LakerMania, NBA Expansion, WBC Lessons, and MBJ’s Moment With Billy Gil and Wesley Morris

The Bill Simmons Podcast

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 30.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 132 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons reacts to the Lakers taking down the Heat with Luka’s 60-point game, the NBA expansion, and more (2:15). Then, Billy Gil hops on to recap the World Baseball Classic and to give his thoughts on Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game (29:52). Finally, Wesley Morris joins Bill to react to the Oscar results, including Michael B. Jordan beating out Timothée Chalamet for Best Actor and ‘One Battle After Another’ winning Best Picture (01:00:07). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Billy Gil and Wesley Morris Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Sam’s Club | Join The Club of Yes And #ULTRACourtside could get you closer to the game! https://michelobultra.com/courtside MICHELOB ULTRA® COURTSIDE ’25 to ’26. No Purchase Necessary. Open to US residents 21 plus. Begins on October 1, 2025 and ends on June 30, 2026 Multiple entry periods. See Official Rules at https://michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bill Simmons podcast brought to by Sam's Club.
0:08.9	We're also brought to by The Ringer podcast network where I put up two episodes of the
0:14.2	rewatchables this week.
0:15.2	We did To Live and Die in LA on Monday.
0:17.3	And then we did a special mailbag on Wednesday night.
0:20.5	That was a really good one. We did it
0:21.7	in honor of CR Month. Chris Ryan and Craig Horlebeck were on the mailbag. So if you missed it,
0:25.9	go check it out over the weekend. Lots going on in this podcast. I deliberately waited until
0:34.3	tonight, Thursday night because I wanted to watch March Madness. But there was also some NBA games I wanted to see, Charlotte, Miami, San Antonio Phoenix, and the Red Hot Lakers in Miami. And it turned out to be a good idea because a lot of stuff happens. So we're gonna talk basketball at the top. Then Billy Gill is coming in to talk about the World Baseball Classic and what we learned and what we liked and what we didn't like. And then last but not least, our old friend Wesley Morris, we are going to talk about not just the Oscars, but the year in movies in 2025 and Michael B. Jordan and a whole bunch of things. So we have basketball, baseball, movies. It's all next. Let's take a break. Pearl Jam, and then I'm going to talk basketball. This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by Sam's Club. It is that time of the year when you just got to get in your car and go somewhere. I've done that plenty of times of my life. Nowhere gets you ready to go quite like Sam's Club. Snacks, the gear, super low prices on gas. They got a bunch of stuff that
1:29.3	keep you and the whole crew rolling. And here's what you got to do. You got to join the club of
1:33.8	yes-end at sammsclub.com slash yes-end. You must be 18 years or older to purchase membership,
1:41.5	and membership is subject to qualifications,
2:18.1	visit samsclub.com slash yes and for details. All right, so I'm taping this top part of the podcast.
2:20.1	Thursday night, Pacific Time.
2:22.6	Just watched a lot of NBA March Madness.
2:24.0	March Madness was really fun.
2:26.5	We had a North Carolina, terrible loss for them.
2:30.3	We had Sienna, trying to do the 116 thing against Duke.
2:31.6	Had a couple other good games.
2:35.2	We've lost a couple top lottery picks now.
2:38.4	We lost Caleb Wilson already, and then North Carolina lost.
2:42.3	And then sadly, we lost AJ, who was really good today as well.
	...

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