The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Iowa Owns the Night! Plus, Dan Hurley’s Rise and the Luka Playoff Fear Factor With P.J. Carlesimo.

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Russillo begins by sharing why Iowa-LSU dominated the sports world (0:37). Then, P.J. Carlesimo joins the pod to discuss Dan Hurley’s edge, explain the differences between coaching in college and the pros, and preview the NBA playoffs (12:38). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (48:30)! Do I need to break up with my trainer? Check us out on Youtube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: P.J. Carlesimo Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're talking Iowa's win against LSU. A moment for everyone. We've got PJ Carlissimo breaking down the Final Four, specifically Danny Hurley's story because PJ's known him going all the way back to the hall. So we're doing that. And we've got some doctors giving us life advice on what it's like to be friends with them and more. Enjoy. Last night, Iowa LSU Women's College of Basketball owned the sports world. It was the event that everybody was talking about.

And if you weren't involved, you probably felt left out. I don't know if last night ever happened when I was younger. I mean, it's obviously happened with different sports more recent history, but I'm talking about growing up. I don't know that that's ever happened. And I think that that's incredible. Hold for a plus. What the game last night had was what every other sports property wants for

every single matchup. The reason why, when you'd be watching the Sunday night or the Monday night game, usually probably more likely on Sunday night is you would have the Manning picture against Brady. You'd have the graphics, you'd have the history, the production teams that week would know their talking points, the buildup, and the talking points throughout the entire game. Things that they were going to talk about in the production

meetings and how they relate that to the game and be like, Hey, the story of tonight's game is Manning Brady. Not hard to figure out. And that way, bringing more eyeballs, more curiosity, because people are like, Oh, those two guys are going at it again. There's a great rivalry there. I'm interested. Okay. That's what every single sport, the real world is. eyeballs, more curiosity because people are like, oh, those two guys are going at it again, there's a great rivalry there. I'm interested.

Okay. That's what every single sport, the reason why F1 had its pop is because then you understood the stories and it would be, you know, new and everything. And I know other sports have tried to emulate that kind of stuff, but they didn't have the newness factor that racing had. And I always think that that's like the most important thing of growing a sport is like you have to figure out a way to get people to care about the backstories so that they care about the outcome. Whether it's Clark pushing the boundaries of basketball in a way that we

didn't think the women's game would ever get to, because look, we didn't think Steph would be able to do what he did in the beginning. I remember the beginning of him making these shots. I'm like, wait, he's just going to do this now? I was worried it might be a little bit of a fluke or LSU squad that is different, that is unapologetic, but they're trying to repeat his champions. The Reese Clark rivalry part of this, okay. Iowa, Louisiana, two places that are technically in the same country that feel like they're completely different worlds. All this stuff is great stuff for the drama

of a basketball game. And when you were invested in all of this backstory, again, you care about the outcome and people last night cared about the outcome. Sports is a lot like TV and movies, right? You're great characters. Hey, what did that guy go through? Manchester by the sea. You're like, what happened to this guy? Are you fucking kidding me?

How's this going to end? Right? Don Draper, Mad Men. you're like, what did he do? Oh, that's not even his name? His name's Dick? Well, what's gonna happen now? Because there's nothing worse than when you're watching a TV show or a movie and you're like, you know what? I don't care if this guy gets the girl or dies.

I don't care. You have that epiphany and you realize this show sucks. That's not good. That's not what you would want in a show. So as I look at the commentary off of last night's game and trying to wonder what this rating is gonna be, it inevitably always gets pivoted. Then back to comparing it to the men's game

where there's like a real sense of pride of, hey to the men's game, where there's a real sense of pride of, hey, the men's tournament, and then it kind of turns into a different conversation. But I think some of it is fair. I don't love all of it, but I think some of it is fair in that there's this, that with the NIL in women's college basketball and the fact that the WNBA salaries are not that appealing,

that there will always be more backstory in women's college basketball in comparison to men's. Because men's, if you're Caitlin Clark, you're done after your freshman year. I mean, I'd say sophomore year, but we know that's not true. You'd be done after your freshman year. So we could look at the Purdue struggles and then the reward of finally breaking through this year, which I think is great because Painter's a great coach.

It's a well-coached team. It seems like it's a good group of guys. I don't know. Iter's a great coach. It's a well coached team. Seems like it's a good group of guys. I don't know, you know, I'm just dipping my toes into it for a couple of weeks myself, but that's not really enough.

That's nothing compared to Caitlin Clark and LSU and all the stuff that we've been talking about for well over a year, just not close. So when I start to think forward on all of this, I'm like, wait, is there any chance that the women's tournament will surpass the men's in popularity if this continues or is the Clark LSU story this, this peak point and then it just drops off again. You know, in the men's tournament being a more, I'd say prevalent product.

You know, I don't know how many of you filled out women's brackets to your office. Probably not as many as the men's brackets, but like you understand my point. I think the win in all this is that I'm even wondering, like maybe could the women's tournament become the better product? Better is probably not the right word,

but could it be the product that more people will care about 10, 20 years from now because there's less turnover? And I think that's the win in a way that I don't know that I ever would have even thought that was something you could argue. So having said all of that, I want to be honest with you. I changed the channel half time. It's not for me. I got frustrated. The same way I get frustrated when I watch the men's game,

where I watch certain games and I'm like, where are the shot creators? Like where are the guys gonna get their own? Is it gonna be just dribble, dribble, dribble, run through a bunch of sets that get all clogged up and then some guys left taking a terrible shot at the end? Or is the underdog team gonna try to run out the clock with like three minutes left up to like what are you guys doing or having the guy go at six or

seven seconds left driven the ball down from 25 seconds left because they're up one and instead of getting a decent shot they make sure they have no time left on an awful attempt at the end of so many tournament games it drives me crazy so yeah there were some things with the game last night that I was like, yeah, all right. I'm gonna watch Scoot Henderson try to get Jalen Suggs without a screen, the game winner at Orlando to complete Portland's comeback.

That didn't work out. Or Devin Booker going nuts again in New Orleans where he now has 49 points combined in the first quarters of the last two games at New Orleans. So look, I'm not going to lie to you about what it meant to me, but it shouldn't matter to you what it meant to me. The historic part of it is the most important part. I think there's three levels of progress here.

There is phase one, and I can only relate this to my own experience, my own age and how I experienced the consumption of women's sports. Phase one is being in college and one guy out of like 10 of us, we were like, Hey, we're going to go outside and just do stuff that guys do at 18, 19 years old. Are you coming? And he was like, no, I'm gonna watch Yukon, Tennessee, women's in my dorm room on CBS, the only channel that would work. And we were like, are you serious, dude?

He was ridiculed. He was like, what? It's fun. Might've been a bit of a regional thing because we're all from New England. But he was into it. But he was also mocked for being into it. That doesn't happen anymore. And that's good. The first phase then pivoted, I think, into the second phase of the US women's national team being dominant, having all sorts of characters. I think there's also a national pride sense of it, where it was like, no, you're supposed to be into this and you're supposed to watch

and you're supposed to be supportive. Like, honestly, I just find like, I never understand the person that's like, no, I actually root for, root for Greece. Like, okay, cool. I think the final phase of progress will be a man's choice to just go, you know, you're gonna have to do this, you're gonna have to do this, you're gonna phase of progress will be a man's choice to just go,

yeah, I think it's great. You like it. But I'm not going to watch the whole game because there was other stuff I wanted to watch. The same way that I didn't watch any baseball or hockey this weekend, or I barely watched any NC State Duke because I was doing a Sunday NBA pod. Where when I was watching NC State Duke, I was like, yeah, I think I'm good. I'm going to watch Rockets Mavericks. And I think that's okay.

And you should think it's okay too. Fan tools, put the ball in your court for the rest of the NBA season because right now new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's 200 bucks if your bet wins. So let's look at the board. The first thing that jumped out at me was Houston plus seven and a half at Minnesota.

