ONE -> WRITING/COMEDY

In one of the more awkwardly enjoyable pairings, lifestyle design and 4-Hour Body/Workweek/Chef Tim Ferriss had the great Jerry Seinfeld on his podcast this week and it was a fascinating discussion. Seinfeld doesn’t do many interviews, and he especially doesn’t do many interviews where he spends an hour-and-a-half talking about his writing systems, his comedy process, weight lifting, meditation and more. He’s funny (as always), eloquent and waxes poetic about life philosophy. Hugely entertaining. Listen here.

TWO -> DOCUMENTARIES

As ESPN college hoops commentator Jay Bilas put it, in 2018, high school basketball phenom Darius Bazley’s choice was to either honor his commitment to attend Syracuse and become a free walking billboard for Nike… or get paid a million dollars by New Balance to become the new face of their basketball division, while taking a 3-month internship to learn about the business and train for the 2019 NBA Draft. Bazley wisely chose the latter, and his journey was the subject of the interesting new documentary, Gap Year, by my buddy, TJ Regan. The doc features interviews with Klutch Sports, Jay Bilas, the late-David Stern and more. Here’s how you can watch it.

THREE -> BOOKS

If you’ve been reading the FF5 and following me on social media then you know we launched my new book, Hoops Heist this week. If you’ve bought it, thank you. I’m on a basketball reading kick and just bought Pete Croatto’s new book, From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment and the Birth of the Modern-Day NBA. Rather than just repeat the old phrase “Michael Jordan saved the NBA”, Croatto exhaustively researched the rise of the league in popularity, from the 70s and 80s and Dr. J, to CBS and the ABA/NBA merger, to the Magic and Larry. I just started this book, but it’s great so far.

FOUR -> MUSCLE

Last week I wrote a post about finally ordering a Deadlift Hex Bar for the Flex Factory, AKA, my garage gym (look at this glorious bastard), and a lot of people wrote me back asking how it’s different from a regular bar, what’s the best way to train with it, etc… Rather than write everyone individually, this bodybuilding.com article does a great job of laying out why the hex bar (or trap bar) is a secret weapon for muscle growth and strength training. Very useful read.

FIVE -> A GREAT QUOTE from Red Auerbach

“Take pride in what you do. The kind of pride I’m talking about is not the arrogant, puffed-up kind; it’s just the whole idea of caring - fiercely caring.”

Thanks for reading and subscribing! - Jon

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Visit www.jonfinkel.com.