Transcript of NBA Preview With Ryen Russillo, USA Hockey Is The Best, NBA All Star Weekend + Who's Back Of The Week

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

Whenever I'm bored, I love scrolling through homes online, and the Redfin app makes it so easy. You can see everything in one place and daydream about your next spot. I highly recommend it. Whether I'm searching for my next place to buy or rent, I just want to scroll through some dream homes. I use the Redfin app. Maybe looking at a Lakehouse, maybe looking at a pool. It's all on the Redfin app. Redfin makes it fun to search all the homes for sale and apartments for rent in your neighborhood. If you find a place you love, Redfin makes it easy to go see it in person. Just schedule a tour right from the app. Whether you're looking to buy or rent, Redfin has got you covered. Download the Red Fin app to get started.

On today's part of my take, we are back, we're not all together yet. We'll be all together on Wednesday's show, but we are back to talk about the weekend. We also have our big NBA preview with our favorite in the whole wide world. Ryan Rusillo. Excuse me. I got something in my throat. That was a chip. I've been eating a lot of chips. Ryan Rusillo on the show, NBA preview. Can't miss it. Also talk about all kinds of things. I think we talked maybe 20% basketball, 80% everything else. It's great interview, and we're going to talk about this weekend, Four Nations, the NBA All-Star Weekend, everything else that's going on, a little hot sea cool drone. It is brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with all the new ways to get in on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Draftkings is the home of NBA player props, so you can get behind your favorite players any which way for Monster Slams, to Dishing the Rock, to Cleaning the Glass. It's super easy for first-timers to get started.

Try betting on something simple like picking an NBA player prop. Here's something special for first-timers. New DraftKings customers bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Take it to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook. Every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $150 in bonus That's when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the Crown is yours.

Gambling problem?

Call 1-800 Gambler. In New York, call 877-8openY or text Hope & Y 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for a problem gambling called 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.

Org. Please play responsibly.

On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus, bets expire 168 hours after issuance. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng. Co/audio. Okay, let's go.

Pardon, my take.

Pardon, my take.

Pardon, my take.

Pardon, my take. Pardon, my take. Pardon, my take. Pardon, my take. Pardon, my take. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Take it to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook. Every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code take. That's code take for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Today is Monday, February 17th. And guess what? We're the best fucking country in the world in hockey.

Again, USA, we're so back.

Usa, until- Well, we got this early call. We do have to wait on Thursday.

Right now, as of the second, we're We're still and still the best hockey country in the world. We got the cup. They're not getting it back. That was an ass-kicking. The NHL got it right. Hats off to the NHL.

I mean, the NHL, this entire sports weekend, so the first weekend without football. And I did see our good friend Chris Long making fun of everyone who posted like, I miss football. Guess what, dude? I do miss football. Sunday was weird today. It was weird waking up and not being able... I wanted to get in on the football action. It's weird to have our body change.

But- Listen, you guys can miss football. Real ones misses football because we're married to the game.

Yeah, exactly. The story, though, for the first weekend without football was Listen, he's our good friend Adam Silver now because we did have a great interview with him on part of my take on Wednesday. But the NHL absolutely bodied the NBA in terms of getting it right and what they did, what they've done with the Four Nations tournament instead of the All-Star Game versus everything that's been going on for the NBA All-Star Game. It's not even close. That was such a cool... I mean, it's still going on. We have a game Monday night. There's the finals on Thursday, but it's The NHL knocked this out of the park, and it was the guys cared a lot, and it was so much fun to watch USA Canada on Saturday night.

It was the complete opposite of the All-Star Game, right from the first whistle. I think, were there three fights in the first 10 seconds of the game?

Nine seconds. That's awesome. First nine seconds.

There's nothing like a little pure unadulterated nationalism to really get people going. The NBA scratch the surface a little bit with that by doing the different teams with the guys from TNT. But it's not the same. It's not not the same. Having just USA against Canada, it gets the blood going. The NBA didn't even come close to scratching that being like, Oh, who cares about Chuck versus Shaq?

That dad doesn't do it at all. They should try to do the countries.

One of the teams was European international guys.

Was the Rising Stars. So it was like the young guys.

No, but there were four teams, right?

Right. I think there was team Chuck, team Shaq, team Kenny, and then the Rising Stars.

One of the teams was, I want to say it was team- Team Mitch. I don't know. Either Chuck or Shaq had the international guys.

They were- Or he just drafted them because they did a draft, so he just did that on purpose.

Yeah.

Got it. We also had LeBron James decide he's not playing in the All-Star Game two hours before the All-Star Game, which, look, I'm not going to... People made this huge debate. I can't believe he did this. It's more It's like, Dude, just say you're going to do this five days ago. You know what I mean? Don't do it two hours before the All-Star game. People do want to see you play, and it's probably you're at the end of your career. It's just a lame move. He's probably injured, but still, just give everyone a little more of a heads up.

He was sitting out with foot and ankle discomfort. I don't know about you, but we have a producer on this show that broke their foot and didn't miss a single episode. Yeah, that's a fact. Lebron James has to bow out at the last second for the All-Star Game. But yeah, the moral of the story is that the NBA cucked the NFL during Super Bowl week, then the NHL cucked the NBA during All-Star Week. Nhl is king.

Yeah, NHL is king. They crushed it. They absolutely crushed it. They should never go back to anything else. It should always be four nations every single year. I know Olympics coming up next year, but this is the best.

What are you going to say, Hank? What about Russia?

He's trying to make a motion. What about Russia? Russia got banned because of the whole war in Ukraine. Next question.

No, I know. I just- Do you think that Russia should have been led by that? One of the best hockey players are Russian if we're doing a talent showcase.

Oh, no. That argument was made because it was like, Germany was, I think, in the top 10 in the rankings. Yeah, Germany was in the top 10 in the rankings, Russia. And Germany didn't, I think, have enough current NHL players to feel the team. That was why they didn't get in. But yeah, expand it and make it better. Just do the Olympics every year. It It would be fun with only NHL players.

I agree. Somehow, Free Bird has become our national song. Again, back in 1977, it was once king, now it's king again. I don't know how that became the USA song. I think it was in the juniors, right? It was the song that played after the goals. But it just fucking rocks, tweeting out a clip of Free Bird every time we score.

Where do you guys land on the booing of the National Anthem debate? I think it's very funny. I love it. I want sports to have more bad blood. There was a lot of hurt feelings online, and I get it. There's obviously a political element with the US Canada relations. I just love the fact they don't like us. We don't like them. We're going to boo them in the finals if we meet them in Boston. I have no problem with it. I like all of it.

Yeah. No, I'm fine with it. Don't boo. Vote. I like the fact that there's some bad blood there. For a while, USA Canada, we've been buddy-buddy, I think after the game's over, they're probably cool with each other. Our nations have a long stored history together. But to actually drum up some hate for your opponent, I think is really good. It's awesome.

Yeah, I completely... It was fun. Just seeing... It was a weird mix of... It was actually very funny because it was perfect for both countries. I saw people being like, I can't believe they booed. This is absolute bullshit. Then there was Canadians apologizing for being like, We shouldn't have booed. I was like, No, fuck that. This is fine. If you get your feelings hurt over your anthem being booed, you're an absolute pussy. It's enemy territory. It would obviously be a different story if it happened in America and they booed the national anthem in America, but it's enemy territory. I like this. It makes you feel like you're in Rocky IV. That's what I want all sports events to feel like.

Yeah, I like that there was some booing, and then there was people that booed the Booers. Yeah. So you had no idea who was booing who by the end of it. But just I'm a big fan of booze in general.

I said I hope this starts a major boo off, and I hope that on Thursday, if USA plays Canada, it's the loudest booze you've ever heard. I don't want to even hear a second of O Canada. I just want to hear boos. That would make me so happy.

Boo Canada.

Yeah. Remember Ruff and Rowdy when I tried to do O Canada and I just started getting booed and I started laughing so hard? That was an awesome moment.

National Anthems need to be easier to sing. I could understand booing the Star-Spangled Banner just because it's a tough one to get through. But I can't believe we didn't lead with the fact that Wemby made a mockery of the All-Star Skills Competition this weekend. That's what people are really upset about.

Yeah, well, I'm more upset that Wemby didn't... He had literally the greatest fall guy of all time in Chris Paul as his teammate. For people who didn't watch, so So on Saturday night, they do the dunk contest. Shout out Mac McClung. That's pretty much his whole job in life is just to win the dunk contest. They had the three-point contest, Tyler Hero. White Boys are having a moment. Cooper Dujene, Tyler Hero, Mac clung all in a week. Then they had the skills competition. In the skills competition, it's like, pass a basketball, dribble a basketball, go take three shots at the top of the key, at the side, whatever. And Wemby figured out that he didn't actually have to take the shots. He just had to throw the ball at the rim as fast as possible. It made it look completely ridiculous and a complete mockery of the thing. But my biggest issue was he was teamed with Chris Paul, and everyone immediately assumed Chris Paul was the mastermind behind this because Chris Paul does that type of shit. But when he took full ownership of it, and he was like, Yeah, it was my idea.

Yeah, we thought that Chris Paul was foul baiting the skills competition. Yeah. Then afterwards, Wemby was like, No, I went around, I asked all the refs, and they told me I could just throw him. And how come when Ben Simmons attempts a shot that looks like that, we all feel bad for him when Wemby does it, we kick him out of the tournament? It doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't add up.

I agree.

It was very funny that they thought that they had a loophole, and then they were just like, No, this is Bush League shit. Get out of here. But yeah, Chris Paul. I think everybody thought it was Chris Paul's idea until after the fact.

Yeah. Then it turns out that Wemby, he did go around basically asking every ref if this is okay and can he do And they all were like, okay, yeah, I guess so. Then as a minute they did it, they kicked him out. By the way, team Shaq is about to win. So congrats to team Shaq. They're going to beat Chuck's team. That's huge. Big upset. Huge upset. Where were you for Team Shaq? They were, I think, maybe one and a half point underdogs. So where were you for Team Shaq's big upset?

Okay, so I do like the play to 40 rule.

I think that's a good Elam ending? Yeah.

Well, no, I think they're just doing first to 40.

Oh, I guess not Elam. Yeah, it's just first to 40. The court looks like shit. The court, I do not like, but yeah, I like that as well.

Also, did you see that John Marant saw Mac McClung, and he was like, Yeah, we got to do this shit next year. I'm in. Count me in. And then he tried to get Zack Levine to say that he was in. And then I think Yannis also tweeted that he'd be down. This happens every year, though. Something cool happens in the Slam Dunk competition, and then all the stars that you want to see in are Yeah, we're going to definitely do this next year. It's a good night because you're just making a future problem for yourself that you're going to cancel anyways. But for that night, you feel like you're a hero. It's like, Thank you for saving the Slam Dunk competition, John Morant.

I've been there. Yes, someone I'm not going to do it. There were people complaining about... There were people complaining about Mac McClung being a two-way guy shouldn't get to compete in the dunk contest. I got to tell you, if you're thinking that hard about the dunk contest, and you're that much of a stickly for the rules for the dunk contest, you can't take this away from Mac McClung. It's literally all he has. He's three times in a row.

He jumped over a car.

He did the Blake Griffin.

He did the Blake Griffin. I mean, that's justice for the kid I was hanging out with on Christmas, who just wouldn't stop talking about Mac McClung deserving to be on an NBA roster. Get him on our active roster because I think he's on the two-way contract right now, right?

Yeah, he is. All right, so yeah, shout out Team Shaq. Huge. Where were you when Team Shaq won the NBA All-Star Game? Everyone will probably put that down as one of the greatest All-Star games out there, beat Team Chuck, which was a semi-foreign team, not all foreign guys.

Yeah. I mean, if the The NBA All-Star Game, Shaq versus Chuck, in the final game started out the way that USA versus Canada started out, where there were three just full-on brawls on the court in the first 10 seconds, we would be having a discussion for six months of, has What does Adam Silver need to do to save the NBA and its image problem?

Here's the thing with the NBA, and if they wanted... They have one thing they could do to replicate the Four Nations, and I think we all know what it is, but they can't do it.

We shouldn't talk about it.

They can't do it, but that would replicate the hype for Four Nations.

Listen, it would be very bad for the world, but it would be fun to watch.

Let's just say we're not going to say it, but I would enjoy watching Alex Caruso play in the NBA All-Star game.

He would put forth a lot of effort.

We'd have to get minutes from him. We'd have to get some minutes from him.

Can you imagine? No way would LeBron James back out an hour before that came.

All right, so other things have been going on. Max, how are you feeling? Your one week anniversary for the Super Bowl. You feel good? You're about to go on vacation when we all get back. Yes. I mean, some people had to do some stuff while you guys were on vacation. That's fine. What did you have to do?

Edit D&D.

You just didn't plan your vacation the same week. Yeah, no, I fucked up on my date for the vacation. That's fine.

Sometimes you You got bad scheduling, and it happened.

I didn't even go to the parade, which- Oh, no.

Okay. Oh, yeah.

Tell us about the parade. What was the highlight? I mean, I saw Howie Rosen got hit in the head in the forehead with a beer. That was That ass. He probably got some football guy's street cred in the locker room.

Yeah, no. There was a lot of beers being thrown. No one went on the floats.

They all just decided to get absolutely wasted and just walk the entire parade, which was cool.

Quinian Mitchell was super fucked up, had no idea what he was saying when getting interviewed on the side of the street.

Nolan Smith Jr.

I think he got sent home early. He was so drunk.

He was just going up to every single person in the stands. Every time someone said, Shotgun this beer, he would shotgun that beer. So that was cool.

A lot of F-bombs in the speeches that the local news just had no idea what to do when broadcasting the game or broadcasting this speeches. They would cut out audio for the entire speech, and then they would come back in, and then an F-bomb would immediately come after it.

That was good.

There wasn't any big Jason Kelsi speech, but it was good.

It was fun to watch.

I like Saquon when he went to the side. I I think he was doing a lot of walking, and he saw one of the ball boys was just on the side, and he grabbed them, pulled them over the stands. It was like, Yeah, you're walking with us.

That was awesome. I saw that. That was cool.

He also went to Barstool Sandsum right after the raid, and was just partying right next to all of my coworkers that I would have liked to have been there with.

And you would have been there with. And I would have been there with, correct. You would have been there with. Would you like to say anything about the hanging of Kermit the Frog? Classless. I honestly didn't even see that.

The only thing I saw was- It was a debate. It's like Boon and the National Work.

