Transcript of Steph in Purgatory, a LeBron Mini-Mailbag, Jaylen Trade What-Ifs, and the Revived Red Sox With Joe House and Bill’s Dad

The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by PayPal. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I had an unexpected Friday podcast. If you missed it, LeBron picked the Sixers. I had Zach Lowe coming on anyway to tape Redraftables for this podcast, but we ended up running all of it on Friday. So if you wanted to hear our gut reactions to that, That's what went up on Friday. Zack did something on his podcast as well. Rewatchables Obsession live on Netflix at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific. It's going to be me and Chris Ryan and Joanna Robinson, who is fresh from Comic-Con. Can't wait to talk about that movie. It is the first same-year movie we've done for 2026. I'm sure we're going to end up doing The Odyssey at some point, but we We try to do one movie from the year itself every year, and this seemed like a good one. There's been really fun movie to talk about. I loved it. So that is tomorrow. Stay tuned for that. Coming up on this podcast, House and I are going to talk about the losers of the LeBron saga. And then I have a big-ass mailbag with a lot of good questions.

So thanks to everybody who mailed in that stuff. And then after House, my dad finally agreeing to come on. 3 weeks after the Jaylen Brown trade, was so mad about the Jaylen Brown trade, refused to come on. And now he's going to finally come on and we're going to talk about the state of Boston sports at the, for the last 35, 40 minutes of this podcast. So it's a little, little Sunday surprise for you. I know, I know I said I wasn't going to have a podcast on Sunday, but we're going to do it. I am not sure about the rest of the week yet, so stay tuned on that. You might, might not be seeing me until next Sunday, but we will see. Uh, anyway, let's take a break. Pearl Jam. And then, uh, my buddy Joe House. This episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast is presented by PayPal. You know a clutch move when you see one. A no-look pass, a buzzer beater, a big steal. Well, imagine if your wallet could pull off moves like that. That, my friends, is PayPal. Right now you can find offers from hundreds of brands like Sony, Allbirds, and Viator and save offers before you check out, earn unlimited rewards.

Plus you can add those rewards on top of credit card points. Now that is clutch. Download the PayPal app today. Save those offers. Start scoring rewards. Terms and exclusions apply. See paypal.com/rewardsterms. Credit card points subject to issuers' terms and conditions. Alright, taping this Sunday afternoon. Joe House is here. Our baseball team's made a trade last night.

Yeah! Early for Meade.

You liked Meade. I liked Early. I'm happy for both of us.

There we go. And I'm happy to have baseball back in my life. Washington hasn't been competitive since 2019 when they won the World Series, and they weren't supposed to be competitive this year, which is why they have a historically bad bullpen.

Yeah, but really bad. I saw it when they played the Red Sox. You didn't have a single guy.

You enjoyed it. Yeah, you saw it and you enjoyed it.

Yeah, we made a change. It's good baseball.

Let's go.

We're going to do a mailbag. But before we do that, I want to talk about, uh, the LeBron signing to Philly happened on Friday, and I wanted to do a quick thing about the biggest losers from the LeBron signing.

Let's go. Hold on a second, it's warm. Let me get a little warm up here.

It's a little warm. Oh my God, I didn't know they actually sold those. I thought that was a joke.

Well, now they need to do the, uh, Caleb Wilson Jizz Room one, and then we'll really be cooking. What a July.

That was a fun one because that got aggregated in a way that made me sound like a psycho, which I kind of enjoyed.

Aggregated?

I was trying to make a joke about how excited the Bulls fans were, then I was trying to make you laugh, but then all of a sudden I'm gonna It was, it was ejaculated.

Ejaculated.

I love that. As you know, I don't care.

Of course.

The LeBron saga. Biggest loser in your opinion. I have a list. I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 losers. Who is the biggest loser of the LeBron saga?

It's close. It's close, but I'm gonna say the Golden State Warriors.

And that's who I had number 1.

See, this is why we wavelength.

I mean, Steph Curry, I had as my number one loser. It's Steph.

And ownership didn't help by coming out, you know, over the last handful of days and making a non-commitment, like, are we putting Steph in NBA hospice? Is that what we're doing?

It's his last chance for relevance and it's gone. I wrote down it is the saddest older NBA superstar situation since 2011 Nash on the Suns and 2007 Garnett before he got traded to Boston of just guys now in purgatory who clearly have more to offer and it's not going to happen. There's a couple of pieces to this. One is why didn't they trade for Jaylen Brown? They weren't interested in him. They weren't interested. They, they were like, they didn't even counter. That was one of when the Celtics were canvassing the league doing the Jalen firesale, which I'm gonna talk about with my dad later. Warriors, by all accounts, both sides just not interested for Jimmy Butler's expiring and some picks. And the irony is if they do that, I think LeBron goes there, right?

I agree. I mean, the stories of LeBron playing golf with Draymond every single day in Los Angeles, those are true. And, and not only are, you know, from, from, uh, sources on the ground, our own Nathan Hubbard observed it with his own two eyes.

Right, right. So I, there's so many things I don't understand about that. One is like, what, who did the Warriors think they were gonna get with Jimmy Butler's expiring and first round picks if it wasn't Anthony Davis or, or Jaylen Brown? And why are you so desperate just to waste the end of the Steph era? You already did this. You held out on Wiseman and Kaminga too long.

Right.

Do they just think maybe Steph can't be the best guy on a championship team anymore? '22 can never happen again. So even stacking the deck, they have no chance against San Antonio and OKC.

Isn't it— isn't he entitled to find out?

Well, he's never— the best thing about him is he's like Duncan. He's never going to bitch about this.

—right.

Yeah, he's just not.

He's not gonna do it on his behalf. We'll bitch on his behalf.

I think it's outrageous. We saw it in the Olympics. Like, this is somebody who should have more relevant basketball moments, and it shouldn't be in a playing game. And I don't know what they're doing. I don't understand. Butler's not helping them this year. Even if he comes back, it's not like he can play 40 minutes a game. Um, it's almost like they know they're gonna get their money from Steph for the season tickets and the suites, they make the most revenue in the league. They make more revenue. I think, I think they make more than the Knicks do from their situation with the stadium and the tickets and everything. So I, it's, it's like they don't want to live the afterlife of, oh, we gave all this stuff away to have Steph have one last run and it didn't work out. I would've traded for Davis.

Well, the only feasible and reasonable explanation is that they think that keeping their they're powder dry now gives them an opportunity once the season gets going. And, and we can do a ranking at some point. We are in these summer months of who are the top 3 or 4 guys that will be discontent and malcontent over the first third of the season that, that the Warriors can drop.

It's gonna be a long list.

Yeah, no doubt.

Well, but it, if you look at the conference odds on FanDuel, they are, let's see. San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota, Houston, Lakers. Golden State is 7th best odds to win the conference at 27 to 1. And I honestly, I would book that bet right now with, because I don't, I don't think there are moves left. Is there like a, a Durant sign and trade move? I don't know. Anyway, I, Steph will never say it and maybe he doesn't care. He won the 4 titles, he got his 22 title. He wants to end in the Bay Area. And you see it when, when San Antonio made that run and Duncan's there and Manu and you know that, like when you go start to finish with a team like that, you're just there for your whole life. And maybe that's all he wants and doesn't care. Very fair. You know what's not fair? Not fucking trading anything. You and I feel the same way. What would you have, what would you have traded Davis for? As a Wiz fan? What would've commanded your attention from Golden State? Yoxall and picks.

I would've taken Yoxall and picks. So you wouldn't have taken the Butler expiring? You have to take the Butler expiring.

That, that's the, that's the requirement for the money. 29, 31, and a 30 swap, something like that. No Yoxall. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I mean, Anthony Davis doesn't really play basketball.

The problem is you need a commitment from Jimmy Butler to do some mentoring. This team is super— this Washington team has a very rosy picture of the mentoring role that Davis is gonna play. We'll see.

So he's a good guy. Everybody likes him. Yeah. I thought trading for, not trading for Jalen was irresponsible. My next loser was Jalen Brown, who could have been the guy in Brooklyn or Milwaukee. Could have gone to Golden State, could have gone to Charlotte, could have just stayed in Boston, but clearly was feeling it. And now he's the fourth option on the Sixers trying to figure out how to be like basically their do-it-all big minutes. Okay, I'll take over these 3 minutes in the third quarter, but you know, the fourth scoring option on this team basically, right? I, I, I, you think this is bad for him?

I dramatically disagree with you. Okay. Yeah. He's not a loser in any way, shape, or form. I think you are. In the first place, I think he's going to get the extension that he wants. So that makes him a winner.

You do? I do.

I think he's going to get the extension.

Oh, well, if he gets that, he's off the loser list. I would find that hard pressed to think they're going to pay him, Maxie, and Edgecomb max contracts.

I think that's part of the calculus for bringing him in. More importantly, in terms of the basketball proposition, I don't know that I really agree with this idea that he wanted to be the lead guy on a team. His expression of enthusiasm for the way that this particular Celtic, Celtic circumstance played out to me doesn't extrapolate into this is what he wants in his basketball career. It was a unique circumstance. He was really good. He played a great role in dragging a team that, that was forecast to be much worse into a superior position. And how fun is this that he's, that he's about to embark upon this situation in Philadelphia? They are the traveling roadshow. Everybody in America can't wait to see them. Hopefully good points. You know, LeBron and, and, and, uh, Embiid can play some games on the road for some of these, uh, high-wattage matchups.

But you think, you think you're just gonna enjoy his 18.2 usage rate this year? It's fine.

It doesn't matter. Winning is what matters. All right, I mean, relevant is what matters.

All right, so let's make these guys the second biggest losers then. Miami, they got dick teased nice and hard by LeBron and his camp. They really, yeah, they have, they had that $8.5 million spot burning a hole in their pocket and now they're looking at Bradley Beal and DeMar DeRozan.

Well, that's, those guys deserve $8.5 million. LeBron deserves $80.5 million. But yeah, those, they, I almost said Miami as my number one biggest loser because they, there's nothing they can do. They're so fucked. Like they're, they, there is nothing in terms of assets, roster moves going forward. They just needed— they just did it. They made all their moves. Yep.

That was it. Right now. So they're still 7th, 13 to 1, 7th best odds to win the East. That feels right. Yeah. It's interesting. I'd have Indiana over them too. Right now it's Knicks +320 all the way through Philly, Boston, Toronto, Detroit. Cleveland's 12-to-1, Miami's 13-to-1, Indiana's 14-to-1.

Okay. I mean, that's fair.

Like, if I gave you a choice, bet on the conference finals, you can have Miami or Indiana. Are you ever taking Miami over Indiana?

Under no circumstances.

Would you take, would you take Orlando over Miami? No, no.

We gotta see Franz Wagner play Atlanta at 20 to 1 over Miami? At that price, I might, because Atlanta, Atlanta's not done. Atlanta is trying. They have done a really interesting job in terms of, of, you know, building a team. And it feels like the ceiling is pretty high. 20 to 1 is kind of a good price in my opinion.

It's not bad because they have room to do other stuff too.

Yeah, they have room to do stuff.

I have to say at gunpoint right now, I would have Knicks-San Antonio, the rare Finals rematch. Oh, how great would that be?

That would be incredible. Yeah.

Somebody asked me that this weekend. Who do you think would act like, if you had to guess right now, what would the Finals be? And I was like, I think it's the, I think it's a run it back. That would be awesome. Almost like Miami-San Antonio in '13 and '14. I'm gonna go on to FanDuel.

They, they offer the final matchup market. It's probably not there yet. But I'm definitely, I'll tell you what it is right now.

Who do you want?

Oh, Philly and OKC.

Philly and OKC. Yeah. That would be 11 to 1. Oh, no way.

Yeah. Bad odds. No chance. 0% chance.

I'm betting. Bad odds.

No, thank you. Okay. Well, I didn't, Miami forgot the part that it ended badly with LeBron there and he won 2 titles there and It became clearer and clearer that, you know, he wants to win the title. That's why he did this.

I admire it. Great job by him.

It was a title chase pick, and Philly had more to offer than Miami. My next loser is Philadelphia as a place to live. And this comes from Jeff in San Francisco, this email. Isn't LeBron choosing Philly and then immediately declaring the need that he'll be living in New York City the ultimate pool in a pond? The pond is good for you moment. Caddyshack. Philly has some of the proudest, dedicated fans in sports. I can't imagine this will sit well with them. I just wanted to read that email because Philly's definitely starting around. He doesn't even want to live there.

He wants—

he's going to live in like New Jersey or New York. Settle down. Golden State in general. As a loser. Um, they have Butler coming back in March. They have KP and Horford as their center combo. I don't trust either guy. Nope. Draymond opted out. Now they're gonna have to— you might just leave, or they'll have to opt back in. And, uh, they have no actual point guard in their roster right now that I can find.

