Pod Insights The Bill Simmons Podcast Denver’s a Mess! Plus, Live at the Masters With the Simmons Crew About this episode The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is in Augusta, Georgia, and he is joined by Joe House to discuss the Nuggets’ shocking decision to fire longtime head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with a week left in the regular season (2:16). Next, Cousin Sal joins Bill and House to peruse some NBA playoff and NFL draft odds (23:51). Then, Bill, House, Sal, Nathan Hubbard, Dave Chang, and James "Baby Doll" Dixon do a quick 2025 Masters draft (57:14) before discussing walking Augusta National Golf Course and more stories from the week so far (01:09:16).
Host: Bill Simmons
Guests: Joe House, Cousin Sal, Dave Chang, Nathan Hubbard, and James "Baby Doll" Dixon
Producers: Kyle Crichton, Chia Hao Tat, and Eduardo Ocampo
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Transcript 20,327 words · 6 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Bill Simmons? You're listening to the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. FanDuel Sportsbook is the best place to bet on the NBA. We have these fun little Tuesday, Friday player performance stuff. We have same game parlays. We have picks for me sometimes and boosts and all kinds of fun things. Get ready in the playoffs. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today to get in on the action. And by the way, The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit theringer.com/rg to learn more. Listen to the end of this episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus, president of select states. Game and problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Coming up, all hell breaks loose in Denver. I'm at the Masters. This podcast is nuts. It's next. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. It's football season.
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1:29 Bill Simmons? See app for details. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. If you liked White Lotus, go check out Prestige TV. Go check out the watch because we covered everything that happened in the season finale. I put up a new rewatchables, The Saint, that went up over the weekend because Val Kilmer passed away. So we want to pay homage to him.
1:51 Bill Simmons? I am at the Masters right now. I have a bunch of people we did not expect when we were walking off the course and got our phones back today that Denver had cleaned house. So I'm going to talk about that at the top with Joe House. We're going to talk NBA. We're going to talk Western Finals odds and a whole bunch of stuff with Sal and House. And then we did a bunch of Masters stuff. We created a little draft that you can bet on on FanDuel Sportsbook. And a whole bunch of other fun props, bets, and then last but not least, James Babydoll Dixon, he comes in. We've talked about him on the podcast a bunch and, and we talked to him and Chang and Sal about Augusta and smoking and some of the stuff that
2:34 Bill Simmons? makes Augusta what it is. So that is all coming up. First, our friends from Pearl Jam.
3:07 Bill Simmons? All right, we're recording this on Tuesday, early evening in Augusta, Georgia, East Coast time. We're here for the Masters. We brought a whole crew, including Nathan Hubbard, your fairway rolling partner, Cousin Sal, he's going to be joining us later, David Chang, Babydoll James Dixon, who's still talking, you can't hear him. But we're going to do a bunch of segments for this pod. We did not expect what happened when we left the Masters, because when you leave the Masters, you have to give your phone, you're not allowed to have your phone on the course. We didn't have our phone for six hours. So literally, anything can happen. And we're thinking, we leave the course, and we're going to find out the market has dropped like 150 points.
3:47 Speaker 01 Just another day that ends in Y.
3:49 Bill Simmons? Yeah, some sort of, some sort of bad tariff news. And instead, all these texts about, oh, my God, Nuggets, can you believe Denver? And they fired their coach and their GM. And we're going to be one of many podcasts who talks about this tonight. But a true stunner, I don't remember, I have a bunch of thoughts on this, but to fire your coach and GM with a week to go in the season, when you have a chance to be like a top four playoff seed? This is like the NBA we grew up with. The NBA is like, like going nuts again.
4:18 Speaker 01 Well, I mean. It is and it isn't like there is no precedent for teams firing their like we have it now in 10 days, two playoff teams with legit aspirations for getting to the Western Conference Finals, firing their head coach and Denver.
4:37 Bill Simmons? Memphis, Memphis being the other one.
4:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, Denver went a whole step further. They're like, we don't like the internal turmoil of this identity crisis fight that we've been having for what feels like to me 18 months now, at least between Calvin Booth and his instinct to try and build a team with young guys and Mike Malone, who has in front of him, most of the pieces of guys that won an NBA championship a couple of years ago. Right. And this tension has been affecting this team for two years now.
5:10 Bill Simmons? Well, but think back to the 80s, though. I remember, didn't Larry Brown, like he was coaching the Nets and he just left for Kansas City with or for Kansas University with like two weeks ago in the season, they fired him. It was the kind of thing that would happen all the time with the league we loved and the league, even though it still has your Sacramento's and these, but now I feel like here's my theory. I'm going to throw this to you.
5:33 Speaker 01 I'm listening.
5:34 Bill Simmons? The league is so deep now and there's so much talent. It ties into something we talked about when we did the over under pods with Priscilla. It's like, shit, there's going to be some unhappy teams, teams that thought they were going to be really good, teams that have max guys, teams that have this model that used to work of we have three stars, we have two really good stars and they're going to be like two games under 500 in February, wondering what that'll happen. And I'm looking at the West because the West is a way deeper conference than the East. The East is more like a traditional, you have the really good teams, you have some good playoff teams, some mediocre teams and then crappy teams, right? That's the model we're used to. The West, like everybody's talented and everybody thought they were going to be in the mix. So look at all the teams that were unhappy
6:19 Bill Simmons? just this season. Dallas traded their best player, one of the five best guys in the league. They just said, fuck it. We don't like where this is going. They trade him. The Lakers were unhappy too. There was, they were trying to do all kinds of stuff midseason. They make a trade. Memphis fires their coach. Denver just fired their coach and GM. Sacramento fired their coach, traded their best player. Phoenix tried to trade everybody on their team but Devin Booker for four months. They fired their coach last year. They're probably firing him again. That's six teams in the West House.
6:53 Speaker 01 Well, you left out Golden State.
6:55 Bill Simmons? And Golden State.
6:56 Speaker 01 Who knew that they needed another piece and went and paid, you know, a high price.
7:00 Bill Simmons? Jimmy Butler. Yeah, that's, but at least that's not like.
7:03 Speaker 01 Okay.
7:04 Bill Simmons? All right. That's not a hail Mary. This Denver thing is a hail Mary. This is.
7:09 Speaker 01 It's a what the hell is going on to me?
7:11 Bill Simmons? But this is, we're going to the playoffs and we're going to get smoked and everybody wants to play us. And we're in a situation where in Saturday, Sunday, teams might be tanking to try to get a matchup against us. That's the level Denver was at with the way they were playing lately.
7:25 Speaker 01 That's true. So what does firing the coach and GM have to do with the performance on the floor?
7:30 Bill Simmons? All right. It's a good question. I'm going to try to answer it.
7:32 Speaker 01 Good.
7:34 Bill Simmons? I think they thought their season was shot. I think they decided.
7:37 Speaker 01 I think they're right.
7:38 Bill Simmons? This coach GM situation, they were going to get rid of both of them. They, Josh Cronkite basically said that in the press conference, like we're going to do something after the season. Why not now? Why not see if we can save it?
7:51 Bill Simmons? This is a hail Mary.
7:52 Speaker 01 Well, what, again, let's do it precedent wise. Point to a team.
7:57 Bill Simmons? That's done this with a week to go?
7:59 Speaker 01 Yeah. In the last 30 years.
8:01 Bill Simmons? A team that's had Jokic as, as their best player during like this half decade he's having. That's one of the great half decades anyone's had offensively in the history of the league.
8:11 Speaker 01 So I don't.
8:12 Bill Simmons? And they have one title to show for it.
8:13 Speaker 01 I don't begrudge the instinct of wanting to do something to change the trajectory. But the problem is it's the players. They're not good enough. They don't have a team that's good enough to compete to your observation earlier.
8:30 Bill Simmons? Their top five is good enough.
8:32 Speaker 01 They don't play defense. They haven't played defense in two months. That's why they have a losing record over their last 25, 30 games. It's why they have a, they're five and nine over their last 14 games. Their last three games of the season.
8:46 Bill Simmons? Are they five and nine over the last 14?
8:47 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
8:48 Bill Simmons? I saw they're 12 and 13 last 25.
8:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, they don't play defense.
8:52 Bill Simmons? 19th net rating, 22nd defensive rating in their last 25 games. And we like looking at the net rating stuff. It's a nice little snapshot.
9:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:02 Bill Simmons? You know, sometimes you can overreact to it one way or the other. Sometimes you have teams that are in the vicinity of where their playoff spot's going to be. Maybe they cool the jets a little bit. Other times, it's a real sign either something's going really wrong or really right. Like with the Clippers with Kawhi back, all their net rating stuff is really good here for two solid months now. And it's like, let's take this team seriously. Detroit, who I think's going to be a six seed, I'm not taking them 100% seriously, but the math is the math and the math says they're a pretty good team. Denver, the math said this team can't guard anybody. The on off stats with Jokic, which I mentioned Sunday with Rusillo, and are the case if you're going to talk MVP for him, which I think, I think today probably hurt
9:46 Bill Simmons? that cause a little bit. But the on off for him where they were the best offense in NBA history when he, when he's on the court and they're 30th in the NBA when he's off the court. That's all you need to know. And there's never been a disparity like that in the history of basketball.
10:00 Speaker 01 That tells you, it's all that you need to know about the, the team building effort. And look, I, I think this is.
10:09 Bill Simmons? Well, when you say team building though, do you blame Mike Malone at all? Or, because you and I both watch a lot of Denver.
10:14 Speaker 01 I don't blame him one bit. No. I mean, when you have the best player on earth and you have most of the nucleus of a title winning team.
10:23 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
10:23 Speaker 01 Then the appropriate thing to do is try and in the first place defend that title. And then in the second place, try and win as many as you can while you have the best player in the world, playing at the level that he's playing at. That seems like the right kind of decision. And I think that head coach, you know, built a game plan for. The season, these last two seasons around the that that thesis around the idea of we should try really hard when we have this guy to be as good as we can in this moment. They just it. I do think that this new collective bargaining agreement is a real culprit is a real.
10:59 Bill Simmons? The apron stuff. Yeah. Cause they were. So they were like five million under the second apron. But next year they were going to get killed by the apron. And I think they seem really scared of it. And you know, there's some real money stuff with this team that has to be mentioned. I think around the league, if you talk to people who know shit or who have a vested interest in it. They're like, thank God Denver's not spending more money. They have this incredible asset and they seem pretty good being middle of the road. It's the same thing people felt about the New England Patriots during the last 10 years of Tom Brady. I mean, God, they're not spending more than they are. Then you look at the Philadelphia Eagles in your division and they're super aggressive and they're like trying to maximize the moment. I think that's what most fans want. I would not say Denver's doing that.
11:44 Speaker 01 I don't, I wouldn't call Denver middle of the road. I wouldn't characterize.
11:48 Bill Simmons? I'd say middle of the road. They have the, they have the best player in the league and they're not even a second apron team.
11:53 Speaker 01 Well, they're going to be middle of the road this season. They were not middle. They, they went for it last season and I think they paid the price. I think that they flamed out the way they did because they, they saw the one seed as a viable possibility. They played balls to the wall at the end of the regular season and it took a toll on them because Minnesota ran them out the gym.
12:13 Bill Simmons? I have a couple of other theories in this. Um, the play in, I think puts a crazy amount of pressure on these teams. Not only do you not want to be in the play in, you're in a situation where you could just lose two playing games and then you're not even in the playoffs, which was a real thing for Denver, right?
12:27 Speaker 01 True story.
12:27 Bill Simmons? So this is why it's, it's not a panic move, but it's a total panic move where you're like five days left. Everybody wants to play us. Our defense is in shambles. We lost a catastrophic game in overtime to Minnesota that really feels like that tilted their season in all these different ways. Like does Malone still have a job if they win that game? Maybe.
12:49 Speaker 01 Well, they didn't play two of their guys that game, right? I mean.
12:52 Bill Simmons? I know, but it was just how they lost and how bad Westbrook was.
12:55 Speaker 01 It was.
12:56 Bill Simmons? And how great Jokic was.
12:57 Speaker 01 It was agonizing.
12:59 Bill Simmons? So you have that piece.
13:02 Bill Simmons? You know, a lot of times when we're hinting at stuff and pods and we're talking about stuff and we're talking about scuttlebutt around the league and people go, where's that coming from? And shit gets aggregated, but it always seemed hazy. This Booth Malone thing, I mean, I talked about it. Everybody who's had a podcast has alluded to or talked about it. I almost, and I really regret I didn't do it. I had, you know, you have the tweet lined up and you have the draft. There was something Malone got something for, like, he won the most games in Nuggets history. There was some sort of ceremony and it was like a short video and it was Calvin Booth giving him something. And I had this really sarcastic tweet and it was like, rare footage of Calvin Booth and Mike
13:45 Bill Simmons? Malone interacting. And I was ready to tweet it out and I was like, you know what? That's not worth it. That's going to become a thing. People will be mad. And I was just like, I didn't do it. But that's how bad it was. I had this tweet lined up, like, because just that they interacted seemed like it was an amazing event.
14:04 Speaker 01 I don't like that whole kind of storyline and that dynamic because at the end of the day-
14:11 Bill Simmons? Which part? The media part of it or the Coach GM part?
14:13 Speaker 01 The Coach GM part. The media part of it is perfectly fine, of course.
14:17 Bill Simmons? Well, you know, we're getting the now they tell us piece. TM Brian Curtis. You know, that's coming.
14:22 Speaker 01 It was an open secret. Like, you know,
14:24 Bill Simmons? Ramona kind of wrote it in the beginning of season. I think Zach, if Zach had been writing for ESPN, I think Zach would have had something pretty major at some point.
14:34 Speaker 01 Matt Moore at the Action Network, who's a, you know, does a pod on Denver, has been talking about it. It's not a secret of that.
14:42 Bill Simmons? No, all the Denver fans.
14:43 Speaker 01 Internal tension. They've been observing it. But really,
14:45 Bill Simmons? It's more than tension. They didn't fucking talk.
14:47 Speaker 01 I don't like it because that's on Cronkite. That's on Josh Cronkite. They're like, you, somebody needs to be the boss.
14:54 Bill Simmons? Well, at least he owned it today.
14:54 Speaker 01 The boss is the boss, right? You see guys not getting along. You need to sit in a room and reconcile whatever the differences are because again, you have the best effing player on the planet on your team playing at his absolute best. So the thing to do is try and capitalize on that. That would be my instinct. So how can everybody get along?
15:18 Bill Simmons? Zeke Najee extension? Reggie Jackson.
15:22 Speaker 01 Peyton Watson, who could be something eventually, maybe someday.
15:26 Bill Simmons? There's some really bad team building. We knew there might be signs of trouble. Kevin O'Connor, when he was writing for The Ringer, did that big piece about the Nuggets and their team building. And Calvin Booth gave all these secrets in the piece.
15:39 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:39 Bill Simmons? Which is like GM 101, don't do that. If you're doing stuff that's working, don't talk about it. What is the upside? What's the upside of here? Let me tell this reporter, all of these things we're doing that we think are cutting edge. How are you winning with that? Now you're just giving your secrets to the other 29 teams in the league.
15:57 Speaker 01 Again.
15:57 Bill Simmons? And he does this whole link thing and it was just weird because it felt credit grabby. And anytime something's credit grabby.
16:04 Speaker 01 You're right.
16:05 Bill Simmons? You know, like, well, why is this guy doing? Obviously, he had a thing with Malone and it was already there jacking.
16:11 Speaker 01 Where's the boss? When that story came out on The Ringer, which is what, 18 months ago, 16 months ago?
16:17 Bill Simmons? Remember he tried to disown it after? He was like, I don't know. I thought I was off the record.
16:21 Speaker 01 Oh, right.
