Green Light with Chris Long - March Madness Cancelled. NBA Postponed. Ryen Russillo joins to help break it down.

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

Chris on Sports News - 0:24. Russillo Joins - 5:00. Postponement of NBA season - 25:55. How would Chris react if he was in the NFL today - 34:09. Wrap Up - 50:38. About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more. Nothing is off-limits at Chalk - 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. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Greenlight Pod. I'm your host, Chris Long. Recording, not live, taped from Greenlight Studios here in Virginia. Yeah, you know what has hit the fan, and it's getting weird. I never like to be an overreactive person. You know, I don't like to be a sensationalist. I certainly don't like to do that when I do podcasts and I don't like to do that in my own life.

I've tried to stay really measured about this thing. You know, I think it's obvious that if you're healthy, this isn't as big as scare for you individually. There's a whole, you know, section of the population that should be very concerned about this. So I'm taking it, I'm taking it that way. I'm thinking about the people that are at risk, you know to contract this virus and have a much worse outcome than possibly me or somebody my age

and it's still scary i mean it's it's a serious thing uh but i do think about there there are a lot of people who can't just brush this off right now it is a pandemic i tend to listen to people like scientists or like the world health organization um or doctors um like those are people i tend to listen to so I'm not going to go conspiracy theory, you know, media gaslighting on the coronavirus. When I was in Tanzania, I, one night going to bed, and I'm a little anxious there anyway, so I don't like being halfway around the world. I'm kind of a homer. So when I travel, I get kind of nervous. And I started reading articles again, and you can tell me the media is misleading me, but it appeared to me,

and this is late February that this day was coming, where shit was going to, stuff was going to hit the fan here in, in the States, it was inevitable, and it is here. And you've seen a rash of cancellations. Most notably, the NBA canceled last night, which I think set off an occurrence of like kind of a dominole, effect where everybody's looking up to see what the what the league above them is doing and now you've seen a whole host of sporting events and leagues suspending play NCAA tournament is obviously

in question right now what they're going to do i would i would venture to guess it's going to get canceled um or at the very least postpone i'd love to see it i'd hate to see the door shut just as a sports fan but i also understand if if that's the safe thing to do um again i'm If I'm the NCAA right now, I'm not listening to sports fans. I hope they do the right thing and they listen to professionals. But here we are. It's going to be weird. Definitely a lot of people at home.

A lot of people not going back into work right now. Schools are getting canceled for weeks on end here in different parts of the state already. And it's scary. I mean, it's absolutely scary. You know, I'm not in a panic. but I think Kyle Brandt from Good Morning Football said it best. It's like, I just don't want to hear your, it's just the flu takes. Like take that to some fucking 4chan message board or like a subreddit.

Just get that energy out of my face. There's a serious thing. I'm going to treat it as such. I'm also not going to panic and freak out. But proceed with caution. I hope everybody stays safe out there. and we're going to have a lot of good guests over the next couple weeks while you're sitting at home working from home you know i think slacking off is probably inevitable um you know if you're

if you're driving somewhere um i don't know where you would be driving catch up on some of our old stuff we got a bunch of good interviews coming out all the time from last summer with the fishbow um but it's going to be interviews like today's i'm gonna i'm gonna have ryan rissile on Um, he is not only a buddy of mine, I did, uh, the Rosillo show with him all fall talking football. Now we're obviously talking to the NBA with the cancellation last night. Uh, so without further ado, uh, let me get Ryan online. A dear friend of mine and somebody with a lot of NBA insight, the ringers, Ryan Rosillo, Rye, weird ass day.

Yeah, that was, uh, that's an all-timer. I mean, I think both you and I know, like, you, it's almost like you don't know how to handle it. Like guys are still making jokes on Twitter. Maybe that's the right thing to do. And then it's like, wait a minute. How could you be so insensitive? But if we just keep this in the world of, you know, our last few days, you know, I'm going through my normal routine.

I got to tell you, though, I stocked up in the grocery store in a way that I haven't in a long time. And you start going, all right, what's going on? And then I'm like, all right, you know, sit down and lock into some of the games. And the game I wanted to watch the most was Oklahoma City, Utah. And I'm like, what's going on with these refs? They're meeting with the coaches. and then the rest grab their jackets from the scores table

and then the t-shirt can and start shooting out and then everybody's dancing and the hype teams out there and then the PA announcer like 20 minutes later while no one has any idea what's going on is like hey the games canceled everybody's safe see you later it seems like kind of a mic that's kind of a microcosm for the tone this week in America it seems like nobody knows what the hell is going on

but sports it feels like because it's one of the most visible um undertakings in our country is kind of of leading the charge for better or for worse with the timing. I know the NBA, you could argue their leaders of the pack. You could argue that they were a little bit slow to act

because they were still playing games against the advice of some pretty smart folks in front of crowds. And then like last night was super weird. Like for you, you're watching that game. I know the refs lead because I guess one of the reps realized that he had been officiating a jazz game earlier in the week. And of course, might have come into contact

with Gobert and or Donovan Mitchell. You know, I'm watching Q's UNC and I'm watching these kids go to the locker room and they're kicking UNC's ass. And I got, I'm thinking as a player for Syracuse, I don't know if you check your phone. I mean, NFL players check their phones at halftime. You're like, what the fuck is going on, dude? You know, they're canceling the NBA season or suspending it. But when you first get that news, you don't know what the word suspension means.

why are we even going back out here and playing the second half? You got the Big East, like randomly hanging on today, canceling the game at the halftime of Creighton and somebody else. All the Power 5 conferences were shut down, yeah. And then I'm watching commercials in between the breaks, hyping up the tournament with stadiums full of people. It's one of the most surreal things I've ever seen. You brought up kind of the entry point to this,

which is, you know, what were the league supposed to do? And I think we have a history of, like, I know whenever there's some sort of virus, like, I'll read some Newsweek or the economist and I read about it. And then, you know, there's a scientist that tells you, like, if this, this and this happens, you know, all these things. And then it doesn't ever happen, right? Right. Like, Y2Ks, maybe one of the biggest examples of, like, I'll never forget my father going to Costco. This is us losing on the vineyard. And, you know, I come back to visit over the Christmas break and, you know, the pantry's full of peanut butter crackers and water.

