The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Raja Bell on the NBA Playoffs Pause, Iverson Stories, and Round 2 Game Plans  

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

Russillo is joined by The Ringer’s Raja Bell to discuss the NBA players' strike in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, as well as the Lakers, Clippers, and Bucks seemingly finding their playoff groove, stories from Raja's time with the 76ers in 2001 and 2002, NBA playoff speculation, and more (5:37). Then Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (54:50). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Ryan Russillo for the Ryan Russillo podcast. A lot to get to today, but first, everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get crashed, people could get hurt or killed, but that still doesn't stop everyone. You could get arrested, you could incur huge legal expenses, and you could possibly even lose your job. We all know the consequences of driving drunk, but one thing's for sure, you're wrong if you think it's no big deal. Drive sober or get pulled over. Okay, we just got news. This is Thursday morning out on the West Coast that the NBA playoffs are going to resume according to Woj, but I want to talk about what happened this week, and that is

specifically Wednesday with the three playoff games not happening because it started with the Milwaukee Bucks saying, we're not playing against the Orlando Magic. Boycott, strike, sitting it out, whatever you want to call it. But I believe there's almost no statement that exists that can't be deconstructed for people to try to make it mean something else. But in this case on Wednesday, I think it is the rare example that this really doesn't mean anything other than NBA players aren't just giving us a sentence. They're making a statement with their act of not playing to try to get us to all pay attention in a way that maybe some of us

haven't paid attention to in the past. Yes, we could do the very simple, okay, but what's really going to change in the next couple of days? The answer is probably not a ton or I don't know, but that's not the point. That wasn't really the point of the exercise.

I've heard, I've had friends say, okay, why do these players think they have it so bad? The fact that they make this much money and they have it so good and this bothers them so much, shouldn't that mean something to you? Because I know in the past when I've looked at some people's social activism being nothing more than a retweet or a clever hoodie, well, in this case, we have NBA players, multi-multi-millionaires who are in the playoffs right now deciding, okay, that's not more important to us. We actually don't want to play until some of these issues are not resolved because I think timeline wise, that's not exactly realistic, but at least

heading in a direction that makes us feel better about the rest of the season. That's real. That's something that you have to understand when you're giving up or sacrificing personal glory, team glory, or hundreds of millions of dollars in salary. Now, I remember when the Kaepernick story first came up, one of the great moments at ESPN where you have these little reminders where the job, yeah, it can be frustrating and all that stuff. But really what it was about was some of the experiences and relationships that you would build. I'm in the green room. We're all getting ready to go on SportsCenter. And there's a bunch of ex-athletes out there. I'm not including myself in that group. White guys, black guys. And we're talking about Kaepernick. And I had my turn. And one of the former black athletes said,

OK, we're still. But guess what? Which possible way could a black athlete get you to pay attention, respect the way he's doing it, and maybe get you to change your thinking a little bit? And I was like, man, I could throw a bunch of stuff at you, but your initial point's the right one. I can't really get out of this riddle. And that's the point. It's to jolt us. It's to get us to pay attention. It's to get us thinking a little bit differently or have me do a podcast where I didn't expect that I was going to be doing this as I was getting ready to take notes on the Rockets and the Thunder. Um, I also think it's really important, at least for me as someone that look, I'm not going to bullshit anybody here. I'm not always aligned a hundred percent with every argument that is out there on either side. I'm just not.

And sometimes that can, that can be dangerous, but I'm, I'm not, I'm not going to do that just because I love basketball, but I do know this. If there are players that didn't want to play, I support the players. I would never, I wouldn't think it privately. I wouldn't do it publicly. I wouldn't sit there and think, I can't believe these guys didn't come back and play. There's something I was thinking about as I was going through all the different ways that I wanted to talk about this. And, you know, my dad and I are very close. He is somebody I have incredible amount of respect for. And he, you know, would teach me about Bill Russell. And he would tell me these stories.

And I'd go back and watch the clips. And I would remember when I'd first start getting into it. And I'd look at the box scores. And then I'd start reading about him more. And I'd be like, man, this guy dealt with a ton of bullshit in Boston. And this guy's a different level of man. This is a man's man. And he's a leader.

And then I'd read about Muhammad Ali and I would talk with my father about it. And he was about the same age. We'd talk about the war, like what was going on at that time. How did you feel about it? And all these different things. Okay, I'm sorry that, you know, maybe there's not more, maybe I need more culture, but I'm just sharing with you a simple example of reading about these two athletes, many, two of the many black athletes that I've spent most of my life in awe of. And I thought, okay, wait a minute. If you don't have an open mind about

what's going on with the NBA playoffs and you're a total fucking hypocrite to sit there with your book collection and pretend you know what's up. And I know that I don't really know what's up, but I also know this, is that as a white guy that continues to have opinions about black players for the rest of my career, when it comes to contracts, trades, who's a good fit with who I'm, I'm good to go. I feel like I can hang with anybody, but I also know that I just don't want to tell black people how to feel about social issues anymore. And certainly not in this case. And look, man, I think you guys know I love basketball. I love it. I don't know that there'll be anything other than breathing that I do more of. And whether it's watching, talking about it, attempting to play back in the day, basketball is the number one thing in my life.

And I don't love it so much that I would want hundreds of players to continue to play in a game that they don't want to play in because they're pissed off. Okay, we're going to talk with Roger Bell about this and more. Okay, we're going to bring in Roger Bell, longtime NBA vet,

and I'm really excited about this. I'm excited that he's part of the ringer. I remember he came by. When did you come by ESPN to do those radio hits that was over 10 years ago I know that yeah it was man but that was kind of like me understanding that I liked it right like it was it was great that I got to do it because I felt like at that point it would it interested me enough where I might want to do a post career so it was great experience yeah and you immediately were like really good at it because a lot of times you'd have guys come in and you go, eh, I don't know, maybe, I mean, it's a really

tough business for ex athletes because no one really coaches you. They just sort of throw you out there to see, Hey, can you do it? Can you not do it? And you weren't even done. And when you left, people were like, man, Raj is really good. So I'm, I'm thrilled to have you be part of the ringer, man. Um, I appreciate that. I want to, we'll have, we'll have some fun stuff a little bit later on, but let's start with the the news what was your reaction once you realized the players weren't playing yesterday um you know i was surprised that i wasn't surprised like i knew there was going to be some kind of reaction i i guess i was more surprised that milwaukee kind of did it and hadn't really like clued anybody into the fact that they were going to do it um that was the

most surprising part but i knew there was going to be some kind of into the fact that they were going to do it. That was the most surprising part. But I knew there was going to be some kind of reaction. The fact that they hadn't aligned and everybody wasn't kind of on the same page was interesting to me. Yeah, I saw that after the fact, but I really like that. It felt like people at least publicly were understanding. Because if you're going to sit there and say, well,waukee should have told the rest of the teams or now they put the pressure on the rest of the teams the rest of

the players in that moment that's not really what it was about so i i've read some of it's almost like the player another player or source would be hinting at a complaint but you know all right you can't do that you can't do that right now and say well the the better way to execute this because it felt like it was very emotional and it felt clearly like it was last minute corver was in uniform yeah unless they didn't tell corver um this this had to be something that they were deciding right before they were taking the tip yeah i i liked the fact like honestly i've heard a lot of takes and and you know i see i was surprised because the nba always does things you know kind of collectively like that like it's the way they want to march in lockstep.

