The Iron Table
The Iron Table
Aging Gracefully Embracing New Challenges in Sports and Life
What happens when the underdog embraces its spirit and topples the favorite? That's the thrilling narrative we explore as we recount the Washington Commanders' electrifying victory over the NFL's top-ranked team. Alongside Keith, Danny, and Steve, we unravel the raw emotions, strategic leadership, and unexpected turns that made this game unforgettable for both Washington and Detroit fans. Discover how the Commanders' "nothing to lose" mentality paved the way for a stunning upset, capturing the essence of unpredictability that keeps us all glued to sports.
Transitioning from triumphs on the field to personal battles with aging, we tackle the emotional and physical challenges that come with athletic decline. Using personal anecdotes and reflections, we discuss how aging athletes, like Michael Jordan and Vince Carter, adapt to changing roles and capabilities. This dialogue shifts between sports and life, emphasizing the importance of adjusting expectations, embracing new roles, and finding new ways to enjoy the games we love. The journey from participation to competition serves as a metaphor for the broader challenges we face as our bodies and perspectives shift with time.
Celebrating victories big and small, we reflect on the mindset of gratitude and personal growth. Drawing from childhood influences and the invaluable insights shared by our team, we highlight the importance of camaraderie and support. With a nod to the humorous and heartfelt moments that make this podcast journey so rewarding, we express our appreciation for the insights and contributions of our co-hosts. Join us for a blend of sports analysis, personal reflection, and the joy of embracing life’s triumphs with an open heart and a winning mindset.
Welcome to the iron table, where iron sharpens iron. So should men sharpen men. I'm your host, bryant, and I'm joined by my boys, keith, danny and Steve. We are bringing you truth with a side of humor loaded with accountability and thought. We now bring you to our program already in progress. All right, welcome to the Iron Table. Iron sharpens iron. Social men sharpen men. We're back at it again. This is season five, episode two, and before we really get into it, we got to acknowledge that last night the Washington commanders Rescues. Well, no, there's a legal injunction, can't use that. And if I knew you would have said that I would have hit that. They went in with a rookie quarterback and beat the number one team that's a whole people mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing is that both cities needed to win, but only one could win and surprisingly, it was the underdog. They will not have a home game, no matter who wins between the Eagles and the Rams, but this city outside the DMV, you can't tell us nothing, cannot tell us nothing for at least seven days. So for those in Detroit and they definitely, the camera crew made sure that we saw a lot of tight faces. A lot of people were sitting like this yeah, they think about that money.
Speaker 1:People were sitting like this yeah, they think about that money they spent on them tickets. Yeah, I'll be tight-faced too. I'll be tight-faced too. I came here for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm telling you they needed a lot of things to go right the field goal kicker missing for washington and they probably need another one, a better guy, um, um. Then almost get an onside kick and probably he, a veteran player, calling almost like a walk-on, almost written off. He was the one who went after the ball, didn't wait for it to get to him, he went after it. That was probably the play that definitely put it out of reach. But then when you have a young guy that is pulling, has already been through five comebacks, you give this team a lead. You might be in trouble because they will run. I don't know what the answer is for that, but just want to acknowledge that the home team, the home team at least at least three on this screen is representing the home team, the other guy, it was too much energy, as if we had already won a super bowl.
Speaker 4:I kept on telling people chill out, simmer down, now simmer down well, that part, that part, they were playing like uh, like, I know you gotta play with energy, be excited going, but again, each take it a game at a time and I think I think the commanders that's what they have literally been doing. Who's next? Okay, let's go. Okay, who's next, let's go? We'll celebrate if we get there, but right now, beat the next team.
Speaker 3:That's it. That's our only goal. We don't have nothing to lose.
Speaker 1:Man, that's it right there. When you ain't got nothing to lose and nobody's expecting all that stuff, that's when it happens.
Speaker 2:I was trying to tell people that's when it happens, when you get free, what does it take to free your mind, to say hey, we ain't got nothing to lose, let's just play open. No one expected us to get here, let's just you know. Whatever happens, happens.
Speaker 3:I say it's almost a blessing to be the underdog, because you know that yeah they do you know? It's just like they're here for it. They're here for all of it.
Speaker 4:I saw in the comments section somebody said there were people telling them y'all again, y'all already got this team beat. We haven't even suited up, got on the field yet. But y'all, like Steve said, summer down, Summer down, this is our year. I believe it. It's our year, I know it.
