Ja Morant’s Impact, Linsanity Memories, and the Rise of Individual Branding in Basketball

🎙️ Coach Ross, Bobby Whyte, and Combo dive into an epic basketball discussion! From comparing Ja Morant’s potential impact on the Hornets to reflecting on the unforgettable “Linsanity” era, the trio debates whether winning still holds the same importance in today’s game. They break down Kawhi Leonard’s current standing, the rise of individual branding over team success, and the shift from long-form games to short-form highlights. Plus, they explore the skills that truly separate great players from the rest. Don’t miss their unique insights and plenty of laughs along the way! 🏀

 

👉 Check out the link below for elite basketball training. Join the Good Drills community today. ⬇️ www.good-drills.com/?el=podcast-episode6

Episode Transcript

(06:53:59):
We're here. Welcome back to the good pod.
We actually had a good conversation before the good pod.
I'm here with my good friends,
the good guys, the good drill.
We're here.
How are you doing today, Dr.
Ross?
Good friends.
The good friends.
Good friend pod.
The good friend pod.
It's very friendly.
It's almost like a happy hooping podcast.
Hey, combo.
Yeah.
What's up?
Did you see our shelves with nothing on them?

(06:54:19):
Well, you know what?
The thing is we're getting
better every day, little by little.
I see what you're doing.
At first we got, we had a big table here
and I had to look at you guys like this.
And then we changed the angle.
And today we got shelves.
Um, day by day contrast, you know, it
doesn't matter where you are on the ladder.
All that matters is if you're going up.

(06:54:42):
Is that true?
It's very true.
I think it matters.
If you're trying to go, go away
from a burning building, in that case,
you'd want to go down.
How was Italy, man?
Italy was really good.
It was good.
I don't like doing things out of my norm.
So the thought of flying there, taking
five days, getting off my schedule was a lot.
But once I got there, it was like

(06:55:03):
my best friends getting married.
A lot of my other best friends are there in the wedding.
We're not your best friends?
No.
You're good friends.
Okay.
Good friends.
Not my best friends.
But late Como was gorgeous.
It was like nice to get away.
Yeah.
I was the best man, did a best man speech.
How many posts did you get off during the wedding?
Three a day.
While I was in the wedding.
Like while you were like, you were like on stage.

(06:55:23):
I didn't post while I didn't have, no.
While I was on stage giving the best man speech.
With the charcuterie, you weren't posting off?
Charcuterie?
Charcuterie.
Charcuterie.
Not you.
No, I didn't post while I was at the
wedding because I didn't have service.
Did you miss this guy?
No.
Or were things better?
You got a pot in with zero and combo?
Look at you.
That was...
You're killing it.
That was exactly good.

(06:55:44):
That was good.
Exactly.
When Ross left for the whole month of July, it was awesome.
One of our best months ever for Good Drills was one of that
first time you went to Idaho.
Amazing for Good Drills.
We got good bread there.
In Idaho?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bigwood Bread Company.
Shout out.
Wow.
Look at that.

(06:56:04):
Bigwood Bread Company.
The Bigwood River, the name of the little, I don't even
know what you call it, breakfast
spot, lunch, but it's Bigwood Bread Company.
And that's where we go every single day.
The breakfast bread.
Did you think about basketball at all out there?
In Italy?
Yeah.
Always thinking about hoops.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You told me that you think Matas Buzelles will be the
rookie of the year just because
of the way he walks.

(06:56:25):
I don't think this.
I know this.
Tell me more.
Just how that kid carries himself.
He's got swag.
He's got everything.
The way he dresses, the way he looks, the way he talks.
Everything about his game is rookie of the year.
Yeah.
I actually watched him play and then
I thought he'd be rookie of the year.
Yeah, but you just had to watch him walk.
That's why you watch him walk on the court.
How he carries himself.

(06:56:46):
Rookie of the year.
That's it.
That's all I got to say.
You don't think there's some delusion
in basketball ever where like you ever
seen a guy with us that just walks on
the court and you might think he's good,
but then he's bad.
Um, yeah, actually no.
Cause I don't really judge people by the way they walk.
It's not how he walks, how he
dresses, how he carries himself.
He's, he's rookie of the year.
I do think that you can differentiate

(06:57:07):
like the lower echelon, like super low.
Like you might not make your middle
school team type to like a varsity high
school basketball player as terms
of like how they walk into the gym.
I think that's real.
It's a big enough disparity to say
who's going to be the rookie of the
year based on how they walk.
If you get it right, you have more.

(06:57:28):
More respect.
Well, he's going to get it right.
Cause the guy's good.
There's more fan dual conversation.
There's more, I think there's more crypto conversation
about, uh, advice and strategy.
If you get it wrong though.
Who else could possibly be rookie of the year?
I don't know.
I haven't really paid attention.
He's number two.
The top two picks up.
Aren't going to be rookie of the year.
In my opinion.

(06:57:48):
I think there's still projects.
Zach and Alex.
See, I mean, I think it's going to be him.
Dalton connect is pretty good, but
how much burn will he get on the Lakers?
I don't know.
He's tough though.
That kid is tough.
Yeah.
He went off in a three level score,
athletic six, five, older, but I'm
going to go with Matos because of how he walks.
No, because I watched him play at summer league.
No.
And I thought I really loved his

(06:58:10):
game because he has everything you need
on both sides of the floor.
He has feel on both sides of the floor.
He's just not shooting it well yet.
How tall is he?
Six, 10.
Around there.
Six, nine, six, 10.
Moves great.
Moves great.
Passes the ball up to court.
Yeah.
I think Zach Edie is averaging 17 and 10.
You're bugging my G.
Nope.
First rookie year.
Yep.
So in the modern NBA, I don't know

(06:58:32):
if you will revolve offense around a
post player like Zach Edie.
And if you're not revolving
offense around a player like Zach Edie,
you're just clogging up lanes.
I think they're going to get a
lot of high, low action with triple.
You like him in there when Jaws
like running up and down the court.
You like him just clogging.
No, no, no.
He's not going to be clogging.
He'll get a spacing like opposite shore corner.
They're going to do a lot.

(06:58:52):
He'll set, he'll set some streets.
17 game.
A lot of dump offs.
He's I'm telling you, I've watched
him probably full games of him playing
college, probably like six or seven
full games of him play and the, I know
college is a completely different game.
The amount of size that this guy
has, I think is very underrated.
When you watch somebody like Zion in
college, you're like, Hmm, he's really

(06:59:13):
big doing this against little dudes,
but he's not going to do this in the NBA.
When he's healthy in the NBA,
he freaking dominates the NBA.
I don't, did you say Zion?
Yeah.
You're comparing Zion to I'm just,
I'm, I'm comparing the physicality
ability to show how physical he
was in college, what his ability to
dominate with his presence
physically carried over to the NBA.
I think Zach Edie has that obviously in a different form.

(06:59:36):
He just has sheer size and like he's massive.
I think that he's going to be a problem.
And I think that part of the game
because of him will change because of how, how,
how mobile he is, even though he's not fast, he's mobile.
He's extremely strong.
He's extremely long and his touch is incredible.
I think that he's going to be an option on that team.

(06:59:56):
He's not going to just be somebody that, that fill space.
It's interesting.
There's a lot to unpack there.
I do think that at some point
there'll be a big man that'll kind of tip the
point of where we are with modern basketball, right?
Like if Shaq came now, like everything would change.
I think it did tip a little bit.
I think it already has.
It's not small ball anymore.
It's skill ball.
You want big skilled players.

(07:00:17):
I think, I think we had like a, like a
five or six year stretch when like the
power forward really went away and it
was like all about the stretch four.
And I think now we kind of have
like, there's some bigs that exist that
like they dominate like, like Joel and
B gets the freaking ball in the post.
And he's not, he's not the only one.
Joker gets a ball in the post.
LeBron posts up like these players are living in the post.

