England Survives, the Jaylen Trade Fallout, and an All-NBA Mailbag With Zach Lowe

作词:李宇宙 作词:李宇宙 作词:李宇宙 I don't know, yeah, too, too is the floor for this time of year. overunders one and a half, okay. Yeah, we're going to do a bunch of basketball stuff in a second, but we just watched England, Mexico. The World Cup, there's a weightiness. It's in that there's just nothing like it. I was trying to think of other games that feel this way and like the Super Bowl can't feel this way because it's a neutral location basketball. We can get like 40% to where we got to tonight. But there's something different about countries, a place like Azteca, which I've been to, which I'll talk to in a second. But there's just nothing else like this, right? Every four years, the pressure, if you blow it, you don't come back now until 2030. I just, I'm kind of drained after that game. And I didn't really care who won. I'm drained after every game. There is nothing like it. It's the every four years thing. So any missed opportunity feels like you've missed the opportunity of a lifetime that you'll never get back again. It's that every game is like there's no game. No, there's no like Mexico can make adjustments for game two against England tomorrow. They're just out. It's over. And even in group, even in group, even in group play, if you're in a hard group, like it's hard to just get out of your group. They are in the elimination games, but they start to feel like elimination games really, really fast. And it's just, it's too much, man. It's too much and I don't understand it up for the rules. But that's new here and over there. It was one of the most popular games ever where we had, you know, England goes up to nothing in five seconds. Then all of a sudden, we get a penalty kick, we get another penalty kick. Then I'll send England's playing a man down forever. And Mexico is just doing cross after cross after cross after cross and guy. And every time we just have a hard attack, I went to a second in 2009. I wrote a, wrote a column about it. I went for a USA Mexico qualifier and it was one of the great sports experiences I've ever had. The place is you can't even describe it. You can't feel more unsafe. It's like kind of designed, it's designed to make everybody feel unsafe. Who is it on Mexico side? That's what they do. That, and it's really close to the field. There's throwing stuff at the players in the corner kicks. And it's just getting in and out your nervous. And you always wonder like, what's the mood going to be if this is a terrible loss for Mexico? How do we get out here? And I'm sure that's what it was like. You're watching England at the end of the one section. They're singing Wonderwall, which was really cool. And then it's like, okay, now you guys have to get out of here. And these fans are mad and you've just ruined the next four years of sports for them. So, and you're not, and you're not well disguised walking the streets of Mexico city. You're not, you could, that first goal that England scored. This is the same sound that when I was there, America scored the first goal and lost to one. They scored the first goal, and it was like, you know, and it's like a mute button for a crowd. Where it's like, la, and it's like, what happened? Where'd all, like, where'd all the sound go? It's gone. That was one of those. And then, conversely, when they score, it's like the loudest, most joyous thing ever. But I thought it was an incredible win for England to go in that place. I don't think Mexico had lost, like kind of a real international game in 13 years. England's probably the best team that played over that last 13 years. But the stakes of I was trying to think like, if basketball worked this way. So this would basically be the Indiana Pacer Stadium, right? If we made it even closer to the court. And then Indiana had, I don't know, a thousand times as many people. And all they cared about was basketball. And then this weight of the, basically the playoffs are every 40. I didn't even know how to do the formula in my head. But that's the only thing I could think of. Because that, that can take off fieldhouse is the only basketball arena. I felt that kind of reminded me of this. Well, did you, did you hear the stuff? I mean, I think they were mentioning this on the broadcast. How the Mexico City fans found what hotel England was staying at. And we're, we're, we're, we're like a lot lighting fireworks. Yeah, spraying the buses on the way with like, I don't know if it was shaving cream. So this is like old school. Try to call the players hotel room it for in the morning and figure out what their pseudonym is. It's like old school fan stuff. It's great. Home soil really seems to be in a lot in soccer. It's kind of dying in the NBA as a huge advantage. But yeah, I look, I know nothing. I'm just an idiot. American soccer fan who like checks in every once in a while. I just like England that, that seemed like a really rugged win for England in that stadium. Down a guy and like Mexico had the ball the entire last 25 minutes of the game. But they didn't get like sensational chance after sensational chance. Their best chances were in the first half and pickford. Who my, one of my hot world cup takes is pickford is now the three consecutive World Cup winner of most punchable face in the World Cup. But man, he showed up huge, man. Like some truly amazing saves. But I still, he still has a very punchable face. I'm sure it would beat me up, but it's very punchable. And Bellingham was amazing. Oh my god. Like if we didn't athlete. Because Keynes does, Keynes, the quote-unquote signature star of the team and then Bellingham is kind of, I'm trying to think of a basketball analogy of this. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum in the 2004 playoffs. I don't know. Oh my god. Too soon. Too soon. Yeah. So we have America tomorrow. And CR and DeBundo and I are going to be going live after that game. And America has a chance to go to the final eight. It feels like, it feels pretty significant. What's the first World Cup you remember? Oh, I mean, I remember 94 basically just because it was the one that was in the stage. That was the formative one. It was such a big deal. I was in high school and I was like the classic dumb American. I had a couple of friends who played soccer and they were like trying to sell me on what a big deal this was and what a great sport it was. And I was like just the classic guy and my dad still is this guy. I was like, every game is zero zero. It's so boring. One, one, Neil, Neil. It was like, I was like totally ignorant, closed-minded. And it turns out it's just wildly exciting to the point of being like impossible for me to watch when I actually care about the game. But I remember Carlos Valderama at the Colombian team, the tragedy afterwards, Roberto Vajio. I think it was at the one where Bajio misses a penalty kick at the end of that one. So that was the first one where it was like really truly in my life. That was the one where it felt like soccer had a chance to get real momentum in America. And then we just kept saying that for the next, I don't know, 30, 35, 40 years. But now I think there's a variety of reasons for it. But I think the main reason other than the games have been really entertaining. There's also big stars in the different countries that you want to see. But it's just having the games lined up to an American TV schedule has been great. I mean, even like they're in fourth of July weekend. Just to know that these games are coming on, basically, everybody's planning their stuff for the weekend or whatever around these games. And even countries that you didn't even know who's on it. And then you have like Holland on Norway, who is one of the best players in the world. It's not like my wife doesn't know who that is. She doesn't watch Man City. So then people like that, it just feels like everybody's watching this. I know of him because all my dad friends are big Premier League fans. And they've tried to get me to become a Premier League fan. I'm just like, I'm like you when you try to pick Tottenham. I'm like, I can't, I'm 40 years old. I can't like pick a team and pretend like I care about this team out of nowhere. I can't do it. So I don't, but I know of him. But this is my first time really watching him play. The guy's just like, I'm just, I just watch him. And he's just like walking around, standing around, walking around, turns over here, turns over. Then the ball comes and he scores. So like, he's guys just a machine. He's built to score goals. He's amazing. He's like a shark in the water. He just kind of swims around and waits, waits for like somebody's arm to fall in the water. I would like to announce I'm now throwing my allegiance with Croatia out. And we will address this topic it soon. I am now throwing my allegiance behind Norway for the rest of the, for the rest of the tournament. The full, the full force of the low family household is behind Norway. We're did that lady, the gift of that lady in the Croatian jersey screaming fuck you at the top of her lungs. Did that sum up the entire low family's feelings on the game? My wife was at the game and she had an absolutely hellish travel story to get to the game. And they made it 15 minutes before kickoff. But I just look, explain it to me. Can someone explain it to me? Explain it to me. I don't understand it. It may be, it may be hit a hair follicle and there was this. minor spike on the fucking VAR chip, the chip that's in the ball. But we can't really say if the spike happened at the exact time, it hit the guy's hair follicle and if it didn't hit the hair follicle, it's a good goal. You robbed us of, I don't know, soccer won't have to say this, but I'm saying the greatest most dramatic equalizing goal, like ever, basically with one second left in the game. We never know how much time is left in the game. I don't know how soccer hasn't finished this, I think the game's over now, but it was basically the end of the game, they tie the game or just give us extra time. Who wants to, I tell you between the NBA and this, I am getting closer and closer to just, let's just have no more replay. Let's just not, let's just live with the results on the field because this all, this stuff is all nonsense. All the reviews are endless. They go to the VAR or the nerds or the VAR, I want to go spike a little shark fin spike on the graph. Croatia's out of the world cup. We don't have another game. We're done. We're out. We have some other hot takes about the world cup. That was a really good rant. I, here's my, what if we just went replay across all sports, no slow mo? Yeah, like I, sure, you just get to watch it in real speed three times and then make a decision. And let's, I don't want to watch NBA reps huddle up anymore. I'm done. I'm done. It's great. Did you get your two Zack Zarbay? You're so handsome. You get your TV time and Billy Kennedy with their facial expressions. It's over. It's over. It jumped the shark. So you're out on VAR to VAR sucks. I don't know what VAR to throw VAR into the fucking ocean. I light