2024 NBA Preview With Ryen Russillo, People Keep Complaining About The Dunk Contest + Lebron's 50/50 Retirement Tour

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Today is Monday, February 19th, and PFT we're on vacation, but people are mad about the dunk.

Contest for the 17th year in a row. People are always gonna be mad about the dunk contest. I like the floor, I like the light up floor. They're doing everything they can to like, make it look as much like a video game as possible. But there's really.

From jumping over Shaq, it's. It's so funny because every year people get upset about the dunk contest, like, they gotta fix it. Maybe it's just that we've seen every cool dunk and there's only so many cool dunks that you can do. I mean, credit to Jalen Brown.

Seven years have just been an arms race of jumping over progressively taller human beings, right? And and that's like, the guy that wins is who jumps over the big. I want to see somebody get absolutely teabagged and like, knocked over on one of those attempts, like, I want to see I would see a dunker.

Not be able to make the leap. Yeah, maybe it should just be an alley-oop contest, and it's like, live action. It's actually a game, it's just whoever has the best dunk in the game wins a dunk contest.

So there's two thoughts that I have on how to fix it. One, trampolines incorporate slam ball into it a little bit, with one guy playing defense also on a trampoline. Two. Somebody should actually try to light a ball on fire and then dunk that, or light themselves on fire. Yeah, either way.

They also like it. It wouldn't be the worst if they just did progressively higher rims. I'd watch that. Who can dunk on a 14-foot rim? Yeah, they come to the Barstool's.

Could just lower the rim to like, eight feet and we could do our own dunk contest. Yeah, we probably.

Shouldn't be able to dunk. Yeah, that we should do that though this week. Um, so we are still on vacation. How's everyone doing on vacation? Hank? How? Let's start with you?

So illegal he should. Mack McClung should be in the NBA, like, what are the Magic doing? Just like, let the kid play.

Four career NBA games, if you know, like, that's a joke, it's the NBA dunk contest. What? Like, who? Like, just bring people off the street if that's what you're gonna do.

Too. But also Mack McClung If you win the Dunk contest and you're on the G League, team, you.

Should get like a two-week contract. Yeah, okay, I'm cool with that. I mean, the Spurs or the Wizards should take him, why not? Yeah, just have him dunk.

That's the only problem, like, we're trying to accomplish something right now. He'd throw off.

The whole dynamic, all right. So other things from NBA All-star weekend, we had Steph beat Sabrina, who she was phenomenal. People got very mad at.

That we were a hundred percent correct about our prediction for this contest, though, which is no matter what happens, people are going to get mad online about something. Yep, that was bound to happen if she won, if she lost, if if. Reggie Miller told, Uh, Kenny, like, what are you gonna tell her to go play with dolls instead? That was.

Reggie was trying to pump the brakes and then he just went off the road and it was just like, I. I just, I feel like we don't do those anymore. I feel like the internet has calmed down to a point where it's like everyone gets up. Used to be, everyone get upset about something and like, you know, so pissed off and it would be ridiculous. Now we, I feel like people don't get as mad about everything. So it's good to see people, you know, take out their pitchforks for Kenny. In a made-up contest in a made-up N.B.A. night that no one really cares about anymore.

Prediction I think that in the next couple years we're gonna see this contest get run back a little bit and it's not gonna be Sabrina. Uh, what's the last name, Big Cat Ionescu?

Pointers And that would be cool. Yeah, I mean, Sabrina was awesome. The fact that she had 26. Like she should have been in the real three-point contest because she would have been in the finals with Dame. Uh, and also it's Steph Curry, he's the best shooter of all time.

Statement loss and the home team won the skills contest again. That is just what happens every.

Time Yeah, I don't even know what the skills contest is really. They just dribble around. Oh no, they were. I saw they were shooting from half court for a while.

They had fun, they had a great time. Yeah, the biggest storyline I thought, coming out of this just, I think it happened. Today. LeBron gave a press conference. Yes, and, uh, they asked him if he's, you know, his thoughts on his eventual retirement and how that's going to go.

Or not, he wants a retirement tour. He doesn't like praise, he said. He's uncomfortable with praise. So, um, you know, introvert LeBron James. We need to protect him.

In that, he's 50-50 on if he wants it, he's 50 that he wants it, and he's 50 that he needs it.

Yeah, exactly like, and don't get me wrong. He deserves it, like he has carried the N.B.A. for a very long time, It's not a question of whether he deserves it. Sure, he should get his retirement tour, the fact that he's pretending that he, like, will be reluctant in any way on this retirement tour.

Is the most ridiculous comment I've ever heard. Yeah, I agree. I think there's actually a possibility that LeBron just does it an extra year in the NB.A. where he just plays home games. Yeah, yeah, and.

Just standing ovation, No. But he needs the presence we need to every, every city needs to give him a present. every team brings the present to him. Yeah, that was like, when who wasn't?

Dude, they just gave you a surfboard. The coolest gift he got. I forget what team gave it to him. It was a throne made out of, uh, broken baseball bats. That is cool because he had such a good.

Cutter, That's a that's a great gift, yeah, but yeah, LeBron pretending he doesn't want a retirement tour, it's very funny. Uh, all right, what else is going on in the sports world? I, I have a confession that I think, even though I was disgusted by the flop in the Ohio State game. I think I'm going to become a Caitlyn Clark super fan because she makes people so, so angry and I love it. Like the J. Williams saying that she's not the greatest all time because she didn't have a ring, all this stuff, I, I just Caitlyn Clark gets people very upset. And I'm all for anyone who just agitates the world like she does. And she's. She doesn't do anything like, she's not doing anything other than being awesome at basketball and breaking records. It's just other people's hot takes.

