The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Wembanyama Shaping the NBA’s Next Decade and Doc Out as Sixers Coach, Plus Larry Nance Jr. on Zion and More

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Russillo shares his excitement for the NBA draft lottery, and the hope that Victor Wembanyama brings to a franchise (0:36), before talking about the 76ers firing head coach Doc Rivers (12:15). Then Ryen is joined by Larry Nance Jr. of the New Orleans Pelicans to discuss the Lakers' playoff run, his first playoffs with the 2018 Cavaliers, LeBron vs. Kobe as a teammate, where the Pelicans are as a team right now, Zion Williamson's injury struggles, and more (17:51). Then Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (57:14). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Larry Nance Jr. Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

tonight is the nba draft lottery and i'm so jealous of one fan base for what you're about to experience not only tonight but tomorrow in years to come uh so we'll go over it breaking news out of philadelphia doc rivers out his head coach'll cover that. And Larry Nance Jr. We're going to talk playoffs with him. Lakers stuff. Be in teammates with Kobe or LeBron. But the best stuff is him on Zion Williamson and the end of the season for the Pelicans. Enjoy.

This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability

may vary by region. See app for details. I want to start today's podcast talking about the lottery because I'm actually excited and I have no real emotional attachment to it. I have anxiety on behalf of other fan bases and I'm jealous because tonight everything changes. Tonight your life changes if you're one of the fan bases that wins the lottery and gets Victor Wendman Yama. I'm serious. Now granted, yes, the family part, wife, kids, that stuff's important, I guess, but the other stuff, the secondary stuff, the reason you buy the jerseys,

the reason why you buy league pass, the reasons why you get a couple tickets to a few games, it's going to be completely different for you and maybe for like 10 years if you land this dude. There's six teams with a nine percent chance or better from the top down detroit houston san antonio all 14 percent than charlotte and

portland orlando's got a nine percent chance there's obviously other scenarios too where other markets with much less of a chance could potentially get him just a conspiracy theory reminder the conspiracy theories only work in the years where the top target goes into a big market, conveniently forgetting all the other years where the top star went to a market that actually didn't make any sense with the NBA, which happens more often. But we never use those in the argument. So just pre-conspiracy-ing yourself, if that's even a phrase, probably not. But I'm jealous of the guy. I'm jealous of the guy listening, or girl, listening right now to the podcast who is a fan of one of these teams who in hours will get Victor Wimbanyama

and now it is all different. I'm jealous of that. I think it's awesome. Let's review. Wimbanyama is somebody who turned 19 in January. He's 7'5", apparently, without shoes. He's the only prospect I can ever think of where the rumors are swirling around, where people are trying to hopefully get the message out he actually might be shorter.

I've never heard that before. Manute Bull was 7'6", or 7'7", but when Minyama, I don't know, if he's done growing, I would imagine he's got to be pretty close to it, right? And then you also have the historic shoe, non-shoe measurement where at the combine in the past, all those years when those heights would come out,

it'd be with shoes. And it'd be like the first thing we would all look at. What I can't wait to see this week. Then there's the numbers. Recently, I mean, he's been playing recently, 22-10, two and a half assists, three blocks a game, 47% from the floor, 28% on threes.

Is that alarming? Maybe. I'm telling you right now, his form looks beautiful. The shot form out of his hands, his arms, the elbows, all of it, legs connected to the arms. I think the percentage is lower than you would want it to be because he's not really been great historically from three, at least on the numbers. I think his shot selection stinks. I think it's because sometimes he just gets bored and he wants to show that he can go between his legs, but it's actually a real thing as opposed

to some of these tall guys over the years that are absurdly tall and wanted to show you all the perimeter skills. And you're like, if you even make it to the league, you're never ever going to be allowed to do any of those things. This is why this guy's different. And the reason why I'd say I wouldn't even worry about the 28% on three because shot selection, it's because he's making his free throws this year. The best he ever has six attempts a game, year. The best he ever has, six attempts a game, 84%. The video, whenever you watch any of it, there's moments consistently, moment after moment after moment. I were like, are you serious? He just did that. He went between his legs and drove hard into the corner and pulled up straight at seven foot five and hit a corner three. He got out in transition and led the break. He caught the

ball in full sprint on the break, two steps down and flushes over everybody else because they give up. Deep catch, deep seal, turnaround on everybody. And defenders look helpless. Like it's all real, okay? The other part that's so exciting about tonight is that it's just new. Like I can tell you what he looks like. I can tell you he's going to be really good.

We can share all the numbers. We can look at all the clips. But there's nothing, I don't know if valuable is the right word. In sports, value is definitely related. There's a correlation between how new is a player, right? Like a draft pick is almost like a car, where the draft pick is, oh, we could trade a lottery pick for this guy. And then the guy, once you use the pick on somebody and then he plays a little bit,

the guy's not nearly as worth as much as he would have been, unless obviously if his career goes the other way. You get the point, right? But there's a value. There's an excitement with newness, right? You get that new car. You're like, I'm going to wash this thing all the time. Probably don't, right? Get a new apartment. I'm going to get some mood lighting. I'm going to do something on the back porch. I'm going to get some chairs. Relationship, this time I'm going to be super agreeable, right? Whenever anything is new, it's exciting because it's in the beginning. It's really the best part of all this. It's why when you bring it back to basketball, Memphis fans listening to this right now, you're like, maybe we should have kept Kyle Anderson,

but you have all of this Jake LaRavia stock because it's still very new. He didn't play enough. He was a first round pick. It's like everybody kind of liked that guy. I'm like, man, what if Jake LaRavia figures it out? All of us have done it with all of our teams and all of the sports about the new guy, the minor leaguer getting called up, the draft pick in football, the quarterback that's like, oh man, I like this late round guy, kind of sneaky, hearing good things about his reps at practice. Wimbanyama's new in a way that's hard to be new because it's still international, but you can find it. You've been hearing about him for three years, but it doesn't mean anything because before tonight, he wasn't yours. And after tonight, he is going to be yours to one lucky

fan base i remember the dice game at sazaka stuff all right you want to talk obsessed and it's weird because it wasn't that long ago it's like 15 16 years ago we had the internet we knew who dice gate was but there was still this mythical part of him in his story that made it even more exciting and i don't know that when banyama can naturally like match that because it's we're just better at this stuff a little bit better but i think to some degree there are some similarities dice gate felt like he was coming from another planet but like what's this guy do again like oh dude he tops out at like 90 98 99 he fucking hovers at 97 though he he works at like 96, 97. Gyro ball.

Research it. Defies fucking physics, kid. And you'd be like, what's a gyro ball? No one else is allowed to figure it out. No one else has ever been able to figure out the arm angle that Dice Case figured out for this gyro ball that goes in the opposite direction of what you're supposed to. It's actually just a screwball. But anyway, so you get them, and you can't wait to see something.

That's the hope, right, is that you're going to see something not just that's awesome and helps your team win and makes your life happier. It's that you've never, ever seen this before. I mean, very few people have ever delivered like Shohei Itani, ever, in the history of sports, and he has.

Now that it isn't new anymore, it's like, oh yeah, that guy struck out eight, seven scoreless and had two home runs again. Oh, okay. That's weird how that kind of wears off, but I don't know who's in charge if we should talk about Shohei Itani more. But back to Wenbanyama and all this other stuff like Dice Skate, granted, once you got him as a Red Sox fan, you're like, oh, he just kind of nibbles a lot. Yeah, this isn't as exciting. And then he had one season after his first two where he pitched 100 innings in his final six.

Didn't work out, but I'm not here to bum people out. That's not exactly what I'm doing, any of this. Because tonight, you're texting your buddies. You're texting your buddies about the equivalent of the basketball gyro ball. You're texting your buddies about one equivalent of the basketball gyro ball. You're texting your buddies about one Banyama saying, I heard this story. I found this on YouTube. Hey, have you heard this? He's like KD on offense, but he's KG on defense. You're going to call your dad. You're going to start getting jerseys. You're going to start thinking about

maybe getting that 10-game ticket package. And all of it's okay because this is what you're supposed to do. This is why you lift all those weights, right because this is what you're supposed to do this is why you lift all those weights right this is the whole point of why you keep checking in on your team every single time and thinking okay you might be one of the teams like orlando or detroit like i like some of our young guys you're in houston going i like a lot of your young dudes right san antonio you've got some cap space but now once that card is announced that you have the number one pick, all of it is different in the best way possible. Even if it's uncertain, it doesn't matter.

Enjoy the newness. Enjoy that tomorrow, as an NBA fan, your life is going to be different for the next 10 years. I did mean to ask this though, because I don't know that it's happened quite yet. Could be tomorrow morning on the TV shows. Has anyone zagged yet? Has anyone gone, yeah, more of a Scoot Henderson guy? That is prime. That is like prime oceanfront television real estate right now if you're in the game so this is a message to my colleagues you can own that that oceanfront right now if you wake up tomorrow going you know what

i'm gonna be the guy that says he's gonna suck i'm doing it um because yeah sure there's a downside to this right like i'm telling you your next 10 years are going to be terrific but there could be the bad summer league game and it was like i thought this guy was going to be terrific, but there could be the bad summer league game. I thought this guy was supposed to be awesome. What if he gets like 13 a game his rookie year? He's getting pushed around a lot. He needs to add some weight. Oh, no shit. He's 7'5 and 19. Your analysis

that he needs to get stronger and add weight? Thank you, Tom Platts. Probably going to get hurt. That's a whole other thing. And who knows if he's really, really good. But he hasn't won in four years. Hasn't gotten out of the second round. People are like,

I thought this guy was supposed to change a franchise. Remember that Rosillo lottery rant from four years ago? This guy hasn't won shit. Which is usually not on the great player. It's about the people around him. Or the worst version of this. He goes to a small market. He's really, really good. They don't win enough. He signs the rookie extension.

And then year five or six starts going. You know what? I'm not that into it here anymore. And who knows? Years from now, the way things have moved, scheduling on extensions being signed, it's like, I don't have to wait

until a year or two left anymore. I'll do what some of those other guys do. Sign the extension and then ask out. All right, but none of this matters. Don't worry about it right now. Even though that seems to happen to a lot of guys. That's not the point.