But I actually liked, I felt like it was more authentic. I thought that it was more poignant that they were like, look, we were preparing to play this game and we know Orlando's on the court, but we ain't coming out. Like I thought that had an effect. And then, you know, a more visceral kind of like, oh shit, this is happening type of effect. And then, you know, they got together and they kind of, you figured out how to close ranks and and and do what the nba normally does which is

move forward kind of together as a group but i actually thought that it was a better move to kind of just smack everybody in the face with look we haven't talked about this but as a team as this as a representative of the state where this took place like we ain't we're not with it and this is what we're going to do. What would you have been like, you think if you were in the locker room, if you were playing right now and you're playing for the bucks? Cause I mean, there's a bunch of different ways to look at it. Hey, older guy, championship team, non-championship team, but there's a lot of different things that you'd have to balance, but how do you think you'd handle it? Yeah. You know, I was, I was going over that this morning with where people fall in their careers in terms of not just financially,

but whether you've even been on a roster long enough to solidify yourself as a real... So I referenced my 2001 NBA Finals run with the Sixers. I was on a 10-day. So if we were going to stop playing those playoffs prior to me being able to play in to play in game seven of the Eastern conference finals, I probably don't have a career. Right. So I'm thinking of it from like different perspectives, but I, in that locker room with what's going on in the country with, with, um, the movement that's been taking place with the, with the momentum that's been building. Um, I think I would have definitely been in support of us not going out there to play. Like it's too big, um, of, of an issue it's affecting, um, too many of our, our, our young black men and women, like it had to be done. So I would have been, I would have been in lockstep with them. What do you think the owners should be doing? Uh, uh, listening. Um, I, I, you know, I don't, what they should do. I don't know. I think that, um, if they, they've done a good job so far of, of at least publicly saying they want to partner with, with the players and, and, you know, I know the million dollars from every owner for the

$300 million total over 10 years is a good start. Um, you know, but now they need to, to really listen and they are the ones that can, in most scenarios, reach out and touch, um, your, your politicians, like your governors and, and, and the people that can really affect change. Like I couldn't make a call and reach the governor of Florida, like Ron DeSantis. I can't do that, but ownership can do that. Um, you know, in different States. So I think that it's time for them to really listen. And if they, if they are, um, or if they want to be part of the change and want to be part of the collective movement, then listen and then use your influence to help, help make the change, like make the calls that you need to make that, that some of the guys in the NBA or NFL or MLB can't make.

It can seem like it's just a 24-hour stream of awareness, of conversation, a lot of non-conversation that's just straight up nasty. But I guess the point that I'm making is it can seem almost like all-cons consuming. But when you played, were you guys talking about this as much? How often did this come up in discussion that what was going on in just all of these different social issues? No, you know, it's the interesting part, right? Like this is normal for me. part right like this is normal for me um so when i played it was normal for us to talk about an experience that i had just had with a cop in utah pulling me over uh because my rims were too big or like being stopped on south beach and having my my car taken away and and because um the tents were too dark like that that it's normal life like do you know what i mean so um

the time you get pulled over in utah you get pulled over in utah and you're sitting in the car like what goes through your head like you're just going all right i know what this is about yeah well yes but you know and i was having a conversation with a good friend of mine like um you know i see it through a bunch of different lenses ryan my wife my wife is white my in-laws are white like i have white family members like my friend who was sitting at my dinner table last night's a white man 47 years old like so like i get it from a different and what i was saying to him was you know how many times have you been pulled over and felt like a pit in your stomach of like uncertainty. And he was like, never. And I was like, no, because you didn't do anything wrong. It's a routine traffic stop.

And whether you ran a red light or were going too fast or whatever the infraction was traffic wise, you're pretty secure that that's going to be a relatively benign situation. You go write your ticket, you go about your business. Right. I was like, the difference is any single time I see a police officer and it's real. Like, I don't, I, I don't know how I should feel about it. There's a ticket you go about your business right i was like the difference is any single time i see a police officer and it's real like i don't i i don't know how i should feel about it there's a pit in my stomach because i don't know like i don't i haven't had a real positive interaction as a as a black man even when i was the victim of of robberies like i haven't had like police take care of that for me and i'm not saying police are bad. I have police

in my family. I think police are great. We need them. I'm just saying it's a different, it's a different interaction that I have than a lot of my white male counterparts would have. And so to your, to your question, like I'm sitting in that car, just hoping that everything goes smoothly. Like that this doesn't become a situation where someone's got something to prove and I can't be nice enough and docile enough to talk my way out of it. It looks like the players are going to come back and play.

That's the time people are listening to this as we're taping now. The news is the playoffs are going to resume. I don't have all the details. I don't think any of us do as of right now. But couldn't an argument be made if it's important to you know that what happened on Wednesday was to get all of us to react to get us talking about it now you know

to keep the conversation going I would think that being on two major networks and playing the rest of the playoffs and having moments where you could talk is still more powerful than if the season just ended I think people would turn the page to football here in less than two weeks, and a lot of the basketball stuff that players care about would likely get lost. I think you're right. I think if you decided to boycott the rest of the season, you're basically putting the ball in football's court

and for whatever. Football is a different animal, right? You don't have the same leverage all the time as football players as you do as basketball players. and for whatever, like football is a different animal, right? Like it's not, you don't have the same leverage all the time as football players as you do as basketball players. I think keeping it in your court, which is continuing to play and continuing to your point, to be on major networks and have people tuned in allows you to have the conversation. So I think you're right.