You know who needs a backup center?

The Sixers.

Draymond likes playing golf together. Draymond and LeBron.

Draymond, he's not, he's still in the money accumulation mode. Yeah. Understandable. I'm just, just saying. I do wonder if there's a, if, if there's some sort of, uh, Jalen Duren, Draymond something. Cause he, you know, he went to college in Michigan. Would be fun on the Pistons, put him in the East. But, um, but yeah, the Golden State in general, I, here's my question. I know he doesn't want to get traded. I know he wants to retire there. Are there Curry trades you would entertain?

Absolutely, yes. I mean, I, I had this conversation last year. It was on the table last year, really, as soon as Jimmy Butler got hurt. Why wouldn't Golden State I understand all of the economic impact that goes well beyond, you know, just playing basketball games. Well, the tickets are paid for this year. But yeah, I mean, that would, that's the most rational move. The most rational, the, the, the rational economic actor, the rational basketball franchise move is to trade Steph Curry. So undeniable.

If he's getting traded, is he going for a ring or is it just he goes home to Charlotte? I don't think he's ever getting traded, just for the record. I understand. But I don't think he's either. Who knows?

I think he would want to play with a competitive team. It's not, I wouldn't call it ring chasing. I wouldn't, you know, impugn Steph Curry's motivations in that manner. He wants to play with a competitive team the same way that LeBron's choice was the most competitive team according, you know, and not Minnesota.

That's all. Can I throw a scenario at you? I'm listening. It's not a ring chase, but what if San Antonio with Fox and all of the picks they have just said, fuck it, and went to Golden State and were like, we'll do Fox. You put, you put the picks together any way you want. For a couple years of Steph here. And we're now, we're trying to acquire 2024 Olympic Steph and he goes to San Antonio and tries to grab a couple more. It's pretty interesting.

I mean, speaking of the traveling circus, it's already San Antonio is already one, you know, must see when they come to your town. You have to go see them, hoping that Wemby's gonna play.

Yeah, 'cause people always say like, oh, they trade him back to Charlotte. He's not doing that. He's not winning anything in Charlotte. But with San Antonio, who has Atlanta's first round pick, they have a swap with Boston, they have swaps with Dallas or Minnesota in 2030, they have a 2030 swap with Sacramento, and they have all their firsts, and they have other stuff too. You know, I don't think they'd put Castle and Dylan Harper, those guys would not be on the table, but maybe Carter Bryant would be, I don't know.

You think Sam Presti's working on a package right now?

For—

think he has a Steph package? Like, just so you guys know, I have a package.

Presti's on a heater. He loaded Atlanta. He loaded Atlanta. He, uh, he, um, he squeezed the shit out of Denver. When San Antonio has their pick, and then he squeezed Denver with that Spencer Jones thing. I love it. Yeah, he did. We've talked about that. I tweeted about this today. We talked about this forever. Why don't teams try to screw each other over? Right? Just go for Jaylen Duren day one of free agency. Just offer him 4 years, $230 million, whatever the max is, knowing that they're going to match it anyway. Why not? You're competing against all these teams. You're trying to win a title. A couple more losers quick. Cleveland. Yeah. Left at the altar by LeBron for the third time. Eh, I will always for the rest of my life think that his plan was to go there.. And, and they, he was under the assumption things would be able to change on the team before he got there. And nothing can change 'cause they can't trade James Harden 'cause they obviously did a wink wink deal with him and nobody wanted the other guys. And he just wasn't playing for Dan Gilbert on the minimum.

Okay. Yeah. From a basketball standpoint, much better chance to win a title in Philly than I think Cleveland. Right? We agree on that. No doubt about that. I never liked the Cleveland fit. And then they'll—

if Brad, Brad Stevens hadn't given Jaylen Brown away at the, the very first moment he, he, he could come up with it. Brad Stevens is a loser.

I have him and I have the Celtics who basically traded Philly Jaylen Brown and LeBron James for Paul George and two firsts. That's what he did. Tough trade.

LeBron to Cleveland makes more sense. Because Cleveland was in Eastern Conference Final last year, and then the, the narrative plays out a little bit better.

They weren't.

Jaylen Brown fucked the whole thing up.

I have a couple Celtic fans in my life who saw the Odyssey and think the Jaylen Brown Philly trade has Trojan Horse potential. Oh, here's our gift. It's Jaylen Brown.

Good.

And then you'll get LeBron too. Listen, we're grasping for straws here.

Keep enjoying those edibles.

Last loser I have is the Lakers. This is an email from Peter in Orange County, California. Hi Bill, you've spent a material amount of your professional capital fairly and unfairly dunking on the Lakers. Not untrue. The Lakers tossed you a Carmelina's meatball and you didn't even swing. LeBron signing for $4 million a year with the Sixers is an enormous fail for the Lakers. When are we supposed to see the Mark Walters effect? This feels like a Continuation of the bus kids and their delusional ineptitude. From Peter in Orange County. It is interesting. It does make you think, like, could they have played this LeBron thing better? Or, which would be my theory, they clearly wanted it to end, right? It feels like January, February, they were like, you know what, we're good with this whole LeBron thing. We've kind of had it., but they could have had Walker, Kessler, and Reeves, and LeBron.

And, and to be fair, like LeBron did deliver a playoff series win for the franchise as his parting gift. Like, it's not a small thing that they beat Houston. Yeah. With, with just effing LeBron. I mean, it's stunning. It's a real indictment of Houston. It was a real indictment of Houston. No KD.

But I, it's funny, I didn't see any of those games being replayed on NBA TV. It's like, oh, it's Game 3, Houston-Lakers. Oh, sit down.

Yeah, I mean, it's just rock fight. I do think the WNBA All-Star Game last night— ooh, that—

I saw the video. That was a rock fight. Speaking of the, uh, I do wonder if there's a what-if with that though. If, if the Rockets just win that series, does LeBron even say, that's it, maybe I don't have anything left to offer? I think— I do think that gave him the idea that he could maybe be a bigger part of a championship team.

It felt like to me, no matter what, he was going East as he— Yeah. Taking in all the circumstances of the way that these playoffs played out.

I forgot to give you your victory lap. On what? You said on the podcast last week, you said he was going to Philadelphia and I mocked you and made fun of you and I, and we bet dinner.

Well, the victory lap is dinner. And this is the funniest thing. I didn't get a chance to, to text our good buddies. Um, Chang and Nathan. But you know where we're going. No, we're going back to Capo. That's the dinner, motherfucker. Oh my God.

Oh my God, I'm gonna have to increase my credit card limit. Oh, that's hilarious.

A lot of regular NBA people, by the way. Uh, J. Kyle Mann had it in early July. Um, even Raheem the Dream. Raheem the Dream had a dream. Dream was driving his car and had a vision. Uh, both of those preceded me coming on your show and saying that I thought it was going to go to Philly. But I'm the only one that, that bet with you, so we're gonna have a great dinner.

I, uh, I wish I had thought of the whole he could live not in Philly and play in Philly piece. That would have at least— because I was just, no way, Philly, get the fuck out of here. But he's clearly gonna live in New York and then have some I don't know, some nice condo in the Philly Ritz or wherever, and he'll can stay there some nights or live in New York.

But yeah, the other element of that super short flight down to West Palm. So there is magnificent golf in, in Philly, New Jersey, and New York. Of course it gets to be cold and then there isn't golf, but jumping in the PJ and going down to West Palm and then knocking out all the bangers that are down there. Oh, you go to Charlotte, the G Grove. He could go to Charlotte, right? Anyway, he go to Georgia. Yeah. Tremendous golf, short PJ ride away, straight down the East Coast. I have a mailbag.

There's a lot of LeBron questions, so I want to take a break. Let's go. And then we're going to do a really fun mailbag. All right, mailbag time. Thanks to everybody who sends in questions. I truly appreciate it. It is BSPodcast33@gmail.com. First one comes from Martin. He asks, like you, I want to see LeBron in Golden State, but it seems like he realized he couldn't win a ring there without staying tied with Steph. Any chance that was a disincentive to go there? This is something I heard for the last month about LeBron not wanting to go to Steph's team, Steph's city. Um, and now anytime I mentioned The Expendables, people always poo-pooed it because of that. I think he was gonna go any— the more we learned about this, he was going to the team that gave him his best chance to win the NBA title, and there was no other reason.

I agree with that. I don't think that this notion of going to Steph's team was a disincentive. I think the idea of, of him coming, those two guys joining forces, what a magnificent story. I don't think that he thinks about, you know, that, that it would be a coattails kind of situation.

Yeah. So the three best teams in the league didn't want him. Oklahoma City, San Antonio, New York. Right. So those three are out. He's never going to Boston, he hates Boston. He's not going to Detroit. So there's 5 teams. He decided he couldn't win in Miami, they're out. That leaves Cleveland, Minnesota, Philly, Golden State. Minnesota's too cold, he's not going there, they're out. Cleveland can't trade Harden. He's not playing a minimum for Dan Gilbert, they're out. Golden State won't trade for AD and didn't trade for Jaylen Brown. So from a pure, I want to win the title, Philly was the move. Agree. Of course, I realize that now. I could have realized that 5 days ago. The 5th title, this, does this, he took some ring chase abuse. I don't think it was fair because I think he loves playing basketball. I think a ring chase would have been going to San Antonio. Sure. Agreed.

That's a ring chase. Or Oklahoma City.

Those are the 2 ring chase teams.

Or the Knicks. He could have gone to the Knicks at the price that he agreed to go to Philly.

Stop doing that. That Knicks fans would be like, dude, we won without you and we, you're right. You could have come here 10 times.

No, it is a different Knicks team and we'll have the opportunity to talk this through. The impact of Mitchell Robinson not being on that team is, it's not immaterial. It is material. And they don't have an answer yet. They, I, you know, sort of trust, I implicitly.

Did they get Drummond? They got Drummond, right?

Okay.

I mean, and they have a live body is my point.

Doesn't lead the NBA in offensive rebounding rate?

This happened with the Celtics when, uh, we lost Posey. And even though it was probably the right move, he signed like a 5-year deal with New Orleans and, and I think was good for maybe another year and a half and then his career kind of died. But we would've had a much better chance in '09 if we had Posey, right? You have to make these decisions money-wise and yeah. Um, it's second apron or not. Next question's from Rob. It's a Steph-related one. He asked for Conspiracy Bill. Hmm. Conspiracy Bill has had a great summer. A lot of people checking in with him. What if LeBron was secretly being a double agent to the Warriors to keep Steph stuck at 4 rings while he chases his 5th? Conspiracy Bill looked at this one. I don't think, I don't think LeBron's measuring himself against Steph with rings or any of that stuff. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pass on that one. Um, I got another email. Oh, I accidentally deleted. I'm sorry, I deleted. The person who sent this was asking if LeBron could win the assist title on Philly. So my bad for not giving you credit.

It's a great question. Um, I forgot this because I forgot everything that happened in 2020 because I don't remember one thing that happened that year. He won the assist title in 2020. Do you remember this?

I did not remember that.

10.2 assists a game on the Lakers team that won the title. Phenomenal. Won the assist title. It wasn't by like, you know, an inch. He won by like, the next guy was like 9.3. So our leaders that year, to send me down a rabbit hole, the 2020 leaders, James Harden, 34.3 points a game, was the points leader. Andre Drummond, 15.2 rebounds a game. Rebounds. Yeah, believable. LeBron in assists. Hassan Whiteside in blocks, 2.9. George Hill, 46 points, uh, 46%age for, uh, threes. Okay. 46.0. Yeah. Can you guess who led the league in steals in 2020? Mm. You're not gonna be able to, so I'll give you the answer. No. Jimmy Butler. Ben Simmons. Oh, amazing. So I tried to figure out if that was the weirdest combination of people that ever led the league in the major categories. Don't ask why, but I went through basketball reference. I went through everybody and I landed on 1978. Does, does that count?

I knew you would like this. Yeah, there's some bullets involved.

The only normal one was George Gervin, 27.2 points a game, won the scoring title. Made sense. He won like 5 or 6 scoring titles. Our rebounding leader was Truck Robinson at 15.2. Wow.

Leonard Truck Robinson. Good job, Truck.

Assists, Kevin Porter, former Bullet, 10.2. Ron Lee led the league in steals, 2.7, and George Johnson was our block leader at 3.4. So if you're gonna make a starting five of points, steals, rebounds, assists, and blocks, and you make the weirdest starting five possible, it's 1978. George Gervin, Truck Robinson, Kevin Porter, Rodney, and George Johnson. Is that even like a 35-win team?

What was that? Yeah, what was that? 82-0 game. 82-0 game.

Yeah, that had a fun run.

