The Mismatch - Listener Mailbag Part 3! Plus: a Bit of Football and a Bit of Ben Simmons.

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

After a bit of banter about Thursday night’s Cowboys-Buccaneers game (0:30), Verno and KOC talk about some of the developments in the Ben Simmons saga (5:30). Then they dig into the mailbag to answer listener questions about basketball and life (14:30). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chef David Chang and the members of the recipe club sift through millions of search results to find the very best way to make the food you want to eat. Each week, they cook three recipes for the same dish, debate them, and ultimately declare the winning recipe. Check out Recipe Club on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. Join as he does every Friday from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor,

a.K. Kevin O'O. Bonner, Kevin O'Col, Kevin O'Col, Kevin O'Col. Kevin O'Killin, Kevin O'Cle. Verdo, how you feel on this Friday morning after Tom Brady and the bucks ripped your heart out week one. I actually didn't have my heart ripped out. You know, I had read everything all day about, you know, there was not one person on earth that picked the Cowboys to win that game, and most expected them to get drubbed.

When you got your starting quarterback who's been out for 10 months and did not play in the preseason come out and look amazing. You know, you missed field goals. they got turnovers and didn't capitalize on them all and you know you did enough

to win for the majority of the game and then with a minute I have left to give the ball back to Tom Brady and you get done in

I don't know that's not one of those things it's kind of like when you get when you get beat by the best of the best I don't feel like it is

nearly as hard to deal with. It's not like he hasn't been doing that to people for 20 years, and I've watched it. And I'm not a, I don't hate Tom Brady. And so it wasn't, it wasn't all that devastating to me. It's not like I expected them to go in and win week. That wasn't one of the ones I had chalked up as a win this year, right? And they looked better than I thought they would. I think if you're a Cowboys fan, which you are, you've got to be coming out of that feeling really good about how Dak Prescott looked.

He looked like the Dak Prescott from early last season when he was one of the leading MVP candidates. And the Bucks, like you said, I mean, that's the one thing. Like this is a close game because of miss field goals, you know, missed extra point for Dallas, but also four turnovers with Tampa Bay. Oh, yeah. That's not going to happen very often and still coming out with the winner. If you're a Bucks fan or a Brady fan like myself, you got to be feeling good about this team, returning all 22 starters and probably be being even better.

this season, assuming good health. They're nasty. Yeah, for sure. They're going to be an outstanding team throughout this year. Now, they do have a quarterback that's 44 years old. So, you know, at 17 games, I know he's, he's a medical marvel as he's something else, man. I was watching the game at a restaurant with my friends. I saw they had like an intro video narrated by Brian Cranston. I haven't been able to watch it yet. But I look forward to, I've watched it. I didn't hear it. I look forward. to watching that whole thing today. I'm excited, dude.

Tom Brady, 44 years old. I couldn't help but just think about it, sitting there with my buddies watching the game. Just, I was 11 years, 11 years old, 11 years old,

Chris, when Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl. I'm 31 now. How crazy is that? That's nuts. It's crazy. 300th career, a regular season start.

My goodness. And he's nowhere near, he's nowhere near done, Chris. This is what I loved, honestly. And I don't want to, and I don't want to,

and I don't want to sound mean here. but I knew very well because I listened to all kinds of different NFL podcast too. Everybody, and I read these articles, everybody in the free world, that line was sitting at right around like eight and a half. And everybody in the free world had the same bet, which was tease that down six points to get it to two and a half, right? And the books knew that. And then it ends up popping up to like nine and a half, right?

And I just knew this is the game. This is how they have all those hotels. those lights, those performers, everybody, the easiest bet in the world is going to be bucks minus two and a half. And to see all of those teasers ruined last night, I mean, it did. That, that gave me real joy in loss. You know what I mean? To know that that many people bet minus two and a half and then for it to land on two, that's what they get. That's what they get. And speaking about gambling, next Monday, you're on the Ringer

gambling show with Warren Sharp every Monday, right? Let's go ahead and mention this too. I will be on with Warren. Starting on Monday, we'll do all kinds of recaps of everything that took place on Sunday and get ready for Monday night football. And we are off next week.

So the mismatch is going to be off on Tuesday and Friday and then we'll restart the week after that. We're going to be right around the corner from training camp when we start back. But yeah, for all of you out there that are big NFL fans or gambling fans for sure. Tune in on Monday as we're going to be launching that Gamble show with Warren Sharper myself.

And then he'll be on two other times throughout the week. And so whole new feed. And then House on Fridays, right? Yep, for sure. We're going to get to mailback here in a second. But before we get to that, it feels like the man of the summer in the NBA, is Ben Simmons for various reasons, not the least of which are news items that come out

about possible trades, and then him being, it all being a source of discontent, and now he talks about not showing up for training camp. And so ESP has got to outline the situation, how everybody got to where they are. What do you make of it this week? And I know we got mailbag questions about this too,

but what do you make of it this week? And the whole, are we going to be on training camp watch to see if his car pulls up? So ESPN's Tim Bond Temps and Bobby Marks reported that in August, Josh Harris, Darry, others from the Sixers went to L.A. to meet with Ben Simmons and Rich Paul and Clutch to tell him,

you know, we can't find a deal. We want to move forward with you. We want to try. try to, you know, work this out during the season. And that's when it was made clear that he asked to be traded. And, you know, then there's some other information in there from Bobby Marks about how, like, it would work if Ben Simmons does indeed hold out. And he's getting fined by the Sixers.

