The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NBA Finals Picks, Richard Jefferson From Manhattan Beach and NFL Trade Deadline Rumors with Dianna Russini

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

Ryen opens the show by revisiting the NBA’s opening night, discusses if the Lakers and Nuggets actually have a rivalry, and gives his season picks (00:38). Ryen was joined by NBA Champion and ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson at his recent Manhattan beach live show and dives into what happened to the goons in the NBA (22:00). The NFL trade deadline is quickly approaching and Dianna Russini joined the pod to discuss the latest surrounding some big name players including Saquon Barkley and Deshaun Watson (39:36). Plus, Life Advice! The guys reminisce about their high school athletic days (1:02:33). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Richard Jefferson and Dianna Russini Producers: Cliff Augustin, Steve Ceruti, and Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

nba season is back we'll break down the two games i'll give you my finals picks the final four the award stuff as well and diana rossini less than a week to go before the nfl trade deadline see what she is hearing and our conversation with richard jefferson from the live show that was taped last Friday. We just thought it was good, and he's good, and there were some cool stories in there, and life advice. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything

delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Opening night of NBA season. I'm going to break it down. Just two games. Pretty easy to go through this. Every Wednesday during the football season, we'll be doing basketball. Cerruti loves that I offered up Hup and Tay Hoops.

I don't love the title, but he really does. So who knows? We may stay with that. So here's what we have. And even when we don't want to do it, we're going to give it to you. Best inbounders of the 90s. We'll tear you to death. Who knows? We'll come up with something.

Let's start in Denver last night. Big-time crowd, ring celebration, raising the banner. If you've never done it before, it's going to be an unbelievable feeling. Some of the other franchises have had a few. Start to take for granted a little bit to finally get one, to have been in the playoffs as many times as Denver had and not made the final trip through the whole thing and winning a title. That's really cool for a fan base. That's awesome. It's a weird rivalry, and I don't know if it's me getting older or if I'm missing something with it or the recency of it or just the Lakers factor because whenever the Lakers or LeBron with the Lakers is involved in the story it's all going to get cranked up a little bit more but I don't really

understand the pettiness even though pro athletes need almost no motivation to get petty now you know baseball players are always the king of this stuff where they would find a way to get mad about like baseball players to me the job is baseball then it's also to find ways to get incredibly incomprehensible mad about the dumbest shit ever. I think the NBA guys, I don't know that baseball players can be caught in that department, but NBA players, especially the ones that we talk about a lot, can find ways to be disrespected in ways that none of us ever really see. When it comes to Lakers Nuggets, they've only played each other twice in in these forms in the playoffs so there's not like a ton of history there and the Lakers deserve all the credit in the world for even

making it to the Western Conference Finals and you think about and I really do think two two three years from now not that we're going to spend a lot of time on the 22 23 Lakers but like that's pretty miraculous what they were able to do to turn that thing around. A lot of it has to do with if Anthony Davis is Anthony Davis, then they're an entirely different basketball team, which we'll get to here briefly. But it's a little weird that, I guess it's not shocking that Denver would want to go at LA. It felt a bit more driven by Malone and some of his comments. And then you get the Nuggets chanting,

who's your daddy there at the end. So that's the one side of it. But then on the other side, the part maybe that I have the hardest time with is the Lakers feeling as if they're above any of this, as if it's sacrilegious to even suggest anything negative. And LeBron plays into it a bit, and then everybody's making fun of Anthony Davis because he didn't score in the second half after saying that he and LeBron plays into a bit and then everybody's making fun of Anthony Davis because he didn't score in the second half and for saying that he and LeBron had conversations

about all the talking that the Nuggets were doing so good I hope it's nasty I like nasty stuff in the NBA I want teams to not like each other I want players to not like each other and I don't know that we even really have this right now but it's kind of playing out there a bit but it's not like it was some seven game series that they've been facing each other in And I don't know that we even really have this right now, but it's kind of playing out there a bit, but it's not like it was some seven game series that they've been facing each other in the Western Conference Finals multiple times in the last handful of seasons. As far as the gameplay, pretty high level stuff. And that's because at least on the Denver side of things, they know exactly who they are. When you're looking at all the contenders and you're trying to figure out, okay, is this going to work? How's this going to fit? All this stuff. Denver doesn't

have to do any of that stuff. All they have to do is figure out how they're going to figure out, okay, is this going to work? How's this going to fit? All this stuff. Denver doesn't have to do any of that stuff. All they have to do is figure out how they're going to figure the bench minutes out of Bruce Brown. And Bruce Brown with the Nuggets is better with them than he would be with any other team because of Jokic. And I'll get to some of the bench stuff here in a second, but it's going to be an unbelievable feeling if you're the coaching staff, you're the front office, and you're all the players. And you're like, we know exactly what to do. We know who we are and we're still in our Primes and so there is a gap whatever you think about the West and how it's all going to play out like I think most of us would figure there's a gap before it and we see it play out last night so nothing was all that shocking

um when I look at yokich and go okay well who guards him well Anthony Davis can't guard him and it felt like for a while there you couldn't really guard Anthony Davis either but it was more of a team effort later in the second half, which we'll get to. But whenever I was trying to go, all right, what am I going to do in the finals? Well, I'll put Denver in again, even though I have a slight sliver of hope for Phoenix. I still would have been surprised, I think, if it were the Lakers. And then on the other side, as much as I didn't really want to go chalk with it, getting weird with picks like it's the NCAA tournament bracket in your office pool.

All right, it's Milwaukee or it's Boston. That's the way it feels right now. Even if it were, say, Boston, and I'll do my picks here later in the segment. If it's Boston, I was like, would I pick Boston to win the whole thing? I don't think I've picked Boston to win the whole thing in 13 or 14 years. I was like, maybe I'll just do it again. I think they're going to be really good. But at the end of the year, if it's Boston and Denver in the finals,

like who's guarding Jokic? Is that guy even on the Celtics roster right now? Because I don't know what Przingis is going to look like at the end of the year. Horford hit a wall, it felt like, last season. What they got from Horford last year was incredible for the entire season. But even in the playoffs, you're like, okay, yeah, Horford now, but are they pacing him the entire time to be facing Jokic in late June? I mean, could you even do that? So I don't know what anybody does with Jokic because even if he's not scoring, he's completely controlling the game. He's the best closer in the

NBA. He's Mariano Rivera. Last night, looking at the score, the Lakers get back into it after being down big early, which is to be expected. It's 90-94. At 8-49, Jokic is at the scorer's table. Honestly, he was sent to the scorer's table prior to a few possessions playing out. I would always think, look, if you have four timeouts and you have the best player in the world over there on the scorer's table, you could lose three offensive possessions with him watching.

Like, wouldn't it make sense to just burn the timeout to get him in there earlier? And it's like, man, we don't care. We'll be fine. And that's exactly what happens. He checks in. Denver goes on the 25-17 run to close the game. And it doesn't really feel that close at the end, even though there were moments where it was happening. As far as the bench, the Lakers have a handful of guys I don't like.

Not breaking news. You know, Jackson Hayes, athletic, whatever. Don't think he's ever going to figure it out. I know all these contracts are cheap and they're trying to put together the roster. And some of the names that we saw even playing or in the box score this morning aren't even going to be factors.

So who really cares? But, you know, Cam Reddish, whatever. Christian Wood, whatever. I mean, Lakers fans, I'm telling you right now, once he gets the ball nobody nobody gets it back and the thing is is you will trick yourself into thinking he's pretty good as the previous 10 teams in the last decade have so um i guess it's nine now 10 but once the possession is with him the possession is over and the thing is he's good enough

offensively for him to justify going ahead and doing those things, but good luck with it. And so that's where we got Reddish, Hayes, and then Wood. And then look, D'Angelo Russell, who's starting at point guard, I thought was a disaster last night. I thought those possessions with him were just terrible. Defensive effort, a little bit better, but he did get lost late when they were running that two-man game with Jokic and Murray, where they screen Murray's guy. And then he has to make a decision as Jokic is sitting there not even facing the basket actually facing out to the three-point line just waiting for what kind of cut Murray is going to make and Russell got lost on one of those and then it was pre-switched another time or I think it was pre-switched just because of transition matchup so it wasn't even by design really but look I'm

not going to spend a ton of time on him I I thought he had a really bad game last night. And I don't know if you're an NBA Finals team if he's running that many of your possessions. LeBron was limited minutes-wise, 29 minutes last night. And that apparently is the plan. He said at one point he was like I'm just going to follow what they tell me to do but obviously everybody knows that he's consulted on this and then Ham said that he was and then you know LeBron was like look this is what we've all talked about but the thing that sucks for him is he kind of has to pretend like no way I want to

be out there every single minute uh the fact that he's still driving with this much force is incredible um he was 10 of 16 last night, wasn't actually settling from three. He's also doing something I'm noticing on these drives where he's sticking the ball right in your face, which isn't exactly new, but it's really effective because you end up fouling him even more. It's not the Eric Gordon drive with that right elbow,

the Muay Thai elbow out into your sternum, and then Gordon flails and it still works or Gordon will get the call. We saw it a couple of times in the second game. LeBron's drives were really just forceful. That's the thing when you get older, you usually just start settling and settling and settling. He didn't do that last night. He actually led all scores. The Anthony Davis part of it is a little frustrating because he was so good in the first half. Like I said, Jokic couldn't really do anything with him. I thought Denver defended him better as a team in the second half.

