A Timberwolves Celebration With Craig Kilborn | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Ryen Russillo is joined by Minnesota’s very own Craig Kilborn to talk about his beloved Minnesota Timberwolves, their tenacious defense against the Denver Nuggets, and whether it can lead them to an NBA title this year.

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I wanted to save him for the good stuff it’s Craig kilborn and I don’t believe you’re in Minneapolis yet it looks like you’re still uh La based In Your Den of of I’m in the mahogany panel Den with the Conquistador lamp and I guess the obvious question I have for you is so I’ll be out there in Minneapolis for games three and four the Timberwolves have made me I don’t know if you can see this this is Timberwolves I guess I’m the Sixth Man and then on the back is Lord Kilby now I don’t wear jerseys to a game so I won’t be wearing that to the game is that correct ran you can’t wear not you right I I would never expect that to happen I’m thinking about wearing it in warm-ups and then taking it off and putting on a blazer for the first quarter and the second third and fourth there’s just too many great items that I imagine you still have in your closet that you had to invest in like I look at my closet and I go what what have you done over the years you’re like well when you’re on television and entertaining a nation five days a week week you can you can justify it but there’s still a lot of clothes there stuff I don’t want to get rid of and I just don’t wear anymore I imagine you have the same struggle yeah when you work in television I remember John Tesh was hosting Entertainment Tonight for years and he says I haven’t paid for a haircut in 20 years he was so proud of that but we haven’t paid for clothes or Blazers you and I we we get the free stuff right the the shirts no no I paid for everything I don’t know I don’t I don’t think you didn’t have a wardrobe stylist in ESP uh not for the radio simal cast I don’t think although the clothing budget wasn’t exactly I think it’s a nice thing to have had yes but when there were that many anchors I think the men’s budget was like you could maybe get one good suit in a belt out of the deal I’m sure at the CBS level it’s it’s somewhat of a larger clothing allowance yeah it’s there’s it’s there’s more than allowance it’s I don’t pay for anything they have to pay for all the suits all the pants all the loafers you know it’s just uh it’s the only reason I got into late night was for the uh wardrobe stylist that comes with with the job I I don’t blame you okay so let’s I watched that first 20 I already talked about in the open today the first 24 minutes of what we saw defensively from your team I I wanted to share it with somebody I I wanted someone to watch I wanted a new person who had never watch basketball I wanted them to come to my house I want to go you need to you need to see what this is like what was that like for you well finchy called it the best defensive performance of the season it’s hard for people to grasp like the fans in Minnesota are stunned and one of the local reporters a friend of mine named Jud zulgad said hey guys don’t try to comprehend it this is I was there for the 8791 twins they’re a good team you can process it process this later just enjoy the ride but Ryan we were the number one defensive team all year we did play uh the Nuggets tough last year even though we lost four games to one they said we we played them the best and last year Rudy was not as as mobile as he is this year and Cat missed a lot of games he also missed games this year but I think you already know this but um besides Rudy you’ve got these Jade McDaniels just plays hard all the time that’s why fouls out sometimes and no nil Alexander Walker he’s like a mini version of jadeen McDaniels and and I could not have predicted last night though I I I guess they just rallied because Rudy couldn’t make the game and I have a comment on that in a bit but it was just a bizarre game and and and Ryan the refs weren’t calling anything so if you’re going to allow us to play physical I mean this is this is right in our wheel house to body up on people so that was a that was a stunning game I mean it was Jamal Murray frustrated a bit but like the one play that I talked about when it just I I never watch a game and go this thing’s over that early guess like especially against Denver okay like Denver always figures it out like even when Denver’s struggling they like okay they’ll figure this out when Jamal got doubled when he brought the ball over half court against Alexander Walker and Jaden yep and you know it was physical but he wasn’t fouled there was no egregious foul sometimes I think basketball players think like I’m never supposed to like you’re never supposed to feel another body part from a Defender at any point like you’re going to get bumped there’s going to be times where you reach in and I just felt like in that moment I go I think this game is over I think it’s over and it was 3320 yeah and I I was concerned on that particular play because I’ve seen this happen where we trap somebody and you can tell the offensive player frustated and then as as the seconds tick then we start reaching and then we foul and they get bailed out thank God they didn’t hack or reach or or come down on anybody but uh yeah it’s it’s uh you know we’re really good on D and I the thing