If you look at the schedule part of this, Minnesota's back home for their second game, they lost that first one after the win at Denver at home against Chicago. Then if you go and take a look at Houston, they should be decently rested considering they were in Texas for the loss against Dallas after the win streak ended and they got smashed in that one. But again, that game was on Sunday, just like Minnesota-Chicago game. So the day off, whatever. So there's not really that five and seven or back to back or some of the stuff you'd

look for with this. So you're like, okay, it's plus seven and a half. Is it because the front line home go bear against Houston? That's going just basically small with this entire thing. Is that the part that scares you taking the seven and a half points? Well, we're still going to take the seven and a half points, but if you want to parlay with that, so I'm just going to give out two picks, you add them together if you want to I'm looking at Jabari Smith now fan deals already

on it because they're clearly smart, but I wonder if Jabari Smith going for 28 against Dallas changed what the number was here because the prop right now for total on points scored for Jabari's over under 13 and a half. We're still going to take the over 13 and a half. I was wondering what that would be before I even looked because the last time they played, Shungun was around and Minnesota blew him out and Jabari took four shots in that game and had foul trouble throughout. So I was hoping to get like a low total and take the over knowing now that it's going to be playing differently. I think from a basketball standpoint, they're going to have Jabari playing a lot of center minutes tonight, trying to drag Go Bear away from the hoop to open up those driving lanes for everybody else, specifically, Jalen Green.

So I do think Jabari is going to be taking more shots, getting more opportunities unless they abandoned it and decided to just try to go big with some more Jacques Landel minutes. Because in that first matchup, he barely played. So I don't love it as much. I went into this thinking that number was going to be lower and that I was going to get one on them. But again, they're very good at this stuff. So those are the two separate picks Houston plus seven and a half and the over 13 and a half points scored for Jabari. Cause I do think that that is going to be a big part of their offense. The opportunity of him being outside, spreading the floor, trying to drag Rudy away. It's just a matter of will he take enough shots to get to that total? You can bet on the NBA with a wide range of bets

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Bonus bets expire seven days after a C. C terms at sportsbook.fanDuel.com. I love getting the chance to catch up with him when we can. We're gonna talk some hoops. PJ Carlissimo, part of the NBA coverage on ESPN Radio and also gonna be part of Westwood One's Final Four coverage this weekend as well. Okay, so look, PJ, Yukon,

I got to see him in person again, Stetson. So there wasn't much from that. I was like, oh wow, I guess these guys are good. But let's talk a bit about what Danny Hurley is. And I know you've known him his whole life and your connection going back to Seton Hall and everything. What is it about this guy? Well, he's not a good coach.

I mean, he's beyond having to prove anything. I think what a lot of people don't realize is the journey after he got done playing. His journey at Seton Hall was difficult. It was great for us that he decided to stay home, but it was a lot tougher, I think, than what Bobby had. Bobby Hurley, his older older brother decided to go to Duke and obviously had a phenomenal career, national championships and all Americans. And Danny chose to stay home with us at Seton Hall. And it was a, it was a rocky journey at times.

He played for us for two years. He had a red shirt year and then he came back after I left to go to Portland in the NBA and he played his final two years for George Blaney. And it was a tough time. The expectations were so absurdly high and I think more so because he chose to stay in Jersey. I mean, he grew up in Jersey City, played for his father, a Hall of Fame coach arguably, not arguably,

one of the best high school coaches of all time. And the expectations were just absolutely off the charts. And that was not easy thing for Danny to deal with. Having said that, he still had, which I think in some ways it's kind of unknown. He played four years of college basketball. He was on three NCAA teams. His fourth team was an NIT team. He scored 1,000 points. By most people's standards, he had an unbelievable college career. There's a lot of people who would like to go to three NCAAs and an NIT and score 1,000 points, but probably didn't live up to what other people's expectations might have been. He didn't live up to what other people's expectations might have been. And then he graduates and it took a while.

And again, a lot of people just said, oh yeah, Bob Hurley's son, great player. So he jumped right into it. He didn't. He worked for his father for a year at St. Anthony's. He worked at Rutgers, I think, for four years as an assistant at Rutgers. And by then I was on the West Coast in Portland at Golden State. And without exception, Ryan, every time I would say to somebody, how's Danny doing? They would say he's great. He's really good. He's a very, very good assistant coach at that point at Rutgers. He leaves Rutgers and goes to St. Benedict's Prep, which is

a long, old time school, private school, Catholic school in Newark. And he coaches there for nine years. He has all Americans, including J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, a whole bunch of other guys. Nine years he spends at St. Anthony's. Then he gets the Wagner job, ironically a job that I had had before I went to, I was at Wagner for six years. Then he ends up going there.

And that's his first college head coaching job. He's there for two years. The second year he wins 25 games. Like, I mean, believe me to win 25 games, it took me like, I think four years to win 25 games at Wagner when I was there. So he does a hell of a job there. He's there two years, completely turns it around,

wins 25, goes to URI. He's at URI for six years. And again, when he got there, the program was down, as Wagner was down when he got there. He ends up staying at URI for six years. The last two, he goes to the NCAA. He went to an NIT early. So he had an NIT and two NCAAs at URI. And then he gets the UConn job, which again, after there was a lot of things that had gone down, they got in trouble, blah, blah, blah. It wasn't UConn like it is UConn today.

Like everybody kind of, oh, Danny earlier, he went to UConn, what a great job. Of course he's winning 30 games every year. It wasn't, it was a building situation which he's done and he's now taking Utah, excuse me, taking Yukon back for consecutive NCAAs back to back 30 win seasons. And obviously he wins a national championship last year. And people, you know, I think that nationally got to see him last year and go, wow, this guy's a pretty good coach. Right, he paid his dues. Are you kidding me?

I mean, like what he's done throughout his career, people don't realize. People think that maybe this was handed to him cuz he's a Hurley. You talk about somebody working for his coaching career and what Danny's done. And I saw them early this year. They played Gonzaga in Seattle. I still live in Seattle. They played Gonzaga in Seattle. I still live in Seattle. They played Gonzaga early in the year. I'm sure made for TV game.

And Danny asked me, you know, at the practice and then after the game, you know, coach, what do you think? And I, you know, I didn't tell him exactly what, exactly what I thought was this the best team in the country did. You might have to win another national championship. That's how good this team is. And he has just done an unbelievable job again. I think they're the favorite. Obviously they and Purdue are the two along with Houston that really kind of

distanced themselves the entire year. And I was with Houston in Dallas. Duke beat him. I don't want to take anything away from Duke's win. Jamal Shedd going down obviously was a factor in the game. I don't know that it was the deciding factor, but those three teams, Houston, Purdue, and UConn have been the best teams in the country all year. And it's hard for me to imagine anybody other than UConn winning this. I know how good a player Zach Edy is. I haven't seen Purdue in person. I want to be fair to Nate Oates in Alabama. And I saw firsthand, I can't figure out NC

State. I mean, I just had him for two wins and I look at all. I'll say one thing, their defense right now is exceptional. The two DJs are playing out of their mind, but I mean, it just doesn't make sense. They're just, they're, they're beating everybody and they're making it look easy when they do it. So I'm really looking forward to the final four, but Danny again, has done last year. I happened to have all six of his games last year. Totally by coincidence. Westwood once sent me to Albany for his first two. I was on the West regional in Las Vegas for when he played Arkansas and Gonzaga and I was in, um, Houston with Vegas for when he played Arkansas in Gonzaga and I was in

Houston with them when they won it this year. I have not seen him in person since that Gonzaga game earlier in the year obviously, I've seen him on on TV that 30-point run that they Put on Illinois the other the other day was beyond remarkable so I can't say enough about him as a coach, right? But the thing that really impresses me the most is like, I haven't been with him, but I mean, I've been very close to all his steps. And, you know, like the work he did,

everything he's done to make himself the coach he is now is super, super impressive to me. I mean, he's not a good coach. He's a great coach, but he, but he earned it. That's the best thing about it. Sometimes you're lucky when you're a coach, you get handed a great situation and you take advantage of it. He wasn't handed too many great situations.

He worked for everything he got. And I'm selfishly, I'm just really happy to see him being as successful as he is and handling it the way I think he's handling it, which is very well. It's not always fair to ask this as you age, you know, you're supposed to mellow out a little bit. I think one of the cool things about getting older is you're like, I'm just not going to have enough time. I have more important things. Let this, let this bother me. But most of us aren't coaching in big time college basketball games. So you'll see him kind of go at other guys. Was he like as a kid with you, did you go, okay, this guy's going to be a coach?