(07:00:38):
Even little guards are living.
I really Luca.
Yeah.
I mean, Luca's not little, but yeah, Bronson Bronson.
Bronson is one of the best post players in the league.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like it's not the same game that it
was like when, when the warriors were,
were insanely dominant and
everybody had to match up with them.
It's a little bit different of a league.
And I think that Zach Edie is, is, is
a presence enough that he's going to,
he's going to make a change.

(07:00:59):
How do you feel about Clinging?
I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't think that was the right pick.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't think that was the right pick.
I would have took Dalton connect.
Can Edie shoot at all?
Well, they say he can, but he has not in college.
Right.
He took like two threes, right?
Yeah.
Understandable though.
But I, I don't think to your point

(07:01:19):
about him averaging 17, if he's not able
to shoot or stretch the floor at all, he's not scoring 17.
I think he's going to,
How many minutes is he going to get a game?
I think he's going to be a very
different player than anybody that we're seeing.
He's Boban.
I don't think he's Boban at all.
He's a little bit better.
No, he actually, I don't know.
Actually, actually, I don't know if
he's, is he way better than Boban?

(07:01:39):
Way better.
What if Boban played in college?
He would destroy what he would destroy.
So I don't know anything for sure.
I don't know anything.
What I do see out of Zach is that.
Consistently his touch around
the rim is consistently there.
He's hitting all those little baby hooks.
He's not missing.
There's a focus that he has and he's

(07:02:00):
getting into things where, where other
players of his size and magnitude would
kind of like react based on a situation.
Like, like an athletic big, like a
Javelle McGee, like they're, they're
reacting to situations around them.
I think that he's actively looking
for things and he has that skill.
And I think it's very underrated.
The coupling of his skill with his size.
I think it's very underrated.
What he's going to do.

(07:02:21):
You know what I was thinking about Bobby?
What's that?
The skill of passing.
Yeah.
And it feels like a more innate skill than all the others.
What do you think about that?
I was thinking about how a player could
become a better passer, but I think a lot
of that skill is very natural, but I
would also say, I look at it like finishing.

(07:02:42):
Like you need to have the options and then
you need to know when to use those options.
And as younger players, we always teach
the chess pass, the bounce pass, those
basic passes that you're probably
not even using in real games often.
Yeah.
I don't teach any of that stuff.
Yeah.
And how innate is the skill of passing?
I mean, how innate is one skill relative to another skill?

(07:03:03):
So you're saying.
I think it's very different than shooting.
You're thinking, but is it because
more people prioritize their shooting than
their passing, they spend more time
shooting and they don't spend as much
time really focused on developing the passing game?
No, I'll tell you that I've seen
players become incredibly better shooters over
the course of time, and I don't see
that as much when it comes to passing.

(07:03:24):
Why do you think that is?
I feel like passing is the most innate skill.
And basketball.
Uh, I don't know.
It's tough to like, I've never really been.
Like handle, if you rep out handle
and you do all the things you guys
talk about with movement, right?
Your, your handle is going to get better.
Dribble your basketball, wherever you
go, your handle is going to get better.

(07:03:46):
What can you do to become a better passer?
I feel a lot of that is processing.
Obviously you could work on processing,
but to me, it's just the most innate skill.
Ross, you have any ideas on how
one could become a better passer
through skill development?
Well, my general take on the passing
thing is almost similar to my take on your
ability to like, to, to clap and
be a good teammate on the bench.

(07:04:07):
It's like, it's not a rate limiter.
I don't think it's a rate limiter.
The physical ability to pass the
skillful ability to actually pass a ball
is not a rate limiter.
So you do so it makes sense not
to really focus on it like crazy.
When you're talking about IQ and
you're talking about perception and reading
defenses and like kind of knowing how
to play make, I think that's a little

(07:04:27):
bit different and w but if you just
strictly comparing your skillful ability
to literally pass the ball and working
on your different passes versus shoot,
I just don't think that there's so much,
so much failure and it's not a, it's not
a rate limiter in games, that
problem where people won't work on them.
And that's my general take.
I agree with Bobby on that.
It's like, I don't think that it's that big of an issue.

(07:04:50):
So it's like, I, I never think about it.
Except actually this morning I was
thinking about, I was actually thinking
about why don't I think about it?
So I was kind of like prepared.
That's psychic.
Yeah.
It's the thought about passing this morning.
Swear in my life.
I'm psychic.
When I always knew I was a
prophet, but I couldn't find a decent job.
Who said that?
No idea.
Jay-Z, go ahead though.
When I think about passing, there's like

(07:05:10):
a big calibration that needs to happen.
Right.
How fast am I throwing the ball?
How much do I need to lead?
How, like, where are the defense?
And it's just your ability to process all that information.
So how I would train that is like we
train everything else and put players in
situations where they need to
process that amount of information.
And it needs to make it, I think
simply making passing the goal, right.
Could develop that.

(07:05:31):
I don't know if it's more innate than
anything else, but I think definitely
there's a lot going on to be an
excellent passer simply because of the amount of
information that you need to one, take in and then two,
execute on what you're seeing.
I also think it's a good idea to mix in
passing when you're working on the handle.
Right.
We want different options as a passer.
Like if we could pass with our
left, we want to pass with our right.
We want to pass from the dribble.

(07:05:53):
We want to make the dribble to the pass very effortlessly.
Very effortless.
So when you see the option, you
could just make that pass quickly.
I think the biggest problem here is what
you talked about in the beginning is that
we teach passing like two hand chess
pass and they're like giving them this
optimal way to pass a ball.
This is how you pass a ball.
How often watch an NBA game, how many passes are like that?

(07:06:13):
You're never passing the ball unless
it's getting the ball at the court.
Which is a problem today, by the way.
Right.
Just passing the ball to court.
Like not enough players do that.
But every single pass you're being
guarded, the guy you're passing to is being
guarded.
You're trying to thread a seam.
You're trying to move up and around.
You've got to be able to move that ball.
This is not it.
You know, it's crazy.
It's such low hanging fruit to just be
able to grab a rebound and pass the ball

(07:06:34):
up the court, like the bar is so
low these days to be a great passer.
Like if you just did that, if you
could just take the ball and pass it up the
court, most players would become significantly better.
I bring that back to a vision thing.
And if like that's most players don't get
the ball and get their eyes up the court.
Or a hundred percent.
Even the point guard like that.
I yell at these freaking high school
kids all the time because they don't look up

(07:06:55):
to court when I catch a rebound.
The first thing I'm doing is my eyes are up the court.
I'm trying to get to the other side of
the bat, the other side of the hoop, right?
The other side of the court.
And if I, if there's somebody up there, I'm hitting them.
If not, I'm going.
And it's just like getting my
eyes from rebound up the court and
young players don't do that.
Yeah.
Lonzo was a big reason.
The Bulls were so good.
Even though he's injured now, just because
he would simply pass the ball up the court,

(07:07:16):
keep the ball moving.
But I guess we're obsessed with the bag in this era.
Maybe that's part of the reason.
I heard him talk about that on a podcast.
Oh really?
Yeah.
I just watched it.
I didn't even hear him talk about that.
Yeah.
Not on a podcast, but on a
short, I heard him talk about how he
developed his passing ability.
And it's something he said, it's
something he'd never worked on.
It just him and his brothers, they played a lot.

