Good afternoon everybody. I didn't know if it started so I g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-ed it there. Uh, welcome into the Winklerverse.
Friday the 6th of June of 2025. On the docket, Grant Bills alongside Paul Imig is here as well. Um, I'll just start with... My neighbors are leaving. Um, I don't know if you can hear that or not. I don't, I don't know what audio is picking up where. I hear nothing.
Oh, okay. I had to open the window because there's no ventilation on my first floor. No, I just, I, we don't have any fans in the, in the first level. Seems like a structural flaw. Those, those old Shorewood homes.
Yeah, the old bungalow. Mm-hmm. So what I realized last night, um, is that I've essentially been on the air every time the Pacers have done the Pacers. Oh, I'm so sorry for that. So I have these dialogues with myself.
Like, I understand this is probably not, I could be more professional, but also I care about this and, you know, I think there's some level of theater to it. Like, oh, this guy's having a meltdown. But them doing it against the Bucks, the Cavs, the Knicks, and now the Thunder. And you knew it was going to happen. They were up 15 at half?
12? I felt like the crowd and the Thunder players knew as their collective assholes tightened. Like, you could feel it. So when I like saw, you know, cause the first half everyone's like turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.
Yeah. They had nine points off the 19 turnovers in the first half. They had 11 points off the 25 in the game. That's criminal.
And so I thought I, it's, you know, at the beginning, I thought this feels like a game. The Pacers will win, but you know, the, or the Thunder will win, but the Pacers definitely can. Um, the odds of them doing that the four times they did are one in 75 million. I saw that the four times, if you combine all the percentages of yeah, ridiculous. And, you know, I, I do believe it's gotten like, I don't like the Pacers and I don't like Halliburton and I don't like Nembhard and there's still a lot of like, how is it these guys? If anyone's ever going to do it, how is it these guys?
There's still a lot of that. The thing that I hate the most about it is it's just so it doesn't compute. It doesn't make sense.
It shouldn't be. And I wish I could be like, Oh, watch this team. They're dominating. This is so fun. I wish I could get into this. Maybe if it was a Western conference team, I could, but to have to be on the air, like these are never happening on a weekend. I am greatly affected by these games and I'm on the air as they're going on.
So I almost like talk as a plea, you know, to my bosses, like, please understand this is hard. I'm, I'm watching this. This is hard to, I'm trying to do it.
Aaron Rogers, you know, I'm looking out the side of my, it's very difficult. So it sucks Pacers. This sucks. I'm not budging on thunder and five let's ride that out. But I, this sucks, sucks, sucks.
But again, if you don't want to be replaced by AI, keep doing it. If you guys thought that the Pacers are always going to come back and win that game. You were the only ones because I was driving home.
So I couldn't watch. I was listening on the radio, but I was checking Twitter, whatever. And every other tweet was so the thunder just going to cruise, huh? So this is the finals that we got like, cause they're up what, 15 in the third quarter. I'm like, how do you idiots keep doing this?
Like what, what compels you to tweet such a thing? It's the third quarter of an NBA game. Not that it feels like the finals. Cause it didn't even, you know, it didn't even look like it on the quarter or anything. Didn't really feel like it just didn't feel that big, but I don't understand how people like, that's ABCs fault. I agree.
Yeah. But so many people, countless people, lots of Wisconsin radio people tweeted, well, it looks like the thunder just they're that good. It's like, could you wait until the end of the game? Like how many times are we going to watch this happen? I, I don't, I don't understand people.
I don't get it. The thunder have to, I mean, they have to win by double digits, which means they have to be up by like 30 for the final five. I feel like my thunder skepticism slightly, slightly vindicated last night.
I don't know. They're very good. They're the best possible version of what Mike Budenholzer's bucks were there that, but they're just the best possible version of that. But the best possible version of that is still a version of the early Mike Budenholzer bucks get tied at the end.
You couldn't get a bucket. I don't understand why they didn't play like their bigs. It's did you talk last night on national radio Bart about the, I mean, changing your starting lineup when you're the one seed coming off of a 68 wind season. Yeah.
He made an adjustment prior to the game before there was an adjustment to be made like Rick Carlisle is a good coach, but also he must be in this dude's head to think he needs to make an adjustment. Yeah. Start a 21 year old right away. Yeah. And then play Hartenstein 17 minutes.
Yeah. And they weren't on the court at all. Him and Chet, like, I think it was a nine. They, they, they had a minus nine in the fourth quarter when both of them were off. The thing I was thinking about is like, now that you lost, you didn't lose that game because you started a case in Wallace over Hartenstein. You didn't, that's not the reason that things went down the way it did, but do you, as the thunder now go back to Hartenstein and admit defeat?
Cause I don't think you should do that either. I think now you have to kind of be like, okay, that's not the reason we lost. I liked that he, that Dagnalt trusted his gut, or I'm sure there was analytics behind that gut feeling, but it was strange. And I, I think Richard Jefferson did a good job on the broadcast calling out. Like if I was, if I'm a patient player, I'm feeling good about this, that we just started the series on the road as the underdog and they're adjusting their starting lineup.
