Transcript of Why Can’t the NBA Actually Fix the NBA? Plus, Super Bowl Hangover Stuff With Nick Wright and Bill’s Dad.

The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast Network, where I have a new rewatchables episode that went up Monday night. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. We had not done a lot of Jim Carrey on the rewatchables, which is my fault, but we're starting to gain steam. We did Truman Show, now Ace Ventura. It was me and Craig Horlback and Zack Lo in his first ever rewatchables appearance. Oh, yeah. Very fun episode. The next episode that we're doing next Monday is a movie that's also on Netflix. They have all the Bond movies, and we're doing Goldeneye, which was pierce Brosnan's first Bond movie. And there's a great story behind it. It's actually an awesome movie, and you have six days to watch it. So there you go. Speaking of rewatchables, I am going to be in LA. That's where I live, but we're also doing a live show at the Wiltern tomorrow night. And for The other day that's going to that, just prep on heat would be my advice. The BS podcast live will turn 8: 00 LA. Prep on heat for the people going.

Obviously, everyone is not going. I'm sorry you can't go, but we will be running it on this feed. So there you go. Coming up on this podcast, nick Wright is coming back. The Patriots got smacked in the Super Bowl. I'm going to let him... Listen, I talked a lot of smack during the season, and everybody gets their turn now, and they can smack back at me. But we're going to talk about a whole bunch of general sports stuff, Super Bowl, NBA, Winter Olympics. And then I have a little McLean-Bultra six-pack that I'm going to do, a little mini NBA mailbag. And then my dad demanded to come on. He thinks that I'm banning him from the podcast because we're also showing it on Netflix. It's on Spotify as well. You can find it on every platform, but it's also now on Netflix. He didn't think I wanted him to come on anymore. He's very, very, very upset about the Patriots loss. We're going to talk about that and some Boston sports stuff. That's the podcast. We're going to take a break, bring him Pearl Jam, and then nick Wright. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

The football season may be coming to an end, but things are only getting started on the court, on the hardwood, on the wood, as some people call it. Fanduel, the number one choice for same game parlay is live betting and much more during the NBA season. Don't forget, with FanDuel, you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app right right now and play your game. 21 plus in President's select states or 18 plus in President DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Get in a problem call 1-800-Gambler or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org.

/chat in Connecticut.

All right, nick Wright is here. You can see my first things first. And like me, on Sunday night, a year ago, you watched your team just get eviscerated during a Super Bowl. And then your team, you were never the same. I think you went 6 and 11 and your quarterback blew at his knee and it was bad. It was the the dynasty. And here comes the Patriots, our new dynasty, and then they get violated in the Super Bowl. Now we're a dynasty less than the AFC.

Well, all right. So a few things as you just come out swinging. You're of the erroneous belief that the Patriots had one dynasty of '01 to '18. That's your belief, correct? That it wasn't '01 to '04, then the '05 to '13, good but not good enough with the undefeated season, and then '14 to '18. Because if you think the Patriots had two separate dynasties, then I will fold my hand, the Chief's dynasty ended this year. But if you think it's one continuous run, then we're still alive, baby. We can not win a Super Bowl for five years, eight years, like you guys, and still be alive. What are the table stakes here on dynasty rules.

First of all, we went 10 years.

Yeah, that's right. You went 10 years with a couple really horrifying, embarrassing, ugly Super Bowl defeats. Like, worse than getting blown out, losing heartbreakers to the bad Manning brother. It's hard to get over those types of things. The flow out is just like, oh, it's too much.

When they're in the Super Bowl, somebody put a montage of all the times they almost picked off Eli Manning during the first Giants Super Bowl, and it was over two minutes. It was over two minutes of balls hitting our hand, fumbles, that we had the fumble, and then somehow the guy rolled over and didn't have it. I got mad all over again. We went 10 years, and it got to the point that when Curse made that catch, Jermaine Curse and the Seahawks.

You thought you were dead.

Well, at that point, it's like, Spigate has cursed us. I remember walking through the emotions for two minutes there. There's something sinister happening now. David Thierry, Myron Manningham, All the weird shit that went on. Now we're going to lose on this freaking curse catch, and then it flips with Malcolm Butler.

The Patriots run is so special for a hundred different reasons. But it's also so interesting because it feels like, man, play five of those games, two plays different. And do you guys have 10 rings? And then also take five games, five plays different. Do you guys Guys, if the Malcolm Butler pass play doesn't happen, do you have the emotional gravitas 428 to 3? Or is the run over there? You know what I mean? I do think that the Seahawks Rocks' comeback, which is an underrated comeback, down 10 in the fourth quarter against that defense.

Two good drives, two good stops.

Right. Was the precursor to the belief we can do it in '16. But We're now- No, no, hold on.

This is an important point, though, because I do think when you're in the mix year after year, you're going to have some either or Super Bowl, some ones you definitely should have won, and then the lucky ones, and somehow that evens out. So the Katie Belichick, I think they finished six and three. Rams was a 50-50 game, but they really had the game. And they're doing the interception, TD, which gets called back, which flips it. Panthers should have been a win. Eagles should have been a win. First Giants game, they came back. We're down 14: 10. We do the drive with two minutes left, but then we can't stop them. That was a 50-50 game. So it was the next Giants game. Seahawks game, we should have lost.

Should have lost.

That's a Should have lost.

And Falcons, you should have lost. Falcons, you should have lost. And You should have lost. And the last Rams game was the easiest.

No, we should have won that one.

We should have won that easier than you did.

Well, what about the Eagles game? Where does that stand? Because braided threw for over 500 yards, and they somehow lost. So nick Fowles and Doug Peterson beat Bill Belichick and Tom braided. It's the one that doesn't add up out of all of those.

Especially because braided was so great. It feels like an arrogance tax. And I And the arrogance on Belichick with the Malcolm Butler weird thing. I understand. Listen, Foles, to his credit, was unreal in the conference championship game the week before. He was great that week, but There's no way whatsoever where Tom braided could have the game he had and you lose. And so that feels like maybe the oddest result of the last 20 years in the NFL. The either or thing on the chief side is interesting because we've had no either or Super Bowl's go against us. We've had three close Super Bowl wins and two teeth kicked in Super Bowl losses. Our either or games were conference championship losses. But can I silver lining those?

Well, yeah, the default game, that was a classic either or.

A classic either or that to this day, part of me is like, damn it, You win that game. Brady's on five rings, not six with the pats. Mahomes can get that one. He's beat him. But, Galaxy Brain here, if they win that game, and they make the Super Bowl Mahomes' first year, they don't fire the D coordinator, Bob Sutton, who then they then brought in Spags, which transformed an undermand defense early. So if they win that game, I don't know if they win the next year. I don't know if they have the defensive personnel because that defense was so bad in 18. The other either or game we lost, AFC title game to the bangles when Mahomes got concussed and nobody-We still haven't admitted he got concussed.

Yeah.

Right. It's down up 21 to three. They blow it. That's like, oh, my God, left a Super Bowl on the table. But again, the butterfly effect of that was that led to the Tyreek trade, which led to the next two Super Bowl. It led to the... And so the Chiefs, either or moments have come around before the Super Bowl. But this was that you were... So I told Wilds on Friday. He was like, just the only thing that can't happen is we get blown out. He was like, If we get blown out, all the schedule folks are coming out. Everything that we've seen the last 24 hours, he was...

The drink may MVP stuff, everything.

Yes, all of it. He was worried that what has happened would happen. But I told him, I was like, Okay. And he was as confident as you. He thought if there was a blowout coming, it was the other way around.

Well, we didn't know our quarterback got a freaking shot in his shoulder right before the game. If I knew that, I wouldn't have been confident.

Well, maybe your Patriot should stop lying on injury reports then because they took them off the injury report. Strip him off a draft pick. If you want the sympathy, I want a third-round pick. You took the quarterback off the injury report Friday before the Super Bowl. But here's the question I have, because what I told Wilds was, a blowout will not... The worst case scenario for you emotionally, watching with your sons, is a heartbreaking loss. So let me ask you, what was... Because I've never had a heartbreaking Super Bowl loss. I've just had teeth kicked in Super Bowl losses. What was harder to deal with? Let's call it the... The Giants are weird because there's extra baggage there. The Eagle Super Bowl loss where it's close the whole time, how did we just lose? Or this loss where it was pretty clear 20 minutes in, oh, we might be screwed here.

I'm glad you asked because I actually prepared something for this. The five levels Super Bowl losses.

Wow. Yeah. What? Really? Yeah.

Let's do it. Level one. This is the easiest one. We put up a good fight and we easily could have won, but we didn't. That's the Panthers against the Patriots in 2003. Really good effort. We almost won. We threw some haymakers. They beat us in the end. But you feel good. We got there. We showed up. We didn't embarrass ourselves. We could have won the game. A couple of plays could have gone differently. But if you're a Panthers fan, you're like, Man, I wish we had won. But we couldn't stop them.

Can that only apply if you're like a house money team? A nobody expected us to be your team.

That's the house money. If the Pats lose to the Seahawks 24, 21, and we came close, but you could tell we weren't as good It was like, You know what? That's a really good season we can build on this. Level two, that was painful. I wish we lost two weeks ago. So that's like Raiders Bucks when the Raiders get to the Super Bowl and the Bucks just kill them. And at some point you're like, I wish we never even made it. But you're going through the seven stages of grief as the game is happening. You probably had that with Chiefs Eagles last year. It's like, you know what? Probably could have missed this one completely in retrospect.

The only reason I didn't feel that way was I like the having never lost a Josh Allen component of it and the ownership of the AFC.

Four and over, Josh. Right.

Which is a huge thing. But yes, I was thinking the Chargers Niners, Steve Young game, where it's like, oh, man, maybe- I wish we weren't even here or the last build Super Bowl.

Yes. When they lost however many around. I'm pretty sure the Pats game like that was on Sunday, but here are the other three levels. Level three. Wow. We almost won and we freaking blew it. I I think to me, the perfect example of this is the Jimmy Garoppolo Super Bowl.

I was going to say the Brock Purdy Super Bowl.

Well, that Garoppolo, that long pass that he missed, he overthrew the guy by what, a yard, half-yard?

Yeah, Emmanuel Sanders.

You're thinking about that 10 years later.

But maybe this is a next level. What about the next '90s Super Bowl loss where they had a lead in overtime and the Chiefs were in fourth and one? That next night or Super Bowl loss, it is 1916, fourth and one in overtime. Get a stop and you win the game. And Nikki Bosa thought Patrick Mahomes on fourth and one in the overtime of the Super Bowl was going to hand the ball off and crash down on the running back and Mahomes just scampered. That, to me, was the more heartbreaking loss. But maybe it's a higher level. Maybe you're not there yet.

It's tough because I always felt like... I thought the Chiefs were going to win that. Everyone had so much belief in Mahomes at that point. It was just like, as long as he has the ball, I feel like they're going to win.

