Generations Talkin' My Sports | S4 E24 | "Champions, Chokes & The Ring Obsession — Does a Title Define a Dynasty?"

Premiering on Spotify TODAY | Full Video on YouTube Next Saturday

Mark is still floating on Knicks championship clouds. Steve is in Ventura absorbing the vibes. And Jonathan has a question that cuts to the heart of every sports debate: does not winning a ring make you a loser? In Season 4, Episode 24, the original trio reunites to unpack championship legacy, tortured franchises, and the one 1986 Bulls roster that proves nobody — not even Michael Jordan — can do it alone.

🏆 The 1971-72 Lakers — The Championship That Started It All for Steve
Jerry West. Elgin Baylor. Wilt Chamberlain. The original Big Three that spent years knocking on the door against Bill Russell's Celtics — and finally broke through after Elgin retired eight games into the season. Wilt averaged 19 points and 23 rebounds in the Finals. West finally got his ring. Steve was 13 years old and he still remembers every detail. But here's the twist: Willis Reed played zero minutes in that series. Nobody remembers that today.

🏀 The 1986 Bulls Roster — The Ultimate Proof You Can't Win Alone
Jonathan reveals the full starting lineup of Jordan's second NBA season, name by name from bottom to top: Perry Young, Pete Myers, Fred Cofield, Dave Corzine, Gene Banks, John Paxson, Charles Oakley... and then Jordan at 37.1 points per game on 28 shots a night. The next closest teammate averaged 13 shots. Nobody else averaged double figures. This is the greatest player of all time proving that talent alone — without the right pieces, the right organization, the right breaks — gets you exactly nowhere.

🎯 Does a Ring Define Your Career?
Mark makes the case for Charles Barkley. Jordan needed help. Luka dragged a mediocre team to the Finals on sheer will and still came up short. Steve argues the answer starts with the organization, not the player — Red Auerbach's Celtics weren't better than West and Baylor; they were just a smarter franchise. And without free agency, those guys had no choice but to stay and keep trying with whatever the Lakers could give them.

⚾ The Atlanta Braves — 14 Division Titles, One Ring
The most dominant stretch in baseball history and one of the most underappreciated dynasties ever. Does only winning one World Series make those teams failures? Steve says absolutely not. Jonathan connects it to the Bills, the '73 Lakers, and the entire tortured fan debate the show has been running all season.

🏀 The Sixers — Most Dysfunctional Franchise of a Generation?
From The Process to Markelle Fultz to Tobias Harris to Paul George to getting swept by the Knicks — what exactly has Philadelphia been doing for 30 years? The guys go through the wreckage, wonder what Sixer fans even celebrate at this point, and ask which current team is the next franchise trapped in that same cycle of dysfunction and false hope.

Also: The '75 UCLA Bruins, Wooden's last game, the Four Corners offense, and a free throw specialist named Terry Howard who missed when it mattered most. Mark joins mid-episode, still in championship mode and taking full personal credit for the Knicks' Game 4 and 5 wins based on the spot where he stood in his apartment. Steve's oblique shot at the Knicks' Eastern Conference path lands perfectly. And a JJ Redick reference that will make complete sense in context.

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Generations Talkin' My Sports | S4 E23 | "Knicks Up 3-1 — Game 4 Reaction + We Play 82 and 0"

Premiering on Spotify TODAY | Full Video on YouTube Next Saturday

Steve is at Red Rocks watching a concert. He didn't see the game. He texted congratulations the next afternoon. Some talent. In Season 4, Episode 23, Jonathan and Mark pick up right after the greatest comeback in Knicks playoff history — down 22, won by one on OG Anunoby's tip-in with 1.2 seconds left — and then pivot to the basketball game sweeping the internet: 82 and 0.

🏀 The Morning After Game 4Mark didn't sleep. He watched the same highlights for hours. Now he's in Simpsons shirt mode processing the fact that the Knicks are one win away from their first NBA championship in 53 years. The guys break down what's actually changed: Alvarado on the floor frees Brunson from fighting through half-court traps. KAT pulling Wemby away from the rim opens lanes. The third quarter dominance returning. And why the Knicks' five best games of basketball this entire postseason have all been closeout games.

🏆 Is Mike Brown a Hall of Fame Coach?He was dismissed as a guy who just carried LeBron's water. Then he won Coach of the Year in Sacramento and got fired two years later — which Jonathan points out makes Coach of the Year in the NBA basically meaningless. Now he's on the verge of winning a championship with the New York Knicks, first title in over half a century. Mark makes the case: two historic franchises, two droughts ended. Is he in? Drop your take in the comments.

