Green Light with Chris Long - Has SGA Become the NBA’s New Villain? Ryen Russillo Weighs In

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Ryen Russillo on the Green Light Podcast is only made better when it's NBA Playoff time. Ryen weighs in on Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers and making it to the NBA Finals. He also weighs in on the SGA debate and Wemby's dominance in the Western Conference Finals. To end the episode, Chris and Macon discuss Abdul Carter's comments on Jaxson Dart appearing at a Trump rally and. the impact on the locker room. (00:00:00) - Johnny Manziel vs Bob Menery (00:03:47) - Ryen Russillo on the Knicks Winning the ECF, Wemby's Dominance & if SGA is the New NBA Villain? (00:35:26) - Chris' AAU Experiences (00:39:45) - Ryen Russillo's Boat (00:45:51) - Oz the Mentalist (00:49:00) - Life Advice (00:52:51) - Jaxson Dart & Abdul Carter Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline presented by Zone Nicotine and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open: ‪[phone]‬ With the return of the Layup Line, make sure to check out the playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=YP1-ffQ3T_yUDRnJRhDtOw Check out Green Light's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where you can catch all the latest GL action: Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The anticipation for this conference finals because it was so new, to see if Wembe Niyama on a national stage and more people paying attention to him, like you didn't expect that he wasn't going to play well. But it's, that game won felt like his international coming out party for people that are like, hey, what's going on with this guy? And he delivered in the biggest way possible. Here's the litmus test for me, Rai. America is desperate for a French guy to take over the NBA. just so okay C doesn't win the Western Conference Finals, how big would a Nix title be? I mean, it's huge. It's over 50 years, but I don't see it as the ending of the Red Sox or Cubs drought. Exactly. I agree with that. I don't.

Mike, did you see the, did you see all those guys fighting each other the other night? Beasley, Stevenson? Oh, yeah. Mansell, Bob Manorie. Yeah. I don't click play on those, but I did see it come across, yeah. You know, I once had a pretty gruesome hand injury so bad that I know. Don't do this. I can't make a fist anymore.

Yeah. And I was telling a friend this one time and her response, why would you ever want to? Gotcha. And that's sort of my approach to other human beings. Yep. it's not one of aggression more of a pacifist well let me tell you

pacifist I got you if you ever see me up there doing one of these things what's the name of this is it brand risk is the name of the I think the name of this thing brand risk it's right there with the other 45 fucking sponsors

on the mat dude it is legitimately a risk to your brand to get in here and fight And I don't mean to lose. I mean just to be in here fighting. Like, this is a bad look. This is a bad look.

It's a bad look. It also doesn't look like these guys trained a lot. I'm out on anything, Aidan Ross. Payday, though, you know? Maybe somebody went a little too big on Canadian's money line and overtime. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I can get washed away, mighty quick.

What is the payday on a fight like this? Do we know? not I know you don't you didn't watch it not a clue I feel like I remember Johnny Mansell I think it was like 250,000 golly or oh it might be way more than

I don't think I'll tell you what though I would pay the ticket to watch Ryan Rissillo fighting one of these things yeah I would pay the ticket in a heartbeat I think Ryan's doing a little too well

to jump into I don't know though there's a piece of news that we're going to break in this interview that uh might be right that might signal the opposite. You might be right. We'll see what that is in a moment,

but we will talk to Ryan Russell today about the NBA and hit a quick mailbag. There's not much going on this time of year in the NFL at all. Trust us. I will tell you one thing. You talk about the Giants. Stick around at the end. We'll talk about the Giants for a minute.

Roy Robertson Harris Tours Achilles. That's a bad deal. That's a sneaky, real. bad deal for that team. Yep. When you consider what they did earlier this off-season shipping Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati, that's a bad deal.

There were some other things that happened with the Giants in the last couple days. Maybe after the Ryan Rissillo interview, we will discuss those things. Stick around. There's no bad time to have Ryan Rissolo on the show, but this happens to be the best time to have Ryan Risslo in the show.

we are in the wake of my New York Knicks sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers. And James Harden, they'll be moving on to the NBA finals. We will talk about the Western Conference Finals as well. But Ryan, first things first, do my Knicks have a chance at beating either the Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder in the finals? I would have said no. kind of feel like no. But, you know, look, if OKC gets through this,

what the hell is Janele Williams health going to be? I mean, the guy I thought basically was taking off the entire playoffs because they're like, hey, you're going to have to guard Wemby. And now that whole thing's been kind of turned on its head with the way they've defended Wemby. And it depends on which game, you know, you feel better about. But when they don't have Jaylin Williams and they don't have A.J., there's a real lack of, like, on-ball attack from this team offensive.

And so then it's like, wait, this team's like incredible. They're at one seat and back to back and, you know, all these championships at their doorstep. And then it's like, why do they look so bad tonight? So yeah, I guess there's a non-healthy version of OKC, but then it's like, well, how are they getting through San Antonio if those are their issues with all that? But yeah, I still would heavily favor both OKC and San Antonio. I think the next run has been so dominant that Nick's

fans seem to want to now have us put the Knicks at that level. And I just, I think the Knicks have been dominant. They've done a lot of great things. I love their starting five. I think the East is a disaster. Like watching these teams, it's like, my God, like, I hate all of these teams now. Yeah, I mean, look at who they've beaten to get, get where they are. It's, uh, even I could admit, it's not that impressive. I do think, though, I mean, like going to the West for a second, best Western Conference finals since 2018 maybe shaping up to be yeah I mean that was a good one just because it was like there was actually a team that was ready to take on the fight at golden state you know those those two years of it before Durant got hurt 19 because he got there

in 17 ran through everybody they still ran through the finals in 18 but like there was a window there where Houston's up in the series and then they miss a month's worth of threes and then Golden State pulls it off. You know, that's a good one. I really liked, no, I don't, I don't know, that wasn't quite close. I think there's been, I think the OKC second round series against Denver last year, but that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about a conference finals here. The anticipation for this conference finals, because it was so new, to see if Wembeennyama on a national stage with more people paying attention to him. Like, you didn't expect that he wasn't going to play well,

but it's, that game one felt like his, his, like international coming out party for people that are like, hey, what's going on with this guy? And he delivered in the biggest way possible. So, yeah.

They hooked me with game one. I mean, as somebody who's more of a casual and, you know, obviously I don't watch every series, but I was so blown away by game one. I thought it was one of the best playoff games I had seen in some time. And,

know, on the heels of SGA getting the MVP as somebody who doesn't watch the regular season, I found it really hard to come to grips with the fact that he is the most valuable player in the league when I'm watching Wembe, and I'm saying to myself, like, come on, man, like, I love OKC's role players. And you mentioned Jalen Williams and obviously Caruso, the first five minutes of that series, he was like Michael Jordan out there. It was unbelievable. I mean, he was fucking Caruso, by the way, is a really.

good players. They have some great role players. I just look at the Spurs and I say, if Wembe's off the court and it holds up when you look at the numbers, like they're a totally different team. And I understand the allure of SGA, but I also understand Wemby's kind of position, which is like, are you fucking kidding me? Like reading between the lines, he's like, are you kidding me? There's no way this guy's more valuable than me. I guess the question is, and all that. Do you think that Wembe is the MVP, is, or are we getting that wrong?