And it took me a while to get to that point because when I woke up this morning, I was like, man, you know, they need to, they need to make a statement, but the statement is better made with the platform that they have playing than it is when all of these guys kind of go back to where they're from. And, and the national media kind of tunes it out a little bit. I'll tell you where the media and it's specifically white guys in the media

are freaked out. Is that I think, especially those guys that are down there in the bubble because I've seen this kind of playing out an argument where it's black player wins game loses game does post game presser and white guy wants to be respectful so then he'll ask something about social justice and then the player has to answer for it and then I'll see as this continues to happen more people are like I can't believe you're putting these players in a position where they have to answer for all of these things and i'm just going to tell you right now at least on the white side of this

it's like hey man a lot of us are just trying not to fuck it up right so we didn't know like am i not supposed to ask you because if i don't ask you does that mean i'm being disrespectful or if i do ask you does that mean that I'm not understanding that we don't? So I'm not, trust me, I'm not trying to figure out necessarily who's right in the question. I'm just expressing it knowing that now as it's been a couple weeks, there has been this bit of back and forth of what's right. And I think this might just be a difference of opinion. Look, man, I had this conversation with one of my

ex-teammates who called me um he was my college teammate he's a really good friend of mine and you know he uh was asking like what he could do like and i was like you know what man i don't envy you in this either bro like i don't i don't envy like the way you must feel like not wanting to just be wrong to your point. You know what I mean? Like it, it, it's a really weird thing. I would just say that most NBA guys, like just from my perspective, when I played, like, I know you got a job to do, bro. Like, and if I want to talk about like a social issue, I'm going to talk about it.

Like whether you pose the question to me or not. So I would, I just would say do your job homes. Like if you, if you ain't got a real good social justice question that you really want the answer to, and you're just throwing it to me, like, just ask me about like why I didn't make that jump shot. Yeah, I, I'm not, I'm, I think I'm just throwing that out there only because I've seen it. And again, I have no answer. I called a friend and I hate, cause I know what happens when a white guy's like, I called

one of my black friends. Cause it's like, oh oh that's your out card but I called somebody and then I said I asked a question and then I heard this total sigh on the other end of the line I go what what's what's going on like I thought you were going to call me and do one of those like hey what what can I do better deals like you were going to be like the 10th person that called me today and I was like oh yeah no I'm like I'm sorry like that's not what that called me today and i was like oh yeah no i'm like i'm sorry like that's not what i that's not what i was doing i had a legitimate question for you about something it was like okay all right we're cool um let's talk some hoops then

yeah let's do it let's talk a little basketball the it was funny the way the first honestly game ones played out lakers lose bucks lose you have the Clippers at 1-1 and the bubble became a bigger factor than I thought it would be and my whole point as this whole shutdown has happened is that I've thought okay you're really just going to start picking inferior teams against better teams because the circumstances are different like that doesn't make a ton of sense and yet that's how it felt like we got to the start but i think things have corrected so how different has it have you seen like whether the clippers energy or the lakers execution what happened in the beginning there that maybe threw us off to now i think we've seen the correction of the better teams playing the way

we expected um you know i i think it was kind of a hangover like the bubble obviously has something to do with it in terms of energy right like the energy in an nba arena is it's an indescribable thing man when you're coming out there and you're warming up and people are starting to trickle into the building and the juices are flowing like it produces you know an energy for you especially over the course of a hundred games like it's not it's not like humanly possible to be dialed in and ready to go every single night the same way. So that, that, that, that, uh, effect of the crowd and the building helps get you in the right frame of mind that was lacking. But I think like with the Lakers, I said it when LeBron, um, post game, when they locked up the Western conference, like regular season, I was like,

I'm worried about them at least in the short term. Cause I'm worried that like, there was going to be a collective sigh, maybe not by LeBron, but maybe some of the other people on the team, um, take a breath. And the breath is just long enough for you to go out there and lose to Damian Lillard in a red hot Portland team, right? Like your mate, your focus was just, it seemed so you seem so focused on winning the Western Conference regular season that maybe you were just going to have your eye off the prize. And then with the Clippers, they've been like that all year, right? They get up for big games.

The Lakers come to town. They're ready to play. And then for the rest of it, Logan Murdoch says it the best. They just feel like they've done something already. They carry themselves like they've won championships already. So it wasn't surprising to me to see them come out flat in the playoffs like

Dallas was going to lay down. But then it wasn't surprising on the back end to see them bounce back and have the reaction that they did and really spank Dallas because that's the team that I think and a lot of other people think that they should be when dialed in and locked in. And Logan Murdoch is your partner on your new podcast

that comes out on Mondays, right? No doubt. Yep. Monday mornings. Who did you pick to play in the finals and win the whole thing before the playoffs started? I picked the Bucs. I picked the Lakers to represent in the finals. And I picked the Bucs pre-shutdown and obviously pre-bubble. Okay, let's talk Bucs then.

I know what all the numbers are. The Orlando thing never really scared me, just because it was hard for me to go, wait a minute, all of a sudden the 33-win team is going to beat one of the best statistical teams I've ever seen. Probably not. That's not the case.

Are the Bucs actually easier to defend than people realize if you're locked in playoff locked in if you're playoff locked in yeah the blueprint i think is is an easier blueprint print to like to to to construct right like because you want to take yannis away right you're gonna and but now can bam do that bam out of io is i mean no one's gonna shut all these guys these guys get their points but yeah it's just messing up the offense really yeah the heat the heat have done it uh well the heat the heat and bam have played him well this year like you've seen toronto execute the game plan against them last year um and so then what the question ryan is like whether you know you can make enough shots to keep the

defense honest because basically as a defense you're cheating at that point right because you to your point bam's not stopping him it's bam and four sets of other eyes that are converging on bam and yannis once he once he gets into whatever Euro type of step or spin that he's going to use. And if he's not getting points from Chris Middleton, who hasn't looked like a true number two, or Brooke Lopez stretching the floor, then you can continue to execute that game plan. Okay, speaking of twos, I've had this Paul George theory for a while. I played it again in this first round 30 13 and that is if he gets 30 i'm not surprised if he gets 13 i'm not surprised

did you know the difference between 20 point scores where you knew a guy that would make a shot with like four minutes left up 10 he would also miss it a minute left one possession game could you and i'm sure there's going to be stat people to say actually there's no consistent pattern of all these different things let's ignore that i'm just wondering did you know as a guy that was primarily a defender did you know how guys were built differently where it's like your 20 points is not the same as this guy's 20 points it's what yeah it's what separate i mean it's what separates like the great players you have examples the true number ones um let me think man uh give me give me somebody who'd give you 20 you're like this guy he may even average 17 but i'm way more

scared of him and then you know obviously i'm gonna ask you for somebody who scores like 25 he didn't respect so that's cool too yeah um let's see okay off the top like like all right manu ginobili ginobili like'd get you 30 on any given night. But a lot of nights he didn't. He'd get you like, you know, 18 or 17 and just play whatever role that, you know, he's running the point a lot of times out there with the second unit facilitating.

