Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Bart Winkler. Welcome into the Winklerverse alongside Grant Bills and Paul Emig.
It is our mhm mhm mhm weekly portion of the show, although this week it might be the only Into the Winklerverse. I've been a busy man. I might still get a Pics with Horvat, but I also am doing something stupid. I am always like, why am I so far behind on everything? Why don't I have any time?
Why do I never get to sleep? And then my kids going on a field trip on Friday morning and I'm like, welcome chaperone. Where are they going? Well, they're going to some preserve something naturey. I don't know. That sounds lovely. And with the foliage right now, don't doubt some preserve.
That sounds like a blast. No, no, no, no, no, I don't. I don't know exactly.
I have a cheat. I don't know exactly where they're going. Oh, nor would you care to share? Well, yeah, I honestly don't know where they're going. But if I did, the last thing that I need is the hordes of Winklerverse fans to show up to get a glimpse of me on take. Jake and Q are going to be there on a hike with their binoculars on bird. Why on my on my son's field trip? I did appreciate this.
I saved this from teacher Tom. Did you see Bart? I know you're you've banned Twitter, but maybe you didn't see it. I did tweet this week. I had one tweet this week. Bart teacher Tom tweets, Bart attempting to get a playdate for his son with the honest as kids equals if I tried to arrange a playdate between my kids and Bart's kid.
That's insane. But yeah, I see honest as kids once a week. It's just and kids. They look just like them. And yours you, and mind me.
That tends to happen people like they're strange. I have not spoken yet about the Packer win. And I would like to say that I'm glad they won. They beat that Texans 24 22. I am loving the like, I saw the cows keys tweet about what loves on pace for like 49 and 24 touchdowns versus interceptions. And people are getting on him for throwing interceptions. Patrick Mahomes is six touchdowns, eight interceptions. And I think that as Packer fans we've been trained to think interceptions are like they're bad. They're inherently a negative play.
Um, I and T's are bad. Okay. Okay. But also, if you're just going to like if you course correct one way, how many times are we mad about Aaron Rodgers that he would only really open it up when he knew if he threw an interception would get called back. So I like that Jordan look, the guy's still a young kid.
Okay. He still wants to live on the edge a little bit 25 years old. Let him be let him grow. But let him make his own mistakes.
We don't have to we don't have to we don't have to be that forum. So great when I like that McManus jumped and did a Lambo leap. I don't think I've ever seen a kicker do that.
I don't know what took them so long to have a game winning field goal and then do a Lambo leap. I like that. Mm hmm.
And yeah, I guess those are my thoughts. My first topic was you were happy about the Packers victory. Oh, yeah, I was Paul or very happy.
So you will skip that one then. I had a great day Sunday, I would just like to say I opened up that garage. I threw a TV in there. And I just sat out there all day. And it was like, the best mood I've been in in a long time. And my wife goes, Were you drunk? And I go, I had a drink or two, but I was just in a good mood.
She goes, wow. That's what I guess I haven't seen you in a good mood in a long time. I was like, I just being in the garage and having the door open. God, it was great.
Being outside without being outside. Wasn't I? Why weren't you several drinks deep, like several, several?
Oh, I paste it. Because you Okay, not several. I had many a handful of Baker's dozen. A drinker's dozen. No drinker's dozen.
That's when you lose count after seven. Yeah. All right, so I'm happy the Packers won. Okay.
And Grant, wait, let's go to grant real quick Packers. You're happy with a victory. Mm hmm. Thank you. Mm hmm. I said, All right.
Now Bart, you can go. Yeah, yeah. Sanguine. Sanguine.
Sanguine. I'm happy the Bucks won. Was that a question? It was you're happy the Bucks won. But that's a little more on the line.
That's a little more on the line. Because had the Sixers won, then we could have really like, made a case that the regular season is as trash as people say. So here's my real topic was just so you know, the Bucks won their opening night game, which means the Bucks are they are tracking toward an NBA championship. Mm hmm. Or and that was a real question.
I was gonna obviously ask it facetiously to some degree. But it didn't stop some of the clips that I saw this morning of ESPN favorite talking heads, you know, making big to do's over opening night victories, including the Bucks, which had they lost, they would have had Shams on again to do his new gig, which is, you know, get Yanis out of Milwaukee. But instead, the Bucks won. And so it was this I think the quote was really close to paraphrasing of like, now this this is a team now that is poised to win the championship.
And I'm like, and this is why we got rid of Zach Lowe for this shit. Come on. So I would like to take your question and raise it with a with a conversation fold. Um, why? Why is the regular season as bad as it is? All right.
It's a great topic. Because the players don't care about it. Okay. Players don't care. Teams don't care. There's not incentive to care. It's too long.