Are we like a prisoner of the moment watching this series? Yeah, I mean, I've got to look it up here again right now, but I think it's like, I don't know, was it a thousand less minutes played? Like, at some point, I think that has to matter a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You know, if you're looking at minutes played during the season, see, this is where the

averages get all screwed up. I'll have to look up the totals here, but I'll be able to do it. I had no problem voting one Binyama behind a couple guys, but I realized as I was doing it, I was like, this is probably the last time you're ever going to do this every time that this guy is healthy. And I think that part of it does kind of suck when you. you go, like you almost have to go through some sort of proving thing. Or like, all right, prove to me that you're worthy of this kind of stuff.

So, yeah, he was under 1,900 minutes. And SGA's total for this season, this is like 2,300 minutes. I understand. But as a casual here, how important is the regular season? Well, it is what the award is. it isn't, hey, who do I think is going to look the best in a couple of months. Like, I think that's kind of messed up to do the award that way. If we did the award that way, then like the only people that would ever win the

Heisman would be one of the national championship. And then the MVP would be, you know, people would like be mad that Jaylen Brunson isn't coming in second in the MVP. So I don't have a problem with it because of the minutes, the way they manage his minutes and all that kind of stuff. I'm not a huge standing guy, but sometimes like if I think it's close, you know, I'll go standings. But what he does defensively, like I never thought I've never really bought into the whole like defense is half the game. It's 50 offense, 50 defense,

because the people that do it for a living that pick this is like, yeah, it's more like 75% offense, 25% defense because if you really thought it was about defense being as equal as offense, then five Bruce Bowens would have a chance against like five Carmelo Anthony's, right? Yeah. And when you really go, wait a minute, who would win? a playoff series between five Carmelho Anthony's and five Bruce Bowens. Like, I think I'd pick the mellows like every single time. Maybe I'd be wrong. But whatever.

The point is, is like, whatever hesitation I had, if he plays 65 games and as close minutes-wise, I'm never going to vote for anybody else. Because it feels like it wasn't year five for him to get to that status, like the track that Ant was on. You know, some of these guys just got lapped. Like, Cade. it's like man Cade could be like the best point guard in the league and I voted him first team all NBA

and like how many MVPs can this guy win? It's like maybe none. Because like Yokic may never win another one. I don't know. Maybe people will be sick of SGA with back to back. So I get your point but I think the biggest thing is that this now sends it in a direction

where everybody's going to be on his side until they get sick of him too, which is what happens. SGA, I feel like the public is turning on him. I think the OKC story is so interesting because they're a villain now, but they don't fit the profile of a

villain. You know, they kind of do dirty shit and call it physicality, but they're not like, they don't have like the bad boy persona. You know, they're a feel good story that quickly, you know, kind of spoiled like milk and

people hate this team now. You know, they got one championship and an MVP under their belt, MVPs now and it kind of feels like everybody here's the litmus test for me rye america is desperate for a french guy to take over the NBA just so okayc doesn't win the fucking the western conference finals do you hate okay see a little bit like the way sGA flops he hits the deck every time he takes a shot you know harkinstein's got wemby and a headlock every every time down the court and like Nobody's calling shit. I don't hate, I find myself having a hard time hating OKC because I do love their role players.

And SGA seems like a perfectly good dude. But they are hateable. Yeah, there's so much that's good about this. You know, their down years were quick. The turnaround was quick. So if you want to get like ethical rebuilding. But they also were able to get SGA as a throwin to the bigger deal that teamed up Paul George with Kauai and all those draft picks.

And then that guy turns into. you know, the MVP. And, you know, I would say over a course of a couple of years here, one of the three best players in the world, maybe the second best player in the world, to Yokic and now the best player in the world, until Wembe, you know, his opponent in the playoffs, right? So he's not a dick, you know.

I don't like the falling down. I think it's awful. I just think it'd be super easy to fix where let them fall down, get it wrong in the favor of the defense a few times. And maybe this thing will police itself a little bit, it's going to get tiring falling down over and over again when you're not getting rewarded for any of the stuff. I just don't know why the officials, you know, this has been something that I've been bitching about for years and years. It's like, why do you let yourself get tricked? Wouldn't it be

better? You know, it's almost like, hey, we'd rather not convict anyone innocent if we let a couple things go. I don't know. That's a whole other philosophical thing. I remember a lawyer telling me that once where it's like, yeah, but isn't the whole point to make sure like, you know, people get off. people get away with things it's like yeah but isn't it way more important to never convict an innocent person i was like oh i was like i wonder maybe if that would be like the better way to go about it with NBA officiating or it's like yeah we missed a few yeah we missed a few yeah but we didn't call any that weren't deserved at least uh the other thing is that it's funny that because they're kind of boring people got pissed about that i also wonder with the nastiness of how

everything is today can you have a 24 month window and not be despised by every non-associated party here. Is that even possible to have a two-year run as any team in any sport and have neutrals be like, yeah, you guys are still cool. Like, I'm still kind of rooting for you. So I don't even know if that's possible. And I think their fans slash propaganda media arms are disgusting in a way that feels a little specific.

Although, look, there have been times of past where I haven't exactly loved the Utah Jazz fans, but that's like years. and years ago more of some Darren Williams, Chris Paul stuff that I'll never let go. Raptors fans suck pretty hard. So, you know, and they make it about like, oh, they'll label stuff. Again, they'll become simpletons about it where it's like, oh, it's just anti-Canadian propaganda. I was like, look, all I can tell you is that there's like 300 million of us down here. And no one, when the Raptors like do something good or thinking, God damn it, are enemies to the north, no one says it. No one thinks it. No one says it. But they make it about that. And again,

they'll celebrate like, you know, the Lakers put up Magic Johnson statues and like in Toronto, they want a Kyle Lowry one. Like they're to be like, no, that's be sick. And I think some of us go like, you should probably make a pilgrimage to that statue at some point. Speaking of fans, Ryan, are you tracking the large titted women behind Mitch Johnson? Dude, my wife is tracking. In San Antonio. the large-breasted women. They're everywhere. How can you not? They can't be not tracked.

I think it's the same too, yeah. What does Charles Barkley think about this? I mean, is it the same too? I think it's the same too. Yeah, my kids were like, why are you rewining again? Because when we watch football, I like to rewind to see like the play again.

And they're like, dad, watch film later. I'm like, I'm not watching film. It's just, you got bulls. Yeah, but they didn't know what I was doing. Oh, they didn't know. Yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah. Old enough now. Yeah, no, I don't think so.

I don't think so. Wayland's not yet. I mean, I think, I think he is, but I don't think he's like, I don't think he's clued into like what's going on behind the head coach. Okay. So hoops have got to be right around the corner for Wayland. Boobes are around the corner, for sure, for sure. I'll let him, I'll let him answer that question at a later date.

Well, that's another, but that's another reason about OKC is they don't have that as far as I can see on the coverage behind the benches. You got a blue Tijuana on top of that in OKC. Well, Dagnol's like, you know, he's Melva Toast. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no question. And that's not a bad thing. No, no. I was going to ask you, Rai, who is OKC in NFL terms? And you can go historical.