It was, it was strange. I would bet they stick with it. I mean, I think they got to go back. You, I mean, to me, that's an overreaction. Well, there was an, it's a course correction to an overreaction.
Maybe, but had they won, you would have kept it, right? I don't understand why they did it in the first place. I don't either. I don't either, but they had a week. I haven't heard his rationale on that. Maybe he said it. I didn't.
Yeah, I don't either. Hear it. They wanted quicker pace, I guess, or, but I thought coming in, the size was going to be one of the things that the Thunder had an advantage over. I got two seven footers. Yeah. I don't think the Pacers have any. Maybe that Bradley dude.
Oh, Miles Turner. Is it, I mean. 611. Okay. Bad news. Bad news. I was at my physical. Oh no. That's not, you don't want to hear bad news after I got back from my. Oh no. The doctor was like, proud of me. Oh, for your weight loss? That's horrible.
I'm so sorry to hear that. No, but when they did my height, I'm no longer five 10 and a half. Have you shrunk or grow? It was right even at five 10. Oh, you're shrinking. You've hit the shrink stage. I've always, I've always claimed because that half is big, the five 10.
I'm basically five 11, which is basically six feet. Minus. Dumbest things I've ever heard. Well, like it's a mathematical proof that 99 is essentially 100. Sure. Essentially.
So I was, I'm essentially six feet now being two inches lower. I can't claim that anymore. Yeah. I just don't like miles term. I don't think he's good.
I think he's soft defensively. And he banks in a three and Doris Burke is like, I know it was a bank shot, but still how many bigs can do that? I'm like, okay, but what that, what does that? My favorite story of the week, favorite story of the week is that Doris Burke's job is not safe. Well, if she could do one sentence with us saying, uh, to the cup, to the cup, it's through the cup.
Doris Burke is an excellent analyst, but because she's been put in this role, she has to be like, like Mark Jackson had mama. There goes that man. You don't though. You don't need that.
You don't. Yeah, you do. Yeah.
Yeah, you do. You know, they make, they make, they make alternate broadcasts for people like you stop coming into my main bra. I just want the generic thing, but she's a great analyst.
She has good but now she's got to, she's got to dress it up and be more of an entertainer, which is what she is. I don't know where you got this idea that professional supports are supposed to be fun. Want to hear my Reggie Miller impression?
It's supposed to be a learning experience. Let's hear it. Stop it. That's pretty good. Stop it. I didn't expect that to be good. That was half decent. That's all he does.
Yeah. Reggie Miller. And now it's wearing down Mike, Mike Breen. Tough day for people my age, Lil Wayne is washed and Mike Breen might be washed too. The internet piling on both. And I don't think it's Mike Breen's fault.
I think it's the fact that he's got those other two knobs with him. What's Mike, what's Mike Breen's, what's the, what's the analysis online? Well, it's not a high level analysis. It's just X, the everything app, but it's, it's just saying that his, he kind of botched the Halliburton call and there's no double bang on, eh, you know. Okay. Yeah, I wouldn't like a bang that was worth, but our bangs more for threes.
It might be. Yeah, that's a good, but you're like, you can't bang a layup, which is why I remember that Tatum spinning layup that was a game winner the other year, two years ago. And Breen was like, yeah, I botched it. What do you, what do you, what are you supposed to do with that? Remember when Jason Tatum gave his post-game interview and said every like greatest cliche in one. Okay. So let's, so, so the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the problem is possible. Okay. So the problem that I was thinking about this, are there any original athletes in the NBA or are they all just the current carbon copy of someone that they looked up to?
And I'm serious about that. Like I've been thinking about this Halliburton has to go to the things that people have done before him. You just mentioned the Tatum example. It's just like, these are the things that I like, what, where, and then I know it sounds like old man.
This is probably very much in that realm, but I'm like, I've been, I was thinking like, why is there no originality? Why is it all like Tatum wins the title? He got, he has to do the, the Garnett stuff. Halliburton hits the game tying two thought it was a winning three.
He's got to go to the Reggie Miller choke. Like I don't, you know, this is like a your generation grant thing, but it's like, come on, big dude. Well, the slam dunk contest is no good either.
It's not, by the way, you do run out of things at a certain point. I mean, LeBron to his credit, like he said some good, you know, some things through the years, I know Paul, you're not going to see eye to eye with me on that, but that's like, it's like three 11 one said, come original. You got to come original.
I'll entertain us. I know who three 11 is, but I I'm not familiar with, with that one. Someone's listening to think, Oh, Bart knows he's letting you hang out to dry right now, which is rude.
This is where he's supposed to step in and sing. Then I only know that one. And Amber, I know Amber, you know, all mixed up. You don't know what to do. Okay.
How about drink a little and some, some know that we have always been down, down. I never got into them. Like there was a, I don't know. There was a group of people I was associated with that were like really into them.
So I was like retreating. You're like, give me my death cab. I was also never that into sublime. I mean, he never even got to see his success because he died before the album came out. Yeah, I need to make the $2 and 30 cents.
I make off these checks in the mail. I did text Bart about a song that I heard on Sirius XM this weekend. Just knowing that Bart would have some background or experience with the song. I didn't remember what it was. It was the height.
