The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Kyrie, Simmons, and Bad Business Partners in the NBA, Plus the Pelicans’ Turnaround and Zion Optimism With Antonio Daniels

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on the philosophy that the NBA is "a business," and where "business partners" like Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving fit into all of it (0:31). Then Ryen talks with NBA champion and color analyst for the New Orleans Pelicans Antonio Daniels about the Suns-Pelicans series being tied 2-2, how coach Willie Green galvanized the team, Brandon Ingram's development, Zion Williamson's future in New Orleans, stories from Antonio's 13 seasons in the NBA, and more (11:26). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (50:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Antonio Daniels Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's nba bad business partners a couple of them are no longer in the business of basketball antonio daniels on the pelicans awesome duncan spur stories and what's really going on with zion and his future with the pels and life advice with a huge, huge personal announcement from someone on this podcast. Today's open, I want to talk about business because we hear that all the time in sports, right? It's a business. It's a business. It's a business. You say it when there are decisions that you don't like. And then you say it when it's a decision that you like, but you know other people aren't going to like, right? You can just go back to the default that it's a business which we've always understood

it's really not that enlightening whenever anybody says it although it's treated as such uh it's a business when they cut you in the nfl right nfl guy who doesn't understand nfl contracts even though he plays in the nfl he'll sign a six-year deal where all the money is in the first three years there's zero cap hit for the most part once the fourth year starts so they can cut you anyway and then the player will be like you know i had three years left in my deal. Like, no, you didn't. And it happens all the time. They'll say, well, you know, it's a business. As soon as you're not good anymore, they're going to cut you. No shit. That's kind of the way life works, right? Pro sports are awesome. To be a pro athlete would be incredible. I think we all understand that. We all love sports. You're

listening to this podcast. I've spent 20 plus years doing this and I liked sports before I got into this, right? What are the benefits? You get to delay being an adult. You have buddies, you make millions of dollars. If you're really good, everybody loves you. Women seem to like pro athletes. I don't know if that's, I don't know that's confirmed by science, but I feel pretty good about that, that position. The downside, trades actually do suck. You know, if you went to bed one night, kids are in school, wake up the next day, all of a sudden it's on the bottom line of ESPN that you're moving halfway across the country for a team that stinks in a city that you've never been to. And now your kids are like,

what are we supposed to do? And your wife's mad. The money is really good. The good parts outweigh the bad parts, but that part of it sucks too. And then let's also remember there are millions and millions of people now with phones armed, right? Armed millions of people that just hate you because they don't want you to succeed and get in the way of the thing that they're rooting for. So there are some negative sides. And by the way, we're seeing more and more players, more and more players now are just letting it fly against people in the stands. This is another thing that we'll see because it's happening more and more. It's going to keep happening. And I'm not even saying it's necessarily wrong. I'm just saying it's a new reality where athletes are like, yeah, I'm actually just going to start going off on people and saying stuff and maybe even go into the stands. We'll see what happens there. Different topic though. So back to the business part of this. I don't like ever making everyday life comparisons to the elite of the elite. This is why these guys get paid so much because they are so special and we care about it so much, right? I mean, they are worth more than almost all of us are, right? I'm okay with it. I've accepted it. But the one similarity that I think is very true,

again, is that there'll be a time when someone goes, you know what, Russillo, people kind of tuned you out. No, I hope that doesn't happen. I feel pretty good about the run, but it's probably going to happen at some point, right? I remember when I first, first got started, an old guy who's no longer with us saying to me, you know, there are not many happy endings in this business. But then I thought about it a little bit more instead of being scared off going, you know, there's probably not many happy endings in many businesses. And in sports, the real part that's difficult is that that ending is a lot sooner than for the rest of us that pursue different careers. But I would argue right now that we keep talking about it being a business, that we might be in

the golden age of bad business partners. Because that's the question I would ask a bunch of MBA guys right now. If it's a business, then how good of a business partner are you? And between Kyrie eliminated last night, Ben Simmons eliminated sort of last year. I'll leave out some of the other guys maybe for this exercise, Harden, which we've been over. And I'm not even going to include Russell Westbrook in this because let's face it, I mean, he's at least playing in games, not in the playoff ones.

But you know the hits, right? And I don't want to turn this into 10 minutes of dumping on some of the players. I guess it's just surprising to me that so many real people kept defending some of these guys. We were like, why are you still defending Kyrie Irving? Do you not get that this isn't great for a basketball team? It hasn't been great for a basketball team for a really long time. Why are you still defending Ben Simmons?

And clearly, by the way, nationally, just everybody decided, I no longer care about having any sympathy whatsoever for what Ben Simmons is going through because he just didn't play basketball. And I'm not saying necessarily those people were wrong. I also thought it was kind of crazy that people stuck up for him in a way that was so dismissive of any of this being calculated, which clearly part of this was calculated because the grievance was always coming,

which you've covered before on Bill's podcast about that. But if you were to look at, cause I'm not going to worry about Harden at this point too. I have, if he blows a three old lead in Philadelphia with Doc Rivers, I mean, on top of the three, one blown leads on Doc's resume,

I won't even know what to do with that. There's some Toronto breakdown stuff we could do with Van Vliet not even playing, but when he's on the floor defensively they haven't been very good. Maybe it's because he's hurt. Siakam's responded

after being all sorts of criticized. I need to focus my energy back out west for Chris Paul, hopefully not losing to a 1-8 seed even if he's losing a top-5 MVP finisher in Devin Booker. All right. So if we focus on Kyrie and Simmons,

these are terrible business partners. I mean, as bad as it gets in team sports, I don't really know how to even, like, this isn't even a debate anymore. And the reason I bring this up is because Kyrie's quote last night that everybody was like, what are you talking about? He was asked about his future. And he said, quote, when I say I'm here with Kev meeting Durant, not James, I think that really entails us managing this franchise together alongside Joe and Sean. That's Joe Sy, the owner, and Sean Marks, the president of operations. Just our group of family members that we have in our locker room and our organization. So when you think about that, like it's just us managing this

franchise. And again, Kyrie is going to present this thing. Like it's going to be a little bit more sophisticated in his answer. He's not going to be as straightforward. And then you go like, would you, should you actually resign him? Now the question is probably stupid. Cause you're, you're probably just going to do it, especially if Durant wants him to Now, the question is probably stupid because you're probably just going to do it, especially if Durant wants him to stay, which by all indications, Durant does want him to stay. So that's kind of your answer, right? Letting big-time talent walk, even if it's complicated, never seems to be the option. But we'll get to that a little bit more here. If you go by this, and Simmons had this tweet this morning, Kyrie, since he left LeBron,

Simmons had this tweet this morning, Kyrie, since he left LeBron, in the playoffs, he's played 22 games and he's missed 22 games. He's played in 50% of available playoff games since he left LeBron in Cleveland. So that's going back to 17-18 in Boston because he joined the Celtics in August of 17. He's missed half the games, regular season games. He's missed 164 the last five years. And to be totally honest, from a basketball standpoint, I know with Ramadan, maybe that's part of the calculation of how he looked after game one. He looks extremely passive.

So it'd be one thing if he played all the time, and when he played, he looked more like the game one guy and not the game two, three, and four guy. But then you go, and he misses all the games? Is this really somebody that we want to get into business with? Ben Simmons. He's played 275 games since he was the number one overall pick in 2016.

275 games. That's 19th most in the draft class. Again, he was the number one overall pick in 2016. 275 games. That's 19th most in the draft class. Again, he was the number one pick. I mean, we could get to the three-point jokes. I'll use one. He has more nicknames, eight, on basketball reference. Simmo the Savage, Young Socialite, Fresh Prince, Peacemaker, Benny the Yank, Big Ben, the Wizard of Oz.

More nicknames than made threes in his entire fucking career. Five. He wanted out of Philadelphia. He got his way. The PR team and the arguments used about why he was justified never made any sense. And I think anybody that bought them were either pushing that agenda or just wanted him to be good at basketball again. Because at one point you wanted to work out because you rooted for the Sixers

or now you wanted to work out because you actually root for the Nets. I think one of the most disappointing parts about the Ben Simmons storyline here is that if you're the Nets, you're like, wait, what happened? We traded for this guy and I don't know if they did or didn't think he was ever going to play.