And it got into all that. So, I mean, it did add some new information. I know John Cresensky also said earlier this week or maybe, I think it was earlier this week. He believes the Timberwolves are in a better position today for Ben Simmons. they were, you know, some time ago. But in many ways, Chris, I don't know if this really changes the conversation for us with the way we've talked about stuff. I think things remain unchanged in that sense.

The Sixers will take this as far as they can until it reaches a breaking point. It's interesting because the NBA does have a little bit of a problem with the fact that this is happening with stars more often recently, that we had Jimmy Barber. Butler screaming at his GM, you can't effing win without me and whatever. And then, you know, they lose at the beginning of the season that that comes to a head and Jimmy Butler ends up in Miami. And then you have James Hardin who doesn't show up to camp and then shows up out of shape and then they're not giving maximum effort. And it's like, okay, we've got to, we got to move on from this. We've got to move this guy somewhere else. And now you have a Ben-Simper situation where

it's like, all right, well, find you or the NBA may step in if he doesn't show up to training camp because they certainly don't want this to be a precedent. And yet, you know, you feel like he's going to end up getting his way. I mean, his is a little different because he's, he's in the middle of a contract. He's got four years left on that contract, right? And so it's like, does, I can sense that they probably do not want this to be the mode of operation for the player that doesn't like their situation at the time. Because you do sign these massive contracts. And then, because what's happening now is you get the bag and then you ask out, right?

That's how this works. And I don't know. like you don't want guys not showing up to training camp. You don't want guys, you know, star players in the league saying, I don't want to be here. And then I don't know the way Ben would play it out. But, you know, these last few, it's not like you're going to go out there and give it your all and try to win every single game. I mean, we went through this with Anthony Davis, right? where that whole last part of that Pelicans season.

And I don't know what the answer is as to how to deal with it. But I do know that the NBA doesn't want stars just not showing up until they get their way. Yeah, I mean, the player empowerment is, you know, that's a great. Or tanking it really, honestly, like, you know what I mean, sabotaging something. That's the problem. It's like you'd like for guys to just say, hey, do right by me. I'll play my ass off, but do right by me. Keep looking for a deal.

But that I don't think is what people necessarily expect, that it can be healthy and it just be a business. Hey, you get me where I want to get. This isn't the best for either of us. It becomes public. It becomes messy. And the player becomes disenchanted. And it Fs up teams.

Sure. I mean, like, player empowerment is a great thing in some ways in the sense that, you know, players feel like they have the ability to go where they want to go and they should be. I mean, they're drafted into the NBA and they sign a four-year contract and then teams have the rights to match another four-year deal potentially. So teams have the inherent advantage from the second players into the NBA. It helps balance things out. The negative is the fact that player empowerment really only applies to the top, you know,

one to five percent of players in the NBA. The top 10 to 25 to 30 guys are the only players that really have any leverage to move anywhere they want to go. And that directly affects the, teams. It affects other players that are also moved and whatnot. So in this sense, like with Ben Simmons, they're just trying to use as much leverage as they have with that, despite having four years left on the contract, which hurts where they can direct where he goes. Like they, they can't say we want to go to just this one team. We just want to go to the warriors. We just want to

go to, you know, wherever any team could get in on the Ben Simmons, you know, bidding war, not that it is much of a bidding war right now. But any team could get in this because he has four years left. I don't know. Like I said, I feel like we've said everything there is to say about Ben Simmons in recent weeks. I just look forward to seeing how this plays out because I still believe the Sixers would prefer to wait.

But with that said, though, Chris, the other thing that happened this week is you have Damien Lillard making an Instagram post with him walking through the crowd in Portland. And he says, back for more, hashtag Rip City is my city. this is the first time Damien Lillard has said anything like that when just a couple weeks ago he's like, you know, PDX here for now or whatever it was that he said. So he said back for more Rip City is my city. That was just a couple days ago on Instagram. So like I said, I've said it many times. People say Daryl Moore is waiting for Damian Lillard first and then maybe Bradley Biel.

Damien Lillard, like even if he becomes available, you might not have the best offer. you just might not have the best offer. And with Bradley Beal, same thing. Same thing there. So for the six years, it might make sense to take a deal now. It could. It could. Because look how this backfires, Kevin.

If it does backfire, you're the one left with the unhappy guy. Damien Lutter becomes content. Brad Beale becomes content and your guy's pissed off. How what? And that could, you know, that could lower your, like, Philly's leverage, too, because if they don't have like the Damian Lord Bradley Beale carrots hanging out there, you know, as like we have this potential if we wait.

