The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Julio Jones Says He’s Done With the Falcons, Plus Jorge Sedano on the NBA Playoffs and NBA Champion Rick Mahorn on Motivating Charles Barkley

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

Russillo opens with Shannon Sharpe getting Julio Jones to say he’s done with the Falcons and whether Julio knew he was on-air (2:00). Then, he chats with ESPN’s Jorge Sedano about whether the Clippers are in trouble against Luka and the Mavs, LeBron and the Lakers, and the Heat being down 0-2 against the Bucks (13:30). Next, he’s joined by NBA champion Rick Mahorn to talk about being teammates with Charles Barkley, his beef with Patrick Ewing, and the line between playing physical and playing dirty (43:45). Finally, Ryen closes it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:17:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Rick Mahorn and Jorge Sedano Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charles would come in there with an egg McMuffin, sit there five minutes before practice. He's like, Jimmy, when do you want it? You want it now or you want it at St. Joe's? We used to practice there. You want it now or you want it at the game? And, you know, Jimmy with his small sub, he's like, I want it now. So I would do things.

I would tell Bobby Thornton, go over there and just smack Charlie upside the head. And I know Charles will hear it, I don't know. Go smack him upside the head and see if you can get him to Charles. Just say to him, Charles, I'll bust your ass. Man, our practices became the practices that we had, that I had up in Detroit, where we were competing so hard against each other that the game became easy.

That is legend Rick Mahorn on keeping my favorite athlete ever, Charles Barkley, accountable. We're going to do some story time with Rick Mahorn, a little open on some NFL guys, and George Sedano on the Clippers and Mavs and Miami Heat culture versus Milwaukee Bucks. What is good, everyone? I am excited about today's pod. Rick Mahorn and Sedano, who I...

Sedano's been doing it a long time. Did you know that, Cerruti? Have you ever looked him up when he was national? When I first had my first local job, talk radio, oh three in Boston. So Trenton announcing and then framing and ditch digging in oh two, sort of an odd year combination. And then, yeah, oh three. I think I remember listening to him on the overnight because I'd be driving into work.

You know, I'd be up at like three 30 in the car and then I'd get to the office. I'd get to the studio at like 4 a.m. So I think he's been doing it. Like, I think he's incredibly young to have started nationally. So now that I've brought it up, I feel like I need to bring this up. It may not be the best open I've ever had on the show, but now it's on my mind. No, but you know what you got to do?

We got to talk about some culture, the heat culture. I think that's what everybody wants to know whenever you have heat guests on, specifically Sedano. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, we can do that. We can definitely do that. But yeah, Sedano's younger than me. Yeah, February 2004, late night national.

Oh, four, son. So that's two years younger than me. So that meant he was like 25 doing national overnights. That's an insane, insane age to be that young. All right. Let's talk a little bit about the insanity around the coverage of this Julio Jones thing. Uh, shout out to Shannon Sharp. I mean, if you have it like that, where you can get one of the premier athletes in his sport, like Julio Jones to call you, but not only not what you call him and you answer, um. I forget actually, wait a minute.

Did, did sharp call him or did Jones call him and he answered? That's right. He called him. Okay. All right. So he puts it on speaker. We all know that cause it was all over the internet, which was kind of funny because I don't think there's a 1% chance that Julio

Jones didn't know that that was happening. All right. And I'm going to tell you why an athlete probably wouldn't do that that was happening. All right, and I'm going to tell you why. An athlete probably wouldn't do that to an athlete, all right, just for the sake of his show. Now, would a show host do it? Maybe, but there's a good chance as a show host, if you're not best friends with the athlete doing this,

then you would never be friends again and you'd never talk. I actually think there's an interesting scenario there with the Brooks Koepka footage that we saw that was out where DeChambeau is walking past him and Koepka is giving you an answer. And you ever have that moment where you see something or something crosses your mind? I mean, it happens to me all the time, where you just absolutely lose your train of thought. Sometimes it's creative people and other times it's pure hatred. And we saw it with Koepka where he had such disdain for DeChambeau that he just stopped. And then the footage got out. And I don't know really what happened, but I was shocked the footage got out because if it were the Golf Channel and Brooks could be pissed being like, hey, did I know this was getting out or not? Or maybe the counter is, which I've seen too from people that probably don't work in the business. They're like, whatever, he's in front of the camera. He's going to know they're going to go ahead and use that. More often than not, almost like all the time,

you wouldn't use that footage unless Koepka said, I don't even care. He did, though, by the way. He did say it. So what happened was the guy, I don't know his name, I apologize, but he was saying, hey, we'll get rid of that or whatever, cut that out. And Koepka was like, I don't really care. And that's why people are saying it's okay that it's out.

All right, then it is okay. If Kepka said it's fine, most guys would never say it was okay. And so, because the problem is I read that story from a bunch of different perspectives, and I didn't have that part of it yet. So great job by Rudy Mariano Rivera coming in on that one. With Sharp, I just was surprised to be like, man, you got to tell your guy you're on speakerphone. You're like,

you guys don't think that this thing was calculated. Like, are you not paying attention to what's been going on in sports the last few years? Like what better way to be like, all right, yeah, it's on. I want out. I want everyone else to know. I'm going to make sure everybody's calling Atlanta so that they can get, you know, whatever they get. Like it's on. We're not going to play any. That's actually, there are times too, too where it's like why be secretive like what what's the value in being secretive the value may be in letting everybody know it's an open market and yes we can get into is it great for your teammates i think it's probably a little bit different for the quarterback but even that can feel a little outdated and honestly all this stuff's going to be real

outdated soon because aaron rogers is on like a political campaign. I watched the final thing with Kenny Mayne just because I wanted to see Kenny Mayne's last show. Shout out to one of the OGs of the 90s SportsCenter run. But, you know, you could say Rodgers is doing it because he thinks Kenny Mayne's cool. Yeah, that's part of it. But he's also been doing it a million different times and he's never really been all that specific. And by the way, Packers fans, you guys look like such simps on some of these things.

It's kind of like the Harden people that are still arguing for Harden. It's like after, like, you realize what he did to your squad, and you're in Houston being like, go Nets? That doesn't make any sense to me, but I see it. But I don't know if that's a vocal manure that we just see on social media. But as soon as we had Schefter say

that he held the Rod Rogers story around draft day, then we had all these Packers guys coming at Simmons and I saying like, oh, you want to retract anything? But I don't fucking retract anything. He doesn't want to play there. He doesn't want to play there. And he also, by the way, after the Schefter part of it got out, then you had three or four other news breaking NFL people all have new information,

all likely from the Rodgers side of this, because I don't think the Packers front office would be leaking that Rodgers was really good on Jeopardy. So even if Schefter's timeline kind of benefited the story around, well, it looked like Rodgers wanted to own draft day, the Rodgers camp still wanted to own draft day. And as I've said from the beginning, if you want out, I need more specifics. If you're going to talk about culture in green Bay and saying, you know, it's about people, it's about this, all these vague wellness, Instagram phrases that don't mean anything. And you're going to talk culture about the Packers. The Packers

probably have one of the most stable cultures in the NFL. Is it number one? No. Is it outside the top five for the last 20 years? I don't think so. But of course, he's still technically property of the Packers. So Packers fans are going to sit there and defend no matter what. And you're like, you can't see where this one's going. Like we all know where this is going. He's going to end up not playing there because he's determined to keep the campaign going. Where the Julio part of it, I'm a little bit more sympathetic to Julio because like, all right, you know what?

We had our run. This thing's probably over. But for anybody that thinks, unless I would be as wrong about this as I could be about anything, but when it's like, man, I can't believe they did that to him and just answered the call on a TV show. Like, this is all part of it. This is the way it works. And honestly, for Sharp, not many other guys could pull that off.

You'd have to probably be an ex-athlete or you'd have to be somebody that is so valuable with information that you're willing to give them that on your platform, knowing that it's going to pay off for you later on. Because there's plenty of times we've had players leak stuff to the reporter or the agent on the player's behalf, leak stuff to the reporter, knowing the reporter can get the message out and get to work on getting a guy out of a city. But to do it that way on a debate show, it's great for the show. I mean, if you, if I could pull that off on the podcast, I'd pull it off. But the times I've had information that's anything even close to something like that, I'd pull it off. Um, but the times I've had information that's anything even close to something like that, I've immediately said like, Hey, make sure you don't say anything when you're like, all right, like this sucks, but you can, cause then that person will never talk to you again. Um, if sharp did that without letting Jones know, then that would be a relationship

ender. And I have a hard time believing that a star athlete like sharp would do that to a current star like jones so very calculated no issue with that one um but was surprised a little bit but i guess i should never be surprised by any of the redaction yeah i mean my thing would just be if shannon sharp wants to tank his relationship with julio jones for a great tv moment then honestly like no integrity but good for you man because it was great television but i also think every other team if he's willing to talk to Shannon Sharpe about that, that candidly about it, I imagine most other teams know the situation with Atlanta, too. And I'm sure they're trying to figure something out to get him out of there. I just wonder why he just napalmed the Cowboys on the way out, too. I mean, just absolutely destroyed them, which was funny.

Again, great television. But I'm not convinced as you that he actually was in on it. I don't know. Really? Oh, so you think... Because why would he just destroy the Cowboys out of nowhere? I mean, would Sharp be...

I mean, because I've seen some of the Instagrams. I just think when you post everybody else's content, I had no idea that Snoop was the Instagram Rex Chapman. And you just go like, oh, you're just posting everybody else's shit?

There's that video going around. Again, I'm just going to go on this rant that nobody wants to listen to, so I'm not even going to do it. I just think I don't know. Shannon, I don't know a ton of his content. I just think it's such a power move by him, but if he did it without Jones, then I guess I'd be a little surprised. I mean, are they that tight that you could do that to him, not tell him,

and then be like, all right, we're good? Or could you be so about the show? Because I think there's guys that would love the opportunity to do that, but just never have the juice to have somebody like Julio Jones call him like that. There was a guy I used to work with at ESPN. I guess I probably shouldn't name names, but he used to call guys in the commercial break just to impress PAs.

