The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Historical and Future Perspective on Jaylen Brown’s Supermax, Plus Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on Jaylen Brown's massive supermax contract and why it actually makes sense (0:35) before talking with seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady about comparing basketball eras, James Harden's trade request, stories from Tracy's career, and more (11:34). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (37:43). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Tracy McGrady Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

we'll take a look at the jalen brown contract yeah it's huge but maybe there's a reason why we need to look at the contract a little differently uh we're gonna talk to tracy begrady awesome stuff here on his run i know the kobe quotes that were going around i have a celtic story that I want to ask him about, about them not drafting him. And then of course, his talent versus the resume. Life advice, enjoy. 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 and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. I want to start with Jalen Brown. We didn't do it earlier in the week when it came out because we were taping. And with a contract,

especially one this big, the largest in NBA history, I want to be able to go through it, spend a little time on it. And since there's no real other headline for this, I'm going to go ahead and do it. Although congrats to Aaron Rodgers. So look, if you read the headline, you go five years, $304 million for Jalen Brown, which is the highest contract in NBA history. You go, wait, what? A deal that's going to pay him $70 million in 28, 29. And if you ask that question, if you go, well, does that make sense? I think a lot of you would say no. And I get it. If you're in the Celtics front office and you're debating what to do on this extension, you've probably been talking about it for like a year and a half. You go, do we want to sign Jalen Brown to a deal that pays him more than anybody else in NBA history?

Now, if you're in the front office and you're trying to figure this out going into July, that's not really the fair question. It's not the right question. The right question is, if we don't do this, what are the alternatives? And the reality is the alternatives suck. Okay? This is how a lot of players get paid. Not to say that they're not worth it, but it's the problem of the way the cap is constructed. And honestly, I've thought about it for years. Like, is there a completely different version? Could you tear it down and start over? Or there's some other way to have a salary cap

where it doesn't feel like, hey, we have cap space. Cool. Now you have to spend it. You're like, oh, I don't really want to spend it on these guys, but we're not a good team. And now we've got to pay these guys as much. And now this contract doesn't really make a ton of sense, but we don't really have much of a choice. Or in the Celtics case, at least Jalen Brown, by the way, in the Celtics case, it's like, okay, we don't want to do this deal, but if you lose him with the amount of salaries that you already have committed moving forward, you can't just replace him.

And I think everybody that listens to this pod knows that, right? But there can become some pretty basic conversations around it where it's like, oh, you can't spend that kind of money on that kind of player. It's like, okay, but you also can't spend anything close to that kind of money on the next player because you're just not going to have the room and you're not really going to be able to trade for them. And if that player is really good, you're going to go through the entire trade thing.

And then hopefully there's a few teams competing for that player that's trying to be traded. And there's a bit more of a market. Now you're competing with other people. So it's usually the safest. It's the default position for so many decisions when we look at the financial numbers on a lot of this stuff. My feelings on Jalen Brown are usually wrong. How about we start there? I didn't like him coming out of Cal.

I was surprised they took him. like him coming out of Cal. I was surprised they took him. When I talked to the Celtics, going back years after he had started turning into something, I was like, what did you see? And I was told, it was like, Ainge just kind of looked at the rest of the class, and everybody thought it was a two-person draft with Simmons and then Ingram. And it's crazy that Jalen Brown's even in the conversation for being better than those guys. Of course, Murray's in that class as well. Although I still think Ingram's really good. They said that they felt like physically and athletically, like he fit this prototype of exactly what everybody in the NBA

is trying to do with these big athletic wings that can also score and defend. And even when he was better than I thought he would be initially, I still was like, I'm not sure who he's going to be. And so I'll just say this, every time he's broken through the ceiling of who I think he is as a player, or maybe I should say it this way. Every time I put a ceiling on him as a player and who I think he could ultimately be, he's crashed right through it. And I saw the Zach Lowe quote, and it wasn't Zach Lowe's opinion. It was the opinion of one specific front office evaluator who said that the Celtics are paying their third, maybe fourth, maybe fifth

best player $300 million. Now, there's a thing about making points. Sometimes when you make your point, you ruin your point. If you don't love Jalen Brown and you're in another front office, that's fine. It's now become more of a thing. This thing with his handle has been going on forever. It's always been a problem. It was a problem last year once Golden State realized it in the NBA finals. It's like, hey, this guy, once he wants to drive, crowd him. There's really not much he can do. And this is not new, but now everybody's aware of it. And he's just getting, whenever it happens, whenever there's a mistake, it's just everybody making the Jalen Brown going left jokes. But what I don't like about that quote, because it's absurd to think that he's the fifth best

player in the Celtics. And that's another thing that people do when they make points is they'll kind of go like, all right, I might be onto something here, but let me just ruin my credibility by exaggerating what I think the point is. He's not the fifth best player. He's not the fourth best player. If you want to spin it on a positive side, is Jalen Brown potentially your best player on certain nights in big time playoff games? And the answer is yes. And that's why he's getting this money. That's why he's all NBA this season. You may not think he's top 15. I'm not sure that I do, but for his age and the fact that he'd be 31 at

the end of this contract and there weren't better options. And by the way, the Celtics are a really good team. They're on a short list of teams that can go into this next season saying they've got a chance to win a title. So that quote, I thought was just an exaggeration of a front office guy kind of being like, hey, it's just a runaway train of ideas. Now, here's another lesson with it all. And I'm guilty of this. So it's not a call out. It's reminding myself of this. And that is that when we see these numbers, when you start looking at the annual salaries, you're like, oh, my God, this is crazy.

But let's go back and do a bit of a history lesson with this. If you look at the salary each year in relation to what the cap is now and what the cap projections will be moving forward, I'm not telling you it's a low number, but it helps you make sense of where these numbers are going. The salary cap for the upcoming season, the 23-24, is $136 million. The cap eight years ago was $70 million. We're not even through that season. But eight seasons ago, before the TV spike, the cap was $70 million.

So we're almost double that in less than a decade. The TV spike money got it to $94 million. Kevin Durant, Warriors, Alan Crabb deals, Evan Turner, remember all that? Don't worry about it, but the cap goes up. John Wall's like, why am I making less than Reggie Jackson? All valid points.

