LeBron Out, Kessler In for the Lakers w/ Jorge Sedano. Kawhi Back to Toronto. Plus Danny McBride!

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On today's show, I'll get into LeBron's decision, the latest decision in his career, to move on from the Lakers, all the Lakers movements, and just kind of everything that went into something that I still don't know, that all of us understand. We've got George Zano on that, and the Walker Kessler acquisition. I'm going to go through some of the Kawhi stuff on my own as well. We've got Danny McBride, the man. Kenny Powers. He's more than Kenny Powers. He's also a writer. His new book comes out today. I read it. You should read it too. And we've got life advice. Win or go home. That's it. The Cup Knockout Round is now, and DraftKings has you covered for every single match. The DraftKings app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. From Florida to Texas to California. You're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. 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Predictions offer void in New York. Ends July 19th. Terms at DKNG.co. A lot of headlines around the NBA, and I want to start with probably, I don't know if it's an apology, but just a little self-awareness here on this. I feel like so far it's been the off-season and negativity from me, whether it's Portland bringing in Ja, which I don't understand for a million different reasons. Not loving the Minnesota acquisition of Lomelo. I was critical of Milwaukee in the trade, but really that's being critical about ignoring the inevitable and the timeline and then the market diminishing and then having to add a bunch of pieces that are I was critical of Milwaukee in the trade, but really that's being critical about ignoring the inevitable and the timeline and then having to add a bunch of pieces that are a bunch of maybes without one like certainty, depending on what you feel about Tyler Herro, but I think we're all kind of on the same page on that one, and then you have Phoenix, who I give credit for always kind of being in the mix and trying to be creative, but I don't know how much credit I'm going to give them for bringing in Miles Bridges and dumping another future unprotected. As soon as those things become eligible to Phoenix, it seems like they want nothing to do with them. I remember years and years ago feeling like I was early on, hey, draft picks are kind of overrated for the most part. Now, not necessarily the ones at the top, but you could even go through. If you go through like the top 10 and do it in consecutive years, four or five years out, you'd be shocked how many of those players don't even make it to year three or year four with the team that actually drafted them. Sometimes it's just the mistake. It's usually the math lottery. Sometimes it's that player is such a valuable asset. That's why they're moved out for something bigger. That's part of it as well. But I always talked about like if you hit a rotation guy in the 20s, meaning if you hit on a draft pick that becomes a long term rotation player, never mind a starter, that should be seen as a massive win. So then. You're like, well, why are we hoarding all of these things? Would it make sense to just dump all these things and have them be unprotected? And who cares? Our team's going to be good. That team's going to be bad. Who cares about the swap and all that stuff? But, you know, some of these things are going to come back and be really, really scary. And the total price going out versus the total price going out for some of these teams on these transactions is going to be a massive difference for players that maybe be the same. So, you know, there seems to be a fascination, which is jumping these. I just kind of hate that it kind of locks you in. And we'll get to the Lakers. It just it locks. You win when you go. OK, now we have no options. And then you start kind of like chasing bad money with some of these deals on the positive. If I want to get in some of the positives with this, I think the Clippers move with the Raptors is an absolute home run. I don't know if they wanted to resign Kawhi at all. I had said Kawhi is a really complicated one because. If he's got one year left without the new deal, does he mail it in all year because he's trying to stay healthy to make sure he gets the next contract? Or if you extend him, does that mean he's like, OK, cool, I got my extension and now I'm just going to be on Kawhi time the rest of my time with this franchise. But if you look at the acquisition, I don't really care that much about Ingram. He's going to get his 20 a game. I don't trust him in the playoffs, but he was at two years and 81 million. So it felt less about the acquisition of Kawhi than it was about what was allowing Toronto to get off what I thought was a brutal extension when they did it with Ingram. And they end up getting what a 31 and 33 unprotected, a 27 swap and two seconds. That's a really nice haul for a complicated guy in Kawhi because the market was going to be limited as great as Kawhi was last season. You have the contract uncertainty, so you've got to deal with a team that's willing to step up. I'm sure all this stuff is figured out ahead of time. Like Kawhi saying, I mean, he had that quote about he wants to retire a Raptor. He was there one year, but yet it's the city that was going to have the most appreciation for him, a city that's always going to have the most appreciation for him, a city that's always going to have the most appreciation for him. He probably played it perfectly, and I think the Clippers did as well. And by the way, it makes Toronto better. If you're getting anything close to Kawhi of last year, and you're getting that in the playoffs, instead of Scottie Barnes having to do it all on his own. I mean, if they had gotten anything out of Ingram, if quickly had been healthy, they'd beat the Cavs in that series. So play it out again with a guy like Kawhi or the version we got last year, which is probably too much to expect. Toronto's a better basketball team today, even though that felt like a big price, but they did get off Ingram. So the biggest headline of the last 25. Four hours of what the Lakers are doing. We spend a lot of time talking about LeBron and speculating. I think there are hints throughout it all. I think when Rich Paul was saying, like, why does my guy have to take a pay cut, which is what you're supposed to do as an agent. But I just kept thinking, like, hey, if you're upset about what's around you with the Lakers, and this really is about contention for a ring, which is going to be really hard for any team looking up at OKC or San Antonio, there isn't going to be a move that's out there that's going to make you feel like, hey, we're at the same level. We're in the same league. We're in the same tier as San Antonio and OKC. I guess I kind of was like, well, if you want money and that's important to you and you want to take more than the mid-level, then you can't be upset when, you know, DeAndre Ayton is out there screwing up. I mean, sure, there's another move. Maybe there's a Mitchell Robinson move or something like that. The Duren thing never really felt like it'd be real because I think Detroit was going to let him take all of his visits and then match whatever offer she signed and be like, cool. We ended up getting a year. Less on this whole thing. So it felt a little bit about money with LeBron deciding to move on, or maybe it was just a bunch of hurt feelings. They bring in Kessler. If we run through these Lakers acquisitions, he turned down five years for 140 with Utah. And it's crazy to think that Walker Kessler, who's played this few games this early into his career, would be upset about five years and 140 million. Well, congrats to him and his agents because they were right. He gets four years. And. 130 million with the Lakers and that fourth year is a player option. So it's a home run deal for him. The Lakers, however, throw in two unprotected firsts in 31 and 33 swaps in 28 and 30. That feels massive for Kessler. So I understand you've had two seasons here without a center. You now have this window because you no longer have to pay LeBron all of this money that you have to get it right. The Duren thing is complicated. Mitchell is exactly the perfect fit. The Celtics. That's another team that's like, hey. Oh, we didn't have a center that we loved last year. We had some cool stories, but we don't know that we have a starting guy. I don't even know if Mitchell's that starting guy. I don't know if he can ever come close to playing 28, 30 minutes a night, but they're looking at it going. We paid 47 million. We didn't pay 130 million plus all of these first round picks on top of everything else. So Boston probably feels great about it today. I like Kessler. I don't like the price. I understood why they do it, why, why they went ahead and did it. Uh, mom, who I like, I like Sexton. I like Grimes. There's more depth. There's more. on ball, attacking, and I think they probably did the best they could trying to figure out a way to just make one through eight better than it's been in the past because there were some games and credit to them to get into that houston series with all of those all of those injuries but i think when they were matched up against other good teams and you looked at the lakers one through eight you go man this feels like it gets thin really quickly and there were just certain guys you just didn't know what to expect but back to the idea of appreciation and lebron if it wasn't about money if he just didn't feel appreciated enough um i think there's a way i can get there but let's start with his history because as much as i love him the player and arguably the most talented player this game has ever seen when you're this gifted when you were this special in your field i don't know if you can actually ever be appreciated i mean sure there's plenty of famous people that are telling you a every day is a blessing and i love everybody and they take selfies all that kind of stuff i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it and i would love to be a part of it with your two stints in cleveland that you kind of hose cleveland taking on all these quick fix contracts which also opens up a much easier window for you to go to los angeles like that just felt nasty far nastier than shabazz napier the heat taking them because shabazz napier's in lebron's tweets and i'll admit like the bronnie thing the lakers drafted your son who's a marginal nba player probably an undrafted prospect and i don't care about the g league stats because you don't care about the g league stats because if you look up the top scores every single year in the top 10 you don't know who eight of us are and i don't care about the g league stats because you don't all right and they draft him and they give him the four-year deal and they just picked up the option which all should have told us that that date meant something because they guarantee the next year of bronnie's contract for north of two million dollars and not 12 hours later lebron's like i'm out of here they couldn't even give it like an extra day or two to make it look better and if you think that's cool that's fine i don't love it but again if you think it's cool did you because bruce left late enough in the coaching cycle to know that they would actually have to go with his son because i'm telling you right now the person defending the bronnie thing is not in the same bucket of the person who thought that was cool now granted i think the pearl thing was much worse much more impactful a little dirtier but with bronnie we're talking about somebody at the end of the bench it's not that big of a deal but that is always something that you're signing up for with lebron whether it's hey you're gonna hire my coach you're gonna fire this guy you're gonna make this deal these are all things that you have to factor in to bringing him in now if you're on the pro lebron argument which i can make as well as like hey you guys missed the playoffs for like five straight years without me i show up we win a ring we never get ad unless it's me being involved because we're the ones that made that happen and got him out of new orleans and if we didn't have ad here then you don't end up with luca can you imagine this lakers team with a banged austin reeves and then lebron leaving and then trying to figure out what you want to do with anthony davis around it so as much as there's uncertainty now the lakers aren't the favorite without lebron none of that stuff happens and he was also playing in a city that for whatever reason unlike anything i've ever experienced in all of my years of paying attention to sports whether working in it or just being a fan like every one of you living here i've never seen anything like it running into guys who love the lakers love kobe even more and as lebron has turned this franchise around he's surrounded by i don't know that's the majority but i'm telling you constant fans complaining about lebron and being so protective of kobe it felt like they were rooting against their own favorite team success i have nothing to compare that to so if you're lebron it kind of reminds me a bit of like the john henry ownership with boston it's like you losers couldn't get it done for 80 years and we win four and then you're going to tell us you're going to win four and you're going to tell us you're going to win four and you're going to tell us we don't know what we're doing we're supposed to sell the team i've used