The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Summer League Standouts, Plus Van Lathan on Vegas, Fame Levels, Getting Old, and Life Advice

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Russillo starts the show with his thoughts on summer league up to this point (0:35). Then, Van Lathan comes on to share his Vegas experience, reconcile with getting older, and rate Bronny James (15:56). Plus, a special Life Advice with Van (55:01)! What is the perfect amount of rich and famous to be? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Van Lathan Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's podcast, fresh off a few days in Vegas. Yes, and I mean fresh. We're going to talk a little summer league, some observations, some history in there as well. It's not the best open I've ever done. Van Lathan is going to be here for an hour. We're going to talk all sorts of stuff, being old, being young, wisdom, Jalen Brown, and we're going to do life advice together. So enjoy. Good news, we've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event,

skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit mx.ca slash ymx. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. I've joked in the past about summer league, uh, that it's a legalize and that's not really fair. It just sounds good. Um, but it's it'd be inaccurate. So I was there for a few days.

I did not watch every game. I've not watched all the games on television. So I have watched whatever it is that I have watched and I'm going to share some of those opinions with you as much as they may mean something and could very well also mean nothing. But I want to go through some of that because when you look at historically what's happened with summer league, we've gotten really excited about some dudes, really excited. I've done it, you've done it, we've all done it. Those of us that care and put the time and actually watch summer league games when you're seeing it happen in front of you, you're like, this guy just scored like, was it Josh Christopher at 20 points in

the fourth quarter the other night for the Heat? Like, well, that has to mean something, doesn't it? If you like Josh Christopher, you're like, yeah, I told you, telling your buddies, you're on a text thread, I told you this is a great pickup, right? I liked him coming out. Um, because if you go back and I did this this morning, I think it's a nice little fun yearly exercise for the new listeners. If you go through some of the all first team winners, historically through summer league, we've got some names on there, a bunch of names. Ike Diago, Al Thornton, Von Wafer. Al Thornton is one of my great draft calls. I have some bad ones. Alonzo G, Reggie Williams, the other one. JJ Hickson, remember him won't trade in for a Mari Stoudemire. Tony Snell made first team all summer league.

Josh Jackson and then. It didn't get better. Kevin Knox. Hunter Tyson. Actually like him very new. So we have samples of players who had a great almost two weeks here and never heard from them again. I remember thinking about Lauren Woods. Lauren Woods is always a summer league lesson. I actually was trying to research more Lauren Wood's summer league stuff,

the big man out of Arizona, and I found a tweet from myself from 11 years ago. It was probably me watching a preseason game annoyed with the announcers, freaking out about somebody making a tackle that probably was never gonna be on a roster. And I tweeted, quote, I wish we covered NBA summer league

like we do NFL preseason. You can really build a franchise around Lauren Woods that tweet did not receive a ton of heat 27 retweets didn't do well skittish really led the Summer League in scoring in 2004 he had 26 a game in 2012 Josh Selby scored 24 a game for Memphis. Some people pronounce it differently. He was the MVP. Josh Shelby could go until he could go no longer. So I could do this all day. But if you actually look at the MVP award, I think it started in 2006.

If you or at least that's as far back as it goes. So Summer League archives not complete. 2006 if you or at least that's as far back as it goes summer league Archives not complete Google's becoming a tougher and tougher to go back and find anything Anymore now, which is really disappointing. But if you look at some of the MVPs, there's actually a lot of good names here 23 was cam Whitmore Keegan Murray won one Lonzo won one Lillard John Wall Blake Griffin. Sure, there's a Jared Bayless and a Glenn Rice in there, but I'd say there's a lot of players with high profiles that were terrific in the summer league that became really good NBA players. So it's not nothing, right? So what is summer league? Well, it's better than college, obviously,

and it's better than the Combine by just eliminating all the people that aren't going from college to invited to the Combine, all the people at the Combine that aren't going to be drafted or aren't gonna be on rosters. It's not better than probably some of the top Euroleagues.

And it's also a bit of a mess. It's also a bit of a mess of all these guys that you're throwing in the mix together. You'd hope you'd have some structure. That's asking a lot. And you also have to understand the mix together, you'd hope you'd have some structure. That's asking a lot. And you also have to understand the selfishness, the accepted selfishness. There's so many players that are running around out there

going, okay, well, I'm a first round pick from three years ago, I'm fighting for my fucking life here and I'm gonna start playing that way. Or the person that comes into the game thinking, I have the highest profile, so I need to show up. And then there's other people who are just overwhelmed by all of it. You have to be a little selfish.

I've watched it through all the pre-draft tournaments, all the stuff that I did in the combine, whether it was Orlando or Chicago, or going back to Portsmouth. You need to be selfish in a way to kind of stand out, but sometimes you're watching the guy who's really selfish and you're looking at him going, okay, this guy's just a 4A player,

meaning too good for AAA, not good enough for the big leagues. So here's what I watched. And I watched not everything. I also have a habit of watching just a person for an entire game sometimes when they're in. So there's stuff that's happening in a game that I'm not even noticing

because I don't wanna watch the ball. I don't care about the team. I don't care about what they're running. I'm just looking at the person. Reid Shepard looked great. Houston has a really fun topic that we'd probably get to if you're doing top storylines for the 24 or 25 NBA season, which I'm not going to do now. But he looks to be even more than what we saw in Kentucky and just the short glimpse of him in the summer league

because he's running more point. He's not coming in off the bench. He's not somebody who's always playing off the ball. The off ball shooting part of his game is going to be there. That's the least concerning thing. But there's another level of things that we saw from him in those two games where his control of the offense, the passing ability. We knew he was a really good athlete. I know the defense, I thought was it, was it Washington, the second game where I know he had a bunch of steals, but I actually think the Wizards are making incredibly bad passes and he was just hanging back and like, I can't believe they gave me these passes, but there was a lot of stuff beyond whatever your

profile of him was before the draft going, wait, there may be even more to this guy. And then that leads into again, the 24, 25 topic that I'm not going to do, but just simply presented as the question is, Houston, whether they're running out, Cam Whitmore, A.J. Griffin, who was off the ball at Duke, not allowed to do everything he needed to do because that Duke team was so incredibly talented. He had the injury history going back even high school.

Um, and also you have the Atlanta part of it where he's just completely lost on what was a talented roster. But will there be a Reed Shepherd, Jaylen Green, Shungoon moment where we laugh about a team that's 41 41 and now just pick third and they have too many guys, but will there be a be a gentle passing of the torch? Will there be a resistance to the passing of the torch? And this is talking of reach up or a little bit too much, but there is a topic there at least with the Rockets

with how good can Reid or how quickly can he be really good if this is what's going to happen with him. And what does that mean for the other on ball guys? Cause like as much as we like this Rockets roster, a couple of the guys after the season are just not even gonna have the opportunity to even develop, they're not gonna get the touches, they're not gonna get new contracts,

and they're gonna be on other teams. Nate Williams from Buffalo even showing up in these games. And we had a Kyra Lewis sighting, who I did like him, and I liked his handle. When Miami and Boston played, it was funny because all of a sudden after watching some erratic basketball in the gyms over the course of those two days,

you watch Boston and Miami play and went, this is a grownup game. I talked to somebody about it and they're like, yeah, there's just maturity in it. And I think it was a compliment to both of those organizations and their development and their structure. And yeah, sure.

Hawkeyes is out there and there's some other guys that have been around for a while, whether it's Davidson or Boston. Um, maybe it's, maybe it's older players, but there was real structure. It looked like a real basketball game in the midst of a lot of chaos there. Um, where the draft pick for Miami has had a couple nice outings here. Man, watching his shot live though, and it appears to go in,

it is crazy how much arm is on the ball, on the release hand. Like it's not out of the hands, it's certainly not on the fingertips. It's like off of the forearm and then out of the hands. I guess that's okay if it's going to go in. When I went to go watch the Timberwolves, I wanted to watch Dillingham,

who I saw the second game live. His first game he was two for 12, not great. But the second game live in person, I think this number's right. Because I didn't realize it as it was even happening, other than it was like, man, this guy feels he's cooking here pretty early in the game. I think he scored or assisted on the first 17 points

from Minnesota in this. He can just go by guys. He just can. It seems to be something that we apply to players and think, oh, he's quick, he's got a great handle, he's got all this stuff. There's actually very few dudes that can just straight up one on one, no screen, go by you and then get into position to score.

