The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Celtics Are Champs With Scott Van Pelt, Plus Drama at the U.S. Open
Episode Date: June 18, 2024Russillo starts the pod with his experience watching the Celtics win the NBA Finals in person (0:43). Then, Scott Van Pelt joins the show to break down the Celtics’ dominance, discuss Kyrie’s imag...e rehabilitation, and cover all the drama from the U.S. Open (18:36). Finally, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (68:17)! How do I move past my first real break up? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to learn more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Scott Van Pelt Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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The Boss itself are your NBA champs. I will break down the game from inside the garden
and some of the bigger storylines, what it meant for this team to show patience and what
it means for Tatum as the face of the franchise. We're also going to talk some finals with this guy named Scott Van Pelt.
He's pretty good.
He's on television.
We'll also talk us open.
What does the wind mean for Bryson and what he would ask Rory who we did not have
access to right after a gut wrenching loss, and then just some other nonsense.
And of course, as always life advice.
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Lucky enough to be in the building last night
for the Celtics 18th championship in franchise history.
A 16 and three record in these playoffs.
In the building, watching it going, all right, what are you looking for?
What's easy?
What's hard for both teams?
And early on, I was like, I don't know if this is going to be much of a game.
Luca started two a six Kyrie didn't make a shot in the first quarter.
Oh, a three Gafford messes up one.
I would say two rotations on deep drew holiday stuff.
Um, I don't know what their rule is with that, but clearly kid had kind of given up on Gafford with some other moments. He only played 11
minutes last night and Lively is the better option anyway. Lively came in at
7.26 left in the first quarter. The only thing, and I thought this was
really telling, is Josh Green hits two threes in the first quarter.
Now the Verzingis story was a big part of this because you're like, wait, specific
matchups? Like I'm just to the point where I think teams just mess with
everybody else on their injury updates.
But when the sellers came out to warm up for Zingas wasn't with them.
He comes out later in the layup line.
He's feeling it.
The place goes crazy.
And we're all watching him shoot and he's like missing all the shots.
You know, like, all right, maybe, maybe just one of those guys who wants to
get the misses out of the way and warmups.
And then he checks into the game and everyone's going nuts and you can see
immediately like he doesn't look good at all.
So, uh, like Luke is going to be looking for him.
That's exactly what happened on those Josh green threes, the first two.
So the first play he's got true on him.
He gets it to the right side.
Prezingis is in the switch, but Drew doesn't want to leave Prezingis
by himself against Luca.
And then Prezingis finds a way to kind of balance like what he's doing
here staying with Luka staying in the paint or then trying to contest on a Josh Green
and it's a wide open three.
The second three, the Celtics try to pre-switch avoiding Przingus getting caught into a switch
onto Luka and after some traffic where it looked like Przingus was going to have to
worry about it, they brought Josh Green all the way over from the corner to do it again. And then Josh Green hits
the second one. And I thought it was very telling because it was like, hey, that's what this Dallas
offense used to look like when teams had to abandon everything they were doing to try to
prevent Luca from just taking over. Because even withuka's output, the Celtics didn't have to just wreck
everything they were doing with their defensive priorities throughout the series.
And that's why this became tougher.
And it was just this moment where I'm like, oh yeah, that's right.
That's what the Dallas others used to be able to do.
Just get awesome open looks, whether it were lobs, the corner threes, or in
this case, Josh Green hit a couple of top,
because you're so worried about Luca.
And with Prezengiz's limited ability, I should say,
or limitations physically, they had to do like a little extra
to protect him, and that led to those open shots for Green.
It's 1918 in the first quarter, Celts go on a 9-0 run
the last minute 39,
and the place is going crazy.
It's four buckets in a very short amount of time.
Two Dallas turnovers, and it felt like that was the game.
Now, that's ridiculous to say,
but now that we have the result,
they're like, well, they never really caught them
after that closing moment, and the play starts going crazy.
So the rest of the game, you're kind of wondering is Luca going to go off or is
Kyrie going to wake up Kyrie went Oh, a three in the first quarter to a in the
first half and he did not wake up at any point.
Uh, but the others were no shows again.
This just was a much harder job for them against the Celtics than it was against
the previous teams they played based on everything we just talked about and how
you defend Luca PJ and Derek Jones, Jr. one to nine
from three. And that's how I'll remember this series. The story
of the series is even if the other guys that step up boss
probably wins the series, but knowing if you're Luca, there
was really nothing and Luca wasn't great last night, but
there's just nothing else that you can go to, especially with
Kyrie, the version of him that we expect, even a
diminished version from the 17 version is like, you need to take over for a quarter.
You need to have a moment.
You need to have some kind of run, a run that you had against Minnesota, a run that you
had in those second halves against the Thunder.
And it just never happened.
So that means that everybody else is like, wait, I'm not supposed to do any of these
things.
Like I was on the Hornets.
I was on the Wizards. Like this has been a cool story and it was a great trade and it turned Dallas around.
So I'm not going to now regrade those trades because they lost the finals.
The trades were great because they got to the finals, but there was just not another
piece there to rely on offensively for Luca.
So Boston gets up 26 points in the third quarter,, 7852 910 left to go in the third.
Boston scores four points from 910 until Hauser's nine non committal floater.
If you watch that one, he's like, I don't want to do this,
but I guess I got to do now and it goes in.
That's four points from nine10 to 209 seven minutes and
one second of game action. Wait, Austin's kind of doing it
again here. But here's the thing. They can have that
haunting stagnant offensive moment that every Celtics fan is
well aware of like how is this team this good and compete that
bad offensively for that long of a stretch
knowing that all the offensive statistics tell you
it's one of the best offenses in the NBA.
Like wait, it's happening again?
Just like it happened at the end of game three.
Well, it's because Boston could always bank on its defense.
And in those offensive moments,
Boston's defense was terrific.
Luka was exhausted.
I think everybody was really exhausted in this game
to be honest with you.
I think it's that much of a grind on you emotionally and physically
to play at your peak and know all right I still have another 12 minutes to go in
the fourth quarter. So the Celtics win the title and it really wasn't scary at
all. I want to talk about a few different things here. Brad Stevens. So he takes
over when Ainge leaves in June of 21. I know how frustrating it was in Boston and it felt like
Celtics fans had kind of turned on him. Age always seems to be somebody that played a little bit
worse than he deserved publicly. Meaning that it was like, man, I don't know if it's just people
get don't like them as a player or what. It just always felt like the age criticism was far more aggressive
than it ever deserved to be. I thought, um, because if you think about how this team has
been built, like, I don't think there's many GMs that do what age does in the Tatum draft.
I think most GMs go like, well, Fultz is still supposed to be the guy. So I'll just take
Fultz because if I'm wrong with this, at least I did what
everybody else was going to do.
And instead he trades out of that pick picks of another pick and then adds Tatum.
When he drafted Jaylen Brown prior to that, I remember doing that draft.
That Cal team was terrible.
I couldn't figure Jaylen Brown out.
I've been wrong about him my entire career.
And he saw something in him that I certainly didn't see.
And I don't know who else would take three in that trap so if angel is the foundation and put up the frame.
Brad stevens the finish carpenter with this product because when he takes over being brad.
Okay he's the terrific coach but it seems a little bit stale like he doesn't actually want to coach anymore but now is just gonna be the gm is he going to be able to do that.
And there's an argument that is even better than that than he was as a coach. He made four deals
in less than two years that increased the talent level three through five, three through six in a
way that's very hard to do in a very short amount of time. Here's what I also love about Stevens is
that he didn't really care about those picks. I remember years ago with Bill where I was like,
I just think these picks, I know it's 20 to 29 and every fan base gets really excited about the guy you took at 23.
Like I'm sure some of you are still wondering how J.R. Giddens didn't work out, right?
Length score a little bit.
Look at all that.
Look at that wingspan, right?
It's an exciting thing on draft night for your team to take one of those guys and you
kind of talk yourself into it.
Even though the history tells us there's just not a ton of value, especially if you're already an established team and you're thinking, who am I going to be able
to take from like 15 on that can actually make this rotation and be a contributor to this team
right away? And I don't know that a new GM would be this aggressive being like, I'm not really
worried about these picks, even when he did take a Langford and took a Neesmith, but then flipping
those guys and then flipping picks later on for a Derek White,
who ended up being Langford.
We just mentioned Richardson, a 22 first, which was Blake Wesley.
And then there's that 28 pick swap.
Worry about that later.
They're like, Hey, Malcolm Brogdon's a really good player.
That would increase our talent one through five.
Let's see if we can figure that out.
Or a one for six, one through six.
We've just talked about Brogdon.
So it's knee Smith, a 23 first that ends up going to Denver,
which is Strother, which are like, all right. Then the market smart deal,
which a lot of people were wondering, like,
how can they give up their heart and soul? How can they give up their toughness?
You've heard my position on market smart a ton of times.
So we're not going to go through all of that again.
I always thought it was kind of weird. It was like, wait, if you think this team isn't tough, why is taking smart away?
Like if you, if you think the Celtics have all these problems, which again, I did,
and we'll get to kind of that 21 star here in a second, but I just felt like a
lot of that stuff is, is just Tommy point stuff where you get really excited about
your favorite player, but you're ignoring that.
Maybe there's actually some limitations with him where if the team did something
different, you could be better.
And they move smart for Przingus who had a terrific year.
I'm not like on record.
I said, I was like, I don't love the extension with his injury history,
but it changed who they were.
Um, and they got a pick in that deal, which they then flipped to Portland
in the drew holiday trade where they're like, look, drew is better than Brogdon.
Rob Williams is hurt even when he isn't her.
And then they move those firsts that one this year and then the one in 29.
So that's white Brogdon into Drew smart and a Przingus that changes who you are as a basketball team.
And that's, that's the stuff that I I think is a little bit harder to do.
And I don't know how many teams would say, yeah, I'll just start giving up these first.
Because reality is, I don't even know if that guy's even going to play for the team that I'm running.
There's also another part of this that I think is important.
Whether it's the front office and ownership pointing to Missoula post Emea Yudoka's drama
and the moments where it's like is Missoula actually the right guy.
I can tell you this.
I know enough of the people over the course of the years of working for the TV station.
They're like these are smart people.
I had a hard time believing that they would just be dumb and be like, yeah, we'll just
give it to Missoula because we're not good at this.
And because missoula is quirky look if he goes thirty wins and gives you those quotes the fan base would.
Like we have an insane person running the basketball team but whatever it was beyond the x's and o's the timeouts substitution patterns.
There really seem to be a message that was consistently bought into by this team, which is really the primary job of being a head coach in the
NBA. Are they still listening to you?
All right.
And it's very easy for these guys to tune anybody out.
So I'm happy for Missoula.
I'm happy for Brad.
I'm happy that Ainge gets a little bit of credit after the fact.
I'm happy for Wick because when I first moved to Boston and started working
for a radio station, there's a personal thing there where Wick reached out to me.
I tried to not bother him because I felt like it'd be annoying me bothering a guy who owns
an NBA franchise, but there's never been a moment where he hasn't been awesome to me.
I know how much he cares.
I know how much money they've spent on this.
