Oh, my God. It's part two of the NBA playoff extravaganza with a little football two. Next, we're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network where you can hear part one of this podcast, which had Rob Mahoney and Logan Murdoch on it. We did a big playoff breakdown with Rob and we talked about the possible basketball death of the Curry area Warriors.

Or is it. We hit it.

So that's what you missed in part one. Part two is going to have our old friends Chris Ryan and Sean fantasy, who you can hear me on the rewatchables with every once in a while. Chris is a Sixers fan. Sean's a Knicks fan. So we got to do Sixers Knicks because that's the most fun round one series. And then after that, our old friend Kevin Wilds. We're going to talk about LeBron James and the Nuggets. I have some LeBron James theories to throw out there. And then we're going to talk about Bill Belichick and the big ESPN piece and just what the hell is going on with this whole situation? Why some of the narrative about Belichick and the Patriots bothers us. So that is what we have in store, along with some half baked ideas from Kevin, which I'm very excited about. It's a good one.

Part two, next.

First, our friends from. All right, I've known Chris Ryan since 2011. I've known Sean fantasy since 2012 when we all started working together. It's been twelve years. Nary a Sixers Knicks playoff series where both guys kind of like their teams. Nary a Knicks Sixers playoff series anyway. And nary a Knicks team that Sean fantasy even liked. And Sean fantasy loves this team. And now we have a two versus seven Sixers Knicks. That, though right now, looking at Fanduel, the odds are dead even. Both teams are minus 110. Vegas says this is a dead even series. Can we just. I want to. What's the relationship like these days? I just want to find out, where do things stand with you? Is this going to get ugly? What's going to happen, Bill?

You know, I know you don't really do a ton of baseball talk anymore, but I can feel this is kind of like your, your shadow, Jack o. Kind of like you're setting us up. So can I do it?

Yeah.

Oh, shiny.

Do you, do you want to do the Van pelt intro for my intro?

I know you have to ask, Bill. No, seriously, I think Sean and I are good, man. I mean, I'm just so happy not to be playing any more games against the Miami Heat.

Yeah.

And I am ecstatic not to be in the Boston side of the bracket. So a little bit of a spring vacation for me.

Fantasy.

You get your. You missed the Boston side of the bracket. Giannis is still hurt. We have no idea when he's coming back. And you get to play Philly with Embiid, who's just been limping around for the past couple of weeks, and nobody has any idea if he's healthy.

We were seconds away, though, from the heat without Jimmy Butler, which would have been. That would have been a little tasty.

You say that. You say that, but just let me.

Tell you don't want it without Jimmy, though.

Without.

I mean, I don't really. I don't really want to deal with Joel Embiid. Even if he's only at 60%, I don't want to deal with him.

Now.

I know he was a. He was a mummy through three quarters of that heat game, but I just.

I.

You know, he legitimately is one of the five best players in the NBA. That's not who you want to see in a playoff game. You just don't want to deal with a player like that. That being said, I think Mitchell Robinson is going to be kicking him in the Shins nonstop for seven straight games.

Mitchell Robinson.

Chris, can you walk us through year eight of I wonder what we're going to get out of Joel Embiid?

This is different this year because, you know, I think he would have repeated his MVP if he hadn't gotten hurt. I really like this team. This team arguably would have been where Sean's team is now in the second seed. If he had stayed healthy. I don't think that he was padding stats or packing on extra minutes to win an MVP, which I do think in the past he has been perhaps guilty of, and the team has been guilty of letting him do that. It was actually like a pretty stress free season for me, honestly. And then the last batch of it with the sort of weird Tobias swan dive that happened in bed's absence, really just kind of made it a bit of a headache until Embiid came back and the Sixers won eight out of their last ten and look awesome. So, yeah, he tweaked Disney again at the end of the very regular season and had a lot of the sort of grabbing at it last night, looking a little bit mopey, looking a little bit out of it. But he still went nuclear in this, in the. Towards the end of the game and won that game for them.

Even some of the plays he was making, like, the past and stuff. It was just fantastic to see him.

And I just.

Just get me the hell away from that Miami zone.

Jesus Christ. Yeah, I was so. I really wanted to play Miami because.

I felt like Boston wants to play Miami.

It wasn't even like, I want to. Cause I think they would have beaten Philly or Miami, but I was like, you know what? We're better than this Miami team. Let's take them down. Let's, like, let's, like, really cut the head off. Like, end of H 20 Halloween style. Like, really, let's. Let's actually murder this beast once and for all and take these guys out and sweep them and send them fucking packing. And then I couldn't even get the. Enjoy it for two minutes. Like, I was going to root for Miami in the play in, like, let's bring it on. I want to play these guys. And then there's butler limping off, and, you know, now it's this weird thing where it's, like, more Chicago.

He played through an MCL tear. I mean, you're going to get Chicago without Caruso, I think.

No, but the Internet video came out, like, I don't know, half hour after where it was like, here's Jimmy Butler leaving the stadium.

Okay.

Yeah, it was clear he was really hurt. And then shams came in.

I think it was just like, the Miami thing is, is just like, spoelstra is a warlock. And even last night when they were.

When they.

When they went zone, after bam. Got in foul trouble, I was just like, I can't believe that this seems like this was not discussed in Philadelphia, like, over the four or five days.

That they've had no idea this is coming.

It wasn't like, kyle, can you come in and just do a quick Zoom seminar on what Miami does with the zone? It's like they're just going to dribble right into two guys and nobody's going to be able to throw a past one beat. So just having that be over with, I'm so excited to play the Knicks because it's just a fresh. A fresh page for the Sixers. It's not the same villain every time.

It looked like a classic garbage Miami win where, like, hero is going to take 30 shots. Nobody else really played well.

Yeah, they're all six.

Yeah, Butler's having a bad game. But then, you know, you got Nick Batoon fantasy. How do you work up the proper amount of hatred for Kyle Lowry? Like, is it just you go to the fridge and grab it, or do, are there some calisthenics you're going to do? Like what? Play this out. Because he's going to trip Brunson in the first hour of game one.

But you got to remember, you know, he's a child of Philadelphia, and, and the Nova Knicks are children of Philadelphia, too. So I'm expecting him to come out and just rip off his sixers jersey and reveal a Knicks jersey underneath. You know, just like we're taking over the city of Philly. We're going to.

There's.

There's going to be. Is it going to be 30%, 50% Knicks fans at those Philly games?

I mean, stupid.

We got the Josh Harp boys, we got the Devincenzo boys, and we got the Brunson boys. They're all coming out. So I'm not Kyle.

50% Knicks fans in Philadelphia, man.

You need to.

I need my Knicks brothers to stand up and show up in the city of shitty love and just show out.

I was trying to be diplomatic to you.

What's your problem now? I hope Kyle Lowry, quote unquote, falls right onto Jalen Brunson. No, he's going to do the thing where he takes a charge, but pulls Jalen Brunson with him. And Jalen Brunson, like, slams his elbow. Yeah, that's happening in the first hour of the game. Well, Sean, the athlete you hated the most in your entire life was Chase Sudley.

Yes.

Who I believe played for our Philadelphia team. Yeah.

He's a war criminal, and he was tried at the Hague, and he was killed for his crimes publicly.

Well, now you're gonna have Lowry. Yeah, put him on the list. Yeah, put him on the list.

Send him to flushing, Queens. See what happens to Kyle Lowry. If he puts one finger on Jalen Brunson, he will be buried under the earth forever.

If he's not dirty, he just plays hard.

He just.

He's just physical. That's going to be one really fun storyline. Is Kyle Lowry doing things? I actually thought he looked pretty frisky down the stretch. Like, he's washed up. Like, he's definitely old, but he's not washed up.

I was listening to Ross solo on the way back home today, though, and he was just like, I feel like I should be paid to watch Kyle Lowry.

Yeah, but he's not, like, ineffective. And then the other piece that's going to be so hilarious from a Knicks fan standpoint is just the fouls embiid gets with the noises the MSG crowd is going to make. Sean, when Embiid is lurching into people and just Isaiah Hartenstein all of a sudden has three fouls in the first half of these games and they're replaying it and the crowd's going nuts on the jumbo chan. I can't wait for that.

You know, if I was the Sixers head coach, I would probably be encouraging them to try to get OG into foul trouble because I think OG is going to probably guard and solid amount of time.

Yeah, that's no problem. We'll do that.

I mean, that, I mean, can you.

Get two straight weeks out of OG would be the other question.

Yeah, I mean, if they do, I.

Think, I think the Knicks will be good. I think.

Do you guys chance, in all sincerity, do you, do you feel like you're going to miss Randall in this series and miss, like, having a little bit more offense?

I mean, no doubt about it, of course. Like, he is hugely important to the offensive makeup of the team. But the one time this year when the Knicks and the Sixers played each other at full strength, Randall played in that game, but he went one for eleven of the field and the Knicks still won by 38. So the Knicks at full strength are really, really good. But also, Randall has been the hardest thing to watch in the playoffs for the Knicks the last two out of the last three seasons. So I'm wondering if him being off the floor just continues to open it up for dudes, you know, if Dante and, and OG just are more comfortable.

Not having to defer to Randall offensively. I don't like losing 24 and ten every night, but I do like watching the Knicks more without Randall. I don't know if their ceiling is this high, but there's something about the style they have post Randall that resonates with me and I think is going to work in the playoffs because they play so fucking hard and they get so many, like, garbage rebound baskets and just hustle plays and they're just relentless. And it's, to me, like there's a little, oh, four pistons in there with these guys. I don't think they're as talented and I think the league is way better than it was in zero four. But there's some sort of, like, toughness and identity and they, they always seem to at least have one guy going late offensively and they're physical and they keep coming and it's Chris. It's not, not, doesn't seem like the ideal opponent for. I'm not totally healthy.

Joel Embiid that if you're giving me that caveat. And you were saying Embiid has got some kind of knock or he's still nursing the meniscus and it's not quite right. I hear you. If this is like a flat track and Embiid is close to or at like 85% to 90%, I don't really, I think the Sixers are better than the Knicks. Respectfully.

What makes you think they're. That he's 85%?

