The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Are the Nets and Warriors Still Contenders, With Richard Jefferson. Plus CFB Top 12, and Tales From the Couch.

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Russillo shares his Tales From the Couch, including 76ers-Nets, Kings-Grizzlies, Nuggets-Pistons, and Lakers-Suns (0:40). Then Ryen talks with Richard Jefferson of ESPN and YES Network about the current parity in the NBA's Western Conference, his stories from Team USA, Ben Simmons going back to Philly, the Warriors being in need of a change, Patrick Beverley's shove on Deandre Ayton, Richard's tussle with teammate Kenyon Martin, and more (26:25). Then Ryen gives out his rankings for the top 12 teams in college football (1:08:07), before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:14:29). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Richard Jefferson Producer: Kye Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast is a lot of basketball a lot off the top tails from the couch we go about 25 minutes so enjoy that one uh richard jefferson's better that part's incredible we do all sorts of stuff on what's going on now but we get a little storytelling with Nets fights and a little Team USA stuff where I probably could have just done an hour on that and it would have been great. Top 12 in college football. The committee rankings were out last night.

I give you mine. They are a little different. And life advice, and before life advice, don't forget our FanDuel contest picks. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day,

again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We start this Wednesday with Tales from the Couch, where I sit on my couch and watch as many NBA games as I can, taking copious notes, which people seem to make fun of a lot too. So, all right, the Sixers win this one at home against the Nets, 115-106. Doc Rivers' rule, in effect, Doc Rivers years ago once told me,

I'd rather all the good players play because your team will be up for it and when they don't. And I thought it was crazy. And ever since I've, like I always think about it and I swear to God, he's right about this.

All right. So the Nets were eight and a half point favorites on FanDuel coming in with pretty much the full squad. Kyrie, Simmons, KD, all playing in this one. For the Sixers, they were starting to Anthony Melton, Shaq Milton, Tobias Harris, PJ Tucker.

Montrezl Harrell only played 16 minutes. This was a big B-ball Paul Reed game. He played 31 minutes. Nice player, a lot of fun, a lot of energy. Pretty good if he doesn't try to dribble or create off the dribble. The rest of the minutes here for the Sixers, because I was looking at this as well,

Niang in their house, Korkmaz who hit a couple nice shots. The 10th guy as far as minutes actually playing was Thibel. He played three minutes. He can't even get in the games now when Maxie is out, Harden is out,

and Embiid is out, apparently for only a couple games. So Thibel's played eight minutes or less in four of the last six. Just something to take a look at. They talked a little bit about the Nets' lack of size in the postgame. Yes, it is an issue. But it shouldn't be an issue in this game. Okay?

It shouldn't. Because there was a lineup out there where it was, I think it was like the third quarter, and the Nets had this Kyrie Claxton, Joe Harris, who's looking a little bit better. It was kind of rough to watch there in the beginning of the season. Seth Curry, who's just so good, man. God, I love that guy's game,

because he's just so much more than a shooter. And then on the other side, they went Millsap. That is a really small group, as it was pointed out on the broadcast, because it's shocking. It was like Kyrie's the biggest guard. He's bigger than Mills. He's bigger than Curry, I guess. And then Harris is your power forward in that lineup. And there's Claxton.

So Kyrie and Claxton are running a pick and roll and Phillies blitzing the hell out of it. And Claxton is actually a very competent guy with the ball in his hands. Going back to those Georgia days that I like to reference every now and then because of what kind of player he was. He was a guy that would try more things offensively and you hope that that's still in him

and his development as opposed to some of these guys that are more multi-skilled but they have really one role and then they never really develop it and then they never get comfortable enough to actually apply it in games. Plenty of guys can do tons of awesome shit in practice,

and then you just kind of regress to what you're comfortable with as a basketball player. And Claxton has shown that he maybe is headed in the right direction with some of that stuff. Anyway, the point is that him being your outlet where Kyrie can just throw it over the top of the blitz and Claxton can catch it. Like, Claxton's good in a couple dribble and a pass move, right?

I'm telling you, he's bringing the ball up to court. And so then you've got shooting where Mills is off to the weak side, I guess you would say, and then Curry and Harris are stationed on the other side. And you're like, man, this could actually work. And the other thing about blitzing the point guard off the high pick and roll, which is, you know, high pick and roll is literally, to say

it's half of the plays you see in the NBA would be low, but there's some variation of stuff off of it. But, you know, the other night I was watching Cleveland and Atlanta and, you know, after a couple, you should know what your team's plan is

against the Blitz when they keep the two with the ball handler off the screen. And it can be tough if you're a smaller guard and there's all this size coming at you and you're like, what the hell do I do with the ball? But I don't know, the second or third time, you should have a plan. And for Cleveland, it was awesome because Garland knew. Garland is so smart. By the way, here's an aside. Whose backcourt would you rather have cleveland's or atlantis discuss so garland knew exactly like i said this isn't some super complicated thing to go i have no idea what they're doing uh even boston when they stunk in the first half of last year you're like hey i think they're going to try to double tatum off the screen guys might want to be ready

for this and it felt like it took took Boston a month to figure it out. But Garland was great. And when your outlet's Mitchell, now he's attacking four on three. Good luck. And in this case, I'm like, look at all this spacing. And then it's not like Philly has a ton of size with this group.

And it was just something I was looking at. This is not something that should be a problem. So, just an observation on that stuff. KD in the 2-3 zone crushed it in the first half. He was fucking awesome. Philly comes out at 2-3. Durant just gets right to the middle.

You can lob it to him. He's catching at the elbow, and he sent all sorts of jumpers. He had 14 points in the first half, only six in the second half. It was a bad KD game by the standard that we have for KD. You're like, where is this guy? Kyrie had 23. It felt a little... Kyrie is going to have these burst moments of Kyrie, which are spectacular,

but the Nets are still trying to figure out who they are in offense because of the inconsistency of who you've had. There's always going to be a lot of ISO because you have Kyrie and Durant. That's fine. Really, what I'm doing here is I'm burying the lead because Ben Simmons back in Philly, I knew this was going to happen last night. And I almost said something, but I was like,

you know what? I'm going to hold off because I know at times I can feel like I'm a little negative with it. But I knew that Ben Simmons against a group of Sixers, who I call the Blue Coats, was going to really start getting chesty. He's been playing better. It started in Portland. He was terrific against Memphis. This is a really good sign for the Ben Simmons stockholders out there still that have just looked at the red number going, well, I can't sell now. He's had a week here where you're going, all right. He was aggressive in the first half. His passing was terrific. There was even a couple here where you're going, all right. And he was aggressive in the first half. His passing was terrific.

There was even a couple times where I was like, man, he's been passing out of this one a bunch of times because that's the thing with him. There'll still be moments where you're like, dude, you had a wide open layup. Like, what are you doing? And we know that's happened before. There's a couple times where I thought he would kick it out and he was aggressive. He shushed the crowd

after a couple free throws. I was like, alright. He got into it with Niang. Not really quite sure what happened there. I mean, I know what happened, but the Niang elbow didn't really seem that bad. I don't know if Simmons was trying to sell it a little bit at work. And then he also flexed towards the Sixers bench. So I'll

admit, after the JJ Redick podcast that he did, as I've referenced this I think two other times, I listened to that podcast and was concerned. I went, wait, that's what, that's what you think of yourself. Like, cause the whole podcast was like, man, I'm awesome. I can't believe people give me a hard time. Like that was, that was the general, that would be the log line of his guest appearance. And I was like, man, there's like no accountability about anything. And so I did end up mentioning last night that it was like there's nothing more predictable than him feeling himself. Now, I'll add this. On the larger scale of what's important, I'm actually wrong.

I don't like it. I knew it would happen. He took one shot in the second half. They'd lose this game. Whatever. They lost the basketball game one shot in the second half. They'd lose this game. Whatever. They lost the basketball game. All right. Lost the game.

Not supposed to lose this game. But the fact that there's anything that remotely resembles confidence from Simmons is a positive. So I'm telling myself, even though I knew it was going to happen and I didn't like it, and I was like, oh, here we go. Who gives a shit, right? That it looks like something. And he's been playing better this last week. And it looks like he's starting to look like a basketball player again instead of completely

lost. I mean, this guy's still so young, whatever you think about him. It's always weird to me. He's just not going to be good anymore. I never want to take that side of the bet. As silly as it may have felt last night, I think it's actually

a positive, even though they lost this game, even though he only took one shot in the second half. Even if it's fake, who gives a shit? It was more than what we've seen before, where a guy looked completely defeated as a player. Sacramento and Memphis, the West's top nine right now,

one through nine in the standings, are separated by one and a half games. Golden State, the most talented, worst defensive team I've seen in a long time. They're three and a half games out of the one seed. Oklahoma City is four games out of the one seed. Oklahoma City is four games out of the

one seed in the West. No, this will not hold up. The parody stuff is crazy. I have a theory on parody a little bit later. Sacramento has won seven in a row. They're the three seed. They're 10-6. They started 0-4, so they're 10-2. I don't want to play this game of like, hey, I call

here or there. They could have won 10 straight. That's a little aggressive. They're the number two offense in the NBA. They don't play a ton of defense. It's the best De'Aaron Fox has ever played. It's a massive lead. His shooting numbers are 55 and 41% from the floor.

He was under 30% from three last year. Sabonis is taking less shots, but he seems totally comfortable in what they're doing with the offense. This is three last year. Sabonis is taking less shots, but he seems totally comfortable in what they're doing with the offense. This is five straight years for Sabonis between 11 and 12 boards per game. He assists her at six.

He gets to the free throw line. He seems to be accepting less touches because of more talent around him. Kevin, please hammer, don't hurt her then. Career high in points. He's 50% from three right now on seven and a half temps per game and he's so much more than a shooter he's running through screens like reggie miller last night jaws trying to chase her like jaws feeling like he's getting a lesser assignment not having to

deal with dearon fox who's like all nba level dearon fox right now and then it's like oh shit i gotta chase this guy through screens for 40 minutes this sucks coming off an injury um you know herder can handle up until the end don't worry we'll get to the last couple minutes of this game so and then you've got sacramento who could throw davian mitchell at job for a little bit not that anybody's really ever going to slow down john moran because he's got the maybe the most absurd finishing package for a perimeter player right now in the nba and then you've got barnes who you can toss it to, who's going to shoot the ball usually well. He's under 30% this season, but he was 38% last year.

