Hour 1: Greg Gives Chris an Ultimatum (feat. John Isner)

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This is the Dan Labatar show with the Stew Gats Podcast.

I've been asking, go ahead and keep typing.

Don't let us go.

I didn't know you were starting to.

You ended the last segment.

The countdown usually is where.

Oh, you didn't have your headphones on.

Okay.

Okay.

His team team rankings are due today, guys.

He has a deadline.

You could clue me in that we're starting.

How high do you have the Dolphins?

I'm not telling you.

They're going to be top, like, oh, my God.

I happen to have my rankings open in front of me, but it's top secret information.

I bet you I'm at 14.

No, it's too high.

Like 17.

No, it's all being the top 15.

He would never go against his team now.

You don't think 17 then to throw people off?

There's just no way he's going under the midway point.

I guess it would be 16.

There's no way.

Okay, first of all, the rankings that I have now, which Christopher probably purloined and illegally looked at, are not the official final rankings.

I'm going to come in there and help you with something.

I'm not going to look at your screen.

No, this is not happening.

No,

I'm not tone.

I assure you.

I promise you that there's no way that he puts the dolphins in the bottom half.

You're not doing anything.

17 is just enough to throw the people off the scent.

Right?

Oh, here we go.

We got to wait a second.

Oh, no.

They're going to be elbows grabbed.

No!

They're gonna be elbows grabbed.

He's furious.

Okay.

I'm gonna tell Christopher right now.

Whoa.

If you reveal on the air where the dolphins rank, I am gonna be genuinely pissed at you.

You do not do that.

You're getting into my business now.

Seriously, he better not do that.

Okay, he steals my computer, breaks the whole screen.

There it is.

There it is.

He's left you with just a keyboard in the middle of the day.

Christopher.

He took your dignity.

Just looking.

Don't say anything about it.

I'm serious.

Okay, I'm going to tell you this right now.

Are you hearing me?

If you say that on the air, I am not hosting the draft party Thursday night.

Wow.

Period.

Do you understand me?

Do you understand me?

The draft party will not be at my house Thursday night.

We got an average.

If anybody on this show reveals where I have the Dolphins ranked or anything else about my rankings, I am not hosting the draft party Thursday night.

Take that to the bank.

I'm saying it on my life.

You have so many tabs open.

I'm saying it on my life.

I will not host the draft party Thursday night if anybody says anything about my rankings on the air.

Greg's standing on business right now.

He's talking to you.

And now I want to push this because, among other things, I want Chris to actually take that to a bank.

I want him to go to a bank and say, listen, my father, see what the teller's reaction is when you say, my father has threatened that if I

take that back.

Give me back my computer.

Check.

Check.

Avery Johnson's father thinks this is aggressive.

I may have exited out.

I hope you have it saved.

Oh, no.

1440 is the password.

Oh, no.

All right, I'm going to bring it back in.

I'm scared.

No, no, just hold on to it for a second.

I'll stay here.

Dan, you can't see our video.

No, no, I don't.

Look, this is not.

Listen,

this is a bad idea.

I have seen him yell at Christopher this way since Christopher was four.

When he starts throwing around the Christopher, I don't need to see the front of his face to know that he's serious.

And

the greatest of all the threats, when he threatens not to host a draft party, when it's the center of his life, he doesn't want to take away that draft party.

That's what he wants to be.

But he will.

But he will.

If you reveal that the Dolphins are 14 instead of 17, if you reveal reveal that and take away his paywall thunder,

really, you're...

He just spoke to me in sign language.

No, it wasn't even sign language.

He did not waste words.

He just did Keanu Reeves the Matrix and summoned you over with a finger because he didn't want to waste the breath of having you test

his rage anymore.

He's just sitting here with nothing but a keyboard, and I got to tell you, it looks pathetic.

I want my laptop back.

I'm not the least bit amused by this.

I'm not kidding in how angry I am.

I know you're not.

Okay, and this is what I'm going to do.

Give it back, please.

Okay.

Dan, stop stopping us from giving it back, please.

I am going to.

No, I'm going to send them both to the penalty box.

