SHANE KLINE-RUMINSKI – FOUNDER OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ACADEMY – EPISODE 693

Website – https://tnbabasketball.com/

Email – shane@thebasketballacademy.com

Twitter – @Skr_TNBA

Shane Kline-Ruminski is the Founder of the National Basketball Academy, a professional basketball training and programming organization. TNBA runs year-round basketball programs including camps, clinics, leagues, teams, tournaments, and training. TNBA was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 2003 and currently represents two NBA teams in various markets spanning across the United States. They also conduct international basketball operations in Oman, Spain, France, Brazil, and Argentina.

Shane played his college basketball at Bowling Green State University where he was the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year in the 91-92 season, and led the nation in field goal percentage his senior year while being named 1st team All-MAC.  After college Shane played professionally in Belgium, Turkey, Israel, Portugal, and France.

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Grab paper and pencil before you listen to this episode with Shane Kline-Ruminski, Founder of the National Basketball Academy.

What We Discuss with Shane Kline-Ruminski

• His early sports experiences and why basketball eventually won out
• Playing his high school basketball for Coach Cliff Hunt at West Geauga High School
• Watching himself on tape as a high school player and realizing there was a lot of things he could have done better
• The lack of ball screens during his playing days
• Bowling Green vs. Kent State memories
• How he almost ended up at Tulsa, but instead went to prep school at Maine Central Institute
• The difference in the information available to players today vs when Shane and Mike played
• Working out with former Sixer Marc Iavaroni at Bowling Green
• Attending Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp
• D2’s bringing back JV programs
• His many experiences playing overseas
• Returning to school to get his degree after finishing his professional career
• Getting the opportunity to work with former NBA player Nene
• Getting a “real” job and feeling so sick he would throw up before work every day
• How & why the Dad of a kid he was training suggested he start his own basketball business
• Being on the MTV show “Made”
• How adding Steve Vega to the TNBA team helped the business to grow
• “There’s five core things of our business, there’s training, camps, clinics, leagues and tournaments.”
• Getting started with his first AAU team which featured Travis Kelce
• “It’s all about relationships, right? You go out and you find people that you want to do business with.”
• “We want to do things right. We want to do things for the right reasons. We want to do it professionally. We don’t want to screw people.”
• “I love the fact that I get to have an impact on kids’ lives every single day.”
• “You want someone that can train you every week at the same time, if they can’t do that, they’re probably not a reputable business or reputable trainer.”
• Why parents should check a potential trainer’s social media accounts
• Why AAU Teams below high school don’t need to travel
• “If you really care about the kids and your heart’s in the right place, kids will run through the wall for you.”
• “I rebound my butt off for kids.”
• The impact of COVID and the transfer portal on high school recruits
• Finding the right college fit and understanding how good college players are at every level
• “Basketball’s a vehicle that we use to have an impact on kids’ lives.”

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THANKS SHANE KLINE-RUMINSKI

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TRANSCRIPT FOR SHANE KLINE-RUMINSKI – FOUNDER OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ACADEMY – EPISODE 693

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight, and we are pleased to welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod, Shane Kline-Ruminski, the founder of the National Basketball Academy. Shane, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:15] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Hey Mike, how are you?

[00:00:16] Mike Klinzing: Great, man. How are you?

[00:00:17] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Thanks for having me.

[00:00:18] Mike Klinzing: Fantastic. Excited to have you on. It’s probably been long, long overdue. Wanted to be able to dive into all the things that you’ve been able to do in your career. A ton of interesting stuff, both as a player, as a coach, as a founder of the National Basketball Academy you’ve been able to do lots of interesting things in the game.

So let’s start by going back in time. Tell us a little bit about your first experiences with the game of basketball when you were a kid.

[00:00:40] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Boy now that I’m 50. I don’t know if I even remember.

[00:00:47] Mike Klinzing: I know, we’re getting old, man.

[00:00:49] Shane Kline-Ruminski: We’re getting old. I know, I know.  I think my earliest I can remember is playing CYO for my dad at, at St. ASOS, you know I have a little unique story is that my father, my first dad passed away when I was two years old. And my mom got remarried when I was five and she remarried a guy named Dan, who played college basketball at John Carroll who coached at Gilmour.

And so he was probably the driving force of getting me into basketball and coached me at CYO and did all the had me down in the basement, dribbling against the wall and kind of all the stuff that I try to do in training now that I learned from him. And that’s my earliest memories is just playing CYO basketball with my friends and enjoying it and getting better.

[00:01:42] Mike Klinzing: Were you playing other sports at the time when you were younger? Was it always hoops?

[00:01:45] Shane Kline-Ruminski: I did. I played a little baseball. My parents got me into football, but I’ll be honest with you. I did not love the contact with football, so I only gave it two years. And I couldn’t remember the plays when they put me a quarterback so that’s probably not a good thing.

And then I played baseball one year of hardball and I didn’t love it. Like,  I just, got hit by a couple pitches and I didn’t love it. I mean, I made the all star team my first year playing hardball, but I ended up playing softball and, and I really enjoyed that and played that for a couple years and then you know, played a little bit of tennis and coming into high school.

So I think because my high school coach told you didn’t want to get me in trouble in the, in the spring he wanted be around. So yeah, I mean those are the kind of sports I played growing up.

[00:02:29] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s funny that you played tennis. Tennis was the last sport I gave up before I went exclusively basketball.

I still remember. I tell people this story all the time, that the last thing I remember about tennis, the, the, the moment that I knew when I was done with tennis is I went to my, went to this lesson with the a group that I had been going with for years. This is probably, I think I was in maybe sixth or seventh grade.

I can’t remember for sure, but they had these PVC pipe. Doorway type thing. So you were, you were standing inside this PVC pipe doorway, and in order for you to not swing the racket back on a volley, so you had this you were in this doorway, so you had to step forward to hit your VO. And I remember coming home and telling my dad I’m like, dad, I don’t want to hit tennis balls out of a PVC doorway.

I’m done with tennis. And like, that’s, I’m like, that’s it. I’m like, that’s it. It’s all, it’s all basketball from here. I’m done with, I’m done. I’m done with tennis. So so I can relate. It’s funny.

[00:03:22] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Well, I think I played as a freshman as a JV player and I never touched it until about Two or three years ago, one of my best friends, Mike Baird was like, Hey, I want you to play tennis with me.

I go, I hadn’t played years. He goes, ah, you’re an athlete. You should probably be pretty good at it. We’ve been dominating doubles. So it’s fun.

[00:03:37] Mike Klinzing: That’s cool. Where do you guys play?

[00:03:39] Shane Kline-Ruminski: We used to play at Menor Racquet club, but the city just bought that. So we play at Kirtland country club. We play over at Mayfield country club.

And so I play golf in tennis right now because I can still play, be competitive without getting hurt.

[00:03:52] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. That’s a good way to approach it. There’s no question about that. As, as we get older, it’s, it’s just impossible to be able to play, to play hoops anymore. It just doesn’t happen.

[00:04:02] Jason Sunkle: The pandemic may have ended my hoops career.

[00:04:04] Mike Klinzing: I think it did Jason. I think it did.

[00:04:05] Jason Sunkle: I play a little bit here and there, but I can’t with four kids too. It probably isn’t helpful. I just can’t I can’t commit to playing on a weekly league anymore. It’s kind of a bummer. It’s sad. I think the pandemic did me in man.

[00:04:10] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Mike was Jason. Jason, any good?

[00:04:25] Mike Klinzing: Jason’s all right. Yeah, he was a kid who, he tried out four times for the high school team at Strongsville. Never made it, but probably became a much better player post high school.

[00:04:35] Jason Sunkle: This is a controversial, hot take that I’m about to give right now.  Any of those kids, Shane right now, I play basketball and I didn’t make the team. I play ’em one on one. There’s probably like two kids that would beat me right now.

[00:04:48] Mike Klinzing: Jason’s thrown down the gauntlet, anybody out there listening.

[00:04:56] Shane Kline-Ruminski: If you were on that team, give us a call.

[00:04:59] Mike Klinzing: That’s right. We’re going to make these games happen. Listen, we’re going to film this, put it on YouTube, man. I’m ready, but Jason’s one on one challenge. It’s out there. Anyone wants to bring it out?

Wait, what was your graduation? Year? 05. All right, there we go. Anybody out there listening. Come and get it. Jason’s ready.

[00:05:15] Jason Sunkle: I’m ready. Listen. I’m not going to say anything else. I don’t want to say anything.

[00:05:20] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, you better keep quiet. You you better. You better keep you better. Keep quiet. You better keep quiet.

All right. So heading into high school, Shane, talk a little bit about your experience playing at west jog. Obviously you guys had a ton of great players playing during the era while you guys were there. Just talk a little bit about your high school experience.

[00:05:44] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah, it was without a doubt. I mean I played college, played professionally, but I think high school basketball was the best basketball in my life.

I was very, very lucky to have really good players around us and a really good coach and a really good program. And I see some of that and some programs around here today, but not a lot. So I played under cliff hunt. Who was a great coach at West Geauga, they moved on to Perry and then he took over lake Erie college and talk to cliff probably a couple times a month.

He is a, still a role model of mine. You know, when I first was coming up, he used to kick our butt in open gym. I’m like, he’s this man streak. I mean, he’s not fast, but he’s, he’s just using his body and, you know but we were we were 72 and nine to three years. I was there. I mean, my sophomore through, through senior year, we were two state runner ups one regional runner up and You know, our junior year we lost in the state final and we were deemed the best.

Our closest game was that year was 17 points to St. Joe’s and we were deemed the the best team in the state without division. Like regardless of division, we were division two, but and we lost the state championship game. And I don’t think I’ve ever gotten over that, especially since my wife’s house, that she won a softball champ, state championship at West Geauga, which I didn’t even know they had a state championship for softball so yeah, so it was the most files ever called in the state championship game.

We had like six guys foul out and it was probably. You know, just, just devastating. Like I mean, you, you, you travel and it’s, it’s you, you see all the success, like on the east side, like with Chardon all their football success and, and Curtland all their football success and you’re, you’re like, and every time you pass in and out of the community, you see state champion, like, like I’m like we should have had that every time you want to drive in and out, like it’s a reminder, Mike has a similar story.

I’m sure he is going to go into right now.

[00:07:44] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Alright. I’m excited to hear that.

[00:07:45] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s like, so, I mean, it’s funny to hear you say that and just think about, so here you are, you’re 50, I’m 52, and I can hear, I can hear it in your voice and that you think about that thing all the time. And I think about like when I was a senior, we had, we didn’t, we weren’t, as far, we were not in the state championship game.

