An All-Time Collapse at The Garden, Plus Mike Tirico on the Wemby Experience

Hey, we're still the listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Would you use dish soap to wash your car? Sure, we get the dirt off, but you'd be stripping the paint and protection every single time. And that's exactly what harsh personal care ingredients do to your skin. The stuff you put on your body isn't just sitting on the surface, it's being absorbed. Everyman Jack makes naturally derived body wash, deodorant, and beer care that's actually built for men. They're coconut based body wash hydrates instead of stripping. Their new 48 hour deodorant fights odor without the harsh chemicals, and they're the number one beer care brand in America. Everyman Jack, clean, effective, made for men. The Rhyrosiloh show is presented by DraftKings. I will break down Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, historic comeback for the Knicks, all the things I liked from both teams and some things I didn't like from both teams. We'll spend some more time on that game, but more importantly, the Western Conference finals reaction with the man who was in the building for Game 1 and called him for NBC, my good friend Mike Turico. We're going to talk about Wemby, we're going to talk SGA, all of the NBA playoffs as well, because he has thoughts because he watches the game too, and we have life advice. The NBA playoffs are here and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA brings excitement to every game day, the whole post season. When the lights get brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round and DraftKings turns it up with them from the first round all the way to the finals. Bet player props, bet live from the opening tip to the final position, every bucket, every dime, every clutch takeover matters, and only DraftKings Sportsbook keeps you in on the action all the way through. New DraftKings customers bet just $5 and you'll get $100 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app, use the code Ryan, so you're ready for the moment. That's code Ryan, R-Y-E-N, turn $5 in a $100 in bonus bets instantly in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called 1-800 Gambler or 1-800 Myri reset, New York called 877-8-Hope & Wire, text Hope & Wire, Connecticut called 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Bute Hill Casino in Kansas, Wager Tax Pass-Thru may apply in Illinois, 21 and over in most states, Void and Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see Sportsbook.DraftKings.com slash promos. Limited time offer. All-timer in-game one of the Eastern Conference finals for much different reasons than the Western Conference finals. So let's run through some thoughts and we'll ask Trico his thoughts on last night's game as well. Last night was one of the worst coach games I've seen in the entire playoffs. I don't think these are bad coaches. I think they both had things, multiple things throughout the entire night where I was like, I don't know what they're doing. My rule is pretty simple with this stuff. Although I feel like I've said it now three times during the playoffs. So maybe I'm getting sharper or maybe some of the stuff is more obvious because like my rule is this, if I'm noticing it and it's not good, that's bad. I know it sounds real simplistic, but there's tons of stuff that I don't notice that is either good or bad because it's kind of hard when it's live and you're not like watching the film or you haven't done this for a living, but you know, you pick up a few things in 40 years. So I'll get to some of those things that I didn't quite understand. Even those games still could have kind of gone either way, despite an all-time comeback here from the Knicks. Cavs, first quarter, had they had 16 points, lowest scoring quarter for the entire season. So not off to a great start at MSG. Around 2013 when the Knicks got up seven, it was kind of a turnover fest here. So I did like some of the stuff that Cleveland was doing, but they just couldn't hang on to the basketball. And I know it's another hard and turnover night. How about this? The one at mid-court where it was like, how did he just get the ball ripped from him there? He was completely hacked on the arm. The difference is hard and doesn't complain as much about calls that don't go his ways, least on that one. I'm not even talking about like the shot attempt stuff that drives us crazy. He was completely hacked on. It looks so bad live. You're like, how did you just get the ball ripped from you? You're like, oh, it's because they smacked your arm. And because he doesn't complain a ton, it actually looks a little bit worse because he's just moving on to the next thing, which may speak to something else about intensity in the playoffs altogether. Not a pass on necessarily all the other turnovers, but it was just a little turnover E in this kind of five to six minute stretch where you're on, all right, well, this isn't just about the next defense. It's certainly not about the next makes here. This isn't just three point variant stuff. Even though the Cleveland had started over six from three, it was just, they weren't able to get into the stuff at all because they couldn't protect the basketball. You could also say, hey, you're going to be a little stronger with the ball in these playoffs, which again is probably accurate too. Defensive assignments on this one, Wade starts on Brunson. It felt like a Wade's truce priority against Brunson. Allen gets to float off of Hart, Mowbly's on Kat, and then Harden is on OG with Mitchell on Bridges. OG not playing for a couple of weeks. I imagine they're looking at it as, you know, if Harden is on them, they're not going to run isos for OG at all, but you'd wonder if there's a way you could get those kind of like an a two on two with everybody else spaced to the other side of his bridges, if it's Kat Hart, they're going to just look, everybody does it, every center does it. Basically, it's like, hey, we can, we can live with Hart hitting a couple threes, even though he's not a bad shooter. I don't think if Josh Hart is necessarily a bad shooter, but it's the thing that almost every single opponent is willing to give up with their defensive assignments. Cleveland gets it going after that 0 and 6 start from three, they finish the first, first half eight of 15. And then at half, it's a close game, but you're looking at the Nix three point shooting and they're two of 19. So normally when you see that number, you go, okay, well, if the other team isn't up by like 12, they're in some trouble, but that's not necessarily how I felt because there were things I liked and didn't like all over the place with both teams in that first half. Then the third quarters, just Cleveland, they dial it up, Mitchell has 20 in the second and third quarters combined. They outscored New York 35, 23. I think at one point it was like 35, 17. It may have been another thing that has been like a long-term question here for this Cleveland roster is, you know, is it really your best lineup to have Allen and Mowgli out there at the entire time? If you're staggering them that much in the regular season, is that just a freshness thing or is that actually, even though we have these two dudes that we've paid and they're both starting players and they're both talented guys, we kind of like to not play them because we're better off not playing. So then it's like, okay, but in those big playoff minutes, if you're playing both of them, are you doing something you actually don't think is the best version of your basketball team? I would always argue that I think Mowgli is better offensively when Allen is not out there. I don't know what the numbers would show and if you could dice those up to prove whatever point you wanted to point out. But look, I think it's pretty simple because Allen's not going to provide any kind of spacing. Mowgli in theory provides a little bit of spacing, but I don't know that anybody's necessarily that worried about it from the occasional three for Mowgli, even if the numbers look good, but not having Allen out there, I think allows Mowgli to do some more things. But in that third quarter, I was noticing it because I'm like, you know, they're playing both these guys a lot more minutes, it feels like then the traditional kind of like start them and then split them up immediately. And then you're playing like the first two or three minutes with them together and then you've split them for the other nine. And they played Mowgli 9-12, they played Allen 8-16 and I liked it. I liked what I saw last night. So I was like, okay, that could be something for this series. Then the fourth quarter happens. The place feels dead, which is rare for MSG. You have Brunson who, as we saw again last night, and I was thinking about this when I was watching Brunson just take over, it's like how many true takeover players do we have in the NBA that can take over offensively. And I don't want to get into the aesthetics of like Ant versus everybody else because Ant's like the best version to watch of somebody just going nuclear. But Ant's on the list, SGA is clearly on the list. I think Yolkic is on the list of like, I'm just going to take over now offensively. And so it's not going to be just sheer shot volume with Yolkic, the way it would be with some of the other perimeter guys. And I think we've seen it from Wembe already multiple times here. I don't think it's a long list. I don't know if Tatum is on it. Luca is obviously on it. We've seen it too many times. I don't want to turn it into like, hey, here are the top 10 players. Giannis can have a will and a force about him that's just impossible to deal with. I don't know if Tatum is on this list. I mean, I know he had 51 in game seven, so that feels a little stupid. But then it also starts to feel like I'm just naming the good players in the NBA. What I do want to make a point of and to emphasize that I don't know where Brunson ranks, but he ranks probably closer to one than he would say five, six or seven on being able to take over a game offensively, especially when you don't change the defense. And this is kind of what everybody was talking about last night and what I'm going to hit on here. So if you look at New York down 22 with seven minutes to go, go the last seven minutes of the game, the last five of overtime. So that's 12 game minutes. The Knicks outscored the Cavs 44 to 11. Hard to do because I do think these teams are very even. I'm going to get to the heart and defensive stuff here with Atkinson, but there were again, things I liked from both sides. There are also things from the Knicks that I didn't even like. I don't know why they didn't want to get hard in the action earlier. I think there was one play where I saw that they attacked him. You can say, Hey, we were saving it, but I don't know. You were down 22. What are you saving it for? Because you can see some of the stuff the teams will do where they don't want to go to it until it's a little bit later. There was also some stuff defensively that New York was doing with Harden where they were doubling him on the ball. That was at the end of the third quarter. So the Knicks are doubling Harden. They got three awesome looks off of these. I don't think they all went in. There was a Merrill make. There's a Merrill miss and offensive there's a shrewder layup in this. So they're playing four on three. And it's like, why are you doubling a guy in James Harden who does not want to shoot the ball in the playoffs unless he thinks he's going to get fouled? I mean, that is what has been happening now for a long time. Why are you doing that? But then Mike Brown redeems himself because Kenny Atkinson has kind of checked out on this one. They put Harden in this defensive switch against Brunson in a way where it's like, if it were a gladiator pit and one guy's winning and the other guy is going to lose, he's going to die. And instead of like, Hey, let's get this over with. Like, now I'm just going to keep poking at you a little bit here and everybody's going to watch because it was agonizing. And sure, some of the makes from Brunson were incredible makes. There were times where I thought Harden actually held up okay defensively in the switch. And then there's other times where he's getting absolutely cooked. There's another play where you're asking Harden to show a double and then retreat to a three pointer. And it's like, you know, you can get on Harden for not getting a better contest. There's another play where Shammett hits a three where he gets