Fair.

Level four. We were demolished to the degree that it now changes every positive member I had of the season. So that's the '85 Patriots, where we had this great run. We beat the Raiders and the Jets and the Dolphins all in a row. We extinguish all these demons. Get to the Super Bowl. It is an absolute prison beating. It's like just people coming into the cell and hitting us for two hours. And then two days later, we have a drug scandal. There's a cocaine scandal two days later. And by the time it was over, you're like, I wish we... Now, when I think of this season, I'm going to think of this first, which is probably what happened in the Chargers, the Stan Humphreys season in a couple of others. I don't think that's the case for this Patriot season because they were one or two years ahead of schedule for the... We thought they're going to be. It was amazing. They made it, and it didn't make me feel worse about the season. I think this was level two. I have one more level But respond. Yeah, tell me a level. Well, here's the last level.

A brutal, unforgivable loss that will haunt me the rest of my life. That's 283 Falcons. That's Malcolm Butler game. That's Scott Norwood. You know the ones for that So the Patriots game, obviously, wasn't that.

And you haven't had a drug scandal. Now, your guy's version of Travis and Taylor, Stefan and Cardi B, might have hit the rock shortly after the Super Bowl. So there's that.

Can't believe those two crazy kids couldn't make it work.

I know. I really had my money on that one.

They seem so stable.

It's stunning. But here's why I wonder if this approaches level two territory.

Sunday. I think it's level two.

You do. I did. Oh, no. I'm sorry. So I have a second approach is level four.

You think level four? Yeah, the second to last level. Okay.

Yeah, second to last. I did it backwards. I do think I think this Super Bowl, paired with the playoff run in its totality, for me, has made me shift, Drake May in my brain from sure thing to probably, probable thing. Wow. Like, Drake May, I said after week 10, he's just going to be a top five quarterback for me moving forward. I don't know if that means Burrow gets kicked out or I don't know how it shakes out. But seeing him go 0 for 4, he was miserable in all four first-halves. Miserable. And the weather was fine in the first-halves of those.

He had a good second-al half against the chargers. He had three good drives against the Texans. Yes. He wasn't like a dumpster fire for four rounds.

Well, he was a dumpster fire in the first round for all four rounds. I thought that... In the first half, sorry. I thought that the way the Super Bowl played out was concerning in this regard. I thought it was pretty clear Vrabel's game plan was, Darnold's going to screw up. The game plan was, Don't make a mistake, Darnold will. And man, the first play of the game, he almost threw a pick six.

It felt like we almost got three of them.

Right. And you almost got a couple drive-changing sacks, and he just barely eluded them. And so Vrabel's game plan was, Don't make a mistake. And those first nine drives, it's nine punts. And then the moment, it was like, Okay, Drake, you got to go make a play, your final five drives is two touch downs, three turnovers. And it felt to me like throughout this postseason, the window opened of, Oh, against good defenses, in order him to hit those huge plays that he was so great at early in the year, does he become too loose with the football? Like, does the fumbles and the sacs and the interceptions, is that the cost of doing business for him hunting big plays? And that would be my concern. And I think that stuff predates the shoulder injury late in the Broncos game. I thought he was awful the first half of the Broncos game before there was a fleck of snow in the air. I thought, To me, he was like, I just can't turn it over. I've got to be careful, and that concerns me.

I watched the game again, and that's where I've landed. There's two pieces. One is what you just said. I think he was too sloppy with the ball in the first game, and they were hammering in, you have to protect the ball. They shut down a switch with him. Yes. What was great about him during the season, and this is why, obviously, I still am 100% on Jake May, He had the wild plays. There was a recklessness in a good way. Over and over again, he would just do something. You're like, holy shit. Whoa. Oh, my God. It felt like this was a more, I just got to protect the ball. That was the one piece. And the other piece was, I think he just took too many hits during this season. The shoulder thing, I don't know what the injury was, but he was missing, especially in this last game, he was missing throws that he completed 73% of his passes. He was He's missing throws that he made for four months. I've never been in a situation before. In basketball, you're used to it, right? When somebody's just they're bad in basketball, it's like, Oh, that guy's gacking.

Or, Oh, that guy, they've unlocked something like Tatum and Brown in the 22 finals. It was like, Oh, the Warriors have figured out something. These guys are young. This will make them better. They're going to come back stronger. The main thing, him missing 10-yard throws over the middle, it just tells me that he was hurt and they were hiding it because Because they weren't doing rollouts. They weren't doing rollouts before he got hurt before...

He got hurt at the end of the regular season?

If I had to bet on a scenario, I think he got banged up in the Chargers game because he took big hits in that game. But I think he got hurt in the Broncos game. Because if you look at the way they designed plays, they didn't use his legs at all. Seahawks are running, or they're rushing four. They have seven going back, which is like, that's like money for Drake made. Just get me past those first four. I'm getting 10 yards. They just didn't want to use him that way.

They didn't do it.

They didn't want to use him that way, which is different.

He's played 33 games, been sacked 102 times, which is a big number, obviously, 21 in these four playoff games. And that is what made him so unbelievable the first half of the year in particular was he had a A real devastating quality with his legs and- And throwing in the run, which was that.

That was his secret sauce.

And the best deep ball thrower in the league by a lot. The best deep ball thrower in the league the first two months There was a period where he was the only guy in the league that when I'm watching... Obviously, you're watching the whole league, but your primary focus when the pats are on is the pats. The pats are one of my focuses. But he was the only guy in the league that when you saw him chuck it 30 yards deep, you expect... It was the opposite of how I felt early in the season when Bo Nicks threw it 30 yards deep. Every time Bo Nicks early in the air threw it 30 yards deep, I'm like, That fucking thing is going out of balance.

You don't know where it's going. Yeah. Right.

And Drake, you expected him to catch it. That changed by the end of the season, then into the playoffs. Then there is this other element because Greg Jennings on the show, the biggest criticism he had was for Josh McDaniels for not giving Drake answers to the Witherspoon blitz. He's like, It's a slot blitz, which means, and you said it, I think, on Sunday's pod.

Yeah, Dings just has to go turn around two yards.

Dings just turned around. So I think McDaniels, obviously, is an awesome offensive porter.

But did you see the Seahawks? First, they said two things. One, they knew they could attack certain things. They knew it was going to work. It's always scary when the other team's like, We knew this was going to work. But it It seems like they knew when the Patriots were in run or pass, that they could tell by the way the linemen were lined up, that they could tell what the play was. And it was like, That makes sense. How did they know over and over again when the team was passing? So that would I'm getting bummed out again.

Sorry, I don't mean to make you bummed out. Because I have one Josh McDaniel's question and then one offensive line point and do whatever you want.

Well, that's another thing. We found out the left tackle had a torn knee ligament.

But we knew that. He missed a month with it.

They made it seem like he could play and it was healed. Then he's like, Yeah, I was playing with the torn. I think he was playing with a torn MCL, which makes sense because there were times people pushed him back and he just fell backwards.

Well, I mean, if people are watching on Netflix- Why is he even playing?

Bench him.

Okay. If people are watching on Netflix, Bill pantomine falling backwards. But when Bill pantomimed it, his arms weren't T-rex-like. They weren't regular. So that hurts. I mean, listen, you took a pretty good guard for overall. It's a tough spot.

No, Vrabel said he's- I know Vrabel said it.

What do we make of this stat? Ten Super Bowl's Josh McDaniels has coached in. To be fair, only seven is the coordinator. Tom braided or Drake Mays the quarterback for those 10. Three first quarter points total.

It ties into what happened all season. They I always started slow and then took second quarter, started, come on. I thought the coaching was terrible. Can I read you the common reasons for a shoulder injection, according to Google? Jesus.

Yeah, I'd love it.

It was like, Yeah, shoulder injection. I wonder why somebody would get that. I don't know. I've never had a shoulder injection. There's five possible answers that Google said. Number one, rotator cuff injuries, inflammation or partial tears. Number two, bursitis or tendinitis, inflammation of the burs tendons due to overuse or injury. Number three, arthritis. He doesn't have that. He's 23. Number four, frozen shoulder, adhesive capsulitis, extreme stiffness and pain where the injection helps improve range of motion. And then number I have impingement syndrome, pain caused by tendons rubbing against the shoulder bone. He had to have an injection before the game. And you could see it with some of the throws where he's like, whipping 10-yard throws, and there's a throw that died 20 yards. We'll never know. And I don't think they'll ever tell us because I think they probably lied on the injury report, which is illegal.

But they didn't know, probably. He was on the injury report Thursday. Friday before the game, they removed him. And then after the game, he's like, Yeah, my shoulder shot up. But what's weird about that is his three best throws of the game were in the fourth quarter. The throw over the middle in triple coverage, not the one that lost in the game, but the one that was caught, sorry, was a great throw. The countdown was a great throw. Those were late. So I don't know.

Well, can I ask you this?

Yeah.

Qbs, who would you want the next five years?

Love this. Love it.

Next five. So it takes us 26, 20. Basically, through the 2030 season.

The rest of the decade.

Alan Mahomes, May, Burrow, and Herbert. Is there anyone you would bump for somebody else?

Oh.

Alan Mahomes, May, Burrow, Herbert. Is there anybody on the cusp for you?

Well, that wouldn't be my top five.

Yeah, that's what I mean. So who are you bumping?

Yeah. So I would go Mahomes, Allen.

So you would take Mahomes over Allen?

Yes, of course.

Coming off in ACL in his early 30s then.

By early 30s, you mean 30. So yes, technically early 30s. Yes, coming off in ACL, I feel about Patrick Mahomes heading into 2026, the way you felt about Tom braided in 2009. So yes, I would have Mahomes-Alan, one, two.

But for me, May would have been one. And now with the playoffs that he just had, whatever the reasons were that we don't know the answer is, I don't know how he can be one. And I love Jake May. I wouldn't trade for any QB, but I'm trying to be rational. He can't be one after how he just played in the playoffs.

That's what's fair. I think we can open the conversation up a bit to, Hey, May versus Caleb will be an interesting debate over this next five years.

You would take Caleb over Herbert because I would, too. I was trying to be generous to the nerds. No.

There's a lot of people I would take over Justin Herbert because every column on the Ringer that is a Justin Herbert defense has this sentence in the first paragraph. You have to be willing to ignore his playoff meltdowns or there's this little CliffsNotes version of or Footnote version of, yes, we understand the two worst games he's played in his last 50 or the two playoff games, and they were both meltdowns of the historical context. That's three. Right. Because you included Burrow, I have a crazy stat for you. Last five years, last five years, Burrow and Lamar have played the exact same amount of games. And we look at Burrow as a real injury concern. And he and Lamar Jackson have both played 73 games the last five years. They both have not played in the playoffs three of the last five years. So for me, my top five would probably be for the next five years, Mahomes, Allen, Caleb, Drake, Drake, Caleb, 3, 4. And then my fifth... God dog it. Who would my fifth guy be?