If you don't have that, then suddenly it's like, oh, what's your alternative? It's like James Wiseman and a couple picks from Golden State. Like that's your alternative. We're not going to give you, uh,

you know, this additional pick if you're Minnesota. Suddenly that offer could get worse. So the Philly and Daryl morey have to be very careful here. They do. They have to be very careful because there's no guarantees dame or Beal or any star becomes available this season. This could end up being a dud

year in terms of star movement. But I'm still intrigued by the Simmons McCollum thing as well. I think that that's a path that makes some sense for both teams, especially for Portland. Maybe a Damian Liller knows that it's on the horizon. Maybe. It's possible.

He did like a post on Twitter as well of Simmons Photoshopped into a Blazers jersey. That was a couple weeks ago. So maybe he knows. He might know something. Maybe that's why he is putting out there. I'm in, I'm in. I love media.

And you know the way this works, Kevin. We're off next week. We spent the whole damn summer talk about this guy and it'll happen next week. If a trade happens next week, are we doing a show? Are we going to hop on our emergency phone? I think we're going to at least have to get on the phone with each other and, yeah, record it's ridiculous. You know that's the way it's going to play, right?

I know. Yeah, we might have to do it. emergency pod. Crazy. All right. Producer Sasha has rallied together the mailbag questions. A million as always to go through. But we've tried to sift through a lot of the good ones that we wanted to try to answer today on this mailbag episode.

So producer Sasha, what do we got? First we have from Robert. Hello, Robert. The Rock, hmm? I said, hello, Robert. Oh, hey, right. He's not on the, he's not on the phone, Kevin. With the Rockets keeping their pick and drafting Jalen Green, they probably would have been worse off if they took the Philly package with Ben Simmons.

Does almost everyone in the NBA media owe Raffell Stone an apology? Even before we know the actual value of the Nets picks were the Rockets right to take. take the Nets package. Yes. You'll stone an apology, Chris. What? No. No?

No. No? Wait? So you still believe I should have taken Ben Simmons over there all the picks and being a worst team, which positioned them. That was my perspective. It's like you want to be bad this year. So you have a better chance at Cade or Jalen Green or some of these top guys.

What's to say they wouldn't have been bad anyway? And also, I don't necessarily. That's fair. I don't necessarily believe in the whole you have to tank it out. If I've got Ben Simmons, Christian Wood doesn't get injured. Like that team was not horrible at the very beginning of the year. In fact, we kind of. I mean, they wouldn't have been bad.

They wouldn't have been. No, and I think you're a lot. Look, my opinion is always, you're a lot closer to being good. You know, me, when you've got good players. And so if you could have gotten an all-NBA caliber player in return, turn. That's foolhardy. I don't, I don't like what people do that. They say, well, we wouldn't have gotten Jalen Green if we didn't. Well, like, number one, what are the, maybe Jalen Green will make all NBA teams. Maybe he will. I mean, there's only six guards that do. I know Ben Simmons

has, you know what I'm saying? And so, and the other thing is, like, you don't know the way everything's going to play out. That number two pick, that wasn't in the trade. That's not part of the trade. You can't make that the trade. You can't say, oh, well, because we made this stupid trade, we suck. And so, therefore, the number two pick is part of the trade. No, it wasn't. If the number two pick was in the trade, then we can evaluate Jalen Greene as part of the trade. I disagree there, Chris, because I think it does have to be, like, everything is part of the trade.

Like, everything is, your entire organization in the decisions you make and how it affects you. Like, all of it's part of the trade. And, and like, I don't remember exactly what I said at the time of the trade. trade. I'd love to play the play it back, but I believe my perspective was for a lot of these teams, it can pay to suck this year because of the increased probability of getting keyed or Mobley or some of these top players. And for Houston, okay, so what if they wouldn't have gotten lucky? What if they wouldn't have gotten the number two pick? They might not have. I mean, like, and they ended up doing, we're on a, we're on a timeline here in a universe that exists where they did

get lucky. And they ended up with the number two pick. Maybe like in a different situation, those lottery balls bounce a different way and they end it with number four, number five or number six. So is it a good trade? I mean, then we're talking about it much differently. But ultimately, with the way things worked out, I'm happy with the decision Houston made.

Like in hindsight, looking back with the way things have worked out, I'd be happy with the way things had worked for them. Because if you do get Ben Simmons, you have Christian Wood and John Wall and all these guys on this team, that wouldn't be a playoff roster. It'd be more like, you know, the eighth, ninth, or tenth pick.

So for Houston, maybe NBA media doesn't need to apologize, you know, because everybody has perspectives at the time of trades that happen and things change, things evolve very quickly. And it's very easy to be wrong. It's very easy to be right with this stuff. You just don't know a lot of the time. Without how stuff will pan out. You don't know. This is what GMs do. They make trades that you can't evaluate for 10 years so that they could try to keep their jobs. But, I mean, there were good players that were involved in that trade that they didn't get, you know. I mean, it. They moved off Caras Levert. And that's where some of the mistakes might have happened, getting a little depot instead of Lavert or Allen. Jared Allen could have been a player there.

You know what I mean? Yep. Some mistakes were made. Like you got, so that's why I say, like you got pick swaps and what else did you get? What else did you get for James Hardin? That's what the mistakes were.

You got, you got three first round picks and four first round pick swaps. Okay, cool. So now I got to evaluate that after the end of the 2020. 27 draft, see what you ended up with? He didn't get anything. Victorola Depot? He didn't even have it for the season.