He only took one shot in the fourth quarter and that was a three. That's the part with Anthony Davis where it's like, don't let everything take you out of your game. And I know that's a balance between that's a bad shot. You forced it. I'd rather have a few forced bad shots, think Kevin Durant, than I would, well, I guess I'm just not going to get any shots up here at all. But there's just really nothing to do with Jokic. And when you look at Denver's bench here, Christian Brown's going to be even better. That left-handed finish that he had against Wood up

against the glass was incredible. Najee's one of their big rotation guys now. Peyton Watson's coming in playing defense, and Reggie Jackson had 24 minutes. As far as the three rookies, Hunter Tyson, who I actually like, didn't play. He was kind of good in the combine. Pickett didn't play. I think technically he had one minute when they subbed out all the starters there. And then Strother, who was the leading scorer for them during the preseason, 18 a game, 45% on threes. He had only two turnovers. He didn't play. Welcome to Mike Malone, boys,

because you're not going to play if he doesn't think you're ready. So I don't know if they're going to be developing all these guys on the fly, but that bench that everybody kind of liked being like, oh, there's a couple of rotation guys in there. They didn't even get to play. So that's how I feel about game one. Nothing crazy, no grand conclusions because there shouldn't be. So let's get to play so that's how i feel about game one nothing crazy no grand conclusions because there shouldn't be so let's get to the second game the biggest thing with phoenix at

golden state that i was watching is i wanted to see how the curry chris paul minutes were staggered and boy were they staggered no draymond green no beal so again not a ton of conclusions on this one because as much as you know how much i love Chris Paul and I've loved this Warriors team from a basketball standpoint the styles of play are not a fit but it's up to Chris Paul to figure out how to fit in and it was funny because in the beginning I'd see Steph bring the ball across half court the start of the game and then I think that lasted a few possessions um and then Chris Paul's like well now I'm gonna do it a little bit because basketball is very much a lot like a lot of things in life is that you can kind of pretend

that you're something that you're not but ultimately all of us kind of default to what we are and what we're most comfortable with you know basketball is probably one of the hardest things to change, even the smartest players. But I've seen Chris Paul play off the ball enough, especially back in the Houston Harden thing where I think it can kind of work. But I love the bench minutes with Chris Paul. I'm just not sure how the Curry-Chris Paul thing matches up minutes-wise. So I went through all the minute substitution stuff with both of them, and they're both in to start the game chris paul's the first sub out at 705 and that's cominga coming in for him uh then chris paul comes in for curry to close the first quarter at 307 curry came in for a last possession at 26

seconds um at the start of the second quarter gary payton's in for Curry. And then Curry comes in for Chris Paul, who started the second quarter. And then Chris Paul came back in, and they closed the quarter together for the final 357. Start of the second half, they're both in. Curry comes out at 721. Then he comes back in at 253 for Chris Paul. Fourth quarter, Paul's on the bench, Steph's starting, Chris Paul comes in for Steph. Then at 522 of the fourth quarter,

Steph comes in for Chris Paul, then they close together at 321. Curry's foul trouble alone screwed up probably whatever the normal plan was, but of the minutes they played, Chris Paul actually played 34 total minutes, Steph played 31, again again the foul trouble so that was 15 minutes and 26 seconds i'm probably off by a few seconds here there but i did the math this morning general ideas about 15 and a half minutes where they played together i don't know if it'd be more or less depending on the foul

trouble stuff there and there are some late late possessions that I wanted to just jump in towards here where like, I don't know, last few minutes of the game, there's a Chris Paul drive where he's kind of trying to figure it out and Curry's watching it. And Curry then gets the pass late and he's left to iso a missed just really tough end of the shot clock contested three. Then they tried to like switch it up where they were going to try to do something and chris paul ends up driving and it wasn't a bailout pass to curry curry then to looney it was a turnover uh then they ran something with clay in kaminga um excuse me that was the defensive assignment there um the next time through ended up being chris paul missing the three they got an offensive rebound um and he was over on the break so i just look i just was seeing things where i'm

like steph watching somebody else big possessions is not what this team is and you know we can say one game a thousand different times today if we want to, and we'd be right doing it. But I think I know some players pretty well, and I love the Chris Paul bench things. I just wonder how long they'll go. And it depends too on defensive assignment stuff, because say Beal is playing last night. So KD was in and Clay had him late. Kaminga was on Booker. They also had the Gary Payton option with that. But if it's Beal, Booker, and then KD, and then Klay is playing KD, what are you doing? If this is a playoff series, what are you doing defensively there? I guess you

could move Klay down to Booker, but I don't think you want to do that now at this stage of Klay's career and then put Draymond and Durant and then it's like, do you want to be small? Because I thought one of the best things for Phoenix last night was that their centers were so active. Nurkic was a beast, setting screens and rolling consistently

against a small front line, whether it was Klay or Kaminga playing power forward or Andrew Wiggins, depending, you know, like Wiggins throws in another option there defensively as well as I'm playing this all out in my head. But the point keeps coming back to like, how would you have Paul and Steph close defensively against bigger perimeter guys?

And maybe they figure it all out, but I think the staggering tells us where their head is at with this organization as far as like what the plan is is like they were telling us game one they're gonna try to stagger these guys so um the only thing left on this is that booker was the best player on the floor he was the best player on the floor the guy is fiercer than almost every other perimeter player in the league i've really fallen in love with him the last couple seasons. And he hits a huge three late.

And then the final three possessions, he's got a Kogi who was terrific energy-wise, hits a huge three. He's got Eric Gordon who hits a three. And then what I thought was really fitting because of how hard Nurkic played last night, the rolling, the rebounding. Now, he's going to get work if he gets switched into a small guy, and the few times that Steph and Chris Paul got that opportunity, they were taking it every single time.

So that part defensively scares me a little bit. I know there's this idea that Nurkic can defend Jokic. No one can, but obviously you can try to make it harder on him. But for the Suns to close the game last night with Nurkic on this hard roll catch off another Booker thing where Booker was just kind of doing it on his own. Let's close with another, hey, it's one game stop point here. I got to be honest with you. The KD stuff looked a lot like the end of last year.

And that's not a compliment. He's going to get his points. you know, but it felt like the shots and, you know, they were physical with him last night, but it felt like the shot profile was kind of ISO. This usually goes in, even though it's not a great look because he's so special as a player,

but whether it was the falling down all the time at the end of last year against Denver, while Denver is running away in transition, he's trying to get a call. It just didn't necessarily feel in the flow, even if I liked overall that Phoenix seemed like they had a plan, which is getting those centers involved against whatever Golden State was going to try to do with them. And then Booker just takes over. So there you go. Two games in.

Jump into the NBA action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 or get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed, plus all customers get three months of NBA League Pass. That's courtesy of FanDuel when they place a $5 bet. All right, so a couple bets. I gave out Orlando when it was on the book here at minus 3.5, home against Houston. It is now minus 4.5. So certainly I liked it more at minus 3.5 half home against Houston. It is now minus four and a half. Um, so certainly

I liked it more at minus three and a half than I do now, but that's worth it staying on minus three and a half. I like Boston. I think they're going to be good this year, uh, at the Knicks. So they're favored by three and a half. I mean, think about Boston. It's like this constant kind of disappointment, whatever. And it's like, yeah, disappointing for them was losing in game seven of the Eastern conference finals. And I think they're going to be better this year so uh there's that as far as i love these man simmons been on fire with it because if you go to the fan duel sportsbook right now the bill simmons boost which exists is luca plus 25 points and when banyama more than two two or more blocks uh it was minus 125 with his boost it plus 200. So some options for you on the second part,

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Awards. Well, let's do this. I'll do the final four first. I've got Denver over Phoenix. I've got Boston over Milwaukee. I have Denver over Boston. I just don't know if the person on Boston right now that's supposed to impede the Jokic stuff in an NBA finals is even on the roster and if you're telling me it's Przingis and Horford um you know they I

just don't think it's going to be enough unless the rest of the rest of the other parts where you're like well Denver doesn't have the wing guys to hang with Tatum, Drew, and Brown. And Drew can guard Murray, and they can throw this at Murray, and they can try to throw it. All right, whatever. We're talking like June, all right? But as of now, Jokic feels like the most unsolvable problem in the NBA for the rest of the teams. MVP Jokic, he's the favorite on FanDuel, plus 430 as of this morning. If you want to do something that's a little non-chck, I like Booker, who's sixth with Curry.

They're both plus 1400. Rookie of the Year, Wemba Nyama, whatever, going shock on that one. I just think he's going to have a ton of moments. You're like, oh, this isn't that exciting. Like, yeah, that's why I don't really do the award stuff all that much. And Coach of the Year, I don't, does anyone actually care? Here's two stats for Coach of the year, I don't, does anyone actually care? Here's two stats for a coach of the year. The last, I don't know, however many we want to run through this. If we look at coach of the

year, last year was Mike Brown. The year before that, Monte Williams gone. Before that, Tibbs, Nix, still there. Before that, Nurse gone, Budenholzer gone, Casey gone, D'Antoni gone. nurse gone budenholzer gone casey gone d'antoni gone and then kerr's the last repeater we have to go back uh eight years and when it comes to coaches 20 of the 30 have been hired in 2020 or sooner in their jobs if you want to get fired win coach of the year spo should just get it at some point um but i I don't know. We don't seem to do that. Whenever I'm trying to project the award stuff, I'll think like, what would the writers like?

What story would the writers like? And it's not all classic writers as much as it used to be. This is my third year with a vote. But you could see a little correction stuff after Jokic's finals run last year. And coach of the year always seems to be the team we expected nothing from correction stuff after Jokic's finals run last year. And coach of the year always seems to be the team we expected nothing from as opposed to the person that just is the best at the job. And for me, that's Spoh and that's probably not going to change until the guy retires.

Can we get a whiskey soda? Yeah. For Richard Jefferson. A reminder, the Watertown Whiskey thing that I was supposed to say at the very top, we're putting it on our tabs if you order it, okay? We're putting it on our tabs. It'll be taken care of. Brittany's out there working the room.