(07:07:36):
They just played a lot and he
developed them over time and it became a focus.
It may have been, it may even be a result of his
environment that he's with two
brothers that are insanely talented
and, and, and they kind of work as a team.
They work as a unit.
And he was kind of like the
quarterback of that unit, maybe a little bit.
That's an interesting concept.
Um, but something that I'm thinking of,

(07:07:57):
and I was talking about like, like passing
as a skill, I don't think it's a rate
limiter in, in terms of like, what are
the goals of players and what are the, you have a goal.
What are the things that are limiting you
from achieving that, achieving that goal?
There's going to be something
that's like, okay, what's the main thing?
What's that?
The top of the list of like, this is
the thing that's holding me up right now.

(07:08:17):
I have to work on this.
I think that passing is almost
never a rate limiter to goals.
If a player wants to get score more, or
if they want to be more of an impact on
their team, or if they want to play, make
more, I do not think that the ability to
pass the ball will be their problem.
Or I wouldn't put money on it that it is their problem.
But what I will, what I will say is

(07:08:38):
that, um, the player that's, that's, I
forget, I don't know how I forget his name.
He played for, um, Kentucky.
What's his, what's his name?
I love him.
Uh, point guard for Kentucky.
He was a freshman.
He's going to the league.
Dillingham.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dillingham watching him pass the ball though.
It like really for him, I see it and it's like, holy moly.
He whipped, he can zip the ball.

(07:09:00):
He like re like the skill of it.
He can zip the ball and I, there's something to that.
Like he has a real crazy ability
to get the ball from his hands to
somebody else's hands so fast.
And that's like, that puts it in a whole different lens.
So I have to kind of think about it
more, but I don't think for most players
that it's like, Oh, wow, you're not a good passer.
That's why you're not, that's why
you're not playing 17 minutes a game

(07:09:21):
and you're only playing two minutes a game.
I don't think so.
I think processing matters.
Like even when we look in the NBA,
Julius Randall is a great player, but
what limits him somewhat, even
though he was all MBA was his ability to
process the game and pass the ball.
So I think it does matter not only for
the league's best players, but for kids.
No processing, processing matters.

(07:09:42):
Yeah, of course.
And that's such a big part of passing.
Yes.
Yeah.
We're, we're always stuck on terms.
I feel like me and
The terms, we gotta have, you know,
we need to make a good pod dictionary.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm thinking of the clip of Jokic
where the guy's coming behind him
and he could just feel them, right?
Is he a good passer because he
repped out passing or is he a good passer
because of his ability to take in information?

(07:10:03):
He played water polo though.
That's repping out passing.
Serious.
So I should go play water polo.
If you want to become a better passer.
Or we could just play basketball and pass.
I don't know.
I think, you know, sometimes when
you step away from your craft and you
work on other crafts, it makes you better in your craft.
Yeah, definitely.
You know, like I feel like all the

(07:10:24):
reading, I never talk about how much
I read on pods, but I will right now.
I feel like all the reading I do really
helps me with what I do with podcasting.
Right.
And it's not the same sport.
It's a different art.
Yeah.
And I think it's saying I think
water polo can help you in basketball.
I think, well, if we say water polo can help you.
I don't, you don't like this drill.
Pistol Pete was doing this drill.
I don't like it.

(07:10:45):
You don't like it.
He doesn't like that drill.
That's not true.
He probably doesn't like that drill.
He does it.
Saying it's not true.
Yeah.
It's not the reason why he's saying
that it's that it's he, he puts it
in a different context, I think.
What I'm saying with that drill, this
one, the finger taps, the same people
that do that will look at other
things, other drills and say, you're

(07:11:05):
never going to do that in a game.
Like everybody out there that is saying,
you're never going to do that in a game
with something that we do is out there doing this.
Yeah.
The redic that's the most ridiculous
statement when somebody says you're
not going to do that in the game.
Are we going to squat with a barbell in our back in a game?
No, no, but it'll make us a better jumper.
It'll do a lot of things for us.
Right.
You just said water polo could help you
in the game, but you're never going to

(07:11:25):
play water polo while you're playing basketball.
A hundred percent.
It's all about movements.
There's, it's all about, I didn't say
it's all about one thing is hard for me.
It's all about it, man.
That was good.
You got me, you got me there.
Not a lot of people get me.
No, it's, you're right.
It's all about, it's not about one thing.
It's not what's it about?

(07:11:46):
You don't like that drill though.
No, I don't like that.
Yeah.
If I'm being like, why are you live on the good pod?
I didn't lie.
It's just gave Cal Bobby's lies.
Fact check like the debate.
I don't know.
Check what's it doing?
Warming up your fingers.
Like what's it doing?
I don't know.
I have to talk to pistol Pete.
What he's saying when he was saying
that here with us anymore, his, his stuff

(07:12:07):
was becoming one with the ball, right?
Really just becoming one with the
ball, the ball wraps, all that stuff.
It's not bad, but it's like, what is it doing?
You're going to become a great basketball player?
No.
And it's not like everything we do is
this is going to be the one thing that
gets you to become a great basketball player.
It's just like, I don't really see much benefit into that.
If you want to do it in the beginning of a workout, sure.
But not much is being accomplished.
Speaking of benefits, what's the best bang for your buck to

(07:12:30):
becoming a better leaper?
Leaping.
Agreed.
Leaping.
A lot.
I think 90% of kids out there that
are trying to put inches on their
vert or dunk are right now scrolling.
They're taking in information,
taking in from in their tape, just taking

(07:12:51):
in all this information, they're
researching different jump programs.
They're looking at strength training.
They're questioning whether they should do a vertimax.
They're looking at this guy doing
this, this guy saying this, but what
they're not doing is jumping.
Put down the phone and jump.
That's it to start.
Is that the end all be all?
No, but if you just right now go
obsess over jumping, mark your calendar

(07:13:14):
three, four days a week, 20 minute timer.
I'm just going to jump as high as I can for 20 minutes.
I'm going to find something a little
bit higher than I can currently touch.
And I'm going to go do that.
I guarantee you're touching
that thing in a little bit of time.
And then what do you do after that?
Find something a little bit higher.
Go try to touch that.
And you repeat that process.
You're going to build your vertical jump.
That's it.
And if these 90% of kids that
aren't currently doing that just went and

(07:13:35):
did that, started jumping obsessively.
They'd be jumping higher thoughts.
You know, I think that there's three
main things when it comes to jumping higher.
I think it's the skill of it is very important.
And when I say skill, I really mean, what does that mean?
You slow it down.
I think slowing it down,
breaking it down, keeping it tight.

(07:13:56):
So two step jumping, I think is really good.
Two step off two feet, two step
off one foot, really nailing down and
getting efficient with it.
Cause if you do that a lot, if you
do that enough, like you do it for
15 minutes a day, three days a
week or something like that, after the
course of a month, you're going to
noticeably feel how much more efficient
you're moving, how much more
efficient you're translating horizontal
energy to vertical, you're going to feel way more

(07:14:17):
comfortable jumping in general.
But then I think the second part,
which is the most important part is putting
a lot of effort into that system.
So you want to build that efficient system.
You want to get a lot of
practice and get efficient with it.
But then it's like max effort.
Jumping is the actual thing.
That's it's the intensity that's
going to bring you to a higher vertical
jump and then just like, like
strength training strength, like literally

(07:14:38):
just freaking lift extremely
heavy because the body is the vehicle.
So it's like, you got to get the body, right?
You got to get the body, right?
How do you get the body, right?
Hard challenge with strength training.
And that's a really good way to do it.
I got a hack to jump higher right away.
You talk about, you know, um, two inches and seven days.
I think I could get you two inches in 30 minutes.

(07:14:58):
How?
Just go heavy lunges and then jump.
I bet you, if you take your vertical leap
or try and dunk before you do those heavy
lunges and then you do heavy lunges
and then you try and dunk, you'll see a
substantial difference.
Have you tested this?
I just know from times where I
always thought that maybe I shouldn't
play after I lift legs, right?

