The Ryen Russillo Show - Did Any NBA Move Change the Title Picture? More Jaylen-76ers Fallout With Rich Hofmann, Plus the Balogun Red Card Drama

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Ryen opens with a big-picture look at all the NBA moves this summer and how they may (or may not) have changed the championship picture. Then, he gets Philadelphia's perspective on the Jaylen Brown trade with Rich Hofmann, including how Jaylen fits alongside Maxey, Embiid's future, and whether Boston or Philly is the better team today. Next, Ceruti hops in to talk about the controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun's World Cup red card, the suspension of his one-game ban, and some of the other action from the tournament before Kyle joins for some listener-submitted Life Advice, including a sketchy relationship between a friend and a girlfriend. HAVE THE TITLE CONTENDERS CHANGED THIS SUMMER? (2:00) RICH HOFMANN (15:00) First reaction to the Jaylen Brown trade (19:50) How Jaylen fits with Maxey and Embiid (26:45) Embiid's future in Philly (38:15) What Boston should expect from Paul George (41:40) Who's better right now: Celtics or 76ers? CERUTI / WORLD CUP (42:50) Balogun's suspension suspended (49:00) Expectations vs. Belgium (52:10) What happened to Brazil? (53:25) Haaland's dominance LIFE ADVICE (57:00)

The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by Draft Kings. On today's show, I'll break down what is not an overwhelming NBA off season, but is there a move that actually makes you think differently about a team, or at least a team's title chances? We'll talk about the Sixers side of things with Rich Hoffman, who's covered the team for a really long time. On that trade, as we await the Celtics press conference. We're also going to do some soccer.

We've got Trump involved, but we have Serrudi involved, which is maybe more important than the president, trying to figure out where we're at with Team USA and the rest of the games around it. And we've got life advice. Winner go home. That's it. The Cup knockout round is now, and Draft Kings has you cover for every single match. The Draft Kings app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets,

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New Draft Kings customers, sign up with the code Ryan, Rye, and spend five bucks to get 200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code Ryan RYEN in partnership with Draft Kings. The crown is yours. We are through most of the NBA offseason and we're all waiting on LeBron. I'm not sure what the impact will be. I still think San Antonio would be the big.

biggest basketball impact. I don't know if he's interested in signing up for the Spurs culture. It's interesting because I think if it was a different team, although sometimes I wonder, you know, is the Spurs culture that or is it that they were incredibly lucky in winning the lottery? But look, I think that'd be dismissive of how well run the Spurs are. So I shouldn't go down that road. But I think a lesser team, just meaning identity and standards and all that kind of stuff, they'd probably be willing to just tell LeBron, you can do whatever you want if you want to come here because I think from a basketball standpoint, he would actually like fit a need, even if I think at some point we have to kind of lower our expectations of what he's going

to be. So look, we're all waiting on what that will be. And a little curious to see if it ends up being Cleveland, if you'll have somebody say, hey, Cleveland's clearly the favorite. And granted, this is TV, this is podcast and this is all these different things. Somebody's going to say it, saying that Cleveland's now the favor in the East. I'm just not sure that that's actually going to happen. But I'm not sure that we've had an offseason. As much as I love this, where we've had this many transactions without anyone standing out as if we're looking at that team's chance is completely different. The West is simple. The West is really simple in figuring out why there isn't another transaction out there for a team because what you have with San Antonio

OkC, the gap feels insurmountable. I probably feel worse about Denver because I'm not sure how they're going to put it all together. L.A., even with all these moves, where I like all the moves. I do not like the price paid for Walker Kessler. I think when you get into these situations where you're like, we have to do something. That's when you end up paying just way too much of a price on some stuff. So even though collectively I like what they've done, you also could sit here and say, hey, they might not be any better than a four or five seat still in the regular season. Minnesota is different. I probably feel the same, even though you could argue last year was kind of a disappointing regular season for Minnesota, but getting that first round series win against

Denver. You know, you didn't see it coming. And they end up, you know, getting blasted by San Antonio with all of their injuries. So I still think Minnesota, like all of you, hey, they're in the mix. Nobody's going to pick them against OKC or San Antonio. And even though the Lamello transaction is exactly my favor, I'm sure they're going to have a really good regular season if everybody's healthy. So whenever we look at these moves, we're kind of like in a hurry to wonder, if any of them can close any kind of gap. It's just not going to happen in the West with those other two teams. In the East, it's totally different.

I was looking at it again this morning because you've had all these moves and you add up all the teams. I think there's with the Pacers who, again, I think it's accurate to kind of feel like nobody's talking about them. But with the Pacers coming back healthy and then whatever you think of the Wizards, where if Trey Young and Anthony Davis are playing and you throw in the number one pick in DeBonza, There's a real expectation that they're not just making the playoffs that hopefully they could make some kind of noise.

That's with Washington 12 teams in the east. And with the Pacers, maybe the reason they're not being talked about, it's not like it's the return after a gap year of some 60-win monster. When they made it to the NBA finals, they were a 50-win four-seat, which during their journey through the playoffs, you're like, this doesn't really happen. And my kind of point was that if this team were to win a title,

without a clear-cut number, well, I would say a top-10 player in the NBA, even though Halliburton was entering that discussion, we had never said it before. That's always another one of my rules where, like, here's a perfect example. There are real conversations about, is Brunson better than Luca, or is losing Brunson worse for Dallas than it is losing Luca?

If you've never said it ever in multiple years, but you're saying it right now, you're probably making a mistake. And I don't even really want to get into like the Brunsson Luca thing right now, but it's just an example of the times we'll have this very short window, and it relates back to the Halliburton run in the 25 finals. If we've never said he's a top 10 player, but now we feel like we have to because they're in the NBA finals,

does that mean we're actually making a mistake? So that may lead to people overlooking Indiana and all of these different moves around them in the East. But they bring back Halliburton healthy. They add in Zubots. It's an exciting team. Like they might be the best team. in the east.

Imagine being Brooklyn right now. You're three years through your reset. The lottery doesn't go your way. You have a collection of a bunch of pieces, a million guards, and it's like, hey, guess what? It's going to be year four of this reset in a crowded east. So the other part of this that I was looking at was with the odds.

San Antonio and OKC are both plus 270 to win the NBA title as of today. Obviously, this stuff is going to change. Health, there's some other transactions probably out there, whatever. The Knicks are third at plus 850, which still feels like partly navigating the East and how incredible their run was last year. After the Knicks, Boston has the fourth best odds for an NBA championship. They're at 13 to 1. Philly's at 20 to 1.

So that tells you both front offices and Las Vegas, I think Jalen Brown is a little overrated. But if you look at the rest of the east, Detroit has four teams ahead of them in the odds. Now, the odds aren't everything, but when the over under, the wind totals come out, like, good luck navigating that. I'm wondering if, like, you're going to have 10 teams within eight games of each other on the over under projections. Like, I think it's going to be that ridiculous. Imagine being Detroit. Now, this is a completely unfair thing to say, but if I were doing Detroit local radio, maybe to crank up some July calls. you might say, like, is Detroit's window closed?

Now, that's a ridiculous thing to say because Cade might end up becoming a perennial top five player in a league. He might end up being the best point guard in the league. There's still moves to be made. I don't know what they're going to do now as the list of to-do things or options gets more limited as we navigate through July.

So it would be unfair to say, like, is Detroit's window closing? But when you think about the opportunity they had last year, being the one seed, granted being challenged by our land, The Cleveland series is really disappointing. I don't know if they would have beat New York, but in the regular season,

they seem to give New York a ton of problems with all of their defense. So it's too young of a team, and Kate is too good, even with the concerns with Duren, like he had a bad first playoff experience. It happens to some of the best players in this game. I don't think it's totally unreasonable to go,

what if Detroit just doesn't get out of the east for a bunch of years? Because right now it just feels so incredibly crowded. So if you look at the odds even first, you have eight teams in the east with 40 to one or better odds to win an NBA championship. Last year it was six, the previous two years it was only five. And even though it's Janus going to Miami, all of us, I think accurately are like, all right, he's incredible.

At worst, he's probably what, the fourth best player in the world? Maybe you want to put Luke ahead of him. I'd allow the argument. I might disagree. Maybe he hasn't been healthy enough, certainly not at the end of the year, to just be gifted the fourth best player in the league. that's basically like the worst he's ever been during this half-decade run for Janus. So Miami adds that kind of player.

And yet with the rest of the roster or the rest of the east, like, yeah, I still like New York better than them. The Pacers might be better than them. Boston, even with this Jaylen Brown tobacco, which I think just the price of what you had to pay to get rid of Paul George's probably two first round picks, you get those picks, and then you take on Paul George's contract and you're also trading Jaylen Brown. Like that's just the thing I cannot wrap my hands around. All of these teams are ahead of Miami because we still don't know.

I feel like in the past, in the past years, we've had some major transactions that made us think completely differently about a team. And that's not happening, at least in 2026. If you go back to 2020, you've got the Drew deal to Milwaukee, 21. I know you're going to laugh. but when Westbrook went to L.A., people said some ridiculous stuff in 21. In 22, you have the jazz blowing it up. Rudy goes to Minnesota. Mitchell goes to Cleveland.