It doesn't matter enough. But I also think incentive. I also think that they don't see the incentive. I mean, like, they're Yeah, but I agree with your sentiment grant. What you were saying is, day one before the game started, we're talking about trading Yanis again. And then day two, after they win, we're talking about bucks being national contenders. We know the regular season is an 82 game season that these teams treat with almost disdain. But yet, other than the NFL, the thing that gets covered the most on the day to day is the NBA. And we react to games singular games, the nationally televised games between big teams.
Yep. Like they are weighted in an NFL schedule. That's why I always say we just got to win the games that people are watching. Because if you lose to Charlotte on a Saturday night, a random, it's not a random Saturday or random Tuesday in January.
It's not a big deal. But if you lose to the Celtics on TNT, that's the game that everybody who is on TV and radio the next day, that's the game they watched. So you have to win those games if you want the narratives to be good when at the end of the postseason, all of these narratives with these injuries, with this rest, what does it leave you? It leaves you all the bucks 149 games in the next 148. Right.
Who cares? And then somebody is hurting the playoffs in Indiana makes the conference finals or the Hawks three years ago. Yeah. It's all it's it gets like at least with baseball.
I think we understand. You know, it's a long season. Some losses are lost.
This sucks. But at least we don't we don't say on a random Tuesday in July. Oh, my God, the Brewers lost five to the White Sox seasons over. We don't do that. It's more trends that build 20 games in a row.
You lose and then you're finally like, all right, this team, it sucks. But with the NBA, we still treat it. We still cover it.
We the collective media still cover in an NFL style format. I mean, the absolute exclamation point is that in the opening week of the season, the 76ers are being investigated for player management, for rest, for injury management, for rest. That that that's a joke league.
Yeah, that that is. So like one of my topics for you guys not knowing how I was acting was the NBA is cooked or and I love the NBA. I love professional basketball. But there are some really, really big issues with the way the league is structured right now, with the way that the players are to sort of reuse the word grant, like incentivized or lack thereof, or at least in terms of what they seem to feel is or is not incentive. And Joel Embiid gets paid $800,000 a game.
Yes, for real, whether he plays or not. So if he can get the team doctors to sign off on a plan that says, You know what, it's better for my knee if I never ever play back to backs again, and I'm going to sit out the first week, you have a league problem. Like this is a major the networks are paying too much money for the rights to these things to have to, you know, for a week, they've been advertising Buck Sixers, at least the I've seen it for the past week, probably longer than that, to some degree, to have one of considered one of the top three players in the league, Embiid sit it out for a while the Sixers are under investigation for said decision.
It's a terrible, terrible optics look. Well, there's no consequences. Well, and Embiid should be embarrassed and the fact that he's not and that's that's that's part of the problem. Your question is, is the league cooked?
Um, the dollars and cents would tell us no. Yeah, because they just got over 75 billion for this new TV. Player contracts are going up Corey kispert. Corey kispert just got four years $54 million.
Jalen Suggs who's fine. Nice young player one fifth mean Johnny Davis cooked his ass in Mitchell Hall a couple years ago but whatever. Five years 150 million Aaron Jones, by the way, is making $7 million this year for one season.
Your boy your boy quickly in Toronto is at 180 180 million. So the dollars and cents would tell us that right this league is not cooked. I think, from a fan perspective, if you want to watch the game on television and see something meaningful, it's cooked or if you want to buy a ticket and go to a game.
It's cooked because if you're a Sixers fan, Paul, hey, I want to see Paul George and Joel Embiid and I want to guarantee that I see them healthy on the court. You would get a ticket for opening night like that ticket you'd buy. Yes. And these tickets are freaking expensive. I keep bringing this up. But like, I should be able to get a nosebleed seat at Pfizer on a Saturday night for less than 80 90 bucks.
Yes. And at least in my experience, that's been that's been difficult. Maybe not every game. Maybe not every weekend, but oh, and the star players should play in said game. And that's not a guarantee. Well, that's the thing.
If you told me my nosebleed ticket was $80 and 10 bucks in fees, but everyone was going to play and they were nothing. And they're going to try. I've been to Bucks games where it's like eight minutes left in the second quarter. And it's okay. So we're just it's done. It's a 28 point game. And it's clear that the Bucks have given up the Pistons game that we've referenced, in fact, was that exact game grant last last year. Yeah, we were both there. Yeah, which was fine.
Our team was in the lead. But you know, my buddy who drove down from the Twin Cities never been to Pfizer. He's like, Why did we have to pay so much for these tickets? I am. I don't know, man. Well, there is a solution. Well, I was gonna go ahead.
I have one to go ahead. You do yours. There's there's only one solution. Making players play a certain amount is not it in season tournaments, not it grant.
What is the solution? No, go ahead. I don't want to you you can. No, I think we think we think I think grant thinks that you're winding up for a joke or a bit or something here. No, there's a deal.
Yeah, I thought it was a bit. Oh, no, no, no, there's a there's a solution grants like get get to your what's the joke? Get to the punch line? No, it's less games. Oh, the solution is less games. So the unrealistic solution, the never gonna have a solution or less playoff spots, something has to shrink.