VAR on fire. I just, I hate all the people who groggy learning that's that close. My favorite cycle. I have two other world cup takes that I have. Can I follow up on your VAR and then we go to your takes? Yeah. Sure. I just feel like the offsides. It shouldn't be like, oh, you were fingernail offsides or, no, I, it's just a distinct offsides. Although I had a goal called back against Kervishia, two goals called back on offsides that were whatever. And we're not all the had one. We're not those goals should have counted. It's all stupid. The whole thing is stupid. What are your other two takes? All right. Number one. And this, this I, this I transpose on to other international competitions. And I understand why it is, but I don't think the host nation should get tier one status in the world cup. So like Canada, US and Mexico are treated like the top eight teams in the world when it comes to formatting the groups. Same thing with the Olympics and basketball. Only 12 teams make it. I don't think the host nation should automatically get in. Like what member when England was in, when London, it was like, what are we doing? And my other, I don't know, the formula someone will have to research it. I think they should recede the world cup after the group stages because it's just a random who plays who's second place here and you have like heavyweight clashes and then you have Argentina who could like walk into the semi finals because of how the draw broke for them. But Croatia benefited from this greatly in 2018 when their entire side of the bracket after the group stage just was like a wasteland of teams like all the best teams were out and they just walked into the finals or the semi finals anyway. Those are my two teams. So would you do the receding for basketball in the playoffs? Yeah. Because the reason they don't do this is because the schedule that everybody has to wait for the end of every round to keep going with the next round. I just feel like it's less of a problem because of seven game series and you know you're already down to four teams in each conference. Like what are the chances it's going to be that much of a crime? But that is a cousin of my and you're I think to the number one siege to be able to get to be able to pick its first round opponent, which I do support in the NBA. In football they recede after every round, which I like. And when it's a winner take all one game, it feels like the recede should be a little bit more advantage for the teams that have earned some sort of like privacy privilege. I'm willing to admit that this is probably enraging actual soccer fans who have done poured their life's work into figuring this out and why this is just me. I'm just dumb. This is how I feel. I'm emotional. I'm still it's three days later. I'm still angry. I will be cheering for Spain tomorrow out of spite for Portugal. That's just I'm sure in a spite here. I realize that that's really the last level. Yeah, I got I actually got a couple different emails about the same topic about levels of losing with Croatia. Oh great. But then even worse was the Iran where they had it and then it got called back. But then they were still alive. And then that stupid game where the teams had basically agreed to have a tie and then somebody scored. So then Iran was like all of a sudden they had been given a reprieve. But then the other team scored and they got kicked in the nuts again. Which people are saying that's like basically hasn't happened before. But I do think the the we scored the game time goal with like under a minute left in a world cup game and then and then it got reviewed and became off sides is some sort of level of losing of its own. Maybe football would be the only like if if you had a touchdown and then it turned out that the guy was was on the line. And Durant I guess with the toe in the line would be the equivalent of the Croatia goal. But we know. But I know. But in the moment if you were just watching it, you thought it was a three didn't realize as though it was the line. But the Croatia thing then you just lost. It was tough. It was tough. You know, it was tough. I want to I want to elaborate too much more. That was a tough one. Well, I've I've loved the world cup. I've been betting on it. I feel like I'm getting good at betting on it. Oh boy. Oh boy. That is the famous words. I had Norway. And I had Norway Parlaid with England today. I'm like on a heater. Oh my God. Yeah. I like have opinions. I watch things. I'm like, I don't know. Collins too big for this is going to get clipped so badly when you lose your next four bets in a row. Oh, I'm definitely going to this. Well, I had I had another parlay with. I have I had Norway England with Spain tomorrow in the US tomorrow was like 23 to one. So. That seems like a good one, especially since a, you know, there was some intervention that took place to overturn a red card, which no one had thought was really a thing that could ever happen. But it has happened. Yeah. We had some sort of legislation with with the president apparently got involved. I guess a bunch of I got a bunch of emails about it in the last 24 hours about this would be kind of what the sports are would do. If we did have a sports are like you try to intervene and bully them into repealing the red card for Balgan. I guess my thing with the cards is. I don't think it should be a red card after review like what happened because they like to me red card is like intent or it's like when you're breaking a clear sock or like whatever he did. Balgan on that play. To me, that's not a, oh, you're out for half this game and then all the next game because you accidentally stepped on somebody's ankle. It feels like they need a third card like a pink card where you get red card and you're out for the game. But you get to come back the next game. I was wondering if FIFA could overturn Dremon not playing in game five of the 2016 finals if we could just go backwards now. Well, where was the Croatian government at the end of that game? Like I wanted, I remember Kroakop the MMA fighter. I what I want is sent him into bar and they cut to the bar guys review and he's just beating the shit out of all of them like Jason Bourne throwing them against the wall. There's no guard. Goal counts. Where were we on this? All right. Well, I'm sorry about Croatia. That's enough soccer talk for us. CR and the Bundo and I are coming on right after the American game tomorrow, Balgan's back. We have our, we have our striker. I thought he was the best player we had. We're going to take a break. Lots of 72 hours after one of the strangest trades in history of the league. I have a nice mailbag. I only prepped you for one question and we're going to go right after this. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. We are in the heart of the World Cup. Look at these little special bottles for Michelob Ultra. Every play matters here, FIFA World Cup 26 for you. The stakes are just aside. Michelob Ultra, the official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 26 is giving you a chance to win $1 million worth of tickets and prizes. Michelob Ultra from the pitch to the poor. Superior is worth playing for now at Michelob Ultra dot com slash superior access slash FIFA World Cup 26 Michelob Ultra FIFA World Cup 26 superior access. No purchase necessary. Open a US residence. 21 plus begins on December 1st, 2025 ends on July 31st, 2026 multiple entry periods. Visit www dot Michelob Ultra dot com slash superior access slash FIFA World Cup 26 for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details. All right. So it's been four days since one of the weirdest trades in the history of the National Basketball Association. You talk to people. There's texting. You text with people. Maybe you send a couple of emails back and forth with people. You talk on the phone with people. Does anyone know anything? What are people saying? What is the consensus around the league for, wow, why did Boston do this? But consensus is, you can't really find anyone who thinks it was a good trade for Boston. First of all, second of all, the consensus is it must have just been, the bridge must have been burned to the point of no return and the Celtics just wanted out of the jail and brown business for reasons that we may not fully understand, but may one day fully understand because this return is I think surprisingly low, even if people in the league sort of had a conception that Jalen Brown's trade value was not going to match his sort of all at first second team this year, all NBA reputation, 6th and MVP voting, all that. Mostly, I think because of his salary, more than any analytics or this and that. It's the salary and his sort of just like standing in the league. But even so, there was just surprise that they chose to make this deal now. There's an basically an agreement that it's not as if this deal was going to ever go away. Like the Sixers would do this deal in September and October and August. So why did they feel pressure to do it now? And you can find people who will caution that in a year, a year and a half this deal will look less bad for Boston than it does today and it probably will. But you can't really find any fans of it. Do you want to know what day I landed on was Paul George a better trade asset than maybe all of us realized? Right now, the second. And it was it was this morning in the shower. Just thinking about it. It's like, well, Paul George is really good in that playoff series, went back, looked at his stats. He played five Quipper seasons, 23, 6 and 5 for the five Quipper seasons. 