that example before i'll continue to use it because i even though don't love what the red socks do for the last few years i could understand coming to that conclusion especially if you own the fucking team and if you're lebron going all right do we want to go over again where you guys were stuck what was going on here how bad this roster is so not just me and then all the power and what we were able to do and win a title and you want to tell me that i'm not the guy that that has enough appreciation when i'm walking around the city knowing that all these kobe fans actually are rooting against me so i don't know if it was money i don't know if it's appreciation i think all these things are important when you try to figure out what the next move is i think san antonio makes the most basketball sense i think he could be the person that because the roster is so young he can be the most version of lebron but it is san antonio so it feels a little bit different i don't know if they'd want to sign up for it but i tell you what i would love an organized late offensive possession but i don't know if they'd want to sign up for it but i tell you what i would love an organization that gets wim ben yama involved in something which i think lebron would do better than any single person on that roster if he wants to be appreciated and be able to kind of be peak lebron and call the shots the last chance he has for that would be in miami the most appreciation is no doubt cleveland and the best basketball story as far as like just talking points is golden state and it might be golden state might be the place where he's the most willing to be deferential because what are you going to do show up and start telling steph and jeff and draymond and steve kerr and everybody there that this is how it's going to be done from now on because i'm lebron james i imagine he still wants that stuff and it's just hard to sign up for it when somebody's turning 42 years old in december this season i don't want him to go to golden state i want separation of church and state i want separation of lebron and steph i think san antonio would be weird because i think that's the basketball decision that gets him the most shit but maybe after 20 plus years people just be over it like what am i going to get mad about him ring chasing here so i don't i don't know how he's weighing all of this stuff but i'm telling you if he wants to be appreciated in a new place more than he feels like he wasn't with los angeles it's not miami and it's probably cleveland we'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsors hey alabama still blue coffees new canned lattes are here and in a store near you crafted with 100 colombian coffee each can is a good source of protein and comes in two smooth flavors espresso cafe mocha and espresso sweet cream whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup stel blue cans are for those always on the go and for those who care stel blue is more than just great coffee it's about giving back i named the brand after my rescue dog stella who inspired our to help more dogs find their forever homes every purchase supports animal rescue organizations so when you drink stella blue you're not just fueling your day you're saving a dog's life try the new cans today head to our store locator on stella blue coffee.com and sign up to redeem a buy one get one free offer lakers making huge moves and the biggest move lebron moving on joining us now who covers the nba for espn in his next few weeks we'll be right back is located in los angeles for 710 espn it's george gisano good to see you man what's up man thanks for having me let's start with the lebron move first what do you think went into his decision to move on honestly the more i thought about it yesterday i feel like this was coming for a year right like we all remember rich paul and the statement that he put out last year and that you know they respected them building around luca but lebron wanted to compete for championships and it just kind of felt like at least since that time lebron has done the right things outwardly right and publicly in regards to luca and it being his team um but not necessarily in agreement or in alignment with the way the front office and the franchise maybe wanted to build this team so i think that there's been an issue really going back a year um so while i was a little surprised that he left when i was talking to windhorse the other day and he said this on tv too he made some comment where i guess he had talked to rich paul and rich said that you know the line that now we've heard a bunch of times which is um you know happiness will drive the decision not money that's when i was like oh he may leave the lakers because you don't say that when the lakers can clearly give you the most money because nobody else is going to be able to give you more than 15 million dollars and even in the worst case scenario they're going to be able to give you more than that so i think that's that um so i just feel like this goes back a year i don't think it's necessarily like a luca thing by any stretch of the imagination it's more like hey you told me for the last seven or six and a half seven years this was a partnership and now i'm not really a partner anymore like you're partnering with him which i totally understand but i thought i'd probably have a seat at the table here and it didn't seem like he did i understand all that and that's a really good starting point because there's always rich quotes that make you go okay you know like when they started talking about why does he have to take a pay cut you know like is that an agent thing or is that a be respectful of lebron thing but i if i were talking to rich i would just say well what were they supposed to do that was different if luca weren't there what were these moves that you would have wanted to make this isn't like it was some 20 year old kid that they go we've got a bit of a runway here so let's make the right decisions on like a three-year plan they're still year to year they're still trying to figure it out so i don't i don't know what they thought would happen if they say hey we're building around you and not luca then in what world like what's the scenario where it's all that different with their limitations financially well i think and this is just me now recklessly speculating here right i think that you know when even when davis when anthony davis was on the roster i think him and lebron wanted someone else to play center right like they wanted more size and i think that last year adding deandre ayton was probably like really this is what we're doing you know what i mean um and i don't you know look man it all runs together now like i don't know what else they could have done but i'm fairly certain and and i i'm fairly sure i can say this um just because i've seen it play out in every stop he's ever been including here in la uh in the first several years which is when you get in the lebron business you are expected to push the chips to the center of the table every single chance you get right and i think he probably has a lot of experience with the draft picks that they then used for walker kessler uh today on the day we're recording and saying like hey why didn't you use those when you know i wanted it or ad wanted it or we all wanted it um like why why wait um and they clearly had a plan that they wanted to stick to and he didn't like it it seems like and you know i think they also were ready to move on too right it's this uh gwyneth paltrow chris martin conscious uncoupling where everybody's playing nice but it really is a divorce and we should just call it a divorce what do you think the best fit for him is then moving forward um i don't think it's golden state like everybody seems to think right maybe i'm wrong but i just think the west is too hard and you know steph has had some injury things right jimmy when is he going to be back is it february like what do i and i look he'll be motivated to play because we all know there's one thing jimmy butler wants is another contract right so i'm not worried about jimmy playing hard stuff in in a one-year scenario um you know and draymond is still good defensively but the rest of that roster is like um i think he should go east and you know that leaves cleveland or miami i don't see a great fit with yannis it you know but if you could convince me that that has a higher ceiling than the cabs potentially um because what are the cabs gonna have to do to kind of free up um a roster or free up stuff to make a roster that fits around him and harden and mitchell right because now you're talking about a team that isn't great defensively your only real trade chip is mobley and so you're you're going to lose one of your best defensive players if not your best defensive player like i just don't see a clean fit with cleveland and miami's so incomplete that i don't know if there's a clean fit there either i just think that and this is going to sound super homerish right and i get it but you're telling me he's going to play with yannis and bam at least he he's protected defensively which is where we've seen some erosion um in his skill set so i guess miami but you can convince me cleveland if they make the right moves um and i don't know if it's mobley that needs to be the guy that moves maybe it's alan that needs to be moved and they can figure out some more size and versatility on the wings that they can get um to help those guys particularly off the bench um i know they've looked into maybe moving strews and schruder i don't know what that really is but i think it's going to be a great fit for them and i think they will net you but i just think ultimately the east either one of those two teams uh to me makes more sense i know people have thrown out denver recently i'm intrigued by him and yokich but again it's just the west i would stay out of the west i i understand why yannis wanted to stay in the east i get why kawai now moved to the east guys have should have been moving to the east for years i've never understood the fascination with going out west because it's just too hard i talked about this in the open and trying to like figure out what makes the most sense i think basketball why san antonio makes the most sense um oh sure he might be able to i don't know how i want to frame this but i just to get through it it's like kind of get away with being lebron because i don't even as he turns 42 i don't think he's expecting to just go well i'm just along for the ride now at golden state i think he'd probably be the most deferential because he has no choice to like i don't think you can be the version of lebron you've been for 20 years where you expect everything to be on your terms clearly you're not going to be the version of lebron you've been for would let him do whatever he wants san antonio may be just because the roster's so young more deferential to him as opposed to what i mentioned there in golden state i feel like miami's ruled out because he knows he'd be able to get away with it the least there probably so maybe there's the history that plays into it but this lakers marriage and divorce tells me that he is as i said i don't know if you can be as great as he is but i don't know if you can be as great as he is in any field and be appreciative because ultimately the success is based on your talents and your abilities but the lakers did do a lot for this guy and yet he still always felt like they were never doing enough and when he is prime lebron which is the longest prime of any nba player we've ever seen you know what you're signing up for and you're happy to sign up for it but if you're talking about a one-year deal or a one plus one or however they want to structure it there's just a different level of like yeah we like you we want you here but you know this is not going to be your franchise the way his other experiences have been in the past and that's why even though i think miami would make some sense there'd be a lot of opportunity yannis probably goes down for a little bit bam's probably fine getting less shots all that kind of stuff i just i think you know this better than anybody probably part of that divorce after four years is lebron couldn't be treated the way he was treated in cleveland was thrilled to go back to cleveland to have the keys to everything everybody get out of his way so at two for one year with a couple other options there it's like if you're leaving la because you probably don't feel appreciated are you going to go to miami to feel that probably not yeah i will say this about miami it is a different day there you know when he left there in 2014 it was still riley's uh roost to rule right um that is not necessarily the case there anymore it you know for i would say at the very least you know since the arrival of butler there pat has taken more of a jerry west role with like the clippers and warriors than he has been kind of ruling with the iron fist like dude you know pat you know for many many years for nearly 30 i mean everything crossed his desk like everything i mean everything i mean everything things that went on the freaking jumbotron uh you know crossed his desk um that's not the case anymore i feel like it's not the case anymore i feel like it's not the case anymore i feel like it's ruled more collaboratively there between the arisons nick and mickey uh with nick taking the primary role uh mickey's son who's really worked his way through the ranks there i mean hell mickey and i know people are gonna be like oh yeah some rich kid got to you