← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
An All-Time Collapse at The Garden, Plus Mike Tirico on the Wemby Experience
01:38:48
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- [00:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Hey Priscilla. Listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:08]
PFT Commenter
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- [00:56]
Ryan Rosillo
The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by DraftKings. I will break down game one of the Eastern Conference Finals. A 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 one and called it for NBC, my good friend Mike Tirico. We're going to talk about wemby. We're going to talk sga we all 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 postseason. 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. 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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com promos Limited time offer all timer in Game 1 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 Tirico 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 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 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. For The Knicks Cavs first quarter, 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 7, 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 hardened 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 Harden doesn't complain as much about calls that don't go his ways. At 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? 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 either in this kind of five to six minute stretch where you're on. All right, well this isn't just about the Knicks defense. It's certainly not about the Knicks makes here. This isn't just 3 point variant stuff. Even though Cleveland had started 06 from 3, 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 Struse priority against Brunson. Allen gets to float off of Hart, Mobley's on Cat, and then Harden is on OG with Mitchell on Bridges. OG not playing for a couple weeks. I imagine they're looking at it as, you know, if Harden is on him, 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 in a two on two with everybody else space to the other side. If it's Bridges, if it's Cat Hart, they're going to just look, everybody does it, every center does it. Basically it's like, hey, we can live with Hart hitting a couple threes even though he's not a bad. I don't think of Josh Hart as necessarily as 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 06 start from three. They finished the first first half 8 of 15 and then at half it's a close game, but you're looking at the Knicks three points shooting and they're 2 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. And then the third quarter is just Cleveland. They dial it up. Mitchell has 20 in the second and third quarters combined they outscore 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 is it really your best lineup to have Allen and Mobley 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 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 Mobley 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. Mobley 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 Mobley, even if the numbers look good. But not having Allen out there, I think allows Mobley to do some more things. But in that third quarter, I was noticing it because I'm like, they're playing both these guys a lot more minutes, it feels like, than the traditional kind of stardom. And then split them up immediately. And then you're playing the first two or three minutes with them together and then you've split them for the other nine. And they played Mobley 9:12. And 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 in the aesthetics of like ant versus everybody else, because ants like the best version to watch of somebody just going nuclear. But ants on the list, SGA is clearly on the list. I think Jokic 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 Jokic the way it would be with some of the other perimeter guys. And I think we've seen it from Wemby 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, four to 11. Hard to do, because I do think these teams are very even. I. I'm going to get to the hardened 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 was a Merrill miss, an offensive rebound. There's a Schroeder 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 decides to kind of check 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 just 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 Sham 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 Shamet, 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 Atkinson and the Cavs 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 Harden to switch into nine isolations in the fourth quarter and overtime. 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 points per possession, SG 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 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 he had an Airball 3 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 in 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. Strus had come in, and then they changed the defense at like 143, but it just felt like it was too late. They get Streuss back onto Brunson, and Wade and Strus were not in the game during. During kind of this. This part where it was like, hey, we can't really hide Harden now. Like, the thing that we wanted, we wanted weight on Brunson because of his size. We wanted Strus 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 and 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 a layup, he had a pass to Mobley 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 or 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.
- [17:00]
Sean Salisbury
I don't know.
- [17:01]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean, they're not even using him as a decoy. He's just standing there like, fine, if he doesn't want to. If 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.
- [17:17]
Sean Salisbury
So
- [17:21]
Ryan Rosillo
the final number from this teams up 20 with seven minutes to go in a playoff game were 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'd put. You put him On a, on a short list. I know it was a little easier with the switches and all that kind of stuff, but there was 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 Barstool 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 connoisseurs. That's why they're the official nicotine pouch partner of Barstool Sports. Every other pouch is the same. Lucy breakers are the only ones doing it differently. Give you the longest lasting flavor in pouches. Lucy pouches go up to 12mg 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 stores or get it shipped with 20% off your first order at Lucy Co. Ryan using the code Ryan R Y E N. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every customer is 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 Tirico.
- [19:23]
Sean Salisbury
Is that right? 20 years, yeah.
- [19:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Because look, I've told the story.
- [19:29]
Sean Salisbury
Oh, sorry. You don't have to tell it again. I'm sorry.
- [19:34]
Ryan Rosillo
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, Tariko'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. I know we don't know each other, but just keep doing it the way you're doing it. You're really good. And it, it was like life changing. So thank you.
- [19:59]
Sean Salisbury
Oh my God. Oh my God. I appreciate. Can you call me at some point and just do that for me? Like, make me, 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 gotta come out and call a timeout.
- [20:13]
Ryan Rosillo
I.
- [20:13]
Sean Salisbury
You know what I like about timeouts called by NBA coaches? Random, random conversation before we talk about him. I love the style of coaches when they walk out and call timeout. Like, just like, 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 when he was the head of the coaches association, he just walks off the bench, like with an anger and a scowl.
- [20:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Just like.
- [20:47]
Sean Salisbury
I don't even think they like, look and just give the little tea to the official call time. They just like walk out, point at the guy and they are just pissed. I love that. I think if the guys left, like, Dagnal's kind of cool. Mitch was, he was angry a couple times upper play.
- [21:06]
Ryan Rosillo
He got so mad, then had to call the timeout again.
- [21:08]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, right. That's what they do. They get so mad that they got like, stroll out. Mike Brown's not Kenny. So we don't have any, like high octane coaches. But like, Carlisle is the number one timeout pole guy for me in the league. And I benchmark him off of all that because when you're doing the game, like, you can feel a timeout coming. I even have say it on the air with Reg. 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 to that, little annoyed, I'm taking a timeout. I try to get in, time out, whoever, and then let the crowd go, right? So you're not fighting the crowd. And I just like have a keen eye to coaches. 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, I don't know, you just bring that out to me.
