The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Jalen Williams’s Game 5 Takeover, Canadian Grand Prix Winner George Russell, and Jon Scheyer on Duke’s NBA Draft Hopefuls

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Russillo starts the pod by breaking down the Thunder’s Game 5 win and Jalen Williams's 40-point performance (1:59). Then, he’s joined by George Russell, fresh off his win at the Canadian Grand Prix, to discuss his communication with his team and what he envisions for his future in the sport (17:23). Next, Jon Scheyer comes on to preview next week’s NBA draft, explain when he first knew how great Cooper Flagg could be, and share stories from his playing days (42:37). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (1:14:40)! Do I need to be interested in my wife’s daily gym report? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: George Russell and Jon Scheyer Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Get anything delivered on Uber Eats. www.ubereats.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ryan Russo podcast where winners meet champions are built here on this pod. Speaking of champs, we have George Russell, F1 driver, champion of the Canadian Grand Prix, his future with Mercedes. We're just going to talk racing, um, get back to the F1 stuff. So I'm excited about that. Normally I wouldn't leave with that over the NBA finals, but we're excited to have Russell in after the win. So the NBA finals, Thunder up three, two in this series. I don't know that there's a ton of surprises left for us anymore in this

finals, but we'll run through it. Jane Williams, 40 points. That won't be a surprise if it ever happens again. He was terrific last night. Turnovers part of the issue with the Pacers, but down 18, cut it to two. Are we doing this again? No, we're not. We'll run through everything,

including the Halliburton injury that limited him in the second half. And we'll stay with the basketball theme, the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils. It's John Shire, who has three potential lottery picks for next week's NBA draft. So we'll talk to him about Cooper. We'll talk to him about Khan. we'll talk to him about Khan,

we're gonna talk about Malawatch, we're gonna talk about his season and his journey to becoming the head coach there and life advice. You're listening to the Ryan Russo podcast presented by Fandual. America's number one sportsbook has made it easier than ever to get in on the action during the NBA finals. And with live betting, the tip off is just the beginning.

Look for the live SGP tab on the FanDuel Sportsbook app and build your bet slip. Then sit back and enjoy the game as you track the outcome of your parlay right in the app. If you don't already have it, download the FanDuel app today to make every moment more. The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit RG-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of this episode

for additional details. Must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 100GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Thunder Take Game Five. They're up three, two in the series. One win away from an NBA championship. Let's get into last night's action.

At this point it does feel like everybody kind of knows what to expect from each other. Not a ton of surprises. I always kind of look at whether or not diagonal wants to stay big. Clearly, you know, he prefers Chad, although I thought Hardenstein had much better moments last night. It was actually interesting to see them kind of run that first like role play for him. It was something we just haven't seen from him in the finals at all.

But if you look at the start of the second half, he's going right back to Caruso with the starting four guys, clearly his preferred lineup. Although I would, I would say that we know Thunder won the game last night. They have stretches where they're just awful at controlling the basketball on the defensive glass. The rebound numbers, they're not egregious. The offensive differential isn't necessarily egregious. I don't know if it's an energy thing. I don't know if it's the perimeter guys not finding a way to get assigned to somebody.

I don't think it's as simple as Chet, who I think overall was really good last night, but he ends up on the ground constantly because you know, with his physical limitations, like he'll have some kind of face off type plays with Miles Turner and you just expect that Chet's going to be on the ground. But this game, despite the big lead early, I'm going to get to all this kind of stuff. There are these moments where it feels like it is so hard for them to try to figure out a way to control the defensive glass. The same thing that we saw in the fourth quarter of game four where they had four fouls called on them, trying to get defensive rebounds the first six minutes.

And then they were in the bonus, the Pacers were in the bonus because of so many of those fouls. Four of them because of defensive rebounding. A fifth one on a knee Smith shot attempt, but in the bonus at 6.09 to go in game four. So this game was about Jalen Williams, right? J-dub. 40 points for him on 14 to 25

shooting and likely putting to bed the question of he could ever be the number two on a title contender, which is totally fine because I think there were games, whether you go back to last year or just even the Denver series where he had two rural games, game four, 10 points, two of 13 shooting, 0 of 5 from 3. Game six, he had six points against Denver, three is 16, 0-4 from three. So, you know, because he's younger, because this still is new and despite their regular season profile, they were still, I think, fair. Like, is he really going to be somebody that you count on the entire time? And then he goes off last night and continues to put up, I think he's like seven points per fourth quarter

here in the playoffs. And now I look back at some of the Dallas stuff where when that series was 2-2 and the game five loss, he averaged 17 in that series. He's averaging 26, six and four in this series. He's also getting to the free throw line nine times a game in the five games against the Pacers. In that Dallas series, he had 12 points in that game in the five games against the Pacers in that Dallas series

He had 12 points in that game five and even though the game log a year later Historically probably doesn't look as bad as it felt at the time I still sometimes defer to how I felt in the moment and it would just didn't really feel like he was a guy that can Be entirely counted on now. He's somebody who can be the number one option on a team That's one game a win from winning one win away from winning a championship here The advanced stuff between this year and last year with Jaylen Williams isn't necessarily that alarming. It's not this massive leap from where he was last season. I think part of that's the three-point shooting because this is what's crazy. Coming off of last year's playoffs, I didn't

know how many times I was going to Jalen Williamson for 40 points. Maybe it's a bit like Jamal Murray early on. I was kinda thinking about Jamal Murray where when he had those Lakers scoring outbursts in that series in 23, I was like, okay, I think we can say that this guy's clearly arrived after missing some playoff runs with injuries. But with Jalen Williams on the advanced stuff,

it probably has as much to do with the three point shooting, which I'm gonna get to those numbers here in a second. He had 16 drives last night. Okay. And this is my favorite part about Jaylen Williams game. If it is not a center meeting him at the rim for any kind of contest, he's winning. He is winning whatever that physical battle is. This guy can finish left, right, the drives left, right, the handle, the

control that he has in the strength. And if you go back to the combine, he measured in without shoes at six, four and a half, so that's six, six NBA height, but his wingspan at six, four and a half, which I think is important to put out here. Measured at that time was seven, two and a quarter, seven, two and a quarter for a guy who without shoes is six, four and a half. 7 2 and 1 quarter for a guy who without shoes is 6 4 1 1. So that was like the 11th best wingspan of 50 60 guys that are measured at an NBA combine and he's doing this again.

This is where the three point shooting comes in. He's not shooting it well from three. The Thunder continue to not shoot it well. They did last night finally, but they were abysmal in game four and they still won that one. You're not really supposed to be able to do this in today's NBA to win these many games in the playoffs and not hit from three. And you're not supposed to be able to drive as Jaylen Williams did last night, 16 times. I think there was a lot of downhill stuff where it felt like the leakiest the Pacers had been defensively over a long stretch of a game of any game. We could talk about the game to blow out. So I think you look at it differently

because the game is not necessarily in question, but a game that's actually still in question because of some of the scoring and the comeback that we have from the Pacers last night, it felt very downhillish. If you're gonna extend that pressure and the Pacers felt like they had some kind of angle and then these guys just start going and going and going.

Jaylen had 16 drives. I think that's like two up on his average throughout the playoffs, so it's not a dramatically different number, but visually last night, something that stood out to me. So okay, see, 44% from three last night, just to run through it again, there's 34% overall in the playoffs, that's terrible. And it doesn't matter, I mean, it doesn't matter.

And like I said, with Williams, he's shooting it better, um, in this series than he did against Denver or Memphis. He was 24% free. It's Denver. He was 29% from three against Memphis. He's 32% in this series. He did shoot it really well from three against Minnesota. And it still doesn't matter.

So it's 56, 38 late in the first half. The turnover situation is another major part of last night's loss for the Pacers on this one. 23 turnovers, 32 points. That makes way more sense than the game one situation where you're like, how did the Thunder end up losing this one? Well, they forced 25 turnovers. The turnover stuff was just like, I think it was kind of a game one finals on the road jitters from the Pacers. Also, we know that every single pass is going to be contested. And if you're not crisp, if you're not holding onto your position as the recipient of the pass, which I saw a lot last night, like you have to figure out

a way to not only be open for the pass, but help out the passer by winning the pass and some guys just get in a position and just sit there and if you're going up against OKC they're going to they're not going to concede the catch to you at any point and the Pacers are still having a hard time with that. So back to the turnovers and turnovers leading to points again game one was 25 turnovers but only 11 points off of it. That's how the Thunder lost I mean we can point to a few different things but that's a headline moment

of how you lose a game like that. Last night, again, the 23 forced turnovers led to 32 points. So they basically tripled the point totals off of the turnovers, yet with two less turnovers. Halliburton last night, tough first half, tough night in general. 0-6, four points, seven boards, six assists. His first scoreless half in a playoff game in his career.

He had left the game, went in the back. Apparently it was discussed at halftime as we saw some of the post game comments of whether or not they would even try to get him back into the basketball game. And some reporters are reporting that he was walking pretty gingerly out of the building as they're headed back to travel for Indiana for game six. I'll be honest, I thought he was moving better than the way he was being

talked about. That may seem unfair, but maybe it's just like, hey, we don't even know if this guy can come back into the game. It's like, well, what's he going to look like? Well, he's actually still kind of moving around a little bit. I think what was hurting him was he didn't feel comfortable clearly. So it wasn't just a limping guy. It's like, how can that guy even be out on the floor? Like he had, maybe I was looking for it. I was expecting something worse.