Hmm. It has to be like a new money fan base where I think that's some of the problems that they run into is that it's so important to this community that it's not like a selection of all these other things. Granted, the Sooners aren't that far away. I mean, I've done that drive. So it's not like if you're an OKC somehow like Norman's this foreign thing to you or anything like that. but um i uh football it'd have to be like kind of new money where you know sometimes this isn't fair but it's like if it's giants fans or cowboys fans or established long-term things even with like recent failures um for the cowboys it's like wait a minute you guys are going to start like saying

shit um you know i i don't know if you'll you'll disagree but just from a standpoint of the profile of the team and kind of the um and kind of the uh the uh the trajectory of the program early new england caught my eye looking at this because bill was never viewed as an aggressive GM they built patiently um they found veterans that you know and they they still did to you know 20 years later they were doing this thing with the vets and the timely signings and that sort of thing. And they went from cool story to fuck this team within like the span of two, three years. Because you can remember when New England, when they beat the greatest show on turf, that was a great story. Everybody loved that because greatest show on turf. Now, OKC was not the underdog in

last year's finals, but you get the point. And then a year later, it's like, hey, we're getting pretty tired of this whole thing. You know? Yeah, because I mean, the New England thing. I'm a Panthers fan so that sucked i mean you know like we felt like we had that game in the bag uh the new england thing's actually a much better comp than i think people because i was you know the first thing you think of was like wait a minute they've got a little work to do and it goes no no no no like it's still that new england thing was very new yes there were not new england patriots fans the way there are new england patriots fans you know post any of that stuff i it was not the same fan bases like again a giants or a packers or chiefs not a charter it's not a

charter program you know and and the bats fans when you talk to them it was like a different franchise at the old stadium and you know okay she didn't have an old stadium but you know you get the point yeah where i think what it is is there's just like a lot of new people coming in and it's immediate success yes and i think that fan can be like more annoying in a way than the entitled one where maybe their team isn't even doing anything. And again, this is all just stuff that we never never really had access to it all that much anymore. I just see a lot of horrible, horrible defense of like some of the OKC stuff. I can respect like most of it, but then I don't want to be told that the clips that are brutal that I'm supposed to like those two.

Mm-hmm. Plus, SGA is kind of Brady awkward. You hear some of these quotes after the games and that sort of thing. So if the Knicks win it all, this is an interesting question that was posed by one of the producers, is it like the biggest hypothetical major four-sport American championship that could happen? That hasn't yet. Now, I know the Knicks won two titles back in the 70s and that sort of thing, but for people like, I'm a Knicks fan. Grew up watching them in the 90s. Hasn't happened to be the first in our lifetime. I actually don't think it's the biggest hypothetical title that could be one.

I would honestly, I think it's more akin to like the Chicago Bears winning a Super Bowl. You know, Bears fans, an entire lifetime of Bears fans, a generation of Bears fans who have not seen the success. You know, 85 being the last year. And it's a huge market. It'd be great for basketball. Just like the Bears would be great for the NFL. I do think it'd be like the biggest one since maybe we won the first Super Bowl in Philly. Like I'm a little biased there, but like, you know, or the Cubs or the Red Sox.

I was going back to when the Red Sox won the World Series. Like, but I don't think it'd be the biggest title that hasn't happened or that could happen in the next five, ten years. What about the Canadians winning the Stanley Cup? Well, the Canadians really fucking burnt me last night. No shit, dude. I stayed up. I live bet them. They were down 2-1. They couldn't hold on to the puck in OT. Offsides?

It's terrible turnover. Dude, when you give it up in your own zone, dude, bad things happen. Oh, my goodness. That was... Another thing with the hockey. Frustrating. Who wants to see Vegas, Carolina? Come on, dude. All these warm weather teams winning lately? I don't like it, dude. The HABS in OT last night.

Yeah. Reminis of James Hardin and the Calf. No question. An hour or two earlier. Yeah, that sucked. Yeah. They didn't lose by 38 points or whatever. But Ryan, yeah, you've had time to mull this question over. How big would a Knicks title be?

I mean, it's huge. It's over 50 years, but I don't see it as the ending of the Red Sox or Cubs drought. Exactly. I agree with that. I don't. Because, I mean, the Knicks haven't been to the finals in 27 years. So, New York, I'd say, is probably an overrated basketball city,

you know, historically. You know, the Mecca, it's like, okay, the garden's fucking sick. It's my favorite place to see a game. I think it's the best crowd. It's all that kind of stuff. But like, there's multiple teams that have better histories than the Knicks. And then it's like, all right, well, you know, the Knicks is more about like, it's just taken so long.

But the Lakers, the Celtics have had better runs than them. Miami's had better runs than them. San Antonio's had better runs than them. You know, you want to throw Chicago. You can throw another Lakers team in there. There's just a lot, like even Detroit. Right. So there's a lot of teams.

Like New York gets put up on this pedestal as like, man, if it ever is right in New York. I mean, it's been going on a long time at New York. I know. I know. I was there. And honestly, here I am a 41-year-old man, and it pains me to say this, but I wrote down on my notes last night, is it bad to say? I love New York? No, that I would enjoy it more in the 90s, that I would trade a title now for one in the 90s.

Maybe it was the fact that nostalgia or being a kid, but like in the 90s, they were consistently a foil in the East. And they were a main character for a sustained period of time. It feels like the Knicks have been relevant in the last, you know, five years or whatever. But I think the most amazing thing about the Knicks is that, you know, like James Dolan's still the owner. Now I know that the GM changed a while ago, but I think that's an interesting part of it. There were people that were like they'll never win a title with James Dolan owning the team. Yeah, I mean, look, his tracker was terrible. They've done a great job bringing in Leon Rose.

And you think about the turnover of this roster and what they've turned it into in a fairly short amount of time. It's unbelievable. but it's a bit like, you take in Jalen Brunson going, hey, this is pretty great. But I'll admit, even at the time, I was like, I don't know, I don't know if he's going to be like the number one. No way. It goes deep in the playoffs.

I've talked to people that coached him that still can't believe that he's this. So I think most of us that have watched him be like he's a nice player, but damn, that's a ton of money. But then he hooks them up on that discount on the extension, which allows them to do this other stuff on top of everything else. You know, the cat deal made sense for them because it was like a two for one. and, you know, even though Katz's expensive as can be, the OG trade is an absolute home run.

The Hark trade's a home run. The Bridges trade, everybody hated it up until he's not missing any shots. You could still argue the prices high based on the headline of how many draft picks it is. But if this team is competitive for multiple years, like all these picks might end up being in the 20s, and it's not that big of a deal, but it maybe boxes you out of some of these other things. So I think the team's done an awesome job. They fired Tibbs when you make it to the East's a conference. finals would seem shocking to fire that guy when you do it and then you're able to back it up

with a different coach of Mike Brown getting to the finals. But yeah, maybe I'm just trying to find a way to because the question or whatever it is, that scenario, maybe that is the biggest one. But I don't I don't feel like there's been the same angst nationally with the Knicks the way it was for some of these other franchises that have had massive droughts. No question. I get it to Knicks fans, sure, but I don't know. I think a Jet Super Bowl would be massive. I think a Jet Super Bowl would be massive. There's teams like the Vikings, Minnesota, Minneapolis, the city of Minneapolis has less titles than anybody in the four major sports. So like, you know, I know it's a smaller market,

but there are teams that are more starved for championships and that sort of thing. And I could give the Homer answer and be like, it'd absolutely be the biggest fucking thing of all time, but I don't think it would. And we mentioned the ones that would be bigger. The question I have for you is, if they win it, this is basically the hypothetical Nix win the championship pod with Ryan Rosillo. Who are you kicking off the podium of greatest Nix of all time? I've got Frasier, Ewing, and Willis Reed.

Am I wrong in those three guys? And who would you kick off the podium? Would you kick anybody off the podium? Well, if you've given me, wait a minute, the podium. Yeah, the top three. You know, like when you go to the Olympics, there's three people. Yeah, F-1. I watched Canadian-Gramed.