In 23, that's the other Dame deal, where it's Dame and it's Drew. Dame goes to Milwaukee. You're like, are they actually the favorites with these guys? Wait a minute. How did Drew end up with Boston? With Milwaukee, you still done the deal if they knew the holiday was going to end up in Boston. That leads to a championship.

In 24, you have the Bridges deal before the draft with the Knicks and the Nets. and then you have the cat deal much later on, which is always a nice little reminder that sometimes work is done far later than this time of the year where we think all these deals have to be done. And then last off season, you have the KD deal,

which makes you look at Houston completely different. And then you have the Bain deal, and despite a really disappointing season with Orlando, you're like, that's exactly what they need, and he was terrific for them. I don't know if we have any trades, even though they're big headlines, I don't know that we have any trades

that have allowed us to react to the transaction and going, okay, now I look at this team completely differently. Yes, we look at Miami as a much better team, but if you had them fourth or fifth, I'm not going to sit here and tell you you're wrong. And here's the other thing. Free agency is dead. This is just a fact.

Here are the biggest transactions for a player going to a new team based on money. So the most money paid to a player switching teams during free agency going back to 2020. You have Gordon Hayward to the Hornets. You have Kyle Lowry in 21. In 22, it's Brunson. His was the biggest free agent deal. And even though Dallas didn't want to pay him $100 million,

it felt like, all right, that's a lot for Chaylon Brunson. Now, granted, it's worked out. He is beyond what even he thought he would be. So all of us that got that one wrong as far as the maximum impact, none of us saw that coming. But that was technically the biggest money deal done in that offseason for a player switching teams. In 23, it's Fred Van Vleet.

In 24, it's Paul George, which felt huge. Mission accomplished. The Sixers actually did it. They cleared cap space. They waited on the extension for Maxie. They signed Paul George, and they couldn't wait to get him out of there. And then last year, it was Miles Turner in that move where they waved or stretched and waved, Damian Lillard. So that's a bunch of off-seasons, which is a great reminder of those.

are the major free agent acquisitions. So if you're sitting around as a GM going like hoarding cap space, good luck. And we've been talking about that for years. Capspace, I don't even think we can call it overrated anymore because everybody knows that it's just not that valuable. So we have parity, because I'm not complaining. As much as I love this time of year, I don't want to sit here and tell you that I'm underwhelmed. I think it could just be the 2026 thing. It could just be what the East is collectively. But we haven't seen parody like this since the 1970s. Since the repeat for the Warriors in 2018, 2019 and on, that's eight different champions

in the NBA, which is supposed to be the point. Like all of this is supposed to be better. The whole point of these leagues and being a fan is feeling like you have a real chance. And maybe that's exactly what we're in because a lot of this stuff started before the second apron. These signings that I'm talking about, the lesser impact stuff in free agency. It was before, the parody was starting before the second apron, but the second apron obviously makes this a lot harder. And we've always had teams kind of with that NFL quarterback thing where you pay your quarterback more than you want to out of fear of not having one.

That's what NBA teams had always done historically. It's like, yeah, we don't think this guy's worth this. But with the way our cap rules work, if we don't sign this player at a number we don't even like, then we can't even replace him because we're over the cap anyway. But what I tell you is that we are in this stretch, at least 2026, the way I'll look back at it, is that these teams are entering like a phase of limited options that, again, I'm not complaining about it, but it just speaks to how hard this is. And why, I would say collectively like this off-season, you have teams willing to do B-minus and C-plus deals, because waiting around per perfect, as I've always said, is just pointless because you're going to be waiting a really long time.

But general manager is willing to make some of these trades. They're like, all right, I don't know that this really even moves the needle. But what else am I supposed to do? I want to get the Philadelphia perspective on this trade with Jalen Brown heading to Philadelphia. And obviously, Brad Stevens, depends on when you listen to this pod, maybe he'll already trust the media by then. Because I certainly have some thoughts. but to help us dig a little bit further into this, he's covered the Sixers for a long time.

He was at the Athletic and now the Broad Street Bulletin, it's Rich Hockman. Thanks for doing this, man. I know you're on vacation. So the off-season, whenever we get out of town, we know that there's always a moment we might have to dial up a pod.

So just real simple, first question, your reaction to this happening. Stunt. Like, actually stunned. I saw the shams. I have him on the text alerts. And, you know, I saw on my screen, the Boston Celtics,

Blockbuster have traded Jalen Brown and said, oh, that's, that's pretty interesting. But when I opened that up and saw that not only he was being traded to the Sixers, but that it was only for a couple picks, it was like one of those moments where you had to take a step back and be like, wait, that's it? Like, that's all they're giving up. It was something where I did not think that the Sixers would be in a position to be buyers of any sort in this offseason for reasons we can probably get into. But I think ultimately, after the initial

shock war off, as much as I am skeptical about the six years and Ryan, I've seen so much stuff go wrong with this franchise over the years, I think you just had to do it. Like, you know, the word no-brainer has been thrown out a bunch and maybe I wouldn't go that far, but I just think you eventually just have to do this for the talent upgrade, the durability upgrade, and the ability to get off Paul George's contract. So yeah, I mean, it definitely took me by surprise. Yeah, I wasn't surprised that it wasn't some overwhelming package coming back. I mean, you're not going to trade one of the guards, which is really the only other move. But the thing that I've had a harder time with, at least on the incoming part of it is if you were to trade Paul George, dumped the contract, I think it would take both of these picks.

Yes. Yes. So that's where you go. Okay, and then what was the other part? Like, they get Jaylon Brown, who may be overrated, okay? He may be really expensive. I'll say it one more time. I don't know why anyone cares about what he's eligible for an extension this week when he's already under contract without any team or player option for three years.

That is giving a number. You could just say, Jaylen, like, yeah, hey, we don't have to send you for like two years. So we're not going to worry about that right now. I don't know how much perspective you have on the reaction of the deal afterwards, but they have to be thrilled, even if Jaylen's expensive, that George has gone in a deal where they would have had to include major assets to even find a deal. team that would take $11 million remaining for Paul George. They have to be. They have to be absolutely thrilled. And I thought it was a weird spot for Mike Gansy and I guess Bob Myers before him hiring

Mike Gansy to come into because when you look at the Sixers, Ryan, they were just in purgatory. Like I just those Embed and George contracts, I thought, you know, if the league was going to act like, like I agree with you. I think it would have taken those two picks to get off Paul George's contract. And to me, the prudent move would have been to just wait them out. And that's not a good answer. And you know, you're obviously relying on Joel and Paul to play more games than they have in the past. And maybe you get lucky in lightning strikes for a round like it did in these past playoffs.

But obviously, that is not a great answer. So the idea of being able to dump both of those picks for Paul George. But yeah, then to get Jalen Brown, who I think ups your regular season for by so much by the sheer fact that he just plays basketball, unlike Paul George over these past seven years. Like, he just, Jalen Brown has played so much more basketball. He's been so much more available and consistent. And yeah, I thought, like, for the Sixers to dump those picks, they would have gotten what back? Like expiring contracts, maybe unwanted salary, but nowhere as good as Jalen Brown. Like nobody who both helps you in the regular season, but also is a proven postseason performer as well, like Jalen Brown.

So, yeah, I mean, I think they played this correctly where their offer was not great, right? It was these two first round picks, like you said, they didn't touch Maxie or VJ, didn't really throw anybody else in. And maybe they got fortunate. Maybe the whole league messed this up with Jalen Brown because I am surprised he went for that little. But for them to sort of stay at that price and Brad Stevens for whatever reason, whether it's, you know, whether Jaylon Brown wanted to still be on the team after all these trade rumors, whether it's the analytics. I don't, you know, from the Sixers standpoint,

they don't even have to care about that stuff. For them to stand at that offer and get him for this price when moving Paul George would have cost that anyway, it's, yeah, it seems like a great deal. It really does. Okay, basketball fit. How do you see this working?

So that's the trickier part, right? Because it's not a home run on the court. And so for a lot of the Sixers, probably over the past, I don't know, decade, but especially the past two years when Joel and PG were here. It's if we can get these guys all on the court at the same time.

And I think the conversation shifts a little bit with Jaylen Brown because history tells us that he is going to be on the court. And for the regular season, I think that's going to be a huge deal, man. Like they end up getting the 7th seed, they beat Orlando and the play in. But last year, if you look, they had a negative point

differential. They had some ugly games last year in part because they didn't have a ton of depth and joel and pg missed a lot of games so like they got hammer a bunch in the regular season and they were able to piece it together and then okay they all came back to the playoffs and that was great having jaylin brown solves what i think are the two biggest problems in the regular season and that's number one joel and b doesn't play enough basketball number two tyrese probably plays a little bit too much basketball and not only that you ask too much of him as well like like tyrese maxi it's not just that he led the league in minutes

and I'm not even trying to be the minutes police here. But getting him off the ball, he is a great off-ball three-point shooter. I know that's the case for a lot of guys over their NBA career. But if you look at him, he's pretty consistently like mid-40s, catch-and-shoot, probably like low 30s to mid-30s off the dribble. So the idea of Jalen Brown to just soak up and scale up,

or soak up the possessions and scale up like he did in Boston when he beat is hurt and also just take a little bit off Maxie's plate. That's a big deal. Now, when the three of those are together, that's a little bit more of a question, right? And I'm curious about what Jalen's mindset is coming in here because these are two high-usage guys when they play together. I think Paul George, for his warts, when he was healthy,

he was happy being the most expensive third option in the history of basketball. And I think we saw, like, in the Boston series, he played that role really well, you know, shooting threes, coming off screens, playing defense, and then once in a while, like doing some on-ball stuff. How will this work with Jalen Brown, who's not quite as clean of a fit? I don't know. I think the Sixers, it was still a worthwhile move to make.