How do you talk to an angel? It sounded like crowded. I just thought it was crowded house. I couldn't believe that it wasn't. And you said you used to sing it to somebody or something.
A girl. You know what I also can't believe is the savings that you can get at happyplacehemp.com. 25% off each and every order. Pop one of those seltzers over the weekend. That's a nice kind of breezy day drink. And also at night and then the gummies and at any time. The night gummies have been good.
Obviously, we'll take some of the other ones as well. The Delta 8s, the Delta 9s. They're all available for you in Muskego at their shop.
You can go say hi College Court or you can also just go online. Happyplacehemp.com. Promo code is Bart. 25% off every order. What have we been doing this now? Two, three years? Holy balls. The promo code has been good for that long.
Happyplacehemp.com. Yeah, when did I fire up the pod in 2022? I feel like. 2022. Summer.
Sometime in summer. Yeah. Look at that. Happy anniversary. The day that Hall of Famer LaRoy Butler was unceremoniously in one fell swoop.
On the air, then off the air. You guys all LaRoy yesterday, by the way. He's one of the great ones. He's one of the great ones. He's one of the great ones. You talked to him?
Uh, yeah, but I. Was Charlie Berens in his shadow? No, he wasn't.
Actually, LaRoy was the main event. Oh, I said hello. Said thank you because he did the show. But that was it.
Every single time, without fail, for years and years and years, seeing LaRoy, he would always always say the guy with the best hair and sports media. It's kind of cool. That mop.
I know. Well, consider. He saw something in it. Consider. I don't know what this.
I can't tell you what he called you. That really looks bad. You really should not. Are you sweating? Yeah, I was playing trick shots with my son on the couch right now watching YouTube. God only knows what he's watching.
Hopefully he's not watching your podcast. I am just going to peek at the TV. Oh, go ahead. Question. Go ahead. Paul, what's on the docket first? I'm going to play a clip from the Bart Winkler show first. Okay.
And then we're going to dive into. Yes, it's true. A Gary Wolf will tweet. I did see this. This is a good one. Gary, Gary popped up with this one. We need to dissect the Gary Wolf will tweet.
But let's start with this part. I wanted to thank you. As I laughed this morning, hearing some of your podcasts from your show last night, I heard this winning that hunk of metal as was given out to them by Rob Manfred, just very anti climatic climactic. Paul and very lame because I correctly called out Paul because, you know, it had you not, I would have said climactic in my own head. As I'm listening, people are just like, oh, you're a professional radio man is climactic. No, I had one of the worst calls I ever had last night. Who was it?
What was it? Or who was it, some guy telling me thank you for taking the Pacers because then or the Thunder because then he bet the Pacers and then about how his son is always like 90% right with predictions. And he thinks it's a sign from God. They don't care because his Jewish wife named him Jacob. That's what he said with a K, I hope. And then he got the middle name and he named him. I don't even remember. But then his cousin, he plays baseball with his cousin and his cousin always gets the attention and not his son.
So this is like a special thing for his son. And it's like, I let it go on too long because it seemed like a point was coming up. Yeah. I mean, again, I pretended to pound tequila after pretended with a wink or pretended.
Well, I do have a mixed drink every night on my show. What? What? Yeah. Come on is a classic Bart joke.
I don't know if I remember it. Yeah. Just take two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. Have a little water. My mistake.
I need two glasses just to get through this. Oh, fuck. I fucked up the joke. Cut that out in post. Sorry. Tim.
You've done that before too, haven't you? On the national show. Yeah.
Tim fucked me over. He's got a nine to five now really doing what? I don't know. He's like five jobs in the last year in TV or not in TV.
No. And he's not like, he just wants a different job. He's just like, AI is coming for us all.
But Tim Shay will always find employment. Are you guys watching the Apple show, the Seth Rogan Apple show, the studio? I'd like to, we're trying to coordinate wife and me. And you know, we're in the house for three hours at a time each day. And that's usually sleeping. Yeah.
We can usually sneak in like 30 minutes of TV a week. And that recently has ever since righteous gemstones has been over, been the studio. And they just did an episode.
Well, to me, it was just, I don't know how many weeks ago it aired, but it was AI taking over the animating jobs. Oh yeah. Those are torched in Hollywood.
Those are cooked. I thought my golden parachute one day would be narrating audio books, but that's, I probably, they're probably wanting people who write books. We'll just have the robots do that.
Certainly not going to have people reading books. Golden parachute, meaning like, could I make 40 grand a year? Could I exist above the poverty line doing that? When I say golden, that's not really a golden parachute. That's a trash bag with handles.
I thought maybe that would be a nice, you know, And thus, and thus still more money than currently. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't have a parachute of some kind. Anywho, Bart, you get to have the pleasure on national radio tonight to mention one Gary Wolfell because he's viral today. Yeah. Everyone always like picks up what he says as if they should be doing that.
Why can't you get picked up on anything ever? I don't exist. Huh? Gary Wolf will Ken though. Just make something up. Different battles don't care. Yeah, that's true.