I don't. I mean, I just, I'm just basing this off of honestly, like, how much better the team works when he is on the floor, regardless of his health. Cause like, even last night aside with like, the junk ball that we had to deal with, he makes all the other players around him make sense just by his presence. And regardless of whether or not he's out there on one leg and crutches Hardenstein or, or OG or whoever, it's.

Going to be, he's going to be.

The focal point and it's going to free up Maxie and it's going to free up some other guys. And granted, like, can't count on any single person anymore on the Sixers, where it's like sometimes you might get a good Nick Batoon game, sometimes buddy might hit the broad side of a barn. But, like, I think that the Sixers actually have some depth coming into this post season, which we typically have not had. So I actually, honestly, I'm going to regret this, but I'm feeling pretty bullish on this, on this series. Like, I think the Knicks are a year away from being there.

Wow, Sean, hearing that a confident Cr isn't something on music.

I'm not confident, but I've just.

That sound unconfident.

I've been in the war. I've, we've been in the trenches with these. Like, the Sixers have gotten their asses kicked in the playoffs. They've come up short in the playoffs. Like, they have a lot of playoff experience. Brunson has like a couple years. Like, I just think that the Sixers are going to be pretty savvy in this series.

This is the same spot the Knicks were in last year in the first round, going up against the Cavs team that people thought were more talented.

It's different.

People thought were better.

Cavs team is like young. That Cavs team, like mobile. All those guys are inexperienced like that. This is, this is a different beast.

You don't know about Donovan Mitchell, you know who'd had success in the playoffs.

French poetry coming out of Nick Batum when he's.

I'm not worried about Nick Batum. Over seven games, Nick Batum and Kyle Lowry playing a combined 45 minutes a game. I'm not that really worried about that. I. Chris and I have done this before, but never with basketball. Last fall, Chris and our pal Zach Barron came over to watch a Jets Eagles game, and I'll just say that was probably my.

You guys targeted Jalen Hurts openly.

We did.

We did target Jalen hurts, and we wounded him and we took him down like the sad bird that he is. And, uh, you guys lost to Zach Wilson, so just be careful how confident you are.

I forgot you lost to Zach Wilson.

That was the beginning of the end.

That was horrible. Um, who do you hate on the Knicks, Chris?

Me.

Have you worked up animosity against anyone yet?

Um, I really like the Villanova guys, but I will learn to hate Josh Hart.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I like, I was temple, so I like, there's a little bit of big five. Like, I like the Villanova guys. I'm not like, they're not like, my. My guy, my guys, my guys. But, like, I know that Josh Hart.

Will die for a loose ball and.

And, like, knock Maxi into the third row in the process, and it's going to. It's going to be a problem.

Did you like what you saw from Maxie last night? Cause I did not.

Did not. I did not. And I thought he would have been the key to breaking that zone. Like, he should have just been. He should have just been diving at the rim, and it some. He seemed to freeze up a little bit.

I was so confused by the most improved player thing for him. I know Marcel and I talked about it on Sunday, but I just didn't understand the candidacy. Maybe I don't understand the award, but I thought he was good last year, and it just seems like he had more shots this year. But did you feel like he was, like, considerably better than he was last year?

Because that's.

I think he was really awesome with Embiid, and then I think that he had some. Some struggles without him bead, where it was like he was being forced to.

To take up.

He's had way more usage.

Um, isn't the point to be considerably better than the year before? I wouldn't say that was the case.

I mean, I most like. Nobody puts the most improved banner up in. In their arena. Like, I don't really care.

What was that? 14, I think. 14?

Yeah.

Most improved podcast 2018. The big true. Proud of that.

You took the leap.

You got more shots, though.

So we don't know. So I just want both of you to know I have already wagered on this series. Oh, great.

You bet.

So we're going to find out who's going to win and it's going to.

Be not who you wagered on.

It's, I think, the bet I like the most in round one.

Out of.

All the eight series, and it's the New York Knicks.

Yeah, I knew that.

I could feel fucked.

Oh, my God.

I think the Knicks are legit good. I'm a believer. I think they're a good team.

I really, like, honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't have it any other way than you just yet again, you're not believing in me and us.

Cr I took, like, literally every eagle on my fantasy team last year and picked them, I think, to win the Super bowl or come close. Like, I, this is not an anti philly thing. I really like the Knicks closing five. I think they know who their five is and I think those guys play really well together when OG's back, all the stuff I've seen when OG played with Hart, Defenzo and Brunson and Hardenstein, like, those guys play great together and I'm worried about them with the Celtics. I don't know if OG is going to stay healthy, but I like that five against whatever five the Sixers are going to have. Like Kelly Oubre, Tobias. The Sixers have even Maxie a little bit. The Sixers have guys I don't know if I totally trust. If it's in New York, those five Knicks guys are flying around. The crowd's going to be out of their minds and I don't, I just don't know how many of the Sixers I completely trust. I've seen Nick Batum's act for 15 years. Like, Nick Batum will just disappear. He's done it over and over again in the playoffs. He, he's like, exit stage right, and he's been really good this year, but I don't trust him.

I think the idea is that on any given night, somebody's got it. And the Sixers now have more cards to play than just like, oh, Nick Batoon didn't make a shot tonight, so I guess we're screwed and we lose by 18. It's like, theoretically, somebody among buddy Nick Oobre, Tobias, one of those wings should have it going. And if that's happening, then that's a little bit of an uptick. I also just think that we're like, giving the Knicks an enormous, like, pat on the back for a great regular season when it's just like, I haven't seen Deuce McBride in the playoffs. I haven't, like, dante DeVincenzo, I guess, with the warriors, but, like, I haven't seen, like, sure, yeah, Hart, MG, Vincenzo are both good players, but I haven't, I wouldn't say that they swing playoffs series with any regularity. Jalen's the guy that you got to stop. I mean, OG, when's the last time OG, like, contributed to a playoff series victory? They're just as unproven as any guys.

Beat the 76 ers title in the 2019, when Kawhi Leonard went champion, won the championship.

I could think of a couple other guys who were more important than him that year.

Only a couple, though, you know, one of which is on your team right now.

Chris, here's the case for you. And Embiid kills the Knicks. And Embiid's healthier than people realize. And he's the best part in the series. He's a rope a dope, and he just whoops the Knicks.

Anytime you can rope a dope in a single elimination game, you gotta do it right. Gotta just, you gotta just try. Hold.

Yeah, he was Kaiser so saying it. I mean, I like being, yeah, that.

Was, it was a Willis Reed homage.

I think the tricky thing about this.

Series, what makes it so fun, is that they're so evenly matched. Like, the Knicks won six of the last seven, the six sixers won eight of their last ten. They both have dealt with injuries a lot. They both have nights where random guys just get crazy hot, and you're like, how did Shenzo go for 32 tonight? I never expected that this season. So they're, they're, they're tight. They're, they're very similar teams. And, um, we have no history. I mean, it's 35, 36 years since they faced off in the playoffs. That's crazy for teams that are in the same division.

You guys are in the same division, and there's teams in the east every year. It's, like, impossible that they haven't played.

The Sixers are always drawn against, like, it feels like we always have, like, a first round matchup against Boston. I'm sorry, Brooklyn or the Wizards. Then there's, like, the Hawks series, there's a Raptor series. Like. But I just, we've been, we've been missing the Knicks for, for most of my adult life.

An embarrassing franchise.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Knicks don't make the fact one of the things I looked it up. One of the things that really hurt was that the Knicks never made the playoffs. So that that turned out that was an issue, too.

That was the key, really.

But now I'm getting lectured on, like, how the Knicks are going to handle the playoffs is like, these Villanova guys.

Have a title together like this. They're no stranger to the big things.

Transfer.

Now they played in front of 80,000 people. There's another element to the series that I think is kind of fun, where Embiid, like Wes and Leon are his guys. Like, those literally were his guys before Leon took the job. And it was anytime anything started to go south with Embiid, it was always like, I was going to the Knicks, those guys are going to get him, and now they're going head to head against him. Then you have the Villanova with the Villanova guys, but they're on the Knicks. You have Kyle Lowry, who is the big brother to all those Villanova guys. Like, the same way all this college shit works, where it's like, oh, yeah, Kyle Lowry came back, he's going to take us out to a steak dinner because he's making money in the NBA, and now they have to play against him. And then you have this whole Philly, New York thing, which is hilarious because there's only two things that New York really treats with complete disdain, which are Red Sox fans pre 2004 and really the entire city of Philadelphia. Sean, is that fair?

Well, I'm not a Giants fan, so I don't have the same level of disgust with the Eagles, but that's a blood feud. I mean, they, those two franchises, their fan bases hate each other. The Knicks and the Sixers don't have any energy between them. The Phillies, I'll, I'll burn the Phillies alive. I'll burn every member of that team. Like, I hate those guys. And honestly, they're really good, and it just pisses me off. So Chris and I were talking about the other day, and he had some unkind words for his own Phillies.

No, I was just like, I would love to see a little bit of October in the, in the, in the late spring. I would love to see the bats warm up before it gets cold out again. That's the, that's the only thing with the Phillies. But I, it's like you just, what? You wind up waiting for them to go, to go nuts towards the end of the season. I think that.

Chris, one thing that I do have to say to answer your question, Bill, the only thing that really unites Chris and I, more on this is how much we fucking hate Boston. I mean, really, the Celtics are the true enemy here. And, you know, it's.

Yeah, this whole, like, pitting me and Sean against one another to see if these two piranhas in a tank one another, and we're just done with basketball by the time the Easter Conference finals comes along, there's a fat fucking chance that's not happening.

Are you guys gonna watch a game together?

I'm sure.

Probably.

Probably, yeah.

Really? I'd never do that. I'd be able to do it.

You know, Chris is. I'm a bad person, right? I'm vindictive and I'm vengeful and I'm a crybaby. Chris is like, he's the best guy. He, like, he won't make it hard on me. He'll always be decent in those environments. That being said, I have a lot of other friends from Philadelphia for which that is not the case, and so I probably won't watch with them.

So.

Zach Barron.

I'm not naming any names.

Okay.