Be like, oh, I can get this guy on the phone. He would get this guy on the phone in a commercial break, and it'd be weird. And the guy definitely didn't know. He'd be asking real questions, and he definitely didn't know that he was on speaker talking in a control room at ESPN. And it was kind of weird. I always thought, hey, that's kind of like a dick move and I've apologized about that for years you know what's funny is I thought immediately we get a Josh Duhamel's number I'd be able to

figure this thing out I don't think I know um is it one of my least favorite people I've ever worked with I don't think you like this person. No. I think I know who it is. I don't know if you've ever worked with them, though, like really closely. I've done a couple shows with this person. Yes or no? I think you're on the right track. Yeah, I think I know who it is. Leave it at that. Alright, let's

talk hoops. He's on ESPN's NBA coverage and also the host of his own show on 710 ESPN Los Angeles a guy I've known for a while now George Sedano what's up man what's up dude good to see you yeah all right let's just jump into it you had game one I think that's one of two angst series we'll get to the Milwaukee Miami side which is the east angst Even though the Clippers beat Dallas last year and actually handled them. It was a competitive series. It was fun. What were they going to do with Doncic?

But they always had too much. And then you go into this year and it's like, alright, Doncic owned you for game one. I don't get the sense from the Clippers' side that they're freaked out about it. I think they had a plan and the plan completely backfired. But it's more of an angst thing, not so much the opponent. It's angst of like

wait what if we have another weird exit here and we've done everything for these two guys and we fired the coach last year and replaced him so i i remind myself every year with this preamble here that game ones we see them that so many things can happen differently in game two but you were there for it so just take as long as you want talking us through it. So it was really weird because, you know, Kawhi had a great start to the game and he kept them in the thing. Paul George was a mess to start that game. I think it was one of seven at the half. But Kawhi kept them in it, right? Like there's no doubt. And, and look, I think Ty Lue is going to have to make some serious decisions. Like the Pat Beverly thing is obviously a big decision. I know that he wants him to still be a part of this team,

particularly because, you know, what he brings from an emotional standpoint, in theory, what he brings on defense. But I just don't know if this series is going to work for him because I just don't know if there's anyone for him to guard, to be honest with you. Everyone out there with Dallas, they're going so big that I just don't see an opportunity for him to guard, to be honest with you. Everyone out there with Dallas, they're going so big that I just don't see an opportunity for him to really even play much in this series. So that's going to be something fascinating to watch. But look, to your point, maybe it's not an internal

pressure yet, but it is certainly an external pressure, right? And as that game evolved and the Clippers kind of kept themselves in it, kept themselves in it, Paul George started to play much better in the second half. They kind of, they went to a strategy defensively that in theory should work. Like I remember having this conversation with Ty Lue. And look, you watch all these games, right? These coaches generally are not this honest in these situations and he straight up told me on national television you know I asked him about Luca he had 31 through 3 and he's like we're gonna trap him we're gonna double him we're gonna get the ball

out of his hands and we're gonna live with the results basically and they did that and unfortunately Dallas hit a bunch of shots um you know so I feel like it was the right strategy it just didn't work on defense now offensively is where I have the big problem with them and anyone who's watched them at all this season can see this they settle for way too many jumpers dude dude. Like, it's just wild to me when you have those two guys, right, who can get to the foul line fairly easily historically that they don't do it. They settle for too many Js. And if you look at the last six minutes and change where they had the three-point lead, they finally take a lead, I think it was 98-95, six and change to go.

The next 12 shots, okay, seven of them were three-pointers, and I believe three more of those were mid-range shots, okay? So not enough in the paint. It's been a thing the entire season for them in clutch time. It's why of all the top six seeds in both conferences, they're the worst in clutch time because they settle way too much. I don't understand. Like, I get in the regular season, you don't want to go through the,

you know, the pounding or whatnot. But this is the playoffs, dude. Like, what are you waiting for in this situation to go to the basket and get to the free throw line and control the tempo of the game offensively? I just don't get it. And it's been a thing that's been an issue for them. They did have a decent stretch, though, Ryan, towards the end of the season

where they won 13 of 17 right before, I guess, they sat everyone or whatever. And they were doing a better job of attacking the paint. So I just don't get what this issue is with them and why they fall into these lazy things on offense to just settle for these jumpers when they can get

to the line. I think we both agree if they came back and look really good from outside and maybe clog up Donchik a bit in the first quarter and win a game by 10 points, none of us are going to be surprised because there's still a high end of the Clippers. But as I've reminded myself throughout the last few regular seasons, I go, you know, just because you saw something regular season doesn't mean it's going to happen in the playoffs. I still believe it, that there's never been more of a gap between the two versions of basketball and more so this year because it was never easier to score. But there's three things from that game and I brought it up on the Sunday pod. So, you know, the audience isn't always the same, but when Paul George swung it to Reggie Jackson in the first quarter, he had a wide open

three on the left break and he swung it to Reggie Jackson for, again, it was an open look and Reggie shot it well this year. But when Paul immediately got it out of his hands i went oh you gotta be kidding me and there was another play with marcus morris where he caught it like the elbow there was no one in front of him he could have gone right to the hoop he didn't even look didn't think of dribbling and immediately wanted to get to somebody else and then of course when kawaii you could have had an assault charge after that dunk on kleber the guy that stood and stared the longest was Morris. And you're like, cool, man. You're going to flex and stand over him,

and you're still afraid of the basketball. And Morris missed those two huge free throws. So I sit there and go, hey, I've never been a big Paul George foxhole guy. I've never been a big Morris foxhole guy. I think Kawhi gets incredibly frustrated. I thought Kawhi's playing the second quarter. Wasn't because of game situation. I thought it was his own frustration with his teammates,

which was like inspiring basketball. And then I go, so just cause they shot it well. And they honestly had, as you know, like when you look at some of their numbers in the record, considering the games that were missed from the two guys, you're like, this was an incredible regular season for this team. And I still would point with all the Clippers jokes of last year. It's like, okay, but they still were up 3-1 against Denver. This isn't like they went 41-41 and were a 7 seed that lost in the first round. Like it still looked like they had a chance to win a title. So let's not have the disappointment hangover linger so much. But then when I add it all up, I go, why would I defend them? Why would I believe in them?

Why would like, if I don't like some of them to closing guys and even with Rondo is I'll finish my game on observations here. I think there are things throughout all of these playoff teams, George, where there'll be established guys and they'll get so frustrated by execution that they themselves will almost take the team out of what they're trying to do because then they're like, all right, I'll fix it. Like, I'll fix it. If you're not going to fix it, then I'll fix it. And Rondo's trying to fix it by positioning. And he's like, you get out of there.

No, you go in there. And he got mad about a post matchup and wanted somebody to swing and come back and reset something else. And I was like, dude, we're almost out of the shot clock now because Rondo was so determined to set up this one thing that he wanted. And so then I'm like, so why, you know, you look, you can't have Kawhi bring it up and initiate every single offensive set the last nine minutes of a fourth quarter. But I don't know. I I'd like to see a little bit more of, Hey, let Kawhi go.

Like, and also let's see Kawhi defend Doncic. So I'd expect the Kawhi-Doncic thing to happen by necessity in game two or by just changing up the approach. Yeah, look, Luke is so good that you've got to show him a lot of different looks, right? And they did kind of in game one, which is – Right, right. So keep going. No, no, right.

They did. And that's why in that fourth quarter, that to me, that was the right strategy. Like when he, again, I was stunned. He said it like that, like just out in the open and one of those interviews, because generally those interviews don't happen like that. So when I'm seeing it all go down like that, I'm like, yeah, it makes sense. I had a buddy, no, no, no joke. Text me. He's like, Oh, I think the clips are going to clip. And I'm like, yeah, it makes sense. I had a buddy, no joke, text me. He's like, uh-oh, I think the clips are going to clip.

And I'm like, nah, I think their strategy of doubling Dontich, taking the ball out of his hands will work, you know. And look, Dallas just hit shots, okay. Now, do I think Dallas can do that over a seven-game series and do it three more times? I have my reservations, you know. Tim Hardaway Jr. has been much better for them down the stretch since he's been in the starting lineup. You know, Kaliba's back in

there and he's healthy and I know he's important to what they do. But do you really trust those guys to do that regularly? So between throwing Kawhi at him, right, and then mixing up the looks, right, you know, throwing strategic doubles at him, trapping him at him right and then mixing up the looks right you know throwing strategic doubles at him trapping him at certain points and forcing those other guys I still think the Clippers should win this series in six games but yeah like you could so I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you this is the first time this season that I have been on the floor okay because of you know vaccinations and you know covid tests you know leading up to the game like they're they're allowing us to be on the floor right so this was the first time that i got a real idea of those things you were talking about specifically with that rondo play like i could see

him after that he was just like rolling his eyes like you could you can finally see the frustration on these guys in certain instances and I still feel like this team to your point earlier maybe there's not that internal pressure but they know what's coming because they don't want to have to deal with uh-oh they're down oh two if they blow if they blow a series in you know in the first round we're all we're going to do is talk about well is Kaawaii going to leave the clippers are they going to can they get anything for paul george they know it okay they're not dumb okay which is why it's a great point yeah like they're they if we can think of it they've already thought about for sure and look they wanted this matchup okay i know there's a lot of dallas didn't also correct correct they wanted this

matchup they felt like this was the matchup we can win in the first round and they wanted you know whether you believe they wanted to avoid the lakers or maybe even portland or whatever other theories are out there well i'm pretty sure they want to avoid the lakers i mean if you lose against houston and oklahoma city sure i was hoping to go oh for 40 the second half of the season i i like that's my i feel strong about that yeah i i feel pretty confident in that one too against Houston and then Oklahoma City. Sure. I was hoping to go 0 for 40 the second half of the season. I feel strong about that one. Yeah, I feel pretty confident in that one too. But at the end of the day, they definitely circled Dallas as the matchup that they wanted because they felt comfortable with that.