39% from 3.43 is a Games Act, three All Star teams. The two Philly seasons were not as good. Some issues, some injuries. There's the 25 game drug suspension. I will say though, last 10 games after he came back, 21 a game, 42% from three. And the playoff, he was 16 a game, 49% from three. I went back and looked at my notes from after game six and then after game seven. And I repeatedly wrote down Paul George was the best forward in the series. And he is actually revived his trade value to the point that maybe they can get rid of him. I did nothing. They would get rid of him for Jalen Brown. But from where we were with him in March to now, is it, is it possible that they really like Paul George just as a player for their team? Because I think it is. And by the way, I don't agree with this opinion. I'm not saying the right. I was going to say that was, that was one of the sadder one minute segments in the history of the Bill Simmons podcast and its predecessor. That was, it made me sad. I just, I felt. >> I agree. >> I didn't know how to react to it. >> Well, when you're looking for answers, Zach, you look for answers. >> I can tell your heart wasn't in it. I mean, you were giving it an honest try. I respect it, but your heart wasn't in it. >> It was not. I really tried. >> I don't think that the Celtics believe that Paul George is wildly underrated, a diamond in the rough, ready to average 22 points a game again next season. I think they know exactly who Paul George is. They don't have on, they think he's going to be a nice, you know, third, fourth option, three point shooter, good defender, all of that. They think he fits into how Missoula wants to play. They'll win a lot of regular season games. I said, even in my pessimistic trade reaction, this team is a regular season wins machine. I think they're going to win 50 games and be in contention. I mean, you can't just put almost anyone other than the very, very best teams in the East like no brainer, lock top six. They're counting a lot on Mitchell Robinson to change their offensive rebounding and shop profile at the rim because they lost some rim pressure in the jail and brown Paul George exchange and rim pressure was all Brad Steven's talked about in that post mortem and they lost some in that. Now they have a guy who doesn't shoot free throws. >> And Mitchell Robinson's injured all the time too. And so I, but I don't, to answer your question, I don't think the Celtics are like we've been secretly coveting Paul George. They know exactly what he is. I think this is just more about the time whether it whether it is a overreaction to the Philly series going bad, whether it's understanding that putting Jalen Brown back into a 1b role was going to cause all sorts of issues. Whether it's we've always thought he was a little overrated and compared to his salary, compared to his salary to be clear. And this is the time to act with three years left on the deal. It might be all those, but I don't think it's like we we love Paul George like we did 10 years ago when we tried to trade for him. >> I agree. I do wonder though, if their thinking was you put tape them in all the brown minutes from last year, with the same kind of offensive responsibility. And then you shift Paul George into this supplemental role that they just obviously decided Jalen Brown was never going to want to play. That they talked themselves into will actually still be really good. Because the weirdest thing to me is this is the opposite of a new owner syndrome trade. Usually the new owner is trading Paul George in five first round picks for Jalen Brown. And instead we have the owner going the other way. >> Well, and not only that, the same ownership group shed all this allery with Drew Halliday and Porzingis on and on. They've built Chisholm in a group of done nothing but willingly kind of eat a little, you know what? And big time on this trade. >> Well, and I saw when I did my thing with Kirk and CR a day after the trade. And I felt I had landed on this as part one of a part two. And they're going to use this Paul George and the picks they got more picks and make a play for the trade Murphy Jordan pool type contract. Where they just they get the ass in any year from now, they'll have way more flexibility that did not happen either. >> Well, not starting to come to grips with Paul George, maybe being in a Celtic theater form, which is going to be weird. And I said this when I did the part the other day that there's real anger about this trade in Boston. And it's something and this has been a feel good, lovable Celtics run. Really since the year after they traded PG and KG, PP and KG to Brooklyn. It's always been an overachieving love it. The only unhappy team was that 2019 second Kyrie season team. But there hasn't been anger toward the front office or the ownership really ever. Really going back to the last time was maybe when they traded the Antoine Walker. >> People were mad that they traded the Antoine Walker. >> I did have a high level front office person at another team. We were just chatting today about stuff going on. The league and he said, it speaks to how solid the Celtics front office reputation is and how Brad Stevens reputation is that they're not getting even more shit and more anger for this trade because there's only three or four front offices who could do this trade and not get just immediate cataclysmic blowback that they have enough benefit of the doubt even from their angry fans that it's not like a coup. And this is one of them. But yeah, I think the other thing about doing it this early is it's going to be a long time before the Celtic start winning basketball games again. And if this were in September and you could just say, hey, let pre-season come in, training camps come in, just watch. We're going to be 15 and 8 right out of the gate. We'll be solid, 15 and 5, whatever. And now we have the absolute full off season for people to be angry about this. >> When Minnesota traded towns, that was really close to the start of the season. >> That's right. >> Just right into it with pre-season games and everything else. I'll never understand it. And I know you and I both talked separately on our podcasts about this whole advanced metrics argument that has now sprung. And this is now going to be the thing that we talk about all season, I guess. And people have just dug into their sides. And it honestly mirrors real life. This is just one of those things that's like politics where it's like, I stand here, this is my opinion, I'm just going to be here. And somebody else says, I'm over here. This is what I think. >> Well, so the analytic stuff is, I mean, I don't want to do the whole thing on here, but some of like the anonymous, you know, the anonymous source who thinks with whatever team that thinks he's not one of the 50 best players in the league or the anonymous source who thinks he's not a top seven player on a whatever typical NBA team. It's just crazy. And I have always thought that he's probably a hair overrated, but it doesn't really matter. Like the most important reason this trade happened, personally, it could be the one A1B thing with Tatum. But to me, it still comes down to 57 million, 62 million, 66 million. And where the analytics come in is, whatever the onoff stuff thrown out, like just whatever, like all the analytics together, if he's making 66 million dollars and he's, let's give a realistic pessimistic ranking, a realistic skeptical ranking of Jalen Brown. If he's making 66 million dollars and he's the 18th best player in the NBA, that's a problem. That's like hard to build around when you have another guy making even more money than that. I'm just throwing that ranking out there. Like if I were an analytics guy who's done all the I test stuff and seen all the stuff that Jalen Brown did to win finals MVP, carried the Celtics last year, all of that. So I have that infused with my analytics stuff that's a little more skeptical and it washes out to like 18th best player in the NBA at that salary. I think that's really just what it comes down to more than anything else. And I wonder if that's where we're going with the league. One of the things that, so like obviously every single person in my life has asked me about this. One of the things that I thought was interesting that didn't get enough attention was the salary cap kind of went backwards. And under under its projection by a little, a little tiny bit. Yeah, but some, but there's been years where we're like, whoa, we're way over this year. And I wonder if there's a fear with the local TV revenue just in general that they were looking at two years from now like, wow, we make it really screwed with two of these guys. So it's basically my the big picture. - Sure, outside of Boston, I'm wondering is, are more teams gonna be thinking this way? Is this driving some of the Piston's Durant stuff, which by the way, the Durant thing, that was another casualty of the CBA thing where they can offer him 100 million more than anybody else, but why would they? Why am I just gonna give you 100 million more than your net worth if you just tested it elsewhere? So I don't, it feels like that, and they have a couple of questions about this that I don't wanna step on, but it feels like we're headed toward a really strange salary cap era for the league, that the only time I can, in recent history, at least since I've known you, maybe we didn't know each other then, but it was like the end of the 2000s, specifically with the hard-and-trade, which we've talked about over and over again, where there was a moment where a team started choosing salary decisions over basketball decisions. And I think that's the number one reason this trade happened. Number two is that all the stuff that happened from the moment the season ended all the way to last week, I think put a bad taste in their mouth and they decided to move on. - Yeah, there was a time during that era where the kid sounds quaint to say it now, and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, that the cap stayed flat basically for like three or four years in a row and it was flat at like $58 million. Like that was the salary cap. And so that is, and I have had a couple of agents sort of just venting to me in the last week that called the second, this is the agents speaking but called the second apron, whatever it is, teams are treating it like more or less a hard cap and they're gonna continue to treat it even, like what James Dolan did and like letting Mitchell Robinson go and replacing him with a inferior version and Andre Drummond, a championship team willingly doing that. - Yeah, but he should have done that though. I'm not defending Dolan, but we've seen teams do that. We saw the Celtics do that with James Posey in 2008, where if you're not one of the best five guys and you're gonna bring all these penalties and all these other things with me, I don't think it's defensible. You have to figure out how to patch those stats together. - I mean, the Mitchell Robinson minutes are better than the Andre Drummond minutes are gonna be. And like you're gonna feel, Andre Drummond is almost as good of an offensive rebound or not quite, defensively it's a huge downgrade. The corner three thing is like actually kind of interesting and I'm curious to see if Mike Brown leans into that like Nick Nirsten. That's like a little interesting wrinkle, but yeah, I mean, look, I'm just saying what I'm hearing from agents about the hard cap and the second apron and the nuggets are gonna be one of the, one of the test cases. I do have to give you your praise because the day Jaylon Brown got traded, even before and after I did my podcast, I had several executives around the league reach out to me, is Bill okay? Like where is Bill? And there were a couple I trusted enough to tell them where you were, but I said, I can't text it, it's too good. You have, if you wanna know, you have to call me and their reactions were absolutely riotous. Like they just, like I've never heard some of these men grizzled veteran men laugh with this level of glee. - I'll never have another experience like that in my life. Becoming out of anesthesia and having my wife break the trade to me and just not being able to process it. I would have had 100 guesses for it. Anyway, all right, we got great meal, bad questions. - Let's go. - And we could cover some of this Jaylon stuff in there. Joe Madden says, "Dear BS, after watching the Celtics cut off a limb with a pocket knife with the Jaylon Brown trade, you should add one hundred and 27 hours to from hell month on the rewatchables." I mean, that