16:22 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
16:22 Speaker 01 It was ludicrous stuff.
16:23 Bill Simmons? Fucking bullshit because KOC did a good job with that story. Anyway, so this thing was a problem all year. I think it affected the team and then they finally acted. I'm gonna throw this at you. The great NBA asset wastes.
16:39 Speaker 01 Oh, no.
16:40 Bill Simmons? So remember when we were kids and Kareem was just on shitty teams for like seven years?
16:44 Speaker 01 Yes.
16:45 Bill Simmons? He was on the Bucks forever. They had nobody, like basically Bobby Dandridge and that was it. Oscar was washed up and they were, he was still great. And then finally he's like, I'm going L.A. Goes to the Lakers, but they trade a lot to get him. Then the Kermit Washington fight happens and it's just, it felt like there were seven years there where it's like, Jesus, is Kareem? He's the best player in the league. Is he gonna be on a really good team? Then Magic shows up and the rest is history. But there's been some good ones over the years, like even LeBron in the mid 2000s on those Cleveland teams. I was like, oh, man, they're trading for Ben Wallace now. Ah, oh, they're paying that much for Antoine Jameson? Kobe mid 2000s, partly his fault because his check out. T Mac for basically the entire 2000s.
17:29 Speaker 01 That makes me sad.
17:30 Bill Simmons? That was a good one. Moses, when we were kids on the Rockets.
17:33 Speaker 01 T Mac could have, but Yao broke down on him.
17:36 Bill Simmons? Yeah, Yao broke down, but T Mac for all that Orlando run when Grant Hill was hurt.
17:40 Speaker 01 Makes me sad. Yeah.
17:42 Bill Simmons? And I don't think this Jokic thing is as bad because Gordon's obviously really good. Christian Brown's been good. Murray, when he's healthy is good.
17:49 Speaker 01 Turned out to be good.
17:50 Bill Simmons? Porter's a good three point shooter. It's not, it's not that bad, but at the same time.
17:54 Speaker 01 Their entire.
17:55 Bill Simmons? It does hurt.
17:56 Speaker 01 Their entire fate is tied to Jamal Murray's health. And we said this at the outset of the season, I know, I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I went under on them getting to 51 wins this, this season because.
18:09 Bill Simmons? You went over on the Sixers.
18:11 Speaker 01 No, I'm just saying, we're talking about the Denver Nuggets.
18:13 Bill Simmons? I didn't want you to applaud yourself because you did go.
18:16 Speaker 01 No.
18:16 Bill Simmons? By the way, I went, I went under on the Clippers and under on the Lakers.
18:21 Speaker 01 Why are we going through this? Nobody cares. I, the observation I'm making is that the concern at the outset of the season for me was Jamal Murray. Do you trust that he's going to be able to play at the level that this team requires? Through the balance of a season for them to get into like the mid 50s and wins. And I didn't trust it at any time that he's not, he has been excellent. Jamal Murray for a good stretch and they were, they won eight games going into the All-Star break.
18:47 Bill Simmons? It was like, welcome to the season, Jamal Murray.
18:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, but you know, it was like, okay, so Denver's legit. So we love Denver at this level, playing at that, that, you know, and then Gordon went out with, with some injuries and Michael Porter Jr. Has been doing Michael Porter Jr. Stuff. And we have too much time and too many high leverage moments where the basketball finds its way into Russell Westbrook's hands.
19:09 Bill Simmons? Well, he just shouldn't play in crunch time.
19:10 Speaker 01 That's true.
19:11 Bill Simmons? I almost don't blame Russell Westbrook.
19:12 Speaker 01 I don't either. I don't blame him.
19:14 Bill Simmons? When my son leaves the pantry open and, and.
19:17 Speaker 01 The dog.
19:18 Bill Simmons? My, my, my beloved dog Murph is just like, cool, I'm gonna eat all the potato chips. Is that Murph's fault or is that Ben's fault?
19:25 Speaker 01 That's right. That's right.
19:26 Bill Simmons? Russ, sometimes in crunch time, he's just gonna eat all the potato chips. And it's like, you left the pantry open.
19:31 Speaker 01 He has to be on the floor doing that though, because they are trying to do this rotating rest thing.
19:36 Bill Simmons? I get it.
19:37 Speaker 01 With their guys. I get it too. They're just not good enough.
19:39 Bill Simmons? Here's, here's Russ's value. We're giving everyone the night off. Russ, can you do everything and try to keep us close for this game against Charlotte, who's tanking anyway?
19:48 Speaker 01 Sure.
19:49 Bill Simmons? Can we bring in Conspiracy Bill for a second?
19:51 Speaker 01 Oh, I'm, I'm here. I'm listening.
19:54 Speaker 01 He turned his hat backwards.
19:57 Bill Simmons? It's like an over the top slash conspiracy bill.
20:02 Bill Simmons? I wonder if Jamal Murray's healthy.
20:04 Speaker 01 Oh, okay.
20:06 Bill Simmons? And if they feel like they're got, team's going the wrong way in the playoffs and Jamal Murray is not 100% healthy and they lose, and then that becomes the excuse for why they fell apart down the stretch. And then it becomes harder to clean house and fire everybody. And now you just do it now. So there's no excuse. You 50 50, maybe he's going to be where he was in December for the playoffs, maybe not, but either way it's a clean, it's a reset button either way. It's just, listen, I'm not saying Conspiracy Bill, I'm still Conspiracy Bill.
20:40 Speaker 01 Here feels like.
20:41 Bill Simmons? Hold on, I'm back, I'm out.
20:42 Speaker 01 That good. Thank you.
20:43 Bill Simmons? Listen, Conspiracy Bill just came in. I'm not saying he's always right. Sometimes he's crazy, but something doesn't pass the sniff test about the timing with this.
20:52 Speaker 01 I don't, well, because it's ludicrous. The timing is ludicrous.
20:56 Bill Simmons? The timing's ludicrous.
20:56 Speaker 01 There's nothing, I mean, Josh Crocker said four times, we're gonna see what we can squeeze, squeeze the juice. We're gonna see if we can squeeze some juice out of it. There ain't no juice, buddy. Your team ain't good enough.
21:06 Bill Simmons? He needs to squeeze the PED juice out of it.
21:09 Speaker 01 He should be squeezing.
21:10 Bill Simmons? PEDs all the way around.
21:11 Speaker 01 He needs to be squeezing the leadership juice. He should have squeezed, squoze, you know, before the season started and sat down. He needed, it needed to be squeezed before the season started. They needed to come up with a game plan and not have this internal turmoil.
21:27 Speaker 01 They got a best case scenario out of Christian Brown this, this, this season.
21:30 Bill Simmons? They really did.
21:31 Speaker 01 A very good scenario.
21:33 Bill Simmons? Dodging the KCP bullet.
21:35 Speaker 01 They got a very good scenario out of Jamal Murray, honestly.
21:39 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
21:39 Speaker 01 It can mean considering his injury history. They pay, they have Matt, three max contract guys. They can't keep all three. They can't keep Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. And Jamal Murray and stay, you know, where they want to be.
21:52 Bill Simmons? Junior Wizards? Flag?
21:54 Speaker 01 No, no, no, no, no, no.
21:57 Bill Simmons? Flag star Porter?
21:58 Speaker 01 No.
21:58 Bill Simmons? The new big three?
21:59 Speaker 01 No, no. I still wonder why would, didn't we hear more about them and with Miami? Why, why was Miami not interested?
22:07 Bill Simmons? Miami wanted any part of Michael.
22:08 Speaker 01 It must be, it must be right.
22:09 Bill Simmons? Would you trade it for Michael Porter Jr.?
22:13 Bill Simmons? Would you want to pay him 40 million?
22:14 Speaker 01 He's redundant for that team anyway. He doesn't help them.
22:19 Bill Simmons? We're gonna, we're gonna take a break and bring in Cousin Sal and we're gonna do the West. Where Denver fits in and whether we think there's any chance.
22:30 Speaker 01 Where Denver fits out.
22:31 Bill Simmons? Or where Denver fits out.
22:32 Speaker 01 Let's go.
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23:15 Bill Simmons? And even if there will be a hole in one this week, don't forget to check out our Ringer specials on FanDuel Sportsbook as well. We made a bunch of, bunch of bets and props. FanDuel, your go-to for betting on Augusta. T off of the variety of bet types and live bet. Stuff as the tournament drama unfolds. So don't wait. Visit fanduel.com/BS to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook and swing for some green. Must be 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC. Opt-in required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Game problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.
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24:42 Bill Simmons? All right, Cousin Sal is here, our friend. We walked the course today. We're going to talk about that later. The Masters. Your agent, James Baby Doll Dixon, is here.
24:51 Speaker 02 What a day. So much fun.
24:53 Bill Simmons? We'll talk about that next segment. We're going to talk about the Denver Nuggets and the West and basketball and the NBA playoffs.
25:00 Speaker 02 Can I just first thank you guys for giving me some winning futures at the beginning of the year? I heard you talk about how you bet your own futures and lost. Maybe you should come to me after your podcast so I could tell you who to bet. Houston makes the playoffs, yes. Pelicans, no playoffs, yes. Denver under wins, yes. Spurs under wins, yes. Suns overs a loss. Wizards under, yes.
25:24 Bill Simmons? We did, we did above average on our locks. I'm really upset about how we handled the Pacific. The LA teams, Sacramento and Phoenix.
25:33 Speaker 02 The Lakers.
25:34 Bill Simmons? Phoenix and the two LA teams ruined my over unders.
25:37 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:38 Bill Simmons? Anyway.
25:39 Speaker 02 They just went over, those twos went to crazy transformations. So it's not really.
25:44 Bill Simmons? Anyway, uh, so the Denver Nuggets.
25:46 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:47 Bill Simmons? We have FanDuel, I introduce these to you. Kind of buried on the FanDuel Sportsbook NBA page where they have to advance each round. And I don't remember seeing those last year. I was incredibly fascinated by them. So round two, to make round two, that means you're winning in round one. And we're taping this before a couple of the Tuesday night games. There's going to be some standing shenanigans. We have five teams that have 32 losses. Denver's one of them who just fired their coach. G. Um.
26:17 Speaker 02 Is Denver in a Post Malone, um, time period right now?
26:19 Speaker 01 This is good.
26:20 Bill Simmons? Wow.
26:23 Bill Simmons? Where's the drummer?
26:26 Bill Simmons? OKC is minus 1300 to make round two house. And that jumped out to me immediately because what if they played Minnesota or the Clippers? I think OKC would beat either of those teams, but I don't think they're 13 to one favorites to beat the Clippers. If that was the series. Or Golden State. I don't know.
26:46 Speaker 01 Because those guys, both the Clippers and Minnesota, super short prices as, as dogs. It must be that they think Memphis is going to be the eight because Memphis is plus 350.
26:57 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
26:57 Speaker 01 And I honestly, that does make sense.
26:59 Bill Simmons? I should have actually, I should have mentioned that too. So Clippers are plus 130 to make round two. Minnesota's plus 154 to make round two. Memphis is plus 350, but OKC is minus 1300. It feels like.
27:12 Speaker 02 Doesn't make sense.
27:13 Bill Simmons? It doesn't make sense, right?
27:13 Speaker 02 Memphis is even the eight at plus 350. FanDuel screwed up. Thanks for sending us out here, but they screwed up. They're not smart.
27:20 Bill Simmons? We love you FanDuel, but you didn't, you added something wrong here. And then the Lakers are minus 172, Golden State's minus 152, Denver's plus 106. And Houston is plus 114. Which was another one that jumped out to me because they're going to have, we know they had, we know they're the two seed. They're playing as well as they played all season. And it's 2-7 and I just think they're going to be favored. So if I get them at plus 114, that's great. But I think that whole list, what shocked you the most out of those 18? So.
27:52 Speaker 02 I mean, that's weird. Now that you bring it up, if Houston is going to be a two seed as an underdog, right? If you're guaranteed, they're not guaranteed, but looking good, two seed. Has that happened in a while where two seeds and underdog? I mean, that jumped out.
28:05 Bill Simmons? Every once in a while, they're like Memphis had that year where they were the two seed, but nobody believed in it and there was good value in them.
28:11 Speaker 01 Let's price it cuz because let's say it's Houston against Minnesota.
28:16 Speaker 02 Right?
28:17 Speaker 01 They won't be an underdog to Minnesota. It'll be like very close to even odds. Don't you think? They'll be a tiny favorite.
28:23 Speaker 02 Because they're home. They'll have one.
28:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Yeah. So right now Minnesota's seven and Memphis is eight. And Houston's two. Arg could be playing one of those. Golden State has two easy games, the next two.
28:35 Speaker 02 It's bizarre.
28:35 Bill Simmons? Denver just fired their coach. They've lost four in a row and they're going to be playing the Kings, the Grizzlies at home, and then at Houston in the last game of the season, which Houston might not care about because they'll have the two seed locked up. So I don't know. I think Minnesota versus Houston, just fundamentally, if that's a 2-7 series house, where would your money be in that series?
29:02 Speaker 01 I'm definitely betting on Minnesota. There's no other ways about it.
29:05 Bill Simmons? That's how I feel about it too.
29:06 Speaker 01 I guarantee you.
29:07 Speaker 02 Because they've screwed us enough. We have this big parlay that needs Minnesota to run the table losing wise to pay off. And it actually might be over by now because it's Tuesday night. Yeah. Yeah. So we just want to figure out how much we want our teeth kicked in by Minnesota this year.
29:22 Bill Simmons? What would you set that line at? Minnesota?
29:24 Speaker 02 I think your house is right. Like Houston, only because they're home with home.
29:28 Speaker 01 But it'd be tiny.
29:29 Speaker 02 Minus 125 or something.
29:30 Bill Simmons? So maybe that that explains these prices. I guess the problem for Fanduel and just trying to set these prices in general is if you have one upset.
29:40 Bill Simmons? One, anything happening.
29:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
29:42 Bill Simmons? You don't want to. Now, all of a sudden, I have Denver plus 106, but all of a sudden they're in the seventh spot playing Houston. And maybe they'd be favored in that series because of Jokic.
29:54 Speaker 02 That's a great question. Who would, who would you have favored in Denver Houston?
29:59 Bill Simmons? Yeah. So now you're talking. I think Houston's good. I'd be, I'd be a little, I'd bet Minnesota, but I don't think I'd put a lot of money on that one.
30:06 Speaker 02 I saw too many games with Houston where from the eight minute mark in the fourth quarter to the end of the game, they turn flaccid.
30:14 Bill Simmons? Did you see anything what?
30:16 Speaker 02 They turned limp.
30:17 Bill Simmons? Did you see anything of what Amen Thompson did to Curry in that game though?
30:20 Speaker 02 It was awesome. Absolutely.
30:21 Bill Simmons? I thought that was, he just took out, now Curry, the problem with Golden State and why they're going to be so hard to figure out is they're an older team.
30:28 Speaker 02 Right.
30:29 Bill Simmons? Their best three guys are either old or getting old. And they have a situation like they played two really hard Thursday, Friday games, and then they play Sunday against that young, big, powerful Rockets team, and they just looked old.
30:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
30:44 Bill Simmons? But at the same time, I thought the Rockets, they beat OKC and Golden State in the same weekend. That's not nothing.
30:49 Speaker 02 They're good.
30:50 Bill Simmons? With nothing to play for. And they talk a bunch of shit.
30:52 Speaker 02 They're good. I like it.
30:53 Bill Simmons? He was talking shit to Steph.
30:55 Speaker 02 I mean, this just shows me that Fandel hates Houston to make them a plus number as a two seed, most likely. And then we don't have to go on to the next round, but to make the West Finals at plus 470, playing the four or five seed, right?