I'm not going to the penalty box.

Together, I'll bring this.

I want my computer right here

before I do anything.

No, I'm not going to the penalty box until I get my computer right here.

You can bring it to me.

This is fine.

This is good.

No, you can bring it to me.

Craig, you're going to stop that now.

No.

Yes, you're not going to stop.

No, I'm not.

You're going to stop that now.

No, no, I'm not.

I'll leave.

I'll go home if you want me to with my laptop.

But I am not going in the penalty box until my laptop is connected to my computer.

My son is.

This is not your fault.

My son has gone over the line here.

I am genuinely upset.

We know.

Okay, so how about make it right?

Yeah, you're less.

Instead of continuing the joke.

It's partly Dan's fault.

It's ridiculous.

It's partly my fault

that we're not able to have fun with Greg Cody's rankings of 14 or 17.

That's right, because they're serious to me.

Okay, Christopher, if I don't have that computer here in three minutes, I am not hosting the draft party Thursday night.

Put the clock up on the screen, Louis.

Please do it.

Do it.

Lewis, put up a clock on the screen that gives us our three minutes here.

And please do that.

And Christopher, you send out a notice to the rest of the league saying that the draft is going to be at your house because of what you did.

Give us a second to gather ourselves here for the nature of this threat, okay?

Where's my three-minute channel?

Hold on a second, Chart.

All right.

You're going to start it.

Don't wait till 30 seconds.

Just go in there.

No, no, no.

I need the dramatic tension of the three minutes, please.

We have, of course, ample tension.

Yeah, I got it.

I'm good on tension.

No, I want it a little more.

I guess who Mike Fuentes is?

Okay, again, listen to what's happening, Greg.

Let's play now.

Billy, that's a good idea.

Let's play the game right now.

Does Greg know the name of everyone in this office?

Let's see.

This is how you make things.

Chris,

hand his computer.

It's on the screen.

245.

Oh, boy.

Do you guys understand what this threat is?

I don't totally understand.

It's a big draft party that's happening Thursday.

Greg has been gracious enough to open his home to the CBI draft.

If Christopher thinks I'm kidding, I am not.

He doesn't think you're kidding.

No, I think he does.

No, he does not.

We are in a tense situation, though, and we're stuck in it.

Like, the discomfort is real.

It is awkward.

And we are now on the clock, and it's very dramatic.

It's down to almost two minutes.

I know.

It's 2.15, which means he's still got a little bit of time.

Now, I...

I cannot express to you how serious I am about Thursday night.

All right.

Yeah, I'm

worried.

No.

On my life, Greg, I am not hosting this draft party Thursday night.

Have we not?

Have we revealed anything?

I don't care.

I'm giving you an ultimatum.

You now have a minute and 50 seconds.

It's, yeah, it's a minute 49 now.

This is

been.

I've never been more angry connected with this show, ever.

A minute and 38.

Will we put up the LSU photo, please?

Oh, my God.

I don't care.

Oh, my God.

That doesn't make me nearly as mad as what's happening right now.

Anybody who thinks that's me is an idiot.

A minute 20.

A minute 15.

It has to be in my hand before it goes to all zeros.

In my hand.

A minute 8.

See, Christopher thinks I'm kidding about not hosting this draft party.

Okay?

On my life.

On my granddaughter's life.

On my granddaughter's life.

I am not hosting this draft party unless I have that computer.

Why does this keep escalating?

Who else's life is he gonna take before the end of this?

Again, I remind people as a discomfort sweeps over the room dramatically that this is the difference between the Dolphins being ranked 17th and 14th.

And I'm guaranteeing you, it's not gonna be in the bottom half of the league.

And the only way it's gonna be in the bottom half of the league is if he changes it.

The way that he just alpha this room is the single most impressive thing I have seen Greg Cody do since he had a funeral

for his 30-year-old deck shoes.

Look at the tension in the other room there, Greg.

Good.

There's tension in this room, too, emanating entirely from me.

I'm fanning it a bit.

I'm participating.

You would never.

Well, wait a minute, though.

First of all, you will not tell me that this is not good.

You will not tell me that.