- [22:00]
Ryan Rosillo
I, 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 the timeout, I'm like, he's not going to, like, he's, he's not. And I like some of the coaches, like, oh, no, a 70 run. What are we ever going to do? Like, it's going to happen four more times tonight, you know, 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, where 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 was going to start with Wembanyama, but now I can't because it's too good of a transition. Then you have Kenny Atkinson.
- [22:51]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, yeah.
- [22:52]
Ryan Rosillo
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?
- [23:00]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, I had reached checkout mode. And then one of my favorite people in the world and a peer who I respect, disrespect the hell out of Mike Breen said in Game 1 last year, in the fourth quarter, the Knicks led the Pacers. And then like, okay, Mike has now set this up, and it almost feels like that's where the avalanche was beginning. The first little snowballs were coming down the mountain. It's such a hard thing. Do you really take James Harden off the floor? Do you change coverages? 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 2:1 on the Knicks, which feels like it was seven generations ago, right. Mike Brown came into our meeting. We had game four, I think it was. Yeah, it was myself, Reg and Zora Stevenson. And Mike was clear. He's 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 Cavs got exposed here by the ISOs on Harden. Now, the question was, change defenses, take a timeout, 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 3 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 he should have. Should have used a timeout just to stem the momentum and make a switch somehow on defensive coverages to get Harden out of those situations. But full credit, the Knicks, they just kept picking at the scab and kept going and going and going.
- [25:11]
Ryan Rosillo
That building is different, though. And even though I like the people who are kind of defiant at times about the timeout, 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.
- [25:24]
Sean Salisbury
So can I. Can I challenge on that? That challenge?
- [25:27]
Ryan Rosillo
Did you say Minnesota?
- [25:29]
Sean Salisbury
No, I like. It was off the charts nuts in Oklahoma City. I mean, now the difference with the Garden is the celebrity factor maybe makes 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 City, that game. I try to pop my headset off for a few seconds after a timeout. 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. Which sucked to call a game because now you're trying to call the game around a 6 foot 6, 240 pound. Why is a refrigerator tight end? I'm like, george, I'm glad you're having a beer, enjoying it. I can't see a damn thing. Right. Sit your 49er butt down. But I feel like that place has intensity. But I get what you're saying. It's like the Garden history, the fervor of 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.
- [26:41]
Ryan Rosillo
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 champ. So it's not necessarily a rank. I just feel like the emotion of MSG is 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 coach, like, you know those guys that do this job, that every Monday you roll in 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?
- [27:47]
Sean Salisbury
So let me say two things I call a great game. In my mind, on my couch, I never stumble. I always know the right words to say. I see everything on the floor when I'm watching on TV in the building. I don't. 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 the human part of doing things without a delete button, without a 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 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? But 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 gonna let him play through it because I know we're gonna get through it. I wanna save my timeouts for the end if they come back. Maybe he was just thinking, hey, I don't want to take Harden 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.
- [29:43]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [29:45]
Sean Salisbury
So you can't. I'm not pulling your genius card 48 hours later. So I'm with you. I think that's patience. Don't overreact.
- [29:53]
Ryan Rosillo
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 in 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 there's some stuff, even from New York, that I was confused that I talked about in the open, where I was like, what are some of these decisions? And granted, it's two and a half hours of. 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, you know, 48 hours later, and I think they're very evenly matched 48 hours later. It's incredible, the sport and how different the same two teams can look just two days later.
- [30:51]
Sean Salisbury
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.
- [31:18]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [31:18]
Sean Salisbury
You know, the J, the J, the Jalen Williams three drive or the three, the drive before the Wemby pull three. That. That goes in different Animal, 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 Wembley'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 6. I got it here.
- [31:53]
Ryan Rosillo
Hang on.
- [31:54]
Sean Salisbury
I love playoff series because my notes are the best. 6:46, 36 of the fourth quarter was his last sub. So those guys played 16 minutes and 46 seconds. Champagne, Vassell 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 missed three get there, which Oklahoma City tried. But Wemby'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 Ron Jaworski and both of us did both interviewed Jaws a ton of times, right? He used to love Jaws, say it's easy to look smart when you have access to the result, right? So you gotta balance it. 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 think coaching decisions here are so magnified, so hard, and we forget because of the result, that one small change, Meryl's three goes in. Breen felt the same thing I did. We all thought it was going in. He had the B and bang out, right?
- [33:18]
Ryan Rosillo
It was like premature bang.
- [33:19]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, it was. It. It was a B and like we. 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 try 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.
- [33:53]
Ryan Rosillo
So you said early on in this, you said him in a way that was referencing Wembanyama. What is this experience like sitting next to Reggie, sitting next to Jamal and seeing this thing that. And I don't mean thing to be like derogatory towards Wembanyama, but I mean a general thing of just his ability and this potential. 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?
- [34:33]
Sean Salisbury
So let me give you the answer
- [34:37]
Ryan Rosillo
to the first question.
- [34:38]
Sean Salisbury
I had not seen Wembanyama play called a game of his, obviously. It's 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 Reg 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. He said, you've called games with Shaq. I said, yes. Yao Ming, yes.
- [35:03]
Ryan Rosillo
And we went through the whole.
- [35:04]
Sean Salisbury
He's like, you're going to see things you've never seen. And I'm like, yeah, I've seen him on tv. It 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, sorry, I'm going to Nash dribble and keep this alive.
- [35:49]
Ryan Rosillo
There was a Wallace dribble where Wallace was like touching the restricted area. He didn't even look at the rim.
- [35:54]
Sean Salisbury
They didn't look at the rim. And I. I called that out lie and just. I honestly had not pre thought about it. It's like business decision. And Reg just like kind of looked at me like, ah, that's it. That's. That's what he does to people. And he's in. People say, like, I know that you could have like expected field goal percentage in the paint V29 teams and V. Wembanyama on the floor so you can analytically look at it. But it's one of those things that I remember Jon Gruden, when we started the QBR at ESPN and they rolled it out, I'm like, this is impressive. This is impressive. John Gruden, let me ask you something seriously. Have you come up with a number that measures this and hitting his heart? Is there a number in there that tells you what kind of heart the guy has? John was trying to poo poo with stat, right? And just not make everything about numbers. But that's it. With Wemby. I can give you all the analytic stuff. 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 afar. 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 me. Sitting courtside and it's just built. Every game have walked away going, oh, my God, oh, my God. I don't want to overhype this, but 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 tell you a super quick story. I'm sorry, I'm babbling here.
