The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Julius Randle’s Playoff Turnaround. Plus, Mike Breen on Where Brunson Ranks as a Knick, His Favorite Broadcasting Moments, and Being the Voice of the NBA.

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Russillo starts the show by looking back at the Julius Randle trade and explaining his importance to the Timberwolves down the stretch (1:19). Then, he’s joined by Mike Breen to discuss watching Jalen Brunson play, his early broadcasting career, and the best moments he’s called (19:07). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (53:58)! Is it weird to wear my friend’s clothes? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Mike Breen Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Get anything delivered on Uber Eats. www.ubereats.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com. On today's episode of the podcast, one of the boldest trades in NBA history. Now we're not talking about Dallas, we're talking about Julius Randall coming into Minnesota, Kat going out, and Minnesota is back in the Western Conference Finals. Let's take a look at that. And we've got Mike Breen, the voice of the NBA Finals

for ABC and ESPN. We'll do some basketball stuff, but I also want to talk about his career and his background and just look, he's the man. He's awesome at it. And we've got life advice. Wargon's awesome at that too. Hi there, I'm Ryan Reynolds,

and I have a list of things I like to have on set. It's just little things like two freshly cracked eggs scrambled with crispy hash brown, sausage, crumble, and creamy Chipotle sauce from Tim Hortons. From my rider to Tim's menu, try my new scrambled eggs loaded breakfast box. Minnesota is back in the Western Conference finals. Our guy, John Krasinski from The Athletic, who's been on, does a great job covering the NBA and the Timberwolves.

He noted that this is the first time. For a Minnesota pro team to be in the final four of their playoffs of the major sports and back to back years since the Minnesota North stars in 1981. If you remember the North stars left for Dallas in 93, if you played the video game, you remember how, how challenging that was at the time. And if you were wondering if 80 81 was Dino Ciccarelli's first season, it was. So we talked about the closing stages

of an NBA regular season. I brought it up with Bill. I've, I've touched on it a little bit. As we were gearing up for the playoffs, kind of being like, all right, you know, what do we have, right? As an aside, obviously with the Steph injury and him not being able to get back out there, I still don't know that I would have picked Golden State throughout all of this and just another aside, it's just, I don't know how many more Steph

playoff runs we're even going to get. So just awful. Like it sucks that we didn't get to see him at least out there competing, but I still probably would have picked Minnesota in this series. So those closing stages, um, that I've referenced a lot as I try to, as I'm sure you do, if you're really into it and be like, all right, who's been better since the all star break, what have you looked like your last 20 games? Is this stuff real?

Is it fake? What are they doing as far as their schedule? Are they playing all tanking teams? Is it a nice close in the East against 80% of the teams that don't want to win games for those last weird stretches of the regular season? Can I be fooled by some of this stuff? Well, I'll get to Minnesota here in a second because we know that they close at 17 to four. They closed on the 17-4 run and there's some really good stats in there as well. Well, the Clippers are 18 and five with a number two net rating in the NBA

behind only OKC. And when you have that kind of run for a team that feels like it's kind of stuck in neutral for months. You wonder, is there anything specific that's different about this team or is the same group of seven to eight guys just playing that much better? Or again, is it the schedule? Stupid. But with the Clippers, there was a real definitive thing that you could point to. Kawhi Leonard was back and he was back playing much bigger minutes.

Now he returned February 2nd, but March was more minutes and far more production. It looked real. That Cleveland regular season win for the Clippers, you're like, all right, and guess what? Out in the first round. The Pacers finished 17-7. But most, I think the most important part of it, this is a defense last year for Indiana that finished 18th after the All-Star break. So it wasn't just bad all year, it was bad in the second half, where you can try to see if something's getting a little bit better, because that is the example

that we saw with the Pacers this year. They were eighth on defense after the All-Star break. They had a really nice record. The East was different because you had teams that felt like they didn't wanna win. I don't know that Toronto wanted to win, and they just played too good a defense the second half of the season to lose as many games as they need to to move up in the lottery.

Probably one of the most impressive things that I've seen from the Pacers, at least in these playoffs, is the fact that they would close out Cleveland at their place, get down big early, and you're thinking is Cleveland going to finally like get this right and be competitive in these games? And yes, that was a very competitive game, But for the Pacers to outlast them once again and on the road after being down big, I mean, that's, I don't know that it's scary stuff for the rest of the playoff field, but that, that shows you something that shows you something where a lot of teams in that spot are like, look, we're still up commanding lead. They're a little banged up.

We're good. We're in their heads. We'll just go back and get this one at home and let's not try hard tonight. And that is the opposite of what we saw from this Pacers group. So it feels like what we're seeing now is just a continuation of those really good moments in the regular season. Sometimes, sometimes you have the other side of it.

Like, you know, Boston was 22 and five after the All-Star break, but they've always been really good now throughout much of the stretch with this group. The Tatum injury part of it, look, I still think they were going to lose game four and still would have been down 3-1. And it's a nice emotional, you can't count us out yet type of win from the Celtics last night at home against the Knicks. But I don't know. Jalen Brown being the primary option on your offense in the absence of Tatum

for two more high stakes playoff games. That's not something I would necessarily feel great about. You also have other seasons as I look at like the East. 2018, remember that young Sixers team? Everybody was really excited about, they were 24 and 24. They were 36 and 30, and then they closed the season on a 16-0 stretch. So they get to 52 wins. You're like, man, look out the sixers have

figured this stuff out. 16-0 is good. Um, like, you know, what would have been really good is 12 and four 16 and O is 16 and O, but I think looking back and then their shortcomings in the playoffs, you wondered, did they close really strongly against a bunch of teams that were no longer competing? So let's get back to Minnesota.

They were 17 and 17. They were 32 and 29. Randall comes back right around this part of the season, uh, right at 32 and 29, I believe, DiVincenzo had come back for two late games in February. So you're basically getting both the trade pieces back. There's also a number here with the playoffs that this team is in this third run with Randall back in the lineup where they're 30 and six in their last 36 games, but anyone watching Randall over the course of his career, or maybe even the

early Randall games with Minnesota, we were like, what did Tim Connolly do? I don't know that anybody's ever like after a losing streak, gone back to a locker room and said, don't worry, we get Julius Randall back soon. but that's exactly what has happened. And this is outrageous. Okay. You may have been the biggest Julius Randall fan. You did not expect this. You, you can't do a victory lap on this.

Maybe Tim Conley can, but what he has been in these playoffs versus who he has been historically, it is two entirely different species. So he was seven and eight for his playoff record. Again, record's not always on a basketball player, maybe even less than it is on a quarterback, but his shooting splits in those series with New York, 41 and 28 overall, 34 and 24 overall, 30% overall from the floor, 33 from three in his last series with the Knicks. And then Minnesota trades Kat for this guy,

and D'Vincenzo, who I think people were more excited about the guy in the sidecar coming over in the trade than maybe driving the motorcycle. But as much as my history with how I felt about Kat is long documented, and there's plenty of examples. Like I don't think we're so those cat guy or dog, I guess. 29 years old. You've just made it to the Western Conference finals.

It feels like against Denver, you have a nice frontline matchup to combat the best player in the world. Because if you can put Rudy on Aaron Gordon, granted the non 45% from three Aaron Gordon, but I still think teams are like, it's okay. It's okay if you take those. We're not going to freak out about it, but you had Rudy being able to help off of that. Hopefully shut off all the baseline Aaron Gordon stuff. And then cat who, as long as his defensive

assignment is right in front of him and it's not a swift switch and he's making a closeout drop decision or he's chasing somebody around the screen at the top, like we've seen so many times in this Boston series, if the defensive assignment is right in front of him, cat is physical enough. And again, he's not a great athlete, but I think

he's athletic enough because it's not like Yokoch is crossing you up and all these things. Again, no one ever stops Yoko. It's just, can you make it harder on him? Which is why the Clippers still have to be like, you know, we have the guy that actually makes it harder. And I think you've seen that in the carryover and some of the Yoko shooting games that he's had throughout the playoffs. So Minnesota, even if you didn't like cat, you had that.

