The Ryen Russillo Podcast - 'NYC Point Gods' With Stephon Marbury, Plus Life Advice

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Ryen Russillo is joined by Stephon Marbury to discuss Showtime's 'NYC Point Gods,' what is unique about New York City point guards, Marbury's basketball idols, the best small guards in the NBA today, the 1996 NBA draft, Marbury's time with the Timberwolves, Russell Westbrook, and more (0:25). Then Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (24:36). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Stephon Marbury Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

we're going to talk with stefan marbury a lot of cool stuff in here including what really went down when he decided to leave minnesota and how that compares now guys going i want out all the time was he a pioneer 25 years ago? And life advice. Enjoy. The legend, Stefan Marbury, is with us, New York City Point Guard, Showtime streaming now. This is really cool. I got to check it out.

What have you been up to, man? Let's start there. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm great. I'm great. Things are good. And, you know, it is,

the legend of the New York City Point Guard, those of us from outside the city, we can love basketball. We can think we know what it's about. But what was it like to be one of those guys coming up with so many other names? Man, I mean, as I said to another guy, man, I'm just blessed to be mentioned with some of the guys. You got Kuz, Lenny, Wilkins. You know, you got Mark, Rod, Tiny. You got the legends, you know, who we looked up to as kids growing up watching basketball.

And then now to be mentioned with these guys, you know, is great. And for this doc to come out about point guards, you know, I think the time is really, really good for people to be able to hear about that. It really is something like if you love basketball, you can see someone play and go, okay, that's a New York City point guard. Like that's how it used to be. And you just like, what was it about learning the style that wasn't just straight basketball? Like what was it that you would add to your game, the things you would emphasize that made it such a distinct group from that part of the country?

I mean, you just look at guys like Shamgar Wells. He has this unique crossover that so many people try to emulate, myself included. You know, I used to, like, beg him, like, Sham, yo, i used to like beg them like sham yo we used to be at five-star basketball camp and i used to be like because you know it's like it's like dusty in holmesdale and sometimes if you know five-star basketball camp for those that do know about five-star holmesdale basketball camp they know like the floor is like real sandy and dusty and Sham used to

like make this, he used to do this crossover, but he used to make his shoes like sound like they slicing through the sand. You know what I'm saying? And it used to sound crazy when he did it. I was like, come on Sham, do it, do it. Do the cross. He'd be like, yo Steph,

what happened? Then he hit it. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like, yo, Steph, what happened? Then he'd hit it. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like, man, that move is so nasty. So you got guys like him that are putting forth a move that they call a Sham guard that's globally known. To be part of that. Sham and I, we played a lot against each other and played with each other. like globally known, you know, to be part of that. Like, and, you know, Sham and I, we played a lot against each other and played with each other. So to be able to know guys like that

who have done things like that is pretty crazy. Yeah, because, and again, this is a little different because, you know, Iverson was a Virginia guy, but I remember when he did that Reebok commercial where he did that dribble and then he, they hit it off of his back elbow and like brought it in front of him. Like when we were kids, you'd be like, all right, it was almost impossible to do any of that stuff. But I'd imagine that the New York city point guard, like there's a part of it

where it's, I'm not even shooting today. Like I'm working on some of this other stuff because that's how I'm trying to separate myself as a ball handler. I used to dribble on rocks. That's how I used to, I used to dribble on rocks and be handling the ball on rocks and people would be like, yo, this kid is really dribbling on the rocks. Like my, like from my handle

wasn't like everyone else's handle. I can't dribble the basketball like Sham Guard and like Kyrie and Steph Curry. Because my moves wasn't, they weren't part of that. So when I think about New York City guards, a lot of people be like, oh, do something fancy. And I'm like, hey, let me try to do something that I do something that's weak. And the kids are like,

yo, you're not from New York City. I'm like, I'm from New York. So, you know, but to be able to be a part of something like this is pretty magical for New York City point guards because it's like a wreck kd is

allowing people to to recognize that you were also probably quicker than everybody so you didn't need to separate as much with the handle to give yourself a little bit of credit on this who was who was the guy though like if you were playing you, at a park and like somebody else showed up, like who were you in awe of? I mean, the person who I look at when I watch basketball is Michael Jordan. I feel like, you know, Michael Jordan had every move that you could think of as a basketball player. For me, I think he got it. You know, I think it's inside of him because of the type of player. And Jordan has so much flash in his handle that people don't even realize

because he literally really wasn't dribbling the basketball. He literally was like palming the basketball as he was dribbling the basketball. So you can make the basketball go wherever you want it to go. So, you know, but as far as like freaky guards, I mean, you could go on a list for days. Like, did anybody

give you trouble? You were like, what is it with this guy? You know, like... I can't say. I can say Jordan. Well, that's a good answer, but... Kobe. Kobe. Raj Strickland.