I'm like, what's going on? He's like this Y2K thing. I'm like, so. So we're just going to eat peanut butter and crackers? I'm going, you know, and then nothing happens. So, you know, we're probably conditioned to this for just the regular people walking around all the time going like, okay, you know, whatever. Like, what is this really going to be? And then it becomes politicized, which we probably touch on later.

We don't have to. I go either way on that one. And you don't really know, like, what are you supposed to do? So then when you look at, like, how could the NBA even have these games? Like, here's what I know about how, like, predictable we are. There's two things. One is, if we do too much in the beginning, then people are going to freak out about, like, being quarantined and violation of human rights and all of these different things.

and then if it got really bad because people didn't take enough precautionary steps, then a lot of people later on, maybe the same people would be like, they didn't do enough, right? And I remember reading, I was reading like this professor's whole thread from, he was from China and he was complaining about a violation of human rights and all these different things. And you go, you know, like, if you have to step up to prevent something, you know, I'm not necessarily against it as they get older, right? Like, we all hope that maybe overreaction is the only thing that happens here. Like, oh, this is just a big overreaction.

But when it comes to the leagues or the entity, they're going to the league tournament, all these different things, and everybody's saying, like, oh, all of this stuff should have been canceled before. How did anybody do all of these things? Here's what I do now. A lot of people usually aren't in a hurry to forfeit a ton of money. Yeah, no, no, no. Before they actually know what they're supposed to do.

Mm-hmm. Well, and it's been something. You could see the leagues, and it starts at the top. And the NBA, for whatever reason. And I believe it was Bill Russell said that I think that, you know, David Stern, would be proud if he were here to see Silver's kind of action plan, which was out ahead of a lot of leagues. You saw it, though, I mean, down to the Big East.

The Big East is like, well, we're starting the game. We don't know anything. And during the first half is all these cancellations, including, I think, I don't know, sequentially as it happened today, but the MLB, you know, NHL have suspended their action. The MLB is talking about moving opening day back two weeks. it just seems like everybody's looking up and as whoever is making the decisions on top makes a decision, then it's a domino effect. But of course, the last group,

and you alluded to this, is the NCAA. And I think it's inevitable. They're going to postpone the tournament in some form or fashion, but the issues you have with the NCAA are, okay, if it's going to be May madness, how many kids are going to be eligible? Because, you know, somebody brought up,

I saw today that a lot of guys that are going to the draft in the second semester, they might not be even eligible because of their grades from the first. A lot of guys are getting ready for the draft. How would that come down? How do you see the NBA draft affecting, and just in general, how do you see the NCAA tournament thing playing out? Do you think they can salvage it?

They're going to try to do whatever they can because they make so much money off of that. The NBA knows where its money is coming from. This is a hit. I don't know enough about what insurance would cover for arenas. But now you have an NBA package with ESPN and TNT, ABC, where it's like, okay, now they don't have that inventory. And then that carry-through effect is like make goods with advertisers.

So, you know, these are high-level conversations happening. I text somebody at the NBA today. I go, is there anything that you can tell me that helps me understand, like, some of the options just so I don't sound like an idiot? Right. I feel like I'm one of the voices that people are like, oh, do you have anything? And he just went, we don't even know.

Like, we don't know what we're doing. It was, it was really simple to think of it this way. Like, what if the entire jazz team needs to be quarantined, but they didn't suspend games? Yeah, no. So then what are the jazz supposed to do? Drop out of the playoffs, lose every game, or did they stay in the playoffs, end up being an eight seed?

Or, you know, like, what are you going to do? So Silver, who was quick with this stuff, and I think does a terrific job. Like, when it's, When it's time to act, he acts and he goes and does it. And, you know, everybody else kind of followed suit. But the NCAA, because of the money made from this one event that happens in a very short amount of time, I'm sure they're going to try to salvage as much as they can.

Now, as far as the draft, most of these front office guys have been watching these kids for over a year, for the guys that are at the top of the draft. Like even James Wiseman, who, you know, only played a couple games in Memphis. People know his deal. Anthony Edwards, it could be the number one pick out of Georgia. That team's not making the tournament anyway. What the tournament does, like there's still, the work has been done by these scouts. I've been texting to, or texting with and talking to since, you know, November.

The thing that always seemed to happen with the tournament is that some guys would have some run and the front office is always bitch that now they're coaching staff for the first time watching these guys would have a completely misguided sense of who will player is. Right, right. kill it in a couple tournament games. So I really think the names that we feel would be in the top of the draft are still going to be the same names

for the NBA despite maybe one guy that would jump up because he had like a really good run. Like Derek Rose was a bit of a late bloomer to end up being the number one pick over Michael Beasley and that was that Memphis team that should want a title and went on this big run. But I don't think that the draft

will look entirely different just because of who's playing. And I'd even imagine too, like there's probably guys, maybe the impact that you're thinking of is if they play the tournament in May and the draft is in June, does that mean a bunch of these guys decide? That's exactly. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. But I'm looking at like, you know, eight of the top 10 picks, they're probably not even playing

in the NCAA tournament anyway. Right, because they're just by circumstance of their team not being very good. No, an OB-Toppan would be different. these guys. Yeah, Topin is obviously one of those guys you could make a run. But there's a lot of these guys around some bad teams, and then you get some foreign guys, and then, you know, Lamello's overseas, and then R.J. Hampton's overseas. So I don't think it'll impact at least this class.