You can go by you and like veer off and not be able to finish at the rim. But I think that part of Dillingham's game is really enticing. Yes, he's incredibly small, looks very small out there. The other teams, once they kind of figured out what they wanted to do and could call a timeout, say, hey, we get to set the screen on Dillingham with the big, get them to switch Dillingham, then

just take him right into the restricted area and you're going to be good. And Minnesota was even trying to figure out a way once Dillingham was switched onto the center to try to then switch again where the low man would just take the center and Dillingham could stay up, but communication in a summer league game. Good luck with all of that. Minnesota had some dudes, Terrence Shannon, who you'd expect if you watched him in college, that he was going to get the hoop,

he was going to be aggressive, he was going to score, he was going to go to the free throw line, and he's done all of that. I had a really good angle at one point in the gym where I was able to just see him on his attack angle every time. The second he felt like he had you out of position,

if you were inviting him, if you weren't closed out on him well, or you closed out on him and he knew it and anticipated it, his aggression, his body, and his size, there's a lot of stuff to think that, okay, I know he went late for a bunch of different reasons, age being the primary one after his legal stuff got cleaned up, but none of that was surprising whatsoever. It was the same guy that I expected to see from college in a summer league game. Josh Minot filling out, great to see. Some Leonard Miller love still out there.

Nick's still in the mix. And I got to see a player I did not enjoy, Adir Ife. Not a fan. I got to see a player I did not enjoy, Adir Ife. Not a fan. Um, I like AJ Johnson, the 23rd overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks, Southern California guy committed to Texas, ended up in Australia, didn't put up any numbers. He looks because of his body type and how skinny he is, like the freshmen that made the varsity basketball team. You're like, that guy's younger than everybody else. That's how he looks.

I'm just going to leave this wide open. There's something about him that I like. I watched him a ton. I just kind of like his approach to the game, even if nothing jumped out to you when you have other players like Marshaan Beauchamp playing in this game. But Beauchamp is somebody who's you're still not sure. We know is his athleticism, know that he's a first round picker,

you're kinda like, is this going to pop? Is this the year he's going to pop? Because the Bucs would love to have him be a part of this rotation. Can he be somebody? And I think, because he goes into this game going, I'd rather have not have had to have played in this game this many years in, but since I'm here,

I might as well stand out. And I would say even if the numbers and the efficiency wasn't terrific, he does, it shows when you're watching it going, okay, well that guy feels like he's a little bit different. The same thing for Brandon Miller. He's playing with the Hornets. You could say he shouldn't even be out there. I imagine the teams and the coaches think, hey, is there a way to have a good young player only going into a second year, even though you were terrific as a rookie? Is there any way you can show

that you're taking this seriously, which means the new class of guys are going to take this seriously? And it's just a good vibe setter for everybody here. I imagine that's part of the conversation around it because Brandon Miller was basically too easy for him in the game that I watched. High screen, gonna step one side.

You're not gonna close out quick enough. You're not gonna contest, you're lost, you're young, you're out of position, I'm gonna hit all of these shots on you, I can do literally whatever I want the entire time because I'm this much better than everybody else. So it was good to see that and I imagine that's part of the conversation around it.

Also on the Bucks, Andre Jackson, there's this tier of players where you know what you've been told about what they could potentially be. Like, well, he's a big, he can defend, but he also can play make. If you look at the assist that he had at Yukon, is he going to play a little point guard and the problem is for some of the guys that are trying to show that they can be the person that people projected them to be on the best course

of events, right? Is that you have other players fighting for their lives again, where like a Ryan Rollins is sticking with the Bucks. Like I'm not just giving up all of these possessions. I'm taking shots and I'm going to try to run the offense a little bit. Or Jordan Ford, who for New Orleans was just good enough to be able to score whenever he wanted, even if you look at him being like, okay, but he's not really somebody we were going to be keeping on a roster long term, even though it looks like he's a lot better than everybody else.

We even had some Kennedy Chandler out there just fighting because at this point, these guys are like, what am I supposed to do? Not score, not be better, not be more seasoned than some of these other guys. Well, I'm going to do it and I'm going to take shots because I'm gonna be getting a passport here pretty soon if I can't make one of these rosters. We saw some incredible Alex Sarr shot attempts. Yeah, and I watched some recess live and it was actually pretty good. It was all right.

There's moments where you don't notice him, which isn't great for the number one overall pick, but there's little glimpses like the alley you pass that he had off the dribble. You're like, Whoa, okay, that's that's in there marinating in his head somewhere. So what does any of this mean? The joke I've always made about summer league is that it only matters if it reinforces your opinion on a player good or bad. So I'm guilty of it, you're guilty of it, we all are. Trey Young was so bad when he started summer league, it was almost like people were offended,

he was out there and felt like he should retire. And it was total, look, he just was trying to get his bearings, pick up the speed, once he figured it out, he didn't just figure out summer league, he figured out the NBA and it's fine. So even though we know there are some lies in there with the history and the scoring and the excitement that you've had for probably 10 plus players for your favorite team, we're like, oh, that's right. I love that guy in 2007. A good start is a good start. It

can sound really simple the whole thing, but for somebody you have hope in, if you saw some great things these first few days, it's a much better feeling than say the other side of it. And you're like, why is the guy that's a lottery pick, why do I forget he's even out there when we're talking about a bunch of guys that are gonna be playing overseas for the majority of the group we see in Vegas

and the other leagues? the majority of the group we see in Vegas in the other ways. The multi-dimensional van Lathan joins us on the podcast today. Live from Vegas. How are you, sir? I am fantastic. Are you really? Um, no.

You had me there. You had me for a second. Had you in the first half? What's wrong? What's wrong? Oh nothing, I'm good, it's just, Vegas takes your life blood out. It's the place that you are so excited to get to and then so excited to leave.

And it happens every time, the same way. Ah man, Vegas, a couple days in Vegas. The heat plus the non-stop Oh man, Vegas, a couple of days in Vegas, the heat plus the nonstop barrage of people plus the yo, I'm in Vegas. And plus the it's and then after like LA is where I'm supposed to be right now. I can't wait to get to the plane. So you're in Vegas still.

I was there for three days. It was supposed to be a little bit longer. We saw each other and then we did not see each other again. Did you go to any summer league stuff? Because I know you're out there for the NAACP stuff, right? Yeah, I'm out here for the NAACP stuff. We had a panel yesterday at the NAACP.

I did a little bit of the summer league stuff. I got turned off from going to the summer league stuff because the Oklahoma City Thunder were staying in my hotel. And when I saw them, that made me not want to watch them play. OK. Any reasons? Well, I'm old. And there was a thought that maybe these guys shouldn't be my source of entertainment.

Because when they were on the elevator and I saw them walking around, I don't know what's going on. I don't know if the players are, if they have a more youthful look, but they look like a bunch of six foot seven fourth graders. And like literally I'm to the point in my life to where I'm looking at them and I wanna give them pep talks.

I'm like, I'm old, bruh. I want it to be, hey, you young men stay focused now. Y'all stay focused, y'all get in there. Y'all go to sleep early. Y'all wake up and take your vitamins and you keep plugging. Make sure you get you a spot in that league. This is a tremendous opportunity for you and your family. And I felt myself wanting to do that.

And then I stared my mortality directly in the face and I had to leave. They can jump, they can do all kinds of things. I felt old standing next to the guys that were staying here at the hotel. So you gave them a little Hulkamaniac pep talk in your head, but then you decided, you know what, I'm not going to do that, which was a great decision because it would have been met with absolute blank stares and the point would not have resonated. You would

have just been the old guy that was in the elevator. They don't care what I say. Yes. They couldn't care less. They don't want to hear that. They're focused. They're grown men who are here to do a job. They actually had a coach that got on a couple of floors after they got on. There was a guy I could tell he was a coach because he looked like he used to play. You know how some NBA coaches look where they're like ambiguously 41,

but they're in tremendous shape and they're wearing team gear, but he's carrying some kind of clipboard. Like, and then they get on the, he gets on the elevator. And when he gets on the elevator, he goes right off into the room, downstairs, 10 minutes. And they go, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir. And then I'm like, well, do I talk to this guy?

Do I give him, is this like a old nigga moment that him and I could have? Where I could say to him, hey, good job with these young men. You know, like great job, you're helping them live their dreams. Is this, or how about this? Is there a chance that for once

I could just not make myself the center? It's just not about me. It's there. Do you like that idea, Don't you, Rossello? That's the idea. Yeah, because I just don't think anybody wants to hear from anyone they don't know. True.

