The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Simons-Holiday Trade Thoughts and the Value of a Top-10 Pick. Plus, Kevin Boyle on the Draft.

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

Russillo starts the show by looking at the impact that the Anfernee Simons–Jrue Holiday trade will have on both teams (1:54). Then, Kevin Boyle comes on to share what it was like coaching Cooper Flagg, analyze Derik Queen’s game, and explain why he’s stayed at the high school level (18:52). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (45:14)! Can I mow my lawn shirtless? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin Boyle Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias This episode is presented by State Farm®. Dishing the assists you need off the court. State Farm® with the Assist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday, anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online Go Pass ahead of the show at Gotransit.com slash tickets. On today's pod, we're going to do a lot of draft stuff with Kevin Boyle. He's the head coach now at Spire Academy in Ohio. He was at Montverde for a long time. He won eight national championships. Cooper Flagg will be the fourth number one pick

that he has coached in high school. His crew from the 23-24 team went undefeated, won a national championship and I think it's gonna have four first-rounders on that team. So we're going to talk about, you know, his players, Cooper, and his approach to basketball because he is a legendary name in his level. And if you love basketball, probably need to know the name. We're also going to do life advice, which is pretty standard for all of the pods and an intro on Drew Holliday.

He's been traded the Portland Trailblazers. What does that mean for the money? Is that's really what this deal is about? What does it mean for the Celtics? I'm gonna revisit some of the top 10 picks in the draft and a draft rumor that I can't believe. You're listening to the Ryan Russo podcast presented by FanDuel.

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The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older in present select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Before we get to some of the draft stuff and life advice at the end, we had some movement last night in the NBA. Not surprising, Drew Holliday of the Boston Celtics traded the Portland Trail Blazers for Amford and Simon. So let's break down this deal, what it means and a couple other off season thoughts here.

And I also wanted to update the top 10 draft picks stuff that keeps happening. So Drew is a terrific teammate, really good player. Defense first can fit in a lot of different ways. update the top 10 draft picks stuff that keeps happening. So Drew is a terrific teammate, really good player, defense first, can fit in a lot of different ways. Last year, depending on which metric you want to look at, arguably like the least impactful season he's had since his rookie year. He had just signed a four year extension.

Last year was the first year of that four year extension. The numbers on what he's going to get paid the next three seasons here. 32.4 million, 35 million. The last year is 37.2 million. That's a player option. I'm reporting now that he's going to pick that one up. So you're looking at paying him 37.2 million at 37 years old when he didn't look great this past year. And the Celtics, because they're desperate to try to lower the tax bill, get under the second apron, they move him out try to lower the tax bill get under the second apron they move him out for Anthony Simons and they get a couple second rounders out of this one and he is

at an expiring contract twenty seven point six million dollars so Simons is you know look he's twenty six he's a 38% shooter for his career from three. He's a 20 point per game guy on a team. That's probably bad because all the shots are his. He takes the most shots of anybody. I mean, he's a really, really talented. Offensive player. I don't even know if this is about Simon's and whether or not they could flip him because he's expiring deal with Celtics could trade him again this off

season. So there's some rumblings that as soon as this deal went down, at least last night, it was like they may actually flip him again. Because the big number is that when you look at Drew's outgoing 32.4 million and Simon's coming in at 27.6 million, when you start doing all the tax math on this, this deal alone saves ownership, $40 million of tax savings, where the Celtics are now $18 million over the second apron. I want to go over some of the second apron stuff and just remind all of us what happens when you're a second apron team. You can't combine salaries for one player. So you can't trade a 10 million and a $10 million player for a $20 million player.

You can't do the math where it's percentage of incoming and outgoing money. It has to be dollar for dollar trades. You can't use the mid-level. You can't use the math where it's percentage of incoming and outgoing money. It has to be dollar for dollar trades. You can't use the mid-level. You can't sign a wave player whose salary is over the non-tax payer mid-level, which is 14.1 million. Your first round pick is frozen seven years out if you're over the second apron. If you're over the second apron three out of five years, your first round pick moves to the end of the second apron. If you're over the second apron, three out of five years, your first round pick moves to the end of the first round. You can't use any trade exceptions, which again,

I think like over 75% of trade exceptions are never even used. I think that's the number. I asked Bobby Marks, I was like, everybody loses their mind about trade exceptions all the time. I'm like, how many of these you use? He sent me like 20 years of the data on it.

So it's something that every team and every fan base is like, oh, we have this massive trade exception. Well, in this case, don't worry about not using it because you can't, and you also can't send out cash in trades, so pretty much a hard cap. I mean, not a hard cap, but as close as you can be to a hard cap without it being named one, I guess. So look, gut reaction to this.

I was surprised Portland did this deal because of the numbers on what Drew is going to be. We can talk about all the things we really like about Drew Holiday, the basketball part of it, the fit with Portland, more defense with Kamara, who I loved and voted all defensive team this year. I thought he was special defensively. So if it's about scoot and having more defensive players around him, um, is that part of this? Is it because true holiday can impact a basketball

game by not needing to shoot? That's definitely true. Is it just having like, Hey, we need the right guy in here. Okay. But that's really expensive for like the right personality to have somebody owed over a hundred million dollars on all this stuff. Cause you know, it might've just been moving on from Simon so that Sharp gets more shots. Uh, Denny Avdia gets more shots. That Scoot gets more shots. This feels like people that have Scoot stock. It's like, yep, yep. They're ready to get Simon's away from them. Um,

maybe it's just a really young group where Aitin's probably indifferent to competitiveness. The rest of the guys are really young and they wanted somebody like Drew coming in, but still, he also just had him in the Dame deal and then flipped into Boston the first time around. So I thought this was a really aggressive, expensive move or it feels like a veteran presence thing here. I mean, you may not like Simons. I think he's really talented, but he's probably a big stat guy on a bad team, but

he can score. Like if he were on the Celtics and he's the sixth man or he's coming off the bench, like you would think with the second unit, if things are really focused on him getting his buckets, he's going to get them because he's really a talented player. So what does this mean for Boston now? So, uh, I think there's still a Przingus trade out there. I mean, he turns 30 in August.

He's missed 65 games in the two years with Celtics. The playoffs, he wasn't really a huge factor in their championship run. Some people try to say that he was. Um, this year of the playoffs, he wasn't really a huge factor in their championship run. Some people try to say that he was. Um, this year of the playoffs, it wasn't very good. I understand why Missoula wanted to see if he could like kickstart and get something out of him. But this illness thing, this mystery illness was a problem.

So the next deal for, for Przingis, if this were to happen, he's an expiring $30 million deal. Apparently there's a market out there for him. Despite everything that I just said, uh, I don't know if that's an attachment. You know, I didn't think you'd be able to even get Simon's back for Drew considering the expiring contract versus the savings, not just for this year in the tax, but getting out of the 70 plus million on the last two years of that deal with Drew, um, but.

You know, poor Zingis, even at 30 million, other than the Nets, there's no team you could just dump his number in and give him an asset and have them take up some of their cap space because there's nobody in this free agent class that they want to sign. Like 30 million is a number that's north of like, I think everybody that has cap space, and some of those teams are like,

probably feel like they're gonna be competitive. So I don't know if other teams look at Porzingus and think that's adding somebody, even if you loved his game, you'd have to look at the last two years and go like, what are we actually betting on here at 30 million? But apparently there is a market for him. So it'll really be about how much lower or how much they can lower that $18 million number over the second apron. So now, whether it's Simons being traded again and flipped to get that second apron lower,

whether it's Przingus taking care of that and one transaction again, that would be difficult with the outgoing money. Then you start wondering like, what would the Celtics really be capable of this off season? I think it's worth at least spending a couple of minutes on that.

We know Jaylen Brown, probably not as great as season, but made sense to do the extension at the time because nobody just goes, Hey, we just don't want to pay you the five years, 285 million. So he's owed four years, 235 now at this point. It's a massive number. Looking at the market for a team that felt like they missed out on Durant, would those teams then be motivated to try to trade for Jaylen Brown? And I think if you're a Celtics fan, you had a hope that Houston would maybe miss out on Durant, and then maybe they would think like, we just need somebody who's established a better scoring

option to close out games at what we have. It would also mean the Celtics would have to like Jaylen Green, which I'm not sure that they do. And he's also sort of expensive, not crazy expensive like Jalen Brown, but you get the number. We've already been through all this stuff with Jalen Green, like 30 plus a year. Once Houston gets KD, then I think that takes away an option where there's maybe some attractive, smaller pieces for a team like Boston that might be just doing a simple reset for 25, 26.