Else upset? So I'm in on Caitlyn Clark all the way. Yeah, and it's funny like everybody out there has a take on Caitlyn Clark. Yeah, everybody, and they're all shocking like I I was. Jason Whitlock did his live show.

People's accomplishments, and it's totally fine. It basically gives you a license to to be the guys like, Yeah, what, what's your weakness? Well, I just tell the truth. No, you're an asshole, but you tell the truth. Yeah, I, I tell hard truths.

Good for sports discourse. Yes, I'm just I'm just looking at Hank right now in his big, swollen red.

Face Did you drink wine today? hank? your lips are a little red? No, Oh, I'm having a great time. Yeah, okay, what else the why I like?

Is that because of the internet or because of the cocktails?

It's probably a combo.

Waking up on Sunday morning and having no football at all to look forward to it was really strange, very disconcerting, and it just it threw off my. My week has been off by a day anyways. Going back to the free throw stream, where it's like, on Thursday, I thought it was Friday, Friday, I thought it was Saturday. Then I wake up today, there's no football and it's like, Well, today can't be Sunday.

Like these all the debates, it wasn't a dress, it was like, uh, it was a new age, uh suit that men wear.

That, yeah, that doesn't have pants, it's got one big pant hole in it. It was, it was like, Uh, it was.

Like a poncho, he wore a poncho, not a dress, but but if any other team besides the Bears gets him, he wore a dress. Oh, 100, it was a dress. And what the hell is he thinking?

Is we got to watch the The Patriots Dynasty documentary? That looks awesome? Does that out?

Is that out yet? Two episodes are out. Okay, I came out yesterday. Yeah, have you started it, Hank? I'm excited to watch.

Every night at 5 p.

It, and it's like, just patriots, but I'm with my friends from from Massachusetts. We were having a spirited Top 10 Patriots debate for like, three hours today. Yeah, there's so many people to pick from, I don't think it's possible. Where was Jules Hank's gone?

Didn't win a ring. Where was? Where was Danny Woodhead?

Danny Woodhead also didn't win a ring, unfortunately. What was the one that you were most upset about?

That we taped, uh, Super Bowl week, anything else. Hideki Matsuyama won on on Max's home course. Yeah, and Tiger had diarrhea. Yeah, uh. He also had like some back shit going on, and then he said, he.

Had influenza? I I think Tiger might be a little bit over the hill. I think it might have been something, I think it might have happened. I. I just. I want him to be in these events because it's fun when he's there, but it also is a bummer when he has to withdraw. And we had we had an ambulance gate where I think our own, uh, colleague Dan Rapport was first on it.

Just Tiger's car that he drives, so it's got sirens and loud flashing lights and shit, so that people.

Don't get out of the way. Yeah, and uh, there was also, I mean, I, I thought Matsuyama's ball oscillated. Um, I'm not a rule stickler, but I am rooting for Will Zalataurus. Uh, that. But that bummed me out.

On the set, it oscillate, it definitely oscillate, it oscillate, you can't. You can't convince me otherwise, as as pretty much professional golfer who got a two on 17 at Sawgrass this week, I can tell you that that's a serious rules violation. And if we're gonna make Spieth get, uh, withdrawn from the tournament over signing an incorrect scorecard, we need to take a look at the oscillation.

The action crisscross applesauce. Yeah, it's beautiful, it's beautiful. Um, yeah, that Jordan Spieth rule was the it's the dumbest rule ever, because not even his, it's his partner filling out.

The scorecard and he signs it, Yeah, that's stupid. You keep track of your, your partner's score and then you sign off at the end. And they've got like cameras and everything tracking these guys around all the leaderboards. I guess you can't it? Not every tournament has every shot televised like that, so it might be more difficult. Which is why there's a guy walking with them.

Gets it wrong, execute it. Yes, that'd be live, but yes, or just have him do like butts up, just like, stand 50 yards away. You can fire a driver at him the whole, the whole. He has to stay. Yeah, he has to be a a human bullseye at the driving range the next day.

Do Who's back the week? Then we'll get to Rosillo. No joke. I think I might have a cane soft problem. I was raising canes the other day, getting my box combo with extra sauce on the side. Like usual, I have an order.

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Download the Barstool Golf Time app now, start earning those rewards and booking those tee times Barstool Golf Time app now. Okay, Hank, who's back of the week?

Um, I was back, we got, had LeBron went over. That we can do. Shorts, shorts are back vacation. Great time for shorts. Um, and U.S. USC USC 300 got announced. Kind of a letdown. I'm not a die hard UFC person, so I didn't.

Were pretty disappointed. Yeah, just because 300 you would expect, like it's nice round number. I want to see like some big names fighting against each other and and you don't get that. Yeah, that's why people are upset. It's like, if this was 299, 301, people would be like, Okay, yeah, good card I guess, but you see 300 and you want, I don't know what you want. Like a bunch of angry Spartans in a ring against like 40 000 Persians. You should that, would they should, that would actually rock they.

Should have had Zuck in it, I mean, we saw Zuck at 298 looking as awkward as ever. Uh, he was part of Volkanovsky's uh, party, I don't know what he was doing, uh, but Zuck would be. Who wouldn't buy that pay-per-view?

He did not get choked out, his PR representative was very clear about that.

I think so Hank, I think Zuckerberg. If he went against any of us, yes, because he's actually been training at this. If he went against any actual UFC fighter, they would kick his ass in two seconds. Oh yeah, obviously, but well, he's not a beast. Then he's a little bit, yeah, I mean, yeah, he would get smoked any.

