The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Happy Fourth of July! With Alex Caruso.

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

Happy Fourth of July! Russillo is joined by Bulls guard Alex Caruso to talk about the Bulls' playoff series vs. the Heat, Lonzo Ball, Alex's NBA journey, his relationship with LeBron James, getting angry on the court, and more (0:24). Then, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (31:39). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Alex Caruso Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

happy fourth everybody all right here we go we've got alex caruso on his career what's up with the bulls and getting into fights a couple times nothing too crazy and life advice enjoy the holiday this episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product

availability may vary by region. See app for details. Alex Caruso, the Bulls, hanging out with us. Great story. Great success story. I'm really happy for him and all the stuff that's gone down. Incredible defensive player on top of everything else. A lot of stuff I don't want to get to. Alex, when you are at this part of the season

with all the free agency stuff, the trades, how much do you pay attention to it? Do you grade the trades with teammates or buddies when you see another team make a move? Maybe not as in-depth as some of these big networks do, but there's definitely basketball talk between teammates and just in general. Most of the league, I'd say probably majority of the league at least you know in my experience are like basketball

junkies uh like me and me and damar texted all throughout the playoffs just about different series how we thought it was going to go and then just randomly we'll text each other out of the blue and be like comparing somebody's careers like who had the better career who would you take here and here so most of it gets talked about but but not quite you know to the scrutiny or in depth of uh you know maybe some of these these networks or radio shows do i don't know how much you can share because you know you're in a league with other people but what are what are the texts like with you and deran when you're watching? Is there one team you were both right on, both wrong on as it was

developing? What are those moments like when you guys are watching it? It's pretty 50-50. Usually it was just it'll be stuff about matchups of series during the playoffs, calling how many games a series is going to go, just talking

about different guys' games and how it, you know, they either do or don't fit, which, you know, we won't get into particulars about that. But I think he called, I think he called, he called the finals, finals was five games, right? Yeah. Yeah, he called five. I thought it was going to go six.

It's just a lot of fun for us because he's I mean he's as much a basketball junkie as anybody and he he I think he knows that that I'm the same way so we just we get into deep conversations about basketball we've done a lot of stuff during the year like a couple team flights like do your top five like small forwards all time point guard stuff like that it's just you know for us it for us, it's a drug to just talk about basketball. What did you guys think about Miami's run, considering how your playing game went? I'm just wondering if I was wrong about them.

I just didn't think they were talented enough to make it to the NBA Finals. But what did you think as that was happening? They just kind of hoodwinked everybody throughout the whole year. They almost took on the persona of Jimmy because Jimmy doesn't coast through the regular season. He's still an all-star caliber player but when he gets to the playoffs, he turns it up a notch. Their team this year almost took like, took on that persona

because when we played them during the regular season, I mean, we – I want to say we were 3-0 against them. And one of the games we played at home, like, we beat them pretty easily as far as, you know, NBA basketball standards. But, man, they just – they got hot at the right time. Guys started trusting, you know, what they were doing doing and then the matchups i thought were really good and you know you hear people talk about that in the playoffs so much like matchups matter i thought they just kept getting good matchups and then guys just played you know different guys each each series kind of

stepped up for him um you know duncan didn't really have too much of an impact at all going into the playoffs. And then all of a sudden he has a couple of big series. Gabe Benson started playing incredible in that New York Knicks series. And then they just, you know, they got steady play from Bam, K-Lo. Jimmy did what Jimmy did to kind of, you know, get him through the Milwaukee series. It was just an incredible run. It's one of those things where you get hot at the right time, like you see sometimes in March Madness,

but it's even more impressive because they're serious. It's not one and done games. I think sometimes teams or players will look at who they lost to and then go, oh, hey, you know, because your regular season probably was disappointing. There's certainly injuries, whether, you know, the Lonzo things, another thing that I want to ask you about at some point, but I, there'll be teams or certain guys will be like, well, look,

we were that close. You couldn't play in game could have gone our way and they went to the NBA final. So that tells us by product like that, we're close. When I hear that stuff and I'm kind of like, I don't know if you should be doing that. I'm wondering. Go ahead. No, no, there's there's there's I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like the butterfly effect.

Like you put yourself in that situation. But I mean, I'll take it even one step further back. Like I as soon as we lost the playing game, the season's over. You know, I'm thinking about the two games we lost to Orlando this year. Game against Oklahoma City at home. We lost game at San Antonio early in the game, early in the year. We lost like there's four getting four games right there where I can count where it's like, those are, you know, those are, those are probably, you count them as wins on the schedule. You know, maybe OKC is a little,

a little, a little out of the ordinary than, than those other two teams. But we lost the Rockets at home in a bad game. I didn't play in that. I was sitting out, but, you know, still have plenty of talent to beat them. Mess around with the game. They get hot late, lose the game. Like, that's four games where we go from being the whatever, what were we, the 11, to where we're maybe not even in the play-in.

And then it's like you don't even have to worry about winning those two games. So that's kind of where my mind went whenever I saw, you know, once the season was over. But, yeah, you can't just, you know, you can't just erase and fill and put your name in there and be like, yeah, we would have beat Milwaukee and then beat New York and then beat Boston. Like, that's a tall task to do, and you kind of have to give Miami their credit for for going in there and doing it the Bulls get off to that really good start a couple years ago you know

and then it was like all right and it was fun there was a stretch there where it was really fun like I'd watch you guys on a Saturday night at home in Chicago it really is still one of the best places yeah the atmosphere for all of it. It really is. And I'm watching it, and I felt like Bulls fans, in a way, were deprived because of the Derrick Rose thing, and the Butler split up, and they're trying to figure out, again, on the fly, the Levine thing works out.