lost in transition of trying to figure out who he wants to defend. But I actually think he thought he was helping out his team by running with a wing that was beating Jared Allen down the floor, but that leads to Shammett, who was his guy in that spot, getting a pretty wide open three. So we could go through every single one of these and go, Hey, that one actually wasn't that bad or that was a big ask. But there's also ones where he's getting absolutely torched and we're all watching it at the same time. The all NBA pod with our guy legs and Adam, they had some numbers that are just staggering that you could be this stubborn. If you're at Conson in the calves to watch Harden just getting cooked and put into this thing and not going like, Hey, let's just make it look different once. No, they got hard into switch into nine isolations in the fourth quarter over time. The efficiency for the Knicks on these possessions was 1.9 points per possession. That is an absurd number. All right, to put that in perspective, if you go through the regular season, SGA in isolations, right? He's the number two isolation possession player in the NBA, the frequency with which his possessions end up in isolation. Behind only James Harden during the regular season on these, on these points per possession, SGA is at 1.16 points per possession. I think it's a points per shot thing last night, but it was 1.9 on those plays against Harden. And, you know, the other part that's great for the Knicks here is OG hasn't played in a couple of weeks. He had a possession at the beginning of the third quarter where he was wide open in a catch, right about the free throw line, had some space to work in the paint. It's OG, man. The guy's a freak and he was hesitant on that catch because either he's rusty or he's still hurt. He's not necessarily feeling it. When they did double Brunson, when everything's just, the wheels are falling off for Cleveland here defensively, OG is getting this catch where he is wide open and he had two awesome attacks. I know we had an air ball three on one of these, but it was almost like he had to be reminded of like, hey, there's, like, this is all there for you. So look for that when this predictably happens again and it predictably is not allowed to happen this much. And that's kind of my rule whenever I think like a coach is doing something wrong. I'm like, all right, well, let's see if he does it again. Like, if we're not wrong and you're right, are you going to let that happen to Harden again? And, you know, there's something to be said too about Harden having to be like asked to play those 12 straight minutes in the fourth quarter and all five and overtime, which is going to happen. But I mean, when I think about Harden, it's like, oh yeah, we can definitely run him out there for 12 minutes straight without any kind of break whatsoever. He's not the first guy I would pick to be tasked with that kind of output, although he doesn't really move around a ton. So maybe 12 minutes for him is a little bit easier than the other 12 minutes for guys. So, you know, Atkinson finally changed what he wanted to do defensively here. It was 110-104. Struce had come in. And then they changed the defense at like 143, but it just felt like it was too late. They get Struce back onto Brunson and Wade and Struce were not in the game during kind of this part where it was like, hey, we can't really hide Harden now. Like the thing that we wanted, we wanted Wade on Brunson because of his size. We wanted Struce because of his fight and size on Brunson, but then we allowed, based on substitutions, or not wanting to substitute, we allowed ourselves to be in a defensive alignment that we actually didn't prefer the rest of the game. So I just don't understand it. I also don't understand Donovan Mitchell's role with this team at times. As I said, he had 20 through the second, third quarter. There was talk that maybe he was hurt, maybe something happened. He was fighting something with his ankle there a little bit. But in overtime, I watched it again this morning. He had three touches. I don't think he had the ball for more than like 10 seconds of the entire overtime. He missed the layup. He had a pass to Mowbly on a miss. And then he threw up a Hail Mary 3 when the game was already over. Those are the only three touches for Donovan fucking Mitchell in overtime of a playoff game that is falling apart. I don't get the point of like, if Garland was making Harden, excuse me, if Garland was there and he was making Mitchell play off the ball too much, then what are you doing now? All of the possessions are running through Harden who, again, does not want to shoot the basketball in big spots unless he thinks he's going to be fouled. He had his third shot clock violation in the last two games because he didn't want to shoot at the end. He got into the paint. He was like, ah, nobody's going to follow me. And he throws a grenade back to Sam Merrill. And it's a shot clock violation. Sam can't even get the shot off. I don't know why Mitchell is just like, look, you could say, hey, maybe Mitchell was hurt. Maybe it's totally on Mitchell for not getting more engaged. I don't know. I mean, they're not even using them as a decoy. He's just standing there. Like, fine. If he doesn't want to Mitchell isn't feeling right. Have him cut and do something to bring something away from the ball. So you're at least distracted with your best scoring option you have out on the floor. So the final number from this teams up 20 with seven minutes to go in a playoff game where 643 and oh, it is now 643 and one. I think both teams are pretty close. It feels like the kind of loss that's going to hang on you for a while. But there's things I like from Cleveland. And I think there's some pretty simple things to not let happen to you again, going into game two and just another night for Brunson at MSG that, you know, you put, you put them on a short list. I know it was a little easier with the switches and all that kind of stuff, but there's also some incredible makes in there as well. Kyle was having a great time in Chicago and he also had unlimited access to Lucy because we were at Barstow headquarters. So he was like, man, I love this city. And I was like, that might just be the Lucy talking Lucy is the obvious choice for the true nicotine pouch kind of source. That's why they're the official nicotine pouch partner of Barstow sports. Every other pouch is the same. Lucy breakers are the only ones doing it differently to give you the longest lasting flavor and pouches. Lucy pouches go up to 12 milligrams strength and have a unique shape that feels great. Lucy is in stores nationwide or get Lucy delivered to you ASAP on apps like DoorDash and GoPuff. Lucy is the only pouch that delivers long lasting on-demand flavor. Find a store near you at lucy.co slash stores or get it shipped with 20% off your first order at lucy.co slash Ryan using the code Ryan R Y E M. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every customer's age verified warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. He is the voice of the Western Conference finals. He is one of the biggest voices in all of sports and he's gearing up for the Olympics as well with NBC. It is a good friend. 20 years now, Mike Turico. Is that right? 20 years? Yeah, because look, I've told the story. Oh, sorry. What do you have to tell it again? I'm sorry. No, it's just that when I first started filling in after a few months, I get a call as we go into the commercial break and they're like, hey, Turico's on the hotline. He wants to talk to you. And I'm like, oh no. And you were just like, hey, I've been in the car. I've been listening to you for a few months. You know, I know we don't know each other, but just keep doing it the way you're doing it. You're really good in it. It was like life changing. So thank you. Oh my God. Oh my God. I appreciate it. Can you call me at some point and just do that for me? Like make me feel good. Pick me up after like a bad second quarter, a bad like under seven timeout stretch for me where, you know, I've got to come out and call a timeout. You know what I like about timeouts called by NBA coaches, random conversation before we talk about him. I love the style of coaches when they walk out and call timeout. Like just that, you know, just like, you know, the timeout's coming, right? And the way guys just pull a timeout it's like, I think the best in the league I've always felt was Rick Carlisle. I thought Rick Carlisle when he like just called the timeout, even from his Detroit days, then in Dallas, but absolutely in Indiana, he was the head of the coaches association. He just walked off the bench like with an anger and a scowl. And just like, I don't even think they like look and just give the little tea to the official of call time. They just like walk out, point at the guy and they are just pissed. I love that. I think like if the guys left, like Dagnall's kind of cool. Mitch was, he was angry a couple of times. Yeah, on the mouth of play. Yes. He got so mad then had to call the timeout again. Yeah. Right. That's what they do. They get so mad that they got like, my crown's not 10. So we don't have any like high octane coaches, but like Carlisle is the number one timeout pull guy for me in the league. And I benchmark them off of all that. Because when you're doing the game, like you could feel a timeout come. I even have say it on the air with Ridge. I'm like, and Jamal like, Hey, three here might need a timeout right to get ahead of it. And then like, as soon as that ball goes in, I beeline my eyes over to the coach. And if I see him strolling out for that little annoyed, I'm taking a timeout. I try to get in timeout whoever and then let the crowd go. Right. So you're not fighting the crowd. And I just like have a keen eye to coach it. I'll kind of watch games when guys pull timeouts just so I get their rhythm of that, which is very inside baseball and stupid, but I don't know. You just bring that out of me. I love it. Because there are certain coaches, I think I've watched enough with certain guys like when I know Minnesota's on a bad stretch and then maybe the broadcast is waiting for Finch to call timeout. I'm like, he's not going to. And I like some of the coaches like, Oh no, a seven, oh run. What are we ever going to do? Like it's going to happen four more times tonight. So I don't have to call a timeout every single time that there's a run. I mean, it is kind of the old Phil Jackson thing. Or it's like, I don't need to just concede this timeout. And then I think there's coaches that know it's going so bad and maybe they're going to get fired. They call a timeout in a defeated fashion where you're not supposed to, like you're supposed to show some fight to your point on the timeout. I'm just going to start with Wembleyama, but now I can't because it's too good of a transition. Then you have Kenny Atkinson who did not want to call one last night. I imagine you watched that as close as you would if you were calling it. Your thoughts on game one last night in New York. Yeah, I had, I had reached checkout mode and then, you know, one of my favorite people in the world and a peer who I respect the hell out of, Mike Breen said, you know, and game one last year in the fourth quarter, you know, the Dicks led the Pacers and then like, okay, like Mike has now set this up. And it almost feels like that's where those, the avalanche was beginning. The first, first little snowballs were coming down the mountain. You know, it's such a hard thing. Do you really take James Harden off the floor? Do you change coverages? Like what, what do you do deeper in a series now they'll have answers for that? I think series expose weaknesses and then elevate coaching. If you go back to Atlanta up to one on the Knicks, which feels like it was seven generations ago, right? Mike Brown came into our meeting. We had, we had game four, I think it was, yeah, it was myself, Reg and Zora Stevenson. And Mike was like, clear as like, Hey, full credit to Quinn Snyder and those guys, they've exposed something with us. And we have, they're forcing us to respond. And that was where the point forward cat stuff got rolling. From that point on, they've been a juggernaut. So the calves got exposed here by the ISOs on Harden. Now the question was change defenses, take a time out, do something. But the problem is, are you taking James Harden off the floor in a game where you're starting to fall apart? Because he's likely to, if he gives a 1.9 per possession on ISOs, he's