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All right, taping this five 30 Pacific Time Sunday night just watched the women's championship, Stanford beat Arizona and the coach for Stanford hadn't won in 29 years. I wanted more tears from her. I wanted to be more upset. But Rosillo, March Madness, it feels like it's back. I can't tell if it's covid. I can't tell if we're just desperate for anything. I can't tell if we've been hold up to too much. But that game last night, that Gonzaga UCLA game felt like a water cooler college basketball game of which they were really not been since the Villanova USC title game five years ago.

But this is the kind of basketball I grew up with. Huge, awesome moments, well played, college basketball games, big stars, stars you could see in the NBA. And then an incredibly dramatic ending. I was fired up. I loved it. I want to start more with the women's tournament, because I think I know that you were locked into the final I. I watch I want to see Romeo laying for play today. So I'll admit I'm.

But you're toggling between the Celtics and the and the Arizona game. I jumped on the Arizona bandwagon because I like their point guard. She reminded me of Williams. She was like little Isaiah Thomas against UConn. She kind of won me over. I was hoping she was going to. You were going to say she reminds me of you at Holy Cross, your pickup games, because I was not able to stop the pop. I was going to be like, all right, we're done.

We're done. Do you watch it with your daughter? Because I imagine, you know, that's kind of the stage.

She's playing a ton of sports. We're just doing it by yourself.

No, I really like the drama of the women's final four. And I was actually ready to come in here if that, you know, before we that could Zagor game was incredible. Just being like what is happening here with women's college basketball versus men's college basketball. For me personally, just because I like the drama of it, I like the fact that the players are on the same team for a couple of years, that the coaches don't seem to change.

There's a stability to it that I feel like with men's college basketball has really gone sideways over the last ten, fifteen years, and especially now that we have this transferal. And but but the flip side of that is what's happening to Gonzaga this year, where they have this traditional old school, you know, college team. One of the best players is twenty two. They have an awesome freshman recruit is probably one and done. But going for the undefeated season, the coach that's been there forever.

And they're the type of team that I grew up with, those, you know, those I kind of college basketball programs where it just kind of makes sense. Some guys stay for a couple of years. Other guys just come and go.

Yeah, I definitely think to this tournament, both of them have been awesome. And to not have it for a year because it was we sit here and we look at like the battle for the audience, at least in the United States. Right. The battle for the audience and trying to figure out like how it works. I've always thought the NFL is going to have multiple games on during the week. And I think at one point it'll probably get there because it just expands the business platform.

I think there'll be something maybe five, ten years from now where it's like, oh, wait, we have Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Like, I just don't think the NFL is ever going to care because in the past it was, oh, you can't have Friday games because of high school football. You can't Thursday because I just don't know that those guys are ever going to care. And I don't know that anybody running any of these businesses is going to worry about things other than growing there.

I mean, it's easy to see the bottom dollar, but just, OK, what's our market share? I mean, Goodell's entire salary is based on, hey, revenues will be at this number. Here are these projections. So for baseball, it's been OK. How do you hang on his national audience? They're in big time trouble, but they know they still have the local the regional stuff. When you dig into all those numbers, you're like, OK, maybe this is who we are.

Then we have our playoff moment. And for college basketball, who you know, I used to split up the week on my NBA, my college viewing, and now with just how my career is gone, I just don't really have the time to do both. And then I catch back up with college for two months prior to the draft, which is weird, but to own the tournament, to own those three weeks, at least they have that.

And I think post of everything that happened in the last year, that's what it felt like, again, especially being on the West Coast now for the first time with the tournament where you're like, wait, the games are on win. And it's just it's it's usually those first four games or my favorite time of the sports year. But this was just I just a reminder how awesome the whole thing can be because of, you know, look at look at last night with with Gonzaga.

And you're like, how the hell is UCLA in the playing game playing potentially for the national championship. Right.

And came, you know, three point three seconds left. It just felt like it was coming to double overtime at the Defender. It's funny because you don't want to commit the foul on the forty on the forty four here.

Right. But on the other hand and the other hand, it felt like, you know, they're so paralyzed that the worst case scenario of all time would be I found this guy, but he did kind of give them a free look. Right. There was a middle ground where he could have gotten in his way a tiny bit more. I felt like when Suggs let that go, he was trying to bank it and he felt like it was going in everything that he did with his reaction.

The other thing that was interesting, I loved him before this game. And I'm ready to have the cutting Cunningham versus Suggs argument with you. Now, go ahead. Let's do it. But what I loved was when Jesus makes the the follow up to tie it. And so this is just kind of moving and the way he moves just in general, but especially in that moment, is just a guy who's always been awesome at sports his whole life. Right.

There was no he's not paying it, glancing at the scoreboard, anything. He's he was at the top of the key. When the ball goes in, he drifts over. He knows what he's going to do. He gets it like he already had his plan. He knew pretty much exactly where he was going to shoot it from. And I just think that guy's special, the way his two way ability, his competitiveness. I know he's like either third or fourth in these mock drafts.

And I know by the time we get to the draft, he'll be third or fourth, maybe fifth. But that guy to me is the lack what he does on both ends. That is going to translate. The worst case there to me is like he's another Halliburton type where it's just like an awesome guy to have in your team. Maybe he's not spectacular, but can do everything, doesn't necessarily need the ball to have an impact. And you kind of want him out there when it matters.

And, you know, he had the block to last night. I just love watching him the block and then pass in transition was one of the best plays in the entire tournament. I mean, the idea of freshman is going to do that. And yeah, you could debate maybe it was a foul and one of the replays and then touching the net. But just in the moment, the recovery to make the play contain the basketball and then immediately out of the break and then see all that stuff, he impacts the game in a way.

You know, it's funny because we spent so much time talking about scoring, it's never been easier score in the NBA. There's all sorts of guys. Certain nights you're like, what the hell's going on here? You're like, how many shots is this guy taking a game? And whenever you're looking at guys in the league succeeding, I just think that it's more misleading than ever before. Don't know. The guy's pretty good. You're like, is he or is he just scoring a lot?

And Suggs is the antithesis of that because he's going to get buckets just because of his energy and his understanding. But he's impacting games in ways that are winning ways. And that's what I think is the sales job on Suggs. If you're in a front office and you're sitting there and you're debating all these guys, that's the sales job. The problem I'd have with this, I would say to you, I'm still Cunningham over Suggs still have much more work to do on it, because I think offensively Suggs appears, you know, even as a freshman, more limited than what Cunningham could be.

And that's why I think Cunningham still wins the argument. And then, of course, the size.

Yeah, the thing with Suggs and you saw a couple of times even last night, you know, somebody draped all over it is a little bit hard for him to create a shot. But I do think he's such a good athlete. Kansi had this in his draft guide. Casey Anthony did the top fifteen. And I know he's got another thing coming. And I'm sure Mitchell's brother is going to be those can be some tweaks. But he mentioned in that draft guide, like the two ways for Suggs to go up a level in the pros, which seem conceivable.

Are the three point shooting just getting better, which I think I don't want to pencil it in, but I think it's really likely that he will become a better and better three point shooter next five, six years. And then some of that Steve Nash footwork stuff. You know, can he be a guy because he's such a good athlete? Can he be a guy that becomes a shoot off different feet, you know, off balance in traffic floaters?

Can he add that stuff to his game the same way when you see, like, how good Lillard has gotten at some of this quirky stuff to just being a great score as a point guard, as a little guy, the stuff he's added to his game year after year after year compared to where he was when he came in the league. I think like it's just unbelievable to me. Like he has figured out a way to navigate tall guys all the time.

So he has more size than him. And I think he's he's a bigger dude than him. And I just might that would be on Suggs. I think he's so competitive that whatever holes that we're seeing now, I just think he'll add to them every year. And that's why I think this is such a tough one, because I get it with Cunningham, six foot eight. He's we talked about him a couple weeks ago. He's going to be a forty percent, three point shooter.

You might be a spectacular three point shooter. And you talk about that kind of size, you can run a team, could shoot threes. You don't want that to come back to haunt you. But I do think there's a potential that Suggs becomes the best guy in this draft. I would look, it's not like I talk to every team because I was working on something for my podcast where it had some front office people and different levels, whether it's the NBA advance guys that just got NBA or, you know, in college.

And we were doing some different things. And it's just kind of hard to get all that information as often as I wanted to to the audience. But I had been working on something where I'd say five or six teams have chimed in and it's pretty consistent that it's a five person tier draft unless you think it's a major and a major drop after five people are like, if you're six, you're kind of fucked.

I think it's just because there's less certainty of the order, I don't know that I'm ready to. Again, this is so before I've done all my own reports yet, which I just do to do. But like Davion Mitchell for Baylor, who I can't wait to watch matched up in this game, he's single handedly turned that Villanova game with balls. You know, he just went, hey, you know what? Like, I know some guys may shoot it better than me.

And by the way, the way Davion can get to the cup and finish on either side, but he's twenty two. He's Junior. But his three point shooting has gone from like twenty eight percent in Auburn and then mid 30s to mid 40s now. And there's that Suggs factor of how I know how we fall in love with the six, nine, six, ten guys in the good stroke. But like why are you invisible again in a big moment now some of the times it's just straight up age.

And you look, he's so young and we're drafting you're upside. You can get it. If there was one way to do it right, then everybody would do it right. We'd have less mistakes. But there is. Yeah, but the pro Mitchell and Suggs stuff that I think I'm not going to sit here until you're wrong on is that there's stuff going on with these guys where there's an edge to them, where I know it fucking matters. And I know that some of the biggest mistakes that I've made is that you fall in love with the measurable goals and some of the stuff.

And that's where those solo workouts screw up everybody where you're like, man, this guy is unbelievably talented, but you're like, okay, but where's where's that edge? And if you're arguing for Suggs in the room, you don't have to convince anybody because they've already seen it all year long. But it has been.

Cunningham won mobily from USC, probably to some people, look at Jalen Green's athleticism, one of the two lead kids and Comingle who, you know, other people will say now he might be the guy. Suggs is generally behind most of them. I'm not saying that their NBA team is probably a team that looks at Suggs is two or whatever, but Suggs has been closer to five of the teams that I've talked to than he's been closer to one. Hmm, did you see the football stuff with him?

I didn't know about this. He looked unbelievable soda. Yeah, I saw somebody sent me some clip of some of his best high school, his sister, Minnesota, but it's like, oh, so you've always been the best. Yeah. Like at every point of your life. Oh, you're one of those guys. I do wonder, like, you know, I think Edwards is like that to the guy. Minnesota Tech, the number one, Anthony Edwards, where he was just this amazing athlete who just eventually settled on basketball.

But sometimes, you know, I do think when you think about worst case scenarios for players like for Suggs, it's like he's such a good athlete, he's so competitive. And I do think he just makes winning plays that if he falls to five, I'm happy whoever is five. And that could be like OKC, like they could put him in, stay together. I don't know if I'd want to mess up his rhythm right now. Oh yeah, that's true.

Yeah. Big shots away from Boku Juice and was the other one who I know he's right handed and Captain Mobley's left handed or was left handed.

But Rheumy reminds me of Moberly. He was like right handed his game where he had this kind of this just kind of freaky release on his three that teams are always kind of surprised and he's taken it. And then his ability to go in and traffic over and over again with these little, like, fling shots running and stuff like that. He wasn't even in cases top fifteen. I wonder if he played himself into at least the top half of the first round because that the clutch buckets, all that stuff.

On the other hand, we've been seduced by March Madness, guys like that before. But I loved everything I saw from him in the sternman. Well, he had both. He had NBA level shots, dribble, stop, turn around fadeaway and actually like looks good, not just hey, I'm going to take a turn around fadeaway because it looks cool and I never make him. He was taking them and then that corner three late and he answered because you know that felt like an NBA game, it felt like NBA playoffs game because it was more about all right, here's our best guy is going to go at your guy and we're going to see what happens.