So that's why I'm saying what I'm saying right now. But it was very clear. And I love that Richard Jefferson had pointed this out that whatever discomfort he had was impacting how aggressive he was going to be with his decision making when he had the ball had was impacting how aggressive he was going to be with his decision-making when he had the ball in his hands, because he had a moment to the right break three-point line where he swung it in the corner to, I think

it was Siakam who already had a defender right in his face. So it's like you passed up an option for a worst option, which is nice that you're moving the ball because it was like a catch and just zips it, which some of our grade school coaches love. But in this case, it was like you actually passed it into a much worse option that's early. It was early defended. Like it wasn't like it was this open three

and they got to contest to it. So we'll see what this means. Him having that kind of game, you're likely not going to win. But having said all those things, this will be forgotten, but it was 56 38 late in the first half. They chip a couple of points off of that at halftime and the Pacers win the third quarter 34-28 with another TJ McConnell moment. I don't think the Thunder know what to do with this guy. Now, it looks like the goal is when McConnell's out there, he's just going. And it still feels like the Thunder aren't necessarily always ready for him to be like,

he is not ever going to stop unless he's taking a three, which is gonna take some time. And they play, it's like five out, but it's TJ McConnell. And then he just gets you right into the restricted area. You never know when he's actually going to take the shot. He has all these up fakes down because he's had to do this his entire life. And it's usually against a smaller defender. So that guy's kind of compromised.

And if it's a switch, as we saw when he kind of came into the lane off a dribble and Hardenstein is just not going to be able to get there in time because TJ already knows that he has to get that shot off, but I'm talking about like. The, the dribble where he doesn't quite know what he's going to do. No one knows what to like, they can't, they're afraid to do anything against him. It's actually kind of fascinating to see him be so incredibly impactful at the size, but they're basically spacing it out for him to attack one guy at the restricted area who then is worried about all the up fakes and the different angles that he can finish from.

So he has 13 points in less than seven minutes. So the Pacers win the quarter by six. It's 87, 79 going into the fourth. By the way, the Pacers scored like 60 plus points in the second half. So it wasn't actually the offense, even though the Halliburton part of it, they were already down, you know, so they're kind of fighting back into this thing.

But as they're up 87, 79, I was like, how was, how did this not end up being a 30 point game? Okay. Seeing game one was up 85 76 going into the fourth quarter and they needed Siakam big time. I thought Siakam was a loose early on with the turnovers. He was still scoring that defensive play that he had where he's backpedaling and then blocks the shot and transition was incredible.

Speaking of transition, not sure. I want Tony Bradley going coast to coast in the future, but he got free throws out of it, I believe. They needed it with Halliburton and him not making any shots from the floor and Siakam delivered 12 points in three and a half minutes. Hits that three. I like a lot of you are probably going, how is this game 95-93? Okay, so you're shooting it. They're getting the turnovers.

They're getting the points off turnovers. Well, from that point on, at 95-93, OKC closes on a 25-16 run. And it's not even the 95-93 stretch. It's Jalen Williams, it's Chet switching into guys defensively where you can see the Pacers when they think they have the advantage against him. They do not.

He might get you once, like he grabbed Halliburton's Jersey. People were freaking out about that being a foul. It was definitely a foul. I didn't really think the officiating was, was a big part of this. I would say in his official side, this is an aside of the entire thing. At 92, 84, where the ball's out of bounds and it wasn't off chat. They called it off a chat and then see Ockham went to grab the ball from Goble, the official and global looks at him as like, don't do that.

And then they challenge it. They overturn it. They get the call, right? Yokech fans hated that play because it proved the entire argument that it doesn't mean just because you're out there after a whistle that you're just in charge of the fucking game. A ref can actually be like, hold on. And in that moment, it was the right thing to hold on

because they ended up getting the call right and turning it over. So even though it was 95-93, I think the most important part of this game was very clear. It's 105-80, excuse me, it's 105-97. There's 633 left. I can't, and in like this is a game

They're getting this huge. Jalen Williams thing I've already mentioned three-point shooting the defensive action leading all these turnovers see I can put together this great scoring stretch Knee Smith's always good for his late three. We're like, how did he hit that one? You know Turner's fighting his ass off this entire series Even if he's not necessarily shooting it well and doesn't look like he's in a huge hurry to take some three pointers that might be better looks than the next thing. But they scored a lot of points in the second half, but at 105.97, as I said, six and a half left, the Pacers commit four straight turnovers.

Turnover, turnover, turnover, turnover. And I thought they were all bad passes. Just can't. This team that has just answered every toughness question has shown as much as the Thunder have throughout this. And we can point to the game for collapse, but I don't know that you leave this series thinking the Pacers just aren't up to it.

Nobody's gonna say, hey, they're too young, which is what we were hearing with the Thunder when they were down two, one the whole time, but those four possessions are when they lost this game. And Rick Harlel was sitting there at the podium last night. I watched it and they kept asking him questions and he just finally was like, Hey, we turn it over 23 times. It's like, that's the game. And within those 23 turnovers,

four in a row during that stretch where you've come all the way back from down 18 to get it to two points. You just did it in game one. You know the blueprint, you're scoring points and you just hand the ball over to them, which again is a credit to the Thunder's defense. So one game to go before Presti is officially great.

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region. See after details. From F1, and now the winner of the Canadian Grand Prix, it is driver George Russell. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. So I don't ever want to say something's easy because I know racing is not easy, but just a great qualifying and then really, you know, you just kind of, I knew you had the safety card there at the end, you had to worry about it maybe a little bit, but what's it like, I imagine winning is the best feeling, but to be in control of the race for a Sunday afternoon, what's that like? It was great to be honest. It's never easy, of course, but being out front, if you could choose, is probably the easiest part because you're the one who can manage the pace a little bit.

And if you've got a bit of a buffer to those guys behind you feel like in, in the zone and it's the race is the most challenging when things aren't going your way and you don't know why they're not going your way and how are you going to sort of overcome that deficit? So, you know, it was good, good race. I was glad to get the win on, on the board for the first time this year. I can't imagine that you would know all this is happening because you're in the car. So I'm at home watching it and there was just so much chatter on the radio.

Like all of these drivers so upset, you know, and I imagine, you know, you're sitting there, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. There was one team yelling Plan B. The driver yells Plan C. Albon had a tough day. Um, you know, there was just, it was just a lot. It seemed to be a little bit more intense on the radio and it's one of our favorite things, you know, the access to that while watching a race when that's happening. Is that just the disconnect?

As you said, it, it's always part of it, but do you have to remind yourself that they have the long view and they can see the entire track despite what you're feeling in the car? You do. There's things they see that we don't, but there's things we feel that they don't know either. So this is where you need the good relationship with your team. So this is where you need the good relationship with your team. And it goes back to those days when things aren't going right. Plan B, Plan C, throw everything at it. And they're like, it's not going to work.

And that's when it's a tough day. But ultimately, yeah, if you're not on Plan A most of the time, things aren't going your way. I guess there's another way to ask this. How often do you feel like after the race, you were right or the team was right? Yeah. But it depends how it goes to be honest. I mean, if you're, if you're saying you want one thing, but they're insistent,

they want the opposite, nine times out of 10, it's for good reason. I don't think, at least for me at Mercedes, I don't recall ever having a disconnect there. Or if they've told me one thing, I do trust in them. And if it doesn't go right, then there's a reason for it and you learn from it. You never really say like, I was in the right and you were in the wrong. I think you're on a bit of a downward spiral

when you start finger pointing. How often are you communicating, especially considering your pace yesterday, but communicating with your team about where the McLarens are, where Max is, so that you have an idea of like, towards the end it looked like Max was gaining a bit and then you pulled away.

How much has that factored into the kind of decisions you're making on the track? A lot of it is, I mean, we're talking a couple of times a lap, but even it's not just about the guys we're racing. For example, at the beginning of the race around lap 12, my engineer told me I was 16 seconds ahead of Hulkenberg. And that was important because I knew a pit stop time was 18 seconds. And therefore, Max would probably be pitting soon because he'd come out in front of Hulkenberg. So in simple terms, it was like, put know, put the hammer down now, because you need

to pull the gap because the pit stops will be happening soon. So you're not only looking at the people you're racing, you're looking at the midfield cars because a guy at the front would never pit behind the midfield driver. So they're always looking for that pit window. And that was sort of crucial info for me at that time. How important is it not just understanding your car and your strategy and multiple strategies you would have but the individual scattering reports you have on other drivers where it's like okay if this is who I'm battling today I may have to think about it differently?

You always I always ask for like a race picture you know I know the car directly behind me or the car in front of me. Fortunately, yesterday there was no one in front, so that was sort of one less thing to worry about. But when drivers are on offset strategies, as I said, you might need to be worrying about ... Lando was in P5 and he was coming quick at one point. I don't think he ever would have caught me up and obviously overtaking was difficult. There are circumstances where it's like, right, your race is with this guy. He's three positions behind, he's 10 seconds behind, but we predict he's going to be in our window, in our fight in a couple of laps from the end of the race. That information is good,

but most of the time it So that information is good, but most of the time it doesn't change how I drive because I'm driving as fast as possible and I'm never leaving anything on the table. If he catches me, he catches me, and if he doesn't, he doesn't. But I'm driving to the best of my ability and it doesn't change knowing that fact or not.

How different is it for you now, and I know you've been in Mercedes multiple years, but I think that first year at Williams was when a lot of F1 fans are like, okay, what George is doing with this car is remarkable. And yet it can feel like during a race that some of the drivers that don't have a chance to podium are kind of filler. And yet you're still a race car driver. And it's like, I'm supposed to get out of this guy's way, but you know, I don't want to just like give up here. But now that you're on the Mercedes,

has it completely shifted? You're like, get out of my way. You have no chance. No, it hasn't shifted because you know, we're not achieving the results still that we are aiming for. Of course, yesterday was a great result, but we want to be fighting for a world championship. And results like yesterday haven't come often for us over the last couple of years.

That's the nature of Formula One. You rarely see numerous teams fighting for a world championship. There are so many great drivers who, you know, Hugenberg, you know, he's a mega driver and he's never still on the podium. There's some of the drivers who have never won a race, who maybe deserve to, and other ones who haven't even fought for a championship, but that's just how the sport works.

Now I haven't fought for a championship yet, but I feel capable for it. I feel ready for it. I feel I'm driving as good as anybody right now. And I know my time will come and that's when you just have to keep motivated, keep the morale high and just say like, it may not be this year, it may not be next year,

but I will be ready for when it does happen. Do the cars feel more leveled year than, say, the prior years when Max was just running away with it every weekend? I would say slightly more level. Obviously, if you put Max in the best car, he's going to dominate. So that's just the fact of it. But the McLaren is quick this year. I don't know how Max and I are so close to those guys

in the championship, because they've had the fastest car eight out of the 10 races so far this year. And yet, they haven't won all of those races. So we've sort of been there to capitalize when they have been slipping up, but they are two great drivers. But without a doubt, that McLaren is a bit of a beast right now. You're 27.

