now,”

because if in beads playing and playing well, they're not going to trade them. And if in bead gets hurt again, they won't be able to trade them. But right now, we're in this kind of no man's land with it, where it's like, well, you look pretty good at the playoffs. Well, that is not going to be Washington. That's all. Okay. It'll have to be for somebody else. So you wouldn't take in bead and all the rest of their picks and file on, whatever they have left for

picks and file on and some swaps and for Davis, it's not enough. It's not up to me first of all,

because I might countenance that, but really, I really, I have my head around the idea of AD as mentor. I love this line out to Vegas. I love it. I love that. You have talked yourself into AD, somebody you've made fun of over and over again for that thing. I'm going to stay healthy. You, or Joel and Vegas forgot, or Joel and B, which one? You sent me a picture once. And I probably still have it of when they announced the NBA 75 and Anthony Davis made it.

And you were so upset, you ate like five races pieces bars. And you sent me a picture on the wrappers. And you said, I'm so upset, I just said off his shoulder bars. And that was on your team.

up in the top 70s. He's going to be a mentor for ice packs.

“Oscar from Kansas City had an in be LeBron question. He said, LeBron joined in the”

six years, feels a lot like Tom Brady going to Tampa in all-time legend signing with a completely new team. 2020 bucks were loaded, ready to contend, Brady brought them the leadership experience, made them shamps. Do you think this is a valid comp? I've seen this online a bunch of people mentioned it. I completely disagree. And I think it's insulting to Brady. Wow. Okay. Brady.

So I went back and I looked at my 2020 NFL prep for that year. Brady had the third best

MVP odds for that year. He had just been the best guy on a Superball team two years before. They're over under. People weren't a believer in the supporting cast. They're over under for wins. It was a 16 game season was eight and a half. They're plus 160 for their division. 10 one conference, 12 to one Super Bowl minus two 10 to make the playoffs. They went 11 and five there are underdogs in the last three playoff games. He won Super 1 VP. He won the MVP of the entire

“fucking league the following season. LeBron's not doing any of that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's why it's not”

a perfect plan. I have a good one. Okay. I'm listening. Well, another one I thought of was bread farm on the 2009 Vikes. Okay. But they went 12 and four with him. Yes. And they he throws the interception in the Saints. The bounty gate. He's probably got nine concussions in the same game. He was fourth MVP last year. That's not happened with the Bron either. So that's not a good one. Let me give you Montana and the chiefs. Oh, wow. Way back machine.

Goes there 93. They have Marcus Allen who ends up six MVP that year. They have Neil Smith and Derek Thomas. So we're two of the best defense supporters in the league. They had a really good team. And he was like the last piece. 10 to one Super Bowl odds a year. They go eight and three with them and he gets hurt. They make the AFC title game. Anyway, Dave Craig and they lose the Buffalo. And then the next year they go nine and seven lose to Miami and a wild card game. But to me, it feels like Montana chiefs.

“That's proud of that. I like that one. Yeah. He's like the last piece. He's not the piece. You know what I mean?”

Rob from Perth Australia. I like the Australian emails. Are the sixers now an

overbooked WrestleMania match down by 10 in the third hit the bronze music. He comes running

down chair and hand to whack runs in the back. Oh, the next you're back in it. He got just JB's eyes. Hidden beads music. It is funny. Like they do have an embarrassment of guys who can take over a game and make something fun happen. Yeah. I like that. Me too. I think the concept of that. All right. This is a multi-part question. This first one's from Nate from Richmond. Listen to the fight club rewatchables. Future means CR. And realize that the Tyler Darden's put

personality is reminiscent of how you talk about conspiracy bill. When someone invokes conspiracy bill in a mail bag, you act like he's a completely different person with his own agency and beliefs. He acts on his own accord and proposes that Dia's regular bill would not. I wanted to fight the UN conspiracy bill or the same person before he and Axe's own version of project mayhem. That is true. When I become conspiracy bill, I move. It's like Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Miyagi would talk

about himself and third person. Yes. He becomes a different person. Different person. Well,

Tim asks for conspiracy bills take winning the vote in Ohio, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania would net LeBron, 120 of the 270 electoral votes. Is LeBron gearing up for presidential run in 28? I mean, Pennsylvania would get him there. 120 still feels like he needs some work. Well, not a good governor Shapiro is taking some credit. By the way, Governor Shapiro said he was lobbying to get LeBron there. Governor Shapiro wants a victory

lot. Should we pour him a little settle down juice? You think he was doing the one swinging this one. He didn't have to be called. They were like, "come on, Shapiro, out of the basic idea that we should go after LeBron James with our free with our free edge of buddy." Now, we didn't really need conspiracy bills for this next one. From Mike from New Orleans, can I get conspiracy bills take on this new blazers owner? The league wants to get back to Seattle,

the expansion bank would be that much greater if the new owner knows they don't have to share the Pacific Northwest market with the Portland Trailblazers. This new blazers owner seems to be following the playbook owners take when they want to make their teams take their teams out of town and then blame the fans for making them do it, cutting costs, going more with communities, saying he needs taxpayers give him a new arena where we've seen this before. Oklahoma City,

expansion team instead of two and see how to rejoin ZMDA. This did get conspiracy bills attention.

I've been on this Portland thing. I had a guest schedule to mid-June. I was immediately fascinated by what was going on and then had to bump because there was so much basketball going on. So maybe I'll have that person on the next pod. But there's been a lot of like, "Hah!" where it just feels very familiar to the OKC situation and antagonistic unnecessarily. That's the word. That's literally the word. The paper work is the ink is barely dry and it is one

fuck you after another from the good people to the good people of Portland, like disrespect after disrespect, disrespect, and blame Adam and the league for you bring because this is very similar. I'm going to criticize Stern 20 years ago, which I did over and over again. I have to criticize Adam for this. They bring in the OKC group to buy the team from Howard Schultz and they were like, "No, we want to keep the team here in the moment they got it. They're trying to get it out of there

and Stern was complicit. It's hard not to think silver had no idea this was a possibility when the team didn't have a lease. They didn't have a lease in three years."

“Yeah, I think that the league was fully aware of the circumstances of Portland and the relationship”

with that state and the city and the community and it sure does feel expendable because we haven't seen one thing come down from the league. This feels like it's beyond posturing and gamesmanship and feels very fucky with us. I've said this, I said this on the last part, I'll continue to say this. I don't think the city should have to pay for jackshed. You know, I agree with that as well. Bullshit. Guys are all fucking rich. Build your own stadium. What are you doing? Why are you making

Portland's, by the way, that I can't say the city of Portland's been doing great that great the last 10 years. The last thing they need to do is send money toward a basketball arena. The people of Portland agree with you. This is where if our sports are one of my rules would be

if you win a title, you can never leave the city. So you'd be protected forever with Washington.

You win your their life unless the people vote you out. But yeah. So conspiracy bill, this would be this would raise the price of the Seattle team. If Portland was moving out

“and we only had one team in this whole corner of the world. Because I think they've had an easier”

time getting the biggest money than the Seattle money. Well, it's what do you mean raise the price? He's not paying expansion. I'm not talking about for him. I'm talking about for the Seattle expansion but I'm buying the Seattle team. And I know only game in town now. Yeah. And Pacific Northwest. Does this guy's blowtorching his Portland relationship? Right. I like the Blazers fans. This is brutal. It's happened. I agree. And I don't know why Adams not saying anything about it either. It is such a

breach of that social contract between the franchise. When you're the only franchise in town and the civic pride that comes from that right. And when you let somebody walk in and just take a shit on decades of that, that commitment by that community to that team. That's a bad luck, bro. And I mean, look, the track record here of what the league has done in admitting new owners. These fucking people down in Dallas, what they did. And right, we're right on the heels of that.

And this guy's going to come in and light Portland on fire. Fuck off. I really appreciate you not bringing the Celtics owner up there. Because I like him. But he could have been in the wrong hand, so he could have been thrown into that conversation. Straight in jail and brown for it. Give it some time. They won 56 games last year, at least. We didn't know. I, this guy, so it's funny because some of the stuff he's doing, I said this to Zack on Friday.

“Some of the stuff he's doing, I actually, you know, like, do we need 20 assistant coaches?”

Do we need to, do we need the overboard stuff? Like he's cutting costs and where it's like, all right, I can see his point there. But this is he's, like, he just gutted all the broadcast teams. He, I think he's got it. The coach predict he is a coach on a one-year deal. Nobody's ever done before. I think that's shameful. I think what he did to Mike and Nori was shameful.