Not sure why they didn't smooth it out, but they did smooth it out, or they will smooth it out this time around when the new TV money comes in after 24 and 25, right? So we know that there's more of a smoothing. But based on history and where the cap has been, I think the 10% annual increase, which is what the new rule will be, and the new TV money moving forward years later,

because I've seen some projections online and where the salary cap is going to go, I think it's completely fair, and I check with people on this, to project it out 10% increases every single year. So Jalen Brown, as a Supermax eligible player, is able to get this kind of deal where he's 35% of the salary cap. If you look at the cap for next year going off those 10% jumps, and we'll go through the next few years of what Jalen Brown's deal is going to be. It's $149.6 million in 24-25, 25-26, about $165 million, then $181 million, then $199 million. 28-29, the final year of Jalen's deal, it'll be just under $219 million.

million. So that means from 1516 to 2829, less than 15 years, we're going to have an NBA salary cap that goes from 70 million to almost $220 million. Now, you could also counter this and go, why are you so certain it's going to keep going up? Can we say that about housing? Don't worry about it. Houses always go up. It's a fair point, but think how much it just costs you in your daily life if you're into sports and if you have kids and all the stuff that you're investing in. You're like, wait, how much does that cost? How much does this service cost? How much does it cost to go to a game? What the hell? It doesn't ever seem to be going down or plateauing at any point. And that's a bigger conversation of could there ever be a moment where people start rejecting sports or get sick of it

enough? But with the new TV money that's going to come in in a couple of years, I don't know how you're coming up with projections where the salary cap's only going to go up like 1% or 3% or 5%. Just doesn't really make any sense. Again, I checked with people on this saying you probably should use the 10% increases because that's the most likely. And that's the kind of run that we've been looking at here. So from 70 million to 14 years later to almost 220 million. So whenever you see these contracts come out, you're like, God, these numbers at the back end are staggering. And all they really are is just a reflection of a supermax player making 35% of the cap.

And that's what he'll be doing. And at least with Jalen Brown, he'll be doing it at 31 years old when he's at that $70 million number. Let's look back at the Supermax in general. Now, just to review, Supermax eligible, 10 plus years of service, if the team still wants to pay you that after 10 plus years in the league, or seven years and all NBA in the most recent season, two of the previous three, defensive player of the year, which they should get rid of, or MVP, right? So Jokic, supermax eligible, his first year salary going into next year off of his supermax is $47.7 million.

Let's go back to 15-16, that number I keep using with a $70 million cap. LeBron James, he did a shorter deal, right? But he was eligible for five years and $132 million, which means his supermax is less than half of what Jokic's is. LeBron's first year was about $23 million in 15-16 when he signed off his max contract of what he was eligible to do. Granted, we know he did shorter deals all the time to be able to have maximum flexibility. do. Granted, we know he did shorter deals all the time to be able to have maximum flexibility. So in just a really short amount of time, 15, 16 to 23, 24, that super max has gone from 23 million to almost 48 million in the first year. And I still forget that sometimes. And I think a lot of us do. So you see these massive numbers and you go, wait, does this make sense? Yeah, it does make sense because that's the language. Those are the projections moving forward. That's the way the

Supermax works. Memo to NFL players, there's less of these guys on a roster, pretty simple math. And so if you resist the headline, which I don't blame you for doing. You go, really? Is Jalen Brown worth $70 million in 28, 29? It's super easy to say yes. It's a lot harder to give me a realistic alternative that makes more sense for a team that thinks they're contending for a title. We're excited today because we have Tracy McGrady, Hall hall of famer uh my producer saruti

obviously one of the biggest magic fans anyone has ever heard of uh so i have a couple questions that he wanted me to probably ask tracy at some point uh look i've already heard you talking about the heiress thing it's very human nature like if i go back to my hometown as a 25 year old i'll be like oh these kids suck now that high school is lame. The same things happen with basketball. What do you think is fair about what you like, don't like, and how you compare the eras? Because I think you're far more reasonable as, as a player from a generation ago than some of the other guys are. To be honest with you, I love my era. I love that as a little bit more physicality in the era. I love that.

And when I say physicality, it's like I remember playing against the Pistons. And every time I would run off a screen, a big man used to come down the middle. I used to get hit elbows, right? It was much more physicality. right like it was much more physicality and then the game was played still inside out still um because we had back to the basket players you had the greats in dunk you had shack uh you had you know rips mix you still had those guys that played with their backs to the baskets and it wasn't you know a perimeter games where we were jacking up and launching threes we had three-point shooters but we wasn't shooting the threes like we were.

I think it was much more controlled. Nowadays, you know, you got guys on each team taking 10-plus threes, and I think it's just everybody is just jacking up threes where I want to see much more of inside game, much more of the big man skill set in terms of, you know, throwing the ball inside, not a big man outside shooting threes, which we have too many of these guys doing that. I want to utilize the big man inside and out. And it's not just being utilized that way. And it really takes me away from watching the game of basketball because, you know, these seven foot guys are not being utilized the way they should be utilized.

Yeah, I've started to wonder myself, too, when I watch just post-touches. I'm not talking about Jokic because he's like a unicorn off in his own category. But just balance of, wait, what if everybody's doing this? Is there now another pivot where there's some easier real estate? I think Phoenix did it a couple of years ago, but you had to have special guys and Booker and Paul getting to their spot and being so good at this pull-up things. And Van Gundy's even touched on it a little bit on some of the broadcasts. I'm just in an open mind space, which I don't have the answer to, of wondering if there's some new pivot coming where teams will go,

you know what, maybe actually having a little bit more balanced attack here is the right way to go. But I just don't know if the numbers back it up. Yeah, I think that would be based off of a player coming in like a Shaq or someone, somebody that really changes the dynamics of how teams will construct their team.

Steph is the reason why the game is played for his play right now. He ain't played Thompson because teams are like, okay, we can't compete with these guys. We're playing inside game and shooting all these suits where they're shooting threes at a high rate. So we got to go and find a lot more shooting. But if you find somebody like a Shaq, that'll completely change everything about the way the game is played now. But we're not going find somebody like Shaq, that'll completely change everything about

the way the game is played now, but we're not going to find the Shaq. So we might be stuck in this era for a very long time. I mean, you got five guys now coming in, being a point guard, handling the ball, initiating the offense. It's crazy. Right. Even if you were to have somebody that physically met Shaq, which is impossible, they wouldn't be playing like him because you wouldn't grow up watching it. They wouldn't be influenced the same way. I wanted to ask you about your start.

Cause I have a draft story about you that I know I've never asked you about. No, it's, it's good. It, it, it's just that there was a team that wanted to take you. I'll just say it.

Cause I think I've told a version of the story before where the Celtics interviewed you and they were so scared because you didn't talk. They were like, we don't know how to draft this guy if he's not going to talk in the pre-draft interview. Now, granted, they had two picks before you went nine. Do you remember? Was it something specific or broad? Were you just like, hey, man, I'm 18 and I don't have a lot to say. And this is freaking me out. No, I just remember in college, right? I was being recruited by Kentucky. And I just knew how hard and how tough Rick Pitino was. Right.

