The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Top NBA Offseason Stories and Rumors, Plus NBA Champion Bobby Portis

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

Russillo shares the biggest offseason NBA story lines (0:27), before talking with NBA champion Bobby Portis about the title celebration, the Finals series, Bobby’s NBA journey, what’s next, and more (23:30). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (42:35). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Bobby Portis Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

a lot of nba today on the pod we're going to go over the biggest off-season storylines to try to make sense of the first week of a bunch of rumors with a bunch of names attached to it we'll do that with saruti as well and bobby portis nba champ on his championship season and a big free agency decision looming in Life Advice. Today's Open is a simple headline. The NBA's biggest offseason stories in no particular order of importance, but I'm trying to figure out which the biggest ones were because we had a bunch of cannon fire over the weekend. Bunch of shots, bunch of news up in the air,

and I want to put them all together. Again, the ones that seem like they're the most important, and then we're going to kind of sift through them, and Cerruti's going to jump in a little bit later, a bunch of news up in the air, and I want to put them all together. Again, the ones that seem like they're the most important, and then we're going to kind of sift through them, and Cerruti's going to jump in a little bit later, all right? So we'll see if I leave out anything here, too, which is always a possibility. I'm going to start with the Lakers, not because it's the most important,

but because they're associated with the most players. Over the weekend, I've read they have interest in Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Damian Lillard, Spencer Dinwiddie, Buddy Heald, and Pat Mahomes, which I don't know how he would fit, but it makes sense. Talented player. But that's how it works. I mean, it's the Lakers, first of all. Magic Johnson just tweeting out left and right about Chris Paul. I think Magic

Johnson was the source on a bunch of this stuff. That's just a weird dynamic with this team. It's not that bad, right? It doesn't prevent you from winning. It's still Magic Johnson. There's a lot of stuff that happens here. It also is what happened with that whole Kawhi thing. When he was going to the Lakers, it was Magic Johnson just straight up being like, yeah, we got him. Done and done.

We got him. He was like, do you? And Kawhi was like, no, actually, I'm not going there. So the Lakers part of this, it's much like the Yankees during the trade deadline or free agency. Anyone that's worth it is somehow connected to them. So let's talk about what's real and what isn't. The Chris Paul, the Lakers thing doesn't work for a million different reasons. And I'm not saying it's impossible, although I feel like it's impossible because there've been plenty of times,

certainly with stars orchestrating things, you're like, oh, that'll never happen. And you're like, oh, wow, that happened. But I just don't think it's going to happen based on common sense and a bit of information. If we go over the numbers, Chris Paul has a player option for $44.2 million. If you were to opt out of that, the Lakers, now they could get to in a weird way, a totally unfeasible and uncharacteristic way, they could get to like $20 million in cap space. That'd be just detaching themselves from all of their assets, which doesn't make any sense. So that's not going to happen. The non-taxpayer exception, if they were under the tax, would be somewhere between $9 and $10 million, depending on where the cap lands at $112 million, I believe, for this next season. And then a $6 million, just under $6 million tax exception.

So the taxpayer or the non-tax. So we're talking about like a pay cut of $35 million to like $39 million, $38 million. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Does it make a lot of sense basketball-wise? million, 38 million. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Does it make a lot of sense basketball wise? I've always felt like throughout all of LeBron's career and the quest for some of these other players, he never should play with a point guard. He should always play with a ball handling two guard that can make shots. And actually that's what has happened more often than not. But all these years of, oh, what about this or trade here or tweak there, all these

different things. When it's a traditional point guard, I think it's just redundant. Although Paul and LeBron are so smart that maybe they could kind of figure it out. But there's another thing that would have to happen here. Chris Paul would have to want to play there. And I don't think that he necessarily wants to go there now that he has this Suns team positioned the way he does. Now, are they the favorites in the West? Absolutely not. They could be behind a handful of teams next year, maybe three teams, maybe it's five. I don't know. We'll see how the rest of this offseason shakes out. but at least Phoenix is in the mix and it's another year together after they went through and had a tough loss in the finals. So the only thing I would throw out on the Chris Paul front is as of last week, I had heard that the Suns, and again, this

could have changed by the time you're hearing this podcast, but by late last week, I had heard that depending on what Paul does here, it'd be nice to hear from the Phoenix Suns. And I had heard that his party had not heard from ownership. And that's the part of this. If you're a Suns fan, you're like, is Sarver really going to screw this one up? Is he going to be cheap here? Look, the Suns aren't going to do a sign and trade to help the Lakers. They're not going to do a sign and trade to help Chris Paul move on. But where the Suns could screw this up is if they play it cheap and go, hey, maybe you go ahead and set the market and we'll see what happens. Drag defeat, insult Chris Paul, and then he decides, you know what? I'm going to go take money somewhere else. But again,

the money is so short in just a straight up transaction with the Lakers. I just have a hard time believing that. And remember Chris Paul, when he left the Clippers and went to Houston, the reason that was so surprising, it's like, wait, he's going to give up the extra year. And he did, he did give up that extra year. So there you go. Now, Russell Westbrook, he's at 44 million and 47 million. If you look at the trades and how it would work, it'd be Kuzma, it'd be Montrezl Harrell, um, picking up the option. It'd be Pope. And you know, you'd have to get, you could get there, but then you have to ask yourself do you want this to happen if you're a Lakers fan now we all know my position in Westbrook but I could

actually kind of see this argument at least for the regular season because I think there's there's a level here of energy that Westbrook plays with where he would take games over take possessions over and I actually think he would make it easier on guys like Anthony Davis and LeBron James over the course of the season. So there's part of me that actually could kind of understand this. Now, the reason this transitions into another big storyline, and that's the Wizards storyline this offseason, is that don't underestimate the Wizards' desire to be mediocre.

And by mediocre, I mean a 7-8 seed with the play-in games, even more margin for error. They were a hot team to close things out last year. They still weren't great. And we saw that in that Sixers series. And then they also had their own injuries that they were dealing with there a little bit.

But if Westbrook is cool at 44 and 47 million next year and Beal, and there was a ton of Beal stuff out there this weekend, but it was all very much the same. And it's kind of been the same that we've been talking about

here on this podcast. There doesn't seem to be this urgency from Bradley Beal to want to ask out and move on. We had Tommy Shepard on the GM and I kept kind of just going down that road. And I don't expect the GM to be like, yeah, he totally wants out. He hates it here. That's not what he's going to say. But it backed up a lot of the stuff you'd heard that Beal's like, yeah, just kind of content. And Beal may be waiting on figuring out what that five-year extension is with Washington, getting that. And then once he has that, then maybe deciding to ask to move on at some point. But if Beal does not push the issue for a trade, which it appears he is not doing now,

not saying it won't change, but at least as of now, he's cool with it. Then it may also mean that the Wizards are cool with hanging on to Westbrook and hoping to win 40 plus games and be in the playoffs again. Again, do not underestimate the Wizards desire to be mediocre. So that's where we're at with Beal. Beal has short money. But what's funny is that we have two players, two examples here of guys on much longer contracts potentially asking out. Now, the reason I would transition from Beal into Damian Lillard is that as of now,

even though there was a report last week saying that we're two weeks away, so I guess we'd be a week away now of Damian Lillard asking out officially, he'd be asking out in an unprecedented way, which is also kind of what Ben Simmons is doing because he wants out as well in Philadelphia. So Lillard has three years and it's 40, 42 and 46 million. And then a player's option, which I don't know how much that changes things. I don't know if the team goes, Hey, look, you don't really have as much leverage as you think. So if you come to us and demand a trade, it doesn't mean we're just going to put you somewhere that you want to go

because now the team has you under contract for three plus the option. Whereas in another situation where the star is asking out and he has like a year plus left, the new team is like, look, we trade for him. But if we give you assets for this guy and he's going to bounce, we only have him for a year and a half or just a year. It's not really worth it to us. So this is new. Like this is new territory here. Max deals kicking in and then players potentially asking for a trade. But the rumors, again, this is me just making calls and talking draft and, hey, what are you hearing and that kind of stuff.