Like, I just, no. No. He doesn't deserve an apology. He should apologize to me. Apologize to me for that crap trade. That's what should happen. Me apologize. All right.

What's the next? Okay. Good day, guys. My name's Ben, and I'm from New Zealand. My question is, how do you think Stephen Adams is going to help Memphis now? And do you think he will ever get back to his best days, 2016 playoffs, being a roller off his screens? His best days were playing next to Westbrook, and I see the same qualities in Morant that can bring the best out of Adams. What are your thoughts?

I actually saw him yesterday. Steve Adams. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was in Memphis. Yeah. He, the most shocking thing, let me just go ahead and say the most shocking thing you are going to hear going into the weekend, okay? For everybody out there that's listening to this, you are never going to be more. In fact, in fact, be careful, don't drive off the road. Stephen Adams is 28 years old.

It does blow my mind, Chris. He's still that young. Yeah. Unbelievable. I see the guy and I can't fathom that he's 28 years old. It's crazy to think about. I do think that he can, I do think he can help.

I do think he can be a defensive quarterback, which is why the Grizzlies wanted to attain him in the first place, right? As a defensive quarterbacker? Yeah. Oh, and I also think he is a good, possibly ideal fit with Jaron Jackson, Jr., which is what they need. They're about the sign. The Brewzer and Adams and the perimeter, you know, wingish big and Jackson.

who I think you'll see signed within the next week or so probably. Like he'll get his extension too, like some of these other guys have. Maybe Michael Porter, Jr. at Denver, some others. You're going to start to see those before training camp. But, yeah, I do think he could be a very good fit. And offensively, look, he's a guy that he's put back guy. He is finish pick and roll guys at the rim. And he is offensive rebounding, throwing it back out guy.

And yes, all of those can be extremely useful when you have a super dynamic point guard. He is one of those. We talk about, you know, there's stars and there's role players. You know, Valachunis, who I love. Valcunis is not a role player, though. He's not just, you know, he is an offensive weapon who you run plays for and you get the ball to and really affects things. Stephen Adams is more a I'll clean stuff up

and I'm going to keep the ball moving type of guy which when you have Jared Jackson in the lineup assuming he turns into what people thought he was going to turn into I think it could be a very very good fit and could help Adams

dramatically too yeah and I mean I think this sort of this question makes me think about two things. A how a player salary impacts the way we talk about them you know if Stephen Adams were a league minimum or like $5 million player,

I don't think people would be saying like, oh, Stephen Adam sucks, he fell off. I think the conversation would be much different. But also just how in recent years, we've seen some older players, whether it's Vince Carter, or whether it's Dwight Howard or Carmelo Anthony, we've seen them at some point either fall off

and go into different types of roles or even just be totally doubted and say they're done. They should be out of the league. They're washed up and then still manage to find a new role like Mello did, like Dwight Howard did. And with Stephen Adams, he's still getting paid a heck of a lot of money. You know, he's not necessarily quote unquote worth that. But in this new situation, having more of a downhill pick and roll presence, like was asked

about by Ben, that could help Stephen Adams and restore some of his value and his importance to the game. Whereas last season, it just wasn't a situation for him in New Orleans that made a lot of sense from the start. So I think he's just going to be another example of a player where maybe they're not quite at their prime levels. Maybe they're not quite worth their current salary, but this is an opportunity for him to show it.

By the way, like he said, Chris, only 28 years old. That's what I mentioned. That's what I mentioned. It's not like, 28 to show that he still has some time left in the NBA. But with that said, though, he is an old 28. He's had a lot of injuries throughout his career.

He's played through a lot of pain, a lot of injuries throughout his entire career. So he is a old 28. But ultimately, though, he's still only 28 at the end of the day. And even if he's not like a 30 minute per game guy anymore, maybe he turns into like a big time energy guy in a 15 to 22 minute per game role. Well, and the other thing is he becomes intensely useful when you have to play in a league

where there are the M-Bids and the Yokicch's and some nights. Did you see Yokes? He looks leaner. Oh, really? He looks leaner than ever. Seriously. The Denver Nuggets Twitter account posted a video of him the other day. He looks leaner than ever before when he's got some facial hair now.

He's letting it go. Oh, boy. like a mean Yokch coming back for a back-to-back MVP. He looks lean for real. Not as lean. I played NBA 22 yesterday. I played an online game. And someone played as the Nuggets against me. And I'm like, why does Yokish look thinner than Lamarcus Aldridge? I was playing as the Nets. I played it as a couple of the better teams in the league. Because everybody else, well, if you pick a bad team and you're going to, you know, you got to play as a good team. And like Aldridge was way bigger than Yokic in the game. It's like, which didn't seem.

Right. They got to make Yokic a little bigger in the game unless, unless Chris, they have the new weight and measurements in there because he did look lean in real life. No filter, huh? No filter as far as I know. It's hard to know these days.

These Instagram TikTok filters are pretty good. You never know. All right, what's next? Oh, someone from St. Louis. Andrew. I'm a big NBA draft nut, and I use the ringer draft guide when doing my own scouting for hobby. So I'd love to hear more about KOC's process when evaluating a draft class.