Burro, Herbert, Jaden Daniels is in there. Just to chalk it off as an injury thing.

No, Jaden is skinny as I am. I would go Burrow, but I would be nervous.

But Burrow is my worst case scenario for the next five years for Jake May because part of the reason he had so many injuries is because he was getting the shit kicked out of him every year, playing no offensive line. It's like, there's so many hits that are just going to add up after a while, and I don't care who you are.

Don't you think Vrabel will... The reason I would not be as worried about that piece of it is Vrabel is just so much sharper than Zack Taylor. I don't I think, Ali, again, you know the path is better than me. I don't think Elie Wolf is running things. I think Vrabel is. Vrabel knows what to prioritize. So I think you guys will protect him. Can I ask you one more path question? I know there's other things you want to get to. Do you them to trade for A. J. Brown?

No, I want them to build through the lines. Honestly, we see it every year, and then we forget.

I totally agree with you.

If you can get to the point where you have a four-man pass rush that's effective, that seems like that's the single most important thing you can have other than a quarterback. And then the third most important thing is, can you block? Can you block? Can you rush with four? Do you have a quarterback you trust? And if you just have those three things, you can win the Super Bowl.

And you just said a pass rush with four is the most important thing other than a quarterback. Some would argue it's the only thing that stops the great quarterback.

Yeah, you're right. It certainly stopped braided a couple of times.

braided lost the Giants because of it. Both the Mahomes Super Bowl losses is because of it. The Pats just lost because of it. Our last two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks are quarterbacks that you grew to like. But you had questions about who had these awesome D-lines that just made the other team's quarterback pee down their leg. You know what I mean? Just play terrible. Wilds wants them to trade for A. J. Brown because he has the relationship with- I think the receiver are fool's gold.

People should look at the Tyreek trade as the example why he wouldn't do that. Trade with Tyreek, he won two Super Bowl's the moment you traded them.

Correct.

To me, paying $60 million for two receivers, I would just never do that if I a team. But it does seem like part of the art of this, and I hope the Patriots, Bob Kraft has been cheap. I'm going to use the C-word. He's been cheap for 12 years. Part of the art of this, and something Philly has been really good at, I think the Rams have been good at, some of these teams, of just they keep pushing the cap a year later. It's like the dinner check comes and they give it back to the waiter and they're like, Can you bring this back in a half hour? And then the guy comes back and said, Can we take 30 more minutes with this? And they just keep pushing it to infinity because all the NFL does is make more and more money every year in all these different ways. And that seems to work.

So this is something because I listen to Sheil. Sheil talks about this a lot.

Yes, this is a big Schill thing.

I disagree with him on the efficacy of that. If you believe you have a quarterback the level you believe Drake may is. Let me just give a look. What you're talking about is, I'll do this as quick as possible. I don't want people to turn it off. I'm talking about void years. Teams tacking on void years so you can pay a player a bunch of cash and it costs you cap in years they're not going to be on the team. You're borrowing from future years.

It's like a loan shark strategy. Correct.

A quarter of the league doesn't use them at all. The Chiefs are one of those teams. The Pats are one of those teams. They don't do it. The Browns did it out of necessity because the Watson trade has been such a disaster for them.

Wait a second. The Chiefs are doing something because they somehow had the ability to pay Chris Jones, Mahomes, Kelsey. But Kelsey makes no money, and those are the only guys on the roster they're playing other than their offensive linemen. But you have other expensive guys in the team, though.

The offensive linemen Chris Jones and Mahomes is the whole list.

That's where you landed now. That wasn't where you landed three, four years ago.

Well, what the Chiefs are doing is Mahomes has a 10-year deal. So Mahomes' deal, it's not void years. They can just constantly rework that. But let me say what Philly is doing. So the average team, the median team, 16th ranked, has like $60 million of void years, a future cap that they're borrowing from. The Eagles is at 472 million, and it almost all comes due in 2028 and 2029. So what the Eagles did, and they did this previously in one of the Super Bowl, was they are saying, We are stocking up on this five-year run, and then we are going to, by definition, have at least one season where They were bad.

Where we tear it down- Well, the Saints did this, too, with Payton, right? That was one of the first teams that did this.

But they did it because their great quarterback was at the end. They're like, Who cares if we suck after Brees? We're going for it. I wouldn't want the Chiefs to do it now. When Mahomes is 35, start doing it because who gives a shit about the team when he retires? It's going to be bad. If I were you and the Pats, I would hate- That's what we should have done with braided near the end.

Correct.

At the end with braided, if that's when you do it or- You do the seven-year deal with braided and you just keep pushing money around.

Correct. But they never did that.

If they did that now with May, it's like, okay, just so you know, when Drake may 29, all these bills are due and we're going to have an awful team for a year.

But that's why you give them a 12-year deal for $700 million. Then you start getting- The Mahomes deal is so crazy that 10 years...

I mean, he's on a 10-year, $450 million contract. So he makes $400 $35 million a year that they've never added money to it. They've accelerated money through him. And that gives you a level of flexibility that other teams don't necessarily have.

So they'll just keep redoing it. All right, we got to take a break. Coming back, some other sports I want to talk to you about. This episode is brought to you by Pepsi. I have one. It's right here. Pepsi Zero Sugar. I'll drink it later. It reminds me, you guys have to watch the new Pepsi Zero Sugar Superblood final. I'll have a sip. Okay. It follows a polar bear who steps up to the iconic Pepsi challenge. Labels removed. Which tastes better? Pepsi Zero Sugar or Coca-Cola Zero Sugar? The winner, you guessed it. Pepsi Zero Sugar. And that's based on real results. Last year, Pepsi revived the Iconic Pepsi challenge, and 66% of participants agreed that Pepsi zero sugar tastes better than Coca-Cola zero sugar. I don't know what to tell you. Go out and try Pepsi zero sugar today. You deserve taste. You deserve Pepsi. All right, NBA All-Star Weekend is coming up. It's 37 minutes from my house. I'm not even sure I'm going to go. I'm still on the fence. The All-Star Game has just beaten out any curiosity out of me over the course of my life. Now they have the world.

I don't know what's happening. Brandon Ingram is somehow on a team now. I'm like, I might just stay home.

Can I try to convince you? Hold on before you get to your... Because if you're not going to the All-Star Game, because I I'm flying to LA Saturday morning for a number of reasons, one of which is in something that I almost think is better if we don't even explain, and the audience who doesn't know my story is just perplexed by it. One of the reasons is I'm coming to LA to see my granddaughter, who's three months old. Wow. Unbelievable. But the other reason is, and this is where I think if you're not going to the All-Star Game Sunday night, you certainly should hit up Ringer colleague Rich Paul and come to the Clutch Sports Party Saturday night.

The Clutch Sports Party?

The Clutch Sports Saturday night All-Star Party. I'll be there.

I'd officially be a member. I wore the clutch sweatshirt last week, ironically, during the Trade Dead, bud.

I know. I'm just saying- Can I give you an All-Star Saturday thing that I just have to put my foot down on once in for all?

I don't mean to be a dick and just piss on stuff, but nobody likes tall guys in the Dunk Contest. I'm waiting to meet my first person who's like, Hey, I heard they have three centers for the Dunk Contest. Can't wait. The shorter, the better. I'd rather watch 5'2 People try to dunk than a 7' person. I'd rather they pick five foot two people out of the stands. Who wants to watch Jackson Hayes dunk? I wouldn't want to watch him dunk if he was outside my house right now, in my court.

Dwight was the outlier. Dwight was fine. I didn't even enjoy that. It was He was fine, and there was a lot of showmanship. He was fine.

There was a lot of showmanship. He's 17 feet tall, dunking on a 10-foot hoop. How hard is that?

Is this possible, Bill, that until we get to the point in human evolution, where somebody can do a front flip dunk, that all the dunks are done. What's happened to the dunk contest is actually we're out of new ways for people to dunk.

It's over. I've been saying this for 15 years. It's We're done. I was thinking, watching the Winter Olympics. I used to love the ski jump as a kid. It was the most terrifying event. They're using 1970s skis. They don't have the track the same way. And these people go down. You really felt like their life was in danger every time. You'd watch it. You'd just be like, Oh, my God. Next one. Oh, he landed. And now they have awesome equipment. And it's the most boring thing I've ever seen. It's like, Oh, he's a foot longer than the last person. It's like, Cool. All right. And I didn't watch it. There's no danger at all.

Once we've removed the possibility, there are certain things that the possibility of disaster is what makes it captivating.

Well, that's F1. Let's be honest. People are watching F1 partly because of the danger. And if they say they're not, they're lying.

The All Stars Saturday, I have a a lot of feelings about the things the NBA needs to fix and needs to fix from a unilateral just an edict from Adam Silver. Let's not have a committee. It seems like they keep tweaking different All-Star approaches, and none of them have worked.

Well, it's like we're both married. It's like if our wives were like, Hey, I'm going to try that tuna casserole again. And it's like, Well, it was terrible the first 49 times you made it. No, but I was talking to one of my friends, and they said, If I use these different breadcrumbs, it's going to be really good this time. I was like, All right, I guess. And you know it's going to suck. That's Saturday night. It sucks every year.

And the game, here's the only thing that could save the game. And it's not going to be- Wait, can we go back?

I want to get to the game in a second. Sorry. The Saturday, strip everything down, forget all the contests and the events. What do people actually want to see? If you ask your son, if I ask my son, just be like, What do you want to see? The first thing they would say to me is, I want to see Kaitlyn Clarke and Sabrina trying to make threes and beating the NBA players. I think would be the number one thing people would want to see. The number two thing would be, I want to see the best players in the dunk contest. Right? Yes. And that's really it for Saturday night. And then I don't know if you're not into a one-on-one tournament. No, because I don't think the guys would care enough. I think they would do the half-ass. The same reason horse doesn't work, they don't want to be embarrassed. These guys always move into I don't want to be embarrassed mode. You'd really have to pick it carefully. You'd have to pick the people like the Anthony Edwards types who would be like, I'm actually going to take this seriously. Honestly, out of anything, I'd watch the Isaiah Stuart running off bench contest over anything else as they asked to her, Coming off to save a teammate, risking a 10-game suspension, I'd watch.

Do you think, slight non-sequitur, you guys have talked about how Joker Joker wants to do something with his horses and is cursed by how good he is at basketball. There's a 100% chance that if Joker could make as much money doing whatever he does with his horses as he can in basketball, that's what he would do.

So you think he wanted to a horse event where he rode a horse shooting three? No.

I was thinking about Isaiah Stuart. We all agree that Isaiah Stuart's real passion is fighting, right? If somebody was like, Hey, you're Your NBA contract is valid, but it's for the UFC. He'd be like, I'm never touching a basketball again.