🔮 Castle, Harper & the Spurs' FutureThe Knicks might win it all, and the Spurs are probably still the favorites going into next season. Stephen Castle at 21 is stone cold in crunch time — is he the early version of Kawhi? Dylan Harper's comp might literally be his father. Jonathan and Mark want to know what you think. Leave a comment with your Castle and Harper comps.

🎮 82 and 0 — The Basketball Game Sweeping the InternetPick players across any era, build a starting five, and try to go 82-0 in a simulated regular season. The guys play three full rounds live on the show with everything going wrong and one team somehow going right.

Round 1 (Mark solo): Bailey Howell, Spencer Haywood, Rod Strickland, Tyrone Hill, Juwan Howard. Everyone thought 48 wins. They got 62. Not bad for a disaster.

Round 2 (Jonathan solo): Jordan in the '80s from the jump. Isaiah Thomas, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, and Gus Williams. 70 wins. The defense wasn't there but Jordan carried.

Round 3 (Together): Wilt in the '60s, then Jordan falls immediately. Two of the exact players Jonathan said he wanted first. Plus Brunson, Vince Carter, and Gus Williams. 80-2. Should have been 82-0 and they know it.

Also discussed: Who actually are the Nets fans and where do they live? Whether the Linsanity jersey stays in the drawer (it does). The Starks jersey remains in its assigned spot untouched and will not move. Knicks gear comes out for Game 5 as the reverse jinx ritual reaches its final form.

Game 5 is in San Antonio. Close it out.

🎧 New episodes every Saturday at noon on Spotify | ▶️ Full video on YouTube next Saturday

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Game 1 of the NBA Finals is in the books — Brunson left the court injured, came back and took over the fourth quarter, and Mark the Millennial barely survived. In Season 4, Episode 22, the guys break down a tense Game 1 Knicks-Spurs reaction, debate what makes Wembanyama the most terrifying defensive force anyone has ever seen, and then go deep on the greatest championship rivalries across every sport — by generation.

🏀 Knicks-Spurs Game 1 ReactionMark watched in total silence. No phone. No texts. The Knicks needed him focused and he delivered. Brunson was hurt twice, sat to open the fourth quarter, then came back to close it out. Cap's halftime message to the bench — "just keep playing defense, the offense will get there" — had Mark actually believing. De'Aaron Fox was off. Champagnie hit threes. Josh Hart went right at Wemby in the first quarter. It was everything a Game 1 should be.

🏀 Wembanyama — The Most Disruptive Defender Ever?Steve makes the comparison to Gretzky: one player who changes everything around him, except Wemby does it on defense. Jonathan breaks it down analytically — Manute Bol and Mark Eaton were walls, Olajuwon had the lateral movement. Wemby has both, at 7'4", and can hit a 28-footer like it's a free throw. The guys float a new stat: "altered shots." Because blocking isn't even the half of it.

🏆 Greatest Championship Rivalries — By Generation

Boomer Steve: Lakers-Celtics in the '80s. Magic vs. Bird. McHale vs. Worthy. Same rosters, same hatred, year after year. Familiarity breeds contempt — and those games had it all.

Gen X Jonathan: The 76ers' fo-fo-fo (actually 4-1) in 1983 — Moses Malone destroying the Lakers on the boards. Then the Bulls-Pistons evolution: the Jordan Rules, the Bad Boys, Isiah walking off without handshakes, and then Jordan finally breaking through.

Millennial Mark: The 2004 Pistons over the Kobe-Shaq-Malone-Payton Lakers. No superstar. Just Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun, and both Wallaces playing perfect team basketball. 4-1. Nobody saw it coming.

⚾ The Yankees-Royals ALCS: Baseball's Best Rivalry Nobody Talks About1976, 1977, 1978, 1980 — the Royals couldn't get past the Yankees. Hal McRae hip-checking Willie Randolph. Graig Nettles kicking George Brett in the head. Whitey Herzog vs. Billy Martin. A flyover state team that had no business hanging with the Yankees every October — and nearly beat them every time.

