Speaker 1: Hello Puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Weekend, where we
Speaker 1: bring you some of our favorite episodes from the vaults
Speaker 1: for your weekend listening. This weekend, we thought we would
Speaker 1: give you a basketball related puzzle since we're at the
Speaker 1: end of the March Madness Tournament. The misleadingly named March
Speaker 1: Madness Tournament, I should add because it's April, so it
Speaker 1: should be March Madness and April Anarchy. That's my proposal
Speaker 1: free advice for the NCAA. Before we get to the puzzle,
Speaker 1: one quick trivia question for you. What was the score
Speaker 1: of the very first basketball game played in eighteen ninety
Speaker 1: one out of YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. The game was
Speaker 1: played in eighteen ninety one. Peach baskets and a soccer
Speaker 1: ball were used, and the score of that first basketball
Speaker 1: game was one to zero. That's right, one to zero,
Speaker 1: thanks to a miss court basket by William Chase. He
Speaker 1: was the Lebron James of eighteen ninety one, the MVP.
Speaker 1: Presumably he signed a multi hundred dollars Cream Soda endorsement
Speaker 1: deal right after I hope so for his sake, and
Speaker 1: with that, enjoy the puzzle. Hello, Puzzlers. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Puzzler Podcast, the Free Wi Fi in your daily puzzle
Speaker 1: coffee shop. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's
Speaker 1: guest is the awesome Jay billis ESPN's college basketball analyst, attorney,
Speaker 1: former player and coach at Duke University.
Speaker 2: Welcome Jay, Thank you, Aj.
Speaker 3: Great to be with you again.
Speaker 1: Great to have you this puzzle. I think you'll enjoy.
Speaker 1: It's all about sports team names. Do you have a
Speaker 1: couple of favorite sports team names?
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 3: I grew up in Los Angeles, so my favorite is
Speaker 3: the Dodgers. I grew up an LA Dodgers fan. The Lakers,
Speaker 3: even though they're originally from Minneapolis and there are not
Speaker 3: a lot of lakes in southern California, and I grew
Speaker 3: up a big Rams fan.
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny you say the Dodgers because also that
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with LA, because it was about
Speaker 1: dodging the subways in Brooklyn. So your two favorites have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with what they are.
Speaker 2: Well, I dodged a lot of traffic in LA.
Speaker 1: There you go. Well. Today's puzzle is written by Chief
Speaker 1: Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska. It's one of my favorites. So Greg,
Speaker 1: please come up from the puzzle lab and give us
Speaker 1: your wisdom.
Speaker 4: Well, I appreciate you letting me out of the puzzle lab,
Speaker 4: but I realized it's going to be a very contentious day, Jay,
Speaker 4: because I grew up in San Francisco. Oh no, all
Speaker 4: my other team loyalties. I live in New York. Now,
Speaker 4: I'm a big Mets fan, but the forty nine ers
Speaker 4: are like etched on my heart.
Speaker 3: So we all have our crosses to bear. Greg, I'm
Speaker 3: sorry to hear that exactly.
Speaker 4: Well, we've certainly it's one of the great rivalries, no question, and.
Speaker 1: I hope you too can get along enough to get
Speaker 1: through this puzzle.
Speaker 4: I think we'll manage. We'll manage.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: This puzzle isn't just about football teams. It's going to
Speaker 4: involve teams from all the major North American sports. And
Speaker 4: what we've done is imagined if there was an opposite
Speaker 4: world version of these teams, what the team names would be,
Speaker 4: where they're all replaced by their opposites. So, in this
Speaker 4: opposite wide world of sports, there's a California basketball team
Speaker 4: that's named for female monarchs, and they would be known
Speaker 4: as the.
Speaker 3: You're talking about the Sacramento Monarchs. I'm sure in the WNBA, so.
Speaker 4: No, no, I was thinking about the sacramental NBA team, but
Speaker 4: named for the opposite thing.
Speaker 3: Oh, I see, we're saying Sacramento Kings, the Sacramento Peasants.
Speaker 4: That's good, like the opposite of king. I like that,
Speaker 4: go with that, Sacramento. But I was thinking of the
Speaker 4: female monarch, So it would be the Sacramento queen queens.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, I got you even easier.
Speaker 4: But I like peasants. That's a good one.