(07:15:20):
And those times that I lifted legs and
there just happened to be a run going
on where I'm like, okay, I want to play.
I've jumped the highest on those days.
Go try it.
So there there's definitely like, like
if you obliterated your legs, like take it
to that extreme, you would probably not jump aside.
If you do the right amount, it's almost like a warmup now.
Now your system is ready.

(07:15:41):
Your system, your, your, your muscle temperature is warmer.
Calcium channels are operating.
They're pumping through.
So now it's like your muscles are,
it's essentially a warmup and a warmup
can be looked at what do you do right before the activity?
What do you do hours before the activity?
What is the activities that you
do every day as far as preparation?
You know what I mean?
To keep, keep the system ready.
I think you're getting the system ready.
I love lunges.

(07:16:02):
Great.
Do lunges.
Do lunges lunges are good.
Your guy talks about a glorified warmup with lifting.
He coached in the NBA.
He, uh, strength coaching the NBA.
Your guy, he talks about micro dosing.
Oh, he talks about how what he does with micro dosing is
basically a glorified warmup.
Yeah.
But with weights.

(07:16:23):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's good.
It is good.
Yeah.
That's.
I've been strength training
really hard now for a month and a half.
I was getting ready for the wedding.
I realized that's really, that's why you start.
And by the way, I've been doing it.
So I'm going to pull that clip up.
Four days a week.
You've been doing it.
All the reps, all the sets, all the reps, all the shot.
Have you been?
Yes.

(07:16:44):
Really?
Oh, yes.
He's a liar.
Yeah.
Are you called?
He has been doing it for the wedding.
I was not for the wedding.
You know what?
You're right.
Why do I care about that wedding?
I don't know.
That's weird.
I don't care about that wedding whatsoever.
You do not about how I look.
What do you wait?
Have you been lied today?
A lot?
No, that's a care about the wedding.
It is one day.
That was your best wedding hair about
the wedding, but not how my body looks.

(07:17:05):
I'm going to my wedding.
That's ridiculous.
So I don't think he's back to my story.
I don't think he's back to my story.
I think he knows that all hope
is lost with the way he looks.
This is what I'm just being talked over.
Go ahead though.
I don't even know if I want to say it anymore.
No, say it.
I'm Bob.
I've been strength training hard
or let's say a month and a half.
Yeah.
I had leg day yesterday in the morning.

(07:17:25):
I was going to come back to your point combo.
I was destroyed yesterday.
Didn't want to do any content.
Had to meet Gabe at the gym.
I had to go now and half content.
I did a video that required me to dunk at the end of it.
And I didn't think I was going to be capable of dunking.
I went up and dunked easier than I have in a long time.
Combos theory is right.
I knew it.
Might be.

(07:17:46):
Wait, why don't maybe just before
the thing is though, maybe just before
a game, just do some lunges.
There's a lot you could do.
But there's so much more than
jumping high when it comes to a game.
Right.
So yeah.
But the way I jumped yesterday, it wasn't like I was loose.
It wasn't like I felt great.
But when I got off the ground, I
just felt like I had more power.
Like I was just strong.
It was a different type of feeling.
Sometimes I'm feeling loose.
You know, we got, we're, we're

(07:18:07):
playing my energies up, whatever it is.
Yesterday, I just went up and dunked the ball.
I was like, Oh, that was really easy.
Yeah.
And I just felt stronger.
I think lifting through heavy
weight is really important when
it comes to the way you jump.
I agree.
Yeah.
I think it's, I think something that
people don't talk about with lifting
is that it could present a, a skill

(07:18:28):
enhancement and something that it's my
own little, my own little way of organizing ideas.
It's like when people talk about
isometrics, people talk about stretching.
When people talk about lifting, I
think you, there's def just because it's
something that's not jumping,
doesn't mean that it's something that can't
improve your skill, meaning how your body organizes to
eventually achieve that task.

(07:18:50):
And I think that when people talk
about isometrics for tendon health,
tendon stiffness, tendon
reorganization, like, like when the
attendance is not healthy, it's not organized.
It's not, it's not the, the, the, the
collagen is not running in the, in the
correct way, it's not running in an organized way.
It's like, that's what strength training does.
That's what isometrics do.
It's like, it's not just your

(07:19:10):
nervous system that organizes, it's your
whole body that gets organized.
And now it's like, you're
jumping off a more efficient system.
I think that's, that's a way that I look at it.
So oftentimes when people are
looking for the fix of knee pain, it could
be just lifting more weight.
I do think that knee a hundred percent.
I think like, if you're somebody that's

(07:19:30):
running a lot or you're, you're jumping
a lot and it's, you're, you're
trying to jump as high as you can.
I do think lifting in a very, in a way
where it's not, you're not destroying
the system, there is a skill aspect to it.
I do think that there has to be a focus, right?
So if you have knee pain, there has to
be a focus on what is the skill that I
am enhancing with the implement that I'm

(07:19:51):
using so that I could be more efficient
and, and be in less pain when I'm actually doing the thing.
There's of course also like central
and peripheral things that are happening
in your nervous system that will, will
like sensitize and desensitize what's
happening, but I do think that
there's a skill problem with some pain.
How does one leap higher, two inches higher in seven days?

(07:20:13):
They got to go through the nine steps.
Take us through or they have to buy the good drill app.
No.
Buy the good drill app.
Well, I believe, like I said before.
Is that good?
Buy the, or is there a better way to phrase that?
No, go buy it.
Go buy it.
Go buy it immediately.
Yeah.
It's the best thing on the planet.
It's the best thing out there.
Proceed.
I use it by the way.
Why wouldn't you?

(07:20:33):
Yeah, it's really good.
Okay.
Two inches on seven days.
One, you're setting a clear goal, right?
Now you're going to start this process.
My goal is to put two inches on my vert in seven days.
There is a huge benefit just by
like declaring that, making it real.
So now we're putting that, it's, we're
saying we can get two inches on every
kid's vert in the first seven days, right?

(07:20:53):
You're putting that in their mind.
They believe it.
There's a huge thing happening there with just them
believing that they can do it.
Ooh, I like that.
So now goal in front of the mind,
I'm going to put two inches on my vert.
So that already gave you more motivation to go into this.
In seven days, it's a timeframe where
it's like thinking, Oh, I got to put three
inches on my vert in six months.
Is it worth this work?
This is like, if I put in this
work for just seven days, right?

(07:21:15):
And obsess over this for seven days, it can happen.
Does it always happen?
I'm not going to say it always happens, right?
But you can see our testimonials
and the amount of people that go
through this and get it done.
Then the first thing we do is we measure.
So many kids out there right now are
trying to jump higher, but they don't
know how high they currently jump, right?
My goal is to put six inches on my vert.
Where are you starting from?
How are you going to measure this?

(07:21:35):
Because you want that feedback of the measurements while
you're going through this process.
So we measure your vert.
It's 20 inches.
All right.
Now clear goal.
I need to get to 22, right?
And if, but if you didn't know you
had a 20 inch for where are we going?
If we don't know where we're coming from, right?
And then from there, we take them through
all the stuff that we do at good drills.
It's, it's jumping, it's mechanics, it's movement, it's

(07:21:55):
effortlessness, it's fluidity.
It's a lot of different things.
And we do that.
We, we demonstrate that and show
athletes how to go through all of the stuff that
we do, and then more often than not,
they put two inches on their vert in seven
days, sometimes more.
You took it down from months to a
week, which is really important.
So Ross is the key to success.

