An MSG Miracle, the Wemby Arrival Game, Tottenham’s Nadir, and 'Euphoria' Season 3 | With Joe House, Chris Ryan, Anthony Dabbundo, and Zoe Simmons

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Somehow we've never done Animal House, probably the most influential, modern comedy of the last 50 years. That is coming. I'm really excited to do it. This movie's been in my life basically since I was nine years old, 10 years old, whenever I wasn't allowed to watch it and I did it anyway, so Animal House's next go, check that one out for this podcast, Joe House and I are going to react to Game 1, Nick's, Caves as well as Rehash. We've had a day to sit with one of the great basketball games of this century, OK, C San Antonio Game 1. I have some big picture stuff about it, and then we're going to talk about where that series might be going. So that's up first. Anthony DeBundo and Chris Ryan came on to talk about Tottenham potentially being relegated out of the Premier League if they lose on Sunday basically, soccer. I'm going to start doing more of it on this podcast. I had a great time talking to them about that and the World Cup and a whole bunch of things. And then last but not least, my favorite guest, I'm not allowed to pick favorites, but she is my favorite. My daughter, Zoe Simmons, came on because she just turned 21 and we wanted to talk about a bunch of TV, culture, and all kinds of things. And we were joined by a very, very special guest who had never been on the podcast before who has four legs. So if you have, if you're watching this, this is a video podcast. I think you'll enjoy the third person on that second. Anyway, it's all next. We're going to take break. Pearl Jam. And then Joe has tonight coming off Game 1. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandall. The conference finals finally is here. We are down to four teams. I think you know, it'll go down, take your shot with Fandall, get closer to the action. And as you know, I've been telling you for years, Fandall, the best place to bet the teams, there's a place during the NBA postseason, build the same game parlay for a shot at a better payout, or try live betting and jump into the accident for tip off, or just follow me and my picks. Because every once in a while, I'll put them on social download the Fandall sportsbook app right now and play your game. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky, Wyoming, game problem cup 100, game board call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat Connecticut. All right, recording this part of the podcast a little after eight o'clock Tuesday night. House, this is the best 24-hour run of basketball we've had in a while. We had the incredible spurs, thunder game last night, and then a next game that looked terrible. And yet notice, even when the nicks were down 22 with like seven and a half minutes left, I never sent you the text with start early at three minutes, which just get going. Because this is what the nicks do. And by the way, this is kind of what the calves do, too, but an incredible comeback. Jalen Brunson on an all-time heater down the stretch. James Harden, I think, started decomposing at one point. And the nicks did that. It didn't make up for the Howell Burton game last year, but it at least made some inroads. Yeah, I mean, the storyline here, are you not entertained? I mean, my God, the first two games of these finals, unbelievable. I had to give you a hard time. How? Yeah. In the face of what Wembee did last night, was there no Bill Simmons content immediately thereafter? I never thought to have a live podcast last night. It was a game live. It didn't have to be live. Something. I'm going to do it with you. We're going to do it after. But the next time the Wembee gasm was last night, I was covered. I mean, I had smoked four cigarettes. It was like, I couldn't. I hadn't changed the sheets. There was so much. It was outrageous. We had some good record podcasts that I have. I'm going to levitate in with some big picture stuff. Let's talk nicks first. Better win for the next or worse loss for the Cavs. Oh, it's a fun game. I feel like this was actually a worse loss for the Cavs because now they basically, I always say this. Now they have to win five times at a seven game series. They shot their wad and all these different ways. I thought I didn't agree with really anything to next day for three quarters. They finally decided to just do five shooters down the stretch with Shamit. And Kenny Atkinson, I think had an ice cream head egg or a brain. I don't know what happened to him. He just kind of died on the sidelines. James Harden just getting torched by Jalen Brunson over and over and over and over again. He kept the two bigs out there. I don't know where Meryl came in, maybe three minutes left. I don't think we saw streuset all in the fourth quarter. Yeah, that was the bizarre thing to me. That was a rock and a hard place game because you had to choose which side of the narrative coin you wanted to subscribe to. On the one hand, the next nine days off. So there's going to be rust, the rust factor. The three-point shooting was abysmal for three and a half quarters. On the other hand, all of the numbers in the history of the NBA say that a team coming off of a game seven win with a short turnaround time on the road. It's very much in favor of the home team with the rest and that's definitely the betting angle that you're supposed to. So somehow that got born out because that's what happened in the next somehow covered. And yet if you watched the game, you felt like the calves were in complete control. I was wondering, complete and complete control. I was wondering three quarters in and like, fuck, what do they do with this big lineup? Like, are they going to have to start towns and Robinson next game? Are they going to have to match the Biggs with the Biggs? And then they went the other way. They went shooters. And I think Mitchell, I had him down after the third quarter with 24 points. So he had five points in the last 17 minutes of the game and just was not involved. I felt like Hardin was had the ball all the time on one end. And then on the other end was just constantly defending Brunson over and over again. And I don't know where Mitchell was either. So that was your worst case scenario if I'm a calvespan. I have in the deep recesses of my brain, I'm terrified of James Hardin in big games. I'm terrified of teams honing it on him and making him play defense. And then I'm also worried that there's going to be a little who should take over here, which I thought they had solved, but I guess they didn't. So we had another oops, he did it again, James Hardin, five made field goals, six turnovers, five made field goals, six, how is that possible? How in this era can a guy have this many games where we're turnovers surpassed made field goals? Well, he's old. I mean, he's old. That's the worst thing. One thing I noticed the nicks were dealing with him, and I didn't understand why the previous two playoff teams didn't do this. I don't really think he can go by anyone anymore. And the nicks were he does the thing. He does a lot of stutter steps like he's going to, and then he does the step back. And I thought in the last two rounds, everyone was falling for that. And then this, especially bridges, what I thought was great tonight. Bridges was like, dude, I'm not falling for that. I don't think you're going by me. And when you go and do that step back, I'm going to be right there in your face. And I just thought Hardin had a lot of trouble getting going. Really was really good. And then Mitchell was, I had all these notes that I guess I just have to throw away about Mitchell after three quarters because I had this whole thing about, is this Mitchell's moment? All at first team on B.A. guys who never made the finals, which is like kind of a shorter list than you think. It's basically like Dame, Nash, Paul George, C.Web, Trace McGrady, Joel and B. Like it's less than 10 people. And it was like, can you get off that list? And you have like, because maybe this is it. And the next look so disparated, it just felt like maybe we read this series wrong. I really thought the next we're going to kill the calves in the series. Well, the version of the next that I thought was the advantage version was the first quarter where all of their points are coming in the paint. And that's true. They dominated points in the paint this entire game. And their ability, especially you made a good observation about bridges and his defense on Harden, he just, they have an advantage over Detroit. Detroit doesn't have any guards that could put any pressure at all on Cleveland's guards. But immediately the next made Harden and Mitchell uncomfortable. I thought Mitchell was pretty awesome across the game, but it's the full mission. experience. So the fourth one. Guess how many? Guess how many free throws he took? How many? One. He was one for one from the free throw line. And this is the issue, right? He ended up with three assists and four turnovers. But here's the thing, right? When you are in the midst of the run that the nicks went on and they waited about as long as they could wait, it was 22 points for seven half minutes left. Like this is happened five times in the history of the playoffs. Right. But the true greats, the true greats, the guys, the first team all NBA guys recognize what what is happening. And they go into their bag. Yeah. Right. They settle their own team down, settle down and they change the pace of what the other team is trying to do. You've got to get to the free throw line at that point. You have to, you can't keep just chucking up threes and that's what Cleveland did. That's why Mowgli ended up with with 16 attempts. Right. Eight three points attempts from Mowgli. You know, I just think blowing a 22 point lead. I don't care how great the crowd was. We won't talk about the crowd in a second. How much of a heat or brunson was on 22 points is so many points in seven minutes. It's so many. I felt like Ackinson was just as passive observer to the whole thing. I remember I've told this story before, but the Celtics Pacers game seven in 2005. So this is Ricky Davis Paul Pierce that team and it was the post melee Pacers. And I thought that was one of the best coaching jobs I've ever seen by Carlisle that year. And he was like, he was still missing some of his guys, but they took a big lead. And every time the Celtics even had a chance of coming, he was time out like or like some sort of thing to stop it. And it was just disjointed from that point on. That mix run, it just felt like it was continuous. It was like watching a sports movie. Just felt like brunson had the ball over and over and over again. They didn't really trap them until like two minutes left. And then the big thing was towns had that terrible foul. Yes. Where he has to pretend he can't believe they called it. It's like you fucking pulled the guy towns. So OG is inside the free throw line with six feet of space in front of them. Right. And towns is holding Allen. And I think that was cut it to two. And then the cabs went back up six. And it was like, wow, towns just screwed up the game for them. But then bridges made a huge three. And that like near the end of the shot clock, too. And then shim it made a massive three and all of a sudden it was tied. Then hard and made a really nice little James Harden foul line. Brunson came back and made it. We had to talk about how great some of that chop naked Brunson. I mean, we've seen him do that. So you almost take it for granted. But he had five holy shit shots during that run. He had like opposite hand floaters off the glass. He had like high ones that seemed like there was no chance it was going to go in. But it did. He was in threes. And the next one off the set. He did do us off the set. The second and third quarter. He was shit. It scored 23 points. The first quarter, the second quarter, the third quarter, 23, 23 and 23. Well, the thing is we and we're texting at the end of third quarter about a lot better on the next because we've seen this next game 15 times this year, right? And we thought they had graduated out of it. Maybe the hawk series and the Philly series like that. This is now the new next. They're using towns more. But the reality is they played a bunch of games like this this year where they look like shit for three quarters and then they go on a heater. And I think the crowd was waiting for it. I was waiting for it. But once it got to seven and a half minutes left down by 22. It's like, okay, I guess maybe they missed the window. And then Brunson was just like, boom, and the crowd knew it. They knew when it got to within 15, they knew it was happening. And I thought that crowd was was a 10 out of 10 kudos to everybody who was there. Bill, they were dying. They were waiting for any just the slightest opening. Yeah. The fact that it came with seven and a half minutes left, just all they all they needed the next to do was string together a couple of buckets. But I do want to pat myself on the back. I tiny bit for your life. Yes, because at the end of the third quarter going into the fourth, would I text it to our thread? Does anyone feel like the nicks can make a fourth quarter run in this shit fest? What did I text you back? I said, yes. I'm staring at 10 and a half like at my girl pair of boobs. That's that's where I wrote to our group. I'm like, I'm staring at it. Directly. Directly from us. And then, you know, to to Raheem's credit dream says, you know what? On Christmas day, we had a very similar scenario. Me and and our boy, J.J. just Rimsky tried to talk dreaming. J.J. tried to say, no, don't do it. Don't mess with it. Yeah. And then by golly, the nicks came all the way and you reminded everybody. This is the next, this is what the next do. It's incredible. This is what they do. With that said, at the end of regulations, Sam Merrill, something I wide open, takes a three. It was down. Mike Breene gave it a half, he gave it a buff. Did you hear this? I rebounded to make sure I said that he's married for three, but no, it's out. He said the bus. He said the other banks. This is the first bus. He was going to bang it. And it really did like it went in and rattled out and just got the Ghosts MSG kicked it out. But that thing was dead Sam. He's a devil. He couldn't can logic complain about Breene doing these these games in MSG. You know, he the the the the the karma of Mike Breene calling a nicks. Well, he is the most impartial. He's brilliant, but I mean, the the karma buff. Did he do the one last year though? Did he do Haliburton last year? That would be maybe he didn't, because it switches every year. So Brunson ended up, what did he end up with for the game? Did he have 38, but he had 36 after regulation. And so I had 42, 11 run for the next one point. So I don't know. What do we name this game? Is it the bug game? Is it the God hits Cleveland game? The special thing is Cleveland game. I don't know. It's it's it's too much like it's an outcome where if you'd shown this to us this box score, I went to overtime. That's cute. You say, oh, Cleveland, good job. Good job, Cleveland. Good effort. Good try. So much worse than that. It will get me up 22 because they had this whole narrative about getting over the hump. We thought they revealed themselves on Friday night when they completely choking at the trick game and they were just awful, right? Then that game seven Mitchell plays one of the best games of his career. They tossed their balls on the table. And yet today they reverted back to who they were 53s. By the way, 16 for 50 53s. I don't know from them either. 19 turn over. They have all the eight threes from mobile. I just don't like it. And for three quarters, I thought they were doing everything right. Like even when they started doing the hacker Robinson, I was like, yeah, I kind of like this. Don't let the next the back of the game inside. They definitely have an advantage inside. I mean, there is towns was lost. They they can't run his awful. They didn't at the elbow. You know what? The way that the nicks had so much success in the last series, they they they had Carl Anthony towns at the elbow turnovers. Yeah. The free. Yeah. And they were putting little guys on him. And the announcer is Jefferson and Leglar are guys. They were like, I don't understand why they don't put towns on the low block and try to punish these guards. It's like, can we yeah, we asked that question every time this happens. They'd never do it. He doesn't want to go down there. That's just what it is. So they got unlock him. I thought they were way to Brunson centric for the first three quarters. Fourth quarter they had to because I was the only way they're getting back in the game. But they they felt very stagnant. Same old, uh, Brunson stuff. And the the Mitch and towns I would consider throwing that line up out there together a little bit too for Cleveland. The version of OG also first game back in was the two weeks now. And that was another big Cleveland mistake. Two for nine. Guess who I'm leaving wide open in the last five minutes of the game and trapping off this guy. OG. I didn't think his threes were going in. He shot that air ball and over time. I didn't. Well, he didn't want to shoot it. He was like trying to pass them. He stopped taking the threes and he started driving in and to get to you know, inside the free throw line. He was going for a floater. And that I mean, he was going for a floater on the play that the towns committed the foul. Yeah. Um, the crowd tonight. So this has been obviously the nicks have ignited the city this series. And then the finalists that they can get there are going to be among the hardest tickets in New York history. Crowd was locked in today. Nobody left. Um, there was a moment. I think it was after maybe when Shammett, whoever hit the game time three is either Shammett or Bridges. And they wide shot it, Cleveland didn't call time out. And the announcer's weren't even talking because I don't even think they could hear it. And then the wide shot and people were just jumping up and down. It was like, it was like a walk off baseball home run or something. Everybody was just so deliriously happy that they came back. Um, it was a really great atmosphere. I kind of wish I'd gone. I think it would have been worth a 3,000 mile trip to be to be there for that one. You know, I don't game one. No, I'm just saying I wish I'd been in that atmosphere of that. Yes, for sure. I mean, the next bands are about as thirsty as it gets. Pretty soon you'll be there with AJ to bans and towns and tray young. Maybe. Kishan George. Maybe. Why not? Why not us could happen. Um, all right. So what do we think for the series? I'll give you some odds. Don't look. The, uh, the series odds, right? Right now, every time I go to Fandall now, they send me to the prediction thing first. Then I have to go round about around it. I'm not a Fandall. Playoffs, futures. Okay. Oh. That seems high. - Minus 375 for the next. - That sounds right. - Just for winning game one, which they were supposed to win? - Yeah, the, you said at the beginning. Cavs have to win four out of the next, you know. Well, you got to tell us, is this it for the Cavs? Is that a death blow? - No, I mean, do you think they could win this series? Would you, would you wager on the Cavs plus 310? - I wouldn't wager on the, I didn't wager on the Cavs at the beginning of the series. Nothing's changed about my opinion. - I think, I think they had to win this game. - The single biggest difference to me is the return of OG who got to the free throw line 10 times, even with all of, you know, the weird things coming in. - Yeah. - Yeah. - But that team is-- - It looks explosive too. - Yeah, it's just a deep team. It's just, they have weapons in a lot of different ways. They can defend, you know, with the best of them. And the fact that they were asleep for two quarters, after not playing competitive basketball, against a team that just came off a game seven win. - Yeah. - It doesn't change my opinion overall of what this next team is all about and where I think they're headed. - Rusty and lethargic. I have more concerns about towns than I did three days ago, but I feel like they can, some of the stuff the Cavs were doing as am I wondering in the next series, especially if they play the Wembee UFO. I think some of the tricks will be emulated. Okay, we've talked about the next series enough. That was a great game. Not as great as the game last night. We're gonna take a break. - Not as great as-- - That's right. - We're gonna take a break. And then we're gonna talk about one of the great games of the 21st century, Thunder, Spurs, Game One. We are halfway through the NBA playoffs and they're getting better and better. Every possession matters. Every bucket swings the game tonight. It's your shot to boost your bet because all customers get a profit boost tonight on Fandall. So when the moment hits you in bigger, Fandall giving better paths on same game. Parlay's all NBA playoffs long. I'm gonna figure out something for San Antonio, okay, see game two, a series that I am obsessed with. I have a lot of thoughts on matchups, who might play. I think I can put together a good SGP for this. But lock in your bets, boost your odds, make the playoffs pay off with Fandall official. Sport betting partner of the NBA had to Fandall.com/BS to get started. Fandall, play your game. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC. Contact your Wyoming restrictions. Pi C terms at sportsbook.fandall.com. Game problem called 1-800-Gamber called 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Miklob Ultra. You know what my favorite thing about the playoffs is? I like Durant, and it's usually maybe a game four. It might even be a game five. Game seven, everyone's nervous. There's a different level of energy. But game four, game five. For one of the two teams, there's this realization with like five minutes left in the fourth quarter. What's like, uh-oh. Our fade is suddenly in real flux right now. Who's stepping up? What are we gonna do? What's calm down? Can we rise to the moment or are we gonna shrink from it? It's as great as opening up a Miklob Ultra. A nice cold one, Chris refreshing, the ultimate prize. Plus, as the official beer partner of the NBA, they're giving fans a chance to win courtside tickets, custom merch, and more. You could be at one of those games when the pressure rises. Miklob Ultra, superiors worth playing for, enter now at MiklobUltra.com/courtside. Miklob Ultra Courtside, 25-26. No purchase necessary open to US residents, 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2025 ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods, see official rules at MiklobUltra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines and prizes and details. All right, House, the arrival, the UFO is landed. Wembee has emerged from the UFO. He's seven foot seven and he's here to dominate the league. I had a tiger at 97 Augusta kind of feeling watching the game last night. Like that's something was changing for real. The sport was being appended in a real way. And I know that's going to sound stupid if they end up losing this series, but I don't even think the winner lose the series doesn't matter. He was doing something last night that I just felt like something the sport had shifted. And then I'm not the only person to say that. But it did bring me back to Augusta. And all of a sudden Augusta, it just felt small for tiger. Remember, we were like, fuck, this was like the hardest, weirdest course we have. And he's like just annihilating it. What's happening? Everything Wembee was doing last night. He took out SGA, SGA was a mess. He completely took out shit to the point that it was almost debatable whether he should be out there. He took out heart and sat, heart and sat, and then take out two minutes into the game. He changed 50 shots, 41 points, 24 rebounds to blocks. He had a 32 footer to tie the game. He had a game tying shot in the end of regulation. And did this all in the road? Did this with the fuck you energy from the MVP? Not getting that. Shout out to Hakeem in '95 against Robinson. It was hard not to think about that moment. I sent you the YouTube clip last night and just backed it up in all these different ways. And I think for me, it's that he walks the walk and then backs it up and does shit that we've just never seen. And you know, talking about arrival games. MJ 63 point game. Kobe in the 2000 finals after Shaq fouled out in game four. LeBron in 2007, the 48 special against Detroit. Curry had that unbelievable 2013 game one against the Spurs, which everybody forgets now 'cause there's been so many great games. But he goes into the next round and gets the Spurs. I think he has, I don't know, like 10-3s or 40 plus points and just was going against this great Spurs team by himself. Felt like on that level. Like it was a before and after with this game. You agree with that? Of course, and the numbers back it up. I mean, you have to go all the way back to 1970 to find a performance where a player 22 years old or younger has a combination of 40, 20. That's Korean. There's only two players in the history of the game at that age to have a 40, 20. That's Korean and now Wembee. Yeah, and you have to use as your reference point all of the great playoff performances, the highest leverage performances to create the context. And if we didn't have that Pacer's comeback last year against the NICS, that just incredible out of the-- The Halburn game. You could say, like, you know, so I was in my text thread. Greatest game one in a conference finals ever. I have the list. I made a list. In the conversation. Here's what I wrote down. You tell me if it beat these games. I went to this game, so I'm a little biased. 2018 game one finals, the J.R. Smith game. I think that was the last great game. Now game was eight years ago, because LeBron is going against this juggernaut all-time goal in state game. And he's basically taking it to him by himself and physically dominating them. I think he had 51 or 51, whatever he did. But Cleveland lost. Cleveland lost the OT. That's a problem. I'm just talking about, as a game, that game was fucking awesome. That game was awesome. Off the charts, awesome. I understand what we're talking about. The man and Curry at their peak. And the Warriors still really good. The Halburn Miracle last year, that was a game one. And then the Iverson 2001 finals against the Lakers, I think those are the most important four for this century for different reasons, right? Iverson really needed that one in the legacy in the big picture. It was the only time made the finals. He took, that was the best Laker team. And I think that was probably the second best team of this century. And he just went toe to toe with Shaq and Kobe. He'd beat them, did the step over. Shaq had a 40-20 that game. We were reminded, you know, inside of the NBA this evening. So I would go those four. And then the runner ups, the 2000 final Celtics Lakers game one, the Paul Pierce wheelchair game. So even that became the, and it was also a really good game. But just that the Celtics and Lakers were in the finals again in the hype leading up to that, I think is there. Dallas, San Antonio, 03. Dirk had a 38-15, Duncan had a 40-15. And this was like, we thought this was going to be the start of a dirt first Duncan run. And it ended up for a variety of reasons not getting what. But that game was awesome. I don't want to sleep on that 97 finals. Chicago, Utah, Malone wins the MVP. And then Jordan hits the game winner. And does the yes, that's got to be on there. 95 finals of Orlando Houston, Nick Anderson, the free throws, the four free throws. I wouldn't say that was a great game, but if you're talking drama and memory. Sure. It was one of the most memorable games I've ever seen, I know where I was, I can put myself right back there right now. Same year, Indie, New York, round two was the Reggie eight points and nine seconds. Okay. 92 finals, Chicago, Portland, MJ hits the six threes, 35 in the first half does the shrug. That was game one. Yeah. Wow. And then the 91 finals, which is another one that's like an awesome game, but it's 35 years ago. Bulls, Lakers, Magic versus MJ for the first time. Magic hits Perkins for a three to go ahead. MJ has a jumper to tie it, and it does the mic green bar and rattles around, but doesn't go in and they lose. And I think in the last 40 years, those are the ones, and I could go 70s. He's incredible last, but those tell everybody go on YouTube and watch some of these games. Please go watch us. But I really think this century, those four, 26, 18 gold, steak, Cleveland, the Halliburne game and the Iverson game. I think those were the best for usually game ones aren't great. We've had some fun, weird ones like remember that your Phoenix beat San Antonio and like oh three, oh two somewhere in there with Marbury, Marbury hit like a half court shot. Yeah. It was crazy. And it was like the one great Marbury Phoenix moment. Or maybe it's 2001, 2003, whatever it was. We've had some good ones. The Celtics balls 2009, Rose's rookie year was good, but those are the best ones. Usually the series, there's like a feeling out. And this one didn't. And there was one of the things I wrote down was like, how's like the speed of that game compared to what normal basketball is, like you watch a game like tonight and it just feels like it's on a podcast that's 1.0 versus last night. The game was at a 1.5. Well, part of it that is because these teams are familiar with each other. This iteration of these teams and what the Spurs did that's so remarkable over the course of the regular season, they used each of these matchups with Oklahoma City as referendum games for them. Yeah. Like this is why that organization is heads and shoulders above all others, you know, in the league. So that Spurs have occupied rare fight air for 35 years, 30 years, let's say, well, they've also had some, some fucking lot out, no doubt, they won the Wembley lottery and the Dunkin lottery and the Dunkin lottery. Three teams pass on Dillon, Stefan Castle, including your stupid team. And then Dillon Harper at two, all that is true and yet they are, they've routinely maximized that good fortune. They really have your attention. And they jump through the opportunity door and it's apparent that this season coming into it, they're like every time that we play Oklahoma City, we are going to get in that ass. We're going to, it's an experiment, we're going to be physical, we're going to run SGA off the ball. I mean, part of the thing, you gave Wembley credit for some impact on SGA. The answer is to that to me is yes, but it was a masterful, it was everybody. It's the physicality of those guards, they doubled them, they run him off the ball. And what that creates is open shots for Alex Caruso. That's fine because Caruso knocked a whole bunch of them down and Oklahoma City could have one. But I think the Spurs are like, if we lose to Alex Caruso, that's okay. We are willing to live with that out by the way, what the Cavs should have done today with the Ananobi. Yeah, they sure. I mean, the thing last night, Wembley's point guard because Deeren Fox doesn't play, Castle mostly plays point guard is 11 turnovers. He played hard. He did a lot of good things, but he 11 turnovers and he was trying and the other ball handler, Don Harper, who had an awesome game and I want to talk about him in a little bit. But he's 20 years old, they're in O.K.C. and at one point, there's a couple points where O.K.C. is like, here are our best defensive guys, we're just putting them all out there. Good luck. And it felt like they couldn't start their offense with a 40 feet from the basket. It felt like they couldn't even figure out how to get Wembley the ball, even though it was seven foot seven, 25 feet from the basket. And Wembley still pulled off the game with some help from his guys. There's a couple of big threes like Champagne hit a huge three in the corner. I thought Fassel had a couple of really big plays. He did. Castle never lost his confidence, even with all the turnovers, which I really appreciated. And I thought the defense, the fact that I wrote down on my notes, they basically forced O.K.C. into this lineup that I'm not sure they're going to not be able to do the rest of the time where they basically had three guards with J.Dub, with Chett, because they have to figure out a way to pull Wembley away from the basket. So they're just going to, like, heart and sea, and I don't think can play in this series. I'm not positive. Dork can really play big minutes and crunch time in this series either because whoever they have, who's not a threat, Wembley's just going to guard that guy and help off him. So it's going to be a chess match, but I feel like the chess has already been played to some degree. We'll see. The questions for me is, in the next game, are they going to just say Fox and Harper shoot threes until your heart. We're going to double team Wembley, we're going to trap him. We're going to make him give up the ball. And if you guys hit threes, God bless. I would assume that's the move for them. O.K.C. I think I already made their moves by the second half of that game. I don't know. There are some things that feels like O.K.C. can do it a free up SGA, like, you know, we're going to see some innovation yet. Well, I mean, there'll be some unique screening kind of situations, you know, we're going to see a version of SGA, I imagine, that's a kin to the way that Steph gets free. They run him off of off of, you know, Pinda, he's running the entire entirety of possession. No, that's not totally his game, though. I was wondering, are they going to stagger him for when Wembley's out of the game, you bring him, you try to have SGA in the 10 non-Wembley minutes and stuff like that to just try that. That also sounds like a fine way of doing it. But what they have to get comfortable with and what SGA has to get comfortable with is he's got to be a mid-range shooter now because there's, you just can't go to the rim. You can't get to the rim and then you can see Oklahoma City palpably dramatically impacted. It's not just the blocks and the alter shots, it's that the lane is no longer available. So you have to become comfortable in the mid-range and that is a version of basketball. You and I watched, we grew up with it, but it's not how they play modern basketball. Yeah, there were some good stats. Dele 4-3, David Ley, that's his Twitter account though, was talking about how SGA drives basically 19 times a game during the season and passes 38% of the time. But last night, 30 drives, and he passed 54% of the time, right? So it's not a huge thing, but it felt that way watching it. He was trying to get to spots and there was always Wembley. I had this reader, a listener sent this great email about how we should nickname, change Wembley's nickname to Jaws because when the people decide to go in the paint, it's like when the swimmers go in the water and it's like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, they're tripling and the Wembley's just kind of looming around with the shark costume, but it does feel like he's changed SGA, I don't know how SGA snaps out of it, but SGA didn't seem as comfortable. He actually seemed the most comfortable just doing step back threes, right? So that could work. That could work. I mean, he is the MVP of the league, we're going to see some wrinkles out of this Oklahoma City. This is part of why this series feels so rich. It's because the strategy element of this, I expect to see something new every game. We're not going to see the same game twice, I don't feel like in this series. Well, you know what else we might say in this game, this game too, is, hey, can we start roughing up Wembley here? There was a clip that went around this morning about chet stepping on his foot during a free throw. Do you see that? No, I didn't see it. They were next to each other boxing out and ranked when the ball went up, chet just stepped on his foot to try to trip him. And I wonder if they're going to start doing a whole bunch of stuff like that and trying to get in and say, one thing with San Antonio, they don't really have an enforcer. Well, this is like, if you're going to play Hart and Stein, he has six fouls. Like that, that's the point of, is it a hard sign being on the floor? Yeah, the six fouls that he brings to the table. And it just unleashes Wembley on the other end. He can just do whatever he wants, but you're right. Maybe use them to beat him up. I think ultimately, chet's going to have to figure out a way to defend him because the problem with putting the guards on him, which sort of worked and got crew so going, but then you give up all these offensive rebounds. He had nine offensive rebounds last night. So you're making it harder for him to get the ball, but then on possessions, you're giving them like an extra six, seven, eight possessions a game, and I don't think that's worth it. Big picture on Wembley. We weren't there for Will. We were there for, we're old enough to remember 70's cream with the goggles and then obviously 80s cream when he wasn't really the same. But it does feel like what that must have been like when you just went to a game and what was just destroying everybody. - Sure. - We've had some great centers over the years that we've certainly loved talking about and loved watching. But when somebody can do it on both ends like that, and just completely destroy the psyche of a crowd. And, you know, we didn't talk about the 32-foot shot yet, which was one of the great moments of this century for basketball for me, like an all-time holy shit from the exact Steph Curry spot. I, did you think it was going in? 