Everyone knows behind the bar. and Big Mikey trying to help him out, get his brand off the ground. Speaking of brands, are we waiting for your friends or can we go? No, we can go. I never liked them anyway. Wait, what? Hush. Who do we got here? This is Lil Rich

and this is Phoenix. They just left basketball practice, so they're a little late. What's up, guys? Say what's up, Lil Rich and Phoenix. Give me a round of applause for Little Rich and Phoenix. Yeah. Wait, one's rocking a Celtics t-shirt? Oh, we have no bias here. We just take the money.

If they want his draft rights right now, there's a price. Yeah, it's fine. We're fine with that. Where are you as a satellite parent? As a satellite parent? Not very much. I'm, I'm actually the non-attentive parent.

I just found out their birthdays, so that was awesome. It's really good. Uh, no, no, no, I don't like, I let somebody else coach them and then I just. And you don't, when you see them doing something wrong, you would just, you're like over it. No, no, no. You just gotta go. You gotta go with just like the, I'm going to give you tips. And then when your coach

says the same thing and they look over at me, I'm like, dude, I've been telling you, I've been telling you this for years. So I just let the coach reinforce it. Would you want him to be your coach? Are you good with him? Just, you want me to be? Yeah. Yeah. Well, obviously that'll go away. Obviously that's why I don't want to be their coach. what i'm saying because i think there's people better equipped at this age that has better tolerance okay just shaking you know they're my kids they don't they they've heard all this before so it's pretty cool because you know we were talking to kilbourne and then you know my little intro about being out here and here you are

you own a yoga studio you've got the best soft our uh volleyball team yeah hey man there we go okay okay they know it's okay to clap thank you i appreciate that it feels like this move agrees with you after playing yeah well honestly i moved down here i used to live in san diego for a bunch of years and then i moved down here yes sir uh north county so i had to move down here to get a little bit more active start working out that's how i got into yoga but yeah i love it down here for the most part. Did you know about it when you were in Arizona? No, I did.

Cause Luke Walton, he was my old roommate in college bear down. He was my roommate in college. When he got drafted, he moved directly to the South Bay. So he had been coming. He'd been living here since 2003, 2004. So I was always coming back, hanging out here. And when I got old, I was like, I need to work out more. So I moved up here.

Did you play as much as he did? Cause I mean, I always hear the volleyball stories, but no, no, he played a bunch more. He played a bunch more. And then when I moved up here, it was like year one, year two. And I stand by, I tell everybody I was very athletic at the end of my career. A lot of it is because I was doing yoga and then doing playing beach volleyball for three, four times a week in the afternoon. After all my basketball lifting and stuff was done, career a lot of it is because i was doing yoga and then doing playing beach volleyball for three four times a week in the afternoon after all my basketball lifting and stuff was done i played that in the evening and you're just running jumping in sand for hours and your legs feel amazing yeah it was funny because when i first moved i was like i'm gonna do some of the sand running yeah and i was like that lasted a day yeah well that's the sand running is the hill

that everybody knows never level so if you're older you're like it was my hip out now and if you're trying to run on the beach it's like you got the incline this way no but that's where the volleyball comes in the volleyball comes in because you start doing that and it's kind of like you're working out without really working out drinking beers yeah no i uh i loved the volleyball thing in the beginning and then like i'll i'll admit there was a game that I was getting invited to that was kind of like a cool game. But I was one of the non-guys that was invited by the cool guys. And then the other non-cool guys saw me as another non-cool guy threat.

They were like, wait, we can't believe we're invited to this game. Who's this guy? And then I started moving around freelancing a little bit from my Martha's Vineyard Beach Volleyball days. And the guy's like, what are you doing on the back line? And I was like, I'm setting him up. I was like, I'm setting up his mind. And he just couldn't take it.

Look, at the end of the day, this is recreational. It's like golf. Not that day. People ask, well, no, not really. People go, hey, do you play golf? And I'm like, look, if I got a couple hours to spend away from my family, I'm not going to be on a golf course. I'll probably be be on the beach. Okay.

That's my thing. So later in your career, I like that you said that because I, one of my favorite things ever is watching and well, older, younger, it doesn't matter. Any player. There's one right now who I don't know if he's going to play for the nets or not, but we sure see a lot of features on them. No name shall be said. They'll talk about how hard they're hitting the gym and i'm like i see guys in the gym every day that still suck at working out in the gym and yet they think just because

they're in there they're putting in the right work and yet you clearly had an epiphany later in your career was like there needs to be something for me to do here to extend it yes that well there was a lot of different things that go into it. And you're right. Like you can post a million videos. Michael Jordan didn't post video because there wasn't internet. There wasn't the internet. There wasn't.

But he probably was going to do box jumps, like the box jump thing where people are like, she has a 46 inch vert. And you're like, no, that's just the box. But go ahead. But no, no, it's true. It's more of from the space of like, you got to put in the work. So look, if they're putting in the work, that's half the battle, but I can go to a gym. Uh, I remember Gronk famously said that he would like, uh, show do the sprints, but then change his shirt. Gronk would change his shirt

in the same day, then send a video of him running sprints and he would send it on consecutive days. So it was like, you can fake the workout. You can do bear down. Shout out to Gronk. But you can fake the workout. But at the end of the day, it is genius, right? But some of it is just more of mental. Are you going to be mentally prepared for the grind? Are you going to be mentally prepared for the things that are going to come at you? Half the battle is doing the work before. Okay, let's talk

this season. Let's go. What is the gap between Denver and Los Angeles? The Lakers? What, bro? If you go ask that very very nice can we get a couple sprites over that tattooed lady very very nicely uh uh okay what is the gap I don't think the gap is the gap I don't think the gap is that big do you have Denver one Lakers two or do you have Phoenix ahead of LA no no, no, no. I have Denver one Lakers to Phoenix. Second.

I did a thing on NBA today where it was like our Phoenix thirds. Okay. The whiskey hasn't even kicked in yet. No, no, no. That was going to be like the Memphis thing. I'm like,

what? Nobody got that joke. So it's fine. No, what? The way I look at it, this is like we, we did it.

We're going to need a towel. Gosh, there are, this, this is just bright. Correct. You didn't to need a towel after those sprites. Gosh, there are this. This is just bright, correct? You didn't give me. Okay. Okay. Just just to make sure we're clear. No,

when you look at. So this is what I say. I don't think Phoenix they got Kevin Durant three years. They got Devin Booker for five. They've got Bradley Bill for three. If you go back and look at the last 20 years of basketball somewhere around those, if you look at the last 20 years, how many teams won at their second year with the group? Shaq wanted his second year in Miami.

LeBron won his second year in Miami. Second year in LA, second year in Cleveland. The Lakers with Pau Gasol, they lost in the finals that first year when they got him at the all-star break. They went at the second year. You're typically better that second year. So people can go all in on Phoenix this year, but truth be told next year is when that, that really kind of, I love it. By the way, I love it. Cause I remember even when the Celtics got together in 07, 08, they won it in their first year. And I was the guy being like,

Hey, they'll probably get in. So I'm saying the exact same thing as you, but that group was really interesting in that. And I always think this is important is that they had to be over it enough individually to want to make it work as a team when you bring younger guys together still a little bit about themselves and they'd had enough failures individually to make it work but the durant thing i think i push back on that a little bit because i wouldn't want to be like planning out durant another year later look i love him i love him but the reality is you pull up the stats, like he just doesn't play enough. He didn't play in like any games with Phoenix

until the playoffs last year. No, I know. He sprained his ankle in the warm-ups and all that. I remember that, yeah. Yeah, so I'm just, to say like, hey, you might like Phoenix better next year, I don't know how much longer I'll think of Durant as somebody that's going to carry it.

And to be honest with you, I didn't really love him in the playoffs against Denver last year. I didn't like him in the playoffs against Boston a couple years ago. But I think now with Devin Booker, I think now with Bradley Beal, the space that he had similar to Golden State, the difference is between Phoenix and Golden State is that Golden State had distributors. Draymond, okay, you missed a couple shots. I'm going to go this way. Andre Iguodala, Golden State had distributors. Draymond, okay, you missed a couple shots.

I'm going to go this way. Andre Iguodala, okay, ball handler, distributor. They had distributors. The Phoenix Suns are looking for three elite, elite scorers of this generation to be distributors to each other without any sort of floor dinner. I got killed online because I was like, Mario Chalmers. You did? Well, yeah, surprisingly. Mario Chalmers in, what was it, the 2010 Miami?

He was serviceable, but he started for him. Right. Peak Mario Chalmers would be starting right now for this Phoenix Suns team at the starting point guard spot. Right. Like that to me, it just shows that there is still some gaps in what they need. The only thing I would think, look, there's no disagreement here. It's just that if you had another ball handler with those three guys, then it's like, okay,

what are we doing? We don't need a ball handler. We just need someone that is a floor general and we want to execute the spot. Right. Who also can knock down a catch and shoot shot, which is what Chalmers, you know, look, he became less of a player because he was in that role. Although his main role is to get yelled at the entire time he was there. Well, that's an important role. If you know LeBron James, you have to have people he can yell at on the team.

That's just part of it. You know, when I say it. Well, when you say it, people say, no, you have to. No, I said it very early on. I was like, man, if you're the wrong guy with not enough tenure and he misses the rotation, you might get cut. Oh, you might get traded. Did you ever go, all right, I'm sorry, you got me hot on it.

Let's go. When he screws up the rotation and then immediately turns to you, I thought Tristan was going to kill him one game. Oh, we've all done it. What do you say when you're like, what are you doing? That was you. Well, you got to keep things in perspective, right? I like my family.

I like my kids. So I don't want to get shipped to Shanghai. So, you know. No, no. Urging economy. Well, make no mistake. Okay, let me make no mistake. I got traded from cleveland after going

to two finals because d wade left uh chicago remember he got bought out chicago and they looked at me like richard we really like you but uh that's his best friend and we're one roster spot short so we really we really appreciate the finals but d wade's gonna come here and i'm like look you know what i get it the dude's very good, with LeBron, there's a level of respect. There's a level of respect. There's a level of respect that comes with those types of players. Cause everything is always, he does so many good things and that's the same for Tim Duncan. That's the same for Kobe MJ. So yeah, but you have to, you saw in the, in the, uh, last dance documentary, Michael Jordan had people that he was just going to push and push and push.