⚾ More World Series Deep Dives

• 1975 Reds-Red Sox: Carlton Fisk's home run, the Big Red Machine, Sparky Anderson from Ventura County, and genuine angst in Boston
• 1986 Mets-Red Sox: The Buckner game, the narrative collision of two cursed franchises, and Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry as the last homegrown core of a team built from castoffs
• 1997 Marlins-Indians: The guys name nearly every player on both rosters from memory — Vizquel, Thome, Manny, Jose Mesa, Sheffield, Liván Hernández, Bobby Bonilla's 30 errors that didn't matter
• 2016 Cubs-Indians: Two droughts, one Game 7, and the only World Series in recent memory that felt like a movie

🏈 Why Conference Championships Have More Drama Than Super Bowls49ers-Cowboys. Bills-Chiefs. Steelers-Oilers. Jonathan makes the case that the best rivalries happen before the championship, not in it. Steve brings up Earl Campbell and Bum Phillips. Mark agrees but won't fully let go of the Finals argument.

Also: Robert Horry's agent is a genius. Claude Lemieux's legacy. The Detroit Red Wings-Colorado Avalanche "Unrivaled" documentary. And why modern players all like each other too much for real rivalries to exist anymore.

🎧 New episodes every Saturday on Spotify

Go Knicks. Steve hopes it goes seven. Mark may not survive seven.

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Generations Talkin' My Sports | S4 E20 | "Tortured Fan Nation: Rating Every Suffering Fanbase From the Jets to the Rockies"

Premiering on Spotify TODAY | Full Video on YouTube Next Saturday

The Knicks are in the NBA Finals for the first time in 26 years — and Mark the Millennial is barely holding it together. In Season 4, Episode 20 of Generations Talkin' My Sports, the guys celebrate the Knicks' dominant playoff run, debate rest vs. rust heading into the Finals, then spiral into one of their best debates yet: which fanbases are the most tortured in all of sports — and does making it to the championship but losing actually hurt MORE than being terrible?

🏀 Knicks NBA Finals WatchMark breaks down the Knicks' historic run — 26 fast break points in one half, Brunson not even needing the fourth quarter in closeout games, and the entire roster contributing. The question now: OKC or San Antonio? Rest vs. rust? And can Mark actually watch the games with other people, or does he need total silence and no eye contact?

😤 Rest vs. Rust — The Real Finals DebateWhile the Knicks sit in ice baths, the Thunder and Spurs are beating each other senseless in a brutally physical Game 7 series. Steve argues the pounding has to take a toll. Mark says he'll take nine days of rest any day. Jonathan just wants to get to the point.

💔 Tortured Fanbase Power Rankings — Every Team Rated 1-10The guys go rapid-fire through the most suffering fanbases in sports. Here's the scorecard:

• New York Mets — One of the highest payrolls in baseball, one of the worst-run franchises. Torture rating: 9+
• New York Jets — Beyond tortured. At this point it's sadomasochistic. "The effing Jets" — every year, same result
• Seattle Mariners — Never made a World Series. Ever. Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro, Randy Johnson — still nothing. 7/10
• San Diego Padres — Beloved by 500 true believers and mostly ignored by everyone else. 8.75-9.25
• Cleveland Browns — 27 years, roughly 40 quarterbacks. Jonathan's Raiders say "hold my beer"
• Colorado Rockies — $6 tickets, family meal for $20, two-thirds of the crowd rooting for the other team. 9/10
• Baltimore Orioles — Generational split: Boomers give them a 3, Millennials give them a 7
• Los Angeles Angels — Arte Moreno torched a generational talent. Mike Trout deserved better
• Tampa Bay Rays — Great organization, terrible stadium, 500 fans who really care
• Las Vegas Raiders — So bad it's gone full circle back to a 1. You go for the scene and the drink

🏆 The Core QuestionIs it better to make the Finals and lose, or never make it at all? Steve's 90-year-old friend Bill Mason — former UCLA running back and LA Ram — frames it perfectly: one team wins. Are the other 31 really losers?

Also: YouTube Shorts are now officially called "singles" thanks to superfan RJ. Over 50,000 singles consumed and nearly 200 hours watched. The community is real and the guys see you.

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Generations Talkin' My Sports | S4 E19 | "Unicorns & Game-Changers: Wemby, Shaq, Tiger & The Athletes Who Rewrote the Rules"

Is Wemby already the most transformational player in NBA history — or is he just an alien blip? In this episode, Mark, Jonathan, and Steve break down which athletes across every major sport genuinely changed their game forever, and which ones were just really, really great.