also likely to get you 1.2 or three of those back on the offensive end. He just didn't hit a damn thing. So it's a tough one, but you had to stop the momentum a little bit. It's such a weird feel because do you use them all and then have nothing left for the end? Do you keep one in your back pocket? You've played through a lot of tight situations against the Pistons. I think Kenny would look back and probably say, should have used a time out just to stem the momentum and make a switch somehow on defensive coverages to get Harden out of those situations. But full credit to Knicks, they just kept picking at the stab and kept going and going and going. That building is different though. And even though I like the people who are kind of defined at times about the time out, it's the best building when it's rocking. Like when the Knicks are rolling like that, I just don't know if there's something else. So can I challenge on that? You're going to say Minnesota? No. It was off the charts nuts in Oklahoma City. I mean, now the difference with the garden is the celebrity factor. Maybe they get you tighter. I don't know. Is it the crowded nature where it feels like everybody's on top of you and you feel that confining feeling? I feel that in Oklahoma that game, I try to pop my headset off for a few seconds after a time out. It was deafening loud in there. I was trying to talk to George Kittle who was sitting in the Tracy Morgan seat, like, it's you, your stat guy, and then somebody. And by the way, which would suck to call a game, because now you're trying to call the game around a six foot six, 240 pound, why is the refrigerator tight end? I'm like, George, I'm glad you're having a beer and joining. I can't see a damn thing. Right? It's like sit your 49er butt down. But I feel like that place has intensive, but I get what you're saying. Like it's like the garden history, the fervor, the crowd. I think I'm a New Yorker and it's my building and I love it to death. And I get so excited walking up the ramp to call games there. But I hear you, I think other buildings are just as loud, but I get your point with where you're going. Yeah. No, I mean, look, Paycom is you're right. I mean, for like just sheer volume and especially when it's a city like that, where it's like, this is our thing and it's really special and we're coming off as defending champs. So it's not necessarily a rank. I just feel like the emotion of MSG is another level where you're like, okay, but still this Cavs team has been around. So it's not like these guys are new. This isn't like it's their first run, even if some of the pieces have changed. So, you know, look, I think Kenny's a good coach. I think he had a bad night and my number one rule on times where I'll be like, because I've never, ever wanted to be like, hey, this guy sucks and this guy's stupid. And this hood, like, you know, those guys that do this job that every Monday you're rolling after an NFL Sunday and it's like every single coach and every single play caller sucks. When I know they don't even, like, I don't even know what their concepts are. And so basketball, I'm obviously a little bit more comfortable with that kind of stuff. But the first thing I'll look for is go, okay, if we're all on a coach about something, are they admitting that we're right by not letting that happen again? So, so, so let me, let me say two things. I call a great game in my mind on my couch. I never stumble, right? I always know the right words to say, I see everything on the floor when I'm watching on TV, like in the building, I don't, you just, I'm not on the monitor the whole time. I'm watching the game because I'm trying to pick up the advantage stuff of sitting first row center court, the best seat in sports. I will miss some things. I'm not perfect. The best player in the league, Wemby, SGA, they will miss shots. Officials will miss calls. It's huge. It's the human part of doing things without a delete button, without a, you know, cut and erase without anything, without a backspace. That's the, that's the excitement of live sports and coaches are the same way. Absolutely. I'm going to guarantee you peers of the four guys who are left, the other, you know, guys, their jobs open, but the other 26 individuals who were coaches last year and the hundreds of the guys and ladies who are a chair or two away are watching every playoff game going, why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? You don't play a perfect game in any seat in sports. And that's the love and joy of it. And I think that's why sports has more shelf life now than all these other things that are going on in our world because it's live, it's unpredictable and the human element comes in every single time. So maybe Kenny was just feeling like, well, I'm going to let them play through it because I know we're going to get through it. I want to save my timeouts for the end if they come back. Maybe he's just thinking, Hey, I don't want to take hard and off the floor. And at a timeout, he may have felt different. So nobody has perfect nights. You know, the guy did a hell of a job to get his team to games through game seven in Detroit in a dominant fashion. All right. So you can't, I'm not pulling your genius card 48 hours later. So I'm with you. I think that's a pain in stone overreacts. It's just tough when it's over and over and over again. And then you're like, okay, you're asking James off of game seven to play 12 straight minutes of the fourth quarter, obviously all the minutes and overtime, which is very normal that your five guys are going to play all five minutes, but that's off of 12 straight where the other guys are being subbed. But look, I think there are things I like from both Cleveland, despite the loss last night. There's some things I think they should feel good about. And you know, there's some stuff even from New York that I was confused that I talked about in the open where I was like, why would, you know, what are some of these decisions? And granted, it's two and a half hours of nitpicking any of these decisions. So to your point, you can find some stuff that you don't necessarily like, but as devastating as a, as a game that should be for Cleveland, like I just think there's so many lessons when teams are evenly matched that 48 hours later, and I think they're very evenly matched 48 hours later. It's, it's incredible. The sport and how different the same two teams can look just two days later. So let me, let me go back to my old radio days and start the segue with you here. Mitch Johnson yesterday at the Spurs availability, I was over at their hotel and he was talking about this. It's like any one of 10 different outcomes changes the outcome of that game, game one with Spurs and Thunder, you know, a make a miss. Caruso doesn't dig down and Wemby gets a clean catch inside Spurs probably win in regulation. Right? You know, the Jalen Wemby drive or the three drive before the Wemby pull three, that goes in different animals. By the way, Holmgren doesn't go, doesn't go down behind that play and it's not five on four coming back the other way. And Wemby's got a free roam into that. So like a hundred different small things change that, you know, and like Mitch Johnson, he was even questioning himself because his last sub Ryan was at six. I got it here. Hang on. I love playoff series because my notes are everywhere. The best. Like, ah, six 46 36 of the fourth quarter was his last sub. So those guys played 16 minutes and 46 seconds. Champani Vacelle and Wemby played the last 16 46. When Oklahoma City got to the free throw line, Harper and Castle came out for rebounding subs. So it wasn't like an intentional miss three get the which Oklahoma City tried. But Wendy's never played 16 minutes and 46 seconds straight. And if they lose that game, and they do that, you're like, man, what were you doing? Right? So you can look at every decision and every outcome and question it as to the impact. We used to work with Roger Worsky. And both of us did both interview jaws a ton of times, right? These are love jaws say it's easy to be look smart when you have access to the result. Right. So you got you got to balance it. It's what it's the currency that makes this thing go around the conversation, which is so good and why the game is so healthy in many ways. But I just I just think coaching decisions here are so magnified so hard. And we forget because the result that one small change, Merrill's three goes in. Breen felt the same thing I did. We all thought it was going in. He had to be in bang out. Right. It was like premature bang. Yeah, it was it was it was a B. And like we that that was like perfect call. That's exactly what we all were feeling and living at that moment, which is why I love Mike calling games because he's a fan with us. And I try to do that like at the table just like I've tried to get like 10% lost in the game because the person at home is lost in a great game. And it's fun. And I think that's part of it, that those little outcomes change the ultimate outcome of a game. And we don't remember them hours later. So you said early on in this, you said him in a way that was referencing Wimbanyama. What is this experience like sitting next to Reggie sitting next to Jamal and and seeing this thing that and I don't mean thing to be like, like derogatory towards Wimbanyama. But I mean like a general thing of just his ability and this like potential, like my mind went wild on Monday night watching that game thinking like, is this the beginning of something that we all hope we get to witness like once in our lifetimes? So let me give you the answer to the first question. I had not seen Wimbanyama play call the game of his obviously is our first year back. And I ended up with back to back San Antonio games in January, I think it was and it was with Regge. And Reggie just I said, what should I expect? And he said, you're going to see things that you have never seen. He said, really, truly, he said, I'm going to know he said, you've called games with check. I said, yes, Yao Ming, yes, we went through the whole thing. You're going to see things you've never seen. And I'm like, yeah, I've seen my TV is pretty special. It's amazing. But until you are on the floor with him or in that first row, and you get a sense of the space that he physically covers and takes up. And the thing that I am getting almost mesmerized in are the eyes of the offensive players as Wemby is lurking. And it's like, I ended up defaulting to a football term live the other night. And I'm glad it stumbled out of my brain. It was a business decision. Somebody went in like, I'm sorry, I'm going to Nash dribble and keep this alive. There was a wallace dribble where Wallace was like touching the restricted area. He didn't even look at the rim. Did it look at the rim? I called out live. I honestly had not prethought about it. It's like, business decision. And Regge just like kind of looked at me like, ah, that's it. That's it. That's what he does to people. And he's in people. So like, I know that you could have like expected field goal percentage in the paint V 29 teams and V Wemby on the floor. So you can analytically look at it. But it's one of those things that I remember John Gruden, when we started the QBR DSPN, they rolled it out. And like, this is impressive. This is impressive. John, let me ask you something. Like seriously, have you come up with a number that measures this? And you're like hitting his heart. Like, is there a number in there that tells you what kind of heart the guy has? You know, and John, John was trying to poop with stat, right? And just not making everything about numbers. But like that's it with Wemby. I can give you all the analytic stuff and it all. But when you watch that, and that's what struck me. And that's what I noticed more than anything else. Guys, think in a league where you do on a hair trigger of incredible natural reaction based on the extraordinary athleticism of the other nine people on the floor with you. He makes people think and slow down and change what they do first nature every other time in their life. And that's the impact that we cannot quantify in a number or a stat or put on a screen. Or even see from a far you when you see it in person, you're like, damn, this is one of the best athletes playing basketball in the world. And another human being is taking him away from what he wants to do mentally. That's what the wow is to be sitting courtside. And it's just built every game have walked away go and oh my God, oh my God, it's I don't want to overhype