Remembering Bill Russell, Deshaun Watson’s Suspension, & Damonza’s Big Win

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Bobby Knavali. Watch Unstoppable now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

We have a very somber topic to discuss right off the top of the show with the passing of Bill Russell, and we have what is unquestionably going to be the single greatest moment up to this point of One Demons Bird's life. Having won a ten thousand dollars wager from me that has to be paid in cash in full before the end of today's show, there is one slight problem. I do not have the ten thousand dollars in full on me. However, don't give me that.

about regular sports stuff. We'll do all our regular show. However, we can't really do the actual regular show because we need to start with this. So before we even get to what we're not getting into or our regular a bloc, I of course want to talk about Bill Russell, not only the greatest winner in the history of sports, but a true civil rights icon who passed away Sunday at the age of eighty eight. So the Bill Russell off

the court life is a remarkable one. The first black head coach in major American sports man, who was born in the thirties in Louisiana, moved north and dealt with racism and bigotry and attacks every step of the way. A man who I think not coincidentally, after his time in Boston and some of this stuff, demands say, I'm sure, and this is no shade here, you're unaware of it. While he was winning championships in Boston, he had his house broken into, they broke his trophies, They in his bed.

They when he would go on the road, he had his his daughter wrote about how he would have his garbage cans every single time tipped over, and that he went to the police and said this has to stop, and the cops like, must be raccoons, and so he said, okay, then I want a gun permit. And then all of a sudden it stopped, and not coincidentally, I don't think Bill Russell then moved, I think, to the geographic opposite of Boston. He moved to an island off the coast

of Seattle called Mercer Island. You could not get further away from Boston. And then he lived and he lived there for the better part of forty years. And he talked about how he you know, he played for his teammates his coach were at Arbach, but not for the fans. And listen, there is a tortured history in a lot of cities, but famously Boston, of their relationship with their black stars. Bob Coosey was a great player, Havlichek was a great player, Larry Bird was a great player. None

of them were as great as Russell was. Yet there is to this day real questions about who the greatest Celtic was and that had to do with the fact that Bill Russell was a black man, a proud black man, and march right alongside Ali and King in the Civil Rights movie. And when Bill Russell, you know, was getting death threats and the family asked the FBI to help, what the FBI did was open a file on him that referred to him as an arrogant negro who would

not sign autographs for white children. That's how the country, the city of Boston, the country as a whole, treated Bill Russell. Okay, So that is the very very short version of Bill Russell the activist. Bill Russell off the court. And by the way, Bill Russell signed up for Twitter in his eighties to send out a tweet supporting Colin Kaepernick. He never his first sweet ever was him kneeling. He

never stopped the activism. I don't want to gloss over that, but all so, as interested and educated as I am on that part of his life, there are other people in longer form that can pay a better tribute to that. So I would like to for a moment here talk about Bill Russell the basketball player, because I think people know eight titles in a row. They know, eleven championships in thirteen years. I still think it under sells how

utterly dominant he was. One of the reasons I did my list the way I did it, the fifty best of the last fifty is not only because you can't get film and you can barely get fully accurate full box scores of those games in the late fifties and throughout the sixties, but also because Bill Russell causes a problem for any ranking, because if we agree the goal of team sports is to win, then what do you do with a guy who lapped the field a couple

times over when it comes to winning. And it wasn't just the eleven championships, it's that he never lost a do or die game in his basketball life. You hear this stat thrown around, but I want to emphasize it. Then we will go through the Bill Russell basketball life quickly and then move on to the show Bill Russell in the NCAA Tournament, in the Olympics and in Game sevens of the NBA or Door Die Game fives of

the NBA. In this five game series played twenty one games where the winner advances and the loser goes home. College Olympics and the Pros. His teams were twenty one and zero in those twenty one games. He got to the University of San Francisco and within a year Sports Illustrated wrote an article saying that college basketball might have to change the rules because of him, and they did. A year later, they widened the lane to try to minimize his defensive impact. He then went on a fifty

five game collegiate winning streak, winning two national championships. He then won the goal in the Olympics. He then gets to Boston and this is where we're going too, similar to how we have on our NBA list, go year by year, but I will do it quickly. Built this Boston Celtics had Bob Goozi already. He was about to win League MVP. They had never made a finals. They made the finals the first ten years of Russell's career. They made the finals twelve of the thirteen years he played.