And Malik Monk is more than just a shooter. Keegan's November is not nearly as good as October. Not going to worry about that right now. My point is that they've got multiple creators. They all seem to already know their role within this offense. They play to the end of the shot clock, which is one of my biggest pet peeves about teams where it's like, oh, now I don't have the ball, so now I'm just going to stand here. There's guys doing later cuts. They had a couple of nice plays where whether it was somebody on a drive and then somebody

repositioning themselves, this shit is not hard, but teams just don't. They get bored. They get lazy. They don't have the ball. That's why I don't like those high usage guys, because when you stand around for fucking an entire season, you get sick of cutting and never getting the ball back. And Sacramento plays like a team that's been together much longer

than just a couple months. I also have this other theory I was talking about with Perry. There was something in college football, well, it's not like you haven't heard of the spread offense, but there was this dynamic that happened with the spread offense where basically lesser talented teams were running the spread to try to compete with more talented teams. So you think about Mike Leach in Texas Tech, some of the stuff Rich Rodriguez was doing early on before everybody hated him at Michigan.

But not everybody was running the spread. It was a great equalizer. If you weren't getting the big-time recruits, let's run more plays. Let's spread them out. Let's get these defensive linemen and linebackers chasing us to the sidelines for 80 plays. We'll wear them down.

We're going to find more space. The quarterback, we're going to make it super easy for them because we're not getting the five-star guy all the time. We're going to find more space. The quarterback, we're going to make it super easy for him because we're not getting the five-star guy all the time. We're going to put up big numbers. We're probably not going to defend all that well, and maybe we get to a nice bowl game. And that's kind of what college football was there for a little while. And then Saban had this awesome presser one time where he was like,

what y'all want? He might have not said, y'all, I'm throwing it in there. And it was like, this is really what you want? College football, okay, fine. And so then all the guys that were getting the real recruits, the best recruits were like, we'll run this shit too. And that could have been

why we've had this lack of parity at the top of college football. We're actually testing that now this season. It looks like we might get a couple of different teams in there for a change. Because it's like, all right, we'll just run that stuff.

And now you don't have this schematic advantage against us. You're not going to beat us randomly every now and then. And that could have been the reason there was a lack of parity in college football. So when I look at basketball at the NBA level, because I'll admit too, I watched like four or five NBA, there was only like five last night, four or five.

And then I threw on St. John's, Syracuse. That was an adjustment, watching NBA games and being like, oh, let me check in on my Johnnies here for a second. So when I look at the NBA right now and the parity that we have, I wonder if the five out stuff, five perimeter guys, I wonder if this is, and this is the working theory here, I wonder if that's a bit of an equalizer for lesser talented teams.

If we can space the floor, if we can make, if it's kind of the Utah thing, when you watch them, you're like, every one of these guys is a little, is someone you actually have to guard. And that's what has happened in the league, so it's

not just the middling teams or the lesser teams. The better teams have tried to do it too. That OKC era where Durant and Westbrook were incredible and they're winning all these games, but they have Perkins and Roberson playing on the floor at the same time. That wouldn't happen in today's NBA game. That's two guys you absolutely don't have to guard on offense. You couldn't do that in today's game

and it's not like sacramento's always five out or something like that now with metu coming in who i sneaky always kind of like um and sabonis is comfortable in a bunch of different positions on the floor look he's gonna he's gonna post he's gonna work from the elbow but he's also not afraid to like be further out and stretch the defense a little bit. It's just something I'm thinking about with some of these other teams where I was looking at Utah. Sacramento feels better than Utah long-term, at least for me in this season. We'll see what happens unless marketing continues to be an all-NBA type guy, which is a whole different story in all this. So look, something to pay attention to, something I'll revisit at some point.

Sacramento wins this game barely because the last three minutes looked like a high school team that had never seen a press before. They had eight or nine turnovers in the fourth quarter. Three-pointers were part of the story in this as well. I think Memphis had a two-for-17 stretch over this. No Bain as well. Ja, who had – is it possible to have a quiet 20 points in the fourth quarter? I think he ended up with 20 in the fourth.

He had a chance to tie from the three-point line. He got fouled very, very late, missed the first one, so now they're screwed. Knows he has to miss the last one. Makes the fourth quarter. I think he ended up with 20 in the fourth. He had a chance to tie from the three-point line. He got fouled very, very late, missed the first one, so now they're screwed. Knows he has to miss the last one, makes the second one. He tries to miss the third. He gets called for the lane violation, which is stepping over the free throw line before the ball hits the rim. I'll never for the life of me understand why Shaq wasn't called for this. He did it every single time. He stepped over the free throw line before the ball hit the rim. I think the refs just felt so bad for him they never called it. Let's take a look at Fox in the clutch.

He's 65% from the floor clutch moments, 57% for three. He's fourth in scoring amongst the guys that play because there's some points per game stuff where guys just haven't qualified. Last season, he was two less points in clutch time. He was 42% overall from the floor, 8% from three. So he's been a much different player early part of the season. Look at some of the Fox numbers. Probably, if you haven't been paying too close attention, it'll really surprise you.

All right, let's keep it moving here. Detroit gets a win at Denver, their first road win in 11 games on the road. No cage, shin issue, a little worried. They're 24th in offense, 29th in defense. Not great, Bob. Denver's eighth on offense, 24th in defense. Bad cage, shin issue, a little worried. They're 24th in offense, 29th in defense. Not great, Bob. Denver's eighth on offense, 24th in defense. Bad week, weird week. Jokic misses the three games, starting with the Knicks game last week. They won at Dallas. I do have a small aside on Luka. I could make this an open. I think things are going to start getting weird for criticism for

Luka. You're starting to see a little bit of it. I've talked about usage rate, the heliocentric stuff that I don't really necessarily love. And he's at like 38% usage, which ties a career high for a season. I believe his second season, he was around 38% as well for that one. I'm just telling you, you could say Luka 50 or in. It's still very early, and it is. The Western Conference Finals probably feels a bit more like a fluke appearance than a reality of like them being one of the two three teams in the West because that's certainly not

how you feel right now about Dallas Portland has been in that group I put Atlanta and Trey Young in there I think a couple of those early Boston Eastern Conference Finals of Brad Stevens were a little fluky and certainly ahead of schedule for them just saying pay attention to that one all right so back

to this one Denver did some really interesting stuff with Jokic in the screen stuff, because they used Jalen Duren basically one-on-one with Jokic a lot. They didn't want to double, and it's always this thing that sucks with Jokic when you're the opponent. Like, what do I do? Do I double Jokic? Because if I do, he's going to burn me in a pass. It's going to be

some sort of cutter. I mean, we've seen it now for years. They tried to put the youngest guy in the NBA against Jokic one-on-one. They were running some cool screen stuff where they would switch. They would get Murray's guy. Joseph ended up on Jokic in the post and the switch. And it was weird because then Duren had Murray in the switch. And then Murray went to the opposite corner. And then Duren just didn't want to follow Murray. But then he didn't help Joseph. And he ended up guarding no one, which I'm sure they'll go through this and be like, you got to make opposite corner. And then Duren just didn't, he didn't want to follow Murray, but then he didn't help Joseph and he ended up guarding no one, which I'm sure they'll go through this

and be like, you got to make a decision. And in that case, it's come double Jokic at that point because Murray was so stuck in the corner. Another thing with Murray, it's going to take some time. I would think Denver fans would agree. It hasn't looked great.

Shout out to the Cherry Cricket when I was there in Denver last week. I didn't go to the Nuggets game, but I watched the game at the Cricket. Great little spot. I'm watching Murray. He had two possessions very late in that game against the Knicks. He couldn't get by the defender. He just couldn't.

None of us would say that Murray's in that elite, quick, twitchy tier of guards, but it was a little frustrating. I'm sure he was frustrated. He's just not there yet. Just a weird loss for Denver, which again was a little frustrating. I'm sure he was frustrated. He's just not there yet. Just a weird loss for Denver, which, again, was a weird week, missing some of their guys. Detroit closed with Joseph Burks, Bogdanovich,

who's been terrific for them, Durin, and Kevin Knox getting a little love. And then they actually switched the Knox-Murray thing to try to get Knox in the switch against Joker. But, you know, look, that wasn't really going to work all that well either. But Bogdanovich hit some shots. Burke had a big one. All right, last one. LA at Phoenix.

Phoenix wins. There's not really that much here, but there's other things to talk about. The Phoenix bench feels much better. I keep saying it. Chris Paul's missed seven games with the heel, but at least they have Devin Booker, who's on another level right now, arguably his best season. Phoenix is number three in offense, number six on defense. Anthony Davis, though, maybe more of the story of the Pat Bev part of this, because we just

expect Phoenix to win this kind of basketball game. Anthony Davis in his last four games, 37 and 18, 38 and 16, 30 and 18, 37 and 21, five blocks, five assists last night. Apparently, the Lakers reported one of the, I don't know, I hope this is right, but 80 is the first player to ever have 35-plus, 20-plus rebounds, five-plus blocks, five-plus steals, five or more in a game. That's pretty good when no one's ever done it before. I love that this is happening for Anthony Davis.

I get he's not a great long-term bet. I get that he's not the alpha that all of us wish that he was going to be. I don't know if this is because LeBron's not there. I think part of it's that they haven't played great teams. If you run through this, wins against Brooklyn, Detroit, San Antonio. I was at the Detroit game. I thought he looked great in person. They lose to Phoenix.

They're supposed to lose at Phoenix with this group. I'm just happy that he is now reminding us that when he is healthy and right, he is no worse than a top 10 player in the NBA. And he's still too young to just be completely written off. No LeBron. There's some weird numbers there. Now I think three and three without LeBron. I'll double check this.

Yeah, three and three without him, two and eight with him. The points per game was a massive jump, and it might have been the opponents. The point differential's bad. I mean, all the stats are actually bad for an argument. I'm not ready to go there that this team is better without LeBron. Westbrook has been awesome in November. The traditional stats are good, but he's shooting 39% from three.

However, last night, sorry, folks. Last night, when he's really feeling it, it felt like, now I'm really feeling myself. He took 20 shots last night. He had a couple drives where, yeah, it's great when it works, but sometimes it's completely forced. He had an air ball three with 11 seconds left on the shot clock. He lost a baseline cutter for no reason

other than he just stopped paying attention to the guy behind him on a secondary break. And there was another possession late where at 115-105, it didn't matter, the game was kind of over. He just didn't have anyone to defend. He was just sort of standing there. So I'm just warning you. It's better.