31:11 Bill Simmons? So Houston.
31:12 Speaker 02 I'm sorry, the, the, the 360.
31:14 Bill Simmons? And my, I should have flagged this for you. Houston was plus 790 like five days ago to make the Western Finals.
31:21 Speaker 02 Really?
31:21 Bill Simmons? As a two seed, they were basically getting eight to one odds. And if you just price that out, they're going to be the favorites or close in both series, right? Houston's plus 470 now.
31:33 Speaker 02 That's even high.
31:34 Bill Simmons? Looking at the odds, the, the shocking thing to me is how much respect they give the Lakers. And how afraid, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong. I'm just saying the Lakers are being treated almost like they're a defending champ type situation. They're minus 172 to win a round. They're plus 168 to win two rounds. And there's a chance they might, you know, maybe they don't even have home court in round two, right? Potentially, they couldn't, but it just seems like a lot of people.
32:05 Speaker 02 That might be respect. That might be different from you. There just might be a lot of tickets on the Lakers. Like, right after that Luca trade, everyone must have just dialed into them and bet them the win. So there's a lot of liability there. But, but I do think for the West Finals, all right, OKC minus 290, throw that out of there. If you think Denver's done, you got a nice opportunity to make some money here, picking either the Lakers or Golden State or the Clippers.
32:31 Bill Simmons? Well, the problem is if Denver drops to seven out of nowhere, and it's Houston versus Denver in a 2-7. I think, looking at the odds, the best odds to me seem to be Minnesota to make the West Finals. I think the odds have adjusted correctly, but Minnesota basically 7-1 to make the West Finals to win two rounds.
32:49 Speaker 01 I'm gonna, we need to take a break for this podcast so I can go. I'll be right back.
32:53 Speaker 02 Oh, to make your thing.
32:54 Speaker 01 I gotta go pick a bet.
32:55 Speaker 02 I thought it was a bathroom thing.
32:56 Speaker 01 It could be both. I could do it in the bathroom. We did eat a lot of pizza today, cuz.
33:00 Bill Simmons? I really wanted the Clips to have better odds, cuz I thought maybe they would be the sleeper pick. But plus 420 to win two rounds isn't, there's no value at all. And there might be underdogs both rounds. That doesn't make sense. And if you really wanted to get nuts, do Memphis plus 1550 to win two rounds. That's insane. But there's a chance they could get the seven seed and be in the 2-7, right?
33:25 Speaker 02 Yeah.
33:26 Speaker 01 Memphis Houston, that Memphis Houston would be awesome. That would be an awesome series.
33:31 Speaker 02 That's two series at plus 450 and plus 300. Would that be what they are in the first two series? So that's basically what 1550 is.
33:41 Bill Simmons? So, House, for that first round, the advanced to round two, if somehow the Clippers are the eight seed and OKC's the one seed.
33:53 Bill Simmons? And you have OKC at minus 1300 to advance to round two, I would be fucking nervous with that one.
33:58 Speaker 01 I agree with that.
33:59 Bill Simmons? I think, I don't think the Clips can beat OKC, but I think they can make you nervous if you have a lot of OKC money, right?
34:06 Speaker 01 Absolutely, positively. I want no part of that. If Kawhi, it seems like we're gonna, I want us to knock on wood. There's some wood in this house, some fine marble I see, but I'm gonna knock on some wood because we want Kawhi healthy for the first round. I don't think they're gonna drop though. The Clippers are playing too, too well and their last three games are, are reasonable for them.
34:27 Bill Simmons? So here's the real value, so, to make the finals. This is three rounds. OKC's minus 145. Lakers plus 650. I just don't think that's, they're gonna be underdogs in two of those. It's, you have to win three rounds.
34:41 Speaker 01 This is to win the Western Conference, that's the bet.
34:44 Bill Simmons? You have to, Lakers plus 650, Golden State 7-1, Denver 10-1, Clips 16-1, Minnesota 21-1, Houston 24-1.
34:55 Bill Simmons? And Memphis 70-1. So the case for Golden State or the Lakers is this, other than that they have famous players and a good infrastructure and all that stuff. What does your record have to be? What's the worst possible record you could have to make the Western Finals? Little math question for you guys.
35:12 Speaker 02 I mean, including the playoff, like all that?
35:14 Bill Simmons? First three rounds, what's the worst record you could have and still make the finals?
35:19 Speaker 02 Four, three, four, three, five.
35:20 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
35:20 Speaker 01 Yeah.
35:21 Bill Simmons? Twelve, nine?
35:21 Speaker 01 Twelve and nine.
35:22 Bill Simmons? Twelve, twelve and eight? Twelve and nine.
35:23 Speaker 01 Yeah.
35:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah. So if you think of it that way, it's like, could a team with Luca and LeBron go 12 and 9 over 21 games? It's like, yeah, that seems realistic. Could Golden State, could Golden State go 12 and 9 for three rounds? And it's like, yeah, they're gonna have a game like they had Sunday where they look old, Steph has three points. You know, even think of like when they played Memphis a couple of years ago in 22.
35:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
35:48 Bill Simmons? And they got blown out in game five and then they just won in game six. When you think about 12 and 9, it's just not that hard.
35:55 Speaker 01 I like the way you're going with it.
35:57 Speaker 02 It's because we usually look at this at this point of year, like, all right, who's the toughest out? Who's the toughest to beat four times? If you do it that way, 12 and 9 is doable.
36:07 Bill Simmons? Well, think about the Lakers, like 12 and 9. Let's say there's three incredible Luka games. There's three. Let's give LeBron two incredible LeBron games. All right, now I have five.
36:19 Speaker 02 Right.
36:19 Bill Simmons? Let's give Reeves one awesome game.
36:23 Speaker 02 Sure.
36:23 Bill Simmons? Where they win just because Reeves is great. And now I have six of the 12. All right, now let's have a LeBron and Luka are awesome in the same game game. There's two more. You can get to 12 pretty easily.
36:33 Speaker 02 I think you're right. I think those odds are in flip. It's weird because we, we just said a lot of people might have Lakers tickets. But when we talk about the toughest out, Oklahoma City is the toughest to beat four times, probably, but not six times as tough as the Lakers to beat four times.
36:47 Bill Simmons? Well, so here's the case for OKC.
36:49 Speaker 02 Yeah.
36:50 Bill Simmons? They're gonna finish the season 68 and 14, 67 and 15, and then it becomes math.
36:56 Speaker 02 Right.
36:56 Bill Simmons? So over six months, they lost 14 times.
37:01 Speaker 02 Right.
37:01 Bill Simmons? And now we're gonna get to the playoffs and they're gonna lose nine times in 21 games.
37:05 Speaker 02 Right.
37:05 Bill Simmons? That's where it gets stupid. This was the case for the Celtics last year. At some point, the math takes over.
37:12 Bill Simmons? But OKC did get their ass kicked the other night against, the other day against the Lakers. And it's like, why did they get their ass kicked? Were they showing anything? Are they just, did they cough the dogs or did this actually mean something?
37:23 Speaker 02 Right.
37:24 Bill Simmons? I don't know.
37:26 Bill Simmons? Houston seems to be, I would say, most disrespected.
37:30 Speaker 02 Yeah.
37:31 Bill Simmons? In the West.
37:31 Speaker 02 I think it's appropriate. I think it's fine.
37:33 Bill Simmons? They're gonna be the two seed.
37:34 Speaker 02 Yep.
37:35 Bill Simmons? And they're gonna have home court in the first two rounds.
37:37 Speaker 02 True story.
37:39 Bill Simmons? 24 to one is, is a good price.
37:41 Speaker 02 The two seed getting the seventh best seed, uh, odds is remarkable. It doesn't make any sense. 24 to one. Yeah. Yeah, for all three of those categories, Houston's getting ripped.
37:55 Bill Simmons? All right, Sal, a couple of other things for you.
37:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
37:58 Bill Simmons? Who do you want Dallas to take with the 12th pick in the draft?
38:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, I want a lineman. I know there's like two. It's just crazy. I know we're gonna screw this up.
38:06 Speaker 01 We're doing football now.
38:07 Speaker 02 I know, I kinda love it.
38:08 Speaker 01 Fun.
38:09 Speaker 02 They're talking about the Arizona receiver or talking about, like, this is a team that needs everything in my head. Like, everybody who roots for their team, like, oh, we need like eight positions, not you, House. You free agent in every way you're waiting.
38:20 Speaker 01 No, we need.
38:21 Speaker 02 The playoffs again.
38:22 Speaker 01 Eight defensive positions.
38:23 Speaker 02 Give us a lineman. I don't know exactly which one is gonna drop to us because, uh, you know, we lost one of the best in the game.
38:31 Bill Simmons? So I was looking at the draft odds. Sadly, it seems like the draft has shook out in a way that's not great for the New England Patriots. Where Cam Ward's one.
38:42 Bill Simmons? Seems like Hunter's gonna be two. He's minus 280 now to go to Cleveland.
38:48 Bill Simmons? And then Carter is now minus 170 on FanDuel to be the third pick.
38:52 Speaker 01 Oh, you were really hoping for Shador to sneak in there.
38:54 Bill Simmons? And I don't think it's happening. And Sanders, he's four to one to go third. He's 17 to one to go second, and I think the odds are probably better that he's gonna fall.
39:06 Bill Simmons? There's a team to draft Shador Sanders. Odds that I thought was pretty fun because you can really take it. I mean, Dallas is 26 to one, Sal.
39:17 Speaker 02 You could take a couple of these. This is like a nice roulette thing, right? We put money on a few numbers. I never get it right, though.
39:24 Bill Simmons? Well, if people are right, and, and I think it feels like as somebody who's watched a lot of this draft stuff, and a couple of people have kind of like, eh, I'm not sure. He might be closer to Andy Dalton than people realize. But nobody really wants to come out and say, I don't think he's a top five pick.
39:41 Speaker 02 Yeah.
39:42 Bill Simmons? He's not good enough. Nobody has come out strongly, but I think that's coming. And if he does the Aaron Rodgers slide into the late part of round one.
39:51 Speaker 02 Right.
39:52 Bill Simmons? And we start going into like,
39:56 Bill Simmons? I don't know.
40:01 Bill Simmons? Miami range, 27 to one.
40:03 Speaker 02 Sure, maybe even some before that, yes.
40:05 Bill Simmons? Colts 22 to one.
40:06 Speaker 02 Seattle Colts, yeah.
40:07 Bill Simmons? Seattle 22 to one. Rams 11 to one.
40:12 Speaker 01 That makes a lot of sense to me, honestly.
40:14 Bill Simmons? Steelers plus 450.
40:17 Bill Simmons? But it seems like there's some sort of value there that we're not seeing. The other thing I was looking at was at the Pats. Trade back. I think Gentey is uh seems like he's gonna have some real juice as the draft gets closer. Raiders are minus 145 for him. They're picking sixth. And if the, if they get scared, somebody's gonna leapfrog them. Maybe they just move up two spots with the Pats if the Pats want to take a left tackle.
40:47 Speaker 02 Right.
40:48 Bill Simmons? But uh him going to the Raiders is minus 145, Saints is nine to one. And then your team's out 15 to one.
40:55 Speaker 02 I did, it's so funny because I would even look further down because to me it's still like, all right, if these GMs wise enough are running back that early, just even in the first round, but that early. Should only go to a team that's one piece away from making the playoffs or making a deep run in the playoffs. I'm sorry. It's not your team. It's not the Raiders. Probably not the Bears.
41:15 Bill Simmons? The only case for my team.
41:16 Speaker 02 My team for sure, but.
41:18 Bill Simmons? Well, the only case for my team is if they're like, this is a Peyton Manning, Edge James situation. We'll have our two guys. We won't be able to block for either of them, but we have, with this is an Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, like there's, there's a model here for this. I'm like, I'm pretty consistent with this. Like if you're picking that high, I need to get somebody that in free agency in four to five years is going to be like a $30 million a year guy. And running backs don't make that much, you know?
41:46 Speaker 02 Yep.
41:46 Bill Simmons? Tackles do, cornerbacks do, pass rushers do. And I just feel like if you're picking that high, even if they took Mason Graham. It's like, that's a guy that will, if he's good, will be like a 25 to 30 million dollar a year player.
41:58 Speaker 02 Yeah.
41:59 Bill Simmons? A running back will not, but once you're in the range you're in, it starts to get more interesting. Then you're in that Jameer Gibbs range.
42:06 Speaker 02 Right. Yeah. I, I don't think, you know, I think you got your player that everyone needs to be excited about, and that's a coach.
42:13 Bill Simmons? Yeah, yeah.
42:14 Speaker 02 It's your coach. So now you don't have to, you know, kowtow to the fans. You could draft smart and go back to drafting smart like you do. I mean, I think like Denver at 75 to one, like kind of one-ish piece away from, from doing that, you know?
42:27 Bill Simmons? A running back.
42:27 Speaker 01 Well, they did running back by committee.
42:29 Speaker 02 Yeah.
42:30 Speaker 01 And it was not very successful.
42:31 Speaker 02 Right. Exactly.
42:32 Speaker 01 So that makes it, I like that price a lot.
42:35 Bill Simmons? The Dallas Cowboys are seven to one to take a running back.
42:39 Speaker 02 To take a running back first.
42:40 Bill Simmons? To take a running back first, plus 230 to take a receiver.
42:45 Bill Simmons? Yeah, you can do that. Fando has all these positions. That's a lot of fun.
42:50 Speaker 01 The kid from North Carolina has been getting a ton of buzz and they're starting to do this thing about, you know, is this a Bijon Robinson, Jameer Gibbs kind of year?
43:00 Bill Simmons? What position do you think Washington will take?
43:02 Speaker 01 I pray edge. I pray one of the guys that they like at edge.
43:06 Bill Simmons? That's plus 170 on Fandel.
43:08 Speaker 01 Makes perfect sense, right?
43:09 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
43:09 Speaker 01 That's the lowest odds for, for the position.
43:12 Bill Simmons? Yeah. The one that they don't have yet that I think they should have is who's going to be the second quarterback drafted.
43:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, they usually do.
43:21 Bill Simmons? Cause Dart, Dart, Dart versus Sanders is a really fun one.
43:25 Speaker 02 Ooh.
43:26 Bill Simmons? Cause couldn't you see the Saints just taking Dart ninth out of nowhere? Like whoa.
43:30 Speaker 01 Right, right, right.
43:31 Bill Simmons? Like one of those?
43:33 Speaker 02 Yeah, for sure. And Dart, like, it's so funny because now we see how many people show up. Everybody reports on how many Giants showed up for Shador Sanders pro day, you know, it's like 37 Giants and 14 players and three front office guys. It ends up being like ratings for this and that affects the odds, like how many, you know, so that's why people think, but yeah, the same thing for, uh, what you're saying here. I could see it.
43:56 Bill Simmons? Well, speaking of affecting the odds, you know, Fandel, they're, they've been an awesome partner to us that they're the reason we're here at the Masters right now. And occasionally I'll, I'll text them and badger them and make them do props and bets and stuff, including some golf ones that we're going to talk about in one second. But, uh, I made them do an exact order bet. This is my dream scenario for the Pats, which was Cam Ward, Sanders, Hunter. We get Abdul Carter fourth. So they put that up. They priced it. They had their, their trading desk priced it.
44:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:28 Bill Simmons? And it's plus 750 for that foursome. This was two weeks ago. It's now 17 to one.
44:36 Speaker 02 Did you make him change it?
44:38 Bill Simmons? No, they're just dropping their, their increase of the odds because.
44:41 Speaker 01 What happened? Did they, they send in some tariffs?
44:43 Speaker 02 No buyers?
44:45 Speaker 01 There was a Shador Sanders tariff?