Like the main, the main goal seemed to be to stay in the news cycle throughout the entire series, even though maybe he was never going to play. So every day we were getting updates based on his camp, because I don't think it was coming from the team. I don't think this was some strategy where the team was like, let's keep the Celtics,

you know, guessing let's, let's use this. this was some strategy where the team was like, let's keep the Celtics, you know, guessing. Let's use this. This is competitive advantage. We'll be like, we have no idea if Simmons is coming back or not. So we'll just keep floating

this over and over again. The reason I don't think it was the team, because I don't think it was the team. And I also think that's why you had Nash so frustrated towards the end being like, yeah, I don't actually think

he's going to play. So this stuff kept getting out for some other reason, which again, I always think these things are complete waste of time. What was the reasoning? Oh, we could be talking about Ben Simmons for another day or two. Well, it didn't help Ben Simmons. And then he wasn't even in the building for game four. So again, I'd ask like, what kind of business partner are you? If you can't even bother to be played in your number one goal seems to just be to continue to be talked

about while everybody's wondering why you can't play basketball. So when we were doing the pod on Sunday night, Bill said, I think we'll see a pivot away from this. And this is the part that I'm always interested in, whether it's basketball or anything like, hey, start researching things. Be like, hey, do you hear what this company's doing? Oh, that'll work. Oh, that's a stupid idea. I think we all do that at a certain point. If you're interested in this stuff, you're trying to educate yourself on things or investing in things, you're like, what is that company trying to do? Oh, that's stupid. And then it's the next big thing because you're just old and outdated and you don't want to change. But when it comes to basketball, for Bill to go, hey, would teams pivot away from this?

And I think it's a really good question, but I don't know that we have that answer. Because if we see Kyrie Irving get maxed out after this stretch, as bad as I thought the Brooklyn thing would go, it went way worse. As bad as the Ben Simmons thing felt, this is still way below my low expectations. Will the NBA actually get to a point where it was almost like the Washington commanders now where they said, you know, we just don't think Kirk Cousins is that good. We're not giving you that money. And if we're going to lose the asset, we lose the asset. We don't see that happen in basketball. Teams will keep a bad asset almost every single time because the bad asset in their calculation is always better than zero asset. So we'll see what Kyrie gets.

But if history is our guide, he's going to get every single dollar available to him, even though he's been a bad business partner. And if that changes, where all of a sudden the business approach changed on who they wanted to partner up with, then I'd actually be surprised. Excited to have this guy join us. I've been a fan

of him on League Pass and on NBA Radio as well. NBA vet Antonio Daniels, also part of New Orleans Pelicans broadcast and give and go with our guy Rick Hamla most days on NBA Radio. What's up, man? Thanks for joining us. I know you're in Phoenix getting ready for Game 5 here, so this is a lot of fun. I think you're terrific.

Yeah, thanks for having me, Ryan, man. It's a pleasure. Looking forward to it. Okay, all right. So this Pelicans team, bad start to the season. Not surprising. The Zion stuff, we'll get to all that right now. But you started paying attention to some of the stuff

that was happening to them statistically. You started looking at the record going. I think this team's totally off the radar because the overall record was bad. But there were things that were changing. Part of that's the CJ thing. But give me your perspective being with it every night. When did this thing change where it's actually a competitive basketball team?

Well, I'll say this. And I know it's going to be difficult to understand, Ryan. But when this team was 1-12 and when this team was 3-16, that's where the shift started for me. I've been on bad teams. I've been on bad teams. To walk into shoot-around when a team is struggling the way this team was That's where the shift started for me. I've been on bad teams. I've been on bad teams. To walk into shoot around when a team is struggling the way this team was struggling earlier in the year, and those shoot arounds were so spirited.

It was amazing to me. See, I saw how your eyebrows just raised because that's not normal. So when a team is 1-12 or 3-16 and you walk in and everybody's high-fiving each other. You know, they're doing shooting games and there's chants, you know, there's loud music playing, you know, spiritual music playing, just the life and the energy that was in the gym when this team was three and 16. I credit Willie Green. I credit Willie Green. I give him all the credit in the world because at that time, you can break. You can break. Like, all right, well, listen. All right, it's my rookie season as a NBA head coach. And you know what, man? Maybe Zion's not here. You know, we're trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It's a lot that's going on. Jonas is new. Devontae Graham is new.

Herb Jones is a second-round rookie that is starting right now. Like, it's all these different things that you can blame as to why they got off to a rough start. Willie Green never blinked. He never blinked. He stayed positive. And there's a reason now that this team is where they are now. And I go all the way back to when this team was 3-16 and Willie Green took the podium at that time and said the games we are losing now I promise you we will start to win come March and April he was spot on give me some more Willie Green stuff then um what is it because it seems

like it's a combination of personality and scheme you know some coaches you only get one um with him I think the way he's been able to... I love guys that are... I don't want my coach to be stubborn. When I look at Eme Udoka in Boston, I think one of the greatest assets he has is a personality that seemed off-putting at first. I was like, no, this is accountable. It's annoying when you're losing. It's accountability when you're winning, but he is willing to adapt. I look at Coach Budd in Milwaukee, despite them winning a title, I'm like, that guy can get really stubborn in a series. I think Willie is adaptable in the regular season,

but I also think there's some buy-in. The personalities now owners seem to be looking for in head coaches that he's the epitome of that. For me, one, it's the ability to communicate. Two, it's the ability to relate. I? And two, it's the ability to relate. I don't care about your offensive and defensive schemes. I don't care about your X's and O's. Ryan, in today's NBA, there's nothing more important than a coach's ability to relate to his players. If I can relate to you, or if you can relate to me, and I know as a player

that you care about me as a man, as a husband, as my growth, all of these different things, I will run through a wall from you no matter how bad I feel like your offensive and defensive schemes are. And that's where I think Willie Green kind of bridged the gap. So look, he was a starter in his league. He's been a six man. He's come off the bench and played inconsistent minutes. He's been in a position where he didn't know if he was going to play at all. And he's been in a position where he didn't play at all. So tell me on this Pelicans roster who he can't relate to. He can relate to that guy like Brandon Ingram, that even though he was never a star, but that guy that knew he was going to

play 25, 30 minutes a night. And then he can relate to that guy like Jose Alvarado or Billy Hernan Gomez, who I haven't played in five games. So when you have a guy, a coach up and down the roster can relate to everyone. Why is, why is Jose outplaying his expectation? You know, why is Herb Jones outplaying his expectation? Because this is a team right now that is full of guys that are outplaying their expectations. And a lot of that for me has to do with Willie Green's ability to relate to those guys because he's been in their seat before. Give me your Brandon Ingram timeline on who you thought he was, who you thought he could be and who he is now. He is exactly who I thought he was.

I said at the time of the All-Star game, it sucks that Brandon Ingram's not an NBA All-Star. It sucks. And I think the best thing about this time of the year, Ryan, is the fact that what I've seen all year from day one of training camp, the national audience is getting an opportunity to see now. For two guys in particular, right? Brandon Ingram, who I said in February should be an NBA all-star because of the different defenses that he sees on a night to night basis. No disrespect to other guys, no disrespect to the other guys, but I don't feel like when a guy is a Robin or a Alfred on the totem pole

that he is going to see the same defenses that Batman sees every single night. So it's not, it's not, it's out of balance for me. So I said all the way back then, B.I. is an NBA all-star. He is the first name on a scouting report. Plain and simple, any way you break it down. Now, when you're the third name

and you're very efficient in that third role, no disrespect to you, but it's not the same. The responsibility is not the same for Batman as it is for Alfred with all due respect to all the Alfreds. You know what I mean? Because those guys are important too. B.I. right now is exactly who I thought B.I. was. And he just continues to grow. That's it. He just continues to grow. Willie Green has empowered him. He has empowered B.I. and to make Brandon Ingram feel like this is legitimately his team.