- [37:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Go, man.
- [38:01]
Sean Salisbury
I got to do the LeBron 29 of the last 30 points conference final game on ESPN radio with Hubie Brown. And we're sitting on the bench side.
- [38:09]
Ryan Rosillo
That 07.
- [38:10]
Sean Salisbury
Yes. We're sitting on the bench side and Marv and Doug Collins are 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 with Marv. And Marv goes, how did you play that? What do you mean? Did you get caught up in how great the LeBron thing was? Because you're on your island when you're calling the game and you don't know where you are. And it amazed me because Marv's done a thousand more great basketball games than I had. And it was just like that. Yeah, 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 have no idea. At the end of Regulation that this guy's about to author one of the games we'll talk about 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 just, I think I said it. Just going. They were going to the bench after a timeout. Like, this guy's unbelievable. And I try to. I try to hold that word for something that truly is hard to believe. And he's hard to believe.
- [39:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Wynn Horse did a great job, you know, early on in 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. I imagine just a little bit. Well, I just want to know like, more about him. What's he like?
- [39:56]
Sean Salisbury
Same. I, I haven't had a ton of access to him, which is, I think a. A disservice to the fan in today's NBA if you ask me. 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 Gund arena in Cleveland waiting on a Saturday afternoon for the Cavs shoot around and LeBron's treatment to end to interview LeBron for five or six minutes in the room in a production meeting, typesetting. Excuse me, the day before a game, Kobe, before his famous last game, he came in and did five minutes with 10 with me and Hubie Brown and Lisa Salters and Eddie Fibashoff, our producer. And I have that picture in my office. I'll never forget. As time has gone on, it means more and more those 10 minutes of saying basketball goodbye to Kobe. And he came and did a production meeting with us before that game. Now that doesn't happen now. 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 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'd 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, Mahomes, because we get 20 minutes every Sunday Night Football game with Mahomes, 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 Wemby knows he has the ability to be great and everything is done with intent and 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. 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 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 form. 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.
- [43:23]
Ryan Rosillo
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 feel bad for the people you're friends with that are eliminated. But then. And they're so just. They're great games now, just like you
- [43:37]
Sean Salisbury
are, and they're a fountain of information to make you think. Right? Yeah.
- [43:42]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean, I had a check with a coach about the. 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 had, 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, 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 chat. 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 Wembanyama has not helped off the three point shoot for two hours. And it was. 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.
- [44:41]
Sean Salisbury
And I still think that's the right move, don't you?
- [44:43]
Ryan Rosillo
I think Wemby could have. Could have shown help without helping. And I think it freaks everybody out because SGA is looking for it. SGI on that drive gets the angle on Castle, and he's looking, being like, I imagine you're coming over here, Right?
- [45:00]
Sean Salisbury
Right, Exactly.
- [45:01]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm asking. I'm asking somebody to do something at 7 4. 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.
- [45:15]
Sean Salisbury
But if you give up that three, if you give up that wide open corner three for the win in that game, you are crestfallen.
- [45:22]
Ryan Rosillo
You are crushed.
- [45:24]
Sean Salisbury
Right?
- [45:25]
Ryan Rosillo
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. That's a different thing.
- [45:36]
Sean Salisbury
But what if he breaks that habit? Okay, so let me ask you this. So everybody has posted the missed layup that leads to the Steph logo3 as the mirror of the WEMBY3. It's not the same. Right? It's not the same. Looks like that.
- [45:52]
Ryan Rosillo
I thought it was a really hard attempt by Jalen that was like. I'm not criticizing Jalen from the mitts. What do you mean? You mean the same on the logo 3.
- [46:00]
Sean Salisbury
But you know, you know what people have posted. Hey, drive this layup. And here's the three from almost the same spot. Yeah, it's the shot.
- [46:06]
Ryan Rosillo
The Jalen shot, right?
- [46:08]
Sean Salisbury
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 got. I've got the, like, context, context. Not. 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. And he has not had a good shooting night from deep. Like, it's different. It's so different. And. Sorry, I just needed to vent that for 10 seconds.
- [46:44]
Ryan Rosillo
You're right. But I. I think we can let the fan, in that case, like, enjoy the visual of. Of how similar they look. I think that's what it was more about.
- [46:53]
Sean Salisbury
Post it. Enjoy the visual similarity. The meaning is completely non contextual. Move on. Okay, I'm fine. But look, I feel better. That's like the stroll for the timeout. I came out, I took a quick time out, and I'm gonna go back to the bench. I'll get to the next play.
- [47:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Go ahead. We don't have a heart out at 55, so we're good. I have one more Wemby question because I also want to talk about OKC in the moment where I was like, hey, they're going to pull this out. 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 Wemby, and it's like, okay, so he's 7 4. He has. And it was funny because he was at the free throw line. It's like, of course he's 87% from the free throw lines on top of everything else this guy does.
- [47:46]
Sean Salisbury
Yes.
- [47:47]
Ryan Rosillo
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 was 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 were getting physical with him. And there's an edge to him.
- [48:05]
Sean Salisbury
Yes.
- [48:05]
Ryan Rosillo
In a. In a meanness.
- [48:07]
Sean Salisbury
Yes.
- [48:08]
Ryan Rosillo
That he has to have. And I'm not just talking about the elbow. Against Nasrid and in the previous series, but there's something to be said about that elbow.
- [48:17]
Sean Salisbury
That.
- [48:18]
Ryan Rosillo
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.
