The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Chet Holmgren Hype Train and Durant/Mitchell Trade Futures With Chris Mannix, Plus Being Hot and Life Advice With Joe Manganiello

Episode Date: July 7, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on Chet Holmgren’s NBA summer league debut (0:33), before taking with SI’s Chris Mannix about seeing Chet Holmgren in person in Salt Lake City, the likelihood that Donovan Mitchell will be traded from the Jazz, how the Nets will handle Kevin Durant’s trade request as they try and build their roster for next season, the Celtics' acquisitions of Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari, and more (13:00). Then Ryen is joined by actor Joe Manganiello to discuss some of his past works, including ‘Magic Mike,’ ‘Spider Man,’ his new show ‘Moonhaven,’ comic book culture, and more (38:38), before sticking around to answer some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:01:02). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Chris Mannix and Joe Manganiello Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, we have a bunch of things to do today. We're going to do a little open on Summer League because Chet was awesome in Utah. Speaking of Utah, Chris Mannix is going to be there. We have a ton of good stuff with him. The future Donovan Mitchell there. We'll do some KD Kyrie stuff as well. And then we've got Joe Manganiello talking about his career.

And he does life advice with us as well. So we'll have some fun with that. Enjoy. It's weird where it doesn't feel like summer, but Summer League always reminds you it's summer. Maybe it feels like summer for you, but it just feels like the work keeps going through the draft and free agency. It's like, oh, that's right.

It's July. And it was a reminder it was Summer League with everything that happened with Chet Holmgren in his first game for the Thunder. He was awesome. He hit every shot. He gave you the Dirk step back, knee up. It was basically like all these other guys on Utah's team

didn't know anything about Chet Holmgren. And you can tell maybe they did know. And they're like, I'm going to take it to this skinny dude. And then it's like, like wait he blocks every shot this is really hard to finish at the rim um no I'll get him no I'm gonna take this guy I'm gonna take it nope he he volleyball spikes my dunk attempt so it was really good and that means it made magic fans feel really bad. Because you're watching it going, wait, is this guy going to be awesome? Is this guy going to be like a transformative type of player who just all of a sudden your organization is totally different?

And by the way, now Paulo Bonqueiro is not playing. You know, he hadn't played yet. He'll play tonight. So watching it all play out on social media, because it was the first chance to get to take a look at him, there's a couple of things we need to remind you of. All right. So let's just kind of run through it.

First of all, and I looked this up. I don't know how accurate to the digit this number is, but apparently it's about 75% of the players that you'll watch in summer league are never going to be on an NBA roster. So there's that. I remember when Trey Young played in summer league a few years ago. And remember, there was two different Summer Leagues that he played in. Trey played in the Utah one, then was in the Vegas one. Because if you look at the overall numbers, you're like, wait, why did Trey Young, why does everybody always dog him for how that he played in the Utah League. He shot 12 of 52 overall for 23%, and from three, he was three of 24,

a hefty just south of 13% from three. He even actually missed a million free throws in those games as well. And because it was Trey who led the country, I believe, in scoring and assists and then couldn't make a shot, it felt like as he closed out the college season.

And more importantly, it wasn't what he didn't do at Oklahoma. And that team wasn't very good. It was what Luka could potentially be. It was trading out of the spot for Luka to take Trey Young. So that's why there was even more focus on Trey.

And then there was a bunch of, oh my god, this guy sucks reaction. And as I always joke about Summer league, I only care about summer league if it reinforces my opinion on a player. And it's a joke because I don't like, I'll admit all of us probably have, if you like a guy and he's really good in summer league, you're like, yeah, I kind of knew it. And then if he stinks and he didn't like the guy, you're like, yeah, yeah. And then there's just a bunch of other results that don't even mean anything anyway. Let's run through some first-team summer league recipients. Again, each year there's five guys named to the first-team summer league. I don't know if it's all summer league, whatever.

Jordan McRae, Alan Williams, Doug McDermott, Glenn Rice, not his dad, Tony Snell, Doug McDermott again, Ghani Lawai, remember him, Georgia Tech, Derek Character, Jermaine Taylor, Dominic Jones, Reggie Williams, Sam Young. There's an old joke in there, except it isn't a joke. He was All-Summer League at age 25. I think the oldest recipient I've ever seen, at least in modern times, as scholars would point out. Alonzo G., shout out Spencer Hawes, Craig Smith, BC, Vaughn Wafer, Ike Diago. Now, there's some better names recently. If you look through some of the all-Summer League stuff and some of the MVPs, you're like, wait, that guy's pretty good. Like, yeah, some of the younger players, first picks get out there. Let's see what you got.

So I think it's actually getting a little bit better. I'm not going to run through a historical transformation of all-Summer League award winners. But when it comes back to Chet, the point is that he's supposed to be good, right? He's a guy who could have been number one. And all of us that did anything with the draft, I don't know that there's anybody that didn't love the guy or what he could potentially be. It was just the fear of what the downside could be. But like anybody, when you start talking about rooting interest, I started thinking about

this again. I'm not a magic fan. I don't care. We'll have Suri to jump in here in a second. Because he and Kevin Clark jumped on a Spotify live. I think there's 3,000 people listening to it. And there's a fear because you're a magic fan, at least in this case. You're like, wait, did they screw this up again? Now, I would point out, if you look at the history of the magic drafts, it always felt like in recent history, and I'm talking like the last seven, eight years, however you want to frame it, it always felt like the draft kind of stopped before their pick. Not to say that there were other good players that they passed on later on, but the way it felt going into the draft,

like, is this a three-person draft in that first year that it felt like Orlando would have the next pick? The tough part with the Scottie Barnes-Jalen Suggs thing is that Barnes was not supposed to go fourth, at least on some of the ranking stuff. It was thought to be this coup. They got Jalen Suggs. It's pretty clear Scottie Barnes is going to be pretty special. I actually think they would have taken Scottie Barnes if he had been fifth. So there's a pattern of this happening with Orlando. But in this case, they have the number one pick and they pass on Chet, who for a game against Utah, where it was with Utah Jazz announcers, kind of be like, hey, I got to tell you, this guy, he's making some shots out there. And they're still kind of selling the Jazz side of it while it's supposed to be a national broadcast and somewhat neutral.

And Chet missed a bunch of shots in the second summer game that he had. None of this truly matters other than if he were going to be this guy, even at the number two pick, he's supposed to be good here. And if he were physically overwhelmed, that wouldn't mean write him off. And just like some of these other performances that we've seen, I think it makes sense that he was going to be pretty good because he's a really, really skilled player. And by the way, at Gonzaga, they ran the fourth most amount of plays for him. There's three other guys that were a higher priority in that offense than there were for

Chet. So him just getting more shots, playing with Giddy. And on top of that too, Oklahoma City, you start to look at like some of the young pieces they're putting together. It's a really fun team. And he had a great, great intro into the NBA world, which face it, a lot of people probably reacting to it hadn't really dug in and watched him. And then you're watching it going, wait, another team passed on him, which then leads to the angst of if you are a Magic fan, you're like, did we screw this up? I was trying to think of a comp for this because this is a good exercise to run through when you think about like, okay, which teams do I care the most about?

What's like my biggest, my peak fandom and your team missing out on somebody that you had a chance for, whether it be in the NFL draft, basketball, I would say baseball free agency was a big one for me or even at the trade deadline. I remember being really pissed that the Yankees got Jeff Weaver once. I think it was 20 years ago. I was like, oh man, they got Jeff Weaver. Didn't really work out for the Yankees. I'm trying to think of other ones. Jose Contreras going to the Yankees was another. That would

be my peak stuff. It'd be the Red Sox not getting a guy and then the Yankees end up getting him. Apparently, the Sox thinking they were all the way in Contreras. You'd have to go back and read all the stories. Apparently, Theo Epstein broke a chair in a hotel room. I don't know if it's true or not because he was so upset about not getting him. I think Contreras was with the Yankees for two

years, but that made it even worse because it was the unknown because there's this unbelievable extra value in the unknown. And that kind of gets us back to draft picks. But for most people, we've watched these draft picks because unless they played completely overseas like a Luca and you're looking to find this stuff, there's stuff you can find whether they played in college or you know you pay deeper attention to that but when it's a when it's a baseball player that's foreign you know i imagine there's other fan bases that missed out on dice game at sasaka thinking ah damn it like this guy you you're hoping you're thinking that it could be something that you've never seen before and it almost never is that,

you know, it almost is never as good as you build it up. But the unknown part of it from Petraeus, I remember just being so frustrated. And the top of that, the Red Sox, not getting him, the Yankees getting.