And you also had one of the best shooting bigs in the league, a real stretch five. If you wanted to play that way. Um, if you wanted to sit Rudy down defensively, maybe you're opening yours or you certainly are opening it up yourself to, uh, some other things you're not going to like there on drives. But I mean, you want to talk about bold. I mean, this is, this is one of the boldest trades we've seen in recent history.

Bold and we understand the trade as opposed to bold and what the fuck are you guys doing down in Dallas? Um, I've said it a few times, like if I don't like a player and the team that has that player trades that player, that's kind of all I need to know debate over. Certainly there are other cases where it doesn't mean that I'm right about that player. That's kind of all I need to know, debate over. Certainly there are other cases where it doesn't mean that I'm right about a player because a team traded him,

but if the Timberwolves are trading Kat after making to the Western Conference Finals and I'm kind of on the fence about them in certain spots, then like what else do I need to tell anybody that's disagreeing with me? Granted, this is not as extreme or as obvious as the D'Angelo Russell trade that Minnesota had made earlier where I'd watch those games and be like, they have to get this guy out of there. They have to get him away from Ant. And they did so pretty quickly.

So, when you look at the Randall part of it, and again, I'm maybe being a little, like I'm overlooking the De Vincenzo part of it. It looks like he's finally starting to turn around on the shooting a little bit. The rebounding is always like, he's active. He's tough. He's going to defend. He competes a lot of good stuff, but it's, Hey man, you're going to make more threes

to be the fully formed version of yourself and have everybody be really excited about grading this trade, uh, what nine, 10 months after it happened. But yeah, back to the point with Randall, he's a completely different player in these playoffs by any metric. You don't even have to spend that much time looking at, I think, I know no one likes PR anymore. He's basically tripled the PR from where he was with the Knicks to who he's been now with the Timberwolves.

And I think the idea always was. You know, cause most teams would not have moved off of cat. They could have despised cat and I don't think anybody necessarily hates him. I think it's just, you know. They had they had seen enough. I think there'd be front offices and coaching staffs like this guy again.

Alright, let's just run it back. If you're looking at this team and thinking about an all the attention that he gets, and last night was a great example, like Ant was really good as a playmaker last night because the shots weren't going to be there for him and it was a really, I think another level of like selling out defensively against Edwards, that whoever was getting the ball off of that stuff had to be somebody that could create for himself late in those shot box situations because Rudy is not somebody who's ever gonna do that.

We understand that. Jane McDaniels, who I like his handle better now, the best I've ever felt about it throughout his career. Last year, he's a stand in the corner guy and he'll come middle a little bit more, but you're not running stuff necessarily at the top for him to probe with the dribble then pull it back out. If he's dribbling, he's probably already decided

what he thinks he's going to do. Conley is a total coin toss. If you get the kind of game from Conley that you got last night from him, more often than not in the playoffs, it actually changes, I think, who Minnesota can be. Like I'm starting to look at them as you just don't see it enough from Conley, but damn, when he is hit, when he's hitting shots and he's active and he's driving baseline, he's kicking it back out to guys and collapsing the defense, You just don't see it enough from him. But when the Timberwolves have that version of Conley on a certain night, they're really tough.

And look, as much as we all love Nas Reid, he's not a guy necessarily like with the ball. Hey, get loose and find yourself a shot. Although that side to side thing he did left and right where he threw it up off the glass was probably one of the toughest shots I've seen in the entire playoffs this year. Randall, even if you don't like him, we know that his with the ball skills are pretty special for a guy his size. And as of right now, this thing is working out.

We grade trades when they first happen. And I actually think it's worse to complain about the grading of trades when they first happen. And I actually think it's worse to complain about the grading of trades when they happen than actually doing the grading because it's like, are you aware of what we do here? So we're just going to grade shit and then we can grade it again. And then when it's all said and done years later, we

can go, hey, what do we actually think now that we have all of the data of what that trade is? So, you know, this is one of those, those rare trades where. As New York city looks like it's about to get into its first Eastern conference finals in 25 years, uh, that they won the trade, but the degree, the, the degree is the way I should say it of what we think this Randall final grade could be, um, because I'm not even sure they thought they were gonna get this kind of, like he's been unbelievable.

It's funny because I was thinking about this as I close this thought. When Conley did this deal, all right, man, that seems rather disruptive, right? But here's Minnesota back in the Western Conference finals. So there's no like, Randall could have a bad series, OKC wins, whatever. Now it's OK, because they got to where they needed to get to. They had to get as far as they got last year for us to give them a good grade on this trade.

Because the dumbest part about the grading stuff, which again, I'm guilty of doing, is that Minnesota could be the exact same team. They could close 17 and four. They could, if they had been better in the regular season, right? If they'd been good enough to be the fourth seed and lost in the second round to Oklahoma City, which is totally feasible, then it'd be like, Oh, they didn't get as far as they did last year. Which is why the way we talk about some of these GM jobs, instead of just absolutely celebrating something that I don't think many other teams would have doing if they didn't get out of the second round, but had been better in the regular season,

had the higher seed, lost to the Thunder, then some of us would be sitting here saying, well, they shouldn't have traded Gap. Fanduels turning your bets into bigger wins with a parlay profit boost. That's right, build the same game parlay or parlay, and you can boost your winnings by 30 percent with a profit boost. You pick the team's players, stats, all of it. Fandual just adds a little fuel to the fire. We're taking a look at game six, Denver hosting OKC. So right now the number on this is OKC minus four and a half. Look, I think Oklahoma

City going in was going to win the series. There have been moments where I've wondered, but now the last couple of fourth quarters in closing those out have gone Oklahoma City's way. There's the clutch stuff that was brought up during the broadcast of game four. And you kept thinking, does it mean, because it sounds really good, right? Oklahoma City's only played in 24 clutch games this year. That is the least in the NBA. That means they are not comfortable. And the team is younger. And you're like, at some point that has to not be true. That they're just always with five minutes to go within five points going to suck. And that was the case. Um, clearly, uh, in games one and three, it's like, what's wrong with this team? But I just think when you're this good and every other number tells you that

you're really good defensively, you're really good offensively, you have all these different options, even if we've talked about the SGA part of it where, you know, the players around the league were like, I was just going to trap SGA. The other guys are going gonna have to shoot it It's not gonna work out you saw big grown-up moments from Chet and Jalen Williams Specifically that Jalen Williams three at the very end of game five that makes you go. All right The Thunder may have figured these things out So playing a number right now doesn't feel great because very clearly Denver could win this by 10 at home home court the whole thing heart of a champion Yoke is best player

in the world all that kind of stuff I do think there's something some value to and talking about like SGA is probably gonna win MVP and you can go hey he have the better season I hope no one that watches basketball watches these two guys and thinks for a moment that. Like SGA is actually the better player between Yocic and being at the combine too, and it comes up with other people that work in this world work in the league over and over and over again, being like, how is it like, like you have a vote, did you vote for SGA? Like you think it's I'm like, relax, relax.