Now, I mean, a million times out of a million times, Mike, I should say, yes, I do want to be

the head coach. Right. It's one, it's, there's 30 jobs. And now his is just a two-year deal. Why is that a

Phoenix, right, where he's one year and out and he's just gone, but gets paid for four. And this

“Mike and Nori only being, I don't know, I am going to my pledge to the people of Portland.”

I was, I tried to be an asset for Seattle and I didn't work in the team moved to 0708. I, I promise to use this podcast to shine a bigger spotlight on the situation over the course of the summer. Yeah, this is bullshit. Yeah. They won the 77 title on the 58th Anniversary is coming up and that's all that city should be talking about. They shouldn't be worried about this fucking night. Okay. Mitchell's sure word from Indianapolis. Oh, this is a good question.

Actually, let's take a break. This is such a good question. God damn, this is a good question for Mitchell Sherwood and Indianapolis, Indiana. What would be the best LeBron's sixers comp in 1999? If Michael Jordan's bulls imploded like they did, but he decided he didn't want to stop playing and he wanted to find

“basketball happiness somewhere else. Would it have been the 1999 spurs with Duncan as”

Baxy and Robinson as a bead? The answer is no. Oh, I did do the research. There's a really obvious pick

and he guesses. No, I'm not going to the mix. That would be that would be my next one. Ben and good guess. The 1999 Lancers. Okay. Remind me. Shack in your six, Kobe in your three, they had on the roster to start the air, Robert Horry, Eddie Jones, Rick Fox and young Derek Fisher. It's pretty good team. It was the strike season. They rolled the dice with Dennis Rodman, complete disaster. Midseason, they traded Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell for Glen Rice and J.R. Reed.

That's a fired Dell Harris after 12 games. That's right. They did do that. Really not a great coach. They ended up with Kurt Rambis and even worse coach. They made the playoffs. They beat old Houston team that had Pippin and Barclay and Hakeem on it. They beat them in round one. Round two swept, sent home pack up by the San Antonio spurs. Duncan 2911. So that team could have been Shack MJ Kobe Rice and Robert Horry as you're starting five and MJ Ring Chasing for a seven.

That's pretty good. They wouldn't who would like we would they need a coach though because it comes back if MJ is back in right? There we go. He's like I'm thinking about signing the Lakers and Phil Jackson's like I'm in speaking of Ring Chasing. Yeah. Would you have

held that against Jordan? That mean the bulls are basically like we don't want we don't want you know

or no no no no. He he more than anybody in you know modern basketball had the perfect out to go to a different team and try and compete. I mean I did a piece about this. The first summer of the ringer which was ten years ago I wrote a whole piece about how Michael Jordan didn't necessarily want to retire when he retired. It's a great point and I agree part of it was the bulls imploded that didn't want to back and he didn't really know what to do. Pippin wanted

money so he left immediately. He didn't really have a team to go to but then the other thing was he sliced his finger on the cigar right cut it so he would have been out till March and was a lock out and he just it just ended up not happening. That Lakers team would have beaten the spurs. That would have been something. Can you imagine all the sudden that would have been the best series of all time? Oh my god. He was still I mean the whole thing ended up with him in Washington

“two years later. I know exactly. So yeah I think it's the nine and nine Lakers as your answer.”

Then another LeBron question about since Cincinnati was look back at the rewatchables. We did those rewatchables. I'm going to put those on the book of basketball podcast feed. But we did want about the 95 bulls magic series and one of my big points was everyone missed remembers that series. The bulls was actually they're pretty good that year. They're better than I think people remember now. His case for LeBron was that 2018 when he was at his absolute peak, 34 99

in the playoffs, then has 51, eight, Nate game one of the finals and people remember the Jair Smith. He called it the Jair Smith LeBron of me play. Which I think is a good good one for it. But his question is if they win that game, could they have won the series? Which is something we've talked about. Oh that sock that would have been a much better final. Did could that play have actually changed LeBron's legacy? Because if he beats the 18

warriors by himself, he probably takes the goat thing for magic. That would all that would have

But I think it's a two, three, two. I still think they lose in six. But I do think it makes the where it's go. And that word is wasn't they weren't the happiest team near the down stretch. That's right. That's right. Could that have unraveled them a whiff? Maybe they're still.

That was a incredible team. Great play from. Even from New York wants to know,

what exactly will it take for six years LeBron to avoid becoming nimble like Celtics,

“Shaq, or Wizard Jordan, where the jersey looks weird. And we don't remember at that finally.”

And then Joseph sent an email, how far away is LeBron from his, okay, maybe I played one season, two long season. So I'd like to combine those two together. I don't think it's this season. We are moving a little closer to the finish line. I was looking at his per 36. And the number is like, if you, as both of us have done, we look at these basketball references. And once it starts really going down near the end, it just keeps going. There's no like bounce back.

In 22, per 36, he was 29, 86. Last year he was 23. The three point was 32%. All the other numbers that like his, you know, some of the advanced stuff, not quite as good. But it wasn't bad. Like it was in the ballpark where it should be. But if it goes lower, then it did last year, then we'll be, we'll be off. My point is, I don't think it's, I don't think we're in 2011, Shaq Celtics. We're not even, we're two years away from that, I think.

I agree. The most important element to answer this question is how many games he's going to play,

because I thought last year was masterful. Yeah, the sciatica for the first, however many games that was. Yeah, was was literally brilliant. And so they need to come up with the functional equivalent of that, because it just, he needs cover his version of the ball, George Suspension. Yes, he just goes away for 25 games from February, March, and comes back. Ramp it up. That actually is kind of fun. That would be like, what could we invent for LeBron?

“What would LeBron's transition? Well, he's over the back problem. Well, he just, that's what he's”

the sciatica. Nobody links. If anyone ever 40 times, if they have sciatica, I'm just on, and I trust it. And then, but the problem with that is he can't play golf. Does he really want to take three months off from playing golf or how do you think about the golf thing? That's a tough one. That's a tough one. You know what? He could wait until it's freezing cold on the East Coast, and then just quietly, like go to play simulators. He loves simulators, and that could be it.

I love, you might be the world's preeminent expert on LeBron's golf career. Oh, no, I mean, I'm telling you, there's the simulator thing. It's coming. Wait till you see, it's going to be amazing. But yeah, that would be one way. He can't be seen down at Apigee, down in West Palm, out on the, or at, with Grove 23 with MJ. Right. You can't, you can't be faking the injury, but then you're

“also playing 27. Can't do it. Can't do it. So Joe's sub's question. He talked about the”

maybe I played one season too long, and he had examples of shack at the end, dunking at the end, dirt at the end, the last three KG, the last two Paul Pierce, last six Vince Carter seasons, et cetera, et cetera. I want to step further. I did my one season too long team. Okay. That even joy. This didn't prep you at all. So it wasn't just about I hung on too long, and I played too many. This was like a specific. It had to be like the actual season itself

made them realize. Oh, shit. Maybe I shouldn't have done this. Hakeem going to Toronto in 2001 has to be this center. Yeah. He could have played his whole career with Houston. And just said that one last year, like you and did it too, but you even bounce around and you didn't see at or lay hit a multiple. So that's my center. Pippin ended up on the O3 Bulls after the Portland run, which I forgot. Yeah.

I kind of wish that didn't happen. I wish he had just ended with Portland. This is a good one. Elvin Hayes for the 1984 Houston. Your guy at the Big E. He came home. He came home. And he's having his last season where he's washed up, but then they're trying to tank. And he has the famous game where he plays all 48 minutes because they're trying to tank and everyone in the crowd. So he has to be on the team. And then I have that. I want to

launch that. I forgot. The 48 minutes is like the whole game never comes out. They're like,

oh, oh, it's the out there. He's like having a hard attack. Alina Everson, Grizzlies. Oh, yeah. For sure. All time. It's just that made everyone just sad. Yeah. So that's one of my guards.

Lakers when he came back. And it was fun for a second. But then when we got to the playoffs.

And it just the team was unhappy. And it just was like, I like this. I have to happen. Or I can give you Chris Paul this year playing for the Quippers. It's having the birthday party. And only having two Quippers show up. It's Chris Paul. Okay. I play a long shot. The I still it is. That's a worse misstep by the Clippers organization than circumventing the salary cap to pick. Why? Allegedly. Allegedly. Still going on. I like this stuff about their

“mad now that this is taken to look. I have one more for the I think they have a right to be bad. Go ahead.”