I think we were in like the district semi file final, but we played, we played Admiral king and. Admiral king ended up making it down to Columbus and we played them and we were up three with three seconds ago. I had made a shot, got fould hit a free throw. So that put us up three with three seconds ago, they had to go to length of the floor and they threw the ball down to Jamie Gladden, caught it in the corner with his feet, standing on the line.

He shoots it. It goes in some people claim that the ball was gold tended. I didn’t see, I didn’t see that, but I saw his feet on the line. There’s a ref standing right at the baseline, looking at his feet. That guy starts walking off the floor. And the guy from across the court at half court by the scores table on the opposite side of the floor comes running in.

To call it a three, then it went to, it, went to overtime and we ended up losing. And not that I’m bitter at all. Not that I, not that I, not that I still, not that I still don’t think about it. Like at least once every week I’m like, God, how did that because again, you just don’t, you don’t, you don’t get a second chance at those things.

And you know, it’s, it’s, it’s amazing how like the losses, like there there’s so many wins high school college that I couldn’t tell you anything about ’em but man, those losses, those losses hit.

[00:09:28] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah,  I think about my son’s at my high school now and he’s at West Geauga and it’s just been a struggle because the program’s been down ever since they let go one of my friends as a coach.

And so it’s been a struggle to watch and, and you know, so  I called Cliff, I don’t know about a year ago. I said, Cliff, can I have like all the tapes from high school? Like he said, sure, I have ’em all. So I digitized them. Oh, that’s cool. Right? Yeah. So I got ’em I put ’em on a zip drives and I got a copy for him.

And so I’m watching him one night and my wife’s like, what are you doing? I go I’m watching my high school teacher. She goes you’re the best years are in front of you. Your kids are here. Like, what are you doing? Like I go, she just doesn’t understand like, oh absolutely. It was one of the best times I could sit and watch.

Like because I’m sure you do. Like I thought I was good. Oh, I didn’t do that. Like right. It’s like when I, when I tell parents all the time, I’m like you’re all you’re going to do in college is watch film. Right? Film doesn’t lie. Like I thought I played hard. I thought I ran the floor hard.

I thought, I didn’t do any of those stuff because the tape doesn’t lie. Right. So you know, watching that, I was like, gosh, I wish I would’ve done this. And, and it’s amazing. We talk about basketball. Right. And so we had a point guard named KC Hunt who went to Wichita state best guard I’ve ever played with.

You could do how to score, but like was pass first. You know, Shane run, I’ll get you the ball. Like I loved him. He was one of the probably one of the biggest reasons why I was a division I player and as good as I am or we got, because of him, he just motivated me and pushed me. But. I was like, I called Cliff after watching some of these games.

I’m like, cliff, what the heck? You know, why didn’t we run any pick and roll action. He goes, I go with me and Casey, six, eight, and the great passer. He goes, Shane. It was a Bobby Knight era. Do not set ball screens. Yep. Clear out everything’s five out motion down screen curl cuts. Like it did not exist.

And he goes, if we would’ve ran ball screens, we would’ve averaged 80 points a game. You guys would’ve been amazing.

[00:11:30] Mike Klinzing: It’s so crazy. Yeah. I mean, think about, okay, so go back to your career at Bowling Green. Take that and take it from two perspectives. One, how much screen and role did you have to guard at Bowling Green?

Probably next to nothing. Exactly. I mean, I can honestly count like at Kent, maybe like five ball screens, I was involved in offensively or defensively in four years. So you take that piece of it and then think about your ability to shoot the ball. And if you were playing in this era that you just would’ve extended your range out to.

being able to shoot threes and with the way you were played and your mobility and, and the skill that you had as an, as an interior player, you would’ve worked on shooting threes. And I think about, from my perspective, like just the sheer volume of threes that I would’ve, that I would’ve taken back it’s just, it’s just, the game is so completely different in terms of the way you play.

And yeah, when you’re watching, when you’re watching old school whether it’s high school basketball, or I go back and watch a college game from our era, it’s like, it doesn’t even look, the game doesn’t look anything like what it looks like today. It’s completely different

[00:12:36] Shane Kline-Ruminski: You know, Jason, do you think we can get some footage?

Because Mike and I played against each other for two years.

[00:12:41] Mike Klinzing: years, I was going to listen. I was going to ask, I was going to ask and summer and summer, I mean, we could, there was so much, there was so much summer question is who had the better record? Ooh. Head to head to head. I don’t know. I mean head to head like my, so my senior year, which was your freshman year.

I know I had, I had a good game. You, I didn’t ask about yours. I said the team, what? The team. I know, I’m trying to, I’m trying

[00:13:09] Shane Kline-Ruminski:  Mike went to the individual cards immediately.

[00:13:11] Mike Klinzing: That’s I’m trying, I’m trying to put it. I’m trying to put it in perspective here. I’m just trying to think. I’m trying again.

Okay. What year was this? What year was it? 91,

[00:13:18] Shane Kline-Ruminski: 91-92. You know, Kent offered me my first first scholarship ever before my senior year ever started. I should have gone there. I would’ve got to play with Mike that’s right.

[00:13:28] Mike Klinzing: We could have had a year, 1991-1992. Let’s see.

I’m going to figure it out. You guys see, we got, this is crack research staff. Little, did we know this is, this

[00:13:37] Shane Kline-Ruminski: This is impressive. I’m not lie.

[00:13:39] Mike Klinzing: This, this is what we got is what we got going. Jason’s on the, on the research. It’s a time that’s harder to find season. See when

[00:13:47] Jason Sunkle: I was five years old. So hold on

[00:13:47] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Surprisingly, it’s not like at the top of the Google search.

[00:13:52] Mike Klinzing: That’s right. That’s right. You’d think that those results would come up immediately. You’d think there’d be, there’d be no question about it. Yeah. It’s funny. I mean, I remember you coming on your visit. I have like a, I have like a vision of you know, how you get those, like some things that you just have a picture of in your head.

Yeah. And I really hadn’t thought about it until you just said that, but I have a picture of you. I don’t even remember where as part of the visit, but I remember you wearing your Letterman’s jacket, your west G Letterman’s jacket on the visit. I’m very proud. Yeah. So that’s, I mean, it’s, it’s funny that’s what I remember.

That was funny. Yeah. It’s this man, a long, a long time.

[00:14:36] Shane Kline-Ruminski: I remember my junior year we were playing Kent at home and I went up for a dunk and, and one of your kids swatted it so bad. And there was a picture in the paper of me getting swatted by dunk. And, and of course the next day it was all papered all over because good teammates.

Right? For sure. Absolutely. All my, all over my locker room, like you got swatted, blah, blah, blah, blah . And I was like, don’t worry, next year I’m going to get him. And like, we were up by six and coach out, coach LGA ran like a backdoor play for me and I just buried it on the guy, hung on the rim and like twisted off and got one.So I made up for it.

[00:15:09] Mike Klinzing: Nice. There you go. Yeah, that’s it. That’s what, it’s all. That’s what it’s all about. It’s a fun, fun, fun times. Thinking back to thinking back to, to your high school career and then, and then making a decision to go to bowling green. What do you remember about the recruiting process and just what factored into your decision?

[00:15:25] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Well, I think I probably have one of the most, not most, I mean, obviously everybody has a unique story, but it was a tough decision. And, and for me, I struggled, I had a bunch of learning disabilities out of high school, dyslexia. And I couldn’t pass the tests.

The tests were just awful to me. So I went to Bowling Green on a visit you know, and I loved it. And, and, and I remember coach L called me into his office they offered me, I accepted it. And then they said, okay, I remember this vividly, my, my parents were sitting there. Everybody’s sitting there, coach Markel, the whole staff’s there.

And they’re like, okay, now, Shane we know you might not get your test score. If you don’t get your test score, what are you going to do? And, and I knew this might be a possibility. So I said, well, I’m probably going to go to prep school. Juco is not the route for me. I’m, I’m probably going to go to a prep school and they said, okay, great.

Now are you going to come to boy and green after your prep school year? And I’m like my coach, that’s your, I have no idea. I have no idea what I would do. She said, okay. Okay. Okay. We got home. He didn’t even coach Larry nega didn’t call. He had his assistant call and tell my dad that, Hey, if Shane’s not a hundred percent sure he wants to come here after prep school, we’re not a hundred percent sure we want him.

So my dad’s like, okay. So like that was it. Like my, basically they withdrew my offer after I drove two and a half hours there and two and a half hours back and they so I didn’t have an offer from them. I ended up signing at the university of Tulsa out in Oklahoma. I went to visit out there, loved it you know, committed there immediately with the hopes of getting my test score and lo and behold, like you know they said I took the test one more time and, and, and I didn’t pass.

And they called me and they said, oh no, no, you passed. We added the score a certain way off your other test. And, and you’re good to go. And I’m like, all right. Awesome. And my dad was like, well can we get a letter? And they’re like, oh, you’re good. You’re good. My dad’s like, no, we want a letter that he’s good to go.

Well sure enough a week before I was supposed to go out to, to Oklahoma, my mom had the trip tick packing the we’re all excited you know, those, those triple a trip ticks were. Oh yeah, absolutely. We’re, we’re driving out Oklahoma. Yeah. We’re stopping school. Stop here. We’re going to stop there.

And like they called and they said, Hey we called the NCAA and they won’t let us add the score that way. So he, he can’t come here in a scholarship. However you know, we’re, we’re going to send him out to a, a junior college really close and he’s going to, he’s going to take the test and he’s going to be okay.

Then he is going to be on a scholarship the second half of the year. and I was like, I mean, like, I was obviously devastated, like what the heck? And, and they’re like, it’s going to be like three grand or whatever. So we took out the money, like we’re ready to go down. And, and, and my high school coach called he’s like, Hey, what’s going on?

So I told him, and he’s like, that doesn’t sound right. He coach hunt calls the NCAA and NCAA says, you can’t do that. You can’t be on scholarship the second half of the semester. They wanted you to go out there basically go for prep school or go to a junior college for a year and then, then go there for three years.

So I’m like, I’m not doing that. So so we changed that trip tick. We got a letter from maine central Institute MCI. And so Cliff called out there and I said, yeah, we have a spot available. So we changed that trip tick from Oklahoma to Maine . And my mom drove me out to Maine and dropped me off at prep school and played for a guy named Max Goode, who was actually the U N L V head coach a couple years ago. So, so that was very different eye opening experience. Every Big East coach was at our first open gym. We sent 10 division one kids on scholarship that year. Now the only good thing is I tell my wife, when she tells me she won the The softball championship.