The DeRozan contract's incredible. The Boots trade, it's a tough one, but I get he's a talented guy. Then you come along, Lonzo's there, and it felt like, hey, you know what? The Bulls are at least going to be competitive. Between the injuries, the second half of last year, and then this year, do you have any sense of who you are as an organization, like who you are as a team?

I mean, I do. I think I have the vision of what it's supposed to be, and obviously missing Zoe is a huge piece of that just because, like we said, I think we shocked everybody in the league when we were sitting at first place halfway through the year, that first year when everyone signed in the offseason. And it was just clicking. Like Zoe's game fit so well next to DeMar and Zach and Vooch.

And then we had, you know, great role players, young players that, you know, And then we had, you know, great role players, young players that, you know, Pat, Williams, Io played probably better than a rookie would his first year. And then Kobe White just continued to grow and get better for us that year. I thought we had a really, you know, when you look at all the boxes you need to check for being a good team, I thought we had a lot of them checked. Could score in different ways, could play in a half court. So me on defense kind of disrupting, letting us get out and transition, get an easy buckets there. And then,

you know, we, we just, everybody that, you know, whether you want to call it deficiency or maybe just, you know, a skill that guys aren't as good at, like we kind of covered each other up in the areas that we needed to. And, and it just, for me, it was flowing really good. And then obviously, like I said, you know, unfortunate situation with Zoe where there's kind of, you know, just a bunch of question marks around that.

But I think as far as who we want to be, I think we know who we want to be. You know, it's just professional sports. It's about showing up every day and doing it. You know, like you can be at your best best and we kind of proved that the two seasons like the the first season i was here we beat all the teams that were 500 or below like our record against them was phenomenal and we couldn't beat any of the good teams and then last year a record against the top six seven eight teams or maybe even less, like top five, six teams of each conference was above 500. And then the teams that were below 500 on record,

we struggled against. So it's kind of just that putting it all together thing, finding the roles to make up for the holes that were missing with Zoe and then just competing and playing every night because that's half the battle of professional sports. How is Lonzo? He's been great when I've seen him. As far as spirit and going to work,

that's kind of all you can do in that position. You can't force anything when it comes to injuries. The body has to heal and then you can get back out there and play. And that's one of those things where it's been healing. And then I think there's been setbacks and he's trying to, trying to get back to healing again. For his sake, I hope he can just play basketball again, man. Cause his, you know, going back to what we said about me and DeMar,

I think he's the same way where he just, he's just a hooper at heart. Like he, he would just play basketball at the park and play pickup with with his friends if that was kind of you know what his life life path was he just happens to be really really good playing the nba um but yeah for him i hope he can just get back and play because i know how much he enjoys it and you know he's just he's a really good player when he gets out there i love your. I think we all love underdogs and, you know,

coming out of school, you know, granted, I watched you in college. You're like, all right, you know, undrafted.

And I know you had to mess around with G league a little bit. And then I don't know. I don't remember the game, but I just remember like there was a moment where you were with the Lakers. You're like, wait, is he actually kind of good? What was, what was the moment for you? I mean, everybody, some people are honest with the answer. Some

people aren't, um, you know, some people say I never had any doubts and other people are like, I didn't know, you know, like what was that, that path like for you of kind of understanding how you fit into the NBA? Yeah, I think for, honestly, it was kind of in stages, even from going all the way back to high school. I was a good player as a young kid. There was whispers of me being on varsity early as a high school player. And then I was two weeks on JV.

I got bumped up. So I played four years of varsity high school basketball. And then into was like two weeks on JV. I got bumped up. So I played four years of varsity high school basketball. And then like into my junior and senior, I was like, oh, I could probably play D1 basketball. And then at the end, it's like, oh, I could play high major D1 basketball. And then once I got to college, it just reset because I was skinny.

I was, you know, trying to catch up athletic wise, trying to catch up to the speed of the game. First two years, I'm just trying to get on the court, play on the team. And then like later, and it catch up athletic wise, trying to catch up to the speed of the game. First two years, I'm just trying to get on the court, play on the team. And then like later, and it's like, oh, I could probably play professional basketball.

And then, you know, at the end of my senior year, it's like, oh, I have 10, 11 NBA team workouts. And then from there, it's just make the decision if I want to try and, you know, make it to the NBA and like make my stamp there, go overseas and start a career. I just decided I'm not going to be able to live myself if I don't stay here and give it a shot and see what happens.

I just kept getting better and better. That summer league where I actually posted about it, I think it was House of Highlights had something about our summer league team that 2017 year, the year that Zoe, Josh Hart, who's all got drafted. BI was on the team. Zubac, Thomas Bryant, me, Vanderbilt. We had a bunch of guys.

It was just a crazy team. And they all got hurt. And then I started playing really well. I had that kind of breakout game against De'Aaron Fox and Buddy Heald and the Kings. I had that kind of breakout game against De'Aaron Fox and Buddy Heald and the Kings. Then we get to the two-way and it's like my first actual like real NBA experience, right? Like I went to training camp with the Thunder, but I didn't really get to do anything. I was the last guy on the training camp roster.