The Knicks are alive and the debate is HOT. Here's what's on the table:

🏀 Wemby vs. The GOAT Debate — Victor Wembanyama is doing things in the 2025 NBA Playoffs no one has ever seen. Logo threes, catching his own misses for reverse dunks, guarding every position. Is he transformational like Magic Johnson — or a once-in-a-universe anomaly? Will the league change its rules because of him?

🏀 New York Knicks Playoff Run — Mark breaks down Games 1 & 2 vs. Cleveland, Brunson's clutch gene, Miles Bridges catching fire, and why this team's unselfish basketball feels like the '70s Knicks all over again

🏀 Shaq Attack — Hack-a-Shaq. Rule changes. Unstoppable. Would Shaquille O'Neal dominate in today's three-point era? (Spoiler: yes, and it wouldn't be close)

🏈 Michael Vick vs. Randall Cunningham — Who really invented the dual-threat QB? Steve says Vick opened the door to the modern NFL. Jonathan says there were Vicks before Vick. The debate gets heated.

⛳ Tiger Woods — Did he transform golf forever, or did the sport regress the moment he stepped away? Augusta stretched its course by 600 yards because of him. Enough said.

🎿 Wayne Gretzky — The one case everyone agrees on. The Great One didn't just dominate hockey — he made it faster, smarter, and changed the entire player prototype.

⚾ Jose Canseco & the Steroid Era — Jonathan makes the case that Canseco was the catalyst that changed MLB for 20 years. Steve thinks it's a funny take. Mark grabs his popcorn.

⚾ Shohei Ohtani — The DH rule literally changed because of one man. Are two-way players the future of baseball, or is Ohtani a one-generation wonder?

🥊 Muhammad Ali — Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, and completely rewire what it meant to be a professional athlete — inside the ring and out.

Also: Jaxson Dart introduces Trump at a rally while playing QB for a 75% Black roster, and the guys discuss whether political moves in the locker room can wreck a season before it starts.

🎧 New to the show? Start here. Three generations, one truth, zero filter.

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Generations Talkin' My Sports | S4 E18 | "East Coast vs. West Coast: Does It Still Matter?"

Is the East Coast vs. West Coast sports rivalry dead — or did it ever really exist? In Season 4, Episode 18 of Generations Talkin' My Sports, Mark, Jonathan, and Steve dig deep into one of sports' biggest ongoing debates: do big-market teams like the New York Knicks, LA Lakers, Dodgers, and Yankees still drive ratings, or has the game changed forever?

The guys break down how the NBA went from being preempted by golf in the late '70s to must-watch TV — and whether a small-market NBA Finals matchup like OKC Thunder vs. New York Knicks could actually pull massive viewership in today's streaming era. With the Knicks on a historic playoff run, the timing couldn't be better.

Topics covered in this episode:🏀 NBA East vs. West — 20 years of data, championship parity, and why the Western Conference has dominated regular season play⚾ How MLB interleague play killed regional rivalries (and why the Yankees-Dodgers World Series still moved the needle)🏈 Why the NFL never needed a big-market rivalry to dominate ratings — and what every other league can learn from Pete Rozelle's marketing genius📺 Streaming, globalization, and the "egalitarianism" of modern sports fandom — can you be a Spurs fan in Paris or a Bucks fan in Texas?🏙️ Oakland's gut punch: losing the Raiders, A's, and Warriors — and what it means when a city loses its sports identity🎙️ The Seattle SuperSonics wound that still hasn't healed, the stolen franchise, and why OKC fans should probably watch their backs📻 Bird vs. Magic, Beat LA chants, and the racial and cultural undercurrents that actually fueled the East-West rivalry🗞️ The 1989 World Series earthquake, the OJ chase interrupting Knicks playoffs, and other times sports collided with history

Also: Why "East Coast vs. West Coast" is really just New York, Boston, and LA (sorry, Portland), the 500 true Padres fans Jonathan claims to know personally, fear the beard, Nomar shirts on eBay, and a first date interrupted by a white Bronco.

50,000+ YouTube views and growing — thank you to every fan watching on the YouTubes and catching the shorts. We see you and we appreciate you.

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NBA Playoff Trivia — 3-1 Comebacks, Championship Droughts & the Rasheed Wallace Debate | Generations

New Episode — Premiering Today

Jonathan, Steve, and Mark are back together for a full playoff breakdown — and Jonathan has been doing homework. This week it's all hoops, all trivia, and one genuinely heated debate about a Portland Trail Blazers documentary that has Steve and Jonathan on opposite sides of history.