And it's awesome to see. I've never in three years here now covering this team and being around this team every day at practice, on the plane, on the bus, at brunch, whatever it may be. I've never seen B.I. this happy. I've never seen him smile this much.

And he did an interview right before the playoffs about this. And one of the things he said was, this is the most fun that I've had playing basketball since all the way back in AAU in high school. That says a lot about where he feels like he is at this stage in his career. I don't think he had a blast with Point Zion last year. I don't think, I mean, I don't know what you're going to say about, he did not seem to be, so him saying this is the happiest I've ever been,

him watching Zion just drive to the hoop, although it worked offensively, I don't think that was something where he was enjoying that all much if I would go based on just watching all those games. All right. That is an all-time no comment on a podcast. Before we get to some of the playoff stuff, do you want to help us understand the Zion story, at least for this year year a little bit better?

I know what I've heard. I know what I've shared. I think I stopped trying to update it. Tell me what you've heard and I'll tell you what I've seen and what I've had an opportunity to... Go ahead. Tell me what you've heard. He needs to grow up. Tell me what the perspective is. Tell me what the perspective is from...

Tell me what your perspective is. I don't hear that he's a bad kid at all. think that's a great kid whether it goes back to gentry you know hearing stories about how you know he would just he would just wait in the parking lot until a minute before practice and gentry's like you know it's fine if he wants to do that i'm not here to i'm an adult he's an adult um if he doesn't understand it yet that he needs to be in here and ready to go and then it's not it's not just show up the minute the practice starts. I'm not going to go grab him out of his car. I don't think any of the players liked Stan from what I'd heard.

Maybe any is aggressive, but it didn't seem like there was a great connection there. And so you bring in Willie thinking this is going to solve some things, and I feel like I've heard the disconnect was at some times earlier in the season, the team didn't really know what was going on with the medical, whether it was a second opinion on the foot. The team was frustrated by that. Then it turned into he's coming back. No, he isn't. And now it's up to who you believe that's holding him out where it may be more the team.

So I think both I think all the parties are complicit in this. priorities are complicit in this but i think there was a there was a point where it was a lot of frustration on the team side of this because they felt like they were completely left out of the information loop and maybe that's where we're at now or the team doesn't feel like they want to do them any favors because they didn't feel like zion was professional enough uh earlier this year okay this is this is what i'll say ryan um i i communicate with Zion a good amount, you know what I mean, in person. First and foremost, I'm going to put this out there because I know what the national narrative is. Zion is 100% happy. But what people assume is when they hear frustration, that frustration means I want to leave. And those two don't tie together.

You know what I'm saying? Like in any relationship, I don't care what relationship you're talking about. There's going to be some frustration because we're not going to agree on that. God didn't make us all the same for a reason. But in this particular instance, for some strange reason, anytime you hear Zion and his camp and the Pelicans, and there's some frustration, people automatically attach that to, oh man, I guess Zion wants to leave. And to me, this is a bigger issue because the bigger issue is from the moment that Zion was slated to be the number one pick, there is a narrative for him not to be in New Orleans. There is a narrative about small markets. There is a narrative that, for some strange reason, I won't say all, but a lot of NBA talking heads

don't want to see big stars in small markets. Think about when Giannis Antetokounmpo signed the extension in Milwaukee. People killed him for it. People killed him for it. Like, oh my gosh, what are you doing? You should go to LA or you should go to New York or you should go to Chicago or you should go to Miami. And they won an NBA championship. So when did it become a bad thing for a young man to want to do this organically, Tim Duncan style, and say, you know what? I'm

cool in the small market. What I'm going to do in this small market is I'm going to do this organically, Tim Duncan style, and say, you know what? I'm cool in the small market. What I'm going to do in this small market is I'm going to grow this small market to relevance. People don't want to see that, though. I remember talking to someone about this, joking around, maybe we should just condense the NBA down to eight teams. You know what I mean? Just remove 22 other teams, the small markets that don't really matter. So I'll say that first and foremost. I think it's something out there about every time you hear something about Zion and the Pelicans, and then there's some frustration involved, that that automatically means Zion wants to go. No, we can be frustrated with each other, just like you are in any relationship that

you may be in, and still say, this is just temporary frustration. Now let's talk about ways to work through it. People don't want to talk about those ways to work through it. Right? Zion is a 21 year old. This is the part that people forget. Zion is what? 21 years old. You know what that means, Ryan? He is three years removed from prom. He is three years removed from prom. Think about that. Think about who you were in high school. And now you are the face of a franchise. We are thrusting these young guys into a position of accountability and responsibility so fast.

And if they don't get it, we kill them for it. I'll tell you what. At 21 years old, I didn't have it all figured out. I didn't have it all figured out. I didn't understand how to take care of my body. I didn't understand what to eat. If I told you some of the things that I ate my rookie year before games, you would look at me like, seriously, you thought that was okay to do? So when you have a young player that doesn't have it all figured out at 21 years old, even though he may have money, even though he may have fame, even though he may have followers, I understand it.

I am not excusing him. You know what I mean? But we have to allow grace for growth. That's all I'm saying. I didn't have the pressure that Zion had, where every time you open social media, people were saying this and people were saying that, and there's a narrative out there and you said this and you said that. There's a different kind of pressure that comes attached with the generational talent that we don't see when it comes to Zion Williams. Okay. Two things you said there. The first part of the national narrative. I can't speak for everybody. I did it nationally. I guess I still do, but to be on ESPN's platform for almost 15 years, I can tell you that most of us aren't necessarily rooting against small market teams.

I think when you go back to the start of LeBron, who, again, took way too much shit. Here we go back historically 12 years. The guy left as a free agent and people lost their minds. But maybe they lost their minds, too, because the packaging of Miami. And I know I had friends that were like, oh, this is like wrestling. I'll never watch this again. I was like, all right, whatever. And then it's not for you.

But I think we've been conditioned to think that anybody that's at a smaller market that isn't competitive, that has the profile of a Zion that we just assume that they are going to leave, which is in this case, it sounds like it's a bad assumption. So you're saying right now that he doesn't want to leave. I don't think we're rooting against. I don't think people are rooting against Milwaukee or rooting against the Pelicans. I think we're just conditioned now to believe that if a guy hasn't won in a smaller market, he's just going to go to a bigger one because it's happened for a long time.

Okay. So now let's take this out of the small market conversation and let's make this an NBA conversation, Ryan, because you think about it. Kevin Durant left, right? James Harden left. James left. Kyrie Irving left. These are some of the biggest stars in the game that have left big markets. Even I don't care where they've gone. They've left. They left and they transitioned to another situation. So for me, we focus on the small markets. It is an NBA issue.

on the small markets. It is an NBA issue. It's an NBA issue. James Harden has been on what, two different teams, three different teams in 16 months, but no one's talking about that. You know what I mean? I am. No, no, no. I mean, you may talk about it in the fact that you're questioning his commitment or you're questioning his loyalty, but no one's like, when James Harden is struggling in Houston, no one's like, man, he needs to get out of there. Or when James Harden is struggling in Brooklyn, no one was like, man, he needs to get out of there. People are saying, man, you need to stay. You need to stay and work it out. So why is it in a big market? It's all about let's stay and work it out. But in a small market, it's all about you need to leave and go to a bigger market. Yeah. Well, Harden is specific to his case.

He was like, I don't need anybody to speak for me because I will give you the worst effort possible here until I get my way. And so he doesn't need somebody on first take. OK, so the Zion part about being 21 and I get it. I think it's always tough for any of us. Oh, man, when I was 20. But again, I wasn't conditioned. I wasn't groomed from 15 years old on to be like, Hey, you're potentially going to be one of these guys. So I'm still, I still could be 21, but my, like when somebody says, oh, this guy's winning

the Heisman gets into trouble. Imagine what you'd be like. Yeah. But I think I'd, I'd be a little different if I knew I had to carry my football team. And I was a Heisman contender every Saturday. I think that's easier to say when it's not you. Sure. You know what I mean? Okay. Right. Okay.