Like I get it. But right now you're, you're like, what was that dynamic like? Because then I think too, is like the coach's son. I think we just had Doug McDermott on where I feel like you're, when you're the coach's son, you're more deferential to superiors in life because you're just used to always having that dynamic with your father growing up.

But there's just this edge that Danny has that his team clearly responds to. And they show that edge with how hard they play even in blowouts where you're like, these guys are like afraid of disappointing the staff. Like what was he like as a personality when you first got to know him? He had always had an edge, no question about that. I don't think Bob senior would mind me.

I'm gonna say I was combative. That doesn't surprise you as a coach. Bob was a little combative too. You never had to wonder what Bob Hurley was thinking. You never had to wonder if you made a mistake. If you were St. Anthony's player, St. Anthony's Jersey City player for Bob Hurley senior, you made a mistake. You were aware of it instantly.

And I think, you know, that's how Danny and Bobby grew up. So Danny always had, Danny always had the edge. He never had a problem. I shouldn't say never had a problem with criticism, but he would, he was always, always had that edge was always in my mind, a good combative. He was, he knew basketball inside out. He knew that he knew it. It wasn't like he pretended or didn't think he knew what he was doing. He very much knew what he was doing. You can't grow up and out household.

You can't play the level of basketball that Danny always played. I mean, he was a first or second best team in the country when he was in high school also. I mean, if anything, we didn't live up to the expectations. We only went to three NCAAs at Seton Hall. We didn't win a national championship at Seton Hall when Danny was there. So he always had the edge, but to me it was a good edge.

And he walks out with his team, like he gets on those guys anytime that they stray. Their practices are great. He's got a great staff. You know, Kamani Young, Tom Moore, Luke Murray, in particular, the full-time guys, it's a really, really good staff. He lets them do things. Like if you watch their practice, not just putting in the scouting report,

but the way they break down, the way they teach and coach on the floor at practice. But again, that edge is there and Danny's guys know it. I believe they know it before they get there. I mean, when you visit, if you watch a practice, if you go to a shoot around, if you watch a game, you know, you're going to get coached and you know, you're going to get pushed. And they seem very, very comfortable with that. And he's on a run right now that people forget again, he was the four,

I think they were a four seed or a five seed last year going in. They weren't expected. You know, this year was a whole different animal dealing with being the defending champions, having the expectations on their, on them the entire year last year really wasn't like that. There's always expectations at Yukon, but I think they were a four seed going into the tournament. Arguably their best six games last year, Ryan with the six games in the NCAA tournament.

I mean, they just, they were a steamroller during the NCAA. They've been at for a big chunk of this year, which is really hard to do. They had so many guys back and, you know, to keep guys happy and motivated and playing, which they've done, I mean, they're there again. They got two more enormous steps

and I don't think they're gonna be walkovers, but they certainly don't have easy games, whoever they end up playing. But I think it's so hard to repeat. It's hard enough to win once, to repeat when everybody is you're getting their best shot. And they've done it and they've thrived that they won the Big East regular season and the tournament. Danny had a great quote after they won the regular season about people don't

realize how hard it is to win the regular season. You know, winning the tournament is hard enough, but you know, a lot of times that's that's winning three games. You get out for a weekend, you win three games. Um, that it's great. I'm not minimizing it at all, but that's not as hard as winning the regular season. They played a double run round, but everybody plays, everybody knows you, your players, your offense, your defenses. I mean, it's brutal and they came through it and he said it right away. I think they were 16 and two or 18 and two, however many games they play now. And he realized what an achievement that was.

And I agree with them. And then they, on top of that, they did win the tournament and they're back. And I'm dying to see him, to be honest with you, we're going to do the interviews I think on Thursday and I'm just dying to talk to him to what this year's been like so far, but you can't, it's so hard. I mean, all the, you know, all the other guys, all the stories we, I mean, we went from Arizona to Gonzaga to Duke to NC State to Houston.

You know, everybody's got their own story, what they're trying to do. Some guys are trying to get to the lead eight. Some guys are trying to get to the round of 16. Some guys are trying to get into the tournament. He. Some guys are trying to get into the tournament. He's trying to win a national championship back to back. I mean, it just, it hasn't been done since, I don't think since Billy D.

And again, I'm biased because it's Danny, but if it was someone else doing it, I'd say the same thing. I'm telling you what, it is, what he's doing is really, really, really difficult. And they're making it look easy. Coaching in a game in the tournament, uh, versus coaching in a game, say in the NBA, uh, are you more powerful as a coach in impacting the outcome of a game in college and you are the NBA? No question. Uh, no question. It was always a cliche.

People always said it's a player's game. It absolutely is a player's game. Unless you're in a game seven, in the old days when I first came into the league, game fives in the first round were like that. You don't have that situation where you lose and you go home until you get to a game seven. I'll tell you what, game sevens have messed up some really good players in

the NBA because they haven't had to deal with that. You don't know what it's like. But yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're in college, you are, you're the GM, you're front office, you brought the guys there. They answer, you know, for the most part, once you've established yourself at your school. And it's different now, I should put a disclaimer in right away. What the hell's going on now is totally different than it was when I was in school, cuz you had more teams that were together for three or four years. It was more orderly. Now it's like, you don't know who you're gonna have from year to year,

the rosters change. I mean, everything is so different. but there's no question you have, you know, 10 times the impact on a game in college than you do in the NBA. When you're figuring something out, like how do you go to your staff? Like Alabama, Clemson, that's probably one of my favorite games of the tournament. And you're looking where you're like, okay, there's a bunch of options here where I feel like even some of the other higher seated teams,

I've had moments of watching the tournament where I was like, man, they kind of have like one or two things they can go to. And if that gets shut off, they're like, they're in trouble for two hours here. Like you can see it. And it'll be a team that like has a really good record. And I'm going like, oh, they're done.

That's why I enjoyed Clemson, Alabama so much. Cause I just felt like there was a bunch of different things that they go to. And guys are stepping up left and right. Like, what is that moment? Like, like, what did you remember from your scene hall run where you were like, this is something guys, Hey, let's look for this. And before they did this, like, you know, I'm kind of asking you to give me something really specific here,

but I just want to understand that a little bit better, in game, late, tough situation, hoping to advance of when the coaching takes over. Well, there's two things that I ask the questions every time and the play-by-play guy are often a producer, I'm with the same people sometimes from year to year with Westwood One and they just shake their heads when I ask the question.

The first thing is the difference between a Thursday Friday game and a Saturday Sunday game is night and day. It's so orderly for the first game of the weekend now and make that the Saturday game for the final four, the semi finals. You have four or five days to get ready. You look at a whole bunch of tapes. You have meetings with your coaches, you have multiple practices with your players.

Even with the travel, it's orderly. It's just like the regular season. And then boom, you win on Thursday or Friday and you have one day to get ready. And it's like invariably you're leaving the arena, you're getting back to hotel in there midnight, you got an afternoon practice, you got all the crazy media stuff that you have to do that's great, that's part of the NCAA tournament. And usually it's against a better team. You advanced, usually you're playing a better team. You got one day to get ready. And you know, you've assigned your coaches, you know, the other two teams that played Thursday or Friday, you know, one coach

is assigned to one, the other coach is assigned to the other. It's, you know, you're trying for the first one, you have, you really have an opportunity to like, what are we going to take away? This is their best player. We got, we got it. We got to limit him. We got to make them go to option two or option three. This is what they like to do. We can try and make them uncomfortable. You often end up, you try and do that on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. But the truth is the coaches know what's going on. The players usually don't. The thing you fight with for the Saturday Sunday game or the Monday game, which is the biggest game of the whole, obviously the biggest game you're ever going to be involved in is

the national championship on Monday night. And you have, fortunately you go from Saturday afternoon to Monday night. So you have a little bit more time, but the biggest challenge is how much can we give them? What can we give them? We got to keep them fresh. We got to keep them off their feet. We can't really have a knockdown practice and do a hundred things like we want to do. And the coaches are all filled with all these ideas and like, hmm, we got to like, we got to keep them straight. So it's, you can really do it off. And that's what the playoffs are about. That's the only time to me during the year, the playoffs resemble the NBA. When you get ready to play somebody seven times,

you got a couple of days to get ready. Usually you have a day or two in between games. You very seldom, if ever played back to back so you can make day or two in between games. You very seldom if ever played back to back so you can make adjustments. You can do things. That's, that's what college coaching is, is more like all during the regular season and very much so for the Thursday, Friday games. So, and again, these guys, you know, are going to know each other. It was really funny. I had NC state Duke Sunday afternoon, Ryan Radke and I. This is the third time these guys played since March.

