The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Why the NBA Season Already Has Been Shortened, Plus Finals Predictions and Harden’s Future With Sixers Forward Georges Niang

Episode Date: June 7, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on the idea of shortening the NBA season, as well as the top players already playing a shortened season (0:37). Then Ryen talks with 76ers forward Georges Niang about being on the Jazz during the NBA's COVID shutdown in March 2020, figuring out how to change his game to stay in the NBA, his experience with Joel Embiid as a teammate, the Sixers-Heat playoff series, the mechanics of defending certain star players, his experiences from Warriors training camp, Finals predictions, and more (13:46). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (49:24). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Georges Niang Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast we'll talk about a shorter season from adam silver the india commissioner and why the season's actually been very short for a lot of the best players in the league already george niang of philadelphia 76ers A little story time with him. Spent time with the Warriors. Got cut almost out of the league. Found his way through Utah and Philly. Also his thoughts on the Celtics turnaround and who he likes in the finals and life advice.

I want to start today's podcast talking about rest in the shorter NBA season. Adam Silver just days ago addressing the media as he does around this time of year every year, talked about potentially short in the season. He was asked straight up. Silver said, quote, I'm not against it. I thought he made some really good points, but he also felt like based on last season, he had said, hey, there were 10 fewer games and we didn't really feel like it was an impact. He said, quote, no impact on injuries. I've talked to teams about this. With all the information that have been flying around the last few years, I think there's been more of a push. I wouldn't say 10 years ago, maybe seven years ago. The Spurs are resting guys. Remember the Warriors resting guys on a big Saturday night game. The Heat would rest players. And it kind of felt like everybody's kind of resting players to mess with each other. And then you're starting to think,

all right, I get that each team's goals are more important than anything else, but you also don't want to be a bad business partner. And there were times where it felt like the NBA wasn't a great partner on some of those Saturday night broadcasts. So some of the Thursday night broadcasts, right? Those are your marquee lineup games Thursday and Saturday during the season when people start tuning in. And you tune it in and you're like, wait, why are these guys resting? Because it felt like rest had gained a lot of momentum as an argument. And I don't know if that's just social media. Social media is usually a terrible barometer for how everybody really feels,

but at least it felt on social media that people were very pro-rest. And of course, the players are pro-rest because guess what? If all of us could work less, we would work less. So I don't really blame them for doing that. But Silver, as he had said, he didn't feel like there was any impact. To be fair, you could counter that and say that last season was condensed, but players, it felt like,

were going down left and right during the playoffs, which feels like it's the story of every playoffs. Towards the end, it's really hard to do this, and guys go down. I've also talked to teams about this and saying, have you come up with anything?

And they say, you know, a lot of the data just feels like it's not super conclusive. So we're kind of left in this gray area of does a shortened season solve the problem? Richard Jefferson was on ESPN and NBA Today talking about this, and he went off. So I want to share some of that for you. You want to shorten the season? Like, how much more do we have to make this coddling and all of this stuff go with the players?

It makes absolutely no sense. Professional sports is not good on your body. It's supposed to separate the people that can do it from the people that can't do it. And while we do want our best product on the floor, part of greatness is longevity. That's what Michael Jordan, that's what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, that's what LeBron James, all of these guys, we talk about their greatness over a long period of time. And to be fair to Jefferson, there's more of a lead up to that. So it wasn't just old player decides to rip current generation, which we've had plenty of.

But I think he makes some really good points. And my big point about shorting the season would be this. I went back and looked at this and I didn't make it complicated. And I'll share the numbers with you here in a second. They may say there's 82 games on the schedule. The best players aren't playing 82 games. Most of them are. So in a way, the season has already been shortened by them, but there's not been any legislation passed. So if you go back and look at this,

and this is kind of crazy, and I want to do something simple because you go, who are the best players? Players who score points, right? Who are the stars? The guys that average the most points per game for the most part. I think we could all agree on that without making it more difficult, more difficult, more complicated to get to the exercise. So I just simply went to ESPN.com and said, okay, who are the top 25 leading scorers points per game in the 21-22 season? And so it doesn't include qualifying because that's not what I wanted. I wanted the players to score the most points

and then tabulate how many total games those top 25 scorers have missed. It's 567 games missed this year from your top 25 scorers in the NBA. That's an average of just under 23 missed games per player in the top 25 scorers list. I couldn't believe it. When I looked at the number, I'm like, are you...

That's crazy. That's almost 25% of the season. It's actually more. So then I go, okay, well, let's go back and look at something. So I went back and looked at 2011, and I looked at the top 25 scores. How many total games did they miss? 170 games an average of just under seven missed games per player in that top 25 list they're thinking like okay we're still that's ancient times is 11 years ago because i didn't want to

do the other season because it was shortened so here's the deal i went back just five years ago again top 25 scores points per game they missed on average 6.24 games per player in that top 25 list. So in five years, it went from six games missed to just under 23 games missed. And we're looking at the top 25 scores in this season too. I'm not suggesting guys just decided to rest for 22.7 games this season. That's not fair. Durant got hurt. Kyrie

was a slightly different issue, but it wasn't like he was just resting the whole time. Paul George got hurt. Dame got hurt. Anthony Davis got hurt. Beal ended up having surgery. A lot of these players did actually get hurt. I'm not suggesting that they missed all this time because they just wanted to take

time off, but that's a massive spike from just five years ago. The NBA season is already shorter. There's 82 games. They're just playing less. Now, to counter this, could I say, well, we're on year three of a really weird stretch here because of an interrupted season, an extended season,

a shortened season that was crammed, and then a season here that started a little bit earlier. But when I think about some of the arguments around this, I wonder how much people are really paying attention. And it's not like, again, it's not like I feel like all these injuries have been avoided. So what are we really talking about? Now, I don't know too many businesses that want to sell less of their product when their product is being paid for. And with the NBA right now, with the TV rights, we want to look at the escalation of that over the last few years. It's incredible. Good for them. If you go back to 1998 to 2002, that NBA deal was a total of $615 million. From

2002 to 2008, that deal with ESPN and TNT, once it left NBC NBC was $765 million. From 2008 to 2016, the deal averaged $930 million for television. And then that was the big ESPN deal with TNT, where in 2016, it was announced that the TV package was going to average about $2.75 billion. So they went ahead and tripled it. And people freaked. I was at ESPN at the time. A lot of people going, what the hell is John Skipper doing? And you know what? He got it right. He was right on this one. He nailed it. And of course, whenever rights fees are paid like this, people start worrying about their jobs. And there were layoffs fairly shortly after that was announced. So the new number that's being rumored is that the total deal that was about $24 billion that's going to expire here in 2025, that the new deal could be worth $75 billion in total.