So I bring in Cerruti here right now. I can't imagine there's anything other, any other thing in your sports fandom. And you have a weird combo of things. You're a Niners fan you're a magic fan you hate baseball uh i don't i don't know yeah i'm sure there's probably some premier league thing that goes on with you although wait you're you're a roma guy so i refer yeah i refer roma they just want a trophy so what's up uh but i do team is Everton, which they're a disaster. All my teams

have had some random weird ups and downs. Let me just frame it this way. This has to be the most anxiety you've ever had or will be about a player that you were there, you could have had him, and

now, whatever Paolo is, there's still going to be this haunting lingering feeling of what check could be become uh what he could become the show i should say yeah but i mean remember back in what was it the 2004 uh draft right when it was a mecca okafor and dwight howard and they took dwight and a lot of people were saying no you take you take the guy you know you take a mecca champion in college like this guy's ready to go, Dwight's a big question mark. And obviously they went with the more raw guy, it was the right decision.

I'm not saying that's what's going to happen here, but I think, I coined the term, it's Chet FOMO, and that's the problem, is that every time Chet does something like this, you're going to have this weird, shitty feeling if you're a Magic fan, because he's going to do some really awesome stuff a lot of times and like i'm not even saying like chet's gonna have his struggles in the nba like i think that this came across on twitter and maybe in our spotify live of me saying that you know i i think he's gonna be this perfect prospect and because he succeeded in his first like 10 minutes in summer league he's all of a sudden he's gonna

be a hall of famer i didn't say that i have just been along this entire time saying that chet is going to be such a fun player to watch one way or the other and i think he's going to be good that when he whenever he does stuff like this it's going to be hard for magic fans not to kind of feel like oh shit it's like this could have been our guy like he's so fun and again this doesn't mean that paulo isn't going to be fun to watch or isn't going to be good uh i just i just know that the chet fomo is going to be a real thing and i do think he probably landed in the best place for him the chet fomo is going to be a real thing and i do think he probably landed in the best place for him in okc so he's going to be able to kind of like grow in a way that he might not have been able to grow in orlando and it's you know who knows

it's like an alternate universe thing like would he be as fun in orlando as he potentially could be in okc i don't know but i was just excited as a guy who wanted shit wanted the magic to take chat number one i was excited to see him look that good in his first uh in his first summer league game and i don't think that's like a bad thing for me to say i'm not saying that he's wanted the Magic to take Chet number one, I was excited to see him look that good in his first Summer League game. And I don't think that's a bad thing for me to say. I'm not saying that he's going to be unbelievable and that he doesn't have his flaws. I was just excited.

I don't think you're telling the truth. I think you hope he ends up not being good. No way. No, no, no. Chet? No, I would never do that. You want him to be a Hall of Famer? I do.

Only because i stuck my neck out i mean shit this is like my first like real wait wait so you'd rather take you'd rather you'd rather be right about your draft analysis and have the magic miss out on this no no i wish they i hope they're both good like i'm rooting i like paulo too it's not like i don't like paulo but but like i'm not not rooting against chet just because the Magic didn't take him. I'm rooting for Chet because I would have taken him number one. And that's the thing.

People are... There were some Magic fans mad about why are you and Kevin talking about this? Magic didn't take him. Are you saying that... Now you're saying the Magic made the wrong decision and Paulo hasn't even made his debut in Summer League yet. Well, I said they should have taken Chet number one

before the draft. Nothing has changed for me in the couple weeks since the draft, including one Summer League game. Nothing has changed for me. I still think they should have taken Chet. So for me to say that, you know, I'm excited and like, these are all the things that I saw him do, you know, all the Dirk's, you know, the Dirk step back

and the pull up threes and transition, the ridiculous blocks, all that stuff. I'm like, he's going to be a stat stuffer and he's going to be maybe the most unique guy in the entire league and maybe a top five league pass guy to watch all of these things I said before the draft. And I still believe now. And I also still believe Paulo could still be a good player. So I am rooting for both of them to be good, but I do want,

I do want you to be good because I think he'd be an awesome player to watch in the league. Okay. All right. Well said. All right. So that summarizes where we're at with that. And Chris Mannix awesome player to watch in the league. Okay. All right. Well said. All right. So that summarizes where we're at with that. And Chris Mannix is out in Vegas for summer league.

So we're going to talk to him. And then a little bit later, as we mentioned at the top, Joe Manganiello going to hang out and then also do like advice. Chris Mannix sports illustrated. Also the volume network podcast of cow herd. He joins us. He was out in Salt Lake for the first part of Summer League.

He'll be headed to Vegas here soon. So we opened with Chet. And there's a bit of a reminder. It's like, you know, people did think he was going to be really good, but it was just so phenomenal in that first game. What was it like being in the building, reaction, everything after? Well, look at it this way. If you are a Chet holmgren believer you saw a lot in that first game and in the first two games really to make you believe that this kid was going to be a

star i mean he has an incredibly diverse offensive repertoire already to the point where you kind of wonder, did Mark Few at Gonzaga know he had this? You didn't see a lot of this stuff when he was in college. He can shoot the three, he can play off the dribble. It's such an incredible advantage to have a guy who can catch the ball off the glass and go. The list of centers in the NBA that can do that is one, it's Nikola Jokic. And if Chet Holmgren can show he can do it consistently, he's going to be a dangerous offensive weapon for them. Good ball handling skills, all the offensive skills.

So if you believe in Chet, you saw what you wanted to see. If you don't believe in Chet, you also saw what you want to see. Like, I talked to coaches there during the last couple of days, and the skeptics among them were like, yeah, he was knocking down three-pointers, but he was shooting those threes because he realized early in games he wasn't strong enough to get by guys. And if you watch the way he played defensively,

yeah, the stat line said six blocks in that first game, a few more in the second. But you also see guys like Kofi Cockburn and Kenny Lofton Jr. going into his chest and just barreling right through him. And these are summer league players. What's going to happen when NBA players take it to him? What kind of quick foul trouble? I also watched him matched up with Taco Fall in that first game. And I was watching away from the ball a lot. Taco was just... He committed nine three-second violations that I saw. But he was just planted in the paint and just pushing Chet around. So if you don't believe in him, if you believe that the strength is going to be an issue and it's going to keep him out of games and keep him from being successful offensively, you saw that too. So I think you got a little bit of everything from Chet in these first couple of games.

All right. That's about it. Is there any other Summer League notes that we have to hit on from Utah? We're gearing up for the main event here. Because I don't want to ignore or forget anything, but I also don't want to spend 20 minutes other Summer League notes that we have to hit on from Utah where we're gearing up for the main event here? Because I don't want to ignore or forget anything, but I also don't want to spend 20 minutes on Summer League. No, I think that's, at least from the Salt Lake Summer League, I think that's it.

Okay. All right. Let's stay in Salt Lake, though, at least for the Utah Jazz. You've known Ainge a long time. You've covered it kind of locally locally too, on top of nationally. I don't think this is a huge surprise, but help us try to figure out what the roadmap is here for the rest of what the Jazz are trying to do with this roster.

I think the exit of Donovan Mitchell is an inevitability. I don't know if it happens in the next two months, but by this time next year, I don't believe Donovan Mitchell will be on the roster. When Danny Ainge got this job, the one thing I knew was he will not be satisfied with just being good.

With Danny, you're either great or you're awful. There's no middle ground. He has no appetite for being a playoff team, a first-round-and-out type of team. That's why he worked in Boston. Boston doesn't have an appetite for being a playoff team. Utah is a different city. It's a different market. They haven't experienced

the playoff success the Celtics have had in the past. They love Donovan Mitchell. He's the guy that guided him out of the post-Gordon Hayward mess in Utah. But Danny doesn't care. He is the least that guided him out of the post-Gordon Hayward mess in Utah. But Danny doesn't care. He is the least sentimental human being when it comes to sports that I know. And the second he got that job, I figured something was coming.