They played March 4th, I think March 24th, and then the other day. I mean, they know each other to begin with. They know to even with the transfers coming in and out and all the new players, they knew each other. They knew the calls. They knew everything. That's totally different getting ready for that game

than what you talked about, watching some of the other Elite Eight games that decided who was going to go to the Final Four. So yeah, I think it's great. You really get a chance to try and make people go to other options. The thing that we had that our team, the reason we were so good is we were so deep and we had so many options. I mean, we had three, four, five different guys that could get 20 plus points. And we had an unselfish team. We had seniors, we had, I think nine seniors on that team, I mean, including

walk-ons, but walk-ons were part of the deal in those days. So it was totally different. Now it's, it's, it's a little more challenging knowing what you have. Danny's got pretty good continuity. He has three or four guys who played other places. Spencer makes a huge difference this year. I mean, he goes from Loyola, Maryland to Rutgers today, but he is, I think, Tristan and his son maybe are his only three. NC State has eight new guys come in this year. Kevin Keats has six

first year players in his rotation to go along with DJ Burns and Casey Morsell. So it's so different. But you love being able to try and take away. I mean, in some ways, you like playing a team that has a great player and everything revolves around him because you can impact a situation like that. You can just say, we're not going to let this guy beat us or we're going to make this guy do that. When you have a whole bunch of options, you say, well, I don't like our matchup on this guy.

I don't like our matchup on that guy. You end up having to kind of play it straight up and then let's see how the game evolves and then we'll try and take something away. In some ways, preparing for a single great player is an easier preparation, if you will. Not easier to get done, but easier to figure out what you want to do. Let's talk a little NBA here. I was texting with just a friend last night, right? And he was like, I can't wait for the playoffs.

I said, you know, I don't know that I've had a playoff set up, you know, whatever that ends up being with the final seating here where I, you know, maybe it just ends up being Denver, Boston, but it doesn't feel that way with how open the West is, or maybe there'll be just some reset of where, the point of the question is this, PJ, do you have a sense of like who you really like in the West when it comes to playoff time?

Like the way they're built? Like, do you have any sense of it at all? Absolutely not. Uh, the only sense, uh, the only sense is Denver. You just tempted to say, look, these guys are the defending champs. Um, they've certainly won enough games. I don't know what the hell it changes every week. They're first, second, or third right now by a game or two.

But you can't feel really good. You can't like their depth. They've been in and out. It's great to see what Peyton Watson's doing right now. But they're not nearly as deep as you would like a team to be. Their starting lineup is ridiculous. If Jamal's healthy, Jomari's healthy, I still think they like a team to be. Their starting lineup is ridiculous. If Jamal's healthy, Jemal Murray's healthy, I still think they're the team to beat.

I don't know how to assess Minnesota recently because of the injury, but even before the injury, until they do something in the playoffs, you always say, like, let me see somebody win a series, win two series or something like that. They haven't done that. OKC's off the charts. They're so young.

They're so ridiculous. Part of me thinks they don't know how good they are. Mark Dengel's done such an unbelievable job, but they're better in close games than most people. The way they defend, the way they execute down the, like they have a real sense of what they're gonna do, who they're gonna to go to and the ability to shut you down late in the game. Now conventional wisdom says you can't win with that many young guys.

You can't win with that many guys that have never been in the playoffs, have never won a playoff series. LA and Golden State, I don't know what the hell to make it am I. I just think that trying to win seven you can't do it. If it was a game, if it was the NCAA, those guys would be scary as hell because on a given night, you know, Lakers have done it more. They just like have the capacity. When we left Vegas in December,

the in-season tournament, Ryan, I'm saying these guys at times look like the best team in the league. And yet you watch them over the course of the year and say, I don't think they can do this in a seven game series There's so many teams out there, but I do I do like Denver. I should have said I know you realize Yokich is

Beyond belief, you know, I was saying about that I think the average person does not know how good a coach Danny Hurley is I guarantee you the average NBA fan does not know how good a player this guy is. He's a joke. The players in the league talk about him. Like they cannot believe how good Jokic is. I mean it's incredible to hear the coaches of the players in the league talk about this guy. Do you have like an anecdote? Is there one that stands out when you're doing the prep for an NBA game? Because I know how you guys work like I saw it for years the announcers hang out at the arena

They're there early to shoot around they're talking to the assistants. This is like a set me straight. What's going on? Is there one pre yokich moment that you'll remember from this year or other years? No, it's just again we were talking before about how you like what you do and how you take something away. You can't. Michael Boland does such a good job involving him in everything. But the guy, he does silly little things that you don't even think about. Is he a good defender? No.

But at some point in the game, he makes a rotation or he makes a steal. He makes a pass. It's just absurd the way he can impact the game. And he reminds me Stockton to me used to be, John Stockton never used to want to shoot the ball that much. Like the game goes on and on. And all of a sudden it starts to slip away from them a little bit in the fourth quarter. They get down like five and you go, this is a really important possession.

He was dribbling down, stops, shoots at three and makes it or like runs a pick and roll with Carl instead of it. And the pick and roll guy, he makes the jump shot. You always felt like he was playing with the game, like he was, he knew exactly what was going on, what he needed to do. And when he needed to do it, he would do it. That's the way Jokic is the entire game. He manipulates the game like nobody else in the league does. But I'll tell you, I don't know how much you've had a chance to see him. Wemby has the ability to get there in the future because of his skillset. He's going

to do it more on the defensive end, but his passing and his shooting and the stuff he does offensively, he's going to control a game like nobody other than Jokic that I've seen recently can do Embed when he's healthy can do it. I'm not as big an MB guy because all the games he misses but Jokic I'd pay money to see him play every single night and I'm hoping they're good in the playoffs I'm glad you didn't ask me about the East. What's your take on the East? Your former stomping ground gonna get it done this year. No, I do think Boston comes me about the East. What's your take on the East? Is your former stomping ground gonna get it done this year or no? I do think Boston comes out of the East,

but I'm worried in a way that I downplayed it the beginning of the year, because the beginning of the year, the same stuff was kind of coming up. And I feel like I have to almost give you my entire timeline, but the audience has heard it so many different times. When they were getting to the Eastern Conference finals with Brad, that was all way ahead of schedule.

So it's like, oh, well, this group keeps losing late. And you're like, are you kidding me? Like they shouldn't have been in the finals in the 17. And then they lose to LeBron in game seven at home with Kyrie watching, actually wasn't even there. And so you get the point, like that probably shouldn't have happened. And the fact that even got to LeBron, like late possession game seven to get

to the NBA finals, where they probably were getting killed by Golden State. Anyway, like those are, those are like just like back pocket thing. Like it's almost like they don't really count. So when you pile it all up to make the antiseltics argument of, well, they lost the finals in 22 and last year's's embarrassment flat out embarrassment they were better than miami pick up by the beginning and then i think they showed their talent and coming back from it they lose game seven ten goes down who knows what you start to wonder like okay where is my trust factor with team when every number tells you this is a historically dominant basketball team, and when you watch them clicking with their five guys, and I think they're one through seven, you're just

like, this is ridiculous, but I can't get the games out of my head like the 30 point blown lead to Atlanta at their place, and then losing the rematch where you think you'd be so pissed off about what you let happen that you would kick the hell out of them the next time around, then that doesn't happen. But the elbow extended catch, dance, jab step, fucking step back shit, where you're like, you guys are all awesome. The teen is, but if you're going to do this and be this predictable and stop doing the drive and kick stuff where you become unguardable, if you're going to make yourself easier to guard, I don't care about the efficiency stats

and the historic numbers for the starting five here. I'm not going to care about that because that's going to give you like PTSD from the other times that you've seen it where I know that Jokic is going to get you a really good look. And that's what I think this game is. It's very simple. In those moments, do you trust your guys to get you the look you need? It doesn't have to go in, but does it have to be a good look? And if, and if it's these habits with this Boston, we're like, I've argued

PJ with my Boston friends being like, Oh, this team's not that good. They're chokers and all this. I'm like, dude, they're not, they're not. Like we, they'll win like 15 out of 16 and then everybody's pointing to the loss. But I thought that Denver games were very revealing that there's just not anyone at Jokic's level, which is fine, because the other 29 teams

are all in the same group, because there's no one at that guy's level and finding you unlocking the tough possessions. He does it better than anybody in the league. That's what the game's about. And I don't think the Celtics unlock the really tough possessions as much as I need them to, to win the whole thing. I do think they can win the East. I wouldn't pick them against Denver today.