I'm not a reporter. I think you guys know that, but I try to share what I can that makes sense. And the Lillard thing still feels like Beal a bit passive right now. And again, it could change, but until it changes, Portland's not going to go out of their way to move Lillard because you're going to lose that trade. Now, would Portland do C.J. McCollum for Ben Simmons? I actually think they would. Is that what you want if you're Philadelphia? Well, you may not want it still in July, but I don't know. I don't know what the other options are going to be now. Now, in comparison to Beal and Lillard, where I still feel like it's a bit passive,

you know, we'll see how this plays out. Things could change. Simmons seems a certainty. All right. It doesn't seem like he's going to be on Philadelphia when the season starts. And that's both information and everything you're reading. Now, I don't know what Daryl Morey will do if he doesn't like the offers. He's usually not one to just capitulate and just be like, all right, I got to give in here.

It's always kind of funny whenever I read the stories on this stuff because you'll be like, oh, well, this is coming from this side and this is coming from that side. And who knows? Some of my information could be coming from one side and I could be a little off on it too. But it feels like this is like Philadelphia and Ben Simmons and his agency clutch. It feels like they already know what they want from each other. All right. And this is another guy with a four-year contract on the books. So how much can he really call his shots? If Ben Simmons wants to be in LA at some point, okay, cool.

But you can't dictate where you're going as much as a guy can who has just a year or maybe a year and a half, two years left on his deal. You have four years left on your deal and it's 147 million. But I would say of all the rumblings of these guys moving around in these big off-season stories, the Simmons stuff seems more certain that they're going to try to find a way to move on before the season starts. But again, we'll see. Does it happen before the draft? Does it happen during free agency? Does it happen late? We've had that happen a couple of times where we thought everything was done. Westbrook has been part of two of those transactions the last couple of years

where it looked like everything is done and all the NBA writers are in Europe on vacation and then they find out another star has been moved. So to summarize, Dame passive, Beal perhaps even more passive, Simmons, this is maybe not publicly a problem right now, but I'd say it's going to be a less passive transaction or push at some point. The two other storylines that I have for you, the Warriors, how do they plan all this waiting around? How do they use these assets? Because this is absolutely like a line in the sand from, you know, it's not exactly AD in Christian years here, but what we're seeing is whatever 2021 is, like we'll be able to point back to that and how these assets are used and whether they're extending their championship window or if it didn't work out um and i and i don't know i don't know that it's just as simple as packaging everything together and asking any of these

guys if they're available because it doesn't look like dame would want to go there it looks like beal may not work um simmons in this case i don't still know how you'd play him with draymond and all that kind of stuff is there another player that makes a lot of sense for them and then my favorite rumor we're on about i don't know 37 months of this lonzo to the chicago bulls i mean this is the single longest day you know who really likes lonzo ball yes the chicago bulls we are aware i checked in on like three different stories on it this morning so um those are the big off-season storylines trying to sum them up as best I can. We'll have Suruti jump on after the break. I want to have Suruti jump on with us here,

going over those big offseason storylines here. I guess, first of all, did I leave anything out? I mean, there's certainly something you could point to that's a big deal. But I think right now it's the uncertainty of all the player movement um because the other thing i would always remind everyone of is there is a surprise waiting i don't know what it is or it wouldn't be a surprise but there's usually some kind of surprise that happens you're like oh wait that guy wants out but this is different because it's just the beal thing and this has been going on for a while. It doesn't seem to be as aggressive as of right now. Lillard thing, same deal.

But we'll see. We'll see what happens with Simmons. I think that might be the one. If I had to rank the ones in order of most likely to be somewhere else before the season starts, I put Simmons at the head of all these other names we went with. Yeah, I mean, other than, you know, what do Jonathan Isaac and Marco Foltz's health look like? I mean, I think that would

probably be just the next one in line, which so far, so good, guys. So everyone's getting excited. What's up? I would say we were talking about this a little bit in the break. I think the Ben Simmons thing to me is he's the one of the, he's the only one of those guys where I think has to be somewhere else next year. He just can't, he can't play for the Sixers.

He can't like both the Sixers can't have him back and he can't be there. So this thing to me has to get done. And if he wants to start publicly asking out, and I think he's well within his rights to do that even though I'm usually kind of annoyed by guys that do that especially with what four or five years left on a max contract but I just think this is they've reached the point of no return something has to happen and I kind of like this I kind of like the CJ McCollum deal like I don't know exactly how the numbers necessarily work but that's the kind of guy that Philly needs I think they would be better like do you think if they just straight swapped McCollum deal. I don't know exactly how the numbers necessarily would work, but that's the kind of guy that Philly needs. I think they would be

better. Do you think if they just straight swapped McCollum for Simmons, I'm sure they would add somebody else from Portland, but do you think they're a

better team, Philly? Because I do. I think that's exactly what they're missing. It's a really good way to put it because I'll share with you the person I was talking

to about it. It said like, you know, Simmons is probably a more valuable asset than CJ McCollum, but wouldn't the Sixers just be better with him than Simmons, you know, clogging everything up with the Embiid-Simmons thing that happens at the end of every game? There's also something to be said about what happens with Simmons and Lillard. Does that mean Lillard's playing off the ball more

now? Or, you know, what are you doing with Simmons? Because is he going to post with Portland? I don't know. It can't be any worse, honestly, than what it is when Embiid's in the way and Simmons' guy's hanging on Embiid because he doesn't have to defend him all the way out there. You know, I think waiting for Simmons

to develop a shot is pointless. I don't think it's ever going to happen. But if you're saying the other player other than Simmons is now somebody who can handle and can score and can shoot and isn't it like a top 20 player level but is a top 40 player level and CJ McCollum yeah I actually think they'd be more balanced like I don't even know how you debate against it um I although I guess you'd say hey what do you do now with Seth Curry and now what are you doing

defensively with your guards does that mean Seth doesn doesn't play in valuable plays all the time? Um, because Simmons still is important defensively. So I could, I could understand. I think it might feel like, Hey, whatever it is, like we're giving you the luxury car at a discounted price for your car. That's good,

but it's, it's not the same, but it's, it's not the same argument. The argument is different. If you're a Blazers fan, are you excited about that trade? I mean, the problem would be i think you know you look at simmons is still the guy who got drafted

first overall you're excited about we could be even though there's a good chance he's never going to get to as you said he's never going to develop a jump shot but i do kind of like the idea of him going to portland they have a track record of developing guys right getting the most out of players that's why i always thought aaron gordon you know speaking when we were when there was you know the carousel of aaron gordon trades i always thought Aaron Gordon, you know, speaking when there was, you know, the carousel of Aaron Gordon trades, I always thought Portland made a lot of sense because they'd probably be able

to get the most out of him. I kind of feel that way with Ben Simmons. And if I'm Ben Simmons, I actually think I'd want to go to Portland. You could play next to a Lillard type, go to a good front office, a good, well, you know, the coaching staff was there,

it was good, but you know, a good organization. And also there's no pressure on you. In Philly, there's going to be so much pressure on him in Philly to do anything. If he's there from, you know, the opening jump Philly, there's going to be so much pressure on him in Philly to do anything. If he's there from the opening jump next year, he's going to be screwed. So if I'm him, I want out anyway.