I think they've been really aggressive owners, the entire group.
There's also a lesson because if we go back to that 21 season that I referenced, the 21-22,
where they end up in the finals against the Golden State Warriors, they were 16 and 19 on January 21st of 22.
They were 23 and 24. And Bill and I did a pod right around that time.
And I remember, because I don't like saying this if I'm not like around a team every single day, but I go, man, I think they're soft.
This is a soft basketball team.
Like this group is talented as they are with those two guys.
It might not be it.
It was the first time I was open to suggesting splitting the two guys up and
trying something different because you're like, how are they under 500?
Well, things change quickly.
They closed the season 28 and seven.
They lost the finals, the Steph, the Warriors, which I don't think is so embarrassing thing. But at that point, it's just added to
the different playoff failures, which I've always said like 17
and 18, 20. They really count 22. Okay, it's disappointing to
be made to the finals. 23 is a disaster. But all of this stuff
because they were ahead of schedule with these young
players, like how are they in the Eastern Conference finals
again? This doesn't even make any sense.
All of that got added to kind of this hangover or anxiety about
who they could be in 24.
So I think there's a lesson in there once again, which is always a good
lesson to repeat, which I'm not sure that we'll follow this lesson because
the next team that's three years into playoff failures with a young roster,
are we going to say, Hey, let's hold off because of look what Boston did?
We probably won't, maybe we should,
but that might be the lesson like, wait,
let's look back and think about those questions.
Two incredibly young, talented, big wings
that can score on their own and also can play defense.
Isn't the entire league in the business
of trying to find those guys?
So I'm guilty of it too, because at some point, you just go, maybe this won't work and they in the business of trying to find those guys. So I'm guilty of it too,
because at some point you just go,
maybe this won't work and they need some kind of change.
But that's why whenever we do these off season previews,
I'm like, they'll probably just run it back
because you almost want to give yourself more chances
to fail with your guys as opposed to failing
by giving up on them a little bit too soon.
The other part of this is that a title means something entirely different for this generation. And yes, there
are older players that went years and years without
accomplishments. And the joy that they have once they hold
that trophy in their respective sport and hold it up and they're
like, I finally, the whole point of doing this, a decade plus to
the league, like I'm thinking about like older baseball
players, like finally having their moment. So that moment has
existed in the past, but not like it exists now because when you're a player like Jason Tatum who when
I was watching the trophy presentation and the relief on his face I'm thinking to myself this
guy's 26 years old you think he's 38 like huh, huh, I finally did it.
Like you actually did it before a really nice list of Hall of
Famers, some of the best players in the history of this game.
And you did it at 26.
I mean, hell, he turned 26 in March.
And yet you can't tell him like, Oh, no, you'd be fine.
You'd be fine if it took a couple more years because this
is your,
if you're one of these players, the face of a franchise,
it would all NBA guy flirting with the MVP conversation,
even though I don't think he's in the class of like that first tier of
players, but he's, he's awesome.
And it really is for all of these younger players.
If you get to do what Tatum did last night or a Janus or
Yokichu maybe doesn't care as much as the other two guys I talked about, it really is kind of your
fuck you moment to the world, which I've always felt is a bigger part of this generation when we
look at their accomplishments. I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to do it again,
because the access to hate makes this generation of athlete look at the things around them differently than any generation prior to
them. And that's just the reality of the access of this stuff.
When LeBron goes to the heat,
Nike runs an ad where he's a villain in a black hat. This is like, Oh,
everybody hates me now. All right, I'll embrace it.
Kevin Durant had a Nike ad in 2017 that started with a fake sportscaster saying
Durant shouldn't be the first pick, quote, he's too weak, followed by another guy holding a sign that
says soft.
Durant was like one of the most sure thing NBA prospects ever, by the way.
James Harden had that one with Adidas that suggested that not playing defense was about
his originality as a player.
I love that one.
Steph Curry's Apple documentary starts with Reggie Miller reading a negative
scattering report on Steph. 20 minutes into the doc they have Steph sitting in
his car listening to guys calling to talk radio dumping on the Warriors.
Anthony Edwards gets eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks and immediately Adidas
has an ad up of a guy reading the receipts, the criticisms of Edwards as
he's getting shots up.
So the point is, is there is a new reward
beyond the actual ring and the championship for the team
and for the city and adding to the resume of your career
and how you're gonna hold up against other great players.
There is this ultimate reward of I got to do the thing
that all of you said I couldn't do.
And the day after you hold up that trophy,
all of that doubt becomes irrelevant.
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You likely know him from his work on Everybody Loves Raymond
is Shopper number two, episode Ray Buys Fruit
and also the host of Sports Center on ESPN.
Two decades in, his name is Scott Van Pelt.
Hello. How many decades has it been? It Scott Van Pilt. Hello.
How many decades has it been?
It's two plus 2.1.
I don't know, it's like, I think this is the 10th year,
which Jesus Christ.
No, no, no, how long have you been there?
Is it 20, 25 years?
That's another JC dude.
2001 was the first year, so we're like,
I don't know, whatever this is.
Old.
Wow, you're getting good at it.
Am I?
Or I'm about to age out of this bitch.
Let's start with the finals,
because you had an incredible studio show with legs,
the whole deal, everything last night.
So the first thing you think about
with the Celtics pulling this off last night.
Just the patience that the organization showed.
You and Bill are so immersed in this
and have such a great feel
for all the different organizations and whatever.
But specifically, I think Boston,
given who you grew up with. And I just admire the fact that they, organizations and whatever, but specifically, I think Boston, given your, your, your, you
know, who you grew up with.
And I just admire the fact that they, you know, everyone's like, well, you can't Brown
and Brown and Tate, I'm just not going to work.
You're just done.
It's a redundant.
It's just blah.
And they're like, no, no.
Whether they kind of couldn't punt or they just whatever they did organizationally.
The fact that they decided to stand pat with them and then the additions that they make
and having a selfless sort of a guy like Drew Holliday that's just a pro that can do everything
and you've been Porzingis who's capable of hanging massive numbers and whatever on a
nightly basis.
White evolving into a reliable 20 plus point guy and a great defender.
I just think they were the best team all year long.
And the thing about this league, and I said it on SportsCenter last night, Ryan, that
I think what happens is we get bored with things we think we know what they are.
And we're way more intrigued with the possibility of what might be.
It's like a game show.
What's behind door number three?
And so many teams are what's behind door number three.
And you think it's going to be the brand new car, and then maybe it's like a sofa, you
know what I'm saying?
And ultimately, Boston, all year long, they showed everyone who they were.
They were the best team.
And whether it's just the advanced metrics and different analytics or just how many points
did we score and how many points did you score?
From October until now, they just showed that they were the best.
And I said this, and I'm curious how you view it.
All right, Butler was hurt.
Giannis got hurt.
I get it.
Okay, Halliburton got hurt against Indiana.
Fine.
Yeah, Luke is dragging along who knows what kind of scar tissue, taking shots and all
the rest.
Nobody looks at banner number 14 and goes, yeah, that was the year that so and so was hurt.
I just don't think that's what we do.
We don't do revisionist history with sharp pencils
on who you faced and who you didn't.
Do you hang a banner or don't you?
They were the best team this year and they won.
That's to me what I saw.
I do it with Toronto's, but that's personal.
You're right, you're right.
Because even though it was a really easy path and it was a boring finals,
because they were just,
they've just ended up being an even worse matchup for Dallas than we could have
imagined. And some of that was just Dallas's secondary guys.
As I talked about in the open,
like these guys were living a completely different life in those other series.
And then against Boston it's like, wait, this is actually a lot harder.
Now I have to like do stuff on my own. Um,
I wouldn't have picked any of the teams in the East. You know, it depends if Milwaukee had maybe figured it out,
but had been so up and down,
then I'm really just kind of banking on the resume
and top end part of like Dame Giannis,
but I would have had to seen it more.
And then to just buy into Giannis comes back,
because I was listening to Doc with Bill
when they did a pod last week and that they thought,
all right, well, maybe Yanis could have come back
for this game or this game or whatever.
So I don't know that I would have bought into it then.
And the funny thing with Halliburton being out
is Nemhard turned into fucking Isaiah Thomas in that series.
So-
How about that?
It was still like whatever you thought you were getting
from Halliburton, but again, whatever, they got swept.
So it's been a weird year as I've touched on it throughout
because when you have the dominant profile that they have,
there shouldn't be any doubt.
And yet I still think there was doubt.
And I don't know if it was because of the certain
offensive things that I've touched on a million times,
or if I think what was unfair is that
because they had been there in 17 ahead of schedule,
18 ahead of schedule, 20 was disappointing,
21 was okay, whatever, 22 was the finals,
but it was disappointing, 23 was a disaster.
I still don't think they should have lost that heat team.
And then that's all leading up into this year,
but kind of ignoring the fact that,
you know, Derek White's only been there a couple of years,
Drew's new, Perzingis is new.
It's hard, it's hard, especially with the new rules, even though they're going to have
everybody under contract, it's just going to be very hard to ever have a team that is
that deep one through five.
Unless you have some outstanding second, third year players that compensate your vets, but
if your vets were that good, then you wouldn't be drafted that high.
It's just gonna be hard to have a one through five
that's this good even in those moments
where it felt like their flaws were concerning.
And it's also gonna be rare that you have
that kind of, that much continuity with star players
that don't get there because people just can't fight
the urge to blow it up for whether they should
or they shouldn't.
People just get impulsive, they get impatient, and Boston didn't, and they added the right
pieces.
And again, I think we get bored with, yeah, well, we know what they are.
Well, what might somebody else be?
And the league is a lot of that, right?
Durant goes to Phoenix, you're like, ooh, and these guys all get healthy, huh?
You're like, oh, maybe they don't.
And then maybe actually, they got a
point card. Oh, shit, they don't have a point guard. Maybe anybody
can protect the rim. No, they might get beaten up for. Yep,
that's it. You know, I think the the intrigue of what could be
and the possibilities of star players and how do they, you
know, how are they cohesive, this or that the other thing,
Boston had a bunch of stars and bunch of guys
that were willing to, I don't wanna say accept roles,
because it's like Drew Holliday is not just some little,
oh, you do a nice little job.
No, but it's not, you're right though,
Drew has to really accept in a way
where it's like you're gonna have nights
where you're just never gonna be the first option
down the floor, so that's tough for a lot of guys.
That's fine, but cool, I'll check whoever is the other team's
one of their best options and I'll be great at that.
And then I'll facilitate.
And like, how many times was he involved
in the hockey assists in this series, right?
Where the ball would go say,
Tate him to him and then to Brown,
or Brown to him to Tate him,
or Tate him would feed him that one game
where Drew did have the big scoring night
and Tate him had a ton of assists.
Well, that's just being patient and just waiting, biding your time and knowing that I'm one
of the guys on our team who on a nightly basis is capable of getting 20 some odd, did it
in this series.
Dallas just clearly didn't have that beyond the two that they had.
And then Kyrie wasn't great in the series after he was all playoffs long.
