The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Embiid’s Injury and the 65-Game MVP Threshold, Plus Chandler Parsons on the West Favorite, Doc’s Impact, and More

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Ryen opens up the pod with the discussion around Joel Embiid and the 65-game threshold that players must meet in order to receive awards. Did Joel feel forced to play against the Warriors on Tuesday night, when he suffered another injury, after missing the Saturday prime-time game against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets (00:37)? Former NBA player Chandler Parsons joined Ryen to discuss being in the media now as a former player, where the Clippers stand in the West, and how good Jalen Brunson has been for the Knicks (16:39). Plus, Life Advice! One guy went too hard at a company ice skating outing (45:56). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Chandler Parsons Producers: Cliff Augustin, Steve Ceruti, and Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's pod mb hurt controversy being fair in the 65 game threshold rule we've got chandler parsons on the clippers in the west okc or Minnesota, Jalen Brunson's run and where he is with the point guards and some cool stories as well, and life advice. 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. 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 and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.

I'm going to start today's show talking about Joel Embiid and everything around it. If you watched last night's game against the Warriors, it was ugly. Played 30 minutes. He was 5 of 18, 14 points,

two free throw attempts, five fouls. No Tyrese Maxey. So the Warriors get a win, which they desperately need. But when I say it looked awful, it looked awful because Embiid was hurt. He was clearly hurt. There was a couple of plays there late where Draymond Green was diving for a loose ball. I thought it was questionable at best. The

angle on the dive looked like he was trying to dive in. It's almost this box out that we see with players where they're diving for the loose ball, but they're really actually going at the other player to impede them. If you're a Warriors fan saying that that's just hard play from Draymond, that's who he is and it's not questionable, I'd ask, did you feel the same way when Marcus Smart dove into Steph's legs in March of 22? Probably not. I thought that was a dirty play too. Nothing dirtier this year than the Chris Paul dive into Conley.

That was awful. I know that's my guy, but that was bad. I know that's my guy, but that was bad. So when I watched this game play out and Embiid got kind of collapsed on by Kaminga and then left the game with 4-0-4 in the fourth quarter, I couldn't help but think about everything that we've talked about in the last week with Embiid, specifically him sitting out the Denver game. So that game was the ABC games, the marquee game on Saturday. It was earlier in the day.

I had been thinking about it all week. I started my Saturday being like, all right, like a lot of you that are super into it, right? That's what I want to do this weekend. Granted, I want to watch the football too, but my Saturday, it was a beautiful day out here, and I'm like, okay, I don't care. I'm not watching this on tape. I want to watch this live.

I want to see Embiid play in Denver for the first time since 2019. And then minutes before, we find out that he's not going to be active for the game. Now, going into it, when we saw the injury report that Maxine Harris were going to be out, Covington and Melton also didn't play in this game, but that's kind of adding to it. I was like, is Embiid really going to go out there after he'd gotten hurt against Indiana? And he didn't look all that great two nights before. Is he really going to play in this game against Jokic without any of

his other guys? Because normally back in the old Popovich days, it's like, all right, if one guy's out, we're all out. Miami used to do that at times too, where it was just cool for like all the good players decided to take the game off. And when the other guys weren't available, it entered my mind that I was like, is Embiid going to just go out there by himself? Because if he goes out there and they lose,

then this entire Embiid-Jokic thing that's got really, really nasty, I would say more from the local media in both cities and then whatever media tier you have below those. And we'll just leave it at that. So we know that that's all part of it, even though Jokic and Embiid themselves couldn't be more gracious about each other throughout this entire two, three year run of like who's better. And I don't really even know why there's much of a debate about it,

except the MVP parts, right? So minutes before the game, we see the footage of Embiid trying to warm up before it, and then he's not going to play. Full transparency, I was like, are you serious? You're not going to play in this game? Like, are you actually ducking him? And you haven't played here since 2019. But I knew that I had seen him not looking great just a couple nights prior in the previous Pacers game. So after the game, Denver wins it. They pull away in the fourth quarter, valiant fight

from the Sixers reserves through three quarters. But Mike Malone had mentioned the injury when they were prepping for this game, saying, hey, we could see the injury. So we knew it was something. But they were annoyed because then on Friday, Ramona Shelburne reported that Embiid would specifically not be on the injury report on Friday and would be ready to go in the Saturday game. But then he warms up and 15 minutes later, he's not active. So Malone was

clearly annoyed by that and I think was trying to make some kind of point despite the win because it's just this ongoing saga specific to these two players that we get so pumped up for. So Malone's quote was, we talked to the league and they told us if a player goes from being active to out, there's going to be an investigation. And that was him talking about times in the past where Denver would be looking at it. And I think he got into kind of like, hey, you prep one way and then you don't know what's going on, whether it was gamesmanship. And so I feel like a lot of you and even some people in the media, whether it's fans or media here,

you were letting the thoughts creep into your head. Like even though I saw the Pacers game was the intention that he was never going to play and that they were so committed to the con that they would have him bead warm-up and no matter what he looked like in the warm-ups, they were going to say, we don't like what we're seeing, and then we're going to pull you back.

All of those things entered my mind. Because we'd also seen a pattern of other stuff before. He had sat out the Minnesota game. He sat out the New Orleans game. He sat out a Boston game. He sat out a Miami game. And then you add Denver into this. To be fully fair, he also

sat out some games against some really, really bad teams. But if I'm taking myself through, like if I had gone live on Saturday night, say I'm working at ESPN still and whatever, I'm never going to be on that desk. But just let's play that out. Would I have been comfortable enough with everything that's happened this season going, yeah, I think he ducked Jokic and I think this is gross and I don't like it. What I've ripped into him the way others ripped into him. If you've been listening to me this long or you're new here, I always want to be fair whether I like or don't like somebody. And I think it's pretty clear I've always liked Embiid, voted him for MVP last year, struggled with that vote quite a bit. So if you were there and I was kind of there on

Saturday, but I don't think I would have ever said it. That's the thing. You're never going to see a tweet from me just being a dick. I don't think. I mean, maybe every now and then everybody has a bad day, but I think for the most part, dick-free tweeting could be a double meaning. If you had those thoughts, I'm not going to tell you you were wrong, right? But then he doesn't play against Portland. So, you're like, is he so committed to this?

They're like, hey, and just to sell it that you weren't going to play against Denver, you're also not going to play against Portland. And then we'll really have him guessing. Because I think some people were there with that. That gave me a little bit more pause. And then I watched last night. And I go, I'm glad I wasn't on TV Saturday

questioning whether or not Embiid was just ducking Jokic. Because he looked awful. Whether you hate him or love him, let's talk to the hate side of it. He doesn't look right. Embiid's health for his career is still a miracle. I can't believe he's been this healthy. Now, you want to get into whether or not he looks out of shape? Yes.

I can't believe he's been this healthy. Now, you want to get into whether or not he looks out of shape? Yes. You want to talk about declining athleticism from who he was when he first entered the league? Maybe it's just filling out, being a man's body. He's just a big frame dude, and that's what was going to happen. But there is a decline, yet it's not showing up in the production because he's smoking everybody that he plays against for the most part.