- [48:35]
Sean Salisbury
Take me through the five most recent great players. Like, great, great, great, great, great players. Right? LeBron, Toby, Michael, welcome back. Larry, Magic. I don't know who I'm not. I'm not trying to miss people, but I'm just talking like the guys who are in the top of all time conversation, Right? Yeah, top, top 10, all time conversation. Modern era. It always gets me so angry when people do top tens and like, Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell and Wilt are like, no, no, they're in top 10 conversation. Yeah.
- [49:07]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean, that's almost as bad as what the NFL has done, where nothing before the super bowl counts.
- [49:11]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, exactly, right?
- [49:13]
Ryan Rosillo
That one drives me crazy. Poor Otto Graham over here. It's like he doesn't exist.
- [49:18]
Sean Salisbury
Every time. Every time somebody would do that with Hubie, he would sit there and listen. Hubie Brown, he'd sit there and listen and go, okay, okay, can I. And he'd lean in softly lean 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 level. Okay. No, that's okay. And it's like 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 greats 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 muscling 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 people that came from different backgrounds. And so, yeah, 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 with the Buddhist monks to focus the mind. I think that's like a default, a default announcer comment now. But maybe it has had this much of an impact. I think tactically watching him physically get pushed by that football like pad as I hit my iPad here 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, 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 there, he's right there, man. You knock on wood and hope he stays healthy for his sake, for the sake of the league, for everybody. Because 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 Cavs kind of eased their way back in the game Sunday night, game one from the opening tip was pedal down like guys were going. I think it's the familiarity. The 41 regular season. So Wemby played 48 minutes, pretty much most he's ever played in a high octane, no BS possession game. Every possession was real. So I love it. I think we could look back and say, well, that's the night that everybody realized this guy can be different than everybody else.
- [53:03]
Ryan Rosillo
I felt the exact same thing.
- [53:05]
Sean Salisbury
Good.
- [53:05]
Ryan Rosillo
After the game was over.
- [53:09]
Sean Salisbury
Okay, guys, it's grit week.
- [53:10]
Ryan Rosillo
This is the part of the football calendar where nobody's watching, but everything gets built. Early mornings, pads back on conditioning, film reps. Spring training in football is all
- [53:22]
Sean Salisbury
about putting in the work when nobody's cheering yet.
- [53:25]
Ryan Rosillo
And honestly, that's the same mindset behind the Chevy Silverado.
- [53:30]
Sean Salisbury
This is a truck that is the definition of grit. Long days, dirty work, and showing up
- [53:35]
Ryan Rosillo
day after day no matter the conditions. Strong, dependable and built for the grind.
- [53:41]
Sean Salisbury
Because grit isn't about Being flashy. It's about being ready when it's time to go.
- [53:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Check out the current offers and build your silverado@chevy.com that's silverado all grit, no quit.
- [53:55]
Sean Salisbury
And you can build your silverado@chevy.com today
- [54:02]
Ryan Rosillo
okc because we have to just give them the respect of giving them some room here with this because they can get lost and in the hope of what womenyama can be because it was. It was turning into what I thought. Like this is a very OKC games like, okay, you know, 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. 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 sellout hard dou and I saw that possession and I went, my God, like these guys are so locked in.
- [54:47]
Sean Salisbury
Yes.
- [54:47]
Ryan Rosillo
And then OKC goes on that little run. They're pushing a little in transition. I thought the A.J. mitchell 3 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 not like a team but you have to respect what this team is capable of, your impressions of who they are in this. And 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. 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's going to be rattled at home.
- [55:34]
Sean Salisbury
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?
- [55:47]
Ryan Rosillo
No.
- [55:48]
Sean Salisbury
Okay. Did they sweat at any point during the Lakers series? Like maybe. Maybe a little bit in the last game.
- [55:55]
Ryan Rosillo
Maybe they were not challenged for a few weeks.
- [55:59]
Sean Salisbury
Right. And. 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, you know, 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.
- [56:52]
Ryan Rosillo
So there was a little bit of
- [56:55]
Sean Salisbury
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 70 thunder run, right? What are the two things they do? They turn you over and they score quick, turn you over. Transition three, they turn 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 two 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 Indiana, the finals, Denver, the conference semifinal 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 could sweep the series. OKC could 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 5 and 5 and 1 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, I don't, I don't put it past Oklahoma City to be able to win game two by seven or eight. 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. I, I it bothers me that people dislike San Antonio. Oklahoma City.
- [59:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Why?
- [59:04]
Sean Salisbury
They're, 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 Sam Presti's moves have been brilliant, obviously.
- [59:25]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [59:28]
Sean Salisbury
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 every place you walk. It's the nail salon down the street. It's the steakhouse. It's Thunderpins. 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%, shooting one legged 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. You see when they do the interviews after the game, when one's there, they're all there. They're all about each other. 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 on post game interviews, it's because they saw Oklahoma City do it. And that's really cool. And they're super tight. When Shay got the MVP at the press conference Sunday in their facility, I was there. All those guys were there. They were all there in their trench coats. They're pulling the bit. They like each other. What's not to like about this team? Because they play physical defense, because they are aggressive defensively and you feel like they get the benefit of the whistle. They earn it, right? 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 is there to dislike about a team that does it the right way? It bothers me.
- [61:17]
Ryan Rosillo
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. I always feel like the NBA is the biggest soap opera in American sports 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 the 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 that 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. The amount of time that I hear that he'll spend on investing on who the person is, 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, what's the conversation? And it's like, no, I think you have to check a few more boxes for OKC to think that you're going to fit into what their long term culture is and it should be celebrated. But people just get sick of stuff. So that's.
- [62:41]
Sean Salisbury
You don't bring black and white modern furniture into 120-year-old house and say this works. They bring people in here who work and that's perfect. And Ryan, they. You can. Sam. Sam doesn't give you a lot, which is fine.
- [63:00]
Ryan Rosillo
It's Great.
- [63:02]
Sean Salisbury
The last 13.
- [63:03]
Ryan Rosillo
What are you talking about? It's great.