The point is that this is why you have hope. This is why any of us have ever had hope as fans. He's not the best prospect ever. He's not a better prospect than LeBron. You didn't have to worry about LeBron's body, but he is the best prospect since. The combination of skills, the things that he can do on a basketball court

at his size, we've never ever seen before. It's not a guarantee that it's going to work. I still worry about the injury part of it, certainly. But who gives a shit? It's the lottery. All right? Tonight, tonight is all that matters. Tonight, getting that number one pick

and getting to have all of these conversations with your friends, with your relatives, with fans that you didn't even know you liked that much. Because you're all aligned with the amount of hope that you're going to have that your franchise will never be the same because you landed the number one pick. And for that emotion, all of those things tonight that you're going to feel and wake up with tomorrow, I am jealous in the best way possible. Okay, breaking news right here during the show. Doc Rivers out. He's head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. He was asked about whether or not he would come back.

He gave a, eh, yeah, of course I'm coming back. I have two years left in my contract. That was the right answer. That's the way he's supposed to handle it. He's not supposed to say, I don't know. If we go back timeline-wise, I don't know that anybody ever thought that Doc Rivers was a Daryl Morey guy. So none of this, and Coach is getting fired. None of this is surprising at all.

I mean, we realize all the guys that have been in the finals recently have all been fired, right? Except for, well, actually, yeah, even the Celtics, that was a little different. That's what this job is. I mean, you look back at the long tenure in the NBA for head coaches, like pull that page up on Wikipedia where it'll go like date hired to date, you know, like you'll look at it being like, oh my God, 17 of the guys were hired in the last 16 months. Like this doesn't make any sense. So, um, I'm not, I'm not shocked by any of this cause I think it's the job and specific to Philadelphia. I think there were a lot of reasons. I like doc, I am biased. I'll admit. Um, I think people dismiss how good he can be with the veteran guys with big time resumes and understanding how they need to be kind of managed as people for the challenges of a long NBA regular season. I believe that, but I can no longer argue against his resume with the blown leads. The Atlanta one was the all-timer. And I think there was some stuff with the Clippers

where it just felt like he was stubborn in some of the rotations that weren't really making a lot of matchup sense there. But I defer to the blame on players with this way more than I do with any of the coaches. Rarely will you hear me say, hey, I think this coach is getting in the way of this team because I think ultimately it's on the players,

just like it was against Atlanta. It's like Ben Simmons having a meltdown is not Doc Rivers' fault. That's who Ben Simmons is, as we saw again with a dude that can't even play in games. I promise this is not turning into a Ben Simmons rant. We'll get back to coaches here quickly.

But a guy who's not even playing in games consistently the last few years deciding to post a picture of the Sixers losing to the Celtics from his house and it's nice TV not surprised he has a nice TV so that's not really what I'm talking about there but like the the math that you have to do in your head be like hey this is a good idea I don't even fucking play but let me make fun of the Sixers that made me almost want the Sixers to win that game almost but again that's a different topic that I'm sure we'll get to do again at some point when he's not playing in his fancy outfits, talking about how good he's going to be when he comes back. All right. So back to the doc part of it, because it, his fault that Harden's scared to

death in game seven, is it his fault that, you know, MB became predictable and didn't fight back in the third quarter. You know, that's why I just have a hard time blaming the coaches, even if I understand why they all lose their jobs and not thinking that Daryl and Doc were going to be actually the best pairing because I just don't know that they would see it the same way. So what does that mean? Man, welcome to the tour bus party. This is like a bunch of five star high school kids going to every major college campus to try to figure out where they want to play football. go into every major college campus to try to figure out where they want to play football. Monte Williams, Coach Bud, stop me if you've heard these names before. The Bud one would probably be a tough sell

in Philly after how bad the Milwaukee thing went. And yes, to be fair, he was dealing with something that's absolutely tragic and losing his brother in that same week. But there's a lot of respect for week. There's a lot of respect for Bud. There's a lot of respect for Monty too. I'm a little surprised

how much the NBA world seems to be in love with Monty the coach. He was 34 and 39 before Chris Paul got there to Phoenix. Chris Paul is the reason this Phoenix Suns turned around. I know everybody can make fun of me for my Chris Paul love with that, but that's a fact. That cannot be argued. They were kind of like,

are we any good? And then Chris Paul shows up and they make it to the NBA finals. So I think that had more to do with it than anybody that was coaching it. So I imagine Daryl's going to have to get somebody that's far more aligned with his vision. And anyone that's as numbers-based as Daryl, they look very hard at, like, hey, points per possession, this shot, shot quality here. What are we doing that's specific to this matchup? Where if you're a feel guy, there's just going to be a lot of times where I feel like the front office and coaching staff are seeing the game differently.

So I'd imagine more alignment with whoever they would go coaching-wise. But what I would disagree with is maybe Embiid can be salvaged as far as late-game stuff and going once the playoffs crank up and people are more tuned in on you on the catch and all these things you need to do, I think that could be fixed. I don't think some new coach all of a sudden unlocks some version of Harden. So you guys, I'm not even going to go down that road right now. You guys have fun with that one and all the debates,

especially if you're a Philly fan. It's like, no, no, this is the first time. It's Doc's fault that Harden looked like this. Enjoy, because I've got nothing else to say about it. I've already said it a million times. Let's talk some hoops with Larry Nance Jr. Larry Nance Jr. joins us, talks of playoffs, talks of his career, also some stuff he's doing

off the court as well. Thanks for doing this, man. How are you? Of course, man. I appreciate you guys having me on, and I'm good. I'm good. Of course, I'd rather be playing, but I can't complain too much. Do you watch all of it, some of it, none of it? I don't

watch all of it. Once our season ends, I try to disconnect a little bit, but around midway through midway through conference semis i'm tuned in okay so this lakers run um you know there's there's a bunch of parts that that go into this and i know you played them in march right i didn't know like granted there was a bunch of new pieces that were part of it i think the biggest thing is kind of anthony davis been being healthy.

But was there any moment when you played him in that game in March where you look at this and go, yeah, this makes sense? Well, yeah, I mean, honestly, it was it was when we played him at our building. It was Malik Beasley was the one that was the one that stood out to me is just, you know, of course course he hasn't even been getting that many minutes in the playoffs but he was the one um that stood out to me him and vanderbilt that's like all right they needed someone to lock down defensively and that obviously surrounding braun with shooters has been a proven track record for success his whole career so um i like the moves they made and and uh but i i agree with you i think the biggest reason has just been AD on the court. When he's healthy, that dude is just one of the best we have.

Now, granted, you've had that season with LeBron that I want to get back to, but does anything LeBron, anything that he does, can he even possibly surprise you anymore? No. No. I think that might sound like a slouch to him, but I think it's just so impressive. This dude's 38 and just doing it every single night at the highest level. And it's like, man, I, you know, for me, at least, you know, you don't, you have nothing waterproof. You know,

he could stop today and still be, you know, he's, he's, he's the greatest in my mind. And, and just getting, you know, being able to watch him do what he does night in and night out. It's like, man, I, he needs to be studied. Do you ever argue with your father about Jordan and LeBron? We have had that debate. How's it go? You take us in that. I want to know how that goes. Exactly how you think it would go.

I'm new school. He's old school. I'm being born in Akron, Ohio myself, so I'm just a bit biased in the whole debate but you know my dad thinks my dad thinks Mike is is uh you know the greatest he's seen and I think Bron's the greatest I've seen so it's it's um they definitely get lively around the house that's for sure yeah I uh I was going through one of my favorite things to do which is i don't know if it's a thing i should tell anybody or not uh about the stupid basketball reference nicknames that are that are on there uh you don't have any yeah your father like i always knew little hawk the hyatola of

slamola i was not aware of or I had forgotten about that one, and Mr. Slam Ambassador. I imagine that's probably never come up around the house. Did you say Mr. Slam Ambassador? That's awesome, but I'd never heard it. I've never heard that either. Well, thank you

for the new ammo at the next family function. I'm using that. But honestly, in Little Hawk, I hadn't really heard that one either me and my me and my brother and sister used to make fun of him for high ayatollah of slam ola or whatever but um basketball references got some good ones man i love it it's my favorite it's my favorite thing when i see one that i've no one's ever used about anybody ever. And that's, again, there's no one ever taking the belt from Deion Waiters who has Kobe Wade. That's just the nickname is Kobe Wade.

Kobe Wade? Yeah. Good for him. That's hard to beat. I don't think it'll ever be beat. Okay, take me through the 18th season. Because you beat Boston, which was a really young team. The same two guys are there.

And it was like, wait, are these young dudes actually going to get LeBron? And you're like, no. And it came down. Look, the last few possessions. You get swept by the Warriors. But what's the difference between kind of regular season? Because I felt like at that point, LeBron was kind of pacing himself. He didn't care about seeding as much um it's not the same as this year but what's the difference between regular

season LeBron and postseason LeBron so again yeah I only got to see it for I only got to see it for like three four months but just just the preparation was so drastically different in terms of regular season as opposed to playoffs like regular season to be honest we were just kind of rolling the ball out there we're just we're better than teams because we had braun and kev and you know we're just more talented um but when it got to the playoffs now it's like now you know t lou is when T. Lou turns this guy. Now you've got Ty's attention. And he's drawn up adjustments and plays that, like, at that point in my career, were just making my head spin, making my head spin. And Bron is, you know, telling us, like, hey, you know,

Tara's ears are going to be running up the court calling this play. This play is nothing but our horns action and kind of dissecting their offense, translating it in our terms, per se. And that, you know, to this point in my career, I had only seen like a 21-win season and like an 18-win season. So I was not... This was all super new to me and very forward.

And so I'm trying to learn as much as I can absorb it much as I can on the fly. It's that right there was my first real look into like, okay, this is, this is what the NBA is at the highest level. And it's, it's man, it's, it's to be a fly on the wall in one of those buildings. I wish we could give access to the everyday person to see some of that stuff. And so you see how really intelligent some of these people are.

And that's, I mean, Bron and T. Lou, that's what they're just brilliant at. Yeah, that series against Golden State, it's this two-year stretch with that team where you go, who's beating these guys? And I doubt LeBron has ever had any moment in his life where he took the court thinking there was no chance he could win. Did you sense anything different? What were those locker rooms like going up against that team going, we're pretty good and we've got this guy but i don't like i don't think we're close like what was that like um it was never really like that um honestly we that series was i don't want to say it was it was it wasn't decided but that game the game won that whole controversy surrounding game one uh where Bron had, what, he had 51 or 51-9-9 or whatever it was on their home court and, you know, went into overtime after the free throws.