Now, Gonzaga really had more options then than UCLA does, and that's why Gonzaga has been so much fun to watch, because it feels like different. I mean, Gispert wasn't even that great towards the end. I think he missed like four shots in his last few possessions. You got touches. It felt like they went away from him a little bit. But, you know, Deusen came over from Kentucky. He was a freshman who didn't play a ton, didn't shoot it.

Well, Calipari was like, look, we had other guys ahead of them. And then, you know, his his reason for transferring. I mean, you think of it, your freshman year at Kentucky, you're from California and covid hits and you're like, you know what? I just want to be closer to home and get a few more looks. I don't think it's hard to understand why he would want to bounce and move on from there.

But, you know, the rest of the lottery, whether it's kispert, the kid from Tennessee, you know, the moody kid from Arkansas who didn't really have a great tournament, who just felt like he was invisible at times. But I don't know that it's such a drop off. I just think that that whole group is far out of order. In comparison to the top five. It seems pretty consistent when you talk to teams. I loved having you in the mix, you know, I like having at least one long time impact program that has generations of fans I personally know a few used to my fans in this team snuck up on all of them, and then it was one of the all time kicked in the crotch losses at the end where he misses rebound.

Oh, he made it. Oh, we're going to double. Oh, wow. That went in. But it was interesting. You know, I actually went on Twitter. I don't go on Twitter that much anymore, but I did go on and see what some of the reactions were. And predictably, it was like greatest game of all time, all that stuff. I do feel like these games happen in the eighties and nineties pretty much every year.

And part of it was, you know, part of what made last night special in Berkeley. And those guys we're talking about after was there was like real shotmaking. You know, there was a high level of basketball that this looked like NBA basketball, but condensed into college, kind of all the things we love about college, but with the NBA shotmaking. And this is kind of why we love college basketball and revered it so much in the eighties and nineties.

And, you know, for whatever reason, it was able to to get captured last night. But I mean, I wrote down I made a list of just like twelve games off the top of my head that were awesome. The recency bias with some of this stuff is nuts. I think this game now deserves to be remembered along with those other ones. But to say like greatest ever where I think I'm just going to always rebel against that. But I do think, like, was that one of the 15 best college basketball games I ever saw?

Like it might have been. Yeah, I think top 15, it's probably safe, but best of all time, you look, I mean, Chris Jenkins Villanova game was off the charts. I mean, that was and that was for the title. And if you watch NC State, Houston, I remember my father doing some work in a house that he was building and he jumped off the ladder like he jumped off the ladder freaking out like, wow, while that happened, you know, the Villanova Georgetown game isn't doesn't have the moment necessarily that some of these other games that we're talking about.

But that upset is unbelievable that that ever happened. So recency bias is not new. You could argue. My entire career was started by a recency bias segment. I was solo on radio twenty eight, I think. And we had a stretch of about six months in sports where I'd heard like it was the greatest Super Bowl greatest NBA finals game, greatest golf tournament, major finish ever. And I just went through them all, was like, there's no way we're this lucky.

There's no way. We're just lucky that we've had fifteen of the greatest moments ever and like a six month stretch. So I don't look, I don't know if I'm comfortable saying that's the best college basketball game, but you know what I think it's great for? Because college basketball is really struggling, whether it's transfers, whether it's guys leaving early, although that's not necessarily new. I mean, guys been leaving early for a long time.

But I think there's also such an anti NCAA thing, which is their own fault. So I'm certainly not sitting here sticking up for the NCAA. There's there's just a vibe around college athletics that's far more critical, more aware at times accurate, but just overall, more negative. And it's completely off the radar until the tournament starts. So at least for the tournament in the college basketball side of the NCAA to say, hey, we've got we've got two products here where the men's and women's tournament, we had a million of these moments where, you know, it's better than nothing if we're capturing the American audience here for a couple of days in big moments like this, that's far better than those down times where it feels like we're competing with football and nobody knows we're even twenty games into the season.

I wrote down a list. The best game I ever saw in my life was 92 Duke, Kentucky, I remember when I watched it. It was an incredibly high level of play. There were great players in the game. It was unbelievably dramatic. It still holds up. But 91 Duke University is amazing.

Duke University, that was a great regret, not saying it off the top, because when you want to talk storylines in the perfect Hollywood script going into something in my lifetime, I don't know that anything tops that. And it's funny because people eventually turned on Duke, but at the time there was a little Cinderella story, I still hear a lot of people that were into NC State, Houston, Nova, Georgetown. The Indiana Syracuse game kispert. Arizona, Kentucky and ninety seven.

Was awesome and I think has gotten. That was the game that I think people like me were like Miles Simon Pencil men, 15 years, 15 year NBA career. It's going to happen.

I didn't like them out of the draft. I had an early report on him. Yeah, we argued about it in Boston, Kansas. Memphis was awesome. Myshkin Seton Hall was awesome. UNC Georgetown in eighty to the Jordan game. You mentioned the Jenkins' game, Duke Butler 2010 and then Kansas. Oklahoma, the Danny Manning game. That would be my that would be kind of my short list. And what's interesting about it is Duke Butler is 2010, the Jenkins game was sixteen.

This is really those are the only two from the last twelve years counting last night. And that goes to your point of like college basketball kind of needed this because. I you know, we'll talk about after the break, there's some there's some other bigger picture issues going on with college basketball and I don't know if it's going to make it better or worse, but but, yeah, last night was amazing. Let's take a quick break and then I want to come back and talk about the rest of this.

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So they're changing this transfer rule and it's going to make college basketball free for all, and there's been a lot of talk about it this week. There's apparently over a thousand people or potentially transferred, people are saying was one of the reasons why Williams decided that he wanted to step down. Who knows? And the you know, it could go one or two ways.

There's the one side that's like, this is great. The players should have the ability to control their own destiny. And then there's the other side. Is that just going to ruins college basketball now? How do you coach a freshman? What if you recruit this guy? He doesn't get quite enough minutes. He just he just skips town, goes to the next team. I've been pretty pretty set on this one for the last twenty. For however long I've had a platform, I never understood why the coaches could switch teams and the players couldn't.

And nobody was ever able to come up with a good answer, a good counter on that one that a Syracuse guy like Jim Boeheim could be the Syracuse coach and be like, come on now, coach Kentucky. I see you guys later. But if the players, the players basically had to stay an extra year before they left, and that just never made sense to me. So fundamentally, I actually like this transferral thing. I like that you can only do it once.

And I think it's going to actually make the sport more interesting. And it's an interesting opportunity for my school, Holy Cross and these kind of fringe schools that don't really have a chance to ever get somebody. But now maybe they can grab the disgruntled seventh man on Duke and make them the focal point. So I actually kind of like it. On the other hand, it feels like college basketball is now a snow globe that we're just shaking and it's just complete chaos.

The snow flakes settle. It'll be a five month season. Everything will be different. That'll end next season. Everything will be different again. And I could see why some people are frightened by it, but I personally like it. What do you think? I really don't think it's any going to make it that much different, this is basically just making legal what's already being done. If you look at the transfer portal numbers over the last few years, they're absurd, and most guys, if you find the right lawyer or you make the right argument that the NCAA does not want to argue against publicly, you get the the wait period.

Just basically they waive in anyway. So I don't think it's going to be the free for all that everybody expects it to be, because it's already kind of a free for all. I have no problem with the transfer rule. I think when I was younger, I was kind of maybe I was just more in line. Maybe I was more of a company guy where I was like, yeah, you know, when you're younger, guess what? The guy in charge has options that you don't have.

But as soon as you start going down that road, you're like, yeah, that guy gets paid and then this guy does it. All right. And I'm convinced that the NCAA is just like, look, we're going to put this off as long as we possibly can. We probably should figure out a way to pay the revenue generating players. I would not argue for non revenue generating players to make any money. So good luck figuring that one out.

But, yeah, the NCAA just is like, look, everybody hates us no matter what we do. I remember I was on Get Up once, Bill and Jalen Green. He Yeah. Was good. We cleared 300000 viewers on that episode.

There was a place that kept track of it.

And so we we were on and they had a new thing where it was basically like, hey, if you go into the draft and then now you come out, you're still going to be eligible because college basketball forever was being controlled by these coaches that, of course, they were voting against anything that made their job tougher. All right, let's face it, you make a lot of money. It isn't a it's a tough job. Right. And it's really tough to get to that point.

But I mean, it wasn't surprising that people were voting for stuff in their own self-interest. And they used to have these absurd rules where the NBA withdrawal draft date was a different date than the college one. And the college one was like, we need you back a month before the NBA won in the NBA is like, whatever. We're just doing this differently. So then college is like, hey, look, we can make this a little bit better where if a guy doesn't land somewhere and he hasn't done some of these things, he can come back.

So I remember being on the show going, hey, this is actually pretty good. And you would have thought that I was arguing that players should have to pay for their own flights to games like James was looking at me being like, how can you say that this is good? I was like, do you agree that the thing before was bad and now this is better? And greenies like, well, you know, Jay said and I'm like, this is amazing, but he fucking hypnotizes all of you guys to the point.

We're like, you can't ever even admit that something we didn't see did actually was like maybe good and green. He got pissed at me on the show and it was hilarious because the producers, like I've never seen Greaney get pissed, like literally in the face pissed off at another person on the show like he did. He got so frustrated with you. He was mad at you. And I've never seen him do that in like twenty years.

And I was like, I know I felt great. And we're like, we're going to hate can you come back tomorrow? And so I was like, guys, they did something that you think is better and you're still you turned it into something else that you don't like about him. So I understand what you're saying. I think what they're doing is reclassifying something that's already been happening pretty, pretty extensively. And people hate the NCAA, I think, as much as anything in sports and Goodell used to have the title, I don't know if he kept track of the championship belt to good video breakout, the championship belt of just the single most hated thing for sports fans.

I think Goodell had it for like three years, but the NCAA has had it in the NCAA. It's like basically when Hulk Hogan would have the Dabdoub title that he wouldn't have it. Then we get it back again. They're always going to be a contender for it. And they represent a lot of things that people just fundamentally hate. And the whole thing about students should get paid to play basketball, all that stuff. But football, they're getting taken advantage of.

That's just a thing online that you can't even argue. By the way, I agree they probably should get something, but I think people make it seem like it's a lot easier than maybe. You know, that it actually would be in practicality where you're paying how many how many football scholarships are there? Like seventy five per more than that, 80 either. I mean, how you figure this out.

But, yeah, whatever. People hate the NCAA. I think what's interesting is that women's college basketball, I think people really like and I think people root for and there's a positivity toward it in a lot of different ways. That I think has been one of the reasons the profile has risen as to think like going to Friday and Sunday's kind of bookend in the to Saturday, Monday. I forget when they switch that I don't feel like that was something that was happening, like when I was in college that that switched at some point in the 90s, maybe when they were basically like, we want to own this Friday night, we want to own the sun.

And now it does feel like it's like this four day event of both sports and it works. So back to the paying, though. As you said, it's it's certainly really complicated because there's I'm not an NCAA anarchist's. You know, I think that there's still value in in a scholarship for most of the guys value. It's fucking expensive.

This name, image and likeness thing is long overdue and it's been incredibly stupid. I've read stuff that is like vomit inducing, so, so biased that I'm like, you're not even making any sense. Like I remember reading one. The ultimate one that I always go back to is they were like, well, Texas makes this much for the football team. So that means that every player should make five hundred thousand dollars. You know, like, no, the third string guard should not make five hundred thousand dollars.

Like, the school should not be cutting him a check. But when I look at the buyout stuff in the amount of money that college football wastes on coaches, I waste on buyouts and then people try to argue there's no money. It's like, yeah, because you guys are spending it all. You're spending it in ways you've never spent it before. And that's like one of the biggest issues I think we should all have with different people that are in charge.

