The 15 Seed That Beat Ben Johns

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Watching me run a 20-yard dash,

like, oh, I thought I was flying.

Like I was like, this feels good.

And usually it's just like,

like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Like I just like, that's the sound effects.

That's the sound effects.

Is this gonna be like, you know, the family eye episode

where they play the tubo behind the guy?

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna lie, I don't have to put on a yacht.

All righty, everybody.

It is 6.19 here in Barthelona, Spain.

This is some dedication.

I just pulled basically an all-nighter writing my recap video.

I finished up.

I said, Nico, record.

Now, he didn't even have time to make his bed back there,

apparently.

And here we are.

But we had an absolutely insane finals day here in,

not here, over there in Mesa, Arizona, honestly.

I think one of the best we've had in a long time,

we're gonna break that down, break everything else down

that went down at the tournament, read some comments,

because those are fun.

I'm loving that.

And then dissect whatever the hell is going on

and Nico's bathroom.

Background, over there.

What is going on?

So you got an unmade bed.

You have a singular straya shoe back there.

How can you even tell that there's a bed?

At this point, I can't even really even tell that that's a bed.

Are those?

I thought that was a blanket.

And now I'm seeing those are a bunch of paddles.

Yeah, so here's the thing.

So I record all the podcasts from an office in my parents' house.

Because we have, as you know, four kids.

We have a five bedroom house, but every room is occupied

by a different kid.

We send an 18-year-old off to college, like three weeks ago.

And within 24 hours, I was like, that room's mine.

And we're gonna start making it the studio, the pickleball.

This is the shrine to pickleball.

So slowly but surely,

my wife is not happy about this, by the way.

She's like, and you go, like, she's like,

she wasn't gone for a half a day.

And you are already like calling the contractor

to get soundproofing on the walls.

And like, what's happening?

So, you know, it is what it is.

But, yeah, I'm in my paddle reviewer era.

So like, there's just like infinite amount of paddles

at the house right now, the backlog.

I don't understand how Chris Olsen does it.

Honestly, something like that.

I'm not sure if I can tell you what I'm doing.

Nick, are you are Nick, are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick are Nick

Yeah, I'll never embrace it.

I lived in Argentina for a couple of years and they also speak Spanish with a weird accent

and took a while.

They say instead of saying quesadilla, they say quesadilla.

And it's basically Argentina and Spain similar but different.

But that's cool.

You're there for PPA Barcelona or what's happening?

Yeah, yeah.

PPA Barcelona got there a little bit early to explore and do things and yeah, just like

your wife is not going to be happy with you for turning your studio into or turning the

room into a pickleball content, paddle reviewer crap.

My wife is not going to be very happy with me for being basically brain dead the rest

of the day in Barcelona after waking up at 3 a.m. to film my recap video and then podcasting

with you.

Yeah, but good thing she never watches this.

So no, she doesn't need to know.

She doesn't need to know.

All right, should we, I know we have a tight hour guys.

I know this is not going to be mega pod day.

This is going to be most bang for your back.

And before I will say before we get into the podcast, I would like to make a formal apology

to friend of the pod, Ben, Jamin, John's the third.

Uh, for publicly slandering him with our thumbnail and our video title, uh, our boss put out

a formal apology already.

I think on Twitter, if you guys didn't see, I had wrote that I'm in charge of thumbnail.

So blame me, Ben.

Um, that Ben John said no to be me.

Don't blame me.

Do not blame me.

I slander, I slander Ben enough on my own channel.

I didn't do it this time.

I had said that Ben said no to our pod in reality.

He ghosted us and never responded.

So Ben, I apologize.

Uh, what you did was much better.

That's what Zane would do to me or anybody else.

So Ben, uh, you are a friend of the pod.

Please come on whenever you'd like.

Uh, and I'll never make that mistake again.

Okay.

So Nico, a couple notes here.

First off, there is a zero percent chance Ben watched that pod.

There's a less than one percent chance that he saw your, your thumbnail.

And there is a somehow less than zero percent chance that he's going to see your apology.

So anyway, that's good due diligence.

You did it.

You know, you check that box.

As long as there's more than one percent chance that he comes on the pod, that's what

we're hoping.

Mm.

So, okay.

I also feel like that's negligible.

I think I answered him on a pod cast and forever.

Like he's, he used to do like a decent amount.

I haven't seen him on anything in forever.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know.

Maybe it's like a correlation of the amount of times that Ben Johns joins a pod.

The amount of times he wins a singles gold medal.

He probably needs more pod appearances and maybe he'll have better luck.

Maybe we should get on to PPA Mesa.

Where do you want to start?

We could start with good luck and Chris Hayworth earning some good luck.

So I have been told for forever that getting crapped on by a bird is good luck.

I never believed it.

Maybe it is for Chris Hayworth.

You got crapped on by a bird.

E-Rail loft, eight points at the end of, at the end of the singles final against Federico.

So the craziest part is we don't have close call replay anymore.

We have owl AI, but we got a close up replay of the bird literally shitting on Chris

Hayworth.

I was like, this is the replay nobody ever asked for.

They pan up to the, maybe it wasn't the replay.

Maybe they just paned up to the bird, but you just actually see the bird.

Taking another dumb right from the position.

I was like, what is going on here you guys?

I saw that too.

I saw the replay and I think I saw Chris Kelly.

I cannot believe the cameraman got this.

I was like, oh, they got the splosh.

No, they got the poo coming out of the ass.

That's what we saw.

I couldn't not, I was like, how far away is this from the action?

Why is there a camera on this bird?

I don't know, but fantastic work.

I don't know how much you watched.

I watched more of it than I would have liked to at 3.45 AM.

Pretty interesting final between Chris and Fed.

I honestly think that might be my favorite matchup other than maybe like Fed versus Jowme.

Just because of the juxtaposition of styles, you have bulldozer, hayworth, just absolutely

destroying everything.

Fed is just counter punching, compact swings, cat and mouse, everything.

They seem to have pretty good matchups too.

Epic singles.

That was a very good one.

Game of runs.

Yeah, I was impressed.

I honestly, I did not get Federico enough of a chance.

Jim Kloss had put them at even odds.

He's been doing this like Twitter.

These are the odds for different matches.

He put them at dead even.

I was like, I'm taking Chris Hayworth 3-1 here.

It was way closer than I thought.

I think Federico has figured some things out with Chris.

He had lost five in a row, basically to star Chris's run.

They seem like they're pretty much dead even.

Great matchup with Federico and Hunter.

I had posted as well that we always talk about how wide open the singles draw is, but only

I think one person in the past year, besides one of those three, has one gold, which was

Roscoe once.

I think Christian Alsham wanted a couple of times, John Luzion going a little over a year

ago, but it's just the three of them.

Wide open, I don't know.

It's just them.

They're their head and shoulders above everybody else.

But other draws wide open.

Anna Bright and Gabe Tardio were over galvanting in Asia, doing something or another.

I think Gabe was sticking around from the tournament and then Anna, I don't know what Anna

was doing over there, but that meant no Ben and Gabe and then no Anneli and Anna Bright.