Like, let's see how that works because this is a guy that is a proven playoff player. And, you know, positionally, it still works, you know, one, you know, sort of a three and then a five on that scale. But yeah, there are some question marks there. And I'm not going to tell you that I know it's going to be like perfect in all three to play together. Yeah, because it isn't perfect, you know, it's kind of the point in my open is if you're waiting around for all these perfect things. I mean, just pricing alone off of Paul George improvement. He plays all the time.

I'm totally with you because I think I've been really focused on like how does it work with Embed when in fact it's like, okay, well, we'll get to the MB topic here in a second. Maxi, I'm sure he's having a blast as a young player and putting up huge numbers and being considered all NBA and all that kind of stuff. And like there's some teams. When I did that top 10 thing that I did that I try to do twice. a year before the playoffs and then before the seasonal start, I'll do it again. And I was asking a bunch of different teams, like who are your top 10 players in the NBA? Maxi wasn't in the top 10, but he was mentioned enough that it was significant. And as great as he is and how hard he is to deal with, especially when he gets any kind of momentum. I do worry a little bit of like,

he's kind of going through that Twain Wade phase. He's falling down every time on these drives. and it's probably better for like the long-term preservation to go, hey, Jalen can take a lot of these shots for you. And I also was thinking about when KD went to the Warriors, which, again, this is not KD going to the Warriors, but you were thinking, okay, who was going to sacrifice shots? Steph, it was a couple. Clay kind of stayed where he was at.

And then it was Draymond's shot attempts that went down as you're trying to figure out how to incorporate like 20 shots there for KD. Jalen's not ever going to get 20 shots again. Like he's not going to get, in the fully form version of this team. Jalen can't expect 20 shots. He's got to be okay with like 16. You'd hate to see VJ get stunted here with opportunities.

But the challenging part is going to be, when Embedd is healthy and he gets that catch at the free throw line, it's still one of the most unstoppable offensive possessions that you have in the NBA. And I think there's going to be a lot of offball moments where Jalen's going to be watching that maxi Mbid thing. and maybe that's incredible that you have Jalen watching and maybe bailed you out with some sort of drive or hits a three. But it's going to be a completely different world for him in the healthiest version of Philadelphia.

And I'm not sure how he's going to handle that. Yeah. And I mean, you just look at like the geometry of the court, like the, he's going to have to problem solve more than he did in Boston. Boston, it was pretty straightforward, right? I think for all of the complaints, and I found it interesting as somebody who has been on the other side watching. Boston, but some of the Boston people talking about, you know, Tatum and Brown's fit. Like, is it, like you said, is it perfect? I actually thought it was pretty close to perfect, honestly, where you had this pristine spacing

and you had these two apex predator wings that could just hunt matchups and get to the rim and shoot threes and all that stuff. Yeah, this is, like he's going to have to figure out, you know, how to space off ball a little bit more. Like you said, Joelle at the free throw line, that's an area that Jalen Brown likes to get to. So he's going to have to figure that out probably a little bit more. I'm happy you mentioned Maxi, though, because I also think, like, the biggest reason to make this trade is to preserve Tyrese Maxi's prime, because I talked earlier about how they were in purgatory, right? Waiting out those two contracts, like, that sounds good. And, you know, it might have been the only thing that Citrus could have done if this deal didn't present itself to them.

But man, like the idea of Tyrese Maxie's age 26 through 28 seasons playing on these sort of no hope teams where he also has to like shoulder so much of the load because you have $110 million tied up and part time players. Like I didn't love that idea either. So in the back of my head, and this is something that nobody in Philly was talking about, but in back of my head I was thinking like, all right, if you're stuck with these contracts, is the unpopular thing, the best thing to see what you could get? for Maxi, like you said, a top 10, 11 player, let him play for, you know, do right by him and let him play for a real team, a team that wants to win a championship, and then

reset in three years with the picks and VJ and whatever else you could get. It's nice that Tyrese now has somebody that's more his age that can help him play a little bit, like they can ease the load on him a little bit more as well. So that's a big. My MB timeline, and I've

talked to you about this, the year, even because when I was the MVP vote, I remember calling you and like trying to talk about and I ended up voting for Embed that year. And let me figure out how to make this quick. I went from loving MB to let's say not loving him. I think the MVP year kind of messed him up with the way he went about playing basketball. There's times where I'm like, I just want you to play ball and not worry about getting fouled because he's so good at drawing foul that I think sometimes it kind of takes out the actual purpose of the possession, but I just feel like he's not playing ball

as much as he's just going like, am I going to get the free throw line and it kind of screws everybody up? And he doesn't play a lot, so there's that. But when they had that moment, I forget exactly when it was, when some people started going

kind of like anonymous source on him, like this is not the greatest hang ever, which is not to be said that Embed's the only face of a franchise that knows he can get away with stuff and we'll then go ahead and get away with that stuff. But Embed's reaction to it was more about, he couldn't believe somebody would say this.

It was never about like, hey, I need to do a better job, which is usually what people will say, even if they don't mean it. And that I thought was a little alarming. And so I kind of wonder from a personality standpoint, like Maxie was never going to say anything because he was too young. Vijay's not going to say anything. Paul George is a deferential personality. He's never going to say anything.

Brown is not that. Like Brown is somebody, and I think he's good at maybe doing it privately, maybe not so much lately on Twitch. But I wonder if there's any moment within B, if this is somebody that's going to challenge Mbide because of Brown's resume where Philadelphia was actually excited to see what that could look like as opposed to everybody just getting out of Joel's way. Yeah.

And so the good thing with M.B. For like you said, this is a different personality than he has dealt with. He has dealt with Tyrese Maxi who is just like, I mean, he's got like a curry-like quality where like, you know, he lifts everybody up, everybody's spirits. He seems like, you know, a guy that the organization is happy to build around not only the player, but the person as well, because of the work ethic. And because of how much he wants to involve his teammates, it seems like Vijay Edgecom. Look, I'm not going to put him in that bucket there yet. He's only played one year.

Seems like the intangibles on him are really good as well. This is different, right? Yeah, this is a guy who has, you know, he's done a lot. Like, his resume in the playoffs is better than Joelle. So, you know, we'll see how it. goes. I mean, it's funny, I actually think back to the Jimmy Butler time with the Sixers, and those two actually did get along pretty well. Now, they were a little bit different of personalities. Jimmy was sort of just like, it was like comical amount of like hard work and

getting on people where I think Joel sort of, he sort of vibe with that a little bit. If Jaylon Brown, from what I can tell, if it gets like a little more passive aggressive and cryptic and those type of things, then yeah, it's something that I am certainly worried about, Ryan, I think like I would assume that the Sixers talk to Embed about this and, you know, tried to get him on the same page. I'm probably over-indexing too much on those early Twitch streams that I watch, but it was notable to me that he was calling Maxie and Edgecombe and not Embed. Does that mean anything? No. M.B.

I mean, M. B might just be a guy that he's just tough to reach in the summer. But, yeah, like, Embedd, when he plays on the court, is going to be a huge part not only of the on-court product, but also the energy of this team. and how he meshes with Brown. Yeah, I'm curious to see. You mentioned, like, the flopping. Jalen Brown called him a flopper the day after game seven of the series, right? He went on his Twitch stream and was just like, great player, but I can't really deal with this stuff.

And they had some great back and forth in that game. Like, I was watching that game seven and just loving how much they were going back and forth with each other. I think the Sixers probably hope that, okay, maybe they'll let bygones be bygones. They're two competitors, they'll figure it out at this point. But yeah, like the idea that those personalities could be combustible. And if the on-court fit doesn't work, things could go wrong. Yeah, that's 100% in play, for sure.

Athletes always get over that stuff really quickly. So I wouldn't even worry about that going back and forth. And Joelle, even though it can drive me crazy, like him laughing about it at the time tells me, like, even in the game, he's not exactly taking it at all that personally. The Butler dynamic is interesting to bring it up. But I would tell you, like, I love that, Joelle. I loved that one. So I imagine it was an easier basketball teammate to get along with back then when you felt like you could rely on him.

And this is like a bigger picture thing. But in which oil's contract, it's not like there were options for him. But is there, is there a clock there? Like, do you think there's a clock there where if it's another year where he's available for 40 games and then it's an early playoff exit, which is still in play, despite the high marks across the board here? which is just another point of this entire offseason. It's so crazy. It's like, oh, my God, what a great deal. It's like, okay, they might be the four or five seats.

Okay. Yeah. Like, yeah, probably a four or five seed. Is there, we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but do you think any kind of clock is ticking on how many more years the Sixers would allow their franchise to have another and beed season that is as unfulfilling as the other ones? It's a good question, and it's sort of the same framing as PG, right?