So his very first year in the league Game seven NBA Finals against the at that moment best player in basketball, Bob Pettitt, he has nineteen points and thirty two rebounds in a two point double overtime win. The next year, they are playing Pettit in the finals again, Russell springs his ankle Missus game four, Missus Game five, is a shell of himself, barely plays. In game six, Pettitt hangs

fifty on him and Russell. If you listen to Bill Simmons, still bitter about that, says I was injured, So how did you respond? Only won eight championships in a row. But what's amazing about when you hear eight titles in a row? You think, oh my god, they were just far and away better than everyone. But the thing is they weren't. They were close games in seven game series fifty nine to get to the finals. They're in a game seven against Syracuse and my old landlord in college.

Believe it or not, well, dlphshas whose son Danny shaves people maybe remember, Probably not Dahlsha's a great player. Russell beats him by five in a game seven. Then they sweep the Minneapolis Lakers, and Mike is Mike and still on that Lakers team. I think he is. I gotta double check that they sweep the Oh you know, Miken's not sowing the Lakers, see my apologies, but Elgin Baylor is. And they sweep them to win the title. That's Championship

number two. The next year, he beats Wilt in the to get to the conference finals or to get to the finals, and then in the NBA Finals plays Bob Pettitt again a game seven, has a twenty two point thirty five rebound game to win title number three. The very next year, he's in the finals against Bob Pettitt again. This one doesn't go seven in five, they win. He has a thirty point thirty eight rebound game to win

ring number four. The very next year, he plays Wilt in a game seven to get to the finals, beats them by two. In the finals, plays Jerry West. It's a game seven. That game seven goes to overtime. Russell plays all fifty three minutes, has thirty points and forty rebounds to.

ring number six. The very next year, they're playing Philadelphia. It's a game seven. Philadelphia, of course has Wilt Chamberlain. Russell wins that game seven to get to the finals by one point, playing all forty eight minutes against Wilt and holding Wilt if you will, to thirty, which back in the day, holding Wilt to thirty is a hell of an accomplishment. They then beat the Lakers again, poor Lakers in the finals. He has a twenty and thirty to win that title. I've lost track. I think that's

rings seven and six in a row. The very next year, they have an easy one. They win the title. Oh no, they get to the title easily. But another game seven, another game against the Lakers, another time Jerry West is so close. They win Game seven by two points. He has twenty five points and thirty two rebounds. That is I want to make sure I have this right. That is title. That is title number nine. No, maybe maybe

I'm confused. I've lost track at this point. That is yeah, that is that is title number nine eight in a row. The next year they lose before the finals, will and the Sixers get them in the conference finals. So you know what happens. He becomes player coach and they win two more rings. How do they win those two more rings?

They beat Bought, They beat Philly in a game seven by four points, and then to get to the finals, and then they beat the Lakers and six and then his final year in the league, in the final game, he'll ever play another game seven against the Los Angeles Lakers that they win by two. So the reason I say all that is it's not just that he won

five MVPs and did all that winning. It's also it is impossible to look at how close those games were and the fact that he never came out on the short end of it and come to any conclusion other than he understood what it took for his team to win better than any athlete we've ever seen. So again, that was And by the way, his athletic career was not the most important part of his life. It was the off the court stuff. But on the court, pardon me ear muff, kids, that was a bad mother man.

The guy came to college was a track star, learning basketball, and as soon as he picked it up a little bit, won two national championships, then an Olympic gold medal. Then in a thirteen year NBA career, made the finals twelve times, won eleven rings, and the one time he didn't win in the finals, he missed two and a half games with injury. An all time all timer by any measure, the great and incomparable Bill Russell. All right, so there's the Bill Russell portion of the show. Now to the

regular show. That will not quite be a regular show, but we will do our best today. Here's what is not on today's show. What is not on did not make the cut for today's show is Pallo on Caro dropping fifty in a pro am these listen, I love the crossover like everybody else. That's Jamal Crawford's little pro am thing. Your guy up in Seattle. Crossover. Yeah, he spells it like his last name. He calls it the crossover.