I know there's no kind of, there's not a precedent for this, but the strikes short and season in the late 80s with the NBA. The rights fees were still paid. I'm just seeing for networks. So I don't know how it goes down, completely unprecedented. Is there anything this reminds you of? I know that I was sitting there today, just in general or in the sports world, there's nothing. I mean, you mentioned Y2K.

You know, there's been other like, NCAA tournament's been canceled right now as we canceled or postponed? Dispended or canceled? That's that's key key language there I'm going to keep asking Cowboy Read back here if it's canceled or not because I can't fucking believe it if it's canceled that's just it's crushing for sports fans

but it's the right thing to do because ah that sucks I mean I was saying last night I mean it's tough not to talk about this insensitively you're going to step on a lamb mine all the time because obviously the pretense of anything we're talking about people's health and by the way I think

think the issue that people have about where we are right now in the U.S. from a testing protocol standpoint as you look at a country like South Korea. And what you hope is that the new cases plateau, like in late February in South Korea, there were like 800 new cases a day. Now it's down to like under 200. So like they've made progress. But they've also, you know, we've tested 11,000 people total. They test about 10,000 a day. So we have to catch up from that standpoint. But getting back to the NCAA tournament, I think that, and it's tournament, not tournament. We had this big debate this week.

You say tournament, right? I say tournament. Okay, good. So the issue is, just like with Gobert and the NBA, and I heard, who was it talking about it on TV today, it was Fran McCaffrey from Iowa. He said the minute Gobert got sick, we knew that the Big Ten tournament would be canceled.

It was just that was the end for us. It hadn't happened to fish. and to your point, if the entire jazz roster got sick, they can't go on. If there was one player that got tested positive for coronavirus, even in these empty gems, the whole tournament was going to get canceled. So this was, or postponed, this was probably inevitable. I would have liked to see it postponed and left open-ended, but maybe for the various reason we've talked about it.

That's why it's a done deal. So that's done, canceled, canceled? Yeah, I mean, I'm seeing it. That's how many times I'm like canceled. The C word canceled? All right. Well, as we're doing this on the fly, then we'll just, you know, we're talking about reacting live to it.

No one likes the NCAA. Everybody hates it. Jay Billis was thrilled to be able to rip it again the other night because, you know, we were able to say pros suspending games in the NCAA. Like, honestly, I don't. I don't mind people trying to figure out what the right call is here. I don't mind people trying to get all the information.

And the tournament hadn't even started yet. No, and we had a week off. Right. Did we need? Like, that's what I just, there's plenty of things about the NCAA. I would agree with the criticisms of. But I think they end up becoming this thing where it's like the tournament hadn't even started. The NBA had a bunch of games last night.

And they had a player they knew was infected and a ref that had repped his game. and then another player, Donovan Mitchell, being infected with this disease. And it was like, okay, all right, and then enough. Like, we don't even know if this team's going to be able to play. That's it. We have to suspend this immediately. The NCAA tournament didn't start last night. So for them to go, all right, well, let's see what's happening.

And now to ultimately cancel it today, I guess everybody's happy, but it won't be. Like, somebody, it'll still be, oh, they waited too long. And they waited too long because the thing hasn't started yet. I know Big Cat's not happy. Big Cat says he's going to give him. and that joke is not aged well. He said he was going to give himself the coronavirus if the NCAA tournament was canceled.

So we need to go check on Big Cat. I would just say this though. You know, I agree with you. Like I am totally, I mean the NCAA, it's a big racket and all that stuff. I agree. But we were all going to sit our asses in chairs and watch that fucking tournament.

I mean, we were going to be glued to it like we are every year. So we can be holier than now, but also realized that just because they were the last folks at the dance, save for the XFL here, who I don't think is taking any action. I think the XFL might lean into this thing and say, you know, we're going to play through the

coronavirus, that's our brand, which is just totally... We have two games a week. Yeah, I mean, and we're the XFL. It's basically wrestling and I don't know about WrestleMania yet. I do want to give props to the Ivy League because really we're giving the NBA credit here. Usually when the Ivy Leaguers do something

you should follow, and they were like the first ones. Well, I don't know. I would counter that. There's plenty of Ivy League rallies I've gone. That looks like a tremendous waste of time. But when it came to this, when it came to this, yeah, I mean, they were on it.

And, you know, that's what this whole thing is. I mean, I'm looking at my day differently. Like, I don't know what to do. I've been outside yet. And it's weird, especially to be in L.A. where you go, okay, well, you know, the beaches are always pretty empty this time of year. I'll probably go down and get my read on, you know, do a little of the arts and crafts here at the house, a little writing, a little editing. Well, the social distancing thing, as the kids say, is going to be a breeze for you.

For me, I've been prepping my whole life for this. I've got my go bag. I've got, you know, I've got self-defense down, and I'm not going to lie. You've got self-defense down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not worried about that part. And I'll admit I was on Zillow last night looking at some stuff outside of the more populated areas of Utah. Hey, listen, I don't think anybody, and it's not about, and I understand the whole battle raging between the COVID-19 truthers who claim it's just the flu, all that. And it very well might not be as disruptive, you know, from a medical standpoint as the flu, as you look at it, looking back,

whenever this thing clears up. But it's scary shit because, one, it's killing people. You have to take that in account. You have to be serious about that and be real about that. Some, you know, I worry about people my parents age, you know, and there's this whole like, I'm just going to treat it like the flu. I'm just going to power through it. I'm going to be out doing my thing.