Then you have the Will Hardy hire, a five-year contract for a first-year coach. That tells you he's fireproof when it comes to a rebuild. The trade for Royce O'Neal, obvious warning sign right there. Rudy gets dealt. I mean, this is a domino effect, Ryan. This is all... I believe the reporting out there, the people out there that are saying Jazz are going to build around Donovan Mitchell.

I believe that's what they're being told. I don't believe that's what is going to happen because why would the Jazz, who are clearly attempting a rebuild, want to be the 11th best team in the Western Conference when they can compete for the 15th best team in the Western Conference? It doesn't make any sense. So my belief is that at some point, and it doesn't have to be immediately, it doesn't have to be before training camp my belief is that donovan mitchell will be the next guy to go with this team and it's a question of when not if okay i want to bring back the hardy point then a follow-up on mitchell because you're right i remember when the stevens thing happened and it surprised everybody he's like wow ange grabbed brad stevens and then it's like he had a six-year deal and that told

you immediately like okay they're gonna they're to tear this thing down. And by the way, that team wasn't exactly some amazing team that they couldn't tear down anyway. I would argue this Utah team is much better positioned than the prior Boston team. And then the weird thing about Stevens is that he wins 25 games that first year. Then they were just completely ahead of schedule. ahead of schedule. I can't believe that team was winning 40 plus games and then they're competing and you're like, wait, this is weird. And so it's all happening. We started having all these Brad Stevens conversations, but that is a very important factor because that means that, all right, let's back it up. Why did Quinn want to leave? Ainge has already been in place. They're offering Quinn Snyder extensions. Quinn's like, nah, I'm good. And no one thinks he's done coaching. So Quinn wants to leave. Hardy gets five years, never coaching before.

You're right. Like we're being told what's going to happen here, despite, as I have read as well, all these reports that Mitchell's staying. So now I want to pivot that and do, you know, Ainge players, you know, when Marcus Smart was drafted by them, I go, you know, this is know when marcus smart was was drafted by them i go you know this is the most age guy ever like if you watch smart in college you're like no one should we we shouldn't have debated this if smart was available he was taking the smart personality over randall's personality let's say that mitchell i could understand someone kind of talking themselves

into mitchell as an age guy create, can shoot it a little and all this stuff. But I wonder if there's a disconnect of age going, Hey, I like him, but I actually don't think you're like a keys to the franchise kind of guy. So what do you think? Do you think Mitchell is an age guy? No, I do not. Um, he's a, I don't at all. He's, he's a great player, but you look at the guys that Danny has drafted in the last decade or so. You mentioned Smart. Brown, who was not a home run draft pick back in that draft, was booed on draft night, in fact, by the collection of Boston fans that thought Chris Dunn was the savior of the franchise. Dunn was the savior of the franchise. Jason Tatum, Robert Williams, Grant Williams, a lot of these guys, same characteristics, long, versatile, can do a whole bunch of different things out there on the floor.

I don't think Donovan Mitchell is as bad a defender as he was last season. I think he came in a little bit or a lot out of shape into training camp, and that snowballed for him on the defensive side, but he's never going to be a high level defensive player. And he's kind of, you know, is his best position point guard or two guard. He's not really kind of a two position player necessarily. So I don't, I don't believe Danny Ainge looks at Donovan Mitchell and says, that's a foundational piece for the next five, 10 years.

We're going to build around that guy for the future. More importantly, you know, we'll talk about the market for Durant and what it looks like right now. In the coming months, the market for Donovan Mitchell,

I believe, is going to be incredibly robust. Like Danny Ainge, he only makes deals when he smells desperation. He smells desperation better than any executive I've ever been around. He can smell it from a country mile. And he smelled it on Minnesota.

And he got Minnesota to give up all those draft picks. I like the victory lap Minnesota seems to be taking about not giving up Jaden McDaniels. Well, you gave up the equivalent of five first-round draft picks. Let's not act like you didn't give up the store to go and get Rudy Gobert. There are teams out there that are going to give up the equivalent of that or more to get Donovan Mitchell. I mean, New York remains potentially crazy. And they have a cache of draft picks, a young player in RJ Barrett, some other pieces they could throw in a deal. Miami, Tyler Hero, whole bunch of draft picks.

If Danny Ainge and Pat Riley can ever get on the phone, well, they probably wouldn't, but they could make that deal get done. Phoenix, let's say Phoenix doesn't get Kevin Durant. Well, the Suns could be looking out there saying Malik Bridges and all our draft picks could make a difference there.

There could be a bidding war in the coming months for Donovan Mitchell amongst teams that are desperate to get him. Miami might see Donovan Mitchell as the guy that gets them on the Milwaukee, Boston, maybe Philadelphia level in the Eastern Conference. New York, if Jalen Brunson doesn't turn out to be the savior of that franchise, they may decide,

look, we get Brunson, we get Mitchell, we got something there to build around in New York. Here's six first-round draft picks and R.J. Barrett or whatever. Same thing with Phoenix, who according to a good piece by Kevin Arnovitz, doesn't care about the draft anymore. So they might throw draft picks

in that thing. So I just think, Ryan, there's going to be teams that are tripping over themselves to make Gobert plus offers to Danny Ainge, and at some point, he's going to take one of them. Yeah, but to make go bear plus offers to danny age and at some point he's going to take one of them yeah but i would agree with the original point too there's no there's i don't think there's like a mandate for him i don't think and it wouldn't be a mandate from ryan smith it would just be age going i don't i don't need to do it right now

and that's kind of the way he operates and i totally agree with you i also think there's this is something we haven't really talked about but if it ends up being like another massive package where let's say in three years there's a draft where it feels like four teams have 12 of the picks it could backfire a little for some of those teams I don't this is all just projecting ahead but like if you're a team going hey I want to I want a first or whatever and then you're're like, well, I have four of them. It's like, yeah, but so do three other teams. Some of the pricing of what people will think those picks would be worth in a couple of years, it may not be the same

if you have multiple teams with multiple picks. Let's just move on from that then. All right. One thing about Mitch, one thing about Jazz, though, I go back to where they are right now with Mitchell. I can count at least 10 teams better than Utah. If you're a Sacramento fan, maybe it's 11 at this point. So they're one way or the other.

They're going to be mired in this below average, mediocre space. And that's not where Danny wants to be. If you're going to be bad, you're going to be really bad. And you're going to mail it in. And that's why I think before the end of the season, we're going to see Mitchell get moved. Before the end of the season. Yeah, I think there's a trade deadline type of deal. Because again, those teams I mentioned,

the desperation will be, you'll be able to smell it coming off them by February. What's the latest with Durant? So I talked to a couple of executives pretty regularly that are well aware of what Brooklyn is looking for. And every time I talk to them about the asking price, I get told much of the same things. They want two all-star caliber players and they want draft picks. And if you are prioritizing something, it's the players that they want.

Like they want the draft picks, but they don't want one good player and six draft picks. They'd rather two good players and three draft picks. They want to find a way to remain competitive. I think Sean Marks... Someone said this to me the other day.

When Sean took the job, he really didn't give a damn about those Celtics picks. That wasn't his fault. Like, you know, if the Nets bottomed out and they transferred some picks to Boston or they swapped some picks with Boston, all right, it sucked, but it wasn't on him. Like, that was Billy King's responsibility. He didn't take a hit for that. Sean Marks and the Nets front office, they don't want to give Houston good draft picks.

Like, one way or the other, they don't want to give Houston good draft picks. One way or the other, they don't want to give Houston anything better than a middle-of-the-pack or late first-round pick. So they're prioritizing getting talent and staying playoff competitive, deep in the playoff competitive, whatever you want to call it. So that's why I keep hearing. They're looking for players specifically, and those players aren't out there right now. There has not been enough traction or enough... I'm not sure what the problem is at this point,

but the DeAndre Ayton centered swap has not really crystallized right now for Brooklyn. And other than that, there hasn't been a lot out there that teams are calling with that makes any sense.

Nobody's giving up two of their top players. They're just not doing it at this stage of these negotiations. So I think this is going to take a while. I really do. Because as far as I can tell, the Nets asking price is too high for teams to really even think they're coming close to meeting it.

