← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch, Plus Adnan Virk Talks the Oscars & the World Baseball Classic!
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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]
Francis
Hey guys, it's Francis. Look, life moves fast. Dating is a tough thing to find time for and to be intentional about. At least so I thought until I found the league. I've found that the people I've met on the league are people I really have a lot more in common with than the people you typically find when you're just aimlessly swiping and scrolling on other dating apps instead of endless searching. I get a curated batch of profiles each day. There's less noise, less back and forth, less flakiness. These are just people I'd actually want to meet, have a conversation with, have a meal with, spend real time with, create that meaningful connection. Join me on the league, download the app and apply Today,
- [01:02]
Ryan Rosillo
The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by DraftKings. We are packed with a lot of different topics today, a couple big time guests, Chris Finch Rough stretch for the Timberwolves, but we'll talk about that stretch and then also the bigger picture stuff and the evolution of Ant. We've got Adnan Verk on not just the World Baseball Classic controversy, Team usa, Team USA moving on, but a heavy, heavy dose of Oscars conversations. Some history in there as well. And we've got life advice. Basketball is a game of runs and it moves fast. That's why DraftKings sportsbook is built for live betting. From tip off to the final buzzer, live betting lets you react when momentum shifts. You can adjust in real time, possession by possession, play by play with prop sides and next play markets as the action unfolds. DraftKings also has you covered with early exit protection. If you place a pregame player prop and your player starts the game but gets injured in the first half and can't return, you'll get your original bet back in ca. No bonus bets, just real protection when the unexpected happens. New to DraftKings, bet just $5 and get 200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now. Use the code Ryan r y e n. That's code Ryan to turn five bucks into 200 in bonus bets instantly. In partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours.
- [02:16]
Adnan Virk
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- [02:43]
Ryan Rosillo
Planning on having Chris Finch here for a while and he joins us now. And I would say, Chris, lesser men would maybe just say, hey, why don't we bounce this one back after, after a different week, because I know it's been a tough, tough little road trip and maybe not the fondest memories of Los Angeles for you. Yeah.
- [02:58]
Chris Finch
Hey, listen, it's okay. It's all part of the business. Happy to be on. Thanks for having me.
- [03:03]
Ryan Rosillo
What happened, do you think, like last night off the Lakers loss and in the start of that first quarter?
- [03:09]
Chris Finch
Yeah, well, first of all, it's turnovers. You know, I think the pressure that kind of swarmed us. I think we had seven turnovers in the first 10 possessions or something like that. They all led the buckets. You know, they're playing, they're, they're playing really well. They're a good team right now. They are a complete team. But Kawhi is playing at a super high level. And, you know, while we were able to get back into the game, it felt like we were chasing the game uphill all the time. And then when we get within a couple buckets or within striking distance, we would turn it over again. And we had 21 turnovers. So we're not really ever going to win when we turn it over at that level. So that was one. And then, you know, Kawhi was just otherworldly last night. It didn't matter what we did. He made shots when we doubled him, he made the right play. Even made shots over doubles at times. So, you know, we kind of got smacked.
- [03:55]
Ryan Rosillo
We.
- [03:56]
Chris Finch
It was a tale of two games, really. The Lakers game, it was our office, you know, just broke down completely. And last night it was our defense that broke down completely.
- [04:04]
Ryan Rosillo
So he had a first quarter bucket against Rudy where Rudy's actually out contesting it perfectly. Like, Rudy picks him up, he meets him and Kawhi just has this, it's almost like a boxer where he knows exactly the distance and separation that he needs to get the shot off. Where you're, you're just, he's like, he's going to find a way to get that off, even if you think you have a reach on him.
- [04:27]
Chris Finch
Yeah, it's. I mean, he's, he's phenomenal player. I think he's just, you know, underrated at this point in his career. Still, I think we're forgotten in a lot of ways just, you know, due to the injury history. But if. Even when you get a good contest, it feels like he has a clean look at the basket, you know, and with the. With the flat trajectory on his shot, it. It feels like you should be able to contest him better or bother him more. But you just. He almost never sees anybody when they're right in front of him.
- [04:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it was. It was super impressive for a bunch of different reasons. I always like trying to get, you know, something out of you guys. I know there's probably limitations of what you can share, but when you have the five straight turnovers and you're right, it was like seven of 10 or 11 positions. You call the timeout, it's 12, 2. This is a veteran group, so I. I know they know you and you know them, but, like, what do you even say when you go, hey? Like, hey, guys?
- [05:19]
Chris Finch
Yeah, I mean, listen, that. That one, I didn't say a whole lot. I mean, it was pretty obvious, you know, I just. I said, hey, as soon as we stop turning, you know, we'll settle into the game. And. And I think we had a few more turnovers, but largely I. I was mostly focused on whether we were able to kind of develop some sort of offensive rhythm, which we had been missing for a couple games. And we were, you know, I thought we. Once we came out of that timeout, we got our pace up a little bit. We. Our decision making quickened and thought we were able to get some really good looks against a. A very good defense, which I was worried about. So. But yeah, it was just the. The. The. The pressure. The two around Anthony, you know, the clean passing wasn't there for us, and that's what caused the kind of the, you know, the crappy start.
- [06:12]
Ryan Rosillo
When are you at your best on offense? Like, what do you want to see when it's like, okay, this is. This is when I know we're right?
- [06:18]
Chris Finch
Yeah, this is the. I mean, this is pretty simple formula for us. You know, we. We're playing a little faster. You know, we don't want to be. I mean, we're not built to be the one of these breakneck, you know, speed teams that you see all over the league right now. I mean, we're just physically probably not built that way, but we have quickened our pace this year, which has really helped us. You know, we're at our best when we're playing faster and we're, you know, getting into kind of Our early offense, if you will. And really when Ant and Julius are playmaking as well as scoring like we need those guys to have combined over double digit assists and you know, playing through Julius, who's kind of like our point forward alongside Anthony is, you know, that's probably at the heart of what we do when we're at our best. And then Nas, you know, off the bench doing a lot of that same stuff, playing through our bigs because both of them have such great playmaking abilities. And then you know, layered in on that is everybody's touching the ball and, and we're finding Rudy. It was a big, a big point of emphasis for us this season coming into the year was to be able to find Rudy more. You know, there were many times where we just missed him, whether it be on the lob or the roll or just some deep seal against the switch and you know, we had done that and we have done that for large stretches of the season and that activates him. Of course, as you can imagine, he becomes better defensively, he's more active on the glass. And now with a defense like last night where they're so committed to putting pressure on the ball, they're daring us to throw it to Rudy. And I thought Anthony did a good job of finding him last night in the middle of the floor.
- [08:06]
Ryan Rosillo
We know this game has evolved away from post ups, right? No one's ever going to say, hey, get in the post and then we'll work off of that. I mean it's just feels like that's never going to happen again. But I wonder if that evolution of the game has led to perimeter guys just ignoring deep seals as well. Like it's, it's so like when you have those moments like I don't care who, you're never going to have Rudy set up on the block and have everybody space out be like Rudy, post up. Let's let Rudy cook for six possessions in a traditional post up. But is that something where you almost have to remind it not just your team but like a generation of players. It's like when a seven foot plus guy has a deep seal on a guy in a restricted area, it's still a good option.
- [08:42]
Chris Finch
It's a great option and you're 100% right. You know, first of all, it's like it's the most missed guy I think is the big now in the game today. Like in and around the basket in different ways. You see so much switching that you. There are a lot of these opportunities that are kind of gone Missed. You know, I think everybody wants the ISO drive and kick three and you know, we have to kind of continually train ourselves to look down there. I will say this though. I think post play has come back a little bit for these elite guys mostly as a playmaking opportunity. Like Julius is really good at it. Like one of the best things that we were able to do is play through him in the post. You know, it really activates his playmaking. And you know, I think last year, certainly with Anthony's increase in three point volume and a lot of it came from Julius Randall kickouts from the post and that's something that we've got to get back to doing a little bit more too.
- [09:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, you know, year two here with Julius and it's not like we have to go back through the trade and everything, but like it felt like the idea was we need someone else who can deal with defensive pressure with the ball. You know, there's plenty of guys on your team that can dribble. But when the defense is focused on ant, it felt like Julius was this other side option of like, you know, it goes back to his passing. Even in Kentucky, it's like this guy's actually like a really good passer when he does get cook and you're like, man, if you get him in a switch, he's just going to be somebody because he's going to be able to maintain like a multiple dribble possession was, was the idea of like not just his talent but having someone else that dependable with the ball and making decisions to kind of maybe like I would say balance out the offense a little bit more 100%.
- [10:32]
Chris Finch
I think where we looked at, you know, obviously, truth be told, you know, the trade was more about cap sheet. You know, it was largely about cap sheet moving forward and, and you know, we love Cat and everything that he brought, but we knew we were coming to a point where we had to make decisions. We wanted to try to get some depth into our roster too. So all that aside, when we looked at like the numbers, you know, there were fairly similar. Obviously Cats, an elite shooter. Julius is more streaky from the three point line. Playmaking though, one thing we just, you know, I just hit upon Julius was like he created so many three point shots and we needed to get our three point volume up. And then I always felt even when we had him in New Orleans, which was kind of a lost season because that was the year that Anthony asked for a tree. So we didn't play a lot of meaningful games coming down the Stretch there. But when I had New Orleans, I felt like this. This guy was a good closer. Like, you can actually play through him because he can get to his spot, he can get a shot, get a shot up comfortably. He can play make and also draw fouls.
- [11:39]
Ryan Rosillo
So.
- [11:41]
Chris Finch
Yeah. So heading into the last season, it took us a while to kind of figure out exactly, like, what the best version of Julius looked like for us, you know, and at times, I think, you know, we confused him. We needed him to score, we needed him to do this, we needed him to do the other thing. But it kind of mapped out where we probably 60% playmaking, 40% scoring, but that 40% scoring is hugely important because it's kind of on demand, you know, which is what you're talking about. And when. When he. When there's some so much pressure on Anthony, like, you know, the. Julius is. And I've always thought, like, his passing is. Is elite and underrated and at times underutilized. But we're, you know, we're trying to get him and have always tried to, like, get him to really lean into that part of his game here.
- [12:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Your stability is probably something I imagine you will rely on during, like, a rough stretch, because I was looking at it again this morning. Your starting group has 686 minutes together. That's number one by a massive gap to Detroit, who's at, like, 4 90. You know, there's teams that think they're still competing for a title that I'm like. I'm still not even quite sure if they know who they're supposed to be. How much does that at least help you going? Like, I'm not dealing with kind of like the substitution of decision patterns that maybe other teams are as they're trying to fight through seating.
- [12:56]
Chris Finch
Yeah, I think immensely we know who we need to be when we're at our best. Sometimes we deviate from that. It's a head scratcher for all of us here. But right now, I think having lengthened our bench, we played a lot of the season, maybe six, seven guys at the most, and then now we feel like we got nine deep with IO and Kyle back in the mix. So I think for me, right now it's kind of working through some of the pairings and combinations of the bench and, you know, how they mix with maybe the starters and some of these blended lineups. But our, you know, our. Our starting group has been great. You know, coming into the season, we made the decision to start. Dante put the ball in Ant's hands. Real reason was that, which, I mean, needed a better Dante, you know, and Dante was good last year, but we needed the New York Knicks Dante, you know, we needed the guy that could change the game all by himself and get hot. And like, I don't think he ever had that kind of those moments for us last year, sustained moments. He did it here and there, so. And he's been great. He has been unbelievable for us. And putting the ball in ant's hands more, we knew that would kind of be like a. There'd be a growth curve there. And, you know, we've seen a lot of good things there. And we also know where we need help, too, so. But yeah, our starting unit is super comfortable, and I'm comfortable with that Ant.
- [14:25]
Ryan Rosillo
So I was in the building a couple weeks ago when he. When he hits the shot, and then of course, we all saw like, the clip afterwards where he's like, this is what I do. I don't. I didn't take that as like, because you had said, hey, pass it out at 2 earlier. And then it kind of played out, at least nationally, that it was like, oh, then he turns to his coach and does this. That kind of. Maybe I have a little insight on it, too. It's like, I felt like that was a reflection of how great the relationship is that he can, like, in this passionate moment, kind of go at you. What is a moment like that for you when. When you're in the game and it's happening? Your guys delivery.
- [14:57]
Chris Finch
Yeah, I mean, listen, it is a. It's. It is part of a relationship that we have. I mean, like, I'm always on Anthony to make the right play, you know, and he has incredible confidence in him, in himself, and he's had an outstanding year in clutch situations. And, you know, that shot, when he gets to his left hand and can rise up almost over anybody feels automatic. So. But, you know, coming down the stretch here, like, still has to continue to make the right play. And, you know, it's my job to remind him to do that. And it's his. You know, it's his. It's in his nature to. He loves being challenged. You know, it's all part of the deal. So I, I didn't take it personally at all. In fact, we talked about it afterwards and. And it kind of came and went for us, and it's just kind of part of, like, our daily fabric. I mean, we're not always barking at each other. But he knows I have immense trust in him and it's been fun to watch him grow as game into these situations. And a year ago he wasn't really good in the clutch. Like, he struggled a lot and we struggled a lot and it got better in the playoffs. And I said all season long, like, the benefit of this, if nothing else, is that we have an incredible body of work to analyze in the off season to figure out how to make him better in these situations. And he's done that. He put the work in and he's been outstanding in those moments for us.
- [16:23]
Ryan Rosillo
What's something we don't know about him as the face of a franchise, as a teammate? We could talk about all the spectacular plays, all of us that love this game. I mean, he's just kind of a must watch. But I love anything that you could share with us about him that maybe has even surprised you in this time together.
- [16:40]
Chris Finch
Yeah, I think, you know, ultimately like, he's, he. We talk about this. Everyone sees Anthony and what you see is, is real and it's genuine and that's what we love about him. You know, what he's thinking at any moment in time. But he's also quite reflective. Like, and I've, I've said this before, so this isn't maybe something that anybody hasn't heard, but like, he'll also tell you what he doesn't know, you know, and like what he, you know, where he feels he needs to get better. And he, he really does own like his bad play or his poor performances. And he's quite shy and sheepish about that sometimes, you know, and he needs, he needs building back up just like everybody else does after those moments. And, and so I think like, you know, he's now at the point where I think he understands way more basketball than he ever has in his life. And he's kind of, it's at the intersection of like what he's learned and what he can do. And I think the next couple years are going to be, you know, even better for him. But he's also like, you know, everybody talks about the face of the league and all that. He doesn't lust after those things. Like, I don't think any player really does. In fact, he shies away from it a little bit at times because, you know, he just wants to play basketball and be like the best player he can, and whatever comes of it is fine. But then once it kind of settles in, then he kind of feels a little more comfortable with these, this evolution, whether it be an all star, all NBA, you know, face of the franchise, these types of things at the moment. Like sometimes he's not sure if he wants it and. But yet he has more than enough game and belief in himself to actually do it. And he just needs a little convincing that it's going to be fine.