And it just slowly but surely, I like would like just play, just kind of like naively just play basketball and kind of do what I could do and then I realized I was like oh I could I could play here like this is something I could actually do and the confidence just grows and I just kept getting better and better um I would probably say at the end of my first year on two ways probably the the the moment where I was like yeah I like I can play in the NBA and I need to be here because I kind of felt like I maxed out playing in the G League after a full year G League and a full year two-way I was I wasn't getting you know I wasn't able to take the steps to get better at that point like I needed reps playing at NBA speed against NBA size you know with the different just the difference between the G League and the NBA.

So I'd say probably the end of my first year in two-way, that was when I was like, yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be. Shout out to Vander Blue, by the way. Yeah, VZ, he's the G League, one of the all-time great G League players. Dude, just maxed out the G League for

a handful of years. His Wikipedia is like an encyclopedia when you have to keep up with all the teams. Cutter, currently, by the way, I believe. All right, so give me this answer. This is what I really want. Give me the transition from

two-way, who's this guy again, teammate of LeBron, to then LeBron's like, oh, wait. This guy's going to be somebody I have in the rotation, somebody I actually trust, you know, does the right things. What is that relationship transformation like? That was, so I want to say Bron's first year was my second year on two-way because the first year, yeah. Yeah.

So he, that's right, because they made the trade in BI and Josh and all them. Wait a second, I'm trying to remember now. Bron's first year was... 18, yeah, so my second year on two-way. Yeah, because 17, 18, 18, 19, yeah. It was kind of the same thing towards the end of the year you know they the team wasn't you know in the spot where they wanted to be or like push for a

playoff spot just before the playing game so i got called up and bronze bronze so he's playing because he just is a freak and plays basketball every every day of the week and we started playing together and my iq on like what i was seeing and how it he was seeing was kind of similar obviously he's a lot smarter at that time and like still now but i was able to read the game based off of the openings that kind of how teams would guard him you know like I'm coming off a pick and roll with him setting they're not worried about me they're worried about him so I'm just walking to the lane shooting layups um when he has the ball everyone's staring I'm a good cutter so I'm making off ball cuts he's a phenomenal passer so he's hitting me

easy layups it was just one of those things where where my game really complimented him um and the things that i could do i think just fit in well and and i think he started to realize that over those last couple games when there maybe wasn't as much you know high iq basketball being played around him that that season as he would like and i think it was was kind of a fresh take for him to realize like, oh, this guy knows what he's doing. He knows how to play. He knows how to play the game. You might as well keep him around. And obviously, then I went to Summer League and kind of moseyed my way through the second Summer League after my second year in 2A, just like, all right, I'm ready to play in the NBA. And then I signed with him

for those two years. does he get mad at you as a teammate like i'm sure you've had all sorts of teammates he everybody that i've ever heard that coach or play with him like no this isn't bs like he really does see the game in a in a special way and you're even smiling right now so you know for the audio audience eventually there's gonna be a wolf like so many people say it like it's gotta be true yeah so what is that give me do you have a story is there an example of that where you were like whoa um because i had a coach like recently explained to me he said how like lebron was understanding the tv timeout length so that he then he would sub himself out.

Yeah, for sure. Calculate it. Right. He would know I'm not missing a ton of game time, but in real time, it's like I'm getting two extra breaks. He'll sub out the first. We used to do that. He would sub out first.

AD would play the whole first quarter. He would sub out the last, I don't know, was it 30 seconds before the two-minute timeout? So then he's getting the two minutes and 15 seconds of game time. That's what he's missing. But in totality, he's getting like eight minutes of – 10 minutes of real rest. But I think the thing for me, and Rondo had a little bit of play in this too,

was just the level of detail on scouting, you know, whether it was knowing, you know, coaches' tendencies after timeouts, whether it was knowing, you know, different plays that these guys have been running the beginning of the third quarter, different personnel stuff. Like, that's one of the things that I think has helped me become, you know, one of the better defenders in the NBA first team all defense last year was

just the knowledge of all the people in the league. Like I know, I know who likes to go left. I know who likes to go right. I know who doesn't want to get to the rim and wants to shoot in the mid range. I know what happens if I crowd this guy and make him turn baseline, like all these little details about guys that i learned

from you know the details of frank vogel's scouts uh you know the the schemes that we used to come up with when i was in la and then just the knowledge of braun like he would just add stuff here and there that was just like oh i didn't know that it's like oh i guess that guy does only like to go left and shoot pull-ups or if he goes right, he's going to get to the rim. Like little stuff like that where I didn't understand, or I didn't know that you could have that in depth of knowledge. You know, it was almost like going from like the G league or college to an MBA level of

like mental processing to where I was like, Oh, I can get better in that area too. And that was something for me. That was really fun because we talked about before, I'm a basketball junkie. So if I can know stuff that other people don't know or these guys that I'm guarding don't know, that's just another bullet in the chamber for me. And that was something for him that I was really, really impressed by.

All right, let's talk about some of the guys that you go up against because I don't always remember, especially as we're almost into July, what your primary assignment on the opposition would be all the time. But you were incredible defensively this year, and you could see it. Then you look at the numbers, and you're going, man, this is another level of what you're doing. Do they put you on SGA? Yeah, I mean, everybody.