Terrell Brandon. Iverson. Those guys, for me, because those guys was hard to guard, I could watch those guys play basketball. You know, LeBron, I could watch those guys play basketball. LeBron, I could watch these guys play. For me, that's how I see it. When I play, play against those guys.

Those are my category, guys. I want to stay on Rod Strickland because I know he's a part of this too. eyes. I want to stay on Rod Strickland because I know he's a part of this too. Rod doesn't have the resume of some of the other greats, but there always seems to be this reverence when other guards talk about Rod. Like, man, you know who was just filthy was Rod Strickland. What was it about his game? Because every one of you dudes. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. He was the hardest guard for me. He was the hardest guard to guard for me. Like it was, it's, it's like you almost there,

but you're not there and you know, you're not there. And then he score or he make a dime or you think that you're going to tap the ball. And then he is, you will throw it behind his back. And then it's like, he gone.

And then he was big. He was like six, four. And he was strong. And then his game wasn't like hit his game was, you know, all over the court, but straight line all over the court.

It wasn't like East and West. Like a lot of these guys, you know, from what I watch, they like to play east and west they don't normally play north and south which is you know the hoops are north and south sure so he played with that downhill you know herky jerky you you know, when you watch Kyrie, that's like, that's like that,

like playing against that, but you know, they got different styles, but same, same thing. And then he finished. So it wasn't like he was just, you know,

taking finish, meaning he went all the way to the basket. You know what I'm saying? Not no pull up jump shot or no floater. Like he's finishing at the rim or around the rim or reverse layup or something. So that made it really difficult to contest the shot because you don't know what kind of shot he's going to take. You know what I'm saying?

Like you're thinking about the shooter floater, he's going up, but he's shooting the underhand layup. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, his release point, you know, like he was bigger than Kyrie. I still think like Kyrie's the best small finisher I've ever seen.

Like it's amazing where he releases the ball but you just don't know and yet he's so much smaller than Rod but yet the relationship you can probably see where some of that comes in.

Yeah, the relationship for sure. I mean, and it's not even so much as just being on a court. It's just you being associated with that. You know what I'm saying?

Because when you watch that as a Hooper, when you watch somebody that you love and somebody that, like my brothers, like my oldest brother, he passed away just recently. You know, his vision of dunking as a little guard made me like how, you know, I was when I went to dunk, you know, and people talk about my brother from, to me now, because my brother, you know, we just laid him to rest Monday. And when people speak about him, they speak about Sky Dog, like how high he jumped and how he flew.

like how high he jumped and how he flew so that is the same thing you know jumping high windmill dunking and then Raj Strickland was the same thing for you know Kyrie plus his dad so you know you got a whirlwind of basketball inside you and you get this opportunity to be able to gravitate towards it and be able to do it because it's already inside you because it's a gift it's inside your gene what i always loved about you and you know i think that's a real thing that happens and granted we could see it when you were coming up and in college and stuff but there's always this wake-up call for the smaller guards that can score a little bit in college, and then especially when you're coming out, like,

oh, damn, I'm never going to finish at the rim. And you were a smaller guard that was violent at the rim, and there was never any question. I think actually your cousin Telfair is a good example of this where it was like there was a lot to his game, but man, it was going to be tough for him to kind of finish at the rim in the NBA. And then you have to kind of adjust your game around that. For you, that was really never the case.

You had it from the jump because you were so explosive and so quick that the finishing against size, I didn't feel like was as much of a challenge like it would have been from so many other players at your size. size, I didn't feel like it was as much of a challenge like it would have been for so many other players your size. I think for me, my brothers, it was always attack the rim. You know what I'm saying? But my brother Don

who played at Texas A&M, he could shoot. So he was like, you got to be able to shoot the long jumper. You know what I'm saying? to be able to shoot the long jumper. You know what I'm saying? And if you can shoot the long jumper with your ability to get to the basket and fly like my oldest brother, Eric, and then I was able to pass like my brother Juju.

So being able to jump like my brother Eric, shoot from half court like my brother Don, and pass like my brother Juju, half court like my brother Don and pass like my brother Juju, I had a nice combination. You know what I'm saying? So when I got on the court, it made it difficult for the guys to guard that. That's the same thing with guys like Kyrie because he had those people planting those seeds in his brain about certain things to do on the court.

Guys like Rod. So when you look, when it all evolves right back to Rod, when you think about him as a hooper, he gave Jordan fits. Like, real fits. Not no regular fits. Like, I have, like, text the ball on a short, you know, on a short block

and work. And it's a blender. You know what I'm saying? Like, it was real. And then Jordan come back and do what he gonna do. But he had to play both ends of the court for real.