All right. So let's move past that because that's fair too. And I might be wrong. Okay. What are you telling us about Zion? You're telling us he wants to stay, that he's going to play again next year, that he's going to be part of this core, that he's going to get the extension. I mean, what is, what's fair on our expectations outside of this market and what's going to

happen with the future of the Pelicans? I'll tell you this from my perspective. I'll tell you this from my perspective. Nothing would surprise me more. Nothing would surprise me more than if I did not see Zion Williamson in a New Orleans Pelicans jersey at the start of next season. Nothing would surprise me more.

Okay. So why isn't he playing now? I think there are a few different reasons as to why. I think first and foremost, you can look at, it's about the bigger picture, not about the present, right? Sometimes, as we know, you have to keep athletes from themselves. as we know, you have to keep athletes from themselves. It's very difficult to sit out for now, if you take into consideration the two play-in games, right? And then the four playoff games, essentially you're talking about 88 games. It's tough to sit out 88 games. That's

88 games of growth of this team, of chemistry, of role definition of this team. And it's tough to say just at that time, go get it. Go get it. You know what I mean? Go ahead. Go out there and go play. No, because if I'm the organization, my thought process is your long-term future. I'll tell a quick story, Ryan. I'll tell a quick story. We won a champion. I won a championship with San Antonio Spurs in 1999, right? We had an opportunity to repeat in 2000, right? I thought we were better in 2000 than we were in 1999. You know what I mean? Everybody was back.

You know, role definition was in place. Tim Duncan got hurt right before the playoffs. Right before the playoffs, he got injured. And then right before we played Phoenix first round, our doctors, the Spurs doctors, cleared him to play. Pop said, nope, you know what? I'm sitting you out. You're not playing. So we lost to the Phoenix Suns first round because Pop was thinking about winning the championship 2000. He was thinking about winning the championship in 2014. So as an organization, you have to think long-term for the player, even though the player is thinking short-term. Tim was pissed. Tim was pissed. And you notice that about the 20 years of sustained

success for the San Antonio Spurs, the one thing they've never done is repeat it. They've never repeated it. And in 1999 to 2000, I literally thought we had an opportunity to repeat because I thought we were better. But Pop wasn't thinking short-term. He was thinking long-term and having Tim available for the next four championships for the San Antonio Spurs.

We've done enough on Zion. That's my fault because I want to get back to the playoff series. But I also got to ask you some more Duncan Spurs stuff. Let's pivot back now to a piece. The Booker injury obviously is a big part of this, but it's also what you saw there in game four.

I don't want to blame it entirely on the free throw discrepancy because I do think the style of play led to more free throws being called for the Pelicans. There are some games you go, but it's also going to even out, I'd imagine, at some point. What is it about this team that, it's a three-game series here where they could do something historic. Where are you on the reality of this actually happening now?

I believed in this team all year long, and it would not surprise me one bit. It really wouldn't. There is something about this city that there is a word that is constantly affiliated with the city of New Orleans, and it's resiliency. You know, you go back to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida, all of the different things that this city has had to deal with.

And you know what this fan base wants? They want to look on that floor and see a direct reflection of themselves. That's what they want to see. They want to see a direct reflection of themselves. That's what they want to see. They want to see a resilient team that has worked their tail blue collar. Cause that's what the city of new Orleans represents blue collar. And then we will celebrate you. Cause one thing's new Orleans, New Orleans know how to do is celebrate. And they've seen that all year long.

This team is gritty. They play hard and they don't back down. That's all you want to see in this three game series right now it's interesting because that's what this has come down to you have a one versus eight and it's come down to a three game series think about the conversation that we had to start this pod off right when you're talking about a team that's 3 and 16 right now here we sit mid- mid April to the end of April and it's down to a three game series, which you have in another game at home.

A little excited, say the least. The opportunity, the opportunity is there. I'll say that and they recognize that. What do you think happened with the Herb Jones Chris Paul back and forth? Oh, I know what happened. I know what happened. I know what happened.

For me, it's playoff basketball that's funny. This is how playoff basketball is supposed to be. You know what I mean? So there was so much that was made about game four for me was the most playoff-ish game so far. You know what I mean? You can go to game one, you know, small things happen in Phoenix. Game two where you won.

Game three, where Jackson Hayes got ejected. All these little things where you can kind of look at. Game four felt like the first real playoff game, where the feelings of, I don't like you. I don't like you, and I don't care if you like me. That's how game four felt. So that's how game five will feel now. Like, Herb is a competitor. Super-per quiet. Super duper quiet. I'll say something about Herb that we said about Brandon Ingram earlier. It's the best thing about this being on a national stage. So back in February, when I said that Brandon Ingram was an all-star, I'll die on that hill. And here's another hill I'll die on, Ryan. You cannot give me nine better defenders in the NBA than Herb Jones, 78 games into his career.

You can't do it. Not right now, you can't. You may be able to give me four or five. Basically, what I'm saying is Herb Jones should be on someone's first or second team on defense. I'm not talking about rookie. I'm talking about period. And now people who haven't had the opportunity to see her play all year are seeing his defensive versatility and some of the amazing defensive

plays that he's made all year long what's up with alvarado man give me an alvarado story too many to me jose they call jose my adopted son because we have we have look you are so we were doing the turnover watch because he just wasn't turning the ball over. I'd be watching you guys. And I'm like, man, I hope somebody's checking this out because your Alvarado, it was just so much fun early before everybody understood, like, this isn't some 10 day gimmick. Like he's sticking around. So to go back to November, when practice was over, Jose used to come in the stands and sit with me and we would just talk.

You know what I mean? Just talk about the NBA as a whole. Then as he started to play a little bit, come back on the plane and sit next to me on the plane and tell me to reevaluate his minutes, no matter how many, how little he played five minutes. Hey, what'd you think of my minutes? You know what I mean? So this is where it all starts. I can tell you, we were coming back from Indiana early on in the season. I believe it was in November. He comes back and he sits

next to me on the plane, Ryan. And we're talking about the minutes that he played, because he actually played well. And he said, ma'am, do you think I belong? I said, it doesn't matter if I think that you belong. Do you think you belong? That's what really matters. And he said, man, I just want to have a career like T.J. McConnell. I said, it doesn't matter if I think that you belong. Do you think you belong? That's what really matters. And he said, man, I just want to have a career

like TJ McConnell. I said, listen, Jose, I love TJ McConnell. He's great at what he does, but you need to shoot higher. You need to have people saying, I want to be the next Jose Alvarado, not the fact that I want to be the next TJ McConnell. No disrespect to TJ McConnell, one bit. Jose is relatable. He's small and he's feisty. LeBron's not relatable because if your parents are 5'9

and 5'10, you are not going to be 6'8, 2'7. That's not going to happen. You know what I'm saying? Giannis Antetokounmpo is not relatable because you're not going to be seven foot and you're not going to be built like a statue. But when you have guys like Steph Curry, like Damian Lillard, like Jose Alvarado that are small in stature, but thicker in heart, that's what makes guys so likable. When Jose, I told Jose the other day, it's amazing to me that you went from a two-way deal to this entire arena, 18,000 people yelling your name like that. We're talking about four or five months. His energy that he brings to a game, his attitude is contagious. It is contagious. I said on our broadcast the other day, Ryan, there are certain

guys that you watch play. And now I'm 47 years old that make you want to put a jersey back on. You know what I mean? That make you say, man, I want to go back to back with him. Because if he's willing to do all this to win a basketball game, he don't back down. You know, I love everything that he brings to the game. And he's just scratching the surface. That's the part that's amazing to me, is I've been blessed to be a part of this journey with Jose, with the conversations that we had all the, is I've been blessed to be a part of this journey with Jose, with the conversations that we had all the way in November, and now he's closing out playoff games

against the number one seed in the NBA. I want to go back to 97. It is funny that you talk about Duncan because you're the fourth pick in that class. A lot of people may not remember this, but Duncan, Keith Van Horn, Chauncey, and then Antonio Daniels goes fourth, and you were traded after a year. Why were you traded? Probably because I didn't have

a good rookie year as they wanted. You know what I mean? To put it simple, I also know now, moving in the NBA the way that I was able to move, seeing the things that I was able to see. And now even after my time in the NBA, now covering the NBA, we live in a microwave society. You know what I mean? Like a great example that I love to look at, look at Chauncey Billups' career. It took him moving and moving and moving and moving until he found the right situation in Detroit. This league is about nothing more to me than

opportunity. Preparation plus opportunity equals success. You can prepare and prepare and prepare until you get that right opportunity, you won't feel success. There are so many guys in this league, Ryan, that are so talented. They're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You know, you look at a guy like Eric Snow way back when, never played in Seattle, but it took him going to play alongside Allen Iverson in Philadelphia, alongside LeBron James in Cleveland for his career to take that next step. You know, it's people assume if you don't play, you can't play. And that couldn't be further from the truth.