Sign me the fuck up. The thing is, he's really good. That hurt the pistons that he's going to get suspended. I think he's just the greatest teammate. He really takes things personally on behalf of his teammates, which I love. But we've also seen that going wrong. And on behalf of himself. Yeah, and on behalf of himself. He's the only person in 20 plus years who actually legitimately got mad at LeBron and wanted to beat the hell out of him. That's what I was going to say. Yeah, that was it.

He was going to fight LeBron.

And beat his ass is what was going to happen. Eme Adoka was the only other one who- Eme Adoka-side LeBron and was like, If we want to go, I'm right here.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that would have worked out well for Eme. Isaiah Stuart maybe has the age advantage and would have had a shot.

But should you have him minus 180 over LeBron?

Who? Isaiah Stuart? Yeah. Well, I mean, young Isaiah Stuart against old LeBron, maybe.

Lebron Crafty. Like a little Julio César Chávez.

But I would have LeBron minus 400 over Coach Eme Yudoka.

He's a tough motherfucker, though, that guy.

I know he's a tough guy. I understand. I still But this is foolishness.

Wait, I interrupt you on your Sunday thing. How would you fix the game on Sunday? Is it fixable? Because I don't think it is.

It's fixable in four years if your guy, Con Knipel, continues on this trajectory. We just have to say, You know what? Pc headlines be damned.

I know where you're going.

White guys versus Black guys. Luca, Joker, Flag, Reeves, Knipple, Wimby, whomever. I'm telling you right now, guys would play fucking hard. There would be a There would be a real edge to the game.

It certainly would get a lot of talking points going that week.

A lot of attention. We are getting close to a place where it'd be like, Oh, that'd be a good game. There hasn't been a moment in the NBA in the the last 50 years where if that ended up just by chance being the game, it would be you could see either team winning. But right now, Cooper Flag and Con Canipple and Austin Reeve doing a lot of work. Pritchers out there. Yeah. Right. But they also get all the Eastern Europeans. You get Luca, you get Joker, you have real talent. That's something. In the meantime, I don't know what the hell you do. This US versus the world thing is not good. Nobody understands it. Here's the problem. I do this for a living. When they announced the All-Star teams, I'm like, Wait, I thought they were going to announce eight foreign guys, 16 Americans. They still did East-West. I didn't understand any of it.

If you can explain it in a sentence, fire the guy who came up with the idea. Yes, that's right. It's a basketball contest. Can you explain in a sentence? Well, there's three guys in the world. This team's eight. There's going to be a run It's like, Wait, you lost me five seconds in. This leads to... I really want to dive in Adam Silver here. I might even run into this weekend, so this could be awkward. But I thought of this when I've been talking about Seattle and Vegas and expansion for four years. I was the first person to bring it up, and I think it was serious for a while. Then I think they backed off when the media deal was as big as it was. Then I heard it was just going to be one team. Now there's been buzz for a while that maybe they're thinking about two again. There's a big coalition against it that Jim Dolan is a big part of. Somebody reported this week, it's back on. I think it'd be a huge mistake. It ties into the other biggest issue that the league has now is the tanking, which has become Groundhog Day.

Every February, we do this. It's the first time everybody realized that tanking is terrible.

We're going to have two more- New ways to... What the Jazz have done this past week is unprecedented.

We're going to have two more teams when we already have eight teams on February seventh that have punted on the season. Eight of the 30 teams have punted. We're going to add two more that don't give a shit. Why would they do this? To me, there's huge fundamental issues with the league that they're just yada-yada-ing and pointing to all the media money they made and the fact that their players are famous and that everybody loves the playoffs. It's like the regular season has real issues. It's too long. Guys are getting hurt too much. Everybody is making so much money. The only reason to have 82 games is because you make money from it. You go down to 70, you make less money. Guess what? Devon Booker, instead of making $75 million in 2028, he'll make 73. He'll be fine. All this shit, everything they're doing, they're not serving the larger picture of what do fans want, how do we keep our players healthy? How do we have a competitive season from start to finish? How do we avoid over one-fourth of our league not giving a shift for the last two months? How do we fix this?

And it's the first time I really wonder, do we have the right guy running the league? Because he doesn't seem interested in actually fixing real problems that everybody can see. And it's not about, look at the NBA Cup. Oh, we created this thing. It's like, your schedule is too long. You have to fix this. It's too long. It should be 70 games.

First of all, that's a great three-minute Simmons rant.

Yeah, I just did a first take rant. Jesus.

That was great. That was a great rant.

Sorry, I got fired up.

No, but Is Adam Silver a wartime consigliery? And does anyone in the NBA office understand it's wartime? To your point, The media deal is separate from the overall health of the league long term. I listened, obviously, to your conversation with Chuck about his great book, Football. And he talked about it The sidebar to your conversation was the ebbs and flows of league and popularity and what has been in the sports fan zeitgeist over the last 100 years. And one of the lessons of that is no league, no sport has a lifetime license to importance or to being a major, major American sport. And the arrogance any of the Leagues could have, which is it couldn't happen to us is concerning. Major League Base for whatever criticisms people have, their Commissioner, who I think is fair, there's a lot of fair criticisms of him. He said, You know what? We have real issues right now, and I don't give a shit if people people think these changes are too drastic. I am just going to, by edict, change some of the rules and make the sport because ultimately, it's all entertainment. This is the entertainment business.

We're fighting for eyeballs. We're fighting for interest with Broadway, with other leads, with TikTok, with everybody. We've got to become more engaging. And the NBA's right now refusal to, to me, address what are... They're in a Every front war of what are real threats. Front one, I'm not going to pretend to be smart enough to understand, which is something about the way modern basketball is played, modern athletes' bodies are not really able to handle.

And we have more- You're a guy, LeBron, said this on more than a game, and it came and went at the moment, but he's like, Basketball is way harder to play now. It just is. I'm telling you, I've been here for 20 plus years. It's harder to play now. There's more running. There's more stop and start, there's more It's harder. If they're not going to listen to him, what the fuck?

And you've talked about how the canary in the coal mine is the Achilles and how that used to exclusively be an old guy injury, and it's not anymore. And these soft tissue issues. So that is a big... I'm not saying there's a simple fix to that, but that is something that is.

You know what one fix would be? Get rid of the Euro step. How about that as a fix?

Change the rules dramatically.

How about the footwork shooting coaches? I don't have to name them, but how come certain clients of certain shooting coaches seem to have lower leg injuries all the time? It's because they're putting too much stress on their lower legs. Thierry Sauerburt and Jason Tatum shouldn't be blowing out their Achilles It's insane. At age 26, 27. It's ridiculous.

That's the first one. I think that's the hardest one to solve, but it might be as important as any. The second one is this. This one, I don't care if I It doesn't sound like an old guy. As I said, I'm a grandfather. I'm allowed to be an old guy.

Grandpa nick.

Part of every sport has an identity that makes it special. For football, it's violence. It just is. It's just that that's not the only thing, but there is a violence to it that attracts us.

I think football is violence and strategy combined.

Sure. I think those two things together makes it the most popular sport. Base, it's nostalgia and the fact that it just brings you to a place in the year, a place in your life, summertime outdoors, the feeling of that, all of that. Basketball, for me, for my entire childhood and young adult life was, holy shit, is that guy flying? It is crazy athletes. It is crazy feats of athleticism mixed in with balletic brilliance.

And I would throw in coolness, too. Even in the '70s, going to games, the basketball players just seemed like the coolest fucking guys in my life. And that's been the case ever since.

And what the analytics revolution and three-point shot has done to what is rewarded, what style of play is smart, and what types of athletes succeed in the league has taken away an enormous amount of what was the NBA's identity, which was the rewarding getting to the rim and rewarding different styles of play. And so when I say on this one, I have some drastic suggestions that seem insane, but I don't think radical changes are out of line. On I loved the Hollinger idea of every team draws their own three-point line up to and including a team like the Nuggets three years ago. They were like, We're not having one. If we get homecourt, you better be able to win games going by two. It makes the regular season matter more because homecourt matters more, and teams need different styles. I've said, and people laugh at me like I'm joking, and I am, but I'm not.

I'm jealous That's also that three-point line idea. He's had that forever, but it's a great idea. It's such a great idea. It's basically like the outfield wall in baseball. Every outfield wall is different, and that's how we do it.

And in different parks, it's like, Oh, shit, we're going to Finway. It'd be like, Oh, man, we're going to Golden State. Remember, there are three-point lines from 40 feet out, whatever it is. The one I've said that people think I'm joking, but I'm only joking. Hey, everything stays the same except for one small rule change. Dunks Dunks also worth three. Dunks also worth three, by the way. And see if you prioritize athletes and a different style of play. And again, that seems insane. And I'm not saying... And the NBA historian part of me doesn't even like it, even though it's my own idea. I'm like, What would you do to the record books? But the sport is on shaky ground because the smartest way to play is not the most attractive way to play. And that then gets us to the third thing, which is the tanking.

All right, so you have style of play, you have the injury stuff, and now you have the tanking. Those are your big three.

And the tanking is an abomination. And the fact that it hasn't been nipped in the bud by the... I don't care if you want to go to Mike Zeran's draft wheel. I don't care if you want to go to your idea of, Hey, you are whatever pick you had in last year's draft, if it's in the lottery, you are guaranteed a pick at best, three spots worse. So if you have the number one pick, you're capped at four. If you had whatever it is, I wouldn't care if they said, Hey- How about you can't have two top four picks two years in a row?

You can't. Sure. So Dallas, San Antonio, Philadelphia, and Charlotte had top four picks last year. None of them are eligible. So Dallas, tank yourself away. You can only get the fifth pick, but knock yourself out.

I also would be... I don't understand how you can see what Utah has done the last couple of games.

Well, the one this week is... They might have made history with really good players just not playing the fourth quarter in early February. It's not even April yet. It's not even March yet. It's not even Valentine's Day yet.

It's not the All-Star game.

These guys are just sitting. Jaron Jackson and Lorri Marconin are just sitting on the bench, and they win anyway, which was the funniest thing.

But think about what we're saying here. The Utah Jazz traded for a really good player.

Yeah.

With the intention being, yeah, of course, he's not going to help us win games. The Hawks traded for two players with the intention of, well, not for this year, and we're all fine with it. I shouldn't say we're fine with it. The league's fine with it.

You mean the Wizards, not the Hawks?

Oh, yeah. I apologize. They traded with the Hawks. Yeah, they got Trey Young and Anthony Davis to never play them. And I understand there's injuries. How do the jazz...

Yeah, but here's my question back to you. How do you blame them? The whole point... So I'm going to go back, and I want to keep going on your three things, but I'm going to go back to 1984, which was the birth year of tanking. This was it. This was the Jonas Salk polio vaccine of tanking. Hakeem and Jordan are the draft prizes. It's still a coin toss for the first pick.

It's so good.