He should have always been a sixth man. Darvenham luckily had a bad Westbrook year prior to this to be able to pull this off. Vogel couldn't do it immediately, which he would have done had the team actually been more competitive because it would have been the right basketball decision. It makes sense for Russ.

Go out there. Have more backup minutes. You can do whatever the hell you want. But in a spot where the game was still in the balance because the Lakers cut it really close there and then Phoenix just ran away with it at the very end, there was a little bit of that, I'm just going to do this all on my own stuff.

And that's the difference between, like, AD's got it rolling. And, like, it reminds me even going to the Detroit game. Detroit had a bunch of nice possessions in a row. And then Marvin Bagley got the ball and decided to try to take Anthony Davis off the dribble from like 33 feet out. Guess how that went?

Not well. And so you're watching it going, like things were clicking a little bit, and that's another part about being a basketball player, being like, all right, what's some awareness here? And with Westbrook, there's a good version of this story, but I'll say that the close of this game, there are these moments from these little in-between

things that the guys who just bang you over the head with the averages never seem to want to point out. Alright, last thing here, because I have rambled. Let's talk to Pat Bev push on DeAndre Ayton. Okay, this starts with Reeves on the ground. And I'll offer this.

Austin Reeves can't get a fucking call in a game to save his life. Don't know what that's about. He gets truck-sticked on drives, just yard sale. And then it's like, stand by me. We're like, do you want to see a dead body? And then he's just on the ground and dudes look at him. It happens all the time, man. So late in this one, Reeves tries to drive on Booker. I thought

Booker was actually clean on the ball at the top, and then the follow-through hits him in the face. Reeves, because it sucks to get hit in the face. Reeves is on the ground. He's pissed. He's not getting any calls. Then Booker kind of looks down at him. Look, it was disrespectful. Then Aiton's looking down on him and Anthony Davis is standing right next to Aiton. And I don't know if Aiton said something to

Reeves. It looked like he was trying to stand over him a little bit. I wouldn't say that necessarily hits Aiton's profile. You know, I saw everybody's pressure last night, so I don't know if there's a little bit of a piece missing there. But he's still standing over him. And it has more to do with Reeves getting hit in the face than not getting any calls. And don't know if there's a little bit of a piece missing there, but he's still standing over, right? And it has more to do with Reeves

getting hit in the face than not getting any calls. And with Pat Bev, there's always some stuff in the middle. I don't always like Pat Bev. I think some of the stuff he says is fucking crazy. It's look at me stuff.

He's doing it for the attention. And then when he, look, he went after my guy, Chris Paul, multiple times. Chris Paul cooked him in the playoffs. Then Pat Bev goes on TV and says he sucks. All right, we know the game.

That's the game. You get a media deal out of it. I like this one last night because you knew Anthony Davis wasn't going to do anything. And he shoves Aiton. The funniest part of this whole thing is Bridges flies past Beverly after Beverly hit his teammate. And then Bridges goes over like hold his teammate I was like dude the guy you wanted was right there and you didn't do shit um I I this one made sense to me I didn't have a problem with this one from Pat Bev I'd love to know if Aiton

said something I'd because it like I said it didn't look great and it was a build-up of other things and the game's kind of done Beverly gets tossed there's a ton of stuff Beverly does that Because like I said, it didn't look great. And it was a buildup of other things. And the game's kind of done. Beverly gets tossed. There's a ton of stuff Beverly does that I don't like. I think he's a dirty player. I think he's annoying as shit. I think his quotes are also annoying.

I liked this one last night. So approved. Get more out of your holiday week with FanDuel because new customers get $125 in free bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Our picks will be, as always, right before Life Advice. FanDuel is also now live in Maryland. Get in on the action with great offers, boosts, and more.

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Fired up to do this. Appreciate his time. Richard Jefferson, ESPN, Yes Network. Hanging out, talking some hoops. Okay, I mentioned a theory that I have about some of the parity that we're seeing, which again, the parody is not going to hold up the way we're seeing it. Certainly not in the West right now. I mean, this is ridiculous.

But that if you have a team that maybe isn't as talented, like, you know, we both know you can't win in this league unless you got like two of the top 20 guys. So you look at some of these other teams that you may not love their overall talent, but they're winning games, but you like that they make you guard every inch of the floor. They have multiple shot creators or handlers or decision

makers. And I feel like there's something we're seeing more now, and this isn't brand new this year, but that there's a little bit more chance for parity if your basketball team can play five out and make you defend the entire night and a couple of shooters that make you honest. I think I'm seeing it with a couple of these teams that were surprised from. Well, I think some of the teams like, you know, again,

people talk so much about like Utah and Sacramento, especially Utah. Cause they just shot out right out of the gate. But I think that the flip, the flip side of that coin and there's obviously there's an ecosystem. The flip side of that coin is that there are certain teams that should be playing well, that have a fuck load of stars. Golden State Warriors, they have a loaded roster, not playing well. The Lakers, I know that they're roster construction, but they still, in my opinion,

have two of the top 10, 12 players, wherever you want to rank them in the league. And the Brooklyn Nets, they have two of the you know top you know 15 players in my opinion and then they have ben simmons so these teams that were supposed to be dominant right or at least have the the components to be great have like dropped down or they're not playing up to their level and then like now what that allows is for these teams like a Sacramento, like a Utah, that do play that spread five offense, move the ball. Everyone touches it. We don't have that. The weird thing and where it's going to be kind of a mindfuck is you don't believe that it's sustainable.

Like, obviously, these teams aren't going to win championships. So it's like, who is going to be that super talented group that gets through? So it's like, who is going to be that super talented group that gets through? But what I like to see is basketball is special in the space that if you get five, 10, seven, you know, go back to the redeemed team, right? Like we saw this in 04, our Olympic team. We had talent. We were uber young. We had talent.

But we were playing against a group in Argentina that had played together, that moved the ball, that played a beautiful brand of basketball while we were still trying to figure it out. And I think you look at teams like Utah, they're playing a beautiful brand of basketball. And they have all the components. No superstars, but Conley, he knows how to play. Clarkson's a six-man of the year. Laurie Markham has pretty much gotten better since the moment he left chicago so it's like you watch this and you're like i can see it it makes sense but it's still surprising yeah and i'm not like leaving this going hey this is the new league because it isn't necessarily new i just think it's more extreme in some cases and i also have felt first of all it's never been easier to score than now okay now and we are still in i now would argue year four or season four of this malaise of like, not, I don't know that players have ever cared less about the regular season than they do now.

And whether it's the maintenance part of like, Hey, it's okay. If you take all this, I just don't, I'll see certain nights where I go, Oh, like you,

these guys don't care. Not to say that it never happened back in your day or prior to that, but I think there's such an acceptance of devaluing the regular season that there are nights where you're going to get caught because you just don't care. And I think COVID, I think that there's this carryover of all of this stuff that's still happening when you start watching a bunch of games on a single night. and it's the teams i stand by it like it was different when guys like

my generation and i know i was like obviously i'm retired and there's you know still a good group of people that i played with but i was towards the end of the i get to dictate when i play how i play like that type of stuff now there's guys like you see players taking load management. And that's not the direction we're going, but it's more of like, I don't know if they've devalued the regular season as much as in like these sports and science people have fucking come in and, you know, minute restrictions. If he's missed one game because of a runny nose and we're going to build him back up. And you're just like, it's a little frustrating,

but I truly still believe, because I only want to view it through the eyes of someone that's competing at the highest level, trying to win a championship, trying to do great things. And the only way to do that, in my opinion, is to have a consistent regular season. Doesn't mean you can't have guys rest a day because it's the fourth game in five nights and maybe it's backwards a little tight. But if you want great performance, you have to do it over the course of the regular season and then build. Because the regular season, when that ends, you're not playing your best basketball. You have to continue playing better basketball as the postseason progresses so i i think the teams will still separate themselves but it is easier to score but part of that is like again the foul changes no take fouls that allows for more fast

breaks guys aren't even like attempting to do these things and that that gives you that gives you four or five points a game on both sides yeah and then there's certain nights where i'm like you know last night sacramentoemphis feels like playoffs. That felt real. Memphis is a team that I feel like more often than not, and I know the record isn't great right now, but I know they're going to bring it. And then filling Milwaukee, that game, that's one of the

best jobs I think I've seen a team do defensively against Giannis in a long time. Just how active they were, how much they challenged him, and I think even Giannis, which rarely happens, got a little frustrated. Okay. I want to jump on something you just said there, Team USA, because I didn't plan on doing this. Everybody knows growing up playing basketball, like there's that kid in your town where the dad takes it real serious and he brings his kid to like the other towns to play pickup and drops him off.

And it's like, go there and get your ass kicked. Because all the stuff that worked here isn't going to work here. Now you have to learn or the kid that plays in the older group. And it's all that stuff. What is that like? Is it NBA? Like you're good enough to be on team USA,

but now the practices are, there's no weakness anywhere when you're going, does that find to, does it take your game to another? I'm sure for some people, they look at it as an opportunity to sharpen themselves beyond, but what is that like when you're thinking all of this, all my go-to stuff is going to be challenged by another guy who's the best in the world. It truly is. It's, it's exciting in a way that like, it's hard to,

it's hard to really imagine. Right. The, when I did it, I was super young. I was in the Oh three. So I was the youngest guy on the team. And there was Ray Allen. There was Mike Bibby. There was Jason kid, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter. So all of these guys, it's like, you know, you're, you're in this space. Now fast forward to the Oh four Olympics, we had a completely different team. And I don't know if that was definitely that, that feeling wasn't there with the Oh 14, just because we were all young and we

were none of us, you know, you had Tim Duncan and, and, and, uh, Allen Iverson, but the rest of the crew, we were all like, still figuring it out. Like LeBron James was figuring it out, D Wade, all these guys, but that's the fun thing. Like in basketball, there's so much of that from like from like your earliest memories of like you walk into a gym and it's like, who's that dude? Right. Oh, that's that dude. OK, well, that's how good I have to be. Then you get to like a Nike camp and then you get to a McDonald's All-American game and then you get to. of looking around, like when I was at Arizona and it was me, Luke Walton, Gilbert Arenas, you know, old heads remember guys like Luke Recker. All of these guys were on our fucking squad. And so you're looking around like somebody's not going to play. And so I think that competitiveness, it's lost a little bit in college now because everything's one and done. But I think that's part of that culture of like when you get to the Olympics and you're like, holy shit, like the USA Select now. So you have the young guys and you have like the old Olympics and you're like, holy shit, like the USA select now.