So I kind of like that thing. Yeah, I know. The thing that I wonder is like if it feels like Philly's not getting their way or getting what they want, and then Simmons feels likeilly's not getting their way or getting what they want, and then Simmons feels like he's not getting their way, will that become aggressive? And is there a part of it because it's clutch that you feel like you have to... Some organizations, you can see there's agents they're aligned with, right? I mean, clearly, clutch has a huge amount of influence on the Lakers because LeBron's there and everything else. Is clutch an agency where, and I've heard this term

used before where it's like, hey, do the agent the favor. That can get a little dicey. Like I've heard of some examples of it where I'm like, why would you do that for the agent? Be like, oh, well, in that case, you probably just want to make sure you do the agent the favor. And then you'd be like, well, I don't know. That seems like you're doing him a huge favor. But you also don't want to be known as a front office that's burning agents left and right and telling them something and then doing something differently. But I do wonder if Clutch and their presence in this one, if they're more likely to get what they want for their client because Daryl and the Sixers are thinking the long game

here. Like, they're not going to give Ben Simmons away to make the agents happy, but if the priority is to have him with a new team before the season starts, how much of their influence factors into that decision? And I'm not even saying it's the overriding factor. It's just something that's worth at least bringing up. Because as of right now, now publicly it's not nasty I just wonder if it would get to like 80 levels of nasty because that got that got pretty weird

there with the pelicans um and honestly even though I really like AD there's part of it where it felt kind of disappointing but to get your way you know what do we keep getting back to like if Lillard really wants out he has to play it differently if Beal were to really want out you you actually have to become difficult and that's kind of where you get to the point of no return with some of these guys that were just not there yet the problem is though you can you sell Lillard on Ben Simmons coming in and that being better for them in the short term probably not right I don't know what it would look like I don't know I mean because I've I've talked to different people around the league that know it better than i do that think it would be terrific and others

that think that's pointless because simmons still needs the ball and now you're taking it out of one of the best shot creators hands in the history of the game perhaps i mean that's that's not that's not far off when describing what Lillard is capable of. But when we talked about the Warriors being interested in him and whether or not that was real or not, I mean, it's the same situation. Yeah, it's the same situation, though. I mean, even if you say you got rid of Draymond, right, and you solved that one problem, you're still taking the ball out of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson's hands, right?

It's still the same issue. You're always going to be that way with Ben Simmons if he's on your team. Yeah, with that though, I think he would have so much freedom with shooting around him, but it would also depend on what the other spots are like. Because then if it's Wiseman, do you

start running into some of the same problems again? Wiseman is part of your long-term answer 30 minutes at center, which you would still hope is the case. And then who's the small forward? Because Wiggins would be out of there in the trade. Yeah, I don't know. That would be, but I just don't know how you would do it.

I don't know how you would do it. Having him and Draymond on the team at the same time would be a problem in the playoffs. Yeah. Last question for you, because kawaii thing to me is interesting they're almost are they almost benefited because he got hurt that he's definitely going to come back and are you like what do you how do you feel if you're the clippers right now that's one the one thing i'm saying okay this next year is almost a loss what do you do with paul george um what's the trade market for him um you know all right so maybe kawaii can come back

at the end of next year but are you still going to you know make a championship push in the playoffs so if he comes back in april or may like i don't know so for me the clippers thing is totally up in the air but i almost think they might benefit because he's going to automatically resign in la because what other options does he have unless he wants to maybe go to the heat but i don't know what assets the heat have necessarily make a trade with the clippers well the kwhi stuff, I think they're fine with it because they know what they're dealing with. You know, I wouldn't say it's awesome, but I think they are accepting of like,

hey, this is how Kawhi does business and this is what's going to happen. And even though everybody kind of knew it was the ACL thing, he wasn't that forthcoming with it. And you could say, well, she should have gotten the surgery done right away. Reading more about it this weekend,

it seems a little bit more complicated, even though the recovery time feels about the same. So, you know, I don't know if he had gotten it done immediately in June or if he was shopping for a second opinion, shopping for a second doctor. But, I mean, once it's the ACL, it's the ACL. I mean, there's people that can have a blown ACL that bartend, but not play small forward. Yeah, I love the guy that's like, hey, yeah, actually, you can function fine with a blown ACL. Yeah, I love those guys. Cool.

What are you doing? Like, you're sitting at a desk all day? Like, good times. Enjoy that. Like, yeah, I actually can golf. It hasn't impacted me at all. I'd be like, oh, really? Have you had to chase Steph Curry around a screen, though, ever?

Although, wait, didn't, remember, what was it, DeJuan Blair, right? He was born with no acls the spurs guy pit guy so that that always confused me too i'm like well how does that make any sense the guy was actually kind of good i liked him in college yeah it was kind of good dropped like why is he dropping like he has no ligaments in his knees like all right that was red flag that would appear to be red flag yeah kawaii is definitely um i would say one of the biggest offseason things although i think you're kind of right. Like, it's almost like the Durant thing. For a small window there, when he blew it out of Achilles,

you're like, wait, does Golden State, did their chances to retain him go up now? Because they can just max him sight and scene, which they would have done. And it would have been a little bit more money. And then, you know, obviously, then it turned into a sign of trade. Yeah.

But it'd be the same thing for Kawhi and the Clippers. There aren't many teams that could just outright sign him, right? So it'd have to into a sign of trade. Yeah. But it'd be the same thing for Kawhi and the Clippers. There aren't many teams that could just outright sign him, right? So it'd have to be a sign and trade. And I don't know what a better situation for him is. I guess, like I mentioned Miami. He could opt out. He could opt out of the option there, too. But I think everybody has the sense that the Kawhi-Clippers thing was always...

Well, I'll just go by this. Everything I've read... He's coming home. When Woj seems fairly confident that all signs point to him going to the Clippers I don't think Woj says that unless he's really confident all right and watching he and Zach Lowe show that they did that was really great a lot of really good information in there I don't think I don't think he says that as pointed as he said it unless he knows and I think he has a pretty good grasp of what the Clippers are doing,

uh, at all times, by the way, would you do Paul George for Ben Simmons? No. Isn't that funny? I think there's probably a time where it happens and you're like, cool,

good. We got Ben Simmons. You got Paul George out of here. If Simmons had his pick of anywhere, he'd be in LA, uh, for obvious reasons. But I don't,

I don't know if that's gonna happen wait when do you think that would have happened though because i feel like their trajectories are kind of the same they were both like you know paul george was the third what third and third in the mvp race a couple years ago and that's kind of when ben simmons you know stock hit its highest as well now they're both kind of trending downward i feel like they're kind of the same stock i think paul george has recovered a bit here um just because of a couple good playoff games, that's it? Playoff P is back in a series loss.

You don't think Paul George helped his status with this playoff run? I thought he was playing with house money and had nothing to lose. And he played well, so good for him. Yeah, but he played well. That's the thing. We've seen too many games where he hadn't played well. I mean, he played well, so I think he deserves credit for it. Yeah, but I would still have problems if that Clipper scene came back fully healthy next year.

I'd still have the same questions I had about them this year. And the Lakers are going to be healthy next year. The West is going to be better. I don't know. It is what it is for me. I know who Paul George is. I'm not trying to say he's terrible. I'm not trying to say he's great.