Anyway, let's get to the pick. So I'm going to go Denver plus the four and a half. I'm going to go Yokich, three or more made threes, but I'm going to have Chet Holmgren in there with a little boost of 10 plus points. So a totally reachable number from Chet. The last one we gave you, the only one that missed, we didn't want to lay the 10 points, so we were right there. So we went OKC Moneyline, but we went 15 points or more with Murray and Gordon and Murray hit it.

Gordon ended up at 13 points. So feel good about the process. Feel good about this process as well. Chet's got to be able to give you 10. Yoker's three or more made threes. It's a little dicer than you'd think, but you still have a huge boost on just not straight money here on nuggets plus four and a half. You're getting it at plus 413. So that is the way we're looking at this.

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He is the voice of the NBA Finals with ESPN and ABC, and also a guy who's been around the Knicks for a long time. It's a great pleasure to have a guy on that we all check out, Knightly. It's Mike Breen. It's a great pleasure to have a guy on that we all check out. Nightly, it's Mike Breen. What's up? Brian, nice to be all with you. Thanks for having me. So I want to start with something I kind of talked about a little bit in the open and obviously we'll get some of the series here, but you know, you have this play-by-play role that's supposed to be super buttoned up, opinion free, you're

setting up your teammates there, but look, you've watched this game for decades. When you get into the playoffs and you see things from the regular season, how often do you think that the playoffs end up playing? Even though the product is different, how often are you allowing yourself to be surprised? Because I'd say so far this year, there's been plenty of surprises. Pretty much every game. I mean, the only predictable thing about the NBA playoffs is how unpredictable they'll be.

And it's not just, you know, not just matchups. You expect a certain matchup to go a certain way. It's different players on how they react to different scenarios. Some of them first time in this kind of structure, other ones have been there before, you have certain expectations. To me, that's the beauty of the job. That's the beauty of the playoffs. And especially this year seems more than recent years, Ryan, in that you just don't know who

is going to win from night to night. And just don't know who's going to win from night to night and you don't know who's going to be the star who lifts his team. You don't know who's going to be the supporting cast member who has the game of his life and you know like we saw that last night with with the Celtics. Luke Coronet, who I've watched for years and is a really good player but he comes and he's an instrumental part of a season saving victory. And to me, that's the beauty of the NBA. It's the beauty of sports. But for me, the NBA to have games like that and players like that come out of nowhere, that's what brings about a lot of joy.

TG. Do you think in your production meetings, you can tell who likes their team and who's worried? That's a great question. You can, yes. For example, coaches come in before every game and sometimes they come in and they've got smiles, make jokes, talk for 10 minutes before you can get to basketball. And other times they'll come in and they'll sit down. All right, what you got? You know, stone face, just want to get to business and get back to their office and cross some cheese and nuts of ice.

So you can absolutely tell when they feel a little pressure, when there's some anxiety going in. And then other times, but every coach is different. Some coaches, it doesn't matter what the situation, up 3-0, down 0. Uh, they're just relaxed and ready to go. They're prepared. Whatever happens, happens stuff that they're not competitive. Well, but that's also an interesting part of it and seeing how, how they handle the ups and downs of the rollercoaster ride.

I was talking about game four with Golden state in Minnesota, you know, a couple days ago, and I was saying that first half is like the perfect example of a coach. If you had told them, like, I don't like your chances, like curse thing, Hey, we play zone. We muck it up. We get a couple threes or somebody that's not expecting. We're right in this thing, even without Steph.

And I think it just be so insulting to tell the coaches. Like, I don't really see it. I didn't see it with the Knicks in Boston, but I'd imagine Tibbs is one of those coaches that would go into that category where it's like, give don't really see it. I didn't see it with the Knicks in Boston, but I'd imagine Tibbs is one of those coaches that would go into that category where it's like, give us a chance, let's get out there and let's see what happens. And to see this Knicks team, despite the big deficits

and look, they lose game five at Boston, we'll see where the rest of the series goes. It's an incredible pivot from what we've seen from the regular season. No doubt. And people might think because the amount of minutes he's playing, it's a minor role. But I said all season long, you can't really judge the Knicks until Mitchell Robinson comes back. I mean, their number one weakness this year was how inconsistent their defense was. Mitchell Robinson is simply one of the best defensive players in the game. He's not only

a rim protector and a good shot blocker, but in terms of a guy, his size, his ability to handle a pick and roll is pretty amazing considering, again, his size. And in today's NBA, if you don't have that, you're going to get crushed. And you know, Carl Anthony Towns, he's had some very good defensive games, but he's not going to be an NBA all-defense player. But to have Mitchell Robinson there at certain situations, I think that's going into the series I thought that was going to make a difference. And the other thing for the Knicks, Jaylen Brunson, as we've all seen, has developed into a very special player who is one of the few that come playoff

time, come the biggest moments. He's got the ability to raise his game even higher. I don't know. I'd love to see a medical study, Ryan, on certain guys when they could take their blood pressure when it comes time in a tie game with three minutes ago in a playoff game. Because their blood pressure doesn't go any higher. It stays nice and even. They have a way to have poise. Jimmy Butler is like that. I mean, so many of the great players are like that. And he seems to have that, that he's able to compose himself and stay poised in the most intense pressure situations of the season.

You've been there for like a lot of it, man. Going all the way back to, I'm sure, rooting for the Knicks as a kid, and then being with the team. Where is Brunson as far as most beloved Knicks to this fan base? Well, he is rapidly going high on the scale. You know, if they ever, if they can beat the Celtics and it certainly is not going to be easy. I think Boston still certainly has a

chance to win the series, but if he gets into the conference finals, if he gets into the finals, he's got to be in the top five. You know, you can't put him past those who have won championships. But for the younger generation, he's the greatest all time for people my age, it's always got to be Clyde and Willis and Dave the pushercher. Bernard Kane is certainly up there and Patrick Ewing. I mean, Patrick obviously didn't win a championship, but he came close twice. So they're there now, but he is rapidly ascending that Ryan. And part of it not only is the success,

but the way he goes about his business. He's got such a humility about him, yet he's got that arrogant confidence when he's on the court. And his team, you know, they just look to him and he's not a vocal leader, but they look to him to lead him because of not just the player he is, but his character as well. Did you always want to be who you are now professionally? Did you always hope to be, you know, the voice of the NBA the voice of the Knicks?

Was this the goal? When I was in college I went to college with Mike Wicke who's been doing Yankee games for as long as I've been doing Knick games and we were two college nerds just as uncool as you could imagine and we would sit in the Fordham cafeteria and we talked about okay what do you if you had your dream job what it be and he would say I want to be the Nike's and I would say I want to be the Knicks announcer and then our friends around us would laugh and say if you're too fools there's no way that's gonna happen so yes from in my college days that would have been the dream job never Never thought it was going to happen. I grew up listening to Marv and thought it would just be the coolest job.

But back then, it was more of a dream than you think it could be a reality. When you probably watch other games, do you catch yourself watching the game or paying attention to the play-by-play more? Oh, both. And it's every game. And that's any play-by-play guy that tells you he's not doing that, they're lying to you.

For me, one of the great things, like watching the playoffs off nights, like Turner has, it's usually Monday through Thursday during the playoffs, so I'm home watching the games. We have the weekends. I learn stuff from other guys, not only information, but how they handle certain situations. And to me, it's one of the great things. I think right now, and I know I'm probably not objective here, I think there are so many great play-by-play voices in our industry, and not just the basketball, but just like during the NBA playoffs, it's a treat to watch and learn from someone.

And certainly sometimes you think, okay, I've handled that situation a little differently. And other times you're watching and say, you know what, I love the way they handle that spot. That's a good way for me to think. And not that you steal, but you're influenced by what you watch on other night. The transition from radio to television, right? Really, the radio part of it, it's a very tough sport, I think, on radio. Hockey has this flow, football has these breaks. I did a little baseball play by play. I wasn't very good at it.

