The Annual NBA “Would You Rather” Debates, Plus Why the Dodgers Aren’t Necessarily MLB’s Bad Guys w/ Jeff Passan

Hey, Rosillo listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. The Ryan Rosillo Show is presented by Giraffe Kings. We're talking Hoops All-Star Break at the very beginning of this. a bunch of would-you-rathers, an incredibly challenging one from Saruti on OKC's bench. We're also going to talk collective bargaining agreement with Jeff Passan. This offseason means what for the future of baseball. We are less than a year away from a major decision on whether or not we'll have baseball in 2027 and life advice. The NBA's biggest stars deliver the biggest moments with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. You can cash in when they take over. player props, live betting, every possession, every shot, every steal is your shot to win with DraftKings Sportsbook. And DraftKings has your back with early exit. If your player goes down at any time in the first half, you still get paid in cash. 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Limited time offer. Before we talk some baseball, let's talk some hoops before we get ready for the All-Star break. I have Sir Rudy here. He loves would-you-rathers. I mean, he does ones that have nothing to do with hoops. It's wild. You know who loves a good would-you-rathers, Van Pelt? so we'll run through revisit history here a little bit so what do you got yeah i think this is like the fourth year we've done this where you know i basically just pinned two players against each other and it's it's not a it's not like a next five years thing it's it's just basically right now you know through the rest of the season in the playoffs like who's that's it would you rather have your team okay all right that's good yeah because usually we always think like long term it's like what you want to have last year i said like 18 months 15 months maybe but i don't know i kind of like rest of the year in the playoffs like in the moment who is okay so that's the rule rest of the year in the playoffs okay all right but i want to do the top 10 list oh yeah top 10 before the playoffs and then again before the next season starts but i want to get like 10 front offices involved in the whole thing too so we can make fun of those guys the way they make fun of us correct well so i listened to last year's segment and it was good but man like these things age so badly so fast it's unbelievable it's crazy it's a great lesson what were the bad ones well like let me go through a few last year we did kate or booker and we both said booker i don't think you'd say that now nope i wouldn't um but i don't know that like again i think the way bookers talked about is like criminal but i have a booker coming up i do booker every year because he's just like the guy that's floating and i never know i kind of where to put him in in the uh in the rankings uh sga or yannis we did last year we both took or you took yannis i don't know if i answered do you still you still believe that no sga is the better guy okay we did aunt or donovan mitchell i mean from a health standpoint there's there's no like you can't even argue it with the way these things have played out and we've already seen that like whatever sga's regular season is it will translate to the playoffs as well so now that we have that uh i don't mind that answer last year but now i even i wouldn't do that and i think i'm probably generally thought is like maybe just okc fans that are really annoying are the ones that think i'm anti-SGA. Probably because I think I'm like one of 30 of the 100 voters that voted for Jokic last year MVP. I think that has something to do with it. I got one that might piss them off in a little bit. We'll get to that in a second. We did do Ant or Donovan Mitchell. Now remember Donovan Mitchell, this was like when he was in the middle of just having a tear of a season. Like he was awesome last year. Pre-playoffs. Obviously now that's like you take Ant. It's not even a question. Did we say Mitchell last year? You said Ant. I was more on the fence. I was going to be shocked I was going to be shocked if I picked Ant last year I think I was picking Ant when he wasn't good here's the best one and we did kind of do this one going forward it was Cooper Flag versus a bunch of under 25 guys so we did Cooper Flag versus Wemby we said no you take Wemby we did Cooper Flag versus Paulo we both said no we take Paulo that seems like a no now that feels wrong that does feel wrong I would even admit that we did Cooper Flag versus Ant, we both said no. You take Ant. I think that's still right. Definitely now. I mean, the guy's made it to two Western Conference Finals. He's probably the best on-ball scorer when he has to find a way to get it all on his own, even though the efficiency stuff with SGA would just tell you, like, well, no, that's not true. I guess I'm talking more from just a can-you-get-free-and-get-yourself-a-bucket thing. But again, the SGA advanced shit is like a whole other universe these last two years. So, again, SGA is a better player than Ant, but I wouldn't take, I don't think I'd take Cooper over him now either. Not right now. Not for, you're saying the rest of the year or 12 months, like forget that. Five years, that's not the exercise. And here's the best one. And I don't even remember us doing this, but I'm glad I listened back. We did. Would you rather have Cooper Flagg or Amen Thompson? And we both said we'd rather have Amen. And this is before Cooper ever played. This is when he was at Duke, correct? Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. there was a big big amend push some would say i'm still i'm still there but uh anyway all right let's get to someone this year this is the one that might piss okc fans off this one i've got two that i'm kind of proud of one will one i think okc fans will love this one i'm not sure i kind of ran this one by you last they're pretty chill so it'll be fine yeah totally i want to uh i want to spice things up a little bit so this is actually a two versus one situation would you rather have Jokic again this is right now healthy rest of the season into the playoffs and again all things are equal like the rest of the teams they don't get the rest of the Thunder team he doesn't get his Nuggets team it's just all equal as of right now would you rather have Jokic on his own or a team with SGA and Jalen Williams okay so last night when you threw this one at me I didn't realize we were just talking the rest of the season because if it was moving forward of course the age part of SGA and the fact that you're getting in theory a top 15 player and Jalen Williams also who's really young. But if it's just the rest of the year, I'll take the best player in the world. Who also everyone can play with. Yeah, you basically get all the same 2K guys. You throw them on the team. They're getting like 80 overalls. The rest, you know, it's like that guy and a bunch of 80 overalls or SGA and Jalen Williams and a bunch of 80 overalls. What team would you rather have? You're saying you'd rather have the Jokic team. Yeah. I think you're right. Really? I don't think anyone's going to agree with me on that. Well, it is really, man. I mean, it's tough because Jalen's obviously been hurt, but I'm just assuming. Yeah, what if Jalen's played a full season and we're going, hey, this guy might be all NBA second team and all that kind of stuff. But I don't know. I can only go on how I feel about it right now. Again, if this isn't moving for the next few years, I mean, if that was the question, then it'd be Jokic is a stupid answer just based on age and the fact you're getting a second person. Yeah, it's pretty straightforward stuff to figure out here on this one, though, for the next few months. I just I don't know, man. I mean, he's he's we need to do the which rings are doing the most work thing. Yeah, we'll do that. Because with Jokic. it doesn't feel like that because he's generally accepted by so many basketball people like if he only ends up with one i don't know i mean there's always going to be that audience out there that just wants to find the guy that's good and then just shit on him because they like i don't know they're like thaddies young people or something but he might be so good that people will go yeah, but I'm not going to beat up on him for only having one ring. In the grand scheme, Al will talk about him and his greatness and historically and where he stacks up. Yeah, I think if we're playing out this exercise, if I'm an opposing coach, right, and I'm like, hey, I have to game plan to stop Jokic or I have to game plan to stop SGA and Jalen Williams, I'd be more afraid of what Jokic could do against me. Yeah, because he's also... That's the answer. Yeah. The hypothetical of the two versus one is a little tough, though, because then it's like he's not playing by himself. What else? All right. This is the battle of the best Jalen, I think, in the league. Jalen Brown or Jalen Brunson? Damn. Brunson is the tougher guy to stop. I don't think there's any debate on that one. I can't believe but the Jalen Brown defense and not being able to attack him the way you can attack Brunson I'd rather have Jalen Brown but that's a weird one too though because it's like if you traded if somebody was like hey we'll give you Jalen Brunson or Jalen Brown like who's saying no I mean the Knicks are saying no I think I would rather have Brunson even though everything you said about the playoff stuff and the small guards thing does scare the crap out of me. You know, like the playoffs, I mean, if Tatum doesn't come back and the Celtics make the finals with Jalen Brown, like that's going to be, that almost would be better than the title that he won and the finals MVP. Am I right? Like that would be more impressive. Jalen might enjoy it more. And I wouldn't blame him. Yeah. But I think right now I would say, man, Brunson and what he does offensively, it's really hard. It's really hard. I've never thought that Jalen's a better player than Brunson, and then you have the first 50 games of the season. You know what? I'm going to change my answer because I just don't think that Jalen Brown is better than him. So I'm doing too much of the recency bias, and I think Jalen Brunson closing out playoff games when he's the focal point. and clearly Jalen's had really good playoff games but my issue with the MVPs in those series is that Tatum's the one dictating everything and Tatum has so Brown has now gone to another level just not based on usage like it's it's terrific and even with his defense though I'm going to change my answer to Brunson closing a playoff game because he's he's so unguardable by because of his own skill and because of how scared you are that he's going to get some bullshit call so we're on the same page there alright my annual Devin Booker one Devin Booker or Tyrese Maxey oh man you made this one tough I don't care I'm going to be stubborn again Booker I think I'd still take Booker too but man I love Maxey everyone's going to give you so much shit for this now because they're just going to say you're agreeing with me and I know you're not I know that you're not agreeing. Well, I said Jalen Brunson first. You switched to my side on that one. Yes, people do love to think that I disagree. Maybe I'm just trying to impress you now. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. There's still something. There's just something about Booker. I know it was with Paul and whatever. There was that finals run. That means something to me. You know, like having that playoff success. I think I would trust that a little bit more than I would Maxie. But again, I love Max. Maxie's one of my favorite players in the league. So this is maybe the hardest one on the list. Most of them have them kind of around the same range. I don't know. I imagine if you ask most people, would you trade Maxie for Booker? People would be like, what are you nuts? Maxie's unbelievable. I think you can like Maxie more and that's fine. I think it's very, very close. And yeah, I'm going with Booker still. All right. Shangoon or Chet? Chet. now look shangun is tasked with more stuff this kind of gets back to that chet palo stuff that you and i talk about probably off the air way too much but chet even if the fully formed version of him on offense doesn't seem like it's going to happen where it's you know it was like him in this ball handling role because he was so skilled for a guy his size but when you're not really asked to do that in your NBA career. It doesn't just, it's just hard to still have that, whatever that is. So Shingun's playmaking and the handling, and when the play looks totally broken down, him coming up with something and making a bucket, I think Shingun's better at that stuff. But even a lesser version of Chet throughout his entire career on offense of like what the most hopeful version of him was, stretch five, rim protection, comfortable with the ball in his hands, that's so ridiculously valuable. So, and even if Chet doesn't end up being like a nine out of 10 based on the prospects of what he could be, he's still going to be a max player for a really long time. And I'd rather plug that in than Shingun, who's a more probably talented guy, but the rim protection isn't even close. Like I was looking at the rim protection numbers again, it went Chet's just, he's just right there with everybody else. I think there's only like one guy ahead of him. Yeah, if we're talking like, I think both these guys on really, really good teams are a supporting piece and I'd rather have Chet just because of the versatility things he could do with the defensive stuff. Shang-Goon, if he's my one player, I'd rather have Shang-Goon. My team's going to be probably better. Who do you think would win one-on-one? Shang-Goon. I think one-on-one is like your offensive moves, he'd bring him into the post, he's bigger than Chet. I guess Chet could theoretically take him outside, but I think Shingun would win a 1-on-1. I think Chet, though, dribbling 1-on-1 against Shingun defensively. I picked Chet. I think Chet wins 1-on-1. We'll have to do a poll question there. We'll have to ask him to play. The GameTime app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets, experiences in just a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use, and the GameTime guarantee means you can trust, you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price. Plus, fees are always included, so what you see is what you pay. I was looking at tickets for Histon's Knicks tonight at MSG in town, and I see tickets starting at only $247. I will monitor. Take the guesswork out of the buying of NBA tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account. Use the code RUSILLO for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code RUSSILLO, R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O, for $20 off. This one's near and dear to my heart. Paolo or Amen? Paolo. I'm not giving up. I'm not giving in to everybody else that's shitting on this guy. Was it Haberstro that suggested they trade him to the Nets for Michael Porter Jr.? I was just like, all right, guys. I like Haberstro. I love Haberstro, but yeah, that was tough. I didn't love that. Yeah. I'm not giving in. I think I got to go with my guy, Ahmed. I think I have to side with him. Like, if you're asking me, I mean, last night's game is just, like, in my head right now, and I'm in a bad Palo place overall. Cranberries. The Magic are a better team than the men. Why? Because he provides more floor spacing? I think he's more versatile. I think you let Franz have a ball. Magic get him to, like, hey, you're going to fit right in here. a defense alone maybe more people are going to agree with you and paolo just seems like publicly he's like a company that i think is still really good and i don't know it's not even like he's like upset it's like he's despondent yeah like he's just he can't be bothered um or just something is obviously off. People are talking about if it's like a weight thing too. He looks a little bigger. I don't know about that necessarily. I will say like I saw this like compilation kind of highlight thing. It felt like his first couple years like the offense was just and maybe because he wasn't getting doubled as much but like the offense just felt like it came a lot easier to him whereas now like everything just feels like a like a just a sludge drag like nothing comes easy. And I don't know if that's like how he's getting the ball where he's getting the ball what he wants to do versus what the coaching staff and the rest of the team wants him to do. but he kind of like the offensive end just kind of looks he looks disinterested and it's it's it's hard to be like yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna stick my flag into that guy um as much as I want to and have in the last couple years like it just it's been bad and at least I know the men like I'm getting a guy that plays really hard and is versatile yeah the shooting is not going to be there but um it's close but I would go man I think power can be a one I don't think a man can I think that's true. So maybe I'm like the Shen Good versus Chet thing. I'm basically like speaking out of both sides of my mouth. It's all right. This is what this exercise is. All right. This is a fun one. This is maybe a battle for the best white guard in the league. I'm going to give you three guys. Austin Reeves, Power Hero, or Khan Knipple. Hero is so third on this list. It's not even. Don't tell that to Heat fans though. Come on. They know. i'm gonna go knipple because it's only well again right now the rest of the year shit then i'll go back i keep forgetting i keep forgetting i like honestly if it's for just the rest of this year the way we've talked about paulo way too much we may need to put a paulo cap on the show where you can only like you know the NFL would let ESPN use two minutes of live action SportsCenter. And then we may need to do like a timer for Paolo when you and I start talking about him. It's like, hey, we can't talk about him anymore. The rest of the year it's a man. So, sorry, I keep forgetting the exercise. The rest of the year it's Austin Reeves over Knipple. Played in playoff games. Yeah. This is a good one. Cat, I think, has been in this every year as well. yeah it's usually always the other guy i think it's gonna be the other guy again cat or jaylen duran jaylen duran i don't like cat i haven't liked him for a really long time this is not breaking news i find him to be so unenjoyable to watch it's getting even worse mike breen who's one of the best broadcasters in any sport but we know how it is on the home broadcast like you kind of have to chill out and you can't really like the sixers broadcast is an incredibly homer broadcast. But part of me has sympathy for him because of all the bullshit fouls that Embiid and Maxey get. Like, what are they supposed to do? Play at neutral? Because if they played at neutral, they'd be talking against their own players all the time. So when Joel falls down and fucking looks around, they can't be like, hey, Joel's baiting again, or that wasn't a foul. So I sympathize with the home broadcast to having to be homers. that preamble is to point out that Breen the other night during a Knicks game I was watching watches Kat's like Kat has to stop complaining this much like Breen said it yeah Breen again on the Knicks not the national broadcast on the Knicks broadcast Breen's like Kat's gotta stop and it wasn't it was just like a hey you know we had clock stoppage there was some fucking stupid drive to the baseline which again it works for him more than it looks like it's going to on launch It's like this rocket that takes off and you go, oh, I guess it made it into orbit. I don't know how. So honestly, you could have picked a lot of guys. But this is turning into fighting the exercise here. But Duren, at least I know how he battles the rolling around the rim. Just a motherfucker. I'll take that, even though I don't think he's taken a three yet this year and kind of goes against what everybody hopes to have in the stretch five. well because he's not a stretch fighter i was just surprised a lot of lists had had them close and had cat ahead of him and i i because he's an incredible he's a historic three-point shooter but his rebounding is awesome too but i don't i'm good i'm good you've seen what you need to say yeah all right i got two more one of them the last one's long so this is the last short one this is the battle of two guys that have just like found a new home and are now we're just like wait are they are they kind of sneaky awesome dylan brooks or michael porter jr oh um man for this version that we've seen from michael porter jr but i'm gonna just i'm gonna go with dylan brooks because i think these games matter more and i'd rather have brooks in a playoff battle than michael porter jr who there have been playoff games on his resume champion Michael Porter Jr Yeah I don care I mean you know there some really Now Porter Jr is not playing even in regular season games that have the same meaning than Dylan