Didn't mean Jordan didn't make any mistakes. It just means he wanted to know that people were going to be battle tested because he was expecting to be in the toughest battles. Yeah, look, I get all that. No, I'm not. I'm not going like, OK, but the counterpoint to that is no. So let's back to the original question on the west stuff because i think that's what's most interesting to the room right here the denver the denver gap yeah you know i have a weird time with them uh they had a losing record on the road which is weird it's like people going into it like they should be one of the favorites if you want to sit here and tell me they're your pick again i'm not going to tell you you're wrong i think boston's loaded i think there's a version milwaukee that's really scary.

And the fact that I think the Lakers are even in this conversation compared to where we were going in the last season is a huge testament to how they figured this thing out on the fly. Like not many teams can do what they did with the front office to make it work this quickly. But I just wonder, like Bruce Brown's not the reason it's going to be different. No, I agree. And then you look at Jamal Murray, you might think that he should get up to that all-star level. Well, the thing that's scary is that now Murray's not going to be coming back from something because Murray wasn't crisp the first couple months.

And then Christian Brown. And so they have guys, and this is, I understand, Jokic is still, what, 28 years old? So it's like he's still entering into, he's still in the middle of his early prime. And the fact that he averaged 30, 10, and nine through, it didn't matter what defense he saw. It didn't matter what big he saw.

He was running through every single person. Like they weren't there. Like you said, Boston, Milwaukee, we don't know who's going to come out of the East. There's three or four teams that are just like, we know the top two, but in the West, I think it's purely Denver. I think it's the Lakers and then the suns and everyone else has something to prove i think golden state sacramento and even i would put the suns in that group i like that no i agree with that because i feel like at times i'm dismissive

of the suns even if i go like hey maybe i don't like beal as the fit because i wasn't always the biggest beal guy but then when you look at the price because he had a no trade clause it's like well we're just getting br Bill for free. Yeah. Well, we'll take him and we'll figure it out later. Well, and don't forget there's Memphis. Like Memphis, obviously, is not going to be the version. Wow. Very dismissive Memphis. Well, here.

Now, let me show you how this becomes problematic. Let me show you how this becomes problematic. Let's say that John Morant misses 25 games. Guys, you guys know who John Morant is? Which one? Wait, wait, wait. say that John Morant misses 25 games. Guys, do you guys know who John Morant is? Wait, wait, wait. Who's John Morant? John Morant is the guy who got suspended from the game because he was playing with a gun.

Yeah, we don't play with guns. Yeah, see? Dad of the year over here. Dad over here. I'm teaching young black men we don't play with guns, okay? Especially in Manhattan Hermosa Beach, man. Man, I'm being honest. We don't play with guns. Okay. Especially in Manhattan, Hermosa beach, man. Man. I'm being honest.

We don't play that. See, you got to teach the kids young. So like I was saying, hypothetically, can I book them for Wednesday show? Yeah. Listen, everything can be negotiated. I'm probably man. We'll talk to our people. Okay.

So really quickly, this is how, this is how Memphis could be very problematic. They're 25 games, right? Let's say they play 500. They're not that version of themselves, but let's say they end up being the six seed. Now that's not going to be your typical six seed because they had their best player gone for 25. So if the Lakers or somebody gets that three seed and now you get them as the six seed, that's that they're probably closer to a two or three win healthy especially if marcus smart and all of these guys get flowing now all of a sudden that's where a memphis could upset someone and make a run to the conference finals and they're like oh they're doing it as a 60 is like but they're really probably closer to a three yeah the west was really weird last year and off

the record thing with denver like the top six seeds in the west only two of them had winning records on the road you know five of the top six in in the West, only two of them had winning records on the road. You know, five of the top six in the East did like that was, there were weird things that were happening in the West where new Orleans had a stretch. You're like, okay, they're for real, but they're a tough bet. Jaw had this incredible run with those guys. I mean, they were smoking teams. And then you're like, they still survive with all the nonsense and all the injuries. They still survive being a two seed. And I just don't think Sacramento is going to be that much different. I still think they're going to be pretty good.

Look, I'm not going to sit here saying, hey, they're going to give Denver a run. But they were solid the whole way through. All right, you had more on that than I have on the last question. I got nothing else. No, that's all right. I think they have stuff going on. How much longer do you guys want to do this? Another hour?

No, I don't think that's true. They're watching baseball. They're fine. Okay, we'll end on this one. Positive Friday. Everybody's about to have a great night. Sun's about to come down. Who did you hate?

What? Who was the guy that you were like, I'm playing him tonight? No, okay. And I'm going to say this because we've had some run we've had some run-ins on on the internet and like here we go no no i'm gonna buckle up no no no paul pierce and kg were two of the worst human beings of all time like of all time and and and and let me be very no no no no no let me be very clear this is not a question

of their talent this is not a question of their talent. This is not a question of their ability. The things that they would have to do to get themselves riled up and the things that they would say, those are the things like legitimately in the 90s, those two would have been in a hundred fights, right? And then it's like, you have to make a decision.

Well, and they know this, that, oh, am I going to fight this dude and get suspended for five games and miss half a million dollars. So that this is the thing that someone told me they got rid of the, of the goons, but they didn't get rid of the bullies. So the goons used to make sure the bullies didn't get out of a line and the NBA got rid of all the goons, respectfully, the Charles Oakley's, those guys that were the market, Maurice Lucas, that were there like, Oh, if you're going to misbehave, then you're going to have to deal with him. So the goons are gone, but the bullies are still there. Tremendous respect for them.

But the things that they have said on and off the court or will say in the middle of the heat of battle, if you were to say those things in a club street, one-on-one, those are without a doubt, fighting words. And there's no and there's no question about it. It's not that I'm from Boston. We have kids here. It was going to be a little weird for me to have a home studio show and have that chant start flying around.

I know where I am. You're awesome, man. Thanks for the time. Can't wait for the season. Can't wait to have you back on again. I appreciate that. And shout out to the boys hanging in there. Appreciate you guys, man. Look out for the grenadine.

Hey, guys, can we give it up for Richard and Phoenix one more time? We are less than a week away from the NFL trade deadline, and this used to be one of the most boring timelines of the entire sports season, but it's gotten a little bit more exciting. And to help us now from The Athletic, it's Diana Racine. What's up? Cool intro. I know. I like that.

You played that up, too. The Athletic, not The the Atlantic my mom continues to tell me you're doing such a good job at the at the Atlantic it's a great magazine I'm like yeah I don't even work there yeah well I don't know she'd be pretty confused I would imagine uh I like you on these topics better than maybe some of the Atlantic cover stories so uh if we look at the trade deadline though you know look you've been covering the league long enough. And I think there was always kind of like I remember just buying into all the arguments like, oh, you can't put a receiver in this system middle of season. It doesn't work. Quarterbacks, it'll never work like you can't ever do this. And I I don't know. It

always felt like a very easy way out of also the self-preservation of GMs, because if you make zero trades, then you can't be criticized for them. So I never knew if it was an old school thing, just self-preservation. But it does feel like that there's a little bit more in play the last more, I would say, I don't know, three to four years. We talk about it and very little happens. It's certainly not baseball. It's not basketball.

But I think the league is more open to the possibility than ever before. Yeah. And there's tons of people around the league, especially GMs that would love to move this trade deadline further along in the year as well. A lot of them feel like it's just too early to be at this point where you got to make a call on your year and you got to basically say, are we in or are we out? Do we really want to move on from someone that could be a really good player? Let's just say for Minnesota right now, right?

Talk about their future looking very different now after that great win on Monday night. Now they actually have a shot here at the playoffs, it seems, at this point if it were to start. So it's certainly building a lot of just enthusiasm in general around the league. I find this season, especially like I've been part of the trade deadlines in the past when I was at ESPN, but maybe I'm just talking to a lot more people now these days, but it's, there are so many conversations going on right now and they've been going on for about three weeks and they're all just these hypotheticals, right? GMs sharing with other GMs, hey, would you do a fifth rounder, a fourth rounder for this?

Would you take some of his salary for us? Just trying to figure out a way to make it fit. And people love to categorize this time of year. Is it active? Is it busy? You know, I wouldn't call it really busy in terms of stuff getting done. I would just call it busy in terms of the intense flirting that's going on around the league right now. Okay, who are the targets?

Who are the main targets that you feel like could be on the move? I mean, again, I'm not trying to put you in a spot where you end up being wrong if they're not traded, but clearly there's a first tier of available players that we should all know. Yeah, I think the big names right now is out of the Raiders. Vegas has been trying to trade Hunter Renfro. We've seen that they haven't used him much. I mentioned the Minnesota Vikings with Danelle Hunter. He's been on the trade block for a bit. They've listened to some offers already from teams that have shown some interest. We know the Denver Broncos are taking lots of calls right now. I was told, look for more players on the defensive side of the ball. The organization really likes a lot

of their pieces on offense. They're still going to listen. I actually spoke to their owner at the league meetings last week in New York to just kind of get a feel of how he sees this season going. Sidebar, he's really in on what Sean Payton's vision is and what he wants the team to be and look like. And I don't necessarily believe the roster that is in front of Sean Payton right now is the roster he wants, which is why I think we're going to see some movement coming out of Denver. And then you have a couple of those like the commanders, right? You have Chase Young, Montez Sweat as players that I think one or the other is going to get moved. I can't tell you right now which one is getting more interest. I can't tell you right now which one is getting more interest.

