Green Light with Chris Long - Ryen Russillo! NBA Playoffs, Postseason Favorites, Play-In Games, Victor Wembanyama's Rookie Season, & LeBron James!

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Ryen Russillo & NBA Playoff Basketball! Ryen drops by to walk us through the NBA playoffs, the teams that have the best path to a championship, the young players who are looking to cement their legacies and discuss a few other NBA topics like Victor Wembanyama's exceptional rookie season, the Lakers outlook and who Ryen Russillo would bring to the NFL Draft. 00:00 - Intro 4:08 - Lakers vs Pelicans 12:45 - The Success of the OKC Thunder 17:05 - Victor Wembanyama 21:15 - Ryen's Correct & Incorrect Takes of the 2023-24 NBA Season 29:00 - Shohei Ohtani 30:55 - Atlanta Hawks 34:10 - Celtics Playoff Outlook 36:36 - Cavs vs Magic 39:00 - Luka Doncic's NFL Comp 44:22 - Pacers vs Bucks 55:40 - Suns vs Timberwolves 1:00:25 - New Zealand Travelogue Want your Green Light Merch so you can look exactly like Chris and the fellas? Hit the website below and get kitted! https://stores.kotisdesign.com/yotehouse/products 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 and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWFAA-wuB7osdiAJyLOcw 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

So my fear would be that if when Mnayama came up through the states, like I just think Europe in the international basketball world does a better job of not pretending you're something that you're not. They go, okay, guess what, dude, you are a mutant and he seems like he actually loves basketball, which I think is rare for some of the biggest players where I think a lot of those guys are just like, whatever, I'm enormous. I guess I'll do this. It's better than working. They just go, okay, we're going to turn you into a pro. Like we are going to work on, this is your gift.

So let's maximize this gift. And in the States, I just think it plays out differently. And look, it's playing out at the top level. The best players in the NBA are not guys from the States. Welcome to the Green Light podcast. NBA fans buckle in. Ryan Rusillo joins To Talk Everything, NBA playoffs. We go through the matchups, the potential outcomes, the young players who we want to see succeed.

Victor Wemnon Yom is magical first season. He's out there making dudes look silly. Wolse, and his praises. A great episode from Ryan, as he also tells us about his trip in New Zealand. A good time. It's a wonderful hour for you. Enjoy.

We will see you on Friday. Hey, y'all, don't miss out on the best silent auction of the year for our Water Boys Charity Challenge happening this week. You can support Water Boys' mission to bring clean water to those in need by bidding on some incredible items. Highlights include a unique frame canvas signed by the Greenlight podcast crew, a week stay at a beach house in the Outer Banks, premium tickets to Dave Matthews concert,

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by visiting waterboys.org slash charity challenge and clicking the live silent auction link. Thank you. Ryan, the Sparks have picks two and four in the WMBA draft. I'm wondering which direction you think they go. Perimeter help. I think so, too. I think so too.

Right, right, right, where do we start, man? Where do we start with the NBA? Do we start with eulogizing OJ Simpson? No, I think O.J. was last week. I was trying to think if there's a way that we could eulogize O.J. Simpson without the murders, because that's what some people seem to want to do. Yeah. I mean, there's always like a thing where you could just think like a hypothetical of will someone zag on this. And I think OJ was one of those who you go, somebody's going to do it. Somebody's going to be like, hey, look, other than that stuff, like, you know, hell on a player.

And you were like, yeah, actually you don't have to do that this time. We're good. He was good in naked gun. My dad said, 83-year-old dad, do you think he did it? And then, well, he was only trying to retrieve the stuff other people stole from him. Yeah, that actually was. That was one. I remember there's a writer who I like, but I'm not going to name it.

And he went there. He was like, this sentencing is ridiculous. Playing games are with the Lakers and the Pelicans. And I am wondering what Zion Williamson is going to have to do to get some respect. He was awesome all week. And it's unfortunate because New Orleans put together some nice wins to come back against Phoenix. they dominate Sacramento. Sacramento has no chance against them.

And then you have Golden State where I think, you know, they had to win that game like three or four different times holding off Golden State's comeback. So then to have that Sunday game going up against the Lakers at home with the six seats still in play. And then they played awful because I think the Lakers treated it like,

hey, this is the level that we're capable of taking this to. This is what we did last year in the West. and New Orleans wasn't ready for it. I don't know if it was tough for them to integrate Brandon Ingram after missing a few weeks here and then throwing them back in. So you'd rather have the talent of Ingram, the shot creation,

take away some of the defensive attention of Zion. But when it doesn't work, you can feel like they can get in the way of each other a little bit. So that game was over at halftime, and then they play 48 hours later. So it's hard to look at that one and go, yeah, I think New Orleans will figure this one out because I just think the best version of Lakers is probably more consistent

than the best version of the Pelicans. But if the Pelicans get the Warriors, especially Sacramento, if they were to win the other one, like I think New Orleans still finds a way into the playhouse. What happens if the Lakers lose and then lose again? They'd probably still re-sign LeBron. I don't know what those numbers will be. You know, Scott Boris used to always leak the price of his players to the media,

and the media would just eat it up. So say a guy was eight months out from free agency and they're like, you know, this guy could be worth a half a billion dollars if you think about what he does for revenue and GDP. You know, he'd throw up these absurd numbers. And then you'd sign that player for like 300 million and everybody would be like, wow, what a steal.

It's like, no, just everybody campaigned for the high end of the boris contract. I brought this up before. But with LeBron, you know, if it's a 160 for three years with no team office, out as remarkable as he is as he keeps pushing the boundaries of what we think is even possible and the fact he didn't miss his kind of 20 to 25 games that he usually misses and it's still playing as well uh i still don't think you can do that deal but the lakers have when they sign cobi

to that ridiculous extension uh that wasn't worth it their selling point was we want the NBA stars to know that when you're a laker we take care of the stars so that whole thing's going to be put to the test again. And I think they were they were a nice surprise last year after they figured it out. This year there's a bit of the same. I mean, it's been a pretty good team here since Rui has been in the starting lineup since DeAngelo Russell's been fired out for three months and he's certainly not my favorite. So I'm sort of expecting for that that rough playoff series where you were wondering can we even close with this guy because I think that's still in there. But AD has gone from, you know, wondering if he'd be the best player in the league to can you even resign him to now

I think being kind of underappreciated because he's been their best player and he's played the most games, most minutes. He's played in like seven years. So I think the West is so packed that, you know, the Lakers get to the Western Conference finals are not getting out of the playing. I don't know that it changes the LeBron question that much, even though I think sometimes that's how business is done. Like there's going to be a couple teams, a couple big time players that I love that probably get bounced really early. And it's like, well, did they get bounced because they're not really that guy or they're incapable of taking it up to that level or they're young and they need to take their scars now? Or is it, hey, it's a packed west. Like, I have no idea, guys.