So you have the young guys and you have like the old guys and you're just like, you know, there's those videos of Kyrie going at Kobe and go. All of that energy is something that I think is part of the basketball culture. And that's what makes it fun, because like you get into that space and you're like, all right, well, there's nobody here. That's a weak link. Let's let's figure this out. But there's something there that I think makes it special,

and it's a little bit different than any other sport. How much did Larry Brown hate you guys after that bronze medal team? Definitely not as much as we hated him. And look, I don't think Larry's a bad dude. I just think he came in there with motives. He came in there with wanting to play a game a certain way, wanting to teach the younger generation, because he was doing it. I'll never forget the 0-3 team, the team with Jason Kidd before the Olympic team.

We were running in transition, andason kidd like threw a pass now mind you this has been my point guard for two years throws a pass and layers tied to guys slow down jason what i want you to do and and look this international game is different what i want you to do is i want you to get to the free throw line and i want you to jump stop and then make your pass and you're sitting here like do you stop practice practice to tell Jason Kidd how to run a fast break? But you get it. Look, Popovich

got on Tracy McGrady, and T-Mac told this story. Don't lie, because Pop is Pop. T-Mac catches the ball, shoots a three, right? And Greg Popovich, hey, we got to fucking move the ball. It's not going to be gotta fucking move the ball it's not gonna be first fucking shot out possible it's not bubble bubble bubble blah blah so we run a system again

but it was like the rotation so tracy ball happens again tracy gets it now there was like a late rotation mistake tracy shoots it again tracy am i speaking fucking german to you pass the fucking ball right funny whatever this is where it gets funny. Next, we're doing the same drill that happens. Someone slips and falls. There is no one five feet from Tracy McGrady. And he's like, pauses and fucking drives the ball. And you're sitting here like,

Popovich has rattled Tracy McGrady. The old, he's like, man, I can't even get up a fucking jumper in here. And so it was like the environment of that Olympics was like part teaching part cohesion. But when it got to that next group, it just wasn't there. The cohesion wasn't there. It was at the same point in time that and one basketball was like taking off and Larry Brown hated and one basketball. He hated it. So he like literally said it to us. He's like, you know, all these kids, like we have a job and an opportunity to show kids how to play that.

I'm like, man, we just trying to win some games. I'm not trying to worry about the, the message of and one basketball in the U S and the little kids, the impact right now. So it was, it was just such a, a, a, a unique, strange experience that we were just getting shitted on the whole time. And rightfully so. We played terrible. I played terrible. But the reason why they had to change the U.S. select and add that and have some consistency with coaching is that you finally realize it didn't all fall on the players. It didn't fall on the players.

You've had different coaches every single year. You're having a different team. There's no national team that was run that way. And it just showed more of an arrogance to America. The World Cup is going on right now. There is no World Cup team that was being run where it was like you would have a team win the Euro Cup and then 12 of those guys say, I'm not going to go play for the Olympics or go play in the world cup. Like, yeah, Spain would be shitty. Italy would be shitty if that's how they went out there and did it. And we just, as Americans and USA basketball thought that we could keep doing that regardless of the six, the struggles that we had, we've played terrible in Indiana. There was like barely one in Sydney. The writing was on the wall that if we don't prepare differently, it's going to struggle. We just happened to be

the group that was like, all right, enough's enough. Man, I feel like I could just talk about this all day instead of everything else. Let me ask one more question, though, because then to put Iverson back with Larry Brown. No, it wasn't Iverson. It wasn't Iverson. It was Stephon Marbury. Iverson wasn't on the... No, Iverson it wasn't Iverson it was Stefan Marbury Stefan Marbury Iverson wasn't on the no Iverson was oh I'm sorry I was thinking because because then because the member member Larry became the coach with the Knicks yeah right but I'm saying like yeah you

have four yeah right to you know the AI Larry Brown thing is well documented okay and all I'm thinking about when they put the team together again none of us were all spoiled i'm like it's who's gonna guard marbury irison wade back when he was like filthy couldn't stay in front of lebron's on the team duncan's there to kind of help you with the you know the the pop part of it i i can't imagine like iron must have been like this shit again. Well, Iverson was funny because he would kind of sit back because he had already been through it all. He'd been through it all with Larry. So he would sit back and be like, I fucking told y'all.

Everybody thought it was just like, look. Now he goes, I ain't no fucking angel, but y'all see all that shit wasn't me. All that shit wasn't just me. And look, I'm not here to disrespect Larry Brown. Like he is an all-time coach, but like I had to retire. The game moved past me. The game moves past everyone. It doesn't change your basketball mind.

It doesn't mean that you haven't fucking been all of this stuff. But in that moment, was he that individual? And what did they do? They went and got a coach that was like, hey, you're going to be our coach and we're going to run practices and we're going to have a system and there's going to be some consistency all of that started after 04 truth be told all of that shit should have been going on before 04 but that was just how you know we as an as a as a very arrogant group decided to handle it i want to see the netflix show on that team um oh we're gonna do some of this some of this again okay uh let's talk let's talk a little golden state we know how bad it's

been there's no way they're this bad but i'm just not i don't i don't care what happens the roster is too good. This is the thing. As soon as people started having those whispers about Clay, because he was struggling. He was really, really struggling. And he goes and has a 40-point against Houston. People are like, oh, it's Houston.

Motherfucker hit 10 threes. 10 threes ain't... We just gloss over the fact that it's him, and then I think Steph, James Harden, and then, and then, uh, Clay, when it comes to like hitting double digit threes, I believe I'm don't, don't quote me on that, but he's up there. And so when you look at like Clay starting to get his rhythm, there was just a lot of things, but I will say this and I'm not going to. Taminga and Wiseman, given the style of basketball that the Warriors play, they thought they might have

been transitioning, but they weren't transitioning. The older guys had another surge. And now those two guys are not the best situation guys for the Golden State Warriors. And that's a hard thing to say, because it's not that they're not talented. It's not that they're not going to play 10, 15 years in the league. It's not even to say that they won't be all-stars. But currently, right now, where the Golden State Warriors are in maximizing Steph, Clay, and all of these guys, they probably missed on those two picks. They probably did, right? Because you got the number two pick in the draft and the number seven pick in the draft, and neither of those guys are contributing to your team.

And it's not from talent. It's not from talent. It's just based off of like, well, we have to play. They play a 10,000-hour style basketball where you got to read and react. You have to understand. You got to read people's movements. You got to anticipate. And for guys that are relatively, Melisandre didn't play much basketball coming in,

but you understand the pick. Kaminga didn't start playing basketball until much later, and he's just so raw and gifted and talented. And all of these guys are intelligent, but that basketball IQ is something that either you have it or you don't, or it takes years to get it. And I think the Warriors are starting to realize that they missed on those two guys. And not that they can't play, not that they won't get better, but currently right now they're well below expectations. Yeah, the Kaminga part of it is probably more frustrating than the Wiseman part of it because, again, we didn't have a lot to go off of with Wiseman.

Edwards goes one. That's clearly the right call. I have tried to relay the story, but it doesn't get repeated that often because I didn't like what I saw from Lomelo in Australia at all. I was like, what is this? Then towards the end, as it was gearing up to the draft, I was starting to hear people after they had him in a workout,

they're like, there's a chance this guy is actually going to be pretty special. I was like, well like well okay all right um but with wiseman i felt like there's skills there where shoot like sometimes when he doesn't think like his touch is pretty smooth like one dribble in and then shit's going to be wide open for him he can just rim run the entire time he's going to get 15 points a game in this system. Just run. You're going to be wide open the entire time. But I thought it's scary that the worst case scenario for him is like he's this NBA minimum at year five. Like, oh yeah, who's our third center? Like, oh, we'll go with James Wiseman. Because you could see when he had to think, there was a delay. When he had to think about what he was doing, it didn't process. When he didn't have to think,

he was fine. And at Golden State, you've got to think he was fine and golden state you've got to think you gotta think right and and it got to a point where they get off to this bad start that i my educated guess would be that kerr's going hey i'm trying to win some ball games here and like kind of turn this thing around and like i can't keep giving him minutes because he keeps screwing up all the time and the wiseman one like this is playing out to the bad version of it the Kaminga one I think is weird Richard just because there were glimmers of like wait did they get this right okay

I thought he had some great growth in summer league you're like oh okay okay and now it's you know at one point you wondered would they would they try to fight including him in some trade and now you wonder it's far too early to be writing these guys off in November. It's not too early.

And no one's writing them off. It's not too early because I think you would look at them. It's like the Warriors, they need some more adults. Like Warriors have assets. I just. Okay, so you're saying two different things or we're saying two different things. You're writing him off as far as minutes.

I don't want to write him off as a player. Or do you think you're done? Do you think Kaminga is just not actually going to figure it out? Like you're ready to go? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I just don't know if he will figure it out in the window of Clay, Steph, Wiseman, Clay, Steph, Wiggins. I don't know if he's going to figure it out in that window,

right? Of like, these guys got two to three years to me to be elite if they stay healthy, right? Like where they're contenders. And the idea is the passing of the torch. Can these guys ascend, right? Can these guys continue to ascend as they decline? That can make kind of like, you know, Kawhi tony parker these guys ascended as tim duncan and even manu started to have a little bit of a drop off tony and and kawaii and these guys started entering to their prime so there was a tim duncan was that guy you know mano genoble then tony started to get better and so like it kept the scales balanced i don't know if the scales are balanced per se with um with with the young boys.

Like Kaminga is talented. But what they thought Wiseman was going to be is what Evan Mobley is, right? Evan Mobley is this high IQ basketball player, reads, reacts. If you could switch, and again, not that you would trade, but like same skill set, same body type. Wiseman's probably a little bit more physically dominant, right? But like Evan Mobley's basketball IQ is light years away. And let me say this last thing about the Warriors,

what people don't understand of like the IQ. Draymond had four years with Izzo. Steph had three years. Klay had three years. You know, Andre Guadagno had two years with Lute Olsen. Like their core group of guys are like, they were older when they came into the league they had a higher basketball iq when they came into the league and now you're expecting

kaminga and wiseman guys that are guys that are like one and done to be able to play in this fucking and it's not that intricate it's just a read and react system um okay a lot there's not one moment where i ever watched wiseman and mobley and thought these guys see the game the same way and i know you're not saying that but no i'm not saying that's what that's what they thought they were drafting they thought they were drafting a big they they are closer to marvin bagley than they are evan mobile yeah and they're all six foot ten eleven skilled multifaceted you know so if you look at them from their like physicality type, number three, number Marvin Bagley was number two pick Evan Mobley, number three pick wise been number two pick.