Do you think that your game would have been better in today's version of the NBA than when you came out? Don't matter. My game is vintage. Playing any era. I just think there's more acceptance now of the scoring guard. Where when you came out...

That was who we were. Iverson and myself, we came in to do that. That wasn't no... We didn't go high in the draft because we just, they watched us in college. They say, oh, we want that. That's going to make people jump out their seat. Oh, you know what I'm saying?

That's what the fans pay the money for. They pay to jump out their seat. Obviously, they want to see you win, of course. But, you know, it's such a fine line. Because I know from winning championships in China, I'm like, wow. When the organization and team is on the same page and everybody, it's easy to win a championship. It's easy to win a championship then.

But when everybody's not on the same page and you got this going on and that going on, it's not going to work in the NBA. It's only probably like five teams really trying to win a championship. Everybody else is making money. It's not. They're not. Come on, man.

Let's be for real. Everybody's not trying to win a championship in the NBA. Did you? No, you're right. Did you, when you came out, because I remember, you know, again, the exposure, the coverage isn't the same as it was now, but there was like, hey, Iverson's going one, Camby's going two, Sharif. But there was a little conversation like, is Marbury actually better? Is he going to go one? Did you ever think there was a chance you were going to go one?

for the sixes. So, I mean, that was the only chance that I had. I think, you know, as history was told, Philly needed Iverson and Iverson needed Philly. So that was really a match. So Iverson was supposed to go one. He played well enough to be the number one pick in college. He did two years. He got, you know, the accolades that he was supposed to get, you know, from doing what he does on the basketball court. And John Thompson was a big help to that. As Iverson is probably pound for pound the best guy six foot and under ever. I mean, him and Tiny. But there's no guy that you've

ever seen do what he did. Yeah. Arise the whole as a little guy. Yeah, no, I mean, especially back then, too, with the finishing and landing on the floor and getting back up every time. Sentence, jumpers, everywhere,

everything. When you think back to the beginning, you were just talking about being on the same page and everything. Look, I've read everything. I've watched your documentary. I know you've talked about it a million times, but when you think about being young and trying to find your place, how do you

think back on the Minnesota years? I think I had a great experience in Minnesota. I learned a lot. Actually, I learned the NBA game from Flip Saunders. You know, Flip Saunders is an amazing coach, amazing human being. When he passed, I mean, it hurt because he played a very important role for the beginning coming into the NBA.

And, you know, my experience there was amazing. I just could not, I couldn't give seven years of my life to 40 below weather and snow. I just said, I, you know, I picked my life. I don't, I mean, I love basketball. Don't get me wrong, but hold up. This is still a business, people. Let's not have any misconceptions about what this really is. And if I can choose to go where I want, I can do that. That's my decision. It's my right. If I'm a free agent, they didn't have to trade me. They could have kept me and

said, we're not going to do that. I didn't hold a gun to anyone's head and said, if you don't trade me, I'm going to blow your brains out. I didn't do that. That's not what happened. I said, I'm not going to resign. So I think that you guys should get someone else so you won't lose me for nothing. You'll get something for me instead of me just walking because I'm not going to sign because I don't want to live in Minnesota. And they couldn't deal with that. That was the truth. I told that to Glenn Taylor to this day. I'm like, and you know, I don't, it's one, you can say anything you want to say about me, but I'm not going to lie to you about nothing that's going on or something that happened. You know what I'm saying? So for me, being able to have had that opportunity to tell him that and express that to him one-on-one, I thought that that was, it was remarkable as a young, a young man coming in the lead. I'm like, look, this is just not going to do it for me. You know, people say, oh, I was jealous of Kevin. I said, for what?

I said, I can't make no more money than what they're going to offer me. It's a ceiling. It's the max. While I'm getting mad about me getting the max, like, I can't do nothing about the contracts that were before. Just like we can't do nothing about the contracts guys are getting now. I heard Charles Barkley say, oh, he want to wake his mother up from the grave so she can have him now because of the money guys are making right now. I was like, really? I'm like, what about being

a pave maker for the young generation? What happened to that? It's great to see these guys get the money that they're getting. I mean, if the teams are paying that, they got to be making more than that to pay that. So what's the problem? I don't get it.

It's great. It's a great opportunity for young guys to make money playing basketball. Is there any part of you now, when you look at basically every few months, we get a new guy that's like, I'm out of here, where you're like, man,

you shit on me so hard 25 years ago, and now this? Oh, you know what because it's part of basketball as part of i'm a nick fan i was hard on nick plans too i was i'm a i'm a die hard dick man i grew up i'm from new york i'm from corny allen so you know the mix was what it was growing up. Period. Bernard King. That's, I mean, that's what it was. So, oh man, what's wrong with him? Why he can't? So I get it. You know, you don't win in New York, you gonna hear it. That's just what it is.