So it ends up being a pretty boring finals, but maybe it was a boring year if you're just
from October till now
you just looked at what Boston was and just accepted them as
What they proved they were which was your best team in this league you had legs all season
I mean, he was great. He did an hour with us and it was just incredible stuff
So we all so good. Yeah, I mean he came on and we just were talking playoffs
I think it was the conference championship
So it wasn't that long ago.
And you just get done and you're like, my God, that's so much fun.
But what were some of the things do you think?
Because I watched last night, but I just want to share for the audience,
like things that he kept kind of hitting on is like the story of this finals is
like the things he was really pointing out to you and to your audience of
like why this series played out the way it did.
He well, he liked Dallas and I couldn't understand why because I just like I
remember having Windhorst on before the finals and I just said have, why are we
squinting so hard at Boston trying to find some flaw? Like what are we, why are
we doing this? And I guess I get it because you look at who Dallas beat and
how they beat him and they created a lot of problems. Also, they made a shit ton of threes. And then in this series, the
ball kind of got stuck and guys don't make shots. I think they had six in the first one,
seven in the second threes. And Boston just had this massive three point advantage. And
you just, if you're drawing up, okay, how many guys does Boston have that can score
20 tonight?
It's a much longer list than Dallas.
This isn't really complicated.
We'll take our two and just trust that Brown and Tatum are going to get at minimum 40,
maybe 60.
Say the same thing with Luke and Kyrie.
And again, because Kyrie didn't shoot well, that really caused big problems.
But it was, Legs pointed out that he thought that Kyrie, for all the growth and all the sharing
he did of how he felt like, I wasn't ready for a lot of stuff in Boston, went through
a lot of stuff in Boston, but I'm in a good place now.
Okay, well, you still got to go there, right?
It's like, you can move on from your ex-girlfriend, but now you got to go have dinner, like Christmas
dinner with your new family.
And you got to sit there and look at each other.
And maybe it makes you feel uncomfortable. Who knows? Maybe you're just tired. Maybe you just have a few bad games,
whatever the case may be. But Kyrie wasn't good enough in this series. And, and, and
Legs just said he felt like he was passive and the scoring options for Dallas were just
limited and it was, it was, it was in many ways as simple as that. Those ancillary pieces
weren't good enough.
Ball got stuck.
And then they were horrible at ends of quarters.
Boston, they did it again last night.
So one point game, about a minute and a half to go in the first.
And the next thing you know, it's a 10 point game.
Sloppy possession, lackadaisical on defense after getting praised for a bunch of defense
and just, you know, Winhorse went viral for going off on Luca, but was he wrong?
Was he wrong about the bitching at officials? Was he wrong about him,
you know, getting blown by on defense at that, at that point? No,
I don't think he was wrong.
No, I don't think he was wrong. I guess it was so,
it was aggressive for Windhorst. So it made,
it made me pay more attention and I was like, Whoa,
isn't that the key point though, Ryan?
That when a guy's as reasonable and as measured
as Brian always is, and then he's just like,
you're like, whoa, you lean in because it feels,
maybe I think, I don't know, it wasn't personal.
I don't think, he wasn't mad at Luca as a human.
I think he just feels like you're better
than what you're doing.
This side-eye nonsense, bitching at officials all season long, it just hurts your team and it
hurts you. I said a while ago, and I'm sure it's happened organizationally, right? You just sit
down, have somebody in your video ops group, just go through the games, put together a tape,
and one of your worst moments. Show it to Luca and see what you want to do.
A listening session?
Yeah, well, sure, a listening session.
Nobody likes listening sessions though. That's the problem. Is Luca wouldn't watch.
You know what? If we go back to our listening sessions, that's probably the appetite that
Luca would have for somebody sitting down and telling him how he's supposed to act.
Oh, I don't know what to do. Huh? Okay. Let me listen me, let me listen to what you tell me how I'm supposed to host this
thing. It's probably our answer.
Did you play anywhere? Oh, you studied calculus. All right.
Thank you for your, uh, I don't,
I think I could guess how Luca would, would respond to that.
My, and it's not like Windhorse doesn't know this cause clearly he knows it.
I just felt like, okay, everything you said,
I would agree with,
but he's the only reason they're in the NBA finals.
He's the only reason. 100%.
And then watching them play out the way they did
in these games, like I don't really,
sure he could've been better in game five to start.
Yeah, okay, no problem.
But when you wanna go over the list of like
who was closest to meeting your expectations,
he's the closest of any of the Mazz players.
Because the Kyrie part of this is fascinating,
is that sometimes in life, being the Robin is the worst.
All right, I'm not trying to make this about you and I,
but being the second guy when everybody knows
who the star is, that's not for everybody.
I fucking hated it.
Yeah, but you live in a Batman house now, bro,
so it's all good.
It had nothing to do with you,
but I was like, I don't want,
but some people are like, this is awesome.
Like I really don't have the pressure.
I don't have to do any of these things.
So when I looked at the Kyrie celebration,
it was very, like it was unbelievable what was happening. And part of it was based on what our
expectations for Kyrie were. It was like, Hey man, it's been a pretty quiet season. Like when's that
point coming? I was wondering if there was going to be somebody in the Celtics media that's just a
massive Homer that was like, Hey, do you know about the new Mavs ownership and some of the
fundraising that's going on? Like I was wondering if somebody hey, do you know about the new Mavs ownership and some of the fundraising that's going on?
Like I was wondering if somebody was gonna be a plant
if the Mavs had gone up two oh in the series,
be like, all right, somebody asking
about international affairs.
All right, yeah, let's see if he can.
So Kyrie deserves like credit for having,
based on our Kyrie standards, a very drama-free season.
But there were games against the Thunder
where you're like, wait, single digits again.
But then we're going to hear on the next game after he lights it up for a
quarter,
how it's the best scoring back court that we've ever seen in the history of
basketball. Yeah. Right. And you're like, well,
that seems like the warriors weren't that long ago. Were they?
Like how do we still have that footage?
It's not the strength of the, of the, of the collective.
I do think that irony is a word that gets used incorrectly.
There was a song about it.
But I think the idea of a guy that didn't want to play second fiddle to LeBron at LeBron's
peaks of his power is then very comfortably becoming the number two.
Like, nah, I'm good over here, man.
I'm-
Yeah, but that one's different though.
I actually side with Kyrie on that one because I refound out that he was a piece of the chessboard for LeBron to move around
Somewhere else then he was like that's fair
That's yeah, because he's always gonna be he's always gonna be operating on a different sort of however many 3d level chess that you want
That's that's fair. But I but still to your point about do you want to be a two or the Robin, he's
that there, and he's clearly that there.
That's Lucas' team.
He's Lucas the guy.
Yeah, but it was, because Kyrie's never been the one.
I mean, I guess he was with Boston, but it wasn't really that long, and then he missed
the other playoffs, so the only one experience that he really had, I guess, is in 19.
So technically you say, okay, he's the one, but here's what I think of like,
of wrapping up a bow on the entire Kyrie, at least Boston piece of this.
All right.
I don't, I never cared that he left.
I cared that he just kept adding.
There was stuff with the nets.
Like I don't care about the nets.
And there was just stuff with the nets.
I'm like, come on, man.
So then you kind of felt good about the basketball part of this
because he hits that game winning left-handed runner
against the Nuggets in the regular season.
And you just go, oh my God, like here we go.
Like he's back and everybody's talking about how happy he is
and how great everything is.
And I don't know if the Boston thing messed him up
because then I was looking for that.
I went back and looked, I'm like, okay, wait,
can I find some kind of number
that tells me that against Boston,
when he's in Boston in the playoffs,
that there's this drop off from him
because the crowd stuff actually does get to him.
And there really wasn't anything
because he had two 39 point games at that place
in the playoffs.
So like, okay, well that theory doesn't really hold up.
So I brought it up and then kind of shot it down,
but I do think it was a factor.
And even with his answer about,
oh, the Celtics being a cult or whatever,
when you heard the entire answer, in fairness to Kyrie,
it wasn't like he was destroying,
like when I saw it in word form without the video,
I'm like, okay, that seems to be like him
taking a little bit of a jab.
But I would say this to Celtics fans, okay?
Two things.
When Kyrie checked out of the game last night,
and I was in the building for it,
it was like all the stoppage stuff had already happened,
all the new Mavericks had already checked in the game.
They were waiting to take the court,
they were waiting to inbound,
and then Kyrie goes around to kind of like
dap up and hug every single guy in the Celtic side of it.
And the funny thing is at that point,
the arena just wants to win the championship,
and now Kyrie's holding it up. So in a moment where he's actually trying to be gracious,
and you could also argue that maybe he was trying to make it about himself and all this different
stuff, but in maybe a moment where he was trying to heal or repair, because I do think he's been
really, there's been answers that he's had where he, I think he's been very genuine and being like,
hey, there's things I did wrong and all this kind of stuff. It seemed like it mattered to him,
that dynamic with the crowd booing him
and chanting that he sucks for all of these games,
that I don't know if he was trying to just
have some kind of resolution for himself,
or maybe he was making that moment about himself.
But for Celtics, think about the arc of the story.
This guy tells you he wants to stay, he leaves,
he dumps on the place
at every possible turn, and then he had to be in the arena as the trophy was presented to your
franchise. I think it's over now. For sure. I get what you're saying because it took a while.
I got to dap up you. I don't know you, but I'm going this way and you're sitting there.
So there's the awkward exchange. Some people I'm sure you have some with maybe others
you don't. I have chosen to view this whole thing as sincere. I understand the kind of,
everyone wants to be hostile towards everyone at all time. No one's allowed to grow. No one's
allowed to do, make mistakes and F up and then do better. I think he's done better. I've, I've listened intently to the way
he's spoken. And I think he says a lot of stuff that sounds
really healthy, and good for him. And so I just felt like it
just once he got so far down the line, it was hard to walk past
people and not sort of acknowledge who he was walking
past. And again, you were there, I wasn't. So yeah, it kind of took a while.
But my read on it from throughout was that this was a guy
that's in a totally different place.
If we talk any USO,
but I think you can say some of that about DeChambeau,
a guy that just sort of did some stuff.
You're like, what are we doing, brother?
And we're all allowed to get better, I guess,
is what I'm saying.
Yeah, there's a bad TV topic of like,
who's kind of rebranded themselves better, Kyrie or Bryson?
I think Bryson's got a big ass trophy,
so that's gonna be an easy win at the moment, right?
At least, at least.
Okay, well let's,
cause I even talked about this with Bill,
like the way winning makes you,
I think sometimes like,
now I can't say anything bad about you.
And that's almost the point of,
like a team's, yeah, now you can't.
Like yeah, but isn't this still accurate?
Don't care, it doesn't matter.
And for Bryson, look, he'd already had one,
so this isn't like it's his first,
but it really felt like for a time there,
he was the most unliked guy on the tour.
Had the pivot already happened
and then what does him winning mean now?
Look, the thing about when he won at Wingfoot
was it was still pandemic and there's no one there.
Like there's some, which is every now and then
you'll just, I'll do a thing where you just remember
that thing, right?
Where it was this game is just no one there
and then, well, there was an SEC game,
there were people there,
I was like, ah, it was LSU, there's people,
you weren't telling them they couldn't come out.
