Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: What's up, everybody? This is Rome. This is sources from the sofa.
Back from a little break, more or less. Ever since the World cup, we recapped that last week, and there was. There has been nothing really going on. Unless you want to count the WNBA All Star weekend. We can talk about that if you guys want.
But there was a little F1 action today.
Looks like I got.
I did pretty well calling out who's going to win. I feel pretty good about that. I got a prediction for the rest of the season as well. We learned some news on a makeup track and potential makeup tracks for the rest of the season in case other races, including the last two in the Middle east, get canceled out. And then, more importantly, or maybe not more importantly, I don't know, but I didn't want to talk about it right away. And that's LeBron going to Philly. Aaron, you had him going to Miami. Jason, I don't remember what you had him going to.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: I had him go to Philly, obviously.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Nice. Nice.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: I thought I had him going to Philly. Rome, I don't remember.
You were pretty.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Adam on the Miami train last time we signed off.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: I. I don't remember. I mean, I know Jason. Jason leaked that Miami story on YouTube or whatever, threw everybody off, and then everybody went and went with 60 on the cal Sheep Poly market. And I was like, you know what? This is a little.
Little look this way, go the other way. So I do a little crossover. A little crossover move there. Little cross.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: There's, like, some theories online.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: Go ahead.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I would have said. I'll be honest with him. I was. I was gonna say Miami. It felt like there was a lot of news swirling around, like, you know, Pat Riley.
LeBron, like, you know, patch things up, and, you know, they got, you know, they can't really do much flexibility with. With Giannis and all this type of stuff. And. I don't know, it felt. It felt there was going to be a more calculated, you know, the way LeBron does. Everything's pretty calculated, and there's a. There's like. There's a story and narrative kind of behind everything. Like, he's got, like, thing. You know, it was. You know, I'm. It was. It was going to college, going to Miami, and he had to learn how to win. And then it was going back home, and then it was going to the Lakers with the, you know, historic of the NBA and this and that. So it felt like this was going to be his last dance. It was gonna be like, oh, I'm I'm going back home for the third time to, to put this team over the top again, or I'm going back to Miami to restore something. But yeah, I didn't think this story was there for the 76ers until I started reading. I think the entire organization is represented by clutch sports.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: Basically.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Yeah. The reason why I was rooting for Philly is because out of all the options that seemed like to be the sexiest one and with the most talent, the one that made more basketball sense, at least to me, I think me and, me and Aaron talked about it at one point was the Minnesota Timberwolves that are the San Antonio spurs, who would have been a great cog if they like, say The spurs had LeBron James just for the final five minutes in any one of those games against the Knicks. They're NBA champions right now. That's pretty much that, you know, that's a done deal. It might be even a sweep, but they're missing that final piece. Minnesota, great talent Ant. Go Bear. They got shooters, they got defenders, they got like the whole mix. They're, they're, they're knocking on the door for NBA championship. If it wasn't for the spurs and the length of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Outside of that, though, Miami has no flexibility. They only have Giannis, but nothing else.
Cleveland, they looked really promising a couple years ago.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Hey, they do have Bam. He did score 83 points this year. Roman a game.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: So don't, that's an asterisk.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: I don't count that game. Half of that was at the free throw line.
Another rigged NBA game the regular season.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Bam is talented, but he's not a bonafide. You know, he's out here beating up
[00:03:37] Speaker C: on white boys like me and Jason in Vegas. What the hell's up with that dude?
[00:03:43] Speaker B: I, I, I think you're dismissing Bam. He's not a superstar, but I think he is a star.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: And if, when you pair him and Giannis in the front court, you're about guys down low that are basically clearing the four or five for anyone, for shooters and everything like that. So it would have been, I, I would say somewhat of a fit for LeBron because he wouldn't have had to play the four, wouldn't have had to play down low, which, you know, over his career, doesn't seem like he enjoys playing that physical type of game. He could have been more to the perimeter and, and had had a ball, had the ball in his hands and stuff in Miami, but, I mean, ultimately they're putting something Together special in Philly. And, and, and that's where he went. I, I think the most curious thing for him is I, I saw that. Yeah, he's not even to live in Philly. He's going to take a helicopter from New York City to, to Philly. It's like a 45 minute bro.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Just stay with helicopters.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Hey, we've seen what happened to one.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we don't. Yeah, we don't need another one.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: Yeah, bad weather happens out there, man, especially trust the process. We've heard it for about 10 years.
Finally, I think the process has finally got an exclamation point and we're getting towards the end of that.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Well, Phil, it's really interesting. The only problem is everybody that's on their team is like a bonafide. Like they're entering their prime or they're in their prime or they're becoming a superstar and they have high usage rate. And there's only one basketball, I think Rachel Nichols, which I remember Jason, he had a big old crush on Rachel. Nick Nichols, back in the controversy days. I'm like, who's that? Then I finally watched sports and I'm
[00:05:04] Speaker B: like, hey, that's Rachel.
You're bringing it back.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Be careful, man. Be careful. Okay. That's your typo, right? I respect it.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: I respect it.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Listen to the show anymore. They're not on YouTube, right, Jason? Probably not.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: No, no, she does. She was interested in our conversation.
[00:05:21] Speaker C: She'll be mad at Rome this week, so that's fine. I'll let that go.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: She was interested in our conversation about, about, you know, our local establishment that we go to. You know, she, she was curious, Aaron, that you, that you go to dine there as well, too. Oh, Cisco's at Cisco,
[00:05:38] Speaker C: basically. Huh.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Well, she knew. She, she's a big fan of that restaurant. She's like, Aaron just goes to Cisco by himself. I'm like, yeah, it's, you know, one of the places he probably gets I' over there.
[00:05:46] Speaker C: Dude, I'm vip.
What?
[00:05:52] Speaker A: What a tangent. All right. I totally got lost. All right.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: You went on Rachel Nichols saying that that's Jason's like, sorry, quote unquote side piece. I don't know what that's all about. And then, you know, we brought up Cisco. So maybe, hey, maybe, hey, if Rachel Nichols wants to hang out at Cisco's, we'd be down for that anytime. To do a little one on one interviews.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, no, she's. She's aging really gracefully though. God damn. Anyway, she added like a really cool.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: She might be At Circuit Realm, just
[00:06:18] Speaker A: for FYI, she might be actually.
[00:06:20] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Jason's gonna be there again.
She had a stat. If you add everyone's usage rate, it ends up being 160something% kind of an issue there. It's funny because you have Jalen Brown, right, carry that Celtics team for much of the season until Tatum came back, didn't want to be second fiddle, went off on Twitch, now he's on Philly. Well, dude, now he might be playing third or fourth fiddle because he has younger guys hungrier than him, more eager than him. Plus LeBron's in there, a couple clutch guys. He made that connection. Bob Myers I think might have played a pretty big part in this because he's the architect behind the Golden State years. Now he is the president at Philly. With the Harris Sports Group, someone finally made the connection too. Whereas LeBron wants to be an owner.
So they were talking about like oil with the Mavs and different connections. Harris Group is a pretty big sports entertainment company. And so maybe this is also part of the move where LeBron's kind of shaking, increasing the wheels for a future ownership spot for like the Vegas team. We already know that's going to go for 10 billion. Or the future Seattle team.
Well, we're like two or three years out from that because the NBA Europe is going to be starting off next year.
Lots of different connections. I don't know how it's going to work.
