Transcript of Steph’s Last Ride, Philly’s Swoon and Bill’s ‘SNL 50’ GOAT Lists | with Rob Mahoney

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Com. We added a new podcast to the Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify. It is Good Hang with Amy Poehler. She's great. It's going to be a huge, big, fat, awesome podcast. Subscribe, follow on Spotify, premieres next week. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new Rewatchables in honor of SNL 50. We did The Blues Brothers, me, Chris Ryan and Sean Fennacy. It was a A podcast you can watch as well on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel. Starting next week, video podcast on Spotify of the Rewatchables. Everyone going forward, you'll be able to watch on the Spotify platform. We're doing another SNL movie next week. I might even spoil it at the end of this podcast. You can stay tuned for that one. Please check out theringer. Com because we have a bunch of good content this week, including some really good SNL stuff. We have a fun MBA project coming next week. So stay tuned for that as well. Then the big news for the Ringer podcast Network, starting this week, starting Sunday night, White Lotus is starting on HBO. Last year, or last season, Joanne Robinson and I, we did the recap of White Lotus Season 2.

And I think we might have done Season 1, too. I can't remember. Anyway, Season 2, we did. We added Mallory Rubin this season. White Lotus will end on HBO. We will be putting our podcast up as a video podcast Podcast on Spotify on the Prestige TV pod, and you can watch it on the Ringer-TV YouTube channel as well. Our recap's, and then on Wednesday is Rob Mahoney and Joanna Robinson will have the pre-caps for Prestige. They're also covering Severance on the Prestige TV pod as well. So very excited. We love White Lotus, one of our favorite shows since we've had Grantland and the Ringer. We're talking since 2011. This is one of the OGs, one of the most fun TV shows to talk about. Anyway, that's coming on the Prestige TV pod. Coming on this podcast, I'm going to talk to Rob Mahoney, actually, about what's going on in the West, what's up with the Warriors, can they turn it around, and we're going to open an NBA six-pack. Then I had a whole SNL 50 thing I wanted to do about my favorite sketches, episodes, characters, musical performances. It all makes sense to listen to it.

That's at the tail end of this pod. My fingers actually worked. I wrote some stuff. So there you go. It's all next. First, our friends from Pearl Hi, Rob Mahoney is here. We are taping this part of the podcast late on Thursday night, 08: 00 PM. P. T. Just watched a bunch of basketball and tied to what I wanted to talk about with you, the West we're going to start with. You'd Golden State win today. You'd Dallas Hold on to win. You'd Minnesota beat OKC. Then you look at the West and you have all these teams jam together. Golden State is the 10 seed with 27 losses. Minnesota is the seventh seed with 25 losses. I'm the most interested in the Warriors, and I've watched every minute of all of their games since they made this Jimmy Butler trade. There's something here, and I don't know what it is yet, but I like it. I don't know where it's going to go. Their ceiling feels a little higher. I don't think they're going to win the title, but they're the most intriguing team to me. That's not Denver, the Lakers, or obviously, OKC. I think they're the fourth most intriguing team to me, Rob.

Okay. Can I suggest what the thing is that you might be seeing?

Yeah, let's see.

I would say two things, maybe. Golden State actually shooting free throws. Great. Jimmy Butler helps with that. Two, something very exotic for the Warriors, attempting to score around the basket and sometimes doing so successfully. They blow a lot of layups. They have a lot of guys who claim up a little bit around the basket or can get stifled out with length. They obviously play really small. But having Jimmy as any presence inside, even if he's also missing some layups now and again, just as a cutter, as a driver, as a transition force, it's a nice counterbalance to everything else that the Warriors have going on offensively.

Yeah, it feels like I rounded them out. You mentioned the rebounding, the offensive rebounding, the free throws. That game yesterday that they played against Dallas, where it basically came down if Moody makes a corner three, I think they win. If Jimmy just goes to the basket with his right-hand instead of crossing over, going to Kyrie, they might win that one, too. But the symmetry of the team seems to make sense now because Jimmy, even though, what is he? 6'5? 6'6?

I think he's more 6'7, 6'8 range.

All right, wherever he is. There's a post-up element with them that they just didn't have before unless it was Kominga. When it's Kominga, you lose some of the IQ stuff. With Butler, you don't. You get the IQ stuff. So now you have him with Drayman with Steph. It's funny to call them a high IQ team because they also make some of the stupidest plays you'll see every night. I don't think any team has sloppier worst turnovers, and yet they are a high IQ team. They are a high IQ team.

Steve Kerr is about to have an aneurysm at any given moment in these games. And you get it. Some of the passes Drayman throws for being a genius level playmaker are absolutely baffling, indefensible decision making at times. And yet they get away with it because they have these hot shooting stretches. Their defense is obviously still pretty rock solid overall, and I think we'll only get better with Jimmy. But ultimately, I'm totally with you as far as the post-up elements of Jimmy's game. He's so intuitive in terms of the way he moves, that has fit in Golden State really seamlessly. And he also just in staggering him and Steph a little bit, it gives the Warriors something to do. And they were really lacking it when Steph was off the floor. It's like, What do we run? I guess Brandon Pajemski is going to dribble for 18 seconds. There was way too much of that happening. Jimmy Butler, if nothing else, orients them to, Okay, this is an actual first option, even if he's not pounding the air out of the ball.

It's also a team that when Kaminka comes back, becomes even more interesting because now they'll have multiple things to look at. They could ride him. There's some Butler, Kominga stuff already. I don't know if you've seen it. Little hint of I might take this guy under my wing. Okay. Little mutual admiration society stuff. Maybe I'll take him to Jimmy Butler grad school. Not teach him the stuff from the last year in Miami, but the first couple of years. One of the things that's been so much fun to watch with these Golden State games is just having Butler back as an invested, happy, engaged guy in the sidelines doing like fish bumps, just super competitive aggro and not looking like he just lost his dog, and that he wants to just walk off the court. So I'm glad to have him back.

Yeah. Even in the game. Jimmy Butler is one of the best contest listed rebounders in the league in terms of just the overall effort he puts in and how he goes after it, even against bigs. And if we're going to talk about how Golden State makes a run or how they hold it together, how they challenge some of these other elite Western conference teams. A big part of that is Jimmy Butler makes the version of small ball they play make a lot more sense. Moses Moody has been a thing for a while now, but the Moses Moody minutes make even more sense when you put him a Jimmy Butler. Kuminga is going to be a little different just because they are a little bit duplicative. They're going to be a little trickier to play together, especially if Draymond is also on the floor. It can jam up a little bit too much. And I'm curious to see what Kerr does with that, how he tries to separate those guys, if at all, in the rotation, because they're going to have to play a lot.

And Dallas in the first half of last night's game, tried to use the Draymon Jimmy lack of shooting from deep thing against them. And then Golden State figured that out. They went with a small ball thing. Dallas didn't have their centers last night, so it's hard to make too much out of it, but they went small. I guess Jimmy was the four. Then they had Moody and Pizempski and Curry with Draymon. It was fun. They were like, cussing around, and it was old-school Draymon. Here's the thing I'm watching with them, and I've been watching this for a while. I really started thinking about it with the Ringer 100, with that exercise of just trying to rank the best players against each other. Curry was just a blind top seven, top eight guy. I'm not positive he's there anymore, and I don't know where he is in the top 20, but there's two things I've noticed. One is the consistency of being great just doesn't seem there. He's become a once a week, I'm awesome guy. He doesn't have the great kick-ass games that he used to have. I actually went through and I just looked at two things because this is hard to quantify.

How do you measure somebody's ceiling as a great player versus where it's been the last 10 years? He's 36 years old. You can look at all the counting stats, they're down a little bit, but not I like too much. But the thing that was interesting to me, so in 2016, his second MVP season, he had 13 40 plus point games. Then if you go on basketball reference, that weird game score thing they have that I think I I honestly like. It's at least... It's something. If you're in the high 20s or higher, that means something good happened with the game you played.

It's like the PER of box score stats, right? It gives you a general indication that something is up.

It's that you did a bunch of things well in the same game at an unusually high level. So about 29 is a really nice game score in basketball. It's, again, arbitrary. But he had 24, 29 plus games from a game score standpoint in 16. This season, he has three. This season, he has zero 40-point games. So even if you go back to 2022, he had seven 40-point games in their final season. He had 10 29 plus game score games. In 23, he had 13 29 plus game score. The point is, every once in a while, Steph Curry was like, We're not losing tonight. I'm Steph Curry. I'm just going to have an awesome game. And that's really not what I'm seeing from him in the same way this year, and I wonder if it changes after the All-Star break, or is this just who he is at age 36? I don't know the answer. What do you think?

I suspect having Jimmy will help with some of that. And just from an overall workload perspective, Jimmy and Kuminga coming back will lift some of what is on Steph right now. Ultimately, though, I think that is who he is at this point in his career. I don't think he's going to have those singular scoring outbursts all the time. But the good news for Golden State, I don't think the rest of the league has entirely caught up to that. I don't think they will catch up to that because history tells us they don't with legends. You put Steph Curry on the floor, someone sees him, they are going to freak out. And that's why virtually, regardless of how many points Steph actually scores, he has a massive, massive on-court impact in terms of the offensive production. He is not at a Jokić level because Jokić is really in a class unto himself there, but with Shay, with the other really high-level offensive operators in terms of the difference of having him on the court, even when he's not hitting consistently, even when he's not going for 35 or 40 points. He just scares the hell out of people.

I think that part will always be true, even if Steph is 45 rolling out there.