You know, Miami wanting to be in on it, I don't know what you would possibly want if you were Boston for Miami. The Minnesota stuff doesn't make as much sense. Like you're going through the teams that have lost out. Is there something from San Antonio that actually would make sense if the Celtics decided, okay, here's the first piece,

Perzingis is the next one, and we actually want to mini tank for one year with Tatum out with the Achilles injury and then reset this thing for 26, 27. Because I've heard that that might actually be the move. This season's going to be a waste even if you're a competitive four or five seed because Jalen Brown and Derek White and you figure out the center position and there's a tweak here, tweak there, really like the

depth around it. The East is a mess. Let's just kind of see what happens, remain competitive and have kind of a fun season with no expectations whatsoever. All right, that's one part of it. The other one's like, what's the point of even doing that if you know you're not getting Tatum back? Take a reset year, not a full blown tank, because you're waiting on Tatum

and then see if it works out. I think that's an awesome, like if I were in my 20s, I would probably go, that's the way to do it. That's awesome. Tank right now, get rid of all these guys. Jaylen Brown for draft picks, assets expiring, reset this whole thing around. But then it's like, okay,

but then when are you gonna be in 26, 27? And then Tatum's a little bit older going, what the fuck happened to this team? Right? And ask Utah, ask Washington, ask New Orleans. I don't think Charlotte was really trying to tank, but ask those teams how they felt about their approach this past season. And then watching Dallas, San Antonio and Philadelphia end up with the top three picks.

The reset, rebuild, the speed with which so many people think that that's a real solution that's actually so much riskier than I think people understand. Well, I think we all understand how risky it is, but in the moment it's like, wow, man, I mean, I can't wait to get this pick. It's like, yeah, now you're picking sixth and you still stink. Is it really worth it to Boston to get really aggressive? I think Brad Stevens is the kind of guy, it's like, maybe there's a Jalen Brown deal that's out there that makes sense, but I don't know that he would ever go into this portion of

the MBA calendar thinking, I have to trade Jalen Brown. And my guess would be that there's not gonna be anything that's, well, I can't say that I, we're surprised by this league all the time, but I don't feel like, I just don't know that Brad Stevens has ever tried to put himself in a position

where he felt like he had to do something. Cause whenever you're doing that in a negotiation or any kind of transaction, it means you're usually going to lose. So a quick recap of the top 10 draft picks from the last few years. Cause I like looking at this all the time, as

much as I love what's about to happen on Wednesday night and how excited we all get about the unknown and the drama surrounding pick three down. Cause that's, I think what's going to be fun about this, although it feels like more and more people think VJ Edgecombe just goes to affiliate three. You know, that's a wrap. But if you go back, and I'm going to go through the last few years, because I could have gone even further to tweet the numbers even more in the favor of the argument, just how often these top 10 picks are on another team really quickly. 2017 draft,

two of the 10 top 10 picks are still with the team. And I don't want to do the technical team that drafted him. I think we're all adults here. We know, hey, this team had this guy as a rookie. Is he or is he not still on this team? It's actually three, technically, with Yaka Pertle back with Toronto. So, but yeah, two of the top 10 picks have stayed with the team that drafted them the entire time three guys from that draft Yes, it's not like it's a long time ago, but things move fast and sports three already out of the league

2017 two of the ten top ten picks with the team that took them three also out of the league 2018 two of the top ten picks still 2018, two of the top 10 picks still with the team that brought them in. By the way, the 11th pick that year in the draft just won the MVP in the finals MVP. 2019, four of the top 10 picks. Five years ago, 2020 draft, five of the top 10 picks. 2021, six of the top 10 picks. Kaminga staying strong, keeping that number north of 50%. And then 2022, the exercise is over. Dyson Daniels, Johnny Davis, the only of the top 10 picks in 2022, only three years ago, that are not with the team that brought them in. Davis's own issues, D in the Dijon de Murray trade.

So if we really go through 17, 21, six year average, three and a half picks of the top 10 picks stay with the team that brought them in. Last draft nugget, when we had Vasini on, I had him guess. I was like, who do you think I didn't like of all the first round guys that I spent time on? And yeah, I think he got another second guess. He said, Essengay, French kid plays in this German league and he's in the news. And a bunch of us had heard this the last few days. Essengay's team in the German league is in their championship, their finals, and he's coming to

New York for the draft. He's leaving the team. And when we heard this, a bunch of us were like, no fucking way is this true. Like there's no way. Cause somebody was like, Hey, you don't like them? Well, you're really not going to like them once you hear this. And I asked somebody else and they're like, Hey, I heard that. And then it kind of kept coming around. It's like, there's no way somebody's going to actually do this. Because if you're willing to quit on your team, it's playing for championship. To go to the draft, to be there in person. If I had S and gay and another player tied and I had like the 12th pick, to go to the draft to be there in person.

If I had S and K and another player tied and I had like the 12th pick, he just broke the tie. I wouldn't even want to draft you. Now, could this all be an overreaction? Sure. I imagine somebody, I don't know that there's gonna be a ton of S and K segments on television on some of the bigger networks out there.

I guess I could see somebody's zagging and trying to say that this is about his moment. He wants to be there. Every kid dreams of this, walking across the stage, hugging the commissioner, putting on the weird hat that never fits right. Let him have his moment. It's bigger than, I don't know. Imagine not caring. Now, maybe he has this terrible,

I know nothing about his situation, but the fact that it's bigger than, I don't know. Imagine not caring. Now maybe he has this terrible, I have, I know nothing about his situation, but the fact that you are signing up for a career in this competitive of a setting where basically your profession is being competitive and then to say, yeah, I know, but like I'm out. And it's funny too, cause like I look, the tape is the tape. I've been wrong plenty of times. I don't like what I saw.

There's some really funny advanced numbers to tell you he's good. I'm telling you it's the free throw bullshit. He was I think fourth in minutes and sixth in shot attempts. And he took two more free throws per game than any other teammate. He was at like 5.6.

So it makes his true shooting percentage look a lot better. And then another team heard me talk about him. And they were like, we actually really like 5.6. So it makes us true shooting percentage look a lot better. And then another team heard me talk about him. They were like, we actually really like him because you think defensively you can do some of these things. I was like, okay, fine. Like again, all these people have watched him far longer than I have. But to me, this is, this would be a major red flag if it's as simple as, yeah, I just wanted to go to the drought and I didn't care unless there's more to it. Where it's like, you never get along with the coach, didn't like his teammates, they didn't care any of this kind of stuff. But that's fucking crazy to me.

Imagine a guy, well, imagine if the college basketball were the final four, but the final four were Wednesday. And a guy who's projected to go, I guess, late lottery, teens, said, you know what, Houston, like, Kelvin, I love this team, I love this run we've been on. I know we've got a big one on Wednesday night, but I just want to hear my name called. It's so confusing because no one really knows who the guy is.

I don't know how much it'll be talked about, but it was something that people were in disbelief about that work, you know, that this is their profession. The draft is their profession. And they're like, there's a guy really going to do this. And I guess he is unless, uh, unless something changes. All right. Let's talk to a guy who, uh who knows a lot about NBA draft picks, and that's former Montenberg coach, now at Spire Academy, Kevin Boyle.

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Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. With draft week upon us, a bunch of guys have spent some time playing basketball down in Montenegro. And it sounds weird to even introduce him this way, but he's the head coach. Kevin Boyle, now with Spire Academy and after eight national championships in not that many more years, is it still weird to you to hear yourself introduced from another place? Yeah, it is. I don't like change. I was at St. Patrick's in New Jersey for 24 years. We had the pleasure of coaching like Harry Irving and Al Harrington and Samuel Dallinberg.

And then the last 14 years I've been at Montverde Academy. So that was a great challenge to go to Montverde and try to help them get to the top of the high school basketball world. And now we're trying to do the same thing as fire or chattamy. So when you look at this class that is now getting ready for the draft, so it's Cooper, it's Liam, it's Asa, it's Derek Queen. You also had Robert who's Baylor and then now BYU. I mean, this is an all time class, 33 and 0 national championship.

