What Would Jordan Actually Average in Today’s NBA? Plus Our Annual MLB Preview w/ Jeff Passan!

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I say no, I lay out the case. Jeff Passen, he is all over it. We run through every division. And a bunch of other stuff is the MLB taking over the NBA. We've got the Alliance after winning King of the Corps and, of course, Life Advice.

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C sportsbook.draftgings.com/promos limited time offer. I was watching hoops last night and you know the ban, 83-point games still gets referenced and without fail, somebody brings up Jordan every single time it's talked about and I get it. And I'm about to do it right now because I've been thinking about this.

There's a premise because ban of all people scores 83, but really we should be focusing on like that stretch for Luke over 70 and beat when for 70 and it was like, hey, what the

“hell's going on right now, it's always the, what would Jordan do?”

I thought it was what would Jesus do? I thought there was like a ton of, I was like maybe it's just, there's way more hoops fans out there than people want to get them credit for it. So, would Jordan score 50 a game? No, he wouldn't, I'm going to run through why.

Now, the good things about the, the pro-jordan arguments are that there's way more space now without question because of the shooting and ignore his three-point shooting numbers because he would have prioritized it. He would have been good at it. I'm not saying he'd be staffed, but you know, here's the guy that came out of the draft

and Rod Thorn, I was reading his scouting report on what he drafted him this morning and even Rod Thorn was sort of paraphrasing his mindset on the whole thing. He's like, we knew he was going to be a good player.

We never thought he was going to be this.

And we knew we were a little worried about like, could he develop a shot? He actually said too, he's like, he had a good handle, not a great handle.

“But I think there's some real math that we have to do.”

So there's going to be a little math here, but I think there's some numbers that can kind of put this whole thing to bet as great as Jordan is, right? So in MJ's third year, he scored 37 a game on 28 shot attempts and 12 free throw attempts per game. That's 8687.

That's the 13th most shot attempts by player per game and NBA history. So it has six of the top nine, do you want to know the all-time record? I'll give you a second to think about it. Okay, 39.49 shot attempts per game in 61 62 and he scored 50 a game. So only Iverson and MJ cracked the top 15 that are considered, I would say, modern players,

although going back 49 seasons doesn't feel all that modern. I don't feel modern some moments in the morning sometimes, like, I don't feel super modern right now. But we've got a bunch of will to get a little pistol peat in there. There's a Rick Barrier.

A couple of other guys. And then you have Iverson the year after he won a VP and then you have Jordan that 8687. So it's just not a normal thing to be shooting 28 a game. Just doesn't happen very often.

to 43 and 39. You want to knock me for Iverson, he missed 20 games that season.

They'd have a better regular season when they lost in the first round.

And I just think, like, when you start getting a little north of 24 shot attempts per

“game in today's game, I think it starts to become like diminishing returns on that.”

Again, that's my opinion on the Hillies centric thing, we've talked about it in the past. Kobe in his 0506 campaign scored 35 a game on 27 shot attempts. In 1819 36 a game 25 attempts Westbrook 16 and 17 when he won the MVP because Durant left for Golden State 32 a game on 24 shot attempts. Then you had a beads MVP season 33 a game 20 shot attempts for game, less shot attempts

for him. Um, Jesus is going to play less minutes than some of these other perimeter guys. Let's just spend a couple of minutes on will 1961 62 and try to figure out what the hell was going on. So again, he averages 50.4.

His stat line for the season is 50, 26 and 2.

Second in the MVP that year, obviously, to build Russell.

“But this is where the era is in understanding these errors and going to look in the stuff”

up matters because in 61 62, the NBA had this outlier three-year stretch where the shot attempts and this is the number I'm going to focus on. This is the one you want to pay attention to. Not attempts per team per game over NBA history during Will's 50 point season teams averaged over 107 shot attempts per game.

The three-year numbers that jump out at you are from 59 to 62, it's 109, it's 108, 107.7. Just to add further context to this back then, teams averaged 73 rebounds per game. Today, they average 44 rebounds per game, dudes got the ball up and they got it up quick and will had the greenest of luck. There's not even, I don't even know if you can call a green.

How light his or how green his light was. So now let's go back to MJ's 37 points for game season. That year, the NBA averaged 88.8 shot attempts per team per game. It's like 20 less, all right, because the will thing's just over there. Doesn't matter.

It's always absurd. But if you look at Jordan's run and where the shot attempts were, at least that season, let's compare that 88.8 number to these other numbers of more modern output scoring. Kobe, League average for shot attempts, again, per team per game, 89, pardon, 89. This book's year, 85, and beads, MVP season, 88.

Now I dug into it a little bit further and said, all right, well, didn't it slow down a little bit there in the 90s? Yeah, it did. There's a couple of seasons there where it dipped below 80 shots per game, per team. But over the course of like Jordan's prime years and I left out the wizard's years, it averages

out to about 85 shot attempts per game, per team, which is really only like four off of where we're at right now. Look, even though the game is visually different, and again, there's so much more space,

you could say that Jordan would live at the free throw line in a way that we've never

seen before was the way the game is called on the ball, but there were way more free throw attempts are rewarded, or I should say awarded back then, then there are now, the free throw numbers are way lower now, league wide than they were during Jordan's years. So now let's just take that and say, okay, well, if we're talking about on average from Jordan's prime years to where we're at now, like only four or five extra shots in today's

game, say you give him all five shots, which isn't likely, but give him all five, give him 60% throw in a three there. And that's when he's scoring like between 30 and 32 again. So even if you do the 37 game, season, we're really only talking about at best, and I'm being really generous here, six to seven points of game, add in the free throws, that's

off the 37 points per game season. So is it 45 and I'm being ridiculous, I'm giving him 60%, I'm giving him a three, I'm giving him some extra fees, and I'm giving him all of the extra shots. It's just not 50, 50 should be completely dismissed, because I don't think that person's ever really done them out, I'd really done it until this morning.

“The other thing you have to ask yourself as a basketball player is what do you actually”

want to do? Because when Lucas scored 70, which I thought was the most ethical of this high scoring output stuff that we've seen in the last couple of years, because it actually still had

And I was watching it. It was making passes.

And I was like, oh, he's not actually just taking, but he takes a lot of shots.

But like if Lucas showed up to the gym every single night going, I want to try to get 50, he would get it a lot, not every fucking night. You don't think Steph, if Steph just decided like, hey, I want to see if I can get 50 tonight. And that was the way he treated an entire season. He could probably get 50.

“I think we are dismissive of the Kobe season in '05's '06, and trying to figure out like,”

is that what an MJ season would look like? Kobe's pissed. The team isn't very good. He's taken 27, 28 shots a game. He's hit three, he's taken six and a half, three is a game.

He's getting to the free throw line.

And even in that season, he only averaged 35 a game.

So you're going to take that Kobe that year, that determined to only score because he's pissed off in the world. And you're going to give Jordan another 15 points? I don't see that at all. That's probably the best example that we have.

And it's likely ignored in the if MJ could score 50 points a game today. And not to offer a basic math as profound, but it's worth reminding all of ourselves. That means every time in this hypothetical that MJ scored 40, he would have to score 60. To balance it out. Jordan had 60 points four times ever in 70 plus years of NBA history.

We go back to 1949, a player has scored 60, 70 times. Ever, again, this is the greatest guy ever to do it.

“And we're talking about Jordan and it's like, I think that there's season he wanted 50”

in height, but it's just not going to happen. Maybe the better question is, would Jordan score 70 in 1962? All right, before we dive into today's breakdown, a quick word on the tool that Keith Feeble's workflow tighter than my takes, Microsoft 365 Copilot, the world moves fast. Your workday, even faster, pitching products, trafficking reports, analyzing data.

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Tasty Trading Inc. is a registered broker dealer and member of Finra NFA and SIPC. Opening day is just around the corner and we are thrilled. We just had him on. Let's have him on again. It's Jeff Pass in the ESPN senior writer for baseball.

He has a new podcast. He's launching two.

I'm excited to talk to him about that if he's allowed to tell us about his first episode,

but it's good to see him. I'm ready for some baseball. The thing is we've had baseball and normally this time a year, there is no meaningful baseball. It's just spring training, playing out the string until opening day starts, but yeah,

the WTC was pretty awesome. It was great to see like, after last time and the way that it ended with Mike Trout's striking out again, Showhead of Tommy, can they go and one up that? I don't know if they went up it, but I think at very least it was as exciting and as good as the last time.