That leads us to the 65 game rule. Again, to qualify to be eligible, I should say, for the MVP or the All-NBA teams, you have to play 65 games, a minimum of 20 more minutes, right? Minimum of 20 minutes, the way I should phrase it. So now that we're realizing that Embiid is on pace for like 61 games, but now with the injury last night, that pace is going to drop. He's probably not going to be eligible for the MVP. There are segments of the media that are very upset

that this rule exists. Embiid won the MVP last year playing 66 games. Jokic had played 69. If Jokic had played 75 plus games last year, I probably would have voted for Jokic, but I didn't because I thought it was close enough. Both had missed a ton of games. And that's been the bigger issue. So in one way, we can look at this rule change and frame it as unfair to the players. Because why did you have to do this? Now guys are going to go out there and play. I've seen that argument that Halliburton coming back, 25 minute restriction in the loss last night to Boston that, well, he would have played more, but he could have just sat it out. But now he's going to worry about all the NBA and all these

other different things. I think those are some decent points there. But if you get to the 65 games on the MVP part of it, I don't know how many of us, and I'm a voter, this will be my third year as a voter, I don't know how many of us are going to be voting for somebody who's playing 58 games to begin with. So we may not have needed the rule. I know that games played like when I voted all-star starters this year, I wanted to vote Mitchell next to Halliburton, but he had missed a lot more games in comparison to all the other guys that you were going through because there was a really crowded group with Maxie, with Brunson, with Trey Young being in there too.

So when I went to Mitchell, I wrote him down first. I go, you know what? It's close enough that I feel like I want to give the guard who's played more games than Mitchell, even though Mitchell's been absolutely carrying this team. And remember, I voted like weeks ago, right? So it isn't the continuation of what Cleveland's been doing here. So you can plug the rule in and say that it's really important, but people are pissed about it because it looks like it's going to cost Embiid an MVP in a season where he's been even more dominant than the season he won the war. And that it could have just been left to the voters because the voters would have likely factored all that stuff in. Because I think a lot of voters do

care about that, especially when we're trying to come up with tiebreakers on the all NBA slots. So why do they do it? Well, I think a good theory would be if the NBA has had an issue with its best players playing in games and they're up for a TV negotiation, if I'm on the TV side of this, I go, what product am I buying? In which direction is this going? Two years ago on this podcast, I talked about the top scorers in the NBA. Not the most scientific way to try to classify the best players in the league, but a pretty good indicator of who the stars are. Hey, this guy's a top 20 scorer. Usually that list is the stars in the league. We don't have to go to Vorp on this one. If you go back two years ago and you looked at the top five scorers in the NBA, it was Embiid, LeBron, Giannis, KD, and Luka.

They played, in order from those names, 68 games, 56 games, 67 games. KD played, what, 55 games, and Luka played 65. Not great. Bob, six of the top 30 scorers cracked the 70 games played mark. Six of the top 30. Last year, it was eight of the top 30 that played 70 or more games. A reasonable person can put themselves

in that negotiation and think, if I'm ESPN, if I'm TNT, if I'm ABC, I'm Disney, like all the big heavy hitters, right? Better decide on how much this league is going to get. You want to set an over-under on how many hours we're involved? Like, what are we buying? Because this is getting worse. It's not getting better.

And yes, the teams, the front offices, the coaching staffs, the training staff, they are as much, if not more, a part of this than the players. I think there's some players who are like, hey, cool, I don't really want to play, or you may have cleared me, but I didn't get cleared by the other guy. I think there's a little bit of that, but it's mostly on the teams trying to keep these guys healthy because the regular season becomes more and more irrelevant. So if the league decides, well, how do we make the TV partners feel better about this?

Let's give them assurances. Some of you who have been in big time negotiations understand people like assurances. They just do. Well, how do we know? Well, here's what we'll do for you. Well, here's what we'll do for you. That could be what this is. It could be really simple. Like, hey, your top guys aren't playing enough. We want to write you a check. We want to write you a huge check. But the final number, just make me feel a little bit better about it.

So they get to 65 games because it was a real problem. Or a motivation, right? 65 games because it was a real problem or a motivation, right? 65 games because it was a problem and 65 games to motivate the players to want to try to get north of that number so that they're still eligible for MVP and all the NBA stuff and the financial parts of it that go into it. I still think there's a part of it where you could have just left it on the voters because I just don't think the voters are going to be plugging in somebody that, you know, not all the time. And there's always exceptions.

Don't argue exceptions. But for the most part, I think people care about that games played part of it. But here's the ending that makes it kind of funny, is if you feel like the rule is unfair to the players, isn't the league actually trying to be incredibly fair to the players by negotiating the best possible TV deal so that they can split up all that money? So that's what people should really be focused on. Like, okay, some guys might, a list of three to four people might be impacted by this. All right. The all NBA part, the incentives on the money, you got me. You're right.

But if we're talking about the league's health financially with the best television deal possible, every player benefits in that. And that's more important. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate from FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. If you're like me, Super Bowl Sunday is all about scoring the best seat on the couch, grabbing your favorite football snacks, and placing some super bets. The line as of right now, San Francisco minus one and a half. I am leaning towards Kansas City. I just don't want to pick against my homes three straight times. Imagine picking against them three straight times and being wrong three in a row. I don't really want to do that, folks. It'd be like going to see the Golden State Warriors play in the NBA finals over this run and the three times that you've shown up, they're 0-3.

Yep, that's true. Total is 47.5. There's some props here that are always fun, especially if you can hit on one of these decent payouts and cover everything else that you're doing. 75 yards receiving. Touchdown is plus 2,000. That's a bit aggressive. Might stay away from that one. A non-QB to throw a passing touchdown. You never know with Kelsey. Kelsey to catch every one of his targets. That's kind of fun because if you're in it, you're like, I don't even know if I want him to throw it to him anymore. But imagine they're going to throw it to him, especially after how great he was in the AFC championship game. The MVPs, Mahomes plus 140, Purdy plus 200, McCaffrey plus 450, Kelsey plus 1,700. It likely always goes to the winning quarterback, but if Kelsey were to have that

kind of game again, like he did, he would have won MVP probably in the Super Bowl, despite it always default quarterbacking. FanDuel has so many ways for you to end the season with a W or two or three. Not only can you bet on who will win Super Bowl 58, but FanDuel also has bets for which players will score a touchdown, how many points will be scored, and so much more. If you're new to FanDuel, join today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets when you win your first $5 bet. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N to sign up. That's FanDuel.com slash Ryan. Make

every moment more with Fanduel, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Must be 21 and older and present in selected states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit TheRinger.com forward slash R-G. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Excited to catch up? Former NBA player and now a part of the media too. Just want to make sure that you know that you can find Chandler Parsons on Run It Back weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern on FanDuel TV

and FanDuel TV Plus or at fanduel.com forward slash watch where he's with Michelle Beadle, obviously Sham Sharania and Lou Williams. Lou Williams has had some heater takes recently. I've been keeping track. What's up, man? Good to see you. How are we doing? How are we doing? Thanks for having me on. I forget the most recent Lou Williams one. Some of the older guys, they just hate younger dudes which is not specific to nba players right i mean it's just kind of generationally what we do and over time but do you think you get more like maybe i'm taking the media side of this which i'm not always regularly doing but i'll be like as much as shit like we get for the stuff we say

there's some former players every now and then where i'm like whoa what like where where did that come from yeah it's tough i feel like you got to have a balance right and when i'm a player and i would see all these ex-players you know kind of hating or talking about my salary or my contract it never really it never really sat well and now on the flip side is the media i'm over here it's not like I draw up these segments or these conversations, these talking points when I go on my show every morning. So now I'm throwing a zinger at Kyle Kuzma. It's not like I have beef with Kyle Kuzma, right? I'm just talking about what I see in his contract or his play on court.