'Cause I actually did. I don't know why it happened. I was like, I like it. - It was so fast. It was both an ooo, and I was actually, I had my kid with me. And I, 'cause I grabbed him. I'm like, you gotta watch this. You, you are not permitted. This is, this is the history. And you're gonna be pointing to this. So, you know, as you grow up as, you know, something significant. And we both, I had it, ooh, I was like, when he pulled up, I like, ooh. And then I was like, oh, you know, oh, what are those? What are those? I was like, unbelievable. - I was looking for it because he kind of likes that shot. The problem was, he was so far away, but I saw him trailing. And I was like, kind of just watching it, but then when he pulled up, I thought he was gonna stop and realize he was too far, and he just fired it. - Somebody took the clip of Steph doing it with Breene's double bang and synced up the timing with Wembee, so they're on top of each other. And it's really, whoever did it, extraordinary job. - It's basically the same spot, right? - It is, it is. You can see, that's what makes it so impressive. Is it like, Steph and Wembee are in the same spot on the floor? - I went back and I read the piece that I wrote after LeBron's 48 special against Detroit. And it was like this real-ass potential thing for all of us. And I thought, actually, I actually kind of liked what I wrote. I was like, all right, I kind of captured that one a little bit, but it was basically like, here's this guy with all these tools, and we're hoping it's inside him, and we're watching game after game, week after week, kind of hoping something like this will happen, and then it started happening. Now, he's doing that against an '07 Pistons team that was getting a little long in the tooth. The league's pretty weak that year. There's only like five teams that, you know, the Cavs made the finals that year with one of the worst finals teams we've had. But it was a moment, and it was like a really good sign when it happened like, oh, this guy, he really might have it. Like this might be like a real Jordan Challenger. This is the first real sign we have that there's some real specialness here. I already felt that way with Wembee. And even we were texting before the game. The MVP thing, it was like notable because of the history of what's happened in basketball with this with Jordan and Malone in '97, and with Hakeem and Robinson. It was like, this is interesting. He's not going to like that they gave SGA the MVP. And I think that's my favorite thing about him, about anything is I think he's a real fucking dick. Like he's a competitive motherfucker. - I really love that. - Did you see that video of him watching the ceremony? He was like pissed off. - Yes, yes, I mean, and all of those historical parallels that we just eat up, we just can't get enough. - Yeah, this is what we love. - And we get the benefit. I mean, there was a half dozen different ways for the Spurs to lose that basketball game. - Sure was. - What did you think the main one? - Including the 32 foot three. - Yeah. - And that was the first overtime. They were down three at that point. It wasn't even regulation. It was an overtime. - I thought they were going to lose. - I thought they're going to lose because of the minutes. - Yeah, 'cause we haven't seen it out of him and the impact of no Fox, what that meant, you know, that the extra minutes on Harper, the extra minutes on Castle and the turnovers. I mean, what did Harper and Castle combine for turnover wise? - They were discombobulated. - I kept thinking back to that Denver, that Saturday Denver San Antonio game that was awesome that went in overtime. - Yoke is just a last great game. - Yeah. - The game that earned Yoke, it's number two on my VP ballot. I thought, when you got tired in the overtime of that game, and you could see, yeah. So when I was watching the game last night, I kept thinking he was going to wear down and he just didn't. Like whether it was the adrenaline of what was going on or the fact that they hadn't played for a couple of days, but I'd never thought he looked that tired. The spurs guys after the game said he had no legs. We couldn't believe he took that. I never felt like he was worn out because I think when he gets worn out, he starts falling down and you can kind of see it. I didn't feel that way last night. - I felt like he showed some fatigue, but I think the Oklahoma City couldn't be, can't be. We'll see how it goes as physical as Minnesota was. So I think it was a little bit of a breather for him against Oklahoma City because he just didn't have to take on any of that physicality. I mean, the size of Minnesota was legit, and it was the only way for them to really compete was to lean on him, to push him, to be in his space, and they could rotate a go bare and randal in that role. Oklahoma City doesn't have that. - No, the other thing would one be, I don't say this lately, I really feel like he checks all the competitive boxes. Even when I've seen him in person, I don't feel like he's mailing it in, doesn't give a shit. Like I feel like he really cares and he's really competitive all the time. Though honestly, the way Jordan was, that was one of the things we loved about Jordan. Jordan always cared. He always put the proper level of competitiveness and respect on the game and really like, just wanted to cut everybody's throat out. And it does feel like one B's wired like that a little bit. And for a center, that's a really rare trait. - That's the accelerant. This is why we're in this position where we're having to revisit our priors on how quickly Kenneth Young team come together and really properly threaten. The history of the NBA is littered with upstart teams, upstart young teams who have the talent but don't have the basketball IQ, the wherewithal, the reps under these high leverage moments. And I wonder if. - It's the 77 Blazers is the only team that did it. - That's a really. - Really? - I wonder if they were accumulating those reps over the regular season. - How about this? - This is what I mean. - Did Wembee, was the Olympics his version of those reps? I got that email a few times from people. 'Cause it's not like, oh, he's never tasted his own bled. It's like he actually did it in the 24 Olympics, right? That was the first time he took some haymakers. - Yeah, for sure. - Yeah, for sure. - And he got to understand what it was like. - But this is why I was wondering aloud about this idea of each of those games against Oklahoma City in the regular season as referendum, like really measuring stick games. And they kicked ass all season long. They did not take nights off to your observation, your point, that's right. They didn't, that competitiveness and it wasn't just Wembee. It was that whole spurs team. 'Cause Wembee missed a whole bunch of games. - Yeah, I know. - And they still, you know, won the number that they won. And it was like 25 games over whatever their win total. 20 games over the whether or forecast the win total was supposed to be like. - I said something to add. I genuinely thought they were going to win this series. And I think Wembee, I just think we're going to be coming to grips with what's happening here over the course of the next four weeks. I was on one tech strider where they were like, said, like, oh, there's those have been his face of the league and doing all that stuff. And it's like, I don't know what face of the league means. I just know that this is the biggest appointment TV viewing that the league has had since Curry and the Warriors in the middle 2010s. And this doesn't happen very often. We weren't sure if it was going to happen again with anybody we had. And we always try to put the guys that we have in position. You know, you and I love watching Joker. Not everyone loves watching. Wembee appeals to every single person because of how tall he is and how skill he is and how unusual he is and how much he gives a shit. And I think this will end up being probably the most watched series non-finals that the league has had at least in 10 years, you know. And it definitely passes the mom test. I'm sure, I'm sure whoever's mom or dad that doesn't follow sports probably brought up the Wembee game to you today, right? That's our two whoever's listening. - Yeah. - And people who missed it, they won't miss tomorrow night. They won't miss, you know, the Wednesday night game because it is absolutely appointment TV. We have the reigning MVP of the league in SGA that's a controversial figure, you know. The worm has turned a little bit a lot of-- - It sure has. - You got a 50/50 on foul merchant out of SGA, yeah. - They will call him yesterday. The reps were great yesterday. - I like that on both sides. - You and me both, I thought it was fine. I thought it was a very fair game. But, you know, and you put that alongside a player that none of us have seen. - You had, you know, Jamal Crawford last night say, "We've never seen a guy like this before. We can't really process him." - I mean, I have my quibbles with Reggie Miller. - Really? (laughs) Oh God. Oh God. Just leave it alone. There's no reason. It's he's a nice guy. Um, Dylan Harper, okay, let's do it. I watched the game yesterday with my daughter who's coming up later on the podcast, actually, um, who was half paying attention all the time. And at one point, she turned to me and said, wow, you really love Dylan Harper. Is he like your favorite non-Saltic? And I said, I think he might be. I think like after Yoke and she curry, I just love Dylan Harper. I love how he plays. I sound like Collins worth, I just love that kid and love Dylan Harper. I just love that kid so much. Um, I was just in awe of what he was doing yesterday where they're like, hey, Fox is in playing. We know you're 20 and we know we're going against the team that has the best collection of defensive guards probably the last 15 years. Do you think he could give us 40 plus minutes tonight and do a whole bunch of shit and maybe go, I saw every once in a while and go grab some rebounds. Oh, and jump in the passing lanes and get what do you have seven steals and get big rebounds and traffic. Oh, and don't get tired, even though you should be like a sophomore in college. Um, I thought what he did was add a control. And if anything, I was texted people during, during crunch time in the OTs, like, as, you know, as the castle thing was really going sideways, like, why don't they run stuff for Harper? Why don't they run high pick and roll for him with a shooter? Like, I want to see, I think, okay, see, we'd have trouble defending that. Which was all across half course. I know. That was part of, and he ended up being the guy a bunch of times. Yeah. I think they really need him in this series. But, um, what he did yesterday, I thought I was just, I was so impressed. And I'll say this house, you know, I don't say stuff like this lately because you've known me for almost 40 years. I, to me, like, we saw Kate in college and, you know, the first five years, you and I were, we, I didn't even have a internet call when he got traded the first time. And you and I were so apoplectic that they traded him Dallas. We were like, how do you trade Jason Kader? You got, like, that's insane. How do you ever, in a million years, do that? I think of him. I think of Chris Paul in the mid 2000s. Like, we're talking about, like, top 50 guys ever and some of the best young guards we've seen in our lifetime. And I think he's going to be as good as those guys. I really do. I think he's going to be like a Call of Fame multiple first team on BA type of guard. Well, the cool thing is, if you had Harper stock when, when they drafted him, a important element of what's going to propel that stock into a return on investment, you know, double digit strata is how free he can play basketball with playing alongside Victor Webinion. That's the perfect guy to play with him. He's absolutely perfect. That's exact. He only shot one for seven from from three last and it would have been, but he got to the free throw line. I mean, he's the multi fast 11 rebounds. Like how is he getting double digit rebounds? Well, that's what the team needed out of him and, and, you know, he was able to drop down and grab and the poise going to the hole. This is what poison physicality there you go. That's it. That's right. Exactly. He took every bomb. He took every bit of, and this is why the Spurs are so live in the series. It's because I think they can out physical Oklahoma city. Yeah. Right. They took the, the blow that that Minnesota represented Minnesota was a wake up call. Game one of that series was a wake up call for these Spurs. Welcome to the playoffs. Yeah. Now we've started. Yeah. Right. And to their great credit, they recalibrated, they're like, oh, okay, well, here's what we have. Here's what we can do. And they could handle that physicality. I think Minnesota did them a great service in preparing them for this series. And they showed up ready to get in that ass. And they did. They were in it all game long. They were physical with SGA. Now the one thing you said a couple of minutes ago, will we have that whistle? What's that whistle going to be throughout the balance of this series? And in fact, for both of us, you right now, what's that whistle going to be tomorrow night? Wednesday night? I think tomorrow is going to be the exact same. It's the exact same line, which suggests that I what is Fox playing or not playing? It will be a game time decision. I would assume he's playing. He should play. And I would assume he'd be better. I really think this series is going to get small, and it's going to be the three guards against the three guards on OKC whoever they are. And J. Dub and Vicell and Chett and Wembe and that's just that's just what we're going to do. And it's going to be an OKC. You'll probably look at that game one and say, we should have won the Champany 3 really hard shot shouldn't have gone in. Jalen Williams and WOT that terrible shot he took with like 35 seconds left that kind of rush shot. OKC has like bad shots that I'm sure they looked at the tape and like we should have won that game. No stupid. The difference is Fox is going to come back and Harper got a taste of it. Harper Harper now knows the speed. He understands like a three hour game like that that there's levels to it. You got to save stuff. I just I look at Harper and I'm like, this isn't the worst he's ever going to be right now. Right? Over the next 10 years, this is the worst version of him and he's already awesome. And then Castles 21, that's the other crazy thing. It's not you almost look like Castles like a 27 year old. He's 21 and you know, batting through everybody and he's one of the most physical guys in the series. I still think San Antonio is going to win. I thought that before the series, I think that after game one, I don't know how many games it's going to be. But I just think I hope it's seven. I want seven of these when you use an incredible matchup. So the guys to watch and game two, number one is Chet. I think this is the biggest game in his career so far. He's going to have a long career and there'll be a lot more good ones. But I thought I thought he just got his ass kicked in game one and he's got to figure out. He can't only have seven attempts just like the that I need to feel you in this game. I did not really feel you in that first game. I felt Caruso. Then the other thing, which I mentioned before the series and maybe it'll shake itself out with Hart and Steve not playing as much, but they played 11 guys in the first half. And that was a big thing I was worried about though KC is like, do they know who their best guys are? Do they know what their best lineup? I'm sorry. I don't think they totally know. I think they have like eight guys they trust. But I'm not sure he knows which to be where and the Jalen Williams thing is a big thing to introduce that to know where in the third round for for any, he took 25 shots. Right. Welcome back. Yeah. Right. They were open. Peace. I mean, he took two more shots in SGA. I'm going to read you a list of the best 21st century games. And you tell me was the game we saw last night, a go game by game. You tell me if it was better or worse. All right. We just did the game once. No. I'm going to best games. We said it was an incredible go go ahead. Fine. Was it better than the Haliburton game last year? I liked it better. I think that's the right answer was it I liked it better. Was it better than you know why I liked it better because the spurs were seven point underdogs missing the air and Fox. And they had every excuse in the book to not, you know, to just come into that environment on MVP night, right? And just, you know, great effort and then let Oklahoma City do what they do, which is you know, win by 10 or 12. I have it over that game. Do you have it over game for 2022 finals, Curry, basically his legacy game that led to his fourth title? No. Much more at stake in that game. Much more at stake. The leverage is so different. So that's a. I'm going to make that a TBD because of San Antonio wins a series. I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to have a hard time putting that game last night, a game one in a conference finals with a brand new team with the identity of the spurs over any finals game, any legacy games. I think that's the right answer with that. Milwaukee Brooklyn game seven to ramp foot and the line. Pretty great game. Yeah. That was an awesome game. I think last thing was better because I did the quality was better because that game had Durant was great, but James Harden on one leg. There was no kind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, the last night was better. Philly Toronto game seven, Kawaii shot that bounce way up in the air and went in. Oh, I think I got to give it to that Philly Kawaii. I think that one was better. Yeah. That one. That game was unbelievable. The JR Smith game, LeBron's 51, tried out to that game. We didn't have any tears last night. No. Game one finals. I think that's a really tough one. That was like LeBron's last stand in Cleveland, basically. That 2018. Yeah. That game won LeBron by himself against the words for two and a half hours. Last thing was better. That game felt more, um, 2000. 