I know you're aware of that, but just sharing that with the audience. Why is youth- I do forget sometimes. Well, with your teammate, which I want to get to here in a second. Why is youth such a massive advantage? It seems like historically in the sport. Thinking in all sports, really you get to a point where you reach your peak and then you go over your peak.

You don't see athletes competing into their fifties. And that's for a reason. So, you know, what is the prime age? What is your peak? I don't feel that I'm close to my peak yet because I still feel that I'm getting stronger every single race. I haven't seen a plateau yet in my performance. I still feel I'm getting stronger as an all-round driver. And it's not just solely about raw speed or race pace, but it's about race craft. It's about how good your overtakes are. You're defending how many mistakes you make.

Are you crashing? Are you keeping the car out of the wall? Are your race starts good, are your reaction times good. It's all of these factors that contribute towards winning those races. And for us yesterday, turn one was obviously a big talking point, Max and I on the front row. And probably whoever got to turn one first would have won that race. So it's on me to make sure I'm the one who gets there in first place. How great did that feel just beating him off the start?

I've got to be honest, I didn't really think twice about it. I just did my thing and focused on myself because, you know, I believed in myself a lot yesterday because I knew I had the car beneath me. And I know when I have the car beneath me, I can win the race. So I wasn't there to try and prove a point to anyone. I wasn't there to sort of show Max who the boss is

or anything like this. It's literally like I'm in a race with myself here. I'm just gonna drive through the best of my ability, get off the line well. And if I do that, I know I can win this race. You were talking, you said racecraft and I am not even close to somebody that truly understands this other than I just enjoy the sport. Right.

So, you know, the sports that I've grown up playing and watching, you know, all the team sports, the American sports that you can see you're like, oh, he plays like this basketball player or this quarterback reminds me of this guy. When I was reading about you, it was like, at a very young age, he was so smooth. And I mean, there were these names of these legendary drivers that be new to me. Is that style something that you just instinctively have?

Is it coaching? Is it a preference? What was it about your style that kind of puts you on the map in this world? Well, I think what puts you on the map is your speed. It's not your style. It's your speed because ultimately that is what matters. And then people start to dissect your style and your approach. But I've always, I've always felt like a race car, sometimes you've got to massage it. You can't just throw it into a corner and expect the car to stick every

single occasion. But if you're a bit calmer with your steering movements, everything gets loaded up a little bit calmer and over time you then have more and more confidence in the car and you can start carrying more speed because I think if you were just to slam on the brakes or just whack a curb, it puts the car under stress and the car doesn't like it and sometimes it may work, sometimes it may not. And at the end of the day, everyone has different styles and I always like to use the analogy of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal. I did a podcast when they all had 20 grand slams each. And I'm like, you know, these three guys, they're equal goats of tennis, but they play totally differently

to one another. So if you're a young kid, if there was only Federer and there was no Nadal or Djokovic, people would say you have to play like Federer. And same if there was no Federer, Djokovic people, you'd have to play like Nadal. But that was sort of living proof that you need to do what is right for you. How are you going to fulfill your potential? And for sure, if Nadal tried to play like Federer, he wouldn't have won 20 grand slams and vice versa.

So you have to find your own way in life and sort of maximize your own abilities. Looking at this from the outside, I, you know, you carry yourself a certain way. There's a maturity that was evident very early on. And then I think of like, well, what would it be like if George Rush will were on Manchester United at like 22 years old and you're part of a team? You can be a guy who's the celebrity. Is there a different responsibility as an F1 driver? Because sure, you're with a team right now in Mercedes, but you kind of are your own person more so than maybe some of the other team sport athletes? F1 is unique because it is a team sport and we're 2,000 people, but rightly or wrongly, there's only two guys who really get the limelight.

And we carry that success when things go well, but also we carry everything when it goes against you. If the car isn't performing, ultimately you're the driver and the seat that is contributing to that. So it is challenging, it is difficult and you often can't lean on your teammates in the same way as you would do in football or in a team sport. But that is, you know, many sports like that, you have the same in tennis. You know, you're out there at one with yourself. But of course, you know, the tennis racket is different to a race car. And you know, we areiant on so many more people. But yeah, it's not, it's not straightforward.

When's the last time you were pulled over? I was pulled over. Not that long ago, in in Austria, and also, we get stopped by the police, like quite often going to the racetrack because there's often a lot of traffic and then fans recognize you and they run over to the car and they want selfies and that's all cool. At one point it's causing so much chaos. You're like, all right, I'm at a red light here. I probably need to drink this to the full safety of the people. You've got these kids running onto the track. So you're sort of a law breaker to protect the local, the locals. Um, and then the police said, what are you doing?

What are you doing? Oh, you're an F1 driver. Okay, that's fine. Let's go. And, and whatever. So, um, but yeah, a couple of years ago, I think it stopped, stopped speeding. Did they know who you were? Yeah.

They didn't care. You still got a ticket? Yeah. They didn't care. You still got a ticket. Yeah, I got a ticket. It was like 30 euros or something. I was quite surprised. It was like, I think I was over by 30 and they gave me 30 euros. And I thought it doesn't quite add up those numbers, but that's worth it. Really? It was worth it. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Speaking of youth, the Kim Antonelli, podiums yesterday, third youngest ever. He was terrific yesterday. And like we were joking around, it's gotta be kind of weird for you

to feel like this young guy coming into Mercedes and you had, you know, it wasn't the same thing as you coming in with Louis, but what is that like for you? What is expected of you and how is that relationship between somebody so young and so gifted? Yeah, our relationship is great to be honest. Kimmy's got so much talent and for sure he's going to be a fantastic driver. He already is a fantastic driver and things aren't easy coming into Formula One as a rookie these days, let alone

when you're joining a team like Mercedes. So to see him get his first podium yesterday and a really solid performance this whole weekend was great. But in terms of expectations upon me, I think the least that is expected, a lot of teammates, there's a lot of gamesmanship going on between their teammates because they see their teammate as their number one competitor.

Because I know racing against Kimi, he's in the same car as me, so we have equal opportunity. Whereas when I go up against Max or Lando, one week their car's quicker, last week our car was quicker. So there's never really that direct comparison. But I think the least that is expected is to be there to give a bit of advice, be open during the meetings, but he's a great driver. He doesn't need doesn't need much advice. Okay, so I do want to go back to this and, and just let me know

if I'm wrong about this, because I'm just a guy consuming it from the TV show. I've been watching the sport now for a bunch of years. The TV show got a lot of us in America into it. But when Lewis and Valtteri were from Mercedes, and you were figuring out as an American, you're like, so this guy is his teammate of this legendary driver, and he's got a great car, but he's miserable because it seems like he's solely there for support. You come in and it just, again, tell me if I'm reading it totally wrong,

but it felt a bit like there were some earlier moments where Lewis is like, well, George is just like, thanks for being my teammate, but I'm here trying to get a championship. And it felt like there was a bit of a shift where it was like, well, if George is faster today, then that's the way we're gonna plan this thing out. I don't know if that's us from the outside

seeing that be as like some resistance from Lewis in the beginning, but was that dynamic at all challenging when you first came over to Mercedes? For me, it wasn't challenging. I don't think Lewis expected me to challenge him in the way I did, at least not from the very beginning because he came off the back of so many championships.

He was always outperforming Valtteri and he was going for the title. So Valtteri was, he was never, he wasn't there solely to support Lewis, but that's just how things panned out because teams always get behind their fastest driver. You know, you've got to put your eggs in the basket, that's going to give you the win. And for Mercedes, that was always Lewis. And then, you know, when I joined in 22, we were level on performance throughout that whole year and I ended up finishing it just ahead of him in the championship. Lewis was maybe slightly quicker than me that season, but I got slightly

better results. And then year on year, I sort of, I grew into a team more and felt more comfortable and confident and sort of went from strength to strength. So yeah, there is, there is truth behind sort of like this number one, number two driver, whether it's subconscious or not. But as you say, teams want to win and you've got to back. Your fastest driver is as simple as that really. Can you be a good teammate and be a great driver? Well, they're all everyone on the grid is great drivers, but you got great drivers and superstar drivers.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Right. That's that's the difference. You know, a superstar driver is never gonna be the number two driver in a team. It's as simple as that. I just remember Horner once saying, and it helped us understand the sport better.

It's like, if you're gonna be one of the great ones, you have to be a bastard. Yeah. But it makes sense. Like even McLaren yesterday, I mean, that's a, that's an awful scenario, but that was simply two guys fighting and not wanting to give up and not thinking of outstandings. So you see that happen and you can say, what a disaster for the team. But it, to me, it makes a lot of sense.

I mean, you wouldn't ever be out there in the first place. If you weren't thinking like, I'm not just going to let this guy pass me because he's my teammate. Yeah, for sure. Things are different when you're going for a championship. If you fight for a championship against your teammate, the dynamic changes naturally. When I was teammates with Lewis, of course, I wanted to beat him every single week. But if I beat Lewis and I finished him fourth, I wasn't cracking open my champagne when I got home, you know?

And if he beat me and he was P4, okay, wasn't a great weekend, but I wasn't talking about it. But when it comes to a championship fight, suddenly that every single position you're ahead or behind your teammate is such a momentum swing in the race. So then I wouldn't say the gloves are off a little bit but the dynamic changes a little bit and I've been intrigued to see how the dynamic of McLaren changes. If it changes at all, if it doesn't change, that would be quite interesting in itself. If you know what I mean.

And it doesn't really seem to be changing right now. I know there's so much speculation about where you could be. How much would the car's performance influence what's next for you? Well, for me, it's clear I want to be a world champion and it's simple as that. And I want to be a world champion with Mercedes. Next year is a roll of a dice, flip of a coin for every single team. We don't know. There's talks about Mercedes going to be strong.