Period. You got to show up there and why. The city's so nice, they made me twice. New York, New York. You know what I'm saying? So for me, it's all understandable. So I'm taking it in stride. I got a couple more things. When you look at somebody like Westbrook now who's trying to kind of figure out who he has to be as a player,

the Lakers want to do some different things or things that he's never done. He's a ball-dominant guy. He's put up numbers, but it's not working out. And I know for you at the end, I couldn't believe when I was looking back at it, the NBA, 31, you were done. When you see his situation, what do you think about?

When you see what's going on and all the criticism and the disconnect, how does that make you feel? And if there's any comparison to how you felt towards your end? Russell Westbrook is a top 75 player in the NBA. He's done some individual things that not many have done. I think with all that was going on as far as the Lakers and how they played and how he played and his role, if they win, nobody speaks about

that. But there are other factors of why they lost. So it's not just specifically geared towards what Russell Westbrook is doing or how he's playing Russ plays the way how he plays and he's figuring out how to play with somebody who's ball dominant and LeBron as well so when you have somebody that is used to having a basketball and then you got another guy who never came off screens never never came off down screens, basically is always creating opportunities for other people and for himself. And now, you know, it's a little difficult. So who's going to make the adjustment? The best player is supposed to make the adjustment. So now you've got to allow Russell to be able to do what he does

if you're saying that you want him to come here because you've got to allow Russell to be able to do what he does. If you're saying that you want him to come here because you've watched him play, you've seen him play, you've played against him, and LeBron and Davis, them guys knowing who Russell Westbrook was before he got there. You can't be that smart of a basketball player and not know who you're getting and who you're going to be playing with. You know who you're going to be playing with, you know who you're going to be playing with. So who's making the adjustment? So it can't be blamed on Russell Westbrook.

You know, he brings his game and his fire to the game. And I watched him and I was listening to Jalen Rose and he was speaking about Westbrook. It looked like he lost his fire. And I seen him one time like, yeah, as a player, you're trying to win. You're trying to do what is needed to win. And you're being criticized and people saying the things that they're saying. But he still go out and he do it.

So he still go fight. And I respect him. I got a lot of respect for him. New York City Point guards out now streaming on Showtime. Stephon Marbury, man. Thank you so much. The NFL Week 1 odds are out and now

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I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. It's lifeadvicerr at gmail.com Okay, we had a follow-up here about the guy that was lying, the father

was lying to the yoga instructor girlfriend. I think he said he was 49 and she was 35, but he was actually turning, instead of 50, he was going to turn 59. I don't know, whatever. The 50th birthday party thing.

This guy's chiming in here. 6'1", 185, 36 years old. Usually dominate and pick up basketball. Steve Blake-like game. Yeah, Terp. Can't dunk anymore, though. Also, old reference to pull-up discussion i can

do 25 real pull-ups wow thanks for even emailing us dude that's pretty awesome can't live worth shit though yeah that's just from 20 years of consistent rock climbing i imagine uh if you rock climbing for a couple decades your pull-up numbers are probably pretty good yeah rock climbing does work rock climbing guys like kind of my preferred if i was if i was fit in shape and like had muscle i feel like that lean, ripped look is the look I would go for. It's similar to Rockstar guy. I'm not a Vulcan guy, but those guys are sneaky strong.

They always do well in American Ninja Warrior, which is really big for me. Just an observation. I like that kind of look. Noted. He works in a D1 athletic department. I said his dad still shames him for not being a pilot don't all our dads uh but i know a nice podcast but should should have learned how to fly a plane uh i guess here although he's like there's a reason my dad was an air force fighter

pilot he met my mom when he was 40 and she was 24. He told her that he was 35. He was a badass dude and my mom was a bit vulnerable at the time. She got pregnant with me pretty quickly and then they got married. She didn't find his actual age until after she had planned an extravagant 40th birthday party for him with he and all of his pilot buddies. Don't know

all the details of the incident, but I can imagine it was quite the party. Somehow they are still together. Not happily today. Wait, he said that? Yeah, he said not happily. That's a bummer. What do you think? I just threw that in there? I don't know if yours is ad libbing about how

their lifestyle and the relationship being built on a lie. That sucks. Yeah. He said, can you allow me a second to shame Kyle for his consistent take that you can't be a mature adult until you're like 30 some of us have different priorities or know what we want at a young age and have the discipline and freedom to pursue it it's kind of nice to ski double blacks with my teenage kids that's double black diamonds for those that don't know um not a

big skier but i knew that uh double blacks with my teenage kids or do backflips on the trampoline with them not sure i'd be doing that stuff if i waited until i was in my 30s to get married and have kids so yeah quick fuck you kyle wait from that emailer yeah he's not even here to defend himself no but we just you know first off kyle kyle he he gets a bad rap kyle i think his uh he's he's recently engaged. I feel like Kyle's life's going the right direction. I'm pumped about Kyle's future. Kyle, I know you might be listening. You're probably not listening to this because you're just living life in Poughkeepsie right now. No, I doubt it. But I think you're doing great, dude. Don't listen to this guy.