Yeah, give us, give us his awesome in the wall. I would, just I would give him wet Willie. I get, sneak behind him and give him a mega wedgie, then drag his ass to the bathroom, give him a swirly.

Just give him a nerd treatment. I'd just be like, Hey, Zuck, remember when you thought Threads was going to be cool, fucking loser? And he'd probably cry into a puddle? Yeah, done, tapped, uh okay, pft.

You're who's back of the week. Good who's back, Hank. Good job, Hank. my who's back of the week is Jesus.

Pregnant, which is kind of hot. Yeah, oh, that's a I kind of want to see the shark stingray.

Yeah, the Shark Stinger would rock that. yeah, if you're, if you're not rooting for for Shark Stingray. I don't know what to tell you, but yeah, I am, I'm on Charlotte Watch.

Yeah, that's awesome. Uh, my who's back is whale? that's a half human? all these whales? Yeah, hank, if it's a half human, half human. There's one guy that just quits the day that he's like, Oh, fuck yeah, it's just like, shit.

I'm good, yeah, so so big cat Cabo is incredible for that. And yeah, I don't know if your boat had this. But so I went there last year after the Super Bowl and they put after. We were done watching the whales for a while, they dropped the microphone into the ocean and you could listen to the whales talking to each other. That's sick, you know what?

Also, there was a seal that was just jumped on the back of a boat and people were saying it looked like Max. That was very unfair. Um, and Max is also back. Because there was an Auburn fan at Game Day on Saturday that was standing behind the desk that just said Max had two sodas and.

That made me laugh very, very, very, very hard. So I I got on my flight today to come back. And I stopped at a Uh, kiosk and I bought two cherry cokes just to bring it on the plane. And I sat down. I was sitting next to a random woman and she looked at me and she was like, trying to figure out why.

Disgusting behavior. Max, How's yours? so does. Mine are 12, so how's your hungover? Uh, flight go today.

Any, any ripping of farts? No, I didn't even fall asleep this time because I was in the middle seat. Um, it was fine. I got, I'm. I can never order soda again at an airport. I got two of them.

Yeah, if you get two, if you're a two soda guy, you can't just quit soda.

Yeah, now I had no soda, I had a body armor and then and then sold. So I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna be the biggest seltzer water guy on a plane ever. Now because it's shut up. I can't have that picture on on on Twitter of just me ordering a soda.

That's a fart. What do you want me to eat? What do you? What do you want me to eat? Nothing, air salad. Yeah, the the Awl who did that at the Auburn Kentucky game.

Was I still like, Don't believe that was real? I mean, Oh, it's real, it's real. Also. Shout out coach.

Cal, who, like, ripped an awesome wrestling promo after they beat Auburn. Just like I'm the worst coach in the country, I, I like that. I need Cal to get a little swagger back. Little, little, little.

Shit to him, you know? Because for a long time, Cal just pushed back against the very notion that he could be an underdog. Now. Like, embrace that. Yeah, you are, go after it, all right, Jake finishes off.

My who's back is coach Doug's. We had an official official announcement from EA Sports. I feel like all the other previous announcements were kind of rumors and piecing things together. But the EA Sports College account officially tweeted that, Uh, we're getting it this summer, this is like.

It's like when, when Dan Snyder sold the team. There's been like 20 different announcement dates that have come out being like the game's coming back. But none were from the commanders besides the last one. Yeah, true, true. So this is officially official, and and if we're in the trust.

Tree. Right now, obviously, I'm very excited for the new game, I'm worried that the new game's not going to be as good as the old game. And I'm also like the battles I went through with the chat. I don't know if I'm mentally ready to do that again. So I woke up and I saw it and I was like, awesome.

Havoc on my brain. Well, the chat's also gotten better in the last like four years. They've learned, they've adapted, and they've grown, and they're more powerful than any of us they they've had places to.

Get better, whereas I have not, like, I haven't had a game to play. They have had Jerry After Dark and all this other stuff to get to hone their craft and get angrier and better at what they do. And that's driving the content creators insane. So I'm just gonna have to, like, I'm gonna mentally have to just put myself in a place. Like, ready to go to war? Because I will play and I'll play a season.

Well, yeah, I'm saving them for a potential cool throne. If they can win the Championship series, which is today, okay, Championship, and if they lose Championship, and if they lose, it's like a place. Second regular season. Yeah, no, it's a standalone tournament. It's promoting the Sixes format, which is what they're going to use in the Olympics in 2028.

I don't want to win it, I'll say right now, I don't want to win that. I don't want to win the pre-season tournament. I think if we're in the pre-season tournament, we're screwed for the.

Regular season, I think, I think if we win that, um, Max should raise a banner for it, but we shouldn't.

Acknowledge it, Yeah, I don't. This isn't like we're not getting a ring, which?

We know we have them, I gave them to you guys at the old office, we don't have them, then, no, they.

Do you know where they are? I think I saw them, I hand delivered them to both of you. I think I saw him is not definitive. We have them.

Trophy case and we didn't one-time thing to put our our winning lacrosse Championship rings in there. The only thing we've actually won. Yeah, oh yeah, we we did win that. Also, we defeated Frank the Tank, who, I guess is a fan of, um, not the water dogs. Well, his team's not in this.

Championship series they didn't qualify. Who do we play today? The whip snakes, archers, Ah, the archers.

All right, our nemesis, the archers, all right. Well, so if any water dogs are listening, don't even try tomorrow. We don't want to win this. Um, if we do win it, I'm gonna. Max is gonna be the only one who acknowledges it.