This has been, I'm sure there's other years where I was, I was certainly not super confident picking out the entire first round. But I don't know. This is unbelievable how openness is. And that's why I still kind of always kind of go back to Denver. Should the Lakers, is there a, you know, a school of thought where you're like, we should lose this game, you know, or we should try to game this situation so we get to play the thunder rather than the nuggets? I just think it's so dangerous in a one game thing. Like, I don't, I'd be shocked that you would think this, especially as an athlete, no offense to make him. None taken.

I just think it's basketball, so it seems easier to me. You know, you can decide to win the next game. But think about it if it's Golden State and they just shoot the lights out. And now you're not in the playoffs because you tanked the game to get the better matchup against Oklahoma City. Yeah. I think that's there's certain times where teams kind of jostle with their seating. Like Dallas didn't care about chasing the clippers towards the end. Cleveland tanked to get Orlando.

And Orlando was like cool, great. The East got really weird there the last couple of days. days. If you're going to blow the first game thinking we're good enough to beat whoever the nine and ten is, I just don't look. If there was that much separation between the Lakers and nine and ten, then the Lakers would have been one through six. And that whole thing wasn't slotted until the very end. So I would not do that. And I doubt many players or coaches would be willing to take that risk for the preferable matchup. So there is seating chicanery afoot. Is there an argument to be made that a top seed should be able to pick their opponent to get rid of some of this?

Or top seeds. Is that ever in our future? I'm not against it, but I do think we're changing a lot of things very quickly. And part of that is motivated by trying to find a way to have more event programming for the television partners. You know, I don't love everything about the playing game. You know, when I bring up the standings and look at this and I go, I say, Atlanta went 36 and 46. six. Yeah. And they're, what, 11 games behind Philly? Yeah. And yet we just, what do we just do for six months? So now that team has a chance to actually find a way to get into the playoffs.

And Philly was 11 games better than them and would have been even, you know, granted Philly would have been the seven if indeed was healthy the entire time. And I understand, you know, once it's weighted, all Philly has to do is win one of two. Atlanta's going to win two on the road. But I don't love that. I think there'll be certain years where that six and ten are so, different as teams. And I'm going, wait, this team still has a chance to get into the playoffs. And then that 10 seed will win two games. They'll be terrible.

Then they'll play a seven game series against the one seed. And it won't be the matchup that we want. And you go, was this worth it? So it doesn't mean, it's just like the college football expansion thing. Like Michigan and Ohio State next year, it's not going to mean what it just meant. It just isn't. So you can talk about, well, we have more. stuff and more programming. So, you know, then you have the in-season tournament, which actually

once it played out and everybody kind of understood it, and I think that continues to grow and have more attention because now we've gone through a season of it. But then making your point, like, add another thing where I just get nervous about like all the fixes everybody's tried to do. We try to change the All-Star games and all these different sports. We change the schedule in baseball like three different times, you know, football just keeps adding and adding and adding, decides to play on Christmas for families. We like that. You know, so I just...

We families like that. Yeah, right, right. No, but just, no, it's not about wiping out the NBA part of it. We're doing this so your family can really celebrate Jesus. Yep, faith, family football. It might be the right call, but I just don't think we need to change formats like every single year. And we're in a rhythm here right now where everybody's pushing change. I mean, do you like it?

Would you say, hey, you know what? This moves all the other stuff around and then you just get to pick. Like the pick of it, the actual selection once it's announced. Must see TV. There's a little more tension because the teams like you picked us. Fuck you. You know, like now chances are there's a reason they were picked and it's not going to be a riveting series. But in the event that it is, there's a little disrespect that goes with being picked.

So I think that's fun too. I don't like change. I'd like to see 1-8 and 2-7 right now. Got you. Okay. Okay, talking about the West, I think Oklahoma City Thunder, you look up if you're a casual and you're like, damn, this team just won like 25 games two years ago. And they don't have your traditional star power. You know, SGA is like kind of quiet.

He doesn't like the spotlight. Chet's awesome, but the market doesn't demand a lot of attention. How did this happen? You know, like, take me soup to nuts through how they got to where they got so quickly. It seems like they executed, you know, the transition from what they were really nicely. Well, they're a top three offensive team. They're a top four defensive team. They're the number two shooting team.

And the only hole in their game would probably be their rebounding, depending on what rebounding number you can look at there. They're 28 out of 30 teams in rebounding. rate. And that's definitely something where I'm concerned about them in a series against another big front line. But with Minnesota and Denver being in the two three, that's an advantage. We'll see what happens here with the Lakers, but it ends up being one of those smaller teams like, you know, and then in the one four or one five, it would be smaller teams that probably would rather play smaller than Clippers in Dallas. So if you look at history,

young teams usually don't win. If you go by the 10 youngest teams in NBA history, like seven of the tendon of one or like 1981 or earlier. And then you did have the Gold State Warriors and 15 win probably a year ahead of schedule from their peak in 16. And then obviously Durant changed the peak altogether. So normally this does not happen. But I think Sam Presti's incredible. Dagnall, their coach is on it in a way that I think you can only be dis-into it when it's your first head coaching job. And there's mistakes that you'll learn along the way about, you know, You say your next job with all the coaches that we've talked about or that you've played for where it's like, okay, the second time around if the coach has some good instincts, like he's just going to be that much better. But I think there's an attention of detail with this being Dagnold's first job that you can see night in and night out.

Presti built the team that he wanted to have everyone on the floor be capable of like dribbling, passing, and getting themselves free, providing some kind of office. if the ball ended up in their hands. So we wanted like really multiple skill, bigger players that all could kind of make decisions. And this isn't, you know, like when I was trying to figure out what they were doing with the draft, you talk to other teams, they go, you know, Presby's get this whole vision. Like there's this guy they drafted from the Australian League is like six, nine and he's actually like a pretty good pay. He didn't even play.

And it's such an awesome team to see like, hey, we get stuck on this side. well, this guy can go and do this over here. Giddy can run the offense. Jalen Williams, one, can run the offense. Chet actually has a lot of ball skills, but you don't even need him to do it all that much. And then SGA gets to wherever he wants to get on the floor, whenever he wants to.