I'm good, we'll pour some bourbon on it.
Yeah, there was a moment that I think even in it,
I was like, we can't be outside?
Yeah, if we're not good outside, where are we here?
I do think that the magnifier of the crowd
and the clear, I mean, I asked them the other night,
like they felt like they were the wind in your sails.
You're a numbers guy, you're an analytics guy,
but it felt like you were a way more emotional guy
playing off that.
And he's like, yeah, they met everything and you see how popular he is. Um, but how did that happen so fast? Because
the guy that has the rope fight footage seemed to be at like the low of what he got. He got mad at
the rope. Yeah. Yeah. He's there's, there's a fairly long list of stuff with a guy. I mean, look, he he he he's different.
He's a numbers guy and all the physics.
And it's like he's one of those guys that's smart enough to talk in a way
that maybe it's true or maybe he's full of shit.
And when you're talking to me about these greens and the this and the physics,
even the humidity and it's like, can you make the putter?
Can't you? And there's a there was a lot of that, that he was just different.
And then it was like, hey, I'm gonna eat 12 pieces of bacon,
four steaks, drink 16 protein shakes, my swing speed's 200.
I look like if you pop me with a,
like prick me with a pin, I'd fly around like a balloon.
And people just were, they were done with it.
You know, they were, it had enough of, of the, of that bit
and the YouTube videos and the running around like enough.
And there's some where you could say, well,
maybe that's just cause golf is a little bit too,
a little bit too serious and takes itself too seriously.
And I would agree with that, but I feel,
and I told him this the other night, Ryan, when he came on the show, when he came to Butler Cabin Thursday and
Friday at the Masters, because he played really well, number one, he looks, he looks fantastic
as a guy who himself is well fit. He looks so much healthier because he's not, he's not
doing whatever that protein shake food routine is. And he just felt like he was in a totally different,
totally different energy and head space.
And it was obvious, like sitting with a guy,
and you've talked about this through the years, right?
A guy comes in for an interview,
like you gotta work pretty hard to fuck up the interview.
Like you gotta really-
You have to be a disaster to get seven minutes wrong.
But it can happen and we've lived it.
And he came in and it was just in just a
barely brief window and you do a little bit of chit chat off air. I just thought, all right,
man, he's totally the whole vibe is different. And enough so that I never I told everybody that I
that, you know, Hey, how's Bryson? Like, he was awesome, man. I mean, totally, totally felt
different. And then he's going on, he's
played great. And he talked about rock bottom, he lost his
dad. And I think the thing about the live, and everyone can talk
about the money and this and that I get it. But the thing
that that guy I think has that really he needed was this team.
Like, and this this could sound corny, but I really believe this
is true. He's part of a team. And he's got these guys that now he's got his crew.
And ironically enough, or interestingly enough, see, I just used irony wrong, Charles Howell
is one of his teammates.
And the shot that DeChambeau always said he struggled with was the long bunker shot, it's
hard as hell.
Charles Howell helped him with it.
He ends up winning the US Open in part because his teammate helped him work on a weakness
that was certainly a strength on Sunday.
And I just think all of what I'm saying here,
rambling as I do, is that he has just gotten
to a way better space and people are rooting for him.
He plays a really entertaining game of golf.
He hits it eight miles and he makes a shit ton of birdies,
almost won the PGA and now he wins the US Open.
Like he went six at the Masters, second at the PGA and he wins the US Open.
No one's played better in the majors than him.
Rory, who obviously lost in a brutal, bitter fashion, he called him a star, DeChambeau.
And he said he's a star the game needs.
I think that's pretty telling when Rory was on the other side of the whole whatever, which
feels like it's died at this point. But Shambho there's just a lot baked in
there and you know he was an incredibly popular champion on Sunday. Okay let's
talk Rory and before you just jump into wherever you want to go. Uh-huh. I didn't
understand golf prior to working with you and then just talking about it and
the lessons the stuff like over and, when we do interviews with golf people
and then getting to know somebody like your golf crew,
it was incredibly educational for me
because there was like a starting point of zero, right?
And like these moments, well, how does that happen?
It's like, well, this is how this happens.
Or how come this doesn't happen more often?
Well, cause that's not what happens.
And the whole, like this traveling concert of golfers
coming to your city every weekend,
that those Rory moments seem impossible for us to understand
away from the course, but yet this is kind of
what this sport is in those moments.
It's just that much harder than people realize.
Yeah. And there's, you know, the, the fact that it's singular, largely, it's just you and your caddy and, you know, these, any more people have teams, so to speak, there's, you have mental
coaches that are helping you with all the baggage, but just talking to our boy, Stanford Steve,
about it, we go out in the road and he, he's and he's like you in this sense. Like, obviously he played all these sports
at such a high level, but golf was something kind of new to him. And the whole thing fascinates
him. It's just like, it is, it's like 150 dead shows and each person is their own little
tribe and they show up in Louisville for the PGA and it's like, all right, where are we
staying? Where are we eating?
Are we hooked? Are we going to go out?
We get, but it's singular and it's hard and it's difficult to win.
And Rory's at this incredibly high level and he's been great and he is
great. And now you're trying to knock this door down.
You've been hearing for a while now, I hadn't won a major in a while, you know,
four is a lot, but it's not five.
And that each one more feels like a lot. And now here he is with a is a lot, but it's not five and that each one
more feels like a lot. And now here he is with a chance to get it and it looks like
he might and then he doesn't in the way that he doesn't. And it lands heavy and I get it,
you know, I get it. He, he, he's not going to, he's going to take a bit of a break. And
um, I just think it's a lot because you can't be like, I can't imagine, I just can't imagine
being him this week, you know?
And I know everybody has failures, but like those moments,
these small pots where you just go,
like that's gonna be tough.
He's not thinking about his money,
he's not thinking about his resume,
he's not thinking about his life
and how great his life will be moving forward.
That's the kind of thing.
I mean, you wanna talk about blown saves.
And I think you said it like in a really great way too,
because I was thinking about that moment of like not,
but at least like in football, it's the play
and there's all these things happening
and maybe you get punished
or maybe you make the catch or whatever.
In basketball, it's like, hey, you've got to make a decision
within a few seconds here.
But that walk all the way up to be like, all right,
this is what I need to do.
And he's watching Bryson behind him the entire time.
Like the way your head can just start taking over
with these awful thoughts and the power
to try to eliminate those.
Like not everybody is the same when it comes to that.
You're right.
And the thing about that sport that fascinates me
is that the elements that you're describing, because in basketball,
like last night, I mean, and last night was not a great example because it was mostly,
you know, mostly Boston in control. But there are these little moments where it's a loose ball and
things happen in a fraction of a second. There's no time to think. It's instinct. It's we watch
this tape. I know what the tendencies are, but I'm going to react in real time. And then I got to
get the ball and I'm going to kick it ahead and then you're
going to make a three or you're not and then off that and then we back at it again.
Golf's like, oh man, I just hit it in the crap again. It's hot as hell. I just missed
a putt. Now I got to walk up there and think about all the things I got to do. And how
do you put yourself in a positive spot? We're like, I'm good. I got this. And then, or now you're looking at this put on 18
and you're roaring and that part was really hard
because it's so short on TV,
but it's downhill and it breaks and you have to,
he would have had to play it.
I talked to one of his instructors,
Butch Harmon yesterday about it.
And he's like, you know, you got to probably play it
a ball out, but it's a three feet.
Like you can't make your brain believe, your brain knows it, but you can't make your body believe
that you have to do that. And all you can do is think about it. And all you can do is think
about the outcome if you make it or if you miss it. And it's just you. And it doesn't happen quickly.
It's just five hours of walking with your thoughts and thinking about
what happens if, and now I'm eight under and he's six under and I, Oh,
I'm going to win this son of a gun.
Now I'm like, I got five and now it's.
Or you lose the way you lose.
And he's like, look, I'm going to take a break.
And I don't blame him at all.
Um, for just trying to step aside and, and, you know, and I don't want to take all for just trying to step aside.
And, you know, and I don't want to take, this is just,
this happened.
I mean, we saw a guy that battled depression
and he took his life.
And it was, it's, it, that's something that a lot
of these guys, everyone cared for Grayson and hoped
that that would be not obviously be what happened.
But I think all of them recognize the difficulty
of a singular pursuit with no home games.
You're just never home.
And this is where the people listening,
I think, and you have smart listeners,
so they're gonna nod and know what we mean.
But this is where you can roll your eyes and go,
hey man, he won 2.5 the other day, cry me a river.
I gotta get up and go to work.
No shit, buddy.
He's better at what he does than you are.
And that's the perks of that. But what comes with that is the stakes in the stage and
failing in a public way. He's the man in the arena. And that's what comes with it. The good's the good,
but the bad can be heavy. And it's just a lot for these guys to wrestle with. And I sympathize with
that because we're all human. You'll interview them at some point. What do you think you'll ask them?
Or how do you think you'll ask them about it?
And I think that's the, I made the point on SportsCenter,
you know, as much as it sucks, part of this is just like Norman melted
over five hours at Augusta and lost a tournament that he was destined to win.
And then he stood there in the dark under the trees and he answered,
which had to suck.
Phil Mickelson, 72nd hole, he's going to win the US Open, the one he never won. And he pulls out his
driver and he hits it off a tent and makes double. And he stood there and he said, I'm such an idiot.
And Roy just, he split and I get wanting to leave, but he's just never done that. And then he spoke
to the fact that it was like maybe the worst day of his professional career. And I think what I'd ask now is, you didn't
speak that day. And as you're pulling away, like, what was it? Not that you were running
from, but what was it that just you couldn't process in that moment.
Just knowing someone's gonna say,
why'd you miss the putt and you didn't know the answer?
Like, I'm not gonna give them the answer,
but I just, you left.
And I get it.
I get wanting to, but what was it in that moment
that just made the process completely untenable
because no one's been more of a a stand-up dude than him no one and
You know, I
Guess you just can't you just can't process the the answer because it's a you know, how'd you feel?
Why'd you miss what happened? No one who wants to do that like Luca?
I'm sure didn't want to sit there last night go so that was great. But you guys just got stopped
that. Like, Luca, I'm sure didn't want to sit there last night and go, so that was great, but you guys just got stopped. No one wants to do that part of it, but unfortunately it's a part of it.
And I don't feel entitled to it. Like that's what they always turn into. You media guys
think you're entitled to it. Well, no, it's just part of what it is. Just if he won,
we'd asked him about winning and he lost. And you're curious sort of how do you process it, you know? I wanna talk about the new pod
because you relaunched the SVP, SV pod
with Stanford Steve.
How are the listing sessions going for that?
It's just, we're good.
It's just what we wanted to do,
we wanted to have a place where we could
lean into the football stuff with him and probably
go heavy during college football.
But what we found is just two middle-aged dads just chopping it up.
We've enjoyed it.
I feel like it's become a very local pod.
I talk about my local friends.
It's a very inside the belt way.
It's not a national show anymore?
Not really.
It's a very niche audience.