And I'm watching, Mike's hiding behind a plant.

And the rest of you, I can see your faces, but what he has just done is old man strength.

What you just saw was him telling you, as he's told you for a little while, I got stamina.

And what you could do is you can go to an old-fashioned bank and you can tell them that he's not hosting that draft party if you

i still want you to do that.

I want you to go to a bank and find a teller and see what they're reacting.

I just want to see an assortment of tellers, what their reaction is.

And I wonder if there's some sort of crime that you could be committing that they will make you like a bank robber or something because you're just weirding out people and you're going to be escorted out by security.

Do you care at all that you look at?

Look at what that room looks like right now.

All of them have been reduced to nine-year-olds fearing a father and a grandfather's wrath.

You have reopened the scars here on, oh, come on, we were just playing with somebody that we respect and like.

Why are we arguing this way about the fact that he was waving a keyboard at us?

Because

I didn't hear a lot of respect and like in what just happened.

I certainly didn't feel any respect for my son.

The respect that you did not feel that is accurate for you not to feel is a respect for a top 20 list of rankings.

It's a top 32.

It's

Any hack could do 20.

Who does the top 20 rankings?

It's insane.

Before the season starts.

It's ridiculous.

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Don Lebatard.

I'm not going to apologize.

I wouldn't expect you to apologize.

Then you're a giant infant.

Okay.

You have no control over your emotions.

You have no control over your emotions.

When you're calling someone you know an idiot, I don't deserve it.

Okay.

I don't deserve it.

And you're a fool for saying it.

Okay.

Stugats.

You're a fool.

I was kind of following you.

Oh, you're locking in right now.

You're locking in on us?

Yeah.

All right.

Let's drop the gloves, pal.

Let's drop.

You should be thanking me.

For what?

Every day.

For what?

For what I've done around this character.

And the second shit gets real for you, you want to come at me and call me a fool?

Huh?

Jeremy, no, no, no.

Seriously.

Jeremy.

Seriously, pal.

I've added 10 years to your career.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

So, in football, we've got Kenny Pickett going to the Raiders.

We have Amari Cooper going to the Raiders.

Can't do that shit.

My parents divorced.

What?

Do your show.

Well, you put something in the middle of it here that is a bit hot.

Oh, I put it in the middle of it.

That started with me.

You're acting like we revealed it.

When someone stole my laptop, that's me?

You're acting like it was revealed.

We did it like

that.

What was revealed?

You said a number that is much too close to the number.

Well, that's just us guessing.

I don't remember what it was.

I didn't see anything.

You won $12,000 yesterday.

damn it.

You revealed the number.

I didn't hear it, and he's pointing it out.

I didn't hear the number.

What is the number he said?

Now he's mad again.

I'm not going to say this.

I'm getting up and leaving.

Did any of you hear the number that Chris said?

I think it's 17th, and I told you already.

Whatever number he said will not be where the dolphins are.

Wait a minute.

Oh, wait, now the number's changing?

Maybe.

Oh, no.

Depending on how accurate he was.

You know, it's ridiculous.

You're messing with my livelihood when you do stuff like that.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

And, you know,

you're thinking of the show first, which in that seat, I get it.

But

I almost wish you hadn't brought it back so you would have seen how serious I am about not hosting the.

You should cancel it anyway.

You want to take it again?

You want to take it again?

Seriously.

You want to do something else to piss me off.

And you'll be sending out a group text and you'll be hosting that draft.

Put up the hospital photo.

No, I'm kidding.

Don't do that.

I like the Kenny Pickett topic.

Let's do that.

It was a good transition.

The Amari Cooper thing.

Hold me.

That's how, like, Jacoby Myers, you do what now?

We were going to get a Mark Cooper.

The hospital photo is as mad as I've ever seen him before this, but the hospital photo is something that we showed only because he had already shown it on social media.

Like, he provided it for us.

No, no, no, no.

I provided it to my social media followers.

Yeah.

You made it.

That's public, though.

That's putting it out public.

Okay.

What does a picket trade mean for should be?

If you tweet out a photo, you can't be upset about it.

It's Gabriel.