I've guarded everybody. SGA, man, he's one of the tougher ones in the league that doesn't get talked about enough. I think he moves so well on the court, but there's also this thing where I feel like he's just going to get deeper than you want him to and you're not really going to be able to do anything. And then he stops and he goes slower than everybody else at at the rim still calculating like which angle he's going to take

off from there's just so much that's being thrown at you that's beyond just hey i'm really quick off my first step and power dribble in i i don't need you're right like i want to ask you about him because the whole the whole palette of what he can throw at you seems ridiculous. I mean, he averaged 30 a game in the NBA and 24, 25, I think he is. Like that's, that's not from predetermining anything. Like he can, he can shoot threes. He can shoot in the mid range. He can get fouled. He can play in the little six, eight foot floater range,

and then he can get to the rim and finish. One of the things you see with some of the best scorers in the league is they'll average five, six, seven, eight free throw attempts per game. So right there, they're shooting 80%. They're at six points there. So now they're getting 24. Let's say they make three threes. Now they're only making five other shots in the game outside of you know their their free throws and their threes and he's one of the ones that you know the way the way mark diagonal set

up that offense for you know it's just read react create closeouts and playing off playing off closeout as the defender in the nba NBA is one of the hardest things to do. Because you're usually traveling a handful of steps, stopping on a dime, and then this guy who knows what he wants to do, now that we're in the current NBA, can shoot threes, can dribble, and can pass. That's how OKC is set up. It's hard for you to take all that away and then worry about this guy that's shooting you know whatever his splits are and scoring 30 a game

he just makes great reads you know whatever you kind of give him that's what he takes and then even then if you're like square in front of him he's stronger than he looks and he's and he's I mean he's 6'6 6'7 with a whatever wingspan you know like i'm six five with a six five wingspan like i'm i have decent size for a guard in the league but he's he's more of like a big guard wing size playing point guard so he can kind of just i don't think he really has a deficiency in his game and and that's kind of what makes him you know that's what makes the guys in the league that are elite elite, that's what makes them so hard to guard is because

they can score at all three levels, they can get fouled, and then the guys that don't predetermine what they're going to do, that's when, for me as a defender, it's like, okay, now you got to pay attention and really try to make life hard for them or else they're just going

to get 30 35 i imagine you'd still rather deal with him than like getting switched to luca right dude i mean there's there's no right answer to that you know like i mean they they both have it's it's a different game for each of them right luke is a little more methodical almost uh almost like almost like joker where it's like it it lulls you to sleep like it's almost lazy and then he uses his size i mean lucas six seven two hundred something pounds like he's a big guy like that's why he takes when you put little guards on him he just takes him to the to the post and just you know turns into dirk uh but yeah i mean there's there's i don't think think there's a right answer.

That's like asking me any guard all-star in the league. Yeah, right. It's like there's no right answer. Right, yeah, I guess it shouldn't because that's not fair because then if you're like, actually, Luke, I kind of figured him out a little bit. I mean, I know stuff about everybody, but there's a class of 10, 15 guys in the league

where it's like you can play perfect defense, they're still probably going to score. Where's Jamal Murray on that right now? Because he's everybody's favorite now that he has a ring. Yeah, man, Jamal's been so good for a couple years now. He's one of the underrated guys in the league that doesn't get talked about enough probably just because Joker is such a good player and like such a historically you know he's going to be first ballot whenever he's done playing but jamal man the tandem of them two and in the sets that they run in denver it's just it's just hard for you to stay in front because jamal's another guy that can kind of do it all like he he

can he can shoot threes off the dribble. He can shoot threes off the movement. He can get to the mid-range and shoots his little one-foot kind of quirky half spin. And then he can get into the paint and he can get fouled. So for him, too, the dudes that play in Denver, their conditioning's just elite. Just naturally, they have that they have that little bit of advantage and the way that Denver plays like there's so much movement and there's so much off-ball stuff and and Joker is such a good passer that everything's live so

like you you never rest on defense and Jamal is just moving moving moving moving like people talk about Steph moving and Steph's movement is like kind of off ball mostly, but they're running stuff for Jamal to where it's like he's faking a back screen, slipping it, coming off a pin down with Joker. And it's like, if you go under, he's going to shoot the three. If you trail, he's just going to keep going.

Joker might fake it to him. Now he's throwing it over the top. It's just, there's so much freedom for them in that offense that it makes it really hard to predict and it makes it hard to funnel guys into areas. All right. I love that answer because now we're talking about something too where I've been probably yelling at this point too long. But just the Golden State part of it where they keep playing to the end of the shot clock, right? Play through the possession. Just keep moving like why would you run your first thing and then if it doesn't work then everybody stop but like it's also going to be nights where

you don't have it there's gonna be plenty of possessions throughout the season hundreds and hundreds of possessions where you just don't feel great about it but are you surprised even with 30 nba teams that they'll still feel like there's certain teams where you go and thinking about your defensive game plan where you're like you know what these guys kind of run the first action and then it's kind of over and that's what they do i think it's surprising at least for me from the outside that i'll see even at this level a handful of teams where i'm like you guys can't get your guys to just keep moving still and i don't know it seems like just there's some offenses that are a little easy to prepare for i think that's still it's it's a bit of a generational transition thing

because a lot of, you know, teens basketball, you know, even earlier than that, it was all based around like getting your guy the ball in an isolation and letting him get his shot up. And there's still a lot of that in the NBA, but majority of it now, just people are looking at the analytics, they're looking at the stats.

It's like the more passes you make per possession and the longer you wait in the shot clock, more times than not, you shoot a higher points per possession or you're going to score and shoot better percentages. We've talked about that with our team before at the Bulls. It's like the times we come down and we've had like, with our team before the bulls it's like the times we come down and we've had like i don't know how many passes it was billy's had his

analytics guy put it up on the screen before it was like possessions where it's like over three and a half passes or something like that we shoot like 15 higher it's like it's just about committing to that and making sure you know you're trying to do that every time and obviously it's just about committing to that and making sure, you know, you're trying to do that every time. And obviously it's an imperfect game, right? There's some games where you're going to have more fast break possessions and some games you're going to play against a team that doesn't crash. You're going to have to play against a half court offense and the numbers might be skewed, but for the most part,

that's kind of the most potent offenses in the leagues. The one that, the one that rely on movement and the ones that can, you know, space the floor correctly and just open it up for guys to get easy shots inside and then shoot threes. Okay. I want to ask about two plays. I was watching the clips again this morning. Were you more mad about the Grayson Allen foul or campaign after the Chris Paul-LeBron thing?