I, yeah. You know, I give Brad credit though, as great a coach he was. I wasn't sure about the Porzingis thing. I especially on the extension, you know, cause you're like, he gets hurt all the time. He's been awesome for him. I mean, he's a 20 point a game guy for his career, right? Yeah. I mean, but he does, he does multiple things too.

And the health is enormous. I thought giving up Marcus Smart Marcus Smart was some people love him. Some people hate him. I thought that was going to hurt. And then they don't look onto, but they get Drew Holiday. Are you kidding me? I mean, that's not- I think you're right.

They kind of lucked into him. That's mind-boggling. You're like, imagine you, right. You pick him up, I'm saying like, holy God, has this thing worked out for them? But every time you're ready to anoint them, you just hesitate a little bit. I don't know, I'd love to see him step up. I would like to see, selfishly, I'd love to see Denver play,

be healthy and play as good as Denver can play and win the West and Boston win the East and have this like epic final. But I don't know that it's in the cards. All right. I have one other question before we finish with something else. I think it's worth bringing up Luca because I think we take Luca for granted. I know that I do because I think we take Luca for granted.

I know that I do because I'll turn it on and you'll have a quarter with him. And it's almost so easy. It, it's, it can be like less entertaining, which, which sounds stupid, but it's so easy to him, PJ. And you know, I'm debating where I'm going to put them in the MVB behind Yokech, but I don't know if it's two ahead of Janis or if it's three behind Janis. Cause I, you know, I just appreciate who these three guys are right now at this level so much. But the Kyrie balance where there's been the stability that you want from the Kyrie element, the basketball part of this. And I think the non-basketball part of it has been really great. And it may be, I don't really care

what their seed is. Like I'm just coming around to thinking that this version of Dallas and Luca knowing, hey, just pencil them in for his 38, 12 and nine. Like it's just gonna, you can throw whatever defense you can force the ball out of his head. He's getting his 30 in every one of these games. Are you open to him? Like I just like this team more than the team that made it to the Western Conference finals, where I was like, well, look, once they get to Golden State, I don't really think this is going to be much of a series. I'm feeling different about them now from, because it's been a really good stretch now. I'll try and give a short,

which you know I'm not capable of answer. First of all, I was so sick of hearing about Luca before he came to the NBA. Everybody was saying, this guy's transcendental, when are you seeing him, blah, blah, blah. It took like two minutes in Shanghai. I think they played Golden State

and I was over there with NBA Academy and I watched like two minutes and I was going holy god they're not exaggerating this guy is that good he is absolutely mind-boggling what he's capable of doing and it looks like he's playing with the game the last NBA game I had was Sixers at Dallas now Joel didn't play but it was a game in Dallas three Sundays ago, four Sundays ago, I don't know whenever the hell it was. And it's, it's mind boggling. They're out of the game. There's no chance. And then all of a sudden he scores like 20 out of 22 and he's laughing as he's doing it and he's yelling at the refs. And it's like, you know, when it passes the appropriate play, he makes it. It's, it's amazing. And then on top of that, Keste

and I have the series with Phoenix when Monty's coaching Aiden still in Phoenix two years ago after they get beat by like 180 the first two games in Phoenix and go, well, we're never coming back here. They find a way to win games three and four. We go back, they get killed again in game five and go, well, we'll never come back here. They win game six, then they go back and win game seven like in a walkover. He's in that mix. We didn't go deeper in the Western Conference. Where the hell do you put him?

You cannot want to be in a, if you're in a close game, you can lose the game because he's the difference in the game. Can he buckle up and do it? He and Kyrie are more on the same page than they've ever been. I give J.Kid credit for manipulating it, but they're, boy, they don't stop you, Ryan. You know how hard it is to win when you don't do that. I don't know what they go to in the playoffs, but I guarantee you, and I haven't been as much West this year as I've been in past years.

There's a couple of teams that I know are terrified. If they, I don't know who it is, but I know there's gotta be a couple that want no part of that matchup, because this kid is so, he's so good and he makes it look so effortless, but he plays with the game more than anybody that I've seen in a long, he literally plays with the game.

And that's concerning. Most concerning if I'm Jay Kidd, cause Jay Kidd was a warrior in terms of trying to want to win. How the hell he, he coaches him and, and, and gets him from game to game. I don't know. It's some nights he just frustrates you with his ability. Me personally. Yeah. I mean he's 30 to 10 and 10 this month and they won their last 11 games with him in the lineup.

A couple of incredible streaks where they look unbeatable, unbeatable. Uh, and he, And he looks focused. I'm giving him his due, like he's not great. He's obviously great. He's one of the best players in the league in a long, long time, but he still, boy, if he could go one more notch, if there's such a thing of commitment and defense

and show that you really, really want to win. And I know he wants to, he prefers to win, but whether he wants to do this, the other stuff you need to do to win, I don't know. Hey, PJ, it's always awesome to catch up. Have a great time on Westwood one with the final four preview title game. We'll be watching and listening, man. It's always good to see you. Thanks, Ry. Great to be with you appreciate it You want details by 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 And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. The email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. We've got Kyle, we've got Steve. The Tuesday, Thursdays, it always feels like I miss you guys a little bit. So back at it.

Anything to update? Everybody's good? Yeah, no. How was Easter? Ain't good. Uh, watched a lot of hoops. Yep. Same couple bloody Marys, a couple of rabbit messages. Always love when that top Easter must be huge at your place. Didn't even think about that. He's hoarding the bunnies. Yeah. Yeah. Charge admission.

That made 800 bucks charging neighborhood kids to come by. Think about that. He's hoarding the bunnies. Yeah. Yeah. Charge admission. That made 800 bucks charging neighborhood kids to come by. Loan them out, that'd be great. See all the rabbits, renting them. Okay, so we had a ton, a ton of follow-ups from doctors on the can you ask your doctor out to hang out? No, all male scenarios for the most part here. And there were a lot of good emails from a lot of doctors.

So shout out to the medical profession for listening to the podcast. I'm not gonna read all of them. And there's a bit of a split. There was a lot of very basic like, hey, if you get along, you get along. It's not that bit of a split. There was a lot of very basic like, hey, if you get along, you get along. Like it's not that big of a deal. And trust me, the doctor is completely numb

to whatever sort of examination that they're giving the patient because they're doing it all the time. And they don't, the hangup is on the patient side. The doctor has the upper hand clearly. Right. In this scenario. Although somebody chimed in and was like,

if this guy's like an athlete and hanging out in Jackson Hole and skiing, he's probably really cool already and doesn't want new friends. So if the guy's really cool later in life, he's probably not adding new friends to his friends group unless you bring something to the table that there's a void within his core group.

That's kind of the other, that is outside of the doctor-patient scenario that we're talking about here, but if you're going after really the cool guy in town later in life, like you better have a house in Aspen or something, you know? What's harder, asking out the hot girl or asking out the hot dude, you know, who knows?

Oh, the dude, without question. 1000%. I mean, it's not even close. Yeah, the rejection would hurt Oh, the dude. Yeah. Without question. 1000%. I mean, it's not even close. Yeah. The rejection would hurt more from the dude. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that chances are if you're, if you're at your level or going above it

with the opposite sex, you're used to that. But if it's a guy, you're kind of like, and then it ends with like, see you in April. Right. We're still good. Right. Whole new level of disappointment. Seen him at the golf course, at the gym, out at your social spots.

