The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Jimmy Butler Is That Dude. Plus, TNT’s Adam Lefkoe on the NBA Playoffs and His Best Shaq and Barkley Stories.

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Ryen opens with Jimmy Butler’s all-time playoff performance against the Bucks in Game 4 and why there are few who change the ceiling of a franchise quite like him (0:46). Then, he chats with TNT and Bleacher Report host Adam Lefkoe about how he found out he would be hosting ‘Inside the NBA,’ his best Shaq and Barkley stories, why he doesn’t have confidence in his Sixers, and whether we’re being sold a bad bill of goods with this NFL draft (17:04). Next, the guys break down Episode 5 of ‘Succession’ (1:04:53), chat about Ryen seeing Phish, and close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:29:45). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Adam Lefkoe Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's episode of the podcast we will pay tribute to jimmy butler 56 points are you kidding me i'm going to talk about jimmy butler a lot and he deserves even more than i give him you talk about him so much you might not even really get to Lakers-Memphis all that much. Okay, so we've got that part of it. We'll talk some Jimmy Butler and NBA playoffs and Charles Barkley stories and Shaquille O'Neal stories with Adam Lefkoe of TNT. We'll recap succession.

We'll recap me going to fish for the first time in like 20 years, I think. Oh, that's right. There's one other mysterious show that I don't recap. And life advice. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost

anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping? Total yes. Get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. I'm not even going to do tails from the couch

out of respect to Jimmy Butler. This should all be about Jimmy Butler. It's going to be about 95% of Jimmy Butler, not knocking the Lakers or anything like that because I have more to say on that series and we still have some work to do on that one. But 56 points from Jimmy Butler. Last night, the Heat's win.

They're now up 3-1 on the Milwaukee Bucks. Jimmy Butler now is ranked number one on my – I have this ranking as well. It's called that motherfucker ranking. I'm sorry to swear so early at the top of the podcast. I know some of the parents are commuting with the kids. Earmuffs, I'll try not to do it again so soon. I didn't give you much of a heads up, but it needs to be said. It needs to be vulgar. It needs to be violent. It needs to be all of those things because that's who Jimmy Butler is. Giannis has

always kind of been my number one guy for those rankings. And look, he can kind of, I don't know how official these are, so I wouldn't get too worried about it. Raymond Felton at times has been number one, because as I've said numerous times, Raymond Felton has the epitome of the I slept with your mom face. That's just whenever I saw Raymond Felton make any facial expression, the first thing I thought of was like, that's what his face looks like. But he wasn't as good as those other two guys.

So the rankings, again, not super scientific. So 56 points for Jimmy Butler. That's tied for the fourth most ever in a playoff game in NBA history. Michael Jordan, 63, back in 86. They lost that game. I can't even imagine what that'd be like today. Like, oh, yeah, but he still lost. All right, cool.

Elgin Baylor, 61. Donovan Mitchell, not that long ago, 57. Charles Barkley, 56 points in 1994 against the Warriors. All right, cool. Elgin Baylor, 61. Donovan Mitchell, not that long ago, 57. Charles Barkley, 56 points in 1994 against the Warriors. Now, Jimmy Butler in that group of 56. Michael Jordan, by the way, 50 or more points in the playoffs. Eight times. Eight times.

Eight of them. So, I'm just going to take you through how I experienced it. Butler, 22 points in the first quarter. And when the game started, I thought Milwaukee was winning that game as much as any single playoff game so far. I'm like, look, okay, enough of this. Milwaukee's going to win. It's going to be 2-2. Giannis is back.

And I know that physically at times it looked like he was struggling a bit. And then he had that weird leg thing. I just think the playoffs are tough. I mean, a lot of guys are going to be feeling things. And I know specific to him falling on his back like that and missing so much time already in this series. But I don't really like that as an excuse. I also think a lot of players are very demonstrative in the way they're kind of

feeling their pain. I think basketball players do that a lot. And it's not necessarily even a knock, like I'm not talking about exaggerating, but it's just, you'll notice with certain players, it's like, man, he just, he's constantly on that player's face that he's struggling the whole time. So in that first quarter, Bam gets his second personal foul almost immediately. You're like, all right, that's exactly what the Heat need in this one. But Butler gets Giannis kind of on a dump, right? It's not like full-blown on him, but Giannis is coming over to help, which again, credit to Giannis for being one of the few stars that would actually go to the rim to challenge

somebody when they have the angle on him. And Butler throws down that dunk and you're like, okay, all right. He goes for 22 points in the first quarter. And I cannot like his effort level in this quarter were very early on. It felt like, all right, this is going to be two, two here in two hours. It's 3328. And I'm like, all right, this is going to be 2-2 here in two hours. It's 33-28. And I'm like, is this really happening? Is this seriously going to happen? And here's another thing I loved about Jimmy Butler. As exhausted as he was, and he was spent at the first quarter, at the end of the first quarter. And right before the first quarter was actually over, there was a little break in play. And you could see Butler and you're like, that guy's going De La Vadova here in 2015. He's dying. And there was a play where he was off the ball

and I'm like, will he move? Will he cut to the middle to try to help out on this possession? Knowing that he's still the best option, but he was just this exhausted. I'm like, a lot of guys who just kind of stand there and be like, I just don't have it on this one possession. We're in the game, whatever. And the guy ran to the middle. He ran to the middle, gave a hard cut off the ball, kind of on the backside of it. And just that effort alone, I was like, I can't believe it was the smallest thing.

I'm like, I can't believe he even made that cut as exhausted as he was. So it's 33-28. I'm like, you'd be kidding me even made that cut as exhausted as he was. So it's 33-28. I'm like, you'd be kidding me. That's 57-50 at the half. I'm like, is this? Again, I'm sitting at home going like, is this seriously happening? But Butler was so tired after the first quarter, he only scored two points in the second quarter.

I thought Butler was still gassed in the third quarter. That's with a halftime break because of how hard he went in the first. He ends up with 11 points in the third quarter. But there's a Giannis element to this. If we run through some of the third quarter play-by-play and scoring, where I started to feel like, okay, he's back in the way that he's back. Like Giannis' physicality. We talk about Steph's gravity. His shooting pulls everyone, his cuts, all of that stuff.

Giannis' physicality is his gravity. The same way all the stuff that we look at with Steph and how he pulls everything. Let's go over some plays. Miami basically helps off every corner on the Giannis side of the drive, which isn't always the rule. Different teams have different rules.

Some are more standard than others. Every time with Giannis, you're helping. You don't care. You'll leave the shooter. Is it every single time? You know what I'm saying here, right? There was another play where Giannis is at the three-point line. It looks like he may be initiating something.

Bam, and another player stayed with Giannis. He throws it down to Lopez for two. All right? 81-68. Lopez, who had 36 points in this game, by the way, hits a step back jumper against Kevin love. Love is like in complete disbelief. Right. And at that point at 8168, I'm like, okay, all right, we're back to normal here. You do know basketball a little bit. Um, another basket after that Giannis is lost underneath the basket. All right. And the lost is probably not the right

way to describe it, but he's under the basket. He's at the baseline. Three players are on him. Somebody has left the corner. Somebody else has left the big man. And then his initial defender, he actually, whether it was a fake to the corner or a no look, and then pass to Portis, it's an incredible pass because it looks like he's stuck. Like, what's going to happen? What's he doing? He's under the basket. And yet he gives a look and a slight hesitation where the defenders don't even know what to do. And Portis just rolls in behind everybody for the easy layup.

94-83. Two stay with Giannis in his zone. The pressure is so high up on Giannis in his zone that Brooke Lopez and Pat Connaughton are two versus one against Zeller, where either one of them could have done whatever he wanted. The next possession, four stayed with Giannis. Four guys all took a step towards Giannis as he went to initiate the offense. He throws it to Pat Connaughton for a wide open three. It was a miss, but it was just staggering to watch it back in slow motion going, look at that four guys all looking at him.

There was a three man Miami wall. Lopez knows the wall is stepping up to Giannis as he's past the free throw line. Lopez knows exactly what's going to happen. It's an amazing cut by him. He scores 98, 85. Butler comes back in at the eight 11 in the fourth quarter, 98-87. Now, with the 11 points in

the third quarter, you're feeling like, all right, he's back, but how much is he going to have left? Well, he had it all left. It's 101-89 with six minutes left. Butler scores 20 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter from that moment on. He outscored Milwaukee to close the game by himself, 20-13. Now, we could go back and play the game of what did Milwaukee do wrong schematically? What could they have done different? Is Bud a little too stubborn? All that stuff. I thought it was pretty simple. I'm watching this game for like an hour and a half just expecting Milwaukee to win. I think that's what they thought was going to happen. Yeah, serious. And you start getting tired. You start going for all those Jimmy Butler fakes.

You have to stay super disciplined with him. You can't leave your feet. You can't lean. He's going to get you. It wasn't about the free throws last night for Butler because of all the other buckets that he had. But I think it's pretty simple. Milwaukee's like, all right, we got this, and they didn't have it.

They didn't have it. Milwaukee has the best player. They have the better depth. They have overwhelming size advantage. The point guard is better, although you want to talk about not getting a ton of shit for some bad shooting playoff performances, I submit Drew Holiday. He has some duds, man. Like, he'll have a couple games where you're like, whoa, but that's the thing for Drew,

which is kind of good for him, right? Like, man, we should talk about Drew Holiday more. You want to be, all right, you want to go to that group? You're awesome. You're really good. Everybody'd love to have you. But when there's other dudes on the team that are higher profile players than you, you can have a six for 18 and a six for 19. He had combined from three in games one and four, he's four of 20 from three. And he doesn't get to the free throw line at all he has seven assists in the last two games after having 27 in the first two so will he turn it around at some point I don't know but go back to some of the other game log stuff not to say there aren't other stars with

bad shooting nights but Drew never gets any heat for any of it so best player depth the size advantage point guard Milwaukee I believe has five of the top seven players in this. Miami is 25th on offense this regular season. 25th, 112-plus points per 100 possessions. The teams that they're in that group with from 25th down, Orlando, Houston, Detroit, San Antonio, Charlotte. Not in the playoffs. Not up 3-1 on Milwaukee.

Charlotte. Not in the playoffs. Not up 3-1 on Milwaukee. I am on record for years now that the regular season and playoffs, I don't think we've ever seen a bigger gap. But it shouldn't be this big. It shouldn't be this big. Miami loses

to Atlanta. They get smashed in the rebounds. That's not even a game. And I'm like, yeah, here we go. They're down to Chicago in the fourth quarter. They're down a Chicago in the fourth quarter, right? They're down a point about 346. Kobe White hit that huge three. Again, there's still plenty of time left in that game. But I was like, all right, Miami went on a 15-1 run to close that game out.

I don't like the four-game sample size in the playoffs. I think it can be a little, like, interesting. I used it with Sacramento against Golden State because of Sacramento's defense being so bad. And we're like, hey, Golden State, this kind of offense, you've held up somewhat here defensively in these first two games. But again, it's two games, even four games into the playoffs. I don't like it. Miami's got the best offense. That means Milwaukee has the worst defense. I realize that Milwaukee's only had Giannis for 49 minutes of the 192 in this playoff series so far. Okay. A major factor.