So Rick Pitino had left and becomes boston coach and i was like i don't know if i want to play for rick patino and reason being because my workout like rick that was probably my hardest pre-draft workout ever out of all the teams i worked out boston was tough and i was like i don't want to play for Boston. Wouldn't mind playing for Boston. I just didn't want to play for Rick Pitino at that time. He was just too tough, man. And it was

just, you know, finding a way to, I guess, hurt myself in them not drafting me when I was talking. Because I did fine in my interviews with everybody else. With Boston, not so much. All right, so you're admitting now, 20 years later,

you tanked that interview. I wouldn't say I tanked it. I just didn't do a great job of being who I was. That's what I said. That's what I said. That is a great story. Finally, because I remember hearing the story years and years ago, and you're like, you wouldn't believe.

He wouldn't talk to us. I went, oh, all right. At that point, Patino's going, I can't draft this guy. Go ahead. Listen, I'm 18 years old. I had some instructions coming down that was that was over me how about that i didn't know right i didn't know either i had instructions coming down from other folks i was influenced if that makes sense right yeah no i know exactly

what you're talking about here agents going you don't want to go there and you're like hey after that workout i agree with you uh do you do you look here. Agents going, you don't want to go there. And you're like, Hey, after that workout, I agree with you. Uh, do you, do you look back at that time? Cause I, you know, what you did is really special and, you know, still for a perimeter guy coming out of high school, it was still a little weird. You know, I remember Kobe taking a ton of criticism cause it was like, wait, who do you think you are? Uh, because we just weren't ready for a perimeter guy to do something that Garnett was doing that hadn't been done for a couple of decades. Was there a stressful moment? Was there a last minute decision on it? What do

you think is the thing you remember the most about that time leading up to being somebody coming straight out of high school? I remember that my mindset was set on going to Kentucky, right? And it was really like the last hour, last minute of deciding to make myself eligible for the NBA when Adidas came in and gave me $12 million. So college was out of the question. So now I get drafted, you know, to Toronto. And probably I'm glad I went through it because it showed that I could handle anything,

even with being criticized by my head coach. I mean, we used to butt head all the time. And I really didn't get that much playing time my rookie year. didn't get that much playing time my rookie year so I was frustrated and and really just getting dejected and and and uh was questioning my decision I'm human I'm 18 years old I was questioning the decision because based off of you know the criticism coming from my coach and that inconsistency coming from my coach and no structure so it was very challenging but I'm glad I went through it because it really showed me the mental fortitude that I had as an 18-year-old to move forward.

But yeah, there's some challenges that I really had to go through that definitely made me stronger moving forward. And on top of that, having conversations with Kobe, who went through it prior to me going through it, having those conversations as well really helped me get through it. But, you know, I didn't question my abilities to play on that level. I questioned the decision because of what I was going through. Yeah, it was like 18 minutes a game. Granted, you're losing a million games. And, you know, I know that obviously related to Vince as well,

but it felt like back then the American guys, the younger American guys really were just they didn't love the idea of Toronto. Well, I'm from Florida. I didn't know anything about Toronto, but the Blue Jays and I went to a lot of hockey games when I was up there. No, it was me, man, just really trying to figure out the coach, you know, care. Eighteen year old kid moving to Toronto by herself. The only thing about the city, you know, is 20, 10 to 20 degrees outside. I don't deal with the cold. Can't drive driving in snow. Never did that before. can't drive driving in snow never did that before this is all this is all new to me but um you know my second year was much more enjoyable because i we drafted my cousin vince carter i had a lot of veteran players that really showed me the way and you know from that point on it was just like

smooth sailing but my first year was it was brutal, man. When you hear that I slept 20 hours, 18 to 20 hours, I was really sleeping a lot because I was still growing at the time too. So I heard this week and you were talking about you couldn't understand Harden's trade request. We could probably go on and on and on about Harden. I've talked about him already too much because at some point I'm kind of like, all right, I'm out. That's just to update you. The audience is like, oh, here we go again with Rosillo talking about Harden. But Barkley is like my favorite athlete of all time. And I'll admit there's times Barkley like I don't have a counter argument to him deciding like I want to go to Houston.

OK, because that's that's 90s ring chasing, even though I love the guy. How do you compare you wanting to move on from franchises to how modern players are now requesting trades? Well, I think if you look at my four seasons in Orlando, I was projected to play with Grant Hill. And we all know Grant Hill was injured with his ankle injury. So that's me, you know, not with another all-star, not even a potential all-star next to me. Four years of playing 40 plus minutes, which took a toll on my body. So I felt like, you know, my last year, we only won, what, 21 games?

My team was tanking. We were rebuilding to tank to get a high school kid that i really didn't know too much about and that was the white howard who ended up being a hell of a basketball player in the magic uniform but you know i think i was so frustrated over those four years i i needed to change because the direction they were going and what i'd already been doing you know was taking a toll on my body. And I couldn't see myself rebuilding with a high school basketball kid that ended up being pretty damn good. But I think when you look at guys nowadays, it's just because, I don't know, something with the coach.

It has nothing to something with the coach. It has nothing to do with the way the team is constructed. Like, if you look at James' situation, that team is constructed to be a championship-contending team. I don't know why you would want out of that situation. I've never been in that situation where I would want out of playing for a contending championship team to leave and go somewhere else. I've never been in that situation.

I can't compare with that. You're right. That's the thing about, I mean, look, and I'm not going to repeat my entire thoughts on his resume, but that they're actually positioned for. But I would actually take heart and side if I find out and get more information on what was promised a year ago. For him to take the pay cut, no doubt.

Go ahead. Yes, and that the pay cut, no doubt. Go ahead. And that's what I've been saying. For him to leave that situation, it has to be something deeper than we don't know. The media, the player, we don't know about because it makes no sense for him to leave. It made no sense that he would take the pay cut last year just to add P.J. Tucker without some kind of understanding that he'd be the pay cut last year just to add P.J. Tucker without some kind of understanding that he'd be taken care of a year later. And if ownership changed their minds after Game 7 against Boston, which I can understand, but that's where I would completely defend James Harden going, like, now I get it.

Now I get it. Now with you, with Toronto, what was it? Toronto, I was a free agent. This is me having the opportunity. You're talking about a Central Florida kid. And favorite player, I'm 20 years old. My favorite player was Penny Hardaway. He played in his uniform.