Yeah. If you're saying what defender makes a guy who's in paint who realizes he's open, run full speed at him like he's running out of a cabin in a horror movie. Steph is still number one in this. The other piece of it is they had to work so hard to get him offense in the first half of the season with this goofy team they had. He also had to play a lot because their record wasn't that good. I do wonder with the reset of the break and then the Jimmy piece of it and the symmetry of the offense coming in to play a little bit and then Kaminga comes back, maybe it'll be easier for him to rack it up and have... The thing that would make him special were the 16-point third quarters. Just the little scoring branches. That's what's not happening anymore. Then you throw in the slappiness. Their clutch record this year, I think they're just like 500. And they've blown a bunch of dumb games.

And by volume, they've just been in a lot of close games, which that in itself, as you're saying, is taxing because it forces Steph to play more minutes to even get to that point.

The reason I think it's important, and I'm not doing ESPN thing where it's like, just A block, just talk Warriors or Lakers, and that's it. That's the rule. I really do think there's something here. I think there's something here with the Butler, Curry, Draymond thing. I like their role, guys. And I think if they can hang around, hang around, hang around, there's a competitive intuitive infrastructure that some of these other teams don't have. I don't trust Houston to have it. Memphis, I don't know what to make of anymore. I just assume Ja is not now. When I turn Memphis on, it's surprising to see him. It's one thing after another with him. Then Minnesota is a mess. I don't trust, especially when Edwards has had two really, really, really awful games. They did win tonight, they beat OKC. But just maybe Minnesota will be the only one I see that I could see in the conference finals. I don't think it's going to be Dallas. Okay, see, Denver, is there anybody else you have on your radar to maybe make the West Finals and do what Dallas did last year. Dallas catches fire. They have that streak.

All of a sudden, they're in conversation. Who is that this year?

I still give Memphis a little credit in that conversation. I think we clearly have to wait and see what the Lakers are capable of. But at this point, Denver has got the inside track. And teams are going to have to figure out not just how to outflank them, but how to beat them specifically if that matchup comes on board, which is, I would say, the toughest single matchup available to anyone is what do you do with Nikola Jokić right now? Because we're seeing, Minnesota case in point tonight, So OKC is a vaunted, unbelievable defense. But Minnesota has some inroads there to score against a team like that. Nas Reid is clearly a huge part of that formula. Granted, they're not playing with their usual team. Julius Randall at Rudi Gobera, Mike Conley, Donte Caveninchenzo.

And yet- And Gober didn't play tonight either.

Absolutely. They didn't have their normal set of players, but they found things that could work against the Thunder defense for as wonderful as it is. I don't know that there's those answers for many teams about But Nikola Jokić. There's just not a lot of conceptual stuff you can throw at him that's going to work. That's not to say you can't leverage the occasional off night from Jamal Murray, elements of Russell Westbrook's game, parts of the back end of the rotation, Michael Porter, maybe not swinging the ball as fast as the Nuggets might like him to sometimes. There's buttons to press. The Nuggets are not unbeatable, but they look really tough right now. And they look like a really tough matchup, specifically for the rest of this Western conference field.

Murray came back. With a vengeance. Rizel and I did that live show in Denver.

Fifty-five fucking points.

Yeah, we had a heart-to-heart with 1100 Nuggets fans. This Murray thing is bad. You guys, this is alarming what's happening. But the best case scenario was, he just needs to play himself in shape. And he did. He played himself in shape, and he looked noticeably skinnier within three weeks, his burst came back. The 55-point game he had this week was not an aberration. He's been blowing by people and looked like Murray. So now all of a sudden, those Yokeage 48-point games, those are out the window. You don't need them anymore. Now he's back to being by the end of the third quarter, he's got 22, 12, 9. Porter's also playing better. He's playing really well. They just look like the Nuggets again. I don't know. People, this podcast, for instance, maybe overreacting for the first two months. This podcast? The Murray thing was scary because the Paul George thing was also scary. And guess what? That continues to be completely terrifying. There There's real signs of danger, but Murray played himself out of it, to his credit.

The Paul George thing is bordering on reanimated corpse at this point, and Jamal Murray has found some life, some burst. And I think, most importantly, the edge and the aggressiveness in his game. But that's always when Jamal is feeling whatever injuries he has at a given point or just a shaken confidence, he doesn't push in the way that the Nuggets absolutely need him to push. And to see that version of Jamal Murray back, that's a thrilling thing to see.

Right now, we have OKC, Memphis, Denver as the top three, Denver threatening to pass Memphis, Houston, Lakers, and Houston just has not been good for a couple of weeks, but they've had some injuries. Lakers, I don't know what happens with them, 32 and 20. Clippers, 30 and 23, have been confusing for about a month now. They're fine. Then we move into that Minnesota, Dallas, Sacramento, Golden State thing. When we're going to talk about it, we're going to do the NBA six-pack. The most notable thing is the Spurs feel like have fallen out. I think Phoenix is not dead, but people are definitely around the table like Jon Hamm and Landman. They're definitely around the hospital bed. Maybe the doctor is like, you might want to say your goodbye soon. They're almost at that point. But it feels like we actually might know the 10 playoff teams now, unless you think Sacramento can fall out of this because they had a bad loss with New Orleans tonight. They've won some goofy games. They're 20, 27. They honestly could be like 22 and 34. If Phoenix was going to catch a team, that would be the team I pick.

But what do you think? Do we have our 10 now?

I think this might be the 10, and that is somewhat confidence in the Kings, more so pessimism in the Suns on my part.

Okay. Confidence in the Kings.

I mean, mild confidence. I think they've got some stuff to work with. I think they have a reasonable play-in level roster as currently constructed.

I agree.

And there's nothing wrong with that. But there's a reason we're not going to be talking about them in the vein that we're talking about Golden State, which is to say an actual threat potentially to do something with the talent that they have. And we were talking about this on group chat today, too. I don't know if it's the Jimmy Butler element, specifically, that makes Golden State feel like a wild card in the same way that his heat teams felt like a little bit of a wild card. It's just hard to write off. And it's hard to write off looking at this Golden State rotation and thinking, okay, you know what? When it really matters, the Pat Spencer minutes are going to evaporate. And the quick post minutes are going to evaporate if they have to. They're going to get what they need out of these supporting guys, but their best players are going to go the distance. And the question at that point will be, how hard did Steph and Draymon and Jimmy have to push to get them into the in or to get them into the play-off? And will they have enough left from that point?

You made a point earlier about Minnesota and how something about them seems comfortable against OKC, which is something you couldn't really say about a lot of teams. I think that be just a lot of length on the perimeter and interchangeable guys and just people to throw at SGA. Today was the recipe for how you beat OKC in a playoff series where one, SGA doesn't have a good game.

Yeah, that always helps.

Then two, they don't make a ton of threes. It is a team, and I guess you could say this about any team in the league, but I really feel with them when they're down 12 and you go, I mean, this is it. This is how you beat them. Then they win their next 13 by an average of 20 points a game. But they can have that. You can hit them with the haymaker. So if they're down 3-2 in a playoff series on the road in a game like today, that would be the recipe, I think. I still don't 100% trust anyone else on their team offensively except SGA. That's the one thing that gives me pause with just pencil them in. They have the best odds to win the West, and it's an easy pick for the finals. But that's the one thing that makes me nervous when it's really nerve-wracking gut crunch time. Ball crunch time?

Gut crunch? Nut crunch, I think is the expression you look for.

Did I just invent the phrase gut crunch?

The old gut crunch.

Who am I going to if Shay has five fouls late in the third quarter, and I just need somebody to get me offense for six minutes. That's what makes me nervous with them.

The answer is probably J Dub, and that's a reasonable answer, but he also doesn't exactly play that way all the time. They are such a process-oriented team where they're just going to move it and go through their system and trust in the shots that they get. And I think reasonable people can disagree as to whether those shots are ultimately what you need in now TM gut crunching time.

Gut crunch.

Look, they clearly need a little bit more as evidence by the fact that they can occasionally put up a 14. Fourth quarter like they did against Minnesota today. That's not going to do it. Even in a game like this, where you have a bit of a deficit, you're working back from to begin with. It's an area where you hope over time, J grows into that responsibility. Chet Holmgrohne, who I think played his third game since he came back from injury tonight. He will grow into that responsibility over time. Hopefully, he looks quite rusty, understandably right now. So he's going to get better and better over the back part of the season. But that's the wild card with them. And I think if they don't do as well in the playoffs as they would have liked or as many of us would have anticipated, a lot of us are going to be wondering, was there a lever to pull there in terms of getting more of a spark plug score at the deadline? Not someone who has to be a part of your permanent, like a fixture in Oklahoma City, a pillar of the community. But could you not get a guy who could get a bucket on demand when you maybe really needed it?

We talked about a little last week. I'm in the camp. They're playing so well, and they look so good, and Wiggins, especially, that was the spot you would have improved, but he was just playing really well. He was balling out.

He was scoring in bunches.

Yeah. All right. We trade Wiggins and contracts and a few of our picks to try to get DeAndre Hunter. Are we even better? Wiggins was playing really well. Yeah. Would you rather pay Wiggins, a much smaller contract or Hunter, 18 million? I can see why they always value the continuity. It's one of those things that if it's in May and they lose them round two, we're going to be like, Why didn't they make a trade? I told you.

But you're right. It's hard to look at a roster winning 80% of its games and being like, Yeah, you should have done something. They're doing a lot every night to beat basically every opponent put in front of them.