We did win a new England prep school championship. We went 26 and oh you know, we sent 10, 10 kids division one, but I, I will say it was a tough year. You know, I had to learn to live away from home. You know, you had to make your bed and it was, it was kind of structured, which was good. I needed that.

You know, but it was  I came in, I went to AAU nationals with coach hunt, a couple kids couple of local kids. I broke my leg and I showed up at prep school. I had a stress fracture and then I got very frustrated with the kid. I punched the wall, broke my hand. So like, it was a tough year. And then the, the weirdest thing happened.

I had a pen in my mouth. I was fake fighting a kid like Kung Fu fighting. And he hit the pen and went back in my mouth and created a hole and have a sub emergency surgery. So it was the toughest year, but I needed it. Like if I would’ve went to high school out of, or of college out of high school, I never would’ve made it.

I wasn’t mentally tough enough that year. Really. Went through a lot of adversity, a lot of played against a lot of good players and, and, and if I didn’t have that year, I don’t think I ever would’ve been successful in college. So I had Bobby Huggins offered me down at Cincinnati. I had like 18 division one offers coming out of prep school.

But my, my Jim Larranaga drove up to my parents’ house, met with him for a couple hours. They flew out to Maine were like, look, coach hell said he was sorry, blah, blah, blah. You know, Bowling Green was losing seven guys the year I was coming in. So I was like, you know what? I loved it there.

I still love it there. I want to go there. So I accepted their offer went there you know, because I knew I could, my dad was like and I kids make this all the time. I talk about these kids all the time. Like I’m sure you do too. You know, when you, when you choose a school, the problem is, and, and the reason why everybody’s transferring is because everybody wants to ease.

Everybody wants to play right away for sure. And you sit. You don’t know how to handle it. You you’ve played your whole life. You’ve never sat. And now, well I’m going to go somewhere else because I’m sitting well. I knew if I went to Bowling green, I’d have a chance so I started my freshman year and, and started and…

[00:21:10] Jason Sunkle: You went two and 0 against Mike?

[00:21:14] Mike Klinzing: There you go. There it is. Thank you

[00:21:16] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Do you have stats?

[00:21:19] Jason Sunkle: I do not have any. I do not have any individual stats. That box scores are not available. I can tell you the score you lost, you lost or Mike lost 71 to 56. The first game. That was at bowling green. And then the second game was closer.

I think I said 62 – 56. So it was a six point loss at home. Mike. I want you to know what I was Googling, like the, trying to find the stats of stuff. I see you led the NCAA in field goal percentage your senior year. That’s pretty impressive.

[00:21:55] Shane Kline-Ruminski: I did. It wasn’t hard to make a bunch of layups.

[00:21:59] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I guess you might not, you might, you might not have been able to do that. If we were shooting threes, maybe it would, might not, might not have, might not have see that’s the crack research staff is. I knows there’s a silver lining.

[00:22:12] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Impressive. That’s why you get paid all the big bucks. Jason, that’s it?

[00:22:18] Jason Sunkle: Yeah. Yeah. Rolling in the doll over here.

[00:22:18] Mike Klinzing:. It’s happening. It’s happening for him. It’s all happening over there. Yeah. It’s I mean the recruiting process is just, it’s so interesting. And I think it’s a great point that you make.

Like, I know when I went to Kent obviously you’re, you’re confident and you feel like, Hey, I can I can make it, but I went to Kent with. Not 18 division one offers, but one and yeah. You know, kind of similar experience to you. Like II went down and when Kent was interested in me before my senior year, I went down there and took a, they said, we want you to come down for an official visit.

And I’m like, eh I only get five of these and I’m sure I’m sure Duke’s going to be calling me in Ohio state. So I don’t want to waste one of these visits on Kent, but I’ll come down. But you know, I’m not, I’m not going to take an official visit. And then after that, I never heard from him again until after the season I called him back.

I’m like, Hey any chance you’re interested. And I think the only reason that I ended up getting a scholarship at all is because somebody transferred last minute, because it was not until like probably April. When, when I got that offer and as soon as they gave it to me, I, I took it. But you know, you just think about as a kid my parents didn’t know anything.

Coach Casey at Strongsville really had never had anybody that. You know, could have played at that level. And so we were just, everybody was naive as to what the process was like. And so I ended up in a place that was that ended up being a really good fit for me. But I came in as a freshman and I played maybe six minutes a game.

And especially in that area, you think about what the practices were like, and nobody was load managing any college teams at that, in that area, you were practicing, you were practicing three and a half hours the day before a game, whether you liked it or not. No. Yeah. And so it was just a tough, that was a really tough year.

And I mean, I never really thought about transferring because where was I going to go? I was a, at that point, a borderline division one player as it was, but mm-hmm you just think about, as you said, the way. Kids. And the mentality is today. And with parents and as invested as they are in, in kids’ opportunities you could see where my two freshman, my two freshman roommates that both were scholarship players.

They both, they both left after their freshman year and either one of them played and one of them ended up not playing at all. The other one, went to Malone and scored like 2000 points there. Wow. Yeah. I wish he would’ve stayed because he would’ve, he, he would’ve played, he would’ve played and we could, we could’ve used them for certainly for, he might not have played all that much as a sophomore, but as a junior or senior, he would’ve, he would’ve been a starter.

But yeah, it’s tough, man. It’s it’s, it’s not people I think have this, this vision of, of what it is and it’s even, it’s even different. And I think more difficult today when you think about. The summers were like for you and I the season ended, you were just kind of on your own. And nowadays man, they’re, they’re 50 weeks, a year on campus training with the same guys that are barking at ’em all season barking at ’em all summer too.

I’m not sure I could have. I’m not sure I could have handled that. I wanted to just come back and just play and have some fun and get out on the court and work on my game by myself without, without somebody chirping at me.

[00:25:29] Shane Kline-Ruminski: I remember. You know, it wasn’t mandatory to stay. Right. They’re like, Hey, if you, if you want to stay, you can, of course, I had a girlfriend back home.

I’m my coach. I’m going to go home. Okay. No problem. Right. I’m like, exactly. All right. Like I think my junior year or my senior, he really kind of treat, pushed me to stay. And I was like, and I should have. Right. I mean, I, I absolutely that like to be in that environment, lifting all the time. I mean, you can say you’re going to work out and I did back home, but I not, not like you would do when you’re back at college, but I was like, and I that’s one of the things that I regret, I was like and I almost, I, I think I told coach Larranaga one time.

I’m like he’s had a ton of success, obviously. And he’s great. I’m like, why aren’t you a little bit tougher on me? Like, why didn’t you say, no, you don’t, you don’t have an option. Right. Right. I. He was definitely a player’s coach. And you know, and so today I look at the way coaches are, are, are today.

And, and I don’t know, like I mean, I think they’re a lot less demanding, but they’re also, like you said, demanding of their time, where they have to be like a kid, I work with Josh Irwins over at Youngstown state and he’s there all the time. Like, he’ll come home for a week at a time, maybe during a break here, a break there, but they’re constantly there lifting and working on their game and working on their skill level and watching film and playing.

And I mean, it’s crazy. I mean, and they play so many games and they play your round. It’s it’s like, I I’m like, well, maybe I would’ve made it that next jump to the NBA who knows if I would’ve had their regimen because I was talented enough. And you know, so who knows it’s crazy.

[00:27:01] Mike Klinzing: Well, you think, I mean you think about the knowledge, right?

Just the knowledge base of what people understand now. In terms of the training piece of it, the rest in recovery, the nutrition I’ve said this before, but you know, we used to preseason at Kent. We would have on Saturday mornings, we’d have like a practice and then an inner squad game. So we’d start at like 7:00 AM Saturday morning, and then we’d finish at like 10 30.

So you’ve gone through the whole week and then you got up early on Saturday morning. So you’d be, you’d be wiped out by that. By the time that 10 30 bell rang and you were done, you were wiped out. And then basically we’d go and sit at Ponderosa at the buffet for the next like three hours and drink soda and eat, eat, eat the steak and the bad macaroni and cheese and chicken wings and all this stuff.

And you look back on it. You’re. God, how, like, what were we doing? Like how, like, I wonder if, again, if we’d have had somebody like today, obviously every division one school has somebody watching over what the players are eating and you know, that kind of thing. And coach McDonald back in the day, like we were, we were still eating steak for every pregame meal.

Hunter rose is the bomb though, man. Hey man, look,  I was not complain.

[00:28:16] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Look the stats on Ponderosa in the eighties,

[00:28:18] Mike Klinzing: Shane calories, average calories per meal. Listen, Shane Shane, my parents met at Ponderosa look at that, holds a, holds a special place in your heart, special place in your heart.

But I mean you just think about, you think about that piece of it or like my dad was you know, he was an exercise physiologist at Cleveland state. So he was strapping me to all kinds of like plyometric stuff. None of it ever worked for me really so I could I could, maybe I could maybe touch the rim every once in a while, but you know, you just think about the way that the knowledge that’s out there today.

And even from just strictly, just a basketball standpoint, like, think about what you’re doing as a trainer, what today and the things that you give kids today versus what you did or what I did when I wanted to work on my game. Like I had like one workout that I, I did the same thing. Like I go to the gym and I’m there for an hour and a half and I’m doing the same thing.

Yeah. Every single day with very little variance. And now there’s just so much out there that you’re like, man, I wish, I wish I could have to your point seen what my potential could have been with with some of the things that. Kids have today, or at least they have access to the information because you know, just like, yeah, I was a kid who was going to eat that stuff up.

I mean, you gave me something and I’d be like, all right, sure. I’m going to do it. Or whatever. Whereas there just wasn’t that, that, that information was just not available.

[00:29:39] Shane Kline-Ruminski: No, I mean, and you talk about the food that you talk about, the speed and agility and the strength part of it and the extra supplements.

And then the film watching, and then you said the training piece, like, right, those are five elements. You’re just like, oh man. I, if, if. If you’re going to, if you’re that good, you’re probably going to go. I mean, as long as you’re working hard during that, which we competitive, you throw something in front of me, I’m going to do it.

Like because I want to win. And, but yeah, I mean, but no, Hey, go home for the summer do whatever, like, alright, I’m lifted hang out with the right. Exactly.

[00:30:16] Mike Klinzing: I got my two page ditto, my workout they’re like, here’s your they’re like, here’s your summer workout was like, it was like two pages, you know?