It's yeah, you can tell me you having more money and more resources is going to solve all sorts of things. But ultimately, what it usually leads to is you just spend more. Why is tuition up all over the place? Why have the tuition spikes been like on fire, like the real estate market before the bubble in the early 2000s? It's because they've hired more administrators everywhere, like look at some of the numbers and tuition prices and then go, OK, but how many people are being staffed at some of these universities?

You're like, OK, so you're just like tuition is up because it's up, but it's also up because you're like, hey, let's hire more people. And then we can say we're awesome. We have all these people. So like you just started creating stuff. And the same thing is happening with college sports where it's like, oh, shit, this guy's buyouts. Twenty five million. Well, I don't know. The TV deals have been pretty good.

And, you know, we'll get a couple of boosters to kick in, too, and they'll write a check and the whole deal. So it's like, oh, yeah, but hey, by the way, we're out of money again, just like, well, because you guys spend it on everything else, like, hey, here's a football pro. We've got a slide, we've got a barbershop. Man, check out this new Dolby 5.1.

I'm kidding.

That's old school surround sound. People know what I'm talking about and you just go, all right, so you guys are just going to spend all the money to say that you're broke. So, you know, it's like this summer of twenty sixteen NBA caps like, say, the Cavs up. Got that. You spend it every Turtur. Seventy five in Turner. Fifteen million. No that's high. Twenty million. All right. So we got Gonzaga Baylor in the title game.

Gonzaga is trying to go undefeated. And I could feel this being a sports TV topic. Did Gonzaga is undefeated season. Does it have an asterisk because it was a covered season? Which I'm sure it'll have like a tiny bit of an asterisk, but at the same time, I do feel like this is a really memorable college basketball team that I enjoyed. And I think multiple guys from the team will go on to have at least some sort of professional identity.

I think Baylor is a really good counterpart for them. You said I mean, on your podcast Bunch Times, this is the game everybody's wanted for how many months now. So what happens? What do you think? As much as I love what Baylor can do, whether it's running their offense or just having four guys that can beat you off the dribble, I mean, even Joe Dirt there can handle a little bit. And Davian has that NBA gene of OK shot clock late.

All right. I'm going to back it up. I'm going to go at you again. And Davian has this crazy thing where he finishes, in a way at the rim. It No one's Kyrie No one. I don't think I'll ever be Kyrie, but he has a way of finishing in the area. The release of the ball to the rim is where you're not expecting it to be and he'll get off on the wrong foot. He's got just the way some of these guards now throw it high off the glass and these angles that you would even think of taking the shots twenty years ago.

He's great with all that stuff. But I've just I love the Gonzaga and go to Timmy in the post and he can finish with either hand when he needs to kispert can hurt you. He's probably the best shooter in the entire tournament. Hasn't necessarily worked out that way stat wise, but he's been awesome all season long. And then you get the backcourt like three guards with Gonzaga that can all kind of do their own thing at times. So, you know, nothing crazy there.

But I like I like the Zags, even though I'm incredibly impressed by Baylor, I like the Zags.

I was surprised by the line being only four and a half on Fanda. I thought it would be like seven, seven or something like that, I think there's a lot of respect for Baylor. Can I ask you what NBA putit is Kispert remind you of? I don't want to say, because this is just going to get turned into something stupid. So whatever. Welcome. Welcome to the party.

It reminds me a little of a clash thing when I was in college. I remember go back like Clay was like, oh, you know, who's the you know, the good shooters that Klay Thompson kid. He's kispert huge. He's good enough athlete. He's he's not going to be the individual defender Clay is, but he's a good team defender. But his release is quick. And the only reason I bring it up, because I hate comps, I hate them.

I he's a he's a limited dribble, efficient, offensive player where Clay, remember, in the beginning, you were like everything of his offensively is usually set up by somebody else and then he finishes it with the shot. Then Clay figured out how to handle and get his own and could do all sorts of things. I just think there's something there between doesn't have to dribble very much and can hurt you because you can pull up so quickly. So there you go.

How about Tinie? Reminds me like a smaller pit snaggle. Without the range. And you, like you think Mitchell ends up in the top 10? Yeah, I do, but, you know, he's older, he'll be twenty three at the start of the NBA season.

I mean, he's like, oh no, little Wesley Wesley Johnson itis he's got he's got a little bit more. A little bit remember that Wesley Johnson was like, he's 20, the only negative, he's twenty three right now is as is being drafted. That seems like kind of a red flag. But then you know, what I love though is Lillard was twenty two and he got drafted and that was fun. I always loved the age thing where like if a guy who's older actually does all right and then guys like you know I don't understand this.

Like what. You know, you know what you've got in this guy, he's been around, he's more mature, he understands these things and you know, it's why don't you take him and you're like, oh, you want to go over all the other guys that were old that didn't work out right.

You know? So, yeah. I mean, look, it's not it's that he's twenty two right now, so I'm rounding up. But I just you know, his draft age will be 20 to be 20 through that season starts. Let's go to what's all about to the NBA. I have a fun topic for you. Somebody is going to have to win the Rookie of the Year award, they have to hand it out. I checked they've had one every year.

They haven't they haven't said pass. And right now, Edwards is the favorite at a unfeigned is minus one ten. I think there's a case that he could be the worst. This could be the worst rookie of the year season. Anyone said if he ends up winning, unless he picks it up just because his team is horrific, his stats aren't even that good. He scored seventeen a game, four rebounds, three assists. He's a thirty nine percent shooter.

He should thirty one percent from three. His peers, eleven point nine.

His team is twelve and thirty seven heading into Sunday's games, and for some reason he's the favorite. Halliburton is the number two. He's 13, three and five.

He's almost a fifty, forty, ninety guy percentage wise. Forty eight, forty two, eighty seven point thirty minutes a game, sixteen point eight. His team's twenty two and twenty eight. I test Halliburton is the best rookie I've seen this year. I kind of can't believe Edwards is the favorite, but I think it speaks to this weird generation we're now it's like NFTE one for one, video clips and dunks on Twitter and 2K and how they kind of all conspire and they go.

Anthony Edwards had thirty eight points the other night. Nobody realizes took thirty two shots. This is kind of culture we have now where I'm not positive people are actually watching basketball. I don't understand how anyone could watch basketball and think Edwards is a better rookie this season than Tyree's Halliburton. I don't get it. It's confusing to me. Halliburton's a winning player like we talked about with Suggs. I know it's going to come around and he's getting an put into the rookie year, but I'm kind of appalled that Edwards is the favorite.

What's your take?

I'm convinced no one watches anything after I listen to people talk about the buyout nets for about a week, which I know we're going to get to a little bit later. As we've talked about on this podcast, I've done some of my own when you take somebody like Edwards won and you're not sure, right, because you only get that one year Georgia, the team stunk. He took a million bad shots, but he physically was doing some things and he can do some things physically on drives or it doesn't even look like he's trying and he's got the angle and the size and the quickness.

And he can kind of he was doing some stuff that actually was we were talking about Davion Mitchell, like he had some I watch that fulfill a Minnesota game last night. And he really has these moments where you're like, there's really not much you can do with this guy. So those are all positives and it's great. Yeah, I agree. And the dunks the night he had that sick dunk against the Raptors and then people were mad when people were pointing out that he was having another awful shooting night, I'm like, hey, I don't want to be that guy.

That dunk was incredible. That's not what the moment was about. I don't care about the rest of the shooting stuff, but you're absolutely right, because when you talk about Rookie of the Year, OK, do you realize if you go like the last fifteen games, I like sorting every now and then the last fifteen games.

Anthony Edwards is taking the third most shots per game in the NBA.

All right. That's true. Yeah, that's not true. And since the start of March, he's averaging twenty one shots a game, which for the season would be second to only. Bradley Beal Beal leads the league in shot attempts per game at twenty two. Anthony Edwards from March to now has averaged about twenty one.

And if you just by the way, I don't want to turn this into Edwards bashing session. I think this is what the team wants him to do. I think they want him to win the rookie of the Year.

If I was, his teammates would argue against that. Oh yeah, maybe that's obvious. But I remember being in Boston and Tom Walker's rookie year when Amilcar decided Antoine should try to win the Rookie of the Year and they're playing in the center. And you played forty three minutes a game and the hogging the ball and the whole thing. And it's like, yeah, you can do that. You can try to win somebody the rookie of the year. But I just don't know how somebody votes for that, you know.

And I think he's in a bad situation. I think they're asking too much from them. And they the the whole stats versus are you a winning player or not? He's not learning anything about being a winning player. And that team, the way they're using him right now. And how about I know the stats aren't spectacular, but he's a winning player. He helps their team. You know, he doesn't he doesn't necessarily care if he takes twenty shots.

So for Halliburton actually win, the rookie of the year is going to take at least a few people like us to point out that if you're actually watching the games, he's a better basketball player at this point in his career than anything. Edwards and to just take a lot of shots on a team that is on pace to go twenty and sixty two in an eighty two game season should not be easier. Now, you could you could say, all right, there's been a couple of times over the years where we have given the Rookie of the Year.

Right, Michael Carter Williams in 2014. I did not vote for him.

Who did you vote for that year? Wasn't him and I didn't vote for very passionate about this. And we definitely wasn't him. I think I voted for Wiggins because that was that Wiggins he who's the next year. No, no, no, maybe McCollum. I can't remember. I did not vote for Michael Carter Williams because his agent called me, was mad about it. 17, six and six forty forty percent free throw a field goal percentage and his team stunk but he had the ball a lot and they were trying to get in the air and it's like, all right, well I'm not going to vote for that.

Brogdon one in twenty seventeen only averaged ten points a game.

There is no one. I mean that's when people thought Embiid might get it with thirty games and you were like I don't know if you can do that. Go ahead. So that was it, no one sees Tyreke Evans put up the twenty five and six for a terrible Kings team and he wanted that year. Now at least his stats are better than. That's the all time. No one season though happened in the last twenty years. Do you remember what it was?

It was not Michael Carter Williams. It was not Brogdon. I don't remember Mike Miller, one rookie of the year in two thousand one one eleven point nine points per game on a crappy Orlando team that was that legendary bad 12 draft. There was just nobody nobody had a good season.

They're like, all right, Mike Miller, you shot forty percent from three. Here's your Rookie of the Year trophy. So I think this is a No. One season, but I do like Calibur and I think he's played well for them. And I don't feel like that's how I feel the same way with Brogdon where Brogdon was actually useful in that Milwaukee team. His stats weren't great, but at least he was playing like a winning player. I just feel like that's what we should do with the Rookie of the year.

Maybe I'm crazy. I also think the rookie of the year, I don't know that we should turn it into the same standards that we have for the MVP either when I look at the MVP, that's a more important award. This award is he who impressed you the most about the rookie year thing. So I don't I don't really want to get caught up in wins and losses because I want of I just do get really excited because you're a fucking 10 seed and the other team's a 14 seed in their conference and not in.

So, you know, is that really make a ton of sense? I think Halliburton's been steadier. It's clear this isn't forced. I don't know that Minnesota is necessarily trying to have Anthony Edwards win the rookie of the year. When I watch Anthony Edwards now with the Timberwolves this last month, as I pointed out, these stats, I see the kid that I saw, Georgia, tons of shots, tons of bad ones, moments where he's easily the most impressive physical specimen on the court.

But no one ever cares about the other. Little things like in that Philly game he had he had two plays that stood out where I was like, OK, he doesn't get it right now. They had Tobias Harris going to Karl Anthony Towns and he turned to Postum. And then Anthony Edwards leaves to double where Harris has no advantage whatsoever, size at that point and leaves Danny Green, leaves Danny Green to double where towns already had. And then another play where Danny Green's in the corner, he leaves him the corner, weak side.