People were saying that with the addition of Jalen Brown, Philly was going to be Super Bowl NBA championship contenders this year. Now with LeBron, now they're doubling down on that.
We've seen super sacked teams, including like the Lakers when they signed Gary Payton and Carl Malone.
Sometimes it works something that doesn't.
But it's a two year deal. 8 million 4. 4 million a piece plus a player option for a third year. So you might.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: So the player options for the third year? Yeah, wasn't sure for the third year.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's pretty crazy. He's thinking about this for a three year contract.
That's pretty wild because what is he entering year 24? That'd be 25, 26.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: He's a year or two older than us, right guys, he's 41 or 42.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: 42. I think it's 42.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: I thought it was a year older than, than us, but yeah. Either way though, considering some of his statement was kind of like really wasn't sure if he was gonna play. And I know it's saying something like that. But yeah, it probably just depends on like what this season kind of looks like. But you know, I'd imagine it's more than one because I feel like he would more. Well, he's gonna have, he's gonna have the goodbye tour.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: He's having a goodbye tour. He's filming a documentary. So he's gonna be doing like a, a Michael Jordan type thing for the next final two, two or three years. One thing I found interesting too, he had an adjustment becoming the third fiddle with the Lakers this year, now the Snowtime Lakers. And now he joins a stacked Philly team, at least from the top down. And like he's still going to be the third or fourth fiddle in there as well. Who knows? Maybe he's.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: What did you just call? What did you just call? The Lakers?
[00:09:13] Speaker A: The Snowtime Lakers. Okay, yeah, I got it. Yeah, the all white team. So he goes from an all white squad to an all black squad in the city of brotherly love.
[00:09:24] Speaker C: You know, I'm not a Laker fan, Rome, but I might have to root for those guys because, you know, no one thinks the white team can win.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: It's a talented white boy team. No one has done it. So I'm curious. I was going to say, I mean
[00:09:33] Speaker C: making a top four seed in the west, I think is pretty good for an all white team in the West.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Jason McIntyre is predicting number three seed for them.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: I always fade. J. Mac, I hate him.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds like it. That sounds like bad for the Lakers. I will get that in dark.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: I will say top five seed for sure.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: See if they can stay healthy. There's a lot of potential. They can still a lot of guys that get hurt.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: It's a lot of potential. I. Yeah, I've heard that word a lot.
Yeah. So LeBron, do you guys like the signing with him going to Philly over Miami over Cleveland? I, I really don't think Cleveland was like a really big option to begin with just because you have Harden. A lot of ball control stuff too as well.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: And then plus Harden's not signed yet, is he?
[00:10:18] Speaker A: He, he. Yeah, he, he did not sign. I think it was for them to make some room, but they didn't make any other acquisitions or trades after that. But one thing about Cleveland though, someone pointed out on X, like, why would he go back? Because here he went back and won the chip and that was kind of like a good home coming. Why would he ruin that for like a third time? And that actually like that clicked a lot.
I'm not sure if LeBron was waiting for a team to make another move. Supposedly, Jaylen Brown going to Philly. That's what really moved the needle for them. Plus, he's like homeboys with.
With one of the young superstars there. Clutch guy as well.
[00:10:53] Speaker C: Pretty unique. Maxi. Maxi,
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: I don't know who all the clutch guys are, but.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And then KCP's gonna be going back there, too.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I saw that he's going there. Yeah.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: You guys dig it. You guys love it. You guys think it improves their odds. You still got New York there. Who knows what Indiana, you know, Indiana would have made sense too, though. That would have been a nice pickup. But anyway, it's not sexy at all. No, no, he's going to Indiana.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: No, no, for. For LeBron. We sign him for the veterans minimum. You know, there's, there's a ton of talent there. They were going to be great without LeBron. So you're adding, you know, one of the greats of all time. It's to your question, Rome, like, there's only one ball. A lot of ball dominated people. Where is he going to fit in except kind of what role? But I mean, at the same time, it's about getting this thing ready for the postseason because how many games is Joel Embiid play? How many games does LeBron play? And so it's like, it's, you know, it's gonna be. There's one of those offenses, like, is, do all five guys get in the lineup or is it all kind of on Maxi and Brown? And I forgot the other young guy's name. That, that's pretty good on that team. That thing you're thinking about.
[00:12:01] Speaker C: What are they calling vj? Bj, I believe his initials.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah, but, you know, I, I. So I think you're going to get into a thing where, you know, during the regular season, you know, we're not going to know kind of what this thing looks like and what's going to be the RA team ready for the playoffs. What are the, like Edgecomb. That's what it is.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: He's really good.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I like him.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: But I mean, where the Celtics kind of look like. The Celtics are really good last year without Tatum. And, you know, I know your guy Simmons and all the Boston people don't love, you know, the Jalen Brown trade with Paul George and stuff, but the Celtics make weird things. They, I mean, the Celtics make weird things work. So, I mean, I'm not completely dismissing them as being a team that's out there, too. They know they got to recalibrate whatever they had, you know it's all three points or nothing the last know couple seasons and gave them a great regular season but if they weren't shooting well. Cool. They're out in the first round.
The Knicks I guess bringing everybody back for the most part and just got to run this back. So it's up there. Miami and the. The east is gonna be more competitive. But yeah, I think Vegas odds prove this. Hey Phillies now I think they're the favorites, right Aaron in the East I
[00:13:04] Speaker A: think they're tied with.
[00:13:06] Speaker C: Yeah. What were they? I think it's New York. And then what do they have the fifth best title odds. I think Philly does to win behind kind of what New York, okc, San Antonio.
Somewhere in that mix. Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: And for. And for LeBron Rome, like you said, going where he went. Minnesota may have been good from a basketball sense, but getting out of the west and going to the East I think is his best path because man, you're just. You're just going to run up against Oklahoma City and San Antonio and everyone can say what they want about those two particular teams. Oklahoma City wasn't healthy during the playoffs and then you know, San Antonio, this was kind of their introduction to the playoff year. They made it all the way to the finals and and so I don't think this is out the realm of possibility that these are basically the 12 seed in the Western Conference and everyone else is just a notch below and they're just have to be extraordinarily lucky where in the East. I mean you're just kind of wide open like no one was. No one is really talking about the Knicks. They were kind of one, you know, that was about it. But then, hey, Boston was going to make a run or you know, Cleveland had a good start to the season. You know the Pistons meander on a little bit and so I think it's just. It just becomes wide open where hey, Philly's got a lot of good guys. Can they figure out a way to make it work? They'll probably have a good regular season record because if they don't play everyone, they're just gonna. They're gonna still gonna be able to win a lot of games. And so where does it then match up in the playoffs and how they're playing?
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah, they still got the two young guys, so it's Maxi Edgecomb Brown. I imagine they're gonna probably play a majority of the games.
Joel Embiid, he needs to get healthy and I know he's been pretty bulky A little bit on the heavier side.
Does he play more than 50 games? Does LeBron even get close to the 60 games that he played that this past year with the Lakers? I would like. I'm kind of curious if you can do like an over under on combined games. Played on 100 games for them too, for. For the season. I'd go on see how they look going to the playoffs. Right? You would go under?
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Well, yeah. I mean, indeed. I mean, what is indeed averaging?
I don't know.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Can we look that up real quick?
[00:15:07] Speaker C: I. I had the number. It's like he's played like 62 or 67 games over the last two years. It's a weird number. That's.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: That's bad.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: So. But Yeah, I think LeBron, he'll get. He'll get 60, 65 games in for me. I'm not worried about Embiid missing time because look and be missed a ton of time.