I’ve seen in the past is I’ve seen Jaden drape you know all over people and the guy still scores because Brandon Ingram can score and I saw naw last year play against uh Jamal Murray because J was out this is in the playoffs he was all over Jamal Murray and he still scored because you know good offense beats good defense but and and even in the regular season this year cat was out and we played at Denver and Rudy couldn’t guard joic then they had Kyle Anderson who couldn’t guard him and Nas couldn’t guard him and then last night they all did a pretty nice job uh you know everyone’s talking about Nas’s defense he’s not always a great defensive post player he will help out and block shots but he played you know he had a sequence there where jic missed like two bunnies right at The Rim because uh Nas was right there so it’s it’s hard to comprehend and grasp but um I’m enjoying it it felt also too like there was a stretch where I was like is Denver aware of what this task is and you would think after game one you’re at home yeah got the pride of it and it was it was actually worse these first quarters have been an issue and Malone has mentioned it now when you have all the stats in after last night the stats weren’t great going into this game for them offensively but for a young team to have this switch where you know I joked about like as Phoenix actually a lot better than we thought right right it it it doesn’t happen in this sport like this and last night started to make me think like I think anything is on the table for this team now and to see Denver’s will just broken Y and look there’s still some work to do you got to get these guys two more times I mean you can throw all the cliches that you’d expect to go in but I was just I’ll be shocked if in game three you don’t see a level of intensity from Denver that is far beyond anything we’ve seen in the start of these two games because that had to be like the wakeup call might be too late but there has to be a wakeup call here for D you mean everybody on the bench throwing heat packs is that the kind of thing you’re talking about I just hope it doesn’t everything I hope it doesn’t get dirty or physical but uh you know I think you said uh during towards the end of the regular season I think you had a heart-to-heart with Bill and you said you know Denver be meets Boston the finals you know Boston has no chance is that is that kind of what you said BOS because I I agree with you that Denver’s the best team in the league and until we beat them the Timberwolves then I’m gonna you know Denver’s the champ but did did you say that Denver would would uh spank Boston in the finals I thought I heard that spank is not word for word what I said I it ends in a k sound it’s fun to say spank me hurt me we’ll save this for a life advice part if you want to get into this content but I that that surprises me from you uh my my thing with Denver when Boston lost the rematch in Denver and both of those games were close the one in Boston the one in Denver but I felt like my my direct my line on it was that Boston like has this unsolvable problem in the way Denver closes versus the way that Boston closes and that’s why I would pick Denver yeah I I agree I said before I I said we would beat Phoenix in six games even though I thought it was an awful matchup based on the regular season but I just said hey we have home court and we have the best defense in basketball but the Denver thing you know you you know that if we would have beaten uh Phoenix in game 82 in Minnesota we would we would have home court against Denver and we lost that game wasn’t even close um so yeah Denver has the home court uh or did and I just uh I I guess the only way to explain it is we have the best defense but somehow we’ve we’ve gone up a notch in the playoffs and I’m telling you the refs are are letting us play physical and that’s an advantage to the Wolves yeah last night was I don’t feel like it was anything that was egregious you know the Murray call that sent Malone off like that was a charge on cat absolutely was a charge yeah that charge that’s going to happen over think got fouled in game one on the forearm when when he went up for the jumper there they yeah it was doesn’t get calls why is that because he’s so strong like LeBron or what he doesn’t flop oh yeah he complains I mean he’s starting to like really complain oh he’s he’s he’s toned it down in the in the playoffs in the regular season he’s he’s not Luca but he he claps at the ref automatic technical he says hey every time he drives and they’ve talked to him you know to to stop whining uh but and and and you know I put pressure on him I I said before the playoffs we’re we’re gonna go as far as ant takes us and uh he’s played better than I thought he’s played better than I thought he would in the playoffs so his weakness uh Ryan I want to tell you a little something and I looked up a stat just for you a little research he turns it over sometimes our team turns it over that’s one of our weaknesses is our our uh sometimes our crunchtime offense and our turnovers uh so on defense we always play pretty well uh but ant’s jump shot is falling in the playoffs I don’t know if you know this when cat went down in the regular season he had six straight games of over 30 points playing marvelously then he went into a little funk he had four games where he didn’t hit a three he went 0 for 22 on three-pointers