Yeah, once I gave it a chance, I knew I was like, I'm just not going to have a time. The amount of time I need to watch every one of these games and then I, you know, it's just great because you got people text to you about it, they didn't expect to text you about baseball and, you know, we're, I think it works because how much fun it was in the drama of the final event as well.

And it almost is doing the regular season a huge benefit despite that I know how disrupting it can be to spring training and try to get your starters lined up for opening day and

going to be something that you would think would carry into, and in the momentum in general that baseball has. But let's just stay at least with the World Baseball Classic because I know that you're covering it and, and probably, you know, to this point, it's, it's doing the regular season to start probably a huge benefit.

“Enormous, I think, because it's just like storylines that get to carry over into the regular”

season now. And it can be as small as something like what Italy did and, and Vinnie Pasquintino who is in the Kansas City Royals Clubhouse every day and Salvador Perez has been around there or a decade and a half right now and is the unquestioned captain of that team.

So Vinnie Pasquintino, for the first time in his career, actually got to see what it was

like to lead, and, and, you know, like leadership can be an extremely tough thing, especially of young 20 somethings who have minds of their own, but watching them all gravitate toward him and take on this idea that we want to make baseball in Italy a thing. You know, on on that roster, team Italy, there were three Italian Italians at like 24 Italian Americans and yet the way that they embraced it, everything from, you know, celebrating

homeruns with espresso shots, giving out bottles of wine to the players of the game, to wearing suits and trying to look like fine Italian gentlemen. They were fully bought in and they made it to the semi-finals and, you know, and because that's a del Sporte and Italy, all of a sudden, you have baseball on the front page, like that, that's the point of this tournament.

It goes beyond what we have here in the United States and in Japan where it's like very clearly a huge thing that Netflix was willing to pay nine figures for or one time, like, yeah,

“dude, yeah, like it's, I mean, it's a big, big deal over there and even more so, I think”

in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic where national identities revolve around baseball. And it's what I love and it's why I think we saw the passion that we did. We saw Daniel Polencia shedding a tear before he threw the last pitch that won Venezuela that game, like these are second and third world countries where the infrastructure is just not there to support a lot and yet baseball has been able to thrive amid that and become

something that is their proudest export and to see it, given the stage that it had and to see both of those teams play the way that they did and spread this joy that they have with baseball. That sometimes feels like it's missing from the American side. I think it just shows people in illustrates that baseball can be fun and baseball can actually be cool. And the compliments of that in the pitch clock and all of these things that have happened

“over the last half decade or so, I think it's put baseball on a position to really capitalize”

on that. I want to stay on this because I know Ethan Strauss, you know, put together a pretty good piece of just something that people are talking about and kind of the race for who's behind football here, between baseball and the NBA. And, you know, as more of an NBA guy, certainly, anyone listening to this understands, there are things I don't like about the NBA,

okay? I think anybody that is honest with how I talk about certain things, but it doesn't mean it's enough for me to not care or watch or be entertained. So sometimes it feels like

when you pick a side, it's like, well, I never want to be critical of the thing that I'm

defending all the time and that's just, I think it's very disingenuous. But one of this mistakes, mistakes you can make with basketball is that it's so omnipresent and social media, you know, it's just endless. So then it's like, okay, is this in actual, like, indicator of where it is in our everyday consciousness is that where the value is or you just go straight up to ratings where I think then some of the arguments against the NBA,

I think are completely whether it's politically driven, which I've talked about in the past where it's like, hey, look what Yankees Dodgers did against. What, okay, see in Indiana, like, I mean, are you being fair when you're talking about markets when we're comparing championships? So it's like, I don't actually want to pick a part baseball because I love baseball too. But sometimes I think the social media part of it, because I just don't see a lot of people going like, hey, I,

you know, I don't think Kevin Brown, you know, he wouldn't be able to pitch today. We just don't have that kind of content with baseball. And by the way, Kevin Brown could pitch an error any single error. I was just trying to think of somebody in my head that wasn't like one of the all

timers. I was trying to think of somebody who's been retired. Mark Portugal's always like

this default old, old school pitcher, the like Mark Portugal couldn't even pitch in today's game.

I don't know that you have that generational shitting on each other that basketball has more

“so than any other sport. But then again, it's that mean it's more popular because more of”

that exists versus the other sports where it doesn't exist at all. Like, that's probably a terrible indicator. So I would ask you, like, where do you think this is in the race? Or I guess the belt

for what is always going to be number two? Oh, hey, that's such a tough thing to measure. Because

you do have all of these different signals. Signal one is going to be television ratings and television ratings are going to drive money coming into each league. And look, the NBA did awesome in its TV deal. Like, it's a, you cannot look at the NBA's TV deal. They, and think it's anything other than a win for the league and for the player. And because baseball is significantly far behind on that. And it's, it's why after 228 when MLB's national TV writes expire, they could potentially be

packaging that with the local television writes as well. Since, you know, MLB is running half the RSNs essentially these days after the collapse of Diamond Sports or whatever it's now called.

So you have TV ratings here. You have social media elsewhere. And yet, there's not as much

“engagement with MLB content. Oh, I think more and more it's grown in that respect.”

And by the way, all that's engagement stuff in the impression numbers and I like the majority of it's complete bullshit anyway. Yeah, I don't even know what the value is of it. But go ahead. Yeah, that's it. I mean, it's, it's the value of it is, is not a whole lot. It's just in the idea of zeitgeist. Like, like, what is present in our sporting minds right now? And that's where I think baseball's winning now. We need to acknowledge that the NBA is in the middle of a bad regular

season, a regular season where there have been where the storylines and the conversations have been around tanking, that have been around low management, that have been around injuries, have been around all these things that have negative connotations to them. So I think fixing like the dialogue about fixing the NBA versus holy shit, majorly baseball's running this awesome tournament right now. I don't think the midseason tournament has done what the NBA had

hoped that it would necessarily. And baseball coming off the world series that it did transitioning into the WBC as that momentum right now. And it's just, you know, I've been covering the sport for 23 years now. And I might just be a prisoner of the moment. I might just be looking at all the things that I see as positives and acting like that there's some noise to the signal. But I'll say this at McAfee went to the WBC final and has been talking about it on his show,

which is almost an entirely football-based show. Even a Smith at me on his radio show for a half hour of the day after the WBC final. And was talking about how he hasn't enjoyed baseball like this since Reg Jackson hit three home runs, which was 40 years ago. So what we have, you know, media personalities, acknowledging where baseball is right now isn't in and of itself an indicator that the game

“has turned to corner necessarily. But what I think it does is it makes baseball okay in the minds”

of fans, where for years baseball had this connotation around it that was just negative. It's slow. It's boring. It doesn't have any stars. Well, it's not slow anymore. It, you know, you can have baseball games that are faster than NBA games these days. It's not boring. And I think a lot of that frankly is due to the fact that 20 years ago, Major League Baseball and the Players Association dreamt up this idea for the WBC. And that in the two decades since, what has happened is that

the cultures of the Dominican Republic in Venezuela and Japan, which are different than American baseball culture have not just infiltrated the sport, but have changed it. Bryce Harper a decade ago is not flipping the shit out of his bad after he hits that home run. Bryce Harper this time shuts the thing into the air. And by the time he comes around the bases and salute's going around

third base, it's point to the flag on his shoulder going into home play. All of his teammates are there.

The American dugout would not have emptied in years past and yet because the Dominican dugout does because the Venezuelan dugout does because all these other teams show that baseball doesn't need to be so self-serious. I think the Americans, especially the younger ones, have taken that lesson

changes. It's not by brute forcing it. It's not by shoving it down their throat and saying,

“you must be that way. It's by looking at the response to all these other people in the way that they're”

doing it and saying, you know, we can have some of that as well. And that's where I think baseball's winning right now. All the things we're talking about in baseball are positive. The game is faster. The game is cooler. We have stars like show Hayo Tani and Aaron Judge and I could go down the list with a dozen more guys who people look at and you're like, yeah, I like that guy. And it's a bit odd to me as somebody who covered baseball as long as I have and was trying to spread the

gospel to the world like there are cool things here to see it finally happen. And baseball has a

moment right now Ryan and it cannot miss and it has to capitalize on that in the race as you said to be number two to the NFL. Yeah, I think it has, I think the fact that we're doing this after years of, I mean, if you want to talk about the league that is overtaken baseball is how can we fix it at the NBA? Now, I do think some of it gets really disingenuous when somebody's screen grabs a mucher box scores this late in the season. You know, like, look how shitty this product is.