Paul George was suspended 7, 25 games last year because of. Was it steroid use or whatever he was doing?
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Paul George.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: So, yeah, he was suspended 25 games. Yeah. For some kind of drug test. He failed some kind of drug test. And this team still finished in the seventh seed. Now they had Jalen Brown Maxi, I think. And look, they got a really good coach. Nick Nurse is underrated. He's really very good coach. He's a really good coach. He won in Toronto. He's kind of made some stuff work there in Philadelphia. I agree. I think Minnesota from a basketball standpoint would have been really good. But like Jason said, get out of the West.
LeBron James, I mean, look at outside of the COVID year, had never been to the NBA finals when he was in the west, in the East. He's been to what, like eight or nine NBA Finals in a row.
Obviously, right now Cleveland's getting weaker. I mean, we'll see if they sign Harden, but they've lost some role players. You know, we should have saw this all come and we write Philadelphia signed D. Wade, the white version D. Wade, and now he's in Philadelphia. So we should have saw the writing on the wall just off that alone.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Cleveland's weird because they were really. They surprised us all two years ago. But I think it's just a mental thing. There's something wrong there mentally because Kenny Atkins, he's a hell of a coach, dude. He improved them like, what so much in year one. He thought they might take another jump in year two, but it kind of hit a wall again in the playoffs. They just.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: I don't know why they traded and got rid of Darius Garland for Harden.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: No, I mean I get that.
[00:16:47] Speaker C: I mean I get they didn't want to spend maybe the money do like a match like the Lakers did with Reeves and give him like 200 million 180 because if he's had some foot problems and whatever he's got going on. But you never in my opinion trade in a, a top notch young guard for a veteran that's basically on the downside of his career. To me that makes no sense.
And you saw in the playoffs look Harden got exposed. I mean he's been exposed his whole career in the playoffs.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: But it hurt him, it hurt him soft.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: They were the one seed the year before Rome like you mentioned and look at they ran into Indiana. Indiana was just on fire.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: I mean Indiana couldn't miss.
[00:17:23] Speaker C: They beat the Knicks. It went on Indiana. I think it's a wild card in the East. But yeah, I think Philly's easily a top four team in the east without a doubt unless major injuries happen. But so I don't, I don't see why they don't finish in the top
[00:17:34] Speaker A: four and be played 38 games last
[00:17:37] Speaker C: year and like Ronnie said played what, 60.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: I think he played 60. Just under 65. I don't know exact number.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: So that pitchy right there at that
[00:17:45] Speaker A: point right up there, that'd be fun if we can make that bet.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: I would take the under. I mean yeah, you can give us some odds on it Rome. We can do something with it.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: We'll find out circa if we can do that. Maybe that's like a poly. I'll go a bet.
[00:18:00] Speaker C: Yeah, might as well put it on the poly market. Sources from the sofa. Open bet over under 100 and a half.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: We could actually offer our own bets on one of the platforms actually we got time.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Maybe we should do that.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll say under, I'll say under 100 and a half games.
We'll go minus 125. Let's get some juice on that. Minus 125. We'll go plus plus 105 the other way at over.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:18:30] Speaker C: 100 and a half games. So you can put that on there for Cal State or Volley Market.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: All right. When it, when it was announced finally, I think I was listening to Dan Patrick show that Thursday morning or Friday and, and, and Fritzi was singing a song for LeBron to sign with the team and then minutes later that's when they broke the news. So they were joking.
That's the song that, you know, moved a LeBron to make a decision.
I wasn't surprised at all.
I, I, I wasn't, I wasn't. Were you guys surprised? Scale 1 through 10, was it like, high shock value? Not shock value.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: I would say medium shock value. I think it wasn't like a team completely out of nowhere. I just think what it wasn't one of the favorites. Miami, I think, had all the juice because of, you know, some of the stuff going out there with, like, I just said, like, social media stuff that I talked about. And then there, there was just talking. I think Riley was kind of in the media talking about, like, you know, fences have been mended and is what it is, blah, blah, blah. So they were definitely making a play, but I think Philly had been mentioned. I just don't know how, like, real it kind of was. And then the Golden State thing never seemed to kind of die down, even though that was kind of, it didn't seem like it had a ton of steam posted. I know that was kind of like the consensus during the end of the season, but I don't think that gained a ton of them. So I don't think it was completely surprised. I would have been more shocked if, you know, what your guys suggested where it was like Minnesota or, you know, Rome. You just said Indiana or, hell, if he went to the Bulls for some strange reason or something like that, it would have been like a shocking thing to me. So I don't know. It was, he was obviously going to a contender. That's what everyone said. He's going, he's going. Some player, he's going to win. I guess the more shocking thing to me in not knowing, not looking at any of the cap stuff about this, where this guy had, you know, LeBron had taken Max money everywhere, and now he's to the point where is he taking a veterans minimum for this to sign?
[00:20:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: And so that was a little bit surprising to me, I'd say where, I mean, even remember when he went to Miami, they did the signing trade and everything, and then they were able to get, you know, the bigger contracts out of that. So I think that was a little bit of an interesting price there where it's like he's going to take a veterans minimum. So this is, this is, this is all in on, on winning the fifth ring.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: I, I think the problem is just this second apron stuff just really screwed up how the market works, and all the rules are just backwards. So there really anyone who had cast space to sign up for More money wasn't an attractive option for him. And anyone is who is a good option doesn't have the space for it either. So either way, it was probably like a little harsh reality for him that kind of, you know, unless people move players and tough contracts, he was not going to be getting even close to the same money he was making.
But for him to, you know, I guess he wants to be accepted a little more than what he was accepted down in la, but basically kind of accepting, maybe the same, if not a lesser role with the Philadelphia 76ers and for less money.
That is what's surprising to me. That's a little shocking.
[00:21:44] Speaker C: So 4,4 million is not a lot of money, Rome, because remember, everybody was trying to get what, 13, 15 million people are saying maybe 8 or 9 is not enough.
Well, now he's got a two year deal for 8 million total. I'd say on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm about a 4. I think coming into it, I think the warriors were his first choice, but that was contingent on them getting Anthony Davis, I think. So once the Wizards, once the Wizards scrapped that, they had no chance. I think the other option was in Cleveland, the hometown story like you guys touched on. But I think they went back and looked how bad Cleveland got whipped by the Knicks.
And we're just like, dude, like I. And they're losing players, not a good fit. Minnesota, we mentioned, yeah, they could go in the west, but still, even if LeBron goes there are the third best team in the west, probably because the OKC and San Antonio are the top two teams. And both those teams got better in the off season too, through the draft and other acquisitions. And then Philly got Jalen Brown and that kind of made LeBron, I think, pause and go like, wait, I like Maxi, I like, you know, V.J. i like brown.
What can we get at Embiid? You got a championship coach like we mentioned in Nick Nurse, and a whole new kind of like GM management group going on in Philadelphia. And look, if you look, Philadelphia hasn't won an NBA title since what, going Back to what, Dr. J days, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, so, hey, man, I mean, I, I think it's a good fit form.
Obviously he's going to have to perform there because Philadelphia fans, they don't care who you are. You got a ball out, you got to deliver. If not, they will let you know about it. And maybe LeBron needs that now. You know, Laker fans never really embraced them. I think Philadelphia will embrace them. They're all about, hey, winning.