at a stretch towards the end of the season and he went in the gym and worked with his guy and now he’s hitting his jump shot here’s my little stat I want to give you because I don’t think he’s a pure shooter he’s not he says that he’s worked on his jump shot now we know there are athletic players in NBA history who are not great jump Shooters but they work on it Dwayne Wade LeBron James so I’m going to say an LeBron and Dwayne Wade one thing you can do with a Shooters look at their free throw percentage that’ll tell you how pure they are with their jump shot do you know what the career free throw percentages with Aunt LeBron and Dwayne Wade are this is what I looked up just for you I don’t know 78% for which guy oh I have to guess each guy this who do you think has the number one career of those three guys what’s the order of free throw percentage uh is it Wade Wade is second his career is 76.5% on free throws LeBron is third SE uh 73.6 and ant in his young career is 79.3 the number one free throw percentage of those three guys he shot 83.6% this year from the free throw line and Dwayne Wayne and LeBron never shot that high in a season for free throws just a little tidbit there for Pure shooting I love it I hear Scouts talk about free throw percentage all the time hey you don’t like his three-point numbers what did he do in college an is one of those guys were in college and you’re right like the pure shooting it wasn’t like just out of the lab he was this amazing shooter I wonder when you watch Ant take over like this does it remind you a bit like of say the first time you saw Steve ly tossed a Nat sound I I mean Levy yeah don’t please don’t forget Carl ravage that guy was underrated um agree you know what happened I love this story but I’m an NBA guy Ravi we’re working together and he gets baseball tonight I go hey the cool he goes I’m an NBA guy Ravi was an NBA guy but you adapt and you Embrace baseball because that’s what they wanted him to do did I ever just remember something you’re not a star Ryan Norby told you that just be humble I’m just kidding you can take that out I just think it’s so funny it’s so funny yeah yeah I know you and I you and I have shared a few stories over the years I love them all um I van pelt’s favorite rabbit story that I told because when I was in Boston you know it was tough for us to get guests and I know I’ve told this story before but I’m going share it with you and thought the world of ravage and by the way I don’t say that past tense as if my opinion of him has changed he’s as solid as it gets he’s incredible but he’s a buttoned up guy and it was real tough for us to get guests he was a Boston guy and so we’re reaching out we’re like hey can we have ravit on you know we’re like wow we got ravaged for 12 minutes today the show’s gonna be awesome you know nowhere to go but up and I ran into him at Fenway uh I don’t know couple weeks after that and I’m still you know real new and I’m excited I’m excited is to follow follow up with Carl ravit in person and I see him the bowels of Fenway and I walk up to him and I said hey thanks so much for the time I go it’s funny because people think you don’t like the Red Sox but you’re from here and it’s just you know it’s you being so professional that you don’t want to lean anyway and he just looks at me as he keeps walking he’s like you keep telling him yeah he’s funny you know he told me a story once which I find very hard to believe that um it was a playoff game it might have been I don’t know if it was Larry Bird’s rookie year but early in his career and they and he said to me oh we all knew where Larry lived we’d see him mowing his lawn Larry Bird mowing his lawn and I remember we you know it was a big playoff game and my buddies and I wanted to give Larry a six-pack of beer so we went up there and and Dina you know answered the door and said he’s sleeping right now but I’ll take that sixpack for Larry I don’t know if that’s true but he said he acted like they just went up to the house and gave Larry Bird a six-pack for the big playoff game for afterwards the other thing I wanted to say I wanted to ask you because I don’t know this about you so Ravi was a really good golfer is a very good golfer and of course I love the the sport or whatever you want to call the activity do you golf I don’t see you as a golfer and I wouldn’t think you’d be very good because you’re so you’re muscle bound if we’re being honest picked it up again this past year and out of the gates was shocked how well I had played oh I hadn’t played in 20 years and then I bought newer equipment started messing with things and then I got invited to play a couple nice courses um people wanted to see what I had wanted to invite me out wanted to be social potential membership opportunities and every time I’ve played it’s been a disaster oh yeah yeah so yeah um I Tor my I Tor my calf a month ago so I haven’t played a month yeah oh that’s your kind of your bread and butter your C good good cat um I wanted to say something about injuries so finchy has the uh the torn po and he’s playing hurt he’s he ices it all the time when he’s not coaching and he’s in pain and you’re supposed to rest it so I was hearing that some of the players talk like cat goes man I had just had surgery his is Major I can’t believe he’s just showing up for the game and coaching it’s just really inspirational so a shout out to finchy for