But, like, the controversy surrounding that and then losing that game really, that was really demoralizing for everyone in our locker room. Cause if we, I feel, I, you know, we felt we should have won that game. And,

and if we would have won that game now, all right, now we've got a Siri. Now we've got a series on our hands. Now, like they, now game two becomes a must win for them. And it's,

you know, then you, the pressure shifts a little bit and the tone changes for them. So, um, we never went into the games like, oh, woe is me. We're just going to come out here and get lumped up by these superstars again. No, it was never that.

That's how the games ended up playing out. But it was never – guys were too good and we were too – we knew we had the best player in the world on our team. So when you've got that, you never feel like you're out. When I look at that run, and you're right, like when I was watching you in the East, you know, that year, I was like, I don't really care about the seating. You know, like, I was like, it feels like, it was almost like LeBon thought i'm just not

really afraid of anybody in the east so it's not going to be that big of a deal and who knows you know game seven could have gone slightly different in boston uh but you're 27 as you said you get traded mid-season can you say anything it's not like you're really young because you played a lot in college but what comfort level do you have in that moment where you feel like, hey, you know what? I've got a lot of things to say. There's some things I can see here, but I don't really know if I can take over the room here.

What's that role like for you as a role player? For me, it was, no, I wasn't saying a whole lot at that point. And mainly not because, not really because of my status on the team. They did a good job of making sure, you know, everybody had a voice, but it was more so because of my lack of experience at that level. Again. Yeah. I had,

you know, I went four years of college and, you know, and then when I got to the league, it was just kind of, um, I hadn't went to a team that wasn't necessarily in the, in the throes of winning.

So, um, you know, this atmosphere, this, this high intensity, high pressure winning atmosphere is something that was brand new to me. So, um, you know, this, this atmosphere, this, this high intensity, high pressure winning atmosphere is something that was brand new to me. And I was more so trying to absorb it, trying to understand that first before I, before I really spoke my mind and, and, you know, the veterans

we have on the team, we have on the team where, you know, obviously Bron, K love who'd been there, Jr who'd been there, Tristan, who'd been there, um, you know, Cor, who'd been there, J.R. who'd been there, Tristan who'd been there, Korver who'd been there, and guys that time and time again, year after year, are playoff veterans. I definitely didn't feel like I was just trying to learn as much as I could from guys that have been where I want to get. Yeah, no, it makes sense.

Let's go back to the Lakers thing. You get drafted at the end of the first round. How'd you end up at Wyoming, by the way? Because I know you were still in high school in Cleveland. I have a soft spot for that part of the country. How did you end up there? Which part of the country? Cleveland or Wyoming?

Wyoming. I know the Cleveland part. Nice. Okay. So Wyoming, I was 16 years old. I was not really, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. So I was, you know, my growth was stunted. I really didn't, I didn't have as much weight and didn't really like anything athletic.

So I didn't, I didn't do it. And it took a while for, it took a while for once I got diagnosed and treated, it took a while for my athleticism to kick in and my growth to kick back in and catch up so I didn't really turn into a half decent player until my senior year

and there was a coach at Wyoming, Larry Shiet who was also from Cleveland that had heard that Larry Nance's kid There was a coach at Wyoming, Larry Shiet, who was also from Cleveland, that had heard that Larry Nance's kid isn't committed anywhere, doesn't have a scholarship. And so he flew down and didn't even see me play and offered me a scholarship to go to Wyoming. And at that point, it was why I have Wyoming as a D1 offer

and Bowling Green as a D1 offer. At that point, it was why I have Wyoming as a D1 offer and Bowling Green as a D1 offer. And I took a visit to Wyoming with my roommate or with a kid on my AAU team, another kid from Cleveland, who ended up being my roommate. And we both just loved it and stayed four years. Yeah, and then you get drafted to the Lakers. And it's not like this is new to you. I mean, you know, your dad was like a big time player, right? So even though it's your experience, it's not like, Oh, Hey, it's this kid who got a late scholarship. And now all of a sudden he's, he's on the Lakers running around in Los Angeles.

So even though that's all true and accurate and that happened to you, I imagine there was some part of you that maybe was a little bit more ready for that transition, not only because of your age and being an older rookie, but knowing that like, Hey, I've heard these stories. I know my dad's friends and all this kind of stuff where like the transition, although it's yours and it's different, maybe it wasn't as complicated because of your background? Again, I'm assuming here a bit too much, but what was that like? Not necessarily. So my dad retired in 95 and I was born in 93. So I didn't really, I didn't really get to be around the NBA a whole lot. It's not like he didn't do a whole lot of coaching. And so it wasn't, it wasn't something that i was too familiar with obviously you know i knew he played and knew his resume but it wasn't something that for me was ever a yeah well i'm

just gonna go play in the nba no never so me getting drafted was a surprise and then going to la and that uh in that market you know with you know playing with kobe bryant was like man i i couldn't dreamt this up so i'm you know i was even though i Bryant was like, man, I, I couldn't have dreamt this up. So I'm, you know, I was, even though I was older and had gone four years of college, my dad had played, it was, it was still, I was still learning just like any, just like D'Angelo Russell and, and Anthony Brown, my two guys in my draft class where it was, it was, uh, it was, uh, being a rookie in LA is, is is unlike there are very few things like it

all right we'll just we'll just let that one sit there uh i asked mike brown this question years ago when he was working at espn um i was like give me the best like explanation of how kobe and lebron are different because i know all the reasons that they're the same. So maybe years later, you can do a better job as a teammate. I know what the same answers are. You're going to say competitiveness, smarts, the way they see it. What's different? What was different about being teammates with those two guys? So I want to preface this by saying I caught Kobe on his last year, right? Like I, that's not, that's not fair to him. It's not like I got to play with him at, at 31 or 28 where in the, in the prime of his career. So I caught him, um, you know, on the farewell tour. Um, but the biggest thing for me

is, is leadership style, right? Like Bron is a, is a very, he's not really a finger point, like, hey, you need to, like, he's not really a put an address on it type of guy. He's a we, us, very team-centric guy. And not to say Kobe wasn't, but when it was time for someone to, like, someone messed up when it was time for someone to like, like someone messed up, it was like, you need to be better. It was very like, put the onus, I put that, put an address on it, put the onus on whoever did it. And, you know, inspire guys by

holding the individual accountable rather than the whole team. But that was the biggest thing for me is just like, and for me. Which I needed. I needed that. Byron Scott being my first coach and Kobe being my first vet was big time. I needed that. I needed that kind of old school approach of stuff you're doing in college.

That ain't going to fly here. You better figure out some way to help this team win and do it efficiently. And that's what's kind of defined my career thus far. And so they're obviously both very, like you said, we know all the similarities, but the biggest difference to me is the leadership style. Look, I'm from the northeast

so i've never had a moment where i've ever rooted for the lakers but i remember being at home you know i'm sure i had to work the next day and because i think it was in the middle of the week and it was the 60 point game for for kobe um and you you played a lot of that game. You played like 30 minutes and, you know, it was funny just cause I was like, I wonder who the next day, cause I might've been the guy that would be guilty of doing it where it was like, well, he took 50 shots, but I was like for that night, that's what it was supposed to be. You know, the team wasn't that good. I didn't, no one cared who won. The building was unbelievable to see all of these people and then everybody else encouraging him being like don't shoot you were three for three so i'm not

saying you needed more looks that night but you were very efficient uh what was what were the moments like after that game where it was a celebration where honestly he was going out in like look winning game seven nba finals there's obviously better versions of going out but it was like the most kobe way to go out and I felt like anybody that had a hard time with it like that was for Lakers fans that was for him that was for that city and that for the for that building and I actually I loved it because it was just it was perfect it was perfect for him as a player no when you do all he did in his career and the way he did it and all you did for the city and the organization, it was perfect. You deserve it.

You've earned it. If he wanted to take 70 shots, I would have chased down 20. Me and Julius would have chased down 20 more offensive rebounds and gotten him the ball back. Um, being on the court for that was, uh, you know, I've got, hopefully I've got, hopefully I've got a little bit of career, you know, a lot of career left and I do get to do some cool things, but I don't mean, the, the moments afterwards were like, it was a movie, right? The whole, the,

we had won, honestly, I think we won like 18 games all season. But if you would have asked me after that game, no, I just won my first ring. Like I just got a, the championship and I was the star player. It was just,

everybody was on such a high. We were in the locker room celebrating. Like we had just won. And the guy deserved it. The guy deserved it. He, you know, Kanye West was in our locker room and stars were visiting us. And it was just like, man, this is so deserving of this guy's career. This is so deserving of this guy's career.

He deserves all his flowers and to go out on a note that only Kobe, a true gunslinger, can go out on. Yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. All right, let's talk about your season. Transitioning out of fun. Not to make it negative. Look, the first half was fun.

I had a lot of fun in the first half of the season. This, I, at one point I'm like, this is the deepest roster in the NBA. I still think talent, like one through whatever number you want to stop it at. Like there are just certain nights where I'm like,

man, there's so many guys on this team that I like. There's so many different wings they can throw at you. Um, and then it all kind of comes back to, to Zion's health where I feel like you can get, you can get by for a little while, you know, Ingram had his health issues. Then he comes back and he closes really strong. back to Zion's health where I feel like you can get by for a little while. You know, Ingram had his health issues.

Then he comes back and he closes really strong. Like, who are you as a team right now? What's the answer to that? We are – I think the answer to that is we are a number – the last time we saw us healthy, we are a number one seed in the West with a potential mvp candidate um that has a lot of question marks around it um you know we're we're as good as with these we're as good as every team playing right now um our roster is i'll put our roster up against it any day of the week.

But just like we talked about, you know, the Lakers, what happened to the Lakers' rejuvenation? Well, yeah, AD's healthy. What happened with the Pelicans' slip-off? There's no team in the NBA that can win without their two best players. Everything is star-centric in the NBA. Z is obviously a generational talent. When he's on the court, it just makes the game so much easier for everybody else. Like you said, Brandon Ingram, the stretch he put on at the end of the year was superstar status.