And baseball, you can have longer pauses. And with basketball, there's so much information that you need to process, but you need to leave out like the inefficient stuff, but you're also trying to paint this picture. Did you have a hard time figuring out what you could leave just off the broadcast when you would get more involved in television? Oh, sure. It's much harder to do radio play by play than TV play by play. There are other challenges in TV. You have to work more with your analysts, you hear more and you hear from producers and directors. But radio, you do have to paint the picture. And when I first checked, my first five years doing the NBA

was strictly radio. And I found myself that first year doing TV talking too much. And a lot of stuff you just have to back off and let it go. I mean, it's the old expression that a viewer has never said, boy, that guy doesn't talk enough. You've never heard that complaint about an announcer. And it's true. So you always have to leave time for a little air. And even when you do radio sometimes,

you can't just talk and talk and talk. It just becomes an assault in the senses. So finding that balance is a really big part of the job and you know I struggled with it at first and then you get more comfortable with with letting the the crowd take over and just back it off a little bit. Sometimes you want to let the fans at home hear how intense the crowd is and that part just just takes, it just takes a while to get used to doing that. When you have partners, you know, look, it's not any secret that you've been probably trying to find the team post Mark and post Jeff. Certainly you get into that kind of rhythm.

I'm sure it's a lot like coaching where it's almost like a player coach where your job is to be the voice and tell us everything that's happening, but also learn the tendencies and learn how to get the best stuff out of the people that you're on the team with. What is that like when disruption makes it sound negative, but when there's just a change, when you know now your group calling the NBA finals is different and it feels like, hey, we don't have a ton of games to get this right to be ready in preparation for a championship. There's no question. To me, it's the most underrated part of what we do is fighting that chemistry because it

takes time. Every once in a while, you have somebody that instantly you connect with. But it takes time. Every once in a while, you have somebody that instantly you connect with. But it takes time. Like a team with new players, like in Minnesota, it took them a while to get to where they are. And you just stop waiting, all systems go. Same thing with a broadcast team. It takes time.

And especially when it's not a two-person booth, it's a three-person booth. Because the key for that, I've always felt, when you have two-atlas, where it's a three-person booth. Because the key for that, I've always felt when you have two-atlas where it's a three-person booth, that chemistry between the two-atlas is vital because they come from different angles, often will disagree, and they've got to be able to get to a point where, you know what? Okay, I agree with that, but sometimes they have to go at each other and disagree because we don't all agree on everything. You know, like Mark and Jeff, for the example, there were two or three times a game where

Jeff would say something and Marvis saying, what are you talking about? Are you out of your mind? They completely disagree. And that's fun for the viewer, but it's also just good, honest debate. And that's, I think that's important for the two analysts to get on that, that page where they're comfortable criticizing, comfortable disagreeing. I always tell whoever I'm working with, whether it's just one analyst or two, that if I say something on the air that they disagree with, come at me, tell me, no, that's not right. And we can have a debate. I might back off. I might go back.

I think that's important to be able to do that and trust each other that nobody's trying to put each other down. We're just trying to have good basketball debate out there. And then the other time, you know, when it's not necessarily a point, just kind of feel in the rhythm of, like you said, feel in the rhythm of when I'm finishing a thought, when they're finishing a thought. And sometimes it just takes time. And I think this year, last year was a hard year for Doris because she had two different

analysts, first Doc, and then after just a handful of games, now JJ and some handful of games, if ever you're on finals. And I thought she handled it beautifully. And then this year with Richard coming in, they've developed already to me, a really nice chemistry where they poke fun at each other now and occasionally disagree. And, you know, Richard's so easy to go back and forth with. So I'm really pleased with the chemistry this year. You know what I like about, you know, this even goes back to Mark and Jeff. I think your instincts of understanding

that there's stories in games where you could be really rigid, especially if it's a tight game and the game itself is the story and there's not any chance for like that off-ramp of conversation. And I think there are times too where, you know, the basketball public can be a little nasty

just in general, but it's like, oh, you know, here we go again. It's this broadcast that turns into a podcast. And I just felt like that's unfair because the best stuff is when it's those moments where, you know, you can probably steal a few possessions and let the people next to you go, Hey, this is something that's happening, or this is a bigger picture thing, or up into this hey, this is something that's happening, or this is a bigger picture thing, or up into this point, this player has said this, but he's come up short.

Like whatever discussion points that we all have on podcasts and stuff, I personally, I don't know, maybe some people disagree with it, I think the game needs that one or two times a game, this departure from just the rigid part of, here's the play, here's what happened, good foul, bad foul and all that stuff. I personally, again, like two and a half hours, it's okay to talk about storylines and weave those into what you're doing during game action.

And I think that's what you're the best at. Well, thank you. And it's my favorite part. It just gets more challenging every year because every stop that you play, every time somebody goes to the free throw line, there are sponsors that you have to get in. You've got promos. I mean, broadcasts are so loaded with that that you really have to be concise when you do that. But I think especially if it's relevant to what's going on on the court and the player who's involved in it, there's nothing better than hearing that. And I hope we don't get away from that. Because for me, when I'm watching at home, I want to hear all the relevant stats and

why the team is struggling against this on defense, et cetera, et cetera. But most of the time, the thing that I take away most are a particular story about a player and what makes him tick or what's going on in his life or something from his background. Maybe you prepared him to deal with this particular game. To me, that's what I usually take away from. Those are the most interesting parts of the telecast. And I'm like you, I love to hear something more about these players. I want another reason to root for these players. I want another reason to find out why maybe they're

succeeding or why maybe they're struggling. And that's an important part. Brian Windhorst brought up a great point recently, talking about how our access to players has decreased. Obviously COVID changed it, but we've never really gone back, maybe a little bit. But we used to be able to have so much access to players when the game wasn't going on,

either in the locker room or bringing them back to our room. And you would find such interesting things that made you really root for these players because of something they told you about their personal life growing up or something that, some interaction they had with a coach or another player. And we don't have as much access as we used to. And I think that hurts overall.

I mean, I know there's so much information out there and players have their own podcasts now and get a lot of that stuff. But I hope we never go away from that because I think that's an essential part. I could not agree more with that. For me, the storylines about the individual players approaches, that's what makes me care so much about the league. I didn't expect to do this in prepping to talking with you today, but when I was just a high school kid, um, and spent a lot of time in the truck with my dad,

we'd be listening to talk radio and I just remember you being on IMAS. So I went back and started watching some of those clips. Um, at one point I was sitting there going, this had to be an incredibly intimidating situation. But then also like that you were smart enough to know, I'm like, okay, I know I am here. I'm like, I'm going to be the young guy, which I'm sure probably makes you kind of smile now, but I'm going to be the young guy that stops by and I'm not in charge of anything that's going to be happening, which I would say as broadcasters is probably the most uncomfortable position you

can be as a broadcaster being like, this is not my home, this is not a home game, I'm just rolling in. I don't know if that helped you become better at play-by-play, but I do think that the best broadcasters are the people that have the most life experiences. I wonder how much those shows helped kind of round you out as a personality? It was critical because it made you really have to think on your feet, had to adjust. And that's what play by play is. You don't know what's going to happen. So you have to be able to deal with whatever's thrown at you. And there was stuff thrown at me on a daily basis on that show. I tell people, I grew up with, I was one of six boys who had not only verbally abused me but physically abused me. So I was just verbally abusing.