I used to drive by this arena often in the summertime where I played summer basketball. Often in the summertime where I played summer basketball. So Orlando, Toronto competing with, you know, my hometown team, a coach in Doc Rivers at the time, who was a great young coach that just won coach of the year, I think it was. And it was some internal stuff going on with Toronto that I don't care to get into. That's all that was. That has nothing to do with, you know, me and Vince not being able to coexist and none of that. It was just, it was a hometown kid going home. Right. So free agency because of the grant plan.

Remember Duncan, there was the Duncan rumor too. There was all sorts of stuff. Go ahead. Don't get me started on that. That interview of Grant Hill talking about the time we were recruiting, or Orlando was recruiting Tim Duncan himself, and the nail-biter that sent Timmy back to San Antonio is just, it breaks my heart that we could have had Tim Duncan.

It would break my heart too, to not be able to be his teammate if I thought at some point, because I think he's like the greatest teammate of his era. Yes. Okay. So let's, right. Let's go to the trade part of it after the free agency plan to Orlando.

That is Houston. You've got some things in place already. How did that feel at the time? Cause then it, you know, at that point you're like, okay, I at least feel like I have a strong number two. You've got Van Gundy there in the beginning.

What went into that? Yeah. So what went into that was the first, when I first had a conversation with Jeff Van Gundy, cause I'm coming off of two scoring championships. One of the first things Jeff Van Gundy told me, he was like, I'm excited. I mean, this is not word for word, but he was excited to have me a part of the team. He told me I wasn't going to lead the league

in scoring. That's what he told me. He said, well, you're not going to lead the league in scoring because we got a big 7'5 guy that we got to, you know, throw the ball to and get him established down there in the low post. So it's really just adjusting to how I'm going to play with Yav because I had the ball in my hands and controlled the offense. Now I got to play through a big man. So that adjustment in the beginning, it was kind of difficult for me. And then we didn't have the right pieces around us. So we had to make a few moves to get Shane Battier in there,

get Rachel Austin, as I pointed out. We had to make some moves to get some guys in there to make us somewhat competitive. What was it like once you learned not just Yao the player, but Yao the personality? I was fairly impressed with how fast he really grasped the culture

and really picked up our language. Because when he first came in, he had a translator. And I used to see the coach say something to the translator, translator go and talk to Yao. By the time I became his teammate, that was no longer the case. And this is probably, you know, only two or three years. So he's, he picked up a lot in that span. Just very, very great teammate, man, and really had a tremendous work

ethic on the basketball court and the work that he put in. Just a fun guy to be around. Had a great sense of humor and a very intelligent guy. What was it like playing for Jeff? The best coach I've played for. It was...

When I tell you I've never been so prepared going into games, like, Jeff was a basketball savant. He made sure, like, he, Jeff put in work as you would think a Kobe would put in work. When you think of Kobe and his work ethic, Jeff Van Gundy, as a basketball coach, think of Kobe and his work ethic, Jeff Van Gundy as a basketball coach had that same type of work ethic. I just appreciated what he gave to the game, what he gave to our team, the knowledge and the preparation that you

were as a team was ready for any player, any, um, player, any team, like he has you ready and prepared to play a game. That's not for everybody though, is it? Um,

what do you mean? What part of it? First of all, I agree that he's a Vaughn. Like when I listened to him call a game and I try to point this out, I go, look, I,

I'm not trying to play favorites here, but there's another level that Jeff is at noticing things and going, why isn't this happening? And it's about his preparation. Like he'll, he'll point out something that should have happened on a free throw substitution. And I don't think there's another analyst who,

there's some great analysts. There's not another analyst that would have even been looking for that thing. That means that Jeff's looking for it every single time it presents itself as an opportunity for a coach to make a decision. So that means all the other times it worked out and the one time he was, because that means he's looking every time he's looking down, he's looking at the scores table. He's still doing this stuff while he's calling the game. I love it. I think it proves that this is another level to this that Jeff is at. And I think it's

him by himself. I love that for you that you appreciate it. I just don't know. I think some players could be like, Hey, relax. No, no, I actually welcomed it. Um, because I actually, I know what it did for me from my mental preparation in the game. Physically, I'm going to go out and I'm going to compete. But I think when you have a coach that's embedded like that and prepares you, you somewhat kind of get an edge on your opponent. Because I don't know if my opponent is this prepared for me. I'm prepared for him on anything that he throws at me. Now, these guys are great players.

They're going to do what they're going to do. But I think having somewhat of an edge coming from my coach and having me prepared in certain situations, we had percentages of what a guy does when he goes left, when he's on this block, when he's on that block. I mean, Jeff had

everything you can imagine about a particular player or how a team runs their offense and defense. It was amazing. I'm a Chris Paul fan. I had him live on the show a month ago back in New York City the week of the draft. It's

tough for me because we know what the arguments, we know what the rules are because I'm like, this guy is so much better than other people who've played the position and then somebody just hits me with the playoff resume and I have to just put down know, put down my sword, even if I don't really believe it, right. Mentally, I have to put it down, but I'm like, I still don't agree with you. You are one of the great players of your generation, but because the playoffs didn't work out for some of the reasons that, you know, can be on you. And then a lot of reasons I was

going through the Houston season where you had 55 wins. I'm like, what happened with the Utah Jazz? I'm like, oh yeah, I was out again. So what's it like for you? Recently too, you said, hey, I think I'm at the same level of Kobe. People are losing it because you said it. Talent wise. Right. I don't think anybody, no one would suggest you saying the resume, but even the talent thing because of the playoff resume, it's almost like you're not allowed to say that. What's it feel like to actually be the guy that's in the conversation that we spend all this time on? It's just the work.

You know what I mean? I work my ass off to put myself in those situations. Yes, I had extraordinary talent but i actually worked my ass off to uh supersede you know what i was even projected to be in this league um so regardless of what and and how anybody else feels when you talk about the talent. Yeah, it's undoubtedly that my talent level was definitely up with, you know, the great players that have played this game. I didn't play with Shaq. I didn't play with no LeBrons.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, Yao was my best teammate, and we couldn't stay healthy, right? So I've never played on a championship team, but when you look at the talent level, you can't question or deny that. That's a perfect transition

because you're working with Showtime, Paramount Plus, new show coming out where we're going to look at the best or look for the best one-on-one basketball players. It's the Ones Basketball League, OBL. You're behind this. Do you think in your prime,

you would have beaten anyone in the league one-on-one? What? You really going to ask me that question? I thought it was a good transition. I mean, I already know the answer. Hell yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Now, do I already know the answer. Hell yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Now, do I think I will beat everybody? No. I think I will lose the game. But I guess. Yeah, I was a one-on-one player. Like, that's what I did growing up. That's what I played every day when I was a rookie against Doug Christie, one of my teammates since Ronald.