I'm having a furious debate. It's like Boon and the National Work. They were like, This is racist. I was like, I get why you could get there, but it's also just a frog. It's Philly, and they're hanging a frog. It's literally Kermit the Frog.

I honestly didn't see that. The only one I saw was the pig roast that someone put 15 in the side of. That That was the discourse that I saw that people were getting angry of.

I think that's fine.

The funnyest thing I saw, the trend I saw, was it was a lot of Chiefs fans essentially being like, When we win championships, we don't take shots at anyone. And Philly's just taking shots at people. The C. J. Gardner Johnson doing the Taylor Swifties can licks my balls, that stuff. They're like, They're just taking shots at us, and we never take shots at people when we win titles. I was like, Are you having a class off on how to win a fucking title? Who cares?

Yeah, they're doing to act like you've been there before. If you win, you can do whatever you want. Also, isn't Kermit the Frog, isn't it one of those marionettes? So it's always hanging?

True. Good point. I just can't stress this enough. If Philly wins a championship, it's an NC 17 movie when you tune into any coverage of... If you have any type of softness to you in terms of, I don't want them making fun of my team or my players, don't tune into any of the coverage because it's Philly and they're going to do that. They're going to roast a pig with number 15 on it and say, Swift's licks my balls.

Yeah, this television show is rated Philly.

Yeah, exactly. I had no problem with Philly just being all Philly. What are you going to say, Max?

The CJ Gardner Johnson shirt was hilarious.

Oh, so good. It was hilarious. You're only going to get L-I-X once for the Zoom roll. It's perfect. You have to just tip your hat. Swifties have to be able to take it the same way they give it. They fucking go after people, and they gave all the terrible reviews to his mom's restaurant. I didn't see him complaining about that. He just went back at the Swifties. This whole episode is just like, fair is fair. Boo. Tell people to lick your balls. Roast pigs. Do it all. It's sports. It's fun.

Agreed.

I have nothing else to say other than funny is funny, and I respect funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Swiftie licks my balls. I like that a lot. Memes. Aaron Rodgers is officially not a jet. It's good that you guys decided to part ways. He's officially gone, gone forever. Top three Aaron Rodgers moments as a jet.

Him walking out with the flag, well, running out with the flag. Yeah, that's a good one. The most I've ever been to watch a football game.

The first drive on that Monday night football game of this season, I thought we were going to the Super Bowl, and the Devante Adams' Hale Mary.

That was good. Okay. What were your bottom three moments?

Him tearing his Achilles.

That's pretty much it.

That's the only bad time.

Yeah. The Denver Broncos game.

That was brutal.

The Vikings interception.

That was brutal. That Broncos game. You guys won that Broncos game, right? Didn't you? No, we would have if Greg Zeriline made the kick.

If Greg Zerlijn had the kick. It would have changed everything. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers would probably still be a jet if Greg Zerlan was made a couple of kicks.

One of the craziest what-ifs in sports history. You blew 6/4 Fourth-quarter leads, you win those games, you're in the playoffs.

Yeah, it's true.

All bets are off. I think it happened. Me and Max in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. What if? What if?

You're so close.

Who do you want memes? Who's the quarterback?

Justin Field? Sounds like you're very confident in that one.

Oh, no, baby, baby. No, no, no, no. Yeah, but if he comes Katten does good. Mm-mm.

Yeah. No, Big K, you didn't think about that. What if he was good?

That's a really good point I did not consider. No memes. No, no, no. Don't do that. Don't do that to yourself.

Get him Rusty. Just do a little quarterback swap?

If it's Kerr Cousins, I'll kill myself.

Oh, no.

It could very well be Kerr Cousins. Everybody else Everybody else is better than Zack Wilson, so that's fine.

But Kerk Cousins is just a lateral move from-What about-Kerk Cousins to Kerk Cousins. What would be worse, Kerk Cousins or Sam Darnold? Kerk Cousins. But Sam Darnold Kirk Cousins fell off a cliff. He had his Achilles injury. Yeah, but he started the season off so good, and then he fell off a cliff. Also, Scheffler said that Sam Darnall is most likely Raiders or Vikings. Also, he didn't really start off the season so good. He had two incredible games against the box. Beat the Super Bowl champion.

He had that one drive where it was like, Okay, Kirk, go out there, and we're just not going to run anything from the playbook. Just do no huddle.

Yeah. Okay, Last story I had before we do Who's Back, Richie Incognito. What a day for Richie. For people who missed it, there was this pretty good article about Jonathan Martin. I think we're right around the 10-year anniversary where he essentially was like, Yeah, a lot of that stuff, I never really thought I got bullied. By the way, that was our take from... We've had Richie on the show a couple of times. I actually texted him. I was like, This day has got to feel really good. He's like, Thanks for having my back. Richie is not for everyone. Richie also, I think, was put in a spot where he was an easy target to be the face of bullying. This story that just came out essentially explained it, that Jonathan Martin's mom put the words bullying onto the whole thing, and then it just took an entire left turn where it became this thing that was so much bigger than just in the locker room, and Rich Incognito became the face of this anti-bullying campaign that was just not real from what Jonathan Martin said today.

Yeah. In this article, he was like, Yeah, I was not Bully, bullying was never really what it was about. I think Jonathan Martin, he's had his fair share of issues off the field in the last 10 years. I hope he's doing well. He seems like he's at least in a space where he wants to clear everything up and try to move forward. There was a lot of stuff, a lot of meaning that got put on of this story that probably should have been... It should have become a wide cultural issue. Correct. That NFL players and fellow offensive linemen were talking a lot of shit to each other. Some of the stuff went way over the line for sure. But it was not ganging up and bullying one person and driving them to the point of going insane. It was dudes shit-talking each other, and it became so much bigger than just that story. I feel like this same thing has probably happened hundreds of times in the NFL. If anything, a player might get a one-game suspension for conduct detrimental to the team, or they might get fined, and then you never hear about it.

But it became a fucking Ted Welles report where had the FBI investigating it, and it just got it got insane.

Yeah. I think my interpretation from the jump, and we've talked about it on this show before, and like I said, we've had Richie on the show multiple times, is that if you ever... When you try to take the outside world and judge a locker room and how it operates and basically put it into corporate America or a classroom or any type a place where people gather together and there's a little bit more decorum, you're always going to be shocked by the locker room. The locker room is not the same as everything else in the world because it's a violent sport. It's guys all together getting paid a lot of money, busting each other's balls. Shit that gets said in the locker room, if it gets said at your Fortune 500 company, yeah, people would get fired. But you can't judge it that way. It just never works that way. I thought the whole thing was a lot of people trying to put their workplace into an NFL locker room and having the standards match, and they just won't. They'll never be the same.

Yeah. Do you walk around naked after lunch break with the other people in sales? Yeah. You guys shower together? Yeah. 99% of football is technically bully.

Right. Well, it's even... If you had your text messages with your closest friends in the world just put out there. People are like, Do these guys hate each other or do they like each other? I can't tell. These relationships are deeper and have a different complexity than just a text message or a snippet that you take a capture of and you're like, Oh, that's exactly how they acted all the time.

They would know that we hated Hank, though, before shit came out. That's true.

But yeah, I'm happy Richy got a little satisfaction. I do hope Jonathan Martin is doing well. It seems like he's doing well. He's big into Bitcoin. He's got a A ton of degrees. He seems way smarter than I'll ever be. But it did... And did you read the story, PFT?

Yeah, I did.

That part where I think he had a falling out with his mom over this. It seemed like they hadn't talked for a while. And I understand his mom was trying to protect him, but also it's a mother trying to protect a grown man, which that gets a little weird. But the whole situation definitely went in a direction that removes itself from the reality of what a locker room is and what those guys were going through together.

The narrative at the time was Richie Incognito basically killed one of his teammates by being such an asshole. It was not at all based on what the truth of the situation was. It does suck for him that it took 10 years for this to come out. He's doing a victory lap, as he should at this point, which is like, yeah, I was paying it as the worst person in professional sports.

Yeah, he was made the face of it all. Still the funiest when we went to Buffalo and interviewed Richie after the game. Remember we went to the tailgate? This is for old AWLs, we'll remember this, but we went to the tailgate after. The Bills have a player's tailgate in the a lot. It was basically Eric Wood, other offensive lineman. Richie was like, Meet me there, and then we'll go to my house and we'll do the interview. We went there and we sat there drinking beers and hanging out with the Bill's offensive line for two 2 hours while I kept on texting Richie. Then finally, he's like, Oh, dude, I went home right after the game. I was like, Oh, okay. He's like, Okay, we'll meet you there. He's like, I've been home for two hours. I don't know why you guys have been standing there in 20-degree weather drinking beers in the parking lot. But I am happy that Richie got some little vindication in this.

Yeah, he was definitely made the face of it because Richie, everything that went along with Richie, it was like, he was the easiest person to believe that could be a huge bully, just on how he played sometimes, where he'd always be right up against that edge. I hope he's feeling good today. I hope that Jonathan Martin is doing okay because it seems like he's all over the map. I hope he's happy right now.

Yeah, and I bet you Richie, If Richie talked, there's probably some things that he would like to take back as well because I don't think Richie ever said that he was a model citizen that never did anything wrong. It's just he became the face of this horrible bullying campaign that just wasn't really based in any reality. Okay. Anything else before we do who's back in the week?

There was a report from Pete Thamel, I think, on expanding the NCAA tournament. So he says that for the 76 season, the tournament could expand and the likely option would be to 76 teams. Seventy-six teams in the NCAA tournament. At first I saw this and I thought, dear God, no. Sixty-four to me is still the perfect number. It's a nice clean bracket. I'm a simple man. I can divide by eight. I like looking at a 64-team bracket. Now, the only way that I would be okay with it if it was 76 teams is if you had the eight teams outside of the 64 that were all at large bids.

Well, that would be what they were.

No, because sometimes you get the conference tournament winners.

What do you mean?

I'm saying in the play-in games.

Oh, in the play-in games? I didn't understand what you're saying. I thought you meant just the extra eight are all at large because they would all be at large.

Right. No, but I mean that we have, obviously, the Dayton play-in games, and then they would do another site that was not on the East Coast. It would be somewhere out West for, I don't know, time zones. But yeah, if all the play-in games were at large teams, then I'll be okay with it.

I think it's less that, and it's more that if they expand it, so they expand eight teams, there has to be a rule that it's four and four, big conference, small conference. Because what I don't want is an expansion of eight teams, and then you get the seventh best ACC team and the 10th best Big Ten team over an India and a state from last year. If they made it, Hey, we're expanding it to eight more teams, but it has to be four teams that are lower conference teams, then I could deal with that because that would be more fun.

A team that got their bid stolen, their automatic bid stolen in the championship game.

Correct. I don't want it to be just a middle-of-the-road big conference team that everyone complains about and is really not deserving of it. I would rather have it be like a Villanova or something where they're on the bubble and I don't need them in. I'd like Indiana State.

Right. Yeah. I hate it when they have the conference winners and they have to play in the playing game. That sucks.

Yeah, agreed. Max, are you Are you on the bubble? Or- Villanova is not on the bubble. They are very well below the bubble.

Wait, below the bubble? Are you inside the bubble or outside of the bubble?

They were starting to creep up into bubble land after beating St. John's last week, and then they just got absolutely smoked and embarrassed by Providence on Saturday.

Man.

Good news for the sickos and perverts who are left edging from Max in the Super Bowl. I officially believe that this Badger could make a run. So that will be where you get the heartbreak and the sadness and me lashing out. That's going to happen. I think they are really good, really fun. They're projected a three-seed. They did a mock committee thing, and then they went out and beat Purdue at Purdue. I fully believe they could be an Elite 8 team, and that's always a disaster for me.

Hank, are you going to make sure if you can imagine this here?

No, he's Cooper Flag. An Elite 8 run would be fun. Yeah, you want me to... You need it. Because when I say sickos and perverts, Hank is definitely the number one leader of the sickos and perverts, and he knows that he got blue balls from Max's Super Bowl run.

He's just got to put a feature on your squad. Yeah, I love the birds. That's the difference maker.

All right, let's do who's back in the week, and then we're going to kick it to Ryan Rusillo. Like I said, we'll be back in studio altogether for Wednesday's show on Tuesday. We'll be back from vacation then. But before we do that, Who's Back in the Week is brought to you by our friends at Truly Unruly, is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good. Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules, drinks light, parties hard with 8% ABV. It hits hard but still tastes amazing. Strawberry Smash. That's my personal favorite. I love it. We were drinking it in New It's great. You have a Truly Unruly, maybe on the golf course, you feel great. It's the official Hard Seltzer. A part of my take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit www. Trulyhardseltzer. Com. Shout out truly, by the way. They were on the ice for Four Nations. I saw it as one of the sponsors. So big stuff. Love Truly Unruly. All right, Hank, who's back of the week?

My who's back of the week was about to be cable, but I just found out that a deal has been made between YouTube TV and Paramount Plus.

Yeah, I don't think they made the deal. I think they just related. I made the switch to YouTube TV like two months ago, and I like it. And then I think it was on Friday or a couple of days ago. That was the issue. That YouTube TV said they weren't going to be carrying Paramount Plus, which could be an issue for Marsh Madness. So that would have been a disaster.

I think they have the structure in place of an extension. It's like what the PGA tour and Liv keeps doing, where it's like, We have an agreement to framework. There might not be March Madness on YouTube TV.

I mean, that would be a disaster. Yeah, it would be a complete disaster. Especially because YouTube TV you can watch on your phone, pull up on your phone for people at work or on your computer, and you get the four boxes Like, total disaster. They can't... I'm not going to get political, but that does feel like something Trump should just get involved in. If we get to that point, if we're right before it, I feel like one tweet from him could solve that. Yeah. So Cable might be back. Yeah. Okay. Pft, your Who's Back of the Week.

My Who's Back of the Week is Giancarlo Stanton.

He's back on the injury report.

He's going to start the season on the injury report, might not play in the first game. He's got a double elbow tendinitis. So both of his elbows are fucked up. That's what Blake had. So if he does play, he's going to be in a cone and probably sedated a little bit. But it's so perfectly Giancarlo stand to go into the spring training. Yankees feeling good about themselves again. And then, oh, yeah, he's still Giancarlo standing.

That's like Rendón having another surgery as well. All-time finesse job.

Yeah. How many games has he played on this contract? I think three or four. You can look at his highlights on the Angels, and it's when he slapped that fan. Yeah, pretty much. That's the coolest thing that he's done.