Or the Enhanced games. I didn't watch. We did a promo for that, though, with Thor. Did you? Yeah, I was like, fuck it, I'll have them on. You did not miss much, bro. I did not have them on. Oh, but you didn't, no, you didn't miss much not watching the Enhanced.

games. The production value is terrible. I wasn't able to fit into the schedule over here. Walt Willis Patrick, is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah. The thing about the Nix is they haven't had a lot of like people are going to kill me for this, but they haven't had a lot of traditional like superstar players. Well, it's not like the Celtics or Lakers. No, no. And even in the 90s and the thing I like about this team is I love the role players on Nix. In the 90s, they had great role players. Guys you fell in love with watching. Same thing now.

If you're a kid watching Knicks, you love Josh Hart, you love all these guys. You know, Bridges is a fucking, dude, but they have not had like, Charles Smith, dominant players. Derek Harper. You got it. Allen Houston, the whole fucking thing. Chris Childs, Charlie Ward. You know?

Bobby? What was that? Who did you say? Ward what's his name Charlie Ward did I fuck his name up no his name's Charlie Ward yeah what do you say Bobby it's like you said Bobby Surrah no no I didn't say Bobby sir I did not say Bobby sir I could see you and Bobby Surrah getting real tight oh really yeah see like American spirits you wouldn't believe the smell of cigarette smoking here right now Ryan is that we've been so quiet it's a cloud yeah

I have a little bit ahead of. Who is my NBA guy? Who would be my best friend? Larry Nance, Jr. No, he'd say who I look like. Marty Conlin. I don't know that guy. But answer the question is,

Willis Reed, you know, like, yeah. I think Patrick's is, I think Patrick's off it. You think so? You're kind of holding, but aren't you holding, you're doing the title? Are we really going to do this thing, Ryan?

Where we, where we, we just blame the rings or lack there of rings on, Patrick Ewing. It's like the ring conversation with Dan Marino. I know Dan Marino's better than Patrick Ewing, but you get the point. Yeah, I do get the point. But I mean, what Brunson has done here, and then he's closing out these games,

and then it would mean, you know, we're probably getting two incredibly special Brunson fourth quarters. No question. For them to beat either of these teams, I'd probably take somebody off the podium. And it might be Ewing. But it hurts. It hurts. heart because you know youing was such a fixture of my childhood i went into it thinking i would keep him for that respect part of like hey he goes in there and he had them competitive for a decade and a half

no question even though 99 you know he's hurt you know you get into some some different stuff there and he also kind of became like a little boring would you agree yeah yeah i guess i was never bored i was a we lad um i was just happy to be in the east Eastern Conference Finals on the regular. But yeah, I think the thing I also think is cool is like Brunson, to your point, when he was in Dallas, you never could have imagined that he'd be a number one option like this, let alone so dominant. And SGA, he's a throw-in in a trade.

If this ends up being the finals, I don't know what it says, if it says anything at all about like the state of the NBA. You know, we go through this thing in the NFL where now we're saying, hey, well, you don't have to draft the quarterback in the top three to find your framers. guy or win a championship you can acquire one in a trade you can acquire one in free agency now it can be a retread we've seen different non you know non traditional pass to championships and the same thing in basketball why are guys smoking in the studio I don't know it's it's Chris no only Chris it had a long weekend man I just needed one I have a log

I have a log in my phone it's a sig log so I can keep track of how many I've had on the year. We're still under three packs this year. Ryan, I believe he said it makes a long wait a little bit shorter. That's right. That sounds like a lyric right there. Hey, here's some trivia. Ready? Who is the New York Knicks all-time leader in steals? Did he play in the 90s? Yeah. Okay, it's we already, we mentioned him, I think. Yep. Yep. It's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, It might, is it Ward? No, it's not Ward. Would you like to participate, Ryan?

Alan Houston. Nope. No. 90s. Is it Starks? It's Patrick Ewing. Oh, Ewing. Oh, that makes sense.

But back then, you could do whatever you want. You could play like Harkinstein out there and nobody fucking, nobody bothered you, dude. By the way, where did Hartenstein come from? because NBC's letting them introduce themselves, and he says Hartenstein. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought this up because I was in the car about a month ago, and I've been the Hartnstein guy because it just sounds right.

And if Ion Eagle is saying, Stein, I'm giving it to Ian Eagle. And I'm in the car, and it was like a later gym run back. So I wasn't right there before tip off knowing I could make up the time very quickly after some stupid review in the first half, which I still don't understand what coaches are like, Yeah, let's review this. But let's, let's jeopardize our challenge in the first quarter on and out of bounds.

That'll do it. Like, Bickerstaff just is like, how mad can I get the quickest? J.B. Bickerstaff, when he shows up to the arena, he'd be like, all right, great year up there in Detroit. But he'd go, all right, number one goal, he's got the chalkboard. He's like, can test everything. Number two, limit turnovers. Number three, I'm going to get as mad as I possibly can in about eight minutes. All right.

So as you say that. We were at the gym. I'm so glad. I'm so glad you said it, Makin. That's where I'm making. He's always on the details. Corner threes, bro. I'm in the car.

He's like Isaiah Hartnstein. And I'm like, what the hell? Like, he doesn't know how to pronounce his own name. What's wrong with this guy? And so from that point on, I've been saying Stein and no one else, no one else is. Just me and him and making the three of us. I rewound it. I rewound it.

Listen to it back. Next, she'll tell me he's not a, white guy. Which is also true. But he is a white guy too. I don't understand the white guys don't get any credit for that. Yeah. How did that happen?

Yo, I got a theory, dude. You can have Helen of Troy and all the Homer characters and you can have Betty Boop. We just want Blake Griffin, dude. Just give us Blake Griffin and you can have all the movie characters. I don't give a shit about that stuff anyways, dude. I love watching people melt down about that stuff. Hey, before we transition to another sport. I have begun to enjoy AAU basketball.

Enjoy, maybe not the word. Way's playing AAU basketball, right? Where do you stand on AAU basketball? Because so far, it is like a Star Wars bar of bad actor parents, dude. It is, there is a lot of vicarious living going on in that motherfucker. Not to mention, it costs a lot of money to get in. You get a green wristband Saturday. You got to drive home.

Usually it's far enough away that you got to, you know, you got to plan your day around it. It's, but it's not too far that you get a hotel. So you got to drive home and then you got to drive back the next day. And they get a different colored wristband. It costs a bunch of money. I walked in and the first thing I saw, because you walk in and coaches are constantly breaking down their teams like in the hallway. I walked through a coach's meeting where the first thing I heard to a bunch of 10-year-old kids was, that referee was terrible. You know, like I sat next to a parent and I quote, he said to his kid who lost a rebound, God damn you.

Dude, I was like. I don't mind the second part. That sounds like some tough loving right there. Yeah, tough love. Well, it's said a little louder. He couldn't hear it. You know, you had another, I saw two coaches didn't shake each other's hands, bro. Like it is, it's chaos in there.

I mean, it is. But at the same time, I kind of love it because. It's really competitive. It's fast-paced. A bunch of uniforms. Interesting team names. It's fun to size up the kids and try to tell which teams are good. And you're not always right.

For instance, I thought we were going to beat this team. We were down 27 to 3 the other day, dude. So like, AU basketball. Runs in the family. Yeah, exactly. Mixed bag. Now, take it easy. Way's pretty good.

He's playing up. He's young. A.U for me is kind of a sore subject right now. Because, yeah, he's a dickhead. It was a score reference. It was 27 to 3? Oh, yeah, kind of. 28, 3.