11 30 a.

Max You agree with this? Yeah. I mean, that account has just turned into a Max meme account where they just throw up every every bad video after after each one. Have they done a two Sodas thing? Uh, I don't know.

And the account has one of the players celebrate with two sodas. I will then acknowledge the victory.

Fair if they do the stone cold like two pepsis, yeah, they just pour coke on themselves for the entire after party. I'm surprised you haven't said anything about them. Finishing second for the first.

Time as well, he said. It's totally second place. Yeah, no, we said, that's on the table, but I've, yeah, yeah, uh, okay, let's get to Ryan Russo, uh, before we do that. Barstool, sports and foreplay.

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Locations Okay, we now welcome on one of our favorite guests, great friend of the program for the February 19th NBA preview. It is Ryan Rusillo. We have some. First of all, thank you, Ryan.

LeBron Get traded to. I didn't see this coming. Uh, look, I don't think. um, I don't think there's going to be any good trade deadline. Jokes. Okay, I just don't.

Savings. Oh, I mean, yeah, you do really well on this show, when you talk about, you're really selling.

The N.B.A. Well, I know I'm reading those H&R block ads and I just start cracking up and I was like, Well, the H&R block is there to help. And they're like, Dick, Um, we have some.

Housekeeping, though, we got to do before we talk. NBA. Okay, because I have something for you guys. Okay, well, first order of business. Uh, pft. And I actually were completely innocent bystanders to the cover art which you've.

We had no idea. Yeah, you looked like Dana White on the last one. I love that he did. I wish I'd.

Look like Dana White on the last. When did you all right? So when did you? So, for people who don't know, for the cover art for the podcast Triggs, who is unbelievable. He's been making Rusillo a little bit bigger every single time he's come on, and he's come on like 15 times.

When did you catch on that this was happening? Well, Uh, so Max, you knew so what was, what was Nick?

Saying to you, I, I, this was all him, this was kind of out of nowhere, right? He was just. He was just like, I have a really funny idea, and I was like, Oh, I love this, I was like.

Little bit, but then he was like, getting into, like, more absurd things. Because I went from the Chris Paul fan club t-shirt to then it was like, finally, I was 300 and something pounds and it was the Tre Young Fan Club t-shirt. So I was like, I think something's happening here. I'll be honest with you, the moment I really did know is when I DM'd him and said, You're making me too jacked.

Believe this, he didn't start doing it on his own. Are you lying, Ryan? I'm not all right, call him.

Right now, I mean, the fact that you said, Nick, makes me think that this is you're telling the truth.

Yeah, I know. As I said it, I was like, I wonder if they'll be like, Hey, he already remembered his name.

Because normally, I would just forget it immediately. That's incredible. So you reverse got us, that's.

Pretty good, yeah. I've been working on this for months, almost a year. Wait, wait, it's great, just.

To clarify, you, only you. Hey, Triggs, Russell is here right now. He came up with the idea was that. Did he come up with the idea to make him fatter? Every time? yeah.

So, Ryan, to clarify, your big prank on us was making yourself look really fat and then blaming us.

But then I was gonna blame you at some point. Yeah, that was the whole point where I was gonna be like, who's doing your fucking art? Who is this guy, you know? But you get some Socialist in charge of this, that's incredible.

Have been like, you could, you could have gotten really mad at us, and we would have been like we would have just been like, great joke by us. I guess we've done it. Yeah, that's why I think you.

Were so, normally, this would have 100 been something you would have done. Yeah, right, you knew that you had nothing to do with it, you kind of weren't you like, you didn't know what to do.

There was no victory. I'm gonna show these guys, I'm gonna, I'm gonna look so fat next.

There really wasn't a payoff. No, I'm thinking about it. You should have. The only thing you would have done different is have Triggs tell us that he was doing it. So then we felt complicit in making you fatter, because when you said on your show, I think they're making us fatter, I was like.

Okay, cool, yeah, I don't know that there really was. When I did this. I'm like, Oh boy, when that day happens, it's kind of a perfect like anti-humor joke. It's not even that funny. The prestige, but now it is. But that moment with you just calling him and not believing me, that's great.

Fact that you basically you commandeered our own employee, you work for me now. I just thought he.

Was making me look way too good, so I was like, let's just go the other way with it. Oh man, that's.

Good, it's good stuff. RYAN All right. So then we had the other thing we need to get to, I know, but.

Let's stay on body type real quick. Okay, this will be quicker, okay. So downstairs in the casino, where I was, like, all right, I'm just gonna walk over for mine, I didn't realize it like.

The reverse of the album cover of the art. Right now, do you know what's a really, really good? Uh? Because I know you do diet tips with your listeners, and you do, like, you know, with your life advice. Gym stuff. Yeah, we're always doing stuff, yeah, all that stuff.

This, but I'm kind of serious. You could be hot. I think you could be hot at some point. be hot, but.

That is the the key to fitness. Just make a basketball court in your office and you really.

Can't? You can't be sedentary when that happens. No, I mean that when I see the clips and I see everything, I'm like, this is, this is incredible. I was looking at Matt Holiday's setup and I go, Should I just do that?

Probably helps, but yeah, chiseled jaw, chisel, that kid has a jaw, so you don't want to do the hank.

Thing right now. Oh yeah, I'll do the hank thing. I just wanted to do that because it actually.

It was mean, but it wasn't so so. Tell the story real quick, Hank, he told it on his stand up. It was actually perfect. Russell texted me, uh, asking if I was going out right when Hank's slide showed up.