Let's see what happens.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: I tweeted this when the News came out. LeBron was pretty supportive or like he loved the Philadelphia fans over the last couple years because even though they kind of talk on him, they gave him standing ovations for having great performances. He's like, you know, I really appreciate this fan base because they're, they're still going to give you, but they just like their team, like they're their home team no matter what. But they still show me some love. I think that actually meant a lot as well. So he's going to the city of brotherly love.
We'll see how it turns out.
Basketball's still far away, but before that though, we have NFL, so I'm excited for that, but not yet.
Any final comments before we take a quick break and transition over to F1?
Do you guys have any comments to the WNBA All Stars? You guys catch that?
[00:24:24] Speaker B: I'll be honest, I did not know what was going on.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: Rome.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Nice, solid guys.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: That's, that's, that's your, that's your lane. That's, that's your feet.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: I just remember like four players not participating in the three point contest and, and some other stuff.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: I, I, I'm getting a little tired of like the Caitlin Clark, you know, bashing like, like their commissioner. She's, she's out after this year. I did not watch it. I've not watched a full game this year.
[00:24:47] Speaker C: Isn't Adam Silver kind of the real commissioner behind the scenes of that league?
[00:24:51] Speaker A: I don't, Is that a good sign? Is that a good sign?
[00:24:54] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: I, I, it doesn't feel like it. And if he is like he's just got whoever I forgot the commissioner's name for. WBC's just out there as is just taking, taking all the bullets and everything. But then, yeah, we talked about this what, two weeks ago or last week about, you know, the Dan Patrick show, like fiasco and her not taking questions and just the what during their CBA negotiations and where things are at and you know, the different stuff about Caitlin Clark, it's, I don't know. There's, I mean the good, the good thing for the WNBA is like, I think it's, it's at a, it's at a reputation. We're talking about things that are in the mainstream media that's like, hey, this
[00:25:31] Speaker A: is a, the fact that on right now it's probably a good thing because they've kind of made it right.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: I mean you're 20. What are we, 25 years into this league or 26 years since the league first started, or even longer than that? I think it'd be 30 years or something at this point.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Them in the MLS? Yeah, very similar.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yeah. But I mean now you're to the point where like, hey, like this is, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about this stuff on talk shows and it's, it may be on First Take. I don't know, maybe Stephen A talked about it. But you're gonna, you're gonna talk about the, the things that matter where, like you weren't going to talk about the collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA 10 years ago. Like, this is a big story and you're, you know, there's stars in the league, that trend on different platforms and everything like that now too. So it's, it's, it's graduated to another level in this country.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I will say someone did a dirty chop up on like Instagram. I can't. I think it's called Brick Center. It's on X and like Instagram showing the highlights of the All Star game. And it's just like, miss, like bad miss layups, bad air balls.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: But dude, they got like 113 points, didn't they?
[00:26:32] Speaker A: It was a high scoring game still. Yeah, they show like a few missed laws because some girl dunked in the game as well.
Dominica, she's with the Liberty, I think.
[00:26:44] Speaker C: How many women have actually dunked in the wnba? Is it up to. We have to like five or ten now?
[00:26:49] Speaker A: I, I just know Lisa Leslie, that's about it.
Parker, I think she did it one time. Yeah, that's about it, man. That's it.
Everyone hasn't been like, what about this girl?
[00:27:01] Speaker C: You said this girl. What, Dominique?
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah, she's dunked, I guess in practice. I guess she does like Ali use in practice, but not like in a game. This was an official game. But that, that got like a little love. Even though they throw like a lot of bad lobs.
Ken the Car cast some pretty big threes, but that's about it though.
[00:27:17] Speaker C: If there's no girls can dunk, then there's not going to be. You're not, you're not practicing lobs.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: I mean, that's just the bottom line. I, I remember when I played AAU ball, we were practicing lobs at 14, 15 years old to guys that could dunk. So there's a big difference.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Big difference. All right, let's take a quick break, come back, let's talk a little F1.
All right, we are back to talk a little F1 today. We're recording Sunday night, by the way, Sunday late night.
So we're gonna be upping our average for Sunday night recordings because of today's.
Because Jason was talking last time we
[00:27:54] Speaker B: literally record just tonight. Just because I was talking in the
[00:27:57] Speaker C: last pod about not recording the east coast. People might not count as about all day back in the New York time.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: So the Hungarian Grand Prix was today.
Fun race, lots of excitement, more penalties. Hamilton just keeps on getting hammered and he has some pretty choice comments about how they're just handing out like free tickets. I think that's what he said after the race because he got hit that cost him. I think he went from fourth or fifth or like third or fifth.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: He went fourth down.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Fourth, fifth. Yeah, so.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: And then even started the race from a penalty in the qualifying session too that he had P2 out of qualifying. It was hit a three place grid penalty.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: I would love for you to explain what Hamilton's getting hit with because now this is like a few times he's been hit with speeding too much. And in the pit was this like the third race or three out of the last four races he's been hit with at least five or ten seconds. I think like he got hit with a ten second one on one race.
And I don't know where do you want to start with the Hungarian Granby because my guy, our guy Norris, finally wins the McLaren car. Looking nice, those upgrades. They kind of made adjustments from the last race now to this one looking like a really, really, really pretty good upgrades.
[00:29:11] Speaker C: The other one gets a gearbox that can't finish the race.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: But he was doing good this race too though. He was doing fine.
He had like a little bump and grind with Carlos signs.
Not good dancing the blue flags. I heard there was a lot of issues with that. Yeah, with this he's like, oh, if you guys don't know, if they don't do those blue flags is what happens because apparently no one's paying attention. That kind of him up and then he was in second and his gearbox goes out. He done. He retires.
Russell, he had some more trouble right in this race off this, off the
[00:29:44] Speaker B: start to put it in like auto die mode or something. On the start he just went from first to 20, right? Yeah, he was in 20th by turn one.
It was like the anti gridlock mode or something like that.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah, man. I guess let's just start off with Lando. Defending champion, finally wins his first race of the season. Looking really good. He's had quite a few podiums, so he's still in the mix. Top five driver right now and points wise in the driver's championship. Finally puts it all together with all the upgrades. How did he win this and what happened? Why was it so much better than the last one?
[00:30:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I think starting with qualifying, he got a little bit of a gift in qualifying because there was another, I think, Verstappen spin out that caused some yellow flags and Lewis didn't get to get a second lap in on the final qualifying to improve his time. And so he was able to start on pole and, and I mean, Lando's looked good in, you know, the past couple races. This McLaren car starting to get a little racier. It's got the Mercedes engine that, you know, that the Mercedes works team like, obviously had done so much. And the McLaren team made their name in the last regulations in the ground effect era on, you know, finding the best aerodynamic packages on that. And while this car is not solely dependent on the arrow, it was only a matter of time until this team figured out, you know, the power and everything that that goes with the car. And I, I just think the McLaren team just started to take another step up, which I think a lot of people expected they would. And you saw it early in the race because you had Lando and Oscar being fairly dominant, especially in the clean air.