It was okay. I could deal with it and I had a thick skin. But the first like six months I worked on the program, I tried to be a serious sports gastric and he would crush me every day. I would go home to my wife and I'd say, I can't do this. I can't. And then one day he said to me, listen I'd say, I can't do this. I can't. And then one day he said to me, listen, he goes, you can be a clown, you can be a goofball. It has

no bearing on your credibility as a legitimate sports catch. So just let it go. And him saying that to me made me a little more comfortable. And one day I just went off on him, started yelling back at him, which I never thought I'd do. And after it was over, and he yelled back at me, we go to commercial, he leans over and he says, that was great. That's what I want from you every day. So it made me, it forced me to use my sense of humor more, forced me to use my personality more.

And watching, there was such a talented cast on that show, and watching them perform and how they went about their business made me much, much better. So it is fair to say you hated it in the beginning because it sounded like you hated it. Well, I loved the show when I was growing up. I used to listen to it every morning. I was driving for them. That was what I had on my radio.

So this is the greatest thing. But he was relentless and so demanding to work for. Forgive me if the story's too long, but I wanted to be the fill in Don Cricky, one of the most underrated play by play guys all time. He was on this sports cancer. And I was working on the night show.

I was a producer for the sports talk show at night, but Crickie would miss every Friday and Monday during the football season, and they didn't have a fill-in. So I went to the program director and I said to him, any chance I could fill in for Crickie, I would love to be on the IMS show. So he brings me back to IMS office at two o'clock in the afternoon one day. IMS was still drinking back then and he was three sheets to the wind.

And his head was down, and his lap and the program director said, hey, this is Mike Green, he works at night, he's filming for Crickey tomorrow. And Iris, without even lifting his head, he says, yeah, that's fine, now get that F out of my office. That's all he said, never even looked up. So I go in the next day and I'm so pumped I'm going to be on the Imas and the morning show. And I sit down and Imas is to my right,

Charles McCorris to my left. And Imas is staring at me while he's talking on the air. Like he has no idea who I am. And he tells Charles, he gives Charles the, hey, start talking. So Charles starts doing the news. Imas shuts off his mic and he leans over to me. He says, oh, the F for you. He had no idea who I was. And when I started telling him, he puts his mic on and he goes, hold on, Charles. This kid says he's filling in for cricket.

And from then on, for the next six months, he just crushed me day after day after day. But it made me stronger and it made me better. day after day, but it made me stronger and it made me better. Wow. That's, um, slightly, it is work environment than say, I remember when I filled in with Golic one time, he's like this, no, I'm just kidding. Um, that obviously, uh, HR might get involved at that level. Uh, man, it's tough to pivot out of that,

but I'm still gonna try. So when you are building to the moment, when you know, like, okay, here's a possibility, here's an outcome, whether Eastern Conference, Western Conference finals, how much stuff do you have in your back pocket in preparation, or do you maybe not want the preparation to get in way of the moment? I mean, you've been doing this long enough, so you have the formula down, but I'm wondering in those moments, how ready you are or how natural it feels.

Yeah. Well, the call itself has to be spontaneous in terms of a particular play, but you have to put it into perspective what that play means or what this victory is going to mean or what this loss impact could have on a player or franchise. So if you're not have something in your head ahead of time about, all right, how am I going to phrase this? How am I going to put this into perspective? Then you're not doing your job. And sometimes you do that while the game's going on. Sometimes you do that commercials. For example, if a

team is about to make the finals for the first time in their history, right? Minnesota, we're doing the Western Conference finals. Minnesota's never been to the NBA finals. So if we get to a point where they're about to clinch and move on to the finals, you got to figure out a way, okay, what's the best way to put that into perspective, not just make the call. So it's a combination of staying spontaneous, but at the same time, preparing for a moment. Because it's our jobs to, I think, put it in the right frame. It's our jobs to put into perspective how special these players are and what they're doing.

And I always want to do it justice. It's a great responsibility. It's a responsibility that I love. But you have to make sure you're ready for the moment because you want to do it right by the players and by the team. So to answer your questions along with it, I should say you absolutely have to start thinking of those things. You can't do everything just spontaneous.

What's been your favorite moment nationally? Wow. Well, that's a hard, hard question. You know, I think game sevens, I've got a few game sevens in the finals, and those always mean so much. Ones that have a play that has a direct impact on who wins a title. That block shot by LeBron James at point 16, if he doesn't block that shot, they probably don't win.

And that changes everything. It was a magnificent play at just the most perfect time. And then they make history by coming back 3-1 down. The Ray Allen shot, if he doesn't hit that, they don't win. I mean, I know it was only game six, but they don't win if he doesn't hit that shot. The game's over, and the Spurs are celebrating on Miami's own court. So shots like that, from a national standpoint, I would think those are two of them. Yeah, I figured 16, because of the magnitude of the story of who Golden State had been and what LeBron and Kyrie did in those last three games.

And then Kyrie has that shot. And of course the block, that thing felt like, cause it was such a slow start. It was almost like, I don't know if the building was nervous or just the pace of play and maybe Steph not having, like it wasn't a very good game for Steph. So there was these elements of, you still expect Golden State to close this thing out, but the momentum shift of that

series was so massive where Cleveland looks helpless and LeBron and Kyrie just turned into superheroes down that stretch. That was something that built to this moment of, Oh, it's, it's not just a championship, like this is really going to happen. And I figure I've, no, I put you on the spot, but I was not surprised to hear a couple of examples from 16. But your point is exactly what makes it a special moment. Uh, you know, if the team just wins, it's different.

It's what leads up to that. You know, for example, the, um, the Steph Curry, uh, the double bang in Oklahoma city. Yeah, it was a fantastic play, but it's what led up to that game. I mean, they were on this magic carpet ride. He had been playing like no other player that I had seen since, you know, second, which since Michael Jordan and the way he was doing it. They were like something like 58 and five or some crazy.

And they're getting crushed in Oklahoma City. Place is going crazy. He had to leave the game because of an ankle injury. We didn't even know if he was going to come back and play. And then for him to do that, that was an amazing game. But it wasn't just the shot. It's what went up to the shot, like you said. So those are some of the moments.

I also, I'm just going to sound corny, but my first Olympics when I was broadcasting for NBC in 96, it was at the Georgia Dome and the women were the, they had not lost in like three years leading up to it. Won the gold medal. It was a fantastic story. And I remember the play set, you know, 45,000 people and they raised the American flag for the gold medal ceremony. I think 40,000 or whatever many were in there sang the national anthem. It was such an emotional thing for me.

My first Olympics, I watched Olympics as a kid with my father and my brothers. To be in that arena and finish up my first Olympic broadcast of a gold medal game and have 40,000 people singing the national anthem at the top of their lungs. For some reason, that always sticks in my head when people ask me about some favorite moments. That's a long time ago and it certainly has nothing to do with the actual sport, but that's something that sticks out. A couple quick ones as we finish here, instead of leaving someone out, you know, Hey, the best five atmospheres for a big time playoff game, can you give me

a building in a city where we don't mention them enough as far as, Hey, when you're in the building, cause I love when the broadcast will tell us, Hey, there's MSG is going off. You'd expect Boston to go off, OKC looks ridiculous. I think Cleveland has some moments and here I am, I'm doing it so I'll take the brunt of who I'm leaving out. But I like when a broadcast goes, hey, you may not experience it watching on TV,

but this place is at another level, considering all the buildings you're in for for these huge moments, when you tell us, hey, this is something that's a little extra here, is there a place that you think is consistently left off that people don't think about as one of the great atmospheres? Well, I'll mention some of the people.