know work for his dad i mean unlike a lot of kids in that scenario um you know i remember him selling tickets literally in the ticket booth so like he has worked his way through every aspect of that organization um you know and andy ellisberg obviously is a key contributor there into the equation you know guys like alonzo morning um you know they're they're adam simon who's been their super scout forever he finds all these gems in the draft and in the g league or whatever and riley has a seat at the table um you know and and spo obviously has a seat at the table so i think it's a little different than it was back then but you're right it is still a version of military school maybe just not as as it was back then let's take a look at the lakers now uh this kessler acquisition which had been rumored about forever he gets his deal it's always kind of frustrating to watch the restricted stuff play out because you kind of just want to remind the players do not understand what restricted free agency is um i don't know if they'd be better off just getting rid of it i don't think the owners would want to get rid of the extra control and then of course you know the guys that aren't the slam dunk extension end up feeling like hey how come how and look for kessler it works out he ends up getting the contract that he wants the jazz probably go two unprotected first two more swaps yeah this is a no-brainer for somebody who is coming off a shoulder surgery and it's probably like a weird probably too well liked analytically and then not appreciated enough on the basketball side of it um but this is a massive massive swing but they've also been a team that just hasn't had a center they like for two years so your thoughts on kessler yeah they had no choice to your point they had um fallen behind in regards to their big man rotation i mean you could make the case they had the worst center room of any playoff or play-in team perhaps um i mean they were bottom third easily in regards to their center room and now they bring in a guy who helps them in areas they were deficient they couldn't protect the rim they couldn't get rebounds particularly offensive rebounds he's awesome at both those things right um i'm not super worried about the injury situation he's so young like he's not even 25 yet so i'm not worried about that and the part of the equation is, I mean, we saw the Dave McMiniman report, like they promised Luca, hey, he wanted an A-list center, we're going to go get you an A-list center. We can argue about whether he's an A-list center, maybe in 2026 he is. He fits certainly with what Luca has had in his career, right? He can be a Derek Lively type or a Gafford type, like he can do those types of things. So offensively, is he limited? Sure. But he'll still do the vertical spacing things, he'll set good screens. I think he's going to be more than competent on that side of the ball for what they would want him to do. I think he's a really good fit. But yeah, it's a lot to give up. And we knew this was only going to end one of two ways with Kessler, if that's who they wanted. And I never thought Duren was actually going to be a real possibility, because I just don't think Detroit is going to give up on him, right? And it was either you're going to tie up your cap space on an offer sheet, and Danny Ainge is going to wait. Literally 1159 on July 7, to give you an answer. Or you were going to have to make a deal and use the assets that you had remaining to make this thing happen. And Danny was going to take them all because that's what Danny does. So here we are. It is a risk, but it's a risk worth taking because they had no choice in the matter, in the matter, excuse me. So I think it makes them better for sure in that regard. I like the signings they made even beyond that. I may be the guy who loves the Quentin Grimes signing more than anyone. I think this dude can defend well. I think he's certainly a more well-rounded offensive player than Marcus Smart at this stage, or at any stage, probably. I mean, guy scored 40 points in a game not too long ago, right? Like this guy can score, and he's a good defender, in my opinion. You know, Colin Sexton, okay, you know, punch off the bench. Like, it is what it is. Like, he's, he is what he is. And then Mamou Kelesvili, probably a downgrade on Hachimura. But for the price, I don't think it's going to be a huge drop-off necessarily. So I think they did pretty well. But the center position in the Kessler stuff, I mean, he's had over 400 blocks in the 200 games he's played. That puts him in pretty rare air in that category. So I think they needed to do it. They had to do it. They had no choice. And I think he's a good fit. Are they better than they were last year? I don't know. Because you still aren't replacing the LeBron production of it. They're just going to have to be different. And they're going to need Luka and Austin to raise their games, particularly Austin, to raise his game even further. I think they're better. I think they're deeper. I think defensively, you need somebody to anchor it back there that's going to be engaged the entire time, which is not what DeAndre Ayton was ever going to be, especially when you know part of the LeBron defensive decline I don't think it showed up as much as it should have because everybody was going to pick on Austin Reeves first. And then they may say, hey, let's go to Luka. And then I even remember talking to a coach about it, being like, how come LeBron doesn't get attacked more? It's like, it's actually kind of like a respect thing at times. And there are other options there. So I think you're better defensively. I like Mamu better than Rui, just because I think he's so versatile. I did like Rui a lot in the Jokic kind of defensive matchup. I like some of the ways that Rui could hold up against some of the bigger guys. They would use. And he had some really great playoff moments for him as well. But Mamu's more on the ball. The shooting has been really good. He's just a really good all-around player, as long as your expectations aren't that you're going to be carried by him offensively, which they don't need him to. And Grimes is a, you know, not to be default teenager on TikTok, but, you know, Grimes is an absolute bucket who can take over a quarter. And that's on-ball stuff. And then, you know, you throw in Sexton, who's almost become forgotten in this journey from, you know, Cleveland to Utah to Charlotte, where it's like he can, I'm not telling you you want him to be your starting point guard. So there's a lot of guys now collectively that can get their own offense off the dribble, which is not really something that they had with a couple other people that would be out there. Or Aiton was basically, I had to be off the catch. Rui has to be off the catch. Smart, you probably didn't want shooting a ton, but really he was going to be left open because everybody was going to leave him. So they have added with this group, with it being healthy, like there's a lot of guys on the ball, which is a lot like the OKC thing, which is a lot like the San Antonio deal, where if somebody gets stuck with the ball, can they get out of that off of the dribble? And I think that part of it's great. It's just so hard for me, as you said, when you're stuck and you have no choice. And it's like, so now we have no control over the draft picks. And I know LeBron's probably sitting there with Rich Paul being like, now you use these picks. It's like, well, they were able to use the picks because they could do the contract for Kessler that they could not do if you were still here. So that's fairly simple. Like you can't be like, oh, now they do this. So that Kessler price scares the shit out of me. And like all of these deals with two picks seven years from now, you know, six years from now, and the swaps, we don't know. Like it can end up being like that's a massive mistake or it can end up being like, hey, you realize like we never even gave up the swaps and both picks landed in the 20s. Like who cares? Which is what it seems like half the teams in the league do every summer. Well, and that doesn't even factor into the equation, the changes to the draft system to begin with, right? Who knows what those picks would even be, even if the worst case scenario did happen. And let's say guys were out for an extended period of the season and they missed the playoffs altogether. Who knows where those picks will even be? Yeah, that's something that I thought was interesting. When I looked at Charlotte and it's like a Charlotte, the first team that's going and looking at this going, we don't want the worst pick. We don't want the worst teams. We want scenarios. And who knows? I mean, who knows what any of these picks are going to be, but say Ant were to miss a season. And it's the season that the picks lined up with Charlotte and they have the one, but potentially three swaps. I mean, all of this is luck related, but it'll be really funny if we think the unintended consequence leads to teams that have a swap or just know they're giving up the rights to the pick and they tank to avoid being the team that's giving up a number. So they'll tank into the worst record and having half the chance at the number one. Number one, overall pick by not being in that relegated tier. I mean, now I'm just having fun and thinking about all the stuff that maybe we weren't really quite thinking about. So maybe I don't need to spend a ton of time on what is one team going to do in 2033, but it's a massive, massive price. But look at Przingis. You know, I knew that contract was going to happen. I absolutely knew. I go, the guy barely plays. He's a stretch five who protects the rim and he gets 20 million a pop. And size is. He's at a premium in the NBA, man, over the last couple of years. It's made. We've gone, you know, we're old enough to have seen, you know, grown up in the era where everything went through the center, right? And then the game started to expand, right? And became more of a perimeter-oriented game and you needed the wing, right? You still need the wing, don't get me wrong. But like you, you know, we went through the small ball era, right? With the Warriors and the Heat, those LeBron Heat teams and Steph and Draymond and those guys and their death lineup. So now we've gone back. We've gone back to, hey, you need multiple bodies. I mean, the Oklahoma City Thunder added the Mara kid, right? They have Hartenstein re-sign, right? They've got Chet. I mean, the Spurs drafted the kid from Kentucky. Like, this is the reality. Yeah, they drafted two of them. And Reid from UConn, yeah. Paris Reid, right, from UConn as well. You're right. So it's like, this is where we're at now. So you have to kind of build the team accordingly. So, and if you're the Lakers. You know, as we talked about just a few moments ago, I mean, the center position was just so bad. And look, the funny thing with Aiton, it was so funny because on the talk show on 710 in LA, when he signed, you know, he came on with us. And I straight up just like asked him, like, hey, man, like, you haven't, you know, in the nicest way possible, I basically said to him, you haven't really lived up to the billing, right? Like, what's been the issue? And he blamed Portland, like, entirely. Like, he put it all on Portland and that, you know, which discounted kind of the end of his Phoenix tenure. But, you know, what are you going to do? You're going to fight with the guy on the air? So, like, but I was trying to tell fans the whole time, like, look, man, the numbers are going to look good, but the impact is where you have to worry. And, you know, and I think people get fooled by that because if you haven't watched him regularly, you do, you can get fooled. But once you've seen him play for an extended period of time, you just know the deal. And you could tell, man, JJ's level of frustration with him just visibly when you watch the game. It wasn't hard. Yeah, you didn't need to be an advanced scout. Be like, why is he not playing in the fourth quarter now? And he picked up the player option, so. Right. I think they deal him just for, like, some seconds, if I had to guess. Maybe I'm wrong, but. I know. What does that tell you about his market right now that he picked up? Because when you were going through, and I mean, like, all of us collectively, you were looking at it like, okay, they have a possible hundred million in cap space. Likely cap space is zero because of the cap holds and everything. And then the space opens up. LeBron moves on. But then you're, you're looking at every one of these options. You're going, okay, so what's this guy going to do? What's in it? And you get to that $8 million number with Aiden. And I'm like, I wonder if he picks it up. And you're like, no, he's still young enough. He's a center. Like, somebody will give him a two for 20. And like, they knew, they already knew you're probably better off locking in this $8 million with the perception of you right now as a player. And the funny thing is, like, the reaction I always get when I talk to people about Aiden is like, and this isn't wrong either, but they're like, you know, but think about, for $8 million, what are you going to get that's better? And I'm just like, yeah, I get it. But that's not what, I don't know about you, but I just get so frustrated watching him because I know there's a better player in there and you just want to pull it out of him. And it's just not going to happen at this stage. It is what it is. Yeah, I think we've discovered. It's like, well, you're