I know who Paul George is. And it's not playoff P. All right, we know who this guy is. He's engaged Bobby Portis, and he's a world champ. He joins us next. So how's it feel, man? How's this whole thing feel a week later? I'm not going to lie.

It just started to sink in since I've been home in Arkansas. You know, the first couple hours that happened, you're like, damn, that really happened. I was excited. But being able to just sit down and think about the entire year, the highs and lows we had, all the COVID protocols we had to follow all year, you know, testing twice a day. It's all those things for us to be in the NBA Finals as the champs. I just don't think words can even describe that feeling.

How does it work as a team after you win a championship? Do you all want to hang out as much as you possibly can in town then? I would like to know between not getting any sleep, but making sure, like, are you guys on a text thread? What's the plan today? What are we doing tonight? How does that work? I just think as us, we've always been close and things like that.

It was tough with Chris and drew having to go to tokyo um days after uh but um you know some of the guys we did have a chance after the game on tuesday man we had a we had a nice celebration after the game on tuesday it did uh th was the parade. At the parade, man, just seeing 500, 600,000 fans just everywhere along Milwaukee. That was, that was a crazy experience. That feeling that you have,

you know, when you win the championship after the game, and that feeling that you have during the parade, celebrating it with your market city, like, like it doesn't get any better than that at all. feeling that you have during the parade um celebrating with your market city um like

like it doesn't get any better than that at all what's the best story from tuesday night that you can share with us uh like after the game yeah um just you know um probably the best story i can have is you know just everybody being together. Like my mom came out with us. Like even my mom came out. Like everybody came out. Like my friends and family came. But like my mom came and had a few drinks and stuff and took a couple shots with us.

So that was like pretty cool. Like my mom never like goes out or like i never see my mom drink my mom drinks she'll get like a like a frozen margarita or something but um having my mom there she took a couple shots put him in the air that was kind of like that was crazy that was historic right there yeah that's that's that's cool man i've got a you got a big smile on your face i'm kind of laughing too because it's just cool when you can kind of connect um in a way that you know you never may get this opportunity again. So make the most of it.

Let's get to the series because they go up 2-0. It looked like Chris Paul is kind of dictating everything against the different coverages, the switches, and then you would try to play him a little bit differently and nothing seemed to be working. What changed defensively specific to that matchup and trying to slow them down on offense? What changed to turn this thing around?

Being more aggressive, being who we are. I think the first couple games, we were kind of like not timid, but we was playing to play. We wasn't just playing to win. We wasn't playing our brand of basketball. So when we got back home, we got a chance to regroup. We had a couple days off in between games.

We got a chance to regroup, think about some things that we want to do differently. Just trying to push Chris Paul left as possible during the rest of the series. We wanted to just make him go left. Obviously, he's going to get right sometimes, but for the most of the time, we wanted just, you know, make him go left. Obviously, he's going to get right sometimes, but for the most of the time, wanting to force him left

to make him take tough shots going towards the bats tonight in that mid-range area. He's an assassin there. Picking him up full court, you know, just trying to wear him down with our toughness, our speed, and our youth. Just trying to, you know, wear him down that way. And I think it kind of worked for us. Yeah, was that something you guys talked about where you'd say to, like,

Drew, hey, we got to just pick them up earlier. We got to have them set up later in the shot clock. Because that seemed, you know, again, it's your team. You made the adjustments. A lot of us at times are kind of guessing from the outside and trying to figure out. But was that, like, something that the staff and you actually talked about? Like, hey, this is a priority, the rest of the series.

Yeah, for sure. Um, I think the first, uh, couple of games, um, you know, we had to, we had to, uh, we had PJ on Chris Paul and we had, um, drew on Devin Booker. I think we just kind of switched it back. Like, like size, um, you know, I put the matches back to where they needed to be. And, um, you know, it kind of took off for us obviously our first three series in the playoffs

against the Heat, the Nets and the Hawks we were picking up guys full court making them really work so when they get to half court there's 18, 17 seconds on the shot clock and they're in a hurry to start the offense and things like that.

Having great off-ball pressure as well, knowing that, you know, they run their elbow actions and things like that, so we pressured the five man and things like that. It was easier. Obviously, you know, putting Giannis on eight, so, you know, Giannis can switch to pick and roll, and, you know, the big bigs backside can kick out Drew

and whoever the guards was switching on to Aiden. And now the bigs on Aiden. So all of those things, just trying to strategically just win one game at a time. And it worked for us, man. It's a blast. How surprised were you guys that Giannis turned into Larry Bird from the free throw line in game six?

I wasn't surprised at all. If you know Giannis, the man doesn't miss a free throw in practice. In practice, he doesn't miss a free throw. When we shoot him free throw games, he's locked in, knocking them down, probably at an 80%, 90% clip. I wasn't surprised he did that with 15 for 16 or 16 for 17 from the line or whatever it was. I think he missed one free throw or two, right?

Two, right? Two. I think it was 17 and 19 or something ridiculous. Yeah, so like for him to do that, just think about it. If Giannis starts making 10-plus free throws a game, like he could average 40. Yeah, no, i'm with you so when he got hurt against atlanta how how much did you know about the extent of the injury i mean because it looks terrible he's gone he misses some time like were you thinking you'd lost him for the playoffs or did you guys kind of know that

all right as bad as it looked he's probably going to be back here if we get through this? I think our mindset was winning the series. We win the series and don't go to a game and say I'm going to Atlanta. We get another extended period of rest time for Giannis to rest up. And that was our whole mindset was trying to win the series, trying to take it one game at a time, obviously, but just still knowing and thinking bigger picture. Like our bigger picture the whole year was being champions. That's all we talked about.

Like we want to get there. We want to win it. So knowing that, you know, when your brother goes down, someone has to step up for him. And I think everybody played their part in stepping up for him. You've been on a few teams now. You're still a young guy. But what is it about Giannis where it appears everyone likes him?

Look, I know there are popular guys, but it seems like everybody loves this dude, loves being his teammate. Why is that? He's selfless, man. He's a guy that when you know when you reach when you reach his his peak of success man you know he has the he has the career most guys want he has the mvp two-time mvp award winner um he's a defensive player of the year um he won an all-star mvp now he's an nba finals mvp so um when you put his accolades up and stack them up against other people,

just how humble he is in what he does, how hard he works in what he does, how selfless he is, how motivational he is every day towards his teammates, making sure his teammates are comfortable in their roles, making sure his teammates are good off the court as making sure his teammates are, you know, are good off the court as well. All those things makes him a great person. He's a great person to be around.

He doesn't talk much off the court. But, you know, when he does, people really listen because when he says something, you know, it's probably something that you need to listen to. You got called for a bad foul in game six and you started high-stepping down the court. Yeah, the Deion Sanders action. Prime time.

They let you go on that one. That might have been a technical on the regular season. No, no, no. I got a technical foul. Oh, you did get a tech on that? Yeah, I got a technical foul because Chris Paul shot a free throw right after that. Oh, that's right. He missed it. Yeah, he missed it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a technical foul. That was kind of crazy. Yeah, because got a technical foul because Chris Paul shot a free throw right after that. Oh, that's right. He missed it. Yeah, he missed it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a technical foul. That was kind of crazy. Yeah, because Middleton. Yeah, I don't know. Because you, it, I don't know. I thought they were going to let you go. And that's right.

I thought they were going to let me go too. Like, I thought they was going to let me go. But I played good deep here. I closed out on the top, on the top side of Crowder. He tried to go right. I cut him off. He tried to go left. I cut him off. He tried to go left. I cut him off.