Speaker 1:Dude, I'm telling you, you should have seen the news beforehand. It was places baking life-size St Brown cakes A life-size cake of a human being. It was incredible. They auctioned off tickets. I think some of the tickets were going online for $3,000 to $4,000. I'd be tight-lipped too. I'd be tight-lipped.
Speaker 4:I paid that for some tickets.
Speaker 2:In the last 30 seconds of the game, the channel that I was watching, because it's an internet-based TV it ran a commercial with everyone in Detroit happy. I don't know if it was a state farm. It was some commercial, oh yeah. And so the person watching was like, well, it won't be able to run that next week.
Speaker 1:So they tried.
Speaker 2:And I was just like all I can do is just laugh, because I was like that's true you think about it, they got shirts printed. Now they got to scrap them. You got all these ads, these plans, and now you have to scrap them.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And how do you recover from that? Because at one point I think they were talking about, one of the coaches was in line for, I think, getting a. They said he would probably be the next head coach. I think I don't know if it was their defensive guy or their offensive guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But now I don't think anybody's on the wall Because you threw a trick play. You're down 14 and you try to throw a trick play and interception.
Speaker 1:Interception, interception. It was horrible. You're not respecting the other team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, commanders, congratulations, new ownership, I mean everything just changed. They might go back to RFA. Yeah it's just different when you have one change can just have a cascading effect.
Speaker 4:In leadership, especially One change can just have a cascading effect In leadership, especially One change in leadership Ownership.
Speaker 3:And strategic position. Some of us can also affirm that that can happen at the spousal level as well.
Speaker 4:Sometimes you just need to level as well.
Speaker 3:All of this because you, you know, Sometimes there's nothing, that you just need to make that one change and then, wow, I didn't know, we.
Speaker 1:Full circle, full circle.
Speaker 2:Today. We are not going to bring the women into this. This is about. Today is about men, Because Normally I ask y'all what y'all doing For sake of time, I'm not caring. Today is about me. Normally I ask y'all what y'all doing For sake of time, I'm not caring. We want to move through Yesterday. Iron Table also has a basketball team. We played my former team and we lost. We lost by, I think about. Think about 50 points. Might have been 51 he's laughing, but it was did you say 15 or 50?
Speaker 3:don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:I can't even say we pulled to Detroit because we were not the favorite to win. We were the underdogs and we played as if we had something to lose, um.
Speaker 2:And what was interesting is that I saw, like jv and um peewee and jv before our game and I said to myself I was like I'm envious of the type of joy that they have because these kids are out there. They're just, they're competing, they don't know if they're going to win, but they're out there competing and I'm thinking to myself, like our team has individuals that are 40 plus. At least the majority of at least half the team is above 40 and we may have, I think, three people are under the age of I want to say like 20, 28 and below. Um, so it's, it's um, it's interesting that we're out there. I'll say it's a miracle that we're out there and that we're we are. You know, of course they do this all the time.
Speaker 2:Their bodies might be a little more ravaged knees and stuff like that and you know I've had knee surgeries and so the fact that we're out there is good. But I realized that we and I'll even say take the we out that I, in full transparency, was not competing at the level that I was used to me playing. Competing at the level that I was used to me playing, I got used to deferring and just kind of just, you know, I don't want to say distributing, because these guys will tell you I used to be a, I used to be a scorer, so passing was my second option and that was only an inbounds place.
Speaker 2:So they used to make fun of me about that and you know I would. I mean, can you say I had this good on gallop, I mean, but you knew that it was going in if I, if I, did my gallop, that was either lay up and and one or whatever. But for six games I have not been accountable to my team and I didn't get much sleep. Last night now of, of course, I took a five-hour energy and I'm going to tell you anyone over 40, stop it, just don't do it. Whatever energy you got, just use something. I tried to tell you, he tried to tell me, I tried to tell you, I am trying.
Speaker 4:I did it one time and I said never again. I told you One time Hot pepper tastings. I was hallucinating.
Speaker 2:One time. I wish it was that, because there was times where I was looking up. I was on Google looking at the side effects.
Speaker 1:Am I feeling it. Was it Red Bull?
Speaker 2:No, it was 5-Hour Imaging and I'm not discrediting it oh.
Speaker 4:Y'all brave, you can hear cracking at night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was about to say y'all brave, Okay.
Speaker 2:This was years ago. I ain't done a thing.