I can just tell you that teams have called about both those guys. And Washington has made calls themselves to try to get a feel for the market who would be interested in bringing those guys on. And then you have a few buyers in all of this. I thought the buyer thing was crazy just because, you know, look, at one point, I think he had he had maybe a two year run as the unquestioned best safety in the NFL. And because he's a Tennessee, you know, maybe he gets lost a little bit. If you look at some of the gradings out from the last couple of years, he's still like a top five, top six. He's an incredible tackler. But then you go, wait, the Eagles get him.

So that almost felt like it was it was unfair for a name that was available and that they were able to get it done sooner than other people. Yeah, you sound like a heartbroken Tennessee fan who's still grieving over the A.J. Brown trade, which I just feel like you can't watch A.J. Brown be productive in Philadelphia without seeing Twitter filled with people like, oh, Tennessee, you messed that trade up. Well, they did. They did. you messed that trade up and well they did they did you know i i you know i think i'm sure if we were to sit down people that are in that front office and say what do you think of that trade

now i'm sure they would would probably share that they regret some of that but but really the story there is here's howie again always working the phones and and he's been i've talked to tons of teams uh across the league and it's like yeah how he's gone of course how he's and, and he's been, I've talked to tons of teams, uh, across the league and it's like, yeah, how he's gone. Of course, how he's calling and how he's not done by the way, you know? So, um, I think we're going to see a lot of movement as we get closer to the deadline in terms of like, like just more movement, significant movement, because again, back to that idea where teams are trying to figure out where they are as an organization, because a lot of the results of Sunday's games could, are going to tell a lot of teams of where they're as an organization, because a lot of the results of Sunday's games are going to tell

a lot of teams of where they're at. And I do think that's where GMs that are in the hunt are going to, again, be on the hunt for some players and even some positions for insurance, right? You look at Philly right now, and obviously the tush push is the story. Well, maybe they want to look at O-line for some insurance there, knowing that they could get banged up there. Maybe a linebacker that could cover. They could certainly use one in Philadelphia. So those are some of the areas that I think Howie is going to continue to try to work the phones and strike another good deal.

And it would be funny, well, maybe not funny, but it would be telling if well maybe not funny but it would be um telling if it was with the Tennessee Titans again uh because they seem like a team right now Ryan I don't think it's a fire cell like I don't think they're like Rand Carthon sitting there going take anyone you want but these guys need draft capital right they they need to build this team they've got a lot of older players they have um guys like Derrick Henry on veteran contracts and who are up at the end of the year. So I'm interested to see if that picks up over the next few days, because the sense I'm getting around the league in terms of a guy like

Derrick Henry, I'm not really getting a lot of teams showing strong interest in him at this point. Really? So not a lot of interest, Henry? For now, no. And again, that could change, right? It just depends on the kind of price that Tennessee's looking for. And I don't feel like this is a team that's just going to fold and try to bottom out this year. I mean, I don't really think they could do that with their head coach. But obviously, Kevin Byard was, you know, he's really behind Derek. He's pretty much the face of that team. He's such a good locker room guy. I even talked to a few players over text yesterday about just a little emotion, actually. It reminded me of when A.J. Brown was traded. There was a little

bit of shock there knowing that, all right, well, what does this mean for us? What does that mean when a guy like Kevin Byard, who's still playing at a really good level, is no longer on this team and gets shipped out to Philly where he's going to be a contender and gets to go home? And I saw that video clip of Kevin actually yesterday arriving in Philly. And so he's, I don't care where you're off to. I still think for any normal person, it's a change. And you just saw in his face, like, all right, I'm in green now. You know, things, it moves quick. It's a business.

So, well, it's a fun team to be thrown into too, as well, on top of the city and the opportunity that they have. So, I mean, if you're, especially his style of play too, like his style of play and then all these other studs on defense, like how could you not be thrilled? So it makes sense. And I expect him to be in there ready to go to against the commanders on Sunday. He can step right in there. And I'm sure he's a killer.

Let's stay with this enough to get me there. Let me stay with this because I'm I'm running through your article this morning up on The Athletic now with just some names. And we know how this works. Like, just kind of throwing a bunch of stuff out there. I wanted to stay with that because of the commanders. Because every week, like, I write it down. I felt like the most recent game where I focused in on Chase Young was a better game for him. But you mentioned him just because he doesn't have the contract.

So would they want to move? Is Chase Young good? Great question. Yes. Because I've asked that question to GMs around the league because I don't understand why Washington wouldn't want to make him part of their future. I have a lot of question marks around Washington at this point. Why would ownership, knowing that we're not too sure about the future Ron Rivera, and maybe they know more, but this isn't a head coach

where I'm going to be able to sit here comfortably in October and say to you, oh yeah, right, he's the head coach next year. No doubt, no way. I think there has to be question marks around his tenure here and whether or not he's going to stay there. I know he's very well liked.

It doesn't always translate as the right fit for that. So you have a new owner here. Maybe, you know, you have to figure why would he allow anyone to be making any trade at this point? Cause I know Ron does have a really heavy hand in a lot of these trade conversations based on conversations I've had around the league. This isn't where it's above him. He's involved in it. So I think that kind of tells you a lot of the state of Washington, which unfortunately sounds so much

like the Washington of the past. So yes, to really answer your question though, based on other teams, I do think Chase Young will have a market. Yeah, and look, his last game, he was terrific. And that was the game where I was watching him. And when I say good And look, his last game, he was terrific. And that was the game where I was watching him. And when I say good, like, look, I know he's good. I just mean it as like, do you? Well, I think I'm talking to the audience as if like there

are certain times. And granted, I think he played 12 games combined the previous two seasons. So that's part of it. That might be baked into the whole thing. I think there were some disputes on his return and all that kind of stuff. But I like the answer, though. I'm glad you told us that. Yeah. Other GMs are like, no, no, he's still good and there could be a market for him there. You mentioned Cleveland. This sounds crazy because of how poorly Watson has played. But would they add depth to the quarterback position with somebody that could be available to try to pair with that defense if they think Deshaun, it's still a shoulder thing. I know he passed concussion protocol in the Colts game. And I guess I'm still at a loss seeing him play this poorly.

But I just, I don't know. I mean, it sounds crazy to think like, no, you've already given 250 million guaranteed to Deshaun. Like, why would you add somebody else to that quarterback room? I wonder if that's something they'd be thinking about. Yeah, you add somebody because you saw that defense and you've seen this defense and you see this roster.

And is it really, this is something you don't want to waste. I understand the price you're paying for this, but this is a team that can go really far this year if they can just have a healthy quarterback in the position that can function and game manage. Do I think that the Cleveland Browns have concerns over Deshaun? I keep getting told we haven't placed them on IR. That should tell you how we feel about it, right?

So I'm going to stick with that as sort of the measuring stick of their concern. as sort of the measuring stick of their concern. But I do know that they're always open to finding that insurance, okay? So I don't know if they are going to be able to find the right fit, but I know it's something that has been discussed in the building. In terms of what they're looking for, though,

I've heard some calls have been made around the league about adding a receiver, adding an offensive lineman, um, as pieces, knowing that if Deshaun does come back and he starts just figuring out how to play, I almost wanted to say play the position, but that's so insulting and disrespectful to, to his ability. And I saw your tweet. I think it was actually during the game where you're like, is he good? Like it was something along the lines of like, did he, no, no, no. You said you mentioned, I understand rust, right? Isn't that what you, you tweeted something about? Like, I understand rust, but like how long, like how long is this

rust on you for? Right. And look, when I talk to people in that building they continue to tell me that they you know they still believe in him and they still know he can be good so uh and and I was told he's fighting like heck to try to get back on the field and fight what what this shoulder situation is too right and whatever if they were ever in look I feel dumb even asking about it but I'm talking like a Jacoby percent I'm talking about something that would be like a stop gap for the year. If you feel like he's not going to, if you don't think he's going to be healthy again this year, I understand you're not bringing in, uh, Kirk cousins or you're not bringing in Russell Wilson with his money to add to the money that you already have invested in Deshaun. It would be somebody that were a lot cheaper. Uh, somebody that go ahead. Do you have more on that? I do because I'm laughing about conversations I have sometimes.

You know, when you're in the role of collecting information, as I know you've done before, sometimes you got to stick your neck out and ask dumb questions to just get a reaction, to just see how ridiculous that idea is. But sometimes I've stepped into it by thinking something stupid and then it turns out that's actually what they're doing. Right. So I tried the Kirk cousins thing there of like, Hey, maybe a little Kirk cousins, you know, and it's just like, you know, that that's a cute, that's, that's a cute idea, but no. Um, so yeah, I I'm with you and I tried Jacoby Brissett.

And when I say try, meaning like I put out feelers to people that make decisions there and, and that just doesn't seem feasible. That's not something that they're going to be doing, at least for now. So I guess that bottom line is your dumb brain is like my dumb brain. Together we are. Yeah, I think I'd be a little more like, oh, I don't want to get this wrong here. But, you know, when you're telling us that the feeling in the building is that Deshaun is going to be fine, it's going to be fine. Like sometimes I'm like.

Well, yeah, but what answer are you going to give to anybody at this point? I have off the record conversations all the time, too. Right. Like I'll not to cut you off there but it's like you know i'll do like okay can you can you put aside what what you know i'm gonna wind up saying on rossillo's podcast next week and give me some color here you know give me the truth you know i had those i know i know what you're saying these These are, you're being nice enough to share with me the, hey, this isn't just the placeholder like, oh, you know, this is what's public because she's going to report or whatever. You're telling us that beyond what I would guess the public position would be, is there

still a ton of faith beyond what you can share with us. So that's good. Yeah. And there's tentacles to all this stuff and you have to talk to a lot of people to try to get these ideas. You don't just talk to the head coach. You don't just talk to the GM. You don't just talk to the owner. Although I started with him. Uh, and, and I just had these conversations at the league meetings just about how they feel. And they really, they really loved Deshaun and what he's brought to this organization,

what he's brought to this building. what he's brought to this building. And I think this is just, they're invested and literally, and I think they know that in their minds, this could turn out to be a good move for the organization if he can find himself and make these improvements. How about Saquon Barkley? Saquon's staying. So I had some conversations with the Giants front office people last week and just trying to get a feel of, you know, is this someone you're willing to move on from? And Ryan, this is one of these players where ownership sees him as the face of the franchise and they love him. They love Saquon, right? And you know where I live.