I seen that thing. Let's see how many games they win.

Who wins the series with them or Drummond, Ben Simmons, LeBron Whiteside, and James Harden? They win in 4.

Yeah, sure. That's a sweep.

Yeah. Nobody's beating 19.

2020 sweeps it.

Yeah. All right, this is one of the best questions I've got all year from Leo in Seattle. I hope you get a basketball team soon, Leo. Who do you think will play more games for the 76ers franchise from this point today going forward? LeBron James or Joel Embiid? So from right now going forward, he says, let's say LeBron plays 100 regular season games and 16 playoff games over the next 2 years. Will Embiid surpass 116? Not just for the next 2 years, but for the rest of his Sixers career. This is amazing. So Embiid's last 3 years, 39 regular season, 6 playoffs in 24, 19 total in 25, 38 and 7 last year, put 109 total last 3. So let's be generous and say 45 regular season, they'd play the same amount of playoff games. LeBron's gonna be 57 of 60.

Yeah. That's why he can't win the assist title, by the way.

He's not gonna play enough games. Isn't it 55 for the assist title?

Oh, is it that low? Well, even if it's 55, I don't think LeBron's playing 55.

So who do you have? That's amazing. Rest of their career on the Sixers also includes one of the guys can get traded. Joel could get traded to your team tomorrow. Yeah. Yes. I think I'm going to take LeBron.

I'm going to take LeBron. I am going to take LeBron. It makes a lot of sense for Philly to have eyes and ears open to Embiid trade deals. It, I, it really hurts me to say, but I listened to you with Zach and then I listened to Zach with Martina and CR, huh? With the Washington. It's there, there is a type of logic to it. Again, it will not be a before Christmas of this upcoming season. 'Cause Washington wants Anthony Davis to, to play.

See, I disagree. I think if it, if it happens, it has to happen now because if Embiid's playing and playing well, they're not gonna trade him. And if Embiid gets hurt again, they won't be able to trade him. But right now we're in this kind of no man's land with it where it's like, well, you look pretty good in the playoffs for—

well, then it's not gonna be Washington, that's all. Okay. It'll have to be for somebody else.

So you wouldn't take embiid and all the rest of their picks and phylon, whatever they have left for picks and phylon and some swaps and for Davis, it's not enough?

It's not up to me, first of all, because I might countenance that. But really, I really, I have my head around the idea of AD as mentor. I love him flying out to Vegas.

I love it. I love that you have talked yourself into AD, somebody you've made fun of over and over again for not being able to stay healthy. You—

or Joel Embiid. I just forgot. Or Joel Embiid. Which one?

You sent me a picture once, and I probably still have it, of when they announced the NBA 75 and Anthony Davis made it, and you were so upset you ate like 5 Reese's Pieces bars. And you sent me a picture of all the rappers and you said, I'm so upset I just ate all His chocolate bars. And now he's on your team. Well, that, those are two different deals.

He could be a great mentor to Alexander Sar, not being in the top 75.

He's gonna be a mentor for ice packs. Yeah. Oscar from Kansas City had an Embiid, LeBron question. He said, LeBron joining the Sixers feels a lot like Tom Brady going to Tampa. An all-time legend signing with a completely new team. 2020 Bucks were loaded, ready to contend. Brady brought them the leadership experience, made them champs. Do you think this is a valid comp? I've seen this online. A bunch of people mentioned it. I completely disagree, and I think it's insulting to Brady. Wow. Okay. Brady. So I went back and I looked at my 2020 NFL prep for that year. Brady had the third best MVP odds for that year. He had just been the best guy on a Super Bowl team 2 years before. Their over-under, people weren't a believer in the supporting cast. Their over-under for wins, it was a 16-game season, was 8.5. They were +160 for their division, 10-to-1 conference, 12-to-1 Super Bowl, -210 to make the playoffs. They went 11-5. They were underdogs in the last 3 playoff games. He won Super Bowl MVP. He won the MVP of the entire fucking league the following season. LeBron's not doing any of that.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's why it's not a perfect comp.

You can't compare. I have a better one.

Okay, I'm listening.

Well, another one I thought of was Brett Favre on the 2009 Vikings.

Okay.

But they went 12-4 with him. Yes. And they— he throws the interception in the Saints, the Bountygate. He's probably got 9 concussions in the same game. He was 4th MVP last year. That's not happening with LeBron either. So that's not a good one. Lemme give you Montana and the Chiefs. Oh wow.

Way back machine. Yeah.

He goes there in '93. They have Marcus Allen who ends up 6th MVP that year. They have Neil Smith and Derrick Thomas who were two of the best defensive players in the league. They had a really good team and he was like the last piece. 10-to-1 Super Bowl odds that year. They go 8-3 with them and he gets hurt. Mm. They make the AFC title game anyway with Dave Craig. And they lose to Buffalo. Wow. And then the next year they go 9-7, lose to Miami in a wildcard game. But to me it feels like Montana Chiefs. That's pretty good. That would be what I went with.

I like that one. Yeah. Yeah.

He's like, he's like the last piece. He's not the piece. You know what I mean? Yep. Rob from Perth, Australia. Oh, love Perth, Australia. I like the Australian emails. Me too. Are the Sixers now an overbooked WrestleMania match? Down by 10 in the third, hit LeBron's music. He comes running down, chair in hand, to whack Brunson in the back. Oh, the Knicks are back in it. He gouges JB's eyes. Hit him, Beads music. It is funny. Like they do have a, an embarrassment of guys who could take over a game and make something fun happen. Yeah, I like that.

Me too.

I like the concept of that. Yeah, me too. All right, this is a multi-part question. This first one's from Nate from Richmond. Listen to the Fight Club Rewatchables featuring me and CR and realize that the Tyler Durden split personality is reminiscent of how you talk about Conspiracy Bill. When someone invokes Conspiracy Bill in a mailbag, you act like he's a completely different person with his own agency and beliefs. He acts on his own accord and proposes ideas regular Bill would not. Um, I wanted to flag that you and Conspiracy Bill are the same person before he enacts his own version of Project Mayhem. Um, that is true. When I become Conspiracy Bill, I move— it's like Mr. Miyagi. And Mr. Miyagi would talk about himself in third person. Yes, he becomes a different person. Different person. Um, well, Tim asked for Conspiracy Bill's take: winning the vote in Ohio, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania would net LeBron 120 of the 270 electoral votes. Is LeBron gearing up for a presidential run in '28? I mean, Pennsylvania would get him there. 120 still feels like he needs some work.

Well, now Governor Shapiro is taking some credit, by the way. Governor Shapiro said he was lobbying to get LeBron there. Governor Shapiro wants a victory lap.

Should we pour him a little settle-down juice? You think he was the one, the one swinging this one?

He tipped it. He called Rich.

They're like, hey, Rich, Shapiro had an amazing idea that we should go after LeBron James with our free, with our free agent money. All right, now we really need Conspiracy Bill for this next one. From Mike from New Orleans. Can I get Conspiracy Bill's take on this new Blazers owner? The league wants to get back to Seattle. The expansion buy-in could be that much greater if the new owner knows they don't have to share the Pacific Northwest market with the Portland Trail Blazers. This new Blazers owner seems to be following the playbook owners take when they want to make their teams— take their teams out of town and then blame the fans for making them do it. Cutting costs, going to war with the community, saying he needs taxpayers to give him a new arena. Where have we seen this before? Oklahoma City. We did the Sonic Boom podcast about that. Maybe he takes the team to Vegas. Maybe we get one expansion team instead of two and Seattle rejoins the NBA. This did get Conspiracy Bill's attention. I've been on this Portland thing. I had a guest scheduled in mid-June. I was gonna— I was immediately fascinated by what was going on and then had to bump because there was so much basketball going on.

So maybe I'll have that person on, um, on the next pod. But there's been a lot of like, huh, hmm, where it just feels very familiar to the OKC situation. And, um, antagonistic unnecessarily. That's the word.

That's literally the word. Like, he, he arrives, the paperwork is— the ink is barely dry, and it is one fuck you after another from the moment he got there to the good people of Portland. Like, disrespect after disrespect after disrespect.

And you blame Adam and the, and the league for You bring— because this is very similar. I'm going to criticize Stern 20 years ago, which I did over and over again. I have to criticize Adam for this. They bring in the OKC Group to buy the team from Howard Schultz, and they were like, no, we want to keep the team here. And the moment they got it, they're trying to get it out of there, and Stern was complicit. It's hard not to think Silver had no idea this was a possibility when the team didn't have a lease. You know, they didn't, they don't have a lease in 3 years.

Yeah. I think that the league was fully aware of the circumstances of Portland and the relationship with that state and the city and the community. And it sure does feel expendable because we haven't seen one thing come down from the league.

This feels like it's beyond posturing and gamesmanship and Feels very fuck you-ish now.

I really agree with this.

And also, I've said this, I said this on the last part, I'll continue to say this, I don't think the city should have to pay for jack shit.

You, you know, I agree with that as well. It's bullshit.

Yeah, these guys are all fucking rich. Build your own stadium. What are you doing? Why are you making Portland's— by the way, that I can't say the city of Portland's been doing great, that great the last 10 years. Like, the last thing they need to do is send money toward a basketball arena.

The people of Portland agree with you.

This is where, if I was SportsR, one of my rules would be if you win a title, you can never leave the city. So you'd be protected forever with Washington. You win, you're there for life. Unless the people vote you out. But yeah, so conspiracy bill, this would be, this would raise the price of the Seattle team. If Portland was moving out and we only had one team in this whole corner of the world, 'cause I think they've had an easier time getting the Vegas money than the Seattle money.

Well, it's, what do you mean raise the price? He's not paying expansion.

I'm not talking about for him. I'm talking about for the Seattle expansion. If I'm buying the Seattle team and I know I'm the only game in town now. Yeah. In Pacific Northwest. 'Cause this guy's blow torching his Portland relationship. Right. I like the Blazers fans. This is brutal what's happening.

I agree.

And I don't know why Adam's not saying anything about it either.

It is such a breach of that social contract between the franchise when you're the only franchise in town and, and the civic pride that comes from that. Right. When, when you let somebody walk in and just take a shit on decades of that, that commitment by that community to that team, that's a bad look, bro. And I mean, look, the track record here of what the league has done in admitting new owners, these fucking people down in Dallas, what they did, and we're right on the heels of that, and this guy's going to come in and light Portland on fire. Fuck off.

I really appreciate you not bringing the Celtics owner up there because I like him, but he could have— in the wrong hands, he could have been thrown into that. Conversation. So we just traded Jaylen Brown for—

let's give it some time. They won 56 games last year. At least they didn't.

I, I— this guy, so it's funny because some of the stuff he's doing— I said this to Zach on, uh, on Friday— some of the stuff he's doing, I actually, you know, like, do we need 20 assistant coaches? Do we need to— do we need the overboard stuff? Like, he's cutting costs in a way it's like, all right, I can see his point there, but this is He's like, he just gutted all the broadcast teams. He, I think he gutted the head coach. He has a coach on a 1-year deal. Nobody's ever done that before. I think that's shameful.

I think what he did to Mike Inori was shameful. Now, I mean, a million times out of a million times, Micah should say, yes, I do want to be the head coach. Right. It's one, it's, there's 30 jobs and now his is, his opportunity.

Just do a 2-year deal. What? Like, like, why is that a 1-year deal? There's some, there's some line between whatever happened with Mike Budenholzer in Phoenix, right, where he's one year and out and he's just gone but gets paid for four, and this Mike Inouye only being— I don't know. Uh, I am going to, uh, my pledge to the people of Portland, um, I was, I tried to be an asset for Seattle and it didn't work and the team moved in '07 and '08. Um, I, I promise to use this podcast to shine a bigger spotlight on this situation over the course of the summer. Yeah, this is bullshit. Yeah, they won the '77 title and the 50th anniversary is coming up, and that's all that city should be talking about. They shouldn't be worried about this fucking guy. Um, okay, Mitchell Sherwood from Indianapolis. Oh, this is a good question. Actually, let's take a break. This is such a good question. God damn, this is a good question from Mitchell Sherwood in Indianapolis, Indiana. What would be the best LeBron Sixers comp in 1999 if Michael Jordan's Bulls imploded like they did, but he decided he didn't want to stop playing and he wanted to find basketball happiness somewhere else?

Would it have been the 1999 Spurs with Duncan as Maxi and Robinson as Embiid? The answer is no. Oh, okay. I did do the research. There's a really obvious pick. Any guesses? No, I'm not gonna.

The Knicks. That would be, that would be my guess.