Oh, wait a second. You were in Phoenix. LeBron was at the free throw line. Chris Paul went to box him out. He took shooter, but he took it from behind. LeBron fell down. May not have been as hurt as it looked. I know he's never done that before.

And then campaign chucks you and then you throw the ball back at campaign. I would admit campaign, I'd have a hard time with him pushing me down to the ground. And then Montrez came over and pushed Cam and then pain flopped. See, like Grayson, that was nasty and dirty and

dangerous. Okay. 100%. That was the thing about that season too, is like I was just coming off of, I was coming off of like a little hamstring tweak at the end of like middle of December and I was just getting back into it

and like my second or third day back to practice, I got COVID. So then I missed another 10 13 days and then that was my second game back after covid and like team was doing so good beginning of the year now we're kind of hitting a wall and it's like i need to get back out there like i can somewhat like right the ship and help some of these guys that are like struggling with some of the stuff we're trying to do and then second game go down and just obviously it happens. You know, the crazy thing people don't talk about enough.

And this is probably a pat on the back for me. It's like, I finished the game. I finished the game. I actually made a three. I don't think I made a, like I didn't shoot very well. And then I think Chris was guarding me Middleton and he was playing so far off because my wrist was obviously just, it was taped and it looked bad. And I just ego shot it and it went in. And after the game, I'm like dapping everybody up left-handed. And I'm like, ah, dude, this is going to be sprained for like a week.

Like this isn't going to be good. Like I'm not going to be able to play. And then I wake up the next morning, Orlando, and I can't brush my teeth. And like, I try to take a shower and I can't like touch my body and all I'm like yeah that's that's not a spring something's not right with that and then I was six and a half weeks

I was so mad I was watching at home and at this point you know I kind of had it with Grayson Allen and like what did you go past him in the line I forget when talking about after the game when you're dapping up everybody you had to have right well no it's not there's no line in professional yeah what am i talking about when you said that yeah when you said the dap part i was like oh well i said because i know a couple guys on the team

you know chris and then i played against uh i played played against Bobby in college a couple times. It's just like a checking in. Yeah, right. What am I thinking? I don't know why I let that. Stay healthy kind of thing. I'm lying saying it's okay. Well, can't wait to see you guys back out there.

I know that feels like the season just ended in a way but maybe it's felt longer for you, but it's been fun seeing your career take off, man, in a great city like Chicago. So thanks. Yeah, of course, man. Thanks for having me on.

It's felt like a year and a half since the season's been over for me. Slightly longer. Yeah, it's felt like forever. We'll see. We'll see how many new teammates you have. Thanks again. Appreciate it, man.

You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So, now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required life advice life advice rr at gmail.com what up steve what up kyle all right here we go um the first one here dating app issues here had my wife created dating app profile to look at my friend's accounts huh Huh. Okay. Let's get into it. Let's just read it. Hey guys, no basketball comp to give you, but my character comp is a mix of Kramer and Logan Roy. What? Yeah. Do we discuss it

or we just keep moving? I don't have it in me. Which means I have a ruthless drive for what I want, but have some outlandish ideas and character quirks. This might have been what led to my current predicament. Okay. He did a good job of explaining it. I just don't think of those two people as like,

you know what I mean? It'd be like, I'd say avocado and something else, but everybody uses avocado and everything. It'd be like hot sauce on cookies and cream ice cream. Like it's just a weird kind of like. Like a fish and a bird. It's like, those are just the two weird kind of like a fish and a bird it's like those are just the two or a fish and a bird yeah good good i have a few friends who have been single for years now and when me and my wife ask

if they are seeing anyone it is always no i ask if they are on any dating sites and they say yes but they aren't having any luck on them curious as to what they would write as their profile what photos they use me and my wife decided to snoop on them after a few drinks at jazz fest because you have to verify you were using uh your real using social media i couldn't just create a burner account so she created a profile we quickly got to work knowing their age and where they live we were able to use the settings to narrow down the number of people uh we had to swipe to find them. It was actually super fun to do together

and provided some of the deepest laughing I've done in a long time because of how stupid these profiles were. Well, must be nice, happy guy, huh? Some people are out there fucking still on the hunt. Tooth and nail. Come on, man.

Actually, that does sound like a good husband-wife activity. It is, yeah. Might have to get in on that is yeah as expected maybe not see where the story goes as expected my friends profiles were not interesting bad pictures and now i get why they are getting no play no play uh the problem rises because one of these guys saw her profile in the hour or so it was up and sent me a voice note saying, I'm sorry to bring it up, but I saw your wife on Hinge. Big swiper, these guys. Swiping at all hours. That is a Kramer-esque predicament.

She's on Hinge? I told them we were looking for a different friend's profile together as a couple, but he replied, let me know if you need to talk. Oh, man. Now you're the guy everyone feels bad for. Right. I'm concerned he brings it up to others. I don't want my wife to look like she is a wandering eye or others to know I'm snooping on their dating profiles. How can I get this guy to never bring it up to anyone?