Okay, well, you might not infect you. You might not get sick and die, but you could infect somebody who's at risk. So I get all that. But I think it's human nature looking at the social disruption, the civic unrest here it's like we said it's the weirdest fucking time i think in my adult life for sure where i've looked outside and i've been like are people out there doing things right now or are they not and i drove into work to do this pod and there were a lot of people on the road it's actually very nice out here on the east coast but it's weird man like the flowers are blooming spring

starting a little early um and you know everybody would be buzzing and outside right now the bars would be hopping. Nobody's going to do anything. St. Patrick's Day is going to be weird. They're canceling marathons, of course. Those are afterthoughts at this point. You know, it's bizarre. I don't think anybody's wrong for hopping on Zillow. Don't, don't blow the secret, but I guess there's no way to ask this without blowing the secret, but describe your doomsday prep. Like, where would it be? What would you have to do? What are the factors you're looking at? Well, I've heard a family can make a rough day better. That's what I hear.

And that, you know, no matter what, your kids, until they get older and hate you, but for a good stretch early there, they're always like you no matter what. They don't judge it. And people need that. You know, I've done some research on it. It's not healthy to not interact with people. So I don't even know how much longer I have. But I...

You're always welcome at the homestead out here. I know. I appreciate that. But I got a tent. I got a pretty good bag. I love buying backpacks. I have my whole Kilimanjaro kid is ready to go, by the way. Oh, good. Well, we're not going to be headed there for the foreseeable future. Right. This is a good time to read. Yeah, I mean, this is the hell of a time to be like, hey, I want you to know I'm still committed to that Killy climb. Yep, yep. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in my spot. I just re-uped on all my gear. I'm still trying to figure out how Amazon stock is going to the tank.

I mean, obviously everybody's stock is going to the tank here right now because the Dow's lost like 8,000 points in a couple weeks, which the flu, again, money is not as important as life and death, but the flu doesn't cause an 8,000 point crash in just a couple weeks. So, and maybe that's just an overreaction. But, yeah, I've got a crossbow. I bought a bunch of rice. Oh, good. You got rice. You bought rice. I bought rice, too.

A lot of rice. That was on my eyes. Look, we all hope this is a big overreaction if the worst thing ends up being that I have extra chicken breast that they're in the freezer that I needed chuck because I never used him and that's great. Extra chicken breast. I'm telling you, I'm going to watch a lot of movies. I'm probably going to be at home a lot.

I'm going to catch up on a lot of TV shows. And this shit all sounds trivial to talk about, but on a serious note, I just think, you know, there has to be some levity. We've talked in private about, okay, what's the limit? Like on, because we have seen people like, you know, you got to get the jokes off. And people have been just firing away. But now it's not as funny when,

when it's a bit of a state of emergency here domestically. And I do think that like looking at this thing, our society kind of hangs by a little bit of a thread. You know, it's like any imbalance, a little bit of panic. And this is, this shows the power of sports. because if you were just watching TV all day, you'd think everybody was in their house and it's like a ghost town out there

as all these cancellations are coming down. And it will make you feel panicky. And then you go out in the world and I see cars driving around. I see people. We will probably get through it. Before I let you go, what's your prediction for,

and I know it's impossible to predict how this plays out from a standpoint of this virus leveling out? But where do you think if you're Adam Silver what are the ramifications of postponing and delaying, not canceling, and how far will they push this thing into the summer? Well, I don't think they're going to make any.

I don't think they know the answers to any of those things today, so I certainly don't know those answers. Now, if we're just sitting here, you know, guys talking, like, well, how do you play out? Yeah, I mean, speculating. Like, if China were able to get the numbers down, if Korea or South Korea, I think we have numbers on, We definitely don't have any numbers on North Korea or Russia. And then turn it back down.

You know, like I was looking at the numbers all over the world this morning and confirm cases, but that's the scary thing. It's confirmed cases versus, you know, how many people walk around not knowing that they're infected. But I'm sure the NBA would like to get this thing going where maybe they have to just cancel regular season games and make up for their. But then this ends up being a much longer thing. You know, the oddity of something that I've been talking about now for a while is that I thought the NBA should just change its schedule to start on Christmas

and then, you know, avoid football, let football own the fall. And then your playoffs are starting in July and you have your NBA finals in August. And you own all of that television property because you don't care about going up against baseball anymore. The reason we see, you know, the basketball tournament or the big three or these other things that are popping up left and right is because there's like this. That void. It sucks. Yeah.

Unless it's the World Cup, it sucks. And I can't, I can only watch so much NFL network, you know, footage of people quietly talking over a D-line individual period at a practice. You know, like, I don't care. Or like, you know, the way the Cowboys skill guys get treated with their contract negotiations. Like, it's absurd amount of content people think. Because, you know what, it isn't like it's interesting for the day or two. but when it ended up being like four weeks of Ezekiel Elliott and you just go, oh my God, like I don't care about this at all.

No one cares. There's no way this is that interesting. I wonder if the NBA would go, okay, you know, we still don't have an answer here in April. We're not quite sure what to do. We need to be safe. I also think when it comes to the TV partners, you only have so many options here, even though it's definitely different than the three networks and a cable. It's still, hey, we have to make sure ESPN, ABC, and T and T are happy about us as a partner.

and in turn the television options have to look at the NBA. Like everybody has to play nice here. This is where the relationships really come in, between a commissioner, between a president of a network, a Jimmy Vittaro who's running ESPN for Disney. And these guys going like, look, we know the right thing to do is we have to think health first,

but we also, let's not get ourselves inside this room, how are we protecting the product, how are we making sure that we're all happy with some kind of solution? and, you know, if this thing gets really weird, then none of this is going to matter, right? But if it's able to be controlled, I don't know how quick they're going to push ahead. You know what?