And to lose that game the way they did, I'm just curious at what point in this series, if Dallas continues, if the other players, not named Luca, continue to hit shots, do they break a little bit and go like, oh, no, now what do we do? Like, oh, here it comes again, and everything just kind of spirals on them. Okay, anything else you want to do on that series? No, I'm good with that. Okay, all right, let's move to Miami, Milwaukee.

Are you surprised Miami hasn't used more heat culture in the first two games yo he culture's gotten punched in the mouth we're gonna see what he cultures about now um by the way i mean look there's been a strange trend so far in these game ones and twos uh for the home. So if I recall correctly, game one, the home teams collectively shot 27% from three. And, you know, not so surprisingly. Wait, in all eight matchups? Collectively, yes, as a collective.

That's a great number. Yeah, collectively. And in game twos, obviously we only have a few of those games. They're at about 42 and change right now. So they've kind of ascended to the mean. So if you're Miami, you needed to steal game one. Like, I don't care how bad Jimmy played. I don't care how bam, how bad bam played. That was the game you needed to get because Milwaukee is not going to shoot that bad again. Like they're just, they're not like you got to face that. So I kind of had this sense of they're going to get their ass kicked in game two, because that's not going to happen. Now,

I didn't expect Bryn Forbes to go nuts like that in that game. But I do think that Eric made the right move just too late with the Deadman thing. They're going to play Brooke and Bam Adebayo is just not good enough of a rebounder, especially when you have him way out on the perimeter guarding most times, right? To go back, that means everybody's got to crash. So just have Deadman out there. He can stretch a little bit, right? He's not, he's been good for them, particularly for a guy just basically off the street. So I kind of liked that adjustment. And I think you're going to see more of that because honestly I don't know if they have anything else other than just to say well Jimmy and Bam can't play this poorly again I didn't think there was anything on paper that would lead to a Miami pick

like if you dug into who Miami has been even with their closing run with getting guys back I still wasn't sure and I go, don't let the hangover of last year get in your way. I know that... I'm not trying to give you a hard time here, Sedano, because I know you picked him in seven. I know you picked him in seven. Do you think Jimmy not playing...

Did he miss all 10 games against the top three seeds? Did he miss 9 of 10 or something absurd right he played against philly he played against philly i think that's something that you could have looked at before this series started you go oh my god butler missed nine of the top 10 opponents this year that makes me like miami yeah where then instead you could go maybe that completely tricked me into thinking that there was something better that was there because I didn't see it with him.

And obviously, you'd want Jimmy Butler versus not having him. But it's not a deep team through the regular season. I mean, I've been incredibly impressed with Dragic, especially game one, compared to what he was in the regular season. I'm a little surprised Bam is so hesitant with the coverage because he didn't adjust to it in game one. And I still saw those moments. so hesitant with the coverage because he didn't adjust to it in game one and i still saw those moments again game two was so out of hand so quickly that then it's like okay so what am i really looking at here what are any of these things but it's it's a thin team after duncan robinson and then depending on which version of draugat you're going to get so a team that we

kind of liked all these moving parts i think it's a team where i go i can't believe they're playing this many minutes with certain guys knowing that now it's real and we're in the playoffs. So it's, it's a weird misleading. It's another misleading regular season team here. So I'm not completely blown away. They haven't looked great the first two games. Yeah. Look, Dragic is old, man. You know what I'm saying? And he's coming off a plantar fascia injury. And the fact that he, you know, they kind of had him in bubble wrap most of the season. They, they, they sat him a bunch. They just did everything they could to get him to this point.

And he was the engine for them last year off the bench, as you, as everyone saw, right. 20 points a game or whatever. And that loss of him was huge for them last year. And the fact that he's, he may never be right again, particularly when you couple the injury with age, this may be it for him. I don't know what he is moving forward other than he's not a sixth man anymore, and that's the role he's in. I think that maybe he's like an eight man on a good team. But I think that the inconsistency of him, the inconsistency of Tyler Hero specifically. Yeah, what happened to him? He's on the scouting report, dude, and not everybody adjusts to that all that well.

I think Duncan, over the course of the season, did a much better job. If you remember early in the year, he was struggling a little bit. You know, everybody knew how to handle those dribble handoff, the dribble handoff game between him and bam um and you know he was kind of relegated to more catch and shoot early in the year um and that dho game is big for miami like not having that you know along with all the other stuff they were dealing with from an injury perspective

didn't help but duncan really made the adjustment himself, right? But I also think, Ryan, a lot of that is just age, right? Like, granted, he hasn't played in the NBA much more than Tyler Hero, but he's an older guy, right? He's 25, 26 years old. Like, he's seen more basketball. Tyler Hero's still a baby. And I think that he's relying too much on just his pet moves and things of that nature. And people now know what's coming. And he hasn't made the adjustment to the adjustment. I think Duncan moves so well off the ball that if you can do what he does off the ball, I mean, seriously, I think he was one of the best off-ball cutters in the entire NBA.

And if you're going to do that, you're always going to be tough. You're always going to be tough to guard because there's just going to be nights, not so much in the playoffs, but you're always going to produce in the regular season. Guys are just going to be like, look, offensive players don't want to be bothered to cut off the ball. Never mind defensive guys following you the entire time. Who did you pick for the finals?

So I have Brooklyn and the Lakers still. I haven't really wavered from that yet. Now, look, we'll see what happens, you know, game two in Phoenix. I expect Anthony Davis to be Anthony Davis. If they don't get that Anthony Davis, then, you know, I don't even know what to think about the Lakers moving forward. But I feel fairly confident still and patient that things will work out for them. I just think Brooklyn, man, like when they have chosen to defend,

and we saw it sporadically in the regular season, I specifically remember the Clippers game in Brooklyn. They've been good enough. And Jackie McMullen and I had this conversation on the jump about a week or so ago. We were talking about, do you think that for lack of a better phrase, can they cheat the process, particularly on defense, right? Like, is that the one area where the lack of connectivity and the lack of gameplay affects them? Because it's really the only thing you can think of, at least for me,

because offensively, we know they're going to be great. And she and I both talked about how we've spoken to just kind of people around the league, and people are like they'll figure it out like they're I mean will there be some issues you know will it be an easy path no but they'll figure it out um and I kind of still feel that way uh with them even though Milwaukee looks great and I think Milwaukee will give them a series I still feel like Brooklyn will beat them and I think that Brooklyn will beat Philly even though Embiid will probably be amazing in that series as long as those guys are healthy I still feel like Brooklyn will beat them. And I think that Brooklyn will beat Philly, even though Embiid will probably be amazing in that series. As long as those guys are healthy, I still feel like Brooklyn out of the East. And, you know, I'm going to ride LeBron

until the wheels fall off. And they may fall off, but that's just kind of my position on it. Yeah, I can't really argue with you on the Brooklyn point. I mean, I picked Philly because I wanted to pick somebody else. You know what I mean? I know that. And so if they come out of the East, I'm not going to do some victory lap. point i mean i picked philly because i i wanted to pick somebody else right i mean i really i i know that and i so if they come out of the east i'm not going to do some victory lap i mean when

toronto came out of the east and won the whole thing i picked him but i was like yeah i picked him but you know you know i didn't well it wasn't like i'm not in the back chain smoking in some dark room you're like i finally figured it out the way the way that their pin downs are so much better nobody else can see this well listen i had that lap last year i picked lakers miami right and i picked lakers to win so i i had that moment no that doesn't count because you guys when when they when we had heat culture throughout the national radio lineup like i was like i don't think i've ever been more anti-heat than between sedano and levitard like six to seven hours a day. And I liked both of you guys, but I was like,

I'd go home certain nights being like, I can't fuck with these Heat guys anymore. I'm so sick of hearing about it. And your veins, Ryan. We injected it right into your veins through osmosis, actually. Let me leave you with this, because I think it ties into the Lakers part of it. Because, you know, look, I listen to you guys on 710 all the time i i really enjoy um listening to local stuff again

because i i don't think i was doing it when i was working nationally um you've done it nationally for a long time and now you're doing it in one of the two biggest markets and now me being firsthand like anybody from the northeast or wherever that would think like, oh, it's LA. Now, the Lakers thing is as passionate as any other fan base in any other part of the country. Maybe some of the SEC football trumps anything else. But I'm telling you, it's the Lakers. For me, as the Red Sox guy growing up, the Lakers thing is right there. If not more year round, I mean, it's nuts. more year round i mean it's nuts um do you feel not pressured because the lakers coming out of the west is still probably the right pick even despite what we saw from game one give me the

best i don't want to say pressure because i already know the answer that you're not pressured you're picking a team that has a chance to win the west what's it like for you being like the miami guy but also is doing national nba stuff but also doing local lakers as well because you guys are the flagship as well yeah it um well i say that LA, the best way to describe it as far as sports is concerned, it's everyone just assumes LA is super transient, which it is, but it's also super parochial. Okay. When it comes to the Lakers and the Dodgers specifically, like those two teams are one and two, and then everyone else, you know, number three can be whoever. The Rams thing is kind of nasty, though, sometimes.

Like, the run was so quickly successful that there's this Rams buy-in from the city that surprises me. But then they'll say, like, well, we should have never not, you know, it was still our franchise, so this is bullshit anyway. Right. And I think the success works in a town like this for sure. Right. Because people hadn't seen football for 20 years here. So because you had 20 years of an absence of an NFL team, you had people, some people, you know, stayed loyal to the Rams. But I would say if I had to pick an NFL team for LA, it's the Raiders.