So if you're looking at it, you're like, Oh, this is kind of similar, but it's not even like, like I said, he's closer to Bagley than he is mobile. Uh, yeah. And that's problematic. It's just that like, when I watched Mobley in college, I just, I was was like this guy doesn't make mistakes he does not make mistakes and he's a freshman like this is coach's son coach's son there you go but when you look at the 2020 draft you know if you weren't taking lamello after that you weren't taking patrick williams second okoro was the fifth pick in that draft man i mean he's lucky to get minutes as a closing group and it's he can't shoot he can't right i'm not saying that they should have picked i'm not saying

somebody else okay yeah but i do believe this that kaminga if he was in houston and was just given 25 minutes every single night to make mistakes your your basketball it just it just improves so exponentially but when you're like under scrutiny and you're getting 10 minutes and then 12 minutes and then like 20 like that and it's some people can figure it out and tons of guys have and some people it he needs more because he didn't get a lot before he got there i agree with that i think kaminga if you were on a bad team or excuse me i think even if wise been more on a bad team we'd be seeing highlight dunks all the time and that kind of stuff but you're right like i think what you're saying is really interesting though you're not writing off the players you're writing them off of figuring it out in the window with the other

three or four guys and that's a problem that's a problem i mean that's a problem if you're trying to figure out what the rest of this roster is going to do okay uh let's talk a little nets i i mentioned at the open which was uh extensive that you know i'm just i'm just kind of not a ben simmons guy right you know that's fair that's fair that's fair i'm not breaking it don't explain yourself don't don't explain yourself i i understand so looking at kind of his deal i i remember driving around yesterday and I'm like, I bet you Simmons has a nice game because he's been playing better this last week. He's going to get a little chesty, but at the same time as a competitor, hey, the whole city's booing you, so you do something good.

Fuck these guys. No Embiid, no Harden, no Maxey. What am I supposed to make of this? I didn't like it, and I mentioned that I didn't like it, but I also am telling myself, and I'm explaining to you now, I'm totally wrong. I'm wrong. Because him showing anything that resembles confidence is a win for him. It's a win for the Nets.

I know he didn't do anything in the second half. But at 26 years old, him having even these glimmers of showing us of the player he was when he was aggressive with the passing and ramping up the defense a little because it frustrated me against Dallas when he never played against Doncic unless it was in a switch. It's like, what do you do now that if you can't even defend him? If I hear him described as a two-way star anymore,

it just makes me roll my eyes. It's like, which way? Where are you on this knowing that you're very close to this story? I'm calling myself out essentially for being unfair about his demeanor at least in the first half of last night's game I think so many times like we it's

always more complicated than we want to we want to strip it down and make it you know like black and white cut and dry this is what it is prior to his terrible that postseason to his terrible postseason, prior to that, a month prior to that, he was considered one of the top one or two candidates

for defensive player of the year. You could have made an argument for him being a defensive player. So prior to that month. So let's look at all the years that he had. Three-time All-Star, all the things that he had done, all-league defensive. Then he had a really that month. So let's look at all the years that he had three time all star, all the things that he had done, you know, all league defensive. Then he had a really shitty month, really shitty month. And then it progressed into a really bad year because he didn't play basketball. Then at the end, right as he's about to come back, he hurts his back and everyone's like, oh, this fucking guy. Oh, this guy. He has back surgery. Guys don't come come but the guys do not have back surgery unless

they need to guys don't there is no like oh i'm just going to go do some exploratory black back surgery that being said so he has a year off and he has surgery so the first 10 15 games that game is moving so fucking fast if you've taken a year off and you haven't seen a hundred mile an hour fastball, that thing looks like it's moving 200 miles an hour. That's just the truth, right? So the first few games, it was like nothing out there. He's still, his head is spinning, right? And again, let's take the drama out and just talk about the player. So what happens? Five games, 10 games, you're like, oh, here we go. This guy's not shooting. He's not doing this, blah, blah, blah. And mind you, he's in the middle of a very unique situation there in brooklyn it is chaotic for a variety of reasons different coaches the kairi situation so that's not exactly the the calm to

like figure shit out because you're in a big fire and then what's happened the last few games right the last five or six games and you're like well he's played 12 games for the first time in a year. And he's starting to play better. Right. So like from that standpoint, you're like, I'm not going to say he's this, he's that. But like over the last five games, it's like he's scoring 15 points, scoring 20 points. And you've seen a progression. It started where like he'd score 11 points and then he scored 15 points and then he scored 20 points.

I'm not saying that that's going to keep ascending, but... Even the passing in the first half last night, too. Like, that was... You were like, well, okay, here we go. He's getting it. But, like, our level of patience is very similar to Klay Thompson. Right? Like, Klay missed time because he had two injuries.

Ben missed time for not wanting to be there and then had an injury. But we have to still give clay time to be clay. Obviously there's other components, but Ben, the long thing that I'm basically trying to say is that we cannot judge Ben until 50 games into the season, right? Russell Westbrook last year with the Lakers.

And it was just not a good fit. Like, okay, we get it 50 games and this shit ain't changing. But for us to do that eight, 10, 15, 20 games into a season

when a guy didn't play the year before and had surgery in april that's just that's not enough time but what it is showing you is like holy shit he's playing better he is playing better he might not be ben simmons like philly two years ago but he is playing better. There is hope. And if he can go one more notch from where he is right now, one more notch up, even if he's not Ben Simmons, if he goes one more notch up, he's a problem because now he's six foot ten. He's able to finish. He's still doing his thing.

But before it was like he's zero offensive threat. He's sitting there on like in the dunker. He can't do anything for you. That's fair. That's that's not who he is. But if he goes one more notch up, then he's an all-star caliber player if he can go one more notch up from where he is right now. I would suggest that part of my problem is I give Clay the benefit of the doubt because I just refuse to believe that Clay's just going to stink all of a sudden. And it was up and down even in the playoffs. It wasn't good at all times at the beginning,

but I don't write guys off. I don't write off Anthony Davis because I'm like, he's 29. He was too good. And for him to be close, I know he didn't make any shots last year, but a healthy Anthony Davis is still a hell of a basketball player.

And I think we're seeing that. The same thing with Jamal Murray. I haven't liked how it's looked right now, but what does it mean? It doesn't mean, it means everything that you're, it's in response to everything you're just talking about. I think the difference for Ben

where he's his own worst enemy at times is like last year, you know, he has Nick Fridell take a video of him dunking in a practice and he's like, post that and tell him we're coming.

And it's like, and then you don't play. That's the problem. And so, but he had back, he had to have back surgery. but I don't know why he would be like look

out so you're right the whole back surgery thing is is easily forgotten because you just get so frustrated with the player um and i probably bake that into it too much with simmons and it's it's just a very simple thing for me i don't want to keep hearing about you when you're not playing basketball and that's it and that's it. And that's it. And so if he's coming back and he's playing, I think that's the bigger question with the nets. If we even allow it to happen,

especially off a loss, they shouldn't have whatever happens. If all these guys actually play for a few months in a row and it's all geared up towards you, do you, do you still hold out some hope that this, if Harris is back, I think it's getting a little bit better for him.

Seth is back now. I don't like their lack of size, but I still like certain things that class can do a lot I mean I really like the Royston Neal pickup is there any do you let yourself trick yourself into going do I have to keep them on the contender list I think they're the bottom of the contender list right if you have who are the contenders and there there was like, say, six teams, right? I think they're on the bottom or just outside. Because the way you would look at them and evaluate it, they have two of the best shooters as role players, Joe Harris and Seth Curry, two of the best in NBA history, next to KD and Kyrie, two of the best to ever do it, right? So now you look at those four and those skills you don't have size but you're two slash three man and kevin durant is seven feet tall so you're like okay well

kevin you need to rebound we're gonna need you to be a more defensive guy then you have then you have claxton who's serviceable but ben simmons can be the guy that guards yannis he can be the guy that guards like multiple different players so i think it's all there royce o'neill like you said is a great pickup. I think Morris, he missed a ton of time at the start of the season, but I think Morris can be somebody that, you know, Watanabe, what he is doing, right?

Like they're getting these, it's all kind of there. I guarantee you that LeBron James, if you were to take Kevin Durant off of this team and put LeBron James on this team, LeBron James would greatly appreciate this roster take Kevin Durant off of this team and put LeBron James on this team, LeBron James would greatly appreciate this roster. He would greatly appreciate this roster versus the roster that I think he's currently with right now. I'm talking about talent with the shooting, with the versatility, because that's what he craves.

So I just don't think that they're contenders, and I don't think that they would say that they are contenders. But I think that there is 60 games left to figure this thing out uh but you know we'll know more I think we'll know more by the first of the year whether or not the Nets are going to like change that and get back to you know being a real contender and by the way uh Watanabe, Yuta, the shooter, 57% from three, leads the NBA right now. Real minutes. And I always kind of liked him because of his disruptiveness or whatever. I don't know that I love him dribbling all that much. No, you shouldn't.

But he lit it up the other night, too. He was the man for them. He's not even on a guaranteed contract. I think he has to make the man for them. He's not even on a guarantee. He's not even on a guaranteed contract. He, I think he has to make the team after January. Don't again, I believe that don't quote me on that, but I feel like he was on like a non guarantee, right?

Like, you know, we think you were gonna keep you around, but we want to keep that flexibility. So it's like this dude, he might've like, literally if he just finishes the year, the way he's remotely going,

he finishes eight. He's going to make himself so much fucking money because he's a, he's an energy utility guy. He's a, he's a, a shooting version of like, like, you know, a Jeff green, a Jemichael, Jemichael green. Like there's these guys that are just, that are just these utility. Is he a two? Is he a three?

Is he a four? Can he play some small ball five? Like, like he just is a disruptor and you can shoot and you play with energy. Yeah. There's, there's a, there's a space for you. By the way, we were talking about never easier to score. There are currently eight, seven, seven players shooting 50% or better from three. And I looked this up this morning.