It's like, what would it take to get off his contract? What would you get back in terms of assets? What would you be able to turn around and do to fill the center position, which, I think, as you've seen around the league, is it's getting pretty expensive at that spot right now, both in terms of picks and also salary. So you would need a backup plan as well. But, like, logically, getting off PG, I would say this relatively painlessly probably increases the odds that something could happen down the line.

You know, so, you know, we'll just sort of have to see how it plays out. Would you say, though, that like whenever I listen to podcasts and people who are neutral and just have a good sense of the entire league, like, he's still considered the worst contract of the league, right? And so, or one of them, like, if he's not number one, he's the way up there. And at a time where it's hard to move bad money, it just, it just seems like, I don't know, be cost prohibitive to move him at this point. maybe, in some ways, maybe him having a good year, like maybe him playing 55 games and having a good playoff series. Yeah, exactly, 55 games. Like, oh my God, look, I kind of hope it's in there still. And I don't know if it is. I mean, if you watch any video from six years ago of him running around, you're like, how did it look like this so quickly? You know, this looks like it should be

a 12-year gap, not a six-year gap of his movement. And I understand he's had a ton of injuries. And when you're a bigger guy, it's like tougher to keep some of that weight off. But as gifted as he is, and he truly is one of the most gifted big men I've ever seen. I think we'd all agree on that. It's just a hard thing. I think there's some Iverson parallels for different reasons, but you have this player that's such an attraction and is so decorated. And yet, you wonder, are we just being held hostage as a franchise because of somebody that is perceived a certain way when the reality is, is like, we can't, like, we're stuck. We're stuck. And eventually Philadelphia knew that they were stuck with Iverson. Yeah. So, and that's, that's the worry for sure. It's just like even, even if he wants to prop Maxie up and say, hey, we're going to run the dribble handoff.

You're going to be the guy. It does turn into just, just, he is very involved when he. he's on the court. I will say one small note of optimism because again, I think as we just... But you should. I'm not, I don't think anybody should be saying like, I'm with you here, even though I've obviously leaned into kind of some of the, like, you know, it's just a huge shoulder shrug where you go, okay, cool, like, but whatever, but go ahead, finish your thought here. No, and I'm the same way, obviously like, you're just waiting for the next injury to happen. I will say, this kind of went under the radar because they got swept by the Knicks, a Knicks team that was better than we probably even thought at the time,

considering how well they played for the rest of the postseason. And all those Knicks fans took over Xfinity Mobile Arena for Game 4. It was a pretty embarrassing look for the Sixers in their franchise. It got lost, it got swept under the rug and all of that. But after that game was over, Joel did say, and this was different. Like, I've listened to him talk for a long time. He was like, my knee feels really good. I'm surprised at how well we have managed that this year.

And he said, you know, obviously he fell apart physically in that second round series, but he said that had to do everything with the emergency appendixing. Like my knee, which has been the big thing that has held me back for the past three years at this point, you know, because he's 23, 24. He was playing the best basketball of his career. And then the comminga thing happens in the middle of the season and, you know, things have gone downhill since then. He seems more optimistic about how they've managed that throughout the past.

year. So that would be the hope that, okay, you know, appendectomy is in the rearview mirror and he's feeling better with his knee that he'll be able to do it. And I kind of wonder, like this is probably too much credit to this. I do wonder if Mike Gansy and Bob Myers looked at him and talked with him and thought, okay, you know, he does sound like he's in a better place physically than the past few years. And maybe because of that reason, we're able to to more justify pushing these chips in and making a move for Jaylon Browner. And he's also been so unlucky, man. The orbital bone, the Bell's palsy, the appendectomy.

I mean, it's just, I can one hand, I can say, hey, you've got to get lighter. You've got to Tim Duncan this. You have to figure out a way to get lighter. Your knees, your limbs, everything's going to hold up better. Any doctor would tell you that kind of stuff. And then it's like, okay, but you're also going to have three things that have nothing to do with you being in or out of shape. And it sucks. It sucks because when he's right, I do, I know it doesn't sound like this way to Sixers fans,

but when he's right, I do really enjoy him. And I originally always enjoyed his personality. And then it just kind of became, you know, tougher to justify with some of the stuff as it's developed. On the Paul George front, massive disappointment. I gave Daryl all the credit in the world for executing a plan, a plan that's almost impossible to pull off in today's free agency because either you won't have the cap space or more importantly, everybody's resigned with their current team. So the free agent market is extremely thin. I was thinking about 2019 this morning. And I'm like, you had Kauai on the move.

You had the Durant, Kyrie thing. And now it's like, hey, we got Fred Van Ville. And I like Fred. All right. But like that's the point. We had one offseason where Kyle Lowry was the biggest money signing from a guy going from one team to another, which just even looking at it this morning, I was like, oh, God, I can't believe that that was the biggest number here.

So Paul George was that. the plan was executed, they're able to use it on him, and then I swear as soon as he has expectations, it's the worst thing that can happen to him. So give me a thought on the Paul George experiment, or experience, I should say, I guess both would apply in the two years of what Boston should be looking at.

Yeah, and I think like a Boston fan might look at the playoff series and say, hey, man, like he played some great defense on Brown and Tatum. And I agree. Like, he was awesome in that series. but if you watched him for two years, like he's just on the bench a lot. And it's for a myriad of different reasons, right? He got hurt in his first preseason.

He never seen, I think he tweaked his knee in that. It was a preseason game in Atlanta a couple years ago, and he just never seemed to get right from that. And then he has the 25 game suspension. That was like, that was a tough look, man. Like they were just getting MBEED healthy. They were starting to play sort of their best regular season hoops.

past few years and then it's like oh yeah paul george he's not going to be back for another two months it's just like man that's just like it's just bad timing and there was it felt like there was a lot of bad timing it's funny the in philly there was a uh i feel like the encapsulation of the paul george era after the eagles won i think it was the nfc championship game not the super bowl he had the bright idea to drive down broad street during uh the big eagle celebration on broad street and here's paul george in this sick car and he's just like caught in the middle of all these crazy people. And it just, it felt like symbolic of a guy who just never quite fit in to this exact spot for him. And look, I think for Boston, you're probably going to miss a little bit of the

secondary creation and, you know, the primary creation that Jalen Brown did in these past few years. When Paul George is healthy, like I think as, like I said, like the most overpaid third option in history, He does a lot of helpful things. His off ball defense is still pretty sick, man, and the numbers bear it out that he was the Sixers' most impactful defensive player last year. It's just you don't want to give him the ball too much on offense at this point. Like, doesn't shoot at the rim at all anymore. Like his rim attempts have just cratered these past few years.

But the idea of Boston with all of their depth, with Mitchell Robinson now at center and with Tatum back for a full year, the idea that he could slot in and give them passable play. Like I think that that's on the table. I just worry about the main thing. History says that he's not going to really stay healthy. That's number one. And then like number two, like, yeah, what are you going to be able to get for him next offseason?

But, you know, he's still a very helpful piece, but it will be a sort of different type of impact than jailing. Yeah, the first year was so bad with Philly. I mean, the advanced stuff is it's not even who he is. it is somebody you would cut from a team. That's how bad it was. And I kept waiting for it to turn and I'm going, okay, well, I can't. Like, this is awful. And so he was much better last year, but, I mean,

we're still talking about 78 games for Philly over two years. He hasn't played over 60 games except for the 71 he played before his free agent market, which I don't know if that's coincidence or if he was just healthy or whatever, but that's one season with over 60 games since 2019. even if there's less expected of him, even if he's able to slot in, I still cannot believe they moved to $11 million in this deal. And then got back,

Chandler Brown on top of the picks going out. All right, let me end here. Who do you think is a better team right now, Boston or Philadelphia? That's funny. The people in Philly might get mad at me for this. I think the Sixers are a better playoff team. I would probably pick Boston to be a better regular season team. They just,

they're a regular season wins machine, man. And they'll just, they'll play Missoula ball. they'll shoot all these threes, they'll have Tatum back healthy. But I do think in a playoff series, and we saw this a little bit in the Six or Celtic series here, like part of the playoffs, as much as there's analytics and I trust them, and I think there's a lot of smart people talking about that. Like, sometimes you just need a guy who doesn't have big weaknesses who can get you a bucket one-on-one.

And then to trade Paul George, who is not really that guy in any sort of volume now for Jalen Brown, like I think the Sixers probably, if they can get Joelle relatively upright to the playoffs, I would pick them in a playoff series of the two right now. But in the regular season, I think Boston probably will have more wins. Broad Street Bulletin, Rich Hoffman on the Sixers. Thanks, man. No problem, man. Thanks for having me. While we have Cerruti here, we got to talk to the World Cup. So what do we make of this decision with the U.S. men's national team? I saw the Trump video. I doubt he had very much to do with it, but it wasn't like a politician wasn't going to take credit for it.