This is actually a shitty way to start. I've been retweeting all Kyle's stuff while he's away. He just shout out, I love Poughkeepsie. So I retweet that. I think I retweet Kyle more than any single person on the internet. And then he had another one a few hours later was like a sixth fiddler just showed up to this bar. He's like, I'm fucking loving it. So how do you not retweet that one after you retweet the I love Poughkeepsie one?

Like you have to do both. It's hard not to be in a good mood around Kyle. I did notice that like the one time that we actually met was a couple was like a month ago or so when i was out in la and he just makes like every like the frolic room people love him anywhere you go he's just like pumped about life it's hard not to be pumped when you're just around kyle good vibes guy all right okay uh this one's called friends drink too much gents omitting the stats nothing to see here looking for advice on dealing with friends of ours who seem a little too dependent on the old bottle,

uh, being intentionally vague on names and ages of protecting innocent. We appreciate that. Some background. We're currently in our early forties and have been friends with these guys for 15 plus years. When we were younger living in downtown Chicago, we did your typical 20 something activities of playing intramural sports with

drinks, taking weekend trips with the group with drinks, visiting our local water holes, et cetera. I'm sure there were some excessive nights, but hey, we were young, a little tired the next day, but we all soldiered on into work and carried on. Fast forward to today. We're all married with kids living in this, living the suburban dream. We live within walking distance from our friends.

Our kids are similar in age and we tend to see them several times a week. Every single time we were with them, they are never without a drink. If we plan an outing, it's always somewhere where booze is available. Ballpark, zoo, BYOB to a playground. While my wife and I by no means are teetotalers, it's getting to the

uncomfortable spot, watching our friends seem to drink themselves stupid and plan their every activity around drinking, cracking open an IPA at 10 a.m. on a saturday watching your kids playing um a y s o that just doesn't compute you got any help for me on that you're not a father yet so i don't know if you can help me with that one a y s o uh yeah why don't we look that one up this is i don't know why he would say american youth soccer organization why would that just say soccer? It's not that hard.

Yeah, just say soccer. A little weird. Okay. That would help. Sure. Anyway, okay. So they're playing soccer, people drinking.

Well, we've never seen them endanger their kids driving, passing out, whatever. Well, okay. We can rule that out. They seem to place their need for drinking way ahead of anything else.

I'm sure they drive when they shouldn't and we would step in if we were present when that would occur. Question is, is it our place to say something in fear of ruining the friendship? Is there even a tactful way of having this conversation? There is alcoholism in both my family and my wife, so we know how that conversation will go.

But we can also see that they're in their kids' lives are being dominated by this any thoughts uh hmm i don't know how you say i don't know how you say anything to these people be like hey hey you know because i'm just telling you right now like again if you're telling me they're all getting super fucked up all the time like every saturday and they're drinking early in the morning and they're going all night or whatever like are you around them enough are you in the house do you they're going all night or whatever. Are you around them enough? Are you in the house? Do you even know? But I'm just telling you, if you turn to a guy who cracks a beer at 10 a.m. for you soccer on a Saturday, and you're like, hey, drinking a little early, huh? Nobody's going to want to

hear that, man. Nobody's going to want to hear it. So what you're going to end up doing, because what do you think you're doing? I'm not saying you're wrong, man. That is a lot of drinking. It's very different as I got older and I realized how drinking impacts certain pockets, right? Where you're like, oh, this guy actually has a couple beers and a scotch every night. That's the end of his day routine. He doesn't get drunk, but that's sort of his thing. Um, you know, here's another guy wherever it's the guy's trip. Like, you know, these two guys are going to be a mess because they're so happy that like that once a year they're away from everybody else. And part of it's like, Hey, you know, can you try to keep it together for the night? Cause the night part's like the best part. And we want you to be able to kind of hang out and be with the rest of everybody else. And everybody's had their, you know, their night they'd like to have back and all that