Yep, Ryan, you've mentioned some that are always involved in it. By the way, like for me, Madison Square Garden, the most special arena, but it wasn't the loudest. The loudest arena I've ever been in is the old Chicago Stadium. That place was just off the charts. United Center is great, but Chicago Stadium, the loudest arena in the world.

Minnesota this year did some of the Laker games there in the first round. Minnesota's arena, the Target Center has become just crazy, absolutely crazy. And that's up there with one of the loudest amongst the ones that you mentioned too that are some of the good ones. Top of my head, you know, OKC, as you said, is superb. Indiana has always been off the charts, nuts, although old Market Square Arena is louder than the current one. But I would say Venezuela is one that doesn't get as much attention that their fans are absolutely crazy. Last thing, our industry is always interesting because you feel like you can never have enough.

I remember coming up being like, how come that guy has three jobs? Like I'm just trying to get one. And then you're in it. And I'm like, I guess this is the way you, you have to do it. You, you have your job and then you're trying to figure out two other ones that you can get. Are you different? Are you in a place where you're like, you know what? I am the voice of the NBA and this has been a run now

that's coming up 20 years as far as the ESPN ABC part of it. You're in the number one arena, you're in the number one media market and all those things. I guess it just dawned on me, maybe I'm bringing up a source, it'd be like, actually I've been turned down for NFL, but it appears that you are a bit more content at the top of your profession than others have been. I don't know if content is the word. I just feel so blessed to be doing this

so long in a sport that I absolutely love. Back early when I was trying to make inroads into the business, I did the NFL for I think three or four years with Fox and NBC. I did talk shows. I did anchoring, all that kind of different stuff. But at the time, because I was doing national NBA and the Knicks, the local broadcast, and I had three small children. I was away so much during the winter that I didn't want to do anything else once the basketball ended. So I always wanted to have my summers off and even September and October so I could have more time with the kids at that time. And I don't regret doing that. I'm glad I did, obviously. I do miss doing like the NFL. The NFL was so great. And I'm so in awe of

there are so many guys out there doing play by play who excel at that one, not two, but three different sports. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how they do it. I'm a one trick pony right now. And but it's a decision that I'm really comfortable with because it gave me, you know, this incredible honor of calling some of the biggest games of the NBA. But at the same time, having a little more time with my family off season. So I have a decent off season. A lot of people don't have an off season and I'm not judging by any stretch. But it served me well to do it this one for a number of reasons. But I am in awe of the other broadcasters who would do multiple sports and just

knock it out of the park and all. NBA fans, uh, you know, I don't know if awe is, is the right word. It is just a pleasure to have you on the games all the time. I think you can only be in awe if you know how to do the job. So many of us don't know how to do the job, but it's, it's been awesome. And I look, I always love catching up with you. I appreciate this time and I hope you enjoy the rest of the playoffs. I know you will.

Ryan, thank you. It's an honor to be out with you. Thrilled for all your success as well. And hopefully we can get together down the road. Thanks Mike. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Summer is almost here and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days

delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan? Sorry, no. But a box fan? Happily, yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now.

Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region, see app for details. You want details? Buy. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. The email address, a life advice, rr at gmail.com, and boy, do we have advice for you. What is up, Torgon? Hello, Kyle. Yep. What's up? You guys were talking fashion a little bit earlier.

Yeah, I just need to know the story behind most of his shirts. I knew it couldn't just be a butterfly shirt. It's an Ed Sheeran tour shirt. Been there, done that. Nice job by you. I'm running out of rotation for the shirts on this thing, man. I'm trying to like wear new ones so people aren't calling me out. I'm running low.

Yeah, it's video now. You got to think about all this stuff. I know. I know it sucks. I have a closet full of dress shirts that I used to have to wear for all the TV stuff and they're nice and they're expensive. And I wear them zero times. Maybe we do like fashion week.

Uh, we just pick one week and we just go, we just go hard. All of us. We did that with Van Pelt, the outer rotation shirt. Those videos live on well. And then we were going to do something where I was going to start giving them away with like a certification. Game more PSA graded. I mean, this is not new.

We've, we've covered this before, but I just, uh, you know, you start to understand the hoarder show, you know, because the biggest thing you have to understand about hoarders is they see value, you know, we see cat shit newspapers, they see value. Right. And so, um, Brandon, I don't think my nice dress shirts are. A roll of Pringles from 1984, but I see value when I see them hanging there. And somebody who was a little bit different of a spirit may just say, I see clutter and I see stuff getting now.

I don't think about these shirts very often. I'm able to get through my fucking day and drive a car and complete see clutter and I see stuff getting now. I don't think about these shirts very often. I'm able to get through my fucking day and drive a car and complete my tasks. But I look at them sometimes, you're like, dude, you don't wear those a lot. You don't.

So what are you doing? Because the TV, so Oregon, what I would say is wear whatever you need to wear, rotate tightly as you need to. You know, go to a Tibbs rotation, place six shirts. Don't be like Rick Carlisle. And well, although both are working. So I'm just saying don't go buy extra shirts for this podcast because there's gonna be a time where you're not gonna to be on video. And then, you know, I'm sure your square footage and your storage stuff in New York City. I'm sure it's not great. It's not great. It's not great. Yeah. What'd you say? Six, six 50, six 60.

We're around that. Yeah. They never told us the exact square footage. Yeah. It's probably better that way. Yeah. But I can, I can see the entire thing from here. So it's not, it's not great. better that way. Yeah, but I can see the entire thing from here, so it's not great. All right. All right. You think you'll ever move from the city or are you just a city guy, you love the nightlife?

I'll probably move, it's just not affordable, man. And then it's like, if you wanna start a family, like you're toast, you gotta have real money to start a family here. In the city? Yeah. Okay, but I'm saying like- You can have like an infant,

once they get to like two or three. Hey, the crown jewel's open for you, man. You just gotta get up a little early, get up a little early and you can make it down in the city. I took the train from there a couple weeks ago, it was nice. Metro North, beautiful ride. Okay, but you could technically live anywhere you want, but I assume your significant other works in the city, so you

have to be in the city. Is that what's going on? We both work for remote. So you just love Broadway that much? You got it. I'm going tonight. Yes, you are. What do you see? Lottery winner, baby. Lottery winner. Ironically enough, Lion King. Oh, dude, you got to go, you got to go maybe Tank Cop so you can show off the... You think? Yeah, you think that'll go over well? Sleeveless? Hey, just so you know, you're now gonna be our Broadway correspondent. You're gonna do...

I'd love that. I think when you watch, give us... I want five minutes after you've seen something. I want five minutes on it. I think most Broadway correspondents get their tickets expensed, right? Yeah. How much are they offline? I'm going to a Neil Diamond musical that my stepfather my father-in-law couldn't go to have you seen that one?

No diamond musical. No, my dad really wanted to go to that. I Shut that down. Is it a beautiful something? Is that that the one? I don't know. It's Neil Diamond. It's in my yeah I don't know. I'll be going to June. Crack on Rosie. Wait, you shut that down, your love for theater, and your father shares that love, and then he wanted a guy, and you just wouldn't sit through Neil Diamond?

Yeah, I don't know. Neil Diamond doesn't do it for me. Is this politics? No, I'm just kidding. No. My dad also irks me sometimes, so that definitely played a role. Oh. Wow.

You don't need life advice. He knows. He probably went to some shit he hated when you were a kid. For sure. Shout out to Disney. Okay then, yeah, that's gonna be your new thing. We're gonna do your new thing. We're gonna do WarGuns. I gotta come up with a better title.