But the thing about, and I obviously, any time that I get the chance to do this with you is,
I enjoy it. I love it. I just, I really enjoy the chance to do it. I just,
we needed to figure out like, what are we going to do? And like, how are we going to do it. I just, we needed to figure out like, what are we gonna do? And like, how are we gonna support it?
And you see what it is now.
It's not just an audio space.
You gotta have these different components.
And the folks from Omaha have been awesome.
And I'm actually, as you know, I had a fire in my house.
Still not back in my house.
This is not my home.
I'm gonna have a space in my house.
Green screen?
I'll say again?
Green screen right now.
No, no, it's just, this is an actual, some nice home we've been in for a while.
Some very high, they're very nice remnants in this home. Um, higher end.
Yeah, that's not home Depot. No sir. That is a, there's like a leather.
But I could just, I can just tell.
But maybe not for higher end leather bound remnants. But when we get back in the house,
I have a space that we just created just to do,
have the ability to do it in my home.
Won't be able to see the Pacific over my shoulder, hey now.
But I just think the ability to just have conversations
with people is something that mattered.
And I liked, I always enjoyed doing it. It was just the, just figuring out how are we going to support and promote. And those,
the folks from Omaha were able to sort that out. And, and I'm grateful for the, for them to given
us that chance to do it. Cause obviously we need more podcasts in the world.
I'm playing Pinehurst in a boys trip this October. Are you?
By the way, yeah.
Let's just say guys were like,
can we change the location after watching
what happened this week?
No, we're thrilled.
We're excited.
We're super pumped up.
The guys have not gotten together at a very long time.
So we have one friend, shout out to Chris Sullivan,
who's put together the group.
It's a hard golf course, my friend's it's just a really difficult golf course those greens are
very very very hard yeah it looks like it'll be challenging uh so i i had been playing for the
first time kind of coming back to it this year and out of the gates i'm playing pretty well based on
what your expectations would be uh not playing for 20 years and then going like, okay, I'm going to play.
I'm actually going to play.
But you know what's weird about that?
I think that that, go ahead.
I'll come back to what I was going to say because you were getting ready to say something.
Right, because then I needed to sell the next part of it.
So then I get invited.
I played out at Bel Air, which was amazing.
And I wasn't playing that well.
And there was a caddy there that had listened to you and I,
watched you and I over the years.
And I was like, what am I doing wrong?
He's like, I fixed you in five minutes.
So we did a little lesson, bringing the old hands inside.
There you go.
There we go.
Throwing the grounders out to second base, keep the hands inside. There you go. There we go. Throwing the grounders out to second base,
keep the hands inside.
And I was like, man, this is life changing.
So now as I took the lesson and I started working
at the range and I'll even pull up to the par three
near my house and I'll just go chip balls for an hour.
There you go, short cam.
Work out 60s, 58s and then maybe a little seven action
if I want, depending on what
kind of slope I'm working with.
Who am I talking to?
Right, right.
Because what guys will play with me is like, you can hit it, but it's not always great.
You get yourself into some trouble.
But some of the hand work around the green is shocking considering how aggressive the
tee stuff is.
So we try to dial all this back.
So I put together all of this stuff. I got fitted for
the most expensive shafts imaginable. Expensive shafts. And the guy's like, no, keep swinging.
I was like, I don't know if I'm going to swing this hard. He's like, no, you have all the swing
speed. Keep swinging harder and harder and harder. And he's like, he's the perfect shaft for you.
And the whole time I'm like, I guess I'll get these shots,
but I can't fathom that this is actually how I'm going to swing every single
iron shot. It's the rest of my career.
So probably have to replace these at some point. So anyway,
invited again down to Newport beach,
my guy Chad who came on trainer to the stars, Joe Staley,
ever heard of them left Left tackle. And Jake Knapp's brother,
Jake Knapp, who's now on the PGA tour and looks like he's full of all the skills.
I would defer to you on this one.
He's got the good stuff. I saw him at Augusta, actually went up and introduced myself. I've
never met him. I just love when people earn their way to that place because
that's how you get there, right?
You didn't, you didn't win some contest.
You won a tournament and it means you're good enough to be here.
Um, and NAP moves it, man.
I bet does his brother kill it?
Like, cause he NAP's not a big, huge dude, but he is destroys the ball.
Right.
So his brother's Ryan.
So there's going to be some Brian, there's going to be some money involved and they're like,
all right, what's everybody's handicap? And I'm like, well, I haven't really done that.
But I knew in my head, I was like, from wherever you were with this magical breaking 100 star
after not playing for 20 years and shooting a 90 one day, I would go, just put me down for like a
22, 23, whatever.
And I go in and then if after nine you think it's bullshit,
then we'll just readjust.
And of course the one guy's like, well, that's dangerous.
Like the hustle's on.
I proceeded to play the single worst round
I have ever played going all the way back
to like when I first actually tried to play golf.
That's always a lot of fun.
Yeah, I mean, just atrocious, atrocious shit.
Never, never could figure out what was wrong.
It was it was just a disaster the entire time.
And meanwhile, all three of those guys, including Napp, who had his brother
or I don't know if they shared the course record, but I think the brother
that we were playing with currently at that point, it had it or lost it to his brother.
So it was one of the worst times I've ever had on a golf course.
So what happened?
And then I tore my calf. Then I tore my calf. So I haven't been playing. Yeah.
But what happened? What happened from the, from, what was the guy's name, a beller? Mike?
Matt.
Matt, sorry. Matt fixed you, hands inside, second base. Like what, you lost,
you totally lost the swing thought?
You know what I was? You know what happened? I was becoming a range guy.
I was becoming a range and chip guy.
Ranger Rick.
Gotta be able to take it.
Gotta be able to take it from the range
to the first tee, Ryan.
It's really what it's about.
Exactly.
Like, hey, you're gonna keep practicing your free throws.
You can check into the fucking game here.
So, and now you're, so after the calf, we had, we,
so wait, the last time you play was this catastrophe?
A full 18. Yeah. Yeah. And this is not the recipe for success at Pinehurst is what I'm telling you.
So I got to go on a full core press starting now. I got to get back to it.
Yeah. But here's the good news.
Hands inside. Yeah.
You got really expensive shafts and you've been working on the wedge game, which is going to be important. I, the whole notion of playing fairly well after not playing at all, I think
makes sense because you have, you don't have any bad habits and you're at
naturally, obviously, athletically gifted.
We can see it.
And so no need to say it, but thanks.
But it's just, you know, sure.
You're going to have natural power.
You're not, you're not going to have to
wrap the club around your ear to wail it. Just that shoulder turn and then boom,
a little speed through the ball. I feel good about it. I just think we got to get back to Matt.
Also, just because you'd go back to Bel Air. How good is the, talk about just the vibes are
immaculate. That place is pretty pure.
The Bel Air experience really was something special.
When I had Nance on, Nance and I were talking off the air.
And I don't know that anybody truly understood,
you would know this well,
but you could think of Nance like some way,
like he's hosting these worldly events.
He's the face of this network for like 40 years.
Like, could he even be normal?
Can you be that and also be normal? And then when you get him off away from that, he actually was
so normal about everything. This is coming out wrong. So I don't know what I'm even trying to
say, but it was funny because I asked Nance, I was like, do you belong to any courses, any clubs
it was funny because I asked Nance, I was like, do you belong to any courses, any clubs in LA?
He was like, oh yeah, a few. I can get out, get a nine, get a little evening nine.
A lot of the local beauties have been pretty good about getting me a tea time.
Yeah, so I got the invite. Yeah, I got the invite out there. Marty Fish invited me when I first got here. He's like, come play with me.
And then he was like, oh, what do you shoot?
And I went, well, probably break a hundred.
And then he goes, is that even fun?
And I went, okay.
And then he was like, not to be a dick.
And I was like, you're doing an awful job
not being a dick right now.
Is that like the Mohegan Sun trip?
Like, what would you be comfortable playing a hand?
That's the same exact vibe, sorry.
Yeah, that's the exact same thing.
Hey man, let's start hanging out all the time,
going down to the casino, playing some cards.
What are you comfortable losing?
Not that.
Bel Air though, it really is.
It's just, it's this old meets,
it's not old meets new, so I'm just,
I'm not being, I'm not doing a great job at this considering
this is what my job is, but we played with somebody who had been like kind
of a lifer had grown up around it.
So because we were playing with this guy, normally if I was getting a tour
while I'm struggling through around 18, I'd be like, I don't need the tour man.
And actually it made it awesome.
Cause he was like, that's what this is.
And this was over here and this is what this means.
And this is so it was this history lesson,
which you know, I love the old archives.
And it was, even though I didn't play well,
it's one of the probably,
it's probably the best place I've ever played
and the most fun I've had.
The best places in the game,
I think are the ones that know they're great,
but aren't trying to flex on anybody
cause they're just comfortable with what they are. There are clubs that are super pretentious and want you to feel,
what's the line about, I'll just say another club in Los Angeles that they're not comfortable
till you're uncomfortable. That's the ethos of the place. And you think, well, why would that be?
If you have a guest come, you want him to feel most welcome.
And I think a place like, obviously, Bel Air,
that's the good stuff.
I just did notice as I was watching on this screen
that I was at the beach this weekend
and they didn't apply enough sunscreen.
And it was this year at the upfronts, Ryan, I got a chance to meet Ryan Reynolds and tell
him that I look like an avocado that had sex with an older avocado like Deadpool.
The difference is that this, like there was no explosion.
There was no accident.
This is just sort of what I'm working with.
And he was very gracious and said, no, no not it's working out great for you But I do kind of have the Deadpool going at the moment where I sort of a hellboy
Kind of a mess looking at the moment a lot of flaking of skin and freckly Jesus Christ
Your parents always matches my expectations, so I wouldn't worry about it. I
That's good
Reynolds you think you and him connected at all? A little bit.
I, I, well, it was, it was actually,
it was a hell of a double header.
Met Emma Stone and I-
Now I'm jealous.
And then I, she said I actually had done something for,
recorded something for her husband
and she was appreciative of that.
And I'm thinking in my head,
she thinks I'm some other person, I think, because I don't
know that I did that.
But I just, I didn't want to ruin the moment.
I just said, well, I hope you enjoyed it.
And if you ever need anything, I'm happy to.
I didn't know what to do.
I just wanted not to say anything ridiculous.
And then not long after that, these were at the up front to New York City.
And then, Ryan Reynolds.
And the good news is,
when we would have Hollywood types on the show and they'd tell us in advance,
oh, they're such a big fan of the show.
And then Rossello would always get super aggressive,
and go, yeah, what segments did they like?
Yeah, tell me a segment that they liked that we did.
What did they like, the two o'clock reset?
What did they like?
Well, that was the Denzel.
That was the all time Denzel one.
I learned that lesson. Yeah, well, I learned it very early,
that it was like a year after.
And they're like, no, he's a huge fan of what you guys do.
And so he wants to come on.
I was like, hey Denzel, what's up, man?
Fucking almost just tackled.
And I went, okay, there's a lesson here somewhere.
So yeah, okay, so you're on it.
You're on it.
Keep rolling.