Is this when you got this group in and you got them in the different stages to know that four are going in the first round this week? Is this what you got this group in and you got them in the different stages to know that four are going in the first round this week? Is this what you expected when you brought in this group? No, not at all. I mean, I thought without question, Cooper Flach had that potential to be a high lottery pick. Liam, I think worked like hell at first to be a guy that I think some people questioned to see his second round pick. Could he be a first round player? You know, do do do do, can he guard in that level? Can he rebound at that level? And that's where it really developed.

And then Asa was unheard of when he came in. We knew he had talent, was good, but nobody knew who he was when he was a junior, you know? And Devin Queen was a guy, and there was a guy that I always thought could be a good pro, but nobody seemed to agree with me. And I just thought he was the joker of high school. He was super smart, super skilled, knew how to play, just needed his motor to get better.

And over time it started getting better and better. And now again, so that was the situation. So one guy you were sure on, I mean, who knows, hopefully they all get the lottery, they're all going to be close, but they'll all be first round picks without question. And we also have Ryan Nemore will be a second round pick, I think. Yeah, no doubt projected to be a second rounder and it's just a really good combine week as well. So when you think about Cooper, he's going to be your fourth number one overall pick, that you've coached at the high school level. And, you know, you bring it in all these, these high profile guys.

What is the message to somebody that's like, you may have to play a little bit differently. You're going to have to have times where you defer as opposed to being the number one option, like you've been at other high school programs. Well, I think the message first of all, it's transparency and to get them to understand we're not running plays in the NBA for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth option. You're the one guy or the two guy, or you better learn how to fit in and figure it out

so you get drafted by the Cavs and that guy is Kyrie Irving and that guy's LeBron James. Well, guess what? They're not going to you. So how do you get on the court? You guard, you don't have to share, you can make open shots. You can play an impactful role in a different way and wait your turn to get an opportunity to star if you have that level of ability. But defense guarding Andrew Nemmhar, he gets you out in the court.

It gives you a chance. And now he's one of the elite guard defensively, he rebounds the ball and he's getting a $60 million deal from the Patriots and has started three years in a row as a second round pick. So we really try to explain how they can fit in at first. That doesn't mean you can't be a star and be a role player. It's not a negative thing. Steph Curry is a role player. His role is to get 30. You know, Dream on Green's role was to distribute, guard, be the physical guy in the teams. Everybody has a different piece and have a championship team. So we try to be very honest to them and also to tell them how many guys that are rent really high are not playing

Look at the NBA playoffs TJ McConnell Andrew Nemmert Halliburne Oh, look Naisman a load of these guys were not ranked in the top 25 top 50 of high school basketball And a lot of those guys are home and they're still playing so we try to really get them to understand that we're trying to go How tough are your practices? Well, we take a lot of pride in that. You know, you know, our thing is we don't want them to go to a college and then to say practice is harder in college. And you know, we've gotten really good feedback from our guys with that.

Maybe we're wrong in doing that. I don't know. But our thing is we try to make practices hard and as detailed as a game. And we just think, you know, to me, anything in life is detail and fundamentals, repetition, and to get Cooper a lot better, lower with his hand, or to get him better using his left hand. You know, you know, Derek Queen, we wouldn't let him handle the ball on open court for a year and a half until we started drilling more seriously and getting a little tighter with the ball

and understanding Rob Wright's around and getting the ball up. Not dribbling by Rob Wright in the court. And then we let him go and we let him go. And he eventually got good at it. But he got, he understand like, you know, can I play quarterback? The question is, I don't know, can you, if you're good enough to play quarterback, but we'll let you play it, but you have to be skilled enough for a team. What you did that not just cause you want to do it. No.

So that's, you know, uh, the practices were very hard, very competitive. And I think that's a big piece of these guys is telling them that's how you get better challenge, which Liam Gardner, Cooper, Cooper, Gordon, Liam Cooper, getting caught in the post with Everqueen. Those are real NBA high college tech situations. You're considered the best high school coach doing it. Uh, I don't, I don't know if you like that kind of stuff, but that's how you're talked about and when you consider all these national championships and the NBA resumes

of these players, it does feel like there has to be a real buy-in. I mean, even if a kid's a five star and ranked top 10 in his class, there has to be like a real commitment where it feels, and look, we can talk about the academic part of it, but this feels like you've put together this run, this basketball factory. Is that for everybody? Because I can imagine there's some times it's like, hey, this guy's really talented, but he's not a mountain, he's not a mountain bird guy. Well, again, it's the reality that is a hundred percent, you know, right now I've explained to the people at Spire, it's an incredible campus here, it's unbelievable, but it's the culture of the guys you're

bringing in. They're like, why can't you get that guy? Can't you get this guy? But that guy and that guy will not work with the culture of what you're trying to develop and the relationships with the campus and its teachers and adoring parents. And that's a big factor in having success. The greatest thing with that group of guys,

first of all, you had 60, which was another guy, Curtis Gibbons, who was excellent at LSU last year, started 14 games. They'll be at Memphis this year at Rob Wright, who got three million at BYU with the four guys in the draft. And I went to those guys and said, listen, we should start six guys and rotate because it's gonna be not good mentally, not,

they wouldn't shut down a sense of effort. You have the guys, if it's A or B, who doesn't start. But I don't think it's the best thing for our chance to win and develop. And this was including Cooper. Cooper didn't start like five games in Syria because we rotated six guys. And because that was the best thing. And all those guys, including Cooper, like coach, whatever,

we just want to win and get better and be good in pros and get to the end game. And we want to win. And if you think that's the best swirling, so those are like, he's Cooper flag because he could easily push back on that. He was like, coach, whatever you need. That's what you think is best. I'm all in. That's these guys are really unique guys, personality wise as well.

They're all good. If he had pushed, if Cooper had pushed back, would you, would you have been like, okay, then I would have probably realleged it. As tough as I wanna be, I'm gonna probably make some excuses. What's your favorite thing about Cooper that those of us that don't know him don't know about? Well, my favorite thing with him is I think,

cause he's not overly talkative in the public. I think it can be misunderstood. I think he's very humble for his success level and very willing to get better. He's very coachable. No, he, when he came, I thought he had, you know, uh, no, uh, his mom, Andy, you coach him with the main, uh, main AU team. He did a really good job because of his size. A lot of times he was like four or five with those guys. You know, just because he's from Maine, Maine, he's one of the bigger

guys even when he's young. I think he really grew into a really good perimeter player overall and more of a hitting away from a four or five, more to a two, three, four, especially a three, four. And I think we made great training, great support, great community. You know, and like I said, Andy and those guys, Matt, you know, his trainer did a great job with him. But I think what I love about him is you could be very honest with him about his weaknesses. And he's really accepting of that. Like I can tell him, listen, right now we're going to pin down for a shot. We're going to post up and go for Derek Queen. We're going to ball screen and go to Rob Reich. And you're the best player in the world at your age.

Okay, so you got to become first in two and oh three. If you're going to be an elite NBA scorer and he's mature enough to understand first of all, I get why you do that coach. And secondly, I understand as good as I am to be the elite top 10, top five NBA player. Yes, I got to be better than those two, at least two of those three things that those guys were on the first option and all those, you know, and he's

growing and growing this game. He's to me, he's going to probably be at 19, seven and seven, 22, 10 and eight and kind of like Kate Cunningham. And we had all of a sudden like he's averaging 27, 11 and nine, you know, and just incredibly impactful. But he's also very liked by his teammates. He knows how to interact and get along with people and his teammates. They all like him and they all respect him because he works really hard.

Does Dallas even have to call? I mean, maybe they just have to because they're supposed to call and background everybody that they're picking. I can't imagine that's necessarily like the most intense conversation because the decisions are even made. You know, it's funny, we get calls all the time about background checks. We never got one from Dallas. I think it's pretty obvious. And, you know, and people know it needs to be out there and street these guys are around all the NBA scouts are a lot of things.

And a lot of times when they go to these events, which you try to tell kids, so they're not just watching you, they're watching you on the bench, they're watching your family who's with you. And if you're a superstar, you got a little grace there. But if you're somebody else, you cannot be in the league because of that.