It's like, he's with other guys and you're like, yeah, it could have been me, but. He just really doesn't like me. It's probably harder. Yeah, that's true, because you could only date one, like, you know, assuming you're asking a girl, you can only date one girl. You could, guys could have a bunch of friends.

But you see him out with other people, that's the shot to the ego that I don't know a lot of people are ready for. Yeah, I think we all landed on the same page with that one. The other thing is that there was a lot of doctors, there were a lot of doctors that said, it's not great because much like anyone who is at the top of their profession

or in a profession that's very specific for doctors is like, as soon as you become buddies with guys or you'd start giving out your phone number or yeah, hit me up. You're constantly inundated with medical questions and it's not from everybody, but there's always going to be that one guy that fucking abuses it. Like the guy that will ask me for tickets to everything all the time or asks me, be like, oh, you must have some inside info on this. I'm like, I don't, I don't.

If we did, we'd have a better run with the four leg parlays. The guy that's like, he's doing you a favor by asking you questions. Yeah, so, you know, in the Rolodex of humans, some people are just real takers and you got to try to avoid those people. But sometimes if they're really good at it, they can trick you a bit, but I sympathize with the doctors who are like, yeah, cool. Now I'm sitting at home with my kids and all of a sudden you feel a pain in your shoulder.

You're gonna hit me up. Sometimes it's even worse. It's like, oh, my cousin's a doctor. Like my wife at her old job, she had this person, she was complaining about something and she was like, oh, my cousin's husband's a doctor. And it's like, so now you're like, it's not even just a request for you.

It's like, so here's the situation. My coworker has been having these weird headaches and, or whatever it is. It's like, it can, it can never stop too. It's especially if you've got someone who's like loaning out the doctor in their life. So that's. Yeah, right. Hey, oh, something's wrong golfing. Like, ah, I can't, I can't grip anything.

Hold on. Call them right now. Hold on. golfing, like, ah, I can't, I can't grip anything. Hold on. I'll call him right now. Hold on. So if you're seeking a doctor buddy to maybe not be in your core group, but secondary group, just be sensitive to the idea that this is not a hotline because I'm sure that sucks for the

doctors out there. We had one real specific guy chime in here and said urologists with an opinion on this thirty nine year old urologists So I had a laugh and you were discussing the 40 year old looking to become friends with the doctor for those who don't know urology is a surgical sub specialty that is responsible for the management of the mmm Genetor genitourinary systems Genitourinary systems. Genitourinary systems. Yeah.

Genitourinary. There we go. Systems for both men and women, although it leans more towards men. We take care of kidney, bladder, prostate, testes, cancer, voiding problems, kidney stones, and men's health issues, including testosterone and fertility. I can't say that I've had patients that have become friends later, but I can say that I've had many friends

and social acquaintances, my kids, friends, parents, or my wife's friends, husbands, that have come to me for vasectomies or other issues. The guys are always nervous about seeing me in the office, but I always joke that unless you are a significant outlier, I'm not going to remember you. I like that. I see 40 to 50 patients on an office day,

so that's a lot of dicks. Yeah. That's a lot. 40 to 50 a day? Wow, those appointments must be in and out. Was it like cough, get out of here? Phrasing. I have run into guys later that I've operated on and it's

never weird, at least not for me. Sometimes I'll joke, I don't remember you. Pull down your pants. Oh that's right. This guy's pretty good. So please tell your listeners it's okay to be friends with doctors. We were people too who would love to have a beer and watch a game just like everyone else. I love how efficient the doctors are. They sent, so many of them sent links to their practice or whatever to just be sure that we knew that they were on it.

There's something that tells us something, right? How thorough their upbringing has been, their education, their profession. They have to be thorough. And they were like, Hey, I'm going to include a link to where I work in my bio. Uh, 40 to 50 a day. It's a lot of that's just, that's just the classic though. Like whenever we're in social settings, right?

You're in like a meeting, zoom meeting or whatever, you think you say something stupid, like you always think that you like, everyone's like, well, what an idiot. That guy like screwed up a word or something and nobody actually thinks about it. This is just that at a massive dude level, it's just like, Hey man, I've seen a lot of dicks. It's fun. Like, you know, we're all good. Yeah, that's a, that's a really good point.

Everybody's going to remember this. Although sometimes I've been in some meetings where like, I'm never going to forget this, I'm never going to forget that that guy said this. I was thinking about the, the 1-800 flowers meetings through to you were there for that one, right? Remind me. Every now and then with a higher end sponsor and the people from there were great and you know, they, they bought a lot of ad time and we were always trying to figure out like new and creative ways of like, how do we get people, how do we get the guys

listening to the show to buy their wives, significant others, family member, um, flowers and around the holidays, you know, they'd still be buying ads and it was, it was kind of tough, right? And then their ad campaign was the just because approach. they still be buying ads and it was, it was kind of tough. Right. And then their ad campaign was the just because approach kind of like, Hey, thinking about you in flower form. Right. So just do it when it's not expected. I mean, the goal is to sell more flowers.

So it's, one bouquet at a time. Yeah, right. Let's convince ESPN radio listeners to just randomly be buying flowers all the time instead of Valentine's mother's day, you know, birthdays, anniversaries. So, yeah, we're sitting there kind of brainstorming and, you know, Scott would talk and I would talk and you always wanted to let the sponsor know, cause you appreciated it, right?

They were buying time on what you were doing. But then there was always like one guy that was like, I am gonna fucking own this meeting at about 10 seconds. And he was like, you know what would be great is if you had an app, something that was plugged in, a calendar where it would remind you, and then maybe it'd be like a link to a pre-order or an existing order and you could customize it

or you could just reorder the same thing. So it really takes the thinking process out. He was just going around the room, like nodding and looking at everybody, being like, aren't I absolutely fucking killing it. And the goal wasn't for him to present a good idea. It was his goal was I'm going to every one of these meetings. I'm going to have a moment where I shine and the CEO of the company is like,

it's a great idea, except that we have the app and we do all of those things. Glad you, glad you really researched this before, before happening today. I remember that. Yeah, that was great. Good times. I love it. going to say that. Yep. That was a good times. I love it. We all know that. Okay. So let's, uh, let's get to a couple of emails here.

We've got a really heavy one here. So we'll start with the non-heavy one first need to break up with my trainer. 26, six, two, one 70 basketball comp, European top five draft pick. Who turns out to be a bust. No real gym stats to talk about it, but a big gym problem on my hands. In September I moved to a new apartment in Big City. I signed up for a gym nearby,

bought five personal training sessions. My plan was to work out with a trainer around once a month or so to develop a training regimen for me. I've only been working out a couple of years, so I appreciate the tips and guidance the trainer had to offer. The plan worked great. I worked out with my trainer,

let's call him Paul, around once a month, and he came up with the workouts for me to do two, three times a week. I'd work out on my own at the end of my fifth session. I agreed to purchase another five sessions. Then Paul ghosted me. You know, the same thing happened to me. I bought a pack of surfing lessons and I paid for it all in advance. And the fucking guy bolted. And this guy's yet to really,

I still have not gotten my first two. Paul ghosted me after a month or so of no answers to my texts, messages, and emails. I asked the gym manager if Paul still worked there. He didn't, as it turns out. The head trainer left and took his new staff to a new gym. Still having five sessions in my account, I scheduled a workout with a new trainer.

My new trainer, let's call him Doug, is a decent trainer, but he has all caps, zero personality. Every time he opens his mouth, it sounds as if he's reading off a script. He tries making conversation, but it's brutal, brutally awkward. Here's an example. So what'd you do since we last met? You mean in the gym or like in general?

No, like in life. I don't know, I worked. I came here. As an aside, no, I didn't want to tell them about the death of my family that I recently suffered nor the birth of a family member celebrated. I just wanted to work out. So all you did was went to work and came to the gym. I hung out with friends too. Doug jumping on an opportunity to pounce asked, so where'd you go with your friends? Frustrated and annoyed, I blurted it out.

I don't know, he just hung out. He didn't get the hint, he persisted with his scripted basic boring questions about my life. I tried flipping the script on him. I asked him what he did for fun, but his answers were just as bland as his questions. He asked if I'm following March Madness. Not really, I responded.