But you have to win last night's game. You have to win last night's game if you're actually a championship contender. So does that write them off? No. When you look at the FanDuel odds for the teams to come back down 3-1, it's not even that great value to bet Milwaukee down 3-1 in this series. Everyone watching it, I think, feels the same way. And yet, Miami's up 3-1 because of Jimmy Butler

despite all of those factors. It's an incredible, it's one of the best playoff performances we've ever seen. And to this point, it's the most surprising storyline that we've maybe had in the NBA this season. Out of respect to this point, it's the most surprising storyline that we've maybe had in the NBA this season. Out of respect to Jimmy Butler, I'm not going to do a full-blown recap of Lakers-Memphis

because I have a lot to say about Memphis. The positive from last night would be LeBron. 20 boards, 20 seasons in, 45 minutes, the game-tying layup, the way he hit that, knowing he was going to have to throw it off because Jaron Jackson Jr. was actually in the paint or a previous block from Jackson. He had Anthony Davis out in the corner, which doesn't really make a ton of sense, but it wasn't like they weren't going to play Anthony Davis,

although he was holding his rib cage for the entire second half. He wasn't very good. Injury probably a factor. Them up 3-1. I wonder what his status will even be for game five. But LeBron, as we've seen multiple times in this series, has had to go into a mode, which I don't even know that his default mode is like,

I got to go ahead and do this. But the game-tying layup was incredible because he knew that Jackson was coming. The way he had rejected his shot earlier before, Ja gets the layup, throws it back out to Bain. And at that point, I'm like, wait, Memphis is going to win this game? So there was a lot of little things in it, but I don't want to go through it all because I want to talk either Lakers,

and I will when this thing is over, and even maybe more so the obit on Memphis and who this team thinks they are and who they really are. I'm fine in the West. I'm going to have some time for Memphis when this is over. I'm fine in the West. I'm going to have some time for Memphis when this is over. This team has a lot of things about it that we liked when they were younger and fun.

But I'm fine in the West. And I know they're dealing with their injuries too. But for Dylan Brooks to go through his act, then blame the media and then not talk to the media last night, jaw, not talk to the media, which means now your teammates have to talk to the media about all your shit. Um,

this is a really interesting kind of place in the timeline for this Memphis group where you just chalked up the injuries young and all that stupid stuff, you know, like they're come back with the same guys and all that. I'm not, I'm not being that dramatic about it, but like they've gone from like fun to unlikable in, in a really short amount of time.

And it's not just because they're down to the Lakers. Cause you know, this series could have gone either way. And as it plays out, you're like, wow, they just don't even have enough for them. The reason I'm not going to get too into it,

as I said, cause I wanted to give Butler all the space that he needed, because that was actually not the worst NBA interaction last night. Memphis going down, we don't even want to talk after they lost, which they've done in the past before in some other big spots. Nick Claxton has the award, at least for this week. Have you seen his IG post? So I don't know how locked in the listeners are. You know the Nets were swept, right? They were swept by the Philadelphia 76ers first round.

That means four games. It's best of seven, so you're the first team to win four. Philadelphia won four, and they won four in a row because the Nets won zero. And Nick Claxton, we saw that interaction from game three in the series where Claxton stepped over Embiid, and then Embiid kicked him. People wanted to throw it out, whatever. Stop stepping over, guys, by the way.

I'm not saying everybody should be kicked, but you know what's happening. Speaking of stepping over people, there's, I think, two different pickup hoops phone ads going around. Right now, I only see these ads 700 times a day. But there's a play where there's a woman who's shooting in the corner and then she steps over the defender to just, you know, this is how we do it. I think that defender falls down on purpose. Not a stunt man. I've seen it a bunch. I think he falls down on purpose. All right. So back to Nick Claxton's post on IG. The post is him standing over Embiid,

and the caption is standing on business. What the fuck? You got swept. You averaged 10-8 in the series. I really like Nick Claxton. I'd take a Nick Claxton on my team. You got ejected in game three up eight with nine

minutes to go. I aspire. I'll never get there. I aspire to be this delusional. He'd make a perfect Grizzly, is all I'm saying.

I feel like I know this guy, and I think a lot of NBA fans would say the same. Adam Lefkoe, TNT. He's doing a lot of stuff with Bleacher Report as well. Gridiron for the draft, so that'll be coming up.

Maybe hit that a little bit later. But morning, Adam. Thanks for doing this. How are you? It's a, it's a pleasure, man. This is a, it's so cool. And I just want to say really quick when you went on that rant years ago, where you were like, I feel like I'm doing this the right way and I'm watching all the tape and I'm, and I'm, that resonated with me so much. And I just wanted to say thanks because like my journey of like local news and like grinding and all this stuff. I just I've always looked at you as someone that actually does the work. And so to kind of be on this podcast right now is really special, man.

So good to meet you. Yeah, I want to talk about your career because it's my favorite thing when I was doing a little Google research today. And it was like, holy shit, the first question that comes up, and it's just so funny. You can probably even guess what it is. But that's a weird tease. Let's talk about Jimmy Butler. It's where I started the pod today.

I felt like out of respect to him, I almost didn't want to talk about other things. He's a weird case. It's almost like the Madison B bumgarner of the nba where at no point are you saying like bumgarner's the number one pitcher you would want but then when the lights were on when it mattered the most he had a stretch where you're like you have to be kidding me now granted he ended up with a championship i'd still be shocked to see miami do something like this but what butler did last night is, you know,

the hyperbole that we can have around certain things, it does not apply here. That was one of the all-time playoff appearances, especially when we're talking about who the Heat are in comparison to this Milwaukee team and the way it's playing out so far. He played at such a level that I was like, did they purposely lose that play-in game to the Hawks because they knew they wanted, like, purposely lose that play-in game to the Hawks because they knew they wanted... It doesn't make sense. As a very unabashed Philadelphia fan,

I still have him being like, you paid Tobias over me. And that's what was... And then he ends the game and he's like, Embiid's the MVP and then Embiid's calling him MF and Butler. I always am conflicted watching him, but every time we start the Tuesday show,

so we start our episodes in January, which is right before the All-Star game. I always, when it comes to predicting the All-Star rosters, go, hey, I know that Jimmy Butler isn't going to make these teams, but we're all going to look really dumb at the end of the year when he doesn't make it. I had him second team All-N what he was after the all-star break, number one in true shooting percentage over Jokic, over Embiid. But dude, playoff Jimmy is a thing. And that's also why the game after the playoff Jimmy game, I always like to bet against Jimmy. So I hate to be the dude like raining on his parade right now. But like, I went back and looked in Jimmy's career when he has scored 35 or more and then played in the next game and they won that game and then play in the next game. They're one in six. They've lost by an average of 11 points per game. And he averages about 22

points per game because it's not just Jimmy offensively. It's Jimmy shutting down the best guy and you're watching a dude for 40 plus minutes and you sit there and you go, he's top five. I have no doubt that Milwaukee is going to smash Miami in this next game and they're going to go back to Miami. The question will be, can he do it again? He did it twice against Boston. He did it twice against the Lakers. But I don't want to take away from what he did because I don't know how we're going to remember Jimmy historically, but when you see it, it is special.

Yeah, because I'm obsessed with the top five thing, right? As much as I love the draft, I always think it's kind of funny when the guy's coming out and it'll be like, well, if this guy hits the his ceiling he could be the number one on a really good team you're like wait a minute we we get like if you look at the math of it and for the 450 480 guys that end up suiting up like there's like five so we're probably not getting two in the same draft even though it can you know historically happen and so with Butler, whenever I do the list of the one guy that comes in and completely changes who you are and allows you to compete for a championship, he's never on it for me, which feels stupid because then you see what he did last night.

I still, this is like year two for me with Miami, where even last year, I'm like, how are they still winning these games? How is this happening? Because like whenever I think about the Atlanta Philly series from two years ago when Atlanta won in the second round to play Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals, there could be these times you're like, okay, but did you see when the other team was up? Like when they won, they smashed him. They had all these leads. They blew these leads. Like a series went however it went.

The team advanced, but it felt like a different team was better. The team that lost it was better. And yet Miami trailing the entire game can have Butler single-handedly do this. I turned it off. No, you didn't. I was like, no, no, no, hold on. I turned it off for the beginning, the 13-0 stretch. I was like, let me go watch The Spy on Netflix for like 20 minutes

before I come back and watch Lakers-Grizzlies. And then I got a BR alert that was like, heat coming back. And I was like, I felt so dumb. So I turned it back on, because I had to record. I rewound it. And I was like, what is going on? The thing about this heat team, because we had a lot of heat games on Tuesday nights, is I was like, let me look at last year compared to this year. They were number one in the NBA last year in three-point percentage. And I think they were 27th in this year. And the Duncan Robinson thing has become a meme.

But I think in the playoffs, they're shooting like 47% right now from three. And how much do you make on that on Spolstra? The fact that Spolstra is about to pass red hour back and like career playoff wins is insane um but i'm just thinking about what it it doesn't make sense but the nba you're like it's a seven game series we avoid crazy uh weird outliers not this miami team man it's it and i i don't want to give all the credit to heat culture, but I don't know what else to attribute it to. Well, heat culture is making a big comeback just in general because I loved making fun of it.

I couldn't stand it. And Sedano, who's my buddy, who I've always joked, like when Sedano and Levitard had the show, the radio lineup, the daily radio lineup, I ended up hating the heat way more just by listening to those two shows, even though I like both i would just be like you guys are out of control with like this idea that because pat riley watches over practice and wants conditioning that there's just something different and then when i go through the talent of these two teams i was like man heat culture

like is actually i love making fun of it but man it's uh it's it's hard to it's hard to write it off at this point. The Spoh thing is real. All those things are real. But what I want to get your perspective on is that when you're sitting there on the TNT desk with the former players who sometimes I want to completely defer to them. And then other times I'm like, what are you talking about? There's no way, even though you played, that I would agree with you on something like this. Maybe it's an in-the-moment thing, but I feel like all the former players

have an awe of Jimmy Butler that far outshines the way the media feels about him. A hundred percent. Like the fact that Chuck calls him Jimmy MF and Butler, like the fact that, because look, man, when the season's going on and it's a random Tuesday or Thursday night, you know, they're watching a lot of things other than the game too and i would agree with you like when shack is like talking about a star i'm like i don't know how much he can even

relate to some of these guys because he was so dominant that like when he looks at mb and he's like he should have 35 and 15 every game and you're like okay like i know you're gonna say that but um jimmy and jamal crawford is is always somebody that has just such a high level basketball iq and when he talks about jimmy he just he's so he'll just sit there with me and he'll just spotlight all of the different moments that i'm not even seeing as a novice basketball watcher. And he can see the game at just a different level. But I think last night was one of those moments. They come back. I'm watching Ernie because I just studied that dude. And he immediately was like, we need to talk about heat bucks. And just the way that they were just shaking their heads and

giving him praise. I can see it in their eyes when it's genuine. And I can see because it is different, man. Like there are times where we've been sitting on the desk and somebody puts up 40 and they're not impressed. Like they're just not. And that was a performance last night where Chuck has a different look on his face. Kenny's shaking his head.