There are now 53 players shooting 40% or better from three. 53. Now, that's going to slow down. It was 26 for the entire season last year. Okay, two more things before we let you go because it's going a little bit long. Let's talk fighting. I'm not always the biggest Pat Bev guy. No problem with what he did last night.

They're standing over Austin Reeves like he was Pat Bev guy. No problem with what he did last night. They're standing over all three. He was backing his guy. I don't even know if what Aiton was doing was as vicious as maybe Beverly thought it was. I had no issue. Yeah. I don't like what he says about pushing people in the back. He didn't really push anybody in the back.

That was more of a hip check from the side. The Chris Paul thing was way worse. Yes. Chris Paul thing was way worse. But the other part about it is, is Aiden didn't see it coming. I don't like it if you don't see it coming. Right.

Like that part, that part, especially if you're not an agitator. Do you remember what Morris did? What Morris did to Jokic? Right. Where he body checked them super hard and then walked away. Now that's not, that's a different thing. You don checked him super hard and then walked away. Now that's not,

that's a different thing. You don't body check somebody and then walk away, right? Cause then it's like, well, there should be a reaction, but you're not expecting, you're not protecting yourself at all times. I don't think DeAndre Ayton was in a space where he should have felt like he should be protecting himself because he was doing something so egregious. I don't think that was the case. I don't like it just from a standpoint of like, if you hit somebody when they don't see it coming, or like you body check him and then he falls over him, like if a player gets hurt or something, whatever. I don't like it. I love the energy that Pat Bev is trying to create for this Lakers. Like, I don't give a fuck if we're two and 20. If you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us. That is something that can be commended in any sport, in any situation, on any level.

You mess with one of us, I don't give a fuck if we're 0 and 12. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And that part I respect. So I understand that what Pat Babb is offering. The part about it that's just like, Pat, you can't just, you can't. I'm not going to tell you how to do your job. That's Pat Babb. That's him but that being

said if you see somebody if they can't see it coming you know that that's just a little tough excellent addition to that because you're right um but with a and it's like okay what am i really going to do to this guy but imagine you know he gets legs caught or whatever because he's not he fall like he if he's not paying attention and all of a sudden he falls. Again, we're anticipating a hypothetical injury, which isn't the way you should go. Sure. If somebody can't see it, you shouldn't do it.

Okay. Last thing. Is the closest you ever got to a fight an actual real fight with your teammates? Yeah. But you know me. you've been around me like i i don't really talk to other teams and other players i don't speak unless spoken to that was never my energy but i would talk a lot of shit to my own teammates and my friends like that so i

talk the most shit to them have you told that story a lot uh about about kenyan yeah well yeah it's been told and i think once the draymond situation happened and started those those things started circling but basically me and kenyan just i got into an argument with bonzie wells and the referee was trying to tell kenyan to tell me to shut up so they didn't have to give the rookie a technical with eight seconds to go so i don't know this so kenyan uh kenyan tells me yo like rich man chill out and bonzie's like yeah listen to him and fucking chill out and i'm like fuck you and fuck him that right i didn't know that because we had just lost four in a row this was the year we went to the finals

so we were all like pissed off but i didn't know that it was the referee telling kenyan to look out for me so i go into the locker room and kenyan's like, motherfucker, I'm trying to help you out. And like, I was sitting down in my chair and I was like, I stood up in my chair because you should protect yourself at all times. So like, I stand up in my chair and he like tries to push me down like a big brother. Like, yo man, I'm trying to fucking help you out.

And I blacked out and I started swinging and then we started swinging and that was it. But the whole thing about it is that we are it was like from a competitive space it wasn't like i'm mad at you or wasn't something you said it was literally a misunderstanding but we channeled that and we we've been fine ever since because i remember um you know i used to work with donnie marshall when we did the old celtics stuff and i would ask him about because that that was a really interesting Nets team. And I always liked, you know,

I've already told you about this. I think when we first met, I was like, I was so, before I was even in the media, I was so mad about the draft that year. I was like, how are people sleeping on Richard Jefferson? Like, how are they? And then when you got to be with Kidd, I was like, this is game over.

I was ready to go. I was like, this is perfect for him. Like, what is wrong's wrong with people like that was the first time i was like maybe i could work in basketball if they fucked up this richard jefferson thing so we've already been over that enough but i was surprised at how were you doing it knowing if i take a swing at kenyan then everybody's gonna love me as the rookie or were you legitimately not afraid of kenyan martin because i don't know that i've heard that a ton no like i just like people like my background in basketball was not organized like small quick background no one knew who i was until i was 17 years old i was 17 years old i came out of nowhere i went from unranked to

mcdonald's all-american so what was i doing from 16 that i was playing basketball in a park that's it i was it was white man can jump that's's how I learned how to play basketball. The movie came out when I was 13. And I was like, wait, people can just sit at the park and talk shit and crack jokes and hang out. That's it. So in that space, I saw fucking people get hit with crowbars. I've seen fucking parks clear out because somebody thought somebody was going to go get a gun. I've seen all of this shit. And I say that not for any sort of credit, but it was just more of like, I came from a space that was very like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, this is where we are. If you want to fight, we can fight. I'm not out here looking for fights,

but I also, you know, I ain't no bitch. That's not what it is. It's more of like the NBA and sports in general is, is a test of your fortitude. Like how far people can push you where it is. And I, I don't, if you're going to put your hands on me, which he pushes, he pushed me down. So he put his hands on me first. So once he pushed me down at that point in time, there is no more conversation, right? There is no more conversation. And that's, that's not, and trust me afterwards. Yes. I was like, what the fuck did I just do? Cause I don't know if

I'm going to get suspended. I don't know if Kenyon's going to fucking try and like club me in my sleep. I don't fucking know. But Kenyon, this is where we became fucking tight because as much as my personality was goofy, as much as I was cracking and joking, Kenyon knew that when it came down to it, I would fucking fight anybody with him. Kenyon knew at any point in time, if we were in the fucking thick of the thick, Richard was somebody that like, he ain't going back down for me. He'll back down from nobody. And I think that's where we got a mutual respect. And it's not because I was a tough guy. It's just because I was raised in a basketball environment that like, if you're going to say something, be ready to back it up. If you grow up in the park, there's not referees breaking it up. Sometimes people be like, let them have it out. Let them fight. All right, game point. Let's bring it back. You know, and so that was just how I was out the environment that I grew up in. Not because I was a tough guy, just because, you know, don't fucking put your hands up unless you're ready to fight. Don't put your hands on somebody

unless you're ready to fight. So once somebody put their hands on me, I'm not going to let Kenyon push me and start fucking bombing on me while I'm in my seat. That would be stupid, which very well could happen. We've seen things were unexpected. So once you put your hands on me, like Jordan pool, not, not, that's not the same thing. Once you push Draymond, you have established that there is a fighting situation there. He got in your face, like Kenyon got in my face. And once Kenyon tried to push me down back in my seat, that's no different than Jordan Poole pushing you and getting me out of your face. And you're like, oh, well, I don't expect your teammate.

Once the rules have been established, you need to proceed accordingly. Once you push somebody, you either need to put your hands up or expect a greater reaction coming back at you. Doesn't make it right, but that's just the way it is. And so, you know, I think we saw with Jordan and those of you know, you've been around sports, you've been around athletes. Those are the rules of the game. You don't expect it, but once you establish that there is a conflict,

protect yourself. I think the worst part about it is that you actually ended up hitting Aaron Williams, who does chess, I believe, seven days a week. And he doesn't talk. Literally, Aaron Williams says nothing to no one. And I kid you not. I kid you not. Aaron goes.

So the only reason is because when he grabs Kenyon from behind, so their heads are right next to no one. And I kid you not, I kid you not Aaron goes. So the only reason is because like when he grabs Kenyon from behind, so their heads are right next to each other. So my last punch gets Aaron in his lip and he gets stitches. Now he was one of my vets. And I kid you not, he probably said like 12 words all season. He was just, he was like, no lie. He was like, why? We're like, they say, why doesn't talk? Not a lot of emotion. That's what Aaron went. And he just goes, you're lucky I like you, young fella. And he was the person that I was probably most scared of because he could have grabbed Kenyon, thrown him,

and then it would have taken an entire team to try and pull Aaron off of me. Aaron and I was real respect. I was more afraid of Aaron than I was of Kenyon. I could do this all day, man, but we got stuff to do. Thank you so much. It's always fun. Enjoy the holiday week. We'll talk again soon. Yeah, man, but we got stuff to do. Thank you so much. It's always fun. Enjoy the holiday week. We'll talk again soon.

Yeah, man. Can't wait to be on again. The college football rankings are out from the playoff committee. I have my rankings. They are out now, too. We'll go through it line by line. It'll be a lot quicker because we did a lot of stuff on Monday. We both have Georgia number one.

We both have Ohio State number two. I have TCU third. They have Michigan third. I have Michigan fourth. They have TCU fourth. I have USC fifth. They have LSU fifth. That really pissed some people off last night.

It's not that big of a deal. Florida State's actually a good football team. And yeah, they got trucked by Tennessee, but now nobody likes Tennessee anymore. Again, I still have USC ahead of LSU. I just don't think it's this outrageous thing. Basically, it turns into people that somehow stick up

for the Big Ten West mad that LSU is in front of USC. We both have Bama 7. I have Oregon 8. They have Clemson 8. I have Clemson 9. They have Oregon 8. We both have Tennessee 10.

I have Washington 11. They have Penn State 11. I have Kansas State 12. They have Kansas State 12. I like Washington. I like the Pac-12. I don't like the Big Ten this year. Penn State's wins, Purdue, Iowa, Auburn.

It's not their fault. You know, you schedule to go at Auburn a couple years out. That's supposed to be a much better game. So I have sympathy for them on that one. Good for you. You went down to the SEC. You scheduled this out-of-conference game. You deserve a lot of credit for it.

Auburn stinks this year. Central Michigan, Northwestern, Minnesota, Indiana, Maryland, Rutgers. You haven't beat a ranked team. The Michigan game wasn't close. I guess the Ohio State game was close enough to get some credit. They're going to beat Michigan State this week. They'll be 10-2, and in the 12-team playoff, Penn State will have a chance to win a national championship.