playing hurt but also he really coached the team this year hard and so did the staff and my favorite thing was uh after the Charlotte game at home when cat was chasing 70 points and we lost we had a big like 18-point lead and we lost finchy after the game said that was a disgusting performance and I love that he was so honest you know it’s one of those things where I joke what I want to see him pull a papovich and sub out the starting five in the first few minutes if if we’re sluggish you know that dramatic move that pop does when he Subs out the whole starting five but finchy I think he finished third in coach of the year and he he’s doing a hell of a job job I’m glad you brought him up because I I think there’s a few things that I want to touch on that we’ve talked about like in the basketball sense in Minnesota is that them being a young team that’s not always a great recipe for somebody that wants to coach AAR and as long as aunt is cool with it then everybody else has to be cool with it and cat has not been my favorite player despite the skill set but I think him being out a bunch of great things happened one it kind of took ant to another another level of knowing there’s going to be these moments where it’s only me offensively and how am I going to respond and so far like I was even worried about the playoffs a little bit like are people going to load up on him so much is he will to force will he force the issue will he be like some of these younger guys that are Dynamic players be like well I guess I’ll just take like 15 awful shots on top of the normal 15 I take and and already has figured that part out which is incredible but I also think with cat being out and the team still playing well and then Nas taking on this role I’d agree with you I never looked at NAS as like a defensive asset but his help defense got a lot better and if you can just move your feet with the challenge that’s joic although I’d imagine you know depending on what happens here with Rudy he’s going to be back so it shouldn’t be an issue it changes their assignments and all that kind of stuff you can just see him feeling like well I have to take my stuff to another level and I also think it helped cat realize yep okay while I was out things didn’t fall apart and I have to put more effort into some of the other stuff like I would always look cat is a defensive deficit the decision- making still is always going to drive me crazy but the collective of what cat is with this entire group back like that may have been this this thing that happens with this team that is incredibly talented The rosters got all of these different options now I just think that time meant a lot more to the development of this team for them to be ready because it felt like everybody kind of had to be more on board with their role despite not necessarily doing anything uh deep into the playoffs before yeah a couple beautiful points so cat is polarizing people in Minnesota have an issue with him he’s an he’s an odd bird he’s a quirky guy in interviews I watched you know last night you know I know he’s an offensive Savant but he always reaches and he picks up silly ass fouls and I even last night he he plays joic but he’s slapping down at the ball and he’s gonna get called for he did in the second half he got a couple silly fouls and I kind of just know who cat is so I know he’s going to be infuriating I mean somebody wrote last night there was a tweet from Britt Robson where it was in the second half cat got the ball to top of the key and he was holding it and then he tried to drive and then he turned it over and Brit wrote something to the effect that he always wants to do too much and it haunts him I love when he said it haunts him so he he’s going to be that inconsistent guy now when he’s on you know I go a little crazy with his soft shot and he can score driving uh the thing he can’t do which I pointed out to some people is he he can’t do three dribbles in a pull-up jumper he can’t do what Kevin Durant or Brandon Ingram does he can’t even back down and shoot a jumper like yic does he either shoots spot up shooting or it’s the freight train to the rim and that’s where the offensive fouls happen so he’s a he’s a very unique player he is infuriating now you said something about an and the whole thing that they wanted Aunt to figure out is when you get double team give it up and you’ll get the ball back so Mike connley and finchy are saying they’re blitzing you they’re trapping you give it up you can cut to the rib and we’ll find you or they’ll go off the double team we’ll give it right back to you so I call it the floor game what kind of decision making are you are you doing there he’s he has to improve his floor game and he he has in the playoffs he’s still again I’m a I’m a purist he still might drive and try to do a crosscourt pass that’s intercepted but he’s 22 and I’m I’m I it’s just he’s playing at a level that I didn’t know he would play at I mean it’s it’s a little ridiculous because he does things in the regular season that I know are not sustainable he’ll have a three minute stretch like at the end of the Pacer game in Indiana he made three shots in a row and then he made the big block on the backboard where he hit his head you can’t play that way for 48 minutes he was like really intense he did that at the end of the game at home early in the season against Boston he made three shots in a row