Last night, it was the first time it got really real for me. Like, it's been. It's been an interesting season. Cause I was like, man, Nick Nurse is really good at coaching basketball, and this team is really well balanced, and I really liked them. And if it wasn't for. For this dumb juggernaut Boston team who shoots 50 threes a game, like, we might be real finals contenders. And then MB goes out, and I was like, all right, well, I've emotionally divested from this. And then last night, like, I. I can't. I just don't. I don't want to say straight up that I was happy that Jimmy Butler got hurt, but I think that my reaction in my living room would indicate.

That I was, you know, like.

And so that I got back in, I was, like, living and dying with every possession, and that was intense. But I think I can behave myself around Sean. Not around you, though. If the Sixers played the Celtics in this eastern conference finals, it's war.

Sean, is Brunson and top eight New York athletes of your lifetime that you've loved. Is he. Has he cracked the top 15?

Like, I think an extended playoff run this year would go a long way to cementing that.

You know, that would get him into his Ewing status.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, Ewing has finals under his belt at least, right?

Like, who are.

Who are the guys in my life that. It's a very, very short list. It's like David Wright.

You know what I mean?

It's just not a lot of guys since 1995 who've been.

Yeah, yeah.

Aaron Rodgers.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Especially in the offseason, anytime you got a microphone in front of his face, he's, he's right up there in the top eight. He's in like, my top eight. MySpace friends.

Yeah, testaverity.

Yeah, literally.

We're talking about Vinny Testaverde.

You know, like Sanchez. It's tough.

It's really tough.

Couple of Jacob de Graham years.

No, it's always got Ferguson. You know what I mean? Like, it's like left tackles.

Like, I don't have a lot of dudes that I can call back to.

One of the things about, we mentioned this side of the bracket, bill, but.

Like, I gotta admit, like, I'm, I'm.

Pretty, I'm pretty keyed up about like, giannis being out, you know, and, and this idea that this side of the bracket is kind of up for grabs a little bit. Like, no, at least the bucks are not a certainty to even beat the pacers, much less go through in the second round. So, like, I think this is like a huge series for the conference itself.

Wow, look at that.

Why do you have a Dame Lillard bobblehead?

I bought it on eBay because I thought if he sucked in the playoffs, it would be funny and if he got going in the playoffs, would be funny. But either way, I just needed some more props for my playoff zoom.

Are you sticking needles in it like a voodoo doll?

No, he's just, he's dame's just right here. He's just enjoying the podcast, hanging out with you guys.

You have a lot of stock in. The dame trade was a bad idea, too. So you really need them to tank out here.

I gotta be honest. Yeah, I already cashed it.

Yeah, you took all that money and spent it on drew holidays. Drew Holiday's mid thirties.

You think the Bucks would, Bucks fans want to do the dame trade again? I mean, he would have to drop 35 a game in the playoffs to even make them feel decent about it. That, that watching him, that Orlando game was shocking because the Bucks were trying in that game and he literally couldn't do anything.

Okay, Bill, who are you most afraid of then on the to face in the eastern conference finals?

It would be Philly. If Embiid was. If Embiid shows that he's playing himself back into shape and he actually could be.

I don't think it's so. I think it's more like the knee itself is still hurt, so it's not going to be like OMb just got, like, his wind back. It's going to be, can he play with the pain? Which honestly, at this point, I'm kind of used to. I'm kind of used to that being who he is.

It would be not afraid of Philly. I'm just, I don't think he's going to be healthy. All the teams are in the west for me. And if the Celtics, like, put this way, the Celtics lose, they're minus 220 to win the east on Fanduel. Now, which is a crazy number. Like you like, that's like a 2017 warriors type of number. For them to blow this before round four, it would either somebody got hurt or it's one of the biggest chokes in the history of the city.

The one seed, statistically, though, is not always, isn't it? It's kind of rare, right, that it's always the one seed that goes to the finals.

Yeah.

But in this case, when you're talking the company they're in from point differential and net rating with the greatest teams of all time, it would be the most shocking result out of anyone in the top ten, them not making the finals. So, you know, but Embiid is better than anyone on the Celtics when he's healthy. So and so is Giannis. Yeah. So these are the things they, this thing fell out of the sky where Giannis is hurt and Embiid's not 100%. And those are the two guys who are the best guys in the conference.

So I don't know.

I don't know what else could happen for them.

Would you say America has Celtics fever?

I would not. I think, I think Nix Philly and Denver versus LeBron are going to, are going to levitate above these other series, and some of these series are really good. But those two, if, if the Lakers can just split in Denver, that becomes such a fascinating one. Going back to LA and then every Knicks Phillies game is going to be great. I also can't wait for that series.

That Dallas Clippers series is going to be awesome, though.

Is it? Yeah.

Because, I mean, like, it's just historically, I think that those, there's been, like absolute shootouts.

I asked somebody I trust, the Clippers today, like, how we feeling about Kawhi? And the person texted me back, terrible. I was going to ask you this.

Pretty, pretty robust roster of injured guys right now. Like, if you were doing the injured guy draft, you'd have a really good team.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. Is that just luck or is this. What are we talking about? Here.

Well, one of the things I noticed because when I was preparing for the Racillo pod is how many guys had their highest minute level since five years ago? Seven years ago? Ten. Durant was highest in ten years. A lot of people played big minutes this year, and I don't know if that maybe has anything to do with it. Like, Zion pulled the same stream, but he also played 71 games this year. I don't know if he'd done that before.

Is it the 65 game minimum, too? Maybe taking effect?

Tiny bit, yeah, maybe. Well, I can't wait for Nick Sixers. Before we go, though, we have to do two minutes on Leo as Sinatra in a Scorsese movie. I didn't get a response to this text.

I was waiting for this.

I knew we were going to do in the pod. I mean, Sean, as you know, we've done this on the rewatchables and you guys make fun of me. Like, Sinatra was the fucking coolest guy probably, who ever lived, the coolest you ever walked. You made in fun. You made fun of me when I had the take. But it's true. The chairman.

I didn't make fun of the take. I was only making fun of how impassioned you were about the take.

Name me another celebrity in the history of America that when somebody on SNL impersonated them, they called for their permission first. That's just never happened.

That's a very specific request.

Only person ever who was like, I just want to make sure it's okay with celebrity x that I do this impersonation tonight. The chairman, man, I'm rubbing shoulders with everybody.

I love the idea of Darryl Hammond dialing up Al Gore and just being like, al, just want to give you a heads up. I've got a thing. It's a lockbox thing. It's important. You got to know that's coming. No, Frank is great.

I love Frank.

I was just recommending the voice, the James Kaplan biography, which is one of the great celebrity biographies ever written. Scorsese and Leo and Jennifer Lawrence as Ava Gardner. Yeah, I mean, I'm in.

I don't.

I'm not totally sure this movie's happening. That that story was like, there have been some discussions. There was no, like, financing or studio or. It was all kind of vague. So I don't know. I'm not sure if it's real, but I would. I would take it in 5 seconds.

I think for Bill, the key is to bring together these two Scorsese projects that are being publicized. So Scorsese's other movie is a movie about Jesus. And I think what you probably would deeply satisfy buddy cop movie.

No. Well, okay.

So we could do Christ in the chairman. Two guys, two cops. Or what if Sinatra was Christ? So it's Leo as Sinatra, as Jesus. And then. And then we just kind of. We knock all the pieces down at once.

Let me ask you guys, this.

Is.

Is Leo skinny enough for Sinatra?

He's too tall is the bigger issue. I don't think Sinatra. Leo's legit tall. He's like six two. He is. So they'd have to figure out that piece. I think he could carry the sinatra's all charisma, which. Leo has a shitload of charisma. I think he could get the hair down, right?

I don't.

The singing. I don't know how they would pull that off. I've never heard Leo sing.

Yeah, you have.

You heard it in Once upon a time in Hollywood when he sang behind the green door.

Right. But could he, like, be a crooner?

It's tough.

I mean, you know, Frank. His nickname was the voice. He is the great. I mean, he is the greatest.

If you gave Daniel Day Lewis five.

Years, he could nail it.

He could just. He would.

He would go to lounge singer school.

70 year old Daniel Day Lewis as Frank Sinatra in 1953.

See, the guy who blew this was Cooper.

Oh, you think he could.

Leonard Bernstein. Fuck that. He should have been on the Sinatra thing, learning how to croon for like four years. Doing it.

The press tour would have been amazing.

Better move.

What happened was Todd Phillips never looked at him and said, I want you to believe in yourself the way I believe in you. My favorite celebrity story of all time that led to a star sport. I'm in on any Frank Sinatra movie. As you guys know, one of my favorite HBO movies ever was the rat pack. About the Don Cheadle is Sammy Davis. I think Ray Liotta's Sinatra. Montana is Dean. You know, he's Dean. I can't remember who the other one was, but you can. It's on YouTube, and it's like.

It's.

It's really good. It's. It's, uh. It's, I think one of the high end HBO ones. And I was always like, why is there more Sinatra.

Movie?

Is.

Is. What will you do if it's 3.

Hours and 40 minutes?

Well, I'll tell you this. If they announce it once and for all, it's happening. Then I promise I'll finish the last 2 hours of killers of the flower moon. Cause right now on my tv, it's just stopped at an hour 23. It's just like, frozen. This pause button. Hour 23, what happens?

Can you show me the frame where you checked out? I'd love to know when you're like, I'm good. I don't need any more of this.

Sounds like this guy's bad. Yeah, I came around on the Irishman. Yeah, that took some time. Well, maybe flower moon will happen.

I do love that. This theory that I've seen someone else write, I can't take credit for it, but that he's got this trilogy of classic gangster movies. You've got goodfellas, Casino and the Irishman. Goodfellas is like New York organized crime. Casino is the move to Las Vegas. The Irishman is the move into unions and the federal government. You've got the prolog with gangs of New York. The kind of birth of a kind of organized crime. And then Sinatra is the final piece. Sinatra is organized crime enters the world of entertainment and that it becomes this big final statement. I love that idea. So if that's what the movie is, that would be fantastic.

I think I'm in Cr. Sean, great to see you guys. I'll see you on the rewatchables. I'm sure we have. We got to get through rock bottom month and then we're just banging out. Bangers should rock bottom.

The last movie of rock bottom month should just be a live stream of me and Sean watching Nick Sixers together.

That would be good. Game seven. We just run that as the pod. Thanks for coming on. Good to see you.

Thanks, Bill.