And so I, yeah, Lando looks the fastest. Even throughout the race when Oscar was ahead. Lando is basically kind of saying, get out of the way, like, I'm faster than Oscar. And when he got in the clean air, he really proved it. And so, yeah, like you said, Rome, defending world champion, I think finally getting the hang of what this car is going to be. And while McLaren maybe taken, you know, 10 races to kind of figure it out exactly where they at without the, you know, some reliability things and just not putting the pieces together in those first five, six races or whatever it was. I think things are starting to click where it's more of a threat to the dominance that really was Mercedes overall and kind of clicking right at the heels of Ferrari at this point and going for kind of the second best team on the grid. So. But, I mean, yeah, but I think both cars were clicking the gearbox piece, though. I don't know if they actually clarified after the race because there was some speculation that it was Oscar's fault on the gearbox that he had gone over.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: I think somebody from the engineer room flipped the switch, right? The, the old, I mean, they were
[00:32:24] Speaker B: talking about some of the curbs that are in Budapest. And I think in some of these tracks are like that. The curbs all look nice and flat and they hit them and stuff. But if you ground this thing out at a certain point there. There was some talk. Did he hit some of these curves in the bottom? Because I think there was some communication to. To Lando as far as like, hey, keep everything on the track because, you know, there's potential. This is what happened to Oscar with the gearbox as far as like grounding the things out and some of the curbs around the track, because they're very pressing about like.
I think, I think the, the. The audio message that his thing was like, lando kind of enough, you've proved your point type thing now, like, back it off. Because he was just. He was out front just, just going through it. Like, no one was even close to him once he checked out.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: What happened, though? Because didn't Lando have to give up his position to piastri at one point in the race?
[00:33:12] Speaker B: He lost in the beginning.
[00:33:14] Speaker C: Yeah, right.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Right in the front.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Like, I did see the first lap.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Down into turn one. I mean, you know, you had. George obviously was. Was peeling back.
Charles didn't have the greatest of start, so Lewis and Charles were kind of right there. Oscar obviously got a great start. And so it was a shuffle going down, down into turn one. And then once Oscar got preferential, you know, in the line, once you're the lead car, you get the preferential pit stop.
But, you know, Lando went a little long on that first pit to be able to get some more tires. And then, you know, from there.
You mentioned the Carlos science incident for Oscar once he kind of got back into the shuffle, got behind some of these lap cars.
And there was kind of that incident with.
With Oscar slowed him down. And so the pit cycle, it just didn't. It just didn't happen for Oscar at that point, which obviously he was in kind of no words, but yeah, you. You mentioned the blue flags. I guess throughout the track, the blue lights that are out there are just going everywhere. And so I think the drivers had no idea.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Like, yeah, dude, how does that, like.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: Well, I don't think it was signs. They. I mean, I think with the post race, they were basically saying, like the lead lap guys were like getting blue lights when they were going too. And so were they saying, like, like, hey, I'm battling for the lead right now. Why is this thing telling me to, like, blue flag it? Let somebody buy it?
[00:34:34] Speaker C: Looks like, honestly, it was just going off for like 30 straight laps. I don't think they turned them off every time they kept showing them because the announcers was like, oh man, the blue flags, the engineers got to be on there telling them, check your mirrors and all this stuff. But there could have been a lot more incidents. I mean, Science Piastre was one. But there are so many guys that weren't like letting lead guys. I mean, Kimmy Lewis, they got all behind these guys.
That allowed Verstappen to really get back in the mix and get back to second as well. So yeah, the blue flag was an issue.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: It's not a, I mean it wasn't, it's, it's, it's not a wide track either. And that's the other thing, you know, for signs and stuff. As these guys were getting, the leaders were getting dumped out into traffic where things are at, you know, and if you're, if you're getting passed and you're supposed to let somebody buy, you're trying to get them in a certain point of thing, were you slow? You know, if your signs, you kind of pull over. But he was, he was with another car at that moment. So he's trying, he's kind of battling for position himself too. That was, that was where they're getting to the end of the race because the leaders were lapping cars that were in the points.
And so it was like the Audi and the racing bulls at that point. So you got to get out of the way. But you're also battling for position and points too. And so that's where the kind of the goofy thing of F1 is like, hey, you're supposed to just give the plate, you know, let them pass you by. But depending on where they hit you in the track, it's not always the most convenient thing in this track, particularly, like I said, not a lot of great places to pass.
You didn't see the electrical stuff happen in this track because there's just a ton of like slow moving turns where the, the regeneration of the battery was pretty easily. So when you got to the, you know, the two kind of bigger stretches in this court, in the track, you know, everyone had full batteries because they're able to charge a ton in this lap. They're not just running, you know, the battery, although draining it down, you're able to recharge pretty quickly. And so that led a lot of, kind of the inability to kind of use that boost mode to pass in a lot of the, in like the main stretch and stuff where I Think for people looking into turn one.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: So Lando finishes first, Verstappen second. Antonelli gets third to increase his lead over both Hamilton and Russell. Russell drops down to seven.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: If I didn't, if I didn't tell you Rome or if you didn't look that Verstappen finished second and you just listened to this guy about this car would have thought you would have thought he DNF'd at some point.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Like literally this is one of his better races. And he still complained a lot.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: Yeah, basically just like this is a piece of get me out of this. I don't know what the you people
[00:37:02] Speaker C: are doing like all weekend, all weekend early in this race.
And then like even like you guys said he finishes second, he's like, ah. I, I really don't know. I'm just, I'm just happy to be here. I don't know. I mean this car is sucks but yeah, here I am.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: It was a big gap dude. 15 seconds of verstappen him and Anton pretty close. Another big gap to LeClaire and Hamilton.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Oh, I mean once, once Atlanta got there like I said it was, it was there but I mean Max was, I mean Max had some good. I mean he passed Lewis going into turn one. That was almost, that was almost a, you know a wreck early in the. Earlier in the race. I don't think Lewis expect him to kind of just gonna let send it at that point and it got really tighter on there so. But man it was, it was hilarious with Max in this car at this point. I, I'm, I'm leaning more. This guy just doesn't. Is not an F1 next year. I think that is just where I am almost sitting. I, I just don't know. I, I just can't. I can't picture him going back to Red Bull and I honestly just don't know what team really wants him at this point.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: Does it give up all that money though? Does he give up all that money?
[00:38:07] Speaker A: Well, he's gonna be making money either way.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: I, I just. Yeah, I. He's to a point now when you look at what he's done with you know the endurance races when he did.
I think he did the neurobird ring and some of these other stuff where he's done like they got like record viewership and all this stuff with him going out there. So he's kind of built this name now in kind of in the racing world that he's gonna bring eyeballs to who's kind of whatever other circuits and type of racing. He does so like.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: Like in the F1 movies. Sonny, he just likes to race.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: Sunny days.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what Verstappen I kind of see. Like, he can just like jump.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: Does Verstappen step away for a year or two and then come back, or is he like. If he steps away, he doesn't come back?
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Honestly, I'm honestly leaning he comes back, but I honestly do. Do think he steps away because I think he hates these regulations, which a lot of people do. New cars. Yeah, the new cars. So I know there's obviously going to make changes next year. And so does he kind of look back and see, you know, gives it next year and sees what's happened. Maybe there's a. There's an opportunity the year after, the year after that. I mean, Max is still young, and if he wants to do it. I mean, you look at these drivers now, it's not like back in the day where these guys got. Maybe got five, six years and. Right. You know, the legends are kind of out and people were, you know, you know, back in the day, guys. Guys were dying, you know, just because of how dangerous this sport was.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: And now you got Lewis and Fernando Alonzo well into their 40s, who aren't giving up anytime soon. And, you know, I think there's an opportunity to come back. Even like greats like Michael Schumacher, like, he retired and then he came back and helped launch kind of this Mercedes team for a few years. And, you know, he wasn't dominant like he was in his era, but he came back. And I. I just think Max is young enough where he can pick and choose his team and just be that kind of this looming, massive free agent where, hey, I can take away he's got a new baby that he had this last year, and. And then just figure out what he wants to do. But I. The more I listen to him every week, I'm like, this guy does not want to be an F1. I. He is just over this.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: Like, he hates his job. Dude, you could. You could tell when someone hates their job.