I thought that Ben and Fed were kind of shoe-ins, to be honest.

Like Fed is a good, consistent, right side guy.

But with this new WPR thing and we'll get into the double buy all that stuff, they play

their first match, Round of 16 against Yuda and Nico.

And they get smoked.

They get smoked like four and five.

Did you watch any of that?

I did.

I did.

I was surprised.

And in the end, I was just like, this is happening.

There's points where like after the first game, they're going to turn it around.

And then maybe halfway through, they have no shot.

There's nothing they can do.

Ben looks checked out again.

I hate the, I overused the Ben checked out, but I just didn't see him like they were

vibing.

And it was over.

Yeah, guys, another apology coming on next week's pickle pod.

Friend of the pot Ben, John's.

I'm so sorry.

Now I thought it was interesting because, you know, I think the play has been really kind

of just work Yuda on the right side.

And nobody really did that this weekend.

Harley anybody was really just making you to play a ton of balls.

Yuda played very well from the right side, very aggressive right side, but it was aggressive

almost like, yeah, he didn't want to play a lot of balls from the right side either.

And it was one of the most, I said this in my recap video, but it was one of the most

stubborn performances I feel like I've seen from Ben.

Like, he just kept funneling the ball to Nico and Nico just kept flicking over and over

and over and over and over.

I literally break this, this match down like the entire game to Nico has like eight or

nine backhand flick winners.

They just were a magnet to speeding up at Nico and then hitting to his backhand flick.

It was, it was, it was really something.

So I was just so surprised that they didn't start funneling the ball over to Yuda instead.

And I think was something that needs to be said here is actually let's talk first.

Let's go.

They play and they pull a few Dini action in the next two rounds after beating Ben and

and fed.

They beat Casey and Tyson 1210 in the third.

I think they saved a match point.

They beat Cam Schafen and CJ Klinger in the semi finals.

They save a match point in both game two and game three.

They go, they play Christian and Andre and I thought that Christian and Andre were just

going to end of this run right here right there.

I thought they had no shot.

They save seven championship points from Yuda and Nico's paddle and then they win this

thing.

So Yuda and Nico have seven championship points.

It would have been a 15 seed winning men's doubles.

Lots of questions.

First off, when is the last time somebody not seeded in the top like five won a tournament?

When was somebody even seeded like three won a tournament?

We know it wasn't this year.

Ben and Gabe won every single one.

Yeah, I mean, there was the big four basically last year.

They basically won everything.

Somebody told me that WPR rankings, Nico Acevedo is 81 WPR.

And so the only thing I can think of is gold from Tyson McGuffin and running long.

I think in Yuta maybe like 2023.

I don't know.

I'm not sure how high they were ranked because Tyson obviously had a ton of points.

But yeah, that was the wildest run.

And to be honest, for me, what was interesting is like, I thought they had a chance.

I thought that they were going to win.

They just looked unstoppable against Ben and Fed.

And then they, I mean, the fact that they were able to gut it out against CJ and Cam, like

they were backs against a wall big time.

Go on a bunch of runs.

I thought this was there.

They were the team of destiny.

Yuda loves pickleball.

He wants to be champion.

So I thought it was going to happen.

To be caught on us, I was super bummed that they didn't finally pull it off.

Like match point number six.

I, you know, at one point, Yuda serves the, you know, hits a servant of the net.

Tough way to go out.

But I mean, I don't think we're going to see another run like this in a while.

Like, I mean, I think the thing is Nico is probably in reality at top 10 doubles player

with 80 seed ranking.

Nico was the best player in this tournament.

Yes.

This tournament in men's doubles, at least.

Like he outplayed every guy that he played against.

Like, so I don't think we see a run like this from that sort of number, like a 15 seed,

but I don't think we are done with Nico Acevedo.

No.

Like, yeah, obviously good ML, good-ish MLP season.

He played the right with Eric Ansins on scenes.

Like, I think he's a left side guy.

He's, I mean, that flick, I think that his backhand flick, at least the way this, it was

working in this tournament, it's better than Jada, it's better than Ben, it's better

than, like, the way that he was flicking and cleaning up, asked after it was better than

anybody in the world this tournament.

Maybe he's hot, maybe whatever.

But like, it was untouchable.

Yeah, and his, I mean, to be quite honest, a lot of it seemed like Jada asked with like,

in San Amanda dead dinks as well, but just like, you know, I'm waiting for you to attack

me and waiting for you to get, you know, give me something to your point that I can flick.

Definitely more movement than Jada, or maybe this is like Jada, but you know, but yeah,

I mean, he looked like the best player on Earth, and if you guys are MLP fans,

Nikolas Evato is on the Texas Rancher for the next two years for $10,000.

So insane.

The best deal, deal in all of Majority Pickleball.

Yeah, I mean, they paid 400,000 again, I think, but like still, the 10,000 for the next two

years.

Yeah, man, I think he's going to be a problem.

I think he, I think he very well could become the next number one player in the world,

which crazy because like, he still throws in, he still throws in random errors every once in a

while he throws it, but he's got like, very good court IQ explosive athlete.

So just imagine taking like, you know, everything that Jada does well and then adding a little bit

more movement and explosiveness to it. Plus, I think over time, he'll start to develop a little

bit more aggressive dinks. I think he has legitimately the clubbyist hands in Pickleball right now.

Yeah. And so like, there's different versions of hands. There's fast hands, which he has,

but then there's clubby hands. The ability to go from here to here and just generate a ton of

power. I think he's got the clubbyist hands in Pickleball. Death. I mean, he's built just like pure

muscle. And to your point, like what I thought, what I saw was that he would, his hands were,

they were so compact and still hit the ball so hard. So like, you know, he's going back and forth

without Sean. And he's winning a ton of these hands battles because he's just so compact,

but hitting the ball just as hard. It's not harder than anybody that is hitting against. So

yeah. No, he's going to be he's going to be a problem. I think he can be number one. I think he'll

easily be a top undoubtedly top 10 player by the end of this year. Um, potentially,

potentially in the conversation for top five. Like the way that he played this weekend was he

used the best tournament this weekend. I think Ben is obviously brings it for a much longer track

record, but Nico was the best player this weekend. Um, Zayn, I do have a question for you then,

is is you the Funa Mizu the most disrespected slept on person in all of Pickleball that because

this is the second time that he's like carried his team or the supported maybe his teammate to a

finals or semi finals run did the same thing with Toma. Everybody gave all the credit to Toma.