Speaker 4:I don't mess with them.
Speaker 2:During that time, I had a lot of thoughts.
Speaker 1:I was a dick crack.
Speaker 2:Basically, that's what I was thinking. It was going to say dick crack right Might as well. Just be they crack.
Speaker 1:Basically, that's what I was taking Might as well just be a crack.
Speaker 2:There's three questions that I have, and I'm going to try to run through them for the sake of time. First, it had me thinking about this how can you adjust to aging in your own mortality? Let me put this in a framework.
Speaker 2:How can you adjust to aging in your own mortality? And let me put this in a framework. It's like I know what I did in the in the nineties. In the nineties, you know, I'm not going to say that I peaked, but that's when I was rolling into form. That was between, at that time, I think, 18, 96, I turned 18. And so I would say between 18 to maybe 30 would have been my peak. So that's 96 to 2008.
Speaker 2:And I was balling. I mean, I knew where I needed to be. I was running lanes, gazelle, playing college intramural basketball, intramural basketball. At that time I was the, the league that we were in. I think there was two leagues A and B. I was a B league, you know, top scorer. But come to this year now I've had since then I've had two knee surgeries. I've had a hip replacement and it's like I'm 46 out there playing basketball with people that are lower than 46. I was the oldest person on the court yesterday and there was a guy that looked older than me, but I'm older than him and in my mind I know what I'm capable of and it wasn't conditioning, but I was out there at crap. It was crap and I'm struggling with adjusting to my own mortality, and it's not that I can't accept that there are people out there that are better than me.
Speaker 4:How do I adjust to knowing?
Speaker 2:that my best is. Yeah, how do I?
Speaker 4:adjust. When I'm trying, it's half of what it well, I won't say half, but it's not what it was. So listen to me personally, when it comes to this aging thing, I look at it as this bowling ball rolling downhill and we have no control over it. We can only guide and we can do things to improve, we can help, we can bump it to keep it in the lane, but when it comes to mortality, we really have very, very, very, very little control over it. To be honest, we can do everything. Quote unquote right, I know people who have never smoked a cigarette die of lung cancer. People who are vegetarian, who had food, who had issues with their bodies or their gut. I've seen people do everything right and still not prosper the way they want. So our bodies, they are changing when we go out here in our minds. That's the crazy thing. The old folk tried to tell us in your mind you can do it, that fast break, you can take off and dunk it or go up as high as you used to go. But 40 said no.
Speaker 3:You heard the song, mercy said no, that's what I was said no. You heard the song.
Speaker 2:Mercy said no, that's what I said 40 said no, it's like the mental, like I can understand the physical. You know I'm not going to jump as high. You know I have a little bit more weight working out, learning some conditions.
Speaker 4:It's coming down it is I'm messing with you. No, it's coming down. I'm glad we out here. That's all I'm saying. Like I said, that was my goal.
Speaker 2:There's a line between I'm glad we're out here and I started out. I started out the first couple of games. I'm glad we're out here, cool. But then somewhere it switched to. I want to compete, yes, and we're not competing.
Speaker 4:We out here we should be competing.
Speaker 2:Where is the? I'm trying to align my mindset with the reality. Or am I not doing what I'm supposed to do as a leader of the team in order to bring others up Like it's it's?
Speaker 1:realistic, realistically, what was your goal? Because if your goal was to go to the championship, was that realistic?
Speaker 3:I don't know that it was to go to the championship. I think that he's saying that you want to know that you competed and that you gave a valiant effort. Like, for instance, we know when we play a team that is just better than us that they are probably going to beat us, but are we going to be able to contribute to their win or are we going to give our best effort? I don't know, but to me there was part of the other teams and I'm talking about last night when you see guys who he's really not that much better than us. Why is he doing all that? How are we allowing him to do all that? Like, why is it that? Okay, my point, the points that I got in this game where I played X amount of minutes is here and not there. So it's like almost like you're beating yourself. I think personally that, going back to, I think about Michael Jordan, right, so there came a point where he stopped driving to the lane and it was just like fade, and he mastered that driving to the lane, and it was just like fade, and and he, he mastered that fade to the point that it was unstoppable. So, so there had to be an adjustment. He still had a high skill level, a high basketball iq, and I think that one of the things that's plaguing us in terms of is we haven't played basketball like the iq. My iq, if I could just talk to myself I'm almost like the peewee league, like it's just like I'm out here, run towards the ball, all right, run. It's just like thinking strategically, knowing instinctively, like things that used to just okay, pick, roll, all right, screen, all right, when you haven't done it.