and then he deed up Jason Tatum and he got in his shorts and it’s like okay you know you can’t do that but he is you know he’s better than I thought he keeps improving and he loves finchy and he’s he wants to be coached hard and he listens to everything finchy says so ah I love these Ryan these people are saying some of these reporters he’s gonna he’s gonna leave for a bigger Market he no he’s not he just bought a house and you know what I’m saying kg stayed there ants staying there you know yeah look I was guilty of it when I was really worried about the lack of future flexibility with Rudy transaction last year I’m like okay so wait a minute now you’ve done all this and then the way it works with stars but it still is the rookie contract it’s still the seven years so you know now that’s all put to bed and it seems like his personality is so pure right and it’s so genuine at this point that you’re like well so far every indicator of based on like who he is as a guy and the fact that this team is ahead of schedule and that he’s ahead of schedule like let’s not even worry about that I didn’t feel bad about suggesting it last year when I’m going okay he still do the rookie extension and all this all this different stuff but now this team is so far beyond what I thought when I watched them last year and it’s not just him although he has a huge part of kind of raising their floor so when I think of his interviews there are a lot of athletes that I will pass on now and I remember having that Epiphany at ESPN Radio where it was like hey we can get I don’t know actually I don’t want to Name an athlete because it’s gonna make like I’m calling them out or whatever but although we’ll take Gilbert we’ll take Gilbert again we have some follow-ups for Gil uh uh ants interviews are just incred every time I’m like I wonder what he’s going to say that’s gonna make me like him even more if that’s possible I know uh give me give me some ant reaction and then pivot that into your favorite athlete that you’ve ever interviewed there had to be a few people that you actually were like okay this person gets it in a format where athletes don’t always shine trying to think I do have an ant story for you but let me just think because I I typically I double barreled you there which I’m not PR that’s fine that’s I can handle it I can I’m I’m ambidextrious or amphibious whatever you want me to say there um um no uh I typically like talking to coaches and and broadcasters more the iron Eagles and stuff and uh but I had I remember I had Reggie Miller on the show I had a lot of NBA guys on the show Reggie was great uh because I I gave him I I gave him a five question and I I said how many seams on a basketball and he I think he had it wrong and said there’s a ball right over there on our on our set he goes I didn’t want to look at it I didn’t want to cheat and I go that’s why you never won a championship so I was giving him crap about not winning a championship I don’t know which NBA player uh but but I will tell you a quick ant story uh I think you’ll get a kick out of this um wolves were in La for a couple games with the Clippers and the Lakers and they had a layover before they went to Utah so they had a couple days off and I went to practice finy said yeah come by practice and after practice I uh was talking to finchi I did a couple jokes I they were the players are shooting around I said can I go talk to slmo and get that hitch out of his shot you know and he says good luck with that you know slomo has a hitch in his shot and um and then I he said hey have you ever met ant and I said no so he was gonna call ant over and I said uh finy you know at the end of his life Joe deasio insisted that he’d be introduced as the greatest living Yankee so finy goes he goes how do you want to be introduced so now I’m just laughing hard because he’s got a million things on his mind he’s coaching this team he had just missed a game in Cleveland he’s under the weather and he’s now asking me how I want to be introduced to an and I said well you know I did late night I like natural host you know and it was just silly and then so Ann comes over and finchy says this is Craig kilborne he’s one of the original ESPN anchors on Sports Center and he finished and I looked at ant and I said I’m a legend and then Aunt laughed and we took a picture and uh and then I said keep working on your game try not to turn the ball over and he goes nice to meet you sir and I said you don’t have to call me sir so that was that and I said to finchi is it is it okay I told him not to turn the ball over and finchy goes everyone else is telling him the same thing so it was uh it was fun going over the introduction it’s so it’s so silly anyways yeah but I like it I like it uh so when you are uh in attendance we see you Courtside how does how does that work out is are there people is there an ask is it understood oh I’m glad you asked I have a a dear friend named Charlie Swanson and he’s a great guy Minnesota people you know Minnesota nice is real and Charlie’s a very successful guy um uh he first I went to the Phoenix games the first two I took my brother and Charlie has four courtside seats he might even have a couple more for the playoffs this year but he picked us up in a Maybach a nice brand new white Maybach so he’s a he’s a he’s a car guy he has a Alexis dealerships two of them in Minnesota that are very successful and