And when Shaq gives you praise, it is rare because he doesn't like doing it. He believes because he grew up in a military household and he had people like Kareem do it to him younger in his career. He truly believes that it is his responsibility to motivate young players. And I've accused him of being a hater. He's done it to Donovan Mitchell. He's done it to Embiid. He genuinely believes that he is helping them. Sometimes I'm like, okay, this is just ego, but then

they get on after the game and they say thank you to him. Now I don't know what to do. But in this world for these athletes where they're constantly praising them, Shaq believes it is his job to humble them, to build them up. I don't know if i agree with that uh just because i'm like i think shack i think guys are very protective of their era but i don't like

when the tnt crew gets lumped into like oh they're just a bunch of haters dumping on this generation because you know what's funny is like everybody looks at that show and goes, that's the show. I want my studio show to be like this show. I think the funny thing is, is like, I'll see other shows trying to be like that show. And it's way worse. Like, hey, I'd rather you just not be good doing it a different way than not being as good trying to show how loose you are. It's funny because like Chuck yelling to the commercial break was natural and ernie and now you at times has to learn that like i'm just going to get trampled like i don't have the traditional host rules like none of it matters ernie can even be annoyed certain nights even though at this point you think he'd be used to it because it still sucks to have somebody in

your ear and you're tossing a break and you're trying to get the toss right and the guys don't give a shit but it's worth the natural and then i'll see other broadcasts like kind of do this thing going to break where it looks like they're trying to mimic this casual thing to it and it's a they all just start yelling right and it's a train wreck and it's like now it's not and then the the thing like back to the initial point is that i'll see some of these other shows with different sports where they want it to be just like the tnt show. And it's like, yeah, but here's the difference. No one is as comfortable criticizing the product, especially when it needs to be criticized and at times overly critical and unfair because of a generational thing. You can't get mad at the TNT crew for looking like haters

at times because they're the only property that doesn't care about. Well, I shouldn't say doesn't care about what the relationship is not in fear of the relationship. And that's why they have the advantage and the fact they actually just let the crew be the same crew for multiple years at a time. And so whenever I hear like, oh, there's just those old heads out there doing this again, I'm like, at least it exists because it doesn't exist on any of the other studio shows with any of the other sports. All right. So I love this because I love getting really meta about my career. I could do an hour on this. Go ahead. So the first thing I was going to say is that Chuck, I can tell, believes it's more important to be honest with his audience than it is to please his bosses,

whether those bosses are the network or the NBA, because that's what suited him for so long. When I took, when I got this gig, I remember sitting down for like months at a time and being like, how am I going to approach this? My number one rule is I never want to be the guy that's like, guys, we got to get back on track. Like, I don't want to be that guy. But at the same point, dude, I sat with comedy writers and listened to them talk about how it's important as the host to set guard rails because it's even more funny when people go over them. And so now I've opened my eyes to it where I've watched classic clips

where Chuck says outlandish things. And right beforehand, Ernie goes, don't do it. Don't say it. And then Chuck says it. And that's the reason why it goes over the top. What you're saying about four people on set yucking it up, if they're all trying to be funny, it's not funny.

And so that's been that was been something that I've really tried to work on, which is like, it's not funny. And so that's been, that was been something that I've really tried to work on, which is like, it's not about me, even though my mom texts me afterwards and goes, you were great tonight. And then like, you know, your friends are like, man, you're killing it. It's not about me. Like if Dan Patrick said this to me, man, it's you're trying to be John Stockton player wise. You, you, you want. You want 10 points, but 15 assists, you know, get one in there, but like, it's all about them. And that was like a really nice reminder every night. But to what you said, I just think every show needs to realize that they are their own show and that you have to work to the talent around you and what they're really good at.

and that you have to work to the talent around you and what they're really good at. Jamal has a relationship with every player in the NBA that has been coming up. He's been a mentor for them. How can I get him in that position? When it was Wade, Wade had battles with every star. How do I get him to story time? Candice is really good at breaking things down. And what she's so good at is how do I defend a player? So when we're covering Luca, I like to like, she'll yell while we're watching, he's going left and pulling up and it's like every time. And so she's the scouting report. So I'm trying to think when we're coming up with the show, how do I access that part of her brain? And I know that Shaq wants to go viral every segment. So I'm, I'm sometimes going to say things that I know he could take to an immature place or allow him to just kind of really be the older brother of the NBA.

But I agree with what you're saying. There are so many shows that are trying to be something. And I think it's figure out what is unique. Figure out what you can do. I don't think we're there yet. It's figure out what is unique, figure out what you, what you can do. I don't think we're there yet. Um, but Chuck, Chuck, we, I was drinking with Chuck one night and he said, um, Hey man,

just remember the moon doesn't compete with the sun. You know, we can both be in the sky and we're not competing with each other. And I was like, and I was like, thanks man. Cause he was like, I know people are going to say you're not us and that's fine. But like you, you could be the moon, we could be the sun. And'm like all right chuck that's a good one man and that would that opened my brain too you know well i you probably know this and you've listened to the pot he's my all-time favorite athlete no one will ever replace him he's he's my favorite and you know the fact that uh years back something happened and he i get a text from charles barkley checking on me it was you know like all-timer because he thought i was like kidding around a little bit he reached out

to van pelt when i first said it and he listens and he watches all the you know everything everything and van pelt's like charles just texted me and asked if you were bullshitting about you being i was like he just heard me say that five minutes ago he's like yeah he was listening to the car he heard it and he didn't know he's like he's listened to you long enough he couldn't tell if you were kidding or not and i was like no i would never joke about that ever and um anyway so he like texted back and anyway like that's still one of those little moments for me as numb as we can come to all this stuff so i want to go back to your thing because as i had said earlier when you google adam lefkoe it's who is he and why is he on

tnt i think it's like the biggest hit that comes up this wasn't an impossible spot for you like nobody was really going to like you in the beginning because you're not ernie and then it's the tuesday edition and all this stuff how did it happen what was it like take me through the whole thing um so i got to Bleacher Report. I've been there for about a decade, and they've been kind of using me occasionally on different events over the years. I think the first time where they kind of felt comfortable, like maybe Adam could be on TV was the first match, which was Tiger versus Phil. And they had me host the pregame show with Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson and Pat Perez. And that was like, what the hell? Uh, we ended up having to be on set all day and it was me,

Chuck and Samuel L. Jackson and Pat just like kicking it. And that was the first time where they like pulled me aside and they're like, that went really well. And I was like, thanks. Like I, I was just trying not to get embarrassed by Samuel L jackson who's like the arbiter of cool and if he left and was like this guy sucks i knew i was done then they kept still knowing him he may have actually said that still who knows i had i had a strategy for samuel jackson i watched like 15 interviews and i realized that he was obsessed with gift bags uh he kept bringing up the Oscar gift bags and like five of them. And so when I went into the locker room, he was like, hey, nice pants.

And I was like, thanks. I go on the host and he goes, oh, cool. And I go, you think we're going to get a gift bag? And his eyes lit up and he was like, come with me. And he put his arm around my shoulder. He's like, me and this guy want to know if we're getting gift bags. And after that, we were a team. And so like, that was a good strategy by me. Well done. That was great. took me out to lunch and she's like, hey, listen, so, you know, players only is over. We're going to be launching a Tuesday show. We kind of have some pieces together. And in my head,

I'm going, oh, they're going to have me be the social media reporter. Like, I'm going to come on and be like, all right, Twitter's a buzz right now. Jimmy Butler, playoff Jimmy, himmy, himothy, you know, like all that stuff. And she goes, and we're kind of thinking about you as the host. And it's one of those moments where like everything you've done in your career is like flying by your head. And it was an empty restaurant. And when I tell you, Rosillo, like I stood up and I walked around the entire restaurant and then I sat back down. I was like, you fucking with me? And she was like, no. And I was like, yes. And like my brain my brain like i i'm the kind of dude that'll like go to coffee shop for like four hours and just fill a notebook with ideas and i was like i'm

not gonna pitch you ideas right now but i got ideas and she was like we know and i was like okay cool but i told her like that lunch i was like you know everyone's gonna hate me i said the one thing i'm gonna ask you is do not care about the opinions for like, just give me like a year to like, cause I was like, I'm replacing everybody's sports TV dad. And by replacing, I mean like I'm sitting on the desk that he normally sits in. You know what I mean? And I said, I just want you to know that like, I'm so honored to be like Ernie's teammate. Like, I don't like, I feel like I'm a stepdad.

It's like, oh, we got stepdad, like substitute teacher guy. Um, but yeah, I, I had to tell my friends and family too. I was like, don't tell me what people are saying. Like, I know at the same point, don't take it to heart because it's going to be like this. Um, and the only thing that I can do is work and be prepared. The first thing I did was I was like, can I just come in and watch Ernie for a day? And I love Ernie. Me and him have an amazing relationship. And we had met when I first got there. And just the kind of person he is.

We gave out an Emmy Award together. And he gave the Emmy to Stuart Scott's kids right after he passed. But I just studied it, man. I was like, okay, if he comes in at 2.30, I'm coming in at 2. If he fills out a daily notebook every day with notes, I'm going to keep one as well. And it was just like, he's the GOAT. But no, I definitely went in with what you were saying, that mindset of I am screwed. And just put your head down and battle. And hopefully after a few years, people will be like, he's not bad. It's weird.

And I don't know if I'm reading this wrong, but when I asked you the question that way in the beginning about like the Google response, you had to look on your face like, oh, this again, or like, oh, because I didn't mean to do it as like a negative. It was just the reality of- No, it's the Seinfeld cast and the rap cast was like,

because that's usually the one that pops up first. And so then I tell that story in Louisville, Kentucky. But no, I wasn't expecting it to go that way. Also on Google, it says I'm 5'10", which like really, like, and I don't know how you are, so I don't mean to I'll tell you, I don't mean to offend you, but like

my wife got really upset at that because I'm 6'2", and I sit next to Shaq, and the number one thing I hear right now is oh you're taller than i thought but uh yeah i don't know why i went down that road right sorry no i think it's you know the podcast has got a decent decent number behind it so we're just setting the record straight here on top yeah i appreciate your backstory who knows that could be updated by the time this comes out so that would be i don't have a week i'm like the time this comes out so i don't have a week i'm like the only one on tnt that doesn't have a wikipedia page too and i don't want to like do

that process i just i don't know how many other people would have gotten this opportunity you know like the the host share has evolved and it's evolved very rapidly of like all the different things that television and radio has tried to do where i kind of looked at you was like oh this guy actually has some of the traditional hosting stuff but then to go into this world where it's not really much of a warm-up and it sucks it sucks for you because it's like immediately because i'm different immediately because i'm not ernie and it's like who's this guy i think and be like i hope they're not going to replace ernie with this but already pretty mad about something that might not even happen uh you were smart to ignore as much of it as you possibly could but we both know that it's

it's really hard yeah it sleeps in yeah uh so how do you feel now then well if you're going to answer it if you if you want to answer something however you're going to answer it go ahead and then you know follow up anyway well i was going to say the first show the way that our our show started like kobe passed first show canceled they do that incredible show in staples with uh shack and them on the court and they're crying so that was like the sunday before our first tuesday show and then do you know the amount of time that we were all, so me, Wade, Candice and Shaq were all in the same room before the first show for, I want to say 17 seconds. So like, we've never, we've never had pre-show like conversations or like all that.