Thankfully, it was an instant sort of a recognition
and gave me an,
it's an honor to meet you. And I said, well, that's probably overstating it, but
it's great to see you. And I got to tell them the Deadpool joke, which I got a big kick out of,
because I had just come from being in Louisville at the PGA championship when someone saw me and
they said, hey, you should get some sunscreen on there. And I said, no, it's fine. I look like an
avocado had sex with an older avocado,
which is what I said to them.
And then to Ryan Reynolds,
who said it was an honor to meet me,
but he was very kind, very gracious.
And that was a big one.
Met a couple of superstars there at the upfronts.
Yeah, sounds like it, Emma Stone.
Wow.
Yeah.
You know, maybe g maybe Gosling one day.
You know what we did here though?
What I liked that we did is that we did,
usually what was one of my least favorite things
is when we had limited time,
seven to nine minutes on the radio show,
but we talked golf.
We talked about, how's your, how's your swing?
Hit them straight.
And then I would just look at Scott and go like, come on.
Like we just wasted a question.
And Scott's so much nicer than I am.
And he's a massager of the interview,
especially when I was young.
Yeah, but you're way better.
No, but I was young and abrasive.
No, but you also were very educational for me
because you taught lead with the fun.
Start with the fun.
Because we inevitably eight minutes into our seven minute interview, you'd ask the fun question. Start with the fun, because we inevitably eight minutes
into our seven minute interview,
you'd ask the fun question,
then we'd have great stuff going.
And then me, the worst,
just saying goodbye or to anyone at the interview.
Then we reach 14,
and I'd still be not just milking the bit,
I'd be beating it to death and can't say goodbye.
So, you know, these are things that hopefully, hopefully I've shed those over time,
but you had to live with them and I apologize for that.
I see big things years 25 to 30.
I'm hoping man, fingers crossed.
I think you're getting better every night.
I watch, I go, he's finally getting it.
He's finally getting there.
Every now and then I have a good segment,
but that's, you know, just trying to have have a good and then obviously you want to tease better because that's
the that's that's that's really important. You are the best man. No you're the best. If we do this
if we do this when we're a hundred we'll still we'll still have that one little
pebble in the shoe that pissed us off that will make sure we air it out just
just for us right? Yeah I I didn't even think we were doing it that much I think we
know I don't think so either I think we're better but no you really are the best it's
it's appointment watching in a in an industry where that doesn't happen a lot
anymore and all the studio stuff you guys do after the biggest events it's
like the go-to and you Steve and everybody that works on the show,
keep doing everything you're doing,
because it's hard to stand out right now
the way you guys do.
So, appreciate it.
Likewise, I appreciate that a lot.
And as we've said, every time at the end,
I'm thrilled for everything that has gone as great as it has.
And one of these times, I'm to threaten you with a good time.
I'm going to show up in your neighborhood and we'll see the new spot and we'll
go by that, whatever that place is in the neighborhood, which was just the best.
What's it called? Are we allowed to talk about it?
What the 900 club?
That place. Yeah.
I want to go there again.
Well you got the VIP access and not everybody gets that.
I don't even get it.
And that was a night where Scott was just like,
are you serious with this?
Like, is this what goes on in this mild mannered surf city
neighborhood, village?
And I was like, some nights, some nights it does.
So the podcast is out, which days?
Get that promo in there for you and Steve.
Okay. It's SB pod. I don't know. We tape it on Mondays and then-
Great promo.
I don't know.
It's fucking nailed it.
I need to do a better job of making it some thing that matters, but it does matter. And we're,
again, I appreciate the help. But SB pod, me and Steve tape, tape, tape stuff on Mondays, it's going to be summertime. It'll be sporadic. I'm sure.
But then football, we're actually hoping to do something. Um,
and maybe it could, it could end up being like a late night, Saturday night,
early morning Sunday thing, just to kind of do a deep dive of,
cause everybody's going to do the Monday of the NFL. So like,
who's doing that instant reacts to what happens between
whomever. So hopefully that's going to be able to happen.
We'll have a better idea of it then.
I'll come on and do a better job promoting it then.
Yeah. All right. Well, sounds good.
And I see you've got your chicken box shirt on from Rocky.
Shout to Packy.
Oh, or Packy.
So maybe, maybe we'll see on the East coast this summer.
I miss you, man. Talk to you soon.
Appreciate you, brother.
You want details?
Fine.
I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet.
What's up?
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
I have every toy you could possibly imagine.
And best of all, kids, I am liquid.
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.
Shout out to Kyle joining us up late last night, right? Taping with Bill and his dad.
Yeah, it's finally over. We're gonna start recording normal times. It's the best time
of the year.
Sorty is here as well.
What's up? I think just update the folks, take a victory lap.
I think I did win our playoff draft 25-17.
So shout out to the Mavs for making the finals.
Helped me out a lot.
Oh, okay.
Way to start.
Hey, you gotta take the Ws when you get them, you know?
I'll take it.
What was my record?
I had 25 points, you had 17.
So I think that's the way. Oh, 25 to 17.
Yeah. Yeah.
So you actually smoked me there at the end.
Why, because you had the Mavs?
Yeah, the Mavs just carried me throughout the whole,
Mav and the Pacers helped me out a lot too.
You know what, I like that.
I like the way we did that though.
I can't wait to do it next year.
Pretty excited.
I'm already excited, already doing some prep.
You guys wanna hear a good story about your boy
before the game last night?
Always.
Before we get started?
Okay, so I had a friend who I brought to the finals a couple of years ago and he
goes, if they go to the finals, I'm bringing you.
So I was like, all right, no problem.
Um, so I went with him on his ticket and we had, uh, we were, they were
awesome seats, 18 rows up, but we were right at center court.
So really good spot.
And he was flying down from Vermont with his group
and I was already in Boston.
So he's like, look, I don't think I can make dinner
and the whole deal and let's just meet there.
I was like, no problem.
And I also knew even if they won,
I was like, I can't really go out tonight
because I got stuff to do all day tomorrow or whatever.
And so I don't know if it's going to be one of those nights.
And he was like, I don't care.
It doesn't matter.
It's about the banner.
It's about the banner.
I was like, yeah, yeah, okay, no problem.
So he sends me my ticket and I'm like, I'm just going to go over now and I'll just go
into the arena or whatever.
But I didn't have like a pass to walk around.
I was like, I'll just hang out.
So I get there probably like 50 minutes before tip and he says he's still like 20, 30 minutes out.
So I'm like, I don't want to just sit in my seat because I'm going to be in this
thing for like three hours tonight.
I was like, let me see if I go down to the Putnam club because I'll either know
someone or there might be some kind of thing I can scan on this.
Cause he was saying like, Hey, there's a thing that we have on our ticket that
can be scanned so we can go to that thing at halftime, but he was talking about
something entirely different.
So I just assumed it's like most arenas,
you just have this kind of halftime hangout thing
where you have to have some kind of pass to get in.
But in the past, it usually hasn't been an issue.
All right.
So I'm walking around the concourse
and I go to one of the security guys.
He goes like,
Hey, what's the best way for me to get down there?
He's like, well, the elevator is a mess and you have to go all the way.
He goes, you really just take the stairs, dude. And I was like, the stairs?
He's like, yeah, just take the stairs. You'll be fine.
I was like, okay, but usually the way the stairs work is like you can't open the doors from the stairwell.
So I was like, all right, thinking like, okay, what's the worst that could happen?
So I go out of the concourse I go down the stairs
I go to the level below that I need to get to and I go to turn the door and it's locked
Sounds like all right
That's not good
So they go down one more level and I'm like if you walk out here
You're filtered right back in to the front area where
the people haven't had their tickets scanned and your ticket has already been scanned.
So I was like, well, I can't go back up the stairs now.
So how bad is this going to be?
It's one of those moments.
Like, is this going to be one of these all time awful stories?
It's like, well, I'm not quite there yet.
Go up to the ticket lady, she scans it,
says the tickets are already been used.
She looks at me and I go, hey, look.
I'm like, this is exactly what happened.
She's like, this is so beyond me.
She's like, I have to get somebody from security.
And I'm hoping in Boston.
And that guy's really busy right now.
Yeah, but I'm still hoping like 50, 50 chance.
Like I don't usually play that card very often, but I'm thinking
Of all places. Yeah, like if it's in the garden, it's a
security guard my age
Least I'll kind of understand like alright. Yeah, it makes sense and a dude comes over and I explain it to him
He's just looking at me. He's like really man
The clinchy game of the finals and you just you're to tell me that you already came in fucking around in staircases.
Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, look, he, this is what the guy told me.
And I kind of knew it was bad advice immediately.
I figured like maybe somebody would open the door, but nobody opened the door.
So yeah, that's exactly what happened. And I was like, you know,
I did TV here for the Celtics for a long time. Like,
you just had to,
I fucking, you guys can make fun of me all you want.
What do you think I was gonna turn around?
Well, guess I'm not going.
Damn.
Yeah.
Because there were still a couple calls
that could have been made and would have been made
to be like, hey, I fucked up,
but you gotta help me out here.
So the guy looks at me just dead pants.
It's like, I have no idea who you are.
That's irrelevant to me.
And I was like, all right, good stuff.
It's Google on your phone.
Yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't going to go there.
No, I, I used to have hair shaved it and I looked to the side.
So, uh, he's like, I gotta grab my supervisor and the guys like, tell
me exactly what you did.
And I went, this is what I did.
This is when I came in.
I go, this is the email of the original ticket. Okay. And this is what I did. This is when I came in. I go, this is the email of the original ticket.
Okay.
And this is what happened.
And then he went back and then he comes back again.
He goes, did you go, he goes, which direction when you came up the
stairs and your ticket was scanned, which direction did you go?
And I was like, I took a right.
He goes, yep.
I was like, wait, I kind of have like a 50, 50 chance on that.
Right.
He's like, yeah, you're fine. I was like, wait, I kind of have like a 50-50 chance on that. Right, that's a coin flip. Yeah, yeah.
He's like, yeah, you're fine.
So go up, tell my friend.
He's like, what were you gonna do?
I was like, start texting a couple people.
This is what I was gonna do.
But I don't wanna say I almost missed game five last night,
but there was this fleeting moment of,
did you really just fucking do this?
Isn't it funny when you do so?
Like, you just know something is a terrible idea and you're like, I don't know, I kind? Isn't it funny when you do, like you just know something
is a terrible idea and you're like, I don't know,
I kind of don't have any other options right now.
And then you're like, yeah, I could just easily not done that
and avoided all this bullshit, but I just did it
even though I knew it was a bad idea.
I take it bad advice.
And those, it's those people, like they've got no
accountability.
It's not like you're in a Walmart asking somebody where the
bathroom is like, you're going to find that guy be like,
Hey, that wasn't the bathroom at all.
What the heck was that?
But he's one person in a stadium of 50,000 people
and he's like, oh yeah, that way.
Like there's no accountability for those people.
They know it's just, there's too many people for them,
they can just say whatever they want.
So directions and stadiums, I agree.
We should be doing better.
Yeah, I shouldn't have listened,
but I also shouldn't have put myself in that situation.
The guy had a shirt on and he told you to do something, right?