Got it. So for me, AAU is a mixed bag because I do want to support my son and he has fun doing it. But at the same time, I get to see the worst parents on the planet. And it takes up your whole summer. Well, as a non-parent, I hope every parent out there is bringing their kids to San Diego every weekend. I mean, I'm friends with people now that I'll be like, hey, are you around? They're like, no, not around. A round?

What do you mean? Like, freedom to do something? I watch my kid losing basketball. Yeah. No, we've got to drive to like inland empire, California two hours away. Towns no one can name. We leave on Friday. We stay in a hotel.

And if we're lucky we get eliminated on on Saturday, but we're not going to be because they don't want us to not be there paying for shit. And so we'll go like one in three on Saturday, which means we still get to play on Sunday. Oh. Like that's what I do, man. Like, do you not understand what I do? And look, I've felt I've gone through a phase the last couple of years. I'm starting to feel really selfish about not having kids.

That's my own little journey, something I'll have to deal with on my own. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the wrong thing for me to do. But when they tell me these AAU itineraries, the meter of guilt goes. down that's called birth control right there buddy that's the best form of birth control just take a look at the the weekend uh syllabus for an a you parent it's not good does it have to be that way

like what what are the other ways you just tell your kid we're gonna be a drill family where it's just you and me in the driveway working on triple threats a drill and we're just going to take you out of the lab at 16 and throw you into the wild did wemby play a AAU? Wemby didn't need any AAU. I don't know. Maybe one of the A's is American. Yeah, maybe.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We've been trying to figure out what the acronym stands for. Okay, so I have athletic amateur or amateur athletic, and then I don't know the U. Rye, do you know the U? Yeah, I already knew it, so I'm not going to. Okay.

I'm not going to. It's not Uganda. Okay, I figured. Let's get to the mailbag from Ryan. And I want to kick off with some breaking news. I want to kick this off with some breaking news. This is as reported by me and Macon. Yeah, because you know how Schaefter, he'll include the others because he has to.

Yeah, Darlington will get a little credit. That's the biggest shit show, dude. Like, come on, share the wealth a little bit. I like Schaefter with that power thing. of like, I don't want, see, I don't want to say anything where it turns into I'm, because I actually like Schefter. I think Schefter like one-on-one when you, when you get him in some moments, I actually like him.

Yeah, yeah. I got nothing against the guy when I've run into. Joe Schaefter, but yeah, that part of the industry where it's like, thanks, buddy. I didn't like the leak in the JPP X-rays thing and all that. But, but yeah. That's fine. That's fine. Sure, you don't like 100% of things that I've said are done.

That's true. We're pretty good. That's true, but you know, there's the HIPAA thing. So you sold the boat. Ryan Rosillo has sold his boat. Is this news to you? No, I read the doc. Okay, cool. So you are breaking it with me. Tell us about that, Ryan. I was tough. I didn't want to sell it. I had a price on it for a while. And I just figured no one would meet the price. And then somebody came in and kind of met the price. And it was the worst possible time because I'm finally started to have some freedom. And then it was really suck because then I was like, all right, well, then I'll be able to take it out for like the next couple of weeks. Because, you know, have you seen the calves play? Like those, those games aren't going to be happening, five, six and seven. So I was like, this is going to be great. And then they're like, now once your boat goes to like sea trial, you probably should not take it out even though it's before closed because of like something you shouldn't do it. Like you have a guy when I bought the boat, we had to.

guy was unbelievable i think his name's dean i think he played football at san diego state with marshall fogg and he had a scar from trying to tackle marshal fox still on his head uh complete badass boat guy right so yeah so i went down to when i originally bought this boat years ago he's like the first thing i do when i meet him he goes all right mr rsillo was like totally by the book he's like if this boat if there's anything electronic if there's anything structurally There's anything we are not buying this boat today. I know you're excited to get a boat. I know this is the boat that you want.

But if I see anything wrong with this boat, I'm going to recommend do not buy the boat. And I was like, all right. You know, and then the boat owner is on the boat. And he's like, are you the owner? Are you the captain? And the guy was like, yeah, he's permission to come on board. And he was like, yeah. Like, okay, no problem.

And meanwhile, I'm just like walking onto the thing thinking I'm buying it. This guy totally by the book. So I totally understand now, like, like the guy called me was like hey would you do it at this price and I was like yeah probably and then I was like oh this would be cool I'll still have a few weeks to use it and he's like yeah you can't we're doing the sea trial already in like two days so you can't even use it so I was sitting there memorial day at the beach by myself reading my Ronald Reagan bio that I'm almost done with max boot just an incredible toome 800 pages the real Reagan the Reagan everybody needs to know a little bit better

and I was watching all these people fly by in their boats the whole time and I was like this sucks. But it had to be done. I didn't do it because I'm out of boating. I'm not out of the game. I'm not retired as a captain by no means. Do not. Did it because you're out of money. People say that. Yeah. Is this a canary in the coal mine financially? You know, my wife, my wife traded in her range over for a Kia. And she had a woman that she knows from carpool line come up to her and goes, So you bought a Kia. Tell me about that. It sounds like she was at like Radio Rose Super Bowl Week.

Well, yeah. What are you doing here with Kia? Does it say, yeah, tell me about what you're doing with Kia. Does it signal something? You know, I think that's what the women in the carpool line are wondering. And by the way, the tell you ride has as many features as the LR4, like hands down. It's much more comfortable inside. But as a status symbol, certain people are like, why would you go backwards?

There's going to be people that ask you why you sold your boat. And I think their concern is fair. That's fine. It didn't come with as many friends as I thought it would. But they are all a U-S soccer practice. Exactly, exactly. Well, RIP to the boat. Did the boat ever have a name?

Yeah, it was Ohana, which means family. Ironically dubbed Ohana. Where's everybody else, Skip? That was better than when at Nordstrom, I bought like Nordstrom home, whatever, and I bought that thing. It was like the thing I love the most about my home is who I share it with. I hung it up in my house in Connecticut. Sarah Walsh thought it was the greatest thing ever.

i don't even know if it's possible man at this point it's like i think big cat was asking me he's like when's the last time you live with a girl and i was like i was 18 he's like yeah it's it's not all it's cracked up to be let me tell you um no chance although carissa a few months in in 2018 but that's six years ago and she wasn't really there that much yeah and that was platonic so it's just like you know it's a different deal uh before we get to the one life advice question that I source for us on this show. I was wondering where you stood on O's The Mentalist getting exposed like the hack that he is.

I kind of love the chaos of all of it because it's kind of like, hey, fuck Pablo, which I think is really funny. But I like Pablo. I do too. So it doesn't mean that I'm like rooting for Pablo's demise. I just think it's kind of funny that people get this mad at him. Yeah.

Being like, are you serious? You're exposing magician. but Pablo's point was it like, hey, I just got mad at a magician. This guy's doing TED talks talking about like reading eyebrow leans. And he's not. You know, like, yeah, I'm able to do all these different things. Like, man, the Bejohn thing with Kay. Oh, where he turned the phone off.

He just turned the fucking phone off. And then Bejohn didn't even know what was going on. And I don't blame him because you're, yeah, you're in the zone. Yeah, because then Bejohn's like, oh, my phone's off. No problem. And basically like the point is that O's has him scroll all of his contacts. And then he just looks. He looks directly at the phone.

Then turns it off. Exactly it's a guy Gilbert's name. Got it. Yeah. And then let's turn the phone over. He turns it off. Bijan can't see that he's scrolling on a dead screen. I mean, there's still ways it could go wrong.