2016 game seven finals that beat this come on man. The Clay Thompson you just had to mention it the Clay Thompson game Which is game six against Houston now game six go and stay that Oklahoma City Oklahoma stay down three one. They win. Yeah, I said Houston. I knew it was hard. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I knew which was what I was talking about It was Durant Westbrook not hard. We're old. We're allowed mistakes Clay Thompson gets on the heater right as the gold state 73 win seasons about to go down the tubes It's a pretty great game. Damn. I'm gonna give Give it to Clay I think that's the right answer San Antonio Quipper's game seven round one. I think this was better even though that was a fucking awesome game that I went to by the way 2013 games six finals San Antonio Miami the Ray Allen game There's no way that game was not better than last night. Yeah, okay All right, you're just trying to set a context here. I appreciate it Last one from the last 15 years why have two more from the last 15 years The bulls beating Miami to end the 27 game win streak Was my favorite game that nobody talks about anymore that game was fucking awesome I love the win streak I love the win streak. I wrote like a 7,000 word calm about the win streak. That was a great calm The win streak was awesome. That'll never happen again. Nobody's ever winning 27th St. James ever again in the regular season I wouldn't say that that was that row management shits never happening that was the spurs might want to try and do that next season And then the last one I had was 2011 game five Dallas Miami, which I went to Jason Terry hit the big three to end it, but that was like Though not one not two not three Miami. He just taking it on the chin in game four and game five and the crowd was delirious I still think last night was probably slightly better, but anyway, those are the ones I had from the last 15 years So we we kind of had it slated somewhere in the middle there The thing is if San Antonio wins the title and this was the best game of the entire run I think that gains and significance, right? Okay. Okay. I'll accept that. Yeah, no no pushback for me on that What was the best tiger? Holy shit. He's in our lives forever masters. Was that 2000? Wow, well cuz yeah, 2000 2000 was that we're in trouble for a decade now We're not at that point with one be it. We're in the 97 masters area of Wendy Because it's an arrival moment to the rival right. Yeah, this was this was the Highest stakes the I mean unless you want to use the Olympics as The highest stakes that you know the gold medal game France against the US What what you know is July 24? Yeah That was pretty important game for Wembee, but he's bigger now. He's stronger Well, the greatest players ever All have a knack of coming through at a pretty precociously early age Even magic when the title when he was age 20, right? Yeah, bird won a title in his second year Karim won in his second year Russell won in his first year You know it took LeBron a few years, but that had more to do with the crappy guys on his on his Cleveland team same thing for Jordan but for the most part They they kind of start telling us who they are pretty early in their career and I think I think he told us last night Would be my big takeaway, but the Dylan Harper thing long term the fact that they have those two guys together with castle is the third I mean, did can you believe we live in a world where they are Set up as better than O.K.C.s already. It's like that scene would have seemed impossible a year ago Impossible What I'm not sure it's better. What happens if you need some better Wembee would have to get hurt for it not to be better What if Oklahoma City wins this series four games to one because they go on I'll take Wembee I'll take Wembee Harper and castle You take SGA and any other two O.K.C. guys, which three would you rather have? Well, when O.K.C. has Janus next year because of all of the picks that they have and all of the I mean which which O.K.C. Are we talking about that's the other question from the series what if they if San Antonio fumps it to them? Is there some sort of move now? Do they look at this ago? I would five games to one that's a that's a Feature not a bug where they've played six times these two teams regular season and now one one playoff and It's five games to one like I The evidence continues to mount. I'll just put it that way I mean, I know a bunch of different times when they played not all of the both both teams weren't their full complete versions of themselves so on and so forth, but San Antonio is hell bent on sending a message. They are hell bent on sending a message to Oklahoma City They have it circled in red on their their calendar and we're just gonna see we're gonna see how this plays out Do you see yourself turning on Wembee at any point? over the course of the year over the course of the playoffs. I loved the comeuppance I felt like it was a comeuppance when the Joker and Denver beat them on that incredible Saturday night game Yeah, it was like this is a measuring stick game. Yeah, and look how close you are and yet You're you're there's just one other level. Yeah, yeah That level unfortunately included Aaron Epping Gordon not Being hurt god damn it. I'm gonna be bitter about you know the existential crisis that Denver is in now Because and I mean, I'm not Well, I'm not you know denigrating Gordon He just couldn't get healthy in the playoffs for two consecutive years now And we're losing out on on this Joker moment and that that Denver team was supposed to be better because none of us like Karim We can be honest about that I'm I'm never You know, it's not in my DNA. We respected him. We just to hate on him. No, we we respected him But nobody was like I'm a huge Karim fan. I I love Karim Karim's my guy I think there are Lakers people that would say that they love Karim because he was on their team. Yes, that's right You talk to yourself in a lake in Gilberto, for years Gilberto, Rianos was fucking awesome. I know for once easy sure was No, I think usually with the tall giant guys Eventually they become the villains You know, and this has happened to pretty much every tall guy has ever played basketball. I don't know if it happens with them Because he's so he's so different and he's so much fun to watch and he's so competitive I think if somebody cares as much as he cares on top of the talent. It's really hard to root against that I know I think there's an undercurrent out there as Jacobi Jacobi I know there's an undercurrent I Well, there's a there's a xenophobia thing that's happening, too Where people are like oh, what's happening? We're losing our sport to the internationals No, I mean that that part I don't care about um, I do like It's the the tough guy stuff. Let's you know, this is why I enjoyed what Minnesota did to him in game one Yeah, well and what do dorks going to be doing to him in game two through the whole through the entire series I mean they baited him into the The elbow to the throat that could have been a suspension. I'm glad it wasn't a suspension But they got them they won two games by being physical with him right knocking him out of his and that's what okay Lute dork's gonna do the bread heart when bread heart Put the metal vest under his hockey jersey when he was against bill Bo Goldberg Boca Bob Goldberg spirit him But bread heart had a metal vest on I think Lute dork's gonna wear that tomorrow It's gonna be my time. That's what the fellas are for yeah, that's what the fellas are for I can't wait I think tomorrow I think this whole series Is like you can't miss a minute. There's no excuse Tell your wife tell your girlfriend tell your spouse your boyfriend Whoever doesn't want to watch basketball do they can fuck off for three hours This is a must watch every minute. We don't know when we're getting another series like this. It hasn't happened for eight years don't sleep on how impressive these two coaching staffs Are and can be and the innovation we're gonna see. It's the diametric opposite of what we watch the Cleveland It's like any act and sin but after a cup of coffee like I just can't like I still can't unsee that Detroit I'm so glad it's over I'm sorry. I lived through it. This is the diametric opposite. These are two staffs who are so goddamn innovative Every game's gonna look different. I'm all mostly back in action with New Orleans Congratulation about that Jason Kidfire today saw that That was one of the more I wish I forgot to predict that on a podcast because the combo of Messiah taking over Yeah, that was Messiah wants his guy, which is understandable Jason kid Who During like at least the last year Luka was there Was complaining about him to everybody and there's no way he didn't know about that trade And there's no way he wasn't trying to jet out mind-trick people in the trading him And he would definitely knew about it before it happened And then the trade happened is like I didn't know anything about I don't know what happened. They were definitely gonna Will the story in a joke that she him at some point Our out is like he was hoping for a front-off this kind of thing like maybe there was He tried to get the next job last summer, seamless. He pushed into you know, he definitely wink wink The work a trade and then you're four months later saying yeah, I'd love to check out this next thing That was definitely one of the the possibilities out there Well, maybe the point of the go hire him at a discount because he's already getting paid by somebody else Well, that that guy fired 70 people today. I saw that like What the fuck is going on like what what what is this league the the Three most recent owners now you can you can you know take Ispia and say okay classic new owner syndrome came in try to make a splash tried to Throw a team together and build excitement. I want the best players and you know, he hired you know two consecutive coaches With some pedigree guys that had accomplished some things in in in Vogel and then Bud but You know, I don't ispia he spent money but he was just misguided and then he listened to good basketball people and the team that they feel that the season was like Okay, this is this makes sense. That's competitive. It's like for that. What the Dallas it's just like Vivek the Dallas situation With those people and whatever scheme that they have up their sleeve with that we want the casino and yeah You know, we sanction Niko getting rid of our best the antagonism towards a fan base and then this fucking guy comes in to Portland And he's like I'm not paying splitter He coached this team to unprecedented outcome. They made the f-ing playoffs and then you know what? Oh Congratulations playoff team. I'm getting rid of 2/3 of the infrastructure that that we have here in a city that's like it's a captive audience right like the only other pro they have The women's team the women WNBA team salad. I have a soccer team. So I'm you know like the trailblazers are Tied to that community and by the way that community is subsidizing your fucking stadium, bro They the state and the city approved, you know 350 million dollars of Renovation and he's gonna come in and run the organization like what what to what he's in his hockey strategy is NHL strategy is trying to get out I don't know why you spend this much money on a team and then you try to cut costs all over the place. It's so weird to me What message are you sending to the fans? That's the purpose of here. Yeah, it's not it's not a it's not a company Like go ahead and run it like a company. You're asking people to pay their money The revenue is what the bulls do. He's looking at what the bulls do and it's like these dumbasses are paying for their tickets every year Maybe I'll do that. I won't pay leisure facts. I'll save money all over the place. I'll be profitable It's very cynical the built-in subsidy that comes from the national TV contract. They're all buoyed by it The franchise is only gonna move in one direction because you know Are these rights continued to go and we'll see how what what packages the NBA innovates itself? Into in terms of streamers on on you know that whatever the cup and these these sets of games or whatever over the next 10 years But the the 80 billion or what what is it now 70 billion that's left 65 billion this left on this this right steel Ensures a trajectory for the value and he paid what he paid. They got a valuation out of it He was a good soldier in that respects right what was the valuation four and a half billion bucks Well, that's what it paid. I don't know if it was the valuation. Yeah That's a right exactly, but that's a problem all these people are spending they're spending that kind of money But if the team isn't profitable then they have to zag the other way, which raises the question Why did you pay for the first place? Yeah, and set in the four of the expansion teams that we'll see if they get the money or We have to go we have to go Congrats on that note. Congrats on the most boring boring PGA tournament. We've had no wow made up for it by Wembee Great winner Aaron Rye. Mm-hmm everybody's the nice people champion. People's champion great guy. How's your the people's champion? Thanks for staying up with me. We're gonna come back with CR Chris Ryan Anthony DeBundo. We're gonna talk some soccer next So I'll play us along. I've been looking through the lines the props the futures everything share my favorite picks from Fandall sports book on my Twitter feed I share a lot of times a straight-up bet parlay. I'll do some add-ons and I'm looking at this game to O.K.C. St. Antonio I think there was some really instructive lineup stuff That my guess is O.K.C. is just gonna have to go smaller and then conversely St. Antonio might have to play more grads as well, so I want to try to figure out the way kind of same game or that That that steers towards some of the some of the shorter players show we call them. So I will have a final pick on that Before game two on my Twitter feed still debating who's gonna win I think every one of these games is gonna be close. You look at game one if Kuroso doesn't hit you know 10 10 shots He makes like six seven threes if he doesn't have basically the shooting game of his life. I think St. Antonio will win that game by 20 and that was with cast will turn the ball over 11 times no Darren Fox So I feel like all these games are close or or or st. Antonio is gonna win So I'm probably leaning st. Antonio plus the points when I bet I bet with Fandall brand I trust it's easy to build my NBA bets on Fandall because I know I'm getting great odds payouts on my parlay is boosts every day. I get my winnings instantly Fandall play again Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily, New York Zelda mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all-day comfy grip No tightness no stickiness no residue just plum do we hydrated skin that still feels like your skin Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily, New York. Maybe it's mave lane All right, CR Chris Ryan is here Anthony de Bundo here as well You can hear him and listen to him and watch him all the time on the ranger gambling show And this is his time because basketball NHL playoffs tennis Although we lost Alcaras for Wimbledon today Wimbledon World Cup's coming Champions League and then I just have so many soccer questions that I know nothing So I'm like I'm just going to break two smart guys on the pod who follow soccer and they're going to tell me stuff Let's start here Tottenham Maybe out of the Premier League. I should be learning. I had my second kid and I just I fell off with them and I apologize But uh, so they lost today Explain the stakes the Bundo on Sunday. What what walk us through everything we have to look forward to when is this game going to be on What's going to happen? Can I wager on this walk us through it? So Tottenham are two points ahead of West Ham with one match to play and all 20 teams play simultaneously On the final day 11 a.m. Eastern so 8 a.m. Pacific Sunday morning a little coffee and and football Tottenham are at home against Everton who have nothing to play for but I'm sure we'd love to play spoiler West Ham host leads who also have nothing to play for Tottenham just need a draw if they draw They will be safe however if they lose and West Ham wins and Tottenham one of the 10 richest teams in the world One of the six richest teams in England and one of the biggest clubs And historic clubs in in the sport will be relegated to the second division which as the spurs fan myself Is the next central crisis that I've never felt as a sports fan in my life you Our American teams at bad years were like okay. We'll get them next year This is not something I I've ever experienced so now I'm kind of terrified So you're see our what's the history of this? What's the worst example of this ever happening? Honestly, well one of them is leads so leads like who flew too close to the sun about I guess it would that be back to 20 some years ago Went down and it took them forever to get back up into the Premier League and really have only like fully stabilized themselves as a Premier League club in the last couple of seasons um The ones silver lining to this that I would give to bundo is that we have recent history with clubs like Aston Villa and Newcastle going down And then coming back up Tottenham has like too much money to fail ultimately like they'll lose some really good players It's going to be tough that they have essentially the crown jewel stadium Or one of them in the entire country and they're going to be hosting like really small clubs if they go down But I don't think it's done deal yet when I watch West Ham The last West Ham match like I was like that club looks like fully on its knees But Tottenham really needed this one today and I think it's probably all the more painful that Chelsea beat them today So this is as much drama as we could possibly get on a Sunday other than if the actual title is at stake Yeah, it would have been cool if city had won today just for last day final stakes But yeah, Arsenal is now officially the Premier League champions as of today Which isn't even bigger buzz kill for us as first fans Your biggest rival could win the league and you could get relegated in the same year It's like the worst year imaginable for us. So debundo. What is the NFL NBA equivalent of this Everything that's happening right now would it be like if the sixers were in danger of getting relegated like how big of a team are they? I don't even think there is a comp The like I was thinking like the the New York Giants maybe It's not the Cowboys, but like the Giants and the Chicago Bears. Just being out of the NFL for a year, it would be honestly a good, a good one would be the red socks