That's what I did. I was a one-on-one basketball player. Doug Christie, one of my teammates since Ronald. That's what I did. I was a one-on-one basketball player. Who's the best one-on-one player that was in the league that wasn't that good of a player? You were like, hey, if you had to play him ones, most guys would lose. But when it comes to what he needs to do five-on-five, it just doesn't work, and that's why he doesn't get any run.

No. Well, you have some guys like that. I don't care the name of those dudes. needs to do five on five it just doesn't work and that's why he doesn't get any run no i well you have some guys like that i i don't care the name those dudes they don't deserve to be named on this platform but i would say there's there's some guys that were pretty good in the nba on five on five and they will be a hell of a one-on-one player that you probably would be surprised about. And I would, one name was Coutinho Mobley. One-on-one basketball, Coutinho Mobley, like,

he was already a problem to deal with, you know, on 5-on-5. But one-on-one basketball, he'll tell your ass up. Like, he was that,

he was that good. The series is going to premiere here coming up Friday, July 28th. That's 10 Eastern on Showtime Extreme. What was the, what's the goal?

Like I kind of look, I can read all the promos and say, okay, you're looking for the best one-on-one player. But what about, what was it about this world that you wanted to get involved with Showtime and kind of tell these stories that maybe are hidden? Yeah, well, I think it's important, man, that we have, you know, a pool of talent that's untapped, that no one really knows about, that they should know about. And I'm just glad that I partnered up with Showtime to document and really, you know, have these guys tell their stories so you can know who they are.

You know, have these guys tell their stories so you can know who they are. They have a unique skill set. And it's a platform for guys that are not on NBA rosters, that are not on G League rosters. And guys that are not playing overseas, but just, you know, guys that have a deep passion for the game of basketball, have a high skill set. And, you know, this platform is for them. You know, when you look at UFC, MMA, you look at, you know, who these guys were before they got on the platform, you never heard of. But because UFC created this platform,

they created superstars for these guys now. And that's what I want to do for OBL. I think it's just, you know, when you talk about the game of basketball, one-on-one is the true creosence of the game of basketball. And it should be a global sport. I feel like one of my favorite things now is,

thank God I feel old, man. I'm only a couple years older than you, but there'll be some breakout, and it'll be like a minute-long Tracy McGrady edit, and then you'll just see people be like, holy shit. And yeah, I like that for you. I like it for the guys that deserve it.

I like when history smiles on guys that deserve it. And to me, you don't need to hear it from me, but it happens with a few players every now and then where there's just, let's face it, there's a lot of people talking about this sport that haven't watched guys like you play, and they're like, wait, this dude existed? He could do all of this stuff at this size. And I just hope that you continue to kind of, I just want you to be remembered for the player that you were. That's all. Right. I appreciate that. That means a lot.

Appreciate it. Well, hey, good luck with all this, man. And we'll catch up again down the line. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate you, man. 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 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. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com

Alright, let's get into it. We've got Saruti. We've got Kyle, as always. Still cranking the late July content. Alright. What's up? Yeah, what's up? you guys want to say hi chilling what's going on with you nothing man i'm going to uh sweden in a couple days but my uh a couple weeks and my passport is not situated oh oh uh so we're we're rolling the dice

heavy here um i had this problem. So is it expired? So yeah, it expired in 2021. And I was like, where the fuck am I going? That's fine. And then it was like, oh, wait, I'm going to do, you know, Swedish jury duty. So I'm like, all right, I got to get ready to, you know, get ready to go here. And I sent it out. I went through the whole thing, but I forgot to put the passport in.

I sent it out like five weeks ago. I got it back like three weeks ago, which is actually good because they're so backed up. They were going to keep it for 10 weeks and I wasn't going to, it's just, I wouldn't even have my old passport to try to do the emergency thing. So, uh, I I'm doing the emergency thing. Um, there's like 26 federal buildings that you can go to in the country. There's one right in Los Angeles, which would have been nice, but the first leg of my trip is going to be like almost two weeks in Poughkeepsie. And then I'm going to go to Sweden. So it's technically not my international travel.

So I have to I think I'm going to be going to the Stanford Connecticut office in a couple in like a week or so to try to get this all straightened out. Otherwise, I would have to cancel a bunch of European flights that I'm not sure are cancelable and hopefully spot won't garnish my wages i've got a guy though i've done this before uh so got a guy we'll talk offline but okay yeah so i this is like absolute power over here yeah this is and actually shout out to stefan also works at the ringer he had the same issue and he used my guy and he got the passport quickly now you're cutting it real close, real close. They won't talk to you in the emergency. The emergency passport people won't talk to you unless you're 14 days away from international travel. But the issue is, I think if you go to one of those places, they might not. They only have like a certain amount of slots, I think.

So you might just be shit out of luck. But here's what I did. I found this like sketchy website online. Great. I read a couple of reviews. We're talking passports. Love sketchy websites. I was supposed to go to Tulum 2021 with Maddie, my wife.

And a couple, maybe like a month or two before, I was like, oh, my passport is definitely expired. And I go to the website. It's like seven weeks to get your... Whatever. It was way... The math didn't add up. It was basically what I'm saying.

And she was not super pumped about that. So I had to figure out a solution. And I found this random website guy who I paid him a couple hundred bucks, and he got me a passport in three weeks. A real passport? A real passport. Is it one that scans? I went to Mexico.

I'm just saying. I went there. I guess we'll find out when I go to Europe, but yeah. So yeah, we'll talk offline, but this guy, he hooked me up, and he hooked our guy Stefan up in the May Stockholm trip.

Okay. All right. You just got to pay. You got to pay a couple hundred bucks. Yeah, I mean, that's what you have to do anyways. I'm wondering if Cerruti's... Is Cerruti actually a citizen?

Who knows? Are you Canadian, bro? Are you... I'm a citizen of the world, all right? Nice. Okay. I don't know if he's Canadian. He would have been more preachy about COVID.

I'm definitely not Canadian. Yeah, no, there's no way. Wait, did you say you had jury duty? I know you don't have jury duty in Sweden. It felt like that's how the sentence was. Yeah, I've been joking. It's sort of like an offline joke that you guys don't know about. I've talked to Saruti about it.

It's just like I pushed it off the Swedish trip, the intro days. I pushed it off like four times because every time it's like in the middle of basketball seasons and the middle of football season. For Spotify, by the way. Yes. Yeah, this is to meet. Yeah, I'll be there. This is to go to like seminars and stuff so wait you're going to sweden too

sorority yeah it's like uh i'm thinking i've actually gone to portugal before too so what's up but yeah it's gonna be a nice little trip wow i heard they love americans over there so i really would like to go i've heard like you know americans like rock stars over there so i'd also like stars since i'm gonna be there but yeah well my buddy was a black american so maybe he also like to go since I'm going to be there. But yeah. Well, my buddy was a black American, so maybe he had like a little extra flair going to it. But he was like, yeah, dude, they love Americans over there.