Brooks regular season games So if you telling me from this point forward through the playoffs I'll take Brooks. All right, this last one here, this is a ridiculous one. And it's not even really part of this exercise, but it kind of is. So I'm going to say it's a would you rather. how many teams right now would swap their entire roster for the Thunders bench. So basically, I'm going to ask you a team, and would you rather have your current team or the Thunders bench? So we're excluding SGA, Jalen, Chet, Hartenstein, and Dort, right? Is that fair? That's the five? Yeah, because I think... So basically, we're talking about Peruso, AJ... Yeah, I got to hear. AJ, Cason Wallace, Caruso, Wiggins, other Jalen Williams, Isaiah Joe, Topic, Kenrich, and obviously McCain now. It's a different question now. Now that Usman Jang is gone. Oh, yeah. All right. This isn't. I had said I thought they would play for a play-in game without SGA and Jalen Williams. And then people think it actually, once they started losing games, it was like the worst take ever. He's like, yeah, but you're missing the concept. If that was the team with that coach that said, okay, let's roll the ball out there, I trust that they would be more ready to go than a handful of teams in the bottom of the West. Let's do this. So Kings are a yes? Kings, yes. Wizards, yes. I'm just going by the standings. Wizards, yes. No, that might be a no, man. No. Oh, I think they would. What's the high-end thing here, though? That's what you have to look at. the rest of the season? God, it's the rest of the season. Well, I guess that is, yeah, you're right. Well, what is it? What is it? Because we keep bouncing back and forth on this one. Let's not do the rest of the season because that's stupid. I think this one is you just switch rosters going forward. Right. What's the high-end piece here that gets you really excited? Like, Wiggins is a really nice player. A.J. Mitchell's had some incredible moments here. Would you rather have A.J. Mitchell? Would you rather have Wallace? What do you want to say? Wallace is the most appealing asset of any of these guys. What are the high-end assets that are that exciting for the Wizards? There's no way that you would trade Trey Johnson for A.J. Mitchell right now. No, but the totality of the rest of the Wizards... I don't care about Trey. I don't care about A.D. I'm sorry. I don't. Would you trade Saar for Caruso? Would you trade Saar for Kenrick Williams? Of course not. Right. No. So that's two. No, I wouldn't. So that's three players, we could say, with Keyshawn George. Would you trade AD for any of these guys? AD, and I don't care. AD, I don't know. How many games is he going to play? You want Topic or Trae Young? Yeah, I don't even think that. I don't want Trae Young. I'd rather have Topic. I have no interest in Trae Young on my team whatsoever. I'm telling you that the current Wizards team, or I can get A.J. Mitchell, Case, On Wallace, Caruso, Wiggins, other J.L. Williams, Isaiah, Joe, Topic, Kenridge, and McCain. I think I'd rather have that. I think there's just, even if you're going to, I'm kind of arguing against my whole play-in point here, but I would say there's just not enough high-end possibilities here with this group where you'd be passing on Trey, on Keyshawn, on Saar. Is there one player that you would say no to Keyshawn George on this list of bench players for OKC? I mean, I love A.J. Mitchell. So you would say if A.J. Mitchell were offered for Keyshawn George, or if the Wizards offered you Keyshawn George for A.J. Mitchell, you would... I don't like the one player thing, though. I don't like the one player because I'm telling you that I'd rather have that group of guys. I understand what you're saying, but if you're doing the entire Wizards roster, there's a hope that one of these guys pops to another level. So vice versa, if you're the Thunder, you'd be like, I'd rather take the Wizards as my bench than my bench. Yeah. alright we would agree we'll never know I don't know if we'll ever know alright let's keep going Pelicans I think this is going to be a million no's for me man ok alright Brooklyn's a yes right Brooklyn's probably a yes Utah's a no Dallas is a no Memphis yeah Cedric Coward, Pippen, Vince Williams, Edie. Other than Coward, I'm not. But I like Coward better than any other players, or the idea of Coward. And that's the point. Like, again, if it isn't like everything else the rest of the year... So you don't like AJ as much? I like AJ a lot, but I... I feel like I kind of know what the fully formed version of it is going to be, even if this still feels somewhat early. There's still a high-end thing here, a possibility of a high-end thing here that you would value. I mean, that's what we do every single year with the draft. So the way NBA teams work on this, I don't know that anyone from this group, unless you just like Topic is going to be fucking nasty. And who knows? That could be the funniest thing is like two years from now, we think about this exercise and Topic is terrific. I don't know how often he's going to have a ball in his hands in this offense with SGA. It's not like he's 30. So what were the yeses? Brooklyn? Yeses. Sacramento? Brooklyn. Yeah, the Kings, Brooklyn. And you have the Wizards. I don't. I think I would, and I think I would Memphis too. Jaws still on the team. Well, I don't, yeah. I mean, that's, I guess that's, yeah, but what's his, he has negative value right now according to the league. So what's that even saying? I mean if you were to take away Giannis off the Bucs which I know this is a stupid exercise but like you would swap rosters with the Bucs ASAP right no Giannis yeah I mean unless it's Cam Thompson Jang one two is what about the Bulls I've never been a huge giddy guy I know that I know he had a great start to the year, and it's kind of tailed off. Vince Williams is in that Jazz deal, by the way. I just had to double check that. I probably should have brought Jalen Wells instead of Vince Williams. I think this is the last possible team. Nah, Bezelis. Like, I wouldn't, if you offered me AJ Mitchell for Bezelis, I'd say no. So you have two teams. I have, I think, four. still it's kind of insane good exercise alright so you can let us know what you think about that our NBA mailbag nbamailbagrr at gmail.com get in the game with the college branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back at some of your favorite brands with Venmo stash rewards upgrade your super fan status and special edition school designs so you can pay for your game day wings and rep your team at the same time you can add your venmo debit card to your mobile wallet as soon as you sign up and pay online and in store right from your phone and the best part the card is tied to your venmo account got paid back for dinner immediately access the money in your venmo balance and spend it on what you want game day snacks tickets new merch you can easily split purchases in the app and there's no monthly fee or minimum balance score more with a college-branded venmo debit card and get up to five percent cash back with Venmo stash. Sign up at Venmo.com slash college card. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by Bank Corp N.A. Select schools available. Venmo stash bundle terms and exclusions apply at Venmo.me forward slash stash terms. Max $100 cash back per month. Passing massive piece for collective bargaining agreement aficionados up today on ESPN. One of the best baseball writers going. I don't want to get it personal here and start ranking all you guys. So look, yeah, well, maybe at the end, we'll open it up to the audience. This is a day that a lot of baseball fans have been thinking about this deadline of December 1st in 2026 to see where we're at with 2027 baseball. You wrote a long piece. The most important thing for all of us to understand is what? That December 1st is not the date that you should be scared about. it's mid-March at some undetermined point where they are going to have been fighting for months and months and there are going to be slings and arrows going back and forth and you're going to have MLB pushing hard on the public that a salary cap is necessary to save this sport and you're going to have the players pushing back and saying no, no, no, on the contrary a salary cap is not necessary to achieve the objectives that you, Major League Baseball, are saying are important. And that drop-dead date in the middle of March is going to be, Ryan, what determines whether the season starts on time and whether games are missed. And I know Major League Baseball has a long and sordid labor history that the World Series was lost in 1994 on arguments over this very issue about the salary cap. But in the time since, the NHL has missed a lot of games. The NBA has missed a lot of games. Baseball, for all of the labor consternation that there is every time this comes up, hasn't missed a game since the strike in 94 that bled into 95. So the hope is that that continues and that Rob Manfred's tenure as commissioner goes clean start to finish with no games missed. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Baseball gets a really unfair amount of criticism when basically these labor deals are up every four or five years or so. So if you go through it, the same topics. I was looking at all the stuff back to like 97, 99 this morning and going through like what were the key talking points. I would say this one does feel a little bit different, and that's because of the L.A. Dodgers. So what role do the Dodgers play in the legitimacy of the really I think it's an ownership concern more it is about an overall compensation concern towards the players? the Dodgers to me Ryan are such a fascinating character in all of this because they are painted and portrayed as this like moneyed and villainous group that is using its natural resources to take over baseball and to some extent that's true like what the Dodgers are doing right now it shouldn't be a surprise because the Wall Streetization of sports ownership has led to, I think, front offices and teams looking for these advantages that exist within the constraints of their collective bargaining agreements. And it's not just the Dodgers. You see this with the New York Mets as well. The Dodgers are owned by Guggenheim, a hedge fund that runs 350 million, excuse me, that manages $350 billion in assets. The Dodgers are owned by Steve Cohen, one of the most successful head fund managers of his generation. He's literally fucking Bobby Axelrod. Like, that is who he is. Like, the character was modeled after him. And so you should not be surprised that these organizations are looking through all of the collective bargaining agreement and saying, where do we have advantages? And the advantage that they found is that Major League Baseball in the collective bargaining agreement penalizes teams through money. And what I mean by that is, you know, for all the draft pick stuff that exists and all the other penalties, at the end of the day, if you go over the competitive balance tax, really the only substantial penalty that you're paying is money. And guess what? Guggenheim and Steve Cohen have a lot of goddamn money. And they understand that if all we're doing is pouring money into this team and the team is going to be better and allow us to win championships in the case of the Dodgers or allow us to ostensibly turn things around in the case of the Mets, that's a price that we're willing to pay. That's a price that's worth it. And baseball really is the only sport that I can see where you're penalized for trying hard and there's no penalty for not trying. And I'm not going to sit here, Ryan, and tell you that the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Kansas City Royals have the capacity to go and do the same thing that the Dodgers do. Unless you have some sort of munificent owner who is going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year. That's just not a realistic thing. But what is realistic is that the lower teams on the end of things can spend more and that there can be some sort of penalties put in place on the top end that don't include necessarily a salary cap to make it such that teams are not going to want to spend. And that's how you shrink the gap between the two that has grown and grown and is at the point now where it's as big as we've ever seen. Yeah, the parity stuff on the overall payroll stuff like I always like to look at okay if you go five lowest payrolls by team in 2025 Miami's around 67 million um the Athletics 73 million Tampa 80 White Sox 82 Pittsburgh's just under 88 million um Miami's 67 million dollar payroll would have been 16th in MLB rankings in 2005 so like when you think of the growth of the nfl cap team salaries um it's not the same amount of growth obviously in the nba like you don't have to go very far to just see this graph that explodes and it feels like for a third of these franchises that there's there's no explosion i mean some of these numbers continue to get more and more ridiculous on the disparity and i understand all the Dodgers complaints, especially when you're just a fan and you're emotional and you're looking at your division going, what the hell am I supposed to do? I remember just as a hardcore Sox fan, I was so worried about what Steinbrenner was going to do after they lost game seven to Arizona. I was like, oh no, you know, like I almost rather you just won this one so that you're not even more motivated to go ahead. I mean, it's just the way I thought. So I understand that way of thinking with everything, but this is a far more like whenever I read about any of this stuff, the issue is these teams. It's not the Dodgers. Like, I understand the Dodgers and the packaging and all this stuff. And can we just, as an aside, like, why is the Tucker contract the one that's like, all right, this is ridiculous? Because that felt like the way that was structured, everyone was against that contract that both is involved in this sport and roots for a team in this sport. So just for some context, Kyle Tucker was the best free agent in baseball this offseason. It's 29 years old, four-time All-Star. I mean, a really, really good player. A really good player, but not a superstar. But he's not 30 yet, so he's young. And so you can still get those prime years. And he got offered 10 years and $350 million by the Toronto Blue Jays. And never in baseball history had somebody turned down a $300-plus million contract in free agency to go for something shorter. And yet the Dodgers came in at four years and $240 million with a $65 million signing bonus. And the Mets offered four for 220 with no deferred money and a $75 million signing bonus. And that is the gap between the top and the bottom is cashflow. It's the ability for Guggenheim to go into its vast resources and say $65 million right now, that's between our couch cushions. It's for Steve Cohen to say, am I going to take a loss here? Yeah, but guess what? I got a casino out of it. And so I am going to make goo gobs of money otherwise. And I think why it pisses so many people off, Ryan, I appreciate you bringing up those bottom five teams, but let's go to the bottom 10. Kyle Tucker's contract for $60 million this year with the deferrals factored in the average annual value is $57.1 million. Because the Dodgers have gone over the highest threshold of the competitive balance tax multiple years in a row now, they have to pay 110% penalty on every dollar they spend over it. 57.1 plus 57.1 plus 5.7 is $119.9 million. The Los Angeles Dodgers this year are going to pay Kyle Tucker more than the entire payroll of the bottom 10 teams in Major League Baseball. And if that right there does not illustrate to you the disparity, I'm not sure what's going to. And listen, for a long time, Ryan, and I still am to some extent, the Dodgers are playing within the framework that 30 owners agreed to four years ago. We can't discount that. There were 30 owners on board with this collective bargaining agreement, and all the Dodgers are doing is playing inside of that sandbox. Now, they're the ones like walking into the sandbox, you know, with fat Cuban links on and everybody else is wearing fake chains. But at the same time, I have a hard time begrudging the Dodgers for saying that we're going to do all we can to go and win when there are so many teams out there that don't have that same mentality even if they don't have the same resources. Just for the record, because I think we're aligned on this, I am in favor of what the Dodgers are doing. I am not going to point to the Dodgers and go, the Dodgers are the problem. The Dodgers is why we're not going to have baseball. The Dodgers are the reason why we may not have baseball in 2027. But on the structure and some of the California stuff that you had reported on with Otani and understanding as a resident of California, like once you get over that million dollar salary threshold, it's a 13 percent state tax. And so is there something which would seem as a massive disadvantage to California actually is an even bigger advantage to California because they're going to go, look, we're going to get you out of the state tax. We're going to pay you the lowest base. imaginable. We're going to defer all this money. So it's going to be worth even more in the future. I guess there's probably like a cash rich poor thing. But like once you get into this world of private banking, there's plenty of people are going to figure out really good deals for you, where you're going to have access to cash, where you can borrow against the future contract, and then you're paying like literally nothing anyway. So is the oddity of all the years of like Texas, no state tax, Florida, no state tax, California having this absurd state income tax for any of these ballplayers making this much money, which would be a massive negative, is clearly, like the Dodgers, again, I don't know that I'd structure it or argue it as a positive, but their creative structuring puts them in another stratosphere on top of the access to all this money because no one would want to sign there unless they were deferring all this money on top of everything else, correct? Accurate. And it's why I think it's going to be important as, you know, over the next few months, as we look at what the alternates to the salary cap or to a salary cap system are. And I think that's an important thing to do. Just like as a reporter, if there are players that are saying there's no way in hell that we're going to agree to this, it's my job to say, okay, why? Like, why do players not believe in this? Well, players don't believe in this because, hey, this system right now, treating them pretty well. Shohei Otani, $70 million a year. Kyle Tucker, $60 million a year. Juan Soto, 15 years, $765 million. All guaranteed, by the way, because every contract in baseball is guaranteed. So the players are saying this system has buoyed us for decades now. It's been more than a half century since Kurt Flood and Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally and the forebears of not just labor in baseball, but in all of sports, allowed us this wonderful thing called free agency, which we are obsessed with as fans every year and which gives players the opportunity to control their destiny and control their careers. But at the same time, Ryan, we need to understand that unfettered free agency has unintended consequences. And one of those unintended consequences that has revealed itself in baseball is that when you allow things to go this way, there can be disparity. And there's a certain point, I think, where the disparity starts bleeding over into fans' lives. And look, I live in Kansas City. I grew up in Cleveland. I know as well as anyone the plight of small market team in an uncapped sport. Like, it's a real thing. But at the same time, remember who was the best team in Major League Baseball during the regular season last year? It wasn't the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was the Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee of all teams. And you look at Cleveland two consecutive AL Central championships on a skinflint budget You look at the Rays There are ways to win in baseball in spite of these things Since the turn of the century Major League Baseball has more World Series champions than Stanley Cup champions NBA Finals champions and Super Bowl champions. Baseball has those areas where parity has shown itself because the game is so random. And yet all this comes back, I think, Ryan, to a feeling. A feeling of we want to feel like we've got a shot as fans. We want to feel like this is fair. And that's where I think all the stakeholders in baseball need to come together and understand that they have something good going on right now. Let's not ruin it because of greed. Microsoft Co-Pilot, the AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done. Co-Pilot works across Microsoft 365, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, turning chaos into productivity. Need a presentation? Copilot builds it. Need a summary of a meeting you definitely zoned out in? Copilot's got you. Let Copilot do the heavy lifting. You