Everyone has traded away their first-round picks in dumb trades. Indiana, they're one of the worst teams. They'd already traded their pick for Tom Owens. Cleveland, they're one of the worst teams. They'd already traded their pick for Mike Bratz. The Clippers, they'd already traded their pick for World B free. So the only two teams that controlled their own picks that were bad were Chicago and Houston. Chicago starts out 15 and 17. At some point, they're like, they finished 12 and 38. They lose fourth in the last 15. They get blamed for tanking. I went and looked at the roster. Their guys all played. I think they had a lot of drug stuff and weird shit on that team. I'm not even positive they're tanking. You know who was tanking, though? Houston. Houston is Ralph Samson. They start out 20 and 26. They finished 9 and 27 their Last 36. They lose 14 to 17, not in the last 10. There's a famous game that is the birth of tanking. Second to last game of the year. They're playing San Antonio. They need to lose. Game goes to overtime. They lose in overtime. Samson only plays 22 minutes.

He is a 22 and 11. They don't play him, basically, second half. Elvin Hayes is on this team. You know who Elvin Hayes is? One of the title of the bullets.

Top 50. Yeah, of course. Top 50 guy. I would say one of the top 35 guys ever.

Top 50, top 60, whatever. However, he's washed up at this point. He's playing 12 minutes a game. He's at the tail end of his career. He's like, I don't know, pick somebody now that's... He's Chris Paul. He plays all 53 minutes of an overtime game. Go seven for 20, 16 points. They lose. They never take him out. And they're joking after like, he needs an IV, he might need to take him to the hospital. Their way of tanking was to just put Alvin Hayes out to fucking die. So what happens? Houston gets the first pick. They win the coin toss. They get Hakeem Olajuwon. Chicago gets the third pick. They get Michael Jordan. Everybody's like, this is fucked up. We have a lottery the next year. And we haven't figured it out since. This was 1984. So this is 42 years ago now. And 42 years later, after this event of the Oven Hayes game, we have Lauryn marketing and Jaron Jackson completely healthy not playing in fourth quarters. In everywhere. 42 years later, they have not figured this out.

All right, two things quickly.

But by the way, it's worth it. Chicago got Michael Jordan, Houston got Hakeem Olajuwa. Would they do it again?

Yeah. Of course. But so two things. First one is this. There is nothing you've ever said about LeBron, Patrick Mahomes, or my hair that hurt me more than you questioning if I knew who Elvin Hayes was. That was a dagger to my heart.

I just wanted to make sure.

That's fair.

I like your hair.

Thank you. No, it was House who killed it. It was just House. House is yours. Here's the... Obviously. I mean, give me a break.

Come on.

But I don't know the year, you'll know the game. Not that long ago- Mark Madson? There you go. Gratuitous tanking was games 79, maybe. Eighty, yes. Eighty-one and '82, fine. And Mark Madsen, green light from three, no problem. And we all were like, Okay, we understand it. We get that at the very end of the year. But the mission creep of that to where we are now is galling. I do think that the simplest solution, in addition to what you're describing about you can't... If you have top four, your next highest you can have five or whatever, might simply be it is back to a version of the Ewing lottery, which was everyone has the same odds. Everyone is at.

I called for this in my book in 2009, and then I somehow got off of that idea, and now I think I'm creeping back onto it.

Now, it's possible the negative impact of that would then be teams that could be in the playoffs would be like, No, we want to miss the playoffs to get in.

But I think if you just said- I think if play-in teams are not eligible, because the worst case scenario would be a play-in team being like, We're not going to do anything anyway, and they tank the play-in game, which would be an absolute disgrace.

So play-in teams are not eligible.

So the final 10, all of the same odds, the worst 10 teams, same odds across the board.

10% across the board and with real harsh penalties. If there is any indication that a team is attempting to avoid making the play- He's not going to do that.

He's already been too soft on that. Can I throw an idea at you? Because I think that no top four pick two years in a row would solve some of this. Any team that falls below 27 wins for this season, so you have to go 27 and 55, that's the cutoff line. For every loss under that, you lose a million dollars in cap space for the next season per loss, 2% refund for season ticket holders per loss for the next season. If I'm, I don't know, Wizard season ticket holder, and they go 16 and 66. They go 11 games under the cutoff. I have 22% off my tickets for the next year. Just blanket. Actually, we're taking money out of their pocket. Plus, they would lose 12 million in cap space for the next year. So you couldn't do the thing where it's like, we're tanking, but then next year we're going to go for it. It's like, No, you can't do that. You didn't take last season seriously. We're taking some of your cap space. We're lowering your luxury tax, and we're fucking you over on this because this is not right.

Yeah, I'm fine with extreme penalties. I would be fine with what they said, Hey, just so you know, if you get the number one pick of the draft, if in that number one pick's rookie contract, you make the playoffs, it's five road, two home in the first round. I would be fine with drastic. And it would Nobody who ends up with Cooper Flag is going to actually be bummed about it. But you can't do relegation in the NBA, but something that is relegation-ish where There is a real negative impact of being awful.

The way to relegate is cap space.

Yeah, that's right.

To actually hurt a team's ability to make themselves better and to penalize them. The thing to me that I always go back to is the season ticket holders. They have to pay full price for this shit. You're in Utah and you're loyal to the team. I like you. I like their owner, Danny Anges there. I get why they're doing what doing because the rules aren't telling them not to do it. So they're actually playing this correctly. But it's not fair. Now Utah, this is three years in a row where they haven't given a shit about the season. They have Laurie marketing, who's top 25 guy, top 30 guy.

But so that is... What you just said there is a huge key to, I think, also the three-point issue, which is directly contradicting incentives. And I actually had a Sloan conference 10 years ago or eight years ago.

Oh, name track.

Well, I moderated a panel, and our friend Darryl was on it. And I asked him then, basically, how do you square the circle of the smartest way to build a basketball team, which is your job, might not be the best way for the league to grow? And he said, My job does not allow me to be concerned with anything other than what is the best path possible to build a champion, whether that's style of play, how we approach things, whatever. He said, and I'm paraphrasing him, It's the league's job to worry about those other things and put the rules in place to make sure the smartest way to win a championship and build a team does not contradict with the smartest way to grow the sport. And that's where I think the league has failed. I don't think it is an extreme position to say they have failed in that what you're saying is these tanking teams, it's smart for Milwaukee. You know what you should do? Not play Giannis the rest of the year.

But look at the people that we think are the best general managers or the best run teams, right? San Antonio tanked twice.

Yes.

Oklahoma City. Okay, C. Presti. Shut down SGA, I think two years in a row. Danny Ains with the Celtics. 2007, the team threw... Paul pierce was healthy. They threw him away for the last... All the smart teams have done this. Darryl would do it. I mean, it went out of control with the process. But everything we're talking about is tied together, though.

The schedule being too long- All the great J. M, Sean Marks, too.

But the schedule, tanking, actually, you can solve a lot of the problem by fixing both at the same time. If you have a shorter schedule, I look at the Premier League, which has a way shorter schedule than the NBA would ever do, but it leads to some really great things. And you have like, Lester was able to win that one year, partly because the schedule, the sample size was smaller and they got lucky. But if you have a 70-game season or 72, whatever, better for the players, you could space stuff out better. It's more egregious if guys don't play. And you also cut down the last three weeks of the tanking. I had Khan Knipp on my podcast in December, and I gave him a ride back. Maybe he said this on a pot, I can't remember. But we were talking about, do you ever get to practice? He's a rookie, he's 20. We think like, Man, it might be important for Khan to practice. He just got in the lead. He said they hadn't had a practice at home in six weeks. How is that? In six weeks, they hadn't practiced in the Practice Center at Charlotte when I saw him December or January, whenever that was.

Steve Kerr says the same thing. At these press conferences, if you want a free two-minute answer from Steve Kerr, ask him what he thinks of the schedule because he'll talk about it every time. It's like, We don't get to practice. Our guys are playing hurt. Our guys are banged up. The sport's too hard. The season's too long. Now, Curry's hurt. I was going to go to the Laker game. We're taping this on a Tuesday afternoon. It was a good day. They rested all their dudes today. And it's like, No, I'm not going to go.

Yeah. Momentous, by the way, because of that, moment of silence, LeBron's incomprehensible 20 straight all NBA is officially dead. I know that, listen, he probably wasn't going to make it anyway, but now he won't hit the 65-game threshold. Yeah, I mean, that is a week. And again, this part is cliché at this point. Everybody knows this is an issue. But people... Coach Manjeanie, my dear friend, and who contributed to First Things First.

He was- Spyga whistleblower. I'll never forgive Turned out as a mentor. He's one of the greatest guys in the world. He's a mentor, Turner. I had him on my podcast once.

He and his son were in New York two weeks ago when he was doing the show, and they had tickets to Lakers Nets because he wanted his son to see LeBron. They live in Cleveland. Son is a huge LeBron fan. He talked with me a ton the days leading up to it like, Do I need need to also buy tickets to Lakers' Knicks because how confident are we that LeBron is going to play? And now LeBron is the oldest player in the league.

You have 50/50 chance, right.

Right. But that is such a... You can't be, and I know people have heard this before, but it's so maddening. They haven't fixed it. You can't be a league where you are just stars, market the stars, come see our stars, our stars carry us. And by the way, if you go see a game, the stars may or may not flood. It's a disaster.

That is a disaster. We're also on five different channels right now, and you have to spend 10 seconds remembering what day it is for the Peacock game or whatever. I love the NBA. This is why I care. This is why I wrote a 700 page book about it once. I would say anything we have talked about for the last 40 minutes to anybody who works for the league. I know a lot of people that work for the league. I like the people that work for the league. They know this is a problem. And the schedule thing comes down to money and that's it. And it starts with that. And then the tanking thing also comes down to money and comes down to coming up with real penalties that would incentivize somebody like Utah, who clearly Utah is Jaron Jackson. They have Laurie marketing. They have Keanthe George, who's been a breakout star. They're going to have another lottery pick, and they obviously want to be good next year. Will Hardy is going to probably develop a drinking problem. If they're actually penalized for how they're handling this year with the cap, and the cap comes backwards by 12 million or whatever because of the way they're behaving, maybe they don't behave that way.

They have to start thinking about this stuff.

So here's my question for you, because I don't know the people in the league the way you do, but I do care about it the same way you do. My whole life, up until probably 10 years ago at most, I'll be honest, probably till Mahomes came into my life, I would have said the NBA is my favorite by a mile. And now I don't feel that way. I feel like the NFL is slightly ahead of it.

I'm like, I'm 50-50, and I never used to be 50-50. I was always NBA first.

Correct. Me too. I love the league so much. I understand on an intellectual level why shortening the season is a hard ask because of the money. I get it.

It's six home games for every team.

No. I think they should do it.

You're talking 12 million a year plus TV money. Maybe it's 20 million per team split with the players. It costs everybody 10 million a year. It makes the lead better.

I agree with you 100%, but I still understand why that's hard. I don't understand why penalizing tanking is hard. Why can that not just be a red line? Hey, Utah, congrats on what you did this week. You don't have your first round pick now. So do whatever the fuck you want to do.