You know, they want professional guys in the league now. Now, if you're unbelievable talent, there's a little grace, there's a little chance, but you better be putting 5,000 people in the arena for that, you know? So I mean, again, he's just gonna be terrific, I think. I think he's gonna be a top five pro, you know? In five, seven years, he's gonna be in that conversation

with the first team all pro. Is there anything that, you know, this feels like I'm either going to get a great answer or the answer is just painfully obvious and maybe you'll entertain me, but is there something about the number one picks that felt different now that you've had four of them? You know what? It's something you're really so happy for those guys and their families because, you

know, they were really all good guys who worked really hard and it's life changing obviously from a personal standpoint it's a accomplishment standpoint and obviously a financial standpoint so you know you're really happy for all of them and then for me personally obviously it's very rewarding that you know you were able to help these guys exceed your expectations. These are all pros wherever they were going to be. But we like to think that what we're doing in detail and the practices help them exceed their expectations because none of our guys go to the league and don't play really well.

They don't go to college. They're already immediately to compete and play. And that's first for them, what they've accomplished, but it's also for the talent in the building. And the fact that we're going to coach them hard. And I think most guys want to get coached hard as long as you're respectful. Like I tell guys, you can't tell me you want to be an NBA player. Don't work hard. You can't tell me you want to be an NBA player. Don't get the way you can tell me, you know, in any area of development, you can't tell me you want it because they'll give me the answers.

Yes, I have to work hard. Yes, I have to do the right thing in the weight room. Well, then I'm gonna hold you accountable to it. Because otherwise I'm letting you down if I don't push you to that level. You mentioned Derek's game. It is the kind of game where it's like, if the NBA team lets him be him, then it has a chance, you know?

And my fear is, man, I hope he doesn't get stuck. And then it's like, hey, we can't let you use your creativity and your scoring ability with your size. Cause like when it's good, it's really, really impressive. But a lot of times, as we both know, you get drafted and it's like, okay, but you're gonna have to figure out how to impact the game playing off the ball. And are you gonna stretch the floor?

Are we gonna run post-ups for you, which nobody seems to wanna do anymore? What's the best kind of like philosophical fit for him? We don't have to pick a team here, but for Derrick to be the best version of himself. No, I think what will help be really good is when people, you know, Trapper puts ball screens and he gets the short roll

and he's caught up in four on threes, then he's exceptional. He's a really good passer, a really good decision maker. And he's not that fast. It almost helps him because he has good pace and he's under control reading and figuring things out. I also think he's become a guy that's his shots getting better.

I think you see his foul shot was at 80 plus percent last year. So I'm not saying he's a three point shooter, but I think he's at least more than keeping you honest. Now screened at a 17 footer. You both want to go with Rondo on a wing stream? Well I can pop out and knock this out, keep you honest. And if you close out and you're most big guys in the NBA, he's crafty.

He's in the bottoms guys and everybody's hugging insane. It's like TJ McConnell. It's like he's playing one on one, going around and everybody's like, hello to the man. It's hugging and saying, it's like TJ McConnell. It's like he's playing one on one, dribbling around, and everybody's like, hello to the man. It's like, wait, he's just playing one on one with this guy. Four other guys like hugging their man, and he's dribbling under the rim outside, and it's stuff that wouldn't happen in a college game.

I think a lot of times, in a weird way, it's easier to get to the rim and score for some of these guys in the NBA, where the college is so helping, so loading at the elbows, so loading on rotations because there's not as many shooters as there is in the NBA. The analytics aren't used quite as much where everybody's just hugging their man. So I think he's going to, you know, I think again, I'm not, he's not going to be as good

as the joker by any means, but he's going to be, which I mean, very complimentary, which means you're a really good player. He's, he's similar to the Joker, just not quite as big and not quite as good, but he's gonna be really, really good. I think, I think he's gonna be, you know, year, I think five years from now, you redraft his class, he's gonna be the top five of the graph. Okay. Asa is probably somebody who fits in with more teams just because of the energy, the effort. When I went back and looked at a lot of his stuff, Gonzaga comes out, puts up a huge number

on him and what kept me coming back was Asa's playing like he doesn't know what the score is, which was probably one of my favorite moments of his entire season. Well, I love Asa, but he probably didn't know what the score was. No, I'm kidding. Now, Asa is incredibly bright. He was, he was like the valedictorian of our school. I mean, the senior, they were the two smartest kids in the school. So, you know, he's incredibly bright. I'm kidding.

But he just has one, one way in life to play hard, to do the right thing every second, every day. Like he tried to win every single sprint in practice. Any drill, there was never anything less than a hundred. He never had to try to light a fire on him. The fire was always there. And again, he'd be a great rim runner, he'd be a great screen up top or dunk to pinch the corners and then help. And he's also a good, and I think he'll be a very good because I think he'll take a thousand shots at that, actually his pride in this game. Screen, dragging, dragging, dragging, shoot,

or screen and pop three, that creates problems, especially for the joker, and those type of guys if he's in a five roll. Like those guys who can't really get out and guard as well. He's gonna give those guys a lot of problems, because they're good at shooting, and then if they do come up on him, he's pretty quick. He'll go by those guys easy.

So I think he's gonna, again, I think he's gonna, again, he's gonna be a really good career pro without question. I think he's gonna have a lot of years as a starter. And I think he's an exceptional get. I like Liam probably more than the numbers would say. Because I look at the shooting, I go, there's no way this is who he is as a shooter.

It was pretty clear that Hurley trusted him in huge spots to probably play a little out of position because they didn't love their guards all the time. So even though he probably feels like, again, you were talking about the projections, maybe he wasn't even supposed to be here, but there was a moment with his size and his ball handling where you're thinking, okay, this could be really, really good. And now he's maybe late teens, early twenties, but I just have a hard time believing that the shooting numbers that he put together this year are who he is as a shooter.

Yeah, I think Williams is a good to very good shooter without question. And I think that's the biggest thing. He needs to become a sniper. And I think he's got one, yeah, he works as hard as anybody, and he's confident. No, you're not gonna knock his confidence off.

And he will end up being, again, I think a terrific pro. I think it's, what's the guy, Braun, is it on Denver? I think he's from Kansas, a really good pro. I think he's a lease on that level. You know, a guy that's, you know, he's starting in the NBA, he's a really productive player. I think, again, I can't see him. He's that good size, too.

He's like 6'8", strong. I remember him as a junior telling him, you know what, you gotta guard better, you gotta rebound the position. Nobody's got you in the first or second round right now, and I talked to NBA teams. And, you know, his thing then was to almost just fight guys for rebounds and follow the hell out of the guy's guard.

And I'm like, he was immediately brought in. Like of the guy's car and I'm like he was immediately brought in like so he's like I get it coach you know and I'm like you might not even start here as a junior you don't turn this shit up you know and he just got it and figured it out and again I think he's I was just so fortunate because those guys were so rare because they also worked incredibly hard and Derek Queen benefited from it because Derek Queen's first year, young and overweight and that group helped him rise up and learn to work

harder. He still has a level of tunes. That's her to notch up, but he also plays a little bit different, you know, kind of like, you know, kind of like the Joker. If you went to, you know, uh, Serbia today and see him in the park, you might say, I don't know if you can, I don't know if you can play in our league. No, he plays. We're not so sure watching him in his pick up game. You know, so there is definitely he's kind of a throwback. So I think he'll be fine.

And again, Liam, I think it's going to be exceptional. A little bit. I think he's going to be really good. And he's going to be a guy that's so many good that you get on a team with a good isolation player. Like when they have to help, he's going to be a guy, I think, especially if it's a spot ups, he's going to knock those down. It's can you get to the next level where we give you soon handoffs in the shots, where we give you pin downs in the shots and you're running from side to side. And then you become another level player, but he's going to minimally be an

excellent knock down open shooter playing with a good skilled one on one isolation guy when you have to over help. Like last night in championship twice. They had kind of over helped in that little run third quarter. And you know, as as Gina kicked it out and bang bang. Okay, so he wasn't shooting well for most of the series yourself in the end. But when they're making shots, then how do you guard him? Well, now you get help.