And then he kind of tripped over his own feet. But I guess the ref thought I tripped him or whatever it was. It did. I just thought, I don't know how it happened. He fell down. He just fell down. He fell down. He fell down.

He sells it. He sells it as much as a lot of guys. He doesn't have the ball in his hands as much. He's great at that for sure. He sells all his fouls and things like that. He did a great job with that all-series long of getting different guys extra fouls and

just playing his role in that and getting free throws and things like that. I don't know. I don't know how he does it. When somebody hits me or something, I can't just... I don't know. I don't know how to flop like that. You get more points um now here's like throughout the course of the series though like he's kind of their instigator i think that you have that role for milwaukee you know you've had

other times where you've had to be the scorer with teams and i feel like you had to respond like what's it like when it's when it's two guys who know they're kind of their team's tough guy and they have to stand up to each other? Because that's what it seemed like at times. Yeah. Just knowing your role, man, in this league. You know, I came in at the high school, McDonald's All-American, you know, top 15 recruit, get to Arkansas.

I'm the star player. I went to the SEC Player of the Year there, All-American. But when I got drafted, I kind of had to find my role and find my niche again. Got drafted to the Bulls and had Pau Gasol, who's going to be a Hall of Famer one day, NBA champion. Then you got Joe

Kim Noah. Who knows if he'll be one or not, but he was a hell of a Bull. He had a hell of a ride with the Chicago Bulls. Then you got Ty's gifts and the will. So I was behind veteran guys that, you know, taught me how to work hard, taught me how to be a star in my world. I watched it every day. I watched, you know, those three guys work.

And having the opportunity to be with those guys really helped push my career. But like I was saying, when you first get into the league, you have to find, you know, what's your role, your niche. Everybody's racing this league is going to be different. You're going to have guys that go to the lottery

that's going to have more opportunity than you probably because, you know, they were lottery picks. You have guys that go undrafted and have to work their way up and, you know,

it's probably harder on those guys. You have guys like myself who go, you know, late, mid, first round

and, you know, we, mid, first round. And, you know, we have to find our role and be a star in our role as well. So being on this team, I know my role. I know I have to come in and bring energy every day. You know, I know when games get rocky, I come in and change the whole game by just playing hard, talking, you know, letting people know we're there. And, you know, obviously I love to score the basketball too. So that's just a plus. So, I love the sport of basketball, too. That's just a plus. Knowing your role in this league is a big thing.

I think me and Crowder, I think both of us does a great job of being there for our respective basketball clubs. I think your story just in this playoff run alone is really impressive because you have Miami where you run through them. You're playing like 16, 17 a game. You played a little bit more

against some of the others, but then they shut you down basically to start that Brooklyn series. How tough was that for you? Because you're like, wait a minute, I'm a DNP guy now, and I was playing 17, 18 minutes a game. Yeah.

I mean, obviously the whole year, man, you know, sacrifice is the biggest thing on a winning team. And I had to sacrifice really a lot this year. You know, my last three, four years years even on teams I played on I was getting you know 10, 11, 12 13 shots a game

if you look at the at my sports reference this year I was getting eight, nine shots so I had to really just sacrifice on a lot of things

and that was one of them just coming down to win a team it's all about sacrifice it's not about cheering anymore it's about the team and I wasn't really mad

at all. Not playing as much or getting the MPs. I knew that I work hard in everything I do. I knew that staying ready was a big part of it. I got taught that as a young age, coming into this league,

that just staying ready and being ready for your moment is always the biggest thing in this league. And I ready and being ready for your moment is always the biggest thing in this league. And I was just ready for it. Not tripping at all, not by playing, just still being a good teammate, still cheering my guys on. But I knew that whenever my number was called, I would be ready. You had a one-year deal for a big number with the Knicks. It seemed like the Knicks were doing, they want to do like a bunch of short-term one-year deals, and then you come up again, and the market isn't the same for you. So what was that like?

How frustrating was that when you're thinking like as a free agent, hey, you know, there seemed to be more money out there, and now I'm trying to figure it out this year? Last year, there were a lot of teams that was throwing me, you know, double-figured money. I had like three, four teams still doing that. But I just didn't think they were good situations for me personally. I went through the season last year with the Knicks.

It was a tough year for me on the court and off the court. Just a lot going on in my life at the time. So it was tough. But I didn't want to be in one of those situations again where I'm making a lot going on in my life at the time. So it was tough. But I didn't want to be in one of those situations again where I'm making a lot of money, but I'm not happy. And, you know, our team is losing every night and things like that. So, you know, I took a lot more money than I could have gotten the market last year. People don't really know that.

I expressed it before. But just having the chance to be on a team that's going to impact winning. I looked at the roster and just thought I just fit perfectly with the team. I didn't think they had nobody like me on the team with my personality and my skill set that I could come off the bench and do what I do on an hourly basis. And then having a chance to win the championship was really important to me just to get my market value back up and just to, you know, be a star in

my role again and i just thought it was a match made in heaven and i thought shoot i i know now that i made the right decision for sure so just so we understand i mean it's always a little weird because you know exactly how much you guys make to the dollar um because it's just the way it works you turned down like 10 plus million a year to6 million? Yeah, the whole league knows that too. The GMs around the league know that. They called my agent, and they was congratulating me last year. Most guys don't do that at the age I was. I was 25 last free agency.

Most guys at 25 would just take the most money wherever it is. But I really value winning. And I've been in that losing situation for the past three seasons. I didn't want to feel that anymore. It sucks losing. It's hard winning this league, but it sucks losing. Coming home from an L, you lost. You know, when you're working hard as you can in your craft, it's tough, man.

But, yeah, to answer your question, I did have 10-plus figure deals out there. But I wanted to take this deal for less. And hopefully I'll get it back in the future. Yeah, so that's pretty much a guarantee you'll be opting out of the player option this year. So what's the plan? What do you want to have happen? What are you looking to do? You know, obviously, you know, playing this game,

you know, you don't have a lot of time to make as much money as you can. You know, I want to play at least 15 years. This is my C-Street going on my seventh year. So if I'm looking at time frame wise, I got eight, nine, you know, hopefully a decade

of level ball left in me. If I take care of my body and do right by my money and things like that, I can play the game, you know, at least 10 more years with my skill set

and the way I play basketball, I think I can. But, you know, you want to make as much money as you can in your career. Can't play basketball forever. I have a player option coming up before August 1st. I have to make a decision by then.

You know, me and my agent have been talking and things like that. But we're just taking our time with it right now. No rush. You know, later on in the week, we will make a decision what we're going to do, where our options and things like that. But I do like paying for the bucks. It's really helped my career. It's really changed my life.

But at the same time, I do have to, you know, have to win in life as well. Well, hey, Bobby, wish you a ton of luck, man. Happy for you. Just because you like seeing guys persevere through it all.

And you had a lot of challenges last year, and then the challenges going through the playoffs, and then becoming just a piece, a very flexible piece. You make shots, you defend, you bust your ass. That's the best part of it too, man. The journey is the best part of being in the league, man. I can't stress enough. You don't know what your race is going to be when you make it to the league.

Obviously, you have all these dreams, to be when you make it to the league. Obviously, you have all these dreams, aspirations of what you want it to be, but you just never know. You don't know if the coach is going to get you DMPs. You have to really control what you can control in this league. You can't really get down this. Nobody's going to feel

sorry for you. I think the journey is the best part of the NBA. After guys retire, they have countless and countless number of stories that they can pass on for generations to come because of all the things they've been through, the highs and lows. I wouldn't trade it for nothing.