Well, I mean, at Kent, I don’t know. I don’t know what about BG, but at Kent, like our, our strength and conditioning guy was the, was the football guy. I mean, he was the football and I remember being like, I remember it had to be, it had to be preseason, but we’d go in. And like once every like two weeks, this guy would be like, all right, it’s time.

We’re going to do farewell to arms. We’re all like, oh my God, are you kidding me? And so you’d go through the whole dumbbell rack. Starting with like two and a halfs up to like 85 pounds, which no nobody’s curling but you’d have to do curls. You’d have to do like sets of like 20 curls with each of these things.

And you’re like, how is this? I mean, awesome. How is this been me? Yeah. How is this even remotely relevant to what I do as a basketball player? But that’s just the way it’s just the way it was. I mean, it was totally, it was totally different. We used to do our ag, so we would do I forget, I think we, I think we would do those maybe like three times a week on asphalt, like jumping in and out of big tractor tires, but you did, ’em on, we did, ’em on, we’re doing on doing ’em on cement and you think about that and you’re just like, I mean, it’s, it’s insanity when you look at it now with the knowledge that we have, some of those things that you kind of went through, but it was just, just the way it was.

It’s just the way it was. Yeah, that’s crazy. Yeah. It’s it’s unbelievable. What’s your favorite memory from BG?

[00:31:51] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Whew. Oh, wow. I had a game winner against ball state, probably that  I’d be honest with you. I have so many great memories. I loved bowling green. I loved everything. I mean, it was so great that I was two and a half hours. My parents came to every single one of my games. They traveled really well.

That was very important to me look up in the stands and watch my parents there. Yeah. Which is, it was amazing. I’m sure you felt the same way. Absolutely. You know, it was a small enough campus where I felt like kind, I knew kind of everybody and everybody knew kind of me, but it was yet bigger in other aspects.

I mean, I had a I thought coach Larranaga was a good coach. He wasn’t great.  I always tell the story, like my senior year they came in. and Jay Larranaga was with us and Jay was a really good player. He’s in the NBA coach and he was the associate head coach of the Celtics for a while.

Now he’s out in now, he’s out in LA with the Clippers and, and coach moor got like, let go of the year after I left. And I was like well, coach Murphy, what happened? He goes you know, every year we go in, we talk about what we’re going to do. And in your senior year, I told him, I said, just give the ball to Shane and let’s just get out of his way.

If they double him, he’s going to make the right pass. He’s a good passer and coach. I was like, they had, he’s like Shane, it was a week. We fought about it. Like we fought and fought and fought. I said, give the ball to Shane. And he’s like, we’re not going to have one person run this offense, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So, so he is like, yeah. So Shane, you basically got me fired. I’m like, sorry, coach. But I think one of the best things for me was they brought in this guy named Marc Iavaroni for two years. And marc won a championship with the Sixers. And so. He really, really helped me understand the game from a mental standpoint, more than anything else.

You know, he brought in some new stretching routines. We talk about that, like kind of what they did in the NBA was a lot more movement stuff. Like it is today rather than stationary stretching. So he was kind of on top of it. But you know, just really he left, he left college and got back in the NBA because you know him and I got in trouble because we’d be working out together.

Like we’d play one on one. Right, right. And the, Hey, you can’t play one on one. You can’t I’m like it’s after like I’m trying, I asked him to do it. He didn’t, it’s not like he dragged me to the gym. I went to the office. I said, coach, he’s like, let’s play some one on one. I’m like, yeah, can we play one on one?

See how you do this. And that he’s like, all right, we got in trouble. And he’s like, that’s why I got out the college coaching. Cause I can’t work with kids. And, and when I want to, right. So. but really helped me from a, from a mental standpoint. And, and then he got me over to Pete Newell’s’s big man camp out in LA and there’s only 12 guys got to go a year.

So I went there between my sophomore and junior year, which really elevated me and, and I met, they were, they were actually shooting the movie. Jason would probably know this movie. They were shooting the movie Hoosiers or not Hoosiers blue chips out there. Okay. Yeah. And Pete, no. Was penny and Shaq.

Yeah, Pete, no was like a kind of a basketball liaison, like for the staff, but he also sat on the bench as Nick N he’s assistant. So right after we did the camp for three hours a day was at Loyola  Maymount Shaq would come in and, and gosh, can’t remember the guy’s name that played at Indiana.

He actually, I played with him overseas against him overseas.

[00:35:08] Mike Klinzing: He’s got, I know exactly who you’re talking about.

[00:35:10] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yep. I played against him overseas when I was in Portugal, but like, those guys would come in and so I I met Shaq and laid the hugest hands I’ve ever. In my life, any pro is big. Like I, everybody, I said, let something, we ever meet a pro you know, he is a pro cause he is got a few chance.

So, but but yeah, so that was a great experience for,

[00:35:30] Jason Sunkle: you know, I don’t think I’ve ever sat and watched all of blue chips, just so you know, I probably should do that. Right. Is it good?

[00:35:33] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Really good. Yeah. It’s a good movie. It’s a good, it’s a good movie. Yeah. It’s. But now, now that’s all changed right now that like they were getting I money.

They just didn’t like, it wasn’t really money wasn’t as a kid

[00:35:48] Mike Klinzing: It wasn’t classified as such.

[00:35:51] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. It wasn’t class the, the people were getting cars and parents were getting jobs and tractors and all that. So that’s yeah,

[00:36:00] Mike Klinzing: Exactly. Yeah. It’s a little bit of a different that’s.

That’s a little bit of a different world for sure. Without question. It’s man, I, it’s hard to, it’s hard to believe again how long how long ago. That is when you start really thinking about, oh, I got his name. Matt.

[00:36:16] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Matt Nover yes. Yes.

[00:36:20] Mike Klinzing: I thought it was Matt. I wanted to say Matt Novak was the name that kept coming and popping into my head.

So yeah. Matt Nover. That’s Matt Nover.

[00:36:26] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. He was a good player, but like it’s, I love the social media aspect, some of this stuff, because I feel like I’m still connected to bowling green via social media. I know what they’re doing all the time and I know what guys that I played with.

I mean, I’m sure you’re the same way, right? What do I miss the. Playing with the hanging out for the locker room. Absolutely. That, that, and that’s probably why, like like I still get a piece of that with, with TNBA because we’re a very close company and we’re always talking to each other, we’re hanging out, we’re working with kids.

And so I’m actually a volunteer assistant at WEG this year. And it’s just like being around the guys every day. I love it. Like, I love that aspect. I love that atmosphere. And I mean, I miss that more than anything else with, with, with playing.

[00:37:13] Mike Klinzing: It’s not replaceable. I think that’s one of the things that you realize very quickly that when you’re not part of a team. And even from a coaching standpoint, I know when I, when I think about what I miss most about coaching at the high school level, it’s not necessarily even the practices or the games it’s sitting around the coach’s office after practice or after a game. And just having those conversations and talking basketball and just talking smack and whatever, it just, it doesn’t, you can’t replace that in any other walk of life and people who haven’t been a part of that, I don’t think really quite comprehend exactly what that’s all about unless you’ve been in a locker room and felt that camaraderie between teammates.

Yeah. It’s just, it’s completely different. You’re right. Social media does allow to keep, keep up and, and pay attention to again, for me, for, at Ken and for you at bowling green, you can kind of pay attention and, and keep in touch. And it, it’s funny. I try to, I try to get back to at least one game a year.

I don’t know about you. Do you try to get to, do you try to get to a game if you can.

[00:38:18] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. You know, it’s bee, it’s kind of unique, right? Cause we have some players in our, in our organization that they recruit. Right. So I’ve been back for recruiting visits and that kind of stuff and, and that’s been great.

And then I’ll see those guys out on the road I’ll see Mike, and some of their assistants. I saw ’em up in Atlantic city, this in July and you know, I’m not really technically allowed to talk to them since I’m an AAU coach, but you know, we’ll stop and we’ll talk and you know, and I’ll, I’ll help them recruit and look at some players here in Cleveland and and give ’em my opinion on, on guys and that kind of stuff.

So. Yeah. I mean, obviously it’s changed so much the, the universities and what they offer and how they look. I mean, it’s crazy and it’s, it’s amazing really. And probably that’s why that’s why Biden and gay had to get rid of all that debt. Cause these crazy, these schools are so nice now

[00:39:08] Mike Klinzing: I know, isn’t it, isn’t it crazy?

Like,I mean, just you look at some of the amenities and things and the food I dropped my daughter off. I had my first one, she went to Dennison. So she’s been there now, like, okay, three weeks, but you, you drop ’em off and you know, you see, and you know, you go and you eat in the cafeteria. You’re like, holy cow.

It’s like, it’s like eating at a restaurant. And just the, the, the recreational facilities that these schools they have access to. And just I think about like us, even, even back at Kent we had like the. Jim annex. And so that’s where you kind of you’d play your pickup. You’d play your pickup games there in the, in the off season.

And just it had like the the rubberized floor and just there was like a, there was like a tiny weight room crammed in the corner with like two two elliptical machines. Now you go and it’s a multimillion dollar facility and just all this stuff, it’s crazy.

The amount of money that’s been poured into. And again, they they’re trying to do it to attract, to attract students. And it’s kind of become this, this arms race. And so it’s made, as you said, it made, it’s made all these campuses a lot different and a lot nicer for, for the kids are going a lot more expensive.

How about that?

[00:40:18] Shane Kline-Ruminski: I don’t know if you heard this, but like some of these D twos, like I, I know coach Conley over at lake Erie college pretty well. And he’s like, Hey, we’re starting a JV program. I go, what? Wow. I go, what I go, why he goes, well, number one, we need kids in school. Right. So, and he goes, and, and if I can get X amount of kids on the team, then I can give my assistant coach a little bit more money.

So he stays and happy because you know, the D two, the lot of the D two budgets aren’t are aren’t close and, and they struggle to keep staff and all that for sure. But, and he goes, kids just want to play in high school. So I, I thought that was very unique because I thought they did away with all those. And now they’re trying to bring ’em back to compete and try to keep get kids in school.  It’s crazy.

[00:40:59] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I mean it makes sense when you think about it, but at the same time you’re looking at it going man, at what point does it, at what point does it end and get a little crazy. I mean obviously the way the basketball is today and then the sheer number of kids that are playing and everybody’s kind of out and looking for that opportunity to play in college and then you.

The social media piece of that, where everybody who’s visiting this school or that school, or going here or going there and keeping track of it. And so my son, who’s going to be a junior, like he’s got, he’s always like, Hey dad, look at this one and Hey what about this guy? And Hey, this kid and I played against him and I know this guy and you just you start looking at it all.