We can talk about Per Diem later. All right, let's get some emails. Call a divorce guy to get him his stuff back. Kind sirs, let's just get to it. Work in a nonprofit that specializes in furniture donations, people downsizing, moving, spring cleaning, dying, house sales, all of the above. Sounds like they could use some shirts.

All of the stuff has to go somewhere. And what we do is we take it, sell it, or excuse me, we take it all and donate it to people. So they do not sell it. It's a little different. Yeah. Yeah. They do not sell it.

They donate to people who need furniture in their home, vets, women who experienced domestic violence, people exiting homelessness. It's truly wonderful and awesome. I love my job despite the major pay discrepancy from my former life in the corporate world. I guess I'll never own that second home. Oh well. The nature of the beast means we sometimes end up with some interesting stuff and some really fascinating stories, but a recent one put me in a bind. A lady basically donated half a truckload of stuff to us. When asked why she was making the donation, she said, quote,

divorce and he can fuck himself. Golf clubs, Peloton, rowing machine, cool chairs, not no or Roche Bobois cool. Um, but expensive RH and West Elm and a nice desk. R-H. R-H is awesome. Yeah, yeah. Expensive RH is even nicer. And a desk, TV stand.

I'm assuming the large contractor bags are closed. His business card was in the desk drawer. Do I call and tell him? Wow. You think that would violate a policy. If it doesn't, probably. Yeah. Like it's just upon this guy to be like, Hey, sounds like your ex is a real wild card.

She just jumped your tailor made and a couple sick, sick Travis Matthews pullovers. Do you want this stuff? Uh, it sounds like maybe you should call your friend and have him get down there as fast as he can and claim some of this stuff. I knew that I knew the Kyle, the real Kyle was the angle angle. Where are you guys located? Uh, yeah, no, no, no doubt. I kind of know, like I'm, my first thing is yes,

tell the guy, clearly she's unhinged and she just gave all of his stuff away, right? That would be huge of you. This is one of the all time saves. But what if the husband, now ex husband's the bad guy? I mean, if she's donating his stuff and he doesn't know it, and she's just doing this to be like, to get back at him.

I mean, all the stuff, all the stuff in the accounts, half of that's not enough. You got to get rid of all of his shit too. Now maybe she was the breadwinner and maybe he's getting half of her stuff, then he doesn't deserve it. I don't know. I don't know them that well. I just met him through an email. you gotta get rid of all of his shit too. Now maybe she was the breadwinner and maybe he's getting half of her stuff then he doesn't deserve it. I don't know. I don't know them that well. I just met him through an email.

So I'm sure there's probably some protocol that you would be violating here by reaching out to somebody after things have been donated because the whole point of your operation is to bring in stuff and if it's nicer, like hey, boom, we're helping people out. It's going to a good cause. But I would, I would struggle with the idea that all of this dude's stuff may have been just dropped off and she thinks she's going to get over on him. And this

poor guy sitting there going, my golf clubs are gone. My golf clubs are gone because that's just nasty work right there. How do we know that this is he just found a business card in desk? Maybe maybe the last batches up with the lady who dropped it off. But I'm like, how could you be so sure that this is the man? I mean, sometimes people keep business cards in their desk. Good point. Yeah, I imagine he did a little legwork and maybe the last name matches up or something. I think that's a little leg work and maybe the last name matches up or something.

I think that's a really safe assumption here. I don't, I don't know that the guy was like, you know, Bill Vance. Yeah. I might, maybe I'd read the handbook to see if there's something I think, you know, that's a great, let's give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. I think that's the benefit. So what would you do? What would you do? What if it is against company policy for you to do this thing, but you think that this woman came in and was like, Hey, and clearly I think that's the benefit. So what would you do? What would you do? What if it is against company policy for you to do this thing, but you think that this woman came in and was like, Hey, and clearly I think once this golf, it's the golf clubs part of it.

She's doing it to hurt him. Um, again, maybe her first, we don't know that I would probably reach out, but I would know that I'm probably good. Go ahead. Uh, I was going to say, maybe you could find one thing where you're just like, oh, maybe this shouldn't have been in here. Like maybe there's something in the desk

and you're just like, you know, oh, it's a bill with some personal information. Like maybe there's something that you could zero in on and be like, I was just trying to do, it actually is our company policy because of this thing that I found. I just have to make sure this wasn't a mistake. Maybe you could do that.

Yeah, like all of your stuff. Yeah, but there's one thing in there that's like, I don't know, got a last four of a bank account on there. No one could actually do anything with it. But like, this is, you know, we're not supposed to accept personal property of this type. And maybe you find some little loophole that gives you the end to call this man

and just see if he wants to get out of there. Personalized scrimshaw. Right, right. Are you good on this war gone? I think you got to reach out just to cover your own ass because this woman isn't just going to sit there and be like, Oh, I don't know where the golf clubs went. She's going to tell this guy that she donated those golf clubs. And then he's going to, he's going to come down there and then you're going to

have to deal with him. Like I would do it just to protect yourself almost because you don't want to have to deal with that. Think about the homeless guy though, just just transitioning out of being unhoused to now I'm gonna take away that guys Robert Talbots. Come on Yeah, let's get some nice shirts. He's telling his buddies. I'm golfing again never hit blades before All right, we got another Raising Canes one here. Maybe we just have Todd Graves on for life advice.

Although the titling of this one scared the shit out of me. Raising Canes Coke Incident. But it's the Cola, which makes a lot more sense. All right, guys. Love the show. 40 years old, 6'4", 195. Nearly the perfect height according to you guys It's a great height good weight to honestly love to be it one day Don't play contact sports anymore because of a mechanical knee and femur. All right, that seems like a good idea

but I have one hour and 15 minute half marathon under my belt sub six minute mile pace Oregon 15 1 15 that's really good yeah that's insane that's very very good all right well that's why we double-checked with you I'm now an avid cyclist that is trekked through Manhattan Beach hundreds of times. Ever heard of it? I have. Great biking. My team at work was going out to lunch at Raising Cane's,

but I was in a meeting running 15 minutes behind, so they left without me. One of my direct reports, let's call him Luke, texted me, said he would order for me, so I didn't have to wait in line when I arrived. I thought this was a kind gesture. I told him to get me the four-piece box with a Coke. What's your Raising Cane's order, Kyle?

Between four and six. Between four-piece box with a coke. What's your raisin canes order Kyle? between four and six Between four and the caniac really can yeah if I'm alone. I'll probably do a canyac But if there's someone with so you can't be judged. Yeah, totally 1,000 percent Give her done. Can you hack an X side finger? Yes, what are you talking about? Are you kidding? Yeah, exactly. Sorry. Sorry I even asked. A little while later, I arrive at Raising Cane, sit down with my coworkers, begin

enjoying my meal. But when I take a drink of my Coke, it tastes funny to me. I asked Luke if it was Coke. He said, yeah, it's Coke Zero. I was aghast that he thought I wanted Coke Zero based on my text response. I said that, quote, Coke means, quote, regular Coke, unquote. But he says I didn't describe I said that quote coke means quote regular coke unquote

but he says, I didn't describe which coke I wanted. And he thought maybe I shorthanded the information since I was in a meeting. He said he was at the machine and saw Coke Zero, regular Coke and diet Coke. And he thought Coke Zero was the happy medium of the three options. No way.

But what's funny is most of my team, including my boss, Stacy, agrees with me on this, but Luke is dug in his heels and will not admit he was wrong. To this day, he still believes he made a smart and rational decision. Who was wrong in this situation? Can we all agree that Coke means Coke and not Coke Zero? Am I the asshole? Totally. And dudes want DC before they want Coke Zero. About Cherry Coke. Is that even an option anymore?