So you have that. But just take us through what's happening here, whether there's any precedent whatsoever for this. Yeah, I mean, the Trump thing, I don't even know what to believe. He just said stuff. So I don't know if, like, he actually, like, yesterday it came out that he made a call to Johnny Infantino, who's the head of FIFA, but didn't actually, like, put forward the appeal. And but of course, as soon as he gets a microphone in front of his face, is going to say that like this was my doing and you know thank you trump oh my god everyone bowed down

to it i mean i don't get worked up about it i think it's kind of funny but that's where we're at it all stems from if you didn't see it you probably have um in the bosnia match one of our best players our best striker who has been ball in this entire tournament fuller and balligan he kind of inadvertently was backing into a bosnian defender they both kind of clashed into each other and the way that he kind of got caught off balance and he puts his foot down he steps directly on the Bosnian guy's ankle. And it looked bad. Like, I'm not going to see her until you didn't look bad,

especially when you slow it down. You freeze frame, and the guy's ankle is basically bent sideways. And so nothing was basically given on the field at first. And then they go to Var, and VAR looks at it, and it's, you know, his violent potential dangerous conduct,

and he gives out a red card, and he's gone. So if you get a red card, you're out for the rest of that match. We played a man down, still won, actually scored a goal after that, too. And then he's supposed to miss the next mass.

such as the protocol. So he would miss the Belgian game, which we're taping this on a Monday. It is tonight. Is it short-footed instead of short-handed? It should be, but it's not. Yeah. Well, I'll put that into the FIFA submissions jar.

And essentially, FIFA reversed this thing and has said that, you know, because the thing is everyone thought it was mostly unfair. I think if you polled like 10 different soccer fans, even non-Americans, they would tell you, this was pretty harsh. Like this, especially because it wasn't given in a red at first and it was given a red because of var. That doesn't feel like the right use of what we're doing for var.

If he had gone in like at a tackle and a real deliberate attempt to like tackle the player and he did something like this, then sure, yeah, of course, give a red card. It's violent. We saw it last night in the England match against Mexico, which by the way was absolutely fucking insane. And one of the best games I've ever seen. England had a guy sent off because he had a tackle studs up right to the guy's basically ankle calf area. and that's a red. It's just, and it went to VAR and that's a red. It's harsh, but it's a red. This was a bad situation.

You think the cane red was justified or not red. It wasn't a, it was a penalty. Oh, I'm sorry. By the way, I meant to ask, so, again, it wasn't a cane red. The penalty on Kane that led to the penalty kick, was that justified? I hated it. I hated it. I hated it.

But, I mean, he did in the box. It's a foul. He kicks the guy's leg. It's a foul. He certainly made the most of it. I don't really, I think letter of the law. I think that letter of the law. I think if we use common sense, that shouldn't be a penalty.

But by letter of the law, technically, he fouled in the penalty area. It's a penalty. Okay. So back to the other point because I'd get a real deal with it there. So anyway, this gets overturned and everyone freaks out and balligan. And by the way, there was no appeal process because we had asked multiple people. I had talked to my guy, Paul Carr. We knew some people at U.S. soccer.

It was like, hey, is there any way to basically appeal this situation? Because there can be in other leagues in different situations. And there is no appeal process. Like, it's basically cut and dry. Like, if you get a red card, it's written in their rules. and you just have to automatically miss the next match. But there is this certain, like, weird rule. I forget what number rule it is,

but FIFA can basically go in and change something that they want to change. They did it for Ronaldo in this very tournament. Ronaldo was supposed to miss three games. He served one suspension, one game suspension before the tournament. He was supposed to miss the first two games of the World Cup. And then I think FIFA was basically like, if we really want Ronaldo not playing in the World Cup, especially in the U.S., his final one.

And they basically overturned it. nobody really heard about it because like they I don't think people really cared that much to be honest with you. There's been a couple different instances. A guy, Kai Sato who plays for Chelsea who plays for Ecuador, he had the same thing. He had a one match ban overturned. What they call it is the suspension, the one

game suspension is quote, being suspended for a year. So you're essentially on probation. So if you do something again, the red card can be reinstituted. But it's all bullshit, right? It's all dumb. And at the end of the day, is it the right call? Like, should he like should he be playing in this match against Belgrade

him, I believe he should be. I think that was way too harsh to give him a red card. Do I feel a little bit dirty about the process? Yes. Is that going to make my enjoyment of this game tonight and a potential win tonight any less? Absolutely not. I don't care. And it feels like it's a lot of Europeans who are mad at Trump, mad at the U.S.,

and we've kind of gone from this like, hey, we're a feel good story. Like, oh, we're playing well. Look at the U.S. Oh, my gosh, to look at how corrupt this is. This is classic American bullshit and they're getting away with stuff, which by the way, we aren't the only ones to get away with this. And if you want to talk about corruption, there was just a freaking World Cup in Qatar, dude. Like, there's been more corrupt things that FIFA's done.

This is not like a stand-up organization. So do I feel a little dirty? Yes. Is it going to ruin my enjoyment? No. I would hate Americans if I watch that Trump video. I would already be upset and then I would see that video and I would go, okay. But again, it wasn't like anybody who lived in another country who liked Trump all of a sudden.

Although, I don't know. The way soccer or the passion with that, it would be kind of interesting. like Mexicans for Trump that kind of like now this is now he's gone too far now he's gone too far with his record it's it's funny because he was about to say balligan and he knew he didn't know how to pronounce it nope so he catches himself all right bigger picture because i don't care about that that much uh what about today's game i mean i granted some people are going to catch this pot a little bit later but belgium we're dogs we're favorites and actually so we started almost dead even I think on draft things.

It was like minus 118 each, I want to say, right after the U.S. game when we beat Bosnia. And then since the Balagan news has happened, we've gone from, I think, 118 to 130. So even slightly more of a favorite. I think the implied odds were almost like 60%. The way we're playing with Baligan, who's one of the best strikers in the tournament right now, the U.S. is definitely a worthy favorite in the game. Belgium has like a bunch of old dudes. It's kind of like their last dance.

But the problem is like the Breino, who you love and you should love. he's an actual player midfielder. I love him because it's, the first time I watched it, was he Man City? Man City, yep. The first time I ever watched him, it just stood out.

I'm like, this is so different. Again, I'm not saying he's messy or anything like that, but it was like he controls the game in a completely, it felt like Steve Nashish, where I think I ran into the production room. I'm like, what, because it was like a Man City game on. I was prepping, so I just had it on,

which is kind of rare for me. And look, I just, I text you about him all the time because I just love the way he plays, even if I'm not quite sure why he plays the way he does. And it seems like nobody else plays like him. Because people don't see the field the way he sees the field. Like, he's just, he's a magician. And that skill of like breaking down defenses and especially because like, you know, he plays against a lot of teams that are going to just sit back and, hey, we're going to put eight guys, nine guys behind the ball,

break his down, score a goal. Like, that's where he becomes one of the most valuable players ever. So, but he's old. Romulukaku, who I'm sure you've heard of, he's their striker. He's old. And they've, they had sort of this golden generation where two World Cups ago, they finished third and they've been good,

but they haven't really had an influx of a lot of new talent. And so it's a lot of just kind of like old guys and like dudes filling in the gap. So their name power is probably bigger than the U.S. is our. But we have been playing better. I think you could argue that we are just as talent as they are. And I would argue that our manager is significantly better than theirs. So I, you know, it sucks because like,

of course, if the U.S. wins tonight, all the talk around the world is going to be how much of an injustice this is, how unfair, the U.S. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that sucks because, like, I want to just purely enjoy this and I probably won't be able to at my fullest. But I don't know. If you're, if you're a ball knower and you care about like the right process of things, or I shouldn't say the right process, but like the outcome of what that, like I don't think people believe that Balakin did anything significantly wrong deserve to be suspended in this game. And

here's the thing too. And as an American fan, if Lukaku did the exact same thing in the game before and he was supposed to miss this and it got overturned, I can tell you, you can say, oh, you're just saying that because you're just saying that because of your guy got over. I would not care. I think it's the right call. I think it's just from a sporting decision is the right way to play this. He should be playing. And I think Belgium kind of bitching about it is also like kind of lame. Like their coach is complaining. Their federation is complaining. It's like, hey, just play the game. If you think you're better than us or whatever, like you just think you're going to complain your way to a victory. And now they're talking about, oh, should they just sit out the tournament and should

like the rest of the European teams do, stand behind them and not play? And it's like, guys, what are we doing here? Like, this is, this is insanity. So I'm going to enjoy the game tonight, win, lose or draw. But this is the point where the U.S. usually loses. We haven't made it passed around 16 in a long time. And, you know, this, this is kind of the reason you hire Maricio Pachitino to be your manager to get you over the song. What happened to Brazil, other than Holland? I think there is I think there's a lot of left.

Remember the 7-1 thumping they got in Brazil when the World Cup is in Brazil in 2014. They got hammered by Germany. And they've kind of never been the same since then. They don't really develop players in the same way. Their midfield was just not as good as a normal Brazil midfield would be. It was kind of old and aging.

I thought their defense was okay. But the thing that they usually have the best things of are like wing players, like wing backs and winger. and even strikers. They had Vinnie Jr. who's excellent, but he had an okay tournament. One of their other best wingers,

Rafinia got hurt. And then beyond that, they didn't really have much in the attack. They were like a weirdly dull Brazil team. So I don't know if it's like a, hey, why is Brazil not producing the same amount of attacking talent as they always have?