have to go to triple a baseball for the season while the Yankees are coordinated as World Series champions. Oh my God. I can't imagine for Arsenal and Tottenham fans. That's what the rivalry is, except it would be like if it, if they were in the same city and they just hate each other, they were the same part of the same city. So from a bragging right standpoint, can you come back from this? No. No, I, yeah, it would take multiple generations, multiple, like that, I mean, look, Arsenal had a holiday that they used to call every year St. Tottenham's day. They would celebrate it every year when they finished above Spurs. And for 20 straight years, they did. And honestly, as a Spurs fan, the year we finally broke that, it shouldn't have mattered, but it really did. We finally were able to have a run of dominance. And for, you know, five or six years, Spurs were the best team in North London. That has dramatically flipped now the last three or four years where Arsenal has taken back control. But the odds of, you know, Tottenham haven't been relegated in this era of the Premier League. It hasn't happened to the club since the 70s. And then since the Premier League was founded in 92, they've never been relegated. So this would be a, yeah, bad as bad as it gets and also a huge deal. Like C R said, you don't know what the team looks like next year. Like they're not going to be able to recruit players. They're going to lose all their good players. If you're a good Tottenham player, why would you want to stay when you go play for another better team? They, it creates a bit of a, you know, snowball effect down the hill here that could happen for the club. I'm so fascinated in this and I wish I had gotten more fascinated sooner because I would have really enjoyed the, I first remember mid season, like, hey, they might get relegated. It's like, there's no way they've weighed too much money. But to be in that crazy stadium they have playing, playing secondly games. I don't even, I can't even, it breaks my brain much like Wembee's 32.3 foot three broke my brain last night. You know, and it's not dissimilar from that where it's like a great reminder of why sports is just amazing to watch where it's like for a couple of years, it felt like maybe the gap was getting too wide between championship and Premier League football. The money was getting too distorted and you'd frequently have teams that came up and went right back down. And in some ways, some teams actually like modeled their success by like getting up for a season to get Premier League money, getting the parachute payments going back down. But it was, it's own kind of money ball in the sense, like there are clubs like Ipswich or West Brom who might even have said to like, oh, this is how like our model for our success. It's not supposed to happen at Tottenham, you know, like this is Tottenham was a couple years ago, like knocking on the door of the top three, four of the country. And they built this enormous stadium and mortgaged a lot of their future on this stadium. And now they have to, you know, they're gonna have to figure out a way to pay for it with like no walk coming to town. Unbelievable. So they've also financially built a team like around the club. Everything off the field about Tottenham is great. The books look great. Everybody's happy with the business, the stadium, all that stuff. And it's come at the expense of they had the same guy running the team, Daniel Levy, who has been running the club for 25 years. He just departed. The club became so big to the point where he wasn't doing a good enough job overseeing the actual soccer team, you know, the buying and the selling of the players. And they just let the, the transfer strategy completely rot. And they embraced a bad kind of analytics that got them into a lot of bets on a lot of players that didn't have upside that maybe they thought they did. And now they're left with a pretty rotting core of untowented young players. So. So is there a villain? Like who are the, who are the Spurs fans? You know, you probably point to, I think some Spurs fans would probably point to Thomas Frank who managed the club at the beginning of this season and was a really heralded hiring. He had come over from a Brentford. He played smart football, which was tactically a stew. And he had Brentford was a really pretty small London club punching way above their way. And I think people thought it was a pretty logical hire. And it just went so disastrously and so poorly. And then to wonder who was the manager in between Frank and Deservi? Yeah, Igor Tudor. That's right. Very short. And this guy who's supposed to be basically an emergency room surgeon and his expertise is to like keep them up. And he shows up and like, I think he was gone, what and like 19 days, what, how long was he there, right? It was, it was less than Liz trust. I think it was like 40, 20 something days. Yeah. This is one of the first Liz trust men's and engines on Phil's pod. This is great. And now they've got this guy, Roberto Deservi, who came over from, he was coaching in France in at Marseille and he plays like really electrifying football. But it just might be too late. And you know, these guys are coming in. It's like hiring a coach in any other league mid season. It's like, you're not practicing all the time. You've got games every like three days pretty much. And now it's, it's really just like all hands on deck. Sunday is going to be nuts for that. So is what are the stakes for the players and the team, right? Because if this happened to like, I don't know, the Chicago Bulls, Josh Gidey would care that he was down in the G league for a year and he would have no way of getting out of his contract. Can all these guys like get out of their deals like what happens? That's the thing. It's a little bit of a black box. You don't really know. Now a lot of the lower rank teams, when they sign contracts with those teams, the players will get some kind of relegation clause. But you know, when you're negotiating with Tottenham, are they still making sure to, you know, cross the tees and dot the eyes to make sure that there's clause in there. So we don't entirely know. Yeah. Wow. So entirely public. Just how many players can leave. Or they do have still multiple world class players, Christian Romero, who's going to start for Argentina this summer, Mickey Vandavene, James Madison, who's been, you know, Premier League champion in the past. Like there's plenty of players in this team that could go and play in other Premier League teams or other countries and be very, very successful there. So those guys are going to want out and you can't just hold them hostage. Right. So it's going to be very fascinating to see what happens this summer. They're also going to want to sell high on whatever. I mean, if you call selling it, if you call it selling high because they've been relegated. So their value on a player for player basis is probably lower than it's ever been. But they'll probably try and sell high to like mitigate some of the financial losses they're going to experience. That would be no fans for you. Well, then the money, the TV money, there's something, there's something to be said for. I've seen, there is history of teams going down and like, it's almost like a cleanse. You know what I mean? Like, we have to get all the bad blood out. Maybe we get some of these contracts out like we're going to immediately be these runaway favorites to go wire to wire to win the championship next year. I mean, Tottenham in the championship is insane. So I would assume that they will probably have a pretty glorious run in the championship where they they kick ass all season and their fans, the ones you show up. I don't know if they'll be like a full capacity Tottenham stadium, but it it'll be like fun. It's just going to be weird because you're in the gym. Nice to win again. Yeah. Yeah. So this is Red Sox and then Triple A. Yes. Basically, but you did ask the like, who is it fault here? Daniel Levy is the first name, Johan Long, who's the new sporting director. He's the second name. But this is not a one year issue. And I think that's the one other problem. They finished 17th last year. They had the most bizarre season where Ange Pasta Kaga was their manager. They finished 17th and they were never actually in danger of getting relegated. 18th is relegation because the gap was pretty big, but they barely won any games the second half of the season. They put all their eggs into the Europa League, which is a secondary competition. They won that. They won their first trophy in 18 years, 17 years last year. And then they had to make a decision on the manager. He just won you your first trophy in 17 years. But you were awful. Most of the season, they fired him. And a lot of people had mixed opinions on that decision. He's probably looking down, smiling at the moment, at the fact they might be relegated. Ange Pasta Kaga. So for the people that don't know this, that are listening, I wrote a whole giant column about trying to pick up Premier League team. I think in '07, it was before my second kid was born. And I really tried to get into it for a couple of years. I watched a lot of soccer and my daughter started playing and I actually did follow it. And then I just couldn't keep up. There was too much sports. There was too much parent stuff. It is funny CR that I picked what seems to be the perfect team for me. I think I really would have enjoyed this Tottenham ride the last 20 years. So I would be losing my mind right now if they're about to get relegated. Yeah, you should also maybe have chosen Liverpool in the first place so you could see where all of John Henry's money was going. Yeah, that true. So that was the runner up. But I think they had had a little too much success when I was trying to figure it out. I wanted a team that, you know, was going to, they were going to rise up and exercise demons, all this stuff and it just happened. Yeah, there's nothing like a Raffi Devers getting traded and it'd be being able to text you would be like, thanks again. It didn't really work out though, Liverpool just spent the most money they've ever spent on one player. The same way that Rafael Devers was traded. Unbelievable. That's why we all want him to sell. So West Ham, what is the NFL NBA equivalent to them, like mid level? That's a good question. I think of them more like Chicago Bulls, like they are historically really well supported club. They, I don't even know if they've ever, they never really had a Jordan era, although they have been great in the past historically, but they have moved into the London Olympic Stadium out of Upton Park, which is where they moved into, you know, this giant cavern of a stadium. And it's been pretty bad for the last couple of seasons. I think they, they, they made some noise in the conference league to Bundo. I can't remember. They won the conference. They won the conference league. The third tier, you're kind of in competition below the NIT level tournament in Europe. If they go down, it's actually equally catastrophic. I mean, their owners are em battled. They've got to lease on this stadium that their fans don't like going to, and they don't have nearly the talent pipeline. I don't think the taught them, you know? - No, they don't have the resources either. I mean, they're a mid-table financial club with more history than that, but you mentioned the stadium thing. I went to London Stadium last year. It is not a very exciting place to watch a game. They don't get great crowds. The noise has kind of just got a running track that separates the stands from the field. So it's just like, oh my god. I went to that stadium for the 2012 Olympics. I can't believe that that's where they play. - Yeah, and Upton Park was like famously very loud and like a tough place to play, and they just haven't had that. And they've done a similarly bad job with squad recruitment. Like they've recruited a lot of players. They don't really fit together and then tried four different managers and none of them have worked. But since David Moise left, it's been a study decline. So this was the biggest, primarily, story of this year. Was there something else? - I mean, Arsenal winning the title for the first time in 18 years. - 22. - 22 years? - Yeah. - It's just a big story. I think the reason why maybe people who are outside of the internal, like the Arsenal fandom, like I was funny. I was just recording "Wait a second" with "Conceptsune" and he was saying that he was going to London soon and I was like, oh, for the parade. He was like, what do you mean? I was like, Arsenal just clinched the title and he had like kind of a stroke, what I told him. But, you know, for Arsenal fans, I think it's been incredibly rewarding and I used to have a lot of affection for Arsenal as like a neutral kind of like, I liked watching them play. But this season has been pretty, it's kind of like what happened to the thunder where it was like, they're everybody's darlings a couple of years ago. - Oh, are they fine? - No, it's, but they scored a quarter of their goals have come off of quarter kicks. - I have a comp. - I have a comp. And a lot of people in my community got mad at me for this, they are the Eagles. - Oh. - They are the Eagles, like the 2025. - Yeah, they literally are essentially boring to watch. They win with their elite defense and their goals this year, like the main difference between them and their main title contenders was that they mastered the art of the set piece and they built what's called a meatball where they just like block the goalie out and then they send the ball in and they're bigger and taller than everybody else so they just score all these headed goals of set pieces and look, credit to them. Don't hate the player, hate the game. But they're not a fun team to watch. So it's like when you watch Caruso endure like foul four times in a possession, it's like, well, you can only really call one foul, right? So like, we'll just do it everywhere. - Well, see how you know I'm a big set piece guy. (laughing) - That's for real. I really feel like it's underrated part of soccer. - Is that part of the set piece? - Listen, my daughter has come up later on this pod. We've spent 17 years of watching her on soccer teams and as you get older, they're always these teams. It's like the secret sauce and they figure it out and they get like one free kick goal, one corner kick goal and they win two nothing. And you're like, what just happened? We dominated a possession all the time. - Yeah, anyway, I like this set piece. - That's arsenal. And that's honestly, it's creating a larger question about the World Cup this summer too. How is that gonna be officiated? Because the ball was in play less this year and the Premier League than it's ever been. Set piece goals were up. It's not even just corners and free kicks now. Teams have guys, Brentford has a guy whose main job is that he can throw the ball over his head 40 yards and they just make sure to bring him in so that he can, whenever side of the field they're on, he comes in and throws the ball 40 yards into the penalty area and then they just scrum around. It's not the most exciting. When you think of the beautiful game, you're not thinking of that. - I think for a lot of people watch the Premier League this year and we're like, there's something kind of missing here and then we had a Champions League semi-final between Bayern Munich and PSG that happened a couple of weeks ago. - Electric. - It was like shooting drugs right into your carotard. It was like, I was like, oh, I've missed this. This is what this sport's supposed to be. This is so electric and then you go back and watch guys who are just basically fouling each other on set pieces on their way to a title. It's kind of a bummer. - So Champions League, the final. DeBundo, did you make a pick yet? - Yeah, it's funny. I think it's a toss up and the betting odds have PSG as a favorite. This is the classic clash of styles. PSG have way better attackers. But when they played last year, Arsenal was right there. I think Arsenal's very live to win it. They're not, again, it's not the sexy pick, even Victor Wembañama weighed in. He was making fun of Arsenal's play style. Said, of course, PSG, of course he's French. But he was saying nobody wants Arsenal to win and except for Arsenal fans, it does feel that way. As like the numbers nerd though, I do think they're pretty even teams. - CR, Premier League title and Champions League and the span of the month, that's impressive. - Yeah, it would be really like a really significant achievement for them. And for our title, the MacKellar title, the manager for Arsenal. The other big headline coming out of the Premier League season, if since you asked like that a couple of minutes ago is, this we found out is going to be the last season, the Pep Guardiola manages Man City. So he's been there for, what is it? 13, 10 years, something like that. Like, he's won an obscene amount of titles, like in terms of Premier League titles, FA Cups, Carabao Cups, over that time period. And it kind of marks the end of an era at the Premier League. - Do we like Arsenal fans? - I love many Arsenal fans. - Jeff Chasner, Arsenal fan, right? - Ian Wright is an Arsenal legend. - What type of personality? - Yeah, what kind of personality type is an Arsenal fan? - Are they the most popular fan base in America? - I think there's a huge crossover between Arsenal and Nick's fans. - Yeah, that's enlightening. That makes sense. - I feel that too. - Who is our least favorite fan base right now? - Well, my answer is still going to be Arsenal. That's because my phone has been just off the hook and I'm what am I supposed to say? I mean, I picked them before the season. I told you guys it was going to happen. You can't throw it in my face. They still will, of course, as they should. - What about UCR, which are least favorite fan base? - I think it's a Liverpool fan Manchester United fans from my least favorite fan base. - I remember when I was doing that exercise. I really wasn't intrigued by Newcastle, but part of the exercise was I need to go, if I go overseas for a game, what would be a fun trip and Newcastle a lot, but I really liked how kind of tortured. - Well, there's a fair amount of speculating. So Newcastle and the intervening years, they were heavily invested in by the Saudi P.I.F. And now people are speculating that something similar could happen to them that happened to live. - Oh, yeah. - Well, it won't be a catastrophic, probably, but they are looking for outside investment. It looks like they are trying to unwind their sports position. - World cup starting, what are we down to a month? - Last