That's fair.

Who's QB2?

But this is an anger that I don't know that I've seen from him before.

He says you're messing with his livelihood.

I don't believe that that's true.

I don't believe that his livelihood would be impacted in any way whatsoever if you revealed that number.

I don't believe that there will be more subscriptions to the Miami Herald to get to that paywall, but okay, he's entitled to feel that.

It escalating from he was willing to give his life and then he just gave up your daughter's life as well?

That's where the game ended for me.

I mean,

because I needed to inform you how serious I was.

I was aware.

No, you weren't.

I don't think you were.

I feel like we all were, Greg.

No.

Mike was hiding behind a plant.

I don't think Christopher honestly thought that I would stand firm and not host that draft Thursday night.

You don't think I can tell when you're really upset?

You can come back very soon with the leftover.

Okay, that was my fault.

I just want to examine for a second before we move off of this.

Please.

Just, well, I don't want to move off this part, though.

It's such a funny threat to get to the height of rage.

and say, you're going to have to host your own party.

I'm going to pull the party.

I don't think Chris particularly cares.

I don't know.

I know you care about that.

I know you care about that as a threat.

That threat was something meaningful to you, but it wasn't, it clearly wasn't working as a threat.

It's like one text.

Hey, we're having it at John's house now.

Well,

I don't like this.

Okay.

What does that draft party mean to you, Greg?

Just so we have an understanding, because it seems as though they're not taking this seriously.

Like it would just be a text to change things.

I mean, I enjoy the league.

It's a keeper league, which is itself a pain in the ass, but I enjoy the league.

I feel like you're punishing yourself with that threat, though, that you want to host that party, and if you don't get to host that party, the punishment is greatest for you.

No, no, that's not true.

Christopher asks me to host the party every year.

You have a bigger house than I do.

Okay.

And I'm happy to do it, but in the build-up to me hosting the draft, you don't want to piss me off.

You know what?

I feel bad for what's happened here.

Let me set you up to talk about this more.

It is time now for a weekly update on our favorite team, Rex Lobos.

Oh, look at that.

They're trying to cheer you up.

I don't have their hits up.

What?

This is makeup sex right here.

Just did your draft on Saturday.

You had a good draft.

I haven't memorized my lineup yet.

He's not ready for a Lobos offering.

He's not ready for a Lobos offering.

You stay ready, Scott.

You're spraying it on me.

All right, so hold on a second.

There, will you now honor

minor penalty?

Two minutes.

Murdering the show with your bare hands and a dismemberment kit in cold blood

murdering the show with a dismemberment kit with your bare hands in cold blood that's a two-minute penalty for you yeah because

well because he's a victim of a crime thank you billy that's okay we're victim blaming and and now that he's shown everybody who's boss because he he look it's only happened one other time where dominique just refused the penalty You have to respect the system here, even though we've disrespected you.

Your rage has subsided, and perhaps you can respect the delayed.

You can leave the laptop.

Just leave the laptop.

But the way to make up for what just happened is to send me to your ridiculous penalty books.

That's a good way to make me happy.

Well, I'm sorry we're not making you happy, but...

He's going to go to the kitchen.

What are we talking about here?

Rage-fueled 20 minutes where I can see everybody's scorched eyebrows in the other room because I felt like he was yelling at you the way that he yelled at you when you were five.

Like it was just a completely unreasonable escalation of things.

That's right.

I've seen that yell many a time.

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population.

Don Lebatard.

You owe me everything.

You owe me everything.

You have added 10 years to my career.

I have!

This man has!

You haven't!

That man!

Who the hell are you?

Stugats!

I am!

Who the fool

should be thanking!

Bullshit!

Me!

You're a rude young man!

You're a fool!

You're a fool!

I already called you a fool!

You can't call me!

You're an idiot!

Again!

It's a fool!

You're a idiot twice!

You're an idiot for dismissing how much I've helped you.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Dan, we have John Isner here.

This is very exciting.

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What kind of introduction is that for John Isner?

We've been wanting to talk to John Isner forever.

John Isner's a hero of ours.

Usually, he's the guy taking part in something that's dragging on too long.