Yeah. Yeah. If there's some connection, if somebody recognized you, says, Hey, what's up? Or you had, say it was a coach that you knew where he played in high school or you watched him in college, but you're not going to do it in some fawning way. Hey, what's up? And then there's a connection. But I think the connection has to happen before the wisdom does because without it, it's just what am I, like page

12 of your book, man? Like I just get in the elevator to go get on the treadmill. What is this? Well, this was a thing that my father used to do. He would see people, because this is a Southern thing. He would see people in dole out wisdom. See a young man. He would see a young man, you know, he had his baseball jersey on, oh, okay, you know, I pitched a little bit. Pitched a little bit in college, he came back and pitched, I pitched a little bit.

Yeah, I was, yeah, I do. What do you throw? And he goes, I throw a fastball, I throw a slider. Now you got your screwball? And he's like, what do you mean? Because I had a screwball now, I had a mean screwball. And boom, my dad would do like this. Every time he would describe his screwball, he mean? Cause I had a screwball now, I had a mean screwball, and boom, my dad would do like this. Every time he would describe his screwball,

he would go, I had that screwball, that thing will go, boom, that thing will go, boom. And I'm watching this kid going, yo, who is this guy in the cowboy hat telling me about my stuff? He doesn't know my stuff. And I'm that guy. When I see somebody younger doing something interesting,

I wanna set them on the right path. But they never watched TMZ, they didn't see the Kanye thing. They don't care what I have to say to them. And so I didn't, but it turned me off the whole thing because I'm like, I don't wanna watch people fly through the sky right now, I can't do it anymore. I've given two teams a pregame speech.

I don't think I'll ever do it again. I mean, if I was asked to by somebody that really wanted me to do it, I like the person. I guess I would. But when you're not that big of a deal to begin with, like you've kind of lost the room and then you have to think back, like you'd said something about, and we all then you have to think back, like you'd said

something about, and we all understand this as you get older, this moment where it feels like everybody is young. But at the same time, like whenever you look at college kids from the 70s and early 80s, they look like they were 40 in college. I don't know if there have been studies done on this, but why is it when you're 25, a 15 year old looks however he looks, and when you're 45, a 15 year old looks completely different?. And when you're 45, a 15 year old looks completely different. Like it doesn't really make any sense. The 15 year old should always look like the 15 year old, but it doesn't, or I guess maybe to the context

of like Vegas and summer league, the 19 year old should look like a 19 year old, just like when you looked like a 19 year old, but it doesn't really work that way. But I've also noticed something with older people is they do like to talk to strangers more. And maybe that's the ultimate sign, even though those of us that are younger, cause I'm talking like a lot older, cause I know what you're talking about here.

Um, we look at it as like, what are you doing? Like, does that mean we're just 20 years away from just talking to strangers? Because I don't want to do that. I mean, I, I'm still shook from this kid that came up to me on the beach years ago, I've told the story before on the podcast, and I told it recently. But just because you're here, this guy comes up. He's like, Hey, the guys over where I'm sitting said you were this dude and this big deal or whatever. And I was like, well, and I just kind of rolled into my wisdom. And then the kid was kind of like, I just want to say hi, dude, I'm doing fine.

And it was, it shattered like my whole, and from that point on, I went, you know what? Only give it out when it is requested. But there's a certain age where you just decide. It sounds like you're fighting it, but you know, you're not supposed to do it. So you're still in a good spot. But there's a certain age where you just decide, it sounds like you're fighting it, but you know you're not supposed to do it, so you're still in a good spot. But yeah, I mean, you're probably 10 years, and then 20 years, you're gonna be a tough hang.

Yeah, so here's the thing. There's this inflection point. All these things, maybe inflection point is not the right thing. There's this, this meeting and all these things are coming together, right? It's the age, it's the Southern-ness. The last time I was home, I was in the pharmacy, getting some pharmaceuticals, Big Pharma, okay, I was supporting them. And there was a guy that saw me wearing an LSU shirt. And he goes, what do you think about Jaden Daniels?

And I'm looking at him, I'm like, I think Jaden Daniels is Jesus in cleats, Heisman Trophy winner, throwing the ball all over the place, running like Michael Vick. He throws it like Manning, he runs it like Vick. He's the greatest thing we've seen. The guy goes, yeah, I've seen something better. I'm like, what have you seen that's better?

And he goes, what about Doug Williams? And I was like, oh, I know Doug Williams. Doug Williams used to run around and play football with my dad. Oh, you know Doug Williams, I work with Doug Williams. I've worked with Doug Williams since back in the day that Doug Williams was the quarterback of the Redskins. That conversation lasted two hours

between me and this white guy. We talked about his relationship with Doug Williams. We talked about talked about his relationship with Doug Williams. We talked about my father's relationship with Doug Williams. We talked about football. We talked about black quarterbacks. We talked about the LSU quarterback. We talked about so many things to where his wife came into the store and said,

Greg, what are you doing? And he goes, oh my, I'm sorry. I had my wife waiting out in the car. I'm glad Greg didn't have any small children in the car because they would have died from the heat. Yeah. So this is the thing that happens. I strike up conversations.

In the South, we strike up conversations. Now the kids are the same because the kids in the South don't wanna talk to you. And I was one of those kids that didn't wanna talk to older people. Don't talk to me, I don't know, you can't help me. It wasn't even the same game when you were playing. So I don't wanna hear what you got to say. But it's a combination of that Southern-ness,

which is coming out in me, latent Southern-ness, I'll call it, plus the need to attach to the youth of these kids because they have the opportunity to do stuff that I can't do anymore. And I just wanna talk to them real quick. Hey, how you doing? You're jumping, can you jump? Can you land?

Because it hurts when I land, but you can jump and then jump right up again. And then I don't know, the older you get, the more you look at young people and you kind of want to know that they're doing okay. Now I know that you don't care about that. Ryan Rosillo has a very specific worldview. That's not fair.

I just know they don't want to hear from me. Like when I had to do the first pregame speech, it was UVM basketball against UConn. The game was in Hartford, which is convenient for me because I was living in the building connected to where UConn played half of their games. And so UVM coaches like talk to the team before. I was like, well, who did you have talk before me?

He's like, well, St. Louis, who won the MVP, the NHL is going to be, look, he's a hall of famers that they have coached the Canadians. I mean, he's unbelievable career. I was like, well, okay, but it probably resonated a little bit. He's like, yeah, but you're a basketball guy. He's hockey guy. So you go in and I just started with, okay, what works here? What works?

I go and try to express to them what it'll mean in their life moving forward to the fact that they actually were D1 basketball players. During the grind and getting up early and missing out on the stuff that all the non-athletes get to do while they're in college, like what you are doing now, and even if it doesn't necessarily even go your way, you're going to separate yourself. There's going to be a conversation that you're going to have time and time again throughout your adult life or when somebody will go, wait, you played D1 ball, okay? And that's what you're doing right now.

And as I was like, you get to do something that I was never even close to good enough to be able to accomplish. And instead it's kind of like, sorry, you suck, bro. It doesn't. But this is not new. This is a very predictable cycle of whenever I know I'm losing the room or never had it,

just go, dude, remember, remember? I remember we had some business class in school where we had an entrepreneur. We were like, ooh, we have a real entrepreneur. He's going to show up and talk to us about being an entrepreneur. So we're sitting there listening to him and within five minutes, he's lost all of us.

Like this guy sucks, like sorry you, oh I didn't know you invented everything dude. Like cool, cool cider ranch idea. There's just a disconnect. There is a disconnect when you're younger that is just natural. Because all you've been doing your whole life is listening to older people

and at least those you were related to. So then you start meeting ones that you're not related to and you're like, dude, I've already done this. Don't need to hear it. Not ready to absorb. There is one elixir to it, and it's you can shock them. So I had to speak at the Nike leadership academy in Westlake.

This was like 2018, right? 2019. Shout out to Nike U, to EYBL, and all the people that used to bring me out and everything, racial everybody. And so I was speaking to this group of people who are now doing well. Cole Anthony, I don't know if Cole Anthony was there,

I saw, because I did a lot of work with Nike that year. And I know he was at the Jordan Ballon Classic, and I know he was at, that's where I met him, he was at Peach Jam, but in the room, for sure in that room was Imani Bates, Tyrese Halliburton was there, that's where I first met Reese. Reese has gone on to obviously huge, huge success in the NBA, but he was at Iowa State then

bunch of other kids all the blue chippers were were in the building that day and so I had to come out and talk to them they do a whole week and ninth wonder was there showing them how to make beats now they were into that you know ninth wonder how to make. That's a tough act to follow. See what I'm saying? But I didn't have to, 9th Wonder was watching me doing my thing, I didn't have to follow him, but they had had 9th Wonder, I think the day before, or whatever, 9th Wonder was in there,

they bring in fashion people. Like that week long thing is so crazy. You walking through the hotels, it was at the Four Seasons in Westlake. So you're walking through the hotel and everything is basketball, you're seeing everybody, it's kids getting treatment, lethal shooter is there, the whole nine, right?

