The Bill Simmons Podcast
An NBA All-Star Fix, Kendrick Vs. Drake, and the 'SNL' 50th Anniversary Show With Van Lathan and James Andrew Miller
Mon, 17 Feb 2025
The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Van Lathan to discuss another disappointing NBA All-Star Weekend, Bill's plan to completely fix the All-Star Game, a new dunk contest idea, restructuring the weekend, the electric USA-Canada hockey game, and more (3:23) before discussing the state of the Kendrick Lamar–Drake rap beef after the Super Bowl (40:29). Then Bill talks with James Andrew Miller about the three-and-a-half-hour 'SNL' 50th anniversary special episode, what they loved, who they thought was missing, stories from 'SNL' Season 1, the future of 'SNL,' and more (01:05:34). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: How can the NBA All-Star Weekend be fixed?
You think Drake, because Kendrick's short. I think Drake really missed the, I think like his disresponse could have just been like an entire short song.
He talked about the fact that he's short though.
But he didn't really go after it. I think that's like his one move left and it'll probably be clumsy and not work well. He should have sampled short people. Just a whole short song. Just like, just mocking Kendrick for being short. It's like his only move left now.
The problem is, is that you'll do that. But the reality is like, then you look thin skin. No, it's an extra thing with Kendrick. Cause Kendrick on one of these records, Kendrick says, uh, it might be on Dodger blue. He says, have you ever ran a fade? They ran three more back to back. If not, then shut the fuck up and keep it wrapped.
And that's basically, he's saying like, if you want to fight, we can fight. You know what I'm saying? If you want to fight, we can fight too. The thing is, with how psychotic we've seen that he is, you just don't know the level that he won't go to. So it's like, the best thing to do is just to rap about it. Just rap.
Well, Kendrick's going on tour. Going on tour. And this will just keep going and going.
It's time to let it go. Kendrick doesn't want to... Kendrick's not letting it go. He doesn't want to make the mistake of orienting his career around training. You won. Get back to pushing the culture forward like you always have. You've done the victory lap. There's no bigger victory lap than the Super Bowl. Get back to doing the same shit you always have.
All right, so you're Drake's Tom Hagen. You're his conciliar. He hires you for a week. What are your two pieces of advice for Drake?
Okay, two pieces of advice. First of all, Tom Hagen, not a wartime conciliar.
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Chapter 2: Why has the NBA All-Star Game lost its appeal?
You could watch, you could see everybody who was in like a specific section. I wasn't even really listening to the Q&A. I was like, wait a second. Oh, oh, there's that. And there's that person. And I almost feel like that's, they intentionally do that, right? So we could just see who's there.
That was the whole purpose of it. They did that in the 40th as well. Yeah. You get to show off the wares, you know? I mean, like, because unless people are watching the red carpet or whatever, a lot of those people like Jerry and Larry, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were in the audience, obviously, but weren't in the show. Right. So, you know, it's a great way to show them off.
And not only that, but Tina and Amy are the only, really the only two people that could handle that. Because you got to riff on it. You got to tease that. I mean, it's really, it's much harder than it looks.
Really smart way to get a bunch of people involved in the show. I got to say the most surprising person, I don't know why Kevin Costner was there because he's never hosted the show. It just felt like they needed a star. And he seems like he's pretty available in general, like he was at UFC last month. But Letterman being there was shocking to me. That was somebody that's never hosted the show.
And I never felt like I had a real connection to it in any way, but maybe he did and I'm missing something.
I hate to say it, but it's like driving a Porsche at 40 miles an hour. Because why point out to us that Dave is here? And not use him. And then not use him for anything. I mean, I just... I kept on waiting for him to do something or say something from his seat even, or whatever. And it wasn't anything. So, I mean, I guess... I don't know. It was weird. Julia, too.
I mean, Julia is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, even though she had a hard time when she was an SNL cast member. Yeah. She could have done anything. She's fearless and she's terrific.
I was surprised by that. I was surprised Bill Murray ranked the weekend update people and started with Colin Quintent, who wasn't there. That just felt like a direct shot. But that was, it actually felt like old school Bill Murray, like his pace and his timing was really good, I thought.
Well, I thought it was brilliant that he did this black anchorage first, got Che out of the way. And then what it wound up really doing was just being a real dig to Colin Jost, who didn't make any of the spots. Right. So I think that Colin...
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