And a close team, too. That really seems like that's where even the Cavs messing with what they have. It gets a little dangerous when you have a team that clearly likes each other. For sure. Dallas is the only other team, just quickly. Who knows when Davis comes back? The way Kyrie has played and I mean, this is one of the great 180s we've had by an athlete, Kyrie, the last two years, where I think he senses the moment in the city of Dallas and the press conferences, the interviews that he's given, the way he's played, where he's No, I got this. Come over here. Don't abandon the ship yet. If they can get Davis back in time, I don't know if they can, but if they can, it is an interesting team. They have size, they have length, they have defense, and the fans who seem like they were going to revolt against this team even three days ago. I don't know. They were into the game today. They were cheering those guys. So they're, I guess, over here on this side, depending on where they land. Right now, they are 30 and 26, but no Davis for at least a month.

So they'll be somewhere between 8 to 10, I would say, in the play-in, right?

I would think. And look, the win over Golden State yesterday. Massive, massive game in terms of playing implications. But yeah, they need Davis back. And more importantly, they just need a big, a single, able-bodied big who is not Omax prosper on stilt. They just need somebody in that spot to do big man things. And credit to them for getting by the way they have. Credit to them for winning tonight, not only under the circumstances, missing all these bigs, missing Anthony Davis, but Kyrie didn't play in this game either. But his spirit lived on in Dante Exum, and they beat the heat. Dallas just keeps on marching right now. It's been very impressive to see the way they've rallied.

They beat a heat team that just looks mediocre every night now. It just looks like it's the end of the line. I'm thinking about the gut crunch. It's like a '90s exercise machine. I'm doing ads for Yeah, you got- The gut crunch. Right now, call now. It's half off. We're going to take a break, and then we're going to rip off an NBA six-pack. This episode is brought to you by Mclobe Ultra. Mclobe Ultra, a superior light beer in the ultimate trophy. Win or lose, you're bound to enjoy the ride with a good beer in hand. Mclobe Ultra, crisp, refreshing, only 95 calories. A superior light beer. Good time to enjoy an ultra, Rob. This weekend, there's no basketball, and God only knows the All-Star Weekend can in any direction. Just relax. You don't have to worry about watching 15 games at once. Just relax. Do whatever you do on the weekend. Have an ultra. No matter the game, sport or season, superior is worth playing for. Always be prepared for a win in order. Mc globe Ultra today, available on DoorDash, by the way. Enjoy responsibly. 2025 in Heiser Bush. Mc globe Ultra. Light beer, St.

Louis, Missouri. Must be 21 plus to order alcohol. Alcohol available only in select markets. All right, Rob, it's time. It's time for a special part of today's This episode brought to you by McLean Ultra, a superior light beer. And not just because it's great tasting, McLean Ultra is also getting fans closer to the game with Ultra Courtside. It lets you sign up for a chance to win signed merch Courtside Seats, another one of a experiences. Which one of them was go out with big waz for the night in LA. Just visit micklobalcher. Com/courtside. Mcleobultra. Superiors is worth paying for. Speaking of superior, let's unpack six major things going on in the basketball world right now. We have to start with the 76ers. I was thinking big splash teams in the last 25 years that just ended up being disappointing. Going back to post lockout the 1999 Rockets, when they put Barkley and Pippen and it came together and they were like, Look at this. And then it was bad. The 2004 Lakers, even though they made the finals, that was still disappointing the way it ended. But the big ones, 2013 Lakers with Dwight and with Nash.

Now this is going to be fun. Not fun. Wasn't very fun.

The Prokerov nets, post-KG trade with pierce and Joe Johnson and Darren Williams and Prokher off. Oh, my God. He's going to basically do what the Dodgers just did in baseball. It didn't happen. 2019 Celtics after they made the Eastern Finals without Kyrie. Kyrie came back. Hayward came back. Tatum, Jalen Brown. I think I went on Jalen and Jacobi's ESPN show and predicted them to win in the mid '60s. That did not happen. The 22 Lakers with LeBron and AD and a new addition, Russell Westbrook. Sure. They ended up winning 33 games. Then the Nets after the foot on the line season. Of course. The Katie, Kyrie, Harden thing. Where does the Sixers just... Sucking. They're 20 and 34. Where does this rank on the, I can't believe this this happening scale for you? Because there were some signs.

Yeah, it's hard because there are the precursors. I don't think any of us were fully trusting Joel Embiid's health coming into the season. Certainly, Paul George has given us reason to be dubious about his long term ability to stay on the court. But I would never have anticipated that basically every single thing that could go wrong has gone wrong. Every bright spot that has emerged in the rotation, short of Gershon Yabusele, which I'm not trying to jinks him, wrap him in bubble wrap Protect Gershka at all costs, please. Every other bright spot in the rotation has been snuffed out by injury, by circumstance. Nothing is working. And that's hard to predict, clearly, but also hard to wrap your mind around, how so many things could go wrong at one time.

Yeah. So there was some Paul George stuff that came out today from Shams that he had a screwed up finger tendon on his left hand. He's getting injections for it. I'm sure that's true, but it doesn't explain the fact that he looks just slower and more plotting and doesn't seem to have nearly the same burst and just seems like not only a step slow, but a second slow in his process. Messing. And I don't know how that's the left-hand tendon thing. I don't get it.

I don't think it is. We can part those things out because there is the step slow thing as well. You're not getting past Zier Williams against the nets. That's a problem. That's a problem in a game where Joel Embiid is not playing, Tyrese Maxi is not playing. This is your moment to do some of this, and you make one shot. And worst, you attempt seven. Horrible, horrible game for Paul George. All of that said, I have found myself at many points in the season being a bit of a Paul George apologist. Look, those days are very much behind me at this point. But the case for that apology, the defense of Paul George throughout most of the season has been a defense of the little things that he brings to the table. It's orienting the offense. It's being an adult on the court when they badly needed it. It's spacing the floor. It's keeping the ball moving. Good connecting stuff, but role player stuff. At some point, if you're doing all the role player stuff and you're failing every time you're asked to be a star, we have to call you what you are. And it's a $50 million role player.

That's a very tough position for the Sixers to find themselves at the very outset of this deal.

He hasn't helped himself with some of the comments either. No. When he complained about playing the five, there hasn't been a lot of, I'll do whatever it takes to win games. If they need me to play there, I'll play there. There's a lot of basic, you have to look at how the outside world is looking at you stuff with him that just seems to be missing.

A Sixer should know never to say that they're bored doing something like playing the five because this life as a Sixer will be very interesting very quickly in ways that you do not want.

Well, the biggest thing they got was the Eagles had a playoff run and won the Super Bowl. It's very true. And Curtis and I talked about it on Thursday, this rarely seen Super Bowl news dump after they won when they were like, Hey, Embiid might get surgery again. I don't know where this is going. And they just snuck that one out under the dead of night. But I think if really had been knocked down in round one, the Eagles, and then people really had a chance to stare at the Sixer season with the season Maxi's having, it was almost averaging 28 a game. Yaba Seli, they really looked out with that. And they're 20 and 34. They're 6 and 14 in their last 20. In that last 20, they have the 23rd net rating. They've just been a bottom eight team for a good 40% of the season here. They've only gotten 17 games from Embiid, and yet they're only a game and a half behind Chicago for the 10th seed, and Chicago doesn't want to keep winning? So they might stumble in anyway.

I don't know if Chicago wants to keep winning or not, because their roster would tell you that they don't. The The public comments would tell you that they are attempting to. So I really have no idea what to make of any of that other than the fact that the play and crop in the East is an absolute joke. It is teams that are either too hurt to compete, don't have the resources to actually be good teams yet, or in Philly's case, a little of both. They just are not in a competitive place by any stretch of the imagination. Quitten Grimes should not be your best player. That is not a thing that should be happening. Justin Edwards should not be playing 30 minutes in a game. That's not where the Sixers ever anticipated had this going, but it's the reality that they now have to navigate.

Orlando is 27 and 29 in the seven seed, and they haven't been happy with their team for two months. No. Atlanta is 26 and 29. They're the eight seed. They made two borderline dump trades, the Hunter trade and the Bogdanavish trade. Those are trades you make when you don't care where your season is going. They can't really dump because they don't have their first-run pick. And then you have Miami at the nine seed, 25 and 28, who I think they'd be maybe the second worst team in the West. Would you rather be Miami or Portland right now?

Portland is tough because they are winning themselves out of the tank race at the moment.

Yeah, I love it.

Their future is tough. We should say Philly's future in terms of their first-round pick, which they may or may not be able to actually keep, is looking dicier by the minute. They have to be very careful they don't accidentally lose that pick at this point.

I want to audible to that as the the second thing of the six-pack. But before we do, the Embiid thing, do we see him again? He's played 17 games. Does he play 20?

We should not see him again. Tethered to this conversation, they should be actively looking at shutting Paul George down, shutting Embiid down, managing these injuries over the back part of the season. It's time to regroup. This is not going to resolve itself. And even if you could limp into the play-in, and even limp into the playoffs, that is not a success for this version of this team. Being an easy out in the first round is not success for the Sixers. So at this point, see her into the skid, lean into the failure, live to fight another day, frankly.

The problem is making the playoffs Embiid could never play 14 games in four weeks. It's never happening. So even if you miraculously won both playing games, I don't know where that's getting you. All right, the second thing, you mentioned the draft pick. Okc gets Philly's first after the top six. So Philly keeps it first six spots. If it's the seventh pick, OKC gets it. But this is one of many things. This is the all-time, what the hell is happening in the first round thing.

It's a bad shit.