PFT that's slightly photoshopped, three inches shorter version of PFT. I still, to this day, think it was a bit just just based off our interactions, like, I've always been normal. Uh, and it was the life advice in Los Angeles who did the Super Bowl a couple years ago. God, that was a while ago, I think you talked about it in and I was going.

This time, those were. We were also the first people to be in your house in like, three years. Yeah, no.

You guys gave me advice because I was I was going to my brother's wedding, like the week after or something, you guys gave me advice on the Best man speech. And then in the episode you talked about cameos and doing stuff like that. And I prefaced it by being like, I understand, you know, you guys get asked to do stuff all the time. I know it's kind of a burden and not, you know, can be annoying, so I try not to do it unless it's, you know, important. Obviously, my brother, who was a huge Russell fan, huge, probably listens to that.

I think about you, I think about the video. How often do you think about him? Well, I'm more than you think because you guys have a lot of content out there. So anytime a hang thing pops up, I'll be like, Was the window that it had to be before that weekend?

Kind of what happened, right? Yeah, it was like, the next time I saw you, it was like, maybe a year later, and I was like, Oh, and it was still open. Well, you were like, you're like?

Yeah, I got you. Sounds like the window never closed? Yeah, so the window's still not.

Yeah, so you kind of, actually I think Hank closed it last night, actually when he told the story. Might have we could still do it. It feels like this is coerced now. Yeah, maybe let's give it another year.

Yeah, I want to come up with something right, I want to send the right message. I think when you had said it, I was like, Okay, I feel like I have to do something funny. And then I was like, maybe I can get like the wrong name to whoever he's getting married? I was like, actually, that doesn't always work out because then it'll be like, what's going on?

Confused, you know you? You immediately responded like, No problem, no, I'm great, usually I'm pretty.

Good when I'm like, No problem, yeah, I'm on it and kind of funny that it was a honeymoon pump-up.

Video too. Yeah, nothing will get you horny, like having Ryan tell you like, Good job buddy, yeah.

See, I think that's why. And then I was like, Oh, then I kind of was like, Oh, he still wants it, so I think that's what it was. So, you know what, this is a bit like our N.B.A. preview. Yeah, this would be perfect.

Years? Yeah, yeah, three years, maybe. it reignites the spark. yeah, three years. second honeymoon, maybe.

They're like, this isn't going that well. It also sounded like Hank just needed, uh, you, to just be like, Hey, Hank's brother, thanks so much for listening. That's it right, you. Do you overthink?

What I was like, I was like, this is gonna be good. And instead of just going, I can be done with this. In five minutes less, I'd say 30 seconds easily, yet less. Yeah, you're right, five would have been long with edits. Do you want to do it right now?

They going for their honeymoon. I don't know anything with the Mexico. Maybe all right, all right.

Which which is my camera? We want the middle one here, or we go, we go, yeah, we go in, punch it in.

These are words being held here, like the office, this is great, all right, this is great, too, because.

It's still not going to come out for another two weeks. Hey, Will heard you're a big fan? It's Ryan Rusillo. I heard you have a honeymoon coming up. Hopefully you're not a bigger fan of me than you are your wife. Because that's going to get awkward.

Later, let's just do it. Later. I did, uh, I did. Also. I don't know if you have called your fans this before. But when I started, I was like, any, any resilience in here tonight and it got a good pop.

Called his listeners the Willitia, I was like, Yeah, it just couldn't be topped, so I was out. The Willitia. The Willitia is really good, it's also good, but also people like, would look at.

His politics be like, no shit, three percenters, yeah, all right, resilience, something, something.

Yeah, something to think about, what are you guys? you guys are what awls? Yes, what about? yeah?

Yeah, hey Rome, thanks for the vine. Yeah, that's what you'd say if he'd let you call in, you get.

A vine into the jungle? We got lucky, though, Awls like, wasn't something conscious, but then it worked, and then Dave would always say, like, you got your AOL things.

He's like, All right, I don't know, did that work at all? No, that was great, you know what I feel.

Like, it's not personal, don't overthink it, don't overthink it. No, no, I mean, he also.

That's another listener. Ever since this Kelsey pod popped, I've just been DM'ing Starlet's left.

And right, yeah, yeah, no, we've been trying to, just like we're trying to get Hank to fuck Beyonce, yeah.

Uh, that's aggressive, uh, I'm not gonna say who it was, but I, I looked at an actor, so I was like, I think this is obtainable, I think this is obtainable. And I kind of went in with like, Hey, if you google me like, you'll see a mug shot and it's not a big deal.

Uh, I like her content. Yeah, he. Ryan, we don't. We don't talk enough about the fact that you have a good voice. When we ever we have Dan Patrick on the show, we just, you know, talk about how great his voice is. You have an underrated voice for radio, for podcasts.

You work on it. Base two. No, this is my voice, my dad's got a good voice. You never had to like, lose the the accent or anything. I never really had it because I was born in Connecticut.

For guys, a youth group, for males, young males that gets to, yeah, serve in Germany got it, so we, um.

I never told a story before on the podcast, No, so a bunch of the guys, like our senior in high school. Again, it's Martha's vineyard, so it's a little artsy, a little weird anyway. And they were like, Hey, this, this group's going to Germany, and like, if you can make this choir like, we'll all go to Germany together. Like at the end of our senior year, when we definitely won't give a shit about anything. And back then, in the vineyard. They used to let the seniors get out of class, like in the beginning of May, to work earlier in the summer. To save money. You know, when you're going away to college, everything, which I know, I don't think they do that. That's a long time ago, obviously.

The back would you grab his, put your arms around? I did, I felt comfortable about it, and so I was.