And you’re like, God, it’s just, it’s overwhelming as a kid. Like you think about our situation, like you knew maybe right there was, there was 20 kids in the Cleveland area that you knew as one of the, like, these kids are the best. And then other than that, like, you didn’t know. I mean, you didn’t know anybody.

Like I, to be honest with you, I can honestly say, like, I’ve been teaching at Richmond Heights for 27 years. I had never heard of Richmond Heights before I got a job there. I had never heard of it. I’m like, I didn’t. Then, then the schools that we played in the schedule when I was coaching that first year, I’m like, who, what are these places like?

I never heard of, I never heard of any of ’em they’re all these little small schools and never heard of any of ’em because it just wasn’t. This is not the way it was. And now everybody knows everything about everybody.

[00:42:21] Shane Kline-Ruminski:  Everybody knows everything. And now everybody thinks that Bob’s good as he is, and he’s not that good.

And they immediately judge and you know, it’s like, all right, well so focus on yourself, man.

[00:42:33] Mike Klinzing: Exactly. And eventually you have to get on the court and play so’s behind. Yeah. That’s always an important, that’s always an important piece of it. It’s nice to post things on Twitter and talk about this and that, but ultimately you have to get out on the court and play and that’s where your bread’s buttered at some point.

[00:42:50] Shane Kline-Ruminski: at some point.So how come I don’t have an offer right. How come he got offered? Well, he’s six, six. You are six, one

[00:42:56] Mike Klinzing: Little difference there. Yeah. All you have to do is go. I try to keep having this conversation with my son. I’m like, dude, look, you’re six, five. You’re going to get some more opportunities just because you’re six, five.

I’m like, look, you go to these different things. And like how many guys are there that are between five nine and. Six one that are exactly the same. Yeah. Like there’s a ton. So you better take, you better take advantage of the fact that you got some, you got some size and, and do something with it. So, yeah, it’s fun to, it’s fun to, it’s fun to watch.

I mean, again with your son and just being able to be around it and be a part of as a dad, it’s a totally different, it’s a totally different experience than your own experience as a player, for sure. For sure. All right. Tell me a little bit about your pro career, just getting overseas.

And then we could talk a little bit about some of the different stops you had along the way. ,

[00:43:47] Shane Kline-Ruminski: You know, it’s funny a kid the other day was like did you even play. I was like, well, yeah like I played in high school, I played in college and I played pro he’s like you were in the NBA. I go, no, no, no, no, no.

I played over in Europe. He goes, that’s not pro I’m like, Hey, I got paid to play basketball. It’s pro man. Be quiet.

[00:44:03] Mike Klinzing: That’s funny. Not surprising, but funny.

[00:44:04] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yes, exactly. So, no, it was I mean yeah. Obviously very unique experience when you, when you play in different countries and, and I mean, I loved every minute of it and I just took it as, Hey they’re paying me to play a sport that I love and I’m getting to see the world.

So everywhere I went, my mom came I spent some time in Belgium and Turkey and Israel, Portugal in France. And I, I thought everyone, I loved everyone because I was getting paid to play basketball and you know, When I was in Turkey, it was a little bit tough because like nobody spoke English.

I lived in this little city called Coya, which is two and a half hours, south of ARA. And it was one of the most religious cities in that country. They would get upset when I wore when I wore shorts out, because the women might look at my legs. I’m like, first of all, no one’s Leo. So it was, I mean, and, and you know, you get stopped and they want your passport.

They like the cops want money, even though you weren’t doing anything to get your passport back. And I luckily, Jason, I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie midnight express. I never saw that movie until I got back out of, and I I’ve never seen that movie. Sorry. Oh boy. Like. These guys get in trouble for smuggling, drugs and Turkey, and they go into a Turkish prison.

It’s the worst. Have you seen midnight express?

[00:45:19] Mike Klinzing: I don’t.

[00:45:22] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Wait. Is it midnight express? Maybe. Maybe it’s not. Who’s who’s in, who’s in the movie. It’s not ERO. So maybe it’s not midnight express. It’s some, I don’t know, but it’s Turkish prison movie. Jason. I’m you’re the, you’re the guy. You’re going to go find it.

So I, I lucky I didn’t see I’m looking right now, but it’s very shady over there.

[00:45:42] Jason Sunkle: Randy Quaid’s in it.  Yeah. I mean, this is the movie that you’re talking about.

[00:45:48] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Is it say like Turkish prison does stuff like that. It’s what’s the plot summary here. Yeah. Well, what’s the plot summary, because I’m probably wrong.

[00:45:58] Jason Sunkle: if this is a young American sent to a Turkish prison to try to smuggle right there it is. Has she out the

[00:46:03] Shane Kline-Ruminski: country? Yes. All right.

[00:46:05] Jason Sunkle: There it is. The cast included Brad Davis, Norbert

[00:46:09] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Weiser. John hurt. All you listen, go watch that movie is a good movie.

[00:46:15] Mike Klinzing: So Randy queen, as Jimmy booth, you lived it, man. You lived

[00:46:18] Shane Kline-Ruminski:  I lived it. I lived it. I didn’t go to jail, but I lived it, but I see, I saw more American money in Turkey than I, anywhere else we get paid in a shoebox. Hey, I go, what is this? I go, is this half your money in a shoebox? I’m like, really? I’m like, can we go to a bank or something? And like wire it, I mean, it was crazy.

That’s hilarious. I, I mean, I played with Dennis Hopson who was a number two pick and I think of the 88 draft, he played for the bulls and you know, obviously Dennis is still around running some AAU stuff. So I get to talk with him all the time. He was actually an assistant coach at BG for a little while.

But yeah, so I got to play with him over in Israel and Israel. And I work out a lot. Our company works a lot out of the JCC, so that’s kind of my go-to to get in. It’s like, yeah, well, I lived over in Israel I can speak a little bit of Hebrew. There you go. You know, Shabbat Shalom. Like I understand like the culture and, and, and being kosher.

And, and so so yeah, so it’s kind of helped in the business a little bit speaking a little bit of Turkish, but I mean, I can’t complain and  I played in some great countries, played against some great competition. I actually played against Oh man Dominique Wilkins. When he was over in Greece, I was in Turkey.

We went to Bo every year to play in this tournament for the, I was in Turkey for two years and he was over there and we got to play against his team. That’s cool. I think I had like 18 points against him and I didn’t get dunked on. Nice. We lost, but I I’m going to chalk that up as a win. That’s a win

[00:47:42] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, that’s a win. If Nique didn’t dunk on you, that’s a win. That’s a win.

[00:47:46] Shane Kline-Ruminski: If I’ve ever win. Yeah. That’s playing very much help side on that, that game. Usually I’m good for like a charge or two.

[00:47:52] Mike Klinzing: So, but now he would’ve just jumped right over you. So you wouldn’t have to worry about taking the charge.

He would’ve gone would get a little Vince Carter, Frederick vice action. Jump right, jump right over the top. Do you have a favorite city that you either visited or, or lived in or the cities you lived in? Does any of ’em stand out.

[00:48:11] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Not really. I mean my wife now came over and we went to Paris and like all that.

And I I don’t know, maybe it was my, like Portugal. We lived right in the ocean. That was great. You know, I, I don’t, I, I just enjoyed everywhere. I went because like, it was just a unique, different experience. And it was, it’s hard for some Americans, especially guys, I played with a bunch of guys that played overseas or played in the NBA and then they’re used to that lifestyle.

Right. And that and getting catered to, and then they come to Turkey. You’re like, what do you mean my cable is not going to be turned down for a week. like, this is crap. Or what, what do you mean? This is not going to happen right away. And they’re like this is not the, they get really, really mad, you know?

So but like, I was like, man, it’s all good. I mean, I’m a Seinfeld buff because I learned my first year in Turkey that we didn’t have, the only thing that came out was like CNN. Okay. And you know, was right before like the internet and all that. So. I paid a guy to dub every Seinfeld tape he had. And that’s all I would watch morning, noon, and night.

I would watch Seinfeld, Seinfeld, Seinfeld. So in the Seinfeld game, I’m pretty good. All right.

[00:49:15] Mike Klinzing: What’s your favorite episode line? What’s what’s. What’s your go to, I mean, I know there’s a, I know there’s a bazillion, but.

[00:49:25] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Oh, my, my kids hate this. Like I think I can still find a, you still find a good parking spot in the city if you apply yourself. I say that all the time, we get a good parking spot. My kids say, shut up, dad. whatever. It’s pretty bad. I name my son, Jerry and my daughter’s name’s Elena. So kind of like that,

[00:49:44] Mike Klinzing: There you go. That’s doesn’t get any more Seinfeld than that. No, my one is always whenever, whenever somebody starts talking about wood, I’m always like, wood Jerry Wood, wood.

not that it means anything yours, yours at least has a little bit more meaning behind it, but mine is just, I just like throw, I just like throwing that out there. All right. What’s your craziest overseas basketball story. This is a standard standard question. I have to tell the story. So I don’t even know how many people we’ve had on that have played overseas, but you’re, you’re going to, you’re going to have a really hard time topping the best story.

I’ll summarize it for you after you’re done, but gimme your craziest one. That’s PG.

[00:50:25] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. I was going to say the craziest one that you guys probably really want to hear. I’m not going to be able to say on this podcast, we’ll have to catch up later about that. Yeah, exactly. But that was probably the greatest one, you know?

You know, so when I was in Turkey, we go to, we had to go play to cup against GRE. He said Turkey and Greeks hate each other. And so during the game, like we are getting pelted with like coins and like, they’re not like quarters or like here, like over there they’re like sticker.

So like, I’m kidding. Like, I mean, it’s bad. Right? So they had to stop the game tell the fans to stop throwing stuff. And like, they’d let the fans back in. They would keep throwing it. So they had to kick the fans out for the whole second half. Like, so we played the game, we actually beat them. So we’re in the locker room and like the rock north have bars on ’em.

Right. But like they, the fans broke the broke the the window and are trying to like pry open the bars to like, come in. And I’m like, are you serious right now? Like, we just, this is a basketball game. And so like, we had to wait like two hours, like the crowd would not leave. So they brought in all these riot police and like, they, they covered us up and they put made like a, like a parade onto the bus go onto the bus and then fly to the airport.

I mean, that was, that was pretty crazy. But like, I remember my first year when I was in Belgium, like we won our first game, you know we had a, a company that sponsored us was a, a beer company named Moss pills. . And so we, they said, Hey, after the game, you have to put on your suit that they bought you and you have to go up and talk to like the, the big time people in the club.