But when you see it, I don't know. I mean, can I be entertained by the O's trickery? And then also by the fact that you're almost like, do people stop booking this guy? No, they got to stop. But then there were some weird shit on like, like how the calculator history stuff was happening. Yes, which people don't know this.

You can go back and find anything that you input in recently with like the stroke of two buttons. And he was having people, all right, I need you to, you know, before shows in production meetings. Right. Subtract your real pin now from your imagine pin. you know it's just to help you prime your mind for it or whatever and people like yeah no problem like it's my fucking calculator and then he'd go in and find it but the most hilarious thing about it is

the way he got exposed was will Compton can't spell and uh I think that's fantastic that's just that's incredible yeah what happened again so will Compton uh was typing bruce bruce hall he thought into his Google um but he was typing Bryce Hall into his Google and before the show and I could be butchering this he had him look up a stat of a player that he's imagining and he looks up Bryce Hall who's a corner that actually played at Virginia ironically yeah I remember him show um you know he's like who's your player is he uh is did he did he play for you know is he in Tampa this year he just got traded to Tampa or whatever and will's like uh no no no man nah and you know like him and Taylor didn't really know what was going on and I don't blame him because you know

Moses is still, he's got, you know, pretty good stick. But in the aftermath, people figured it out. And I'm so glad they did because this to me is not magic, you know. Anyways, Ryan's got to go in a minute or two. We got one life advice question for you. I actually texted it to you. So you can go ahead and just read that rye. And then we'll get you out of here.

Have I already seen this? Life advice? No, this is something that we've sourced for this show. All right. 41 living a college town, have some connections of the football team. I meet a lot of guys always have, but things are different now with the poor NIL. Dudes are making more than me, which is fine, but they leave a lot. And so I meet these guys sometimes and I follow them back on Instagram. Then I'll see a South Florida guy in my timeline.

I'm like, I don't know anyone in South Florida and ends up being one of the guys. And it's like, wait, what? Are we really doing this thing where my timeline is chaos and I just got to deal with it? I'm going to unfollow them all, but I think dudes take it personal, let me know. Feels fake. Really? I can tell you, it's real. What do you think?

Can you unfollow dudes? Can you unfollow dudes in the transfer portal era? Yeah, I think it's very, so you're talking about like you're helping out with UVA funds. No, no, no, that's in me. This is somebody else. Oh, really? college town yeah yeah wait a minute why is the 41 year old guy it's me fooled you it's me but i meet these kids and like i might phone upside down right now what's no i might work with them

like one-on-one and like teach them stuff or they come to my golf events drills yeah and then they follow you and you're like man follow them back like you know it's kind of like you know and then you know six months later i'll open my fucking app and i'm like who the fuck do i follow from south florida who the I don't need this. You know, like, we haven't talked. Like, do you unfollow them? You unfollow them, right? Permission to unfollow all of them.

I think you can, but I've also feel like the unfollow is like nasty. I know, but this, I wish there was an option to unfollow like cordially. Like, hey, man, there's a mute. Oh. That way, when they make the Hall of Fame one day, I can act like. Potentially, they still mention your name. Get them on the show. All the kids that go to Bama and going to have successful careers.

right um i thought the SEC was losing all of his talent well they're gaining our talent um jacob rodriguez hey rye we appreciate your time man we really do good luck with um the next midlife crisis purchase um i vote um i vote exotic animal no it's not going to be anything for a while take a little break you take a little break kid i've done literally everything you can possibly do. Screenwriting, Muay Thai, boat, Iceland, fly fishing.

Erotic asphyciations next, dude. I'm sorry. Honestly, that's the book. Is, hey, I've done them all for you. Yeah. All right, buddy. Thank you for joining us. Yeah. No, I feel great now. It's like to see you.

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political statement of one way or another? Yeah. Yeah, in a way, because it's red, white, and blue, you know, like the Giants, like this great country. Yeah. That is a melting pot of all different sorts of people, viewpoints. That's right. Et cetera.

The question was asked, how will something like what happened last week affect the Giants' locker room? You saw Jackson Dart at a rally for a sitting president. am i using that term correctly it was a rally i think so what are you rallying for well already the president you know what i'm saying you know let's run it back one more time you know what i mean oh electric um anyways the question was posed like what does it do to the locker room and i i have a take on this that might surprise you i don't think it does much to locker room if they're winning it does nothing right like if jackson dark can play if he now if he throw if he goes out and throws for 1776 yards this year that's really committed to the bit but that would be bad

you know that wouldn't be a lot of yards and people might question that the quarterback in his focus considering like what he did last week and that sort of thing but like as a guy who was on a team that was you know we had some guys that that spoke about issues that were off the field and And that sort of thing, it's every player's right. To do that, this is America. And it's ultimately about, are you winning? Are you good enough? I will say this, though.

I think a locker room is special for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons that a locker room is special is because, how can I put this? I think a locker room is like, it's like an idealized version of America where, you know, there are as you put it like a melting pot of ideas and ideologies and political leanings and that sort of thing although a lot of them are pretty shallow and time invested in those ideologies and that sort of thing like for the most part the fringes of the locker room have real opinions that are that they form through through paying attention or or doing research or watching C-SPAN like these dudes are not watching C-SPAN for the most part and for most everybody's in their mid-20s.

Right. I mean, we have frontal lobe issues still at that age. That's right. We're still developing or maybe devolving, depending on what you do for a living, you know. But I think the important part is no matter what people think, no matter what you hear at a lunch table that might give you pause or you might say, that guy's fucking crazy.

Or I hate the thing or the person that this guy supports. These relationships are stress tested. they are now there's some hardliners listening that might say hey like listen if at this point in american politics or you know the way the world is if you think differently than me like i i have to cut you off like there's people i know that that think like that because pragmatically it's impossible you'd be you'd stop talking to 50% of the country okay like there are people who i like who i enjoy that have different political opinions than i do um Um, in a locker room, you're able to compartmentalize those things so easily because the

relationships are as I put it stress tested in that like, it's amazing what you can look past when you trust somebody and their goodness or their, their work habits or their dependability. You know, you're doing really hard things together. And, um, my family depends on me and I depend on you. So in a lot of ways, like my family depends on my teammate too. And, you know, the future of my career is dependent upon the people I play with. And, you know, so number one, you don't have a lot of time to butt heads over ideological differences. But I think the most important thing is, like, when you trust somebody.

And I think there's examples of this in America that just not in locker rooms. Like, I'm sure there's a construction yard down the street where when guys get back from Chick-fil-A, they're fucking arguing about XYZ but then when the shift is back on like they're working together they see each other as like teammates and you know I think a lot of people the way the world has gone

is like we view reality like a timeline you know because so many people are online myself included I got on Twitter the other day and saw the discourse around this thing and and I half wanted to jump in and half wanted to jump off a building because it's hopeless.