What are some of your favorite aspects of scouting these young players? What are some of the biggest challenges? I'm sure Chris is also welcome to answer. Nah, I don't want to answer that. Of course, Chris. You do your guys who won't suck list every year. I watch YouTube. You watch YouTube,

but you also talk to people from around the league and get feedback. I mean, I think all of that is important taking in feedback from, you know, outside of your own brain. is critical, but also not letting that taint or affect the way you're thinking. But I think for me, I've just always loved the draft. I love the NFL draft when I was 12 years old. I love the NFL draft before.

I love the NBA draft. I just like watching players get better and change their games and evolve who they are. So like Joelle LeBeed, his year at Kansas, years back, he comes in super raw. And by the end of the season, you're seeing him doing like the Hakeem Dream Shake. You're seeing him have a better feel for scoring and defending. And I just love seeing that progress from players turning into the stars that we end up loving or the role players who make a big impact on the playoffs. It's just rewarding to see that growth and that progress. So, I mean, it really stems from that.

I think the challenge is like in terms of like doing the draft guide, the challenge is like also just covering the NBA full time. like doing the draft and doing NBA, that can be tough. Because like I think like the best people who cover the draft, Mike Schmitz, I think he's the best. Mike Schmitz like travels the world. And like he meets these players when they're 14, 15 years old. And, you know, like what they, what he does, what Kavoni does, those guys are in it like 365 days a year. That is what they do. Like those guys are, Schmitz, Smitch said some coaching recently.

I saw him post on Instagram actually. Smith's could be a GM someday. He could be a GM. It wouldn't be surprising. I think he could be. But like I would say, I mean, that's the biggest challenge for me. But I mean, it's rewarding. I love doing it.

I'm not afraid of being wrong. I'm going to put my opinion out there regardless of what it is if it goes against the grain. And I know there are people sometimes who will say, oh, trying to be different with draft rankings. It's like, no. Because that's the reality. You know it. Chris, when you talk to people, everybody within organizations has different opinions. and if you don't, that's a problem.

I think you're going to agree with this. The last, and this has really been more prevalent that this is true of the world at large, and so it becomes true, obviously, in basketball too, and group things and everything. And that is the, how much more difficult it is to sift through BS. Oh, yeah. It is so much hard.

now than it was even three or four years ago. And that is not, that is on the internet, that is the news, that is also basketball. I will tell you that the two players, the two players that have gotten trashed the most to me, like the most negative things said to me in the last two years were probably Lamello and Kaminga. And Lamello's unbelievable and Kaminga looked awesome so far. So you tell me, you know what I'm saying? But, I mean, that stuff does have an effect.

I mean, I'm saying in the basketball world, people start talking. And then it just gets repeated. It gets repeated. It gets repeated. It's like, here's a red flag on this guy. Here's a red flag on this guy. And it's like, it's much harder to delineate what's true and what's not unless you are the Mike Schmitz's of the world who have been around the kids and know the kids and know the

families and know the coaches. Even then you can still get it wrong. You can. Even then you can still get it wrong. It's so hard. There's just so many variables that go into the success and the failure of young players, you know, entering college and young players entering the NBA. There's just so many variables that go into it. It's impossible to predict everything. You can't. And people change too. People evolve. People start passing around information about these prospects that you, that you don't know very well. And so then that's what you hear about them is, your frame of reference is very small, right? So if somebody said, hey, I heard that kid's a dirt bag.

Well, I don't know the kid. I've never been around the kid. Why are people saying this, right? And then it just, but then it might just be because they heard it from somebody and then it gets repeated to somebody. And then it gets passed on to somebody else. And it's like, sifting through all that kind of crap is much more difficult now than it was four or five years ago. Because just like everything else, the passing of information is truth becomes just a way of life, even if it's not true. You know, it's like you see things go viral all the time.

And then you find out like, oh, that's not true. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I saw that recently with like the hospitals in Oklahoma. Yeah, right. The iburemectin patients, even though it wasn't true at all. It was embarrassing. Yeah.

It was embarrassing. Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's, and like all of this, you know, like in politics and in sports, too. But like that creates a mistrust with all the misinformation that's out there through media. And like that happens behind the scenes too. Like it's just it's hard. It's hard to know. That's right.

It's hard to know with what's trustworthy and what's not. It's like I remember, I remember being a little kid growing. I grew up in the internet, Chris. So like my experience growing up was different from yours in that sense. I first got a computer like 11 years old I think and I used to be online and think to myself like wow someday when internet culture is mainstream people are going to be able to have disagreements with each other like I do online with people we'll debate and then just go back to being civil when internet culture is mainstream someday everybody's going to be united oh god how naive was

I huh when internet culture went mainstream which it happened we have become more divided than ever, than ever before. And, I mean, that divide will only increase further and further in the years to come, which is a real shame. I mean, it's a real shame. But, yeah, I don't know how we got into this part of it. But, yeah, it does, it does, it does, it's just harder to sift through information in everything. And it doesn't matter as much as basketball in basketball as it does in other stuff. but you put anything out there, people believe it.