He shoots free throws at an incredibly high rate, but he's a bit more of an old school guy. Like, look, there's some calls that he gets that I hate, but he does a really good job and just getting you up in the air. And that's not the call an official's going to debate of what the intent was the entire time. Like, you're always going to get that kind of call. And they just shoot it and they, like, young teams usually don't defend like this.

There's been a few, but they defend at a really high level and there's just a lot of trust. Now, you may go, okay, but none of them have ever done it anywhere before, whether it was, I mean, there's just not enough before for the age of this roster. So this normally doesn't happen, especially being the one seed in a stack. league and Denver blowing that game to San Antonio on Friday night kind of changed this. But the records all would have been within a game of each other. But I know I have little hesitation going like, all right, you really like them. And there's a lot of stats you really like.

But do you actually think these guys without any experience together are going to come out of the West? Like, that's a big ask. I think some people, if it ends up being the Lakers, I think a lot of people are going to pick the Lakers. Right. So you mentioned the Spurs. I mean, like Wemby's not in the playoffs. Should that be a change where another team We just put Wemby in the playoffs.

We just put Wemby in the playoffs. The one seed can have any player that's not in the plan. Yeah, yeah. Who are you adding? Is it Wemby? No, my question about Wemby was going to be. I just real quick, I always love when people were like, no, no, you should do that. But, you know, it's always entertainment.

You're like, yeah, if my mom played point card, that would be interesting. That would be interesting. But. What about if Wemby was born in America, how differently would this have played out? I know he'd still be amazing, but what do you think the run up to his stardom would it look like? Would he have been a college player?

Would he gone straight to the pros? Like, what do you have been a worse player? I think he would have been worse. I think he would have been worse. There's very clearly an issue. This is funny because we're on this baseball thing right now all these pictures getting hurt and made me think like if i was a guy who just tweeted a lot and be like which sport does the american youth have the best chance of of feeling optimized or whatever because like

football camps and the seven on sevens and then you dip your toes into that world and people get mad at that the iu basketball thing's been getting killed forever and now baseball with spin rate like everybody's just hurt i guess we'll see it's been a bad opening we'll see yeah Still need more data. But there's a, like, I think what's happening with some of the American basketball stuff is that it's not just AAU, it's the individual drilling. And I've had this theory now for a little while where I'll see guys that are just incredible best shot makers we've ever had in the game. More guys out on the floor that can score and get you a bucket than we've ever had. It's not even debatable.

It just isn't. People want to yell in the other direction. But there's just other parts of the game where I'm like, well, okay, that guy's like incredibly skilled, but does he actually like know what the hell is going on? Right. And I asked some of the guys that you know, some of the hockey guys that worked out here in Los Angeles. And I said, hey, this is this basketball theory I have. I'm like, you guys that work in the NHL, I see some of these highlights of this incredible stick work and all the stuff these guys do.

Do you talk about this at all? Is there a comparable conversation to what I'm suggesting about individual skill development, but not necessarily game development? And he was like, yeah, it's all we talk about. He said we talk about it all the time. So my fear would be that if when Minyama came up through the states, I just think Europe in the international basketball world does a better job of not pretending you're something that you're not. They go, okay, guess what, dude, you are a mutant. And he seems like he actually loves basketball, which I think is rare for some of the biggest players.

I think a lot of those guys are just like, whatever, I'm a normist. I guess I'll do this. It's better than working. They just go, okay, we're going to turn. turn you into a pro. Like we are going to work on, this is your gift. So let's maximize this gift. And in the States, I just think it, I think it plays out differently.

And look, it's playing out at the top level. The best players in the NBA are not guys from the States. I mean, Embed came here early enough to still play in high school. Yokic is the most unlikely MVP in the history of the league. Janus was a mid-round pick where you were like, who is this guy? Then he got enormous. Luca. So SGA is Canadian.

I mean, it's not like he's from Rhodes, but you get the point here. The international guys are taking over. I think the other difference is if he was American, he would have a shitty podcast probably already. Yeah, well, eventually we're not going to win any fucking Olympics.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I like that making thought about it. What's your take? Are we going to win the, are we going to be losing the Olympics? on the reg in the future? The depth is still better. It's not, this is not us against the world here. This isn't Detroit. No, I understand. I understand.

Hey, well, okay. Jalen Brunson is now, what, two years ago? I've never been more wrong about anything than I was about Jalen Brunson. What were you most right about this season, Rye? And what were you most wrong about? Ooh, ooh. Really good.

Really good. I went 21 and 9 on team total 6-0 on locks, so I won the contest this year. Wow. So that's a good number. And did you bet those? No. Not allowed to here in California. Right.

Otani. By the way, I apologize to Otani. You did? No, I'm doing it right now. Oh, okay. Yeah. Who do I tell? The translator.

I apologize to Otani's translator. I thought he was the guy gambling. Everybody did. because they wanted to. There's something wrong with us. There is something wrong with us, but also the evidence I thought pointed to him possibly

being a gambler. Now, there are people that tweeted me that were like, you got anything to say about Otti? I'm like, yeah, fucking I was wrong, dude. I'm not like a, I don't know, I'm not like a, I don't know, I'm not like a legal expert here. Well, yeah, it would have been more fun.

It would have been more dramatic if it were a Jonte Porter, my eye hurts situation. The Occam's razor, man. You know about the Occam's razor. Sure do. It was the translator all along. All right. So talking about... No, I want to stay on this. You want to stay on this. Just for a second.

Because I make it, it's a good question. I will answer, I promise. But I was wrong about Scoot Henderson. TBD. How about that? TBD. I thought he'd be better. He had a nice closing last month, but I thought he was going to be like really good and he wasn't really good this year. And, but with anybody in this young, talk to me next April is what I've told everybody. I know it's not good. There's a lot of numbers

are actually tragically bad. He was better the last month. More comfortable, you could see him shoot it better. Just understood the game a little better. But that could be a potential draft with. This is my Brian Edwards. I'm still waiting for Brian Edwards to turn the corner.

Some of the promise he showed at SC. There was a bunch of those SC guys and I was like, oh, this guy has to be awesome. They got a guy this year who looks like a total fucking stud. He looks like AJ Brown, part two the wide receiver from SC. Leggett.

Yeah. Oh, you mean South Carolina. I'm talking about South Carolina. Xavier Leggette. I love him. I mean, he's a little older. Am I supposed to say USC? I think of L.A. But did you say? I said SC. Oh, that's definitely Southern Cal. Because of the logo. Really? Yeah.