So you're talking about wartime consideration Adam Silver being like, I've had it. If you do that again, I'm going to suspend you. So another theory or another idea that a couple of readers had was, could you suspend ping-pong balls?

Love it.

Yeah. So with Utah, they do the Laura Markin and Jaron Jackson thing. Adam Silver is like, I didn't like that. You're going to be 20 ping-pong balls shy at the lottery. I'm taking away 20.

And this is where you need to just have, Hey, you need to I have a commissioner who people trust is ethical, which I believe the league has. I don't think people think Adam Silver is... You need to have someone who they trust is ethical.

But you might need a fucking asshole at this point. You might need mid 2000s David Stern.

Right. But the rule needs to be more lenient than what it takes to overturn a call in the NFL. Basically, if I think that's fishy, you might get penalized. You're going to have to trust me that I'm not playing favorites. But just so you know, if I think you are not on a night in, night out basis, trying to win basketball games, you might end up out of the lottery no matter what. You might end up having real penalties that go against what you think the whole purpose of this is. I don't think it's that hard.

So the ping-pong balls with the lottery, I forget how many there are for each team.

Well, I can do that. There's a thousand total.

So if you have- Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. So the top four get 200 or whatever. Yeah.

So 130 would be a 13% chance.

Would you allow teams to trade ping-pong balls? Maybe ping-pong balls are part of the answer with this. Adam could penalize people ping pong balls when he sees fit, and there's just less ping pong balls in the thing. I mean, it's sad that we have to come up with dumb ideas like this. This already should have been solved. Because here's the thing with the league. They do this new CBA. They basically put in a hard cap, right? You saw these teams scrambling to get under the tax, making their teams worse. It's a hard cap because yet again, they took advantage of the Players Association, which got its ass kicked. I think for the fifth or sixth time in my lifetime, go figure, buy a bunch of rich dudes with better lawyers. They just figured out how to do this, cut the cost because they're going to make as much money as they can from everything possible, he could still be a hard ass with the owners. They all won. They're all winning. They all made a cajillion dollars already. Start cracking it a little bit, Adam Silver.

Well, that's the part of it, and that gets back to the point I was making about the difference between shortening the season and fixing tanking. Shortening the season, you're right, it would be better long term. I think everyone would make more money. There's a million reasons to do it. The one reason they wouldn't do it is those 30 owners would be like, Wait, so 12 million less? It doesn't sound great to me. And you don't want to have that fight. But it doesn't cost the owner's money to fix the tanking. All All it takes is a stern will to actually enforce your rules on the books. You have anti-tanking rules. It's just like you have anti-flopping rules that don't get enforced. You can simply say to a team, Hey, you are allowed, if you would like, to trade away your best players. That is fine. You are allowed to do things where you were like, We're not there yet. So you are allowed, if you're the Pacers and you see Halliburton's hurt and you want to, I know they didn't trade Miles Turner, let Miles Turner walk. You're allowed to build your team however you want.

But once the season begins, those guys who are paid to play pro basketball and the coach who is paid to try to win games. If you're not doing it, there is no world where that's good for you. There is no world where people can come on this podcast and be like, Milwaukee not playing Giannis is smart. That's not smart. That's abhorrent. And it would never be accepted in the league that keeps growing in the NFL. It would never be accepted before Thanksgiving, much less before They wouldn't even be accepted at Christmas. But what's a good example this year, if the Cowboys, after the first six weeks of the season, was like, We're sitting Dak Presca because we really want Julian Love out of Notre Dame. Is he hurt? Well, he had that injury last year, and we're just being careful. But let's be honest, we're not playing for anything. Do you think Roger Goodell would accept if the Cowboys were like, I know we're playing on Thanksgiving, but Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens aren't because we want to lose the game. Well, the players are out there, we'll try, but we actually want to lose.

No, they wouldn't. It would be an outrage.

Yeah, they'd be probably afraid of the reaction from the person in charge of the league.

Correct.

As I said, this has been a 42-year problem, and it's funny that it becomes a talking point for people like us right after football ends because people look around, they're like, NBA, dog days. What is there to talk about? The irony is we have more good players than we've ever had in the league since I was a year out of college. This is the most high-end talent we've ever had. I did a trade value list that had over 80 guys on it. Night to night, It's been the most entertaining group of games. There's always one awesome game every night. We have all these young players that have come in the lead that I love watching. This last rookie class was a home run, and it seems like this next rookie class is a grand slam. The answer to all of this isn't to expand the two teams and don't fix the tanking and don't really fix anything, including what's going to happen with the Clippers thing? What's going to happen? Just Because just because... Did it happen? Did it not happen? We've had three months to look at it. Everybody's talking about it. If there's not a smoking gun, does that mean they look the other way?

That's been another topic. It's just weird. We always talk about. And then the other thing that people are talking about is, Jokuj isn't going to be an All-MBA. If he plays 63 minutes, but he plays 2,100 minutes, if he's 20th in the league in minutes, but only plays 63 games, he's not eligible.

Well, The All-MBA thing, if you got... You couldn't find 10 people in the world who care more about historical accuracy of the All-MBA list more than you and me. Two of them are probably in this podcast. Exactly. So it is 2000 minutes.

Just make it 65 games or 2000 minutes.

Or again, make it at the commissioners' discretion. Again, I'll use LeBron as a for instance, pretend for a moment LeBron was playing at the level he was at two years ago. Okay? Just for the sake of this discussion. If a guy in year 23 at 70,000 minutes suffered an injury before the year, a real injury, and had to miss the first 15 games of the year. And then over the next 67 games, played 62 out of 67. It's like, No, that guy's ineligible for everything. That guy, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. That's not- But I understand why they did it the way they did it because they were trying to crack down a little bit on guys just skipping games, which goes back to your story about the Knicks and the Nets game and not knowing when LeBron is going to be there.

So at least in this case, the spirit of it was okay. I just think they came up with the wrong numbers.

I agree with you.

Let me ask you a bigger question, though. Do you think the NBA does this intentionally?

To create some level of controversy?

They're intentionally flawed. They like this. They like that we're doing segments about this. They like that we talk about the league and how we should fix this, and they should do this, and they should do that. Because that's the only explanation I have because some of these fixes are so easy and simple. Like, literally, nobody likes the instant replay thing. Nobody. Not one person. Nobody's like, Oh, cool. Last two minutes of the game. Now it's going to take a half hour. This will be fun. Nobody likes it. They just bring it back. It's like they like that. We don't like it.

So if that is true, I think it is a massive strategic error. Me too. Maybe instant replay is not because actually the ratings still go up the longer the game goes, so maybe that's fine. But the other stuff I think is outrageous. But here's That's the other reason why I think it is a real threat, if you will. One thing, I've never liked, but they are correct about. The reason they have rules about celebrations and taunting is because kids emulate. I've always thought that's stupid. Listen, I had a kid who played college basketball and was a high-level, all-state-level Texas basketball player. And I told him the same thing I would tell anyone, tell their kids like, Hey, here's the rules. Once your games are on national TV, you can act like the guys on national TV. Until then, you're a high school athlete, conduct yourself as such. But they are correct. Kids, whether it's the three goggles or the style of play, emulate the pros. And I'm watching this kid at Kansas who is emulating the pros. It appears in a different way, which is, yeah, I don't really need to play all the time.

And that's concerning. This guy you guys were talking about as the best guard prospect since Dwyane Wade or since whomever.

Probably since Vince Carter, North Carolina.

Right.

So that made me even better than him. Maybe like the Kobe level potential talent.

Right. And they're playing the number one team in the nation at home.

Yeah, but this is all I need to know if I'm drafting. Because the number one thing that we know that I'm older than you. It's like psychotic competitiveness. Cooper Flag. Just right now, just being like, I'm getting my ass kicked. I'm going to keep working at it to get better as any way I can. Lebron in year '23, still getting up at 5: 00 in the morning. He used the fucking VersaClimber. He has every record that exists. What makes him use the VersaClimber at 5: 00 in the morning? Because I don't know, there's something inside him. And it worries me that this kid's at Kansas being like, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I'm playing today. It reminds me of Ben Simmons at LSU, which was a red flag when that happened.

But my question would be, is there any chance- Oh, it trickled down. Right. 20 years ago, if he has the exact same makeup, exact same everything, is there any chance that happens? Or is it like, No, of course, I'm playing. Of course, I am playing. And so it has trickled down. All of this stuff has trickled down. I know you're... Have you been to a... I guess you have no reason to go to one, but I'm talking like middle school basketball game. It's just threes. All of it is emulating the pros.

I lived through that. Both of my kids were in high school. It's just pull out. It's fast breaks. The two kids dart out to the sides instead of trying to get a layup.

I know we sound like old cranking in right now. I don't mean to. But what I'm saying is there are real things. There are great things about the NBA. There are things better now about the NBA than ever before. Your point about the depth of talent, about how I think it is a testament to the league, the whole weak link theory, that it's less about, do you have the best guy, and more about, can you put out five really good players? I think that's all awesome.

And everybody plays really hard, which we should point out, too. There's an intensity to these games when the people do play. People are playing defense. It's always impressive to see a person.

It's harder to play, and it's smarter, and the strategy is so much more sophisticated sophisticated and all of that stuff. And we have gotten more... If we were like, Hey, what are the 10 greatest old guy seasons in NBA history? Eight of them are LeBron, Steph, F and KD over the last four years. You know what I mean? The all-time greats are playing longer. There's so many great things about the lead. And then there are these giant warts that seem so obvious to not be directly attacking them head-on is frustrating because they're never going to lose you and me, ever. But to bring in the larger tent and young people to care is important for the health of the league.

Well, you made the key point earlier. You mentioned baseball, who realized they were at a crisis point. They were at a much more dangerous point than the NBA is. But they realized we have to fix this.

This is like- And they did it drastically.

This is a real problem. Our sport might be going sideways here, and they fixed it. And I think the problem I have with the NBA is they think everything's fine because of the media deals they signed and because people like their players, which I at the top. There's still real issues here that are going to get worse. You could stop it now or you could wait four years from now and be like, Oh, shit, we should have done this four years ago, and that's just where we are. All right, nick Wright, I took too much of your time. This was really fun, though. I felt like we had to do this. I was excited to do it.

Well, it was night. You had me on for the first time when, as you put it, once the Chiefs were dead. It was nice to come on once the Patriots died. I had to do the right thing. I guess I'll see you in a few days at the Clutch Sports All-Star. I'll see you there, bud.