I live in Giants land. And it's Saquon's picture everywhere when it comes to the Giants, right? He is the face. And there is that understanding in the building that ownership loves him. Okay. I know you have Hollywood Brown in your notes here with Arizona. You think Arizona will be open to doing a bunch of different things here, but yet they've still been.

I saw a stat the other day, I think going into this week, they were fifth and first half time leading games. Fifth in the league of leading games in the first half. The second half stat, not nearly as good, but that was just a name that I had that you have in your notes, in your article. Well, the only reason why I did some homework on him was I assumed they'd be open for business. And after talking to some teams

that also had that same idea, I was told that they're keeping him and that Arizona wants him to be part of their future. So he, he's a name I've crossed off my list in terms of a, of a big name that we could see on the move. So, you know,

Kirk Cousins, Saquon Barkley and Hollywood Brown are probably the three big ones that many perhaps thought were going to be on the move and probably will wind up state. Not probably they're going to be staying. You know, I put Derrick Henry in there, too. I just don't know which team that would be. I don't know which team is in on the Derrick Henry need at this point.

I mean, Cleveland isn't. I asked them. They're not in it. You know, maybe Baltimore could use a running back, knowing that the injury situation that they have, but I'm not sure if they'd be willing to give up a lot to get them. Before we finish up, I know that you were doing some of the owners meeting stuff. I know they can be real fun. They can be real fun to talk to. Anything stand out with your conversations covering that? I actually like owners. You want to know why? Because they don't

have any bosses, right? So I don't have to find find the pr guy and be like is it okay if i just quit i just asked them and most love talking about their team they don't like conflict but they'll get into it and i i took a nice long walk with stephen jones actually and we just talked about this offense what it looks like dac and we talked about his contract I said when are you doing this thing if you love him so much why don't you just do it right now you know because I keep hearing you love him and he said look we're gonna get through this season and Dak Prescott is going to be our quarterback it'll be one of the priorities once this season wraps up we will get that deal done um so you know just just hearing him and how and that belief and it

was just very apparent that that as many questions that dac gets on a weekly basis he certainly has a supportive ownership okay uh that's good uh i love you at your new home and congratulations on everything and can't And can't, can't wait to have you on again after it just feels like every time with the trade deadline, when we ran through all the names, it was kind of like, yeah,

probably not, probably not, probably not. Which, which is kind of the way it goes. Even if my, my excitement level, my anticipation goes up more this year than other years.

Well, good. I hope some of this stuff comes through and you can be like, ah, we knew all that. We'll give you the credit for it. Thank Well, good. I hope some of this stuff comes through and you can be like, ah, we knew all that. We'll give you the credit for it. Thank you, Diana. This next

segment is brought to you by Google Pixel, the only phone engineered by Google and the official fan phone of the NBA and WNBA. With all-star features, Pixel 8 Pro has all the phone tools fans can actually rally around like Audio Magic Eraser. It lets you has all the fun tools fans can actually rally around like audio magic eraser. It lets you cut out the background noise so that you can capture the sound of every swish and dish

loud and clear. Okay. The assignment was to find some things that were built different. And other than the other Antetokounmpo's who seem to be built different, let's talk about two things. onto the Kumpos who seem to be built different. Let's talk about two things. One is an underrated upgrade. All right, here it is. Fred Van Vliet with the Houston Rockets. Now, the Rockets are probably not going to be good. But what I love about the Rockets is that if ever you look at the bad teams and you look at the rosters, you go, okay, is there anything that exists on this roster, though, that gives us a chance to have hope for the future? And in reality, Houston still has that with Jalen Green, which feels kind of like a make or break year. Jabari Smith, which I'll get to here in a second. Thompson, you know, Tari East is probably more of a role guy. Shingun's

probably an all-star in the 90s. But there's a bunch of young pieces here, and there's more, but I get really excited about, or at least the hope, the hope that there's something there that could turn the franchise around. Van Vliet, on the older side of things, they had the cap space. They got to spend the cap money. But this is what I love about it. It's not the Van Vliet shot attempts. It's not just Jalen Green playing off the basketball should dip his numbers. It's that Van Vliet will be in control of more possessions, which for me means Jabari Smith getting better opportunities. And I saw some things at the end of last year that got me excited about Jabari Smith again. The other thing, a coaching upgrade.

This one's a little different. Jeff Van Gundy, bleeding green. Team Celtics. Now, I'm not 100% sure what he's going to be doing. I just know I like it because if you have Jeff Van Gundy in your foxhole, you're in a better foxhole. For fans who want an experience

that's truly built different, you got to get the new Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro. Learn more about the official fan phone of the NBA at googlestore.com forward slash Pixel NBA. Audio Magic Eraser requires Google Photos app, may not work on all audio elements. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. It's Life Advice. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com we've got saruti we've got kyle i'm in a good mood uh threw out my back again and normally hey why would you be in a good

mood because of that and i'm pissed about how it happened i've been doing so much better with it i've been following the steps i've been doing the plan i've been doing the stretches i've been doing the stuff and i got a guy come over to fix my broken garage door. And my garage door is double wide. Got a nice trailer over here. And I was like, well, look, if you can't fix it today, we have to get the door closed. I can't just operate with having a garage door open the entire time because I might as well just throw all my stuff away in the garage because it's all going to get stolen because that's what happens. And he was like, no, no, we can figure it out. And he cut the cables. And then he's like, when you slide it down, it's going to be really heavy. And I was like, okay, and I was a little confused,

but again, this is his expertise. I never did garage doors, and I'm thinking like, all right, and then as we were sliding it down, realized the door weighs about a thousand pounds, and there are these little brackets across the back of the door that were metal, aluminum, and one of them clipped me in the head but not full blown like full thrust like enough to be like hey that sort of sucked and then at one point i was actually trying to slowly drop a thousand pound door and i can tell you like look i like to work out i feel like i'm strong i'm not like crazy weird strong but i've never ever attempted to have a thousand pounds in my hand and i did that day my friends and i was part of you like how heavy is it

though was part of you like yeah i mean this guy thinks it's heavy but well if it didn't break me i mean look if my foot were placed wrong i would have lost a foot if i fell i could have lost an arm i could have been knocked out and then on top of that i think i was more upset because the door is nice and i was like this this can't be good for the door yeah just letting it drop like this like there was another way to do so you know i was a younger guy and i was i try not to ever but i i just kind of gave it a couple minutes of just i knew i wasn't immediately hurt but i knew something was wrong and then with my head getting hit but not knocked out i was like all right i don't feel good but maybe that could have been way worse so i I'm okay. And then as the guy was

kind of cleaning up, I go, Hey, I got to ask, there had to be a better way to do that. There had to be a better way. No. And he was like, well, you know, we got the door closed. And then of course they were supposed to show up on Monday and then never showed up. And then guess what happened? That transaction planted the seed for the back to feel like it did yesterday, last night. And then because all of that stuff doesn't sound like positives, but I'm in a good mood knowing that in an hour, I actually don't have to take apart a squat rack today. So who's winning? Who's looking at the bright side of things? Mr. Positivity over here. Whenever I wear those Jeremy Scott shirts, they're like,

if you're not the nicest person in the room, try to be or, you know, everything else. And then somebody will come up to me at the gym and go, that shirt, that that's really great. And I'll be like, I'm less positive than the shirt is. But thanks. I'll let Jeremy Scott know. That's amazing, because like that's like the equivalent of like I could never see you wearing a free hugs T-shirt, but that's basically the same thing.

So I just picture you in a free hug gym yeah free hugs is a guy with no kids um i i just i think there's certain shirts my species can't wear but yeah i'll be walking around those those shirts are so positive they're unbelievable but i love the shirts and uh you know i just somebody just to be like that guy over there. Fucking guy's got it so figured out. But he look at me today. Look how happy I am. I know. Absolute pain.

I can't get done. Is that what's going on? Yeah. Maybe like something got rewired up there. No. I was I wasn't happy when it happened. But again, when I got hit in the head, it wasn't clean. Like it wasn't a clean shot.

It was just sort of like flick. Like the garage door flicked the side of my head and uh yeah i'm gonna be honest like cut the cables and just you know hold this door doesn't seem like the most uh street legal way to to fix the garage door to bring a garage door down but hey imagine if i wasn't an athlete yeah dude imagine if it was me what broken you're an athlete i was thinking that about that the other day when kyle brought up his high school football stuff who is the best athlete because my resume actually blows like it's long story but there's nothing out of the three of us yeah it might be you we're all different we're

all i would different skill sets. I'm like, you know, laterally quick, but like I have no strength. No, but you were, were you captain of your football team? Who, me? No. Yeah. Was Kyle? Me? No way.

I had no chance. I quit cigarettes every year right before football. I was not going to be a captain. Right, but you played. Did you start your entire senior year? Me? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, Rudy? no right but you played did you start your entire senior year me yeah okay so rudy uh i so here i was like 150 dripping wet i don't even know if i was 150 in high school i've played i mean stanford steve has sent out the picture many times because he just loves to he just loves to circulate yeah but you played like that's the thing with you that you don't

get any credit not yet this isn't a you don't get enough the fact that you may not have been 150 and you were playing southington is it's not like it's class s what class was it no we i mean yeah like we've double l we've won multiple state championships so you're playing double l and you're playing against other so So captain was aggressive. I don't know where I got captain there. I was so actually my played my senior year. We lost in the state championship game to Xavier, which is a private high school in Connecticut, which is middle town.