- [18:35]
Ryan Rosillo
You know, I was thinking about, you know, his, his evolution here from last year in the playoffs, right, because it was the game one against OKC. He only takes 13 shots. And when I watch it live, it kind of felt like, you know, it's a very easy thing to say, like, hey, what the hell's going on here? And it's like, well, if you think about him as a basketball player, like, last thing you ever have to worry about is him not taking necessarily enough shots. But the rules are if you're him and you're losing a play, like, you have to figure out a way. And then I don't do this all the time, but it was bothering me and I was in a hotel, I think, at the time. So I watched the game again. I watched his possessions on Synergy and it was like, you know, this is tough because OKC's got three guys. Like, wherever he is, he is facing this maze of bodies. And so it's like, do we want him to take 25 shots knowing that there's going to be like 10 absolutely terrible decisions here where he's completely forcing it? Which you wouldn't necessarily even blame him considering his ability and his talent, especially just, you know, on the drive, getting around guys. He's everything you'd ever want out of a player. But it was. It was one of those things. It was like, we kind of want it both ways. You know, we want you to be efficient. We might making the right decision. But since it's a playoff game and then it's okc, I guess we also. And I'm not saying you, but like, we also want you to force up a bunch of shots so your box score doesn't just say 13 attempts. I'm just kind of wondering, like, what that game meant to you on. On this kind of path of who he's become as a player.
- [20:00]
Chris Finch
Yeah, I think, yeah, he nailed it. I mean, it's. There's a lot of outside expectations that, you know, think that, hey, he's got to get more shots. And of course we need him to take 20 shots a night, like, but if they're going to put two and three guys on them and they're committed to stopping the initial play time and time again, like, you know, he has the responsibility of getting his teammates involved and taking advantage of the defense, I thought he had done an outstanding job of that through the first two series. And the Oklahoma City defense is as we saw last year, was a completely different animal. And they just weren't let you gonna, you know, kind of take them on. I mean they force a lot of turnovers, they make you pay quickly. But I would say this like. And part of the learning is, you know, there are other ways to get shots. You know, you gotta play faster, you gotta get out in the open court, which you know, he, at one point in his. That was who he was, you know. And I see, you see it a lot, all these high usage stars, they tend to slow down and become more of a half court player because they have the ball in their hands and. But you know, you're gonna have to find other ways to, to accentuate what you're doing in those situations. And that's why you got to train yourself through the regular season to do it. You can't just, if you don't. It's not used to playing quicker off the catch or playing more in transition or just being a, like a catch and shoot guy, whatever it might be. You know, you got to do these things because in the playoffs they might force you to play this way a little bit more and you got to go get six, eight points that way.
- [21:35]
Ryan Rosillo
Do you
- [21:38]
Chris Finch
like.
- [21:38]
Ryan Rosillo
I know sometimes with young players it's like reps, you know, it's kind of the battle between a coaching staff and a front office. And it's like, hey, we just drafted this guy. And it's like, yeah, but I'm trying to win the game. And it's like we've got to get this guy a certain number of minutes. We have to have him have real possessions. That's not necessarily the case with your roster, but I wonder if there is a game goal and then there's like a longer term goal of like we, we've got to figure out some different ways to attack. Knowing what is facing you in the Western Conference.
- [22:03]
Chris Finch
Yeah, you mean attack like just like,
- [22:06]
Ryan Rosillo
you know, is, is there stuff that you would say, hey, we know what OKC is going to do. We may not do it against okc, but let's, let's, try it. Let's like be thinking about where we're going to be in April and May with some of the stuff we want to do as opposed to just winning a game on a Tuesday night?
- [22:20]
Chris Finch
Yeah, yeah, there are for sure. There's things that we do and you know, we do, we do a lot more of that defensively I think than we would say offensively, you know, and a lot of that has to do with things that we might do around Rudy, because what we feel teams will try to do to us when Rudy's on the floor in the playoffs. And he's been great in adjusting and kind of being open minded to all those things. So offensively, you know, it's kind of like we see of some version of the same defense almost every single night. You know, that has a lot of traffic around Julius, which is, you know, which is what we know we're going to see in the playoffs with maybe even, you know, more and more tension there, you know, upcourt pressure, denial, pressure, these types of things. So we've gotten used to playing through other people, having other people initiate our offense in the flow. That's been really good to us. Jaden and Dante have been key in that. That all goes back to playing a little bit faster and everything.
- [23:26]
Ryan Rosillo
How often are you surprised by anything you see? Why? Either the way you're being attacked on defense or how you're being defended
- [23:34]
Chris Finch
at this point in time, you know, I mean, I wouldn't say overly surprised. I think, you know, we kind of, you know, we know each other so well now in the Western Conference, you know, you kind of know exactly what's coming. You know, I thought Clippers have done a good job. They kind of mix it up on us a little bit and then they can bring pressure. I think they're probably, you know, they're probably the most. One of the most complete defenses that you see in the league right now. But, you know, I think everyone's kind of settled into their defensive personality by this stage. Now in the playoffs, obviously, you know, everything gets extreme. They choose just not to guard people. And, you know, one thing I thought, I look back at game five, we got blown out. Game five, Oklahoma City. I thought we started that game. Ant started that game making all the right plays. We just missed a kind of wide open shots and then, you know, things kind of the roof fell in on us
- [24:31]
Ryan Rosillo
because the Rudy thing, like, even last night with Brook Lopez, like, you're going, hey, how's Brook Lopez? And I don't mean to say it that way, but like, like, hey, there's a reason Brook Lopez is still getting paid. Because if he's that big and can stretch the other team center out.
- [24:42]
Chris Finch
Yeah.
- [24:43]
Ryan Rosillo
And specific to you, it's like, okay, like, can I stick Rudy on a perimeter guy and try to make up for it? But then am I losing it in the Brook matchup? Like, those are the chess pieces where I think you guys actually get like, a little bit more adventurous in the playoffs. You just come in and be like, hey, we're doing something completely different here in game three, and we'll give it eight minutes and then we see what happens.
- [25:01]
Chris Finch
Yeah, I think let's. When we traded for Rudy, you know, we. We had the opportunity to get it. We knew it was going to change our defense. And, you know, Tim and Tim Connolly and I talked. Talked about it and, you know, we made a, you know, we made a pinky swear. Like he. He said, he just. He goes, if we do this, you just got to promise me that you're not going to take Rudy off the floor every time someone goes so. And I said, I won't. We'll figure it out. You know, and I've always been committed to that. Now, now there are times when we. We might, you know, here and there, situationally, certainly late in games, maybe to. To put a little some more switching on it. But we've challenged also Rudy from the day that he got here that we weren't going to be just one dimensional. We were going to ask him to do more things, whether it be in rotation a little bit more, far more switching with him, you know, different coverages that than, you know, than maybe what they were doing in Utah and Utah, they were phenomenal. So I'm not criticizing, but I just knew that coming into the playoffs, like, if you wanted to maximize Rudy, you had to do two things. One is you have to be, you know, willing to adapt, so your team is good enough to go to different styles of defense in the middle of a series. And that's a bit of an alerting curve for us at times, you know, and we learned a lot in that Dallas series when, you know, Luca basically kind of had his way with us. And then the other part is you got to be able to include them consistently in your offense because sometimes he's the guy that people don't choose to guard.
- [26:36]
Ryan Rosillo
It feels like there's. Well, it just feels better defensively with him this year, and maybe that's him understanding the other pieces around him better as well. So, you know, I know the numbers would probably back that up a little bit sometimes in the plus minus stuff. Defensively it can be, but I mean, if there's one steady, it's that when that guy's on the floor, your plus, because I'll. I'll tell you for like anybody, and look, I've given him probably a hard time on some of the offensive stuff. Over the years of me doing this job, which, you know, whatever, I doubt you even care. But just for full transparency. But when he's out, the excitement on the drives from the opponent kind of tells you all you need to know. Like, you can see that guys are like, all right, he's gone. And it's a completely different offense because now everyone's like, all we need to do is attack here as much as we possibly can.
- [27:23]
Chris Finch
Yeah, no, 100%. You know, you can see people's like, head go down and you know, they try to get to the heart of the defense and you know, with any, with any great rim protector, and you can look at it through history, the single biggest metric that drives their success is deterrence, you know, and, you know, obviously when they get there, they're, they're pretty good too. But you know, sometimes the numbers flatten out when people drive on these bigger guys, these rim protectors, when they do do attack them. But the turns is huge. And you know, we see that on a nightly basis. And we've, we've, we've been inconsistent in trying to like building like a non Rudy defense. And because playing alongside Rudy also takes a lot of nuance, you know, and you know, being able to read him and it might not kind of put you.
- [28:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Can you give me an example of that? Just, I want to know more.
- [28:20]
Chris Finch
Yeah, yeah, sure. For sure, Absolutely. Like, you know, when you don't, when Rudy's off the floor, you might build your defense with heavy gaps. You might build your defense with an early low man. And then you're really kind of relying on your rotation with Rudy on the floor, you know, Rudy is probably, or you're wanting Rudy to kind of be at the rim as much as possible. He might be rotating from an odd angle spot on the top of the floor. Maybe it's, it's, you know, it, it, it. So it's normally you bring a low man from the bottom of the floor and he might be coming from the top of the floor. So you gotta read if he's coming or not. And so it, it just takes some time. It allows us to guard the three point line maybe a little bit better. Stay, you know, stay out of rotations at times. More so with Rudy on the floor than with him off the floor. And then you got to go to this like, fly around defense when he's not on the floor more if you do get your paint, you know, punctured. So it's just, you know, it's just kind of like, it's kind of two different styles. And you know, it's we, we haven't mastered it yet. I'm not going to lie because the numbers will tell you that too. But you know, we know that Rudy all by himself is like a top five defense. And you know, guys that come to us like Julius and, and Dante, you know, last year, it took them a while. It takes people a little while to figure out how to play with Rooney offensively and defensively. Even Mike Connolly will tell you, you know, it took him a while in Utah when he got there. And this is best by college we were talking about it is probably one of the easiest fits along anybody you'll ever find.
- [29:54]
Ryan Rosillo
So. All right, last thing here and I'll let you get on your way just even explaining some of your different rules. And I'll admit like my knowledge on it's limited. You know, sometimes I'll see something and I'll think like did this guy make the mistake? But then I'm like, well, I don't know what their help rule is. Maybe off of this guy in the corner if you're supposed to be in the paint. I mean some of these guys are such good three point shooters. I think you guys will have rules where it's like let the guy go to the paint because we just can't leave that shot open. Yeah, but then I was, you know, I'd like to go back in time and, and look at some of the clips and it's just like such, there's so many more complications today's defense and I wonder if that is the evolution of just everyone having more time and being smarter or it's like, hey, we have to cover so much more ground because like whenever I watch older cliffs I'm like, stuff is just packed and you're not chasing around and I don't know that there's all these complicated in rotation rules that you have now. So I mean, did the game have to become more complicated to combat the spacing or did you guys just have more time to cook up stuff?
- [31:00]
Chris Finch
You talk about defensively? Yeah, yeah, I think it had to become more defensive. I think, you know, we preach this to our guys all the time. When I first came in the league, like it was pretty much taboo. You didn't want to be known as a game plan team defensively because you know, that meant you didn't have an identity night tonight and you weren't good at anything. You were trying to be, you know, be something different maybe every night. I think now your game plan tendencies defensively Are, you know, way more important than they were certainly 15 years ago. And you really got to lean into, you know, a lot more different coverages or nuance and around, you know, you might see four out, four out teams, you see way more five out teams. You have stretch picks now. You know the cheat code to all this is, you know, being able to switch one through five. But now offenses have gotten so good against tacking switches, you know, with ghost screens and slips, peels and screening short and you know all this stuff now. So, you know, I think this just, I think it spills over to just offense in general. Ryan. Like, you know, everyone wants to play fast and everyone is playing fast, but the real reason that you played fast is because it led to better shots. Like I don't think you have to play at breakneck speeds anymore because half court offenses are so much more efficient than they had been 10 years ago. You know, teams aren't just settling for bad shots anymore like they, they did. So everybody's shot profile diet is a healthy one for the most part. And you don't have to do that just playing in transition now. It's still easier to get buckets in transition when you're committed to it. But the half court offense efficiency has gone through the roof. And so that's a problem you gotta solve every single night. And it might be different, you know, and you know, when you have guys, when you have these skilled bigs that could just change the geometry on the floor like you see everywhere, you know, you can't just swallow up the paint in the rim, you know, and if you do, you know, the teams that do, and there's some really, really good ones out there, you know, they're going to leave a lot of three point shots open and then it comes down to your ability to go out and contest at a high level. Like Oklahoma City. Like Oklahoma City gives up a lot of threes in the corners, but they do a really good job of covering ground and getting a good hand.
- [33:18]
Ryan Rosillo
You know, last thought, do you think you would have been thrown out of the game last night if Matheran had got that foul at the layup at the end against Jaden, I didn't see the end of the first half. He just, he veered right into Jaden and tried to get the contact and Mather went down and it was like, it was one of those when you saw the play because I think they had 22 free throws in the first half. And look, I like, I think it's pretty clear that like both, both Defensively, your guys weren't up for it. And then offensively, the ball pressure was like, hey, you know, can we ease into the game here a little bit? It's like now the Clippers are like ready to go immediate. And I was just thinking about you because that's the kind of play that drives me absolutely crazy. It's like, hey, he's initiating everything. He's veering. He's like going into two lanes over. And I was like, if he gets that foul call, I was like, finch is going to.
- [34:09]
Chris Finch
I was very proud of the crew that they held their whistle on that one, you know, And I will say, like, that is a major point of discussion right now is these veering fouls, these offense, I feel the league is, is on, is on the officials to make more of these offensive of fouls than, than even no calls. You know, the off arm stuff, the
- [34:31]
Ryan Rosillo
Heisman thing you're allowed to do, I mean, there's always been that kind of clever, you know, elbow thing. If you keep it in tight, you're going to get that call or you're never going to get called for that offensive foul when it's an offensive foul. But I, I'm not, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but it's just, it's such a passionate agreement that I have that it's like, you know, it's this moving target. It's really tough for the officials, but this year has been probably the roughest I've ever seen where you're kind of allowed to do whatever you want. Initiating contact when you have the ball,
- [34:58]
Chris Finch
when you get in and around the paint and you're, you know, like shoulder hitting and that's what, you know, these shoulder hit finishes and they're basically just bulldozing the defensive out of the way and the defense is, you know, retreating and off balance. I mean, I'm not out of position if I'm running alongside of you, like, not out of position. And if you come and veer me and veer onto me and knock me out, then, you know, or, and then spill back and then. Or I try to take this face up that you create and now you step back into it. I don't know, man. I'm not sure we all know what a foul is right now. I think it's super frustrating. We don't let our eyes tell us enough. We're trying to, we're trying to do this like we're doing a tax code. We're kind of going through all these little boxes. We're Trying to check. And it doesn't feel right to me. I mean, I watch basketball all over the world and we have some of the most out of context calls that you just wouldn't see anywhere else. You know, it just wouldn't. And I think that's the play that you, that you just referenced was a great one. I mean, the referees held their whistle and rightly so. I mean, he tried to. I, I also think we should never reward the out of control player either. You know, and I thought he was a little bit out of control, so. But yeah, so we got a lot to work on there.
