The Mismatch - Rest in Peace, Jonathan Tjarks

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

Before starting today’s show, Verno and KOC share memories of our friend and colleague Jonathan Tjarks, who passed away over the weekend due to cancer (01:30). Then Kevin and Chris answer your mailbag questions. Topics include the Magic’s future, which player on the Grizzlies will make the biggest jump, and tips to staying young (16:33). You can donate to the Tjarks family here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Lets-help-our-friend-jonathan-tjarks?utm_campaign=p_nacp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer Read Jonathan’s piece mentioned in the episode here: https://www.theringer.com/2022/3/3/22956353/fatherhood-cancer-jonathan-tjarks Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone. This is Chris Ryan from The Ringer. As many of you have heard by now, we lost a treasured colleague and friend over the weekend. Jonathan Charks passed away on Saturday. John was 34. He leaves behind a wife and a son, and we are obviously mourning his loss and sending all of our love to his family right now. If you go to the Ringer.com slash Jonathan Charks, that's J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N-T-J-A-R-K-S. You will find a memorial page for John, which has links to his GoFundMe that benefits his family. family, and the amazing writing he did throughout his experience. I encourage you to go there, and if you can, please support the Charks family. Briefly, I will just say that John was among the first people that we hired to work for The Ringer, so he was instrumental in defining the voice and perspective of the site. He has as much to do with what this place is as anyone else. And throughout his experience with Cancer, John communicated eloquently about the challenges he was

facing, both through his writing and his podcasting. You could never stop John from talking about his passions. It's one of the things I loved about him. Over the last few months, you know, whenever we would talk, whenever I would reach out to see how he was doing, I would try to keep it very John focused, and the next thing I knew we would be talking about James Hardin or Better Call Saul. He really loved this stuff. He loved talking about it, celebrating it, debating it, illuminating it. We're going to keep putting out our pods and writing while we grieve, but we wanted to let folks know that John was in our hearts and that his family was in our thoughts. Thanks for listening. Before we get into the podcast today, Kevin and I wanted to say a few words about

our friend Jonathan Charks. As many of you may know, we lost Jonathan over the weekend to his battle with cancer, and Charks was an extremely valued member of the ringer. But more importantly than that, he was a very valued member of both of our lives, a dear friend to both of us. And Kevin, I know that we spoke about what Charks was going through. And I was so happy that I got to be with him at Summer League just about six, eight weeks ago, and get to see him. And I talked to him there. And he had really struggled. You know, he knew his, he knew that it was not a good diagnosis when he first got it.

But I was so appreciative of, to the very end, he was so open and honest about everything that he was feeling. And beyond that, so caring about his family and wanting to make sure that his wife and his son would be taken care of by others going forward. And so we'll tell you in a minute about anything that you can do for the Charks family. The ringer has put up the websites that GoFundMe, et cetera, for Charks. But really, really, really hard news over the weekend for sure, Kov. Absolutely, Chris. I mean, Charks was diagnosed April 2021 and went through various rounds of chemotherapy treatment and among other types of treatment.

And, you know, every step of the way, you know, Charks kept the positive mindset and tried to do everything he could to get better. And I mean, I think right now, like Melissa, his wife, everything she's posted on Caring Bridge, where you can find the GoFundMe link and all that as well, that she's shown so much strength as well through all of this process and detailing what he's gone through after he passed away, posting the emotional note that she did. I mean, I just, you know, I send so much love to the Charks family and everybody that has known him, throughout his entire life.

John was such a great guy, Chris, you know? Such a great guy. Yeah, we know him as someone who loves basketball, but he was also just such a genuine human being who cared about others and cared about, you know, getting to know people for who they are and what made them who they are. And, you know, Jay Kyle, man, and Chris Ryan

and Bill Simmons and I just recorded a pod that'll air on the Bill Simmons podcast about Charks as well. And, you know, I mean, all of us just had that similar takeaway. And you know that, too, Chris. You know, he just a good, human being that cared about people. One of the first people I met when I signed up with the ringer. And, you know, there's sometimes where your coworkers and sometimes your coworkers

truly become your friends. And we've talked very openly about our friendship on the podcast. And Tarks and I truly became friends. He came up to Memphis quite a bit because he's in Dallas, right? And so it's one of the closest cities. and so when it would become playoff time or throughout he would be able to come up. You remember, you know, I can't ever think he was so in on Sharon Jackson, Jr. He remember he had him number one on his board that year.

And he would text me all throughout the season about Jared and he would come up a bunch. And the craziest thing, I was just thinking about all these memories. He'd come to Memphis. He did shows with me. I posted a YouTube the other day on my Twitter feed. I know it was on a Sunday and football was going on. But you could go back on my Twitter feed and you can find it. Charks came into the studio with me on my local show.

And we just talked, I mean, for a long time about his whole life and career and kind of how he got into it. And Zach Lowe's portion in that. And I'll never forget, he came in, he told it, I posted after he had come in, I posted as like, Charks, his whole story, how he got into writing his career, everything like that. And immediately I got a text from Zach. And he said, did he mention me? And I said, of course he mentioned you. Because Zach, when that all happened and the Grant Lent stuff happened,

and Zach was staying at ESPN and Bill was going to put together a roster at the ringer, Zach is the one that told Bill go get Jonathan Chark. because Charks had sent to Zach and other basketball writers throughout. He was writing and he was just sending them articles over and over and over again. Like anything he wrote, he would send it to guys like Zach Lowe. And a lot of times would get no response. And he was like, I didn't care. I just wanted to write about basketball.

And it ended up working and he got the break. And so I thought about that. And then in addition to that, you know, when Memphis hired Taylor Jenkins, they had gone a long time without a head coach. They'd like gone the whole summer. And then they hired Taylor Jenkins. And everybody in the NBA world was like, who?