Like I had gone out to dinner with Wade and and all that but um literally they're like 30 seconds and then like shack walks on set and he's like hey i'm shack i'm like hey man i'm lefkoe and he goes are those bullet holes on your shirt and i go no they're flowers and he goes oh cool and then it's like five four so that's it you know what i mean like and i do And I don't use teleprompter because I don't like the look of people reading on television. And I also don't like the fact that the other talent reads while you're reading. And so it's all kind of improv. I know what I'm going to say. I treat it like Curb, where I know where I have to get to and I know the topics that I have to hit, but we're just going to find a way to get there. Um, but that, that was what you were saying about like the adjustment period in terms of like, uh, hate and all that stuff. Um, I think it was tough in the beginning just because as somebody that was working at Bleacher Report and somebody that was doing a podcast, you use the internet as an idea farm and you really listen to your audience

and you guys have people writing in and so you're really paying attention to that. But for me, afterwards, Shaq actually changed my brain completely. There was one day where we're doing a Mavericks game. I think it was bubble. And I said, Dorian Finney Smith, but it was Tim Hardaway Jr. Just one of those things where I got the sheet late. I looked up, I didn't see who it was. And I go, oh, my bad, Tim Hardaway Jr. And Wade goes, oh, Lefkoe. Yeah, we all look alike. And then we're all laughing. And then in commercial break, I look on Twitter and it's like, Adam Lefkoe says this and Wade corrects him. We all look alike. And I was like, man, Wade, you're already getting me in trouble. And Shaq looks at me and he goes,

put that shit away. Don't look at that. And I was like, oh no. He goes, no, it's the same thing with my kids. Don't look at that. You don't want that, man. Don't look at that. And he was yelling at me for like five minutes, right? And then we do a segment. Then afterwards he goes, I know you look at that stuff. Don't look at social media. And I was like, okay.

I was like, dude, I was just making a joke. It's not a big deal. I stayed around because we had like 15 minutes. He went to the bathroom, came back and he was getting the jacket on. And he goes, Lefkoe,e you're good you're like really good and you don't need to look at that shit he goes you are an alien i am an alien we do not concern concern ourselves with the opinions of earthlings and i was like damn and he was like yeah and. And he was like, yeah. And anytime I'm looking at social media, Shaq will be like, put that shit away.

And so that really changed my brain. And then like the next day I woke up, and it was a text from Shaq that said, I love you. And I was like, I was sitting in bed and I was like, damn, am I an alien? Like, this is cool. But that from then on, I really don't care anymore because I understand why people are saying those things. And I know how my coworkers feel about me. And to me, it's

like, I care about the people that I work with. And I know, I watch Wednesdays after a show, I rewatch the show and I know if I did good or bad. I treat it like game film. But if people feel that way, the only comments that I really care about are ones that are breaking it down. So if they say he interrupts too much, that's a no. I take that as a no.

If I don't know why I don't like this guy or he's annoying to me, I can't control that. Yeah, look, I mean, you're on TNT, all right? This is the big leagues and you just double and single A and everything else, it feels like. And yet, just spending some time with you, it's very clear to me. I'm like, okay, I'm clear to me like i'm like okay like i'm getting to know you in a way obviously i've never really met before and i'm like all right

there's a lot of this is kind of making sense um you know what's funny about shack is i think in the beginning when he got onto the show i was like protective of the barkley thing me too i'll i'll admit at home sometimes i'm like so mad at kenny because i'll just be like leave chuck alone dude taking it personally which is stupid all right but then shack i was like oh man like i don't know i don't know i've grown to kind of like like that guy so much as a dude like it doesn't mean i agree with everything he says that's such an absurd standard that we have for people that we don't know because we don't have that with people that we do know but every time I hear like how genuine Shaq is and how good he is with other people and you sharing a story like I love it you know you know

it's funny he's like you want to talk about being defensive when he said to Christian Wood I wasn't familiar with your game which is really funny I was pissed that people thought it was awesome that Christian would call Shaq a casual. Again, Christian would falls into that bucket of me of like, oh, you think he's good. Oh, so you don't know anything about basketball. That's cool. Right. Right. So that's kind of how I am about like certain players where I'm like, I don't care how many numbers I was mad about the reaction where people thought that was a win for Christian would by calling Shaq a casual. When I was like, that's how much I've turned. I was, I wouldn't say like, look, he was a Laker. It wasn't like anything I was going to be rooting for Shaq, but getting to know him, the person more

over these years to that show and through stories like yours and others that I know that know him really well, like he's something else, man. And it sounds like he's an awesome teammate too. Yeah. like there were times man where i thought those like shack videos were like he buys like a couple an engagement ring i was like oh this is just good marketing and then i saw him with like people at work like candace uh had a baby recently and he was like hey i'm taking care of it i'm gonna make sure you're going like it's just natural like he is i'm it's because natural. It's because of the guy that raised him and the fact that he was moving all over the world as a child. And everywhere he went, he didn't feel at home.

And so I think the comedy thing is a defense mechanism. But he really is a good guy. I will say that I felt that way about Kenny. And then I hosted the Thursday show a few times, like filled in. And I realized the role that he plays there. Oh yeah. And I get that.

Oh, right. But the no rings thing just is always going to piss me off as a Barkley guy. So that's all. It's so interesting. Like that was like the main topic for like a decade. And I don't think it really comes up as much anymore. But to have a dude that's as self-deprecating as Chuck that can take it, every commercial is

about not having rings, but he does not care. I had him one time we were hanging out and he had a new Emmy that he won for best sportscaster of the year. And when I hang out with Chuck, we drink and we tell stories. And I go, how many is that for you? He goes, I think that, I think that's my fourth. And I go, I go, man, I go, how many times has the show won Emmys? And he's like, man, I don't know, like 15. And I was like, well, where are those? He goes, we don't get them. And I was like, wait a second. So like when NBA on D&D wins an Emmy, you don't get one, but like all the producers do and all that stuff. And he looks at me and he goes, man, my life is amazing. Let everybody else have them. Cause man, life is great. And I was like,

wow. Cause you know, like coming up, like you're like, I want to be an Emmy award winner. And then you're like, we I'm on TV talking about winner. And then you're like, we, I'm on TV talking about basketball. Like my job is to like watch and then go, Hey Shaq, what did you think? Like who cares? And, and dude, the reason TNT is different, Ernie and Chuck set the tone. They know the janitor's name and they will treat the janitor with more respect than they will treat the other hosts on the show. And then you go into the makeup room and the music is playing. And it's like Frankie Beverly and Maze. And Isaiah Thomas comes in because he's on NBA TV that night and he's like dancing. Right. And then like the vibes are always great because everybody treats each other with respect and everybody loves each other like that and it starts with chuck and ernie man like they they set the tone you're a philly guy how do you feel about philadelphia against boston if it is boston

boston's going to the finals like it's i've been saying this since the beginning like i heard you and bill on on sunday, and I felt like you were winking at each other, like, let's talk about the East as though we don't think that Boston is definitely going to the finals. One of our last nights, I think it was a Thursday night that I hosted, was the Boston 41

point win over the Bucs. I remember leaving set and going, Brogdon took everybody off the dribble. Tatum, Brown, Smart. I was like, Milwaukee's a lot slower than I remember them being last year. I have no confidence in the Sixers team at all.

I had no confidence before Embiid is going to be wearing a leg brace and doing pain management because I watched James Harden hit seven threes in game one, but the entire series be completely ineffective around the basket. And I do not have confidence in Tobias Harris.

And I do not think Tyrese Maxey is at that level yet to be that guy against Boston. I just... I don't see it. I've never seen it. I don't trust Doc. This is just,

Philly fans are harder on their team than any, but Boston is going to the finals. Here's what Philly fans are. And Bucs fans can do this a little bit too. It's like, all the stuff that you're saying

that's critical of us, we say, but we don't like that you said it. I'm okay with it. No, you're fine. You're certified because it's your hometown. But when I think watching that Philly team through the idea of like, can they

get out of the East? Can they be a team? Can this team win a championship? Because that's the standard that they've set for themselves. That's the standard of like, you know, I feel like Embiid because I do think people really like him despite, I feel like the people close to him trying to convince him that everybody hates him, which

I think is a fucking really stupid stupid stupid approach to this guy's mental awareness of like where he's at in the game but if they get bounced and he's he's not healthy again like i think he'll finally kind of fall into that group of like oh wait maybe you can't win with this guy where i feel like whenever you say can or can't, it's the easiest thing in the world to say about a player. Like you can't win with him. And it's like, well, the odds are in your favor because it's really, really hard.

It's a really easy argument to probably win, but I'd rather it be, do you think he can't win or do you think this person is incapable of winning? Because that's a much more damning thing. It's a much shorter list of players. And there's definitely a couple of players that I feel like falling out of category. And Embiid is not one of those players. But that's what's going to happen if they were to get bounced out.

Because even with the Brooklyn sweep, the point I was originally trying to make, Lefkoe, when I watch Golden State Sacramento run up and down for four games, and I would think of like, what would Philadelphia? I realize they're not in the West, but I go, what would the Sixers team look like in a game where a team like that decided that they were like,

no, no, no, we want it. Let's go. Let's go. We're going to run with you. Not that Boston is necessarily either of those. Look what they're doing to Sabonis right now. Look what they're doing to Sabonis.

The Warriors. West Brooklyn. Yeah. I had Sabonis at five in MVP. And he looks like a jabroni. Like, it's crazy. But I think the big thing is, and this is a big podcast, so I'm nervous about saying it. But Doc Rivers just does not put and be in big situations in positions

to like be successful. I think sometimes, you know, like even the way that like they attacked Brooklyn where like every first half it was Embiid catching the ball at the top of the, of the arc and like getting double teamed and, and kind of being frantic. How are, how are there not plays that are getting him in a better position to catch the ball to run it? You know, and I think Embiid himself did a much better job this year

than years past of not settling for threes and not trying to prove to people that he can shoot threes, but instead like perfecting that 15-foot jumper, which is pretty much unguardable if he can get a jab step in. But no, I don't know any Sixers fans that really thought this team was going to make a run.

Like, I don't know any that really were like, this could be the year. I have always thought that as a Sixers fan, all I really cared about was being an MVP this year. And I think that to the Boston discussion, they went one and three against Boston this year. And the one game they won was Embiid in the throes of the MVP argument, going for 50.

He went for 50. And they're up like seven or eight with 40 seconds left. I had two dudes on my floor. One is a Sixers fan. One is a Celtics fan. And they're both in like VC and like business and stuff. And so one of them treated the other one to courtside seats for that game.

Okay. Like romance at its core. And they were sitting right there. And they said, dude, the Sixers are up seven or eight. And Doc Rivers is looking at the crowd and he's talking, hey, how great is this? And the assistant coaches are laughing. Remember how that game ended? Marcus Smart drawing the foul on Embiid, Tatum hitting a three. The Celtics almost came back and won that game. And my friend Yaniv, that is a Sixers fan, was like, it was torture to watch this team almost throw it away.

And Doc Rivers was laughing with the audit like the crowd and all that and and even that win the one game they won doesn't even feel good like if you really watch that game it's like they tried to blow this game and it beat head 50 something but that's interesting to hear you say you don't have any sixers fans that think they're gonna win do you know any i don't know as many sixers fans as you do i don't know any Sixers fans that think they're going to win. Do you know any? I don't know as many Sixers fans as you do. I don't know, man. The Ringer got like 85 Sixers fans, I feel like, on there.