- [36:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, look, and it'll probably, I think the league when the flopping thing and the charging thing was getting out of control, like you could have a guy run side to side, full speed in transition on the ball handler, and if he just got a step ahead of him and then fell down, they were calling these like transition charges. That was like years ago. And I was like, win it. And then so I look at that, I'm like, you know, you don't. They kind of stopped rewarding that. Then the players adjust to that. But I mean, it's so funny because these shoulder hits are like a middle linebacker hitting a lead fullback. And then the guy with the ball still wants to foul. You're like, oh my God. And I think something that hurts you and it hurts Ant. Is that what makes Ant so much fun to watch is that he doesn't want to do any of this stuff and neither does Julius.
- [37:01]
Chris Finch
You know, I, those guys, yeah, they don't flop and play for the foul. They play, try to play through and off the contact.
- [37:07]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, well, I don't know, I'd hate to ever say, like, hey, he should probably do that because it would be better for him. It'd be better for the team.
- [37:14]
Chris Finch
There's certainly an art, and there always has been an art to drawing fouls. And that's going to be part of the game. And we're, and I think we're all fine with that. But some of these, you know, some of these are just, I think, pretty egregious. I, I and the shoulder hit stuff like I, I trace it back to this. Like, so verticality at the rim is, is, you know, is a huge thing now. And again, when I first came in the league, you had to be perfect to get verticality. Like, you know, you had to have your hands straight up. You had to go up and down. Like you could, you couldn't twist and turn and no re reaching. You couldn't protect yourself. It was like to get a non call verticality defensive possession you had to be almost perfect. And now if you just jump in the air, throw your hands, you know you're drifting A to B, you're twisting, you're bracing, you're re reaching on it and they've allowed that to kind of I think get. They're too liberal with the verticality. So it's hard to finish now off of one foot against vertical defenders. So what's the counter drive in there? Two foot stop, bury your shoulder in the defender and now take up the space when he's going backwards. I mean that's that to me is where all this has come from. It's like it's really come from the fact that it's become harder to finish against verticality because verticality rules I think have been too liberal.
- [38:40]
Ryan Rosillo
I could do this all day, but I don't want to get. I think we've been vague enough that we're not going to get you in any kind of trouble. I'm sure you're looking forward to getting home. So thanks so much for the time and looking forward to the rest of the season. Thanks Chris.
- [38:54]
Chris Finch
Appreciate it, Ryan, Thanks.
- [38:57]
Ryan Rosillo
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- [40:42]
Adnan Virk
Great to see you, man. Congratulations on this latest foray as the great Steve Ceruti had texted me when you guys made the move over to Barstool and Netflix, he said you could watch the Irishman and roll right into life advice. So I have been doing that. I am thrilled for all of you and this latest venture and it's great to talk WBC and some movies and perhaps some singing as well.
- [41:01]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know if we'll get to singing, perhaps. Maybe it depends on how much time we have. But I do want to talk about the World Baseball Classic and ultimately Team usa. Moving on after some controversy with one of your co workers as well, who's the manager, derosa. But I want to start with the films. Let's start with the art. Last year when we did this, I was like, you know, you haven't even watched a ton of these movies. It felt like a depth chart that I was like confused by. I was like, who's playing for the Nets? Who's their small forward right now? And then I, I don't even remember how it, like happened. I was like, yeah, I'll see that. Or I'll see that. And I go, that's not good. That's not good enough. So I've seen, I'm proud of myself. I've seen eight of the ten Best Picture nominations. What is your pick going to be?
- [41:45]
Adnan Virk
Well, first off, I'm proud of you for making a rededicated effort towards watching these movies because again, movies do not hold the same cachet they used to. Movies are not as great as they once were. But again, if you're a completist like me, I've seen all the nominees in 17 different categories. I'm one shy of 19 categories. We're talking documentary, short, animated, short. So I'm obviously nuts and uber prepared for these types of things. Best Picture is going to be one battle after another. The Paul Thomas Anderson film, which won at the Producers Guild Award, pga, which is always a pretty big precursor, it's going to win. But you and I can talk more about this film because again, Paul Thomas Anderson is one of our favorite filmmakers, 55 years of age. He's finally going to win his first Best Director Oscar. There Will Be Blood is one of the great films of the last 25 years. Boogie night's a personal favorite. Magnolia epic about grief and loss and who can sleep on Phantom Threat and Daniel Day Lewis. And yet one battle after another is going to be the film that is his coup de grace. That's going to win his best Picture and Best Director. I don't think it's a top five film of his. I liked it. I thought it was really well constructed, but it's more commercial as other films. I did love the ending, but normally I'll say this Ryan, when it comes to P.T. anderson movie, normally I watch it. I can't wait to watch it again. I watched it IMAX in September. It's been streaming for months. I popped in the lady for 10 minutes and I go, I think I'll just watch something else instead. I'm a little surprised by my own reaction to the film. You?
- [43:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, because I think, you know, it's funny. The same thing happens in sports that happens in everything else too, is. I went to see it because it's pta. I mean, it's an auto. It's a very short list of, like, done. I'm in. I want to see it in the theater. And I really liked it. And yet then people were like, it's the best he's ever done. And I don't know if this is where, like, the PR part of it works and the lead up to the Oscars, where it's like, if we get everybody saying, you know, you've got all the. The surrogates out there just being like, hey, keep pushing, pushing this, pushing. It's his best work. It's a culmination of all this different stuff. I also think, like, as creative people, your 10th best idea. There's no way that's your best idea. Like, your tenth idea. It's just. It's very hard for me to see, like, creators go, like, I'm gonna peak on my seventh album or eighth album, or however many ideas you have. And granted, you can evolve as a creator and a writer and all that kind of different stuff. I really like the movie. Maybe it's just because of how much we like them. I'm with you. I could name five movies that I think are better than that movie. And then it just really depends on, as we've seen historically on the field, the rest of it. Like, look, the Master is brilliant. Boogie Nights holds up in a way that you hope you could ever be A part of something. There will be bloods. Not for everybody. But that thing's just a haymaker the entire way through. So, you know, we shouldn't be judging against the other ones. Cause we're talking about 26 and ready to go. But everyone seems to think that it's going to win. What do you think even has a chance to challenge it if there's some kind of swing in the voting?
- [44:36]
Adnan Virk
Well, I think Sinners has a chance. I mean, 16 nominations is pretty breathtaking. And you can say, well they have more categories now. Best casting and it did well in the technical categories. But there's also acting categories. I mean, Michael B. Jordan. We're going to get to the fascinating best actor race and the swan dive that Timothy Chalamet's taken. But Michael B. Jordan might win for best actor. Delroy Linda would be an epic upset for supporting actor. Long established actor Winmy Moussaka got nominated for supporting actress. This is not a film which just get nominated for best song and cinematography. No, it's up for all the biggies. Coogler's up for director. For screenplay. I think he wins for screenplay. That's the wash. But I think is most likely to go Sinners way. So maybe it's got broad enough appeal with the 16 nominations that sinners could pull off an upset. Prior to the Oscar season when I watched all the films because that's always fun when you watch the movie first and then it's okay, where's this going to be forecasting? People always laugh at me. They go, the nominations just come in. How did you see everything? I said, well, I'm watching it as it's happening. I don't wait till February 2 and then watch 10 movies. I'm watching September, October, November, December.
- [45:31]
Ryan Rosillo
So what do you think we are here?
- [45:32]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. What do you think I'm doing here? Yeah. So when I saw Hamnet, when I saw Hamnet in like around Thanksgiving, I said, okay, this might win best picture. Like I heard the roar of approval coming out of Toronto and one of the audience were film festival. I said, hamnet's going to win best picture and it's not going to now. But when I first saw it, I said this is a truly great film and I've had friends. My wife herself said, I don't know how this is not winning best pick. This is clearly the best way of the year. So I wish Hamnet would have a chance. I thought it's a great, great film. I liked it more than one battle after another. Jesse Buckley is Going to win for Best Actress, but in a different era. Maybe it would win. Maybe like a Weinstein type era, you know, pushing that kind of a film art house, etc. But no, I think it's gonna be one battle. Maybe sinners for an upset, not Hamnet.
- [46:10]
Ryan Rosillo
Is sinners too anti Irish perhaps to win.
- [46:15]
Adnan Virk
Imagine the racist members of the academy saying, you know what, I get where they're going here, but just don't be blaming white people for everything. Okay, fine, we ripped off their music, we treated them like crap, but I'm not going to give it Best Picture. Okay? I can't go that far.
- [46:26]
Ryan Rosillo
The Irish jig thing, I'm like, who? I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, I don't know if they're going to carry the Ireland vote here. Okay, so again, my just diving in here, reading a little bit for this is that I would think that a filmmaker would rather win Best Picture than Best Screenplay, Best Director. But in the history of what, 98 awards, there's never been a black director that's won Best Director. So if Coogler's up for it, that's obviously a monumental accomplishment in the face of a history absent of anyone ever winning. So I don't know what he would rather. I mean, maybe it's. It's the actual, like being the first guy ever to do that. And if that's the split, because I'd be. I'd be surprised if Sinners won Best Picture. I liked it. Horror movies. And it's not really a horror movie, though I think it's probably. I could see the argument for it being the best directed thing because of like how it's almost like a musical at times. And there's some really cool stuff that they do in the setting. You know, I like the way they use this kind of southern backdrop and they modernize it. You know, it started at first. I was kind of like, what the hell's going on? And then it kind of grew on me a little bit. But then again, sometimes you think about that PTA car chase scene and if you saw it in the theater, but then you're like, so he's supposed to win because he attached a camera to a car and like we went up and down the hill the whole time. So I look, I enjoyed the hell out of it. So I just wonder if, like, if Coogler, in a moment of. I don't know if he's even answered this, if he's like, well, I'd rather Best picture is is a bigger deal, I would think, for these guys. But considering the history, best director will mean more.
- [48:06]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, I think publicly you'd have to say best Picture because that's representative of the entire cast and crew have poured their hearts and making this film. But privately, selfishly, he'd probably say best director because, as you said, it's a real recognition for himself and it's something that hasn't been accomplished before. So either one would be a massive win for him. I think of the two, the more likely be pictured. And again, I'm picking him to win an Oscar. I think he's going to win for screenplay. I think P.T. anderson is going to win for best adapted screenplay because one ballot after another is based in part in the Thomas Pynchon novel. And I think Coogler's going to win for original screenplay. So that is still going to be big news to have a guy of his renown winning an Oscar for screenplay, even if it's not directed, even if it's not picture. Still big for Coogler.
- [48:45]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay. I watched Hamnet. I liked it. She's amazing. She should win.
- [48:53]
Adnan Virk
Yeah.
- [48:53]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't. I don't know how she captures that emotion in her face that feels like you're not watching an actor at all. She is. She's incredible. Is that movie actually, in fact, about letting your husband follow his passions no matter what?
- [49:09]
Adnan Virk
I think ultimately that's the messaging of the film, that that's what people are missing on. That's really, you know, no matter what's
- [49:14]
Ryan Rosillo
happening at home, you lose a kid, let him get to work.
- [49:19]
Adnan Virk
I mean, I'm trying to pay the bills here, babe. Okay, I'm sorry, what's going on, but
- [49:22]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm gonna move away.
- [49:23]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. I'm so glad you saw Hamnet, though. I'm telling you, Ryan, of the movies that we've mentioned, I think it's better than one battle after another. I think it's better than Sinners. To me, that's a true emotional powerhouse. That movie takes you a place and transports you. And I thought, like you said, her performance, unbelievable. I mean, that wail of anguish is only matched by the scene at the end of Redemption with the outstretched hand. And if you describe that scene to somebody, they go, that sounds a little maudlin. But while watching in that context, well, I mean, how could you not get emotionally wrapped up in that? I mean, it was amazingly done. And as far as Paul Mescal is concerned, I know he was snubbed for best Supporting Actor nomination, but the scene where he sees his son and says, that's my boy. That's my boy. I mean, that's just a heartbreaking scene. Beautifully done.
- [50:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Did you know the deal that it was all fictionalized like that? It was. No one knows if Shakespeare actually was inspired by the death of his son Hamnet to then write Hamlet and, like, how this all works out. And again, there's a lot of spoiler alerts here, so just buckle up for the whole thing. Or maybe you're going to want to listen to this after the fact, which probably won't even happen. But they. You knew kind of what you were going into, but they also pretended as if in the storytelling that you didn't know, which I thought was a very simple but incredibly clever thing, where they don't ever address that it's William Shakespeare. It's just the Tudor son who's a passionate guy just raging with passion. I don't know if he was the hottest guy in his town in true life, old Billy, but, you know, frustrated writers, I get it. Hey, man, you know, dark days, up there in the attic by yourself with a lantern and just a thing of ink to your left. So I think the whole, like, wait, is this what happened? This is what. He loses a twin son and then, you know, he was named Hamnet, and then that inspires Hamlet and it's this way to have it. And they were like, no, no. Like, no one really knows. Like, there's some loose interpretations of it, but even the cause of death, like, I went back and was looking at some of the stuff.
- [51:24]
Siri
It's.
- [51:24]
Ryan Rosillo
It's all very loose here. And yet I think it was kind of cool, even if it wasn't true, which would usually bother me.
- [51:32]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, it doesn't bother me because my thought is always, it's not a documentary. Right. If it's a feature film and it's fictionalized, I don't have issues with it. People got angry at Argo when it won Best Picture, said, well, this was an accurate. This. I go, it's not a documentary. Like, if it's a feature film and you want to take license with it, fine. I mean, to an exception, obviously, there's sometimes. Right, right. A very sanitized version of Freddie Mercury's life. Absurd that Rami Malek won Best Actor for that film. But again, that's their version of it. I preferred Rocket Man. That was more true to life of Elton John's life. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, et cetera. But it's to each their own. I didn't realize Hamnet was or was not fictionalized. To me, it's taking you on an emotional journey. It's transformative. And I really thought it packed a real wallet more than other films.