getting good value for $8 million. He's a good $8 million player. I'm like, I guess if you want to convince yourself of that, sure, go ahead. Yeah, and look, the Przinga's language, when that was first announced and then what it actually is and some of the guarantees, it's a little bit more creative and just straightforward. So I don't want to make it sound like, hey, Aiton had to pick up an $8 million player option and Przinga's got $40 million. How good are the Lakers? I think they're a playoff team still. All right, so let's do this exercise here. OKC San Antonio at the top. You know, I got to respect Jokic will be in the top six still. Beyond that, Houston. Houston's still going to win close to 50 games. Yeah, they'll be in the top six. Yeah, so I have them like in the five, six range. Yeah, like in that top five or six range. Sure. Last thought here, and I think you'll appreciate this because you're not from Los Angeles yet. We've both been based here for a while, and it's something that I brought up, and it gets back to that theme of appreciation where I don't know that LeBron is capable, and I don't even know that it's necessarily a criticism. In some cases, it's a criticism. Like, I think the Bronny thing. I wish I had known when that guaranteed date was because that's the most LeBron thing ever is to wait for that guaranteed thing to pick up, make sure it's kids good, and it's also like, OK, now I'm out of here. There's a bunch of different things that we could go over, and I mentioned some of them in the beginning of the podcast. But you could also say in defense of LeBron's feelings about the organization and about the city is I've never experienced anything like it with Kobe fans. That would. I would rather LeBron lose in the NBA finals on their favorite basketball team because they would rather root against a stronger argument for LeBron against Kobe than root for the franchise they grew up rooting for. I know that's insane, but it is a real thing out in Los Angeles that you do not understand. I would have never, ever, ever. Anybody who told me that I don't care if they lived. I'd be like, you're insane. Nobody thinks that way. So many people think that way, and I can't imagine what LeBron would be thinking. With his buddies going, how weird is this? We've been talking for about 25 minutes, and we could have done just 25 minutes on this. Seriously, I think like I don't think people who who don't understand Lakers fandom or have lived in Los Angeles can grasp that concept to your point. But it is absolutely the case now. You couldn't pin me down on what percentage of the fan base that is, but it is a significant enough percentage of the fan base. But it is noticeable, OK, and noticeable to everyone. And for that reason, I've always felt like as weird as this sounds, it's a little bit of a lose lose with him, right? I mean, he's been chasing in his mind. He's he said it right. Like I'm chasing ghosts with Jordan, right? But now and again, this is not a pun by any stretch of the imagination. Like Kobe became, you know, was a rival for a short period of time. I think just because of, you know, where their careers crossed. And I think Laker fans always took umbrage with the fact that they feel like Kobe was disrespected in the national conversation about where LeBron stood in comparison to Jordan and why Kobe was not involved in those conversations. And I kind of get it, too, because and I think you and I talked about this years ago, shortly after Kobe passed. I mean, they saw him grow up. It's different, right? Like they he was 17 years old when he got here. He was theirs, right? In a way that, you know, no other player other than Magic Johnson really has been. You know what I mean? So I think that or at least in the modern era, right? So I think that I understand them defending his legacy tooth and nail. I don't get it in regards to to your point, potentially even rooting against your own team's success because you deem this person not worthy of being Kobe Bryant, right? It is odd. But it is absolutely the case. So, you know, he says he's chasing ghosts with Jordan. He's he was always chasing Brian's legacy, which he was never going to reach. He even if he would have won more than one title, like I just don't think that would have ever been, you know, something that would have worked in his favor. There would have always been a percentage of the fan base because they are Kobe fans first and Lakers fans second, that that he just would never have been. Good in their eyes, like, you know, and been a Laker in their eyes. Like there's this notion that he wasn't a real Laker. I don't know, man. He spent eight years here. He won a championship. Honestly, that year after they won, if he doesn't, if Solomon Hill doesn't roll into him and bust his ankle, hell, they might have won again. Or at least they would have been certainly in the mix. I think they were better than Phoenix. They were up to one against Phoenix in that series. So a lot of things in sliding doors, obviously. But yes, that is to me, honestly, somebody should do a documentary on it because you can fill an hour or 90 minutes worth of just content in regards to that because it is wild. And while I grasped the concept of these fans that hold Kobe in that regard, I don't get it in regards to kind of potentially rooting against your own team. It is always been something that's mystifying to me. Busy day for the Lakers, man. I'm sure it's a busy day for you as well. So always appreciate the time. Thanks, man. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. Good to see you. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsors. Hey, Kirk Herbstreet here. When Hertz said they needed a football analyst, I assumed they wanted my help. Turns out they wanted Peter, my dog. I didn't even think Peter knew ball. Well, technically he knows that ball. Now Peter's part of the Hertz gold squad and we'll be making weekly picks throughout the college football season. So whether you're coming to the stadium to cheer, you're on Peter's picks or kicking off your own road trip book direct at Hertz dot com slash Peter. The book Thrilling Tales of Modern Men by Danny McBride is out today and he joins us. I think it's a good sign. I can't believe that this happened. But this morning as I was prepping, I just turned on Spotify and Spoon Man randomly became the first song. So I think it's a good sign. It was in the universe, man. It was you. It knew you were coming here right now. Yeah. I mean, I could see it. I could sit here and Chris Farley out and talk about the Spoon Man rant in the eastbound. But I'll I'll start with the book. We can circle back to Spoon Man. We will. We will. Because I want to know if that guy, if you actually do know him. The book is is great for a bunch of different reasons. You know, you're clearly passionate about storytelling. I love that you dedicated to your English teacher. And I just wonder if it's kind of fun for you doing press reminding people that you're actually smart and not really Kenny Powers. You know what? It is. It's always good to confuse the press and never know who they're really speaking to. But, yeah, it has been fun to go around and talk about this book. And I I've noticed that the press board is a little bit different than when I have to promote my shows. The questions have been way more thoughtful. Yeah. The New York Times piece. I mean, they had you posing on, I think, some sculptures or something. So it was black and white. And I went, I don't know if this was his idea or not. Or he was like, yeah, I'm just playing the part, man. I don't know if it was his idea or not, but he was like, yeah, I'm just playing the part. I don't know if it was his idea, but he was like, yeah, I'm just playing the part. I've read a couple of interviews and seen some of the stuff you've done. And I think there's like an attempt to be profound because it's it's such a fun book. And you're like, what does this really mean? But I think there is an overriding thing of like man's desire to be great, especially with the first first short story of Greg, who thinks he's a magician or an illusionist. Not really. What inspired you wanting to tell that kind of story? You know, I think that, you know, like you said, there's it's funny because even just doing press with like, you know, literary people, they do want to kind of read a ton into this. And so I'll see things about like, oh, this is about fragile masculinity or this or that. And to be honest, it doesn't really have anything to do with any of that shit. Like to me, it's just they're funny stories that have unlikely protagonists. And then I feel like the way to get the maximum amount of comedy. Is to make those protagonists have layers to make them make sense to the audience. And they read it of like, this is how this person thinks. And this is why them thinking this way has probably got them in hanging in a glass cube in the middle of a shopping mall trying to prove to everybody like what's important to them and who they are. And I guess for me, it's like I just always have liked stories where the scope of the story is told in a way where like what the character is doing feels epic to them, but to nobody else, you know. Like at the core of it, there's something very grounded and very set in our world. But the person's own ideas themselves make the story feel like it has way more massive stakes. You mentioned, you know, I know in the past you talked about your parents getting divorced when you were younger and divorce is a theme in that first story. My parents got divorced and there's just things that you understand. I mean, this is very normal as you get older, you start to like replay scenarios and you go, oh, my God, now I understand what this means. And it felt like in this case, like Greg was just shutting down because everything else was kind of shutting down. This was the only thing he had control of. Totally. i think it was in that story specifically yeah he's sort of his whole life is falling is is going out of his control and he has to sort of try to find a way to center it and the idea of like proving to the world that he's like a david blaine knockoff seems to be the solution for him it sucks too because i can't believe he has friends and i'm like this guy shouldn't be telling his friends to fuck off that's when you know you have good friends is when you can tell them to fuck off and they still show up to protect you at night you know there's one part of the story where he's buying gi joes for his son and he's pissed that he doesn't understand how awesome the gi joes are it seems so specific did that come from anything because it was so sad you know what luckily my kids enjoy my gi joes but i just i think all of it comes from you know i'm always examining my own life and my own experience in my buddy's lives and i'm just trying to find that sort of the humor in those things and i remember before my son's was like you know he was still just a baby i was instantly went to like he's not even a year old and i'm trying to get him into every single toy i was ever into you know and he's just putting him in his mouth and just that idea i think that sometimes when you're a new parent you do sort of like start looking at like your kid's childhood as a way for you to buy a bunch of shit that you liked when you were a kid and so i think it's sort of like exploring that a little bit the institute of men i enjoyed i would say though as a still has hair it's a bit like when i talk about the wnba i'm told that i shouldn't i don't i don't know if you're the right person to talk about the story yeah i i was i enjoyed it but as somebody who struggled in that area i'm like i don't know that you should be the messenger well you know for what it's worth i i consulted with uh with with various men who were struggling with hair loss to make sure that i got the authentic story you know yeah because you do have a moment of like yeah and in the beginning i i remember i had an apartment where it had like a three like folding mirror thing so i would get in there like the most advanced scientist trying to split the atom and i'd be setting up like one angle here to there going how bad is this getting and i'm okay with it now but during well i was gonna say i think i think you're pulling it off i think that you have a good shaped head there's no there's not any weird bumps there and uh you know i think it complements your face you don't have a lot of hair you don't have a lot of hair golem-esque features it's not making you look like a troll you know no and i felt i it really i felt so bad for the guy you know this is just kind of the funniest part about the book is it was so hard to not read every main character in your voice yeah well you know that was part of what i wanted to do with this like i wasn't sure if my audience or my fans would come to this you know like it was an experiment to try to do what i've done in tv and do it in a completely different format so even when i was writing these i was writing in the same way i would one of my shows like where i was imagining that i'm the guy playing this part and i think as i got deeper into the stories i didn't need to rely on that as much like then i started finding my groove with it but that was part of my mission when it's when i started is like if you're hungry for another eastbound or for another gemstones these are sort of other stories that could exist in those worlds and be told in similar fashions yeah that's definitely something that that happened because i'd go