- [63:07]
Sean Salisbury
I love that you were like, hey,
- [63:09]
Ryan Rosillo
yeah, so it's great. It's like, no, it isn't.
- [63:11]
Sean Salisbury
The last 13 MVP awards, last 13, five of them. Five of the 13 award winners through this building. Harden, Durant, Westbrook, SGA. Not drafted here, but acquired after year one and thriving here unlike anybody thought he'd thrive, right? That's once as an accident, twice as a trend, three times as a problem. That's. 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 guys here and there, you weren't getting the big free agents. And Aaron Rodgers would. He'd be thrown to some guy who, how are you in the league? And then Aaron Rodgers would turn him into like this 800 yard receiver.
- [64:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Why?
- [64:09]
Sean Salisbury
They got great fundamentals. Why? Because he came through the practice squad. Why? Because we draft and develop and so AJ Mitchell's in the starting lineup. 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 sized 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, my pal Buddy Beheim was on the G League team at the end of the year. Buddy Behemoth's locker was over there. I put my stuff in the 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 they're 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. And 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 in double overtime. Not one. But 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, 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 that greatness can happen to every market in the league.
- [65:45]
Ryan Rosillo
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 Naz Reed, it was like you prepped Zack Zarba for it. And no, I mean, look, it was just hilarious because you explained exactly how the interpretation of the rule should be applied. And then Zack Zarba 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 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 for it. So that is what I'm giving you.
- [67:12]
Sean Salisbury
Well, I'll take it, since I'm sure people called me an idiot that I was rooting against Oklahoma City because their team lost. And I'm sure when the spurs lose, I'll be rooting against them, and that's fine. Well, when you said OKC as awesome
- [67:25]
Ryan Rosillo
fans, I would have offered up. Some of the online ones can be a little abrasive, but it's okay.
- [67:30]
Sean Salisbury
We'll just keep it moving, which is okay. Yeah, 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 then when Shay got fouled, I said, and SGL 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 talk 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 act of shooting. So thanks for saying that. I appreciate it. I will say Frank De Grace, 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 there are a lot. It's access to the answers to your questions. 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? 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 ahead of his leaping, his launch point. I did it again. I think that's part of it.
- [69:07]
Ryan Rosillo
That'd be a foul on sga.
- [69:08]
Sean Salisbury
It would be. And I'd get two free throws. And that's okay because I drew it. I drew it with my hands. It's fine. For those listening. I just hit my iPad for the second time, screwed up the shot. So 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 DraftKings like, I don't know. I don't know 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 is hopefully helps us be smarter in time. So it's fun. 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.
- [70:09]
Ryan Rosillo
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 Wembanyama, should you call it a two on one and a half?
- [70:20]
Sean Salisbury
Oh,
- [70:23]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't want credit. I'm not looking for a shout out. This is network tv.
- [70:27]
Sean Salisbury
I don't Easter eggs because I almost
- [70:30]
Ryan Rosillo
texted you when you were 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.
- [70:48]
Sean Salisbury
No, please do. Please do. I'll tell you something funny. We have a group chat of a bunch of the Syracuse announcers. Ian Noah, Dave Pash, Sean McDonough.
- [71:01]
Ryan Rosillo
I feel so left out.
- [71:03]
Sean Salisbury
It's okay. It's a ton of the people who also like Dan Roach in Boston, who are doing local. It's like, a bunch of us. I don't know what the number's up to. Drew Carter, the voice of the Celtics, is in on there now as the.
- [71:18]
Ryan Rosillo
He's terrific.
- [71:19]
Sean Salisbury
Benetti's in. Jason Benetti, right? We've got, like, 15, 16, and all of it is like, hey, great job. Hey, this, hey, that. You know, here's a Syracuse thing. You guys should know this. It's whatever. Hey, my stats guy's sick. Does anybody know a stats guy in Sacramento? It's just like, you know, it's, it's an announcer stuff, right? So. So now, like, our game's getting really good in the fourth quarter, and timeout. I just flip over my phone, like, five new messages, like, oh, geez, like, somebody must be texting about it. 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 texting McDonough about the Montreal Buffalo game seven. I want, like, first it sent me to go look, see who won the game, right? And then I wanted to go like, hey, guys, I got a classic over here, too. That helped with McDonald's.
- [72:12]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm working, too, tonight.
- [72:15]
Sean Salisbury
Exactly. But no, 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.
- [72:33]
Ryan Rosillo
I pitched Balkan his life to Iron Eagle for an.
- [72:38]
Sean Salisbury
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 need it to keep their focus. They need challenges because they're so great. I've noticed that with Buck.
- [72:58]
Ryan Rosillo
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 he 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 bulk in his life call with, with Ian was that Illinois was just not in the game enough.
- [73:37]
Sean Salisbury
There's not a.
- [73:37]
Ryan Rosillo
He would have been forced.
- [73:39]
Sean Salisbury
So the. 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 Ian's so good, Noah's so good. I mean, I've told this story a hundred times. Ayin and I were in school together. I got a job early on. Ian interned for me for a couple of years. I've known Ian for 40 years. I've known Noah from before he was born. He's like, now. And I listened to him. I'm like, damn it. God, you're so good. He's so good, Joe Nance. Watching Nance do the pga, watching Brini do these games and all these finals games, I was seriously thinking, okay, because that was the first time I got into a great NBA game. The opening night, we had a great game with Oklahoma City, Houston. But the game against San Antonio in Oklahoma City, Game 1, was 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 and 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 so want to call a game. After I listen to Kevin Harlan call a game. I just want to get out there, and I wish I had the voice, the energy, the passion that Kevin does. I just want to show up for a quarter and call a game like Kevin. I just want to just have fun like that. And to me, I just think that because so many of us are doing this now at a 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 enjoy listening to the game like passion Darius. 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 makes me want to show up better the next night and hopefully for all of us. That camaraderie, friendship and ability pushes the listener experience to be enjoyable. And I think most nights when you get a national NBA game in the playoffs, like, you feel like, okay, I'm in good hands for two and a half hours. These, 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 60 and still doing it. I love it.