Big High Live fan.

That is correct.

John Isner, this is very exciting.

We have not gotten to speak to you before, but we have spoken of you for a long time

because

your serve is the most majestic thing that any of us have ever seen in tennis.

So

thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it.

It feels like, I don't know if we've talked to you about this or if I've read about this because

thank you for joining us, as I said.

Yeah.

Thanks for having me.

How long is this question?

Longer than your matches?

Yeah, this is a long one.

Spit it out.

Your physical advantages, is there a way that physics allows you to serve better than anyone else in the sport?

Well, yeah, absolutely.

I'm able to create angles when I was playing that most of my opponents aren't able to pull off.

You saw that a little bit last night with Riley Opelka, although he lost, of course, to Carlos Alcaraz last night.

He's about my height and he can create some serious angles when he's serving.

So when you're almost seven feet tall tall playing tennis, um, the serve is 100% going to be your uh best weapon.

And if it's not, you shouldn't be playing tennis at all.

I should mention that he's won 16 ATP tour singles titles.

He's the tallest top 10 player in history.

Uh, your history, when did you know you were going to do this as a career?

Oh, that was that wasn't until my junior year of college.

I didn't have pro-aspirations, and typically in tennis, like bigger players take much longer to develop.

It just takes a lot longer time to grow into your body.

So that was definitely the case for me.

In my junior year in college, I got pretty good and decided that I didn't want to work a regular job.

So I pursued professional tennis after my senior year.

I mean, I still, I went to all four years of school at the University of Georgia and had a long pro career after that.

So going to college was critical for me.

But it actually...

like some players when they leave high school they face a tough decision whether to turn pro or go to college for me it wasn't tough at all i i had to go to college I just wasn't good enough.

Do players or fans get mad at how you play tennis because you're so singularly excellent at aces?

Yeah, players do, and that's a good thing.

That's what I wanted.

I wanted them to get mad and get frustrated because that's

basically when I knew I was doing my absolute best out there.

It's been frustrating my opponents when they can't get a racket on my serve and they don't have much rhythm.

That's typically when I was playing my best ball.

Sometimes I would even feel uncomfortable out on the court, but at the same time, I needed to realize that my opponents were feeling more uncomfortable than I was.

Fans alike.

Big servers, we're affectionately known as serve bots, as Mike Ryan definitely knows about that term.

And yeah, like fans like to poke fun of us, like being serve bots, but like, what do you want us to do?

Right?

Like kick a serve in and rally 30 balls with Carlos Alcraz.

It's not going to happen.

So.

Yeah, but really, I mean, most of that rage comes from, you know, the Twitter spaces and stuff like that.

So it's really not.

In real life, I think at tournaments, fans are

much nicer.

I should tell the folks that we're in the middle of the U.S.

Open here, the first round, and it's been interesting so far.

Isner's joining us from the U.S.

Open.

And have you seen what happened with Medvedev?

I know we have hotheads throughout the sport, but where you've got a match point and the photographers seem to feel really bad about what happened there.

Your thoughts on what happened there where Medvedev is just going crazy?

Yes.

So I have a bit of a different take.

First of all, I don't think that photographer's credential should have been revoked.

He clearly made a mistake.

He clearly felt awful about it.

Kicking him out of the tournament, I think that's a bit harsh.

If I was the umpire, I think the letter of the law, he made the right call.

But in that situation, when Medvedev was already losing his mind, that's much easier said than done when you're watching this match

from TV.

He should not have awarded Bonzi a first serve, just knowing that Medvedev would lose his S-H-I-T

if

he got a first serve.

So I think he should have just let it be.

It's just a four or five-second delay.

No one would have complained if he just let it go and just said second serve.

John, Medvedev, since blowing it against center at the Aussie, is a totally different player.

This is a guy that

was thought to at once be challenging the kings of the sport.

And I believe this is his third first-round exit in a major in his last four attempts.

It's manifesting.

I mean, he's always been a hothead, but he's breaking rackets.

He's doing BJ signs to opposing players.

Is he long for this sport?

It feels like

that might have been it.