You get those four years in San Antonio. Did the Duncan that you knew in that first year where you win a championship in 99, I know you only got the four years with him, but did he end up becoming the personality and the person that you thought he would be, you know,

like him? Right. He's had one of the greatest careers and it's honestly becoming a little overlooked in a very short amount of time. You know, when you start asking like, who would you rather have? Like to me,

a great test is like, would you rather have Kobe or Duncan? And I'm like, why is this even an argument? And I know that pisses a lot of people off, but I kind of can't believe that there'd be another side to it just because I, and it's crazy. Like this guy isn't that old. And all of a sudden now people are just jumping all these other guys ahead of Duncan. And I, again, I always joke, I think I picked the Spurs to win the title, like 10 straight years when I was on the air and I was just like, whatever, he'll figure

it out. And you were right half the time. So what was that first impression of who he became been like for you? Well, okay. My first impression was even before I was drafted, right? The rookie combine in Chicago. We were both slated to go. The old one, right? The Moody Bible. So we were both slated to go the old one right the moody bible so we were we were both slated to go top five

and i don't know if it was a daniels duncan um alphabetical order thing so i obviously knew who tim duncan was because he would have went first whether or not he left his senior year junior year or something so i i knew so i walk into my hotel room and he's in there we're roommates right so i opened the door and my first thing was, oh man, shoot, what's up Tim? You know what I mean? And he looked at me, he was like, who are you? You know what I mean? I'm from Bowling Green, mid-major guard that no one's ever heard of really. And it's amazing at that point in 1997, and here we are 25 years later, and he's one of my best friends. You know what but that tim duncan that i met in that hotel room in 1997 and the rookie pre-draft camp is the same exact tim duncan i know 25 years later in 2022 his his his personality all of these different things that i've had an opportunity to grow and

do life with him in different areas of his life. He is the exact same guy. The definition of he has not changed. I spent the open talking about bad business partners. And I think right now we have a couple of examples of NBA players who are terrible business partners for their franchise. Yeah, that's an understatement. We saw two of them get eliminated last night with the Nets.

Duncan may be the greatest business partner we've had in the modern era. And people could say, well, when Pop sets the tone and Duncan buys in, then what are you going to do? What is that like? Because now it feels like it's not just a rarity. It may not happen again. I say all the time, I feel like Tim Duncan is the best teammate

in professional sports history in any sport. In any sport. Obviously, you can have an argument for, I'd say Steph, but you know, and that's cool. It's a decent argument. You might be right.

Right. Right. The thing is, I didn't play with Steph. You know what I mean? So I'm saying that out of, out of experience of who I was able to play with his, um,

humbleness, his willingness to be coached. I don't know. I'll tell you right now, Ryan, I don't know if some of the things I saw was scripted. I don't know if some of the things I saw were discussed in advance, but I know they were impactful. I know first day of training camp when I go in and after Tim Duncan wins rookie of the year, pop laying into him.

Like I haven't seen a player of that stature laid into ever. And it wasn't about what Pop did. It's about the way Tim responded. So I'm sitting there thinking to myself, that dude's the rookie of the year. David Robinson, who was the role model and idol of my older brother, so we had his poster on our wall and Pop laying into him because they're missing rotations. Coming off the bench, you know what that means? I better not miss that same rotation. So Pop, when we were at Tim's Jersey retirement night, Pop had a line and I think it's almost obsolete now. He said at the time, you know what, Tim? I just want to thank you for allowing me to coach you. That speaks volumes.

That speaks volumes because in today's NBA, when your star buys in, you good. When your star buys into the, not just the positive, not just the offensive and defensive schemes, I'm talking about when he buys into the, not just the positive, not just the offensive and defensive schemes. I'm talking about when he buys into the accountability, when he abides into getting dressed in front of the entire team and film, when he buys into missing a rotation and then getting cursed out, when he buys in to getting pulled from the game five minutes in because they

don't have the energy, everybody else else buys in but that's hard to find so i say that's a lot like the 2007 2008 wizards right a lot of similarities oh oh you try oh you're trying this is one of my favorite teams we used to do uh this team morphed a little bit though but you had my guy andre blatch on the team gilbert was there i actually kind of like darius and guy a little bit um he's a coach with san antonio spurs yeah no no he was he was a really good college player too he was terrific so as you're as you're kind of shifting through your nba career towards the end are you thinking back to those spurs years going my god is this different yeah you know what was you know what was wild for me you never realize

um what the nba was about i said tim duncan and dav Tim Duncan and David Robinson did such a great job of keeping the Spurs and the Spurs fan base in a bubble that they didn't know existed. And I used to say this on, when I had my radio show in San Antonio, I used to say this all the time. When Tim Duncan walks out that door, the culture's walking with him.

You know what I mean? The culture's leaving with him. And what people used to tell me all the time, oh, you know what? You're overreacting. Pop is still here. Kawhi is here now. All these different things. So when Tim Duncan walks out, everything changed, right? So then Kawhi has to be moved. LaMarcus Aldridge has to be traded. And San Antonio Spurs fans weren't accustomed to that. That's not like, wait, what do you mean

you want to be traded out of San Antonio? This never happened in the last 20 years. What's going on right now? So when you have your two stars at that time and Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge ask out, when over the previous 19 or 20 years, you can't think of someone that asked out of San Antonio. So Tim Duncan and David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker did such a good job of putting a bubble around the San Antonio Spurs organization, the fan base, where they didn't realize they never had to deal with certain things that other teams had to deal with. Guilty. I'm guilty. Because when I was there for four years and then I left and I saw the way that other locker rooms operated, the way that other things were actually happening. Whoa. Like the worst thing I saw in San Antonio, the worst thing I experienced in San Antonio, Ryan,

was two dudes got in a, in a semi pushing match and somebody's chain was broke. That was a dark day in San Antonio. Like it was a pushing match and somebody's necklace got broke. What the heck is going on? Like that was a dark day. Then I leave and I go to different organizations and different locker rooms. And you see that what was in San Antonio at that time. And I'll give credit to the way that R.C. Buford and Greg Popovich built it because it was veteran-based

though. It was veteran-based. Go look at the rosters that we had in San Antonio. Avery Johnson, Mario Elliott, Steve Kerr, David Robinson, Sean Elliott, Danny Ferry. You can go down the list of different guys that were veterans. Felton Spencer, Jerome Kersey, God rest his soul. You know, so many different, it was better. That locker room was built with veterans. The young guys at the time were me, Tim, Tony Parker ended up coming in, you know, you had Bruce, you had Bruce Bowen there, you know, so it was veteran led. And in today's NBA, where the NBA is getting younger by the year, you know, you look at some of these teams, average age, 22, average age, 23. So that veteran presence is missing

from a lot of today's NBA locker rooms. Last thing. We can argue an 8-1 upset sets the tone for, you know, what's possible in the playoffs, but more about the carryover, right? Because I do think with a healthy Zion and what CJ's been able to do, we didn't spend any time on CJ, but I love that he can play on off the ball. I've been bringing this up just because he's conditioned to it with Dame, which makes the

primary score in Ingram feel like, okay, I'm okay initiating a lot of this stuff because CJ's comfortable with it because that's how he's played basically his entire career. So we could talk about what the value of winning this series is, but I wonder if there's just a bigger value of being here in this series. If it'd be competitive, we don't know what, what is this team capable of next year with a healthy Zion coming off of what we're seeing with the development, all of these other pieces. Well, I'll say this first and foremost, it has to do with more than just talent coaching talents are, you know,

I hear people say all the time, man, if I was Phil Jackson and I had Kobe and Shaq, or I had Michael and Scotty and Dennis, if I was Pop and I had... No, coaching talent is hard because you have to find first, you have to find a way to implement their skill sets. I think we just saw that in Brooklyn. You have to find a way for all this talent to come together on one hand. But I'll tell you what, their skill sets all seem to complement each other very well. Because all of them can play with and off the ball. Zion's one of the best cutters in the league. We saw it last year.