44:46 Bill Simmons? Wasn't, uh, did not turn out.
44:48 Speaker 01 Drop them, kill the market.
44:50 Speaker 02 Wow. What is, what happened that made that go up? Aside from no one spending?
44:54 Bill Simmons? What happened is Sanders, it became clear he wasn't going to go two or three.
44:57 Speaker 02 Okay.
44:58 Bill Simmons? But, um, for the, for the top five pick that was the other one I was looking at?
45:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
45:05 Bill Simmons? And Mason Graham is minus 140.
45:09 Bill Simmons? And I just don't see how he falls past Jacksonville at five.
45:12 Speaker 02 Okay.
45:12 Bill Simmons? Either somebody, either the Pats take him, which I'd be fine with because then they would have an awesome D line with hopefully Barmore's healthy guy they signed from Philly. They spent a lot of money on and Graham. That sounds great. Let's have an awesome D line or Jacksonville takes him, but that's minus 140. Seems like good odds. It gets a little scarier after that. Like Will Campbell, the left tackle everyone thinks the Pats are going to take. I just don't think they take him at four.
45:38 Speaker 02 Minus 135.
45:40 Bill Simmons? I think they trade back a couple of spots if they're taking him because nobody else is going to take him.
45:43 Speaker 02 Is, is the NFL draft or the mock draft, the biggest, all right, we're full of shit, but you have no choice but to follow us.
45:51 Bill Simmons? No, I honestly, I think it's like the Denver, the Malone booth thing. I think there's so much scuttlebutt and I think they talked to so many people and I think these guys get real info.
46:01 Speaker 02 They end up six out of 32. And if there's one trade, it screws everything up.
46:05 Bill Simmons? No, but I'm saying info about who's kind of.
46:07 Speaker 02 Who's looking for.
46:08 Bill Simmons? By now we know if Sanders is going to be a top four pick or not. He's just not, it's not happening.
46:13 Speaker 02 Right. All right. So maybe if you.
46:14 Bill Simmons? So we know stuff like that.
46:15 Speaker 02 You could outline the top three or four, but after that, like.
46:18 Bill Simmons? Like we know Cam Ward, like Tennessee's taking him. Like we've done that for a little while. Yeah, no.
46:23 Speaker 02 I'm just saying Joe Lennardi goes 67 to 68 gets death threats and then everybody else like Kuiper goes seven for 32. And it's like, yeah, great job. All right.
46:32 Speaker 01 Well, because the NFL has teams like Atlanta who draft Michael Pennix Jr.
46:39 Speaker 02 Right.
46:39 Speaker 01 Number nine.
46:40 Speaker 02 Right, right. Yeah, everything gets.
46:41 Speaker 01 Like no, like.
46:42 Bill Simmons? Hey, I'm zagging. Pretty good pick.
46:46 Speaker 02 No, but that's what I'm saying.
46:47 Bill Simmons? You might as well.
46:48 Speaker 02 Michael Pennix might be the first pick of this draft.
46:49 Speaker 01 It's a great pick. If you.
46:51 Bill Simmons? It's a great pick. If they just hadn't spent 90 million on Kirk Cousins.
46:54 Speaker 01 If you just don't care about money.
46:56 Speaker 02 I'm just saying, don't bet minus 170 on anything. Just like because of this.
47:01 Bill Simmons? Because I think that's great advice.
47:02 Speaker 01 Dead right. Absolutely.
47:04 Bill Simmons? With that said.
47:09 Bill Simmons? Gentey plus 850, I think is a really interesting bet.
47:12 Speaker 02 Okay.
47:13 Speaker 01 For where?
47:14 Bill Simmons? For a top five pick.
47:15 Speaker 01 Ooh, nah, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. You can't have a running back in top five.
47:20 Bill Simmons? If he's Bijon Barkley, that level, and everybody thinks that. And people think the Raiders are going to take him at six and they want to leapfrog him and get to four or five to take him. That's the, that's the path. That's how it would have to happen. Seems like pretty good odds for that.
47:36 Speaker 02 That is a Raiders move. That would be fun. Get the hell out of there.
47:41 Bill Simmons? You, so you like that one?
47:42 Speaker 01 Would Tom Brady permit that?
47:43 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Did any of the, since we did the NFL over under pod? And we, so we did the, uh, sound, I did that.
47:52 Speaker 01 I listened.
47:53 Bill Simmons? And we told, we told House.
47:55 Speaker 01 Yeah.
47:56 Bill Simmons? Here's the Niners praise. And you would have thought I told House, Trump's about to do tariffs. Assume all these short positions. I haven't heard House that excited about a win total, probably in my life.
48:10 Speaker 02 Stay the same?
48:12 Bill Simmons? No, it's down. Oh, it's still standing up, but there's minus 135 juice now.
48:16 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's, that's still not a bad price.
48:19 Speaker 02 I, I held, you know, I, I caught my breath and I thought about it.
48:23 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
48:23 Speaker 02 And I don't think they're very good. And I think they're going to have, with this huge overhaul, it's not going to be the same team we're looking at and everything. But I thought about it and I was like, and I still don't think they should be favored to win the division. But I said, boy, if you had your choice of being in any division with any schedule, you would want to play a fourth place schedule and against the AFC South and the NFC South.
48:46 Bill Simmons? And that's what the, that's what they're doing.
48:47 Speaker 02 Yeah.
48:48 Speaker 01 They do have the easiest schedule, as we sit here today. We haven't seen what the rest situation and all that is and how it will affect it. But I don't know who's on that team. I don't know what the skill positions are.
49:00 Speaker 02 You took everybody from their team.
49:01 Speaker 01 It's, it's Brock Purdy and it's Trent Williams and it's McCaffrey on how many, on, on half a leg, on one leg? I mean.
49:11 Bill Simmons? One leg?
49:12 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:12 Bill Simmons? Does he even have one leg anymore?
49:14 Speaker 01 Fred Warner plays defense. They, you know, that's it.
49:18 Bill Simmons? We're going to do some master stuff.
49:20 Speaker 02 Yeah.
49:21 Bill Simmons? Before we do the draft, we're going to do, um, we have a bunch of Ringer specials that are on the FanDuel Sportsbook right now. Including House's Frog Frenzy Region parlay?
49:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:34 Bill Simmons? Which is Matsuyama top Asian and McElroy top UK plus 460.
49:41 Speaker 01 Those guys.
49:42 Bill Simmons? Why is it the Frog Frenzy House?
49:43 Speaker 01 Because those guys are teammates. They're teammates on the Boston Common, uh, TGL team. They're ball frogs. And, uh.
49:53 Bill Simmons? You might be the only person that knows this.
49:54 Speaker 01 Hideki, Hideki, I think played in like half a ma- I don't, I don't remember seeing him.
49:59 Bill Simmons? So glad that's the explanation. It could have gone so many different ways.
50:03 Speaker 01 Frog frenzy. That's it.
50:05 Bill Simmons? I thought you were gonna get canceled for a second. I thought something horrible happened.
50:08 Speaker 01 No, no, no.
50:09 Bill Simmons? It's like, why did he frog Frenzy?
50:11 Speaker 01 I explained it when, when I put it in there. Anytime you have the ball frogs as a potential parlay, you gotta do it.
50:18 Bill Simmons? So, House, you have Justin Thomas winning the Masters.
50:22 Speaker 01 I do.
50:23 Bill Simmons? What's the case?
50:24 Speaker 01 Um, in the first place.
50:26 Bill Simmons? By the way, 22 to 1.
50:28 Speaker 01 So that's the most important aspect of this. I think it's a great price for where he is in terms of, um, his success this year. His biggest problem over this drought, this winning drought that he's in, he hasn't won in over, uh, two years, has been putting. He putted very poorly last season and his putting has greatly improved and his numbers, he's been competitive. I mean, he, he choked down the stretch, uh, two weeks ago in Tampa, Florida. He had a three-stroke lead going into the final five holes and lost to Victor Hovland, who birdied two of the last three. So, I mean, it was, it was a sensible loss, but I love where JT is in terms of his off the tee numbers.
51:12 Speaker 01 I love where he is in terms of approach and the key thing for me is the price because I don't think you're getting any return on Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy, and I will pivot immediately if one of those guys comes out and shoots 66 on Thursday. But JT at 22 to 1 doesn't match up with the caliber and quality of his play thus far this season. So that's why I did it.
51:34 Bill Simmons? And then Sal, you jumped on
51:36 Speaker 02 Morikawa.
51:37 Bill Simmons? A bandwagon.
51:39 Speaker 02 Why is that?
51:39 Bill Simmons? He's a bandwagon guy.
51:40 Speaker 02 I haven't heard anyone else take him.
51:42 Bill Simmons? Pick. Oh, so many people.
51:42 Speaker 02 Really?
51:43 Speaker 01 I love him.
51:44 Bill Simmons? Sixteen to one on Fanduel. What was your case?
51:46 Speaker 02 Fourth in the world, came in third last year.
51:49 Speaker 01 He's
51:49 Speaker 02 Came in 10th the year before, came in 5th in 2022. He's never missed a Masters cut, so you know you're gonna see him Saturday, Sunday. He's gonna be on the board. I think people are down on him because of that outburst with House. You say that's not even an outburst when he
52:04 Speaker 01 No.
52:04 Speaker 02 Blew a three-stroke lead with five left in the Arnold Palmer.
52:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
52:07 Speaker 02 Uh, last month, and he wouldn't talk to the press.
52:09 Speaker 01 He
52:10 Speaker 02 Who gives a crap? Don't talk to me. I'll
52:12 Speaker 01 No, he didn't talk to the press because he was waiting for the winner to finish. And he was waiting, and he was waiting, and he was waiting, and the tour never got him. Said, come, you know, here's how we're gonna sequence this. He just left.
52:24 Bill Simmons? Very misunderstood. Tour apologist Joe House.
52:26 Speaker 01 I like, I'm a Morikawa stan.
52:28 Speaker 02 He finished in ties the top 20 in all four majors last year.
52:31 Speaker 01 I think he's, it's a great bet. I have some Morikawa exposure. I just loved the price for JT. That's the reason that I, I went with JT.
52:39 Bill Simmons? We did hit one bet already at the Masters. That we'd run into Scott Van Pelt and he would take us to the Butler Cabin.
52:46 Speaker 02 What a guy.
52:47 Bill Simmons? Group photo.
52:48 Speaker 02 Yeah.
52:48 Bill Simmons? Which I put on my Instagram.
52:49 Speaker 02 That was
52:50 Speaker 01 That was like
52:51 Bill Simmons? The Butler Cabin. I haven't seen House that excited. Probably, I, I'm trying to think of a scenario where you would have the look on your face that you had. And I think it involves the word free massage.
53:02 Speaker 01 It, I won't go there. It was stunning. I'm not, I can't overstate how like the set of, the sequence of events. First of all,
53:11 Speaker 02 It happened in eight seconds.
53:12 Speaker 01 We walked all the way up 10 to get to the top of the hill to where they're, all the social scene is happening. The media people, all that happens at the putting green where one and 10 come together. It's a big scene.
53:24 Bill Simmons? Kudos to Nathan Hubbard, who's asleep right now because he had 14 pieces of pizza. Um, but he, he was like, let's go up there. We'll run into someone. It's a good call.
53:33 Speaker 02 It's a great call.
53:34 Bill Simmons? Run into somebody.
53:35 Speaker 01 But we, we had to stop halfway up because the cousin Sal has never walked up 10.
53:39 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
53:40 Speaker 01 It's hard. It's a real walk.
53:42 Bill Simmons? Forgot. It was like the Denver Nuggets band. With all the rookies. We forgot that Sal was a rookie and didn't realize we're just going uphill for an hour.
53:49 Speaker 02 Ridiculous walker by eating pizza and oysters. That's how I drink.
53:53 Speaker 01 But we went, the sequence of events went from, from that moment. Yeah. And then we're up there and then it's like, hey, but you know, there's SP baby doll takes charge. It goes right up.
54:04 Bill Simmons? He knows me. He knows me. He's gonna fucking love this. Yeah.
54:08 Speaker 02 SVP. Good job.
54:09 Bill Simmons? Baby doll only got scolded three times for smoking.
54:12 Speaker 02 For smoking. Yeah.
54:13 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Anyway, we ran an SVP, saw the Butler cabin, which was about the size of the room we're in now, almost.
54:20 Speaker 02 It's weird.
54:21 Bill Simmons? But cool brick fireplace.
54:23 Speaker 01 Amazing. It's a really, it's a TV studio. It is completely like, you know, floor to ceiling outfit for perfect TV, you know, for video audio. It's a, it's like walking into, you know, any, a, a proper studio where you guys know how to do TV shows. I was surprised by that aspect.
54:43 Speaker 02 Yeah. It's like there'd be a Ringer studio right outside Small World Ride in Disneyland. It's like, what the, why is this here?
54:49 Bill Simmons? It's also always fun to run into Van Pelt because he's gigantic.
54:52 Speaker 01 He's so tall.
54:52 Bill Simmons? Six, six, five. You always forget how like tall he is and just famous.
54:56 Speaker 01 What a homie.
54:57 Bill Simmons? Great guy. My master's winner is Rory McIlroy at plus 650. It's, it's, I always make fun of you for being sentimental about Rory.
55:07 Speaker 01 You do.
55:09 Bill Simmons? What, uh, somebody that, uh, drove us around a little bit the last two days, Matt, who, who we've been fortunate enough to get to know a little bit. And he had some Rory intel about Rory was kinda popping back here and play the course and, um, just making a couple of extra trips.
55:26 Speaker 01 Yeah. Gus, the native Matt, keeping his eye on things for us.
55:29 Bill Simmons? Just that Rory seemed especially focused this year and I just liked the moment. I mean, he's running out of time. You know, from a, from a, he's in an, his extended prime now, I would say. I don't think there's a lot more years where he's in the mix like this as a favorite. And it just feels like to me, like, if it's gonna happen, it's gonna be like, gotta be like this year or next year.
55:54 Speaker 01 So that's interesting because we are in this era where we see athletes, you know, extend their career and he has been very fortunate in terms of avoiding injury. He does seem like with his swing, he's been able to get more out of it. He hits the ball even further than ever in his 30s and he doesn't have these injuries that pop up that much. So I think there's a window of time that I would say it's at least like five years. But your point is right, there is not a long history of Masters winners, you know, once you hit age 35.
56:26 Bill Simmons? If he could avoid injury like he avoided Baby Doll today. So 35, four years left?
56:33 Speaker 01 I would give him like six or seven, I mean, remember.
56:35 Bill Simmons? When we get in our 40s, are we still in your prime at this point in golf?
56:40 Speaker 01 I mean.
56:42 Bill Simmons? So basically he's got the 2020s left?
56:44 Speaker 01 He's, he's got some time. I'm not ready.
56:46 Bill Simmons? This is, this is the moment though.
56:48 Speaker 01 This is a, a crucial moment. It's not going to be any better because he's never come into a Masters having won twice on American soil. And his numbers are through the roof in terms of the quality of his.
57:00 Speaker 02 Look, in our defense, House and I bet golf every weekend and we've had money on Rory blowing round four a lot, right? I mean, that's, that's the hesitation.
57:08 Bill Simmons? 36 years old, Rory.
57:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
57:11 Bill Simmons? Yeah. So, I don't know, we're, we're around when it should, it should happen again pretty soon.
57:17 Speaker 01 It would be great. I'm rooting for it. I just didn't, I'll, I'll, I'll live bet it if he, if he comes out. His biggest problem has been Thursday. He hasn't hit, played, scored well on Thursday.
57:27 Bill Simmons? Is he the number one player or a team you've live bet the most?
57:32 Speaker 01 Oh, wow.
57:33 Bill Simmons? And then I'll ask Sal. I think for Sal, it's the Chiefs.