You know, like, all right, you know, I get it. But like, do you want to do it on a Sunday during baseball season? So if there's like three, 12 to one scores, do we go this, this sports broken? Now, granted, because the taking, the taking part of it, it's more pointed. Look, none

of us like taking, none of us like it, but the thing that I think is unfair towards basketball

is the toughest transactional league and all the American sports. And when you have this many restrictions on what you can do, and you go, hey, I can't really trade anymore and having cap spaces sort of pointless because the guys just sign and then they have to demand trades and now we can't

“really trade the way that we used to with the first second aprons. So the only way to turn this”

thing around is the draft and prioritizing the draft. So you can't really blame the teams are going ahead and doing it. And look, I just don't think it's a problem. This is an important point. I think to make that that's a failure in looking forward and seeing what the effects are going to be. The unintended consequences I get can be problematic, but you need the most forward thinking people in those positions that are negotiating the collective bargaining agreement.

And that's why the basic agreement at baseball expiring on December 1st, 2026 to me is going to be such a seminal moment for baseball because you can chart the course positively or you can do things in pursuit of trying to keep things even and trying to keep things competitive that wind up making it worse. I guess I just don't want to hear from football guy pitching about a Sacramento King score in late March when he wasn't he didn't care anyway. He didn't care anyway. So I don't

“I don't understand that part of it. But I think that the momentum even his baseball is not one”

of my primary things. Like everything around it just feels like it's heading in the right direction. And we can talk about the malaise of the regular season. But I think with the attention spans that we have now throughout the younger generation certainly. But even those of us at our age, you know, I'm guilty of it, too, or it feels like unless there's something significant, unless it's a vent based, you know, you just don't feel as as much of a priority. So certainly this this season,

these next few months are going to be literally games that don't necessarily matter. But it's building towards again. I think it's still one of the best products and all of sports is the postseason. And the postseason that we just saw was like it was one of those things where I found myself going like I don't care about anything else right now. Like I only want to see what's happening with these games even without the backdrop of the previous six months drama night in the night out. Let's pivot

to 2526. Well, 2526 is basketball. Let's pivot to 26. See, I let that. I think there's anything

behind that slip. Dodgers. Dodgers third world series means what for the sport.

I think it continues to mean interest. I also think it continues to mean anger. And there's there's such there's such a delicate balance with the Dodgers right now. And the same way that there was with the Yankees and the late 90s. You get to the point where when your fans that you think you you almost cross this precipice of as it got into one even. Is it unfair? Do we have any hope? What do we need to balance things out and feel like? There's not this

team that can just go out there and outspend everyone. And it's not that simple. The Dodgers do outspend everyone. And what they've done is they've taken advantage of a collective bargaining agreement Ryan that has a loophole. And the loophole is very simple. The penalties at the top end do not have anything to do with the product that's on the field. The penalties are simply cash and in baseball, the difference between teams is whether you have cash flow or whether you are

right now, you suck and you need to do better. But more than that, it's the Dodgers have

“Guggenheim money and endless billions of dollars that they can go and spend in cash. And so going”

over that top Steve Cohen tax of the competitive balance tax and getting penalized 110 percent

and every dollar you spend for the Dodgers they look at it like. And so we're getting return on investment here, both on the field as well as in our business where we became the first franchise in baseball history to cross a billion dollars in annual revenue, which is a lot of freaking money and a lot of showhails, Tony Jersey sold and a lot of tours at Dodgers Stadium and a lot of sponsorships from Japanese companies that the Dodgers crack the business code. But you can even

Ryan look at the San Diego Padre's who are about to sell for the most of any baseball franchise in history and compared to the NFL and even the NBA, you know, the $3 billion plus dollars that

the Padre's are going to sell for isn't a lot. But the Padre's went out and said we feel like

if we put money onto the field with this team fans will come and you can tell me all you want that San Diego only has one professional sports team right now acknowledged true. But that doesn't mean that fans are going to come out. That doesn't incentivize them to do so. What does is getting excited about what they're going to see at the ballpark and the Padre's have done a tremendous job of that even if the success hasn't been there quite the same as other teams that business-wise

like they are caching it. So you have the Dodgers here and everybody hates them just like everybody hated the Yankees in the late 90s and I don't think that's a bad thing but there's just a balance

there and I do wonder if it's pushing a little bit too far that the Dodgers, everyone feels like

the Dodgers are going to win every year. I know facts versus feelings like that's an obvious thing to point out. But the Dodgers have won two in a row at this point and they go into this season as the overwhelming favorite. It is one versus 29 right now. Everybody is chasing the Dodgers and that's

“going to be the prevailing storyline I think in the 2026 season can anyone unseat the Los Angeles Dodgers.”

That's value to me that's a valuable thing though. Like when there's a central army that everybody's rooting against much like those Yankees teams are just perfect analogy to it because I just remember thinking like well it doesn't matter even if they lose in the playoffs that means they're going to be even more motivated to spend the out season and sometimes I'd want them to win so they'd spend the less the next year. But then you start thinking about the playoffs and the Dodgers are going to

be in it and you're going to have I wouldn't I don't really look more casual but just you know guys they don't even have any attachment to it. Maybe motivated to be just tuning into Rudy get something that they don't want to have happen. So I think there's actually a value there if so many other people are arguing that it's a broken sport because of their dominance and the way they're able to build but they're also incredibly smart on top of everything else because we've seen teams try to

do this in the past and not even come close to the same execution. If we stay with the Dodgers and then expand it out. The parity that this sport actually has had way more parity than it ever gets credit for but right now it feels like that's a hard argument to make because of their dominance in the last two world series. If we had to come up with a list and I know you're a really positive

“guy so I don't know that we want to do 15 teams here but how many teams do you think can win this thing?”

I mean let's let's go division by division if we could. Let's start American League East. I think any of the top four teams in the American League East whether it's the Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox or Orioles you can make an argument. I know the Orioles are coming off of 75 and 87 season and yet bringing in Petalonzo and trading for Shane Bos going out and signing Chris Badd. They have quite an infusion of talent there and I think Gunnar Henderson's going to

take a big step this year so I look at four teams there. Ael Central reasonably two teams to trite in Kansas City and you know Detroit's signing fronbrevaldes to bring in alongside Terric Scooble was a great move. Kansas City I'm just really bullish on I don't know if it's because I live there but think they're going to hit this year. Ael West. Hopefully one it's probably Seattle. I really like Seattle I hope we can talk about them more but you know you could see Texas on the periphery you could see

Houston on the periphery. The AES are going to bang the sheer like they have a tremendous lineup. Full year of Nick Kurt's growing into his own I just don't know that they have pitching. Anel East Philadelphia absolutely the braves if if things go right with the braves they have the chance to be really really good but we haven't seen it for two years from then and then the

could see them finishing with 95 wins it's the biggest Delta right there. Ventrol, cubs, reds, brewers,

a-rits maybe I don't want to like get too far out over my skis here but the pirates pitching is just so good and it's not just Paul schemes but the channeler is a guy. There are Jones going to be