Now, I don't know if that number is real or not. It's been floated out there for a while. It feels like it could be a little bit like the Scott Boris move where you just float an absurd number where you're like, you know, Bryce Harper is iconic and could be worth a billion dollars. And you're like, man, a billion. And then you get somebody for half a billion dollars and you think you got some kind of discount. And again, Harper didn't make half a billion, but you get the point. He does it all the time. People float the number, the media freaks out. And then you almost feel like you've won because you get to overpay for somebody because you didn't pay as much as the early rumored numbers. So I don't know if 75 billion is going to happen. I don't know if it's a tactic,

but we know that the TV rights are going to keep going up because until something else happens that gets a live audience that can compete with sports, I don't know when the TV rights numbers are going to go down. I'm not rooting for them to go down by the way, either. I don't like, what do I care? Uh, I hope everybody makes their money. Right. And that also means the cap is going to go up. And I don't know if we'll see a smoothing of the cap this time around opposite of what happened before where there was a cap spike I don't know the answer to these things all I do know is that live rights

even if traditional ratings go down it doesn't matter because if your live rights pie is still mostly sports it becomes that much more valuable because of so many different ways that we consume television pretty basic stuff there the other part of this is that the NBA was dealing with some rating stuff for a little while, right? I never liked looking at ratings year to year and sometimes

even in a couple year dip and thinking that you can come to some massive conclusion off of that, right? The NFL was down for a little while. People came up with a million different theories. Turns out none of those theories were impactful enough to really derail what is the NFL rating strength. And for the NBA right now, this is the most watched playoff since 2014. All signs point to the NBA doing really well with this deal. Now, why am I bringing up money in all the TV rights? Because that's the whole point of this thing. We can talk about shortening a season, which, as I pointed out here, has already happened with these players. I mean, think about this. There are 20 of 25 players in that top 25 scoring list that have missed more than 10 games. Only two players in 2017 in that top 20 scoring list

missed more than 10. So these are the best players. But until the money is screwed up, nothing happens. The money is not getting screwed up. That's why I bring up the ratings. So you can turn on your TV and miss out on your favorite guy. You can buy a ticket and your guy's not playing in that game. But when the rights fee is going up, there's no urgency to really change anything. And I think Silver wants to be protective of that relationship with the players, which is different than the Stern relationship. All right. And I think that's a credit to him. But I also think there are times too, where people are like, what is going on? But again, when the money is right and the money is right for these TV deals, I don't know that anyone's really going to care. There's something

funny in my business, right? Where they'll say, as you get more successful, you get paid more to do less. Maybe I don't want to work all summer. Maybe I don't want to do five shows a week. Maybe I don't want to do all these extra things. Although it can seem like times guys in broadcasting do as many different things as they can. But ultimately, there becomes this goal of, is there a way I can find a way to get paid more to work less? And right now, no one in sports gets paid more to do less than the NBA stars. The NBA Finals are here, and so is your chance to score big on FanDuel Sportsbook. Throughout the NBA Finals, FanDuel is giving new customers $200 in free bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Bet the money line, point spreads, player props, and so much more. Plus, you can combine your bets for an even bigger payday with the same game parlay.

All right, slight statement issue here. The player prop for Steph under 8.5 points and then moved to 7.5 points, and he scored 21 in game on the first quarter. Not just a bad pick. Hard to get that one worse. I'm aware. It was unbelievable.

I was just like, oh, he's not going to ease into it. He's going to score 21 points in the first quarter. Six of the first eight shots uncontested by Boston's defense. Not quite sure what they were doing there. Here's one that I saw that's actually pretty crazy. Jason Tatum, eight or more threes in any series game and the Celtics win the series. That's plus 2,200 as compared to something

where Steph gets 35 points in any game and then Golden State wins. Steph getting 35 or more, likely at some point here. You still would have to like Golden State, but that's only plus 165. Where if Tatum hits 8 threes and the Celtics win, that's plus 2200. The matchup for this one, Golden State still a

slight favorite now on the series, which has certainly changed from it being 0-0. That's a little bit of movement there. And Boston's favorite at home in Game 3 by 3.5. Just sign up with the promo code RyanRYEN, and if you haven't tried FanDuel, now is the perfect time to give it a shot because the only thing sweeter than watching the finals

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1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, PA, Virginia, or 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana. People probably don't know this, but George Nguyen is one of my favorite players. Just a glue guy, makes it happen. He's from Mass and we have a couple of mutual friends and he joins us now. I don't know if you'll remember this and I doubt you will. So the weirdest thing about this relationship that we don't really have is that when COVID was just about to start, I went to Salt Lake to go see the Jazz when you were with them play against the Celts. I just decided I was going to go to Park City for a couple of days. I'll stop in. I'll see the Celtics play Utah. I hadn't been to the Salt Lake Arena. It was an awesome time. And then I ended up flying

east last minute and then sat next to your buddy, Jerry, the king of Boston, on the court side seats when the Jazz were playing Boston. And he came over and said hello because I know he was your AAU guy and is a close friend of mine. And then COVID happened. So I had seen like two Jazz games right before this all happened and everything shut down. And then I remember being like everybody on the jazz just got this and we were like i did kind of the hey this is my buddy fist pump with you and i was i was like everybody was freaked out i was like now i touched george neang i don't know if i'm in trouble now so i doubt you remember any of that stuff but it was a very weird time that

right towards the end of the shutdown or the beginning of the shutdown i guess you should say is i saw the jazz twice within a week. Yeah, that was crazy. I mean, I had a bunch of family at that game. So our brief encounter probably is in the back part of my brain, but I remember it a little bit only because you were with Jerry. So shout out to the legend, Jerry on that one. But yeah, people were texting me like, am I good? Should I be all right? And I remember being in the Oklahoma City locker room like, sorry, but you're the last person I'm worried about right now. I'm worried if I'm going to have COVID or something. Yeah, it was strange. What was that like in the beginning with all the uncertainty for you? Oh, man, it was crazy. I mean, never in the history of ever would I ever imagine that

sports would be put on hold. America wouldn't have sports for a period of time. It was the suspense of thinking it was like, I mean, you put it up there with like SARS and like all this, you thought it was like, you know, you watch these movies called quarantine where people like get it and are just dropping like flies. You're like, is that what it's going to be? Because nobody had any idea.

I remember getting back to Utah and like i had a 1100 square foot apartment and and they were dropping food off outside the door and like i'd open it and they'd be like it's just it's just a weird experience and now to know where we are now it's like gosh it's really it was it was a lot it was a lot to handle all right so let's go back to better stuff here uh and that's this past season with the Sixers. And you have another year on the deal and everything. The reason I've always liked you is I just feel like you can do kind of what's asked of you.

You can do a lot of different stuff. How hard was it for you to kind of figure out what your NBA role would be? Like how you would survive in the NBA as a player? Oh, it was fucking hard, man. I came from Iowa State where I was allowed to dribble the ball as many times as I want, shoot the ball as many times as I want, play a little less defense as the game went on. And then I got into the NBA and I was there with Paul George,

Monte Ellis, Jeff Teague, where it's like I was never touching the ball. So, you know, one to find a rhythm and one to find a way that you're going to fit. I was used to dribbling seven times and posting guys up and that wasn't cutting it at this level. And I think the best thing for me was getting cut from Indiana to realize that, you know, I really had to dive into, OK, what do these guys do to get on the court? on the court. And, you know, I had a solid experience, you know, being in training camp with Steph, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson with Golden State and Draymond Green. And I literally got to watch how they, you know, prepared every day for practice and their routines. And like every day, 9.30, it was like Kevin Durant was on the court, you know, diligently working. Then after practice, it was like Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, Dreamhunter. Like they all had their set times where they were never late.

They were always had a routine and no matter if they were sick, tired, not feeling well, they always went through their routine. So when I went to the G League, you know, that's one thing that I picked up was a routine. And I'm lucky enough to end up signing with Utah where Alex Jensen, who you never know, maybe the head coach of Utah here soon. He told me, he's like, I'm going to be working with you this year. And if you want to get on the court, you see that corner over there?

We're going to work on making threes. And then don't let your guy score on you on the other end. All right, run to the corner. Let's get going. And then I just started making corner threes when guys were helping him pick and roll. And you eventually realize that if you can make threes and play a little defense and keep a guy in front of you, it gives you more opportunity to then be able to make plays or next thing you know, you have more minutes.