kind of stuff. But I don't know, like whatever this community is, clearly it's kind of like a drinking community. Like sometimes I would hear about different people that I was friends with. I'm like, what do you guys do? He's like, oh, the neighbors, we all pick a different house like every weekend. And that's kind of what we do. Like all the kids are friends. There's like 10 couples. And then we kind of do our own little bar crawl. You know, sometimes during the pandemic, it was happening. I remember one of my friends being like, I'm drinking way too much now because of the pandemic because I'm never

going to the office. And everybody's like, well, hey, we'll just sort of drink. And then he kind of knew enough to be like, well, I'm not going to keep doing this or being this guy. And then after he had a little bit of a phase the first year of the pandemic, I knew he wasn't going to have a problem problem. But he was like, okay, I don't really want to be that guy that happens all the time. All I'm telling you is that they're probably going to get pissed at you. And I don't think your email gave us enough evidence that it is upon you to question the way they're handling their free time. You know, like everything you just said there, like everybody, a lot of guys, you know, you go through that post-college phase. everything you just said there, like everybody, a lot of guys, you know, you go through that post-college phase and it's like a weird thing where, you know, you think you can kind of drink

the way you do in college and you find out pretty quickly you can't. And then there's guys that go out both nights, you know, you live in the city, you live in New York, you live in Chicago, you live in Denver or something like that. And it's like, man, I'm out Thursday, happy hour, Friday, Saturday. And then there'll be a guy that's like, yeah, I'm only going out one night a week because he just doesn't like going back to backs. And then everybody kind of heads down whatever their own path is for drinking. But I have a couple of friends where we knew this is really, really bad. And one friend in particular, and it's really sad and it kind of sucks and he's not necessarily totally in the mix because he just cared about drinking way more than he cared about

everything else so it's fucking scary it kind of sucks and you're right like there can be little seeds planted where you think like oh well is this a big deal or you look back you're like oh that's when it was starting to get bad that's when it ended up being bad i don't know that anything you explained here was bad enough for you to start, you know, kind of checking in with other people. And granted, if you've been friends with them 15 years or whatever, I know it's just a really delicate thing, man. It's a really delicate, it's a difficult thing to do. And, you know, maybe they look at you being like, why can't you relax and just have a couple beers, you know? So I don't know, man.

This one doesn't feel like I don't have a great sense of like yes you need to tell this guy he needs to drink less and tell this guy to stop bringing beers to soccer and do all that stuff because then they're probably just going to get pissed at you and i would actually do the math as if like would you rather not have these friends by proving some point you probably would so maybe with whatever your your gauge on them is you know so maybe some people listen to this email being like this guy shouldn even be fucking talking about this stuff. And then somebody else could say, hey, he has all this stuff and back understanding

between his family and the Weiss family that he's just trying to be a better friend. Men are very, very bad at this. And I'm not saying it's right to not say anything. I'm just saying it's probably safer. We don't have the proper context and detail to really

assess whether or not this is a massive problem i'd love to know if like are you the only ones talking about this are there other people in the group or that are at the soccer games that are just like what the hell is going on with these people like they need to calm down like is it is it is it awkward is it a problem um or is it just you and your background and being annoyed and being a little bit sensitive? Maybe rightfully so about the issues of alcoholism. It's totally legitimate. But then on the other hand, I just kind of think in general in society, we get way too in other people's business.

I'm almost just pro leave everybody alone unless it's really directly impacting you or there's really something wrong going on. Who am i to judge someone who wants to have a couple beers at 10 a.m to watch soccer use soccer it's probably i love soccer it's probably not the most exciting thing in the world to watch like four-year-olds run around by soccer i i i'm gonna be honest like i i look back and i go i don't know how my parents got through all the travel baseball bullshit that they had to deal with and you know driving hours and hours to watch kids who weren't going anywhere in baseball and just do this weekend after weekend after weekend. So if you have to do something that gets you through that, that makes it more enjoyable for you, that makes your life better, that's not really hurting anyone else. If you know that this is directly hurting

people around them or their kids or the soccer organization or whatever, then all right, maybe this is a different discussion, but that's not really what you said. So I'm kind of just pro, could we just leave people alone and let them live the life so they want to live? Because I just think we kind of get in each other's business way too much and tell other people how to live their lives. And I'm not even a big, Ryan, I'm not even a big drinker. I'm really not. I like to, in the right settings, do it, but I'm not like a casual come home from work guy and, as you mentioned, have like a beer and a scotch, which is not my thing. So, you know

i don't maybe i'm the wrong person to ask about this but i just think honestly just leave the personal oh that's what i would do yeah this one's tough it's just tough because i think the audience is probably going you know he's making tons of great points and i think there's another large section of the audience being like shut the fuck up like what who are you to say like the idea of me having a 10 a.m. beer on a Saturday and then having a couple of beers watching you soccer, then it's going to derail the rest of my day. I'm going to be tired. I'm not going to want to work out. I would just be like, I don't want to do that. But just because I don't want to do that, it doesn't mean that the