Speaker 3:I was. I was joking in the beginning of the game about my left hand. I was commenting I'm not going to say no names on live, but I was saying my left hand got weak. I used to be able to go hard either level, so I wasn't able to be guarded as easily. Now it's more difficult because I haven't used this offhand and so I'm beating myself. How was it that I show up better on the court? It's not about the other team, and so I think that there has to be an adjustment mentally in terms of okay, I can't do this anymore. I won't say can't, but it's not wise for me to attempt to do this anymore. Let's play like that, so making adjustment, making a shift, and so not really looking for other people, but just like, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna play my game and I think, as we do anything more you get better at it, you get like flow.
Speaker 2:We don't even practice, not really, because I'm part of the group every, I mean I'm actually fine today.
Speaker 4:I am not. You took some hits. You took some hits. I think the more we have played, the more we have run. My recovery time has gotten shorter too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so it's like, as men, when should we start preparing for the adjustment? Because I feel like it's and I was telling you know, and I'll say, our best player on the team as I was driving. But I was like this is a reason why I did not want to be where whenever we were playing pickup, because we used to play pickup before he joined his team, in his gym, and I was like I always want to be against you, I always want to guard you. I said, because that's who I am. I always want to be competitive, I want it's something about just taking the best assignment and just showing that, hey, I'm here and I belong when I'm on his team. I find myself deferring. I find myself deferring and in that deferring, that everything that made me who I am on the court is diminished, because I'm like I acknowledge that you're better and I want you to continue to be better, but this ain't basketball, can't be that sport where we do that, and so I'm trying to find that balance of it it's, it's a balance for life.
Speaker 4:It's not just for the court, it's for life. We're not going to always be able to do what we do the way we did it, and I don't. That's mental, physical, sometimes spiritual, mental, emotional. There's a lot of things that, as we get older, our bodies are changing, our minds and our minds are changing. So even when it comes down to just, I know a lot of men who come. They, they worry because they find themselves crying more. They say I never cry. No, I'm crying all the time. That's because your testosterone levels are changing, brother, if they go up, they go, they come back. I hear they come back around 60, but during the 40s and 50s sometimes they dip like there's so much I need to right.
Speaker 4:But my point is there's so much about our bodies that we can't patrol like again. If you recognize that, you know that you can work on it naturally. But there's a reason we don't see a lot of 40 year old players in the league because at a certain point, even just recovery time, those ice baths get longer and longer for them. Guys Like they, they got to come back and do it again the next night. The young guys like, yeah, let's go. And old guys like we play again tomorrow, all right, let's go. But it's a reason why, again, it's learning how to, like Danny said, shoot that fade. Or you know when we Because Danny took a couple of. I felt that one of them didn't get called as a charge. He took one. They called the charge on that.
Speaker 4:The one before that. I still feel. I don't care what Well somebody said he was in the block. I ain't see that. But my point is that 20-year-old gonna feel it differently than the 40-year-old. What, what?
Speaker 2:I saw you, brother, I saw you so the keeping moving so as men, how do we recover when our best is no longer the standard and and if I'm not saying it right, it's like we're used to a certain level? We're now and we may not have had to give it our best and we were in that was but now we're giving it our best and we still can't even get to the baseline.
Speaker 4:Do you feel like it was our best though?
Speaker 2:I don't For me. It was not my best.
Speaker 4:It wasn't our best.
Speaker 2:I don't. And I was trying to figure out like, why was it not? Like, why couldn't I just turn the switch Like, and I even said I was like this is not, I'm not, I'm not trying to encourage. If we're grown men, if we need some encouragement or a pep talk, this ain't this, this ain't the place for it. Because again now I'm shifting from and I remember, you know, and I'll say Uncle Charles, you know, he told one of y'all like the best thing is that you're able to walk off the court. I've been walking off the court and the competitive side of me says that that just isn't enough. I would rather not walk off and know that I gave it my best and if we win, we win. At this point I want to compete, but I don't even feel like that's happening. And so how do I just that I'm not?
Speaker 1:Was this? Was this your highlight? Y'all do this last year too.