Neither will. Well, then it's gonna be bad that the regular season starts. The regular season is back. And they got themselves in a window where there's no baseball games.
And yeah, baseball, okay, whatever. But it's the playoffs. And it's been a captivating playoffs. And now we've got this epic World Series.
And they've got the whole midweek to themselves. And nobody's like, Oh, fuck. Yes. Fuck. Yes.
The NBA is back round balls back. Everyone's like, Ah, Jesus Christ, this shit again. Yeah, yeah.
Yes. But and I'll say this, I I don't say this lightly. And if this wasn't opening night, I wouldn't have done it. I hate watched the first half of Celtics next. I did not enjoy the basketball I watched for chucking up threes and the Celtics in particular. And this was among my list of possibility Lakers like five for 30 on threes two in that game. But the issue isn't like making them or missing them like I so again, I was gonna bring this up like it's so Celtics games are a chore to watch or and you know, I look back at some of the stats.
Of course they led and they they cover this on the broadcast the other night. The Celtics led the league in every three point category makes attempts corner off the dribble everything. And it's not like when the Warriors first kind of changed the league eight years ago or whenever that was. I was like the old guy, at least in terms of my thought process was like, this is that's not is this fun to watch?
Like the splash brothers became a thing and it became a gimmick like, you know, so you all it's fun. But like, long term, you just watch the Celtics take step back threes and I don't want to watch that. So I didn't watch the second half and obviously the score wasn't close so it didn't really matter. And I don't know it just doesn't seem NBA playoffs. I think I think you guys were both out on NBA playoffs this past year, right? Like you were not enjoying that I loved it.
So here's the thing, though. The one thing about the Celtics opening night that I liked watching is it is cool to watch a team get a banner and get a ring because it's on that night. And I know you guys are gonna roll your eyes, but it's on that night where the fan base and the league gets to relive some of the greatest moments from the previous run to the NBA finals. And you know, who doesn't remember where they were when Boston beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and Jason Tatum out dueled Evan Mobley or that classic first round series where they out dueled the Heat, who were led in scoring by Bam Adebayo, who had 23 points on 26 shots and are okay, you might be rolling your eyes. But again, the first second round isn't always great. The conference finals, a classic for nothing sweep over an Indiana Pacers team at all in the Pacers. But what if I also told you they didn't have Tyrese Halliburton like that was cool.
And you know, we're, we're a microwave tick tock fast food society. I want it now. Why is the game in front of me? Not good, but opening night and ring night to see them get banner number 18 is special because all 18 of those are super meaningful. And some of the finest moments of the NBA playoffs last year, which I mean, what a tremendous run and to get to relive that on opening night on TNT was, was special.
So I don't want to be all cynical. There was plenty good about the Celtics game the other night. Well, I think, I think NBA pageantry is big. Like it's a big production, but like, and it is, but then the ball is tipped off.
Like then, then I'm saying, right. I mean, this is not intended as a, you know, a wrestling centric thing, but like WWE is the pageantry and then it's like, well then do you care what happens when the bell rings? Is the, are you watching for the wrestling or are you watching for the spectacle?
And there's not a right or wrong answer. It's a subjective thing, but like, no, I think Bart and I watched wrestling for very different reasons actually. Or we enjoy very different pieces of it.
Okay. So like, well, it didn't used to be that way until you got all weird about it. No, I always wanted the wrestling and you were always like, Oh, I usually skip that part. Well, I like the stories.
Yeah. I mean, I like when the story is told through the wrestling, you just like wrestling without a story. You just want it to be technically sound. You don't care if two people have met for the first time, as long as they execute the back flip the right way, you're like, Oh, put a tube in me. False false statements are being provided.
I will fact check you on that. But anyway, I think the, it did remind me of the pageantry of like WrestleMania where whether you, you know, it's just, it's big, it's a spectacle, but then the, when the bell rings, it's like, I don't know, like I could skip this part and that sucks. Like that's not what I want basketball to be. And it's what, it's what regular season basketball is for the most part. It bums me out.
Like I'm like, I want to have takes. I want a guy, Adam silver to take some meetings with me so we can brainstorm things last year, like with the bucks, we were saying, okay, this is a good time. It's 82 games to get Damon, uh, Yanis on the same page. And then Yanis got hurt and then Dame got hurt. And then, I mean, just, it just didn't matter then, right?
With all three different coaches, they did. So one thing that I don't like is when I say something needs to change and then I open up the phone lines and it becomes a, who can come up with the most ridiculous, uh, take like, Oh, think the all-star game, they should play it under water. And I like, what are we doing? Once you get to that point, is there a way to start the playoffs right now? Is there a way to make like a round Robin kind of thing? Or I would start, I would, I would like, it would be the IST, the in-season tournament. I would, it's like this idea I came up with recently. You might hang a banner for it. You might not, you would do it like in November, December, you do the championship in Vegas. What do you think about it?
What have you just broke? What have you had two seasons in one season? Paul, I liked that idea, but if we're going to do it, it should, for some reason, start like two weeks after the season begins before anyone's paying attention. I like it. You might be tempted to stick that in season tournament in like January or February. Well, there's not a lot going on in the sports calendar and people have kind of warmed up and gotten to know their team. I say, just do it right away before anyone's actually, well, while everyone ideally is still focused on football. I think you should do that.
I think it's going to be timed correctly. I would add to that. I think the championship game of this in-season tournament idea, I don't think the stats should count for regular season or for post-season. They're just, you know, right. Why count the stats for that game?
But only if the courts are horrendous. The other thing with NBA is Adam Silver, the spirit on that, like, like, I like that you're trying to make the players and the fans like, Oh, this one matters more than the last one. I like the spirit, but yeah, with NBA as a whole, we don't like more than any sport. We just want to see guys move.
We don't, we want to see, Oh my God, Randall for Carol Anthony towns. He's wearing new, he's wearing new laundry, but then, but then we don't give a fuck what they do. But then the, and then the, then the ball is, I was going to say it is, it is lame. It is lame. Everyone's like, Oh, and I, I don't mean to sorry Bart, but like everyone's so fucking Jack that the NBA is back on NBC. It's like, Oh yeah, that song that John Tash wrote once upon a time.
And I didn't know until recently that that was the same John Tash who did like life advice on the radio or whatever. Like, Oh yeah, back on NBC. Is anyone actually going to watch it though? Like who's actually going to turn their TV on and, and watch the games. Here's my other analogy for it is some people watch TV as a background to the other thing they're doing. I think the NBA is a really, really good thing to have on in the background TV type of option. Yeah. Like how I watched NASCAR, maybe NASCAR is on my TV.
I don't ever fucking look at it. I just liked that. It's on golf. And I think that conserved like, and this is why I think shows like big bang theory. One of our tropes in this show. I watched the spinoff the other night. There's a lot of shows. No, George and Mandy have a spinoff now. Oh, is that Chuck Lorre? Well, yeah, it's all the same.
Is it funny? Um, Emily Osment was very formative to my childhood. She was in Hannah Montana. Oh, I mean, she's a grownup now informative to my grownup years. Um, I think there's, there's been a lot of show that had been successful over the years because people have them on and at the show and we don't have to name the show, but like there's plenty of like where you don't have to watch it intently and you can walk away having mostly caught the plot and the premise and the moving pieces. And then the next episode starts and the things that happened in the previous episode, you, even if you only caught 20% of it, you can watch the next episode and not feel behind. That's the NBA regular season. That's why people like suits because it's like, I can't do another year of succession and this bill with this meeting.
And if I miss this, I'm F like, that's why suits was big. Yeah. Maybe that's the NBA.
I don't know. But then like, why am I turning it on at all? Like what am I, I could just check the score on my phone. If that's all I'm going to do is look up and check the score.
Like I, I think what I'm going to do, because I really, really, really, really, really, really, really want to like the NBA as I always have. It's always been my favorite league. It's not right now. It's definitely, definitely not right now.
The NFL is by a lot. I think I'm going to do the thing that I argued about with a guy named Chuck Friedman 12 years ago where he only watched the fourth quarter and he's like, trust me, you'll like basketball more if the NBA more, if you just happened, if you just watched Chuck, no, it's about, it's about the, the full four core. If you don't know what happened in the first six minutes, it doesn't, you need to, that needs to inform the final six minutes.
Like, yeah, it's, it's a continuous, not like you can just open it up to the final chapter. I'd like to apologize to 2012 Chuck Freeman, because at least I'm going to try that. I think the world should apologize to 2012 Chuck Freeman across a great many topics and fronts, but I am going to try, that's going to be what I do and to just to really spell out how obsessive and much I do like the ins and outs of the NBA. I do remember the salary cap thing we did one time for your show with Horvat and Heffelfinger and a bunch of other guys.
Yeah. Plucker. I still do that every year with a group of friends for no purpose whatsoever. Other than it's fun to like pour over the salary cap sheet, draft your favorite eight person team. You have $110 million. What's the best team you can build.
Let's draft. And there's no winner. It's okay for men to have hobbies, Paul. That's what I'm saying. But I mean, that's, that's that a person who doesn't like the NBA would never participate in such a ridiculous exercise.
So I need to, I need to find what works for me. And right now watching four quarters of Celtics. You watched Clippers sons at all. I watched, no, I was, so I watched dynamite and then I watched the bucks. And then I was, are you going to watch Clippers sons or can I tell you about it? I saw the, like, I saw the end, the final, final like highlights with Steve Ballmer's crazy antics and yeah.
Cause the ending, I was like captivated by the ending. Hardin had a shot. He missed it.
And then they went to overtime and then he inbound and they inbounded it to him and he, he fumbled the pass and, but it was like an interesting, compelling little situation of events. And then I also realized that that didn't matter. That's right.
But well, it mattered because it was the South Clippers home opener, but the Clippers being on one and the sun's being one and Oh, it does not matter. And I would say it doesn't even need to matter as long as it's like entertaining. I think that's an okay thing to say. Yeah.
Okay. That's fair. It'd be better if it mattered. It would be better if it mattered, but I would say like, did the person who committed two hours and 50 minutes to that game last night have more or less fun than the person who committed the final 12 minutes to the game last night? Who had more fun?
Who would got more out of the experience? Probably the person who turned on the, I think with that specific game because it was like the first game of the arena and there seemed to be some more stakes and all of a sudden you're rooting for Steve Ballmer to be happy. Then they showed him a million times. Isn't that wild? We're like, Oh, I feel bad for Arthur blank. Oh, poor guy.
Same with Steve Ballmer. All right. I'm going to pivot from the NBA and tell you about the CBD.
And I'm talking happy place hemp. This is what I thought was the solution to fixing the NBA. By the way, I thought you were going, Oh, you thought I was God damn it. The Dan Cheney YouTube stream. There's Paul looking at his phone.
There's grant. What shirt you got on? Me? Yeah, just a hoodie. It's a Halloween looking hoodie.
Well, orange and black. Who's is that? Someone's business. It's somebody's bits. Just a brand, a clothing brand.
I thought maybe you were wearing different clothes on your stream. Maybe you should know. Although that would be cool. That'd be a cool sponsorship.
You should do that. I'm brought to you by the university of Tennessee. I would like to tell you about happy place hemp. There's a promo code Bart it's B a R T. That's my name. And when you go to happy place, hemp.com, H a P P Y P L A C E H E M P.com. You can enter the promo code Bart.
When you check out and you'll get 25% off your entire order. We're talking gummies that you don't have to drive for to get, we're talking gummies that help you go to sleep. Those have been so crucial for me because when I have to get up in the morning, I can't go to sleep because I'm so worried about having to get up in the morning. So I take the gummy and it helps me fall asleep. And then I get the sleep that I need. And then I wake up for field trips that I self volunteered for, for some reason, I'm sure I'll have a wonderful experience and what a great moment I'll have with my son. But why am I getting up? I don't know, but I need to fall asleep.
So I get those gummies, check out everything they've got to offer, including the seltzers, which have they have expanded into more flavors with different amounts of THC in there. You can check it all out. Happyplacehamp.com. The promo code is BART. We are now going to have Paul Emig ask another question and then Grant and I will talk about the answer along with Paul.
So if we could do that now, Paul, wherever you are. Hi. Is that two mackie impressions today? Oh, that one was unintentional. Oh, drugs are bad. Okay, yeah, that was it.
That one first time I've ever saw. All right. This one under any other circumstance would have led, but we got into an organic NBA conversation.
I don't know if you hit on this nationally, but I feel like it's a much more important one locally. Robert Sala to the Packers is a good thing. Mm hmm.
Or Bart Winkler. Well, I do believe that Robert Sala has a good understanding of football. Can I pause you real quick part? Yeah.
Can you do earmuffs? Grant, what do you think? I'm really not listening. Grant, what's he going to say? He's ripped on Robert Sala forever. So I feel like I, I don't know.
It's got a good understanding of football. I don't know. What do you think he's going to say? I think he's going to be grudgingly say, Mm hmm. It is a good thing, but I think he's going to hate that he says it.
He looks like he should be put in a padded room. All right. Yeah, I don't know.
I'm going to go backpedaling over his solid takes over the last couple of years. That's what I'm saying. All right. All right, Bart. Let's see. All right. So what is it? Solid to the Packers is a good thing. Mm hmm.
Or we have our guesses. I think it is a good thing, but I hate that I'm saying that. Nailed it. I did not hear the beginning, but I heard that part. Okay.
I was, I was checked out for a little bit and then I thought, these guys know what I'm going to say. I don't think he's a good head coach. He's a good football mind.
Okay, fine. He's the floor's best buddy. I'm still not sure that I like him wearing Packer clothes yet.
I think that's something you have to earn. You can't just be best friends with a guy before you wear the G, but I also don't care. Honestly. I don't give a fuck. I don't care into Robert. Robert Salas on Robert's out.
Matt, the floor's buddy got fired and he wants him to help out. Okay. Listen to hold on though. I appreciate like that. You're not going to just be intentionally fiery about any old topic. I like that.
I like that you don't give fake happiness or fake rage. The number one head coach who if he had still been a head coach a week later would have been the number one ranked head coach who you would not let babysit your kid. He was fired before he had a chance to make that list is now on the staff wearing the G of your favorite football team of who you are in owner. And you have nothing to say about who you are. In owner.
And you have nothing to say. He's not a head coach. I know he's not. So then my gripes and being the head coach. So he's a good coach. He's a bad head coach. He's a valuable contributor to have. As long as he's not the head coach. Yeah, it's like some people you think are great salesman, but you don't want him running the sales office. Okay, so that's Sala Michael Scott. Yeah, somehow he did end up running not just the sales office, but the entire office. But I guess that's, and I do the thing they did the best on that show was show him being good at sales. Yes, that was very, very important.
Um, I Yeah, I don't I don't I mean, we know they're buddies. I do want to raise the issue of nepotism. That it's fine when a coach gets fired. And then he just pops up on a sideline two weeks later and no one gives a shit. nepotism means friendships too. It's not just when you force feed your son into the NBA and let him miss a three.
We'll argue about that a little bit. Okay. nepotism.
What would it be? It's not what you know, it's who you know. You're taught that from when you're six, and then people get jobs because they know someone they're like, nepotism. Well, get better at knowing people.
As a people know where I agree. How did I get my job? gal at your job? I got I got I got into SSP because Freeman worked somewhere where I worked and then they needed somebody and then I, you know, strike up a friendship with gal and he's like, Oh, you should host my show and I do and then I host other shows and then a job opens and then then I mean, there you go.
I'm not I'm not just gonna sit here in my basement and get a job because someone's scrolling along and being like, don't like what this fucking asshole's saying. But you got to be you got to be talented. You got to be good, right? You also got to make connections. Sure, but you had an opportunity through the connection and then you did well with the opportunity because of talent. Yes, plenty of people have gotten opportunity and then not done anything with it because they have no talent. I'm not going to name names. I am thinking of a very specific guy.
I don't think that I've even ever brought up his name. What industry? Sports radio? Yes. Okay. Accounting.
Bart and I don't have two brain cells collectively to put together to know anything about anything else. Yeah. Yeah. I think some of the promotions going out of Hewlett Packard are just really doing with their corporate structure.
Although I would honestly pay money to subscribe to a podcast where you two guys did talk about that. Hewlett Packard? Specifically. Is Fiorina still there? Is that a real question? Yes. You're supposed to know these things.
You work in the real world. Who was the name? Carly, the woman who ran for president not that long ago. I don't know. Sorry.
All right. So Bart said his piece. I think it's cool that he's there. I would like to think... I said this in my show the other night.
I would like to think it went something like this. Hey, Robert, Green Bay is really cool this time of year. You want to come? We'll give you the tour, bring a family. You go to Door County, enjoy some time with your family, and then come down, take a peek at our offense.
I don't know. Just be around football. It's a very reasonable thing. I don't think Matt Lafleur had to call him and beg. It's a natural circumstance, I think, for two very good friends who are football coaches.
I'll take this topic, Paul, if I may, and meander it over here. I think at some point this week, because Sal is staying with Lafleur, right? I think at some point this week, those two, they probably weren't up drinking until the wee hours, but they had a beer or a brandy, not a scotch. It's pretentious as hell, but they had a drink. Probably just talked in the basement.
I would pay so much money. I'd pay all my money, probably, to just listen to the stories that they had about Aaron Rodgers. Look, I don't think they sat. I don't think they sat in the basement like, the bad man, what did he do to you?
I bet there were some great stories that you're probably never going to hear. You know what I mean? I just think that- Do you think when they got together, they knew they both wanted to address their relationship with Rodgers, but they also didn't want to be the first one to start to bring it up? Then once it got brought up in a weird way, like, hey, we got beer, we don't got scotch, then that was the ticket into like, okay, all right, let me tell you about this asshole. You think it was like that?
It has four hours of- I think I know what you guys think the answer is, and none of us know what the answer is for sure. Do you think LaFleur and Salah have legit shit-talked Rodgers to each other? Like, legit shit-talked him, like what you're referring to? I don't know if up to this point- Something like that really happened.
I don't know if up to this point, because I think they would maybe respect each other to let them fight their own battles, but certainly within the last week. So here, I brought it over here. Do you mind if I now take it right over here? This was actually brought up by another host earlier today. I thought it was an excellent point. When this trade went down, do you think Matt LaFleur and Robert Salah had a phone call where LaFleur was like, hey, here are some do's and don'ts?
Like, really? I don't think that happened. I don't think that happened. I don't think the sharing of information between active NFL head coaches, like, when Eber Flus and LaFleur sat courtside for that game last year in Milwaukee- It's Frank Council's fault, by the way. I blame him for that happening. Anybody can just go anywhere and attend a game like they're a member of the fan base, but whatever. I would be shocked if in any of the conversations LaFleur and Eber Flus had that it was like- Yeah, but they're rivals.
And not best friends, long-time friends. You're telling me, Paul- Who was that? Was it Baker Mayfield and who? Is it Mark Andrews? Who was the best friends, and then they don't talk during the season?
Who was that? We just heard this story, this Baker Mayfield and someone, right? But like these two best friends, I want to say it was Baker and someone, but Mark Andrews came to mind. But that they don't talk during football season because it would be too competitive or testy or whatever it would be. So I don't know.
Best friends, long-time friends. Robert Salah is, for all intents and purposes, coaching for his job. And we learned that to be true.
Matt LaFleur knows this. I'm not saying he gave him the keys to the car, but do you think he at least showed him how to, I don't know, pop the hood? He had to.
So here would be my suspicion. It would have to be because Salah asked. Sure. Do you think Salah, a defensive coach, would call best friend of whom he just had the quarterback traded from that team and say, Matt, buddy, pal, what are the do's and don'ts of talking with, working with, communicating with Aaron Rodgers? So part A, do you think Salah, little that we know about him as a person, would do that?
And then part B, do you think LaFleur would say, here you go? Do you have an hour? Let's talk about it.
I would love to help. You're taking it to the, he's sending him a packet or showing him a PowerPoint. I'm just saying small talk. And something that I thought of when you were talking, Nathaniel Hackett was there too. So Salah probably used Hackett as a resource because what else is he fucking good for, respectfully? And he's proven to not be good for much.
I think he was good in green Bay in his role. I'm not trying to disrespect the guy. Let's hack it. You should absolutely discredit him any chance you have, but okay. I mean, you're nicer than I, but okay.
I don't know. I just, I, I, I feel like when you're best friends, they're not right. I feel like Salah would have acted differently. I feel like Salah wouldn't have been so giddy to have Aaron Rodgers if he knew what LaFleur knew. See, but that means Bart that you are definitely assuming that LaFleur's opinion of Rodgers, true honest to God opinion of Rodgers is pretty quite significantly negative. I, I think, I think that it is. I'm not saying you're wrong.
I will never know, but that is an interesting question. Like what does Matt LaFleur say in private company about it? Well, I think LaFleur wants, I think he's a, you can't coach when you have Rodgers, you have to manage. Yeah. We, we totally agree. Yeah. All right. Uh, you got one more for the boys.
Anything else on that though? No. I don't need to go over Rodgers anymore. I really don't. It doesn't, it doesn't like it.
I don't know. It seems like right now Packers fans, this, this is a nice season. There's a lot of discovery, but last week we all got mad about the jerseys. And then this week it's all like Salah. It just seems like there's a lot of like, let's just talk about something that doesn't really matter.
And then we kick a game-winning field goal. So the only thing I'll add is the silly thing I saw being debated, Robert Salah was hired. Robert Salah was not hired while he's wearing the G. That doesn't mean he was hired.
Did I just happen to see a small, small, small sliver of, or is this like a thing happening this week on your respective shows? I don't know. Does that even, like, there were people that care that he was hired or not hired in the truth. I mean, I know he's a part-time, whatever, but like. He's there in a fluid role, which when I first saw that tweet, I wanted to say, you can call them a water boy.
The left has not banned that phrase yet. Schefter, when he tweeted that. It's aqua person. Thank you.
Yeah, I think it's fine. I thought the most interesting part of. More on LinkedIn, it's hydration enhancement specialist.
Yeah. Vice president of quench, thirsting. I thought the most interesting part of solving in Green Bay was the presser yesterday and then him making the comment. It's like, no, I think Saul is a great coach. I thought he was fired unfairly or whatever, but that's not for me to say. Like he did. He made a comment like that. LaFleur did yesterday.
That was the most interesting thing to me. Bart, have you done enough on the topic? I know we disagree on this one strongly. Do you want to do Bronny in this, in this venue or are you good? I'm good. I'm good.
I'm good. Um, yeah, I think that what people need to understand is, well, it probably wouldn't have happened. Um, you know, maybe, maybe Bronny didn't deserve this moment. Maybe Bronny hasn't done enough to play with his dad, but I think LeBron has done enough to have this moment. I don't think we'll never see Bronny on an NBA court again. I think that there is some strategic-ness to, if you're going to go down this road, do it right away.
So it doesn't linger. I also think there's some strategic-ness and JJ Reddick got to be a coach without having the story based on him for the first night. So I'll give him credit for that. I think the issue that I've seen is people say, well, he's taking a spot away from somebody.
He is not. He might currently be on the 15 man roster, but whoever in the league missed out on that one little tiny spot will eventually be in the league. And whoever didn't get those minutes, they will get those minutes, three minutes in an NBA game on opening night, did nothing negative to anybody's life other than give them something to channel their anger towards as a father who has coached with my father. I find these special bonds during a game because when, I mean, I remember we used to joke about my dad that his favorite son was currently whoever was on his team, whoever he was coaching of the four boys.
Cause that's who got to spend the most time with dad. I don't think that I don't, I don't want to be somebody who is looking at this and saying, Oh, that, that, that, that moment doesn't satisfy my thoughts and opinions. It should be, I don't know. I just, I just, again, I just feel like, I feel like it's cool for them and I'm sorry. So that's, that's my thought. And, and Grant in our text, you just said like that, I think you mostly agree with what I said, which was disagreeing with Bart, but also like, who's hurt by this. And I said, no, no one, but it's also not an earned moment.
What does that mean? Like what it means is it might not be earned for Bronny, but for LeBron to be to him to have this hype, remember the hype on LeBron. It was unbelievable.
And he, he fucking shattered through that. And now he's still in the league and he's good enough at this point to manipulate. Like, can we just take a second to realize how good LeBron who basically won the gold medal this year? Yes. Yes. I'll, I'll, I'll like LeBron. It's fine. If you don't like LeBron, it's fine. If you don't like LeBron, he is the greatest basketball player ever. Yes. Yes. Agreed.
Top three, not one, two. And he's like, if Jordan was better, he LeBron dude is the fucking best player ever. I was tired of hiding from it. What you said on the national show that I heard though, was you said, and maybe this just makes LeBron lame.
Okay, fine. Maybe LeBron's lame at the bare minimum. It's lame for LeBron.
It's a lame, bad look. No LeBron is filled with lame, bad looks. He's a lame, bad look guy.
Like he does. I don't, you know, I'm not a LeBron guy. I think most of what he does is very lame. Um, this is lame. This is lame. I don't think it's lame. It's cool. In a, in a vacuum, the playing with the sun thing on real.
So cool. The way it was manufactured and packaged in a completely inorganic manner is lame. It's bullshit.
I think I, I think the senior and junior was not forced. Both things can be true. I think it's incredible and amazing. And also like, yeah, it's probably like, it's a little bit of a manicured manufactured photo shoot thing, but I don't know. I'll tell you, I'll say a really pretentious thing and then I'll add on. I'll end on one thing. Admitting this is pretentious. I hate when I hate when I feel like, and I don't mean to react in any certain way to do anything. When something feels force fed, when I, it feels to me like I'm being told to like, appreciate this, like this, and it doesn't feel natural. I have a very reaction to it. Like I, I get kind of, I really do. And this is one where I was just like, Oh, I can tell what you're trying to do.
And you're doing it in a way that's really gross. So like, fuck off, you know, like I could, it just felt inorganic. And I had a reaction to it that was like, reject. Ah, I don't like this.
So that colors my perception of it. That's fair and fine. Did you say you had one more thing? Well, so I want, I'll give you a tease for next week. I want to get to it this week, but we entered into the NBA conversation. Bart, in listening to you nationally, I don't think I ever thought this of you when, when we did anything in any other capacity, but you are a QB wins guy. You speak of, you speak of team record as quarterback record.
Like just Justin Fields is four and two. So I want to, I, I'm not, no, no. Okay. Same.
I'm an anti Russ guy. I know you are. You said I've used Justin Fields as the reference, but you, you preface a record as, well, this guy is the record. And I just thought, I don't, I, I would love to have a long form conversation.
We'll tease it for next week is like QB wins being a real stat. Can I, can I throw one random thing that I want Bart to react to for 30 seconds? Yeah.
And it's not related, but I'm sorry. I wouldn't bring this up if I didn't think Bart would knock this topic out of the park. Why is all of the Chicago sports fandom and Chicago sports barstool and sports radio shitting their pants because they have to use an antenna to watch their teams for free. Have you guys seen this? Oh, that's Chicago sports network.
Yeah. It's free. And everyone's melting down because they have to plug in an antenna.
I would kill for that. Um, we've trained ourselves to watching TV, a way that is beyond that. Stupid cost money.
So people want things to be free, but also the easiest as possible. Pretty easy. Just plugging in antenna.
It's not like you, but then where do you get the antenna if you don't have an antenna and like, can every TV like use it? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So like modern TV in my house can modern smart TVs can do that.
Like they can feel like some modern smart TVs. They might just be built into there. Yeah. And antennas built in pertinent here. Yeah.
Some, I don't know. Something like that. Yeah. But I use it when I take my TV outside, although I couldn't, I couldn't last week. So I did have to take a fire stick out there. And because of my enhanced wifi situation, I now get wifi in my garage.
Garage. It's something I saw like three tweets about it in the last 20 minutes. That just, that's just annoying me.
That's all that's all I know. Uh, Bart, did you finish up your meter for tonight? I didn't even start it. All right.
Quarterback coach combos. Yeah. Um, I don't know.
I mean, my homes and re is there any reason to put my homes and read not one? No, none for a reaction for a viral moment. And I argue that at number seven, it's I think the chiefs playing this shitty and still being six and O even makes them better. A hundred percent. The Patriots, the Patriots all over again. If this was like the Seahawks winning this way and being six and O and their quarterback and six picks or six touchdown, you'd be like, ah, fuck, they suck. But this is the chiefs who know how to do this. Yep.
They win on the margins. That's my catch phrase. All right, boys. Always a pleasure. Goodbye. Thank you, Bart.
We will be back next week with another episode of whatever this is. Remember that shit. All right. Yeah.