Who? Which, by the way, happy birthday to Taylor Jenkins, who turned 38, 38 today. As soon as the news broke, my phone rings. It's charts. Dude, what? No way. And I'm like, what?

And he goes, I went to high school with Taylor Jenkins. And I said, you what? He said, I went to high school with Taylor Jenkins. He said, I'm driving up there. I'm doing a story. And he goes, I did. He goes, I went to high school with the guy. And I was, and I could not believe it.

And like, he just always had all these connections to where he was up here a bunch, man. And we really became friends. I told a funny story today to my buddies. The last time I saw, I was at Summer League, and we might have watched the worst basketball game in the history of basketball together, but I was in the big gym with Riscilla and some other guys, and I walk over to the little gym at the campus of UNLV,

and I'm over there at Charles text me, and he says, hey, I'm going to come over and watch a grizzly game, where are you? I said, hey, I'm at the little gym. So he comes over there and he had just gone through like pneumonia and he had really he had been in a bad, bad way. Like he thought, oh my God, I might lose my life.

Jay Kalaman and I mentioned on the Bill Simmons podcast how we weren't sure charts was even going to make it. He was planning for like the whole year to come to Summer League. And then we weren't sure he's going to be able to make it, but he did. He showed up. All right. So this is this will give you a little bit of humor. So he shows up at the game. And so he texts me.

He's like, hey, I'm in the arena. Where are you? Kevin, I swear to you. I'm not even thinking. I am sitting on the very top row in the arena. And I text him. And I'm like, bro, my bad, I was like, I'll come down. I'll meet you down there.

He goes, no, no, no, no. And I was like, oh, God. I mean, he is going through all kinds of therapy. He's going through all kinds of treatments, everything. I'm like, he ain't, you know, he's not getting around, you know, like he normally would. And he's been through a lot. I'm thinking, I'm going to make this bastard climb 40, all these stairs. And so he gets up to the top of the stairs.

And I'm like, bro, I am so sorry. I am so sorry, charts. and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And he's like, you know about the pneumonia and everything, right? And I was like, yes. And he's like, I was walking around like I was 100 years old. A hundred, Chris, I'm telling you. He's like, I just, it was the, I, like, my wife was treating me like I was a senior

citizen. He's like, so now that I'm able to do this, he's like, I 100% wanted to walk to the top of these stairs just. to prove I could walk to the top of these stairs and get to get up here. And he's like, you never understand. It's the little things in life that you start to enjoy. When you've gotten your help taken away from you, he's like, there's nothing I love more than the fact that you were up here on this last row because I want to prove that I could walk all the way up the stairs. He's like, a month ago, I couldn't walk anywhere. And I just, I remember us like laughing about it

And he had been struggling. He was really, really going through it. And then it took a turn for the worst over the course of the past week. You've been through this with loved ones. Do you remember what day that was? That was, uh, it would have been on, I guess I was, it was during the week. I think we saw. Was it a Monday by any chance?

I think it. Maybe so, Grizzlies team wolves. I think so. The reason why I ask is because I last saw him in person on Monday the 11. I left that day and I took a cab to the arena because I wanted to go say hi to charts. I said, where are you right now? You're at the hotel. You're at the arena.

He's at the small gym. And I said, where are you? And he's like, I'm in the section behind the bench. And I went over to the bench. And I'm like looking close up, like near behind the bench. And he's like, look, he texts me while I'm sitting there looking around. And he's like, look up. And I look up.

He's like the second to last row all the way at the top. It's very possible. But, God. I think it was. I think it was. And if not, if it wasn't the same day, he went back up there again. Because that was his attitude. Oh, my God.

That's so good. I hung out with sharks a little while and we just watched basketball. I value that. I'm so glad that we got to be together. Legitimately great guy who also was very, how do I say this? He believed what he believed. And he absolutely had no shame in that. You know, whatever his opinions were and whatever his life story was, he was willing to tell that.

And so he talked about his whole life and his Christianity and about how that happened. And, you know, he told me that story. I mean, he was literally like in a club one night when he had this moment of I cannot live like this anymore. And I just thought so, I remember he wrote that article for the, for the ringer, which is long night of the soul and do you know my son? Let's just say that's not like the ringer has never been mistaken for some evangelical website, right? And so he wrote this article being uniquely himself. And I thought that was so brave that he didn't care what anybody thought. This is my story. And this is who I am.

And I love the guy, man. And it's so sad. And I hope everybody that can will help that family out because, you know, they've lost, Melissa's lost a husband, his son has lost a father, and it's going to be tough, for sure. But I hope that anybody that can help them out will help them out. You can find the article Chris is referencing on the ringer. We have a page with some of the Charks' work that he's done. The article is, Does My Son Know You?

That was published on March 3rd earlier this year. There's a GoFundMe as well that's linked on these pages. And right now it's at nearly a quarter million dollars to support Melissa and Jackson and the Charks family through everything in the process before he passed away and everything to come now. Yeah, I just think with Charks. It's amazing to see the amount of support and love. I mean, I've had people reach out to me, you know, saying, hey, like, I hope you're okay.

If everybody with the ringer family is okay. Because he has so much love across the NBA world, man. Whether there's people working for teams or other people in sports media, a lot of people love Jonathan Sharks. And rightfully, is a great, great person, a great friend. I laugh so hard. People, there are longtime listeners. I think one of the first things that they will ever remember, do you remember this?

You'd have to go back so far in the archives to when I first met Jonathan Charks and we did the show afterwards. That was the show. And I came back and I said to you, why did you not tell me that Jonathan Charks is a giant? You remember this? So tall. I was like, you're so tall. I was like, I had no idea. Charts was this tall.

It's like six, three, six four or something. And I'm like, I had no idea. I know this guy. You know, you decide what people are. You hear their voices. You see their headshot. And then I show up at the game to meet him. And I'm like, pro, why are you so tall?