I'm kind of interested, though, Chris, because we know this is going to happen and this is back to the park where, yes, we know PSA, it's held first, but I'm really going to be entertained by the people that use this as some kind of excuse in sports. Yes, you brought that up, yep. Yeah, like, I guarantee the NCAA,

if they never play the NCAA tournament, and then when people are saying the players should be paid more, they're going to go, you know, we took a massive loss. Took a big loss back in 20, so we're in the red. We definitely can't. I think there'll be guys, like, if they screw up a draft pick in the NFL, it'll be like, oh, well, you know, we couldn't fly them in to get a real visit. So, you know, that probably is going, you know,

spring ball is going to go. Actually, I just heard UVA canceled all, or the NCAA or UVA? NCAA canceled all spring sports. Do you get the idea? And by the way, along your line of people wondering what might have been, I mean, a team like Dayton has got to feel like, hey, I mean, I'm sure there's NBA teams right now who feel like they're hot and you feel like this is their year.

No, that's a great example. But Dayton's the perfect example because you've got a once-in-a-lifetime talent at Dayton in Obie Topping. You've played well. You've passed all the necessary tests so far to earn a one seed. and at this point without a clear you know uh well they're outside of kansas to me without a clear front runner you've got to feel like you have as good a chance as any of if you were a student at dayton in 2020 one of those kids that got shot with you know uh rubber bullets last night uh partying in the streets

um you probably say hey we we could have had it yeah that's a great example because it's not like you know, Duke knows they're going to be back in it. Oh, yeah. How about Duke canceling? Oh, Duke, we're canceling. Yeah, we know you're canceling. You were going to fucking win it anyways. Yeah.

Yeah, the Dayton one is a really good example. Because, you know, the NBA thing, you know, if you're this Clippers team in this front office that put together maybe the best Clippers team ever, you know, you're like, okay, if you're LeBron and you feel like this is my last great chance of getting a ring. I mean, again, none of this stuff No, none of this stuff is more important than health, but I mean, it's sports podcast. Yeah, right, right.

There's just going to be a lot of, there'll be a lot of this because people love, if you give people excuses, they will use them. I just, there's some that we can't even think of, and it's going to be a massive eye roll. There's going to be like a guy like us that talks for a living that's going to be on the debate desk,

and he's going to say, well, you know, the coronavirus not happened. LeBron would have taken, would have overtaken short right right right seriously going I can see it on first take now yes

yeah do you think do you think that some of this was pushed or attempted to be pushed for like when I heard LeBron say I'm not playing with no fans in the in the stadium

the NBA being more of a player league do you get the sense from behind the scenes that guys were pressuring for this to happen before it happened before it all developed last night or has this kind of all happened simultaneously. Was there like an effort by players that kind of stonewalled and then and then that

resistance kind of relented as this stuff developed or the other way around? I actually think it's, it's different than that. I think LeBron was saying something that sounded cool where he was like, I only play for the fans, you know, I'm not going to do it. I don't think he understood the magnitude of this. I didn't understand the magnitude of this when he said what he said. And I think like all of us with another day of trying to sort through all the bullshit and get good information, which unfortunately is way harder than it should be. I'm

sure people were like, no, no, dude, what we mean is by this, and then once he understood that was fine. I don't think that the play was suspended by the NBA because LeBron and other players didn't want to play an empty convenience. Well, they had no choice eventually. Right. Yeah, yeah.

I think it had everything to do with going a whole, like apparently, because I had somebody call me and go, hey, Gobert has it. And I was like, you'd be kidding me he goes my brother is at the game and Chris Paul went up to the bench and was like hey what's up with Rudy and the trainer like yelled at Chris Paul was like get away from here like turn around yeah he's like get out of here and Paul was like what what and that's how it all happened and then somebody else you know like I said because I didn't know and it wasn't like I was

going to tweet out because I'm not sure and I'm not going to yeah you don't want to be like breaking news guy not that anybody was going to not that any of these assholes would accredit you anyways maybe woge would have no look here's the thing I can't get that stuff wrong because I don't do it right so every now and then when I know something all and I know I know it's right I'll say like hey this is kind of probably what happening here or whatever like that and honestly woe chad it minutes later anyway right so it wasn't like trying to get into the breaking news thing but it was me at home going what is going on and that's that I think is the scary thing and I'll ask you this question like how would football guys handle this?

Yeah. How would you say this is a week before the, say right now it is the end of August. We're getting ready for week one. What the hell would you guys be doing? Man, I don't know. If it was the beginning of training camp, I would have said, yeah, let's give this some time, you know? Yeah. Let's, you know, it's like when the lockout happened the first time, this was, you know,

the year we were supposed to have the Hall of Fame game. So we were supposed to have five preseason games, which is brutal, the kiss of death. And, you know, when the lockout happened, everybody was like, you know, less CTE, less load on the joints. I'm going to be running around like I'm 17, week one, the way it should be. I think, you know, having said what we've said, first and foremost, it's about the health of the fans. And I think looking at this, I was kind of going through in my head, which sports, hypothetically had the NCAA tournament been able to play out. To answer your question, I think, the NCAA tournament would have actually been fine. My inclination initially was like, hey, among essential staff, I think that, you know,

for a TV viewer, cheerleaders and the people like making the background noise, like, that's part of the soundtrack of an NCAA tournament game. I don't hear the fans a lot, especially like I was watching ACC tournament games that were, they seemed like they had almost been quarantined. They were so like, you know, I think it was Pitt NC State. You could barely hear any fans. I think the NCAA as bizarre as it would have been. It would have added like an interest factor

where you'd be able to hear the coaches. I think the ramification would have been interesting. You know, a coach is yelling something to a player and official. You're going to hear it. And the atmosphere, you know, guys can get in an empty gym and play their asses off. You need that adrenaline in football. I mean, like, if this were happening in the fall,

there is no way you could play games without fans. And I know we're past that. But hypothetically, that option will be off the table. I need tort all. I need adrenaline. I need three hours to warm up, two hot tubs, and I need 70,000 people screaming. I think that would have been number one.