The best one season too long. I ever. I only did guys. People have heard of. But the number one was George Maken on the 1956 Lakers. Maken retired. She's like the best basketball player of all time. It wins four titles. He retired when the shot clock comes. Takes a year off. And then comes back with the shot clock. And now we're playing faster. And by all counts was a complete disaster. So I'm going to add him on there too. Okay. Couple more. Paul Peters was listening to me and

CR talking about woke up in England's baggage. And teams in baggage teams coming in and basically

fixing the baggage. And Paul says we should call these guys baggage handlers. The baggage handlers hold thing and say fuck this baggage. And kick it away as far as you can. And he said who are some of the first class baggage handlers. So I had for Boston we had three. We had big poppy obviously. We had Tim Thomas, the goal tender for the Bruins in 2011. Who's just went on absolute all-time heater. And then Bill Bell check. So these people would say Brady but it was Bill Bell check was our

bag of Chandler. Sure. This is awesome. I love this concept. So all-time bag of Chandler's across sports. I had big poppy LeBron 2016. Yeah. Jalen Branson a couple months ago. Mark Messay with the Rangers. And Johnny Padre's on the 55 Dodgers. Two wins. Game 7 shut out. Flips it. They're just getting their ass kicked by the Yankees forever. And then finally flip it and he went.

“So I had five. Who is your number one Washington baggage handler, Obechkin?”

Probably Joe Gibbs. It took Obechkin a long time. Now the Washington capitals came into existence in 1974 and they won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with Obechkin three quarters the way through his career. Yeah. He keeps playing. I think that the arrival of Joe Gibbs with that Washington because that Washington franchise was a little brother to the bully Dallas Cowboys. And that rivalry between Washington and Dallas. Joe Gibbs arrived and really changed that whole arc.

Washington was dominant because I'm out on the nets. You didn't really have a lot of baggage with the nets. No, I mean, they can say that. I mean, 2005, 50 years old. Joe Gibbs is a good one. I have franchise cities most in need of a bag of Chandler. Buffalo bills, Josh Allen. They've been throwing him in central casting for that for 10 years.

“Please be our bag of Chandler. Could it be Joe Brady?”

Joe Brady taking over as the bag of Chandler and ushering Josh Allen through bike games. We're doing our research now. I'm quietly bullish on the bills. We're doing. I know we're doing our football research now. You're bullish on the bill on the bills. I'm bullish on the bills. Does this catch well? That's one element of it. Okay. Vikings, Lions. The number one team is weirdly the Maple Leafs. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow.

They really need a bag of Chandler. And the Canadians are getting close and the

canucks have been there forever because they've never won. But really, pick a Canadian NHL team.

They all need a bag of Chandler. This is true. Those have been Canadian hockey. It's a bag of Chandler. KWT sent in is bill calling to lemma kiss from the Odyssey to mechulous for my entire MVP out draft first pick in the pop culture speech dyslexia redraft. I did come to mechulous the entire thing. I knew I was doing it. I can't remember what his name was. I was going to look it up. But it was to lemma kiss. Listen, the sea goddess. Oh, yes. We're going to have some mess ups. Okay. Jeremy said,

Butler over clay in the 2011 redraft. I know it was Zach's pick at number three, but you signed off on it. You're the guy who wrote an entire book about the secret. You're taking the poor man's version of Terrell Owens over the poor man's version of Bill Russell, a question mark. Oh, Russ is a little strong. Bill Russell, I would go Sam Jones maybe there. No, Russell. So I had when I did my rankings when

get them in the order. I did have clay ahead of Butler and I kind of let Zach bully me on it. And now I feel like I kind of had my pants pulled down a little bit. I regret it. I'm going to stick with having clay above Butler. I'd rather have clay. I mean, better teamer can fit in with anything and Jimmy Butler flamed out in four franchises. He didn't flame out. He quit on a couple. Like he

“came to what I think. I think fingers. Giant middle fair. Zach's very intimidating.”

When do you see him throw out the first pitch at the meds game? Zach went to that happen.

Yeah. Yesterday. Zach low. I did. There was a day game. Look like a strike. A little high. But he's down the middle. That was proud. Okay. Great. It's a good one. It goes. Share how much online I've been. Tim Lane wants to know. Be some a long text, but basically like why wouldn't they do a sign and trade with the trade and be for Duran and Philly throws in a pick? I will say this. He said there'd have to be some other

stuff. They'd have to cut somebody. But we'll say this. Celtic fan bill got terrified by this. I understand. Celtic fan bill did not like this trade. Celtic fan bill is counting on

Joe L. B to do the same kind of up and down injury plague season that he always says. Duran is a beast.

I mean, you know, part of the, a lure I've been talking about. Jalen Brown's magic elixir, the secret sauce is how much playing time he can consume high level 24 minutes. Oh, Duran could do that. Now, obviously the ceiling and what he's capable of and I what we saw the playoffs, but under the totalage and supervision of LeBron James, maybe that could be rehabilitated a little bit. I hope that does an interesting one. Rob said, I'm a fan of LeBron's decision.

Go to Philly. It was a senior podcast with Zach about it. You mentioned who I was the best

“poor in the world in 2019. I think that's disingenuous. One summer before you said 2018,”

LeBron played the best game you've ever seen in person. So how could quiet past LeBron?

The answer is he did. I don't know how to tell you. LeBron went to the Waker as a

basically took the year off. Kauai went to the Raptors and kicked everybody's ass and won the title. And it was the one time we get the end of the year. So that was LeBron was at year 16 at that point. I mean, LeBron had been the best player in the week from basically the 0809 season all the way through to the 1718 season. He had been the best player for 10 years on a row. And even when Kauai won the MVP, everybody kind of is like, LeBron still the best player.

2011 redraft, Colin from Connecticut, once the point out, we missed this Cori Joseph with 29 to the spurs. One pick ahead of Jimmy Butler. The spurs are just 161 games. They could add Kauai Leonard and end Jimmy Butler. Wow. That's a wow. Spurs culture and Jimmy Butler are not positive about this one, but yeah, but maybe they could have gotten them in early and got some good habits.

I bet they could have. I bet they could have. That's that completely changes the next three playoffs. I mean, maybe he doesn't play in 2012 playoffs, but 13 and 14, he's playing.

“That team was a absolute no fuck around team. He would have been, I think he would have been fine.”

He would have walked in and like, oh, I'm surrounded by all these winters. This is how winning. This is what it looks like to be a winner. The discipline, the commitment. Matthias said in the question, "I've been a fan of your contents since the Anthony Bennett pick. I don't get that a lot." So you want to tell a vision? My question is this officially Chris Ryan's year. You see, the big winner of 2026 can anyone beat him in the next five months or is this over?

This is great. What a great question. See you. I'm going to give you four choices for the next thing that could happen for CR. Eagle start out, 12 an hour. Michael Mann Casim and he too, like just calls him up and says, "You're going to be in he too. I have good news." Netflix just hires him to run TV or we do an aliens rewatchables episode of for September 7th for that episode. Most likely out of those four. I mean, the most likely is the aliens. You control that.

Yes, let's have the aliens. That's September 7th. Eagle's 12 an hour. The other three aren't happening. But yeah, that'll be the next for the year of CR. The next year of CR moment will be the aliens rewatchables. Jeff M said, he's been leading, listening and reading and watching me since the early 2000s. And he thinks my apex for Homerism content occurred during my

so dramatically reminded me of a ranking of best US presidents using criteria like most use of the

“word huge best nicknames for political opponents and most orange. I have no counter.”

Thanks for that question for house for Greg and D. C. Are you following this weird story about Brandon IU basically stalking the commanders trying to get them to sign up. He just bought a house in Virginia near the practice facility. Should they make a movie called single black receiver about IU trying to be a friend Terry McClure and then take his job. They're trying to have your

hearty nits a character. That's epic hilarious. And wonderful. I am always to the point where I

don't want to make fun of this guy. I think he seriously mentally. Yeah, he's got mental neck of his heart. Yeah. Did he really move to Virginia? Who the fuck knows? He's like an insane person going on to social media. And basically every time he does it takes his wallet and sets it on he has to buy a new wallet every time he goes on because it diminishes the interest of the rest of the league. Any football whatsoever with anybody like the best he's going to get from any team and

I don't think it's going to be Washington is a try out. And his still cut him at the first sign of any nonsense. I don't understand it. And I honestly think there's something going on that's not funny. What did you think of the Kyle Shanon hand car accident, which seemed terrible not getting reported

“for 14 days? That's what that was weird. That seems like that's how is that not going to affect”

their season? I thought that was a terrible story. That was the end of my entire story. I hope that there was like a legitimate car accident was not hurt, right? That's the thing. What I was saying. I forgot the story. The concussion. Yeah, like you it said severe concussion and that he can't that takes a long time. I thought that I felt bad. I don't like it. I feel bad for him too. Matt from North Hollywood is upset that I applauded Matt Damon's beard.