just take the credit. Learn more at microsoft.com slash m365copilot. I'm forever fascinated with just the idea of 50-50 because it doesn't mean it's right. It's just really hard to argue against. And so if we're roommates and we live in a two bedroom condo and utility bill comes in and I'm like, well, you know, it's, it's 50, 50. Now, look, one of us could be getting a space here going, you know, it might not actually be a perfect representation of what the real value is or what the real cost is that we're running up. But it's just hard to argue against like, Hey, 50, 50 just makes sense. And I think it's really interesting that so many of the leagues kind of argue 50-50 when I'm up for arguments of like, hey, the debt carry and everything you have to do to own one of these teams, like it should never be 50-50. It should always be 60-40 in favor of the owners. I'm more aligned with the players on this historically where somehow the NBA went from 57 to below 50%, and that's not even guaranteed. It's all based on the basketball-related income, which, again, you so astutely point out in your piece here today. It's like, this is what your contract says. But if there's a shortfall, then it's just collectively felt on the pain side. So like 50-50, everybody, the reason why I think 50-50 works, and this is, I promise, there's a point here, is that the public's just good with 50-50. and and it just forever it just was like yeah but what if we're the players and we're worth so much more and our skill is is more unique than it is you accruing wealth however you did it some people with incredibly hard work and you're just a grandson who outlasted the rest of them you know so um i i look at this dodgers part of and you had said like now it feels like the smoking gun because when they agreed to this four years ago, there's probably not many people who are like, wait, what are the Dodgers going to do the next few years? And they're coming off the two World Series. So I wonder if the owners can bitch and complain about the Dodgers, but from a PR standpoint, for selling their position, the way the 50-50 proposition has been sold to the public for decades, I wonder if the Dodgers are actually a good thing because it's a breaking point. because I don't understand how much public support actually matters in any of this shit. It seems to matter to all of these. Yeah, right. Like, I think the way people are talking about on TV, the way all this, like, I would try to go like, I don't know that this stuff really matters, but the Dodgers may be both the thing that everyone is rallied around. And then privately, the owners are like, we are so glad because the Dodgers are going to sway public opinion. They're going to have more and more fans going, you know what? Let's just do the salary cap. Like, what's wrong with these greedy baseball players when, in fact, like, I think it's so important, so incredible that this league still does not have a salary cap that the highest end, the most the most talented, the most unique players in this sport can be rewarded with an infinity type idea of what their true value is. The same way LeBron is probably worth 100 million plus dollars a year when he's in his prime in baseball. That doesn't happen to LeBron the way it does at basketball, the way it happens to quarterbacks in these other sports. So I really do think the Dodgers are the best thing that they're both like to sell their public position to get the public to come to their side while also being the reason they're also mad, which is a very hard thing to be able to accomplish as an organization. Yes, it really is. And by the way, I just go back to earlier when when we're splitting the utilities, do I get to pay a prorated rate if I'm out for eight days of the month going back to September? one of our good one listeners that that poor guy that poor sucker you were you were right to call him out i felt bad for him because he's just trying to be a nice guy the players union should grab the other guy he just walks in just delusional about everything i mean that was always all my favorite marvin miller stuff it was just like obviously he was a brilliant human being but sometimes he would almost act so obtuse there was like is this guy an idiot like you're just you're not even capable of seeing our side of the argument because you're finding anything that you can to just be like, it's almost like in Veep when, um, yes. Right. With Selena's friend is that lawyer. And she's like, what is a vote? You're just like, well, how do I, how do I argue with this person? Um, so yeah, we got a couple of different references in there. It's been really interesting to me to, I haven't surveyed fans and, But just getting a sense of how they feel. Fans are very pro-salary cap. And it's so interesting. Because they're used to it. That's exactly what it is. It's so interesting to see, like, the backlash against the billionaire class, generally speaking, like, writ large in the world. And yet in sports, you have so many people who are saying, well, you don't want an owner to lose money, do you? It's like, hey, guy, they got a lot of it, first off. But beyond that, players in the argument that they're trying to make, they know that it's an uphill battle. And I think the difficulty that players are going to face is a public that believes that the NFL's supposed parity is caused by the salary cap. I think leagues have done an extraordinary job of public relations in saying that we function the way that we do because a causative relationship with the salary cap as opposed to it just being correlated. They attribute their health and their well-being to the fact that there is a salary cap system. At the same time, man, if you ask NFL players, NBA players and NHL players, would you rather a system where there's a defined split or where you can earn what's essentially in baseball, as Juan Soto proved, as Otani and Tucker have shown, an unlimited amount of money? Of course, they're going to take the uncapped system every single time. You know, they talk well about the cap system because it's what they've got. But in reality, if given the choice between those two things, yeah, you're going to take the uncapped system because you believe that at the end of the day, enough people in the sport want to win to make it such that it's going to be near that 50-50 split. And when you look at baseball, even though the salaries themselves are below 50-50 right now, you add in minor league salaries, you add in benefits, you add in the money spent on the draft and internationally, and the number is well over 50% of what's being spent on actual players. So I get why players don't want the system to change, but I think they need to acknowledge and recognize that even if the system doesn't change wholeheartedly, it needs to evolve to a place where those lower revenue teams feel like they have a chance and are incentivized to go out there and spend, maybe not to the level of the Dodgers, the Yankees or the Mets or those teams at the top, but a much more representative level than the 60-something million dollars that the Marlins are paying this year. can you be a Mets fan that voter for Mondani? You know, if you think about it, you're like, well, hey, at least I don't want this salary cap to happen. This is how we got Soto. I mean, isn't that what fans want, though, in sports, Ryan? Don't they want socialism? Or don't they want the air of socialism, at least, in order to say? Of course they do. I'm totally with you. This is all about selfishness. This is all this is. It isn't necessarily saying like I'm defending the billionaire. It doesn't mean that you hate the player. It just means that chances are your team's not going to have a chance. All right. Even if there's more parody in baseball, if you go by title winners over the same amount of time, even if we're not that far removed from an Arizona, Texas World Series, which was like the epitome. The problem is the timing and the momentum. The Dodgers last few off seasons, back to back World Series. The time is perfect because nobody remembers shit. Nobody remembers anything. So all they're going to think about is I can't believe this Tucker deal for a pretty good player, his average annual salary being historic. They just won two World Series. Like, I'm I'm a Cleveland fan. I don't care. Like, I'm I may have voted Republican, but I don't care. I want the Cleveland Guardians to have a better chance to compete in the playoffs. And so that's what I think this has always been about. So I think it's always a hard position to sell that the beauty of this sport on the player side is you can't ever tell any of us that we're only worth up into a certain dollar amount. Right. And that's why that's why I try to hammer the table for not like I'm sitting here helping the players union. And, you know, you had a couple other pieces in there that I definitely want to touch on, too. And that is, but let's stay on this, because there's this these two economists who wrote this piece that you reference. It's years and years ago. The argument being, I believe. Right. Right. It is 2011. So the argument is in kind of the face of what I'm just saying now is if you let there be a cap, then that means we bring up the floor. We're sort of shifting the money flatter out across everyone. You don't have these bottom teams or silly that you're all pissed off about the bottom 10 that you mentioned are going to have an annual salary under what Tucker is going to make when you factor in the tax considerations here. do you believe what these economists argue is that the floor would come up as the ceiling comes down and that there should be more players however many are active each year you know we're talking less than a thousand over eight hundred players that there should be more players that are in favor of a cap to raise the floor because a lot of them like there would be more single voters let's say if you look at it that way that would benefit from this as opposed to hurting the top What do you think? We talk floor and ceiling, Ryan, as if they exist only in a capped world. There is a kind of cap right now in baseball with the competitive balance tax at the top. There is not that at the bottom. And that's an area where I feel like if I'm the players right now, that's what I'm pushing for. And I'm pushing for it with this in mind. If you look at that paper, they talk about revenue sharing being an enormous driver of parity in sports, even more so than caps themselves. And you can have changes to Major League Baseball's revenue sharing system. And