[00:40:03] Speaker C: I don't think he said one positive thing in the last two months.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: Yeah, no, they're gonna show up, but they hate every second of it.
[00:40:09] Speaker B: Just has no to gives. He knows I'm the best. These people are idiots. There's a. There's a. This. I'm gonna lose to everyone, including you guys on this, but. Are you familiar with the wrestler CM Punk?
[00:40:20] Speaker A: A little bit.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: Okay, so CM Punk famously, you know, left wwe, held this controversy, comes back to professional wrestling and goes to all elite wrestling. So it's the. The secondary wrestling company. And he fam blow up in AEW as well too. And there was a post pay per view press conference that was basically real life. And he's sitting up there all beat to and he's like, I'm tired beat up and I work with children. And it just, it was next to the owner of the company.
I mean that's basically what Max is just like. I just like I'm tired of this. I hate this car. You know, I don't like any of the team. Everyone is left red.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: That press conference got so much publicity though. Like it made all the major channels. Main street, even CNN covered it. Like that's how of a big, big deal was with. With cnn punk.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Yep. So I. That's where just you feel with Max and this point. I. I mean like I said, I get. We talked. We talked in a couple of these episodes. Is it McLaren and Mercedes I talked to. But at this point I think the more likely is thing is they hey, he's not going to come back and he'll take a few years and figure out where things are assessed. But I mean going into the bigger portion of this race, George Russell, man, I mean that was you just for everything Max is going through now George is going through it too. Because you had this car that was supposed to be dominant and anything that can go wrong every weekend for this guy is just, is just gone.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Did you hear what Lando said about him?
I didn't know they were asking him about like, you know, oh, you've had your sheriff's, you know, troubles with McLaren. Like, what do you have to say with what Russ is going through?
Because Russell, you know, changed his driving style a little bit. But it's not his driving style, it's the car. Right.
And Lando says something to the effect I'm paraphrasing here. It's like my car has never worked with my driving. So I've had to change it every race every year.
So I don't, you know, he's not like you either learn or you don't. Maybe you're just not good enough to race in an F1 if you're having trouble.
[00:42:19] Speaker B: It's fair. I said that in a pod earlier this year where George is coming out saying like, ah, you know, Monaco, it's not my best track. Miami, not my best track. This, that this track doesn't so rich boys coming out.
Yeah. And it's just like that's where he's you know, he's kind of just you know, despoiled, maybe even Karen, you know, just kind of complaining about everything to a certain point that goes through. It's like, man, like you got the most dominant car and you're getting worked, you know, by you know, the, the 19, you know, year old prodigy. Now in his defense, we talked about the last pod. Something was wrong with his car.
[00:42:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: And they finally Mercedes, you know, since we record last spot like dug in days. They did reveal they found something code issue, right? Yeah. With the straight line speed and, and so. But it obviously didn't help in this race. And so the car still ain't great, but he's still not meshed into the car too.
And so there's just a lot of questions and I think the, the best thing kind of for George I would say right now is that if McLaren starts to get a little racy and you know, if Max is continue to potentially like haul this piece of crap Red Bull that he's gonna do, you know, to some points. I mean Kimi's not lion's share of like hey, he's just going to dominate, win everything. 25 points and he's going to, you know, cook everyone back. I mean he able to extend the lead, his lead in this race or in the championship by only five points. And so if other people are winning or some other stuff, I mean that's the only thing maybe kind of keeping George, you know, within kind of a fighting distance if he can go on a run.
But I mean you got Lewis 50 points back. I think George is 59 points back.
You know, so those are kind of the only two. Lando and Charles and Max got a lot to a lot of ground. Yeah, a lot, a lot of ground to make up. They're gonna have to have a hell of a second half. And then the other thing we were before we got to the pod, like I don't know how many races are left. That's the other thing. Because you got this uncertainty.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: I have our answer. I have around.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: Okay, well how, how many races are left?
[00:44:19] Speaker A: All right, so how many races are are on the year total
[00:44:24] Speaker B: traditional schedule?
[00:44:25] Speaker A: All right, so the contracts with all the media rights.
[00:44:28] Speaker C: 24 for the right for the media
[00:44:30] Speaker A: has to have at least 22 active races. So the fact that two already got canceled and today was announced that they got a makeup. So it's still gonna be Bahrain, but at Malaysia. So Bahrain still wants credit. They're footing a lot of the bill.
Yeah, but they're still Going to get a lot of revenue out of it. Well, they're just gonna get a little piece. It's a track that was already going to be used next season. I guess they're doing some renovations, but no race has been there for, what, five, six years at least.
Maybe 2017. Maybe 2017. Maybe that's what it is.
So with the wars going on, Qatar and Abu Dhabi might get canceled as well. Who knows? There's a lot of things kind of moving back in the. In the wrong direction right now. As long as they make up another one, they're all in good contractual standing. So at the very least, we will get 22 races. If those last two races get canceled there, we have a couple backup tracks. One of them that's leading the race is going to be in Italy, back in the president's hometown. I can't remember the name of that one, but that one's going to probably be the one that gets it since there's another track that's coming back onto the F1 circuit next year. They kind of need the time to do renovations. So at the very least, we're gonna get 22.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Emma loves the track.
Previously. Previously been on the F1 calendar. Got taken off for the Madrid race this year, and it lost its kind of effort.
[00:45:54] Speaker C: I believe Madrid or Barcelona is open to a second race, too, if needed to fill this contract.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: I guess it'll be Barcelona. I also know, and I told you guys the sport. My source is telling me that Vegas also doing a repeat race, you know, having two consecutive races.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: I have heard it. I have heard it.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: So that's out. That's out. That's out there as well, too, because now you're just F1 just stays in Vegas. And if you, if you get this, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, okay, you're great there. You only got to make up one more to run two. Two straight races in Vegas. They don't have to do logistical stuff. You keep, you know, everything's already.
Because they did that during the COVID year. You had two consecutive races like the British Grand Prix. They raced twice in England and some other stuff just to fulfill. I forgot how many races they did in 2020, but, like, they've done, you know, multiple tracks. Like, that year is, is my most recent memory of stuff during the COVID year. So.
Yeah, we'll see. I, I, I think, you know, you're. If they're, if they're already engaging in conversations with, like, Imola, you know, it's.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: Apparently that's Italy. It's basically a done deal.
Yeah, I can see that.
[00:47:10] Speaker B: It's. It's already graded. You know, you probably will get, you know, the Italian fan base will show up. It's not as big as Monza. Monza, like the.
[00:47:19] Speaker C: I mean, Kimmy, you gotta, you gotta. Yeah, exactly.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Italian, maybe.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: Well, the funny, the funny part, in circles around this, like, the Italians don't care about Kimi for the most part because it's not Ferrari. Like, they, it's. It's Ferrari.
And so it's just like they're, they're, they're lying and they're living and dying for Ferrari. Like, they, they don't care where the driver's from. They just, they want to go with the car. So. Okay, so if you, if, if it
[00:47:44] Speaker C: comes down to the car, man, I've been telling them that for a while. They don't listen.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: So it comes down to Lewis, Louis v. Antonelli in Italy for the championship.