Like you, you have tons of Raider fans here still, and that hasn't changed. And I would imagine those Vegas games are going to be crazy as people drive over there to watch those games. But yeah, it's strangely parochial. So it was a little bit weird. I think some of it made it easy because if you really look at miami and and the heat in the lakers right like they've got some shared history right i mean starting with pat riley right to begin with but you know shack played for both teams so i i think that there was at least for me as i kind of became indoctrinated into la radio and it's been over five years now that you know i had a good basis and the fact that i I'm an NBA guy in a city where NBA matters more than anything else,

there's not a lot of those, right, I think also kind of helped me kind of adjust. But it's the one thing I will tell people that, and you nailed it, the Lakers thing here is as big as anything you'll see. Ryan, I can tweet the dumbest stupid thing like, yo, Andre Drummond was really impressive tonight. Like, you know, just like I,

sometimes I test it just to see if it, yeah. Or like, or like one of those, it's not true. And you would send it out. No, whatever.

But like, or, you know, just pick a random player. I'll just tweet, yo, that guy was good tonight. You know,

give a couple of reasons. And that thing will get like 10,000 likes on Twitter. And it's just because late, the Lakers fandom is that intense. Like, it's unlike anything I've ever seen. And God forbid you say anything that pisses them off because they are going to rain on you like an SEC team fan base would. Like, it's wild. But it's fun.

I think it makes it more fun that way. Because when you're doing national, and I love doing national too, it was great. But you know, you got to be an inch thick and a mile wide, right? Whereas here, you know, you're generally focusing, you know, I don't know, 75% of your time on the local teams. But because there's that transient market, right? Like you still can talk national here. So it's like a perfect balance where you can focus on the local teams that people are super passionate about. And you still got kind of room to talk about other stuff because there's plenty of people here that care about that other stuff. Okay. That's a perfect segue. Um, because I would say

the passion is, is cool in a way in LA because it's always positive. The only time it gets nasty is actually when you doubt the Lakers, whereas when I was in Boston if you just said hey the Sox right you know before all the success but like hey they suck again then everybody was thrilled to hear about hey let's be just super bummed out for 12 hours today during the lineup but the LeBron you know protocol story was weird because I remember seeing it and then I'm looking at who's covering it and I go oh my god like what's this article going to be like and then the second paragraph was like yeah it wasn't a big deal everybody's cool with it I was like oh okay um I said on Sunday selfishly I didn't want him suspended I don't know what did or didn't happen if it's a different player, he's probably suspended. So there is part of this

story that's kind of screwed up. How comfortable do you feel? I don't even know if it's critical or just being open-minded knowing exactly how any challenging, because every Laker fan is selfishly going, well, hey, don't worry about it. League signed off and it's fine. It's kind of messed up because we still don't really know what happened. And I think, yeah, like I think if it's Alex Caruso, he's out seven to 10 days. So how do you handle that topic knowing that it's going to not go over well, if you're not all LeBron? Um, I just think that you kind of said it right. Like you're just talking about like, okay, I don't know. We don't know everything that went down, right? Like we only know these vague details that the league has leaked out to us and there hasn't been like some now if there was like some sort of investigation right

and like like some journalist right like i don't know who's like the like the guy who breaks everything like scooch jackson like if woge drops something on you right like i was thinking more like uh you know like those charles robinson Robinson Yahoo things from back in the day, like college football, right? Like the Miami scandal back in the day, like if there's some expose like that, I think that that's different. But I think because we have these vague details and let's be real here too. Like this was what I said yesterday was this is also a league that had its best player in Michael Jordan, you know, running off to Atlantic City in the middle of a playoff series. And, you know, Ahmad Rashad is doing an interview on national television with him as he's wearing sunglasses, right?

Like, so, you know, is it really all, I mean, not analogous, you know, completely, but we've seen some crazy crap in this league before is what I've said. And it's just been like, all all right it is what it is yeah i think i think the summary would be if you started your show on 710 and said lebron should be suspended you're probably going oh you know did anyone say it there um no i think someone would i think i think someone would um i lookZ Granderson, my co-host, I think has been very much like he doesn't care what anybody says. He'll say it. And I feel like he doesn't feel that way at the moment. But he said what you said. He said a lot of guys get, quote unquote, different treatment treatment to your point. If it's a role player, yeah, he's probably getting suspended, but I would say, I mean, how many stars, I guess, is the question are getting that, that treatment. He's the only one though, that moves the needle that way. And you figure the, the television partnership, no one can say, Hey, so-and-so

has been a bad partner for the other, but this has been a strain on that investment for two seasons. And I'm sure the NBA was not in a hurry to, to let me ask you this real quick. Sorry to interrupt you. Like at the end of the statement, the league put out it. I mean, and again, I'm not trying to get in LeBron's business, but it made it seem like they were implying perhaps he was vaccinated. Yeah, which is a whole other thing, too, because I'm not going to call anybody, you know, I don't want to be like, hey, why aren't you vaccinated? You know what I mean? Like, I got vaccinated.

Fine. All right. But then when it starts turning into like, you know, I'm even hesitant to even go down this road because then it sounds like you're not pro vaccination. And if you're pro vaccination, then it means you're not, you you know opening up your mind up to anybody else's concerns i don't know this big cycle cyclical thing i didn't feel like necessarily doing but that part really threw me off because i believe dennis schroeder at the time when he was like yeah me and lebron would speak in some german language thing and then he's like wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute that's not what i said it's like no it's exactly what you said but then it by the way how many times do nba players who are from other countries this is this is such a great

point tony tony parker a couple years ago remember he told some french outlet something and it became like a big deal i feel like there's been a number of these instances where guys particularly european guys like go back to their home country and talk to some home outlet. And then all of a sudden it gets translated. Like we don't have Google Translate around, you know what I mean? And can't figure this stuff out. It's awesome because it keeps happening.

And I mean, I could understand the comfort. You're in your native language. You're going back and forth. And it's like, all right, you know, we're here with, you know, the Stuttgart Daily Telegram. So I'm going to let it fly here for Hans. All right, George, enjoy the playoffs.

We'll enjoy your coverage and keep doing a great job with the affiliate. All right. So thanks. All right, bro. Great to be here with you. Great to see you. Thanks for having me. This will probably surprise a lot of listeners over the years,

but our guest, Rick Mahorn, is actually one of my favorite players ever. I know he doesn't know this, and I don't know what it was, Rick. I mean, you played for the Pistons, so it wasn't like I was rooting for Detroit being from the Northeast. Maybe it was the Hartford connection for me, but I love the tough guy thing. And then, you know, you played with my all time favorite athlete ever in Charles Barkley for those two years in Philadelphia. So I don't know. I just,

I just loved that it always felt like you wanted a Rick Mahor on your team that in a weird way, like you guys were kind of harder to find, not to say, you know, look, the best players are the hardest ones to find, but guys like you that kind of knew exactly what your job was. It's, it's actually a little more rare in the NBA. So I appreciate it all those years. So thanks for joining me. Oh, thank you. Being the Northeast guy that grew up where, you know what, nobody ever heard of Hartford, Connecticut, and then nobody ever heard of being at Hampton Institute at the time. Now it's university.

But you know what, Ryan, I appreciate that because like you just said, everybody has a role. And if you're complimentary to your role and you kind of embrace it, hey, you can win championships. Yeah, that's what I think is the one thing that stands out. And it felt like this happened more back in your era because when I look at teams it'll struggle right teams they're going to be teams that have early playoff exits below their expectations and then

a bunch of guys like us are going to say hey what are they going to do what are they going to do and not to go like you know my my day back and forth in snow uphill to school both ways but you know you guys would lose and then you just come back you know the walkie bucks walkie bucks rolled the same guys out there year after year after year in the 80s. And it was like, hey, we got a pretty good team and we're probably going to lose to somebody and we'll see you next year. And, you know, for you, you lost to the Hawks in the first round your first year in Detroit. You lost to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, which was an incredible series. And you get through them the next year.

You lose the Lakers. You shouldn't have because Isaiah gets hurt. And you sweep the Lakers, and you come back. So it was the four-year progression that lined up perfectly. So how were those? I know to summarize four years would be too long of a question, but give me a sense of what those years were like coming back after defeat. It's called growth.

And in the NBA, you know, it's the business of basketball. How I got to Detroit was a trade. How Vinnie Johnson got to Detroit was a trade. Lambeer, you know, you have homegrown products like Isaiah and Joe Dumars, who was all, you know, they got in the draft. Dennis Rodman, John Sally, Buda was a trade. of the basketball, if you can keep that strong group of guys who are veterans and also savvy enough to execute a game plan. Our whole moniker was we play defense, and defense wins championships. I look at today's game, and you know what? We look at the games during the regular season, but I'm going to tell you right now, Ryan, these playoffs right now, I'm watching this, the physicality, it's the flagrant files that I see.

It's like, okay, the embrace of the physical part of the game because you're playing this team seven times. So it was a learning, growth, and accepting. And if you can accept, you know, what you need to do the next year, and you're right together as a group, and the continuity, that should help you, you know, catapult you into a better, you know, being better next year, because the next next year, that team's going to get old. And it's not that they're going to get old in a way they're getting old in years. But it's also that they get old, okay, sooner or later, we're going to learn.

So I love veteran leadership. That's why when we look at the, we look at the NBA now, you're missing a lot of those veterans that usually, you know, come around and mentor the young guys. When you play, you know, a Boston team, okay, that had owned the first half of that decade and, you know, they're going to have an arrogance towards you the same way you were going to have an arrogance towards Chicago later on, how frustrating? And I guess, what did you pick up where you go, hey, we know what these guys want to do. We've played them a bunch. We play them in the regular season. We have to go through them.