Yeah, he's losing his mind.

I mean, three first-round losses in a row for a guy like Daniil Medvedev, who's made lots of slam finals, has won a grand slam.

This one, the U.S.

Open, has been number one in the world.

He's just losing his marbles.

I think, truthfully, he's just mentally exhausted trying to chase perhaps at the front end of his career, Jokovich and Rafa and maybe even Fed a little bit.

And now towards the mid to late part of his career, Cinder and Alcaraz come along and just the prospect of him winning a big tournament has just become a lot more challenging.

And I think that chase has just worn him down.

But also, you know, he's a big guy.

And he plays, as y'all know, he plays 13, 14 feet behind the baseline.

He's big and he's skinny and maybe his body's just wearing out on him a little bit because he plays such a physical game out there um moves so well for his size but he's very wiry and just maybe his body's taking a little bit of toll it definitely does seem like he should take a break put the rackets away mentally refresh and you know try to come back strong next year boris becker said uh medvedev needs professional help.

If you're a friend of Medvedev's or a family member, would you tend to agree?

I don't know about professional help.

I think he would need to, in my mind, he would need to just, you know, sit down and talk with those closest to him, his wife, his coach, his trainer.

I think just putting the rackets away and not focusing on the next tournament and having to practice.

And he's got two kids, I believe.

Just spend time with your family and don't focus on tennis and realize in my mind, like.

That dude's made a crap ton of money.

He's been very successful.

Life is all good.

Take a break from it and then come back and he should be all right.

You played 17 years, so can you explain to us physically what it is that Jokovich is doing, having had a career longer than 17 years?

What is this?

Do people even understand what this sport does to the body?

Yeah, it's brutal.

I mean, especially when you, for the most part, we're playing on hard courts, which is very, very tough on your body.

So what Novak is still doing is otherworldly.

I mean, he's 38 years old right now.

Of course, he's playing a limited schedule, but like for his ridiculous standards, he's been like the fourth or fifth or sixth best player in the world, like to date, having not played many tournaments this year.

It's just crazy.

But for him, as you get older, you certainly have to pick and choose your spots.

And obviously, he's just focused on the Grand Slams.

He wants to get to number 25.

But he's, in my mind, the most dedicated and professional player I think our sports ever seen.

Like everyone works hard on the court and off the court.

You know, Rafa is a great example of that.

But I think what Novak does off off the court with his diet and his sleep and his habits, he's a bit like Tom Brady in that regard.

And that's why he's the greatest of all time, just like someone like Tom is.

I hate to compare two ghosts like that, but they take care of themselves so well.

He's so strict on his diet, his hydration.

He sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber.

I mean, he's sort of obsessive about his recovery.

And that's a big reason why he's still doing what he's doing at 38 right now.

Having played.

all these matches in his career.

It's very remarkable.

In my mind, he's one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Not just tennis players.

We know that, but I think greatest athletes of all time.

He's remarkable.

How is he different from you in terms of being obsessive, compulsive about taking care of himself?

Because I would assume that you were similar.

You're all looking for edges wherever it is that you can get them.

And you spent 10 years in the top 20.

Yeah, I was very dedicated.

to my body.

I mean, I just did a lot of things.

I took care of myself.

Being so big, I have to spend a lot of time in the gym gym to keep myself healthy and keep myself feeling strong.

I don't know.

I mean, he knows his body like better than anyone knows their body.

He knows exactly what to put into it.

Early on in his career, he figured out that gluten was not for him.

He's a vegan.

He has his own supplement company that he promotes and drinks.

And just like everything he does, he just knows exactly what fuels him perfectly.

I was very good in that regard.

I like to think I was one of the best, but Novak just takes it to another level.