If we're going to do things without fans, you know, and this had happened in the NFL season, you can't do it. Number two, you know, with football, it's even more incumbent upon players to consider their earners. earning potential. It's just like with this lockout, you know, the reason they've been able to wage this warfare, this divide and conquer with the new CBA is because younger players, a lot of guys who aren't making as much, you know, they might not feel equipped to handle a year off, not just the financials of it. And, you know, the carrot being dangled is the check going up

next year and or whenever that gets enacted. But, you know, the, The fact of you miss a year of football, that's like a lot of years of basketball. You know, depending on who you are, that can be a career killer. So me, being an older player, I think this year, had I been playing, I'd say, if this was September, you know, I understand it's health first. Let's take this break. If I was younger and hardheaded, I might be saying, hey, man, this really sucks. I mean, this is going to take away a year of my earning potential.

You know, this could be a contract year. I understand it's health-related. It would have been tough. So to answer your question, I think, you know, it's interesting to go sport by sport and see how they'd handle it. I think golf, you'd be fine playing without anybody in the stands or whatever they call that. Baseball, you probably, I feel like do people even go to baseball games? Gallery? The gallery?

But I think football would be unique for a number of reasons. And you couldn't halfway it in football. Not that we're at that point of basketball because we're past it. It's a total hypothetical. But it is interesting. I think it's health first. and for some guys, unfortunately, a year out of football would be absolutely killer.

I mean, it was weird last night to watch Vince Carter probably play his last game, quite possibly. And, you know, I don't think he woke up thinking, hey, this is my last game. You know, they go to overtime. I think it was in Atlanta, right? And he hits a three against the Knicks, and everybody's freaking out,

because they kind of know this could be it for him. Now, on the other end of spectrum, there could be a guy that knows, he's on his last leg or he's on his last chance in the league and he's going to miss the rest of the year whether it's football, basketball, whatever. So these are interesting ramifications, you know, for guys' careers as well. That's a really good answer because I think the football thing is different because even though like it really drives me nuts when people say like, oh, you know, the average career is only

this. You're like, yeah, but when it's like 17 to 1,800 players in a season, you know, the average career numbers are driven down. Like if you really looked at, okay, the top 25, percent of everybody's rosters, those careers are a lot longer. They just are. But you have seven rounds. If you just did it like the NBA or again, it's less players, but said, okay, the first two rounds of picks, like how long are those careers? Like, they're probably a lot longer.

It's the same thing as running backs. Like the running backs that are actually the class running backs in league. They don't just play three years. Like Sean McCoy doesn't play three years and then he's never in the league again. But there'd be so many voices saying, hey, I need that week one check, man. Right. But again, if they don't let you play, they're not going to let you play. play. So I just think that the football mentality would be different.

If it's going to be the Super Bowl, I mean, like, if we're, if we're heading in the Super Bowl, it's like, fuck, people work. I know it's in the NBA. Everybody's working their ass off to win an NBA championship. I truly believe winning a Super Bowl is one of the hardest things in sports. I mean, you got to get lightning in a bottle. You have to be in the right place, the right time. And by the way, what you do to get there takes years off your life. So an NBA player, and I don't, I don't mean to sound insensitive, you know, thinking, damn, I got to sit this one out. And I was like, we were a one seed, we were hot.

If I was on a playoff football team and I had been waiting my whole life, you know, for an opportunity at it, and this thing came along in November, December, I would be crushed. And the seniors playing in the NCAA tournament. Seniors. I mean, shit. It's, you know, these are guys who a lot of them might not have earning potential after

after the NCAA, other than playing in Europe, maybe. You know, to downplay that? No, but it's true. Like, the Dayton thing you said is perfect because you go, like, what if you're one of those guys? It's not projected to be a pro, but you get major minutes. You know, this is this epic run at this campus that isn't used to this kind of thing.

But the football thing, I thought, was a really good answer. There's also something else that happened. Like, last night, I thought this was interesting. As you mentioned, Vince Carter hit that three late. They were doing the Dallas and Denver games. game and it was, you know, one of the games I definitely wanted to watch as well. It was an ESPN game, and it was a good game. And they were like, you know, it makes you think that they're playing this hard because they may not know when they're going to play again. That's the part where,

and you know how much I love the athletes. I always tell you, I would have been a great pro athlete. I just wasn't good at sports, but I would have been like fun. Great locker. Yeah, like I would have, I would have done well in that role, rolling into different cities, great locker room guy. And that's a small pool of people who feel that they would be be great if they only had the chance to be great. Yeah, I had all the other stuff down, just not the ability to play. To play.

To play. That's the least important one. I would have checked a ton of boxes other than could you actually go out there. You know what? And that's the way they fucking talk about you late in your career. They call you locker room guy, great influence, all that stuff. That's how you feel like, damn, am I checking all the boxes but on the field? I mean, yeah.

But you were saying. Also, if you're a draft prospect, I don't want to hear those attributes before I hear whether or not you can play. So it's always a good test. You know, it's always a good test. Like whenever I hear about quarterbacks and say how he's great in the room, everybody loves him, really good in the interviews. And you're like, okay, but can he fucking...