is probably the movie you would say for this Jaylon thing. We went from, we went from the guy who was, is it gonna be fifth or sixth in MVP to, whoa, it leaked out that we offered him for y'allness to fire sale in the span of two weeks. Clancy from Connecticut wants to know, would you rather Boston traded Jaylon Brown a year ago last summer in tank for a chance at the Bansa Peterson-Boozer Wilson in the draft? - That's a great, that's the great what if right there. One of many, but that's a great one. So I went to, I saw their first win of the season, I think they were on three and then they beat Washington to go one and three, I wanna say. And Washington was terrible in Boston and I was watching that Celtic lineup and I think I did a pod the next day and I was like, I think they should throw the season away. I don't see it, like they don't have enough turn that, they go on this heater, they win 56 games. But when you think like round one loss versus what they get for Jaylon and how the season played out, I just don't know what they would have, but a year ago, he would have had four years left on his deal heading into the second season. I just don't know what they would have gotten for him at that point. - Well, you're not getting a Desmond Bain trade, I don't think. - Well, I was gonna say, you also, it's nice to say the Bansa for a shot at the Bansa, you could end up with McCale Brown Jr., which is fine, but like the chances are much better than that you're not getting to Bansa. Obviously, this top four is outrageous, so maybe the odds would have been in your favor, but yeah, that's a good one, if. - Would you have traded for Jaylon this year if you were Brooklyn, like last week? - I think that was kicked around, for sure. - Oh, it was really kicked around. I heard the Nets front office was enthused and then once it got to the higher levels, they were not as enthused. - I don't, I haven't thought that much about it. - I don't think I would, I don't think I would have, but I would have thought hard about it, and I don't like the path that I'm on really right now. I'm not that excited about it, but I don't think I would have. - So, that's how it's terrible. - And this, like I don't know what the equivalent cost is for Brooklyn versus, like what is their version of this trade, because I don't think the Celtics would view someone like, I think it would have been, like is Porter equivalent to Paul George basketballizes? He's probably better than Paul George. - I would say Porter's better. He's an expiring and is cheaper. - So, so Porter plus, I mean, I don't like, the deal with, at that point, it's pretty palatable for Brooklyn, honestly. - Well, that's my question. If I'm running the Nets and I see this trade, and then I go and talk to my basketball people and I say, you guys told me you were interested in this Jay and the Brown thing. I didn't, this was the price. - I mean, just what it cost us, Porter, Jr., and we could have given them, I don't know, one of the Nicks first and maybe our own, 2009 first, and we get Jaylin Brown. - Look, this is the Nicks first. - We could have him with Julius Randall. - This is the exact trade I pitched two weeks ago on the Zach Lo Show. Michael Borden, that Mike Porter, Jr., and a bunch of draft picks, like two picks, a swap, whatever. - But you probably thought more than two first runners. You probably thought like three first two swaps? - Yeah, and that was one of the things that the social team clipped and put on my Instagram, and Celtics fans shit all over it. And I was just saying, like, look, I said over and over again, this deal is going to net you. Once the honest thing fell through, this deal is going to net you a deal that makes you a little bit worse this coming season. It is going to make the fans mad. I tried to prepare the for it. That was one of the deals I suggested. Everyone said it was a bad deal. It's not that bad of a deal. - I, I wish they had traded in the last summer. Now that I know how it played out, and I got Paul George and two half decent picks. - Do you think, this is my male bad question, do you? Do you think they are overreacting to the last three games of the Philly series, one of which Jason Tatum didn't play? Like, he's too much weight being put on that versus the 56 wins that came before it. - I like the, I kind of like the way Jalen played in the last game, game seven. I'm sure there's something advanced metric shit that could pick it apart. But remember, he guarded and beat at one point? Like, I felt like, to me, that was the good and bad of Jalen all in one game. Like, he took a couple of thumb shots, had a couple of charges, whatever. That guy would, who's willing to do anything it took to try to win the game. - I'm not even just talking about him. I'm talking about like, kind of giving up on the whole model of the team, being a championship contender for the next season. - Well, that's another thing. Tatum, they put those minutes on Tatum, and he lasted six games, and then skipped the seventh one, 'cause he wasn't happy with something that was going over his legs. And Jalen was the fall guy? I'm not saying Tatum should have been, but I thought Missoula should have taken a lot more criticism, and I was talking about my pod as it was happening. Like, why are we putting this many minutes on Tatum? Why are you trying to make him a 38-minute-a-game guy? I don't get it. Why not ease him back into it? Why not play him 28 minutes? - This is from Jordan NLA, with Jalen's value, extremely low. I'd love to hear your blame pie for the reasons why percentages of ability in the basketball court, massive contract, off-court stuff. How would you split up the blame pie? I'm a huge fan of the pod, go see even on the press. I would say off-court stuff. And massive contract, probably 90% of that. - What is off-court stuff with Jalen Brown? 'Cause people say that, and it's used pretty liberally, is it just that he shares his opinions on Twitch? 'Cause there's no bad off-court stuff, would normally we say off-court stuff, and it's like bad off-court stuff. There's nothing like that. - Thank you for clarifying that in your off-court stuff, "The Wrong Fraze." Let's go with. Self. self criticism, self awareness, self self awareness, um, and that, but that, but your opinion of one self, what we're going to say is like, that's where it becomes hard to separate that from the basketball stuff, because that's going to bleed into, is there going to be a tug of war for control? The team is, is that going to be an exit thought? Yes. I mean, that like, I think that's fair to say. I think they felt like this situation was what it was going to be. I think the contract, I would go 45 contract, 40% self awareness, um, what, what's my role of that stuff? And then ability in the basketball court, it is an advanced metrics, friendly team. And I'm sure there's some things they didn't love on off stuff. I'll never know what to make sense of it because you can't tell me the last year's team was better when he wasn't on the court. He had a huge, huge, huge load and showed up all the time and did so many things. You know, I remember talking about this during COVID or right after when Kyrie was only playing home games and his, remember, his stats were really good. It's like, hey, he's playing once a week. Like, if you're, if you're going to play, if you're going to miss 10 games in a season, you're going to play 36, 37 minutes and take the pounding that Jaylin did and go to the basket like you did in 9 free throws a game and guard the other teams best player. You're going to have games where you're not 100% and you play anyway. And I, I still feel like there's no way for advanced metrics to, to value that, the guys that whatever they're dealing with, they're still playing. This is one of LeBron. This is one of the great skills that he had. He, the durability and the consistency, no matter what his body was. And I don't know, I just don't know how you put a number on that, Zach. I would give the contract even more than 45% Blampie or 40% or whatever he said. I would go 50 at least and it's impossible to separate that from the analytics because they, the analytics are don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in relation to what percentage of the cap he's taking up. And is it worth it to have that specific player taking up so much of your cap? But I would put the contract is like easily half the pie. Okay. So if we're going to say that, how does Denver regard Jamal Murray right now? I mean, I, I think they love Jamal Murray. They love his chemistry with Nicole Eokitch. I think they're probably very aware that his, if they were to trade him, it would not look dissimilar from the Jalen Browns rated. It might even be a little bit worse because he's smaller and plays a position that is pretty well filled across the league because we have, he's over 50, right? He's 50 this year, 54, 57. Yeah. And I wonder is there going to be more Jalen Browns? Like our, is Orlando going to start looking sideways at Franz Wagner like Jesus? Well, he's on the, he's on the smaller one. And that's the, that's the timing, right? But in two years, one would be like 47, 48. High 40. He goes, yeah, 44, 45, 50, but 51 and 20, 30 is different than 57 now in terms of what percent of the cap it's, it's going to be. It's the next one. It's the next one. You know, and that's the other thing that we need to talk about is like, all these guys who are, I understand the extension rule and why it's written the way it is and why it's beneficial for both sides in a lot of, in a lot of ways to get security for players and teams. These players who are like, it happened with towns. It's happened with Jalen Browns going to have a lot of other players. Like you have three years left on your contract. Like I don't think, if I'm a general manager, I'm like, it's cool that you're eligible for an extension by the letter of the law. Can we, can we wait a year? Man, you got three guaranteed years left on your contract wire, but it creates, it creates issues within teams really early in the calendar of the contract. I feel like there's only four or five guys in a week that you would proactively just keep adding years to their contract, right? Like if one bee is like, hey, I'd love another three years. It would be like, great. That sounds awesome, Victor. Here's your next three years, right? Luca's same thing. I'm sure the moment Luca's eligible for an extension, the Lakers will be pouring years in the extension. I don't think Jalen's at that level. This question came all the way from Lance in Australia, okay? Do you think Jalen Brown's trade happened not because he asked to be traded, but because Tatum was jealous and said to Boston, it's him or me. I don't, I don't think it happened for either. I don't think it happened for that reason. I don't think Tatum said a trade and I don't think Jalen Brown said trade me. I don't think either of those things happen. I agree with you. Good question. There even in Australia, they're thinking about this. Noah is a Cooper fan. He said, uh, I don't have a