The Bill Simmons Podcast
SGA vs. Jokic, Celts-Lakers, and the State of NBA Media With Ryen Russillo and Bryan Curtis
10 Mar 2025
The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the Thunder's 127-103 win over the Nuggets on Sunday, OKC's improvement from last season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's incredible statistical season (2:06), Saturday's big Lakers-Celtics showdown, LeBron's late-game injury, Al Horford's impressive defensive performance, a solidified first-team All-NBA, and second- and third-team arguments (29:45). Then, Bryan Curtis joins Bill and Ryen to talk about 2025 NBA media discourse, Stephen A. Smith vs. LeBron, Charles Barkley's ESPN comments, cancelling 'Around the Horn', and the future of ESPN (53:54). Finally, they discuss Bob Cousy, who is featured prominently in Episode 1 of HBO's 'Celtics City' documentary, greatest NBA broadcasters, the skyrocketing NFL salary cap, and more (01:38:05). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Ryen Russillo and Bryan Curtis Producers: Kyle Cricton and Chia Hao Tat Order Michelob ULTRA today, available on Doordash! ENJOY RESPONSIBLY © 2025 ANHEUSER-BUSCH, MICHELOB ULTRA® LIGHT BEER, ST. LOUIS, MO. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Coming up, we figure out a way to talk about OKC, basketball, sports media, a lot of stuff with Priscilla and Brian Curtis next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I am on the Prestige TV podcast recapping White Lotus every Sunday night, right after the episode runs on HBO and on Max. Me, Joanna Robinson, Mally Rubin. You can hear our recap.
Episode four is this weekend. It's on the Prestige TV. You can also watch it on the Ringer-TV YouTube channel. And then the rewatchable is Monday night. We're doing best in show. Yeah. Christopher Guest. Dogs. It's me and Mally Rubin and Joanne Robinson, my White Lotus crew. It's threatening. It becomes sports movie month.
On the rewatchables, because we did Rocky last week, Best in Show this week, and two more spots left. I don't know. Could be another sports movie month. Hey, FanDuel Sportsbook. They have some really fun bets right now. Player performance doubles, two-leg parlays already made for you. Take an NBA player prop, combine it with a bet on that player's team to win. We have a ringer, PBT we call him.
player performance bet placed on any of the Tuesday games. So Washington, Detroit, Milwaukee, Indiana. That's a fun one because Indiana always plays well against Milwaukee. Maybe grab some Halliburton with Indiana to win. Stay tuned for my picks on Tuesday on Twitter. Be sure to claim the ringer PBT in the carousel on the FanDuel Sportsbook app.
This Tuesday, I have Ryan Russillo come up in a second. We taped right after this. the OKC Denver game. And then Brian Curtis is going to join us midway through to talk about some of the crazy sports media shit that's going on and also some big picture sports media stuff. So this is an action-packed two hours. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, we're taping. It's 1230 Pacific time.
Just watched OKC Denver. I'm a little groggy today, Russillo. OK. Daylight savings combined with going to bed last night, wanted to throw something on, flip through the cable guide because I'm old and I still flip through cable guides. Castaway just started a movie I've seen 100,000 times. I did a solo rewatchables for and I'm like, I'll just watch the beginning.
And I'm up till like 1.45 in the morning, which was really 2.45 in the morning. And I just loved that movie. But I had to ask you, what's your castaway move coming out of the gate? You're just stranded on the island. Like, do you figure out how to do a home gym? Like what, about a year in, what does your island look like? I've actually thought about this.
Okay, great. And I'm glad that you asked because I like watching alone. It's a good fall asleep show.
It is because there's no music for like 50 minutes. So it's peaceful.
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