If it's like a huge epidemic or it's just like, hey, this World Cup cycle, they just didn't have it. And then the other thing was, Namar was on the team and they left out one of their other kind of informed strikers.

And Namar is kind of like the old head that all the guys like, but is he any good anymore? Not really. So I did pick Brazil because I thought their defense was going to be really good, and I like their manager a lot. But even I admitted, I think, on the show, like, that was probably a long shot. Erling's approval rating right now, is there anything comparable? I mean, is it like breakout year Anthony Edwards, where I always talk about those NBA players.

It's like your peak approval rating is probably like the second or third year in the league. For this, it's different even though he's been around longer. it's like Americans first opportunity to be like who's this tall Viking looking dude who looks like he should be in movies playing the bad guy and everything. Was he an extra and diehard and all this kind of stuff? And then just

the sheer production from him here now, it is kind of fun to see him have like the cleanest approval rating you can possibly have sports, which is just it's just impossible to sustain. Although for him it'll just disappear again for a bunch of years

and people won't pay attention to him. So the drop-off globally won't be there for him the way it would be when you're living with a basketball player every night for six, seven months. Well, the thing I've heard from a lot of people is two things. One, there was like an ad before the World Cup. I think it was a Nike ad where Channing Tatum was playing like a knockoff version of him.

And like him being self-deprecating is funny. Like he is, he's kind of like, you know, you just don't see that out of him very much. And the other thing I heard from people, because he plays from Manchester City. And Manchester City are probably other than PSG, maybe the most controversial team in the world are owned by a nation state, they have a ton of money.

There's like 117 charges against them by the Premier League or the FAA for like basically, in other words, like money laundering, like fake sponsorships, all that stuff, cooking the book, yada, yada, yada, yada. So they're not a well-like team. And I've heard from a lot of fans for like, this is like the first time that I can actually root for Holland

outside of Manchester City. And it's awesome. Because like how do you want to root for him? He's an insane, as you said, Viking. I saw somebody that was like, if early Holland was born like, a thousand years ago, like you'd have seen him coming over on a ship, like, cracking dude skulls in with like a hammer.

Like this is what he would do. Like he was born to be an animal in that way. So like his likeability is that he's not tied to Manchester City anymore. He's tied to Norway, which is like a likable team and they're kind of an underdog and they're now they're going to go up against England. But if you've seen, I don't know if you've seen like him, but like the video of him scoring that first header goal, like he doesn't touch the ball a lot.

I think he had like 20 touches in the game total. And his game is like, Did you score or did you not score? More often than not, he does score. I think his record is he's had like 60 plus goals in like under 60 games for Norway. He scored like nine goals in one game alone in a qualifier. It was against some terrible team, but still, like he, in the lead up to that header goal, like he's just kind of walking around, not really exerting much.

And then as soon as he sees like a little opening, it's like bang, header, bang, and then one nothing and then basically the game's over. And then the second goal he had from the shot from outside the box was just, I mean, again, just in it. there's like very few people in the world that could actually do that. So I would say him being not being tied to Manchester City has been really cool because people are like, okay, I could fully enjoy the Holland experience. I can't wait for tonight, man. And we can catch you one of this new episode coming out of the pot. We're going to be live tonight after the game. So me, Sam, I don't know.

We're going to try to get McGee on the pop. He's actually going to be at the game. So we're going to try to do something from the stadium. But a bunch of us will be live. It's just soccer, YouTube, Twitter, all those different places you can find us. All right. Make sure you check it out. 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 can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life advice, Life Advice, R at gmail.com. We have Kyle. We have Surr. Everybody have a good fourth? Yeah, man. Definitely. Wow. Big smile. 250. Yeah, it was fun. We had a bunch of people over the house, big pool day. A lot of beverages were had, food was eating. I saw a picture of your pool, dude. Looks nice. Didn't know that was yours. Yeah, it's good. So we got a mini hoops in there as well, so that's, that's been a big hit. Awesome.

Little kids tried to dunk on it, though. It does have a water basin. That thing almost fell in the pool on somebody's head. It could have been dangerous. But, you know, we survived. What kind of a rim are we talking? Oh, it's a metal rim. It's real. It's got a real net. I wasn't going to half-ass that. Yeah. This is another great story. When I was a kid, we had like one of the hoops in my yard and you know, you put the water in it. Obviously, whatever.

It's not supposed to tip over. It was like the beginning of the season and it had been outside all winter and I guess the water evaporated. So my first thing I did, obviously, was just jump up on it, dunk. Thing came down to me, hit my temple. Got some nice stitches in the side of my head.

So I learned my lesson pretty early. To take scars, though. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Can you at your age still be roped into a pool basketball game with your boys is a drop of a hat. Yeah, absolutely.

Hell yeah, dude. Absolutely. It didn't happen yesterday, but I wanted to. I mean, I think every dude group has basically had the like full contact like pool basketball. Even if it doesn't start that way, it comes to, like immediately after somebody tries to drown someone and there's a lot of people. A lot of elbows to the noses, blood in the pool. Oh, yeah, all that stuff. 100%.

It's crazy what happens. It's a ride a pass. Yeah, it's crazy. I had a friend who had this like birthmark all over the side of his face. and I remember he worked at a door at a place that I was bartending at and one of the female bartenders who I think was engaged

she was just like your friend is so hot and all of us I don't know that we didn't think he was bad looking but it was a distracting spot all over I mean it was like covered half of his face it almost looked like CGI or you know if he had been a character in some

it's two-faced yeah movie you'd be like oh my God great makeup And I was like, what? I was like, you think he's, you know, it was, I don't know that I was arguing with her pushing back, but I just, I guess I was just so surprised. Yeah, because she was like fired up. She's like, he is so hot.

And I went, I was like, oh, oh, you know, wow, okay. I'll, you know, relay that to the dudes back at school. And then she goes, I just love guys with like stuff on their face. I knew they were out there. When I was younger, I was like, I wonder if something will happen to me or I have a sick scar one day. Do not. It was close, I bet, a few times.

Yeah, I got stuff on my legs and stuff, nothing. You know, they don't have any of those, like, weird patches where it's like you got hit in the head with something when you're 10 and hair doesn't grow. I don't have any of that stuff. So that's too bad. Look at Seal. Right. Legendary run. Dayton Supermodels.

All right. We have a few follow-ups, I think. But I think this is the only one I'm going to read today. Remember Jackhammer? Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, fellows, appreciate your advice from earlier this year. was a 100% real email. We ultimately went with Jack as a middle name. Remember, our guy's last

name was Hammer. We just call him Jack. We figured going with the middle name, he can have the choice down the road if he doesn't like it. I don't know. I don't know if you really have a choice early on, but I get your point. But then it's going to be weird of all of a sudden you've known him as Jack Hammer through high school. And then he comes back one summer. He's like, my name's Dave. Now, it's a pivot. He ended up being the 97th percentile weight, 47 percentile height, Chode. I whispered to my wife. No, this is him.

I'm not saying. I'm not that. I'm not that mean. Yeah. Right? Because remember our guy wasn't huge. He checked in at 5-9-1-45 soaking wet. So we were kind of like you get a lookout.

So 97th percentile weight, 47th percentile height, chode, I whispered to my wife in the delivery room. So Jack Hammer is actually pretty fitting. She loved that. This guy, this guy sounds great, you know, just the first thing. Who, Jackhammer? The baby?

Yeah. Baby sounds awesome. This incredible moment or whatever. Like the first thing this guy's thinking of is making fun of his baby to the wife. So they must have a good relationship. Although if you're a strong little guy, Jackhammer also weirdly fits as well. If you're like a strong, stout. kind of dude. I think Jack Hammer also works.

Yeah. When you're 97th percentile weight, like what are we talking about here? 220 in high school? That doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. Well, I don't know if it projects all the way out to high school. It's just whatever you are at that stage of life. Yeah. Yeah, but I thought there was like some gene mapping or something you could do. Yeah, I think you're right.

You can. I remember our pediatrician. I'm what, 510. My wife is 5.5 maybe. and my doctor is really short. And our first daughter, he's looking at the chart. Does that matter? No, it does. Well, you know, it does. Because he goes, he goes, oh, she's going to be tall. And I was like, what do you mean?

Like, no one in our, like, what are we talking? And he's like, oh, I got on me like five, six. I was like for, okay. Like, that's, is that tall? Like, all right, sure. I guess that's, I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know. Hmm.

That's exciting. All right. moving on um okay uh one other quick one here 6-1-170 33 years old player comp sasha vuyichich moving to west arthur this fall and my soon-to-be wife and we have no idea where to live my fiance's job will be near blueback square nice i'll be driving at grad school in fairfield next summer i start clinicals full-time should have a much shorter commute will be in the area for at least three years with like a walkable area for restaurants and things to do is we've been living in big city, Chicago, and Atlanta.

Don't think this was a life advice, but you and Steve really seem to love the Connecticut talk the other day. We sure do. I've never DMed these guys. I was going to say you're firing away. I DM and Saruti different Instagram Connecticut clips. More DMs in two days than I have the rest of the time of us knowing each other. Fair? Yeah, fair. Yep. Yeah. Maybe because I've never DM'd either of you. But I can't get enough of this harder for content. Anyway, so yeah, we did enjoy it. So any information would help as we start this new chapter. Finally, Fairfield isn't far from Danbury. So I'll have to check out the mall. We are your home for Connecticut talk.