The ball's obviously on the other side. He goes to linger around Dwight Howard as if Dwight Howard needs to be doubled in the paint when he doesn't even have the basketball. And then Edwards completely loses green and then green runs baseline and would have had an offensive rebound had the play happened a different way. Now you can sit there and say you're young, but I'd also argue like, so what? At twenty seven you learn to pay attention, you got to box out because that seems weird.

I've never heard that before.

There are countless, countless losing plays with, with so many of these guys. I mean, look, I everybody's going to think it's because of the pre drafting with lamella but I remember telling you on the podcast and was like, hey, he's going to be out there screwed. I'm like, I don't know. They are they've gone five and two without lamella with losses to Phoenix in overtime and the nets. So the one seed in the east, the two seed in the West now without Hayward and you know, and Monk, no Monk, they're screwed.

They're going to start losing a million games. So they're up to the fourth seed and won a bunch of these games out there. I would have still voted for lamella for Rookie of the Year if he were still healthy. And maybe I still would. You know what I mean? Because I don't think the award I don't know that we should get really caught up with some of the standings with some of these guys, even though for the most part, some of the high volume guys like Edwards is going to have the best stats overall if somebody votes for him, I don't know that I'm going to get mad about it.

Lamella is plus 210 on Fandor, but he's forty one games, he's going to miss thirty one and I don't he was sixteen and six based, sixteen, six and six. I don't think it's going to be enough. The Edwards thing brings up the question I asked you, which I can't remember we've talked about in a podcast. How many guys in the league could score twenty points a game if they were on a team where they got enough shots. And I said to you, I thought at least seventy five guys could do it.

There's, I think four hundred guys in the league for 50 plus for a play or something like that for fifty.

So that would be about one seventh of the league. The more I watch, I think it might actually be higher. I think my number might be like eighty five to 90 I think could do it. The first time you said this you said one hundred and just classic opinion guy who's been doing this as long as we have like you, just whatever the reaction is now that's stupid, right. And then you're like Wait, wait. Your lower one hundred.

I'm serious with this season. If you said, hey, go get 20, that numbers over one hundred, but it's it's over one hundred. It's just about shots like who's allowed to take the shots? And I look at it, some of these games, like I had I had a number the other day, Bill, because I always kind of keep track of it. How many guys are taking 17 or more shots per game in the NBA right now?

Right. There's thirty nine players taking 17 or more shots a game in the league this season. It was less than half of that ten years ago. Jesus. Well, the reason this came up initially was because Jeremy Grant was averaging like twenty two, twenty three points a game and they're running plays. At the end of games where he was like, they're close, they're basically and people are like, wow, Jimmy Graham breakout season and I'm watching it going, Yeah, he's that thing can do a little more offensively than I expected.

But I do wonder how many guys could be put in this exact spot as a swingman on a terrible Detroit team where basically somebody's got to run the offense or run it through them at the end of the game. How many guys could do that? So let's pick let's pick a random team. By the way, let me clean up that stat. So. Twenty nine guys in the league. Twenty nine, they say. Thirty nine. I think I might just add thirty nine.

Twenty nine players in the league or taking seventeen or more shots per game. Five years ago it was fifteen, ten years ago, twelve players averaged seventeen or more shot attempts per game. This season again it's twenty nine. So yeah I mean if you just want to go through it, I mean I'm going to give you the thirty. OK, I'll give you the Pacers right now, Brogdon is averaging twenty one point two, although with the way Caris Levert you know that must be the worst thing ever is trying to incorporate a young dude who's thinking about the next contract, who's like I'm the big time score.

Like Caris is so talented but all the stuff that worries me about him, it's all happening immediately right now. If you're on the Pacers you're like so wait, this guy is just going to take 18 fucking shots a game and we go to ISO him at the end of every game, like, OK, this is fun. Go ahead.

Their team chemistry is cratered. Well the virts another one Sabonis TJ Warren could do it. That's for Turner could get twenty a game if you wanted to run your offense.

Returner sets five could if McDermott was on the Pistons and they were like Doug you're a guy at the end of games could he get the twenty. I think he could do that six and then I think we're done unless you want to make a Jeremy Lamb case. I don't think it's impossible, so I just gave you six guys on a team that is, I think 19 and twenty two and twenty six, six of their guys, we think could score 20 points a game if they were the focus of an NBA team.

Which brings me back to my Edwards point. Yeah, he's probably going to end the season in like 18, 19 points a game, but his team's losing and they don't. It's him Beasley in towns unless Russell comes back and scores. So very, very, very bizarre. Rookie of the year. All right. We're going to take a quick break. Come back to former NBA.

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Let's talk about seeding stuff, you're excited about the possibility the Lakers could fail to succeed, but we should go through all the ramifications. Want to start there? Go. Why are you so fascinated by this Lakers thing right now? This is not I'm worried about the Lakers. They look terrible against the Clippers, that's to be expected. No LeBron, no ad. The ad thing is weird because it just seems to be like it's almost like the Durant thing or like, hey, no timetable, no timetable.

And then LeBron tweeted about how much he missed basketball. So that was covered. And then, you know, four to six weeks out on that timetable, despite people saying, like, he might come back a little bit earlier, they they've been really good still defensively.

But it's not unrealistic that they're a six seed and they play the Clippers as a three seed. In the first round and then what, Phoenix in the second round and then Utah in the Western Conference Finals? You know, the funny thing is, is that LeBron is absolutely right about the comeback against Golden State being one of the most difficult championships ever to win. When you look at who Golden State was that year, no question then to say that the the previous title, because the bubble was the toughest.

I don't know about that. The opponents, but this run of opponents for a Lakers team that, you know, you still want to give the benefit of the doubt to, especially after the way they turned around after the bubble last year. But that's a pretty ridiculous run of teams you'd have to go through just to get out of the West. No. Well, right now, so I wrote this down, I don't know if we had games tonight that changes, but Utah and Phoenix seem like they're.

Relatively locked into the one two, unless Phoenix goes into a tailspin, which could happen like Chris Paul could get hurt or whatever, but Utah's 38 and Phoenix 30. For him, 14 clippers are thirty three and 18. Lakers thirty one in Denver, thirty 18, Portland, thirty nineteen. That's going to be a three, four or five six in some order. Clippers, Lakers, Denver, Portland. But Portland's only a half game behind the Lakers.

Now, there's no sign of LeBron coming back. There's no sign of Davis coming back. And I think you're right, especially with what Gordon? I think we all were hoping Gordon could look like, you know, a rich man's Millsap in that spot. And for what we've seen so far, it's been a nice addition. And it made them deeper. It gave them 30 minutes of somebody else, which I think they really needed. And I think the Lakers are going to be the six seed.

I think this is how this plays out. Dallas is the seventh seed. Dallas is starting to come on a little bit. Two things are fascinating here for me. One is that the one seed is like incredibly important because if you're the two seed, you have to play Dallas. And round one, I don't want to play Dallas. I don't want to have Loukia in a series like Fuck that. If you're the one seed you're playing, you know, Santonio Memphis, Golden State, Sacramento, New Orleans.

Which is great, you also get to have the Lakers if you end up playing them in a playoff round game sevens in Utah, Utah's undefeated this season, by the way, at home.

No, they're not they're not undefeated. They're they lost their first two. So they won all of that.

Right. How many have they won in a row? Is it is it. Twenty two in a row. Twenty. Twenty. Twenty one. Yeah. I think they lost their first two at home.

So Phoenix. Who is like, man, we're riding high. This is awesome. And then it's like, cool, we get Loukia in round one has to see, which just sucks. And then if you're the Clippers, I think I would want the Lakers in round one. I think my best chance to beat them is round one with like, you know, we're only twenty two, twenty three games away from the playoffs right now. It's going to be the end of May.

So we're six, seven weeks away. I would want to catch the Lakers. Right, as people are still getting used to each other and LeBron and Drummond have only had a couple weeks. Davis is in one hundred percent healthy. I'd want to get them right away. And then the other piece would be the four or five. It seems like we're headed for Denver, Portland again, unless Denver can jump the Clippers. But Denver, Portland would be another epic one.

So I don't know. I got to when she mentioned the seedings to me and I started doing the matchups, I got all fired up about it.

You love you love them. No one. I love that. I think this West one is going to be really good because I think seven teams are really fun to watch. I think Dallas is back. I don't think that's going to win the title, but I think they're there at least to be taken seriously in a playoff round. Can we back up to something you said, though, because when you said the Clippers had won the Lakers in round one, you don't you mean that is what's the best time to get the Lakers?

Because you can't possibly argue you'd rather play the Lakers and the Trailblazers in the three six matchup if you're the Clippers, right.

I'm saying I would rather if I have to play the Lakers in round one, two or three, I'd rather play them in round one. I would rather just play Portland and then I'll see whoever I see in the second round. Come on to think about what you're saying here, I know, I know what you mean as far as vulnerability and again, getting the start of the playoffs, but as far as like, who do we face first in on the Clippers and all that history in this city?

No sign me up for. But what if Davis is like eighty five percent still playing his way back? I think I'd rather take them. I disagree. OK, you know, I love the show, the challenge. And A.B., I've always I've always been of the theory, like just I have to go through these guys anyway. I'm thrown in now in the first episode, second episode. Let's just go let's go down into elimination now. I'd rather get you when you're just getting your legs back, you're just whatever.

I'd rather play you early if you don't know who you are yet. I don't think I think this Lakers team is going to take a while to figure out what they are, how healthy they are with their rotations are things like that. Wait, was that with the miss? Yeah, he's not on it anymore. He graduated, I met him, didn't go well, didn't go lot of testosterone now. He was a prick, he was a total prick.

And I was like, all right, we got it. Cool. So the seatings could be. Let's say San Antonio advances, Utah, San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas, clip's Portland Lakers, Denver. Then you go to the East Philly, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, or the top three in some order. Then the faucet is going to be Charlotte, Miami or Atlanta. I think Charlotte's done. I watched something against the Celts today. They've lost the Hayward thing.

Hayward, going out for four weeks, I think is a way bigger injury for them than lamella than anybody who replaces him. They ran a lot of the offense through him, he was playing really well, I the 20 points a game guy, they don't really have a backup for him that does any of the stuff that he did for them. And now they're just a bunch of guards checking up shots. I could see them falling all the way into the play.

And I think that's great for Miami. So then you have the next Boston, Indiana and Chicago kind of in that waiting for any of those four teams to wake up. Who would you pick to? As a as a waiting to wake up team, New York, Boston, Indiana, Indiana, Chicago, I think Boston's probably the safest bet. They're the most talented. You know, this team is is disappointing. That win today against the Hornets means nothing.

I mean, look, the Hornets had a guy in there from Nova Scotia. They had another guy I'd never heard of. I mean, we know how hard it is, how rare it is. Guys like I don't know who that is. And he's in the game. I mean, it got so weird. Romeo Langford was playing and they took Romeo Langford out out of garbage time. And then Carsen Edwards is like he's like, I don't I don't I don't watch adult films.

I get it. I get to thirty point games like here we go. I just Carsen Edwards, when you're playing pool with him and you're trying to rack the ball like, are you taking him out, does he just start smashing the cue ball in like as you're trying to set up and you go, Carson, can you just stop for a second and let me, let me rack the balls and then you can hit them. Anyway, I saw Charlotte.

They had one twin and they had one Martin twin in and then he came out, the other Martin and replace them as they come and it's got him. They're just rotated the Martin twins. This has got ugly Celtics.

I don't I don't like them. I don't like them. But I mean, talent wise, between them and the Knicks. Are you kidding? And then I wonder if there's this next thing that's balancing things out, because like the first half of the season, I saw a great stat somebody had that was going around where there the percentage of opposing threes and like uncontested threes was off the charts low. And it was just one of those things that didn't mean anything.