Our quarterback played at Yale. Like we had, no, we definitely had dudes. Like we had a kid that played at Villanova. We had guys. The thing is, like, I just was,

I was just smaller than everybody else. I was like, I'm like, I could move around. Like the thing, the thing about me was like, you know, the passing camps where it's like seven on seven like i would yeah i would do really really well in those but you know you put pads on me i'm gonna get pushed around so right but you kept doing it i did like no i did i look back i'm like why did

i just play soccer like the body type didn't make any sense but everybody was playing football back then i was like yeah sure i could do it and so yeah i played for four years and you were never scared um no i did break my ankle my senior year returning a kickoff uh so i didn't really hold up super well but i did i did play a little bit yeah okay all right all right i over i just i just think everybody should know that okay all right uh life advice let's get to a couple here um job of a sports team. Okay, I like this one. Here we go. 30-year-old dude.

I work in tech. Make solid enough money for my age, $100,000 and experience, but frankly, I don't like the job. I'm sure every 30-year-old thinks this,

but management sucks and the demands of the job have changed since I started that have made it significantly less enjoyable. I also don't see a future here due to beef I've had with a middle manager,

so I'm basically looking for a new job. There are some benefits here i'd like to keep namely that it's a fully remote job um plus we also have fully uh employer so fully i don't know uh employee paid health care i think we got that unlimited pto what does that even mean though i know that's actually a trap You take enough until they fire you? What do you mean unlimited PTO? What has to happen for you to get unlimited? Does something terrible have to happen to you? Yeah, it's definitely limited.

It's up to you. What's that? I'm thinking about taking the summer off. No, that's not going to fly. It was a really hard season. All right. I have stock options that could pay off nicely that are currently only half vested and would fully vest in two years. So originally in my job hunt, I was only searching for a job that retained these benefits or had a big enough pay raise to justify losing some of them.

But in my job hunt, I came across a job with my favorite NBA team that I fit perfectly for. It's basically an administration job working with their software. I have a ton of experience working with that type of software. That would be great in that sort of role. The problem is that sports teams don't seem to pay very well outside of the front office, nor do the benefits look particularly great. The pay range would be closer to $55,000 to $70,000. It wouldn't be remote. Probably worse health benefits, whole nine nine yards but my foot would be in the door for my favorite basketball team is it a really dumb idea to drop so much in salary just to work for a sports team is my dream that i could possibly work my way up once

i'm in the building a really foolish and dumb thing to think do you have any insight into the life of working operations for a sports team if it's cool at all or something that might make me hate sports my favorite team any advice is appreciated. All right, I'm going to be honest with you. This email has a couple red flags. I don't know, but I'm assuming you'd want to work in sports because you'd want to work in sports. So are you saying you'd hope to get into the tech door or the side door and then maybe work your way up?

Am I crazy, Saruti, for thinking that? He wants to jump departments, it sounds like. Yeah, he wants to get into the basketball ops side. I would guess that that is rare. It's not impossible. Certainly not impossible. A lot of pass, a lot of weird pass that are out there. So I wouldn't say like, oh, hey, you can't do that because that's not true.

And I don't like saying that to people. But the fact that you love the fully remote thing. So let's just say you actually want to transition over to basketball. Like that's, yeah, I got my foot in the door and then maybe I can work my way up and I'm working for the basketball thing. I'm sorry,

but some of you guys out there that your first thing is like, Hey, I really love this fully remote deal, but I can't wait to see how far I can go with this company. Like fucking figure it out. Like if you think you're going to work for a basketball team, where there's a million people

that want these jobs, you may be qualified for it, you may be the right choice, but working for a team is a grind. And if you're not up for that grind, don't even bother. As somebody who did it, who's somebody who knows people that still work for teams, that work on the op side of things, and all this, you're doing sales nine to five, you're out on calls, then you're at the game.

Then you're at the game every single night. Not the case for every single sales guy, but the people that care, the people that are like, I have a plan. Okay. Not, not the case for every single sales guy, but like the people that care, the people that are like, I want, I have a plan. I'm 30. And by 40, I want this. Well, and maybe I'm being a little unfair to the email, but if it's 30, you have a plan that you want all these goals to be reached at 40. But the first thing you're focused on is how much do I have to be there though? That's a problem. And I know that people push back. The last time I talked about the fully

remote thing, and it was funny because I thought it was painfully obvious enough that I have one of the most unique jobs that I literally don't have to be anywhere. But there were two call outs being like, oh, I think it's kind of funny that the guy's talking about people being fully remote is sitting there at his house doing this. Like, hey, dude, start a podcast then. You know? Is that your thing? Are you fully remote guy?

I never thought about that. I don't think it even qualifies. It doesn't. It doesn't. It's like not really. It's like not really. Anyway, the point is, is that there's plenty of people out there that can do their job just as well by not going in and never having to do it. So I don't want to turn it back into a fully remote debate about the whole thing, because

there's plenty of experiences and stuff. In his defense, too, though, he did. You know, he's like, oh, I sounds like he'd be totally willing to go into the to the office and do the job. I'd rather I'd rather go into the ringer office than Models. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's definitely a difference if you if you could trust yourself that you are still going to be into that yeah but uh maybe maybe you guys maybe i'm reading it wrong

then um because here's here's just the way like i know what it was like to get a job that paid $12,000 a year 20 years ago. And it was so hard to get that one. All right. And it was only because I wanted to work in sports. So at that point, I was willing to do anything to work in sports and the job itself sucked. It was awful. The hours were terrible. Okay. I was in there all the time. I was cleaning fucking seats in the stadium. I was dressing as the mascot when we didn't have somebody. I was waving traffic in to set up parking. I was pulling the tarp during rain delays while I was actually on the broadcast

all around the nine to five of cold calling the whole time. So I would be there sometimes at 8 a.m. and not get out of there until 11 p.m. and then do it again for 14 straight days. So my point, this is really the bigger point, less specific to the email, but kind of about the email. If this is what you actually want, if you actually want to work for a team and have a career with a team, and it's not just, hey, I really like my team and sports are cool. Maybe I can do this. You have to be willing to sacrifice a lot. And I would never want a job unless it was somewhere where I was growing or feeling like I was reaching some of the goals I have. And if you're looking at

it as, hey, it's just cool. I get tickets and whatever. All right. But if you're not going to, like, I don't know, the email didn't point out any of the priorities about what they wanted. He was strictly talking about pay benefits that it's not going to be remote. And so that's why, yeah, I, I, I kind of listened to some guys and I'm like, I don't know if you actually are as built for this as you think you are. I think this guy definitely wanted you to be like fuck yeah man go for it i think he he didn't get what he fucking paid for this one because i think we we've gotten a lot of emails like this and usually it's not just like yeah dude do it it's usually kind of the other way i think most

of us especially ryan are like actually it's probably gonna suck and maybe you shouldn't do it but there's two i would tell anyone to do it just you better be prepared and i don't know how much better it is now but it isn't easy and the reason you make less is all of you better be prepared. And I don't know how much better it is now, but it isn't easy. And the reason you make less is all of you can be replaced because everybody loves the idea of working for their favorite team or just a team, maybe even a team that sucks. It'd be great. It'd be great if it wasn't that way. But that's the way it works.

When it's jobs everybody wants and the company knows they don't have to pay anybody in the beginning, that's what they're going to do. Well, it's not too different from ESPN, right? When I was there, I was working overnights, making nothing, just hoping you'd catch a break. And some people do and some people don't. It is a little bit of luck. It is some hard work. So I'd say two things.

One, these teams, there's a reason that they don't have to pay a ton is because they just, again, as you said, they know that you're replaceable. They know that the brand of whatever team and working for a professional sports team, that's part of the pay, man. Like you get to tell people that you work for the, you know, the Nuggets or whatever, whoever. That's part of the pay. And some people like love that and that's worth it for them.

And some people don't. So you have to figure out whether or not that's worth it for you. The other thing is, you know, i just don't know that like your so he was like talking about software right computer software stuff like i just don't i i would bet the amount of people that are in software are doing some sort of job like that i would i wouldn't say it's zero but it might not be more than one of guys that did that and then now work for a front office or actually involved in like the team itself. So you just have to be aware of that. And if that's all that stuff's not worth it to you, then you know, like it sounded like, you know, if you want

to be comfortable, and you and that's you led the email off with I like to be remote, I make this amount of money that it sounds like that's a priority for you. And you're like, hey, like, would I actually like doing this, I would actually probably say you would want to be more comfortable than you would want to tell people they have a cool job. I don't know. But I think you have to go into it knowing the expectations is that you're probably not getting out of the software spot. Like that's that's going to be you whether or not you like it or not. And if that other thing does happen, great. But that's really that's just kind of gravy. And by the way, like I'm all for you as a software guy going, I actually have this plan and I'm going to try to work it.

First of all, I would tell no one about your plan of hoping to transition over to the basketball stuff or whatever, or just don't tell anybody. Don't bring it up in an interview. Say, hey, I'm a software guy, software, software, software. But then you would have to bust your ass in that job to prove like, whoa, this guy, this guy's like super into this. This guy goes above and beyond. Because when you work in sports on the sports side,

you have to be above and beyond on the entry level up stuff. Okay, sure. There's plenty of people at the top, former players, kind of mail it in. Don't want to scout whatever. Okay, well, if you play in the NBA, take that path. But I don't think this guy did. So the point is, it's like, don't tell anybody that this is what you want to do, because then it's going to be a turnoff.

And if you do bust your ass, then maybe a year later you can say, hey, you know, I'd always love to be around this. And there's a really good chance they're still going to tell you to fuck off and go back to your cubicle. All right. So this isn't about me ever telling anybody they shouldn't try to do something really hard. I just think I have pretty good perspective.