- [76:23]
Ryan Rosillo
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 as in between visits because it's been too long.
- [76:34]
Sean Salisbury
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.
- [76:40]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, Sounds good.
- [76:42]
Sean Salisbury
See you, brother. You got it.
- [76:46]
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- [77:14]
Sean Salisbury
Fine.
- [77:15]
PFT Commenter
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [77:18]
Sean Salisbury
What's up?
- [77:20]
PFT Commenter
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
- [77:22]
Sean Salisbury
I have every toy you can possibly, possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.
- [77:32]
Ryan Rosillo
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- [78:04]
Kyle Brandt
What's up?
- [78:05]
Tommy Smokes
What's up? Played my first competitive round of golf yesterday.
- [78:10]
Ryan Rosillo
Competitive? Are you in a league?
- [78:12]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, I'm in a league, buddy. I missed the first one for 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 down
- [78:26]
Kyle Brandt
inroads in the community.
- [78:27]
Sean Salisbury
I'm putting down roots.
- [78:28]
Tommy Smokes
I'll tell you right now.
- [78:31]
Ryan Rosillo
Next thing you know, the guy's at a mixer and a chamber of commerce.
- [78:33]
Tommy Smokes
I can't wait.
- [78:35]
Ryan Rosillo
Honestly, they should be. Who's done more for Poughkeepsie just notoriety in the last two years than you?
- [78:40]
Tommy Smokes
Two years? Yeah.
- [78:41]
Kyle Brandt
Maybe there is a guy.
- [78:43]
Tommy Smokes
There is 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 the streets at night and be like, it's crazy out here, man.
- [78:55]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know.
- [78:55]
Tommy Smokes
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.
- [79:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, no need that. If Kyle's out there one night, nights of the night, just like, what are you doing, man?
- [79:10]
Tommy Smokes
Sketchy dude in a Tommy Bahama walking up to me. I don't know what his deal is.
- [79:14]
Kyle Brandt
You just roll up on Kyle in the Wild. That would be Kyle. People were trying to find Kyle in the Wild in LA at Frolic Room back in the day. They would just show up. They still are.
- [79:21]
Tommy Smokes
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.
- [79:29]
Sean Salisbury
What,
- [79:33]
Ryan Rosillo
is there a nickname for Poughkeepsie
- [79:36]
Tommy Smokes
besides the crown Jewel? I've been. I've been told.
- [79:39]
Kyle Brandt
Is that a name you gave it, though?
- [79:41]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, it's definitely a name that I gave it.
- [79:42]
Sean Salisbury
Okay.
- [79:42]
Kyle Brandt
I didn't know if that was, like, a thing that they actually called it.
- [79:44]
Tommy Smokes
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 motto that
- [79:50]
Ryan Rosillo
is in Cincinnati and Burlington.
- [79:52]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, so it's one of those. Oh, even Burlington.
- [79:54]
Ryan Rosillo
Small world, huh? Queen City tavern.
- [79:58]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah.
- [79:58]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah. So Queen city is first time I
- [80:00]
Ryan Rosillo
ever got hosed on a tab. Freshman year.
- [80:03]
Tommy Smokes
That's a real milestone people do not forget.
- [80:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, yeah. Well, I just remember, like, everybody was on campus. I didn't think, like the upper classmen were there. And it was like, we're going to go downtown and. 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 meals whacked up with me and another guy who could afford it and I could not.
- [80:33]
Tommy Smokes
Do you have the cash or just try the card again? I swear, sometimes it does one of those debit credit.
- [80:40]
Ryan Rosillo
Back when the debit card. There were debit cards that you couldn't use, remember? So then when like all of a sudden it's like, no, no, you can use your debit card as credit. A thing to pay.
- [80:49]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, yeah.
- [80:50]
Ryan Rosillo
It was mind blowing when it first happened.
- [80:52]
Tommy Smokes
Hit you over the head with fees when you inevitably.
- [80:54]
Kyle Brandt
Is this why you started doing J. Crew on campus?
- [80:57]
Tommy Smokes
To work off that freshman tab?
- [81:00]
Ryan Rosillo
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.
- [81:07]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, you can count me out of 25 Cent Wing.
- [81:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Night, boys. Yeah, you're sitting around being like, these girls. Seriously just not going to pay for anything. This is mind blowing. Yeah, this is welcome to the world awful. And then the other guy that was rich is like, oh, don't worry about it. It'd be nice to treat him. I'm like, fuck you, trust fund.
- [81:23]
Kyle Brandt
Thanks, guy.
- [81:24]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, nice to treat him like, I didn't know. We didn't know we were as formal. I'll never forget the disappointment. But I'm thinking about it right now. I remember the table. I remember the room. I remember being like, you've gotta be kidding me. I'm paying for half of this.
- [81:42]
Tommy Smokes
I wasn't prepared to do this math.
- [81:47]
Kyle Brandt
Did you guys have steady jobs in college? How did the financial situation work? Cause 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 4 bucks in my bank account. Like, when I graduated, I was like, all right, I made it. And I know I'm gonna get graduation gifts. So like this year's the. Here's the, you know, the rebounds back. But I did work at Sports Authority for a while, which was fun, but 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.
- [82:21]
Tommy Smokes
I ordered a bunch of cartons of cigarettes from China my freshman year and I was selling those.
- [82:28]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah, they were.
- [82:28]
Tommy Smokes
They were super.
- [82:29]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, they were for you.
- [82:30]
Tommy Smokes
No, 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 an Indian reservation, the Mohawk reservations. 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.
- [83:14]
Ryan Rosillo
Pretty industrial, man.
- [83:16]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, so listen, he's at a business sense from a young age, you know.
- [83:20]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, well, speaking of golf, here's the first one. 26 years old, 6 foot, 180, player comp. Tomani 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.