And then these guys are banging shots. And that's where he's going to fill in his. I think his game is almost better for the NBA because his ability to shoot the ball. And I think, you know, around a little bit of inconsistency this year, I think it's more an apparition than a reality. How has, you know, we spent a lot of time talking about the NAL because of how much I love college sports. How has it impacted the high school level? Well, I'll tell you what, it's here and it's really coming because, you know, everything

trickles out from the MBA to college to high school. And you know, it doesn't matter if anybody agrees with it, likes it or doesn't like it. It's the reality of college basketball today. It's the reality of most states in high school. You mean in Iowa. The days for me getting Cooper flag to turn down a million dollars to stay for zero are probably over because at that point not many guys were getting paid maybe a few would over time to leave or something but now

a lot of kids are getting paid like different you know some shoe companies some this you know agents because they could deal with the kids now so it's a different game that being said you know it's it's. So it's a different game. That being said, you know, it's it's here and it's going to be a part of it. So I think the teams that want to stay elite, I mean, had to figure that out in the high school space. You know, when it was talked about college, and like, this is something I've talked about years, it's like, man, we get really concerned about younger people will never meet. And yet, it's this traditional and now feels outdated,

like, oh, you're gonna have problems in the locker room, you're gonna have all these different dynamics, you're entering all this stuff, there's gonna be a level of entitlement. I mean, I'm sure there are examples of it, but is it safe to say that it's still the same, but different? Like you could have really had those problems

before the money was as much of a factor as it is today. So I'm just kind of wondering like your thoughts on the criticisms of the evolution of the compensation here. Yeah, I don't think the compensation as much as the problem has the ability to transfer year in, year out. Now, I think when the coach has them, there's an occasional guy that might be a disruptive guy or whatever. And no, say he's making more than some of the assistants if it's a college. But the reality is, I don't think that comes into play as much as people think. I think the bottom line is, you know, kids want to be coached. It's setting the boundaries and kids want to get better and kids want to be in the league. It's I think,

you know, now money's part of it. And yes, we do have to deal with a little bit of who's getting most because they're going to talk. But that's also a grownups conversation. OK, you know, right now, you know, this guy is better than you. Or right now, he's in a position where, you know, you came in six months ago and he came in after you and he was in a, you know, he was in a better negotiating position.

And the next time, maybe you will. And that's his, you know, real business world stuff. months ago and he came in after you and he was in a better negotiating position and the next time maybe you will be. And that's his real business world stuff that people have to understand and deal with. So I don't think that's going to be as much of a factor as people think. I don't think it's affected college overly. I think it's more the transfer rule. People are going to transfer every year is more that I almost like to see a two year contracts where guys have to like you buy out to get out now because it's just too easy to transfer.

I think that's more of the problem more than, you know, you know, the struggle with college basketball today. Why has it always been high school for you? Yeah. I don't think too far ahead. I love the age group. I love, you know, I love, at first I loved a lot the fact that you can make your own schedule and I probably got a head job too early where then it was hard to go to, you know, being an ops guy for somebody, you know.

And I got in St. Pat's in New Jersey, St. Patrick's. I was like 24, and that was my passion. And it also lets you say, if I want to go to my daughter's training competition, I can sort of team at a gym. I'm mad at them because she has a competition in an hour and tell them we're coming at 4.30 in the morning. I can't do that as an assistant at Kentucky or probably even a head guy there. So I think at one point, I almost went to college years ago. My sons were both ready to play for me.

I wanted to coach them in high school and have that experience. And I just, you know, I've always been comfortable with the level. And then I also got to a point where, you know, from a never, never unbelievable, but enough financially where it was like, do I go to like Danny earliest? You know, there's a friend of mine and obviously a competitor, when I was in New Jersey, it was me versus Hurley. So it's St. Anthony's and St. Benedict's and me. And the reality is, I knew Danny was going to do an excellent job coaching.

But he had to go to Wagner first. He wasn't going to get a job higher than Wagner because he's coming from high school. And he had to go to Rhode Island. Then he was like, no, that really helped him. It helped him a little bit. But Wagner didn't help him at all. His St. Benedict's team would have beat Wagner. So that was just, but it's just the way the system set up.

It's like you need a college degree to get this job. You need that to go here. So that's more the issue. It's like if you were a power four type school, that's a different story. But when you're at the need to lower the vision one schools, you better be sure that you've got confidence in yourself, but you also don't believe,

you can't think you can make chicken salad and chicken poop. Like you better have good resources, good staff, good financial support in school, or no matter, even if you're Rick Pitino, you could, good financial support in the school, or no matter, even if you're Rick Pitino, you could be struggling at one of those places. I own a change in numbers for him. If they were the old I own the numbers, he might still be at I own, that's good to see it.

You know, they upped the bar because he was Rick Pitino, but if he wasn't Rick Pitino yet, he might have got sold there. If he was a young 30, 35 year old guy, without the reputation of a Pitino in college college basketball and without the backing of some financial people that give him money and give him support to outgrow, you know, to be more competitive than the rest of the league. So you're not going to win with that really talented players and talented staff

with you. It's an unbelievable resume. I wish you all the luck at Spire cause I'm sure it was a big decision for you and enjoy draft night as a bunch of your guys get their names called. Well, I appreciate it. I'll tell you this. You got to come down and see this place. It's one of the most amazing facilities and the growth here, this program and

the school, I'm telling you within two or three years, what we had is bigger, bigger than IMG from every standpoint. And IMG had great respect for the model of how to run a business and a school. And the people here had great respect for them and kind of watched a lot what they've done and how they could add to a billion dollar business sale. And we have all the right people in place to make this, you won't go around

the world in five years and people who know who Spire is. So thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah. Well, it sounds like I think we all know in basketball, they got the right guy. So like I said, thanks so much for the time, Kevin. Enjoy the week. All right. Thanks. Enjoy the week. All right. Thanks. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders.

Shop now at nofrills.ca. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Today's life advice is presented by State Farm. On the

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LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com. Good to see Kyle. Good to see Warcon. He's already got a rise smile on his face. What's going on? You just nailed that. You just nailed that intro. I think that's what...

Yeah, I liked it. Me and him just locked eyes like the assist. Hell yeah. What's that shirt from? A paper convention? Talking to me? No. Me?

My brother works here. Oh. Yeah. It looks a lot like a shirt that is in a gift bag at some residence in like networking thing, no? Maybe I don't go to many residence and networking events. Maybe I gotta start, stays the day. Hilton honors guy.

Unfortunate for you. No idea what you're missing. I'll just say this while you're searching for our first thing. Yes. Verner showed up. It really wasn't hitting at the first one. It was warm. I just popped it out of the box.

Thank you to that guy for the Amazon gift card. I put it in with ice and maybe that screwed it up a little bit. So I waited till one got cold, tried it. I'd certainly put it above Canada Dry, but I think Secret's still the winner. So I just wanted to check that box. Thank you for sending that, but it's definitely not the best one. This isn't about the ginger ale, this is about the TVs.

God, you see right through me. Read me like a book. Because every time you bring up getting free ginger ale, I immediately remember I've got to email the guy about the TVs. God, you still didn't do it. I thought you were just going to be like waiting on a response.

Damn. Just lie to me next time. No, you know I'll do it. I know you will. But then when I get done with the pod, I just get so amped to go. Just got to get in the ocean. Yeah.

Do something physical, yeah. It's like, that's a tough window to get to me. Cause I'll to get in the ocean. Yeah. Do something physical. Yeah. It's like, that's a tough window to get to me. Because I'll have like a few things I have to do, but then I get done. It's like, you know, got to put yourself through something to then get through the rest of the day. So, uh. Right on your surfboard.

See if that works. When you're like about to stand up, you're like, ah, shit, TVs. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. Anything else, any other housekeeping things, any other tension that we need to talk about? No? No, I got it. Now I got something.

Now? No. We actually were gonna have Sarudhiyan to talk soccer, but then we didn't, so I don't know. I don't think he cares. I mean, if you wanna talk about a guy who just does not, he is just flat-lined all the time. He doesn't really get upset about that much stuff.

All right, about the silence here. What would he be upset about in this situation? Your rise to power. Your approval rating. Being higher than his perhaps. No, I don't think that's true. Hmm. Well, you don't see all the emails.

All right. Let's see here. All right. We knew this was going to happen. People in Norfolk, Virginia, not thrilled. Some people were saying, how could you say, cause you went to Portsmouth that you understand Norfolk. I stayed in Norfolk too. When I wasn't able to stay in Portsmouth, which actually is a win now that I

think about it. I don't know if the Chamber of Commerce down there is going to make sure it's at say better than Portsmouth, but we had a lot of military guys chime in here. And so I believe there was even some San Diego pushback. I'll tell you this, I don't know. Eight years ago, seven years ago, we had a crew that did Coronado, which is not where you would be living, I would imagine, but we did the Coronado group, I don't know, seven, eight people.