(07:22:15):
Just figuring out what we have
to do on the daily, or do you
love the idea of five year plans?
I think that to get to a five year plan,
you have to start and get the momentum.
And like we talked about last time,
starting is the most, is the hardest part.
But if you can say to somebody,
look, you can get this result in this
short amount of time, if you

(07:22:36):
literally just start massive back to the
measuring thing though, I think it's so
underrated, they figured it out in weight
loss, if you literally just measure
your weight, like every week, then you're
going to lose weight just by that
mere fact alone, because you're paying
attention to something you're looking at it.
If you look at your bank account, like you're paying
attention to what's happening.
So it's like you look at how high are you jumping?

(07:22:59):
You're going to make changes.
You're going to get that
feedback, like Bobby was saying, and
you're going to make changes.
And then everything else that we do
in there, we kind of, it's so good
because we just introduce you to
like how to train good at the same time.
You're getting this quick result.
So it's setting you up for that
long-term plan, but it's, you're
getting almost hooked in by that short
term result, which is, you can call it

(07:23:20):
what you want, but it's like, how
do you get somebody to take action?
Like that's like a transfer of consciousness.
Like that's amazing.
Like get them to freaking take action.
And then they could stay in a
long-term path to putting in the work.
Does a long-term plan matter when
you're killing it on the day to day?
Yes.
Because it organizes what you do in the day to day.
It doesn't, if you just want to,

(07:23:40):
like we talked about again last time,
emptying the tank.
Like if I just want to like go to
work, fine, I'm going to be, I'm going to
be hyped by just like emptying
the freaking tank and going all out.
But it's like, if you want to achieve
a very specific goal and you want to
be very goal oriented, then you
got to, you got to look at a plan,
execute plan, look back, did that plan work?

(07:24:00):
If it did continue plan, if not
make adjustments, but it's all about
just starting and then you can
make those adjustments on the fly.
If you're, if you have a certain goal and that's good.
Should vertical jump training be
a focus or should overall athletic
development be more of the focus?
Uh, it depends on that, that who's in front of me, right?

(07:24:20):
That's really a person to person.
Like what are you after here?
I don't know a basketball player
that doesn't want to jump higher.
So it's an easy thing, right?
Every basketball player wants to jump higher.
Find me one basketball player.
It's like, nah, I'm good with my 25 inch vert.
I feel like if you focus on
athletic development as a whole, you'll
become a better jumper as a by-product.
It's easy to sell vertical jump.
Exactly.
You know, exactly.

(07:24:41):
Full transparency.
But I was thinking that the best
athletes measure without knowing it.
Like we're talking about the value in measuring.
And if I look at my top athletes,
I'm thinking they measure all the
time without even knowing it
because they're constantly competing with
themselves and they're competing with others.
So all of the best athletes I
have, they are obsessed with trying to
dunk and that's their first measurement.

(07:25:03):
How far am I from dunking?
And they know this, whether it's
like a conscious thought or not, they're
obsessed with dunking and that's their
measurement is getting the ball through
the rim and then the second they get
that it's a two hand dunk and then it's
a windmill and then it's a 360.
Then it's an East Bay.
That's their measurements.
And they're just always, they're so
competitive that they're trying to one up.
The sucky athletes, the athletes that are no good.

(07:25:24):
It's like, they're not doing anything.
There's no measurement.
There's no competition.
There's nothing happening.
They're freaking scrolling on social media.
Looking at all the best athletes get better.
Do you think we overvalue
jumping when it comes to the way we
evaluate athletes example, Obie Toppin
jumps way higher than Jimmy Butler, but

(07:25:45):
Jimmy Butler is just the
tremendously better athlete in my opinion.
I think some people do and it's
why they don't have a true eye.
They'll just see athleticism and take
that as you were really good basketball
player, but it's obviously not the case.
There's so many different
factors that come into play with it.
But I do think that if you looked at a
very broad, like that's in the micro.

(07:26:06):
I do think though, in the macro, if
you looked at players that have the
intention of playing basketball at
the highest level, and you looked at a
correlation between that and their
ability to their max approach jump, I
think there would, there
would, there would be a correlation.
Like there is a correlation
between athleticism and being good.
There just is.
I mean, that's why they do combine.
That's why we, and that's why we work on it.
And that's why we think it's so
important, but it's not only that it's how can you

(07:26:27):
take that athleticism and pair it with skill?
How can you do skilled movement with your athleticism?
I think your ceiling is higher when
you're a great athlete and your skills
show more when you're a great athlete.
Yes.
If you, and I think that that is a,
that the way, the reason why I say
athletic skill, and it's not just
to, to say something that's unique.

(07:26:47):
It's like, I think it's a skill within itself.
I think if you have the ability to, to
go shoot like a mic and layup, that's,
that's a skill, right?
You can put the ball in the basket with the lamp.
But I think a completely different
skill is your ability to be quick and
execute the skill with that speed.
That's a different skill.
It's, it's a completely different task.
It's like, you have to take in
what's going on in the environment.

(07:27:08):
You have to make adjustments on the fly
and you have to move extremely quickly.
That's athleticism.
That is also skill, but it's not purely
like, Oh, let's see how high you could jump.
Like, I think that's a little bit
more based on like, what is your physical
ability, but I think there's a
pairing that has to happen there.
Yeah.
Two thoughts I have with this one.
I'd like to see the G league average

(07:27:29):
vert compared to the NBA average vert.
Oh, the G leagues higher.
You think so?
Yeah.
So that answers part of your
question with how important is it?
It's important, but what do you guys think?
Well, if you had to guess, if I had to
guess, I would, it's a younger league.
It's a younger league and there's not as many bigs.
I think the bigs in the NBA
would take down the average vert.
Sometimes, you know, the vertical of a

(07:27:50):
big is really good at times because they're,
they're actually good at that one skill
of jumping straight up some of the bigs.
Right?
I feel like the guards could
move and get up quicker, maybe.
I would think the, the taller you are
probably across the board, the lower you're
jumping, I think not for everybody.
You ever see Jericho Sims jump?
No, I know.
No, I know there's these guys, but then
you got these weird yoke kicks and like
what's them beads, guys like that.

(07:28:12):
The guys that are super skilled
and so smart, they might not have the
athleticism at some of the G league players.
Right.
But so there's that.
And then Ross had a post he did what
last year, whatever, talking about Brunson.
Everybody looks at Brunson like he's
the most skilled and he, and he's not very
athletic, like you don't think of
Brunson as an athletic player, but what was his
verdict to combine?
It's 37 inches max approach vert.

(07:28:34):
Like, like I just forget about that.
And when you're a high school player
trying to see how can you become that?
It's like, if you have a freaking 25
inch max approach vert, like you're dead.
There's so many guys like that.
Well, like, everybody wants to be
able to handle and finish like Kyrie.
Kyrie at six one hammers the
ball, goes up and catches oops.
Even at this age.
Even at this age.
He probably was 35, 40 inch vert in his prime.

(07:28:55):
Yeah.
It's like there's something there.
Yeah, I totally agree.
There's a threshold back to that.
There's a threshold.
And it's like when you're, you don't
have a trained eye and you just watch on TV.
You forget because the comparison is so
low because you're, you're seeing NBA player
against NBA player.
It looks like you're playing
two K and you don't really get it.
You take an NBA player, you
put them into a high school game.

(07:29:16):
You're gonna be like, Oh my God, I did not realize how
athletic this freaking person is.
If you put Brunson into a high school
game right now, he's probably like dunking a
lot on people and he's short and
he doesn't even play like that.
Yeah, it's funny.
Cause so I remember I was a hooping at a St.
Francis college, right?
A low division one school.
And there was an NBA player that came in

(07:29:36):
and he was known not to be a great shooter,
but you got him in that run and he was
knocking down everything because the game
was just slower for him, you know?
And that's just the way it is.
So it's crazy.
Yeah.
It's like Goku in the, uh, in the,
uh, chamber of the gravity thing.
Yeah.
I know that.
You mentioned the G league.
What's a bigger jump in level division one

(07:29:57):
basketball to the G league or G league to
the NBA?
Ooh, that's good.
That's a good question.
I think definitely division one to G league.
I agree.
I think G league players are on the cusp.
Well, I totally agree.
What do you think?
That's tough.
I think a lot of the NBA, the NBA guys
are in the NBA, not the G league more with
how they, how professional they are.