What do you love being able to do now john that you couldn't do while you were an active player oh well i like i like being on the other side of tennis i'm i'm doing some work for espn during during the first week of this so it's certainly less stressful but truthfully like i miss it a lot like i would prefer the stress of waking up and having a match and having those butterflies and having to warm up and stretch and get your body ready the feeling of winning a match at a grand slam and then knowing you have the next day off to just totally chill and try to recharge is something like I seriously miss because these are the these tournaments are obviously the the pinnacle of a of our sport and you know you don't get that anymore when um when you're retired i get my my fun out of sports with um a hockey chat that i'm in with with mike ryan and uh i'm even in a tennis chat as well that that he's the uh commissioner of highlight chat i was telling you don't forget about highlight highlight chat there's a highlight chat yeah that's an unbelievable chat there's a chat about pickles yeah that's a good one uh yo my movie the yourself pickles yeah so anyway, I think the pickle chat's my favorite one.

But anyway, so, you know, I'm always going to stay tethered to the sport of tennis and just tethered to just sports in general.

I'm a sports nut.

I like to talk about it.

But it's very fortunate.

I mean, I had a good career, and I was an American.

I've got a lot of, you know, cool opportunities because of that.

And one of those is this week at the U.S.

Open being able to talk about this tournament.

But just to be clear, when you say that you miss it a lot, the chats about pickles and high-li, they have not replaced what it is to play the longest match in Wimbledon history.

Like, you haven't been able to recreate it with the text chats, Williams, not quite.

The High Lye chat is closing that gap, though.

Okay, great.

That's a special chat.

I'm a Cyclones, I'm a Cyclones guy for life now.

Okay, yes.

The owner is Chris Cody.

This is his father, Greg.

You walked in on him.

Yeah,

Greg.

Yes.

Is that Greg of the Mick overrated take?

There we go.

Greg, thank you.

Yeah, you gotta be famous for something.

Venus Williams is playing at 45.

Greg Cody has had some opinions on that.

She was

playing in the U.S.

Opener.

She was.

Yeah, I mean, and she apparently looked really, I didn't see the match, but she drew raves for her match, even though she lost.

I give her all the credit in the world.

You know, one of the hardest things to do, and maybe you can relate to this, John, when you age as an athlete, it's tough to know when to retire and how to retire because it's so much of who you are.

And for her to still be doing it at 45,

mad respect and love for what she's doing.

Mad respect.

Mad respect.

Mad respect.

You were mad before because of the disrespect.

Well, it's too easy to say, ah, has been, you know, know when to retire,

get out and let the younger people do it.

If she still wants to play at 45 and can be competitive, I give her all the credit in the world.

No, I'm with you there.

I think for me with Venus, it's easy to gear up for Washington, D.C., where she played a few weeks ago, and Cincinnati, where she played two weeks ago, and in the U.S.

Open.

But her ranking's nothing right now.

She's like, I don't know what she's ranked.

It's super, super low, 7,800 in the world.

So what is she going to do from this point forward?

Does she want to go down and play Challengers?

Does she want to go to Asia and play the Asian swing?

Like, so that's tough to do at 45, especially when you've been so accomplished, like she has been.

Obviously, when you get to play on Arthur Ashe Stadium in a night match, like I'll come back for one match for that for sure because you can't replicate that feeling of playing in that court under the light.

But it's not all glitz and glamour on the tour.

It certainly is at the U.S.

Open.

So it's a lot more difficult once this tournament ends and you look at what the rest of your tournament schedule looks like.

I would think that tennis, though, might be something, and I don't know whether you're missing the routine here as well, just the form of what your life used to be, but tennis is so lonely and eats up so many of your childhoods that I would imagine that after 17 years, there would be some relief on finally, like,

I get to rest a little bit.

This has been a really lonely pursuit.

Yeah, no, like for me, for sure.

Like that, that rest period has been nice, but I still miss it.

I get to recreate my childhood essence like through my children now, which is very special.

And maybe they'll go on the tennis journey that I went on as well, which I would love for them to do.

But definitely, like, rest is nice.

My body isn't beat up as much anymore.

And, you know, it's life's all good after tennis.

When you play for 17 years, as you mentioned, Dan, it's like you become so routined and just so ingrained.

You wake up and you ask yourself the question, like, how am I going to get better today?

Even if you're not practicing on that day, you're still trying to get better, get your body better.

And that's what you don't have when you retire.

So it becomes difficult.

It was a difficult adjustment for me.

And I think a lot of athletes, not just in tennis, face that, of course, when they retire.