There was a birthday party for somebody else, and we had a blast in Coronado. And then even in some of those like military dive bars where you know, like no matter what you do, again, we had girls with us, everything was fine. It was very normal. But you could just see like, man, young dudes must come in here and just get their asses handed to them. Right. Be respectful. Right. By these guys that are in here that are training and then they get to just hang out, whatever. So we actually did have a great time, but I would say, what is it?

The gas lamp district. And you just get a little bit older. It's not great, but it is a funny story because I was with another dude. Um, I guess I could say the names, Matt Bushman, who, you know, was married to Sarah Walsh and they're great friends. And so it was Sarah was a couple other girls, you know, few that had been on TV or were on still on TV. So not bad to look at gang.

Um, and so there was like a dude from some club that was, it was just a really aggressive thing. I think anybody that's like in the city, San Diego to agree with me. And again, maybe this has no impact whatsoever. And the email is like, yeah, I'm not going to be doing any of that stuff. So why are you talking about it? But never afraid to share a story,

even if no one wants it. A guy comes out in like a suit, he's a club promoter. We know the guy, right? And he sees the group of women and Matt and I are like trailing behind and he starts going like, oh, you have to come into my club. You have to get right. What's your ownership percentage?

Um, we're going to set it all up. We've got to, we're going to table bottles, the whole thing. And they're all like, all right, great. You know, like let's do this for an hour. So they escort them all right in front of Matt and I. And then I'm like, I think I know what's about to happen. And they send them in and they're like dancing, they're setting up a table. And then Matt and I are like waiting.

Okay. We're like, what's, what's going on here? And the guys are like, well, you have to pay for everything. Like what happened to the whole, we're going to take care of all of them. They're like, well, we didn't know that you were with them, but since you're here or whatever. And then I was like, well, I'm not like, we don't even want to do that. We don't want to bottle service all night. We don't want to do this.

And they were like, well, no, they're already in there, dude. And you're just like, what is this? Like handing me a fucking CD and Soho. Yeah, really though, right? Right. It's like, no, I don't want your CD. We have your women. Yeah.

So I was like, I don't think this is a kidnapping charge, but anyway, went in, was like, hey, they're not actually gonna like let Matt and I in unless we pay for everything now. And they're like, all right, beat it. That's probably has nothing to do with you and your family. And I was just like, wow. Yeah, I didn't see the road we were gonna take.

It was just a San Diego story. Cool. Yeah, cause when I think about San Diego, I think about that. And that's totally unfair cause the surrounding areas are terrific and whatever. Yeah, I really called myself out on that one. Okay, do you wanna go to Dirk's Bentley tonight, Kyle?

No. Wow. Wait, with you wanna go to Dirk Spentley tonight, Kyle? No. Wow! Wait, with you? No, not with me. No, no. Tomorrow night, excuse me. No, no. I have the draft, I have night two of the draft.

Yeah, sorry, night two, I forgot. Yeah, maybe they can break this up into 15 picks. We go four nights in a row. All right, somebody was offering up Dirk Spentley tickets. War gone, I know you love. Oh, no, respectfully no, but yes, thank you. Okay, all right. Cause somebody was offering up Dirk's Bentley tickets. War gone. I know you love- Oh no, respectfully no, but yes, thank you. Okay.

All right. All right. I think that'll do it. Oh, maybe a Friday feedback here. Five, 10. He's been to 48 of the 50 states visited. My sole criterion for having visited a state is if I've run there. All right, this would be relevant.

You guys know off the top of the head how many states you haven't been to? Forrest Gump over here. I got a little map on the wall that we scratch off. Do you? I can't tell from here, yeah. You're gonna be such a fun dad. I hope.

Yeah, I can see that. Like guys, break out the maps. Kicking that can down the road though. Yeah, like, okay out the maps. Kicking that down the road, though. Yeah. Like, OK, how many license plates? We're almost there. Oh, is that a Delaware quarter? Give me that. How many states have you not been to, Oregon?

Oh, a bunch. A bunch like 18, maybe. All right. Probably like halfway through. Yeah. Yeah. Twenty five. Yeah, maybe less. through. Yeah. Yeah. 25. Yeah, maybe less. I don't want to be too ambitious.

Do you think there's any, do you want to do all 50 states or do you think like why? It's kind of why for me. It's always like when we, I find out we're going somewhere weird, not weird, but like, you know, like we went to Mississippi and I was like, huh,

probably would have done that otherwise, pretty cool, pretty cool. So yeah, I get excited about that kind of stuff. All right, good to know. I'm under 10 remaining, so I probably will just go, you know, the Dakotas, that's gonna be a weekend to make it happen. Like that's gonna be a, this is- Deadwood, dude, that's not gonna be a weekend. Make it happen. Like that's going to be a re this is dead wood. Dude, that's not going to sort of happen.

I did. I was 15 minutes from Nebraska when I went to Colorado, play Valley Neil, and I went just. Just get it. Check it off the box over there. Yeah. But I was like, I don't know. I don't know if that really counts, you know, I don't know if that counts.

So then I felt like if you're not really doing it, if you're not at least going to get a sandwich and taking a town, then it's not really visiting. And then I had a flight to catch anyway, then who knows? Although I'd policy. I spent like four hours in Fort Morgan though. I loved it. Went shopping, had Mexican, worked out at the gym

for the day. So again, shout out to, I know they call it fart Morgan. That seems a little mean. I love fart humor. I know you do. That's why I said it. That's so good. All right, Ryan, you continue to impress me with your instincts.

Uh-oh, this is a compliment, which I guess should not be surprising considering your success for not being a runner. Your knowledge from the 40 to 5K is spot on and makes me smile whenever the topic comes up. So keep going with your gun on that. I did run in high school, so I thought I had some frame of reference, but then I guess we had a bunch of slow people that wanted to start yelling at the pod. I also love that you immediately shot down Portsmouth, Norfolk. I actually lived there for three years, very good call. At the same time as a Floridian, I was both offended and amused of your evaluation of Georgia. That was, look, the surrounding area of Georgia. That's also another mistake that all of us probably make

is we go to one part of like a huge state and go, yep, no, this place sucks. Can be really unfair to some nice towns. Hawaii is one of my remaining two states, but I would definitely say San Diego or Kings Bay due to its Jackson, what? San Diego or Kings Bay due to its proximity for the recent life advice.

Okay, two weeks ago, I got to cross off Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. So this guy's already halfway through the Dakotas. While running in Jackson, oh, okay, here we go. As the altitude was kicking in, the topographical ignorance of me, remember I'm a Floridian, I had this nondescript feeling of obligation

to somehow defend your honor. If you have any ideas, let me know. And the next Remember I'm a Floridian. I had this nondescript feeling of obligation to somehow defend your honor. If you have any ideas, let me know and the next time I'm there, and there will certainly be a next time I'll comply. Thanks to everybody in Jackson or anyone that visits there. I was even invited to a charity golf tournament pretty shortly after my stay. I just felt like it was too hot for me to come back that soon. So, uh, yeah. I mean, it was really nice. How many people felt bad for me? Um, cause there are plenty that didn't.

So it was nice little balance, uh, whatever's out there in the atmosphere. So yeah, I look, anybody that goes and visits, I would just say, eat, um, go eat and you'll be fine. Finally, to all the real runners and visits, I would just say, eat. Go eat and you'll be fine. Finally, to all the real runners out there who know a sub eight minute mile is not boast worthy, make sure to make it down to a town in North Dakota before setting out to run as Google informed me, gray wolves are making a comeback there.

Kyle, gray wolves. Where's that in the hierarchy of wolves? I imagine somebody could look that up pretty quickly. I figured you might know you're in that part of the world more often than neither of us, right? You're asking me if I'm in the gray wolves part of the world? I don't know. I feel like in that area, you're like more than Mike and I.

I'll just look it up. You know what? Go ahead. Yeah. I'm not even into this email anymore. I'll look it up. I'll just look it up. You know what, go ahead. I'm not even into this email anymore.

I'll look it up. We had a shorter pod today, so I knew we were gonna stretch a bit. To all the fake runners, maybe don't. See if a pack of wolves nipping at your ears will inspire you to run a quicker mile time. Just joking, anyone who hits the pavement or trails has my respect.