He's one of the best cutters in the league as far as when the ball's not in his hands, cut it. You spoke on CJ's ability to play on and off the ball. BI's ability to score the basketball or also facilitate. And we haven't even talked about Jonas Valanciunas. The reason that he was brought in was to stretch the floor and give space to guys like Zion, to guys like B.I. And now you add CJ to the equation. I'll tell you this, and I've said this on numerous occasions. When this team is healthy, this is going to be a very, very, very dangerous team. And I love the division they're in because it's in a division of young up-and-coming teams. You look at Dallas.

You look at Memphis. You know, you look at some of these. You look at Houston with their backcourt of Green and Porter. And now you add New Orleans in that mix with their big three with Jonas. They're going to be a problem, man. This team is going to be a problem. Bookmark that one. Orleans in that mix with their big three with Jonas, they're going to be a problem, man. This team is going to be a problem. Bookmark that run.

I will. You know I'm a huge fan. One of the great things when I'm watching a league pass, you were on it. Sometimes they'll be like, wait, I have to double check to see what happened. And with Antonio, if something off the ball, I'd be like, oh, well, this happened. You were as quick and as on it as any analyst in the game. And I love listening to you every day on NBA radio with Rick.

So I appreciate the time. We'll see what happens here in Phoenix. All right. Yes, for sure. Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate it, brother. You want details? Bye.

I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have 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. Okay, life advice, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com.

Huge announcement. And it's not Elon Musk. Although that's playing out pretty particularly on social media. Kyle, do we now... Do you get to... Are you in a new lane of advice with this big... I don't know if you've made this public. I don't know if you may be selling the Rights to People magazine here. But do you have something you want to share with us and the listeners?

Wait, you heard they're going to put me on the wall at frolic room. I can't believe you haven't been on the wall. I just heard out. I heard that the other day. Yeah, I got engaged. But really, what's been going on with me is that they said, when I leave, I've been spouting off how I hate LA and I want to go back to where I'm from and all that stuff. Hopefully it happens for me one day. And they're like, when you leave, like, I'm going to start the campaign to get you on the wall. And that's really all you need, one guy. So I think the other guys on board,

when it's time for me to get out of here, I'm going to be on that wall. And yes, I also have been engaged. Thank you. No one has ever confirmed that they've been engaged in a more dismissive way to then pivot. I feel the same. I feel the same.

I thought we were going to talk more about your engagement but real cool what is the wall of fame at the frolic room i mean really it's so dark in there it's so hard to see who's on there like there's like i guess there was like an earthquake a couple pictures got shattered a couple years back some people never made it back on the wall so um i'm not sure exactly who's running the wall and who's like decides who gets to come back once the pictures get smashed but there's like there's um there's a bunch of guys on the wall there's like some athletes and and actors and um i don't know it's just some some regulars too so it's not like it's crazy that like a patron get on the wall but i don't know it's just a great place to be and it's always

so hard to see because it's so dark in there so you're pretty much squinting to try to make out who that is and it's like is that Michael Caine? I don't know. I don't think so. Do you know who that is? And he's like, I don't know. I'm busy. So it's hard to see who's on the wall. There are some big names, though.

Well, I don't think anybody's done more to put frog room on the map than you have, Kyle. Well, the guys who made L.S. Irving. Come on, dude. Let's get you in the round. So less important stuff. You are engaged.

Yeah. How to go down. Take us through it. I guess that was the Catalina trip that we didn't understand. Snuck that one in there. Because it was like, wait, Kyle just did an afternoon at Catalina for no reason? Yeah, no. Not only that, but you told the story of all the people puking on the boat.

And that was on the way to or on the way back from the engagement? I was on the way to. Hot start. That's so funny. I was actually going to do it a couple of days before. It was on the way to engagement. I was on the way to hot stuff. That's so funny. I was actually going to do it a couple of days before it was on a Saturday. My buddy, Jim Cunningham and his sister was in town and I was hanging out with them. And I had,

I had a few, like Ryan told me a few reaps in the daytime. And I was like, we're sitting on the back porch with them. And I was like, I think I'm going to ask her to marry me. They were like, no,

no. We were going to this like Russian bar and Santa Monica Boulevard. And they were like, don't do it. I was like, why not? Why not? The friends are around. You guys can take the picture. And they were like, please don't do it, man. I was like, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. And then we get there. And I think like an hour and a half in, like she went to the bathroom and as like soldier boys playing, I was like, I'm not going to do this. And they were like, all right, yeah, don't do it. Don't do it. And then, so we were like, we'll, we'll work something out. We went

to Catalina and I was like, yeah, this is better. This is better than the smoking patio of a Russian bar in Santa Monica or on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. So that almost went down that way. I'm so,

I can't believe you're fucking real. Okay, first of all. So then, did you have the ring on you at the dive bar, the Russian dive bar? Yeah, yeah.

And your girlfriend had no idea? No no she definitely wouldn't have known that but she kind of knew once it was like you this guy doesn't go to catalina like he definitely doesn't ask me if i want to go to catalina yeah he doesn't and then we're like we're getting there everything closes early the golf carts are closed at like five you can rent golf carts that's what you do there right and like the golf cart place closes at five o'clock it's like we get there at like 2 30 we have lunch and then it's like oh shit we only have an hour to get the golf cart so then we're like now i'm like trying

to freak out how to get to the top of this cliff in there um there's like an overlook of the the town and everything so i'm freaking out about trying to get up there you can't rent golf cars after five because they don't want you to have any fun in catalina after five apparently and and she's like what's wrong with you like why do you why do you give a fuck if we go to the top of this cliff so i finally find a cab service and it's like all right guys we can go to the cliff and then we can move on so she's like what's going on with this cliff so then she just kind of i think she kind of knew she had like a a shit-eating grin as we were like walking from the cab to the to the cliff or whatever so you know whatever it worked out it went well uh she was happy and I feel the same.

I feel like I have a million follow-ups and I feel like I have zero at the same time. That's fine. You stay over? No. We had work the next day. Yeah. What can you do? NBA doesn't sleep. Neither does love.

That'd be crazy taking like a honeymoon night because you got engaged. They'll be like, what the fuck are you talking about? Nothing. Never mind. I'm getting on the boat right now, Bill. I don't know. A day off to get engaged? I don't think that's... Well, I already got engaged.

It'd be like the next day. Do we rush back? Yeah, but it's a celebratory day.'s the point that would be the point i think we could it was my first time i didn't know what the custom was um i tried to propose to her on the smoking patio of a bar you know what i mean like that you know it was my it was my first run all right let's get to some emails here uh i don't know if i should read this one or not i don't know that it's that interesting great way to start yeah it's not really applicable to i know why it got sent but all right let's just do this one instead donating my kidney all right uh 25 5 10 175 balding three years from full shave. Have a mean sky hook names changed.

I'm donating my kidney to a stranger. I'm not sure my family, my girlfriend's family will ever forgive me for it. Some background in my economics coursework. I learned about anonymous kidney donation and how it's the most efficient way to improve the a hundred plus thousand kidney. Uh, I guess there's a over a hundred thousand kidney deficit in the United States since then. I don't know any of this.