It's either 15 or six. There's so many teams, there's a couple of things I can't even really figure out who gets to pick. So it's about half the league. Okc gets Philly's first after top six. They get Utah's first after the top, if it's out of the top 10, but Utah is probably going to keep that pick. Miami gets Golden States first if it falls out of the top 10. I think that's probably happening. Atlanta gets Sacramento's first if it falls out of the top 12. I think that might happen. The Knicks get Detroit's first if it falls out of the top 13. I think that's happening. So we already have four teams that are going to give their pick to somebody else. Okc gets Miami's first if they don't make the playoffs, basically. So that's 50-50. We'll see. Then we have San Antonio gets Atlanta's first. Utah gets Minnesota and Cleveland's first. The Pelicans get the Lakers first. Brooklyn gets New Orleans first, Milwaukee's first, and the Knicks first. I think that's right. Does Brooklyn get New Orleans first?

I don't think they get New Orleans. I think they just get Milwaukee and Knicks.

All right. I'm going to take that one out. Brooklyn gets Milwaukee's first and Knicks first. Keep in the air. Orlando gets Denver's first. Then we have this trade where OKC can swap and get the best pick from the Clips or Houston, their choice. Yes. Houston could take the second best pick and swap it to Brooklyn for Phoenix's first. Phoenix, I guess, loses the pick either way, and then the Clips get the worst of all those. I'm going to figure out that sequencing in about a month.

Yeah, we need a visual aid. We need somebody to come up with a flowchart.

All of those pics I laid out, what is the most alarming to you for the team losing the pick?

Oh, great question.

Atlanta?

The Atlanta ones are bad because it dramatically changes how they navigate their roster, what they're doing for the foreseeable future. On the one hand, I think it can be silly sometimes when teams like the Bulls, who were so protected, they were probably going to keep their own pick anyway, go out of their way to trade to get their own pick back. It can be silly. But there is so much more freedom and flexibility as a franchise when you do own your own picks. Because the second they're out the door, the second you lose control of when you start the clock and when you start to rebuild and when you start to reboot. And that's how you get into these weird lost seasons where you're languishing either in the middle of the standings or just outside the play-in, accomplishing basically nothing, but also losing lots of games and not getting any draft capital to result from it. The Atlanta ones feel really, really rough right now.

One thing I was thinking with all the OKC things in play, let's say they get the seventh pick from Philly. Let's say they get Miami's pick because Miami is a playoff team, then they have their own pick, and then they can also swap with the Clippers or Houston, so that's a middle. So they'll have four picks.

They'll have three. They'll have their own- Oh, yeah, you're right.

Three, including Philly's pick, which could be in the 7, 8, 9 range. But then they have all these other picks because they have a million cajillion picks. And we've been watching this going, what are they going to do with all these pics? They already like their roster. They only have a couple of spots anyway. Could this be the year that they take that 7, 8, 9 Philly pick, if that's the pick? Add eight pics to it and just say, give us Cooper flag. Here's the all time mother load of pics. Let's say Charlotte gets the first pick, and they could just trade back six spots out of the Cooper flag spot and just get a war chest of the all time most pics ever in a trade from OKC just to move back six spots. You'd have to have a four hour meeting about that. I feel like Cooper Flag is really good. I love them. I'm probably the highest on them out of because he's a big intangibles guy, and I know I'm going to overreact as we get closer to June. But you'd have to really think about it because it's not a Wembenyama pick.

And if you're OKC, I think you would also have to really think about it because what the Thunder need more than anything are cost-controlled players, really good players on cost-controlled salaries. Their roster is about to get very, very expensive very, very quickly. If you could have four cost-control years of Cooper Flag as you are contending with the rest of this roster, I'm hesitant to say this because we haven't seen Cooper Flag play in the NBA yet. If he is as good as advertised, he might be the single most attractive piece to the Thunder for exactly that reason. Stretch four, can play some three. Runs the floor, good ball skills.

Incredibly competitive, doesn't need the ball.

Checks out.

Yeah. I know whoever gets the first pick wouldn't want to trade him, but there's a price for everything, and there's a price to make you go, holy shit. You're going to offer me 220 cents in the dollar for this pick. But I honestly think that's what OKC has to do.

Brooklyn- Here's the thing, though. If that pick does convey and OKC gets Philly's pick, six teams will have 20 picks in the first round between them. Okc, one of them. Brooklyn will have three picks. The Spurs, the Jazz, the Magic, the Wizards will all have two picks. That is an incredible consolidation of draft capital. And I don't know who ends up keeping a lot of those pics and who ends up moving them on because they're clearly valuable for all these cost-controlled reasons we've just talked about. But to just help visualize at home as you're listening to us list off all of these swaps and protections and pics that may convey. Basically, every single pick from 18 to 30 is going to go to a different team, except for Indiana's pick and Boston's pick. That's it. Every other pick is probably going to change hands, and that's insane.

Yeah. I don't even know how they fix it. And Adam Silver should not be the one explaining who gets what. They should maybe hire Bobby Marks just for three hours as his assistant just to be over on the side, just letting out whatever.

Doing the touch screen. We have to raise pick-swap literacy around the country at this point because this is becoming an epidemic.

Well, OKC in San Antonio, San Antonio is the other team. If Atlanta's pick miraculously got in the top four and it got to four. San Antonio would have enough assets to really try to climb three picks. So it'll come down to how generationally you think Cooper Flag is. And I don't think he's in the Wemby Anthony Davis Sure-Thing class. You I really have to believe in some other stuff. I personally think there's no way he misses because how competitive he is, but he's six, seven and a half. There's things you could... To me, he's the perfect stretch for, but we'll see. All right, next thing on the six-pack. Speaking of the draft, the Brooklyn Nets, the team that just won't tank, the team that has players telling reporters, Hey, we're going to try to keep winning games. If you don't like it, don't root for us, which I love. They're 20 and 34. They're one and a half games behind Chicago for the 10 seed, which is tied with Philly. But does it feel the same as Philly to you, Rob?

Not even a little bit.

They have a great coach. They made the mistake of... They kept K. M. Johnson and nick Claxton, but they also have Dilo on the, I'm so happy not to be on the Lakers anymore. I'm going to go nuts. They're six and one in their last seven. Their defense held all seven opponents to under 100, seventh net rating over that time. They bought out Ben Simmons. They traded They traded Schroeder and they traded Finney Smith, and yet they're still hanging around. And this was not the plan. They made a trade with Houston to try to get their picks back and give them Phoenix picks, and they were going to tank. Now, I don't know. They might make the playoffs. What would you do if you were running Brooklyn? Okay. You think of a fake injury or you think of playoffs?

I think go for it. Honestly, I think go for it. It's always tough in these positions. And yes, I understand the long term arguments, but I'm with you that I am moved by the enthusiasm of the team. I am moved by the amount of backbone they've been playing with lately, and ultimately, particularly how good they've been on defense. This is a team that's playing a pretty deep rotation, really high energy style, forcing a lot of turnovers. They can't score for shit, even now. But they get a lot of stops, and they play with a lot of effort. And ultimately, here's the thing. I say you encourage the guys to go for it, and they ultimately will probably lose a lot of games anyway, but you didn't pull the rug out from under them. I think that's where you start to lose credibility with the players on your team is when you start actively sabotaging their efforts to win just for the sake of the lottery. But if there's a way to let them run themselves out. And look, if you look at the teams that they've beaten at this recent stretch of games where they've been so successful, it's not exactly.

That's been amazing. They will lose games against better teams eventually, but let them find their spine. Let them find their style and ultimately what can be successful for them. And let nick Klaxon wake up a little bit because you had a bit of a slow start to the season. These are meaningful developments for a team like Brooklyn.

I saw this happen a decade ago with Brad Stevens in the Celtics, and we were all going nuts because we wanted them to lose. But ultimately, you do build some a weird DNA that you didn't just roll over. Which brings me to the next person on my six-pack list or next team, Charlotte, who has achieved peak tank. I don't know if you've looked at their box scores. They tried to trade Mark Williams and couldn't get rid of him. Now, I guess he's just in limbo as they fight about whether that trade was legal or not. Brandon Miller had surgery, which is too bad. They signed Alfred Payton and Taj Gibson, and both of them are playing. Basically, they have to play.

Basically, they are playing after a minute. Yeah. There's not really another option.

They took on Nerkage in a salary dump, and Nerkage has now found his destiny, where you know he'll have a 27 rebound game where they still lose by 28. Then they also have LaMelo Ball, who's one of the great stats bad team guys of the last 30 years. I thought it was hilarious that people were like, Wow, how did he get left out of the All-Star game. He just jacks up shots and they lose. He's not an All-Star.

That's uncind. I think LaMelo is better than that. I don't care. I think he's better than that.

Was that a defensive LaMelo Ball?

Look, I'm willing to go out on that particular limb. I think LaMelo His look, he is on another planet in terms of some of the things he chooses to do, but has a facility with the game that not many guys have, and ultimately is basically the only reason the Hornets have been anything close to solving at any point in this season. So he doesn't have a lot to work with when he's out there. Bigger concern for me, in addition to all of his habits and the judgments he makes on the court, clearly, just like that cursed ankle's tough injury history. If he's never going to be consistently healthy, how is he going to consistently grow as a creator? That's a problem for a player like him.

Would you want to play with him for six months a year? Be honest. Would you want to be his small forward? Would you want to be Brandon Miller?

Would I want to play with anyone under the age of 25? I think the answer is probably no. There is a stylistic difference between us.

This is the only team... I really like Charles Lee. I think he's a good coach. This is the only team I don't want Cooper Fyke to go to.

See, I think Keelamelo could run beautifully together.