I feel like telling someone to not tell anyone makes them want to tell someone more. Yeah. I mean, if you go with option B where you're like, look, my wife and I created the profile so we could look at all of your profiles. So we could, you probably want to leave out the part where you're hysterically laughing at everybody's lack of companionship, but, um, they're definitely telling other people that's not staying in the vault. Right? I mean, you may

have that one vault friend. I have one that's like super vault, and I'll go like, wait, you not telling me this is actually way worse than you betraying the person you don't even like. You need to tell me this,

right? So anyway, uh, this is going to be shared. So there's a downside there. I mean, the ultimate downside is that Zion Williamson is a match for your wife. And then all of a sudden you're like,

wait, what's going on here? Um, so that's that we can eliminate that one. Uh, I don't know. Can't't you can't you and your wife just laugh hysterically about this like doesn't it really only matter that you two know it or i don't know like saruti i guess like knowing you and your wife and how

uh i would say you're very, I don't know. This is something we would do. Yeah, this is something you would do. Yeah, yeah, it is. You're just compatible. Compatible is what I'm thinking of, right? You're very compatible. You would do it.

And then I would think if it went down that road with one of your buddies, you would just tell your buddy, hey, dude, this is what happened. And I guess he would believe you. But I also think there's a part of you and your wife where you would think it was the funniest thing ever that people thought she was actually stepping out and on hinge like no I don't you wouldn't care I don't think

no I don't know I wouldn't go that far I think I think we wouldn't think it was that big like we would keep it a secret that we were snooping on them and as soon as we got caught we'd be like yeah because because the lesser of two evils I'd rather my friend know that we were kind of snooping on their dating profile versus them telling other people

and the word spreading that my wife might be cheating on me. So I feel like I don't think Maddie would be super pumped if people were spreading rumors that she was around the town, open for business or whatever. I think the lesser of two evils is just like, tell your buddy what you were doing. Unless your wife just doesn't care and you don't care, then that's fine. So I think the lesser of two evils is just like, tell your buddy what you were doing.

And unless your wife just doesn't care and you don't care, then that's fine. But I know that like me personally, and I know my wife, Maddie, I don't think she'd want, I don't think she'd want people to even think that she was snooping around

because it's just, I don't know, it's just not a good look. Yeah, not good. I think this is, it's interesting because it's, it's a, it's something that I think I would be curious about.

Like I've got friends who post mostly on Twitter that are just, it's like, look at this dude. My buddy posts another dumb thing. I'm probably that friend for a lot of people, but there's some people that are even for me, or it's like dumb things usually talk about like how cool they are or how girls ain't shit or how this or how that it's like, it's just like, wow, this is a guy who posts the shit that just, it's just dumb. It's just dumb. I see your thoughts and they're dumb. I like you, but what you're saying to the world is dumb. And so I've always like, be interesting to be like, what does that guy, what does that guy's dating profile look like? Cause that's something your buddies never see, right? Why would they ever see it? So like, I can understand the, the urge to

want to know what that guy's putting out to the world. Uh, especially if it's like, you know, I'd like my dumb Twitter buddies. They'd be like, what are you? What are you? What's the face you show to women? Because whatever you're showing on Twitter is crazy. So I get the idea of wanting to see it. But I mean, why couldn't you have just made a fucking new like Facebook or something? Can you just do that?

Like in a second? Why did you have to use your wife's thing and have it out there? It's just crazy. That's what I thought originally. That what i thought poor execution i thought they originally just created a fake profile because that's meaning i've told this story before but back when i invented catfishing with my friends and like you know high school we just created we just yeah we yeah and i saw yeah i've done a lot of things in my life uh we we just created fake myspace profiles like it wasn't and i don't i don't know. I mean, I haven't created any new social media profiles.

Yeah, that's your catfish game. That's good. Could they have just used her stuff, her email, and then just did a different profile picture? No, because I think you have to... Listen, this is how it was in Tinder when I was using it in, what, 2013

maybe. You had to use photos from your profile. Like you couldn't just upload photos that weren't like pictures that you had on Facebook. But then you just make a new Facebook. There's like a billion accounts on Facebook. Why can't you make it? It's just like another minute before you make your hinge thing. Instead of using putting your wife out there and everyone within a 25 mile radius can see that she's on there. I mean,

crazy. Yeah, what was the end game, I guess? Because the whole point was that you were going to match up with the wife. Your wife was going to match up with the friend. She was going to know. Your friend was going to know. It doesn't seem like this is a well thought out thing. Well, I don't think they matched, right? It was, oh. Yeah, but I bet you the app,

when she starts filtering down her options so that they could find the friends that then she becomes like a match on the other side of it yeah this was just poor planning yeah i guess you are a little more stuck here than i thought i think i was being dismissive probably because i'm the one that's not married out of the group um that you wouldn't want your group and then you know that that extra layer of electrons group where it's like hey did you hear about so-and-so's wife or whatever like i can understand you not wanting that i i personally but i think i'd have to be married to have a real like i just wouldn't care i just i would be like, whatever. But I'm not married, so I don't think I'm a good source here.

All right, next email. Kyle's lost McSorley shirts. Hi, Ryan. Kyle Steve. Big fan of the pod. I tried to get a ticket to Gramercy, but it was not going to happen. All right. I don't have a life advice question at the moment.