oh this is this a show or is this character enough to build a season around i mean were were any of these stories partially motivated by something that was like left over on an outline of something you were trying to figure out you know what honestly they weren't none of them have ever existed as any other format than this and i really wanted to uh approach it that way like i didn't want this to feel like it was uh you know half finished remnants of something that a studio didn't green light i really wanted to try to use this format and create something that was specific to this space now that they're done i definitely like go to a few of these stories and i'm like i would love to kind of expand some of these and do more but writing it that wasn't the intention i just wanted to make them work in this format that's noble of you because a lesser man may have been like yeah i've been put 300 pages together what was fun about this thing too was that you know after the book's written then you know we've done an audio book for it and uh and the audio book was that was honestly so much fun to do i read uh i read us two stories in there and then i pull in like john goodman and shane gillis and walton goggins and edie patterson and uh eric andre and sam rockwell billy crud like a cast of characters uh in there and it was fun to hear actors read these roles and uh and read these stories and breathe the level of life into them that yeah it only kind of sparked that fire of like it would be fun to kind of expand some of these now they're done do you read the institute of men uh shane gillis reads the institute of men okay because i don't but that smash burger dialogue of like do you like smash burgers and it's like well i don't i do but i don't know why i said they're unbelievable and i'm reading it as you and i'm i'm dying laughing on the plane and it's if you explained it to somebody else they go why is that so funny i'm like you just have to understand like that is it is true i don't know why i said that about i mean they're good but uh all right so i i think there's do you feel like you're an expert on losers you know i feel like i've i've done enough studying of them it seems like you know the uh i kind of you know growing up in the 80s and 90s and movies it's like the main characters of comedies always kind of seem to be a little bit similar like they were always like you know you can go back to the 80s comedies it was always sort of like it wasn't the jock it was always like the guy who can't get laid or the guy whose heart's in the right place but you know he loves the wrong girl and i they always had these like for comedies they always had these kind of protagonists that i felt were always like just a little soft you know like it was sort of like what motivated them was just sort of like being loved or something and it felt like uh it felt like you that was well-traveled territory and you had seen that enough and i would sort of get i would laugh at shit like smoking the bandit where then like you know suddenly it's like burt reynolds at the center of it and he's just trying to look cool and fucking kick ass and like so i started being interested in like well what if these comedies are not centered around somebody ultimately that's sort of like broken or uh unfulfilled and because he can't get laid like what if it's like they're fucked up because they think they're the fucking hot shit like they're they're the opposite they're not someone who's like waiting to be accepted for like the true hero there's someone who thinks that they're a hero they think they're badass and then the comedy is not from like them ultimately winning it's from them facing who they really are and it just felt like that when i would apply that to stories i just felt like the stories ended up being funnier like they ended up being more unexpected and i think it kind of keeps the audience on their toes because you know when you have neil gamby and lee russell like once they burn the woman's house down you're not really sure what you want to have happen with them like you don't necessarily know whether you want them to win or go to prison or whatever and i think that's a really cool place to keep the audience where they really can't see all of your moves coming because they're still trying to decode how they feel about the story that's being told so many stories they they always feel like they have to have a lesson and what i've always liked about your characters it's like what if this person never wants the lesson is it okay and i think that's actually kind of like a hard pitch it's like okay what's the full circle arc and the arc is that for a lot of people it doesn't necessarily ever get figured out we're just there to hang out with them and learn why they can't figure it out as opposed to some big bow at the end of it i i think that's totally it and part of that is inspired you know when i went to film school in north carolina you know david green and jody hill and a lot of these guys i collaborate with on our shows and movies you know we really love the like 70s cinema like we love those like kind of messy 70s character piece dramas like things like five easy pieces or rip torn's payday or even like taxi driver and all those movies just always had these sort of fucked up central characters that the ends of the movie never revolved around those guys like learning a lesson becoming better at the end you know it never was that and you know the ending of five easy pieces if you've never seen it it's jack nicholson it's awesome but it really is what inspired us to make the last scene of the first uh season of eastbound was like straight up like inspired by the end of that movie of you've been watching this guy make mistakes and he has an opportunity to like make the right choice and you and you watch him not make it you know and i think it it that resonated with me when i was younger and i would see that because i would leave the movie not feeling necessarily completed thinking more you know like i like thinking more about like what that meant and like how like even just leaving a character messy like that it weirdly kind of gives the character more life once the story's over because you're kind of left to kind of parse out the fucking remains of what they did and why they did it and will they ever figure it out it leaves the audience with more questions than closure yeah i i look i love it i i actually sometimes hate when i'm force-fed some closure and i think it messes up a ton of endings and i i always kind of think in storytelling like why can't you just tell a story and then this is where your audience experience is over it but it doesn't it doesn't we don't need closure all the time um eastbound it down you know all of us have watched a million times we quote it all the time what by the way the the life of this show in the clips in the bloopers i mean the number of times i've laughed at you debating cut chemist the the mark farina mushroom jazz pull as somebody that as soon as a new volume came out yes throw it on at a party And girls always loved it. And they'd be like, what is this? And I'd be like, it's Mark Farina. It's Mushroom Jazz. Mushroom Jazz Volume 3. Right. We're on Volume 7 now. By the way, as an aside, Mark Farina invited me personally to two shows. One of the absolute highlights of my career. Crushing it. Yeah. I mean, it's all downhill after that. But the show lives in a way that very few shows get to live, whether it's the clips that made it or the bloopers. What does it mean to you to have something that wasn't just successful when it was around, but it just isn't going away? You know what? Honestly, it's great. I love that. And when we were writing that show, we were hoping that that's what would happen. We were hoping that with that show, we were making it about a character that could be timeless, that could translate to other generations of comedy fans, that he wouldn't be so much about the right now that eight years later, people who come to it fresh, can't identify with who this guy is or what he's about. And I think that's because of what we chose to satirize, which we were satirizing a type of dude in a type of outlook that I don't think goes away. I don't think that goes out of fashion. I think everybody knows somebody who's an egomaniac, who thinks that they're hot shit, and who really sees their life going in a different direction than the reality of it. I think that that's just like a timeless thing that people can enjoy. And I think that's just the way in which Kenny reacts to that, ultimately, is like, that's what's so juicy to watch. When we wrote Halloween, you know, we sort of realized, like, oh, people, like, love Michael Myers. You know, like, he's fucking killing people, and they love him. They show up with his face on shirts. And it's like, and you start to realize that what the fans like is they like watching him fucking destroy people. And I feel like that's what, weirdly, we embedded with Kenny, is that once you get to the point where you're like, if you understand how he works, you enjoy watching him fuck people up. Did you ask McConaughey in season one, and you got the no? I mean, he had to see a few episodes, I imagine, before he signed on? Yeah, he definitely had seen it, and we couldn't believe we got him, honestly. I still can't believe it. He was such a gamer when he came and showed up, and he did it, you know, and that was, like, right before he had his, like, the McConaissance or whatever, where he, like, came back, like, I remember he told us, that when he came to the set, we're all just enamored with him. I mean, we just, like, you know, loved him, and loved that he came from Texas, and was doing his thing, and always appreciated him. Yeah, and he was telling us it had been, like, a few years since he had been on screen, like, that he was, like, really taking, he was really being, you know, thoughtful about how he was launching this next chapter in his career, and when we kind of heard that, and he's showing up to work with us, it just really made us feel flattered that, like, he would think about, you know, our show as a piece of that larger puzzle of what he was, like, aiming to do, and it was a blast working with him. I mean, there isn't anybody I think I've worked with that is just, you know, genuinely as cool as he is. Yeah, he really is. I would, we've had him on a few times, and there's a sincerity about him, you know, that I think a lot of you guys have, that are stars, like, you spend some time with him, but there's, it never feels like a performance. It feels like that's exactly how he feels, and how he wants to talk to you, and, his comedic range, you know, you get really caught up with some of these dramatic guys, and we typecast, we think you can't do any of that, and then you just give somebody the experience, the chance to do it, and you're like, okay, this is why these people are special. That's it. That's 100%, yeah. You're, you're blowing up, right? And I know you'd already been out in LA, so it wasn't like you got off the bus after the foot fist way, and McKay, and Will Ferrell, but as you're, like, blowing up, what kind of advice are you getting? Is everyone just saying, hey, say yes to every single movie right now, because this thing has a short window. You know, I think it's, I think it's a little bit of, of all of that. I think that, you know, if you've been waiting tables, and PA, and substitute teaching, and doing anything you could to kind of make ends meet, the moment you start getting real opportunities doing what you want it to do, it's hard to turn those things down. It is, and it's hard to start being judgmental about like, well, do I really want to play this guy? And you're like, well, two years ago I was totally, totally fine with, like, vacuuming the Battle Dome. Like, so yes, you can play this fucking guy. But I also, I, you know, as being just a fan of movies in general, all the stuff that would come my way, I was lucky that I got offered a lot of really fun stuff, but I would always just use the mindset of like, do I want to see this? Like, as someone who isn't in the industry, like at that point, and when everything started kind of happening for me in 2006, you know, I wasn't in the industry, and I was in LA, but it was as a spectator, you know, like wanting to get in. There was still a big part of me that was just a movie lover and a movie fan. And so when I got that ability to sort of get these jobs, I was still really looking at all the opportunities that way of like, have confidence that you can stick around and just really try to choose things that you would want to go pay money to go see. - Do you, like, is it easy for you? 