Everything. So I walked on the stage and I remember saying, most of you will fail. That got him. Whoa. Most of you will fail. This is the best of the best of the best group of basketball players in the country.

And most of you are gonna have to figure out what you like to do besides basketball. And if you don't have to figure out tomorrow, if you don't have to figure out at 25, you're definitely going to have to figure out at 30. So let's talk about something other than basketball. Let's not talk about basketball, because the reason why Nike wants you guys to be here,

and I've never been invited back, by the way, I think I said this, I think it was too much. I was like, you guys have all been commodified. All of you are here because you can play basketball. You are a commodity. You are a piece of business to Nike. I don't wanna talk about you as a basketball commodity. I wanna talk about what you guys like to do

that has nothing to do with basketball. And they started talking about how some of them liked it. They were all fashion designers, which I was like, what the, everybody wanna design clothes? When did that start? Like everybody was like, yo man, I love fashion. I like to design clothes. Other people were like, I wanna make beats.

There was one dude, there was one white guy in the back that was like, actually, you know, I'm really into real estate and I look at different. And I know this guy, I don't know who this dude is, but I know in like 15, 20 years, I'm gonna read something, he gonna be up five, 600 million or something like that, cause he's leveraged the basketball networking into a real estate empire.

That's the only way. Anytime I've tried to ever come at the kids on some Billy Bob Thornton, pure heart, clear heart, can't lose shit, they're not trying to hear that from me. Like they don't wanna hear, like what do you know? Anytime I've tried to walk into the locker room and been like, this is your one moment to live forever, everything that works in the movies

doesn't work in real life. Every time you try to appeal to the fact that, hey, just to let you know, it's me, Fat Boy. I wake up every morning hating my life. The whole day I live for one hour of pickup basketball. You get to do this all day. I don't care about what you're talking about, man. Well, like we don't care about that.

Where Michael Jordan at? That's who we wanna talk to. You know what I mean? But if you wanna get him, challenge him. I remember, and I don't want to, you know, because the kid, I'm sure he'll be fine. He's working his way into the league. I remember I asked, true situation, I asked,

who is the one person in this room right now that is can't miss? All of y'all know this guy is going. This is the guy, he can't miss, he can't miss. And people didn't wanna raise their hands, but they all pointed at Imani Bates. No kidding. No kidding.

I wonder if it was because of his profile. And by the way, Ii has gone from complete afterthought of like, oh, the recruiting thing, because there's always resentment and it's definitely resentment from older people. Although I think they're becoming a little bit more numb to the last few years of the freedom of movement, which have always been there,

especially when you look at the coaches' salaries going up, like, oh, okay, your job is tougher. Well, look at how many guys are making north of five million in college football now. So whatever that rant's already over. So I'm done with that one. But Bates had such a high profile. I wonder if it was his game or them buying into the hype

the way the rest of us did. At that point, I think it was, they were probably reacting from the workouts that they had that week. Cause you know, they were playing against each other all week long. And the fact of the matter is, he was still in high school at that time,

so the age ranges here were crazy, because Tyrese was already in college, and maybe he was coming out of his first or second year at Iowa State, and then they were already, they were all, it was already, it was all the way back down to high school guys. So he was the phenom.

He was probably the youngest best player there. If you're looking at 2019, he had had the crazy freshman year that was 17 or 18, or something like that. He had had the crazy freshman year where up there in Michigan, he had led everyone to the state title, or led his team, not everyone. He did not, he had had the crazy freshman year where up there in Michigan, he had led everyone to the state title or led his team, not everyone. He did not, he wasn't able to successfully lead every team

to a state title. He was able to lead his team to a state title, and not every team won because he played. So he led his team to a state title and all of that. So he was the youngest, probably best prospect that was there. And once again, they were playing all week, so maybe he was cooking all week and the whole nine.

But I remember he had, he was pretty humble about it. Like he had a big smile on his face when I asked the question, but everybody else was like, oh him, him, him, him, him. Like he was the deal. And he's definitely making progress in his professional career now, you see it happening. But you know,

it was a tough road. He goes to Memphis and then he ends up transferring to a smaller school. So what I was trying to say was, I had seen enough washouts. I don't wanna call any of these young men washouts and I'm certainly not calling him one, but I had seen enough washouts to know,

especially from my time at TMZ and I was trying to impart upon them, that there's no such thing as somebody who you guys know is going to make it. And that youthful outlook to that is, I get it, and that's the way you're supposed to feel, but at the same time, on the off time that you have,

maybe start thinking about what matters to you besides basketball. Because if you don't have those thoughts now, they're gonna all flood into you at 33 or 34. And that's when you have the chance to make some magnificent mistakes. So speaking of not being invited back, Jaylen Brown was in attendance last night

for summer league game. And there's video of him when they were talking about Bronny, he's sitting courtside, ex-WNBA players. And it looks like Jaylen turns to them and says, I don't think Brawny is a pro. Now, I think we all know kind of like which color is the dress. There are these visual tricks.

I also think there's these audio tricks when it comes to things, when you predetermined what someone is going to say, you can kind of convince yourself that's exactly what they're saying. So I'm allowing Jaylen Brown a bit of an out here. Now, then if you look at Jaylen Brown tweeting this morning, he says, quote, it's a flex to have your son alongside you

in the NBA, it reflects greatness and longevity. Brawny has all the tools around to be successful. I look forward to watching his growth. That feels like a quote tweet that's like, yeah, that's exactly what I said and I got busted here. Anything that you wanna do on this and I think also I'd like to include in, what's wrong with Jaylen Brown saying that?

And is there still this kind of kiss the ring mentality with LeBron or anybody of that stature if you're another player? Like if I'm Jaylen Brown, won finals MVP, won the title and I'm sharing a comment that I'd rather not be in a video, ultimately it's not gonna ruin my day if LeBron James has now upset at me that I'd rather not be in a video, ultimately, like, it's not gonna ruin my day if LeBron James has now upset at me that I've come to the conclusion,

I think a lot of people have come to, like, he's gonna have, meaning Bronnie, he's gonna have to get a lot better for this to even be a serious thing. Yeah, so a couple of things. Number one, he didn't walk in there with two women. He walked in there with Angel Reese and the lady from The Fever in the Sky

and I don't know how to say her name. That's why I didn't say it. Yeah, I know, I don't know if that's right. I get it, but like, you have to give them a little bit of a clear out because if you're Jalen Brown, he walked in there with some work, is what we call it. Is that what it's called?

It's called some work. Okay. All right. He walked in there like the man. Shout out to Angel Reese by you, Barbie. He's got probably the baddest woman on his arm. In, I can't think of a better looking lady in basketball history.

Now I'll be honest with you, the WNBA started to get hot in these WNBA streets. I see a think of a better looking lady in basketball history now. I'll be honest with you, the WNBA, starting to get hot in these WNBA streets. I see a lot of them. What was the six foot seven white girl that was out there? She ended up hurting herself, but she like is getting, it used to be some Mr. Feenies, now it's some Sidney Sweeney's. So is-

That rhyme. Yeah, the league is changing. All right, things are different Women have always been beautiful. I joke. Um Just an aside on Angel Reese though. I know at one point during a timeout she went to the post and said I only have eight points Can you guys throw it in here real quick? Yeah, good for I mean chase a double-double Moses Malone used to do this is a modern-day Moses Malone No No Chase the double double. Moses Malone used to do this. She's a modern day Moses Malone. No, no. If a guy did this in the NBA and chased this stat this much, he would get destroyed for the record.

Yeah, well, this is what I'll say to that, Rasoola. I'd say that women have been overlooked. They've been pushed to the side. They've built this society. They've been a backbone of civilization for so long. I think that we've come to the point in society, look, I'm about to woke you. This is called a woke whipping right now.