It just, hey, people missed more open threes against you, maybe at the lowest level that anyone in the league. So look for that to balance things out. You know, I could look at projected schedule, strength and all that stuff, but do this is going to get really ugly. I mean, I was looking at last Saturday. Did you watch your games last Saturday? I go, is there another All-Star break that I didn't know about that like select thirty guys just said, hey, we're out, we're not playing tonight.

So it even like if you start doing the playoff matchups at the end of the year, being like, hey, they were, they were too and you know, forno against them or whatever, I'm going to be like, I don't know how much that's going to matter because when did you get him, did you get him with a bunch of games in a row or all these games where I feel like whoever wins the first one and then the twenty four, 48 hour turnaround they always lose the second one.

I feel that way. I may not be right about it, but that that Pacers thing that we mentioned before, I think they're having a really hard time with LaVert deal vew. Just put up some nice numbers, but it hasn't necessarily worked for Chicago. They got their first win against the Nets. We're were a bunch of guys other than Kyrie, so yeah I think through it all, unless maybe Atlanta is the better call because other guys are making shots and you know they fixed their defense here a little bit, I would say Atlanta or Boston.

The only one is because of Boston's talent, despite the fact. Fifty games in. I don't really like watching it. The Boston thing is grim, but there are signs of hope that they finally have other guys together, Time Lords starting to play more fornia is starting to I mean, you saw today they're playing Charlotte, but Fournier comes in. He scores 12 points in 15 minutes. Those were minutes that were being manned by Semillas about the green, all that stuff.

He's just he's worth a couple of points. A game. That trade was really important for them. There's some sort of weird energy within that. I can't put my finger on where there's a lack. We were talking a couple of weeks ago about soft and not enough soft story where there's a lack of pride in some of these games with them. But then I watch other games in the past, it feels like we have a disproportionate amount of twenty point twenty five point blowouts.

Right. Last night it felt like every game was not close. Last night was was a special right. You would have thought some kid was screwing around with dotcom or something like, wait a minute, there's no way this team is up 40 already, like, what the hell's going on? But that's I actually think it's always it's been at times it's going to get uglier. I want to throw this to you, though. I was told during the Celtics struggles without Marcus Smart.

I was told by the Marcus Smart militia that this is why he deserves everything. And him coming back, I, I don't I just would pose the question to how come everything wasn't fixed when he came back? So question, he's not playing well and there's no other way to play it to set. So in the years I saw an ad today watching the terrible Clippers Lakers, Pau ABC has gotten hammered on Sunday against the Clippers Lakers, they ran an ad for the plane games, which are May 18th, April 4th.

That's less than six weeks away. I got excited. Playing games, it's going to be unbelievable. You think like. Say, in the east, where we could have like Boston could be the seventh seed, it could be like Boston, New York, Chicago, Indy, something like that. Their teams that like I like watching Chicago, Chicago's going to play a game, I would be excited. I like their nine. I've enjoyed Patrick Williams.

I like seeing the early returns. See my old friend Daniel Tice, who drove me crazy and I was on another team. I get to root for him, but.

I don't know, I'm going to enjoy the playing games, the West is a little more grim because other than New Orleans, when you get into that San Antonio, Memphis, Golden State, Golden State looks like they might go sideways, would they lose by like 50, 53 the other night or 63?

They were down 60 something. And they lost by three, I think. And then you have New Orleans at twenty one and twenty seven, who is probably the worst coach team in the league. All things considered, out of all the teams that are actually talented, that do dumb shit over and over again, and yet their best guy is averaging sixty two percent field goal and is completely unstoppable. And I just would not want to play. I'm going to play a game.

I'm sorry. If they're the 10 seed, I'd be bummed out. I'm your Dallas. You're like, cool, we'll get in there, we'll get the seven seed, we'll play Phoenix and then it's like, well wait a second, you've got to play this team that their best guy makes sixty 62 percent of his shots or you have to foul. That's going to be your opponent for the playing game. Good luck. One of it's JJ Redick Revenge Game, if the Pelicans get that seven 10.

Uh. Here's the thing, though, I would if I played the Pelicans in the playing game, I would if I coached Dallas, if I recall, I would just tell one of the guys, I'm like, every time Brandon Ingram, you're on Ingram be like, man, they don't run enough shit for you. They're going to get you the ball more like, I can't believe all the science stuff, like you're better than he is, right.

And then just be like this is going to be perfect. But honestly, I don't I think Dallas is I'm with you. You're not picking Dallas to come out of the West. You're just saying, hey, the early stuff and and feeling better about them and having a few more options, although it just feels out of central casting. They're like, hey, can we add one more really long kind of white guy? That's a perimeter, dude.

Like, yeah, we get like sick. Mellie's one of those dudes is like an actor who's just been in a series of terrible movies. But you kind of wanted to see and see him in this movie where he's basically Maxi Kleber standard thing going in a maxi spot. So it's the Joey Pants Award. Right. So I was watching The Fugitive on a flight the other day. And, you know, they show up to the train scene where people didn't realize, like, hey, this Tommy Lee Jones performance, get used to it because you're going to see this one for about 20 years now.

Not that he wasn't amazing when he did some other things, but he had just nailed it. We're like, all right, you were so good at the train scene. We're putting you in front of a volcano. But Joey Pants gets out of the thing and he's like, it's a circus.

I immediately thought of you, who do you think, Emeli? Yeah, because I think you could call it the Melley Award. But I don't want to change your it's your it's your show. He watches those years. I just get an invite, so I appreciate it. I want to step on anybody's toes.

Let me give you let me give you a. Three teams, and you tell me if they're better off just throwing away these last 20 games and going for a top 10 pick, not that they will because I did. The playing game has properly incentivized a lot of these teams. Indiana. Are they better off just saying, yeah, this season sucked, TJ Warren got hurt, we had this weird old depos situation which we kind of outsmarted ourselves. We brought LaVert He's a terrible fit with what we have and maybe we just punt on this season.

I know they won't. I know they can't have healthy guys. It's not like they can't. But I'm just saying in a perfect world, if you're the Pacers, do you really care if you make the playing game?

I'm going to say no to almost all these, so want to ruin your segment, so maybe I should just just pass it right back to you on it, but I'll only answer the Pacers one with I kind of like with the roster could be. So I would rather not be in the playing game and get lucky in the lottery because I don't know that you're going to be sniffing at the top of the lottery anytime soon, because I do like the team when it's normal.

And yeah, it could be too many guys and it looks like there's times for Brogdon is like what are we doing here? And I know he's missed some games. I don't know how many off the top of my head here. And even Thomas has probably looked at the LaVert thing being like, you know, we had some, we had some nice rhythm here offensively, but at least Liburd is still talented and maybe a piece and the way the contract and the control.

So I'm not necessarily like I know I've sounded antilabor here, but let me go back to you. Why don't you make the argument for it? Because I just think there's so many times that young teams are like, oh, that playoff experience, it's so valuable. You're like really getting your your ass kicked in a one eight. You just going to grow from that emotionally? I don't know that that's really true for the Pacers.

I would be I would want to be in the playing game and I would talk myself into a reality of these guys just need to gel. We have talent. Brogdon and Sabonis are good. Fuck it. Let's see what happens. The next team now Toronto. To me, that's a pun. That's one where you go to Larrey and you go, hey, man, big free agency coming up for you, last big contract. There's a lot of money out there.

This might be our best chance to get like a top pick. I know your knees bother you. I know your foot, whatever, whatever is bothering, I know it's something on your body is bothering you. Which is cockpit's, I know they won't do this because Nicklaus's already come out and he has said, I want to make the playoffs, we are not tanking. I hate tanking. I'm just saying in the perfect world, if you're a Raptors fan, where are you going with this team?

Yeah, maybe nowhere could win a playing game, but you're not winning around when you're so close to actually being able to get a top pick and you can write this, this is a write off this year, the sunk cost, yet the Tampa thing you had your two big guys leave to right off. I know they can't do it because it's basketball, but to me, that's the team that should be thinking about how to weasel out of this.

I would agree I'm going to agree on almost all these, I think the only time that you're going to hear an argument against it would be so Atlanta makes it now. They're the six. You know what if they hit a rough patch again here and there in the playing game and whatever, there's no version of them tanking or anything like that. But you could see them saying us being able to come out of this year's a playoff team means something.

And I think Catalana has to go for it. Right. Right. And they are. So I mean, I'm just I'm simply saying of any of these teams, this is this is the group that you make the argument for. I think Chicago feels like, hey, another year we're living, we made the voodoo trade. We want to be able to say we're a playoff team. Now, I think these are these are short term wins that can be really overstated in the big picture.

Don't really mean anything. Like just because you got in and you stuck in it doesn't mean you always grow. All right. You know, some people get to remember when Detroit made it and they had that one eight matchup with Cleveland and it was like, you know what? Look out for Detroit next year. Stanley Johnson, you see what he did against LeBron? Didn't they get swept? I mean, you know, did they really you know what I mean?

Like, we overstate that a lot. So I don't know if any of it has any real value. I like it when it's a young team, I think it really helped the Celtics to get in there and that 16 17 range with some of those young guys, I think it helped Memphis last year just to be in that playing game and just have a taste of what it's like to have a real game with real stakes and real pressure and things like that.

So Atlanta, to me, is a no brainer. Golden State is a fascinating one because you could argue that the year from Al. Weismann, I think, is more of a project than. You know, maybe we anticipated maybe this is his redshirt season, Draymond can't score anymore. Curry has an incredible amount of pressure on him in these games, not that Daimler doesn't, by the way, but, you know, the fact that they're twenty three and twenty six kind of seems like a miracle.

It doesn't feel like a lot of things that have gone right for them. So let's say that Minnesota pick is like fourth or fifth, and let's say that Golden State pick is like ninth and tenth. And you have Clay coming back. We winning the title this year without quoting now, fundamentally, they're probably better off not even being in the playing game, but I know that I know that organization is not going to go for that. No, it doesn't sound like and that's the whole reason why they do the deal and again, I don't know some of these trades things like some of the things didn't happen because it was just tougher to figure out a golden state can take more salary back the Lakers.

It was really hard for them to take a deal back where they were taking on more money, even if they thought they were close on some stuff. You know, I think the biggest thing for Golden State is looking at their own pick now, the Minnesota pick and then wisemen, I think is in a tough spot because of Weismann. We're on one of these horrible teams with no winning pedigree without, like, real guys, where Curry was arguably like in the MVP conversation with the stuff that he was doing.

Wiseman's held to a different standard.

So when he screws up, it's worse where if he were with some of these other organizations, be like, hey, you know, who got 20 and 12 again the other night? Wisemen, you know, he's awesome. And it might be worse for him long term for his career. So maybe these bumps are good for him early on. But, you know, a healthy curry in a playoff game is kind of exciting, but it really should be about pashing packaging.

Those picks for the next mad superstar that goes, I'm going to play with the best backcourt of all time. That is a team in a play in game, people would not be fired up to say the Golden State thing, we got to do this quickly. There was this weird LeBron is recruiting Curry story that just seem like sheer boredom from the media. I don't know where it was coming from. I don't know why anybody who's followed his career at any point would think, A, he would ever leave Golden State.

B, he would want to, like, jump on the LeBron bandwagon and be the sidekick at the whole thing was bizarre to me. I don't think it's been the tightest relationship over the years. I'm sure they get along better than maybe they used to be. But I thought that was one of the weirder fake stories that we've had if he was ever going to go anywhere. The only place that makes sense is Charlotte to go home where his dad is and the place that he grew up as a kid, and if he was ever going to leave someday to finish his career somewhere, it's going to be Charlotte.