Apparently he didn't hear me so well so he asked me again as if he was confirming something actually important like a credit card number or something. The workouts themselves are pretty good but if I have to make small talk with him again I don't know how I'm gonna do it. I have three sessions left that I already paid for.

Should I A, suck it up, finish my sessions with him? B, ask for a new trainer? While this is the obvious approach, my issue is I have only three sessions left. I'm not sure I wanna buy more. I'm not sure if it's worth starting all over again with a new trainer. While this is the obvious approach, my issue is I have only three sessions left. I'm not sure I wanna buy more. I'm not sure if it's worth starting all over again with a new trainer, risking whatever downsides he might have as well.

C, eat the 300 bucks. D, complain to management, try to get my money back. After all I did buy the sessions from the previous training staff with the previous trainer. I don't know what to do. I don't like D at all. Nope. The personality's not necessarily clicking.

You said you actually do like the workouts. I think you just need to go in there like, hey man, I take my workouts really seriously. No talk. Yeah, no talking, only instruction, guidance. That's what I paid for. Not to chit chat. You're not gonna do that. Nobody would really do that.

But don't complain about him, especially when you have three left and you actually like the training part of it. Not everybody's gonna click on you. You're gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna do this. Nobody would really do that, but don't complain about him, especially when you have three left and you actually like the training part of it. Not everybody's gonna click personality wise. And some trainers, they're really good at the training part and they're not great at the other part. That's not that rare.

So I wouldn't eat the 300. I would keep doing the workouts and just talk as little as possible. But it sounds like, I mean, if you're writing us an email here, I wouldn't eat the 300. I would keep doing the workouts and just talk as little as possible. But it sounds like, I mean, if you're writing us an email here, it must mean that it's that bad of a time.

I felt a little awkward reading it, but I don't know that you need to take this one to management. Even though I do understand your point that you bought the original sessions with somebody different and you're getting pivoted here. So what do you really want out of it? Sounds like you don't even really want the sessions. You just try to get yourself on the right path and you're actually

doing that part of it and it's going to be over pretty quickly. My barber's not like this a hundred percent, but like after like the first 10 minutes, I'm good at not talking, we're getting a haircut, by the way, totally fine with that. Especially if there's like, you know, he uses like the single blade around. Like I'm not really into like responding to you when you're around this area with a blade, but it's so funny. We're actually, we've been friends for a long time.

And, um, when like, I have like 10 minutes into the. Barbering of it all. He'll be like, it always comes, like, this is like clearly his like new client question. He's like, what'd you have for lunch today? Oh shit. I'm like, well, you know, it's, it's 12, so I haven't eaten yet. He's like, oh, all have for lunch today? I'm like, oh shit. I'm like, well, you know, it's 12, so I haven't eaten yet. He's like, oh, all right.

And then it's quiet. And then it's almost like he'll forget and be like, what'd you have for dinner last night? And I'm like, what is this? Who coached you on this question? So I mean, I'm kind of like, that's when I just give a one word answer and I guess he'll get it. But he's not looking at me, so maybe it's a little different. What could be funny is that, have you seen that Instagram, or sometimes on Twitter, I think, I don't know if it's both, but it's like this guy who goes to the bar on every

Friday, he's like an older man and he's got like a rundown that he like sends to his buddies that are like meeting for happy hour. What if you waited? The daughter sends that out. Yeah, you just did a little, you just hand it to him. That'd be funny. You just got bullet points and you're like, and it's just got like eight things,

like here's how we're gonna do this today. Here's what we can talk about, that'd be funny. That's why it's funny, because Uber, I mean I've never done this, but don't they have options for just like, don't talk to me? Well yeah. I wonder if they ever look at that.

Maybe. I don't think they look at that shit. I've never hit, I've never hit I I don't want to talk. I just don't talk. Yeah. But then I don't know. Some of listen, we've all been in an Uber where like the, you know, the guys, especially airport in another city, they're always like, so what are you here for? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't really mind. Like my barber, like we've had the same every time I've been going for probably five, six, seven years, we have the same conversation every single

time we go. I don't mind it. It's fine. It's mindless. He's a nice guy. He likes UFCs. We talk about that a little bit. But we've all had the Uber guy who was like, oh yeah, start telling you about his life and he's doing jokes or something.

You're like, all right, man, we're good. I would never say, hey, pick an option to not do that. But I do wonder, it just got me thinking, Kyle, would it be funny if you pay extra to just have, hey, I don't want to talk to it be funny if, would you pay extra to just have, hey, I don't wanna talk to her in my haircut. Would you throw him five more bucks? Slide him a 50? Yeah, yeah.

Just, we're not gonna talk here. My doctor says I need to keep words short. Vocal cords. Yeah, we have a podcast, guys. Yeah, go in there and be like, listen, I'm losing my voice, so we could just not. I don't know about the trainer thing. It does feel pretty important that you need to like talk to

and connect with a trainer though. Like you want to be motivated by this guy. You want to like follow this guy, right? Like he's supposed to be a leader. And if you're not getting that vibe, then it's obviously not going to work out. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I would still do the three sessions. And I definitely, I'm one of those people though. Like if I got like raw chicken on a plate at a restaurant, I

wouldn't tell like the server. So like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't come raw chicken. Doesn't get you to respond. I hate, dude if I got like raw chicken on a plate at a restaurant, I wouldn't tell like the server. So like I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't complain. Doesn't get you to respond. I hate, dude, I hate it. I will never ever complain about food ever, ever. It makes me so uncomfortable. I hate it. I love my raw chicken. All the time. And it makes me so uncomfortable. I agree with the sentiment, but raw chicken, I think I'm fine. But like, you get the, you get the idea.

Like it's going to take a lot for me to actually say something. I don't think this guy being kind of like a, you know, a zero on the personality chart, we're warrants you talking to a superior. That's insane. I would just do the sessions and then move on. That's not right. Yeah. This is not the raw chicken of human interaction. Ryan gets a chicken thigh.

He's saying something like, Oh no, I get it. It did texture has more flavor. Cool. Well, no, no one is more into their chicken lunch order than we know the rhyme. So I sent a sandwich back to a place I go to all the time. Just left. Like, oh, no, it's just disgusting.

Like so rubbery. I ate the first half of them. I'm out. The girl came over. She's like, what's wrong? I was like, it's terrible today. Just terrible. She was like, oh, my God, I'll get another one. I was like, now I'm sort of out. I was like, but I'll be back. terrible. She was like, oh my God, I'll get another one. I was like, no, I'm sort of out. I was like, but I'll be back. I like this place.

You just missed today, yeah. Yeah, it's a bad day. Bad day. I'm leaving a tip and everything. So don't worry about it. But yeah, I don't, if it's bad chicken, I'm not gonna be silent. No one should be.

But you're right on the Uber thing. I had somebody, my car is in the shop, which has been fucking awesome. I went home for 10 days and was like, you guys will have this car for two weeks, please get it down. And then I came in to pick it up and they're like, we didn't do any of it.

I was like, cool. Thanks guys. And so I had to take a lift to go to the gym this weekend when I was back in LA. And I don't know, I think the guy picked me up and then was like, do you normally just take lifts all the time, like thinking that was my routine? Cause it wasn't to the airport, it wasn't going out

or anything like that. I was like, no, my car's in the shop. Huge DUI guy, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A couple of pending things. So he, it's a good line. He was like, wait, you, it's good line. He, he was like, wait, you took it to the shop and I was like, yeah, I don't know what's going on though. It's not really working out.

And he's just awkward pause. He's like, mechanics are idiots. I was like, what are they really? They're just all idiots. Yeah. Yeah. There's just no one's good at it. You know, he goes, well, goes well because I forgot it's Manhattan Beach You guys are rich enough to be able to take your cars to the shop and I was like super well Yeah, right. I can only imagine like

You know a lower income family walking the strand of Manhattan Beach and the father pulls his son to the side He's like an in this town son the residents pay mechanics to fix their engines. You know, can you imagine? So I was like, what? I was like, so I was like, oh, you must be good with cars. He's like, well, where I'm from, you better learn how to fix. I was like, I think that's great. I think that's a great skill.