I think we've come to the point in society where it's okay for a woman to pad her stats. Well, I like to see a woman have the opportunity to put her stats up there and get recognition for what she's able to do by missing shots and putting them back. I think it's okay. I think it's not, no, I think we-

I'm not even talking about the Mrs. I'm not talking about the Moses part of it. Yeah, no. I'm talking about the end of two specific games where we got really mad at Ricky Davis, who was it, Darryl Armstrong, when he checked himself back in the Orlando game. Like that stuff doesn't go over well.

Just saying, just saying. All I'm saying is right now, what I'm saying is I don't think we have women, I don't think we have the, I don't think it's okay for us to tell women what they should be doing with their bodies. So if they decide they wanna score two extra points in the post, I don't think it's okay for you,

or me, or the Supreme Court, or whatever, to tell women what they should be. Because look, you're telling her to go sit down? That's not, come on. You're telling her to go sit down. You want to put a kitchen on the bench? You're telling her to go sit down in the kitchen, in the bench?

She wants to score. If she wants to score, she can go out there and score, Rosillo, what's going on here? I cannot, I don't have a counter to that. All right, so back to the brawny thing, and let's just keep it all the way real. Okay. Let's talk about it. Now. I'm gonna I'm gonna be completely transparent here. It's difficult for me to be on code and just talk about the brawny situation as if it's not a dream. A dream. It's a dream from all of the different angles,

right, it's a dream to be able to do this. It's a dream to be powerful and noteworthy enough to say, hey, draft my son, right, that's a dream. It's a dream to have your son there with you, particularly if you're LeBron. That's a dream, you want that, right, if you're LeBron, cool. I don't think it's gonna be fair to ask everybody to lobotomize themselves as we evaluate

and talk about Bronnie going forward. He's a professional athlete now. What everyone got a glimpse of with Jalen Brown was the bullshit real shit dichotomy that exists with almost every public figure. The real shit is Jalen Brown is sitting courtside at a game that Bronnie is playing with, with his girl and her friend.

And he looks at the game in an honest way. And when you look at the look on his face, you can tell if this is in fact what he said, when you look at the look on his face, you can tell that it brings him no pleasure to say it. He doesn't look over at her and go, man, yo, this little dude sucks. Like, this is ridiculous.

That's not what he said. He literally looked and goes, man, I don't think Bronnie's a pro. That's what he said and that's how he said it. He said it as if he didn't wanna say it. It's like, you look at your home, you and, my man, is this movie, is this movie not good? Man, I came to see Superman

and Bryan Singer fucked it up. Maybe he was doing something between takes that he shouldn't have been doing. Maybe Kevin Spacey was too. Anyway, but it, so he says it in a way that you can tell he's not reveling in it, but that's what he really thinks. That's how he really feels. He's watching them.

You're watching Brawny right now. The game was moving. The reason why he's air balling threes is because the game is moving very fast for him. He doesn't know when he has enough time to shoot. He can't feel his way through it right now. He doesn't really know what he's supposed to be doing, right? And you can tell, you can see him

literally thinking about every dribble, every cut, every whatever, Reed Shepard was playing with him, right? The learning curve is going to be steep. And right now he doesn't look like a pro. That's the real shit. The bullshit is when you have to come back and clean it up because you have so much respect for LeBron James, respect that LeBron James has earned.

LeBron James has earned that respect, not just as a basketball player, but as a father. And as someone who you look at and be like, hey, that's how I want my family to be. Now, I have my own thoughts on using a draft pick on him when he's clearly not ready to have a draft pick used on him and what that means for other people. Like we've seen other people in G League that are cooking

that didn't get a chance to be drafted and connected to teams and all of that, whatever. But I mean, Jalen Brown got caught in a real shit moment where he was saying some real shit to his girlfriend. And it's not like he was reveling in it. She said, she replies, it looks like he'll be in the G League for sure. It's another professional basketball player. She's been cut, bounced around back up to the league for a couple of years. And he goes, no, because if his name, it's what people are saying that he said,

he'll probably be on the Lakers. Roussillo, is that, what lie did he tell? He didn't lie, he didn't, what did he say that wasn't true? Right now, Brawny doesn't look like a pro. Not saying that he won't be a pro, but right now he doesn't look like it. And he probably will end up making the Lakers 12 man because he'll be around with his dad. All those things are true.

Yeah, I'm just, if I'm a Lakers fan, I'm not thrilled about the collective of all of this. Like I'm buddies with JJ, saw him this weekend. I'm thrilled for him. I'm pumped. But certainly I understand the argument against it if you don't like the hire. The fact that it was flowed to LeBron was going to take less money to add the other guy. Miraculously,

the other guy never shows up. He cuts it to a million, luckily, to keep it under the second apron. As I had said after the draft, it's a 55th pick. It's not that big of a deal, but it's now the deal moving forward. It is, what if you have a trade and you need matching salaries? What if there's a roster spot? What if somebody else is waived and you're thinking, oh, it'd be actually awesome to add this guy

as a developmental person instead of having LeBron's son on this guaranteed contract for multiple years. If I'm a diehard Lakers fan, I can appreciate what LeBron has done. Because I think that part gets completely overlooked by the Kobe fanatics, as if LeBron hasn't delivered on any of it. A ring is a ring. Championship, some of these franchises, man, you go forever without even getting a taste of it. So for him to come in, and with him coming in means Anthony Davis is here and everything that goes with it, it's been a success. But on the way out, I'd be concerned

because there's a strong argument to make. You'd be like, what is this, just LeBron Klutz show here at the end? Like we're just gonna do whatever and this guy's gonna be 40 this year? It's one thing if he's 30, even 35 year old LeBron, but that part of it would be frustrating, I would think. And look, I've heard it, I've already heard it,

just being around here all the time, how pissed off. But sometimes I kind of take it with a grain of salt too, when I think it's the guy that has the eight and the 24 tattooed on both shoulders. And by the way, it's Kaiser Gondrzezek, who was there with Jalen. I felt bad to see both. Kaiser is her name?

Yeah, yeah. I don't think it's Kaiser. Is it Kaiser? Kaiser, I don't know she called it that. Kaiser is her name? Yeah, yeah. I don't think it's Kaiser. Is it Kaiser? Kaiser, I don't know how you say it. I mean, that should tell you something right now is she's been playing ball for a long time. I've literally said she was in. I just felt like it was a little disrespectful,

but it also speaks to the fact that, yeah, I don't know. Hey, you can't call me shallow. Yeah, she's a great player. I think she has a tremendous skill set. So this is what I'll say. You know what we never talk about? We never talk about like the relative age of industries. Right?

Like things are not that old. You know, the NBA started in what, 1946? Oh yeah, no, I love this. I'm with you on this. Yeah, the NBA started in what, 1946? Oh yeah, no, I love this. I'm with you on this. Yeah, movies basically started in the 10s or the 20s. All of these leagues are not at all. And then the talkies, yeah. Then the talkies came around.

So when we look at all of the relative age of these industries, as they get older, these are the things that you're gonna incur. There is a chance that one day, a significant percentage of the NBA, even more significant than it is right now, will be second and third generation players.

That as the league gets a little bit more complicated, as the resources for the guys who played before start to top out, that they can both leverage their celebrity and their access to putting more second and third generation people into the league. That's why when you look at all the NEPO people that are in Hollywood or doing whatever, we've seen this before in many other industries

that are older. You see railroad magnets and bank magnets and newspaper people. You see their sons and their kids and whatever running it. You see Bush become the president. When Prescott Bush was a senator, when his dad was the president.

Answers go way back to the Mayflower. Like all of this stuff, there's going to be an NBA sports version of that. It's eventually going to come as these leagues and industries, entertainment, whatever you see. The only place that this really doesn't work is the kids and rappers. We're not trying to hear you rap

because your daddy was nice. You have a much tougher road. Like if you, like there's some, but for the most part, if your daddy had the Blikki in 96 to 2000, we don't want to hear you got the Blikki. You didn't have the Blikki. Like, you, like, we don't really, your whole thing on the world is going to be tough for you.

Some of them make it work. There's Coyle Ray, one of T.I.'s sons is crazy talented. Sometimes it works. He is one of T.I.'s sons. No, I'm just glad we had an example for the positive version of the story. Yeah, yeah, Coyle Ray, Corey Guns can rap his ass off.

There are some people out there that can pull it off, but for the most part, it doesn't work there. But what I'm saying is that these are issues, particularly in these various industries, that we were going to run into because they're older industries and the top of them is getting richer. There was going to be a guy that was going to pull this. It's not like we hadn't seen it before,

but when you look at the Neppo babies that have been in the NBA, that was going to pull this. It's not like we hadn't seen it before, but when you look at the Neppo babies that have been in the NBA, for the most part, they've earned their way there. Like, Steph or, I mean, there's tons of examples, right? The Berries, all this place. For the most part, they've earned their way there. This is the first one, the first one legitimately that I can think of that straight up did not earn his way to the league.