57:37 Speaker 02 Uh, it might be Alex Pereira, but it's funny. We discussed this on Against All Odds. Like if you had to assign a point value from one to 100 on guys and teams that you've, you've bet on the most. So Pereira, McElroy, Chestnut. Those are my three.
57:53 Bill Simmons? I think mine are the Brady Pats.
57:54 Speaker 01 Oh, that's a good one.
57:55 Bill Simmons? Like halftime bets, stuff like that. Yeah. Just like, we're fucking, yes, we're coming back. Man, I miss those days. Yeah. All right. We're going to, uh, take a break and come back and do a little masters draft. This episode is brought to you by Expedia. You know how at the end of the season, your team goes to Cancun? Sometimes earlier than expected, sometimes after blowing a three, one series lead. But what if you went to Cancun with Expedia? Save up to 30% when you bundle and save. You can book the flight or the hotel now, then book the rest later. In all fairness though, hopefully your team doesn't go to Cancun, one, two, three Cancun. Or if they do, you go with them. Expedia, the one place you go to go places. Sign in to save. Savings vary. This episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. In today's sports, everyone is constantly trying to outdo each other.
58:39 Bill Simmons? Trick formations, infield shifts, constant rotation changes. Yet it's proven time and time again that strong fundamentals are the thing that will lead you to victory. Banking, no different. While everyone else tries to outdo each other, PNC Bank just keeps going right down the middle with steady, calculated money moves and the financial wins just keep coming. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865, brilliantly boring since 1865 is a registered mark of the PNC Financial Services Group, Incorporated. PNC Bank, National Association, Member, FDIC. All right. For this last segment, I always make fun of NFL pregame shows when they have too many people on and we're about to have a six person segment, but we only have four mics.
59:23 Bill Simmons? So I think it's going to work well. Dave Chang joined us. Hello, hello. Nathan Hubbard joined us. Hello. And James Baby Doll Dixon is here.
59:31 Speaker 02 Yo, Baby Doll. So glad to be here with you guys.
59:34 Bill Simmons? We have never been at the Masters together.
59:36 Speaker 02 No, we have not.
59:37 Bill Simmons? Never been in the Masters with Sal. I've been with Chang. I've been with Nathan. I've been with House. Obviously, who no longer has a mic. Maybe, maybe that's a good thing. You guys don't need to share the mic. We're gonna bring Chang in.
59:48 Speaker 02 But I wanna share the mic.
59:49 Bill Simmons? Well Chang has a bum shoulder.
59:50 Speaker 02 Like a separated shoulder. They surgically removed his shoulder. Now he's leaning on his left side here. But I just wanna make you as uncomfortable as possible.
1:00:00 Bill Simmons? Okay.
1:00:01 Speaker 02 And he's also like, cooking like a wild man with this really bad shoulder. It's impressive.
1:00:06 Bill Simmons? Yeah, he's playing hurt. He's an inspiration to all of us and to everybody except Tiger Woods, who's not here. But there's a lot of good golfers here. Nathan, we didn't talk about, we both picked Rory to win this Masters.
1:00:20 Speaker 03 Yeah, we did.
1:00:20 Bill Simmons? What was your case quickly?
1:00:22 Speaker 03 Uh, he 10 years ago, got 60% of his shots gained from off the tee. Last year, 51%. This year, only 37%. And he is still first in driving, which is to say the rest of his game has gotten way, way better.
1:00:37 Bill Simmons? See, that was much better and much smarter and more stat driven than my take, which is like more Rory's now hitting his mid, late 30s. It's time. If it's ever gonna happen, it's happening right now. And Matt, our guy, told us that he's been hurt a couple of times. That was my case. Plus 650. We're gonna do a draft.
1:00:54 Speaker 02 You didn't trust Matt with your, your phone, but you do with the Masters pick, huh?
1:00:58 Bill Simmons? No, I wanted to put my phone. I like getting my phone from the pub house.
1:01:01 Speaker 02 We all left our phones with Matt, but Simmons.
1:01:03 Bill Simmons? I don't know where Matt's gonna go. What if his car gets stolen? Okay, we're doing this draft and FanDuel is gonna put odds on it. And we are going to do a Thursday, Friday draft. The 48 hour frenzy, I think we're calling this. Each of us are gonna be two golfers. Lowest score wins and people can bet on this on FanDuel Sportsbook.
1:01:23 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:01:23 Bill Simmons? So if you like my pair more than everyone else's pair, put some odds on it. Mm hmm. Has your number Mike, you can't talk. You, you talk when I talk to you.
1:01:36 Speaker 02 You're sounding like Alec Baldwin's wife.
1:01:37 Bill Simmons? You're sharing baby's mic. If you want, do you want to share? You have something to say?
1:01:42 Speaker 04 No.
1:01:43 Bill Simmons? Oh, you're doing the Justin Tipper Lake, Barry Gibb show.
1:01:46 Speaker 02 Hold on, can I just say we haven't figured out what the booby prize is? But whoever comes in last has to do something stupid.
1:01:52 Bill Simmons? Something humiliating.
1:01:53 Speaker 02 Yeah, something humiliating Friday, yeah.
1:01:55 Bill Simmons? I think you have to mix all of the sandwiches in the, on the course.
1:01:59 Speaker 02 Oh, that's pretty good.
1:02:00 Bill Simmons? And then eat them. Egg salad, pork. Great idea.
1:02:02 Speaker 02 I think I might have done that anyway today, but that's fine. You guys don't have trouble there.
1:02:09 Bill Simmons? All right, let's do the draft and then we're going to interrogate baby on some stuff. Chang, I'm going to give you the first pick.
1:02:17 Bill Simmons? Of anyone for Thursday, Friday. So it's not to win the tournament, just who do you think is going to be the leader Thursday and Friday? Or have a really good score?
1:02:26 Speaker 04 Well, I know you guys are choosing Rory, but I'm going to go with Scotty Shapler, number one pick. I don't, I don't think he's going to win, but for the first, you know, two days, yes. That's my pick.
1:02:39 Bill Simmons? Okay.
1:02:39 Speaker 02 Make a case for Shapler. I don't see, where's this guy coming from? All right, that's good. And it's the lowest combined score, right?
1:02:47 Bill Simmons? Yeah, so you have second pick.
1:02:49 Speaker 02 All right, well, I did, you know, the last half hour, I said Colin Morikawa. I've not wavered from that pick. I like him. What are his numbers? Uh, third last year, 10th the year before, fifth in 2022. Never misses a Masters cut. We had a buddy who said he had lunch with him yesterday. Delightful fella. Dead set on winning this thing. Welcome to team Sal, Colin Morikawa.
1:03:10 Bill Simmons? Is that like a name drop? But it was like a mystery name.
1:03:13 Speaker 02 Uh, it's a mystery name drop.
1:03:15 Bill Simmons? All right, Nathan, you go third.
1:03:16 Speaker 03 Uh, give me Rory McIlroy. It's his time.
1:03:23 Bill Simmons? It's his time. That's, that was my terrible take.
1:03:25 Speaker 03 It's a bad take because Rory has struggled on Thursdays.
1:03:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's the one.
1:03:28 Speaker 03 And that's really the narrative of this tournament. If he plays Thursday well, he's going to win this golf.
1:03:34 Speaker 01 Thursday and Friday.
1:03:36 Speaker 03 Fair enough.
1:03:37 Bill Simmons? Baby, you get to go fourth. Who's your pick? I'm doing the Swede. Aberg. Ludwig? Ludwig Aberg.
1:03:46 Speaker 02 It's kind of Olberg, isn't it?
1:03:47 Bill Simmons? It's Olberg.
1:03:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, I don't think if he wins, you shouldn't get credit for that.
1:03:52 Bill Simmons? Wait, it's fricking Swedish. Uh-oh.
1:03:54 Speaker 03 Burg, a bird.
1:03:55 Bill Simmons? Potato, potato, who gives a shit?
1:03:57 Speaker 03 Starts with an A with that little dot over it when I'm supposed to follow this. It's a little out.
1:04:03 Bill Simmons? All right. I am, uh, I'm going fifth and I'm taking Beefy Bryson, Bryson DeChambeau. Nice. With my fifth pick. All right, House, you get to hold the mic down. You get two straight picks.
1:04:14 Speaker 01 Great. I'll take Jon Rahm.
1:04:16 Bill Simmons? Oh.
1:04:17 Speaker 01 And I'll take Justin Thomas.
1:04:20 Speaker 03 You got the best spot in the draft.
1:04:22 Speaker 01 Want to make the case? Make a case? Yeah.
1:04:25 Speaker 01 Jon Rahm is a complete wild card because he plays on the live tour. Now, he hasn't finished worse than sixth on any of his live events for the most part. But I like him this year as opposed to last year. He had a tied for 45th last year as the defending champion. And he was in disarray. His game was in disarray. His life was in disarray. He's calm now. Nathan gave me a very fine report of how he conducted himself at the press conference. He is poised. He's ready. He's locked in. I like that he played Doral last week. Tough golf course.
1:04:55 Speaker 03 Played well.
1:04:56 Speaker 01 You know, let, ready for a major. And then Justin Thomas is my pick to win this golf tournament because I love the odds of 22 to one, but Thomas has been gaining strokes on approach for about nine months now. And the key with Justin Thomas is that his putting is greatly improved. Now, he is playing with a new caddy for the Masters. Uh, I hope it's the guy that Ben Crenshaw used. Uh, we're on the 30th anniversary of Ben Crenshaw winning in 95. If he has that guy, um, you might have a chance, but I don't love the idea of a new caddy.
1:05:25 Bill Simmons? Why is that? Why do people not like a new caddy? Everybody gets sours on a player who has a new caddy. I think the caddy is actually dead.
1:05:33 Speaker 05 But.
1:05:34 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:05:35 Speaker 01 Cretos Caddy? Yeah, all right, R I P.
1:05:38 Speaker 02 Oh, well, then he had to change Caddys.
1:05:40 Bill Simmons? All right, I'm up. I'm taking Xander.
1:05:42 Speaker 02 God.
1:05:42 Speaker 05 Wow.
1:05:43 Bill Simmons? Steady pick, best guy on the board.
1:05:45 Speaker 05 Wow.
1:05:46 Bill Simmons? Um, big year last year for him. Maybe it'll continue at the Masters. So House has Ram and Thomas. I have Beefy Bryson and Xander as my two. Baby, you're up.
1:05:56 Speaker 05 I'm, I'm going with the.
1:06:00 Bill Simmons? Say it right.
1:06:00 Speaker 05 Always, this one's easy. I'm going with Kapka as my second pick. Aberg played so, and Oberg played so impressively last year.
1:06:10 Bill Simmons? Aberg or Oberg?
1:06:12 Speaker 05 Both of them played so impressively.
1:06:14 Bill Simmons? Just call him Bergy.
1:06:15 Speaker 05 Bergy, Ludwig, um, I, I.
1:06:20 Speaker 05 He hits the ball a country mile, number one. He's got the short game. He finished, I believe, second last year, if I'm not mistaken. And I think he's one of the absolute future stars of the tour and will win many majors in his career. Kapka.
1:06:37 Bill Simmons? I, listen, I love on this podcast when people suck up to the Swedes.
1:06:42 Speaker 05 Yeah, right, in general. No, but I, he's always a threat in the majors. He's had a very good recent history, Kapka, in, in, in the Masters. I am not sure where his game is because I don't watch live, but.
1:06:58 Bill Simmons? Is that a political decision or?
1:06:59 Speaker 05 Always looming and could be a threat this, this week.
1:07:05 Bill Simmons? All right, we got a lot of live guys already.
1:07:07 Speaker 02 That was two.
1:07:07 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:07:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:07:08 Bill Simmons? Uh, Nathan, you're up. You have Rory and who?
1:07:11 Speaker 03 God, this is a tough one. Because the, the, the money says you should take Joaquin Niemann here, but I just don't trust him based on the way that he played at live last week. So I'm gonna go totally off reservation and go Shane Lowry. There's a small, select group of guys who can actually win this golf tournament, and it's people who come in with great ball striking. And Shane Lowry is coming in with great ball striking, and he generally starts these tournaments decently well. So let's, let's see how he does.
1:07:42 Bill Simmons? All right. Speaking of great ball striking, Cousins. Hey now.
1:07:46 Speaker 02 I'm going with the Shaggy Dog Cam Smith. Taking him right there. Ninth last year. Top 10, top 10 in five of the last seven Masters and never missed a Masters cut, which means he's gonna have a nice score on Friday, by Friday. And, and he shaved the mullet. He shaved the mullet.
1:08:06 Speaker 03 That worries me.
1:08:06 Speaker 02 Mullet or not, here we come. Welcome to Team Sal and Smith.
1:08:10 Bill Simmons? Dave Chang, you have the last pick.
1:08:15 Speaker 04 I asked our good friend Chat GPT to help me on this, and I asked, what if you were Cousin Sal but successful?
1:08:27 Bill Simmons? At betting?
1:08:27 Speaker 04 At betting, especially when it comes to the Masters. And what would be the best long shot? I sort of did. And it also helped me with alliteration. So we got Scottie Scheffler, and we're going to Sep Straka. We finished 16th last year.
1:08:43 Speaker 02 We saw him today.
1:08:44 Speaker 04 Great approach shots.
1:08:45 Speaker 02 He looked good.
1:08:46 Speaker 04 And I'm trying to make Cousin Sal look good.
1:08:48 Speaker 02 Okay, good. Good luck with that. I mean, that might be tougher than actually winning.
1:08:52 Bill Simmons? All right. So here's who we have. Chang has Scottie and Straka. Sal has Morikawa and Cam Smith. Nathan has Rory and Lowry. Baby has Bergy and Koepka. I have Bryson and Zander. And House has Rahm and Thomas. Fan duel at some point tomorrow will have odds on all of these pairings with our names. And people can bet on this for Thursday, Friday. And I'm getting all the info from them. Who got bet on the most? All that's, I really want to have the most bets.
1:09:23 Speaker 02 You do?
1:09:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:09:24 Speaker 02 You're gonna, you'll get that. People like you, I think.
1:09:27 Bill Simmons? Looking at this, I think House is gonna have the most bets. Ramon Thomas. Yeah, I think, I think House will have the most action, which makes House public, which means he's not gonna win.
1:09:38 Speaker 02 They're public.
1:09:39 Bill Simmons? So there we go. That's it for our big draft. Check it out. The, I think we're called Ringer 48 Hour Frenzy. What do you want to call it?
1:09:46 Speaker 02 I think that's good. Yeah.
1:09:47 Bill Simmons? And then we might do, we were talking about maybe something with the 16 pole number of people that's, that hit the water.
1:09:53 Speaker 02 Oh, the Ringer Rinse.
1:09:54 Bill Simmons? Ringer Rinse, Thursday, Friday, something like that.
1:09:57 Speaker 02 Good times.
1:09:58 Bill Simmons? That's where we go. All right, we're gonna take one more break and then uh come back with some more master stories. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Excitement is in the air. That's right. It's the start of NBA season. I can't wait to get together with friends, share some Michelob Ultras and watch Tip Off Plus as the official beer sponsor of the NBA. Michelob Ultra is getting you closer to the action with the experiences that make you feel like you're courtside to actual courtside tickets. Enter now for a chance to win at michelobultra.com/courtside. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 21+. Begins on October 1st, 2026. Ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry.