Toma hasn't been back. Now he's doing it with Nico. You just been back and out again. We're talking

about Nico. We're not talking about you. Is you the top right side guy? You just really, really good,

but he's just he's very up and down like, um, yeah, sometimes sometimes phenomenal. Like he was

this weekend other times not so much, but when he's on and when he's got another partner that's on,

like, yeah, they're they're they can be extremely extremely tough. So yeah, he's slept on. Um,

I don't think he does it with the right supporting partner to meaning like if you can find Yuta's

inside foot and there's not a good forehand over there to uh to sort of protect that spot,

you can kind of find some spots on Yuta that that work when Yuta can play less of the court,

he is extremely extremely good. So he's a guy that needs to play 25% of the right side court,

especially because of his grip, right? If he can just load up and protect against one thing,

which is here and know his partner has everything else, you really can't attack him. And if you don't

have to make him hit backhand dinks with his with his you know funky grip, like he's not going to

miss too many dinks. He's got good pulls off the forehand. So I mean, Yuta's responsibility is

from here to here. That's about it. He does that very well. So, um, then my last question about Niko

then is, you know, outside of those partnerships that are formed for the rest of the year,

who do you want to see Niko play with? Like is Yuta the best option for the remainder of the year

playing with Ui Niko or who who who is somebody that is gettable that you'd like to see Niko play with?

Yeah, I mean, I think I think, well, first off, get him and Sophia seven in mixed doubles, right?

Oh, yeah. I think that she and Casey are doing well. They've had some good wins. But like, I really

think that she is a top five mixed doubles player. She just needs a top five partner. And so her

and Eric and Niko are all sort of like single-ish. So Niko, Sophia in mixed or Eric and Sophia in

mixed. I love that. Men's doubles, like, yeah, I mean, Eric would be great. Doesn't really maximize Niko's

skill set. I do think Niko is showing that he's at his best on the left side. I don't know which

right side guys are available right now. Are you putting Niko and Klinger together?

Yeah. Interesting. I mean, I don't know. I'm not sure who he's playing with. But I want to see

a Niko super team. I'll do respect to you to I'd like to see I feel like he's somebody that can

challenge the top four even this year. So yeah, I can see it. All right. So if you guys have been

watching Pro Pickleball over the last couple of weeks, you know it has been hot as hell.

Kerry North Carolina, I'm surprised people survived. It was like a hundred degrees with like a

hundred percent humidity. You got players playing in Qualum, poor and in Asia. Also crazy hot. And then

for some reason, the PPA decides the best time to have an event in Arizona is in the middle of the

summer. Once again, 100 degrees. Players are literally dying out there. It's crazy. And what they're

doing is they are sweating through every single outfit that they own, which is why I wanted to bring up

one of the sponsors of the pod, six zero, who has created a performance apparel line that doesn't

suck. Look, I honestly wish all players were allowed to like use these. Maybe they could like

white label them with their own brand. I don't know. But they're fantastic because they're like the

super light mesh material. So in hot weather, they don't immediately turn into a wet blanket.

Have you seen some of these players like by warm up, they look drenched and they look like they're

holding on to an additional 10 pounds of sweat through their shirt. They can barely rip it off

because it's stuck to them like a set like a wet blanket. And that's the last thing you want to do

when you're playing pickleball like me at a generate playing for three, four, five hours at a time.

So check out the six zero apparel line. It's like light material. You will not regret it. You're

not going to be playing in a wet blanket. You're going to enjoy from the first hour, second hour,

third hour. You're going to feel good. You're going to look at check it out. That's six zero

pickleball.com. All right. So Andre and Christian end up taking that one 15, 13 and game three.

How do you like the two out of three finals for for PPA now in in non slam slams?

Slams also be three out of five. Non slams will be two out of three. I'm glad you asked. I have

a few thoughts here. One is I found myself in those first matches getting really frustrated in the

two out of three format because they were so good and I wanted more pickleball. But I think it's one

of those like I'm satisfied. I'm happy and I'm not sick of it. And I left wanting more, but I

think this is a good thing. So I actually think it's fantastic. I think it was a great change.

Two out of three was fantastic. I think also the fact that Anna Bright and Gabe were not there

made the finals better. But I'm all four two out of three for anything that's not a slam. Now

my brother asked me goes, when is this is this new? I think PPA needs to do a better job

of communicating changes. Like I don't think people realized like a ton of people were asking this

on Twitter and whatnot. His response was well so much for this not being tennis. We have the

exact same format. Slams three out of five, everything else not. But I'm all for it. What about

you Zane? You like it? Love it. I think you can actually go watch all of Sunday now. I don't know.

This is I think it's like a sprint and not a marathon. I don't feel like watching games one and two

of these other finals in a three out of five anyway. I'm like, all right. Well, if it's a my thought

process is if it's a good match, I'll just watch the the last three skip the first two like whatever.

I'm sure not everybody shares that. But I think that we can copy tennis where tennis makes sense.

Like this feels like a place that tennis kind of has this figured out. I think it's a good I think

it's a good format. I think that the sense of urgency from the beginning with these matches this

Sunday was great. I think if you play Christian and and Andre versus Yuda and and

Nico three out of five, I think they win that in four, right? And so we're not talking about how

epic of a final it is. Obviously that happens in the last game of course. But I think two out of three

is right. I think you'll get more. When you're the better when you're the higher seat Christian and

Andre, you can play a little bit more free knowing that you have three out of five. You drop

you know, you drop a game and everything is super tight. And I think you want that. You want

players to be tight in a in a final and games in three out of five. I think you can play a little

bit more free actually. But I don't like that. That's why I I mean, that's part of why I love MLP so

much is there's so much variation because everybody is even tighter in one single game. One game.

Yep. Yeah. I think you're right. And also the last thing I want to do is watch two or even three

matches that are three oh right. And so if if Ben and Analy are going to dominate on

Championship Sunday, I'd rather just have a few two games to get it over with. So yeah, good

change. That's score one for PPA changes for this year being positive. They've made a few

changes. Zane, maybe now as good a time as ever, they change the timing for pickleball.

I think that was us. I think we changed the timing like friend of the pod Connor Parto, for sure

friend of the for sure listener of the pod or at least yes, somebody that feeds him information

because we went on for a good good amount of time, Zane talking about how valuable night time

pickleball is, how we want to see a change. How is good, how no other sports played at 7am

Pacific. And going forward effective immediately, pickleball is now a nighttime sport.

What are your thoughts? Yeah, baby. Let's go. Love that. Not for me personally, but for the sport.

Like, I you know, I didn't mind some 8am viewing, but I am yeah, I also am an old person. So

and we had a couple call outs like people are like, oh, golf starts early. Okay.

Yeah, like that. Let's not be golf. No, but I mean, I mean, the the the the timing is

interesting. Yeah, I mean, I think I think we've probably factored in slightly, I would guess,

you know, but it also is just something that made sense. And like kudos to them if they hear a good

idea and they they just packed on it. Maybe there's something going on behind the scenes one way or

another, but yeah, the timing is interesting. We talk about it on the pod and they run with it.

Um, but yeah, I think they swung probably a little bit too far. Some of these matches are now

ending after midnight Eastern time, which isn't unprecedented. Obviously, the US Open was ending at

two, three in the morning. That's way too far. Um, but yeah, no, I think it's good. I think you

want to have maybe a, I don't know, 10, 30, 11 p.m. Eastern time sort of cut off target. But

you know, this is live sports. You don't know how long it's going to how long it's going to go.