“back from Tommy John Surgery I think Brax and Ashcraft is super underrated not haven't even got”

to Mitch Keller who's a steady as it gets and that out West. I mean clearly the Dodgers I don't know if I feel like any of the other teams like San Diego could go on a run but they're weakness is there San Francisco could be good they're just one of those like solid but not spectacular teams and then Arizona the same so I think I probably named 18 to 20 teams and I suppose Ryan and doing so

that suggests that baseball maybe does have a little bit more parity than the league wants to

suggest out there that all of these teams if things break right have the opportunity to go and be something special this year. All right so I thought we'll run through the divisions on all of the stuff. Clearly with the Yankees the investment and the pitching part of it like it's all about Gary Cole right so he's available once he's supposed to come back as it may. For now he threw an ending this week like oh yes he threw an ending and he looks good I mean he's he's going to be ready

and you add him to a rotation that already has max freed we saw what Cam Schlittler did during the regular season during the postseason rather last year Carlos Rodon's going to be out for a while

but you know he'll be back July August September and most important October and then beyond that

they've just got a ton of depth starters have you seen this spring Carlos Lageron hey the 67 kit yeah oh yeah I mean what's the story with this guy 101 yeah I mean just sit and one I want to want to want to see sit 101 yes that's it 101 yeah that's all right you know what dude that's that is one going back to like the social media element of where the NBA has dominated

“I think where baseball has made improvements is that guys are doing wild shit all the time now”

the average fastball in MLB is creeping up on 95 miles an hour which is insane to think about but you've got a guy like LeGron hey who you know as he's coming up to the minor leagues if you're the Yankees you're just like please so strikes please so strikes please so strikes because if he does the stuff once it gets to that point like watching a video of Carlos Lageron hey just forging a guy with 101 slider that you know breaks a foot and a half off the plate

and then 101 up in the zone and no one can catch up to it like that's compelling that's kind of fun and we're seeing that more and more and the Yankees have gotten excellent to pitching development it's not just LeGron hey you know Elmer Rodriguez pitch for Puerto Rico in the WBC they got him and Carlos and our via is trade last year and our via goes out and plays well for Boston it's like well what were the Yankees doing well they got a good arm out of it and the secondary arm

so whether it's well worn or or Clark Schmidt or Luis Hiel whoever it may be the Yankees have an absolute surfer of pitching right now like they're in a great position with that whether it's

“with standing injuries like they have they're going out and using it as trades that's why”

I'm as bullish on the Yankees as I am because the offensive side like there are some questions there yeah I mean shit what what I can't say his name is say my life should let let there is Hitler yeah shitler would be less popular although maybe more people know who he was Cam Schlittler was so good in that postseason game against Boston it was like there's no way this guy's not going to be good for like 10 years and granted we've had glimpses of things that were

were lies in the moment of seeing it but the fact that he's from mass and then I've top of everything else like all the social media stuff that was going to suck that shit too yeah I got a lot it was great I don't know that I've had a most favorite Yankee but he would he would be it right now because he was absolute nails and was just unhittable and you're like how is this guy not going to have this stuff the rest of his career especially to have it in that spot

Roman Anthony for the socks usually if your special is a position player it happens pretty quick and this game is littered which like you know whether it's 19 to 22 year old you're like this guy potentially being MVP what is the ceiling for Anthony in comparison to the other best position players in the sport I think the comp that people throw around most is Christian

even at 21 years old is going to be right in the mix or American League MVP this year and

“what the red socks have needed to do they have they have an interesting group of hitting coaches”

and hitting development process there where they are leaning completely into the idea that is backed by both science and logic that the more you pull the ball in the air the more production you're going to have and the idea is very simple Ryan when you're swinging a bat right the longer the bat is going through the zone the more momentum and speed it's generating so when you're pulling the ball think about it like if you get jammed on a ball your bat stops right there

right if you're hitting the ball the middle your bat stops right here right if you're pulling it you have to find it out in front so your bat has travel travel travel traveled traveled and gain speed and when it meets the ball out in front you're going to have potentially the highest eggs at velocity and the greatest ability to hit it hard and is that weird because we've fancy to opposite field hitters is being like the the apex of hitting ability for so long yeah

“but I think the red socks are leaning heavily into that and the one thing where I'm going to”

Anthony didn't do last year is elevate the ball so I'm going to be super curious to see if in service of trying to do that it changes things for him where he starts popping balls up more if he can't find that happy and medium but we saw him go out pretty good in the WBC against you know some of the best pictures in the world and hitting the the game winning home run against the Dominican Republic like this is 21 year old kid who was called in as an injury replacement

and showed up and looked like he belonged with the best players from this country which is sand something so I'm a huge Roman Anthony fan and I think the red socks but they have now is a lot of depth and and that puts a lot on out it's court like figuring out how do you get the bats for Anthony Sedan Rafael a willier a bra who must talk a Yoshida how do you manage a pitching staff that you have seven eight nine potentially starters and what is Craig breastlow the president of baseball

off or chief baseball off so I had fucking titles we get on a wrong break breastlow what does he do with all this pitching does he keep it around or does he eventually try and cash it in maybe at the trade deadline maybe even earlier than that to go and fill a weakness what do you think losing a world surges like that does for the blue jays going into twenty six

“I think I'm not going to say it motivates them I think what it does is it shows this organization”

that for so long had been snake bitten that they can do what they set out to do you know they they lose on the show hey Otani bidding after the the disaster of Otani's on a plane and everyone in Toronto is getting excited they lose out on one sold out and I think signing

Vladimir Guerrero for fourteen years and five hundred million dollars did something psychologically

to that team that said this is a guy who wants to be here and if he wants to be here then others are going to want to be here and by the time the world series came around the the vibe in the jays clubhouse was immaculate that team legitimately loved each other or any Clement at one point was like you know part of me doesn't want to win the world series because I know then I'm going to be separated from my friends and I mean losing the world series kind of does that

too but the point was he didn't want that to end because it was such a good group and trying to replicate that it's like when you're out with a group of friends and you just have a night matching that night again is a difficult thing for anyone to do just because it is so special so how do you go about matching that night again how much do you invest in making sure that even if it's not going to be the same night even if it's not going to be the same season it's similar and the the blue

jays have done a good job and I keep going back to this Ryan getting pitching depth pitching depth all of these teams that we're talking about that have a chance to be really good have like six or seven eight or nine starters and you know Jose burios has a stress fracture to develop a trace average starting the year on the injured list because of a shoulder is chain beaver going to be out with arm fatigue and yet they're coming in with Kevin Gosman they signed Cody Ponce this

off season Dylan sees $210 million like jays are going to be just fine and the alias is just a

really really nasty division to have to work through if we go to the central and you know I probably not as excited about Kansas City as you are but I also understand I don't have the depth chart necessarily down the way you would as well we know Cleveland's offense thanks Chicago is you know

because you're looking at like a really nasty one too with school but is there anything that tells you hey that signing means they're invested or this signing means that it's a backup plan of

school wants north of 400 million and they're a disaster this year and they decide to trade him

earlier because of value like how does am I letting myself get too creative no no no I think it's both Ryan I think that they are investing in this season because they understand that hey this is an extremely winnable division and and if you can go into the postseason with school and fromer at the top of your rotation you're going to be in a really good position to win some playoff series but the on that Detroit starting to graduate guys I'm Kevin McDonald's the number two prospect

and baseball right now he's just in exquisite hitter as power to all fields has fat to ball

“and and he's like he's a dick in the best way to like he's incredibly competitive”

and you know on the field he he wants to choke you out like that's just how he's a philly kid like you know you're raised in certain places like you're raised in Venezuela you're raised in the Dominican Republic you have a certain approaches to baseball you're raised in a philly you got certain approaches to sports and Kevin McDonald the baseball phrase is he's got the ass and when you have the ass that means you are it's short for like a red ass somebody who's just tough like

Pete Rose was the ultimate red ass I like he wants to run you over on the field and so how does that come short I mean I heard red ass for decades but he's got the ass is new to me and I'm going to try to use it weekly now I think let me put it this way I don't know when it's going to be but on the new podcast that I'm doing I'm doing an entire ass episode I'm really looking forward to like looking that looking into is it going to be the Jeff Asson podcast

sources tell Jeff Asson I like that that would be good yeah we're going to we're going to

“explore it series an important topics on this podcast let me tell you I'm telling you I never stop”

scouting you know you start looking around like that guy's got some baseball ass to him you know and you just know what it is double beats running early college roommate he played baseball at UVM it's like he just the rest of us it's like man he's just got this baseball ass to him like you don't want to you might I don't want that guy to punch me look at his ass there's just a lot of power in there you know that's the thing you know you know the hips like that's the thing

a good punch is not delivered from the arm of the fist there you go delivered from the hips and so yeah I feel like baseball guys could be the fighters in that regard and McDonald's I imagine we're probably throw a pretty mean punch even though he's like five nine five ten but Detroit's been looking for that foundational star on the position side for years Riley greens a really good player character character really good Spencer Turkelson great year last year and AJ Hinch is a manager