Yeah, we get accused by the GM of all being Boston homers, despite the fact I think all of us voted Embiid, All-Star starters, and for MVP. Because I had a really hard time with my vote. I had a really hard time. I was like, you know he's not better than Giannis, but that's, I kept reminding myself at the end, I go, that's not the award. That's not what the award is. And I think they've done a good job with MVP because it's kind of funny. Like you talk about wanting to move them around. I would agree with half of that. Okay. You know, we can't give him credit for having him catch at

top, face everything and not get caught in a very short amount of space. But I would agree, like, okay, maybe you get him on some kind of role. Maybe you get him on something where it's not always ending up with the same look. I'm really surprised that Embiid struggles with some of the turnover stuff as late as he does, where he feels like he's unaware of the idea. Like, hey, they're going to send a second guy in the backside of you here. Like, how have you not figured this shit out yet and he and harden the turnover numbers in clutch time it hasn't burned them enough because if you're not a sixer chain you're not looking at that stuff you're not as locked into it when mb puts the ball on the ground

and tries to drive it's like it goes to like two people it's a turnover every time it's bad it's it's it's it's a lot but uh i was i was surprised not so much of like the positional stuff that we're talking about here where right from the jump you knew what brooklyn was going to do you can say they changed it up a little bit i think they actually got caught a couple times triple teaming because the other guy didn't know who was going and you're you're watching it and you're going how can none of you guys off the ball fucking cut like how can and maxi would catch and cut i'm not worried about maxi at all now there might be too much size in a matchup where but i think his mentality wise not worried about maxi at all good for tobias harris but they're up 3-0 i can't help but think that like oh they're up 3-0

and he's going off here. But I wanted to see, and Boston's defense is going to be different anyway, but against Brooklyn, it was pretty clear what was happening most every position that Embiid was in the game. Why are the other guys not moving? Basketball is really simple. If you keep moving, it's a pain in the ass. It's a pain in the ass for me to keep up with you the whole time.

If you're going to stand there and we wait for the main action to happen and nobody else wants to do anything else, for too many of the possessions, you're like, this is awesome. It's just that Brooklyn isn't good enough. Okay, before we let you go, we know you're doing a bunch of draft stuff,

so give us the full scope of everything that's happening with the draft coming up this week. All right, so what's crazy, because I was like, every step of my career in Nebraska, I was focused on college football. I was covering in Dominican Sioux. When I was like every step of my career in Nebraska, I was focused on college football. I was covering in Dominican Sioux. When I was in Louisville, I covered Kentucky and Louisville basketball, Rick Pitino Calipari, Anthony Davis, the Louisville championship that they say didn't

happen, but I saw it with my own two eyes. When I got to Bleacher Report, I was like strictly NFL for like five, six years. This is my 10th NFL draft, which is nuts. Chris Sims is now like Sunday night football. Matt Miller is going to be on the desk with Mel Kuyper. Connor Rogers is like NBC. So it's been cool to watch everybody go. But this year, it is

BR at BR YouTube. Mike Renner, formerly of PFF, is going to join me. Mike Felder. The last few years, we've had a number of moments really go viral. Jason, Kelsey, and myself reacting to the A.J. Brown trade. I think that we kind of helped RG3 get a job at ESPN because that's when he said that Kellen Mond will replace Kirk Cousins. Bad take.

But on the draft, nobody cares about bad takes. They just want takes. Cam Jordan came on, and when Kyles got drafted by the falcons he said he'd separate his head from his body uh so we're like the only real quick though on the on the rg3 thing i think zimmer was so over cousins at one point he wanted that to actually happen which blew my mind as somebody that watched mond and i was like what it's so funny as a college football dude where I'll go weak. I wanted to ask you about this, man,

because I listened to you about Anthony Richardson the first two games. And now, like, you predicted this. You were like, I know he's going to have a few plays and NFL draft season is going to come around, but I watched him and I watched it. So Anthony Richardson,

his whole preseason draft positioning on the mock spawned an idea for a segment that I'm going to do with Van Lathan next year is before the college football season starts because we love Saturdays so much. We're going to look at the first Mel Kiper mock and we're going to go through the first rounders. A majority of you guys we've already seen

and we're going to go, well, that's stupid or over under on some of those. Right. Because Richardson being at 15, I think I'm like, what are you guys smoking? This is nuts. Then he has the Utah game. I think I, I, they might've been a restraining order on me after that game because I

couldn't believe how good he was. And then it fell apart. And then I got super annoyed too, with like one of the broadcasts where they were like billy napier has an approach where there's a real buy-in there's a i'm doing a little test right now i'm sorry test there's a real buy-in down here in gainesville where you know they've changed the culture and then it's like okay now they can't reverse they can't convert third and five like fucking cool T-shirts. But what the fuck? So I was totally off them again.

And it's funny because the NFL dudes are overly protective of the college to NFL thing to the point where I would submit ass holy ish about it, where every coach that comes in, if he's a college guy, he's a fucking idiot. And look, the draft is what it is i mean i spend time on talking about nba players that i haven't watched until i've caught up because i can't do both during the regular season with the nba college but there'll be certain nfl dudes where i'm like you if this was reversed if i didn't watch any Sunday games and then just went and got caught up and was like, you know who's nasty? I'm just trying to think of a good example here. Nick Mullins, man. That guy can spin it.

That guy can make some throws. So when I see the Anthony Richardson stuff happening, I'm going, man, you're seeing something different on tape than I've watched throughout the majority of his career. So yeah, I don't know. That stuff always happens. I'm not sure who's right because we're all wrong collectively about the position in an epic way and we can't ever figure it out. I just want everyone to realize, to look back at the 2018 draft where we had five quarterbacks much more heralded than this that were all supposed to be good. And you looked at Baker and Darnold and Rosen and Josh Allen and Lamar. And I think

there are a lot of comparisons to this. Baker was like the undersized guy that went number one. I think that's going to be Bryce Young. Richardson will play the Lamar Jackson role. They're trying to put Will this Josh Allen role. But I don't think that this is a great draft overall. I talk to a lot of draft analysts and a lot of players and stuff. They think it's kind of a weak draft. My big opinions of what I think is going to happen, I think

B. John Robinson goes a lot earlier than people think because I don't think the top end is that high and he's one of the few top end guys. I also think that I don't see it with like any of these quarterbacks really like there's just there's a big hole

in all of them. I don't know where you are on Bryce. I mean, but like this will levis what's happening right now on Reddit where like his odds have gone from like plus,000 to plus 400 because a friend of a friend is saying that he's telling people he's going number one. The week of the draft is always the most nonsense. And people throw everything to the wind when we know these teams are trying to mess with media reports. Like we know this, but Will Levis has eaten bananas

with the skin on and put mayonnaise in his coffee, but he did well on like an S2 test that came out like last year and suddenly one data point replaces like all of the games that we watched and that he can't throw passes five yards in, but I'm a host. I'm

not an opinion haver, so I'll ask questions. I won't give takes. It feels like a QB class we're going to look back at a couple of years ago. Why did everybody talk themselves into these guys? I mean, that's the way it feels right now. I would take Bryce one because he's one of the best quarterbacks I've ever seen in college. I think he's that good. I understand the size thing like everybody else, but if I had the number one pick and I needed a quarterback, I would go, look, I don't love this. I almost would have a do not draft rule on him because of his size. But you know what? We screwed up with the six five guys all the time, too.

We screwed up all the time with those dudes. So you know what? I'll probably just take them. I mean, seriously, if that's what I was saying to my owner, he'd probably fire me on the spot being like, I'd like you to have a little more passion about this. I'd like you to have a little more certainty. about this. I'd like you to have a little more certainty, but considering how bad the track record is with that position with even the first rounders,

I'll screw it up with the small guy because you're screwed up with all the magazine cover guys all the time anyway. I can't wait. I love the draft like anything. It's so much fun. We'll see what happens. That'll be coming up on Thursday. Hey, this was a lot of fun, dude.

Thanks for doing this. I'm happy for you getting to know your story here a little bit more too uh i appreciate you uh you guys have helped me through steam room etiquette uh people playing uh podcasts in there uh and it just made me feel not alone in my craziness um i keep killing it uh i'm proud of your journey, man. I just want you to know that in media, there's always this weird thing where you feel like you have to keep going up. And you, I feel like, are the

next generation of the Dan Patrick, of somebody that left a traditional place and went and said, I'm going to do this myself. And so I appreciate you, and thank you for showing interest, and shout out to Kyle and so Rudy for, for always killing it, man. Well, that was nice of you to say, man, they can hear you.

So I'm sure they appreciate it as well. It's Adam Lefkoe, TNT, Bleacher Portraff this week. Succession recap, because we've got the NFL draft, which means our next episode will be friday just what we wanted to do uh i loved i loved uh this episode i just think that the way they've they've mapped out the madsen character to be like okay we're gonna have another tech guy how do we want to do it they could have gone right out of central casting vest silicon valley bullshit let's go and it was like nope let's have him be swedish and uh the character's terrific because you're always kind of like unsettled around him which is exactly what it's like in all of the scenes

so they go out to this place that looks like it's make-believe norway i don't know where that place is but it looks awesome it looks incredible and to have this all play out and then the roman scene where madison's pissing that was that was big time stuff like people were joking about it being like emmy nominated stuff while the other character is pissing i thought roman's whole dialogue and that and how well he played being that upset where he's just fucking had it with him was was terrific i i really i love that episode i liked it um i also felt a little bit strange because i think saruti and I are going to meet a bunch of Swedes this summer for intro days. And I just, I, they seemed a little standoffish and I wonder how they're going to

look at us boatload of Americans coming in. If they look at us the same way, I kind of felt, I felt a little nervous for what we got to go through this summer, but it was definitely, I loved like from the, like how everybody straight up just sized each other up. And like Hugo, who was like probably the most self-conscious dude, like in the, in the nation at that point, just like his, his,

his almost bronze metal stuff. Like, it's just, it was funny to see how everyone was like circling each other. It's like, wow, that was almost awesome. Huh?

Those damn tenths of a second. I thought Hugo had a great performance. He also has a full plate of croissants. He's like, yeah, oh yeah. It's just because I metabolize so fast, I'm really dynamic. It's so good. This was the first episode

that I think I didn't like Greg. I really just was annoyed by Greg this entire episode. I thought the quad squad thing was really just uncomfortable. And I know that's what the point of it was, but I was like, dude,

really? And then when he, and then we starts talking about what was it? The economist in front of Madsen and Tom's making fun of him. I'm like, Greg, I just, I kind of,

I mean, again, it's not like I don't like Greg, the character, but I almost felt like that was too far. And it was the first time I really was like, fuck you, Greg,

like just stay out of this. Like I don't need any more Greg right now. But obviously it worked in the, in the grand scheme of things of telling the story of whatnot. But I don't know, man. I thought it was a really good episode. I think your point, Ryan, Roman, that like, obviously, he's funny and everybody likes him because they think he's like not a serious character. But he's been really serious the last couple episodes. And like, I just, you know, I'm not like a true like TV and film critic.

But like, it really is kind of impressive to see a guy who you kind of think of as a joke for most of the series now really being emotional. It's kind of weird to see, but it's actually also awesome too. Yeah, because I don't think I always loved all the Roman stuff, where if you read about it, they encouraged him to hammer the improvisational stuff with the insults right

and i'll admit like sometimes i'd be like okay you know like i got it you know like you're just being vulgar or whatever but then if you think of him always feeling like he had his dad's back more than any of them and obviously having that relation relationship be really close at the end and then them kind of struggling with the idea of like, they actually seem more pro-Logan in these moments after his death, which I think is a very real thing despite how complicated the relationship was all the time. And then for Roman to deliver this thing where it just feels so honest

and it felt like it fit it perfect despite the fact that they're up in the mountains. I don't know if these are technically fjords. I like saying it that way because I've been to the Western Icelandic fjords. So, look, I'm just saying it over and over again how much I like the show. But then the Madsen part, do they give him cap teeth on this? Is he going buck teeth? no i'm look i'm just saying it over and over again how much i like the show but then the madsen part do they give him cap teeth on this is he going buck teeth is that his scars guard wouldn't rock those choppers would he in real life oh i didn't notice that i didn't notice at all i didn't notice anything different i mean i i've seen a bunch of him and i didn't i

wasn't thrown off by his teeth but But I thought they were a little extra. And I don't remember that in other stuff that I've seen him in. But I don't know. I don't know. Anything else? Yeah. Wait a minute. Greg.