Maybe. Okay. I don't know if that's usually a thing in other parts of the world these days. Yeah, we love. I'm not saying. I was surprised. I was surprised.

He was like, no, dude, they fucking they love it. They're asking you. Let's just put it this way. I don't think your friend's wrong. All right. So I'm agreeing with Kyle's black American friend. All right.

Cool. Fair. All right. Let's go. All right. Here we go. Five, nine, one, 50, pushing 40. Okay. Age. I was like pushing 40. Oh, okay.

Age. I was like pushing 40 pounds on the bench. That's hard to do. Unless you're using a 35. All right. NBA comp, tiny man's Todd McCullough. Oh, wow. All right.

Yeah. Smaller than Todd. Moved to a new city, trying to make new friends. Good fucking luck. I'm on a thread with two new friends, friends in quotes, who I've met through my wife's friends. One of them has been welcoming the other sort of cagey. The welcoming one invited me and cagey guy to a sports game. Both of us responded too slowly, so friendly guy bought tickets

for him and his wife. When I responded to the thread, I asked the other if he wanted to sit together. Here is how the chain transpired. All right, so I think initially they're looking at the prices of tickets. Tickets in that section are selling online for $54 a piece if you want to go together.

Friendly Guy says do it. KG Guy says one ticket it. KG guy says, one ticket purchased. Based on that response, I pivoted and found another dude who I'm friendly with to join me. What do I make of this? It is clear KG guy doesn't like me. Or is it clear KG guy doesn't like me? Do I blackball him? Give him the cold shoulder when I see him at social gatherings?

Confront him about it? Sagely guidance, especially from Kyle, would be appreciated. All right. So you might be thinking into it a little too much. Okay. It's obvious that it feels like if you've already called them cagey guys, something happened before this. A couple of things may have transpired where you felt like, okay, this guy isn't as friendly.

It doesn't sound like it's the Midwest. Who knows? But you admit yourself that you were both late to respond. So a friendly guy is like, hey, here's the plan. And tickets are in the mix. And you've got to make moves quickly. And nobody wants to get stuck. I mean, listen to some of our Venmo submissions about wanting to buy four tickets and then I'll figure it out later. But both of you responded

later and then you think the guy doesn't like you because people didn't respond soon enough and he just went ahead and bought one ticket on his own and didn't invite a guy he barely knows who, again, he may not like you. But if I'm looking at it from his perspective, first of all, I guess the best thing, do not confront him on this because he's definitely not going to like you then. All right. Because if you want to give him any kind of benefit of the doubt, maybe he's a little aloof. Maybe he's shy. Maybe he's not a dog right away. Right. Maybe he's a bit more like a cat, which is how I've heard I've been described. So he

very well could have been like, he didn't respond. I still want to go. I don't even know this fucking guy. Like I'm buying a ticket. Maybe he could have softened the text, but we have some efficient texters out there. That's why I started going with an exclamation

point the last couple of years, just to lighten it up a bit bit um i didn't like you have to do it yeah i didn't like it but i i felt like too often i was getting responses back being like whoa are you mad at me yeah and i'm like all these people there was a stretch there where everybody thought i was mad at everybody because i the way i texted and it was like i don't know i just yes or fucking no here you go did a crash course yeah it's text okay it actually doesn't mean okay it means like oh is he mad at me i guess it's got pissed off it's the okay exclamation point yeah okay ha ha ha such a good idea vibing so um really ha ha is not anymore either so well thank you actually for letting me know because yeah i was like sarcastic now.

No, I was like, I threw in a hot exclamation. I was like, I need to just start doing this, I guess, so people don't think I'm pissed all the time. So don't confront him.

Don't ask about it. Don't tell anybody else about it. Okay? Just run it back in a different time and then maybe you'll have a good time and you'll be really happy

you didn't turn into like, hey, cagey guy, why didn't you buy me an extra ticket? I would not. Even if you're right, give him the benefit of the doubt on this. And then maybe you'll have another experience where like, hey, this is really good. Because what are you solving by confronting him at this point? If you're saying, hey, you don't like me and you don't want to be friends, that'll guarantee that you won't be friends.

Yeah, I think I'm not even going to touch on the Venmo thing. Cause that was the first thing I was like, some guys are just like, I'm not chasing anybody down for anything. Uh, I'll just, I'll, I'm paying for this, paying for my appetizer and my drink. And that's it. Like, cause some guys are just, they're not into, into like, you know, you get me back later and whatever. Some guys just aren't into that. So I could, I could see that could be a thing. The other thing is like, you know, intro to a new friend group are there. They're always a little awkward and hard. And if you don't, and if you don't get your arms around this thing, this could last forever. You could be in with this group. And then you and this guy are weird forever. So you might just want to try to get, you know,

open your mind up and get around this thing. There was one dude in our, uh, the dark room group that is sort of meshed with the frolic group a lot of the core guys are the same one of the guys um in the frolic group his name's danny bumba uh i don't think that's actually his last name but the first couple times i saw him he would wear a neck brace just for like for a joke and i was like what the fuck is going on with this guy and for like for that reason i just sort of like i just sort of backed off for like i don't know almost a full year i was just like i'm not really not acknowledging so much yeah uh no he's like a small little guy and it's like he kind of is afraid to fight i think he just wore the neck brace as some sort of joke i didn't get it i was out i was uncomfortable and everyone's like oh

danny bum is great he's awesome uh now i'm 100 in he's so he's fun uh he's great to golf with he has the joke balls he has like a fake snake and a fake joke he gets guys with yeah the exploding balls he's like he's great he's yeah he got me with a fake snake on the ground yeah it was really good and uh he's just he's funny he's kind of the wild card but he's like the jokes are always funny uh if as long as you know danny bow but i was like out completely out i was like i don't know what's going on with that neck brace thing that's weird i. I don't think it's funny. You're trying too hard, bro. And it's just like, we just kind of never, you know, we never kind of mesh. And then one day I sort of got it, but I lost a year of Danny Bumba. I could have had a really good year

of Danny Bumba. And that was my, you know, that was my 2021 that I could have just had better if I just, if I was open a little bit and got my arms around this new friend thing. i i don't don't take the one little thing and be like all right he's out on me i gotta be out on him just you know try a little harder that's all yeah but the point is you like you didn't confront him and be like dude what's up what's the deal and make things even more awkward you just kind of let it play out and then you guys end up being friends so that's what this guy should 100 do yeah or even just try to forget that. If I could just, if I could have looked past the neck brace into the man inside, I think I would have had a, you know, I wouldn't have taken so long. It's my point. I would just like to know like how much time passed between him buying the ticket and texting you. Like, was it a couple hours? Was it a couple

of days? If it was a couple hours, then yeah, like maybe there is actually some issues there. If you guys didn't respond for like a couple of days or a week and he just went and bought a ticket, then that's kind of just on you. I don't blame him whatsoever. I think this is a classic do nothing scenario and just see what happens. It's not that big of a deal. He'll either he doesn't like you and you'll just find out other instances of that in the future or it was just a misunderstanding. You guys might be friends in a couple of years. So I classic do nothing scenario for me.