But either way, I think that time matches good. I think, I think for the most part, you probably want

10 o'clock for the matches to end of whatever time zone the matches being played. So yesterday,

I think it ended like 12, 30 a.m. local time. Like I thought it was 12, 30 a.m. Eastern time.

Nope. Oh, it was, it was 12, 30. Okay. 12, 30 Pacific. I, so I played pickleball all day.

I've, and then I drove home from Sacramento to Reno. I'm still watching pickleball, get home,

shower, and yeah, I'm embedded like 12, 15, and I'm watching the final CJ Klinger, uh, Niko

Acevedo match. So yeah, I mean, there was a lot of long matches that happened that day. So

it was probably abnormal. But yeah, uh, ended around 10. Uh, so there's probably a sweet spot. They'll

figure it out, but nighttime is better way better. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, let's see. You know, maybe,

maybe we should just be the, the new co-commissioners of this of MLP. You know, um, they, somebody gave,

there was a commentator that shouted out that there are some people that have podcasts that

also like to make rules for the sport. Um, so you, you got some kudos from the newest, uh,

bestest podcast or a commentator for a pickleball. Um, so yeah. Yeah, but how would, how would

that commentator of pro pickleball even know when they've blocked you? They've blocked me. They've

blocked the dink. They've blocked Thomas. So how would they? I don't, maybe they watched it on a

burner account. I don't know how they find out. For some reason, that wouldn't, that wouldn't

surprise me. Um, but okay. So what we're talking about is, uh, I, so I think Leia was, was

commentating and, you know, there's some guys who talk or who take like tons of time on the

towel breaks. And she's like, maybe there's some player who's got a podcast and likes to make rules,

uh, you know, they can do something about this. First off, I feel like me and Leia agree about

like 95% of the time, but she fucking hates us for some reason. So, um, like, I feel like if we

just, whatever we just talk, we like, agree about pretty much everything. And then we'll go back to,

you know, our own areas and all of a sudden, it's like, beef again. Um, that's a good idea. I agree.

I think there shouldn't be crazy towel breaks. I don't mind the idea of like a, like a serve

clock in pickleball the way that there is in tennis. I think that's a good idea.

Zane, I, I'm wondering as, so maybe I'll talk about this in a bit, but I made my semi pro pickleball

debut this past weekend in the UPL, the ultimate pickleball league, uh, which is like 55-ish, whatever

in that general area pickleball. And I got to play in my last match of the day against the dude

that towel timed out after every point. I'm like, we're not pro pickleball where we are semi pro

playing inside of an ace pickleball club. And the dude is tallying off. I swear it was like in the

middle of the point. So many times, like, I think that there's nothing in pickleball that's like the

most W rage bait method there is because I immediately started hating this dude. And then I like

I want to hit him with body bags. And that doesn't go go well for me. Um, and I just like completely

went on till after like the fifth towel time out in four points. I, I lost it. Uh, does that happen

to you or play like, am I the most mentally weak person there ever was or as you are the victim

of Mr. towel time out, you're just going to like, oh, this is the most annoying thing ever.

Just get to the line. I'm ready to serve. Yeah, it's annoying, but it like becomes the first

time it happens. It'll be super annoying. Like, but, um, I mean, you just kind of get used to it

after a little while. And I got a lot of practice with will towels as my car. Um, so it was like, I don't

know, it's annoying at first, but you just kind of get used to it. And the more times it happens,

the more you just kind of like don't let it really phase you. All right. Well, I will get better at it.

It was, it was rough for me. Uh, so Leia, I also agree with you. Let's have a serve clock or

shot clock or everyone to call it. Let's beat up the game and, uh, figure out how to make the

towels the most accessible, uh, intense. It's awful when they don't let the ball boy or like the,

the helpers like give the towel to the player and they have to like walk 50 feet off the baseline.

You'll grab the towel, but at least in fickle ball is nice and close, but all right. So that's

another rule. We'll see if, uh, if Conner implements that would love it. So, um, but we'll see.

Yeah. So should we talk, um, we, we have the WPR, but let's, uh, let's chat, uh, MLP commissioner.

So Samine, Odwani is moving on to basically manage,

Al Tiles and Apollo $225 million in investment in UPA. So he's no longer commissioner,

but he's now essentially kind of filling in Al Tiles's board of director type of spot and overseeing

the investment, doing more strategic stuff like, hey, we have $225 million at play in your

organization. Here's what we want to, to see, but obviously that leaves the commissioner role.

Wide open. What are your thoughts on this? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's good for MLP. I think,

Samine took MLP as far as he could. Uh, and now I think they need something different. Um, so,

I think it works out for him, uh, but also will work out for the league. I think that the league

needs somebody with more big four sports experience. I don't know. Um, that, that like,

real, you know, broadcast TV deal experience, big partnership experience, big venue experience.

So that, that's my thought. It was interesting to me. And, and with all due respect to Samine,

because I've, this was a record breaking year for MLP and basically all aspects, right? So when

I saw that he was no longer going to be the commissioner, I was shocked. But then I realized,

okay, I think I see where this is going. But then all the articles from the dink included was,

it was like a victory lap for Samine. At the same time, I think the league needed somebody

better at this moment, something different. Um, so I don't know. I'm not sure if it was pushed out.

I have no confirmation or, or why the change specifically was made from a commissioner standpoint.

But yeah, I think that there just needs, for MLP to be successful, we need a TV deal, we need

some more major sponsorships. And I think we need somebody else. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think, um,

at first, I think we had an awesome season. I think there were a lot of good changes this year.

I think there's still some, some issues and problems. But I also think that, you know, what a lot of

people don't realize is that the commissioner job was not a full time commissioner job, right? Like,

Samine had other hats within the, in the organization. And I think the biggest thing here is

we have to have a commissioner that can be a full time commissioner. And I think now that we're

hiring a full time commissioner, I assume. Like, first off, this has got to be hired from outside

the organization. I think there's plenty of great people at the UPA. But right now, it is absolutely

time to make a splash with a big four sports or, you know, somebody with high level ATP experience,

WTA experience, golf, whatever. Like, we need, we need, I think, is a real opportunity to bring

a stud into the mix, in my opinion. Um, because I think also with that sort of, with the sort of

momentum that we, that we have, I think it's not unrealistic to, to try and get somebody like

that, right? So yeah, I think Samine took it to a very good spot. He's still going to be involved

in the strategy and, and whatnot. I do think, you know, having somebody in execution or, you know,

has some of these TV relationships already, I think will be good too. So I think it's, you know,

I think, uh, I think the sentiment of these articles actually sort of agree with. Like, I think

Samine ends up in a spot that's probably better where he can focus more on, on actual, like,

strategy and high level stuff. Um, but also you have an opportunity or a spot for somebody who can

execute and come in from, you know, uh, a serious position. Yeah. And I think it basically

changes now. It, like, this is a clear sign from MLP that the rules and the competition are

in a great place. And that's what Samine did. Now, expansion, eyes, media deal is what the lead needs.