Right. Well, that strikes with your argument. It's like, what if you saw vanilla Coke there? Orange creamsicle. Did you think that would you just think that that'd be exciting to me because I didn't specify everyone's this could have been a teachable moment and this guy's dug in. Everyone else knows. It's honestly, you know. There's just no argument for it.

Like, he said Coke. Yeah. Yeah, and everyone else knows. Yeah. Right. He said Coke. I would fire this guy because that's a red flag of processing information. Yeah, this should bleed into work.

Like, when they ask you for something, just give them something else and be like, oh, I thought you wanted a file. Or a shorthand. Yeah, I thought you wanted a file. This is a file, isn't it? Yeah, this is, first of all, I don't even think you would have to email us on this one.

You were right. We're telling you that you're right. And this is, I don't know if you put this on the Wonderlic, you know, quarterbacks, like processing information, decision-making, you had three things you could go to here. You can't throw it over the middle here. I don't know why.

I don't know why you went with Coke Zero. I can't imagine anybody is gonna agree. Like this is one of the rare occasions where you read something, you play it all out. Would anyone go, well here's what you guys are missing? Because that's pretty much all we do to each other now is you share something and then it's just immediately here are all the things you may not have thought about. You're like well it was a tweet not a thesis. But I don't think we probably have time for

another one. Yeah, I think we totally do. Yeah. 510172. No gym stats we're sharing, but putting in the work. I was the junior high equivalent to Jason Tatum in the Olympics. Well, we're not doing Tatum jokes, guys. I was recently on video work called Making a Small Talk

because we all waited to join the group of people I work with all share the same alma mater of which they're very proud right and one of them was wearing a sweatshirt adorned with the school logo. I do not hail from this top-notch engineering school however one of my best friends from childhood does and he played football there. Think D2 Wes Welker. I'd love to think about a D2 Wes Welker. How about Kyle?

Keeping things loose, I explained that once around 17 years ago, I'd stolen a pair of my buddy's team issued gym shorts back when we were in college, but I had stopped wearing them later when I moved to that town since I kept getting asked if I played ball there. The group quickly started taking jabs at me for wearing other guys' shorts.

I defended myself explaining in college I wasn't out there keeping up with the latest workout gear from Big Five Sporting Goods, and that any 19-year-old dude would be pumped to score free gear. The group asked if I commonly wear other dudes' clothes, to which I proudly explained I did receive a free pair of high-end socks from the same best friend just last year.

My well-dressed and generally stylish best friend of 35 years was working on getting jacked again and was outsizing much of his closet. I reaped the benefits. Oh, high-end slacks. I was gonna say, you're buying. Socks. God, that's true.

Yeah, selling donated stuff, socks, slacks. I'm gonna give myself a C- on today. And I can't redeem myself from it. That's it. In pen C minus for Ryan. So a high end slacks from another buddy, my well dressed and, you know, he's getting jacked again, outsizing much of his closet.

This put things over the top on the work call and has now become a source of debate for months. Things have gotten nasty with accusations of me being like the girl who steals a guy's shirt early on in a relationship to wear out. So everybody knows that. on the work hall and has now become a source of debate for months things have gotten nasty with Accusations to me being like the girl steals a guy's shirt early on in a relationship to wear out so everybody knows These guys gotta be in the Northeast the copy. Yes, this is a mean group Like hey great khakis are you dating Doug? I counter by explaining, maybe a C now. I counter by explaining that you don't know true friendship.

If you can't share slacks, that you don't know style, if your clothes shopping predominantly happens at Costco noted, we all love Costco. So I'd like to ask for a silipod. What are the boundaries, if any, on bro sharing clothes? Last item specific to Ryan this weekend, I'm headed on a fly fishing trip with two best friends, one of which is the character noted above. So the vacationing with the guy too. You get an orvus vest out of this deal. General feedback is that more

fly fishing content is welcome. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think I've ever done any other than recapping it. Fly fish open coming next week. Yeah. No. I thought I thought war God was like following there's a fly fishing opens like a US open and I thought he was thought he just knew no monologue. Okay, monologue. Like, all right, I want to go too long here 20 minutes later. And here's the thing, how many four or five weights do you need? But how often am I going to use a nine ten? Probably not often.

Saltwater, forget it. I don't have time for that. All right. Well, look, I I was with you on the shorts because, look, team issued gear is cool shit, all right? And there's some Ullman catalogs that would have replaced Victoria's Secret pre-internet for your boy and his college buddies, 93, 94, being like, I think I had a pair of Georgia Tech lacrosse shorts.

Doesn't make any sense. Didn't play lacrosse, didn't go to Georgia Tech, not even into engineering. Although I do enjoy, you know, watching some good Sluice and so, um, if it's your friend, but you didn't go there and you were 19 and it's a pair of team issued like football shorts, there's definitely a time where you have to stop wearing for the problem that you just brought up. Now I wear all sorts of shit at the gym because schools in the country are shorts, there's definitely a time where you have to stop wearing for the problem that you just brought up.

Now I wear all sorts of shit at the gym because schools had sent it to me and it's workout gear, but yeah, it's annoying. But I've allowed, like I've put myself in that position, especially if I wear like the air force stuff that I got when I visited there and it's like, Hey, did you serve? No. And it's like massive disappointment. It's like, yeah, I know, I know.

But I really like this fucking hoodie combo dry fit thing. And I'm just at the gym. It's not that big of a deal. Borrowing or donating slacks to dudes. I don't know if they're a nice pair and the guy doesn't want them anymore. You probably just shouldn't have admitted it. I think you should let it go.

Honestly, at this, I think I would have, I would dig in if I was this guy. If I had let it get this far, I'm admitting all sorts of shit that, you know, in hindsight I probably wouldn't have admitted, but it's out there. I think you just dig in and you're like, oh, so if I get it from a stranger at Goodwill, it's fine, but if fucking Bob gives it to me and I know that its last home was good, there's no bed bugs in that house or something, like I would dig in at this point. These people are already, you know,

you're getting, you know, on the Wednesday call, you're already like, oh fuck, what are they gonna say? I would just dig in, make it seem like, you know, no sweat off your back, you're good. Cause you gotta be good with it. And you honestly don't think there's anything wrong with it. If I had some dude that would give me some shit that fits that I wouldn't be buying otherwise And I'd wear it to like, you know, Rosilla Fashion Week

If we have that ever comes to fruition like I'd be happy about that So the fact that these guys are not letting it go I think the only option is to dig in and just be like, yeah, I don't see a problem with it. I Got some shirts from some buddies, you know, they wear it once or twice. They don't like it. They're gonna give it away I'll take them. I'm really cheap though. So I wonder if this guy's sort of like me and it's like anything to not have to buy new clothing.

I understand why they're making fun of you, but they're probably wrong. And I think the only way out is through. So you can't backtrack. If you backtrack, they're going to be more merciless. Yeah, I would ask for something else. Hey, you guys like this? Maybe like a pullover.

Ask it off your friends back like, hey, let me get that shirt. Yeah, like what would be the worst? What would be the worst thing you could, I mean, obviously underwear and like I'm just talking about like something. Socks totally, but. Yeah. Yeah. It was a different email when we were reading about socks.

All right. That'll do it for us today. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Jonathan Frias. Make sure you check out the pod on the Spotify app and watch the video. Also our YouTube page. Please subscribe.

Ryan Russell podcast, Ringer Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it. So they named me Michael Jared. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit md gambling help org in Maryland Hope is here visit gambling help line ma org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 7 support, Massachusetts or call 18778 hope NY or text hope NY in New York