Neutered Greg is bumming me out, Saruti. So I completely agree. Like, his whole character right now is trying to find his way back in. Completely agree. His whole character right now is trying to find his way back in. And I haven't always loved it because I just feel like all of his powers are gone. And it and is there if necessary, including the guys in the suite, including the Swedes. But I'm not annoyed by that. I get why that's a good move for Tom. And Tom's whole thing is fucked up now, too, because Shiv asked him out to dinner at the end of the episode, too. But I don't know.

I've never been annoyed with Greg. It was just kind of weird. I actually don't want more awkward Greg right now. I kind of want more of whatever the hell's going on with this deal. But it was short enough for him. It doesn't really matter. I'm also glad that they did. Because I think it's easy to forget how little time there was

between Logan's death and obviously you're watching this week to week and you can assume that it's maybe a week or something after his death. But I like that he pointed out like, hey, our dad died a couple days ago. You couldn't have just waited a week or something after his death but i like that he pointed out like hey our dad died like a couple days ago you couldn't just waited a week like i like that they just reiterated that because i think it's easy to forget how soon after they had to fly across the fucking atlantic to do this deal after their dad died like it's an easy thing to forget so i'm glad they brought it up and i mean we haven't even had we haven't even had the funeral yet which i mean

you see that call from from connor like you know out there they're so busy they can't even you know really properly fight all the bullshit they think marsh has been doing we haven't seen her enough to like really whatever her plan is like has been has not gonna has not been able to unfold yet and i imagine there's going to be some pretty uncomfortable conversations at this funeral which hasn't even happened yet it's been really two weeks since we found out he's been dead so you're right that's like, usually the funeral is like pretty soon after get everything, but they, you know, we just had this whole, um, the Sweden episode too. So you're, you're right. I mean, it's been what now three days since he's actually died and, and, you know, day four will

be like, you know, there'll be flying back and getting ready for this funeral. So, um, it's been a, it's going to be a jam-packed couple episodes, like timeline-wise, too. A couple other things. The Shiv, is she pregnant thing, and then she was drinking. I was wondering, and doing coke or whatever. She actually never did it, though, right? Wasn't she just rolling the vial in her fingers?

Because I don't know when that's safe. How late can you drink and do cocktail? Which trimester? I think it's the first one. Yeah. So there's that

part of it. Did you guys think they were going to hook up? I kind of was like, wait, is this on right now? Yeah. Totally. When he did the hug, wait, is this on right now? Yeah. Yeah, totally. When he did the hug thing earlier, there was a couple like hints that maybe something would be weird. And then, of course, they just make it even better by going like, so you're sending your blood to your comms director. Like, OK. And I was like, well, that is that actually something or just expanding the depth of Madsen's weirdness?

Is that actually something or just expanding the depth of Madsen's weirdness? And then I think one of my favorite parts of the entire season so far is the writer's room and whoever, whether it was Jesse Armstrong, the creator or whatever. But the piece of paper, right? Like Logan still had to have some kind of power over all of these people, even in his death. And this piece of paper was was perfect. It can seem a little cliche to be like, oh, there's a mysterious piece of paper. And then they also tease you the idea that Carl and Frank are going to tear it up. Right. And then Jerry comes in.

Humorous vein. Right. That whole that whole scene was incredible. Carl. Carl. Carl's the best. He's honestly my favorite character. He's so good.

He's so fucking good. All the Carl stuff. So there's this piece of paper and, you know, a lesser show with lesser writers honestly would probably have fucked that up. It would have been lame, right? It just wouldn't have worked as well. just wouldn't have worked as well and for the line to be under kendall but sort of through it and kendall looks at it again at the end of what was it episode four where he's looking and he's just he's looking at it the way we're looking at it going is this me underlined to emphasize or is this me crossed off to emphasize that it's definitely not me and when shiv challenges him on

it and he's like it sure as shit doesn't say shiv incredible line which is the this this minor minor detail just a line that is slightly arching up that is both underlining something and looking like it's crossing it out to just hammer home the self-doubt that Kendall has had from the first scene we ever saw him in this show. I love it, but I've liked how Kendall has looked. I love Roman stuff in the last one. Shiv's always great. Tom, the whole deal. But you're right.

Like if if Greg were power rankings, the key of power rankings right now, you know, it'd be like jaw with an arrow down. Yeah. It's like one of those, like at some point, like you're, you,

you exist long enough for us to turn on you and you become the enemy. Like, I don't want Greg to become the enemy here. Like I don't want Greg to become our Memphis Grizzlies. Well, once Greg stopped being poor, really it's, he became less endearing immediately.

I mean, poor Greg was the best, but i think he could never top poor greg so poor greg was the best especially when he passes on the 250 million which i think will be a mistake from his grandfather but when those guys start talking about how like five million is the worst that's that's worse than nothing yeah you're basically poor to rich people yeah because there's through like they're so convincing right there's no they're so convincing of it and there's just these little seeds of like five million you you like think you're a guy five million like that's worse than zero actually uh okay there you go there's a little recap i posted that's two concerts in

six days for your boy that is that is a new record that's jimmy butler type shit over here for me to leave the house twice during the nba playoffs i'm happy for you dude i really am get out of the house i know know this is a fun time because it's the playoffs, but I know how cabin feverish you get. I'm happy for you, dude. Thanks, Rudy. You were sincere about that because we talked off the air and you were like,

I'm really glad you went to that. I was like, alright, people started to talk about me. It should be totally fair. We've got to encourage Rosillo to get out of the house. Totally fair. He's getting a little weirder uh let's see here so the backstory with me and fish and some have heard it before you know high school once i heard about it was obsessed i was washing dishes in high school actually the black dog restaurant where you see those t-shirts there's a restaurant there that opened i think the late 70s maybe mid 70s 74 um the douglas family opened it uh the guys i got

to know years later has been your guys anyway their whole point of bringing up the restaurant stuff is that when you're 15 16 years old you're working on a restaurant you are uh educated in a bunch of different ways and the best one the most positive one is music. So you'd be back there and all these chefs, like they were just super into the music scene, right? And they were all about it, man. And they, you know, they would put on tapes of everything. And, you know, especially when you're young and if you're into music and you're hearing things,

you're kind of impressionable. You're incredibly impressionable when you're young, but in a way that can be like one of the most amazing things because you don't have anything else that's in the way and you know i'm hearing all these bands and that's kind of like when the jam band thing was taken over right like at first at one point we thought the spin doctors were actually like a jam band right and then it was blues traveler um you know i've always mentioned how much i've looked widespread and there's a bunch of other stuff that, you know, I'm probably not giving enough credit. But Fish was the first one for me where I went, holy shit, like, what is this?

Because it was a little weird. It's a little different. And the first three albums, you know, were all out by the time they were already. I think the first two had already been out and then Nectar came out when I was in high school around that time. And so I ended up going to UVM, which is funny because it's not why I went to UVM. My family in Vermont, I wanted to go to St. Mike's because I thought there was a small, small chance if I filled out, I could play basketball there later on. And then I went to visit St. Mike's again after an early decision and they fucking waitlisted me, which I couldn't believe. And then I visited UVM on the way there. And my dad and I were like,

whoa, dude, this place is sick. And I was like, all right, we'll see. And I got in and I went, and now I'm telling a story that has nothing to do with this, but I guess I'm just giving you the backdrop of the whole thing. It's like, when you got to UVM, it was, there were some dudes like you thought you liked fish. You were like, Oh my God. Uh, I also took music theory because I like music so much despite not taking an instrument F. So the best show, one of the best concerts I've ever been to, uh, was, was the April 94 show. Cause it was the best setting it's out outside uh for us not to show us flint theater which is an amazing theater right there on main street in town but it was this deal where those vermont springs are almost non-existent it's it's winter into mud into hot summer and so if you got a nice spring day on campus and we're hanging around we're having having some beers, we're getting shots up, which is a weird thing to do when you're young, drink and play basketball.

But hey, we're young. And then to go, yeah. Hey, do you want to walk down to fish? And you're like, yeah, we already had our tickets, everything. Walk in, walk right up to the front and the guys come out and it just fucking blows you away. But at that point, I'd already loved them now for a couple of years. The funny thing is the first time I saw him i think was 91 um and then there was another time i saw him when i was in high school the first time i went to go see him when i was in high school i didn't even want to have a beer because i didn't want anything to get

in the way which is really funny because then i came back the guys were like hey you know hey man how fucked up did you get and i was like nothing I'm like, I didn't want to do anything. I just wanted to experience the whole thing. It looked to me like I was so weird because the vineyard was a little hippie-ish too. And so then I saw him another time and I borrowed. It was the first time I ever drove a car on the highway because I'd only drove on Martha's Vineyard. And I didn't think I had my license for a year. I think it was like a Northampton thing and a guy from the restaurant let me borrow his Azusa Azusa trooper I couldn't

even pronounce it because I don't think I've said that word in fucking decades I haven't seen an Azusa yeah the Azusa trooper so I pulled off the boat and got on the highway and I was like had massive anxiety about it because I was like this fucking crazy. Look at all these cars changing lanes. And then the guy's car who I had, I went to his buddy's apartment in North Hampton and they were, they took the car over the commandeered it immediately. Cause they were like the older dudes and they were like, yeah, you're not driving. So I was like, all right, cool. No problem. So the Flynn show was like it, I was like, I don't think I can do much better than that. And then I saw him one other time.

So that was it. That was pretty much it. And as far as the CDs and everything, you know, I like the first three probably the most. And then Riff, I was still amazed. I mean, I probably like the Colorado tape as much as anything because I just like that these guys were so young and doing something so different. The game had story and all these different things things which some of you are getting any of these references and that's fine and i'm not super locked into all these stuff if there's some sort of acronym or whatever i'm gonna fail that quiz all right i'm i'm not that guy and i'll i'll never

forget waiting in line at pure pop in burlington for hoist to be released my freshman year of the cd and i waited and i waited to get it that's how like i was that into it and then i remember hoist to be released my freshman year the cd and i waited and i waited to get it that's how like i was that into it and then i remember hoist when i heard wolfman's brother it was the first time i was like what the fuck guys like what is what is this because i really didn't like that song and it was like the first line and then you like feel like a band owes you something and then i was kind of back in with billyze, which was, I think, going into my senior year, and then there was two CDs where I was like, all right, I don't know what to do anymore.

So this was a long stretch of me not, like, I liked them. I'd still have stuff. I remember I still had a double cassette deck for a long time in the 2000s because there was this riff version from, like, UNH that I still loved that much, but I wasn't going to, when guys were like, hey, we're going to go see him, all the late 90s stuff, I didn't care anymore.

When they got back together, I was like, whatever. And I met a guy who used to work with him. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say his name or not, so maybe I won't. And then he invited me and was like, you should come out to the Hollywood Bowl shows because it's a Hollywood Bowl one, which is an amazing venue. If you've ever seen anything there. And we can go. So roll in on Saturday. And I'll admit to with all the basketball that was going on this weekend, I was like, maybe I won't go. I look at the traffic and how far away it is, the Hollywood Bowl from Manhattan Beach. And I'm like, dude, it's an hour and plus. I'm like, this is going to suck. And then I got a text from the

guy being like, are you good? And I was like, all right. He texted me. Now I'm going, this is going to suck. And then I got a text from the guy being like, are you good? And I was like, all right. He texted me. Now I'm going, fuck it, whatever. Record Lakers Grizzlies. I'll watch it in the morning. Get everything done on Sunday. And the energy around it, I hadn't been around that in a really long time.