'Cause I know your background is different. Like some people are just funny. Some people just look funny. Some people can sell a line, and I've always felt that way with you. I mean, we used to replay, "These dudes are wizards." Every time we mentioned the "Wall Street Wizards" on the ESPN radio show, we would hit the sounder. We did it for years and years and years. And by itself, you're like, "Why is that funny?" And it's like, that scene is so funny because you don't know what you're talking about. And it's, you know, I think you already understand it 'cause you've been you a very long time here, but is there a gift in that you can get away with more when you have. Have this combination of things where there's just total buy-in. There seemed to be total buy-in with you in a way that's a massive advantage. - Yeah, I mean, it's like, and I can't put my finger on what exactly that is. Like, I can only think that, like, when I did put this where these things that got jobs or even eastbound, I was just creating stuff that I thought would be funny to me, would make me laugh. And so then a lot of the choices I would make would just be what would make my friends laugh, what would make me laugh. And then the assumption is hopefully saying that line, that way, or adding a pluralizing something that doesn't need to be pluralized would make David Green laugh. And I would just start making Kenny do it all the time. And the thought is that, well, my friends have good, have a good sense of humor. I feel like I have a good sense of humor. If it's making us laugh, hopefully it makes other people. But there was no, I mean, I was riding by the seat of my pants. I mean, I was like, you know, doing these interviews, I've had, I've been asked a lot of questions about the journey of this thing. And it really kind of blows my mind that, you know, we made the foot fist way in 2000. You know, I didn't have any job in the industry at that point. And, you know, it went to Sundance in 2006. And over the course of like one year, from 2006 to mid 2006 to mid 2007, I did Hot Rod, Drill Bit Tailor, Heartbreak Kid, Tropic Thunder, the pilot for Eastbound and Pineapple Express. That was like one solid year of work from the most, from, you know, starting in June of 2006. And it was fucking crazy. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea if any of this shit was gonna work. I was just, I think I was so naive that I just used it to my benefit. I'm just like, well, don't stop now. Like none of, you know, these people will figure it out that you don't know what you're doing. So just fucking hammer as much as you can. - Did anyone try to get you to do standup? - I, you know what, I, I, there was like a little bit of talk about it, but I, I love standup, but I, you know, for me, it's like what I, I really liked the storytelling aspect and sometimes the having to get in front of things and having to be in front of people is the aspect of it. I kind of like the least, you know, like I like plotting and thinking and, and preparing, like, and I know that you have to do all that to do standup, but you know, whatever I have to promote anything or go in front of people or, you know, that's always where I feel less, less at ease. But when it comes to crafting a story or being behind the camera, even weirdly being in front of the camera, I, I have a, there's an ease there where I feel like I know what I'm doing, you know, maybe one day I would give it a shot, but I, uh, yeah, I think my, what always just pulls me in is just wanting to write stories. You mentioned Shane Gillis, uh, narrating one of the chapters. And I saw the interview that you did with him. And I actually thought it was really cool because there's definitely some similarities of his character and tires where I was like, oh, this feels a little Kenny powers. This, instead of him, like going the other way, he just was like, yeah, I talked like you for multiple years. So I, I love that honesty from him. Or what is it like to, I mean, he's probably like, he's probably my favorite comedian goer right now. He's another guy that does a good job of like making you think he might be stupid and he's actually brilliant. You can't be anything but brilliant to do some of the stuff that he does a standup. But when you have somebody that's that big kind of going, Hey, you had a massive influence on me. What was that conversation like? You know, it's, it's nuts. Like I, I, before I even knew that he was a fan, I thought Shane was funny as hell. Like I really did. I thought his standup was funny. I thought he was awesome. And you know, like I've never been in this position before. I didn't think I would be in this position and then to be around long enough that there's people who crush what they do and they tell you, like, I, I liked what you did and that's part of like why I'm doing what I do. It's honestly, it's awesome. Like I, I really, I just had never really imagined that a I'd be around long enough that something like that would happen, but the stuff we were making would resonate that way. And, uh, it makes me really feel grateful. Like I, um, I appreciate it. And Shane's an awesome dude, you know, I really liked him a lot and I like what he's doing. And it's cool to see that are responding to it and that because to me it feels like you know like you said people can underestimate how smart he is i encounter the same shit and i feel like it's our secret weapon i think it's like the idea of being one of these comedians that you don't quite fit into like how like the cities want to categorize you and then there's a hero aspect when you're coming outside the cities and you kind of end up finding an audience that's kind of everybody it feels like that's a difficult thing to do these in this time period and uh and i think when someone can do it i i think it's cool i think it's uh i think it's a fun place to land a lot of people always ask you guys like hey what's something you turned down that you regret what's something you were offered do you're so happy you turned down because you're like that is the dumbest idea ever for me you know what i i would not want to insult anybody come on you've got 20 years in you're good now i'll tell you i'll tell you the one i'll probably tell you one of the craziest things that i turned down that that was probably you know that you know you don't want to go back and look at at like mistakes or you made because your life is a journey you wouldn't be here if it wasn't this way but i turned down the hangover to do land of the lost and both of those movies came out the same fucking weekend completely destroyed it was a way where like you could see in real time like you know sometimes you could do something like that and then the two things like never live never existed around each other so you can kind of justify in your head why but like for those movies to come out the same weekend and to clearly be like whoa we got our ass handed to us and those movies are obviously so funny but then in turn looking back land of the lost is like one of the most fun i've ever had on anything i've done like to work on that movie with uh with will and yorma and anna and brad silverling and you know we shot that movie and universal uh in hollywood and like as some fan who grew up watching movies like we were the only movie on that lot and every week was just us in a massive sound stage you know in some fucking insane you know set that was being built like will and myself like we would be on night shoots at the universal lot nobody was there and we would get into the golf carts and like cruise through the park and you know we would do weird shit like pull up in front of the psycho house and one at a time we'd go up and like knock on the door and like have to run back to the golf cart like there was so much fun life experience with that movie uh that i yeah i don't i don't regret turning that down but I thought it was a funny way of the universe like showing me two potential outcomes I remember this is like the only film class I ever took when I was in school and we had like different directors on it was uh it was a class based on movies that were produced by John Killick who did a lot of the Spike Lee stuff and so we had somebody from ready to wear which was this movie about French fashion a fashion I think it was like fashion week in Paris or something late night and it was a bomb it absolutely bombed and then the guy that was involved in it came into the class and and talked about it and people were kind of like hey how like what happened man you know like trying to be nice because this guy's giving us his time and he was like you know we were just sort of over there there was a lot of moving parts and so and it the whole thing that he was selling to us is that it just sort of happened you know it just it just sort of happened and I always would wonder like what the fear is is when you're in something and I don't know if I'm I don't want to sound like I'm critical of anything but when you're in something and you're going hey this isn't going the right direction like how do I how do I fix it especially if it's something that's like very very close to you and that you're passionate about maybe as opposed to just being cast as something the experience of being involved with something where you're going this this need the tide needs to turn here for this thing to be successful you know I've only been I won't say what they were but I've only been on two things where I felt that when I got to the set where I was like oh okay I'm not like you know and it was a lot of it was the cues from some of the other actors of like oh uh people aren't enjoying themselves or you know what I mean like you can kind of get a sense of like the magic doesn't feel like it's here on the set and then those movies don't turn out to connect with people and so I felt it that way stuff I've done that like a lot I mean like you know when David Green and I did your Highness like that that movie like tanked at the box office uh and we knew that we were making something totally messed up like we were making a rated R movie for 13 year olds and like we we just committed to that but that's what we were doing and uh and we we didn't have any qualms about it I think we even knew when we were making it like this is this would be amazing if the world accepts this but like this is our shot to make something messed up like this and let's give it a whirl and uh you know it's what I don't watch a lot of the stuff that I uh that I'm in after the fact you know like but your Highness has definitely popped up on table and my wife will put it on and it makes me still laugh to this day and I really do appreciate the balls that we had to like have that moment in our careers and to choose something that was like very uh it was it was self-serving David and I's own like ambitions and the kind of movies we want to see Hollywood making it wasn't drafted in a way of like being strategic at all like well this is what people like and they'll go to this because of this like we really were just like let's make a up sword and sandal movie you know inspired by time Bandits and Beastmaster and like see where it lands and you know I think that movie ends up having a a life afterwards and so you know even when things tank uh sometimes it's just about being able to get it made and then the audience and the people can make their own judgments afterwards I mean even when eastbound came out never found the audience that first season like everybody came to that thing after the fact you know and all of our shows have been that way that there's always a slow response to like there's people who get it and then in time way more people tend to get it and so we've kind of um it keeps your nerve you you have it keeps the nerves high when something's coming out you're like oh Jesus nobody's showing up you know but you just kind of have faith that if you like if you like it and if you're happy with your experience on it hopefully eventually uh it finds it's people we had a couple other things just to finish on eastbound I don't even know if there's anything left with all the outtakes that I've watched like I still am hoping like some sort of Explorer to discover new Ashley Schaefer Kenny power stuff I've tried to read everything I can I feel like there's certain takes that you used for the show even though you're still sort of laughing at each other in like yes just because you cannot help it because of how absurd he looks is there anything else about those scenes with that back and forth which is some of the best stuff I've ever seen in the history of television is there anything else left that none of us know you know there probably is a lot a lot there you know the thing we ran into a lot with eastbound was it was uh you know HBO is you know you obviously have the streaming aspect but they're also still a channel you know they have a they have times and they have slots of uh when things need to be on and they definitely have let things go longer now because I think like other streamers have and so it's always but the time the running time is always was always dictating so much and so eastbound would be would would be so hard to to make because we would have you know we would have a version of the show that was 50 minutes that we loved and then we had to figure out how to get it down to 30. and uh and that would a lot that would usually mean like getting rid of a lot of stuff and so I think in that we definitely left a lot of things on the cutting room floor but ultimately I feel like that's also I think what makes that show so funny is that we just we we did have to kill some darlings but it was in service of just the best of the best showing up on uh you know in the show where like there wasn't a lot of there weren't a lot of duds like you know things really had a they had a matter when you're trying to get 20 minutes out of a show to have it you know be a type 30 and so yeah it just makes you have to be really critical of what you're trying to do but I think in that there probably is a lot of fun things to add I mean we were having so much fun making that show uh that I feel like that's also what people see when they watch it is that you are really seeing guys that were given the keys to the kingdom being allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted and that's what we were choosing to do I