So I’m like, all right. So I go up there, my whole team, including my coach is smoking and drinking. And I’m like, like, I mean, okay. I can understand maybe having a beer, but they’re all getting hammered and they’re smoking. I’m like, you just played a basketball game. Why is there smoke?

[00:52:24] Mike Klinzing: That’s hilarious.

[00:52:25] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah.  I mean, it was in a Turkey, like at halftime, like our whole arena would be filled with smoke.

[00:52:32] Mike Klinzing: Oh, sure. I believe it. It’s crazy. Well, it’s like, you look at those old time pictures of NBA, right in the fifties and sixties, NBA. And you see like those shots like that are taken from like down at the floor angle up at guys.

And then you just see the haze of smoke at the top of the Boston garden. There’s wilt and bill Russell battling it out. And it’s like, there’s a cloud of cigarette smoke hanging in the arena. It’s it’s kind of crazy. It’s almost like to the point now we’re so spoiled because yep. You don’t smell cigarette smoke here.

Almost ever. And when I do smell it, I’m like, God, what? That, that’s awful.

[00:53:03] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Not now. You just smell marijuana everywhere, right?

[00:53:06] Mike Klinzing: That’s true too.

[00:53:09] Shane Kline-Ruminski: All right. The last story I have, this was a real quick one. It was good. So I was, this was our first year I was in I was in Belgium and after the game on Sunday, we’d play in Sundays.

We’d have Monday off, but we’re supposed to go to a team spa. So they gave us the direction. I went with Gary  who has played it. Where’d he play it. He played at Tulsa. He was picked by the Cavaliers in the second round. That year didn’t make it. So he was overseas with me. So him and I are late.

Cause we don’t know how to get to the spa. So everybody’s like, it’s got like five different colored whirlpools and a huge pool and Asana and all this stuff going on. Right. But it was close to everybody except for the team. So. So like Gary and I get in, we’re like, Hey guys sorry, late we get into the hot tub and, and all of a sudden, my coach who doesn’t look good and closed, by the way he comes out of the sauna, totally naked and I’m like, he, like, he, he, he starts like, like like he thinks he’s going to jump into the pool.

So he is moving his whole body. So everything is kind of moving right back and forth, like right in front of us. I’m like, what is this guy doing? He’s naked. He’s like, I don’t need to see him naked. He jumps in the pool and I’m like, what is he doing naked? They’re like, what are you talking about next guy?

And the hot tub next to me gets up. He’s naked. The whole team is naked. Because that’s what they do over in Europe. They go to these naked saunas. How like, and they’re like, I’m like, no, I’m not doing that. Like Gary and I have our swim trunks on we’re keeping ’em on. This is a tradition that we may not partake in.  It could have been shrinkage. Right. Seinfeld.

[00:54:36] Mike Klinzing: Exactly. Yeah. Watch I was in the pool was in the pool, was in the pool. Shrinks like a turtle. Yeah. Like a frightened turtle. oh, that’s good stuff. All right. So the best, the best European story ever. Jefferson Mason from Dr. Dish. So the, the basic plot of it is he was on a team and I forget what country he was playing in, but basically they were going to play a game in Iraq and he was driving like through the desert, in Iraq, on a bus with his teammates.

And they came to this like outpost. He said, basically, it was just like a cinder block checkpoint. And they get to the check, this checkpoint and like four soldiers get on the bus with guns and they start pointing at him and one other American player. And they’re, they’re not, they don’t, they don’t speak English.

So they’re, they’re jabbering away at ’em and they got, they got, they got their guns pointed at ’em. They make ’em get off the bus. And he’s like, at this point, I think that. They’re going to take me off the bus and just shoot me and leave me in the desert and tell the team to keep moving. So they take him into this little checkpoint and they, they still have the guns pointed at him.

And they had a guy that was, I don’t know, could speak or somehow was, was translated something. But basically they wanted him, they wanted him and his teammate to jump. So they kept pointing and they’re like, jump, jump, jump. And then after the fact, basically they wanted to know if all American players could jump like Michael Jordan.

He’s like, he’s like, I thought they were going to kill me and leave me in the desert and hear these guys just wanted to see if see if they were having him jump at gunpoint to see how high that they could. Wow. See how high that they could jump. So he, obviously he told it with a lot more detail, but crazy.

Yeah. That is crazy. There’s so many, I mean, there’s just stories.

[00:56:27] Shane Kline-Ruminski:  Well we had to fly into a military base when we were in co because they didn’t have an airport, we had to fly into the military base. Okay. So there’s guys with like huge guns all over the place. And like when you’re over in Europe, like they have like the police have those huge guns, like in the airports and stuff like that.

You don’t see that here you see handguns, but right, right. Like it’s, it’s crazy. I mean it’s wild.

[00:56:52] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s just, it’s commonplace. I mean, it’s just you, I guess you get used to whatever, wherever it is that you’re at, but yeah, you’re right. We don’t have that. We don’t have that military style presence in airports and public places, the way that they do overseas.

That’s for sure.

[00:57:06] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Now in Israel it’s even worse because everybody, yes. Like all my teammates were in the military because you have to be, you have to do so many hours of military service or so many years of military, my teammates would come in with guns and they’d be in the military and, and like and there was some of that bombing going on when I was over there, I’d ask for a gas mask and they gave me one, like it was, it was wild.

I mean it was definitely crazy.

[00:57:25] Mike Klinzing: I mean, that’s scary stuff. I think sometimes here in the us like, look, don’t get me wrong. There’s there’s lots of problems and there’s, there’s definitely gun issues out there. But for the most part, you think about how things are, things are pretty benign here compared to lots of other places in the world.

I think sometimes we, we take that for granted, unfortunately. No question. All right. So when you get done, when you get done playing, as you’re starting to wrap up and you know, you see the writing on the wall that at some point to playing careers, going to end what’s your thought as far as. What you think you want to do?

Are you already thinking about getting involved in coaching and staying with basketball? Was there a thought that, Hey, maybe I’m going to go and get a quote, regular job. Just where was your mindset at, as you were finishing up your pro career?

[00:58:10] Shane Kline-Ruminski: You know, my mindset was, I was going to, I wanted to go back and get my degree.

So that was where my head was at. You know, when I came back from overseas, I’d always run a camp with a friend of mine. So I, I know I enjoyed doing that, but I never thought of a business right. Doing that. So I told my parents, I said, look, I’m going to go up and I’m just going to get my degree. And So I, I drove up to, to bowling green on Tuesdays.

I I’d leave Tuesday morning at like 5:00 AM. I’d get there. I’d stay Tuesday. I’d, I’d get a hotel Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and I’d come back on Thursday. And I worked for my dad on, on Mondays and, and Fridays, he had to hit a business. I’m like, eh, maybe I’ll take this over. Kind of want to see what it’s like.

And you know everything happens for a reason, right. So I’m doing that. I’m enjoy and it’s okay. You know, I’m learning I had, I got married and, and this guy this agent called me, or I was Tim Robinson over at speech strength systems. I’m sure you know, Tim or not. He gives me a call.

I’d worked out with him when I was playing professionally. He was like, Hey do you do any training? And I’m like yeah, a little bit. Like, I I’ve trained a couple kids in the summers, but nothing, nothing major. He’s like, yeah, we have an NBA guy working out with us and, and he’s looking for a trainer and you know, he’s going to be a, he is going to be a first round pick and I’m like, okay.

Yeah. Right. Like how many first round picks are in Cleveland looking for trainer, right, exactly. Yeah. That doesn’t happen. So I ended up working ’em out and because the guy kind of a couple guys that they had to work, what he didn’t like or whatever, he didn’t really speak a lot of English. And so I did one session and like afterwards it was, it would end up being the Nene he was the seventh pick.

And gosh, I don’t even remember what draft he went to the nuggets. He was the seventh pick in the draft that year. And like I did one session with him and he loved it. So they’re like, well, you have to do this every day. And I said, why can’t I’m going to school three days a week. So we made it work.

I I actually came back on Wednesdays and trained them and then drove back up. So we made it work and I trained ’em all through, up into the draft. And then he got picked the seventh pick in the NBA draft and I was still kinda so I was working for my dad going back to school and then I just started training some kids on the side.

That asked me like, Hey, would you work with our kids? You know? And I was like, yeah. And so I started training kids on the side and I trained him and. And, and so I was like, oh, this is, this is, this is fun. Like, and then I got a real job. Like I, someone hired me to, to do something and I hated it. Like, I actually, like, when I tell you, I hated it cause working for your dad, like, it was cool was fine, but it wasn’t like a real job.

Right. Right. So I got a real job. I can’t even, like, I can explain to you, but like it, I was selling barter. I was selling trade between companies. So where there was no money exchanged, it was just goods and services traded with each other. And they hired six people to start. And I was the last one left, like after four weeks, everybody quit.

Except for me, because I’m like, I’m not a quit. I’m like, I’m going to figure this out. Like I have to be successful. I have to do something. I’m married. I bought a house. I have to figure something out. Right. Have to be successful at something. And I, I actually threw up like before I went to work, like three days a week, like physically like just threw up and my wife’s like, you’re miserable.

And I go, what am I going to do? Like I have to do this. Like I have to earn a living. I, you. and she’s like, I don’t care. Like it’s not worth it. Like, I don’t want you to, like, she was working at the playing dealer at the time. She’s like, it’s not worth having you like this. Like you threw up going to work.

That’s not right. And I’m like it’s not right. So like long story short, like the, one of the kids that I was training at night his dad you know, I met his dad and his dad was like we should go out to a game or whatever. And I was like, all right. So I got to know the kids. So Nene was actually coming into Cleveland to play the Cavs for the first time.

And so I invited the dad and the son to the game Nene gave us tickets. And so we go to the game and he goes I mean, it was back talk about back in the day, like security, wasn’t even a thing like waved. I was walking around the floor, Nene’s waving me onto the floor and they just let me walk right onto the floor.

Right. Of course. So I introduced him to this guy, Mike, and he’s like, Hey wait for after the game, whatever we go up and watch the stands. And so, so just out of the blue, like in the middle of the game, this guy goes, so, so what do you, what do you do for, for a living? Where do you work?

I go, I work at this barter company. I absolutely hate it. I want to, I throw up every time I go to work, he goes, I, why don’t you start your own company? I go, what? He goes, you should start your own company. I go, what? He goes, you call it Shane co start your own company. I go, what am I going to do? He goes, well, look, he goes, my son’s in eighth grade.