week. - Less. - Less. - Four weeks? - Three weeks. - Three weeks. - Yeah. - Debundo, this is the greatest summer of your life. - I'm very excited. - The greatest sports year of my life. I was talking about this with Shield a couple weeks ago. We just had the PGA at Aeronomic. I was down there on Sunday. We've got all-star game in Philly this year. It's a great year for Philly. But then, yeah, the World Cup, the Winter Olympics were great. I'm not sure we'll have a better sports year. However, that could change on Sunday. If Tottenham gets relegated, I don't feel like this is the best sports year of my life. Debundo, you checked any of the resellers to see what those World Cup tickets are going for. - How did they drop in? - Are they dropping? - Yeah, they are now. Okay. I mean, we didn't get the best late. Have you looked at Philly Slate CR? - Yeah, it's not that great. It's not the sexiest slate. I've recosed Ecuador. That's going to be like the Dark Horse Battle. But other than that, we got a pretty mediocre slate. - Debundo, you know about CR, right? World Cup Bigamist, leading two separate lives, like those lifetime movies where the person has the separate family with another house. - Who would be my Netflix title for you? - World Cup Bigamist, that would be it. With a picture of you with like a jersey that has two different logos on it. - That's right. - What did you root for on Black Friday in 2022? - I can't recall. - Did you give a nice little golf clap when it ended in a draw? - Honestly, he's not going to say, but he's like probably 60, 40, England. - Honestly, it's not that hard to be seated, man. - You're rooting for a team that has, I don't really like the USMNT, honestly. - That's the thing. That's what he's talked himself into is, I don't like how we're run. I don't like our style and culture. I don't like our youth program system. My father was English. - I was introduced to the game through his perspective, through his lens. I always enjoyed like the drama around the English. - Yeah, I support it. You don't have to apologize to us. But when you're a sports bigamist, there's always a chance the two teams are going to play and you're going to have some real reconciling to do. I don't think that would be this year because I don't think that's going to be a problem. - I don't, it doesn't seem like a, I saw Rob Stone this weekend, actually, who's obviously having an involvement in the World Cup. And I was like pushing him to get me excited about the American team. And he tried, I felt like he was going through the motions and it just feels like even though everybody seems to agree, it's one of the more talented teams we've ever had. And we have all these good American soccer players. Nobody seems to think they're going to do that world in the World Cup. So you agree with that, DeBundo? - Well, I will say they got some bad news because their best center back went off injured for Crystal Palace over the week. So if he's out, they have no good center backs. They're already had a problem where they only have one. - You need that. - The second one is going to be a 38 year old Tim Reem who's looking a little old for MLS. And so the defense looks problematic. The goalie situation is the worst. It's been my lifetime and the defensive situation looks bad. However, the good news is their star attacker Christian Pulisic, he has not scored yet in Syria in 2026. So he's doing great. too. A lot of excitement for a team US say at the World Cup. Brutal. Who, who, see our, who do you think's going to win? Do you have a pick yet? You know, this is one of the hardest ones to pick in a long time, just because of the unique nature of like playing outdoors in America and the summer is going to, I think, sweat down some of the veteran teams. You know, so I think I am leaning France, but I don't, I don't really know. I'm mean, France is just so talented from like one to like, they could, a second team France could probably make it to the last four. You know, yeah. So the bundle, that's what I was looking at too, because I think Wendy's going to win the NBA title. And I'm a big believer in the cluster theory and him winning the title on American soil, followed by France, followed by all of us wondering how we let this happen with France and we thought we got rid of them a bunch of times over the years. I made fun of France on a pod. I got a long email from somebody who's like, Hey, we've been there for you for like seven wars with the fall. I really, really bad. Did that all that for nothing? Sorry. But, but yeah, I wonder, I do wonder if there's a cluster theory. Who do you like for the World Cup? I mean, if you just lined up the team, France is the most talented. Like, I don't even think it's debatable. And by the way, if you're doing narratives too, Keeling and Bob Bay, talk about a guy who kind of needs a big World Cup. Yeah. Because PSG might win a second consecutive champions league since he departed. Look, also made using theory. All Madrid is exploding like on his watch right now. Yeah. There are 40 million signatures from Madridistas to get him out at Real Madrid. They're not very happy with Keeling, even though he scores a lot of goals. But yeah, I mean, France is the most talented team. Spain, you know, Luminium all is their best player. He's not going to be healthy for the start of the tournament. He's got a leg injury that he probably won't be 100% and you never know with those. I actually like CR's England a lot. I like that they have a real master who has tactical know how this time. I'm like gyro Southgate. But again, like, do I trust the English in the American summer to not wilt? It's going to be like, it's going to be quarter final semi finals. And it's a panel issued out. And then it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's hard to like project out when you know that's looming. I think that there's a couple of interesting storylines going into the cup. One of them is Debunda just alluded to that there's a couple of really good managers working in this one. Obviously, Pochotino is managing the USMNT. He comes from among other places, Tottenham. Carlo Antillotti is managing the Brazilian national team. And it's just, I think this is his first time as an international manager, but he just wins shit a lot. And I would keep an eye on Brazil, even though they've got kind of a chaotic roster. And Thomas Tuchel, who's managing England is, is pretty tactically astute. So there's a lot of interesting stuff happening in that department. It's probably the most talented group of managers we've ever had in the World Cup. Like, you don't often see a lot of the elite club guys go do international. And a lot of them are just like, yeah, I'll go take my shot at the World Cup. Why not? Any weirdness for England considering it'll be 250 years since we sent them the fuck out of here, CR, sent them packing. I think it'll be weird to come back out of the university or no. He never comes up. That's not going to come up at the pre-game. Can if they play on July 4th, like they're definitely losing, right? Yeah. They'll be at the back of their head, you know, when we push them out to bundle. Can you give us a dark horse, please? US is 55 to one to win the World Cup. I would advise people not to wager on that. No, please do not bet that. Underdogs never win. Actually, win the World Cup. There's only eight countries that have ever wanted. Seven of them are in this tournament. Italy, I guess would be my second country. They didn't quite make it once again. But Ecuador is going to be my team. I love this team. They were this, they were actually better than Brazil in World Cup qualifying. They have three or four guys who are mainstays on Champions League teams. And they're best to bundle. Yeah. I don't think they can win it. But like, you know, they're in a group with Germany. I think they match up pretty well with them. Ivory coach, like that's going to be a really fun, underrated group. And I think nobody's going to want to play them because they only gave up, I think it was five goals in 18 South American World Cup qualifying matches. So elite defensively, not a ton of goals there. So probably low ceiling, but I think they can make a run. They're not that different from what Morocco did a few years ago, in terms of like having a handful of really good players and a good system and a good defense. It would have been funny if the bundles, like, you know, I'm looking at Sweden, really well-run country, really have liked everything. Everything I've heard about. I don't like the Swedes. As a dark horse. Yeah, what do you got for dark horse? I love the Swedes as a people, but not as the soccer team this year. You know, Netherlands, what are they? Plus 2000. I mean, that's interesting to me. They have a lot of really nice players. I bet they tend to burn quick and then, and then flame out like a crucial moments and tournaments, but they have like a really solid squad. So I think that's a nice one. Look at we love a little bit Eurocentric when it comes to the World Cup kind of favoritism, though. It's hard for me, you know, to see Argentina, for instance, at plus 900, like, getting back into it here. So I, as it stands now, I'm looking at the Netherlands. So eight countries ever and one is not in. Yep. That's Italy. Three straight world cups are Italians missed. I want to do a 30 for 30 about that Netherlands team in the 70s, and we never got it together. Oh, the Johan Croix. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were kind of like the 2000 Steve Nash sons of the 1970s. Basically, we're talking about that back at Gorilla. Yeah. We always circled that idea. We never, we never got there. All right. Well, Debundo, good luck on Sunday. It sounds like you're going to, it sounds like you're okay. You just need, need a draw against the team that doesn't care if they win or lose. It sounds like that's right. And it wasn't too loose anyway. And they, they could find. Yeah. Odds are probably like six to one that we go down five to one, but it's high enough that I'm uncomfortable. All right. CR, I'm glad we're still getting along after six or six. I think this water into the bridge, brother. It just turned out badly for both of us. You know what? That's one of the things that was actually comforting about watching the Spurs last night. I was like, Oh, you know what, this is a different sport. Like, it was, it was, it really had no fucking shot. It was like, Keita against Wampanyama. Yeah. I mean, not even even go to the finals anyway, but I was, this happens right around now last couple of NBA seasons. I'm like, Oh, that's how far we are. There are levels, not even bad. Yeah. There's a speed thing. And you can really feel with the perimeter guys too. There was a speed thing going on. It's almost like watching two lightweight boxers or weltway boxers. And they're just flying. They're like, Oh, man, I was watching Crusoe getting stronger as the game went on. And I was like, never mind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was wondering what was going on with them. Yeah. Maybe you got some poor joy. I was like, this is nuts. Yeah. They're just going to leave him open all series. Is that the plan? I was hoping this is. Well, that's the, the Spurs on the flip side that I think they're going to let Fox and Harper just take threes now. I think you have to double Wembee, right? You can't, you got, you basically have to live and die with guys on the Spurs and perimeter threes would be my guess. But are you up or down for the playoffs? The bundle? I'm up. Thanks to Jalen Dern. What a guy that he's been great. You know, you hate to do it. I hate watch sometimes, but I bet under 0.3,000 assists in every game. Well, series tear roger. We went six and one. He tear roger. Yeah, I've been listening to some of series. And then I actually crucible over last night, which might have been the easiest win in my life. Oh my gosh. A lot of fun. Yeah. I went big on Spurs nicks after around one. And have said I went on the Spurs this year. I have a lot of Spurs stuff. I just said some point. Just said some point was like, what are we doing here? These odds are out of whack. But now the odds are now it's like they're dead even. It's minus 108 for Spurs or OK. See, it couldn't be more even. You know, we were on the verge of NBA history, though. Which we never before has the NBA cup final. Then repeat it. You love this. The long story history. You made Sal love this. Sal is now excited about this. He's like the kind of rematch. We could get a rematch if we get Spurs nicks. And the cup heads are very excited about it. We're very excited. It does feel like the biggest possible finals we could have. Like when the New York, when the end of the garden, the best we can do, I think. Right. And probably the toughest, I would say if it does happen, those tickets at MSG will be the single hardest finals tickets, probably ever. Do you see there's already a stub hub court side price for game one of the finals for the next? Is it like 30,000? There was one listed for 100,000, which I think might have been over listed. So many tweeted for 100,000. I got to be checking into the game. Well, the other thing that's probably fair, the other thing is dull and controls all this stuff. And isn't going to work with the league. And he's just going to be like, I've made promises to Bobby Bakola and Matthew Bodine and all these other people that had been going forever. Like why are we always going to drag Bodine through the mud here? It's been a great, he's been a great nicks liberty supporter. We still, I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that Sixers games three, whether it was really M Night Shyamalan who gave his tickets to Timothy Shalamate to allow him to sick court side and fill it. Oh, is that a rumor? It's a controversy. Would that be a, we'd have to ban him, right? Yeah, I mean, to the extent that like he is the most notable court side guy and I mean, that's disgusting. If that's what he did, that would really be horrible. CR, I'll see you on Friday because we're doing animal house. This is the last comedy. This could be the last free watch was ever the bundle. I'll be watched. I'm wearing a gambling set head of the crew for me. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Jelly mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mavily New York. I think it might be his first podcast. We wanted to put him in front of this face, but we thought the mic would freak him out, but he's here. He looks like he's gonna nap there in this. He's just happy to be here. He's happy to be here. All right, so we used to call this for realsies. We called a team patrol, now you're 21, you turned 21 two weeks ago. You're a young adult. I am. How does that make you feel? Are you feeling old? Terrible. Yeah, I'm sorry. I feel awful. It was fun having drinks with you on your 21st birthday, though, and watching you flash your ID to everybody. I'd like to stay at this age forever. Now that I'm here, I don't want to get in the older. It's an exciting time for me, but probably a daunting time for you and mom. Do you want to say final thanks to all the fake ID people you were over there? I will. I'll say I was Quinn. Thank you, Quinn, for your service. I was always Simmons, but I lived in Bakersfield, so I lived in Long Beach. I appreciate all my old homes. Thank you, everyone, for your service. I told you I was barred to Osborne for like two and a half years. I just can't believe that anyone would believe your name was barred. And I was five, ten, and I would always crouch when I was buying. So anyway, I'm glad you're 21. Welcome to adulthood. We're going to talk about Euphoria first, the most important show of your generation of the 2020s. Went away for a while. The stars on the show became super famous, almost too famous to be in a TV show. Now the show is back. And polarizing are people mad at what's the deal? Yeah. People aren't happy about what's going on with this season. Why? I have a few issues with it. Well, first of which, it's the Cassie show, which no one signed up for. At the beginning of Euphoria, it was all surrounded by room. Ru is the center, and then all of the exterior relationships were kind of sidepots. But this season, it feels like Sydney, Sweeney, and her boobs are the two main characters. And everyone else is just kind of doing their own thing. So there's been a lot of dialogue in our house about this, about why they chose to do this. And either she's making fun of the persona that people seem to think she is the last four years, or Sam Levinson, the creator and director. He's making fun of her, and she doesn't realize it. So where do you stand? I would like to believe that the first reason would be the correct one. But at the same time, Sydney, Sweeney, and every single brand deal, every single internet thing that she's done has made me believe that she genuinely is that type of person. Like the American Eagle ad was a conversation within all of my classes in college for months on end, far too long. But it's because there were some triggering people were triggered. But like, I mean, I just don't, I think she, that is who she is, and honestly props to her for standing so true to her identity, I guess, but I think Sam Levinson is making fun of her. The monstrous boob version of Sydney, Sweeney, destroying all of LA was kind of like, oh, maybe he's not on her side here. The Godzilla boobs. Godzilla boobs. I said it was like one of the highlights of her career to do that. I'm sure it was because her career is within this area of her body. So of course, she's going to be ecstatic that her boobs were bigger than like the stadium or the staple center. Yeah. So you didn't like the boxing movies where you tell me I'm sure it was, I don't know. I have a problem with her. Why can't get into her characters because she's just the same person in every show. Yeah. But to me, he feels the most authentic to her and this season has reigned true to that. But she's the first biggest problem. Okay. My second biggest problem is that Nate Jacobs has become, am I allowed to say the P word here? Sure. You say what you want. Nate Jacobs has become a major pussy and he's, but he's, we have to remember that he beat up Maddie Perez in season one. He singlehandedly put his father in jail and uprooted his whole life and he was the biggest bully at the school that they went to. And now he's getting bossed around by Sidney Spoonie and her big boobs and, and these gangsters that are sorting him for money. Right. It's like Nate, wouldn't you think that you should start carrying like a gun or maybe like a pocket knife or something to defend yourself? You're just going to keep getting limbs cut off without