But making threes was the one thing that kept me in the league, to say the least. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up because you were this kind of every toolbox every tool in the toolbox type of player in college and you know i love the draft and i love watching guys and trying to figure it out and i'll i'll see just a lot of players that go hey this is kind of cool that he can do this they'll never run this play for him like he'll never they'll never ever go hey you know let george isa let him work from the elbow let him do something you know somebody somebody who's kind of

similar to is is grant will Grant Williams now playing for Boston. When I watched him at Tennessee, he initiated a lot of stuff that he did, and then he found a way to get to his NBA survival. So do you have – you still will have these moments where I'll watch and be like, oh, hey, there it is again. The play broke down, and you'll create a little and bring it into the paint and then kick out. I'm like, yeah, there it is.

Do you feel like deep down, if these guys just let me be the number two option i could do this or you or do you know that like hey corners corners cool you know there's just so many like that the college is such from college to the nba is such a big jump and like when i hear guys say like man if they just let me have the rock like like they don't understand how hard it is to be the guy on an NBA team. Like not only do you have to go score and produce on your own, but when there's double teams, you have to be able to read and make good plays for other people. If they, but if they did let me be the second option, you know,

I wouldn't be upset with that with that to say the least. Like George, we're tanking this year. You are going to have the highest usage rate of your entire career. Kate, you're coming to Philly this year. I can kind of go in a bunch of... I'm not going to go perfect timeline here. The Embiid experience, being his teammate,

what's that like? You know, it's actually... It's very interesting, to say the least. You know, Joel is someone that, you know, obviously has been pegged to be, you know, it's actually, it's very interesting to say the least, you know, Joel is someone that, you know, obviously has been pegged to be, you know, one of the best players in the NBA. But above all else, he's, he's such a normal dude that, you know, only shows that I feel like, or opens up around people that he trusts. So a lot of people just think he's like, you know, standoffish, you know, to the side, like doesn't really have. But the dude has so much personality and is so funny. So off the court, it's been great.

I mean, he's just a joy to be around. Funny, outgoing. But on the court, he's super serious about his craft. And, you know, I think the biggest thing that goes, you know, misconstrued is people don't think that he works or he looks like he's lazy or people want to say that he's out of shape, but the dude is diligently working all the time and finding ways, whether it's watching film with coaches or even his, you know, workout guy, Drew Hanlon, those guys are constantly figuring out ways of how he can maneuver around double teams or evading double teams or how to get guys open shots.

So it was a joy to play alongside someone that literally can score at all three levels from the post, the mid range, and he can make threes. So it was a lot of fun. And I'm looking forward to this coming year and hopefully redeeming ourselves going forward. How much do you think he cared about the MVP this year? I think that meant a lot to him. Well, because like Joel, like, so my dad is half African, so I understand like the African or my dad's full African. I'm half African. So I understand like the culture of like respect and what you work for,

for that respect. And, you know, obviously Joe has looked at, you know, Kobe or Michael Jordan and seen like, when you compare these guys, these are the accolades that they've won for people to respect. And I think Joe wants to be like the best big man to ever play. And one of the best players to ever play. And he realizes that, you know, you ain't getting any younger. And these are accolades that you need to have that puts you in categories because nobody's going to remember your season six years ago. They're only going to remember if you won, you know,

MVP. Yeah. I know during the playoffs, when it was officially announced, I thought it was fairly, obviously it wasn't going to win. And then it kind of turned into, Hey,

that game, he must have been impacted by this. And it became a talking point. They even brought it up on the broadcast. I thought physically I couldn't even believe he was competing the way he was. I thought he was shot during the Miami series. Yeah, I mean, you know, you break an orbital bone

and you have a torn ligament in your thumb. I think, you know, obviously we rode him pretty hard throughout the whole year to get to where we were. And, you know, I think you're seeing it with a lot of teams, you know, teams running out of gas in playoff games. I mean, I know you watched the Boston-Miami series. I mean, there were times where I was like, holy smokes,

like these teams just look exhausted. And then I think back on it, it's like these last three seasons have been combined into like two years. And it's kind of crazy to think about that with COVID and everything that happened that went on, that we've squeezed three seasons into two. This is the first offseason where it's going to be a normal offseason. So guys will be able to recoup their bodies.

But, I mean, that's not an excuse. But I think a lot of people have been worn down this playoffs. In the Miami series, I'm going to ask you this. I'm going to try to be smart about this. I've done this long enough to probably guess how your answers are going to go if I ask you a Harden question. What's the best way to be fair where you're not just going to say, well, you're not an idiot.

You're not going to say, hey, I think Harden should have done this, this, and this better. You're not going to be critical of him. But it's also, I think, fair to assume he needs to be better. He needs to be better, especially if he's going to be the two as a major piece of what the Sixers are the next few years if it all works out for him contractually. So what would be the best way to help us understand the hardened dynamic

and where he needs to be, what he needs to be for the Sixers to really be a title contender? That's actually a super good question. I think the biggest thing with James is with his hamstring last year and combining all these seasons together, he's had a lot of mileage on his body especially when he was in Houston playing all those minutes getting up and down and I think it's an adjustment right you know James is playing with centers like Clint Capella who's rolling to the rim you know not an iso center like Joel or someone that catches on the block so sometimes James would get caught up you know trying to iso and Joel's posting up. And it's what it really was is you need chemistry and practice time. And we didn't have a lot of that considering when the

trade went down. So there was a, there's a tough blend to find, all right, when are we going to have James, you know, come off and, and ISO and have the lane open with joelle out there or you know when are we going to have james be a creator and play make for other guys and with joelle on a pick and roll and different or different things like that or space the floor so uh you know it was a tough dynamic he's catching a lot of heat from you know other people and they're like he needs to be better but at the end of the day when you know he has a full summer, you know, to get his legs up under him. And then obviously we have time to practice with training camp.

I think it's going to be a lot better. I mean, people are riding off a guy that was, you know, is the top 75 player in the world. Like you can't just say he just ultimately lost it. Like there's a lot of different variables that go into that. And I think that people need to give it a little bit of time and patience. He got to us in what? Was it February, March? I really can't remember. But it's like we barely practiced during the year and we didn't have any time. He started playing games after All-Star break. It just wasn't enough time for us to gel

and grow together at the right time. You want to peak in the playoffs and we certainly didn't do that. My follow-up to that would be, all of that's fair. Look, you're in it with him every night. I just feel like there's some slippage where I wonder what it's like when you watch film and you just see there's a couple moments there where he doesn't seem like he's engaged as he needs to be, especially when we're talking about a playoff game. And I know certain guys have kind of enough juice that I don't know if it's an accountability thing, although I know Doc well enough to know that he's not afraid to challenge everybody. I wonder what those moments are like when you feel like one of your leaders is, is not as locked in as he needs to be. Right. Um, you know, that, that's a good point. And, uh, I think all of us have those moments and needless to say, it's, it's frustrating. Like, I mean, you know,

like when it comes down to a point where you turn and it feels like the wheels are falling off and, you know, and, and then something where someone is minimal effort here, there, you know, whether if it's Tyrese, Maxie, James, me, it's, it's frustrating. And I think all of us were frustrated. I think it got to a point where, you know, we were like, damn, like, is, is this really happening? Did we really just, you know, lose by 30 and then come home and then get blitzed by Miami? And that was frustrating, to say the least. I'm not going to sit here and tell you like, oh, yeah, we don't look at that.

I mean, it's frustrating as a whole. But I think at the end of the day, like, the media is going to paint it as like one person. And like I said, James has taken a lot of grief, but we've watched film as a team and seen minimal effort plays by everybody else. But the only problem is, is that the fact that everybody knows James, George Nguyen gets away with letting Jimmy Butler drive by him.