That's a fucking joke. I'd have Utah over Penn State will have a chance to win a national championship. That's a fucking joke. I'd have Utah over Penn State. Now, for those of you asking, how did you come to these conclusions, Ryan? Let's play the fourth best team game and go by conference. I think the Pac-12 and Big 12 are both better than the Big 10. Because I think the drop

off is significant. So let's play this game. Who's the fourth best team in these conferences? Well, in the SEC, you have four teams in the top ten. So your fourth best team would be Tennessee with wins against Bama and LSU. I think beating Bama and LSU in the same season is tough to do.

Call me difficult. Big 12. This one's a little more challenging. I know no one wants to say Oklahoma State after Bedlam. No one wants to hear about Texas anymore or Baylor. I just like the top half of the Big 12 better. I think there's some tougher outs, 4 through 6, than the Big 10. How about the Pac-12? Loaded.

Six teams that are ranked. SC, Oregon, Washington. Fourth best team, Utah. Oregon State, who actually plays defense. Don't forget about UCLA, who, if. Fourth best team, Utah. Oregon State, who actually plays defense. Don't forget about UCLA, who if you really like USC, you have to at least admit that UCLA is a good football team, which they are. I mean, it's not about the ranking here.

We've seen enough. 11 weeks of this, UCLA's pretty good. That's depth. That's better than the Big Ten. Big Ten, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State. Fourth best team. Maryland or Iowa? ACC, Louisville?

There's a weird thing going on in the ACC where the NC State rankings keep counting as ranked wins. Maybe at one point you thought it was Wake. ACC is just not that good this year. So basically what we're talking about when you start comparing the Big Ten to these other conferences, like we're arguing Maryland or Iowa against Utah, Tennessee, or Oklahoma State.

That's talking college football. Before we get to life advice, our FanDuel contest picks. We're going to keep plugging along here. Before we get to life advice, our FanDuel contest picks. We're going to keep plugging along here. Trying to get back to 500, trying to claw back to 500 for myself. Do you have your overall record, Kyle? Do you know off the top of your head? Yeah, I'm one under 500, so I'm five and six.

We're just hanging out. We're just hanging out. Better catch you. Okay, I will... You can go first then, because you're still in the lead. Okay. Thanksgiving're just hanging out. Better catch you. Okay. I will, you can go first then because you're still in the lead. Okay. Thanksgiving games, great slate.

Pat's playing on Thanksgiving. I feel like that's important. So we're going to go with Pat's. I didn't know what I wanted to do. It seemed like there were so many great ways to lose. And then I saw it in the featured bets section

of the Thursday game slate. It's a Matt Judon and a Zedaria Smith, both to record one sack, one full sack each, and that's plus 200 in this game. And I think that's just perfect. That feels a bit back to the bedroom poster play,

the bedroom poster parlay, but I like it. Which is pretty close to 500. It's pretty close to 500. So, I mean, it's the best you can do. Not knocking it, because the public thing that usually puts you on the plus side of things has been a disaster for these NFL picks. So, let's stay with it. Turn this thing around. Right?

Married to the game. Not dating it. Okay, here we go. Texans at Dolphins. That's a Sunday early kick. Opened. Texas getting a touchdown. That line is almost doubled to plus 13.5 points for the Texans.

That is a massive, massive jump. Quarterback-wise, we don't really know what's going on. Davis Mills, noncommittal to him being the starter. It might be Kyle Allen. 13% of the people are backing the Texans, which means 87% are backing the Dolphins. Whenever it's a 90-10 split, that's a pretty rarefied error on the public percentage of bets. All of that, bake it up, and we're staying with the formula. Take the Texans plus the 13.5 at Miami.

It's not going to feel good, but you get a ton of points. You get a ton of points and that line. Lines don't usually jump that much. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Hope everybody is gearing up for a great Thanksgiving. If you're getting the chance to get away from work for a couple days and spending time with family or with football. Because remember when football was having some bad pr stretch there the nfl then it was all of a sudden it's like hey people love having sex during football games check out all these football babies it was a weird time you know i did last night i just had sex i was even better i was like i haven't seen jacked up in a while.

I just, I just typed in jacked up. And, uh, we were just talking about bad feelings about football. Everyone's like, you got jacked up. And it's like the guys,

like his fingers are doing the two a thing. And it's like, wow, this was a different time. Wasn't it? It was. Then you have like a hundred X, like the hundred X player.

Like they used to make videos about big hits, but yeah, no, everyone in ESPN was going, Oh yeah. X player. They used to make videos about big hits. Get them. Everyone in ESPN was going, oh, yeah. That point's been made. It's been made. They used to make big hit videos. All right. Life advice.

Life advice. RR at gmail.com. Okay. This one's saucy. Stats. 30-ish. 170. UFC featherweight type of build. Ooh, sinewy. That's like a taller-than-top-cruise thing.

That's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. No, it makes it sound way better. Well, yeah, good catch, Kyle. He crushed it in the charity and digital currency banking game. Ain't the rap game. Oh, this guy's kind of fun with his words. Yeah.

But I'm liquid, and I get them perks. Quiet, low-key pad, close to the Bahamas. Here is the dilemma. My 10 roommates, all smoke shows. Oh, my God. Come on. What time did he send this in? And whenever one's a little odd,

I'd be like, oh, 3.40 a.m. But then sometimes the Australian ones come in and it'll be like in the middle of the day and I'm thinking like, oh, this sounds like a hammer guy. But then I'm like, oh, he might be just wasted in Perth. Like, who fucking knows what's going on here.

All right, so he's got 10 smoke show roommates. Apparently, he's rich. He lives on an island. Okay. I'm going to check the name here and see if it... I don't know. I don't know if any of this is real or not. It's starting off like it might be a movie script or something.

Right. I haven't asked them for any rent since they moved in. No shit. No shit. They're living there for free, huh? Just a bunch of... You mean you don't... All right.

Anyway. Business was great. My living situation is what you would call polycule do you know what that means is this uh our is this our buddy um ftb or whatever the fuck is his name sbf sbf this is our buddy yeah it's definitely not SBF. But the thing is, SBF didn't have 10 smoke shows living with them. I don't think unless you're super

attracted to coders. All right. Recently, my business in the wallet might be getting a little tight next quarter. How should I approach my very attractive roommates to chip in on the cost of living? I love the island life and can't see myself giving it up. Yeah, this is fake. My bad. It's just fake.

Alright. Moving on. Unpaid parking garage. Alright. Or garage parking. Excuse me. 27, 5, 9, 1, 70. No gym stats. I'm worried I may have taken advantage of a billing error in my rent and put myself in an awkward position.

I moved into my current apartment about nine months ago. At the time, I had no parking. After a month, my building manager told me a garage spot opened up, and I took it. It was supposed to be an additional 125 on my wrench each month. I think he's saying the building manager gave me an access code and told me I'd get a clicker and sign the paperwork shortly after. After about two weeks and multiple unanswered texts, I went to the company's main office building next door. It turned out the

business manager had left before signing me up officially. One of the employees sent me up with a clicker and had me sign the paperwork soon after. At that point, I had technically missed one garage payment. The employee should have realized this, but did not press me about it. So I figured everything would be set and I'd be billed from here on out, but it never happened. I have now paid rent for seven straight months with no garage parking fee. I plan to re-up in three months, but I don't know how to handle the missed payments. Do I say something now? Do I hold out to see if they notice?

Can I get away with back paying if they do notice without jeopardizing the re-upping of my lease? Any advice would be much appreciated. Love, Jeff Green. Okay, look, the parking game is a nasty one. I bought a condo. It's the first place I ever bought in Boston. And being on ComAv, I'm like, what's the parking situation? And they're like, oh, no, there's a spot.

The guy that was selling the building, he showed up at the closing, which isn't always the case, but he's at the closing, and he's telling me like, oh, yeah, you can take the spot that I have, and it costs this much. I was like, I desperately need to make sure I have off-street parking. I have to have off-street parking between the snow shit and ComAv just in general. And of course, I park in the spot, spot and they're like who the fuck are you and they're like that wasn't his spot to to transfer to you it's our spot and there's a waiting list and guess who never got a

spot the whole time tickets boots what's that did you keep your windows those uh those big streets you always you know you're always walking past shattered glass. You're like, ah, please not me today. No, I got broken into twice. Bad. Sorry. And the funny thing is there was some gym stuff in there and a glove for softball, and they didn't want any of that.

They did take out the amps. I mean, they worked it pretty good. And I was so broke at the time, and then I started driving back and forth to ESPN. And I would put- A garbage bag window? No, what I did was, the windows are easy to get fixed because you have insurance. That's why all those glass repair companies crush it because it's the easiest business ever.

Just build the insurance directly. I mean, I want to start a glass company so i i used to take an am radio that the antenna were the headphones okay okay because i didn't have any money to put it back in so the middle of my console was totally empty i didn't have any more like i bought this when i was bartending in vermont and could just be like who cares i'm not i'm young i'm an idiot i'm just putting a two thousand dollar stereo system clarion classic no problem yeah yeah i mean what what's important in your life well rims next yeah rims next oh no done rims rims and clarion and a massive like double 12 inch deal in the back and uh all gone all gone and i think they knew too like they probably had seen me drive around enough and be like, man, that guy doesn't

have the flares on that beat up Durango, but fuck that system pushes. So it's all stolen. And I had no, like the, the way the insurance was going to work, it wasn't going to work out for me. Shocker. And I put the AM, I had this little AM Sony thing where the headphones were an antenna and I wrapped the headphones around my driver's side mirror. So I'd get a signal and then I ran that into another little earpiece and I'd listen to

AM sports talk radio. And that's how I operated for a couple of years. Down bad. Yeah. Down bad. Couldn't afford. All right right so back to this guy um the parking thing i remember just being super pissed about it i i'm on your side here you have tried multiple times to get this sorted out and they have some inefficiency issues here i understand

that you have a bit of anxiety about the re-up and what you're supposed to do, but here's what you're going to do. You are going to play dumb like we've never seen before. You are going to be Ed Norton in primal fear here. You are going to be so weird if they call you out on this and just go, oh, I always thought it was part of the thing. I met with this guy. This guy signed me up. I came back. You may see right over there. Remember when you signed me up?