doing anything. I think you're six five and you're a former quarterback. You can't fight back against anybody. That's what I'm saying. I really, I dislike the fact that he has been completely emasculated in this season. I love him. I like his toes and fingers. I liked when Jacob already was like this force in euphoria and he's no longer that. So that's a major problem. Okay. I'm also just not understanding where the season's going to go because we're six episodes in now and Rue has almost been murdered multiple times by the new person that she works for. Maddie's somehow getting involved in this entire stripper deal and, right? It's just Sidney Spoonie boobs. So it's like, where is the, where is everything going to come together? I'm not sure. And it's Rue making this face for pretty much nine percent of the episodes. Yeah. She always looks like that. That's a good job, Dad. We look pretty happy. I kind of like you. I'm like that. I'm scared. I don't like that. Yeah. But you have to say something too. She's like, come on, man. Come on. I don't know. I feel like she's great actress, obviously. I feel like she's a little bit on autopilot this season. I mean, she has a lot of shit going on. Probably the biggest female movie star we have. It's just like, oh, fuck, I gotta be on season three of this show. So I, I feel like if this was basketball, this would be like Jason Tatum in February playing the nets and just kind of running up and down and shooting threes. I'm with you. It seems like Sidney Spoonie is the only one that's really like into it and she might need this. This was her starting place and maybe, I mean, she's huge. So I don't know if that's accurate. So how much, how much content have you consumed about Sidney and Zendaya and not not being in the same place and never filming the same? Because you pointed out in the wedding scene, you never actually saw them on screen together. They're never on screen together. And Zendaya just doesn't like her. I mean, that's at least what I've, I've read and I've heard through the media. Yeah. I don't, I just don't want to say things that might not be true. I don't think she likes her. Yeah. And more than that, I do respect the fact that she values herself as an actress to such a level where she's not going to, like, put herself in that position to be in scenes with someone she dislikes. At the same time, it just, it fucks with the show. And there are multiple relationships on the show where people don't want to be on screen with one another, which is problematic because they're just, they get rid of the girl from faces of death. What's her name? Oh, um, Barbie Ferrara. We kind of like that movie. I, we were all right with it. I thought it was good. She was definitely dialing it out. I like her a lot. But she also had her own problems with Sam Levinson. Yeah. It's been too much time, too much baggage, too much shit has happened. Honestly, I was surprised that this season is as compelling as it is because I thought it was going to be a total train wreck. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, I'm happy to watch it. You know, I'm not a tough audience like I can watch anything and be like, that was enjoyable. I'm having a good time. I just want to know, like, some consistency of the plot line or where this is going. No, tell me lies for you. What do you mean? It's like not even close to tell me lies. How excited you are after that season. No, because that, I mean, because we had a villain the whole time. This show, it's like our villain is so inconsistent and I wanted Nate Jacobs be the villain because he's my favorite villain. Yeah. And now he's just like this fucking loser that's like hiding out in his house, waiting for more toes and fingers to be cut off. So. I'm going to see I have 10 fingers. 10 toes. He's down. He's like 17 left. I can get cut off. Yeah. It's like maybe Nate Jacobs pick up a pocket knife. That's all that I've just said. And you were happy with the Tommy lies season finale, right? Absolutely. I mean, it was, it was great. Some people had some things to say. I honestly like that Stephen one because I thought Lucy was a bigger loser than he is. So. Interesting. At least he had some ambition and he was committed to the fact that he's an awful person. Lucy spent the whole season trying to convince everyone that she wasn't. Meanwhile, she is. So. And then you love JFK love story with the other one of the best, the best weekly. I hate to say this. I probably should have known more about what happened with them, but I really didn't know much. Yeah. So watching this show for me was like, it was a lot to take in because I really didn't know much about what happened to him or her. But she's incredible. Did you know you knew they died, right? I only knew that JFK died. I didn't know that Carolyn Bassett also died. So that was, I mean, I loved that show. I wish more shows like that would come out just about the ins and outs of like really popular relationships. You might like the OJ show. Maybe we should watch that before. I mean, how's the left turn, but yes, that was the same kind of show where it was like real life, but really well done with the actors and I think she's great too. The lady that plays Carolyn Bassett, I can remember her name, but she'll be huge. She's gorgeous. I like her color of Bassett. Bassett. I think it's Bassett. Bassett. Carolyn Bassett. Sorry, Carolyn. You liked her. You thought that 90s style was back. Oh, yeah. Well, she's just classic. And I like that the internet's like dressing like Carolyn Bassett today. And it's like, no, like you're just dressing like a chic normal person, like, but the internet just likes to ascribe labels and names of things that don't need them. But I do like that her style is coming back into the forefront because she's great. And you like that roommate show on the movie The Sandler's. Awesome. I love everything that those two girls do. And obviously, Sandler is like my, he's my peak. I just, I love him the most. Yeah. That movie was great. I mean, as someone that's in college and you have roommates, obviously, my roommates have never, ever been like that person. But it's just interesting to see and to watch and be like, that was funny. And I understand what you mean and how you feel. The algorithm really understands you. So your MVP of 2026 is Lord. Yes. Who you just saw in concert last week and you said it was the greatest night of your life. She's just, I don't have many musical artists that I feel that way for. With her, it's like time stops. Like I get really weird about Lord. I love, love, love her. Is that a polarizing opinion or do most people feel the way? No, I think that people, because she's been labeled like cringe at times or her music is like too old or outdated, because we all listened to it when I was 10. Remember Royals? What's cringy though? The, the, the, oh Royals. Yeah. But just because she's been around for such a long time, people have problems with people who have remained successful that long. And also, like she's had some moments at concerts where she's like, shush the crowd and done some things, but she just like really feels things in the internet doesn't get that sometimes. I think that people that listen to her music feel the same way that I do. And you like the Maggie, what's her face too, right? Maggie Rogers. Oh yeah, she's great too. Me and mom have loved her forever, but Lord is, is everything to me and her concert was impeccable. There's just not a miss in any of her songs. Even if you don't know her music, it's just like every song has a beat, every song is cool. And she is like a polarized, like the way that she dances, just her as a figure. Like she's just, she's awesome. What's her demo? I'd say people my age. So everyone in the crowd was like around girls, I mean, at least in the, we were in the pit. And that was like all the people that are dancing, but I think Lord is for everyone. Like mom loves Lord. I think people who like music like Lord because she's a great lyricist. And like with the way that she writes and the things that she says, like they really relate to people. So who else do you like these days? Who are you listening to? Well, I'm still a big camp fan. I know you have your mixed feelings. I'm not against that. You and I just need to get a room with you. Yeah. We'll get a room and go to camp. But I love camp. Muffin and sons are, I mean that concert last summer was probably one of the best I've ever seen. I'm gonna see them again this summer. You'll see them in a friendly way. Absolutely. Like they, he is, Marcus Mumford is incredible. It just brings me a lot of joy to see artists who are like sticking true to who they are and don't have to do all the theatrics in order to perform and can just like let their voices be the thing. I also like Sabrina Carpenter now, though, which kind of goes against that. Yeah, that was an interesting turn for you. Even like her for a while. I really like her music now. But it's also because I think I'm in a more fun part of my life. Yeah. And I love to like go out with my friends and dance and her music is dancing music. So now it's a little more like relatable to me. And also when you're happy, I feel like you like happy music and her music is happy music. So Sabrina Carpenter, good hang or bad hang do you think? I think she's probably great. She's definitely great. She's been media trained. She's been in like on Disney Channel since she was 10 years old. At that point, you can't not be great. She's great. I'm telling you. Shappa Ron Tuffang. I don't even want to speak on her. She doesn't deserve her here. Speaking of Tuffang's. Oh God. Alex versus Alex, but that was another thing you were fascinated by. Alex Earl versus Alex Cooper. And you, you were listening to Caller Daddy back when it was pretty raunchy. Yeah. And then you stopped it. Back when Alex Cooper like when her pod was good. Yeah. I don't it's it's safe to say I have my side and it's with Alex Earl. Stay true to Alex Earl. Yeah. Um, I think this argument is so ridiculous. Well, can you give us the backstory because I guarantee 99% of my audience doesn't know it's not exactly. Here's what I know. Alex Cooper. First, she has her, her partner Sophia. Yes. Who she somehow cut out and got the pod herself grew the pod. Came to Spotify became a much bigger pod. Went to serious. Did like some really strange documentary that your grandfather stormed out of the room for her and tried to wipe. Like literally left. He doesn't storm out of most things either. I've seen him storm out of a room before. He's like, I don't like this person. I'm out of here. Um, but anyway, she, she builds this little, uh, little, I guess, little media empire. Alex Earl is her first big hit, but they have some sort of falling out, which to me from afar knowing nothing. Well, I can fill you in. Yeah, tell us. So, um, I'm assuming from what I've read, Alex Cooper gave Alex Earl a non-compete contract where she wasn't allowed to obviously non-compete contract means you can't do anything that would be competitive with Alex Cooper's brand. Yeah. And then Alex Earl comes out with sit marks, which is obviously a hit because it's a low calorie tequila drink and all of Alex Earl's fans are like little girls that just like, I mean, not little girls, girls that would like, like, to drink that. And Alex Cooper, I came out with that unwell hydration drink, which, I mean, I've never tried it. I have heard good things so I won't give shit to that, but I think that was where the problem kind of started to arise where Alex Cooper was like, hey, fuck you. I told you not to do anything that's going to compete with my stuff. But even before that Alex Earl's podcast was on Alex Cooper's unwell network. Yeah. And then something happened in all of the sudden. I think that kind of started the drinks thing. I think Alex Cooper is a mean girl is what I've I've gotten from the internet. And I think she's insecure in a sense. And so she had somebody that was on her podcast that where it goes. That was bigger than her. Yeah. Like and in a more authentic way, because Alex Cooper was cool and people liked her because of the stories that she would tell. Yeah. Which without a doubt are super raunchy and like intense and that people's feelings are at expense of her stories, but they're interesting. And Alex Earl is kind of like a more authentic, cool, relatable, older sister type who people just like in a way that's like more connected than people like Alex Cooper. Yeah, because you you'll watch her. She does stuff like she's just doing her makeup, getting ready to go somewhere and it's the whole process of hanging out with her as she does that. She feels like a friend. And like Alex Cooper couldn't do that because she's not like a bowl to most people because she's known to be mean. Yeah. So I think that was obviously it's like well to some degree because she is a pretty big audience. I was part a part of that audience at some point until all of this people in the internet are calling her a vulture, I guess, which is I mean, I have nothing to say on that, but people are saying and part of the problem is that Alex Cooper will come to you when you've had some terrible traumatic life event and will be the first person to kind of pick at your body and be like, let's talk about this. I didn't say that. That's what the internet saying. Yeah. But that's kind of like a part of the thing. So then anyway, Alex Cooper comes out with this video adding Alex Earl being like Alex. I've seen you reposting all of this stuff. Like just come out and say it. We were all like holy shit, but it also felt like a skit. It was like the most the weirdest like video ever. Just like, I mean, you think that she has such a big team where they'd be like, maybe make this sound a little bit more whatever. Did you feel like at all that in wrestling, we would call this a work that they were trying to do this to. But then it's weeks and weeks and Alex Earl hasn't responded or addressed anything. She went on a talk show and they asked her about it and she was like, I didn't prepare for this. I don't want any negativity whatever. Well, like did not even give it a second of time, which leads me to believe that like, obviously they had a falling out, but people thought it might be a PR stunt. Like something else might be going on. But clearly something deeper rooted has happened and Alex Cooper is more willing to like blow things up and kind of be immature. And then Alex Earl wasn't wanting to feed into it. It's a whole debacle, but my stance is I'm on Alex Earl side and I think Alex Cooper is being a little immature. What are Alex Earl's? What are her next five years of quick? Well, she just launched a skincare brand called Real Actives, which people had interesting feedback for because most people thought she should have come out with a bikini brand or something that felt more like authentic to her audience. And a skincare brand is like Sidney Sweeney. Yeah, she's too cool for that. Sidney Sweeney can stay in her lane that she can do that. But Alex Earl, like she, she, there were opportunities. She chose skincare, which is I mean, sure. So that seems like it's going well. I've seen posts about it. People seem to like it. I haven't purchased it myself. And I don't think I will, but good for her. So your lane would have been core power yoga. Something, you know, like something that would have prompted people to purchase it more. I don't know. I think skincare is is a tough, whatever. It seems like she's doing well. And then she has sit marks. So she's, she's successful. She seems like she's doing well. All right. Just so people don't think you're caddy. Two people you really like. Did I sound caddy is that? Not at all. I apologize. Not at all. But you really like Kylie and Kendall. I do. I really do. We need to hold this now surprise because I felt like the Kardashians. They get it. They get a tough rep. They do. That's for sure. I wouldn't say it's, you know, completely undeserved. Yeah. Sure. At the same time, I'm like a huge Kylie stand. I'm still unclear on how I feel about Kendall because she has taken my husband. So I'm going to need a minute to think on that one. I'm not even ready to talk about that yet. How long have they been together? Kendall and they went to Hawaii last week. I almost threw my phone out the window. whatever um Kylie's great she she just really But what's great about it? Tell me why you like her. I think she's a super authentically kind person and obviously people might be like, what are you saying? She's one of the biggest stars and like, how could she be an authentically kind person? But in every single interview and every single fan interaction, everything that I've seen of her, she's just like a nice, cool, normal, down-to-earth person in light of everything that has happened to her. She's been in front of a camera since what she was like eight years old. And the fact that she's like a normal, cool, kind person that's liked by most of the people that she meets, like that says a lot to me because people aren't like that these days. What was the thing you were told me about when she had a kid and she gained weight and she was like actually talking about it? Well, she went on Jake's podcast last week, which is where this like real love ignited for me because I just, I love her personality. I was like, I'd be friends with this person in a heartbeat. Like, she seems great. Don't have a hard attack over that one. You'd be friends with whoever you want. You tend to overrate all Jake Shane appearances though. But she was talking about how when she had her daughter stormy, she was in the best shape of her life. And then she got pregnant and was eating kinds of ice cream every single night and bagels and all sorts of things. And by the time she was giving birth to her daughter, she was 200 pounds. And didn't even like flinch in saying that. And I just think in this day and age, especially with how skeletal people in Hollywood have become and like the GLP one and everyone's just so, so skinny for someone to admit that they were 200 pounds someone as like much of a force as Kylie Jenner is. And she's constantly talked about for her looks and everything. Yeah. Was I mean, I thought that that was pretty a cool thing to do. So I'm big and on her in the rundown. You sent me things you wanted to talk about. You wrote Kylie and Kendall have single handly taken down the twin towers. Jacob and Timmy. Well, that is my only problem with them. And they just went to Hawaii. Yeah. Well, um, Kendall and and Jacob went to Hawaii. And then they got caught on a double day. And there's some awesome paparazzi pictures of them in a car like covering their faces. Um, I think