I don't know. Anyway, they're in position to get them. They certainly are. They're working it. Next one on the six-pack. The Chicago Bulls putting together the finishing pieces of an epic 10-year run starting in the '15, '16 season, and 40, 41 and 41, 27 and '55, '22 and '60, '22 and 43, 31 and 41, 46 and 36 in the '22 season. Yeah, feisty. Lost in the first round. '40 and 42, 39 and 43, 22, and 33 with a chance to make the plan again. This is Reindsdorff's manifest destiny, just to not pay a luxury tax, to be somewhere near the plan, to not actually be a threat, to not really have a direction. It's like, are they tanking? They re-signed Lanzo Ball. They could have traded them for a first-round pick that came out. Now, they kept them. They have Gitty. They have Kobe White, like Buzellas. Vucevic is still there. They overpaid Patrick Williams. I don't know what this team is. They don't either. This is just what we're doing in the third biggest city in America, Rob.

Apparently, it is. I get from that 10,000-foot perspective why Reinsdorf is the guy who comes up. I don't want to give Arturus Karnitius too much cover here because I feel like Nico Harrison has done him an incredible favor. Patrick Dumont has done him an incredible favor, taking a a lot of the air space of the NBA right now. And I think it just slid under the radar that after the deadline, Karnitius went up there, had his press conference, and explained that there are three different ways to build the championship team. You can have two stars on it, you can have three stars on it, or you can have nine or 10 very good players. First of all, that has literally never happened before. No team has won a championship with nine or 10 very good players.

Not a thing. Also, what qualify isn't a very good player a star?

I don't know what threshold he's talking about, but- What's better than very good?

Like, great?

Well, let's talk about that. Even if that were true, even if that were what the Bulls are trying to do, how many players on their current roster are very good or even pretty good?

I don't think they have one very good player. I don't think Kobe White is very good. I think he's good.

He's probably the closest. Theoretical Alonso Ball might be the closest. We hope Maras Muzillas can be that. Vuch, some nights.

Very good to me is like, if my son came home from I said, How did your history test go? And he said, Very good. I'm thinking that's like an A minus. Very good. It's really positive.

Yeah, there are no A minus players on this roster. I'm not even sure. This is a roster that is scraping for solid B, B minus talent right now. To the extent that it's there, it's probably years away from developing.

They got nothing from Levine. They have no extra first-round capital other than this weird protected first rounder they have from Portland that they'll probably never get. They have an absentee landlord as an owner. I think I would take every single team in the East future over theirs.

Yeah. You would take Charlotte's, you would take Philly, as he seems to be talking about.

Charlotte, the Brooklyn Picks. Even Philly, I have Maxi, and I have, hopefully, some tradable assets, and maybe Embiid will come back. Maybe I could turn Embiid as something. I would rather have every other roster in the East over Chicago's. I I don't even know what their number one asset is.

What a day for the Wizards. They had to win something eventually. They won your heart, at least relative to the Chicago Bulls. Congratulations to the Washington Wizards.

Honestly, Jordan Poole is probably better than anyone on the Bulls. This season.

That is the darkest sentence that I've ever heard someone say. Jordan Pooh- I think it's true. I think it's true, but it's very believe.

I thought somebody should have traded for him. We talked about it last week. I actually think he's really figured some shit out, and he's at least done it on a big stage before.

Jordan Pooh has had an exceedingly- But yeah, I like Kulibali and Saar and Karenton.

They've got guys. They're okay. They're going to have cap space.

I'll do credit to Jordan pool who's had an exceedingly normal NBA season. And for him, for a guy that talented, that's a huge step forward.

If I was a Chicago Bulls fan, I would be losing my mind.

Rightly so.

They're in the third biggest city in America. The Celtics are about to sell far between six and six and a half billion. So the Bulls were somewhere around there. Why can't they just sell the if they're not going to run it correctly. Great question. How long can you live off the Jordan? And how long can you be like, Oh, man, if D-Rose didn't get hurt in round one, oh, man. That was 13 years ago. I know. Last one on the six-pack. You wanted to talk about the Suns, who have a net rate in their last 15 games of 18th, who in their last 58 games, including the playoffs, are 26 and 32, who tried to trade Kevin Durant for about a week before they told him or his agent or his manager that that was even happening. Now it's like, yeah, this summer, they're probably going to trade KD. This is grim. What are you seeing?

It's not as loud or as dramatic as what's going on in Philly. And so, yeah, they get the lead in terms of the dumpster fire power rankings here. It's so disappointing to see the Suns in such disarray, quietly sucking all this year and seeing none of the primary stakeholders of that team do a single thing to fix it. And this isn't ultimately a second apron problem or a no-trade clause problem. Those are obstructions in terms of Phoenix making its roster better. They're not obstructions for anyone on this team playing into the ball on defense. They're not obstructions for anyone on this team fighting for a rebound. They're not obstructions, most crucially, to finding some semblance of offensive flow for a super talented team on paper. I know there is a worse than the sum of its parts thing happening here because basically none of the parts complement each other at all. It's just a lot of guys in their individual lanes not making each other better. And that is a really tough watch for people like us at this stage in the season. I just don't get the sense that anyone involved in it particularly participating in that offense either or participating in this season.

It's so disjointed. It's so unpleasant. I really dislike where the Phoenix Suns find themselves. And I don't wish this on any of them. This is just who they've been.

Well, the problem is they had a certain coach last year that they made the scapegoat for everything, Frank Vogtle, who won the 2020 title. They brought in Coach Bud, completely different philosophy. He's going to unleash these guys' ostensibly, and they're even worse. But to me, it's a talent problem. I was looking right around this time where you have, I would say, okay, see, Boston and Cleveland are the three best teams in some order. Then you think they probably have the best rosters, the nine-man rotation. Who would you take on a team like Phoenix? How many of their guys, other than the top two, would even play for one of the top three teams? That would be either Biel.

Yeah, he would.

I think Joe would play off the bench for at least Boston and Cleveland. I don't know about OKC, maybe. Who's he playing over? He would play. Who's he playing over?

They need somebody like him. That's the spark of the thing.

So you're giving them Isaiah Joe's minutes?

Sure. Yes. I feel fine giving Bradley Beale, Isaiah Joe's minutes.

Okay, so he's in the seven, eight, or ninth man range for the top three teams. Fair?

Maybe sixth on the right roster. Okay.

First guy off the bench. First guy off the bench. I would still rather bring Pritchard off the bench before him, but that's just me. Grace and Allen or Royce O'Neill, do they play for any of the top three teams in the top nine of their rotations?

I mean, this is the Tory Craig corollary because didn't he just crack into Boston's rotation a little bit?

Tense man.

Yeah. I feel like Royce O'Neill can do a lot of Tory Craig things. I would say he's slightly better than Tory Craig on balance. Grace and Allen, very much an issue of how much you need his shooting. Frankly, this season, whether his shot is on or not. Lately, it's been looking a lot better. Start the season was not there. If he's streaky, he's not very viable. That's a huge problem in terms of high-level competition.

nick Richards?

Yeah, I I think you can get minutes.

Maybe Boston, like the Kata, the random Kata game, maybe nick Richards is getting that as it. I bring this up because it's just grim what Phoenix did with all the stuff they traded away. I defended the Durand trade when it happened, or at least the idea of it. Even that night, none of us understood why Cam Johnson was in it. But when you're throwing in as many assets as they did, but then also paralyzing themselves to trade other picks. I don't see it now, and I don't really know what KD is worth this summer either. That's not like a miraculous parachute out of here. It's going to be his 19th season next year. What are you getting for him? Are you getting like Jalen Green in a first? I don't know. What are you actually getting for Kevin Durant at this point in his career?

If that's how this ends- He's got one year left in his deal? That's even worse than this, frankly. That's the hard thing about interrogating Kevin Durant trades is the packages feel more depressing. I I think the packages also force you to confront what you as an organization in Phoenix Suns have done with Devin Booker's career. A player who had to come into his own, who took his time, who grew as a playmaker, who grew as a creator, who, to be totally fair, is not having an amazing season by his standards, but a good enough one, a good enough Devin Booker season. And if you use that whole period of time and you have one trip to the finals in a somewhat weird Western conference field, and that's it, That's the primary feather in the cap of the Devin Booker era. That's really sad, honestly, for a star who's had this long-lasting relationship with the team. You would hope that a player like that would be rewarded with better.

How many teams did Luka fuck up during his career in the maps? Yeah, the Suns definitely. Because that game seven definitely was some weird kados with the Suns. The Minnesota, the fact that they beat Minnesota I think led to... I don't know if they trade towns if they make the finals.

Probably not.

Then Dallas themselves. That's another one. There's three with the blood on his hands. Yeah, the Phoenix thing feels like a wrap. We have not heard a lot from Michpia lately. No. There are no fixes. Then they're in a conference where this can't happen. We're going to have San Antonio coming. O'kasey is already there. Yokeage, you're going down the line. It's like this is it.

They have the toughest remaining strength of schedule of any team in the league from this point. They're not going to make it.

Well, the sad thing is Brooklyn had a few of those picks that they gave back to Houston to get their pick back so they could tank, and now they're not even tanking correctly. But those Phoenix pics are looking pretty juicy. Before we wrap up the six-pack, San Antonio, when do they throw the flag into this season? They're just far enough away that you could talk me into it.

What is throwing in the flag look like?

Some Wemby rest management. Some Wemby, Hey, we need to sit him down for three games. We're worried about some fake tendinitis and some fake part of his body. That thing.