They're going to have the best engine. That may well be true, but McLaren have a Mercedes engine. So we've got to make sure we have built a fast car. We don't know what Ferrari are going to do. You've got new teams coming in and there's just no guarantees. There could be surprises. So, you know, I'm not gonna be content spending my whole career fighting for podiums and the odd race win.

You know, my time doesn't go on forever, but I'm still 27 and I still feel my best years are ahead of me. And when I see the likes of, you know, Alonso still going strong, well into his 40s, or when you look at, you know, Djokovic in tennis, such a like brutal sport on the body, yet he's still performing, you know, late into his 30s.

And that's far more brutal on the body than what we go through on a, on a weekly basis. Of course, the risk could probably higher for us when it, when it goes really wrong, but for an average competition, you know, it's more brutal for them, I think, than it is for us. So seeing him still going strong or, you know, Brady still performing into his 40s why can't I do that? How excited are you for the premiere of the movie tonight in New York? Perfect timing for you. I mean you're just gonna be everybody's favorite now. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. I mean I've actually seen the movie already.

So I was impressed. I was impressed. I wasn't sure what to expect. But because, I don't think it's a secret I'm saying this, but when we were seeing ourselves in the movie, it was quite funny, like to see us there. And I think your diehards are also going to feel that way. And then as for the movie, it's kind of like a Top Gun style thriller. So if you're not that much into F1, but you just want to see an awesome movie, that's what it is as well.

We'll enjoy it. And like you said, perfect timing. I've been trying to do this with you for a while. So thanks again and congrats on the win yesterday. Thank you so much. It's going to be a big week for Duke basketball next week with so many players potentially going in the lottery and multiple draft picks and their head coach, John Shire us on the pod. What's up man? It's good to see you. Man, it's an honor. Thanks for having me, Ryan. Okay, so I want to go through the guys. We know it could be six guys getting drafted here. It could

be three in the lottery here and let's start with the headliner, Cooper, who's going to go number one. Tell me about the first time you saw Cooper play basketball. I remember seeing Cooper play in person at the Peace Jam, which is, you know, as big as any high school tournament that there is a you. And he was in the back gym court to his 15 you main United. And you walk in and you see this kid, he had a triple double in points, rebounds and blocks. He's just flying all over the court. Took me about two minutes to realize.

I think the, I remember the first segment, the first minute of the game, he had blocked, just pinned it off the backboard, and then came down and buried a transition three. And I'd say, all right, I don't know many 15 year olds doing that. And he just, it was different. I don't know how to explain it

other than it was different, his impact on winning, right? And that was the first time. When I watched him this year, like the first thing I could think of was that his parents must have just take to the rim, kind of like they must to put him through everything. Because of the way he played, you know, it's interesting, like you can kind of tell how guys grew up as basketball players. And I'm like the number of winners probably in the driveway

where he was just trying to figure out a way to score against both of his parents. Like there's just there's something and I had heard stories too that, you know, when you're as high profile as Cooper, like what kind of person are we getting here? And it seems like the parents were very involved in him still being somebody that's coachable and not getting too caught up in his own hype, which I can understand any teenager being like,

if I'm going to cover a magazines and people already want to give me NIM money and all this kind of stuff, like I'm going to get really carried away and it just seems like his demeanourous approach to the game and how willing he is as a teammate that it was just baked into the kind of guy where you're like, okay, we don't have to worry about all of this. Like some of the concerns you have before a draft, it's like, I know how talented the player is, but what about the rest of the stuff with him?

It seems like he checks the basketball boxes and the non basketball boxes. You know, I'm glad you brought that up because I've spent this off season really trying to rethink and identify what makes a player successful. But obviously, at Duke, I think it's a special kind of guy that's successful here. The best players I've ever coached, the parents have given them the most independence, if that makes sense. You know, like you can't control the outcome for your kid once they get to college and obviously professional.

And so for Kelly and Ralph, his mom and dad, they've, they're old school, you know, so their approach and the things they value, they never talked to him about scoring. Their thing is always about being aggressive, defending, rebounding, like all the areas that impact winning. And then obviously they've allowed him to go through adversity. You know, Cooper had as good of a season, a special of a season that I've ever been a part of with any player. But he had moments where, you know, didn't go his way into the game.

We lost, we had heartbreak and wasn't excuses at that time. It wasn't point the finger. It was what Cooper has to do better. So that's pretty old school. It's pretty special. I think it's the reason why he's going to be the number one pick and he's going to be a great player for a long time is because of that independence.

This is a kid that went to Mount Verde for two years in high school. So two years in Mount Verde, a year at Duke, without holding his hand or trying to control everything. I think that says a lot about them. And it's translated to where Cooper is, tough. And like you said, he's a great teammate too. Yeah, the teammate stuff is really important to me because I don't care who you are,

what profile you have as a rookie, even as the number one pick, you're likely gonna have to get out of somebody else's way and then with Dallas ending up with a pick with established stars on the team, you're like, okay, well, maybe he's not the number one scoring option, but can you find a way to be impactful in these other ways?

And I have the least amount of concern. I guess I would ask, because when you are the number one pick and it's like, you're supposed to down the road, be the face of this franchise, how do you project his NBA scoring when he's the number one option? Do you, do you see, look, I don't think you're going to come on the pod and say, yeah, I'm actually a little worried about that, but do you, do you see a path for him to have enough offensively where it's like you're carrying huge possessions

at the close of a playoff game? I'll be honest with you. His offensive skillset, and I got to see it every day in practice, was more advanced than I expected it to be. But also I thought it grew tremendously throughout the course of the season. When you look at his numbers, I think they can still wow you with what he did this past

year. Keep in mind, we had over 20 games. We won by 20 plus points. He didn't play the last five, six minutes of a game a lot. And even in the games, we would get a lead and Cooper's passing it and doing all this. So he's so unselfish, that's his nature. He could have averaged 20 plus points this year. Going forward, I think he's going to be just fine because he has the ability to get to

spots and raise over you, which he needed to do in different moments of fourth quarters and playoffs and all that. He's has enough. He's a shiftier than you realize, Ryan, you know, to his ability to beat you off the bounce. And obviously as an athlete to go up and finish above the rim. And then the fact that you have to respect his shooting. I mean, he shot 45 from three as a 17 year old, 18 year old at that point, freshman. So really to score from three at the rim and then the ability to create his own shot

with his shifteness handle and just natural instincts, I think he's gonna be one of the best scorers in the NBA in time. Okay, let's talk about the next guy, Konkan Hipple, because it would be easy for him to be frustrated. I mean, you had just a loaded class as we all know. And then you're like, okay, you're going to have to figure out a way to fit in around, you know, established guards, Cooper getting touches, Malawatch's dominance at the rim. How much did he have to adjust to find a way to still be

How much did he have to adjust to find a way to still be somebody who like, okay, I know I'm going to get mine at times, but like I'm not going to be the number one option all the time. How did he handle that? You know, I think it's the perfect balance of confidence with humility, you know, and I remember I'm actually I'm in my office right now. I remember sitting in here with Con on his visit, and I remember putting up on the board who we're recruiting, who could potentially be coming back.

And there's some pretty good names I put up on the board. There's Cooper Flag, there's Tyrese Proctor, there's Caleb Foster. We're at a time where we're recruiting Dylan Harper, you know, and I mean, big time players. And Con is just sitting back and saying, At the time we were recruiting Dylan Harper, you know, and I mean, big time players. And, and Con is just sitting back and saying, okay, I want to play with great players. I've confidence in myself.

And sure enough, he came to campus and it wasn't about fitting in Ryan or it wasn't about taking a back seat. It was figuring out just how Con made it perfectly clear you weren't going to keep him out of the lineup. He just right away established he was one of the best players. Many days he was arguably the best player on the floor. Cooper obviously has a unique talent that Khan would say, yeah, he's the best player, but I'm right there.

And his ability to impact winning a little bit differently than Cooper, but also in the same similarity where same similarities with any loose ball he's getting. Key baskets, he's so crafty in the pain with his footwork and finishing. A really good athlete where he'll go up and finish above the rim and go dunk on you. And then he's just pure of a shooter that I've coached my time here. Who taught him all of this off ball cutting and setting up cuts? Like, where did he learn this stuff?

So have you heard of the flying canipples? I guess not. Yeah, you gotta do some research on the flying canipples. So his dad is, so both mom and dad played, but his dad is like, with his brothers, they were the three on three champs. Those are the flying canipples and they would be going back door, setting screens, slipping, like all the things you would think of, you know, the reason you're

there, what you're asking, it's, it's the flying canipples. And his dad throughout, I actually asked him this after the season, I said, just where do you think Khan gets some of this from? And he'd always be playing, playing with the sons and going back door. And the value of the game, I talked about the flags with a con senior. This is dad con senior. He talked about taking charges, rebounding and getting a loose ball. That's it. Come on, man.

That doesn't happen. So obviously con again, his shooting is pure, his skill set is unique. But for me as a coach, I know the value when there's a scrum having a guy that's going to do whatever to put his body on the floor, to come up with the ball, to rebound, to value the quote unquote little things, even though, you know, there's no such thing as little things.

He's incredible with that. My favorite thing once I finally got through the work on him was like, I can't imagine him not finding a way to help whoever the other four are. If they're like, you could put them, Hey, it's this group of four guys and they're really on ball dominant guys that he's not going to get a ton of touches. He's not going to get the dribble more than a couple of times. And then he'd be like, okay, fine. Like I'll figure it out.

And it's like, okay, now you're in with this group and like, you're going to be the second option. They're like, okay, fine. I'll figure it out. And it's like, okay, now you're in with this group and you're going to be the second option. You're like, great, I'm going to run around screens, I'm going to set you up with something, I'm going to re-screen. I don't want to get too carried away in the Clay Thompson, Golden State stuff, but there's just certain things with young players where it's like the fact that he already understands that he can screen after someone screened for him. I know that stuff that you're installing and it's just his understanding of it and the instincts on some of these cuts.