this is how it's going to work. Idealistically, Major League Baseball's television rights, both nationally and they are hoping locally, are going to be up after the 2027 season. So right now, MLB teams make about $60 million a year from national television rights. It's only $1.8 billion a year in that national television contract, where the NBA is making $7 billion, where the NFL, God knows how much they're going to be making by then. But on top of that, we've had all these blackouts in baseball and just a difficult time trying to watch the game, which is such an important part of breeding new fans. Rob Manfred wants to take all 30 teams and essentially do what the NFL has done with its regular season games as well, which is make them national too. Get rid of the RSNs and the broken model that exists there where we see bankruptcies right and left. And just say, if you want to watch baseball, here's how you do it. You go to this place and there will be 15 games a night. There There will be 2,430 games every year, and you have access to all of them. Who wants to pay for that? And considering it's two and a half hours every night, every game, 30 minutes pre, 30 minutes post, it's a lot of content. It's a lot of fans, 70-plus million fans going to stadiums every year. That should be valuable. If you take those television rights, Ryan, and pull them and distribute them evenly among teams, all of a sudden the $60 million plus the $30 or $40 million locally that these teams in smaller markets are getting via TV, that becomes $200 plus. And they have no excuse at that point not to spend on players. None. When you have that much more shared money coming in, the bottom gets stronger. And to me, the strength of Major League Baseball is not how good are the Dodgers, how good are the Yankees, the Mets, the Cubs, the Red Sox, the Phillies, you know, these teams that we look at as bellwethers. No, the strength of Major League Baseball is how good the fans of low revenue teams feel about their ability to win. That, to me, tells you where the sport's going to be going going forward, because the second you start losing hope, you've lost your game. and there are so many alternative things for fans to do right now. Don't give them a reason to leave. Give them a reason to stay and sell them on this beautiful game that's being played at a level like we've never seen before. Yeah, but I'd also say to the NBA, half the teams have no chance before the first ball is thrown in the air. Yeah, and it fucking sucks. Like the tanking this year has been awful. Well, it's going to get worse. I know. If I don't have a quarterback like, all right, here we go, week one. this would be fun you know so i think there's a lot of convenient arguments like hey if we do this if baseball is allowed to do this and we can restrict some of these things and we'll do all these things it's like hey everybody's gonna have a chance and you're gonna go oh cool we spent like 40 million more and we don't have a number two starter so like parody uh i go ahead go ahead because i have two other thoughts here to close no no fire away dude this is your show and uh Well, no, because your flight. Because you said something else, though, that I think is really important here. Because, like, if you go back, I remember, like, 97, 2000 CBA. It was like, oh, we'll just tax the top five teams. It was like totally, like, raw, like, whoever the five highest are. And then I think you could even remember, like, jockeying of, like, trying to get from five to six. Yep. Because, right, right, which is such an odd part of this whole thing. Because then if you're a GM, you're like, my owner's telling me I got to get payroll and get it out of this top five thing. and then it's like, which GM is going to be able to pull off trying to get below that? I don't remember how often it happened. I just remember being a talking point back then. So 03-06, that CBA, the tax brackets were 17.5% over the minimum threshold and then over 40%. The next one was 22.5% to 30% to 40%. Then you go to 17.21, it was 20, 30, 50. Again, those thresholds and the repeater stuff. The thing they passed four years ago, okay, is pretty damn close. Like this is second apron NBA territory too. If you live up here, this is kind of, you know, you can't say it the definitive hard cap here, but the tax penalties for the repeaters, which is basically, hey, your second year in past these thresholds, like 62.5%, 75%, 95%. Then if you're in that third part of it, which is what the Dodgers are in, 80% tax. 80% tax and every dollar over that threshold as a multiple team repeater, which again, the Dodgers are just going to be in this forever because of what they keep signing to 110%. So these were in 20 years, they kind of got there in a creative way that never gets talked about. Like as if it's this free for all, it's like they they ended up getting a ton of the restrictions with, again, feeds back into the owners that benefit from all of this stuff, which I know like there's language and how the tax money is used in developing baseball and under built. Like I was I know there's a million different things. You just made a face where I don't know if you agree or disagree. No, no, no. I just I just think the like it it gets redistributed. But in in reality, yeah, whatever. like i okay i'm glad you made that face because i couldn't tell if you completely agreed or disagreed i had a hard time i'm admitting i'm uneducated on it it was sort of odd i'm like what happens with all of this extra tax money and all of it um so all i'm saying is to baseball fans like you've had some incredible ownership progress on punitive punitive systems that are already kind in place, but it doesn't have the title or it doesn't have the selling appeal of, hey, no one can spend over this dollar amount. So that means you're going to have more fun for the next six months. And I'm not sure that's the guarantee. You know how to do that? I have more stories coming on this. Some of the casualties of this one were like creative ideas that instead of just money, right? Because it goes back to what we were talking about earlier. Just money is nothing to Guggenheim and Steve Cohen. But what if you started losing, you know, first round draft picks, which have been taken away in the last collective bargaining agreement? What happens if you lose the ability to sign any player internationally or if there's an international draft, you lose that? What happens if you put in place something where if you go over a certain level, than the next year the lower level teams or the low revenue teams get to do what's essentially would be like a redistribution draft, kind of like an expansion draft from your minor league system where they just get to pluck players from you as a penalty. Like there are so many smart people in baseball, Ryan, and there are so many creative ideas that they have that I feel like getting stuck on cap versus no cap is going to be a disservice to the industry long-term because this is going to be all that they're talking about when in reality, they should just be sitting down in a room with the best and brightest and saying, what's some cool shit that we can do? What can we do to make this game better and make everybody happy? Major League Baseball can say to the players, we hear you that you don't want a cap. Tell us a way to get around it. The players can say to the owners, We hear you that you do want a cap. What can we do to not necessarily satisfy that, but to satisfy other things that you want? Because, you know, the onus, I think, ultimately is on MLB to make this argument. They're the ones who are trying to change the system. They're the ones who want to overhaul it. They need to sell the players on doing this. The point is, though, there are so many levers that can be pulled that I worry are not going to because they're going to spend so much time arguing over this very binary yes-no thing. And I think that is the wrong way to approach it by everyone involved. Here's what I would do. Be like, you already have a high-end tax here. If you're under $120 million in total payroll, you're going to get it taxed $1 for $1 for being below it. Absolutely. That should have been in place years ago. Totally, totally, totally agree with you on that. Those bottom teams is bullshit. Bob Notting's not going to like that. You know, and maybe, Ryan, the consequence of that is that the bad owners who don't want to win get the hell out of the game. And I think we shouldn't be allowed to own one of these teams anymore. You shouldn't benefit from the appreciation of these. And I know you had the piece. It's like a lot of baseball owners are looking at their basketball and football owner brethren and being like, how come our valuations are taking off? And be like, if your only thing was about evaluation. Look, I know I can sound a little too Pollyanna about it, but don't buy the Pittsburgh Pirates because of what you hope to sell them in 10 years. And then bitch about, like, why are you a partner bitching about competitive balance when you don't really care about competitive balance? I feel the same way about these teams as I did the day that my friends at the Washington Post all lost their jobs. And that's this. these are public trusts. These are institutions. These are not just mere businesses that exist to get squeezed for all the profits that you can make out of them. When you buy a trust, when you buy an institution, there's a certain level of stewardship that they demand. And if you're not willing to provide that, go away. Because somebody else who actually cares, who understands what the goal and what the benefits of reaching that goal are will take over and do a better job than you I warning everybody and I know you already know this so I'm not explaining it to you because this is your world, not mine. But I do remember the stuff coming out of 21, the coverage of it. You know, we're getting through COVID. Baseball felt like they'd had momentum. And then it's like, stupid old baseball. Stupid baseball. like there's there's there's cb like they get way more shit for their collective bargaining agreement stuff than any of the other leagues do and when that deadline which isn't even a real deadline because you're right to say hey march is when it really matters let's not worry about december let's not worry about what less than 11 months from what we're doing right now talking about they're going to be people on tv on december 2nd going like oh baseball had all this momentum him and now they're trying to kill themselves again and it's like you know what we we're we're less than five years away from those conversations and we just had some of the best baseball that we've ever seen some of the most exciting storylines i i think despite the dodgers part of this like having a target on this one team like i know the dodgers won last year that's going to be one of my favorite world series ever because it was so much fun it was awesome that game seven so at least the product is right, but the criticism of it is going to be so obsessive and it'll be premature. And I think it'll be disproportionate. So just get ready for that, though. And I know, you know, that's happening. Thanks. It's going to be awesome. We'll do. Well, we're not that far away from pitchers and catchers, so we'll we'll do some stuff before the season gets started. I promise we'll talk baseball, baseball. You're the best. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Ray. I appreciate you. so you can cut through the clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 Copilot. 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. life advice life advice rr at gmail.com what is up to kyle what is up to steve all right let's get right to it uh choosing best man for a wedding hey guys recently engaged could use some life advice on choosing my best man i'll get into it but first the stats six to 200 pounds ran the 25 new york city marathon in 338 wow sounds good to me man yeah 225 12 reps not lifting for mass. Well, it sounds like you've got some mass, brother, and you're running marathons. Basketball comp Corey Brewer scores accidentally using the run and hoop combo, but forces turnovers with cardio effort. If I ever score 51, there will be zero jump shots instead of Corey's three. I got engaged earlier this year. My fiancee are finalizing wedding parties. My groomsmen list is set, but the best man decision is where I'm stuck. For context, I have a younger brother, one year apart. We love each other's brothers, but would both tell you there were complete opposites. I work in banking in a big city and love sports and social events. He's lived overseas since college, bouncing around Southeast Asia, teaching English as a second language and working through his visa in each country before finally landing in Taiwan. We see each other once or twice a year, rarely text. There's no tension. It's just a dynamic we've always had. It's worked for both of us. Additional context. My fiance has a twin sister and an older sister. At her older sister's wedding she was co-maid of honor with her twin sister she's the doing uh she's doing the same thing here with her sisters being the maid of honor and matron of honor did you guys go that deep into the bullpen is matron just the older one sounds worse isn't i thought that was like one's married one's not right oh i have no idea yeah who you guys are sure you just opened a whole world i wasn't even prepared for okay wedding planner i was like i'm not i'm not ready to see that movie yet um yeah matrons married maid is unmarried okay this whole time thanks dude welcome my initial and honest choice for best man was my best friend we went to college together playing a band dude oh yeah paul rudd and seagull over here talk all the time what's that what's up jobin that's good remember remember dan remember uh dan dot fantasy guy espn awesome dude yeah secret squirrel secret squirrel yeah he named his cat job and that's why i knew i would like him yeah dob's a good good dude great guy dude and he's super he likes everybody too i think you started 100 with dan and then you gotta work your way down to 50 i would say saruti and i everyone starts at a zero i don't know about that i'm i maybe you it sounds like you yeah Ryan, maybe you. Don't loop me into this. I feel like I'm a decently likable dude. I don't know. No, no, no, no. I meant where everyone else starts with you. Oh, yes. Okay. I'm not a zero. You are. I'm not a... You're a 20? I'm below 50. Kyle's a 75 with anyone. Yeah, I was going to say 65, 75 for the most part. What's up, stranger? How you doing, guy? Speaking of, we need to... You got smoke on there or what? Dana beers, Kyle, something show, YouTube podcast. There was some, there was fine romance going on. There were good vibes. Good vibes last week. Yeah. Dana's Dana's I'm psych. Kyle got to hang out with everybody. Let's see here. All right. So we, we get the history behind that. We don't know if that's the Latin Latin origin there. My initial and honest choice again, best friend band, same building. He's your typical guy. Best friend sounds cliche, but I think you guys know what I mean. my brother was, of course, going to be a groomsman. Hey, I think we know exactly what you're talking about. I recently had dinner with my parents, and after telling them this, they had serious consternation. My dad specifically was very against it. He cited a few things. One, given the natural setup of my fiancé having a maiden matron of honor, it would look like as if he intentionally excluded my brother by having one best man. Two, even if this may not hurt my brother's feelings, it would seriously hurt both of my parents. My dad said it would feel like he failed as a parent if her sons weren't close enough for my brother to be best man. Hey, dad, fucking Doug moved to Taiwan. All right. Every wedding they have ever been to where the groom has a brother, the brother has been the best man. I don't know. I don't think they refuse to attend or support the wedding, but I know this would stick with them long term. I'm not totally against having two best men, but if I'm being honest, it feels forced and not like a true reflection of my relationships. At the same time, you only get married once, hopefully. and I don't want yeah you could just say to your brother hey next time around I had an aunt I got you a spot I had an aunt where the we went to this her second wedding and then the uncle on the other side was like was like didn't make it and said to everybody it was like well make it to the next one it's kind of funny for a second wedding I think that is a little bit I think you're allowed to have one or two of those jokes I think um I don't want to make a decision that creates unnecessarily family baggage forever. So what's the right move here? Prioritize honesty in my relationships or appease my parents move on. I'll say real quick, just make it to dude. Are you kidding? And then let you guys who've been married decide because I don't have much more to offer. It's such a layup. Yeah, I don't. I it's it's I can tell you what I did. I did something a little similar. I had two guys. I was probably leaning towards one that I was like, yeah, you know, I haven't really made the best man thing yet, but it's definitely, you know, I'll think about it. And it was like kind of going one way or the other. I let my one guy plan the bachelor party. He did a great job, even though we did go to Ocean City, Maryland, a little bit off season. But I mean, the wedding was in June. That's kind of when we were supposed to be there, I think. And then I kind of switched it up and gave it to my best man. And I was like, my brother just needs this man. He just needs this. So like I got my one guy to do the bachelor party. And it was sort of a it wasn't like a race, but I didn't I was having this weird thing where it's like, I really don't want to make either one of these guys feel bad. And they were both crass enough to like talk about it in front of me, which, you know, probably it's kind of bad form. Like which one of us is that the right word? Yeah, it is. I just, I nailed that. Okay. So you're surprised I nailed it. Got it. Uh, so I kind of, I was uncomfortable with that and it was sort of like a way out. And my parents were like, you know what? Your brother would really appreciate that. And then I just like, they both got mad at me at the equal amount. Neither of them was the best man. My brother got it. Everyone was kind of the same amount of miserable, except for my brother who was happy so mine was a little muddy too i let your boy plan the bachelor party and give it to your brother fine yeah or again this is a layup where you could just choose both everyone's kind of happy maybe they split the speech i mean i guess that could be a little awkward if they don't like super know each other and it might not be bad but or maybe i don't mean just say hey they're co-best men and whoever's the better speaker does the does the actual speech if that's your brother great if it's not then although your dad's probably gonna want your brother to talk just judging by the brother speech hits a little different than yeah you know me and John met in college. Yeah, but sometimes the college one's usually funnier, though. Like, that guy's usually, that's more entertaining. So maybe you just do a little hybrid situation there. But this is a layup. Like, you, if she didn't have a maid and a matron, if she didn't have two, then it would be, like, a little bit weird, maybe. But it's not. Like, you're just matching up. You're playing matchup man here. Like, this is, you're going man to man on the wedding parties. I didn't, I actually didn't have best man. Matchup zone. Matchup zone. There you go. Sorry. I had, I have four really, really good friends. I don't really love that. Ryan couldn't let that go. I'm sorry. Yeah, I might be wrong. I was going out of my mouth. I was like, I'm saying I'm not even trying to be correct. By the way, what was it? I'm interested in here. There you go. Anyway, I have four really good friends for horse. I don't I don't really put there's like five of us total. So you're not bragging about it. Yeah, I mean, I don't have many beyond that, but I have four really good friends. And I just I didn't pick one. I didn't pick one. I had the guy who I knew would would be the best speaker. Do the speech. He was my college guy, although we did obviously go to high school together to again. um i had a different a different guy kind of playing the bachelor party like it was kind of a tag team effort i think that sort of worked all around i'm not the best person to ask but i i didn't want to pick one guy because i i genuinely love all those guys kind of the same and um and i don't think any of them really cared i don't think i even really wanted to be the best man either to have that responsibility so i just took this dress off everyone's shoulders and did it but here in your case you have a built-in this is what you should do because the wife is has two so you just need to have two make your dad happy yeah it's a root is here to tell you it's not really