1:10:42 Bill Simmons? Entry deadlines, prizes and details. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Whether it's a pumpkin spice coffee that goes splat in your seat or a weekend tailgate that leaves your trunk full of gear and who knows what, you're gonna want WeatherTech in your vehicle. Whether you call it fall, autumn or spooky season, whether the mess is your fault, the kids, the dogs or the weather's fault, you're gonna want WeatherTech for American-made floor liners and a cargo liner that laugh in the face of fall weather. Visit weatherTech.com today. And now for a special part of today's show, Forward Thinkers of the Game, brought to you by Workday, in which we discuss the players who brought something fresh to the court. When you're a forward thinker, the only thing you're afraid of is business as usual. And Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage people and money today.
1:11:26 Bill Simmons? So you can transform tomorrow. Workday, moving business forever forward. You know, they asked me to talk about a player that made me think of what I just said. Steph Curry. If you think 21st century, what NBA player impacted professional basketball and basketball the most? The three-point shooting, uh, the skill that Steph brought to it. Not only revolutionized how they played basketball in the NBA, but then inspired this whole new generation of players in high school and college, and even affected the women's game. Players like Katelyn Clark. It all basically starts with Steph when his career really starts taking off with the Warriors in 2013 and 14, and it changed the geometry of basketball.
1:12:11 Bill Simmons? So that's one example. Anyway, you can learn more about how Workday is changing everything at workday.com. All right, now it's just the four of us. Nathan and House have Fairway Roland, they're taping tomorrow, they're doing their big Masters preview. So I want people to listen to that. What you can't get on Fairway Roland is what it was like to walk the course with Baby today.
1:12:34 Speaker 02 What a day. What a day.
1:12:36 Bill Simmons? So.
1:12:37 Speaker 05 Was it fun?
1:12:39 Speaker 02 It was a lot of fun.
1:12:40 Speaker 05 It really was. I had a great time with you guys, I really did.
1:12:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, because you wouldn't shut up. You talked about your shot and your shoulder and your strokes and how you were as a 25-year-old golfer.
1:12:51 Speaker 05 I really was, you're right. I was very.
1:12:53 Speaker 02 The walking would have been easier if he wasn't in his ears.
1:12:55 Speaker 05 But you know, I do like talking golf with House.
1:12:58 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:12:58 Speaker 05 Because we're, we have, I think we have a very similar handicap and also a somewhat similar passion for the game.
1:13:06 Speaker 02 He was listening more than talking.
1:13:08 Speaker 05 He was very intently listening.
1:13:10 Speaker 04 No, no, I don't think he was intently. Listen, this was a real highlight of my day because I didn't know that you were such a golf lunatic.
1:13:17 Speaker 05 Oh, I'm a lunatic.
1:13:18 Speaker 04 And number two, I kept on walking in front of you guys with Sally here and I kept on telling Sally, I was like, this is insane.
1:13:26 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:13:26 Speaker 04 Because you spoke nonstop relentlessly.
1:13:31 Speaker 02 This is not a compliment, baby.
1:13:32 Speaker 04 Describing your entire golf history of how far you would hit every club in your bag at different ages of your life.
1:13:38 Speaker 05 I did. It was like the evolution, you know, the, the evolution of my game from age 12 to, to 60.
1:13:48 Bill Simmons? It was like a sports documentary narrative series.
1:13:52 Speaker 02 Right.
1:13:53 Bill Simmons? That nobody signed up for.
1:13:54 Speaker 05 I didn't mean to annoy you guys with it, I just get so excited when I.
1:13:57 Speaker 02 You get upset now.
1:13:58 Speaker 05 No, I'm not upset. I just, I, when I walk those hallowed grounds. I just, I get like this, this like energy about it. I just, I can't help myself. I'm like obsessed.
1:14:10 Speaker 04 How do you know that House was enjoying listening to this?
1:14:13 Bill Simmons? I think House was. I think House really loves listening to anyone talk about golf.
1:14:16 Speaker 02 You gotta give him a break tomorrow.
1:14:18 Speaker 05 All right, tomorrow, I'll walk with you guys tomorrow.
1:14:21 Speaker 02 Well, here's the thing, like he, and we were here listening to-
1:14:23 Speaker 05 Hard to keep up with Simmons on the course.
1:14:25 Speaker 02 You can't keep up with Simmons, so it's gonna have to be someone else.
1:14:26 Speaker 05 His pace is very brisk.
1:14:27 Speaker 02 But he's talking about his golf game and everything, and this would go for 40 minutes, and then we'd get a break from Baby. Like, oh, thank God. We don't have to listen to the golf talk. He'd go to the bathroom, or he'd go to smoke somewhere, or he'd go to the fucking pro shop for the fourth time in a day, and then he'd keep us waiting for four, like, so half our day was spent waiting for Baby.
1:14:44 Bill Simmons? Right.
1:14:45 Speaker 05 Well, I only dropped, what, 4K today? That wasn't bad.
1:14:48 Bill Simmons? It's right around the over under.
1:14:50 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:14:51 Bill Simmons? Well, so Sal, Baby does this thing where he's convinced everybody who's ever met him-
1:14:56 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:14:56 Bill Simmons? -knows who he is. Most famously, when he accosted Oprah Winfrey in Jimmy's dressing room.
1:15:02 Speaker 02 Right.
1:15:03 Bill Simmons? And did Oprah, Oprah, you remember me, you remember me, and she didn't. And then he's like, no, Oprah, you remember me.
1:15:09 Speaker 02 Right.
1:15:09 Bill Simmons? And it's a famous story. So we were wondering if he would do that today on the golf course, and you take it from here.
1:15:16 Speaker 02 Um, there were a couple, right? It was Cam Smith, who's on my team.
1:15:19 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:15:19 Speaker 02 And, uh, cause there was a Wake Forest connection. Your daughter went to Wake Forest.
1:15:24 Speaker 05 Two of my daughters did, yes.
1:15:25 Speaker 02 And, uh, he was eating a banana after his tee shot, and what'd you do?
1:15:31 Bill Simmons? Well, so can I, can I, background? So 17, and he's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get Cam Smith's attention.
1:15:39 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:15:40 Bill Simmons? Yeah, with the Wake Forest thing.
1:15:41 Speaker 05 Yes, I-
1:15:42 Bill Simmons? And we're like, Baby, definitely don't do that. He's doing a practice round. He's trying to figure out distances. He's not gonna acknowledge you. He's like, no, no, no, I, I, I think I can get him.
1:15:51 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:15:51 Bill Simmons? So he's walking by, eating a banana, and what happens?
1:15:55 Speaker 05 Cam, Cam, Wake Forest. Wait, oh, I said, first I said, Cam, uh, uh-
1:16:03 Bill Simmons? We're rooting for you.
1:16:04 Speaker 05 We're rooting for you. Best of luck this week. Didn't look up from peeling his banana.
1:16:09 Bill Simmons? Right.
1:16:09 Speaker 05 And as I said, as I said, Wake Forest guy, Wake Forest connection, he continued to peel the banana and stick it in his mouth and look the other way.
1:16:21 Bill Simmons? He seemed like he paused for a split second.
1:16:23 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:16:24 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:16:24 Speaker 05 But.
1:16:24 Speaker 02 He at least might have paused and then there was a follow up.
1:16:28 Bill Simmons? Well, so then there was another one that I thought was a better one. So there Rory McIlroy. Chang, how dubious were you of this? When baby said, I can get Rory to come over.
1:16:39 Speaker 04 I don't know.
1:16:40 Bill Simmons? On the 18th.
1:16:41 Speaker 04 I can't express how I felt truly because I didn't know I'd feel embarrassment on that hole because you said you were going to do it and I didn't think you were going to do it with Cam, but you did. And it was embarrassing, quite frankly, for you.
1:16:54 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:16:55 Speaker 04 And us, because we were there.
1:16:57 Bill Simmons? I wasn't embarrassed at all.
1:17:02 Speaker 05 He'd be lucky to know me for God's sake.
1:17:04 Speaker 04 Now I knew you weren't joking that you were really going to talk to Rory because you have had interactions.
1:17:09 Speaker 05 I have had multiple interactions with him.
1:17:12 Bill Simmons? Not today.
1:17:14 Speaker 05 I don't want to say we're neighbors at the Bears Club, but we're neighbors at the Bears Club.
1:17:19 Speaker 04 So you position yourself.
1:17:21 Speaker 05 Wonderful guy to me and very kind. He's a gentleman.
1:17:25 Bill Simmons? Can we, can we?
1:17:25 Speaker 05 All that.
1:17:26 Bill Simmons? Can we unwind that for a second?
1:17:27 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:17:28 Bill Simmons? I don't want to say I'm neighbors with him at the Bears Club, but I'm neighbors with him at the Bears.
1:17:32 Speaker 05 Yeah, because it sounds so ridiculous. His house is so incredibly beautiful.
1:17:36 Bill Simmons? Does that mean you're neighbors with him at the Bears Club?
1:17:38 Speaker 05 I mean, he's around the corner. Yeah, there's only 80 houses.
1:17:42 Bill Simmons? Sounds like neighbor.
1:17:43 Speaker 02 But that doesn't mean he knows you.
1:17:46 Speaker 05 No, I didn't say he knows me well, but he know, he know, he, he doesn't know me well, but when he sees me, he knows who I am. How's that?
1:17:53 Bill Simmons? So that Bears Club house, that was like the fourth Colbert extension? Like when you try to, when you try to assign the fees to the houses?
1:18:01 Speaker 05 Mike, Danny's the Simmons wing. What are you complaining about? Cousin Sal's my outdoor grill. Come on.
1:18:11 Speaker 02 That just means you're a shitty agent.
1:18:14 Bill Simmons? Um, so go ahead.
1:18:17 Speaker 04 Uh, who is he playing with? I can't remember. Oh, amateur, I believe.
1:18:21 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:18:22 Speaker 04 And he hits a bomb of a drive on 18. And, you know, to Bill's credit, he got us to look at how narrow and how stressful it is to actually play 18.
1:18:32 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:18:32 Speaker 04 He doesn't really do it just.
1:18:33 Bill Simmons? There's like five things you kind of have to see at the Masters and one of them is you have to stand behind the 18T to see.
1:18:40 Speaker 05 That was so good.
1:18:41 Bill Simmons? How hard that is to just thread the needle with the amount of pressure that you might be facing on 18. It's like.
1:18:47 Speaker 04 It's easy to shake.
1:18:48 Speaker 05 It's like dead uphill.
1:18:50 Bill Simmons? Giant, giant trap. Only really one spot to hit it and 19 things can go wrong.
1:18:55 Speaker 05 True to the last.
1:18:55 Bill Simmons? Not to mention all the people lined up that you feel like.
1:18:58 Speaker 02 And it's 18. Yeah.
1:18:59 Speaker 04 Yeah. And Rory bombs his drive right down the middle, 300 plus. And, um, you know, you say you're gonna talk to Rory and you have like this prime spot as he's gonna walk past.
1:19:13 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:19:14 Speaker 04 And I had to turn my back to you.
1:19:16 Bill Simmons? We backed off and gave him.
1:19:18 Speaker 02 We backed down.
1:19:18 Bill Simmons? Like it was a yo mama fight or something.
1:19:21 Speaker 05 Let me give you some space, baby doll.
1:19:21 Speaker 04 I just, I just couldn't see the, this car crash that was gonna happen.
1:19:26 Bill Simmons? So sad. You want to reenact what Babysaid?
1:19:27 Speaker 05 The other side of it. Imagine if he came over, how great that fucking moment would have been, right? Wouldn't that have been cool?
1:19:33 Bill Simmons? Well, what did you say? You said Rory, Rory, Baby Doll.
1:19:38 Speaker 05 Yes, I did.
1:19:39 Bill Simmons? That was it. It was just three words.
1:19:42 Speaker 04 Exactly what happened.
1:19:44 Bill Simmons? And he heard real, he didn't, not only didn't he stop, I think he sped up when he heard Baby Doll.
1:19:49 Speaker 05 He cracked a little smile? I don't know. Maybe I'm imagining it.
1:19:53 Bill Simmons? Like, oh, this is my prison cellmate, uh, from 750.
1:19:56 Speaker 05 So you were helping. Just in my defense.
1:19:59 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:20:00 Speaker 05 He wins the Players two weeks ago or three, how many weeks ago was that? Three weeks ago now?
1:20:05 Bill Simmons? And you guys are neighbors.
1:20:06 Speaker 05 And I saw him in the men's grill and I of course congratulated him profusely and.
1:20:13 Bill Simmons? Like a thousand people.
1:20:14 Speaker 05 And he was sitting with Shane Lowry at the table and I talked to him for a minute and, you know, did the Baby Doll thing and.
1:20:22 Speaker 04 What is the Baby Doll thing?
1:20:23 Speaker 02 I think we saw it today.
1:20:24 Speaker 05 That's it.
1:20:27 Bill Simmons? He calls someone's name and they don't respond.
1:20:30 Speaker 05 But I thought maybe it was semi-fresh in his mind.
1:20:34 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:20:34 Speaker 05 So that's why I had a modicum of, of, of confidence that he was going to like, oh, baby doll. Okay. Look, whatever. Didn't work out that way.
1:20:45 Bill Simmons? No. Well, as it turns out, these guys are practice rounding and
1:20:49 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:20:49 Bill Simmons? Trying to figure out their shots and the distances on every drive.
1:20:52 Speaker 05 You picked Rory.
1:20:53 Bill Simmons? The baby doll didn't really trigger him at all.
1:20:55 Speaker 02 Wouldn't you have been a little weirded out? You picked Rory if he like was so unfocused that he did come over?
1:21:00 Bill Simmons? I would have been concerned.
1:21:00 Speaker 05 I feel like they're actually, I know they're, but like he's played this tournament, you know, 20 times, 15 times. It's loose out there in these practice rounds.
1:21:12 Speaker 02 All right. So he just doesn't like you.
1:21:13 Speaker 05 Yeah, I guess.
1:21:14 Bill Simmons? So 0 for 2 is the legacy.
1:21:16 Speaker 05 I was 0 for 2.
1:21:18 Bill Simmons? Sal, can you tell the origin?
1:21:19 Speaker 05 There's always tomorrow.
1:21:21 Bill Simmons? Can you tell the origin of the baby doll story? Cause you named him baby doll.
1:21:24 Speaker 02 I don't think there's much to it other than he says baby doll. He calls everyone baby doll. And, and I thought this was funny. And then, so I started calling him baby doll, right?
1:21:34 Speaker 05 That's exactly right.
1:21:35 Speaker 02 I mean, it's not fair that he gets to call everyone baby doll. We don't call him baby doll back.
1:21:40 Speaker 05 You, you are.
1:21:41 Speaker 02 There's not much to it.
1:21:42 Speaker 05 You are the, you are the guy who, who coined it.
1:21:46 Speaker 02 This is like, I don't know why no one did this. I met him 25 years ago. Someone should have done this 40 years ago.
1:21:54 Speaker 05 True.
1:21:54 Speaker 02 This is like wheels on luggage. Like luggage always should have had wheels, right? Not 1978, 81, right?
1:22:03 Speaker 05 I like that metaphor.
1:22:04 Speaker 02 Well, that's it. You, you should have been baby doll.
1:22:06 Bill Simmons? So you were hoping because everyone calls you baby doll and you call everybody baby doll.
1:22:09 Speaker 05 Correct.
1:22:10 Bill Simmons? Somewhere in Rory's head, as he's figuring out the course, how his swing is, the distances, that the baby doll would trigger like a Pavlovian response.
1:22:20 Speaker 05 Yes, I did.
1:22:21 Bill Simmons? And it'd be like, oh, that guy I really like.
1:22:23 Speaker 05 Right. Yeah, totally. Isn't that insane of me? But yes, that was what was going through my fucked up mind.
1:22:28 Speaker 04 I have to say upon reflection, it's, your performance today was inspirational.
1:22:33 Speaker 05 Oh, that's why I love you, Chang. Thank you.