(07:30:19):
Say that one more time.
I think a lot of the players that are in
the NBA and not in the G league are in the
NBA because of how they carry themselves, how, how they're,
well, how they know how, how they
have the skillset to fit a role.
And if mentally they want to fit a role.
That's the big question with a lot of these guys.
Yes.
Where I think there's a bigger jump from
D one to G league in terms of skill and

(07:30:40):
athleticism and understanding the game and all of that.
Yeah.
I think the bigger jump from, from G
league to NBA is more about how professional
those guys are.
If you take D one as a whole, it's not
even close, but even if you take high
major D one, I still think the jump.
I mean, when I was coaching in China, we
had throughout the course of the season,
we had three or four guys, you know,
second round draft picks in the NBA.
And all these guys are just, they're insane.

(07:31:02):
And they were all mostly G league guys at
this point, but they're, I mean, freaks,
absolute freaks, like why aren't these
people in the NBA and had more to do with.
Other things.
Yeah.
I mean, it's only 400 guys.
So it's the little things that separate
you and how your skillset fits in the NBA.
And what type of, what arc type of
player you are, if you're a great player, but
you're a six foot one bucket

(07:31:22):
getter, how many spots are there for you?
But if you're six eight, could slide your feet at three,
there's a lot more spots for you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's why a lot of those like bucket
getters, they they're in, they're overseas.
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's good.
Yeah.
So what MBA, what have you been thinking about?
What's been on your mind?
What are you excited about this upcoming season Ross?

(07:31:43):
I am definitely excited.
I do like, I, I more, I think
I'm more like the NBA than Bobby.
I think a little bit more.
I'm a Knicks fan more than Bobby is.
I really liked the Knicks.
I think I'm going to the home opener.
Even if Brooklyn goes back to New Jersey.
I don't like Brooklyn.
Brooklyn is not my thing.
No, I'm a Knicks fan.
I'm going to, I think I'm going to

(07:32:04):
the home opener game against the Pacers.
Who you going with?
Uh, probably my, the good guys with you.
I should.
You should bring the good guys with you.
Yeah, I should do that.
I'm glad you said that.
I'm, I'm honestly pumped to see how these
teams kind of, kind of like mesh together.
I, I'm excited for Ja to come back.
I'm actually really excited.
I want to see that that whole dynamic of

(07:32:24):
like, who's going to like rise to the top
between you got Ja on the come up.
You got Ant-Man on the come up.
You know, I want to see how, how the sons do.
Like, was there a little bit of relationship happening
that, that kind of puts them in
the right direction with D book and, and the rant.
I want to see a Bradley Beal, how
he's going to kind of mesh back in.
There's so much redundancy and skillset with those players,

(07:32:45):
but they made some nice additions.
I want to see what like did maybe
Devin Booker kind of had something out.
Yeah.
I want to see what happened.
I want to see, cause they have a lot of talent on that team
and maybe they're going to take
some lessons and bring it over.
You know, it's interesting.
He could probably bring in the same mentality that he had
in the Olympics, but keep the
same raw box stats at the same time.

(07:33:07):
Yes.
Like that's how good he is.
Yes.
Yeah.
I agree with that.
Yeah.
I agree with, I don't think he's
probably probably not going to drop.
70 again, but I think that the wind more.
He should, he should definitely do that.
You mentioned Joe, where do you feel it's
hard to like rank them at this point, right?
Like, I think I saw hoops hype had him at
19 by the way, they didn't have PG 13 and
top 25, which is type of crazy.

(07:33:28):
It's polarizing guy, the young kids that you guys train,
some of them look at him like
their goat and now he's not
even a top 25 player in the NBA.
Really weird.
But, um, yeah, where do you think Joe lands?
Jaws, I think he's, he's still like a tie.
He's a top five PG.
Oh, I was on the same player.
PG.
No, he's a top five point card.
Easily.
He's probably one of my

(07:33:48):
favorite players to watch in general.
Um, I yeah, he's not, I don't know how
easily like, like, like, who do you got?
Jaa?
Well, here's the big thing.
Here's the biggest thing.
Who's a point guard?
Like, how do we define that position?
Is Luca and SGA and those guys point guards then?
No.
Right? Yeah.
Yeah.
Luca and SGA are point guards.

(07:34:09):
Yes.
I mean, maybe not SGA, maybe not SGA.
LeBron, LeBron's a point guard.
No, no, no, no, I'm not doing that.
It's hard, man.
How do we define the Jaa?
Actually, the thing about Jaa is he
actually plays like a point guard.
He's like a great game manager.
Super high IQ.
Who you got?
You got Jaa, Jaa Marant or Tyrese Maxi right now?
Jaa Marant.
Easily, right?
Easily.
I bet you you'd find if you asked a

(07:34:30):
hundred people, I bet you like 30% of them
would say Tyrese Maxi right now.
Ridiculous take.
I agree.
So I agree.
What are you doing?
Takes against yourself here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm just trying to be honest.
I agree.
You know what separates Jaa outside
of just him being a ridiculous athlete.
His IQ is really underrated.
Like he's a great game manager.

(07:34:52):
Nobody talks about that and his
ability to finish in the lane.
Obviously he's, he got to get the
shooting better, but you know, it's part of this
like skill development era, like Tyrese
Maxi has that bag and can get into his
shot better than Jaa Marant.
But Jaa Marant's a better basketball player.
I'm also excited about Lamello coming back.
He was doing so well before he got hurt.

(07:35:12):
And he's, he's so good, man.
Like, but he's like a different breed of a player.
So it's like, it feels weird to
even compare like all these players.
It feels weird.
Uh, like Jaa Marant versus Lamello,
it's like, like probably Jaa, but it's like
Lamello is so different that
it's like, it feels off to compare.
The thing is Lamello hasn't impacted

(07:35:33):
winning like Jaa quite yet and he's been
in the league a little bit, but
there has been some injuries too.
Yeah.
And he's been, he's on the freaking Hornets.
But if you put Jaa on the
Hornets, I think they'd be better.
I don't know.
Really?
I don't know.
That guy could put a team on his back.
Who else is on the Hornets?
I don't even know.
That Jeremy Lamb just retired.
So nobody.
Jeremy Lamb, that feels so like he's young.

(07:35:53):
Yeah, I know.
I remember when he was at UConn and he was like, nice.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's that one by quick, that career.
Yeah.
Wembley, where does he rank in the top players right now?
What would you give Wembley at first 2K rating, Bobby?
2K rating.
I haven't played 2K in 10 years.
But you get the idea.
I get the idea.
I get the idea.
Right?
Like I'm 99 and you're like 50.
Because it's his second year.
I don't know, in 88.

(07:36:14):
He didn't even get the joke.
No, I'm...
Consistency mode.
Go ahead though.
Yeah.
What do you think?
I got the joke.
I'm not...
You gotta laugh every time, man.
I, you ask me a question and tell the joke.
I'm trying to multitask here.
I'm sorry.
I'm doing a lot.
I'm doing a lot.
88.
88.
Wow.
You?
He's literally like unguardable and he
can like shoot threes and he's nine-nine.
So I'm going to give him a freaking 93.