Shirt on or shirt off to reference another life advice. Yeah, thanks. That was nice and let us know. Let us know about that town. All right, all right, let's do, this one was kind of intense here. All right, am I obligated to pay this guy back? And let us know any of those wolves facts

whenever you feel like they fit, Kyle. You got it. What's up? My name's, well, this guy's just letting us know. Do we use his name? I think at a certain point, dude, if you're putting all this in there and you're not mentioning it, like what, how much is it our problem? Yeah.

Well, he says his name and where he's from and it's a roommate situation. So let's not do that. Let's call him Dave. Dave, you're a legend. Um, what's up? My name's Dave. I'm from Maine, newish listener, long time a rigor fan. Pick a basketball comp, taller, mugsie, boogs

with less decent handles. So backstory, my roommate and I used to work together at a restaurant when I broke up with my girlfriend at the time I moved in with him. We then added another roommate for my current job. He says where that job is too, so let's just help this guy out. Things are good for a while. After a few

months, the first roommate who I used to work with, we'll call him John, started seeing a girl and eventually dated her. Around the time I was also seeing a girl and started dating her as well. These guys are on fire. A few months after they started dating, John gave his girlfriend a garage door opener for the house. She then proceeded to start coming and going. She pleases. So often to point my other roommate, I would never know who's actually home when the garage door opened. I sat him down to talk to him about this and told him I didn't like it. He told me he talked to her, but he quote, wanted her to have the garage door opener to check on his dog. This really pissed me off. After everything I had said by the time I let it go and just moved on, fast forward a few months

later and she's staying the night there every night, cooking breakfast, not cleaning up and is loud as fuck every morning, waking me up and the other roommate, all caps. Not to mention when she cooks breakfast, she eats fish for breakfast. Fish, all caps. Doom is not on Twitter. Like what is actually wrong with you? On top of all of this, the other day she was talking

to my girlfriend and mentioned how John said it was okay for her to basically move in because he needs help with rent. This is what set me over the edge. This has been happening since February. It's now almost July. We're moving out in a week or so. I still own for about two months worth of utilities. So as far as I'm concerned, he will never see that money. He can go F himself.

I moved out today, the 21st, a week early because I couldn't stand being in the same house with him and his moron of a girlfriend. I also owned for a couch he gave me and feel obligated to pay that, but not extremely obligated. I love that idea. I feel obligated, but not extremely obligated. I can be talked into it. Yeah. I mean, I'm just thinking of the things when I was younger, I'm like, I'm obligated, but not like married

to the obligation of this. Icing on the cake is when I first moved in, he was complaining about the last roommate he had had and how he had done the same thing. I have no respect for this guy. Do you guys think I'm obligated to pay him or is this okay? Thanks, love the show. All right.

I think you actually have to pay him. Yeah. I guess the one thing I would say, you know, I'm a sucker for a deal. Are you're not getting a deposit back or are you moved in when this guy was already the guy, right? I don't know.

Did you pay any sort of deposit thing for this guy or not? If so, maybe you're like, all right, you know what? I'm not getting a deposit. You do that on, you know. No deposits were mentioned. We'll call it even. Yeah, you're right. Cause if he was already there, it probably didn't happen.

I think if you don't pay, he's not gonna just see his problem. Like he's not gonna see what he was doing to you and be like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Even if he's not, you kind of want him to see the shitty life that he helped create for you while you were there, and he's never gonna do that. And not paying him is certainly not going to help with that.

We had, I mean, especially because you had another roommate too, like, you guys maybe should have, should have ganged up on him and talked to him about this. For us, like, we had a dude who, his girlfriend was going in through our window. We didn't even have extra keys. We weren't thinking about making copies. She just would come, she was just coming through our window

when no one was home. So the lengths that dudes will go to not see a problem with something like this is large. But I think you should pay it. How old is he? Did it say at the top? I'm gonna say 20s. Restaurant, fire.

That might change my answer a little bit. I don't know, dude. If we're talking low 20s, I don't know, man. That's a 20 something email. Yeah. It has to be. Nobody's 38 going, dude. And then. Maybe you counter him with like 300.

Whatever, I don't know. What you're doing here is you're doing some really convenient math to get yourself And then maybe you counter them with like 300. What you're doing here is you're doing some really convenient math to get yourself out of giving up money that you don't want to give up. And it really is unrelated. I mean, you agreed to pay utilities and you have to pay the utilities. I mean, it sounds like you want to burn this guy for the couch too, but you know, I mean, this

isn't Judy wouldn't stand for it. I'll tell you that if we're going just by what's right and wrong here yeah Judy I mean this I don't know we're gonna shut this is this is more trouble than it's worth I think like yeah it sounds like you just want this dude out of your life just give him the money and I'll never see him again what do you guys think though about being like well girlfriend used a lot used a lot of the electric this month, trying to like, pack him down a little less.

I don't remember using a hairdryer. Right. 20 minutes, come on. Right. Now, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. That would annoy him. It sounds like this dude just like, doesn't consider other people when he's making decisions.

So he's like, yeah, I wanted my girlfriend here. She came more often and like, I don't see how that affects you. That sounds like that's his mindset. Everybody, there's always someone that has the upper hand, relationship, work, friendships, roommates. He moved in first. He thinks of it as his place.

Even though other people are moving in and renting, it'd be great if there was some egalitarian approach. It's just not. He's thinking he just has a little bit more of the juice. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. My guess is the garage door opener thing wasn't really about the dog. It was just easier for him to come and go. And if that annoys you, like it sounds like you also just don't really like the girlfriend, whether that's the fish breakfast or whatever, that she's there all the time. And if it's a smaller apartment and there's bodies, just extra bodies, less volume, less, you know,

area to move around, just not the spacing that we have in today's game. I can understand all these things really being annoying to you, but I mean, you're just, what you're doing is, you'd be doing something fucked up. You'd be doing something absolutely wrong. Neutral parties would not agree with you, all right?

We're neutral in this thing. For you to go like, yeah, your girlfriend kind of sucked and now I'm stiffing you on two months of utilities and I'm keeping this couch, I don't think you should do that. And I don't really think it's debatable. There's nothing like the hate that develops when, you know, your roommate brings in just a, an addition that starts kicking her feet up. She broke my vacuum in college. Uh, just totally didn't admit it.

She would start to come up with like new rules, like, or like suggestions for rules, sort of like, and she'd put up like- As a non-constituent? Yeah, non-constituent. And she'd come up with something on the level of like, one cup, one bowl, one spoon, like that you had, like a fucking revolutionary thing.

Like she'd just like introduce it. We were ahead of our time. And it's like, what about- We actually talked about the one cup thing. Not that one, the one cup one play. Right, good. I mean, she would be like, what do you think about like seven to eight, like maybe just quiet time in the house?

So like Eli and we can all study. And it was like, Eli, get your girl, bro. Get your fucking girl. And we had like, Eli, get your girl, bro. Get your button girl. And we were, and we had all like united. And, but there was nothing, my point when I brought that up and kind of bugled the story earlier was just like, no matter how much we tried, there was four of us, other guys,

it never broke through the wall of this, the fifth guy's mind that this was insane. And, you know, even when we saw, we were coming back from Christmas break and she had stayed in our house that we didn't know and we've like we're pulling into the house and we see her on her bike and we're like, is she going to our house? And like, we just watch her park her bike and open our window and go through the side. We're like, what is we've lost control of the ship.

By the way, gray wolves are the largest in America. Thank you. You're welcome. I didn't know how it's going to fit that. What about dire wolves are back now? Yeah, it's not on this Burke museum site. So we'll have to check back. I mean, are they even that big yet? They just were born, right?

They're probably still. They're babies, yeah. Give them a couple years. At this moment, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now let's keep tracking that dire wolf thing. Yeah. Just in case.

All right. Shirtless mowing, bad look or no big deal. 6'4, 230. Power move. Max bench 225. I work out at Planet Fitness, so it's mostly 75 pound dumbbells. It is capped at 75 pound dumbbells. I went to the Planet Fitness in Colorado, man. The guy was like, hey, are you familiar with everything that we have here?

It says you're not here a lot. I was like, well, I don't live here. And I forgot to cancel this and it's like 15 bucks a month. So why not do it? And then he's like, I'd love to like show you around the sauna. And I was like, I just, can I just work out? Can I do that version? The guy was like, uh, yeah, okay. You love to show you around the sauna. And I was like, can I just work out? Can I do that version?