1:22:36 Speaker 04 You, you have to try. Failure is not enough. You just gotta try. You don't know what you're gonna get.
1:22:41 Speaker 05 You don't ask.
1:22:42 Speaker 04 Baby doll magic is just not being afraid.
1:22:45 Speaker 05 That's it.
1:22:46 Bill Simmons? Right.
1:22:46 Speaker 02 Is that the Wayne Gretzky quote? You miss a hundred, hundred percent of the shots you don't take?
1:22:52 Speaker 04 That's, that's exactly it.
1:22:53 Speaker 05 You know, and, and I know he's a, he's a really like decent guy. When you, when you talk to him, he's a gentleman beyond belief and.
1:23:02 Speaker 02 Why should we believe you?
1:23:03 Speaker 05 No, because he just is. And, and like, he's not some, you know,
1:23:09 Speaker 05 disengaged guy. And, uh, he's, he's always very polite and, and engaged. And so I thought maybe, and it was relatively recent that we, we bullshitted and, uh, oh, for two, what can I say? I tried.
1:23:25 Speaker 04 But that wasn't really the highlight. Sort of the highlight for me was we were talking to a member of Augusta National and somehow you just let it be known that you were a board member of Wake Forest right off the bat.
1:23:39 Speaker 05 Absolutely.
1:23:40 Speaker 04 Which had nothing to do with the conversation at all.
1:23:43 Speaker 02 You were so proud of that.
1:23:44 Speaker 05 Well, why did I bring that up?
1:23:48 Speaker 05 No, I'm like, you're right. I did bring it up.
1:23:50 Speaker 02 I hate to add context to this, but we were talking about the LPGA and Wake Forest.
1:23:55 Speaker 05 Yes, yes. Thank you for the refresher. Yes. And I could, he was talking about the, the ladies amateur being held at Augusta.
1:24:04 Speaker 04 Which is picking up steam here.
1:24:06 Speaker 05 Which, which.
1:24:07 Speaker 02 I think one of the things I learned today is Baby's very proud to be on the board of Wake Forest.
1:24:11 Speaker 05 I am. It's an honor. It really is. It's an amazing institution.
1:24:15 Speaker 02 You told the person who made us a pimento cheese sandwich.
1:24:22 Speaker 02 I wonder, what is it? Your grandkids, your family, Wake Forest Board, Jon Stewart, and then way, way lower, all of those other clients.
1:24:31 Speaker 05 Okay, I'll go, I'll go with that.
1:24:33 Speaker 02 Way down.
1:24:34 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah. Okay.
1:24:34 Speaker 02 Jimmy's like under Jon Stewart.
1:24:35 Speaker 05 No, Jimmy's, of course.
1:24:39 Speaker 02 But this Wake Forest thing shot to the top. I mean, you were
1:24:42 Bill Simmons? Remember when The Bachelor, Matt James was in there for like
1:24:45 Speaker 02 Right, right, right.
1:24:46 Bill Simmons? A year?
1:24:47 Speaker 05 That's the
1:24:47 Bill Simmons? No, and he was like right there with Stuart.
1:24:49 Speaker 02 Right.
1:24:50 Bill Simmons? It's like neck and neck.
1:24:51 Speaker 05 He was
1:24:51 Bill Simmons? You were dropping his name everywhere.
1:24:53 Speaker 05 Absolutely. Well, hey, you're only The Bachelor wants, right?
1:24:56 Speaker 04 There's one more baby. There's like so many baby dolls going. It's been a true joy getting to
1:25:01 Bill Simmons? It's only been one day.
1:25:02 Speaker 04 It's been three days. It's just amazing. It feels like Christmas.
1:25:05 Speaker 05 What's this gonna be?
1:25:06 Speaker 04 So you disappeared quite often. You got in trouble for smoking cigarettes. That was also a highlight.
1:25:11 Speaker 05 Okay, fair enough. Yeah, yeah.
1:25:14 Speaker 04 But the real highlight was you disappeared and I think amongst the five of us, we're like, we're, what's, what's going on here? Why are you not here?
1:25:24 Speaker 05 Right.
1:25:24 Speaker 04 And you come back and we all had to sort of eat crow because you bought us all hats.
1:25:28 Speaker 05 Yes, I did.
1:25:29 Speaker 04 And then
1:25:30 Speaker 05 It was worth the wait.
1:25:31 Speaker 04 But funny, can you describe what happened?
1:25:34 Speaker 02 Well, we had, we waited like a half hour for it, right? And like, what the hell?
1:25:38 Bill Simmons? He said he needed a hat because the sun was hot. For some reason, he was scared about skin cancer for once.
1:25:44 Speaker 02 Interesting.
1:25:45 Bill Simmons? And decided to get a hat.
1:25:46 Speaker 05 I actually wanted this exact hat.
1:25:47 Speaker 02 Is that what it was?
1:25:48 Speaker 05 Yeah, because they didn't have it at the
1:25:50 Speaker 02 This was, he was in the pro shop for like an hour and a half and then 40 minutes later has to shop even more.
1:25:56 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:25:56 Speaker 02 It was like, worse than my wife. And then, yeah, so then he comes out and like Chang says, he starts throwing, he like gives us all hats. He's like, yeah, take a hat. He spent like $250 on
1:26:06 Speaker 04 And we're talking to some fans of
1:26:08 Speaker 02 Bills. This happening Bills. A guy smoking comes up, talks to Bill, says hi and baby doll. And I don't know how you said it, but you had an extra hat because so many of us had bought hats already 20 minutes before. And you throw it at the guy and you're like, here, you're smoking, take a hat.
1:26:25 Bill Simmons? Here, have a hat. You almost stacked the cigarette ahead of us.
1:26:28 Speaker 02 Yeah. And he's like, you almost hit me in the head. And you're like, well, you got a fucking free hat.
1:26:32 Speaker 05 Yeah, what are you complaining about? I mean, come on, dude. Or a fucking hat hurt your neck? What happened? You know?
1:26:40 Bill Simmons? I think one of the masters is so polite.
1:26:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:43 Bill Simmons? And when people would get mad at baby for smoking in areas that you weren't supposed to smoke in.
1:26:47 Speaker 02 Right.
1:26:48 Bill Simmons? It wasn't like, uh, sir, you're gonna have to put that out. It was more like a disappointed, sir, can you please?
1:26:56 Speaker 05 They're all so.
1:26:57 Speaker 02 There are smoking areas we could lead you to.
1:26:59 Speaker 05 Yes, there's, there's a designated smoking area over here. I can escort you.
1:27:04 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:27:04 Speaker 05 It's like, I just put it out already. Okay. You don't need to escort me. I'll be lighting one in about five minutes anyway. So.
1:27:11 Bill Simmons? Baby, what's, what's the worst, most depressing designated smoking area you've ever smoked in? Have you smoked in those airport ones where it's like almost you're.
1:27:22 Speaker 05 In Europe where they used to have the like.
1:27:24 Bill Simmons? It's, you're almost in like Andy Dufresne, like solitary confinement.
1:27:28 Speaker 05 A smoke chamber.
1:27:29 Speaker 02 A coma.
1:27:30 Speaker 05 Yeah. Yes, I have smoked in there. Of course.
1:27:34 Speaker 05 I used to go like, say to myself, why don't they have this in America? You know, I love that they have this in, in London.
1:27:40 Bill Simmons? Smoke chambers?
1:27:41 Speaker 05 Yes, smoke chambers. It's like, they all have pet, pet walking relief areas. Why not have smoking areas?
1:27:49 Bill Simmons? Did you used to smoke like on airplanes, trains, everything?
1:27:51 Speaker 02 Just gonna ask.
1:27:52 Speaker 05 Absolutely.
1:27:53 Speaker 02 Really?
1:27:54 Bill Simmons? And did people, did you ever like get in an argument with anybody?
1:27:56 Speaker 05 Hmm, you know, not really. No, because it was.
1:27:59 Speaker 02 It's legal.
1:28:00 Speaker 05 Legal.
1:28:01 Speaker 02 Can you imagine someone lighting up next to you on a plane?
1:28:03 Bill Simmons? Imagine sitting next to baby on a train.
1:28:05 Speaker 05 Oh, my God.
1:28:06 Bill Simmons? You're taking like the Exella from New York to Boston and he's just like lighting up.
1:28:10 Speaker 05 But those.
1:28:10 Speaker 02 You're like, oh, this cologne. I can't take this for a while. And what the fuck? What is this? A cigarette? What is he doing to me?
1:28:15 Speaker 05 Those were designated smoking sections. So if you were, all the planes were the worst. Not, not the planes, but like the trains. If you were in a smoking car, you know, not my problem at that point, right?
1:28:28 Bill Simmons? I mean, that, that was an amazing era where, cause I would take the train back and forth between my mom and my dad.
1:28:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:28:34 Bill Simmons? And you're going to walk to the cafe car and you just walk through the smoking car and it's just like lung cancer for.
1:28:40 Speaker 02 Right.
1:28:40 Bill Simmons? 10 seconds.
1:28:41 Speaker 05 Where the planes were one row behind.
1:28:44 Bill Simmons? Was not smoking.
1:28:45 Speaker 05 Right. You could smoke pipes, cigars, cigarettes. And if you're one row behind, it's like this is.
1:28:50 Speaker 04 But people would use the actual ashtray in the armrest.
1:28:53 Speaker 05 Absolutely. I love that fricking.
1:28:56 Speaker 05 I love that ashtray. I really did. They had them on the old cars too, remember? But, um, no, wait, you were asking me about.
1:29:05 Bill Simmons? Most depressing smoking places.
1:29:07 Speaker 05 Depressing?
1:29:08 Bill Simmons? Yeah. Well, because sometimes the smokers get relegated to the kids table of life.
1:29:14 Speaker 05 Yeah, it's not fair. Yeah, I'll tell you, the, the, the idea that I could smoke in the office up until like, it wasn't even that long by nine, by two, in two thousand, you could smoke in the office. So 25 years ago, you could even as an assistant, sitting in a cubicle in common areas. And I used to run like a fan under my desk to just like spread the, the, the, the, the smoke. But, uh, yeah, that was insane to think that you could do that. Now in New York City, it's 25 feet away from the building. So if you smoke near a building, you often get reprimanded.
1:29:54 Bill Simmons? You've paid a smoking fee in a rental car like 50 times, right?
1:29:57 Speaker 05 Of course I have and hotels.
1:29:59 Bill Simmons? Good for you. Baby gets offended if there's some sort of penalty for smoking in a rental car. He's just as soon.
1:30:05 Speaker 05 I, for the, for the, the percentage of how many rental cars I've had that I've smoked in and the times I've been nailed, I've done very, very well.
1:30:15 Bill Simmons? Chang, what was it like to have a cigarette that your wife probably shouldn't know about with Baby Doll last night?
1:30:20 Speaker 04 You know, every time I see Baby Doll, Baby gives me a cigarette and it's just a joyous occasion. I sucked that thing down and it was awesome.
1:30:28 Speaker 05 Thank you. And you love that I have Marlboro Reds, right?
1:30:32 Speaker 04 I mean, listen, the only way you'd be cooler is if you smoked filterless cigarettes.
1:30:36 Bill Simmons? Yeah, why don't you do that?
1:30:37 Speaker 05 Like the Italians?
1:30:37 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:30:38 Bill Simmons? Step it up.
1:30:39 Speaker 05 They get your fingers yellow. That's, that's the problem with them. Otherwise I, I kind of like.
1:30:43 Bill Simmons? Yeah, Baby's enough colors. He doesn't need to have yellow fingers.
1:30:46 Speaker 05 What is it?
1:30:47 Bill Simmons? You have enough colors going on already.
1:30:49 Speaker 05 Change my orange fingers yellow. They're pretty good for smoking.
1:30:52 Bill Simmons? My fingers be orange.
1:30:53 Speaker 04 No, like another thing that happened, it's been total joy.
1:30:56 Bill Simmons? By the way, is he gonna come on Thursday night too? We'll probably have a thousand Baby Dolls.
1:31:00 Speaker 05 So it's gonna be the whole podcast.
1:31:02 Speaker 04 I mean, The Ringer has a great, uh, Podcast about TV shows and White Lotus.
1:31:09 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:31:09 Speaker 04 I think last night I almost pissed my pants because before we all went to bed, we were watching the last episode of season three, White Lotus all over again.
1:31:18 Bill Simmons? Yes.
1:31:20 Speaker 04 I, I just couldn't stop laughing because I think that we need to have a alt cast of you.
1:31:28 Bill Simmons? A Manning cast, that's the baby cast.
1:31:30 Speaker 04 Not safe for work.
1:31:31 Speaker 05 It's like a rewatchables, but live.
1:31:35 Speaker 02 Yeah. Cause you were the only one seeing it live.
1:31:38 Speaker 05 I'm not, right. I hadn't seen that episode.
1:31:40 Bill Simmons? I'm not sure live would be the best idea, but maybe.
1:31:44 Speaker 02 Just, it would, it would need about 16 or 17 hours of editing.
1:31:47 Bill Simmons? So we watched, but, but I think it would be good. We watched last night, we'd all seen it, but baby hadn't seen it. So we watched White Lotus with you. There was a couple.
1:31:54 Speaker 04 Wild, wild.
1:31:56 Bill Simmons? I liked when he told the guy to jump at the end. Tim Ratliff is looking out.
1:32:01 Speaker 05 You were so. Well, he's gonna make them drink that shit. What the fuck? You trying to kill your kids?
1:32:06 Speaker 04 It's like you forgot.
1:32:07 Speaker 05 Been trying to kill yourself for nine episodes. Just fucking jump. Get it over with.
1:32:12 Speaker 04 It's like you forgot that we were in the room with you watching.
1:32:14 Speaker 05 Yes, I did.
1:32:16 Speaker 04 You were so.
1:32:16 Speaker 05 I, I had a few glasses of wine. I was tired from the day and.
1:32:21 Bill Simmons? Yeah, there's a lot of strays on the White Lotus cast.
1:32:24 Speaker 05 Yeah, yeah.
1:32:25 Bill Simmons? Guy talk. You put some chest hair in him during the show.
1:32:29 Speaker 05 Guy talk.
1:32:29 Bill Simmons? Told him to grow, grow a pair.
1:32:31 Speaker 05 Pussy.
1:32:34 Speaker 05 I've never seen a bigger pussy hold a gun, you know? It's like, come on.
1:32:44 Bill Simmons? What, what other TV are you watching, baby? Before we go, any other favorites?
1:32:48 Speaker 02 He watches from the couch.
1:32:49 Speaker 05 Watched the first two episodes of Mobland. I thought it was amazing. Have you seen Mobland?
1:32:54 Bill Simmons? I haven't seen it yet. How about 1923?
1:32:57 Speaker 05 Nah, I haven't seen that.
1:32:59 Bill Simmons? Lot of smoking in that show.
1:33:00 Speaker 05 I loved Mobland.
1:33:02 Bill Simmons? Mobland, okay.
1:33:03 Speaker 05 Yes. Second episode, you know, a lot of setup in episode one gets, and it's good. Second episode, you see where it's going. It's awesome. Tom Hardy is incredible.
1:33:16 Speaker 02 Who, who for your money is the best smoker in movies or TV?
1:33:19 Bill Simmons? Oh, great question.
1:33:20 Speaker 02 As an actual smoker.
1:33:21 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:33:21 Speaker 05 You mean like in real life?
1:33:23 Bill Simmons? No, no. Who, who pulls out smoke in the best?
1:33:27 Speaker 05 I'll tell you, Brad Pitt's pretty good at it.
1:33:30 Bill Simmons? What?
1:33:31 Speaker 05 Doesn't he smoke in like, like in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?
1:33:34 Bill Simmons? He does like the, turns his hand.