- [83:38]
Tommy Smokes
I make one every once in a while. Yeah, when I'm wide open.
- [83:42]
Ryan Rosillo
I currently live in Chicago, but grew up in the suburb of another Midwestern city. I returned to my hometown this past weekend for a 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 overindulged. 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 went as follows. Quote, hey, Doug, can you make me a Jack and Coke? 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 think he is covering. Carson may email in and go, that's not what happened. I know his name is 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 slipped through 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 tee time scheduled 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 tee 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 tee time using my family's country club membership. Thanks for the help.
- [85:40]
Tommy Smokes
Definitely. B, but you know, be prepared for C. Be prepared for C. But C. Well, C was, dude, it's over.
- [85:48]
Ryan Rosillo
C's give up.
- [85:49]
Tommy Smokes
Get your own. Okay.
- [85:51]
Kyle Brandt
No, no, don't give up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [85:52]
Ryan Rosillo
C is the worst.
- [85:53]
Kyle Brandt
I thought he was going to keep trying to, but be prepared for C
- [85:56]
Tommy Smokes
to be a reality.
- [85:59]
Sean Salisbury
I think.
- [85:59]
Tommy Smokes
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 tee times or if he just.
- [86:10]
Ryan Rosillo
What, what does it mean if he's a fill in, you can fuck with him more?
- [86:13]
Tommy Smokes
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.
- [86:21]
Ryan Rosillo
He works there.
- [86:22]
Tommy Smokes
Are these paths going to cross? Do 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 an annoying way. Probably a little louder than you thought. And the story is probably a little bit different than you remember it, but that's par for the course. No joke or no pun intended.
- [86:44]
Kyle Brandt
Nice.
- [86:46]
Ryan Rosillo
It depends on how nice the club is, because I can think of some really nice ones where you are already on a list. This guy's going to be looking for you. 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.
- [87:20]
Sean Salisbury
Yeah.
- [87:21]
Ryan Rosillo
You have, like. I think this is a very course specific. Like, Preparation C is terrible. Like, you're 26. If the rule's 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 his 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 hair? My guess would be it's probably not that strict of a course. I'm only thinking of a couple that I've been to. The entire time. I was sort of uneasy because I was just waiting to have somebody go to, you're doing this wrong or that's the wrong thing to do. That part of it sucks when you're in a really nice place 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 tea time and see what happens? Yeah.
- [88:35]
Tommy Smokes
And the next time you see this guy, I mean, a straight up apology is great. Especially when you, you know, everyone kind of understands what went into that day, you know, Sucks because he's working and you're having a good time and you're giving him a hard time and then walking. Then you're returning for like four or five times.
- [88:50]
Kyle Brandt
That sucks.
- [88:51]
Tommy Smokes
So if you can. If you can just in, you know, not so many words, tell them you understand how shitty that probably was. That was a bummer. I'm sorry, man. You know, open bar, maybe be generous
- [89:01]
Kyle Brandt
with the tip next couple times you go back there, but I.
- [89:05]
Tommy Smokes
One of my weaknesses at open bar. I'm sorry.
- [89:07]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm working on the likelihood of.
- [89:08]
Kyle Brandt
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? You show up and they tell you like, hey, you can't do this.
- [89:29]
Tommy Smokes
The jig is up.
- [89:30]
Kyle Brandt
What ha. I mean, is it. I guess it's a little embarrassing, but it's not like the end of the world.
- [89:35]
Tommy Smokes
Now for 26, bounce right back.
- [89:37]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, like, you know, I don't know.
- [89:39]
Tommy Smokes
Start looking up the munis. Get golf now.
- [89:49]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, do I bring her to Montreal? All right. 6 foot 2, 185. Gym stats not as great as my competitive sports era. Fades into the past and nagging injuries seem to be 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 Battier. Whoa.
- [90:13]
Sean Salisbury
That is.
- [90:15]
Tommy Smokes
It's a big deal.
- [90:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Adrian Griffin. I turned 32 this weekend and while I've known it's also Memorial Day weekend, I had no plans for how to spend it until this week. I watched the Canadiens, Sabres and booked a two night, 36 hole solo golf trip to Montreal Friday to Sunday. This guy does not fuck around solo. All right, I gotta be careful now. I forgot that Suri's daughter's not watching the show regularly.
- [90:42]
Kyle Brandt
Oh yeah, it's all right. Don't worry.
- [90:45]
Tommy Smokes
She learned some words.
- [90:47]
Kyle Brandt
This is funny. Actually aside, Ryan called me last night. It was during bedtime and not Steve's bedtime or mom. No, no, no, no, no. It was about 8, 8:30 Eastern Time.
- [90:56]
Ryan Rosillo
Ish.
- [90:57]
Kyle Brandt
And whenever.
- [90:58]
Ryan Rosillo
Hey Steve, it's Rock. Just going to bed.
- [91:00]
Tommy Smokes
Whenever
- [91:03]
Ryan Rosillo
you.
- [91:04]
Kyle Brandt
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 it's with Ryan because I don't really talk to anybody else.
- [91:11]
Sean Salisbury
Tells you something.
- [91:13]
Ryan Rosillo
It's so funny. She dropped an awesome one. I didn't even hear Steve's voice. I just. The phone answered and she's hi, Ryan.
- [91:20]
Sean Salisbury
Yep.
- [91:20]
Kyle Brandt
She's never met you, but she knows you. And she's watched. She does watch, you know, she'll 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.
- [91:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Might have to pivot some of the language though on the show now that we have what, a three year old watching.
- [91:36]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, it's not the end of the world. She's okay. Although you do have to watch it now, man, because you can kind of let it fly for the first couple years and they don't repeat everything and now she's in the repeat phase. So it's just like go to daycare.
- [91:48]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, where'd you learn that?
- [91:49]
Kyle Brandt
I don't know. It's crazy.