That's something that needs to be pointed out. The dude was going 30 points, 35, 40, 35, 30. He got us where we ended up, which ended up in the play-in, but it was still like he put a lot of load on his back and carried us. put a lot of load on his back and carried us. But I still think we're just so talented. You're right. Our roster is incredible, but at the end of the day, health is what's going to kill us.

It has in the past, and it did this year, but I'm still optimistic for the future. Can you help us on the outside understand the Zion day-to-day of it? And maybe I should set it up a bit. We all think the world of him is a talent. He seems like a great dude. The injury stuff is super frustrating. At the end of this year, it got weird, you know, because you were like, wait,

is he cleared? Is he not cleared? What's going on? There's all sorts of stuff you'll hear. Be like, oh, he's not even communicating with the team. That was more like last year. And then they were like, oh, that wasn't true. You know, I don't know. But I think those in the outside are like, wait, if he's if he's clear, but he doesn't want to go ahead and play. Like, what is it about the out? Like, what are what are we not getting the clear message on? What, what is it that we don't understand those that may be, you know, at times I'm like, should I be more critical of Zion for not being ready or not being there for

his teammates? Because that's the direction that it's heading for him. Fair or not. No, that's, that's you're right. Um, I think the biggest disconnect between what is going on in the organization

and what everybody else outside the organization knows or doesn't know is the fact that no like no one wants to be hurt right like we're sitting like what one of the biggest things for me you know people always oh this call this guy street clothes or make fun of this guy for always being hurt. It's like, as athletes, we want to compete. Nobody wants to be hurt. Right. So this, you know, Z who's had his,

his injury, his injury history in his career, it's, it's not like he wants to be on the sideline. Right. Like Brandon, who's had some injuries, me who've had some injury,

injury history in my career. You don't want to be on the sideline. So like, nobody's looking at him with like disgust of how could you how could you do this to us like no man like it's sympathy it's empathy it's like man i i feel for you you you know i feel for you this man was an all-star starter he was an all-star starter and then didn't get to finish the season like if he wants to be on the court more than any of us want him to be on the court and and and so you know these things come out of like oh his teammates are mad or oh his

this is mad the front office is mad or you know zion can't play the team the locker room should be mad like none of that we don't care about any of that we just want that we just want the guy to be all right he's a tremendous human being and obviously we know what he is as a player you know injuries are just an unfortunate part of sports that it takes some guys longer to realize than others

if the Sixers would have given up on Joel Embiid they wouldn't have had an MVP on their hands right this could be a very similar situation and it's something that they wouldn't have had an MVP on their hands. Right? Like this, this could be a very similar situation. And it's, it's something that it's something that,

you know, if, if, if I'm a betting man, I'm going to bet on, I'm going to bet on the human being that I know, because I think that he's, he's got, he's got the wherewithal to get through this.

And he's, he's got the people around him that are, that are gonna, he's got a good group of people around that are, that are going to help him in any way, any way they can. I want to ask just one little quick follow up here. Cause I don't know, you know, I don't know if you could tell me the truth, you know, cause we know how this works. Like if you give us any depth of an answer, where it's like, well, a couple of guys are upset about it.

And then it turns into Larry Nance Jr. says teammates are upset. Like, that's what will happen. Like, we're going to call it right now. But you're telling me, though, you're telling me that the part of people, his teammates being upset about him not being available at the end of the season, that's inaccurate. So there's a difference. Were we upset that he couldn't play at the end of the year

yeah we were upset not at him though right right like yeah we were upset we want we want to see him on the court just like i was upset when brandon got hurt i was upset when z got hurt i was upset when i got hurt but i'm not mad at the individual person. It's just a frustrating situation. You're mad at the situation. You're upset that he can't be on the court with us, but nobody's sitting there like getting the news and go and look at his eye on with like, oh, you, you know, like you'd look at someone that you were mad at. You're not mad at the kid.

Like it's we, as players, we play hurt, right? We play hurt. We don't play injured. Now, if someone's hurt or someone's sore and they're not playing, now it's like you might catch a little bit of a side eye from me. Like, come on, man. You got a sore ankle. Let's roll.

But if someone's injured, you do not play when you're injured, no matter what. And for me, that's the line of distinction and z was injured like we z was injured it was so there's no yeah we were absolutely upset i i guarantee you there how many guys are locked 17 there were 17 guys that were upset when we got that when we got the update on z but not upset at z for Z, but upset for our team and situation. That's a really good answer. And I, and I appreciate it because you know, there's, you just know how it works. You know, any depth of answer in this can turn into something. All right. I have a couple of thoughts here before we let you bounce. Um, cause I, I'm glad you

brought up to Angela Russell, your, your draft classmate. Uh, I've had a hard time with a man i'll admit i'll have a i did a pretty pretty intense rant on him during the season when he was still in minnesota where what i should have said is because he's so talented he's he's super dangerous and i i was like basically i think he's like the worst starter because i think he hurts you so much but i know you're probably going to be like all right this is where the interview ends. I think you can understand what I mean from a basketball sense of how locked in that night is he going to be, possession to possession.

But I'm not denying the talent or the shot-making ability. And I think that because he's not in charge of the possessions with the Lakers the way he was with Minnesota, is that that variance, it's more of a shooting variance than it is like, what are you doing out there? Help me understand the dips and the highs and lows of the D'Angelo Russell experience as a teammate. Playing basketball.

I'm not talking about it. I don't even care about anything else. The basketball part of his game. With D'Lo, when you get to see him day in and day out, it comes so easy to him the game is like he's he's so fluid his game's so smooth that like even when he's going through his workouts it looks like he's going at half speed and just kind of going so slow like do you have like do you work hard like it's great and then you see it he does it in the games, moves at that pace and gets to whatever shot he wants. He's so talented that he makes the game look so easy, right? Like it's almost, it's, you don't get to, you don't understand until you see it in person. Like you

see it every day in workouts and he, the dudes, they're shooting before practice, shooting after practice. He works hard, but like the pace in which his like i like obviously not calling the same player but like in terms of pace like i guarantee if you were to watch a guy like kyle anderson work out in the summertime you'd be like he doesn't go hard but then you get him in the game it's like nah dude gets buckets but just at his own pace so i understand like from the outside watching dilo is like what is he doing but he's just gifted to where it looks it looks a certain way and now another thing I will say is the transition from not playing with Ron or a a superstar to where the ball's in their hands and they're making

decisions for the whole team and the transition from not doing that to doing that, it shouldn't be overlooked. For me, it's easier because I don't want the ball in my hands. I'm a play finisher. You get me the ball and I score. You get me the ball and I get it to somebody else. My decisions are quick and quick, snappy. I'm not a ball stopper.

I'm not a volume shooter. So it's easy for a guy, you know, for a role player per se, but, you know, a guy like D'Lo who had gone from Minnesota, having the ball in his hands, Brooklyn, having the ball in his hands, um, you know, even Golden State a little bit, having the ball in his hands, like his career, he's had the ball in his hands and gotten to kind of make plays and decisions at his own pace. Now you got to play at somebody else's pace on the biggest stage of your career. It's tough, man. I've done it, and it's tough. So, you know, I understand where it looks like you never know

what you're going to get from him, but to a certain extent, he doesn't know what he's going to get any given night either. Yeah, I think that's the best way to summarize it there at the end. That was good. Okay, I have one last thing for you here. All right, I want your pick in the East, so I don't know if you want to give us a quick one or in-depth one, whatever you want to do.

Who's winning the East? You know what? Let's go out on a limb. I'm going to rock my boy K-Love. I'm going to take Miami. Whether that's the educated pick or not, I'm going to take Miami. No, I mean, look, at this point, I don't think

it's the wrong pick, but at this point I kind of give up with Miami. Can I ask you, what does Spoh do that is like the next level stuff? Brandon, you don't see him a lot because you're in the other conference, but you saw him when give up with Miami. Can I ask you, what does Spoh do that is like the next level stuff? Brandon, you don't see him a lot because you're in the other conference, but you saw him when you were with Cleveland. What does Spohlstra do where you're like, okay, this guy's at another level?

So that's a good one. So it's funny you ask. Before I got in the NBA, I didn't really understand levels of coaching. It's like, what do you mean? The players make the decisions. It's the NBA, I didn't really understand levels of coaching. It's like, what do you mean? The players make the decisions. It's the players, players, players. And once you get in the NBA and start to see in high-intensity games the adjustments made from a

coaching perspective, then you understand like, oh, I get it. And Spoh is one of those coaches along with T. Lou, along with Steve Kerr, along with Pop. Some of these coaches, their in-game adjustments are so good that they will win you a game, despite the players on the court. And Spoh is one of those guys that has in-game adjustments like that and so like to give you

an example in the the first game one of heat mix um the mix had just come off a series where they were jalen brunson was running mitchell robinson was running a pick and roll with whoever the bigs right they're bringing mobile up to the pick and roll, bringing Jared Allen into the pick and roll, just constantly bringing, you know, Julius and Mitchell Robinson into pick and rolls, playing only with the bigs. And so what Spoh did is he had Caleb, who I love Kevin, right?

One of my best friends in the league. But if I'm the ball handler, I'm calling him up in a pick and roll. That's who I want. So that's what they did. So Spoh, knowing that, started K-Love on Josh Hart, who, Josh is a jack of all trades,

can do it all, but he doesn't know how to really play out of a pick and roll setting as the roller. Guards don't do that. So in game one, Kevin on Josh Hart allowed in making Josh like, all right, go ahead, pick and pop. We're going to keep Kevin in the drop.

And knowing that shooting top of the arc threes isn't necessarily the strongest part of Josh's game and encouraging him to shoot that would mess with New York's offense and clog the lane down and slow the game down, take away the ball from Brunson's hands and get it in, you know, guys that, you know, aren't, aren't as volume scorers as him. So like just that little adjustment in terms of like, you know what, we're going to take our four and start them on their, on their two and see what,

see what makes them do like little stuff. Like just the game within the game, that clogged up the entire lane and allowed Miami to win game one in MSG, which shifts an entire series. If they don't win that game, now we could be looking into game seven. Awesome answer. Okay, last one here. I don't always remember all of your defensive assignments,

but I know kind of like, you know, you're going to be used on the perimeter guys. Give me, between Tatum, Brown, and Butler, who's the toughest for you to deal with? Josh, they're also hard to guard for very different reasons. Do you want to give us a quick breakdown of why they're difficult and different reasons? I'll give you a quick breakdown as to why they're different and different reasons. Do you want to give us a quick breakdown of why they're difficult and different reasons? I'll give you a quick, I'll give you a quick breakdown as to why they're different.