But if he had the ball late in the game, like, you're pretty sure he was going to do what, whether it was a bucket or collapsing defense and kicking it, he was going to make the right play. You were afraid of him late in the game yeah man is a good one because you don't he'll never think of him as one of the all-time scorers but he just was so different what was it about his was it angles with him because he always played so much bigger than he looked yeah he was um the frustration on your face is so amazing right now. It's great, right? Like, I hate Manu Ginobili.

And I love him. Like, I love Manu, but I hate him playing against Manu. We shared an agent, too, which was even funnier. It was Angles, because you certainly knew you were trying to keep him off of his right hand. But it's, you know, James Harden, I have to imagine, if you ask him, he's probably studied Manu. If you try to take something away, and I try to teach my young boys this, if someone's going to take away your right hand and they're going to shade you to the left, it's really just opening you up to get back to your right hand.

You just have to know how to like create the angle. So you've opened that right hand back up. Manu was a genius with that. And Manu had a, we call it like an Aki-ness to his game. Like it's a South Florida word word it was aki it was just offbeat right like it was kind of like an awkward kind of when you're zigging i'm zagging and it just was super frustrating because you get a beat on people but manu was always like left-footed when you're supposed to be right-footed and finishing off of a right foot

when everyone else is on his left foot it was just really hockey like that yeah the wrong foot stuff was like Nash was big on that and now so many of these guards do it they'll take off like a step before you think the next step's coming and then they're up and you're like what the hell happened there um that that's brutal um I actually could go in a completely different direction but let me let me hold this for a second because we'll get back to the Bucs. Because I would imagine, has Miami shown glimpses of this in the past? The most staggering example of it was, at least for me, Houston and Golden State when Houston was up. Where they decided, hey, we're going to guard three with five.

There's going to be two people that we ignore. And it's going to look ugly at times how open you are, but we're okay with that bet. Do you think that's the way to stop Milwaukee where they're just people you're completely ignoring? Now, granted, substitution-wise, maybe they figure some stuff out there, but I could see Miami aggressively doing something unorthodox

there as a team defensively. I think that's the way you approach it. I'm a firm believer in, if I can help it strategically, not going to let your best player beat me. And if he does, then I tip my hat. But I'm with you in that. I'm going to pick the lesser of the five evils out there

and let them try to win the game for Milwaukee if I can control it. The funny thing with that though ryan is like for a player um like a number five or a number six who's in the game you know avery used to play with me like this because avery avery johnson when he coached the mavericks knew you know when i came up i wasn't a confident shooter right like because he played with me on the mavericks and so they would almost dare me to shoot shots and i was leading the league in like i led the league in threes one year but he was still daring me to make shots and it played games with your psyche like if you miss one you know it

started to like oh shit like you and and that's the effect that it can have that's why that's why i would roll the dice on that right like i'd roll the dice on me staying the course and knocking down seven threes to beat you. And by the way, I don't know that people remember this. You finished your career at just under 41% from three. Yeah. Damn. Yeah, I get that a lot. Like, I get, like, hey, man, you were a hell of a defender.

I was like, I used to shoot it a little bit. I don't know. Hey, more with Raj in a second here. FanDuel Sportsbook NBA playoffs offer for all new customers is still running. Plus $2,000 on any team in the playoffs to make the NBA finals. It doesn't matter if it's the Bucs, Lakers, or Nets. Plus

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It was amazing. Did you ever think you'd do well in the army, Kyle? Yeah, when I was like a nice 17-year-old, but that was quickly. You wanted the gear? I was like, well, screw it. I'm not going to school. I'll just join the army. And my parents were like, no.

I was like, yeah, that's what I wanted. Yeah, the gear alone makes you think about that as you're a young kid all right back to uh whoop um yeah it helps you understand how you're sleeping not just how many hours you were in bed for whoop custom tailors its sleep recommendations to each member based on their baselines and how active they were during the day with whoop you're really getting a personal trainer on your wrist that helps you learn your body and make smarter lifestyle choices for my listeners whoop is offering 15 off with the code rassillo that's r-u-s-s-i-l-l-o two s's two l's at checkout go to whoop that's whoop w-h-o-o-p.com and enter rassillo at checkout

to save 50 sleep better recover faster and train smarter optimize your performance with whoop can we talk a little bit about that 10 day though there with the Sixers because to be on that team um give me your favorite memory of of ending up on the team that goes up against the Lakers and again you won game one so everybody I remember being like wait no way right and that Lakers squad was just ridiculous. And we're going, is this Sixers team that's essentially built with four guys watching Iverson going to take down this Lakers team? It was fantastic, man.

I just remember, so my favorite part of that year was the interaction between Larry Brown and Allen Iverson. Like, I just, it was, now, mind you, I've never really been, the only organization that I had ever really been in for any extended period of time was the Spurs. And that was just through a whole preseason. So nobody in the Spurs camp, like there's a culture there. You, no one's bigger than the team.

Everyone kind of buys in. He treats Timmy Duncan and David Robinson, Greg Popovich. That is the same way he treat me who got cut. Um, well, I mean, you know, in and about but alan's yeah close enough close enough right alan's uh uh uh relationship with larry brown was just a fascinating one to me man i just loved i've read i've read enough books to know that like ai just showed up whenever he wanted i think there's a detroit game this is after you were gone he showed up less than an hour before the tip and i can understand that larry isn't always the easiest guy to get along but it appeared that iverson was not real locked into whatever the pre-game

routine was out for a long time alan was a just a gifted human being man like i've said this before like he would sing in like jest like messing around. And, you know, you'd be like, damn, dude, like, if you really wanted to sing, you might be able to sing. Like, you know, he could dance. He could play basketball. Like, I don't think he practiced any of it. It was just, I could do all of these things.

I'm really good. I'm good at stuff. But he came. There was a flight. I think we were going to Toronto. It was a regular season game? No, no, no. This is playoffs. I think we were going to Toronto. Is this a regular season game? No, no, no. This is playoffs.