Yeah, I mean, it's just not the way these trades work historically. The team that's already established is trying to add. You have to be somewhat established to even be adding Durant. And those trades, it usually doesn't mean like, okay, well, now we'll trade our star for your star because we like your star better. Now we just add them to ours. So they might get something back. That's where the New Orleans package is always pretty interesting. But do you hear anything on them being in on it? But then again, we've also learned, I don't care if Durant has four years on his contract left. If he doesn't want to be in New Orleans, you can't trade for him. Yeah, I think that's a bigger part of it. Yeah. I don't know that New Orleans has offered a Brandon Ingram-centric package at this point.

It would probably have to be Ingram and somebody else as well. I think Herbert Jones is someone Brooklyn would want back in a deal, and that would make me queasy if I was New Orleans because there's your best defensive wing, and someone that's proven he can make three-point shots, plus traffic. It's just a lot. I think New Orleans,

right now, when I talk to people down there, it's not many, but occasionally, they're just basking in the glow of getting Zion. They got this guy's name on a contract. They figured it out. I do think they'll be perfectly happy going into next season with Zion, with Ingram, with CJ, and seeing what they got.

How good are they with Zion? And if they're, after the end of the season, one piece away from winning a title. I just don't know if they believe they're there at this point, which is why I don't think New Orleans is willing to go all in to get Kevin Durant, nor am I sure if Kevin Durant wants to be there. I mean, it's a good team. It's a great city, as you know, but I don't know that he is interested in playing there.

Would you do Tatum and Picks for Durant? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, thank you. I'd do Brown and Picks for him. No, I'm not putting Tatum in that deal. Tatum is Durant in a couple of years. I've always said, I said this rookie year, I was on TV in Boston,

I was getting laughed at saying Tatum's going to be a 30-point-per-game score. I believe that. He's going to average 30. I wouldn't put him in that type of deal. The question becomes, Ryan, not would you do Tatum and picks, would you do Brown, Smart, and a couple of picks to get him? And that's what I find interesting because people's antenna that I've talked to went up after the Celtics acquired Brogdon. 10 guys on the roster who are used to playing NBA minutes.

And that can cause some problems within a team. Like, you know, guys can say, I'm all for the team. I'm willing to reduce my minutes, my shots, whatever. But when it gets to like January and that's happening, these guys can get a little bit curmudgeonly, for lack of a better word. So like when that trade went down, I talked to people that wondered,

now would Boston at this point throw Jalen Brown and Smart together and plug Brogdon into that starting point guard role? You've got Durant, you've got Tatum, you've got everybody else. Would the Celtics do that? I don't know that they would. I think Ime Udoka's got a lot of loyalty at this point to Marcus Smart. He's taken a public beating after the finals, which I don't think is entirely fair because Jason Tatum set an all-time record for turnovers

in those playoffs, and Brown kicked the ball around as well, and it was his first finals as a point guard, but that's something to kind of watch. Would the Celtics throw smart into a deal because they have Brogdon, and would that be enough to get the attention of Brooklyn and trade for Kevin Durant?

I agree with you in not trading Tatum. I don't think Tatum's ever going to be peak Durant, though. Durant's at all time great, but he's B plus Durant. Let's call him that around that level. You're also talking about something that I would agree with

in that it's like you could talk yourself into, hey, they're only a couple games away from winning a title. Why would you want to mess with this? It's like, I don't know where they're going to be at in the East. I like them right now. They're better. The Brogdon thing's a risk. Gallinari's a risk.

I think maybe even though I agree with when you have 10 guys that expect to be in a rotation, that usually can lead to some problems. But when it's Horford, who I think you want to pace, even Rob Williams, even though he's younger, you want to pace that out a bit. And Gallinari and Brogdon. Maybe that's part of it. I was always surprised, and I had said this with Bill on Sunday,

I was a little surprised at the overwhelming, like, holy shit, how dumb are the pacers, reaction to the Brogdon trade when it's like he's been available for over a year, and that's probably the best they were going to do at this point. They actually do understand the market for their players better than maybe we think from the outside. And he's not an alpha either.

He thought he was an alpha going into that situation. He was going to be the guy in Indiana, and that's just not his role. I'm less worried about Gallinari. Gallinari is Al Horford insurance. You made that point. It's correct. The Celtics know Al Horford, 36 years old.

They don't want to play him 70 games. They don't want to play him 30 minutes a night like they was awesome but he also you could also tell like there'd be that next game after the other one where you're like okay that's what i expect from a 35 36 year old guy so go ahead no there there are going to be nights that that you know al horford will get a lot of rest i think during this regular season and when he gets rest dalinar is your starting power forward. The playoffs, I don't think he's playable in the playoffs. I really don't. I don't think he defends at the level they need to keep their defense as tight as it is.

But that doesn't matter. He was brought in to be Al Horford insurance for 30, 35 games during the regular season and a break glass in case of emergency guy coming off the bench. All right, last thought here. and a break glass in case of an emergency guy coming off the bench. All right, last thought here. There was a Nets thing going around where you're like, well, if they actually just played Kyrie, Durant, Simmons, Seth Curry,

the other options, bringing Claxton back, which I thought was really important. I thought, again, in that version of the Nets, I really like him. If he's your second scoring option at times, with whatever group you have out there. That might not be the same feeling. I don't know if the Nets would just say, hey, maybe we just see if this works. It's hard with Kyrie, the ingredient thrown into all of this. So what do you expect now on the Kyrie part? I know we kind of made it through a week of the Lakers rumors, but the Lakers probably don't feel like they want to give in right now on adding assets. Although I would argue Westbrook not playing is better than Westbrook playing for the Lakers probably don't feel like they want to give in right now and adding assets. Although I would argue Westbrook not playing

is better than Westbrook playing for the Lakers. Yeah, I think there's merit to that. Look, the Lakers are not getting Kyrie. This is what was kind of conveyed to me. Unless they're willing to take back more money than they're sending out and attach a first-round traffic. So that probably means, I'm sure they'd love Seth Curry, but that probably means Joe Harris, who has the big contract.

And look, you might say like, well, it's LA. Why wouldn't they do that? Well, you and I both know the Lakers are a mom and pop organization masquerading as a multi-billion dollar franchise. Like they count their pennies in Los Angeles. If they didn't, Alex Caruso would still be a Laker. It's just that simple with LA. So there's not a huge appetite in LA at this point

to take on all the money they're going to have to take on to be a deeper into the luxury tax team and have to fork over a first round pick in return. So as long as that is the asking price, the Lakers are not going to get their hands on Kyrie Irving. And I don't think that the Nets will trade Kyrie until Durant is figured out. If Durant's still on the roster, I think Kyrie's still going to be there. Because I think the Nets, to what you said, will probably say,

all right, look, maybe we'll run it back and we'll see what happens in February when we get to the trade deadline or maybe into the season if the Lakers decide to get a little bit crazy. Let's call some bluffs out there. Right now, the Nets know they're basically negotiating against themselves at this point. Our teams know they're negotiating against themselves

against Brooklyn. I'd be more confident, Ryan, about the Nets' chances of pulling off the bring everybody back and succeed move if they had a different coach. I've never been a Steve Nash guy. I thought the Nets were like,

I thought they thought they were really smart and really cool when they hired Steve Nash, who was a part-time assistant, part-time soccer analyst when he took the job in Brooklyn. And he just, I just don't, I watched Emei Udoka coach circles around him in the playoffs last year. And Steve's not really confrontational, which I think you need to be with a group like that.

And I think he has the potential to get steamrolled in a situation like that with all these guys coming back and not be prepared to handle it. So if they had, look, if they had Emeo Doka on the bench or somebody else with a little more, I think, toughness, I'd be somewhat... You mean like Kenny Atkinson? Challenging players.

Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable. Look, the players got Nash because that's what the players wanted, by the way. Which was insane. By the way, if you're Sean Marks, and Sean Marks has gotten a lot of credit over the years, deservedly so, but you watched Emei Udoka on that bench for a year.