“does an awesome job of working platoon and understanding his players which is why I think at the”

end of the day the tigers do win that division but I am I am bullish on the royals because maybe this is like world baseball classic recently bias but my Kelgarc it was the MVP of the finals he's

the lead off hitter obviously which junior you saw everything he did he's the third best player

in baseball behind Shilha Otani and Aaron Judge a very past twenty you know captain and team mentally and doing the job that he did a couple of young left-handed hitters and Carter Jensen and Jack Hagley on who have a ton of power Salvador Perez and they're moving the fences in a coffin stadium this year so I think that offense is going to be a real problem this year and they have a lot of pitching depth and have been very good at developing pitchers so to me it's two

team race in that division which is a shame Ryan because Cleveland I love what the guardians do every year they outplay their payroll likely they outplay their talents Steven votes as good of a manager as you're going to find but they finished twenty ninth in batting average on base percentage it's like in percentage last year and they didn't do ship this offseason to sign offensive players and I just think that's a dereliction of unity by ownership to a fan base that frankly deserves more.

I was there in the nineties when the Indians had Albert Bell and Kenny Lofton and Carlos by Erica and Eddie Murray and Jim tell me in Mani Ramirez and I can go on and on about those teams

that to me with best teams to never win a world series and knowing that Cleveland can have teams

like that in the way that they were filling up Jacob's field at that point and knowing now that the fan base is disillusioned as it is because there's no investment from ownership it's just a shame. Yeah that Cleveland lineup from the nineties is making the rounds again man he's batting seventh in that they say just let's try to let's try to do the best service that we can to the other

see yeah I don't have to leave in seven minutes actually well I'm happy to stick around

“I have you are you blaming me yeah that's what it is you and just get it you hold that you”

weren't going to put that on me motherfucker I was trying to do like I thought you were going to get the vet move of like oh you must have another taping yeah no absolutely not all right wasn't

like the blame you yeah let's do it here we go the third best world series champ odds and it

it's a complete disservice to just say it's only because of how favor they aren't the division obviously it's an awesome team no I I'm picking the mariners to go to the world series this year the rotation is deep and nasty and especially of Bryce Miller who's thrown two and a half miles an hour harder this spring and has his fastball back you know he's had a little oblique thing but if Miller's there with Kirby and Wu and Gilbert in Castillo that that's me as the best rotation of baseball

and in the lineup Carolie doing what he did who Leo Rodriguez and it goes deep now with Josh

“Taylor coming on board love the Mariners love love love the Mariners let's talk it Laina”

because there's a version of this rotation that gets you excited and sail becoming kind of Chris sail again later on in his career but it it is all over the place so like I can look at the depth chart and go hey this could be really good in a couple months but you're making you're rounding up on a lot of players absolutely and on the offensive side too like on the pitching side they're missing Spencer Schwellenbocca where I really like ownership removed they're missing herston

Waldrip who's fantastic at the end of last season and we don't know what Spencer Shrider we're going to get I will say keep an eye on did hear Flint Ace this spring so far eight innings no hits no walk 16 strikeouts I don't know if he's going to start this season in the rotation but

young big powerful arm and the brave's had big plans for him all right Filly if we were talking

one two with Detroit is Filly the best one two three four five I don't know I mean you just keep going with the rotation a lot of it depends on how much Zack Wheeler bounces back you know when you're coming off the rassic outlet you don't know how a guy is going to recover but for some percentage as Wheeler Haseus Lazardo it doesn't get a whole lot better than that you know you look it maybe Seattle maybe the Dodgers as well when they're healthy but Billy ran it back and

Philly fans like Yankees fans are mad I'm like you run it back in 96 win team there are worse outcomes to doing south every time I read about it I'm like wait am I missing something like they're going to be bad and then it's like oh no it's just disappointment and then yeah let's look at the roster and you go okay I know it's a little bit older and I know but I mean what Aaron goal is projected is your fifth the fourth or fifth starter here I mean give me a break

now I feel like I've ruined the mood a little bit because I told you to try to get to the rest of these teams because of our own skin no I feel like there's an amosity now I feel like there's no amosity at all I'm excited for the challenge and you're fill a bustering so let's move for a solo come on let's get this out of the way by the way who is the guest that I'm being bumped for you're not being bumped for anybody it's a scissor because it's a double

eternity turn it I'm sorry you seem spicy when it comes to the pirates you seem like you want to pick them to do something this year when you know everyone else would probably say look Milwaukee in Chicago Cincinnati or all ahead of this team I do think Chicago's the best team in the center and what I love about the cubs is that their baseline is like up here like excuse me their floor is up here they're just good everywhere I do wonder if they're for the

audience yeah yes they have a high floor and wonder what their ceiling is the brewers I just never

know what they're going to be year over year Jacob misery asking needs to be a guy they need Brandon Woodruff to stay healthy but they just get how to win that Murphy's a really good manager Cincinnati if they can get into the playoffs again and get 100g back healthy they can be a

“real problem if you have 100g and you have it in Chase Burns who I think is going to be a breakout”

star this year just premium stuff I just I maybe instead of want the pirates to be good if it's that I I like Paul skins and and want him to win and stay there long term that I think Bubba Chandler's phenomenal and you know even in the mind of least they have Hunter Barco who's a nasty lefty who has like six good pitches it's just going to be a matter of offense and defense with them which that's that's a lot to add or but Connor Griffin like he's a guy right you're going

to love Connor Griffin I don't know if he's going to break with the team but he is 19 years old and he looks like Cal Rick in 64 to 25 the faster they cow I mean I don't want to put

one of the most talented players we have seen him based on a long long time all right let's finish

with the NL West we've already touched on the Dodgers here it seems like you're more bullish on San Diego putting together anything here then you would be not not really more so in Arizona San Francisco no I just think that because there are more potential like star level talents there like I'm want to see a real Fernando Tate's junior season like a pre-steri test for them to Tate's junior season and see if he has that it I'm still and I think Manima Chotto's got things going Jackson Merrill to me

“is is really going to be the key to this club and he be his rookie year self and we see the”

30 30 Homer guy can he stay healthy so if Merrill is that good and if they get pitching pitching

is going to be such a question for them you know is Joe Musgrog going to actually be out there

there are some concerns at this point about just how much they can get out of Musgrog but if the Dodgers can get pitching I think they're going to have a real shot and what to me is going to be a pretty wide open race for those extra playoffs spots in the NL world series pick Dodgers Mariners Dodgers over the Mariners yes I want to I want to choose someone else I really do when it comes to these picks though I feel like I've got to be kind of chalky and and just go with what my

got tells me and my gut tells me that there's not a team is good as the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2026 and I know that anger is a lot of people and in baseball like major league baseball just the way that the sport is played I don't think it's as easy for the Dodgers to get through they got taken to seven games in the world series by a much less talented Blue J team last year so it shows you can lose those series they got swept by the Diamondbacks three years back but yeah

“I think at the end of the day I'm just back and on the talent and the most talented team is the”

Los Angeles Dodgers you're a talented guy and I know the new pod tell us about it real quick so we make sure everybody checks it out because when you were telling me about it I was excited for you and sometimes I fake my excitement for other guests but this is sincere I'm excited to we haven't announced the name yet or anything about it so I'm guessing it has a few but I'm going to keep it a little tight at this point but the whole point is this baseball's going through an enormous

Renaissance right now and I want this to be a show that not only brings in die hard fans but that helps educate casual fans and people who are new to the sport so when they are at parties or when they're watching a baseball game with someone or when they're at a bar they can say this is what I know about this and so every episode is going to have a very specific topic where we're going to bring in the best experts to tell us about it and to help us learn and it's going to it's going to be fun

like that's the good part about it we are not going to take ourselves too seriously this is not going to be like the baseball show that has unwritten rules to it there are no rules and that's what's going to make it great that's the wrestler in you that's the wrestling fan the rules Jeff Passen I can't wait man thank you so much to the time we'll check it again this season I'm just so glad that you kept someone else waiting Ryan thank you it means a lot