Yeah. Okay. My Who's Back of the Week is National Sports podcast because I wanted to talk real quick. Did you guys see... I had two things from college or three things from college basketball Saturday. Auburn goes into Alabama, beats Alabama. Awesome, awesome game. Two incredible teams. There was a moment in the last maybe four minutes where it was just trading deep threes back and forth that was just so much fun to watch. So credit to Auburn. They're really, really good. And then did you guys see Terrence Shannon's jersey getting retired? Upside down all time. I don't know how that happens. I really don't. How do you attach the jersey upside down and then actually pull it up?

That means that it's in distress when they raise it upside down. I don't know. The gasp from the audience was very, very funny when they all realized at the same time, oh, shit, this whole thing's upside down. I don't know.

Yeah.

And- What I do-Go ahead. The discourse that I really like after the Auburn-Alabama game is people immediately saying, let's do this again three more times this season. If we don't get Auburn-Alabama four total in college basketball this year, people are going to be very upset. I think the schedule makers will do everything in their power if it does come to bracket time. Make sure that we have a strong possibility of seeing those two teams match up in the Elite 8.

Yes. I think also, Karl Ravich did fall for the SEC is 500 since January fourth stat. He said that live on air a couple of days ago. But the SEC is very, very good, and that showed it. Also, So in the Illinois-Michigan State game, I don't know if you guys saw the end of the game, but I can't remember. I think it was with about five minutes left in the game. It was 67 Illinois. Sorry, it was like six and a half minutes left in the game. It was 6. 7, 6. 6, Illinois over Michigan State, and the final score was 79, 65, Michigan State. So in the last six and a half minutes, Illinois actually had minus two points because they went and reviewed a basket for a goal tending from earlier and took off points. So you could see there's a screenshot where they're up 67, 66 with six minutes left, and they lost 965. Never been done before.

It was crazy. That was so infuriating if you bet on them.

So infuriating. But yeah, that Auburn, Alabama game was awesome. And I don't know if there's any other college basketball.

Also, shout out Pug.

See you all at Yukon. Oh, yeah. Oh, boy. That game was awesome. Oh, boy. Was that a bad ending for Yukon? Holy shit. They just pissed down their leg. Pug, you're back.

See All one game win streak.

There we go.

You could get hot. Let's build off that. Just put us in the Big East tournament. Are you guys on the bubble?

Just put us in the Big East tournament.

Anything can happen. Okay. The Big East tournament, everyone makes it, right? Everyone makes it. Yeah. Not everyone makes a Big Ten tournament. Really? Yeah, they've had to because we've had so many teams now, so there's a few teams that don't make it.

Pug, you should do Bracketology for the Big East tournament. Last four We're in. Seton Hall.

Okay.

You're in.

Yeah. Yeah, we're in.

We're going to win it. No, that was a bad loss for Yukon because Seton Hall is not good at all. Seton Hall is horrendous. Yeah. Very, very bad loss. Very, very bad loss. Okay. Any other national sports podcast stuff? We got Rassillo for an hour and a half plus.

Yeah, he's going to get into a lot of national sports podcast stuff, mostly about World War II. But yeah, I think one thing that I saw that caught my eye earlier today was Calipari just yelling at people for... He was basically saying, My team sucks.

Yeah.

That's what he's supposed to say. He's not having a great time. He's having a bad time. He says, My team sucks. They're soft. I have to treat them delicately. This is me treating them delicately., but I need to get in their ass somehow, so I won't be hard. It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good for Cal.

No, it does not. Not a great first year for him in Arkansas. But all right, we're going to be back, all of us together on... Max, when do you leave for your fitness vacation? Wednesday night. Okay. So we'll be back, all of us together on Tuesday, and we're going to try to get biz on to talk. Hopefully USA Canada. Now, oh, last I'm saying, if the Canada-Finland game goes to overtime, does US basically take a dive and let Sweden advance? That's how the tie-breakers work out. Canada, I think the US game on Monday night means nothing if Canada wins their game in regulation. It will just be USA Canada. We're already in. We're already in Thursday night. I think if Canada wins in regulation, our game means nothing. But if Canada wins in overtime, I think they get two points, and then Sweden could potentially jump them by the US taking a dive and Sweden beating us in regulation. Do we do it?

My United States of America is not a coward.

I'd love to do it, though. It'd be so funny if Team Canada didn't even get into the finals.

I just want to say for the record, you got to beat the best. Anybody, anytime, anywhere.

Yeah.

But yes, we should definitely take it.

Hey, what are you doing with Russia?

Are you paid off by Putin?

Hank read an article. Hank is so mad. I'm like,.

I want to hear all the Obviously, Russia is one of the four nations.

They have to be in this.

And they're like, no, they're not. I was like, that's crazy. They are the four nations. You're right.

I want to hear about this article you read, Hank. No, that's a raw reaction.

I was just like, I feel like Russia has great hockey players. They're probably heated.

If it was up to me, I would play against Russia right now.

Yep. Great. Me too. Agreed.

I don't want the asterisk.

I'm not putting an asterisk?

True.

But Russians might come at you. How many Russians do you see on a day-to-day that are going to be like, Well, that Four Nations was bullshit. True. I think you'll be okay. Yeah. Hank, I don't even know what Russians you're coming across that would be that passionate about it, but I am sorry for you if you're going to get shit for it.

It's the ones that you don't see coming that you have to worry about with the Russians. True.

We got to find a Canadian for Thursday night that we can hackle. Do we have a Canadian guy at the office? I was trying to think if we had one.

Yeah, there's Greer, there's Biz, but he's going to be there, right? Yeah. Do we have a Canadian? It was just rent a Canadian for a day.

I'm pretty sure Greer is rooting for America anyway. That's funny to nobody except for the people that are in this room.

Yes, but listen, judging by our laughs, you know that was funny.

Isn't Brandon Walker Canadian?

Yeah, let's make him Canadian. I like that. We should tie him up and put a Canadian tuxedo on him. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's get to our interview with Ryan Rassil, NBA Preview. Okay, before we get to our good friend Ryan Rusillo for our NBA Preview, we're brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Chevy has packed more capability into the Silverado Trail boss so that you can pack more fun into your weekend. Have yourself a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the truck that says no to nothing. Tailgates, spontaneous camping trips, DIY projects. Bring it on. What about a cross country road trip? Silverado was the perfect ride for last year's Grit Week out West. Recently, they helped us give fullbacks the recognition they deserve with the Man award. Well, the Silverado Trail Boss is built like a fullback. We're talking 495 pounds feet of torque. Hold on to your sodas, max. Plus, the Trail Boss gives you an extra two-inch lift. So maybe Hank can finally dunk Silverado brings the grit, then pairs it with all the latest truck tech inside and out. The result, a truck that can do it all, then show up on a Monday with a story to tell.

So learn more about the Silverado Trail Boss at chevy. Com. Chevrolet, together, let's drive We're also brought to you by our friends at Mountain Dew. Add a blast of refreshing tropical lime flavor to your game day with Mountain Dew Baha Blast. Mountain Dew Baha Blast is part of my game day ritual. I love Mountain Dew. I love Baha Blast. If you're sitting watching games, I know it's football season, now it's basketball season. We're going to get into the NBA with Ryan Rusillo. Grab a Mountain Dew Baha Blast. Turnament's coming up. Mountain Dew Baha Blast. Do it. The tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baha Blast is refreshing as maybe hitting a parlay or a pick six or a buzzer beater. Now that it's basketball season, hitting your free throws and one and one while hitting a three, four-point play. That's a Mountain Dew Baha Blast. Mountain Dew Baha Blast is the four-point play of sodas. Say it right now. So ride the Baha wave on game day and grab Mountain Dew Baha Blast for you and your crew wherever refreshing beverages are sold. Thank you to Mountain Dew. Thank you to Mountain Dew Baha Blast for changing our lives.

That's the meme, right, memes? You changed my life. And then she says, I'm literally Mountain Dew Baha Blast. That's how I feel when I talk about Mountain Dew Baha Blast. Okay, Here he is, Ryan Rasillo, NBA Preview. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. He's one of our best friends in the whole wide world. It is Ryan Rasillo from the Ryan Rasillo podcast. Go listen right now. Nba Preview. We're running this on February...

We get the combine, maybe.

February 17th, NBA Preview. What do you think? Is it Ruta is going to get traded?

Look, I'm not an insider. I think there was a younger version of me, egotistically, maybe a little insecure in the business where I was like, Well, I heard. Then I got to know Woj. I got to know his daily sacrifice. And I was like, it's wrong of me to dip my toes into his world.

Yep, stolen valor.

Right. Just because I have access, right? I don't go on CNBC because I day trade.

Are you good at it?

Here's what I'm telling you. If I had more screens, I'd be better. But I'm hearing big time rumblings.

My favorite was when Shams was on Sports Day the other day, and they had a camera on him backstage when they were getting ready to bring him out to the desk. And it was like a tunnel entrance to an NBA game. The camera was going around him 360 degrees. He was shaking his neck out. They're like, We'll go to Shams in a second. He's getting pumped up to go out there. Then he goes out there, he sits down, all fired up. He's like, League circles just can't believe what they're hearing right now. What is a league circle?

Just whoever you have a contact with in the league, because I've never talked to more teams than those 48 hours after that trade on Saturday night. I was hearing from guys I hadn't talked to in years.

It's still... I know that the dust is settled. It still makes no sense, right?

Look, we've been in New Orleans all week. Every single thing I've gone to, all anybody wants to talk about is Luca.

The original reporting of it when Shams reported, I'm not hacked because it was so bad of a deal.

Bobby Marks had to be like, he's not hacked. I need a third source to confirm this about the original tweet.

This is not NBA Central. This is an actual trade.

Because if it is Central, we joked on Saturday after it happened that Bronnie would have been in it.

Yeah, that would be a much better trade. Do you think LeBron would have said no? They would have had to let LeBron no.

He would have said yes. He'd be like,Send my prime.

Trade my own son for Luca, yeah.

Is it everything I've read, it just basically boils down to Nico Harrison, the GM for the Mavs, almost went rogue, and he doesn't like Luca. He probably doesn't like fat people.

And I know that must have hurt.

Well, I mean, I've been defending Luca when everyone's like, You're just girsy, dude.

You're not even fat.

But he's like, He's 270. He's 6'7. 270 is not bad.

270 is not bad at all. On 6'7? I'd be 270 if I could. Right now, I'm not even 6'7.

If you look at BMI, he's morbidly obese.

Yeah, but BMI, there was a new thing I read today. It was like, finally, you're like, Oh, you think it might be a little outdated for Jack people? Right. Scientist.

Yeah. Muscle. But is it just he hated Luca?

It seems like it. I I think everything is out. There's other conspiracy theories. And I love when somebody's really smart and they're really good at making a point, and then everybody was like, Hey, did you hear about this casino thing and moving around. And then you're like, Okay, maybe. Maybe or because it's so convincing, right? But I always have this issue with making this simple thing difficult. And I think those of us that do this for a living like to do that at times. And this guy wasn't even, I didn't even think a media member. But you're like, do you think they want to leave Dallas Do you think they want to leave the Dallas market? And so we get a major league on our hands here? Like, of course they don't. They want the expansion teams. Yeah, but they want the money paid. When you expand, those two new owners have to write these massive checks.

But they can still do that. They move to Vegas, and then the expansion team is Dallas.

Yeah, I don't think-I don't know if you heard about this one. Of course I've heard about it. I've had it sent to me by people being like, checks out.

That's a thrill of a conspiracy theory, because if you see it early enough, you can tell other people and they're like, wow, you're a deep thinker.

And then they think that you came up with it. They're like, yeah, Big Cat just told me this thing.

I like when somebody shares it with you, like they got it in a source that no one else has already seen.

It's like one Reddit post.

Fart Sniffer69 He came up with it and everyone's like... He's had a good track.

He makes a lot of good points. Put another nickel in the farts in there for 69 was right, Charles. But it's crazy.

This trade is crazy. It makes no sense.

Here's what I think is the funniest part about it is that I guess Nico wanted to keep it a secret because he was afraid people would get mad if they found out.

I don't know, but he was like, Don't tell anyone.

Yeah, he thanked Palanca for keeping it quiet. And you're like, What do you think Palanca was going to do? Start telling other people. The other thing that I always think is insane with rebuilds in the NBA is we need everybody to be on the same timeline, like age-wise. So if, in theory, Ant were available, he's too young to play next to Kyrie. Now, granted, positionally, a fit center in AD and Kyrie. It's very clear that Nico's background in the guys that he's had relationships with, he said, I don't do anything scary. I'm like, you did this single, scariest transaction in the NBA two years ago by being the one team that's like, yeah, we'll trade stuff for Kyrie Irving. And it's worked out. And I think it's worked out because of that relationship. Clearly, the AD relationship goes all the way back. The Palinka relationship goes back 20 plus years. Everybody's read all the same stuff about how Nico was obsessed with Kobe, made it work. The Palinka-Kobe deal where Kobe is telling Palinka, go start your own thing. I'm coming with you. These guys have I've been, not a weird way, but collectively in bed in this basketball world for a really long time.

But at some point, you have to have someone close to you that can go, Hey, even if you don't love Luca, even if you love AD, silence is not the play here. Every time there's a big trade, and granted, it's more in the NBA than in any other sports, but it used to happen in baseball when it was a more active trade deadline. But when the insider goes on TV, it just happened with De'Aaron Fox. Shams goes on, The Rainhorse goes on, whoever goes on. It's like, look, people around the league are starting to tell you, Sacramento definitely looking at offers and maybe open for business on De'Aaron Fox. A lot of times that comes from the team. They want the guy to go on, advertise to the rest of the league that this guy is available. The idea that if it got out, it hurts their leverage is bullshit. This is unfathomable to so many different teams around the league. This should be an auction. It should be a public auction. It should be updated every fucking day. The Lakers, as Windhorse reported, saying that they went to Dallas and said, We can't give you the second first because we don't know if he'll sign an extension.

Then if you're Nico, you go, Okay, then. Then you can walk away from acquiring Luka Donchik at 25 years old in a trade that is unprecedented historically.

Yeah, I'm offering you gold, and you're going to break my ball.

You can say no to me. Instead, Nico was like, Yeah, you're right. Okay, so the other thingIt closed my mind.

The other thing that could make sense with it is that he's just obsessed with AD, and he just loved AD and needed him on that team. I don't know.

Get somebody else involved. It's also crazy because he's like, Oh, yeah, we just went to the finals with Luka being an absolute force offensively.

You know what we should do is go defense.