- [52:10]
Ryan Rosillo
So that would be your pick for best Picture?
- [52:13]
Adnan Virk
No, of the. My pick for best picture would be that wasn't nominated for best picture, which was. It was just an accident. That's my favorite of the movies of this year. That was up for best international film and it's up for screenplay. Jafar Panahi's movie. If you want to say of the movies nominated for best picture, who would I win again? I wouldn't say Hamnet just ahead of it. A sliver ahead of it. I'd have Marty Supreme. Marty supreme was my number three movie of the year. It was just an accident. Number two. And number one, who had Mr. Scorsese, incredible Apple TV series, which was remarkable. I thought Marty supreme was an exhilarating thrill ride. Two and a half hours from Josh Safdie, who we now know is the more talented Safdie brother. Right. They did uncut gems together. And then Benny Safdie goes, I'll make this movie called the Smashing Machine with the rock and Emily Blunt and nobody will watch it. And Josh, after he goes, well, I'm going to make Barney supreme, which is about a Jewish guy in the 1950s who wants to be the ping pong champion of the world. And it was an unbelievable movie. I watched that and again, much like Ham, that it's taken me to a different place and it's taken me on a journey. And I thought it was both hysterical and poignant, which is a very tough combination to pull off. And Chalamet, I thought, gave a remarkable performance. And we'll get into his swan dive in just a second. But so the movie alone its own merit. I think he gives a remarkable performance because the guy is very antagonistic. There's a lot not to love about this guy.
- [53:23]
Ryan Rosillo
No, he's annoying as hell. Right.
- [53:26]
Adnan Virk
Our dear friend Ben Lines was in shock with the film because I didn't like Marty supreme at all. He said, are you kidding? This guy is a repulsive human being. He's. Look at what he's treating a pregnant woman like this guy's awful person. And I said, well, passionate men.
- [53:38]
Ryan Rosillo
I think there's a theme in 26, no matter what, let them cook.
- [53:43]
Adnan Virk
That should be the theme of this year. But I thought Marty supreme is a great, great film. And I did. I mean that. How about this? One ball after another. Ryan. I saw it once and I Go. Okay, got it. Marty Supreme. I watched it. I watched it again, like, three days later. I would watch it again tomorrow, next week. That, to me, is always evidence of a great film. The rewatch ability. I thought he and the entire cast. I mean, Abel Ferrars in there, Gwyneth Paltrow, a lot of the basketball players. George Girvin's in there. That was a great film. I really did. I loved Marty Supreme.
- [54:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [54:09]
Chris Finch
I don't know.
- [54:10]
Ryan Rosillo
I think when I looked it up that Josh Safdie also did the cinematography on the Lenny Cook documentary. And if you watch the end of Lenny Cook in his kitchen, drunk, singing R and B, that's the most emotional seen I've seen in movies in 30 years. So I would. I would urge anyone to watch the end of that. Good old Lenny Cook. Let's keep moving here.
- [54:31]
Adnan Virk
Did you like. Did you like Marty supreme as much as I did, or. You're a little more tepid on it?
- [54:35]
Ryan Rosillo
I did like it. I like. I like main characters that I'm not supposed to like. You know, sometimes I don't like heroes. I, I. Sometimes the stories about somebody you don't want to root for, and then you're sort of challenged with, do I. Do I care about the result here? Am I interested in the result? I also think they did a good job of kind of keeping it suspenseful. Like, we're not going to give you the full arc here of, like, yay, everything. Everything's going to work out. I thought she was awesome in it. His sort of girlfriend. Not girlfriend.
- [55:08]
Adnan Virk
Odessa Asion.
- [55:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. There you go. Thank you.
- [55:12]
Adnan Virk
I wasn't sure if you met her,
- [55:13]
Ryan Rosillo
just in case she's listening to the pod, it'd be super.
- [55:15]
Adnan Virk
Well, I want to mention that I didn't know anything about Timothy Leary. Like, I don't know anything about Shark Tank.
- [55:19]
Francis
So.
- [55:19]
Adnan Virk
I'm not kidding. I watched the film not knowing who this guy was. Like, this guy's amazing. They go, who? And after, they go, how great was Timothy Leary? I go, I don't know who that is. They go, the guy from Shark Tank. I go, I know what the show is. I don't know who that. That's the guy. I go, I'm gonna tell you right now, he was terrific. They go, well, he's like this big capitalist Trumper. I go, I don't care. I'm just telling you, as an actor, I thought his performance was fantastic. And then see where he spanked Chalamet, One of the funniest scenes of the year.
- [55:41]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, because I. I think that was almost like a way of trying to punish Chalamet for the audience, those that were completely annoyed by him. It's like, let's humil him and just show what, like, a Weasley person this guy is and make sure that he's paying some sort of tax on the. The like as much. Because there's probably some people. To your point with Ben lines, I'm sure there's people that walked out of the theater like, I hate that guy. Now. Shalam is. I mean, you want to talk about, like, people getting pissed at stuff, it's. It's just who know that the. The ballet lobby was this. This powerful.
- [56:18]
Adnan Virk
First off, to my point, that I didn't know who the hell this. Larry guys really just texted me. It is Kevin o' Leary that I'm trying to reference. That Timothy o', Leary, well, I think is the guy who took a lot of lsd. Let's get to Chalamet. All along I thought he's the guy to win. Call me by your name. Art house film. Him and Armie Hammer, a couple of gay guys in Italy. But I can make blockbusters. I'll make Dune with Denis Villeneuve. Okay. I can play Dylan. A complete unknown. Not a great film, but a hell of a performance. So the stage is set. Great young actor under the age of 30. 60 Minutes profile. Loves the Knicks. Him and Ben Stiller together. Marty supreme. He wins.
- [56:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Really likes the Knicks.
- [56:51]
Adnan Virk
I like that about. Yeah. Golden Globe best actor. Great speech. Here we go. Oh, no. You crapped all over the ballet. What? You took a swipe at opera singers. Even mocks opera singers. Oh, he does one of those. Oh, no. Timmy. Timmy, what are you doing? Shut up. Stop talking so much.
- [57:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Zip it.
- [57:06]
Adnan Virk
The PR campaign's gone down. This is a movie that cost 60 to 70 million dollars. That is an absurd amount of money. As you know, for a 24 independent studio, it's made $150 million. A lot of that is Chalamet. That is remarkable promotion by him. So they do need him to be out there being the mouthpiece of this movie, dressing up in orange giant ping pong balls, all the rest of it. So, Timmy, we love you. You've made the film a resounding success. But you got to know when to zip it. At the baftas, he loses. By the way, I was playing for Ethan Hawk to win for Blue Moon. We'll get to that movie in a second. And then at the actor awards, formerly of the sags, he loses to Michael B. Jordan and now Ryan. I don't think he's gonna win. Like, it was. It was a lock. It was a cinch. It's shallow. Me. It was shallow versus Leo. Then it was like, no, no, Leo. He's already won before. He's kind of playing a pothead. Like, that's fine.
- [57:51]
Ryan Rosillo
Whatever.
- [57:51]
Adnan Virk
One battle PT Anderson. Michael B. Jordan's gonna win best actor because Charlie lit himself on fire. This is unbelievable.
- [57:58]
Ryan Rosillo
So the voting wasn't done yet. I don't know how the voting window works there. Not even close. I'm just double checking.
- [58:03]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, no, no. Voting was done a week in advance. So this past Sunday. So a week in advance. It's close.
- [58:07]
Ryan Rosillo
The controversy.
- [58:09]
Adnan Virk
Oh, this is raging. When people are putting that ballot in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he's just crapping on the arts.
- [58:20]
Ryan Rosillo
What do you got for me on Begonia?
- [58:24]
Adnan Virk
I wasn't crazy about it. I like Yorgos Lanthimos work, and it's strange and weird and esoteric, but I just found it very unpleasant. Like, I watched the film. I go like, I got it. You're a talented auteur, but you're just weird and strange. And I wasn't crazy about it. Well acted by Plemons and Emma Stone.
- [58:40]
Ryan Rosillo
You, I think Plummets is just so good, man. And he's not even nominated.
- [58:46]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, not nominated. He's really good in the movie.
- [58:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Sorry, Teddy, that guy's not nominated either.
- [58:54]
Adnan Virk
I can see you like in Begonia, but, I mean, listen, you. And I love the lobster. I like his other movies. I just thought it's a little. Little bit of a rehash.
- [59:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Personally. Plemons I loved. I love her. Emma. Good old Emma. She's just fear. She's perfect for the role. I like that they played along with the suspense of, like, okay, obviously these guys are crazy. And then it's like, wait, she's an alien? And then it's like, oh, is she actually trying to trick them? And they get him back? And then she's actually an alien. I'll admit, the aliens, once she beamed herself up through the closet, and they were all wearing, like, J. Crew roll necks that went down to their feet. Eye roll. I. I didn't know.
- [59:30]
Francis
I.
- [59:30]
Ryan Rosillo
Because then when you're going like, oh, we're. We're gonna. We're gonna mess with you a little bit here. She is an alien. The guys were right. That's like, okay, but how are you landing that one? And then it's like, everybody's dead. That's what we're gonna do and then B, roll dead people all over the place. Even though it was very artsy the way they did it, it's tough to
- [59:50]
Adnan Virk
stick to landing, though, that kind of a movie.
- [59:53]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Clemens is worth watching, though, because he's terrific. He is the perfect, like, disheveled, tortured, brilliant, determined. And, you know. What an interesting casting, though, with Stavros as the cop.
- [60:13]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting with. With Lanthimos. He's one of these guys, once he finds his muse, he's going to go there. So every single film he ever makes, love, Emma Stone in it, and she's like, I will always work with this guy forever.
- [60:23]
Siri
Which is.
- [60:24]
Adnan Virk
People think it's easy to do, but it really is challenging. This, like, you know, projects you commit to, projects fall apart, funding can't get done, et cetera. The fact that she's like, no. Yorgos calls, I'll stop everything. That's how much I love this Greek bad boy.
- [60:36]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, bad boy. Okay. The Secret Agent.
- [60:39]
Adnan Virk
One of my most overrated movies of the year. I was appalled. I go, okay, I missed it on this one. Like every year there's one movie that you go. And I go, no, I guess it's me then. I just thought it was poorly paced, plodding. I couldn't care less. I'm shocked. Wagner Mora won a Golden Globe Award for Best actor. Fine. He's a smoldering Brazilian. I can appreciate the fact he's handsome, but I was appalled and I was mad because it's up for best picture. And to me, if you're gonna put an international film, put. It was just an accident. That movie's unbelievable. Jafar Panahi served prison time in Iran because his films have been critical of the Iranian government. He goes and makes this movie in France. It's about a bunch of prisoners who think they found the man who used to torture them and hold them hostage. They then capture him and try to determine if indeed he was the guy that tortured them. Brilliant movie. Suspenseful. Hour 50. It's up for best international feature, and Panahi's up for screenplay. And I go, this has to be up for best Picture. They go, no, that slot went to the Secret Agent. And I go, the Secret Agent best left a secret to me.
- [61:42]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, look at you, little Ebert. Still got it. I don't mind slow storytelling, and I kind of like it sometimes because I feel like if there's enough build up, like, sometimes I think we're getting stuff too soon. It's like, well, how can I have a reaction to this thing that's happened within the first 10 minutes when I don't really even know. Although, you know, the very classic storytelling version of like, we'll give you the end and we'll put it in the beginning. It's like, all right, you've done it. You've done it a million times now. So even though it was really slow, I remember hitting pause about an hour. I think it was like an hour 10. In I go, I don't even know. I don't know who I'm rooting for, who I'm rooting against, and I don't know what it is that I'm rooting for at all. Now you want to put me in late 70s Brazil or whatever. Early 70s Brazil, beautifully shot. The colors, the music is insane for this. The casting is just perfect. You know, just the daily routine. There's automatic buy in, and then there's a leg that's escaping in a scene. And I was like, okay, let's not get too freaked out by what that means. And then the way they jumped the timeline with having him play his son later on as some closure. I. I admit I got done and went, all right, I've got to look it up. Like, I've got to look it up. And I'm like, I didn't. I didn't get it. And then I read a couple film critics synopsis of it all.
- [63:11]
Adnan Virk
Yeah.
- [63:11]
Ryan Rosillo
And I was like, oh, I guess I did get it. Because when I read what they were trying to explain, it was such horseshit of what they were trying to say that it was. It was like it was an escape from time in a revisitation of the. And I was like, oh, you didn't. Like, you're just making this. They tried something different at the end. It was fine. I actually didn't hate it at all. You hate it? I. I appreciated the way it was. I don't know. I think I really like him a lot. But there was this moment of, like, there has to be something here that I feel like, like. And then the way they closed it with the time jump thing. And then I was reading this critics thing of, like, trying to prove why this, like, stood for all these things, these signals that you couldn't figure out if you were dumb. And I'm like, oh, yeah. I actually don't think any of this actually applies. I just think this is how they ended the movie. Like, they just jumped ahead. And the closure was that a son got to know more about a father that he didn't really know through this other person that was going back and investigating these old recordings.
- [64:11]
Adnan Virk
So is it the kind of movie, like, where. Yeah, maybe I just missed the boat. Should I. Should I give it another chance or do you think, no, if it didn't work for me, it probably just didn't work for me?
- [64:18]
Ryan Rosillo
No, I. Look, it is a very big ask. It is a very, like. It's. When you think about, like, decisions and these things, it's kind of shocking that the studio would be like, yeah, no notes like that. First 70 minutes. That's totally fine. That we have nothing. We have no idea what's. What's going on. Probably because it's so. Well, again, they read the script, so it's not like they're seeing the dailies on this, but it's. It is really, like, visually terrific because it just feels kind of like grimy in that condensed, you know, city going back, you know, 50 years. Yeah, I don't know. It. It just. I thought that part was great. What about F1?
- [65:00]
Adnan Virk
Another film I hated. Probably the second worst nomination for Best Picture. And I listen. I'm all for a big populous movie getting nominated for Best Picture. I get the fact people say, well, nobody watches the Oscars. Nobody watches these movies. That's not true anymore. Sinners made a billion dollars. One Battle After Another is the most successful film of P.T. anderson's career by a mile. Commercially over $150 million. And F1 is a huge worldwide hit. So I am all for popular movies getting nominated for Best Picture. I just didn't think F1 was very good. I mean, I watched it back in July and I just thought, could this be any more formulaic? And quite honestly, it made me sad because I said, these are two great actors in Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem. Just completely mailing it in, just taking this check. I mean, I liked it better when it's called Driven with Sylvester Stallone.
- [65:44]
Ryan Rosillo
Here we go.
- [65:45]
Adnan Virk
I mean, honestly, Ryan, I like a big budget movie as much as the next guy, but I thought it was really disappointing. I was stunned it got nominated for Best Picture. I really was.