I have just the off the ball stuff with him blew me away. All right, speaking of being impressed, Malawatch as he developed, as it went through the tournament, seeing teams that maybe didn't have the full scattering report on you being like, hey, let's just switch it into the center. It's like, okay, good's just switch it into the center. It's like, okay.

That's right. Good luck. This is a different level. And what you hope to have as an NBA team is like, if we have a five, we need a five that can survive out there and switches. And I know some of the agility stuff didn't test necessarily off the charts from the combine,

but watching the tape of it is like, yeah, but he's so big and his instincts are so good. And another thing that I really liked with him is as the season progressed, you could see him like kind of pointing out to teammates, different things. He was getting excited about understanding like where the help was supposed to be. He just seemed to be somebody who completely embraced a limited role as far as the offense, and it never really took, you know, took down his effort on the rebounding defensive part of it.

You know, it's. He's a special guy, man. took down his effort on the rebounding defensive part of it. He's a special guy, man. His story. Interviews, people love him, by the way. All the charts. Right, he and Vijay, I think, have been two of the favorite interviews I've heard the most from on teams. I mean, you're just gonna want him in the building

because he picks up everybody around you. You know, it just, he's that he's got that contagious of a personality. And you know, it was a big deal to get on, you know, just from South Sudan and his background. And so he has an amazing understanding for the game, despite only playing for five years. So his like, you talked about his talking and pointing and all that. He always knows where to be. I think the speed of the game, he's catching up where there's going to be an adjustment

period of understanding reaction time and things like that. But as far as ability to be 7-2 and a switch on some of the best guards in the country this past year, we're playing Alabama and they had a pick-and-pop five. We ended up switching everything and he sent down and garned Marcus Sears. He did that multiple times throughout this season in addition to being able to play in a drop and protect the rim. His shot blocking numbers may not blow you away, but just his presence altered so much. The difference, the difference of when he was on the floor versus off, you know, the percentage of the rim was different for our team.

And that's going to be something going forward. And then another thing is his skill set. If you saw him in a workout, I think you'd be amazed with his skill set. There's just going to be a process in terms of how to translate that on the floor and real time reads, real time defense. But he has an amazing skillset and that's growing and he's going to be a guy that can space and shoot threes. He's obviously a lob threat. Him and con had a great, you know, two man game with that. Uh, he's, it's a luxury as a college coach to have a seven, two guy that can do the things

that he does. It's a, it's a big time thing. It's funny. One of the only things I didn't like about Kniepel's tape was he was so excited to throw it to Malawatch on that lob is that the only times it felt like Malawatch didn't finish is when Kniepel was just like, well, he catches everything. So I'll throw it even though there's three guys on him. And those would be the ones who didn't work. But I totally understood why he did it because I love that play. You know, you get them side by side

and Malawa just trailing it and it was like, it works every time I throw it up, I might as well just try it this time. You know what I had regrets as a coach two years prior, it took us about 25 games to realize how to throw Derek Lively lobs. And I'm like, all right, we're not waiting 25 games. Like we got to do this earlier in the season.

So I was always okay if they're trying to make that pass and I'll live with the results of that. I don't know if it's challenging for the other guys, you know, Proctor, James, you know, I don't know if it's tougher because it's like these younger dudes come in and they're kind of getting all the draft headlines. But for you, who probably thought on draft night, going back to your playing career, like is there a chance? And depending on what you believe, the day of all the draft rumors and all that kind of stuff,

how do you handle just guiding, now not just their head coach, but trying to guide some of the guys that have been around a little bit longer about like, hey, you're gonna have to be patient and hopefully it goes your way next week. Well, I think in Tyrese's case That what he's done should be talked about a lot because you have a guy Who hasn't listened to the noise necessarily there's been a lot of hype and all this stuff with Tyrese and he just kept his head down

Gone better each season what he did from a shooting perspective and a defensive perspective this year was legit. I think it's translatable. He's going to be in a great spot. And I think I'm really proud of just his mentality, the resiliency that he's had through three seasons is going to prepare him well. And then as Sion's case, Sion, you know, we got him, he had such an amazing value for our team this year. I think he was a perfect example of playing to his strengths

and playing a role that directly translates what he's going to do in the NBA. He has a connector, defender, he's switching one through five, high energy teammate Shot almost 40 from three this past season. So I think the ability alongside Cooper And some of the guys we've talked about to be able to play that role at a high level It's gonna set him up for success right away in the NBA Tyrese and see on I've no doubt our NBA players And they're gonna be that at a high level with size defense shooting. Uh, so I'm excited to see where they go. Do the guys know that you were called white Mike in high school? Now they do. I made sure I sent the, I sent the, uh,

the path that have clip to everybody. So I sent that out. So now they do. None of them call me white Mike though. Do you remember your, well, I'm sure you remember it, but Do you remember your, well, I'm sure you remember it, but we always ask guys that played like, what's your favorite recruiting story? But I want to keep this into the interview because like it kind of translates into what recruiting is now for you. But I imagine as a five star kid at Illinois, like you want to do more than anything else. So it wasn't, was it that hard for you? I think you're, uh, I had a unique situation. My high school coach was brothers with the

head coach at Illinois. So, uh, Bruce Weber, Dave Weber is my coach. So there was a family tie to Illinois. Illinois was coming to that was a year where, you know, uh, D Brown, uh, Darren Williams, uh, uh, Luther had Roger Paul, that whole team that they went undefeated for the majority of the year. So it was an exciting time. And end of the day, it just, I remember Coach K telling me you gotta feel it, like when you come to Duke.

It just feels different, man. It just feels different. And I came here and back when I knew in my heart what I wanted to do. So what is it like now? You know, I know there's a million different reasons why it's different, but you've been there three years, granted you were with the program prior to that,

but now as the head coach, how different is it really in trying to get guys in? It's a lot different. You're just dealing with. When I was recruited, right, it was about the process, it was about, you know, four years. Did you have a chance to play right away? Of course you did.

But, you know, it really the one and done thing started more after my time. Now it's about immediate impact and opportunity. And that's really more a one year timeline. And that's in some cases, maybe a two year timeline, but really it's not about a three or four year deal. There's a business perspective to it. There's a business side of it, right? Just the world that we're in with rev share now.

And this will be the first year that schools are actually paying student athletes to share that rev share. And we've had collectives and it's been this, it's been like this last couple of years. This year will be the most advanced it's been so far. So as a coach now, you have to think like a general manager. You're not just offering scholarships. You're getting to the point where now we're offering money.

And I think as we go on, there'll be more advanced contracts and multi-year deals. And so the roster construction piece to this is huge. And then the retention and player development part of it is huge because I think our landscape is changing. You know, the transfer portal has not been something we've done a lot of. Other people have, you know, I think last year in the Final Four, we played five freshmen in the Final Four game and the other three schools played one total. I'm pretty sure. That's, I'm almost positive that's the case. So I love the fact we're doing differently. I think we're knocking on the door. But you have to be able to keep key guys. Tyrese Proctor is an example.

We have five guys returning this year. Isaiah Evans, Caleb Foster, Darren Harris, Malik Brown, Pat Gomba. I think in a lot of cases, those guys would go pro, transfer with environment in today's day and age. I'm proud of the fact of the top picks and all that, but I'm proud of the fact we can get our guys back for year two and year three. I think that's really important. Because in college football, the debate is

with the transfer portal, with NIL, that should spread out the talent a little bit more. And look, it's a different sport and it's set of the way you would set your roster. And I know Patino had some headlines being like, we're just not even going to recruit the high school kids. We're just going to put together these transfer portal squads and figure out who's good at this level and then try to entice them that way. And then you hear it that way and you think, okay, that actually makes a lot of sense. But I would think for a special place

like Duke, maybe it's not the same as College football. I still expect you guys to put together these recruiting classes that are going to be up there with everybody every single year. And because it's less players, I guess I just don't look at it the same way and thinking, okay, sure, the landscape is different, but it's still Duke. It's still the brand. it's still the success. So a kid that's special is going to at least listen to you because of what this program has been for four decades. So I imagine there's still a lot of value in that that I think most people in college basketball

and high school part of it understand, but are you still seeing that in the pitch? Yeah, well, end of the day, you know, look, if you're to come visit for a game, playing here is as special as it gets. We have the biggest social following, you know, in all of college sports. Like, the stage is real. That's a real thing. I think the success rate of guys that have come in and continuing to have their value, be they're the same or if not higher, I think is a big deal in the development here.

Like we play an NBA style, we've coming off a year, we have the most efficient offense in the history of college basketball last year. It's crazy to even say that, but it's true. I mean, so the way that our guys are playing here is the way they're gonna have to play. But at the end of the day, so we can get in for sure. But I then really think it's still about identifying

the right person, building that relationship. And then the NIO piece is something all of us have to figure out going forward. But yeah, I'm with you 100 percent. What's it like having Coach K around? It's cool. You know, not many coaches still have their coach in their life right, they don't and Coach K is done an amazing job of letting me Figure this out right because you have to go through some Moments where you make decisions and then afterwards you're like, what the hell am I doing?

You know, you just or I wish I did that differently. And I think the best competitors, you really hard on yourself. And so for me, like no coach bats a thousand. And so he's allowed me to do that, but then he's really been there for some of the key moments when I've been struggling or when I've had to make key decisions

of just having somebody bounce something off of and being there to support. So that balance, I think he's done an incredible job of that. I love the fact that our players still get to, like sometimes he'll get a lift in, you know, and he'll cross pass and he'll, you know, make a comment to come on, why didn't you go dunk that yesterday or to Isaiah, you should have done this or those comments. I love that they still get to know my coach. And that's the part that's pretty special for me. I debated whether or not I would ask you this,

but I don't want to. What was it like the first time you watched the Houston tape? So first of all, that's, I would ask me that if I was you too, because it's, you see it all the time with big time moments where it doesn't go the way that you want it. You know, that team for me, like, look, I feel we are the best team, right? I'm sure every coach of the Final Four felt like they had the best team.