It's not going to be to be LeBron. It's not happening. Well, Windhorst brought it up and I believe the part of LeBron thinking he's recruiting stuff because it was odd, I just said, wait a minute, like you you like Steph because LeBron. Completely resented the idea that stuff was considered the best player in the world, and you know what? LeBron proved that it was inaccurate. Steph had better seasons. LeBron, during those years, he had better full end to end seasons of back to back MVP seasons like Steph should not have been the MVP.

But then it turns into, OK, Steph, the best player in the world, because he was having better seasons. LeBron is like, actually, there's stuff I can do in a playoff game and he can't do all right. And as much as I love Steph, the biggest Steph lover has to admit that. And LeBron resented it. But LeBron is so powerful, he's arguably the most powerful. Individual athlete of our lifetime as far as team sports are concerned.

That he is always thinking of these angles and so I thought it was weird when I'd see some of the interactions during all star weekend where I was like, wait, so he he picked him and then he's like talking them up. And you're like, motherfucker, you got a corpse. It is your Halloween party that you walked over on the way in, and so look, LeBron, when he took Yoni's in the first draft, that was away.

Now, this is, I think, a comical waste of time that Giannis would be a free agent and be like, you know what LeBron did take me first overall in that first all star draft Phuket but signed with him. Let's do this. You know like curry going you know who was really complimentary of me. All star weekend in twenty twenty one. LeBron. Yeah I'm going to sign with the Lakers now that was, that was really nice.

He was always saying good stuff about me so I think I'll go do that. Curry goes home and in his wife's like how is All-Star weekend is like you're not going to believe this. LeBron was talking to me the whole time. I feel like he wants me to play with him. That was the vibe I was getting. He kept saying, like, how great L.A. was and how cool would be if we could play together. And it was just so exciting.

I just feel like I'm ready to leave Golden State. He must have forgotten that I've already won three rings without him. Yeah, ridiculous, I would take one more break. This episode of The Best Part is brought to you by Toyota, when's the last time you upgraded your downtime? Well, with the all new twenty twenty one Toyota Sienna, you get the best of both worlds. It's a hybrid minivan with the design of an SUV. It's stylish, available 20 inch dark wheels fit all styles where rubber meets the road.

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All right. Some quick topics run through biogas. I talked to Raj about this and I suggested that. They should at least pass through with the buyout guys just to make it a little bit higher degree of difficulty where if you're paying, if you get Drummond the rest of the year, whatever, the pro rated games for his actual salary cap number should go get your tax for that year. So if it's like there, it's eight dollars million of his salary would be these Laker games that should count toward a tax.

Maybe that's the way to do it. Then I was reading some other stuff, talking people like you. And everybody had the same attitude, which is basically why the fuck do we care about these bad guys? None of them actually help teams. You are you planted your flag on this island. Make the case that we should just never talk about this. All right, here's the deal, there's a few guys, if you want to play exception game here, you can argue the exception.

You can argue the P.J. Brown Boris deal, not only help the Spurs, but he became a piece of it, which should have set us up for the template for Nick Batum Swindal as well, because he's been better with the Clippers. But if you go through all the buyouts the last 15 years or so, I remember worrying about Damon Stoudamire going, God, I hope the Celtics get him. I hope the Celtics get him. I was on the TV broadcast for the pre and post back then and a month or so went by.

He ends up with the Spurs three points a game. We waited on Marbury's decision forever. He ends up in Boston. He ended up in China pretty quick after that. If you go through these, there isn't a high level of buyouts going to just major markets all the time. It's a little bit more split. Woj was great writing a piece about this, looking at it, saying, hey, if you look at the last thirty nine buyouts and how many guys actually contributed in playoffs, it's minimal.

And how many guys are going to big market versus small market, it's actually pretty even the point is this. It's again, it's a recency bias thing to get you really excited. It's hard enough to trade in this league. I'm pro Buy-Out adding another piece, getting excited. I Drummonds probably going to fit great with the Lakers if he's healthy because he's going to play off LeBron in the lobs and add some size there. But it's a big waste of time being worried about it because it's usually that player's last move before we realize he's done playing.

Chris, I understand in 2013 was another with Miami and those were special circumstances, right? He had had some real issues.

He was a little bit younger for the most part. I imagine that somebody laid out 10 years of signing's a couple of years ago on the Internet, James, herbut shout out to James James.

But he had other lists and I was dying reading these old ones like 2008, the Pistons Scientia Ratliff's 2009, Stephon Marbury, the Celtics, Joe Smith to the Cavs. Oh, no. The Suns got Stromile Swift that when I first got Drew get it 2010, I blocked this out of my mind. The Celtics signed Michael Finley, the Bucs and Jerry Stackhouse 2011 was some classics. That was Jayson Williams to the Grizzlies, the Celtics and Troy Murphy, Mike Bibby to the Heat.

Remember how to make baby pieces. By the way, there was a standing ovation for Bibby when he was introduced. His first game.

Yeah, Mike Bibby, Mavericks Corey Brewer up there. Did he end up playing for them? I feel like he got I think he did. They won the title. Did he play? So that might have been a good one. Celltex San Carlos Arroyo, you've got a 2012. Oh, this is a great when the Grizzlies sign Gilbert Arenas, yup, that was really fun. The Knicks and Kenyon Martin in 2013, Derek Fisher to the Thunder was a half decent whenever you could argue he actually played too many minutes for them.

But, yeah, going through some classics, I forgot about this one. The Pacers and Andrew Bynum. I remember doing Countdown segments that you're talking about, whether what kind of impact Bynum was going to have on that Pacers team. Little did we know his career is over. Mavericks Amar'e Stoudemire to that. Fifteen Cavs, Kendrick Perkins. Twenty fifteen on and on and on, leading to your favorite, the Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut combo for the Cavs that year.

That was the. That was the. That was it. That was the pinnacle. That was Apex about forbad biocide. Quick Bruer update. Before we get back to that, he played three minutes. Twenty five seconds, eight minutes, one minute, four minutes and then four minutes. And then we didn't see him in the finals during that Mavs playoff. So not now. So he did play but he barely played for him. I think he's thirteen games overall in the regular season.

The Cavs adding Bogut for a possession and then Deron Williams for essentially nothing. I'll never forget when it first started dawning on me. I should have learned the lesson after the game and Stoudamire wasting a month on that watch because that's what we did every night on that Celtics broadcast. You'd be like, Oh, Damon Stottlemyre, how would he fit in as a Selt? What number do you think aware in case you retire here? You know, and I remember I'm not going to say his name, but a very prominent national talk show host said once the Cavs got Bogut Williams, the power had shifted away from Golden State back to Cleveland.

And that was after you were like, wait, what do you think those two guys like? Oh, Bogut is going to have all the angles going to figure anything out now again Bogut got hurt immediately in the first game. Can I make a small counter. Yeah. The salaries are so high now that the buyout, the quality of the buyout guys might be getting better just because it's impossible to trade. Somebody is making thirty million dollars a year.

The Kevin Love might be a bad guy next year and his career will not be over if he's a bad guy. So I think it's like it's not a question of what do we do about these bad guys? It's it's to me, it's more of a question of what do we do with the trade rules? Why do we have the same rules that we had before? Why can't we switch it so that it's only fifty percent of the salary that you can trade first rounders in four straight years?

Like like let's make it easier to trade and then we won't have these dumb situations where Andre Drummond just goes to Lakers for free. I think he's at a different level than Blake in the markets because there's very strong cases that Blake in LaMarcus will fit onto that list of all the guys I just read year by year, the Gilbert Arenas type guys, that they might just not have a lot left to thank. I think Blake has a better chance just because of his defense, to maybe have an impact for them.

But Drummond might actually really help the Lakers. You know, and I do think if they made the trade rules a little different, it would have been easier for the Cavaliers to trade him and get something for him versus just buying them out. And that's what they should fix. So that's why I've never had a problem with the buyout part of it. And part of the suggestion was maybe you have the buyout before because the other dirty secret of the whole thing, it's not a secret, really, but it's just something worth mentioning again is that the agents can control it and then scare everybody off to trade forum by saying, hey, my guy is going to get a buyout and I want him to get a buyout so that he can go to the team that he wants to go to.

And it may not even be just a winning situation. It's we know we want to be bought out here so you can go and play here and get more minutes because it's going to be free. Agent, he's going to be up. But then the buyout thing, you start getting so excited when you're a fan because it's like, cool. I get to add somebody else. I remember there was a proposal war, just peace for somebody like we should have the buyout market expiration first and then the trade deadline after it.

But it's just kind of like the NFL versus NBA free agency draft order. What does everybody seem to say about all the time, like when the NFL draft happens? It's like, you know, if the draft before free agency would be able to draft who we want and then fill the holes in free agency. And people are like, yeah, that makes a ton of sense. And then in the NBA, it's like, man, it'd be great if we had free agency before the draft because then we'd be able to see who we could get on the open market.

And then if we don't get who we want, then we can go ahead and draft somebody else. So no matter which way it's set up in order, people are going to complain about it. So because the league I agree with you, it's so hard to pull off the trades, although it's been a little easier than what it used to be on the trade, on the money percentages that had to move around. But with the salaries going up and the apron and some of these restrictions, I'm OK with buyouts and they're massively overrated.

And that brings us back to my final thought on the next piece of this bill is that this is where the coverage where. Yeah, I'm just going to say it like I just look at so many of our colleagues and I think, do you want to tell the truth right now or do you want to lie to the audience? Because when you put up a graphic of Kairys, all star resume hardens, all star resume, Durant's all star resume.

That's an incredible resume. But when you put LaMarcus Aldridge is all star game appearances next to Blake Griffin's all star game appearance, then add them all up and try to sell me some bullshit. It means you either are purposely disingenuous or you just are so addicted. The graphic looking cool when it's not what it is, and that's why Blake Griffin is great whenever he talks because Blake goes way, I sucked for months. People were making fun of me every fucking game, every like any time you watch league pass the new announcers on the opposing broadcast to be like Blake Griffin, what he used to be.

And now he's an all timer who's awesome right now. And the weird thing about that argument about all the All-Star appearance is now on that Nats roster is that one, they're probably better playing Nick Claxton, LaMarcus Aldridge in the first place. So buying him Aldridge and then bringing him in may screw up a nice piece that you found that was already on your bench because everybody should be able to produce offensively being the other two guys outside of those three when they have things going, even when it's just Kyrie and Harden.

But it then mutates into this other argument that isn't about the all star appearances. It's, Hey, I'm a LeBron guy. So I found a way to make a pro LeBron argument about the Nets because that'll be an awesome argument. We're now I get to say, look, with the nets had to do to stop LeBron and you're like, wait. And I saw a bunch of people do this and he go, this isn't even about the nets.

It's not even about buyouts. You've created some stack of All-Star games that make you feel better about your argument, like you're pro LeBron position, like what are we even doing? Like, I had lost track five minutes into it. We talk about the pope here, yes. So it's like a little past 8:00, 8:00 Pacific Time now. Does he last a week at ESPN? What happens, this is a pretty rare case, by the way.

I have no inside info. I don't think you do probably either. This is a pretty rare case where. A talent who's on the air for them on a signature show, I would say he's is a borderline signature guy for them. He just kind of said, fuck it and did this scream live? And there's strippers in the background and they're throwing chips at the strippers. He seems he seems not. We've been to Turki's not sober. I don't know.

It was a I don't know. How does he get suspended or fired?

What would be your pick? I think in the moment, everybody kind of loses their minds about punishment. And it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, like this guy's never, ever going to stay. And I think you and I probably have better insight from our time there, specifically me understanding punishment about me.

But I also understand punishment. Yeah, but you got punished because you were you were you were poking the bear. Yeah, I got punished because, you know, I embarrassed myself and embarrassed the company because my room key worked in the wrong door at a hotel. And then once everybody figured out the next day, so me specifically when I got into trouble, I was like, OK, well, this is what happened. And they go, OK, we know you're not lying, but you still did something bad, so you need to be punished.