So I'm going based on this. If you're mad or you think the numbers are off, take it up with Reddit. I've expressed it to my girlfriend, Amanda, that I would donate if the opportunity arose. Around six months ago, I found an organization that would set up the donation. It gives me a myriad of lifelong support after donation, life insurance,

priority for a kidney. If I ever need one covering medical costs or kidney-related medical expenses, Kyle's like, what's the insurance policy what's what's the copay priority for a kidney thing that was my whole thing like well what happens if I need this right plus the organization sets up donor chain so my donation starts a chain reaction of an on average seven donations yeah again I I don't you I don't think the audience is going to be shocked to hear this isn't exactly my lane i talked it over with amanda and we agreed that i should go through with it two months into the donation process i told my family and amanda's family both were

much more upset than i expected they considered it selfish and short-sighted thing to do i was told i was risking my future child's health or children's health and not thinking how this could affect those closest to me if things went wrong. In response to this, I spoke with other donors, read studies on the health outcomes of living kidney donors, and we've gone through months of medical testing at the hospital. Everything points to a very low risk of complications throughout my life. Despite sharing this experience with my and Amanda's families, I've felt my relationship with them completely change.

I'm two weeks away from the surgery. I'm going to go through with it. Even if the surgery is successful, I'm afraid they'll hold this over me forever in their minds. An issue could pop up at any time and prove their concerns. I don't want to be walking on eggshells for the rest of my life, especially do not let this affect my relationship with Amanda. Any advice on how to talk to them and maybe help them understand?

Have you guys handled pursuing something you were passionate about despite the disproval of those you love? Sure, but not anything close to this um i realize this is a niche situation but any thoughts are appreciated go vols uh maybe i don't know i i don't i don't think i can do it i think that all right the fact that you are doing this speaks to your character, all right, which I think is commendable. If the counter to that is that you actually are putting other people at risk by not doing this, I mean, this is going to be a very clear dividing line here.

People with experience in this probably pointing to the numbers and all the stats and the research as you just did saying there's actually minimal risk here and that that's just the concern of somebody that hasn't put any time in to study any of this stuff. Apparently, both your parents and the in-laws armed with this information don't care because they kind of win the argument with the default of you never know, which is a really tricky, weird game that you're in for the rest of your life with the daughter of you having to prove them wrong by never having it be an issue. But it appears that the odds are on your side with this. I would remember two things. The immediacy of this in the moment now that you're going to do this, that it's weeks away, this is when it's going to be its worst. This conversation will be at its worst for you, right? Because there's still the unknown, the small percentage of

something that could go wrong. So this is when it is going to be the worst. So I don't think this is forever. We can all talk about time healing all wounds. I would imagine with this, the perspective that they have as time continues, as you are a loving, caring husband and maybe one day father, this is all going to be put to bed. They're going to be mad. It could linger, but it's going to dissipate. I would be shocked that it didn't. And I think the best thing that you have on your side in your position on this is that anyone willing to do something like this because you're thinking about other people means that you are probably, and it's not a certainty, but you are probably a really good bet to be the person that takes care of their daughter for the rest of her

life and if she can get that message through to them and your parents already understand that about you uh what you're doing is pretty commendable here and it probably means that you you've got a lot of the other stuff locked up about you know I'm not saying you're perfect but there's there's probably some other parts of you where you're the exact kind of person. Like if you're capable of doing something like this, and if I were a father and this is my daughter, even if I had reservations about it and be like, well, if this guy can do that, then he probably has a lot of things like in perspective for how he's going to live out, you know, of serious commitment to my daughter. So maybe they'll understand that a little bit more as time moves on. But I would say right now, as you realize, as you send in this email, you're just going to have to remember that it's not always going to be this

bad with the way that they think of her talking to me right now, because it's happening right now. I think, well, I would say really quickly, like, you know, in the job interview thing when people like you know name a weakness and it's like I care too much that's literally this guy like he like that that's damn dude like I mean I'm not gonna I wouldn't want to talk you out of doing something like this I'm sure obviously the family's gonna be worried and it is what it is but like it is admirable obviously and yeah you need one kidney so that's cool I was in a little bit

of research on this like you could donate one the other one's fine I think it is admirable, obviously. And yeah, you need one kidney. So that's cool. I was in a little bit of research on this. Like you could donate one. The other one's fine. I think you can even donate partial kidneys because like your kidney can, you can donate like half a kidney because it'll grow into a full kidney or something. So there are options here. But I would just say,

I just, I think it's admirable. Like you said, Ryan, I'm kind of impressed by this dude. I wouldn't do it myself, but more power to you. Yeah, I think you're on the right side of history, objectively. And I think if you already explained all the things and like, you can do that. And if somebody,

you know, especially like who's like a parent or something can still just be like, well, I don't like it. It's like, there's really nothing you say to that. Like, you know, you can give them all the reasons why. And, um, that's, that's crazy. And you know what, those are some of the best videos out there where it's like the guy meets the person who anonymously donated them a kidney 12 years ago and they grew up to be an adult. Like that's cool. Maybe you'll get to do that someday. And yeah, whatever. It's like, they're not being haters. I was going to say blocked haters. That's definitely not what's going on here. But I think, I think, um, if you're in it and you're, and I liked it, you were already like, well, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. If this,

if this, uh, makes my life miserable for the next X amount of weeks, months, whatever I'm doing it. So that's, that's cool. I think if you already gave that a shot, maybe like, don't try to convince anyone anymore. Cause it sounds like their mind's made up and that's just going to make it more frustrating for you and them. If you keep bringing this up.

All right, let's do a lighter one here. Uh, this one's, I want to kill my roommate. No, I'm just kidding. Been there.

Uh, just kidding. Just kidding. Uh, this one is best way to tell a friend he was cheated on. There's never a best way. I guess best way by default, there is one way that is better than the rest. So therefore is the best, but it sucks.

And it's somebody who's been on both sides of it. What's up, pal? That was a rhyme. That was nice. Oh, thanks, bud. Here we go. Six feet. Real six feet. Not 5'1111 roundup but everyone thinks i'm

lying so should i just say six one i'm cool with it nine inch hands a high of 200 and bowling okay by the way um i've got to imagine i don't know if these names are changing. So let's change them. All right. My friend Steve. Steve's always a nice default name. Sorry, Saruti. Why? I don't know.

Just like Steve. Maybe it's from... Steve. It's called the Concords. I don't know. All right. Here we go. Looking for some advice how to tell a friend that his girlfriend is cheating on him.

I don't know. All right, here we go. Looking for some advice how to tell a friend that his girlfriend is cheating on him. My friend Steve's girlfriend has been cheating on him for a few months that we know of. But he lives outside of the city. He isn't around much. I guess these guys all grew up in another city. God, this is just way too specific, man. So I'm like man puff sullivan all right um wait a minute do you know who puff sullivan no it's just funny

to me it was funny to me uh yeah that's that pd usa guy on instagram his videos are unbelievable oh i do know then yeah okay yeah yeah now i'm in now i'm in i know what you're talking about had you guys ever heard of nuggeting someone's backpack just turning it inside out yeah i didn't know that's what it was called though they're dudes doing that a lot they were in high school for me yeah i don't know they'd somebody would nugget your back not mine i just mean in my high school like i'd see it be like wow it seems like a lot of work dude you really want to do that? You sure? Yeah. Annoying and the payoff's not a great payoff. The payoff isn't that great.

Yeah. They have a skid on it. Alright, so back to the cheating girlfriend here. Alright, so the guy lives in a new city. They all live in the city they grew up with and that city has a pro football team. So on the slide, the girlfriend hooked up with somebody on this team. He's a special teamer. A lot of

free time. Those guys are always wild cards. Gotta practice early. Yeah, right, right. Like, I can go out on a game night. Everyone at the bar knew what was happening when she was flirting with him and then left with him, but the boyfriend wasn't there for it. We were never positive that she was cheating on Steve, but our suspicions were confirmed when she barely tried to hide it when she went home with this NFL player. from the other city and tell him what happened.

There's some debating among my group on who should tell him and what context. We have one guy in our group who is definitely closer with Steve, but is it better to tell him in a group? What if he doesn't believe us? And do we bring up the fact that we suspected it for a few months? What would make it worse since he might think we should have told him from day one about suspicions? Side note, we are friends with her too, obviously less now that she would do this to our friend Steve.