That's the first thing I said to him when I met him. What was he six four? Something like that. I'm like, you should be playing in the game. Unbelievable. It's a giant. Yeah, man. I love sharks.

We love sharks and all of our thoughts and prayers of his family and all of his friends that are out there not only work related, but anybody that might be listening to this, that Sharks had an impact on your life. And anybody that read him and listened to him on various podcasts throughout the years. We're certainly, we're going to miss you, charts, for sure, and we'll try to do our best. He was always so supportive and loving towards us, and we will do our best to honor his memory as the years go on. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A. Kevin O. Bomber, Kevin O. Conflict, Kevin O. Klamer, Kevin O. O. Climer. Kevin O. O. Kavana. Kevin O. O. O.

How are you doing? Still got a few weeks until training camp, a few weeks until the NBA preseason is going to begin. For the last few weeks, we have been asking our listeners to fill up a mailbag so that we would be answering their queries going into the 2020-23 NBA season. We have gotten all kinds of great response from our listeners. And so today, we will answer.

answer said questions. What do we got, Kev? Let's start off with this question from Jack. What rookies drafted outside of the lottery can make a big impact this season? Oh, boy. Okay. Well, this usually is a question that is just going to be answered by who did we really like in the NBA draft. and that got drafted later than we thought they should. But that's not necessarily the easiest way to answer this because so much of it's going to be about, well, will these guys even play or not? Of the ones that I think probably will play

and could impact teams, some of them are for sure going to be on not great teams. Mark Williams for the Hornets will play probably put up numbers and could be impactful especially now that they lost Harold last week yeah I mean look

Tari Isid's got to play a lot and they're going to lose a thousand games but Tari Isan's going to play a lot of guys that could be on good teams that could help Bochamp Bochamp I think you're looking at those guys that are like the shooter guys, Christian Braun or Jake La Ravia,

like those kind of guys that are just, they're going to play a role and they're going to shoot for good teams and they'll probably get some minutes. So La Ravio will get some minutes for the Grizzlies and Braun will get some minutes for the nuggets and both those teams are going to be good. And so people will know their names just because they're rookies on good teams. but the one I would bank on and this is a Homer pick of all Homer picks and you met him with me

I am all in on Roddy and I think Roddy's going to play and Roddy's going to play a lot and I think he's one of those ready-made players and he finally started being a little selfish rather and aggressive rather than just trying to fit in

and so Homer pick me if you want, but I am in love with Roddy. And I think Roddy's going to be a guy that can play immediately. He's got the NBA frame. Everybody loves him. And I do think that he'll be able to play for what is a good team. Of the other guys, Boat Champ's a good one that you mentioned. With Milwaukee, they needed another 3-&D wing.

He should help there. Yes. How about Caleb Houston, early second round pick to the magic? totally possible I mean he was a guy you liked him a lot in the draft right good player yeah good player

had a good summer shoots the ball well smart high IQ guy geez man because it's usually when you're talking about impactful how impactful is it if you put up numbers

on a team that loses every single night and once you get past the lottery a lot of those teams either took guys that I don't think are going to play much or they traded them. And so I just don't know how many minutes are going to be there for some of these different players.

Is Patrick Baldwin Jr. going to touch the court for the Warriors? Is Peyton Watson going to play for Denver? Is Nicola Jovich? going to play for the heat? I don't know. A lot of them aren't going to get minutes. But I think like some of the younger team guys, like Houston's a good one. And, you know, he can play in different roles on that team too. With another question here, Chris, magic related.

We got a lot of Franz Wagner questions because he's been crushing in Eurobasket. James asked, is Wagner a serious contender for a second year leap slash most improved player? AP Senior asks more pointedly, why is six-foot, 10 Franz Wagner criminally underrated. Great defender, shooter, pick and roll man, driver. Why doesn't he get more love? I think it's going to be very difficult for him to take a big leap when Bencaro's the guy.

What if Bancaro is the reason why he takes a big leap because the magic become a more watchable product? They have a go-to scoring presence, and Wagner can play the three next to Bencaro at the four with Carter or Bamba at the five, or he can play the four. he can handle the ball, he can play with Sugs and Fults, I mean, Vogner can be plug and play

in any single role in that roster. I think the presence of Banccaro can only elevate Franz Wagner. Not numbers-wise, though. Maybe status-wise. He might be a better player with not as much production where the leap isn't taken.

The leap might be taken, but it doesn't show up. I mean, I think Van Kero is going to be the guy scoring over. I think Bankero is going to average over 20 points a game as rookie season. So he's your rookie year of the year, then? Yes.

I think he's just ready to play right now, right now. And I do think there'll be a little overlap because Franz had the ball a ton for them last year. I'm a Franz fan. He's good. Underrated, probably. But I just think that Bancaro is the guy. And I think that it's going to kind of swallow up everything in terms of, I don't know, maybe they all end up being elevated by Bancaro, like you say.

But I think there's going to be a lot of attention on how awesome Bankero is immediately. And so I think on a game in, game out basis, there's a lot of games where Franz Wagner was like, you know, a leading score for that team. Could have more of them. Maybe Bencaro has some 8 to 10 assist games, and Bogdor's the guy getting 25. Maybe. Maybe. I think it's more likely that Bencaro is the guy.

So I would just say, I'm a Franz fan. I think he can take a step up, but it might not show in the production. Therefore, he won't get credit for being a better player because the numbers went down because they won more games. And why is he criminally underrated? because he plays for the Orlando Magic. Yeah.

Nobody was really watching them last year. Nobody was watching them. That's one of the big reasons why. You know, that's simply why, unfortunately. Yeah, that's true. And I think people, you know, there's not a lot of all-stars that look like Franz Wagner.