So it's funny how it all comes full circle and how it comes back at you because I used to hate old players that would just shit on me and shit on my injuries and my contract and now here i find myself doing that you know three or four years out of playing was there a recent beef that you had was it with kuzma no i never really had a beef it's funny though because it's again like the takes i have i'm being obviously i'm a little biased and i have my guys that I love and the guys I'm close with, but I don't have beef with any player. Like I have all pretty good relationships, but guys will definitely get salty.

You'll see some unfollows here and there, some comments on posts that kind of go viral. But that's all kind of the way of life now, right, with social media. Everything is clickbait, and sometimes people take just pieces of articles and her interviews and run with it and so that's kind of happened in certain scenarios but no i got no beef all right good we wanted to make sure that was clear um look this clippers deal is is i mean i know they lost to cleveland recently and cleveland is its own incredible story with the way they keep winning games with the injuries. They just got Mobley back. Garland's coming back.

But when Harden gets there, he's coming off the bench. I didn't think it was necessarily fair to Harden to look at the plus-minus and all that kind of stuff. They get the rotation right, which is always kind of funny when a coach will be like, hey, we're just going to do this to make everybody happy, but this isn't really what we're going to do. And Westbrook was part of that now, too. I thought their win against Boston was the most impressive beating of any team all season, what they were at defensively. Do they feel like the real favorites in the West right now when you look at the stack conference? Yeah, I think so. I think the Nuggets, obviously, they did it last

year. They're the champs until they're knocked off. When you look at the balance and the depth of the Western Conference, you got to put the Clippers up there. The star power, the way that they can explode offensively, and they have three or four or five guys that can go and get you 30, 40 points a night. Their depth, they're super deep. And you've got a guy like Norman Powell and Terrence Mann. They have size now with Plumlee and Daniel Theis.

So they have it all. They're all experienced. And like you said, when they made the trade, they lost a few. Everyone was saying, oh, you know, why did they do this? And they did it because, first of all, they're going into a new arena where they need to have this star power. All these guys are from L.A., and they all seem to be buying into their roles. And Russell Westbrook has taken a backseat.

He's come off the bench now and we knew that was going to happen like you said they did the right thing early on but then once that kind of flattened out and flattened out and the honeymoon phase was over you knew tyron lue was going to end up bringing russ off the bench it's not going to be james harris not going to be pg and it's damn sure not going to be kawaii so i think now that they're getting more comfortable they're all happy they're all buying into their. And we look at all these guys outside of Kawhi. I mean, all they need on their resume is a championship. I think they understand that being from LA, they're happy. They want to win for their city. They want to go into this new arena with star

power, with fire. And they're figuring it out, man. They defend, they got size, they can score the basketball. So they have the deepest, best team, I think, in the Western Conference. So on-ball guys, right? Guys that are threat with the ball. And that's what I really like about certain lineups with them because they throw Norm Powell in there, who I think is like one of the most underrated players in the league. You go, okay, if you want to go big, you can have four dudes with Harden, Kawhi, George, and Norm all attack you, and they can all get there off the dribble, which is one thing. But then there's other times where we look at rosters where right now, I think currently with Atlanta,

with Trey Young and DeJounte, I don't know that they've ever really synchronized. I don't know that that's ever really fit. And maybe it's because they're younger, which can be part of it too. I remember when Jimmy Butler started kind of taking over the Bulls offense and Derrick Rose comes back thinking like, hey, this is my franchise. And Butler's like, yeah, but I'm just kind of better. And I felt like they were just taking turns. How do you get ball dominant guys to fit together?

Because that's what's happening with them. Clearly, Harden's not the same usage guy that he was in the past. But what do you see about teams that figure out how to get this many scores all working together as opposed to too much overlap where they're getting in each other's way? Well, I think timing has a lot to do with it. These guys are all first ballot Hall of Fame guys. So in their head, they have nothing else to prove. It's not like Trey Young right now in Atlanta who's trying to prove himself, who wants the ball, who needs the usage rate higher. He's trying to still be the man. James, PG, these guys are now mature enough where they understand that they're going to get judged and it's all going to be based off winning.

And they have a team right now to win. They've constructed this team to win now. So I think it was a great trade for them. I think Tyronn Lue is one of the better in-game situation coaches, finding good rotations, defensive schemes. They can go small, like you said. They can go big. They can switch one through five pick and rolls with certain lineups.

So I think a lot of that has maturity of the actual players of the roster buying into their role. Russell Westbrook, he could have been difficult. He could have been not happy coming off the bench. James Harden, he could say, no, I still think I can average 30. I still want to be that guy. But they've all taken less roles to do more as a team. And that's what we're seeing here with the success that they've had. Okay, if we stay in the West, the season series is split at two apiece. Playoff-wise, who do you like better, Minnesota or OKC?

series is split it to a piece playoff wise who do you like better Minnesota or OKC I probably like Minnesota more I think I trust Minnesota just the youth the inexperience of Oklahoma City is a bit scary now we're looking at the landscape of the future and the potential I think outside you know them in San Antonio like that they're so young and they're winning games and they're you know right around the you around the top seat in the Western conference with everything that they've had. And they're deep. They got guys like, you know, Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe and Wiggins. There's so many guys that we don't even talk about that are still getting valuable minutes and playing time on this team because they're so deep and

while they're winning, while they develop, which rarely happens in the NBA. So when you look at a season i think both of them have had fantastic years but i trust towns i trust gobert i trust anthony edwards the maturity the experience they're older um they have guys like mike conley they have guys like kyle anderson that are vet experienced guys um that have all been there before and and they've had their number this this season so far but i think also having oklahoma city they need to go after a big guy they need to get a vet big guy they can't have chet just taking this pounding and this beating uh they got to go get a vet that you know a vet

experienced five man that can put chet to the four and because With his body frame and his wiry strength, it's not good, him being at a five. So I think SGA has been brilliant. Jalen Williams, the rise of him has been insane. Guys like Giddy, guys like Lou Dort, they all fit very well together. But in a series, I got to go with the older team and go with Minnesota.

But I also didn't expect Minnesota to be here. They're having a hell of a year. Yeah, I worry about Minnesota's offense late in games. There's some numbers there that maybe you wouldn't love, but I don't know that that means that's exactly what's going to happen in the playoffs. You're right about the Thunder, though, as far as the depth. I mean, Keontae Johnson, an old Florida guy,

obviously at Kansas State, I was like, wait, is that him? The other night I watched him going. Because they just have so many wings that have some size and almost all of them can handle the ball like Kenrich Williams is just a nice player and then you'll forget about him and then Wiggins will be in the closing group and then they've been playing Wallace more as a rookie because they seem to trust him in a bunch of different roles and then they'll take Giddy out and close with somebody else um and jalen williams the the good one you know the other jalen williams the other day he's getting valuable minutes and he's playing

physical he's kind of their only backup by it but yeah the fact that there's two jalen williams is insane but i shouldn't have said it that like when i write stuff down, I put J-Will 1 and J-Will 2. It's just like a thing. You've got to be able to do that by now. He took so many charges at Arkansas that I thought were dog shit that still I have an issue with it. And I know he's a nice player. He's a nice player.