And the guy was like, yeah, okay. You just want to go work out. I was like, yeah, I don't. Can I not talk to anybody or get a tour? And then there's only 75 pound dumbbells. But I do think the marketing, the approach here, so I'm not trying to cause any shit here because I know PMT,

those guys are big planet fitness guys. I think the whole idea is that it's supposed to be the most welcoming gym experience because the gym can be very intimidating. So I think that capping it at 75 pounds, you know, I think there's some stuff at play here where the idea behind planet fitness is to be the most welcoming. Um, but I, and I gotta tell you too, when you walk in the lobby and they're cranking the marcarina. I've like, I haven't heard this song in fucking forever. And I was like, yeah, this is, uh, this is welcoming.

I mean, who doesn't, who doesn't, when they hear, Hey, Macarena, I mean, come on at this point, you can't even get mad at that song anymore. Undeniable. They still have the lunk alarm there? Oh, I don't know. I would assume they walked that back. I would assume. It's like if you're lifting something

and you throw the weights down and it makes a loud noise, they used to set an alarm off. Yeah, there was a purple light. That's not okay here. Stupid. I imagine they, they probably change their shape. We're like, you know what, if I think first order of business, let's walk that back. There's a whole type of dude that hates us. Maybe we just, maybe we don't do that. Well, if they only have 75s. Can't make that much noise.

They have 75s. Can't make that much noise. Yeah. All right. Howdy guys. Right. And because I've started to wonder about the impression I'm giving my neighbors by mowing my lawn shirtless. Well, let me just stop you right there and say you've got my vote.

Full background. My wife and I live just south of a relatively large southern city and recently bought our first home in a new developing neighborhood. That's maybe one third finished. Not all the houses on our street are built yet, but the ones that are, have families living in them, uh, and more moving every month. By the way, congrats on your first home. It's a big deal.

And, uh, you know, good for you, man. We moved in during the spring when the weather was still nice, but now the summer heat is set in. I found that mowing every week is a lot easier. Dung tarps off. It's a great way to catch some extra rays, work on the tan, get that vitamin D. Plus once you locked into a farmer's tan, or worse, tank top lines, it's almost impossible to recover.

My street is about half full at this point and continues to grow, and that's where my concern comes in. Am I giving off a bad impression by mowing shirtless? I use a riding lawn mower, and the total area is about an acre, and I giving off a bad impression by mowing shirtless? I use a riding lawnmower and the total area is about an acre. It takes a couple of hours to knock everything out on a Saturday or a Sunday.

So I really do benefit from the sun. No one's ever said anything. It's not like I feel embarrassed or out of shape. This isn't a body confidence issue. It's more of a, how am I being perceived thing? I just turned 30. Maybe that's why I'm thinking about it more. Growing up, my granddad mowed shirtless into his 60s

and no one thought twice. That's where it comes from, dude. That's who taught us. Those old guys. Different era. Those leathery old men who didn't give a shit. That's right. Kyle wants to be one of those guys more than anything in his life.

Yes, yes. Oh, I love it. I love that you know exactly who you wanna be right now. But at that same time, I don't wanna be known as the weirdo who's always shirtless on the mower, especially in a new and growing neighborhood. We plan to be in for the long haul.

So this is something, is this something I should actually be worried about? Or am I overthinking it? Yes. And most people have too many of their own problems to be judging the 30 year old shirtless mower in the neighborhood. In addition, if it matters,

it's a normal middle class neighborhood, pretty diverse group of residents, split between Latinos, African Americans, whites, nothing crazy. This isn't some gated community where you have to be at a dress code to walk around and expect people to comment on your house if it hasn't been perfectly maintained.

Most people are very friendly, and I doubt they would even say something if it did't been perfectly maintained. Most people are very friendly, and I doubt they would even say something if it did bother them. Well, yeah man, this is more about you overthinking this than anything else. I can't, of all the problems we've been presented, this is not a problem. I what?

I mean, I guess it's kinda cool that you're being considerate, but now I'm starting to wonder, like do you overthink everything? I cannot tell you how many people, no one's even said anything to you. No one said anything, there's been zero competition. You haven't even gotten the annoying neighbor

that wants to be involved with everything, being upset. Shirts off, where you live, home ownership. You know how many people look forward to home ownership strictly as men just to maintain the lawn, even though they're gonna get sick of it after a little while, But those first tractor purchases. Then you get to complain about it too. That's right. Yeah. So this could be your thing. And if you're happy and you're not hurting anybody, It sounds like six, four, two 30, you know, well dispersed mass.

Oh man, you know, yard work, I think it's like the uno draw four of shirts off situations. You know, like, I think, I think some people are entitled to their opinions when there's dudes out running, jogging, you know, no matter what shape they're in, if they're just like, man, really? And I'm of the school of thought like, hey man, whatever, I don't care. But I think if you're doing work in your yard, it doesn't matter, I mean, you could be a fat slob, shirts off, everyone understands.

I think the only thing that makes it cooler is if you have that like, it's not a bucket hat, but it's sort of like an old guy like Fisherman's hat with the no shirt look is probably the ultimate. And you're still smoking. Yeah, I just think that everyone understands this. And if you're worried about, you know,

what this neighborhood, what, you know, whoever's buying homes now, probably still millennials are thinking about, about the shirts off guy, like be the change you wanna be in the world, power through that, everyone will get used to it, because everyone has to get used to it, because this has to stay a part of our society.

Old guy shirtless, mowing lawn, young guy shirtless, I mean, get your kid out there shirtless, just start them young, I don't know, I'm just saying, I think this specifically with yard work has to stay, this is correct. You're 100% overthinking this. Nobody cares what you look like on your yard. What did give me a little pause though,

a couple hours to mow a little over an acre? Dude, you know, Mike, how long you been in that apartment? I lived down a little over an acre growing up. Maybe there's a lot of trees, but I don't know. Gave me a little pause. Well, hold on. Were you hitting the weed whacker or were you just going by the fence being like,

all right, that's good enough? Well, are we talking just this guy's the ride on one? Or do you think he's doing everything? He didn't say he's got a ride on. He might have an assist. No, he said he has a ride on. He said he has a ride on. What kind of turn radius were we talking about,

you growing up here? We had the zero turner, so maybe that cut down on some time. Fancy kid over here. Yeah. Zero turner, so maybe that cut down on some time. Fancy kid over here. Yeah. Zero turn. My dad would hand me the push and be like, there's a zero turn. Sky's the limit, buddy.

I don't have enough frame, I haven't mowed a lawn in fucking forever, so I don't know. How fast would you have to go to brag about it though? Cutting a lawn. This I'm staying out of. Do you ever get the itch to mow a lawn? I certainly do. Yeah, every once in a while, the smell is just.

It's been pretty crazy how long I've gone in my entire life without having a yard. I don't think I've had a yard since my senior year in college. And that was not well maintained. Well, certainly not. It was like a dog. We weren't running a dog fighting ring, but that's what it turned into.

Like we weren't betting dogs were getting hurt or anything, but it just dudes would have dog, then another guy buys a fucking dog. And then somebody comes over and is like, Oh, bring my dog. You're like, cool. We could have done something. I think we tried to do some downhill skiing on it. Um, we did try that one day cause just a little study break. But yeah, now that I've run through every place I've lived.

It was Hartford. It was all maintained and I bought like an all weather couch and I bought the fire pit from restoration hardware. And I, it was, I had one party ever. It was a good party. I never went out there ever. You weren't in charge of that maintenance though, right? I mean, that was part of your dues, right? Oh yeah. HOA. Charging up for it. It's kind of like a Kevin Wilds half baked. I'm just like, I wonder if there was a service

that you'd be like, you know, 30 minutes. I'd just like to get out there one time, you know? Just 30 minutes. I don't have to finish the job. Yeah. I'll try my best to go diagonal today. I'm not going straight up and down. We'll go diagonal.

And you know, if I finish it, I finish it. But obviously like that business model wouldn't work, but it'd be nice if you could just, you know, fire it up. Be like, dude, only 1.7 miles away. I got nothing to do. If it's this or frolic, I'll go. I'll go hit the lawn. Yeah, it's healthier. Right. You know. But yeah, I don't know.

Now I just realized for a guy who likes things, I don't I don't have a lot of land. Right. You know, after watching foreign away again, maybe get motivated. who likes things, I don't have a lot of land. You know, I have to watch Foreign Away again, maybe get motivated. Tom Cruise. Okay, that'll do it for the pod. Let's remind everybody. That.

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