Hanging out with all of his friends. And then they were, like all the other Vineyard high school kids, were like, Can we come with you now? Can can Mark bring us to the things? And then one of my buddies had a shaved head and he was getting jumped. Every time he went to these like late night clubs and bars and he was like, What the fuck? And they're like, they think you're a skinhead and the other Germans are pissed at you.

A very long way to avoid singing a song. Yeah, I'm not gonna do it for the longest time. I like that.

Story I gotta, you know, I want to try to find that, you know, I promise you, I'll do this when I find the thing. I was looking for, this Requiem sheet music because I wanted to see it again. Because I remember how hard it was and how into it we were. Like, it was tough.

Right now, he's just, you're now Hank's problem. Yeah, yeah, I'll do it, I'll do it soon.

Let's let's talk. Was that story long enough? No, it was a great story. Shout out Mark, throwing a you throwing a javelin with a nine-year-old. Yeah, worth the story.

Crazy, like on the second half of the trip. And then they had to, like, do an announcement with all of us. And the problem was all the seniors were like, we were already done. Yeah, finals class, I'm already going to school like, we're done, we're not coming back to anything. So they. It was like a really shitty timing for anybody being in charge.

This is my dad, all right, so shut up, Mark, let's talk some, let's talk some NBA. Yeah, what do you want to do? The association I want to start with?

Gets a break. This is an awesome question. I didn't know we'd start here because the Clippers are good.

They're really, they are good, like it's finally they've been a joke for the last what since the.

Could have just made fun of, like the Chris Paul era clippers there, too. Yeah, no, I didn't joke. No, we'll get to Chris Paul, that's all right. Yeah, uh, I was wondering like the best thing you guys could do with me would be what would be like the hate list of if this guy wins an N.BA championship? And, like, work its way down. Yeah, right, because of all the years of takes. And, you know, I don't even know that. Like, does it mean I was wrong about Harden for 10 years if he wins it this year?

Yeah, yeah, so none of this stuff happened. Yeah, no. If he wins a ring, he can be like, I fuck you. To all the haters that said, I couldn't do this. Well, I know that's gonna happen, I'm gonna.

Feel if. If we get Kyle Lowry on the Clippers, I think that would be the best thing that's ever happened. I know the discourse of Ryan Rosillo. No, actually, it was in Brooklyn when it was Kairi.

And hardened together. But I like to rant so much that I was like, Okay, there's a sliver of like, what would I be rooting for, rooting against, based on, like, how I think about things? But I say this a lot, like, just because I think somebody like, hasn't won, or I don't like that guy, or I don't think he can. Could be a winning player to say he's incapable of any scenario to actually win this whole thing, like, he's the third option now.

That was his first answer when he got fat. That was funny, it was definitely funny, that was funny.

But I don't know, man, I. I just think there's so somebody can play bad on purpose to get their way. Like, what are you going to be like in a really tight spot in the playoffs? That's fair, and there's way more evidence that those two things, that's fair. So I, I do think with James, I've said.

This before. But I think that it's true. In his case, I don't think it's like a league-wide phenomenon. But with James Harden, I think he looks at the postseason as doing more work for less money. So he's like, I, I did my time, I played my season, right? I don't, I don't have any desire to do more.

Work Yeah, I get to leave at five, right? yeah, right. So all right, let me ask this though. Can the Clippers win it all if everyone stays healthy? I know that's always the if, but is this?

The title? But it's a really bad health bet, right? You know, it's the worst health bet of the four teams. Uh, in the top of the West, maybe you could argue Phoenix if you want to go the like. If you're talking. I did, I think, nine teams, or I said, if these nine teams won an N.B.A. championship, you wouldn't say, Well, how the fuck did that happen?

At the time of this taping, uh, that's true. We started with the two teams that could be.

Drastically different in two weeks. No, right, right, uh, at the time of this taping, they're 11 and 5 with those three guys and it's it's pretty good. And your bench isn't going to matter as much and you're going to have more days off. And I think there's the the biggest gap I've ever seen between playoff and regular season basketball. You know, if you don't believe me, like, listen to Bob. Myers has done like extensive speeches on this thing at like some conference where I'm like, finally, like, listen to this guy. Like, it's totally different, the stuff that works.

Know what Durant's going to look? Right? It sounds in N.FL terms, it sounds to me like you're calling.

Them frauds are the rules, frauds. I don't, I know what you mean. This effort like effort, it can win.

You games in February, I I think that the best playoff teams have. Shot clock scores somebody who when the ball is in their hands and there's like six seconds left in the shot clock. And nothing else has worked. The first two actions got blown up. It's like a lot of times the ball is going to be in that guy's hands and he has to figure out a way to still score. And that's why everybody trades all these draft picks.

You can look at the N.BA every single year and say, Okay, this team's having a great year, but.

Once we get to the playoffs, it's always the same thing. You're like, Oh, the team that has, like, the best offensive option, right? One of those five guys in a league like, they're in it again, and there's always except, but there's not many exceptions in that league. It's not like football.

Where you're like, how did this happen, right? And once you get into a seven game series and it's like, Okay, well, we can. We know how to game plan you games three, four or five, you don't know.

How to game plan Kevin Durant Right? I mean, Durance is going to pull up right at seven foot one. And you, you know, you look, you can double team and get a ball out of his hands. But now Booker's on the other side, going four on three. So, like, Phoenix isn't perfect, but every Phoenix stat is irrelevant. Because they just haven't had those guys for long enough stretches. You know, I think you can write off Golden State, you can write off the Lakers.