All right, Sasha. Another person from St. Louis, Jake, what is something that you guys have learned from each other over the years? Well, this is, I mean, this is hard because it's like, I don't want to get sappy here. But the first thing that stood out to me was honestly like that whole,

you and I have very similar relationships with, our fathers, right? And when you went through that, because of, because of everything that's like gone on with my dad and his health and whatever, there was a time in my life where I probably blamed him for some of the things, like not wanting to get better, not putting in the, you know what I mean? And I just, I had this resent of why doesn't my son get the same dad I have? You know, My father's in a wheelchair, right? You know what I mean? And I think that probably just, you know, being around you and talking to you on the phone

and going through that entire thing, it probably changed my perspective greatly in the sense of, you know, time is too short. Everybody's got their own things. And, like, you've got to, you got to value. each day because I found myself you know and listening to you

and you're talking about you know I watch this game last night and me and my dad used to watch these games and whatever and I think all of that stuff I think there's I think it probably just changed my perspective on you know

valuing the time you have regardless of anything else you know what I mean because there's going to come a day where I don't have him and it's going to ruin me for an amount of time. And I think about it, right?

Because, I mean, it's not like he's in great health. And, of course, we've had this whole coronavirus thing and everything else. But I think it's just the, you know, the valuing of that time. You know, I got to call him last night, you know, at halftime. I got to call him, you know, during the game. Because we had to stay at home last night because it was a late game and my son had school. So we didn't get to go over to his house for the game.

But obviously, we'll be there next Sunday. And we see him often. And he lives down the street from me. But I think that's probably what I learned from you. I think that just the way you handled all of that. And then, you know, going through somebody up here that lost a parent, you know, somebody that I'm as close with you as and the way you talked about it on the air and your honesty about it all.

And, you know, I remember that article you wrote about him. I don't know. I think it certainly had an effect on me. and the way I value the time that I have because I watched a friend wish he had that time. You know, I'm saying. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's, it's, uh, yeah, I mean, I think for me, like, I've handled it. I've handled it better than I could have imagined that I would handle it.

You know, I'm happy. Like, I'm doing okay. Yeah. Had a conversation with one of my friends recently who lost their father, uh, this summer as well. And, you know, like he said, I'm doing it. doing okay. You know, I'm doing it. Like, that's the way I feel. I'm doing okay. But I mean, I was thinking about this, uh, this week as like, this is like the anniversary, you know, the 20th anniversary of 9-11 coming up. Um, and I think I look back at that, like just the way

I've approached my relationships with people. Um, I think like 9-11 was formative for me because I was 11 years old at the time. This is around when my grandpa was having some major health problems, very close with my grandpa. He had like a five-way buy. bypass and like a year before I was born, he had an aneurysm like an inch from his heart that they were fortunate to catch. Like if they waited a day, he probably would have died and I never would have known him. And so I always grew up with this perception of like this understanding of like, I'm lucky to have my grandpa in my life. He gets through all these surgeries. I'm lucky to still have him in my life. And the 9-11 happens and I'm like a little kid finding out about it from

my mom in the car ride home after school. After a weird day at school, they never told us at school that it happened. But things were weird. People left. A lot of kids in class left. And I just remember thinking to myself, like, I'm lucky to have my parents. Like, all these parents went to work, and some of them didn't come home. And I grew up, I grew up, like, it's kind of like a, it's like a sad thing in a way. But I grew up, sometimes if my parents would leave the house thinking to myself, that could be the last time I see them. And that's not, like, I never, growing up, I never looked at that as like a bad thing. It didn't make me sad. I would say like I just grew up never burying my fears. I kind of grew up embracing them. I embraced the possibility of death, which is kind of

what allowed me to fully experience having the people in my life. And so like, you know, when it comes to like not taking things for granted, trying to make the most of each day, like that's hard. Everybody has days where they just, you know, they ignore, you know, or they get ignored with people. They ignore, you know, their loved ones and whatever that happens. It's only natural, but for the most part, I think I've always, you know, embraced those moments. And, you know, in the article, I wrote about my dad, like he said, uh, I like just, I always, I always, I always, like, going to Celtics games and always watching the Patriots and watching sports in general, I'm always just embraced those moments and realize how fortunate I was

to have those, which in some ways has made it a little bit, um, I don't know if easier is the right word, um, but a little bit easier to continue moving forward. Um, but, um, but, um, but, Yeah, I don't know. That's that that's that that's a, uh, that means a lot to hear that Chris. I think um, I think with you like the main thing I've learned over the years is, it's like largely just about just truly being yourself. Like you're, you're you. You know, that that's you're you, you are you in your show. In Memphis for years, you're you on this show, unapologetically yourself, right? Love me, love me, love me or hate me. You're just yourself. And I think, um, in that sense, like that allowed me to loosen up and just be me and not worry about

you know, this or that, and how things might be perceived. And like, I know, I've always tried to be that way, but I've really, like, you know, developed it more so in recent years. And a lot of that just comes from seeing you do it week out, week, weekend, week out, seeing the clips you post from your show as well, um, uh, in the local show, because you guys have a lot of fun doing that. And also just like from a, you know, a practical perspective, just the way you prep and the way you steer conversations. Um, you're a two pro. And I'm thankful for the show with you. Every week, Chris. Let me say this real quickly. because you mentioned the 9-11,

because I want to give a special shout out. Because I don't think I've ever told you this story. At one point, I posted something about it, maybe a couple of years ago. So when I was a child, I was born on October 5th. There was a kid that lived right a couple doors down for me who was born on October 1st.