John, you have one of the healthier relationships with tennis out of all the former pros.

You're hosting the nothing major, co-hosting the nothing major podcast.

You're constantly covering the sport.

Is that because you were a sort of late bloomer in the sport?

You kind of got really good at it later because there are other tennis players already that hate tennis now.

And that seems to be the norm.

Yeah, you know what?

I always said like midway through my career and towards the end of my career that you wouldn't really see me on the tennis tour after I after I retired.

Clearly, I didn't hold myself to that.

I just quickly realized that, I mean, this sport for me, it gave so much to me.

And there's still a lot of opportunities I can gain from in the sport of tennis after I retired.

And our podcast has been a great way for us to stay relevant.

Because unless you're an all-time great, very quickly forgotten on the tennis scene.

So our podcast has been great to keep us relevant in that regard.

And again, like be able to talk tennis in New York City for ESPN, like that's really cool.

So these great opportunities that have come my way, I've jumped at the opportunity to do them.

And hopefully I can continue to do this for quite some time.

I really do enjoy it.

You work with some great people and it's a lot of fun.

You get treated great.

And so I think a lot of people would trade positions with me right now to be able to, I guess, wear a suit and talk about a sport, which I should know a lot about.

Again, the podcast is called Nothing Major.

The U.S.

Open continues today.

First round men's and women singles on ESPN.

Do you agree with Mike Ryan's assessment?

If I said to you, I'm polling all former players now.

What's the percentage that hate tennis?

I don't think it's as

severe as Mike maybe said.

I would say, I'd give it 40% that like don't have the healthiest relationship with this game because it just, this game can torment you.

I mean, you have, you know, so many tough losses and so many horrible nights of sleep after a tough loss.

But I think overall, the good definitely outweighs the bad.

So, yeah, there's, there's some, here's some good friends of mine.

That's a high number, though, John.

I mean, that's a high number.

That is a very high number.

And this game, this game can be, this game can be tough.

And Mike and I, Mike and I have some friends in the tennis world that don't love the sport.

I like it, and I'm still very happy

to be a part of it.

John, John, how much of that is this generation, both on the women's side and in the men's side, they went up against generational talents that hung on to the sport at unprecedented ages.

And how much of that was not just the sport and the loneliness of the sport breaking them, but the fact that they're trying to conquer the unconquerable?

Yeah, I think for

the top of my head, like you named some European players, like if you guys would know, like Thomas Burdich is an unbelievable Czech player who's never able to win the Grand Slam because of those three.

I I mean, like for me, like I consider myself lucky to play in the same era of those guys, but it's not like I was getting like thwarted by one of those three guys at every single Grand Slam in the quarters or the semifinal.

So I don't have like, I don't have that feeling, but certainly a lot of players do.

There are a lot of incredible players.

David Ferreira of Spain without Rafa probably has a Grand Slam on his resume and might be in the Hall of Fame, but he doesn't now.

There's a heck of a player, ridiculous career.

But those players were very selfish.

And the top two players in our game right now, of course, and Center and Alcraz, are also selfish.

They're going for eight straight Grand Slam wins between the two of them here at the U.S.

Open.

We've got less than 30 seconds left here, but I just want you to entertain a hypothetical with me.

If I put you

in your prime, serving to John McEnroe, Bjan Borg, Boris Becker, all of these people, what would happen?

I can hold my own

with my serve.

I actually saw some highlights of Rod Laver playing on grass years and years ago.

He was an absurd athlete.

So I think even a guy like Laver would do well in today's modern game.

But yeah, you got to favor, of course, the greats like Johnny Mack and

Bjorn Borg over someone like myself.

Although, having said that, I could definitely hold serve against those two and make them sweat a lot.

Isn't it

tennis balls in their forehead?

Thank you for being on with us.

We appreciate the time.

The name of the podcast is Nothing Major, U.S.

Open all Week.

ESPN Men's and Women Singles.

First round on ESPN.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Thank you guys.

See ya.

Go clones.

Go clones.

Go clones.

Let's go.

Greg Cody is still rapidly enraged.

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