🏀 THE 3-1 COMEBACK QUIZ

Since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976, only 13 teams have ever come back from a 3-1 deficit. Two of them just happened in the first round. Can you name all 13 before Jonathan gives the clues?

The full list spans from the 1979 Washington Bullets to the 2025 Sixers and Magic, and includes the only team to do it twice in the same year (the Nuggets in 2020), the only Finals comeback in league history (the 2016 Cavaliers, which Steve will not let Jonathan forget), and Doc Rivers making history as the first coach to blow 3-1 leads in back-to-back playoff years.

Mark's moment: the 1997 Knicks-Heat Eastern Semifinals, the PJ Brown-Charlie Ward brawl, and a New York Post back page that Mark may or may not have saved for 30 years.

📊 THE CHAMPIONSHIP TRIVIA

Which seven franchises have never appeared in an NBA Finals post-merger? Which teams have the most championships? Which franchise won a title in one city and another title decades later in a completely different one?

The full rankings from Lakers (17 appearances, 11 titles) down to the Wizards (two Finals appearances, one title, both against Seattle), with stops at the Celtics, Bulls, Spurs, Heat, Pistons, Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets, Mavericks, Sixers, and Thunder along the way.

Also covered: seven franchises that have appeared in the Finals but never won, from the Knicks to the Jazz to the Suns to the Magic.

🎬 THE RASHEED WALLACE DEBATE

Jonathan and Steve watched the same Portland Trail Blazers documentary and came away with completely different conclusions. Steve thinks Rasheed was a talented, entitled malcontent who doesn't take responsibility for anything. Jonathan thinks the documentary captures what it actually meant to be a Black player in Portland in that era — the police raids, the fan hostility, the scrutiny — and argues the narrative was more complicated than the highlights suggested.

Mark watched the series too and has thoughts on Bonzi Wells, Damon Stoudamire, and what might have been had that team found any emotional maturity to match their talent.

🏀 LEBRON AT 41

Before the trivia starts, the guys spend a few minutes on what LeBron James is doing right now that none of us may ever see again — 20 points a game, over 20 years in the league, still running the floor against players half his age. Mark says he's just grateful to be watching it in real time. Steve wishes LeBron had better role players. Jonathan notes that most of the Lakers bench wouldn't make OKC's rotation.

🎙️ Hosts: Jonathan (Gen X) • Steve (Boomer) • Mark (Millennial)📻 New episodes every Saturday | Full catalog on Spotify & YouTube

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Unwritten Rules of Sports — Are They Sacred or Stupid? | Generations

New Episode — May 2, 2026

Nikola Jokić sprinted the full length of the court to grab Jaden McDaniels by the jersey after a garbage-time layup. Was McDaniels dead wrong for scoring? Or should the reigning champion just win a game when it matters? Jonathan and Steve dive deep into the unwritten rules of sports — who made them, whether they still make sense, and which ones deserve to die.

🏀 THE INCIDENT THAT STARTED IT ALL

T-Wolves up 15+. Five seconds left. McDaniels catches the ball and lays it up. Jokić loses his mind, charges across the court, and both players get ejected and fined $50K apiece. Jonathan's take: if you want him to stop scoring, stop him. Steve thinks it's posturing from a guy who should be mad about losing, not about a garbage-time bucket.

⚾ BASEBALL'S MILLION UNWRITTEN RULES

The guys work through the 1986 OC Register list of 30 unwritten baseball rules — and don't agree with most of them:

• Don't break up a no-hitter? Bunt away, says Jonathan
• Don't swing 3-0 when you're up big? Tell that to Fernando Tatís Jr. and Tony La Russa
• Don't steal when ahead by a lot? If they're not holding you on, that's their problem
• Don't admire your home run? José Bautista's 2015 playoff bat flip was one of the greatest moments in the sport
• Don't cross the pitcher's mound? A-Rod did it repeatedly because A-Rod is A-Rod
• Don't mention a no-hitter in progress? Even the announcers had to stay quiet

🎯 THE RETALIATIONS THAT WERE ABSOLUTELY JUSTIFIED

Logan Webb drills Dalton Rushing the day after Rushing trash-talked an injured Junghoo Lee. Afterwards Webb just smiled and said it got away from him. Jonathan sends an imaginary box of chocolates to Logan Webb. Steve approves.