Well, that's the other thing is that I spend a lot of time, I don't really talk to anybody about it, but they're like, Oh, look at this guy's numbers. I'm like, That guy's a loser. Oh, he had 30 points again? Cool. Do you watch all the other shit that he does wrong? This guy has a laundry list of losing plays inside of a basketball game. I know you're upset about the Zack Levine thing.

No, I'm not upset.

But he's played in what? Four playoff games in his career? We're sitting around, this league has a lot of dudes that put up huge numbers, but they do it on their own terms. They don't pay attention to anything else. They've never even heard of an off-ball cut to save their lives.

It sounds like you're talking about Jordan Pool. It sounds very mean.

Well, Jordan Pool is... I joke that if he went to confession, he'd be like, What is this? Because there's just no... No conscience. There's zero. I mean, he's the most dangerous player in the NBA. I love him. I love watching him play. It's actually not entertaining. No, it is. Because you're just like, I can't imagine being a teammate. I want to get on the plane at one point. Are you fucking serious, man? Anyway, the point is there's a lot of players that get a lot of pub that were like, well, he must be good because look at his line and look at all these things he's done. And they've done nothing. They've never sniffed anything. Maybe a playoff fluky run. Luka with a team three years ago, that's third option was Reggie Bullock. That team made it to the Western Conference Finals, and then this team gets through OKC, It gets through Minnesota, and it plays as a bad match up against Boston. That Boston team is really good. But this guy was actually going on the playoff runs. So all these other guys are like, I can think... Sometimes I think there's guys that are good that are on bad teams, and other guys I think that are frauds.

This guy's not a fraud.

I think it was Haral Bob. I did not say his name wrong. Haral Bob. Haral Bob, who said it, which I feel like it had to be said, even though it's very obvious. He was like, Yeah, people post clips of Luca being a traffic blown and getting blown by. Post the same amount of clips, if not more, of Luca having three guys guard him and still hitting the shot. That's what he brings.

Right. I mean, that was alarming. It was also weird because I think the Celtics knew because it's pretty obvious by their approach. They're like, We're going to just kill this guy. We're going to wear him out. The Celtics also had five to seven guys with a ball in their hands that you actually have to worry about off the dribble, not just spot up guys. So you can make a target that you're hunting move more when you're as good as the Celtics are. Those video clips like, okay, fine. But I can do the same thing with a ton of other players that don't even sniff the first or second round. And I don't think his defense was that bad late on in the playoff.

I feel like once he started to play hard, he wasn't a great defender, but he wasn't a complete liability all the time.

That matchup was tough for him, but I think just team to team, it was a tough matchup because it was like the first team. They had Tatum guarding their center while while Tateam was playing point card. And I was at two of the games, and it was funny because Dallas at one point is like, oh, wait, maybe we can attack Tateam on the post. And it's like, cool, you're going to run Gaffard post-ups and take the ball out of Lucas' hands, take the ball out of Kyrie's hands. You're playing right into what they want to do. But I think PFT, you're The point is this, okay, you want to call him fat? Fine. You want to say he's not committed enough? Fine. You want to say he argues the refs? Like, dude, pick a guy that doesn't argue with the refs. It's always shocking when you go, Oh, so and so doesn't argue all that much. Sure. Okay, fine. All great stuff. Call other fucking teams. Right.

The process is bad.

You're 100 % correct. If they knew that Luka was up for being traded, you would have most GMs in the league making their final best offers, and you would get an enormous This is what we're going to solve for.

I think Ainge would have done like Tatum after he won an NBA Championship with him.

Yeah?

I don't know. I mean, he never would tell you the truth or anything. I don't know if Boston could after just winning with Tatum, knowing that Tatum is always in shape, plays every game, plays defense. You just want a title. Their window is still open. Well, Brown's the Alpha.

Mvp.

He's got the aura.

Batman Robin talk. Yeah.

Max aura. Not your max. Unattainable aura.

Do you want to do Batman Robin for the Lakers now? Who takes the last shot?

I love that first take. Whose team is it? Yeah.

Whose team is that?

When Dwyane Wade spent two years doing interviews and then another 10 years after, he's like, Well, the team didn't really click until I sacrificed. I was like, Oh, you sacrificed against the guy who at the time is the best version we've ever seen of him. It's arguably like, again, we know we're sitting here. He's number two, probably all time. There's definitely a clip that runs in two years, right? Luke is out of shape. He gets hurt again. There's questions about the extension. He's miserable. He actually doesn't like LA, which would be shocking to me. I think he's probably going to hang out with all the hockey players and move to Manhattan Beach. But we know what it could be. I mean, maybe Dallas goes on. I really like this team when they were healthy this year. It was a good team. They had an awesome offseason. The trades were great for them. There is a version of events that can definitely happen. It's like, remember how everybody Everybody thought this and Niko was right, whatever. That could happen. I'm open to it.

The fans showing up and protesting, trying to kill him, bringing the casket out. Then the Mavericks going and win a championship.

How about Ali Laforce on the call? The Mavs' Celtics game last night, having a moment where she was like, Everybody just wants to remind you that Saturday night's home game for Dallas. These people have families. Be responsible. Right. I know. And this is quite the message. Anyway, having said all those things, you still will never be able to defend the process.

The process is bad.

The execution of this is indefensible. But then I think about Luca, is this this wake-up call for him?

And he's going to be next to LeBron. He's going to get him in shape.

Right. Like Sula.

That's not really that much of a wake-up call where it's like, Hey, we're going to send you to LA. You're going to play with LeBron, and you're going to be the face of the Lakers. More taxes. That'll show you.

A lot of taxes. Thirteen and a half %.

Thirteen and a half state?

Yeah, I think so. Over a million.

The one The one thing I'll say in defense of Nico is that he does have a job for life, probably now, because Rob Palinka will just hire him. He has to. We find out if he gets fired in two years and then he's just part of the Lakers organization, I think they'll be part of me being like, All right, I guess he was just looking out for himself. That's not the worst.

This does remind me a Roman times, though.

Yeah, same. I was going to say the same.

Sula, where he was like...

I thought you were talking about Jim.

No, there's no friend that's ever served me, no enemy that's ever wrong me, whom I have not repaid in full.

It's powerful.

That is powerful. That's the first thing I thought about when I saw that Luke was going to LA.

Are you doing Roman Empire right now?

Just finished the trilogy, but I can't get the authors on. I wanted to do a three-part thing. Were they dead? No, I did Pax. I did Rubicon, I did Storm Before the Storm. So I just wanted it. What I do is I chart it out, and then I'm like, Which years am I missing?

Are you still single? When somebody says, How often do boys think about the Roman Empire? That's just you weighing it down for everybody else. I never think about it.

No, actually, when I saw the memes, I felt a responsibility. Do your research. I was like, you know what? A lot of people think this is funny, but it isn't. And if you look at the different forms of government, is it better to live under the guise of democracy with ultimately a dictatorship, which again speaks to bread and circus.

Do you feel strongly about the Republic versus democracy debate?

I don't know, man. At some point, not to go full dictator on you, but I think at some point somebody has to make the final decision.

Yeah, that's true. Why did you use that term?

Well, because I just think that there's a lot of stuff in history. You go through it and you're like, you think this is a collective.

Have you been to any good museums recently, Ryan?

Yeah. World War II Museum yesterday in New Orleans went by myself. Was shocked. It wasn't busier with people from the media. Some people like to party with booze and drugs and women, and I like to party with history.

Ryan sent me a picture of just an airplane Yeah, you were sending me a picture of-Just an airplane?

I took like 20 pictures.

There's an airplane, there's a dollar bill.

You bought it?

Oh, you got us stuff from the World War II?

Well, thank you, Ryan.

The shirt, and that's my dog tag. Oh, wow.

That one bar from the World War II.

Yeah, that's an MRE right there.

This is a beautiful shirt. We're splitting this shirt? Look at this. This is for me and Big Cat. It's a Keep them flying US Army Air Forces. It's so good. Me and Big Cat both love planes. Yeah, I You wear it on odd days.

You wear it on evening.

Okay, I love it.

At first, I was afraid I would die, and then I was afraid I wouldn't. Anonymous soldier, World War II.

We'll get back to Ryan Rusillo in a second. He's brought to you by Sleep Number. Listen up. We're talking about something that's just as important as game day. Sleep. Did you know that 80% of NFL players have a sleep number smart bed? That's right. These guys aren't just elite athletes on the field. They're recovering like pros off it, too. Here's why. The sleep number smart bed is all about customization. You can adjust the firmness on each side so couples don't have to fight over who gets the better set up. It's like having a referee for your bed, but no whistles, just comfort. If you're waking up tired or feeling like you got tackled in your sleep, this bed's got your back. Literally, it has your back. It contours to your body and even adjust to keep you comfortable all night long. Plus, the new climate cool feature is a total game changer. It keeps you up to 15 degrees cooler, so no more sweaty nights tossing and turning. The bottom line, if it's good enough for the NFL, you have to check it out. Right now, you can save 50% on the new Sleep Number limited edition smart bed.

It's half off. Head to sleepnumberstore or sleepnumber. Com to learn more. Sleep number, because your best sleep is your best performance. Go get it. Racillo is also brought to you by Better Help. This podcast is sponsored by Better Help. We often hear about red flags we should avoid, but what if we focus more on looking for green flags in friends and partners? If you're not sure what they look like, therapy can help you identify green flags, actively practice them in your relationships, and embody the green flag energy yourself. Whether you're dating, married, building a friendship, or just working on yourself, it's time to form relationships that love you back. I've personally benefited from using therapy in the past. I think a lot of people out there might be able to experience the same positive changes that I've experienced through using therapy as an effective tool. But her help is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. You can access a diverse network of more than 30,000 credential therapists with a wide range of specialties. Discover your relationship green flags with Betterhelp. Visit betterhelp. Com/pmtoday to get 10% off the first month.

That's betterhelphelp. Com/pmt. Now, here's more Ron Rusillo.

Anyway, how about that Central division?

Central division. Let's discuss. Tell us, who's going to win the title? I feel like there's five teams, six teams.

I like that. We just did this the other day, the surprise list. Who's not a surprise? Okc is not a surprise. Boston is not a surprise. Cleveland is not a surprise. I think Denver is the fourth team. When Denver has Aaron Gordon and this version of Jamal Murray, even with a diminished bench, you can't rule, especially look at the depth, the extra day is off. Depth isn't as big of an issue. Michael Porter Jr is hit or miss to me. I think I like him less and less, even though he's so important of what they do because of stretching the floor. Westbrook has been really good in these minutes because of the energy. I think he's finally accepted who he is a little bit so it doesn't force the issue the way he would with some of the other guys. I think he's more differential to Jokuj than anyone he's ever been playing next to. The The funny thing with playing with Jokuj is like, dude, if you just keep moving and cutting, there's free baskets all over the place because he's going to find you. So I would put Denver in there because that's just how special I think Jokuj is.

Memphis? No, I'm not quite there yet. Houston? No. I have a hard time believing Houston will win four series.

The Knicks?

I probably have the Knicks over Houston, even though I enjoy watching Houston the most. As the taping of this, Houston is really going through a weird stretch. They haven't had Vanvleet. They have these awesome clutch record numbers, but they have some awful clutch metrics, which is really weird how off the two things are. And I wonder offensively if they would have enough to keep up with some of the other high-profile teams. But One of the questions I have about OKC is, will there be a second scorer that is more reliable than the first version that we saw in Jalen Williams, which is totally understandable because it was the first time.

I feel like Chet has to... Yeah, because I feel like they do get killed by big power words right now.

Yeah, the rebounding stuff has been an issue now for a while with them, but I worry more. Their defense is so good. They are so smart. They made Wemby look terrible. It was very early in the season, but if you hold the ball and you wait around against OKC, they just sworn you. And everybody's bought in. The culture of that team is almost like an unobtainable thing in the NBA. So I'm impressed with all of it. I just want the second or maybe even another guy, which isn't going to happen now, someone to be that reliable third creator in those minutes where maybe one of the other guys has subbed out or some of the things bogged down. But now I'm nitpicking. I'm nitpicking with Dan. There's little things that I can nitpick with Cleveland. But I thought the DeAndre Hunter trade addressed probably the biggest issue Two is that when they start a game against the Celtics, like Struce is getting defensive minutes against Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum because they want Struce's spacing. And the rest of the assignments, you're like, what do we do? Do we put Mowly on a wing and feel like we're wasting him because you have to if Boston doesn't want to play with double bigs like they do sometimes.

So I'm really, really impressed with Cleveland. And even though Hunter is expensive as far as what they'll have to pay him and all the tax stuff, it's a no-brainer. Not that he's a lockdown, but it's just a way better defensive option because a playoff series are crazy, man. You can see a game one result and everybody sits there and be like, oh, this is over. And then game two with the same guys plays out an entirely different way. So at least they have an option as opposed to what they had before.

In the West, you got Denver. Okay, see. Who else?

That's it.

I think after that, it would be It would be a surprise to me if the Houston Rockets won an NBA Championship this year. It would be a surprise to me if Memphis won an NBA Championship. And the Lakers, yeah, I think it's a surprise. To me, this is a reset. If Donchinch becomes available, you stop worrying about how you match jump in the 25 playoffs, and it's pretty clear. And even if they spent real assets on acquiring Mark Williams, he needs to be better. Grane has only played half the available games of his career, but the defensive numbers for him are atrocious. And when you watch him, the good sign might be you not care. I know it sounds crazy. I want guys to care all the time, but is it easier to fix it when it's like, Hey, your effort sucks. And you're with LeBron. Yeah, you're playing with the Lakers now. You can hide in Charlotte on League Pass, but you can't anymore.

What about the box?

I hate just missing Giannis just because I think on the best nights, he's the second best player in the world. He's been even better this year. Last year, he wins the MVP in a lot of seasons, if it's not for this epic run that Jokić is on. They've reinvented themselves a bit. Kuzma has probably get a little bit more juice to him than Middleton does at this point. I think Middleton defensively in some of the wing matchups worries them, but Kuzma doesn't necessarily solve those problems.

How do you evaluate Kuzma when he's basically in Siberia with the Wizards for so long?

That team was such a mess, and the minutes were all over the place, and the priorities were different than Kuzma. When Kuzma has been good, he's pretty good, man. He's not the most athletic guy. It's not like you're letting him initiate a ton of offense off the dribble on his own. And defensively, he can probably get caught in some stuff where he's not athletically He's definitely matching another guy that he's assigned to. But I like him because I think they can just count on him more than they could Middleton at this point. I'm worried about the Dame stuff at the top. I think Book Lopez, it's over, man.