Speaker 2:I did it last year, and last year I was probably the sixth man on the team. I was making jokes. I was like I really shouldn't be out here and I thought I was like, let me bring another group of guys, let's get active, let's. You know, our mortality is this If we're not eating right, not trying to exercise, not doing all this stuff, we're more liable to. You know, our demise comes sooner, even though we can't control anything. You know, our time is our time, but we're not helping it come faster by our lack of movement. Because we're now at this age, we're probably in our careers, we're sedentary, jobs we're not. You know, in in high school, uh, had to work. I was constantly moving. We we didn't have the internet we had outside with our was our thing.
Speaker 1:And so so did you even feel like that the standard was achievable within a single season?
Speaker 2:I honestly thought that we'd be able to go 500. Based on what I saw last year in the teams, I thought at least our mental capacity, our mental IQ, should be there, even if our bodies weren't, and that it would catch up. It's just like physical, like the IQ thing Danny had mentioned it like the IQ High school might have been varsity, but now it feels like it's regressed. I wasn't prepared for it and I think maybe that's like half of it is that the reality is setting in, that we're not what we know, we no longer know or we can't apply it and everything seems fast where if I'm sitting on the sidelines I'm like it's not that fast, but in game it seems fast it is okay, the movement was fast, but I mean the movement was fine, like I was saying before, but the but, the thinking for some of us, that's how we've thrown so many turnovers.
Speaker 4:We had to slow that mentally, we had to slow down. We're not recognizing oh, I'm throwing it to a guy that I got three guys standing right Again because we're trying to force it to other facilitators. They know that they got three guys around. Some of these guys it was like oh, you want it here?
Speaker 4:I know we weren't doing it on purpose, but when I was telling guys to slow down, it wasn't physically no, keep moving, set screens, do all of that but mentally slow down and like pay it because it is fast out there. So, but slow down and actually look, look where we're going, because we, we were just trying to move so fast sometimes that we were making careless mistakes and that again, applying it to life, that's what we do. We move very fast, we don't. We try to try to be what we used to be and we make a lot of mistakes. That's why you see some of these old guys still wearing the jerseys and the ball caps, trying to be young, doing dumb stuff that their old bodies can't handle up all night drinking, staying up late partying up late partying.
Speaker 2:So so again, how, how do you know all of y'all are leaders in in your own field, in in mental health, behavioral health, as a man, or if, if I come to you and I'm telling you this story, what are like, what are the tools to help me adjust, you know, adjust to the new reality? Or turn back the hands of time, because I mean you can't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's no turning back the hands of time.
Speaker 4:This is the age-old discussion.
Speaker 3:It's like, okay, does Jordan come back after he does his second three-peat? Or is he like, yeah, I'm going to go out while I still can and get the the set. It's like, all right, does he still work out? Does he still shoot around yet? But he not in the NBA, no more. That's an extreme example, but we all have seen guys who is just like, all right, yeah, he used to be good. No, when to fold them, when to hold them, um, and and what really it's about expectation. Vince carter is probably an excellent example because he's played, um, he, I don't know how many years. He, yeah, but his expectation he's not trying to dump over seven footers, no more. You know, he, he knew that. All right, my role in what I contribute to this team is different. Yes, and like. Being able to understand that and to give what your body is able to give like unmet expectations is mother of all frustration in everything. You expected that I'm going to dunk over the seven-footer, but not no more.
Speaker 4:40 said no 40 said no when you went to post up that young man. That's our speed now, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was like that young man can never guard me as old as I am but you were also posting them up, slowed it down.
Speaker 4:For you it's smarter, it's a higher percentage shot. Yes, it's, it was a smarter move. It was a. It was a. It was a wiser move, trying to come down and create your own shot. You don't have to do that.
Speaker 3:You don't have to go that, get on the block.
Speaker 4:Let somebody give it to you. Go to work, yeah. Because they don't turn them back. The hand.
Speaker 3:The Gallup going to need to be retired soon. Just get in the post B. Gallup off the block.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing you better do it, because if your expectations aren't meeting reality, more and more it's going to lead to depression.
Speaker 2:And I was wondering if I was. Because I was like man, I actually wonder if I was depressed. I was like do I need to go talk to someone? Because I was like it's emotionally frustrating to be like I'm not competing. I'm out there but I'm not even competing and it's not even that I'm expecting to run it like a gazelle down the side.
Speaker 4:In my mind I'm thinking I'm running, but in reality I'm it's going faster when we see the video we see, we see it all yeah, I don't want to see the video, not this one, I want to see the video I I was. It feels like you're running, I mean, and we are, but it feels like again I feel a 50 pounds lighter. But when I look at the video I'm like, whew, that man yeah.