I don't exist. Could there be a Giannis Anadokounmpo Jason Kidd reunion in New York? There's a report the Knicks are asking Dallas officials permission to speak to Kidd about their vacant head coaching position. Yesterday I was told the Knicks are preparing to make a tsunami type offer to acquire Anadokounmpo from the Bucks.
Kidd once coached Giannis in Milwaukee. Clearly this is like, whether it's reporting or it's just connecting of dots, or he talked to someone who thought it could be a possibility that regardless, it's clearly a thing that the Knicks want to talk about, right? Like it doesn't take a lot to be like, do you think the Knicks should like look into a Giannis?
Like, obviously, right? Here's what I want to ask. All things are on the table from the Knicks. All things.
Runs in towns. I don't know. I mean, yeah. OG, bridges, picks, dare I say Tyler Colic. I don't think you can throw him into a Giannis trade. That's just too rich. But is there any offer again? Giannis asks out.
Let's go through all the steps. I'm going to write all say, I love the Knicks roster. Like I'm into the Knicks, but there's I'm going to say, so is there anything the Knicks could any tsunami type offer of 200 cents on the dollar stuff that you want from the Knicks or that the Knicks could put together that type of offer for you?
My answer. There's pieces I like, there's players I like, but if it's Giannis for those pieces, even if you are able to dump a Kuzma into that, even if you are able to dump a Conaton into that, to me, it's still I'm going to tell you this. Here are some Knicks picks. They have only the number 50 in this upcoming draft.
It's Memphis's second rounder. They have their own first in 2026 and Washington's top 10 protected in 2026. They have they have to swap out their 2028. You basically be in 2030 before you're getting another like unprotected Knicks pick. So they have two first in 2026. They have a right swap with Brooklyn in 2028, and they have a 2030 first round pick of their own. There is a tsunami type offer. The Knicks could present the Bucks that you would be interested in as John Horst or.
Well, I think that there is even a tsunami type offer. That's what I'm saying. I don't think they have the I don't I don't think they I don't I don't I see this. How because it's the Knicks. Yeah, I mean, right.
We don't have ammunition to get you on us. No, we're done with the Raptors now after being done with a couple other teams. Yeah, right.
We were just kind of moving through the cycle. He wants to pair with KD in Toronto. Yeah, 37 year old Kevin Durant, obviously, who's been on a winning streak recently in his career. Durant has everyone's on the table, including Scotty Barnes. No, I think I think it's the Rockets, Spurs and Thunder that are really the only. Teams may be pulling against the Thunder.
It's my follow up. Well, we should be rooting for the Thunder because if they lose, they're going to go on to get Giannis. Well, that's all probably what? Yeah, there you go. You knew I don't want to trade Giannis.
What the fuck? Listen, if the Thunder had lost to the Nuggets, Giannis is a Thunder player next year. I mean, you could have just said, Here, give me everything.
And they would have said after losing in the second round after 68 win season. Sounds good. I don't want to trade him. I don't either.
You. I don't. Well, I'm saying in the preference of like, I don't want to say, Hey, we're trading you.
I do hope he asks out. I know that's a little bit of a nuanced take a bit. No, but I'm serious. Like, it's best for the Bucks to trade him. I don't think it is.
Anyway, I think you trade. I think they're just going to be mired in shit. Anyway, of course. They'll be mired in shit whenever this is over. Anyways, there's no perfect button they can push where it's like, Well, we had Giannis and now we'll now we'll be set up. That's not happening.
It's going to be shit. Either way, all this is under the assumption that Giannis says, I want to be traded. I want to be traded to New York. I want to be traded.
I want to be traded to liking tweets when people are like, he's not leaving. He's not. I don't think he is. I don't think he is, but I don't know. Do you guys know that I see him?
It's swimming. Who? Middleton. Giannis.
You see Giannis at swimming at swimming. Just one time. You saw him once like every other week. If only.
Get out. Yeah, we talked. Did he get in the pool with this kid?
He did last time. That's cool. Imagine being one of the other fat dads. Imagine being you. I don't want to do this, honey. I got to take my shirt off.
Oh, it's just other dads like you. The Greek freak gets in the pool. I wonder if he can swim. I wonder if he's a good swimmer. Probably. He got in and out of the pool.
Pretty good. He probably touched the bottom of the deep end on his tippy toes. This started, I think, on Tuesday. I saw Nick Wright talking about the Knicks after they fired Tibbs and whatever that was Monday or Tuesday. Nick Wright making the point on the show. He's like, this is the Knicks trying to lay the groundwork for Giannis because we've seen teams do this before, like make decisions, which love the take.
Great content, but so stupid. And I don't doubt that NBA teams do that, which is stupid. How many stories have we seen over the last five years where it's like the Heat are laying the groundwork for 2024 for Giannis? And it's 2021. It's like, well, no wonder you guys can't win shit.
You're focused on like what could happen, what might happen years down the road. Jason Kidd is currently the coach of the Mavs. He's currently employed elsewhere. And are we sure that, like, they know that Jason Kidd wasn't the coach with the Bucks when they won the title, right? Like they, they, Jason Kidd was the guy who got fired.