All right.

My old friend Kevin Wilds is here. You can watch him on first things first on fs one every day, a show that is designed to have small scale arguments that enrage me. As I told you, we're in the content game. I was thinking, heading into the NBA playoffs, we're going to do NFL later. There's a LeBron angle to this playoffs that if people have really talked about it, I haven't heard it in, like, a real way because it doesn't seem conceivable. And yet this is such a weird playoffs that who the hell knows? I was trying to walk through. I wanted to walk you through some what ifs in the NBA playoffs and the biggest what if for me. What if LeBron wins three straight rounds and makes the finals? What happens to our whole sports talk slash content universe if LeBron makes one last run a La Brady on the Bucks? I don't think it's going to happen. They're like almost four to one underdogs against the Nuggets. I think the Nuggets are going to beat them. But what if. How does it play out?

Does he win these series, like cleanly, or are there injuries or weird things happening? Does it.

Do you remember who Brady beat heading to the Super bowl? Because I don't. I don't remember any of the playoff games at this point. It was two, three years ago. I don't know, like.

Like an aging drew breeze and Aaron. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like once the years pass, nobody remembers.

So if he makes it, I'll answer your question with a question, because we talked about how unfair the expectations for 39 year old LeBron are. Do you think that if he made it all the way to the finals, knocked off the reigning champs and it's Lakers, Celtics, let's say, and he loses against a historically good margin of victory, Celtics team, that people would actually hold that against him, that the silver medal would actually be bad for his legacy, even though he would do something absolutely amazing.

I like that he somehow loses even though something incredible happened. I don't. I think if he made the finals, he would have to go through Denver and the Jokic Murray combo and. And a team that people think is built to win multiple titles. I love the Chiefs. He would then have to beat the winner of Phoenix, Minnesota. So either you're beating Durant, Booker, Beal, or you beat that Minnesota team that feels like you're away. The thing is, I actually like that they got Denver first because you got to play them anyway. Why not try to throw a haymaker at him right away? Denver hasn't played for a week. Who knows? You flip it. Game six is in LA. And so Minnesota. Phoenix would be second and then the last series would be OKC, Dallas and Clippers to one of those three, whoever has left. So, like, we know the Lakers can beat OKC. That's the one team I'm positive they can beat. They have too much size. Clippers. Let's say the Clippers somehow beat Dallas, but then what are the odds of Kawhi making it for a month and a half of basketball? Probably slim.

So there is a scenario where this could happen. And I do feel like this is his last chance to shift the Goat debate because everybody's already in their camps. There's really nothing else can happen at this point. People could be like, Michael Jordan's the best player ever, but LeBron had the best career ever. That's kind of where people are going to land.

That's like a nice middle ground, but nobody's mad at.

Nobody's mad at that middle ground. But if he somehow makes the finals and then, I mean, if he won the title, I think that swing, that swings the debate.

I think it would. That would swing the debate. Like a five, five rings versus six rings would be like, well, I'll give it to the guy with five. Just because of the longevity and breadth of his career.

Yeah, one ring away. He basically played like eight more years than Jordan. It just opens up so much content and it's kind of in play.

I mean, it would be amazing.

It's in play.

Do you really think so?

No, I think Denver's going to win.

I do, too. I think they're done immediately. I just think they're cooked. He hasn't won in Denver in four years. Four calendar years is the last game he won in Denver. So Denver takes care of home court. I don't see a path I am wagering on Denver.

I think they're going to win, but I will say Denver, and I know you and I are probably the highest on Denver during the year, like you were doing your Denver. Nobody's beating them in a seven game series gimmick. I just think they're going to win.

It's a branding opportunity.

I think we're the highest you can be on a team. And yet last six weeks, there was some holes in the boat, there was some execution stuff in the last parts of some games that was atypical for them. They just started losing games they normally won, which was the one thing I always felt like, this is the thing they have. They don't. If they, if you let them hang around, they win. They win in the last four minutes. That's who they are.

And then all of a sudden, they can't inbound the ball.

Yeah, all of a sudden Kyrie's hitting 20 foot lefty shots against them and I. And then, you know, they're, they just lost a couple dumb games, which wasn't typically them. And then the Murray thing, too, the fact that he played 59 games, they were clearly, like, super careful with him as, as the season went along and were they being cautious or something more? So those are the things that worry me with the Nuggets and then the Lakers, piece of it, just like, let's be honest, they get a shitload of calls. They just do. They get, they get more officiating help than anybody in the league because of the style they play. And plus, it's LeBron and that's. He's the guy now who's going to get caught? I think they're a tough thing to play.

Do you buy? I tried to spin the spurs loss into a positive like I used to like and UConn just won everything this year. But I used to like losing the final game of like the big east tournament leading into the tournament. Like that's the wake up call they needed. Don't take any team for granted. We can't inbound the ball. The spurs came all the way back. Let's lock in. Now they beat Memphis and now I think they want to sweep too. Although the Lakers now kind of, I mean they are the underdogs, but now the Lakers feel like the little team that could when it used to be the reverse. Mike Malone used to wear the where the underdogs knowing blue believes in us jacket. But now I think Darwin Ham can play that card. So.

Oh, they can definitely play that card.

Confident, still confident.

You know what you just laid out is the zero seven pats. I wish they had lost the Monday night game against the Ravens theory.

Yep, yep.

They just lose that game and the whole season becomes way easier. Instead it becomes this march to undefeated, which by the time they got to the Super bowl, um, the team was running on fumes. In a lot of different ways. The Giants took advantage of it. If you're just talking about I wish that team won the Super bowl, they're better off losing that Monday night game. I forget there was two plays in the end zone. There was like a pass interference that kept it alive. Then they scored on next. But like just, they probably should have lost that game and it would have made everything easier. The one thing with that spurs game, the spurs just played really well. Like, I felt like Denver was trying, you know, they, if Murray missed a couple easy shots in the last minute, but they were executing and doing stuff and just a couple shots didn't go in. And then all of a sudden you have Devontae Graham just in traffic fleeing a shot off the wrong foot that goes in. So the, the thing that if you're going to, if you're going to say this is stupid, the Lakers have no chance.

The thing that was shocking to me about that New Orleans game, I think it was the first time I've ever seen LeBron in a must win game where somebody else was like out athleting him and overpowering him. And now it makes sense cause it's year 21 for him. But it wasn't it jarring to watch for like an hour there where it's like, oh, my God. Like, he. It was like watching Rocky three, like, the first round when clubbers just. Rocky's never seen anything like it. He comes back to the corner. I can't keep him off me. That's what LeBron felt like as Zion's just like a battering ram, like when he knocked him backwards on that charge or whatever. And LeBron, I haven't seen him get up like that ever, you know, in a real, where he wasn't, like, trying to milk it for a call. So that was, there was a little bit of this guy's, we kind of forget that he's a little older than maybe the stats, you know, the fact.

The fact that he's 39, he's going up against, you know, the mv who's, you know, I think Joker's going to win the MVP. And we're like, oh, this is, this is a fair fight. Like, not really. I mean, it should easily be Denver, but he'll keep a minute. He plays so smart, and he plays such, like a good, perfect mix of, you know, he's still a great athlete, but he's played some, he has some real old man basketball moves, like he did up and under on Zion, and it's just like a move you would do, like, on your kids in the driveway, like, you've never seen this. So he, he's just brilliant out there. So I think he's going to get a, he's going to still keep them in it. But I also, you know, all of a sudden, the, the altitude, I love to play the altitude card in Denver, too. Once you're going back and forth, it's a real thing. Yeah. And they let you know about it. So I still feel very confident. Although you called my prediction a gimmick, I still don't think any team's beating them well.

When you tweet the same thing 38 times, I think it becomes a gimmick.

Well, hello. It's, you know, Nike says just do it for 20 years. It's got to work. You got to get in people's heads.

I like this low energy. We're taping this before you do the show. I like right now, I feel like I'm with, like, Mahomes just throwing the ball around like an hour before the game. You don't want to peak now. You want to peek on live tv. I can feel it.

So I used to do the pod when I was at ESPN. We did the pod, and I would just, like, have my feet up. There was no video involved, and I was very chill. And then I listened to the last pod we did. I was like, in tv mode, which is a little.

So you reigned it back. I like you. So you studied yourself?

Yeah, I had to watch the tape. I watched the all too of just me and you and I'm like, oh, wild. You're a little bit too fired up here. Bring it back. Maybe I'll. Maybe I'll ramp it up. I got to watch this one.

Say no. I like the energy now. Don't let, you know. Don't. This is wilds, not tv wilds. There's a what if with Zion, because for an hour, he became the Zion we've been waiting for for five years. There was a two way game with him. He's rebounding. He was actually, like, really defending, and it was pretty much the most exciting non Wemby moment of the season, I think.

Yeah.

And it felt like they were going to win. Now he's hurt and I just wonder, like, I know everybody talked about this yesterday, but I just wonder, is that like the ultimate microcosm of his career or should we be enthused? It's like maybe, you know, we gave him so much shit in December for the in season tournament, which he deserved because he was out of shape and overweight. He just was, it was December. There was no excuse for it. He, he shed the weight. He got in shape. He really played well down the stretch. Sunday, he got his ass kicked by the Lakers and then responds in the playing game with this incredible game, and it was like, this is, this is the guy we, this is why we were so excited in 2019. Then he gets hurt, and I just, I hope that's not the 30 for 30, where this is like the best moment of 30 for 30. And then it's like we go to commercial and come back and it's like. And then that's when things turn.

So, I mean, glass at full, it's just a hamstring. So it's nothing bad. It's, you know, he'll be able to bounce back from that next year. He played 70 games. The thing that I liked most, besides him, just, you know, looking awesome. Yeah. Is that other Lakers game. I think he took 13 shots or twelve shots, and he took 27 the other night. Like, dude, just be the man. Like, it's almost part of him. He just needs someone to, like, gas him up before every game. Like, hey, by the way, you're fantastic. You're a great player. Take the game over and then he rolls to the occasion. That's what I liked, besides just, hey, the shots go in, they don't go in. But the fact that he wanted the ball and wanted to take it to the Lakers and outplay everybody is great.

And really wanted to guard LeBron, that part was fun.

I love the.