That's just the truth. White? Well, there's certainly not a lot of those. Is that what you mean? Or like game style-wise? I mean, game style-wise and white. Look, I had more Chicago fans scream at me about Lori Marketing, his rookie year when he played for a rat team and put up a bunch of points. He just got thrown in a trade, and we didn't even talk about him.

Like it wasn't even relevant. But his rookie year? Oh, my God, every night, I said, I ain't all in on Lori Marketing. every night that he did something on that rat-ass Bulls team. They're, oh, marketing, oh, marketing, oh, marketing. And they just kind of paid it off. I mean, he had a couple moments for Cleveland last year, at least. One thing with Marketing is I remember I gave the Bulls an F plus on draft night.

Drafting him, and Bulls fans never let that go until they realize he's just not that good. Franz is better than marketing. Let me just like that. Oh, way better. Let's have another magic question. This is a good one from Sean, an Irish guy living in Cayman. He said, this is a quote, I have been a huge Orlando Magic fan since 2015

when I visited the United States for the first time and saw Elford Payton as a rookie tear Dame in the Trailblazers to shreds. So I assumed Peyton and the magic were great, how little I knew. Anyway, my question is, do you think it's possible for the magic to win a championship in the next 10, 20, or 100 years? in other words chris are the magic built to compete

for a title with this core Wagner van caro van carter sugs, Fultz Isaac are they built to win a title

here's the answer I've absolutely no idea they haven't won anything do I think they can be a good team this year I think it's possible but I got to see at first.

They haven't done anything. They haven't done anything. How can I know if they can compete for a title if I hadn't seen them do anything? It's not like they took a trajectory like some of other young teams that have taken leaps as time has gone on. And so step number one is becoming over 500. How about can we do that first before we start talking about can you be a championship? I have no idea what their core is. Well, what if we're projecting five years from now?

Five years from now, Bancaro, you just said he'll score over 20 as a rookie. If he becomes a superstar, Wagner keeps ascending. Look, Wagner is really effing good, dude. Like, he's a good defensive player. He can handle the ball. We've seen it in a Eurobasket. He can create from a perimeter. He did it all years of a rookie.

He could only continue getting better and better. And he does look better during Eurobaskins. It's not just because of the level of competition. His handle legit looks tighter. His creation looks better. Fultz has gotten better each year since he left Philly with the weird shoulder thing. Suggs, hopefully he has a better second year than he did a first year when he was riddled with injuries. The magic are at least built to be a good team, maybe a great team.

Like they have the pieces. It just comes down to Bancaro and Vogner more than anything else in my opinion. Well, I'm a huge sucks too, but especially I'm a huge Sugs and Bancaro. Very good, yeah, dude. If they turn out to be what I think they're going to. be, then, you know, we could look up and they've got, you know, the tundoms like we like a lot of the, you know, they got a guy on the perimeter and a guy that grabs rebounds and gets buckets in Bencaro. And so if Bencaro becomes one of the best players in the league, yes, that's, but that, I got to see it first. Look, to win a title, you got to have one of the best five to ten guys in the league.

is Paolo Banerro going to be one of the best five to ten players in the NBA? Can we at least admit that Franz Wagner's not going to be one of the best five to ten players in the league? Can we do that? Is that too far? Yeah. Because I hate to be on the other side of this, but come on. Fair, yeah. Five to ten, yes.

Do you think it's out? He has a chance to be one of the best 20. Is it outlanded? Franz Wagner is never going to be one of the best 20 players in the league. We'll see. grief is well who's the 20th who's the 20th best player right now

I'd have to I'd have to go one by one Jaila Brown like like how about that cat maybe bam gobert Drew Holiday Mitchell Ingram something like that

yeah how about best 30 put it this way he's a championship piece Wagner can be he's a good player he's never going to be one of the best five to ten players in the league, and that's what you have to have to win a championship.

So is Bancaro capable of being that? If so, then yes, I can see it with this core. But I don't know. I don't know. Do you think we could look up in Van Carro is one of the best five guys in the league? Five to ten, yeah, five to ten. History tells us you've got to have one of those. Yeah.

Like there's the off-year, Pistons team. Generally, you've got... Yeah, you've got one of the five to five to ten best guys in the whole league. And if Becaro can be that, and so it's too early for me to know. I don't know.

Jan from Poland, who in the Grizzlies is going to take the biggest leap this upcoming season? Well, I don't know if it'll be biggest leap, but I do think it's Bain. Bain. Yeah. Bain.

He was just named him. Actually, in the Washington Post last week is one of the five players that'll move into all-star status. And without being incredibly irresponsible, I must tell you that my buddies over at Fast Break Breakfast had a graphic that they put up a few weeks ago that I remember. And what they did is they compared the 23-year-old seasons of different guys. and Desmond Bain was either comparable or ahead of Clay Thompson, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Michael Red, and Joe Dumars. When you compare his 23-year-old season,

you don't talk about underrated, when you compare his 23-year-old season to those guys, again, it's not saying he's going to be those guys. When you compare his age 23 season, he is either winning categories or is right there next to these guys. Those were comps. And so does he take another step? I think it's totally fair.

Look, he's, he has been in Memphis all summer, and he is never not in a gym, ever. ever. I've never seen a gym rat like this guy. I have. Of a player

and I've been covering for 21, 21 years. Damn, you're old. I don't think I've ever seen a player that was that. I've seen other guys come in like Kobe, buddy heels up there

in terms of a guy that was a gym rat. other guys that I've seen. But, I mean, it's every single day dedication to. And so I'd bank on him. How about Zaire Williams? There was a story earlier this month about working hard, wanting a bottle like Paul George, working out with him.

Yes. And sweetest kid in the world, too. Yes, Zaire Williams could absolutely take a leap for sure. You know, people talking about Memphis, like they'll take a step back, but they could take a big step forward still with all this use. So I had to do a thing about a week ago, this video thing I did. And I went through and looked, so, you know, in terms of net rating for players, what actually happened when they're on the court, not our opinions, what happened when they're on the court.