Knicks would've been a good guess. Uh, the 1999 Lakers. Okay. Remind me. Shaq in year 6. Ah, Kobe in year 3. They had on the roster to start the year Robert Horry, Eddie Jones, Rick Fox, and young Derek Fisher. It's a pretty good team. It was the strike season. They rolled the dice with Dennis Rodman. Complete disaster. Yeah. Midseason, they trade Eddie Jones, Eldon Campbell for Glen Rice and J.R. Reed. They also fired Del Harris after 12 games. That's right. They don't do that. Really not a great coach. Uh, they end up with Kurt Rambis, an even worse coach. They make the playoffs. They beat an old Houston team that had Pippen and Barkley and Hakeem on it. They beat them in round 1. Round 2 swept, sent home packing by the San Antonio Spurs. Duncan, 29-11. So that team could have been Shaq, MJ, Kobe, Rice, and Robert Horry as your starting 5. And MJ ring chasing for a 7th.

That's pretty good. They would have— who would they— we— they need a coach though, because—

well, Phil Jackson comes back if MJ's back in, right?

Okay, there we go.

He's like, I'm thinking about signing with the Lakers, and Phil Jackson's like, I'm in.

Speaking of ring chasing. Yeah.

Would you have held that against Jordan? I mean, the Bulls were basically like, we don't want, we don't want you anymore.

No, no, no, no. He, he more than anybody in, in, you know, modern basketball had the perfect out to go to a different team and try and compete.

He, I mean, I did a piece about this, shameful, the first summer of the Ringer, which was 10 years ago. I wrote a whole piece about how Michael Jordan didn't necessarily want to retire when he retired.

It's a great point. And I agree.

Part of it was the Bulls imploded. They didn't want him back and he didn't really know what to do. Pippen wanted money, so he left immediately. He didn't really have a team to go to. But then the other thing was he sliced his finger on the cigar cutter. So he would've been out till March and it was a lockout and it just, it just ended up not happening. That Lakers team would've beaten the Spurs.

That would've been something. Can you imagine?

All of a sudden that would've been the best series of all time.

Oh my God, he was still— I mean, the whole thing ended up with him in Washington 2 years later. I know, I know, exactly.

So yeah, I think it's the '99 Lakers is your answer. Then, uh, another LeBron question from Alex in Cincinnati was looking back at the rewatchables. We did those rewatchables. I'm gonna put those on the Book of Basketball podcast feed. Um, but we did one about the '95 Bulls Magic series, and one of my big points was everyone misremembers that series. The Bulls was actually, they were pretty good that year. They were better than I think people remember now. His case for LeBron was that 2018 when he was at his absolute peak, 34-9-9 in the playoffs, then has 51-8-8 game 1 of the finals. And people remember the J.R. Smith. Yeah, he called it the J.R. Smith lobotomy play, which I think is a good— it's good, good one for it. But his question is, if they win that game, could they have won the series? Which is something we've talked about. Oh, that sucked. That would've been a much better Finals. Did— could that play have actually changed LeBron's legacy? Because if he beats the '18 Warriors by himself, he probably takes the GOAT thing from MJ. That would, all that would've done is turned that series into a 4-1 outcome.

Oh, so I was thinking it goes 6. I think they win one in Cleveland. Okay. But I think it's a 2-3-2. I still think they lose in 6, but I do think it makes the Warriors go, and that Warriors wasn't, they weren't the happiest team near the down the stretch. That's right. That's right. Could that have unraveled them a whiff?

Maybe. They're still, That was an incredible team.

Great playoff run. Eamon from New York wants to know, what exactly will it take for Sixers LeBron to avoid becoming memeable like Celtics Shaq or Wizards Jordan, where the jersey looks weird and we don't remember it that fondly? And then Joseph sent an email, how far away is LeBron from his, okay, maybe I played one season too long season? So I'd like to combine those two together. I don't think it's this season. We are moving a little closer to the finish line. I was looking at his per-36 and the numbers, like if you, as both of us have done, we look at these basketball references and once it starts really going down near the end, it just keeps going. There's no like bounce back. In '22 per 36, he was 29-8-6. Last year he was 23. The 3-point was 32%. All the other numbers, the, like his, you know, the, some of the advanced stuff, not quite as good, but it wasn't bad. Like it was, it was in the ballpark where it should be. But if it goes lower than it did last year, then we'll be, we'll be off. My point is, I don't think it's, I don't think we're in 2011 Shaq Celtics.

We're not even We're 2 years away from that, I think.

I agree. The most important element to, to answer this question is tell me how many games he's going to play, because I thought last year was masterful. Yeah. The sciatica for the first however many games that was, was, was literally brilliant. And so they need to come up with the functional equivalent of that because it just, he needs cover. His version of the Paul George suspension.

Yes. Like he just goes away for 25 games from February and March and comes back. Yes. Raring, ramping up. That actually is kind of fun.

That would be a, like, what could we invent for LeBron? What would LeBron's transgression be? Well, he's old. How about a back problem? Well, he, he just, that's what was the sciatica.

Nobody blinks. If anyone over 40 tells me they have sciatica, I'm just, I don't, I trust it.

And then, but the problem with that is he can't play golf. Does he really want to take 3 months off from playing golf or however long?

Yeah. How do you figure out the golf thing? That's a tough one.

That's a tough one. You know what? Uh, he could wait until it's freezing cold on the East Coast and then just quietly sleep, like go to play simulators. He loves the simulators and that, that could be it.

You know, I love— you might be the world's preeminent expert on LeBron's golf career.

Oh no, he, I mean, I'm telling you, he's, there's the simulator thing. It's, it's coming. Look, wait till you see, it's going to be amazing. But yeah, that would be one way. He can't be seen down at Apogee down in West Palm out on the, the, or, or at, with Grove 23 with MJ. Right.

You can't, you can't be faking the injury, but then you're also playing 27.

Can't do it. Can't do it.

So Joseph's question, he talked about that maybe I played one season too long and he had examples of Shaq at the end, Duncan at the end, Dirk at the end, the last 3 KG, the last 2 Paul Pierce, last 6 Vince Carter seasons et cetera, et cetera. I went a step further. I did my one season too long team. Okay. All time. Thought you'd enjoy this. Didn't prep you at all. So it wasn't just about I hung on too long and I played too many. This was like a specific— it had to be like the actual season itself made them realize, oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have done this. Hakeem going to Toronto in 2001 has to be the center. Yeah, he could have played his whole career with Houston and just had that one last year. Like, Ewing did it too, but Ewing bounced around. He was in Seattle, or they hit him multiple ones. So that's my center. Pippen ended up on the '03 Bulls after the Portland run, which I forgot. Yeah. Um, I kind of wish that didn't happen. I wish he had just ended with Portland. Um, this is a good one.

Elvin Hayes for the 1984 Houston. Your guy, the Big E. He came home, he came home, and he's having his last season where he's washed up, but then they're trying to tank, and he has the famous game where he plays all 48 minutes because they're trying to tank and they run him into the ground. So with that, he has to be on the team.

And then I want to watch that. I forgot the 48 minutes is legendary. The whole game, never comes out.

They're like, oh, Elvin, stay out there. He's like having a heart attack. Uh, Allen Iverson, Grizzlies. Oh yeah, for sure. All time. Amazing. It just, that made everyone just sad. Yeah. So that's one of my guards. And then I'll give you a choice for the other guard. I could give you Magic Johnson on the '96 Lakers when he came back and it was fun for a second, but then when we got to the playoffs and it just, the team was unhappy and it just was like, ah, why did this have to happen? Or I could give you Chris Paul this year playing for the Clippers. It having the birthday party and only having two Clippers show up.

It's Chris Paul. Okay. By, by a long shot. I still, it is, that's a worse misstep by the Clippers organization than circumventing the salary cap to pay Kawhi. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Still going on. I like this stuff about, uh, they're mad now that this has taken too long.

I have one more for the, uh, they have a right to be bad. Go ahead.

The best one season too long guy ever. I only did guys people have heard of, but the number one was George Mikan on the 1956 Lakers. Mikan retires. He's like the best basketball player of all time. He wins 4 titles. He retires when the shot clock comes, takes a year off, and then comes back with the shot clock. And now we're playing faster. And by all accounts was a complete disaster. So I'm gonna add him on there too. Okay, couple more. Paul Peters was listening to me and CR talking about World Cup and England's baggage and teams and baggage, teams coming in and basically fixing the baggage. And Paul says we should call these guys baggage handlers. Oh, the baggage handlers whole thing is say, fuck this baggage and kick it away as far as you can. And he said, who are some of the first-class baggage handlers? So I had, for Boston, we had 3. We had Big Poppy, obviously. Mm-hmm. We had Tim Thomas, the goaltender for the Bruins in 2011, who just went on absolute all-time heater. And then Bill Belichick. Some people would say Brady, but it was Bill Belichick was our baggage handler.

Yeah, sure.

This is awesome. I love this concept.

So all-time baggage handlers. Across sports, I have Big Papi LeBron 2016. Yeah. Jalen Brunson, uh, a couple months ago. Mark Messier with the Rangers. Mm. And Johnny Padres on the '55 Dodgers. 2 wins, game 7 shutout, flips it. They're just getting their ass kicked by the Yankees forever and then finally flip it and he wins. So I had 5. Who is your number 1 Washington baggage handler? Ovechkin? Wow.

Probably Joe Gibbs. It took Ovechkin a long time. Now, you know, the Washington Capitals came into existence in 1974 and they won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with Ovechkin, you know, sort of three-quarters of the way through his career. Yeah. You know, he keeps playing. I think that the arrival of Joe Gibbs with that Washington— because that Washington franchise, as it was, you know, it was a little brother to the bully Dallas Cowboys. And the, the, that rivalry between Washington and Dallas. Joe Gibbs arrived and really changed the, the, that, that whole arc. Washington was dominant because— How about on the, uh, Nats?

You didn't really have a lot of baggage with the Nats.

No, I mean, I guess they don't count. 2005. 15 years old.

Joe Gibbs is a good one. Um, I have franchise cities most in need of a baggage handler. Buffalo Bills, Josh Allen. They've been throwing him in central casting for that for 10 years. Please be our baggage handler. Could it be Joe Brady? Joe Brady taking over as the baggage handler and ushering Josh Allen through.

Vikings. We're doing our research now.

I'm quietly bullish on, on the Bills.

We're doing, I know we're doing our football research now.

You're bullish on the, on the Bills?

I'm bullish on the Bills because the schedule, that's one element of it.

Okay, Vikings, Lions, and then the number one team is weirdly the Maple Leafs. Oh yeah. Oh wow. They really need a baggage handler. The Canadians are getting close and the Canucks have been there forever because they've never won. But really, and pick a Canadian NHL team, they all need a baggage handler. That's true. Canadian hockey needs a baggage handler. KWT sent in, um, Is Bill calling Telemachus from The Odyssey Temeculus for my entire MVP ballot draft? First pick in the pop culture speech dyslexia redraft. I did, I did call him Temeculus the entire thing. I knew I was doing it. I couldn't remember what his name was. I wasn't going to look it up, but it was Telemachus. Listen, it's The Odyssey. We're gonna have some mess-ups. Uh, okay. Jeremy said Butler over Klay in the 2011 redraft. I know it was Zach's pick at number 3, but you signed off on it. You're the guy who wrote an entire book about The Secret. You're taking the poor man's version of Terrell Owens over the poor man's version of Bill Russell? Question mark. Bill Russell's a little strong.

Poor man's Bill Russell? Clay Thompson?

I would go Sam Jones, maybe. There. Bill Russell. Settle down. So I had, when I did my rankings, when we were about to do it, because we do, you've done the redrafts, you rank your guys and then you hope you get them in the order. I did have Klay ahead of Butler, and I, I kind of let Zach bully me on it, and now I feel like I kind of had my pants pulled down a little bit. I regret it. I, I'm gonna stick with having Klay above Butler. I'd rather have Klay. I, I mean, better teammate, can fit in with anything, and Jimmy Butler flamed out in 4 franchises.

He didn't flame out, he quit on a couple.

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. Fingers. Giant middle fingers. Zach's very intimidating.

Well, do you see him throw out the first pitch at the Mets game? Zach? When did that happen? Yeah, yesterday.

Zach Lowe. How did—

was it a strike? The Saturday game. Looked like a strike. Little high, but it was down the middle. Nice.

I was proud. Okay, great. It was a good one. So it goes to show you how much online I've been. Tim Lane wants to know, he sent me a long text, but basically like, why wouldn't they do a sign and trade with Detroit and Embiid for— Durant and Philly throws in a pick. I will say this, he said there'd have to be some other stuff. They'd have to cut somebody. But I will say this, Celtic fan Bill got terrified by this. I understand Celtic fan Bill did not like this trade. There is Celtic fan Bill is counting on Joel Embiid to, to do the same kind of up and down injury plagued season that he always has.