So like, we've made all the changes we really need to make for structure of the league. I mean,

we can change things like the, the way the draft is done and some of those things, but for the most

part, we're good. So I'm excited to see the changes. So Samine, congratulations. Good job. I think

this role is going to be even better for you. Um, so it works out. I think for everybody and

excited to see who they pick. And I think that with the money that they raised, they should not

skimp on the salary of whoever this person is. I know Roger Gidele from, uh, you know, the NFL just

reupped his commissioner ship for 100 plus million dollars, you know, that's for everybody's getting

like 40 million a year or something like that. Obviously, we're pickleball and not paying anything

like that. But whatever the pickleball equivalent of 40 million dollars a year is pay that to whoever

is going to take over in MLP. Do sports like the ATP WTA to do individual sports have commissioners?

I mean, commissioners are mostly kind of like liaisons between the players and the leagues and

in charge of, you know, top down rule decisions and whatnot and or competition decisions.

Does the PPA need a commissioner? Is that Connor? I think it's Connor. Effectively, it's Connor.

Effectively, it is, it is Connor, but I don't think that role exists. Let's Google it.

What?

W or ATP commissioner? Connor's the CEO. Yeah, he's the CEO. There's a there's a chairman of the ATP

in tennis. So his responsibility is spearhead, uh, or a line player internment interests expand media

rights aggregation and boost total annual player compensation. So that whole media rights aggregation

is probably I don't. It's something that they want. So anyway, we are learning on the fly. Here we go.

Yeah, I don't know. Okay. So when we get a commissioner of the PPA tour, um, first thing that

they're going to look at is the new WPR ranking and the new buy system. So I'll explain the rules,

ask for you your your thoughts. I'll give my unsolicited opinion because that's basically why I

have a podcast is to offer unsolicited opinions. But the slams and the non slams basically look

a little bit different at the non slams. You are now given draw entry and buys based on your WPR,

which is your composite ranking of 50% gender doubles, 35% mixed doubles, 15% singles. So

Andre to ask you, he is playing his very first PPA tour singles. He is the 47th seed because the last

seed because he has zero points in singles. But he has tons of points from doubles. So he since he's

like, you know, the fifth or fourth or whatever highest by WPR, he has given two buys to the round of

16. Whereas somebody like Chris Aworth, Hunter Johnson, they start in the round of 64 because they

have a lot of singles points, but not a lot of doubles points. Thoughts. Silly, I think it's

absolutely silly. I don't understand it. I'm just like I'm now equating it to tennis, like

imagining if Jack Sock in his prime, when he was winning doubles, Grant, Grant slams gets double

by into the round of 16 in a tennis tournament. And Carlisle Alcaraz is playing in the first round.

That doesn't make sense. I don't think it makes sense in pickleball. I mean Andre then loses the

next match, but it is definitely weird to be fair. He played Jame. Jame, very good singles player.

Yeah, but the thing is like, how does Andre do like let Andre play the round of 64 and see how he

does? I mean, one is I think it's serving the purpose of what maybe the PPA wants, which is I want

more of these people to play singles. And so now there's no way Andre played singles without WPR.

Zero, right? Like can we at least agree that this is the reason why he tried?

Yeah. So yeah. And the crazy part is he gets round of, he can now just get

roundly, he can farm round of 16 points and score these scores the same amount of points is

people who came through qualifying and won two matches by losing. So basically, he just

continually get round of 16 now his WPR is going to go up even higher. Yeah, I mean, like if I'm

somebody like a Hayden or Anna Brite or somebody else, I'm just going to enter like, you know,

I'm not going to tank, but I'm not really going to try that hard. Or maybe I won't like,

you know, it's just not going to be their priority, right? Like, you know, their competitors,

they're going to get out there and they're going to, they're going to play, but it's like, if you lose,

you still get the points of round of 16. So I don't know, I think there are a lot of flaws in this.

This is something that I didn't support from from my position on the on the pro council is

something that we voted against. But you know, there are parts of it that we approve parts of it

that we voted against. I just think, okay, look, maybe, maybe you give Andre one by, but you also

have to give Chris. So maybe my solution would be, all right, maybe there's some reason why we have

to give Andre a buy in incentivize more people to play singles. I understand that. Let's give Andre a

buy to the round of 32 if we have to. We also going to figure out a way to get Chris and Hunter buys

to the round of 32, right? Like, so I think, you know, the solution might lay somewhere in there.

And I think some of this is the fact that, you know, the game is getting more and more difficult to

play all three. They want incentivize people to play all three. You're never going to get Andre to do

that if, you know, he has to play, you know, five rounds or whatever. And so I get some of it. But

two buys when Chris Aworth doesn't have one. Yeah. There's just no way. All right. So, so easy,

easy fix here. Four buys into the round of six, round of 32 for top four single seeds. Four rounds

four buys in the round of 32 for top four overall WPR rated players outside of those four. We have eight buys

done. I agree. Connor, hope you're listening. I do have a question. Is there any truth to this? So,

I heard that one of the reasons why WPR exists is because somebody went up to Tom Dundin and was like,

hey, I met there. I met your number one singles player. All right. I met your number one player in

Pickleball and they were talking about Hunter Johnson. And he was like, wait, no, what? We're not

talking about Ben Johnson. I'm sorry about Hunter Johnson. And so they were like, we got to fix this.

We need people to recognize Ben as the number one player, not Hunter. Did you hear that? Have you heard of

this? Is that true? No, but like, you know, that wouldn't really surprise me so much. But yeah,

I mean, I would, I would sort of agree. Like, that's why I conceptually I agree with with WPR. I like

WPR. I like the, I like the weighted ranking. I think you can still say that like, yeah, I'm the best

singles player. But I do think that, you know, the best player should take into account all three

things. So like, conceptually, I think that that makes sense. So you can say Ben Johnson number one.

Annelie is number one. You don't want to have to say Annelie is the best player in the world. But

she's tied with number one with Anna Bright because she plays with Anna Bright, but she's obviously way

better. Like, no, Annelie is number one. So you can sexually agree. I didn't know that story.

I can see that story being true. Yeah. It's, it's, I found, I hear that story to be honest. When I

write the run of show and I'm chatting with Claude, that always comes up. I'm like, are you hallucinating

or is this actually happening? I gotta do some due diligence. But Zana, I do have a question

speaking of WPR in 10 years. I want you to put your, your hat on. How many players in the top 10

of singles do you think will also be in the top 10 of doubles? Like, I just think my hypothesis is

the further along we get in the pickleball journey, the less and less and the less people are good

at both singles and doubles. 100%. Yeah, it already is. I mean, it already is getting more and more

separate. Very, very few. I still think it's, I still think single specialization is coming.

Yeah. So I wonder what's going to happen with WPR when that's just going to be a fact where

Chris, hey, because Chris, hey, worth as good as he is, I only think is ever going to be a top 10

doubles player. Hunter's not going to be a top 10 doubles player. Federico is the only one

that's winning gold and has a chance of winning gold and doubles. So, and Analy's Analy, just

Christian, Christian as well. Christian. Yeah. Disagree.