question. Welcome to the love, hate Paul George relationship. I had a few Cooper fans throw this at me. You know, it is funny as I continue to try and talk myself into Paul George. Really good career. Eight all stars. One top five all NBA, third MVP, 2019, five, 13 mom and base, three conference finals, 13, 14 and 21, 21 playoffs, act 27, 10 and five, 41 minutes of game. First career is 21, six and four, 39% from three. Guys had an awesome career. And yet, I, like, I don't know any Paul George fans to you. You know, my favorite player is Paul George. Every young player who comes into the league, who's a win. His favorite player is Paul George. I have been a huge, I have been a huge Paul George fan. I think the last two years have tainted it a little bit. I've always been a fan. I wrote a big piece on him. I can't remember what playoff year it was. I remember that. I must say late, late 2010, maybe about his up and down sort of playoff record. And particularly the last couple in Oklahoma City. We're not good. And that I think it was probably the year the Clippers made the conference finals. Maybe in 2021. But anyway, like I've always been a pretty big fan. But the last two years, he's now 36 and the decline is happening. And the last, the last two years have been problematic in a lot of different ways. Even I'm looking it up now, even podcast P has gone dormant since July, 2025. I was going to say I think a great, a great moment to mark this monumental transaction would be if you went on podcast P, but it appears to be, it appears to be dormant. Well, I think we're going to have them on the team this year. So I'd like him to feel welcome by all the Boston fans. Look, he's 2011 draft guy. You know, who else was the 2011 draft? Kawaii Leonard. I mean, they were teammates, they were teammates. Kawaii Leonard, they were teammates for a hot second in Indiana. Yeah, as the summer goes along and I relax, I'm going to really start thinking more and more about how good Paul George was in that Boston series. Like, uh, maybe there's, maybe there's something left. We'll take one more break and then I have more mailback. All right. It's time for a special segment on today's podcast where we discuss the superior matches, teams and players. We're going to talk about players today for the FIFA World Cup 26 brought to bed. Michaela Veltra, the official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 26, a superior light beer. I'm going to dive into three players that I thought had superior impact, at least so far. In FIFA World Cup 26, as we head into yet another week, I love it. Can't wait. We're getting close to the finals. Three players that we thought would be three of the best guys in this tournament have all delivered and then some, you have them, Bob, a 27 years old prime of his career. Francis playing Paraguay over the weekend. They're parking the bus. They're trying to agitate him. They're trying to agitate all the French guys and he just has this attitude. He's seen it all. I've been here before guys. It's not, none of this stuff is going to work. France advances somehow he has been one of the two most memorable players in this tournament. And I'm not counting Harry Kane just because we're recording this before the England Mexico game. But Holland on Norway. So look, if you watch Premier League, you've watched him on Man City the last couple of years. I think they won in 2023. It's not like he's breaking news that this guy's unbelievable. But he is the first strike I've ever seen who really makes me feel like I'm watching a dominant big man in basketball. Like there's pieces of all of these big guys that I love from over the years. Like early 90s Sean camp on the headers, just anything close to the room. Sean camp would get. It feels like anything in the box where he can have time to jump and, you know, get airborne and stick his head somewhere and just get over somebody. He's putting away young Shaq banging bodies around. There's like three, four times a game. He'll just bowl over somebody. Footwork of Hakim and then a little Michael Myers in there too because he is the Michael Myers reactions after the goals. Everyone else loses their mind when they score see he's like, he does the Michael Myers. I love it. To me, he looks like when you have in the Little League World Series, the one kid who's way bigger than everybody else who just throws the team on his back, that's the feeling. He's giving us during during this Norway run and they had great win on Sunday. So I still can't give him MVP through this past weekend because at least through the past weekend, because that's, it's got to be messy. Carrying Argentini yet again, highest approval rating of any team sport athlete period right now and game after game, it feels like he's doing a couple magical things. And it's so much fun to watch him and watch the delight that his teammates have. Just getting into play with a legend like that who's still got it. So I would have him the MVP so far as we head into yet another week of an awesome FIFA World Cup 26. If you disagree, ultra wants to know they want you to share your superior moments from the FIFA World Cup 26. the chance to vote after every FIFA World Cup 2026 match for the superior player of the match on the FIFA plus app. That player will get it. The superior player of the match trophy representing the host countries of Canada, Mexico, and of course, the U.S. So celebrate every goal, save and win with U.S. Soccer and Miklo Ultra. All right, a couple more quick mail back, Emmett from Chicago. Do you think this brown trade happens if Tatum had won finals MVP in 2024? It's a pretty good one. I did, I did talk about this with my dad who refused this to come on the podcast. He's really mad. He doesn't want to say anything. He regrets. I did wonder if, if Jalen wins the Eastern Conference one, Jason wins the finals MVP and we never have this Avon Stringer thing that develops right after that. I don't know if it, he doesn't get traded, but I do think it changes the dynamic. I do. I think the bigger what if is what if Tatum never gets hurt and they just, they lose the Nick series and it's totally normal because I think that's the event that catapults Jalen Brown into a different role than that changes everything. I don't, I haven't thought too much about what if they split the MVP trophies. Does that because it, well, there's three what ifs because you have the finals MVP. What if Tatum doesn't get hurt? What if Tatum just doesn't come back last season? That's another one too. I mean, and it's just Jalen's team the whole year and we don't see Tatum until whatever. I think all three of those things maybe no trade. I got to, I just, I'll have to, this is from Cage from Kansas City, but did get a few of these, did Brad send Jalen to the Sixers to destroy them from the inside because Jalen will want to be the guy in the team in their day of maxing and being. I don't think that's why he did it, but I don't, I don't, in fact, I don't think so either. In fact, I, it's, it's, it feels far away now, but man, are they going to face him a lot of times and maybe in the playoffs and just, it's going to just be a lot of Jalen, Brad. I do think the fit is interesting. We have all summer to talk about how those three guys are going to fit together in Philly. I'm not particularly worried about it, but I don't think Brad Stevens did that. I like that Maxi Edge Comet and Jalen Brown, I'll play basketball. They do. They play most defensive. In fact, 71 to 75 games, 36 to 41 minutes a game, all three. And you know who doesn't is Joe on beat, but those three will be in a lot of games together. And I think they're going to be better than people think because people seem pretty split on, on, it's just going to be a weird team and is there enough basketballs. I think they'll be good. I will say this, though. It's Tyrese Maxi's team and Jalen's going to, if he goes there thinking like, finally, I have my own team. I don't think that's going to go up, but we'll see. Well, I mean, there's also like when he plays, it's at least half Joel and Beade's team and half Maxi's team. And when he plays, Joel and Beade is still a colossal force. He's a former MVP like it's, it's, it's his team a lot when he plays too. I really liked everything the Sixers did this off season. Simon's for 12 million was a steal. Simon's is good. That one's that one snuck in. I mean, they have a lot of guards, particularly after drafting Phylon too. So, you know, that'll be interesting to see how they split that all up. The four position after Wade. I mean, we'll see where the Broncos who knows. Oh God. The whiteboard. I almost, I almost, we were watching the Mexico England game at a friend of mine who had a whiteboard aside in the side of his kitchen because his daughter was using it for something. And I was like, should I, should I put this in the back of our car and bring it home and have it like ready to just whiteboard locations ready because that whiteboard has really become the star in its own right. Ryan H says, first time writing, I love the show. Here's my thought, worry. Brad Stevens, Michael Corleone, Ark. I'm afraid we're onto the third movie. He says part one reluctantly joins the family, the front office and takes to it like a fish to water. Part two makes the tough, but right calls, bringing the family to ultimate power. Removing Tom Hagen in his conciliary, Rob Williams trade, whacking Fredo, Marcus Smart Trade, all leading the Consolidation, the five families, better 18. Tom Hagen is Robert, Robert Williams was, he's called time lord because he's late all the time. Tom Hagen was a precise machine. Ryan's on a heater. Don't talk about it. That's part three. Michael tries to change the direction of the family by making it work in the legitimate world, the second apron. And then the process loses a child because of all the maneuvering. Jalen Brown moved prematurely because of the honest miss. And then he said, that's all I got for now. Pretty good. That's pretty good. I have to say, I have to admit, I never saw the Godfather part three because the buzz was so bad that I'm, I treated like Jordan on the Wizards. I don't want to, I don't want to know what happened. I'm just going to appreciate. Now, it's better than Jordan on the Wizards. We did a rewatch. Well, it's about a five years ago. It's like a guilty pleasure. Now it's bad. I mean, there's really bad things about it, but it's worth saying. Oh, LeBron question. Oh, no. No, I had to go backwards. Hold on. Okay. Christmas games. I sent this to you. Yes. Jalen wanted to know what the Christmas games will be. He predicted 76ers Celtics at noon, spurs next to 30. He left five o'clock blank, seven, 30 minutes out of thunder. And then he said 10 o'clock warriors, lakers. I made my predictions, but you go. Would you read them? Okay. I didn't, I didn't tell you what I had. I'll be interested to see if we have the same five. So traditionally, the next play first, but I'm now I'm putting them, I'm giving them the championship bump. We're going prime time with the next. Okay. First game, Celtic