He said this isn't associated Damon. Let's stop giving credit to men who grow shipyards. Clooney and Sierra on a great beard. James Hardin bizarre, but a strong example. Christian Bay on the caprio. Great actors with shipbeards. Our society needs to stop giving every man with three hairs on his chin or fucking participation trophy. Hey, what? I don't have a lot of notes. I thought Damon's beard was good. Brian W wants to know the one name athlete hall of fame,

nomar messy LeBron, Madonna, name anybody. What about the two name hall of fame? Oh, he said the charter members Harry Kane. I don't think I've ever heard him referred to as anything under the Harry Kane in a any broadcast. This reminds me of our friend, Nick Aida. Hey,

you're right. We always said it. But Nick Aida was just became one name and he was just Nick Aida.

Now, it's trying to think of other athletes who are one name guys and I came up with Bonix.

“Has anyone ever called him Beau or next? I think of it. He is Beau next. It works, too.”

Grant Hill. Did you ever call Grant Grant or Hill? No, never. Kevin love. Yes. There's some K love with him, I guess, but nobody ever called him Kevin. Chris Paul was either CP3 or Chris Paul, but never Chris or Paul. Pretty strong. Pretty strong. And then my favorite one, Isaiah Joe. Oh, he's just Isaiah Joe. He's nobody's ever called him anything other than Isaiah Joe. But it's like Nick Aida. But if there's I'm fucking Nick name. Is there any of the name?

It sounds like Nick name. Any I missed though? Well, uh, it's, it's two words, but it's fun. Is it big poppy? Oh, it's two words. Okay.

This is an incredible. I've been saving this email from you. It's from A from Paris.

Well, I like Paris. He said everybody thinks the spurs and thunders are playing in the 27 West Finals, correct? We would certainly bet on this. Let's hand up. Yeah. He said there's been a bunch of East Finals rematches over the years. 2223 Boston Miami, 1718 Cleveland Boston. There was Miami, Indiana, Miami Detroit, Indian, the next in the 90s, Detroit Chicago, Boston Detroit, 8788, Philly and Boston, 88182. We've had in the

last 45 years seven finals rematches. Goldstake Cleveland spurs Miami, Chicago Utah, Detroit

finals rematch? Oh, this is outstanding. Western conference finals. Because for a lot of that Golden State era, it was they were rotating. It wasn't just Golden State. Give me that. Give me this. What decade do you think this happened in? Well, when you put it that way, it makes me think we're going all the way back. We're like going back to the 70s. It's like we're going back to the 80s. Because the last time this happened was 1982 and 83, the Lakers in the spurs. Wow. Somehow this

“is never happened since. How's the spurs over there run, not encounter anybody a second time?”

Because it was always there was a couple times with spursons or spurslakers where they would

meet in like round two instead of. Yeah. Oh, four of them was in there. There was a Minnesota Sacramento. Somehow the when the Lakers in spurs that they played five times, but it was always in different rounds. Yeah. Or staggered in some way. Yeah. 44 years. That's insane. So if it's not one of those two teams, who is it? In the West. Yeah. The odds right now are it's funny. San Antonio is plus 145. Okay. C is plus 144 to win the West. The next three are Denver 12 to one, Minnesota 13 to

one. Houston and the Lakers, 21 and 22 to one. A book either of those bets. Go and stay 27 to one. Portland 31. Yeah. The West is like these to so much better than the West. It's like staggering.

The answer is Denver. Yeah. I feel sadness in my heart for them. I don't. They have to move

Jamal Murray. Sadness in your heart. Because speaking of, you know, losing years of stuff. We're we're going to we're on a run here losing years with with the Joker. How many teams conceivably could you see in the Western finals? Because for me, it's four because I would throw Minnesota in there. Okay. No, I don't think it's they've done it twice. Yeah. But is there any other team you would even give a conceivably to in the West? Not me. Okay. See San Antonio, Denver, Minnesota.

No one at you wouldn't say Lakers. Definitely not. Luke on a heater, Kessler. No. No way. No. Nope. Have you seen him any white guys around that team? Clippers. They're over under because like 29 or something. They're the fourth worst odds in the West right now. With good. What do you mean? Like at the bottom of the entire thing. Yeah. Well, that's deserved. Do you look at the roster? I think on Fando the worst is Sacramento. And then.

Clippers, Memphis, New Orleans, basically. I thought that was weird. Um, okay. Wait,

“uh, I think I have two more questions for you. I just want my track. You get, are you hungry?”

My jam. There's no time here on the East Coast. I want to shout out Justin from Dallas. I guess we have one question left. As a may have fan, the Luke betrayed felt like in Game of Thrones when Ramsay Bolton cut off three on Greyjoy's dick and balls and then mail them to his family. I'm guessing for you that the jailing trade wasn't quite castration bad because you still have Tana. But what is it? Is it Lieutenant Dan getting his

Blake's blown off Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off by his dad or the British guy in Madman getting his foot run over by lawnmower and in the office? Um, it was none of those things. We won the title two years ago. I'm fine. But he compared the look at the trade to the on having. His Frank's and beans get cut off and mail to his family.

“The dancers are never going to get over this. Why would, why would they? Why should they?”

They cooperating, move on. You've cooperified down. Start moving on. Start healing. How can you? The team went to the finals and then the leadership was like, fuck that team. We're going to be got awful for them. I'm trying to put them in the red head space. I mean, I, I appreciate your encouragement, your gentle psychological play here. But they, they, they, they, that ownership and leadership, that they, that is bad, they did a bad thing.

Good back at mail back questions. phenomenal. Um, how's the summer coming? It's great. I'm, I'm so happy to get LeBron settled because now I can, what should I watch? I'd like today tonight. This Sunday night, July, the whatever. My, my July the 26th. I can start watching TV again. What am I going to watch? You, oh, LeBron was putting on hold. It was because the major is ended. There's golf. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Golf golf. The golf major is finally ended. But yeah.

Kate Fierre is the worst well done show I've ever seen. Okay. I think it's almost worth

“watching. But it's really, really reprehensible. Like you can't believe how bad it is. But it's”

incredibly well done. Okay. I've never seen a show like it where it's like, really well done and

awful. Like awful. I don't think I can do it. Okay. It's not going to be at the top. Some people like that widows Bay show, which I gave my wife and son watch the whole thing all the way through. So I'm not going to watch that. My wife and I were in Hawaii. We watched five star weekend on peacock. And it's really awful. But you get to go to an end tuck at for eight episodes. And good. And watch all these women who hate each other, just get mad at each other and do different events.

Here's what I'd recommend to you though, because I've been watching this. I've been watching homeland season one on Netflix. Oh, wow. You went back and went back. It was 14 years ago. Barely remembered anything that happened. And my wife and I, we were just at a loss to for anything, but one of TV show. We're like, we need something to like. And so we just ended up stumbling into the pilot. House, the pilot is so good. I was actually, I was, I was so

fantasy and CR and Greenwall, which people I saw. I was talking about this last night. It's so good. And it actually made me nostalgic to when TV was more normal, where they were just like, they have three ideas. It's Brody comes back and that they turn them when he was over in Afghanistan. Clear Danes is nuts. Brody's wife is banging his best friend. And those are like the three things. And they're just like, we're not going to be 50 characters. We're not going

to be 40 plots. We're not going backwards and forwards. We're just going to have a TV show that you can follow. That's really good. And I got to say I really enjoyed it. We watched five episodes over the last couple days. And I would highly recommend diving back in. I didn't remember anything. I have the fondest remembers of the quality of homeland for several series, for several,

“I mean, several seasons. So, wow, maybe that's what I'll do. I don't really like the great”

of the time, though, like the cultural, you know, zeitgeist. Honestly not in the shows. You're not behind anything. You're not missing much. I'm trying to think. So I watch a movie. You told me that I should watch a session. We're doing that for rewatchables tomorrow. Live on Netflix. Oh, how about that? There you go. You should definitely watch a session and some peacock. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's a good one. Try and think of other movies.