Durant is a, is a beast. I mean, you know, part of the allure I've been talking about, uh, Jalen Brown's magic elixir, the secret sauce, is how much playing time he can consume. High-level playing time, 400 minutes. Ooh, Durant could do that. Now, obviously the ceiling and what he's capable of and what we saw out of the playoffs, but under the tutelage and supervision of LeBron James, maybe that could be rehabilitated a little bit. I hope that doesn't— that's an interesting one.

Rob said, I'm a fan of LeBron's decision to go to Philly. I was listening to your podcast with Zach about it. You mentioned Kawhi was the best player in the world in 2019. I think that's disingenuous. One summer before, you said 2018 LeBron played the best game you've ever seen in person. So how could Kawhi have passed LeBron? The answer is he did. I don't know how to tell you. LeBron went to the Lakers and basically took the year off. Kawhi went to the Raptors and kicked everybody's ass and won the title. And there's the best part of the league at the end of the year. So that was— LeBron was in year 16 at that point. I mean, LeBron had been the best player in the league from basically the '08-'09 season all the way through to the '17-'18 season. He had been the best player for 10 years in a row. And even when Curry won the MVP, everybody kind of is like, oh, LeBron still the best player, Curry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 2011 redraft. Colin from Connecticut wants to point out, we, we missed this. Corey Joseph went 29th to the Spurs, one pick ahead of Jimmy Butler.

The Spurs had just won 61 games. They could add Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler. Wow.

That's a wow.

Spurs culture and Jimmy Butler are not positive about this one, but Yeah. But maybe they could have gotten him in early and gotten some good habits in.

I bet they could have. I bet they could have.

That completely changes the next 3 playoffs. I mean, maybe he doesn't play in 2012 playoffs, but '13 and '14, he's playing.

That team was an absolute no-fuck-around team. He would've been, I think he would've been fine. He would've walked in and like, oh, I'm surrounded by all these winners. Right. This is how winning, this is what it looks like to be a winner. The discipline, the commitment.

Matthias sent in the question. I've been a fan of your content since the Anthony Bennett pick. I don't get that a lot. He saw you on television. My question, is this officially Chris Ryan's year? Is he the big winner of 2026? Can anyone beat him in the next 5 months or is this over? This is great.

What a great question. CR.

I'm gonna give you 4 choices for the next thing that could happen for CR. Eagles start out 12-0. Michael Mann casts him in Heat 2, like just calls him up and says, you're gonna be in Heat 2, I have good news. Netflix just hires him to run TV. Or we do an Aliens Rewatchables episode up for September 7th for that episode. Most likely out of those 4.

I mean, the most likely is the Aliens rewatch. You control that. That's the easiest one of them all.

Aliens is happening on September 7th. Eagles 12-0. The other 3 aren't happening. But yeah, that'll be the next— for the year of CR, the next year of CR moment will be, uh, the Aliens rewatchables. Um, Jeff M said He's been leading, listening and reading and watching me since the early 2000s. And he thinks my apex for Homerism content occurred during my Damon versus Leo conversation with CR. The categories for that comparison favoring Damon so dramatically reminded me of a ranking of best US presidents using criteria like most use of the word huge, best nicknames for political opponents, and most orange. I have no counter.

The fix was in.

Question for House from Greg in DC: Are you following this weird story about Brandon Aiyuk basically stalking the Commanders trying to get them to sign him? He just bought a house in Virginia near the practice facility. Should they make a movie called Single Black Receiver about Aiyuk trying to befriend Terry McLaurin and then take his job? There could even be a Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan angle.

That's effing hilarious and wonderful. I am almost to the point where I don't want to make fun of this guy. I think he's seriously mentally not all there. Yeah.

He's not playing full deck of cards. Yeah. Did he really move to Virginia?

Who the fuck knows? He's like an insane person going on to social media and basically every time he does it, takes his wallet and sets it on— he has to buy a new wallet every time he goes on because it diminishes the interest of the rest of the league of him playing any football whatsoever with anybody. Like, the best he's going to get from any team, and I don't think it's going to be Washington, is a tryout. And his ass, they'll cut him at the first sign of any nonsense. I don't understand it. And I honestly think it— there's something going on that's, that's not funny.

What did you think of the Kyle Shanahan car accident which seemed terrible, not getting reported for 14 days. I thought that was weird. That seems like that's— how is that not going to affect their season? I thought that was a terrible story. That was the other weird NFL story.

I hope every— that was like a legitimate car accident, was not hurt, right? That's the thing.

What I don't like about the story though, the concussion.

Yeah, like you— it said severe concussion and that he, he can't that takes a long time. I thought that was—

I felt bad. I don't like it.

I feel bad for him too.

Matt from North Hollywood is upset that I applauded Matt Damon's beard. He said, this isn't throw shade at Damon. Let's stop giving credit to men who grow shit beards. Clooney and Sirianni, great beard. James Harden, bizarre but a strong example. Christian Bale and DiCaprio, great actors with shit beards. Our society needs to stop giving every man with 3 hairs on his chin a fucking participation trophy. A-plus. Agreed. I don't have a lot of notes. I thought Damon's beard was good. Brian W wants to know, uh, the one-name athlete Hall of Fame. Nomar, Messi, LeBron, Madonna. Name any— anybody. Um, what about the two-name Hall of Fame? Oh, he said the charter member is Harry Kane. I don't think I've ever heard him referred to as anything other than Harry Kane. In any broadcast. This reminds me of our friend Nick Aida.

Hey, from college. You're right.

We always had a joke about Nick Aida, which just became one name, and he was just Nick Aida. And I was trying to think of other athletes who are one-name guys, and I came up with Bo Nix. Has anyone ever called him Bo or Nix? He's just Bo Nix.

I can't think of it. He is Bo Nix. It works too. Grant Hill.

Did you ever call Grant Grant or Hill? No. Never. Kevin Love. Yes, there's some K-Love with him, I guess, but nobody ever called him Kevin. Chris Paul was either CP3 or Chris Paul, but never Chris or Paul. Pretty strong. Pretty strong. And then my favorite one, Isaiah Joe. Oh, he's just Isaiah Joe. Nobody's ever called him anything other than Isaiah Joe. But it's like Nick Aida.

But it sounds like a nickname. Is there any— it sounds like a nickname.

Any I missed though?

Well, uh, it's, it's two words, but it's not a nickname.

Which one is it? Big Poppy. Oh, that's a nickname. Two words. Okay. This is an incredible— I've been saving this email from you. It's from A from Paris.

Oh, I like Paris.

He said, everybody thinks the Spurs and Thunders are playing in the 27 West Finals, correct? We would certainly bet on this. Left hand up.

Yep.

He said there's been a bunch of East Finals rematches over the years. '22-'23, Boston-Miami. '17-'18, Cleveland-Boston. There was Miami-Indiana, Miami-Detroit, Indiana-Knicks in the '90s, Detroit-Chicago, Boston-Detroit, '87-'88. Philadelphia and Boston, '80, '81, '82. We've had in the last 45 years, 7 Finals rematches, Golden State-Cleveland, Spurs-Miami, Chicago-Utah, Detroit-Lakers, Boston-Lakers, Philly-Lakers. Okay. Can you guess the last time we've had a Western Conference Finals rematch? Ooh, this is outstanding.

Western Conference Finals. Because for a lot of that, Golden State era, it was rot— they were rotating. It wasn't just Golden State. Give me that.

Give me this. What decade do you think this happened in?

Well, when you put it that way, it makes me think we're going all the way back. We're like going back to the '70s. It's like Portland against something.

We are. We're going back to the '80s because the last time this happened was 1982 and '83, the Lakers and the Spurs. Wow. Somehow this has never happened since.

How did the Spurs over their run not encounter anybody?

A second time because it was always, there was a couple times with Spurs Suns or Spurs Lakers where they would meet in like round 2 instead of, yeah, round 3. Portland was in there. There was Minnesota, Sacramento. Somehow the, when the Lakers and Spurs, I think they played 5 times, but it was always in different rounds. Yeah. Or staggered in some way. Yeah. 44 years. That's insane. So if it's not one of those 2 teams, who is it? In the West? Yeah. The odds right now are, it's funny, San Antonio is +145, OKC's +140 to win the West. The next 3 are Denver 12-to-1, Minnesota 13-to-1, Houston and the Lakers 20-to-1 and 22-to-1. I'll book either of those bets. Golden State 27-to-1, Portland 30-to-1. Yeah, the West is like, the East is so much better than the West.

It's like staggering. The answer is Denver. Yeah, I think so too. I feel sadness in my heart for them. I don't, they have to move Jamal Murray.

Sadness in your heart.

Because speaking of, you know, losing years of Steph, we're, we're gonna, we're on a run here of losing years with, with the Joker.

How many teams conceivably could you see in the Western Finals? Because for me it's 4 because I would throw Minnesota in there. Okay. You know, I don't think it's. They've done it twice.

Yeah.

But is there any other team you would even give a conceivably to in the West?

Not me.

OKC, San Antonio, Denver, Minnesota. No one. You wouldn't say Lakers? Definitely not. Luke on a heater. Kessler.

No, no way. No, nope, nope. Have you seen how many white guys are on that team?

Clippers.

They're over under. Just like I said, 29 or something.

They have the fourth worst odds in the West right now. With good—

what do you mean? Like at the bottom of the entire thing? Yeah. Well, that's deserved. If you looked at their roster, they stink.

On Fando, the worst is Sacramento. And then Clippers, Memphis, New Orleans, basically. I thought that was weird. Um, okay. Wait, uh, I think I have two more questions for you. I just lost my track again. Are you hungry? My— I am.

Dinner time here on the East Coast.

I want to shout out Justin from Dallas. I guess we have one question left. As a Mavs fan, the Luka trade felt like in Game of Thrones when Ramsay Bolton cut off Tyrion Greyjoy's dick and balls and then mailed them to his family. I'm guessing for you that the Jalen trade wasn't quite castration bad because you still have Tatum, but what is it? Is it Lieutenant Dan getting his legs blown off, Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off by his dad, or the British guy in Mad Men getting his foot run over by a lawnmower? And in The Office, um, it was none of those things. We won the title 2 years ago. I'm fine. But he compared the Luka trade to Theon having his franks and beans get cut off and mailed to his family. The Dallas fans are never going to get over this.

Why, why would they? Why should they? Cooper flagged.

Move on. You've Cooper flagged now. Start moving on.

Move forward. No, man, start healing.

How can you? The team went to the finals and then the, the leadership was like, fuck that team, we're gonna be god-awful for them.

Just trying to put them in the right headspace.

I mean, I, I appreciate your, um, encouragement, your, your gentle psychological ploy here, but they, they've, that ownership and leadership that they, that is bad. They did a bad thing.

Good bag of mailbag questions. Phenomenal. Um, how's the summer going?

It's great. I'm so happy to get LeBron settled because now I can, what should I watch? I feel like today, tonight, this Sunday night, July the whateverth, my, my July the 26th, I can start watching TV again. What am I gonna watch?

You, whoa, LeBron was putting you on hold or it was cuz the majors ended.

There's golf. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Golf. Golf. The, the golf majors finally end, ended. But yeah.

First of all, thanks for thinking of me with this question. I obviously watch a ton of TV. Yes. Cape Fear is the worst well-done show I've ever seen. Okay. I think it's almost worth watching, but it's really, really reprehensibly, like you can't believe how bad it is, but it's incredibly well done. Okay. I've never seen a show like it where it's like really well done and awful.

Like awful.

I don't think I can do it. Okay.

That's not gonna be at the top.

Some people like that Widows Bay show, which I gave 2 episodes.

My wife and son watched the whole thing all the way through, so I'm not gonna watch that.

Uh, my wife and I, when we're in Hawaii, we watch Five Star Weekend on Peacock and, um, it's really awful, but you get to go to Nantucket for 8 episodes. That's pretty good. And, uh, watch all these women who hate each other just get mad at each other and do different events. Here's what I'd recommend to you though, because I've been watching this. Uh, I've been watching Homeland Season 1 on Netflix. Oh wow. You went back. I went back. It was 14 years ago. Barely remembered anything that happened. And my wife and I, we were just at a loss to, for anything but wanted a TV show. And we're like, we need something to like. And so we just ended up stumbling into the pilot. House. The pilot is so good. I was actually— I saw Fantasy and CR and Greenwald, a bunch of people last night. I was talking about this last night. It's so good. And it actually made me nostalgic to when TV was more normal, where they were just like, they have 3 ideas. It's Brody comes back. Did they turn him when he was over in Afghanistan? Claire Danes is nuts, and Brody's wife is banging his best friend.

And those are like the 3 things, and they're just like, we're not going to give you 50 characters, we're not going to give you 40 plots, we're not going backwards and forwards, we're just going to have a TV show that you can follow that's really good. And I got to say, I've really enjoyed it. We watched 5 episodes over the last couple days, and I would highly recommend diving back in. I didn't remember anything.