How different was that rematch the second time around? Well, the difference was we had home court advantage. And that is also key in the playoffs is having home court advantage. And the year that we lost to Boston, we lost, we had a game five where we had the game in hand. Then all of a sudden the ball gets thrown in and all of a sudden. That's the Isaiah inbound, right? Yep. And that little leprechaun that every time I go to Boston, I try to kick it because he did something on that court at that time in the garden. And when you hear Johnny Moe's burst, you know,

kind of resonates in your mind till next year. So after we lost that year in game seven to Boston, we said, we got to have the best record in the Eastern Conference. So we get it the following year and we go to the finals. And we go in there. It was a seven game series, which, you know, hey, if we had had the home court advantage, if Isaiah didn't get hurt, if I didn't have a ruptured disc in my back, because a lot of people don't remember that. I was I was playing with a ruptured disc in my back, because a lot of people don't remember that. I was playing with a ruptured disc in my back. I was laying on the floor.

But that's something that you go, okay, we still should have won. So the next year, the progression, we had to have the best record in the NBA and nobody had to come into our house and win. And we made sure that we played our best basketball, not only on the road, but at home. What's your favorite on-court story from getting through in the Eastern Conference Finals?

Probably booting Larry, or butting Larry Bird out of bounds. I didn't get called for a foul. The hip check? Yeah, the hip check. I call it butting. What was behind the play like everybody was already in transition and you knocked his ass out of bounds yeah i looked around if you see my expression i'll

go oh well might as well give him a little love tap but it was it's fun because when when i talked you know talk to larry or talk to parish talk to max. I talked to my adversaries, but we were adversaries then. But we're all a family because when you look at it, Ryan, if anybody ever did calculations, it's probably only been about a small percentage, about 5,000 guys that played this game of basketball over these maybe 50-plus years, 70-plus years. And it's crazy because we're adversaries when we played

and we played against each other, but we weren't buddy-buddy. But after you retire, you look at it and say, you know, you were a pillar. I talked with, you know, like I said, I talked to Robert Parrish for one, and the chief had that scowl, and you knew it. You go like, oh, man, you ain't that scary, you know, or someone sees me, you weren't that intimidating. You're a pretty cool dude. That's the fun about when you see these guys, the camaraderie,

and that's that, you know, when I look at, you know, coaching the big three, that's when I see that Ice Cube came up with this idea of like, okay, what I missed was the camaraderie. You see these young or these older guys playing a three-on-three, something we do it all the time. And it's easy because you're not always going to have 10 people that you can run up and down and half of them old. They ain't trying to get past half court. So it's fun. That's what I guess I missed is that camaraderie on the bus, you know, talking

smack to each other, all that good stuff. I think you're being incredibly nice about it though because even I would say there was real hatred in those games that I don't ever see now. There can be a dust up, but it carried over. There was an anxiety going into it being like

I wonder what's going to happen. And I feel like some of the Boston guys respected your physical dirtiness more than Lambert where I think they were just waiting. You call me dirty. That's okay. It's full of respect. I mean, it was – look, some of you guys that are on the edge never want to admit it ever. I mean, Bruce Bowen looked at me when we worked together and was like,

you think I'm dirty? And I was like, dude, if you're not dirty, then, I who who is oh so you're still you don't think so you think there's no dirty players Andrew Bogut's dirty elbow screens all that stuff it's all it's all good I mean come on we're all human and we all have little certain nuances that you might not like you may not like the way the guy is up on your chest. You want to get some separation and you go like, man, he touched me one more damn time. I'm about to take his ass out. Yeah, I see what you're saying,

but it wasn't anything malicious to the point that I wanted to hurt him or play in a game of basketball because it is an enjoyment, but it was also to respect. The best thing about when I played, it was the intimidation side. It's like when you're playing, it's like,

I remember James Worthy jumping up off the floor, and I followed him, and I followed him good, and I stood there, and I stared at him. And he looked at me, and he's like, oh! And he just jumps up, clutches his fist, stomps his feet. Oh, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of this. And I was like, yeah, you still got a couple more games of this.

And that's the fun part that I think that when you look at it, half the game, I'm not worried. They're worried about me hitting them. But I'm worried. I'm still, you know, my mindset is that's part of me already. I'm just going to go down here and score and try to stop was there anybody you know i think there's always among the tough guys of an era there'll be there'll be an agreement there's like that guy though like he's he's different were you that

guy or was there someone that you would look to and say i actually think that's the guy you don't want to mess with no and and i'm not saying that in a cocky way. But, Ryan, I played when I first got in the league. You know who I had to play against every day in practice? I had to play against Wes Unsell. Bless his soul, that's my dad. Wes Unsell used to kick my ass every day. When I'm talking about a guy, the last man in the NBA to win MVP and the rookie of the year, that was like, oh, I'm playing with this iconic guy that probably I emulated a lot of the stuff and learned a lot of the stuff from him.

Because he used to tell me once I got in the league, you know, I'm fresh, wide-eyed, ready to go. You know, it was like, oh, I'm going to play against Dr. J. I'm going to play against, you know, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You know, but he was like, don't look at Bob Lanier's feet. Bob Lanier punched you in the face. And I'm like, I had to play defense like this and not look at his feet. Or you're playing against Artis Gilmore, who's the face. And I'm like, I had to play defense like this and not look at his feet.

Or you're playing against Artis Gilmore, who's the strongest. He said, this is how you play Artis. He's the strongest guy in the league. But one time I kept beating him to a spot and he grabbed me literally by my shoulders and moved me because I beat him to the spot. But that's what I learned from Wes Unsell. Or you're playing against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and he's shooting his hook shot. You know, he's shooting his hook shot. So what was crazy is that we played him in a game, and Kareem only been held to single digits like three times

or three times in his career. I had him where he had eight points and the game was almost over. And I never even thought about it. I filed out. I guess the referee said, you know what, I ain't letting Jabar in the street. I filed out. He's going to these two free throws.

So that following week, I go to practice or go to the cap center at that time, and I got this heavy little box. And I'm going like you know, go to practice or go up to the cap center at that time. And I got this heavy little box. And I'm going like, okay, listen, Kareem sent me a heavy rope full of sand. That was one of his workout things. And I said, oh my gosh, I get something from a guy that scored the most points in NBA history.

And he gives me a rope that I said, you know what? I must deserve to be in this league. And that made me feel good. That made me feel like, okay, I do belong coming from a small division two school. God, that must have felt awesome. What a great story. I mean, as we're 10 minutes into this with Rick Mahorn, we're finding out that a lot of guys liked you. More guys liked you than maybe the average fan would have known.

Ewing couldn't have liked you, though. Oh, you know why Ewing didn't like me? Because it wasn't that. Pat and I go way back. Pat was in, when I was in Washington, we used to play, you know, pick up. And Pat was coming out of Georgetown. And we used to go practice over there in that little gym. And, you know, this was the fun.

We played Michigan the year we won the championship, and Michigan won the championship the same year in the NCAAs. So playing against Ewan, Ewan said something in the Washington Post. Yeah, you know, I held my own against Rick Mahorn. I'm sitting there going like, you held your own against me? Are you serious? So when he came in the league, I went right at his head. I'm saying,

Bill, you ain't nothing. How you gonna tell somebody some fable that you gave me and Jeff Rulon? My henchman, Jeff Rulon, the Beef Brothers, used to give us numbers. Man, I told that dude, you know, you better watch out. So Beast and I were, you know,

being of Jamaican heritage, we go back, you know, I see him and I'm so proud of him being a coach at George Thomas El Mamata that, you know, it's that respect. It's like, whatever, Beast, I ain't got time. I'm going to hit you every time

you come through this lane. I'm going to show you, this is what we do don't ever say something in the paper you can't now with the with the invention of twitter and all all this social stuff you can get instantaneously this is fun to me the funny thing i saw like when you came back with detroit and we'll get to your journey here in a little bit there's a youtube clip of you pulling the chair on ewing like five times in a row in a game in 1996 i can't believe he keeps going over i think you only played 10 minutes in the game so maybe he didn't get used to you for the full you know 28 that you would have played in a normal game were you laughing at him by the fifth time

that he had still fallen for you pulling the chair from him because we're talking deep pose position and he still kept going for it. And I'm like, oh my God, this is awful. Oh, let me tell you. You know where I learned that move from, right? I learned that move from Wes Huntsup. That's what I'm saying. I just perfected it a little more.

You always learn something from someone and you try to make it your own. So now when you see it on TV, they're saying, oh, that's the Rick Mahorn pull the chair move. You and, you know, a lot of times guys think they got. That's the whole thing. They think they got it.

You know, they're going to go like, if I go through this lane right now, they're going to hit me. So I better close my eyes. It was just too funny. It was sometimes that guys would come to the basket like full steam and they see you. They go and their eyes get wide open they just close it and they throw it up there and it's like oh you just started laughing because you didn't you weren't gonna hit them you just stepped to the side but they're waiting for that the anticipation of that hit so and at that time when I got Ewan like three times it was a

little thing going uh when I went back to the Pistons in my second tier. It was like everybody, you would get rewarded if you got a charge because it's a hustle play. You made the team turn the ball over. And so I get to there and I'm saying, okay, Grant was taking charges. So I went to Doug Collins and said, look, look man i don't take charges but i'll make somebody fall can i get the same reward that everybody else he went like sure ricky you get it i was like man i started olay and everybody every time i would do it they would go olay you got him i mean you got him so many times i can't believe you didn't just say even if i don't think i feel him right because you lean into him like which is I can't believe you didn't just say, even if I don't think I feel them right. Cause you lean into them,

like, which is what Wes, you know, you know, the move. I mean, Wes had a barrel chest at probably 14 years old and you lean them, make them feel you.

And then you, you're totally in control. Cause then, you know, like, all right, as soon as I feel it coming back, I just get right out of the way.