I'll let them know picture this it's Monday morning you open your laptop outlook hits you with 87 unread emails your calendar looks like a game of Tetris played by a toddler your boss wants to report your team wants a presentation you want a nap and a Microsoft co-pilot co-pilot summarizes your emails boom your caught a it drafts your report in word it builds your slides in PowerPoint it even pulls insights from your Excel data suddenly you're the office hero people think you're organized

responsible maybe even promotable all because co-pilot did the stuff you didn't want to so

“if you want to reclaim your time or at least pretend you have your life together try Microsoft co-pilot”

co-pilot because sometimes the smartest move is letting AI do the work the alliance marches on serruti Kyle tough one Santa Clara Kentucky that wasn't wasn't a blast it cost us that one and I a polygetic that was my leg felt pretty good about that pick that they're gonna win out right and they got two and a half I mean they should and probably won the game I mean I that's tough beat it's tough beat for the group um that's March

it is well we are back at it but well first we got to get to you you did win king at the court last night that was easy you guys ask for the pick and I was like there's only four

games tonight so I better hurry up and get joker before coming you never answered quicker than

that I've never answered quicker in my life but what was the payout on that considering there's

being like hey we need to you to lock in look at the matchups although maybe it wasn't another

“night um you know when you pick the favorites like it was 43 bucks I believe for your pitch last night”

so far change a weekend for me my 20s good yeah um I have all of I put up we went to it's 50 seven nights yeah you know I'll you found me nothing like going out with a 20 and haven't changed yeah given extra ranch cup sorry sorry sorry you're trying to do you know you're good I'm sorry it's my fault sorry now you're fine I I had Apollo he was leading until until you okay to took it uh Apollo what I think had like almost 300 bucks so that would have been pretty awesome

I don't get style points for changing that I wanted uh none of the Mitchell but I was like let me change it up but I don't get style points for that but I I it wasn't my head and then I saw that his footer is down I've been said to Apollo after the game Johnny's about to bust your ass right in with this guy Rick so thought that was cool yeah thanks for not growing the same chance spider the fuck is that and it's super embarrassing for me to have not gone there and care

of this much he went to Louisville yeah shout out Rick the Rick Tater he's just back at his guy yeah I know click come on all right should we do our picks yeah I were back on the college football

or the college basketball wagon um Ron you go first Arizona minus the seven and a half

“fading it I think Arkansas is going to be a bit of a wake-up call for them although it looked”

they've had a really nice run off the SEC tournament and everything but uh yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna go with the uh the weighted uh I just I just think it was on this nasty so there you go there God I tried to do the cool guy pick with Santa Clara now I'm like no I don't want to do that again I still don't hate the pick I mean call time out do anything I like apparently they tried to call time out you you text is the cause I'm like you're watching live and it's the coach trying to call

time out I think he did but they just give it to him and then he gets out like a half but happened a lot this tournament I was having the team players call it early and it's like oh damn yeah I get it you guys are college kids but that's up but I was in the cafe so just a bunch of guys huddled around and it was like the start of the tournament I was getting shots up and the gym for the start of the tournament well I'm gonna be on the couch for 12 hours and it's like if I don't get out of house and

do something active and I have a they have these things for some TVs where you can record stuff and then go back and watch anything you missed okay all right got it I'll give you my pick now I picked Houston I'm taking the money line I don't think there's story ends here I think it ends in a heartbreaker and like the elite aid or or final four I like the coach better yeah so we'll just take we'll take the Houston money line hmm I said this before I think that

games in Houston right so I do love this Illinois team which is not surprising to anyone but you're us through to yeah they're just fun to watch man they score I don't quite tell the defense but they score they move I give you a role of the city and see small minute one of those weird like alumni bar pop ups no no one no one rides for St. Louis Missouri and Champano and Illinois more than Michelle Smallman so yeah listen give me a time and place I'll be there plus you know listen I

there's a sauce pop for some of those Illinois teams I love you know the Darren Williams was a deep brown yeah right of those teams who's the other guy I'm forgetting Luther has her head yeah who is the big guy and that Jim is the Augustine deep now we're gonna look it up it was they're like one of you guys oh it's awesome I picked him up when it all that year our break while the iron looks set up I'm gonna take the under in Iowa Nebraska big 10 basketball baby under 132 and

half I think that's gonna be just a grind and might even be in Nebraska home game again who knows those fans travel shout to them but you know the Iowa fan travel to this a pro Iowa podcast is we've said before but I think that's gonna be a low scoring tight game so give me the under 132 and a half and those three put us at plus 146 I'm sorry that's 1461 yeah I'm just lucked today sorry guys I didn't get a lot of sleep last night yeah the kids yeah you know I think I've said this the true

transition to the big kid bed just doesn't like to stay in there and then you end up in there so I've slept in there for a few hours last night not great for the back she worked she worked better too bars on her bed is that weird

group is great because it did it was basically like jail then pal now she's got free range

“not ready from downstairs it's not great so you know do you scroll do you must just do”

him scroll right kind of but she's like really perceptive to you being on the phone so she's like caught if I roll over if I roll over what's going on I just like feel her head on my back just

I just love watching video games stuff I can't I feel like such a loser but I'm just gonna admit it

yeah because you won't allow yourself video games but you'll watch other people right I mean that is that's it yeah I'm out of here seems to be here loser shit now I get it not everything is cool over here all right sorry to disappoint but yeah I can somebody's medieval battles and I'm like so what the fuck you get to just organize these entire things to like you're so scared like that

“looks like fun when all you have to do is like sign up for a steam account well he did you did”

play call up duty for a bit right a couple years ago I remember we talked about this I think Chris Long was playing it or something too and I was playing it it was the it was for dance can you know we're playing Warzone yeah I was in I mean one of my favorite things ever was just okay basketball's over you know like 45 minute video game chill out session I was doing that for a while and then 45 that's pretty regimented that's good for you you sent a lot because it was also like

two in the morning oh right I see you're saying basketball is not like the season's over okay because I was still a amp from all the hoops I needed you know and then again I was on the east coast so I would usually be at work by nine so wasn't like I was waking up at five thirty or six you know although the sleep back then it's just I'm I've slept I would say better since I've moved but yeah once I decided there was other stuff that I wanted to do that's obviously kicking ass I was like

I can't justify all of these hours for the video game console and then COVID I was like let's go

“and then I was that motorcycle guy against the zombies and I was like I think I got this stuff down”

it's like I run towards them and then I get close and I can run away and then I get a turn around and then that's like I got it you said something about the ship game yeah I've seen the video with what's it called I've watched the full series where these dudes who just on pirate ships and they like are screaming because there's just like boats come out and know where I'm like this looks like the most fun thing to grasp I tried it I didn't love it I really really quickly yeah

I mean it's one of those games you don't get off the pirate ship you know you mean like there's no like your your pirate life ends there like there's no like exploring or swashbuckling it's just like shooting cannons and other ships so so it's just like you're getting getcha yeah well they also like they have the streamers that are just like really into it and they start yelling so like when they don't see a ship coming out over they start screaming

and it is kind of funny to watch but so you basically just like trying to avoid the black pearl

for a while and that's the game I got to say I didn't I didn't play it too long I was just like so this is it huh and I I was like is there seriously nothing else and everyone's like yeah there's nothing else if you really love steering ships and you know selling cargo at different ports then this is for you all right maybe when I'm older I thought you were talking about sea fairer this is a new I think sea fairer but it's a simulator yes it's a simulator you get a lot of drive

all these different than eventually you're like doing cargo ships what you move off of or is I was telling my brother I'm like we please get this please he's like that looks so boring that's like all right but yeah I'm not I can't do it I can't justify I've there's even a

console downstairs but I've never put it I've never plugged it in it's just for one of my brother visits

it's nice that you're scratching that edge through other people that looks great yeah I can't set this medieval thing I can't stop right now all right let's stop and set it up so that yeah this is anyway that's the draft game shout out the draft game shout out all the all the odds on draft case sportsbook Microsoft Copilot the AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done Copilot works across Microsoft 365 word excel PowerPoint outlook turning chaos in a productivity

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actually bread the instructions you want details five I drive a Ferrari 355 cabbiole what's up I have a ridiculous house in the south fork I have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids I am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's