I was like, I don't think that it's. I don't think it's like a one percenter thing though. It's like, I don't think. And now I'm now I'm in it. Right. And now I'm in the conversation. So you're right about that. Okay, let's get to the heavy one here. I almost think it's fake, but we're reading it.

Let's see here. All right. I'm facing 20 days in jail. I'm considering going on the run. 27.61, I'll get straight to the point and try to be somewhat vague for obvious reasons. I'm facing 20 days in jail for a truly bullshit charge. I'm not just saying this. I was completely profiled due to a past charge because of who I was and with and am now facing 20 days

in jail due to charges that led from that. Amen, you're caught up in the system. That's what it sounds like. My problem is I'm completely terrified to go to jail. I worry that they're not gonna let me out. I worry that 20 days is going to be a long time that. Hey man, you're caught up in the system. That's what it sounds like. My problem is I'm completely terrified to go to jail. I worry that they're not going to let me out. I worry that 20 days is going to turn into a year. I can't get this out of my head.

I just had a kid and also worry about my daughter's mom's reaction to finding out about me going to jail. I don't know how to tell. I know I should have by now, but I'm just not in the mindset to have that conversation. My one friend that I truly trusted, I'm acting like a coward and maybe I am, but I don't feel like I deserve my sentence. I had to take a plea, plea deal because my lawyer said it was probably the best offer I was going to get. Jail is basically not an option because of my daughter and job situation.

I have two jobs. One is an accountant in a small town. Um, and the other is working for a team. Um, I'm going to leave out. and the other is working for a team. I'm gonna leave out, it's basically not a pro sports team but a different level, let's just say that. Sometimes I get to travel with a team and I'm hoping it can lead to a bigger writing gig one day, probably not after this next paragraph.

I think I should go on the run to avoid this and continue writing remotely for the minor league team to make money and try to attend road games to stay on the go. Also, I have a decent amount of money saved up from gambling on sports. So I could leave the country and survive if I needed to continue to write remotely. That's the line where I was like, I think this might be fake. That's the line where I was like, I think this might be fake. Yeah, I don't know. So the plan would be to go on the lam, but meet up for road games.

Go to the games, get the blogs out, send it, but no one with the team is going to be like, hey, how come you're not at a lot of home games lately? I can't even express how bad jail is. Out of you three, I doubt any of you have been to jail for any extended period of time, maybe a night or two in the drunk take for Kyle. Wow, that's not fair, especially with this pod. But jail is truly the most inhumane thing in the world

that is basically a 0%. What's that? That's prison, jail's fine. It's mostly fine. Yeah, jail's just a fucking police station. I've got several friends who've done jail and a couple less that have done prison What's that? That's prison jails fine. It's mostly Several friends who've done jail and a couple less that have done prison and jail they're always like, oh fucking jail was like easy Nice little detail on holiday. He didn't drink Yeah, I know high school I haven't seen forever

The moment it really hurt my head you because you know everybody in the're in jail and you're waiting to leave, you don't get any of the benefits though. Guys that are in jail, jail have stuff, books and TVs and a change of clothes. You're just stuck there. This is 20 days though. Come on. You can't do what this guy wants to do unless you're never going to that state again, and even then I don't know if they like States share that stuff, depending on what it is, like, unless you're like never going to be in Wyoming ever.

And that's where your thing is. You can't do this. Why'd you pick Wyoming? I'm just thinking of a flyover. Oh Jesus. I didn't even think about that. Yeah. I do think that was innocent.

Yeah. You never know. I don't, I don't even think about that. I do think that was innocent. You never know. I don't care, I deserve it. So anyway, I actually was sticking up for Kyle on that one. He must be a new listener to the pod. So it's the most inhumane thing in the world. Basically 0% success rate of reform.

No, I don't have a better solution. I'm just stating facts on how shitty the entire jail prison system is. Anyway, I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do because if I go to jail for even 20 days, my daughter's mom is likely to use that against me and I'm likely going to get fired from the team because my sentence would be during the season. I'm sure most people would just say suck it up and do the jail time, but if I could actually pull this on the run thing off and eventually create a good life elsewhere that allows my daughter to come into a healthy environment, was it really the wrong choice? I don't want to leave my daughter,

but I feel like taking her would be hard on her and multiply my problems. Wait, taking her? I don't think I do good leaving her considering I struggle with a great deal on mental health issues. So that's where the, uh, other part comes in. Oh man, the skin. All right, look, he likes the pod. Oh, we'll, we'll end there. Um, I don't know that I've read an email that's had more bad ideas in a few paragraphs. It's really simply say what's, what's the end game here? Like you, you, unless you move, as Kyle said, you're moving across the country, you're going to get caught. You're going to get, and then you're going you're moving across the country. You're going to get caught.

You're going to get, then you're going to be in jail for you. You're going to go to real prison. So like you're making things worse for yourself. I know it sucks now. And even if you lose the gig and it screws up sort of the relationship with, you know, your, your, uh, your kid's mom, there's a way worse option. All the things that you said are just way worse options for you long term. And if you don't want people to know,

and once you miss your date for surrendering yourself or whatever, they're gonna go to where they think you're gonna be, which is gonna be your job, which is gonna be your daughter's mother's house. I don't know, is it a baby mama situation? I didn't know if they were together or not, probably not. So they're gonna go to the place where they think you're going to be. And then they're going to be like, yeah, he's supposed to be in jail. And like, you know,

that's people are going to know if this is like a big secret. What if, what if he did this too? I mean, obviously I think the thing with the daughter and the mom, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Suri. It just needs to be set. You need to not do any of these things. No, and I'm not like, we're being serious here. Like if you're actually serious and you're telling us the truth and you're writing in an email to a sports podcast about like the most alarming thing of all the things that you've said is the daughter part of like, you can't do that.

Okay. Your, every single instinct that you have is going to compound this to a level that's like a life of trying to unravel all the things that you will vow to be doing wrong here. So taking your, it goes without saying, that part of it's scary. The way you feel about yourself is kind of scary. Talk to somebody immediately. Okay. Talk to somebody that you trust. Find some help through a community center. Some help, I should say, through a community center. Um, some help I should say through community center, tell them about your anxiety and going this, I can't fathom the

anxiety that you would have to have to go away for 20 days. Um, I don't know what that feels like, but I can understand what it would be like leading up to it being like, Oh, I have to go in here and it's going to be awful, but it's, it's 20 days. What you're doing is you're trading 20 days of, of, of discomfort, of uneasiness, of an awful experience. You're the math is 20 days of that or years of bullshit that you're going to put yourself through that you're going to regret not sucking this up now for a very very long time I know it sucks, but you're gonna have to come to that you're gonna have to accept

What it is what you just rationalize it out. You have to figure out a way to be like, Hey, this is way better than all the other instincts that you have that are all incredibly terrible. And looking on the bright side too, man, like you got, you got a daughter, you've got a job as an accountant. All right. Maybe the writing thing might take a hit, uh, the gambling thing, who knows, but congrats to you. You've got a lot of things going for you.

Like you're just going to screw up all that stuff even more. As you said, Ryan, there's, there's of things going for you. Like you're just going to screw up all that stuff even more. As you said, Ryan, there's, there's, there's, you know, you could take, you're going to take a little hit here and a bunch of different parts of your life, but you know, you still have actually a lot of good things going for you, man. I, if this is actually a thing, I, you can't do any of those stuff. I would reach out to community center. If you do not have the means and find somebody to talk to you, that is an expert on what you're going through.

Cause we are not. Um, but you can't, you can't do any of the things that you just said. Can't do any of them. So I just wanted to make sure I didn't mean to interrupt you, Sury. I just felt like we were, it was going a little too long before we were letting the audience know and understand how serious this was. Because it is. All right. So there's not really much to add to that other than I hope you hear this and I hope you immediately reach out to somebody that you can trust or as a professional

because we are not. All right. Thanks to Mike. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Saruti. It's the Ryan Russo Podcast for your spot. the must be twenty one older president select states and it was offering online sports wagering in kansas under agreement kansas star casino l l c gambling bomb call one hundred gambler visit and all dot com four slash r g in colorado iowa michigan new jersey north carolina ohio pennsylvania illinois kentucky tennessee Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fandual.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800-NEXTSTEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona,

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