Things, Yeah, maybe LeBron off the bench, six Man of the Year, it's only the award he hasn't won, it's.

That would be I would never want it. Yeah, I would gain so much respect for LeBron like I would, I would actually put him above M.J. He got six Man of the Year, six Man of the Year when the trade.

Stuff happened for like 48 hours. That was awesome, it was just great. And I remember when I was still at ESPN, there was like, a weird story. How, like Steven A. had said that people close to Genie Bus were saying she'd explore trades for him or something like that. That was before they'd even won the title. And I like, joked on my podcast, like, what is somebody in her pilates class going like, Hey, what do you think you could get for him?

The, Uh, the Suns, were they 11 and 5, with those three playing together right as of taping? Yes, yeah. Isn't it crazy that they've played more games together than Nets had with their big three? Wait, is it? With Harden, Harden Kairi and Kevin Durant on the nets?

Was 13 or 14 games. Can we get it on that? Adams Do you see Kairi say that? Yeah, that was awesome, 13 games. Some, some, uh, some fan was like, Kairi, you never played for the Nests?

ADAMs I know I've had a lot of people come in and be like, Hey, what are you gonna do? The Kairi was right about everything. Oh, I was like, Oh, that's an interesting say, What? what exactly was Kairi right about Kovid? The documentary? Yeah, right, yeah, uh, I think a lot of the problems that Kairi guys like. Even if I might be on your side on some of the stuff, like, I don't look. I mean, I thought when Kovid was first happening, I was like, how come? Everybody's an expert on this already? It seems kind of new, like, might we have questions a little bit later?

The process, all right. So, uh, in the East, the Celtics look like the best team they do, but when?

The Clippers kick their ass. I was like, man, I mean, that was like, a really, that was like, worth five. Yeah, it was.

Popular the ratings. They think if you're an N.FL reporter, you're like, I did that well, that's what it feels like. That's the point of my reporting about this league. Made it so exciting that people.

Stand up for football, guys for a second, all right. There was a Prisco on a text. There was a very loud NBA uh push that was like, football's dying. NBA is going to be the next big sport like everyone's talking about on social media.

Was definitely a window, and it was, uh, so now we just smash them. The Cuban basketball, but it is.

Funny, when anyone's like, NBA, like NBA is the next big sport? No, it's not football is. Yeah, I do think.

That the N.B.A. had like a single elimination championship and played like 17 regular season.

Games the ratings would probably go up, that's basically what the stars play now anyways, yeah.

Not anymore. Although it's gonna be funny. It wouldn't be great if there was one year like the top 10 guys didn't qualify for the MVP. You're like Tobias Harris first time, let's go, it's awesome. Uh, the Cuban thing.

Get fat hogs, get slaughtered, that's what it was, right, if you have a good phrase like, I bought it.

At the time, yeah, and then he sold his team. Yeah, I mean, that's one of, like, the all-time yeah calls, which was self like, you know, it was. There was a lot of self-interest in the motivation behind him, saying, like, Hey, I own one of the 30 assets in the world. I'm not going to tell you, it's not going to be better positioned, but if you were to say to him no, actually, you'll probably sell your team. And by the way, the call of an N.BA team being more valuable than an N.FL team's like, not even going to be close. It's going to be worse, yeah, or a bigger gap, but I don't know, whatever.

Man, the Cuban thing, though, yeah, isn't it? I feel like no one talked about the fact that he sold his team, it was not big enough news. Like he was the NBA guy, NBA is a great asset.

Were sold. You're like, Hey, you guys came in and sometimes, like, the private equity guys would just be like, Wait, how much of a return are we going to get right? Like, done, like? That's how I have, that's how I've done my job for decades, that's how I have to do it now. Even if you feel like there's some emotional attachment to something like a franchise, that's far more, you know, emotional than anything in your portfolio.

It really does feel like if there's one guy who's going to sell his NBA team, Mark Cuban should be.

The one that sounds off all the alarms. There's a lot of transition happening right now with teams. And you know, whenever anybody like, we're all bubble experts after the big short, right? You know? Like, my, everybody's just torn around, like, Oh, you think there's a bubble? I'm like, I don't fucking know.

Oh Max. wow, wow, Max is watching highlights over there, Max, I just somebody's gonna have it on your.

Phone. Somebody would have to convince me of, like, how, like, when is that time coming where a live television audience is no longer that valuable? That's fast, so I don't know when that's happening. I know it's the one last great thing for sports, it's always gonna be, yeah, right.

This should happen with a basketball team, especially that guy, that guy, that's the point. So what does?

That mean, and then I'll hear about like three or four other teams where, you know. The analogy I've used is like the beach house that your your grandfather had, and then the kids, you know, use it. And then you guys go with all the cousins. And then it's like, out of the next generation. And there's just no way to making it work. Like, you want to keep the house, but there's too many people.

At it, right? Yeah, so so. It seems to me like the NBA is trying to pull like, kind of a page out of the NFL's playbook. Which is, you want to ensure more ratings? Let's have high scores, let's have people score a fuckload of points. Are people scoring too many points in the NBA?

Has never been easier. So it was really weird how when MBD went for 70 and then Luca went for 73. Yeah, it was like, oh my God, like, look what MBD is doing? And then it was like, What the hell is wrong with the league? And I think a lot of Mavs fans took it real personal, as if it was only about Luca. I can only look at things like nationally, right? I think people only pay attention to bias that they feel like negatively impacts themselves or their interests.

In the butt, and he was down for 20 minutes. I know, I know Jaylen Brown actually, like, left the gate.