This is the second round? Okay. I believe. Yeah, because I'm looking at your game log now because I have a follow-up here. I didn't mean to keep you for three hours today. No, it's all good. This is great.

This is one of my favorite stories. You asked for my favorite story. So we're sitting on there. It's like the usual suspects, Aaron aaron mckee and eric snow rodney buford germano germana what's germane uh germane jones like jones yeah we're all there hanging out waiting kembe and alan's not there it's 20 minutes and larry brown's like we're leaving and we're like yeah okay so he goes back to the back of the plane right so now it's 40 minutes larry brown comes back up has everybody talked to Alan nope we can't get him we're leaving

so he goes and he sits back down in the back it's like an hour now he comes back has anybody talked to Alan so we've left three times but we ain't budged so finally Alan comes onto the plane like up to the front uh sits down and you know Larry Brown comes like bopping up and kind of follows him and he's like standing over him and you And AI looks up and he's like, what do you want, man? And he's like, Larry mumbled something. And Alan said, what do you want me to do? You want me to apologize? You want me to get down and do some push-ups?

And he drops down in the middle of the aisle and starts repping out push-ups. And Larry Brown looked at him like, what am I going to do with this? Just turned his back and walked back and sat down. And then we went to Toronto. at him like what am i gonna do with this just turned his back and walked back and sat down and then we went to toronto he was repping out of the apologetic push-ups like right in the middle of the aisle because you weren't you weren't teammates with him long and i remember when you know all the trade rumor stuff was starting to happen with him where it was okay you know and this he ended up being traded years after you were there with him, but that there'd be a helicopter waiting for him from Trump. Like if there was any East coast game,

there'd be a, there'd be a Trump casino, some, some like AC deal where it'd be waiting for him. And then everybody else would get on the team bus and then guys would get on the hill. He would get on the helicopter and be like, I'll see you guys. I'll see you guys in the nets tomorrow. I can't speak to that i didn't see okay all right never mind i wasn't trying to make it political by the way i'm just simply talking about the casino no i got you um anyway uh did people that year in 01 were they like how the fuck is this guy going from playing one minute a game to being in the actual rotation in the nba finals well they had to be because i i was like i was most games i had a snickers bar tucked into my tights because like i knew i was gonna need like just just some food

while i watched this amazing basketball and then he throw he just throws me in the game so i have to imagine the whole world was like who and who they who is this what did you like were you freaking out so what yeah so what happened was like we go through these series, right? You play seven, seven set. Where is it? Five, seven and seven. We played every game you could play until we got to the finals. And along the way, you were seeing like Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen.

Like those are two tough. The first one back then was five, right? It was. Yeah, right. You're Pacers, Toronto, Milwaukee Lakers. So you're playing two tough guards that are right kind of in my height wheelhouse. Like Glenn's a little too big. But the bottom line is we don't have enough real defenders.

And we're not having the type of success night in and night out that Larry and the coaching staff feel confident. So it starts with them just coming to me and practicing, can you guard it? And I'm like, well, yeah, fuck it. I can guard it. And that happens for like three and a half games and no one's buying that I can guard anybody.

So they just keep coming to me and asking me. We get down in the Milwaukee sixth game by, I mean, you got it. We're probably down at one point in that game by like 25. And I think they make the call to like rest Allen, Eric Snow, Aaron McKee, and they throw myself and like, I forget who else, Jermaine Jones, and they throw us in.

And we actually like bring that thing back to where he subs the starters back into the game in the fourth quarter to try to make a run. We don't get over the hump, but I don't know what the hell I did in that game. I really don't. But I am like the second sub off the bench in game seven. And I'm telling you, I was surprised as the,

the, the arena. Like I was like, what the fuck did he call my name? And it was like fight or flight. It's the best way to describe it. Like, I don't even know.

I knew the plays. Cause I was always a guy who prided myself on knowing plays, but I didn't really know. But NBA basketball was about let alone playoff basketball, let alone like conference finals basketball. I was just playing off straight adrenaline. Yeah, you guys were down 30 to 31 in that game, and you ended up making a 10-point game.

You guys scored 46 points in the fourth quarter of 2001. With that team, offensively, to score 40, Milwaukee must have quit. Listen, well well they quit because we quit like we cleared the bench and they were like okay well this is a wrap all right let's get back to um what we have going on with the playoffs now where are you with uh i don't know what level of concern because we didn't talk about it did you have level of concern were you with the lakers today yeah i had a huge level of concern the way they were playing coming coming out of this gate in the bubble i think they've

figured it out though um you know i hate to oversimplify i i hate doing this but i do it every time i talk to kids when i talk to my high school team like energy is is so important like you know this you've seen enough basketball it's an oversimplification but the team that's like if you It's an oversimplification, but the team that's like if you get two teams that are relatively equal, it's the team that's more locked in, more ready to go, hits first, is consistent with that effort that wins. The Lakers didn't seem to have that

through a few games, so I was concerned. Then they dialed in. They got smacked in the face and I saw them start to tighten up. I think LeBron got in some people's asses if I know LeBron the way I do. And you're starting to see a different product. I can feel confident in the Lakers again, I think. AD is somebody I defend all the time.

And because I feel good about defending him, by the way. I like my track record. If I'm going to defend some guys, I'm going to defend guys like Anthony Davis. Can you be passive? Can you understand the game so well that you actually are passive because i think with him being passive at times it's not because he's afraid it just it's like his skill set is such and lebron even had to deal with this some some of the stuff and look it never really goes away until you win but do you see him as someone that's a passive personality that you want more dog from or do you see him as somebody that kind of understands the possessions and a lot of times

with him it's him deferring when maybe we want him to force the issue um i feel like you're going to look at me and just say yes to all yes i definitely was like you read my mind i was going to say it's a little bit of both and ultimately what I think AD needs to do is grow into the role that you're talking about. I don't think that he has a problem with having Dawg in him. I see him fired up. I see him take over games at times when he needs to. I know that's in him. But there is a part of me, and I don't know AD, that is concerned with the fact that he may be too concerned with teammates' feelings at times and stepping on those toes when the ones that carry their teams to championships, the ones, they don't give a shit about your feelings.