You know what I mean? So it, it really, it really gets underplayed. And the fact that James has been so good and is a superstar, it gets obviously all over everywhere. But needless to say, when you have plays like that, it's frustrating, especially as a group.

And we're going to address those from training camp to make sure that we're in the right spots where we need to be so that we can compete and take games to game sevens or close out series when we need to close out series. Okay, and take games to game sevens or close out series when we need to close out series okay let's talk about the opponent then a little bit um do you agree with me that kyle lowry should be banned from the nba oh man the dude was nursing a hamstring injury no i'm just talking about the flopping and getting every call yeah no no no i'm not i'm not talking i actually respect the hell out of what he brings to helping you win games i i would never

deny that part of it i just i've laughed about like certain players trey would be one of them too where i would be like if i played and this would keep happening i would get so mad and then when you have it with lowry who again wasn't even playing you know the full scope of the series uh I don't know it's just it would drive me so crazy so I just wanted your perspective the counterpart is like we have Joel so you know what I mean like he's good at you know falling flopping so I've seen so this is the first time I played with someone like Joel that can draw fouls and you know I mean I mean, bait guys into fouling him. And, you know, when you're up one and, you know, need a bucket and he gets someone to foul him, you're like, oh, this is pretty good to have. But I do understand you because when Kyle Lowry was in Toronto and we were in Utah and we played him like twice a year and the game would be close and he'd drive the ball hard into someone and just fall over and they'd cough out

and you'd be like, are you serious? What do the refs say? By the way, that's a better example of it because it happened in the Boston series when he drove on Smart and did the same thing too. I'm doing this just because you're playing now and I'd love to know how guys feel about it but what does the ref say when you go

you knew he was going to do that? He'll be like, you weren't in a legal guarding position. Trust me, the ref say when you go, you knew he was going to do that? Yeah. He'll be like, you weren't in legal guarding position. Trust me, the refs have plenty of language or dialogue for you that you're like, what is legal guarding? And so I'm almost baited to do what Kobe did and read the ref's handbook and start using their dialogue back at them. Because at some points points it's just like what what do you want me to do i'm standing here and i'm going to hold my ground because that's what you know that's what defenders do and if i don't hold my ground he's going to go by me or or bump into me and nudge me off and if i do he falls over so it's a a lose-lose and some of

the answers i've gotten you know know, are, you're not, he has the legal pathway and that event. It's just like, I'm out of breath. I'm trying to catch my breath. I'm trying to think about what play we're running on offense.

And at that point, I'm just like, forget it. Those guys are going to get those calls. But yes, it is frustrating to say the least. All right. He only played in two of the games against you too.

So I don't want to, people that have been listening to this podcast will be going, oh, Russell's playing the hits here he's asking about harden as a teammate and then he got a lowry dig in there so i'll keep it moving here uh you i've heard about you wanting to do this wanting to do media stuff who do you like that talks hoops i mean obviously you know uh you know obviously the jj podcast is great you Obviously, I've followed yours, but I'm not going to toot your horn here.

Bill Simmons has some good stuff. My buddy Duncan Robinson does great stuff. CJ McCollum. I'm just infatuated with getting guests on here to tell stories that I'm like, damn, I didn't even know that about them. Do you have guys that you get? I know you mean not name

names but i'm always surprised how much players pay attention to stuff but then again i realized like hey all of us kind of pay attention like that's just what we do we can pretend we don't it sounds cool to say i don't pay attention to stuff but it doesn't have you ever had a moment right do you ever have a moment where you're really bothered by the way somebody's talking about you or your team uh you know in the moment like when it happens it's more like a fuck you you know what i mean where is there an example uh i forget who it was but someone was like you know how do you expect them to win like their best player coming off the bench is like george neang like i was like damn how do you expect them to win? Their best player coming off the bench is George Niang. I was like, damn.

What the fuck? Why the fuck are you knocking me? I do my job. I come in there and I don't do more to get in other people's way. I do my job and what the team needs me to do. And you're out there like, how do you expect them to win? They have George Niang. We also have three Max guys and a young stud and,

and Tyrese Maxey. Like there's only one basketball. Like what, what more would you want me to do? But let's see it. Look, I'm already, you're bringing up old things.

I'm getting pissed off about it, but yeah, I think there's, I forgot who's forget who said it, but no, there's, people definitely pay attention on podcasts and it definitely does irk some people. But then again, like I talked to Danny Green who runs a podcast and he's like, you know, I think of it as like, they're allowed to have their own opinion. It may piss me off in the moment, but like, who's to say that's the reality? Do you think people realize you're 40% from three this many years in a row and for your career no i i don't think so because i get like i mean i i think people look at my my perception as like i don't look like i'd be an effective basketball player but the fact that was like if they were to google the numbers

the numbers don't lie so yeah i don't know what it's really weird we're so visual right we're so visual like i remember watching derrick white at the combine and i'm like this guy's a first rounder and then you watch him play and you got okay hey this guy does a lot of things really well simmons and i have have the shamit face theory that if like shamit looked like Tyrese guys would be like, you know, who can shoot is Landry. And instead he just,

I think there's a Niang body theory out there where if you were just, if you looked like Stromile Swift, people would be like, you know, we need to, we need to trade for Niang. But since you just, you get the thick hips and ass thing,

nobody wants to give you any credit, right? It's a Massachusetts thing, man. I blame the good eats down in the North end for how my body looks. No, but that's true. That is true because the Derek white thing is like,

he has intangibles, right? He's now he's making threes. He can play point guard. He can defend yeah he's big with georgia just like yeah he's he can shoot it a little bit he's thick what position is he you know doesn't look like a player but maybe he is a player no but it's funny too like even a regular season game if it's two teams that maybe don't play each other that much you'll be like oh

let's hunt this guy like you just hunted the guy because they were like, it was a white guy in the perimeter. He's actually a good defensive player. Did you not do any prep on this? They're like, no, no, switch, switch. You know who actually helped me out with that when I was in Utah was Joe Ingles. He's a solid defender.

He's been a solid defender. And he's got some size to him and fight too. Go ahead. But he's also like, pick on the white guy. You to him and fight too go ahead but but he's also like you know pick on the white guy you know what i mean but he chases around all these guys like you know guarding them he was telling me he was like if you can time it up to where you're not like a sitting duck so most guys stand back and give the guy like six feet when it's a mismatch right he was like if you can time it up to go up there and just like pester him whether it's just like throw your hands in there or just like throw off his dribble where he was like.

Then he actually has to think about, all right, now I have to make a move to get him off me, then try and go by him. And what he taught me was like, if you just like throw flailing your arms around or like trying to chase the ball, like it just throws off their timing enough. He was like, because you're slow. And if you can buy a couple seconds by throwing off their timing, you might actually get a stop. So like kind of helped me improve, but it also has hurt me when like Brad Beal's like up there six feet and I run at Brad Beal to like pressure him and he just takes off and goes by me.

So it's kind of helped me out. But Joe Angles is one that's, you know, taught me cause he's always like throwing his hands in there, slap. And he's like, Hey, you never know. You may slap the because he's always throwing his hands in there, slapping. He's like, hey, you never know. You may slap the ball or slap his arm and the ref may not call it. He's helped me. He's kind of been my mentor on the defensive end along with other things in my career.