You can't tell that's a coaching talent? You can't figure it out? I mean, it would have taken some real stones to fire Steve Nash and elevate Emei, but crazier things have happened in the NBA. I think they wanted Nash because the personality was supposed to resonate with the top

guys. And that hire, that makes sense to me. They didn't want to be pushed by Atkinson. Everybody was outraged by this Nash hire when it happened. I kind of looked at it as like, I think this is very telling that they felt like we need a different kind of personality. Somebody's going to relate to them a little bit more than just putting all the emphasis on the other stuff because they didn't want to be coached by Atkinson. They didn't care. You know, so like, I don't know. I think Nash gets beat up in all of this way too much when he was... Oh, no. No, no, no, no. Look, his offense... I mean, come on. In the first round of the playoffs,

that was the most simplistic offense I've ever seen. Like, it really was. And look, I understand, like, you need Durant out on the floor to succeed. But, like, is Cam Thomas that unplayable that you can't give him five second-quarter minutes to give Durant a little bit of a break? You will never convince me

that the Nets wouldn't have been better off if Durant had been given a little bit of a break so he wasn't on fumes in the fourth quarter of these games. Is Cam Thomas so bad that you can't give him a couple of minutes to reduce Durant's minutes from 46 to 41 in these games? Well, I would counter that with we traded for a guy that stopped playing competitively because he wanted

to leave. We have the Kyrie part of this. We trade for Ben Simmons who fucking shows up to practice telling people he's ready to go with his entourage and then jogs in his sweats off to the side and doesn't talk to us. So yeah, maybe I could have played Cam Thomas a few more minutes, but are you fucking

kidding me with this group? This is my fault? So yeah, I'm pro Nash in this argument because ultimately I think we try to find all these ways to blame everyone other than the players who just decided they didn't want to play. It is first and foremost the player's fault,

but I don't look at Steve Nash as being this elite coach. I'm not saying he's Pat Riley, Chris. I think it's really funny. I love watching an ESPN show where the former players are like, oh, and by the way, Steve Nash sucks. You're like, that's your priority on the list of things that went wrong this year for the Nets?

No, no, no. He's fifth or sixth on that priority list. I just think if you're trying to spin this forward, right? Can it work? I don't think Steve Nash is the guy that makes it work. I don't think he's the guy that glues this thing together and makes it work. I don't think that's it. I'm actually somewhat...

I'm not even reporting this. I don't know anything. I don't know anything. But is Steve Nash the head coach if they gut this team? Or does he be like, alright, goodbye. I'm going back to Bleacher Report and I'm going to call European soccer games. Is he the guy? Do you think he's still there as this team rebuilds?

That I don't know. Would he want to do it? Or do they just go like, hey, we're not going to make you come back, so we'll just advance scout. Advance scout. You could take the Steve Clifford job that he just left behind. Sit there and be a consultant.

Hey, enjoy Vegas, man. Thanks for the help as always. You got it, Ryan. Joe Manganiello has done a lot of things and we want to talk to him about a bunch of those things.

He's got a new show coming up too, as well on AMC plus July 7th, that'll premiere Moonhaven, which when you understand more about Joe, him about a bunch of those things. He's got a new show coming up too as well on AMC+. July 7th, that'll premiere Moonhaven, which when you understand more about Joe, I think a lot of this makes sense. All right, so I was going over the resume. I was trying to just get updated, want to talk to you. And then I couldn't help but default back to Magic Mike,

which I know where a lot of these interviews go. I'm trying not to do the same one that everybody else has done with you, Joe. But I think your role in not only just being an actor, right? I'm always fascinated with somebody who's a creator, director, writer, producer, and you have this vision for what you want the story to look like. And if you were just to pitch this and say, hey, stripper wants to start a furniture company, doesn't get a bank loan, keep stripping. And you're like, how bad is this going to be? But whether it's Soderbergh, whether it's a script,

whether it's all these things, like what is it like when you realize, wait, this is actually going to be a really cool movie in what could be straight to VHS, you know, a decade ago. That's a good question. Yeah. Well, the actual moment happened for me before we started shooting. So I read the script.

I was on set in Atlanta shooting a movie called What to Expect When You're Expecting. And I was shooting with Chris Rock every day. And I remember getting off the phone and coming back to my chair. And I must have made a face. And Chris said, you are right. I said, I don't know. I just got offered. I sent the script. It's about male strippers and he kind of made a face like oh and he said well who's directing Soderbergh and he went ah you got to do it you got to do it and

yeah man but I got my shirt off on true blood all the time and now I'm gonna have my shirt off more man guys are gonna hate me he goes am i allowed to swear on this podcast please he goes he goes motherfucker they're gonna hate your guts anyway okay he said unless you have a sword or a gun in your hand and you're killing like a thousand people then they'll like you rad pit had a shirt off for the first 15 years of his career he's doing just fine and he's's like, you got to do it. And so, you know, I read the script, but the script was like very dry.

Like your pitch, your elevator pitch of, you know, it's a guy, he wants to open a furniture business, but he can't get a loan and he's a stripper. Like that's how the script read. And Soderbergh was coming off of the girlfriend experience with an actual porn star, Sasha Gray. So I thought this is like another one of his like kind of dark, experimental, moody films,

because there were only little lines in the script like, you know, Big Dick Ritchie does the fireman routine, you know, or, you know, you couldn't see it and you couldn't see the humor. And a lot of the scenes with the guys that are in the movie we wound up improvising and while Soderbergh was setting up he was listening to us talk about this nonsense and he's like just do that in the scene and so those became scenes but you know where when I realized the tone and I realized like oh god this is going to be good was you know there's a line in the script about big dick richie uses the penis pump and I thought to myself oh no like what am i you know am i just standing there in front of the guys full front like i'm like this

is this is horrible you know i said can i talk to steven please you know before i say yes to anything so steven shoots me an email that says uh yeah call me at 10 30 on saturday that should give me enough time to stop throwing up okay this guy's got a sense of humor okay so i call him and i'm like what is going on with this penis pump like what do you like what does that mean what how are you going to shoot that and he's like well he's like alex's character and and chan's character are going to be having a conversation but in the bottom of the screen blurry this thing just keeps growing like into their conversation into the foreground to the point where alex like is completely distracted like what is this thing and then we're going to cut back to your face like

struggling with the pump and then cut back to the thing blurry growing to the chance they have to pay attention to that and i just thought oh my god like he turned that little line that seemed really scary into something hilarious the way he was going to shoot it. And I just realized I was in the hands of, of a legendary director, you know, I'm a genius and it's like, I'll do whatever you want. I just, I said, yes, right then I said, okay, I'm in like, let's do this. This is, this is going to be great. I'm serious. Like it's so authentic. It, it doesn't try to be anything more than it's like, let's just peer in on this lifestyle. And it doesn't have these like cheesy lines where it's like well i want to be a stripper it's like i can make you a better stripper it's none of the it's you know because you don't need none of that needs to be said and i was watching your your wedding scene where you know you mock it up and you pretend you're getting

married and then you put the girl in the sex swing and i have to think like if i was your buddy growing up like were they like, this is amazing? Or are they just dying laughing? Because you actually, I think you really nailed this kind of delicate lane of you're a male stripper, so you're going to be a little cheesy. Right. But you also got to be kind of into it, but you're also acting in the scene. And then, I mean, you know, that's going to be different than just a normal sex scene in a TV show or a movie because then you're doing all this acrobatic stuff on everything else. I don't know what kind of feedback you got from it, but I thought you absolutely, you were exactly who that guy would be in that moment.

Thank you. And what's funny is that I did bring a lot of my old, old friends from here. My bros, you know, we watched Steelers and you know NBA playoffs together and you know and and they were rolling laughing I mean they were laughing the hardest on anybody so like they got it you know and yeah I mean like you said there's a there's a very fine line to like male stripper humor but like it's there I mean and and you, and, and, you know, what really helped me was for, before we shot part two, I directed and produced a documentary about a bunch of guys at a club in Dallas, Texas called LaBear. And amongst them was the oldest living male stripper in history.

He was 55 years old at the time had been stripping consecutively since 1979 so and he lived with his mom who was this dietician and his biggest cheerleader and ran their stripper gram company six days a week 10 in the morning till six at night and she was like just a firecracker and uh and and so we went down and shot this documentary about these guys and they were so like unintentionally funny like they kind of didn't know it but like it came off like they were geniuses you know who just they would nail these routines that had that sense of humor so i i remember screening the documentary for reed Carolyn, the writer, and Greg Jacobs, the director, they came over to my house, and I showed it to him. And we were crying, laughing.