he grew up in Minnesota and he’s my buddy and we go uh bar hopping and we go out for dinner and uh he doesn’t know this but uh I’m going to give him give him gift I’m gonna princess Cherry we’re gonna make him a custommade suit and we’re gonna give him a suit but uh so he has four courtside seats and we’re right next to A-Rod and Mark Lori in Minnesota incredible pivot I know you’re not a confront you’re not a confrontational person I know that’s your nature and above the fry yeah look I haven’t seen you make one public statement on Kendrick or Drake so I think that plays were there any F bombs I haven’t watched the roast yet of Tom Brady any F bombs in that will I will it be okay for me or not I’m trying not to swear in this so I don’t know that you would like all of it it just roast seem mean oh yeah yeah have you ever signed up for one no I was asked years ago uh to host one it was for William Shatner it was right after I left the show in 2004 but I’m I’m not into roasts I it’s a little too hardcore I I like uh I like different kind of Comedy you know I like Frasier more arod dite the sitcom Frasier like if you guys want to roast Frasier I’m your guy what does that mean I feel like well I just I don’t know I just don’t see you as a roast person you wouldn’t like it was just it’s mean-spirited you don’t there’s a lot of bitterness in the world and my beautiful face exacerbates it okay so wait where were you going you were just going to ask me something what was it about confrontation because you sit near A-Rod oh yeah no no A-Rod and Glory they’re very nice people I I don’t know how goingon to unfold that’s what I mean do you have to take a side uh I don’t have to it’s no I it’s it’s kind of like the team we’re just we’re just concentrating on basketball you know Glen Taylor is great he kept the team he kept the team in Minnesota you know what you know what bothers me is you know he hired David Khan but someone I heard that David Stern talked him into hiring Khan David Khan which was a complete debacle but as far as A-Rod and Mark Lori they hired Tim Connelly uh and Connelly made the Rudy trade and uh that I think you and Bill were very supportive of I can’t remember not no I don’t know if after game two is the time to get on our case about it no no yeah well but I do want to ask you guys where like you have to be opinionated in the job that you do are you ever fearful of being wrong or you just say the hell with that I’m going to be wrong on things and that’s the way it is then you just say hey I was wrong congrats uh there’s magnitudes of being wrong but with this one I feel like the price I would never say yeah that was that was an awesome price that was an awesome price to pay for Rudy goar who felt like he was declining at the time so people can keep I’ll just Nick saing you stop asking me like I’m never gonna like by the way you’re right he it is a thing where it was a lot of picks we got to keep Jaden McDaniels but it was a lot of first round picks but you know they say we’re a young team he I I can’t remember how old he is if he’s 32 32 I think I’m and Mike Conley’s 36 and uh we seem to so so that’s that’s an older group we don’t know how long they’re going to play well uh at at a high level uh it seems I don’t want to go out on a limb here it seems that the Conley trade I think he’s got better chemistry than D DLo dowlo dowlo oh I remember when I you know doing a little was like hey what do you think is going to happen there because I I couldn’t stand watching it anymore because it was so obvious that D’Angelo Russell was like wait what is he the weirdest guy well I just his game is is strange you know and some days when it’s working it’s shot making and its pace and then days pull up he likes to shoot threes he likes to pull up Sonic must be his favorite restaurant he pull right up so you can use that if you get back in a late night uh when I but when I think about you in attendance as as Minnesota’s favorite son like you just it it’s about basketball you don’t have to worry about it there’s there’s never anyone trying to pull you one way or the other to make a just to to take a public side right no no I don’t I don’t they know better yeah yeah I don’t participate in that there’s not a lot of pressure like I didn’t get my eight hours last night asleep and I just like you’re not you don’t have to do anything you know you just have it’s like I go to the Phoenix we go to the Phoenix game first game we won by 25 took my brother but prior to the game I said we’re we don’t have to do anything except if we lose we have to have fun at Mason Margo which is this wonderful French restaurant that we’re gonna have dinner after the game it was a 230 afternoon game it’s life is easy and uh you just enjoy it um I could ask you a JJ McCarthy question with the Vikings but I’ll do that another time I don’t know how good he is I can’t wait to see let’s take what’s that I said yeah let’s table it yeah but uh we’re playing very well let’s not get ahead of ourselves but we played well against OKC I think they’re going to beat Dallas I’d assume I’ll tell you one thing about OKC because you watch this stuff so Shay is really gifted at drawing fouls where he’ll drive initiate the contact and then snap his head back and draw a foul uh but I hope they let us continue to play physical as I jump ahead so it’s either going to be OKC or Boston whoever wins this series