You know what I mean? And so I just think he's got to grow into that role. And I think Lebron accepted that early in his career i think lebron struggled with like um being the biggest star in the world and still wanting people to kind of like him like or or making the right basketball play all the time because it's the right basketball play but if you don't if you don't have someone on the other end of that right basketball play to to to seal the deal then it was the wrong basketball play do you know what i mean so you yeah right you got to grow into that role that's like kawaii's thing the other night where he got the steal and threw it to reggie

jackson and we saw the clip of kawaii saying i didn't steal that shit to pass you know like i didn't give it up for you to do that shit i think was his line and people were kind of like wait like kawaii's been this amazing character because we thought he was the superstar that was fall in you know oh spurs way gets it like wait he's pissed and walks out i thought that was for the other guys and then i mean it's been as we slowly like it feels like we learned something about kawaii once every three years it's a much slower pace than some of the other guys but do you have any insight on him because it's he still seems like a mythological creature i don't i don't i don't know him um i've never worked with him what i will say to him though is kind of like i think his personality lends itself to being the guy that we just talked about. Like he, he's not like hanging out with eight guys everywhere he goes. Like, you know, there's some people like me,

I can be by myself. I mean, I go to a movie by myself. I got no problem with that. Like, you know, like, so if I got to tell you like something that offends you, it's not a big deal because I, I just assume be by myself anyway. I think he's wired like that a little bit where like you, you don't ever see him out with a bunch of people. He's a homebody, it seems like. He's uber competitive. And so that personality characteristic lends itself to like, look, man, if you're not going to help me get this done

or if you can't help me get this done, then I'm going to get this done. And if you feel some kind of way about it, sorry. Okay, we understand the Luka part. It's been nuts. You probably already talked about it. I feel like Bill and I did an hour on him the other day. So I want to talk about Donovan Mitchell with you

because Donovan Mitchell, if he were in his first playoffs ever, we'd be probably just as excited about him as we are Luka, but that's just how it works. He wins that series against Oklahoma City. Then it feels like the team's a bit of a disappointment. He's on this amazing run. And by the way, shout out to Jamal Murray as well

because of game one and then game five. But let's play this game. Who would you rather have? Would you rather have... I'm trying to think where I could put Mitchell. I want to see how high you have Mitchell as far as other scores. Do you like him better than Jamal Murray?

Yes. Close, but yes. Close, but yes. I think he's more physical than Jamal Murray. I don't think there's any debate on that one. Yeah, so I'll take a more physical scorer. Jamal Murray complains a lot. You notice that?

Yeah, he's awesome. He's a slight complainer but chip i'm okay with it because it looks like he wears a chip on his shoulder so i think they kind of go hand in hand at times super gifted though like he's he he's not that far behind he's in that same class but i'm going to take donovan mitchell slightly over quick complainer top five i'm going to give you lebron i'm going to give you harden all right i think luca is sneaky like he complains oh we just haven't seen it for 10 years uh let me think who else oh lowry lowry complains non-stop yeah would you want to fight lowry if you had to put up with that bullshit i think

kyle and i would fight i i like kyle like kyle and i are buddies like i know kyle says back when i was with the sixers and he was at villanova but his style and my style would like naturally it would come to a head i don't understand how people don't understand why i get so frustrated watching it and then i mean was it justin anderson when people were like who right tweeting out have more integrity for the game I was like I want to vote this guy president like that's that's my guy if your platforms that Kyle Lowry needs to respect the game more than than you have my vote um all right anybody else you want to add to your top five complainers no at least mine no but what I want to say about that is the league the league creates that because you're right when you it's their fault it's their fault like when

you're gonna just get calls and I'm look when you when you're when you're going to the free throw line a certain amount of times a game and you're used to getting away with it and you don't get it you're going to complain that's what happens the other one that i can't believe is people think now that if you drive to the hoop and there's a slight glancing of a jersey across your shoulder or forehead that that's an and one yeah and you're like no the and the foul was supposed to be an impediment of you actually scoring not not that there was actual contact and you'll see guys like tap something and you go is that because you were touched right you were touched and you think that that's a foul i know you have my back on this i do

it's it's supposed to the language is advantage gained right like if there's an advantage gained then then there's supposed to be some kind of foul like if we're not talking about advantage gained in one way or the other play ball yeah this isn't did a did an arm or a shoulder hair touch me right and i could feel the sweat okay lillard or mitchell that was the one dame That was from my father. Dame. Dame. Dame. Oh, dismissive, actually. Yeah. Range.

Range. Like, because we talked. Range. Range is what kills it. Range is what kills it. You're right. Range. By the way, I'm not arguing Mitchell.

I just think it's a little closer than, like, because there's this Dame push, and then you go, wait a minute. Why? Why is it, like like absurd to even suggest but then the range you look at those numbers 40 from beyond 30 feet it is it is interesting though because donovan's again way more physical um and able to kind of see a good defender yet donovan mitchell yeah you know what i loved about him i i think he's serviceable right now maybe above average i don't know that he's a really good defender, but what I loved about it was down the stretch in that game, he

took Jamal Murray. He was like, I'm guarding that. I didn't see that from Jamal back. Jamal did not want any smoke on the defensive end, but Donovan Mitchell took the onus upon himself. He got Torch pretty good, but I like that style. If you have that mentality, you can be a really good defender yeah i think because they wanted to put grant on

mitchell and that didn't really matter because they were setting the screen out so high let me gosh i feel like i i'm gonna let you go here in a couple minutes we'll have to do this again it's all good but what do you do i think i understand what is, but take me through the, the Dame high screen. And they said it further and further away. And then you have to extend because I think a lot of us go, Oh, you know, the, the big drop, you know, that's a problem. I've seen other teams where like with Harden and Oklahoma city, it's two with Harden all the time off of whatever action. And they left him. There was one play I saw where two went with Jeff Green and no one went to Harden and you're like that has to be the time where a

coach loses his mind right but what do you do as the perimeter guy if you're on Dame how do you try to navigate in the adjustments of as they extend that screen further and further up to get Dame coming off in either direction with just a wide open look. Yeah, that's tough. First of all, playing defense against Dame or any good guard in pick and roll, you're as good as the communication from your big, right? Because he's really got to be, you can't see where that screen's coming from. You can't see how fast it is. You can't really see its proximity to you until it gets in your peripheral.