I disagree on a 100 and Chris's doubles player that do think they can still become good doubles

players. But yeah, like, are they going to become number one doubt it? Right. Yeah, I mean, like I said,

they can be good. I just don't think they're ever going to be top 10 or like actually competing for

gold. But that's just me. So anyway, so at this point, we are, I mean, for keeping track of score,

I think we're like two to one positive changes for PPA, one negative change with the,

the double buy, but we have a solution here. We are the PPA's ours at this point. Zane,

you lead the committee. Basically, commissioner, basically, I think commissioners. So we're asking

like, who's the commissioner of PPA? I think it's, that's us. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Deal. Okay. We

accept. All right. You know, Marick's agnostics does the blood draws and you can figure out what's

going on. I went back for like the first time in four months or whatever since the last time, since

the first time to get blood drawn. Now we're doing the testosterone thing, Zane. You said I might

have negative testosterone. I think I think I'm in the 200s. I think a normal person's in a 700s.

I don't know what it is, but I did go. They gave me the order full blood panel went to quest

diagnostics or quest health to get the blood drawn and then they sent it to Marick. And there's a

whole mix up at the, at the blood draw place because they got their, their computer systems on the

wrong time zone. So I showed up three hours early, which was an hour before they actually opened.

I was surprised that they were open at 6 a.m. They weren't. But anyway, finally got my blood drawn.

Lady asked how I slept, which was interesting. And I was like, well, not great because I thought I

was going to be here at six. But apparently the test takes like a week. So I still have not got the

testosterone results yet. But I told Marick I was like, look, I want you to juice me up like,

you know, a body builder on freaking, you know, Arnold, like whatever the maximum amount of

test is that I'm allowed to have. But luckily they have to be back out the next episode with

freaking forehead veins. They did say that there, there are doctors and health professionals as part

of Marick. That will make sure that I behave myself and do the right thing. And I only get the

right amount of dosage. So I will be on a normal dosage of testosterone if I need it or whatnot.

I'll share the entire regimen of what I do. So right now we're just waiting for labs. But if you

guys want to follow along, want to do the same thing, want to get your health check, it literally

took like, I don't know, five minutes to get my blood drawn. I wait, I get the stuff in the mail.

I'm excited. You guys can check it out too. You can go to maricdiagnostics.com,

use code, the dink to check it out, get the help support you need. Let's see. What else would be

an alley rolled through just about everybody. Kate Fahey, I think if anybody's going to beat her,

it's going to be Kate. Kate always seems to have one very good game against an alley.

This time it was, she was down eight nine, but like making a pretty decent comeback,

yeah, played a pretty good point. Analy pulled out a pretty massive forehand to save Kate from

tying it at nine nine and then just ran away with it the rest of the match.

Yeah, I mean, if Kate would have got shit on by a bird, it could be a different story. But

she needs to be good and lucky. So it's an alley I think. And I mean, I don't, I think at this point,

also like those two are almost on a lock for the championship Sunday every single time. So

yeah, good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's Kaylen Christian.

Kate Fahey, he's I think 36 and three against not Analy Waters this year. Oh, and eight against

Analy Waters, but 36 and three against everybody else. That's pretty good. She's pretty good.

So that's crazy because like, I mean, 36 and three, that's a just a clear and a fricking. That's

like a prime joke of itch level dominance over the field. But you have Analy. So that's really

brutal because Kate, Kate's good enough to be number one. Like, yeah, Kate's number one without

Analy by a long cat and she's a dominant number one. Yeah, too bad. The number one is, you know,

100 and zero or whatever. I don't even everybody talked about how many days she's one in a row. I'm

not sure. 134. What how many? 134. 134 in a row. That's sick. Yeah. Yes. Wow. So at what point?

At what point does my statement that Analy Waters is more dominant than Serena Williams ever was?

At what point does that stop becoming rage bait? Because to me, it's still not a question whatsoever.

Again, I've said this a million times. What Serena did is way more impressive than Analy.

Analy is undoubtedly more dominant. Just like I am the most dominant arm wrestler in my household

of me, Jenny and two dogs. Like, I am not saying that that is more impressive than Analy's dominance.

But what I am saying is I'm more dominant in that. Analy's more dominant than Serena. Serena is the

most impressive. But to me, there's just no question that Analy is far more dominant than Serena

Williams. It's a hill that I'll die on and it's a hill that somebody will probably kill me on

because people hate it when I say that. Oh, this is definitely going to be the thumbnail of our

episode again. No. No, I mean, you're right to a point. I think the hard thing though is like

each win to me in WTA tennis is worth 10 in pickleball. I don't know how to describe it.

The easiest way for me to think about it is Serena Williams is playing freaking Maria Sherapova

and her sister and all these other people that basically were plucked from the womb and put a

tennis racket in their hand before they could walk. They bred them to be tennis superstars and

they're all six foot one. Analy's biggest competition is someone who three years ago was an

analyst at Framix. So I agree. Different style of dominance. But yeah, I don't know. I think we can

both be right. Me more right than you. But I can see that you are probably, and this is the thing

that I don't think is like I think the reason this is like a Trojan horse where Zeyn is using this

argument about Serena and Analy when in reality, he's just spreading lies. He's not actually more

dominant than his wife at arm wrestling. She beats his ass every single time. I have this on

a regular. I've confirmed sources from the inside that you cannot be your wife at arm wrestling,

femur wrestling, or any kind of wrestling. Okay fine, but I can definitely beat my dogs.

That's true. I've done it. I've done it. I've done it. I've done it. I've done it. I've done it.

The thumbs. So,

anywhere now. Dominance. Dominance is dominance. She's great.

All right. So since we already started the mean comments, should we should we read some comments

from last week's episode? Yes. Zeyn, since we are doing this on the flag and I need you to

leave these comments. I got you. Okay. So I've got these ones pulled up. Devin T5970 says every week,

I'm shocked by the thing said. Never thought BluCue would make it into a pickleball pod.

That's all that's on the MLP. That's their fault. We didn't put it in. They put it into the

as advertising, which is honestly, maybe the perfect sponsor for pickleball. I don't know if there

could be any sponsor that's more valuable to the pickleball community. Yeah. So nice Supla

says, oh, this is in reference to me talking about Padel being fast growing sport says Zeyn could

morph over to the slowest growing sport. Tifty. Not it will never. Tifty is what, look, I'm a

racquet sports enthusiast. I have decided that I'm going to just never play Tifty. I'm going to

hate on Tifty the way that tennis players hate on pickleball. I'm sure it's fun to play. I

think it's dumb. I think it's dumb looking. So yes, I've decided that there are two things that I

really hate in this world. Sacramento and Tifty. Okay. Perfect. All right. I like it. I never played

it, but you sold me on hating it as soon as you're like, this is the sport that's promoted by

like Bert Kreischer. I was like, all right. I think I'm out.

Addy Bong says Zeyn is no longer chasing PPA points. He's chasing MLP GM points.

Because I was talking about like, I don't really chase points too much. I'm like, okay,

sure. I get that fair enough. I thought I was chasing like frequent flyer mile points at this point.

So long story says cannot justify cursing. Cannot justify cursing low IQ.