I have the fondest, uh, remembrances of the quality of Homeland for several series, for several, I mean, several seasons. So wow, maybe that's what I'll do. Really, really great. I feel like I'm behind though, like the cultural, you know, zeitgeist to not call up on the shows.

You're not behind anything. You're not missing much. Um, I'm trying to think.

Should I watch a movie?

You told me I should watch Obsession. We're doing that for Rewatchables tomorrow, live on Netflix.

Oh, how about that?

There you go. You should definitely watch Obsession.

It's on Peacock. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, that's a good one. Um, trying to think of other movies. And you gotta see The Odyssey at some point, right?

But I'm gonna do that with the 70mm and the IMAX and the whole thing.

Yeah, that's, I, I would, I would give Homeland a, the pilot, a whirl. Okay. I think you'll be shocked. And I would encourage the rest of America to follow suit. There we go. Really, really good. I was, I was just like, wow, we really knew how to do it back then. Anyway. All right, House. Good to see you. Good times. Maybe I'll see you on the West Coast at some point. Looking forward to that. All right. Thanks for coming on. We're gonna take a break. Come back with, uh, my dad in one second. All right. My dad is here. It is Sunday afternoon after yet another Red Sox winning series. They have won 6 straight series. They have turned their entire season around. They have won the attention of Boston. I've been watching a ton. It's suddenly a very likable team, and it all happens starting really the day after the Jaylen Brown trade. The Celtics acquire Paul George and the Red Sox season flips immediately. And you have refused to come on the podcast since the Jaylen Brown trade. You're upset. You're not upset anymore. You're ready to rationally discuss it.

No, I'm, I'm still upset, but I guess I'm ready to discuss it.

Wow. That's a dramatic pause.

But you know, I've been really excited about the Red Sox last month, as you mentioned, and I went to the game where they won number 15 in a row with nephew Brian. That was a lot of fun. I'm really down on the trade they made last night. Curtis Beard trade. Yeah. Uh, you have a starting pitcher who you pitched in the playoffs last year. Yeah. 24 years old, lefty, our favorite kind of pitcher. Yeah. And they have about 12 guys who play second or third. They all hit about .250. They're all the same guy.

.250. I don't think we needed another guy.

I don't get it.

I never get it. They needed righty pop. And they had a glut of starting pitching, I think. And I, you know, early— he's on my AL keeper team too. His, his, uh, his elbow was hurt. There was a minute where it looked like he was going to be out and have to have— elbow was hurt. Well, I mean, his elbow was hurt, and for a second it seemed like he might be out for like 12 months. And then like, no, no, no, no, we need, we need rest. I'm talking about—

you're talking about that early? Yeah, early.

Yeah, yeah, he was hurt. So he's coming back, and that I don't know, I wonder if that was a piece of it too. But I thought they needed another bat though, from watching them really for the last 4 weeks, every game.

Like, but you texted me that he's a terrible defensive player. So, so where are we playing this guy? Another DH?

He's £225, which is not ideal for an infielder.

But, uh, I didn't know he was that heavy. Yeah, he bounces.

Well, he's strong. He's, uh, I think he's Australian too, but I think he's gonna bounce around and And be DH and they need another ready with, I don't know if you saw the Globe today, but Durbin said he'd be willing to move to second base.

I saw that. Yeah. But if this guy is not a good defensive third baseman, that's no good. Well, Durbin's played a good third.

I've been waiting to have you on. I didn't want to jinx the Red Sox winning streak and they won 15 straight, but they had the game that night. That would've been, you coming back from that game would've been good to have on, but I didn't want to jinx anything that was happening. But they lost a couple now, so it's good to talk about Durbin. There's a few Red Sox things to talk about. We'll talk about the Celtics trade after this, but Durbin. Okay, so I'm in that, I'm in that Boston sports thread with a couple LA friends out here, and Durbin was so bad the first month of the season that we named, you know, you can name the text threads. We named the text thread Caleb Durbin 600 OBP or 600 OPS watch, right? Yeah, he was so bad we changed the title to 500 OPS Watch, which is like, if you have a 500 OPS, you shouldn't even be in baseball. The first 2 months he was the worst batter I've ever watched sit on the Red Sox since like Jack Clark. Yeah. And then all of a sudden he flipped it and now we keep changing the thread and now it's like 700 OPS Watch.

He might get to 750 by the end of the year. He's had all these clutch hits. He's a great teammate. Seems like his teammates love him. And it's been this unbelievable turn of events.

Well, I think I read that he has the best defensive third baseman rating right now.

He does.

And, you know, last time I was on the pod, we talked about him not very positively.

He was terrible. He was an automatic out.

Yeah, he was. You know, they said that he brought his feet closer together and, you know, I don't know what makes a difference with a hitter, but certainly has a lot of confidence.

Well, he dropped the driveline stuff and then got his own hitting coach, which was a big story. I thought that was fun. Oh, I did. He got like, he got like different hitting help than whatever the instruction was and just started popping up.

Well, the key driveline guy they had on the roster left. Yeah. The Red Sox. Maybe that made a difference too.

So it turns around cuz of him that all of a sudden every starting pitcher they have seems like they're throwing 6 or 7 innings. Chapman, this Guerrero comes outta nowhere. He is 35 years old, throws over 100 and has been this lights out setup guy. And then the heart of the lineup, although Abreu got cold lately, but, but Abreu and Contreras. But I, I was saying quickly on the Wednesday pod about Contreras has been, in my opinion, the key to everything. He's just a maniac. He's our kind of guy. He's a lunatic. He's been a lunatic from day one. He just really gives a shit every game.

Yeah, he does. He, I think he heard his, I watched the game yesterday and he heard his finger sliding at second. Yeah. So he probably shouldn't even been playing. He should be resting, but It's kind of affected his swing a little bit.

But he's one of those guys though. Yeah.

The camaraderie on the team is terrific. But who would have— Nobody could have guessed this turnaround.

I gotta say, I was not watching. You were watching way more than me, and I was making fun of you because it just felt like it had hit rock bottom. Everyone was going to get fired. They already fired Cora. Breslow was going to be next. The Roman Anthony. I mean, they don't have Roman Anthony, who is gonna be the next Ted Williams. They don't have Crochet, who got hurt, and Trevor Story, who I think is the most expensive guy in the team, and he goes out and somehow that made everything better. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. And Meyer, who was supposed to be good too, and is just, that's right. So stiff, I guess.

A month ago, the crowd was chanting, sell the team, sell the team. Right. And, uh, And I think Breslow's job was on the line. You know, just my personal opinion, but too many mistakes have been made and all of a sudden they're winning, playing the, you know, this manager, he's very even keeled. Yeah. He's making a lot of decisions that Cora never made. I like Cora, but Cora never liked to bunt. We had 3 sacrifice bunts today and, and they all meant something in this game.

He might've run his course. I think he's a good manager. Yeah. He might've just worn out his welcome.

Well, there, well, we've, we've talked about coaches and managers that eventually the voice, the players get tired of hearing the same voice.

It happened with Frank Kona and it, and honestly it happened with Brad Stevens. Yeah. I thought they wore out with him though last year.

Remember? You mean as a general manager?

No, as I meant as a coach.

Oh, oh, as a coach.

Okay. Sorry. I meant as a coach.

Yeah. Okay.

But yeah, Frank Kona, it's felt like he wore out as well. Well, they're 54 and 50. For the wildcard, they're right behind the Yankees now. And I don't know. I don't know either. They're 7 back from Tampa. They're going on a road trip right now. They're still getting pitching. I don't know if Jake Bennett can continue to throw like this, but Ranger pitched today and was great.

Well, that's, I think that's the other thing that concerned me about the early trade. It, it's like they feel they have too much pitching, but the game they lost after they won number 15, they threw that guy out there. He didn't even last an inning.

The doubleheader guy. Yeah. Well, they were trying because they have this Bayo who can't pitch in the first inning for some— this unique situation where if he's— as long as he doesn't start, he's great. I would've liked to have seen Bayo in that trade last night instead of Early. Sure. I don't know. I mean, he has a lot of, I don't think he has a lot of trade value right now. No, I don't. I don't think so.

Well, I didn't like the trade, so I decided I'm wearing my Patriot hat today, which I don't usually wear. It's a protest. It's a protest. It's a protest. I was going to wear the Red Sox hat when you asked yesterday about coming on the pod, but didn't like the trade. And I obviously can't wear my Celtic hat.

You should have brought, you should have brought, uh, your younger dog and held the dog during the podcast like Mike Frabel. For, for, uh, that was a classic.

That was a classic. It looked like he was holding for protection.

So do you think this Red Sox thing's sustainable? Because I know you've watched the entire season because you don't have a job.

Well, it's not that I don't have a job. I'm retired. Well, you're retired. Yeah, okay, don't have a job. Different. But not having job kind of denotes that maybe you never had a job. It is true.

You did work for a long time.

Yeah. Okay. All right.

So you're retired. You watched a lot of Red Sox even when they were bad.

No, I think it's, I think it's sustainable because two things. I, I do think the pitching is deep and I, they have that Iason, the guy they drafted last year, and he's lights out down in the minors. You don't think we're gonna see him this year, do you? I think we're gonna see him. Oh, wow.

'Cause sometimes the Mariners are in the same boat with Kate Anderson, who's the best prospect in baseball now, and they've been really careful about whether they wanna bring him up or not. These guys are, have all these innings limits. I didn't know if Ianson would potentially come up.

You know what they're doing with Ianson? They pitched him 3 innings last night. They're, they're not letting him go the full 9 innings yet.

See, this is one of the many things I respect about you is your devotion to minor league baseball stats with the Red Sox, whatever's going on in Worcester or wherever else you're—

where is he? Greenville, Portland, uh, wherever. He's in double-A. Greenville, maybe.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I'm not— I— so I think they have one more trade in them. And it's interesting because the A's catcher, who I thought made a ton of sense for them, yes, uh, got hurt. I think he's out for the year.

He tore his biceps. Yeah, yeah. I thought I thought that was a possible trade.

I wanted them to get him or the Colorado catcher, like just really take a swing and go after somebody. I don't know. The question is whether they would put Arias in a trade, who's their best prospect, this 20-year-old shortstop.

Oh, they don't. He's our shortstop of the future.

Yeah, he could be the next Marcelo Maier. Yeah.

Catching is their weak point in terms of batting average for sure.

So did Are there people that roam the streets every day looking for Roman Anthony, or what happens with it? Is this like a Netflix true crime series? What happens to him?

If they're roaming the streets in Florida, they're going to look for him, but—

Finger injury, he's going to be out for 12 months?

It's really strange. And it's like the reporters, the journalists are staying away from it. Any reporting about him or criticism or what, what's taking this finger injury so long?

Guy was in the World Baseball Classic in March. Yeah.

With big at-bats. Except Meyer and both of them have been injury prone every single year.

Well, Meyer, Meyer gets hurt every year. We, yeah. In our AL Keeper League, we had him, we traded him before this season this year. We didn't, We didn't want to go through it anymore. Yeah. With the, with our real team and our fake team at the same time.

But even his, his injury is weird.

The finger injury nobody's ever had in the history of some tendon or something that nobody's heard of. Yes.

Yeah. And the Roman Anthony injury, it's not 100% clearly explained to me exactly what that injury is.

Well, that, that I was talking about that one. Yeah. It was some sort of finger thing, but that, I mean, for what the hype was with him and how important he was, and plus they gave him $100 million already. Yeah. It's the equivalent of like if Tatum played his rookie year and then just didn't play in 2018 or 2019. Or if, I don't know, Drake Maye didn't play in year 2. Like, that was— this was supposed to be the guy. This was supposed to be the meal ticket of the team. And now Contreras is the guy. I just— the odds were like 100 to 1. The Contreras thing was, oh man, they didn't get Pete Alonso. This is so disappointing.

I mean, Anthony was gonna be the guy. He was gonna be our outfielder that everybody talked about.

Now, Rafaela's having a good season. Really good season.

Duran, he had a good game today. 3 hits. Maybe he'll get hot again. I think he would've been probably traded. Well, I think he probably would've been traded earlier if Anthony was around. If he could— Too many outfielders.

I think he would've been traded if he could hit or play defense. Or throw a ball. Those are the 3 things.

I, I'm not giving up on him.

Um, well, he did it 2 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And then not any of the, uh, other years, but yeah.

Um, the Braves, uh, what is he, 0 for 20? It's very weird because he carried them a little bit, won some games, and now he can't hit. Yeah. It's a strange game anyway.