this. This is ridiculous. And even in the game on Sunday night, I guess it was Sunday, I was really conscious of don't go too far. Don't act like this is ridiculous. And then double overtime, I just kind of got caught up in it. And then you get out and you realize everybody else is feeling the same thing. And you're okay. I just take a super quick story. I'm sorry, I'm babbling here. Go man. I got to do the LeBron 29 of the last 30 points conference final game on ESPN radio with Hubey Brown. And we're sitting on the bench side that 07. Yes, we're sitting on the bench side. And Marvin Doug Collins is doing the game on TNT. And after the game, we do our wrap up, they do our wrap up, and we're all walking out to the tunnel to the right, where the pistons, pistons used to come in and walk over and say something to Doug, like, Oh my God, that's great. And Doug's like, I've seen MJ is amazing, right? And I with Marvin, Marv goes, How did you play that? What do you mean? And he's like, Did you get caught up in how great the LeBron thing was because you're on your island or you're calling the game. And you don't know where it where you and it amazed me because Marv's done 1000 more great basketball games than I had. And it was just like that. Yeah, you know, that was something unbelievable. And we were portraying it as such. And you're just wondering, are you in the right place historically for a great moment? Because you don't you have no idea at the end of regulation that this guy's about to author one of the games we'll talk about for me for years. So you don't want to be overhyping that. And as it was going on, it was feeling that way. And then by the end, it was as I think I said it just go in, they were at the bench after a timeout, like, this guy's unbelievable. And I try to try to hold that word for something truly is hard to believe. And he's hard to believe. When Horace did a great job, you know, early on, and some of the profile stuff. And, you know, he's been in the league now three years. Yeah, he's incredibly thoughtful. He's super intelligent. I love that he's also very intentional with some of the stuff. There's like an edge to him, which I want to talk about on the court a little bit, but you've had more access to him. I imagine just a little bit. Well, I just want to know like more about him. What's he like? Same. I haven't had a ton of access to him, which is, I think, a disservice to the fan in today's NBA. If you ask me to compare the NBA of the NBA on NBC days, late 90s, when I was doing ESPN radio, so I kind of knew what was going on and how things were going on and have talked to people. So I understand how the sauce was made better now. And then ABC in the 2000s. I mean, I can't tell you the number of hours I spent in what was then what, Gondarina in Cleveland, waiting on a Saturday afternoon for the Cavs shoot around in LeBron's treatment to end, to interview LeBron for five or six minutes in the room in a production meeting type setting, excuse me, the day before a game. Kobe, before his famous last game, like he came in and did five minutes with 10 with me and Hubey Brown and Lisa Salters and any five of Shoffar producer. And I have that picture in my office. I'll never forget like as time has gone on, it means more and more like those 10 minutes of like saying basketball goodbye to Kobe. And he came and did a production meeting with us before that game. Now that doesn't happen. Now, you know, I came in a day early so I could get a sit down with SGA for our pregame after the MVP announcement. And he was phenomenal. And I wish we had that time with Victor and we the players are just not made as available. And that's not a criticism. It's just a change in time. And I wish we had that. So we could on this stage tell you more about the people I think you care about them and know them better. And that's what the NFL does brilliantly. You know, we get the quarterback every week. Peyton Manning never missed a production meeting ever. Same with Tom, same with Aaron. I mean, that's that's that's why we talk about those guys so much my homes, because we get 20 minutes every Sunday night football game with my homes, everyone. And I wish that the players in the league would be available a little bit more to the national broadcasters for that purpose. Having said that, I spent a lot of time around Mitch Johnson and Spurs folks. And what I do like about it is when he knows he has the ability to be great. And everything is done with intent in a great partnership with the Spurs. I think his trust of the organization knowing how to handle a superstar player who's got an international profile who has a chance to be bigger is only assisted by being in San Antonio with an organization that is not playing wheel of fortune and spinning the wheel trying to figure it out every other year that they know exactly what they're doing. They're intentional. They have a plan. They support people. And at every level, there's an answer to a question. And I've heard the word partnership with the Spurs and Wemby and his quote people unquote, which includes his parents, which is huge. So I think that is the window to me that this guy is different in that way as well. He knows what he can be and he embraces wanting to be the global face of the sport. I think I think he went to visit Adam Silver and he not only stayed, but he had more questions for Adam when he when their time was up and he came back and asked them in a different forum. He gets what he can be. And a lot of times we say you can't be it unless you see it. I think he sees what he can be and is now taking the steps to try to be it. On the floor, I forget who it was at the league or somebody I was texting because I mean, that's kind of the fun part about the job in a way is you know, you feel bad for the people you're friends with that are eliminated, but then they're so just watching games now, just like you are. And there are a fountain of information to make you think, right? Yeah. I mean, I had a check with a coach about the tying layup from SGA at 101-101 where Wemby stayed glued to Chet and didn't help. And I was like, what was going on there? And it was unbelievable because the coach knew he's like, Sweeney said this, he'd like read Sweeney's lips perfectly because you had it on the broadcast because Wemby was checking with him on what the defensive rules were going to be for that specific possession. And Sweeney's like changing them. And then I still think Wemby probably could have touched the paint a little bit to get an SGA's head, but it's still asking a lot for anyone, even Wemby to recover then in a straight line back to Chet. And the coach's point was you're not giving up the three there to lose the game, even though it looks like it's the only time that Wemby Nyama has not helped off the three points for two hours. And it's hard when an NBA coach is going like, you're not giving up the three, you're not giving up the three. He knew what I was saying, but he's like, you're not giving up the three there. And I still think that's the right move, don't you? I think Wemby could have could have shown help without helping. And I think it freaks everybody out because SGA is looking for it. SGA on that drive gets the angle on Castle and he's looking being like, I imagine you're coming over here. Right. So I'm asking, I'm asking somebody to do something at seven four agility wise. I'm not sure a guard could even do. So I know what I'm asking is kind of unfair, but it was just so strange to me to see him not even touch the paint. But if you give up that three, if you give up that wide open corner three for the win in that game, you are crushed falling, you are crushed. Right? I totally get it. Now, but I also think Chet, I think Chet is getting into a bad habit of having to catch and then reset himself to shoot the three. So that's a different thing. But what if he breaks that? Okay. So let me ask you this. So everybody has posted the missed layup that leads to the Steph logo three as the mirror of the Wemby three. It's not the same, right? It's not the same. I thought it was a really hard attempt by Jaylin. That was like, I'm not criticizing Jaylin for the miss. What do you mean? You mean the same on the logo three? But you know, you know what people have posted? Hey, sure. Yeah, he's layup and here's the three from almost the same spot. Yeah. Although it's not the Jaylin shot. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. So like that was a regular season game that was tied in overtime. This is down three in game one of the conference finals. Stop. Stop. Okay. I got that. They look the same. That's really cool. I've got the like context, context, not just surface stuff people context. Like that is a tie regular season, February, Saturday night ABC game. This is game one of the conference finals and they're down three. Eddie has not had a good shooting night from deep. Like it's different. It's just so different. And I did. Sorry. I just needed to vent for 10 seconds. You're right. But I think we can let the fan in that case, like enjoy the visual of how similar they look. I think that's what it was more about. So put it posted. Enjoy the visual similarity. The meeting is completely non contextual. Move on. Okay. I'm fine. No, no. But look, I feel better. It's like, it's like, that's like the stroll for the time out. I came out and took a quick time out and I'm going to go back to the bench. I'll get to the next play. Go ahead. We don't have a hard out of 55. So we're good. I have, I have one more when be question because I also want to like talk about okay, see in the moment where I was like, Hey, they're going to pull this out. Like all of this stuff is happening and then they're still going to pull this game out because they're just attack dog mode but before I go to that part of it, as I was talking with somebody about when be, and it's like, okay, so he's seven four. He has, you know, and it was funny because he was at the free throw line. I was like, of course he's 87% from the free throw line playoffs that's on top of everything else. This guy does, but there was that possession where, and we saw it against Minnesota a couple times. There was a possession where I think the ball, I mean, it was ended up being like a bad shot where the ball is like on the side of the backboard, but in that possession, he was mad. He was mad about something. He was mad about the way they're getting physical with him. And there's an edge to him. Yes. And a meanness. Yes. That he has to have. And I'm not just talking about the elbow against Nazarene in the previous series, but there's something to be said about that elbow that yeah, it's dumb and you shouldn't jeopardize your team or your availability for the game. But bigger picture that stuff, some of these possessions, a meanness that is necessary for him to be as great as I expect him to be. So I'm in favor of it. Take me through the five most recent great players, like great, great, great, great, great players, right? LeBron, Toby, Michael, I'm going to go back, Larry and Magic. I'm not trying to miss people, but I'm just talking like the guys who are in the top 10 all-time conversation, right? Right. Top 10 all-time conversation, modern era, it always gets me so angry when people do top 10s and like Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, and Wilter, like, no, they're in the top 10 conversation. That's almost as bad as what the NFL has done where nothing before the Super Bowl counts. That one drives me crazy. Poor Otto Graham. It's like he doesn't exist. Every time, every time somebody would do that with Hubey, he would sit there and listen. Hubey Brown, he'd sit there and listen and go, okay, okay. Can I, and he'd lean in softly and go, can I ask you something? Who are you taking out? You taking out Oscar? Okay. Let me just remind you that he averaged a triple of, okay, no, that's just okay. And it's it's like the layered in my head that do not forget that era of greatness in the game when you're doing that. But anyway, the great, great, great, great, great of the modern era of our lifetime, okay? They all had a mean streak. They all wanted to beat you in the worst way. Like, you can think of LeBron muscle and up moments. Kobe's Mamba mentality has become a generation driving force for so many people, you know, never saw Kobe play in person. I got a Mamba mentality, you know, I've read the book, I've seen the videos. It's true. They feel it, right? The great, great players have always had an edge. It manifests. I mean, we need to talk