He puts it all in the tournament. But these, these these NBA guys playing in pro ams not that impressed, to be honest. He includes Lebron whatever he did at the Drew League. Draymond wants more money and a one point two eight billion dollar Mega Millions jackpot win.

in the media, but I will speak for myself. I think one of the reason reasons there was not as much public outrage as there should have been when it comes to more than two dozen women accusing Deshaun Watson of some really heinous stuff is because it was so

uncomfortable and awkward and embarrassing to discuss. I think a lot of us in the media, myself included, particularly on television, chose the path of least resistance, which is at let's talk about something else, Because if you are talking about some if you're talking about a guy masturbating ejaculating on women without their consent, you know, trying to force them or cajole them into sexual acts, and doing it repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly across more than two dozen women

where you read that the Texans kind of had a set up for him where he had a club membership, and the all of it is so grotesque and so uncomfortable that it wasn't like, here's a video of someone committing an act of violence, we can all discuss it. So because of that, I don't think it got the general attention it deserved initially. So that's where I failed, And I you know, I don't think I'm the only one, but I'll speak for myself where I think I failed

in regards to this. Now, as far as what is the appropriate punishment, I think I said on the show this show a long time ago that I don't think this is one you can split the baby on, And by that I mean I felt like the independent arbitrator, Judge Suel Robinson almost had to come down on zero

games or a season plus years. Yeah, because it is very difficult for me to rationalize the idea of I believe you did this, and I believe you deserve less than one of the most punitive suspensions in NFL history. But it seems like that is exactly what she did. That and some of her quotes, according to Tom Pelisarrow.

to be partially quoted. So I believe it is incredibly important that our criminal justice system has a massively high burden of proof. That innocent until proven guilty remains the standard, and that reasonable doubt in order to clear that threshold, it needs to be as high of a bar as possible in order to cage a human being, in order to send someone to jail at a prison, in order to deny someone that they're liberty. I think that standard is what it should be. That does not mean that

must be the standard for what I believe happened. And so whether or not I, on a jury, could convict to Sean Watson on any of these individual cases, it does not have to me much of anything to do with the fact that I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that he is guilty of what many, if

not all, of these women are accusing him. It is a logical impossibility that more than two dozen women, many of whom did not file a single lawsuit, had nothing to gain from this, would allege this behavior and have it what just be a massive conspiracy to what end, to what gain for the women, particularly who have no skin in the game when it comes to the lawsuit.

to the others suspensions. So Miles Garrett got six games for an on field fight when he conked Mason Rudolph on the head with his own helmet. Michael Kendricks got eight games for insiders stock trading, right, Deshaun's former teammate DeAndre Hopkins got six games for a trace amount of peds in a system, and Calvin Ridley got a season for on a game he wasn't playing. Now, what some would say, and they would not be wrong, is the difference between certainly the DeAndre Hopkins PDS and the Calvin

Ridley thing is those are black and white rules. If you test positive, you get this many games. If you bet on a game, you get this many games. I get that, but the optics of it are horrified.

I'll just just be totally transparent with you.

the ah that that son of a gun setting them up. Right, there are another group of men that, or people, I should say, not just men, people that look at massage therapists as sex workers and nothing more and nothing less, and that Okay, yeah, these these women knew what they were signing up for and knew and I do understand that there are certain massage venues in America where sex work is part of what everyone is signing up for

in that. But this this wasn't that. This was finding women on ig who say they're massuses and then putting them in positions that they did not want to be in. That's what I believe. And so now we get to what the NFL should do. Okay, I believe because of the optics, because the NFL wanted a year and only got six games. Because the judge didn't exactly split the middle.

