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The Bill Simmons Podcast

The Juggernaut Packers, Realistic Clippers Punishments, and Week 2 NFL Picks With Joe House, Jason Concepcion, and Chris Ryan

107 min episode · 2 min read
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Episode

107 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Relationships, Science & Discovery, History

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Green Bay Championship Case: The Packers demonstrate juggernaut potential at nine-to-one MVP odds for Jordan Love, with a favorable schedule through Week 10 that could see them undefeated heading into their Eagles matchup, controlling both lines of scrimmage like championship-caliber teams historically do.
  • NBA Circumvention Investigation: The Ballmer-Kawhi situation involves $48 million in suspicious payments through Aspiration company coinciding with contract timing, with minority owner Dennis Wong funneling $2 million as Kawhi received similar amounts, creating enough circumstantial evidence to warrant serious league investigation despite no smoking gun document.
  • Potential NBA Punishments: Historical precedent suggests Ballmer could face forced sale like Donald Sterling, though more likely outcomes include multi-year banishment from team facilities and loss of multiple first-round picks, with the investigation potentially extending into next spring per league sources.
  • Week 2 Betting Value: Patriots plus-1.5 against Miami represents strong value given the Dolphins' poorly-coached secondary performance, Miami's organizational chaos, and New England's improved speed on offense with Gonzalez returning at left tackle, making them competitive against AFC's weakest team.
  • Divisional Coaching Advantage: Bears offensive coordinator Ben Johnson possesses intimate knowledge of Detroit's defensive schemes and weaknesses from years coaching there, making the six-and-a-half point spread excessive for a divisional matchup where the underdog historically covers seventy-plus percent after both teams lost Week 1.

What It Covers

Bill Simmons analyzes the Packers' dominant Thursday night victory over Washington, discusses the Steve Ballmer-Kawhi Leonard compensation scandal investigation with detailed reporting from multiple sources, and provides comprehensive NFL Week 2 betting picks after going one-and-four in Week 1.

Key Questions Answered

  • Green Bay Championship Case: The Packers demonstrate juggernaut potential at nine-to-one MVP odds for Jordan Love, with a favorable schedule through Week 10 that could see them undefeated heading into their Eagles matchup, controlling both lines of scrimmage like championship-caliber teams historically do.
  • NBA Circumvention Investigation: The Ballmer-Kawhi situation involves $48 million in suspicious payments through Aspiration company coinciding with contract timing, with minority owner Dennis Wong funneling $2 million as Kawhi received similar amounts, creating enough circumstantial evidence to warrant serious league investigation despite no smoking gun document.
  • Potential NBA Punishments: Historical precedent suggests Ballmer could face forced sale like Donald Sterling, though more likely outcomes include multi-year banishment from team facilities and loss of multiple first-round picks, with the investigation potentially extending into next spring per league sources.
  • Week 2 Betting Value: Patriots plus-1.5 against Miami represents strong value given the Dolphins' poorly-coached secondary performance, Miami's organizational chaos, and New England's improved speed on offense with Gonzalez returning at left tackle, making them competitive against AFC's weakest team.
  • Divisional Coaching Advantage: Bears offensive coordinator Ben Johnson possesses intimate knowledge of Detroit's defensive schemes and weaknesses from years coaching there, making the six-and-a-half point spread excessive for a divisional matchup where the underdog historically covers seventy-plus percent after both teams lost Week 1.

Notable Moment

Simmons proposes the theory that Kawhi Leonard may have had zero knowledge of the compensation arrangement, with uncle Dennis potentially freelancing the entire scheme independently, which would explain Kawhi's complete silence and lack of public appearances addressing the scandal despite being photographed casually attending the US Open tennis tournament.

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Episode Transcript

This episode is sponsored by Uber Eats. Every time I sit down and watch the game, I find myself getting a little hungry. Football and food just go together, especially on Sundays. Good thing. Uber Eats has game day deals all season long. We're talking savings on all your favorite eats and snacks, wings, pizza, chips, drinks, you name it. Whether it's from your favorite restaurant or straight from the grocery store, Uber Eats has deals on everything you need for game day. Get game day deals on Uber Eats. Order now. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I had a new rewatchables going up on last Monday. We did legend of Billy Jean, an eighties classic. You can find that, on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. Watch this video podcast on Spotify. Next Monday, pretty big movie coming fairly big, starring Kevin Costner. That's your hint. You might be able to guess what it is. We there's still some good costume movies left that we haven't done. Anyway, that's coming on Monday. The Prestige TV podcast, after task is on HBO, as soon as it ends, me and Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney are doing the recaps. So, we had a lot of fun doing the first couple. I've only seen three episodes because we've done all of the, recaps for the first three watching one at a time. We don't cheat. We don't go ahead because that's, not honorable. Anyway, coming up on this podcast, at the very top, Joe House and I are going to, react to what we saw from Packers, Washington on Thursday night, House's team being involved. We had to stick around for that one. Then Chris Ryan and old friend, Jason Concepcion, are gonna come on, and we're gonna talk about, everything we learned about the Ballmer scandal this week, which is really, like, the biggest thing that's happened in the NBA in a while, not on a basketball court. And then last but not least, Joe House is gonna come back because we did ringer one zero seven for week two. We did not do well in week one. There were reasons for that. We feel good about week two. We're going to go through the slate, go through the picks and it's all coming up next. We're gonna take a break and do Pearl Gym and then, house and I on Washington Green Bay. It's the bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel and the NFL is back and thank God FanDuel has everything. They got an awesome app. They have SGPs. They have great futures. They have good prop bets, live betting your way bets clean app. It's great to use. Been using it for a few years. Every time I go back to Boston or any place that has FanDuel and I get to use it, I'm always excited. I'm on an airplane runway. …

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