My wife was just asking me today. She's like, are we going to Danbury this weekend? I'm like, I don't know. We just had a big weekend before. Maybe we'll just give it. Yeah, let's give it a rest out. Yeah. The celebrations. All right. Look, I've been there. It's eight years for me now, so I don't know. Sir, do you want to take the lead on this? I mean, it doesn't feel like West Hartford's...

What's the question? This guy's thinking Chicago. He wants to know where he should live. In West Hartford? Wow, this is such a niche email. I lived right on South Main Street, not in Blueback, but like close enough to basically walk there. And back then, rent was like pretty cheap considering.

And that was awesome. So if you're walking distance from the center anywhere, I think you're fine. Now, like, there's some nice new, like, sort of like luxury apartments, I think, that are in there. I don't know if those are. I can't tell you if those are worth it or not. Only you can know that, but they are, they do look decently nice and they're in a good spot. But, like, I feel like if you're in West Hartford, like, you're with a drive from anything. Like, it doesn't matter.

It's really just that downtown area and that everybody goes to. It depends on how far. Like, where I lived, I couldn't walk anywhere. I mean, I could walk on that stretch. You were in a couple of towns. Yeah. So the only reason I picked my place is because it was new or it was turnkey and I was traveling all the time.

So that's the origin of all the HOA battles. If you wanted to do, hey, I want to walk into the downtown part with Hartford, which is incredible, like depending on what you want. Like if you're a big city person, then it's not going to be enough for you. But if you love quaint, old, kind of historic feeling, New England thing, slower pace, but can get everything done in an afternoon. you like going with your wife to go sit there and have an outdoor lunch during the summer and everything. All that stuff works.

Maybe it's Fairfield, Ave, and then, is that Farmington Ave? Wait, it's Farmington Ave. Yeah, he's at Fairfield. So it's Farmington Ave. I think, like, if you go through the city and then, I don't know if it's north. I'm just kind of thinking like up. So I could be totally wrong directionally on that. But not, I wouldn't make a great cop.

There's probably some places to rent there that are a little bit older builds. and everything, but you could be out of the commotion of the town, but a very feasible walk. The main thing I would tell anybody about moving to that part of Connecticut is don't get tricked into doing anything north of that exit. Because once you get north of that exit, heading up 84, back towards Hartford, like when I lived in Hartford and commuted from Bristol and I was getting off the air at four, so I would be driving through that stuff on days that I didn't stop,

depending on, again, nobody cares about my workout routine. But you would be stuck in this absurd 84 traffic. It would take me an hour to get back to Hartford. It sucked. And then when I moved to West Hartford, it was a complete game changer because then I was home in 25 minutes. So do not do anything that takes you north of that West Hartford exit if you're going to be commuting.

It also depends on, it sounds like your wife's not going to be commuting. But that's, that'd be my number one thing to anybody. Like, you know, again, I don't know that Hartford is the dream destination. for a bunch of younger people, but if you have to live there and you're doing that commute, it's going to be brutal. And you get so frustrated

because then all the traffic disperses because it's only based on the design of the highways, not because there's so many people there. All right. I think we covered it. Let's see. God, there's so many Danbury questions in here.

You get a boom and tours and thanks to Kyle. I know. This one's a little longer, but I think it's important. 29 years old, 6-1, 200 pounds. He says, omit the parentheses. Okay, no problem.

I've been mostly a runner the last few years completing two ultras last fall. All right. Used to be able to clean 315, but couldn't touch that now and I'm working on building my weight training back up. All right, you've got a guy who's locked in. My girlfriend and I have been together for six months.

Great timing with me leaving the country for a period of time. Okay, so he has to leave the country for work. after starting to date. I love my girlfriend, and we have moved things pretty fast, have discussed what a potential future may look like with one another once I return home.

All of our goals and dreams for what we want are extremely aligned. Here's the dilemma. She's told me that she's been spending a lot of time with one of our other mutual friends from work. Let's call him George. Usually they're together in a group doing some sort of outdoor activity. Until recently, she told me her and George went camping together alone.

So you were dating her? and she went camping with George while and she you found out after the camping trip anyway doesn't align with my values I'll tell you that yeah my vision is we go on trips with other people without telling each other until after I don't think I didn't think anything of it because I trust my girlfriend and consider George a friend as well that was until she told me that they had a conversation where they revealed they had feelings for each other during the camping trip she said they finished the conversation with a masking about me and coming to a resolution to just remain friends and said nothing else happened between them on the camping trip.

Naturally, I did not react well to this and told her I wanted her to stop hanging out with George and could not believe my girlfriend and friend had both betrayed my trust. She said that it meant nothing and they were just friends. I remained pretty beat up about it for the days following. The next conversation we had, I essentially laid out an ultimatum for her, me or him. She initially fought me on this saying that she values George as a friend and would like to consider or continue their outdoor activities together while I'm gone. She also added, that her and George have tickets to a concert for just the two of them later this summer. What's going on.

And we'll be seeing him a lot since they'll be working together and share common friends. I would have been more receptive to this if George was a friend. She had known forever that she didn't want to lose, but she's known him for the same period of time as me. I told her there's nothing I can do to stop them from being together in a group setting, but absolutely do not want them to hang out one-on-one, which she seemed to understand and acknowledge. They're going on a camping trip soon with a group of friends.

I know that it is going to upset me that they are together. I need advice from the triumvirate, how to proceed. And if I am being fair in my actions with the situation, am I to believe that nothing else happened between my girlfriend and George? Did I go too far and giving an ultimatum and telling her I don't want to see him? I don't want her to see him anymore. I want to stay together with her and make sure she's able to enjoy her time at home while I'm away. But how do I move forward with this is I won't be back in the country until next year?

That sucks, man. anybody want to go first? It took me forever to read not really I'm going to be honest Yeah Yeah I mean I think I'd go go on a trip as a single man maybe I don't know not really sure

It's tough because he's just when you're thinking about George I know that move You're walking through You know Verdun You're like yeah Look at me Solo on a lake

rented a boat Like okay what about George back home. Doesn't work. Well, he's going for a reason, right? It's probably a work trip. Like, you know, gratiate yourself with the folk there. I don't know. I mean, the problem here is that... He's going for work, yes. Yeah. Yeah. But the problem is they have

this own little thing that you're never going to be a part of, which is work. And it's not like she just sees them at happy hours. They're also going places and sleeping in the same place together without you there. It's like, like, if you can't stop this thing from happening, I don't think that maybe it's, maybe she thought she was helping by like giving you all this information up front. this is something maybe I'd almost prefer she didn't tell me about if I'm in this

situation. Like, yeah, we both decided we kind of like each other, but we figured it'd be better for you, if we didn't do anything about it. Like, I almost feel like it's a lie to me at that point. I don't know. So I don't think I'd rather be lied to at this point. Yeah, you're totally right. I think you know if they went on a solo

or duo camping trip without you, that that conversation probably happened. Like, you know, so she could tell you outright or you could just, pretend like it didn't happen, but that conversation happened no matter what they told you. Like,

do you believe her that nothing happened? Do you believe her that they're just going to like go their separate ways and everything's going to be fine? Like, I personally wouldn't. And I think your thing. Until they end up in the same place. And they have this little special secret.

And it's like, oh, I haven't seen you out in the wild in a while. You know, like, it's going to be worse. Can you get an invite to one of these trips? Like,

why someone like, like, I remember you get invited to any of this stuff. Yeah, I think I kind of feel like everything, your ultimatum to me is totally fine. Even if they are like the best people in the world and they're truly trying to look out for you, they know it screwed up deep down.

This isn't this isn't like normal okay behavior. Maybe she told you because she feels bad about it and she feels like being up front with it. It's going to make her unconscious feel better. That's probably a scenario. But I don't think it helps the situation at all. I think the best news is you've only been dating six months and it wouldn't be the end of the world if you guys. Well, I'm just asking opinions here. Yeah, no, I know.

Just because not like what happened was so crazy. It's the fact that she like doesn't get. They're like, all right, speed bomb. We won't go down that road again. It's like, actually, we've scheduled a couple more trips down that road already. So we'll get through the concert season and this one more camping trip. And then maybe I'll think about, you know. It does feel a little bit like an IQ test of relationships.

Like she failed. Like plain simple. Yeah. Ultim is totally fair. Do not feel about that. George is not going away. Okay. Your friend does not respect you.

I don't know how much your girlfriend respects you. If they sat there and all they did was say they both have feelings for each other and were on a camping trip together and, okay, we both have feelings for each other. Now let's go our side. Not to bum you out, man. But I don't know that, I mean, if they admitted this part of it, was that a way of like feeling better about maybe something else happened. So I would be thinking something else happened because, two people sit there, like, we're on this trip together and we like each other. Okay, let's not do

anything, though, because of my boyfriend, who you're friends with. Like, if this guy's really your friend, he's not going to take your girlfriend to a country show. And if she's your girlfriend and she wants a future with you, she understands, I can't go to a concert with just the two of us. So you may have to, like, pull a power move, but then again, it's like, be careful what you whisper for here. You might have to say, like, we are not going to be dating. And now I'm leaving the country for work. And then you come back and she's dating George. So I, you know, I don't know what you're willing to be able to handle. Usually people lie to themselves about what they can handle than the reality of it. And we're like, actually, this is way worse than I thought it was going to be.