That's great, man. Sounds like things are going really well. I heard in the last pod some ass stole Kyle's McSorley shirts from the green room as a New York City transplant from the Bay Area. It would be my pleasure to send Kyle and his wife replacement shirts free of charge. I'm also a big fan of McSorley's and have always taken friends and family to town there. When we grab some beers, just let me know your sizes and address. I would ship them to and happy to do so on me. Congrats to Kyle and your wife for the wedding. Wow. Light or dark. Am I right, guy? No, that's okay. She was actually pretty drunk that night.

She's not even as upset as I thought she was going to be. So that's okay. I don't even know if she remembers that we got those shirts. So it's all right. I don't need you to do that. But that was really nice of you. I'll be need you to do that. But that was, that was really nice of you. I'll be back to me at McSorley's whenever I get dragged down to the city. That's for sure. But thank you. All right.

I don't want to give you my address either. Okay. No address guy. I mean, yeah, you're at no, when did you pivot from here's my address for free shit to, I don't know that I want to do that anymore.

Um, well, I'd give it to like companies or guys with small businesses, but just like a guy who's like, Hey man, from here's my address for free shit to i don't know that i want to do that anymore um well i'd give it to like companies or guys with small businesses but just like a guy who's like hey man i've got something i want to send you um even if it's like a nice nicely crafted email i'm just maybe not but i used to go into the office more i used to get people the ringer office but now like the spotify thing's so weird i don't know how that even works so like i haven't figured out the whole mail forwarding to the Spotify office, but the old

ringer office, I'd give that one to everyone. Yeah, unless it's a pair of sneakers or a silo. Those are out the door. You didn't really even trust me enough to let me handle that. You just wait until they were gone. You're like, hey, what the fuck is going on with the sneakers? I'm like, I'm scared. I don't know.

Well, I think because I know without knowing. I don't know. Well, I think I, cause I know, I know without knowing, I know that there was a certain group of people that they would see a box of sneakers for me and be like, fuck him. Like I was in charge. Yeah.

That'll be a story told. Not mad though. Not mad. No, very mad. Still not about the sneakers, about a small group of people. All right.

Next email. What do you think? So people at work are trying to fuck my career up. Three people are laughing very hard right now all right um let's see bachelor party want to watch a boxing match okay here we go six two two ten basketball comp is brady he slip that's good yeah i like that one that is a really good one all right uh one of my college buddies is getting married and i was invited to the bachelor party the weekend of July 29th. We're renting a cabin at the lake, have plans to go out Friday night,

hang out at the water Saturday. Then I've been told by the best man that we were just going to be chilling and drinking whiskey at the cabin on Saturday night. So the best man's in charge of this. However, that Saturday night's also on the calendar one of the most highly anticipated bouts since Kyle's wedding. Uh-oh. That was a good joke.

39-0 Bud Crawford against 29-0 Errol Spence. This fight has been years in the making and is the best non-heavyweight boxing match in a long, long time. I wouldn't say I'm the biggest boxing fan, but I'm a huge Bud Crawford fan. He's from Omaha and so is my dad, so I've followed him for a long time, watching every

pay-per-view fight over the last 10 years and even attended a couple of fights in person. All right. So to say you're not a huge boxing fan, you watch everyone like, all right, I get the home connection. You are way in on this guy. You are way in. You've been looking forward to this, but it's also the bachelor party. So the issue I've run into is that no one else going on the bachelor party, including the groom, really cares about this fight.

My selfish hope is that I can buy the pay-per-view, take over the TV, watch the fight. Anyone who wants to join me can, but I want to hear your thoughts on, one, is this an asshole move? I know it's not my weekend and I don't want to ruin their other plans, but I've already been told Saturday night is just a whiskey at the cabin night. I would think a good fight, even for people who don't really care, could enhance the vibes. I actually agree with that. I don't quite understand

why you can't have something on TV. Usually TVs are on when people get together. If they are demanding that everyone stand outside or sit on the porch and look at the lake, like the sound bath, you could do it before the fight. You could do it after

the fight. There's a lot of hours in a day to play with if only like two of them, maybe not even two, could be even less of the fight. Number two is how do I go about trying to make this happen? I'm one of the few non-groomsmen that is part of the bachelor party, so I'm definitely aware I'm not a core guy to this groom. Very good point. Great self-awareness. Thank you for adding that context. But I am really close to the best man in some of the groomsmen, so I'm not just some random fringe guy. Sounds like you're not either. Again, do I try to build this into the itinerary ahead of time, wait until the weekend and bring it up, or do I just not tell anyone, go hide for an hour or so and watch it on my phone? I really don't understand why this would be that big of an issue.

I've done the bachelor party at the hotel. I've done the bachelor party where everybody's in the same house. By the way, like, how many nights are you drinking? Is it just Friday? Are you guys going Thursday, Friday, Saturday? Because there's a really good chance if you're going back-to-back the first two nights

and then Saturdays, they're going to want to watch this. I also don't like the guy that's so in charge of this, which is not what you're saying you are. I think you've made that case. But the best man whose call all of this stuff is, I've had different friends from different groups, and you're like, what am I supposed to do? Stand next to you more this weekend to prove that I like you to prove that i'm all in on this because again i was always

the dude who would take off and like goes to another room and watch a game or whatever and then it became like just mandatory that i was like look at some point i gotta get my eyes on the shit here um i uh i i think you're totally fine i don't know. If you're not getting good feedback that whiskey Saturday, Saturday is only these things and that's the way it's going to go because I'm in charge and all that stuff. If that's the resistance

that you're already getting before you do this, I would just wait it out. I would let the weekend play it out because I know dudes pretty well. And if you're going to come out hot early, some guys maybe even hit it during the day. Dudes are going to be worn out.