So when? when I think of that, like with the Zaza Kawaii play. And then Cam Reddish landed on Harden, who put his feet underneath the defender, and then they check to see if it's a flagrant on the defender and Cam Reddish missed time. So the problem with any of these adjustments is like you worry about the unintended consequences. Well, the unintended consequence for that one is like, now you can't even get like a clear contest, you have to do these drive-by contests.

He is very, very smart, so if you've, if you tweak the rules, he will figure out a way to exploit it. Every time after he, when he retires, he should be like, Um, that guy in, Uh, was it Frank Abadnale? and that was it.

Yeah, and then he'd be like, I want to work for the NFL. Fuck this place. Yeah, yeah, it's king.

We're going to get back to Ryan in a second. He's being brought to you by coors. Light, ice cool, Cores, light. I love it. Mountains were blue big time in Jacksonville, bluest mountains in America.

Is supposed to do anymore, right, you know? Like, there's even times like the play that I tweeted out that, you know, turned into a bunch of people talking about it. And then I just don't understand, like guys on Twitter accounts. But like, I've officiated in Juco in high school, that's absolutely a foul, like you shouldn't want that to be a foul, right? Like. And it was like, Oh, you know, Steph was in a compromising position.

Stuff, it's just gonna be different. Yeah, the, uh, I think it was Sam Decker, who's friend of the program, I think he had, he said. He said something, and you know, Sam was in the NBA for a while. He's now doing great in Europe. But, like he, he's had something about, uh, practice. And someone asked him, if you were shooting in an open gym with no one on you, how many threes would you make out of 100?

Know if he was the first to do? It was like the first time, maybe I was noticing it is. He was dribbling and granted he's at this size disadvantage on any dribble to the rim and he started just taking off on the wrong foot. Yeah, so like the defender, you're always timing it to be like, step, step and like, Okay, if he's right-handed, he's going up off of this foot.

Home playoff series. But I want to shit on for being a snake. Oh, that's like, Do you put? do you put any credence in that? And the fact that he, he got a young coach fired and he was like, Now now it's me.

I think Giannis never bought in. I think Dame had a bigger issue with Adrian, really first, and then it was, Yeah, so yeah, I, I can't figure out Dame. Like, I knew he sucked on defense and now it's like, Oh my God, he's really, he's really bad, but it's like the bucks they should.

Have known that going into it, right? It's like, Yeah, but it's back to, like the offense stuff.

That we talk about because Dame's like, probably one of the 10 best guys at, like, getting his own thing, but you're like, all right, we'll take the bad defense. They act surprised that they got rid.

Of one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. And they brought in Dame and they're like.

Wait, our defense stinks. Let's blame the coach. Um, well, they were gonna blame. Adrian Griffin, who, by the way, is one of my all-time favorite N.B.A. players. Saw the game slow pace. Just loved it like that guy, would he?

Five games in the dock at this point. So yeah, so bucks to anyone else. I mean, indeed, obviously being.

Out that kind of, yeah, ends that, that's over. Yeah, uh, the next story is awesome. I can't fathom them.

Beating all those teams, well, they go back to the and I learned this, you know, firsthand. Tibbs can win a lot of regular season games. There we go again, he gets his guy, his guys play hard every night, and Jalen Brunson's a star.

He can. I don't think Ananobe is necessarily like that guy, but his corner three numbers are always ridiculous. And um, in the first, what 16 games, the Knicks? He's even beyond anything, he's bad, like in Toronto. He's actually getting to the point where it's like, you're 26 and you're kind of like going in the wrong direction on some of these stats.

Stretch of the schedule. Okay, I did so. Is there, is there a third team in the East or is it going to?

Be just box Celtics Well, Cleveland scared the death. scary. Yeah, yeah, and I mean, they won this.

Lebron.

Who knows, he might be there next year? I saw some Cleveland fans being like, well.

Good Adam, this year, the trade deadline. He'd be the perfect piece, yeah, and by the way, he would.

Have to opt out and like, sign for nothing to go there. I don't think he's going to do that at the very end of his career. Uh, yeah, I don't think. Cleveland, I mean, he came back and then they won. Yeah, in that town, yeah, not exactly like Parade town.

What he said he was going to do coming home to the Knicks now, right? Like I could see myself.

Playing there, yeah, no, that was him. He just puts pressure on the front office, he thinks like front offices. Show up to work and be like, what do you want to do today? Like, you want to get wings or something? And then the next day they're like.

When he tweeted The hourglass, Yeah, people got into work like two hours early that day, right?

And then people ask him about it, He'd be like, what? yeah, nothing, I mean, he's gonna be, he'd be.

A tough summer roommate. Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. So he's leaving notes for you just so you know, uh, you left a dirty dish in the sink. I clean it up, no worries. Yeah, he was just put on like the.

Whiteboard. He'd be like, All of you guys suck, and then you'd come downstairs and be like, What was that? and be like, it's up to you to figure it out. Like, Wait, what's pretty? seems pretty like, self-explanatory and direct, and you wrote it, Do you want to talk about this? Don't need to, you know? Yeah, like, do you want to move out?

LeBron remains committed to being as good of a roommate as he can be.

He loves cohesive.

I know it's not your hometown. I do love how he just talked about the next, he's like, Yeah, I could play here, I could definitely play. I also think there's something about LeBron where he he plays in a cool environment. He's on the road and he's like, Yeah, you know, I could really see myself.

Winning a title for the next, that'd be, that'd be incredible. He goes, like, if you go to any city with nice weather that day, you're like, Man, I could see myself living. Oh, yeah, that's what LeBron does for.

Let's do a non, yeah, because we have a segment called Rizzolo.