But you do get stuck with weird mismatches. You're not, hey, I'm only defending this type of player. Granted, there's so much switching that goes on anyway. you give me an example of of like how your attack is different you know with say you know getting caught with a darius i don't know you know off the top of my head it's not like i know exactly how many times you got matched up at darius garland but that type of player where then you get stuck you know where there's not so much post play but you have to guard a lot of different body types from from when i've watched you well we'll go from we'll say cleveland because you brought up darius garland compared to like a kevin love right where darius garland is trying to bait you into

dribbling a bunch of times and getting getting to a step back three you know going left um so if i were to guard him i'd try to press up on him and force him to go left and try to finish at the rim going left. I mean, it's not like he can't, but I'm sure the percentages say his efficiency going left finishing aren't as high as if he were to have you five feet off him and shoot a step back. And it's worth more points. Whereas Kevin Love is, you know, trying to do a fall away and I'd be more apt to not let him create space and stay on his, you know, left shoulder. But there's so many different things. Like there's, how would I say it?

Like I'm trying to think of our scouting reports cause I've kind of been checked out of basketball mode for a couple of weeks here where Anthony Edwards is a heavy drive, heavy drive left guy. So, you know, you bait him into shooting, uh, a contested three,

but be prepared for his hard drive left, you know, and, and shooting a pull up. Um, who else, who else do we have? Um,

what do you do against Boston? What do you do against Boston? What are your rules against Boston? We are, I think Tatum likes, he likes pull-ups going left. So you're going to try to get into his body, force him to go right and finish at the rim. It's tough, and I think it's tough for him the way he shoots,

shooting going right. If you watch, he loves that step back going left. So we would crowd him and send him right. Jalen Brown, I think, is a heavy drive right and you don't want to let him get into a rhythm while he's shooting threes because he can get hot and that's trouble. I'm trying to think of... let him get, you know, into a rhythm while he's shooting threes, you know, cause he can get hot and, uh, and that's trouble. I'm trying to think of, uh,

yeah. So that, that's how we, I think Tatum is, you know, not let him go left Jason Tatum, you know, no strong drive rights and try to bait him into shooting or Brown shooting, uh, mid range jumpers. Do your buddies root for the Sixers at all, or they're all Celtics, I imagine? Come on. Come on, man.

You know where we come from. These guys have loyalty to me and who I'm with, but at the end of the day, they're bleeding green. But when they're around me, they don't pull that BS. Did you notice something changing as know as as the season went along for the celtics like i'd like to do a couple minutes on the celtics here because obviously playing for a championship but uh the turnaround is unlike anything i've seen from a team in basketball i can't think of anything that i can compare it to did you notice anything specific

yeah i mean you watched the first four they were 20 and 21, right? Yeah, January, they're below 500. So, I mean, you watch how everyone is complaining how Jason and Jalen couldn't play together. They, you know, they take turns isoing, going one-on-one, not passing. And if you watch them now, so it was easy to guard, right? You know, they'd start getting into iso. If I'm guarding someone close to them, I'm creeping over, creeping over. And then you have two people contest. Cause you knew, right? Like, would you say that coming out of a timeout?

Like, Hey, it's getting late. It's crunch time. You know what these guys are going to do. And it's really easy. Exactly. And you know, so, you know, you're, you're creeping over, creeping over, then they're having to make a tough contested shot over you, you know, in the last three minutes, like they'll probably make two out of what? Eight or nine of those. Right. And I mean, those are tough shots for anybody to make and if you get hot you make four and they maybe they win the game but obviously they were struggling and i think the biggest thing for them is you know ema udoka did a great job he let them play their game do that and then at one

point he was like listen you know if you guys aren't going to play with the past from what it looked from for me you guys aren't going to play with the past, from what it looked from for me, if you guys aren't going to play with the past, like, you're never going to be, you know, what you guys expect to be. And now I look at it, and I even went to a game, I think, four it was against the Heat, where these guys are getting into a lane, and if they're double-teamed, they're kicking to someone else who's driving it, then making the defense sink, and then the ball's eventually ending up back to them, and they're getting a better look,

where before they were just taking 10 seconds to dribble. And that's easy for the defense. Like nobody really has to move. Everybody on offense is out of rhythm. So these guys are really playing with the pass. If you watch closely, like it's impressive how Jalen and Jason and Marcus and all those guys are getting off the ball and letting the ball move

and eventually find the right person. Basketball and basketball, the ball is eventually going to find the right person. Like you see how the Warriors play. It always seems to find Steph as soon as he gets off it or someone gets a backdoor cut or someone overhelps. If you can get ball movement and player movement, and I think that's the biggest thing with the Celtics is they went from no player movement, no ball movement, just iso basketball with two studs to playing with each other, backdoor cutting, the ball's moving, players are moving. And ultimately, it's tough to guard. It's tough to guard Jalen and Jason one-on-one when they're not moving. Imagine when they're coming off a cut or backdooring, it's nearly impossible. moving imagine when they're coming off a cut or backdooring it's nearly impossible so credit to them they they've done a great job of really with ball movement and player movement and it wasn't always there and it's been impressive to see are you actually rooting for either team considering you got caught by the warriors and then you know you're from you're from mass but you're in the

division yeah i mean i don't i don't really have any ill will. I mean, at the end of the day, like if it's close, um, you know, obviously, you know,

I'm, I'm, I want to see a good game, but there's not one, one team that like, I care to win. Obviously it'd be cool to see Boston win considering that, uh,

you know, I'm from here, but it also is like, fuck, you know, they're in our division. And that's like, that's something that, you know, I have to live with, you know, I'm from here, but it also is like, fuck, you know, they're in our division. And that's like, that's something that,

you know, I have to live with, you know, being in Philadelphia. Yeah. I don't think you want to be advertising to Philly fans that you're like, yeah, Celtics get 18.

That'll be, that'd be cool. Uh, give me your best warriors experience story. So as you said, you'd like the stories on, on, on the other pods give

me the one because i i don't know how to ask it specific i could say hey what's it like to play with steph what's the dream on what's the thing you remember the most of that time with them um so it was it was when uh there there was the old tax facility in uh oakland so it's right above like the marriott hotel and they have three courts. So like, say here is the first court and the second court and the third court. And they always practice on the third court. Cause that's where like the film, the bird's eye view can catch him. It's my first day there. And I signed a training camp deal. So it's like me and four other guys that are like guaranteed, like 50 grand and are going to get cut and go down to the G league. And it was like already slotted. Right. So,

you know, you get there and, you know, Katie walks out and I'm shooting with another guy. I think his name was, uh, Antonius, uh,

Cleveland and we're shooting and it's me and him. We're doing like spot shots. And like, all of a sudden, like I'm at the far wall and I can see Kevin, like Kevin Durant running over to our hoop. And I'm like, what the fuck did I do? Like, did I put my shoes in the wrong place? Like in the locker room? It's like, you know, I'm, I'm thinking of all the endless possibilities.

Like, so he sprints over and he was like, uh, yo, what's up? Yo, can I get some shots up with you guys? And I was so so like fucking taken back by like what he had said because i'm like can you get some shots with us like you fucking just won finals mvp like you are you you could kick us off the fucking court if you wanted to and he literally just came in there and like we went to five and he was shooting on like first to five while we were shooting at mid range and then three. And I was like, that's the most like craziest thing ever. And it made me realize like people like give Kevin Durant like all this, you know, scrutiny.

But like he's just a normal dude, just like everybody else that people are trying to. Kevin, we want you to be the alpha. You have to act like this. But he's just a simple normal dude that loves to hoop but like catches all this grief because he you know is is a normal dude and people want him to be something that he's not but i thought that was like one of the coolest things ever i was like you fucking are asking to shoot with two guys that aren't going to be here in fucking 30 days um when i watch steph over over this career,

I don't want to sound like an idiot here and say, hey, how come more people don't do what Steph does, right? Because no one can do what Steph does. But at the same time, people could try to screen for their teammates. People could try and move and reset and play through the end of the shot clock. Why is it that this style

that is so successful, that is such has such buy-in from this group. Why is it that nobody else wants to play like that? Well, first off, um, if you look at like character of superstars, right.