I did feel we were that. The best team doesn't always win, but you have to make those plays when it matters the most. And the thing that this group had done, you know, we started off four and two. into that game. We're 35 and three, you know, like we had, uh, we'd shown up. These guys have made big time plays and it's easy to look at the last minute of the game. You're winning by six.

You have the ball with under 50 seconds to go. Uh, every thing that had to go wrong went wrong. It's easy to look at that and there's takeaways. I can promise my team will feel the importance of press breaks more than ever. I promise my team will feel the importance of you're up by six, that's three possessions. If you keep them to twos, you give up a three right away. Now it's a one possession game just on a switch. You know, we just, we have to talk better on a switch.

But for me really, the takeaway, the first time watching the game, I've watched it a lot. You know, I didn't know if it would be something that I would watch once and be done or watch a lot. I've watched it a lot. I felt we were out of character the whole game. You know, even though we were winning by 14, middle of the second half, there were just some uncharacteristic plays. And then obviously to beat a team like Houston, their DNA, they're never gonna give up. Like they're just, you have to

constantly put them away and you open up the door just a little bit, all of a sudden they have life. And so I didn't feel, for me, it's not the final minute. It's the plays throughout the game of our defense, not typical switching rebounds. We gave up 18 offensive rebounds in that game. And so yeah, we put ourselves in a position to win the game. I still feel close it out, done, you're there. But there are takeaways throughout that game

that will stay with me. And so I'll, yeah, that's how I feel. I did not grow up a Duke fan as a Big East guy. You probably guessed how I felt about Duke when I was a kid. But I have grown to respect the program after working with so many alums, you know, at ESPN and having coach K on and back in the day. So it was, it was an appreciation that I had to grow into to understand how special that fraternity is. And I've rewatched that game multiple times, just doing the draft prep and

focusing on different possessions of the guys that I'm looking at. I think less than a minute when you have the ball, I can't. You're probably like, hey, we can end the interview now. I've lived it, but I'll keep looking at these possessions going. What happened? Like, oh my God. Oh, this and then this and then this. I thought you were the better team. I thought you were the best team in the country this year. So I wouldn't push back on any of that. I'm sure Florida has just as good of an argument, but the talent and the options you had, how you could play differently. But yeah, Houston can be really weird. I mean, there's a reason why Kelvin has put this together. Those guys are just dogs and it's just such a crazy, crazy ending of the game. Again,

we can move on. You don't need to follow up if you don't want to. No, I'm gonna tell you this. I think that's the beauty of our game, college basketball, and that's the heartbreaking shit that comes with it. Where you look at the NBA playoffs, right? How many times has Indiana won, where they're down and they're down eight,

they're down whatever it is, it's happened a bunch of times. It's like one in a thousand or one in a hundred. And that happens, what's the best out of seven? So for us, when you're at a Final Four, like the magnitude of that moment, and that's a lot, we spend a lot of time with our team, just the magnitude of each play, the value that of every possession, every decision, it's heightened. And I don't believe in like,

everything happens for a reason, we're gonna learn. No, no, that sucked. And that was heartbreaking. But I'm also not gonna apologize for our guys having 35 wins, final four, ACC regular season tournament champions. They did number one offense in the history of college basketball, one of the best defenses. And they did it differently. I wouldn't trade it

for anything. With that said, I can promise you our mindset is to get right back there and to learn from it. So the only way you gotta lean into it man. There's no running, there's no running from it. You gotta lean into it. Last thought here on a draft note. Oh, now we're going to draft. Take me down. Have you take me down that road? I can't say goodbye to you right now. Yeah, thank you. Give me a high note. Well, hold on. Okay.

Your college career, I remember being like, man, can he play at the next level? And there's like always, and you dealt with it your entire life, like, oh, this guy can't be that good. And that's why I love the Pat Bev story. That's why I like reading about your high school stuff. And be like, no, he did this.

He didn't go to this high school. He stayed at home, put together this kind of resume. And he's this big time recruit coming out. Was it something that was obvious for you of the slight gap to not have an MBA career or were you shocked when it became a reality? I was well aware of how hard it was, you know, like how hard it was going to be. And it started off, I got mono during the draft process. So you talk about hard already,

it's a lot harder. You're a skinny guy, man. And you lose like 15 pounds during the draft process. You know, that doesn't help you. Then I go to summer league with the Heat, which I thought was a great experience when I was in Miami. That's when LeBron had his announcement, I'm taking my talents to South Beach. And so all of a sudden, all right, minimum contract guys need shooting. All right, that's like, I'm ready. That's me. And then the second game, I got poked in the eye and had a major eye injury, which I was

out for a while. So, you know, man, I'm proud of my professional career still, even though I didn't make it with my ultimate goal, played for Chris Finch in the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, which is an amazing experience. And I learned a lot coming from Duke, played in Israel, played in Spain. But yeah, I knew how tough it would be.

My experience, I was with the Clippers, for training camp, which was great, but that ultimate goal I didn't achieve, that's something I always, I just always thought I would find a way. Bottom line, I never thought it wouldn't happen. I always thought I would find a way. And the pivot was,

you get to be the youngest head coach in the country at 33, you know, and you know, you're at Duke as a head coach, this would have never happened. And so there's again, the ability to pivot at 25 to get into coaching. This is a path I always saw, but I just thought it would happen at 35 after winning multiple championships for the Bulls. And you know, like that's, that's what I thought it would happen at 35 after winning multiple championships for the Bulls. And you know, like that's what I thought it would be. Yeah, that's a really good way of looking at it though, because if you're sitting around looking at the transaction wire going like,

is there a mid level for me somewhere? You know, can I go to Charlotte and get some threes up? You're not the head coach of Duke right now. And you're not gonna be able to celebrate of what is to be a huge night for you and your players and this program. So I know you'll enjoy it. And, uh, I'm looking forward to next Wednesday.

I can't wait. Appreciate you having me on. Thanks a lot, John. Thanks. 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. Good morning everyone. Life advice, the email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. It's good to see. Dudes are decked out in their NFL gear. The NFL never rests. Football, everyone. Life advice, the email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. It's good to see.

Dudes are decked out in their NFL gear. The NFL never rests, football, man. We were just talking about this, yeah. I got the, I saw a tweet, Scott Hanson was like, 12 Sundays till football, and I was like, you're goddamn right it is. And just feel good. I like Scott Hanson, I hate that tweet.

Hate it every time he does it. Even from him? Yeah, just I'm like, I just wanna be like, hey, can I enjoy July and August? It's a very selfish reaction. It's a little bit, I don't know. No, I'd like to admit at times, I think, when I'm like, no, this is a very selfish thing, but yeah, when you don't have a sports break

since the previous August, like I don't care about the depth chart of Cincinnati right now. I'm just, I'm not saying I'm looking forward to that tweet every Sunday leading up, but you know, just crossed my path. And I was like, yeah, great. Before we get to business here, I want to just, uh, shout out one of my brothers, the DJ who, uh, I'm very proud of my guy Vaughn.

Uh, he is working for this company. It's an app. It's a buddy of his, so it's not his thing. And for anybody that's missing the NBA with maybe one, possibly two games to go, the Four Keeps app where, if you guys like the little handheld video games, little Sonic the Hedgehoggy, but some NBA flavor in it. So I just wanted to give him a shout out

because I'm always impressed with his technical abilities in that world. I'm gonna send you a link, Kyle, because I know, especially when you were on the bus, this would have been huge for you, just killing a little bit of time. Thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, I'm a handheld guy though. Yeah, how about you, Oregon?

You're probably more of a board game guy, no? I do like a good board game. I don't like to game on the phone. It kills my battery. Just, I don't know. Not for me. We're getting into card games lately. That's been fun. Like kills my battery. Just, I don't know. Not for me. Like I said.

We're getting into card games lately. That's been fun. Like card games. Yeah, but not like cards against your humanity. Like, oh, I can't believe you said that. Like a card game that's a little bit more about skill than like, what's the craziest thing you could say. Sure.

But I guess those games have their place too. Somebody brought over the game, What Do You Meme? Yeah, wouldn't pick that one up in the target aisle. Did you like it though? Still here. We got, um, speaking of Oregon, Hey guys, six foot, 190 pounds, 39 years old, attitude, no gym stats or basketball comp, unless there is one for a guy who peaked in seventh grade while guarding a future Michigan state guard and holding him to just 15 points.

Wonder three means. I gotta tell you, that's going to be a tough road to hoe when you feel like you've peaked at seventh grade. Tell yourself something different. His basketball career peak though. Not like him as a person. Yeah. Yeah. But just think there's somebody listening right now that's like, it's been all downhill since seventh grade. Since I was the fastest kid at Lincoln middle school.

Yeah. You know, it's like you weren't better. You just genetically earlier. You weren't a better person. It's a hard truth. Yeah. Are you better off?. You weren't a better person. It's a hard truth. Yeah. Are you better off, Gladwell should get on that.

Are you better off peaking late physically? Does it make you a better person? Yeah, I imagine it would. I don't know. Yeah, I guess I don't know either. But there's a lot of evidence. There's a lot of evidence when you go back to your town, your hometown, that would suggest there may be something to this.

All those movies where the girl gets hot, like senior year, she's always the nicest one, right? Just takes her glasses off. Yeah, was under there the whole time. Okay, as a side, I used to run track in college and thought about jumping in the mile time, but we're moving on from that. Yes, we are.

Thanks. I normally listen to the pod audio only, but found my way to the video version. Thank you, VideoPod now on the Spotify app. Saw it the other day specifically for life advice. Gotta agree with the guy who said Oregon was annoying at first, but now as a solid starter on the pod roster. Couldn't help but notice Oregon was holding his mic

like someone who had never held a microphone before holds his mic like a grudge. Bob Barker. Can we get him a mic stand so he can continue being a solid contributor and improving his overall approval rating? I don't know. He's just pulling it up.

He's got it, doesn't like it. I got it, yeah, choose not to. I choose not to stand. I like you not having. I like whatever. He's putting it in there right now. He'll do one of these and I'll hold it. He's gonna hold it anyway.