Well, regardless, they, They say the World Cup comes and you watched. I loved how much World Cup you watched for somebody who doesn't follow soccer at all, but you somehow really threw yourself, you throw yourself in it every 4 years.

I think I watched as many games as, as I could possibly watch.

Yeah. So that starts in second week of June, right? As the Red Sox season has never looked bleaker. And then all of the Scots came to came to Boston and they had games in Foxborough and it, it felt like the World Cup just kind of moved attention away from the Red Sox for like 3 weeks. And, and then they got their shit together. And then the Jaylen Brown trade. Yeah. And nobody really even put serious thought into them until July 4th range. And then they started winning. You know, maybe that was part of it.

They didn't feel the pressure of, this is a, a city with a lot of pressure on sports teams, obviously. Yeah. And they didn't feel it. I mean, I told you the World Cup story. I walked the two dogs. I was on Beacon Street near the Cheers around noontime, and about 40 guys came out of the Cheers with kilts on and took over Beacon Street singing and dancing. And it energized the city for the whole time.

It was great. Great to be here then. It was— my daughter said it was her favorite night she's ever had in Boston was the— one of the NBA Finals games at the same time was Scotland's World Cup game, and they were all at a bar with 200 Scotland people there. I mean, to drink Boston where Boston has no beer left at some of the bars is pretty, pretty unprecedented.

Yeah. And I never, you know, I never heard of or read of any altercations. Uh, no, no. But Boston can be pretty cruel when there's 40 to 60 men walking around with kilts And, uh, I never heard any problems.

Yeah, the stereotype, and we should mention we're part Scottish, we have, we have some Scottish in us, but the stereotype was always like the Irish were like the sadder drunks and the Scots were like the angrier drunks. And that wasn't, didn't seem like that was the case at all. No. In Boston. And if anything, like they're arranging these Scotland, Boston, like these joint things they're gonna do. The mayors were talking to each other. It's an unexpected love fest.

Well, and right after that, the Norwegians showed up, and, uh, they have video of them on the trolley car, like 30 of them on the floor of the trolley car doing their rowing thing. I mean, you can't make this stuff up in this city.

But it seemed like it was— it seemed like it was a huge success though. Oh, it was huge, huge success.

Even the travel out to, uh, Foxborough went well, I guess. Yeah.

They sold well with tickets. Yeah. How you, speaking of Foxborough, how you feeling about the Pats?

Well, I have my Patriot hat on. I'm feeling pretty good.

You were excited for AJ Brown. You always like having a stud receiver. I feel like we have a stud one and two.

Yeah. And I can't remember the last time I felt we had good receivers. But we didn't have a one, you know, ma, ma, some Welker, right? Well, Diggs, Diggs had a good year except he played half the game every game and he, he was a step slower than I think in his heyday.

Didn't seem like Seattle had to defend him in the Super Bowl. Yeah. The way these two guys are gonna be treated, especially AJ.

But you know, if they, if they have to double AJ Brown, we're gonna have guys open for Drake Maye. Of course, you and I keep talking about the— I don't think the key is that part. I think the key is the offensive line. Right. Because that's what let them down in the Super Bowl.

To say the least. Well, it seems like it's a little better. And the Brady Bowl thing has calmed down, I guess. Hopefully there's not another story, but that was super weird.

Super— yeah. Negative. Not— is it— no recent No recent stories in the paper.

No, it seems like it's— we'll see if there's one more coming. But, um, yeah, yeah, it's just there was such good vibes from the Vrabel era and family leadership, and then it's like, it's not good.

It's not— yeah, I wouldn't say it's 100% the same anymore.

Yeah, it's tough to, uh— we'll see though. They'll just— yeah, we'll see. They'll be— they'll be— I've been doing all my, um my prep stuff, and the schedule wasn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be. Like, obviously they start in Seattle week 1, first game, not ideal. And then they go home Steelers, at Jags, at Bills. So it could be a 1-3 or 2-2. 2-2 would be ideal. But then after that, it gets a little easier. They got the Jets twice, they got the Dolphins twice. They played the Lions, but it's, it's away. It's in Munich. Um, they have a Chargers game that's gonna have a million Boston fans at it.

So I don't know, you know, they do these, uh, stats on strength of schedule based on how the teams did last year. Yeah. Uh, every team is different this year. Teams lost players. They're not going to be as strong as they were last year.

Um, yeah, and they have like, they have the They have the Chiefs at Kansas City on Monday night, Week 15. Who knows? The Chiefs might not even be good. They have the Broncos Week 17, but that's home.

So would you be satisfied with 11-6? Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think some of it, they play the AFC West and the NFC North, but they're lucky they play the Raiders early. They play the Raiders Week 5 so that they'll still have Cousins at that point. They won't have Mendoza in there yet.

But that hurt us last year by playing the Raiders early.

I know, but I'm saying like they're, yeah, they're cousinsing it. They, I really don't think Mendoza will be ready by then. And then, um, you know, the Dolphins and Jets both project to be pretty awful. And I also, the Bills are like one of the AFC favorites and I, I, I don't totally see it. I don't know why they're ahead of us. I don't, I don't say that as a Homer fan. Like I, I honestly don't see it. I don't see with the Bills at all.

All, all around the quarterback. Right.

But that's the case last year. Yeah.

You know, and he doesn't have the receiving core that we have.

Well, he doesn't have the defense. Yeah. You know, so I don't know. There was, there were a lot of signs before the schedule came out and everything that it would be a big regression team, Super Bowl hangover. But yeah, I don't know. They got AJ Brown. I think they had a really good draft. I think that should be all right.

Fun, fun time of sports in Boston because The training camp is this week for the Patriots. Red Sox are on a roll. They go on the road now. Hockey is just gearing up in terms of training camp.

There's no hockey combo yet. No, come on. Now you're pushing it.

Oh, come on.

July 26th? What are the hockey conversations? Except hockey starts in September now. The Bruins did something you like, though.

Well. They made a couple moves I liked. I like the goalie they're gonna go with.

Yeah, you like the goalie.

Yeah. Um, I like their draft the last 3 years. Hopefully those guys can contribute, but it's a crapshoot.

All right, that was enough foreplay. Celtics trade Jaylen Brown. Is that it? Celtics trade Jaylen Brown for— oh no, Paul George and 2 firsts, and he goes to Philly. Which then intrigues LeBron James enough to go actually sign with Philly for $4 million a year. And this is the team, my entire life we've hated the most. The biggest win we ever had together was the 1981 Eastern Finals, the comeback. I remember we went to the 1977 playoff games when Philly beat Towns and Havlicek, that team, Dr. J's first year beat us in the playoffs.

Have a, have a check. You remember why we lost the '77 one, right? Well, 'cause we didn't sign Paul Silas. Exactly. Right. The, maybe we're one of the only mistakes Red Auerbach made. So then actually two, one of two mistakes he made.

We beat them in, they beat us in '80 and '82. We beat them in '81 and I think '84, '85. I don't think they play in the '90s. We beat Iverson. With the Paul Pierce-Antoine team. We beat them in round 2 after Derrick Rose got hurt in 2012, game 7, which was Rondo's greatest game. Then we have a bunch of stuff against the Embiid Sixers, which we, we win every time.

That huge comeback game in the playoffs against them.

Against them. And then we, it felt like we had their number and then they come back and beat us last year in 7. And then get trounced by the Knicks, which it kind of made it worse. I'm still, I'm still shaking my head.

We're up 3-1 and how we lost that series.

And you went to all the games. The game 2 and game 5 were the ones that lost the series.

Yes. Yeah. Game 7, we didn't show up. And Embiid, let's face it, Embiid played really well. He did.

He had 3 good games in him.

And then the Knicks did something to Embiid that seemed to knock him out for a loop. One of the, I think it was Ademame, somebody elbowed him in the stomach. Oh, Anunoby, yeah. Yeah, where he had the appendicitis surgery. And I'm not saying that we should have done that, but it certainly made a difference. Could have been more physical with them, yeah. Yeah, they're more physical than we, Should have been.

So the season couldn't have ended worse. No. And then, uh, and they lose Game 7 on my daughter's 21st birthday.

Well, every other podcast I've done with you, I had my Celtic hat on. Yeah.

Um, well, you weren't happy with the coaching strategy. Too many minutes for Tatum. All the same stuff I said on the pod.

Yeah. You, we've talked about it.

Tatum doesn't play Game 7. The whole thing. Go to, we go into the draft, free agency. They're trying to figure out this Jaylen Brown thing. Did you want the Giannis trade or you didn't?

I would, I would've, I would've, uh, been looking forward to watching Giannis.

Yep. So you would've put, 'cause they only made one offer. I mean, there's been so much written and talked about this. They made one offer. They never made a second offer. They never tried to up it. Miami upped their offer like 5 times.

Uh, but I, I would've, I would've kept upping our offer.

So you would put Hugo in the trade.

Well, I don't know what the trade would've been, but some of it is looking back now by not doing everything they could to make that trade. We made one of the two worst trades that I've seen in my lifetime. So what was the other one? The Donchick trade. Oh. I put Jaylen Brown's trade in the same category. So would I've rather seen them put more Assets into a Giannis trade. Sure. For what happened when we didn't get Giannis. Yeah. Or don't trade Brown right now. Hold onto him for a while. There's, there's no urgency.

Well, they could have waited to see where LeBron landed before. I feel like Philly's doing that trade regardless.

I don't think so. I don't think Philly, if Brown wasn't on Philly, I, I really don't think LeBron goes there.

But I'm saying wait till he goes somewhere else and then do the Philly trade. But I don't even think it was on their radar. Exactly. Certainly wasn't on my radar. I never expect him to go there. But, um, I just— I— we've always talked about when you make trades that the other team not only eagerly says yes to, but will, will also do 4 months from now, then why are you doing the trade? And that's the part I'll never get a good answer on. No, me neither.

You know, and the, the whole philosophy in Boston has been In Brad we trust. And I think he's been a terrific general manager. I'll never understand this trade. And the other unfortunate part, I really like Chisholm coming in as the new owner. Yeah. I, I, as a fan, 'cause he talks about himself as a fan, I don't know why he would've ever approved this trade as a fan. Forget being the owner. Yeah. But It made no sense. It, it's, you know, I read an article, they're gonna save money. They're not saving money. Maybe they'll save money down the line.

Right. But year 3, they'll save money.

Okay. Year 3. So it's 2 more years of Tatum in his prime playing with an injury-prone Paul George next to him.

Makes no sense. And you like Simons too. And then he ended up on Philly too.

I, I, I was shocked when he ended up in, 'cause we had room to bring him back. Yeah. And we, you and I talked about the playoffs. We missed the third guard in that playoffs. I know Pritchett played, but we missed Simon's minutes and we got nothing out of the guy we got at center in that trade. My fear, so I guess that was another flub by Stevens too.

My fear is that they treated this Tatum, his Achilles injury as almost like a 2-year window to reboot everything. And then go all in a year from now is my, is my fear.

We said that a year ago when they let go of, uh, 4 of our starters.

Well, but that was year 1 of year 2. This year 2 now is, all right, we do with Paul George and then he's an expiring next year. We've reset all the tax stuff and now we'll go back in and try to compete.

But he's not an expiring. He has 2 years in the con—

he has a player option.

I know he's, he's, he's gonna, he's gonna Do the player option. Nobody's gonna sign him.

I know, but next year he'll opt in and then he'll be an expiring contract. They'll have all their tax stuff reset and then they can do— that's the only thing I can think of. And I, I don't agree with it, but I don't—

well, again, I don't agree with it for the reason I just said. So you're talking 3 years from now, Tatum's 3 years older.

2 years from now. If, if Paul George is an expiring and you have these picks, I listen, you, you took a long time to come around on Jaylen Brown. He was probably the most frustrating Celtic of the last 10 years for you.

I, I, I need to be clear on something. I, I thought Jaylen Brown carried us last year in many ways. The eye test. I know they keep talking about stat, the stats versus the eye test. And I went to all the games at most of the games at home. He carried us. His numbers weren't always that great. His efficiency wasn't that great, but we, we won 56 games. I probably had had enough of watching Jaylen Brown. So I'm not— After 10 years? Yeah. I'm not opposed to the fact they thought it was time to trade him. Yeah. I thought the trade was horrendous. Yeah. And I'll never understand Why they accepted that trade.

Well, you said on the streets of Boston, in your, as you, as you roam around, people, people are really—

'Cause I don't have a job. Yeah.

And you, and you walk the dogs, but people, yeah. And people, you know, they talk to the Celtics about you, but, but across the board, people are pissed. There's no, there's no other side on this trade. It doesn't seem like.

Yeah. People obviously talk to me. They recognize from the documentary and podcast and whatever.

Oh, look at you.

And, uh, I haven't met one person who was in favor of that trade. As a matter of fact, it's not just in favor or not in favor. People are really upset about it.