A couple of years. Well, slow playing this one huh three years you're going to be roommates well it took a year for you and Johnny Bamba or whatever Danny Bamba Danny Bamba whatever anyway right but you were younger then too so you know the other

part that we always try to tell everybody is that when you get older it's just harder because then there's less there's less like then there's less acceptance. There's less tolerance. When you fuck up when you're 20, you could have it figured out by the weekend. When it's a new

relationship and you fuck up and you're almost 40, you guys are just writing dudes off. You'll be friends in a couple years. Right. If you want to guarantee not becoming friends with somebody new ask them why don't you like me right okay i don't know that i can think of any story especially are we good guy yeah went up to another guy who they he like barely know each other and be like, why don't you like

me? Because then he's going to be talking about you. And you're not going to be there hanging out. Listen to this story five years later. Like, ah, that was so funny. Not saying it's impossible, but it pretty much is. Okay. Let's do a dreams one. This one made me laugh because I have a friend who's like this. 5'10", 195, been biking a bit recently, but struggle with consistency in everything that I do in terms of working out. All right. Well, at least you're still trying to find something to do. Anyway, my wife and I have lived together for about three years.

Everything's great. Relationship is equitable. I think we have a great understanding of one another. There is, of course, one hang up every morning. She kills me in on whatever nonsense happened during last night's dreams. Yes, this is harmless and has no real impact on our relationship. But after years of basically not responding or a small wow after every recap, I would think she would eventually refrain from telling me these stories. But no such luck. I haven't gone as far as telling her, quote, I have no interest in your dreams.

Please stop. But I do feel like I've expressed not being interested in someone else's dream around her responded positively when someone has made a joke about the topic. My main question, is there another step to take here without hurting her feelings? Or am I going to have to hear about her nonsense her brain subconsciously produces for the rest of my life uh great email great email specific people that hate other people's dreams really hate other people's dreams we have one friend who has like a rule where on the chain to just be like I don't if somebody brings up a I don't think anybody does anymore because we've known each other so long like one guy just ruled the entire deal where it was just, I don't want to hear about anybody's dreams. It's fucking stupid. Other people are interested. I have wild dreams. Sometimes I'm like, oh man. But then I go, you're going to call somebody and

tell them about this? I mean, I guess it was what a wife or girlfriend would be. Be like, hey, here we go. And then even if I had these incredible tales to, to retell, to do it every morning, like that would suck. So you mentioned like one thing came to mind, you need to find a way to be so aggressively anti-dream in front of her. That's not a direct response to her explaining her dreams, that maybe it comes out, that it comes out that way. Cause first thing in the morning being like, Hey,

stop telling me about your fucking dreams is not the move. And you're smart enough to already know that. Um, I would throw on inception and bitch about it the whole time, which is tough. Cause I love that moviemons on a rewatchable the other day he was like i don't know like not a dream guy apparently uh no one's that guy uh

i don't know if it was a nolan zag it was an inception zag and i just i don't know man like i think the movie to write that out and to make it work because a lot of people like oh i want to do a movie about dreams and all these different things and then when Nolan explains like the way he did the scenes because if you think about your dreams it never has a starting point you're just in the scene immediately so that's how they wanted to do a lot of the stuff like when they have the traffic scene

in the rain and then the train I can't believe that everyone doesn't appreciate that and realize how special it is how are you going to talk shit about this then how's he going to talk shit about this masterpiece well I'm not telling him to do it because I think it's Rudy and I are on the same page that and realize how special it is. How are you going to talk shit about this then? How are you going to talk shit about this masterpiece? I'm not telling him to do it because I think it's Rudy and I are on the same page. I'm not a message board guy. When I saw it in the theater,

I wanted to go on a message board and talk about the movie with other people. That's how fucking I just was floored by the whole thing. However, don't use any of those. Just start bitching about it. Like, oh, wait, they just, they go to some guy and sleep in his basement. Like, oh, they just have to, they have a briefcase of dreams in here. And then, you know, when it's getting later on, it's like, oh, we're in another dream. Give me a fucking break oh now now we're a SWAT team in the arctic just murder the entire plot storyline the whole thing by the way the dream inducing guy hates me in real life um

yeah side note um so yeah there you go there you go i i don't know i mean do you guys have other do you have to deal with this? I bet your wife tells you about her dreams, Kyle. Oh my God. Unreal. Cat women, cat women love sharing dreams. The painstaking details that I hear. And it's just like, and then, and then you were laughing at me and everyone was trying

to kill me. And I'm like, I'm like, do you want me to say, sorry? Do you want me to apologize? What is it? So I think what you could do is a couple of things. I think you could just change the subject. I try that sometimes. Sometimes it works. Sometimes she gets the hint, but I'm not specifically saying stop telling me about your dreams. These don't mean anything to anyone other than you. But so sometimes I'll change the subject. Sometimes I'll talk about my sleep last night. I'm like, I was tossing a turn in last night. I had to get up, got some

water, sat on the couch for a little bit. I just had a rough night. And then maybe feel bad for me and don't tell me about your dream. So that's one. The other, you could say maybe not when she is telling you the dream, but maybe you'd be like, hey, I got you a dream journal. You can write these down. And then, I don't know, maybe talk to your therapist about it. But like, wait a minute. Time out, Kyle. Great idea. Dream journal.

Just write it down. Don't say it. Just write it. And then, you know, she asked you to read it. Then I'm going to say no. I'm going to say I think this is probably maybe we should go to like better help. Maybe somebody talk to them about your stuff. Read the bullet points off.

Maybe you could get to the bottom of whatever this is. So you're not qualified for this. This is what I'm not qualified. Yeah. The dream journal. This is just a, this we're gathering data. We're going to get somebody who could extrapolate.