But when you think about him playing last year, you're right about the Chet Park. Because when I watched the Clippers game with him, I'm like, man, they need one other piece here. They need one other big guy to survive maybe a specific size matchup that they could have in the playoffs. Or maybe they'll just try to go five out and have Gobert chase everybody. But I've seen Gobert in some spots this season.

Cam Thomas tried to get him like three times in the fourth quarter in a switch, and he couldn't. Cam Thomas couldn't shake Gobert. And Ryan, to talk about that, it wasn't too long ago when we were talking about how this could be the worst trade ever. I still don't like it. I think the price is too high.

It's high, but at least they now have some success and production wins to go along with it. Last year, at this time last year, I'm even saying, I love Rudy Gobert. I think he's valuable. I think he's one of the greatest defensive players ever. You see him switch pick and rolls. You see him alter shots.

At least it's starting to feel like, okay, maybe this too big thing wasn't so, you know, QQ. Yeah, because it's going to be, you know, with all these other teams that I look at in the West where I go, will they have enough size if they get the wrong matchup in the playoffs? And with Minnesota, you're never going to wonder about that. I am going to wonder about their offense though. I want to hit on some of the younger stuff that you were talking about.

If you go back to your playing days, because you definitely were somebody that had to prove himself. I remember doing the draft for you that year. I was like, man, I kind of like this guy's pretty big. He could pass it a little too. That was the thing that I always liked about your game is that it was,

there was this passing element to it that I was like, man, he really can dish it out a little too that was the thing that i always liked about your game is that it was there was this passing element to it that i was like man he really i can dish it out a little uh when you were playing and there was a younger player like anthony simons is a terrific example i remember talking to portland when they had him in and they were like this guy's gonna be really good and at that point he's not even playing and i'm telling other other people, I remember I did a pod with Bill. I was like, yeah, this guy's really like Anthony Simons. And look, whatever you think of Simons right now, he's clearly a guy who's going to make a lot of money. He's going to have a long career.

He's going to score a lot of points. Did you have somebody like that where you and the other guys on the team knew about somebody that maybe the public didn't know about just because you could see where they were at when they first got into camp? Yeah, Simons is a good one just because we never saw him play. And a lot of guys say, oh, this guy's great in practice, but you never got to actually see it. For me, in Atlanta my last year, I wasn't playing much.

I was that vet guy. And I had Cam Reddish and I had DeAndre Hunter. And Cam Reddish, you hear, you know, it's almost the opposite with him. I love Cam. I think he's valuable. I think he's actually found something here in L.A. But I thought him and DeAndre Hunter were going to be these perennial all-stars. Just when you're watching them practice, you're watching them, you know,

cook and summer league workouts, the things they can do with the ball, their size. And I'm not done with DeAndre Hunter yet. I still think he can find it. I still think he can turn into a really bona fide good player in this league. I don't know what's taken him so long because he can do it all. He's versatile. He can post up. He's strong. He can defend. The guy can do it all.

But those two guys in particular, at the end of my career, I'm thinking, man, they got both of these guys. And Kevin Herter was playing over them at the time. And I was like, I never understood it because these guys – and I love Kevin Herter, and he can really shoot the ball. And he's had a great, you know, situation since he got traded to Sacramento. But there's these guys are so good at practice and one on one workouts. And then sometimes it just doesn't translate to like a five on five game. But both of those guys, I felt like they were going to be perennial all stars, and they just haven't yet. But there's still time for

them. I'm going to derail this a little bit, and they just haven't yet, but there's still time for them. I'm going to derail this a little bit because you touched on something. I have a working theory. I'm working with some teams on this. It's just basically trying to get quotes from people that do this for a living. The league's never been more talented. The individual talent has never been better. Combining that with some of the officiating and some of the stuff that's happened it's also never been easier to score so we have these massive scoring outputs from Embiid Jokic you know Mitchell's gone crazy here um obviously Carl Anthony Towns in that game

that became a little bit more controversial than it was at 60 plus points uh Booker going off so clearly we're in this this phase um but sometimes i wonder when i watch players that are so talented i wonder if they're training specifically for isolation stuff where everybody's got their trainer they're posting all their shit on instagram and it's like do you guys ever play with anybody yeah where. Where, you know, back in the day, and this is way before you even played, you just hear about these legendary pickup games. Is this something? Because I asked some guys and they're like, you know, you're on this.

And I asked a couple of hockey guys that work in the NHL. I go, do you have like the most skilled individual players ever? Do you have guys that are faster, better with the puck than ever before, but they kind of don't really know where they're supposed to be or don't understand like the move before the move? And they're like, dude, we talk about it all the time in our sport. They're like, is that what's happening? Because NHL guys never watch basketball. So like, is that what's going on with you guys? I was like, I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not convinced of it yet, but I'm definitely kind of leaning in that way. Your thoughts on that theory?

Yeah, there's two different types, right? There's the talented guy that's going to test really good at the combine, that's going to look really good in a one-on-one workout, and that guy's going to be running around on the five-on-five game like a chicken with his head cut off, not knowing spacing, not knowing when to cut backdoor, not knowing transition defense. So there's a level of balance that I think as a GM, as a scout, that you have to have where you you have to think a guy like me, I wasn't the best one-on-one player workout guy, but I was smart. I knew angles. I knew the

game. I would see a play, a develop before it would happen. And that would give me an advantage as a slower, you know, less athletic guy that because the competition I was playing against. So there's some kids that you see in the combine, like, you know, remember Shane Larkin? He had like the highest vert ever. Have you ever seen him dunk? Miami. Oh, yeah. You ever see him dunk in an NBA game?

So it's like these teams get mesmerized by these like stats of, you know, measurements and vertical. And it's like, if you don't know how to use it, what good does it do? So I think there's, you want the talent, but you also want basketball players. You want smart, savvy guys that are tough, that play the right way.

So when you can find that mix of both, yeah, it's a deadly combo. But now you see these guys like Drew Hanlon, they're teaching guys how to get the whistle. They're teaching angles and speed and hesitation on how to get the whistle, how to get to the free at the line, how to get guys in foul trouble. So it's a different type of training now. And now with this whole load management, this new era where guys, they don't play as much pickup because they don't want to get hurt.

They don't play five on five. I mean, I used to play, I'd go home in the summer, I'd play at LA Fitness. Now there's all these structures. There's still games at UCLA. There's still certain guys, Noah and Drew Hanlon, they still have their runs of their guys that they train, but it's a different type of training now. And it's more tailored to three-on-three workouts or one-on-one workouts where you're getting reps, you're getting shots, you're getting more in shape than actually playing basketball. Okay.

I'm going to keep working at it. A guy that is tough and wasn't going to test great, and he went in the second round, 33rd overall pick to Dallas, Jalen Brunson. He's been on a tear. He just seems whatever level you think he can get to, and then that's it. Then there's that next level.

And the Knicks are right there with Cleveland as they both passed Philly. What, you know, whenever we look at the Knicks, it's just kind of like, all right, hey, really cool, nice, like some players. The OG thing is a great fit for them. Clearly, Tibbs likes him better. They had a surplus of guards. They get a little precious in there as well. But is there any part of you that ever watches Brunson and thinks, yeah, he's actually good enough?

Like he could find a way to knock off a Milwaukee, knock off a Boston earlier, and then get to the Eastern Conference Finals. I do, because he's a perfect example of he's just a hooper. He's tough. He loves to play the game. He gets to his spots. He knows his game. It's crazy, because I would talk to Mark about it. Mark could have had this guy for $55 million and thought that was too much money.