- [65:56]
Ryan Rosillo
Nothing on the directing, the car scenes. Nothing. Nothing got you excited about that?
- [66:01]
Adnan Virk
Kaczynski is a good director. I know he did the Top Gun sequel.
- [66:04]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean, it's in the office.
- [66:05]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. I mean, no, that's John Krasinski. This is Joseph Kaczynski. But it's an understandable misstep. Listen, when. If you tell me the car scenes are well done, I'm like, all right, it's good. It's not the French Connection. Right? Like, it's not.
- [66:16]
Ryan Rosillo
You're not.
- [66:17]
Adnan Virk
You and I. No. Somebody goes, the action's gonna go. It's not Mad Max Fury Road. Like, that's the greatest acting. If it's action like that, that should win best Picture. Agreed. George Miller. These are well done deaf scenes. And then the rest of the stuff's all filler. It's like two hours. That's a long movie. Two and a half hours of nonsense. I got 20 minutes of driving. That's Best Picture.
- [66:34]
Ryan Rosillo
What about Brad Pitt not wanting trophies? Yeah.
- [66:37]
Adnan Virk
I mean, that was just so predictable. It made me sad. This guy's such a great actor. This is the crappy. He's just churning out. Like, you only got so many movies left in you, and this is the movie. You're like, yeah, I'm gonna do F1. Give me 25 million. I'll take it.
- [66:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Apple, though. F1. Good branding.
- [66:53]
Adnan Virk
I understand Affleck and Damon did some crappy movie on, you know, I mean, I. I get it. These guys just take the money sometimes. Fine, if that's what you got to do. It just upsets me. I'd rather have a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood if I'm Brad Pitt.
- [67:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Not nominated for best Actor, thankfully.
- [67:08]
Adnan Virk
No. The film was nominated. That was it. They go, okay, we're done with that. What about
- [67:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Desmond Idris or Damson? Excuse me?
- [67:19]
Adnan Virk
Oh, Damson era again. I mean, how many more times have to see this cocky upstart. Not going to take this crap from the veteran.
- [67:26]
Ryan Rosillo
How.
- [67:27]
Adnan Virk
How much more formula can we get with the sports boys? It was awful painful to watch this fake tough guy. Don't tell me how to drive.
- [67:37]
Ryan Rosillo
Did you just. Who's a fake tough guy?
- [67:39]
Adnan Virk
I'm Damson interest in the movie. Like, he's all, like, you know, posturing and getting upset at Brad Pitt. Come on.
- [67:44]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know. Brad Pitt's kind of a tough hang in that movie.
- [67:46]
Adnan Virk
No, just. Just knock his teeth out and get on with it. Just knock his teeth out and get on with it. Let's go
- [67:52]
Ryan Rosillo
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- [68:53]
Adnan Virk
Another one. Ben Lines goes, this is the best movie of the year. I go, oh, my God. He's like, you're gonna. And I said, it's definitely not my best movie of the year. Gorgeously shot.
- [69:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Gorgeous.
- [69:03]
Adnan Virk
I mean, like, shades of Terrence Malick. Like, I got from the first. Like, okay, this is Terrence Malick territory. This is Days of Heaven. This is Thin Red Line. Like, I got it. But as a story, I thought it was narratively inert. I mean, Edgerton.
- [69:16]
Siri
Oh, what?
- [69:16]
Adnan Virk
Right. Listen, Edgerton's a good actor. I know it's about grieving and loss and. Who doesn't love Bill Macy? You and I are in the Jerry Lundegaard camp for years. I mean, anything. William H. Macy is in Never Let
- [69:26]
Ryan Rosillo
us Do this before.
- [69:28]
Adnan Virk
I can knock 10% off that true coat. If William H. Macy said I'm watching it, I'm not going to debate you, Jerry. I'm not going to debate. No, no, Wade, this is my deal. We can get you a finder's fee, Jerry. No. No finders fee, Wade. No cops.
- [69:42]
Ryan Rosillo
No. Geez.
- [69:43]
Adnan Virk
I wasn't crazy about it. I thought it was a good movie, but I wasn't. I wasn't running it to tell people to go watch Train Dreams. And I think this was the issue. Ryan, we love Netflix. Thrilled for you. Love the fact we're on this platform. I do think if that's in a theater, it's a more immersive experience. Netflix is the best, but it is easy to kind of pause. Go get a sandwich, et cetera. I think watching Train Dreams in three or four viewings wasn't helpful, at least for me. You?
- [70:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I think it ended up being like a two viewing thing. I didn't really even know that. It was like at that level, I just went, edgerton, okay, this is. It was kind of like every time I turned on Netflix, I was like, all right, I guess this is something I'm supposed to be in. And then I open it up. And I was like, okay, I can definitely get with this guy in the middle of the woods starting a family. I think his pursuit and
- [70:31]
Chris Finch
the, the
- [70:32]
Ryan Rosillo
happiness that he's feeling to be with his family felt incredibly genuine. Like that storytelling beat, even though they kind of rushed through it. And the whole thing was terrific. Like, him. You wondering them with you a little bit on, like, the daughter's return. But the timeline wouldn't have made any sense for her to still, I would think. I don't know. I mean, if she's a baby walking around in the fire, maybe she had aged enough and then that was going to be her. But then it was like, no, we're not going to do that for you. And then I didn't know if I. I didn't know what to do. Like when he was watching the moon landing, because then it was. It was like, is this happiness for him and the culmination or did he just actually, like, go into a city for the first time at like 60 something years old? And look, I love. I'll watch Big Timber, you know, on. On Netflix.
- [71:23]
Adnan Virk
So you have, you have an affinity for logging is what you're telling me.
- [71:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I've loved, you know, lumber.
- [71:29]
Adnan Virk
I love working with wood.
- [71:30]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So best picture, I think it's Hamnet. I do. It's not going to be. It's not going to be for me.
- [71:42]
Adnan Virk
It'll be either be Marty supreme or Hamlet. Those are my two favorites of the year. I'd be thrilled if it was Hamnet.
- [71:48]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I really liked it. I. I think movie stays with you. Yeah. Kind of does it. It. I mean, it is. If you were ever. If you had roommates, they'd be like, what are you watching?
- [72:04]
Adnan Virk
Well, let's go. Good hang, Bad hang. Hey, guys, let's watch Hamnet together tonight. Like, that might be a tough sell, but I'm telling you, you're gonna walk out there feeling differently about the human condition.
- [72:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, who is that? Like, that's Jesse Buckley. She's going for it. The crazy thing, I was looking at it again this morning, like some of the past winners for everything. Like DiCaprio not getting it for the Aviator. Yeah, right. So then DiCaprio getting it for the Revenant, and then what that ends up meaning? So, like, I'll. I'll look it up again. But there's just. I think it's a really good indicator of what, what could happen because it almost feels like the voters, and it's very human nature, but the voters will then look at history and go, all right, you know, this guy's dude. Like, we've got to, we've got to hook this guy up because we hosed him a few years ago. And then the really weird game is, like, when you run through some of the nominees. I don't want to go back too far here, but I was doing it this morning. But like, I'll just like, Russell Crowe wins for Gladiator in 2000.
- [73:10]
Siri
Yeah.
- [73:11]
Ryan Rosillo
All right. And should have went for the Insider
- [73:13]
Adnan Virk
the year before, but go ahead.
- [73:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Kevin Spacey won it. Yeah. American Beauty, A1 win it this year.
- [73:21]
Adnan Virk
No, he hasn't aged well.
- [73:23]
Ryan Rosillo
So Crow beats Javier Bardem, Tom Hanks, and Castaway Ed Harris, Jeffrey Rush. So then the next year, Crow is nominated for A Beautiful Mind, where I imagine voters are like, wait a minute, like, he was great in Gladiator, but like, are you kidding me? You know, so if, if Gladiator is 1999 or whatever. But like, like, that performance is incredible. But then you've got him going up against Denzel and Training Day. So maybe Denzel just head to head against Russell Crowe deserves it, which I'd be totally fine with if that was the argument. But the fact that Crow had just won it the year before, like, there's no chance Denzel's losing. They're not going to give him to him two years in a row. Right. Like, that seems to be a pattern very often here.
- [74:07]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. And the one that Denzel should have won it for was Malcolm X92. Easily his best performance, like, landmark performance, like, Malcolm X is incredible. One of the greats. I'm sure if you asked Denzel, he'd say that's the film most personal to him. And yet, of course, he couldn't win that year because our man Pacino had never won. So Al had to win percent of a woman because up until then, he was 0 for 7. He lost earlier that night for Glengarry Glen Ross, supporting actress. So Al was 1 for 8. He had to beat Denzel. So this is what ends up happening. Pacino doesn't win for Dogged Afternoon and Serpico and the Godfather. Okay, fine, we'll give it to him for Scent of a Woman, which is good. Who doesn't love Huah? But that, to your point, is what happens when a guy's due Rather than deserving. That's when it generally happens. Which is why, again, this hurts Chalamet's case. Everyone knows he's a good actor. He's only 30. Like, bro, you're gonna get your Oscar. It's fine. Michael B. Jordan's pretty good too. Sinners. You know, he's done.
- [74:55]
Ryan Rosillo
He's awesome, he's really good.
- [74:57]
Adnan Virk
No one's gonna say Michael B. Jordan's not a great actor. So if this guy wins his Oscar now, like, okay, I'm fine with that. But the whole issue of being due, like, that's where I think the two categories we haven't gotten into are supporting actors, Supporting actress, both very interesting. Supporting actor. Supposed to be Stellan Skarsgrd. He's been acting for a long time. You had that great line about him in Good Will Hunting when you did the Rewatchables. You said, you know, he's a villain because he's got the day scarf. He's able to pull that off. And yet, you know, he's really good in sentimental value. And now Sean Penn shows up like he's outside smoking. Nobody smokes anymore. I'm still gonna smoke. Okay, whatever you say. I'm gonna win supporting actor at the BAFTAs. He doesn't even show up. Actor awards of SAGs Skarsgrd, right? No. Sean Penn again. Sean Penn's now in line with his third Oscar. Like that is a toss up coin flip, Javier Bardem style. No country for Old Men. Skarsgard or Penn. Now I think it should be Penn. That's gonna be his third Oscar. But I think even with you and I not being overly praiseworthy of one battle after another, I did think he was incredible. That's a great performance. Who could not be more dissimilar to what Sean Penn stands for? I mean, he's brilliant in the movie. For the walk alone, he should win. And then look at supporting actress. It was supposed to be Teyana Taylor, who is only in the first half of one battle, but immediately casts an impact. But do you go with the long deserving, overdue winner, Amy Madigan. Out of nowhere, 41 years since her previous Oscar nomination. Everyone loved her in Field of Dreams, which she was not nominated for. She shows up in Weapons, which again, to your point, with Sinners, it's not a true genre movie. What's this weapons movie? A horror movie. I'm not really into horror movies. No, you gotta watch it. Madigan's the best part of the movie when she shows up, I'm like, no, this is an Oscar worthy type performance. So supporting actress, supporting actress. Both fascinating races going into Sunday.
- [76:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I didn't realize this, that Hanks won back to back though. Philadelphia. And then Forrest Gump over Freeman playing Red in shawshank.
- [76:40]
Adnan Virk
Yes.
- [76:41]
Ryan Rosillo
Wow.
- [76:41]
Adnan Virk
Freeman, 94. Yeah. Which by the way, when you mentioned Hanks and Castaway. Roll your eyes out there, audience. I think that's his best performance. He didn't win for Castaway. And I'm like, no, that's his best movie. But he'd already won twice. They're not gonna give him a third best actor Oscar. Especially in what would have been an eight year span, seven year span, 93 to 2000. There's no way that's unheard of. DDL has got three best actor Oscars, but it takes a while to get to that point. I mean, ddl, by the way, makes, he makes a comeback for Animal, which is one of the worst movies of the year. He made this movie for his son. I love the fact it's a father son collaboration, but I'm like, ddl got lured out of retirement for this. I just hope he makes more movies because we love him. He's an all time great.
- [77:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Because you could just tell in 94 they weren't going to give it to Travolta. They're like, we're shocked you're even on the scene anymore. So here's all your stuff. But I completely agree. You're not getting best actor too, man. Like, give us a break.
- [77:32]
Adnan Virk
Which I think is fair. Like you've done nothing for 15 years. You're making. You're the voice of the. You know, you're in. Look who's talking. Whatever crappy is making. The reward is that fact you got nominated and you're employed once again. Go cash in. Go make Broken Arrow. Go make Face off. Whatever you got to do. We were not giving you an Oscar. You're not deserving of it.
- [77:51]
Ryan Rosillo
Brandon Fraser, 14 years ago.
- [77:54]
Adnan Virk
Well, that was the one. I remember. Because you were angry about that. Because you listen, I like a 24. I like what that studio represents.
- [77:59]
Ryan Rosillo
I went in way too hot.
- [78:00]
Adnan Virk
And you're an Aronofsky guy. You and I both love Aronofsky. You sold me on that movie at Sphere.
- [78:04]
Ryan Rosillo
I was, I was way too hot. And I think it was like no one had gone to the movies in forever.
- [78:10]
Adnan Virk
Yeah.
- [78:10]
Ryan Rosillo
And I was like, I can't wait. I can't wait for this. Like, here we go. And the trailer just sucked me in in a way that I I just. I was. I came in way too hot. Way too hot for that.
- [78:24]
Adnan Virk
Well, but did also suck you in one of the first scenes. He's masturbating the gay porn. Like, what am I watching here? This is the whale. This is your introduction to this character.
- [78:32]
Ryan Rosillo
I had no issue with that.
- [78:36]
Adnan Virk
It didn't suck you in, nor was it repellent. It just was. And the movie itself, you didn't care for.
- [78:42]
Ryan Rosillo
But there's a difference between, like, hating something. I didn't hate it. I just was. There's a certain standard. Like, even if, like, you just said with one battle after another, like, I don't. It's a great movie.
- [78:55]
Adnan Virk
Yeah.
- [78:56]
Ryan Rosillo
But I'm only comparing. It's like me talking about the Houston Rockets, like, that's a pretty good team. But if you're telling me, hey, they're going to win an NBA championship this year, I'm going to go, well, that's not going to happen. And so there's just so many. There's so many. Like, the Coen brothers could come out with something that everybody's nominated. It's like, hey, this is the best thing ever. And I'd be like, there's no way. There's no way it's better than this. This, this. It also can be very like. And I was thinking about this, but before on the nomination of, like, Best Picture, it feels like. But I don't know if this is a very myopic view of. Feels like, say, that run through the 90s and early 2000s, and maybe it's just our age and we cared about it and had more room for it. But I look back at the nomination list, it's like, I've seen every movie because it was a group of movies that everybody saw. I mean, granted, there's always, like, the one every now and then, like, like the Pianist. I probably wasn't, like, in college going, hey, guys, you know. Yes, let's huddle up here.