His name was Billy Harell. Billy Horell and I, from the time we were zero years old, our moms were best friends, and we were together every single day. from the time I was zero until the time I was eight years old. This was my best friend in the world. When I was eight, we lived in New York.

My father got transferred and we moved to St. Louis. When we moved to St. Louis, obviously, you'd lose touch with your friend. We're only eight years old. The Internet's not existing, whatever, right? So we went back when I was like 12. We went back maybe one other time. But as time goes on, you'd lose touch. Like we just every once in a while, every couple of years, maybe our moms would talk and then they would tell us what was going on or whatever else.

And so we just lost touch. Life moves on. I went to high school and then to college. He did the same. I never knew. I never knew what became of him ever. Like it's just all those years passed. And everybody goes on with their life.

And, you know, every once in a while I'd wonder, like, I wonder whatever happened to him. You know, our mom spoke to each other after 9-11. And the reason they spoke was because Billy was in it. And I was like, wait, what? Now, keep in mind, we have not spoken. We're both just out of college, okay? And Billy was a first responder. Like, I'm talking front page of New York Times.

Like it's almost a famous photo when you see him. And I said, I said, did he die? And she's like, no, he's, he's okay. You know, he's a firefighter in, in New York. He's a firefighter in New York, and he responds to me. And so anyways, I'm like, oh, my God. So then years past, I hear that, you know, obviously I know at that point he's a firefighter. I know that he was like this hero at 9-11 and whatever else.

and then about four or five years ago, out of nowhere, I get a text message from Billy Hurrell. And he starts, he just fires up a conversation, hey, I got your number from our moms, whatever he tells me, you know, I'm married, I've got these kids, I'm still a firefighter in New York City and whatever else. And we start talking, it was the craziest thing, Kevin. it's like I had not talked to him in probably 30 years since you were eight it was like well 12 probably no time had passed it was like we just picked up like he was went he went to the

white house last year was honored you know what I mean like um he went last year it was honored for this uh 9-11 thing that was going on and he's still to this day as a firefighter in New York I mean we have and I was going to go up to New York and then I was going to go up to New York and then I was going to go, you know, meet up with them. But of course, all this coronavirus stuff. So hopefully, you know, I get to go up and see him before this all ends. But my friend who was a little, you know, we were little kids together, he ends up becoming this massive, you know, truly a national hero in 9-11. And I had no idea. I didn't even know what had become of him. Nothing. It was the craziest thing ever. Truly the craziest. But shout out to Billy Orell and

everybody else that were such unbelievable heroes on that day because that was certainly a day none of us will ever, ever, ever forget. And hopefully everybody could take a step back this weekend. And remember what we, I think most importantly, remember what we all felt like at that time that we're all together. We're on the same team here. And somewhere along the way, that team got broken up. It got dysfunctional. But, And it was sad that it took a tragedy to do that. But yeah, take time out and thank those that are first responders and people in health care and public service, et cetera. And also just take a second to remember what that was like and where you just felt like you valued every day and you certainly valued your fellow man, you know.

Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, in many ways we've been divided further. but I do think like on an individual basis, a lot of people have developed that perspective of like not taking the day for granted for, you know, enjoying the time with your loved ones while you have it throughout this pandemic. And I hope the good outweighs the bad in that sense

in terms of people having that perception and that perspective for life now. But I mean, we'll see how things. This has gotten way too serious. Sasha, get us back on track. What do we got? To steal from your friend Rusillo, what is the best piece of life advice you've ever received from Matthew? Oh, boy.

I'd say it's very basic. I remember being in elementary school. I think it was the principal, Mr. Martin, or maybe it was the assistant principal. He always used to say, treat others the way you want to be treated, which is like, at the time, I didn't know. It was like so popular gold rule piece of advice. But, I mean, it's so simple. It's called the golden rule for a reason. And it just made sense to me.

And I understand like there are exceptions. There's cultural differences in terms of how people are treated and there are philosophical differences. But generally I find that to be a generally good guide for life. And that's stuck with me since I was a little kid. And I, you know, I always try. I'm not perfect, but I always try to operate that way, no matter what the situation is. I would say that.

But secondly, like over the course of time, I've developed the perspective of worrying about the things that are in your control and not about the things. that are out of your control. And that has played a significant difference in my happiness on a day-to-day basis, whether it is something as significant about the some of the stuff we talked about with like family health problems, Chris, about trying to make the most of things, or whether it is like sitting at a stop sign and you're trying to take a left and cars just keep on coming.

Like you can allow yourself to get pissed off and annoyed and frustrated or you can just sit there and like wait for the moment to go and make the most of the moment until it's there. So it's worrying about the thing. It's a coach's cliche, really. Control the controllables, you know. Control what you can control. But damn, I'll tell you what, it makes your life better if you practice those habits over the course of time.