Now he's turning into this all-star point guard who's an absolute stud. He's doing it in the brightest lights and MSG every single night. He's got the garden rocking again. He's one of those guards where he's undersized. He doesn't really pass the eye test. He played college basketball. He thought he was going to be one of those guys that's a great college guard that had an okay career in the NBA.

There wasn't really much potential when you see a guy like that. He wasn't this freak athlete that would blow you away, that would wow you. And he's just continued to do it every level he's played at high school, AAU, college, now NBA. He's arguably the best player on the floor on any given night and it's just because he's grinded he's worked hard he's coachable um and he plays the right way and you look at the league the league is in great hands with with point guards now and Jalen Brunson has put his name you know up there with the with the best point guards in the league so how many guys

would you still take ahead of him though because what'll happen is it's almost like hey pay more attention to brunson everybody that's watching realizes how sick he is but then it's like okay well you want to do the list because then if you do the list you i think most reasonable people would land kind of with him in the same area where he's just still behind a lot of these guys that are unbelievable to position it is crazy because he's still probably behind steph he's still behind dame he's still behind Dame he's still behind he's probably behind SGA the season he's having Halliburton Halliburton and now you still look there's still Murray there's still Fox there's still Axie there's still Garland Kyrie Irving so like the point guards it's such a deep position but Jalen Brunson's a

guy that you want your team there. There's no drama. You're never going to hear anything in the locker room or in the tabloids about Jalen Brunson. He's the perfect guy that you want. Now, is he good enough to be a number one option on a championship team? I think the two and three and four options have to be elite, and they also have to be very good, but I want him on my team. I know if i'm running an nba team i want guys like that that are low maintenance high production guys that just want a hoop and that they're they're going to give they're going to leave it all on the floor every single night with no bullshit now just so we're clear here we didn't even name like trey young or darius garland we didn't even

name these other these these Drew Holiday. Like it's nuts how many point guards there are. Right. But we take Brunson over Trey. We take Brunson over Garland. We take him over Drew. I mean, especially Drew with this version of him where he's like the fifth option with those starters. I'm taking SGA.

I'm taking Steph. I'm taking Dame. And I'm taking Hal Burton all over him then with the Murrays, Foxes Maxis, then it gets tough but I like Jalen Brunson over them Yeah, I like Brunson over Murray certainly, I think there could be

a Fox conversation where, you know, what he's turned himself into here the last couple years Kyrie Irving? Hey man, I take Herter over Kyrie. You said Herter? I was being dramatic. It's not that Kyrie isn't one of the most single talented guys.

I just always expect the Kyrie thing to happen. And it's been quiet. And it's exhausting. You don't want to have to deal with that right it has nothing to do with basketball it has everything to do with if i have this guy on my team versus this guy on my team like are we constantly worried that all of a sudden he's just going to come in one day and be like yeah i'm kind of over this it's like it's isn't it crazy isn't it crazy just being an nba player half the battle is just being a good, solid dude

that's coachable and listens and stays out of trouble? I joke all the time. The job of the GM is to acquire players that you think would actually want to be there. And considering more than half the teams are not destinations, maybe two-thirds. And it's funny because then you get duped by the talent and you still go after these guys that have slightly better games and more potential instead of just the solid guy that you can have right now that's going to cause no rifts are you talking about yourself yeah let's say i think i think i could dust these knees off and still go get you six to seven no god no not me you uh let's talk about the drama part of it then

so did you have somebody as we're close to the trade deadline here, did you have a moment with a teammate who was like, I hope I'm out of here. I hope I'm gone. Like in a guy that mattered. you know not happy with their situation not happy with their playing time their touches whatever it may be uh when i was in dallas we had jameer nelson we had this uh you know wesley matthews a team with tyson and we end up making the trade for rondo and it kind of like we were the number one offense at the time when it happened and but as again this goes back to my point jameer nelson was so solid for us. No issues. Set us up. We all did our thing. But, ooh, there's this shiny other guy that's more proven,

that's more talented. Rondo, let's go out. Let's get him. Let's make the move. And it was a disaster. Him and Carlisle couldn't stand each other. And they were constantly arguing. Rondo would purposely bring the ball down,

and Rick would be calling a play. And he's smart as shit. He would not even look at him and he would call something different just because that's who Rondo was. Rondo was like, no, I'm here to be the point guard. I'm the point guard. I'm not looking at Carla like we're in high school. He's my dad. The guy that always looks at his dad. Rondo wasn't doing that.

So, yeah, there's been situations like that. But for the most part, nah, like guys are usually pretty to themselves. And guys usually sometimes even caught off guard when they get traded. It does seem to always be like kind of back to the individual workout thing that I was talking about. But an NBA team, it's more common that it's like 12 individuals. Maybe the young guys that are just coming up are hanging out, but the concept of team

and everybody hanging out together in the NBA seems far more rare than the other sports. Is that fair? Well, I mean, there's like my last year in Atlanta, Tony Rester, he would literally give me or Vince Carter or one of the vets his credit card. And you could go to any place, any dinner, any city you were in, pick a restaurant, and any player could bring whoever they wanted. So if I wanted to bring Ryan Rossell out, I wanted to bring Dan Frank, I could bring you to Nobu Malibu and the owners paying for it,

which I thought was really cool. And it wasn't mandatory. All these mandatory BS things that teams make you do, like Lloyd Pierce used to make us do a bunch of stuff like outside of that. That was obnoxious and it was forced and I didn't want to do it. Guys didn't want to do it. They were exhausted. They were tired.

We just got back from a road trip. We just had an hour long film session where we're getting ethered i don't want to do that stuff but having the option where there's an owner like that that would actually spend the money that was cool and now kids nowadays dude are so young they're they're they're bringing their their their xboxes and their ps5s or whatever they're bringing them to the hotel like we would go out we'd you know we'd go to the bar we'd have a drink we and it would be like three or four guys you know at a time we would do that unless it's a team function but for the most part i mean it's different every locker room but yeah guys kind of do their own thing but then it's a little clicky like you you have your you have your people last thing on the hoops here uh

doc rivers to the bucks give us your full doc rivers assessment and then what it means for the bucks i think it's good from the aspect that he's been there before he's a cool ass dude he's gonna win over the locker room i think his defensive schemes i think adrian griffin was in over his head i don't they won a lot of those games early just off sheer talent and clearly something went wrong because just a few months before you know yannis clearly okayed that hire and i just think they have lost complete faith in him where they they wanted to nip it in the bud right now and they wanted to make a move now the nba coaching search i think it's so funny it's just a big cesspool it's like this guy got fired from here

let's hire maybe it'll work here this guy got fired doc rivers is a he's a cat the guys had the guys had so many lives and it's because he's that personality it's because he's had some success and when there's teams are in when now formation like the bucks are you want to go to a doc rivers and when you're in a rebuilding situation when you're a you know detroit or you're a team like okay see hiring mark dagnon that's a great hire doc rivers wouldn't have wanted that job two years ago so it kind of goes both ways i think doc will come in and i think again he'll win over the locker room he he'll have that experience i think his terminology his coverages defensively is obviously where they have their huge holes which how could they not they traded the best defending point guard for one of the worst defending point guards. So it made sense on paper, and their offense is electric.