I love my race I'm running, man. It's a fun marathon. And probably a little bit more lucrative part of the race coming up here soon. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it shakes out. Thanks a lot, Bobby.

I really appreciate that. 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 life advice life advice is rr at gmail.com again life advice rr

gmail.com we had a lot of response to the guy that crossed the border of Mexico for a date. We did not get a follow-up from him. We had a lot of other follow-ups from people. Other people saying, let him live. Other people saying, that's a terrible idea. I thought we were pretty open-ended on it. But something that kept coming up was apparently this pass that you can get. I don't know if it's only for people that are in a serious... I imagine

this is more like a clear pass for crossing the border, which again, I wouldn't know anything about because I don't go down to Mexico. I don't drive to Mexico a ton. I'm pretty adventurous, but I usually am not around going, you know what I'm going to do? Drive to Mexico today.

All right. What is it called the century pass kyle did you get it on this yeah i was actually uh looking it up for the last couple minutes i think i got it it's called century s-e-n-t-r-i um and it's basically like um yeah like like you said clear tsa pre-check it's just kind of greases the wheels to get across the southern border of the U.S. All right. There you go. Okay.

Here we go. We need a gym one here. Hey, this is about gym and a girl. We never do these. All right. Big fans. Rudy, soccer and magic takes are always wanted. Kyle's relatable blunders always make my day. Ryan, you're okay too. Uh, been a member of this gym, nice health club,

15 years, 32. Wow. Look at you. There's a girl at the gym and my friend has been into, uh, Oh wait, there's a girl at the gym that my friend has been into for like two or three years now. That's good. He's playing it slow. Uh, they both used to be members of another gym, but he's never said a word to approaching girls. The gym is delicate thing and it's also super intimidating for guys to attempt so i get it but it's been years anyway she's attractive i ended up finding her on ig on a boredom search for people you may know it sounds like you wanted to find her a little bit more than just um but i you know took two years to get there yeah i friended her but remember this is our email is not the guy that's interested in it it It's the friend. So, oh, no, no, no.

I'm worried about where this might go. I friended her on IG. We messaged back and forth, talked in person today. She'd offered up her number. So far, it's still innocent. No lines have been crossed, but potential is there. So if I decide I want to cross that line, what do I owe my friend? I know the right thing to do is to approach him about it.

He is not going to be happy, all caps. It's as if he had proverbial dibs, but just being super into a girl and never making a move means she's off limits. My friend and I worked together for like two years. We've gotten close really just over the last year. Me adding that is probably just me talking to myself and just saying, fuck it.

I don't know, man. I mean, this is a pretty simple one, but it's also not simple. I mean, if he, he's been into her and he hasn't talked to her in three years, I feel like that window, you know, at some point, like I'm all for not talking to a girl at the gym. All right. Cause it is awkward. It's weird. I don't, it's not not my move i see other guys do it and i'm i'm sort of amazed and then ashamed all at the same time like it's this combination of emotions where i'm just watching it go down and i'll be friendly with some other girls at the gym and they'll be like hey do you know that guy i'm like nope like he just straight up came up to me like while i was doing tricep

pull downs and was like hey when's when's it going to be our time like these guys are fucking straight out of movies man some of you guys that are able to do this where you just go up to any attractive girl and throw them serious jersey short game so um i am not capable of that i'll never i'll never be that guy and in a way look to be totally fair as much as it's kind of like, there's also, I think, part of us as guys that you're almost envious of the guy who just doesn't give a shit. Right? Who doesn't give a shit. I have one friend who's

a lot older, and I have noticed that he is in that does not give a shit category anymore at all. Hits on everybody. Doesn't care. it's like whatever i'm old i'm over it i did things the right way didn't pay off for me now i'm just firing on everyone look out world and it's weird i gotta admit it's a little weird but i also kind of respect it i also kind of get it so back to your deal here. He's going to be pissed.

He is straight up. He's not going to say, hey, because we don't own our shit. He's not going to say, hey, you know what? You're right. I was really into her, but shy, didn't have a window in and you DM'd her and now she likes you and wants to go on a date. So all the credit to you for being proactive while I did nothing. No, he's going to be like, hey, you know, I liked her. This is bullshit. So it's probably going to make it awkward. So what I would ask is pretty simple math is pursuing her worth losing him. Because even if you don't lose him as a friend, he's going to talk shit about you. He's going to be mad. He's going to think he's justified um both of you are

going to think you're completely justified for your actions and both of you actually are going to have very compelling arguments this isn't one deal where somebody's completely wrong about it but he look he's going to be he's going to be pissed off at you and chances are if this girl's like at the highest end of what you're capable of, because this is just how people are. Like if she's that much hotter than other girls that you've dated and now there's some interaction and here's the number you're going to say, fuck this guy.

And you're going to go out with her. If she's not that, then you'll probably be like, whatever. I'll just meet somebody else. I mean, that's kind of, unfortunately,

you know, I'm not even judging it. I just think that's usually, okay, what's, what's happening here. So he's going to get mad at you. He's going to get mad at you. And I kind of wondered like, wait, were you checking her out on Instagram to, to set him up? And then this happened, or did you already know you were going to do this the whole time anyway? Um, but he's going to be mad in a way he doesn't have a right to be mad. So good luck with that one, Kyle. Yeah, that's it. It doesn't matter who's right or wrong. And in a way, he doesn't have a right to be mad. So good luck with that one. Kyle?

Yeah, that's it. It doesn't matter who's right or wrong. Like, you know exactly how he's going to be. And, you know, some guys even say that they're okay. And then they're actually not okay. So either way, it probably doesn't turn out well for the friendship thing if you go through with it. Like, you know, you already know while he was writing this, how it was going to turn out if he did what he wanted to do. you already knew while he was writing this how it was going to turn out if he did what he wanted to do. I think you got to put

a graph together as far as is this guy good enough of friends with you and how out of your league is she? If she is way out of your league and it's worth losing the friend over, then okay. Then go ahead and date her. But if it's not the case,

then you should probably try to keep your friend. I just think it just depends on what and how good of friends you are with this guy and how hot of your league this girl is. That was sinister, dude. I have to say. I mean, you're doing a SWOT analysis on paper. All right.

I mean, listen, if you want my actual advice without actually knowing who these people are or what your deal is or how close you are or how hot this girl is, like it's hard for me to tell. So that's what you got to do. You got to do an assessment analysis and get the graph out there.

Stone cold. Yeah. He also, as he says at the end, when he's like, we've only worked together for two years and really just gotten closer over the last year. He already knows what he's going to do. He already knows what he's going to do. All right. Hey, another Jim one. All right.

Hey, guys. 6'4", 230, used to be pretty jacked, now not as jacked. I've been out of the game for a while. Any tips on how to ease myself back into throwing numbers around at the gym? All right. So you're saying at some point you used to be strong and you were like a stronger guy at the gym. And now you're saying you're going to go back in and you're going to hate it.

If you have, I don't know how long it's been since you've lifted. You're going to hate it. It's going to take some time. Although the cool thing about not lifting for a long time is that once you actually start doing it again, you'll going to hate it. It's going to take some time. Although the cool thing about not lifting for a long time is that once you actually start doing it again, you'll feel immediate results, you know, as opposed to plateauing for years and not really feeling all that challenged, um, as much because it's just a little bit harder.