And they said, this is exactly what we want part two to be, which is about the guys with that sense of humor. And so that documentary really became like a tonal template for what was going to go on in part two. So if we go back to the beginning because this is this is good i i know the sports background i know you're a huge sports fan everything else but i think guys you know we're very different gender wise for a bunch of different reasons but i think women can be more supportive of their friends when it's like they want to try something different they may not mean it but they're publicly supportive um guys especially when you go like hey i actually think i want to try something different. They may not mean it, but they're publicly supportive. Guys, especially when you go like,

hey, I actually think I want to get into the theater part of this. I always think that's a really tough pivot, especially when you sort of check all the alpha boxes. So what was that like for you once people decided, hey, I know he's good looking in our town, but what's this guy's head at? Well, yeah, once again, that's a really good question and and yeah it was that way and i i think jumping from because i played sports from the time i was a little kid

and and i was always heading shoulders bigger than the other kids you know i remember when i was maybe 10 i scored 37 out of 42 points in a basketball game like if you think about that level of dominanceence at like the 10 years level like old level it must have parents it must have been ridiculous watching me just run block shots and run up and down the court and just lay it in well how big were you at 10 i mean i don't know how big i was at 10 but i know that like i was dunking before the summer before high school um i i was probably six two heading into high school i wound up six settling in at six five and at 16 which which unfortunately or fortunately or whatever

it was that kind of dropped me off at center so i played center all the way through high school at six foot five which meant that i was like Rodman. I mean, I was up against seven footers regularly, guys who were six, nine, six, 10. So, you know, I was that guy who was, I was aggressive, you know, like I just, I was like, you know, um, there was no lack of trying, you know, and I was strong. So yeah, I mean, it's like, I'm this three sport cap. I started on the volleyball team when I was a freshman. So it was like, I played three sports. I was the captain of all of them. Going over to thinking of sitting at the theater kids' lunch table at lunch was like a non-starter. That was not going to happen. So it was a very daunting jump. The thing that did bridge that gap for me was my high school

had a TV studio with teleprompters, cameras you could borrow on the weekends and the full giant, you know, analog editing machines that you put soundtracks on and everything. So, um, I started sleeping with a pad and pen next to my bed and I started writing TV shows for my friends and casting them in these funny parody shows that I would create parody game shows I I made a feature-length uh mafia martial art action movie um when I was 16 17 um and it had like you know like the soundtrack was fantastic we made homemade squibs out of condoms with k-ro syrup and red food coloring. We tie the condom off and put it over,

tape it to a cookie tin and we either put it on somebody's chest or somebody's kneecap and you cut a little bit of the fabric there and stick a little firecracker sticking out and we'd roll camera. Somebody's hand have to come in, light the firecracker and it would flap open and blood would squirt, which, you know, so, and then we'd edit it, you so it was like so that was for me you know i was making movies and and then my friends who i made movies with were like you know man you could do this acting thing man

we think you're really good you should try it so senior, I took freshman acting classes as my electives. And it was me, you know, the big jock in the letterman jacket and the little freshman actors looking up going, what is she doing here? You know, and the teacher came up to me and said, you know, why are you in this class? Are you just trying to blow off your senior year? What's your story? And I just said, no, I think I could do this. I think I could do this for a living. And I just said, no, I think I could do this.

I think I could do this for a living. And then a couple of weeks later, she begged me to try out for the high school musical, which was Oklahoma. And I went and I tried out and I got one of the leads. She gave me one of the leads. And so I didn't show up to volleyball. And at that point, too, mentally, I was set up to go play college basketball and I was going to go into federal law enforcement. That actually came off the table, too. And it was, no, I need to try out for Carnegie M many doors opened for me that quickly, like there's something here I got to catch up. And that's what I did. I just busted my ass and really worked and worked and worked.

And I wound up getting a scholarship to the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. So that was kind of the path. show of Oklahoma, there was like a sea of, there was a sea of Letterman jackets. Cause all my buddies had come with their girlfriends to come see me in this like Oklahoma musical thing. And, uh, and I thought that was really funny to, to, to get, to get all the jocks to come to the musical because they're coming to see me. It was pretty funny. And at six, five, they probably were going to give you too much shit anyway. So, so how i'd read though you know whether it was getting flashed so quickly when you got out to la was it was that also fairly quickly then like as soon as you got to town yeah that was my first audition when i got to la if you can believe it um you know it didn't happen overnight there were you know it's like you know i i went into audition for peter parker which i knew

i wasn't going to get but i learned all the flash audition sides and so i wore a different shirt took my glasses off and did the flash sides and the cashier said okay wow um you'd be great for this part i want you to meet sam ramey and so the following I, uh, she got me a gig. I got paid 500 bucks to, um, screen test all of the Spider-Man candidates as Flash, as the character I wound up playing. And, uh, but then that was June. I didn't hear back from them until like November, you know? So then November, they're like, we want you to come into screen test again. So I went in and screen tested again, just for me, like not screen testing the other spider-man it was all about me this time because i went into improv and and like bullied the executive producer grant curtis and i used to pluck like a chick and

i'll slap him in the mouth and then uh the casting director francine basler uh you know i put my arm around her like she was mary jane it was kind of like hitting on her. You know what I mean? So it was like a really funny kind of improv session where like I was not shy about any of it. And I remember sitting with Sam Raimi after and he was looking at my resume, you know, which is fresh out of Carnegie Mellon University Drama School. And there's like, you know, college plays on it and stuff. He's looking at my you know my resume first day and he goes but you want to carnegie him out right like he's trying to find a way to trust me uh and then you know eventually eventually i got the role but it was kind of a you know it took it was a process okay so there was there and i i know the dungeons of dragon

stories i know that you've talked about it with Colbert. I don't know if I believe the article that said Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is actually on the wait list. Because I know we have an email. We have a life advice question about it a little bit later on, which I know you're talking about. No, I met Kareem shooting Big Bang Theory. He, like, signed a jersey, you know, gave me a signed jersey. And he's like, I'd love to come over and learn how to play. I was like, all right. So, yeah, that actually is is correct so was there a comic book part of you too then like if you liked all this different stuff so that when you like i grew up and i

loved spider-man all right you know i like spider-man i like wolverine and then i'll admit like even some of the the ways the i don't want to sound like a hater or anything but like the way the comic book thing plays out, it feels like it's this collective where it's just the Marvel part of it, where I think, you know, what always worked about Spider-Man was Peter Parker. Like he was just,

he represented everybody's insecurities. He represented all these different things. And you actually became more interested in Peter Parker's storyline than maybe even Spider-Man's, even if that doesn't make any sense. I don't know that's necessarily happening all the time anymore, but was that part of your, like, look, I'm sure you're just trying to get a gig. Who cares? It's Flash. It's awesome.

But it seems like there's a background there for you as well, which also relates to some of these other projects you've taken on. Yeah, definitely. And I think, yeah, I mean, whether I was, yeah, I read all the Todd McFarlane Spider-Mans growing up. So I knew the character. I knew the world. I knew I had a shorthand of who everybody was.

But yeah, I mean, that was a lifestyle. You grew up, you know, you went to comic book stores, arcades, and then role-playing stores or gaming stores. So there was kind of like a circuit where you can meet kids that were into that kind of stuff. And they were all interconnected. Even sometimes heavy metal could lead you to Dungeons & Dragons. But yeah, that's kind of how it was for me. I mean, it was really this...

Again, it's like i found myself in high school making my own movies and you know years before that i found myself doing the equivalent of what a showrunner does which is writing these tv episodes and these you know epic stories and then casting my friends or my friends make these characters and then get to improv with me in this world that I've created and roll dice and see if they land, you know, which included math, which I'm like my math brain, very math brain. It was really good at math growing up. So like that kind of appealed to me in this way. But really, you know, when you talk to any of those kids that were in those like adventures that I ran as kids, they remember them all and they'll regurgitate them to me. Like they remember them still in their 40s. Like those are like burnt into their brain.