between Denver and Minnesota I think it’s going they’re going to have to play OKC if they Advance it’s going to be Boston I don’t see the Knicks as as thrilling as they are to watch I don’t see them beating Boston so jumping around for you there Ryan yeah you really you really rushed ahead I’d say this about the SGA step like you want to find some fouls in there that you’re not going to like they’re called I would agree with you they’re going to be in there but when the majority of his foul h is on the up fake and if you go up like that’s that’s on you to be disciplined and you would think over the course of the series The Perimeter guys can be a little bit more disciplined being like I’d rather give him the pullup from 10 feet yeah than trying to contest all this stuff in the air because yeah there’s a lot of baiting there’s the the head snapping back stuff the on the drives I don’t like any of it but it’s not all that with him there are some old scho tradition get you he’s effortless he gets shots off he handles the ball well shoots a good percentage uh yeah he’s good and we are jumping ahead oh I wanted to tell you something about the Wolves CU I watched them all through the season so their their weaknesses were turnovers because jayen McDaniels and these guys they’re not all great passers or ball handlers and you know cat and ant will turn the ball over so I think we had 12 last night which to me is the max you should have uh and that’s been a problem and our offense sometimes is is clunky and not not as effective u in crunch time now it’s not a problem so far in the playoffs we’re playing at a higher level and you said something earlier which I wanted to Echo I I said to people prior to the series in crunch time you have to give the advantage to Denver because joic they’re always going to get a good shot you’ve got joic who can score or make the pass and Jamal Murray is clutch and I said if we can win by eight or more we’ll be okay but if it’s a one or two-point game you got to give the edge to Denver uh thank God we’re not in that situation the games have not been too close the first game was a seven-point win for the wolves um there’s one other thing I wanted to say about the Wolves uh in the regular season some of us hardcore fans we felt like uh because of our offense uh we felt like we needed the third scorer we said we might this you know we’re good this year but we might need in the offseason to add a third scorer because Mike Conley doesn’t always score 12 or 14 and Jaden you can see is inconsistent and and naw is inconsistent Nas is pretty consistent Off the Bench it’s kind of weird that we’re we’re saying that and uh we’re not having an issue right now in the playoffs with our offense uh completely agree it was my major concern with them and I didn’t know how that was just going to be solved at the playoff level but I think what we’re learning here if they’re going to play this kind of Defense I don’t think it’s going to matter yeah that’s what yeah and these guys are you know NW had 18 in the first game against Phoenix and he just he can he has that jump shot uh he’s not a pure shooter obviously but his form is a little like gerin where he’s over there and he shoots a really high arc it’s uh he’s a fun player do you know we got him in the Mike connley trade they threw him in when we traded away dowlo we got connley and naw that was that was the trade I mean Rudy the Rudy trade you know we’ve already covered uh a million different times and it just gets audited over and over and over again and it’s not fair I was kidding about him not being there last night but I was sort of expecting some of like oh still don’t like the trade and be like he didn’t play because it’s just every time they win and kind of raise what our expectations of Bill and I get just inundated with Minnesota fans that are just just so mad which I’ll never quite understand I can’t imagine a young kilborne being like hey my team just won where should I spend my energy immediately I know what I should do I should but it’s just the way it works so you’re talking about sorry right I I swore there I apologize no you’re talking about Rudy missing the game because I have a comment on that I know you do and that’s where I want to finish but it’s even if I don’t like the trade that you can’t look at last night and go hey yeah they they didn’t have them but I do think it speaks to like just how in insane these perimeter Defenders too on top of everything else yeah I think I I think last night was an odd game that maybe couldn’t be duplicated without Rudy uh I thought they were you know they single cover joic because they don’t want him passing out to the three-point Shooters it’s like you know when Kobe would score 40 and they would lose so but I thought they they would occasionally trap joic to throw him off so single coverage mostly and then bring a double sometimes just to throw him off keep him off balance what what I was going to tell you is people say uh I was very disappointed that Rudy missed missed the game and he was going to take a private plane but it was windy but um you have two types of players Ryan you have the you know the players that they don’t want to Mi miss the birth of their child and then you have the uh the other guy who says I I’m going to be a loving father but I I’m gonna miss the birth of my child because I want to win a championship I respect Rudy and