Yeah, I'm gonna hold it. Now I kinda wanna order a Bob Barker one. I had it in the mic stand a couple days ago. It's just so low. And I listened back to my audio and it sounded terrible. So I'm just gonna hold it. It does bring up. This is really the real point of reading this

is it does bring up like when Saruti's back. What's gonna happen? Are we gonna go four wide? Seems like a lot of dudes. It is a lot of dudes. Someone's got a DH every once in a while. I wonder if Mike likes his camera. wonder if Mike likes his camera off anyway. You know, and then he parachutes in.

I don't know. We'll see if that dynamic works. I don't know. It's not going to be a fun day. Can you handle less touches? Yeah. I'm all about the team. That's what a lot of people say. Yeah. Until they get less touches. Right, Van Gundy, everybody wants to win, but they want to win on their terms, okay.

Let's see here. You know what? We don't like doing this, or I don't like doing this, but since it's so specific, and I know how happy Kyle is gonna be, here's the email, rexforbars and Poughkeepsie. Hey fellas, 59185, 29 year old who just graduated from MIT Sloan this bath month.

Whoa, going back to my consulting gig in Boston, helped organize the Sloan Sports Conference last year and had to give kudos to Rosillo for his Darryl impersonation on Bill Show last night. Surprisingly solid. Yeah, I have a good Darryl impersonation. Two weeks ago, I was in Manhattan Beach visiting with my, what? Is about, the kipsy?

As I drove down the hill towards shellbacks, I somehow didn't notice this jack guy in a hat across the street until he was right next to my car. I waved to apologize for almost hitting him only to realize that it was Rosillo. I rolled the window down and yelled, Rosillo, you're the man, to which I got a polite wave. Guy handles fandom with such class. I do remember this.

You did- On your way to shellbacks? Yeah, in the middle of the day, no. You better not find out. Yeah, right. Hey, just decided to go on a vendor at Shellbacks in the middle of the week with the light out still. I wouldn't do that to you, Kyle.

Thanks. If I'm at that point, I'll let you know. Anyway, yeah, there's a weird, I gotta tell you, Manhattan Beach has a lot of like crossing streets where again, pedestrian right away, but there's some where pedestrians are a touch too aggressive, I would say. If anybody has been through the area, spent time here,

they know exactly what I'm talking about. But where he thinks he almost, he didn't, it's just that you have to stop and it's like two lanes and it's a little confusing if you've never driven there before, you're like, what am I doing here? People just darting left and right and there's no light and I'm just supposed to stop or whatever. But I remember when this guy said hello,

he wasn't close to hitting me. I'm surprised he wouldn't be able to figure out some of the, you know, the distance based on that Sloan background. I don't think that was a contested crossing, but anyway, I appreciate you saying that. Okay. Two part question for you guys that seemed to spark

some Ryan Kyle collab bonding. My buddy's getting married in July. We planned a last minute bachelor party this upcoming weekend, the bulk of the friend group works in finance in New York, so to make it as convenient for everyone as possible, we booked an Airbnb in Wappingers Falls. Wappinger, yeah.

Wappingers, okay. About a 15 minute drive outside of Poughkeepsie. When I heard the place is near Poughkeepsie, I immediately thought of Cousin Kyle question, where should one go to watch the Pacers Thunder game on Thursday night? Hurricane. Hurricane rail and wings. Where would Kyle take Ryan to watch if Ryan were in town? Also hurricane. Okay. Thank you for some context.

The guys were in my college fraternity. We developed quite a taste for sports gambling and our group chat entitled parlay vu football funny when we send over our favorite bets to build a parlay with a return usually around $10. Okay, $200 a guy each week, I don't know. We've had some success that expanded our purview to basketball and other sports. One of these guys are going Nash equilibrium on us. We'd like to invite Ryan, Kyle, and Worgon

to participate in our bachelor weekend finals parlay special. Question two, what bets do you guys like for Thursday's game? Is that a good question? Nash equilibrium on us. We'd like to invite Ryan, Kyle, and Wargon to participate in our Bachelor weekend finals parlay special question two, what bets do you guys like for Thursday's game? Is this an ad? I don't know, who are you placing the bet with? That's how I'll know if I can answer or not.

Kyle, why don't you, when I'm talking far too long on the next one, put together something for this guy? Because you've already nailed it with Hurricanes and you just put together something. Yeah, I don't have much left for this, yeah, sure. Right, something that you like for this guy. Because you've already nailed it with Hurricanes. And you just put together something. Yeah, I don't have much left for this. Yeah, sure. Right, something that you like for game six. We'd usually do some combo, a spread, and player props

to get the two to three times payout range. We'll leave it open to what you guys like. If you guys promise you, I did not read this because it's like, all right, check out the number one American sports book. America's number one sports book usually is the way we say that, vandal.com. Sportsbook.v mail.com.

All right, let me know. We can connect on Venmo, partially joking, also including screenshots of our group chat. I'll be driving down to New York Wednesday night and the pod will be rolling. So look at this. It's Tuesday. And oh, by the way, this guy's from Ansonia

on top of everything else, Stanford Steve. World's colliding. I wonder how many people from Ansonia ended up at MIT. We'll get Stanford, Steve on that one. I think we covered it then, right? You're gonna put something together for this guy for game six? Yeah, we can't take this guy's money.

I just, I'm almost done with my Band of Brothers rewatch and winners comes up to, I think it was Buck or it was the other guy Compton and he's like, never put yourself in a position where you take from these men. So I don't think we can do that. Love Bandit Brothers. You can tell him what you like.

Yeah, totally. I'm just saying we can't connect him or Venmo anymore. When I was taking the bus, it's a different thing. We don't do that. Hey, by the way, that person that sent in an Amazon gift card for Ginger Ale, was that real? Did that work? I didn't do it.

I just told Mike when I saw't, I didn't do it. I just told Mike to that when I saw the, the email that I will take. Cause I mean, it's he's getting an honest opinion about verners. So I'll, I'll see what I could do there. Man. Whenever I see those Amazon wishlist links

to some girl that that's like, would you date me? Am I too fat? That is what it is, that's so funny. It's that all the time and they're like total knockouts. They'll just be like, no one likes me. I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna order her a soda organizer. Let's see here. Hey, remember me? I'm Nick, the guy that sent the soda organizer. Let's see here. Hey, remember me? I'm Nick, the guy that sent the soda organizer. I don't think you're too fat. All right. Wife's Daily Gym Report, speaking about not being too

fat. NBA comp Ben Simmons because it's been at least a couple of years since I've really enjoyed one of these same old comps. At this point, I'm just reluctantly going through the motions out of obligation. Gym stats, unremarkable, but my wife's are the crux of my predicament. Around five days a week, she attends a group wake training session with an emphasis on heavy lifts. She enjoys it, releases stress from a long work day. It's an environment where she's confident. She's proud of her physique. Of course, this is all great. The only issue is that apparently a critical part of a routine is regaling me with a daily status report. Today, her play-by-play crescendoed

with a deadlift PR of 230 pounds. Equally critical is that I give a report undivided wrapped attention. If I'm not locked in or don't ask follow-up questions, she'll ask why I don't care. I'm happy, she's happy, but it's just kind of uninteresting to have the same-ish conversation so often. Is there a way I can ask her to dial it back without squelching her story?

Do I fight fire with fire and pose a daily detailed breakdown of the totally sick guitar licks I've been working on? I'd like to hear about those. Do I just accept this as a small price to pay for her happiness and hotness? She's awesome. I can't complain about much. Yeah, I think you nailed it in the very end. You know the answer.

Just sit back, listen, enjoy the PR stats. Maybe a follow up here or there. Maybe you could prep a follow up, but I think the payoff is much better than the slight annoyance. And look, if you're with somebody a really, really long time, sometimes I would think about like, oh my God, I'm telling this story. This isn't interesting, but you're just there. I mean, unless you meet somebody who's really quiet, which may not be for a lot of people either. Maybe there's a lot of dudes that would like that, but just understand, like that's part of what you're dealing with. And you guys are the married guys.

Like Kyle, do you like every story from your wife? No, no. And I know how to put on a real good face though. Real good face. Couple ad-libs, no way. That's crazy. You spend so much time together, like not everything's interesting.

Like that's kind of life. Not everything is interesting, Wargon. Although I was, I was thrown around some 15s yesterday. You would have thought they were 12 fives. Let me tell you that. Can you give us another, I didn't tell you that. Can you give us another, as if you forgot your line. No, well, you didn't forget your line. Can you give us another impromptu, that's crazy, Kyle?

Cause I love that. Three, two, one. Did I say that? No, no, no, Kyle. Oh. Give me the three, two, one again. Right, so I'm your wife. I've just told an uninteresting story. Give me your best, two, one again. Right, so I'm your wife. I've just told an uninteresting story.

Give me your best, that's crazy, three, two, one. Well, that's not true. Oh, okay, you switched it up on me. Yeah, yeah, and she said blow one. I'm just like, wow, we both know that's not true. Dill Earnhardt's like, you're the best driver I've ever seen. I don't think there's, I don't know that we need a ton of discussion on this one. You're just going to have to listen to some stuff sometimes

that you don't want to listen to. Like who the hell's marrying anybody thinking like, I can't wait. No, granted the daily stuff, right? That's why I used to always hate the golf question on the radio show. Because again, we've covered this because Van Pelt and I constantly laugh

about it. You know, have Lynn Swan on how you're hitting them, keep them straight. And I just always felt like that was one question of great, this guy's going to answer this. But there's also like something to be said, even though I'm enjoying golf now in a way I never enjoyed it before, I was like, oh, I should, you know, if I just, and they'd be like, oh my God, I just, I just annoyed myself by recapping some of this stuff. So it's new, she's really excited. And there's worse things to talk about, man. And the fact that there's also like a benefit to you

that your wife is taking it this seriously, like this is really one of those blame pie things. If you just, there's a really small sliver of annoyance for what I think is a much greater payout. So build up those mental calluses. Maybe look inward too, because all your stories are not interesting as well. What do you think your least interesting stories are, Wargon? Great question. Probably easier to say what my interesting stories are. I don't know. It's got to be like what I do during work. Like what did we talk about on the podcast?