But they do have guys there like Giannis' defense. Brooke Lopez was in talks of defensive player of the year last year. They have guys like Jay Crowder, Pat Constance. They have the roster to be a good defensive team. I just think they need Adak Rivers to come in to implement more structure, different schemes, And I think they'll do that. Interesting first game back though, to come in at Denver. That was, that was a ball and they all, and they played well, but, and, and, but, and they played better defense and they fly around. So I think we'll continue to see them get

better. But I think that was more of a personality thing and they just completely lost confidence in Griffin. Yeah, it seemed like the vets were moving away from it, if you're asking Brook Lopez to do all sorts of stuff. But they had changed it under Griffin. But at that point, I think players, and I don't mean to say you as your part of it, but pro athletes, you guys can be tough because the second you give them a chance to doubt you,

they're going to take it. And I feel like that happened with griffin oh the worst dude right there's always finger point it's never our fault and when it is it we get traded whatever we say the nba coaching they get such a raw deal and i don't know adrian griffin at all and i don't know what's going behind the scenes but i can't imagine it was that bad to lose faith in the guy this early with that much talent. And he did only sign, I think, a three-year deal. But now they're paying three coaches.

They're paying Bud still, for God's sake. So it's all chaos. That's Chandler Parsons. Again, you can check him out with Beatles, Shams, and Lou Williams on FanDuelTV, FanDuelTV.com. Thanks as always, man. Good catching up. Thanks, too. We got to get you on the show.

Come on. No problem. Let me know. We're going to get you down to Manhattan Beach again. All right, buddy. Good catching up. Thanks, Stu. We got to get you on the show. Come on. No problem. Let me know. We're going to get you down to Manhattan Beach again. All right, buddy. Thanks for having me. See you, Chandler. 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. liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice is brought to you by courtesy of Block Advisors by H&R Block. Small business owners, let's talk taxes. Did you know you could save up to 30% when you file with Block Advisors instead of a typical accountant? Block Advisors by H&R Block provide affordable tax expertise that finds every credit and deduction your business deserves. 100% accuracy guaranteed. Schedule an appointment today at blockadvisors.com forward slash small biz.

Average savings based on national average fees for federal form 1040 plus schedule C and one state filing in latest available 2020 survey conducted by the National Society of Accountants. Pricing may vary. See blockadvisors.com forward slash guarantees for full details. The email address is always lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Heads up, Friday feedback episode likely coming soon. It looks like in two weeks, the New Zealand travel pod will drop.

We're going to drop it during All-Star break. So we may, a little walk-in pronunciation at the end of that sentence. And then we've got, yeah,iday feedback at some point right suri i know you're more in charge of this than i am but i just want to make sure i'm not talking out of my yeah we've got well because you're uh yeah we got what two week after the super bowl we've got uh i think we're going to do denny hamlin which is we're getting a little mass car action and then we've got maybe some recruiting story stuff going on. Then we've got the travel log. Then we've got a Friday feedback. We've got actually jam-packed stuff coming up

after football season. Anytime I think about NASCAR, I think about Brad Doherty because I think about Scott Van Pelt talking like Brad Doherty. Scott, they had him four wide. But Brad Doherty's doing the Cavs game. Who said the other night during the Clippers it was

nice win by the calves but he's like donovan mitchell's best player in league right now that's you know you may back your guys on the block charges home home broadcast now maybe dory was saying right now right now like that one but even like whoever's playing tonight that's not accurate either because you're picking an awful time to say like right now this guy's playing better than everybody else but uh shout out to the calves i i thought about doing a but i wasn't on after they beat the clippers so you know people get people can't quite figure that one out yet oh good we didn't talk about this well it's a fucking friday night and n nfc championships happened and then the show was monday anything else my bad uh you speaking of my bad field goal distance i'm aware that when it's at the 30 that's an extra 10 yards and then the spot seven to eight

yards i screwed it up on the second field goal um hate to see it yeah yeah hate and you hate to hear about it non-stop it's uh i may have a job i may have seen something about that oh no i gotta i got a few i mean i just i got it wrong i wrote it down on the notes wrong and then when it was baked into the notes and then i referenced it back i was referencing uh and i just feel terrible terrible about it oh man he's just broken up yeah no i actually i don't i went to. I made myself go to bed earlier last night. I was like, you're not,

you have to go to bed by eight. Not allowed to. But then I, I turned the TV on. My parents didn't even know. I watched the end of the warrior sixers in my room. I didn't know. I have a TV.

I'm allowed to have a TV now. No, look, I completely screwed it up. The mistakes will happen. Try to make them happen infrequently. But that one specifically, I do know that it's an extra 10 yards from the

spot um i figured that one out but i you may have thought i didn't know that uh and some some didn't so i just wanted to make a public i just want to address that now um we got kyle with us standing kyle standing kyle standing so is your back messed up or does someone steal your chair no i um i'm two years of of a of an office chair that was like 99 bucks at staples i'm a big leaner backer guy i know even since i was in grade school i've been getting reprimanded for leaning back and doing like tricks on my chairs and like doing a real balancing act and after two years of leaning back it just snapped in the middle of a one shiny pod recording and I may have slipped a disc. So the,

I've had a standing desk this whole time, but now we are in stand mode until further notice. I haven't said that to you. I don't use it a ton. I don't like it either, but this is, this is going to be a new, a new Kyle.

I guess the sound I let out when that thing snapped was unreal. Like, I mean, I almost wish it was recorded because that was like a, my wife ran in the room. She's like, are you okay? I was like, I don, I almost wish it was recorded because that was like my wife ran in the room. She's like, are you okay? I was like, I don't think so. But I did a... Are you on meds right now? No. Well, a little ibuprofen,

but I know it's not good for your gut. I'm trying to keep it sparse. Did a three and a half mile walk yesterday just to try to get stuff moving. I'm doing okay. But I'll be standing for probably at least the next week until I can zero in on a chair I really want. Some lumbar support.

So you're worried about the ibuprofen intake right now is what you're saying? Well, just I'm not trying to pop it like, you know, PEZ or anything. It's like you try to keep the schedule. It's like, all right, it's been six hours and, you know, it gets a little better. It's really when I wake up the last two days that I woke up,

I'm like, ooh, yeah, I feel that. But it's okay. Okay. I'm not going to stop leaning back in my chairs. I can tell I'm like oh yeah I feel that but uh it's okay okay I'm not gonna stop leaning back in my chairs I can tell you that that's just that's a lifestyle lean back there we go you know also uh aka Kyle courtside Kyle you'll be going to the you're going to SC game tonight or tomorrow so that's that's tomorrow courtside and uh we might be the biggest stars in the row because I know LeBron's gonna be in boston so i did i checked that out i was like maybe maybe now i should get a little more shine try to stand out a little more so um now that i know i don't have that fierce competition it's too bad i was thinking about meeting up with you guys but i probably can't because

i got an early friday well if you say it i guess you almost get credit for it right credit for it right there you go that's too far for ryan uh anything else we need to do or no that's all my emails get to the emails we're good let's get to the emails this one's very specific but i kind of love it so let's uh let's get to it all right this one the title reads did i go too hard at my company ice skating event told you this one was very specific six two 200 pounds player comp is dennis rodman we're going to answer this just on the comp alone yes hey guys i've been learning to ice skate this winter and taking it pretty seriously i started rollerblading over the summer and been to the rink every weekend this winter. I bought my first pair of skates last week.