sixers. I had the same. Where'd you have the game? I don't, I didn't think about that. I'll put it. I will put it in in Boston. I want to want it to be the return game. Yeah. I had that as well. All right. We're one for one. We're tied. 230 p.m. or the second game. I have Minnesota Denver, just a clutch, just like two great teams, Lamellaball excitement. Just they played each other last Christmas. Good rivalry. I needed this was the game. I was less sure about, but that was the one I put in there. I had spurs next as the second game, because the East Coast. Okay. That would be 230 p.m. Eastern time. I don't have spurs. Next is a game. Oh, okay. What do you have for the third game? I have five p.m. right before dinner, thunder spurs. Going with that rivalry again as a Christmas sequel. And it's because I'm giving it the next the prime time game. And it's if I don't, the problem is if I don't give them the spurs and I don't give them the Celtics and I don't give them the Sixers. I'm kind of running out of marquee like Nick's rival teams. No, there's no final rematch. But 7 30, Nick's heat, Yannis heat, classic rivalry, renewed defending champs. Get the dinner time, prime time spot. That's what I went with my fourth game. What's your fifth? I'll do mine after you do. I just went Lakers, Warriors, fuck it. Like with TBD on World LeBron signs and what team he's on. But if he's on the Warriors and it's a revenge game against the Lakers, that's going to be, well, I don't know what team he's going to be on. I've covered all the possible LeBron teams except for the Cavs who I do not have. I have spurs next to 30 Warriors at Lakers as the five o'clock. Okay, see at Minnesota. It's good. And then Dallas, Denver, 10 o'clock late night. I thought about I thought about Dallas Lakers too, just that all the Luca games in Dallas are going to be fun and Cooper flag showcase. But we have to account for LeBron. Like LeBron is going to play on Christmas. And so I have them in the five o'clock game with the Warriors Lakers played for the Warriors. Okay, so that's with Anthony Davies and Dream on Green and Yaxl and Steph Curry and everybody else. So I just don't think he's going to the Warriors. If he goes to Cleveland, I don't know who I'm bumping out. I mean, I don't, well, I guess I guess I would. No, if he goes to Cleveland, then five p.m.s Cleveland at the Lakers. Lakers are going to have that five p.m. Okay. And then maybe Curry is the 10 o'clock. But that five p.m. I think will be LeBron's spot. All right, that's fun. Dave from San Antonio wants to know conspiracy bill are the Celtics clearing up money and building up assets for 2028 when Cooper flag tells the Mavericks he wants to go to Boston. That's from Dave from San Antonio. I feel like conspiracy bill should be the one to answer that. I always have my eye on Cooper flag and the Celtics. It's a big Celtic family. I always have my eye on it. Listen, I called George up my team and probably 51 and 31, six seed and probably losing round one for the next couple of years. So I'm going to start dreaming about Cooper flag. We did win the title on 24 of those seconds. That happened. I actually, you know, you're, you're mentioning that you're just throwing it out there as a little fun aside. It's it's, it's, it's, it's, I, I kept saying it. One of the title, they're in Deanna stuff. Like as bad as this is going, like, they want a title. They got the thing done that no one can ever take away from you and that, like, that, that's the whole thing. We want to title this decade and it wasn't in the bubble. Joseph Quinn says, hey, Bill, are we in Celtics? Bizarre world right now. The next are legible and be a champion. You just traded your finals MVP to your division rival. And Brad Stevens is getting universally hammered. It is bizarre a world time. It feels like, I guess the final piece of that would be LeBron going somewhere super weird. LeBron playing with Curry, I think, would be the fourth piece of that. What's it? What's the weirdest LeBron team? Like the, of all the ones that are on the way. We're just believable. Of all the ones that are on the way. whiteboard. What's the one that if it happened, you'd be like, "Wow, I can't believe that corner of the whiteboard is the one that had it." Minnesota. Okay. He's just like, "Yeah, I'm going to hitch my wagon to Lamellaball. That's how I'm going to end my career in A-Rod." And A-Rod and Mark Loury is my owners and I'm just going to live in Minnesota. I mean, it seems insane. Dallas was on the whiteboard. I'm going to just shove Dallas. I'm going to erase them from the whiteboard. I'm going to be shocked if he went there. So what's your answer? I guess it has to be Minnesota. I kind of would be surprised if it were Denver. It just doesn't, I think that would be a great spot for him. It just doesn't feel like things like that happen for Denver. Can we all agree Cleveland as the worst outcome? I ranked it by basketball fits and entertainment value fits that I had Cleveland last. It's just like forget there. He did his business. He brought them a title. He did it already. Don't you can't go back again. And the reason is it's just the hardened piece is just like he's going to I'm what is he going to be doing when James Harden dribbles 30 times and he still plays that way a fair amount of time. Nobody in the planet thinks that's a team that could win the title. I just don't see it. I don't see it. I don't, I don't, I just don't see it. I don't think LeBron and Harden is two of my five best guys. I'm winning the title. I think it's ridiculous. I think in gold state it would be ridiculous too. The problem for him is he was on a team that had two that had one of the best six players in the league and one of the best 40 players in the league. Oh yeah, for sure. And they weren't going to win the and they weren't going to win the title no matter if LeBrona come back on a minimum and they had done this Kessler trade. I still don't think they would have. Now that they've traded DeAndre eight and it's over. I mean like you can't recover from that. I know. You can't recover if you're Joe House and you have to watch Trayong DeAndre eight and high ball screens. I listen, basketball, fan bill, Denver. I would love to see him in Yokech. I know you've talked about in your potter bunch. I totally agree. I think it would be really it would be like some weird movie like two stars that you're like I can't believe they're in the same movie. This is unbelievable. I just don't think it'll happen. They're doing how much much money do you think he's hoping for here? I mean these teams don't have a level off from. Yeah, I mean, right. You can get the full mid level. I think that's a win. But it doesn't seem like he's prioritizing that and that at this point in his career. Well, if he wasn't prioritizing that, why didn't he prioritize it last year instead of caching in the 50 million? Right. Why didn't he opt out and that would have really helped last year's team instead of releasing a aggressive, aggressive statement, I think through Rich Ball and then opting in. Why not? Why not just opt out and you don't have to release any aggressive, aggressive statement. You can score wherever you want. I did a thing on my pot the other day that I was really proud of and enjoyed about the him doing the Roger Clements. Roger Clements, the last couple of years when he was playing, he would just come back into the season like in June or July and on Houston, just do like a three or four month run. Basically, I'm going to be, I'll be in peak shape by the time the playoffs start. I'm just going to show up. I'm going to pop in. Like if they, if the ringers Rich Ball asked me what I think LeBronch to do, I would tell him, I'm going to come back in January. I'm going to watch everybody. I'm going to play golf for six months. I'm going to think about everything. I want to watch all these different teams. I've never had a chance to just not play. I want to watch everybody see where I might fit in. And then around January, maybe somebody will get hurt. Maybe I could be a replacement for somebody. But I'll just have a better sense of January where to go and do it that way. And guess what? Everybody will just talk about it every week. Like we're talking about it right now. It'll just be like the story that won't end. Oh, Dallas is better than we thought. Could LeBronch go there? We'll just be doing that for six months. If you want the most attention, do that. Miles says, does this idiotic piece of malpractice be in the Jalen Brown trade join the Mount Rushmore pathetic NBA trades along with Luca Russell wherever else you have in the list. Thanks for all you do. So this did make me, I did make a little list here, Zach. Okay. Let's hear it. It's the oh no trades. Luca Bay number one. Barkley to Phoenix for Jeff Hornasek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry. That was a nine out of 10. Oh no. Like that was I was immediately calling Joe House. Did you see that? Like just oh my god. Hard in the Houston. Where do you learn about the Barkley trade as a as a video? Yeah, that's how you learn about it. Yeah, that's like 2020 Flash. This just in Charles Barkley's been traded. Hard in the Houston was an oh no. Filly traded in the number one pick in 1986 for Roy Hanson and $750,000 in the draft for the Brad Dordy limb bias. A classic. Oh no, and I was happy they did it because I was Celtic fan. I wasn't old enough to really remember my feelings on this. But when Portland had Moses Malone and traded him for one Buffalo first-round pick and $232,000. $232,000. That's like it. Does someone have a specific debt they're trying to repay? And then Buffalo six days later traded him for two number one picks. J. Kid to Phoenix when Dallas traded J. Kid. That was a oh god. Why? You've J. Kid. Why are you trading them? Vince to New Jersey, even though we were waiting for it just because of how bad that trade was, where it was like you have to you get a lot in the morning, you're gonna have to buy them out. You have here's some shitty picks. Here's Aaron Williams or Eric Williams. There's a Williams in it. They just got nobody. And then my last one Utah Utah's number three in 1982. Well in the draft with James where are the Terry Cummings and Dominic Wilkins are the top three picks. Dominic Wilkins hints that he doesn't want to play for Utah. They trade the pick for John Drew who was in and out of drug rehab for years. Freeman Williams had 750,000 dollars. The more of the story's that low. Any time money, weird numbers of money is an trade. Just say oh no. It's not a good sign. But I think Luca Barkley, I don't know where Jaylin's gonna rank in this, but I think everybody had the same reaction like oh no. That's a trade. I will say I've heard and listened and read a bunch of people are trying to say it's the most inexplicable trade since the Luca trade or it's as bad as I don't think they're comparable. I think the Luca trade is like by orders of magnitude. And for many different reasons, the return, the fact that they intentionally did not shop him the way that the