Speaker 3:I know that there was one play that I had where it was a steal that I knew I was going to have. I was the last man back. He threw the ball in the air and I was sure that I was going to get to the ball before the other guy.
Speaker 3:I was positive and I would never have left because there was nobody else back. So the ball's up in the air, the guy's running this way, the ball's coming behind him and it's like I got this. I've done this 100 million times. I used to steal. I would come at least three, four, five steals a game and I went to get the ball.
Speaker 3:The ball went past me and the dude had just a wide, open, uncontested layup. That was an experience for me. It was just like I saw the ball. I knew that I could get it, but I couldn't get it and I had to make peace. It was hard for me because making peace with the fact that I'm not what I was came like right in front of me. It was just like you're going to eat this. Open your mouth, you're going to eat it now.
Speaker 4:I don't want it, I don't want it. It was just like you're going to eat this, open your mouth. You're going to eat it now. I don't want it, I don't want it, I don't want it, I don't want it.
Speaker 2:Again, if last year it's like I still wanted the ball, I still wanted to be an effective part of it, this year it's like what is going on? And it's like and I don't know if y'all see it and maybe y'all do and y'all just haven't told me that I'm out there but I'm not there.
Speaker 3:You out there with a bunch of old men, brian, we all just trying to breathe.
Speaker 4:Man, we just need an old man lead. We need other old people like us doing the same thing Yo, but is that, I guess, frustrating?
Speaker 2:Is that a form of quitting no, to say I can't be in this league?
Speaker 4:Ice Cube does the three and three NBA players with the veteran players and it's phenomenal. I love it Because it's old guys who still got talent, they still can play. But you don't have to run up and down that court man, I'm trying to tell you no, we can still be competitive, we can still play.
Speaker 4:We just got to know where our limits are and every year you might find you have more limits. You might, it might be a again. I know guys who've torn achilles and they're back out here. They don't jump the same back injuries. They don't. They don't move the same. So they're still out here. But they're not like larry johnson after he injured his back. He was a different type of player. He wasn't. He wasn't quite grandmama. He wasn't dunking on everybody either. He had. He had to learn how to play a different game. His shot got better. He still dunked every once in a while. Kemp, with all his trouble when Kemp gained all that weight. Not the same player. It's the inevitable. When it comes to physicality in our bodies, we're not going to be the same player. Enjoy this now, because in about 10 years you're going to wish you had for it, Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:Enjoy this now 10 years you're going to wish you had for it. Uh-huh, is that an?
Speaker 4:enjoyment. It's an adjustment. It's an adjustment.
Speaker 3:Listen because I don't know that you can. There's no way around it. You got to walk through it, you got to just like. All right, this, I'm not the same.
Speaker 4:It's hard to get to a place of acceptance. It's no it's no, it's no beeline. It's no, it's no beeline to acceptance.
Speaker 3:You literally are going through the stages of grief right now.
Speaker 4:Literally.
Speaker 3:And and that's hard for men, because we have that bravado that I am, that dude, I can show up like this. Then, when you're out there and other people, how do you function in a world of David's? When you're Saul, now, it's like, okay, you used to be the next best thing, Now Saul has slain his thousand, but David his tens of thousands, tens of thousands. And it's just like yo.
Speaker 2:But that a thousand still means something, and it's like I mean I'm probably tens of thousands.
Speaker 4:Listen, everybody got something that they're good at. Most of us, and I'm thinking even the older generations, I know a lot of times it was their ability, it was their strength, it was their ability to work on cars. It was like every man has that thing, that bravado, that thing they like to do, and when it feels like it's taken away, I know today that Steve's kids got to come up to him and say, dad, we got to take the car keys from you. He's going to fight them.
Speaker 1:There's an easy solution for that Just don't have kids.
Speaker 4:Or when you become 80, you can't drive at 80.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to say, even with the motorcycle, yeah, I know it's going to be a strong point.
Speaker 4:They're going to say Steve, give me the keys to the motorcycle, Give me the keys to the Mustang. I see it the way you're driving, Papa, and how you swerving in between traffic. Give me them keys.
Speaker 2:You only get two fingers, peace. It's ludicrous that you only get two fingers.