And you got to say the Odyssey at some point, right? But I'm going to do that with the 70 MM and the IMAX and the whole thing. Yeah, that's a, I would, I would give homeland up the pilot a whirl. Okay. You'll be shocked. And I would encourage rest of America to follow suit. There we go. Really, really good. I was, I was just like, wow, we really knew how to do it back then. Anyway. All right, house. Good to see you. Maybe I'll see you on the west coast at some point.

Look forward to that. All right. Thanks for coming out. We're going to take a break. Come back with my

dad in one second. All right. My dad is here. It is Sunday afternoon after yet another red socks winning

series. They have one six straight series. They have turned their entire season around. They have won the attention of Boston. I've been watching a ton. It's certainly a very likable team. And it all happens. Starting really the day after the Jailum Brown trade, the Celtics acquire Paul George and the red socks season flips immediately. And you have refused to come on the podcast since the Jailum Brown trade. You're upset. You're not upset anymore. You're a red, you're a rationally

discuss it. No, I'm still upset. But I guess I'm ready to discuss it. That's a dramatic pause. But, you know, I've been really excited about the red socks last month, as you mentioned, and I went to the game where they won number 15 in the row with nephew Ryan. That was a lot of fun. I'm really down on the trade they made last night. It was a curvy trade. Yeah. You have a starting picture who you pitched in the playoff slashed year. Yeah. 24 years old.

Let's see. Our favorite kind of picture. Yeah. And they have about 12 guys who play second or third. They all hit about 250. They're all the same guy. 250. I don't think we need another guy.

I don't get it. I never get it. They needed ready pop and they had a glut of starting

“pitching, I think. And you know, early. He's on my AL keep her tuned, too. His his his elbow was hurt.”

There was a minute where it looked like he was going to be out. How does elbow was hurt?

for like 12 months. And then like, no, no, no, no. And he's we need rest. I'm talking about it early. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was hurt. So he's coming back. And that I don't know. I wonder if that was a piece of it, too. But I don't know. I don't know. I need another bat though from watching them really for the last four weeks every game. Like, but you texted me that he's a terrible defensive player. So, so where are we playing in this guy? I know the DH. He's 225 pounds,

which is not ideal for an in-fielder. But I do know he's that heavy. Yeah. He bounced it. Well,

“he's strong. He's, uh, I think he's Australian, too. But I think he's going to bounce around and, um,”

and be DH. And they need another ready with a few sort of a globe today. But Durbin said he'd be

willing to move to second base. I saw that. Yeah. But if this guy is not a good defensive third

basement, that's no good. Well, Durbin's played a good third. I've been waited to have you on. I didn't want to jinx the red socks winning streak. And they won 15 straight, but they had to gain that night. That would have been, you coming back from that game would have been good to have on. But I don't want to jinx anything that was happening. But they lost a couple now. So, it's going to talk about Durbin. There's a few red socks things to talk about. We'll talk about

the Celtics straight after this. But Durbin. Okay. So I'm in that, I'm in that Boston sports thread with a couple LA friends out here. And Durbin was so bad the first month of the season that we

“named, you know, you know, you need to name the text threads. We named the text thread Caleb Durbin”

he was so bad. We changed the title to 500 OPS watch, which is like if you have a 500 OPS,

you shouldn't even be in baseball. The first two months he was the worst batter I've ever watched

on the red socks since like Jack Clark. And then all the sudden he flipped it. And now we keep changing the thread. And now it's like 700 OPS watch. He might get to 750 by the end of the year. He said all these clutch hits. He's a great teammate. Seems like his teammates love them. And it's been this unbelievable turn of events. Well, I think I read that he has the best defense of third basement rating. He does. And you know, last time was on the pod, we talked about him not very

positively. He was terrible. He was a automatic out. Yeah, he was, you know, they said that he he wrote his feet closely together. And I don't know what makes a difference with the hitter, but certainly has a lot of confidence. Well, he dropped the drive line stuff. And I got his own hitting coach, which is a big story. I thought that was fun. You got like he got like different hitting help than whatever the instruction was and just started how the kick drive line guy the head on the

roster left. Yeah, with sucks. Maybe that made a difference to. So it turns around because of him that all the sudden every starting pitcher they have seems like they're throwing six or seven innings. Chapman, this Guerrero comes out of nowhere. It's 35 results. There's over 100. And it's been this lights out set up guy. And then the heart of the line up, although a braille got cold lately, but a their braille and contraris. But I was saying quickly on the Wednesday pod about contraris has

“been in my opinion the key to everything. He's just a maniac. He's our kind of guy. He's the”

lunatic. He's been a lunatic from day one. He just really gives a shit every game. Yeah, he does he. I think you heard is I watched the game yesterday and he heard his finger sliding at second. Yeah. So he probably shouldn't have been playing. He should be resting, but it's kind of affected as swing a little bit. But he's one of those guys though. Yeah, the camaraderie on the team is terrific. But what would a nobody could have guessed this turn around?

I got to say I was not watching you were watching way more than me. And I was making fun of you. Because it just felt like it hit rock bottom. Everyone was going to get fired. They already fired Cora. Result was going to be next. The Roman Anthony. I mean, they don't have Roman Anthony. Who is going to be the next Ted Williams. They don't have crochet who got hurt. And Trevor story, who I think is the most expensive guy in the team. And he goes out. And somehow that made

everything better. I don't understand it. And mine that was supposed to be good, too. And it's just that's the stuff I guess. A month ago, the crowd was chanting cell the team, cell the team. Right. And I think Reslo was job was on the line, you know, just my personal opinion. But too many mistakes have been made. And all of a sudden, they're winning playing. Look, you know, this manager,

he's very even killed. Yeah. He's making a lot of decisions that Cora never made. I like Cora,

but Cora never liked to bun. We had three sacrifice buns today. And they all meant something in this game. He might have run us course. I think he's a good manager. He might have just worn out as welcome. Well, we've talked about coaches and managers that eventually, the voice, the players

I thought they wore out with him that last year, remember? You mean as a general manager? No, as someone as coach. Yeah, so it's a coach. Okay. But yeah, Francona has fought like he wore as welcome. Well, they're 54 and 50 for the well card. They're right behind the Yankees now. And I don't know. I don't know. He's seven back from Tampa. They're going on a road trip right now. They're still getting pitching. I don't know if Jake Bennett can continue to throw like this, but Ranger pitched

“today and was great. But I think that's the other thing that concerned me about the early trade.”

It's like they feel they have too much pitching, but the game they lost after they won number 15, they threw that guy out there. It didn't even last a inning. But double hand. Yeah. Well, they're

trying because they have this bejo who can't pitch in the first inning for some of this unique

situation where it feeds as long as he doesn't start, he's great. I would have liked to have seen Bella in that trade last night instead of early. Sure. I don't know. I don't think he has a lot of a trade value right now. I don't think so. Well, I didn't like the trade. So I decided I'm wearing my Patriot hat today. Which I don't, it's a pro test. It's a pro test. I was going to wear the red socks.

When you asked yesterday about coming on the pot, but didn't like the trade,

“and I obviously can't wear myself to cut. You should have brought your younger dog”

and held the dog during the podcast like Mike Frable for. That was a classic. That was a classic. It looked like he was holding for protection. So do you think this red socks thinks sustainable? Because I know you've watched the entire season because you don't have a job. Well, it's not that I don't have a job and retired. Well, you're retired. Yeah, okay. Don't have a job. I don't have a job.

Kind of notes that maybe you never had a job. It is true. You did work for a long time.

Yeah, okay. All right. So you're retired. You watched a lot of red socks even when they're about it. I think it's just, I think it's sustainable because two things, I do think the pitching is deep. And they had that Oyerson, the guy they drafted last year, and he's lights out.

“Yeah, the mind is, you don't think we're going to see him this year, do you?”

I think we're going to see him. Wow. Because sometimes the mariners are in the same boat with Kate Anderson, who's the best prospect in baseball now, and they've been really careful about whether they want to bring them up or not. These guys are have all these innings limits. I didn't know if I can send them a potential to come up. You know what they're doing? Well, I answered and they pitched them three innings last night. They're, they're not letting them go the full night innings yet. See, this is one of the many things

I respect about you is your devotion to minor league baseball stats with the red socks. Whatever's going on in Worcester, wherever I'll see your, what is it? Rainbow Portland, whatever, he's a double I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. So I think they have one more trade in them. And it's interesting because the A's catcher, who I thought made a ton of sense for them, got hurt. I think he's out for the year towards this. I thought I thought that was

a possible trade. I want them to get him or the Colorado catcher, like just really take a swing and go after somebody. I don't know, the question is whether they would put areas in a trade, who's their best prospect this 20 year or so. But he's a short stop of the future. Yeah, we, he could be the next Marcelo Meyer. Yeah. There's catching. That was catching is there. The weak point in terms of batting average for sure. So, are there, are there people that

roam the streets every day looking for Roman Anthony or what happens with it? Is it a second?