The downhill stuff Zion was doing, and watching LeBron have actual fear, which, look, if it was 2013, LeBron, it's different. I don't. I don't think he's backpedaling as Zion's coming at him. But it was still just, you know, we. We spend so much time with these guys, I get old. We watched it happen to Brady, where there were just some moments in some of those later year Brady games when it was. He just was just dumping the ball to get rid of it. Cause he didn't want to get hit. You know, you just. You hit a different point in your career. But it was weird to see LeBron as the athlete. I mean, the only other person, I think, in the last ten years who could have probably overpowered him was.

Was Giannis.

But they never really played a big game against each other, you know, so, you know, they had, like, ABC game shit like that, but not, like, real stakes, like what we had the other night. So it was. It. To me, it was like, wow. It almost made me appreciate the LeBron era more. Cause it was like, wow. I took. I took for granted that he was always the most overpowering person in any game, you know, especially as he got older, and he would just start kind of early into the basket whenever he wanted, which is a skill he still has this year. But it was just weird to see.

Him backpedaling the drafted 16 years apart. Yeah, and. But they felt like peers in a way. I mean, there's also the idea that LeBron. He said some very complimentary things about Zion after the game, but part of me does think that he's still, like, he's not giving the torch to anybody. And it felt like, oh, maybe Zion will take the torch from LeBron. That was a conversation that I still think the media has moved on from. But maybe he keeps in his sort of inspiration file or grudge file that he has to open the grudge. LeBron's grudge file. Every once in a while, he has to be like, does Sean Stevenson know? And he just keeps on going. He's like, oh, yeah, Zion. We'll take the legal work from. Hold on. It's under.

Wow, I forgot to put last names.

The.

I'm waiting for LeBron to just embrace Wemby as, like, the next guy. I think that's the best move for him. Cause it can't really happen till after LeBron's out of basketball, basically, when Wemby will hit the things he can say. He called it when it happened. And then if Wemby gets hurt, which is possible, because seven foot five, then he'd say, well, what happened? I just think there's no losses for LeBron. Just kind of anointing him as the next guy. Plus, it pisses off everybody else. Else. It's the good move.

I like that. I'll buy that. I like, I also like LeBron going somewhere else after this year. Maybe not after this year, but eventually. Do you think he's retiring in a Lakers jersey?

I think everything's in play. Like, if they get their asses kicked by Denver.

Yeah.

In a weird way, we spend so much time talking about the Lakers, but yet there's stuff with this series that is, you know, there's so much good. There's so many good storylines with brown one. And this series has some, like, really juicy subplots, including what happens if they just get their asses kicked.

Thank you. I tried to, you know, behind the curtain, I pitched this story today in the show, and everybody got mad at me because, oh, wow, I'm already. I'm like, hey, do we want to do what happens if this goes south for the Lakers? What it means for LeBron is like, no, we can't go past the series wilds. I'm like, okay, it would be good. And we all know there is a.

Scenario where they get their asses kicked. Dallas. Let's say Dallas makes the western finals. Maybe Dallas makes the finals. Who knows? Dallas drafts his son with, like, the 44th pick, or they buy some pick or whatever. They're like, we now have your son. It's like, almost like. It's like basketball taken with Liam Neeson. We have your son. You have my son. And now all of a sudden, he's playing in Dallas with Luca. Cause I do think if he switches teams, and we've talked about this before in the pub, but if he switches teams, it has to be for a title. And to play with his son, the combo, it has to be a contender. And the chance to play with his son, that's the only way it makes sense. Otherwise, he stays here. But I don't think he's done. I mean, no. First of all, his shooting got better, and there was a good. Chris Herring wrote a good piece about why, like, how he subtly changed some of his mechanics. Um, so I think for the fact that his three point shots better, I think he can go longer. But just the fact that they're in the conversation with the Nuggets and that line isn't like Nuggets -800 it's pretty impressive.

And they do have, you could say two of the three best players in the series. I would personally for the playoffs probably put Murray and Davis even cause playoff Jamal is incredible. And Davis every game you think he's just going to limp off at any point. But you could make a case they have two, three, but they have two all NBA players in the series. Denver is one.

Yeah, yeah. Playoff Jamal, I think. But, you know, three, four and five I'd almost give to the Denver. I think everybody's averaging 20 points. I think in these games. In the last three games they played, I think everyone's averaging 20 points. I think Michael Porter's average in 20 points and KCP's average in 20 points. Maybe Casey only played one game, but I think it's far more balanced than anybody thinks. Even though we are always focusing on Jamal.

Well, there's one more storyline that you're going to make the wilds face. Not want to comment on, but them catching Denver round one right after Michael Porter junior. S brother was involved in the biggest gambling scandal in 60 years. That's not nothing, guys. His brother, there's no way that's not affecting him.

Like, I took, I took the opposite take on that. I think that's a fair question. Like, does that, is that in his head or is like, do you subscribe to the, you know, the basketball as my escape? Once I'm in between the lines, I get, I'm totally locked in here and there are no effects. I kind of subscribe to that. And not like I can't hit my open jump shots because my brother got banned from the league, but I could see if it goes south. That's going to be a storyline.

You mean when I hosted the first episode of the Grantline basketball, even though I was coming off a three week suspension, I didn't let it affect me. It was a good show.

You were locked in.

I was locked.

In fact, you were better.

It felt like I was zoned in. All right, we're going to take a break. And then the real reason you're here to talk about Bill Belichick. All right, big piece in ESPN. Seth Wickersham, Donvan Edda, Jeremy Fowler wrote about Bill Belichick, why he didn't get a coaching job and some of the stuff in there. I knew some of the stuff I didn't know. Um, the big question was, why didn't the Falcons hire them? Hire him? They landed on Raheem Morris, who I actually really liked as a coaching candidate. I thought he probably deserved. He's, if you're going to rank the kind of under 50 coaches, I, I think he would have been one or two. So I get why they picked him, even though it's, like, kind of crazy. You don't hire Bill Belichick. I was in the camp, like, I can't believe people aren't lining up to hire Bill Belichick. And the piece laid out a lot of reasons why, one of which was kraft undermined them with the Falcons. And that was, like, pretty emphatic that they were like, yeah. Kraft's friends with Arthur Blank, the falcon's owner, and he threw Belichick under the bus, was the reporting, and it was multiple sources.

And I'm trying to figure out how this got so acrimonious. But also, why would Kraft not want him to coach the Falcons? Because if he got the Falcons job, then Kraft has to pay him less.

Right.

Because the money, like, it was reported, he owed him like, 25 million. Yeah. So if the Falcons are paying him 15 million or whatever, then the Pats only have to pay 10 million. So Kraft had so much animosity to Belichick that he could have saved, he could have saved like, 15 million. And he's like, you know what? Fuck this guy. I'm not letting him get this job and does what he learned. Like, how did this get so bad? Wilds, I don't understand it.

Do you think this makes it seem very bad? And it feels like through one lens that craft torpedoes Belichick's chances, but through another lens, I tried to look at it optimistically. Their friends Arthur Blank and Robert Kraft, I didn't realize, I think the article says they're like, it's his closest friend in the league. And Arthur Blank calls his friend for a candid conversation. He's like, hey, man, what do you think? What do you want? If the conversation went like this, look, the guy won me six Super Bowls and increased the value of the franchise by hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars. But he's not friendly. He says he's not going to take over, but he probably will. And overall, he was a, you know, he's arrogant, which is obviously, I don't know if he's not allowed to be arrogant. No one on the planet. So, like, Picasso, arrogant? Like, yeah, man. Part of it, yeah. And then, and then Arthur Blank gets like five negative takes and realizes it's not worth it. Like the part about the being untrustworthy was. I tried to figure that out. So here's why. I think untrustworthy was kind of the fulcrum point of the story.

Belichick said he didn't need total control. Right. He was cool with just coaching. I don't actually believe that when he got into the building, he was just going to coach. And there's one part of this after what they talk about, Arthur Blank and Belichick are talking about how the Falcons did the contracts, right. And here's, I'll just read it. Belichick asked why contracts didn't include offseason bonuses to entice players to work out of the facility during the offseason, an essential team building incentive in New England. He was told that's not what the Falcons have ever done. So he's like, by the way, I need guys in, in the building in the offseason. And whoever's going to tell him, well, it's not in the contracts, he's going to be like, we'll put it in the contracts. And then all of a sudden he's outside of, you know, the turf and he's into contract management. Contract.

So they're already like, oh, this guy's already starting. I don't even have the job yet. He doesn't even have the job yet. He's already telling us what to do.

Yeah, but also, guess what? I know what to do. I've got eight Super bowl rings. I've got more rings than the entire NFC south. The score is six to three, and one of your NFC south rings is actually my protege. So if you, if he didn't go to the bucks, it'd be six to two. So, yeah, I'm a little bit arrogant because you guys don't know what you're doing. Respectfully, could I have the job, please?

Well, it's also, you know, they, the piece laid out something that I had heard and I think I'd even talked about on the podcast last month about the two guys who were kind of Arthur Blank's inner circle people, Fontenot and Rich McKay. There's a job preservation element of this that we have both seen any place we've ever worked. Right? There's certain, certain people in a company that their job is just to get to the next month and they don't want any wins, they don't want any losses. They're just thinking about the end game. How do I stay here. How do I keep my job? So Belichick, the threat of Belichick coming in, being like, yeah, I'll work with everybody. And then six months later, Arthur blank's like, man, Belichick's been great. And Belichick's like, we got rid of these two fucking guys. They gotta go. So those guys immediately have an incentive to sabotage Belichick because they want to stay with the Falcons, right? This is. This is, as I get older, one of the things I've learned more than anything as a professional lesson. It is unbelievable how many people do what's best for them and their long term kind of stability, future, versus what's actually makes sense for the place they work for.

I've seen this everywhere I've been. And these guys were like, yeah, belichick, I don't know. It's pretty arrogant. He's going to want to come here and shake stuff up. It's like, he's pretty arrogant because he's won eight Super Bowls. That's one of the reasons he's arrogant. We've only had 56 Super Bowls. He won eight of them.

I imagine it being a little bit like bar rescue. Like, Jon Taffer comes in, he's like.

What'S going on at this place?