But can he fucking throw the ball? I don't want to hear about Jake Fromm and how awesome he is. He is awesome. He seems like a great fucking kid. I love to have a beer with him. And he could be a pretty good college football player. But I just watched him try to throw like a... you know, a go route.

That's kind of part of it. Not to single out Jake. Two of the most impressive in-person interviews we've ever had are Bryce Petty and E.J. Manuel. Oh, E.J. Manuel is the greatest dude ever. E.J. Manuel's, I just got done doing my pod. And I mentioned him because Bruce Feldman was talking about like the guys who did well in interviews who didn't do well and all that kind of stuff.

And I mentioned E.J. Manuel coming by ESPN's campus and like people were ready to introduce him to their dog. Oh, he's the fucking man, dude. Bruce interrupted me. He was like, oh, my God. E.J. Manuel's like off the charge. He's a god, dude. He's just a great dude.

But yeah, and I don't know if this is where you're going, but, you know, I don't think necessarily anybody's playing their hardest because they know it could be their last game. Not right now. That's my point. Yeah. I think you're more like, what are we doing? Now, see, the whole thing that I was doing is I was building up this whole thing because you know me well enough.

that I'm, I am in awe of what you guys get to do other than being friends with a few of you. Like there are moments where I'm like, there literally would be nothing cool, cooler than running out of that fucking tunnel. There has to be like, there's nothing cooler. All right. And I hate, I hate it when I'm at LSU games and I come out of the tunnel after the team. And I feel like the biggest fucking loser because you're like, you're hyped up right now. You do know you're not going to add to this at all.

Like there's nothing that's going to happen. Why don't you be an SEC strength? coach. I would do it. I'd probably do it. I honestly, you know what? I would, I don't really know enough about the science. I don't have any certification.

Neither do a lot of strength coaches. I would be. I would join an SEC staff. I think I would actually, now that you say it, just to do something different with my life, I could still do my podcast. I would just never talk college ball. You can still write. Yeah, I think I could do it.

What's that? You can still write and do all the other things you do? Yeah, I could just do that. You know what? That might be a good idea. Four months, SEC program. I'm just around. Zip-ups, never smile, jaw out, hat low, four fingers up. Just four fingers up at all times. At all times. Four fingers up in the first quarter. And somebody's like, we only do that for the four quarter. The reason I'm saying all these things, there's a point to this. I'm sorry.

Is that they were saying the game was good and competitive because it was perhaps the players aware of the last time they're going to play. you're like, or two good teams. I think that's what was the line. Too much credit. I'll look it up as or, you know what? Have your IT guys look up that line. Yeah, what was the line of that game? Denver Adelaide.

Denver Dallas. I imagine it was, I bet you it was a pretty low number. And Bobon had like 30, by the way. But they were playing because they're athletes. You know, this is the part where it isn't an insult, but you guys can be like incredibly simple-minded about things a lot of time. Okay? Yeah.

It's, oh, we're out here. I'm a competitor. I'm clearly a competitor if I've made it this far. I want to beat the other guy I'm playing against. And yet there are games where you can tell where guys don't really care more so in basketball than other sports. But I'm just like, I think a lot of times when it's a guy gets hurt or he's tackled, he's like, I can't believe he got up.

You're like, what do you mean he can't believe you get up? He can't feel it. He's always get up. He's not feeling it because the people yelling, I can't believe he got up, have never felt that much adrenaline. and then additionally, you just don't go out there and relax. I mean, some guys don't play hard, but you mentioned it's two good teams playing in football players,

basketball players, hockey players, all these guys, baseball players, athletes, they're really good at just compartmentalizing issues and saying, okay, I'm going out on the court, I've entered this bucket, everything else in my life over here is not important. And you saw it, you know, during 9-11, you see it now, you'll see it whenever people get back into action, but you saw it. I mean, last night, I'm watching these games. I'm thinking to myself, why do these kids even, like, and I'm an athlete myself,

but if you're not in it, you don't get it. How are these guys playing? They have to know that this AC tournament is not going to last. Like, you're playing for nothing. And there's some guys with NBA futures, et cetera, and they're just out there playing. And by the way, it was funny last night. It's not funny, but it's like, here's, again, finding some levity in this is, I'm looking up during that Syracuse UNC game,

and I tweeted this. I asked you if you thought it would be insensitive because sometimes I do that. Maybe you're the wrong guy to ask that stuff. I didn't get an answer quickly, so I fired away, and I was like, it is insane the amount. I didn't want to be like Ravel, you know?

Why? Why? Why wouldn't you? I screenshotted the last two games on the board last night. one of them was Washington State, Colorado, the other one was some other game. I couldn't get action in on quick enough to be honest. But I was just thinking of myself, how much money is just pouring in on these two games? Because there's gamblers everywhere who need, you know, they need Colorado minus 11.5 the way they need a Salem light.

Like, it's rough right now, dude. People woke up and they were like, the board disappeared. I was thinking about Big Cat, okay? This morning the board was there. It was gone by 2 o'clock, and it's going to be gone for the foreseeable future. That's why I said that e-sports is going to be the thing, dude. I really believe that in two months,

I'm going to be huddled around a live stream of a dude in Cedar Rapids playing Zelda, and I'm going to think it's a Super Bowl because I'm going to be so, you know, missing competition in sports. I'm going to be playing scatigories with my wife. We're going to be getting into, you know, big arguments because I'm going to miss like competing at something. So whether it's gambling, whether it's just seeing competition on TV, whether it's playing for these athletes, sports is going to show itself to be even more impactful than we knew before this hiatus. I think it's going to get weird.