Yeah, it's getting up there.

The Yannis thing is terrific. And I just fucking love that guy. I love like, you knew when it was the Wemby matchup earlier, you're like, Oh, I can't wait to watch this game tonight because he's going to be like, I'm going to go right at this dude. And Wemby blocked him twice at the start of the first game. And Yannis is like, All right, now I'm even more pissed. Where a lot of guys with his profile be like, All right, I don't want to get embarrassed. I'm not going to do that again. He couldn't wait. So I always, I think I probably I normally have respect for Yannis so much that normally I would keep him alive in this. But I think the reality is the NBA stories, the way they go, their window is probably already closed. Damn.

So why do you have a play on them? No, I was just wondering because I don't like the I like Giannis. Giannis is so much fun to watch when he's right.

Yeah. He's everything that I would want. All the stuff that we've talked about with Luca and the funny part, too, is there's been way more rumblings about Giannis's fragile future in Milwaukee Then the Luka thing was like, maybe, oh, 26, this team's clearing cap space. All right, fine. But this Yana stuff has always been this weird lingering like, oh, they have to do this. This is why they did the Dame deal. This is why they did the coach thing. And who knows? And would he ever say, Hey, I'm at this side of 30. I'm out of here. Because it doesn't mean it's never going to happen. But the American guys are usually the guys that do it. The international guys don't. Again, an international guy at some point who's a superstar He was going to be like, Get me out of here. Go ahead.

I think we've talked about this. Maybe we haven't, but I always thought the Dame thing with Portland, not to be harsh, made him a loser. How self? He liked being the man in a team that really never had expectations or had to compete for anything. He's like, I'm the man. I've run this franchise. We're not going anywhere. And then it gets spun as loyalty. It's just like, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's probably harsh because it's hypocritical of me because I don't love when guys are like, I got to go team up with another superstar. But maybe towards the end where it's just like, dude, be a little selfish while you have some gas left in the tank. You're an unbelievable player. Go compete and try to win a championship with someone.

Isn't it funny? I mean, it's like, okay, then he can't win. He can't win at all. I know.

That's what I'm saying. I know that it's a little harsh and it's hypocritical, but I always was like, dude, especially at the end, go get it somewhere. You're so good. You're fun in crunch time, and it's like Dame time stuff. I don't care about Dame time in the middle of February when you guys are a 500 team in Portland.

Well, there's definitely truth to him liking his role with the Trailblazers all those years. And whenever you talk to people out there, and granted, the regime has changed over, but it was, is he ever going to get a little annoyed with all this stuff? It's like, no, he likes being the main attraction. Everything's on his terms. I think the OKC stuff with Westbrook was absurd towards the end, where everything was so on his terms, and they had just lost a rant. I mean, you had bigs just getting out of his way, so he could get extra rebounds. The highest usage rate in modern history. And you start to realize he still gets rebounds other guards will never get because he's so incredibly gifted, athletic and his determination, all that stuff. But everything started feeling so catered to Westbrook. You're like, is this actually a recipe for success? Now, that team didn't have any success in the playoffs. Dames certainly had a couple of moments. The OKC shot once Paul George was there, the Houston series. There's just a lot of stuff in there that I thought was a lot of fun. They had a Western Conference Finals run that I think is one of those that falls under the fluky category.

I can remember when-It was COVID, right?

Well, no, it was 19. It was the year before. That's right. So I totally get your point. There was always this Bradley Beale thing that's very similar. It's like, this guy's not asking out yet. And then people go, well, he's a pretty He's an intent guy, and he's pretty close to qualifying for the five-year max. So he may just get that, and then he's going to bounce, and that's exactly what happened. So I don't think you're wrong. It just feels so fucking unfair. I don't really want to say, Oh, yeah. This guy actually was a loser the whole time. You know what's crazy? He wasn't a loser the whole time. Imagine if he had gotten his way and gone to Miami. I know. Do you think Butler would have been like, okay, I'll chill out now without the extension?

I like it when players do that, when they say, I like this city. I want to be a one Jersey guy. I want to stay here. We're going to try to win, but if we don't win, I'm going to give it my all. And that's okay. I think that's good. I think that's good for the league as a whole.

I liked it, too.

When you can solidate all the good players, It's two years, where it's like, because he was already past 30 when he went to the box, right?

It just felt like, oh, man, if you'd maybe ask out a year or two earlier, this could have been something.

The one you can get on Dame 4, though, and this was starting to happen, and I remember the first time it was explained to me, they're like, this is just the transfer portal now because people don't care about getting to free agency to maximize their opportunities or leverage all that stuff. They're just signing the extension and then saying, okay.

And then saying, I want to.

Yeah, we covered this.

That sucks.

Yeah, and he had four years to go on his. The same way Durant had four years to go on his when he decided he wanted out of the nets and they wouldn't trade him, they wouldn't fire everybody. Then they had to trade him into Phoenix anyway, and they ended up getting a haul. And honestly, looking back at that, it's an unbelievable deal for what the nets were able to pull off for a guy that's unhappy within 18 months of every place that he's gone. I was kidding around the other day, but I was like, who's been happier at his peak basketball moments throughout his career? Kyrie or Durant?

Kyrie.

Kyrie with the 2016 Cavs?

I think Kyrie.

By the way, I'm going to take back my Dame take. You guys convinced me. That was probably a take I should take in my brain.

I understand the sentiment behind it.

The four-year extension not kicking in and then I'm saying I want to be traded here, and I only want to go to Miami. That's not a blast.

Yeah, no, that's not a blast. But I do think Durant was genuinely happy in Golden State. I know that everyone was like, oh, well, it's always going to be Steph's team. I I do think Durant is so addicted to just the game of basketball and not all the other stuff that the basketball they were playing was so beautiful that I think he was happy there.

I think he was probably happy in OKC when it was all new to him.

12 finals run. You don't have the pressure yet.

When he wasn't online as much, that's when he was the happiest.

You don't think he was happy in Golden State? Just from a basketball. I know he left, but from a basketball perspective, that team was just playing the highest form of basketball you could play.

Best starting five I've ever seen.

Yeah.

Making sure. I just thought you were going to argue.

No, I know.

I was thinking dream team.

The Pistons, the '04 Pistons.

Oh, yeah. That's a great team. All All-stars. Tasha and Prince.

Yeah, rip.

That was the best debate ever. Should they all be All-stars?

I love that. That's not even the worst one. Remember the Atlanta Hawks team with all those guys? It was Corver. Yeah, Corver and Joe Johnson. It's hard because they're like, Well, they're in first place.

Was Josh Smith on that team?

It's pronounced Josh Smith.

Smith. He was my all-time like, he's just going to chuck a few threes.

I think he was on Detroit by the name. He might have been. He might have been like 27% from three.

I love that he would do it So he'd be like, You just got a pencil in that he's going to chuck some threes, and they're not going to go in.

I like those guys. That's a valiant flee that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. Henry IV. Okay.

You're dropping knowledge on this. Yeah, you are. You've been reading a lot, haven't you?

A lot. You know what people don't talk about enough is Shakespeare's depiction of Henry IV is so fucked.

I agree. I told you. Yeah, right? We actually were talking about that earlier. That's good. Because it's like, Oh, Billy Shakespeare.

He couldn't get it wrong. Are you serious? Have you ever fucking talked to writers?

No. Have you ever read anything about Henry V? It's completely misleading.

Yeah, I agree.

You know what it is? It's an oversimplification of them.

Yeah. When he was just straight up efficiency. Granted, he got a bit of a gobbed complex and just saying France was his and it was his right. I would love to be arrogant enough. We're here Super Bowl week, and there's some guys you're like, we need to fucking simmer down. Cool daytime ratings. It's one very specific person. I look at Henry the fifth, and I think, imagine just being like, hey, this isn't me just being a dick. It is my birthright. France is mine. God told me. How do you run errands that day with that idea of where you are in the world. Yeah.

It's hard to negotiate against that position. There's really nothing you can say.

Like, hey, this sucks. We're in the woods still. We're digging ditches and guys have malaria and dudes are dying and we don't have any food. And we might have to start eating the horses. And I haven't even seen a boob in two years. Like, this fucking sucks. And he's like, don't worry about it. God said we're going to win.

Yeah, we got it. God got it.

God did.

He probably had one check that he liked from France, and he was like, I want the whole country now. Yeah.

Well, he did marry the daughter of the Mad King, which was arranged. He did seem to like her, though.

Yeah, they were squad goals.

Totally. Like, Kate. Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Yeah.

You're like, Kate's good for Kate. I think Kate Middleton's approval rating is through the roof. But I don't know, dude. Henry IV. I just think it's funny to look at maps. You guys don't ever look at maps.

Oh, I love maps. I bought a shirt with a map on it yesterday. Yeah. Maps are the best. What's your favorite projection? Are you a Mercator guy?

You're going to have to explain to me.

You're talking about maps, you're talking about projections?

You seem like a map casual.

I like Mercator. They're fun to look at, but they It's not going to totally distort how big Greenland is.

Oh, yeah. Do you ever see that site where you can pull Greenland and it's the size of... It's like Louisiana.

Isn't that Trump. Com? Where you just pull Greenland? You bring it left.

That shit's ours now. I do want Greenland.

Do you? Yeah.

Why not? Does Greenland want Greenland?

No.

There is something to be said. Well, I don't know. This will probably bring up something else. But like...

Go on.

When you read Henry V, you're like, We do invade each other less. Yeah. That's a positive, and that never gets talked about.

Well, the wars then were a little bit different, too. It's like if there's big countries, world powers invading other world powers right now, it's like, eventually you're going to start a nuclear war. Back then it was like, we're going to send seven horses and five guys with swords, and then they're going to Duke it out on the border for a little while.

I'm shocked about some of that stuff from Agencourt in late 1300s, early 1400s. And you're like, you invaded France with 2000 guys in some boats. Like, what the fuck? Imagine we're good. We're going into the whole country, and the numbers were really limited. And then they started going nuts. Granted, you got to go centuries beyond Napoleon just being like, let's go for Russia. But, yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm just more top of right now after the museum visit yesterday and everything. But yeah, I don't know that that... Back to the Henry V thing, completely misjudged. Shakespeare fucked him.

What were your blind spots in the Pacific Theater?

Do you know about the ice cream boat? I don't think I do. Explain it to me.

The US had such incredible industrial power during World War II that we were creating boats at such a level that they created a boat that just served ice cream to the Navy that was in the Pacific Theater.

I don't feel bad not knowing that.

It's a real thing. We just were shitting out boats. That's how fast we were making them. They were like, All right, this one will just be soft serve.

If you want to be completely serious about all this stuff. No, the ice cream boat is serious.

I don't really like how you've diminished it.

What flavors do you think they had? I think they had them all. Chocolate and vanilla? Yeah, I think they had them all.

I bet they had strawberry or a malt. That's just running up the score, though.

I mean, Japan's fighting with wooden boats, and we're like, We have an ice cream boat.

Japan's resources were strained pretty quickly.

Pretty quickly. Small islands.

It got it a little over their head.

First time they'd surrender in 2,500 years.

It's crazy. They thought the Emperor was God.

Well, he was called the God Emperor. Another guy. Probably read Henry V.

Yeah, he did.

It's like this guy.

Have you read about the naval battles in the Philippines?

There's some crazy shit that went on there, too.

Yeah, I was watching the videos about it yesterday, but I don't know. I mean, this is where being the war historian, you could say a fact, and I'm going to go, I didn't know that. I'm the war historian?

No, I didn't know ice cream.

No, I didn't know ice cream. You just went to a World War II Museum. I'm supposed to know all of it. I'm supposed to know every maneuver from the runways to Manila, the Manila decision.

I think it's vanilla and chocolate. That's my only fact.

It's so good that we can't even do anything now with it. The one thing that you contributed to this was ice cream. Ice cream box. It was ice cream. Dude, the ice cream box. We You need to take a moment to understand how good that line was right there.

It's solid. That's even the capital of the Philippines.

The whole World War II theater is just me thinking about ice cream.

But when Oppenheimer came out, and some people just can't... They send a tweet, and it's like, oh, we're celebrating this now. Do you want to fucking do this?

Do you want to do this? Do you want to do this?

Are we going to do this?

You want to talk about the Coast of China?

Yeah.

Do you want to talk inland?

Are we going to do the thing where we just ignore the rape of Nanking?

Dude, there's video. They didn't show the video, but there are stills of practicing bayonet work with live Chinese prisoners. Look, history is littered with all of this stuff. But the artsy person that decides they're taking this stand without ever reading a fucking book or deciding that they're just going to ignore. I'm not saying necessarily who's right, but who put you in charge of saying who's wrong. Right.

Is Cooper Flag the real deal?

I haven't watched enough of them.

You've watched a lot. You probably watched more Cooper Flag than almost anyone.

No, that's definitely not true. I don't have a ton of time for college hoops right now. I've watched, I don't know, two full games. And some... Boston College seemed to not like him a couple of weeks ago. I let him have it, elbowing him in the face.

He's a perfect Duke guy. This is where I wish guys had to stay for a couple more years, especially at Duke, just because I want to get the hate up for Cooper Flag, but one year is not enough.

Yeah, you're right.

It just doesn't feel-You know what I mean?

That he's a main guy, though, for me. I'm just going to have a hard time being anti... Like, would I hate Duncan Robinson? I couldn't do that. New Hampshire guy.

Duncan Robinson is a good dude. He'd be the first... What was it? The first white American since 1976, I want to say. Drafted one overall.

Cooper. The white flag. Yeah.

We were on this a few years ago. It was just It's not weird that we were on this, but we were.

That he'd be the first white American drafted number one overall.

This is our future.

Yeah, but think about it.

We literally did that bit.

We were weird. White flag would also be a much better name for a French player.

Well, by the way, it would. I hate The whole capture the flag thing that they're doing for the suck for luck. They're doing capture the flag. It's lame.

I don't like that. Yeah.

There haven't been any good ones that I've heard yet, I don't think. I haven't heard anything that's all that great. I would root for the New England guy no matter what. But look, the white guys have had a weird stretch in the NBA. There was a time when you were like, okay, who are the five white American guys, one through five. And like, dudes would get to four going, is it still Doug McDermott? Who we love. Shout out to Doug McDermott.

This is, Trump's back in office.

Flag goes one. You got to wonder. You had that-Baron.

Baren Trump, he could also go one next year.

That's true. That woman in the Walmart ad with Busta Rimes around Christmas, when she dropped the verse at the end. So I don't know where we are on the pendulum. It's all happening.