Guys that are willing to look into the mirror and, you know, I mean, be like, I did that wrong or be coachable. You know, Steph, Clay, you know, Draymond, like all those guys, you know, Steph specifically, like I was talking to somebody the other day, I was like, they all buy in, they're coachable and they build good culture and they hold themselves accountable. And I think the biggest thing is if you watch Steph, if he's getting double teamed, it's almost like he makes the right play every time.

Some guys get double teamed. They're like, I've gotten double teamed four times and they're all fucking, I'm going to shoot this. Where Steph, on the other hand, will constantly the whole game, throw a pocket pass, throw a pocket pass. So you're finally like, all right, I might not double this one. And then he pops off and comes back off a handoff and makes a three.

And I think the biggest thing for him is that he's happy for his success, but also even happier for everyone else's success. Like you see him on the bench, like he's hyper, he's excited for other people's success. And I think that's important in superstars. But then you go back to like the Spurs and you look at Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, like David Robinson, like all those guys were humble and willing to change and willing to put the team first, no matter what. Accolades didn't matter.

And I think it all starts with your star players. If your star players are willing to do things that may hurt them, but help the team, then that's what you have. I don't know what your pick was or what you thought of the finals before, but you know, tell us what you thought maybe before. I don't know how much has changed after the first two games,

but where are you at now? Where do you think this goes? Um, I, after game one, I was like the Celtics in six. Um, after game two, I'm like, dang dang the Warriors were up big in both games the first game they tricked off the second game they made sure they didn't

trick off like how is this gonna look Boston has struggled at home a little bit uh now I'm kind of feeling the Warriors in seven but I'll stick with my initial gut feeling. It's still six and six. It's a lot of fun. I know you get the Big Niang podcast too. Are you going to keep that going during the offseason? You know what? I'm going to take a little break from that, but when we get back into it,

I'll make sure the season's going on. I need to grab you as a guest on there. I'd love to come on, man. Make sure you create some time for me, all right? No problem. Look, I know to grab you as a guest on there. I'd love to come on, man. Make sure you create some time for me, all right? No problem. Look, I know more about you than you probably realize going back to the BABC stuff and hearing about you over the years. So we'll catch up, man. So enjoy the offseason.

Perfect. Appreciate you for having me on. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Life advice. RRR at gmail.com.

What's going on, boys? How is everyone? I'm good. Rudy's in LA. That's right. Yeah, man. I think I'm actually seeing Kyle today for the first time ever,

which is pretty dope. Wait, why? What do you mean, why? Am I supposed to go somewhere? What's going on? Oh, I thought I was supposed to be in the office. Oh, OK.

Yeah, I'll meet you. No, no, no. You're good. OK. I thought I was supposed to be in the office. I was going to be a big trouble. No, no, Yeah, I'll meet you. I followed you all day, bro. No, no, no, you're good. You're good. Okay. Woo. I thought I was supposed to be in the office and I was going to be in big trouble. No, no, no. I'm still at home.

We'll close up shop and I'll potentially get my first Frolic Room experience. Man, you scared? But yeah, your boy is hanging out. Well, the irony here too is when I come out to LA for the first time in what, like five years?

Ryan's immediately out of plan. Ryan flies back to the East Coast. So, good times. Well, yeah. I love the part kyle got freaked out about not knowing the schedule but hell that happens to me sometimes too you know like i'll get a phone call and go wait what the good thing now is i'm never supposed to be anywhere it's just i might i'm supposed to be on call a lot but it's different now because you know whatever all right uh first one here not sure it's real we didn't run it through the google machine or not we'll just we'll just go with it yeah

because it's a good one it's it's unique not sure it's true but we uh we hope it is all right long time listener from canada quick shout out to kyle he is my guy you were the heart and soul of One Shining Pod. Oh, shucks. Yeah. How about that? Great start. You'd hate to think it was fake if the guy liked One Shining Pod that much.

31-year-old male, engaged, physical measurements, not the best, but on a journey. 6'1", currently weigh 195, bench 225, deadlift, squat. Cool. However, at the start of covid i was at my peak of 600 oh wait 600 pounds would have been a lot 263 so couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without losing my breath uh i joined my first men's basketball league uh that's great i'll tell you right now if you're 31 you're gonna be so mad if you don't like if you turn 41 and decide to start getting in great shape you're going to be really mad that you didn't do it earlier because i would

give anything to have a 31 year old body and be able to play basketball on it for a day uh and be like hey you guys want to run it but you run it back let's go all right before he gets to his current issue here, this one feels long and I'm not doing it any favors. I'm taking forever. Some context. It'll sound like boasting, but I'll keep it short. Grew up a poor immigrant. Worked hard. Got a scholarship at the University of...

Well, does he want me to say where this is? Is it going to be that hard to figure out? We'll go with it. University of Toronto. That's what we're talking. University of Toronto. I don't know. It's a big school. It's a big school. we'll go with it. University of Toronto. University of Toronto. I don't know. I mean, it's a big school. It's a big school.

So, I don't know. It's a big city. Wait until we tell the rest of the story. I don't know that it's going to be that hard to figure this out if it's real.

Went to computer science, dropped out my second semester to join a startup. Startup got bought out. I made $3.5 million at 24 years old. Friends knew all about this. Happened to be in Boston in 2015.

Went to a Bitcoin developer conference. Made the best investment decision of my life. Took a few more risks. Got very lucky. And now I'm worth about $65 million Canadian. All right. Friends don't know about this additional wealth. Well, they might now.

As I live an average life, average house, drive a Volvo, don't like to talk about my money, don't spend much of it. Beyond going to a few F1 races and a couple of family trips a year, I have a good life and I'm really content. The situation, one of my closest friends from middle school, let's call him Chris, is having money problems. His catering business took a big hit during COVID. He did a lot of silly things, amongst which he took multiple loans out against his house. I'll mention that Chris and his wife, Emma, have a, let's just say they have two kids. Oh, and number three is on the way. Over COVID, we chatted every now and then. In December 2020, during one of those calls, Chris asked to borrow

10K to make sure Christmas was still the same. That's a quote there. That Christmas was still the same. 10K, huh? Now I'm starting to wonder if that's real though. Damn it. All right. Because that's an important, I think that's a really important detail in this. I gave it to him.

We never spoke about it again. Chris had mentioned that the business was hard, but when I offered to help multiple times, he said it wasn't that bad. Then last week we met up while I was visiting our home, and Chris told me he was going to lose his house. I told him I could help out, but he just kept saying it's way beyond anything his friends could afford. Chris was making a good living, but did have a taste for nice things when COVID hit. After almost two years of little income, he is now facing bankruptcy.

Chris and I sat outside for a couple hours talking about the situation. He never gave too many details. The day after I got back from the trip, I gave his wife a call. I knew she would talk to me if Chris wasn't around. She gave me all the details and they said they needed $300,000 to keep the house. The wife also mentioned that they asked the richest person they knew, her cousin, but he could only give them a $25,000 loan. I tried to bring up the idea of me giving them money, but she said, no chance. We can't ask you to take on such a huge amount. And Chris told me that all the money you told us about the money you already gave us. Granted, 300K is a lot of money, but I can afford it. And he's my closest friend. How do I bring it up or do I just drop it? I'm not that aggressive of a guy.