The dialogue is hopeless because it's strangers. They don't trust each other. These aren't stress-tested relationships. These aren't people that know well enough about each other to say, well, like, maybe he's ill-informed or it's a bad take, but like that's a good person. I've seen that person, you know,

help somebody who broke down on the side of the road or I saw somebody like, you know, take care of a co-workers' kids while somebody was in the hospital, you know, like all these random acts of kindness that are inherently in human beings. And I fear we're losing them because of the climate today. But, you know, when disaster strikes in America, like for the most part, people rush to help each other. There's also instances of bad actors and that sort of thing. But for the most part, like, people's default in person is to find a way to coexist or to work together, right? Like, that's why when, somebody says if you think nobody's getting along just go outside because like if you walk down the

street like you don't know that people aren't getting along like you think things are normal but if you get on your timeline it's like fucking people are at each other's throats and for good reason too because we are in unprecedented time in american political history whether you agree with with you know the party in power the president that's in the white house right now or not like you can admit this is an unprecedented time period but in a locker room you look past things you compartmentalize things because you love each other you know and and I think if you if you really if you really like if you really take some self-inventory even the most hard line among you would probably count a few people that have differing views than you as like family or friends or you know people that you depend on

or that you love or you would do something for in a pinch and um that's what happens in a locker room so now the minute guys can't play anymore it's like who the fuck this guy you know that's the number one thing you know i i i lay this utopia out but like it's dependent upon execution if you're not executing fuck this guy could agree with everything but if the guy's not getting the job done at work or he's not dependable fuck that guy you know that's what a football locker room's about dude like that's it's about it's about getting the job done and and and and i think the problem is like there's not enough in-person hashing out of these issues like but in a locker room you sit a lunch table and like you're going to talk about things as long as lunch is and you go back to

go back to work but our default now is to yell at each other online and so to answer that question i think the Giants are fine as long as they find a way to fucking to win games this fall. Now to the question of Abdul Carter, you know, and I think of it, he's funny, dude. I like Abdul Carter, okay? First off, he's Muslim. Yeah. So that factors into this thing. It's not just like a liberal that's like, what the fuck is he doing in a Trump rally?

Why is Trump even having a rally? He's the president. um but secondly he might have just been like damn is this AI it did look unreal it's like why is this second year quarterback who had a good rookie season like Trump I heard somebody say this is a Trump Trump like finding something to say about him like he didn't know what to say he was like man he's got some thick ass legs like what the fuck dude um big legs it just was like wait is this real like is this real right now uh And I think Abdul Carter might have been taken aback, but also he might have been, you know, for any number of reasons, like I disagree with this, this act.

And I saw a lot of people who I think would only say this if it were going in this direction, former players and that sort of thing. You don't air out differences on the timeline. And those were a lot of very conservative former players. But there's also a smattering of people that might think like me that, you know, that have. and fuck y'all don't even know really what my ideologies are you know i don't like the president but like there's some people that probably pointed out that it's pretty unprecedented to hear a guy air out a teammate over political ideals in public but i think this is an unprecedented time and because it is an unprecedented time i have no problem with what abdul carter said and they squashed

it probably pretty quickly the other thing you have to remember is like and for best you're better or for worse. This is not a, this is an apolitical take. Most young men right now are making determinations off of vibes, which way the culture has swung, their favorite content creator, their favorite streamer, their circle, okay? And I think this is, this last part is important because, um, I think it's, I think it's one of the biggest impediments to, to finding like some logical middle ground in America right now. Young men don't want to be called betas and they don't want to be called gay. As ridiculous as that sounds.

You know, the branding of this debate, this culture war that's going on, as unbelievably stupid as that sounds, I think it's the most hyper-masculine setting in America in sports, sorry, not in America like fuck you'd be a firefighter police officer all that stuff like yeah you know military podcasters it's one of the most hyper masculine settings in America you have to understand that the these guys are going to do whatever appeals to their masculinity it's such an insecure time in your life as a young man that like the last thing you want to do and you also have to remember a lot of these guys are very religious so as stupid as it sounds to be like well this is my this is my moral my moral navigational beacon as president trump as a religious man it's pragmatically

the choice that religious people are making deeply religious people are making and there's a lot of religious guys in the NFL that come from deeply religious places as i'm not saying it makes sense but i'm just telling you that and so the naivete of people like me who can't fucking stand the president and that's my opinion just like it's your opinion that you love him like we all have a right to our opinions

I can't stand the naivete of my side looking at NFL players and saying I am shocked like I'm incensed and I'm shocked that any of these young men support a guy like Donald Trump I'm sorry to tell you

but there's a lot of guys in the NFL who are conservative and if you haven't noticed american politics is more about like picking a side than like weighing every individual leader or decision or you know bill or what have you as logical or illogical it's about like just what is my side like and there's a lot of conservative men there's also a lot of guys that don't want to give part ways with their money in the NFL so i'm just telling you that there's a multitude of reasons of why and i'm not saying any of them are great young men might this guy might appeal to him even after everything he's had to walk back or he's fucking waffled on or he's run on x and he's done

why or the corruption is in your face or i'm telling you these guys aren't watching c-span they're not following the irs settlement they're not get them to explain what's going on at the strait of whore moves ask jackson dart to explain like tariffs you know or any of this shit i'm pretty sure he he probably isn't that plugged in so i'm not making him out to be this you know i'm not giving everybody a pay a pass for their what i think is a bad take or whatever but like it is not pragmatic to to think that like none of your neighbors think differently than you and if you live in this idealistic world in your bubble, then it's just going to continue to be the same. Like, you know what I mean? I'm not saying

you have to accept it, but just don't act like you're shocked. And another thing is don't say, white people don't say, what do your black teammates think? That fucking drives me crazy, because I'll just tell you, I had a, I had a, I had, formerly had a friend. I had a friend. we got into an ideological argument and he said to me and you could tell I had wounded him with logic he said I just don't get it you did all that social justice stuff

where you just trying to impress your black teammates it's the last time I talked to him my life is better not only is it a stupid fucking thing to say but it's also just not realistic when you consider the melting pot that is a locker room that crosses ethnic lines as well. I'm just telling you there are dudes from every neighborhood with different opinions, dude. Does that make sense what I'm saying?

It's it's it is it's hard for people to understand who are on the outside. So I just say this is messy as fuck, but it is an unprecedented time. I think everybody has a right to their opinion. I think for the giants, if we want to keep the main thing, the main thing here, it's ultimately a fine thing. It does start conversations

and probably ends conversations pretty quickly. That's because you turn it back toward the main goal. It's probably a good thing that you have a coach like John Harbaugh in place, you know? All these sorts of things. Nothing can be left unsaid anymore.

Harbaugh loves that man, though. Yeah, but he's also good. going to understand that a leader of the offense and leader of the defense need to get along for the good of the team. No question. Here's another thing that a lot of, I noticed this. This is one of the biggest trigger points of me, this whole fucking thing. I was less incensed about the political stuff than I was the fact that most Trumpers that I saw discussing this thing online think Abdul Carter is, like they have the wrong idea of who he is. He can fucking play a little bit, dude. There's a lot of people that like Trump, evidently, that are

box score watchers because this guy has a nice bag dude he's going to be a good productive rusher in this league i he had four sacks last year had a billion pressures a billion pressures but i wouldn't expect you to understand how russian coverage works you don't even know how fucking might be the bots bots might be box score no it's not there's there's i mean a lot of it is knee jerk you know we just entered this conversation we don't watch football all year we just ended this conversation

because we're political cheerleaders and so yeah I mean like I agree with you how much shit if you're willing to share did you get when you put your arm around Malcolm Jenkins when he was raising his fist during the anthem so much

so much but like nothing I can't handle I'm not sitting here being like oh man my bad like you're you know like wo is me like i got i had some it's funny until you get a death threat you don't realize how like hollow they they actually sound you're like really you look finding me um i had people you know tell me you know i had a guy told you told me he was going to knock my teeth down my my my throat with a baseball bat in front of my kids and you know i had people say hey you know lock your doors and that sort of thing and you assume everybody's crazy.

You just assume everybody's crazy. I got a lot of shit for it. I fucking probably, here's the part that drives me crazy. There's some people in my life that probably distance themselves from me or didn't talk to me as much in the aftermath, but they never were like, hey, fuck you.