1:33:36 Speaker 05 Yeah, I like the way he smokes.
1:33:37 Bill Simmons? Really? Damon, we just did Good Will Hunting for rewatchables and Damon's really good in that movie.
1:33:42 Speaker 05 Okay.
1:33:43 Bill Simmons? And Cole Hauser in that movie, Chris Ryan did a whole thing about.
1:33:46 Speaker 05 Oh, really?
1:33:47 Bill Simmons? How he, he gets rid of a cigarette, grabs a beer and waves them for the car on motion.
1:33:52 Speaker 05 Oh, very good. I gotta check that out.
1:33:54 Speaker 04 But De Niro is usually.
1:33:55 Bill Simmons? De Niro to me is the goat. De Niro, Goodfellas, that's the best ever.
1:33:59 Speaker 05 Okay, fair enough. I'll go with that. Yeah.
1:34:01 Bill Simmons? Remember the scene when he's sizing up Maury, when he decides to kill Maury?
1:34:05 Speaker 05 Yeah, he's just kinda staring him down, taking a slow drag. Yeah.
1:34:09 Bill Simmons? There's been some bad smokers too.
1:34:11 Speaker 05 All right, who would be, well, who would be an example?
1:34:14 Bill Simmons? Out of movies we've done in rewatchables, like there's a really tough Keanu Reeves hardball scene.
1:34:19 Speaker 04 Oh, really?
1:34:20 Bill Simmons? He's trying to smoke. He's like a degenerate, but it's clear.
1:34:23 Speaker 05 You're right, though.
1:34:24 Bill Simmons? But Tom Cruise is the worst. I mean.
1:34:25 Speaker 05 You can tell who the non, the real non-smokers are, who have never really smoked in their life, who are just smoking because the character.
1:34:35 Speaker 04 I think Keanu's a real smoker though.
1:34:37 Speaker 05 You think?
1:34:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:34:39 Bill Simmons? He screwed up the hardball thing.
1:34:40 Speaker 04 Hmm. I don't know. In Constantine, he smokes a lot.
1:34:43 Bill Simmons? The people like the Cruise type of people are always my favorites.
1:34:46 Speaker 04 Could you be brought on as a consultant, baby?
1:34:49 Speaker 05 A great smoker, a smoking consultant?
1:34:51 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:34:52 Speaker 05 Yeah, sure. I'd love to.
1:34:53 Bill Simmons? Like they have doctors for ER.
1:34:55 Speaker 05 Cause I'm him, baby.
1:34:56 Bill Simmons? I think it kinda is, yeah.
1:35:00 Speaker 05 Leo, Leonardo in, in Django Unchained.
1:35:05 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:35:06 Speaker 05 Playing Candy, Candy was his last name, but I can't remember his first.
1:35:11 Bill Simmons? Not a great character.
1:35:12 Speaker 05 But he smoked with that cigarette holder.
1:35:15 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:35:16 Speaker 05 And man, he was good at it. He was really good.
1:35:19 Bill Simmons? Cigarette holder?
1:35:21 Speaker 05 I have tried them when I was a kid. They're fucking ridiculous. I mean, I don't even know what that is. It's like.
1:35:26 Speaker 04 Baby, did you ever go through a phase where you rolled your own cigarettes?
1:35:29 Speaker 05 No.
1:35:30 Speaker 04 Never did?
1:35:31 Speaker 05 No.
1:35:33 Speaker 05 Yeah, how could you recreate a Marlboro, a work of fucking art, you know? You know my old joke, right?
1:35:39 Speaker 04 No.
1:35:41 Speaker 05 You know, you know the old joke.
1:35:42 Bill Simmons? Is it offensive?
1:35:43 Speaker 05 No, not at all. Not at all. Baby doll, how much you smoke? I smoke a lot. No, seriously, how much you smoke? I smoke a lot. No, like seriously, how much do you smoke? Well, let me put it, let me put it to you this way. I go through two lighters a day.
1:36:01 Bill Simmons? There you go.
1:36:01 Speaker 05 That was a Bill Hicks line that I adopted.
1:36:04 Bill Simmons? You just said that's your joke.
1:36:05 Speaker 05 And no, well, I adopted it. May he rest in peace, but it does get people off when you do that joke. They stop asking how much you smoke. It just diffuses the whole thing.
1:36:15 Bill Simmons? We asked you yesterday, what, what celebrity did you have the most cigarettes with over the last thirty five years? And Dennis, his name came up, Bill Hicks.
1:36:23 Speaker 05 Dennis Hicks was up there. Hicks was up there.
1:36:25 Bill Simmons? Who was the one we decided?
1:36:26 Speaker 05 Oh, Chappelle.
1:36:27 Bill Simmons? Chappelle.
1:36:27 Speaker 05 Oh, tons of cigarettes with Chappelle.
1:36:29 Bill Simmons? I mean, Chappelle is what, like the, one of the all time.
1:36:31 Speaker 05 He's the greatest smoker of this generation.
1:36:34 Speaker 04 Better smoker or comedian?
1:36:37 Bill Simmons? Oh, wow.
1:36:38 Speaker 04 Right?
1:36:39 Speaker 05 I mean, I, I'm gonna go with comedian because that's a real talent and he's, he's.
1:36:45 Bill Simmons? Uh, don't say yourself, Sean.
1:36:46 Speaker 05 But what I love about Chappelle is he smokes everywhere he goes. It doesn't matter. Hotel rooms, wherever, lobbies of hotels, Studio Eight H on SNL.
1:37:01 Bill Simmons? And he's like Snoop.
1:37:02 Speaker 05 It's a fire zone.
1:37:03 Bill Simmons? With cigarettes, yeah.
1:37:04 Speaker 05 He's always smoking. Comedy clubs, you're not supposed to smoke in there anymore. He's got a cigarette going everywhere and may God have mercy on the soul of anybody who tells him, put that cigarette out.
1:37:16 Bill Simmons? And you've actually spent real time with Chappelle. So if you did the ship, Dave, Dave, it's Baby Doll. He would actually stop and come over.
1:37:23 Speaker 05 Oh, come on, yo. He'd come over for, yeah, no, Dave, I've known since.
1:37:27 Bill Simmons? I think you should have thrown a hat at Rory like you did that other guy. Maybe he would have gotten his attention that way.
1:37:33 Speaker 05 Don't give me ideas tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.
1:37:36 Bill Simmons? Baby, before we go, what, what is your single favorite thing about Augusta? And try to turn toward these guys. So you're on the camera at least a little bit.
1:37:44 Bill Simmons? Just getting the side of baby sand for twenty minutes.
1:37:46 Speaker 05 I'm not in show business. I have no idea.
1:37:48 Bill Simmons? But I don't know that talent.
1:37:49 Speaker 05 Hold on. Let me think for a second because I love so much of it.
1:37:53 Bill Simmons? Well, I'll, I'll talk to Chang about it. Why, as you, for some reason, think of your answer for two minutes. Chang, what's your favorite thing about Augusta? Because you're like a naturally kind of pessimistic guy.
1:38:04 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:38:04 Bill Simmons? We've been friends for a long time. This place really.
1:38:07 Speaker 04 And you see where I'm, I'm like happy.
1:38:09 Bill Simmons? Yeah, this place like really.
1:38:10 Speaker 05 But you said a whole thing in the car on the way to the course. About how incredible Augusta and the operation and the whole thing. You've kind of been inside the gates.
1:38:21 Speaker 04 I, I, I'm one of the, maybe the only person that's ever had behind the scenes access. Cause I filmed some stuff in like 2019 when Tiger won. And I think that it's number one, the best sporting event you can go to in America.
1:38:34 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:38:35 Speaker 04 It's the best run operation.
1:38:39 Speaker 05 Hundred percent.
1:38:39 Speaker 04 Business or anything otherwise, maybe out there.
1:38:42 Speaker 05 It's flawless.
1:38:43 Speaker 04 Everything is done with intention and it's executed at a high level.
1:38:48 Speaker 05 Yes.
1:38:49 Speaker 04 And I think it's just, I'm happy here. I just am and I'm not normally, as Bill know.
1:38:54 Speaker 05 I'm right with you. I mean, it's golf heaven. When you step on that course, it's like no other.
1:39:00 Speaker 04 But you don't even have to like golf to appreciate it.
1:39:03 Speaker 05 You don't, but, but if you love golf like, like we do, it's just, it's so unique. It's such a different, everything about it is so, it's like if you died and went to heaven and that was, that was.
1:39:19 Bill Simmons? Like Field of Dreams, cornfield.
1:39:20 Speaker 05 It really, it is that. And, uh, and also like, I just love being around anything golf. And that is kind of the, this is the, the, the cradle and apex of golf and golf fans. And it's just my whole vibe, you know? Uh, I love.
1:39:38 Bill Simmons? I was, I was thinking, cause I was thinking about it today, cause I'd been to, uh, I went to the US open. But I went to a couple of golf tournaments in the last couple of years.
1:39:46 Speaker 05 Sure.
1:39:47 Bill Simmons? And all these other courses, like basically every other course that has a tournament. They're also, they, the tournament comes in and out. It's the courses and built for the tournament. It's built for 52 weeks a year of having members. And then they kind of shoehorn the tournament into it. And there'll be porta potties and weird cart paths and the parking's weird and things are disjointed. All this place cares about is this week, right? I mean, they have other stuff. They have the members and all that stuff, but it's all like a long game for this one week. And every single thing has to be perfect. From the moment you show up to when you walk toward the thing and you go through the gates. Every single thing you see. They really put thought into and I just, I appreciate that.
1:40:29 Speaker 02 I think it was like a combination that has an immaculate feel of Disneyland and like Central Park. And there's like you said, and I think it's because they're not different events moving in and out. There's no wasted space. Forget about the greens. You turn a corner and you're gonna see a shade of green you've never seen before. That's great too. But even the pathways and everything like you're talking about, like it doesn't seem like there's any wasted space. It's all beautiful.
1:40:52 Bill Simmons? Well, and then we talked about this every time we come, but the no phone thing is actually a real advantage. Even Sal, we were worried about Sal.
1:40:59 Speaker 02 I think I did okay.
1:41:00 Speaker 05 Sal had withdrawal for the first like two hours.
1:41:02 Speaker 02 You did. Well, I went to my pocket like seven times in the first half hour.
1:41:05 Speaker 05 Yeah, you really were like jonesing for that phone.
1:41:08 Bill Simmons? And then I felt like, you know, it was a little like, a little White Lotus-y when Saxon starts reading halfway through the season.
1:41:16 Speaker 02 Right.
1:41:16 Bill Simmons? And it's like, maybe there's more.
1:41:18 Speaker 02 Interesting.
1:41:19 Bill Simmons? Maybe that, maybe, maybe I can test myself. Yeah. And it's like, you were like, maybe I don't have to try to figure out how to bet on this practice round right now.
1:41:27 Speaker 05 You have to like, just kind of like acclimate yourself to where you were and like accept it and then go, okay, I'm, I'm.
1:41:35 Speaker 02 It helped that we were all talking to each other and making each other laugh. It's like when someone's sick and they're gonna vomit. You're like, all right, if you talk this person up, they're not gonna think about it. I don't have to focus on it, but.
1:41:44 Bill Simmons? Chang, were you disappointed Sal didn't eat more?
1:41:46 Speaker 02 What are you talking, what?
1:41:48 Speaker 04 Number one.
1:41:49 Bill Simmons? On the course. I mean, on the course.
1:41:51 Speaker 04 But for those that don't know, Sal is not a big drinker.
1:41:55 Bill Simmons? Right.
1:41:55 Speaker 04 And the fact that he started today with the Bloody Mary, I was like, this is an auspicious sign. It's gonna be a good week. Number one. Two, he ate a lot of food.
1:42:06 Bill Simmons? Thank you.
1:42:06 Speaker 04 It was disgusting.
1:42:07 Bill Simmons? Thank you.
1:42:08 Speaker 04 And then when you hit the course, you ate a pimento cheese sandwich and I knew you were full. I knew you were disgustingly full.
1:42:14 Bill Simmons? Right.
1:42:14 Speaker 04 But you still waltzed down. And I was like, this guy is bringing, you're bringing your A game.
1:42:20 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:42:20 Speaker 05 For a buck fifty, he's not wasting that.
1:42:22 Speaker 04 People need to know the food here is amazing. It's affordable. You could buy 12 beers for $12. Where could you do that anywhere else?
1:42:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's only 3,000 to get in, but then they give, you know, for cheese and one, the bread they charge now.
1:42:33 Speaker 05 That's what makes the Masters so different. Touch on what you said, Bill, which is, you know, it's the only, obviously the only major that's always in the same location, right? So that alone sets it apart from all the other majors and. Like everyone's just so fucking happy to be there.
1:42:51 Bill Simmons? Yeah.
1:42:51 Speaker 05 Cause it is expensive and you have to, you know, get to it and like it's, it's a bucket list place that at least half those people, at least half are there for the first time. And everybody's just like, holy shit, pinch me. I, I did it.
1:43:09 Bill Simmons? Well, listen, I, all I'll have to say is, as the great Terry Coon said in White Lotus, I'm happy to have a seat at the table, but I am going to make a mess at that seat with bread and rice and cheese and everything else. When I get up.
1:43:22 Speaker 05 I so hope Sal finishes last in the pick so that, so that we can load down a
1:43:30 Bill Simmons? Good chance.
1:43:31 Speaker 05 Mento pulled pork.
1:43:33 Speaker 04 Egg salad.
1:43:34 Speaker 05 Egg salad.
1:43:35 Speaker 04 Chicken biscuit.
1:43:36 Speaker 05 Chicken biscuit. What else?
1:43:37 Speaker 04 BLT. It's the Masters Club, which is like a BLT.
1:43:41 Bill Simmons? I mean, that sounds great. Now I, I hope I finish last too now. You put it that way.
1:43:47 Bill Simmons? We're going to be back Thursday for more stuff.
1:43:49 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:43:50 Bill Simmons? Chang, you have a beautiful face. Sal, you have a beautiful life.
1:43:58 Bill Simmons? Baby, you're just beautiful in general.
1:44:01 Speaker 05 So are you, baby.
1:44:02 Bill Simmons? Thank you. Uh, thank you to you three. Thanks to House of Nathan as well. Thanks to Gao and Kyle.
1:44:07 Speaker 05 So.
1:44:07 Bill Simmons? And Eduardo for helping us out today in the, uh, on the pod and we're going to be back on Thursday. Don't forget to check out the Prestige TV podcast and, uh, the rewatchables as well. If you missed White Lotus, if you missed our rewatchables, we did on the Saint with Val Comer. And, uh, and I hope you're checking out Celtic City on Max as well. We will see you on Thursday.
1:44:53 Bill Simmons? Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-887-897777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut or visit 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 1-8778-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. This episode is brought to you by Searchlight Pictures Wild Horse 9. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, I like those guys, star in the sharp-witted comedy thriller from Academy
1:45:37 Bill Simmons? Award winner Martin McDonagh, writer-director of The Banshees of Minneh Sharon and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, set in the 1970s, filmed on location on Easter Island. Malkovich and Rockwell play CIA agents Chris and Lee who are caught in a dangerous game of secrets and survival. Also starring Steve Buscemi, another one of my guys, Parker Posey and Tom Waits. Wild Horse 9 is being hailed by critics as a revitalizing shot of pure entertainment and easily one of the best films of the year. Don't miss Wild Horse 9. Only in theaters Friday. Get tickets now.
Previous The 2025 Made-Up NBA Awards, Plus Duke’s Collapse With Ryen Russillo Next The NBA’s Wacky West, Tales From Augusta, and the Baby Doll Chronicles | With Joe House, Cousin Sal, Nathan Hubbard, Dave Chang, and Baby Doll Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated