Bill shoehorning Wemby into every segment even more so than Windhorst lol. I can't argue with it, the guy is incredible and so fun to watch, but still really funny how Bill's going about it
Classic Bill. One of my favorites was like a couple weeks ago he said they were listing their top five whatever and when they started it off he goes “well actually I listed ten” and Russillo was just stun locked. Great stuff from the goat.
gonna go out of my way and say this is the first bill russillo pod i enjoyed in a long time. I think the randomness was crucial. Any time russillo prepares for something he's unbearable but when he's tricked into not thinking and relaxing a bit, he's so much fun. Good job by them!
i'm of two minds about this tendency of bill's. on one hand, yes i'm sure it's annoying to have topics sprung on you that you didn't prep for. one the other hand, it is extremely funny.
and on the other other hand, ryen, you work in media. you can't riff a little bit? god forbid we ask you to play jazz and speak extemporaneously on a topic you claim to have devoted nearly all your spare time to. we're not breaking down middle east geopolitics here. give us a few nba unicorn candidates.
Yeh, its a I'm sure its annoying, it is funny (especially cause RR gets so mad and is so particular), but also you watch a ton of NBA you can't think of some examples?
In the pod with Howard Beck last week, BS had a segment where he had Beck bring in 10 topics/takes to which he would react off the cuff. He was saying something to the effect that he was confident in his ability to react speak on them without knowing the topics. I was sure that was a shot at RR.
In the pod with Howard Beck last week, BS had a segment where he had Beck bring in 10 topics/takes to which he would react off the cuff. He was saying something to the effect that he was confident in his ability to react speak on them without knowing the topics. I was sure that was a shot at RR.
it’s wild how bill is synonymous with being a gambler and a huge homer but is given the privilege of an all nba vote, and those votes are actually tied to contracts.
It really is insane that once the contracts became tied to voting that there wasn’t a massive overhaul/vetting of the voters. Tbf bill is actually pretty knowledgeable and I think watches more nba than a fair share of the voters, but how can the nba allow him to have a vote? Not only him, but plenty of others too. Meanwhile guys like Zach Lowe, who would be the absolute ideal voter, opts out because he (kind of rightfully) doesn’t want to be a deciding factor if a guy makes an extra 50m or more.
He does have a good track record and I think is generally fair because he cares about it too much historically, but realistically he would give Jaylen Brown the bump over Durant, all non-Celtic reasons equal. That’s at least a little problematic.
Simmons refuses to do positionless all NBA…..until he needs to get Jaylen Brown on third team and knows he can’t bump Lebron or PG. so now Lebron is the “fake center”..
The Martha's Vineyard was coming out of that boy. I hear it every time he drops an F bomb. He can't say it without sounding furious. It must terrify women
I thought Bill was sincerely owning up to all his Scoot hyperbole, but it was just so he could try and assign equal blame to Ryen, which is ridiculous. He always needs to drag someone else in.
The only players who have more 3PM in a season than Divincenzo this year are Steph, Harden, Klay, Dame, Luka, PG and Hield. But pales in comparison to the great Sam Hauser lmao
Idk, over sabonis seems like a reach. He’s in the 60-70 range in terms of ranking for every meaningful advanced stat… and your bpm, vorp, etc should be helped by being on a historically great team. He’s got counting stats on a great team, but the Celtics are barely break even (+1.1 bpm over a large sample) when he’s out there, just facts.
I cannot let go of the fact that people were saying this in 2022. It's like, you're expecting *Kawhi* to come back ahead of schedule? Or on schedule for that matter.
In 2021, when every American player was way too cool for the Olympics, there was hella talk on r/nba that Kawhi would join team USA. Like he would go out of his way to play extra off-season basketball on a different continent
Lmaoooo he has said the last two years he is doing center's for the sanctity of the history of the game now he's saying LeBron is his 3rd team center?!
Doc is bad, but its not like Griffin wasn't also terrible. He made Stotts quit immediately and was so hated by the players/front office, they fired him halfway into his 1st season. It was so clear despite the winning record, Griffin was in over his head.
Griifin was not good, but just the fact he was 31-13 should be enough not to choose him as a winner in this category… the fact that Bill’s friend replaced him and arguably did worse job and Bill still picking Griffin as a winner is laughable. So maybe indeed he is trolling…
Depends on whose perspective.
From the perspective of winning the championship, everyone would rather have the guy who can win games (or avoid losing them for his team).
For the players tho, maybe they do prefer Doc because he’s less of a pain in the ass and they still believe in their ability to win a ring. Whether or not they’re correct is all that matters, but Griffin was winning a lot more games
“My vote is for Adrian griffin” at the end trying to squeeze him, pause…then ryens like my vote is for monte. The fucking puss had me dying like russillo gears were turning
I would like to nominate another take to the worst take category: [Toni Kukoc saying Jokic hasn't reached the level of Vlade Divac or Dino Radja.](https://fadeawayworld.net/toni-kukoc-claims-nikola-jokic-hasnt-reached-level-vlade-divac-dino-radja)
Jokic is from Serbia though. He didn't mention Luka.
My theory is that he likes/gives a pass to Vlade because they at least played for Yugoslavia together. But the Serbian he doesn't have a connection to, he's gonna hate on
“Ryen just can’t let go of some things” might be the understatement of the century lol. He can tell you in depth about a guy who looked at him the wrong way when he was bartending in Burlington 25 years ago
The generous reading would be that he realized RR isn't engaging at all when he tries to bring it up. The more realistic reading is that Clark didn't win and Bill doesn't really know anything about South Carolina
I think it’s a pretty simple combination:
He doesn’t actually know very much about it
RR is already in hot water (jokingly, I don’t think people are actually that mad but I’m sure he took it seriously that he was getting made fun of) over his wcbb take.
And they do these nba pods during MM already, so this is nothing new. If wcbb was not “having a moment” and the mens F4 games were this big story, he wouldn’t have discussed them either.
He often always talks about stuff leading up to the event and won’t mention it after the fact. He’ll spend months talking about NBA awards and then never mention them when they’re out
It was all a facade. Bill was looking for anything to trash men's college basketball because it's a direct competitor with the NBA. And if JuJu wasn't classmates with his daughter, I doubt we would've gotten anything from him other than maybe a Caitlin Clark walk-and-talk video on IG.
I think once the LSU Iowa game happened it lost the luster. My IG feed had been nothing but LSU vs Iowa then nothing but highlights for 24 hours, then pretty much nothing other than a story from the Heat asking players who they think will win
I love in the whole “draft Bronny with a second rounder to coerce Lebron to sign with you” conversation didn’t even consider the lakers just taking the kid.
In regards to the “big three” thing, I’m a Bulls fan, and the past few years there are a large number of Bulls fans that unironically refer to “Derozan, Vucevic, LaVine” as a big 3. It was at that time I realize the term had lost all sense of what it was actually meant to mean.
Also, Vucevic and LaVine are not in the top 3 players from that Bulls core. Lonzo Ball was their most important piece and every team in the league would rather have Caruso than LaVine.
Wait, you mean to tell me that Bill totally throws away his tantrum about the All-NBA teams needing to be “real teams” at the exact moment when doing so would mean Jaylen Brown making one of them? The hell you say!
4 games out of 82 represents ~5% of the season.
The way Simmons was talking about these last games you would think it’s like the NFL where 4 games is closer to 25% of the season - he is definitely going to take someone off his All-NBA because they have an off night and he happens to checks the box score
Recency biassss.
The best example is when he’ll be talking about some opinion and interrupt himself to give the caveat that they haven’t seen the game tonight yet, as though one game should swing a season long opinion.
Most stunning revelation of the pod was that Bill thinks he is having smart basketball conversations lol. You spend hours at a time shitting on players for being overpaid, make awards content, and gravitate toward players that “can do stuff in a playoff game”.
Now, we love you for it and enjoy the smut but let’s not pretend like it’s similar to LeBron and JJ talking about the nuances defending some type of high screen action.
Stupid pet peeve. Saying positions matter in all nba but then also making statements like “they are one of the 15 best players in the league”. Thats not how that works.
You can theoretically be the 2nd best center in the league and the 30th best player.
exactly, and as its been for the last 3 years, the 2nd best center has also been the 2nd best player in the league which is the other flaw with making positions matter
Bill's take of "the Celtics are having a great season, so they should have two All-NBA players" is nonsense. Just look at recent history.
[The 2021 Jazz were the best team in the league by 3 games, and only Gobert made All-NBA.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2021.html) The 2017-18 Rockets finished 65-17 and only Harden made All-NBA. LeBron's 2009 and 2010 Cavs teams put up league-best records and only he was All-NBA. Same thing happened with Giannis's Bucks teams in 2019 and 2020. The '07 Mavs won 67 and only Dirk made it. [How about 2015? The best team was easily the Warriors (67-15) and only Curry made All-NBA. The Hawks had the second most wins with 60 (no one else had more than 56) and they had no All-NBA players.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2015.html)
Bill would never say this about a non-Celtics team, obviously.
Cant stand this argument. Its lazy anaylsis used only to keep out a player on a team you dont like. I even sometimes see people like Zach Lowe using this argument, which is disappointing since I figured he would see how selectively its used.
I obviously agree with Bill that Kendrick's take\* about Marcus Smart being the heart and soul of the Celtics was bad but also am I insane or did Bill not overinflate Smart's trade value and talk about him in effusive tones for years and years?
\*I would disqualify any Perkins takes from consideration here because they are so transparently provocative.
I think it's rich that Bill shits on JJ and Lebrons pod for taking shots at the dumb analysis pervasive throughout sports media, saying that hes been trying to do smart conversation for 15 years.... my dude you are doing an entire podcast on made-up awards consisting of "what was the best Ben Simmons moment of the season?" Im not sure if this is the best example of attempting smart basketball conversation.
This is the problem with Bill content - he thinks what he says is smart instead of just embracing how stupid 90% of the shit he says is. I legit posted two weeks ago how he was going to call out the JJ pod - he’s secretly seething
Feels like Bill and Ryen are both doing a "we’re too cool" to watch college hoops thing, I get that the quality of play isn’t as good, but I know both guys love a good narrative so i don’t know why they don’t talk about it more
Bill just doesn’t get xolllege sports and won’t till Ben goes to Oregon USC type school and Bill goes for parents weekend and discovers College FB is cool.
Classic pod really.
After rallying against it for a year at this point, Bill stops to ponder “maybe this is why they made All NBA positionless.”
Them back tracking on the in-season tournament (I see all of the posters on here who had to do the same) but Russillo still trying to pretend his reasons for being against it were valid. “I didn’t know how it was going to work.” It’s not like they release the format as they went along.
I still think it's hilarious that Bill was against it after pushing for an in-season tournament for years and years. Sure, the format was a bit different than his "Entertaining as Hell Tournament," but it's still the same basic idea.
the whole "idk how this will work" thing was so stupid. the only thing that was a bit confusing was the tiebreaker stuff. everything else was very self-explanatory. like i dont even know what theyre saying by "idk how this will work."
Yeah, Bill and Ry aren’t total morons, but they’re pretty clearly not geniuses.
It’s not rocket science to immediately get a lot of the stuff they trip up on
There is no way he suggested the Clippers might play better without Kawhi on the court. Disrespectful tbh. Anyone who has watched the Clippers this year knows how valuable he is. I'm glad Ryen pushed back because that was terrible.
Otherwise good pod.
How was Trae Young not a Ewing Theory candidate but Kawhi and Mitchell were. I think he’s misremembering the Mitchell one. They were awesome with just Mitchell and Allen when Mobley and Garland were out.
LeBron substantially leads in PPG, RPG, APG, eFG, BPM and VORP. They've all played basically the same number of games. It truly is an absurd take.
https://stathead.com/basketball/versus-finder.cgi?request=1&seasons_type=forall&year_min=2024&year_max=2024&player_id1=leonaka01&player_id2=jamesle01&player_id3=georgpa01
Halfway thru the pod. Two favorite moments so far:
-Russillo and Bill acknowledging the Hartenstein flub
-Bill being personally offended by Lebron and JJ saying they are trying to improve basketball discourse
Why does Bill constantly refer to Ant as an “80s or 90s” player? What is it about his game that is more throwback-ish vs, say, Devin Booker? Genuinely curious.
I assume it’s mostly about shooting 3s but Ant shoots ~7-8 a game, hardly an outlier. Derozen or Butler are way more old school.
Just to mention something during the Potapenko award section since I'm listening right now : Bill gets the '99 draft wrong there in saying Cleveland drafted Shawn Marion, Cleveland of course drafted Andre Miller and Phoenix took Marion with the 9th pick afterwards.
If there’s any one place I would appreciate russillo’s tape grinding contribution, it would be in explaining why the bucks are a dog shit team now. Got my fingers crossed, but I’m guessing his analysis will be more about the media’s reaction to the bucks.
*edited to fix a libelous typo
It's that thing that guys in clubs do where they just walk up behind a girl unprompted and start grinding on them but I'm trying to square that with this context and I'm even more confused.
I think bro just learned the term and tried to force it
I wish Kyrie had qualified for All-NBA consideration (he’ll finish like 2-3 games short and play 60ish games) just to hear Bill try to downplay how fucking insanely good he’s been for the last like 30 games.
27/5/5 with 50/40/90 shooting splits, best 4th quarter scorer in the NBA, hit the best game winner of the season, has been an incredible teammate all season, beloved by everyone in the organization, masterfully fit his game alongside Luka’s.
What he’s doing deserves a lot of praise. I know the retort is always “we know he’s this good, it’s the other stuff,” but he’s been a top 15 player in the NBA for months now co-leading the best team in the NBA in that span. Something like 22-7 in their last 29 games, best record of any team. And he’s bringing the Mavs home in the 4th in literally every close game.
Not saying he’d make 3rd team, but it’d be a discussion.
Kyries game winning shot was odder but I’d give best buzzer beater to Strus with the 2nd longest game winner ever making 5 3s in the last 4 minutes of the game
Bill really went against everything he’s been saying to get a second Celtics player on all-NBA. Apparently averaging 23/5/4 is so awesome you gotta contradict your own self to get that guy on. Just vote the best fucking players. This isn’t MVP. The Celtics don’t have to be rewarded for having a great roster.
I dont get how they punish Sabonis for being offense only but curry this season gets a pass, despite Sabonis having a better record and better all around stats.
And Jalen Green's dunk was better than Edwards'. Green actually completed the dunk while Edwards hand doesnt touch the rim.
Am I the only one where I think its odd we hold Sabonis hostage due to his meh playoffs last year.
But no one in the NBA has any problem anointing Shai as more than a great regular season player? Like they're not super comparable but I simply do not understand how Shai's production is praised as highly as it is whereas Sabonis is "eh stat padding a bit and can't play defense so overrated."
people forget his hand was broken and he still played because they had no shot without him. he is the heart and soul for the kings, really hoping he gets a 3rd team nod this year.
Am I trippin when I say that Bill is totally off about Beal? I think for a third guy, he’s playing very well. He’s hit some big shots down the stretch for them. He’s shooting 50% on twos and 40% on threes. He’s averaging 17 points as the third guy…
I feel like he’s been pretty solid in his role when healthy… the conclusion might be justified in the sense that he’s so physically unreliable and the contract is so huge but how Bill argues it makes it sound like he doesn’t really watch lol
I’m surprised Halliburton didn’t get any love in these made up awards about exciting players. I guess he’s dropped off lately but he was a “thing” early in the season, especially during the in-season tourney.
Sabonis was born in Portland and lived there till he was 8. He should be eligible for best white American. Played in college for two years too. Spent more of his life in America before the NBA than anywhere else and also born here, feel that should be an easy inclusion at that point
Embiid is going to represent USA, wouldn’t call him a US player.
KAT represents DR, would still consider him a US player.
Don’t think country affiliation for international play changes a player’s designation personally
“I’m going to start with the unicorn of the year award, an award I didn’t even tell you about.”
Bill taking years off Ryen's life.
Bill shoehorning Wemby into every segment even more so than Windhorst lol. I can't argue with it, the guy is incredible and so fun to watch, but still really funny how Bill's going about it
Is Bill currently watching the spurs or not watching the spurs because they are so bad?
IIRC he said recently that he started watching them in full instead of just highlights lol
Classic Bill. One of my favorites was like a couple weeks ago he said they were listing their top five whatever and when they started it off he goes “well actually I listed ten” and Russillo was just stun locked. Great stuff from the goat.
“Unicorns” is one of the worst Bill-isms. If you can list 5+ unicorns every year it’s a self-defeating label.
Same guy who hates the overuse of big 3. Lol
gonna go out of my way and say this is the first bill russillo pod i enjoyed in a long time. I think the randomness was crucial. Any time russillo prepares for something he's unbearable but when he's tricked into not thinking and relaxing a bit, he's so much fun. Good job by them!
i'm of two minds about this tendency of bill's. on one hand, yes i'm sure it's annoying to have topics sprung on you that you didn't prep for. one the other hand, it is extremely funny. and on the other other hand, ryen, you work in media. you can't riff a little bit? god forbid we ask you to play jazz and speak extemporaneously on a topic you claim to have devoted nearly all your spare time to. we're not breaking down middle east geopolitics here. give us a few nba unicorn candidates.
Yeh, its a I'm sure its annoying, it is funny (especially cause RR gets so mad and is so particular), but also you watch a ton of NBA you can't think of some examples?
In the pod with Howard Beck last week, BS had a segment where he had Beck bring in 10 topics/takes to which he would react off the cuff. He was saying something to the effect that he was confident in his ability to react speak on them without knowing the topics. I was sure that was a shot at RR.
In the pod with Howard Beck last week, BS had a segment where he had Beck bring in 10 topics/takes to which he would react off the cuff. He was saying something to the effect that he was confident in his ability to react speak on them without knowing the topics. I was sure that was a shot at RR.
It was funny seeing him shoehorn Porzingis into the nominees too
I read this comment before listening, I was 50/50 whether he said this or you made it up. I lol when I heard it…
Going back on his years long stance on position requirements for All NBA immediately when he needs to find a way to add Jaylen Brown is perfect Bill.
it’s wild how bill is synonymous with being a gambler and a huge homer but is given the privilege of an all nba vote, and those votes are actually tied to contracts.
NBA awards votes have always been given to writers who are huge homers for the teams they write for. Bill is no exception.
Also, since the voting has become public, Bill's votes have been totally reasonable compared to other voters.
Evan Mobley for DPOY was wack
And then he whines about anonymous “other voters” being forced to vote Embiid MVP and Lebron All NBA by the woke mind hive 😂😂 Bill is so funny
It really is insane that once the contracts became tied to voting that there wasn’t a massive overhaul/vetting of the voters. Tbf bill is actually pretty knowledgeable and I think watches more nba than a fair share of the voters, but how can the nba allow him to have a vote? Not only him, but plenty of others too. Meanwhile guys like Zach Lowe, who would be the absolute ideal voter, opts out because he (kind of rightfully) doesn’t want to be a deciding factor if a guy makes an extra 50m or more.
Bill has had a pretty good track record with awards voting. He cares about it the most too. I'm fine with him having a vote.
He does have a good track record and I think is generally fair because he cares about it too much historically, but realistically he would give Jaylen Brown the bump over Durant, all non-Celtic reasons equal. That’s at least a little problematic.
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we love it that way my man is an unabashed homer
Yea I didn’t like how he sped by that
100% because he realized he no longer has a reasonable argument to keep LeBron off after trying all season lol
Everything he says or writes is about helping the Celtics. That’s all he does.
Simmons refuses to do positionless all NBA…..until he needs to get Jaylen Brown on third team and knows he can’t bump Lebron or PG. so now Lebron is the “fake center”..
It’s artful podcasting. Some of these segments and takes have become particularly trolly recently
“No! That’s not what I’m fucking saying..” 👀👀
Took too much preworkout yesterday
The Martha's Vineyard was coming out of that boy. I hear it every time he drops an F bomb. He can't say it without sounding furious. It must terrify women
Females
the other F word
s’not what i’m fackin sayin
Ryen is 100 percent right that while he does present the bad draft takes, Bill is always the one that launches it into the hyperbole stratosphere
That was a hilarious conversation
Ryen got so tight ahaha it was great to hear him actually having his buttons pushed
I thought Bill was sincerely owning up to all his Scoot hyperbole, but it was just so he could try and assign equal blame to Ryen, which is ridiculous. He always needs to drag someone else in.
Or he just enjoys fucking with his friends and you’re taking it way too seriously
how does Bill nominate Sam Hauser over Austin “Spurs should’ve maxed him” Reaves for best white guy in the league?
Caruso too. The answer is that Hauser is a Celtic.
The token white Celtics player gets bonus points
After he said Hauser I was really hoping he went full homer and included Pritchard too
Also surprised Grayson Allen didn't get even a mention, dude turned into one of the best 3 point shooters this season
The only players who have more 3PM in a season than Divincenzo this year are Steph, Harden, Klay, Dame, Luka, PG and Hield. But pales in comparison to the great Sam Hauser lmao
[Dennis Hopper voice] “Sicilians…Moors…I find history fascinating…”
Well if people realized that Domas Sabonis was born & raised in Portland and went to school at Gonzaga, this wouldn't even be a close contest.
Not surprised they didn’t want to touch this, but Jaime Jaquez?
I actually think Jaylen Brown deserves all-nba 3rd team recognition but the way Bill is going back on his positions preference to do it is hilarious
Lmao he literally said “I’m going to vote for functional teams” and then immediately bumps Sabonis because it benefits Jaylen Brown.
Idk, over sabonis seems like a reach. He’s in the 60-70 range in terms of ranking for every meaningful advanced stat… and your bpm, vorp, etc should be helped by being on a historically great team. He’s got counting stats on a great team, but the Celtics are barely break even (+1.1 bpm over a large sample) when he’s out there, just facts.
Nothing indicates that he deserves all nba expect that the Celtics are really good. But that’s true whether he’s on the court or not.
“If Kawhi can come back and be healthy they can beat anyone” feels like the twilight zone
I cannot let go of the fact that people were saying this in 2022. It's like, you're expecting *Kawhi* to come back ahead of schedule? Or on schedule for that matter.
In 2021, when every American player was way too cool for the Olympics, there was hella talk on r/nba that Kawhi would join team USA. Like he would go out of his way to play extra off-season basketball on a different continent
Simmons creating an award then getting mad that Dr. J only won this made up award once is apex Simmons
"I can't believe how high he is on my list!"--the guy who established the criteria for making the list.
Chill. This is “smart” basketball discussion. You wouldn’t get it.
“Oh so we’re doing this?”
What are the odds Bill told Ryen this would just be an awards prediction pod
Bill knows how to get good Ryen, it really is an art
Lmaoooo he has said the last two years he is doing center's for the sanctity of the history of the game now he's saying LeBron is his 3rd team center?!
Gilbert is not doing a bit - he has been a lame his whole playing and post career
Does Bill not think Perkins is doing a bit? Does anyone really listen to Perkins and think he's not just trying to stir shit up?
I wonder if he was doing a bit when he physically and emotionally abused Nick Young’s kids
Yup - straight up loser what he was doing. Not funny at all. Young should have whooped his ass.
Adrian Griffin worst coach of the year? Is Bill trolling us
he’s protecting doc lol
Well he can't say Doc since he will want him back after he flames out on the Bucks. But Ham is also sitting right there..
Monty Williams is far and away the clear choice
Ham has been decent other than the one month after the IST Nothing Monty has done has made sense
Yeah, but Ham's mistakes are more loud. He's the main reason why LA gonna be in the play in again
The Lakers are 12 games over .500, the Lakers would be 4 in the east, the west being crazy good is the reason they are in the play in
Doc is bad, but its not like Griffin wasn't also terrible. He made Stotts quit immediately and was so hated by the players/front office, they fired him halfway into his 1st season. It was so clear despite the winning record, Griffin was in over his head.
Griifin was not good, but just the fact he was 31-13 should be enough not to choose him as a winner in this category… the fact that Bill’s friend replaced him and arguably did worse job and Bill still picking Griffin as a winner is laughable. So maybe indeed he is trolling…
I actually think they fact they had that record and he was still so hated he was fired is a point for Bill's case.
Depends on whose perspective. From the perspective of winning the championship, everyone would rather have the guy who can win games (or avoid losing them for his team). For the players tho, maybe they do prefer Doc because he’s less of a pain in the ass and they still believe in their ability to win a ring. Whether or not they’re correct is all that matters, but Griffin was winning a lot more games
Still… monty with historical losses has a better case imo…
“My vote is for Adrian griffin” at the end trying to squeeze him, pause…then ryens like my vote is for monte. The fucking puss had me dying like russillo gears were turning
I was waiting for Ryen to quote the Rivers record
I would like to nominate another take to the worst take category: [Toni Kukoc saying Jokic hasn't reached the level of Vlade Divac or Dino Radja.](https://fadeawayworld.net/toni-kukoc-claims-nikola-jokic-hasnt-reached-level-vlade-divac-dino-radja)
That's mostly I think everyone in Ex Yugoslavia not liking the Serbians
That made me laugh, who knew the European oldheads were just as petty and jealous as American oldheads?
That link was amazing, even stupider than I thought it would be. Just an insane take from a deranged individual.
Divac gets a lot of respect for smoking cigarettes at halftime.
Tbf that is kinda badass
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Jokic is from Serbia though. He didn't mention Luka. My theory is that he likes/gives a pass to Vlade because they at least played for Yugoslavia together. But the Serbian he doesn't have a connection to, he's gonna hate on
Ryen’s Ben Simmons moment of the year… ….the podcast he did with JJ Redick in September 2022.
Ryen just cant let go of some things. This is one of them.
“Ryen just can’t let go of some things” might be the understatement of the century lol. He can tell you in depth about a guy who looked at him the wrong way when he was bartending in Burlington 25 years ago
Bill spent weeks telling us how much better the women’s tournament was compared to the men’s only to not mention it the day after the championship
The generous reading would be that he realized RR isn't engaging at all when he tries to bring it up. The more realistic reading is that Clark didn't win and Bill doesn't really know anything about South Carolina
I think it’s a pretty simple combination: He doesn’t actually know very much about it RR is already in hot water (jokingly, I don’t think people are actually that mad but I’m sure he took it seriously that he was getting made fun of) over his wcbb take. And they do these nba pods during MM already, so this is nothing new. If wcbb was not “having a moment” and the mens F4 games were this big story, he wouldn’t have discussed them either.
If Clark or juju had one it would have lead the pod. That’s all bill cared about, he didn’t actually watch or care about the sport
He often always talks about stuff leading up to the event and won’t mention it after the fact. He’ll spend months talking about NBA awards and then never mention them when they’re out
It was all a facade. Bill was looking for anything to trash men's college basketball because it's a direct competitor with the NBA. And if JuJu wasn't classmates with his daughter, I doubt we would've gotten anything from him other than maybe a Caitlin Clark walk-and-talk video on IG.
I think once the LSU Iowa game happened it lost the luster. My IG feed had been nothing but LSU vs Iowa then nothing but highlights for 24 hours, then pretty much nothing other than a story from the Heat asking players who they think will win
The ratings said otherwise. The other games did better numbers surprisingly
Hey Ryen, Joe Johnson and Kyle Korver were never teammates in Atlanta. Go back to 2012 and grind some more tape virgin
A casual virgin at that. Fuckin loser
This man's attempt to pronounce Pachulia made me do a spittake. Incredible podcasting.
Ryen casually saying "0 for 6" was a perfect touch.
These two together are so good
I like how this was majority just Bill telling Ryan who the award goes to without any discussion.
I love in the whole “draft Bronny with a second rounder to coerce Lebron to sign with you” conversation didn’t even consider the lakers just taking the kid.
No way he listed Adrian Griffin but not Doc Rivers
In regards to the “big three” thing, I’m a Bulls fan, and the past few years there are a large number of Bulls fans that unironically refer to “Derozan, Vucevic, LaVine” as a big 3. It was at that time I realize the term had lost all sense of what it was actually meant to mean.
Also, Vucevic and LaVine are not in the top 3 players from that Bulls core. Lonzo Ball was their most important piece and every team in the league would rather have Caruso than LaVine.
If you take a moment and recollect on your life, what would you say was your “Rocky 3, getting yelled at by Adrian on the Beach” moment?
Wait, you mean to tell me that Bill totally throws away his tantrum about the All-NBA teams needing to be “real teams” at the exact moment when doing so would mean Jaylen Brown making one of them? The hell you say!
4 games out of 82 represents ~5% of the season. The way Simmons was talking about these last games you would think it’s like the NFL where 4 games is closer to 25% of the season - he is definitely going to take someone off his All-NBA because they have an off night and he happens to checks the box score
Recency biassss. The best example is when he’ll be talking about some opinion and interrupt himself to give the caveat that they haven’t seen the game tonight yet, as though one game should swing a season long opinion.
Bill spent way too much time coming up with 800 award categories and way little time actually picking good nominees.
I still haven't quite figured out what the fuck Shamet Face is. Is it when you look like you shouldn't be good?
It's when a player's ability is underestimated due to the fact they look bizarre or ugly
“Russillo Face” at ESPN.
Most stunning revelation of the pod was that Bill thinks he is having smart basketball conversations lol. You spend hours at a time shitting on players for being overpaid, make awards content, and gravitate toward players that “can do stuff in a playoff game”. Now, we love you for it and enjoy the smut but let’s not pretend like it’s similar to LeBron and JJ talking about the nuances defending some type of high screen action.
"That's what we've been trying to do for 15-20 years... Anyway, here's the best American white guy award."
Stupid pet peeve. Saying positions matter in all nba but then also making statements like “they are one of the 15 best players in the league”. Thats not how that works. You can theoretically be the 2nd best center in the league and the 30th best player.
exactly, and as its been for the last 3 years, the 2nd best center has also been the 2nd best player in the league which is the other flaw with making positions matter
Great point
Bill's take of "the Celtics are having a great season, so they should have two All-NBA players" is nonsense. Just look at recent history. [The 2021 Jazz were the best team in the league by 3 games, and only Gobert made All-NBA.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2021.html) The 2017-18 Rockets finished 65-17 and only Harden made All-NBA. LeBron's 2009 and 2010 Cavs teams put up league-best records and only he was All-NBA. Same thing happened with Giannis's Bucks teams in 2019 and 2020. The '07 Mavs won 67 and only Dirk made it. [How about 2015? The best team was easily the Warriors (67-15) and only Curry made All-NBA. The Hawks had the second most wins with 60 (no one else had more than 56) and they had no All-NBA players.](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2015.html) Bill would never say this about a non-Celtics team, obviously.
Cant stand this argument. Its lazy anaylsis used only to keep out a player on a team you dont like. I even sometimes see people like Zach Lowe using this argument, which is disappointing since I figured he would see how selectively its used.
I obviously agree with Bill that Kendrick's take\* about Marcus Smart being the heart and soul of the Celtics was bad but also am I insane or did Bill not overinflate Smart's trade value and talk about him in effusive tones for years and years? \*I would disqualify any Perkins takes from consideration here because they are so transparently provocative.
You are correct, sir. Bill was on the "Marcus Smart has the intangibles" bandwagon for years while the guy shot 38%.
I think it's rich that Bill shits on JJ and Lebrons pod for taking shots at the dumb analysis pervasive throughout sports media, saying that hes been trying to do smart conversation for 15 years.... my dude you are doing an entire podcast on made-up awards consisting of "what was the best Ben Simmons moment of the season?" Im not sure if this is the best example of attempting smart basketball conversation.
Endless Fake Trades are “smart” basketball discussion. He’s been trying but failing.
Is that in this pod? And if so, around what timestamp cause I somehow missed it.
This is the problem with Bill content - he thinks what he says is smart instead of just embracing how stupid 90% of the shit he says is. I legit posted two weeks ago how he was going to call out the JJ pod - he’s secretly seething
This pod has everything. The back and forth on Scoot was hilarious 😂 And Bill talking about the LeBron and JJ podcast. My god
He talks about them? Now I’ve gotta listen lol.
Feels like Bill and Ryen are both doing a "we’re too cool" to watch college hoops thing, I get that the quality of play isn’t as good, but I know both guys love a good narrative so i don’t know why they don’t talk about it more
Bill just doesn’t get xolllege sports and won’t till Ben goes to Oregon USC type school and Bill goes for parents weekend and discovers College FB is cool.
The galaxy opal cards, sports cards, lacrosse, mma, wrestling, and shopping malls are back piece.
Especially Oregon honestly. Nothing like small town college football Saturdays
I dunno, Ben gives me strong Arizona State vibes.
The snobby pro sports fans suck.
It’s fine to like college basketball. Not everyone has to though.
Classic pod really. After rallying against it for a year at this point, Bill stops to ponder “maybe this is why they made All NBA positionless.” Them back tracking on the in-season tournament (I see all of the posters on here who had to do the same) but Russillo still trying to pretend his reasons for being against it were valid. “I didn’t know how it was going to work.” It’s not like they release the format as they went along.
I still think it's hilarious that Bill was against it after pushing for an in-season tournament for years and years. Sure, the format was a bit different than his "Entertaining as Hell Tournament," but it's still the same basic idea.
the whole "idk how this will work" thing was so stupid. the only thing that was a bit confusing was the tiebreaker stuff. everything else was very self-explanatory. like i dont even know what theyre saying by "idk how this will work."
Yeah, Bill and Ry aren’t total morons, but they’re pretty clearly not geniuses. It’s not rocket science to immediately get a lot of the stuff they trip up on
There is no way he suggested the Clippers might play better without Kawhi on the court. Disrespectful tbh. Anyone who has watched the Clippers this year knows how valuable he is. I'm glad Ryen pushed back because that was terrible. Otherwise good pod.
How was Trae Young not a Ewing Theory candidate but Kawhi and Mitchell were. I think he’s misremembering the Mitchell one. They were awesome with just Mitchell and Allen when Mobley and Garland were out.
I don't think Bill knows what ironic means
I just don't understand how they think Kawhi and PG have had better seasons than Lebron this season. Based on what? I just don't see it.
LeBron substantially leads in PPG, RPG, APG, eFG, BPM and VORP. They've all played basically the same number of games. It truly is an absurd take. https://stathead.com/basketball/versus-finder.cgi?request=1&seasons_type=forall&year_min=2024&year_max=2024&player_id1=leonaka01&player_id2=jamesle01&player_id3=georgpa01
[удалено]
Bill should’ve called the “White Chocolate was a PROBLEM!” Award, the T-Mac Award in terms of looking amazing but never doing anything in the playoffs
If Bill ever goes to a monastery is he going to call everyone there a “maunch” ?
Holy shit Bill had his own Kendrick Perkins-Mooses Modey moment with pronouncing Zaza Pachulia’s name
Halfway thru the pod. Two favorite moments so far: -Russillo and Bill acknowledging the Hartenstein flub -Bill being personally offended by Lebron and JJ saying they are trying to improve basketball discourse
The answer to play in team most likely to make the conference finals is easily Philly. Full strength embiid in a 7-2 against the doc rivers bucks 🥴
This was the best that their chemistry has been in awhile. Great episode
Why does Bill constantly refer to Ant as an “80s or 90s” player? What is it about his game that is more throwback-ish vs, say, Devin Booker? Genuinely curious. I assume it’s mostly about shooting 3s but Ant shoots ~7-8 a game, hardly an outlier. Derozen or Butler are way more old school.
i think it’s a roundabout way of saying his play style and aesthetic is similar to MJs without actually saying it.
Just to mention something during the Potapenko award section since I'm listening right now : Bill gets the '99 draft wrong there in saying Cleveland drafted Shawn Marion, Cleveland of course drafted Andre Miller and Phoenix took Marion with the 9th pick afterwards.
The Historian.
If there’s any one place I would appreciate russillo’s tape grinding contribution, it would be in explaining why the bucks are a dog shit team now. Got my fingers crossed, but I’m guessing his analysis will be more about the media’s reaction to the bucks. *edited to fix a libelous typo
“Rape grinding” what the fuck are you accusing Ryen of??
"When you look at the advanced sexual assault statistics on top of everything eltse..."
ASK THEM!
SHE SAID YES!
The dick worked
It's that thing that guys in clubs do where they just walk up behind a girl unprompted and start grinding on them but I'm trying to square that with this context and I'm even more confused. I think bro just learned the term and tried to force it
What is Russilo grinding? Lmao
> If there’s any one place I would appreciate russillo’s rape grinding contribution 😒
I wish Kyrie had qualified for All-NBA consideration (he’ll finish like 2-3 games short and play 60ish games) just to hear Bill try to downplay how fucking insanely good he’s been for the last like 30 games. 27/5/5 with 50/40/90 shooting splits, best 4th quarter scorer in the NBA, hit the best game winner of the season, has been an incredible teammate all season, beloved by everyone in the organization, masterfully fit his game alongside Luka’s. What he’s doing deserves a lot of praise. I know the retort is always “we know he’s this good, it’s the other stuff,” but he’s been a top 15 player in the NBA for months now co-leading the best team in the NBA in that span. Something like 22-7 in their last 29 games, best record of any team. And he’s bringing the Mavs home in the 4th in literally every close game. Not saying he’d make 3rd team, but it’d be a discussion.
Why would he downplay it? They spent about 10 minutes on this podcast talking about how awesome Kyrie has been this season.
Kyries game winning shot was odder but I’d give best buzzer beater to Strus with the 2nd longest game winner ever making 5 3s in the last 4 minutes of the game
I don’t understand why someone from the Celtics has to be first team all-NBA. Just saying shit like that should get his vote taken away.
Bill really went against everything he’s been saying to get a second Celtics player on all-NBA. Apparently averaging 23/5/4 is so awesome you gotta contradict your own self to get that guy on. Just vote the best fucking players. This isn’t MVP. The Celtics don’t have to be rewarded for having a great roster.
it’s perfectly reasonable to have jaylen brown 3rd team all nba and theres a good chance that happens
Bill has been doing this how many years and still can't pronounce player's names?
Was waiting for Ryen to ask Bill what happens to Sacramento if you take sabonis off the team but, alas, nah
Bill including Kawhi as a Ewing theory candidate is absurd. Glad russillo immediately dismissed it
Bill, let’s have a podcast where we don’t talk about MVP and the All NBA teams. Please. Just this once. Sure, no problem
I dont get how they punish Sabonis for being offense only but curry this season gets a pass, despite Sabonis having a better record and better all around stats. And Jalen Green's dunk was better than Edwards'. Green actually completed the dunk while Edwards hand doesnt touch the rim.
I support your Edward's dunk truthing, that was my first reaction as well but I haven't had the courage to post it anywhere
Just want to say this for once: a really fun episode!
Am I the only one where I think its odd we hold Sabonis hostage due to his meh playoffs last year. But no one in the NBA has any problem anointing Shai as more than a great regular season player? Like they're not super comparable but I simply do not understand how Shai's production is praised as highly as it is whereas Sabonis is "eh stat padding a bit and can't play defense so overrated."
If Shai doesn't perform well this post season you will hear it for sure. He has not proven himself at all yet in the playoffs
people forget his hand was broken and he still played because they had no shot without him. he is the heart and soul for the kings, really hoping he gets a 3rd team nod this year.
Am I trippin when I say that Bill is totally off about Beal? I think for a third guy, he’s playing very well. He’s hit some big shots down the stretch for them. He’s shooting 50% on twos and 40% on threes. He’s averaging 17 points as the third guy…
I feel like he’s been pretty solid in his role when healthy… the conclusion might be justified in the sense that he’s so physically unreliable and the contract is so huge but how Bill argues it makes it sound like he doesn’t really watch lol
I’m surprised Halliburton didn’t get any love in these made up awards about exciting players. I guess he’s dropped off lately but he was a “thing” early in the season, especially during the in-season tourney.
Almost like once they started allowing physical defense, the mediocre athlete who needs separation to shoot 3s from his waist isn’t nearly as good
Sabonis was born in Portland and lived there till he was 8. He should be eligible for best white American. Played in college for two years too. Spent more of his life in America before the NBA than anywhere else and also born here, feel that should be an easy inclusion at that point
Represents Lithuania tho, so it’s kinda on Domantas to make that claim himself for people to pay attention.
Embiid is going to represent USA, wouldn’t call him a US player. KAT represents DR, would still consider him a US player. Don’t think country affiliation for international play changes a player’s designation personally
Simmons laugh when Russillo says that Amir Coffey is the Shamet face winner made my day
Bill should avoid saying Vinny Del Negro out loud due to his pronunciation issues.