Speaker 2: That's the opposite of king.
Speaker 4: No question, no question. So in this game, I'll give
Speaker 4: you a clue to the opposite world team and you
Speaker 4: tell us what that alternate name is. Okay, all right,
Speaker 4: here's your first one. If you want to see this team,
Speaker 4: you need to go to Anaheim or to Hell.
Speaker 3: Be the Angels. So I guess the opposite would be
Speaker 3: the Devils, right.
Speaker 4: That's right, the Los Angeles Devils. All right. This team
Speaker 4: is formerly of New Jersey. It's an NBA team that's
Speaker 4: interested in all of the income, not just the portion
Speaker 4: which counts as profit.
Speaker 3: So it would be the Nets, the Brooklyn Nets. What
Speaker 3: would be the opposite of net profit lost the Brooklyn loss.
Speaker 4: Brooklyn loss is a good one. I like that too.
Speaker 4: I was thinking, what you the opposite of net profit
Speaker 4: would be.
Speaker 2: The gross profit gross profit?
Speaker 4: Okay, right, the Brooklyn, the Brooklyn grosses.
Speaker 2: Or net deficit, the Brooklyn deficits.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, a lot of options here.
Speaker 2: The Brooklyn bankrupts well.
Speaker 4: And some seasons. I think that's what they are. They're
Speaker 4: considered all right. You mentioned the WNBA earlier. Let's uh,
Speaker 4: let's do a WNBA one. This is the team from Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: They make their opponents have terrible visions in their sleep.
Speaker 3: So it's the Atlanta dream. So the Atlanta Nightmare, the
Speaker 3: Atlanta Nightmare.
Speaker 4: Exactly, exactly, well done. Here's another one for you. This
Speaker 4: Canadian hockey team is named for the four hundred and
Speaker 4: thirty five members of the lower House of the US Congress.
Speaker 3: The senators. Ottawa senator, I guess, so would be what
Speaker 3: would that be? The voters?
Speaker 4: Oh? Good, No, I'm thinking of the other House of Congress.
Speaker 4: So instead of the Ottawa senators, they.
Speaker 2: Would be what would be the other So we've got.
Speaker 4: One hundred senators and then we've got that other even
Speaker 4: Wackier Branch of Congress with four hundred and thirty.
Speaker 2: Five, what would be the House of Representatives.
Speaker 4: The Ottawa Representatives exactly what.
Speaker 2: I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think Jenkins doing some good, some good alternative answers.
Speaker 1: I think we got it great. Got to give them credit.
Speaker 1: These are not wrong answers.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of different opposites. All right, here's
Speaker 4: your last one. This is actually there are two opposites
Speaker 4: in this in this team name. It's an American League
Speaker 4: baseball team that has very dark hand coverings.
Speaker 2: Very dark hand coverings.
Speaker 4: Instead of light colored foot coverings.
Speaker 2: Oh, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3: So it would be the Black Gloves instead of the Chicago.
Speaker 4: White Exactly, the Chicago Black Gloves on the same wavelength.
Speaker 4: They are excellently done.
Speaker 1: That should have been the name of the infamous team
Speaker 1: that cheated.
Speaker 3: In the Night or the nineteen nineteen World Series. That
Speaker 3: would be the they were called the Black Sox.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, give them black gloves, just to have.
Speaker 4: Them black gloves. Who really go for Well, you.
Speaker 1: Did great, Janget, You know your team names. Where can
Speaker 1: people find more of your content, whether free or paint?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: They can always find me on ESPN, especially during the
Speaker 3: basketball season, and the mute button is handy for anybody
Speaker 3: who's heard too much of me on Twitter. I'm Twitter X,
Speaker 3: I'm at J Billis and at j Billis on Instagram
Speaker 3: and TikTok.
Speaker 1: Love it so, Greg, before we leave, do you have
Speaker 1: an extra credits for the Puzzlers at home?
Speaker 4: Of course I do. I always have an extra credit
Speaker 4: before you banish me back to the Puzzle Lab. Sometimes
Speaker 4: known as America's Team, this football franchise features young women
Speaker 4: who like a questrian sports.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you Greg, and thank you Jan and Puzzlers.
Speaker 1: Please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and
Speaker 1: we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
Speaker 1: that will puzzle you puzzlingly.