I mean, guys, it's, I, I appreciate that far more than I do anybody. Cause now, like I look at guys, it's, I, I appreciate that far more than I do anybody. Cause now, like I look at guys, the league is so, um, I mean, the, the post player is an endangered species. Like if you showed McHale moves to guys right now, they'd be like, why would you do all that

stuff when you can just shoot it in the corner for three? Right. But it's, if you learned how to do any of that stuff, you'd freak everybody out. But the problem is, is like the first movement with the post play as an offensive player is getting your shoulder into the defender feeling where he is and all of this stuff and now if you do any of that and initiate the contact like the second time down the defender's just going to fall backwards so there's almost no value in learning those moves anymore which i hate hearing because i just always appreciated guys that could get it done down there well the thing is it's not that it's not there we look at the mvp race right now you look at a guy like joel and b you look at the joker the joker in denver and the big man is starting to be utilized now but it's also the fluidity

of the game everybody wants to shoot a three they want want the open court. You got to look at it, Ryan. Every time I look at the games now, I was like, this reminds me of the old ABA. Remember, back then they had that colored ball and they brought in that three-pointer. NBA didn't have a three-pointer. Now, all of a sudden, everybody relies on the three-pointer.

So if you don't make, like Utah the other night, shot 47 of them, but only made 10. That's, you know, that's, the game has changed. So they want more open, they want more open court, you know, where guys can use their athleticism. But in the playoffs, the physicality notches it up. So possessions become a premium. So you have to learn to play smarter and quicker yeah the some

of the the yokage stuff like the reverse pivot that he'll do you know you're like oh my god so he'll show flashes of all that stuff but he works so much further out because he just he's a better passer so he doesn't want to pass this back to the basket the whole time can we go back though to the beginning for you because you you're leaving Weaver High School. And I imagine around when you graduated, because I do know the area well, and there's a bunch of different high schools, that it was probably a little rough. It was the Hood High School. It was three public high schools, and weaver was the one that had you know a little rough it had the reputation it had the reputation um that it was like oh

because i remember like different games you know if i played in like a pickup game in manchester there would be it would like hard for public was the one that was becoming but like there'd be guys be like oh he plays at Weaver. And you'd be like, all right, you know, I'll make sure I don't call too many fouls then. But how did you, because I imagine you're leaving there being like, okay, cool.

Like I'm getting, I'm getting looks, but like, I mean, UConn's not even looking at you. Hartford's not even looking at you. Or I mean, is Hampton a better fit for you? Take us through that. Oh, you know, my high school career only played one year

of basketball. It wasn't that they weren't looking at me. Was it senior year then? My senior year, we went to the finals. You know, I just learned how to play basketball.

Listen, my high school, I was a football player. I was recruited highly for football. Where? I played defensive in all the Big Ten schools, all up here in the Midwest. So you got to figure anywhere that had a good football program. I was All-American. But here's the thing. I was so tired of playing football because my brother was the basketball player. I had a growth spurt one summer. I went from like 5'11 to 6'6 over a summer. So you go like, you know, and you're hearing this, play like your brother.

You always, you're trying to play basketball. I couldn't even dribble. I couldn't even, you know, run and chew bubble gum at the same time. But whatever it was, I was being recruited, but the only thing I could do was rebound and block shots. I saw an old clip of the state championship game against Lee High School against Sly Williams, the number one player in the nation. And I guess I kind of held my own, but I didn't know how to play. You know, very unorthodox. Didn't, you know, couldn't make a left hand or right hand layup like I wanted to. But it was more of a dedication that I had these two coaches. And you can see them jerseys up there.

That Hampton was the school where Hank Ford and Robert Wilson, these two guys drilled into me this work ethic of continue to get better every day. So my history in high school, yeah, I played against the Hartford publics, the Lehigh, the Wilbercrosses, you know, all the public, more inner city schools. But that's how I learned to play basketball is when I went to Hampton. So being recruited like D-Row really didn't want to recruit me because it was like he's a project. And Seton Hall didn't want me because they wanted me. But it was like I've been playing against, you know, playing against the Big East at that time. And I don't know. Everything changed, you know, when I said I don't want to play. I want to go to a place to play football and basketball no kidding so how were you ever close to just taking a big

10 football offer instead I was real close but here's the thing you know the weather up there in the northeast we played uh my senior year we played Hartford Pub we play on a turkey day game man it was so damn cold out there I was like man you know what I have to take a year off I need to say no just for a year because you got to figure you're playing in all elements it was just dirty and you go in the locker room where it's just everything stinks you know I, I was like, man, I want to try something different. So when I made the – I got cut my junior year for basketball because I didn't even – it was like I tried out just to say I was there.

You know, just trying to keep the Mahorn name going. But it was like I went into the – I went into – we were running inside. I went into the, I went into, we were running inside and I went into the bathroom, sprayed some water on me and didn't, came out when everybody stopped running. The foundation for that amazing work ethic. Oh yeah. At that time it was like, oh hell, this is too hard for me. I just go play football. It's easier. All right. We're going to get to the Philadelphia years. You were an expansion pick after four years with Detroit. I don't want to think forward, but I have to imagine that was not a great moment for you, even though you ended up in Philadelphia to be left exposed and then have Minnesota draft you, correct?

You know, yeah, that's correct. But you know, it brought to mind to me when I got traded from Washington to Detroit, it became, you know, I thought I established myself there with Jeff Ruhland, with the Beef Brothers. But when you look at it and the whole picture of this, this is business. The business of basketball. They felt that, you know, at that time getting traded, they felt that Danny Roundfield, may he rest in peace,

would bring, you know, the bullets at that time a little further in the playoffs. So it was all good. It was good. And getting here in Detroit, not liking the area. I hated Detroit. Ryan, I hated Detroit with a passion. It was good. And getting here in Detroit, not liking the area. I hated Detroit. Ryan, I hated Detroit with a passion. It was like didn't want to be here. Came in the camp, probably weighing three hundred and ten pounds. Didn't care. Didn't work out the whole summer. I was, you know, didn't understand the dynamics, the business of basketball. But I ended up, you know, learning to love Detroit.

That's why I make it home now. But I loved Detroit. And next thing you know, I win a championship, and you're going like, you left me unprotected? That's another blow to your career. But I also was able to do what the players do today. I'm not coming to camp. Trade me, and you can get something, whatever.

And Philadelphia wanted me, and we ended up. That was my henchman, Charles Barkley. I went from Beef Brothers to Bad Boys to Bump and Thump. I said, man, why do I always have to have a ringleader or I'm a part of a team? Okay, bump and thump, for those that don't know, the Sixers are in this weird post, you know, 80s run. Barkley's probably getting a little bit more frustrated, but then the story was that you guys were so good together

that they had to trade you to get you out of there. So is that true or not? Because I go through the numbers. You would think like Barkley had these off years. There's an argument to say those are two of his best statistical seasons. But I've talked to him enough that I would guess the seeds of discontent were kind of planted in thinking about his future. He leaves a couple years after you were gone.

But the stories go that you guys had such a good time on and off the court that they were like, we're going to get Mahorn the hell out of here. Yeah, and you know what, Ryan? You know, as you just mentioned, I never even thought of that, but, you know, I had this relationship with Charles.

Until this day, we still have that relationship, that brotherhood, and it was like, you know, why do, you know, when you look at it, why change dynamics if I'm able to help this team get better? And we won, that was the first time that we won the Atlantic Division. And the thing was with Charles, you know, it was more like I made him accountable. A lot of times Charles didn't want to practice. He was like, he used to tell Jimmy Lyon, it was more like I made him accountable. A lot of times, Charles didn't want to practice. He used to tell

Jimmy Lynam, which was so funny, Coach Jimmy Lynam, he was like, Charles would come in there with an egg McMuffin, sit there five minutes before practice. He's like, Jimmy, when do you want it? You want it now or you want it at St. Joe's? We used to practice there. You want it now

or you want it at the game? You know, Jimmy with his small self, he's like, I want it at St. Joe's? We used to practice there. You want it now or you want it at the game? And, you know, Jimmy with his small sub, he's like, I want it now. So I would do things. I would tell Bobby Thornton, go over there and just smack Charlie upside the head. And I know Charles will hear it. I don't know. Go smack him upside the head and see if you can get him to Charles.

Just say to him, Charles, I'll bust your ass. Man, we used to, our practices became the practices that we had, that I had up in Detroit, where we were competing so hard against each other that the game became easy. And like you said, on and off the court, we were like, you know, on the road, we were like, this is where we're going to eat. Let's do this. Let's go mess with Johnny Dawkins and Hersey Hawkins

and Scott Brooks. Beat up the guards a little bit. Talk smack to Jeminski. And we talked till this day. Mike Jeminski, Johnny Dawkins, even Hersey. That's the, you know, everybody tells me that against Detroit, winning that championship was the best time of your life.

I always go like, nah, Philadelphia was the best time of my life as being a basketball player and enjoying going to practice, going to play every night. So the accountability that I created for Charles, you know, a lot of people that were in position at that time, I can tell you who was in that position. It was Gene Shue. He became some kind of GM. And he didn't like me from the bullets. He got rid of me from there. I didn't like him either. So it was all good.

Okay, last thought here, because I know I'm biased when it comes up. And I sense that you're biased, so it doesn't mean either of us have the definitive take. Karl Malone or Barkley? I'm taking Barkley. I still, to this day, I think if you put Karl – the thing – I don't know. It was like – and Karl Malone was a great player.

Don't get me wrong. He had mad respect. And it was like, Karl Malone, it was like the mailman, always delivered. And I would listen to this, you know, the media. Oh, he's just, he's always there, which he was, to me, was a great player. But he wasn't delivering shit against me. I was going to make sure was a great player. But he wasn't delivering shit against me. I was going to make sure I had six fouls.

I told him I got six fouls, and they all got your name on it. And I believe that that was not a lie. That was not a lie when you would say that. And that's, look, that goes back to my beginning here as I say goodbye. My appreciation is for, especially when you're a young kid and you're figuring yourself out, like, I don't know. I would always kind of, the tough guys would always resonate with me. And I think there's a lot of guys that want to be tough guys in sports. And I think there's a lot of guys that want you to think they are and aren't.