Wait, so you don't know totally. You haven't watched enough. But the way that people talk about him and people you trust, is he one of those guys guaranteed he's going to be awesome in the NBA? Because Because that does happen in the draft every couple of years. We were like, Okay, like Zion.

But Zion, if he played-No, I'm joking.

Zion's not that guy.

Yeah, but the thing is, the more you really dug into like Zion when he was at Duke, Not that it was breaking news because everybody knew he was going number one. But I think for me, there was this whole other level of like, oh, my God, this is going to be awesome. And the thing is, once he played, he was that dominant of a player, and you didn't really have to do anything with him except just make sure there was a little bit of spacing for him, which they could have with this new version of the team, but whatever. I don't think he's talked about... We're coming off a Wimminyama deal where the build up to that, even though Flag has been on everybody's radar here for a couple of years, and I think that there's the other two guys that are part of the conversation. You'll hear every now and then somebody. So I don't think it's this unanimous praise, but if I'm comparing to Wim Binyama, Wim Binyama is the most anticipated pick since LeBron, so it's been 20 years. So this is not... One, I have not watched him enough I don't feel comfortable talking about it based on what I think.

And I think it's been assumed that he's the number one guy for a good reason because he's the size and the athleticism and a little bit more of the vision, where it's not just he's a straight scorer. But look, you've watched him more than I have.

He's very good. He's very, very good. And I also appreciate that you were like, Hey, I didn't watch, so I can't give an expert opinion. We're the opposite. I think you agree, PFT. He's probably the best prospect ever.

Yeah, number one.

Do you think that's Sort of part of that prideful nationalism that you're feeling right now?

No, I don't know what you're talking about. What's prideful nationalism? Wait, I had another question about Cooper Flag, too. Oh, yeah. Why?

No, because-I don't have any answers for you.

I think you'll find this interesting. He's got a twin brother.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. That is interesting.

He's got a twin brother. I think they might... I don't know if they're identical, but he's also big.

He's huge. He's in the stands. He wears his jersey. That's his identical twin?

Or his twin brother Yeah, he plays basketball, too. He's not very good.

Well, I guess he's not as good.

He's in the stands.

They did an article about it. I think it was in the Athletic a couple of months ago. They're twins? It was like, this guy stinks of basketball, but his brother's really good. How does he live? Damn. We should do an episode where it's like interview Cooper Flag's brother, Trevor Lawrence's brother.

You got to go opposite. You got to go like Trevor Lawrence's brother. Where you're like, I'm just going to do something totally different than what my brother is.

Ace Flag?

Is that his name? Ace Flag?

That's a pretty cool name.

Yeah, but it's not-He's not twins? Oh, they are twins.

What?

And he's not even playing?

He's not very good. He's transferred around a bunch.

I think he's like a-How is he transferred? If they're the same age.

Maybe it was high school. He moved to a couple of different schools. Yeah.

He was committed or he's committed to Maine? I don't know. Yeah. I mean, that's going to be tough. You don't know anything about Cooper Flag?

Let's ask about his twin brother.

I didn't know. I just always feel like no matter what, your mom's going like, Hey, your path is different, and you're special in your own way. And you're like, yeah, my brother's going to be the number one pick in the draft.

Just become best friends and what?

So I think Cooper reclassified so that he could go to college early. Oh, so he's still in high school.

So he's still in high school. That's why he's committed to Maine. I'm like 80 % sure that that's what happened. Got it.

That's a great producing by Max. I got a question for you about the NBA as a whole. Is the NBA in trouble?

Good question. Trouble how? So I can answer it properly.

I don't know. I'm not a ratings guy, but it does feel like... I don't know. The league...

The ratings are down.

The ratings are down. The ratings are down, and it feels like there's a few teams that can win every year. There's not as much parity. And there's also, I don't know, when you turn on a game in the middle of February, is it the best product? I don't know. The debate about the three points where it's like, Hey, everyone's just chucking constantly. Is the NBA in trouble?

I'm going to sound like somebody who loves the NBA and therefore is going to protect it. But I think what I would do, because you know me, is that I would defend something against what I think are bullshit arguments. One, the first ratings quarter that was destroyed by everybody went up against all of our election coverage. The most important election of our time was the Trees, I believe. Democracy. Which It's at stake. Do you realize I've been alive for every one of the most important elections of our time? That's fucking incredible. I'd be that lucky.

Carter Reagan.

I was there for that, and I was like, Shit. And then the next year, in four years, excuse me, the next election, they I was like, No, this is... And I was like, I'm on the hottest fucking streak of elections of anybody you've ever known. So I think that that was a little unfair. I think the three-point thing, even though there's nights where I feel that way, I also don't miss Mark Jackson post-ups. It took 17 seconds. I think whenever people start comparing all these clips of what it is today, what it is back then, like, Yeah, every Jordan clip looks fucking awesome. You know what? There was also a million other games that Tuesday night that sucked and weren't as visually appealing as that clip. Why are we comparing that clip to a full slate of games on a Tuesday? I also think that there's a very, like I've talked about this before, it's the polling of one, and it's not just one, but it's still a really small sample size of people who are like, I haven't watched it since they did that bubble joke shit. And it's like, okay, is that true?

In that moment, you went Group Economics Jersey, which again was stupid, but you went Group Economics Jersey, and you were like, that's it. I'm fucking out on these guys. That person exists, certainly, and that person loves telling you that they exist. They've done all of those things. But what I would argue is, did that make you change a channel or did you already change a channel? And now you love pointing to that as the reason why you've already done something. Bingo. Same thing happened with all the Kaepernick shit, right? Right wing people going like, I'm never watching that sport again. Remember, there was a bit of a ratings dip and there was a decline and right wing media was all over it being like, see, see, see. All right, well, at some point there's going to be some ebbs and flows of ratings and all that stuff. Look, if you tell me, all right, Ryan, compare the finals to 10 years ago finals. Well, am I comparing it to LeBron and Steph in that window. We're also talking about LeBron and Kawhi. We're talking about Steph going up against LeBron in that one where everybody got hurt in the entire series.

So is that the best way to do it? I'd also ask people, have you ever cared about sports or games or teams today the way you did 20 or 30 years ago? But do you care about movies the same way? How many times you go to the movie theater this year? How many times you used to go? Is there an appointment viewing on television? Is there anything that's like the Sopranos? So many options. Remember the Sopranos? You stopped what you were doing. You made sure your food was-Oh, my TV went out.

Right.

You made sure your food was ready to go, whatever you were grabbing. I'm sitting like, nothing is disrupting this moment. I don't know if those moments It doesn't exist anymore. So I think the NBA has some things esthetically about it that are concerning. I think there's some ratings Intel that is a small piece that, if it were to continue, is alarming. But I also think there's just so many people that love dunking on that league for a variety of different reasons that I think it becomes really skewed coverage. I think the NHL is down 28%. Is it too woke? Of course not.

It's also like the NFL just is swallowing everything.

It It is. I mean, that's why they're going to 18 games. That's why they were like, Christmas football family. No, it isn't. You just like, Fuck the NBA.

We can do anything.

Which is within their rights to do. I think at one point we'll have NFL on every single night. I think that's what their goal is, and that's what they look to do.

That will rock.

Nobody's lost money on a team in like 40 plus years. They want to add more teams because people want to get into the business. The television contract was reported to come in like three billion less than it actually did. So maybe looking at traditional Personal ratings as much as you can go, oh, look at that or look at that number or this product sucks or all these different things. I think the global part isn't discussed enough. I think the new consumer and the younger consumer, the idea of sitting down at 25 years old and watching a two and a half hour game start to finish is like, absurd to them. Agreed. So I think there's a lot of factors here, but I think, unfortunately, the loudest voice is usually the one that already hates the NBA telling you this league is dying. And I don't think that's true.

And I think most of the people that are saying, I used to watch the games changed so much. I can't watch this shit anymore. They're like 45 and above, I would say for the most part. And of course, you like shit that you got to watch when you were 20 years old better than the stuff you get to see.

Yeah, right. I mean, you ask that guy to be like, are you going to Vegas still? And he'll be like, oh, shit.

The Steph, LeBron, KD thing, too, I think is important because they are in a transition. This happens in the NBA. It happens every week where it's like, these guys are getting older. They had this run that is LeBron's 20 plus years. Yeah, I don't think the NBA is in trouble because I still love... I mean, the playoffs, especially, I love the playoffs. I think the best argument I think you made is there's just so much stuff now, and it's so hard to capture a massive attention unless you're football.

I can never tell if I'm the best taste I should have to sum this up. You're the best.

You are the best. Just stop.

You have the best taste. Thanks, guys. If I am the one you should listen to or the one you should listen to the least, because I'm watching no matter what, right? This is my job. I have a good job. I have a good I'm lucky to have the life that I have, okay? But there are times where when I'm watching all these games, there's all these stoppages, and they add a challenge, and they have the time out before the three minutes that everybody's figured out all this stuff. The dramatic back and forth This moment, and it's happened in football, too, where it's like, Is that the game winning, countdown? Oh, my God, it's the game winning, countdown. Wait. Let me wait for a review. And now I'm excited. But there's no way the excitement after the delay of what you think it's happening, you seeing the replay and getting confirmation. There's no way that I'm going to ever match what we used to have in that moment where you were like, Oh, my God, it happened. And basketball, as much as I love the NCAA tournament, there can be a score and scenario where you get maybe that possession, possession, possession moment.

But it feels like it never happens anymore in basketball. And I think that's a problem, except they just are going to tell the TV partners, we'll figure out a way to get another stoppage in there. College football, we can't call it a two-minute warning. We'll call it a two-minute time out. It's pretty good. Because we're our own The thing. It's like, no, we'll just call it the extra stop because ESPN just renewed the package.

I actually think they should ban following up three.

I'm up for any. The Elam ending thing, no relation to Matt. I thought at first, a lot of people were like, oh, that'll change everything.

Okay.

I would love to have those dramatic back and forth moments. I think baseball may actually provide the best drama tension because you can't disrupt it the way you disrupt these game-winning football plays and all the basketball stuff. So when I say, I can't tell if I'm the best or the worst. I can be on game seven, and I'll know, Here we got another stop. Here we got all this stuff. And I start dicken around. I'm looking on my phone. Maybe I'm looking up something like, What is DeAndre Hunter shooting? I'm sitting there and then I look up and four plays have happened because I'd already removed myself from paying attention to the game. So I'm like, if I'm doing that, what the hell is somebody doing that doesn't do this for a living.

We'll get back to Rasil in a second. He's brought to you by the Farmer's Dog. This year, healthy habits don't only apply to humans. Give your dog a fresh start, too. The Farmer's Dog makes feeding real healthy dog food easy and convenient, and your dog will absolutely love it. Blake loves the farmer's dog. He leads me downstairs. He knows exactly where to go. It's dinner time, it's breakfast time, time to eat. Stella is a farmer's dog dog as well. Both these pups are living happy, healthy lives because of the farmer's dog. It's a big part of it. The pre-portion meals are personalized for your dog's needs, so it's simple to help your dog reach and maintain a healthy weight. If you've ever thought about making the switch, now is the time. It's made from human-grade real meat and veggies that are gently cooked with the safety and quality standards of human food. It doesn't matter if your dog is young or old. It's always the right time to begin investing in their health. That means more happy, healthy, and full years together. You can get 50% off your first box of fresh healthy food at thefarmersdog.

Com/pmt. Plus, you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog. Com/pmt to get 50% off. That's thefarmersdog. Com/pmt. Marcila is also brought to you by Eroxon. Let's talk about the elephant in the room, erectile dysfunction. One in four Even 18 years and up experience ED, that means that you or someone close to you might be experiencing it. That's why I want to tell you about this new ED treatment gel called Eroxon. It's the first ED treatment gel with politically proven results that you can get over the counter. While it might not work for everyone, studies showed success in over 60% of men. The best part, no prescriptions or online questionnaires are needed. Why wait? Try Eroxon today. Available in stores and online, visit eroxon. Us to learn more. That's E-R-O-X-O-N. Us to learn more. Now, here's more Ron Rassillo.

What team is in the worst spot right now?

I think Charlotte's actually in a pretty bad spot, even though they've done a good job because they've got to make a LaMelo decision.

Yeah.

I looked it up the other day. His shots per 100 is the highest we've seen since Kobe Bryant since 2006.

Well, Lamell is just the same player as Kobe.

Yeah. I was like, he's the number one fan voting. If I were to ever get in an argument with somebody who's a Hornets fan, I'd be like, Do your parents know you have a phone?

So Hornets are in a bad spot.

Bulls are in a That's a terrible spot.

Well, I think the Hornets in a weird Atlanta Hawk spot where it's like, we have this attraction and we have something we can put on billboards and we have something that makes the fans excited. He sells jerseys and everything. But is this really going to be the guy?

It's never going to work.

Can you explain to me why we're still doing All Star Weekend and why that's a big thing?

Yeah, I think it's a huge corporate thing.

What happens at All Star Weekend? What conversation?

I don't go anymore.

You're not going this year? Where is it this year?

It's San Francisco, I think. Well, with the no Game Week thing. I did the live show in Utah two years ago, and then I went, Why am I working? There's no games. I'm going to take some of this time off. So I went to Aspen last year. It was pretty nice.

Yeah, I've heard.

Very nice. It's rich. A lot of rich people. Pft.

How was the powder?

Is that a cocaine joke?

It was.

It was. Trying to fuck with me a little bit.

But also, to ski.

I'm just really excited that Josh Alman won the MVP.

You think I was pumped.

He was dialed in.

He could barely sleep. He was nervous, too. Before they announced, he was grinding his teeth. He was like, Come on.

It's got to be tough. My bladder feels small.

Got to go to the bathroom again. I don't know, man.

We're not even on a course.

It's like a mini Super Bowl week, to be honest with you.

They try to market it like a mini Super Bowl week, but every year is the same thing where it's like, oh, yeah, shit, the weird skills competitions on and the A contest that's going to suck is here.

I do love, though, when people complain about the All-Star Game sucking now. It's like, okay, you were that invested before?

It's unwatchable. I don't watch it. I can't even tell you the last time I watched an NBA All-Star Game, I don't watch it. I think it's for kids. I think it's for kids. I think it's for corporate sponsorships. I think it's whatever we deal with every night of your options in New Orleans or Super Bowl week. It's like, I can go to this party, I can go to this dinner. And there's plenty of shit I can't even get into. But if you go to the hotel lobby at the Four Seasons, you're like, cool, I'm going to see 20 people I don't get to see unless I come this every single year. To me, it's a mini version of that for NBA people complaining about the game. It's just not fixable. It's not fixable because these guys do not give a shit. There has always been something about basketball that bothered me is that if you're good, it's like aim to try at times. The guy who's really good in a pickup game that almost thinks it's insulting to try against you, and you're like, This is way more insulting than you killing us. You're really good, and now you're pretending you don't care just in case somebody were to cross you up or somebody were to stick a three in your face.