Speaker 4:But it's hard, though, when you can't do. That's why I do empathize with seniors and people who are now having things taken from them. Some of these people were like you said they were the experts in their field. I'm a NASCAR driver, what you talking about? Give me my key. I've been doing this since. Yeah, but you running out, you hitting mailboxes and cats. Now people, papa give me the key, so it's that's why oh wait a minute, Go ahead, Steve. You give me the key.
Speaker 1:So. So that's why that's why you know it may be smart to start focusing on the things that you still have uh, you know access to, such as your, your, your mental acuity or your uh, you know your wisdom. Start honing in on that, because you know it is what it is. At a certain point of time, you know you're not going to be able to just jump up and down and do all the things we used to do. You heard.
Speaker 4:I used to. I feel like even though I was one of the shortest people on the court, I could grab a significant amount of boards because I could jump. Now I'm actually. I had to again. I'm scared to jump all the way.
Speaker 1:It's cool to jump up, but it's that coming down part.
Speaker 4:I trust my knees, my ankles. They're like you, sure you want to do this, even taking a shot going up. It's like I want to jump. But if I jump, am I going to? Once we leave the ground, we can't control a lot of what's going to happen coming down, whether I get bridged. All that stuff starts going on in your mind when you're in your 40s, 20s. You ain't think about none of that. You trying to dump or trying to get the highest layup, clap the boards with all that stuff we used to do back then. You don't care about none of that. And if I do get hurt, I'll be good by the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2:And what if you're not concerned about the physical? I mean, I've had knee surgeries, I've had a hip replacement. But it's like a mental. And the thing is, it's just the mental side. It's just like how do you turn off the competitive juices that fuel you when you know you're out? You're not giving it your all.
Speaker 3:I would rephrase that, like you, you are giving it your all. You're not saying, oh, I'm going to go out here and give a half behind that for you. You're not saying that Right, you're, you're, you're all looks different.
Speaker 3:Now it does, and yeah yeah, it's, it's coming to terms with that and there's a healthy amount of acceptance. I think it's needed, even while you can push and say you know what, I'm gonna get better, I'm gonna get my way, I'm gonna get my stamina up, I'm gonna get this. There's a healthy amount of, there's a balance. There's a balance to. I'm going to improve, but you're improving the place at which you are. I can't really phrase it the right way, but you are improving. But where you are and what you're improving to is changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'm not at the level that I think I should be at, and I keep thinking that.
Speaker 3:Man, you got nine years before you can live in a 55 and older community.
Speaker 4:It's like having you put it like that, then I actually stung over here too, like, ouch, not even double digits, no more. It's like, oh, I got at least a decade, nope.
Speaker 3:It's about to be eight.
Speaker 2:Eight and a half, really yeah, because come May.
Speaker 3:So that in and of itself has to help you say all right, this is not going to progress like I want it to, so let me adjust my expectations, yeah.
Speaker 4:No more five-hour energy drinks. No more of those, no more of those.
Speaker 2:I was like well, maybe this might give me a boost and I'll be ready to go.
Speaker 4:If you just need a caffeine, I would like something lighter, like green tea. I would like, if you had to, for a basketball game A lot of people, but you don't want to do no five-hour energy.
Speaker 2:I was probably on the corner looking for some B12 shots. You got some B12 shots. I need it. Get the mushrooms Some. Yeah, let me apologize to y'all now because I am still in a mental space where there was a text that came through and I couldn't respond to it. I'm not going to name it, I'm not going to respond to it, but it was just like I haven't gotten to the point where I accept, because I'm like I'm not hobbled, I'm not using a walker, I'm not crawling across the ground. There's still something I can do, and even that should be better than what I've done, and I think that's a fight within self. And I think that's a fight within self.
Speaker 4:For all of us. It's conditioning and training, even off the court. I mean, it's all like what you can control. What you can control All those things, your conditioning, your shooting.
Speaker 2:But again, I'm not talking about physical, I'm talking about mental.
Speaker 4:Even mental Again, because really we were beat mentally before while we were getting beaten physically, and it wasn't them beating us, it was again us beating ourselves.
Speaker 2:Why are we not competing?
Speaker 4:We weren't talking. We got to the point. Nobody was talking on offense or defense. I was just trying to get down the court. I know you were trying to breathe. I saw it. You may not want your job Over him yeah.
Speaker 3:And that in the end is a little different too, because I'm used to like okay, top to top, but in the end it's definitely a lot more.