I'm not sure they need to do that. I think they're going to be, again, perfectly fine coasting out, losing some of these games. Now, if the Fox thing catches on in such a huge way where it's unavoidable, then yeah, maybe you have that discussion. But part of trading for Dierren Fox is tolerating at least a little bit. And I think ultimately, their position is not so much tethered to their own pick. It's tethered to the other draft capital that they have. It's tethered to the guys they already have on roster. So I don't think they necessarily need to.

Counter? Yeah. Portland could pretty easily pass them. They could be the third worst team in the West, and they would be either four, five, or six teams worse than them in the East. They could be in the six to nine range with that draft pick, which puts you in lottery mode. Not too sure. I actually really thought that they were going to make a little bit of a run, and they just can't. I thought Boston really exposed some of the issues with them. I don't know if you watched that game. That was a tough game, yeah. They attacked Wemby in a really unique way that I haven't seen teams do before. And just in general, it just looked like two different classes of teams. Then you think the Warriors got better. I don't really see the path for them. Anything else you want to hit before we go?

I think we covered a lot of it. We covered every mid to terrible team in the Eastern conference, it feels like. We really gave the people what they want today.

Well, that's it for today's 6-Pack. But if that's not enough for you, remember, McLeo Bultra Courtside can get you closer to the actual tons of different prizes. Go stock up before the next game, enter for your chance to win at McLean-Bulcher. Com/ Courtside. Michelob Ultra, superior access. Courtside 2024 to 2025. Sweepstakes, no purchase necessary. Open to US residents, 21 or older begins October first, 2024. That already happened. Ends on July first, 2025. Multiple entry periods, visit micalobultra. Com/superioraccess/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines. I'm almost on official rules. Message the data rates may apply. Void were prohibited. Enjoy responsibly. 2025, Anheuser Bush, Michelobultra. Light beer, St. Louis, Missouri. Rob, we're both on the Prestige TV podcast doing White Lotus. I'm doing the recap with your TV wife, Joanna Robinson and Mally Rubin on Sunday nights. And then you and Joanne are doing the pre-caps diving in theories on Wednesdays. You could find that on... That's going to be a video podcast on the Prestige feed. That's also on our Ringer-TV YouTube channel. What are you the most excited about White Lotus?

Walton Goggans. Always Walton Goggans, but Kerry Coon. Never upset to see Kerry Coon on the screen.

And you haven't watched the first one yet.

Not a bit. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm really juiced for my personal trip to spiritual Thailand for this season.

That's the thing. You get to go on an actual vacation with the cast. You just Live vicariously through your TV.

From your lips to Daniel X ears, let's lock it in. Let's get that expense report filed. I'm ready to go.

You live back carerously. Just like, nice TV, just zone in, see the trees. There's a lot of monkeys. There's a lagoon. Yeah, lots of stuff.

I love a lagoon.

Really good. Anyway, you can hear us both on the Prestige TV pod. You can hear Rob on the Ringer NBA show on group chat as well. You can read them on an excellent website called theringer. Com. Mahony, good to see you.

Thanks, Bill.

Saturday Night Live premiered on October 11th, 1975, the same night as Game 1 of the World Series between Pete Rose's Big Red Machine and my beloved Boston Red Sox. I had turned six two weeks earlier. I have one hazy memory from that shout-out victory for the Red Sox in game 1. It was Louis Tee on teetering around the bases, somehow scoring while wearing a puffy blue warmup jacket. It was amazing. Was I sleeping later that night when John Baluchy declared his intention to feed his fingertips to the Wolverine? Of course I was. But the '75 Red Sox was my first favorite baseball team, and SNL eventually became one of my favorite TV shows ever. For the rest of the 1970s, SNL thrived in some alternate universe that just would not include me. We all knew about the show in school. We knew it was funny. We noticed the commercial. We knew our parents stayed up to watch it, but we couldn't sample it until fourth grade because something special happened there. That's when best of SNL shows started popping up in primetime as fillers for NBC's canceled shows. Suddenly, the nerds, the coneheads, the Wild and Crazy Guys, the Cheeseburger Guys, they all became part of our lives.

Needless to say, I loved everyone. I loved everything, but I really loved John Balushi, the Samurai guy, Joe Cocker, the Chocolate Donuts commercial, the But no, update monologs. This human being actually existed every week on some show way past my bedtime? How is this fair? How could I watch more? How could I get there? We didn't have DVR, YouTube, or social media in in '79, as you could probably guess. Once that week's SNL host said, Goodnight. The episode vanished into thin air. The only time you would watch it again is if it was in a rerun that summer. So I was out of luck until fate intervened. That same winter, my parents separated and I became an only child with an insane amount of leverage. Leverage used for self-serving proclamations like, I don't care what my bedtime is. I'm staying up late for Saturday Live. So one of my first live SNL shows was hosted by Margot Kidder. During Kidder's brief apex between Superman and Amityville Horror, two movies that I like. You wouldn't remember this apex unless you're over 50 years old. But one of SNL's underrated traits as an American pop culture institution, it catches 90% of our most famous actors, actresses, and musicians at the exact point when they are precisely the most famous.

Think about that, the most famous. That's SNL. The best sketch from that show Kidder's lowest lane character through a birthday party for Bill Murray's Superman character. She invited some various superheros to come along, and I'm watching it live. I'm just sitting there waiting for my guy Balushi. At the three-minute mark, the doorbell rings, Kidder opens the door, There's Balushi. Strolls in cackling, he's covered in green. He's dressed like, Oh, my God, he's dressed like the Incredible Hulk. Even now, you can listen for the audience laughing and clapping just at the mere sight of John Balushi, because in 1979, there was no safer comedy wager here in America than John Balushi as the Incredible Hulk. So he ambled over to Superman, shakes his hand, screams a mug pain. Oh, let go, let go, let go. Then later, he inhibites the bathroom with an Incredible Hulk poop as everyone recoils in horror. He comes out, Come on, take it easy. It's not supposed to smell like roses. I never laughed so hard in my life. This was done. This was a wrap. I had a new favorite guy, new favorite show. I stayed up for a few more season 4 episodes, and then Balushi left.

He left with Dan Ackrott for Hollywood, but I still watched all of season 5. Once, NBC started airing one hour best of best of NL shows on Wednesdays in the fall of 1979, suddenly kids like me could retroactively experience every famous sketch. Did NBC Did they realize? Did they realize they were cultivating the next generation of S&L diehards? Of course they didn't. This was the same year they tried it out Supertrain. There wasn't a dumber TV network than MBC in 1980, so we can call it a happy accident. But that summer, I made my father bring me to two R-rated movies, Caddyshack and the Blues Brothers, just to see Chevy and Murray and Blue Sheet and Acroid. In that fall, we bought a cumbersome PCR, and SNL became part of my life for good. Over the next five decades, the most important sketches and moments hinged on four impossible to totally measure questions. Factor number one, what was the impact in the moment? For instance, you might have a personal history of the Wayne's World franchise that's colored by two movies and a whopping 19 SNL sketches. You heard me, they did 19. Maybe Wayne and Garth stopped making you laugh 25 years ago.

I sure hope not because we're doing Wayne's World on Monday's rewatchables. It still holds up, by the way. But the first Wayne sketch happened on Leslie Nielsen's February '89 show, not long after Mike Myers joined the cast when he was simply the guy in the credits who had the same name as the killer from Halloween. That's how we knew him. Then they did Wayne's World. Everything killed. Wayne killed, Garth killed, the whole cable show on a basement angle killed. You watched the sketch in the moment, you thought, I want more of these guys. Do this sketch again. For me in the moment, it matters more than everything else. You know. You know with more Cowbell, Barry gibb talk shows, Star Trek Convention, Mr. Belvedere, you always know right away with SNL. That's factor number one. Factor number two is the sketch still funny right now. A little less important because comedy sometimes doesn't age that great. Sometimes the things we thought were funny in 1994, we don't think her as funny now. It's also hinging on something that happened in the moment, sometimes, which is like one of the last Wayne's World sketches ever, which happened in 1994 as Heather Locklear show, yet another host, APEX.

In the sketch, Wayne starts dreaming that he ended up in Melrose Place. Now, this is something that would make no sense to anybody who's under 40 and can't remember Melrose Place that they watched in 2025. But in the moment, it was one of TV's hottest shows. Sandler parading Billy, the P-whip boyfriend, was the highest to high comedy. You have to believe me. Everyone despised that Billy character, only the internet didn't exist yet, and we couldn't properly ridicule him. So Adam Sandler spoke for everybody. And that matters, even if the sketch itself hasn't aged well. Factor number three, does the sketch have any belated significance that transcended the sketch itself? Okay, here's a good example. Will Farrell's first SNL season, 1995, 1996. That followed the critically reviled Season 20, which nearly subvened the show and left New York magazine's infamous takedown cover story as its enduring legacy. How about that as a legacy? That summer, NBC makes a fuss. They're blowing up the cast. They're I've blown up the writing staff, and you had a real sense the show was on life support, which would have been the third time in 20 years. We felt that way.

Season 21, Meryl Hemingway is hosting the first episode. I'm visiting my buddy Jim Grady in Connecticut, and we play Shuffle Board until 4: 00 AM at Sam's My poor Chester, where I'm still the goat. One of those nights when I woke up on Sunday morning with my contact lens is still in my eyes, unable to remember how I ended up on the sofa and wondering why I didn't have a blanket. Nobody else was awake. I loaded up S&OP on Jim's TV, and I watched through bleary eyes as Farrell's first big sketch comes on, Get off the Shed. Again, I'm hung over as all how I could barely see, and this new cast member is jumping right off the screen of me. Who is this guy? He dragged at least four wheezy post-cigarette binge cough laughs out of me. At some point, Jim heard me laughing and rolled out of bed, and I immediately replayed Get off the Shed for him. Now, Jim was saying, Who is this guy? Later, Farrell plays a husband who kept coming up with off-color excuses to derail his wife and get her off the phone. That character was funny, too.