- [79:50]
Adnan Virk
Well, that's another one that hasn't aged well. You and I love Gangs of New York. The fact that Gangs of New York lost the penis is very frustrating to me. And I know gangs. I know Gangs has some issues. I know the whole Cameron DSL, but it's not great. But DDL, DiCaprio, the production design, the directing, like Marty's. It's a brilliant movie.
- [80:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, that one, actually. But see, that's kind of the point, too, is, like, there are movies that are nominated when we were younger. And I'm not trying to make this just about like, at what stage of your life you're in. But I'll go back and be like, I will watch these movies multiple times for the rest of my life.
- [80:23]
Adnan Virk
Yes.
- [80:23]
Chris Finch
Right.
- [80:24]
Adnan Virk
Yes.
- [80:24]
Ryan Rosillo
And there's a run now of, like, five to six years where I'll go, there's no way anyone is going to watch that movie again or like this in five years. You go, what the fuck happened there? Whatever. So I don't know. I don't know if that's an industry thing. Know if it's. It's my own, like, interests at that time. But it just feels like, hey, there's five movies that are nominated in 1994, 1995. And you're like, yeah, I saw all of them, and I still watch two of them whenever. Like, whenever it's on, I'll give it 20, 30 minutes, because it just holds up. Am I wrong about that?
- [81:02]
Adnan Virk
No. Those movies were better back then. The 90s was a golden age, just as the 70s were the golden age prior to that. And I do think today's movies just aren't as good. To your point, the reason I was laughing so hard was I was thinking about the Oscars during the COVID era, when Nomadland won Best Picture. Now, that's a fine movie. I like it a lot. And we're talking a lot about Hamnet. Chloe Zhao won for Best Director. So I love the fact female director, director of color winning. Great. I think it's a good movie. But to your point, I can't imagine anybody in their right mind tomorrow saying, let's fire up Nomadland. Even at the time I look up at box office, it made maybe like $15 million. That is a tiny scene. Best Picture winner. And even more to the point, that year, everyone thought that Best Actor was going to go in a certain direction, which it didn't. Ended up being Anthony Hopkins winning Best Actor for the Father, which I think is a great performance, but not enough people have seen it, Like, I think, years now. You go, anthony Hopkins, man, Sons of Lambs, you're so great. I go, have you seen the Father? He won an Oscar for that. Like, yeah, he won Best Actor. He was like, the father's a great, great film. Which people I think are going to forget. So I am upset that I wish the movies of the 90s, some of these boys now do get lost in the cracks, but maybe they'll get refound later on.
- [82:07]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know. Yeah, because it feels like. Like, look at 2015. Here are your Best Picture nominations. Spotlight the big Short Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max, Fury Road, the Martian, the Revenant in Room. Here are the nominees for 2020 Nomadland, which you're going to win money on that one in a couple years, going like, did you know what won Best Picture? You were like, what? The Father Judas and the Black Messiah, which I thought was really good. Mank Minari, Promising Young Women. Sound of Metal, the Trial of the Chicago 7. I remember the trial of Chicago 7. That's just.
- [82:43]
Adnan Virk
Yeah.
- [82:43]
Ryan Rosillo
Crazy.
- [82:44]
Adnan Virk
Two of like, eight movies.
- [82:45]
Ryan Rosillo
It's not.
- [82:46]
Francis
I don't know.
- [82:47]
Ryan Rosillo
I feel like the shift maybe happened in 2016, 2017, because it was Spotlight.
- [82:52]
Adnan Virk
You were all in on you. I mean, you and I both love Spotlight. Yeah.
- [82:56]
Ryan Rosillo
But even that, like, if. If Max. If Mad Max had won because of how just special and unique and what that was the accomplishment of, like, hey, it's gonna be a car chase for two plus hours and you're gonna love it. You're like, no way. This, like, I. If somebody would say, hey, this is what it's gonna be. I'm like, that's gonna suck. And instead you go, that's one of my favorite movies of all time. I don't know how they pulled it off, but they pulled it off. It's incredible, the whole thing. So again, it's not even to be critical of. Of the movies that I'm talking about here, but it just seems like there was this pivot. I don't know if it's the shape of water. We're like, we're really going for it. Like, we're gonna do some really different weird things, and it's up for you to kind of meet us to our side. And it's just a category. Now that I look back, I'm like, I wonder what we'll say in 10 years. When you look at this, this run of movies going like, yeah, it was just kind of like, maybe nothing can be mainstream anymore. I don't know, you know?
- [83:47]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. I do wish Mad Max had won Best Picture because, remember that night, it was winning in the technical categories, and it felt like, oh, my God, this could be a juggernaut. Like, it won four Oscars early, ended up winning the most Oscars. I believe that Oscar ceremony won five, but did not win the Best Picture and did not win Best Director, at least for George Miller. Back to your point about Ryan Coogler. Would you rather win director or Picture? That was one that I go, okay, Spotlight's a great film and I love it. You want to give it Best Picture, fine. But Miller not winning Best Director was just painful. It's a great, great movie.
- [84:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Movie. I think Spotlight's the best Boston movie ever.
- [84:17]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. I remember I told you the scene I loved and you kind of. I don't know if you rolled your eyes at it, but I said with Tucci says to Mark Ruffalo, he goes, what do you Italian? And he goes, I'm Portuguese. He goes, they don't want us here. And I said, I like that because it shows how Boston people don't like outsiders. I remember I said that to you. And you go, well, I think that's a bit of an overstatement at times. People think Boston people are so insular.
- [84:36]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, look, this is a different topic. But I. I just feel like I see stuff happen in other cities and I'm like, if that happened in Boston, it would only be happening because it was Boston. And since it's not in Boston and nobody ever says anything about that city that's happening in. So, you know. But yeah, I don't know. I get it a little bit there. Any other thing that we need to do before we talk World Baseball Classic?
- [84:58]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, I want to talk about Blue Moon, which is one of my favorite movies of the year. Ethan Hawkes, long been one of my favorite actors. It's his first ever Best actor nomination at 56 years of age. This guy's been acting for 36 years. Oh, Captain, my Captain Dead Poet Society, 1989 with Robin Williams.
- [85:13]
Ryan Rosillo
He's been nominated for Boyhood, which you love, right?
- [85:15]
Adnan Virk
He was nominated for supporting actor for Boyhood. He was nominated for supporting actor for Training Day. You know, I gotta give love to him. He's the one helping Denzel win that Best Actor Oscar. Nominated twice for Best Original Screenplay, Part of the Before Midnight trilogy with Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy. So he goes in and says, I'm going to make a movie called Blue Moon. It's about a 5 foot 2 guy named Lorenz Hart who was the lyricist and said, we're going to take place on the worst day of his life. He had this great collaboration. It was Rogers and Hart before it was Rogers and Hammersley. And the movie takes place with Oklahoma. Open. So it used to be Rodgers and Hart, now it's Rodgers and Hammerstein and there's Lorenz Hart. Ethanok just drinking at the bar with the great Bobby Cannavale playing the bartender. And he's just emptying his soul. It's a great film. Linklater directed it. Him and Hawk have a special collaboration and I Thought Hawk was astonishingly good. Bad comb over, Shaved his head for the role. Bad comb over, put on some weight.
- [86:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Must be nice.
- [86:02]
Adnan Virk
But the fact he's 5 foot 2, how do you do that? Well, you can make Charlie Chapel look tall. You got camera tricks. It's. Most of it's shot in one location. It's in a restaurant. So they kind of like built trenches at times. You know, Hawk was crouching and stuff. Cannavale himself is quite tall. Anyways, you shoot at different angles. I just thought it was such an immersive performance. Market quality's in it. She's very good as well. And I hope people watch Blue Moon. If you said to me, there's one Oscar you're pulling for, as much as I love Marty supreme and Ham, you said, one award that could go your way. I said, God, I'd lose my mind if Ethan Hawke wins best actor for Blue Moon. It's not going to happen, but I'd
- [86:35]
Ryan Rosillo
love to see it.
- [86:36]
Adnan Virk
Great actor, great guy. Interviewed him years ago at Sundance. Had a good year with the Lowdown, which is a series on FX as well. Big fan of Ethan Hawk.
- [86:44]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, let's talk about the World Baseball Classic, because when it's on, it's great, it's exciting. I know you're doing it, but really the story isn't USA advancing, it's that Derosa, who's a coworker managing the team, goes on and says, like, hey, we don't have to worry about the Italy game anyway. And that's the lineup. And then there's all sorts of controversy around it where he gets just worked for a day. And honestly, I felt bad for him. I can't believe there wasn't somebody else that was like, hey, here's. Here's how this works. So we can't do it. Seemed like no one knew what was going on, and then they had to sweat it out last night with Italy and Mexico. And it works out for him. So I'm really happy for him, even though I don't even know him. Just because I don't know. Once I start to see somebody taking that much grief, that's obviously pretty explainable for, like, this exhibition thing when you have a million other things going on. You could say, oh, lack of leadership and all this stuff. Then I see people getting super pissed. I'm like, you don't even care about this. You won't care about it next week. You won't even remember it by May. So, you know, everybody has to go through and sort of pay their Penance, in a way, when there's a mistake that's made and then I know that the video was taken down. So it kind of made it even worse. Whatever. The point is, is like, tell us about this guy and like the way you saw it, because I imagine you guys were talking about it too.
- [87:52]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. First off, I love Mark DeRosa. He's one of my favorite people at MLB Network. He's just a phenomenal human being, though. Him breaking down tape is as good as anybody. I know you're fond of Trevor Matic. Those years together, you guys worked together on espn, college, Gambia on the radio, and Matic when he could do a breaking down tape. But D Ro's phenomenal. If you watch MLB Central, there's a reason why that's an Emmy nominated program with our friend Robert Flores and Lauren Shahadi. And a lot of that is Diro, like him breaking down baseball as good as anybody. And I've got to hang with him personally as well. Last year we were at spring training three days in Arizona. And this is now timely because remember being at Royals camp and D Row would say to me, hey, who do you want to interview? And, you know, we'll switch turns. Like, yeah, whatever he wants. I'll take Bobby Witt. I'm like, of course you're going to be managing him at Team usa. I'll take Pascutino. Very likable guy, big personality. So I interviewed Vinnie and he's great. And he walks over to Nero afterwards and he says, hey, I know I'm Italian, but I'm also American. Like, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. He walks away and Diro looks at me like, come on. Like, I'm going to put Vinny Pasquatino on the team now. Which is now hilarious because Vinny Pasquatino had three home runs last night. The guy's unbelievable. Team Italy has been the story of the WBC. For the record, Pasquidel was hitless in 12 at bats prior to that three home run outburst. But it's crazy how this tournament has gone. And to your point, people were so outraged about it. Nobody cared about this tournament until about three years ago. And then Trout struck out against otan. Everyone goes, wow, this is pretty cool. And this year it's been phenomenally entertaining. It's always been the Latin American countries have cared. And I love the doctor. I mean, Ferdinando Tatis were my favorite players. My kids love him. That bat flip last night was unbelievable. Like, one thing about Nando, he is as charismatic as it gets. Soto, big home Run. You can have potentially Dr. USA, which would be a hell of a semifinal. But don't sleep on my Canadians. This is a Canadian team that has never gotten out of pool play forever. And Dan o', Dowd, friend and colleague, goes, watch out for Canada. He goes, not just the Naylor brothers. Owen Casey, the pride of Burlington, Ontario, OPS over 1500 in pool play. Abraham Toro and James Paxton, former Red Sox. He retired the end of 2024. He goes, I'm coming back for Canada. Big maple was throwing 96 last night. All right. Canada lost to Panama, beat Puerto Rico and then beat Cuba handily. So Canada, USA is going to be a hell of a quarterfinal. I texted Darrell this morning and I said, only for you would I be cheering against my home and native land. Go get it. He just texted me back, said, I appreciate adding in. So I'm obviously, I don't know Ernie Witt, who's the manager of Team Canada, but I do know Mark derosa. I know he's a phenomenal human. I hope that he has great success, not only with the network, as a future manager, because that's what he's going to be. You and I've seen all these former players become managers, friends like Aaron Boone, Alex Cora, David Ross, D RO's on that trajectory. I hope a minor blip in the radar doesn't impact him. And USA has a strong showing.
- [90:28]
Ryan Rosillo
Good thing for Team Canada, too. They got Stubby clap at third base.
- [90:32]
Adnan Virk
First. First base coach.
- [90:34]
Ryan Rosillo
Wow. No, that roster's wrong.
- [90:37]
Adnan Virk
He's great. Stubby clap.
- [90:38]
Ryan Rosillo
I have Russell Martin listed as the first base coach and Stubby Clapp is the third base coach.
- [90:43]
Adnan Virk
Okay, maybe they fucked it, but going into the tournament, he was at first base.
- [90:46]
Ryan Rosillo
You would know, but I'm just saying, tell your nation to get the fucking roster right on the website.
- [90:54]
Adnan Virk
Listen, after what happened, USA beat Canada at the Olympics. We all know about that. And by the way, thrilled to be in this country. You know, the amount of chirping I would have taken if I was in Canada from Americans here. I was kind of like, we beat you. It's okay. I thought I'd be getting taunted and mercilessly insulted, but. But Americans, I got to tell you wonderful people, everyone's just like, we beat you, life goes on. Our goaltender was better than yours. Maybe a measure of revenge for Canada, USA and the wbc.
- [91:17]
Ryan Rosillo
I had dinner with three Canadians last weekend.
- [91:20]
Adnan Virk
Well, you've always been pro. Canada. You called me when you were in bc. Oh, a great story during the World Series.
- [91:25]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it Was in Fernie.
- [91:26]
Adnan Virk
Yeah, Fernie, British Columbia.
- [91:28]
Ryan Rosillo
Shout out. Tyler Childers.
- [91:29]
Adnan Virk
It's beautiful country, but to get out there, Ryan. Oh, my God. The prime game was in Vancouver. I left my house 8:30am in Jersey. Flight to Toronto. Quicklover flight to Vancouver. I'm checking in the hotel 8:45pm Eastern. 12 hours to get there. Now, I know it's God's country and it's gray and overcast every day. It's aesthetically pleasing and I love Vancouver. It's a beautiful city, it's a wonderful province, but ultimately they have inferiority complex. They know they're not Toronto, so they just. They just hate all things Ontario. I'm like, listen, you're not Toronto, but it's a great place to be. There's no question about it. And as you said, you're fond of logging. I'm sure people.
- [92:02]
Ryan Rosillo
I might be a bigger Alberta guy, you know? Yeah, I might.
- [92:04]
Adnan Virk
There you go. I like it.