But the net rating of their players, now keep in mind, in the playoffs, even when they played against the Warriors, they didn't have their starting lineup for one minute. Not one minute did they have their starting lineup. Their starting lineup of, in last year, they won 56 games. John Morant, Desmond Bain, Dylan Brooks, Sharon Jackson, Jr., Stephen Adams. That starting lineup played 100 minutes last year. Total.

Total. The whole year, they played 100 minutes, and they won 56 games. All right? In terms of net rating for players of their top nine, they lost one. De Anthony Melton, he was seven. The other eight are all returning to the team. All eight.

There is no other Western Conference team that brings eight of their top nine net rating guys back. Not one. And obviously Morant's turned into a superstar. But if continuity, if that is a thing you bet on, you know, I think taking a step back because it sounds like Jared Jackson Jr. will not be out as long

as maybe the first news indicated. When could he be back? I think, I don't, I think that most people thought Christmas and I don't think it'll be anywhere close to Christmas. Is this new news? Is this out there? I don't think it's new news. I mean, I just think that,

I think they're mega, mega careful with injuries. Sources say. No, no, there's no source. I just think they're mega careful. And so you always say long term in case there's a setback. You know, like the Wiseman thing just happened. In fact, what happened with Jaron Jackson the last time? Last time I thought Jaron Jackson was going to be back in January of that season.

He didn't come back until 10 games before the playoffs. So I don't think that this was. a big deal is what I'm saying. Everybody I talked to told me it was not that big of a deal. Including his father, who was an assistant coach for the Nick's

Summer League team and G League team. I saw him in Vegas. I don't mind saying that. He's like, it's not pretty good sourcing. Not that pretty good. You know what I mean? I think he's going to be just fine. But anyways, they bring back a lot of guys, man.

They bring back a lot of guys, and they won a lot of games and I thought their whole season was over when John Morant got hurt last year and they lost, I think, two games without them or something like that. You know? Next question from one of your rivals, Sam from Light Years podcast.

Oh, no. He sent this question last week after the Jerry Seinfeld photo shoot was released. Did you see those Seinfeld photos of him dressed up in cool clothes? I did. Sam asked, so this is a about Jerry Seinfeld's wearing sneakers,

light blue jeans, a flower jacket against a gold color scheme, black hat. He said, who's more likely to pull a Jerry and not dress their age in 20 years? Kevin or Chris? Me or you? This is complicated because we're, we already have an age difference here.

So you in 20 years is when you're in your 80s. That is not even close. It's me. It's you. You're more likely to pull a Jerry? My father. is 75 and he's like you still dress like you're a teenager

and I do in some ways I'm no I am never I'll never dress my age you're always gonna dress cool till the day I die I don't know if it's cool but I'm not gonna dress my age so you like do you like fashion

yes you do you fall I don't I don't have a bunch do you like look at pictures of Harry styles and say I'm gonna I'm gonna try to adapt that in my own way Not do I look at pictures of hair and stuff. I mean, like, how do you, where do you draw your inspiration? I mean, I guess I shop on the internet and I see what I like. I don't know.

I look at the internet and I was like, hey, that's a cool shirt and I buy it. What's, what's the coolest outfit you have? Do you have like a bright pink or? The coolest outfit? A Tiffany blue outfit. Like, what are you rocking, Chris? What's this cool stuff? I've never seen you dress cool.

I don't know what you're even talking about, to be honest. honest with you. You got a fur coat? You got a fur coat? Yeah. Is that what you want? No, it's not real. It's not real.

I mean, it's, I'm not judging. Yeah. Fur coat, I guess. Um, what else? What else? Oh, wow. I don't know.

Everything I have is cool. Everything I have is cool. I got swag. What do you want from me? I got a pair of all blue sneakers. I don't even know if they're Nike Adidas. I don't know. Some shoe company sent them a couple years ago.

I've never worn them. I've always got good shoes. Always. I think, I think, I wish I were more of a sneaker head. I like nice shoes, but I've never. I've always got good shoes. That was a lesson from father. Was a businessman.

Believe that people always look at your shoes. Really? Is that true? I've never looked at people's shoes. Always got good shoes. I could not care less. at all what people wear on their feet. But I wear...

Or at all, really, that's for that matter. I'm not judging. I wear a lot of comfortable clothes. I don't know. I don't... I don't spend a fortune on clothes. You ever wear a linen? You ever wear linen?

I went to a white linen party in Miami earlier this year during the playoffs. It was... Where? What? Oh, that's right. You're... For the all-end podcast. Yeah, your scarface.

Yeah, they had a white linen outfit on. It is probably the most comfortable clothes I've ever worn in my life. And I think I could wear them every day. Yeah, I would say probably I, yeah, I, I, I will never dress my age. I think that's fair to see. Okay, I would choose you as well.

But I'm never, but I'm also never going to grow up. Yeah, me neither. I don't think I ever will either. Like personality-wise. No, yeah, personally. Were you ever at one point in your life worried? Like, oh, get old and become a crumbent. Like every day?

Really? You still do? You still worry about that? So you do things to keep yourself young and plugged in and fresh. Correct. As someone who is 32 and you're older than me, not much older, but you are older, what do you do? A lot older than you.

What do you talk about? What do you do to assure that you continue to stay young so you don't grow stale and old and curmudgeoning? What do you do? I try to take care of myself by exercising. So physical, physical. I keep in touch with friends. You know what I mean?

Laugh. Like usually, virtually every single day, I laugh. I'm surrounded by... I have no problems laughing. With my local show, you know, my producer, who I've had for 16 years, is probably eight years younger than me. Devin, who works with us, is in his 12. 20s, so we kind of span three generations there.