They just kind of like, I'll see them around and I can kind of feel it. You know what I'm saying? And I also think it's probably hurt this career. I think it's probably hurt this. I think it probably helped and hurt it. Not that I was ever thinking about it pragmatically. I legitimately woke up one morning and was like,

man, I'm pissed about what's going on at home. I'm going to put my arm around and my teammate in this preseason game later tonight. Like it literally woke up, went to breakfast. Hey, Malk, would it bug you? Nah, here we go. You know, it's a preseason game. I didn't know it would be such a big deal, and it became a big deal. I also think

I also think it says a lot about like the state I've had people there's people that that you know that'll tweet me or you know I've even run into a couple people at like a bar that like take a knee long I'm like

I never took a knee sort of I never took a knee you know and and and so I think it's a window into how people consume this stuff halfway and without all the facts and without listening to what you're talking about. There's just so many reactive people. And so I wouldn't change a thing.

I'd do it again. Did you interact with... I'll tell you what made me really uncomfortable. Can I tell you what made me really uncomfortable and still does to this day? Some of the praise you get for it, right? because number one like it really shouldn't be that big of a deal to put your arm around a black team number two it almost makes you feel guilty for getting praise about it because because it puts you in this light where you're like this like uh like you're this good person where i'm i'm i'm i'm an okay

person I did a nice thing you know what I'm saying but to a lot of people that was like very threatening so as evidenced by some of the things that I that I got my messages and that sort of thing did you interact with the death threats did you report the death threats one or two one of them I challenged the guy to like a duel yeah like about this baseball bat Like, where is it? You know? And then the dude, like, deleted his account or whatever. But, like, um, yeah, no, I mean, it's fucking, that's life, dude.

We make decisions and they, and you live with them. I'm still living with that decision probably 10 years later. It doesn't, it hasn't like changed my life outwardly, but like, it definitely has been something that, um, I can feel my life is different now. Yeah. It definitely is. Like, I guarantee you there's people in this town who fucking hate me. You know, people,

I've known for a long time that any chance to get to talk about me behind my back or, you know, or maybe I'm being too self-important. But I don't think about it that much. Well, and if I had to guess, Jackson Dart probably didn't think he was making a political statement. He thought, oh, this is a cool opportunity. I'll do it. I don't know. I don't know.

And, you know, but obviously whatever him and Abdul Carter talked about was good enough for Abdul-Carter, but I did think it was funny that he called him J.D.6. Yeah, you know, so listen, like everybody's got different views. I hope one day we wake up from this nightmare and like we go back. It's a funny thing to say for somebody who thinks like there's still things to to work on in this country. It's just sad that we've gotten to this point where it feels like the distrust that we had for the government, which is totally a legitimate thing depending on what we're talking about.

has kind of like it's kind of bled into like we don't trust each other now and um you know I just wish more people like worked alongside each other doing something totally unrelated and we're able to see yeah I know there's a lot of people like that but there's also a lot of people that just don't that that are working from home or they're they don't spend time with anybody outside of their their tight circle or you know they're not challenged to have to like hear different perspectives. Doesn't mean you have to like them. I don't like the different perspectives,

but I'm not going to say, hey, I'm not going to talk to 50% of people now in perpetuity. There will be a day where he's not president. What it gives way to, it's probably a police state, an AI taking over the world and like, Pallantir fucking us up the ass every day.

But like, there's also a, a chance that we go back to like politics being more normal i'm not sure it's sad it makes me sad it does you know yeah what also makes me sad is some of the shit that that that's never changed so do i want things to go back to normal no i want things to like i just want us to to to pass things out in a more healthy manner and and stop being being so tribal because there's probably one or two things that if I was standing in a room full of the most extreme people on the left they'd vote me off the island more than one or two

so it's just like fuck dude but when you when you when you when you handsomely reward j-sixers things have changed like things have changed dude there are people that after that happened that i know that we're like yeah enough And then all it took was like a couple years. And they were like, yeah, well, that bitch Kamala. I take that back. That wasn't that bad. So, yeah, with all that having been said, I do think the least of our worries is the state of the Giants locker room.

That's right. I think the people, I think it's more the state of the country, if I may. but uh listen i know we got a lot of listeners with different opinions and that sort of thing and um i i i just just because i might hate an opinion of yours doesn't mean i hate you and um now there's there's fringes of people that i that i really don't like right and that's the other thing there's i'm not going to say like there's nobody in a locker i ever dislike based on something they said like there's there's there's a couple bad guys i played with but for the most part if we see if we meet each other where we are and we sit down and have a conversation in earnest you probably

come away saying like man fuck i wish that person would think more like me because they're a good person right like man wouldn't it be nice if that good person got it that's more the way that's more the way you feel when you meet somebody in person where they are and talk to them. But when you meet people online, bro, fuck them all, dude. The George Carlin thing is true. And it's funny how everybody has tried to hijack George Carlin's message. Like everybody's like, what would George carlin say today usually trying to co-sign whatever their their determination is but if you're familiar with the george carlin um rant about like i love every person i meet individually they're just you meet a person there's just this sparkle of the universe like they're like every one person is is a beautiful

thing dude like it's endless possibilities no limitations like but then they start grouping and when they start getting in a group you can have them right that's how i feel about people even people i agree with because uh everybody sure they have they have the fucking answer right now but guess what like this country's got way more questions than answers so if it was working the way we were doing it we'd be a lot better off and that includes my side like we are just we're lost we need to everybody needs to plan a football team together

we need to build the biggest football team in in the universe dude and if another country has a fucking problem with us we're going 22 personnel dude we're just going 22 personnel and we are all on the same team and we're in four minute mode

on like China or fucking whoever dude try this on for size you think China if we have a good analytics program is going to be able to get us off the field. All right. You think China can match our personnel? I don't think they can't.

The left. Yeah. For like a decade plus can't really find a viable candidate. Oh, they're there. It's a joke. It's a fucking joke, dude. Okay. You ready?

Admittedly, it's a joke. Why don't you run for president? Me? You. No. Way too much baggage. One. you're old enough way too much baggage fuck you two you were born here three charismatic

four can can can can talk okay five yeah can unite six easily pronounceable name you know yeah there's a lot of wordplay that can go with that those campaign slogans yes think of just think about it dude I have so many my MySpace was a disaster. Do they have access to that? Also, daily pot smoker. That's okay.

What happens? What happens at 10.30 when I'm playing Madden? And I get, you know, I'm just, I'm just working on a little cone and they're like, sir, Iran struck. Vice president shit. You're in the new big ballroom. You got it.

on a on a projector screen what happens when that when they're like what the fuck is chris long doing he's out there this what's this project now he's doing a he's doing a fire pit in the white house law dude gunshots at the white house no he's just shooting skee uh yeah no i don't think that's going to happen i'm just saying you've got a duty to your country and oh they would kill me so bad dude if they would kill me they would kill me dude in a heartbeat if the things i would do would be so common sense that they would i would be dead in a week if buddhajedge had a last name like long he'd be talking about a third term right now all right i don't think it's his name oh i don't think it's his name to my point earlier which is fucked up because i actually like the guy

yeah a lot they call them mayor pete you could be full football Chris. Maybe Mayor Pete can come to Charlottesville and fix the fucking traffic patterns here. Well, we'll get there. And by there, I mean, you'll be stuck. You'll be right where you are. That's the name of the game of this town. Have a good podcast. Because you're going to be sitting in traffic a lot and make it green light podcast. Hey, y'all take care.