The 1977 Finals: Maurice Lucas running the full length of the court to deliver a message to Darrell Dawkins. Portland won the next four. This is what unwritten rules enforcement should look like.

🚫 THE ONES THAT WENT TOO FAR

Pete Rose's forearm shiver to Ray Fosse in an All-Star game. Pete Rose decking Bruce Bochy in the 1980 NLCS when he was out by ten feet. Steve puts Rose and A-Rod in the same category of guys who pushed every boundary and then said that's just how it's played.

🏒⚽ SPORTS WHERE THE RULES ARE DIFFERENT

Hockey's old enforcement system — players policing themselves so refs didn't have to. How fighting morphed into Slapshot and eventually got legislated away. Football, where almost all the old unwritten rules became actual rules because people were getting seriously hurt. Basketball's version of rule enforcement — Kevin Garnett blocking dead-ball shots because he refused to let the ball go through his basket, ever.

ALSO IN THIS EPISODE

• Jazz Chisholm and the fake sign-stealing at second base — is it genius or gamesmanship?
• The World Baseball Classic handshake snub between Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez — teammates, millionaires, still petulant
• Stan Williams keeping a literal hit list inside his hat
• The NBA racial quota — the ugliest unwritten rule in sports history, and the Celtics who quietly broke it
• Matt Chapman yelling at Casey Schmitt to catch the ball — on the field, in front of everyone

Mark is traveling this week but will be back. The Knicks just won by 50. Celtics-Sixers Game 7 is incoming. Baseball is back.

🎙️ Hosts: Jonathan (Gen X) • Steve (Boomer)📻 New episodes every Saturday | Full catalog on Spotify & YouTube

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Mark is a tortured Knicks fan. He has been for decades. And this week, he finally gets to tell the whole story.

From the championship Knicks of Clyde Frazier, Willis Reed, and Dollar Bill Bradley — the consummate team that Steve watched dominate with roles and passing and smart basketball — all the way to Jalen Brunson giving New York a reason to care again. Everything in between is a masterclass in being close enough to hurt, but never close enough to win.

THE ERAS, THE HEARTBREAKS & THE MOMENTS

Patrick Ewing arrives in 1985. The Knicks are relevant again. The problem? Jordan. The Celtics. The Lakers. The timing was always just slightly off.

1994 Finals. John Starks. Two for eighteen in Game 7. Mark's defense of Starks is thorough, data-driven, and genuinely compelling — the man had just come back from knee surgery and was the only shooter on the roster. Herb Williams was 35 going on 53. Tony Campbell was somehow still in the league. The offensive depth was nonexistent. Riley probably should have gone to Rolando Blackman. He didn't. The Rockets won.

Reggie Miller and eight points in nine seconds. The wound that never fully healed.

Patrick Ewing's missed finger roll against the Pacers in 1995. His legs were shot. The ball hit the back of the rim and came out. Mark was the angriest he's ever been as a Knicks fan.

The PJ Brown/Charlie Ward brawl in Miami — the fight that created the rule preventing players from leaving the bench. The Knicks got the worst of the suspensions. John Starks gave the Miami crowd the finger. Mark saved that New York Post edition.

Larry Johnson's four-point play against the Pacers in 1999. The rare moment something actually went right.

The lockout season run to the Finals as an 8-seed. Alan Houston's floater against the Heat. The Spurs ended it.

THE DRAFT DISASTERS

A full tour through Knicks draft history — the misses, the near-misses, and the guys who became All-Stars somewhere else:

• Frederic Weis instead of Ron Artest — drafted 12th while Artest went 11th, then became famous as the man Vince Carter jumped entirely over at the Olympics
• LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah surrendered in the Eddie Curry trade
• Michael Sweetney instead of David West or Boris Diaw
• Frank Ntilikina instead of Donovan Mitchell
• Five power forwards signed in one offseason — Julius Randle, Marcus Morris, Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis, and Mitchell Robinson all on the same team

THE JAMES DOLAN MICHAEL SCOTT GAME

Mark runs Jonathan and Steve through a game: is this situation more like James Dolan or Michael Scott? The answers are funnier than they should be. Confidently sticking with a failing plan — Dolan. Responding to criticism and making it worse — Dolan. Charles Oakley removed from Madison Square Garden. The email to a fan telling him to root for the Nets. The triangle offense era. Phil Jackson. $50 million. The vibes-based leadership approach — also Dolan, because he has a band.