And obviously our main loyalty is to him anyway. So again, what's the best way to tell him? In a group setting, one-on-one at a bar, maybe probably not good to have alcohol besides us ripping a shot before just our own angst of breaking crappy news to a really good guy. Anything helps here? Please don't use my real name. No problem. Okay. So here's the deal. There's no good way to do this and you can run yourself through all the different exercises and it's there is actually a bit of a similarity to the previous email that the moment it is happening where you're telling him all that's gonna suck there's there's no better way to do it if there's one friend that's super close with him and he's good at

talking to people then maybe you go iso but But I like the team concept in this one where everybody sits him down because the one-on-one thing sucks. I've done it with a friend where I had to tell him. And depending on where that guy's head's at, he's super mad about it. I had it happen to me. Granted, I wasn't the greatest boyfriend at the time when I had a super bad one happen to me uh granted i wasn't the greatest boyfriend at the time when i had like a super bad one happen to me because it was like a guy that was like of all the people it can't be that guy and it was and then everybody knew about it of another core group of friends and it went on for a year and i didn't know and then finally i figured it all out and i went to my guy who was like my roommate and i'm like what the fuck and he's like yeah i felt like shit for a year but

what was i supposed to do and i kind of knew that he couldn't tell me because of all the different dynamics so I was mad at him but ultimately I'm like wait a minute what am I going to do now be mad about this other thing that happened and also lose one of my closest friends by punishing myself because that's ultimately that's what I'd be doing unless you have no sympathy for the other friend's position so eventually as bad as it's going to be because who knows I mean it also sucks too when it's like who's this guy some loser I'm going to be, because who knows? I mean, it also sucks, too, when it's like, who's this guy? Some loser? I'm going to kick his ass. Like, no, NFL special team or likely fast and jack, just not great at some of the skill stuff.

All right. Awesome. That's not going to go over well. And then he is going to start trying to, like, a lot of guys lose their shit on this one. They'll be like, well, how did you know? When did you know? Oh, you didn't tell me. And it's just going to start firing off the thing.

And the reason is she's the one to blame in this. So what I would actually do before you go, Hey, group therapy session or ISO move here, I would go to her. You mentioned that you're friendly with her, but not so much. Now you go to her and you say, Hey, you're telling him, you're telling him what's up. And so that way, you know, there's no confusion because the guy's going to be asking a million questions. It sounds like you don't even have the answers to. So you go to her and say, Hey, here's the deal. We know what's going on. You don't seem to give a shit, which is fine, but you need to tell our friend because he's coming back in here thinking his girlfriend is still his girlfriend when

clearly you aren't. And if you don't tell him, we're telling him. And it's got to be soon because usually when you give somebody an ultimatum like this, you're like, okay. And then like a couple of weeks go by and you're like, look, this is all going to be worse for our side of this if you don't step up. And so I would give her, you know, a deadline here and being like, you're telling him or we're all telling him. And so that way, if she decides that she doesn't want to do it or whatever, you can tell him, hey, we tried to do all of these things. And eventually, whether it's days or weeks, and if it's months, that's his own problem. But he will realize, hey, my friends were in a tough position. They were being my friends. Ultimately, it's her fault. If it was a committed relationship, who knows? I can't understand all this through an email.

through an email. But that beginning part is going to suck and it's almost unavoidable. But know that the light at the end of the tunnel is that he'll likely come around if you guys are all this close and he'll understand what's happening. But the real play is trying to convince her to tell him. So she has to deal with this stuff because ultimately she's the one at fault here. That's great advice. I initially was going to say, you know, when Mark and Tate quit the ringer, they brought me to a baseball game and told me, I mean, it's only funny because I have the stupid tattoo on my arm. So, like, it obviously meant something to me. I was going to say, yeah. Which you don't regret. No, I still don't regret.

It's just a stupid tattoo, but I don't regret it. What can you do? And so we went out. Like, I was having a great time wearing a box at a baseball game. And I was originally going to say, yeah, like, do something. I'm probably not at a baseball game with other people. Like, that wouldn't be cool. Like, that would definitely be way more sad than what they were telling me. But, but still, um, I thought I originally, I thought that, but

then your, your idea is awesome, dude. I didn't even think about that. Like, Hey, like we know you enough. Like we probably had a few beers with you. Like you would probably hang out. So yeah, it's not like you're coming up to this strange person to be like, you know, you better tell them or else it's like, you know, she, she would get it. I think that's, that's exactly what you guys should do. I think that's great. But I would, I would hurry up because you don't want to if he's like a big spender, what if he's spending all of his money on like fun stuff to do together, if you can save him a little bit of, of, uh, of time and money, if he's actually going to hopefully leave this person once he realizes the truth. So yeah, I wouldn't, wouldn't wait too long.

Yeah. I think Ron, that's the go to thing is to make her he realizes the truth. So yeah, I wouldn't, wouldn't wait too long. Yeah. I think Ron, that's the go to thing is to make her do it. Now she might not do it. And then you're right. And you kind of have at least like a backup excuse of why you didn't tell him sooner than later. But to Kyle,

to your point, I wouldn't do it in public. If it gets to that point where she's like, no, and you actually have to do this, I would not do it in public. There's no way you should be bringing a dude to a baseball game. But I like the idea of a fun thing is all i mean like having no i know but you do that after

you do that afterwards like when you tell them initially let them process a little bit and then you do maybe like a boys weekend you go up to you know wherever they are on your weekend on the lake in vermont or something or you know whatever tear up the town to your thing but i don't think you don't do that initially it has to be in a private setting because you just don't know how that guy's going to react i wouldn't want someone telling me terrible information in a public setting at all. Hey, we're going to walk at the end of this pier, but after that, this bad news, we're going to tell you we have paintball lined up.

Wait, wait. So, Rudy, you just said maybe a lake. I mean, the guy's breaking up with his fucking girlfriend. His parents weren't killed in a plane crash. You guys get lake houses for breakups? I don't know. A long weekend up in Burlington. You wouldn't want that? Get your your mind off things play some beer pong like have some beer olympics going on like get it you know i don't know i think it'd be fun no i mean some guys just want

to go to vegas for a weekend and get weird too do whatever you want like whatever he wants i'm down with i'm just saying don't do the initial thing in public you can do all the shit afterwards it was the longest this relationship here that went south because they almost all do so i don't i don't know i uh the only ones that last are when it's like i absolutely every part of me wants to be with this other person and the other person also reciprocates those feelings not hey i'm super into you but the reason he doesn't seem to want to do anything it's because he really likes his distance and that means it's probably not going to work all right uh yeah i think we covered i think we covered i would just to follow up though. I would,

if you can be like, Hey, we're going to tell you something you don't want to hear, but we're doing it because we're your friends. We've tried to resolve this earlier, but it didn't happen. Here is the timeline of events. We thought something was up, but we weren't sure. So we didn't say anything. Now we knew something was up. So we confirmed it and we said, okay, we need to tell our friend. We said, before we do that, we're going to give her a chance to tell our friend because she's actually the girlfriend. She said she would, it went on for two weeks. She didn't. So that's where we are today. Your girlfriend is hanging out with a special team, special teamer. Sorry, he's faster and stronger than you. Most likely.

Uh, do we have anything else that we need to do? What do we, Oh, we just need to announce the schedule change for this week. We're going to be on Friday after the first round of the draft. I just felt like the way the week worked out, it was actually Cerruti's call and it was really smart. So that's what we're going to do. So we will be off for two days, but not intellectually off.

We will be planning, just maneuvering and we're guest thing got all changed around too. So John Taffffer bar rescue is going to be later uh which we weren't even i don't even know if we were going to run right no we should have booger on friday recapping should have um and glazer's coming up too nikki glazer is confirmed i'm not sure when we're going to run that but she is confirmed we will be doing that so life advice yeah but we're going to do right we're going to do a normal interview with her and then we're going to have her do some life advice. Yeah, but we're going to do, right, we're going to do a normal interview with her and then we're going to have her

do some life advice stuff, which I think she's going to be awesome at. So we can do both stand-up comedians, but it'll probably just be funnier to listen to her, you know, just beat up on dudes for some relationship stuff,

which I imagine would probably be the lane she goes. All right. Well, I hope you enjoy the podcast and enjoy the playoffs. And we'll be back on Friday of this week after the first round of the nfl draft Thank you.