So the Bucks could hire the guy to win the title who then they fired two. Does Brunson want to play for Kidd? Didn't he already leave that situation? Oh, did leave that situation. I hadn't considered that. See, but that's what a nationally minded radio host brings to the table. But Brunson did want to stay in Dallas and Dallas was like four years for 50 for Brunson. Absolutely.
That's a true story. It's very stupid in hindsight. Dude, the Mavericks had Luca Brunson and Rick Carlisle at the same time and said, no, thank you to all of it. Well, they could get Anthony Davis at 32 injured.
Like, yeah, bad. Grant, there's a tsunami type offer that exists from the Knicks that would entice you as the Bucks or no. No, I think the only offers that would entice me are like the tippy top offer from Houston, the tippy top offer from San Antonio and maybe the Thunder, although still probably not like I'm still lower on the I'm not pleasuring myself to the idea of the Thunder dominating the League for the next 10 years. I'm not either. I don't like any team dominating the League. Okay, good. You're smart then. Yeah, I can't believe all the takes before game one even started. People are like, if you don't like the Thunder, you better get used to them. They're going to be here a lot more.
I still think it's by the way, I still think that's true, Grant. I'm not saying I do not. Why?
Because they have more picks to select children. Because the roster is incredible and they get every pick seemingly right. It's fine. The roster is fine. The roster is fine. Like, what would case and Wallace be on 26 other teams? Like, I don't know. I don't even I barely know who that is. And I've been watching the postseason.
So maybe this is just me being at it. I've seen so many teams that are so well positioned the last couple of years. That team will repeat. So Christian didn't even put up a fight in the second round this year.
Christian will be different. They have Mark Dagon, Dagonary, Diagonelli, Diagonelli. They have that Diagonelli? Yeah, that's a good reference. I like that. You're a casual, Grant. You're a casual.
That's oh, I thought the NBA. Fine. Sure.
Not Harry Potter, though. No, you don't wear the NBA thing. I just I don't know. So many people are just maybe I have vision and I can look at the ground before me and see look at all these rat traps just everywhere and I'm going to step around them. But then everyone else just can't help but stick their big fat toe right in there. Like, oh, this finals looks like it's over.
Snap. Oh, the Thunder better get used to them. The over under is set at four and a half in the next decade. How many would take step in there?
Like, I don't know why people don't like people keep saying these things and doing. Grant, you get a million dollars if you're right. Nothing if you're wrong. The result of this NBA Finals series is what? In how many games? Which team and how many games right now? Knowing that it's one zero Pacers million will win the finals.
Million bucks in line. You're going Indiana. We're watching the games, right?
Am I the only one with the towel? I watched it. Yeah, the Pacers could not have played worse. And Halliburton couldn't have played worse. They know it, too. Yeah. Who's they? You can't like I want to take Thunder and six for a million bucks, but you're going to tell me they're going to go on this one in 75 million run to lose in the finals.
Can it has to be paid off with a title? Or is one in 75 million the best it could be? And they're not going to do one in 120 million because eventually it's going to run out. What's going on here? Let's say let's calm down with the with the numbers. I just, you know, and you know, another thing that drives me up a wall that everyone does is game one of a series happens, and then everyone does their little reaction podcast. It goes, nice game, but the other team is going to win in five.
It's like, oh, really? Okay, sure. Yeah, sure.
And then and then it'll happen again in game two. And people are like, I still kind of like the other team, though. All right, sure. Let's just not even tell by the games, but you all have your opinion so clearly mapped out. Fine. Let's not forget a radio host, though, with the Bucks down to who put out chairs for his team to win despite being down to some might have said that was a an interesting take. I was better at watching playoffs than most people.
Who do you think's going to win the finals? And what would your answer be? He said under and six for a million bucks, right? Oh, oh, he's little. Oh, I see you coming.
What do you got? I'm still holding out hope that the Thunder win is five. That would be great. You know, the finals used to be two, three, two. It did.
Thank you. People forget. Imagine that in hockey with the travel. It's like a seven hour flight from Orlando to win. Could you imagine if the Pacers won game one and then had three, four and five at home?
The series would be over. Well, that's why that format was stupid is if you like, if you just win one of the first two, then you can close it out at home without ever going back. It is ridiculous. Three times in a row on the road is the one seed.
Mm hmm. It is ridiculous. By the way that they played this game on Thursday night and they will reconvene on Sunday night. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. I'm not enduring this from you.
We had to take comments all day on on on the 10 to two show. It's two days off. You act like we're going away for a month lately. It's 68 hours off. It's three days.
It's you got to round that up to three days off. Sure. Look, if you want to do one game in between the days where they don't have to travel, fine, they're not traveling. Okay. Okay. Okay. Then I'll meet you in the middle. I will meet you in the middle. If they're not traveling, you get one day.
If you're traveling, you get two. That's fine. Totally fine.
Again, but again, everyone dials it up and it's and it's frames frames is the worst at this. It's like, oh, when's the next game? Don't even care. I'm going to bitch about it.
You know what I mean? Like, I'm just going to pitch about how long we have to wait. I'm saying if he always know this is every year. It's the NBA. You know, you got to take a week off.