And I was like, yeah, I agree. I'm not going to I'm not fighting you on it. Like I agree. And then we're good to go.

But my. I always I don't know enough about Paul, but usually if they want to get rid of somebody, it would be a culmination of things. So if everybody's cool and fall and they think he just made a mistake, I don't think he deserves to get fired. I said this is a weird spot to be in. You know, my guess would be that he wouldn't be, even though it's a bad look. And you always have to remember you're working for Disney, you know, like you're reminded of that quite a bit when you're at least on campus.

And that's why I always resented all you guys that didn't have to walk around Bristol for a decade plus because you'd be like, well, I know what it's like. Like, no, you don't. You're not in the hallway every day, five days a week for hallways and cafeterias.

Does that make sense to you? It does. I think you get suspended, not fired, because I think for the most part, I think he's a light guy. So it's like I was this really just one really dumb mistake. Should we give him a mulligan on this, so maybe it'll be his mulgan? I will say this definitely one of the top five or six weirdest NBA social media stories, I think, ever. I just couldn't really recency bias, I just couldn't believe it.

It's the kind of mistake people made with the Internet and with social media and like twenty eight, twenty nine before people realized ramifications for things, how things quickly. Nobody makes mistakes like this anymore on social media. And which leads me to think like maybe he didn't even think it was a mistake, like I really I try to shy away from a lot of these media stories because I just don't care this one. I'm actually really interested to see how it unfolds over the next couple of days.

Like, what's he going to say? Is he going to go on the jump the next two days? Are they going to talk about it or are they going to address it? Because the way to really do it correctly is just to address it, be upfront about it, make light of it. You move on and people forget. But they're going to have to do that on a Monday or Tuesday and on a show unless he gets suspended when you get suspended.

Yeah. Was there ever like a did you get suspended from Twitter once? I did. I think twice that. Think twice. I think how silly that punishment is now. I'm like, OK, like, oh no, that's weird. It took you. So you suspended from it. I wish I've tried I think is fair. It took them a long time to realize that sometimes the punishment causes more news coverage than the initial story.

And I think they've now unlocked that and figured it out. Because you know what, though, I don't think, Piers, there's another part of the story that's my favorite part that we haven't even touched on yet. He tweeted at eight o'clock Pacific Time last night. Good morning. Right. And after that, I wanted to buy his jersey because I don't think he thought he was making a mistake, I think he's like, look, I'm igy live.

And I think we both understand this really well. When you are a you know, it's not like Pierce is, you know, Kobe or something like that.

But when you're at that level and you have a media job, you don't look at it the same way is. Ninety nine percent of us. You're like, all right. You know, like, yeah, I'm on TV. I chop it up for a little bit. This team is good. This one isn't. What's up? You're you're right. No, you're wrong. And I'm an NBA guy who's worth millions in my hometown. And if you're in L.A., come through and I'm going to post it because that's just what I'm going to do.

And if he's cool, if people are cool with him and they like him and I don't know that they are, I've never heard that they are.

And again, I have worked there in a year and a half. I always think when people look at punishment, the worst time to figure out how somebody's going to be punished is immediately after the act, you know, give it a few days and it's like, oh, OK. Because he twenty four hours later, he didn't seem to be bummed out about it at all. And I'm sure somebody had to have reached out to him at that point.

No. I'm sure it's being discussed right now. JJ Redick traded from The Power Gets to the Mavericks and then complain about it in a podcast. Today, the Pelicans broke their word to said they were going to either send them close to home or whatever. Felt like Griffin basically lied to them, called them out. And then the next day it was interesting that even on the jump, like Robert Horry and I forget who the other player was. Both of them kind of played into it because, I mean, it's a business you don't get to pick where you played.

That's why that's what the checks are for. I was actually surprised that he complained, you know, if you're the pelicans. Cool. We'll try to we'll try to accommodate you, but ultimately they're going to do what's best for the team and he's going to do what's best for him because he's cashing big paychecks every year, the same way he went from Philly to New Orleans. That was what was best for him. I was I was just surprised because I think he's a really smart athlete.

I was surprised he didn't see the piece that it's hard to complain when you're making that kind of money and and to to just buy him out versus. What New Orleans was able to get out of the trade, which is just better than a buyout. Of course they're going to do that. Yeah, Chris job, as Dan pointed out, your first obligation is to the franchise, but there was something JJ said that was so specific that I tend to believe JJ that.

Gigi's argument was when I signed the two year deal, a good money at that age that I was told, you know, we'll do this deal now, but we'll get you where you need to go, you know? So is J.J. telling like it's such a specific thing, like whenever I think somebody's lying, I'll be like, OK, are you being vague or you being specific? And when it's really specific, I don't think the person's lying.

Now, is this version of the story like, hey, we told them we'd work with him in his agent. But we didn't promise anything. Or is JJ telling us the truth that it's like they know they were so specific about it? That's why I took the deal in the first place and signed down there and moved on. But I mean, in that spot, as a GM, when you're looking at getting back something you kind of like, I think you're always going to rule that way.

But I live in Dallas. Yeah. I thought that was weird.

Went to. By the way, the Pelicans just passed the rackets as we're taping this, the Pelicans were going to lose to the rockets, but I think the rockets now when a new full tank, but.

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All right before we go. Do you have any nonsupport shit you want to hit? Is this the part of the podcast where we get weird? Oh, man, I. I love this stuff, I, I went to Tillem finally. So that was a real thing, you actually did go. Yeah, people thought I was just screwing around on Instagram. So it's the first time that I've taken off since August and 19. And I'm just going to tell you on the way back, it was.

It was a little reminder like, oh, this is why traveling out of the country, especially during covid protocol, like isn't the easiest deal.

So you get to get a test. The day of which I got a test on the way out. I got a test on the way back. But then the guy's like, yeah, you get your test results here. And I'm like, No, no, I came here because the results are quicker. Like my flight's in a few hours and he's like, no, I go do there's a chance you're going to I'm going to be in a two hour cab ride from the resort back to Cancun.

And I'm going to find out like hour 40 that I have covid and I can't get on the flight. Like I was like the hotel set up this appointment based on what my needs were. And he was like, yeah, we'll figure it out, man. Just like, OK, so I get the test, I hang out for a bit, try to get the most the rest of the day in. You know, I went to a couple of art festivals.

I actually did a spoken word thing myself at this yoga studio, but there will be a video probably later. And once I got to the airport, this guy immediately just grabs my bags. He's like, I got you, amigo. I was like, all right, you know, first class service. Let's go. Obviously, you want to tip the whole deal. So I tip him pretty well because that's the thing. It's like when you're in a spot like this and you don't really know what's going on, find somebody who does it.

Just tip them. And I can't emphasize how much better your life is going to be for a very small investment and just navigating all of it. So you get to be right up to the front of the line, the whole deal. And I bought it through Delta and the woman behind the counter barely speak any English. And she's like, you still owe us money. I'm like, what do you mean I owe you money? She's like, you only paid for half the ticket.

And I was like, now I go, there's no version of an app purchase on a phone where they're just magically charging me for like half when you pick your origination and then the destination, like I bought tickets before for a plane ride like that, there's no way this is the way it works. And she's like, I'm holding on to your connection because I had to connect and I'm holding on to your baggage claim, which you've already checked your bag, and I'm not giving it to you and to you pay the rest of the bill.

And I was like, this is insane. So I then have to go tuition, right? Then I have to go to like a main desk and I'm over there and the guy's like, yep. He goes, you know, you owe us two hundred and sixty dollars or whatever, you know, in Spanish. And I'm not being able to figure it out, like, what are you trying. And he writes it down. He's like, you owe us two hundred sixty dollars more.

And I'm like, this is crazy. But you're looking at your watch and you're going, all right, what's the deal. I've got my app open, I've got my paperwork filled out, passports, tickets. Sounds like this sounds like Brokedown Palace too. This is like the first fifteen minutes of it for you owe me twenty six dollars more. I'll said you're in a jail and tell them I like my chances of breaking out of jail and saloom not Mexico City.

That's just the vibe I got, that's a vibe that I got, but I think I may have been in the prequel to Unhinge with Russell Crowe where he plays a bear. Have you seen that? Yes, you can see it. Did you? Yes, of course I did. You watched it? Yeah. Which the Russell Crowe. The Road Rage movie. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think it would give me expected. I liked it.

First of all, I've seen every movie second about I'm so fascinated by this stage of Russell Crowe's career where he's just not the proof of life guy anymore, but he's kind of embraced it and he's just playing like these crazy middle aged parts, like he's playing Roger Ailes. He's played crazy road rage. Guys, I can't really describe a common theme other than he's entering a nic cage zone, it seems like. I'm worried, I'm really worried, lost it and you're like, wow, Nick Cage's in that movie and then there was like five and it's like, oh, this is just two the cages.

I feel like Russell Crowe is inching that way. I watched it on the flight, and I got to tell you, it felt like LeBron demanding a trade to the Wizards, because when I looked at everybody else in the movie, nothing against them. But Russell Crowe is one of the great actors of our lifetime. And he's he's great in the role. And he's up to, what, to 80 to 90? He's a massive human being in this movie.

And it's gross. I didn't love it. You liked it more than I did, but I was like road rage movies.

They always I even like that Affleck Road Rage movie with Sam Jackson Locke now changing lanes. OK, my bet.

So I needed to know more about the movie when I got home and I started researching it and then I was I love I love actors explaining movies. I just love it because then he was like, I just think, you know, in today's time, understanding in the Western Hemisphere that rage and the struggle of man.

But yet and I was like, yeah, yeah. You just throw five bucks. Yeah. You got divorced in the movie and you had a truck and you started smashing into shit like, you know, I don't know that the Western Hemisphere needs to be used to describe anything of that 80 minute movie that I just watched, so.

The lady comes over, says, my mistake, after the hustle, he hands me the rest of my stuff and I go, OK, so I'm good to go. And she's like, yes. And I go, OK, which flight? And she's like, oh, wrong terminal. So now I get brought to the right terminal. As soon as they get off there, a cab drivers like you're at the wrong terminal. Twenty dollars you go to the right terminal and I'm like, so wait a minute.

I go, there's four terminals here at this airport and I've somehow managed to go to all three of the wrong ones. I was like that just some seems off here. I grab a security guard, I show my ticket, and then he points to the stairwell, to my gate, and I look at the cab driver. And I was like, you, seriously? We're just like, do I have asshole shirts on today? Like, I can't I couldn't figure it out.

And, you know, look, there's there's some more aggressive American looks into bloom than anything that I was rocking. I was in shorts and a sweatshirt. So then you've got to have all your covid stuff ready so you can show to everybody. And then I do this weird thing where when I go through security line, I pick somebody else that has to make the decision at the split and then I'm in a competition with them the rest of the security line.

And that's that was it, yeah, almost like a Russell Crowe and hinge road rage thing, kinda, because if I lose, it puts me in a mood for about an hour. I was like, you picked wrong and that guy smoked you by, like seven people.

Does that guy know that you've picked him? Is he aware that there's a competition in the works?

No, he doesn't know. He never knows whoever it is. Sometimes it's a woman, you know. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'll just be like, OK, I think I have the angle here and I'll try to like rapid count, like a fire clerk or something like that. But yeah, whatever. I made it back. I would say saloom good. Could hang very quiet, very laid back vacation. Didn't, didn't do much.

B plus. Just getting out of Manhattan Beach for the first time in a year was was kind of weird because I was like, you sat here by yourself almost solo the entire time. That was that was a long time even for me.

So when you talk about taking stuff personally, like like when in lines are getting, like, weirdly competitive for no reason at all. Yeah. All the time. So that's probably one of my biggest character faults is as a driver because I, I don't know if you know this, but I'm one of the one of the world's greatest drivers. Like I really am mean.