about Michael, right? It manifests itself in very different ways because they're all different people that came from different backgrounds. And so yeah, I, I love it. I enjoy it. I'm enthused that it's visible because that means that it's going to be a part of his growth. I don't know if it came from the reality of you are seven, four people are going to play you differently because they've never played anybody like you. I don't know what credit the time of the Buddhist monks to focus the mind. I think that's like a default, a default announcer comment now, but maybe, maybe it has had this much of impact. I think tactically watching him physically get pushed by, you know, that like football like pad, as I hit my iPad here, um, in pregame in his warmups, I think that gets him physically ready to play. I mean, what he does on the court in front of the fans pregame is more than most of the great players do. A lot of guys are in the back doing their thing, you know, warming up different, and he may not do this his whole career, but he's out there pregame, like going through it and getting physically pushed and hit and like getting himself mentally and physically ready for what's about to come with all attention on him. I just, I love it. I love, I love it. It's going to be the role of a villain for some, especially in our day and age, but I also think it's the role of a superstar. He's, he's there. He's, he's right there. Um, man, you knock on wood and hope he stays healthy for the, his sake, for the sake of the league, for everybody, because like everything we've seen with him healthy, that was the first game we saw him carry a 40 plus minute load in a game that was high energy from the start. Like last night's game in the garden had some sleepy first quarter, second quarter minutes. The calves kind of eased their way back in the game. Sunday night, game one from the opening tip was pedaled down. Like guys were going, I think it's the familiarity, the four one regular season. Um, so when we played, well, 48 minutes pretty much most of these ever played in a high octane, no BS possession game. Every possession was real. So I love it. I think, I think we could look back and say, well, that's the night that everybody realized this guy can be different than everybody else. I felt the exact same thing. That's good. That's the game was over. Hey guys, it's big cat. When you're on a long road trip, traveling between cities, anything can happen. Flat tires, endless traffic, stopping to see a 50 foot wooden alligator. But I suspect everything actually happens for a Reese's like is grit week really a time to visit different training camps, or is it just an excuse to check out different places to get a Reese's. And when we stopped to fuel up, or are we really stopping to refuel on a Reese's after countless miles thinking about chocolate and peanut butter, it all starts to make sense that everything happens for a Reese's. Okay, see, because we have to just give them the respect of giving them some room here with this because they can get lost in the hope of what women Yama can be. Because it was turning into what I thought like, this is a very okay sea games. Like, okay, all these things are happening and it seems like we're not going to get through it and SGA is getting clogged up and San Antonio is so good. The communication with these young defenders is absurd for their rules that they have. And there was like a late double in the shot clock where you could tell it was like, hey, if SGA has it and he's not settled, but he has the ball, but we're like under six on the shot clock, then it's an absolute sell out hard double. And I saw that possession and I went my God, like these guys are so locked in. Yes. And then okay, see goes on that little run, they're pushing a little in transition. I thought the AJ Mitchell three was going down. I was like, they're going to pull this game out. And it speaks to who they are. And clearly, we're all like, you can you can not like a team, but you have to respect what this team is capable of. Your impressions of who they are in this, I'm adding a little to this, it's funny with them. Like when a team loses, it's like, are they a little too chill? And then when they win, it's like, man, they're never up or down, you know, they're always calm. They're the same. They're the same. We're reacting differently. So just some thoughts on the thunder after what was like an eye opening loss because of what Wemby is. But look, I mean, who are we kidding here? It's not like this team is going to be rattled at home. So that's why I love listening to you and talking to you. Because you make me think about like a hundred things. One is, did Oklahoma City sweat at any point in the Phoenix series? No. Okay, did they sweat at any point during the Lakers series? Like maybe, maybe a little bit in the last game? Maybe. They were not challenged for a few weeks. Yeah. And they checked out of the three games before. So they had three go through the motion, don't play most people games. They had a week off for the play in. They played Phoenix. They played, they went through the series, but they weren't pushed. They had a week off. They played the Lakers. They had to play hard. JJ did an amazing job. And when LeBron's on the floor, it's LeBron's on the floor, right? So they worked. But it was not anything close to the Minnesota series that San Antonio went through. I'd argue it may have been, less than what San Antonio went through against Portland in that series, because they lost Vic for a game and all that stuff. So they've gone like six weeks without like feeling it. Maybe seven. So there is a little bit of that, I think, at the start of the game. But Ryan, the two things they do to win games in those like 7-0 Insta runs, like just add water and it's a 7-0 Thunder run, right? What are the two things they do? They turn you over and they score quick. Turn you over, transition three. They turned San Antonio over a lot. They didn't get the baskets because that guy's back there a lot. And San Antonio's transition defense to your point was extraordinary. I thought they got back so well and found the right people. And their three-point shooting was really bad. So do one of those flip? If one of those flips, then Oklahoma City wins that game or they win the game too tonight, depending on when you're listening. So yeah, they're fine. Now, they've got a big problem on their hands with him, but they're fine. And in the end of the finals, Denver, the conference semi-final last year, they've been here, lost game one at home and been fine. So it feels like split here, split in San Antonio. Five is an epic. Six is the desperation of six. And then we're rolling in here for seven. It just feels that way. And look, San Antonio can sweep the series. Okay, so you can win in five. I have no idea. But it just feels like each team's going to have its night. They're both too good. Now, the five and one record against them this year is, you know, what was the Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, once is an accident, twice is a trend, three times is a problem. Now we're on five. You know, now it's real concern. But I don't put it past Oklahoma City to be able to win game two by seven or eight. And like, if that happens, you'd walk out of the gym and look for your room key on the way back to the hotel. I'm like, yeah, that's okay. I got it. They split. And we'll go to San Antonio and see if they split there. It bothers me that people dislike San Antonio, Oklahoma City. Why? They've done this the right way. They rebuilt through the draft with great picks. They've developed players. You know, they invest in their G League team, the blue, because they've got to find ways to keep replenishing. And they've replenished and done the right with San Presti's moves have been brilliant, obviously. Right. This market is great. This is the green Bay of the NBA. This market's great. Every place you walk, every place you walk. And I'm talking not just, hey, it's May, let's put the news anchors into t shirts. It's, it's every place you walk. It's, it's the nail salon down the street. It's the steakhouse. It's thunder pins. It's thunder. This is everything in this city. The people are so nice. The fans, SGA said it best. The fans were here three years ago, three or four years ago, when I sucked, it was shooting 20% shoot one leg of jumpers. They were still supporting you. The fan base is unbelievable. The organization's rock solid. They invest back in their team. Their stars, okay, SGA draws fouls. Great. He's also really damn good at drawing fouls. He's a really damn good player. And he got more efficient. He got the MVP, came back and got more efficient. Their players are hard workers. When that way, you see with the, when they do the interviews after the game, when one's there, they're all there. They're all about each other. They've, they've set a tone for a culture for the rest of the league to be about each other. You think you see all these guys mugging for the camera and posting interviews? Because they saw Oklahoma City do it. And like, God, it's really cool. And they're super tight. When she got the MVP at the press conference Sunday in their facility, I was there, like all those guys were there. They were all there in their trench coats. Like, they're pulling the bit. They, they like each other. What's not to like about this team? Because they play physical defense. Because they, they are aggressive defensively. And you feel like they get the benefit of the whistle. They earn it. Right. They, they earn it by the way they play. If the league wants to change completely how defense is played, they could legislate that. But what, what is there to dislike about a team that does it the right way? That it bothers me. There's so much more about them, especially to have that many young guys buy in and then they don't have the usual drama of what an NBA team has. Like, I always feel like the NBA is the biggest soap opera in American sports. Yes. And they are about as drama free as it gets, which is impossible. Usually once you have success and you have so many young dudes and buy in and whatever they, I mean, we've talked about it before they were even successful. It's like, do you realize like they really seem to identify the player that can fit with a bunch of different combinations and the personality they can fit with a bunch of different combinations. And, you know, I'm always trying to like figure out more about Presti. You know, he's just not one of those guys who's going to open up to you. He's not going to be revealing. He's not going to be revealing off the record. He's not going to do any of that stuff. But trying to get to know more of the way his mind works, like the amount of time that I hear that he'll spend on investing on who the person is, like the lengths that they'll go on that part of the evaluation. And sometimes I'm like, yeah, but if a guy's 6'8 and hit threes, like, what's the conversation? And it's like, no, I think you have to check a few more boxes for O.K.C. to think that you're going to fit into what their long-term culture is. And it shouldn't be celebrated, but people just get sick of stuff. You don't bring black and white modern furniture into a 120-year-old house and say, this works. They bring people in here who work. And that's the deal. And, Ryan, Sam, Sam doesn't give you a lot, which is fine. It's great. The last 13 in weeks. What are you talking about? It's great. The last 13. The last 13 you were like, hey, yeah, yeah, so it's great. He's like, no, it isn't. The last 13 MVP awards, last 13, five of them, five of the 13 award winners through this building. Hardin, Durant, Westbrook, SGA not drafted here, but acquired after year one and thriving here, unlike anybody thought he'd thrive. That's, once is it actually twice is a trend three times a problem. That's a problem for the rest of basketball. These guys identify talent. They develop that talent. It is Green Bay. Green Bay, when we would go into Green Bay forever, Mike McCarthy would say, hey, we're a draft and develop organization. And that was the mantra from the top because other than Reggie White or Charles Woodson or a couple of guys here and there, you weren't getting the big free agents. And Aaron Rodgers would, he'd be thrown into some guy who, how are you in the league? And then Aaron Rodgers returned him into this 800 yard receiver. Why? They're great fundamentals. Why? Because he came through the practice squad. Why? Because we draft and develop. And so your A.J. Mitchell