Perfect. Right. So, so Jay, uh, Jason, I'll start with Tatum. He's so hard to guard because of his, the shot making ability is so high, right? Like he, he is a tough shot taker and a tough shot maker. Dude will take a shot where you're like, I played great defense, and it goes in. He's got that step back three that in all, if you look across, I'm a percentage defender. You want to force guys into step backs most of the time. But that's what he wants. So he gets this, his shots that he takes and makes are shots that you kind of want him to take.

He's just great. He's better at making them than you are at stopping them. So Jason's just a tough shot maker. Whereas Jalen, if you turn your head for a second, Jalen's at the rim. Jason, you can almost, when they're in their offense a little bit, you can turn your head and play some help defense, and Jason's going to be where you left him pretty much

because he wants to score with the ball in his hands. Jalen Brown is a cutter. He's a slasher. If you lose him on the fast break, that's a dunk. He scores in a more full-court setting, whereas Jason scores in a half-court setting. And then you said jimmy yeah i know my first thing well you have to guard him i don't my first thing with jimmy is the coaches have to just scream at every

guy being like stay down on the first second and third pump fake when he's in the restricted area you have like that's the first thing with him now the free throw rate's crazy and look you get tired you go for one but he's making a living with that like it's it's cranked him up to a whole nother level but again you're the one that played against him not me so i'm not going to sit here and tell you what to do no you're right it's the fouls it's the fouls it's the it's it's the um i don't want to say the foul hunting but the foul it is it's but yeah it's a little bit see jimmy i look at different than i look at the foul hunters in the league and i'll stay away from naming them no you're right there's another i

wouldn't put jimmy in that group but there's there's a group of like five or six guys where i think it gets gross but go ahead yeah we won't do that it gets gross we'll stay away from that but jimmy is a foul drawer not a foul hunter and so jimmy will get he gets to his spot and what makes him so tough is like you never know you never know when the shot's coming right like jason's gonna get to his spot and he's gonna take the shot jalen's gonna get to his spot and he'll take the shot jimmy's gonna get to his spot and wait for you to wait for you to like are you gonna lift your hips a little bit and i can go by you again or are you gonna are you gonna know that i'm gonna pump fake so i can just pull up and shoot it right over top of you and you too scared of a foul or are you gonna be too aggressive and i'm just gonna get

you your second foul real quick and pump fake like he's too the way jimmy thinks thinks the game scoring offensively makes him that much more difficult to guard. So like they saw they are, they're so hard to guard in three different ways, but they all do it so efficiently that, you know, they're at such a high level. That was awesome, man. Really? This is a lot of fun. I really appreciate this before we let you go, Larry. Uh, I want to talk about, cause you'd mentioned Crohn's disease, your foundation, uh, everything that's going on off the court. What do you got? Yeah. So, um, yeah, I, I try to do a lot, you know, I think of myself as incredibly fortunate to be in this position that I am. And, and, uh, you know, there are with this platform

we have, I, you know, try to give back in as many ways as we can. And so for me, um, I was diagnosed with Crohn's at 16 years old and, and, um, you know, there's a, there's a whole slew of, I want to say that probably, I think 3 million Americans that are diagnosed now with it. And, um, you know, it's got, I got a bunch of nasty, uh, nasty symptoms and whatnot. So we won't get into that, but it's, you know, it's my foundation. I set up athletes versus Crohn's is, is, is a, is a way to connect, um, way to connect these kids that are getting diagnosed at a young age that are just trying to feel normal and fit in pretty much. Give them a

community and give them someone to look up to that's been there and done it before. We've got doctors, we've got lawyers, we've got baseball players. Obviously, I'm a basketball player. There are people in all walks of life that have gotten to do and experience some really cool things despite this disease. And so that's what we're trying to show these kids is, you know, despite your disease, there's nothing you can't do in life. And so we do scholarships and scholarship dinners and experiences. I run out of suites for a bunch of kids to come from the hospital and be at the games. I speak to them. It's something I'm very proud of and something that hopefully won't stop when I'm done with the league. who hopefully won't stop when I'm done with the league. No, you should be proud of that, man.

I was reading about it this morning and everything. Thank you. It's awesome that you take on this challenge. Hey, thanks a lot for this, and enjoy the rest of the playoffs, and hopefully we get to catch up again. This was terrific. Thanks, Larry. Most definitely. Appreciate you having me on. 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 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. Before get to life advice our main man our main man

kyle back in the mix fresh off his bachelor party ocean city maryland sounds like secrets got a lot of play what's up to saruti as well um we just want to talk to you bud what's going on uh it's a really tough place to get to uh first of all my voice is coming back that's good uh it's a really tough place to get to i think um some several people hinted at it but i think the season starts probably a week or two from now i don't think it was uh i don't think it was the season was in full swing there um but it was a dead it uh it i thought it was until saturday night and i've never seen uh like secrets was absolutely jam-packed uh it was it was one of the greatest nights of my life but um yeah i mean the the two groups was uh a little bit like uh vinegar or oil and water

you know uh they one of the guys would come up to me like i fucking hate those guys and i'd be like yeah they told me they fucking hate you too but um because we had world you had you had two different solar systems yeah the new york city crowd poughkeepsie crowd um you know what was the point of contention like what was the what were the issues um i don't know they just thought they like operated differently like some dude to the poughster guys one of them i mean we started at 9 30 in the morning um the day after we got there so friday and one of my buddies just smacks the ever-loving shit out of the other guy and all the guys all the new york city guys on the porch like whoa what the fuck was that and then uh the other guy was like hey hold on let's talk about this boom smacks the shit out of him and and they're like what what the fuck is going on it's 9 30 in

the morning aren't you guys like best friends and it was like some stupid thing about like breaking the rules in the airbnb guy smoked a cigarette in the room immediately um it was like so it was real it was legitimately on at 9 30 a.m with drinks in hand it was on two of your poughkeepsie core guys were like right going at it it wasn't it was it wasn't fun it was like i'm gonna hit you it wasn't yeah and then it like but then it wasn't a fight and that was like it and they were like stormed off to opposite porches of the house and and and the new york city guys were like kyle what the fuck is going on here and i was like i don't know man i'm sorry let's get off this porch uh so there was go to your porch yeah go to your porch and you know whatever chain smoking till you feel better i don't know but um so okay so it was just like stuff like that and like little points

throughout the weekend they'd be like what's up with these guys but um because we had always we had always like once a year i throw a party in poughkeepsie and everybody comes to that one and they so these it's not the first time they've ever seen these guys but it is the first time they've ever slept under the same roof as these guys i think and especially for multiple nights so um yeah it was a little bit uh i think the last day everyone was like i can't wait to get the fuck away from this group so um but everybody everybody came together that was nice went to the casino um my one buddy got kicked out immediately just um what do you do? Uh, their, their thing was visibly drunk,

but I think, you know, in his defense, in his defense, I think that, um, whatever they show you about what you can do at craps tables in the movies, that is not how people who run craps tables want you to act.

Like he's got the dice, you know, he's like, Hey, who want to blow the dice? And the lady's just like, uh, like,

sir, sir, sir. And then like the next thing he does, you're like, Hey, listen want to blow the dice and the lady's just like uh like sir sir sir and then like the next thing he does you're like hey listen anything you've seen in the movies don't do and i think his response was just some jump like jumbled drunk garbage and they were like sir you must go and we had just got in i just put out like 300 bucks so uh he disappeared for a little while uh but i tell you, Secrets was just everything everyone said. What is it? It's,

it's like, so it's on the water, right? It's on the water. They have a bunch of sand. I think it's like a, it's really the beach, you know?

So they just, it's not like they import the sand. Like it's just there. There's probably six different bars. It looks a little bit like resortish in some places. It's also like pretty much like there's bars. You can't smoke in the outside bars in case everybody was wondering a couple inside bars they got a raw bar they got a big like concert venue that's got like a huge like screen behind it

uh it's really good good food um but they're outside i guess uh so the last night i was there we were all i we just got a bunch of crab cakes. I went and got a bunch of shrimp. You know, we were spending money. We're at this table right by the, looking out at the horizon at the ocean. And then all of a sudden, this big fucking, like, it's almost like out of water park when that big bucket like dumps on you. Just out of nowhere, like a massive spray of water. And we're like, what the fuck is that? And then there's like girls screaming. Everybody's like running. We don't know what's going on. It

happens again. And it hits like directly on our food, like all this market price food. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? And like my buddy's screaming because he's got now hit three times. He doesn't even know where to go and uh he's like what the fuck is this and uh the bartender's like oh yeah we just planted a tree that's a sprinkler like what the fuck so um our comp was six lemon drop shots so fuck that guy man uh wait that's all your food was ruined and you got six lemon drops to i mean it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't like uh it wasn't like the food just got there but you know there was probably a crab cake and a half left and the shrimp still had the jackets on it so we weren't really messing with it that much but the principle

of it was uh you know what the fuck is going on it's a saturday night and uh you've got this mass it's like i've never seen it's almost like like those like I can only like one of those water cannons that keeps the football fields hydrated. It was so much water and it was aimed. It was like, are we getting fucking pranked right now? And it was just this one spot. And they were like, yeah, sorry, we just planted a tree there. I'm like, dude, there's 100 people back here. We pumped them.

Okay, so why was this the best night of your life? It was just it was so packed and it wasn't the best night of your life um it was just it was so packed and uh it wasn't the best night of my life i'm just trying to tell myself i had a really good reason to go to fucking ocean city maryland in early may dude uh but it was it was it was great whoa wait i don't like where the tone shifted here did you not have a good time no i did have a good time i did have a good time because i like the the tensions were brewing and i just was like i don't actually care and if something if something does actually come to bubble up i'm not going to do anything about it because um i just don't have to i'm the one guy that doesn't have to worry this weekend so i had a good time um the you know little factions were breaking off and doing different things but we were actually all together quite a bit. So how many,

I think it was 13 dudes. Yeah. Including me. The Thursday through Sunday. That's, that's a, that's a marathon. It felt like one day.