So you have to be being talked to the entire time, letting you know where it's coming from. You would think naturally the way you're taught to play is as that screen extends um in the in the old in days like you're gonna slip under that screen right um and because he's not going to shoot it from half court well now he does so so like what i would what I would do is, first and foremost, first rule of playing pick and roll defense is force him to the screen. D. Wade was great at this. Like, don't ever let a good guard reject the screen. Like, don't get caught leaning and trying to cheat over that screen

before it comes because it's a reject. You got no defense on the other side, and now you're on his back, too. So, force him to the screen. And I always like to teach or talk about like changing my level as the defender so if i'm if i'm fully up and engaged like in dame's pocket when the screen comes then i know that screen is trying to head hunt me i might try to slip under it at the last minute because he's gauging me attached to where dame is right um if i want to go over that screen and that's the way we're going to play it because I have a big up and in a corral or a soft trapping situation, then I'm going to play off of Dame enough to where

he can't like pull up in my face, but not really up in his bread basket because that level of screen is going to be set like three feet away. And at the last minute, I can try to crawl up into his body and then get over the screen. But if you're going to pull me away from the basket ryan like i told you about yannis um i'm not switching that because i'm not letting a big have to dance with damian lillard like 40 feet from the basket that's a recipe for disaster um and i can't drop my big back to where he can pull up in his sweet spot so you've almost forced my hand as a defense i'm trapping that and i'm going to trap it early the not switching back though is something that i think a lot of us on the outside get wrong where and we saw it with some of the donchich

plays not so much the game winner there was another one before where you're like why do you invite yourself into these switches it happened at golden state a lot in the 16 finals they blew the 3-1 lead they just would get into bad switches and it would look like they'd have time i think against a guy like lebron you don't want to do something where you go hey we're in a bad switch okay hey let's communicate do you want to switch back okay cool because then he's just going to absolutely torch you as you're trying to make that in-between decision but are there more opportunities to maybe fight to get the switch back or is everybody afraid to do that like what

seems to be a rule on that because at least just from watching it appears that like seems to be the last thing anybody ever wants to do and i think i know that answer but i'm sure yours is much better than mine well i i think the switchback has to be off the ball right because like you can't like leave the ball handler to to facilitate that's it that's the answer you can't leave him right so you right what you can do and like good teams do is they pre-switch the screener so like yeah let's say i've got the celtics do it a lot yeah so now the person that's running up with the big isn't a big it's more of a rangy wing defender who can switch and more naturally keep the ball handler in front and now what'll happen is when the big goes to roll the point guard, we will just bump him off.

So that big is waiting down low. And, and the guard who is now on the big, we'll just run out to a perimeter player. The big picks up the big roll into the basket. And we've pre-switched into a switch. You can't do it once, once you've got a big hand,

like on a ball handler, it's you're, you're cooked, cooked. Yeah. Okay. Last one. And then we're going to have you on on again soon i may do like a prepped

i feel like this interview turned into a guy running into you at a bar philly after seven years where he just he just started like randomly screaming questions at you the whole time that's so you just described my my like my dream night let's do it i'll tighten it up next time would your sixers 2001, and look, I get their AI Sixers, so I don't want anybody blaming Raj over taking credit, but would that squad beat

any of the top four playoff teams in the East this year? No. It's such a no. No. I didn't even have to think about that. It's a no. You did not get your NBA, you didn't know what to think about that. No. You did not get your NBA...

You didn't get your NBA vet playbook. How did you say... Because I was looking at it again, because I was looking at the game log, and I go, I don't know if this team would score 80 fucking points... That's it. That's it. You can't score...

There's not enough firepower. You can't... You're not going to manufacture enough points to to like ai was going to do ai things but then where were your other 50 points coming from i don't know 60 points coming from i don't know yeah i think it's a hard like not even debatable no maybe i pick you against the pacers yeah if you got down to like five to ten like we talk but those top four i just i don't i don't think it's happening i love your honesty uh that is rajah bell he's a great addition to what we're doing here and uh hopefully i can uh have you on again real real soon man i appreciate it anytime bro okay life advice on deck that was great with rajah bell

please check out his podcast with logan Murdoch again on Mondays. When it comes to scoring great hires for your business, he has ZipRecruiter back in the mix. What's up, ZipRecruiter? I hope that – who was that guy who was running the coffee shop? Is that Miskiewicz? Noah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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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. All right, let's life advice here. We've got a few to get to.

We got one here right off the top. This is a new one from Wes, not Wes Anderson. i'd probably be emailing him all right he started a graduate program kind of braggy at the beginning of august and the girl within the program has quickly caught my eye the only problem is the entirety of the program this semester is distanced due to covid heard of it despite the fact that we're all across the country we've all managed to become fairly close over the past month i consider a lot of these people to be friends of mine for one of our classes we were split into groups and she and i ended up in the same group uh-oh this led to me eventually sliding into her instagram dms which led to a short conversation

that fizzled out pretty quickly i'm not sure if there's a fact that i'm living with my parents and basically not had any amorous contact with females for the past six months or if i'm generally interested in this girl oh okay yeah we call this the conveyor belt theory i had a buddy who spent a winter working at a family's company or something like that and he spent the entire winter break um putting stuff in boxes like he he was on the conveyor belt and for eight hour shifts with gloves hat and just put the stuff in the box and then send it on its way and then towards the end of the break he started saying how attracted he was to this woman who worked on the conveyor belt with him and we're like do you think it's her or do you think it's that you've been working on the conveyor belt the whole time so

this conveyor belt theory feel free to steal that one and then once we got him back to college we kind of sobered him up not from any substance abuse kind of sobered him up, not from any substance abuse, but just sobered him up to, he was like, my God, what was happening to me there? We're like, Hey man, you work in a conveyor belt eight hours a day for like four straight weeks. That's what happens. Okay. Uh, so slid into the DMS led to short conversation that fizzled out pretty quickly. I don't need to read anymore. She doesn't like you. If she liked you, guess what she would do?

She would keep talking to you. All right, now a lot of guys make this mistake. I've made it as well. She might have a boyfriend, dude. Maybe she's being totally respectful to the situation that's happened. Although sometimes you're just like, why can't you just say, Hey, I have a boyfriend instead of this, this like odd, I can't even tell you that deal. Or they don't want to tell you that because they don't want to keep you. They don't want to lose you from being in the mix. So that's maybe a positive, but I just,

I'll keep reading his email here, but I already know the answer. I'd like to know if either of you, Kyle, feel free to jump in. How can I go about the typical process of showing a girl I'm interested in getting her interested in me? I kind of feel like I'm taking the gym from the office route. Well, then you're going to be headed to hell because she's just going to toy with your emotions for about seven seasons. And they'd be super fucking annoying. Should I just play it cool and talk to her and even the chance comes up? Or should I try to make a serious play now? You know, look, she's already kind of decided who you're going to be.