that serious it isn't yeah make everyone happy man the wedding actually really isn't about a single person's gonna think that's it's really not about you i found out it was like it is a little weird i will say from your dad's perspective like that i would be like oh the the brother's not doing it i wouldn't really like think about it for more than five seconds but it would cross my mind it sounds i mean look what are you weighing you're weighing the long-term honesty of your relationships that only you are aware of and monitoring versus your dad saying he would fail as a parent if it's just your college buddy standing next to you this is not hard when you put it that way i think it's open and shut yeah nothing to add yeah cool sure uh let's stay with a wedding planner here a little jen lopez for you poughkeepsie wedding weekend help Get out. Yeah, I had to read this one. Long time listener since the Spotify days. Way back when. Five months ago. Honestly, I think less. 511, 225, stocky build. I can rep two plates on the bench for 18 reps. Two plates meaning four plates. Let me just... Yeah, I think. if he's saying 225 stock he built i think that's what he'd be saying well there's different kind of 225s yeah like i'd fucking rip 135 always pretend i'm at the nfl scouting combine when doing so okay so it's 225 that makes sense that's why he's telling us nice pickup cop is al jefferson jared sullinger back to the basket game is my art form on the court big man playing style at fred van vliet's height question for Kyle, my fiance and I are planning a Poughkeepsie wedding weekend in the fall, and we're looking for good ideas for rehearsal dinners, hidden gems, or favorites. Oh, this is just straight up travel stuff. All right, what do you got? Just rehearsal dinners? Like where they should host a rehearsal dinner? Like they're having a wedding here? Or they're going to a wedding here? Good ideas for rehearsal dinners, hidden gems, favorites that you'd like to share to make it enjoyable for our guests. I know you mentioned Maloney's before. We had lunch. Mahoney's. Chill out, bro. Whoa. Mahoney's. Ryan's got the t-shirt. You should give it a box. That one, Ryan. it says it maloney's in the email just kidding i'm just joking did send that in a box to you personally though but i know it's one of three that one i packed with me too by the way i love that t-shirt nice okay um i cut the sleeves off but all right had lunch there the food was great we don't see it though as a fit for our rehearsal dinner was thinking zeus brewery company sick as as well so give this guy a few spots for rehearsals and a hidden gem boom right there Brasserie 292. You can run out the room. It's an awesome French restaurant. Got all the seafood and stuff if you guys are into that. Yeah, Zeus is solid. Poughkeepsie Steakhouse, a little further away, but I've heard good things. Used to be the old Hobnob and Pub. Haven't got in there yet, but everyone says it's great. Yeah, Zeus is good. Derby, probably not your speed, but maybe after. Smokes some cigarettes outside. Oh, it's called The Governance. It used to be the Poughkeepsie Ice House. It's called The Governance. It's right on the Hudson River. Pretty sick there. yeah those are enough for for rehearsal dinners that's good alright when you're out for mayor dude me? you're like yeah oh dude we've got like a second generation like her dad was mayor and now she's mayor she's got a great last name Flowers like no way dude she's got a long time left so you're saying it's like a monarchy yeah a bit of a royal thing the Cincinnati yeah I'm happy with how it's going hey okay they're starting from the river going up dude get your houses now i heard discovery properties was getting to poughkeepsie is that true i've heard the same okay uh let's see here this guy sent an email in where the text is um Are audio books considered reading? 32 years old, 6 feet. That's a good question. 5'11", 3 quarters. You're 6 foot big, you're fine. 180, did five sets of five at 225 yesterday. Player comp, Mike Bibby, when I'm playing pickup, but was strictly a 3 and D guy when I played in high school. Got to know your role. I'm currently a high school basketball coach in the Atlanta area. Ryan, let me know if you want to do a little extra notepad film work to help us sell scout before the playoffs begin next week. need a ruling from y'all. Our friend group has an ongoing debate about whether listening to audiobooks is considered reading. My stance is it is not. One cannot say I read 27 books last year when in fact you listen to them on your daily commute to work. I think it is impressive, but needs to be stated as I listened to 27 books last year. Someone that can't even read could listen to audiobooks. Therefore, I think reading is an action that is done by reading words off of a page or screen would love to hear your thoughts and go dogs it's not but depending on who i'm talking to i will tell them i read the book or like i'm reading or i'm listening to like my parents i'll tell them one off book well like my parents i'll tell them i'm reading because i want them to be proud of me but if i'm talking to my buddy and i think i just do it subconsciously like i'll be like oh i'm listening to this right now but my parents like hey dude just just finish Michael Crichton's, you know, whatever. Strasby Park is even better. Dude, Pirate Latitudes. The book was better. Doing Rising Sun right now. I'm actually reading Rising Sun. Check that out at the library. But that's reading because it's harder for me. But yeah, I think on it, if we're defining it, definitely not reading. But I will tell certain people I'm reading it. The listeners are going to defend reading. The readers don't care. Right. As a reader, I'm not offended if you say it. But the way this email, like I kind of was like, yeah. you should be offended yeah you should it's not the same thing i gotta worry about then whether or not guys are good that's fair but i'm on your behalf like it's it just it's not it's not to say that it's not like a good thing to listen to audiobooks like i've done it here you're carving out the time you're not you're not getting through a grand while you're doing dishes like you got to sit down and focus right right there's a state of mind that you need to be in that you're just not when you're i can't do audiobooks because my mind wanders i'm not paying attention yeah and you got to rewind yeah i mean my mind wanders when i'm reading and then i gotta go back like and i try to get pissed at myself and focus in and lock in and speed read whenever you speed read and you just make yourself do it it's amazing how much you actually do retain if you can keep doing it you get better and better it's like ai for humans just how quickly that they're improving their own code well a big part of reading though is like isn't it like obviously you're improving your vocab right and you're not getting that same experience i don't are you learning the same yeah there's certainly something as you are i just go no i gotta have like i don't want my phone with me while i'm reading that's another part of it but like i'll write down okay i get annoyed when there's like words that i just go you don't know what the fuck that word means yeah try to sound out some of those things like god my idiot like i don't know what that is like i can i was doing all right i can i can figure out that doesn't mean gazebo to the plot yeah but it's some term that i'm not 100% sure of. When he says 27, when he says 27 books, like, hey, I read 27 last year. I'm kind of on the email. I didn't care until he made that point. Because if you're walking around. If you're pumping stats, yeah. Yeah. Like, I read 27 books. All right. Because now if you're even announcing it, too, you want credit for it, and you basically listen to 27 really long podcasts. It's not the same. You get through 27 books if you've got a long commute. Just going to work. I mean, it's really, it's true. especially if you're 1.5 speed in it like how about that that's a cheat right there if you got like 1.2 1.2 you barely notice it speed listening it's 20 or 10 right all right let's close on this a guy wrote in and said that he had his um his body monitored because he went to the gym yeah 5 10 155 41 years old gym stats mildly relevant no longer max out rep 185, six to eight times on the bench. Golf comp Justin Thomas hit the ball pretty far for a smaller guy. Occasionally lose my temper when things aren't going well. Recently had a full body scan at the gym, mostly because it's free and they insist I do it in order to track my progress. First question for the trainer on the scan, are you left-handed? After a Princess Bride joke fell flat. Yeah, those don't work a lot with younger trainers, man. I informed her that I'm actually right-handed. Have both of you guys not seen the Princess Bride as well? I've seen it. I've seen it. I did not pick up what you were saying right there, but I have seen it. I think I even caught it on cable recently, like back half. So not a stranger. I inform her that I'm actually right-handed, but frequently hold my two- and four-year-old children with my left arm while I'm performing daily tasks, cooking breakfast, doing dishes, drinking beers. As it turns out, the reason she asks is because my left arm has 3% more muscle mass than my right arm, C-scan attached. I live four days per week do HIIT training style workouts two three days a week so it's not like holding my children is my only physical activity given these factors I would say that baby dad arm strength myth is confirmed not busted okay I don't remember if I said this was true or not the first time we did this but it's I don't think it's baby but when you're holding like your two three your toddler age that's when it's real and I am 100% a left hand person too. Constant flexion. Yeah, clip that. It's 100% real. My left arm, I haven't done a body scan. I hold my daughters with my left arm. My daughter probably weighs 35 pounds maybe now and no doubt about it, my left arm is stronger. So I do believe that. As a baby though, no, I didn't feel it. Okay, that's a nice nuance. That's good. I'm going to send you those scan results too. I think the emailer is okay sharing those health results with Saruti is the OG of this theory that people try to shoot down all the time. Again, polling of one, sampling one, maybe not great, but I think we've got two confirmations on this one. That'll do it for the show. Thanks to Kevin. Thanks to Tom. Thanks to Rudy. Thanks to Kyle. The Ryan Russillo Show, Barstool Sports. Thank you.