For context, I'm very shaky, but usually top 10% on public ice. Wow, public ice. I can go pretty fast and easily switch going forwards and backwards. My company, Consulting Slash Accounting, rented out the Frog Pond in Boston for 90 minutes and I was pumped to get the free ice time frog pond is great great experience it's an incredible day date if you want to make that move you're going to be a decent level ice skating but look that's where that's where george w and the first guys get together to to to get this land you know away

from the monarchy so just be respectful when you're there uh anyway so people were taking it pretty easy it felt more like networking event but i get antsy and it become it becomes a normal training session in my cardio for the week i'm going full out trying 360 jumps and different tricks falling over at least 10 times causing three different people to ask me are you okay as the ice got emptier i only wanted to go harder because i never get time on an empty rink what do you think about going hard like this at a company social event should i take it easy next time this happened last night i have a strong feeling of regret and shame thanks for reading love the pod yeah you went too hard dude you went way too hard uh i know you i've never been in the corporate structure enough to really

have to worry about this stuff uh at all basically it was kind of like just don't get annihilated like the sales guys at an espn super bowl party that was pretty much like the only rule uh because they by the time i was there the legendary christmas party was already phasing out a bit and i would have had to have gotten a hotel to even go to i don't even know if i would have been invited to it as a as a fill-in so i never even went i never even made it to the christmas party damn yep yep i think those days were those days were over gammon's taking his shirt off you're like you want fucking diamond notes so anyway uh i i don't even know if there's any debate about this whatsoever. I mean, you seem like a pretty intense guy.

When you said I'm shaky, but usually top 10% on public ice, how do you come to that number? Are you, like, you might, maybe you should be an advanced scout. You're sizing up everybody's ability going, hey, I'm top 10% despite still being a little shaky. And I get the free ice time, but I imagine you're like fresh out of college. You have to be fresh out of college to do something like this, guys. This is, there's so many good comps.

I don't even think I could zero in on one. I do want to say, I think we have different ideas of who George W is, but that's cool. I was going to say, same thing. My W was a little more recently but i think yeah you this is this is an easy easy went way too hard when people are asking you like are you okay like that's like you basically did get too drunk at the party i don't you know what i mean it's like every you're a spectacle now and yeah you should this is weirder

though like this is better than getting too drunk but it's also not yeah is that though because at least like at least like getting drunk at a party is understandable everyone understands that one yeah this is such a uniquely like weird thing to do um i will say like it makes me think of the guy was it last week who basically was just like yamming on people uh at the like the pickup the work pickup basketball game like if this was but those guys think that guy's awesome i know what i'm saying like if you had if you had an open gym and you were just like absolutely dominating in hoops it would be different like ice skating is it's just like everyone's going around the circle or trying to have a good time you just you can't overdo it you clearly overdid it and i know like in the training thing i respect the training thing i expect you want to get better

whatever you don't get the ice time but it's not worth it's not worth the image that now everyone's going to think of you for the rest of your time at this job they're going to think you're the hard-o ice skating guy which is such a weird niche thing to be under so i kind of think you fucked up man sorry we're in agreement on this one now it's like how bad did you fuck it the the point is is that it was kind of avoidable. Right. And I hope you're fresh out of college. If you follow up and you're like, oh, I'm 38. Just can never get out of the house anymore. You don't get kids.

That's what makes him happy, man. Take what I can get. He doesn't get a lot of things in life. This is what he gets. He gets an open gym. Honestly, that would probably change the way I think about this if he was older. I might even respect it more because old guys not giving a fuck about any of their surroundings the older i get i kind of respect this was the only way he could convince his wife like he needed

he gets two hours out you know away from home i just i'm trying to picture this because i know it i've been there i i can't skate for shit but i did it like you know is it like a nice thing to do to make it seem like i was mature courting the fair sex yeah date day there's some real advice there you go yeah but take her right take her ice skating oh they love it they love it and then if you're not any good it's like you're just this little bird trying to look at he's yeah he's terrible he's not afraid he's not afraid to show that he's not good at something. I like that he tries new things. He broke his elbow. But let's let's try to figure that he has to be younger, though, right? He has to be. Yeah, no, it's funnier if he's older, but he has to be younger. And

like, think about how they're looking at you. Like, you're like, so pumped. And I've been that guy for like, pickup basketball games. Okay, we're like, I can i've been that guy for like pickup basketball games okay where you're like i can't wait to do this and these guys don't even know right right but but then you have like i guess this other moment where you're like how much time do we have left another 20 minutes all right i'm gonna head it back out there and they're like man like this guy's really into it so i'm hoping there were other first impressions than this one other than intensely aggressive figure skating guy because what what happened when you came back did you come back to them and go did you see some of those turns see some of those turns over there

like yeah no i'm starting to get it starting to get it just got these skates this week for this you guys want to go back out a couple more runs so yeah they folded you into like five other stereotypes that you didn't that you you know you won't even know about because if you're this guy they're like what else are you you're you're definitely not helping yeah you're all these other guys now that you don't even know because here's where i could wrap this up because here's what you need to understand when you're entering if again this guy's younger if this is gonna be so funny if you just almost back he's like not even close i've been in the company 20 years if you all right you know what if you've been there 20 years whatever like don't even worry about it keep it moving good for you take your shirt off next time but there will be these realizations of like when

you're 23 and 24 you think you're real and you're not you just aren't you're like a fake adult yeah and i mean that in the best way possible because i miss those years more than maybe any other years ever but you spend at least i did a ton of time thinking that i go i should do this or i should do that and it's like you're still kind of fucking it up because your instincts are still rattled from being at home most of your life and then fake adult life in college or then whatever else you did post actually getting out of the house so you have to kind of worry about these moments where you can have the real adults be like is this guy still a fucking idiot right like you they may think it but they don't want you to prove it

like i remember one friend of ours who we went to a hockey game together and we were like 23 or 24 one dude throws in a dip he throws the tin to the other guy which is protocol for what had been happening for all the years of college and the guy hands it back to tin and goes yeah dude i don't i don't tip in public like he could he couldn't even think if that could happen right and the rest of us were like wait what you fuck senator like what are you talking about you know and then of course there's other things but you put anything else in your mouth and be like all right dude going too far right and then i i just was like guys couldn't fathom that he was like no if i'm going to be out and about in a public place now meanwhile like three other guys have drool all over their face he's just like i'm not going

to do that in a public setting and guys are like dude you're at a hockey game like what are you what are you worried about he'd be rude not right you you're the this is their culture man don't be disrespectful it was him understanding that if he was going to be like out in public and he worked for some software company that was decent enough size he could have been running into somebody else he's like you know what dude i don't want to have my hand down my pants and my lax shorts with a huge dip in and being like oh hey this is our cfo and the other guys were like he would think you're awesome why would you like what you know again so hard to know when you're in the good days am Am I right? Right.

I'm just I'm just trying to tell you that there's there is this balancing act that you'll likely have like the wrong wrong instincts of. But that guy actually at the hockey game, he was kind of right. It just took us a long time to realize what he was doing, like where his head was at, like his head was at a different. I remember another roommate who then, for whatever reason, towards the last two months of our senior year, he started setting an alarm at 6 a.m. Prepping his body to go to work. So when he joined the workforce, we hated that.

