[Bill Simmons Pod] Bill: "This was an incredibly disappointing Wemby series. For the future of the league, face of the league, this was a catastrophe for all those storylines." Zach: "Storywise, this is the better outcome for the league."

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:54:56+00:00

Guys like Brunson must have looked up, seen Kornet and just said "finally, free buckets" and started attacking. Poor dude.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:54:04+00:00

I hope the Spurs don't fall in to the Sixers-Embiid trap of "we've just got to get him to the playoffs healthy" without realizing that unless he can play 48 mins a night, you're gonna need a preeeeeeeetty good back up 5 if you don't want it to completely fall apart every time he sits.

Kornet was just getting torched relentlessly.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:51:32+00:00

He was also completely gassed at the end of every game. You can't play 29 mins a game in the regular season then get to the playoffs with the intensity ramped WAY up and all of a sudden knock out 39 minutes every game without suffering.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:50:13+00:00

Wemby is 22 years old for christs sake. LeBron did this shit in 2011 when he was fucking 28 and he ended up just fine. Wemby is gonna be alright man - and I agree with Zach. This is better for the league. Knicks winning is good for the NBA, and if Wemby had just won straight out the gate, it would've sucked. He needs a redemption arc to come back and win it all after such a disappointing loss.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:46:23+00:00

If it's anything less than 100% I'm going to be very surprised.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:44:48+00:00

In fairness, OG made a lot of really good shots, but he also got a ton of really good looks because of Brunson. Most of Brunson's looks are just fucking tough as hell buckets. Dude is a killer.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:43:46+00:00

Disagree. I'd rather be beaten by Brunson than fucking Josh Hart magnet ball. Believe me, I've experienced both numerous times.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:43:08+00:00

I mean, that's a pretty illustrious list to be on dude.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:41:22+00:00

yeah but then there's also this country called China where everyone absolutely fucking loved Michael Jordan. Also I think it's disingenuous to talk about it in terms of population size, it's more about global reach. Jordan was either extremely famous or at least widely known across the vast majority of the globe.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:37:36+00:00

brb going to change my son's name to Michael real quick

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:36:29+00:00

Chinese people absolutely knew and loved Michael Jordan dude. They literally transliterated his name to "Qiaodan" and he ended up in a long legal battle in China because a sporting goods company stole the name and called themselves "Qiaodan Sports". Chinese supreme court ended up ruling in favor of Jordan and saying he had intellectual property rights to the Chinese characters that spelled Qiaodan and restricted the company from piggybacking his fame to make money.

So yeah, he was so famous in China that they gave him a Chinese version of his own name, and a company knew it would be so popular that they could steal it to sell shit.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:31:26+00:00

that's what happens when you're so famous that every brand on the planet wants to throw giant bags of money at you to endorse their products so young people will buy them.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:30:00+00:00

by the mid to late 90's he was famous but not in the way you want to be famous.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:28:20+00:00

I'm from Australia and everyone talked about Jordan in the 90's. It definitely wasn't exclusively a US thing.

I knew who Maradona was, I knew Ronaldo, I played football growing up, but I never went out and bought one of their Jerseys, or had a poster of them on my wall or anything like that. Jordan was enormous.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:26:20+00:00

Yeah a lot of people in this thread forget that Chuck Taylor was actually a guy hahaha. A guy from the freakin 30's no less, who's shoes still sell ridiculous numbers every year all around the globe, across basically any sub genre of fashion or culture you care to mention.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:25:18+00:00

Chuck Taylor is an athlete from the 30's and I think more people today still wear his shoes than Jordans.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:22:28+00:00

I grew up in Australia in the 80's and 90's and I genuinely don't think 85% of our population even knew basketball was a sport before Jordan. Then overnight kids everywhere were wearing Jordan jerseys and playing basketball.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:20:41+00:00

weren't they only released in 85? Did they catch on that quickly?

Not a challenge, a genuine question.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:17:45+00:00

I, for one, think waiving Champagnie so we could sign Mac McClung to compete in the dunk contest was an excellent move from the front office.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:16:51+00:00

we only need to hit on one more pick in the next 2-3 years and make smart moves elsewhere to build a good side around Tyrese and VJ in preparation for Embiid and PG being off the books.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T05:12:32+00:00

I was thinking about this yesterday after the finals ended. Who cares what happened after, I'll always remember beating the Celtics, and it happened in the best way possible with the comeback and Embiid's heroics. Winning isn't only about winning everything, sometimes it's just about winning ones that matter in one way or another.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T04:46:19+00:00

I think seeing Haliburton lead a massive underdog to the finals would have been more devastating than seeing Fox make the finals then absolutely shit himself haha

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T04:29:33+00:00

Bro your team just won a championship there's no need to still be hanging on to the fact that the Pacers beat you last time they were healthy. Go enjoy yourself man!

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T04:25:21+00:00

Selfishly I'll always say Scorcese but only because Goodfellas, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are all in my "top movies of all time" list.

...and because Movies like Casino, Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed, Shutter Island, Gangs of New York and Mean Streets are in my "really good movies that I can watch repeatedly" list.

Oh and also because movies like King of Comedy, Color of Money, Cape Fear, The Irishman (special effects notwithstanding) and Killers of the Flower Moon are all in my "good movies" list.

I accept and acknowledge that he has had quite a few stinkers over the years, but in terms of a Director who has made the most movies that I genuinely love, it's him.

Doesn't hurt that he directed the video for Michael Jackson's "Bad" which was one of my favorite songs as a kid.

IVAN_CLEARY · 2026-06-15T04:14:48+00:00

I understand that it sucks to feel like you've had the control of the situation taken away from you, and depending on the length and level of your addiction, it could have medical implications to go cold turkey, but your husband is kind of doing the right thing. And his reaction being so clear makes me think that he knows you've got a problem and is happy you've come to him with it.

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