Yeah. And did you go out Sunday night? No. So Sunday I traveled for 13 hours just to get back to Los Angeles. Okay. Go ahead. No, it's, Cerruti. No, it's tough because it sucks that you

got to play the peacekeeper there. You don't want to be the guy as the bachelor. I decided not to. Don't fight. I decided not to. It is what it is. You would think they'd be like, hey, guys, let's just do this for Kyle. Let's not fuck shit up for Kyle. Let's make sure Kyle has a good time. So I'm glad hopefully things didn't boil over too much. But even

buddies that I'm friends with that I've been to bachelor parties with, guys I've known each other for years that actually genuinely like each other. You put, you put like that many guys in one house for a weekend and guys,

people are going to start hating each other. Like it's just, you're not, just because I like you or I'm friends with you doesn't mean I could live with you for a couple of days. Like there's,

I have plenty of friends that there's no way we could be roommates and I like him. I want to hang out with him. We go out a lot, but like there's no, if we live together, I would hate you. And that's plenty of friends that there's no way we could be roommates and i like him i want to hang out with him we go out a lot but like there's no if we live together i would hate you and that's kind of like it's like the real world like you're putting this to a very extreme test of like all right a couple guys under a roof and there's obviously alcohol involved so you could you could be friendly with the guys and not even like them so the fact that these guys didn't like each other had you know the vibes were off going in honestly i'm just

happy that everybody kind of stuck together and it didn't boil over too bad i'll ask you this go ahead is it normal is it normal there was a lot of naps in this uh it was like a lot it was like a lot of like oh fuck now he's napping what are we gonna do should we leave him and then it's like uh it was just a lot of naps and it was like are we getting older is that what it is or is it just the amount of beer at the times that we're drinking them this is just a natural crash like it's like third like these dudes are 30 like should we be napping this much i was a little concerned i think you know if you can coordinate the naps it's great obviously there's only a certain amount of places people can go and guys are going to fall at certain you know different times but i you know i went to the most recent one i went to was in charleston uh it was my brother-in-laws and they're all younger

dudes than i was and they were team no nap they just, I think they slept probably like four total hours over the course of a weekend. Like we were, we were up till four then golfing at like, I had a tee time at 7am. You're just like, how do you guys lit? So I, the first night I was there, I call out 930. I was like, guys, like, I know if I go any further, like it's going to be a bad news for me. That was first night.

Second night I was up till four. It was great. But like, you just, I think as long as guys further, it's going to be a bad news for me. That was first night. Second night, I was up till four. It was great. But I think as long as guys know their limits and nobody's being weird and puking everywhere and starting fights, a nap to me is totally fine. Yeah, I think there's an age thing where you should be napping at bachelor parties. But I don't care how old you are. The 7 a.m. tea time thing is the dumbest call ever. It's so stupid.

We used to do it too because we let the golfers be in charge of it and then these guys would be like 23 not staying out with us till four in the morning then being like fresh because they didn't want to fuck up their golf route and the rest of us would be like dead and showing right up and you know people make them funny for being in a cart you're like if there wasn't a car you know the number of mornings you woke up on these trips in the hotel room going, what if I don't golf today? I don't even want to. Well, so I tried.

I tried getting out of it a couple of times. And one guy was like, hey, man, like, you know, we booked it. First off, we hadn't even paid yet, but he was like guilt tripping me into being like, come on, like we have the numbers, this, this, and that.

I'm like, dude, if it's a, if it becomes a threesome and it was a foursome, like it's not that big of a deal. I'm not even that good. Although randomly, I did play a very good round at 7 a.m. that morning. Super hungover.

But I tried to get out of it, and I was kind of being guilt-tripped and be like, dude, no, you can't get out of it. Make sure you go. And in hindsight, I 100% could have gotten out of it and should have done that. So I don't know. You're right.

The golf guy, the golf hard-o guy, it's kind of a tough scene. I would just say to everybody, if there's one thing you ever learn from this podcast when you do these guys' trips on the golf weekends, book a later tee time. And I know what you're going to say. Oh,

well, the destination golf places, like a lot of times, those are the only open ones. Pick a different one. Then pick a different golf course. Let's go mini golfing. Cause when you do the 7am tee time thing,

depending on like when you have to get there, we had one in Denver. That's still probably one of my favorite weekends ever get there we had one in denver that's still probably one of my favorite weekends ever but we had one where guys hadn't gone to bed at all and it was it was i think it was kind of the last messy one for my group and the number of guys that just physically or mentally were incapable of getting through a golf round like it just wasn't it wasn't going to happen it just wasn't like they were in a cart they had clubs with them they they went through that experience but like every now and then you'd look over and you'd be like oh my god like imagine being with those guys right now

like look at that group because then i think they reassigned they were like who did what last night and who went out with who and who didn't go to bed like okay you four guys are on your own cart you are you you two are you're your own foursome here are your two carts just don't kill anybody and then guys would be like checking in on him and then coming back yeah right they'd be like did you hear what to be like are they even playing anymore they're like dude i was behind him for a little while like you have to go over and watch what they're doing because they're trying to fight through it and then we ended up uh in boulder for lunch that day and it's it's still one of my favorite days i've ever had because it was just that much funnier and then

guys actually recovered somehow uh but that morning but yeah like that's the lesson and i think at that point too like we were still like mid 30s so but i remember there were early tea time and a guy being like who did this again who set up this trip and be like oh a golf guy set up this trip we're like dude it isn't even a convenient course like this course is like an hour out of town this is ridiculous because that's why we started in Denver, had to drive all the way out to this course and then come back into Boulder. And anyway, all right.

I liked it. The Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie guys hit each other and set the tone. I know the New York city guys didn't like it, but I got to admit, like if I had anything throughout this story, those guys were real tempo, tempo setters. And I kind of like it. They held each other accountable.

I respect it. We're going to hit each other immediately. I mean, it was nine in the morning. Everyone was just shocked. My little brother was there. He was like, what the fuck was that? He's like, he's like 20. I'm like, Hey, you don't, you don't have to stay here. My brother, I met his, uh, his girlfriend, the, uh, the Russian in her thirties. She said a couple, I rode all the way up to Philadelphia airport where they dropped me off. I think I said two words to her. I mean, I said words to her. She just answered in like one or two.

Way prettier than the picture. And that's really all I have to say about that. My dad was like, so did you talk to him about it? I was like, nah, I got nervous. So we'll see her at the wedding. Okay. So that's, yeah, I was going to ask about that. So she's coming to the wedding.

He seemed a little disappointed he was just like so what'd you say to him i was like i said uh god like yeah have you talked to our parents let him be happy to our parents yet and he was like yeah i don't know i was like okay all right well uh you want another beer or something it was uh it was fine she was way prettier than that one picture that i i saw so that was cool when you meet her though you're supposed to say that you're into mining all right here we go life advice life advice rr at gmail.com all right uh greetings from an nba city i've been an nba fan my whole life i I loved MJ like every other kid of my generation,

but otherwise I've enjoyed rooting for my team more than any specific player, but I tend to follow the whole league. Okay. My wife and I have two boys, ages four and almost two. My wife's first job out of college was with the newly formed Oklahoma City Thunder. Sorry, Seattle, we've since moved. We found ourselves doing player introductions before Little Tikes basketball games in our own home. We give family members nicknames after NBA players. I call them to tell them who won MVP

and he responded by telling me he remembered Embiid's jersey number. Again, he's four. Alright, so this is cool. Our problem is his favorite player is Ja Morant. He's been to multiple Grizzlies games when they come to our hometown getting there early to watch Ja warm up and staying past

his bedtime to get in a few more minutes his grandparents got him a jersey for Christmas his favorite number is 12 and he points out it's Ja's number every chance he gets think the clock in the oven or microwave so anytime he sees 12 he says Ja that's pretty cool he's nicknamed himself Jetpack Ja

when he rides a scooter. What do we do? In all honesty, I would love the guidance. I'm happy to buy a couple more jerseys of other players to divert his attention. But to be honest, I really wish I could go back and take back all this time I spent encouraging him to root for Ja, who then evolved into his favorite player. We've even spent time rationalizing some of his behavior earlier this year, telling ourselves he would change. Today's event is a bridge too far. It's an incredibly disappointing blow to our family, who has already been actively discouraging

job references in our home for the past two months. As a fan for three decades, it's my lowest point of NBA fandom. I know Charles Barkley famously said he's not here to be a role model. I don't need him to be a saint, but here we are hitching our proverbial wagon to a 23 year old idiot. Thanks for the advice. I'm sure you have a chance to talk ad nauseum about jaw, but the pairing angle is one that hurts me the most. Thanks. All right. The Charles Barkley

thing was a marketing thing. So, and it worked perfectly and you know, whatever, like you're a kid, you're not even thinking about that kind of stuff he was my favorite athlete ever i think i bought deodorant when i didn't even need it because of charles barkley right so the marketing thing worked i love him as a player i think you're being i don't know i'm not a parent here my initial reaction is i think you're being a little too emotional about it yeah um but i can also understand you saying hey go fuck yourself i don't want my kid to have jaw be his favorite player it really comes down to like what you think of jaw yes i think he's um you know you're questioning the intelligence level here when you're like what are you doing uh we could get

into a massive debate about intent optics i've seen it all i've read it all i mean i think it comes down to a a young i don't know i I should say kid, because you're faced with the franchise, so you're kind of held to a different standard. There's just a lot of stuff that's baked into this that I agree with some of it and disagree strongly with other parts of it. Like I saw something where it was like, oh, Nike's still promoting Ja,

but dropped Kyrie immediately. It's like, okay, well, all depending on what you think of the Kyrie endgame for him, I would ask anyone that brings up that argument as if you made a good point, because you didn't. Do you think the Kyrie run the last year plus as a partner with that guy? I think that was a good time for Nike or anyone else. You think it was all awesome up until the day he tweeted out promoting an anti-semitic movie do you think do you think everything was awesome on thursday and then friday it's like hey let's just torch this whole relationship i would suggest with information that i'm not going to share that

that relationship wasn't exactly like it was becoming more and more strained all the time so it's not it's not the same thing um you could also argue selfishly that Nike is looking at it as we put all of this money into a guy and we're giving him the rare signature shoe that we don't like. Let's kind of see how this goes. Because at this point, this is my opinion. I think Jha is only guilty, at least what we know, he's only guilty of not getting it to a really like absurd level. And if that's something specific to this email or who's like, I don't want my kid to have that be his favorite player. That's fine.