Chris is much tougher and stubborn, but he always had my back growing up. I don't expect to get paid back, but this would be a gift for a friend. Appreciate if you give me your thoughts, advice, interested if you hear or have money that's come up in any of your friendships in this way. Yeah. All right. Well, look, follow the numbers. Check out your worth of a lot of money at a very young age, which is awesome. Good for you, man. A couple things. If he took 10K to make Christmas to the standard that they're used to having Christmas at, he's going to take your $300,000. Anybody that's broke and then goes, I just got to make sure that Christmas is still the same. And you said yourself, it's one thing

to take out the loans to keep the business going during COVID, right? A lot of people had a really hard time. They had to make financial decisions that they would never normally made. And for some people, it helped stem the tide. And for others, it's going to lead to all sorts of pain. And that sucks. All right. So I'm not ripping on your buddy here for making back like I don't know the full details of it. And you're trying to you're trying to keep keep the money coming in. Right. But if you say he likes nice things, then he's probably made some stupid decisions also to put himself in this situation. but that's not really for me to judge because i'm not giving the money you're here potentially want to give him the money and apparently you don't care about any of those things so it's just fine i'm not saying that you should but it sounds like it's a combination of both things he couldn't control and things that he could control but he didn't want to change his lifestyle whatsoever when every indicator said that he needed to so if you really want to give him this money, again,

you could say it's a loan, but it sounds like he just pocketed 10 grand for awesome, awesome Christmas. And you said you've never talked about it again. He's going to take your money. Maybe he doesn't realize you're this close to him and he doesn't know anything about the Bitcoin deal. You never told anybody. He may know about the software thing that you did earlier when you dropped out of school. But even then, if you make a couple mil on that buyout after taxes and everything else, to give your friend 300 grand that's clear of all that stuff is still a massive chunk of what you would have made, but clearly not as much if the Bitcoin number is real. So if your goal is that you just want to give your friend 300 grand, which is incredible, this guy's going to take it.

And I would just be that direct. If that's what you want, go ahead and do it. But I don't know, man, that's a, maybe you're going to be set for life. Obviously, anybody that would have that much money clear, you would hope, you would like their chances to be able to keep investing and be fine. Of course you would, but I don't know. I think some people would have twice as much money as that and they still would never do anything like that just for a friend. They might not even do it for a family member. But it sounds like you have a big heart and you want to do this.

So I would just be super direct because the Christmas thing alone tells me he's taking your money. Yeah. I want like an itemized receipt of that 10K though. Like what was in there? Like how many Xbox and PS5s did this guy buy? Like I don't even, I don't even know how I would spend 10K on a. What was in there? How many Xbox and PS5s did this guy buy?

I don't even know how I would spend 10K on a Christmas for kids. I mean, I guess you could if you're rich, but I was never like that in my house, so I don't know. I'd want an itemized receipt. But they're like Christmas in Hawaii people? Well, yeah, maybe there's travel. They need to keep the street going? I don't know. I'd be like, oh,

Prague is just so great this time of year and yeah because 10 000 for for like what did you get yourself man yeah you know what i mean it's like i got myself one of those date just just the 40 millimeter but uh you know it's a rolex joke uh i don't know what else is there to add to this I've never been in a position to give money some of my friends thought I was because like I work for Spotify and I work for the ringer and I was like guys I gotta tell you there's really nothing so I got nothing to say

I'm way out of my league thanks for listening to one shiny podcast buddy I hope this is real hope you're not lying about having millions and millions of dollars but if you are it works I do think it's real it's kind of it's almost too specific to not be Hope you're not lying about having millions and millions of dollars. But if you are, it works. I do think it's real. It's kind of, it's almost too specific to not be.

But, and I'm also in college, I've never been in a position to give someone a significant amount of money. I will say this. I think if I was in your spot, I would probably give him the money. But it's also, I kind of view this the same way that I view view the student loan debt crisis situation where it's like, yeah, of course, I want to help people out and give people money too. But also, can we figure out the root of the problem, which is these colleges are fucking absurd

and the tuition's insane. Your buddy's probably going to ask you for money again at some point. And this is just going to be a reoccurring situation. And if 10K wasn't the line and 300K isn't the line either, he's just... These kind of people... And it's part of... It's not being good with money and that kind of lifestyle. It's like, you keep taking and taking and taking. So this probably

isn't going to be the last time you do this. And it's probably going to be for more the next time this happens. So that's all the only thing. I think if I were you, I would try to figure out the root of the problem. And I would try to help him out, but also be like, Hey man, like we got to figure your shit out. You got to stop with the risky investing stuff. And I know, you know, it's hard to invest into someone else and like be in their finances and tell them what to do. But otherwise I just don't see an end here for you're just going to be donating money to your friend for the rest of his life. I mean, you could not tell him about all the other stuff and say that you could work out a loan for them. I mean, if that one makes you feel better, but I don't know if he's going to pay that back either, but it could maybe shield you from, because if he thinks you have 65 million on you, if that's what you're telling us, uh, you know, just, just 300 grand, get them square or is 300 grand like, okay're at zero now we're not going bankrupt yes but now

i'm now i'm still fucked and you're still i don't know does it change anyone's mind that 300k uh canadian is is 239 000 american no you're like you know what you know what it's only 239 yeah i thought it would be less american but i still i didn't think it was that bad so yeah it doesn't really change much for me yeah currency rate as of today you never know what you're gonna get on live device yeah i got 0.8 right 0.8 0.8 0.8 we need to have some yeah we need some currency guys to start coming on. Just talking, talking currency. Life advice. I'm reading that book about... Hero is 1.07

for anyone wondering. Okay, good stuff. All right. Still beating this, huh? I don't know. Do people listen to that and go... I feel like that... I think that email

is going to bum people out in a way that normally an email wouldn't bum someone out you know what i mean i think it might piss some people off to be like why are you giving this guy your money like he needs to figure his shit out that's i don't know like i get it i would i would probably if one of my buddies was in the same situation and i had the means to do it i i know i would do it and i'm not saying i'm a good person i'm just saying i know i would do it because if I can, I would. But this is going to be a long-term problem. I'm worried about it.

Yeah, that's the thing. You could love your buddy. He's your number one core dude. He's the best. But if you're like, I'm just giving you this money and it doesn't solve anything. I mean, if he keeps them in the house with the kids, another one on the way, then that is solving something. So I'm not trying to be dismissive of that, but

if you're in a position to be giving people money, which is great if you want to help your friends and family, but there's also a part of it too, where you go, am I solving anything though? Or is it just raising their lifestyle for a very like specific period of time that expires like remember when you let it be 300 grand yeah right then he's you know guys in south africa three months later hey man yeah they could about take another trip this fall yeah it's a time spent so rough feeling generous We needed this break. I think we covered it. All right, let's get back to what we do well here. Not $300,000 personal loans.

Gym nudity. I thought this was going to be straight up about old guys being nude. What else would it be about? Because I love younger guys. Well, it's a little different. A little different than what I thought it would be. Because I just, like I've said numerous times, I think there's a lot of people, I think there's a meeting, you turn 70, and 70 and they go whatever you do never cover your stuff up just always what have like the tax on

younger guys being in shape and looking at us as old men because i know what i'm going to do if i'm at the gym at 70 and i'm going to look at some young ripped jack guy who thinks he's cool. I'm going to be like, fucking dick. And so what you do is... Yeah, right. I mean, it's just science. And so part of that is when these 70-year-olds have this meeting, they just go, never cover yourself ever. And then bare ass, sit on everything.