is in the starting line up. He's amazing. Oh, we kind of developed the guy. And they use their G-League team. Their G-League team has a locker room that's an NBA size locker room. We use it as our green room when we're here for games with our studio crew. And it's, you know, we were in there towards the end of the season. And like my pal, Buddy Bayheim was on the G-League team at the end of the year. Buddy Bayheim's locker was over there. I put my stuff in a Bayheim locker because I'm a Syracuse guy. But like they treat those guys health, mental, fitness, basketball training in the highest regard. So they have assets they can develop and move on as opposed to just dealing all these things like their cards at a $2 Blackjack table. So they get out of it what they put into it. I'm a worker and I love people who embrace the climb and excel at it. And this organization has. And that's why I get why people get frustrated with excellence and success and maybe the style of play. But it's a fun style. They play great. Their fans are awesome. They show up early. They leave late. Not one seat was empty and double overtime. Not one. The place was packed. Everybody was on their feet. They were so invested. They're like, they left. They're like, damn, that was a good game. But man, I'm sad that we lost. And they'll be back just as fervent on game two. So I just love the place. And I'm glad these two teams are getting their shot in the spotlight and show greatness can happen every market in the league. You are a worker. And I think you can be really good at play by play and maybe not always understand the X's and O's. I think you can present the game and be really good in that role. And then there's the great level that you've been at for a very long time. You know the game, whether it's football or basketball, I think better than most play by play. And this is not a criticism of everybody else, but you have little, you allow us little glimpses during the broadcast of like how on it you are and how deeper you, how much deeper you could go. And then there's the rule stuff where I'm good for screwing up a rule every now and then I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on here? The way you had the elbow against Nasred, it was like you prepped Zach Zarbha for it. And I, no, I mean, look, it was just hilarious because you explained exactly how the interpretation of the rule should be applied. And then Zach Zarbha does a great job on the broadcast by going, Hey, this is the rule, these three things, boom, boom, boom. And you had just said it. I, I know you're not going to give yourself credit and you're going to say that other people can do it. I don't know that there's a lot of people that would have nailed that as well as you nailed it with such certainty because of all the work that you've put into this too, which I imagine you go through the rule book with people from both leagues to make sure you always are going to lead us in the right direction as the audience. And I think it's a very easy thing to overlook and you deserve credit for it. So that is what I'm giving you. Well, I'll take it since I'm sure people call me an idiot that I was rooting against Oklahoma City because their team lost. I'm sure when the spurs lose, I'll be rooting against them. And that's fine. Well, when you said, okay, see, I appreciate fans, I would have offered up some of the online ones can be a little abrasive, but that's fine. It's okay. We'll just keep it moving, which is okay. Yeah, somebody, somebody came after me online because I said that Shay, I interviewed Shay, I posted an Instagram, which is rare for me like, Hey, interview with the MVP on our NBA Showtime show tomorrow night. And, and then when Shay got fouled, I said, and, and she'll come to the line, which he does often. And somebody took that as I was a knock. No, it's a fact. He comes to the line often. And I actually talked to him about how he intentionally gets to the line often. And there's skill to what he does. And he worked to be physically stronger to withstand contact and get through it and get fouled in the attitude. So thanks for saying that. I appreciate it. I will say Frank DeGrasse, our producer, has been incredible with his connection with the game and the rules. He produced the Nets games on yes for two decades. He's been awesome to have with us on all these. And the league is great. At the start of the I will say that, you know, there's one thing about the NBA that they are exceptional about. And they're a lot. It's access to the answers to your questions. Like, I, I feel really comfortable reaching out to the folks in the officiating side with a question of, okay, what are you really looking at in replay when you're watching to see if a guy did slide under and not give landing space to a jump shooter? Right? Like, do you know this is the pattern of James Harden's jump shots? And it's going to be officiated different than a guy who's a straight up jump shooter straight up. It comes down just a little bit. I have his leaping his launch point. I did it again. I think I think that's that's part of your foul on SGA. It would be and I'd get two free throws. And that's okay, because I drew it. I drew with my hands. It's fine. For those listening, I just hit my iPad for the second time. Screwed up the shot. So I, I just, I love, I love being able to help the viewer understand, could we get paid to do this? The person at home is just watching the game and enjoying it or passionately evolved, or they've bet, you know, some rebounding number on draft kings. Like, I don't know, I don't know what, what everybody's doing, but I do know that it's our job to understand the rules. And if we can at least help get you there, what I love in football now is that we have Terry McCauley. And if I can give the basic of what happened on a play, Terry can jump in and he can give you the interpretation from an officiating standpoint, which just hopefully helps us be smarter in time. So it's fun. I love, I love when those things happen on our watch and we don't screw them up. And so when I do screw it up, I apologize. You don't do it very often. The last thing, because I'm always willing to help too, on the next two on one versus women, Yama, should you call it a two on one and a half? I don't want credit. I'm not looking for a shout out. This is network TV. Because I almost texted you when you're like, Oh, it's a two on one. And then it was like you were, you're not searching, but the next thing happened and you're already off of it. And then I go, Hey, you know what? This is one of the greatest games you've ever seen. Maybe don't text to Rico in the middle with a little help on how he should start talking. No, please do. Please do. I'll tell you something funny. We have a group chat of a bunch of the Syracuse announcers, I and Noah, Dave Pash, Sean McDonough. I feel so left out. It's okay. It's a ton of the people who also like Dan Roach in Boston, who are doing local. It's just like a bunch of us. I don't know what the number is up to. Drew Carter, the voice of the Celtics is in on there now. It's terrific. Benetti's in Jason Benetti, right? We've got like 15, 16, 18 and Alvin is like, Hey, great job. Hey, this, Hey, that, you know, here's the Syracuse thing. I should know this. It's no whatever. Hey, my stats guy is sick. Does anybody know stats guy in Sacramento? It's just like, you know, it's, it's an out your answer stuff, right? So, so now like our games getting really good in the fourth quarter and time out, I just flip over my phone like five new messages like, Oh, geez, like somebody must be texting about maybe I said something wrong. And I go in there and it's like, Sean, great call on the overtime goal. Unbelievable game. Sean, congrats, great series. And everybody's texted to McDonough about the Montreal Buffalo game seven. I was like, first of the day, it sent me to go, let's see who won the game. Right. And then I'm, I wanted to go like, Hey guys, I got a classic over here too. The hell with McDonough. I'm working too tonight. Exactly. But no, I, I, I, I think we all try to stay in touch with the game. So I will take two on one and a half into consideration. And, you know, on my, on my walk slash run today, I'll, I'll think about it. I'll give it serious thought. I pitched Balkan is life to iron eagle for an early game. He'll do anything. He'll, he, he's, he's like Buck. Buck was, Buck is great at that. Like they'll, they'll take those challenges on a regular basis and like thrive because they're so damn good. They needed to keep their focus. They need challenges because they're so naturally great. I've noticed that with Buck. I think Buck is so good and so comfortable that there's times where I think he tries shit out of boredom. Like when Steph first started to realize what he was capable of. And I had asked Steph this question. I'm like, look, I watch all of your games and you may not even tell me the truth here, but I think there are times where you just go, fuck it. Let me see what I can do. And Steph kind of laughed, but you laughed in a way where he's like, you're absolutely right, but I don't want to admit that I just do stupid stuff at times to see what could possibly happen. I think Buck will do that during a broadcast. And I think he would have done it. The problem for the Balkan is life call with, with iron was that Illinois was just not in the game enough. It would have been forced. So the coolest thing about doing this job right now that I'm totally serious about this is that every time you put on a sporting event, you are pushed to be better the next time out because iron is so good. No, it's so good. I told the story a hundred times. Iron and iron school together. I got a job early on. Iron interned me for me for a couple of years. I've known iron for 40 years. I've known Noah from before he was born. He's that sees just, he's like now and I listened to him. I'm like, damn it, God, you're so good. You're so good. Joe Nance watching Nance do the PGA, watching Breaney do these games and all these finals games. Like I, I was like seriously like thinking, okay, when I, because that was the first time I got into a great NBA game. Like the opening night, we had a great game of Oklahoma City, Houston, but the game against San Antonio and Oklahoma City game one was like the first time I'd been in an NBA game like that in 10 years. And it's like, I've listened to Mike call 50 of those games and get it right. Right. And that's somewhere. I'm not like, Oh, let me do this the way Mike does. But you just know almost without thinking about it, how it should feel and when to let a moment go when to jump on a moment. And there are so many people who do this job so well right now. And I'm leaving out a ton of people like I, I, I so want to call a game after I listened to Kevin Harlin call a game. I just, I just want to get out there. And I, I wish I had the voice, the, the energy, the passion that Kevin does. I just want to, I just want to show up for like a quarter and call a game like Kevin. I just want to just, just have fun like that. And to me, it's, I just think that because so many of us are doing this now at a high, high level, and we all kind of appreciate each other, all fans of each other. I think, I think during these playoffs, I've texted almost everybody calling a game and just like said, Hey, I really enjoyed listening to the game like passion Dars. And I think we all kind of like each other and root for each other to have great games and be really good. And that's fun. And it does, it makes me want to show up better the next night. And hopefully for all of us, that comradery friendship and ability pushes the listener experience to be enjoyable. And I think most nights when you get a national NBA game and the playoffs, like you feel like, okay, I'm in good hands with two and a half hours. These guys aren't going to screw it up. And they're going to add to my enjoyment of the game. So that's the job. And then I'm lucky to be almost 16 still doing it. I love it. Well, you are one of the best and I can't wait for game two. So I know you're going to enjoy it. I don't have to tell you enjoy it. And let's not take as long in between visits because it's been too long. All right. Same promise. And next time I'm in LA, I will let you, I'll let you buy me dinner in your city. See you brother. You got it. I'm going to be in the next session. There's tons of colorful swim, flowy dresses, and they just released new linen blend matching sets. Everything feels so light and breathable. It's perfect for brunch or rooftop happy hours, just like you're on vacation. Shop Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Today's life advice is brought to you by Microsoft 365 Copilot. What if you can add an AI assistant to your work without leaving your workflow, built into Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. Copilot works where you work, helping you do more things in the apps you already use. In Word, Copilot helps turn scattered notes into a first draft. In Excel, it generates insights from your data and an Outlook it cuts through the noise to get you up to speed faster. The apps you know, go further with Copilot. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work. Good morning to the guys. What's up? What's up? I played my first competitive round of golf yesterday. Competitive? Are you in a league? Yeah, I'm in a league, buddy. I missed the first one in Chicago because you know, some things are just too big to miss. But yeah, we don't have to get into how I played, but I met, I was paired up with like a local business leader. I'm going to go check out that later. I really feel like I'm putting in roads in the community. I'm putting down roots. I'll tell you right now. Next thing you know, the guys at a mixer in a chamber of commerce. I can't wait. Honestly, they should be. Who's done more for Poughkeepsie just no variety in the last two years than you. Two years. Yeah, maybe there's a guy on Instagram who comes up and is like, Poughkeepsie is worse than the Bronx. I think he just had to move up here for a reason. And he like just will like shoot just the streets at night and be like, it's crazy out here, man. I don't know. He doesn't have that many followers, but people around here send it. It's like, do you believe this guy? Anyway, stop doing that guy. Yeah, I need that with Kyle's out there one night, nights of the night. Like, what are you doing, man? Sketchy dude in the Tommy Bahama walking up to me. I don't know what is this. You just roll up on Kyle in the wild. That would be Kyle. People were trying to find Kyle in the wild in LA and Frollo grew him back in the day. They would just show him where they are. They still are. They still are guys hit me up and they're like, Hey, man, got another one in. Thanks for keeping the business coming in on those slow weekdays. What? What is there a nickname for Poughkeepsie? Besides the crown jewel. I've been told that. Is that a name you gave it though? It's definitely a name that I gave it. Okay. I didn't know that was like a thing that they actually called them. A couple people have said it though, which is good. But I think it's called the Queen city, but also Charlotte is the Queen city, but there is a lot of that. And Cincinnati and Burlington. Yeah. So it's one of those. Oh, even Burlington, small world. Queen city tavern. Yeah. Yeah. So Queen city is the first time I ever got hosed on a tab, freshman year. That's a real milestone. People don't forget. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I just remember like everybody was on campus. I didn't think like the upper class and we're there and it was like, we're going to go downtown and walk and then we're all going to sit at a table and get food. And I remember when the bill came due, none of the girls paid. And I think it was like eight, eight meals, whacked up with like me and another guy who could afford it. And I could not. Did you have the cash or just like, just try the card again? I swear. And sometimes it does. It's one of those debit credit like back when the debit card, there were debit cards that you couldn't use, remember? And so then it was like, all of a sudden it's like, no, no, you can use your debit card as credit. I think we'll just, hey, yeah, it was mind blowing. And we'll just first happen. Hit you over the head with fees when you inevitably can. What you started doing, Jay Crue on campus. Work off that freshman tab. Yeah. But it was like, it was the kind of tab that was like, all right, now whatever the budget was for like two or three weeks is destroyed. You can count me out of 25 cent wing night boys. Yeah, you're sitting around being like, are these girls seriously just not going to pay for anything? It's just mind blowing. Yeah. Welcome. Welcome to the world. Awful. And then the other guy that was rich was like, oh, don't worry about it. It would be nice to treat him. I'm like, fuck you, trust one. Nice guy. Yeah. Nice to treat him. I didn't know we were in a formal. I'll never forget the disappointment. I'm thinking about it right now. I remember the table. I remember the room. I remember being like, you've got to be kidding me. I'm paying for half of this. I wasn't prepared to do this math. You guys, did you guys have like steady jobs in college to like, how did the financial situation work? Because I remember my senior year, I knew exactly how much money I could spend per week to basically get to zero when I graduated to move back in with my parents and then find a job. So I think I had like four bucks on my bank account, like when I graduated. I was like, all right, I made it. And I know I'm going to get graduation gifts. So like this year's the year's the, you know, the rebounds back, but I did work at sports authority for a while, which was fun. I sort of stopped doing that late, but I had like this, like I actually did budget decently well in college for like a guy who didn't know shit about anything. I ordered a bunch of cartons of cigarettes from China, my freshman year. And I was selling those. Yeah, they were super old though. I sold them. Yeah, they weren't for me to smoke. I mean, because they were actually so bad, the Newport still said crush proof box. I'm like, I don't think these are fake, but I think these are really old. And people used to, you know, because nobody could buy, I think they may have changed it to 21, maybe not yet, but there was a bunch of kids that couldn't buy cigarettes or couldn't get off campus to go get them. So, you know, I became that guy. Then I moved over to the, we were right by Indian Reservation, the Mohawk reservation, so I'd go there and get some off brand ones. That's actually how I met a bunch of my friends now. But yeah, I did that for a while. My dad would give me, when I got off campus, he would give me like enough money to throw for groceries. But then yeah, we supplemented with tobacco. Pretty industrial, man. Yeah. So listen, he's had a business sense from a young age, you know. All right. Well, speaking of golf, here's the first one. 26 years old, 6 foot 180 player comp, Tamani Kamara will give it everything I have on defense, can occasionally get hot from three, but certainly shouldn't be running plays for me. There's a lot of guys saying they get hot from three. You could also just write, you probably can't shoot. I make one every once in a while. Yeah. When I'm wide open. I currently live in Chicago, but grew up in the suburb of another Midwestern city. I returned to my hometown this past weekend for charity golf outing hosted by my extended family at the country club they belong to. This guy wasn't working a work-study job in college. At this event, drinking is not only acceptable, but encouraged. And I may have over indulged. There's an employee who works there who I've known for a long time. Let's call him Carson, who was working as the bartender at the event. For some reason in my inebriated state, I was absolutely convinced his name was Doug. And let's just say he was not all caps, bold, underlined font, bold font, underlined, not pumped about it. For example, our final interaction when this follows, quote, Hey, Doug, can you make me a Jack and Coke? quote, this is the fifth time I've told you tonight. My name is not Doug. Wait, really? You were serious about that? Your name actually isn't Doug to which he promptly, but fairly cut me off for the evening. I totally know that his name is Carson. And I have no idea. Well, I hope this, yeah, I don't, I think he is covering and Carson may email in and go, it's not what happened. I know his name was Carson. I have no idea why I was so convinced his name was Doug. This brings me to my dilemma. At these country clubs, you're able to play golf on your family's membership until you're 25 years old. These past two years, I've kind of taken the cracks as I am not around very often while I live in Chicago. So nobody at the club really knows how old I am. I currently have a tea time schedule to play next Saturday. I'm worried that my drunken actions may have blown my cover and that I'm actually over the age limit to play. This is my favorite golf course in the world. And I'd be very upset if I wasn't able to play there anymore. The way I see it, I have three ways I could approach this, pretend nothing happened, show up to the tea time and hope nobody says anything to me. Show up next weekend, find Doug, actually Carson, apologize. I hope that he's cool about it. Definitely. Realize I'm 26 years old and finally give up trying to scheme my way into a free tea time using my family's country club membership. Thanks for the help. Definitely be prepared for C. Be prepared for C, but C. Well, C was, dude, it's over. C's give up. Get your own fucking dental insurance. Okay, no, don't give up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. C is the worst. I thought you used to keep trying to be 26. But be prepared for C to be a reality. I think an apology goes a long way, especially with something like that. And that guy, did he say he was a bartender or is he filling in as a bartender? Is he somebody who's checking out tea times? What does it mean? If he's a fill in, you can fuck with him more? No, I mean, but like, is he really just going to be in the bar area? Or is he like, is he the one, is he like a, you know, a starter of some sorts as well? You know what I mean? Like, is this, are these paths going across? You think he's going to be like, you know what, I don't think that guy should be on the list anymore. Like, unless it was, unless you did something crazy, you know, you didn't like, you know, pee in the bush right next to the thing or something, you just messed up his name a bunch of times and probably in an annoying way, probably a little louder than you thought. And the story is probably a little bit different than you remember, but that's, that's par for the course. No joke or no pun intended. Nice. It depends on how nice the club is. Because I can think of like some really nice ones where you are already on a list. Like this guy's going to be looking for you, like vengeful. I think there's also other courses where this guy's just not going to care. Like, is it a fun, everybody gets loose kind of place. And even though you're going through like this, which is kind of a weird move to just call the guy by his wrong name the entire time, but whatever, I mean, weird stuff happens. Yeah. You have, like, I think this is a very course specific, like preparation. I'd see is terrible. Like you're 26, if the rule is 25, it's worth probably trying to get away with this for another golf season, right? Because nobody's really, like, think this guy would have to be so mad about the Doug thing, he would then have to go look up your age, find out that you're not eligible, then waiting for the next time that you're coming by and then make sure you tell everybody that, hey, this guy actually can't tee off because he's on this family membership and he turned 26 last March. And, you know, like, is that guy going to do all of that stuff? Were you that annoying to him? Is the course so nice and so strict that you just gave them a chance to drop the hand? My guess would be, it's probably not that strict of a course. You know, I'm only thinking of like a couple that I've been to, like the entire time, like I was sort of like uneasy. So I was just waiting to have somebody go you're doing this wrong or that's the wrong thing to do. It's kind of that part of it sucks when you're really nice to play for the first time and you're just like crazy. All I'm doing, I'm going to play like shit today because all I'm doing is worrying about doing the wrong thing. Yeah, man, I, what do you guys think? You think you should just go to your tee time and see what happens? Yeah. And the next time you see this guy, I mean, a straight up apology is great, especially when everyone kind of understands what went into that day. It sucks because he's working and you're having a good time and you're giving him a hard time and then walking with it. Then you're returning for like four or five times. That sucks. So if you can just, in