And I just wanted to say the comments. There are studies out there that say apparently people who

are smarter, swear more, whatever, the correlation, somebody replies, actually that's not accurate.

There have been studies that show people who swear have higher intelligence. So maybe that's why

we fucking swear so much. Yeah. Exactly. Maybe we're just too fucking geniuses out.

Sorry, long story. I don't mind if you don't listen anymore. Anyway, DJ 1619 asks,

why did Leia block you guys? Nico, you want to take this crack at that one?

No, maybe get her on the pod again. She can answer ones and for all. I don't actually know.

As we point out multiple times, we love Leia. All of her ideas are pretty much

genius. She's the best commentator I've ever seen in All of Thickable and one of the best players and

overall human beings I've ever encountered in my life. But she doesn't like me. Doesn't like you.

Doesn't like the rules committee. Doesn't like if anybody ever calls her out for hooking. Not that she

has ever hooked anybody because I've never seen it. But some somewhere do you not have eyes?

So here's the thing. Front of the pod, Leia Johnson.

I'm friend of the pod. No apology next week on this. I think, I do think if anything, Nico and I

are relatively consistent. We'll call people out if they deserve to be called out. We'll

apologize for it. If we needed to apologize for it, I think we try to be consistent. And I do

think that the biggest thing is I don't think that Leia likes our consistency. We'll call her out

when she needs to be called out. We will support her when there's something that she should be

supported for. So honestly, I think that that's the main reason. We've called her out a couple times.

I would say yes, we've called her out a couple times. We've called her out just about everybody.

I do feel like we, like I said earlier in the pod, I feel like we've agreed with Leia on 90 plus

percent of stuff. Oh yeah. And I think there's going to be a time in the not so distant future

or Zane and Leia get to reminisce. There'll be at dinner. Zane will be the GM of the Chicago slice

or some other MLP team. She'll be full-time commentator. She'll have replaced whoever. And they'll

get to talk about the good old days when they hated each other for their time on the quarter on

the podcast. But I don't hate Leia. Let's clarify that. I don't hate Leia. Okay. All right. So Zane is a

consistent liar. But Zane, I do want to ask you, do you think Leia is going to be full-time commentator

within the next two years? I hope so. She's really good at it. And she actually brings in, I think

I think people do want to hear some of the pro-level insights. I think that on the opposite end of it,

you have Dave Fleming who does a really good job of bringing in new people. Plie people who might

need to understand the third chat drop strategy or whatever. I think you kind of want to have both.

And I think you probably almost need different commentators for what your television slot is. If

you're on CBS, you probably want more of a day of Fleming to draw people in and help explain

the game. But if you're on Pickleball TV, I think you definitely want to lay a Jansen who can speak

to the game at a higher level. And obviously, Dave can speak to the game at a higher level. He's a very

good player himself. But his style is more broad. So yeah, I mean, I hope so. I think she does a great

job with it. Yeah, me too. I'm going to do. Zane, I'm not sure. There was a comment on here, by the way.

I can't find it. But somebody talked about the fact that we can't read. It might have been on our

live chat when we were ripping into the packs. And they were just like basically like, Kanzane and Nico

just not read. You're having the hardest time trying to figure out our packs. So we can read.

I can spell in the ads. I can read ads. I can read dub packs. But in case anybody was wondering.

And speaking of the dub packs, somebody did say I would rather have a trading card of a local

beer belly dart player from a pub. Okay. I'll take my hand. So Loki, that'd be pretty fricking

funny. That'd be great. What if your local pub just had like a local pub legends?

Card pack. Maybe found out valuable. I'd buy it back. Yeah. Can we not read? Maybe we need,

maybe we need the Derek Zoolander foundation for kids who can't read good and want to learn to do

other things good too. Maybe that needs to come to fruition. Yeah. Probably. And I think the fact

that Zane won't admit it publicly, but we are actually reading the comments to prove that he can

read. So yeah, this is like a Floyd Mayweather situation.

Who was it that offered him like a million dollars to read one page of like Harry Potter or something?

It was 57. 50 cents. Yeah. 50 cents. If you want to offer Nico and I money to read anything of

your choosing, we will. Yes, absolutely. I will. Okay. All right. We miss anything from the tournament

this weekend. Women's doubles. No, Paris. Paris and Rachel. When they won Sacramento,

they seem to be the best team when Anneli and Anna Bright aren't playing. Yeah. They almost blew it.

I mean, they were up 10 to in game two. And I had I had my money on Tyra and Megan. I mean,

I think I think Megan's underrated. I think Tyra is so good. I don't understand.

I mean, Tyra is good. She has like with all due respect, Tyra. It's like the I don't know

if it's ugly mechanics or a weird looking shot. I just as I'm watching, I don't understand how she's

so good, but like Zane, maybe you can explain to me like her shot her shots just seems so linear,

flat and aggressive. That's like not a lot of toss bin, not a lot of roll, but she dominates almost

everybody. Clobby hands. Clobby hands is really the biggest thing. She has same same with Niko.

She has very compact power. She has more compact power than anybody else on the women's tour. Anneli

has more power. Anneli has a little bit more swings at them. Tyra is one of the few people who

can go kind of here to here or here to here and generate like good pace. And she doesn't really like

yes, she's herky jerky pops things up sometimes, but when you have good hands, you can bail yourself out

of that. So she'll pop up some dinks, but then she'll be all over the cleanup. And she's just an

excellent mover to clean things up as well. So yeah, mechanics wise, she's got some funky ones, but

unbelievable hands and unbelievable athlete will do a lot of things for you. Yeah. I like the team.

I like I like touring in Megan. So that was fun to watch. I thought that a chance. They did have a

chance. They did well for I guess first time partnership. At least I don't remember them partnering

together. So great job by them. You know, and that you know, I know we talked about no Gabe,

no Anna, but also no Hayden, no Georgia, no JW Hayden. Happy birthday. I think today's your

21st birthday. I think you probably need to take a whole week off to celebrate that one.

So I just hope you can make it to Vegas in a couple of weeks or whatever the next

PPA tournament is, but the guy is 21. Congratulations. Hey, you made it. Oh boy.

Vegas better watch out. Yeah. I was going to mention this. So I told you earlier, I joined a

semi pro league and our teams actually pretty good. So we went two and one. We beat a team that

was like 21 and one. And this was our first week. It's the way the league works is bizarre,

but it's pretty fun. There's teams all over the place. Anyway, we win. There's like five guys

and one girl in every matchup. And it's weird because you can be like two guys against a mix

team, which is what happened to us and everybody. So it's six players, but five guys and one girl.

Yeah. Yeah. They have at least one girl. So basically every team has one girl.

What's sort of sausage fest league are you playing?

That's basically sausage party. What is this called? What is it called?

The UPL. I think it's called the ultimate pickle ball league or somewhere that.

So, but there's a ton of teams, right? Anyway, so we're the Tahoe wild. And so funny,

every team's logo is like completely AI generated from Chad Gbt. They all look exactly the

fucking same. So I'll have to send it. But so we have, you know, we're sponsored by Jimbois

Tacos, which is hilarious because finally Nico's got a taco sponsor.