So you're in the new phase, but you've already had the results. So I don't know. I mean, look, you obviously have a big frame and all that kind of stuff. So I think these are the, these are three tips, three tips for getting back in the game. All right. When you put two 25 on the first time, and when you haven't done it in a while, if it doesn't go well and somebody spotting you, make sure you tell the spotter that you're dealing with an injury. Like there's, I got this lingering shoulder thing. Another thing you can do is if when you go to do 225, it doesn't go well,

and then you rack it back up. Look at the bar with confusion as if, did I use the kilogram plates? Is that bar thick enough? What are we talking about, like 28 and a half? What's going on here? Almost like when a shooter air balls and he looks at his hands and blows on them as if that had anything to do with the air ball whatsoever. You need to do that. So the guy knows that like, Hey, whatever that just was, whatever that's something was off. So remind of

him an injury, look back at the bar and plates as if you're confused on whether or not their metric system is off. And then I would say third and finally, you know how people say dance like no one's watching? I say lift like everyone's watching. So there could be some things that you're not going to pick up, but whatever you're good at, if there's like a lat pulldown where you're like, I feel like this is great already, give it everything.

Get back out there. Put yourself on stage. And yeah, pretend that you're putting on a show for everyone. And that will at least motivate you to get that extra rep. Because I don't care who you are, if you're a guy and you're doing some kind of exercise and it's pushing you to your limits. And if the yoga instructor that you kind of like for two or three years but never talked to walks by you're going to get one more rep out of it so again lift like everyone is watching i don't know if you guys want to add to that one or not no the only thing is i was we opened la back up so i got back in the gym i had like a year at at la fitness on back order yeah yeah you really should look out everybody's listening But then they put the mask back in

and they sort of opened up the gym to full capacity and the whole mask thing for vaccinated folks went away at the same time. And now I've been chugging away for, I don't know, a month or two. And then now the idea of doing exercise with a mask on is kind of keeping me away from the gym and I'm doing like five miles

around the neighborhood instead. And I really don't know. I mean, you work out from home, right? So you don't really have to deal with the mask while you're doing yourself. I'm back at Equinox. Oh, and so you're back masked. And what are your thoughts? I just put in the mask on, you know, I'm over it. You have like a special mask or it just sucks. No, I have a shitty one. I used to have a special one, but that was restricting my breathing way more than this crappy one. So what I learned with the gym one, if they give you one that sucks, it's better off

because it doesn't contain the air all that much and you can breathe a little bit normally with a shittier mask. Got to be honest, it doesn't take a whole lot before I'm huffing and puffing and just the thought of doing that. Yeah, the thought of doing that while, I mean, I'm also smokinging and puffing. And just the, the, the thought of doing that. Yeah.

The thought of doing that while, I mean, I'm also smoking cigarettes like within 30 minutes of coming back from the gym as a reward. So I have some things to work out myself. I'm just saying the, I'm glad that you're doing it fine. And I'll probably go back to the gym now. And just,

there's a lot of guys that have, that have argued cigarettes right after a workout is, you know, a lot of guys are into the amino acids, maybe some creatine, uh, a couple, a couple,

a couple of reward darts. I think I, I think I did see something on that out of Austria. Um, that people, people were like, no, this is actually a good thing.

Yeah. Something, something European would definitely European journal. Yeah. Yeah. Drinking red wine at dinner. It's the same thing. Cigarette after you go good to go i will say i'm the wrong person to ask about working out so especially lifting i'm not a big lifting guy

shocker uh but if you have any peloton questions hit me up your boys uh your boys been doing some rides hey so what's up with the girl is it love Lovewell? She's from Martha's Vineyard. So everybody hits me up about this. Oh, Emma? Is it Emma? Emma, yeah. I've done some of her rides. She's pretty cool. I don't know much about her, but yeah.

Phrase. Everybody's asking me about her. And the thing is, for me, my vineyard run was very short. I basically went to high school there and then a couple summers when I was stuck without other summer options. And again, people say like, why wouldn't you want to live in Martha's Vineyard during the summer? And you're like, well, when your family's there, it's different. It's not, it's not the same thing. Although, you know, for some, that should be the reason why you want to go home.

But yeah, I keep hearing about her and everybody keeps hitting me up as if I know her. And I don't, I don't know her at all, but I'm proud of her. I can tell you that. She's doing it for the vineyard there's like a weird group though i feel because jill and hall was somehow connected to the vineyard now we got a peloton person there's like a quarter you obviously there's like a core of somewhat famous people that have come out of the vineyard it's kind of unexpected yeah but jill and hall is not like a vineyard native um he just visited he had a place yeah his parents i guess at that

his parents had a place and it was it was it was guess, at that point. His parents had a place. And it was kind of, I know the area. It's kind of this cool area. But my brother went up to him. I guess my brother ran into him. And he said that he was my brother. Gyllenhaal pretended he knew me. He was like, oh, yeah, yeah, Ryan's a great guy. And I don't think there's any chance Gyllenhaal would remember me from. But the thing is great that I never told the Gyllenhaal story

because I got two versions of the Gyllenhaal story. One was that he was obsessed with my sister. And then my sister who I was like, hey, he was obsessed. She's like, no, I was into him. She's like, who said he was obsessed with me? And I was like, oh, our other sister. You have that totally have that totally backwards she was like i was into him so i was going to tell him a story like hey dude heard you're obsessed my sister and then he would have been like this guy's a loser not the story you want to lead with with joan hall although he is a cool deal for sure he was cool but i always think like in those moments like here here's a perfect example like when krasinski came in jim from the office and he was promoting like his first action movie like he just transitioned and i think for some people that was tough to be like wait jim

from the office it doesn't put a ton into his sales like now he's like saving the pentagon you know like that's tough we do a we we typecast everyone in life and we certainly do it with actors you do to each other too but um i i wanted to interview him as jim but i'd be like yeah and then i told him that i wanted to do it after and he gave me such a like oh man that would have been awesome and it was such a that's fucking terrible and i'm so glad you didn't do that because i was just always trying to think of like dude like i i've contemplated asking every guest on this podcast, a ridiculous question that only the audience knows what we're doing. So every guest we have, we'll just ask him something so stupid that's wrong or doesn't make any sense. And it's only for the audience's enjoyment to hear the guests be like, what are you talking about?

Knowing it's not going to go well. So the gym thing I would have thought was funny for the audience, but getting to know Krasinski a little bit in that moment, again, I'm not pretending. I know him very short hit the way he responded to my idea after we had spent seven or eight minutes in a one-on-one interview. I was like, that would have been hilarious because he would have hated it because the

whole premise was going to be like, do you keep in touch with anyone from the office? Like they've got to be freaking out that you're doing these movies now and then i'm like how does pam like you know i didn't know that much about the pam thing but now emily blunt like she's pam's going to be like kicking herself right and that was going to be the whole interview and he would have hated it he would have hated it and i think the audience would have loved it and it would have been super awkward it probably would have been a more memorable interview than just like, so what's going on with,

uh, you know, 13 hours. Yeah. Yeah. What's up with this? You got a Benghazi. Yeah.

This is like, you got a gun. Roy's in the mix. Cause Roy was in that movie too. The guy that played Roy. So there was a whole nother line of question to be like, it's kind of cool that you and Roy get along this well that you guys are joining a special forces thing well that one it seems like you could have threw in there because it definitely had something to do with

it you could have thrown that one in there yeah but these guys like everybody does the same interview with them whenever they do the car wash so i would be like let's try to figure out something else i mean it was the same thing with the the Matt Damon thing with Invictus where we just started doing the Boston accents with him, and he actually liked it. So whatever. All right, let's do one more email here. Here we go. I don't know if this was worth it.