not so many words, tell him you understand how shitty that probably was. That was a bummer. I'm sorry, man. Open bars. Maybe be generous with the tip next couple of times you go back there. One of my weaknesses is an open bar. I'm sorry, I'm working on the likelihood of, yeah. Hey, listen, we've been there. The likelihood of like this guy being like, hey, fuck that guy, I'm going to find everything I know about him. And then I'm going to actually like uncover the fact that he shouldn't even be doing what he's doing right now. It's probably not high. It's not zero, but it's not high. So, and what's the worst case that you show up and they tell you like, hey, you can't do this. The jig is up. I mean, is it, I guess it's a little embarrassing, but it's not like the end of the world. For 26, bounce right back. Yeah, I can. I don't know. Start looking up the munis. Get golf now. All right. Do I bring her to Montreal? All right. Six foot two, 185. Jim Staths not as great as my competitive sports era fades into the past and nagging injuries seem to be a consistent part of my future. I'm not a big NBA guy. So help me out with my player comp. Hustle, defense, rebounding, streaky shooter. Another streaky shooter here. I might not show up on the stat sheet, but a ton of you want me on your side. Shane Batier. Whoa, that is, that's a big deal. Adrian Griffin. I turned 32 this weekend. And while I've known it's also a memorial day weekend, I had no plans for how to spend it until this week. I watched the Canadians, Sabres, and booked a two night 36 whole solo golf trip to Montreal Friday to Sunday. This guy does not fuck around. Solo. Right. I gotta be careful now. I forgot the Sirte's daughter is now watching the show regularly. Oh yeah. It's all right. Don't worry. See, there's some words. Now, Ryan, this is funny actually. Aside, Ryan called me last night. It was during bedtime and not Steve's bedtime or no, no, no, it was about 8 30 Eastern time ish. And whenever, Hey, Steve, it's rock. Just going to bed. Whenever I pick up a phone call, my daughter basically just says, Hi, Ryan now, because she just assumes every time I'm on the phone is with Ryan because I don't really talk to anybody else. It's so funny. She just, she dropped an awesome one. I didn't even hear Steve's voice. I just, the phone answered and she's, Hi, Ryan. Yep. She never met you, but she knows you and she's watched. She does watch, you know, so watch the clip. She likes to watch the clips on Instagram and she'll occasionally will do the YouTube thing. But yeah. So big Ryan fan. Might have to pivot some of the language though on the show now that we have a three year old watching. Yeah, it's not the other world. She's okay. Although you do have to watch it now, man, because you could, you can kind of let it fly for the first couple of years and they don't repeat everything. And now she's in the repeat phase. So it's, it's just like, go daycare. Like, where'd you learn that? I don't know. Crazy. Shout out to Martin St. Louis. Just has that Canadian's team cooking. Nobody can ever understand my Canadians tweets because they don't, I don't like advertised kind of love it that way though. Don't you? I do, but man, guys got really nasty. I mean, really nasty. Some of the responses to that were like, Oh, okay. And by the way, shout out, spit in chiclets. I think they had, I forget which former player they had on one of the all time pronunciations in Martin St. Louis. He's like Marty St. Louis. I think it was nine, but I'm not sure. Anyway, so this guy decides, Hey, I'm going to see that game. Solo golf. Yeah. They've got the Hurricanes here. Solo golf, 36 holes. Email him for two reasons. Trip advice. I'm staying in old Montreal playing golf Saturday, Sunday mornings and driving back to New York. Canadians Hurricanes game two was on Saturday night. So watching that with the locals is a must beyond that. I'm looking for restaurants, attractions, any recommendations you might have. Dude, I've not hung out in Montreal in forever, but the old Montreal call is terrific. But again, it's, it's been forever. I haven't been there in a really long time, even though it's one of my favorite places I've ever been. Number two, a girl, of course. I'll try to make this quick. Started casually seeing a girl I met through friends last fall. She's 34 cute, fun, grounded. We have great chemistry. We were consistently hanging out for a few months, but she just wasn't who I pictured myself with. It ended abruptly in February when she told me she wanted more than casual. At the time, I was legitimately not in a place to offer anything more. There were no hard feelings, but she definitely took it harder than I did. I reached back out around a month ago, two months after it ended, after a lot of quiet deliberation, realizing that my priorities and a partner probably definitely out of whack. We've been talking and seeing each other again, taking it slower this time, and it's been seamless. However, I still have a small mental block that she's just not hit for me shorter than I'd like. Five two. Guy does not like. I'll tall C. Six two. Yeah, foot. Well, you could be thinking about pretty normal. I don't know if I want to, this guy might want to go forward on his team. You know, gene editing by the time he's ready, it sounds like he's slower, but by the time he's ready, gene editing might just be like, get an app on your phone. I don't know. Yeah, I had a guy in college who, he's six five, I think, and he, multiple times he would go up to girls who were like taller and go, dude, we would make sick babies. That's probably not the line. Probably didn't land as he probably thought that was going to be super interesting. Yeah, he didn't work one time. Didn't work one time. No, never. Try it again at the afters. Yeah, maybe it'll land better than. So she's shorter than I'd like, isn't out of shape, but doesn't have a great body type and knows literally nothing about sports. I don't need Katie Nolan, but sports are huge in my life. Somebody let Katie Nolan know. Katie Nolan's height. Yeah. This guy's not interested. Soder will be happy to know Soder might even be taller than this guy. Not available. Yeah. Yeah. Soads is tall. Does anybody ever call him that? Soads, well, silly and soads, new podcasts and roots. My question, should I invite her on the trip? When I had the idea and talk to her about it, I could almost feel her wanting me to ask her. Yeah, you think somebody wanted to go to Montreal with you for an awesome weekend? Of course you did. But I was holding out hope that either my dad or other Northeast friends could join in short notice. No dice. Logistics shouldn't be difficult other than what she'll do while I play. You're going to get 36 holes in guy if she's going with you. The other thing is I'm definitely not ready to introduce her to my family. So I'd ask her to fly straight to Montreal. I'm flying to my family a few hours south and borrowing my dad's old truck. Thanks for reading. It's a depressing birthday, man. You're going with somebody you don't want to go with. She's not fat yet. I feel Ryan's going to tell you to go alone. Right? I tell you to go alone. Yeah, I'm leaning that way too, but I thought he was a shoe in. All right. This is what I need to ask our guy here. I mean, you don't really think you're going to go play 36 holes with golf. Have her meet you in Montreal. She's going to meet you in Montreal, so you can't even do the road trip together. You can't fly next to each other to whatever town you're landing in. I'm trying to think, is he going from the city and then flying to someplace up north and upstate New York and then the drive from upstate New York to Montreal is doable? Yeah, absolutely. He's like, hey, one, you're not going to fly with me to this other town and two, you're not going to drive with me. We're going to meet in Montreal. I'm going to play 36 holes with golf, so you go do your thing. I think there's a Sephora around the corner. It's a nice preserve. I think you could dig around. Yeah, maybe we get a dinner in that one night, but are you bringing her to the game or are you just going to be in Montreal to watch with locals, which is something he said, hey, game two Saturday night, must do, watch with locals. So I imagine she's allowed to go to that part of it. My guess is that you may have hit a bit of a rough patch. And so are you making a decision like, whenever we're in relationships or not relationships, I generally think when we make our worst decisions is when we're at our loneliest. Okay. Don't go to the supermarket hungry, right? I mean, what do they say? Yeah, I'm almost willing to like, this email is more about giving her advice that, hey, man, do her favor. Don't see her anymore. My question is, how desperate is she? Like, God, this is like a, this is, I mean, all these signs are pointed, like you're basically having her avoid all these checkpoints. So you don't have to really deal with her being your actual girlfriend or meeting anyone. Like it's just, she should kind of pick on that up on that hit too. Man. Yeah. The scouting report he gave her, it's sort of like when you're in the relationship, what we're a relationship with somebody you shouldn't be in, like you start getting like pissed off at little things that shouldn't matter. But like, you know, I could see like on this trip, if it's three days or whatever, like a couple of things she's doing, that's totally normal that might even annoy him on his, you know, used to be solo trip. I think it's, it seems like a recipe for not great. You know what this sounds like too? It sounds like in this, it could be disrespectful, but like, like the NBA player is just like flying a girl out to a city, you know, like, like that's this, what this feels like for like a one night, that it just feels really, I don't know, if I was her, I would, I feel like you'd sniff this out, but maybe she really likes you and that's a bummer too. Cause if she does, then it's going to make this whole situation harder for you. So I, another reason why you should just go solo. I can totally understand like, Hey, if I'm going to visit my family in the way up there, then that screws up all the travel thing. Okay, fine. And it's, we just kind of hung out a little bit. We just started talking again. I don't want to introduce you to my family right away. Okay, that's fine too. Like I get all that part, but you really think you're going to golf 36 fucking holes on top of her meeting you there on a separate itinerary and the whole, and so I would just go solo and also try to be a little bit more honest of, of like, whether or not you're wasting your time a second time here. Like, are you just hanging out with her? Cause you don't like, you don't like being by yourself. You know, maybe somebody up there. Yeah, I was going to say, I just, I think it's going to bum you out. 36 holes. Had me such an epic move, like he just leaves at 8am, gets back at 8pm. Ready to go to the game? A little bit hammered. Started, started drinking gin in the back nine. Sorry if I'm weird. Just going to take a quick nap. Like, you still want to do the casino later? Cool. I'll try to, I'll try to keep it. The good thing is he has an, good thing he hasn't asked her yet. He's like, I can tell she wants me to ask her, right? That was in the email there. He didn't like, did she know the itinerary? Maybe just tell her what you actually planned on doing. I like that. You know what? I'm good actually. I like that. I don't want to go. Yeah, there you go. Like advice. Thanks to Tom, Kevin and Sarroudi and to Kyle. Please subscribe and watch our show, Full episodes on Netflix, the Ryan Russel Show, our social sports. So rural Britain, you've suffered too long. Your days of sluggish broadband are over. We're connecting rural homes to full fiber with thousands more joining every month. T minus five. The gigaverse is expanding before my very eyes. Gigaclear, faster broadband for rural Britain from only 19 pounds per month. We have lived off. T's and C's apply. 18 month contract. Prices may rise during contract. Check availability at gigaclear.com. What a scream. We installed telephone wires across rural Britain over a century ago and you're still paying to use them for your broadband today. If it ain't broke, what? Stop. Your days of selling phone age broadband are over. Blast. I've spilled the beans. Upgrade to 100% full fiber. Gigaclear, faster broadband for rural Britain from only 19 pounds a month. Prices may rise during contract. T's and C's apply. Check availability at gigaclear.com.