This is the NBA. I've been shocked that they've been like every other day up until this point. Everyone complains that it's every other day in the second round.
And then we get to the final. Why are you going to wait until Sunday? Watch. I would like a couple of days to breathe from that one. No, if I'm running the league, if I'm in charge of the league, I want to build off the momentum of last night more quickly than this game is going to be in Sunday night on prime time.
Way better. Hey, it's summer. Let's play on a Saturday night.
You could have done. But if you really are desperate for Sunday, then you do Friday Sunday. Yeah, but then you're playing a game on.
Then the series didn't start till Friday. And then we're like, God, how long is it going to be? I don't know.
We're circumcising the mosquito here. We could talk semantics about the scheduling, but I just don't get the. And people get so mad about it. I'm not so mad about it. I just I'm not saying you are, but I think if you listen to a lot of sports radio, like the middle aged man, like that's his take today is like, we're going to do 15 minutes on why they wait so long in between games.
Take the middle aged man. Take should be. Why? Why did ABC neuter their finals broadcast? They just why do they make it look annoying and Dundee and Mark Jackson? No, but they don't show the starting lineups. They don't show any of the anthem. They don't show.
There's no make it feel big. It is why the NFL just gets all this shit, right? All of it. They take two weeks between the Super Bowl. Does the NFL does the NFL get everything right?
Or did they just avoid getting everything wrong? No, the NFL gets everything right. Because there's only 18 games or 17 games or 16 games. We keep going up. They like, why can't baseball figure out like, because there's 100 fucking 62 games.
Too many. Yeah. I mean, for the to have the same effect as a country as a sport. Yeah.
Agree. That's why I'd like to see one season where baseball plays a 17 game schedule and see if we react the same way like it's football. Would love it. If there was just a Brewer game a week.
Do you understand how big those would be? Yeah, it's gonna be fucking huge. This was we're reliving the 2020 conversations because the 60 games and then every game is worth two and a half. They should have done it in 2020.
They just should have said, fuck it. Let's make an NFL schedule every Sunday. Oh, my God. Monday Night Baseball. Put the Pirates and Marlins on Thursday. If you had one game a week. The price of that number one starting pitcher who could go every would be enormous.
They'd be 85 million dollar men. Oh, for sure. I kind of want to trade Freddie Peralta are number one. I'm liking your like your zag here. This is good.
You're Freddie Peralta zag. Well, it's not that I want the and I want to make it very clear. I don't want the Brewers to sell, which is why this is such an F you take to run Freddie Peralta to ask out.
No. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, I want them to continue to try to win. My point is trading Freddie Peralta will not impede them.
I want them to do what they attempted to do with Josh Hader. Grant, you believed in this team all along. Mm hmm. Or I still don't believe in them. I know I'm playing.
I'm playing into your honor. I think I I did say that they would be back above 500 at some point. I did believe that they're not that bad.
They're just not that good. By the way, my favorite, my most memorable tweet of this week in an eventful week of tweets was Grant asking Brock what Grant Bills has said about the Brewers. Rock cooked me there. I am. I use Grock a lot. Do you really?
Yeah, well, I would do Google. If I see somebody like calling, it says like Braves. I'm just like, give me two talking points on the Braves. Really? Yeah, honestly, that's it's smart. I, you know, for as much as I hate Twitter, even though it's back on my phone, because I was going to the I was going to Safari and then putting in like Twitter and like I wasn't on Twitter any less. It just wasn't on my phone. Yeah, you fraud. That lasted all of a day. Seriously, it did.
Right. It lasted a day. I never got off of Twitter.
I just don't really use it. Although I think it fired off two tweets yesterday, Grant, the best Harry Potter book is Prisoner of Azkaban. It's been so long since I've read the books, but definitely my favorite movie was Prisoner of Azkaban. Yeah, I was going to ask you one because I'm a man of a certain age. That's when it's like Hermione.
Hello. Like, you know, as a when I was younger, obviously, she's a she's a child. You know, you were, like, six years younger than she is, aren't you old? She is, I would think that I would think they're like in the early mid thirties.
The trio is 35. Yeah, she's Yeah. So did you see Tom Felton is going to go be Draco on Broadway? Yeah. People were dragging him for that. Really?
I don't know. People are like, what a sad career. Oh, I think that's I think that's really cool. It means he still has love. That means he still has love for the character in the universe. How many child actors be like, I don't even want to be a child actor. How many child actors be like, I don't even want to think about. I know, like, Fred and George Weasley. Those two guys, like, they still are part of the universe. Like, they just were part of, like, the opening of Epic Universe, the new Harry Potter world there. They were part of that.
So was the guy who played Professor Flitwick. The little person. I'm editing all that out. Whatever the fuck you guys are talking about. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. They're talking about a theatrical universe. That's so that's taboo on this podcast.
That won't fly. The HPU, the Harry Potter. Anywho, what's up next, Paul? What's up next is I want to do our pre. Wait, do we have to talk about Rogers?
Is this a requirement? How about U.F.L. predictions?