That's, that's totally fine. He's also for, you could probably just show him highlights of Anthony Edwards and buy a different Jersey. And he'd probably like Anthony Edwards as much as he'd like jaw in a week. All right. He's,

I don't think he's going to ask you to sit down with you and the mom and be like, why are you guys pushing this Anthony Edwards stuff on me? You get him a New Jersey and you show him dunking, and I think it could be fixed like that. I think there's some parents a lot that would agree with you. Michael Wilbon would agree with you. I, maybe as the non-parent,'m not the right person to ask here i already know where sir rudy's going with this so this isn't going to make the emailers day either i can just tell because we know each other so well uh there's like i think this is pretty fixable i mean shit dude like guys have imaginary friends at this age. He's four.

You'll get through this. Yeah, I don't give a shit. I mean, I know that I'm not a parent. I know that I'm not a parent, but I mean, what is this? I know it's four, but are you going to do this with music when he's 12? Are you going to be like, it's no hip hop for you.

You'll be the only kid on the bus who doesn't know any hip hop. Like, is that what it's going to be like? And also like, why can't you just be like, yeah, this is my favorite player and he can has a favorite player, but you don't have to support it.

Like, like you, like you said, like you could just be like, well, daddy really likes Anthony Edwards now and just talk, you know, you don't have to be like,

you shouldn't like this guy or whatever, but like just, you could steer him in a different direction in your own way. But let him have a favorite player. It's part of what he likes. It's not necessarily going to be part of his personality. I didn't try to be Tom Brady when I was a fucking little kid. I just liked him.

What's going on here is the emailer does not want his kid to have Jaws as his favorite player. Right? Well, that might take care of itself if it gets suspended for a big chunk of next year i mean you're just not going to see the guy but at the end of the day i don't you know just because jaw's doing what he's doing i don't think you're what do you say he's four i just don't think that he's aware of what's going on enough to like have that actually shape his personality but that's not that's not what the emailer said the emailer is is so anti-Jaw and his actions, which I understand.

I'm not saying the emailer's wrong about that. He's like, you know what? I don't want this guy to be my kid's favorite player. I get that part of it. I don't know if I had a four-year-old and he loved Jaw, if I'd be like, all right, this is really pissing me off. We need to pick somebody else out. If the emailer here does feel that way,

I'm not going to tell him he's wrong, even if I think he's being a little dramatic about it, only because I think if you really, really care that much, you can solve it back to our initial point. So go ahead, Suri. I don't need to repeat ourselves. No, I understand. I think I wouldn't be pumped either.

It's obviously a confusing situation. I think it's a little bit more complicated if he was 10 or 11 or 12 and he has a fuller grasp on this stuff. He'll probably end up growing out of the Ja phase anyway. Here's the thing. If Ja's career doesn't go the way that we think it's going to go

because it gets derailed by all this stuff, there's a chance that your four-year-old isn't going to care about him in a couple years from now. I understand worrying about it in the present being like, yeah, this isn't a person that I want my son to be wearing. your son wearing a job or aunt jersey like tomorrow probably wouldn't be an awesome look as a parent like i get that so maybe maybe maybe you just buy him as you said anthony edwards some other stuff and just try to like get him hooked on something else and he's probably gonna double down and be like no i like jaw and that might even make things worse

but so i understand what you're saying i just don't think i just don't think ultimately this is like a long-term issue, which really is kind of like a short-term problem that he has some Ja interest now. He's got some jerseys. You'll probably be embarrassed if he talks about how Ja is his favorite player given everything that's going on. I just think he'll grow out of it eventually. Maybe you can get him on the ground floor with Wemby.

You could start this shit tonight. That's true. Yeah, that's right. Get him on the ground floor. Watch the draft with him. Yeah, I don't know. Seven or five no shoes. I think kids like perimeter players better. Yeah, that's right. Get him on the ground floor. Watch the draft with him. Yeah, I don't know. I think kids... No shoes. I think kids like perimeter players better.

Yeah, totally. Unless, you know... But, like, this line in the email is the one where I'm like, okay, like, I feel like this line lost me a little bit, but reading it again, again, here's the line.

I really wish I could go back and take back all the time I spent encouraging him to root for Ja, who then evolved into his favorite player. Like what are you gonna start beating up on yourself because you picked a really fun like jaws fun man jaw is like the epitome of this is why he has the nike deal his playing style and personality up until this point we realized like what what the fuck are you doing man uh it was the blueprint for what you would want in marketing.

Other than, you know, shoot, even being in a, I can't believe it. I didn't just swear there. Being in a smaller market like Memphis, like in a way that Memphis grittiness kind of played into the whole thing. Like this makes sense that there's so many little kids out there being like, Ja is my favorite player, right? But don't start, like, getting upset with yourself that you invested time with it. Like, you know what? I get it. I get it at that time.

And look, he sent a picture. His kid's cute as hell. He's got his Ja jersey on at Christmas. I get it, man. I love Cerruti's call. Imagine this kid just going to the mall tomorrow with it on. Yeah, what's up? I've actually thought about this before because I have a daughter in relation to steer it towards that. Musically, we listen to some questionable stuff. I probably

wanted to listen to more Taylor Swift than I would want her to listen to, I don't know, Katy Perry songs. We've been talking about making out want her to listen to, I don't know, Katy Perry songs. We've been talking about making out in Vegas with random people. I don't know. I've just thought about this in my head of like, yeah, as a parent, obviously you want to shelter your kid a little bit,

but they're still going to consume this stuff. But I think about myself. I grew up listening to, I'm sure Kyle, same thing with you, Ryan. I grew up listening to Limp Bizkit and Nas. GQ, Nick. Yeah, and GQ, exactly. I think I listening to Limp Bizkit and Nas. GQ Knit. Yeah, and GQ Knit. Exactly. And I think

I turned out alright. I didn't go down that path of life. I kind of understood the difference. I liked it as an entertainment thing, but it wasn't a lifestyle for me. It's kind of like the thing, the video games. The video games cause violence. I don't know. I played a ton of video games. I played Call of Duty my entire life, and I'm not a violent

person. I'm not saying that there is no connection to that whatsoever, but I don't think that's the reason that your kid ends up growing up to be that way. So I think you can consume questionable media and follow questionable people who are talented artists in whatever they do.

And it doesn't have to be your entire personality, your entire kid's personality. Yeah, I don't even know that he's talking about the impressionable thing. I think he just, as a father, hates the idea that his son, and everything you said there, there's a lot that you said there

that I completely agree with. I remember when one of my buddies, two daughters, and he goes, there's no weirder feeling than coming home and your two daughters are screaming, you know, Katy Perry tunes. Wop, Cardi B. Right, well, not exactly Cardi B,

but like some of the Katy Perry stuff that's like pitched is just fun. And you're like, your daughters are singing the lyrics and they're like seven and you're just like, what the fuck are we doing? Yeah. Yeah. They don't understand. He's like, thank God nobody understands. And you know, whatever, just keep it moving and imagine everything's going to kind of work out because for the most part it really does. But I think specific to this one, it's like this emailer clearly looks at jaw in a way that uh maybe you know there's gonna be a lot of people that just completely done with jaw uh i i'm just different in the way that i'm like all right this guy fucked up a couple times i mean again he's sit down like

hey i'm good to go everything's cool it was so vague i went to florida i talked to some people and i was like this is just all part of the pr bullshit he has to go do this he has to apologize for us he has to make us feel like he is sorry even though he isn't and he just said yeah is he gonna do another sit down with jalen i wonder if well jalen would do it because it's a good get but jalen got a lot of shit for that one. I'd imagine he would still do it again. Although, I imagine there's probably people with Ja this time around who'd be like, we have to do something that's considered us getting it even more and not doing it

with a former player where it's thought to be a friendly. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Brian Curtis, maybe? Yeah. Let's move on from this. Look, I get it. I'm not trying to think. Brian Curtis, maybe? All right. Yeah. Let's move on from this. Look, I get it.

I'm not trying to be dismissive of the parent part of this at all. I guess I wouldn't be this worked up about it, man. And I wouldn't start getting upset about the time you spent with this. But yeah, I get it, too. Your kid's going to be like, can I put on my job jersey and run around the front yard? Maybe today. And you're not going to want him to do that. Also to not be in Memphis too. In Memphis, he's like, hey man,

what do you want us to do? But he said he's not in Memphis. Right. Okay. Getting backhanded compliments because my girlfriend is hot. 6'3", 210, 29 years old. My pickup game is reminiscent of Jimmy Butler. Alright, dude. I know the comparison is blasphemous right now

considering we're in the middle of the NBA playoffs and everybody suddenly remembers Jimmy is really good at basketball. No, we all know that he's really good at basketball. It's just that what he did against Milwaukee was absurd. I'm a wing who doesn't really shoot threes, but gets to the basket, plays solid defense,

loves the mid-range. Guys in the local court call me Lefty Larry as a comp to Bird. Okay. Wow. Would love to see you play, man. I'm also great at banging. What?

No. He doesn't say that. Because I only mentioned that in hopes of minimizing any roasting I'd receive for a butler comp. It's too late. Too late, man. You thought Lefty Larry was going to help? All right. Here we go. Here we go. I'm in a serious long-term

relationship that is currently long distance because my girlfriend and I both got into top programs for grad school. All right. maybe this guy is awesome. Our relationship is great, and we are unbelievably happy with each other. We're able to visit each other pretty regularly because we're both done with classes and on to more research-focused portion of our PhDs. When I visit her in Connecticut, people in her program love to loudly ask questions like,

quote, how did you manage to get her? Or why are you settling for him? We're pretty sure that people think that they're complimenting her attractiveness, but these remarks are backhanded at best, and neither of us enjoys this situation. I'm pretty annoyed at the backhanded compliments. My girlfriend, bold font, hates them. at the back end of compliments. My girlfriend, bold font, hates them. How should we respond when people say stuff like this? Should we ask them to completely explain themselves

so that they know they're being insulting? Also, nobody does this when we're outside of Connecticut. Is this a Northeast thing? Oh, wow. Or is our program just filled with assholes? P.S. I'm not ugly. I attached a pic of us.