Thenosis, I think is a decent example, but it's a different. Who? Thenosis, I don't think is on an NBA roster without Giannis. So this is what I would say to that. That is true. He is. However, he did earn his way into being a pro basketball player. Yeah. So he probably is not in the NBA without Giannis. I mean, I think we all know that, but on his own, on his own merit, on his own, he got to be a pro basketball player playing

for X amount of years overseas or wherever he was or whatever he was doing, he was at least able to make a go of it as a pro ball player to where you could say, okay, that guy's toiled a little bit, now his brother's gonna be brought in and now he's going to be the funniest player in the league. And also look, he entertains us.

I'm not mad that he's in the NBA. I like it, it's fun. So. Yeah, I don't know. I just felt like some of the coverage was like, wait, so now people like nepotism? Like I thought people didn't like this. Because I'm with you.

I think the story itself is an awesome thing. I think even without having children, you can appreciate all of that. But to get a jersey and to be on a guaranteed contract for multiple years, I think that's different than the family business being passed down. I think it's not the same at all. I think the family business is your inheritance. That's yours. Right. When you get the family business handed down to you, that is your parent getting you ready to run what you're going to inherit.

Like Jerry Jones's kids're going to inherit. Like Jerry Jones' kids are going to get the Cowboys, right? So it makes sense to make them competent in running the Cowboys. Jerry Buss' kids are going to get the Lakers, so it makes sense in getting them ready to run the Lakers. This is different. This is leveraging your power to get your son into a league

where there are only a few spots, you know? Let's do some life advice. But before we do that, I don't know what it is about those pronunciation videos. I was prepping for an author interview, the book Conquistador, and there was a lot of Mexican pronunciations that I did not know how to say as I was reading the book.

At some point, I kind of gave up, like you're not you're not going to retain this anyway. So are you kidding? But when you click on how to pronunciate and I just had to do it with Kaiser, those videos are the least efficient videos that exist on the world web. Do you know what I'm talking about when you click on it? Like say it's you're looking up brulay. Like if you just never knew how to pronounce creme brulay, the word that you are trying to pronounce is a word that people use. And before we hear the pronunciation of the word, it is a word that we will now pronounce. I don't know if it's a longevity of staying on the video,

which is this trick that everybody does for more engagement. They're like, wait till the end, wait till the end. So you watch all the video, they get more views, and then they end up in all these different things. The pronunciation videos that run on YouTube, they need to be shorter. I don't need an intro, I don't need an outro. It's not a fucking story here.

This isn't a script. We don't need all the detail. Just tell me it's Brulay. Yep. And I'm good. I'm with you. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up?

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. All right, first email address. As always, lifeadvice, rrr at gmail.com. We've got a couple here for Van. I actually love this one. Jim Somnia just came in fresh. Six four, 220, 30 years old, five pounds above what I would consider lean. Bench two, 55, squat, 355, deadlift, 465. I can't think of an NBA comp at this time.

This guy tells me right away in the intro, five pounds above what I would consider lean. This guy's probably in terrific shape. It feels like he's a bit obsessive in a good way. He's kind of locked in, he's got his target six, four, two 20. Anyway, I've been a morning workout guy for about five years now going to the gym at 5 30 AM to avoid the post work rush. I currently go to a small boutique gym about three miles from my house owned by

a guy who retired early and runs the place as a hobby. Recently I've been having trouble getting out of bed for my workouts. Today I woke up and saw 540 on my phone and kicked it into overdrive. I got dressed, took about 200 milligrams of caffeine in the form of pre-workout. I was in my car by 545. I arrived at the gym and was the first car in the lot,

which is not unheard of. After badging in and getting my shoes on, I saw a text from my girlfriend asking, "'Did you leave the house?' I was confused by this and called her immediately. At this point, I realized it was actually 12 47 a.m. I actually love this, obviously. As for the life advice,

what would you do in this situation? I obviously have 24 hour access to the gym, but it feels super weird because 1 a.m. is a weird time to be at the gym. I'm almost certain that the way the gym entries are charged is by the gym owner going through the badge logs and charging the accounts. How should I handle any questions

about this event from the gym owner? I gotta be honest with you, if you have a normal routine and then I see you sneaking in there at 1 a.m., I pull you aside and be like, are you okay? Right? But maybe at 30, I just go, these guys are a little in the tick anyway. Given that I was about to be very awake from the caffeine, I just, this guy's a lunatic anyway. Given that I was about to be very awake from the caffeine,

I went ahead and did my workout. Overall, pretty solid session. Maybe I should do this more often. Can't wait to crash around noon today. Should I tell people in my life about this? One point of clarity, I definitely remember waking up and the drive here, at least parts of it.

I recently started taking allergy meds for some cats that we adopted. Don't think it's strictly sleepwalking driving. Sleep driving would definitely be more concerning than wasting the pre-workout because initially when I'm like, well, you can't waste the pre-workout. You're going to be awake. You've already got yourself in the mental frame of mind to live because you thought that it was 5.30 in the morning. So you might as well just work out. I have no issue with that. More of an issue with this allergy medicine that you're taking for cats that you adopted, but I probably would imagine that's a separate email.

So we'll try to stay on point with this one. Look, if you're charged up and ready to go, I'm surprised the body responded that well, but maybe at 30, you're just, my body, hey, 2 a.m., we're just gonna work out out of nowhere. It would have, my body would be very upset with me moving forward. This is a hilarious premise.

This was one of the funnier ones that I've seen. That did you leave the house text is so hysterical. How great is that? That's so funny. Okay, number one, I can tell that he has a good history with his girlfriend being that he finished the workout. All right, some of us don't have the histories to where we could do that.

Leaving in the middle of the night, one o'clock, and being like, yo, I'm going to the gym, you must be a good boy. Yeah, you're a good guy. Because that's not gonna work. Like you're gonna leave the gym, you're gonna have to come back, and then you're gonna have to come back into the house

and then immediately take a shower, right? It's just not something that's gonna look good depending on the history that you have with your girl. So I'm glad to know that they've been able to communicate and he's been a good boy in the past. I mean, honestly, this is one of the first times where I'm not so sure whether I wanna be this guy or whether I wanna help this guy. Because the fact that he was able to get himself together

for a workout in the middle of the night, then get back up and go to work the next morning is fucking fantastic to me. But at the same time, I feel like there's an issue there. I've heard his stats from before, I know he's serious about all of this stuff. He's serious, yeah. But I'm wondering if he's making room in his life

for other types of joy. I'm wondering if he's making room in his life for other types of things. Is he pushing it too far? At 30, I'm willing to say no, but I'm thinking that at 35, 36, 40, we're gonna have to start looking at ways for him to involve himself in other things

that make him feel good. That's all I'm saying. But the gym in the middle of the night thing, yeah, the best case scenario is if you get in there in the middle of the night, and there's like a little three on three going, because it's always fun to play basketball late. But I'd be concerned.

There's some things here to be concerned about, if you're him. There's some things to be concerned about here, but at the same time, he's kind of awesome, you know? I'm not concerned at all. I think there's a separate part of it where I look at the relationship and think how great it is to your point.

Hey, did you leave the house at one in the morning? Oh yeah, I worked out. Ha ha ha. Well, see you back here later. Cause I imagine he didn't go back to bed or maybe he did. I don't know. Cause that would, that would be worse than getting up to have to work out to then after that, say you're asleep at three and then you wake up. I don't know what time he gets up for work. So actually maybe there's a chance he could have slept three hours.

Maybe he's just a guy who can fall right back asleep. But after that pre-workout, now there's just, there's thousands and thousands of kids right now in their 20s that are taking pre-workout after they're done with their nine to five and wondering why they can't fall asleep at a reasonable hour. Like, man, I just get into bed

and I'm just staring at the TV until two or three in the morning. It's like, well, you probably took two scoops of, well, they don't make Ultimate Orange anymore, thank God. Um. Um. Let's, let's see. You ever try, you ever try Thermo Vex?

I don't know that one. Thermo Vex used to have me sweating on TMZ. Like sweating, Harvey, like Harvey pulled me to the side, he's like, yo, what's wrong with you, man? I'm like, what are you on something? And I'm like, I'm like, oh no, I'm using this. Cause I would wake up and I would, the Thermo Vex, I would take it as just a fat burner throughout the day.