We've got the Battle Hawks and the Defenders coming up this weekend. Bart, I've not heard you if you took an Aaron Rogers victory lap yet on the national show. Uh, all I said was. What I said about Rogers was. So it wasn't later in the summer like I thought it would be. But it did play out the way that. What I'm perplexed about is why this wasn't so obvious to everyone.
And I think it was, though, except for the. Narrative drivers. Shafti. Shafti and Ratini and Rappaport and these guys talking about it, and I mean, for Shafti to cry. The way that he did whining, telling Mark Tamara, what do you eat for breakfast, it's not that hard to figure it out. The morning of free agency, like I forgot about that. I don't I did not.
I bring up Schefter's name a lot. He's a turd. I'm I don't.
I don't like how we've. Allowed him to be. This. Yeah, we need to reject him as an industry, which I also say about another thing that.
An industry that you use in your day to day. Yeah, job. What I what I don't like about those narrative drivers is as soon as the signing happens, or as soon as we learn yesterday, then they all collectively go.
No surprise here, not a shot. It was like it was clear our nightmare is over. Finally, after much ado, he visited them and then he told them, yeah, I'll sign a little later.
And then he did. Yeah, you know who's the you know who's the best? I just I've just become an Albert Breer guy like I love it. He does a lot of East Coast stuff. I'll just listen to his hits on those shows. I think Breers I think Breers the best. It's a little long winded, like a little touch of will be, you know, he can wander a little bit, but I I really like Breer. Is he still at NFL.com?
I think Sports Illustrated Monday Morning Quarterback, OK, I've texted him to come on. He's even most people will be like, no, I cannot do that. And he's just never.
I'll wear him down one of these days, but I do like him. But the annoying thing, the the reporters, it's annoying when it's a whole saga. And then when it finally happens, they're all like, no surprise to anyone.
This was always going to happen. It's like, well, then why didn't you just say that? Like, why? I don't know that they do heard the information like they there. I mean, it's in the grand scheme. It's very, you know, who cares?
But they do like control how people think about stuff. It's Monday morning. Hey, everyone, Giannis is open to considering possibly changing. It's like that sets the tone and everything bounces off that. I was going to say, it's like it's not dissimilar what you're saying here of like for the first time in his career, Giannis is open to like, but you can't open you.
But first, if you can't say that after you have spent eight years saying that he's open to doing that and then saying for the first time, you can't have both. Rogers is, quote, open to playing in Nashville. That guy, by the way, that Jared Stillman cat did some some Vrabel interviews on East Coast Radio to kind of like give the guys the rundown. He's actually I kind of he's kind of funny. He's kind of a prick. Like, I enjoyed it.
But that I just love how that thing has become lore. He is, quote, open, quote, joining the titans open. Fun. I do want to do a quick I enjoyed last year when we did our like pulse checks throughout the year on the Packers wide receiver crew.
So I want to start that in June. By whatever metric you want to say makes a top receiver for a team, you want to do it receptions, yards, touchdowns, all three. The Packers best wide receiver in 2025 will be Jaden Reed or I'll go first. If you want to mix it up. I know it's not my show. Please are. Do you feel strongly now? I'm just going to say a very Bart comment about all this. Okay, well, then I'll go for it.
Well, and now I put you in a spot where if you go, no, I want to go, then you're an a hole. No, Paul, I think it'll be Dobbs. And it's almost when Dobbs because you mentioned, you know, frame it however you want, whether it's yards or receptions. I talked about this on my show the other day because I've been saying that Dobbs feels to me like the guy in the outside looking in the future. He seems like probably the guy who doesn't get extended.
But here's the thing. Let's say he's their number one wide receiver. No concussions. He doesn't skip any practices.
Great season. And let's say he has, like, 1000 yards and Jaden Reed has 900 and craft has seven. So he's number one, but it's it's close and it's number one. But what if Romeo Dobbs is always the guy on third down and fourth down?
It was always kind of red zone him and Jordan love create this connection that's clearly head and shoulders above everybody else. Well, then don't you have to resign that guy? Yes, regardless of, like, he's not a 2000, like 1500 yard guy. He's not leaps and bounds more productive than the other guys. But if him and Jordan love are able to create this thing where they can, like, you know, read each other's mind, you know, little signals and little things.
I think then you have to resign that guy. And that's how I will measure it this year. Not necessarily by stats, because I'm stupid with numbers anyways.
But like, does those two do love and Dobbs kind of create something as a duo that doesn't exist in any other player on the team? That's how I'm going to measure it. And I think, mm hmm. So I will say to read, but to Dobbs, I suppose. Bart, I'll set you up so you can do your Bart comment.
The Packers best wide receiver in 2025 will be Jayden Reed or. I just don't give a shit. I'm glad I went first.
I was going to say read. I might even say golden still again. Sure. Um, people are interested in it, though. People like to talk about who the number one receiver is. I'm surprised. I'm shocked, actually, that you as a fantasy guy in 10 leagues, whatever it is, that you're like, I don't really care. That does not take any of them. You don't take Packers wide receivers is what you're saying. Oh, by the way, if we have to pay in March for these dynasty leagues. I'm out.