And I've got a 12-year-old, so that makes it pretty easy. Have children. Yeah. And then, you know, I try to keep up on social media. I try to keep up on music every Friday. I go through all the new releases, pretty much in all the genres. Like top 40s. Yeah, no, not just top 40, just everything.

I just scroll through everything. And I, you know, so I do that while I'm walking my dog. So I pretty well can, I pretty well know what's going on trend-wise on that stuff. That's good you do that. And if I don't, you know, my kids fill me in. Like they're at the age where, you know, they know the cool stuff before I do. In many cases, they know the cool stuff before I do or what's big before I do. And so I think, you know, I probably got a little bit of a blind spot.

Maybe with like the 20-somethings, but you'd have to be a young 20-something. I mean, I think I've pretty well got a car. So, I mean, in terms of keeping up. TV is your weak spot. TV. You don't watch a lot of TV. I don't, no.

But nobody does anymore. I know. There's just so much content. That's actually served me well. Yeah. No, you are at trendsetter, Chris. Yeah. Nobody really does.

Just following your lead. Yeah. Yeah, that's the, that's, that's the pop culture that I don't know much about is television and film. It's not that I dislike it by any means, but I don't know that much about it. It's a time thing.

You can only have so much time in your life and get your kids, your career, everything else. Yeah. I have no memories of not caring. I don't. Me neither. Any memories of not caring about sports. Not one, really.

Yeah. I was six years old or almost six years old when the Patriots went to the Super Bowl to face the Packers. And I remember making like a banner to hang in our room where we watch TV. Well, you know,

it's always been a part of my life. And it's what I want to do and it's what I want to watch. I don't do it because it's my job. I do it because it's what I've done my whole life. It's what I care about. I like it.

And so, you know, the sports thing, that fits every generation. And so, yeah, I mean, there's certainly times where I feel really old, but in terms of not knowing lingo, you know, not knowing that kind of stuff, I mean, I've surrounded, I got a lot of people that surround me that I think I can keep up pretty well. But that's intentional, for sure. I am not like my father was. My father was the old guy when I was a kid.

He didn't know what I mean. He didn't. He wouldn't have never known my music, my slang. None of that stuff. None of it. Never. He thought my music was crap.

In retrospect, he was right. He was. You hate to say that. Were you like it? Like limpid skit? Where were you looking? Yeah.

Like if you turned it off. on in the car, whatever. Like, some of the stuff's embarrassing now. You know? Who's your favorite? If I played, like, I don't know, if I played, like, 3-Eleven for my dad, he would, like, this is awful.

And I, look, I don't, I don't hate 3-Eleven. I still, I still, you know, if it comes on, it's nostalgia to me. Remember that Boys of Summer cover that came out in the early 2000s? My dad was like, this is nothing to compare to the Don Henley version. Yeah. Nothing.

Yeah, and like, my dad's, like, talking about it. He's comparing to, it to like the Beatles and stuff. And it's like, now that I'm older and I like go listen to the Beatles that I listen at 311, it's like, all right. Yeah. All right, you win.

Very fair. Maybe my music was correct. Yeah. Compared to yours. And so, I don't know. But yeah, I think I think I do my best. I do my best.

And the laughing thing and staying positive and that kind of stuff is I think keeps you. young. It's a lot of mindset. I think it keeps you young. I do. Building good habits and you seem to have good healthy habits. I mean, it keeps you young.

It does. I believe that. Wholeheartedly. You can be who you want to be a lot of the time in life. Yes. And you're shaping your reality. That's good, Chris. Tempt to. You know, my mom is 74 and nobody laughs

more than my mom. And I never have seen my mom. My mom doesn't wake up in a bad move. My mom, you go around her, she's not in a bad mood. Ever. She's just not. She's just not in a bad mood. And so, it's very difficult as a kid, you know.

I was very, very lucky. You know, if you're surrounded by that, and I still do this day, my parents live right down the street from me now. After they retired, I moved them close to me. And now your kids get that from you. And they get it from her. All the time. Yeah.

All the time. That's just the example set. When you're constantly around somebody with that much energy that's that happy, it's just impossible. You're either going to get with it or you're going to, because she's the type they'll be like, what's wrong with you? So you're going to be bullied into being happy, one way or another. So, I don't know. I guess that made it easy to not grow up or to also. attempt to

think happiness makes you younger. I believe that. Let's move on to a basketball question from a guy with a name that sounds like an actor, Dylan Daniel Hoffman. He said, Blazers. Dames back with Nurkich and Simons to go along with the recent editions

of Jeremy Grant, Josh Hart, Justice Winslow, Gary Payton, and draftick Shaden Sharp. How do you see the Blazers doing this year? What's their ceiling? What's their ceiling? What's floor. Okay, leave Winslow out of there. Okay. Hey man, Justice Winslow. No. I'm not selling all my stock because I'm in the red so hard already.

No. I'm already in the red. Why am I going to sell? You should have come to Memphis. I know, but I was already in the red when he was in Memphis. I kept it through Miami. There were four loss. I should have sold like in 2019. That's what I should have done. There were four lawsuits that the Grizzlies had to schedule out of court for him hitting people in the head with airballs. That's some of his can't throw it in the ocean. It's unbelievable. Let's leave Winslow. Minus Winslow.

All right. Sealing for the Blazers, can they make the playoffs? Here we go. Will they be better than? Golden State, no. Clippers, no, Lakers, no. Phoenix, no. Dallas.

no Memphis no New Orleans no Denver no Minnesota no that's what I'd say this is me just off the cup okay so they're in a class

in my opinion with Sacramento ooh no don't say that ooh I think Sacramento

is not going to be crap yeah but but if you're the Blazers and you're keeping dame you want to be in the playoffs, man. They have zero chance of being top six. I agree. Okay.