But it was also like a crazy pre-workout. And I would be like sweating in the morning. I was running three miles on my lunch break at TMZ trying to get the Therm- and her adopt cats that he's now taking allergy medicine for. So maybe that's an email we get in three years. So I got married and everything's great. She lets me do my own thing, but these cats are killing me. I've been on medication. We're thinking about moving to Arizona. Okay, let's see here. Home alone with no kids, 6'1", 35 years old.

Shortest in my family. My middle school cousins are outgrowing me. My dad is 6'6". My dad and uncles are good hoopers. I was good in elementary school. None of this is relevant. It is to me as a 6'5' dad, just disappointed coaches for years. How loud is too loud for a sound system?

My immediate neighbor blares classic rock from his garage. There's no bass and you don't hear it when you're inside the house. I have no issues with any sounds from any neighbors. I'm not sharing walls with anyone. My problem is I have a Bose sound system that I bought when I was 18. This guy's issues with any sounds from any neighbors. I'm not sharing walls with anyone. My problem is I have a Bose sound system that I bought when I was 18.

This guy's had this sound system for 17 years. He loves this fuckin' thing. Oh my God. This guy's, I like to crank it up. Think about how proud he is of it. Dude, you gotta come here. How many times he's moved it, hung the wires. Tried a bit.

He's like, there's even more bounce range on the sub behind the couch with this living room setup. You're right, you're right. Okay, all right, because this is good, this is good. Best Buy van's gonna help us through this. I like to crank it up to 11 from time to time. You can feel it in your feet. I only do this when I'm home alone.

Very, very rare. I'm never hosting two AM parties. Both of my immediate neighbors are fairly old. I simultaneously wanna shake their house and be respectful of their autonomy. I know I'm an idiot. I feel like a dumb ass high revving is $500 Civic, but damn it sounds good emoji use. There's no real question here. Maybe you can talk about your experiences with an idiot like me or validate me or tell me I'm an idiot. I'll still listen. There we go. Okay, look, I don't know that it's the same. I feel like the kids are missing out

because when home theaters were the shit, late 90s, early 2000s, I was all the way in. I think I had a Zenith. I think I bought it from Ames at the U mall in Burlington, Vermont. And boy was I pumped, even though it wasn't very good. So I, I set up the, the high end stuff drilled into the sheet rock. Probably didn't use a stud finer.

They weren't pushing a lot of weight, you know, adding to it and then switching out that receiver realizing, Oh my God, I got Dolby now this is nuts. And I was in this shitty little apartment. So I loved that I had it. I loved taking it apart when I moved and I loved putting it back together. I loved upgrading it. Dudes would talk about different stuff.

But what I realized was that it was kind of pointless most of the time. Like, yes, it was great for Top Gun. It wasn't as great for Ransom. So there were a lot of movies where dudes were pushing like, it wasn't buddies. It wasn't gonna work. So there were these unbelievable moments. And it was great to show off. I just now know and look, depending on what kind of house

you're in, I'm sure some people still have the home, but the home theater deal was a huge, huge deal. And I feel like that time has now moved on for years. I just don't think it's the same thing, even though it's clearly still an option. And you have the Sonos technology, the soundbars, where you don't get everything if you don't want it. So they found ways around you thinking,

okay, I need four high-end speakers because I got an angle two back at me, two behind me. I mean, I love mapping it out and all the options, and you would know because you sold them. Yes. I had a conversation with my cousin Ra-Ra one time. His name is Ra-Ra. Great name. Ra-Ra. Big LSU fan.

Ra-Ra. And I remember asking him, how much can you do to a Honda Civic? And this has, that was his answer. Ra-Ra, we were on Southern University's campus, Ra-Ra put 312s in the Honda Civic. 312s, he was rattling the engine out of the thing, right?

He put rims on the Honda Civic. He put all of these things into the Honda Civic. He put so much into the Honda Civic. We were riding down the middle of campus with the doors open on the Honda Civic. My teeth were shattering. That everything was moving, right? Then I thought about this,

because a lot of our apartments were Honda Civics back in the day. We had these apartments, and I did the same thing. I had a ridiculous home theater. My little two bedroom with, I shared with Ian in Jefferson Lakes, I was working at Best Buy, I was getting all of the stuff on discount, just right over cost, and I had crazy shit in there, right?

And the only movie we was really playing was Belly. Cause it was like, like you know what I'm saying? Great soundtrack, yeah. Great soundtrack, some shootouts, you know, we was playing Belly, girls would come over and we would be like, yo, we put that belly on. It's like, why we always want,

cause I wanted to show off the sound system. You go three- Did you buy a white watch? Oh my God, bruh, I had a white watch, I had a white belt. Good for you. Like belly had us out there. So this is my thing. Belly changed stuff for about two years, two plus years.

Yeah, we tried to like, we tried to make belly, the aesthetic of belly into real life. Yeah, right, no, there was like a real belly run. I think scholars years from now, you start talking about like the evolution and growth of businesses and decades and decades. There's just gonna be, in certain timelines, there's gonna be like a little belly window.

No one's gonna understand what it meant. Like, why we were like that, why we were trying to be that way. Anyway, so what I'm saying is there's three different, first you have a little bit of money and you try to go with a big sound system and you realize it's not that big of a deal. Then you have a little bit more money

and you're like, I don't need that much of a sound system because right now all I have is the sound bar. And then I feel like the next phase is, you know, I go to some people's houses that have a lot of money. And when they've put 50, 60, 100,000 into it, you're right back in your old apartment. You're right back there. When someone has really put the money into it,

and we know these guys, when someone has really put the money into it, and we know these guys, when someone has really put the money into it, you like, damn, I feel that belly shit coming back, bro. I wanna play belly on this bitch. I always come back, I always ask somebody, like, hey man, can I come to the crib, maybe watch belly next week to see how it sounds on the sound system?

It's crazy. So I know with this guy, when you have a good sound system, when you feel good about it, it's hard to let it go, but there's a whole point in your life where it just doesn't matter anymore. Because doing it the way we did it back in the day, hanging the speakers, the optical cables,

trying to get the right receiver, all of that. It was very hard to do to put it together back in those days. Yeah, now I think on the very, very high end, you just leave it and it comes with the home. On the home purchase side of it, which just, I miss taking apart the stack, wrapping up the wires, putting it,

I used to save the boxes for easy transport because back then you're moving a lot. You're like, look, I may not be able to cover rent, I may not know where I'm living in six months, but I do know that my components will be protected in the original boxes. So it's worth it having them around. Okay. Uh, two more and we'll be done. Rosilla, we were trying to figure this out movie wise, which has come up plenty of times in the past. Um, leave Shriver 42 years old, six foot tall, despite wife maintaining a joke that I'm five 11. I am six feet though. I swear. Good for you. Play a lot of hoops. Love to play D,

love to pass body currently breaking down. Will ball till I die. NBA comp, a poor, poor, poor, poor man's Iguodala. Bench unknown. Just a comment after watching Wes Anderson's Asteroid City the other night, which stars a large ensemble cast among whom the talented Leif Schreiber. It was then that I fully realized, although I think I always knew deep down that Rossello is the Schreiber of sports reporting and conversely Schreiber the Rossello of Hollywood. I can't give you proof. Call it a feeling. Discuss if you find it at all an interesting observation. If not, I still love the part. Yeah, we've discussed this. I think the voice part of it, but I mean, look,

when he really hones in his narration stuff, nobody can compete with that. I mean, that's just a different level of talking. I love this comp. It's a compliment, so I'm not upset about it, but I don't know. I mean, think about it. You're both the guy that does the HBO 24 seven voice

and you're Ray Donovan and you're Sabretooth. Yeah. And you're Sabretooth. No, it's a huge compliment. You know, it kind of like the Swiss army knife of guys that plug and play anywhere, gonna give you a good performance Okay

Has the whole voice thing. I guess my question to you would be are there any negatives? About being a leave Shriver of sports reporting or the sports world. What would be the negatives the positives are? Obvious are there any negatives? I think when you think at the top of the Hollywood game, you don't think of leave Shriver But I'll tell you this though, he may not want it though That's what I was gonna say two things. I don't think he wants to be that because he's having too much fun doing the stuff that he's doing. And he is in that rare group of Hollywood people, kind of like Killian Murphy was, right? Where he's legitimately, he could be where he's at for the rest of his career and have

a fantastic, amazing career, or he's one ridiculously awesome roll away from being at the rest of his career and have a fantastic, amazing career, or he's one ridiculously awesome roll away from being at the top of the A-list. Like if Lee Schroiber hits a movie next year, the year after that has him in like the best Oscar race, and then he moves to the top of the A-list, everyone's gonna be like, oh, it was Lee Schroiber's time. So he's literally one thing away from being that. So it could literally happen anytime

and not everybody is there. He was great in spotlight. Great in spotlight. Great, great spotlight. Okay, last one. Is there a perfect amount of wealth and fame and did Trey from Fish achieve it? 5'11", 175. 175 did wrestle D1.