All right, we'll give it a shot. 23, 5'8", 70 kilograms. That's 150 pounds. Personal best 53 free throws, but can only bench 110 pounds. All right. He's New Zealand's biggest fan of going abroad, F1 corner, huge Ricardo guy. Recently got a new relationship, awesome girl. She's super cute, nice and fun to be around. We met at a university party and had an instant connection. The problem is she laughs too loud. And when I mean loud, we're talking Stephen A. Smith when she really gets going. At first, I didn't mind it. But over time, it's beginning to take its toll, especially in public.

It came to a climax last night at Space Jam 2. The moment I realized I'd lived long enough to see myself become the villain, the moment I realized I needed life advice. Albeit a hilarious combination of LaMedia bad acting and overproduction. The movie had her in complete hysterics. Oh, so it wasn't just that she has a loud laugh. You couldn't stand the idea that she was laughing at Space Jam 2.

That's a huge red flag. Yeah, I heard it was not great. So the LaMedia thing. Oh, that's a little LeBron deal. I get it. Okay. It's getting to the point where innocent patrons were turning around to see what the commotion was about. The problem is she doesn't really notice. People with loud laughs actually rarely know they have an

obnoxious laugh. Problem is she doesn't really notice, and I don't have the heart to tell her, considering she's such a bubbly person, but in all honesty, it can be an unpleasant experience on the eardrums, considering its tone and volume. What do I do? Would love some input from Kyle and Saruti. Thanks, mate. Make sure you take your own life advice and come to new zealand um he wanted to make sure we knew it wasn't a fake email so he sent a picture of himself

great good we were we were not sure but the picture we always love credentials i mean my first thought is you can't bench 110 why should you be breaking up with anyone because of their laugh but i know some people are gonna like that i'll admit that was the first thing i thought um you gotta you gotta ask yourself here like if this girl had a perfect laugh would she be talking to you although laughing the whole time during space jam 2 i already know so rudy you wouldn't it didn't matter who it was you couldn't do it right uh it would be probably a deal breaker i watched the movie first hour was atrocious second hour watched it yeah yep that blows my mind that you

would watch space jam yeah i kind of felt like I needed to be in the scene. Everybody was talking about it. I want to hear what you know. And also, it got like a 3.5 on IMDb. And I'm a big IMDb guy when I look for ratings. And that's the lowest I've ever seen of any movie, really. That wasn't like some indie weird film that was made in someone's backyard. That's out of 100?

That's out of 10. Okay. So 3.5. Like a good movie is probably around a 6, 6.5, 7. I think Interstellar is like an 8.5, 8.8. Best movie of all time. No big deal. 3. Okay. So 3.5. A good movie is probably around a 6, 6.5, 7. I think Interstellar is like an 8.5, 8.8. Best movie of all time. No big deal. 3.5, so I was like, I got to see it. First movie, or first hour

was just an infomercial for LeBron and it was, you know, I know people accuse it of doing LeBron bashing on this podcast. It's not that. It was just bad. It was really bad. It was LeBron pumping everything he had, every celebrity thing, everything he was connected to. It was all like flash and no substance. The second half of the movie when they started actually playing basketball, the Looney Tunes got more involved. It was actually kind of funny. But I

would say if someone if I was dating someone and she really enjoyed Space Jam, I just I don't think we can keep going. That would just be a complete deal breaker. But but back to the laugh thing. I think, you know, I think a laugh can be a problem. And it's probably going to be something that you're going to, you know, as you keep dating or eventually, you know, I think a laugh can be a problem and it's probably going to be something that you're going to, you know, as you keep dating or eventually, you know, married, engaged, whatever later in life, it's always going to annoy you. But there's probably something else there too that annoys you. It can't just be the laugh. It has to be something else with this girl that annoys you because that's, I feel like, you know, a laugh isn't something that you break up with someone over or stop dating someone over. It could be something that you don't continue dating someone over though.

It's not like, um, you know, it's just like kind of like the beginning of the race. It sort of just stops you. I think, I mean, I've said before on this,

on this segment that, um, it's really hard to find somebody that your day that doesn't drive you crazy. And I think this kind of qualifies as something that drives you crazy. And it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with her. It might be that there's anything wrong with her. It might be that there's something wrong with you that it bothers you. But know yourself, dude.

Probably don't. Also, yeah, I did watch Space Jam. And actually, two nights ago, I watched the first Space Jam just to make sure I wasn't overreacting. Space Jam 2 was really bad. Wow. Space Jam 2, just taking it on the chin here.

Although Cerruti gave it a higher amount of praise than I would have expected. I think, first of all, the idea that you're going to find somebody that's like, there's nothing about the other person that annoys you. And again, annoys might be too strong a word. But I think there are always going to be a couple things that you wish, like that's how we're different, right? In that, like, oh is this is kind of a weird habit here you know what i mean like somebody that constantly sends food back like you could

like everything about the person and it's like oh she sends food back 50 of the time and i usually usually the food back thing there's there's more to that though that's that's more of a personality type thing a laugh is just a laugh you know it's's, I don't know if that says anything else about who this person is. I'll send a steak back. Picky eater. I am. Picky eater. You know what you like.

I get it. Well, just some of the restaurants like on the higher end steak deal, like they try to prove some point by going much rarer than you want, you know, and I'm not like a medium rare guy. I'm not. I need rarer than you want you know and i'm not like a medium rare guy i'm not i need it cooked a little bit you know i'm not medium i'm not medium well you know but i uh i want to cook a little bit sometimes some places so i don't know maybe

i've been on a date so she was like oh really cool super hot so successful very popular amazing personality really has a shit together. Sends food back. Wait, you would do that on a first date? I don't even know what a first date would be. I don't even really know what a first date would be for me. So usually there's like well, we're not going to get into

any of that. I'm surprised as a below deck guy that you would send food back. Would you see how much trauma that causes those chefs but whatever i guess you've been in the game i think sending a steak back when it comes out bloody and you wanted it medium i think that's that's totally fair especially when you you know but again some people could be listening to this being like hey i was cool with ryan now i'm not anymore now i'm not and that's all right it's all right we're not we're not all made for each other here um the other thing i would ask this guy is like do you do this a lot do you date

women that every time something comes up you know like a seinfeld episode here where jerry with the whole joke of that show was that jerry would always find something wrong with everyone he was dating the entire time um and that could be something there too look if the laugh sucks and other people are watching and it's a disaster i don't know but it's kind of weird like there can be things when you start to like fall in love and you care about somebody a lot you can then find it endearing and then as soon as you break up you're gonna be like oh her laugh is so fucking annoying i hated that you know but there's weird there's weird like pheromone things that go on once you really become connected to the person that the little things that annoy you at some

point you can actually be fine like you know i wouldn't call them positives but you end up thinking it's cute as opposed to not being able to stand it so there you go congrats on the free throw so thank you to kyle crichton and uh saruti here on the podcast so we have um a different plan this week too i think what are we going to do release just some draft stuff on wednesday and into thursday morning so wednesday early wednesday morning okay early wednesday morning we'll do a bunch of draft stuff and then thursday night i'm going to be doing i don't know if it's going to be like while the first round is on, Kyle. Apparently, that's what we're going to do with Bill.

We're just trying to figure out the logistics of all of it. Yeah, and I'm catching a flay at midnight that night, so it'll be really stressful. Where are you going? Going back to New York. Two weeks, baby. Two weeks. Look out. Look out state parks and local parks. And the border, maybe.

Shout out. Yeah, and the border. All right. We yeah and the border all right we'll talk to you guys on wednesday thank you you