The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe

**Bill Simmons** (0:00)
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All right, my old friend, Zach Lowe, is here. He is joining The Ringer and Spotify. We're back, baby. We launched the podcast that is called The Zach Lowe Show. It's gonna be Monday next week. There's a YouTube channel that's already up, and you're gonna be doing a bunch of stuff for us, and I couldn't be more excited about it. This is a great week, great to see you.

**Zach Lowe** (2:51)
It's good to see you, too.

**Zach Lowe** (2:53)
And yeah, new name, new show, new graphics, new everything, and I've been paying attention to the NBA season as I normally would have even though I didn't have a job. I've been watching probably even more than usual because I've had no other work to do. I've been meeting people in the city when they've coming in. I've traveled to some places, so I've kept my finger on the pulse in preparation for a potential in-season return, which is now imminent.

**Bill Simmons** (3:17)
Yeah, I was worried you might just sit out the whole year and we wouldn't get you for the awards, the playoffs, anything. But I think to me the catalyst was the Luka trade. That was the moment where you were like, oh my God, I need a platform. Give me a platform right now.

**Zach Lowe** (3:33)
So I was asleep when that happened because I don't have a job. And so I didn't have to be up at 1230 in the morning or 1215 in the morning. I woke up the next day and obviously my phone is just, there's a million notifications that I didn't even look at. I was like, I guess Jimmy Butler got traded overnight. I guess that finally happened. And then like eight more minutes passed and I looked, I was like, oh my God. And then I still, I mean, we're going to talk about the Lakers a lot. And I watched their game against the Rockets last night. One of my buddies, Nathan, is a huge Rockets fan. I went over and watched with him. And we're almost two months out. And I'm like, I just can't even believe that he's on their team. And having been to a Lakers game recently, like they can't even believe that he's on their team. It's insane.

**Bill Simmons** (4:13)
No, and it's, I feel the same way. Every time I watch them, there's three or four moments where I just kind of step out of the watching experience and go, how did this happen? How did we let this happen? How did we let this happen to the Lakers? What were some of the other big things that, you know, you were gone for four fifths of the season. What were some of the other stuff you wished, oh man, I wish I had a column or, oh man, I wish I had a podcast. I would love to chime in on this. What were some of the big stories?