other guy's like, hey, this is nice. Have a couple of beers so I can get me through the day. Walk the kid back. Who cares? I don't know. I don't know enough about it. It didn't sound like it was remotely to the level where somebody needed to step in just because people are just incorporating day beers into their weekend parenting. So I think we got it. I want to move on. senior year at university in Canada, and I play in the school's D1 hockey team. I think this upcoming year will be my last year of competitive hockey as I'm graduating from school and already have a job set up in an accounting firm starting in the spring. The firm is paying my tuition to take an 18-month course starting in 2023 to get my chartered accountant designation. However, I will probably have contract offers at the end of the year from lower-level professional hockey teams in the U.S. and in Europe Europe. The offers recover my living expenses during the season,

but I wouldn't be able to save up a lot of money and would likely have to work part-time throughout the summer. I would be fine with quitting hockey and starting my accounting career next year, but I don't want to regret passing up opportunities to keep playing hockey. Living in new countries and experiencing different lifestyles while I still can. If I can keep playing, would have to quit my job and start over when I'm done with hockey? And who knows who will be looking to hire a 28-year-old who isn't close to getting his accounting designation and has four months of work experience as an intern? What should I do? Look, I'm answering this based on age.

If I were younger, I'm like, play hockey. Play until you can't play anymore. I had a couple of buddies that weren't great soccer players, but one played in Belgium, one played lowest level stuff. They played college soccer. They were pretty good players in the States. They were never going to play in the MLS or anything like that. Even never mind other clubs.

They went overseas. They played for a couple of years. It was the time of their fucking lives. And then they came back and guess what they did? They got jobs. People paid them. They started families and none of their fucking lives. And then they came back. And guess what they did? They got jobs. People paid them. They started families. And none of it really mattered.

I had another buddy who played professional American football in Spain after he was out of college in the late 90s. NFL Europe? He ended up becoming a major. No, it wasn't even NFL Europe. It was just a joke. He had a place in the city. Then they gave him some beach villa. They gave him two cars. The money was tax-free. And he did it, the city, then they gave him some beach villa, they gave him two cars,

the money was tax-free. And he did it, I think, one or two years. It's actually Bill Callahan, who's the writer who was on Scrubs and show ran up Scrubs for Bill Lawrence and everything. So he was kind of like, he would come back to Martha's Union in the summer and I'd be like, why would you not do that again next year? He's like, well, because I'm not working towards a career. I think the bigger picture with everything that you next year? He's like, well, because I'm not working towards a career. I think the bigger picture with everything that you want to do, if you're driven, if you have goals for yourself, is you want to try to figure out a way to start the career path and not just the job path.

And you don't sound crazy passionate about hockey. You know what I mean? Like that email, I've heard this version of it before, buddies that played hockey at UVM or whatever, and they would sign up for whatever league would have them because they fucking loved hockey more than anything and hockey is is different in that you know basketball baseball football kind of the same but the hockey guys there seems to be like a tighter camaraderie with it it's a big part of the lifestyle and you know to just all of a sudden have that be over right at 21, 22, which is what most of us have to do.

But I always think about some of the guys that play into their late 30s, then all of a sudden it's like you're driving the kids to school. And it's the first time ever since you were standing upright, four or five years old, learning how to tie your skates, that you're not in a locker room a couple days a week. You're not traveling with the boys. You're not constantly having this camaraderie. That itself, shit, if I could try out for a hockey team, I would just for that part to have buddies. you know, a couple of days a week. You're not traveling with the boys. You're not constantly like having this camaraderie like that itself.

Shit. I, if I could try out for a hockey team, I would just for that part to have buddies. Just be a hockey groupie. But it doesn't. Yeah. Just, it just doesn't sound like you care enough about it. Like, I think you made your own argument. Like, why do you have to play to your 28 though?

Why can't you, could you tell the accounting firm saying, Hey, I want to give it one year. Like if you're smart enough and they're willing, I imagine this is probably pretty normal, but they're willing to pay for 18 months of tuition for you to get this designation. Is there any way you can say to them, hey, I need one year of hockey. I'm going to play overseas. I want the experience of playing somewhere different. I mean, but dude, if you're playing in some Penn League and you're living in Pennsylvania, is that really some worldly experience? Not really. I would think if you could play in Europe somewhere, then maybe, but why do you have to play for another six years? Why can't you just play for one or two? Is there any way you can work something out with the