feel so bad about this but the guy who played Stevie when he was in the office I was like oh wait it's like he's okay yeah he's okay he's made it I just saw Steve Little here just uh in Charleston just two nights ago we did a book event here and Steve Little came to Charleston to moderate it and uh you know he's such an awesome dude he's so he's so smart and thoughtful and kind and funny and uh you know we had no idea what that role was going to be when we included that in the pilot you know we didn't know what the realm of that was going to be and when we cast Steve and I'm not a fan and I just worked with him in that first episode I was like this is the show the show where these two guys like this is uh you know this is what it's about and uh and that was fun I mean it was awesome to kind of find a brother in comedy that way where he just makes me laugh my ass off and he's fearless he'll do anything and uh and that became so exciting crafting that show and every season trying to figure out what insane thing we could we could talk Steve into doing that season so you've got the book out again it comes out today thrilling tales of modern men um that's just a real simple one like what do you want to do what is there something you haven't done that you really want to do man you know what I've been working on now is I got a script for Paramount for GI Joe for a for a feature to like relaunch GI Joe and so that I wrote it with John Kachuri and Jeff Bradley who I write gemstones with and uh it's not it's not really comedic it's just like a straight 80s action movie And, uh, that's what I've been putting all my energy into and hopefully we'll be shooting that next summer. Well, congrats on the book. I really, you know, cause at first I was like, am I going to read this whole thing? Cause I knew you had the interview and I've always, and I hope you don't take that the wrong way. I just, am I going to read a collection? Yeah. And I, I enjoyed it so much, man. It was, um, it was a lot of fun. And I think anybody listening, like it's, it's a lot of fun and there's even some short ones in there. So you can feel like a reader if you're not always a reader. And I rarely use big words, you know, I rarely use big words and there's even a few pictures. So, you know, you get, you get what you need. The pictures are great. And there are just lines in there that remind me of like Kenny Powers arguing with somebody that I can just see it's like some stuff like, Hey, this, this might work. Um, and it, and it made me laugh every single time. So thanks again for the time, Dan. I appreciate it. I really appreciate you reading that book. Thank you. And thanks for having me on. We'll be right back. After a quick word from our sponsors, Stella blue coffees, new can lattes are here crafted with a hundred percent Colombian coffee. Each can is a good source of protein and comes in two smooth flavors, espresso, cafe, mocha, and espresso, sweet cream. And whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup, Stella blue cans are for those always on the go. And for those who care, Stella blue is more than just great coffee. It's about giving back. I named the brand after my rescue dog, Stella, who inspired our mission to help more dogs find their forever homes. Every purchase supports animal rescue organizations. So when you drink Stella blue, you're not just fueling your day. You're saving a dog's life. Try the new cans today, taste the difference and make a difference. All new Stella blue coffee cans lattes now available at Stella blue coffee.com or subscribe on Amazon for 10% off. Hey, Kirk curb street here during the college football season, my golden retriever, Peter and I are constantly on the road. Yep. Peter knows ball. When you travel this much, you want the gold standard. That's why Peter and I partnered with Hertz. They've got a brand new fleet of rental cars, a great app, and the best loyalty perks in the biz. So if you're traveling to cheer on your favorite college team or kicking off a different road trip, book direct at Hertz.com slash Peter. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari three 55, cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, life advice, RR at gmail.com. We've got Kyle, we have Steve and we have follow ups. I enjoyed this one on the neck tattoo. Uh, if you're asking your dad for permission or even advice, I'm going to tell you what's possible. I'm going to tell you what's possible. I'm going to be honest about a neck tattoo. Unless dad has a neck tattoo, you are not qualified nor built for the responsibilities that come with said neck tattoo. Simple as that. That seems pretty fair to me. Yeah. I kind of had that thought myself. I was like, dude, you're 21 year old still asking you about shit. That's, that's pretty good. You're not ready for that life and that neck tat life. It's perfectly said no notes. There's just, there's nothing else really to be said other than imagine having the neck tattoo. It was like, oh, that that's sick. And be like, yeah, my dad let me get it. Or you're sitting down. You're like my dad didn't want to do this. He was super supportive. Oh man. Right. Yeah. My old man shat his pants when he saw me. I forget. There was some story about a Smurf tattoo and I don't, I don't know if it became urban legend. And then I somehow thinking that it was specific to somebody that I knew, but I think the story goes, there was some aggressively stupid Smurf tattoo or another guy. It was, you know, it was kind of like that kid. And I, I feel bad about this, but like the kid that is super impressionable, that probably isn't the coolest guy in the group, but he's sort of around. And then it's like, yeah, you should get this Smurf tattoo. And it's, should I, yeah, that would be sick. And then the guys are like, that'd be sick, dude. And then he got the Smurf tattoo. It was a Massachusetts story. Right. And then they were like, that's the worst tattoo I've ever seen. And the kid was just, he thought he was going from like all my, all the guys are gonna be so impressed. Like I'm gonna move up a couple of slots in this, in the tiers here. And instead it was like, I can't believe you actually did it. We were kidding. Yeah. And it's like, oh, now I have a Smurf tattoo the rest of my life. And then I'm not a hundred percent. I'm, I'm gonna have to double check with some guys back in some of the OG days. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Hey, was there a story? I'm actually gonna get it right now. I'm gonna send it out. All right. Uh, let's see here. This is a bummer. Do we start with a bummer one? Life sucks. All right. Six, four. Well, dude, you're six, four. Try one on planes a lot. Yeah. Speaker 2: Speaker 1: Speaker 2: Uh, I go, but I have a twin bed. All right. Well, we fix that. All right. Six, four blue eyes player comp Ronnie Turi off. I love that. Hell yeah. Tender little Roni, uh, graduated from college May of last year. That's probably part of it. Um, since moved south to work for a university in the athletic department. So you get a job in sports right out of college and you're six, four with blue eyes. We skipped over the blue eyes. Yeah. I didn't move that far. So I go back home every couple of weekends to see friends and family, but some of my friends live far away. Others are advancing in their lives with girlfriends and I'm not, and it makes me sad. I have some work friends, but that's really it. I hit the strip club by myself at least once a month. Well, that'll cheer a dude up. Yeah. Um, usually salary dude, usually solo strip club patterns. Speaker 1: Chicken finger night. Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's like the first time. Exactly. Yeah. They make their own ranch there. It's unbelievable. Yeah. It was like the squire back in the day. Guys would be like, no, the food's awesome. I'm like daylight out. Uh, I was seeing this girl who has a kid, but I decided to end that I'm on a year to year contract and thinking about just going home after this year. What are your thoughts? Another issue is every girl I've ever dated has cheated on me. Am I just going through post-college depression? Wow. All right. Well, look, um, I think the post-college thing is very real. You do have way more things going for you than I think you're scoring like 85% on all your tests, dude. Yeah. Girls still seem to like you even if they cheat on you. Uh, it'd be kind of tough to go back. Like, I forget what movie is that? Is it high fidelity where I don't even know if that's right. I think there's another movie where a guy who just goes back and asks about every single girl you ever dated and like, what went wrong? And I'm like, my God, like it's bad enough to wave to go back and replay every scenario anyway. So, uh, I don't know that you can necessarily do that. That's a tough one. You definitely don't. If you went to your guy friends and like, Hey, is there anything about me as a dude that you think would lead to me being cheated on all the time? I can't imagine a conversation between two men being more awkward and ending sooner. So not a lot of advice there, but, uh, I think moving home is a bad move. Stop going to strip clubs every month by yourself. Okay. Let's do that. Let's start there. Uh, going home doesn't feel like the right move for you at all. Cause I think you're going to go into a deeper funk where you're going to have to focus on being around friends, being in a scenario where it's not maybe just about career. It's about lifestyle. You know, I really admire a lot of people that early on were like, I want to live in like a cool place and then I'll figure the rest of it out. Life is very odd in the way, like you put yourself in circumstances and you think all these other things are gonna be challenging. But in fact, like life does have a way of kind of figuring itself out. So I think what you need to do is surround yourself with the best, maybe social option that you have. Um, because if you're, if you're sitting here emailing a show saying my life sucks and all these things are wrong, and I don't blame you for not counting the positive things, like I'm still guilty of it all the time. I think it's a very normal thing for people to do, but I would again, emphasize the social aspect of this, because if you eliminate the social aspect on top of everything else, and then you're living at home and you're with your parents, it likely only gets worse. Yeah. I guess the only thing I would offer is like, I think he's probably putting a good amount of stock in what his friends are up to. And I, I'm not an advocate for having no awareness about where, where you are in your group. It's pointless. But I think, you know, looking at everyone else's path when it's like, you know, this guy had it in here or this, you know, somebody retired right as this guy got in and he's fucking killing it right now. Like there's, there's plenty of things that you're not even thinking about. So if you're like, I think you're maybe putting a little bit more stock in that. I don't really know what else to tell you other than maybe lay off the strip clubs, mixing a bar instead. I don't know. But I think, probably the easiest thing to do is look at where Brandon and Jake and all these fucking guys are compared to you. And you know, a lot of them might not even be as happy as you think they are. Most of them are lying too on top of everything else. Like I don't, I don't want to say it to certain guys in my friend group, but I, I, you know, I wouldn't be super, I mean, we're pretty tough on each other, but you know, for me to say, I can't believe I was jealous of you when I was 26, that, that wouldn't be a great conversation, but I I'll admit privately, I have that conversation with myself. Yeah. But I didn't, you know, you don't know any better, man. You don't know any better. It's everything feels like that time in your life. Everything feels like it's so significant because it's really the first time you're experiencing without any training wheels. It, it, I don't even know. I mean, it gets a little bit better, but like, I think dude, friend groups are always like a little bit competitive in that way. You know? And it's like, the first guy buys a house at like 28. Yeah. What the fuck? And I don't even know. And you so badly want to hear that his dad helped him. Oh yeah. You're like, oh, I'm doing it. I'm doing better. Yeah. You got a 7.5 interest rate. What an idiot, you know? But Wednesday you're bummed out. And then like on Friday you find out, well, it's just, you know, the in-laws and you're just like, OK, I'm going to have a much better weekend now. It's such a it's such a shitty way. I knew it. I knew it. Yeah. But I think I also think that that's kind of healthy, though, like not in like a toxic way to be a motivator, resent each other. But like, yeah, there should be like, I don't know, competitiveness in life and just trying to better yourself. I think that does help friend groups. And I think that's fair. But you're I think you're right in the thick of it, as you said, like that those few years like post-college, like what the heck am I doing with myself? It can go one of two ways, because if you got a decent gig, it's like, hey, man, I've got to figure it out. But then you realize maybe later in life that you actually don't have to figure out. You just had a good job out of college. And then there are the dudes that don't have anything going, feel like they're lost and then they kind of find their true calling maybe a little bit later, maybe 10 years after that. So it's just such a weird time. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. The strip club thing is definitely like probably chill on, chill with that. But yeah, that's a good action item. Yeah. At least do one thing. Probably stop doing that. The cheating thing, I have no idea. I mean, I have that's a that's a. Do they know you're in a strip club by yourself once a month? Was that was there overlap? That might be a new development. It's like, yeah, I mean, figure it out. Do some self exploration. And maybe you're just not seasoned enough to come up with any real answers for the whole thing. But if you're getting cheated on consistently. Like, what could it possibly be? How many girlfriends are we talking to? Like, is it two? Like, yeah, I mean, this guy might be so bummed out right now that he's going everybody. You know, everybody framing this whole thing differently. Yeah. All right. Like back to back. You'll be fine. He's going to be fine. What if the email's back? He goes 12 straight. We want to have you on the show because we're going to figure it out. I think you're going to be OK, man. I really do. But you know, you're a lot of people wouldn't even email the show, right? When the email. Hey, what's going on? Bit of a funk. All right. Guys, think about how many guys would trade being six four for not knowing what they're doing in their early 20s. Probably a lot, you know, a ton. Like, I always think about if you could go back in time, how different would it be? This is way. I do this exercise way too often. Oh, man. But it's like what you have to go back. But then there's also this qualifier. I was trying to think of this. We also need to rank the six New England states. But I don't know. You know what? Kyle is qualified because he goes shopping in Danbury, which is another email here. Hudson Valley to Danbury Mall. 6-2-2-0-5. Bench 200. Squad 300. Deadlift 350. All numbers self-reported. So treat accordingly. Long time listener. First time emailer. I'm running in with some Hudson Valley support for Kyle. Because I feel like this is one of those very specific regional things that might sound insane to anyone who didn't grow up there, but is actually completely normal. I'm also from the Hudson Valley, although I grew up on the other side of the river from Kyle. And I just want to say Kyle is 100% right. Going on a shopping trip to Danbury was absolutely a thing. Depending on where you live, Danbury was one of those default, we actually need to go shopping destinations. Mall, big box stores, restaurants, the whole thing. You'd cross over into Connecticut, maybe convince yourself the clothing sales tax math worked in your favor. And suddenly, I always thought it was a good idea. I always thought the sales tax in Connecticut was historically higher than everywhere else, but I don't know. I think it's like 6%, yeah. I think it used to be higher when I was younger, but again, I've got all my tax paperwork in a file somewhere. Sometime I'll finally come to a conclusion. All right, you cross over. If everything worked out, suddenly what should have been a normal afternoon at the mall felt like you had planned some major regional expedition. It wasn't weird. It wasn't niche. It was just part of the greater Hudson Valley ecosystem. So I just want to put this on record. I have Kyle's back. A Hudson Valley person going to Danbury. Danbury for shopping is very believable. Well, I was in high school, and I just was like, these guys were going to spend real money. And I was like, I think I got Poughkeepsie Galleria money. I don't think I have Danbury. So I didn't take the Danbury trip, so I'm excited. There are no malls around there? I'm confused. It's the Poughkeepsie Galleria, guy. That's what I've been telling you. But there, it's like, you know, it's not everything that Danbury Mall has. I've got like three malls within like 20 minutes of me. Must be nice. I guess this is why I'm saying it's foreign to me. Like, you drive over an hour. I don't think it's over an hour. I think it's like 47 minutes. I'm going to guess. All right. Still. How many minutes is West Hartford, or do you not want to go to West Hartford with your wife to shop? Me or Kyle? Kyle. I haven't even thought about it. Danbury was like, Danbury was this thing. This mountain I never really climbed. So, like, it's kind of a personal journey for me as well. So the way the highways work, what would it be, like an hour and a half to get to West Hartford? It might even be more than that. Really? Yeah, it's almost two hours. Is it? All right. Well, you can't do that. And it's more expensive. So you don't want to roll through there. I don't know. Connecticut messes me up. The left side of Connecticut. 32 miles. It's 48 minutes for me. Yeah. There's some sections of Connecticut that I'm having a hard time with. Western Connecticut's always a mystery. And that northeast Connecticut that's sort of Rhode Island but feels like super dangerous. I don't know what's going on up there. I would totally agree. Like, Jewett City. I don't know what's going on there, to be honest with you. Um. Well, I don't. I don't even know if I've stepped foot in that weird southern mass, upper left, upper right nook of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Yeah. I think it's actually dangerous, but nobody talks about it. All right. Let's see. What else do we have here? We have a bunch of people who hate Chad. So to our emailer, let you know, everybody's kind of on your side with this one. Uh. This is an awesome email that I'm not going to read right now because there's not really a question in there, but somebody, an older guy talked about the timeline for marriage. We'll save that for some of you guys. Maybe we'll read that one next week. Okay. Rules for hitting on a sister's friend. So that would be your sister, her friend. Got it. All right. Fellas. Twenty three, six, one, one sixty five. Basketball comp is a scrawny Josh Hart. No impressive gym stats, but participate in pickup sports games as much as I can. This guy likes the sports ball. Okay. Pretty straightforward. Email here. I have a sister. We're only one year apart. I'd say we're pretty close or about average as far as siblings relationships go in your early twenties. My sister has friends, one friend in particular that I've seen on a dating app recently. I'm thinking about making a move, but not on a dating app and sending her a text. Instead, I find this girl very attractive and I'm confident that I am not out of the league of this friend. This is not a super close friend that I see often, but as far as I'm aware, they were still friends. Has anyone experienced anything similar or known someone that has been in this spot? Is it? Is it a rule or thumb rule of thumb in this situation like this? Every situation is different, but I think this is something I should get advice about since we were so close in age, went to the same college and could see this maybe coming up again in the future. Okay. Received a bunch of glasses for Christmas branded with every original Big East team and logo. It's probably my favorite gift ever. I highly suggest getting online and purchasing these. Okay. Did you send a link? I'll look it up. It's fine. We'll have to look that up. Kyle, the original vintage. I think I know which ones he's talking about, too. Those are sick. Yeah. All right. All right, boys. What do you got? I was putting a finger up for like everything that like, oh, maybe you could do this as he was running through the stats. I ended up with four and I think at the end, five fingers. I think you could do this. He said average relationship with the sister. Not out of your league. You guys are one year apart. They're kind of not great friends. They're better than acquaintances. You guys went to the same college. Yeah. You see, she's single. You guys found each other on the apps, but you're trying to go a different route. I mean, ding, ding, ding. I'd say, I'd say, go ahead. You don't have to like make a plan of attack with your sister here. But, you know, you guys, you guys are siblings. You'll know the right time to discuss this. But I don't think it's a I don't think it's like a family ruiner by any means. Yeah, I have two younger sisters. I've mostly stayed out of these waters. My I'm the oldest. My middle sister is like 18 months younger than me. And so there were some, you know, there were some overlapping things. But I don't know, because there is a weird line. And I'm not saying that you are this or you can be this. But there's a weird line between being like the horny brother, you know, like that's just like. Like not really a lane I want to occupy. So you just tread carefully. But I think Kyle said all the right things. And I love the college thing. Like, put it over the top for me. Like, you have a lot of things actually kind of that are easy ins where you're not just coming out of total left field here and just like hitting on one of like something. I walk around in a towel when they're hanging out on Facebook. Yeah. Like, I'm just going to shoot you a DM because you're. Hey, I just got divorced. How are things? You need any booze? Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. You're not the older brother. You're right. He's the younger brother. He's the older brother by a year. Oh, he's the older brother. OK. But it's. But that's not a bad. Yeah. That's not bad at all. I guess the question is, do you do you feel like you owe the sister a heads up? Like, would you be like, hey, I'm like one, even just for any advice or two, just so she's not completely blindsided by this. I don't know. I'm just asking. Yeah, I think it's a really good question. But I also like it depends specifically on that relationship. Like, what kind of relationship do you have with your sister? It sounds like you had more. So I said average. So I think it would really depend more on the relationship between the friends now. Like, are you able as a brother to gauge? Are these guys good friends or did they used to be good friends? And that's that's really what's kind of important here. Yeah. Like me personally, I think I think I would I think I would ask my sister about it. But that's the kind of guy you are. And you're an Italian. And, you know, you. I also want to know what she had to say. Your old school, your old world. Yeah, well, how about a little help? Every morning, this dynamic, every time it's completely different. There are siblings that love the idea of setting you up and having you be connected to her friend. And then everybody's just tighter. There's a lot of people like think that's great. There's other people that immediately like have this resistance to it. Yeah, which probably is sort of oddly protective in a way that like doesn't make a ton of sense. You're not significantly older than her. I also think that there's like the power dynamics of the siblings where if I'm the older brother and my younger sister has a hot friend who likes me and I like her and there's nothing weird about it. I don't care what my sister has to say, even if I'm very close to my sister that's closest to my age. We're very close. If she told me, I mean, it never came up, but if she had told me, I would not, I would back then, me, I wasn't going to listen to her. So it's a bit like, yeah, it's a lot like telling your best player on the NBA team, like, hey, should we trade for this guy or should we not trade for this guy? And it seems like, hey, the right thing to do is to make sure that your franchise, the face of the franchise knows your moves and everything you're going to do. But what happens when you're the GM, you get his advice on something, he tells you, you want him, hey, we should trade for this guy or we shouldn't trade for this guy. You get his input and then you do the opposite. That's worse than not asking him because then he feels like he came to me directly, I told you, and then you did the opposite of it. So sometimes it's better to not even ask. And that's why, like, some teams will tell you, it'd be great to have everybody on the same page. It'd be great to go, hey, it's super important that you're involved in all this stuff. But if I went to my star player and had him involved in every little thing, I'd be bugging him all the time. And then if I don't do the thing that he suggests, then it's far worse. Then you kind of have this sister dynamic where the younger sister of the brother can kind of be like, I don't care what any of the rules are. Like, I'm just doing this. I mean, I had one, it's somebody that I was super close with and one of my favorite people I've ever met. But I felt kind of shitty about it. And ultimately, she wasn't going to listen to anybody. And then it all worked out. And everybody was happy. Dude, my younger sister's a lesbian. That's like fucking jackpot for me. That was awesome. I mean, figuring that out. No fights for you. No, no. Get married this summer. Congratulations. I feel like there's 1,000 follow-ups, but we're not going to ask any of them. Another day, yeah. Maybe never. Yeah, we're doing the shorter life advice today, right? Okay. That'll be a summer when we're dark. Yeah. Kyle answers lesbian emails. I thought that was going to land a little bit better. Maybe it was awkward. All right. That's probably a good spot to end the show today. Thanks to Tom. Happy Pride. Oh, Pride's over. Shit. Sorry. Damn it. Yeah, just missed it. Thanks to Saruti. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to everybody out there, no matter who you are. Ryan Russillo. The show. Barstool Sports. Chew. We'll see you next time.