Netflix true crime series? What happened to it? If they roam in the streets in Florida, they're going to look for him. But yeah, it would finger injuries could be out for 12 bucks. It's really strange. And it's like the reporters, the journalists are staying away from it. There's not any reporting about him or criticism or what's taking this finger injury so long. Guy was in the world baseball classic in March. Yeah, with big at bats,

except Meyer and both of them have been injury prone every single Meyer. Some buyers get started every year. In our AL keeper league, we had him. We traded him before this season this year. We didn't, we didn't want to go through it anymore. Yeah, with with our real team and our fake team at the same time. But even his in his injury is weird. The finger injury nobody's ever had in the history of some tendon or something that nobody's heard of. Yes. Yeah. And the Roman Anthony

injury, it's not 100% clearly explained to me exactly what that is. Well, that was talking

him and how important he was and plus they gave him 100 million bucks already. It's the equivalent

of, like, if Tatum played his rookie year and then just didn't play in 2018 or 2019 or if I I don't know, Drake made in play in year two. Like that was this was supposed to be the guy. This was supposed to be the meal ticket of the team and and now contraris is the guy. I just I would the odds were like a hundred to one. The contraris thing was, oh, man, they didn't get Peter Lanzo. This is so disappointing. I mean, Anthony was going to be the guy. He was going to be our

outfielder that everybody talked about. Now, Rafael is having a good season. Really good season.

“Oh, Jerome, he had a good game today. Three hits. Maybe he'll get hot again. I think he would have been”

probably trained. Well, I think he probably would have traded earlier if Anthony was around. If he came in, I'll feel this. I think he would have been traded if he could hit or play defense or throw off. That was a nice three things. I'm not giving up on him. Well, he did it two years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And then not any of the other years. But yeah, Rafael is at what is the offer 20. It's very weird because you carried them for a little bit once some games and now he can't hit. Yeah.

It's a strange game anyway. Well, regardless, they they save the world cup comes and you watch, I love how much World Cup you watch for somebody who doesn't follow soccer at all, but you somehow really three or something. I think I watched as many games as I could possibly watch.

“Yeah. So that starts in second week of June, right? Is the Red Sox season has never looked”

bleaker. And then all of the scots came to came to Boston and they had games of Foxborough. And it felt like the world cup just kind of moved the tension away from the Red Sox for like three weeks. And then they got their shit and then the J. Lam Brown trade and nobody really even put serious thought into them until July 4th range and then they started winning. Maybe that was part of it. They didn't feel the pressure of this is a city with a lot of pressure on sports teams.

Obviously. And they didn't feel it. I mean, I told you the World Cup story. I walked the two dogs I was on Beacon Street near the chairs around noon time and about 40 guys came out of the chairs was kilts on it and took over Beacon Street singing and dancing. And it energized the city for the whole time. It was great. Great to be here then. It was my daughter said it was her favorite night she's ever had in Boston was the one of the NBA final games at the same time with Scotland's

World Cup game and they're out of bar with 200 scouting people there. I mean, to drink, Boston were Boston as no beer left at some of the bars is pretty impressive. It's an ever,

you know, I never heard of or read of any altercations now. But Boston can be pretty cool when

there's 40 to 60 men walking around with kilts and I never heard any problems. Yeah, the stereotype and we should mention we're part Scottish. We have we have some Scottish and us. But the stereotype was always like the Irish were like the Satter Drunks and the Scots were like the Angry Drunks and that wasn't didn't seem like that was the case at all. No, in Boston and if anything like they're arranging these Scotland, Boston, like these joint things they're going to do,

the mayors were talking to each other. So unexplained love fest. And right after that, there's an Norwegian show up and they have video of them on the trolley car like 30 of them on the floor of the trolley car doing their rowing thing. You can't make this stuff up in this city. But it seemed like it was, it seemed like it was a huge success though. Oh, it's huge, huge success. Even the travel out to Foxboro went well, I guess. Yeah. They sold well with tickets. Yeah. How are you speaking

of Foxboro? How are you feeling about the pets? Why am I Patriot Head on? I'm feeling pretty good.

You were excited for AJ Brown. You always like having a stud receiver. I feel like we have a stud

one and two. And I can't remember the last time I felt we had good receivers, but we didn't have a one, you know, awesome. All right. Well, Diggs, Diggs had a good year except he played half the game

“every game. And it was a step slower than I think in his heyday. Didn't seem like Seattle had to defend”

him in the Super Bowl the way these two guys are going to be treated, especially if they have to double AJ Brown. We're going to have guys open for Drake May. Of course, you and I keep talking about

let them down in the Super Bowl to say the least. Well, it's like it's a little better. And the very

most thing is calm down, I guess, hopefully there's not another story, but that was super weird. Super, yeah, negative. Not, it's a no reason, no reason stories in the paper. No, it seems like it's we'll see if there's one more coming, but yeah, it's just there were such good vibes from the variable era and family leadership and then it's like, it's not good. It's not, yeah, it wouldn't say to 100% the same anymore. Yeah, it's tough to, we'll see that. Thank you. They'll see, they'll be,

I've been doing all my, my prep stuff. And the schedule wasn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be. Like obviously, they start in Seattle, week one first game, not ideal. And then they go home Steelers at Jags at Bills. So it could be a one and three or two and two, two and two would be ideal. But then after that, it gets a little easier. They got the jet twice to get the dolphins twice. They played the lions, but it's, it's a way. It's in Munich. They have a charger's game that's

going to have a million Boston fans at it. So, I don't know. You know, they do these stats on strength

of schedule based on how the teams did last year. Yeah. Every team is different this year. Teams lost players. They're not going to be as strong as they were last year. Yeah, and they have like, they had the chiefs at Kansas City on Monday night, week 15, who knows? The chiefs might not even be good. They have the Broncos week 17, but that's home.

“So to be satisfied with 11 and 6. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think some of it,”

they play the AFC West and the NFC North. But they're lucky. They play the Raiders early. They play the Raiders week five. So that will still have cousins at that point. They want to have been dozen there yet. But that hurt as last year, my playing the Raiders early. I know. But I'm saying like they're, you know, they're cousins in it. I really don't think windows will be ready by then. And then, you know, the dolphins and jets both project to be pretty awful. And I also,

the bills are like one of the AFC favorites. And I, I don't totally see it. I don't know why they're ahead of us. I don't see that as a Homer fan. Like I honestly don't see it. I don't see where the bills are off all around the quarterback. Right. But that's the case last year. Yeah. And he doesn't have the receiving core that we have. Well, he doesn't have the defense. Yeah. You know, so I don't know. There were, there were a lot of signs before the schedule

came out. Everything that it would be a big regression team, superbuying over. But I don't know.

“I think I got to age you Brown. I think that a really good draft. I think that's a very”

fun time of sports in Boston because the training camp is this week for the patriots, red socks on a roll that they go on the road now. hockey is just gearing up in terms of talking about. Yeah. No, come on. No, you're pushing. Come on. July 26. What are the hockey conversations except hockey starts in September now? The Bruin said something you like though. Well, they made a couple moves. I like that. Like the goalie they're going to go with. Yeah,

you like the goalie. Yeah. I like their draft last three years. Hopefully those guys could contribute, but it's a crap shoot. All right. That was enough for a play. South X trade jams around. Is that it? South X trade jams around for Paul George and two first and he goes to Philly, which then intrigues LeBron jams enough to go actually sign the Philly

for $4 million a year. And this is the team. My entire life, we've hated the most. The biggest

win we ever had together was the 1981 Eastern finals that come back. I remember we went to the 1977 playoff games when Philly beat counts and have a check that team of Dr. Jay's first Jared beat us in the playoffs. Have a have a check. You remember why we lost the 77 when right? Well, because we didn't sign Paul's iOS. Exactly. The maybe one of the only mistakes we're going to go back made. So then actually, one of two mistakes you made. We beat them and

“they beat us in 80, 82. We beat them in 81, and I think 84, 85. I don't think they play in the 90s.”