Deshaun's camp wanted zero, the NFL wanted a year. If maybe if the judge would have imposed eight or nine games, the NFL would have said, okay, you split the middle, will leave it alone. I think it is incumbent on the NFL to add to this suspension. And by the way the appeals process is it under the old CBA, there would be no judge suo Robinson, it would just be Goodell. Under the new CBA, there is the independent arbitrator,

but then the appeals go to Goodell. So if Goodell in the League office decided they want to appeal, they're appealing to themselves. So there was then and then the only recourse to Shaun's camp would have is federal court. So that is what I think, And maybe by the time people hear this, I think this gets upped to

eight or ten games. I don't think the I don't think I don't think the NFL is gonna do the full year, because then I think it sways in the other direction where it's like, well, you wanted a year. You went to this judge. The whole thing was you wanted the year to begin with, you have this independent arbitrator in place. She says six games, and now you're just gonna give him the full year. So the whole thing was a sham, right, But I think a year

would have been totally fair. And I'm gonna say one other point.

each game you make a million bucks. So if you're suspended six games, will lose six million on that salary. DeShawn this year is going to make forty six million dollars, but his salary is only seven hundred thousand of that. The rest is a signing bonus and roster bonus which cannot be clawed back due to suspension. So when you are he is going to lose less than three hundred thousand dollars as far as salary from all and that's intentional, and one can say that's a great job by his agent.

So be it, however, that that is something. If I'm in the NFL, I'm not letting that stand.

So there's the Deshaun piece we already did along Bill Russell. Peace. And now to one of Demons's favorite topics before we wrap up our kind of somewhat yeah less than regular a block. What's our last topic?

not been judgmental on the live tour. I've said I might go work for him if they offered me enough money. That's not what this is what I The reason I wanted to mention this is because nothing bothers me more

in politics than wanton, blatant hypocrisy. And I have had to listen to Josh Hawley and the Mote and the most conservative Republicans up to and including Donald Trump on NBA players for their relationship with China and for having games over there and Lebron's relationship with them, go after them saying, oh my god, you have this relationship with this oppressive regime. And by the way, China is a oppressive regime. And if you want to have that criticism, I,

while I don't share it, I understand it. But the audacity for these same people who have gone after NBA players not because they give two damns about the human rights violations in China, but because nothing riles up their base like telling prominent rich black dudes to shut the hell up and sit down and know their place. For those people to stand on that soapbox for three years about the NBA players in China and not say a word when they're dear Leader, Donald Trump is supporting financially

in in other ways every way possible. The live tour hosted in his course, he goes in attendance, him and Marjorie Taylor Green and the whole crew of them, and to just be like, Yeah, who's gonna call us on our ship? Well, listen, I guess me. It's just so it's just so laughable. And by the way, it's one

of again the hypocrisy. I'm not a both sides guy, but I will say anybody that fervently defended the NBA's relationship with China and fervently has attacked the Live Tour for his relationship with the Saudi royal family, I think that's a little hypocritical as well. But that's not me. I've kind of steered clear of any of the criticism because I think we all, as I've said, for it's hard to be a moral capitalist, Okay, of a truly moral capitalist, I get it.

demons out of a few thousand dollars. That's all next.

skipped over the political part, don't worry about that. We now have straight sports talk, starting with I think my favorite topic to discuss in the world, which is why Lebron James is the goat. So go ahead, demons, take us there.

four years old. He has become a more than passable defensive player, but he's never gonna have the two way impact that the Goat candidates have had and he had, and so Steph, Steph's ceiling is probably passing Kobe, passing Duncan. That's his ceiling. Okay, Then let me get to Luca. Luca's the most controversial person on the list. Number twenty on the list. Again, watch the Luca video. I explained it.