I've met guys like, you know, I was that way.

I'm the guy you I'm the guy you want driving back from Vegas to L.A. so. But my daughter said all these soccer games all over the place, like Arizona, Vegas, we've had we did Vegas twenty four hours back and forth, you know, for hours each way. And I've tried to calm down and not be that guy anymore, but then people will just kind of annoy me on the road where it's what makes you a great driver. First of all, whenever any of you guys say this stuff, I'm always immediately skeptical.

What makes you so great, though?

Debility to go at a high level speed. But but it seems like you're it's a smooth ride, it's not like a herky jerky change in that, you know, like stop and start hitting the brake. I like on those long road trips the person who's in the passenger seat, not even to realize that we're going really fast or that we're just flying or whatever. It's just like part of it should be you're just gliding along, going like there's a degree of difficulty on the long road trips.

Where is just you're going fast, but nobody in the car is even realizing it, but then sometimes you'll see these people who are like they're trying to be the cool weaving through the lanes, and it's just like they're bad at it. And they're going they're trying to beat somebody down the right lane, not realizing that that truck is actually going a little bit, too. So they got to slam on the brakes to go around. And I just hate those people.

And then I take it personally and I end up like kind of pseudo racing with them a little bit.

That's my character somewhere in the podcast. So what I've learned is because I was thinking, I figured the more unhinged I went, you know, would be a funny and people somebody is probably already done this before where you would review a movie on Twitter and just one post and get it wrong on purpose, whether it be like a woman who has trouble with punctuality and holding down job. Right, aggressively anois fellow driver, you would be like, well, that's not really what the movie is, but whatever.

So you're what I'm learning here is that that's why you, like, unhinge because you agreed with Russell Crowe's character, despite knowing he did not get the courtesy courtesy to tell you about Bill. I just think when you're out on the road, you get bored, you start looking for little challenges. Right. Like the guy who goes by and kind of gives you look, it's like, oh, really? You're OK. We're going now. We're going to drive.

We try to see who could weave through lanes faster for the next. And then my daughter's freaking out. Go, Dad. Dad. No, no. This is why I said it's a character flaw. Do you think it's the vanity ringer plate with a dollar sign on that green McLaren that you have?

Where are you? On what day to day plate would you get? Would you get. I bet I bet on the Smokey and the Bandit edition of The Firebird this past week. I'm totally serious. I bid on it. And then when I lost, I was like, you know, I just avoided a pretty big hassle there. But I was going to get bandits on on a vanity plate and just be and listen to David Lee Roth, not Van Halen, but Solo David Lee Roth, eat em and smile and drive around Manhattan Beach and just be like you guys think you're cool in your broncos'.

Like I I'm doing this all summer when things open up and I may even start smoking. Well, you know, when I moved to L.A., I was shocked by the amount of vanity plates. I've never had anyone have you weigh more than in Massachusetts? Well, Massachusetts, that's just another thing to get punched for. So that's why they don't have them. They're not guys fair. Before we go, you want to hear about drunk Kyle? Yes, everybody does.

Kyle is his approval rating on my podcast is through the roof on the life advice stuff. People people actually don't want to hear from me at the end of the pod that much anymore. Kyle's Kyle's dad, step mom and little brother came up to visit for my father in law, mother in law's sixtieth wedding anniversary last weekend. So they're all together. Kyle and the families together, he starts fast drinking. He's so happy and excited, he becomes like fast drinking, Kyle and it's my favorite Kyle.

It's unanimous approval in the Simmons family for happy fast drinking. Kyle is our favorite. Gets a little loud, but not too loud. I could see him being a great drunk crossed like a little Ed McMahon tonight show that he really sells your jokes. You feel great. You feel as funny as you've ever been. Just ready to go. Ready to be, ready to drink whatever mixed drink. You're ready to make them. Just having a good time.

Shout the drunk. Kyle, Kyle, you want to follow up here. Thanks.

Now, I love being drunk, Kyle, and I'm glad you love drunk. Drunk Kyle is really been event a victim of the pandemic because it's not that much fun to be drunk, Kyle. And you're just stuck in your apartment with your girlfriend and that's it. That's sad, Kyle. Yeah. Yeah, drunk. That's drunk and sad Kyle. Which nobody likes but people like our post pandemic. The bars are back drunk. Kyle is back. That's where we need to get to.

It's one of the many reasons we're waiting for vaccines.

Brazil has no comment. No, I don't. I want to drink alcohol at some point, but I mean. I haven't had I'm like, go ahead, are you a subscriber to as soon as we're past all this stuff, it's going to be basically like what we read about in the 19, late 1970s when all hell broke loose for like three years. I don't know if it's going to be three years, but anybody, any time somebody says like, oh, I'm worried about small venue clubs like don't.

Oh, I'm worried about some of these. But it is going to be unhinged. It's going to be peak. People going like, hey, you know what it was? It was awful for a lot of people. It was a challenge for most people. I tried not to complain. I hope I didn't throw out at all because I didn't really have it that bad in comparison to so many other people. But I think that we are by default social people and we want to be around other people.

I think most of us do. I mean, I may not want to be I think it's going to be one of the most excited groups of people going out and the younger generation is going to try to make up for this year plus in a way that we haven't seen. Now we're too old for that, which is probably good. But yeah, I whenever I hear from somebody around my age, it's like, oh, I think it's going to be kind of a slow.

I'm like, no, it isn't one that vaccination numbers are higher. It's going to be a free for all. Well, that I mean, the mass thing is the biggest piece of this, right? You can't even like think about facial cues and smiles and instant attractions and just making somebody laugh and seeing their reaction. It's like everyone's wearing a fucking mask. It's like watching hockey, not knowing what what was what was. I make some random regular season hockey game.

I kind of like it, though, because I started going bandanna like cowboy thing. I mean, I may keep it. I liked how it looked. If I keep it long term, just to good, yeah, they'll be like that guy takes viruses seriously. Well, now we're in this weird zone where some people have been vaccinated.

So if you see somebody who doesn't have a mask on, you think, well, maybe that person's had the vaccine, but yet they should still probably have the mask on. That's sort of what he says. But now it's just before it was pretty clear like, wait, you don't have a mask on like some you're doing some power walk and some joggers just jogging right by you. And, you know, they don't have masks on the guy. What the fuck did they show?

A little respect now, now, now.

It's hard to gauge with this stuff. We're not. I'm not. We're in a weird tweener time. Yeah. You know, back to the very beginning, we talk about this and this ended up being more severe and longer term than I ever thought at the beginning. But I like everything. I have a hard time with anybody that would be an expert about something new. But if the uncertainty was, hey, stay inside and wear a mask whenever you go out, like, that's not a hard thing to do.

You know, that just wasn't a hard thing to do. But I do wonder long term how we'll look at this. And if it's just a different hey, there's different strains of this, and that's why certain things happen this way. And we didn't know this then or maybe this is something that we did we didn't have to do. But as much of this was a sacrifice, it wasn't that big of a deal to be asked to wear a mask all the time.

And I think people that were policing it are probably going to get really mad about it. But, you know, do you also want to be in a position where you're screaming at somebody who's been vaccinated and then they're like, hey, I've been vaccinated? And then like, how do you feel? So, yeah, I get the sacrifices people have made with all this. But I think it's it's it's really hard, man, because people are still so worked up about certain elements of this that I don't know, I would just keep it on until we feel like we're in the clear because I don't think it's that big of a deal to keep it on.

But I also was going to tweet to everybody every fucking day in the beginning of this saying, wear a mask, wear a mask, because it's not really my role. Like you want to hear about me, talk about Romeo Langford. No, not to tell you what you need to do, because now I'm a virus expert after a week.

One benefit of it is I've noticed because my parents are vaccinated. Now, you think they just are acting differently? I think. No kidding. Like, how so? My mom is a lot happier and my dad seems a little more relaxed as well, but I think my mom was really worried, like get covid die alone in my condo, like nobody would know, you know? And I've just noticed, like, a totally different. Kind of energy from her.

I think when you're over 70, this thing is like. covid will look at you and you're done, right, you just living with that every day, whether people are talking about it or not, I think there is there was real abject fear, like my dad was leaving the house. He wasn't really going anywhere. And then finally we got him to fly. Cross Country is basically wearing a hazmat suit to come see us. This was like, what, five, six months ago?

Just because he was like, all right, so I'm in my early 70s or I'm just not going to see my grandkids anymore. And this is going to be the rest of my life. Like I'm not going to see my family. I think that I think there is a lot of internal struggles with the mortality of it, with not being able to see people that you loved when there's like a time limit on how long you could see them, how many years you had left with whoever.

And and the vaccine seems to have removed some of that. It's my armchair QB take. No, that's not an armchair QB. That's that's really well said because I'm by myself so much. Sometimes it's easier for me to not think about that part of it. But I know the sound of my father's voice after his first vaccine shot where he calls music. And I'm thinking like, oh, OK, you're right because I left. From the time my father was in the hospital for something going back to last year, which was fine, it wasn't is fine, I didn't leave at all for, you know, a year plus.

And then I went back one time and I took a test before I left. I took a test when I landed because I was like, all right. And then I'll quarantine for a couple of days just to make sure. And my father was still a little bit like. Hey, you know, if you come by, maybe we'll eat outside or something like that, and I'm like, Yeah, you know what, I like you. And even if your father's healthy or my lucky enough to have our dads around still in our lives, that part to go, hey, the end for me, I got to be wasting too much more time here because, you know, I'm sure once you start getting into your 70s, you start thinking about things in a different way.

We're like, hey, I want to make the most of this. And then you're basically the end of your life was put on pause. You didn't know what it was going to be, you know, when we hit play again. So I don't think that's armchair QB at all. I think it's the reality of it was really well said.

So, you know, and I shared an office with Sounness to torture me when I had to read jokes. And you just asked me these weird abstract questions that I would have to answer. And I remember one time I was sitting there and I had to I was working on something. He was just like bugging me. And he's like a do you ever think like. Your dad's embossed around him again is like. How many more times do you think you'll see him like thirty seven times.

I think we've talked about this. I think I've told the story and I was like, no, I'll see more than that is like, no, no, do the math.

And I'm like, follow that up. Yeah. Now, like, wait a second. All right. So if I see Tracy are going out there like you, motherfucker, why did you get me to think about this? But yeah, I do think I think when you get older you think a lot. But that stuff I'm thinking about it now with my kids, like my daughters. But to finish 10th grade, like she's going to be in college in two and a half years and it's like that's it, it's that the relationship will at that point, she goes on, you just won't see them as much.

They're not going to be around somebody that has been in my house since 2005. Every week.

And then. And now.

Yeah, but think about this on the reverse side of everything. We just talked to one spectrum about covid. The other side is the extreme of the young kids that are like, all right, we had plenty of time during covid.

I'm a good dad. I'm good. All right. We're going to wrap up because by our airports are down again. So we should mention you did an awesome two part series with the ABA stories. Oh, thanks. That's that ran on the feed last week. If you missed it. If you love the ABA. I talked about it on the last part. I did. But check that out and then you have two more this week. And then I guess we're going to go every other week, probably until we hit that playing game weekend and then we'll go every Sunday after that the rest of the way.

So that's going to be, I guess, the third week of of May. Then we'll have a lot of basketball. Hopefully it's high caliber. Anyway, so good to see you. Glad you made it out of the loop.

All right. That's it for the podcast. I have two more coming for you this week. Don't forget New York, New York, John Jastremski, it's up. The podcast has launched. It is going full speed. And the REWASH Most Lethal Weapon coming Monday night, CNN. When we saw. When the. Simply safe is incredibly easy to customize for your home. Just go to simply save dotcom jobs, you can easily choose the exact sensors you need or get help from one of their experts.

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