So what's South Carolina? They're in a bad spot. They're either USC East or they're South Carolina. I think SC. suffices, yeah. I was so confused. I was going like, what's going on here? I would say, though, that South Carolina has defensive ends every year that I think are good. I have a theory on, like, uniform.

Like, every guard and tackle from Tennessee in those uniforms, I'm like, he must be awesome. Yeah, it looks good. Now he's terrible. Every skill guy from Oregon. Yeah, I would say defensive backs for Texas over the years, like going all the way to Michael rough. I'm like, this guy has to be incredible. here's a sidebar for you Ryan about football with the draft coming up

I'm kind of curious if Ryan Rissillo today was drafted to be in the NFL and you were attending the draft who are the people sitting at the table with you you get eight tickets wow solo no you can't do that you got to fill eight spots you got to fill eight spots you got to fill eight spots sorry Commissioner Gadell is called gudell's calling there's no way I would bring a girl because she'd be like going I got him. There's no way.

Can't let that happen. Right. I mean, these guys that bring their girlfriends, you're like, you better be the one, or she's going to be in these videos for like a really long time. For the rest of your life. Right. And then your wife is going to be like,

I can't believe you dated her. So just a message to the young guys. It better be real. But we know down south, they get that family thing started sooner. So, you know, it makes sense. What, it's just true. Look at the numbers.

I know. In Manhattan, they don't start until like 15. Northeast is some real late blooms looking into adoption So you haven't answered He would just have a bunch of points are Is this the longest way to say

He's not inviting Bill Simmons? I don't think I'd invite Bill Clip it That's a big moment there I'm not doing the breakouts anymore His dad, there we go My dad My brothers

is we've been coming out there like the fucking Vaughne erics oh perfect right perfect can we talk about iron claw all right so i'm halfway through it are they what how this is not a book what the fuck you put it would just turn the movie off there's nothing i mean it would be asinine for me a man with three children and you know two jobs to be like what scenario are you turning off iron claw i have 30 children they play every night There's not enough white American players in the NBA. I didn't turn it off because I wasn't into it. I mean, look, Zach Ephron is my guy.

We were neighbors for a little while. Really? I even made it over there one night. Really? Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, big time. He doesn't live there anymore, though.

So, you know, some of these guys, and they get really rich out here, they go up to, like, Calabasas. You'd be a Calabasasus guy, the square footage. You couldn't handle it down here. here you wouldn't like everybody being on top of each other i couldn't do that i've just accepted it but yeah i love i'm a big zach effron guy i didn't i didn't turn it off because i didn't like it i would i would ask this though do they think some people watching that think the storylines aren't scripted no i'm not sure dude i'm not sure it's like hey the hard work and all this it can pay off and you're kind of like so yeah i think i think i think it me my dad my brothers and then

ludicrous because I think ludicrous is such a good time. I can't imagine him not being fun. And ludicrous to me is like the first Drake because you're like, wait, am I going to be like, no one's ever going to pick Luda as your top five MCs. But then every time it comes on, you go, this is so much fun. There's a lot of people in this generation that are picking Drake as their top five emcees you know Drake Drake Drake Drake and then like I don't know Drake's fun when it comes on I'm not mad I'm not mad but it's it's not a go-to I was listening to reasonable doubt 96 today

people that think that that's better than Illmatic just fucking stop going outside I guess I'm staying inside well that's gonna be tough for you you like the rivers making who are top 5 MCs my top five MCs no make it I don't know what MC means. I think of Master of Ceremonies. You're like Jimmy Miller? A guy who does a banquet here. No,

no, sincerely, you all are talking about, I think, rap artists, but referring to them as MCs, is that right? That's right.

Okay. Nelly, one. Have we updated your system lately? No. Country grammar. Yeah, country grammar.

Okay. Can we get back into basketball or no? Are we just past basketball? Hey, Ryan. We never did Otani, but that's all right. Oh, well, do Otani. Do you Otani? I just don't understand what's wrong with our culture and that. We want it to be the bad thing.

You said, hey, the evidence looked. Yeah, there's also like a very straight line evidence of like, yeah, very well could have had this happen to him. And I'm telling right now, nobody wants to hear this. But like, if you have that kind of money and you have financial people moving around, which is kind of the way that the world works at that level, it's super easy for you if you're not looking at your account. all the time for this to actually happen.

Or if you are on your accounts all the time, you have to call somebody and go, hey, what happened here? It's like, oh, this got moved into this, whatever. And you're like, okay, fine. Like, these guys didn't never look at it. Clearly, he was one of them.

I just couldn't believe that the book he was given a line of credit like that. Because they knew, because Tony would have to pay it. Well, and the story changed 72 hours after the first story. That was a thing as well. So, yeah, there were some reasons

where I think, like, our cynicism was warranted in this situation. I'm not saying that it wasn't. I'm talking about the rooting part of it. I was not rooting for this. People were rooting for it. No, no, no. I just didn't want to get the wool pulled over my eyes and be a big naive dummy.

Because sometimes I do. I look for the good in people. And I thought maybe this was a blind spot for me if I, if I told me. You want to know when I realized how fucking weird we are? Where, when? Like when Bob Odenkirk had a heart attack, he'd like triple the followers. And I just would love to know who the person is. It's like, I was on the fence about this guy's content,

but he fucking had a heart attack. Oh, like, that's what we're like. OJ's, I did it, went back on the bestseller list after he died. Yeah, we're fucking weird, dude. We're weird. What were you doing?

Like 20 years plus 30 years almost go by and you're like, he's dead. Let me check that out. I'm going to order it. Yeah, better get it now. We stay topical. Hey, if you put Prime Jordan on the Hawks, with their current seating, how far are they going?

Eastern Conference Finals, at least. Ooh, so they're getting by Boston. Is Trey playing? I said Easter Conference Finals, at least. Well, it'd be the 1-8, given their current standing. Oh, they're in the seating here. Yeah. Checkmate.

Hate to get technical. Is Trey playing or is Trey watching? Full roster. Just add George. Full roster. So Trey's minutes, Boston still win. Okay, this year's Boston team plays the big three. Of the 08 Celtics.

Big three. That's interesting. Matt had a different take. I just thought they'd struggle to guard the Celtics on the perimeter. Which Celtics? Porzingis. Okay. Garnett could guard anybody.