Shut it down, this and that. And then the owner of the restaurant asking, like, the head bartender, like, hey, what do you think about. What do you think about bringing in taffer full time as the GM? Like, ah, I don't know. He's gonna want to be shutting it down all the time.

Well, it's basically the first 20 minutes of roadhouse, right? They bring in Swayze, and Swayze is like, I'm just here to observe. And everybody hates him. And then he's like, yeah, let's. We're getting rid of the bartender, getting rid of this guy. We're getting rid, and everybody's mad at him.

Can I tell you, though? Can I. Can I swing this in another direction? Just another team. This one got me the most upset.

Oh, I want to go through all the teams. Cause, okay, let's.

The Carolina thing is driving, like, carolina. Like, I'm going to come through the phone right now and jump at. I'm going to go crazy.

Here are some things from the piece that just made me laugh. I'm just reading. Washington owner Josh Harris, who'd spoken privately with Kraft about Belichick, told confidence in early December that he respected Belichick but wasn't going to hire him. He wanted the same leadership structure he has with Philadelphia 76 ers and New Jersey Devils a strong general manager overhead. Coach, I just want to point out Philadelphia has been a fucking mess the entire time Josh Harris has owned the team. They had the process. They had the Ben Simmons situation. They stayed with what's his face, Brent Brown too long. They had the Brian Colangelo disaster. They gave Brian power. How'd that go? They had, uh, what's his face. The, uh, Brent Brown was all of a sudden the coach GM for a little bit there. They brought in another coach. Like, that team's been a mess. They've been philosophically a mess. They've catered to their players way too much. Um, they did the James Harden thing. Like, so if he's saying, here are my lessons from Philadelphia, I would maybe do the opposite of what he did there. I thought that was crazy. I can't speak for the Devils.

Carolina decided to pass, the source said. This is from the, this drives me crazy. Panthers owner David Tepper often sifts through data to critique his coaches play. Calling. That, according to a source, is tough to do with Belichick as the figurehead. Carolina has been the dumbest team in any sport of this decade.

He's like, could you imagine that? Could you imagine David Tapper like, hey, Bill, like, what we do there on, you know, third and three? I didn't like the play call. I ran. I ran the data on it. The fact that the Panthers like, were like, nah, we'll pass. It's whatever. I don't know. That's insane.

Well, but he shouldn't have wanted that job because that team wasn't going to such a mess.

Yeah, Carolina regardless. But I don't know. I'm shocked that that got in the article.

Tepper should have been like, I'll pay Belichick 30 million a year. Every single decision I've made has been horrific. And then it said a conversation with blank Kraft delivered a stark assessment of Belichick's character. The source quoted the Belichick sources saying Robert called Arthur to warn him not to trust Bill. That account was backed up by a close friend. One source goes to Belichick, said Kraft was a big part of why the Falcons passed on hiring him. That part was weird. There's also, there was two things that jumped out, and I'm not criticizing the writers, but this is, I really do think this is what most people feel. So they put this in the piece, and I just disagree with the premise. One, most team owners are loath to grant a single person as much power as Belichick wielded in New England. Even with his career results, owners now value collaboration and cooperation among football operations. The coaching staff and other team executives. Most reflect the fear and leverage that fueled New England's dynasty. The Pats won the AFC east for, like, 20 straight years, and they were either in the Super bowl, winning the Super bowl, or very close to winning the Super bowl that entire time.

How is this now a bad way to run a team?

I also think that the fear in leverage is what? They're not having fun. I always subscribe to the idea of, like, edelman, like, well, the winning is fun, but is the fear of, like, getting cut? Because for all the. Every story that is told, like, ah, belichick, you know, traded, like, who do we trade to the bills? And we lost immediately. Was it Ty?

Yeah. Laura.

Laura Malloy? Yeah. Trade Laurier Malloy. It's like, oh, that's brutal. And so it's a little bit of get back. We did end up winning the Super bowl that year, but there are nice stories of, like, hey, Belichick made sure I got my bonus. Belichick kept me on the roster for this. Those stories don't get as much as the other stories. Belichick keeps the coaches maybe a little bit too close so they don't have to move their family all over the place. Like, once you're in, he'll make sure you're in. And does is not. He's not a. I don't know. Is he. Is he an emotionally cold guy? Maybe, but I think that's part of the salary cap, that you have to be a little bit colder. But I don't think it's fear. He ran the process. He ran the whole team on fear, and people are afraid of that now. I don't know. It feels like an oversimplification. I'm not mad at the writers at all, but I feel like the patriot way has been painted with a stern brush, and everyone's like, oh, that's what it takes.

Well, this was one of the big misses with the documentary and my biggest issue, there's so many issues with the documentary and how slanted it was toward Belichick and then craft, pretending afterwards realize it's called the dynasty. They skip over the second and third Super Bowls to probably spend five minutes of them.

And if you're.

Your whole concept is, how did this team become a dynasty? And then how do they keep it together? Which is the premise, allegedly, of what the doc was. They never explained how the dynasty became the dynasty and the way to understand it is the second and third super bowls. And the reason they didn't emphasize those is because the most important reasons they won the first three Super Bowls were defense and coaching and innovation, and then Brady. And Brady's, either three or four on that list. It was the defense and it was the coaching were the two biggest reasons they won. They didn't.

They.

They literally changed the rules to try to prevent some of the shit the Patriots were doing. But there was a cutthroat nature, how he ran the team. That was the single most interesting thing about it he did.

They had.

They had it with Bledsoe in the documentary about that decision he made, where he basically cuts Bledsoe's throat and keeps Brady. It's like, man, that's harsh. Even Bledsoe now seems kind of torn on it. Then they did it with Laura Malloy. He also did it with Richard Seymour over and over again. He's like, how do you get these guys to play hard for you to care about winning while they also know he's cutthroat and he'll get rid of you the moment you're not as useful to him? And that was like, I wanted a half hour on that, and instead of getting a half hour on Matt Castle after Brady Torres ACL. And I think that's what was so frustrating about the documentary for so many people. It's like, how did he build this when everybody knows the players are disposable to him, but they still played hard for him? What's going on here? And even when you listen to the players talk about it afterwards, and so many of them were upset about the documentary, and they wouldn't even go all the way. Like, none of them were like, I fucking love Bill. He changed my life.

I love that guy. They were just like, he was an amazing coach, right? He did the stuff he built. And you're not supposed to like your football coach, which to me, is the ultimate lesson of the Belichick era. You're not supposed to like your football coach.

He's not your buddy. Yeah. And that galvanizes the team. There's. They're like that.

Galvanized, like everybody suggests every sports movie we've ever watched.

Do you think that there's a bit of a dynasty credit grab going on where post Brady, Super Bowl, Brady got. Brady got the lion's share of the credit, even though he got, you know, rookie, you know, second year, Brady is all of a sudden getting credit for building everything. Belichick's kind of, at that point, Belichick was far back, far down the credit list, and now he's, like, slowly rising up, and then kraft all of a sudden, like, hey, by the way, like, I held this whole thing together. I think the credit grab is strange. It's very rear view mirror, and I think the fans are far less interested in the credit grab of the last two decades than the future of the team. But it feels like people really want credit now, and it's really driving craft.

Well, I think because it's been Brady or Belichick? Brady Ann Belichick and Craft. It's like, oh, well, he's the owner. And it seemed like the whole purpose of the book and the. And the documentary was to prove it was the three of them together. And it was like I had to work so hard to maintain the relationship. I just don't believe it. I don't believe it. The football coach is 365 days a year. He's in the bunker doing stuff. Brady's doing his thing, and those guys are driving the team and the owner. Like, I just don't think you can have that kind of an impact in the same way you can. Basically, you can tell them, here's how much money you have to spend, or I veto this deal because I'm the owner, which it seems like, really, he only did that one time with the Garoppolo Brady stuff, but for the most.

Part, I don't know. Yeah, I can't tell like that. Yeah, I mean, the culture of the team, how much of that comes from, you know, the executive office, how much.

Of it comes from the culture? Was that great? Like, they, they just bombed in these organizational reports that they had about all the different facilities and how the player, the players families are treated. Those things are rough.

They sure are effective, though. It's like the. You get an f on that. Like, all right, we're fixing the gym right now. We're getting daycare services. It's one of the most effective reports I've ever seen. Like, people jump on that immediately.

Well, the part I don't get is, if Kraft was such a big part of this, why was Brady always taking a discount to, quote unquote, win with the Patriots? But then we weren't spending enough money anyway. Whereas, like, every, every other quarterback has been, like, Brady made less money than.

He should have made, and.

And since every quarterback has been like, all right, cool, I really want to win, but I'll also be taking the 50 million a year or the 55 million year, like, Brady didn't, and then they had this moment where they just could have paid him retroactively and that that seems like the big Belichick craft chasm. And that's where I think Belichick can really get dinged. Like, why didn't you just pay Brady three? Or he was so afraid of getting old. With Brady, it seemed like it co ed all the decisions. Here's one other thing I wanted to point out from the article, because this is another thing that Belichick gets thing done. You'll have to start over again, said a source with firsthand knowledge of the Eagles, thinking this was another team that passed on him, who would replace him. He hasn't had a good record of developing coaches. They were afraid that he'll have changed everything and every person. Then you'll be starting from scratch again. He didn't demand those changes, but they felt like if we hire him, we have to give everything to him and trust how he does it. Why does Andy Reid Andy Reid start one way and Belichick's thought another way?

Do you think Andy Reid has a great coaching tree? Because there were guys from the two thousands where he did. But let me give you the 2010s, Andy Reid, Doug Peterson, who worked with him in the two thousands but became a coach in 2013. Sean McDermott, Matt Nagy and Eric Biennami, who couldn't even get hired.

He.

For the last like seven, eight years, there's been no, like, hot rising Chiefs assistant, at least that I could find that got a job. Belichick's had Brian Flores, Gerard Mayo, who just got the job, Bill O'Brien, Josh McDaniels, who got hired for big money twice and just didn't do well. Joe Judge wasn't Belichick's fault. The Giants were like, we like the Pat special teams coach. He's young, but who knows? And Patricia, but it's like this whole thing about Belichick hasn't built a coaching tree. It's like, I don't know, man. He worked with Nick Saban.