And people need sports, but you can't do it without staying safe first. Not right now. So, Rye, thank you. I appreciate you hitting me up and doing it. this pod today. I know there's a lot going on in the NBA. Yeah, I wish I had more answers for you, man. Nobody has the answers. I just hope the divorce rates

don't go up because there's no sports on TV. I really think a lot, I mean, a lot of, and we could do an entire other pod on this. I'd love to do some more pods. I miss you, man. Hey, you have the, I didn't call you back since football because I know

I would have had you on every week since. People still want it. So, you got to give the people But what we want. Maybe we can do a home and home. We'll do, you know, chalk, ringer. Chalk, ringer. Let's do a home and home. Come on next week. Let's do a home. I'd love to. Let's do it. We've got plenty of time. We'll do. You know what we'll do is we'll do a festival ranking. Let's do it. I'm ready to rank like everything. I'm ready to rank. You love ranking stuff. I will rank anything. You throw it my way. I will rank it. We'll rank some shit. We'll do some home and homes. We're back. We're back. we're back you know hey listen out of the darkness comes some light yeah i i really i made a joke

on bill sting i said i'd rather die than not be able to work out but i don't want to be get that home gym fire but i don't know what to do get that bow for us do but i was going to go out on the beach today and start doing some maybe you know high knees some sandbag stuff but it's pouring it's really weird to be in l.a and all this stuff's going on and on top everything else pouring rino yeah prayers up to you man but again you're going to be a social disson Distancing All-Star. I am praying for you. I wish you the best.

Again, you are welcome at the homestead here, but we would require you to drive across the country, not fly. No problem. I could do that, too. I've never done that trip. I've always wanted to. Say hi to the fam for me. Okay, buddy.

Talk to you next week. So that was Ryan Rosillo of the Ringer and of NBA Twitter fame. You know, and Ryan, I think, is just like everybody else. It doesn't really know what to expect. And again, like, it's fun talking to Ryan. This is kind of one of those weird situations. You've got to make the best of. You know, I think there's a thin line between adding some levity

and joking about a very serious topic. You know, I've seen a lot of people going about that the wrong way. But, again, it's here, first and foremost, the disruption is you know is secondary to the health issue and obviously sports is part of disruption it's not it's not something you need to survive so we'll be okay without the NCAA tournament but certainly you know as sports are something that you know ideally if you're in a situation like this where people are afraid people are feeling you know a lot of unrest you know, sports can be kind of a thread to keep people together,

but there's just no way to do it right now. And it's going to be weird. I don't think for seeing or forecasting the next three, four months, it's hard to do right now. Maybe things will level out. But with the drastic measures that have appropriately been taken by now the NCAA, as we just learned, you know, live, the NBA, the MLB, NFL, a lot of their teams are suspending operations, you know, as far as sending people to pro days and MLS, a bunch of different sports and leagues making the necessary calls.

I don't think I've ever seen, or that we will have ever seen a continuous disruption of, you know, that thing. we don't take for granted, we love it, but I don't think we sometimes realize how important it is to us in society is the distraction of sports. And it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see how that plays into people feeling like, you know,

it's business as usual through a lot of these disruptions. Again, you know, I hope everybody stays safe out there. The social distancing thing, that's going to be interesting. catching up on a lot of movies, a lot of reading. And I'm gonna do a lot of pods, okay? So I'm gonna try to take it upon myself to churn out as much content as I can

to help fight the boredom, unless you're absolutely bored with my pod, I can't help you. But I do wanna say like it's not lost on me the fact that my problems in the middle of this thing, you know, sports fans problems, the guy with the podcast problems. They're not really problems. You know, there's people worried about losing their house,

you know, because they don't know how their bills are going to get paid. You know, they don't know how long they're going to be home from work, how it's going to small business owners are going to get hit. I've talked to a couple buddies that own small businesses and they're worried about it. You know, there's obviously people who are worried about the virus itself and should be very worried about it. I think everybody's worried about it. but um you know i think even if you're in that healthy range of people that you know you could be

led to believe the death rates much lower you know you might not even show that many symptoms it might feel like a common cold um consider the people who are at risk i'm going to try to isolate myself as much as possible um you know because i i do come in contact with older people sometimes I have kids at home. I know that it's not a big issue for kids yet. Knock on wood. But these are things that are in my head. Like, am I worried about myself?

No. I mean, I have a healthy respect for this virus, and there's a lot of unknowns, but I worry about transmitting it to people that it could have a negative effect on. So I hope everybody takes it seriously without going like full apocalypse. Like, I don't want to see any like Mad Max.

shit going on out there. I hope as a country, as a society, we can kind of come together and pass this test. And that's going to, of course, have a lot to do with, if the government can get off its ass and get something done, get people tested.

So I'm thinking about all the listeners out there. I hope everybody's staying safe. I hope everybody is getting their affairs in order and that everything is okay in your life, even with this disruption and even in the midst of the scary time, I will be churning out content as much as I can. I'm in fact bringing my little shiny portable podcast unit home. And for you YouTube users,

I want to urge you to continue to pop over and check out Apple Music, Spotify, because we will be doing a lot of audio-only stuff. Late night, a couple candies. you know after 8 p.m. Chris pod is going to be it's going to be a buckle up type thing. So I'm going to churn out some of those. Anyways, tweet me, tell me what you want me to podcast about. Tell me some topics that you leave some comments on stuff in the YouTube comment section.

At Chalk Network on Twitter. You know, IG, you know, fucking hump my IG down. comment something you want you want to hear me talk about and i will do my best to uh to churn out some content that you can pass some of these uh slow slow days social distancing um stay safe everybody and uh and take care