(07:36:36):
I'm just going off.
He's going into a second year.
He could very easily go to 93 quickly.
Yeah.
Talking like you play 2K a lot.
Very easy.
I used to play 2K all the time.
I was playing...
Last time I was playing 2K was during Lynn's sanity.
I was overseas.
Wow.
I remember that.
That's the last time I was playing 2K.
That was 2012, right?
That was 2012.
2K with my boy and then Lynn's sanity was going off.

(07:36:58):
You don't have time for 2K anymore, huh?
I could make time, but why?
Yeah.
We should like run it.
We should get it in the gym while
like the other guys are working.
That'd be dope.
We're playing 2K in that class.
That's good content.
Yeah.
We should get it in here in stream.
You know, Lynn's sanity though, I was on the, I was my
freshman year of high school.

(07:37:19):
I was on the bus from a freshman, uh, from a, from a game.
We just won.
We had three Asian kids on our team
and it was during the Raptors game.
And like when he hit that step
back, everybody was standing on the bus.
He hit that step back.
They were like, Oh my God.
It kind of goes back to our
conversation about situation because if Jeremy was

(07:37:40):
never in the right situation, we
never would have sold insanity.
I mean, Josh fan.
Yeah.
We're cool.
We're, that's our boy.
He, Josh fan.
So I heard Josh fan gave him the pep
talk and then, no, I'm just playing.
Josh fan was, as, was his trainer for 10 years.
Really?
Who is this guy?
The trainer.
Some dude.

(07:38:01):
So guy came up up to us, your guy.
No, we've had him on, we've had him on
our live calls and stuff couple of times.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
I was on his podcast.
We talk all the time.
What's the name of his podcast?
Uh, he's got it on YouTube.
It's a wake in training.
Awaken training.
Yeah.
He's a man.
Yeah.
No, no, he, uh, yeah, dude, when that
happened with that whole situation with
the Antony, it's like, that's like G league versus NBA.

(07:38:23):
You think about it's like, it's all opportunity.
It's like, what's this?
There, there's some skill with that,
but it's like, dude, the opportunity that
he got in a very low risk
situation to say, I have nothing to lose.
And I got to just freaking put it all
out there right now and you get rolling.
And he just got freaking hot.
He got, I think what he did is not

(07:38:44):
taking anything away from Jeremy Lynn.
I think what he did from a standpoint
of like risk and how he did it is so much
of like gambling, like vibe.
Like if he had something to lose
as a player, like he would have
like, that's so risky to do.
He like gamble, like he went, he got, Oh, you know what?
That worked.
Let me go again.
Oh, wait, that worked.
And he just stacked so many good

(07:39:05):
things that the confidence that he got.
That was retard.
Ridiculous.
He was tough.
Yeah.
What does that rank like all time?
Like NBA moments?
I don't know, man.
What's the biggest NBA moment ever?
Is it Jordan hitting that shot?
It's up there.
I gotta be up there, right?

(07:39:25):
I'm picking mouse at the palace.
That's damn.
That's, I don't think the NBA wants that moment.
No, no, but I'm saying in terms
of like what you remember the most.
Just like global impact.
Oh, that's interesting.
Um, Rudy Goldbair touching the mics.
I'm sure Jeremy appreciates
comparing his moment to all these other.

(07:39:47):
Donovan was out of there after that.
Yeah.
Good thought of it.
Linsanity was, it was probably the
craziest thing that all-star game was crazy.
COVID year, right before COVID.
It was right before it wasn't in the bubble.
It was right before COVID happened that year.
The all-star game in like 2019,
2020 year was like ridiculous.
They did the alternate ending.
Oh yeah.

(07:40:08):
That's the Elam.
He's been on my pod.
The Elam ending Dr.
Nick Elam.
Wow.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
That's actually nuts.
Yeah.
No, that was the, that was the
cra- like Kawhi was locking up.
Like everybody was freaking locked in.
Like they wanted to win.
Kawhi's another guy, man.
He's like 28, eight and five
when he plays, but he doesn't play.
It's so weird.
Like where, where does he rank?
I don't even know.

(07:40:28):
Yeah.
Do you think he's done?
Do you think he's done?
He destroys when he plays though.
So it's hard to say that.
But is he going to play?
Like, I don't know.
I doubt he plays the whole year.
Are we going to see anything ever
like the top version of Kawhi again?
Well, Michael Jordan was better
than the top version of Kawhi.
No, no, no.
I'm saying is Kawhi ever going to get back to Kawhi?
Oh, I don't know about that.
Anywhere near it.

(07:40:48):
He's not that old.
You know what?
He gets near it when he's actually playing.
Like his true shooting percentage is crazy.
Like his stats are crazy.
He still defends.
He's not quite as athletic as back
then, but he's like pretty close to that.
When he plays, it's amazing.
And then he doesn't play.
Yeah.
And he really has problems.
Like he has, like he has his body is not right.
But then when he plays, he's great.

(07:41:10):
It's just, it's very strange.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not easy.
So if you could put one thing on a
billboard for the world to see about
basketball, what would it be?
One thing about basketball that the world could see.
Good drills work.
Like if I could put one thing on a

(07:41:31):
billboard, like you're asking me, like,
yeah, good drills work or good drill or
just like a picture of my face right there.
Hello world.
That's basketball or that's you.
I am.
Or you are, you are basketball.
Yeah.
No, no, I would probably put good drills work.
I wanted to put it in the, in
the deli right, right over here.
And Bobby said, no, we can't do that.
We can't, we can't be spending $50 a

(07:41:51):
month on a good drill poster in the
deli, not for anybody else to see,
just so I know that if I go in there, it's
going to be welcoming me with good drill.
How'd you guys meet?
My podcast.
Happy hooping podcast.
Is that really the truth?
TikTok.
We met on TikTok.
Well, do you really had a podcast?
That might be used my first episode.
That was your only episode.

(07:42:12):
Yeah.
No, I wasn't.
I did one with Max Schmarzo.
I've seen a lot of shows come and go, Bobby.
Yeah.
Here we go.
A lot of show.
Here we go.
This guy duped me.
He's like, yo, yeah.
We started talking and going back and
forth and freaking messages and then
whatever, and then he's like, yeah, come on my podcast.
He didn't have a podcast.
Why can't I just invite you on my podcast?
He didn't have a podcast.
He's actually a smart guy.
He didn't have a podcast just to meet you.

(07:42:34):
Yes.
No.
I look at him now.
I think I did Max Schmarzo first.
No.
How many episodes did you have?
I did Max Schmarzo.
How many episodes did you have?
Like two or three.
Where'd they go?
Well, look where he's at now.
I have them.
Where'd they go?
We can go look.
I may have been you, but it
could have easily been Max Schmarzo.
To have a podcast would be like you had it ironed out.
It's going on iTunes.

(07:42:54):
It's going on Spotify.
He didn't have any of that.
No, I did it in the classroom of a thing.
That's what I'm saying.
I didn't do like what we have a lot of them talking about.
You packaged it to Bobby like he's doing a podcast.
I expect we're doing a podcast.
But he's smart though.
And then I'm just sitting there
talking to him like, what is this?
See, if he would have just said like,
let's go on a Zoom call that we don't
record, he might've not have got your time.
I would have done it.
Okay.
Yeah.

(07:43:14):
He had a, you only have like 20,000 followers.
Okay.
Yeah.
Look at them.
Look at them now.
Yeah.
Wasn't famous.
Look at you now.
Look at you now, man.
Look at me.
I remember Bobby man, a long time ago.
What do you remember?
I'm proud of you.
What do you remember?
What was going on back then?
We were in that gym and we were like,
you're doing good stuff back then though.

(07:43:35):
It's just the world didn't know about it as much.
Yeah.
Well, actually here's a good question.
Have things changed the way you train people since then?
Uh-huh.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's less about me and what I want to
do and more about the athlete and what
I'm trying to do with them.
That's always a good way to go about things, right?