Yeah. Uh, well, and also he did, he did a lot of stuff in this city too, which we always talk about. But I don't know, I felt like that has to account for something as you're factoring in all this stuff. That somebody actually cared. Somebody actually cared about your city and trying to get back to it and put real time into it.

And, you know, I mean, you and I talked about once it seemed like once his name was out there in the honest trade, it was inevitable probably that they'd have to move him, but they didn't have to move him so quickly. They didn't have to move him for that package.

Well, I wonder, it, it seemed a little dicier behind the scenes than maybe we were led to let on because there's stuff that pops out after where it's like, you know, there, there was a couple, I don't wanna name people who talked about this stuff, but there were a couple people who mentioned like it bothered him. Who knows if this is true. It bothered him when Tatum came back and then Tatum was announced last and Jalen had been announced last, but then he was announced first.

I, I, you know, I, I did notice that at the, at the—

Yeah. It bothered him that they hired a couple of Tatum's friends to work for the team, which is true. Yeah. But none of Jaylen's friends. And once it gets, once we start going into that, maybe they saw a lot more like little stuff than that, that you and I don't get to see.

Well, I, I, fine. That's no excuse for horrendous trading. It's no excuse. You'll never convince me ever that That was the best they could have gotten if they waited.

Yeah. Even when the Red Sox traded Nomar in '04, both of us were pretty, even though Nomar on paper was Nomar and he was one of the most famous, biggest Red Sox stars, I think of the past 35 years. Yeah. He really got to like a really high level. He did. But he was unhappy that whole year. I remember writing a column about it in the middle of the year. Yeah. Like he just looked miserable 'cause they tried to trade him already. His defense was going sideways and they kind of sold high on him. And I, I do wonder if the Celtics part of this was they're, they feel like they're selling high on Jalen coming off like him being 6th MVP, 2nd Team All-NBA, carrying a team to 56. So they were kind of—

I mean, how does that— how do you sell high?

Well, that was the irony. They didn't sell high. They didn't sell high. I, it's almost like they wanted to get out of this before they had to attach pay. I, I, it's, I don't understand it. Yeah. I still don't understand it. People have been asking me all summer why'd they do this. You must know, there must be an inside story. And there's really not. No. It just feels like they felt like he was gonna, if he didn't get an extension in July, was gonna, it, it just was gonna start to feel like the 2019 Celtics, which was the unhappiest Celtic team of the last 10 years. Right.

I think they wanted to avoid it. I know you weren't a fan of just keep loading and loading a deal to get Giannis. You, you like Gonzalez a lot. If he was ever in the, in the trade, it would—

to me it was more, I, I don't, I just don't think Giannis was a good bet. If you were, if you're telling me this was 2021 Giannis, of course I would've done 4 picks. I would've put in Hugo, all that stuff. But I just don't think Giannis is a good bet. I've done, yeah, 10, 10 podcast segments about this, like the history. You're betting on this history being the complete opposite of what we've seen from big guys as they get older and start playing less games and having more injuries. I just wouldn't have done it. And I thought their offer was pretty fair. Like, I look at the stuff Milwaukee got back, I don't know, they, they just got back a poo-poo platter. I would rather have Jalen.

I, I agree.

Yeah. So like, to me it's like Jalen and two firsts for a guy who hasn't really been healthy for, you know, reliably healthy for a long time. And I, I really, I don't know if he would've been a great fit with Tatum either. That was the other thing. So I didn't think it was a slam dunk.

Yeah. But I just, but I just would've waited. Even if they went into the season with Jalen, I mean, the crowd liked him. Boston liked him. As you mentioned, he did an awful lot of charitable work in the community. And we won with him.

We won a title with him.

And we won with him. Yeah. Yeah. I would've waited until a fair offer. You know, what people I talked to, 40 cents on the dollar we got back. That's the opinion. And it makes no sense with all the good moves that Brad Stevens has made. It was It just made no sense.

Well, the zag, the zag take would be Paul George was the best of the 3 forwards in that playoff series.

In our series.

In our series, he was the best of those 3 guys. He was. Yeah.

He did play the best. Okay. And then the next series against the Knicks.

Not as good. Yeah. Wasn't bad though. He was, he was okay in the Knicks series, but not as good.

So, so we'll get 4 good games out of him this year, I guess, huh? You know, it's not sustainable. He's always hurt. You had him in with the Clippers. I don't think he was your favorite player.

He— you just never knew when he was gonna show up. Yeah. Now he's gonna have way less pressure on this Celtics team, but— Yeah.

Again, I don't— not to beat a dead horse, but the then LeBron James decision on top of, did Jalen Brown go into Philly? I'm sure he never considered Philly until Jalen Brown was there. Philly's gonna be, if they stay healthy, they're a monster. And they're, and we hate Philly. We, we, we've hated Philly for 40 years.

Yeah, I do. The, the funny thing about even if they get 50 games from LeBron and 48 games from Embiid, those other 3 guys can carry them during the regular season. Right. We just watched it with Jalen. Jalen and Maxey and Edgecomb are all gonna play big minutes for them. So, you know, and then that they have a bench, they already got Caldwell Pope who, you know, he's an 11th man at this point, but you're already seeing these veterans trying to jump on the team. And they already had Simons. Yeah. And they have Phylon to trade. And I thought Phylon— if they wanna flip him for somebody.

I thought that was a great draft pick by them. He dropped.

Well, can you, Can you set the record straight for America? 'Cause you actually went to the games. Hugo, who's not, I think he's 20 now. Yeah. And it was the wrong narrative 'cause it was like, oh my God, Hugo became the deal breaker in the Celtics. That wasn't actually what was true. They just, they made one offer, they never made a second one. And then somehow he became the linchpin for why they didn't get Giannis. Putting that on the side, you loved, you loved Hugo. Like you, yeah. You thought he had a chance to, be a really special player, right?

Yeah. I thought Mazzulla underutilized him all season, especially in the playoffs. Well, I, I thought, you know, we, we won 56 games because we went 11 or 12 deep all season long. Yeah. And then we get to the playoffs against Philly and Mazzulla shortens the bench to like 8 players and played your guy Vucevic.

Oh, terrible.

He didn't even play game 7. He was so awful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, the coaching, you know, that's another issue. But his, the coach, he got so outcoached in that playoff series against Philly. I mean, Nurse took him to the shed. He really did.

The Game 2 and Game 5. Yeah. Those two games specifically where they, where the Celtics had big leads at home, I think in both games. Yeah. And Game 2, the Sixers increased the pace on them and It's a tough one. I don't know. I, I, it feels like our window closed, but we kind of knew it after '24 when they loaded up and they got Porzingis and Holiday and we'd made the finals in '22 and it felt like that '22 to '25 probably was gonna be the, the real window for us. And then Tatum gets hurt and the Knicks, the two big comebacks, Tatum gets hurt. Right. 23, they lose game 7. Tatum gets hurt at the beginning of game 7.

You know, when, when I look back, we never should have lost the Golden State series. We were the better team. Curry just beat us. That was our, that was a championship we let go.

And we, I thought they ran outta gas in that, the 4 straight rounds. They weren't ready for it the way. Yeah. You know, there is something to that. Like you could see it with Wemby this year. When you haven't been through that before, playing 11 straight weeks and just having these high-level playoff games over and over and over again, and teams like honing in on what your weaknesses are. Like, remember how good Tatum was at the beginning of those playoffs? Yeah. He killed Durant. Remember, he like really took Durant to the woodshed. Right. And by the end of the Finals, he was, he was a corpse. Like he just ran outta gas.

He did run out of gas. You, you know, that's the other question nobody wants to talk about. Do we have 100% healthy Tatum?

Yeah. And what happened in game 7? I don't know. We, we still don't know what— did he get injured? Why didn't he play? That one was swept under the rug too. It was with the Roman Anthony finger situation. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You seem— all right, so rank, rank your optimism for the 4 franchises right now.

That's a good one. Patriots 1. Patriots 1. Red Sox 2. Red Sox 2. Bruins 3. Oh man.

Celtics 4. My favorite Celtics 4.

I think the Knicks and Philly are much better than we are.

Vegas does not agree.

I know.

I, I saw the odds, but yeah, they, and there's a, there's a flip side of this coin case where you could say Tatum has all the Brown minutes from last year. Hugo and everybody's a year older. They have more depth. Mitchell Robinson, Paul George being able to do a facsimile of something.

I'll tell you though, what, what worries me is this, these Achilles injuries. Players come back, they're 85%, maybe 90%. It's tough to be 100%. And it's gonna be interesting to see if Tatum goes to the basket or what his lateral movement looks like. Will he always be thinking of the, you know, he didn't, why didn't he play Game 7? I, I mean, we both read the same things, but to sit out of Game 7, I'm sure Jaylen Brown is thinking, he sat out Game 7. I was in there playing. I carried the team all year. Yeah. And I got no respect. I can, I can understand that part of it.

You know, if they win that Game 7 and Jaylen has like a, like a heroic Game 7 to beat Philly, the trade doesn't happen. True.

Probably.

What we never could have expected is him getting traded. To Philly. Like there's just a heading into— Celtics are up 3-1 in round 1 against Philly. And if I said to you they're gonna lose the last 3 and then Jaylen's gonna get traded to Philly and play with LeBron, the odds would've been like a million to one.

Well, that's putting aside that we got Paul George back. If you're gonna trade Jaylen Brown and you think it's time, trade him out west. Nobody wanted him. When we see him once at, at home every year, there wasn't a market for him.

That's the other thing.

Then, then wait for the market to develop.

These teams needed to hire you as a consultant.

Teams are gonna have injuries. Wait for the market to develop. Can you imagine him coming into Boston 2 or 3 times in the regular season?

Yeah. Well, he's in, I don't know if this is the best situation for him in Philly, but, but I guess we'll find out. But he went from, it's time for me to have my own team, to him being the 4th most important person on this team.

It, it's a valid point. About how they're all gonna mesh with— they all want the ball.

He's basically gonna have to be their Derek White.

Yeah. And I hadn't thought of that part. How are they all gonna mesh? But I'm thinking about our team and our starting lineup and Paul George getting injured 19 games into the season and, you know, Wow.

Did you send your check in for the season tickets yet?

I did. You know, and maybe the Celtics are gonna be unhappy with our conversation today, but believe me, I've talked to a lot of other season ticket holders who are irate. Not that they traded Brown necessarily, but the package that came back. Yeah.

Well, I guess the best thing we can say is Brad Stevens has done right by us over and over again. And if he believes this was the right trade, he knows more about basketball than we do. I, I didn't realize you work for the Celtics now. No, I'm saying that's the only, the only thing. If you're saying, all right, how is this gonna work out? We'd be like, eh, Brad Stevens has been really good at this. Maybe he knows more than we do. It's the only thing I can grab onto. 'Cause I wouldn't have made this trade in a million years. I just would've waited. I would've waited till September. I feel like the trade's still there. And then like, who knows? Like, like maybe Detroit's in a contract feud with, with Duran. Yeah. And they need to do something. They say, fuck it, we don't wanna be bad this year. All right, here are 5 first rounders. And you know, who knows?

I agree. Yeah. That's what I mean. There's still free agents that haven't signed. Restricted free agents. There's still injuries that haven't occurred yet on other teams. Brown could have been very attractive to another team in October. All right, Dad.

I'm glad the Red Sox have revived your summer. I'm glad you enjoyed the World Cup. I'm glad we were able to talk rationally about the Celtics trade. I'm glad to, we could text about—

Did we talk rationally?

Pat's training camp. I thought it was rational. Go see The Odyssey. It's only 3 hours. Okay. All right. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thanks. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to House. Thanks to my dad. Thanks to Gahal and Eduardo as well. Uh, new Rewatchables. Remember, we're doing it live on Netflix. If you want to hear us talk about Obsession, me and Chris Ryan and Joanna Robinson, it's going to be 7 PM Eastern time, 4 PM Pacific. Uh, we are doing a bunch of bangers in a row for Rewatchables. I'm just, I'm just warning you now. Um, Buckle up, put your seatbelt on because we're, uh, we're going to tear through some because we're in the dog days, the dead times of, uh, of the summer. Um, we're basically looking at SummerSlam. Um, the, what's the FedEx, the golf, whatever the, the playoff is for that. Uh, preseason football, WNBA. I like the Lynx. I've been, I'm really into the Lynx. I already have a wager on the Lynx., to win the title. I've been into them, but, uh, yeah, not a lot going on. So, uh, it's gonna be an erratic schedule for us on this podcast, but maybe one more this week.

You might not see me again till Sunday. Enjoy, uh, the first part of the week. Must be 21+ and present in select states. For Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18+ and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Game and problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. Or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 877-770-7867.