This is not, I don't know if I necessarily have a best piece of life advice that someone has given me. But I will tell you that for whatever reason, maybe it was just the day it happened, maybe it was where I was in my life. I don't know, but I remember when I was younger, much, much younger. I was at a, I was at like a chapel, like a church service. And there's this old Southern preacher, and he got up there, and I just expected to just like kind of tune out, just be like, all right, you know. This guy's old. and he does this whole sermon.

And I can't remember all of it, but I do remember one of the things he said, and I swear to God, I think about it all the time, all the time. We had recently, where I was at the time in West Tennessee, there's all kinds of tornadoes. There's tornadoes all the time that come through. Like people at their houses, they have tornado sellers. My parents both grew up in houses with tornado sellers. So you would have to go underground.

And it will, like, you would, if one came through, you would see a car like that might be from a house seven miles away sitting in the middle like a, you know, like in front of a business somewhere sideways or something. I mean, like, they would rip things to shred. And it wasn't uncommon. Like, I remember it being scary a couple different times when I, when I was there. And anyways, one had just taken place, and it wiped out so much of this stuff that was in a place called Jackson, Tennessee. And it was not long after this guy got up and he did this sermon. And I remember him, like I can remember it like it was yesterday. He stood up and he said, what do you have that a West Tennessee tornado?

cannot take away from you. And I think about that, I don't know why that was so profound to me, but the whole idea was, you know, I would always think about, like, whether it was like things that I collected

or it was things that I wanted, or I wanted Jordans, or I wanted this, or I wanted that. And his whole, the whole thing was about how these people's houses just got wiped out.

And it could happen to you tomorrow. What do you have? What do you value that that tornado cannot rip away from you? And for whatever reason, that was so friggin' profound to me and it made me think so much. And I think about that all the time. I really do. Like, all this stuff I get caught up in, all the stuff that I think about, all the stuff I feel like I want. like let's just say a tornado wipes it all out tomorrow then what do i have like what am i putting value in you know and i don't remember the rest of the sermon i don't remember the bible verses he attached to it and everything else but i remember that line i remember that line and i think about it still to this day and so maybe i don't know if that's necessarily life advice but maybe just

perspective just this whole idea because it was it was very real to me there were a lot of people that lost their houses. You know what I mean? There's a lot of people that lost their stuff as it were. It's like, then what do you have? And even as I've gotten older, I think about that a lot. I do.

That's powerful. Yeah, I mean, it's simple, but sometimes that simple can be the best life advice that you get. And sometimes the best life advice can be unintentional. Well, I remember when he said it, me being like, oh, my. Like it hits you right. away. Yeah, like, what do I have? What do I have? The stuff I care about is all stuff I own. Stuff I have. You know what I mean? What else I got? And damn, man, I still think about it to this

day. I really do. He got me on that one. Yeah. Yeah. You saw the Steve from Blues Clues thing on Twitter the other day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look how far we've come. I don't know what year that servant was, but it's like now you get a family. You know, you have love. Yeah, I know. It's a lot different. I can't take that away. I was so selfish.

I was so selfish. When I was, you know, when I was growing up, I really was. I mean, I was my stuff, your stuff. You know what I mean? And my best friend who passed away when we were young. But my best friend, he changed me because of that. It was my freshman year. My car went dead.

he threw me the keys to his car. He's like, just drive mine. And I was like, what? He's like, just drive mine. And I was like, well, what about the insurance? What about the, he's like, just drive my car. I was like, you don't need it? He's like, just take the car.

You need my car. Take the car. And I remember thinking, like, in a million years, I would have never done that. Ever, ever. But it changed me profoundly. That did too. It changed me profoundly because I was, I was a my stuff, your stuff kind of guy.

And maybe that's why that quote hit me so hard because I cared about my stuff, you know, and what I had. This is supposed to get lighter. It's got heavier. Sasha, like, it had something that we can't spin into something depressing. I just have a final comment from someone from Camilo in Columbia. He just says to. Please tell Chris that me gusto su prognama. Oh, I like the program.

Me gusta's a program. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You retain some, Chris. Yeah. No, I mean, look, that's part of the reason that Signor Deluca. I hate to be so much. I always said, I always said, me gusta el balancesto, right?

I like basketball. And I still, and the other one was, I remember, For whatever reason, this is jogging my memory. I used to say, me gusto la Bibliotheca, right? Which was, I like the library. I just know Biblioteca sounded funny. It's good word.

I would always call the library the bibliotheca. All right. Is that doing for this week? That's it. We made it through. All right. So as we said, said, we are off next week.

So expect Banking Timmins to get traded next week. If he does get traded, maybe we'll do an emergency show. Maybe, maybe. Maybe. We'll see. Depends on who he gets traded to. Yeah. We'll see what happens. Yeah.

But thanks as always for listening to another episode of The Miss Fetch. Thank you to our executive producer, Sasha Eschow. And we will talk to you a week from Tuesday. And enjoy September. Joy, Football. And listen to Chris on the ringer gambling show next. Monday. See y'all.