- [92:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [92:06]
Adnan Virk
I like the contrarian opinion. Bc and you go, Alberta, dude. Banff is unbelievable. Bamford Blow. Yeah.
- [92:11]
Ryan Rosillo
But then again, I went to Victoria, maybe at the wrong time, and I didn't explore enough. So it's a little tough. You're working yourself up out of Vancouver and then up and you're like, there's all this ocean. So normally I wouldn't pick Banff with no coastline.
- [92:26]
Adnan Virk
Yeah. So you like the water?
- [92:27]
Ryan Rosillo
I do like the water a little bit, but I would say, you know, it's kind of all over the place right now. Just my rankings of all the territories and I don't have it updated, so I can't share that with you now.
- [92:37]
Adnan Virk
Well, the reason I mentioned Vancouver is Trudy has the clip loaded. Michael Buble, one of the great singers of all time, joined us on set because he's a huge Canucks fan and he's a co owner of the Vancouver Giants, the whl. So Buble is there with us on set and then, you know, you've got to seize the day. You know how much I love the crooners, you. And I have an affinity for Miles Davis, but deep in my heart, I adore Sinatra and all the singers of that vintage. Which Michael Buble? Red light, Blue Light Sinatra. Well, Boo Blasik, the Canadian Sinatra shorty. Hit it. This was a great moment. Is it really a birthday? Call me.
- [93:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, come you do it with me
- [93:08]
Adnan Virk
then Call me irresponsible Call me oh, undeniable drawing and
- [93:21]
Ryan Rosillo
happy birthday to you. Thank you.
- [93:23]
Adnan Virk
Here is responsibly mad.
- [93:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Take that to my grave Now,
- [93:29]
Chris Finch
Wow.
- [93:30]
Ryan Rosillo
I figured you had something up your sleeve because you hadn't shouted out half of Bristol. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. How was the property, brother? Just loaded with just enthusiasm.
- [93:43]
Adnan Virk
I'm thrilled you mentioned because the previous week the producer goes to me, hey, we're gonna get boob. And I go, oh my. Are you kidding? I go, bro, you know me. Booblay CDs I have. They go, I. I assumed you were a fan because we're also going to have on and I'll have to google his name, whatever the guy's name was. And I go, who's that?
- [93:55]
Ryan Rosillo
You don't remember his name? He's on the desk with you.
- [93:58]
Adnan Virk
You have to look it up.
- [93:59]
Ryan Rosillo
That's not like you.
- [94:00]
Adnan Virk
And I said, okay. He goes, we're going to have this guy do. I go, who's that? They go, that's the guy we have to have on if we're going to have Buble. And I go, okay, no problem. I said, as long as I get to sit next to Buble. So I told Will Enright, our great stage manager, I go, hey, whatever it takes, make sure Buble is next to me because I don't want. I don't know anything about this guy, but he seemed like a nice guy. The best part of Drew Scott is, is his name. His brother Jonathan Scott is married to Zoe Deschanel, soap's sister in law, Hollywood royalty. And Drew's a nice guy, but he's gigantic. Six foot four. He's on the set with me, Blake Bolden and Chris Pronger. Chris Pronger is one of the greatest defensemen in hockey history. Drew Scott is the guy from Property Brothers. And as we got set up, Drew Scott turned to Chris Pronger. He's the co owner of the Vancouver Giants, the whl, you would assume a big hockey fan says to Chris Pronger. Sorry, what was your name again?
- [94:42]
Ryan Rosillo
There you go.
- [94:44]
Adnan Virk
I almost hit the floor laughing so hard. Chris. Hey, nice to meet you, Chris. Drew Scott did not know who I was, but now we all know. Me and Boo Bl together.
- [94:53]
Ryan Rosillo
He definitely ended up at the Pronger thing,
- [94:57]
Adnan Virk
right? Imagine there's a guy who owns a D league team and there's Moses Malone on set. He goes, I'm sorry, what was your name again? Moses. Oh, Moses.
- [95:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Nice to meet you. Say your first name. You can see Adwerk throughout baseball season. We'll have him on in the beginning of the year because if it's nice outside, let's play two. A lot of fun.
- [95:21]
Adnan Virk
Ryan thank you, buddy. Thanks to you and Trudy. Congrats. And congrats on the wine.
- [95:25]
Chris Finch
Good for you.
- [95:25]
Adnan Virk
Giamatti. Sideways.
- [95:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Let's go. All right. Yeah, man.
- [95:29]
Adnan Virk
Not tricking any merlot?
- [95:30]
Ryan Rosillo
No, not tricking any merlot. You want details?
- [95:36]
Siri
Bye.
- [95:36]
Ryan Rosillo
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- [96:10]
Adnan Virk
What's up?
- [96:12]
Ryan Rosillo
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [96:21]
Adnan Virk
So now you know what's possible.
- [96:23]
Francis
Let me tell you what's required.
- [96:24]
Ryan Rosillo
Life advice. Life advice. RR achievement, gmail.
- [96:26]
Adnan Virk
Com.
- [96:26]
Ryan Rosillo
We got Kyle. We got Serutti. My name is Ryan. How are you? Let's get to it. Let's just get cooking here. We got some feedback. I actually even thought about this last night before I went to bed. I figured this was going to happen, so I'm not even upset about it, but I want to call ourselves out. I. I thought there were going to be a few people that thought we were like, hey, the other guy assaults the other guy and you're like, hey, work it out. But that's just the way some people are going to feel about that thing. It's like, you're going to beat me up and then I'm supposed to like, like, figure out any way to cater to you, which I think we kind of touched on there a little bit. But here's an email. We'll read one of them. It's quick. I think you guys are a bit too dismissive to the story about the dude getting his ass kicked by his friend. I'm not saying a night out with the guys can't get physical. Fights sometimes happen, punches sometimes get thrown. But a dude just straight up beating the out of his friend and leaving him with a bloody face, black eye and bruised head for no reason is absolutely insane. Barely apologizing and immediately trying to shift the conversation while the friend has to explain to his fiance, family, etc, why he looks like a UFC victim is even more Insane. I can't imagine this happening in my friend group. And if it did, there's no way I'd invite that piece of shit to my wedding. Yeah, that's. That's out there. I get. I totally get it.
- [97:28]
Francis
We kind of talked about 95% of that and that's what I just said. Like, if he was lost the booze and you could see it in his eyes and there's nothing. There is. That's when you're like, I'm not saying I'm making excuses, but, like, that's how you can sort of reckon with. How could a someone I call a friend do this? It's like if. If that was the situation, if he's just got some weird place that he can go that you're not sure about, but I mean, if he was just completely lost to the sauce and you can see no one's home there and it's like, I don't know. That's where I would try to be a little bit understanding. Whereas, like, if this friendship is to. It's not like, well, that's it forever. If it's just depends on what kind of. It's a nuanced podcast and this was a nuanced situation, I think.
- [98:09]
Siri
Well, that's the thing. I assume if he's emailing into life advice, he wants to reconcile at some point or at least is open to that. If it was a cut and dry case, like, I don't think he's emailing into life advice. He's just like, get the fuck out of my life. So I. We tried to explore some other avenues, but, yeah, if you wanted to say, hey, I never want to see you again, you're not invited to my wedding, then there you go.
- [98:28]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, we can keep it moving. Just wanted to do one of those because it was something even I thought about before I saw the emails this morning. All right.
- [98:38]
Siri
I thought you were going to say people were mad about telling us that the unemployed guy to like, like, maybe
- [98:42]
Ryan Rosillo
just maybe skip a week again. Yeah, yeah, no, there's some. I did hear a few. Right.
- [98:47]
Siri
Yeah.
- [98:49]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know that I'm ever like, hey, this is the only way to play. And this is absolutely right. This is totally wrong. I mean, if we just want to do yes and no's on these, we could read more and they'd be a little rapid fire. Yeah, we'll do that this summer.
- [99:02]
Francis
Magic 8 Ball, new segment.
- [99:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. 100 life advice questions in 12 minutes. All right. Girlfriend's dance team.
- [99:11]
Adnan Virk
What?
- [99:11]
Ryan Rosillo
Say that Again, girlfriend's dance team. Five' ten, 190 pounds, no gym stats, 29. Easing my way back into the gym. All right, man, you ease away. My girlfriend is the coach of a high school dance team. Okay, that makes a little bit more sense.
- [99:24]
Francis
All right, context.
- [99:25]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Because I was wondering, like, could you date an aside, tend to do this, the in arena stuff that you have on league pass. If you don't see any of the commercials, like, it's just. You start to get to a point in the NBA season where you're like, I wouldn't mind a couple commercials right now.
- [99:40]
Siri
That's my wife's favorite part. That's the only reason she like this one. She tolerates me having league passes because she likes to watch stuff and all the mascots and what's it. What's Big Red or whatever her name is. She loves to watch all that stuff.
- [99:50]
Ryan Rosillo
Red Panda.
- [99:51]
Siri
Red Panda. Big Red.
- [99:55]
Ryan Rosillo
That's somebody else.
- [99:56]
Siri
Close enough. Yep.
- [99:58]
Ryan Rosillo
And then you can kind of get into, like, oh, if it's an Orlando game, I expect this. If it's a Minnesota game, I'll expect this. And when it's a Houston game, I don't know what they're doing down there, but you're like, like, here we go. And the cameraman absolutely knows what he's doing, and he's just like, what is going on here? I was thinking about this. If you were on a first date and the Jumbotron cameras on your date and she is just dancing like a lunatic, is that good or is that just, hey, I can't. I can't date you if you're going to be doing this regularly. Whatever. Yeah.
- [100:31]
Francis
I think you. I think you throw caution to the wind at the dance cam. I wouldn't. But I'm not built like some people are. And I think if you're built like that, that might be a good quality.
- [100:41]
Siri
It wouldn't be a deal breaker, but it would. It's a mental note. There would be a second date if that was the only red flag. But it's a. Nope.
- [100:50]
Ryan Rosillo
I saw somebody doing it and they were just wiling. And she wasn't a very good dancer.
- [100:57]
Francis
I think that's a little endearing.
- [101:00]
Adnan Virk
Yeah.
- [101:01]
Ryan Rosillo
You know.
- [101:02]
Siri
Yeah. Like, if it's, you know, that guy.
- [101:04]
Ryan Rosillo
Maybe that's why I don't have any kids. Little guys running around.
- [101:08]
Siri
That's why.
- [101:11]
Ryan Rosillo
Maybe just Kyle just, you know, kind of split half there. I know you had something else to say, Siri, but you're also very good at timing and you Realize, like, I can't say anything now.
- [101:24]
Siri
No, the video. You know, the video that. It's the Celtics game. What's the song when that guy just, like, goes down.
- [101:29]
Francis
Bon Jovi.
- [101:30]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [101:30]
Siri
Yeah. Halfway on a prayer. AKA yeah, that would be.
- [101:34]
Ryan Rosillo
That'd probably be.
- [101:35]
Siri
I'm leaving. If I was a. If I was a girl and that was our first.
- [101:38]
Francis
Yeah, but that's a legendary one. That's a legendary one.
- [101:40]
Ryan Rosillo
Like that, too.
- [101:42]
Siri
Could have been a plant. Yeah, that's.
- [101:45]
Ryan Rosillo
So if you were on a first or second date with someone and then living on a prayer came on and then she just slowly cascaded down the stairs and then started, like, hugging strangers and then spun around the railing and then just started going like, full throat. Bon Jovi. You would. Probably not for me to think about that one.
- [102:05]
Francis
But I think anything else, you know,
- [102:07]
Ryan Rosillo
I think that's like, yeah, that's my gal.
- [102:12]
Siri
Yeah. She just comes and sits back down like. What do you say? Like, wow. I was. All right.
- [102:15]
Francis
That was incredible.
- [102:16]
Chris Finch
Great.
- [102:17]
Francis
Do you want to get out of here right now anyway?
- [102:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, yeah. Can I get your father's phone number? All right. My girlfriend's the coach of a high school dance team. Some background. She danced in college, won three national championships and four world championships. That sounds pretty good.
- [102:35]
Chris Finch
Yeah.
- [102:36]
Ryan Rosillo
She gets upset with me that I don't go support her at her team's competitions. These events are loud, all caps. High school girls screaming, stuck up, rich parents and terrible music. I try to go to one to two events a year. Locally. Our big issue is they have nationals at Orlando every year. And I don't go with her family. I don't like to fly. And if I have to fly, I'd rather go anywhere else than to fly. To watch dance and be at Disney. I gotta be honest with you, man. I'm with you on that one.
- [103:03]
Siri
So far, so good.
- [103:04]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Hey, Ryan, do you want to go to a high school dance competition at Disney? Well, if I went without any connection to anybody, I imagine after about 10 minutes, somebody be like, can you come with us? Am I an for not being interested in her hobby and not going to Orlando with her family? If not, how do I convince her of that? I don't know that you're going to be able to convince her. Because if I know anything about the dance world and the competitive dance world, it's that they're very passionate about it.
- [103:31]
Chris Finch
All right?
- [103:31]
Ryan Rosillo
We're talking about accessories in the hair, talking about practicing in front of the mirror even when no one's watching you. Know what I'm saying? And it's just like, there is this culture of that world which you understand better than any of us do, really. But, like, their entire thing is about support, you know, the secondary thing that is supporting the main thing. So by definition, they are the offensive linemen of female entertainment because they are really, you know, the. The core values of it, that they'd be doing something for the team, and then they get to do the competitions on their own, the whole thing. So by you not supporting them is like. Like the antithesis of their entire DNA.
- [104:10]
Siri
Yeah.
- [104:11]
Francis
I don't want to, like, Chalamet all over myself here, but I'm thinking, like, is this. And when I was in high school and stuff, like, it seemed like it wasn't like, the local teams or whatever was, like, winning the state title and then went to nationals. It's like, it was almost like they just got to go. Like, it just seemed like every year. I know. I'm not trying to do this. I'm asking, is it like, is it penciled in that we're going, going every year? No matter what? Or is it like, congrats, you're the best in the state again, and you're
- [104:43]
Ryan Rosillo
going again, and this is something break down.
- [104:47]
Francis
But I'm just thinking in my head, if it's just like, we're just penciling it in every year, or is it like, yeah, you were the best in the region or the best, whatever.
- [104:54]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, that's.
- [104:56]
Francis
I wonder. I almost wish I didn't say that, but I. But I think you get what I'm saying.
- [105:00]
Ryan Rosillo
I love that you said it. I think you get what I'm saying.
- [105:04]
Siri
Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think I would. I don't think they'll necessarily go over well in that community, but, you know, it needed to be said.
- [105:10]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know that we have a ton of reach in that community.
- [105:12]
Siri
You're right. You're right. But you never know. Stuff breaks through. Somebody clips off something and, you know, here you go.