They're gonna, they're gonna ride for Hamilton. That's.
I mean, I, you know, not that we're gonna say, but we start influencing some results because obviously Lewis gets a penalty every race. But if you had Antonelli vs Lewis to end it in Imola, I mean, that's, that's, that's a blockbuster, you know, season finale. You guys weren't watching F1 for the Abu Dhabi Verstappen Lewis showdown when they were tied going into the final race. That had all the controversy where Lewis got the eighth title stolen from him.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: You know what? This could be the makeup, this break, you know, as we do, like the baseball, you know, preview in the next week or so. We're having like a little slowdown before we get into football because once football starts, we're gonna be recording two, three times a week. Again. I will catch up on F1, watch drive to Survive, whatever it's called on Netflix. I'll catch up on all the old races. That way I can have more context on what you're always talking about.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: All right. Yeah.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: I mean, this is. Try to survive is a good cheat for that. I, if you can get. I know you don't got Apple. I don't know if they get the full F1TV. You can go back and watch older races on there. I gotta check that, but I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere real quick.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: I thought we're gonna do like a 30 minute pot again. I always miss calculating 30 minutes on LeBron.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: You know, if you're gonna get me talking racing, I'm gonna give you 30 minutes too. That's a quick hour. I don't know. I don't know why you undersell our ability to talk with Norris.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: There's a teaser, teaser going into this
[00:49:18] Speaker A: show too, with Norris winning today. I really like the McLaren car. They're making like a lot of good adjustments. We have 12 races left, right. For the end of the year, presumably.
[00:49:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Presumably, yeah. Over, under. Norris wins four more of those.
Because I'm betting Norris wins at least four more.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: You got to either say we got to go at half number, right? I mean, going four, you could get a push. So either what are you going four and a half. You really go up to four and a half or what?
Or is it three and a half?
[00:49:54] Speaker A: I think it's three and a half, then over under. Norris is going to go on like a little streak here in the second half. When we come back, he's gonna win quite a few races, get in the top three, I presume, and put some pressure on both Hamilton and Antonelli for the Drivers Championship the close of the year. That's my prediction.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: I. If you're telling me three and a half, you're setting it at, I would probably take the under.
I just still think you got too much with Antonelli, too much with both Ferraris. I think Piastri is going to stick his nose in here. He was racy today as well too.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: He'll probably win one.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So I, I think that's a little bit too much. I do think he'll definitely win some races. It's not a bad take Rome because yeah, he can he get.
If he's going to make a stake to the championship, being as far back as he does, he needs to go on kind of a run, you know, where, where are the tracks that he's going to go on a run at? Because if you think about last, it's. It's going to be this September time because down the stretch last year, remember, like he was given, he was given points back to Max and Oscar, you know, and they're in that last run now. We're not racing in the Middle east potentially and so it may not. Not mean as much, you know, got. He has disqualified in Vegas for all that stuff going on.
But that, that North American run, I
[00:51:15] Speaker A: just think because he has a championship, he is driving a little more comfortably. Not as nervous. He hasn't made dumbness. It's just been like the car issues so far. They made the proper upgrades. He looked really good today. He's looked good all season long. Just hasn't had the car to perform. I think now he has it. I think he wins.
I'm gonna say he wins four out of the next 12 races.
[00:51:35] Speaker C: Three and a half's a lot. Rome.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: It is a lot.
But that's my take, though. That's my take. I'm feeling really confident as well. I will put a bet on. On one of these platforms when we go to Vegas.
[00:51:46] Speaker C: We'll see if there's odds. I would pin it more at. I put more realistically 1 1/2 over under, if you can get something like that. Because I agree with Jason. I mean, yeah, he's got the car right now. They made the upgrades. I mean, look, they made so many upgrades. They got intense grid penalty last time.
But look it, we got the summer break. Other teams are going to come back with upgrades. We'll see what happens with Russell.
Ferrari's been quick all year. Pre op street was good today.
I would put it more so at one and a half. If it was one and a half, I take the over. Three and a half. I take the under. I think he probably wins at least two.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: If you. So Rome, we starting at Netherlands. At the Dutch Grand Prix last year, do you remember how many races Lando won from the Dutch Grand Prix to the end of the season?
[00:52:34] Speaker A: He just won two, actually.
[00:52:37] Speaker B: Yep. He only won in Mexico and Brazil.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: So, I mean, I just. Not to start to say that's a trend or anything. This is where Max went on a hot streak. Now, maybe he's Max this year.
[00:52:47] Speaker A: Maybe he's going on, you know, he's won the championships. I'll be driving the same way. It's a lot of pressure winning your first one.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: I just. I just think there's going to be more competition for these wins. I think there's still something left in the Ferrari. I think there's still something left with Mercedes because they. Mercedes has been the dominant car, but they're just tinkering with the damn thing every week and like, is it dominant? But it blows up and, you know, then they got all these other things happening in races.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Races. Even if he wins four, there's still eight others.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: That's fair.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: Mercedes just win five of those. Ferrari could win the other three and that's your championship.
[00:53:21] Speaker B: Well, you also got Piastri.
[00:53:22] Speaker C: I think the bigger question is Rome. I mean, look at the three and a half is a great take.
What driver would you take, Norris or the field to win the more of the remaining races? That's I think, the big question here.
Obviously it seems like you like Norris. If you're going to think he wins four out of the next 12.
I would take the field.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: I think Antonio wins at least two more.
I would do that. Bet everybody else is kind of weird though. Like Ferrari's having some weird things. I, I know he's been having some issues with, with, with game management. You know, they what pitted, you know, the wrong tires, the wrong pit strategy. That's been happening all season long ever since he went like a nice little street to kind of kick off the season. But that's like Ferrari's like Achilles heel. LeClaire, he's in, he's out. Russell, he's in his own mind. Piastri kind of like Russell but not as mentally in there. Verstappen's still going to be, you know, pestering everybody because he's a seasoned bad and, and you know, he's allegedly like the best driver right now on the market. So I think it's be pretty fun. Like. But those, I would say everybody like in the top six is going to be pretty battling out between, you know, for, for podium. Maybe Piastre Steel is one major. Maybe Hajar, maybe Lawson even steals a podium, you know.
[00:54:40] Speaker B: But I think, but puddings would be stealing. But I think you're only getting wins. I think your race winners are basically the. They're going to be the top seven.
I don't think Hazard is going to get any racing enough to be in there. I think Verstappen, a lot of these are his good tracks. Lewis got a couple good tracks in here. You know, he's won.
What's he won? He's won five times at the Circuit of the Americas for the US Grand Prix. He's won five times in Monza. He's won a couple. Three times in Brazil.
Hasn't won recently, but that's one of his favorite tracks.
LeClaire's won the Italian Grand Prix in Monza before George Good in Vegas two years ago. So I, There's a lot of different things. Not a bad take, Rob. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not hating on it. I just think there's a lot.
It's a good thing. I'm, I'm taking.
[00:55:30] Speaker C: It's bold. It's a bold take, man.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm gonna be biased as hell. I told you. I, I think Antonelli still odds on favor to win it. I just think there's something here for Lewis. Lewis is dialed the dialed in if he can win a couple of these races and make something stretch, yeah, the penalties is gonna be the thing. But, like, I mean, I think the open air stuff, he's got to have good, good Saturday.
[00:55:52] Speaker A: That was definitely against the field. I would take the field right now as well.