And you can make whatever jokes you want. And they're not necessarily inaccurate. But there was an energy and a buildup because they played the night before before and i'm looking at the set list from the night before going like man we get a couple strange covers in there uh they come out ghost david bowie esther harry hood split open melt squirming quad was like they did every song they basically checked like every box for me as a guy that was really obsessed with them early on. The 2001 thing is incredible. They play the 2001 theme. And to see that live, I'd obviously never seen that live. And then the encore, because of LA, me and the guy that I was with were like, hey, look, and he's toured with them forever. So he's looking at me going, hey, depending on the

encore, do you want to maybe pull the vet move and like duck out? And I was like, yeah, possibly. Yeah, that might be a good idea because I still got to go back and watch this fucking Lakers-Grizzlies game. And the first note that you hear to run like an antelope, you're like, I'm not going anywhere. That setting, that scene, the way they played, I hadn't seen them in 20 years. And it was, I wish I had more for you for the true, like super hardcore people about it. I just don't, other than it was an awesome reminder of why I love them so much. Okay. Cause they were my number one for a very long time. UVM even kind of like ruined it a little bit for me

because like I said, I was like, geez, I like them, but maybe not as much as you do. And then I kind of shift over to different things. It's very hard to keep me for a really long amount of time. I've probably gone like a year plus without ever listening to a song from them just because of how I would cycle through the bands or musicians or whatever genre

i'm obsessed with at that point but this was like the best reminder for me decades later to go oh this is why this is why you cared so much this is why you loved it so much and this is why there's thousands of people here that are going to be here at the friday saturday and sunday show uh kyle i know you're going to want to recap of this. I think we had four Stellas. Went to go for a massive Mic Ultra, which one of the guys that we were standing with grabbed my arms,

called me a name when I said, maybe just grab me one of those big Mic Ultras on the way out of here. And he was like, I can't believe you. I turned down all other products, which I don't think you're totally shocked by but i did go at a slower little jam at the end i was like let me go get a couple couple let me get around for the boys and we'll close this thing out and i went up and it was like 1002 they're like we stopped

serving beers at 10 i was like all right just when you were going to get crazy. Yeah. Wow. Just when that fifth beer was going to put me over the edge. That fifth one was really going to. Oh, man. What a while. And so then that was that was pretty much it. So. Made it home and watched the Grizzlies, I think. I don't know.

I think it was on by 7 a.m. And all's well. Like, yeah, you miss some poops games and, you know, the world. And, you know, I didn't even miss it. Yeah. It wasn't that big of a deal. You're fine. I'm trying to yeah like i so when i got to college and obviously i went to school in the northeast too but not uvm i went to school in connecticut um

hockey factory quinnipiac that's right what's up national chance no big deal although we didn't get a parade which sucks uh i remember like in high high school. I like didn't mind. Like, so, so I kind of zag from you like in high school, like I didn't mind like the Dave Matthews band scene. Like I was like, whatever.

It wasn't my thing, but like, you know, I didn't hate it. And then I got to college and everybody was just blasting Dave Matthews all the time. And I just hate, I like resented it. So I,

for you, like I, it's, I think go one of two ways. Like you could have been like, Oh, fuck fish. Like,

I don't like this, blah, blah, blah. Like too many people are into it. Or, you know, you can be like, no, this is actually really great. And like, and then, like I, it's, I think go one of two ways. Like you could have been like, oh, fuck fish. Like, I don't like this, blah, blah, blah. Like too many people are into it. Or, you know, you can be like, no, this is actually really great. And like, and then, and I'm, I'm, I like, sometimes I think I'm too negative on this stuff. And I kind of wish I didn't do that in college. Cause I probably burned some bridges with people that really liked Dave. But I think, you know, for you, like you were at the heart of the scene. So you kind of had to, you know, you had to be a fish fan, but I just, I just, for some

reason, cannot picture you listening to this music. I just can't like, I know you, like we, we talk about hip hop. We talk about, you know, different rock stuff,

like you have a very eclectic taste in almost everything, especially music. I, for some reason, just cannot picture, like maybe I need to go to a show with you. Cause I just cannot picture you being a jam band guy. Yeah.

I'm not, maybe. No, the earring would have worked big time, but I'm not noodling out or anything like that. I'm not getting my wook on. Because one of our favorite fish show memories was a guy hit a nitrous balloon in the parking lot. And he completely just fell back and was spazzing and people were freaking out it was like not even

a main dude it was just sort of like around in the mix in the mix and people were like whoa what's going on and the guy was like spazzing and some book was totally like he really liked jam bands and he was like let him fish man let him fish let him fish see how it's great i just could not be down with that that's insane so yeah no that wasn't that was never i don't know yeah i get it i get it like of all the stereotypes you would have it doesn't seem like you're seeing right it's not but i also doubt many people would think I'd go see Christian Scott, Adjua, Tunde by myself. That's also fair. Yep. And stand in a fucking jazz club.

That one checks out to me, actually. By yourself. By yourself. By yourself. Two towns over. Yeah, man. That actually does check out for me. Just don't invite me, dude. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah, man. I'll do it. It does check out for me. Yeah, just don't invite me,

dude. Whatever. Yeah. Sorry, Kyle. All good. You're right. I didn't realize you're right

in my neck of the woods, but at the bowl there, I didn't even realize it either. Didn't even right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right there.

Right at the bowl there. This way. I'm pointing at it right now. Couldn't be closer. Next time. Next time though. Yeah, right at the bowl there. This way. I'm pointing at it right now. Couldn't be closer. Next time. Next time, though. Yeah. 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. Life advice is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. I think we've decided we're going to do some kind of Friday feedback thing once a month. We're still working on that. TBD. All right, here we go. This one's for Kyle. I'm going to get that. TBD. Alright, here we go. This one's for Kyle. I'm going to get out of the way. Oh, man. Subject.

Conduct as an inspiring cigarette smoker. This guy wants to get into it. This is terrible. He sees a market opportunity. 58155, 29 years old. This week, I'm lucky enough to be traveling to Portugal and Spain with a couple of friends. To get into the full spirit of European culture, I was looking to enjoy the occasional dart while out there. I've smoked few and far in between, but enjoy the taste.

I'm an outgoing person and would like to use this temporary hobby as an opportunity to meet people while traveling. Looking for guidance on general conduct, what to get, and any rules of the smoking section while you're out there. Love the pod. Kyle? So you're asking me for European smoking rules? That's something I wouldn't dare give you any. I wouldn't dare try to tell you what's going on out there.

I'd say take a look at where they're throwing those butts. If you think it's cool to take one last long rip and flick that shit into the street, it might not be the same. It it kind of is here. Um, not, not great. You know, it's not, it's, um, I don't know. I basically, I would just say, I would definitely get a look, a read on where people are throwing. There's probably more ashtrays out there too. There's really, there's, it's a, it's a small, it's a very small population of ashtrays. And I think it's gets smaller by the day, but I would take a look on where you throw those things because it might you know you might think you're looking cool and

some you know cute girls like what the fuck was that dude go get that who knows so um i'd look at i'd definitely look at that i'd actually i'd get something that you know the people smoke over there maybe even do a little research um you know because that's where i used to meet girls was just outside you know at the bar. Like, cause you know, I never really wanted to do the whole like, Hey, what's your name? I'm Kyle. What do you do? I'm just screaming in your ear at this bar outside. You can have a nice conversation. And, um, so yeah, I, I, um, you know, have a cigarette that somebody is going to want when they ask you for them. Like, uh, that's the one thing I learned with Marlboro Reds a lot of time people like i'd get the oh no thanks actually like hey do you have a cigarette i'm like oh sure and they're like oh wait hey does that guy have a cigarette yeah

all right i'll have a camel crush instead so the the like the what is a bar like i know what a marlboro red is because i remember construction days like early on. That's what guys made fun of dudes that used filters. What is the closest thing to that? Yeah, right. Give me the taste. What is that first hit of a Marlboro Red like? I've been trying to explain it, too, because I've been trying to explain why I'm not into like vapes and stuff like that, because I just call it like a cut it's not a cup but it's like it cuts your throat

it's like it's like a pot you feel it you don't feel that with like a um a vape and and even really with like a a bunch of the light cigarettes i feel like uh old like i've been on reds so i had been on reds for so long that it feels like you know like a marlboro light was sort of like a dirty air or something like it just doesn't doesn't taste much um so yeah reds just um it's heavy that's the way i could put it i mean it's called a cowboy killer for a reason um it's uh it's it's just different and even like cigarette smokers will be like yeah i haven't smoked red in 15 years you know something like that like they're like yeah you should probably do yourself a favor and get off of those as they pull out their gold box of Marlboro lights. But, uh, it's just, it's just different. So I'd say like, you know, you, you, you, you, if you want to meet people

and stuff like that, and you're not super, like, you don't feel like you need cigarettes and you want to use it as an accessory, I guess, which is something I haven't heard before. Um, I, I try to get ones that, you know, somebody is going to want to bum off of you because, uh, you because uh there's there's nothing worse that's like you feel like you're doing somebody a favor and then they'll be like oh actually no you smoke the gross kind so uh you know don't get reds i guess i actually have a question kyle um as a i ran into this issue at like several bachelor parties i've been to recently where like we have a group of guys that none of them smoke other than maybe at the end of a wedding or at a bachelor party

or some sort of outside function. We don't regularly buy cigarettes. You go to the packet store and it's like, what do we buy? I think we ended up buying Marlboro Lights, but we didn't know what was the right brand for us. Some dudes were suggesting parliaments. What would you suggest for our our demo what is the cigarette we should be smoking

what is the cigarette of choice i mean i feel like for your demo it's like um it's probably like spirits or something right i mean people the the healthy cigarette i'm not really but uh maybe we're not smoking that many of them so it doesn't have to be super healthy but i don't know i don't know if we're ready for the Marlboro Red scene. I mean, I'd say for you guys, it's whatever the guy who remembers smoking the most fondly likes. At that point, it really doesn't matter. Yeah, I think Marlboro Lights or Camel Blues, that's a fun one. Fun-looking pack.

Yeah, I don't know. I think it's whatever the guy remembers that wants them the most. But by the way, this is life advice, so I should just say, don't know i think it's whatever whatever that whatever the guy remembers that wants him the most uh but by the way this is life advice so i should just say don't get cigarettes how about that this is i would i would run and even think about that if i'm this guy i would just if you have hair run your fingers through your hair a lot when you exhale that's what i see in europe um the as far as like the taste find a wall yeah i don't know i mean i don't really have i never smoked saruti did you ever smoke i like again i smoke at like bachelor parties and that's about it you'll get a cigarette you're banged up yeah oh yeah i start i don't think i had a cigarette until in my until my 30s and now like at every bachelor

party it's like it's on yeah but i don't smoke any other time than that, really. Got one coming up in June. Good times. I've inhaled so much secondhand smoke that I can't like what used to happen when I visit my grandmother at the nursing home and we would sit in there and, you know, it's your grandmother. You got to go visit her. But looking back on that to be that young. And then my sister, who was that even younger than me, four years younger than me.