It's very possible. You might. All right, nick Wright. I'd love to. Great to see you. Thank you. It's time for a special part of today's episode. It's brought to you by Michelob Ultra. A really good beer. You should try it. It's a superior light beer, best serve cold, all the best, weirdest, funiest, strangest moments of the NBA season so far. We're heading toward an all-star weekend, and it's a good time to reflect on all the things that we've seen over the past, what is it, three and a half months, four months, whatever it is. I have a mini mailbag we're going to do. Six questions, just six tiny questions that I'm going to bounce off from this season. First one's from Justin Carrio, and he asked, Do you realize that small game James has been sitting there out in the open as a nickname for James Harden all this time? Frankly, astonishing that Bill Simmons hasn't been using it. I agree. It's petty, it's unfair, it's a little mean-spirited. It's right in my wheelhouse. Big game James, obviously, was Jamesworthy, who, for the record, 1984 Finals, Game 2, through the past, that got picked up by Jodeh Anderson, Celtics tie it, they go into overtime, they win it.

He shed the name. He became Big Game James, thanks to Game 7, 1988 Finals. He was just a great big game player in general. Not too late for this to happen to James James Harden. We'll see. But for now, small game, James is pretty good. Next one from Matt from Ithaca. Can we get a quick clarification on the Ewing theory eligible for Jordan and the resurgent Hornus? He means Michael Jordan. Wow. Here's my answer. I can't believe he's besmirching the goat, Michael Jordan. But Michael Jordan deserves it because he was a really, really, truly terrible owner. This isn't Ewing theory. Ewing theory is you You lose a player who is considered to be a superstar, and then he gets hurt, and the team in Exploit will be placed better without him. That's not the Ewing theory, because if you win a championship, you're ineligible. I think there's a cousin of the Ewing theory, which I would call the Yawky family trust theory. This is what happened with the Red Sox, where they had the Yawky family on the Red Sox. First Tom Yawky, he died, gave it to his wife. She got old. She had a trust running it.

I can't remember if she even died or not near the end, but the trust was terrible. Fenway Park was a pit. The area around it sucked. The team didn't spend enough money, and everybody was really, really frustrated about what was happening with the team. And then the team got bought by John Henry and Tom Werner, later the keynote. It was basically, and I remember writing about this at the time, it was the very cool, nice boyfriend following the terrible boyfriend. That's what the new owners became. And I wonder if the Yawky family trust theory could apply here to the Hornets because they have a really good ownership. They hired a smart coach. They make smart moves. They're actually building a team that has a sense of purpose. This is what happens. It's the opposite. We have new owner syndrome when we have situations like Matt Eschbier and people like that. When they come in, they try to get crazy. The Yawky theory, that's where you want to be if you have somebody taking over your team. This also happened with the Warriors with Joe Laker, by the way. Okay, next one. Doug from Chapel Hill.

Why don't we call the Yannis Trade Derby the Freak Out? It's pretty good. Kind of mad I didn't think of that. Freak out. And by the way, we didn't end up freaking out because it didn't get traded, which leads to the next one from Jacko, not the same Jacko. I checked the email address. He said, I see your point that I made in The Trade Deadline podcast that Yannis could have forced his hand right near the trade deadline and forced to trade somewhere, and he didn't. But he says, Historically, we have scrutinized rightfully Harding, Katie, Kyrie, et cetera, for saying, I want out at every stop. Shouldn't we be talking positively about Yannis not being a jerk, keeping in-house for the most part, and handling this like a respectable employee? It's a fair take. Here's my counter. He never really 100% did that. He never came out and said, I don't want to be traded. Please take my name out of these trade rumors. I want to retire in Milwaukee. He just never said it. He was like, I don't know. It was like watching one of your friends being wishy-washy about whether they're going to break up with somebody or not.

And then the day after, all of a sudden, he did that. The deal with the prediction company. And it just felt like the whole thing was a roost to get attention. And if I was a Bucks fan, I wouldn't like it. I'd be happy that we kept you honest and maybe you scratch him for the air, you get a lottery pick. But it wasn't like a Dirk then Witzke situation, where Dirk then Witzke was just like, I'm never getting traded from Dallas. If I get traded, I'm not going to my next team. It's basically what he said. I feel like Curry is like that now with Golden State. Milwaukee and Yannis, it never... Yannis was always like, he's getting He dressed up and going out to the nightclub, showing some cleavage at the trade deadline and then pretending he wasn't doing that. I think he was. So next question is from pH. He said, Can we agree that Chris Paul officially had the worst retirement tour in NBA history? It was pretty bad. The worst one ever, though, was Elgin Baylor, who was on the 1971-72 Lakers, and his knees were just completely broken down at that point.

Instead Instead of having a retirement tour, he abrupt retired. He just felt like he wasn't playing his standards. It was just over. Then the Lakers went on to win 33 straight games, which is still a record. Then they won Jerry West's only title. Not only did Elja Baylor not get to participate in any of that, but then he became a famous U. A. Theory. We didn't even know what the U. A. Theory was in 1972. That's the worst retirement tour because Elja Baylor was one of the 15 best players of all time. Probably when he retired, one of the best 10. So now he's probably in the 20. But that was pretty bad to to abrupt retire and then watch your team win the title with value. This Chris Paul thing wasn't great. Last question, nick from North Carolina. The way the Kings of Bulls keep trading with each other is hilarious. I agree. Even in three team trades, they cannot stay away from each other. It's pretty funny. It's like when your friend gets another friend from college or something, and all of a sudden they bring them along whenever and wherever. It's like, I know we've had this plan to go to Topgolf for weeks, but can my friend Ralph tag along?

Or like when a big brother has to bring his little brother along with him to meet up with friends. I wonder if Vivek has to check in with the Bulls before pulling the trigger on some of these trades he makes. Hey, I'm about to get fleeced at another deal. You want in? I don't know. It's too funny. I agree. The Bulls and Kings, when you see them in a trade together, the only thing you know for sure is that you want to be the third team. It's Bulls, Kings. I want to be the third team. I don't even care who's in the trade. Where I want to be. Vivek just brings an incredible amount of comedy. He's going to probably not enjoy the live show at the Wiltern Theater tomorrow night. The only other thing I want to do before we wrap up the six-pack, let's talk about a superior All-Star player. I have my eye on Jamal Murray because Jamal Murray has come out and said, I care about this game. I'm going to try it really hard. Let's see if anyone can follow your example, Jamal Murray. That's it for today's six-pack. Go grab your own 6-Pack Mikola Bultra.

Plus, Mikola Bultra is giving you a chance to win exclusive prizes including courtside tickets and more. Enter now at mikolabultra. Com/kortside. Mikola Bultra. Superiors is worth paying for. Mikola Bultra, Courtside 25, 26. No purchase necessary. Open to US Residence 21 plus. Begins on October first, 2025. Ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at micalobultra. Com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines and prizes and details. All right, last but not least, my dad is here. He thought I was banning him from being on Netflix, one of his favorite streaming services, but he's depressed. You'd big blizzard, the pats lost, Celtics made a trade not looking as good, and you were in a great mood with sports a month ago, and now I'm worried about you. I don't know what's going on with you, so I'm checking in.

I was in a great mood two weeks ago, a week and a half ago. I'm not a big fan so far of the Celtic Trade, as you know. I think it upset the chemistry. I love the way Simon played. He gave them energy and was a great score off the bench. And it's going to take them a while to get some chemistry with this guy. Maybe it will work out. I hope so.

Did you figure out how to pronounce his name yet or no?

No, I just called him Vuk.

Okay. Do you want to give it a try and see how it goes? No.

Vukovitch, right? Something like that.

Vukowitch. You've always liked him, though. He was one a year. I always liked him, guys, but unfortunately, now he's in his mid-30s.

Yeah, I always liked him. I didn't know he was going to be 36 years old soon. But I liked him. I wish we had traded for him five years ago.

I went to the game Friday night, the Miami game, and then obviously they sucked on Sunday night. But we were just worried about going from three guards to two. When the team, what was working was these three guards that they were interchangeable. They could play off the ball, they could play with the ball. You always had two of them out there, and you could feel the shift. But it feels like Tatum is coming back for real. I mean, every checkmark, and it really seems like beginning of March, there's two home games in the beginning of March. It feels like it's going to be one of those.

Yeah, it's the only thing that's getting me through the lack of chemistry that we have right now after the trade.

I thought you were going to say the end of the Patriot season. My concern is about Drake May. Okay.

They know Tatum is coming back. They know that they're going to get scoring that they didn't have before to take the place of Simons. I still, though, like the three guard movement. I did it, too. And I would like the three guards coming back with Tatum. And I understand the money thing, and it's a shame. All these moves we've made in the last 10 months, they're all money motivated, but I guess that's the new NBA.

Well, there's two ways to think about it with the tax. And I don't mean to defend the Celtics, and you're coming on after a segment where we were really critical of the NBA with their schedule and a whole bunch of things for a half hour. With the Celtics, though, getting out of the tax for one year that enables you to have all this spending flexibility for the next three, basically. And I think that I don't think fans fully understand that because on the surface, you see like, oh, they're just cheap. They don't want to pay it. And it's like, no, actually, now they can go all in on next season where they have this trade exception. And they can actually outspend some of the people they're competing against who are more hampered by the tax. That's the glass half full reason for it. The glass half empty is pay the fucking tax. You just pay for the team.

I understand all that. I don't know how many more windows we have with this current makeup of Tatum and Brown and the people that are trying to surround them with.

Are you worried at all about Tatum coming back when it's Jalen Brown's team now?

I am worried because I've been to the games, and you've been a couple. This is a different Jalen Brown this year. He's a black hole in an okay way, meaning that the ball, once it gets to Jalen Brown, doesn't always move to another player because he's moving to the- But he makes good decisions when he has it.

So it's- He does, except for four or five players a game that you and I always talk about. No, you talk about. I'm way higher on Jalen. You get frustrated by the miss free throws at the end of the games. I think he's been unbelievable. I think he's first-team on the NBA right now.

I don't disagree with you. I love that he's going to the basket so hard this year. It looks like he built up some strength because defenders are just bouncing off him. But he's playing a game that he didn't play when Tatum was here, healthy. I don't know how they're going to mesh when Tatum comes back because Tatum likes the ball. Obviously, when Jalen Brown is out there, I don't know what his usage rate is, but he always has the ball.

Yeah.

And Tatum always had the ball. So they're going to have to learn how to live with each other again in a different way, I think. And Tateum, I'm sure they'll bring back slowly.

It's going to be emotional. The way we thought before the year, their over-under was like 41. I thought they were going to be better than people thought. I didn't think they'd be a top three seed. But it seemed like the likely scenario was there'll be a seven seed. Maybe he comes back if he's completely healthy, plays 20 minutes a game, but it's not a serious playoff team. But they have a chance to be a serious playoff team if he comes back, which I don't think- They do.

A game like the game against the Knicks Sunday worried me. The team just didn't look together, and they looked together all season long. Now, I realized you bring We haven't had a real post player in years. So you're bringing in a guy who's a post player, a center who passes very well. And from what I've read and looked at the stats, he has to three. We haven't seen too much of that yet.

We've seen some breaks.

I don't even know if he's had a practice with the team yet. So I guess we have to wait until after the All-Star break. And you have a date in mind for Tatum to return in your mind when March turns around.