He absolutely loves you. He thinks you’re a great guy. He thinks you’re a great trainer. And then he goes, I watch your rapport with an NBA player who have absolutely loves you. And you helped them got drafted. He goes, you should absolutely start your own company. He goes just based on those two things, he goes, and you ran a camp at West G, right?

He goes, yeah. He goes, look, I’ll run some numbers for you. So like three weeks later, the guy called me up. He’s like, let’s meet. He’s like, oh, like about what he goes, we’re going to start Shane Co. So he sat me down and showed me a, a sheet and he’s like, look here’s, here’s what I think you can do and make, I think you can make a business out of this.

And I was like, are you serious? He goes, yeah, I go, well, Mike I don’t, I don’t really know anything about business. I don’t know. He goes, look, I know business basketball. It’s a great partnership. Like he goes, I like you can, I can, I can own the whole company. Just have you work for me. You can own the whole company and I’ll help you.

And I was like, no, we’re going to do it. Let’s do a 50 50. And, and, and he’s like, all right. And I go well, I forgot the biggest thing, and I’m sure you wanted to talk about it during all of this time. he also said, oh, and I was shooting an MTV show at the time. So he is like, you’re working out an NBA guy.

My son loves you. And, and you got MTV because MTV was following me around at the time he goes, he goes, what? Like you, you have to start your own. So, so based on that, so we started our so, so we started in June, 2002. It’s been 20 years and crazy man. Yeah. I remember, I remember the first day I sat in the office, he gave me a computer.

I’m sitting there and I’m like, well, what the hell am I going to do now? What do I do? I do. I have no idea. What do I do with this computer? What’s what am I going to do?

[01:04:30] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Well then it was a different world then, right? I mean, yeah. 2022, people can see what a basketball business would look like today.

Yeah. But in 2002, it was not nearly as clear as. As it is today. And we’ll talk a little bit about how you built it up. Talk a little bit about the MTV experience though. Cause I, I don’t know, even if a lot of people that know you at this point, even remember that that was sort of part of the sort of Genesis of you getting started.

[01:05:01] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. I mean that, that, I think that definitely helped me get started to a certain extent. So this guy named Al Russ who was at Kirtland, he was the head basketball coach at Kirtland and they like MTV, like they were, they were doing this series called, made where they helped the kid become whatever they wanted to.

So if you wanted to become a chef, they’d hire you a private chef tutors and do whatever, right. One person wanted to become a cheerleader. One person wanted to do, I like wanted be a pianist or whatever. So there’s a kid that wrote him that said, Hey,  I want to make my high school basketball.

Can you guys help me? So MTV, he was from Mesopotamia, which is out near like middle field with all the horses and carriages and all that, like, yeah. So I was like, so they called, they were calling around Cleveland to find out who was training and nowadays you like there’s 500 trainers, right?

Exactly. There’s a zillion people doing it, but back then, there, there wasn’t a lot of guys. So they, I don’t know, they got to this guy named Al Russ and Al Russ is like the only guy that I know that like, because he trained someone I know is, is this guy Shane? So MTV called me, the producer called me and he is like, Hey we want to do the show blah, blah, blah.

We need to start like two weeks. Can you can you send us a videotape of like you around the house? Like we, we need to make sure you have a good personality and like, you’re going to be good for TV.

[01:06:25] Mike Klinzing: You’re vacuuming, making lunch, cooking eggs.

[01:06:29] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. Yeah. Like what do you want me yelling at my wife?

You know? So, so like just make some, so, so I actually had to go around, make a video, which was probably the strangest thing. I like, what does NTV want to see? Like I sent it and the guy was just like, you know what? I didn’t even watch it. I, I felt like from your personality on the phone, you’d be fine. so we didn’t even watch it.

So we started filming like two days and I’ll never forget my, my buddy, Jimmy ROSK. It was his bachelor party. Went golfing for it. Jimmy’s actually the the head doctor for the calves right now, but we were going to his bachelor party and I’m like, Hey, I, I might be a little bit late for golf. I, I have to do this stupid thing for MTV.

Like, what are you talking about? I’m like, I don’t even know what it is. so like, I, I went out to Mesopotamian you a farm and they said, Hey, this is, this is the episode. And this is this is what we kind of want you to say and do, even though it’s reality, it’s not really reality. They kind of set up all the scenes and he keeps on telling me he’s in great shape.

He goes producers. Like I guarantee he’s not, if you make him run, he’s going to throw up and that’s good for TV. So of course at the end of the episode, I’m like, Hey you need to run home. So kids running home and he starts puking all over and I’m oh, they’re like, yeah, this is great. I’m like, what am I doing?

so, but yeah, no, it was very unique..

[01:07:44] Mike Klinzing: I remember it well, I mean, I watched every episode, it was compelling TV with when you’re watching somebody that you, that and then it was just, it was just a, again, It was funny to see somebody who really was not a basketball player attempt to become a basketball player, that there was definitely some humor in it.  Let’s put it that way.

[01:08:03] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Oh, there was a lot of humor and I will say, MTV knows what they’re doing, because like, I’ll never forget this. So like, it’s going to air, right. It’s about ta week from airing. They kept on telling me it’s going to air in one week, I’m like, great. And I got, I’ll never forget this.

I got a call. And he’s like, Hey Shane what are you doing tomorrow night? I go, I don’t know why he goes, I need to fly in. I go, why? He goes we have to film the ending. They don’t like the ending. I go, you serious. So he flew in, we went to have dinner and we had a couple drinks. We drove to Mentor high. It was snowing out and we filmed like me come pretend like coming out of the gym, going, oh, I was just at his game.

And like we filmed the ending a week before it started. It was, it was crazy. Wow. Insane. Yeah.

[01:08:46] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. That’s hilarious. That’s hilarious. Yeah. All right. So get back to TNBA. So you’re sitting in front of that computer. You got a blank screen in front of you. You got a business partner, what comes next?

[01:08:59] Shane Kline-Ruminski: So, because he was such a good business partner, he said, you know what, Shane, if we’re going to be in business, You in the basketball business, we better try to be in the business with the biggest basketball company in Cleveland, which is Cavaliers.

So a good friend of mine who I’m sure Chad Estes played at OU was, was working with the calves and I, and he’s like, well, who do you know from the calves? I said, well, I know Chad Estes goes, great. Let’s go have a meeting with him. And so we, we kind of talked, the Cavs needs and that kind of stuff.

And they were running some camps, but they weren’t very big. And, and so we told ’em, Hey, we’re going to, we could, we could blow this thing up and blah, blah, blah. And next thing you know, we signed like a five year deal to run the Cavs youth program. And we started from scratch and we ran all these programs  and really between that.

And then you know my business partner was just really good thinking about right. We’re going to be a business with the Cavs and he goes Shane, it can’t be just, you.  that’s why we named it, the national basketball academy, because it, at some point it can’t be you, you can’t do everything.

Right. So we have to go find someone just like you and that’s going to be hard, but we have to go find someone just like you. so he heard through the grapevine about this guy named Steve Vega. He’s like, he’s on the west side, he’s

doing all his training, like so, so we met with Steve. I didn’t like Steve at all.

I don’t think Steve liked me. I didn’t like Steve I’m like, Mike, I’m not working with this guy. He’s like, no, no, he’s fine. He’s fine. He’s doing all this. You know, he’s a numbers guy, right. And a business guy, he’s like, look at all this stuff, he’s billing and he’s killing it. And, and Steve was doing working at key bank and he was on a fast track to be like in the real estate department.

Like he was fast tracked at really because he was really smart with numbers and, and that he was a, he was a finance guy and like he’s fast tracking at key bank to, to, to do some big things. But obviously he’s like, I love basketball, but you don’t really be in the business world, but that’s where my bread and butter is.

And so I, my, I mean, I don’t know how my partner did it, but he convinced Steve to give up that key bank thing and, and come to TNBA full time. And, and then like, That really just took us obviously to a whole new level, you know? And, and to be honest with you, Steve and I didn’t get along for a long time just because I didn’t really didn’t know him.

Like we never really sat there and I didn’t play with him. And we never really sat there and got to know like now I know right now you go out to get to know people and you spend time with them and it’s have to be more about, it’s have to be more personal than it is about business to start.

Right. And so Steve and I were just like, I remember sitting in the office and, and like him and I style, we didn’t like each other. We just didn’t really know each other. I don’t think we felt comfortable with each other. Right. I was probably jealous of some of the stuff he was doing. I think he was jealous some of the stuff I was doing.

And like, we just didn’t gel in vibe, but we’re sitting at the office. I’ll never forget this. He always tells the story too. Every time we get up in front of our company, wet tells the story. He’s like we were stuffing envelopes. Right. You know, putting on mailing lists, stuffing envelopes, back in the day, mailing back in the day, right back in the mailing stuff out for sure.

He looks and he goes, do you think we’ll ever have anybody ever to do this for us? Are we going to have to do this for ourselves all the time? I’m like, man, I have no idea. I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow right now. So, so like Steve always tells that story and, and it’s funny cause now you just press a button and that stuff goes out.

But yeah, when we hired Steve, I mean obviously it kind of gave us that west kind of location and east counter location. And then, and then it was just like, I can’t even, like, it was just weird then we did Steve knew a guy named Jermaine Gay and My partner, we brought in Jermaine and we hired Jermaine immediately like, oh, he’s like, I love this guy.

We have to hire him. I’m like, oh, okay. Right. And then there’s this guy named Jack Seyer who played at lake Erie college. And, and, and he walked in the, I was, I was interviewing Jack and I’m like I don’t even know what I’m doing. Why am I interviewing people? What am I interviewing people for?

I don’t even know what I’m doing. Let alone, what am I going to ask questions? So Mike, my partner, Mike, at the time, walks in the meeting and goes are you Jack Lai? Cliff hunt told, told us about you, right? Yep. You’re hired. I go, Mike, he’s not hired. I got no he’s hired Shane. If cliff hunt, who you think is the greatest person to walk, the earth tells you to hire someone that he would be good for this job.

You hire him. We hire Jack. He’s still with us today. He’s actually a partner as is obviously Steve and Jack’s a partner he’s running he’s, he he’s down in Orlando killing it and just opened up our, our new market for us in Tampa. And Jack’s been with us for, for that whole time ever since my partner walked in to hire him day one.

So, and you know, based like those four guys Steve Jermaine, Jack and myself are really the ones, the catalyst that really got it going. And those four people are still with us today in this company. So it’s, it’s crazy.