That's weird. That went over. If anything, it's like you got two more months of freedom because he was going to be one of those guys. And I think it was like a parent mandate deal where as soon as you graduate and he was he wasn't going to have any loans. I think his family had paid the full freight of all of his college. Like we're paying for this. As soon as you get that degree, you're not going to Europe. You're not you're not dicking around in Jackson Hole for the summer.

You're going to work. And that's exactly what he did. And he prepped himself. He used to save money i don't know he's amazing good guy amazing save save money in college yeah yeah he had like oh my god when he graduated he had not money from graduating like gifts he had actual real savings because he like budgeted out everything that he would need and it was like i need this much money for i'm getting choked up just thinking about it i remember i at the end

of college i budgeted up until my grad party i graduated with 13 and like 60 cents in my bank account and i knew that the next week was my grad party and i was going to get a bunch of money so i literally like for the end of my college career essentially was like all right i have this much money a weekend to make it to my grad party to then get a few grand from gifts from the party so I could replenish the fund. If you're saving money in college, I don't know how that's even – that didn't even cross my mind. All right, we've got a different one here.

I got hit by a truck at an ice rink. No, I'm just kidding. You got hit by a truck slash car, question mark, 5'10", 150, 30 years old, no helpful gym stats as I'm more of an endurance athlete, guy cycling and running, which is relevant to the story player comp is jimmer for debt mostly i suck but sometimes i get hot hit a deep three and run my mouth i think you have to make more than one three to comp the jimmer for that thing but we'll leave it at that anyway i'll try to keep the story brief because it's a doozy.

He does a good job here, so it's already brief. On Thursday, I woke up at 4.30 a.m. to head out for my morning run like I do most days to keep the slowing metabolism in check a mile and a half into my five-mile run. I went to cross the major street near our house like I had done 100 times before. This time, however, I was met by a 5,000-pound Chevy Tahoe that didn't see me as it rolled through the intersection about 30 miles an hour. Before I it i was in the air then back on the ground again this time i was on my back in the middle of the street holding my bleeding head and trying to catch my breath needless to say i got fucking rocked to expedite the story i ended up with a

two-day hospital stay broken pelvis tailbone scapula nine staples in the back of my head i'll spare you the pictures but mostly uh most of my body's broken bruised or swollen uh here's where i need the advice this is an awesome story i spared a number of hilarious details to make this brief and needless to say my wife and i've shared it a ton the last few days but each time i hear her tell it she starts with my husband got hit by a car a car now i'm usually not one to blow things out of proportion and lay on the drama but here's the question how a bold bold font here how do i help my wife understand there's a big difference between getting bumped by a toyota corolla and getting your world rocked by fucking tahoe clarifying details if they're helpful sure yes

the car stopped and took responsibility uh in their 70, just didn't see me in the dark morning. Yes, I had the right of way with a pedestrian crossing light. Yes, I was wearing reflective clothing and a headlamp. Yes, I'll make a full recovery and on a grateful note, things could have been much, much worse. So we are grateful that's the case. Boy, those added clarifications, this guy must be active on Twitter.

Because Twitter, imagine, hey, I got hit by a car, died where was your vest so thank you for those clarifications uh couldn't be in more support of this guy she needs to change up her storytelling you were hit did it have a tow package you know like let's i had two of them they're not small cars they're not small cars she needs to say well she says truck though then people are going to start thinking about like was that a class d license class c kyle did you ever look into that look into it no i didn't i don't think so it just seems like long days i don't think i'm into that long days though tunes to yourself yeah lean back all you want lean back cigarettes nope uh anyway what else how do you say it though sruti what would you do if you're

just go tahoe tahoe yeah it was a suburban i would say a suburban you know what i mean i would what was the wheel know what i mean i would what was the wheel yeah but so he so he wants to he wants to correct his wife when this comes up like because that's the thing like if she's like hey yeah he got hit by a car and you're like actually there's a tahoe like i don't know is that is that no you huddle up pre-party you huddle up pre-party and you're like hey listen i know this is gonna come up it is tahoe just want to get our story yeah because that's what i'm saying like you can't if your wife is telling the story and she says car if you were to be like actually it was a tahoe in front of people i don't know

that's people are gonna be like what the hell dude all right we get it like come on but i i do understand like because it's a there's a difference between hitting you know being hit by a crow and being hit by a tahoe so i i respect that you you want the full story to be told and out there about tough you were because you deserve it, honestly. So, yeah, you just got to have the conversation beforehand and just be like, honey, can you do me a favor here? This isn't just some incident. I got blasted by a fucking Chevy Tahoe. Shout out to this guy.

He really likes every once in a while when I'm a little low on funds. And I don't actually think of this, but I'm like when I see like i'm a walk in the neighborhood and i see a guy like maybe rolling through stop signs i'm like man that's my ticket um i don't think that anymore just so you know i got hit by a bus like i got hit like grazed by a school bus uh and my ninth grade it stopped i was like in the school parking lot but that's my only and i thought i actually took it well i jumped up and like it hit me on the side and just kind of fell over but i thought i thought about it well and now i think about it like man that's like that's probably 30 grand if i could just pull this off like not that i'm trying to do it but if there's like some asshole driving and they're

just like on their phones i'm like great dude's rolling through stop signs in hollywood all the time i now don't think about that anymore now that i heard this guy's story and the shit he just went through two days in the hospital staples so i don't know what set me straight though i had a friend that got bit by a dog when they were younger and they got like this big settlement paycheck and they're totally fine and i'm like man like are you actually kind of lucky it's all so much that's awesome yeah like this is amazing if i could just get a mild manner german shepherd to nip me but you know that'd be great yeah you know nothing nothing you know didn't maim me just you know you get a settlement check and you're set for life i'm no longer i'm no longer fucking around in my head after this guy's story so just so you know

how long did that phase last of man what do you mean when you were just scouting people rolling through stop signs like well i'm not scouting it like i'm on my way you know and i'm like this guy's not stopping like maybe i'll just take the chance and i'll go he probably won't hit me but if he does like i'm definitely like you're gonna pay for this guy and it's like hey you shouldn't be on your phone and also like i could finally play it pay off some of these credit cards that's really all i meant like i'm not like seeking it out i'm not like uh you know what was that always sunny when they're in the parking lot trying to get tickets to the world series like i'm just i'm just saying when i'm going out and about and i'm like this guy's not even paying attention he's going right to the stop sign it's like i got the right away guy but you know i don't want to get hit by a car

but but it flashes in my head and i'm like this could be the one and i never do it but i'm just saying i don't think i'll think of that anymore now that i heard this guy's injuries to be clear i'm not seeking settlements while I'm out in the world. I just think about it when it's like, oh, this could happen if I, you know. You've shared enough. I think so. Yeah. I don't think there's anything else to add.

Sure. No, no, I'm not even talking about you. I'm talking about the email. Yeah, it was a Tahoe. I appreciate, yeah. That's the CDL license. Next level up. I want to double check that. CDL. I'm talking about the email. Yeah, it was a Tahoe. I appreciate. Yeah. That's the CDL license. Next level up. I want to double check that.

It's like the field goal. Like, don't get this wrong. Yeah. H&R Block's going to be fired up about this. Life advice has been brought to you courtesy of Block Advisors by H&R Block. Block Advisors by H&R Block provides affordable tax expertise that finds every credit and deduction your business deserves. 100% accuracy guaranteed. Schedule an appointment today at blockadvisors.com forward slash small biz.

See blockadvisors.com forward slash guarantees for full details. must be 21 and older. Present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700, or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana. Visit

mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.