This is your never look uncool moment. That's why none of the guys do the dunk contest. That's why some of the guys don't do the three-point thing.

That feels like a shot at Mark Titus.

Why? We're talking about Mark.

No, I'm just kidding. No, he actually does try. When we pick up, he just kills all of us.

But he's way better than all of us. I could see him being a not-try guy.

No, what he does is-He reminds you? No, he gets into the game and he's a not-try guy. And then as soon as the game starts, he's like, Wait, I'm trying and I'm going to win. And then he wins. He's good.

I can't imagine how good he is. I mean, if you're good enough to walk on, or was it an offer?

I think he was a walk on, but he can hit every time there's an open three. He's big, too.

I just saw him in the hallway.

Did you know he got drafted by the Globetrotters? I didn't know that. Dead serious. Look at the Harlem Globetrotters Wikipedia page.

It feels like a DEI higher, though, no?

It does, yeah.

Definitely.

It does. But I think he thought they would do these draft pics every year as a promo thing, press release. Look who we drafted. And Mark had a YouTube channel at the time. So they just wanted to include his name. Be like, Hey, we drafted Mark Titus. You've seen him on YouTube. He's funny. And then Titus was like, Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'll show up and play. And they're like, Oh, you're taking seriously. And Titus was like, Fuck, yeah. I got drafted by the Globetrotters. I'm going to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. Yeah. It didn't work out. First white American to be drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters ever.

Wow. God, you're all over these white-I just made that one up.

That one was invented, but it's probably also true. Those are the best stats when you just make something up and you're right. Sound true. Have you ever gotten lucky with a take? You say something, and then later on you're like, Fuck, that was a stupid thing to say, and then it comes true later?

No.

It's a pretty good feeling. All your takes are right. We said Josh Allen is going to be the-Eventually. Yeah.

You do have a high rate of eventually. You have a very high rate of just wait.

Yeah, they're at the gates, and it's like, no way you're going to be right. No way you're going to be right. Like the Trade and Beat thing I got killed for. You were right. I haven't brought this up yet because it's Super Bowl week. This is the first time ever.

We won't bring it up, but you were right.

What the fuck do they do?

Sulk.

That's it? I mean, Embiid is like, he doesn't... What was his stat? You said something.

If you look at the course of their careers, Tom braided has a better chance of making it to the Super Bowl in any given year than Joel Embiid does of playing game on game night.

Yeah, right. That's what it was. Percentage of games that he's actually played, percentage of Super Bowl's that braided played in during his career. Yeah.

It's crazy.

It's nuts.

Yeah. There was that other set that was like, it was side by side. It was like Joe Embiid 450 games played 415 minutes.

No, it was his first. It was his 400th game that he missed. Oh, yeah. So they put the graphic up. When he got to 400, dudes were making a graphic like it was an accomplishment. I've always been protective of him, and I was out. Once Once he started fallabating the Olympics, I was like, Are you fucking serious, dude? I got mad. I was mad at home by myself because nobody wanted to come over and watch me watch the Olympics during the day. Like, Hey, you said somebody about maybe getting a drink one time. I was like, Do you want to watch them play Serbia?

It's going to be a good game.

I got so frustrated. Look, I think Embiid played for Team USA because he gets a gold medal, adds to the legacy because it's probably not that likely that he's winning a title at any point. There's arguments that I would hear about Harden's meltdown, Simmons having an absolute meltdown in that Atlanta series, just being shot and thinking who is Zemm B been able to rely on? But there was a situation this week, not this week, this season, we're going through all the hell stuff. And by the way, when he had been playing during that stretch, he didn't look right. Even though he's putting up numbers, he doesn't look right. He doesn't move unless he has the basketball. So you hope he's hurt, and he was hurt because that's why he shut it down again. The newest news about his knee, and then I just Why were you guys in a hurry to even do this extension with him on top of everything else you already owe him? But when he basically sat out the Cleveland game and then played in the Charlotte game, I'm like, dude, I can't do it anymore with you. I can't do it anymore with you.

After all he's done for the city?

Yeah. I do feel like we're getting closer to the sit down with whoever it is at ESPN. It's like a countdown. Maybe it's Malika or something, and it's MB sitting there in the stool, and it was like, When did you know it was over for you in Philadelphia? And then it's like black and white footage of him yelling at the ref or him yelling at a reporter or the quote saying, I've done so much for the city. If you were to say this story, which course it's on, I don't know that redemption feels like the one that's more likely to land on.

I love those interviews, too, because they always sit so close together, and they zoom out, and they're just in an empty room. Why are you guys knee to knee? That's a Jeff Darlington special.

I was talking to Darlington last night. He's like, remember when you guys talked about my interview with Antonio Brown and said I was dick to dick with him? He was. Yeah, you were.

It was dick to dick. It was an enormous room, and they were just dick to dick. Yeah.

Just right next to each other.

It was close to me and Big Cat already. These are the things we notice.

Yeah. No, I know.

You ever gone dick to dick with a guy?

I'm trying to be sincere and think about, have you? Dick to dick. I don't know. There's some pledging shit I'm not psych about.

Max, do you have any comments about Ryan's comments regarding Joel and Bede?

I don't know.

That's my take.

That's a good take.

Your take should be birds right now.

Yeah, your take should be birds. It feels like a dumpster fire.

If you had to guess, how do you think this sixth year's season ends this year? Bad.

It's not going to be good.

What do you mean? They're going to beat somebody in the And yeah, that's not if they're all healthy and they're all ready to go. Honestly, even with all the Embiid stuff, because he's the guy, he's supposed to be the franchise guy. There's a bit of me, too, that's just so sick of all the Embiid propaganda people over the years where it's like, you guys are being such dicks about the Jokuj thing when Embiid was never better than him. He deserved to win the MVP. I'm fine with it. I never thought Embiid was the better basketball player. If you voted for Jokuj that year for MVP, I couldn't necessarily tell you you were wrong. Sometimes I still think about, did Embiid prioritize the MVP, and that's why you felt like you went in that direction and Jokuj not giving a shit the last few weeks of the season. Was that the deciding factor? I don't know. That wasn't an easy vote. A lot of the years for me, I haven't had a vote that long. It hasn't been something where I'm like, Yep, perfect score. Totally right. Zero arguments against any of this stuff. But that wasn't even Joel's fault as much as it was the people around him pushing this thing where it wasn't just sticking up for your guy.

It was shitting on Jokuj so much. And that really, really bothered me because I can't understand how anybody could spend their life in basketball and watch these two dudes play and think that it's the same thing. And I also think the Embiid foul hunting stuff that Darryl loves because he loved it with Harden and all these guys, Oh, look at your true shooting. Look at your efficiency. Look at all this stuff. Look at your points per 100 and all this. It's crazy. He doesn't play basketball naturally anymore. He's always thinking about, how can he get the contact? How can he fall? There's a very choppy way that he goes about it. But then it's like, oh, he had 34 and 12 again. He must be fucking awesome. And I think that stuff is easier to pull off in the regular season. I think there are times, even though he had that 50 against the Knicks, there were times he was not comfortable with the basketball late. He still stinks when a double comes to him. So, yeah, I'm over it. And even with all that said, Paul George is Tobias Harris with better branding.

Yeah.

I mean, they're all back tonight. First time back in forever. Let's go. But Paul George I know he had a better January, but he needs to be a dude while Embiid is out through all of this. And instead, he's totally comfortable getting his ISO 17 footer up because he's so talented and it's great and all the shit that he can do. But there's no consistent flow. Where's the aggressiveness? You're being tasked with get them through this really tough stretch, and he wanted nothing to do with it from what I saw.

Yeah. He barely played.

He was hurt. It was Maxi the whole time. And then Maxi took 25 shots a game. And I don't think his numbers are a true reflection of... I don't think he's a declining player, obviously. He was just going for it.

It was the only way to score.

They needed him.

Yaboo. They should have been selling at the deadline. Whatever. I'll stop talking. But they're going to lose in the plan. Losing the plan.

I'm with you, too. That's another take that you have, the more playoffs. I hate the plan. I think it's stupid because it just gives more franchises a chance, and the Bulls are specifically that.

Are you talking Hoosier's football right now?

What? Hoosier's football? They competed against Notre Dame. They did. They were lost by 10.

I did see the final score. I've never seen a final score more, to be honest with you.

Yeah, you have. I'm sure people made you aware of that final score a lot.

But the playing game-The most impressive final score on the losing side in the history of fucking sports.

It was a great final score.

The way that Sig got that game to be engineered as a 10-point loss is very impressive.

Did you see when he posted his own AP voting results where he had Indiana/Penn State 4, Penn State/Indiana 5?

That's cool.

You haven't seen that? No, I haven't seen that.

I gave Sig one year where I'm like, I'm glad that he got a Power Five job. That's cool. That's your guy. If we're going to be a stepping stone, I want to be the best stepping stone. It keeps rating him. I want him to go to Indiana, put Indiana in a great place. That would be awesome for JMU, I think. I gave him one year, and then he continues to raid the JMU players. No, I have to wash my hands of them.

But the plan is bullshit.

The plan is not something I'm in favor of, but I think back to the ratings discussion. Like, March Madness right now is one of the best products in all sports. We agree. It translates over to the person that would never care about this. And even though the regular season of college basketball has I don't even know what the declining numbers are there. But it's just true. I don't watch a ton of it anymore. But when I do dabble, I can't believe how bad the product is. There's no continuity whatsoever.

I love that about it.

That's great. But there are nights where you're like, are they going to score? No, it's bad basketball. What is going on here? I don't really know. You can't team build for a lot of the programs, at least a lot of the ones on TV with the higher profile players. I like the one and done stuff because I just think it's the right thing to do. I think not having to go to college at all It would be the right thing to do. I just think it's wrong to tell people you can't just go pursue this because... I don't know. Whatever. That's a whole different discussion. But College Hoops, when I've watched it over the years, even though I liked it more than the NBA when I was younger, it's a tough watch, but at least they have this moment. And what you're seeing with what Silver is doing is the play-in was we have this moment, the in-season tournament, which is now the Emirates Cup. That's a moment. It actually wasn't very disruptive, and some of those games this year were terrific. So I think what your goal is, like baseball's goal is, okay, make fun of how long our season is.

We don't give a shit. We're selling 162 game inventory six months of the year, and it rates really high in local markets and all the local market stuff. This is a product they can put on and pull a better number than reruns a fucking Wheel of Fortune. Maybe. I don't know. Wheel of Fortune is pretty popular. But with college basketball, they have their moment. I think the baseball playouts are incredible, but that might just be their moment. You're never going to be able to compete with what the NFL is. But because soccer, I think Silver is so influenced by a lot of the international soccer stuff, I think that they want to have these moments that they can sell and package in a different way as an extra inventory. So I don't like to play in. There's going to be teams that have no business. You just had this season, you had, and now you get another chance of potentially getting the playoff. In the times that Steph has been eliminated, you're like, Cool. Yeah. Great.

And the owners can just sell it Oh, yeah, we made the plan. That's bullshit.

That's like when they talk about expanding the tournament, you just go, no, you don't need to do it. But then the coaches argue for it. It's like, do you guys want to argue for it? So you can say like, oh, the bowl eligible.

Made the tournament four years in a row. Give me my extension.

Bull eligible the last five years. You're like, two.

By the way. What? Johnies are good.

Johnies are really good.

Their defense is legit. I was looking at some numbers the other day, and their profile is like, you I think it's on Kempom, you can basically do, or it might be Bartorvick. You can do what do they most look like in terms of tournament teams. And it was like an elite eight or final 14.

Johnies are good. People knocked the schedule. Maybe you can help me out with Patino a little bit because family goes way back on the father's side of the Providence ties. And when Rick was the head coach of that Providence Fires team, this is a little early for you guys, pop Louis, Billy Donovan I had a T-shirt that said Rick Pitino for President. I think I was like nine.

That age well?

Yeah, he was gone, went to the Knicks, family despised him. Yeah. And then he left the Knicks, right? Kentucky worked out, worked out pretty well. Went to Boston, family despised him even more after that.

And then-Louisville?

Louisville, then everything else that goes with it. A lot of stops. I know you guys have some history with it, too. But I would be tempted because I'm excited potentially about the St. John's run because the guy can coach. I mean, he's unbelievable. But I did the Celtics documentary for Bill and HBO, and I came in and did the Patino years, and I wasn't nice. So I feel guilty about being in the documentary and then being offered Patino and being like, let's talk St. John's. Oh, but by the way, I wasn't sweet about your Celtics run that's going to be in the documentary.

So me and Big Cat had a similar situation.

I think it was nastier than what I We said some things about his penis over the years. Yeah, I never talked about his penis in the doc.

Yeah, so we heavily did. That was most of our Patino content, actually, was the whole ejaculatory system.

Are you guys even going to do this again right now, or do you feel like you work through it?

No, I'm just saying we had him on and we basically said we've said bad stuff about it.

We buried the hatchet.

Yeah. You just have to tell him.

You guys are good at that.

You have to tell him to their face, and then Rick gets it. He'll laugh a little bit. He might still hate you a little bit, but he'll laugh about it. You just got to be like, I was to you about the Celtics, but at least I didn't talk about your balls.

Yeah. Those PMT guys, they really suck.

Maybe I start with that.

Yeah, you should. He'd probably be like, Yeah, you're right. No, but they're good, though. They're good. They're going to be a force in the tournament.

I told somebody that at the party last night. They said, Who do you like in college basketball? I said, I like what Rick Patino's got going on. And they just laughed at me and walked away. And I was like, I'm actually, I think I'm right.

No, you are.

Wait, which party?

Caa Party. Yeah.

Who How could you laugh at that response? I don't understand. How could you be that offended by it or entertained by the absurdity?

That is very weird. My guess is that he thought I was making a Patino joke because my history with Pitino. Why would he think that? Now I'm talking to him. He probably laughed, and it wasn't laughing at me. He was probably like, Oh, that's so funny. Classic PFT. It's not even a joke. But he was like, Oh, PFT is talking about Patino again. But I was serious. Yeah. I think we got to the bottom of that one.