We got a taco sponsor. And shout out to the boys. That's the thumbnail. That's the thumbnail.

Nico right here. I got a taco sponsor. You go got taco sponsor. They're fantastic. If you're in

if you're in like a Northern California or Reno, shout out Jimbois, they make tacos that have like

Parmesan cheese dusted crusts on the outside. Anyway, they're super good. Not not a sponsor

of this podcast, but a sponsor of our team. So anyway, so we do well. We beat the team that we

probably shouldn't beat. I ended up playing my brother's team. We lose to them. That's the one team

we lose to. But I had a tough that's a tough L. Did you lose to Gino. They're ready.

I so this is so no, yes and no. So our team lost. But the way that the format works, yes. But the

way that format works is there's five games. And this is actually kind of cool. There are five

games in every match. There is like the A team, the B team, the C team. After that, then there is a

rotating dream breaker for doubles. So basically each player plays one point and they just rotate

like this. Right. So you play on the left, then you play on the right, and then you rotate out.

Then they have a singles dream breaker. I think they're technically called dream makers. You know,

they don't have the right to dream breaker. But so you play five matches and the winner,

you know, whoever wins three or more wins the whole thing. So I never got to play Gino and

doubles. But I found out that he was going to be the one spot and singles. So I requested my team

thought I was crazy. I'm like, put me in the one spot and singles in our dream breaker. So Nico's

playing one singles. I go three and three. We win the singles dream breaker. So I'll take that

considering he's like a solid hundred pounds less than me and way more athletic. So that's a win.

But but Zane, this is all this long, way of saying I'm not sure if I mentioned this to you last time.

Got invited to the Selker combine. I'm going to go. I finagled my way into getting to do all the

tests that the all of the potential athletes that are buying for like a $25,000 like sponsorship

contract are going to do. So but they were like, Hey, I you're going to film it, right. So I was like,

I'll film my baseline. Then I'll film it throughout the journey. I was like, this is my 40 days to

get in shape. I'm going to ask you for some advice as well. But the first thing the taco sponsor.

We're having naked tacos. But the first thing there are a set of four like combine drills that

I need to do. And I'm recording as a baseline. The first one is a 20 yard dash. So I warm up.

I run a 200 meter. So just one lap back and forth from the football field. I get on the starting line.

And my wife is recording. And she has to record it. And she has the stopwatch in her hands. So she has

to her both her hands occupied. And we have our like one year old walking around. So she's a little

bit preoccupied. I'm like, All right, Liz, I'm going to do it. And I go, I feel good about it. And then

as soon as I cross the finish line, she's like, You got to stop. You got to do it again because I couldn't

press that I didn't press the stop at the right time. So I was like, fuck. So I do it a second time.

I pull my hamstring. So I ran the total of 40 yards. I pull my hamstring. And the first freaking

challenge, I run a 40 yard dash in 4.04 seconds, which is 20 yard dash.

I'm like, I'm just going to say. So basically, I am twice as slow as like a pro football player.

They gave me the list of all of the scores of the Selkirk Sparta athletes. The fastest time in

the 20 yard dash was like 2.6 seconds. The slowest time was 3.04 seconds. I ran it in 4.04. So I am

25% slower or 33% slower than the slowest person that is in the combine. I already pulled my hamstring.

And then I had to try and do a vertical test and a broad jump. So I'm completely fucked.

But I need that footage. I haven't all recorded my vertical. So here's another thing.

So my vertical was, I tested it this morning, but then I got an iPhone upgrade to the newest

iPhone. And apparently the video did not upload to iCloud before I got the new phone. So that footage

is lost forever. It was 17 inches, which is terrible. So my vertical is 17 inches. But somehow

that's better than I expected. Well, I tested it again in the after you said terrible. I was like,

oh, okay, that's not so bad. It's better than I expected. I retested it with a broken hamstring or

whatever torn hamstring. I got 14 and a half inches this time. I think the slowest in the combine

was like 26. So I think I got almost like a full foot that I need to do. So I am like the least

in shape person there ever was. But we are going to see what could happen in the next 40 days. I am

committed. I am putting down the tacos. My kids got donuts this morning. I didn't eat too. So

we're good. I only had one. But and we're we are restarting with with Mary Kelt as well. So I am

pulling in all the big guns and and we are going to crush this combine. I'm not going to pull a

hamstring in my final test. That's like maybe my ultimate goal is to like not injure myself

running for four seconds. But we'll see. That's that's what's up. Yeah, well, this will be

interesting. This will be fun to you know, Nico, you can't just dangle that footage in front of us

like that. We need that to be released to the public. There's been no good for you. I think I

really do think like look, I know we make jokes about it. But like if you if you did move a little

bit more like you really could bump up that duper pretty considerably because you're very good

hands like very good feel as well. Clubby hands, good speed ups. The only thing that's missing is

really like the athleticism behind that. Any athletic. I mean, I actually feel like the athleticism

is there like I do think that you have I do think that you are athletic on the inside of that

of that exterior somewhere somewhere deep in there is an is an athlete. Nico, I believe it.

There is. Did you play? You played you played. Yeah, when you play your own up. I played soccer and I

played tennis. I'm not really I played one year of high school tennis and I played soccer my entire

career. I played I was keeper. So I didn't ever had to like run or be athletic really. But you know,

I was more athletic than I am now. And watching by the way, watching the 20 yard dash is is in

bearish. It's crazy. You know how they say like if you really want to like humble yourself and

learn how to get good at pickleball, like record yourself and watch it and then you like think

you're so good and then you watch it back here like wow the points are so slow and I'm so bad.

But watching me run a 20 yard dash like oh I thought I was flying like I was like this feels good

and usually it's just like like I just like that. That's a sound effect.

So is this is this going to be like you know the family episode where they play the tubo behind the

guy. I think you know what I think we need I think we need to get you this you know what all

the stuff you've done the lefty challenge you've done Marick Health you've done you're now doing

the self-cork thing all we need to do to really motivate you is to put you in a head to head

combine against Jimmy Miller. There's no way you lose that like no you would be you would be

skinny Bella Hadid within within weeks. They're going to call me the tall Niko Asivado if I had to

play against him you know so yeah I mean I'm in Jimmy if you ever want to challenge me and

literally anything I think he said you were unretiring from pickleball and you're going to go

smack me and zane I don't know but I'm in I'm in for one dollar for $10,000 for charity for my own

pride for donuts for tacos whatever you want the most for you know hair transplant in Turkey I

don't know whatever you want we can do but yeah so if you win the hair transplant in Turkey can

you send me yeah my barber said that I actually this point I could like afford it be good if I lost

some hair so I'm never going bald lucky me yeah I'm getting I'm getting thinner I've Jenny found some

some like serum or something that like a slows slows it down but yeah you win the hair transplant

in Turkey send that my way okay yeah there we go so all right sweet thanks for thanks for

ripping this with me so you have to say pickle pod ready oh okay pickle pod pickle pod