[00:55:58] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, he's got the advantage
[00:55:59] Speaker C: to win the championship or to win the number of 12, to win the
[00:56:03] Speaker A: more races of the final 12 of the championship. I, I, I think drivers catch up and steal it at the end. I'm taking the field over Antonelli.
[00:56:13] Speaker C: So that means you got to have Hamilton. Right? I think Hamilton, like Jason's touching on, is the only one, really. Like, Verstappen doesn't have the car. I think lando and the McLaren's too far back. They just got off to a terrible start.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: Not really. You get three wins and you're back in it, I don't think.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: But you need some DNFs from, from Antonelli. I mean, Russ Russell and Hamilton are the two. That's the closest right now.
[00:56:38] Speaker A: All right, Any other wild takes, any other feedback on, like, the new race that's being added to the schedule?
[00:56:44] Speaker B: No, I'm looking forward to that one.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: I mean, 23rd, that's when we'll be in Vegas or maybe not be in
[00:56:51] Speaker C: Vegas right after that race.
[00:56:53] Speaker A: Okay, nice.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: I think the biggest news is going to be happening between now and that race is going to be, you know, this is the time of year where true contracts are signed and they, they call it the silly season stuff, but this is, this is when things start happening. So is Verstappen going to make a decision?
You know, the, we talk, I think we talked about the alp, the second Alpine seat. I think that's probably one of the most coveted ones out there. If Kala Pinto gets shown the door, Carlos signs, you know, hovering around it, Fernando Alonso hovering around that car. So I don't know. So I think there's seeing some breaking news potentially and some driver movement over the next couple weeks.
[00:57:30] Speaker C: It was, it was a good week. It was a good week at Hungarian Grand Prix for Aston Martin. 13 for 14th place, man. So they did the upgrades, man. They went from 19 and 20th all the way to 13 and 14. So, hey,
[00:57:45] Speaker B: whole new car. You didn't have anything in their hands.
[00:57:48] Speaker C: That's, that's a bold take there.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: That's hilarious.
All right, before we go to the second half, how are you feeling about Hamilton, Jason, does he win his eighth, ninth? *?
Travis Championship.
[00:58:07] Speaker B: It's very, it's very Tough for me to go against Antonelli if you're just talking just from the favorite standpoint because he is, he is just up there every week.
I think Lewis is the only one that can beat him right now. I, I, I, I'm, I'm losing face week faith week by week with George, but I think Lou Lewis is the most dialed in. But again, like I said, it's got to be on Saturdays. Like he's got to, he's got to get polls, he's got to be on the front row getting the Ferrari in the open air, them nail some of this pit strategy. Obviously the penalties are kind of playing a part too, but they're taking some chances at Ferrari which wasn't always the case. They'll usually take a bad strategy and have nothing behind it. They are taking some chances here and there. You know they've done those cup, you know the racy one with a couple stop strategy. They did they try to replicate it the next week. It didn't work.
But that the car is racy.
I just, I just think open air in some of these tracks that doesn't have the, the regen on the battery and stuff is going to be really important. So it's going to be, you know, one of those qualifying runs and that's, that's where your Lando take, I think holds some weight because Lando and Piastri are good on Saturdays.
And so the McLarens that you looked at, you know where they're at, you know, a while back like Oscar and Lando weren't, sometimes weren't great in some of these practice sessions and all of a sudden on qualifying day they're firing it up and Lewis, he was slipping last year in qualifying. It's done better this year, but has the better car man like you, you got me jazzed up talking of Imola being the, the ending. Because if you're going to write that script for F1 to get the most eyeballs, you have the next prodigy versus the seven time world champion in Italy and making Italy choose a side between Ferrari and you know, the Italian, you know, driver for Mercedes, like that's a, that's a good story. I mean if you're, if you're, if you're fixing this thing, that's what you want.
[00:59:53] Speaker A: It'd be nice. I don't know. A lot of potential here at the end. I, I know Anthony has a big lead, but I think anything's possible.
A couple DNFs.
[01:00:04] Speaker C: Yeah. The only way Antonelli doesn't win is if the car just continues to fail,
[01:00:10] Speaker A: I don't like absolutely that that's dangerous gambling.
So I think it's locked up. It's not locked up like that.
[01:00:16] Speaker C: No, I mean it's not. Because look, we've seen the power unit from Mercedes fail a number of times. But I mean look at when Antonelli, the power unit doesn't fail. He's been on the podium every time. He's won what, five, six races already.
I think Hamilton's there, but Rome I the dark horse is Lando. Can Lando continue to put together great races? And then. And we talk about the last race at the end. Will the champion have a chance to repeat or will he already be out or will the greatest of all time have a chance for number eight? So there's a lot of good storylines there. I think Those are the two best there to get there to knock out the 19 year old female.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: I think if there's a bet that I can do that's over two and a half, I would definitely take it for Lando.
So.
All right.
Nice F1 section today. I really like it. It was good. It's good stuff.
[01:01:08] Speaker C: One hour pod talking LeBron and F1.
[01:01:11] Speaker A: Amazing, amazing, amazing.
[01:01:14] Speaker C: We've come a long way.
[01:01:16] Speaker A: Congratulations on Andrew Jones making the hall of Fame.
[01:01:20] Speaker C: Well deserved.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: Carlos Beltran, White Sox legend.
[01:01:24] Speaker B: Andrew Jones.
[01:01:30] Speaker A: Wait, what?
[01:01:31] Speaker B: You played one year for the White Sox?
[01:01:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: I was like, wait a minute.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: It was, it was during that era. I was getting hyped up when they signed Andrew Jones, but he's not Andrew Jones anymore. And when they got Ken Griffey Jr. For like three months and he's not Ken Griffey Jr. Anymore. I was always geared up for that as a White Sox fan. We had Danny Ramirez for a couple months, Jeff Kent.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: I hated Jeff. Ken, but I respected him. He was really good.
By the way, Barry Bonds deserves to be in the hall of Fame. In my opinion.
Mark McGuire deserves to be the hall of Fame. Sammy deserves to be in the Hall.
[01:02:01] Speaker C: I agree.
[01:02:02] Speaker A: You cannot write about the history of baseball because everyone knows that they say a blind eye. We were all kids watch them hit homers.
I think I actually, that I think that's the only time I actually had a, a Giants hat was for Barry Bonds.
[01:02:18] Speaker C: I think, I think the last time we actually picked up a newspaper when a newspaper was a thing to see what was going on in the home run race.
[01:02:24] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I loved it. Those good stuff. All right, so that'll do it. Source from the sofa. We'll be back later this week with the second half baseball preview talking about what's heating up. We'll get an update on Aaron and Jason's NL fantasy baseball league.
Maybe we'll peek in on what's happening around the NFL training camps. Probably not, but we'll see what's happening and then we'll kind of coast until we get ready for the NFL season. Season three of sorts. From the sofa.
Digging it. Digging it.
Maybe we'll do a pot for Vegas as well.
Hopefully Aaron doesn't hand over a couple hundred bucks as some random stripper on the on the sidewalk.
[01:03:03] Speaker C: Hey, we'll find out you're the one taking photos of them. I don't know kind of deal. I don't know what kind of deal you made.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I'm gonna do the stakes.
[01:03:14] Speaker C: Be happy is only 200 bucks because he brought the hand over like 1500 for the way you're typing in there.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: Oh, my God. All right, that'll do it. That's Rome. Jason. Aaron, we're out.