I mean, that's what we're taught.
Listen to the people that seem like they know what they're talking about.
See something, say something.
Anybody in a staff shirt, they can tell me anything.
I'll do the, all right, sure.
Yeah, exactly.
What you want to do is go to the 300s and then you jump down into section 12.
Don't worry about it.
It can be a really funny skit, just like dudes impersonating staff people at events
and just telling people to do the dumbest shit ever.
I was thinking about it because I wouldn't, I'm not somebody that is narcissistic enough to feel
like they have to share every fucking moment of their life and update everyone on it.
Where it's like, oh my God, you have no idea what I just did. First of all, it's sort of embarrassing.
So why would I be like, hey, let me-
10 part Instagram story of your journeys.
So this is the second supervisor
and he told me he's coming back.
Like I'm freaking out.
Does that sound like someone?
You know, but I would never post anything like that.
But then I thought about the people that do post
stuff like that.
And I would like imagine how that plays out.
Like you guys have seen the car accident one, right?
Well, the guy is in a car and he gets rammed by a huge Dodge truck with a big
grill brush guard on the front.
And immediately after he posts like, Hey, there's a camera footage of this person.
They ran me off the road because I thought I was going too slow. It. 75, 80% of the replies were blaming the person in the car that
got rear-ended. I love that. Yeah. So I would never share only knowing that it'd be like, well,
you shouldn't have done that. Or you should have been the security guards are only making this much
and how dare you, whatever. I'm like, I didn't even get mad at him. We're talking salaries. Yeah.
Yeah. But that's, that's, that's, and I, I made sure like, I didn't even get mad at him. We're talking salaries. Yeah, yeah, but that's, that's, that's what it was.
And I, I made sure like, I wasn't going to get mad.
It was my mistake, but I wasn't going to just go across the
street to the harp and text my buddy being like, my bad seat
1130.
You just want it to be true.
You know, like you wanted that it to be that easy for you to
get to the thing.
Like I think the second to last time I went to crypto,
they'd done away with the smoking area, but I asked a guy, cooler, younger security guy, he's like,
oh yeah, go up there right now. I go out there, there's just signs everywhere. There's no more,
you know, smokers, whatever those receptacles. And I'm like, that one guy told me I wanted to be
true. And then it's like a fucking three alarm fire all of a sudden. They're like, you can't be
out here doing that. And it's like, well, the one guy told me
and they're like, we don't care.
I don't know who you're talking about.
I wanted it to be true, but I knew it was a bad idea.
Yeah, what's like the job rating for those types of things?
Cause like, you don't have to be right
when you're talking to patrons.
Like, is your boss gonna be like,
you screwed up like five or six times this week.
And it's like, nobody cares.
There's no like accountability in that whatsoever.
You can give 10 straight people bad directions
and it won't matter.
Yeah.
I ultimately, I should have known better.
I've been in that building enough times to know.
Well you knew, you knew, deep down you knew, yeah.
I don't know what.
This was a subconscious thing.
Because he was saying specific,
he was like go to this section and off of that staircase.
So I was like okay maybe there's some hack
where that staircase in particular, you can go.
And then the other ones close behind you,
like every other arena that any of us have ever been to,
but whatever, not worked out.
Not a big deal.
Yep.
Banner 18.
Okay, let's go. We get somebody get dumped. All right, here's go.
We get somebody get dumped.
All right, here we go.
25 fan of the podcast and listening since 2019
stats six foot two 30 aspiring to get swole
one plate squat and bench.
You get those numbers up bro, two 30,
but gaining weight in the wrong places.
I'm a huge Georgia fan, went there late teens.
My ex-girlfriend and I met in computer science class
we had back in 2019 when I was finishing my sophomore year.
My 26 year old girlfriend of five years
recently broke up with me and I'm heartbroken.
Been in serious relationships since college.
She moved to my hometown to work her first job out of school.
Unfortunately, over the last year we had grown apart. We were no longer compatible like we were in college. She moved to my hometown to work her first job out of school. Unfortunately, over the last year, we'd grown apart.
We were no longer compatible like we were in college.
We were beginning to look for leases and move in together.
For the first time, we decided it's better to separate
than continuing to stay together.
When it hasn't worked out over the last year,
until I dated her, I had not been in a relationship
that lasted more than six months, so I'm devastated.
She was my first real love,
and I thought I'd marry her and see the world together.
As a 25-year-old man who lives with his parents in his hometown, how do you move on and get
back into the dating scene?
I live in middle Georgia and have a career in software engineering.
I've been waiting to relocate to Atlanta within the company since I took a job a year
ago.
Transferring is not difficult according to my boss since we're just a small company and
fairly flexible.
I still want to stay home for several more months to continue to save aggressively and
finish up my current projects
I'm obviously heartbroken since it's been less than 24 hours since I do you sent this email a day within a day after
Yeah, you're a fucking disaster. Sorry
But your phrase I'd rather be lonely than annoyed rings in my head. Oh, no
I'm not trying to build any kind of army that buys
That's honestly the worst advice.
That's a very specific type of person.
Brian's just a dude in his state who's giving advice.
Just telling any of you guys that are really buying into that whole premise of how I see my life and trying to apply it to your future.
Next time you go to a pizza parlor and there's a guy sitting at the bar by himself, 78 asked him to turn up the Orioles game.
Right.
Look at that.
Stare that down and say, is that what you want to sign up for?
And then he's sitting there talking to the bartender like, Oh, I think
their pulpins pretty good.
We'll see you next Tuesday.
You got onion rings.
Try not to eat them often, but so good. All right.
Um, I can live with my parents until I'm ready to move out as I've been living
with them since I graduated college in 21,
but I'm definitely ready to get out of the house and head to the big city for
better jobs and opportunities.
Do you have any advice or suggestions or moving on and getting back on your feet
after what feels like my own version of 2002? Wow. This guy is super locked in.
All right. Yeah. Look, uh,
I don't know. I've got the two bad breakups.
They were both bad for different reasons, vastly different reasons. Um,
the first one really hurts in a way that you're never ever prepared for.
It just sucks, man. It's like, Oh my God. So this is what's happening.
You, this is the first time it's ever happened to you.
So the first time it hurts, like you don't have anything else to compare it to.
So first of all, you're gonna get through it.
It doesn't feel that way right now.
You are gonna get through it.
Some people move on really fast.
Other people hang on to things a lot longer.
I think what I like from what you're saying
is you are already kind of planning
the next phase of your life
to try to get yourself out of what will probably
be a long run.
The best thing you can do is start dating somebody.
All right?
And even if that's unhealthy and the relationship
isn't all that great and it's some kind of rebound,
it's something, and it can even feel selfish,
but it's not like it hasn't been done to us as well.
But you need to put yourself in a position
to allow yourself to be in the mix with other people because sitting at home at your parents place
long term, there's not going to be anything that disrupts your routine and you're not
going to be super desirable.
Even though I like your frame when you're going out like you have to work on you being
somebody desirable for the next relationship that you're going out like you have to work on you being somebody desirable for the next
relationship that you're going to have.
Um, you know, some people need like all the space and I've got to work on me first and
all that kind of stuff.
Like, sure, fine.
If that's the way it works for you.
But I think most often, like it's just hard for you to accept, okay, this is over.
I need to start dating somebody immediately that there's probably someone listening right now going,
that's terrible advice.
But I'm just telling you every day that I wasted
not wanting to be with anybody else
because I was heartbroken is not a day that I was like,
great use of time.
All right.
I've never thought and be like, it's really cool
how you prolonged your misery there for a year.
That was fucking awesome, man.
Great use of a year.
We only get so many of these.
Great self-reflection, yeah.
Now, it was impossible to talk me out of that state of mind
at that time because I was a fucking loser,
couldn't rub two 20s together,
and the girl that I thought I was gonna marry
was now dating a guy in the mix,
and I wasn't getting invited on any weddings
or any other shit on top of everybody else. And then
people were like, don't come back to town for a while. I'm
just like, Oh my god.
What do you mean I live here? Yeah.
Yeah. And then it's like, how's Ryan doing? Do you talk to him?
I heard he's living in a cottage doing this, the shingles and
his truck didn't pass inspection. Okay. So there,
there wasn't a lot of awesome updates from your boy on that one. But what I wish I had done is just said,
hey, I don't have a lot to offer right now,
but at least I got my own pad
and I'm on fucking Martha's Vineyard,
so why don't you just bat some eyes at the hostess?
Go to a fucking movie, grab a little picnic.
You're good at making sandwiches, some arugula, a baguette,
dry turkey, not this oily shit that we get at some of these delis throw something together no mail maybe a nice italian dressing spread pre packed sandwiches go out to chill mark.
Head up to squibby and just fucking do something man get out of the house stop thinking about it and does that mean you're using this other person? Not really, I just made fucking sandwiches.
So.
Who's using who?
What do you think about it?
Yeah, right, and they're good.
I'm good at making them, I don't know what to tell you.
So you have to find a way to get to that point,
and I know that it's really, really hard.
I don't think I've ever had a bad breakup.
I think I've always been the break-upper.
I would just have said. Oh, a heartbreaker. Heartbreaker, geez. The worst one I think I've ever had a bad breakup. I think I've always been the breaker upper. I would just have said,
heartbreak, the worst one I think I found,
she had become a drug addict and was stealing from me.
But that was like Academy street guy.
That was a long time ago.
But even then I was like, I guess I'm betrayed,
but that still doesn't really count as like me getting dumped
was way easier to move on.
But so I really don't have advice for that. What I would have said
is just kind of what Ryan said is just to go do something and that's easier said than
done. But I guess the good news is you're better than you were when you sent this email
because it was that fucking point of impact that you sent this email. So did you know
she was a junkie or a thief first? It was tough. It was tough. It was kind of like, it's kind of like two, two
horses coming after the turn. I didn't know which one. It was kind of at the same time.
It was just like, oh, that's where my fucking shit has been going. And I was like, Oh,
this is dealing with it. Well, obviously we're broken up, right? And she's like, what? Like,
yeah, obviously, it was just like cash. You know, I was working those two jobs living on,
you know, in an apartment after I got kicked out of college for that one year. And it was like
a girl that I was like a cool girl in high school. And I was like, fuck, this is like,
now I'm the cool guy. I've got a crib. Let's go. And then it was just like, you know,
the money from the cigar box was like light. And I'm like, is it because we got too many friends
here? I like all these guys. And then it found out was her that sucks. Yeah. Yeah
Well, the good news is the guy's young and he's about to move to a big city
So I kind of feel like I know it's again as you said Ryan like it's easy for us to say as older guys
I've kind of been through this
But you know if you were stuck in your small town with the job you have and maybe you weren't happy with how things were
Going but like it does sound like there's like some sort of like change You know if you were stuck in your small town with the job you have and maybe you weren't happy with how things were going
But like it does sound like there's like some sort of like change
It's going to happen at some point in your life and that's awesome because that's what you need
You need to change you need and then once you get them you who knows
How long are you in this town that you're in before you move like if it's like a year don't just like wallow in self-pity
For a year, but you know you could take some time
If it's a couple of months be bummed out and then just be a new guy when you go to Atlanta whenever you make that transfer.