I never remember, do you guys remember? I can't wait til Saruti's back. Bullshit. Two seconds after the report, I have no idea. It's true, I like, there's like a brain wipe that happens to me too. Yeah, totally. So we're doing this before we're taping Ron Chernow,

which is something I've been waiting years for. I'm running that today. Will you listen to that interview or are you just, what are you doing back there? I'm listening and then like as soon as I'm done, it's like, gone. I think you kind of like really guessed the show just now. In my defense, it's every show though. Well, this isn't every show. The show is great. I love the show just now. In my defense, it's every show though. Well, this isn't every show. The show is great.

I love the show, honey. You know I love the show. We'd like to think there's a standard here. The best was one episode of food news. I make the rundowns for that show. I haven't moved on. I haven't moved on. I'm trying to sidestep this whole thing.

So I put a, I put a story on the rundown. And we're all sitting there and we go, did we talk about this on last week's episode? None of us could remember. We had to go back and listen to it. So you're just the turn the page guy. Oh, Food News? What is that? No, I'm saying I used to do Food News when it was part of House of Carbs. Oh, that's right.

Okay. Anyway. What else? Let's get off this one. I can't believe somebody sent Kyle an Amazon gift card for ginger ale, but now you're making me worried that this is like a trap link, uh, like a fish. Like, yeah, I'm going to take over my computer. Yeah. Maybe I'll try take over my computer. Yeah. Maybe I'll try it on my phone.

I think I sign it up for insurance quotes constantly with this email address. I'm at one day, I swear I'll read one. Like the general can save me. What? Um, I'm a raise. Wait, this is the Raising Canes Coke guy. Remember that story? Well, War'm a raise. Wait, this is the Raising Cane's Coke guy. Remember that story?

Well, Wargon doesn't height six, 185 max bench 175. Well, it's going to be a, we're not probably not taking your side on anything. NBA player comp. I'm like a shorter Bobby Porter. It's not super quick on my feet, but I get buckets and have a decent little post game I'm the Raising Canes Coke guy who my manager let's call him well I don't know is using real names here let's call him Dave just in case wrote about a few weeks ago okay so the manager emailed us you guys remember he said just a coke and then this guy apparently is the guy that filled it up with Coke Zero.

Some of us on the team love listening to the pod, the BS Pods, Zach Lowe shows, so we're pretty big wringer heads. Needless to say, we found it, why don't you listen to Van? We found it very amusing when you read about my Coke Zero versus Coca-Cola blunder on Life Advice. I'm not writing to defend myself in the move I pulled.

I'll graciously take the L because I can admit I made a mistake and definitely put way too much thought into something as simple as brown fizzy sugar water. Doesn't sound like a soda drinker. So maybe it makes even more sense that they made the mistake. However, I will say I think it was like that Jim and Andy big tuna moment on the office where Joe gets milked for too long.

Tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna. That was a great tuna. At the time, my mistake was pretty insignificant, mildly humorous blunder, but week after week, Dave, let's call this guy Dave, I don't know, just kept bringing it up as if it was this master class in a comedy of errors, which ended up being slightly annoying. This brings me to my concern.

How do I tell Dave to get new material when he's beating a dead horse? He even roped in the rest of our team who doesn't know care about this podcast and showed the life advice segment during a meeting this week. The joke has passed its expiration day and I think many could relate to this situation. Love the pod. Enjoy the finals.

Uh, all right. So we do, I guess we all remember that. Yeah, I do. Just, just to be clear here. Um, this guy is writing this in and he's taken a direct shot at the manager. Yes. Who's definitely going to hear it.

Yeah. Who's definitely going to hear it. You may have solved it or you may have made it worse. I don't know if there's anything else you could do that would make it back. Because initially my initial reaction was like, just put a 12 case of classic Coke on the desk. But I think that would lean the way he doesn't want it. This guy, he just doesn't want this guy to think about it anymore.

So this either right now did the trick, or you just dug a few feet deeper in this hole. I'm not really sure. I feel like this is the type of thing that dudes remember for the rest of their lives. Like you're never getting out of this one. Fire guy, yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

I don't think this joke should last a lifetime. Yeah. I mean, it was a Coke Coke Zero blunder. I think I'm with the emailer here. I mean, even though we totally understood how crazy that was. And if you say Coke, you just expect a traditional Coke. And if somebody pours Coke Zero, but like, and when this guy retires and gets the gold watch,

is it the opening material? That would seem excessive. Yes. But I think the bigger thing is, I don't know, that he realized that they must have a great working environment. You're going to go back at the manager? Who's then going to show this on Friday's meeting?

On a big, you know, this isn't, this is some local high school football podcast, okay? Football. Do they have those? Yeah, dude, there's probably a record for anything. Maybe in Texas? Yeah, Texas, you, dude, there's anything. Yeah, Texas. You're right. I'm sorry. Texas Hell, they're probably fourth. I don't know.

All right. Oh, yeah. Wait, there's a there's a good one. We have time for it here. No offense to the previous emails that we've read. They're all great, too. All right. Let me see if I can find the one. I guess I didn't flag it, but I will find it.

Talk amongst yourselves here. Speaking of Van, face of the ringer rankings come out Thursday. What are we thinking? I don't like that. Well, is Bill eligible? It has to be Bill. I mean, it's gotta be Bill.

I feel like that's gonna be in the fine print that he's like, it can't be Bill. Otherwise, why would we do this? I think Van's making too big of a deal of it for it to be Bill, though. Okay, so if it can't be Bill, who is it? Chris Wright. I would think CR.

Yeah. I mean, you really have to be thinking about the face of the ringer. Who can fill a million different roles? Who does the most things? Yeah. Who feels like he's the essence of what this company is all about?

I don't think there's any question. Agreed. Yeah. Did you find it yet? Nope. Cause it was, it was really good too. Type in some keywords in the email in the search bar maybe. Yep.

Trying to find it. I really was hoping you guys would fill this a little bit more. Yeah, yeah. This is, that makes sense. I don't know. All right. I guess, because this,

this would be so classic if we have to cut the whole part where you even mention it. No. Because we couldn't find it. Well, we wouldn't do that. We'd just promise it and then put the music in. Right?

Yeah, I don't know. Oh, here it is. Nice. First try. Oh, see, he rescinded it. That's why. He rescinded it this morning. You can take back an email.

Uh, no, I love to know how that works. That's the case. Uh, he said, I rescinded it. I just needed to get it out because now I realize how fucking dumb this question was. Um, I thought it was kind of interesting and he was tall, so we're going to give it to him on that one. All right. Let's do a blind quick one here.

27, five foot 11, 170. Don't lift a lot, more of a marathon guy. That's why I couldn't find it, because I knew I had read it, but I guess I didn't flag it. And then he had already updated his own thing. It was like, don't read it. So there you go, just who knows, who knows?

Minutes, it could be generations have just been decided on me not reading that one. My wife and I have been living in our house post marriage for about a year and a half house next door has been on the market for a bit, but the new neighbors moved earlier this year, admittedly been a bad neighbor, uh, not introduced ourselves, but also nobody else introduced themselves to us when we moved in pay it, don't pay it forward. Actually the opposite of that script.

New neighbors have a big lab. Uh, I mean, I guess they mean Labrador for the science. Yeah, we're not talking about a laboratory. You never know. I don't know if the chemical waste is being, you know, so let it off the leash in the front yard. No worries at all. We consider our dog very well trained and let it walk around. Supervised, we are dog people. Today, while I was working for home from once, I saw their dog come into my yard, take a massive dump in the flower bed. The owner maybe around the same age and significantly bigger than me.

What size is our guy here? Five 11, 170. Watch the dog do this from a sidewalk with a drink in his hand and then walk back inside. Granted the dog did it behind a small tree, so maybe he didn't see it, but maybe he did. Now, this is the first time I've seen his dog do it. I found multiple big dog coops in my yard in the past.

Do I just let it slide? Do I go introduce myself and ask him to pick up after his dog and I will do the same or do I fling it over the fence into the backyard? That last part was a joke. What do you think? You feel like you let it go when it's one confirmed on the record, but when you start seeing two or three, then something has to happen. So it needs to be confirmed because he's got one confirmation.

He's got one confirmation, but he's got evidence for a while. Right. Yes. That's what we're talking about deep in the yard. We're not talking about on the edge. We're talking flower beds. So we know it's got to be a dog off leash, especially if we're assuming, you know, the difference between deer shit dog shit, whatever So is he a tracker? Well, I mean deer shit's are little pebbles, right? So 12 clicks this way So my point is that it's been going on for a while. You just figured out what it is I mean, how many how many times are you gonna be in the right place at the right time? You said you were working from home for once. You know, this might be your opportunity. I hope this happened yesterday

if you're gonna do something about it. You don't want it to be a few days ago. Cause I imagine that guy knows what his dog's doing. I imagine he knows. So like if you wait a couple of days, he'll be like, that was four days ago. Like you guys are both on the same page that this dog did it.

And if you wait too long to bring up this incident, it'll be like, well, it's been a few days, I could have been anyone. I think this guy knows. So I think it's enough, especially if you have other evidence and you're like, hey, I was just wondering and I finally found out what it was, you know, I just, I randomly saw your dog do it and, you know,

I don't know if you knew, even though we both know he knows. You say it sort of like, not as a favor to him. You're like, I don't even know if you know this, but I just wanted to come and let you know that your dog's been shitting in my yard. I guess totally fair. I think the drink in the hand makes him more incriminating. Do we think it's like an alcoholic drink or like a coffee?

If it's a can of beer, you're like, I'm in trouble. Yeah, it matters. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Because we don't know what number it is. but yeah, I'd say if you have a second confirmation, you're going to have to get a little bit more confrontational. That'll do it for the pod today. Thanks to Jonathan Frias.

Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Kyle. You can check out the pod, which is now a video pod, as you know, on the Spotify app, our YouTube page, please subscribe to that. Thanks for listening. Brian Russo podcast, Ringer Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think he can live subscribe to that. Thanks for listening to Brian Russo podcast, bring your Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it, so they named me Michael Jared.

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