Like I said, it sucks at the overnight shifts. We're 20 something grand a year in ESPN and then you're living in Bristol. It'd be awesome if the world operated differently where it's like, hey, we want the entry level person to have 50,000 or more. So you're not freaking out about living paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, that's just not the way things work. And if you're at 75, but you don't like the benefits, you don't have as much freedom. If you don't have paid time off, that's unlimited. Like you're not going to have any of those things. And if you prioritize those things, I would tell you working for a sports team, you'll not be aligned. And you're

certainly not going to be like, Hey, you know who we should bring over to basketball is the guy that's home as much as he possibly can be. Like, I remember I was, I think I even brought this story up. I was playing basketball with a couple of guys and like one guy worked for a pro sports team and I couldn't believe his gig. And I was like, well, wait a minute. Shouldn't you move to the city of where the franchise is? What? And he's like, eh, I don't know. And I'm like sitting there blown away. And again, maybe that's my disconnect as somebody older who had to go through what I had to go through to even get, get in the door. The job that I got 20 years ago that I explained here, how terrible it was, I was lucky. I was like one in 100,000 to even get that job.

Okay? That's how lucky I was. It wasn't one in 1,000. Maybe one in 100,000 is a lot higher. So, look, I don't know. That felt pretty negative. But sometimes, I don't know. It's just how I feel about it. it yeah i think it's fair you know okay

uh appreciate any guidance you can provide 33 years old 61250 on and off relationship with the local planet fitness basketball cop a less aggressive dan katz is dan katz intense do we think of big cat? What's your scanning report of big cat? Kyle go. Uh, well, he's a little bit tricky.

Sometimes likes to throw a fastball at the interview at the producer who was nice enough to try to put it together. But, uh, other than that, I really don't know too much about him. He's a provocateur. Yeah.

Changes speeds. Yeah. Good hang. He likes to mix things up, you you know like some shit up every once in a while maybe he is aggressive maybe he's more aggressive than i think okay aggressive i'll get straight into it met a friend of a friend at a music festival a few weeks ago she's what i would consider out of my league but i guess i did a good job with my banner because we hit it off had some fun at the festival and at her place afterwards though nothing too crazy all right so this guy's already in 33 years old by the way cool and he can't believe it that's cool um we've been casually texting ever since i asked her she wanted to hang out last saturday i took my dog on a walk

something pretty casual she was busy which i'm choosing to believe. It's funny how like you don't want to get blown off, but you also don't want to hang out with someone who literally has nothing to do ever. You know, so somebody being busy every now and then it's actually a good thing. Like, Hey, I have plans. I actually have friends. I have stuff. I'm a good planner. People like hanging out with me socially. You know what I mean? Like every now and then you'll be hanging out with somebody and she's super attractive super attractive and you're like you don't have one friend you don't say that to them but i've there's been a couple times i'm like this person has no friends like literally not a friend like this is this is this will not end well all right i always find the texting rules too kind of funny like back in the day i'd be like well you can't text her right back like give it an hour or so

i think that's still in play dude it is still in play but it's like it's like i don't know or you could just have a cool conversation if you guys like each other it's not that again it's like is it do you like the person it's not weird if you don't like the person it is weird a lot of time that's just kind of well i gotta be honest love my wife but sometimes i give it an hour i gotta be honest with your wife currently yeah i probably should have said that but not all the time but just when it's just like this isn't gonna go anywhere all right i think the move is i'm not waiting here's the text yeah like i know what i want you know sorry depends what dating app you're on yeah yeah all right there you go okay um here's my dilemma i was gonna ask her to go to dinner this

week before i got the chance i found out i have an extra ticket to our favorite team's game on saturday my family has season tickets and since my sister and brother-in-law can't go my dad is letting me invite someone i'm sure she would want to go as our fandom is one thing that we bonded over so i imagine we're talking big time college football here but is it weird that our first date would be three hours next to my dad and his friend moving a little fast yeah i don't like do girls slash women she's 33 as well care about that should i just stick to asking her to dinner for now thanks for the advice it sounds like i it sounds like two no votes in the background here well it's if it was just you two i think a college football game on a saturday is awesome

uh it's a great best although i saw this list of like things that girls don't want to go on their first dates and making rounds and sporting event was on there i'm like what do you mean who gives a shit who wrote a shit like that make it around i don't understand how's that because idiots retweet it and they answer it like it's a real thing and there's also oh my god there's also a reason why those girls are single like because you have too many there's too many rules man just like let it no but like the guy that retweets it the guy that retweets it being like what's wrong with olive garden like you fell for it yeah that's right that's right olive garden i don't know that i go there on a first date fast food i get that too but yeah a game early

cheddar biscuits i don't know lobster i don't know if i do that olive garden was in play in the early limited shrimp 22 bucks i think right now yeah but a good college football game say you're in the big 10 country that's a great that's a great date early on great pumpkin spice not with your dad though not with your dad and his buddy you just don't i don't know maybe your dad's awesome who knows maybe she doesn't care i don't think you should do a family thing uh in like the first month really at all i'm kind of turning around on i'm just thinking my i mean i would just bring people back to my house i said this before and like you know the, the girl would be like, are you serious? I'm like, yeah, no, it's fine.

But I don't know. It always kind of worked out, but I could, they were definitely a little dubious. And I don't know if you ask your ask, like, are your, are your parents going to be able to just be cool? Or are they going to be, you know, interrogating them, you know, while they move the chains? Like, are they going to be like, so, and what about this? And then we'll get back to it. Like, could you guys, could they, are they going to be like, so, and what about this? And then we'll get back to it.

Like, could you guys, are they used to people coming to games and like just watching games? Or are they going to be like, oh, geez, Todd's new friend. We got to get some info. A lot of it does have to do with what your dad's deal is. And then he's bringing his friend. So I think this is a pretty simple answer. There's a chance it might be great. There's a chance she's that cool and that laid back and that your dad and the friend are fun and that she gets it and it's awesome and all those things are great.

There's just a greater chance that she's telling her friends on Monday, it was so fucking weird. All right. So it's not that the idea is is bad it's that the odds are against you the odds are against you if you took 10 women and you laid out this scenario seven of them wouldn't like it and so sure there's a chance it works out but you might be putting something at risk that could all be avoided by doing something that has anything doesn't have anything to do with your dad and his friend do you think there's a downside to rain checking it and just being like hey i'm sorry i realized i got these got these things like can we rain check our saturday thing unless you do want to go i know it's kind of early on like i'd be totally fine with it and just leave it up to her or do you think that would make her uncomfortable to say like well i don't want to see your family

dude like is that something you don't want to make someone say yeah i don't i don't i don't think you put the ball on her court because then you're basically just making her make an awkward decision yes all right and like i wouldn't blame her if she said no but she's gonna feel bad but now she has to say it yeah yeah that's smart guys no that's another layer to the whole thing. I mean, she may be the coolest. And I think the cool person is like, yeah, Illinois, let's do it. Fighting Illini? If this is a Big Ten situation, I actually feel like there's a way better chance you should say yes. But Big Ten people just seem like this would be totally fine.

If it was a Northeast thing, if it was a west coast thing sec maybe i don't even know big 10 country if this is indiana illinois definitely yes i and here's the thing too i love my dad not a lot of scoring dad i'm like on an officer field let's go ahead no i love my dad's awesome i love my dad you've met my dad ryan um i don't think i would want to and my dad wouldn't even, he wouldn't intentionally make it weird. It just would be weird. So I know I would say no in that situation.

Yeah, the other thing is he said it's our team. And unless he's talking about his family, unless like maybe this is like the cool girl that watches every Saturday. And this is actually maybe a bucket list thing for her. I don't know. The SEC should go. And then you'd have to propose to her at halftime.

That's true yeah so there'd be a lot of pressure on you there yeah uh you know if you had like a good ticket like i have a ticket to tennessee like oh all right i don't even like you you know so uh i don't i don't hate the idea i just hate the odds i don't think the i don't think the payout i don't think the value is there for you because there's there's more people i just think that there'd be more women that would be like on monday going i don't know like what happened with that guy i'd be like oh first time we ever actually like did anything we went with his dad to a football game so if we haven't beaten that into your head to say not do this uh you know i i my envy that you'll just be like i don't care i'm going for it yeah and he's fighting out of his weight class so he's always like is this the thing that's

gonna make me come back down to earth like is this the one so the shitty thing about it too is if if she said says yes and actually does want to go that sucks too because she's probably awesome you know wait what why is it why does it suck if she's i don't understand no if she says if she wants if you know we were talking about whether or not you should put the ball in her court like i wouldn't do that but if she actually does want to go and would have a really good time and wouldn't care that she was with your dad on the first date there's a good chance she's actually probably awesome. Is there any way you can ask?

You said you met her through a friend of a friend. Can you get an advanced scouting report? Can you go to her friend saying, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing, and please don't tell her? And then the funny thing is it could be a win either way. It's the rare choose your adventure win win right exactly so you find out from the friend that she's like maybe hold off on that so it's a win because you didn't put her in that scenario but then the friend of course is going to tell her later on

and then she goes oh my god that would be such a cool idea but it's so great yeah man the rare double win you don't get a lot of those i think we landed i think we landed the plane okay good luck go go hoosiers what if it is what if it is one of those two teams have they already played each other this year i don't i feel like illinois i feel like they haven't. Let's see here. Yep. They're playing each other November 11th.

Let's go. Coming up. Let's go. It's going to be a good one. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Cliff. And thanks to Steve. That's Life Advice. Brian Rosillo Podcast.

Back on Friday with McShay this Friday. And a little World Series preview. Look out. Who's your home for baseball talk? Brian Rosillo Podcast, ringer Spotify. We'll be right back. must be 21 and older and present select states fan duel is offering online sports wagering in kansas under an agreement with kansas star casino llc gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash rg in colorado iowa kentucky michigan new jersey ohio pennsylvania illinois tennessee and virginia call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona.

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