Speaker 4:That one I'm trying to tell you, even looking at options, because at first, okay, it was working, but at some point we got to look at different strategies. At this point it's more mental than it is physical Looking at other strategies that help everybody because, like you said, that in the end is different.
Speaker 2:We're trying to stay on schedule. In about four minutes, any parting words, words, final thoughts. I know kind of hijacked today, you know talking about using a free therapy, because that's what. That's what this is. Y'all not gonna charge me. Um, if you send me a cash app request, I will ignore it but, like any, any parting thoughts, because I know it's.
Speaker 2:I wonder part two, if there's, if it's harder for athletes than it is for, you know, just the average Joe or or academics, or is it the same, just looks different and it's just more pronounced for an athletic mind or like. So this, some parting words, final thoughts, so we can wrap this this up and get back to our lives of recovery.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll just say, for me, the only thing constant in the world is change, and we have to accept change while understanding the need to continuously improve. It's a balancing act and, um, it's not easy. So everything I applaud you for having the discussion because in so many different disciplines we as men don't know how to respond well to change, whether that's in relationships, whether that's in our profession, it's. It's difficult to now look at a situation that was once this way and now it's that way, or where we were showing up in a way that was a high level and now it's modified. But, yeah, I encourage you to continue to talk through it and understand that it's okay to have the expectation change, even while you still continue to compete in the ways that matter to you.
Speaker 1:That's it for me, brother, I don't know what to tell you, man. I think that they got senior leagues for a reason. You either accept it or you you gonna hurt. You know it's. Again, I think that that accepting, being able to accept what is happening, and that this is a part of life and certain things in all aspects, you know, not just the physical, you know it's, it's the circle of life. But, um, you got to get right man with yourself, or you're going to be depressed, humble yourself and accept it. You got it, you got it. If you don't accept it, it's like all right, all right, you know. You mentioned a walker. You know it's. Either I can accept this now or be forced to be walking because you don't introduce yourself. And now you got to sit down. You're forced to sit down.
Speaker 2:I already done, sat down two times, three times, okay.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think it's going to feel good. Yeah, you did, you're right.
Speaker 4:I would love to tell you it gets better. That bowling ball is rolling down here, that we have very little control over that's life, it's mortality. There are some things we can do to guide that thing and then there's some things that's going to sometimes fall in the gutter and pop out and do crazy things. So it's mental, it's physical. You got a lot of guys even now struggling with ED that used to do. Now at 40, 50, 60, plus it did Body's changing, mind's changing. A lot of it is mental, the physical and the mental side is coming to an understanding of who you are and what you're capable of. It's not going to always be the same. There'll still be glimmers of yourself. I'm sure if Jordan got on the court right now he might hit three, four shots in a row. There'll still be glimmers of himself. But then I'm sure if he got on the court right now he's going to get crossed up because his ankles and his knees don't.
Speaker 3:They don't. Yeah, I saw him walking off his boat a video. He wasn't moving like he used to.
Speaker 4:No, none of them are. None of them are, and so none of these. So, again, there are other ways in life that you show up and and be competitive in. And it's really because, again, it's yes, it's basketball, yes, it's another team, but really the true competition is is the game is really with ourselves and our own heads. That's, that's the, that's the real battle, that's the real fight just in life, in period like that I, I'm feeling denial.
Speaker 2:Y'all mentioned bowling. I was like I got four bowling balls. I know where I need to place it. It's going to, but again, y'all got to work with me.
Speaker 1:And, bro, you winning that life. You got a wonderful think about that. You winning that life, every aspect of your life, man. You winning at that. So you know you good man. You winning that life, every aspect of your life, man. You winning at that. So you know you good man you good.
Speaker 2:I grew up with Raruka Saltz, I want it now.
Speaker 1:Okay, alright, alright.
Speaker 2:Alright, alright, fellas. Well, you know again. Thank you. A couple of housekeeping things where I say we don't own the rights to anything, and there's certain countries that are not going to get us unless I say this we don't often write any music during these segments. We appreciate the talents and craft of musicians and we only use their music to honor their gifts until we can create our own, and then we'll just use our own. We won't have to worry about this. But I'm Bryant, this is the Iron Table, you know. Again, thanks to Danny, keith and Steve for helping me, giving me this free therapy, and I know I'm still going to be talking about this throughout the week. So don't send me that copay. Please don't send me it because I ain't paying. All right, man, we are out.
Speaker 4:We will go away.