Garnett's my all-time favorite player, so that hurts me to say. That hurts you to make that pick that. Wait. So why do you think that? you'd have a hard time with Prozingus. You think he'd just... I just think he would pull Garnett away from the rim and the modern Celtics would be able to attack. PJ Brown back there? I don't know, man.

Garnett, the best part about Garnett, and there was even a peak version of them before the Celtics, but, like, when he would switch out on guards, it was like, what is this? Like, I'm not used to seeing this before. The KG, like, from the Timberwolves, I feel like... It sounds stupid to say, but kids don't remember him for that. There's a whole generation that thinks of him as Boston KG. Yeah, that's wrong. And the KG from the T. Wolves was like the way they think about John Elway.

I always use that example. You saw John Elway in the mid-90s winning his Super Bowl, the helicopter John Elway. The new uni. Yeah, like that was not the John Elway that my dad described. And most people didn't get in my generation didn't get to see that John Elway. I feel like the KG from the wolves, we kind of lost that in the shuffle. Yeah, Elway, early Elway would have gotten destroyed on TV shows for a decade plus. Why?

We wouldn't be allowed to say it was good. Because it's a little like the Josh Allen thing, but Josh Allen hasn't lost in the Super Bowl is the way Elway did. Right. Like the Josh Allen stuff towards the end of this year. You're talking about the losses. Okay. Yeah, because the losses were in the Super Bowls. And that just what happens is, like, I think there are certain players.

It's a very short list of like, I don't think you could win with this guy. But to say like, hey, you'll never win with this guy. And that's what ended up happening to Elway. Garnett reminds me a C-Long a little bit. Oh, clearly. Yeah. No, I'm serious. Like, you know, you lose for a long stretch of your career.

Yes. Dynamic, both on and off the field. I'm like half a Garnett. Yeah, but then it's like. Same career. Maybe it's C-Long. Maybe he's wired wrong. Maybe he's a loser.

Maybe he doesn't have the winning gene. Maybe he didn't get that one. Maybe Kyle has it. And then he goes to league and loses too. Losers. Who does Boston want to see? Speaking of Boston as the 8th seed. Probably not Philly or am I wrong?

I would imagine there's a little Miami PTSD. But if they're, you know, there's a mental toughness question. them. I would say they just settle for really tough isolation shots to close tight games that becomes predictable and they're not always like it's kind of back to my shot making thing is that both Hayden Brown are such great individual scores and creators that they kind of default to it when things get a little tight and it also means like the other four guys are watching when you're just holding the ball that long. So I don't love it despite the fact that they just put up a historic number with this point differential for the regular season. So like every team that has this point

differential has won an NBA title. So I wonder if there's any kind of Miami PTSD, even though we got to 82 games of them, and I still don't know what to expect from that team, especially on offense, that, like, there's no way you're actually going to lose to them, even though they shouldn't have lost to them last year in the East Conference Finals, what they did. So their history against Philly is phenomenal. So I can't imagine that they're actually like when they're hanging out and talking going, oh no, like we really want this team versus that team. I think you would say you'd rather have Miami because the Embed wildcard part of it.

But Embed is so amazing. He hasn't even looked that good. And he put up huge numbers. And then he gets hurt in the Orlando game. And then there's still something on the line for like the last day. And they sit him maybe more because of Brooklyn just to try to get him ready for the start of this whole thing. and I just, like, betting on him being healthy all the way through, maybe they get to the play in,

but healthy all the way through a first round, even with the extra time. Like, I just, I thought he started to move a little bit better, as opposed to the first game that he came back. So let's just say Boston probably prefer Miami, despite the history being better against Philadelphia, because there's a, there's a scenario here where MBD is okay and it's fine.

And, you know, you're having him go up against Prozingis and Horford, and, you know, maybe you're beating up on those guys a little bit. It might be just an easier physical matchup against Miami than it is Embed just because of who he is physically and the fact that it's Prozingus with his injury history and Horford, who's 37. For the casuals, how good is Palo Bancaro? What's the most likely outcome from Cavs Magic? So going into the end of this run, I've loved watching Orlando, but they,

get real clunky offensively in in some of the bigger spots and paolo's had to save them a lot this season like paolo went on a really really special run you know they beat denver it was right around the holidays and he was just putting together this this two-week stretch of like man like what can't this guy do because when you watched him at duke because i know you did it wasn't just that he was this big score who showed you enough shooting that you thought it could get even better i thought making his playmaking and his willing to pass and see some passes that maybe other guys didn't see. Like it's clear he wants to be like an awesome teammate. He's not just some guy who's like, hey, I can score. So let me try to score every single time down here, which a lot of young guys,

you know, that's, it's like how cool you can score a lot, but everything else you do is awful. So your minutes actually can hurt us a little bit despite your box score saying you score at these points. And I thought Palo was so much more than just that. So I like Franz. I love Suggs and his development and this Jonathan Isaac thing of this like super sub defensively coming in and just wrecking games and looking like one of the best defensive players in the league like I've loved all of it but I just don't know that I trust their execution late offensively and there's a lot of numbers that would back that up so I was like hey you can like him but you're probably not going to pick him in the first round and then Cleveland happens Cleveland has been a met this is a team

that went 17 and one and Garland and Mobley missed more than half of those games when they went 17 and 1. But Mitchell, they've been managing his injury. He hasn't shot the ball well with him being in and out of the lineup. And as much as I liked Garland, Mitchell, Mobley, and Allen together and the defensive resume that they put up last year, that was the best statistical, best defense in the league, it may be a little too old school to play with two big guys like Allen and Mobley

in a playoff series because Allen, he's always around the rim. Mowgli, they kind of position him in different spots. They're going to have to get creative with how they do these substitution patterns, and they may have to close with whatever guard is healthy. And if it's both guards, they still may go Nying and Struz around Allen, and then Mowbly will come in depending on the matchup or what they like. Because Orlando's massive, too. So maybe Mowgli plays more minutes than we would think.

And he's had some bright moments since he's come back into healthy. But of the two teams, even with the limitations on Orlando's offensive execution, it's just really hard to back Cleveland right now because this has been an extended period of time where they haven't been a very good team. Bouncing around a little bit here. Who's Luca in the NFL? Is there a comp for him?

At this stage, all the pressure on him and kind of the perception that he hasn't gotten over the hump. Because I love the guy. I mean, obviously, but the noises started to creep in. it probably has to be a quarterback, right?

We could pick a quarterback here. It'd probably be weird if I was like Brian Burns, maybe. Did we just say it? Did somebody try to send over three fucking ones for Lika last year? Did you believe if the Rams had made that trade? Yeah, that's a weird one. You were all over that. I remember talking about it.

And it was like, wait, what are they trying to do? And then they don't want to do it? All right, well, he must be, it's like, no, we're going to spend nine figures on guards. All right. Is Luca Lamar? No. I think I've done this segment every year.

I do quarterbacks as NBA players. And then Nick Wright steals it later that week. Yeah, he's done like three years in a row. One year, the body wasn't even cold yet. Like, he did it later that day. And he just switched them all around. Like, so I did, I did Lamar as Embed. And I thought it made a lot of sense.

like statistically out the charts has the MVP's doesn't have the playoff success whatever everybody actually likes them right yeah and then he just switched around and like for a week or two weeks he started selling this Lamar as James Hardin thing MVP's got a lot of stats the difference is I think there's a lot more people rooting against James Hardin than there are in B'd and I actually don't think there's that many people rooting against Lamar Jackson despite what a hoodie would have you believe that pops up every now and then Lamar has a good game. So if it's a quarterback, it would have to be somebody like, Luca is the second best player in the league right now.

I think it's a floating tier of Yokic, Janus, and Luca. I voted Luca second for MVP. I feel good about it. But him not getting over the hump, well, he made it to a Western Conference finals and that team wasn't very good. Not very good. Yeah, you know, Alan's probably had a better team. But when you look at Allen's playoff stats, you're like, wait,

you're giving this guy shit? Like, you're giving this guy a hard time because he doesn't beat Mahomes, which basically nobody does. So he might be Luca. Luca might be Josh. Now, Kingston just flashed a really good one up, Luca being Justin Herbert, because of the organizational dysfunction and the rare talent. And, you know, the fact that a lot of people are in the guy's camp, but there's also a lot

of people that don't like the guy. Yeah, but Luca's done more. Herbert's not that. Exactly. That's why that doesn't work. I think the Josh Allen one actually works. Because it has to be somebody that you could go, all right, look, is it possible you could think this guy is playing the best, the position of anyone in the league?

And with Mahomes hanging around for the next 10 years, it's going to be hard to say that. Yeah, no one's going to really. But Allen at least, like I just decided this year when it was all sitting down, I was like, I'm not going to do the weekly Allen legacy thing anymore. Like, he's fucking awesome. And maybe there's two or three teams. that like their situation better than him, but that's probably three teams is probably too long of a list.

And with Luca, I think the Western Conference Finals thing changes it a little bit. If he'd get bounced by the clippers, the clippers like he had and then doesn't have that, you know, they shut it down last year. Last year was a disaster. Kyrie wasn't playing a ton for him either. And he's played good this year, right?

He's been awesome, man. He's been awesome. And it's always an interesting conversation around Kyrie, because, you know, I've never cared about him leaving Boston. Honestly, that 18 team was one of the most miserable watching experiences I've ever had with that team. And the way he handled it wasn't cool, but whatever, you know, do your thing. I don't care enough about it to take it personally and be upset.

But there was just a string of like whenever there was a quiet Kyrie phase for two or three months, you knew like, you know what? Been a little too quiet. And then he would remind us all of why we'd anticipate the next thing with him. And it's been really quiet in the best way. And clearly, Luca trusts him with big possessions late in the tight game in a way that I don't think he's ever trusted anybody else that he's played with. So it takes somebody that's really talented for Luca to trust,

but also it takes somebody who needs to be a little further in their career to understand, despite how talented Kyrie is. Like, Luke is just still going to have the ball a ton. And not everybody enjoys that, even though Luca pretty much optimizes every offensive possession as well as anybody else in the league besides Yokic. We should talk about Pacers' bucks before we finish up. Should we? Probably a bunch of Pacers fans that are like, what the fuck.

The bucks, are they kind of as wounded as, you know, we see them coming in the playoffs? Like, this is actually a pretty good draw for the Pacers. It's a great draw for the Pacers if you go by the regular season stuff. they took four or five against them yeah i mean that's that's including ballgate which is a really i mean we just don't i didn't even mention that dallas yeah i want to get you going on that dallas and and the the clippers to me a casual is a lot of fucking fun i think that's a really fun series ever since they tried to punk lucca when he was real young and they were all like calling him a bitch and white boy and he was like no i'm different i'm not an american white boy uh but but this series is going to be heated

Can you explain Ballgate to me? As you understand it, now that time has passed. Yeah, so there's some technicalities on Ballgate. Let me just make sure I get the date right here. I didn't have this in my notes. So, all right. I've never seen a thing while you're looking. I've never seen a thing that some people were so animated during

and some people were just so not. Like all at the same time within a 10 foot radius. there were people who were just incensed and then some people having a casual conversation. Very confusing. Yeah, so I've got to go back here to December, what is it, December 13th? Looks like it.

Chris Middleton's like, yeah, Janus is super mad. He's just standing there. Right, so he scored, he scored 64. 64 points. He also took 32 free throws. Because this is pre-Rissilo timeline of the NBA season when I fixed officiating. Thank you, by the way. Yeah, no, a nation thanks me.

And was it Jordan Naurah? Yeah. Yeah. So they said, no, that's not it because he scored 19th. There's somebody else. Somebody else had scored his first point. Yeah, it was Oster Shibwe. Yeah, Shibwe.

But he had already scored in the in-season tournament, but that stat didn't count. Yes. That's the funniest part of it. Right, right. So then apparently it wasn't even the right ball, but Janus just decided. And, look, Neesmith is unhinged, but he's the son of a landscaper, so I get it. And. That's good.

knee Smith just like he's going to get a couple flagrants in the series and knee Smith's turned himself into a guy like he's found a role really aggressive and everything he knocks down enough shots and you know good for him but there was already enough stuff brewing there had been a little carryover from another game and so then yonis decides and this is the part of yonis that I like is that when yonis becomes unhinged like when yonis takes the floor there's never a moment where I'm like oh I wonder if he's into it tonight. I mean, this is what I like about it. This is what we want from our guys. It's like he wants to go at everybody. So then when he felt like he was disrespected, he goes for, they almost

blew the lead, remember too. So he had to come back in. And then it was like, oh, fuck him. Because he added to all these points. It's like, well, I don't know. They put him back in there. Like, you can't stop the night. The free throw is obviously super annoying. And then he thinks that the pacer stole the ball to give it to Shweble, which I didn't even understand. Like, I hadn't really heard about the first point that you just get the ball. So that was kind of news to me. And then there's this one assistant who I think is kind of funny with the Pacers, like getting into it with Janus.

And so then Janus just starts running into the tunnels being like, fuck you, where's my ball? And he kind of sounded like a mad 12-year-old afterwards. But with him, if I'm getting this kind of effort and passion every single game, I will gladly take that part of it, too. So I love it. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point.

That's a good point. I mean, listen, he's a big skinny guy, but I wouldn't want to get in his fucking way. You think he's skinny? I mean, I just don't think of him as like a big like, like DJ Burns type. There's a lot in between DJ Burns and Yonis. I realize that. But yeah, like basketball players generally don't scare me. But when I watched him run through that tunnel, I was like, I don't know if I want to get in his fucking way.

And Greek guys usually don't scare me. So Nick Calathus, you've never been intimidated. No. I wanted to ask you about Kisper. Was there ever an NBA guy who stepped to you? What do you think? Wait, no, no, no.

We're not done yet. Ask him about Javelle McGee. Javelle McGee stepped to you? No, he didn't step to me. He stepped over me, dude. I went to dab him up because I used to get buckets with him in NBA 2K at the supper club in L.A.

You don't know this story? Oh, fuck. you know i went to full drunk white boying fanboy mode where i'm like oh there's javel mcgee he'll he'll fucking dab me up i was like javel mcgee and he just fucking like euro stepped me and went over me in the hallway of supper club and i'll never forget it's one of the most demeaning moments i've ever spent with an NBA player put it right up there with uh carlos boozer making fun of my my 2010 st louis rams team on the elevator in front of us essentially.

The other one was Kareem when I asked him for a picture at first before he knew I was. Do you remember? I keep going. Recently. Basketball players. Where, so this was about a week or so ago, I texted Long and Big Cat.

I went to Barnes. I like to go to Barnes & Noble to see what topics are being discussed. I like to look at the bookshelves. I like to cruise. I'm in the market for a good, I want the Genghis Khan book. I don't want to read the wrong one. I just finished up an incredible thing on the railroad expansion through Colorado.

And then I got a new Captain Cook, Hampton Size, the Wide Wide Sea. That one just came out, just showed up the house. So you mentioned Carlos Boozer and history. Thank you for the prompt. I saw Carlos Boozer's book. And I was like, Carlos Boozer's got a book out. Let me just read a page. I turned randomly to page 234, and congrats to Carlos Boozer for not doing one of those at,

like some wide receiver comes out with a book with like 168 with an index. You're like, come on, dude. Did you want to write a book or do you just want to do a photo shoot that day? The first page... Is this goosebumps or fucking Antonio Brown's biography? Go. The first page I opened to it is Carlos Boozer explaining what happened with his hair that day. Good. Oh, great.

What happened? It was clearly Beijing. Booze, what the fuck happened? Garnett finally asked in the second quarter. Wait a whole quarter. Part of the second. A mistake. A mistake happened. I grumbled. He grumbled.

Keep reading. So the guy his hair, his hairstylist, was like, man, I've got this whole thing. It works. It's great. Don't worry about it. And he's like, because I'm a little more light skin. He was like, we're going to go a little darker to shave in some of the, or shade in some of the thinning. And then he was like, it literally looked like shoe polish.

I got a game tomorrow. It looks like you poured a bucket of tar over my head. You'll get used to it were Greg's final words. He was so fired. I retreated to the bathroom and shampooed my head seven times in a row over the sink. each time checking my noggin for any sign of fading, but my scalp was stained like beats bleeding into a cutting board. How about that creative writing?

Damn, dude. That's really good. Yeah. What a soundly. Dude. I was blown. Like Duke, exactly. That's all you do.

In Alaska, there's not much to do in the winter. You just read books. What happened to you two up there? Like beats bleeding into a cutting board. When I read that line, I was inspired. I went home and started just working on stuff. The stage for our next game could have been bigger. We were the number one team in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics were stacked with a murderer's row of all-stars, including Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen. The two Titan teams clashing in a prime time in a regular season game. This game was broadcast on ESPN. The world was watching this game. We tipped off and went to work, but I couldn't get my hair disaster out of my mind. Every time the action stopped,

I could feel the other player's eyes on me. This just looks like somebody drew on you with a Sharpie. That was the random page. It was like a panic. experience color in Carlos Boozer's hair where you think there should be air. And then you bought the book? No.

Okay. What did you do? Did you Amazon preview it? He was in the bookstore. Oh, he was in the bookstore. Yeah, Barnes and Known. But I took a picture of that page. I think somebody sent it.

I think I have it. I think it got sent to me. Oh, we got time. Loser's funny. You would love Boozer. I bet I would, dude. He's got incredible stories. No, we need to get him on the pod

so we can once in Verall talk about what he said. promote the book yeah promote the book yeah that's really good if any NBA player could write a book

who would you want it to be I know it's going to be an interesting answer any player one great player and one not great player I'd read a Rondo book oh I would I would read the fuck I have a Rondo book

guy was into bowling yeah big time into bowling big big bowler you tell by the shot he's doing some podcasting now right yeah he retired recently, even though he stopped playing two years ago.

What is going on with that stuff, dude? I'm totally with, but I'm big runner. Have you announced it officially? I would love if you did it this week. I haven't officially retired. Yeah. Oh my God. This week.

No, you need to do this. You need to retire next year. Okay. That would be good for the show. Yeah, okay, I'll do it next year. I retire on the Greenlight Pod. I'd like to hear from Bob Pettett a little bit more. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. George Mican. That 56 Hawks series is incredible. Uh-oh. AC Green. Nice. What it was like being a virgin back then. Yeah, that's the book I would be able to read.

And then I shut the door. No, his game played streak was one of the lamest things in the history of history. Really? Do you believe Cal Rip can turn the lights off that night? I don't. Okay. But I didn't believe Otani was. was betting on games either.

I know. So maybe I'm the naive. Last question. Phoenix and Minnesota. Two organizations that are both all in, Ryan. Is it a failure? How big a failure is it if the Suns lose this series? And like where are we with the Kevin Durant character arc?

You know? I feel like we're in a weird zone here. Yeah, Durant's going to end up in a weird landing place because the people that don't want to give them his flowers, even though I'm not a huge fan of that phrase. And I like, I'm not anti-fluous. No. But it's going to be a bigger failure for Phoenix

just because of the age of the guys and then the lack of flexibility around it. But then when you add in the Timberwolves ownership thing, which apparently you can try to buy a team without any money and somebody may say, okay, cool. And then it's like, you know, like, oh, I just sent the check. Or no, I moved and I have new checks. I miss this.