Yes. All the time. Yeah, but that's, I think, I don't think when Kyle and I are 70 that that's going to be a thing. I think that's a... That's, I think, a... Like, I don't think when, like, Kyle and I are 70 that that's going to be a thing. I think that's a boomer thing. Like, I don't think

that's a millennial Gen Z thing. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I think those dudes are just way more comfortable with, like, you know, even, like, looking back at, like, movies

from 20, 30 years ago or whatever, like, high school locker rooms were way different than they are now. Yeah, in middle school, I was like, wait, what am I supposed to do?

Yeah, come on. And we're just a different breed they are now. In middle school, I was like, wait, what am I supposed to do? Yeah, come on. And we're just a different breed. I think anyone 30 or over, there's no way that's happening when we're 70. I caught a guy next to me watching a little Stranger Things, did a little shoulder watching on the plane. And I watched one of the basketball scenes. What's going on there? Not great.

Yeah. Not great. I haven't watched the show. I know it's terrific. It's just I tried it a couple times. And I'm not... I need to kind of start over and give it another shot here. But I still feel like there is a massive...

It's a seven-figure deal to have the point man for all television and film to show up and be like, What are you doing with this sports scene? I saw a cut, just because I was, again, shoulder watching. The scene in Stranger Things, is this the new season? I think it is. Already?

Yeah, it's season four. I think I know what you're talking about. Right. The guy was working him in the post for a half an hour. Like, it was the same possession. Well, it was the 80s, so. No. It was the 80s so now great call great call mark jackson was watching him in the post going man this guy announces high school talent level

perimeter players wasn't so it's super great in uh indiana in the 80s all right fair totally fair okay i will say though to your point really quick though you ever you know that video that guy who's i think the movie was that one off where he was like throwing a football and he got and everyone's like this guy this is the worst football throw i've ever seen and the actor got so mad because he claimed that the camera was like two feet away yes yeah that's why he was showing with this like weird motion and you're like no dude there's no way i would go if i was remotely an athlete it's a terrible excuse There's no way I would be on camera throwing a football like that. I'm sorry. Yeah, that guy got really mad because it was one of the worst throws of a ball we've ever seen.

Oh, yeah. It wasn't like an insurance thing or something or check your credit or whatever, one of those deals? No, I think it was a movie. I think it was called The Duff. Oh, okay. Wait a minute, because there was another ad where a guy went crazy about it too, I thought. So I ruined your story by combining it with everyone's story. Either way, too many bad throws.

Too many bad throws. Okay, so here's the deal with this guy's gym. A few weeks ago, this guy's 5'9", 150, 175 bench, 15 pull-ups. All right, this is important, actually. This is important this time. A few weeks ago, I was at my gym, and a few, they look college age, started working out shirtless. So not 75 to 78 year old genitalia. College dudes taking their shirts off. It was late night and basically no one else is in the gym. So I didn't think much of it. And you're asking questions. How does this happen? He answers them. Don't worry, because I actually belonged to a gym like this when we were in college.

Iron works. Shout out. I didn't know what I was doing. Didn't lift much. However, these guys started a trend. At my last gym visit during a much busier time, there were nearly 10 guys in various stages of undress working out and periodically posing for selfies in the mirror. In my book, this is a clear D-bag move.

It's just awkward for anyone else in the gym, especially females, per my wife's perspective. Not to mention, it's a small gym, two squat racks, a couple of free benches near the dumbbells. So we're going to be sharing equipment they just use while all sweaty and shirtless. What's my move here? Why is this happening? Again, his answer. Members have 24-hour access via a key fob, so staff is often not on site to enforce the universal shirts and shoes policy do i say something directly to them do i email gym management or just let it slide and if it really bothers someone else that person can speak up alternatively next time i could dramatically rip off my shirt ask to join their workout circuit or maybe i'm overreacting this is perfectly normal

what's very what's the problem? What's the various stages of undress? Guys really only get one thing, right? Is he talking about shoes? Like, you only get one thing that you can kind of take off, and that's your shirt, if you must, right? What is various stages? There's a lot of barefoot squatting,

barefoot squatting, deadlifts and stuff. But I don't think that's what he's talking about. I think we're talking shirts off, maybe some five-inch inseam legend shorts. Okay, got it. Just a lot i think we're talking i think we're talking shirts off maybe some five inch inseam legends shorts just a lot of like a lot of last definitely when i was on a plane and i wore the legends as much as i i love the gear i was like maybe i don't need to go this i don't have to go this much thigh on a plane next to somebody so i've just literally what happened to me in my flight to la i was wearing the the Legend shorts. There was a... I don't know. They're the seven in seam, too.

They're not even the really, really short ones. There was a lot of thigh from your boy. I have skinny-ass legs, so it's not even that impressive. It's kind of weird, actually. Did you put the tray down? I did, actually. I put a sweatshirt on my lap. FDR style. I love, by the way,

really quickly quickly the idea of this group of guys just deciding like hey you guys want to work out without our shirts today this is the day we start doing that I just want to be a fly on the wall for that conversation that debate like yeah today's the day next Monday is no shirts no shirts Jim Dan okay to be honest

do I wish this was allowed sure but it isn't and I can just tell you like we can we can make this one actually really quick we won't but i'll make it quick and then we'll go longer if it's 10 college age guys taking their shirts off working out together and taking pictures of themselves in between the whole thing and sweating all over the place and other guys being like this is awesome let's also take our shirts off not one of these guys is going to listen to a fucking word you say that's fair so you could say something you know you could i'm confrontational hey guys seriously you could do that and you're right you would be right it sucks your wife sweaty bench sucks

they're not gonna listen anything you say so it's a complete waste of your time do we think these guys are like meatheads or more like your brad chad type college gym right probably not meatheads then i was leaning brad chad type it seems like they're young it seems like they're pretty young. Yeah. Based on this. You know what you could do? Yeah.

You could put on so much cologne and just ask to work in. And so it's going to suck. You're going to get there sweat on your shirt, but you're going to stink so bad. Like go something real old school, late 80s polo that's like the first the first scent that my generation was like you don't have polo do your parents hate

you what's going on um that's what i think you could do just to be like all right you guys want to sweat all over the place i'm gonna i'm gonna go junior high cologne on you hard and reek and then super set it around and just i don't know if you have that in you don't want to do it i'm just telling you like if you really want to get something done you could email the place but to confront them these guys they're not of a species yet to understand people not vibing with them. You know, I had a phase like that too. I didn't do this, but there was just a phase where you have as a guy, especially if you're a dick, where you just are like, why would anyone be upset by anything I'm doing? And then you're like, well, actually there's a lot of things you do people don't like and you're like oh what and you just you can't even process how much you suck and these guys

are in that phase yeah and i was thinking i was thinking if this is a college gym like it's probably students that are that are running it so even if you did email and try to do the nice thing like they'd still have to find a student who's like, yeah, sure. I've got no problem being, being here in the weird hours that these guys are doing this. Like, like even the, even the trying to go the right way. It's like most of the people that work in those gyms are students,

right. That are, that are doing some sort of part-time work. So I don't think it would even work if you try to do anything, but good luck. You join another gym too. You do that. But probably your best bet.

Yeah. All right. That's life advice. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Thursday. We are stacked on Thursday. We're going to have David Griffin, Pelicans GM,

and we'll talk a little finance with David Faber of CNBC who I absolutely love on television there so this is this is somebody I want to have him on for a long time and he's gonna jump on and I'm gonna ask him you know with my basic understanding of any of this stuff we'll

see what he has to say about things that are going on and I also just think he's terrific at television too so I want to talk to him about his job so please subscribe Ryan Russell podcast thanks to Kyle steve as always ringer and spotify you