There you go. Do you want shit on my run this morning? I twice cross paths with Trey of fish on the second passing when I was 100% certain was him. I gave a polite nod and smile without breaking stride. It occurred to me that Trey may have achieved the absolute perfect amount of fame. He's a rock star who I would assume has made a really, really nice amount of money over a 40 year career, but can walk his dog alone in the park of a big city with absolutely

no one bothering him. If there was a money fame genie that grants you any of the following options, I'm curious which one you guys would choose. Bezos or Elon, all the money in the world, super recognizable, probably hard to walk the street and possibly disliked in a lot of circles. Random, non-famous billionaire that no one outside their industry would recognize. LeBron James, Jay-Z type billionaire, super famous with all the perks, but can't go out in public without causing a scene. Tre from Fish, or some really well-paid professional baseball or hockey player, more money than

you could probably ever spend, are going to get recognized in a public decent amount, but get to enjoy the trappings of fame while largely getting to live a fairly normal life, I think I'd take option four. Yeah, I mean, Trey's probably a good one, but in the New York setting, like New York is a different set of rules. New York doesn't care. Like if you're an athlete in Boston,

it's going to be different for you because Boston cares so much. Not to say that New York fans don't care as much as Boston fans, but Boston is, everybody walking around is kind of aware. New York is such an international city that there's all sorts of people walking around that have no idea that's anything that's happening in the sports world whatsoever. So I think if you're going to be super famous in New York, you're going to survive. I imagine like Trey used to live in Burlington, or at least the surrounding

years. I don't remember exactly, exactly where he lived. When I lived in Burlington for those eight years, I'd see him all the time. And it had to be kind of tough because he's like a God in Vermont. And I'm sure that's probably why he likes New York City. So he can kind of flow in and out. He'll have access to anything he wants because he's Trey, but he doesn't deal with the part of it where, yeah, I mean, Jay-Z famous is probably awesome for a lot of reasons, but just like, hey, I need to replace a battery for my remote. He probably just can't go to CVS.

And I know he'd have an assistant to go ahead and do it, but that's gonna be a weird part of the deal of that level of fame that, you know, it's easy to say, oh, I wouldn't want that. Well, there's a lot of really great parts of it too. So that's a good question. What are you going to go with them? So the only thing about being super duper duper famous is then like if you have kids, people are messing around with your kids and it's weird on the kids and that that that that whole deal,

anything like that. I would say Kevin Bacon famous. Kevin Bacon famous to where you're recognizable, but people are still nice about it. You know? That plus a lot of money would be cool. Kevin Bacon recently did this thing to where he put on this prosthetic, and then he went out into the world where people couldn't tell it was him,

and he said he didn't like it. He said he walked around a lot, and nobody was telling him how awesome it was for him to have been in a movie or have been in the show. No one was saying, hey, I really love your work. And he didn't like it. And when I saw that, I was like, hey, I could see that. I could see how it's awesome to be Kevin Bacon at Starbucks

because people say hello. It's not awesome to be Brad Pitt at Starbucks where you paralyze the Starbucks and you can't get your coffee. So if I was Kevin Bacon famous where people liked me, they saw me, I had a pretty high approval rating, but they still, they said hi and they kept it pushing and I had the bread, that would be best.

I guess Warren Buffett would kind of be that guy. I mean, Warren Buffett is famous like the rest of these guys, but if you see Warren Buffett, you're not gonna bother him like you would Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, you're not gonna bother him, you know? Yeah, I think Elon would certainly get bothered more than others at that level in that world, the anonymous tech billionaires that nobody knows anything about, but always my

favorite quote from Lords of the Realm where one of the baseball owners says, what's the point of being rich if no one knows? So that's something I think about a lot when you're trying to figure out the right answer to this. I would have to imagine it would have to be something that, but we can just sit here and count money, but that's not really the exercise. I would think that there'd be something of like badass hockey player that is respected by his world. Okay, so you have all the respect of your peers. Maybe it's a UFC guy where you're famous but you're not. I can't run an Aaron famous but in your world not only is there the fame there's also immense respect so that if you were in some kind

of setting, all right, there's some event, get back to like the pregame speech for the D one athlete, like you're going to be a D one athlete the rest of your life and it's going to change the conversation around you. Um, for a lot of people, not all of them, but for a lot of them, I think it's like, Oh, that was a hall of fame hockey player that was actually a tough guy, or that's a UFC guy that was middleweight champ twice. It's different than he did a really good job

with his portfolio. Let me throw a name at you. Chuck Liddell. Not bad, Verlander. Justin Verlander. Got a pretty good life, bro. Yeah, that's a good one. Sonny Young's, championships, crazy money, Kate Upton,

she did the Dougie, stole our hearts, but not only that, but she comes from- Did she appropriate the Dougie though? It doesn't matter, bro, when you got those two, anyway. I just needed the clearance. Yeah, when, when, when, then she's like some Maytag heiress or something like that. When you think about it,

if you're just talking about it, especially if we're on the white boy side of things, when you think about it, Verlander is pretty much, he's got a great life, bruh. When you think about it, Verlander can still, Verlander rich, got the woman, the whole thing, respected in his industry, but nobody's gonna bother Verlander if he goes to CVS.

Nobody even knows who he is. That's a great answer. That's a great answer, Van. You can check out Van with Rachel Lindsay twice a week. No, no, no, I got a question for you now. I got a question for you now. Okay. I have a special basketball question for Ryan Rosillo, okay?

I've been watching a lot of old basketball games, a ton. And I've been seeing things about these players that I didn't quite remember. When you go back and you watch them possession by possession. Yep. Shaq is more skilled than I remember. I watched a lot of Shaq, but he is way more skilled than I remember. He doesn't get credit to me for how skilled he is. So I came up with a question for you, a basketball question.

What is the bigger gap between Shaq and Yokelj? Is it skills or athleticism? Is Shaq more, is the bigger gap between them, Shaq's athleticism over Jokic, or is the bigger gap between them, Jokic's skill over Shaq? What is the bigger gap? Because Shaq, crazy stupid athletic at center,

maybe the most athletic, and Dwight Howard maybe, got some skills. Jokic, crazy, crazy skilled, underrated athleticism. Which gap is bigger to you? Look, Jokic is one of the most skilled guys we've ever seen. Every possession you feel like you have a chance because of the way he just sees the floor

and the chances that he takes with his passing, he keeps his possessions alive. But the peak Shaq power size, just explosiveness, that gap is bigger. That's the answer. Mm. It's a haunting sound. Yeah. Why?

I'm just saying, I really don't know. Because then I went back and watched Jokic. And I can make an argument. Everybody knows the about face I've done on Jokic. I can make an argument that Jokic is the most skilled player ever. And that Shaq is the most dominant player ever. Um, so it's just, or the most athletic power. So I just, I was like, I was thinking, what would Ryan say?

That's a mantra that I use. What would Ryan say? Let's see those t-shirts or bumper stickers as much, but then we can get, we can get our marketing team on that. Um, yeah, I wish we had, we'd done that earlier, but we can get our marketing team on that. Yeah, I wish we had done that earlier, but that's all right. We'll have another time. Let's revisit it.

And let's revisit it. Let's revisit it. Let's get everybody's takes and then let's build that out a little bit. Let's revisit it. All right. Sounds good. My man, Van Lathan, again, he and Rachel,, twice a week, higher learning, Midnight Boys as well. You can check out all of his stuff on YouTube. Thanks, buddy.

All right, peace, peace. Thanks to Wargon, thanks to Sarutti, thanks to Van for stopping by. Check out our YouTube page as well. And as always, thank you for listening and subscribing to the Ryan Russo podcast, bring your spotlight. to the Ryan Russo podcast where you're sponsored. Must be 21 and older, 18 plus in DC and present in select states. Fandual is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star

Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit Fandual.com forward slash RG in Colorado, DC, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org.

www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org.

www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc.org. www.cctc522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770, stop in Louisiana.

Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.