“required the life advice the email address life advice [email protected] also if you want to get into our”

10 good minutes our NBA mailbag is NBA mailbag [email protected] we have life advice to a one email life advice probably bang one of those out soon so what do you mean like right now you back I'll fry a feedback sorry my god this is I'm telling you right now all right I'm

it's going to a lot of aerosmith NBA comp so many and yeah I I feel like they're

some guy said mellow somebody saying mellow's their favorite player makes all the sense of the world mellow's a awesome fun player even with the deficiencies and the fact that he came home to New York uh it looked there were some people being like like Westbrook a Westbrook being a kid's favorite player is the easiest thing ever like Westbrook was fun it was it was like ridiculous but a kid's favorite player though that's right I mean you're saying if a guy told you

aerosmith is my favorite band that's like you know if a kid you're like what is a kid now he's you know this could be his whole life right now he's a no shit okay but if later on

like you still like Westbrook was your first basketball lover mellow was your first basketball

love okay and then you still liked him college into your 20s or whatever I mean you know now we're talking like 15 years from teenager to 30 maybe not impossible but I could understand how that guy's like yeah my first favorite player was was this and you know he's still my favorite player of all time like that to me makes a lot of sense aerosmith still being somebody's favorite I feel like Westbrook is like nickel back where come on that's that's can't do that to nickel back

“I'm kidding you can't do that I didn't know you thought I was this thing there I think it's appropriate”

like I think it's on an ankle back this right like I don't know that I advertised it but like

yeah I have I had fun watching Russell Westbrook play basketball for sure did you ever have a

nickel back CD hell yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah several give me your mom's top five bands right now oh top five bands is probably all 70 stuff definitely all seven she was a big company right but yeah there was nickel back in the truck I don't know what to tell you nothing wrong with that it's like can we listen to you another nickel back CD me dude she's laying that's up you know I was like can we listen to the earlier one today but you know there's a lot of

driving in my youth and we were we were in the truck when they go back cigarettes and homemade iced tea I mean that's just this is what it reminds me of home those I think it's Jeff Horne's sec for aerosmith you're like what okay I like Jeff Horne's sec hell of a player I don't think he's like flashy enough you know but it has to be are you serious because music it makes a little bit more sense to cycle in and out of stuff like I had the

kiss double platinum tape I thought it kicked ass so they turned eleven you know you know videos are making the rounds too that I I did not know about is when I when kiss just took the

“makeup off and tried to like rebrand themselves oh yeah that was a big deal man what do you remember”

hell when was it like the 90s oh I got a steady this video it's unblocked jeans Simmons that's his name right yeah he looks like a creep it is the scariest video I've ever seen in my life and these do is think they're like all right the makeup softball ball like you got to put the makeup back and what time frame was that now working with a super older where they just like weathered now they've got around for a while I'm I guess it's like it's I'm trying to think I remember because it was a big deal when it happened

but I was already out I was out on them I've pivoted over to hip hop by them I'm gonna guess like 89 90 when they took it off okay is it mask off to or is that not somebody else it's a rapper that's future I know I gotta find this video for you how it is outrageous oh my god 83 found it yeah not even close maybe it just made it's weight maybe it was still like a generational thing people still referenced in seven six seven years later or I was from just like I still haven't gotten over it

“but yeah I was a pretty never forget like hey nobody likes this anymore let's take our makeup off”

like they're very calculated guys and that was the part of it that was like just wasn't as cool as the other bands yeah I'm doing it I know it's making the run I can't believe I got the years wrong that that well you know to take it a while just wait for it trust me I'll tweet this out today make my fast forward it's only 30 seconds oh all right we've got a time sensitive sweet let us know when you see the video but it's not great no it's not great just up

they used to have like these these movies and stuff then there was the card they were like yeah yeah could we do they're showing up they were like everywhere yeah yeah all right don't use my name or employer below all right six foot 190 bench 275 four times one rep is stupid and bad for you all

tunnel bass is what we're talking high school didn't have ties I got that sturdy now you're back you're wound up ready to go uh no we had one of those recently but that's me had it work twice as hard for maybe three quarters of the skill was once that's during a post college mentally you can Northboro mass if I was a cop because of the tenacity on my my defense and then my shaved head it's probably more than haircut are you a cop is that like the most disrespectful that you

could say something on a basketball basketball hard oh yeah I don't know yeah we like no I'm a I'm from Stuttgart I'm just getting hit the picture of me perfect English

he said say Daniel Tyson oh nice did you did you get hit in the face all the time and never do anything

“about it my wife works for an athletic department I think we're going to just be a little more”

vague than you were in the female well I can't really read the I think he's going to get all right look alright man you have free well I mean don't use my name or employer right like you tell us that your wife works well I can't do any of the email unless all right well with figure out um wife works in the athletic department at St. John Celeste 8 years we made it through the end of the mullin Chris mullin run uh Mike Anderson spur and we deserve all of what Rick is bestowed upon us

we got to eight ten games year kind of second the garden we were in Providence last year for the Caldebockel she's almost thirty weeks pregnant um wait is this a picture of your pregnant wife

that you're sending us the first um I kind of can't figure this out because it looks like it's a

“dance team member so I don't I don't know what's going on here um well no I think it's just a random”

picture I don't know I'm just afraid I don't want to get it last thing we need is this kind of energy before the game against Duke alright so she's thirty weeks pregnant she does not want to travel to DC for the Duke sweet sixteen game the cars too long for her to be sitting and planes are a mess with the TSA things so no guarantees will make it then I have her hanging in an airport for hours potentially uh as happened with multiple times this year already between the two of us we for sure have

connections to pieces of tickets on the arm we both love watching games together and if she's not going I can still figure it out with some friends co-workers hers or mine we're also just big Johnny's there's no way I can leave her at home for this right he asks absolutely sending my

“death warrant two and a half months before our first son is born right unless she you should go”

unless she says you should go and mean it she won't I don't think she's wrong for not really but I just want to go um just need to root from Queens right please have a work around I'm not seeing Joe Johnny's running RV pre family vacation It's a baby moon

at the sweet sixteen yeah oh okay first of all there's more pictures so these the pictures just in the arena

there's a mess proving proving who he is that he felt right and there happens to be either a dance team member or somebody dressed like one and then his wife is on the jumbo tron um gosh right Steve you been around the block twice what is the what is the closest to the due date before you can like disappear for a day is it like is it three months out just shut it all down like what is the closest thing where it's like obviously I'm not going to miss an emergency here but it's just the vibe

your off you shouldn't be taking the strip I'm trying to think if I if I cut anything kind of close I mean the biggest hangout for me was like the golf stuff towards the end it's like hey you're gonna be gone for 12 hours today and I'm just home with the kid and I'm pregnant and bummer 12 hours well you know because I you got me up and my buddy move off since we meet and then you know it's been a long day I'm not going to lie um she thinks series wife this whole time

thinks the golf is 36 horses what am I what is one guy the greatest I've ever there's one of my right now who's wife believes that golf is 36 holes she has no idea go ahead one of my friends life dot golf is free sick of you spot the clubs you just go to the course right like public horses and it's like now that's not really how that works so she got a little bit of a rude awakening he got into golf and was like this isn't what I signed up for um the way you have a golf credit card

part of our property tax I'm trying I'm trying I'm trying to think I don't I don't think I really

tough one man is the the other thing about this too is it's something that you both enjoy so for

you to enjoy it more than her when she like has obviously let's get reason to not go and stay home I feel like you kind of got to stay with her through this you know like enjoy it with her well option on the couch with her she's gonna be busy like imagine your wife just sitting at home watching the same child's game by herself and you're at the game like that's a huge bummer I I don't know that you could do that to your wife so I I know it sucks and I know it'd be fun and you said

“all right yeah maybe she'll let you go and if she doesn't fully mean it I think you got it kind of just”