Kendall and Jacob are a great couple and will probably have beautiful children. So that's the route that it's going for. I do think that they're too big on their own to be able to be together in a way that could ever be normal, but I could be wrong. You know my theory about this. I've talked about this forever. I haven't two celebrities when they date two famous people, they have to stay in the same level in the moment one passes the other. They have to break up. Yeah. I don't know how to be like this. I can't start doing this. I don't think that the last, it's a fun moment though. And my prayers go to Olivia Jade because that's a tough one. That was the before Jacob already won. Jacob's X who was on and off for like seven years. That's the one who was the Lori Laugh one's daughter. Yes. I love her too. She like her. I love her. I love her. I watch all of her videos. Why do you like her? She's super cool and normal. Her videos, she doesn't really let her personality shine. It's just kind of like aesthetics getting ready, but she's super cute and has great style. I just, I like watching her stuff and her outfits and things. What's the TikTok Instagram attention span? What's happening in 2026? What's different in the last six years? In terms of people being able to, what do you mean? Are there any trends? Are people starting to realize maybe I shouldn't be on my phone this month? What's happening? I mean, people will say that, but will that ever happen? No. I think TikTok is just as big if not bigger than it was before, especially because there's now the shop, which is incredibly annoying to me, but a good move on their part. You know about the TikTok shop. Do you buy stuff? Yeah. Like the fact that there's consumer things now too, it just drags even more people in. Okay. Instagram at least for me is just becoming a place to post. It's not really a place that I like frequently scroll on. Instagram reels are great, but they're not as, I don't like get as much into a trance as I do with TikToks. Do you still go on people's posts when they post pictures of themselves and go, Gorge, I really don't. No, I don't do Gorge or Hearts. I'll only really call it on like my best friend's posts. You face out of it. You know, I'd like to get off of Snapchat at some point soon, but it's my main form of communication with my boyfriend and other people. Snapchat's still kicking. I don't judge me for that. What? That's people judge for using Snapchat, especially in relationships, but I just like to see the face. I like to see someone else's face. Well, you, you, your generation is this whole thing. We just take pictures of your where you are and send them to each other. Yeah. Like a real and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is how it is. I would rather, I just want to see photos. I think texting all the time is boring. Anyway. What social media device do you think? Murph would use? He needs a lobotomy or something. I don't know what's going on with him. He really has chilled out. It's impressive. He's old. He's almost six years old. He's not old. He was human. He'd be like 40. He's a baby. He still doesn't like other dogs. Yeah. Um, all right. Other stuff. You, you, you deep dove the pit. I did. Which last time you did a hospital drama that you binge was grazing at him during COVID and you, you, you personally, it put me into a place. Yeah. You were like in a dark spot for like three months. Well, you'll be happy to hear. I did rewatch Gray's Anatomy this last semester. That was my show. The entire show. It's like 18. No, no, no, we only got through like three, three seasons, I think. Yeah. He hasn't even seen George diet. So hopefully he's not missing to this. Yeah. Um, and then we switched over to the pit. Halfway through watching Gray's Anatomy. And it was like, I can't ever watch Gray's Anatomy again. The pitch is, so yeah, the pitch boils everything. Yeah. I mean, what an amazing show. I hate to say it. My attention span is short, especially when it comes to watching television. My attention span in regular life is fine. But when I'm watching TV, I need to be stimulated by something else, which is something I'm trying to work on. Yeah. Like even yesterday watching the Wombie game. We were watching a movie and I had. No, we watched the Wempie game and it was like one of the most important basketball games in the century and I did that despite you because you kept touching my phone and pissing you off. Well, I was just like, I'm not getting it. It touches your phone. You know, it doesn't touch. You're like Warren and there's something about bearing with the headphones. I don't like it. So I was trying to make you angry back. Anyway, um, the pit is phenomenal. But my point to that was that I didn't pick up my phone once at any point watching that. You're locked in because it moved so quickly. I wish we had more TV shows that were so fast paced like that. And just like, I don't know, the way that it was filmed was just special. So, you never left the hospital. There wasn't really any music. There's never a moment of calm. And like that, I mean, maybe that's a problem that that's the only reason why I wouldn't pick up my phone. But like, I think TV has gotten boring and there's too many pauses and things and this show was just like perfect. That that led to one of mom's best quotes when she said how she wish she'd been smarter because she would have been a great doctor. She would have been a great crawled doctor. She's not afraid of any sort of terrible situation. She doesn't get grossed out by blood. Her one problem is she panics. She's a panic or panic in the air though. She's a loud panic or though. Oh, God, what happened? And it's like you have this. Oh, that cops. Sorry, Murphy. Right. You just jostled with some of his nap. Yeah. Yeah. The pit is great. Anyone get canceled this year? Um, I mean, everyone gets canceled, but currently it's James Charles, which makes me sad because I actually was telling all my friends that I'm in on him and I was like, in spite of everything he's done, because a lot of people have done terrible things. And I acknowledge that he's a pretty, he's not a great person. He's done some weird shit. He's not a good person. Regardless, I started to like him again because I thought he was funny. Like I just saw a lot of clips of him just, he doesn't care. He's just becoming one of those people where just you'd say whatever he wanted. And it was like, that's funny because why would you do that? Whatever. Um, but he has just gotten canceled again. So there's no new person this year. There's no rookie the year come up. Well, I'm a big Stasi Schroeder fan back to the, um, or no, sorry, Stasi baby, not Stasi Schroeder. I'm sure she's great too. Stasi baby Kylie Jenner's best friend. She's my favorite right now. Kylie Jenner's best friend. Yes. She's an influencer. But they've been best friends since Kylie was a little kid and they were on Kardashians together. And then it's kind of like the internet grew up with her. She's great. I love her. So what does she bring to the table? She just does make up and is she, she goes out all the time. This is brain rot. She goes out all the time. And I love like watching her get ready. And then she films her night out with her friends. And it's just like, this is so fun to watch because there's nothing more fun than that. So, um, the drama was another one you liked the movie back to Zendaya. I thought it was great personally. Anything else? Any horror movie this year? Um, I'm excited for the, the back rooms. That will be really fun to watch. And it's also just incredible that a 20 year old is, is the person who produced it and created it. Yeah. That makes me want to see it even more. Um, but the idea about the back rooms has been something that has fascinated me for forever. So I'm excited to see it. I've been pointing that out to you a lot about these people when they're in your age range. Yeah. Just weird. It is to me that somebody who's 20 is making a movie and it went to 22 is a year older than me. Right. It does make you, it makes you feel bad about yourself. No, not it's just like, no, it does. But sometimes people peak early. You're doing great. Well, I mean, Taylor Swift and she was a 17 year old or 16, probably younger than that. Like came out the debut album. It's like this. I'm the, she's a generational musician. I know, but I'm just saying it's, it's, it's, it's weird getting older because the people around you. - Hey, Greg, I'm back about you all the time. - Thanks, I know. - Two jobs this summer. - Yeah. - It's impressive. - It'll be cool. I'm a core power yoga sculpt instructor if anyone's involved in what it goes to my glasses. - Great, what's Taylor Swift's next two years of like? - You know, I really like her music. I'm sure she's happy. I can't say that I like her as a person right now. - 'Cause she's seen, she's aged out of your extended demo. - It's not that at all. - I like people who are older. I don't care for that. It's the fact that she kind of will create a posse and have a lot of people around her and then drop some like fives. And I get you're a famous person and you have to do that sometimes 'cause if people cross you, then you can't have them around 'cause I mean, she's in a tough position. At the same time, like I don't love that. That doesn't, I don't know. I can't judge 'cause I'm from afar, but I think it's also her fandom that gives me problems because I don't wanna be lumped in with the real crazies. But I do like her music a lot. So I think she'll, she's gonna get married. I don't know where, probably in Rhode Island. That'll be cool. - Pay-per-view. - Pay-per-view. - Pay-per-view. - Yeah, pay-per-view, $100. To do it like a boxing UFC event. - There's no way that she would do that. - $75 wedding. I'm sure she'll be pregnant soon. She'll have ginormous babies with Travis Kelsey. It'll be great. - It's a big case, she's like 5/11. She's also like a great athlete, probably. She's a great dancer, so I'm gonna assume. - All right, how's it feel turned in '21? - You know, I have no, nothing's holding me back anymore. It's a nice feeling. I didn't like being Quinn and going up to the bartender allegedly. And for them, for me to be like, oh, I don't know if like this is gonna work out for me. And now my life has just opened up. Am I allowed to tell them the story about you? - No. - I don't know. - Which story? - No. - No, there are no stories about me on my own podcast. I'll just edit it out. - Okay, but-- - You don't get it. We had a really fun night though. - We did. The best time ever. I think that was one of my favorite days ever. - That was this. - It was. - Except the Celtics lost. - Yeah, that, if they had won, it would have been the cherry on top. But to see you take about four fantasy shots, which there exactly has the, how they sound. And one was dyed green. - Yeah. - That was great. And I think that probably was a mistake. - I enjoyed you having your transfusions, which every time I looked away and then I turned back, somehow you had another one in your hand. I don't know how it was happening. - I was nervous 'cause the Celtics were in a game seven. - I know. - I figured they were probably gonna lose. - You were trying to loosen up. - You were just drinking. Push, you turned 21 and it was freaking me out. - It was a big day. And we had a big night the night before too. Mom really had a home run. Ben even had a home run. And then, yeah, it was great. - You did some karaoke. - We did. - Yeah, it was weird 'cause 11 years before you were 21st, I remember we went ziplining in Catalina. And that seems like it was like five minutes ago. - Yeah. - Well, Ben just-- - But let's go slower for you 'cause faster for me. - I don't, yeah, obviously it goes faster for you, but it feels like these last few years have really sped by. Like I feel like Ben just had a senior problem the other day, which we went to. And it made me sad because Ben just entered high school. It feels like I feel like I just had my senior problem. And all of a sudden it's like Ben is going to college. - You knew one more soccer year left, started age four. This is like year, year 17. - Yeah, I won't give up on it though. I'm gonna do something with soccer. I can't let it go, but-- - I'm excited for your last year. - Yeah. But it's-- - It's all I have because the Celtics are in shambles, the Patriots, the coaches in shambles. - Oh my god, Jaylen Brown to end it off. We have to talk about it. - Oh yeah, you went to a lot of Celtic games this year. - Well, I'm a devoted fan. - You were like a legitimate fan this year. - I've kind of unfortunately was lucky because Papa Doc wasn't able to make most of the games. So I got a lot of tickets. - Yeah. - I've really become-- - And you're dating somebody who loves basketball. - Yeah. - But I've really become attached to this team, mostly Jason, but if Jaylen-- - Well, your guy, Cata was-- - Cata, I've been rooting for Cata for two and a half years. Even before he could, he looked like Bambion Ice for like a season. - Yeah. - He couldn't like, he was not together. - So did you study the Tatum Jaylen body language when Tatum came back and how they interacted? - You kind of started to tell me about it and it's just not something I ever would have wanted to look for because why would I want them to be rooting against each other? - Yeah. - Totally there. Like they totally do not get along, in a sense. - Well, they don't not get along. It's just, they don't seem-- - It doesn't seem like they're-- - They seem like co-workers. - Yeah. I'm not positive, Jaylen was rooting for Tatum to come back and be great. - Yeah. - It feels like, I mean, as an athlete and as a soccer player, it's like, he had, there was a moment in a real opportunity in time where he was the leader and gonna be the savior of the team. - Yeah. - And he was great, like he really was. He stepped up to the plate and then Tatum comes back and everyone's like, oh, thank God, like Tatum's back. Now we have a chance. And I can understand how you might have a chip on your shoulder if that's the reaction of the fandom. - It's like what Murph in our house, when-- - When Willie comes? - Yeah, 'cause when we gave-- - Willie gets attention. - We gave our dad, Willie to your grandmother after your grandfather died and Willie hangs out with her, but when he comes back to the house, Murph acts like Jaylen Brown. - Yeah. He's like, I've been running this shit, and you are gone. - You're coming for me, motherfucker. - You're coming back and divide territory. - I'll be the one that goes to the backyard first. You will follow me. - But it makes me sad. I'm gonna try and dribble through all five players on the court and you're gonna get in the ball. - Stand over there, put your hand up. - It makes me sad. And if Jaylen leaves it, I mean, I don't know what, what to make of that. - I hope they stay together and maybe they will, if there's not a good enough trade. But I do really have the feeling he wants his own thing now. 'Cause they won the title. If they hadn't won the title, that would be different, right? - Yeah. - But they already won the title. Now he's like, kind of really liked to have my own team. - I get it. Are there any prospects for who can come in and save us? 'Cause I'd-- - There's some good trades. Now, they'll be able to get some good guys. Plus, I don't know how many more years until Duce is the backup center that like 10. Duce is like five feet tall now. - He's huge. - I always see him in warmups and he's like doing his thing. - Yeah. - That would make me sad though. Jaylen always has like a little handshake with him before the game. Like, that'd be a bummer. - That's the thing. It's so rare to stay together for that long. Like even Clay Thompson and Steph Curry eventually broke up 'cause Clay Thompson, they didn't want to keep him to stay together for your entire career. It's just like the rarest thing you could do. Which makes me think it won't happen. - Yeah. And also for them to be working in tandem for so long, it's understandable how they, he might want his own thing. - Well, you like tall guys. Wendy's probably too tall for you though. - He's too tall. - Seven seven's probably too big. - He's got me, I've gone more mature. I don't, I don't need them to be dry nervous anymore. - Like a lordy size. - That'd be great. And he's Australian. Hopefully Hank is a waltz. - Is Australian, but that's a bonus. - I, I love Australia. I've been telling you forever I'd like to go there, but just people from other places are like an accent's a cool thing. It's very similar to Boston. That's why you like it. - Yeah, is it? - Yeah. - I'd like to go. - I'd like to go. - I'd like to go. - People happy there. And they're happy because it's sunny and they're all beautiful all the time. And it's like why would that not be a place where you want to go? Marco Robbie's also from there. - Maybe you'll have to go there after college. - I'd like to maybe take a visit. - All right, so Simmons. Congratulations on turning 21. You've been coming on my podcast since I was at ESPN when you sang Christmas songs. - Oh, I remember that. - That was like early, late 2000s. Yeah, quite a run for you. It's been a long time. - First appearance. I'm glad you're able to do this together. - I was going to say just Murph have any final words. I wish I could move the mic towards him. Murph? - Murph. - Have a good day. It's given him the sniff. - Can't speak. All right. Thanks, Joey. - Thanks, Dad. - All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to House. Thanks to the Bundo and CR. Thanks to my daughter. Thanks to Murph Simmons. Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo as well. And don't forget to watch the Animal House where we do rewatchables about it next Monday. I'm going to be back on this feed. We're going to be live on Netflix after game two. Nick's Cavs. It's going to be me and Mahoney. And we're going to be talking about that game. And I'll have a whole bunch of other stuff for that podcast as well, including some special survivor content. So stay tuned for that. I will see you on Thursday. ♪ I'm gonna see them ♪ ♪ On a way so I'm never gonna say ♪ ♪ I don't have ♪ ♪ Feel it everywhere ♪ ♪ On a way so I'm never gonna say ♪ Must be 21 plus in president's select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas star Casino or 18 plus in president D.C. Kentucky or Wyoming. Optumacryb bonus issued as nomadropa profit boost tokens, restrictions apply, including any token expression max wage or amount. See terms at sportsbook.fender.com. Game prom call 1-800-Gamber or 1-800-My-Reset. Call 888-797-777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. 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