But this is, this is nasty work from the both of them. So you shouldn't feel any ounce of guilt whatsoever telling her like, this doesn't work. This doesn't work for me. And if I'm important to you, you have to respect that. I mean, there are times where your day, I remember one time I had to unfollow somebody who I knew. And I was so annoyed. And yet I just went, whatever. I'm like, what's the harm in me? Like, it doesn't matter because I had to. I was like, if this is bothering the other person that I care about this much and this person cares about me, as stupid as I think this is. And I could put my foot down and say like, hey, you're overreacting and I'm not going to give in on this kind of thing, especially being older.

I just kind of like whatever, I'll just unfollow the person. Ocean waves, bro. Yeah. It's like, all right, problem solved. Unfollowed. Like, don't care. Great, you know. So don't feel bad about the ultimate whatsoever.

I really don't like this at all for you. I don't like it either, but I do think a couple months abroad is a pretty nice reset button. Right. You know, but Brooklyn, that's wish they could go a couple months abroad. That would be a much better reset than they're going through. Have you had the team? Wow. Look at that.

Was that a millennia? I don't know. That was probably whatever it was up below belating. I always assumed the monologues, Kyle's the most like, what's he talking about right now? I'm taking notes. I'm the guys taking notes where you're doing that shit.

You know what? I appreciate that. Copious notes. All right, bartender dilemma. What's up, gentlemen, long time listener, going all the way back to SVP and Rosillo days. Stats, 36, 6 foot in shoes, 265.

Whoa. Former CrossFit, bro, who has since seen the light, bench 225, squat 315, deadlift 425 NBA comp, Brian Scalabrini, the big guard who can occasionally get hot from three but focus on rebounds and defense. That is a big guard at 265.

Here's a dilemma. One of the other bartenders, a woman, will come in on her nights off and have a few beers. Totally normal. What I've started noticing, though, is that she'll consistently get some of the older single regulars to buy her drinks. The first time it happened, she came in on her night off,

ordered a couple beers from me, then told me, quote, I'm broke right now, so I can't tip you for the beers I'm having. Man, that is like the all-time betrayal of the bartender code. The whole point of being a bartender is that you get hooked up with all your drinks and then you tip excessively so that it actually ended up costing you more and all of you look at each other going, this isn't working out. Sign up for this.

We tried to do a pact once in Vermont where we're like, we have to stop this because it's actually like it's getting weight. I was totally in favor. I was like, yeah, can we stop doing this? Because it sucks. we have to leave 100 bucks all the time. All right, a few minutes later, one of the regulars bought her drinks, so it wasn't an issue. I didn't think too much of it because we've all had times where someone else picked up the tap.

Since then, I've seen the same thing happen another three or four times with different regulars. It doesn't feel like a random nice gesture anymore. It feels like she knows exactly which guys will buy her drinks and leans into it. Yeah, that's, I don't think it seems. That's exactly what's happening. For comparison. They've been doing that since saloons, right? I mean, that's right.

Yeah. That's exactly how it works. You're right, Kyle, since they started a lot of women in bars, I'm pretty That's what's going on. Hey, look, you know, there's a pay gap and then there's also this. So, you know, things, things even out. I mean, if I had a nicer ass, who knows what my Instagram following would be. All right.

Caked up, Priscilla. Yeah. The five-inching seems, my God. Why do you think I've been wearing those shorts? The follower count just hasn't really taken off the way I thought it would. I was edited or what is that? Yeah. New Bedford is like a movie, y'all.

For comparison, I've had plenty. All right, we already read that line. So here's my question. Is this just none of my business in a case of an, just a case of older single guys, willingly buying drinks for an attractive bartender? Or is this something I should mention to the owner because it could eventually create a problem for the bar

if someone feels let on or things go sideways, love the pod, hopefully I'll make it to the next live show if it's anywhere close. I would not. I'd like we've got a Hartford one coming up. I know. No, it's like a full middle town, Hartford. Like, were you at the Middletown show?

He went way longer. Live from the yard coach, Stan. His monologue was so long. He really, he was like, Tray up there. He was like, this is over yet? Nope, 2001. All right. So, I don't think, here's what I would say.

These regulars are thrilled to have the audience. I know who these guys are. I desperately do not want to be one of them. And I'm so fearful. I had dinner last night at a bar, guy next to me, pounding some white wines. All he wanted to do was talk to the bartenders. He even made a mix. He was controlling the Spotify playlist in the bar, and they were playing along, and he looked

like he was a regular, and it was a bunch of female bartenders, and he was trying to engage on literally anything that they were doing, and they were playing along because I think he's there all the time. And I'm sitting there going. That's just Barry. Yeah, right. But it doesn't happen to you guys, because it's me. because I'm going like, is that going to be you, dude?

Is that going to be you? So that, you know, life lasts for your eyes for a bit. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, oh, man. And he had some pretty good stories too. And he was trying to talk to me. And I was like, all right. And then he said something I was interested in.

I was like, okay, but if you do engage, then you're not going to be able to watch the rest of the game. So I was like, all right, whatever. So anyway, the point is these guys are paying an audience tax. And that is their transaction. And if I think it's lame that she'd be a bartender in her own bar telling you guys that like she's low on funds and she's not going to tip you. But this act in itself, her sitting there getting a few beers, some guys, these guys are pumped to pay for her beers because she's going to pay attention to them. And that I think is a them transaction. Yeah.

And there's also like they might they might not be coming in there just when she works too. Like they might just be in there all the time. but maybe there's a little couple drinks fall off the truck when she's serving them. And now she knows that she can also, you know, there might be a little bit more than just like, I'm going to be a pretty girl sitting next to you for the next 20 minutes. You know, what are you going to do for me? Like there could be, there could be like they love when she's working. And she, you know, she's like, well, I know I can count on these guys coming in today.

So there might be some of that there too. So I don't know. And maybe this is an outlet for them so they're not leaving, you know, comments on girls' Instagram photos saying like so beautiful. You know what I mean? Like maybe that's maybe that's saving them from going. out in the world and putting that energy elsewhere. Who knows?

Probably not, but yes. Gorgeous. Hope you have a great day. Sunshine, smiley face. Just all sorts of cake. And it's like, what's your favorite fast food? Your dad's like, I like Shickshack, you know? Just must be horrifying.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that does scare the shit out of me. Like, at what point? Because at some point you're going to be the old man in life. And my wife and I talk about us all the time. And there's going to be like some AI stuff. We're just going to be, it's just going to be all over our heads.

So we're just going to be like, who knows, man, you know? And it's going to be like, look, like, the future Facebook platform is. And you see Steve just firing on whatever fake things. So it's going to happen. Steve, Steve's looking at AI soccer goals. Like, this is amazing. It's fake, you old idiot. How are these aliens going to affect housing?

Yeah. That was good. Right off the dough. I've thought about that. Okay. I just think if we have aliens here at any point, there'll be like this big push to be like, no,

hug an alien. Like, this is great. And be like, they eat cats, man. Like, what,

what do we do? Have you guys gotten dup by? I think I got dup by a couple AI videos recently. Like, it's getting weird now. It's so weird. Yeah. It wasn't.

I'll just look at the comments and usually younger people you can tell. I wasn't getting fooled by AI but like whenever there was a war going on it was like, like holy shit. And then so we'd be like that was actually

from you know, 2019 and that was in Bosnia or that was somewhere else. I'm like, well, how am I supposed to know? So like there's just been a bunch of like war footage that they're attributing to the wrong conflicts that I'll just,

I guess so. I guess that just happened over there. And then somebody would be like, no, actually. I did get a text for my mom with a screen grab of the Portnoy. I think it was Fox News hit running for, she's like, is this real? And it was like Dave Portnoy for president.

I'm pretty sure he's selling books, ma. I don't know. I was like, I didn't even respond. I just called a media tour. Everyone does a little bit of late. I just don't have time for it. I'm going to be honest. My mother also sent me a Portnoy clip.

Oh, really? Six months ago. Yeah. She's like, have you heard about this stock? Dave Portnoy is. seems like he's, I was like, all right. I was like, I'll, I was like, you know I work for him now, right? She was like, what? She didn't know what's going on. No. Um, pass. Yeah. All right. I think that'll do it for us today. That was a good one. A lot of stuff. I can't, I want to mind our own business,

right? That's what we're saying to this guy just to put a bow on it, mind your own business for the most part. Yeah, F. George, mind your own business. Partender. Definitely F. George. And we want a Kyle travel log when he goes to Dan Berry. You know what? Could you do that? Could you do like a two part, 10 minute, like on the way down and then have it just be part of the pod and none of us talk and we just put it in the pod where you have to write out like a 10 minute monologue. So pre-imposed. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think so. Don't even be intimidated by it at all. Just do it. It'll be stiff. It'll be you. Just Kyle being Kyle. It'll crush. Promise it. It might put me out of the game. All right. Thanks to Tom. Thanks to Kevin. Thanks to Rudy. Thanks to Kyle. Ryan Rucillo, Barstall sports. Chew.