And with you, it was never a doubt. And that's why I always loved you as a player. I appreciate that. I'm not a woofer. I'm a guy that I am the wolf. That's what people say. There's a lot of people backing that up too, Rick. Hey, man, thank you so much.

And enjoy the rest of the playoffs, all right? Oh, thank you, man. I appreciate being on your show. Hey, just want to let you know that Rick Mahorn also is involved with the Big Three. It's going to start its fourth season. That tips off July 10th in Vegas. He's been coach of both Trilogy and Enemies. Every game broadcast live with the majority

airing exclusively nationwide on CBS Television Network with all CBS broadcasts also streaming on Paramount+. Before we jump to life advice, I have to share a little bit of a story with you. I guess this has happened to other people. It hasn't really happened to me. Um, I haven't flown in a while.

I got on the flight and we're back to full seats. Um, your boy doesn't fly first class when he's flying on his own dime. So, um, it's always kind of weird if somebody recognizes you're like, Oh, sitting back here with us.

We can't know shit. 1200 bucks to go three hours. Come on. Um, so, you know, we're back, we're back to three wide on a side, you know, those, those days of, of getting that free aisle seat again, I didn't really go anywhere for like a year and a half. So I, I'd heard about it and I experienced it once. And then, you know, I got a big guys already playing the wingspan leg game with me. I'm,

I'm in this, I'm in the window and he's, you know, he's kind of fighting for the armrest position. It's like, all right, you got to give him the armrest. He's in the middle. You know, you can't, you can't have him sitting there, um, all locked up. And in front of me is the exit row. So as the plane loads up, you notice the aisle seats open. So I'm going, wait, you know, this guy's going to slot over one. I'm going to have an, I'm going to have an empty middle. I got a lot of work to do a little reading. Um, I'm good to go. And so they're going through exit road protocol in front of me. And there's one guy in the, in the window right in front of me. He's just not really paying any attention. And the flight attendant's getting really annoyed with him. And then she's like, look, I just need yes or no. I need yes or no

confirmation, verbal confirmation in English. I just need, and he spoke English and she's like, of confirmation verbal confirmation in English I just need and he spoke English she's like are you willing and able he's like nah I'm out I'm not helping she was like what because yeah I'm not gonna help and people were looking at being like wait you're you're just you're over it he was like yeah I'm not I'm not gonna help I've never seen that happen before and so then they switched him and then we were three wide the rest of the way. And I'm thinking like this fucking guy, all he had to do was say, yes. Now you could say, Hey, if somebody is that anti willing to help, you probably don't want them in the exit row. And then we can start playing the math on it and be like, what are the chances that he's really going to have to take charge and be the hero to save everybody through the exit

door? That's probably low number. Um um you think if you're in that role and you hesitate somebody else will step up there's like 12 people that are kind of assigned to that but he was just like nah i'm out i have no time you didn't raise your hand and say i do it well it didn't matter because then i was going to be doing window seat for window seat and i'd already sat down a little extra legroom window seat. Whatever. Yeah, but then again, it's like, who's this guy? Brother Nero,

seeking leadership when no one wants him to be a leader. Seeking leg space is what I would say, but whatever. Yeah. I don't know. You know how I feel about guys. Guys that want to be leaders that aren't capable. I'd rather just be bad at it than seek leadership. Alright, let's do life advice. You want details? Bye. I'd rather just be bad at it than seek leadership. All right, let's do life advice. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous

house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com Okay. This one's incredible. So, it's long. Try to clean it up here a little bit. Okay.

This guy's apparently doing pretty well. But, you know, you guys are sending in these these emails, the younger cats now with pictures. So this guy's neck looks like he's pretty jacked. So just based on neck size alone, I tend to believe most of this email. Okay. Six feet, 196, 8% body fat,

net worth of 3.5 mil. Fuck you. He says he wants people to start doing their net worth. I don't know. I don't even necessarily want to do the rest of the stuff. It's been listening for 10 years. Uh,

I have a friend that I met at a high-end fitness club a few years ago. My friend is early 30, 6'3", former military, super well built. And up until a couple months ago,

he's married to, uh, a cute fit woman. Um, obviously going to leave the names out. Prior to the pandemic, this couple, they're married, would often work out at the same time as me. And over time, I got to know both of them fairly well. He's an intense dude and would talk about how he wished he weren't wired so tight. The example of his intensity is he would often look around

the gym while we worked out together and point out other dudes who he felt were looking at his then wife too much or in inappropriate ways. In the same breath, he would tell me that one of the reasons he liked me was that he never saw me flirting with the ladies there. So he liked you because you weren't talking to any other women at the gym. Now I'm not a big ever hit on girls at the gym guy, but he approved of you because you didn't talk to anyone else. Not just not talking to his wife. Fun guy. Yeah, this guy, the old sheriff of ironworks over here.

In the same breath, he would tell me, okay, so we got that. Being married and content in my relationship, I didn't have a reason to scan the scene for prospects. Over time, my friend, let's call him Mark. Everybody cool with it? Hi, Mark. Over time, Mark eventually revealed that him and his wife were having issues at home. He would share stories of relationship struggles and was genuinely searching for ways to improve things.

He talked about his wife with a sort of reverence only a few married guys do. In other words, he was clearly way more into her and deeply in love with her. I did a lot of listening and whenever he asked my opinion, I would offer honest perspective. He was always appreciative of any feedback and advice that I would give. When the pandemic started, Mark and I kept up over text that would provide listening ear support and encouragement as he sought to improve and or stabilize his relationship with his wife. They always seemed like a nice couple and he was clearly head over heels with love with her. My main concern as I listened to him, it seemed to be a bit suffocating towards her and perhaps more into her than she was into him. I think I would agree at this point.

A few months deeper into the pandemic, I ran into Mark at a small underground gym, speakeasy style, over the pandemic. And he was down over 20 pounds and looked very defeated. It took him a lot for him to muster the courage to tell me, but he finally confided that his wife had kicked him out of the house and they'd begun the official separation process. It had completely wrecked him to be away from her. That day I saw him. He told me that she had disabled the voluntary location tracker they had each enabled on their phones. And he was more distraught over not knowing where uh she was or what she could be doing at any given time so wait they both had voluntary

trackers on uh their phones okay yeah yeah i saw somebody do that to me once where I was like, what? Yeah. But you didn't change your settings. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, why are my location settings on? Um, and then it was like,

Oh no, that's just a way to find it. I was like, I could tell you right now when I'm working, there's like one place I am. It's downstairs. Once you cross that line, it's like,

you could just always look at where I am. That's yucky. Yeah. All right. So anyway, uh, this is a long one here so we're we're off the voluntary location trackers later in the conversation mark became adamant that the high-end gym was the root cause of his marriage collapsing because his wife had told him prior to the pandemic that she enjoyed what she described as a newfound popularity after joining she was friendly with a group of girls at the gym,

so that made sense at least on the surface. Towards the end of the conversation, he mused under his breath that if another dude was involved, it would end badly. I chalked this up to his suffocating ways and possible paranoia. I mean, who uses geo-trackers on their spouse? All right, some guys. Mark and his wife were unable to reconcile the relationship

over the course of the separation. She eventually filed for divorce. He fought tooth and nail trying to keep his marriage. And in the end, my advice to him was that he needed to move on with his life

since she had made a decision to move on with hers. In the aftermath of the divorce, it came to light that the wife had slept with two different trainers prior to the pandemic while they were still married and living

together uh okay so neither of these trainers compared to mark in terms of looks or build so this is a real gut punch to mark was also surprised to me since she had always seemed fairly wholesome by the way no one should ever be surprised about anything like a whole like wholesome whatever i mean if you're miserable in a relationship and you already know you're leaving a guy or if you're the guy and miserable in the relationship and you can seem like the perfect, perfect dude. And then all of a sudden you step out. None of us should ever be surprised about any of this stuff just based on judging a

book by a cover here. On top of that, she was religious and had tagged legs like Jesus is my jam on her Instagram profile. Again, none of that means anything. We've been through it again. The meanest people on the internet usually have something about Jesus in their bio. So Mark is still bitter about all of this. And now that the high-end gym is open again, he's routinely aggressive and hostile with the two trainers that his ex-wife slept with.

Shockingly, not surprised by that. While they were married, for what it's worth, I pity both of those dudes. Since right or wrong, Mark is the type who will eventually find both of them in a dark alley one day and it won't end well for either trainer. Recently, Mark found himself a new girlfriend that he met, you guessed it, at the same high-end gym. All right, so he's moving on. She's in great shape like Mark and she was beyond joyful when telling me about meeting her. As he described her, I quickly realized that the new girlfriend is fairly well known that has a reputation similar to the ex-wife. I don't want to be a wet blanket on the new relationship. And since I was dead

wrong about his ex-wife, I decided to keep my mouth shut. What Mark doesn't know is the new girlfriend is certifiably nuts on the surface. She's fit, attractive, seemingly intelligent. However, about two years ago on a quiet Sunday morning, while she was still married to another guy at the time, I watched her and one of the trainers at the club sneak off to the back room, and you guessed it, everybody. It was beyond obvious what was happening. She came back out to work out. Everybody could figure it out.

I know it's going to destroy my friend Mark when he finds out that this new girlfriend also slept with a trainer at the same gym that his wife apparently slept with as well, ex-wife. I don't feel like I can win here if I speak up. What's your take here? On the one hand, I want to be a good friend, but on the other hand, it is an entire can of worms if I speak up. Thank you in advance.

