This whole tournament is gonna do so much for US soccer looking ahead now.

Oh, 100%.

You know, just, uh, the availability to it to, you know, to Americans that may have not, you know, had the interest of watching.

You know, it's been on, you know, our, all of our sports shows and all of our news television.

So, you know, whether you were exposed to it before, you are now.

And, um, you know, I...

it makes me kind of think back to, you know, some of like our women's team, you know, the Mia Hamm and the Brandi Chastains-

Do you think that's gonna happen?

Right

...

when I got to be out there with him, like yeah, you know, my job was, uh, my job was fairly easy.

Come in, you know, come for Tristan, and basically fill that void.

You know, fill the dirty work.

Do all the energy stuff and, and, um, you know, you just...

The pressure that you could, you could see him out there controlling the game, you know, controlling every single aspect of what goes on on the court defensively, offensively.

Do you wanna talk a little bit about that?

What are you saying?

Um, I wi-...

This is an obvious one.

I gotta go, I gotta go with the Germans on this one, but, um, that's- that's only out of love for my guy Anton Stach.

Netherlands-Japan, what are you saying?

Now, see, again, I was biased on the last one, and I'm a little biased on this one, too.

I gotta go with Japan, because we have Ao Tanaka.

Ao Tanaka, and he's gonna be running, he's gonna be running the, uh, he's gonna be running their midfield.

Yeah, the final run

... with LeBron.

Um, yeah, it was nuts, um, 'cause coming from LA where we were, uh, not contending for much, um, you know, and then to go right from that to it's, you know, it's a ring or nothing, uh, was, was a bit of a shock, you know, obviously for both me and JC.

Um, but it was-- I mean, again, I got-- I didn't wanna get traded, but I'll tell you what, getting traded to go contend with my home te- hometown team with my hometown hero, like, yeah, all right, that'll work.

That'll work.

But nah, it was just, it was just, um, the seriousness of it took a while to adjust to.

Um, you know, just every practice was like playoff prep.

[laughs]

You know, that week in June, July, whatever it was, how, w- what was that, you know, experience?

Um, a good amount.

I was hearing from, you know, just a bunch of my friends in the league like, "Hey, what's going on?" You know, "We could use somebody like you," stuff like that.

Um, you know, but for me, it was, it was, uh, it, it was just a multifaceted decision.

Um, yeah, obviously I, well, I've, I've two...

My wife, my wife and I have two kids, four and one.

Um, we, we def-...

And, uh, what's the name of it so people know what to look for?

What is that?

I think it's, it's, uh...

Obviously, the physical aspect of his game is, uh, undeniable.

You know, he's, he's one of the, uh, y- you know, best athletes we've ever seen, um, in any sport.

But it's, it's the mind that really separates him.

Um, and there, there's a few guys in the league like that, like Chris Paul, Jokic, uh, Bron obviously comes to mind.

A little, uh...

With playing with him than it is going to these other cultures? And is there something that you learned from him about culture and about that mindset that you can bring to the new Cleveland Cavaliers that could maybe take us over the hump of the playoffs and into the finals and win?

Yeah, yeah?

Yes, yeah, 'cause it was, uh, you know, this something that, love the sport, like I said, so I've been kind of looking at di- had been looking at different options, how to get involved, like, you know, is it possible that I could start learning how to scout? You know, watch some film and scout or get involved in the business somehow.

And, and, um, had a few various opportunities but didn't, it didn't feel right.

And then when TJ brought up Leeds, me and my wife came over here and walked all around the city center and, and, and all around, um, Trinity and all a- all of it.

And it felt like home, it just kinda felt like home.

You know, I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, a blue-collar working class, you know, generally kind of gray sky, you know what I mean?

Um, does that resonate with you?

It does, it does, and it, it really didn't until I got, I kind of got to the heart of this and understood.