I really respect the guys that missed the game missed the birth of their child and want to play in in the game so I respect and really respect little bit of it Ted Williams would have been your guy uh all right let’s close with this I do it I did it for a little while then I just stopped doing it I’ve always given you credit for it it was kind of paying tribute to my guy kilborne here let’s end with five questions for you right this is the sneaker I’ll be wearing at games three and four this is a a one star it’s from 1974 they still make them this is a suede that’s Timberwolves green okay terrific you should talk to them about the uniform by the way moving forward all right okay here we go first one when I asked you about your financial situation the first time we sat down was that one of the weirdest questions anyone’s ever asked you in an interview I don’t know one of the weirdest uh it’s fine I guess people are curious how does how does a bon vant retire at 42 uh I live off the 10 % commission I don’t pay now I live off my I don’t even touch my ESPN money I live off my five questions money that we there was a five questions book it’s very big in Europe I didn’t mean to ask it all over again it was just oh people were like what’s this deal again and then I just was like I guess I’ll ask the question everybody always wants the answer to and then you just looked at me and you’re like what what are you asking Where’s My Money Right and it was it was just sort of awkward but obviously late night pays well and if you’re not extravagant and you don’t waste money it’s an easy life okay all right uh this is sort of open to your interpretation but how jealous was I of your post of you and Robert Evans hanging out La early 2000s how jealous was I very jealous it is it is fascinating I I know we’ve talked about this you saw the offer that series on the making of The Godfather correct with Miles Teller I would say two episodes in I bought Bob’s book read his book read his book immediately and kind of told myself I don’t know that I ever want to write one oh yeah he made me want to he made me want to just like hey this is unobtainable what you just read but do more stuff yeah you got the audio book no I read it oh you know he narrates it you you bet your ass I was he does all these was I jealous you bet your ass I remember when he’s explaining to like one of his friends on the other side of the law where they were trying to figure out what was going on with his with his wife and she was with Steve McQueen yeah he’s devastated and they were like well let’s have somebody go talk to him because Evans had a lot of friends with connections oh and then and Bob says to this guy and he’s like well just so you know he like he’s like a black belt or something and the and the mob guy goes Bob he’s a [ __ ] actor that’s funny I mean the guy’s a character he was such a character and I tell people well the actor Matthew good who played him in in the offer nailed him and all I can say is every line Matthew good said was entertaining so Bob is entertaining but he not every line is a gem but it’s pretty close he was uh we had dinner a number of times I was in his screening room watching the kid stays in the picture yeah one of a kind one of a kind I was so jealous I was like I got out of here too late and I would say Matthew good we tried to get him on this show numerous times and I don’t think he was even nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actor he was so he was so good and Miles who I’ve always loved and got to know a little bit he had to play it straight for his role Matthew good scenes were like Tom and Greg scenes in succession where I was like I could just watch those on an endless loop because of how good he was at playing Evans all right number one uh number three actually three of these to go are you still at a text level friendship with Kylie manoe uh no I I did interview her um no texting no texting with Kylie Mano All right number four has A-Rod asked you to stay with him for playoff games no he has not and that’s comforting for me because I like Kilby likes his space I like my space we’re alike in that sense okay last one Speaking of real estate with this Minnesota run with ant in play and I know you like your farmers markets like I know you like to get out to Mono but is there a ever a Zillow search in the greater metropolitan area where you’re like give me Minnesota’s version of Simsbury no but there’s a place so Minneapolis St Paul the Twin City St Paul is the older City it’s where F Scotts Fitzgerald grew up on Summit Avenue they have a bunch of beautiful old homes so whenever I go back I go to Summit Avenue and look at the you know some of them were built in the 1890s uh I I I like visiting uh Minnesota means a lot to me happy I grew up there but uh no I I romanticize about Northern California I live in LA but I’d like to visit as you know Carmel By the Sea that’s great you can get more from Craig hilborn the life gorgeous podcast it’s also up on YouTube and I would be happy to repay the favor anytime you need it my man thank you a life gorgeous podcast and and my favorite thing creatively remains my Instagram where I celebrate my deep breathing at French Beast Rose and bonding with chilled Martini so the Instagram is still my favorite thing and I also do the podcast like gorgeous you’re the man brother always good to see you thank you sir oh