Combining the impact of those two sketches, you knew that your life in 1995 was suddenly 0. 77% better with this Will Farrell guy. You knew right away. Two decades later, Get Off the Shed isn't one of Farrell's 10 funniest SNL sketches. Husband Excuses probably doesn't crack the top 30. But that first episode mattered. There was a new sheriff in town. You needed to start watching SNL every week again. That matters in the big scheme of things. That's the third factor. The fourth factor, it's a cousin of in the moment. Did you know immediately that something truly spectacular had just happened? All right, let's go back to 1975. Richard Pryer is about to host the 11th episode. They've already banked 10. Snl has already established itself as TV's most groundbreaking show. No comedy show belonged to the baby Boobern generation until SNL showed up. This is a generation that devoured Rolling Stone. They devoured Derry Rock music. They hated Vietnam and Nixon. They revered George Carlin, Richard Prior. They loved improv. They loved Harbor Lampoon. They despised traditional sitcoms and variety shows like Carol Burnet. They needed their own show. After 10 episodes, Michael's, Lorne Michael's, figures out a show-to-show structure for that specific audience that barely looks different than the one today.

Skeches, weekend update, music, comedy performances, short film, basically in that order. I don't think he ever intended the show to reach 30 million people some nights, but who the fucking predict this shit? So Prior was that generation's hottest comedian, which meant no season one episode carried higher expectations. Chevy Chase had already become a huge star. What happens? It becomes SNL's first pantheon show. Prior's monolog, predictably great. Exorcist: Parody kills. Prior and Blue, she did Samurai Hotel. Everything peaks with word association, which is a sketch that pitted two of comedy's biggest stars against one another, Prior and Chevy Chase, who's the breakout guy for season one. Thanks to a sizzling performance by Prior, the racial tension that builds during that sketch still plays 50 years later. It's not a sketch that's age well, but it's one of the most important SNL moments ever because nobody had ever tried anything like it on live television before. This was dunking from the foul-line shit. This was Dr. J in the ABA contest. That was a word association. My favorite SNL episode ever also had my favorite SNL sketch ever and my favorite musical performance ever. This was when Stevie Wonder hosted.

They do this sketch called the Stevie Wonder Experience. This is eight years after prior, 1983. Wonder Host, right as Eddie Murphy is doing this wicked and slightly controversial impression of him, Eddie's a huge star at this point. You're watching the show live and you're thinking, there's no way Eddie's going to do Stevie in front of Stevie, right? But you're secretly hoping he would. It finally happens in a sketch with Joe Piscopoe, who's playing an agent. He brings in Stevie, who's a celebrity impersonator, and they audition for Murphy, who's a music executive. The catch is that Stevie's character bills himself as a Stevie Wonder experience, only he's doing a Stevie impersonation. It's horrible. Murphy goes, No, you're doing it all wrong, and proceeds to slip on a pair of sunglasses, and the crowd goes batshit. And he does Stevie with Stevie standing right next to him. I'm 13 when this happened, which is probably the best age to fall in love with SNL, even though I was already in love. You can think I'm crazy, I don't care. But the most exciting non-sports TV moments of the early '80s were this sketch, Letterman taking a show to LA and having Carson as a guest, Michael Jackson singing Billy Jean and doing the Moonwalk on the Motown 25 special, which was amazing, Reagan getting shot by Hinkley, Roddy Piper smashed in the Cocoon in Jimmy Snuka's head, in the premiere of Thriller on MTV, and I can't accept any other arguments.

Anyway, Eddie brings the house down with an impression of Stevie singing My Sharia More, and he's unbelievably crushed as it kills it. Stevie's standing right there. Crowd settles down. Stevie tries his impersonation again. It's still terrible. Eddie takes over, nails it a second time. Crowd settles down. Seam shifts back to Stevie for one last attempt, and Only this time, fake Stevie suddenly turns into real Stevie, and he belts out an acappella version that you can't even describe how good it is because nobody brought it quite like Stevie in his prime. He nails the last note, and the studio erupts like someone made a mid-court shot to win a tournament game. If you watch the tape, Pizz Capo breaks character. He lets out this delighted yup. That's how remarkable it was. I know he's a first-bout Hall of Famer. I know he's a musical icon, but I can't imagine Stevie Wonder ever bringing the house down quite like that. And Eddie pushed him there. Of course, Eddie never breaks character. He waits for the applause to die down. He waits an extra second. And then he finally says, No, man, it still sucks. Huge laugh, perfect ending, one of the greatest sketches in the history of the show.

At that specific moment, you would bet anything that Murphy would be one of the biggest stars in the world someday. But that's what made him such a unicorn. By sheer coincidence, by dumb luck, an SNL show that desperately needed energy and diversity and a real star stumbled into someone basically created by God to appear on the show. Of the biggest stars in SNL history, only Eddie broke in the show business on the show. He was a cast member at 19. He was the show's meal ticket by 20. He was a movie star by 21. He was a full-fledged, super-duper star by '22 and headed to Hollywood for good at '23. We will never see it again. He's the most talented SNL cast member ever. He's the only one to host a show when he was starring on it. For that, and many other reasons, I have Eddie as the SNL GOAT cast member, and I'll fight people in a bar if they want to come up with somebody else. Here's the thing. Only Eddie and Will Farrell could carry an entire season by themselves. This is like you're using the 2009 LeBron and the Cavs analogy.

How many guys could you win 60 games with if they were the only really good guy in the team? That was Eddie and Will Farrell, and that's really it. If you're building the hypothetical GOAT SNL cast, I think you have to have Eddie and Farrell, or I can't take the list seriously. It's not negotiable. But what would the rest of the cast look like? Well, three things. First of all, SNL needs to move like a basketball team. You need an eight-man rotation. You need one wild card off the bench. You want enough minutes for everyone. This is always the mistake the show makes over the years when they have these big fat, swollen cast, you have a 90-minute show with commercials. It's really about 67 minutes of content. You have weekend update, you have two musical acts, so maybe five, six sketches max, plus a couple update things. You don't need 17 people. You need eight, maybe nine. So we'll have the wild card. We'll have the Deion Waiters spot. That's one. Second, the best SNL cast members can either carry a sketch or glue guy a sketch. And the glue guy thing is super important because that was what Phil Hartman was the best at.

You have to be able to do both. You can't just be a one-man show. In this case, it's a lot like basketball. Can you take over a game? Can you set other people up? Can you play characters? Can you play the straight man? Can you sell other people? Can you do anything? You want a whole cast of these people. Again, you got to think like of the basketball team. You want the ball to move around. Then the third thing is I was trying to include different errors, the best of my ability. Eddie and Farrell are in. I got seven spots left. Phil Hartman was the best glue guy in the show's history. Dana Carvey, who I think is the most underrated male cast member now, he would have thrived on any cast for the entire 15 years and was a force of nature. Same for Bill Hater. There's five, and I don't think you can leave any of them off. Eddie Farrell, Hartman, Carvey, Hater. Best female cast member ever. It's still Gildo Radner. It's not fun to say because she was on the first cast and she had the title to begin with, and then other people probably tried to take it from her not knowing, but she's still the best.

She's the best female cast member in the history of the show. Kristen Wig was right up there, so she's included to that seven. I thought Maya Rudolf was the most underrated female cast member ever. She could carry any type of sketch. She could do all the musical stuff. That would be my eight. Then obviously for the wild card, I got to have Balutia Balushi. So I have Eddie Farrell, Gildo Wig, Hartman, Hater, Carvie, Maya, and Balushi. I'm rocking with those nine. My weekend update guy, Norm McDonald. Come on. Still living on social media 30 years later. They're still running his jokes from update. So I have Norm. I'm turning over all digital videos. I'm doing a time machine loop here. Andy Sandberg and Adam Sandler, they're just going to work together, even though they're from different errors. Knock yourself out, guys. Then I have the following 10 Hosts: Tom Hanks, John Goodman, Steve Martin, Chris Walken, Alec Baldwin, Dave Chappelle, Emma Stone, Ariana Grande, Melissa McCarthy, and Candice Bergen. If you're drawn from all the errors, that's the best 10 you're going to come up with. But remember, this is my list. It doesn't mean it's right.

I've only been watching the show for my entire life. What do I know? All right, 10 best episodes ever. So these are my 10. They might not be your 10. These are mine. Stevie Wonder, 1983, which had the Stevie had the Canon camera ad, Deon, the Hairdresser, and three Stevie songs, including him singing Overjoyed, which is the best musical moment in the history of the show. That's one I won't argue about. Go watch it if you don't believe me. The crowd goes nuts and just keeps cheering. It's like a sporting event. I have that episode, Richard Prior, 1976, which also had two standups from him, too. It had Samurai Hotel, Word Association, the Chevy Weekend update. That's the first great SNL show. Jim Carrey in 1996, which was the last episode of the before mentioned Comeback Season. This is Carrey at the peak of his power. He's coming off. He had the mask and he's. He's dumb and dumber. He's suddenly one of the biggest movies stars, and SNL had rejected him. So he comes on with a huge chip on his shoulder. It is Fireman Bill, Night at the Roxbury, Joe Pessy Show with Jimmy Stewart, does the cheerleaders, does Jacuzzi Lifeguard.