So there was really something special about the stories, that type of storytelling. And then, like I said, you know, I find myself years later and, um, you know, people know me as that guy and they know that I understand that type of material. So I think a lot of times people bring me that material, send me that material, offer me, you know, whether it's, you know, love death and robots or metal Lords or, um, um, the spine of night or some of these great heavy metal animated things i've gotten to do um those have come to me because i think people know that i understand the genre yeah and i think that's why you know when i was looking into moon haven um you know i love kind of like really trying to get your arms around at projects because they are really it's a massive

task right it's a massive undertaking of like okay we've got this concept and yes, that would be cool, but how do we actually execute this? So how did you execute what is a pretty big chunk of trying to figure out the science fiction part of it and also sort of a future part of it as well? Yeah, most of that's on the shoulders of the writer's room, especially the show creator, Peter Ako. You know, you get into science fiction, you get into high fantasy, you know, there's some like highfalutin ideas. You know, we're going to be in outer space. So what's anchoring this to earth?

Or what's, you know, what's anchoring this to reality? Because I really think that the good science fiction, the good superhero movies, or comic book movies are the ones that don't treat it like a comic book movie. They treat it as though it's a real drama between people and the special effects are secondary. or secondary. So for me, it was about taking this character, you know, in my case, who was like, you know, former military, very cutthroat would have been the equivalent of like, almost like CIA in level intelligence. And then you mix that in and, and, and, and, oh, by the way, he might have like a latent psychic ability, you know? And, and when you kind of mix that, when I take a look at that on the page, I go, Oh my God,

what a challenge to take that and make it feel lived in, make it feel real. Like when you get done with the scene, you really believe after a psychic, you know? And so, and so kind of attaching that to parts of me or finding parts of me that like believe those things was a really fun process because of like, for example, you know, my great grandmother comes from Armenia and she escaped the genocide, like against the number, like against the odds, she should not have lived on or escaped. And she made it through an internment camp, you gone on a boat came to the united states like

just survived and um and everyone said that she had magic powers then instead of going to the doctor in worcester massachusetts at that time people would line up on the porch to see her because she knew how to heal broken bones men things and she would read the coffee grinds on the bottom of the coffee cup you know so they said that she had powers so for me it was like coming in you know with something grounded a really grounded take on this character um you know but also and also like you know the idea that like you know i like i think people that that can go places in their mind or you know there's a rhythm to it they have to get in a rhythm and then there's a rhythm to it. They have to get

in a rhythm and then bang, you know, a lot of cultures, they have to get in a rhythm. So it was like creating where my character's rhythm came from. And it was in his hands, you know, that he had this rhythm and that could send him into a trance. And so I come to the table with all this stuff and now I'm talking to Peter and Peter's like, you know, I'm like, where did this character come from? You know, when you wrote, when he came up with this, where did it come from? He's like, Joe, I have no idea. It just came to me. So him saying that then gave me all the room in the world I needed to do what I wanted with this character, which was like really fun.

And I'm explaining all this, you know, the Armenian stuff. this art you know the armenian stuff and and he's just nodding going sounds great because he had no idea you know how to make this character real and i think the first two directors were same thing they just they were like we read the script and we had no fucking clue how somebody was going to play this so what do you think and so i really did have a lot of room which which for me was great because um i think he does come off as real, hopefully. Like a real guy, even though he's on the moon and he's 150 years in the future. Yeah, I know. I mean, when I was going through it, I was like, all right, I can't wait again.

So Moonhaven AMC Plus will be July 7th. You want details? Fine. 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. Today's Life Advice is presented by Modelo. It could be about love, money, or in-laws. Life is always going to throw some serious challenges your way. And that's why Modelo celebrates people who show resilience and courage in the face of adversity. Modelo, brewed for those with a fighting spirit.

Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports. Chicago, Illinois. Okay, so I want to get to a couple of these. I don't want to spend too much more of your time. I know you've got stuff going on here. These are different categories of life advice questions. guys are asking about meeting women um which again you know i don't know i swear to god man every interview i read about you was like he's really good looking so is his wife i was like does he get sick of talking about this um which i always

think where's that conversation gonna go it's like okay thank you very much well here's what i always think it's kind of funny like the there's always the hockey wives one where it'd be like can you believe how hot that guy's wife and like i can he's 28 he makes eight figures he's from quebec like who else was she gonna date so well you know yeah that's yeah there's a bit of that where at least for me like, when I was courting my wife, she was coming off of a really long relationship. And so I said to her, if you need to be single, I understand. I won't like it, and I can't promise you I'll be around at the end of it. Your self-discovery process, I can't promise you I'll be there.

But I'll live with it, you know, and I'll understand. I said, but before you make your decision, I want to show you something. And I reached back and I had just come from the airport and I pulled out the People Magazine's number one bachelor in the world issue where I was on the cover. And I put it onto the table and I just said, numero uno. And then I slid the magazine over to her. And, you know, I knew like my chips were, I was never going to have more chips on the table.

You know what I mean? I was never going to have more cachet than the number one bachelor in the world. And I was also warned that title is not going to last very long, pal. So it was one of those moments where, you know, I pushed this magazine across the table and of course she picks it up and starts flipping through it. And I go, Hey, you're, you're skipping past my articles. She said, yeah, I want to see who else is on the list. And anyway, that, but that was it. You know what I mean? It was kind of like,

yeah, it was one of those things where it was like you know she is the most beautiful woman in the world and and the funniest and the coolest and you know what i mean so it was like if ever there was a match for me it was like that's it you know that's it that that's that's what i wanted so i didn't even expect to get that story so now there's there was guys writing this down being like i'm not sure that I'll be around once. And then they were like, Oh, I don't have the people magazine prop. So that's not gonna, that's not gonna fly as much.

I appreciate that. She liked you with lacking self-confidence. But what a great comeback by her though, to keep sifting through the whole thing. Yeah. She's good at that. Yeah. She's funny.

Okay. So here we go. The question is this, my roommate is too hot. So my, my roommate and good friend has a list celebrity, Here we go. The question is this. My roommate is too hot. My roommate and good friend has A-list celebrity looks. I'm talking crazy boy band ass. While I don't consider

myself bad looking, I have my own talents. I guess he DJs. There's quite a large gap between our looks and charisma. There's been a trend recently with the last few girls that I've been hanging out with who seem to be more into my roommate than me once they eventually meet him. We're boys and my roommate understands the game and always has my back. Yet still, whenever I start hanging out with a new girl, they always seem to get distracted when they

meet him and then their interest in me goes away often for good. This is even more challenging because it's hard to insulate new girls from him since we live together and hang out together a lot. So this means very early on in these new relationships, they are bound to meet. Maybe there's girls that wouldn't work out anyway. Maybe it's a good filter. Essentially, he's asking any thoughts he'd appreciate any advice on this. Man, this is going to have to be like one of those Goodwill hunting situations where you're going to have to go to their place, dog.

You might just have to go. Let's go to your place. No, no, no. I haven't seen your place. It's a to go let's go to your place no no i haven't seen your place and that's it's a mess let's go to yours yeah you would have thought the harvard girl and go to hunting at some point was like can i just see your apartment like if you don't get to see the guy's apartment 10 times yeah but i don't know that dorm cafeteria all right uh here we go or yes i don't know maybe that's it go right. Uh, here we go. Or yes, I don't know. Maybe that's it. Go to her place till like she's hooked and then like, you know, then you're the man, then you've come back. You know,

you could do this though. You could do like, I remember I went on a ski trip and it was going to be a bunch of people that didn't quite know each other yet. And the guys in the other car trashed me to every girl that was in the car before we showed up. so like the first 48 hours i was at the ski house going the vibes are off the vibes are totally off and then once everybody gets to know me a little bit more they were like yeah we don't know why those guys are trashing you it was like oh because the ratio was really bad and they just sabotaged me so you could

if that roommate really is your boy you could be like hey just so you know i'm gonna say like all sorts of fucked up stuff about you before you meet this one just and if you're my guy you're down with that maybe i don't know i'm just thinking out loud here thinking out loud yeah it's a tough situation yeah all right um this one's about uh wedding marriage so i'm not married so we're gonna defer to you on this one six one 175 guys like to include that. Don't ask why. Yeah, I don't know what's going on here. Yeah, my max deadlift is... We actually do get that a lot.