So I think one thing with the All-Star break is the two guards and Jalen, I think, just had a pretty... To me, White looks cooked. And white shot has gone sideways. Even today, somebody got bounced, somebody got scratch for injury from the All-Star game. And I think White would have made it three weeks ago, but he just hasn't been consistent at all shooting-wise. So Brandon Ingram got the spot. But I think Pritchard, White, and Brown really need the break. One of the best things about Brown this season, he hasn't missed... He He's only missed a couple of games. He's been out and he's guarded the best guy on the other teams a lot of times. I just think he's been awesome.

That's a very good point. He wants to guard the best guy on the other team. That's publicly. He's talked about that. Pritchard really needed a rest. I've loved Pritchard all year long and last year. But Sunday, against a team like the Knicks, he had trouble just getting shot off. When the team really guards man to man very closely, our guys have some struggles. Maybe Tatum will help fix that. But that Sunday game was a worrisome game this late week.

Fun subplot. Well, That's the thing. When you're in February, March, you can't overreact to wins and losses because you're just... But the Tatum thing, him coming back and getting in there will be really fun to watch.

It'll be really fun.

The pats, not fun.

I thought about it a lot because you and I have talked after the game, I go back to September, and I would have been really hopeful if they were nine and eight and excited if they were 10 and seven. I didn't pay attention to the schedule that much, but I was thinking about the two terrible years we just had, where we were lucky to win four games each year. So nine and eight on a rebuild year with a new coach working with a second-year quarterback I would have been satisfied, and maybe we would have snuck into the playoffs. So this was all graving. I mean, we were in the Super Bowl. Nobody expected that.

Oh, man, you're handling this really well.

I am. I have been philosophizing a little bit.

Sounds like it.

And it was obvious, Greg Mays shoulder was hurting him. And now more news comes out. They shot him up. And now more news is coming out about the left tackle. Maybe he never should have come back from his injury because he was terrible. We were in the Super Bowl. I can't complain, really. I love the coach. I love the chemistry and camaraderie he's built into that team. I hope most of them come back and they supplement a couple of guys with great draft picks. I'm not that disappointed. I was disappointed Sunday night, obviously.

You were disappointed, then you got to watch Cousin Sal make fun me for 15 solid minutes.

I didn't enjoy your position that night.

It was tough. At least I had time to prepare for it.

Cousin Sal, I've never seen him so happy.

How about if you had told me in the early '90s that we were going to be in 12 Super Bowl's by the time we got to the mid-2020s? I was thinking about that the other day. They made the Super Bowl once in 1985, and it was played in '86, but then the '85 Pats, and it was like we were so dumbfounded they made the Super Bowl. Then it happened again in '96. It was like, Oh, my God, we made it again. Now we have the record for most Super Bowl, which was when we were Pats fans in the '70s, just winning a playoff game, we would have been excited.

I know. I remember Sugar Ray Hamilton. I still have nightmares about that game.

And you took me to the Oilers game, the playoff game. We got killed.

Got killed. The irony is, yeah, we've been in 12 Super Bowl. We've lost half of them.

I know.

That's bizarre.

And this was the... Out of all these, the first one and the last one were the two where we just felt like we got our asses kicked. Even the packers one, I still feel like if they didn't kick off to Desmond Howard, I still feel like we would have won. I'm always going to think that. Nobody will change by a.

I can close my eyes based on where we were sitting and see Desmond Howard I would come in right at me. Guys had so many shots.

Oh, yeah. You went to the game. I didn't. You went to that game. Yeah, I went to that game.

I give the pats and the coaching staff and the players energy, and they always plugged in a lot of credit.

What's the mood in Boston? Because I know you've been dabbling with the TV radio stuff. Has it been more negative than I thought it was going to be or realistic?

No, I don't think it has been. I think if there's anything, there's some disappointment, I guess, in direct may. Maybe a little less so when it came out that he had to get shot up before the game because they really downplayed that he was injured.

Yeah, I'm aware.

And they probably should have had him on the injury report for the Super Bowl. And Jack could come back to haunt them if he got shot up, right?

Yeah, you don't get shot in your throwing shoulder unless something bad happened to your throwing shoulder. Yeah. And we also watched him all year, and he was really accurate. And then in this game, he just wasn't. So the fear is maybe his shoulder wasn't that hurt and he just choked. But I'm not willing to go there because we saw too much from him during the year.

He was so accurate all year. It wasn't just the Super Bowl, though. The whole playoffs were a nightmare in terms of turnovers.

Well, maybe he needed it. Maybe this will make them double down, and maybe Maybe it'll make them want to have a better offensive line next year.

Yeah, of course, there is that radio station that talks about, Is he really Mac Jones in disguise?

I can't even imagine. Because I was there this weekend, now it's frozen still on the ground. It's freezing.

Well, that's the other thing. If we had one and they wanted to have a parade- You couldn't even have it. They couldn't have had a parade. There's cars that won't come out until April. They're covered with sheets of ice.

Then where did you come down on the second season of Landman?

I thought the last four episodes pulled it together.

Pulled it together? Yeah.

I thought there were episodes in the middle, like three, four, five. They were a little bit slow and I didn't know where they were going.

What are What are your top TV shows right now, other than all of your favorite Netflix programming? I know you love The Rip. I'm just saying that it's Netflix. What are your top ones? Is it the Donnie Wallberg show up there?

No, I think It's mediocre. I like the three Chicago shows, PD, Fire.

The Chicago Marathon? What is it?

Yeah, I'm in on that.

Police, Fire, and Hospital?

Are those the three? I'm okay with that.

Do they ever merge them where somebody sets a fire and the people end up in the hospital and then they have to solve it and it's all one three-hour show.

That's coming up. I'll text you the night it's going to happen. That sounds exciting. Yeah. Again, you and I both love Landman. I thought you didn't think it pulled us off together at the end.

I thought it was a four-episode season. That was 10 episodes. They just patted a lot of stuff, which seems to be one of the moves now with the streamers. You don't watch Industry, but the industry has been amazing. No, I don't. Then both of us really like The Rip. I think that was my favorite movie I've seen. I went back and I did a second tour of it, and I liked it more the second time than the first time. First time, I think there was too much going on for me. The second time, I was like, All right. But it was like an old school. You used to call them the Five O'clockers.

Yeah, this was a Six O'clocker.

It was a Five O'clocker with better actors.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I watched it again. I like your new channel. I like the stuff Netflix is producing.

Oh, thanks for the Netflix. Sorry, I did Netflix. Wait, so I did the 50 most rewatchable movies of the 21st century at the end of last year. It was controversial because I had limitless number 16. You love limitless.

Not number 16.

But you watched it a ton, though.

I watched it a few times.

Well, Out of the ones that were on the list, what should have been on? Because taken is a big one for you. All three equalizers you would have had?

Oh, definitely. Getting equalize a three was the best, I thought.

Basically, anything Denzel you're in.

Or John Wick. Did you have all the John Wick?

I had Wick, too. I arguably could add Wick One as well.

Oh, yeah, that's the Wick One. It's all about the dog. I have Wick One. I like ballerina. I'm probably the only one in the country, but No, ballerina has been all right. That whole genre, you know that I like that genre.

So it's just would have been all. Yeah.

It would have been all that genre.

All right.

No one comes.

You're going to make it through the gross winner in the terrible Super Bowl loss and get ready for Jason Tatum.

As we're talking, it's snowing here again.

Oh, my God.

This is just awful. Yeah, I'm looking forward to... Now I can look forward to Tatum coming back because It looks like that's going to happen. And worry about the chemistry when he comes back and does Jalen Brown take him back the same way.

It would be interesting. How did you like how the Dever's trade ultimately turned out?

Oh, my gosh. You and I killed the trade.

It was a money dump, and then had to do a second money dump of one of the guys that got in the trade. There's nobody left. They traded all three guys.

But we've been told that they're going to use that money elsewhere.

Right. Which they did.

Which they have not yet. No, we didn't get the big thumper, which is what the papers are criticizing. We don't have the middle. We don't really have, Contrariostis, we don't have that middle of the order Outfilled there or third basement.

It seems like, I don't know this for sure, but it seems like they're banking on Roman Anthony basically being their version of what happened with Drake May this year, and that they don't need the expensive guy because this guy is going to be an MVP candidate.

Possible. Him getting hurt really hurt our team, obviously.

It hurt my summer. I was having a really fun time watching the team until he went down.

We really did get a sense, is he going to be a power hitter? He certainly was a hitter. But can he put up those harmones? People are excited about him. People are always excited when everybody's healthy. It's the injuries that start cropping up. I'd say our pitching staff looks pretty interesting what who they brought in the depth. And I did like the trade they made yesterday for the third basement. But again, he's not a power hitter.

That's pretty lukewarm on that one.

And I think they're done.

You know what they're not done doing is taking money from the fans.

Well, most expensive ticket in baseball.

They're not done with that. Send your checks here.

I guess John Henry is still doing very well money-wise, right?

Well, he just sold the penguins for twice as much as he paid. And I'm sure they're in on this. If the Vegas expansion actually happens, they're probably saving money to be one of the ownership groups going after that.

It's inexplicable how they have stopped spending money after we won the title in 18.

I would say it is explicable, though, because they won four titles and they were like, We're good. You're welcome. And then they scaled back. I think they felt like they did what they needed to do.

It's It's eight years later.

I know. I'm aware. That's the Trade of Muki bets. I don't know if you remember that.

The Devers one didn't bother me as much because they promised they would respend that money. Of course, they didn't. The bets trade was an abomination.

Also, the Devers maybe got out of that one in time. That might have been a good mulligan. They paid them a lot of money for a guy that... I'm not even sure what position he would have been two years from now.

But the package they should have gotten back for a guy at his age with his stats. They didn't get that package back. They just sold to the first bidder it looked like.

Well, I know you saw Jacko this weekend, who has only won one World Series this century.

I might have brought it up. How are you?

He's looking. We've won four times as many as him, so that was good. All right, be careful in the cold weather out there.

Good to see you. It was good seeing you this weekend.

Thanks for popping on. Okay, bye. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to nick and my dad. Ed and Gael, and Eduardo, and everybody at The Ringer. I will be back on Thursday with one more podcast. It's going to be our live show that we haven't done yet, but I know it's going to be fantastic, and I know you're going to enjoy it, and I can't wait to do it. So we'll be back on Thursday with that. New rewatch was coming next Monday. We're doing Golden Eye. The last one that went up is Ace Ventura. Go check that out. I will see you in this feed on Thursday. Thanks. On a Must be 21 plus on President Select States for a Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. Or 18 plus in President DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 Gamble, or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-79-7777, or visit ccpg. Org/chat-in-connect or mdgamblinghelp. Org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma. Org, or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8 Hope, NY, or text Hope, NY, in New York, for Louisiana. Call 877-770-7867.