- [105:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [105:16]
Francis
I just felt like the same girls I knew were, like, going again to the world championship every year. I was like, are you guys incredible?
- [105:22]
Chris Finch
Like, what.
- [105:23]
Francis
How do you guys get in every year? But so I get really horse people.
- [105:26]
Siri
Like the girls who did equestrian when you were younger. You're like, how many? I only know one equestrian person. So, like, is it just you and everyone else from their one town that goes to these things?
- [105:34]
Francis
Digging deep into this hole?
- [105:35]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, I guess you got to qualify for some regional competitions. But. But I'm looking at some numbers here saying it's either first place or in the top 50%. So I don't know, what is that?
- [105:46]
Siri
50%?
- [105:47]
Ryan Rosillo
30 teams. 15 qualify for nationals and then you do have to pay to be in the national dance team competitions in Orlando. But the registration fees. That seems more like. Let's not formality. Easy on them.
- [106:01]
Siri
Yeah.
- [106:01]
Ryan Rosillo
The numbers that I'm seeing here seem just simply like, hey, get your paper.
- [106:05]
Adnan Virk
Wait.
- [106:06]
Ryan Rosillo
How.
- [106:06]
Siri
How many did he say she does a year? Is it just one?
- [106:10]
Francis
Sounds like she does a lot. He says he goes to two a year and it doesn't seem like it's enough.
- [106:14]
Siri
So two years.
- [106:17]
Francis
Do you think the problem. Maybe not the problem is do you think his problem that he's created is that he'll like, I'll go to some of these and this one's super important. He's like, well if you'll go to these two and you're not coming to the big dance. No pun intended. Like do you think maybe that's like he already got. He already got in enough where. As if he just had a hard stop of like I don't do these. That it would be expected that he wouldn't go.
- [106:42]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm wondering if he's lying about not liking to fly.
- [106:49]
Francis
I see what's going on here. Maybe there's an angle there.
- [106:53]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean he probably doesn't like to fly if he admitted to us. But is he admitting to himself to convince himself even further?
- [106:58]
Francis
Is there a doctor's note there? Maybe we can. We can go doctor's note route. I really got to work through some stuff in my own head and I just think.
- [107:05]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean evidence.
- [107:05]
Siri
I've been advised not to. Yeah.
- [107:07]
Ryan Rosillo
Let's say it's totally true. True. She was like, I don't care. I want you to feel. I want you to have tons of anxiety on takeoff.
- [107:16]
Francis
Three thousand dollar Amtrak. All right.
- [107:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Have to have three whiskeys just to settle yourself down. And then your day hungover and then landing drives you absolutely crazy. But that's love. And you have to come to this thing that you hate on top of the entire journey here as well. I just don't know that there's a lot of dudes that are ever going to want to do that.
- [107:36]
Francis
And I guess the question that.
- [107:37]
Ryan Rosillo
And you could have won a true a year already. I don't know.
- [107:40]
Siri
That feels like. That feels pretty generous. Like that feels like a good number. Like if there's 10 generous. Weren't you? Well yeah. Yeah.
- [107:47]
Ryan Rosillo
I mean I don't know this one. I mean, we're. Because none of us want to go.
- [107:53]
Francis
Yeah.
- [107:54]
Ryan Rosillo
Ever.
- [107:54]
Chris Finch
No, no.
- [107:55]
Francis
The question is, how mad? Like, you know, how Ryan's like, well, how hard are you? How she. How does she. How mad would she actually be?
- [108:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Is it.
- [108:01]
Francis
Is it like a little, you know, sprinkle of disappointment, or is it just like, you know, I don't know if he's the one.
- [108:06]
Ryan Rosillo
If he can't love family's going, though.
- [108:10]
Siri
If it's the rest of the family, too. And you're the one guy who like, hey, he's just always, you know, Steve's not going again. It's just like. Yeah. It's not a good look for you.
- [108:18]
Francis
Yeah, that's true.
- [108:19]
Siri
Dad and mom probably aren't going to love that.
- [108:21]
Francis
You know, there might be some cool stuff in Orlando.
- [108:23]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know.
- [108:23]
Siri
There are. Yeah. Listen, the basketball team, the Magic,
- [108:29]
Chris Finch
heard
- [108:29]
Francis
there's this new interactive.
- [108:31]
Siri
Go there.
- [108:33]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out one of this. You know what?
- [108:36]
Siri
I'll.
- [108:36]
Ryan Rosillo
I'll do this another time. Can you line it up with some Magic tickets?
- [108:42]
Siri
Yep.
- [108:43]
Ryan Rosillo
I feel for you on this one. I mean, that's a tough, tough scene. That's not like going to a bad movie. It's not like going to a concert you don't want to go to.
- [108:50]
Francis
It's a long weekend.
- [108:51]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, hey, you know, it's my wife's best friend's boyfriend. Fiance. And he's annoying. You know, when he's sitting there saying that he could strike out judge if he hadn't gotten hurt in high school. Like, you know, we know we played all these roles, different scenarios. This is a tough one. High school dance team competition. On top of that, Orlando, he says, I try to go to one or two events a year locally. That means there's probably some zeros in there on the resume. Yep. Yeah.
- [109:18]
Siri
But average is that to two. So.
- [109:20]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, because he's saying, am I an. For not being interested in her, quote, hobby? I don't know. You better not call it a hobby to her because it sounds like this is, you know, that old ex.
- [109:32]
Siri
Yeah.
- [109:33]
Ryan Rosillo
What would you do if you were retired? And then it's like, well, that's what you should pursue. It's like, well, we can't all do that. But ain't that the truth? Yeah. Sucks. I wish everybody gets it.
- [109:46]
Siri
Is there, like, a dude equivalent of what, like, you would be like, you would want your wife to do? I guess it would just be like, I was trying to think of like, don't come because I'll just do this on my own. I don't know.
- [109:56]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, hey, I need you to start coming to like three or four ice fishing competitions each year.
- [110:02]
Siri
Yeah.
- [110:03]
Chris Finch
Quieter.
- [110:04]
Ryan Rosillo
You're outside, it's cold. Although some of those ice fishing setups. Man.
- [110:10]
Siri
About your rec league.
- [110:10]
Francis
These are dropping money on those.
- [110:11]
Siri
Yeah. Just in a high school gym watching you play against other 40 year olds.
- [110:16]
Ryan Rosillo
I wouldn't want anyone I was ever dating to show up to men's league basketball games.
- [110:20]
Siri
Yeah.
- [110:21]
Ryan Rosillo
Softball. I remember one girl's like, yeah. I was like, what are you talking about?
- [110:25]
Francis
Please don't. I'll set up something real cool for
- [110:29]
Ryan Rosillo
later for us, but please don't. Yeah, get some Lee Zachary's after local reference. Okay. Someone in my life is getting away with something. Hello, dream team. Been a fan since the Spotify days. All the way back to the Spotify days. So, you know, I wouldn't write in unless it was serious. 5, 11, 162, 144. Half marathon PR player. Comp is Adam Morrison. But I earned my ring wedding. Wow. I also want to say rip to Wargon. He says ragon. I know he's smiling down on us from his airport lounge in heaven. I think he is too. That's what gets me through the day. There's so many people that were hitting us up with that guy smoking that marathon number.
- [111:15]
Siri
Yeah.
- [111:16]
Ryan Rosillo
He's like, just work off of this.
- [111:17]
Chris Finch
You can't.
- [111:18]
Ryan Rosillo
Can't ask Oregon. I'd love to. Just some way of like having Oregon pre tape. Just everything. Like Dana Cari Drop. Dana Carey. No, Danny Carey of tools. Dana Carvey. You Ryan.
- [111:36]
Francis
My dad loves him.
- [111:38]
Ryan Rosillo
Tough night of sleep. So when Dana Carvey did the bit where he was Tom Brokaw and they had to like prepare for anything. Age gap alert. I can see it in your eyes right now. Look that one up. It's terrific. We could have Worgon just pre record a bunch of things. Be like, is that time good? He'd be like, not bad. Yeah, that's pretty good. And so we had like 10 different sounders of different times. You know, we could. You know, we honestly, we.
- [112:09]
Siri
We actually messed up. We should have just done this and not told anyone at Oregon didn't come over with us and people would still think he was around, you know, and just start hitting drops. It's like a weekend of Bernie situation.
- [112:19]
Ryan Rosillo
That would have been great. Just different Worgon drops that we could have had. Like, I don't know about this.
- [112:23]
Chris Finch
I don't know, guys.
- [112:25]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Do you guys don't like Ant Man? Just trying to think of, like, what would be the best way, most efficient way to cover all this stuff. Okay. All right, back to the email. I have a friend who orders an espresso martini. When we go out and tells people they're really into martinis. The only thing an espresso martini has in common with a martini is the glass. By that logic, a shrimp cocktail is basically sushi. Should I respect, respectfully, push back or let this go?
- [112:59]
Francis
I feel like someone else will push back, and he'll just be way more embarrassed.
- [113:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, but he's just like old War. Gonzale.
- [113:06]
Siri
I had a. I had a.
- [113:07]
Ryan Rosillo
That's a tricky one. Yeah.
- [113:13]
Siri
I had a buddy who we went to, like, I think it was in Chicago. We were visiting another friend.
- [113:18]
Ryan Rosillo
Senior Frogs.
- [113:19]
Siri
Nope. I was like, up. There's some building. There's something. Not the. Not the Chrysler Building or whatever, the Sears Tower. There was some top building bar. Whatever we went to. It's nice. It's decent spot. You know, you kind of order nice drinks. People are dressed nicely. And my buddy ordered a frozen margarita. And the waiter was like, you're really gonna get the blender out at this, like, nice place. And he's like, what? I'm like, it's a margarita. I was like, it's not really a margarita. Like, it's like a frozen margarita. A margarita is. You know, they're very. They're very different, especially at a nice establishment. And he, like, could not understand that. Like, that was, like, a weird move to do. And we still make fun of him to this day.
- [113:53]
Ryan Rosillo
It's a weird move. It's a really weird move.
- [113:57]
Siri
He also has dude looks like a lady on his workout playlist, so he's just an interesting guy.
- [114:04]
Ryan Rosillo
What the. How old was he when the song came out? I was pretty young when that song.
- [114:09]
Siri
Oh, he's my age. Yeah, he's, you know, he's mid-30s.
- [114:12]
Ryan Rosillo
The song's older than he is.
- [114:14]
Siri
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
- [114:15]
Francis
I had that. I had that burned on a CD for some reason for a while with, like, track eight and my, like, one of my car CDs.
- [114:22]
Siri
The only time I've heard that song is listening to Mrs. Doubt Fire or if it comes on the radio. I have not willingfully put that song on ever in my life.
- [114:29]
Francis
Yeah, it was kind of like a bug in my ear for a while there. I don't know.
- [114:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, wait, is Pump not the one. Oh, my God, I feel terrible now. Permanent Wait. Pump came out in 89. That's love in an elevator. Janie's Get a gun. So 87 is permanent vacation. Dude looks like a lady. Angel. Angel. Rag doll. Fucking. People loved Ace Smitty for a while.
- [115:00]
Siri
Well, he was born in 88, so he was not born yet when that song came out.
- [115:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay,
- [115:08]
Siri
anyway, drinks, It's a weird move. It's not a martini bartender is going
- [115:13]
Ryan Rosillo
to hit your guts if it's a place. Now, there's going to be some people listening to this. Be like, hey, if you have a blender and it's a service and you have it on the menu, then I'm going to go ahead and order it. But I don't know. That's sort of weird. Like, he could have just, like, did he have to go back in the kitchen to go grab the blender? Or did they have them out or were they behind the bar in sight and it was like a thing on the menu?
- [115:31]
Siri
You, I, I, I don't remember fully, but he, they, like, they had to get the blender out. It's not like it was just, like, easily accessible.
- [115:39]
Francis
Got to clear some counter space.
- [115:40]
Siri
Yeah, yeah, it was like it was in a cabinet behind some other stuff. Probably had some dust on it. Like, they probably don't even use it for drinks. It's something else, you know? Anyway, yeah, massive, great guy. Love him, but it's just, you know,
- [115:54]
Ryan Rosillo
would you buy him Aerosmith tickets? Would he go see Aerosmith now?
- [115:59]
Siri
Well, his wedding song was also an Aerosmith song.
- [116:02]
Ryan Rosillo
This guy's a legend.
- [116:04]
Francis
Well, what was that one?
- [116:06]
Siri
Oh, it was the, the Armageddon song. What's that song called? You know, Don't Want to Close My Eyes. You know what I'm talking about?
- [116:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, that was really good.
- [116:14]
Francis
Now I do.
- [116:15]
Siri
Thanks, man.
- [116:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Now I know. I was, yeah, I was like, that was good.
- [116:18]
Siri
What's that song called?
- [116:20]
Ryan Rosillo
I Don't Even Care. I should rename it
- [116:25]
Siri
Don't Want to Miss a Thing. There you go.
- [116:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, okay.
- [116:28]
Siri
But you know, what's the funny thing? I've never even heard him talk about Aerosmith, but he has two, like, very specific Aerosmith things in his life that
- [116:35]
Francis
I don't bring up. Nickelback often. Doesn't mean I don't think about them.
- [116:40]
Siri
I got nothing against Nickelback at all.
- [116:42]
Ryan Rosillo
I think Aerosmith was too popular during that soundtrack. And it was like, all right, this is all we can do for you guys now. Like, no one can ever like, anything you do. Yeah, it's just too much. It was too much. All right, let's do it for us
- [116:55]
Siri
Thursday answered the other question, but.
- [116:57]
Ryan Rosillo
What?
- [116:59]
Siri
The martini question?
- [117:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Not at all. That's the worst. We have some non answers.
- [117:05]
Francis
That was a weak one anyway.
- [117:06]
Ryan Rosillo
But what do you want to say? Do you care?
- [117:09]
Francis
I don't have anything. I think he'll be corrected by the market or the forces ground him. Yeah, I think someone else will. It'll just be way more embarrassing when it comes from a stranger.
- [117:17]
Siri
But you should just say no. I'll have a real martini after he orders his martini. That's a good one. That's easy.
- [117:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Everyone has a laugh stuff ticket. You can get mad. Get mad about the World Baseball Classic, you know, that's something. You're fine. There'll be other stuff to be mad about. Don't get mad about this every day.
- [117:33]
Chris Finch
It's your friend.
- [117:33]
Ryan Rosillo
He has a passion. It's espresso martinis. All right. That'll do for the show today. Thanks to Tom, thanks to Kevin, thanks to Shruti, thanks to Kyle. We will be we loaded week next week. I'm not even sure you know. So pretty excited.
- [117:49]
Chris Finch
That'll be good.
- [117:50]
Ryan Rosillo
Brian Rosso show, Arsenal Sports.