Also, you had Norm on Update, who was on fire, and you had a Spade Hollywood Minute. This is probably the best show of the last 30 years that they had. And by the way, Soundgarden was the guest. Steve Martin in 1978. This was why they considered it to be the best show of the Balushi, Aqababe, Murray era. Blues Brothers as the musical best guest. Steve Martin said, It was the peak of me. Actual quote, King Tut, did the wordless gild, the dancing scene, Wild and Crazy Guys, Medieval Barber. There was a point counterpoint on Weekend Update with Jane Carton and Dana Ackroyd that I always enjoyed when Jane would make her point and then Dan would go, Jane, you're an ignorant slut. A joke that would not fly 50 years later, but it was really funny because that's what newscasts were like back then. It was these males just dominating the show and the woman was over there. So they're paired in that. Really funny. Nerd Science Fair was on that as well. All right, fifth one, Tom Hanks in 1988, which I think is in the running for best season opener ever and probably was.

This had the Bush to caucus debate. Dan Ackroyd as Bob Dole, John Lovitz as Dukaka is going, I can't believe I'm losing in this guy. So I have that. There's a parody of the movie Big. Dennis Miller is on update. They do the All-Drug Olympics on this one. They played a game show called Jew, Not A Jew. That's actually pretty funny. They did the Girl Watchers thing with Lovitz and Hanks where they're just like, My forehead's just a little too big, and all that stuff. Mr. Shorter's a memory, Hans and Franz. Great episode. So this is, I think, the most underrated episode for me. David Alan Greer in 1995. They do the Wake Up and Smile sketch where the teleprompter in the morning show breaks and they all turn on each other Lord of the Fly style. It's unbelievable. It's one of the 10 best sketches. So that's on there. Spade does Hollywood Minute. Will Farrell does a Brian Boitano First Nation. Ted Koppel doing a Michael Jackson, Jack O'Backo. David L. Greer plays Brian Gumball off camera as this real Basically, like a crazy hood. It's hilarious. And then Norm was on update. I'm putting that one on there.

You also had Darryl Hammond on that show as Bill Clinton reviewing American President and talking about how much he loved that the wife and then Silver Chair was somehow the musical guest. You have that. William Shatner in 1986. This had Star Trek Convention in Alzheimer's, Sweeney Sisters at Christmas, TJ Hooker Parody. They had the Star Trek 5 Restaurant enterprise. This is one of the top seven shows ever. They even did a A For Life parody. Tom Hanks in 1990. Hanks was two of the top seven for me. This is the one when Aerosmith came on. Aerosmith was on Wayne's World. Hanks was the groupie doing the Siblin's. Siblin's, short-term memory, tales of ribbeledry. Girl of the Watchers, Miller and Update, probably the best SNL cast of that era. I have that. I have Eddie Murphy's Comeback Show in 2019, which was emotional because nobody ever thought he was going to come back after the show made fun of him a couple of times. He finally came He did all his old characters, and it was awesome. Christopher Walkin in 1992, where he did Trivial Psychic, Perrone and Stockdale, The Continental, Stock Talk. There was a Schneed O'Connor parody.

There was a That sketch, there was a Hollywood Minute, N. J. And braided on Weekend Update, and Arrested Development. That's my top 10. I also have, as Honorable mentioned, Timberlake in 2006, we did Dick and Fox and Barry Gibbs Show. Lindsay Lohan in 2004, when she was in that famous Debbie Downer sketch. There was also a really funny Harry Potter sketch. Sting in 1991, which had the Sinatra Group in it, some other stuff. Eddie Murphy, when he came back to us in 84. John Goodman in 1998, when this is the episode they did Neil Diamond Storytellers, but he also played Linda Tripp with Monica Lewinsky. There was a morning latte thing. It's just a really good episode start to finish. And Then Adam Sandler, 2018, when he came back, he played the Farley song, which was, I think, one of the most emotional moments in show history. Then Betty White in 2010, when she came back, was really fun. For my favorite sketches ever, and these are in no particular order. The Tony Bennett Show, the first time Baldwin did this when he had David Guest and Liza Manali on it. Lines were crossed. That is still one of the five funniest sketches for me.

It makes me laugh so hard. They sing a song together. It's making me laugh thinking about it. The Sinatra Group with Phil Hartman, when there was a parody of the McGofflin Group, and he's got Billy Idle on there and Luther Campbell, and he's just killing everybody. I watched this in college with my buddy Jacko, who was my roommate at the time. We watched it on a Sunday morning after we woke up, but I think we watched it five times, and we were talking like Sinatra, yelling at Steven Eady for the rest of the week. Steve WNDYR experience I mentioned the Neil Diamond Storytellers, that's the one where Will Farrell as Neil Diamond just going off the rails and being like, This is a song about my hatred of immigrants. Just incredible stuff. Mr. Belvedere Fan Club. This is a fan club for Mr. Belvedere, Tom Hanks Hosting, where they're all deciding how to interact with Mr. Belvedere. It's really about fan obsession, but it's really, really good. Jackie Rogers, Junior Jack Potwide. That's with Martin Short. That was the funniest character he played on there. Dysfunctional Family dinner with Sarah Michelle Giller when Will Farrell with the family is just eating, but then they would yell at each other and calm down.

More Cowbell. You know that one. Buckley Get Shot and Buckley Died. Those two were classics. The first Barry Give talk show I have that one. Debbie Downer at Disney, a classic. Greg the Alien, I think the most underrated Will Farrell sketch where he's hosting a sports show, but he might be an alien. Star Trek Convention with Shatner when he has all the Star Trek people and he's like, What's wrong with you people? And starts yelling at Ricken, the mastermind. Phil Hartman is Reagan. The Referee Pitman show is one of my most underrated ones. John Goodman as Referee Pitman. It's a talk show and all the people in the audience are like, Hey, Referee Pitman, how do you shove your head up your ass? Is it like, do you have to bend up? And they're just making referee jokes. Chippendale sketch with Chris Farley. Comedy Killers, which was like Jeopardy, but with Comedy Killers. And then the final answer ends up being the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Incredible. Unfrozen caveman lawyer. Dysfunctional family feud, trivial psychic, Farley the first time he did Matt Foley. Nick Cage and Tiny Elvis. Wake Up and smile, which I mentioned earlier.

Night at the Roxbury with Jim Carrey, which was just unbelievable because they had done this sketch a couple of times, and then he came in and just physically was somehow out shown, both of those guys. Election Night, 2016. I don't have a lot of ones from the 10 years just because you got to age with those. But election day, 2016 with Shapel, when everyone at the party is talking about how this is the worst thing that ever happened and Shapel is doing Shapel stuff, great. Then Bargazzi's Washington Dream thing was really good, and they've done two of those. But that was, I think, of the last five years, probably one of the greats. Then the only other one I forgot to mention was the Joe Montana one, Sincere Guys Do. Joe Montana is the biggest star in football, and he's on there, and you could hear his thoughts, and his thoughts were, I'm going to go upstairs and masturbate. It just was shocking here. Joe Montana say that. That would be my episodes. Then just for the hell of it, musical acts. Best musical performance ever, Stevie Wonder over He had second best. Paul Simon when he signed the boxer right after 9/11.

Really great. I think one of the best moments in the history of the show with all the New York firefighters standing there and Giuliani. It's really special. Queens of the Stone Age when they played Little Sister in 2002 and Farrell came out and did the Cowbell. Amazing. You two did I Will Follow at the end of an SNOW episode in '04 and ended up like... They broke the fourth wall and went in the audience. That was amazing. The Busboy is saying, Boys are back in town in 1983, right at Eddie's apex. And Eddie just went out and sang it with them, and it felt like a moment. Run DMC, Walk This Way, 1986. White Stripes, Dead Leaves in 2002, which is just like Jack White and Meg White at their fucking apex. It's awesome. Billy Joe saying, Miami, 2017 and 1981. It's really good. Nervona, Teen spirit, 1992. Blues Brothers, Soulman, 1978. Really fun to watch So Outkast saying, Mrs Jackson in 2002. Pearl Jam Porch in 1992. I love that. I love Porch and Pearl Jam. Hole was awesome. They sang Violet in 1994. I would encourage you to find any of by the way.

Billy Eilish, Bad guy, 2019. Visually, it was amazing. Ken and Crow sang Round Here in 1994. It was their first song, not their second one. They crushed it. It basically made them a hit band, which is the power of that show. If you crushed SNL, your albums took off. Shane O'Connor, Last Day, 1990. Last Day of Our Acquaintance, 1990, the print song that was actually her song. She's in that. Then two years later, comes back and does the Pope thing and almost commits career suicide. Although now, I think it's played out better for her. Kendrick, in 2014, sang, And it's great. Bowie did the Manor of the World in 1979, which was, I think, one of the coolest visual ones. Eminem and Dre sang still in 1999, and it's awesome. Then the last one I would recommend, if you want to go look up of these is Stevie Nicks' Stand Back in 1983, because there's some guy that is dancing during the performance. You'll know it when you see it. It's a moment unlike anything ever in the show. And also, it's a really good song. That's what I got. Those are all my SNL thoughts.

I can't wait to watch SNL 50. If you want to read what I thought about SNL 40, it's in the Grantland Archives, actually, from 10 years ago. But that's it. Those are all my thoughts. I word-dumped out to you on the pod and on the YouTube. You can watch me actually stumble through this. There you go. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Rob Mahony. Thanks to Kyle and Sourudi and Gehow as well. Don't forget, Prestige TV podcast this weekend, White Lotus. Sunday night, me and Joanna and Mallar are going to be breaking all of it down. New rewatchable is coming on Monday, Wayne's World. That will be the first video podcast on Spotify. Very excited about that. Enjoy the weekend. I will see you on this feed on Sunday.