accounting firm? Maybe you're smart enough or good enough, or maybe there's going to be a total turnoff. This is going in multiple directions. I feel like because I'm older and the tone of the email, I'm leaning towards what's the fucking point of continuing to play when it sounds like you have something lined up and it sounds like you like accounting enough. You didn't say that you hated it. Other people would hate it. So as I'm older, I'm leaning more towards you going into the career with this setup and then paying tuition for this thing that you need. But I just wonder if there's a way you can come up with some kind of compromise, even though you know it's not going to be like I'm just, there's a way you can come up with some kind of compromise um even though you know it's not going to be like i'm just i'm always big on working towards the career not the job and clearly

accounting is the career hockey isn't yeah i knew i knew a guy uh not closely but knew a guy who good hockey or good soccer player in college got drafted the mls injured um his senior year so he you know he kind of derailed his career he got got drafted. He should have been a first round pick was a second round pick. Ended up like in one of the Nordic countries playing like the second or third division.

And it was like a cool setup for a couple of years. Like you're living in Europe. Everything's going great. Like, as you said, a lot of times they pay for all your shit.

They pay for your flights back. So it's actually pretty, a pretty awesome experience and stuff that you would never be able to do before. But I do remember when he came after a couple of years there, he was just like, what am I doing? Where? What am I building towards? And now he didn't

necessarily have the next step career thing figured out. So you're already one step ahead of him. But I remember him coming back and being like, I just feel like I'm behind everybody else. And it really bummed him out for a while. So if that's a problem to you, if you have this plan of what your life should be like, and you want to have kids at kids at a certain age you want to be at this point in your job at a certain age then obviously i think you know the answer to this question but if that's not really a concern to you and you just want to kind of try it out and you'll feel like you're going to regret it if you never do it then yeah i think what you said ron give it a year or two um i mean i don't know like how much is missing a year or two in accounting set you back long term like you know

is it worth getting a start right out of school and being able to work your way up that fast? Or are you going to be able to just make that up in a decade if you work really hard? So I think it's kind of like whatever your priorities are. But I mean, I know if it was me, and I really loved playing whatever sport I could play, I could still hold on for a couple more years and still break even and have a good career. I'd probably take the couple years of playing in Europe just to say that I did it. It's a great life experience. It'll make you a better person, to be honest with you.

So you're right. If he doesn't love hockey, as you said, it doesn't sound like he loves hockey. He's just kind of interested in the lifestyle. Maybe don't. But I would give it, I don't know, even if this job is lined up, chances are you have a job lined up. You're probably pretty smart. You're probably pretty good at what you do. So you'll probably figure out something either way when you get back if they say no, if they want to delay it a year.

So I'd go for it just to give it a shot. You could always quit it as soon as you can quit after a year and keep living your life and nothing really changes. So I don't think you have much to lose if you at least just give it a shot for one year. Yeah, at that age, I'd probably play. And it's not like sometimes you're younger and you have these like doomsday scenarios like what if i go play hockey then no one will ever want to hire me dude somebody's going to hire you at some point it is going to work and the real clincher and all this and maybe the tone of the email i'm just sort of misreading the fact that he's like i actually emailed in about continue to play hockey overseas so clearly i like hockey enough if this

is some sort of dilemma i didn't know i needed to add another paragraph and ode to the game, which, you know, it's totally fair to where I, yeah. Yeah. Right. Like I sent in this email,

clearly I really like hockey and I'm tempted by playing overseas. The clincher to swing it back the other way of playing. Cause I still feel like if you're remotely talented, you're going to have a landing spot in accounting. If that's what you want to do at some point, it's not like the entire country. Canada's going to go, sorry, sorry dude you played hockey for two years no everybody's everybody emailed each other and said it on for your job you're never going to be

able to have this opportunity again later on like you're never going to be there's never a good point where you're like 34 and it's like hey you know what i should have done um really really slim chance that that's going to happen but i do remember some of the uvm guys coming back that summer and you'd be like how'd it go like, one guy's face was bashed in. He just was like, he wasn't skilled enough to be anything other than a goon. And that was like the only way he thought he could get in the league. And he'd come back,

his face was all fucked up and guys would be like, so pretty cool, huh? You're going to go back and play again next year. He's like, yep. Yep. Pretty close.

Think I could maybe, you know, get a two way. You'd be like, okay, cool. And you just were like, this is brutal.

Yeah. The thing, the guys that like do that to put off life, that's's when you're like all right like you know you're not going anywhere and you don't really have any prospects like you're just doing this because you have nothing else to do that's obviously not you your future is going to be bright no matter what like you i don't know figure it out do what feel do what's in your heart yeah there you go do what's in your heart kid uh that's life advice thanks a lot to steve uh for putting this one together please subscribe to brian's little podcast ringer and spotify Outro Music