My first question is, what are the initiation fees at this gym? Maybe that guy should become a trainer. It works out for those guys. How hard is it to get your trainer certification at this place and are they hiring uh look man your friend mark has some issues and by being suffocating the wife left him and by being even more suffocating the wife like whenever anybody's going through a breakup and then you be like she broke up with the version of you and if you become an extra times 100 shitty version of the version she broke up with they don't usually go like oh

this is an even worse version of the guy that i can't stand i definitely want to get back together with you i would not say anything because he doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want to hear it. He goes after a certain type over and over and over again, and he's never going to change. The results aren't going to change for him until he decides to pursue somebody different. And he doesn't seem like a huge catch either. Like, cool, you're jacked and everything. But if you're really, really possessive and you're trying to find ways, like if he liked you because you didn't hit on other women, that's a weird deal.

Like it's cool that he's your friend. It's great that you've been listening to him. It sounds as though it's a pretty one-way street deal emotionally, which can be exhausting where you have to hear your friend's problems all the time. Maybe you tell him stuff you left out of the email.

So I hope there's some reciprocation there if you like him enough to keep the relationship going. But I would play dead, you know, not the actual play dead here but i would in a sense i would play dead on this one i just wouldn't tell him you know what i mean if he wants to keep pursuing the same people and you know i'm not even judging anybody in all this but it's just uh i i don't i don't think it's worth your spot because it's probably gonna break up

anyway man so uh go for it i i would deny too. I would deny down the road, you know, that like, Hey, uh, cause he found what he want, right? He found a replacement for his ex-wife. And even, um, if she's not perfect and who knows, maybe, you know, that was just stage for her and she's now a perfect fit and all that kind of stuff. I would just stay out of this one. Cause he's probably just going to go crazy again, or maybe he could just join a different fucking gym. Kyle? Yep, that was it for me. Get a different gym and say nothing.

This guy's probably a little bit nuts. It seems like he likes the drama though. Why else would you go keep going to the gym unless you wanted to? Maybe he wants to show off in front of his ex, right? Because he's got this new girl and maybe that makes him happy. But you're right, Ryan. There's absolutely no way that this circles back on the guy writing in because how is how is he going to connect the dots that you know this information about her

you know maybe sleeping around there's no way he can pin you to that so don't say anything right and then if he says like how could you have not known or did you know or whatever and then you're like how mad can you be at me because then you're going to remember too like if say i'm mark in this situation right um there are times where stuff has happened where you can be disappointed, but like, look, I had one of my best friends, the girl that I was seeing at a time, you know, one of the other guys ended up hooking up with her. No one told me about it for a year. And I was furious. I was really mad. I felt like I'd been completely deceived, but at the same time I had to be honest and go, yeah, but it wasn't like you could call me up the next day and be like, Hey, guess what?

I have to tell you this because I'm friends with both of you. Like a lot of times you're just going to chip, you know, I don't love always the cop out and never taking accountability and never having to step up. But sometimes it's just like, look, what am I? Cause I, cause then, you know, once I found out everything and I said to the guy, I was like, you lied to me. And he's like, yeah, I lied right to your face. He's like, cause we were all still in school. And you know once I found out everything and I said to the guy I was like you lied to me and he's like yeah I lied right to your face he's like because we were all still in school and you know he's like I just didn't want to deal with you and I was like yeah I was like all right yeah I was like I get it and I did and I did I didn't like it but I got it this guy this guy Mark intense military guy apparently he's got his routine down, though. You know?

Find out what he says. How's it going? Mostly glutes today? Killing it. Just revert back to anything MacGruber would say. How's your bod? All right, let's do... I'll do this one,

and then we'll finish because this, we got a couple people. I don't know if it's a vocal minority or if it's a vocal majority, but some people had some issues with the Jeff Garland, uh, interview from last week. Uh, and, and our emailer here has a couple of issues with the podcast. So I'll just do this one. Cause I think it'll be a little quicker. Hey guys, love the podcast and the stuff with Simmons. I'm 6'3", about 170. I play basketball, go to the gym. I've barely any fat on me. I think Derek Jones with a bit more muscle. I've been up to about 185 in the past when I don't lift weights, much like during the pandemic, I lose muscle, but gain no fat. The thing is I'm perfectly healthy, very toned. And I received a

lot of compliments from women on my physique. I think you guys come off as narrow-minded to the point of being offensive. Plenty of guys are naturally skinny like me and I'm a lot healthier than a guy my height who weighs 250 pounds

unless he has a high amount of muscle mass. So our emailer is saying that I am borderline offensive when we read the height-weight deals there. I can tell you right now, my intention, if I read like six, five and a guy goes, Hey, one 65, you'll probably be like, Whoa, Hey,

we got a thin guy. And as a really, really thin guy growing up, um, to the point where like my parents brought me to a doctor to try to figure out, and it was just awful looking back on it because I just wasn't going to fill out until I filled out. That's it. Genetically, that's just the way I was going to be wired, man. I get it because it was always weird growing up and like, how come I'm supposed to get my ass kicked if I make fun of somebody fat, but if I'm skinny, everybody can just call me skinny. Well, the problem is that more often than not, the heavy kid is going to be able to beat up the skinny kid, but the skinny awareness jokes are not nearly as, uh, you know, anti overweight guys, but yeah, somebody writes in and says, Hey, you know, anti overweight guys, but yeah, somebody writes in and says, Hey, two 85, five, eight.

I'm you're going to hear me go, Whoa. All right. Thick. I'm going to tell you if that is super offensive to you, then I may forge you a list of other things that are probably worth being more offended about than that. I, I don't, I don't think we're even remotely nasty with any of that stuff. We had one other email where a guy was upset because I said golfers weren't athletes, and he turned it into some other thing.

We're just going to talk like how people talk on the podcast. The other part is that he said, I also want to mention the Garland interview. I love Curb, and as soon as Ryan started speaking to him about Lear, I thought, please don't ask him too many questions about this, but he definitely did. The pitch idea was embarrassing. I think ego undoubtedly played a part here. Look, the pitch thing didn't go well. I didn't expect it to go well. And as we're learning here on this podcast, especially with comedians that they've spent their entire life being told, Hey, you should do this. And it'd be funny. So even if something in my idea wasn't good, was going to be good. They've

already built up such a thick coating to this. The same way if you came up to me and said, Hey, this is what GM should do. And I didn't know you and you didn't even work in sports. And I'd probably be like, and I'm not even willing to like hear a good idea. That's what we're finding out. I did have a second part of the pitch. We didn't even get there because he wasn't having it. And then he just tore into me and ripped it up.

Yeah, maybe it was a little ego, but I've done two things. I've walked around thinking I'm the worst and I've walked around feeling good about myself. And I like one a hell of a lot more than the other. But if you think we're going to have Jeff Garland on and out of respect to him, not talk about curb, then figure out how the fucking process works. You don't have a creed on to talk about his band, right? You ask about the office for 28 minutes and be like, Hey, what are you doing with the band for two? I've been doing this like 20 years. And that's how these interviews work. Is Jeff Garland's available? Cool. We talk about curb. Absolutely. I think we could have talked about curb even more. The interview was

terrific. And if the last part bums you out, um, it bummed you out more than it did me. So, I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. Both parts of this email were instances of just things going over his head. I think that's just what it was. That meme where it's like the joke and then you're under it. I think that's what this was. The pitch was a joke. Just like the

pitch to Bargatze was a joke. Yeah, there's some realness. There's some realness in the pitch was a joke just like the the pitch to bargatze was a joke so yeah there's some realness there's some realness in the pitch but it isn't that all of a sudden i think garland and i are gonna be buddies and then i'm on season 10 as a writer of curve like i i know but i'm you know what emails like this i can't wait to start booking more comedians and pitching pitching even more i may i may i may have a comedian on i don't even like and start the interview with pitches and see if they if they close out of the zoom on me so buckle up life advice rr at gmail i don't know sir do you have anything else to add to this no I just

thought I thought your music analogy was perfectly it was on point if you go to see Billy Joel he's got to play piano man like I don't care if he's over piano man like that's what it is so he of course Jeff Garland's gonna be asked if he knows he's doing an interview of course he has to expect these and be asked about curve and I don't even think he gets upset

he's probably not even said about that it's an awesome show why would you not want to be asked about it we. And I don't even think he gets upset. He's probably not even upset about that. It's an awesome show. Why would you not want to be asked about it? We didn't do that much on Curb. We really didn't. The rest of the pitch was that Larry goes back in time and watches himself do stand-up and he talks himself out of doing it. And so he's like, what?

And he'd be like, yeah, like, well, doesn't my career work out? And he's like, yeah, but you're just watching you now 40 years earlier. I just't endorse this you're terrible at stand-up and he'd be like what and then he so i mean again it was stupid um but at that point i could see in his eyes i was like he hates this so much and he's just gonna kill me and there we go that's that's the end of the podcast but yeah like when we had rain wilson on get up and his handlers are like you know try not to do too much in the officelers are like, you know, try not to do

too much in the office. She's like, well, you know, we're not doing 10 minutes on the Meg. Like, you know, that's the way it works. When I do interviews, rarely, but when I do something with another podcast that isn't one of my friends and they go, hey, we want to talk a little bit about post ESPN life. I've already covered all of it. I mean, there's another version of it that I can even put it. I also don't want to be the guy 10 years removed from ESPN being like, oh, and then they did this, which I can be guilty of even still at times. But I also know that I'm not going to do an interview where I don't get asked about ESPN. It's going to happen. They're going to, hey, what happened with Scott? What happened with the Scott show? How come that ever worked out? And you're just like, all right, I can't, what am I going to happen. They're going to, Hey, what happened with Scott? What happened with the Scott show? How come that ever worked out?

And you're just like, all right, I can't, what am I going to say? Hey, sorry. I actually just want to focus on my travel writing. Can we ask you about NBA?

No, I have a new travel blog out. We can only talk about the travel blog. So, all right, take too long on this. I do appreciate the feedback. Don't agree with any of it.

Have a great week. you