I think you kind of just got to take one here and just say hey I have to be with my wife here all right but I mean I said it earlier what in a joking tone but New York DC it's not the craziest driving the world what is that like seven hours maybe eight hours and what if you do get like just rent a rent a whatever one of those things we had a family member who had to well there's like what there's a version of a car there's there's a version of a spring event yeah there's a version of a

spring event is outfitted with like a straight up bed there's a you know there's a bathroom that you try not to use if you have other options because it's tight quarters in there but I had a family member that had to get down to Florida couldn't fly the regular drive thing wasn't working and they did this spring event thing um it's possible I mean you can also do like a smaller version of like a winner bag or something it's it's a lot but you're asking is there any way you can pull this off

which is bringing her there and if the travel is the problem then there's there is another motor travel she could just lay down you power through this drive and you're there if you really want it she said 30 weeks pregnant right yeah terrible right not terrible and this is the non-predent person this is the way you can guarantee that you get there so I don't see any other way unless you just somebody loses if she's if she just thinks that this is enough to just put this matter to bed

and then you're like you come out with this Hail Mary and it's like all right what if we run in our village he's like are you serious she might have thought this was enough to be like yeah not a good idea but you know as far as we know that's not the case so yeah I mean you're not just dealing with the pregnant part here you're dealing with she loves the Johnny's man and she's going to want to wash this game with you so yeah you have the means like my guess is some of these weird

commuter private flight things if you monitor it you can get like a really good deal but I don't think there's going to be any deals from New York City to DC before the tournament you know anybody else is going to take all this up so I'm not suggesting like a private plane but I'm just trying to figure out like in your head if you're doing the math it's like okay I'm not spending on this I'm not spending on this I'm getting the tickets for free is there a way where you go like

to her hey we spend this much on this but I'm only talking about like this thing being a couple grand for an extra couple seats on some of these flights that are already going that way already like stuff like this does actually exist like I've looked at it because I can out of

forward to fly private I'm never going to be able to forward to fly private but you'll look at

“like some of these jump flights from LA to LAX and you go oh my god like why did I think about this”

because it's so much more convenient it's not that much more and then you're just buying a seat it's like you're showing up like me solo asshole with an 8c plane landing and going like yeah that was worth 50 grand which I'm again I'm never going to do because I can't afford that but I don't know I don't know if that's worth ringing in but I just can't you're gonna it's much as it's going to be awesome you know if you want to think if they were the one seed and maybe Duke was the four or five

because there's also a chance you go in there and go hey St. John's when they can't score for five or six minutes which is going to happen in this game or they down eight or they down

18 after that happens when it looks like they're never going to score again like what if they're

down 18 just thinking about driving that springer van all the way home tomorrow it's like what the fucker well I'm not even talking about that I'm talking about being home by herself oh yeah

“oh but I think you have to watch in the same place I think you have to yes yeah you can't leave”

her hang and so sprinter van might be the best idea out of all of these but you cannot you cannot leave her because she cares about the game like there's a part of it where it's like if she likes the Johnny as much as I do she totally understands and I have taken all this kind of stuff but I don't know man that's a tough one kind of a story people chime in then go it's two and a half months away I do you can do stuff but it was probably weren't yeah those probably are female women though

that's not going to happen I'm going to play that right now yeah okay I thought we had one I really wanted to do here um yeah here it is it's unique it's different I'm Jeff Passons neighbor awesome can you know Jeff loves life advice so maybe I can get a text from

earlier so like we didn't tape pass in the same day we're taping all this stuff so we kind of

this in the hopper for a bit but he does listen to the pod and he uh he's a big israeli couscous fan big israeli couscous fan pop gave me a couple recipes um he also said barley is underrated so it tastes like pharaoh. Passons like 12 and also 75 I do love myself so Jeff Passon though all right so this works out perfectly right because we did already tape a Jeff and I didn't realize that was today's episode so really so really produces this stuff

you guys I don't know if I just refer to it today but all right so he's Jeff Passons neighbor he offers us a dress we're not going to read it just because he proves his need it he wasn't I don't think

he was yeah he's like can provide more detail but don't want to with the risk of sounding creepy

we we're just gonna take you right we hit the sweet spot buddy. Jeff's gonna know what is it did this is interesting well I don't know if he's gonna know so here we go 6-1 170 bench 180 yep get the two and a half south fucking love it dude dr's every week I got the one and a half south turn COVID that was like sitting there you know they made those you want them for your garage you ordered so you added them to the order

is it one of those select all deals when you're getting here you're set up it's like gaps in order to get all sorts of stuff back then I just just like I was thinking about even

opening up a small business you know second hand stuff and then I tried to get into the

Craigslist game of selling used jima equipment and I was like I'm out now we have one transaction and that transaction was fine but the the haggling with everybody else on everything I was like I you know it to be factions can't do it yeah do you have veterans discount okay man I respect who you are but all right here we go 6-1 we said that already one and a half excuse me 150 half

“marathon which I think we're gonna would say but would work on say that's not bad not bad but not”

good player comp injured Washington wizards Ron Baker wow shout out writing it because I recently discovered I am Jeff Passen's neighbor and jogged by his house very frequently especially when I want some hill work I saw him outside once and knew he lived vaguely in the area I don't live in a house directly beside him but close enough you all answer celebrity interaction questions freaks frequently but wondering what protocol here would be am I allowed to tell him

a big fan and ask his opinion if the braves will suck again this year or should I just wave and keep on going I know he likes to do life advice so hoping to maybe hear his opinion as well big fan of you three or four thanks so much reading this thinking about this episode and how much he's

“loving like baseball going like the the the graph going up I think that would he would also”

look at that way if you're like big fan of your coverage of baseball I think it would I think he would absolutely welcome it if it wasn't opening day I feel like we should call Jeff and just bring him home but I think it's kind of busy right now he is busy the reason we take this early is because he's busy today but we want to run it today so thanks to Jeff for being accommodating I feel like Jeff I mean I don't want to speak for him but we're going to right now I feel like

Jeff he's such a nice guy I think there's no way he wouldn't be like happy to meet a neighbor and chop it up about baseball I don't be like insane and start like texting him questions about your fancy baseball league but I think I don't think this is an issue with all your neighbors it's not like you're just like coming in from a different town hanging out around his neighborhood hoping

“to see him you live in the same area so I think next time you're jogging you see him you run”

at him full speed hug him and say I love you and then when there's an awkward moment you just go for so let's say it's okay yeah so let's find I think passing now because of the email you're good next time you jog by you just go hey I'm the emailer this was a speed you guys you guys are going to be barbecue and in fucking two months hell yeah yeah this is a happy ending story totally I'm jealous actually yeah I'd imagine a picture

at some point maybe hold off on the brave stuff don't start writing on that little background why the run baker reference maybe ask him for that is really couscous recipe

there's two different versions I don't think you know if you're I don't think you know if

there are not that I don't you know yeah I said it wrong yeah no they're not two different versions I only knew that because of creed in the office they're like what is that crap it's like my sprout mung beans in my desk anyway I'm almost read the Latin thing and that was going to be

“even more wrong glad we didn't do that I think this guy's good I think he's good to go”

I think you're going to be but just wait wait until the episode posts again how

would you know because you couldn't hear it until it's actually posted and then maybe given the first

week of baseball launching off he might not even be there he's probably going to be on the road the entire time but you know maybe we wait until we can tape roll I wasn't saying you're probably the email is going to probably listen to this for Jeff listen to it so if you don't know again before that yeah you're right if you it is again busy time of year you know it's going to support your season this could be a break like I can't do you're right the listener probably

listen this before all right abrupt ending let's go thanks to Tom Kevin Kyle Steve please subscribe tomorrow we have well we're bringing on a dangerous character on the show tomorrow

“Steve out of the show yeah shout out westport tacos are what I think we might let him”

go at it with with serenity on Palo oh I don't want to do that I don't want to do that I'm out I can't do this anymore they're out on who I just I don't want to have this conversation anymore the the it's such a this season such a bummer the Palo conversation such a almost came to the court now where what are we even across the last thing he was they've also lost six straight

“so I I think it's just next year man we're just he's gonna plant this the next year”

we're Palo get 20 in the 80s I was gonna do something like that but I think the same thing you got you get bench for some of the shots uh it'd be like what's the fuck are you doing imagine cotton fit Simmons like what the hell's this 17 foot turnaround thing early in the shot clock all right that'll do it for the show today I already think everybody subscribe

and Tom Havestro tomorrow again shout out great call staples staples is always on your mind

then I'm not talking about the paper supplier