That's what you need to get. So you can try the tough guy move where it's like, hey, I'm into you. And I want you to be into me. All right. I remember one of the very serious girlfriends that I had. I was getting friend zoned real quick. And I went, hey, just so you know, I'm not here to be your friend.

And it worked. And I was like, I'm the man. And I told people, I was like, it worked. I just said straight up. And she said, when you said that, I was like, oh my God. It's also not worked, okay? So everybody's different. And I know that's a very similar thing, but I just, when you say that you DM her and then the conversation fizzled out

pretty quickly, a very close female friend of mine, and we were talking about this and she's married. So it wasn't like that. It wasn't a friend zone. She wasn't even an option, but we were just kind of laughing about how simple all of this can be. If you text somebody and they don't text you back, it probably means they don't want to text you back. That's it. I mean, unless the person's running a fortune 500 company and they're super busy and you're on one of the bat phones, there are the rare exceptions. But for the most part, if you show interest in someone and they don't show interest back, it means they're not interested. I know that sounds insane that I have to keep saying it slowly, but I'm not big on six-month courtship. Efficiency here. I'm not going to dribble out the clock let's go no all right moving on

so maybe this isn't great advice but i just for men or women that consistently try to feel like what's he thinking what's he doing if he's not texting you back if she's not texting you back if she doesn't seem to want to ever engage the conversation, is the conversation always you first? Is it never her first? That's kind of your answer. So, all right. One quick one. Rob Jordan. I don't think I was supposed to say his name, but maybe, you know what? You know what? We should just leave it in there. We should leave it in there because this is a problem. And maybe this gets out into the mix.

Maybe I save the friend group by even exposing this. I don't know. I'm on the fence. Where are you with this Kyle? Should we just bleep out his last name? See how it plays out. I guess I don't, I don't know what's going on.

Okay. All right. Cause he has a good email and it's a problem. Big fan since the SVp to help uh help speed up a couple hours during the shit jobs during college breaks okay thanks all right okay we're his friend group we're around 30 i'll have good jobs my buddy we'll call him bill bill simmons makes the most money oh wait no debt and is annoyingly cheap not bill simmons okay all right bill is not cheap okay so here's the deal all right so he's got a friend bill makes the most money no debt is

annoyingly cheap great dude been friends forever fun hilarious have your back but cheap as hell went out to dinner he'll put dinner on his card to get the points and will Venmo split the bill or whatever and he'll tip like 5-10%. All right, stop the fucking presses here. He puts his card down to get all the points and then you Venmo him so none of you guys get any points and then he tips 5-10%. This guy sucks. Sucks. So Rob continues, as a former service industry person, this pisses me off. You can sense my tone. I'm also pissed off. Another example, another friend and I will buy a round of drinks at a bar pre COVID obviously, um, whatever people want, then he'll buy a round of the cheapest shit beer that they have that no one wants and think it's even go on and on

at times where he's made out well and stuck paying to get screwed. A few of us have talked about it, but I've never approached him. Do we, Is it worth it? Are we dumb for caring? No, you're not dumb for caring. I'm 100% with you. I've never been more with anyone who's ever emailed anything to anyone else. This is awful. We had somebody in the group that did do this. His move used to be, if we were ordering pizzas, he'd be like, hey, do you want to order pizza? Nope, I don't. Okay, fine. want to order pizza nope i don't okay fine we'd order pizza we'd pay and then you do that thing where after a couple slices you sit back on the couch you kind of take a breath maybe loosen up the belt strap and get ready for round

two and he'd be like are you guys done be like are you an asshole are you serious we just asked if you wanted to order and basically you just waited until we took a breath and then he would wait we'd wait after round two and three and be like, oh, you guys do. You're probably going to throw that away. I remember another time there was bottle service, I think, where at the end of the night, and I've mentioned this in passing, but it's not as specific as this, where he was bragging to the other guys,

be like, I didn't spend any money last night. We're like, well, someone did. You know who, what was us? We spent the money. That's why our credit card bill sucks right now so what what is this contest this isn't survivor okay this is supposed to be friendship so this is a i would have everybody get right in his face don't be nice about it and if he's not your friend anymore i think you're okay with it because that's it's such a shitty attribute to have as a person to not only be

cheap but you're not you're not just being cheap to servers you're not just being cheap to the rest of the world you're actually like getting over on your friends and you think it's cool we had another roommate who used to do this thing where if we didn't really buy rounds in college everybody was sort of a mercenary doing their own thing anyway but um if we did ever buy rounds it would it would be like all right i gotta write it just all felt like it was even these are your best friends you're living with for a year okay so maybe somebody's up at the end of the night and somebody's down it'll probably even out maybe there's a guy that always likes to pay i for

over the years have always been a pay guy i think it's because of the bartending because i want people to have a good time i've paid i got accused of being cheap i think once and i i was that was like i was so offended because of the years of me i think being a great tipper because i bartended all right bartenders generally tip too much the point where it's like oh hey i got hooked up and it's like yeah it actually cost me more because I paid the bartender tax. We had a guy who would be like, hey, I bought a round. I'd be like, that's great. Print up a fucking shirt, man. He's like, no, you still owe me a round. I'd be like, what?

He's like, well, I bought a... Remember when I bought the Coors Lights and then you didn't pay? You just go, you know what? In the future, leave me out of your rounds then. If this is the deal, if this is international trade, I would like to be left out in the future. So yeah, I'm upset, Rob. I'm upset for you. I'm upset for your friends. I'm upset that you have to make excuses to somebody who's been a lifelong friend that thinks it's okay getting over on you guys this much. That credit card point thing, that would happen zero times with my group.

Zero times. So, you know, the next email, the next life advice, Rob. Yeah, the next one's going to be get a backbone. It's not going to be about tipping. Have a great weekend, everybody. First, everyone knows about the risk of driving drunk. You could get a crash. People could get hurt or killed,

but that still doesn't stop everyone. You could get arrested. You could incur huge legal expenses, and you could possibly even lose your job. We all know the consequences of driving drunk, but one thing's for sure, you're wrong if you think it's no big deal. Drive sober or get pulled over.

Please subscribe, rate, and review the Ryan Rosillo Podcast and the Ringer Podcast Network. And as the Ringer Podcast Network deal drive sober or get pulled over please subscribe rate and review the ryan rossillo podcast on the ringer podcast network and as the ringer podcast network continues to grow go in and sample some of the other stuff that's in there uh this has been an unbelievable couple months in and what the company's been able to put together and uh really proud of it so check it out all right kyle until sunday So check it out. All right, Kyle. Until Sunday. you