You are such a whiner. I think fantasy football is closer to dead than it ever has been before. We, we, we, we can now just bet on any games that we want. And I remember when I was in middle school, we use fantasy football for a group chat.
We talked in there. Now we just have iMessage. We don't need it anymore. It's not, we don't need fantasy football anymore. I disagree.
Do you think the league was more harmful than helpful for fantasy football? I don't know. The TV show?
Yeah, I know what you meant. I don't know. My punishment last year, because I got last in our league. Oh, punishments are so stupid. I agree. I didn't do it.
And they're still giving me shit for it. I'm like, I don't know. I'm not 16. Like, I don't believe fantasy football should be a way to connect people. I think it should just be a thing you do. Okay. Like, let's get together, league.
How about you fuck off? Then I don't think that's the thing. If it's not helping me be closer with friends, I don't think I need it.
I don't like to set my lineups. It's fun. And this comes from someone who didn't do it for, like, 15 years. And I'm so back. Interesting.
I was out for a long time. Should we do a Winklerverse league? That's another thing that I hate.
Bracket pools, too. Like, no, I'm just gonna, like, watch the games. Or maybe I won't. If I have something going on, then I just won't. And I don't. Oh, my bracket. I don't.
I fill those out, and then I forget who I pick. I just. I'm an MLB survivor, and I'm all... The Mariners fucked me this week, and I'm all, like, heartbroken. Is that when you do baseball?
For baseball survivors, like, based on a whole series? You got to win half the week. Half the week. So the Mariners could still sweep the Angels, and I'm safe. But if it's a six game week, how does that... I was going to take the Rockies this week.
I had a feeling. Then they swept the Marlins. If a team has a six game week and they go three and three, what happens? You get a pass. Okay. So I never take teams that play every day because then you have to win an extra game.
Yeah, it's true. See, that's already more thought than I'm willing to put into. It's just so much work.
I tried to do NBA Dynasty League. I just, by the second week of the season, I'm like, Jesus Christ. Grant, do you think of yourself as lazy?
I'm genuinely asking because this take to me doesn't line up with who I know you as. He likes to watch the games, Paul. Yeah, that's the thing. If it's a game that I'm interested in, I'm going to watch. And if I'm not interested, I just... Making fantasy or betting things around it is not going to get me to watch.
I'm the same way. I'm not outside of fantasy. Grant's not chasing waterfalls. He's just sticking to the rivers and the lakes that he's used to. And that's literal for him.
Yeah, that's why I said it. I do like rivers and lakes. I listened to Bart's show the other night walking along the river. I think I figured it out with your show, Bart, because I don't... Paul listens religiously. I listen here and there, but I tell you what, your show hits so hard when I listen live. It's got the rhythm and the pacing for when it's on, because that's when you guys are doing it.
So when I'm existing in that space, it just... Oh, it's great. I was listening to you and Carlos the other night. But then if I listen to it first thing in the morning, it's like... You're the same way with TV, though, right? You need to see it live. And I don't care either for that.
Maybe. That's because I'm an old fashioned radio guy. I'm not the podcast guy.
Why do you know this is a podcast? I need to see sports live, because once it's passed, I don't need to go back and see it. I've missed it. It happened. I crashed last night in the third quarter and then got up and watched it. But at that point, see, you're not watching sports. You're watching film. I don't watch film. I watch games. It's not live.
Yeah, you're right. You're watching film. You're watching your grinding tape. As soon as you said that, I was like, that's a great take. Which it's great for you because you want to see the... I don't care.
I want to watch it live and experience it and then see what everyone's saying when they react. But if I miss it, I'm like, I'll get the next one. I missed the boat. But doesn't that part of that, like, every time you say, like, oh, I saw online that so and so is like, you're always relaying messages from dumb people. Everyone is dumb, except for us three. That's yeah. And people that listen to the show. They're all really good. Smart and good looking. All right.
I got to check on my kid. I'm with Dobbs, though, and if he does it in a certain way, I think he actually we might swing around the other way. I'm like, no, you can't let Dobbs go. Him and Jordan Love have something. There's still a number, though, when you were saying that, Grant, there was still a number where I'm like, if Dobbs has like this unbelievable season and then he's like this next off scene, he's like, I want 22 mill a year.
I'm like, oh, God, you know, I know I haven't seen that yet. I haven't seen it for a wide receiver. I'm not saying it's like expensive, but I just don't see him yet as I see him as like, you know what? If you have even a good season, I'm happy to give you 13 to 15. But even if he has a great season, I don't know if he has like that next level type of maybe he does.
Maybe we'll find out. I think he's really, really solid wide receiver, though. I agree. I think we'll have to see it. And he's bulked up.
This is the best shape of his life. I don't know if you've seen the pictures from training camp or OTAs. I suppose next week is mandatory minicamp. Yeah. In any event, goodbye, wrap us up.
Could you put a bow on this thing as you are the host? Yeah, I'm going to talk to you guys. You two will reconvene with the catchphrase. Do I have a catchphrase? Thanks for stopping. Oh, yeah. Thanks for stopping into the Winklerverse. There you go.