Yeah, that worked.

Yeah, that seemed like Nick Saban kind of worked. But it's a weird one, that Reed. And then it's like Belichick, like, why doesn't Reed take shit for some of the stuff? Like, what about, like the Rasheed rice thing this month? What about the stuff with his sons? You know, it's like if people seem to pick and choose what arguments they want with whether somebody's a good guy or a bad guy or a good coach, bad coach. I just don't get it.

I feel like the Belichick coaching tree thing is a little bit, I don't know. It's an odd way to judge success. How did your assistants do? I think in the article it says that perhaps his coaches were better soldiers than generals.

It's definitely the case for McDaniels.

I think that's fair. If Josh McDaniels had never left, there was an argument also that maybe Belichick and this is. Maybe this is arrogance, maybe this is the opposite. Maybe this is actually just being a nice guy. Should he have. Should he, should he had. Have fought harder to keep his assistance and the brain drain? Like I was talking, man, genies on the show. Mangenes are like, a lot of brain power. Left the building with Josh. Yeah, it's so what are you going to do? Your bell check? Say you can't go. You can't go. Make more money, advance your career. You don't want to do that. At the same time, you want to be like, hey, man, I kind of need you here.

I think when you have success, people poach the people that are close to the top person who's not going to leave. And that's just what happens in every walk of life. You saw it happen with Philly last year. Philly made the Super bowl. They took both coordinators and then one of the reasons they didn't do well last year, because they had different coordinators who weren't as good, and they replaced the defensive coordinator during midseason and, yeah, you know, it's hard, and coordinators are a big part of what happens. You asked, did this make you want to take the under and the Falcons?

Oh, yeah, there's one. There's one quote in there. Do you have the quote? The source close to Belichick said the coach had concerns about the Falcons roster and would have needed his most trusted former assistance to execute a quick turnaround. Now, I think this was pre Kirk Cousins, but it felt like a little. A little nugget. Like, oh, Bill doesn't like the Falcons.

Do you think Belichick will ever be a good head NFL head coach again? We'll end the segment on that question. Cause my answer is yes.

Yes. I think that his, this latest media turn that he's gonna do is going to be great for him. Everyone's gonna be like, wow, this dude really knows what he's talking about. There'll be more accolades. He'll be back in the public eye in a big way, showing a side of him that's funnier and a little bit softer and accomplished. It's not just going to be the same old gruff Ron to Cincinnati public Persona. Some owner or executive group is going to fall in love to him and fall in love with him and say, you know what? This is our guy. The question is, does his style, could it ever be a dock river situation? Like, could there, could something be going south mid season?

He just comes in like week nine. I mean, that, to me, that out.

Of, is that out of the question is it is how an NFL team set up two layered to have that even remotely work.

The reason, I mean, one of the many reasons I think he's the best coach ever is he never really had a system and could always adapt to whatever the players in the team were good at for that year. Right. And I think that's one of the reasons the coaching tree maybe wasn't what it could have been because every year they changed what they were doing. So if you're a head coach leaving that, it's not like, right, all right, I'm taking the run and shoot offense and then I'm going to bring it to this team. And he just, every year was like, oh, well, we have a really good defensive line this year. Linebackers aren't that good, so I'm going to do this. I feel like on the fly he could come in and at least like upgrade a little bit. But I mean, Doc, probably a bad example because he went 500 with the bucks for.

I'd be very nervous if I got caught, if I was coaching a team. I called to the owner's office and like, hey, you know, we're two and four. We got the buy coming up. We're thinking about bringing Belichick as a consultant again. It's just to help you out on, you know, some, bring out, bring down the penalties a little bit. Just have another, you know, have another brain there for you to draw.

Yeah, that's not happening.

Oh, no.

Well, it's like, oh, no, now it's the greatest coach of all time, but he's just like kind of a guy at the table down the side. Like, nobody's wants that. That's, that's too intimidating. I think. I still think he's going to be a good coach. The question for me is, is that it really feels like Belichick the GM hurt Belichick the coach the last five years, and that's, I will always believe that. I just think he made bad moves and that's what bad kicker. They had a bad quarterback situation. He assessed the Mac Jones thing terribly with how he had the coaches around him. And I'm sure that stuff you'd want to do over.

We don't have a wide receiver one. I could keep going. I would. I was about to defend Mac Jones. Didn't really have a laugh.

Tackle. All right, come back with half picked ideas.

All right.

Half baked ideas. We've been doing this since Grantland. I don't remember what was the first time we did it on podcasts, but it's been. I should look that up, actually. I wonder if it's been like 15 years of half baked ideas.

It's a long time. I think that one of these things would have to come true by now.

You started coming on like, zero, 920, ten range. Well, I think the closest we ever came to hitting one was the real life, how leap year should be the purge.

No, that was not close.

Yeah, that was close. I still feel like that's going to happen now. That's going to happen. Don't rule it out. All right, what do you got for epic?

All right, so just the NFL draft. This is the simplest idea in the world. Michael Pennix, 40 yard dash, four, five, one vertical jump, 30 sec, 36 and a half inches. Hey, how fast does he throw the ball? Does anybody know? Does anybody know how fast Drake May throws the ball? How far?

Oh, you want like miles an hour.

I just want something. I got to know the spin rate and the exit velocity and the launch angle of every baseball in like, double a. Yeah. In the NFL draft, you're like, drake May, big arm. Like, what does that mean? Big arm, right? Look at this throw. Like, how am I supposed to judge that? And then we're shocked when these guys don't work out. There's too much tangible data in baseball and there's too little in football. We're still at, like, the Jonah Hill, Brad Pitt around the conference table. Like, ah, you know what we took? We took Jaden Daniels out to dinner. Okay, how was that?

He took him to San Elmo's. He had shrimp cocktail.

Oh, the way he ordered with such authority. I'm like, is that what we're doing? That's really happening? Oh, they're taking Caleb out to a steak place. Oh, Drake may's visiting Foxburgh. They're going to take him out for dinner. What are we learning? There's just a lack of data around the ball flying through the air that I think is.

Well, they like to do the accuracy where it's like he did this pro day. It's only four inaccurate passes, but there were no, there were no defensive players in the field.

What's going on? If a guy drops the ball, it's just weird. It's just strange that there's so many variables we can't get just a little bit of data on spin rate. Like, there's a. There's, um. There's, like, a minor league. A friend of mine is a kid's a minor league pitcher, and he's like, he's striking guys out, but he couldn't get called up because, like, his spin rate was too low. They're like, yeah, I know you're having success getting guys out, but your spin rate's too low. At least that's what he told. They're like, okay, so that's just like, the data is really in it. That, man, you can't. The revolutions per minute is not working. I've got no idea. Does Mac Jones have a noodle arm? I don't know. He was airing it out in Alabama, and then he got there, and he couldn't air it out. It's just some baseball data into.

I really like, like, with stats and, like, zones and different colors and numbers and just. Yeah, 20 yard throws. It's 109 miles an hour. Like, whatever.

Just put an airtag on the football. Like, start there. Just tape an airtag to the nose of the football and have somebody throw it and tell me how it's going. I like it. Simple half bake.

What's the next one?

This is really a business question for you. It's less creative and more just a need that I have. And since you're podcast expert, can I get a wine sampler podcast where there's, like, not. Have I asked you this before? I just want someone to actually do it. Like a sports center for podcasts that there's, you know, nine basketball podcasts I want to listen to, and I don't have 9 hours. Is there some business? Why can't I get a bunch of pot, like, a bunch of five minute pods chopped up like SportsCenter used to do for highlights and still does it, obviously. But can I get five minutes of Zach Lowe, five minutes of you, five minutes of research. I'll take, you know what, ten minutes for you, because you're the ten minutes for you, five minutes or so. Just want a little bit of. A bunch of pods. But is there some like me? I don't know why that can't happen. I might just do it myself and wait to get sued. Monetize it myself, just like, all right, here it is.

Here's.

I'll just host it. I'll just be like. And here is the, you know, bill on the warriors. Take a listen. And I just wrote layout. It's almost like a talk soup, but the clips would be, you know, four minutes long.

So what's the title like? Uncorked for five. It's not uncooked uncorked.

It's the wine sampler. That would work. That would 100% work.

I'm switching to one. I know you're five minutes from basketball sampler, but I'm going right to wine.

You remember Ben Stein's money when. Ben Stein's money. Yeah. Remember you would have to be in an isolation chamber and you couldn't hear anything. You have to put the. You'd have to put the earphones on so you couldn't hear anything that was happening. Yeah. What do you think about field goal kickers? Instead of being in the game, they're just in a booth, large booth, but I said, and they've got no clue. They don't know time, score, situation, and they've got their little net, and they've got the holder in there, and they're just kicking. They're just kicking, kicking. And then eventually, you know, a light will come on, it'll be a green light will come like, oh, looks like it's time to kick. They come out. They would have to be disciplined enough not to look at the score. Maybe they have earplugs in or whatever, and they just kick. So there's no pressure. It's a pressure free environment. They've got no idea whether it's a big kick. When you look at guys who are freezing up, they all can kick. It's really just a mental game. So can I make it the environment? Remove the pressure, literally, by keeping them, you know, in a little.

So that's like spring football league. Treat it like a game show. Like, who wants to be a millionaire?

What do you mean?

What's the spring Football league called?

The UFL.

Yeah, UFL. They have the kickers just in the back.

It's not super exciting, but I think it would be effective, rather than the kicker having to sit there and be.

Super stressed out, you know, would be effective. Coming back from commercial and they just split screen, the two kickers and their soundproof stages, just working on their kicks.

They're just doing nothing. It'd be pretty boring. And then they would just come out. I don't know. I'm going to kick one. Oh, did that win the game? I'm not sure. I've been in here for a full day. It also, like, starts to, like, see.

I think they should know the score. Like, they come out and they're like. And it's like, let's get Bob's reaction when he finds out that it's 24 24 with 3 seconds left. Bob. Oh, shit. This is for the game.

That's the opposite of what I want. I don't want that at all.

So you. You want these guys to run out and not even look at the score? They just. They have to, like, stare straight ahead.

Every kicker can make 70 yard kicks when they're warming up, when there's no pressure. And some guys. Justin Tucker gets better, Chiefs kicker, but gets better with the stress. Most guys don't.