What's that? I missed this. A Rod and Mark Lurie, they don't have the money. So now they're going to fight it out in court. So you just try to buy a team on credit? I guess just some kind of understanding without maybe enough vetting financially or maybe the money moved around after the fact. Like I remember one time when I was up for buying a house and then some market that I was invested in got destroyed and I had sent in all my paperwork and I was approved. And then I was like, oh my God.

like, oh my God. I was like, if this doesn't bounce back, like things could get a little dicey here with the down payment and the reserves. Making those what I'm talking about. Debt to income ratio, yeah, big deal. Yep. How are you feeling about those new real estate bills? Oh, he's going to spin it where you feel bad for him? No, it's totally not a spend. I've heard it. I've heard it. I mean, we've done it. I am not, Chris. Look, decoupling. I think it makes a lot of sense. Seller pays their buyer pays their agent the buyer the agents who can demonstrate their value are going to thrive they're about a thousand in our area 35 of us are worth a shit and are going to do well and the others are going to stop selling real estate because they're not going to be able to get a buyer to sign an exclusive

agency relationship on day one which is going to be law all right so i think it's a good thing ultimately it'll be bumpy for a little bit. But I think if you're just coming in from Mars, it would make a whole lot of sense to have the seller not paying full freight, which was always negotiable, I'd like to say. It was always negotiable. I was curious because there was a time I did a bit of a realtor rant, but sometimes it's like, you know, it's like dating in a way.

It's like if you've gone through some tough relationships, you might not be excited about the next one. and if you have a tough realtor relationship, you know, you may just broadly... Or if you do a little digging and find out what the real estate agents are actually doing. My world... He sent me a text.

He sent me a text. He goes, take it easy on realtors. It's a tough job. I did not send that text. Look, my world's all about knowledge, Ryan, not unlike yours. And I'm going to work my tail off on behalf of my clients.

and make their lives better than they were before they knew me. Is basketball at all like football? It's hard to beat a team four, five, six, seven, eight times in a row. Phoenix has won all the games against the T-Wolves this year. Three-0. Ant stinks against him. Is that what will happen in this series? Does Minnesota have a counter?

Do you think Ant would want to hang out with, like, if we went out with Ant for a night, do you think Anne would be a good hang? you think you enjoy hanging out with us first of all everybody'd rather hang out with you than me so let's not kid ourselves there um i don't know about the entire city of boston dude that's that's fair all right so maybe some making by the way that was the most impressive transition out of real estate fees back to the west thanks it was one thought all right well we'd rather rather by Minnesota. Have you ever told anybody you'd be able to refite a lower rate next year? No, that's not my bag. I'm not a lender.

Okay. Not my job. I'd agree to a professional. All right. Part of aunt would like you. Who wouldn't like you? A lot of fucking people. Doug McDermott, maybe. You think Doug and I wouldn't get along? Last question, Ryan, you just went to New Zealand and you had a travel log, which supposedly is amazing. And I look forward to listening to. at some point here. Matt raved about it. I've heard you talk about this trip. We talked a little bit

while you were on the trip. Impressions of New Zealand, elevator pitch for somebody who might be looking to go there, and is it livable if I want to get out of Dodge? Very livable. You know, I made it down to Arrow Town because I love mining towns. You ever been to Ward, Colorado, is outside of Boulder? No. Law up there. There was a bunch of guys in the bar that we were at that said they wanted to put together a group to try to get these gypsies out of this landing. And I was like, what is?

In Colorado? Yeah, guys like, are you in? I'm like, I'm just in town. They got a gypsy problem? There was apparently a gypsy issue in this one spot. And I was like, what's going on up here? The guy's like, Mountain Law. So I love mining towns.

Love them. So I went to Auckland. Queenstown is. Bucketless. Queenstown is as if you took Luzerne and Switzerland, miniaturized it, and then also gave it a touch of Breckenridge. Okay.

It doesn't make any sense that it combines all these amazing things of like a walkable ski village slash also feels like Switzerland because you're on this massive lake where the water's purity, if you just put a bottle into the lake and took it out, brought it to the testing facilities, it would test as spring water. That's how pure it is. Yeah. And it's actually, it's so high above sea level at the surface, but the depth takes it below sea level.

It's that kind of lake. And then I was like, hey, I want to go up to Roy's Point or Raise Peak. Raise Peak, Roy's Point. I think they were brothers. Look into it. And I was like, what's the story? And I never drove. I thought I was going to get a car.

rent it and then I was like, ah, this actually might not be as convenient. And so they were like, well, that's 45 minutes away. And the guy goes, there's another mountain right there. And he points out the window. He's like, that one's pretty good too. And so that was like a six-hour trek up there. So there's hiking everywhere. You can jump out of stuff. If you want to golf, you can do that. I think you could live in the South Island, Chris, be very happy. And I would say as far as the visuals, Iceland was going to be tough to surpass for me because I loved my Iceland trip. I rented a nice car, drove the entire outer circle, went to the arc circle, technically was inside of the Arctic Circle, which is a first for me,

made it to the Western Fjords, which felt like driving on the moon, sting. So New Zealand and Milford Sound actually smashed Iceland as far as the visuals of being in there. So you would like it A lot I think maybe more than anybody I know Really? Yeah And the people are great

The people are great There's a little edge to the New Zealand guy though Because they've all got like a fucking weird haircut Where I'm like would that guy kick my ass or is he a nerd And I'm like I don't know He's from New Zealand Like a fade and a mullet kind of thing altogether This fade mullet

And then there'll be a bit of like an arm tattoo And then you know I like these people man this is great Yeah, I was at a bar and I was like, what, you know, what, I'm sizing up the crowd. And they're just tanking beers at like 3 o'clock on a Thursday. Like, don't give a shit, right? And that was when I was in Auckland. And the guy, like, checks me out.

And he goes, you from the States? And I was like, yep, good on you. And then I was like, that guy could be soft or he might put me to sleep in 30 seconds. Right, hard to know. I have no idea. I'm not going to find out. I'm not going to find out. Elford sound looks gorgeous.

Everything looks beautiful as we, cycle through. They filmed Parker Lewis can't lose season two there. No way. I know I knew it was somewhere. All right, right, Rye, well, we appreciate you

covering all this ground with us. We will catch you soon.