So I kind of feel like naturally your life has sort of carved out a good path for you
to sort of get over this and start meeting new people in a new place in a fun city.
So it might suck now.
Sometimes it also feels good to just be shitty and just be sad for a while.
Like I remember, you know, my first girl that I was really into and dated forever in high
school, like you kind of like you start listening to sad songs and you just you're just like in that mood.
You don't want to get out of that mood, you know, and you just make it a Van Morrison mixtape.
Yeah, what the fuck?
This is where I went to that big John Mayer phase.
I got into John Mayer because I'm like, man, this guy is like really singing to me right now.
And but the good news is like there is some sort of natural ending to that.
So I would say, you know, do your thing for a while, but definitely push for that
Atlanta move because that's going to, that's kind of going to change your
vibes and appreciate the, whatever dudes you have that are still in this town.
Right.
I mean, you're going to maybe, maybe you haven't even spent as much time as you'd
like to, maybe you can use this as an excuse to like reconnect and rekindling
of the dudes and you have this finite timeline
where you're gonna be out soon anyway.
So, I mean, it's not like you're moving states or whatever,
but maybe that's another thing you can lean on
and just be like, hey, I really feel like we should connect
or rekindle like you said.
You guys wanna do anything this weekend.
And then you have that, plus you know that, you know,
your timeline is creeping towards moving to Atlanta as well. I think you got stuff that you could
focus on. Yeah I actually think there's a ton of positives in this email okay
because you this is not and I know the South can be a little bit different and
I just believe that but the reality is this is your first real one so you don't
know anything else you can't even think about other options and you're 25 and the world is going to
be full of options and you are, I promise you, you are going to think back at this
moment when you meet the next person and you're going to go, Oh my God, you know,
whether you weren't ready now or she wasn't ready, you just said it wasn't going
well.
So then it wasn't going well for a year, but then you're like, Hey, let's get a
place together.
Well, guess what was probably not going to happen. It probably wasn't going well for a year, but then you're like, Hey, let's get a place together. Well, guess what was probably not going to happen?
It probably wasn't going to go better if it wasn't going well for a year, year five, and
then you were going to move in together and now everything's going to be sick.
I don't know.
Maybe I mean, unless the stress was based on you not having a place to live together,
but it sounds like there was other stuff.
And even within 24 hours of this all happening in you writing this email,
you're already talking about plants, like Saruti pointed out. The best part of the email is that you're already allowing yourself to think about, okay, what's the next move? Be motivated by it.
I can get to two plates on each side. All right? There you go.
I remember just thinking about the new guy with every tricep pulldown. That went on for years.
I was going to be like, motherfucker. He's PRing every day. Yeah. Like, all right, you know, who does eight reps? I'll do nine. So I think
there's a lot of positives in here. And then who knows? There's always the, you never know
about this one, but the U-turn of life where you'd be like, oh, there's so much pressure
and I didn't really know what to do.
And I was at this stage of my life and I wasn't really thinking clearly like, let's get back
together.
But what you can't do if you want to get back together with her is unfortunately, because
we're all fucked up, you can't tell her that you desperately want to get back together
with her.
You have to like chill out.
You got to do so well in this time and not say a word to her.
That's how it works.
Yeah, there's a good chance that you go to Atlanta, things are going well.
She sees your Instagram stories and maybe she, she reaches out,
which is not a good thing.
I don't think you even want that at the point if you're having a good time there.
So beware.
Go one 85 for three posts.
Okay.
Uh, I think we got that one.
It is funny though, really quickly how, man, like when you break up with somebody,
you just remember, or so when somebody breaks up with you,
you really do just remember the good shit.
You don't remember any of the bad stuff.
He's a saint.
And you're like, oh, it was so fun,
but it's like the chains that really screws you up
because like, oh, I had this routine,
but you just ignore all of these red flags
because you're just kind of sad because you got dumped.
But a lot of times, like, I don't know,
this might not be the worst thing in the world for our guy.
Yeah, that's why the forgetting Sarah Marshall thing I always had a problem.
It's a great movie, but I just always had a problem with the premise. It's like,
okay, so he gets dumped by this unbelievable catch, you know,
cause she's on TV on top of also being really attractive. But then it's like,
okay, but now there's just a run on all these attractive girls that can't stop
sleeping with them.
Like he's having a much better time than from what I remember it being like.
I know he's eating cereal a lot, but another eight's leaving his house.
He didn't really do anything.
It just sits around a lot.
Let's get to another email.
Should I have helped blind one here? 24 years old, 6'3", 220.
Wish more of it was muscle.
Maybe you said some skeletal muscle goals, who knows?
I was playing pickup basketball in my friend's backyard.
Oh, so this one's even like, okay.
He has a full court.
We have a group of 15 or so guys.
Oh, so this is a little bit more than just horse
with your hammered uncle.
15 guys that play there a few times a week.
I'm in the bottom half of impact and skill level,
but I make smart passes and set off ball screens,
hit open shots and rebound occasionally.
Really on PO on our hands here.
So two of the best players regarding each other tonight
and the guy on the other team was cooking my teammate
playing at 21.
He probably was scoring assisting on 15 points per game.
Usually when he drives in my direction, I slide over to help.
I guard the slowest non-shooting bigs that come to the run.
So I figure it makes sense to shut up drives
because I can recover to these non-shooters in time.
Tonight in one of the last games, I slid over and helped.
The kid I was guarding was over 300 pounds,
was not making any shots.
The good player retreated, backed it out.
My teammates start yelling at me, Tim, you need to get the fuck out of my way
on these drives.
That is not help.
What was I supposed to do?
Let someone blow by if we're casually on the perimeter, I'll go third man through,
but this was a direct drive at me.
Was he upset about losing or getting cooked by this guy?
I'm not a good defender, but this is not a high level enough run to be
screamed at by a guy who didn't play organized ball growing up.
Should I have helped?
Um, I'm going to side with you on this one.
It sounds like your boy was getting absolutely worked by the other guy.
So he was just mad at the world the entire time.
And that's what people do.
It's like Luca yelling at the refs after something.
It's like a lot of players yelling at the refs where there's this immediate
instinct of competitiveness, where you lose all rational thought in those moments.
It has to be someone's fault, right?
Yeah.
I look, I've done it.
Okay.
I've done this.
So, um, maybe not in health defense, but you understand the point.
Like, yeah, it's not anything I'd ever be proud of, but what your buddy is doing is
he's yelling at you because he really wants to get himself.
So he doesn't need to do that.
It would have been nice if you just gave it right back to him.
And based on the know your personnel, it sounds like you do know your
personnel and if there's a 300 pounder out there who's not a threat from three.
And maybe you weren't positioned perfectly.
I don't need to see the video of it, but I think what this is, is a very clear
case of him being so mad about how the game was going, he was going to take it
out on somebody else and you just happened to be the
target.
Yeah.
He probably would have got a quick shut the fuck up for me, um, in a similar
tone as, as was provided to me.
That's probably where I would have left it unless it wanted to go anywhere else.
But, um, yeah, I know what you're talking about.
I mean, I have those reactions like I could be considered clumsy, uh, just at
times in my house.
Dropping stuff, dropped a bottle
of crystal hot sauce yesterday.
So mad immediately.
How'd it go?
Give us a breakdown.
Well, I got probably 80% of it up.
It was pretty late.
It was after Bill's Pod.
So I actually kind of shoved it in the corner
with a bunch of paper towels.
I'm gonna go handle that after this.
But I was like, yeah, no, not my proudest moment.
I got the big piece.
Sounds like ants happen.
Yeah, I know.
I'm going to handle it.
But I think immediately I was just like, why was that there?
And it's like, it doesn't matter why I was there.
Why did you fucking knock it over?
How about that?
So that's just, even from little things, it can happen.
What's the, I don't know, I feel like it doesn't sound like it's
a competitive enough level of basketball
Like would you do this at the Y if somebody that's me at the Y I'd be pissed off and I think that's it
That could be a pretty high competitive game depending on what it is
I don't know
I feel like if you're somebody's backyard even if it actually is five on five and you got 15 dudes and it's like
You know, there's a hierarchy of people shouldn't be yelling out defensive rotations like that's that's just a dick move
So I don't know if the guy's an asshole in general.
I don't know if you're really that closer than whoever.
It probably doesn't matter.
I don't think you have to say anything to him, but yeah, he's more
mad at himself and he is at you.
And, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't let this be a habit of people just
yelling at you at basketball games.
If you're, cause again, as we talked about, this really didn't seem like
it was that much of your fault.
So I don't know, probably it was just like kind of a one-off thing.
I just let it slide.
Yeah. I think getting yelled at by a teammate
in a basketball game, there's different stages of it.
Like there's some that I think we all just know,
like that's not where that should happen.
I played for a men's league in Vermont
where I was the only guy of the starting five
that didn't play in college.
Semi-pro?
Yeah, semi-pro, yeah, we traveled a little bit.
Pretty nice, not a big deal.
And there was a guy that I had a guard. I think his
name is Matty Johnson. He's like a Vermont legend. He was like
really, really good players older than me. And he was just
one of these guys was like smooth saw the game a different
way. It wasn't like he was just this awesome score. And the
other guys that I played with ended up becoming like coaches.
Alright, so these guys were another level of like what I even understood about the game at
that time.
And I remember.
Like he wasn't, the guy wasn't really shooting because he was just one of those
really good players, just kind of control of everything, but he could still score
whenever he wanted to, but he wasn't like really going at me.
So I started thinking like, Oh, well, maybe I can cheat off of this guy a little
bit.
And the second I cheated off of him,
he threw a pass and like cut baseline,
came back and then finished.
And it was like a level of,
he knew what he was doing the whole time.
He read what I was starting to do
through the first few possessions.
And then he was kind of like,
this guy has no idea how good I actually am.
And I'd heard about him,
everybody told him he's like, he's fucking awesome
and you're gonna have to guard him tonight.
And when I left him and he scored the layup,
the guy on my team calls time out and was like,
you can't fucking leave.
And I was, I didn't love it, man.
I didn't love it, but in that setting,
he was right and all of those guys were better than me.
And so I had to eat it.
I had to take it.
This sounds like more of the LeBron Mario Chalmers thing
where he's just looking for somebody to blame though,
for something that he might've done.
Yeah, yeah.
Like Tristan Thompson's not my favorite,
but when Tristan went back at LeBron,
being like, stop yelling at us,
like stop screaming at me.
And then LeBron had like a realization,
cause I think there was a respect Tristan,
he's been around, same agency where LeBron,
it was like one of the few times I've ever seen LeBron
after he mistakenly blamed somebody else for something,
then kind of had an epiphany of like,
oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that.
But again, if LeBron's yelling at you in a pickup game,
I think most of us would actually have to take it.
Even if he was late on the road.
I would be fine with that, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, some people are right.
Okay, good pod.
I enjoyed today.
This was a lot of fun thanks to wargon
saruti and kyle check out our youtube channel
on youtube and subscribe and ryan rusilla podcast and Must be 21 and older, 18 plus in DC, and present in select states.
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