- [91:53]
Ryan Rosillo
Shout out to Martin St. Louis just has that Canadians team cooking. Nobody can ever understand my Canadians tweets because they don't. I don't like advertising.
- [92:06]
Tommy Smokes
You kind of love it that way though, don't you?
- [92:08]
Ryan Rosillo
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 spitting Chiclets who I think they had. I forget which former player they had on one of the all time pronunciations of Martin St. Louis. He's like, Marty St. Louis.
- [92:29]
Kyle Brandt
St. Louis.
- [92:31]
Ryan Rosillo
I think it was Nyland, 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 2 is on Saturday night. So watching that with the locals is a must be on 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 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 picture 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 in a partner are 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.
- [94:01]
Kyle Brandt
How tall is he?
- [94:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Six. Two.
- [94:04]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah. Foot.
- [94:05]
Tommy Smokes
Well, you could be thinking about pretty normal.
- [94:08]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know if I want to. This guy might want some small forwards on his team.
- [94:12]
Tommy Smokes
You know, gene editing. By the time he's ready, it sounds like he's slower. By the time he's ready, gene editing might just be like, get an app on your phone.
- [94:18]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know.
- [94:19]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, I had a. I had a guy in College who. He's 6 5, I think, and he. Multiple times he would go up to girls who were like taller and go, dude, we would make sick babies. And like, that's probably not the line.
- [94:30]
Tommy Smokes
I probably didn't land as super interesting.
- [94:35]
Kyle Brandt
He did.
- [94:36]
Ryan Rosillo
He didn't.
- [94:36]
Kyle Brandt
Didn't work one time, so.
- [94:39]
Ryan Rosillo
Didn't work one time.
- [94:41]
Kyle Brandt
No. No.
- [94:42]
Ryan Rosillo
Never try it again at the after. Yeah. Maybe it'll land better then. 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.
- [95:06]
Tommy Smokes
Soder might even be taller than this guy.
- [95:07]
Kyle Brandt
So not available.
- [95:08]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Yeah. Sodes is tall. Does anybody ever call him that?
- [95:12]
Kyle Brandt
So it's new podcast and roots.
- [95:19]
Ryan Rosillo
My question, should I Invite her on the trip. When I had the idea and talked 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? May. But I was holding out hope that either my dad or other Northeast friends could join at short notice. No dice. Logistics shouldn't be difficult other than and what she'll do while I Play. You getting 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. Dude, I'm flying to my family a few hours south and borrowing my dad's old truck. Thanks for reading.
- [96:05]
Kyle Brandt
It's a depressing birthday, man. Like you're going with somebody you don't want to go with to probably do,
- [96:12]
Sean Salisbury
but she's not fat yet.
- [96:17]
Tommy Smokes
I think Ryan's going to tell you to go alone.
- [96:20]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [96:21]
Kyle Brandt
I tell you to go alone.
- [96:23]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, I'm leaning that way, too, but I thought he was a shoe in, man.
- [96:29]
Ryan Rosillo
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 of 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 in upstate New York, and then the drive from upstate New York to Montreal is doable?
- [97:00]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, probably.
- [97:01]
Ryan Rosillo
He's like, 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 of golf. So you go do your thing. I think there's a Sephora around the corner.
- [97:16]
Sean Salisbury
It's a nice preserve.
- [97:17]
Tommy Smokes
I think you could dig around.
- [97:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, like, 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 in relationships, I generally think when we make our worst decisions is when we're at our loneliest. Okay.
- [97:50]
Tommy Smokes
Don't go to the supermarket hungry.
- [97:52]
Ryan Rosillo
Right? I mean, they say, yeah, I'm. I'm almost willing to. Like this email is more about giving her advice that, hey man, do her a favor. Don't.
- [98:01]
Kyle Brandt
My question. Desperate is she like, God damn, this is like a. This is. I mean all these signs are pointing like, like you're basically having her avoid all these, you know, checkpoints so you
- [98:11]
Ryan Rosillo
don't have to really deal with her
- [98:13]
Kyle Brandt
being your actual girlfriend or meeting anyone. Like, it's just she should kind of pick on that. Up on the hit too now, man.
- [98:18]
Tommy Smokes
Yeah, the scouting report he gave her. It's sort of like when you're in the relationship, I. 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.
- [98:43]
Kyle Brandt
You know what this sounds like too? It sounds like. And this could be disrespectful, but like, like the NBA players 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 thing. It just feels really. I don't know. If I was her, I would, I'd feel like you'd sniff this out, but maybe she really likes you and that's a bummer too because if she does, then it's going to make this whole situation harder for you. So I. That another reason why you should just
- [99:05]
Ryan Rosillo
go solo I can totally understand. Like, hey, if I'm going to visit my family on 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 gonna go 36 fucking holes on top of her meeting you there on a separate itinerary and the whole. And so I, 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 because you don't like, you don't like being by yourself?
- [99:46]
Kyle Brandt
You know, maybe meet somebody up there. Yeah, I was gonna say. I just. I think this is gonna bum you out.
- [99:55]
Ryan Rosillo
36 holes.
- [99:58]
Kyle Brandt
That'd be such an epic move. Like he just leaves at 8am gets back at 8pm
- [100:05]
Sean Salisbury
ready to go to the game? A little bit hammered.
- [100:06]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah.
- [100:08]
Ryan Rosillo
Started. Started drinking gin in the back nine. Sorry if I'm weird.
- [100:13]
Tommy Smokes
Just gonna take a quick nap.
- [100:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, you still want to do the casino later? Cool. I'll try to. I'll try to keep it.
- [100:33]
Tommy Smokes
The good thing is he has. Good thing he hasn't asked her yet. He's like, I. I can tell she wants me to ask her, right? That was in the email there he didn't like.
- [100:42]
Ryan Rosillo
Does 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. Life advice. Thanks to Tom, Kevin and Trudy and to Kyle. Please subscribe and watch our show Full episodes on Netflix. Ryan Rosilla Show Barstow Sports two Sam.