Celtics campus the holding. It's just a different species of horrible mistake. I wouldn't have put it above Barkley or Harden either. The Harden trade I think was way worse because just paying the extra four million and trade them. And you have a team that's willing to go for a fifth year with even more money on them. That tells you at least have the asset. You can trade it. Except from here as the New York rates. We had Kenny Hacketson talking about how the numbers say Cleveland was up on the next while they were actively getting eliminated. We had Bobby Mark saying an analytics guy had Jaylin Brown graded seven best on his own team. At what point did we stop calling an analytics and start calling it astrology for guys with XL were one model away from some asshole telling us the team that lost by 30 actually won emotionally. They feel they feel better about it. It is getting a little wacky. It's some of it like I don't know who said that to Bobby. I don't know who those people are. They're obviously crazy and I just think we don't have to as the media take the craziest scene that we hear and amplify it. We can use a little bit of better judgment about what we choose to to amplify. Well, in that case, he was talking about I'm talking to this person. They really value Jaylin Brown. Then I talked to this person and he said this crazy thing and then that's the part that cut out. That's what happens to all of us unfortunately. Mike from Hartford, Wisconsin. Hartford, Wisconsin. Do you know there's a Hartford, Wisconsin? I did not. He said hi conspiracy bill immediately. You have my intention. Okay. I'm moderately surprised that LeBron that announces latest decision either on July 3rd to try to take some attention away from the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey wedding. Or on July 4th to take shine from America's 2050th birthday. I think Mike thinks he's slipping. What are your thoughts? Wow. I think the opposite. LeBron's going to take all of June or all of July to really enjoy the dialogue about where he might go. You want him all the way to January? Yeah. I think it's great. Was he not at the Taylor Swift wedding? You know, is that Taylor Swift wedding? Me. Were you really? Yeah. No way. Flip back 24 hours. No, you did not. No, I really did. I went back. Got back in time for July 4th. Did I miss 500 people? Did you miss me? Did I miss you tweeting about this? You weren't supposed to do social media about it. How did you get what's I mean it's a long story. No, it's interesting. What do you want to know about the wedding? I don't really. I mean, so any questions? Was there was there was there reception. Did you just get to go to the wedding? Was the party also? Adam Sandler did the, um, he married them and sang this song because apparently they loved one of his movies. They had, they didn't have tables like you weren't at a wedding table. You were just, they had these food courts. Okay. And a lot of it was like big pictures. By the way, I didn't go to this wedding. I just want to say, if you believe me, you did. You thought I went to the wedding. I was skeptical. Right. I mean, no, I, I roped you in. You believe me. All right. Well, look, it's 20 to 30 in the morning. I do, I can get groggy's act to buy it to that. I was going to ask who your plus one was. Why I didn't get it. I should get it. Why I didn't get considered as the plus one. Cause boy, I would like to go there. Tommy Alter. I don't know what to believe anymore. I don't know what to believe. Now, Tommy Alter was there. All right. Matt Charlottesville wants to know. Why doesn't one of the teams in the running for LeBron just go ahead and trade for Brony right now? Who sent this in? Matt Charlottesville. I mean, if it were a deal breaker that he asked to play with Brony, he wouldn't know what the Lakers. I don't, I think he's ready for Brony to be like release like the doves and just go fly fly and be your own man. So if you're like Cleveland, you wouldn't trade dayquan, Tomman straight, Nequan, Tomlin, Nequan, Tomlin, Nequan, Tomlin. I don't know. I got a big one. Boy, if that happened, I mean, it would just be the all time. There are no T leaves. There's nothing to, there's no dots to connect. Like that's the, if a team trades for Brony James in the next week, I think we're going to know something, something is up. Golden State has somebody. He makes, Brony makes like 2.2. So I went on the trade reshade. I looked at all the teams. So Golden State really wanted him. Try to get Brony first. That's the smart move. What am I, what am I favorite subplots of the summer so far has been Pat Riley reportedly just stonewalling all the antitakumpal brothers, just like the nazis. No, it's not happening here. Alex Postus, don't even think about it, but the nazis, you can buy some tickets. Well, maybe give you a seat, but you are not playing for the Miami heat. I think all the guys in the heat are relieved they don't have to practice against the nazis. I think he was a physical practice player. You know, I got this question a few times. And I'll read this one from Edmund from La Morata, California. He also asked for conspiracy bill. Let's get, always gets my attention. Is the co-actrate to Toronto, the modern diversion of Jordan's retirement in 1993. The parallels are undeniable. The NBA has, the NBA has intro convertible proof that a player is guilty of crimes that make the league look bad, but instead of airing out their dirty laundry in public, they quietly forced the player in a double-secret population. Jordan to play minor league baseball, Kawaii to exile in the NBA version of Siberia, Toronto. That is, that is, who sent this? Who sent this? Edwin from La Morata, California. Edwin, Edwin, state your source Edwin. Okay, put your full name on the email, state your source. That's a BS. Toronto is an amazing city. It's not exile. It's a great city. Great people, great food, great nightlife, great everything except the weather. And by the way, Edmund points out at least Jordan got to stay in the country. You just couldn't play basketball for eight and ten months. He's going to be coming in and out of the country at will. Okay, we think and they're going to be a very good basketball team. It's not like he's, they traded him to, you know, the Kings or something like that. Conspiracy Bill did take a look at this. It catches attention. Let's go back to when Kawaii signed and Toronto was really mad because they felt, by the way, Toronto may or may not have been involved a little in this aspirations camp. They certainly were about talking about Uncle Dennis, right? Oh, and just, and Uncle Dennis wanted this from us. They wanted that. Like they, I felt like they were one of the sources for kind of the things Uncle Dennis was asking for. I mean, in 2019, that's come out in the media and be even before the aspiration scandal. I think. Okay. So you lose Kawaii because this other team, this is all legit, by the way, it's just just Conspiracy Bill considering the argument. You lose Kawaii because this other team goes beyond the rules to get him. And Adam says, all right, here's how I'm going to fix this. You, you will now return Kawaii to the Raptors. They're going to trade these picks. And then my ruling will be the picks no longer matter and Toronto basically gets Kawaii for nothing. That's would get Conspiracy Bill. The picks no longer matter. And like we're sending them back to Toronto as punishment for Toronto gets the, you clippers don't get to use those picks. They just go back to Toronto. No, that would be something. That would be something. That would be pretty good. Yeah, that would be something. Would that make you wonder that make you go, huh? The other thing would be is if, if bomber buys the Seattle Seahawks. Okay. And decides, I've always wanted to own the NFL team in Seattle. I've had a great run here in the clippers. I built the new stadium. I am now going to sell the clippers. And we'll never know why he sold would be another Conspiracy Bill has accepted that one on his desk. He's, he's looked at that one as well. To me, it's an yellow envelope. Just marked, marked top secret Conspiracy. Yeah. Jack in Missouri said about my idea in the colonoscopy pod. I like that. It's now the colonoscopy pod. You had to know that that's what it was going to be. That LeBron might wait until December, January to set a team. He said, what if he chose this team based on the winner and the NBA cup and just sat courtside? Winner gets LeBron announced it. And then, then, then, then, then the Kings begin creeping through or look through NBA cup. It is like I know, I got to get the quarter finals. So they're in the semi finals. Oh boy. It's getting nervous. So this one excited me. We talked about surprise LeBron teams. Josh Cook said LeBron and Indiana with the Pacers would be wild, right? He loves getting out and running. That's what Hal Burns teams do. Starting five with Tyres, Nemhard, LeBron, Ciacum, Zubats, McConnell, Nees Smith, Ubrei, Toppen and Porter. They nail both ends of the floor shooting, rebounding itself was basketball. And I'm not even a LeBron fan. That is from Josh Cook. That was my honor. That was my honies pick when he came on my show. I said, what's your just just just fun? Fun only. That's the only criteria. What you fit. He said Indiana. And by the way, I apologize to Indiana. I should have mentioned we were doing Christmas games when I was thinking who could the Nick's play? And I said all the on Nick's heat. I thought I thought about Nick's Pacers. That would be really fun. Cause the Pacers are the team like the Nick's, the Nick's didn't have to go through the Pacers. The Pacers can still sit here and say, you beat that team twice in a row in the playoffs. I know there's lots of injuries and all that stuff. And that's obviously a classic rivalry as well. So that would be the Christmas. If they just have that noon spot and that just belongs to the Nick's every year, Nick's Pacers makes more sense, I think, or Nick's versus whatever LeBron team. Andrew Smith wants to know, why don't the Sixers trade a bead to the Bucks for Miles Turner and Kyle Kuzma right now? Kuzma is an inspiring Turner as three years left. Okay. I've who has a lot of meetings on that. I've probably taken note. I've taken note. It's 1240 in the morning. I'm a little groggy, but that's, I mean, look, obviously, that's not going to happen. I think I thought it was interesting. I mean, so Philly would be basically in a year. They would just have the Miles Turner number because Kuzma would expire. So you would have a center for $30 million less than a year. I mean, this goes back to like how many times can we say things like, well, but the upside of an bead, if he ever stays healthy for the play, like is it, is it just time to give up on that? Yeah. So I would, I think if, oh, if I'm Philly, I'm the opposite. I'm looking at an bead. Like, I have these three durable, really good players that I can build a regular season around and I can sprinkle and be it and keep them healthy and just try to get in the playoffs. That counter argument would