Who is your favorite player that people wouldn't think of not a Jokić, Wemby to watch night to night? Put us on to someone. Put us on to someone.

You know who I really like is Aaron Wiggins, Oklahoma City? Okay. No, he's not a superstar, not even close, but does his job. And there'll be stretches with the Thunder where I'm like, God, I think I really like Aaron Wiggins. Not Andrew. He was a trader.

Yeah.

Okay.

Aaron Wiggins. Speaking of trades and where Wiggins is now, is that now where the rookie from Miami, from Indiana, he's been terrific since he's been a regular part of the rotation. I've been really excited about Scoots resurgence.

Okay.

Tough first year for my guy. Was very invested. Had some takes that were watered regularly, not showing a lot of life.

That's a great way to put it.

There's still some limitations on the rim finishing and not being like, oh, he's not Derek Rose. You're like, well, this is the reason why we were so enthralled with Derek Rose, because he was Derrick Rose. But Scoot has been really good. Scoot has put together a nice five, six weeks here. What else are you looking for? Are you looking for like, Isaiah Stewart, who I think would fight people? I appreciate that. I love what Kate has done this year. I actually think the Wizards with Kula Bolly and Bob and even George a little bit. I guess you could throw Saur in there a little as the number two pick. They stink, but they play really hard. There's a few guys in that Wizards team. I love Bob. Yeah. I don't know that somebody's like, Hey, what do you want to do tonight? Hey, I'm going to stay in because there's still the Wizards play a lot of activity. So let's do that. Been I've been really happy with Mowbley, but I don't know if he'll hit some of the... Like, Simmons was so crazy about what Mowbley could do when he started comparing him to Duncan or KG.

Then you are like, well, I like him, but I don't like him that much. And then you makes it feel like you're dissing a guy that you actually like. Like, the strokes. You like the strokes, Big Cap. But the way PFT talks about the strokes, you're like, Jesus Christ. It wasn't that... The run wasn't that long.

Whenever I say that, I'm actually making a Patino joke.

There it is.

So you're never having them back on.

No, we will. We will.

That would be nasty. What? That would be nasty. You guys could LSU me.

Oh, yeah. We'll let you have Mon first bash us, and then we'll come on and be like, Yeah, that Roussillo guy is losing his brain. I don't know what he said.

I did go to the museum by myself, so I don't know that you'd be totally wrong on that. Who would be most likely in the media to have joined me if I had said, Hey, do you want to go to the World War II Museum?

Probably me.

Yeah, or I'd probably be the second or third option.

I would never ask you to go to that because you wouldn't do it. I would. It wouldn't be cool enough for you.

I'm doing such cool stuff. I watched Weekforce in Stanford till 12: 30 at night on Wednesday, and then was like, I'm so tired. Why am I so tired? Oh, yeah, you watch Weekforce in Stanford. I'm the coolest.

Did you win?

I did win the over. I did not win Stanford.

I bet last night, live odds.

What?

I was watching Celtics Mavs before I had dinner last night, and Celtics were getting destroyed. And normally I would be like, okay, well, they're not going to get killed this bad. Let me look at the live odds.

I feel like Hank has made millions doing that. Just betting the Celtics when they're down. Is he sleeping back there? I didn't even know he was in the room. I thought he was on his flight.

It is like every other night.

Oh my God, Hank is sleeping at the back of the room.

No, that's his voice when you wake him up. That was so funny. But, yeah, Hank, every other night, he's like, Celtics down, just put a nuke on them. It just wins every time.

It wouldn't work last night because it was plus six and a half minus six and a half when I looked at it, and I thought the number was too small, even though they were down 20. So I was watching it, and I waited, and I waited and I go, This might be just a mail-it-in night from these guys. And I ended up laying it on the maps, and they got up 27 and then 1 by 7. So this one in a 14-0 run. So you covered? I covered, but from the point of like, I'm so smart to a 14: 00 run where you're like, there's still four minutes in and all the backups are playing their ass off right now, and Dallas has already shut it off mentally. I'm with Hank on that. I think if you watch enough, I would look for live odds on the better team that's down. They're going to make the run. Let me see if they were minus seven before tonight. Now I'm getting them at plus three. I think I just have to do that with a certain amount of time left in the game. But I actually hedged myself last night.

It just felt good to be back in it.

Yeah, it does. A 20-point lead in the NBA feels It was like nothing sometimes.

Yeah, that went to 27.

Yeah, that's crazy. I would text the guys whenever the Wizards would be up by double digits. Hey, Wizards up by 14 points. Hammer the money line. It usually hit like 90% of the time. On the other team? On the other team, yeah. I wrote down a list of topics, and it's just one topic that I think I would like to just hear your opinion on. Nothing to do with basketball. But I just want to let you cook on this. What are your thoughts on crypto?

Okay. I have no investments in crypto. I've thought I think about it a little bit more recently, but I think everybody does. They're like, oh, it's at 100, now it's at 106. Now I feel like a fucking loser. I had to get my brains beaten in a bunch of different times with trades for me to then become numb to the ups and downs or that stupid math that you do when you invest. We're like, if I had only done I'm doing this. And then I had this many shares. I used to do all that shit when I was younger. I've had some bad losses. I've had some nice wins. My wins have been bigger, like my takes. You may not see how the path you get there. You're like, how the fuck is that It's not going to work out.

Then you do.

There's some losses I wish I could have back that ruin me emotionally for long stretches. But also when you're by yourself and you day trade and you have a fucking horrible, horrible stretch, there's no one to tell you how insane you're being. So you just accept your own demise.

It's like Nico.

Exactly. It's just like Nico. He didn't have anybody to tell him. He didn't have anybody to tell me. I remember I was on vacation once in Hawaii with a date, and I checked the pre-market at three in the morning because I was so locked into it. And I think I was down half a million because of just this news. And I ran out under the balcony and screamed, Motherfucker, motherfucker, motherfucker, like 100 times. And she came running out. She was like, Did your father die? And I was like, No, it's worse. She's like, Are you seriously setting your alarm to check the pre-market? So I was pretty into it there for a little while. Anyway, crypto, tried to read everything I could, didn't understand at the beginning like everybody else. Now I fully understand it. The problem was throughout the entire time, the people I trust the absolute least were all the biggest people that were about crypto. So I missed the window, or maybe the window still continues. I think the premise of it, its utility, all of those things make a ton It makes no fucking sense. So I believe in it, except it has always scared the shit out of me.

Okay. That's a good answer. I think that's a very good take. Good job, Ryan. How about you guys? Wait, what you just said. That's as much research as I've done right there.

Bought a I bought a Bitcoin in 2016. Don't know how to access it.

I bought Doge as a joke back in like, 2020 or 2021, and then it went up like 7,000 %. But I only spent like 50 bucks on Doge. I was just like, look, I got 50 bucks worth of Doge. That turned into like, I don't know, four grand, which is pretty cool. Then it went down to like two grand. That's all I know about crypto.

I like real estate better.

Some of you put your hands on.

I think it's more fun. Now, other peopleDon't make new land. Sopranos.

It's free real estate.

Even though people on the other side love touching a button, and then it's done. Now I have it all. Whatever it says on the screen, I push a button, and then I have it. I totally understand people are like, that's the only way I would want to do business. But I like real estate because I think it's a little... If I were to read all the materials and stocks and stuff and all the different options, I could read it all. I know that my full Full grasp of the understanding is like, okay, so you now think, I'm just doing my own research. I don't need any help Schwab. I don't know that I've ever felt truly comfortable going, oh, I've read about all this thing. This technology makes sense. A lot of it feels like the wins can be common sense, but it's always common sense after the fact. At least with different markets and real estate, I can go, this is a desirable place. I know what this house is. I know because I've looked at this town so many different times or I know people that live here or whatever. So I just think that's an easier understanding, even if it's certainly not any guarantee.

I can't believe we're on this right now.

Great job. Do you have another one? No, that was the only topic. The only topic I want to hear.

Were you guys doing life advice without announcing it?

I also had World War II, but we covered that. Thanks for the Napoleon book. I haven't read a single page in the last, what, a year and a half ago you sent it?

Love is a distraction of the Warrior.

But I'm taking it on vacation. It's a nice, light vacation read. The biography of Napoleon. Yeah.

Any of those books that are that massive, like the Churnow stuff. Yeah. The first 200 is where you fucking... That's the wax on wax off phase in the movie.

There's going to be several parts in the first, I'd say 50 pages where I will be strongly tempted to I'm going to throw the book away.

Look, I love Churnal as much as any sports podcaster, probably in the country. I'm a one seat of Ron Churnal fans. Okay? And I know when I dig in, I'm like, I've already read them all. I think Warburg is the only one I have read. I'm like, these first 100, 180. Be tough slutting. Washington gets off to a burning start. But like me, these long-winded stories and answers. I'm like, I have to give you the prolog before I can give you the answer. I'll get better one day, I hope.

No, you won't. I can't.

I don't want you to change.

Yeah, this is the best. The prolog is the best part.

I need to know what George was like as a Rathscalian. I need to know And I think Chernow is the storyteller in the same case with Andrew Roberts and Napoleon. You've got to learn that Napoleon was an awkward small dude, failed writer, maybe smelled, chicks didn't like him. No wonder he fucking ran a country and the world for a little bit there. What's more motivating than never having chicks like you?

Yeah, that's it. He was the first incel.

He was. He's just tweeting away. B minus tweet, C plus stuff. Apparently, his writing, like, sucked.

Really?

Yeah.

All right. I'm going to read.

All right. Roback question. Last question. Robackk. Com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips Polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback. Com, promo code take. I know it's February. Give us your finals and your winner.

Thunder over Boston.

In six, seven.

It would be seven. Thunder, get it at home.

Okay.

Hank, what are your thoughts on that?

I can see it happening.

Are you leaving tonight?

No, tomorrow morning.

Oh, you're out tonight?

No. Yeah, I have to I have to stay the night for dinner, but then I'm free.

Is tonight the night? Neil Young?

Yeah. Tonight's the night. Let's go. Tonight, tonight.

Yeah. I put two flights on Saturday, one way too early and then one-How early is the early one?

I think it's 8: 00 AM. You could do it if you wanted to.

10: 00 AM. Perfect flight.

But I also am not going home to sleep and just be like, Oh, yeah, now I'm going to come home and nap all day.

I can't imagine how hard you nap when you have kids.

It's got to be the best.

You know what? It's It's got to be unbelievable.

And you turn your brain off.

The best thing that I just had this ability that came up from having kids is I can crush a nine-minute nap. You'd never believe. And then I usually wake up and I'm like, Yeah, Hank. I usually wake up and I'm like, Oh, shit. I was supposed to be watching my kids.

Do you ever wake up and go?

I could sleep. Hank's back there asleep.

He might be in the nine. He's on minute 90.

I can't believe you were sleeping that whole time.

Be honest. It doesn't mean you don't love your wife or your family, but do you ever have a moment where you're like, I don't want to go back?

No, honestly, it's like 24 hours after being away, I'm I was like, I want to go back. First 24 hours, if you hit me in the first 24 hours, you'll be like, Yeah, this is pretty sweet. Then after 24 hours, I'm like, Get me back. That's how it always goes. Whenever we do these trips or go somewhere, Monday night, we went out to dinner, all of us, it was awesome. I don't want to ever go back. By Tuesday afternoon, I was like, get me the fuck out of here.

This place can do it to you, but I think you guys have been here so many times, and I know we're wrapping up here.

We love Louisiana. Everything about it. The colleges.

And I love that you guys... I was like, those guys really like it. I'll check it out. But once you get south of Poydras, all you have to do is walk five minutes south of the canal. And you go, oh, this is why these people that are successful Big Cat has known all these cats for a long time. And he's like, I got to introduce you to Rusillo. You see all these guys.

Hey, Todd Graves, meet my friend Ryan Rusillo.

No, I know. I mean, that was huge for me because I love chicken so much. But what I think is It's just so funny is you'll meet all these people, and then people think that New Orleans is only Canal Street and bourbon. And they go, dude, that place sucks. You're like, You know there's other streets? There's other streets.

There's so many cool bars and spots. It's awesome.

I'm going to work my way south.

Okay. All right.

Which is uptown, ironically.

I'm in. Yeah, I'm staying.

All right. We'll see each other tonight. All right.

Ryan Rusillo. Go subscribe to Ryan Rusillo podcast. He's the best.

Live studio audience with Hank. Before we get to the lottery Ball brought to you by our great friends at Planet Fitness, everybody can get strong at Planet Fitness. They've got a high-value membership that supports any fitness journey as low as 15 bucks a month. Planet Fitness has over 2,700 club locations. Most clubs are open 24 hours. It's a judgment-free environment. They have best-in-class equipment. It's the same high-quality equipment as other more expensive gyms. You get a full workout from strength training to cardio, stretching. They've got it all there, and it's very convenient. Open 24 hours, a lot of them. That means that depending on what your schedule is, sometimes it's not conducive to go into the gym, you can make it work with Planet Fitness. They won't judge you. They have friendly, welcoming staff, unlimited free fitness training, and they've got the PF app that has tons of free workouts. We've got a Planet Fitness gym here in the Barstool office. We got free weights, dumbbells, barbells. We have the cable towers, the chin-up, pull-up bar, Smith machine. I was the stair climber earlier today, treadmill, the core elevate thing. I like doing the upright rows with the barbells.

Good workout. Always, you feel sore the next day in a great way. We're all strong on this planet. Join today in Club, online or on the free PF app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness. Com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll, or you can be 13 to 17 with parent or guardian. Numbers. One, five, six, one, eleven, three.

I may get it right now.

What if you hit it right now means? Have you ever gotten this? I guessed it one time for 15. No, you haven't.

You didn't get it. I guessed it one time. Never. Fuck you. Oh, Hank.

Hank, walk on.

That means I'm hitting a hole in one this weekend.

Jelling her. That's a great one. Hank. Congrats, man.

Good job, Hank.

You got it. How many times you got it? If I could give this to you, I would because I already have. I've already got it. You cannot. You can't.

But if I could, I would, means I want you to win.

How many times you've gotten this, Hank?

I don't even know. Probably four, three or four.

And Meams, you've never? I guess they did it right one time. Hank was the guy who never had gotten it. Now, look at him.

It's so easy. It took so long for Hank to get it. Oh, man. He didn't even stand up.

That's so easy.

No, it's like, I want that. I want memes to feel it.

It's just so easy.

The thing about Hank is he expects excellence. He says, Wake me up at the end of the show. Yeah, exactly. That's when it really starts.

All right. See everyone on Wednesday.

Love you guys.