So, you know. It's amazing. All right. I'm having some major relationship issues with my wife, and I'm not sure what to do. To give you some background, just turned 30. My wife is 29. It'll be our seven-year wedding anniversary in a couple months.

I've always been very happy in my marriage. Neither of us has ever stepped out or had any major issues. However, for the last six to 12 months, can't quite pinpoint the exact time we've been less and less happy. Honestly, I don't know what happened. Things about me she rarely commented on, she now complains about all the time. It seems like everything I do is annoying to her, and now she will quickly go from annoyed to angry now much more than before. For example, I'm a terrible planner. I don't like to do it. It usually works out worse if I'm the one in charge

and I actually do better winging most things. This weekend, I failed to plan something for us to do at the end of a work trip she tagged along for when a lot of my colleagues had made plans with their wives. I would argue it's likely most of their wives made... All right, so this is getting into a lot of other stuff here. Basically, he doesn't want to be divorced, but he's worried that there's a bunch of new wives made alright, so this is getting into a lot of other stuff here. Basically, he doesn't want to be divorced, but he's worried that

there's a bunch of new signs here at seven years in. I mean, yeah, I mean, I think before pulling the divorce card, go to, have a third party to sit down between the two of you and then ask the hard questions.

Like, you know what I mean? Like get in there, like don't, don't throw softballs, you know, but, but have somebody in there.

And, um, because look, man, you know, it takes two and two people have to be committed to working it out. And if she's like given up and she's not committed to working it out or getting better or cleaning up her side of the street,

then there's not much you're, you're going to be able to do with that. Especially if she's being a mean you, that's not committed to working it out or getting better or cleaning up her side of the street, then there's not much you're going to be able to do with that, especially if she's being mean to you. That's not cool. That's a really bad sign. Yeah, here's what I don't understand. If there's something that you could just do better, like if you're not a planner, and I get the point there, where they were with coworkers and all the other coworkers

had made plans with their wives, and then you're the one guy that didn't do it. Wouldn't you just want to fix that? Wouldn't you want to like, you may be a bad planner, but is it that hard to say, Hey, get a dinner reservation.

There's apps for this. You know, he's going to do some work too. Yeah. Yeah. He's got work to do also. Yeah, for sure.

For sure. Okay. This one is a little more specific to you. Uh, okay, here we go. Um, six, four, two 55, is a little more specific to you. Okay, here we go. 6'4", 255, not a pro baseball player.

There's a little thing about me working out with pro baseball players. You'd have to listen to other... 4'4", 440. 4'4", 440. A lot of 4'4", 440s checking in. Not a pro baseball player, but I look average for a 34-year-old dad.

I don't have a question that's applicable to many people, but this is one worth asking. My buddies and I are from Pittsburgh and one of my friends saw Joe at a gym. My friend walked up to introduce him and said something like, Hey, I don't know if I should pronounce it the wrong way that everybody does or not. I guess he had said like,

Hey, you're Joe Manganiello. Yeah. Right. He goes, you pronounced it wrong. Joe very politely corrected him. So my buddy gave that last name a second attempt and got it wrong the second time. Joe corrected him politely a second time.

My buddy profusely apologized. They chatted for three more minutes, said Joe was extremely nice, and they parted ways. I don't know why my friend group finds this so funny, but we do. And needless to say, we have crushed our buddy for this it's been five or six years so is it now time to let him off the hook or can we continue to give him endless shit for essentially getting his your name wrong twice after you corrected him listen man he's not alone hulk hogan did it the rock did it at a premiere of a movie we were in. It's like, listen, you mispronounced my name. You're in good company. It's just kind of how it is. Believe me, I deal

with it every day. It's like, it's like the bane of my existence. So, you know, I totally get it. And, you know, a lot of times it can create really funny moments where, you know, where, you know, we can then like hang out and talk and stuff like that, which sounds like that was the case. Should you let him off the hook? I don't know, man. Would Denny Green say it? And we'd let him off the hook. Think about it this way.

This now gives new juice to the story because we talked to you about it and so now they're going to listen. This is tacked on a few more years. Alright, last one. 6'3", 198. Very specific weight here in case that matters to you. That's like a good defensive back weight cornerback. 29 years old, still at 198.

That means he's probably going to stay that size too. That's a good sign. I'm emailing about one of our players in our dungeons of dragons group i know joe's an avid fan player and his character or archon i'm gonna get that wrong sorry no you got it right that's it yeah is uh truly an amazing character even enough pandering the backstory here is we have an eight player campaign that's gone on for about six years now we We're pretty much done. They're level 19s, for those wondering. The party consists of six players

that are related either by blood or married and two close friends. The player in question is one of the close friends. Over the course of the campaign, he's gotten worse as a player. He's had what I like to call main character syndrome. He thinks he's the main character of the story and he's playing as such. At first, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary because he was playing hard.

Oh, wait a minute. Because he was playing a bard. My apologies. But it quickly got worse and worse from interrupting important backstory roleplay for other players, making decisions about thinking about the group. God. To making a simulacrum?

Simulacrum, yeah. Alright, sorry, man. Of himself and role-playing with himself. Not one of occasion. God, this is long. Recently, he said thanks everyone for assisting me in the fight, even though he went unconscious in the second round of combat. It all really culminates when real-life stuff has entered the equation.

He recently broke up with his girlfriend at eight years under normal circumstances to be fine. Came to find out he's been cheating on her for the last three or four years with various girls and all culminated with him breaking up with her to get a 19 year old and he's 25 jesus this email is going in a million different directions i apologize for not proofreading this one more okay i mean it is showing that dungeons and dragons players can and do get laid this is actually great for the community all right so the email continues i hope there's a point here he didn't even tell uh his ex-girlfriend that he was cheating on him, even though he told us he'd already talked to her about it.

So one of our players was texting the ex about it. She found out about the cheating through another player. This caused a huge rift between the cheater and the other player. Not a lot of the group doesn't want him to play in the next campaign that we've already prepared and made characters for, including men. campaign that we've already prepared and made characters for including men. Now, look, I can see that he is an egotistical, narcissistic, compulsive liar that is also a cheater, not very fun to play with. It feels like they may have their answer there, Joe, but we'll continue this. It's probably past the point of no return with some of our group, but all of us have

their faults. All right. He's pretty considerate when it comes to being a friend, but he's also fun to hang out with. Also, kicking out someone who's been in our group of six years is hard and kicking him out would probably end the friendship there so basically i'm asking what's the best way of telling him we don't want him to play in the next campaign thanks again man the drama there's nothing like diamonds and dragons group drama how about one of the other players how about the other players exposing him to the ex-girlfriend we didn't even who knows what was happening that day that's just bro code that's like bro code stuff

it's like no sorry yeah you can't you can't live like that man no you're out you're out sorry you you've thrown yourself off the island you have been exiled go find your own dungeons and dragons group you're out so go in the corner and think about what you did. For sure, man. Get them out of there. And you got to have that talk. You just be like, hey man, this is going to work.

This is a social thing as much as it's a fun thing. And like, which you did cross the line, people are pissed. So it's not to say that we can't all kumbaya somewhere down the line. But for now,

can't do it, man. Just can't. I'm sorry. And you can't play solo right no you need like and and also once you have like a really great dungeon master and a group like that those are like your friends like because you're spending one of your precious nights a week socializing with this group so that becomes your. That becomes who you hang out with, who you see every week. It's like your poker group, man. Yeah. No, this doesn't sound like solitaire.

Thank you for playing along with us there at the end. We covered a lot of different topics, man. Thanks for the time, Joe. Good luck with the new show. We'll talk again, all right? This was fun. Thank you. Today's Life Advice was presented by Modelo.

Modelo knows it doesn't matter where you come from. It matters what you're made of. And when you need a little advice, it never hurts to have someone in your corner cheering you on. Modelo came from small beginnings and never gave up. That's what makes a lion. Modelo, root for those with a fighting spirit. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, Illinois.

Life Advice is rrgmail.com. Thanks to Kyle and Steve. Ringer, Spotify, The Rhyme of soul podcast. Thank you.