And I'm going around lighting everybody up in the room in their wheelchairs and would just sit there and breathe in their smoke for like two hours for our visit. Right. And be like, yeah, this is cool. Go up to that ashtray. It's likeman shit you know like wait what did you do like i think at that point we knew it wasn't exactly sweet uh for you but then

all the bartending gears specifically like those late 90s early 2000s and one place that i worked at pretty regularly that had the worst smoke eater ever and i I'd be like, you guys, you got to upgrade that thing. They'd be cheap and pissy about it. They'd yell at me. I'd be like, you have to upgrade. We're fucking dying back here. So I was like, I think I'm covered. I don't even need to because of all those. All right. There you go.

Good luck, man. Good luck. All right. Let's do a bike rack deal here. All right. Let's do a bike rack deal here. All right. HOA. Dial it up. Okay.

28, five, seven on a good day. The Theo Epstein of co-rec kickball team managers, six championships in two different cities. It's fucking great. I'm a newly married guy. That's a lot of titles,

man. The two cities was great. It was a nice touch. Newly married guy who just bought a cond of titles, man. Six Rays. The Two Cities was great. It was a nice touch. Newly married guy who just bought a condo in downtown Chicago. As someone who grew up in the burbs and moved away after college, I'm elated to finally experience a true Chicago summer with my wife. So pumped, in fact, that I recently bought a bike to get around this summer. We have a community bike rack in our building garage with 40 bike spots

for a condo association of 200 plus residents. That math doesn't check out. All 200 obviously wouldn't have bikes needless to say finding an open spot in the first come first serve communal bike rack is a bitch and a half i originally locked my bike on the side of the rack was immediately called out by the hoa for locking my bike illegally they love stuff that's illegal that is so not a violation that's a violation like what do you want to do like i better close the office we had a bike fucking locked up on the side today yeah i'm spent i'm gonna need a personal day after getting a slap on the wrist email i went to bring my bike

up to my condo but was dumbfounded to find an actual spot open on the rack uh it had a rope lock on the tire rack portion but i was easily able to put my tire over the lock to mount my bike onto the rack all right so there is a rope lock already in the open spot but no bike but no bike fuck that you can't leave your yeah you can't leave your shit there just like for when i come back no way all right uh fast forward a few days 75 degrees early april fired up to bike to the lake front. I rushed to the garage as soon as I clock out only to find my bike has been physically removed from the rack and had a rather audacious anonymous note attached to the seat copied here.

Uh, in summary, I have a neighbor who uses a rope lock to essentially call dibs on their bike rack in the bike rack spot in hopes that no one will park in said spot. Once they leave locking the tire rack is their way of, quote, indicating they'll be returning or would like to store their bike in the same spot. The note would sign. Let's read the note. It is attached here. To the owner of this Gary Fisher.

Not a person. That's a bike. I commute daily via bicycle all year round. Oh, hard-o alert. Chicago winners. I'm biking year-round. My bike is more important than your bike. That's a lie. Fuck you. I couldn't even walk across the

street from the Drake to Equinox one day. I've been doing this the last five years I've lived here. When I leave in the morning, I place my lock on the last of the spot where my bike was. I do this to indicate. Anyway, I don't know. I can't read everything here. I would do this to indicate that I will be returning and would like to store my bike in the same spot. I've never had any issues doing this until I returned home today

417 and saw your bike parked and locked on top of my lock. On top of my lock. Yeah, I'm sure the lock. Is the lock okay? I'm sure you could imagine my frustration. Could you please find another place to store your bike and not park your bike in a spot that has a lock on it in the future? Thanks. Your parentheses frustrated

daily bike commuting neighbor. Fuck this guy. Yes. What are we going to do, boys? So the email continues. continues obviously this is total bullshit this is a perfect parallel of russell's beef with chipotle tabasco thieves of the world if everyone in the building did the same thing there would never be any open spots and no one could ever use the first come first serve communal bike rack i'm dying to write a rebuttal note with my name

and number attached to call this person out of their bullshit i even killed an hour by fine tuning an initial draft while my wife was away this weekend. I'm not going to read the whole thing. Not mad. Not mad. He mentions me in the rebuttal. Go ahead. I don't care. But I'm not reading the whole thing. My question is to you guys. Should I show constraint and

let this go? Should I just email the HOA and let them handle it? Do I leave the note? Do I take off my name number to make it anonymous? I'm leaning on attaching the draft as to my neighbor's bike but would love to hear your advice thanks love the pod all right before i'd leave name and number and all that stuff i would physically dial in who this guy is i mean we could pretend that doesn't matter but it totally matters you know do a little recon somebody cut me off the other day. I looked, I was like,

I'm not dealing with that fucking guy. Right. I just sized it all up. There was a rim issue. There, there was a lot of stuff going on. I was like, yeah,

let it, let it go. Let it go. I'm in LA now. I think you need to make sure, but the chances are this guy's a clown. All right. He,

he is, he thinks he's more important than a clown. All right. He, he is, he thinks he's more important than you are. Cause you're the new owner. You fucked like the rent own thing is always great too. Like whenever I've lived in a place, it's like, Oh, well you're renting,

right? Like now I bought it just to see how bummed out they are. No, I actually bought it. Yeah. Like when I moved to the new place here, it was like seven old neighbors coming by being like oh you're the new tenant no i own it eye level fuckers look yeah like oh are you gonna

stay here long i don't know might even upgrade who knows and so you know this guy thinks that he's in charge of something here his world is revolved around this thing and everybody's getting out of his fucking way i love the idea of you going master and commander full speed ahead right at him right in the crosshairs but it's probably gonna be pain in the ass all right this guy despite his heavy commute time had time enough to write this note and just be a dick about it the whole time. And you're right. Like this is the old Boston parking space thing during a snowstorm. Like if you shoveled your car out, you kind of get dibs for a while. And that actually kind of made sense because you're the one that shoveled all that shit out of there. But then you'd see

a milk crate on like May 3rd with a pebble next to it. And you'd go, all right, dude, enough. All right. And the town would like the city would have to announce all this stuff it was like one of the funniest things that would happen in boston every every winter it was usually like a southie thing more than anywhere else not leaving out the other neighborhoods but it always seemed to be a little bit more intense there uh i would size him up i would gather information not stalkerish but just kind of like you know play it out see if you run into every now and then you also could, if you're new and you're saying this is a bit of an issue, you could play it out longer to like, see how long this is going on. Because the key part of this is, is that it sounds like the bike issue is going to be a big issue. Do you need more

time living there to realize like, you know what, I can avoid this confrontation here. Cause this guy sucks. All right. And sometimes even going at the guy that sucks, like as much as we're all rooting for you and you want to do it. And I don't think there's, this is one of those emails where everybody listening is probably on the same page, but you know, sometimes these, these guys are brutal to deal with and you just end up getting more stressed out. So I would size it up, take inventory and like, wait, how much of a challenge is this going to be every single day? it up take inventory like wait how much of a challenge is this going to be every single day um but it sounds like it is going to be that big of a problem so i don't know that there's like hey do this or here's some awesome trick because the other thing too is if you with him too much

and now he knows what your bike is you know who knows brake cable goes missing maybe some weird scratch that never happened before. You've got to worry about that. So you've got to be a little cautious, like how aggressive you have to go at him. I would get more information on him. I would figure it out. I would get more data on like how bad the bike storage thing actually is, but you could do this. I don't like doing this and like telling this is kind of what the HOAs are there for. All right. But he's going to see you, even if you make it anonymous, like he's going to, if he took the time to do this note, at some point you're going to cross paths and he's going to see

you unlocking your Gary Fisher from another spot. And then he's going to know it's you if you told on him. So I like the more direct thing of like, why do you think you get a private spot and none of us do, you know, ask him it straight forward. When the confrontation happens, go, I saw your note. I think you're wrong. Tell me, explain to me, convince me why you deserve a spot more than the rest of us. And maybe I'll change my mind. And his argument won't be strong enough. He'll say it's commute. He'll say year round, which is probably a lie. And you'd be like, okay, not good enough. When I lock up my bike, I'm locking up my bike. And if it happens to be your open spot so be it but then he's probably going to do something to your bike kyle yeah younger me would have snipped the lock took the bike seat threw that shit in the woods you know something like that but i mean you know the

younger me wouldn't be a homeowner in this nice little condo complex um i think um i mean anonymous note that's just the biggest like bitch move. I think it's so whack. You know, if you put a note and say like who it's from, like there was somebody wrote us a note in our old ringer building about something about like the bathroom or turn the lights off in the bathroom or this is our bathroom. You're not supposed to use it. It was like in between the two floors. And there was like a note war back and forth. Note war. Just people would be a huge note war back and forth until one of the managers like,

all right, guys, we're getting out. This is the last note. We're on top. We're leaving. But the anonymous note thing is just so whack. I would I got no problem going to the HOA and be like, hey, listen, you know, I just want to kind of get the rules down. I kind of, you know, I put my bike on.

There's no rule. Right. Right. Go ahead. Sorry. But I'm sorry yeah but i'm saying but i'm just saying like like you already got burned by the hoa like i don't know if you got a ticket or just a talking to i think you didn't get a ticket right but it's just like hey so there's is there like a spot i need to pay for or something because some dude left a note on my bike basically said i'm in his spot like that's that would be funny that would be kind of funny be like hey there's

another guy apparently that paid to be able to keep his lock on. Can I sign up for that service? Yeah, that email goes around and you basically out of this guy. I mean, I don't know. That's what I would have done. I kind of feel like, you know, this guy's an asshole and it sucks. And, you know, but like, I guess look at it from his shoes. Like if he if he if you do notice the bike is gone daily and he is actually driving to work, think about how much of a shitty situation

that would be if every day before and after work he'd have to figure out his bike situation when you're really only using it for leisure, it sounds like, on the weekends. So again, I'm not trying to say that you don't have priority over this person. This seems like an HOA issue. Can we just get another fucking bike rack?

Why can we not get another bike rack? Obviously, this one's full. You should complain to the HOA and be like, this is the problem. Like, I pay my fees, like, and I'm not able to even use this service. So we need another bike rack or otherwise, like there's going to be some sort of uprising with the bike community here. So, you know, this guy's a dick and it is what it is. But at the end of the day, like the only solution here for everyone is just to get another bike, a bigger bike rack. You know, I think I misspoke when I said everybody listening to this.

The bike guys are not. The bike people are always mad. Anybody challenges them ever. Like the Albert Breer post still to this day blows my mind. He was driving from wherever he needed to go to the airport. And there was like eight bike guys

that took up the entire lane and there was traffic backed up a couple of miles and he was going to be like late and missed his flight. And he took a picture of it and was like, I can't believe this. Like they can't just move over a little bit. And the bike community coming out, telling him it was his fault.

He didn't leave an hour earlier. Bike mafia. I was like, holy shit. And it's somebody who put in some road bike miles during the pandemic. Like it's not great all the time. Cars not paying enough attention, not giving you a ton of space, but there's also like, you know, the property taxes don't go to

these roads because of bikes. Right. So, um, I think there will be some in the bike communities. Like if he actually is in fact commuting every single day that he, he gets priority. Okay. Okay. So then what happens? Like, what if you can meet, what if, What if he does Zoom one day a week? What if he Zoom two days a week? What is that imaginary line where it's okay for him to do it? Maybe he just bullied everybody else and you're the hero the rest of the community needs.

Yeah. Okay. Thanks to Fish. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve. That's Life Advice. That's life advice. That's our episode. Please subscribe, download.

Ryan Russo podcast. We're in Spotify. Thank you.