So the half baked flip is we need to figure out a way to have kickers not know something about the game.

But I don't know how.

I don't know how, like, when they come out, they wouldn't see it.

You'd have to be. You have to be locked in. Or if it's a home game, you can turn off the. You can turn off the.

I mean, you basically have to blindfold them until they're on the field, but even then, you could see the score over the top.

They shouldn't look at that. They should be locked in on kicking the ball. Maybe it could. Maybe they can be driven out in a little golf cart and go away if they want to look at it. Sure. I'm just saying there's probably a great kicker who's just too nervous and would benefit from the kicker isolation chamber.

I have a half pick for you before your next one.

Okay.

If you notice how NBA refs. There's just too many of them. Like, too many new ones. No, there's just, like, every year, it's like, oh, there's 20 refs I've never seen before because they're just, they're just throwing people in. So if they're doing this, why not just have more refs in the game? Why don't we have four refs? Why don't we just have less running with the refs and everybody? You have one ref underneath the basket, one ref underneath the other basket, two at mid court who kind of move up and down, and the ones under the basket are more like linesmen. Like in football. Like, they're like the goal line judges, and then the other two reps are just moving up and down, covering, like, everything from three point line to three point line. We have four refs, not three.

Sure.

This causes more fouls or less fouls.

I think if you're a ref. You want to call fouls. It's what I'm there for. Everybody was mad that the Celtics didn't get any. Like, didn't they get literally zero calls the other day? Yeah, I feel like the ref should have been applauded. Like, you know what? We just kind of played. That was great. But if I'm a ref, I'm going to call a lot of fouls. Like, why are you out there?

I have one more half pick for you.

Go. That was an easy one. That's adding a ref.

That wasn't no adding a ref, but different concept. We have the two main refs. They're going up and down the sideline, and then we have the two kind of junior refs. They're just underneath the basket. They don't move. They're just there next to the cameraman. They're goal line judges. They have less responsibility. They're just kind of there to get a feel for all the stuff, like, around the paint and whether somebody stepped out of bounds.

What do you think about very far away ref? Like the. Like the last row.

Like an offensive coordinator? Like, with binoculars?

Yeah. It's like.

It's only a foul.

It's like.

I don't know.

It looked like the foul from here. Like, sometimes you can be too close to the action. I think either stuff looks. You're like, you're too in it. Just like. I don't know. I mean, I'm in c. I'm in row, section 206. It didn't look like a file from here. If it doesn't look like a file from there, it was probably fine.

Yeah. He's like the voice of the fan. What's your next one?

I mean, this one's a really bad one. This is one of the dumbest things I've ever said. You know, the algorithm always knows, like, oh, looks like you want to go on vacation. And they started like, what about this hotel somewhere? Like, oh, how did you know that algorithm. The algorithm started feeding me, like, YouTube videos, like, how to escape a headlock. I was like, what? Well, like, how to defend yourself from a knife attack. I'm like, what's going to go on with me in the future here? So I started to get very nervous about having to, like, defend myself in a fight. I said, I'm not really. I'm not really built for that. I'm kind of past that. And I understand that sometimes fistfights are presented as a good alternative to conflict resolution than super actual violence. I still think it's too violent. But sometimes you want to express some dismay with no physical interactions. Yeah. What do you think about normalizing, throwing eggs at it. People like, I get an egg thrown at me. Like, in traffic, you just have, like, a thing of eggs, so there's not, like, you. So I've seen, you know, YouTube guys get out of the car.

They start punching each other. Like, man, everybody relax. Just throw your egg at the guy and call it a day. It's kind of silly. Everyone laughs it off to get in the car, go away. I think.

So you're saying get rid of road rage.

Replace.

Get rid of road rage.

A lot of these, like, a lot of these, like, fights in the stands that end up going viral. I never. I never think those are.

I guess the eggs having an expiration date would be the problem here. If you keep getting new eggs, you.

Just have an egg in your pocket. And if you have an issue with someone, rather than having real violence, you just, you know, you get hit with an egg. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I probably deserve to have an egg. I cut somebody off on accident. I thought it was two lanes. It was one lane. The guy's giving me the middle finger. He's mad at me. I'm like, buddy, you know what? I'll roll down my window, hit me with that egg, dude. I deserve it. I wasn't paying attention.

Oh, you get to egg me.

You know what? You got me. I deserve that one. I certainly didn't want the guy to be so mad he jumped out of his car like, buddy, right here. Scramble me up.

What you laid out when you were talking about the algorithm is something I've been thinking about a lot, where the algorithm assumes you like certain things because you might have watched one video and you shouldn't have. And for me, now I want to, like, I want to hit the algorithm and be like, can I not. Can this not be in the algorithm anymore? Like, somehow tsunamis is in my algorithm now, and I'm just like, I don't want to see tsunamis on my Instagram reels. How do I get out of this?

Can I.

Well, can I book? Because I made the mistake of watching one on a reel. Now I'm just getting fed that. How do I get, like, the road rage videos? I don't want those anymore. Can that, like. So I wish you could just go into, like, Instagram or whoever. They just had a thing where you could search for, like, the top 50 things. The algorithm is like, he likes this. He likes this. And you could just be like, no, no, I'm actually going to get out of that.

I was defending. I'm always defending.

Just give me more. Give me more eighties dunks, less tsunamis.

Can we up the eighties dunks?

Yes, you can have more eighties dunks and more altercations. More NBA altercations. Can you put that in instead of road rage?

I just want cool passes. That's what I want.

What's your last one?

Last night, the Sixers comeback literally started. I forgot who missed the free throws, and everybody got free chick fil a. There's got to be a way to energize the crowd or incentivize the crowd with more.

Thanks.

There's got to be more, right? I mean, it's got to be. You know what? If we can get this, it's crunch time. Free sodas. Figure out what the what, how much drinks and chicken sandwiches and hot dogs cost, and is that less than winning? Going to the Eastern Conference finals, and then just make the food for.

So what about, like, a 40 point quarter? Just cross the board. In NBA, if a team's about to hit 40 points, everybody gets, like, a soda.

Yeah. It's just. It's also an energy thing, though. Like, the crowd has to be into it, you know what I mean? So, like, the crowd.

What about half court? Half court shot?

Just chicken. Half court. But you don't want guys taking half court shots. No.

At the end of the quarter, it goes in half court shots. Chicken for everybody.

Even if you take it, it doesn't even need to go in. Just take it. So guys aren't preserving their shooting percentage.

That's what I mean. So now people be mad when people don't take the half court shot because there's chicken at stake.

Yep. Small sodas. Oh, you want a pretzel? Good news. Get a steel. Get a pretzel. Dive on the floor.

Get a. I like this. You're right. There should be more incentives. When Boba intentionally missed the free throw at the end of the Clipper game, that was, like, one of the most funny moments of the year.

It was great.

I have a quick half bake for you.

Oh, good.

So, women's basketball. Incredible run, right? We 18 million people watched the final. 3.1 million people watch the WNBA draft. Like, shit's happening. Caitlin, this is a moment. There's been a lot of things leading to this, but now stuff's really happening, and there's discourse, and, like, I actually cared who the sparks took at two and four. I'm like, oh, they passed Cardozo. Can't believe that would have taken her, too. I've had opinions. There's this other piece now that all the major sports have that the WNBA doesn't have yet, which is conspiracies. There's nothing about the way we do with NBA. Like, why did Michael Jordan get suspended for gambling? Don't know what happened with the decision. Yeah, I've always heard some stuff. I'm going to start a WNBA conspiracy.

Okay. This is.

I think they fixed the lottery for Caitlin Clark to go to Indiana. I'm not going to say whether I believe this or not. I just want to put it out there. So they had. They had the most lottery.

Lottery.

Whatever. They had, like, a 44% chance. So they're favored to win it.

Okay.

But she wanted to go there because her boyfriend, I think, works for the Pacers. So if you were just saying on a. First of all, everyone thought she was coming out in 2025. All of a sudden, she's coming out in 2024.

Hmm.

Boy, it'd be nice if. Who would you want to go to? I'd love to go to the Indiana fever. That would be my dream pick. Oh, look at this. They won the lottery. Now she's coming out.

I don't know.

Check some boxes for me. Conspiracy bill is here to help the WNBA. They fixed the lottery for her.

It's. You know what? It's. It's the old Patrick Ewing. Yeah.

The frozen envelope that.

This conspiracy. You got to start there. I guess not.

Come to LA.

Everyone wants to go to LA, but it's a good conspiracy starter. And I like your take of, like, conspiracies are good for good for sports. It's not. It's not a bad.

Not a bad start next year, like Juju Watkins. USC. Grew up in LA, went to USC because she wanted to stay in LA. I wonder who's going to win the lottery. Conspiracy Bill is already calling it the LA Sparks. We're going to win the lottery. Juju is going to be in LA. It's happening. This is what we need. This wnba needs crazy takes and theories and people arguing about weird shit. That's how we know they made it.

Conspiracy Bill's back.

Conspiracy Bill's back. Kevin Wilds, great to see you watching my first things first, which you can hear on Sirius as well. And it's a podcast, and.

Yeah.

Good to see you.

Nice. Thanks. Good seeing you.

All right, that's it for part two of the podcast. Don't forget about part one. But thank you for this one to Chris Ryan, Sean Fantasy and Kevin Wilds. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Ceruti for producing. As always, don't forget you can watch videos and clips from this on YouTube.com billsimmons and I will see you on Sunday night with Priscilla. Until then, have a good weekend. Must be 21 plus 18 plus DC and present in select states FanDuel offering online sports wagering Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC Gamble problem call 1800 Gamble or visit fanduel.com rG in Colorado, DC, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont call 100 next step or text next step to 533 Four two in Arizona, 8887-8977 or visit ccpg.org Chattinconneticut 809 with it in Indiana, 852 4700 or visit ksgamblinghealth.com. In Kansas, 8770 stop in Louisiana, md gamblinghelp.org in Maryland, 800 gambler.net in West Virginia, 805 224700 in Wyoming, hope is here visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 803 2750 for 24/7 supported Massachusetts or call 18778 HOPE, NY or text Hope NY in New York.