Playing. So they're in the playing bubble. And probably playing on the road. And with Damien Lillard, you've got a real puncher's chance no matter what game. In a one off game, I'd want him on my team. I think they'll be in the playing. In other words, you're saying their ceiling is they win the plan, whether there's a seven or the 10 seed. They win the plan.

they get into the playoffs and they lose in the first round. That's the Blazers ceiling for the 22. No, I think they're fighting Sacramento for like nine or ten. Okay. So that's the ceiling. What's the floor for this team then to answer Daniel's question? Is it like third worst in the West like they were last year? No, they're not worse.

I mean, being worse in Sacramento is as far as they would go. Because they're not going to be worse than San Antonio or Oklahoma City or Utah. Or Houston? or Houston. Maybe. No way. What if Jalen Green gets better and he's averaging 25? No.

Why not? That's disrespectful. That's disrespectful to Damien Lerl. Come on. What if Dame isn't the same guy? What if after his abdomen injury, he doesn't come back and he's not the same old Damian Luller? What if he's closer to the guy we saw last year when he wasn't anywhere as close?

Well, Jaylen's bring. Hasn't contributed to winning one time. I know, but like that has to be factored in. like they're looking back, what about looking forward? What if he was... Hey, you know what? Give me a Houston starting lineup.

Please. I'm begging you. Please. All right. Please. Let's pull out Houston starting line up. I'm begging you. Bobon.

I'm just kidding. Boban's not starting. Alper and Shengoon. Jabari Smith. Jalen Green. Eric Gordon. And then maybe it's Aeson or Tate or poor.

number of different guys you could throw in there. What if Shangoon takes a leap? What if green is average 26 points per game? You just added up about four years of NBA experience between all those guys.

Come on. This is one of the best players in the league, Kevin. I know, I understand. I'm just saying, what's the floor? The floor is... I just told you!

Chris, the floor is if dames not the same guy. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. The floor is if Dame's not the same. What is wrong with saying that? All right, let's make a bet then. I don't want to make a bet.

I'm not betting on Dane being... Portland will be at least 10 games better than Houston. I'm not betting. I'm not betting on Dame not being good. I think Dames's going to come back. Everything I've heard is that injury was legitimate. And that the expectation is he'll come back and be the same old Damien lower that we saw prior to last season.

That's what I'm expecting to happen. But if you're projecting ahead, for what their worst case scenario is, it involves Damien Liller not being the same guy. And I like Gary Payton and I like, you know, I like Josh Hart. You know what? I like Portland's roster.

They finally added the types of players that they didn't. It's like we talked about last week. I like Simons. Yeah, they don't have. But last week we talked about this in regards to the Mitchell Garland fit in Cleveland. They have Mowgli and Allen and O'Coro that, types of pieces that Dame and C.J. never had. Now,

Dame and Simons have Grant. The Cyr Little getting better. Josh Hart. They have some Gary Payton. I'm going to correct this. I know. And I'm going to correct this. The margin is going to be so thin between those teams because it's all going to be within a couple of games of each other. I agree.

All right. Then there's what I'll say. I do not believe they'll be in the top six. No matter. A couple of those teams that I mentioned are clearly not going to be as good. Last year, the Lakers were out of the playoffs, for God's sake. For the first 30 games of the season, we're talking about where should New Orleans look,

and they ended up playing in the play end, and then getting to play against the Phoenix Suns and showing well against the Phoenix Sun. So stuff's going to happen. New Orleans could be a top four, top five seats. I'd go that far with that. But stuff's going to happen throughout the year. Okay?

They're not going to be in the top six, but I do think Portland will be between seven and ten. The West is loaded. I would say their ceiling is seven or eight and their floor is 11. There, there's my final answer. Final answer. I'm right on with you.

Yeah, 11, 12, something like that. Yeah, ceiling, 7 or 8, floor 11. I'm with that. I'm cool with it. What's next? From Yoakum. Chris. What do you think about an annual Rider Cup-style basketball game between the USA and Europe?

I believe Europe would wipe the floor with Team USA right now, but the game could be hell of fun. Can you explain for the non-golf fans here, what the Ryder Cup is? What's the Rider Cup style event? You would take the best players from America, and then you would play the best players from the world. and that's just not so wipe the floor with come on starting lineup though

starting lineups their big guys are freaking I mean you'd have all of them I mean you got Yok you got MNus you got Yonis you got I mean you got Donchich okay you know what

let's not take this let's not play this game we just need to get it to the bench. I think I need to get it to the bench. But if they played a one-off, I would love to see it. I would love for there to be a Ryder Cup style game between the best players in the world

versus the best players out of the United States. That would be that would be fantastic. Well, we got a mailbag question in our email from Drago. And really, see, the brighter Cubs just Europe. So I would be including everybody. Sure. You know what I'm saying? Well, so to that point, though, so Dragho mentioned it in his email how, you know, Janus, Luca, Yokojambi, who we talked about a couple weeks back on our pod when we're talking about USA versus World, right?

And he mentioned, like, how you commented how with Killian Hayes, Frank Milakina, they might be coming off the bench, right? These are the 11 players that he threw out there that could come off the bench. DeAndre Ait, Bahamas, Pascal Ciacom, Cameroon, Rudy O'Barre, France, Chris Saps, Porzingis, Latvia, DeMontas, Subonis, Lithuania, Andrew Wiggins, Canada, Jamal-Mari, Canada, Shagilges-Alexand, Canada, Bogdanovic, Serbia, Lari-Marcanan, Finland, Ben Simmons, Australia.

That team, that's got a shot against USA. It's not as good on the bench, John. I know, it's not, he's not playing, though. Nila Kina. He's a DNP. But with Seacom, Aiton, SGA, that's a squad, man. They get a shot with that starting five that we're talking about.

