Becoming a Best Ball Bro: Does Training Camp Matter?

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

So Rich, Training Camp's here. We're hearing it all through the media. We've heard it really all off season, but these players are in the best shape of their lives. I gotta ask you, are you in the best shape of your life right now?

Rich Ryan (0:10)

No. One of the last times I played basketball, I had a minor strain in like my pec, and I legit thought I was having a heart attack. I ended up in the ER because I thought I was dying. So no, very far from the best shape of my life. How about you?

JJ Zachariason (0:25)

Well, I just spent 24 hours at a Great Wolf Lodge, and I feel like I just ran a marathon. So no, I'm definitely not in the best shape of my life. I'm JJ, and I've been playing in best ball leagues for years. But there are people out there who play a lot more than I do, and there are people out there who have won a lot more than I have. And I want to learn from them. This season, I'll be documenting my journey of Max entering Underdog's best ball mania contest, and I'll be doing so with guidance from some of the most successful best ball players on the planet. This is the year where things start to change. This is the year where I officially become a best ball bro.

Welcome in to another episode of Becoming a Best Ball Bro, One Day Later Than Normal. I'm JJ Zachariason, and I am joined as always by Rich Ryan. Rich, what's going on, buddy?

Rich Ryan (1:23)

Doing good, man. Unbelievable summer of sports. If you're a soccer guy, you had the Euros, now we're rolling straight into the Olympics. The Gold Zone has been phenomenal on Peacock. And when people are listening to this on Thursday, there's a football game on today, JJ?

JJ Zachariason (1:40)

That's true.

I realized it like earlier this week, and I was on a walk with my wife earlier today. And we were talking, and I was like, hey, do you know what's happening tomorrow? Because we're recording this on a Wednesday. I was like, hey, you know what's happening tomorrow? And I said that football was starting. And she said, well, it was nice knowing you. Because she knows what happens when August hits is, look, I'm still a dad, but I'm not able to have as much time and energy focused to the things that are most important, but it's just the way that it is. This is my job. And so there are, I always say there's like three months out of the year where things are like gravy and I can hang out and chill and really get in the time of not sitting in front of my computer all the time. And then there's a period where I just work a lot and that's just the nature of the business. Everyone has the, like a lot of jobs have it this way, seasonal, but I'm excited, man. I love doing this. I love football season. I love the start of football season. I love draft season, which is what we're in right now. Just a lot of fun.

Rich Ryan (2:44)

Yeah, for sure. Really excited to see whose career is going to end. We had Josh Jacobs get 10 carries in the Hall of Fame game, was it two years ago, and his career was over. So somebody's career is going to be mad.

JJ Zachariason (2:53)

Literally the best season of his career. Literally, like Josh Jacobs has been just like a perennial RB2 or whatever. I know someone's going to fact check me and be angry at this. But that year, he was actually a league winning player. Like that was the year that he absolutely went ballistic, of course.

Rich Ryan (3:09)

Can't wait for all it takes.

JJ Zachariason (3:11)

Anyway, so I want to start off today's show. Davis Maddick sent a tweet out. I think it was from his chat, one of his like YouTube streams or whatever. And Maddick sent a tweet out. And it was a good thought experiment, I thought. And we started talking about it a little bit in the Discord. Others on Twitter were talking about it. So let me throw this out there to everyone and then you and I can discuss this. And I think that you're really apt to answering this because of your poker background and such. But Davis tweeted the following idea. If you knew that a wide receiver, or let's just say that Underdog decided to throw this little wrinkle into one of their tournaments or something. And this is assuming a tournament environment. Davis didn't tweet that it was a tournament environment. But let's just assume it's a tournament. Let's just assume it's best ball mania, right? Where week 17 is where folks are getting paid out, right?