That's going to be my first question they call me Colin Farrell I'm a slightly taller DiCaprio alright so it sucks for the audience here to not be able to see the picture of our crew

but I'm looking at them uh full disclosure i don't think there's that much of a gap for people to keep saying this like she's attractive you're not a bad looking guy this is not like africa and the americans before plates started shifting here uh or i would say after they started shifting, get your plate tectonics down. We're talking Pangea here. What are we talking about? Yeah,

right. Like I got it. I don't see some massive gap. So a lot of times when people say stuff like this, like sometimes it's true, right? Sometimes it's true. In this case,

I don't think that there is this, this massive gap between the two of you. Sometimes people's true. Uh, in this case, I don't think that there is this, this massive gap between the two of you. Um, sometimes people just say stuff, right? Like they're awkward in the way that they break the ice with other people. Um, it might be a Northeast thing that I think about it, but again, cause I lived in the Northeast almost most of my life. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know that I've heard it out in LA at all. I'd also have to be with people more often

to have somebody set that up for me. I'm probably not the best case study for that one. So, Rudy, do you think that's a Northeast thing? Has anybody ever said it to you? Nobody says it to you because you're a fucking smoke show. No, I think I don't think it's a

northeast thing i don't know i mean we're definitely judgier i feel like here and more you know crotchety but i don't think that we would be more likely my only thought was like you were living on the west coast are is it just more common on the west coast that ugly dudes date hotter women i don't know maybe i'd probably i guess right i don't know. Maybe I'd probably, I guess. Right. I don't know. No, I would argue that at least like where I live, if there's a beautiful wife and you see the guy, you can kind of figure it out like pretty quick. Well, that's yeah. So the money thing, right? I guess. Well, why don't you just just play dumb? And if someone's like, hey, like, how'd you put what's going on here? Like, how'd you pull her or something? Like, what are you talking about?

What do you mean? And then just kind of make it really awkward. Yeah, counter their awkwardness with more awkwardness. I love the idea. Because that's really all this is. It's a lot of people being awkward in the beginning, not knowing what to say. And then there's these people that will kind of default to insults. And that's their way of breaking the ice.

And it can really get annoying, especially when it's the same time and it's happening over and over again. Again, I ran into this guy from back home. I don't really even like him. And yet every time I see him, he starts with an insult. And I was like, we're never really, we're friends. We never had a phase where we were friends enough that you get to keep doing this. Like from the jump, we weren't buddies and this is your only move. And it's just insult, insult, insult all the time. But that is his weird way of dealing with whatever social anxiety or insecurities that that person has.

And I didn't realize that when I was younger. When you get older, you're like, oh, a lot of the people that... Again, we used to make fun of each other all the time, right? When our, in our early twenties and then in your twenties. And I've mentioned this before, but a lot of times that was just us kind of figuring out a way, like who was getting the best of the other guy at that time. And then you start talking like normal people that way.

And everyone's like, hey, this guy sucks. Like he's an asshole. He's just putting people down all the time. So it is a put down. I understand you not liking it. I understand her not liking it because it's almost insulting her decision on this whole thing. First of all, gap wise, I don't know why people are even saying this to you. Based on this picture alone, it seems a little awkward.

It may be a weird way to like go, hey, more often than not in society, the way it works is the guy is going to be the butt of the joke. Like whenever you watch any of the sitcoms now now it always lands on like the guy's the asshole every commercial now basically is like oh the guy's the fucking idiot like you know i mean if we really wanted to get into this stuff i just notice it all the time because if it were the other way i'd be like how come all these shows keep doing this and this and this and like i'm sick of the victim stuff. And it's like, yeah, but when it's happening to guys,

nobody could ever say that even though it's actually happening. So I think that there's some, it's like short guys. It's like you could, you could, you're allowed to make fun of short guys. There's like no, Oh my God.

That bagel boss guy. Come on. That's like a hate crime. And I'm not even short. I mean, I'm five 10. So I'm not even in that bracket. But if I was like a five,

seven, five, eight guy, like I'd be like, what the, why is nobody, nobody cares. Is it like everyone?

It's just cool to make fun of me and talk about how short I am. What happened to body positivity? Yeah, bald, short, skinny, all on the table. Nobody's ever been like, hey, let's take it easy with the bald slurs. No one, because they're like, because the people with hair are like, we cannot lose those. We cannot, it's the game, it's the ender, it's the game ender. I think the last time I made fun of somebody's hair was like

Gordon Hayward's haircut. I don't know which one it was of the 12, but he had one early on and I asked him if he was going for the dumb and dumber look. And then I said, you know, after that, I was like, I'm just not going to make fun of anybody. I'm not allowed to. I'm not allowed to make fun of anybody's hair. So can I make fun of people who have fucking

stupid first names that are misspelled? Sure. I think I am allowed to do that. It's not even their fault. Yeah. Right. But I'd be like, you shouldn't say that about Dwayne Wade. I think I'm allowed to. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know what was going on there. So I get that you're annoyed by it, but I think sir rudy's move is the right move kyle i feel like we haven't given you enough bites of the apple here what do you want what do you want i've dealt with this every single time i've had a girlfriend i mean literally i'm always i'm always uh punching up so to speak in relationships uh you're a smooth operator i've always yeah i've always dealt with this so i've always been like you know you just pick a pick a quality about yourself that is good just be like hey man i'm just the funniest dude you've ever met you ever made somebody laugh before that's

what i've like i've done stuff like that i mean i told you that one girl that i did that's like a i guess she's technically a model because she gets paid to do stuff because she's pretty but like like i mean that was like it was like aggressive for then it was that was like that was aggressive i'd be in the barbershop like yo you're the white boy that's dating what's her face i'd be like i'm gonna have to get out of this chair if i say yes like what the fuck so like but like that's like the worst version of it but otherwise it's just like dude dude if you're if you're a white guy and the girlfriend is really attractive and not white that's a whole good luck pal start doing that's like a hidden level of challenges yeah see if you can find one of your buddies with a

punching bag or something i mean that shit was aggressive um but that'd be funny be like oh what got you into jujitsu well i started dating this smoking smoking hot girl uh yeah but uh i outside of that one i i had i like you know i would tread carefully when people would talk to me about that because it almost felt like like i owed them money or something but outside of that one it was felt like I owed them money or something. But outside of that one, it was like, just come up with a funny thing that makes them feel stupid for saying it. And like you said, it just makes them awkward.

But I would do something that's positive towards me. It's just like, dude, I'm just the funniest dude she's ever met. Whatever. I'm a great kisser. Yeah, there's a reason. That's the thing. There's a reason. I know ugly guys, or uglier guys, whatever. Rank them.

No, no. That consistently get good-looking women. There's various reasons for that. They're doing something right, is all I'll say. It's not like they're just some slouch who stumbled upon dating some 10. They've either put in the work, or they're funny, or... Again, there's a bunch of different reasons. There's a number of different

reasons. If you want to go down that road and ask the guy why, maybe he can really tell you. But it's not like they just lucked into dating some hot chick. Maybe there are some cases, but the vast majority, there is a reason why that guy is typically dating hotter women or consistently out-kicking his coverage.

You could actually have a lot of fun with this, based on what you just said. You could get a pre-approved list of counters from your girlfriend who, you know, it sounds like this is going to be your wife here. And you just go, like, let's go over some and just deadpan, like huge piece. And the room's going to be so weirded out. Do that Woody Harrelson. And if you deadpan, right? True Detective season one. Her sister, you know,

her sister was playing in the park and I was randomly there with my dog and she fell off the jungle bars and I saved her. One arm. One arm. No foul. No contact.

You know, just rich. Hey, I'm rich. I have a boat. Yeah. Some people may not respect the boat thing that's happened in the past. My grandfather invented Morse code. You ever heard of it? Something like that. Just something great.

Ever heard of it? Then blink in Morse code. Fuck you. So I think you have a lot of options here. You know, if we helped you understand that this is more likely some weird.

Now, look, let's also go back to the origin of email. You said you're both in these advanced PhD programs and you're 29. So you're dealing with people that are probably either your age and have since high school only been on this path. So probably aren't the greatest in conversations, probably aren't the greatest at like just some of the social stuff, maybe just haven't developed those as much because they're so good at the other things and they haven't gone through, you know, the social battles of being in your twenties post college and, and figuring out how to shave off the rough edges. There could be some social awkwardness here that I don't think is completely shocking to experience in the academic world

because, and I envy the people that knew at a very early time, this is my path and this is what I'm going to do. But thinking back to my own experience with somebody who's kind of gone down that road i wouldn't say that person was a first round draft pick for smoothness either so you could just be dealing with a very specific group to where her school is and if it's a school that i'm thinking of it makes even more sense um or these people just might be bad at talking to people and that is your invitation to fuck with them right back. If it's, if it's bothering you that much, but I hope,

I hope maybe more than anything, instead of good comebacks, we gave you better understanding of why it keeps happening. Could he, I want to homework. Could he just email us what school in Connecticut this is? I mean, I just want to know.

I'm just curious. I assume he didn't say, but UConn, Yale, hopefully it's not going to be just interested. Yeah.

But at the end of the day, like you're getting all this shit. You guys are annoyed, but you know, you're also kind of you're also kind of secretly happy though.

Like, yeah, it's yes it's annoying but you'd be worse you'd rather be dating i mean what do you yeah would you rather you know what i'd rather date a six because i'm just tired of all the the ridicule i get yeah really what they're saying is nice job in a shitty way so you know if you can get a little zinger out of it and also you know put that in your pocket like hey you just got a nice job from a stranger good for you yeah i always thought that'd be like an interesting late 90s early 2000s script where a guy's so heartbroken after being dumped by

another gorgeous girl that his whole thing is like i'm only dating unattractive people so that when i break up i don't care but i don't know where that plane would land yeah that might be one of those like could have been made in the nineties. You're right. Probably not anymore. That's like shallow. Hal can't make shallow. Hal in 2023,

but yeah, but shallow. Hal is like the same, but the opposite of the concept of it all. So yeah, this guy, I don't know. You could break up and date somebody ugly and it could stop happening.

We could try that. Right. Don't want to do that. All right. Good luck. Let us know how it goes. That is life advice. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve.

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