The Webban Yama coming over, they'd have a shot, dude. I want to see it happen. I'd love for the NBA to organize something like this some future year. Have a USA versus World competitive game. Get these guys to buy in. It'll be incredible. It'd be incredible.

But if the players buy in, it would be amazing. And you know who would buy in? The international players. They'd buy into it. And then I think the American team would have to buy it after they get slaughtered in the first game. Hey, Kevin O. Trader. That's fair, though, right?

Who's more likely to buy into that? I mean, again, are you taking everybody from the world or just from European countries? It's a different team. Oh, world versus U.S. USA versus the world. That'd be pretty cool. That'd be amazing. Great drama.

I'd love that. When I said that, it reminded me, you ever see that old Norm MacDonald bit? It's one of my favorite bits. God rest of soul. Norm MacDonald, where he's talking about not messing with Germany. And he was like, so they wanted to start a war.

And who did they choose as their opponent? The world. And then they did it again. Unity is their opponent. Again, the world. I think it was on David Letterman's last show that he ever did. He had Norm on and he did that bit. Oh, it's hilarious.

Absolutely hilarious. Rest of peace, Norm McDonnell. Oh, I see. That was his final stand-up. Is that what a lot? Well, maybe not as final. On Letterman. Yeah.

Final stand-up on Letterman, yeah. Didn't he do a stand-up set during the pandemic in 2020? They recorded with no audience just in front of his webcam. It was his last. It was a special. Yeah. Did you watch that? I haven't watched that.

But it was like a. I mean, I've watched so many hours of Norm McDonald on YouTube. I love. I love Norman McDonald. I do. What's like the best set somebody should watch if we have some young listeners who don't know?

Norm McDonald's. Oh. Like the best one people should watch. The one I've laughed the hardest at was there's a clip with him and Courtney Thorne Smith, who was on Melrose Place, and he's on Conan O'Brien, and he's as a guest, and he's sitting on the couch next to him. And it is, I mean, absolutely hilarious. It's the most quick-witted, maybe the guest best, the funniest guest appearance I've ever seen on a late-night talk show.

he's sitting on a couch next to Courtney's Thorntman. And Conan O'Brien cannot, like, he can't handle it. He's laughing so hard. And I laugh every time I watch it. Every time I watch it, I laugh. I'm going to watch that after we record this. I'm not familiar with it. I might have seen me years ago when I was, you know,

going through Norm MacDonald stuff for the first time, but I don't recall it at the moment. You got to watch it. I'm not going to spoil it. Everybody will love it. It's hilarious. Really hilarious. All right.

Any more? Are we done? Let's do a couple more here. All right. From Adam. Important question here, Chris. Okay. Drums or flats.

I'm a drums guy. So my buddy Rick Ross. Your buddy Rick Ross? My buddy Rick Ross. Close friends. You guys texts there every day? Or is this a different Rick Ross? No, it's the Rick Ross.

B Rick Ross. Okay. It's got a bunch of wing stops in Memphis. So I have been around Rick a couple of them. And I filmed. day video one time where Rick Ross taught me how to eat hot ones. And

I gotta watch this. He said, all flats, no drummies. You're a drummy. That's what he said. You eat drummies, you're a drummy. All black. What's wrong with that? All flats. And then,

he had us dip these wings. He said, first, you've got to get a model. It went his girl and she was holding out of like a thing of ranch, and then you dip the flat, and then you turn it in there, and then you eat the wing.

And so, uh, I don't, I don't have a very strong feeling. I love them both. I love them both. Amazing, but I prefer,

I think drums are a little bit more satisfying me. Easier. Easier. Easier. But I, I do love them both. I guess I'd probably, if you,

if you gave me a bucket, yeah, I think I'd choose it. If it was like a bowl of drummies and a bowl of flats, I think I'd probably trues the bowl of drummies, but I'm not married to that. If the flats look better, I'd take those. I don't have a very strong opinion on that, oddly.

I love chicken wings, though. Yeah, they're all great. I mean, you really can't go wrong. If I'm going to, like, eat bad food, that's, like, top of the ones. top maybe wings are so versatile wings no I mean that's the very top

it's what I want like that's what I want especially during football like if you're you know yeah of course Sunday football with chicken wings yes nothing better than that I know but I don't have a

I would never turn one down so I like them all Justin from Texas would you guys ever consider a live podcast recording with a possible Q&A live, Chris. Sure. I don't care. We should do one this year.

I want to do one with you. Well, let's just do a Spotify live at some night. Well, no, no, I want in person with an audience. Oh, with an audience? Yeah, I want to do that live. Oh, yeah, I'd do that. We should do one this year.

I want to do one. You need to just pick a city and go do it. Well, I mean, we got to do one in Memphis, one in L.A. That's what I think we got to do. Okay. Easier for you in Memphis. Yeah. I could come there any time,

you getting to L.A. is a little more challenging, but we could make it work. All right. Maybe when Memphis, when is Memphis in L.A. Now that we're talking about this. Let me just look this up real quick. That'd be cool.

Home and home. Yeah. I don't know when they play the Lakers or the Clippers on the road. Let me find this out real quick for you. Well, don't get everybody's hopes up because I don't know. I'm just,

I'm not getting anybody's... The answer is yes, we've been doing it. Yeah, we would do it. Well, you think I'm scared, Justin? You think I'm scared? Yeah, you get, oh, the good dates do it would actually be March 5th. You face the Clippers in L.A. And then March 7th, you face the Lakers in L.A.

So you get a couple of days in L.A. The beginning of March. Yeah, beginning of March. That's a lot of time for us to plan that out. Perfect. That'd be so sick. Book it. I love it.

I'm there. That's a good one to end on. Book it. Yeah. March 5th and the 7th. Get your tickets now. Drive up from Texas, Justin. It's going to be amazing.

All right. Thank you. Our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Kevin, I'll talk to you soon. See you.