DID HE EVER WEAR A KNICKS JERSEY?

A rapid-fire game covering Chauncey Billups, Derek Rose, Baron Davis, Steve Francis, Stephon Marbury, Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler, Rasheed Wallace, Kemba Walker, Evan Fournier, and Derek Fisher — who has 259 career playoff appearances, second only to LeBron, and was only ever a Knicks coach, never a player.

WHERE IT STANDS

Brunson made it cool to come to New York again. Josh Hart wears number 3 like Starks. The culture is back. The team is good. Are they a championship team? That's a different question — and the Hawks are currently making it painful all over again, one point at a time, in ways that feel exactly like 1994, 1995, and every bad Knicks moment in between.

Jonathan closes it perfectly: he roots for the Knicks in the playoffs because he wants Mark to be happy. That's what thirty years of Raider fandom does to a person.

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Rest in Power, Garrett Anderson.

Before we get into anything else — the show opens with a tribute to Garrett Anderson, one of the most reliable, consistent, and criminally underrated Angels of all time. The guy who hit a three-run double in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series. The guy Jonathan made his son a homemade Angels jersey for. The guy you couldn't hate, could only fear. He was 53. He will be missed.

Now — sixty years of Angels history, told the way only Steve can tell it.

The Early Years

The Angels were born as an expansion team in 1961, forever destined to live in the Dodgers' shadow. They had Dean Chance winning a Cy Young in 1964. They had Bo Belinsky throwing no-hitters and dating every starlet in Hollywood. They had Alex Johnson — a Dick Allen type, proud and misunderstood — winning a batting title on the last day of the season

Nolan Ryan

Steve saw him pitch at least ten times in three years, standing behind the third base dugout before games, listening to his fastball explode into the catcher's mitt from sixty feet away. Half a dozen times he had a no-hitter going through the fourth or fifth inning. And when the Angels let him go, their general manager said he'd just replace him with two nine-and-seven pitchers. In 1987, at age 40, Nolan led the league in ERA with a 2.76 and went 8-16. Jonathan adds the cherry on top: Will Clark's first career at-bat was a home run off Nolan Ryan in the Astrodome. Deep center.

1986 — One Strike Away

The Angels were one strike away from the World Series for the very first time. Up three games to one. Home crowd. Donnie Moore on the mound. Dave Henderson at the plate. The rest is one of the most tragic sequences in baseball history — not just the home run, not just the series, but what happened to Donnie Moore afterward. He never recovered. The Angels as a franchise never fully recovered either.

2002 — The One That Got Away (For Giants Fans)

Scott Spiezio on the bus riling everyone up. Felix Rodriguez hanging a slider. The rally sticks. Garrett Anderson's three-run double in Game 7. Jonathan's reaction to all of it. Mark enjoying Jonathan's reaction. The Angels were built from within — Erstad, Salmon, Glaus, Lackey, Percival — and it worked exactly once.

Vlad Guerrero, Lyman Bostock & the Free Agent Disaster Era

Artie Moreno bought the team for $180 million. The Angels are now worth somewhere near $3 billion. And somewhere in between, he signed Josh Hamilton, Anthony Rendon, Albert Pujols, Vernon Wells, Gary Matthews Jr., and a parade of guys who were paid for one good year and delivered none.

Lyman Bostock gets his moment. A 24-year-old hitting machine who tried to give his April paycheck back because he was hitting .135. Was back up near .300 by September. Shot and killed after a game in Gary, Indiana by a man who thought he was someone else. One of the most heartbreaking stories in baseball history, and one the Angels carry with them still.

Mike Trout & Rod Carew

Steve asks whether Rod Carew could survive in today's baseball. Jonathan responds by listing his batting averages consecutively for about fifteen seasons. Then drops his career OPS — higher than Joe Morgan, Derek Jeter, Johnny Bench, Dave Parker, and Tim Raines. Rod Carew was not a singles hitter. Jonathan would like everyone to know this.

And Mike Trout — the best player of his generation, stuck on a franchise that's been out of playoff contention by July almost every year of his career. The modern Ernie Banks. Jonathan hopes he stays an Angel. It would be the better story.

Next Week

Mark does the Knicks. First round picks. The ship be sinking. PJ Brown. All of it.

🎙️ Hosts: Jonathan (Gen X) • Steve (Boomer) • Mark (Millennial)📻 New episodes every Saturday | Now also on YouTube

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