Becoming a Best Ball Bro: We're Doing This Again?

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

So Rich, the NFL Schedule Release, the NFL loves to draw it out, give us a game here, a game there before the final reveal. Does that really do it for you? Do you care about that?

Rich Ryan (0:12)

Look, I'm one of those weirdos. My dad and I try to get to a Jets game every year, so I'm coming through the 17 weeks. What's a good travel spot maybe? When is the home game we could possibly go to? So yes, I am admittedly one of those people who is excited about all this content. What about you?

JJ Zachariason (0:28)

I mean, look, now that I'm becoming a Best Ball Bro once again, it's time to memorize that week 17 schedule maybe. I'm JJ, and last year I tried my hardest to become a Best Ball Bro. I drafted over 500 teams, I talked to some of the most successful best ball players in existence, and I admittedly had mixed results. So this year, I'm going to chase that title once again. My plan is to max enter DraftKings Millionaire Maker, and I'm going to document all of it while talking to the brightest best ball minds on the planet.

Welcome in to another episode of Becoming a Best Ball Bro, Season 2 of Becoming a Best Ball Bro. I'm JJ Zachariason, and as always, I am joined by my co-host, Rich Ryan. Rich, what's going on, buddy?

Rich Ryan (1:25)

Everything is fantastic. We're back. The Knickerbockers are en route to the Eastern Conference Finals. As people watching this on YouTube, we'll see if you aren't watching on YouTube, Late-Round FF on YouTube. And even crazier than that for the soccer folks out there, my beloved Tottenham Hotspur are in a European Final in a couple of weeks. It's a great time for sports in the Ryan household.

JJ Zachariason (1:48)

Did you just speak English? I don't even understand what you... What's that? The King's English.

Rich Ryan (1:52)

The King's English.

JJ Zachariason (1:53)

Technically, you really spoke English there. Yeah. I have no idea what the second part of that was. I'm a very casual NBA viewer, but I've been watching the playoffs. I think it's fun. I also was watching the draft lottery. And as a person who resides in the city of Charlotte, I was excited when they had a top-four pick, and then I was not excited when they got the fourth pick. So that wasn't cool.

Rich Ryan (2:18)

Hello, Rig. Shouts to Commissioner Silver. Sometimes you just got to get your hands in there and create narratives, and David Stern is smiling down from heaven today.

JJ Zachariason (2:30)

Yeah. I mean, my gosh. Again, I'm not as close with the NBA, obviously, as I am the NFL, but I feel like if stuff like that were happening in the NFL, I would be writing and doing podcasts about all of that, just because it's so interesting and so fun.

Rich Ryan (2:44)

Yeah. You'd be crashing out like everybody right now.

JJ Zachariason (2:46)

Yeah, exactly. This is season 2 of Becoming a Best Ball Bro. We're doing this again, man. Last year, we did this. We didn't quite conquer things over at Underdog, but we are shifting priorities, shifting our focus. We're going to be looking at DraftKings this year. I'm really excited. Have you had any experience on DK in the best ball world, or are you going to be learning with me and anyone else who's listening?

Rich Ryan (3:13)

Admittedly, from a best ball standpoint, no. Obviously, from a DFS and even a sports betting perspective, anytime I'm back home in New Jersey, I'm firing up the DK sports betting app and getting some of the same game parlays in just for fun. But from a best ball perspective, yeah, this is going to be a maiden voyage for me. And once again, I love playing this role. I love playing the idiot sidekick who gets to ask all the questions that people in the audience might ask. So I'm here for it.

JJ Zachariason (3:39)

Yeah. Well, look, I'm the idiot host. So I'm still in the same playing field as you are. I'm really excited to be doing this on DraftKings this year. Just full disclosure to everyone, I have barely been in the best ball streets to kick off this season. I didn't do any pre-draft stuff. I just was really busy with some other things. Obviously, the prospect guide and stuff. But this year, as a lot of you guys know, I hired on David Kitchen, who is the COO at Late-Round Fantasy Football. I'm going to blame Kitchen for my lack of best ball playing because we've been playing, planning, we haven't been playing. We've been planning some stuff with Late-Round Fantasy Football, and that's been taking up more of my time, obviously, doing a lot of content as well. But I haven't been able to dig in as much as I would want pre-draft. Now that we're in it, now that we're doing this, I'm going to be max-entering the Millie Maker. I'm going to be playing a lot over on DraftKings. There's going to be live streams over on YouTube, like I did last summer, which were a lot of fun. I got to the point where it's cool to just see the same people hopping in every day and us having conversations.