We beat Iverson with the Paul Pierce Santon team. We beat them in round two after Derek Rose got hurt in 2012 game seven, which was Rondo's greatest game. Then we have a bunch of stuff against the in beat sixers, which we had the win every time. That huge comeback game in the playoff

and beat us last year in seven, and then get trounced by the next, which kind of made it worse. I'm still shaking my head. We're up three one and how we lost our tears. And you went to all the games that came to a game five or the ones that lost the series. Yes, the game seven, we didn't show up. And then beat, let's face it and beat played really well. He did. Yeah, and that's really good. And then they, the next did something to and beat that seemed to knock them out for a loop.

“So one of the, I think it was a, I don't know, somebody elbow them and they, and they stomach. Oh, and I know, yeah. Yeah, we had”

the appendicitis, and I'm not saying that we should have done that, but it should have been different. Yeah, they're more physical than we should have been. So the season couldn't have endowers. No. And then and they lose games seven on my daughter's 21st birthday. Well, every other podcast I've done with you ahead myself to cut on. Yeah. When you weren't happy with the coaching strategy, too many minutes for Tatum, all the same stuff I said on the podcast. Yeah, we've talked about Tatum. That's

the play game seven, the whole thing. Go to that we go into the draft free agency. They're trying to figure out this Jailum Brown thing. Did you want the honest trader you didn't? I would have, I would have been looking forward to watching you on us. Yep. So you would have put, because they only made one

“offer. I mean, there's been so much written and talked about this. They made one offer. They never”

made a second offer. They never tried to up it. Miami up there offer like five times. I would have,

I would have kept upping our offer. So you would have been who you go in the trade? Why don't know what the trade would have been, but some of it is looking back now. By not doing everything they could to make that trade, we made one of the two worst trades that I've seen in my lifetime. So what was the other? The don't check trade. I put Jailum Brown's trade in the same category. So would I rather see them put more assets into a youngest trade? Sure. For what happened when we didn't

get on us? Yeah. Or don't trade Brown right now. Hold on to them for a while. There's no urgency. Well, they could have waited to see where LeBron landed before. I feel like Philly is doing that trade regardless. I don't think so. I don't think Philly, if Brown wasn't on Philly, I really don't think

“LeBron goes there. But I'm saying wait till he goes somewhere else and then do you feel a trade?”

But I don't even think it was on their radar. Exactly. So it only wasn't on my radar. I never

expect them to go there. But I just, we've always talked about when you make trades that the other team not only says yes, too, but we'll also do four months from now. Then why are you doing the trade? And that's the part I'll never get a good answer on. No, me neither. You know, and the whole philosophy in Boston has been in Brad, we trust. And I think he's been a terrific general manager. I'll never understand this trade. And the other unfortunate part, I really like chism coming in as the Noona.

Yeah. I, as a fan, because he talks about himself as a fan. I don't know why he would have ever approved this trade as a fan. Forget being in the owner. Yeah. But it made no sense. It's, you know, I read in a article that they're going to save money. They're not saving money. Maybe they'll save money down the line. Right. You're three. They'll save money. Okay. You're three. So it's two more years of Tadam in his prime. Playing with an injury prone, Paul George

next to him. Makes no sense. And you like Simon's, too. And then he ended up on so he too. I was shocked when he ended up in, because we had room to bring him back. Yeah. And we,

even I talked about the playoffs. We missed the third guard in that playoffs. I, I know

Richard played, but we missed Simon's minutes. And we got nothing out of the guy we got at center in that trade. My fear. That was another flood by Stevens, too. My fear is that they treated this Tadam, his Achilles injury as almost like a two year window to reboot everything. And then go all in a year from now is my fear. We said that a year ago when they let go of four of our starters. Well, but that was your one of your two. This year, too. Now is, we do all George. And then

he's an inspiring next year. We've reset all the tax stuff. And now we'll go back in and try to compete. But he's not an inspiring. He has two years in the country. He has a player option.

I know, but next year, he'll opt in and then he'll be an inspiring contract. They'll have all

“their tax stuff reset. And then they can do that's the only thing I can think of. And I, I don't”

agree with it. But I don't, well, again, I don't agree with it for the reason I just said. So you're talking three years from now. Tadam's three years older two years from now. If, if Paul George is an inspiring and you have these picks, I listen, you, you took a long time to come around on J. Lombrad. He was probably the most frustrating Celtic of the last ten years for you. I need to be clear on something. I thought J. Lombrad carried us last year in many ways. The I test, I know they keep talking

about the stats versus the I test. And I went to all the games, at most of the games at home,

he carried us. His numbers weren't always that great. His efficiency wasn't that great. But

we, we won 56 games. I probably had had enough for watching J. Lombrad. So I'm not opposed. Yeah, I'm not opposed to the fact they thought it was time to trade them. Yeah. I thought the trade

“was horrendous. And I'll never understand why they accepted that trade. Well, you said,”

on the streets of Boston, and you're, as you, as you roam around, people are really, because I don't have a job. And you, and you walk the dogs. But people, and people, you know, they talk to the Celtics about you. But, but across the board, people are pissed. There's no, there's no other side on this trade that doesn't seem like. Yeah, big people obviously talk to me. They recognize from the documentary and podcast. And I haven't met one person who was in favor of that trade.

It's not a fact. It's not just in favor or not in favor. People are really upset about it. Yeah.

Well, he did, he did a lot of stuff in the city too, which we always talk about. Yeah, I don't know.

I felt like that has to account for something, is your factoring and all this stuff. That's something interesting cared. Somebody actually cared about your city and trying to get back to it and put real time into it. And, you know, and when I talked about once, it seemed like once his name was out there in the honest trade, it was inevitable probably that they'd have to move them. But they didn't have to move them so quickly. They didn't have to move them for that package. Well, I wonder,

it seemed a little dice here behind the scenes that maybe we were led to let on because there's stuff that pops out after, or it's like, you know, there was a couple, I don't want to name people who talked about this stuff. But there were a couple people who mentioned, like, it bothered him. Who knows if this is a bother to him when Tatum came back and then Tatum was announced last. And Jalen had been announced last, but then he was announced first.

You know, I did notice that it bothered him that they hired a couple of Tatum's friends to work for the team, which is true, but none of Jalen's friends. And once it gets, once we start going into that, maybe they saw a lot more like little stuff than that that you and I don't get to see. Well, fine, let's no excuse for her when she's trading. It's no excuse.

It will never convince me, ever, that that was the best they could have gotten if they

waited. Yeah, even when the Red Sox traded Nomar in 04, both of us were pretty even though Nomar on paper was Nomar and he was one of the most famous biggest Red Sox stars. I think of the past 35 years. He really got to, like, a really high level. He did, but he was unhappy that whole year. I remember writing a column about it in the middle of the year. Like he just looked miserable because they tried to trade him already. His defense was

going sideways. And they kind of sold high on him. And I do wonder if the Celtics part of this was they're, they feel like they're selling high on Jalen coming off like him being 6th MVP, 2nd team on BA, carrying a team to 56. And every guy, I mean, how does that? So high. Well, that was the irony. They didn't so high. It's almost like they want to get out of this before they had to attach. But I don't understand it. I still don't understand it. People

“have been asking me all summer why they do this. You must know there must be an inside store and”

there's really not. It just feels like they felt like he was going to, if he didn't get an extension in July, it was going to, it just was going to start to feel like the 2019 Celtics, which was the unappiest Celtic team of the last 10 years. I think they want to avoid it. I know you weren't a fan of just keep loading and loading a deal to get you on us.

think Janice was a good bet. If you were, if you're telling me this was 2021, Janice of course,

“I would have done four picks. I would have put it in Hugo, all that stuff. But I just don't think”

Janice is a good bet. Ten podcast segments about this. The history, you're betting on this history being the complete opposite of what we've seen from big guys as they get older and start playing less games and having more injuries. I just wouldn't have done it. I thought there are offers pretty fair. I look at this stuff walking up back. I don't know. They just got back a Pupu platter.