A couple bodies are going to fall. They're not even going to... I just don't think... This isn't your dad where he's making you do something where it's family time and family time is the most important thing. Put your phone away right that's that's not what this is you're all adults here i'd say just order the fight let's make sure there's a way to cover it on the rental and all that so no one can bring that back to you

like oh you ordered a fight and then you didn't even do this and now the guy the airbnb and all this shit's happening i think you're totally fine going ordering it maybe even throwing it around a couple guys casually if you don't get great feedback but then again if these guys know you that well as you said you're not a fringe guy you're not a core guy but they know you you're like oh dude he's watched every one of his fights dad's from the same town went to a place do you have you even been to Omaha dude 311 so I think you're totally within your rights knowing how these bachelor parties go that guys are on absolute fumes on the last night there's probably gonna be a couple other people So I think you're totally within your rights, knowing how these bachelor parties go,

that guys are on absolute fumes on the last night. There's probably going to be a couple other people who'll be like, yeah, I'll watch this fight with you. Maybe a couple shekels on the side. So I don't think you have to worry about any of this other than best man who, I don't know that you've mapped it out that he's a complete dictator here, but some guys can be dictators.

And then they say it has to be this way, this way, this way, this way. And then all of that shit falls apart when dudes are together drinking for multiple days in a row. Can't attest, but,

um, I would say, I'd say you can even like, if you like, you are close to the best man, so you could have floated to him. But if you're saying you'd rather not, I think you could have just had it that day and been like,

look what I got for us, boys. Look at my contribution to this awesome weekend. You could it like that too that's a great call unless outside cabin lake whiskey planner well you guys you know and you're weighing for more beers or something i'll just be in here watching the fight for this you know you don't have to watch every single fight on the card right i mean you really only care about this one thing you can mute it for the rest of the time whatever i don't think i don't think asking for those a couple minutes that the fight, you know, that specific

fight's going to be out is too much. Yeah, I think, first off, Whiskey Night is like the perfect night for this. If this was a different night, if it was like real get-after-it night where you're playing drinking games, I think that's more of a problem to me. But the Whiskey Night is the night, I mean, we did this at the basketball party I was just at in

Maine. It was the Sunday. We had been drinking the two nights before. It was our last night there. And we was kind of like a chill whiskey night hanging out. And we watched the Stanley Cup Finals. And it was awesome because everybody was not in full crazy mode. Everyone's kind of winding down. We got to drive back the next day. And it's

a great thing to just sit around and watch something with your dudes. I would say a boxing fight is sneaky like the best sporting event you could watch at a basketball party too because it's fighting great thing to just sit around and watch something with your dudes. I would say like a boxing fight is sneaky, like the best sporting event you could watch at a bachelor party too, because it's fighting dudes are kind of like in that cannibalistic kind of thing or not cannibalistic. They're in like, I don't know.

They're just like in that like primal thing where they're just like, all right, we're with a bunch of dudes. Like what's watch somebody, two guys fight each other. I think you can get some people just camaraderie there. I think this is a good idea. I think,

and I think more people, even if you're not in a boxing, I'll be like, yeah, I want to watch this fight. And if you, and if if nobody else wants to watch and you want to do it on your own there's plenty of guys that just disappear for an hour or two on a bastard party so i don't think either way i don't think it's that big of a deal it's not like the guy like remember the guy at the live show who was going what was it his like girl he was going to ireland for his girl's grandma's like 90th birthday party or something you want to watch the Jets game.

This is not that. You're fine here. That's way more like, whoa, I don't know if you actually watched the game. You should watch the game either way. It's just whether or not you're going to watch it with your buddies or not. The only reason unless he's completely overthinking it, which could be the case,

right? Or he's hinting at us that the best man kind of feels like, no, because there will be those people. Hopefully you can avoid them, but there are going to be those people where when they're in charge of things and they're planning it all out, they take it as the massive insult that it isn't. When it's like, no, I actually kind of like gonna do go do this now granted like if the guy organized a golf part of the weekend and you're like i'm actually gonna go for a hike like that's a fuck you to him planning it planning out the numbers probably doing a deposit at the golf course like you know i think sometimes when you're younger too you're like

wait how does it work you're like yeah we all make a deposit and then we all get the reservations and we all go and like the numbers are super important when it comes to golf and like you'd be like oh yeah not gonna make it you know like that that either you figure that out or you stop getting invited to stuff this seems to be i think we've talked about it too much already uh i think it's a very very simple move here that at some point like the equivalent is if you guys had late flights or i don't know you could say it differently but like what if it's a very, very simple move here that at some point, like the equivalent is if you guys had late flights, or I don't know, you can say it differently, but like what if it was a divisional round of the NFL playoffs? What if it was conference championship? At some point, somebody's going to go watch this.

This might be different because it's boxing and it's not the NFL, but a guy watching an hour plus of a sporting event during a bachelor party, you're not going to have that much time where you're forced to sit next to each other. So I think you're fine, dude. I wouldn't even, I wouldn't even bring it up. I would just go like maybe day of be like, Hey, I'm definitely going to order the fight tonight. Like, and I'll pay for it. So whatever. And if any of you guys want to throw some money down, let me know. And then, you know, I'll come out and have whiskeys before the fight. When the undercard, I'll come out, whatever.

I think it's weird if guys are going to be like, no, you have to hang out with us at 7. You have to hang out with us. You have to sit outside with us because that's what we're here for this weekend. That would be excessive and annoying. That's life advice. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday, and we'll be back on Thursday. Thank you.