(07:43:55):
That's human nature.
Yeah.
You want to help the person you're helping, not yourself.
Yeah.
You go on, uh, what is the key to human nature?
Dunning Kruger.
Dunning Kruger, right?
You, you learn a little bit, think you
know everything and you keep learning,
keep learning, keep learning.
Then you get to a point where it's
like, I don't know anything anymore.
And I'm more on that end of the spectrum now.
The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
Yes.

(07:44:17):
Good drill.
It's true.
On that point, the more you know, um,
something that I, something that I notice
players do when they, when they, there's
a false sense of confidence knowing that
they, that they, when they're in a
one-on-one drill with a player that they
score, like if they go 40% in a
one-on-one drill, it's like, that's

(07:44:38):
not good enough and knowing paying
attention to like, okay, the best player
in your team, if they were in that
situation, what would they do in that?
Like the guard on your team, like similar person, what
would they do in that situation?
Maybe they do, maybe they're
like 65, 70% in a one-on-one drill.
You knowing that and you knowing that
you're only 40 and you having the gut
feel of like, Oh, that person's probably 70.

(07:44:58):
In a game, you're going to give them the ball.
Like you're going to have the gut
intuition to say most of the time, I'm
not going to, I'm not going to go for it.
Cause that person's probably better than me.
And it's like, no, keeping that in your head.
It's like when you're, the
expectation that you should have in training
always should be so much higher.
Does that make you more good or does
delusional confidence make you more good?
That makes you more good.
I think delusional confidence is, is stupid thing to have.

(07:45:23):
And over the course of time, can
you, do you think it could help you?
I feel like New York basketball
players have delusional confidence.
And for some of them, it actually helps them.
I think they're actually good and
they don't get in their own way.
And I think they, what came first, the chicken or the egg?
Are they good because of the delusional confidence?
I think there's players that are
dellusionally confident, that are really good.
I think there's players that
are delusionally confident, that
are just stupid and not good.

(07:45:43):
I think there's players that don't
talk at all that are good, players that
are not say that they're not
confident, that are also really good.
Like I think that the skills.
Like, how good are you?
I think it comes down to that and it's
like, what are the, what are the things
that you are doing and what are
the things that you're not doing?
And like, how good are you?
That's the thing that's going to
come into, come into place, because if
you're delusionally confident and

(07:46:03):
you're just like how that will represent
itself on a team, if you're not that
guy is that you're selfish and you're
worrying about yourself and then
that's going to pan out because he's team.
Like this is talking about G league NBA like that.
Like, like, are you a winner or are
you somebody that's just like, always
just trying to get theirs at all
costs, you know, and you're not thinking
about how do I win this game?
So I think delusional confidence

(07:46:24):
is like, you should be confident
in the strategy you're going to use.
Strategy that you're going to use to win.
What's the strategy?
You know,
to win our players thinking about the win.
These days?
No.
I know.
Any days, any days is a way to put it.
No, I think that they are.
And I think that if, if you just, if
the focus is on winning, if your focus is,

(07:46:46):
I'm going to try to win this game
right now and you have five other people,
four other people on your team,
you're going to naturally have the, the
feel of like, okay, what should I be taking risks?
Should I be taking less risks?
Should I be passing the ball more?
Should I be whatever?
Because it's like, you know that, oh,
damn, this guy is all American on my team.
I got it.
He's needed to rock too.
Like I can't just go.
Like I got to put my spots a little bit

(07:47:06):
more and find different ways to impact.
Confidence is a product of proof, right?
Yeah.
I'm thinking about winning.
And I think it's never
mattered less than it does right now.
Winning has never mattered less than it does right now.
Looking at basketball.
Really?
Yeah, I think.
Why, because of branding individual

(07:47:26):
athletes and their success through that?
Yes.
And I'm not saying it doesn't matter.
I'm just saying winning matters less
now than it ever has because you can be
successful in other things without
winning branding and everything you're
talking about, I think there's less
importance on winning now and it's.
Then there ever has been.
What is success?
That is the question though.
Yeah.
I mean, winning is success, right?

(07:47:50):
Depends where you're at and what you're trying to do.
That's interesting.
Their subjective feels.
I mean, like winning the game, like
I'm talking about winning basketball
games is less important now than it used to be.
Because going viral is more important.
And other things.
Yeah.
I do think it's an opportunity though, too.
I've been a part of this.

(07:48:11):
So I like, I've been part of a team that
had, that went viral every single game.
Right.
We, we would lose, right?
The other team would outplay us and win.
My team would lose.
We had all the highlight tapes the next day.
This is how your team goes viral every day.
I'm talking about when I was with the
high school team, we had famous high school
players, we would lose.

(07:48:31):
Nobody would care.
The famous high school players would
have the highlights put out the next day.
Well, you've played New York
city street basketball with us.
Winning doesn't matter at all.
Well now it does.
Cause there's money involved with it.
Um, you get a big amount of
money, but it was always about the
match-ups and how many points
you scored and the highlights.
And so it's basically more of that now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's an opportunity for guys

(07:48:52):
like Ryan Pettit and you can really see
the difference between who is like,
cause winning is a skill, winning is a skill.
Like what is your ability to
make the right decisions to win?
And it's like, that is he, if you
know anything about anything, I mean,
when you actually watch, it's
like, you could see Ryan Pettit.
It's like, he's really good at winning.
Like there's players that are like that,
but it takes a very keen eye and attention.

(07:49:14):
I think coaches have it and I think most coaches have it.
So it's like, yes, it's a, you could
call it a problem, whatever you want
politically or whatever your opinion.
But like the reality of it is that if
you're a player that's focused on winning,
you will stand out in the world where
everybody's focused on what do I look like?
What do I do?
Throwing a different look always matters, right?
Throwing a different look than everybody else.

(07:49:35):
I was trying to, yes.
I was trying to attack my thinking here.
Attack your own thinking.
Attack my own thinking about my comment about the winning.
And I was like, is it just high school?
Does it change when you get to the NBA?
But then if you're on social media,
they're in the NBA season, how much
of the content is about the game?
Oh yeah.
That's what I mean.
That's about demographics, age demographics.

(07:49:56):
But that's what I'm saying.
How much of the content that we
consume that we see is about the winning.
So how about 50 years from today?
What is basketball going to look like?
Will people even have enough
patience to watch a full basketball game?
I don't think they have it right now.
Oh man.
I don't know.
These kids aren't watching full games right now.
Yeah.
I guess I said 50 years from today.

(07:50:16):
So yeah, I think I see what you're saying.
Yeah.
Where does that, what does that mean though?
We just, we only consume short form content.
No, there's always going to be people who want more.
You know, people still listen to full
podcasts for three hours, watch full
podcasts for three hours, watch movies, right?
Yeah.
You think that's going somewhere?
When it comes to anything, podcasts, games, movies?

(07:50:39):
No.
I think you're, you're dealing with
the short form content on the day to day,
right?
So that could be some of your,
I don't want to say bias, but.
Yeah.
I think the longer form, you got to be good, right?
And it's harder to be good.
Not be really good.
It's harder to be good for 60 minutes.
You got to be too good to be true like us.
That's what I'm saying.
It's a lot harder to be good for 60
minutes than it is for 60 seconds.

(07:51:00):
That's a fact.
Good stuff today, guys.
Where can we get good drill?
Lincoln bio.
Lincoln bio.
What do you think Ross?
Yeah, I think it's more like the homepage.
I don't know.
But sure.
Bio.
Link in bio.

(07:51:20):
Good.
Another drill.com.
Uh, so that's drill.
He's going to get it.
Good guys.
drill.com slash question mark EL equals Ross IG.
All right.
Good stuff, guys.
We'll see you next time.
Subscribe immediately.
We're out.
Peace.