Yeah, I signed you up. They screwed up. And yeah, there's a little danger there of them thinking like, well, we're an in-demand building and this guy's a deadbeat. You have tried. And by the way, I'm not even thinking about this. All I'm thinking about is i'm up in the parking game which almost all of us lose very few people have ever won the parking game you're winning man you're

a fucking hero there should be a netflix series on you fuck paying this you should be doing interviews years from now being like yeah i was well i was one of the i was one of the rare ones. I'm up like 900 bucks in the parking game. So I would say celebrate this week. Tell more people about how great you are at this because there are very few that walk this earth that are up like you are, my friend. Yeah, I think for most things, when the stakes are low, if it all comes crashing down,

you should totally just be happy with while you're up and try to extend that without doing anything nefarious so um maybe maybe save that money um you know until the until the lease re-ups or whatever and if you get away with it and they start making you pay then great um and and if and if not then you know it sounds like you have a placard right you're not parking illegally and you're not parking like hoping everything's fine. Like you probably have a sticker on your car and whatever. It's probably in the records that you're like.

He's got the clicker. So yeah, well, you have a clicker, but do you have the sticker? Because sometimes the sticker is like, I mean, yeah, he would have been told if he didn't have some sort of thing that recognized his car. So yeah, this is all good.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't, again, don't ask somebody to collect the homework. Just keep on keeping on, man. And save that. And you know what? If it does work out and you don't don't ask somebody to collect the homework just keep keep on keeping on man and save that and you know what if if if it if it does work out and you don't have to pay it then you know use that money treat yourself man yeah this is simple this one's simple I I don't I don't know I mean maybe we'll get a business manager or building manager who's gonna hit us up and be like actually I don't know man I mean the kind of stuff that I used to try to pull to avoid what I was dealing with. You know what I mean?

You ever at your car, you left it downtown for a couple days and it's in a garage. And then you try to sneak up and hit the entry thing so that you have the new fresh ticket. But you need to have two tons worth of weight in order to get one probably. No. I mean, back to some ones you could you could hit it walk up do a drive-by walk up get the fresh ticket uh-huh and then go out and you're like oh i changed my mind you know and i i remember i i didn't do that all the time i think it worked twice and then i went to do it another time and the guy was like actually we take inventory of every car that's left overnight. Yours has been there. It's like 48 bucks. Back then, 48 bucks. It's going to sting. Big deal. It's going to sting. Nothing like putting that

ATM card in and going, I hope it works. I was doing that way too late in life. Way too late in life. Speaking of financial guys that have issues later in life, here's another email. College buddy asked our group chat to co-sign his mortgage. Wow. Six foot, 185, 37 years old, former college baseball player. Has always been consistent in the gym.

Maxed out at 285 years ago. Currently in a workout rut. Needs something new to get me going and break through some plateaus. Will take any suggestions. Jeremy Scott Fitness. Jeremy Scott Fitness. Jeremy Scott Fitness.

As I mentioned, I played college baseball about 15 years ago and have a group text with some former teammates who stayed in touch over the years we were all in each other's weddings and stayed pretty close despite life sending the five of us in different directions we all have kids have been married two divorces so far some of us are more dialed in with each other than others just an aside on divorces i kind of was waiting it out figuring a few of my buddies would be divorced and I'd get the second run with them. We have like no divorces in my main group. None.

I'm not rooting for it, so I don't want to come off as a dick. But you are hedging. Yeah. The premiums I'm paying on this shorting a couple of these weddings, it's just I can't. I'm going broke here even if i think

i made the right call all right so the wild card in our group got divorced about a year ago has two small kids while we all like this guy he's always been the wild card dating back to our college days we all have one he's are you the wild card kyle i you know what i fucking i might be dude i really might be hey I was for a bit I could probably say I was I mean people probably would I'm not in the Tyson zone anymore let's put it that way to quote Bill

the Tyson zone? yeah not anymore just add a little more depth it was just like at a certain point Mike Tyson was like you would believe any headline that came out like Jesus Christ really? it was just like at a certain point mike tyson's like you would believe any headline that came out you'd be like jesus christ really like uh it was just sort of like i think there was a little bit there where they were just like god i really hope this guy's gonna be okay he's a great time but um you know the stories the stories he comes home with sometimes

it's like you did that yesterday like it's the stories sometimes aren't so bad when i tell you they happened seven years ago yeah just like to be like to show up on on sunday morning and be like wait what did you do last night so uh yeah i think maybe maybe i'm probably the only i'm probably the closest thing we have to a wild card in the group but i'm not no it's uh it's an incredible first of all it's uh well said by bill he's always been very good with words tyson's own could good it's just a great descriptor but the timeline part of it you're right like when did that happen and be like oh is that a few years ago i'd be like no it's tuesday and it's like it it's processed i'm always i will continue to be fascinated with the imaginary timelines that we have as a society of like when something magically is now okay right yeah when somebody's done

something wrong and then it's like now it's cool and it's the same thing with suspensions like i'm a little lighter on punishment just because i think everybody's making up as they go along and then immediately after the act happens everybody loses their mind and then it's a contest to see who wants the person punished even more and i'll just be like what the fuck are we doing um and like whatever that line of is when an act, a story is funny to alarming. There is, there is a day where it divides it, where the story goes from funny to alarming or the opposite direction.

Again, that's just, I'm excited for the change to move on the statute of limitations of stories in my life. So I'm excited. I'm excited to be able to discuss the first year or two in LA in the next coming year.

So that'd be great. That'd be great. We've got a backlog of LA stories. Just waiting on those chains to move. Yeah. Sounds good. Can't wait. Hope we're doing this.

All right. So sorry, man. We're killing this guy's email. So he's probably the least dialed into the group out of any of us. Anyway, he has two small kids bouncing between jobs. He's a good dad. Nice guy. The dialed into the group uh out of any of us anyway he has two small kids bouncing between jobs he's a good dad nice guy the other day in the group chat he messaged us out of the blue asked if any of us would be willing to co-sign on his mortgage for his

post-divorce house because he couldn't qualify on his own and needs to close in less than a week our vibrant light-hearted group chat has since gone silent what a great sentence. That is an incredible sentence. Boy, that's going to be a feeling, man, when you reach out to your main dude, your course, and you're like, anybody want to co-sign my mortgage?

And the chat's been firing all week being like, are the bills going in the wrong direction? How's your fantasy team? Dude, did you see pictures of heather from college um nothing and then it's like hey anybody want to co-sign a mortgage crickets give me an insult give me something yeah one guy there's not one guy going all caps not at all dude right uh so the question is pretty simple what is the play here do we address it head on ignore him give him a hard time about it make a joke we all just want our group chat back but it feels like it might be dead well i think you guys are all on the right path here the play is to clearly

not do it uh when you're younger i remember like a buddy of mine when we just out of high school he started i could call it dating but an older woman and he was trying to get one of those hondas were they the cbrs do you know anything about bikes i don't no i just remember there was this really like sick honda and i think it was fuck was it a this was a 650 or 900 i don't know i don't care i'm not going to get into it think it was, fuck, was it a 650 or a 900? I don't know. I don't care. I'm not going to get into it. But it was an absurd bike. And it was even more of an absurd bike considering where we were living growing up. And he just pulls up in it like he had wanted it and he had enough for the down payment. He had enough for the payments and he couldn't get it. And then he just started sleeping with his chick. He was like, I'll co-sign. So when you're younger,

you're just going, hey, anybody want to co-sign? Look, if you have a parent that is willing to do it, an older sibling that is willing to do it, somebody in your family that's willing to do it, and there's absolute trust there, then I'd kind of allow it. But there's some people listening to that going, even then, that's a bad time. That's who's in Judge Judy. That's who that is. Because as we all know, as you get older and start realizing how important this stuff is

when you're trying to do your own thing and somebody else fucks it up you can't put your family in that position and you basically have said this guy seems like the least backable out of your entire group i mean if he's 37 granted divorce can fuck you up a little bit there can be some recent transaction history there that isn't all that appealing to lenders. So it sucks. You have sympathy. Not everybody with a bad situation on that paperwork means that they're a complete deadbeat and not backable, but the banks have a lot of options and a lot of people to choose from, and they're not as likely to hook this guy up. Or he could pay a worse rate, or he could kick in a little bit more on the down payment. But yeah, I think somebody needs to just fire a joke. I think somebody needs to fire a joke,

get that chat back. And he already got his answer. He already got his answer. He just wants his friends now. Yeah, right. Like, do you want to lose the house and your friends? Because none of us are doing that, dude.

None of us are doing it. I'm not saying it's an impossible thing, but it is, as you get older, it's a scary thing to put is as you get older it's a scary thing to put at risk yeah for me the dudes in the friend group with the most sympathy are from me are the ones that are like separated dads like dads that you know feel like they they just have you know they got way more shit going on and i don't know how much credit they're getting for the shit they are able to pull off and and i'm pretty sure they get a lot of like

bad credit for the shit they can't make happen so. And I'm pretty sure they get a lot of bad credit for the shit they can't make happen. So I understand why. If it was a regular friend without kids, you wouldn't even be emailing us. You wouldn't even care. It would have been kind of a big joke from the beginning. But I think when there's a guy with kids who's not together with the mom,

and you just generally know that guy's got a lot more stress. So I can see why, but that doesn't, that doesn't mean that's no excuse for, for just willingly putting your, yourself in a situation where I'm going to see you at the courtroom block in the, in the next year or so. So I think, yeah, just make a joke. It's, it's a no, it's a no for me, dog, but that's okay. Just make a joke and get this thing back. Cause I mean, he knows it's a ridiculous thing to ask and just because you know maybe you're a non-confrontational friend group but uh you definitely have to come up with a good joke and you you're probably gonna have to be the one to do it because uh you reached

out so it's on you get this thing back in time for the holidays dude and by the way the way the story is told to us too it's just out of the blue that's not the way you do this this is not the way you ask one of your buddies to co-sign a fucking mortgage just be like randomly hey hey dudes just a thought any like you would reach out to the one that you were closest with that you have the best chance with and go hey this is a really so the pitch was bad shark tank would have been like out across the board immediately we wouldn't even gotten a commercial they would have had to fill so uh on this one i think somebody just fired because he already knows he already knows he had no chance he's already asked other people like it sucks it does suck but it's gonna suck way worse for you to one screw up your own credit which none of you guys are clearly doing um and you know who knows in years, you could be like, remember when Dave hit us up

about a mortgage? It becomes a little joke. Again, happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Thanks to Kyle. The Ryan Roussel Podcast. Bring your spot on. Outro Music you