How about that? Not me. Those are the two things. Basically I was going to say, change the subject into like how you, how last night was for you and not dreams. Maybe be like, you know,

I got a fucking crap at three in the morning. Oh my God. Just something where like, maybe we can shift the attention onto you. And maybe usually it's like, did you have a bad, like, did you have a bad night's sleep? Cause now like, let's talk about that instead. Cause nobody's like, oh, you had a good night's sleep. Let's talk more about that. So you can talk about how you had a poor experience sleeping and that will Trump her nonsense dream or go with the dream journal. Those are my two solutions. and that will trump her nonsense dream or go with the dream journal. Those are my two solutions.

I feel like my wife and I don't talk about dreams really. If we do, it's just like very surface level. Like, wow, this like, hey, I had a dream that like, you know, I did this stupid thing last night and it's like five seconds and it's really no, because it's kind of like the fantasy football thing. Like the more people don't just, the more you talk about it,

you know, you could just say, hey, like I got screwed over screwed over you know this guy got hurt and i was like oh it's a bummer but then like if you go for like another minute and you know two minutes and start talking about what your lineup adjustments are people are just like what the fuck man i don't care so i would just say you know if you're if you keep it within five to ten seconds it's fine i did never that i yeah so it's never that she's not gonna change never that. She's not going to change now. She likes to tell your whole dream. It's zero seconds or a lot of them. Yeah. Early in my relationship, I could be a little bit cold, shocker maybe.

But early in the relationship, I think I nipped a lot of that in the butt with my wife. And she just kind of knows that I don't care about stuff like that. And I don't know that she even does either. So like dreams. But even if it's like if there's some like work story that goes on and on and on like she could tell that I'm just kind of like zoning out and I don't really care and she'll kind of catch herself and I'll do the same thing so we kind of check each other on that so I would just say maybe just zone out and completely make it obvious that you just are not that interested like don't be rude don't don't like say hey I

don't care this sucks the story blows just just don't act interested and if you keep doing that she's gonna kind of get maybe she'll get mad at you I don't really. This sucks. The story blows. Just don't act interested. And if you keep doing that, she's going to kind of get... Maybe she'll get mad at you. I don't really know what the temperament of your wife is. And she'll just be like, why don't you care about me? You don't want to listen to things

that are important to me. But if you just kind of act like you don't care, I kind of feel like she'll just slowly stop talking to you about it. I think that's a real option as well. By the way, did you say nip in the butt? Nip in the butt, right?

In the bud? Bud, yeah. I thought I heard a bud. I might have said bud. I did too. I did too. I left it alone. All right. My bad. I know it's know it's but i just you know it's a slip up it is what it is i appreciate you checking me on that though yeah because it was just it was going to be really weird if it's like 30 years later you went it's what it's but which happens it does happen to people there's still a couple words every now and then i'll say i'll be like what um so yeah uh

no no no foul on that one i also think having a couple kids probably eliminates a lot of this stuff where you just be like hey don't have time for the recap now we got 30 minutes till eggs need to be on the table right now so yeah right right whatever hut you were living in with your high school classmates no and then you kept trying to punch the person in the Whatever hut you were living in with your high school classmates, you know, and then you kept trying to punch the person in the face and you were missing and they were sitting right there

and nothing was happening and just, it was like a magnet posing magnets and the fist just kept going side to side and you couldn't hit the person no matter how hard you tried.

And oh, you had a test that you hadn't showed up to class for in a way. You know, like, I get it. I don't think I'd want to listen to it.

And that's why, even though, I don't even know. Christ, I call Saruti about everything. We're not at a dream level. No. We're not going to get there. How many years does the pod have to be off the air before you start calling him? How many years do you have to not be doing a pod before you're calling him and informing him on your dreams if in five or six years i'm calling saruti in the morning to recap a dream things have gone really bad for me it's tough yeah all right and at that

point i don't expect saruti to answer sometimes i tell him now like don't answer don't call back you just had an idea i do remember now my wife one time did hit me with the, hey, I had a dream where you cheated on me. And I think my direct response was like, what would you like me to do with that information? And again, she was like, it wasn't like a, hey, I'm mad at you thing. It was just like, all right. And then we just kind of moved on. So

I think your wife either kind of just wants to get bogged down in that kind of stuff, or she understands it doesn't care, or it doesn't matter. There you go. When I typed in the dream thing to find the email, there was something that said I had a dream about Cerruti. Do we dare just... Sure.

Yeah. Kind of nervous. I just woke up from a vivid dream. I was in attendance at the U.S. Open. Golf, not tennis. I was sitting in a hole in the back when Billy Horschel hit a shot, which impacted the green and called for a ruling from a course official. Who did they call over?

Known golf guy, Steve Cerruti. Cerruti displayed a masterful command of the situation before bizarrely putting Horschel's ball in. Oh, putting Horschel's ball in an awful spot, basically right in front of an extremely sloped portion of the green, nowhere near where Horschel's ball in. Oh, putting Horschel's ball in an awful spot. Basically right in front of an extremely slow portion of the green. Nowhere near where Horschel's ball originally was,

but no one said an ill word though. Such was the respect Sir Rudy had on the course. Horschel did not save par. I like Horschel. That sucks. I wouldn't do that to my guy. No one challenges you.

Rules are rules. I think that's a complimentary recap. Really. I do kind of love that. This guy has No one challenges you. Rules are rules. I think that's a complimentary recap, really. I do kind of love that. This guy has such respect for you that subconsciously you're just in charge of shit. Everybody at the US Open is like, sure, he knows what's going on. This guy's trustworthy. He knows where the ball is supposed to go. Actually, that actually

takes me to another little side thing. Remember a couple, what was it? It was probably a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago or so. For some reason, we were talking about golf. And I was talking about how I played in high school. I was pretty good. And you asked me what my best score was.

And I think I said I shot in the mid to high 70s was my best score. And a bunch of dudes after that would hit me up and be like, you're a liar. No way. You don't realize how good that is, blah, blah, blah. I'm not saying that I could shoot that right now. I'm not saying that I could shoot that consistently, but that's what my best score was. I think it was like a 78 or a 79. Anyway, I tell the story. Two weeks ago, I played golf for

the first time in a year and I shot an 83. So those guys could fuck right off. Humble brag for your boy. It just shocks me that you would say you did something well or something that deserves recognition and that people online would just tell you to do it. So I'm mad at myself for even being mad about it, but it did piss me off. I'm like, why would I lie about that?

I don't care. Anyway, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. Look, you just wouldn't. I know you and you wouldn't. And congrats on the 83 not playing.

All right. That's life advice. Hit him straight, boys. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve. Ryan or civil podcast for your spotify Outro Music