be, well, he did that last year and he got hurt anyway. I, can he get through four playoff rounds? Healthy. I mean, I, I'm skeptical of that alone. What if you just played him twice a week, even dirt in the playoffs? So he played like game two, game four, game five and game seven. Like, he just played four of the seven games. For Nick Nurse trying to manage that. I do think the idea, what I'm fixated on is this trade rattle's around in my brain is like, Joelle and bead, Milwaukee buck, just how miserable is that person going to be like, like what, what is happening? What's he going to do now? I gave my whole career to Philly, where he's like a good team and now I'm on the bucks. Although that would be a postionist bucks. A lot of fun pieces for him. Well, Tyler hero. This is from Mel. He says podcasters have used, can't put the toothpaste back in the tube too many times. Okay. Including you, I guess. It's fine. He has some alternatives. Can't put the milk back in the cow. Can't put the shit back in the ass. And then he had a third one that I'm not going to say, but it involves sprung. I don't like any of those can put the milk back at the cow. I don't think he nailed that one. The third one. The third one was just played offensive of that. Are we going to say it? I thought you could say can't put the milk back at the carton or something, but we just went straight straight back to the cow. Tim Bowers, one of many people who wrote about the NBA players association, mainly represented by so many called stars screwed over its own middle class. I talked about this on Thursday. These contracts for the middle class guys, even Simon's two for 12 and a half for Simon. Simon's is good. Like the Lakers, the Lakers were like, hey, wait a second middle class. You want to come to us? Quinn Grimes, you're 60 million. They were the only one who they were partying like it was 2016. But for the most part, these, the Dean Wade for for 39 felt a little more old school, but yeah, a couple more and then we're done. Josh and Rally, imagine you're dating an absolute smoke show in college. She was tons of fun, but completely insane. She's amazing and bad at parties, but Jessica goes through her phone. You're not looking. Also, she's a horrible driver. You know, it's not going to last and that she's in the kind of girl to introduce to your parents. You break up deep down. You know, she was long-term solution, but when she's gone, you just feel alone and that sucks. That's how it feels to be a hornets fan right now. Josh really went deep. I was kind in obsession. I was trying to figure out where that was going and then then you figured it out. It landed in it landed in a good NBA place, actually. Yeah. Good email. Brandon says cheers. The next can basically live like Kings and New York for the rest of their life, but as a post career business, I think the biggest no brainers for Landry Shamit just opened a chain of laundromats in the five boroughs called Laundry Shamit. He'll print money. Would you go to Laundry Shamit? I think that's it's a harder. It sounds great. It's a harder business than you think. Laundry can't just call it Laundry Shamit. And it's not it's not like he has $300 million to spend just opening up Laundry Shamit. It's all over the place. Yeah. In a backer. Nicholas said he couldn't believe the Cavs 2016 championship 10 year reunion that Kyrie didn't go that Moscow wasn't invited. Moscow, which is unaware. It's just unaware. It felt bad for him. But he wants to know how will the Celtic celebrate in 2034? Will everyone be invited? Who will go state? Will Porzinga still be injured? And will Pritchard get blind drunk? Repeatedly, yell, this is what I do. All right. Let me look at the roster. I think Jalen would probably be the if he is invited. But I think he goes. I think they forget about FEMA high loop. I think he's the Mazgoth of the I think he checks Instagram. And it's like. That's a good good. That hurts. I think Jalen goes. I think by them, we're in a good spot. We're in a good enough spot. And Alhorford won't go because it'll coincide with his 50th birthday party. Ben Craven in Ludlow shop Shryer UK. I feel like he's written before. He wants us to set the over under for future all star appearances of all combined players and picks received by Milwaukee in the Miami trade free on us. Okay. That's a good one. He said 0.5. I would go 1.5. I think hero may have like 27 points a game next year. Oh, Dad. So we have buries a meant. What else do we have coming in that? Buries a meant Kelly Olympic where future Miami lottery pick would probably be your best chance. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think how many future I think buries could make one. I'm going to go 1.5. I like 1.5 0.5 is too low. Okay. La this one's too long. I really want your reaction to this. Let's go ahead. It's a July 4th email. It's from Ben and St. Louis. He said July 4th will mark our semi-quinn centennial anniversary. Is that a word? Semi-quinn centennial? And perhaps that's significantly the tenor anniversary of Kelly Olympic killing Boston's chances of getting Kevin Durant. Recall Katie and our choice is down to O.K.C. Boston and Golden State. A Celtic contingent flies to the Hamptons where Katie is a house rented. The group is Tom Brady, Danny Aange, Brad Stevens, the owners, Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Jake Crowder, and Kelly Olympic. What happened was Kelly Olympic at a tie-dye shirt versus Steph Clay and Drake mod 73 win team. He's still upset about it. He still claims Kelly Olympic for the Celtics not getting Kevin Durant. I think there were other reasons. Kelly Olympic specifically and the shirt that he was wearing. I don't remember. I don't remember the tie-dye shirt. Is he speculating? I mean, there's got to be Google images. Why did Tom Brady go to? That was another weird one. I want to look, I want to look this up now. I mean, is there a picture of all of them in the Hamptons? That's what I'm looking for. I don't see any tie-dye shirts. Katie should have come to Boston. Oh, he is wearing a t-shirt. Yeah. It's not quite a tie-dye shirt. He's got a backwards hat and he's got a white t-shirt with some tie-dye-like image. It actually might be a tie-dye t-shirt. Interesting. I should have been more focused on it. All right. Last question. It's from Sherb from San Francisco. He's on a group chat about the King's franchise with a bunch of King's fans that they call the King's Fan Annual Season Timeline. He's posted the same timeline below every year for the last five. Somehow he is at every month on the dot this past year with the ACUP. So this is from 2022. He sent me the screenshot. There's a screenshot. Okay. October. We're going to be good this year. November. Oh no, we suck again. December. Team is actually good, but our coach sucks. January. New coach also sucks. So it's probably our GM that sucks February. We could turn it around at the trade deadline. March. We definitely still suck. We should tank. Why are we winning? April. We suck in our draft pick sucks. May. Our draft pick doesn't suck hope. June. The guy we drafted traded for is awesome. More hope. July. Bro. Our summer league guys look sick. August. Positive. Sacktown royalty training camp news. Mega hope. September undefeated in preseason. Five seed question mark. Okay. That's the 12 stages of King's by month. And that's the same. He's done that the same. He's that he posted every year. Five years in a row. He's posted that in his group chat. And he said they've already nailed the a cuff thing. Now a cuff, I guess he had 24 point 24 points on 29 shots last night. Summer league. So I don't know if the summer league bro or summer league guys looks sick is coming out yet. The beam team. It just blows that whole thing up. The beam team didn't follow that at all that, but that is an anomalous Sacramento King season. Maybe that's the thing. Maybe that was an anomaly. I hope I hope a cuff works out. Because for pretty bad for league past purposes. We need a cuff to work out or else that is the number one. I don't want to watch that team team. Who do you have a who do you have you when you do league pass rankings? Who is the who's the favorite to be 30th right now for you? So I mean, is it just Brooklyn every year? You like their court? I mean, Milwaukee's got a chance to be pretty rough. I feel the same. I don't know if I'm going to be diving into a lot of bucks games next year. Chicago's got some young guys sheen. Oh, I'm excited for Chicago. Caleb Wilson. Yeah. That would be fun. Milwaukee's Milwaukee might be Milwaukee might be my clippers. Clippers could be a little. If you on it, if my guy, Yonic doesn't come back. I think he's all right. I don't know how long you can have a Jones. But do you have a Jones or one of the bad things that I listen. Yeah, he'll be all right. Yeah, I would I think Milwaukee is the odds on paper. I think you're right. Okay. We'll wrap it up. When's your next podcast? Probably going to go up Tuesday morning. I think we're going to record tomorrow on some Laker stuff and Jalen Brown fallout and whatever else happens. Maybe a LeBron will sign in the next 48 hours. Who knows? I don't think so. Doesn't seem like it. I think basically everybody's signed now. The only things we have in play left are Peyton Watson. It's a couple of restricted. Right. What happens with Dern? I haven't liked Detroit's offices at all just for the record. It's been a strange, it's been a strange one. Yeah. It's been a strange one. Yeah, we've got some of that. And then the no brainer extensions will come, you know, like all of the Wemba Yama extension and stuff like that. But yeah, Jalen Dern, that's going to be fun. Do you think we'll ever see a player in our lifetime not do the rookie extension early and just do the stare down? I mean, we've seen that. I think what you're really asking is, will anyone take the qualifying offer? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I, there's been candidates. I think the money is now reaching. point where you're basically losing $35 million or something. It's a pretty risky decision and I don't see anyone coming down the pike at this point. That was exact. Thanks for staying up to almost one o'clock your time. We put the toothpaste back in the tube. We put the shit back in the cow. I was like, I'll leave for the rewatchables is coming either Monday night or Tuesday night because I think we're doing a post-soccer thing tomorrow and then hopefully the NBA will calm down. Thanks for staying up late. Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo and Jack and Chris and everybody else that's Spotify too. And I'll see you tomorrow night live on Netflix right after the American game. Most be 21 plus in president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus in president DC Kentucky or Wyoming game prom call 100 gamble or 1 800 by reset call 888 797777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Coming up line ma.org or call 80327 5050 for 24 seven sport Massachusetts or call 8778 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 8777707867.