There's president people, Luca has a chance to become the greatest offensive player ever, I do not, and I don't think he'll quite get there. But I do not think Luca has a chance to become the greatest player ever, because I even if he improves defensively, he's never There were various periods of time where Kareem, Michael and Lebron were the most devastating or the very close to the most devastating defensive players in basketball while being the best

offensive players in basketball. So that leaves one guy who could do it, and that's Yannis yep. And I won't put a ceiling on where Jannis could get to because if Yiannis gets the accolades and the hardware and has the longevity that I think he will, his potential is of course to be the greatest player ever. I'm not I'm not predicting he becomes the greatest player ever, and but he we already saw him have one of the greatest finals performances ever. I believe they would have won

the title this year if Middleton didn't get hurt. But we can't just give him an extra finals. I know you don't like to hear that, but I believe that they would have. And he is, in my opinion, for three consecutive years, been the single most impactful offensive and defensive player in basketball and so and I think he has the right disposition and all of that. So do am I predicting he will? I'm not predicting it. Is

it on the board. It's on the board, and he's the only active player that it's on the board for. But Big Vic, Victor win Ban Yama or whim Ban wim Ban Yama. Pardon me, oh boy, the seven foot two inch French kid. Look out, yes, look out for Big Vic. But right now, Jannis is the guy. All right, what's next?

any more shots at him. I think Josh Awesome I have him right now, is the second best quarterback in football. I have totally come around. I am I flip flopped on Josh Allen one hundred percent and so no, I will not take shots at him. I don't. I don't mind the training camp fights and if anything that d tackle should maybe be cut. Oh my gosh, quarterback. You can't mess with the quarterback.

This is a more punitive version of that. Yeah, I also think for Zion that this is trying to protected him from himself to a degree, and because it's I've never seen someone whose body in a short period of time can fluctuate so much between how he looks like. It looks like he can swing twenty pounds in one direction to the other in a week. I also would imagine this.

cannot exceed two hundred and ninety five. So my guess is the pelican said we don't want Zion ever above two seventy five, that we want him to be at two seven and his and they wanted to put that in there, and his agent almost assuredly pushed back, well, that's not fair, Like what if our guy just gets crazy jacked up and they said, okay, so all right, fine, So you want to play it too eighty like Lebron did one year, I believe you better have the Lebron

type of body fat. You know what I mean? If you so, if you want to play it too eighty, it better be the leanest to eighty we've ever seen. Meanwhile, if you're at two seventy, there's no way you're gonna be a You're not gonna have a designs I can have better than more than twenty five percent body fat, So, you know, so it protects him and them in that regard that one. I don't mind the Kyler thing. We talked about it when it happened. It was it was

embarrassing for all parties involved. And here's the problem with them taking it out. If I'm Kyler and his agent, I'm like, so, let's just make this clear, because I'm sure they fought about that provision. I'm sure they didn't want it in there.

retract it, we do have to trade him. Even though somebody are like, ah, he has four years left. I just think right now is the downtime. I think once training camp approaches, Certainly, once training camp starts, Kevin Durant gets moved and Donovan Mitchell gets moved. I think both of those things happen. I O. Deemond's a ten thousand dollars. I do not have it on me. We'll see how this goes. That's next. All right, welcome back in What's right?

tell you. I just looked it up. So I went into Thursday's pod with four hundred and ninety five thousand and six Twitter followers Demanse went into Thursday's pod with just under thirty seven hundred Twitter followers, and I said to him that I thought I would get to five hundred thousand before he got to five thousand, and I would pick up another five thousand followers before Demanse picked up thirteen hundred followers, right, And I was so confident I not only said let's bet on it, but I

said I'll lay ten to one, and then I let you choose the amount, and you're the choose your own adventure of financial things with you have not always gone your way, and you went higher than I ever would have imagined. You said you wanted to risk a thousand dollars, which put me on the hook for ten thousand dollars, which in the moment on the pod you can see my hesitation, But that is mostly because I'm like, God, dog it.

he gained fifteen hundred, so he won the bet. So can we show some of these tweets and then we'll get to the payoff of it? Cause these tweets, oh demant got there immediately. Demanse tweeted this noon on Friday, what do I do now? And then what are the following tweets? Because I don't I didn't enjoy dealing with any of this. The next one that he sent was people sent to him. Was Demanse as Scrooge McDuck counting his money, there was another one cent and we can

just roll through them up. Add it all on your Celtics next year, fifty five thousand or nothing, And this says, is a joke don't actually do that bucks of sweeping them this year. Yeah, don't actually do that. Yeah, don't don't actually do it.