I would rather than a Jalen. I agree. To me, it's like Jalen and two first for a guy who hasn't

really been healthy for you know, reliably healthy for a long time. And I really, I don't know if you would have been a great fit with Tatum either. That was the other thing. So I didn't think it was a slam dunk. But I just, but I just would have waited even if they went into the season with Jalen. I mean, the crowd liked them. Boston liked them. As you mentioned, he did an awful lot of charitable work in the community. And we won with him. We won with him. I would have waited until

a fair offer. You know, what people I talked to 40 cents on the dollar we got back. That's the opinion. It makes no sense. We're all the good moves that Brad Stevens has made. It was just made no sense. Well, the Zag, the Zag take would be Paul George was the best of the three forwards in that play of series. In our series, in our series, he was the best of the three guys. He was. Yeah. He did by the best. Okay. And then the next series against the next.

Not even. Yeah. It wasn't bad. He was okay in the next series. But not so. So we'll get four

good games out of him this year. I guess. You know, it's not sustainable. He's always hurt.

You had him in with the clippers. I don't think he was your favorite player. He, you just never knew when he was going to show up. Yeah. Now, he's going to have way less pressure on the Celtic team. But again, I don't not to be the dead horse, but the, the then LeBron James decision on top of the, the Jellin Brown going to Philly. I'm sure he never considered Philly until Jellin Brown was there. Philly is going to be if they stay healthy. They're a monster. And they're, and we hate Philly.

We've, we've hated Philly for 40 years. Yeah. I do the funny thing about, even if they get 50 games from LeBron and 48 games from M&B, those other three guys can carry them during the regular season. We just watched it with Jellin. Jellin and Maxine Edge come up. We're all going to put big minutes for them. So, you know, and then that, they have a bench there. He got called about Pope, who, you know, he's an 11th man at this point. But you already seen these veterans trying to jump

on them. So, I mean, there he had Simon's. Yeah. And they have Fylon to trade. And if they want to win for somebody, I thought that was a great draft pick by them. He dropped. Well, can you,

“can you set the record straight for America, because you actually went to the games?”

Hugo, who's not, I think he's 20 now. And it was the wrong narrative, because it was like, oh, my God, who, who go became the dealbreaker and the Celtic, what that wasn't actually

what was true. They just, they made one offer that ever made a second one. And then somehow he

became the lynch pin for why they didn't get Yannis. Putting that on the side, you loved, you loved Hugo. Like, you, you thought he had a chance to be a really special player, right? Yeah. I thought, Missouri under utilized the most season, especially in the playoffs. Well, I thought, you know, we, we won 56 games because we went 11 to 12 deep all season long. Yeah. And then we get to the playoffs against Philly and Missouri shortens the bench to like eight players and played

your guide boost of it. Oh, terrible. You didn't even play games seven. It was so awful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The coaching, you know, that's another issue, but the coach, he got so outcoached in that playoffs series against Philly. I mean, nurse took him to the shred shed. He really did. The game two and game five, those two games specifically, where the Celtics had big leads at home,

“I think in both games. Yeah. And game two that six are increased the pace on them. And it's a tough one.”

I don't know. It feels like our window closed, but we kind of knew it after 24 when they loaded

probably was going to be the real window for us. And then Tatum gets hurt and the next to two

“big comebacks, Tatum gets hurt. Right. 23. I think that was good. Seven, Tatum gets hurt at the beginning.”

Again, seven, you know, when I look back, we never should have lost the Golden State series.

We were the better team. Curry just beat us. That was a, that was a championship we let go. And we, I thought they ran out of gas in that the four straight rounds. They weren't ready for it the way. Yeah. You know, there is something to that. Like you could see with Wemby this year, when you haven't been through that before playing 11 straight weeks and just having these high-level playoff games over and over and over again, and teams like honing and on what your weaknesses are,

they remember how good Tatum was at the beginning of those playoffs? He killed the ramp. Remember, he like really took the ramp to the wood shed by the end of the finals. He was, he was a corpse, like he just ran out of gas. He did run out of gas. Yeah. You know, that's the other question

“nobody wants to talk about. Do we have 100% healthy Tatum? Yeah. And what happened in game seven?”

We, we still don't know what did he get injured? Why didn't he play? That wouldn't have slipped under the rug, too. It's with the Roman Anthony finger situation. Yeah. You see him. All right. So rank rank your optimism for the four franchises right now. That's a good one. Patriots one. Patriots one. Red sucked to red sucks, too. Bruins three. Oh, man. Celtics four. I think the next and failure much better than we are. Vegas does not agree. I know. I show the odds. Yeah, they,

and there's a there's a flip side of this coin case where you could say Tatum has all the brown minutes from last year. Who go and everybody's a year older? They have more depth, Mitchell Robinson, Paul George, being able to do a facimile of something. I'll tell you though, what, what worries me is, this, these are killies injuries. Play is come back. They're 85% maybe 90. It's tough to be 100%. And it's going to be interesting to see if Tatum

goes to the basket or what his lateral movement looks like. Will he always be thinking of the,

you know, he didn't, why didn't he play game seven? I mean, we both read the same things, but to set out a game seven, I'm sure Jalen Brown is thinking, he sat out game seven. I was in there playing, I carried the team all year. Yeah. And I got no respect. I can, I can understand that part of it. You know, if they win that game seven, and Jalen has like a like a heroic game seven to beat Philly, the trade doesn't happen. Cool, probably. Well, we never could've expected this him

“getting traded too Philly. Like, do you just heading into Southcarp 3-1 in round one against Philly?”

And if I said to you, they're going to lose the last three and then Jalen's going to be traded too Philly and Poethe LeBron. The ad sort of been like a million to one. But that's putting aside that we've got Paul George back. If you get a trade Jalen Brown and you think it's time, trade them out west. Nobody wants it. We see him once at home every year. There was an market forum. Let's say other things. Then wait for the market to develop. It seems to be the

hire you as a consultant. Teams are going to have injuries. Wait for the market to develop. Can you imagine him coming into Boston two or three times in the regular season? Yeah. Well, he's in, I don't know if this is the best situation for him in Philly, but I guess we'll find out. But he went from it's time for me to have my own team to him being the fourth

most important person on this team. It's a valid point about how they're all going to mesh with

they all want the ball. He's basically going to have to be their Derek White. Yeah. And I hadn't thought of that part. How are they all going to mesh? But I'm thinking about our team and our starting lineup and Paul George getting injured. Nineteen games into the season and, you know, wow. Just send your check-in for the season tickets yet. I did. And maybe the Celtics are going to be unhappy with our conversation today. But believe me, I thought it was fair. But I've talked

a lot about the season ticket holders who are I rate, not that they traded Brown necessarily,

done right by us over and over again. And if he believes this was the right trade, he knows more about basketball than we do. I didn't realize you worked for the Celtics now. No, I'm saying that's

“the only thing, if you're saying, all right, how is this going to work out? We'll be like,”

yeah, Brad Stevens has been really good at this. Maybe he knows more than we do. It's the only thing

I can grab onto because I wouldn't have made this trade in a million years. I just wouldn't

wait it. I would have waited until September. I feel like the trade still there. And then like maybe the trades in a contract feud with Durran and they need to do something and they say, fuck it, we don't want to be bad this year. All right, here are five first rounders and, you know,

“who knows? I agree. Yeah. That's what I mean. There's still free agents that have”

them signed restricted free agents. There's still injuries that haven't occurred yet on other teams.

Brown could have been very attracted to another team in October. All right, Dad, I'm glad the red socks have revived your summer. I'm glad you enjoyed the world cup. I'm glad we're able to talk rationally about the Celtics trade. I'm glad we can talk to you about it. Talk rationally. That's training camp. I thought it was rational. Go see the Odyssey. It's only three hours. Okay. All right, good to see you. Good to see you. Thanks. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to

House. Thanks to my dad. Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo as well. New rewatchables. Remember,

“we're doing it live on Netflix. If you want to hear us talk about obsession being Chris Ryan”

and Joanna Robinson. It's going to be 7 p.m. Eastern time, 4 p.m. Pacific. We are doing a bunch of bangers and row for rewatchables. I'm just just warning you now. Buckle up. Put your seat belt on because we're going to tear through some because we're in the dog days, the dead times of the summer. We're

basically looking at summer slam. What's the FedEx, the golf, whatever the playoff is for that

preseason football WMBA. I like the links. I've been really into the links. I already have a way during the links to win the title. I've been into them. But yeah, not a lot going on. So it's going to be an erratic schedule for us on this podcast. But maybe one more this week, you might not see me again till Sunday. Enjoy the first part of the week. , let's be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with

Kansas star casino or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Game problem. Call 17977777 or visit ccpg.org/chat Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org and Maryland. Hope is here visit gamblinghelpline.ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support Massachusetts or call 877-8, hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 877-770-787-867.