[01:13:56] Mike Klinzing: Talk about how you expanded and started moving into different areas of basketball.

So you start out, so you’re doing some training, you got the camp that you’re running at your high school, you get this deal going with the Cavs, just how do you sort of spread the branches of what you’re doing and do it, not only do different things and also then do it in different places.

[01:14:19] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah, I, well, number one, like now we break it up into buckets, right?

There’s five really core business, four things of our business, there’s training camps and clinics, leagues and  tournaments. So like it’s you know, but back then it was kind of like, oh, well, what are we going to do now? Like we’re training. And you can only do so much training. Right. And we were, we were running camps and those were great, but like, so let, let’s, let’s start some like, so the kids that we were training were like, Hey, we want to play with you in AAU.

And I’m like okay, why don’t really have an AAU team? Well, we’ll start one. Okay. So I, I started this one as kids name was Reggie King and Reggie. From interstate Chicago, I got adopted by a family and brought to Cleveland. And so I was training Reggie. So he’s like make an AAU team like all. So I started an AAU team.

He’s like, we have to go out and get some good players. I said, so I grabbed Alex Sullivan who played at Riverside and played at Akron. And he’s like, we need a big, I’m like, all right. So I don’t know how, but like Travis Kelce’s name came up. He’s like I’m like, I don’t really know, but I’ll talk to him. I don’t know how someone got me in touch with Travis’s parents talked to him and said, Hey, I want to play basketball with you.

He’s playing with this other program. But you know, so I started training Travis and Travis loved it. He’s like, I want to play for you guys. So here I am, my first AAU team and it was Travis Kelcy, Reggie king, Alex Sullivan, and this kid gosh, he played at Ohio state. So I had. Kids that played division one basketball, two kids that played division one football.

And we were really good. Like, I mean Tucker had kind of started that the AAU thing and a tournaments and, and I don’t think Tucker, like we would go and kick his team’s butt all of the time with those guys. And, and like, we, we just ran ’em out of the gym. We were really, really good.

And I could tell you, I was an awful coach. I know I was I didn’t know what I was doing, but like, I just get kids to play hard and they were really talented. And, and so like, based off of that team, like that team went to nationals and, and like nationals back then was like nationals. Right. It wasn’t right.

There were those with millions nationals right now. So. Yep. So they finished we finished like fifth or seventh place in nationals. I’m like, so, so that’s kind of how it started our team business. Right? So we started doing some teams and we started doing ’em slowly. And Steve did some teams on the west side and we did some teams on the east side and we kind of slowly built up the team business.

And then obviously Tucker was big at the tournaments. And so Jermaine and I were like, let’s start our first tournament. Oh, great idea. We went rented Beachwood high school Jermaine, and I were doing the schedule by hand. It was the worst tournament you ever could have played it. We didn’t know we were doing right.

Right. Like, I can tell you that there was guys screaming and yelling at us. There was, so there were like eight teams ready to come onto one court at once. That’s how bad we messed up the schedule. Like I went into the back room and just started, like, I didn’t, I, my head was I’m like, what are we doing?

Like, we have no idea what we’re doing running this tournament. It was a debacle. Why, how anybody ever came back right. Is beyond me. So we kind of screwed the first tournament up and that’s probably why Steve takes tournaments now. He’s I kind of trust you guys. So, but, that’s kind of how that tournament business started and Steve’s just taking that and just really grown it because just like, it’s like anything in life, right.

It’s all about relationships, right? So exactly you go out and you find people that you want to do business with that you have. Like mine, like, Hey, you know what, money’s not the most important thing. We want to do things. Right. We want to do things for the right reasons. We want to do it professionally. We don’t want to screw people.

We want to make sure that everybody’s getting paid and that kind of stuff. And, and Steve took that model and just, just, just started creating partnerships and you know, doing the right things. And so that kind of grew, and we talk about it all the time. Like every facet of our business feeds the other ones.

Like you’re going to come to a camp, you’re probably going to have a really good time and enjoy basketball and you’re going to want to get better. So maybe you jump into some training or you want to jump into one of our teams. Our, our training feeds our teams, our teams feed tournaments and then those teams want to play in the fall league.

So they feed our league. So it’s kind of like a full circle. Right, if you do the right things for the right reasons, Then then you’re going to be successful. So like I wake, I promise you, I wake up every day and even though I work my butt off and people like, oh no, you’re just training.

No, like you don’t know all the behind the scenes stuff. Right? Exactly. I’m on conference call and zoom calls every day. Like to the point where I don’t want to be, but I just am. I love my job. I love working with people. I love working with. I love the fact that I get to have an impact on kids’ lives every single day.

I love that that I can wake up in the morning and go to bed at night and feel really good and comfortable about what I’m doing, because I know I’m doing things for the right reason.

[01:19:21] Mike Klinzing: So, absolutely. I think you made a great point there talking about the relationship side of it. And once you get in there and you do something well and you do it professionally, and then you’ve built those relationships that allows you to grow and expand and get bigger.

Because again, people know when they deal with you, that they know what they’re getting and when they know what they’re getting and they have a relationship with you, that’s really where I think success lies. And again, that’s in any business, right? I mean, if you can, yeah. If you can do things the way that they’re supposed to be done and you do it with the best interest of everybody at heart, and you’re not just out to, to grab somebody’s wallet on your way out the door.

You’re going to end up having a lot better experience with, with whatever business it is that you’re in without, without question.

[01:20:04] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Well, you ask like, you, you actually like, well, how how’d you get, like now we’re in Orlando. Well, how’d we get there? Well, yeah, we did a really good job for the Cavs. So the NBA goes to me and they’re like, well, what are you doing? Your numbers are pretty good. Oh, we work with TNBA. Oh, okay. Hey can we come work with us? Yeah, Jack, you’re going to Orlando. What? Yeah. You have to go to Orlando, run their program. so of course, right, right. We didn’t know anything. We sent Jack down there with no business plan, no thing.

Hey Jack, just get it done. Like that. Jack tells that story all the time. Like Shane, you dropped me off in the middle of a lane or it’s like, get it done. and he and I got, and, and like for the first six months he wasn’t getting it done. He said, Jack, what’s the problem. He goes, Shane, I go to Cleveland and I want to get into a gym.

I mention your name. Right. I mention Steve’s name. Like I mentioned, Jermaine like. People know you guys in Orlando, nobody knows you guys. And they don’t definitely don’t know me. So like, I, I don’t know how to do this. So, but you know, he grinded, he used the magic relationships and, and started there.

And then we started boom, that, that led us to Houston. And that led us to Milwaukee. And I mean, we were up to 13 NBA teams at one point and I mean, we were hiring people. We didn’t even know we grew so fast. Yeah. And, and we didn’t want to turn down the business. We didn’t know what we were doing.

We didn’t know what an Excel sheet was. We didn’t know how numbers, like we were struggling and we were hiring people. We didn’t even know, but so, but yeah, so that, I mean, but you do things for the right reasons and you grow and it’s you figure it out and figure it out on the fly.

[01:21:31] Mike Klinzing: Right. Yep. All right. So let me ask you a couple things. If I’m a, if I’m a parent, if I’m a high school coach that I’m trying to advise my son or daughter, I’m trying to advise one of my players. What am I looking for in a good trainer? Let’s start there with a good trainer and then we’ll jump back to, what am I looking for in a good AAU program.

So let’s start with the training piece and then we’ll go to the AAU side of it.

[01:21:57] Shane Kline-Ruminski: So when someone calls me to train we do an evaluation session, right. And, and we sit down with them and say, okay, here’s what they’re good at. Here’s what you’re weak at. And then you develop a plan, right?

First thing we ask, what’s your goal? Like find out I always ask what’s your goal? Well, I want to make so, and so team, and, and not that you ever want to kill kids dream, but you have to be honest with people, right? There’s so many trainers out there. That’ll just take your money and take your money, tell you what you want to hear.

Right? You, you kind of need honesty, which is a tough, right. Because parents don’t understand, they don’t, they don’t know if that person’s being honest. Right. For sure. Like, oh, you need to train. It’s a hundred dollars an hour and you train seven days a week. And he’ll probably make it I tell, will he make the team?

And I’ll say, well, here here’s the problem. I don’t know who else is trying out. You know, I can put you in the best position to make it right. Get him in the best shape of his life. And like sometimes I tell parent, like, you don’t need me. You need more speed agility, like depending on where it is and when it is, and like what they’re trying to do, like he’s so slow.

Like he needs a little bit of both or he needs speed and strength more than he needs basketball at this point in time. And if you have money to spend, spend it over there, not with us. Right. Right. I mean, we, we have turned people away from training. We. The goal has, like, I can’t train someone and take their money if I’m not doing good by them.

Right. So don’t get me wrong. There’s kids that train with us just because they want to, they just want to get better. I just want to have fun. I want to be the best player on my rec league or he enjoys it. He just needs exercise. Okay, fine. We understand the goal we’re all on the same page.

It’ll work out right. When you’re not on the same page and parents think that he’s going to make the high school team and dang. Well, he is not, and I’m not training that kid. Like, I’ll be honest with them. Like, he’s probably not going to make it. And I don’t want you to waste your money.

Like, so it is, it’s hard to find. I mean, there are a lot of number one, like we talked, there are a ton of trainers around ton. Everybody will call themselves a trainer. Right. So, I mean, if I’m a parent, I’m looking for a trainer and be like, okay, where do you train out? Are you like, do you have insurance?

Like, those are important questions because if they don’t have insurance and most trainers are just trying to steal gym time here or they’re out of a rec center that probably tells me they’re, it’s not on you up and up. Right? I mean, you want someone that can train you every week at the same time, if they can’t do that, they’re probably not a reputable business or reputable trainer.

They just don’t have the access to that. And you want something consistent. So like we pay gym time, everywhere we go. We have insurance, we like that kind of stuff I think is important to ask. And then ask for references like, Hey who else have you trained?

Is there anybody that I can go on their social media and research them. Like, I’m blown away by people who work with kids that I go on their social media and they’re cussing and swearing and right.

Yeah. You know, using inappropriate language and showing inappropriate videos and I’m like, why would I ever send you to my kids? Like, it’s so, so like, those are the kind of stuff that I would look for if I was a parent looking for looking for that.

[01:25:19] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I think it’s a great point.

I mean, there’s been so much proliferation of people hanging out the shingle and, and then I think the other piece that really resonated with me is just the ability to be able to tell, tell people the truth and to make them understand like, Hey, here’s where you’re at.

Here’s what’s realistic. Here’s what’s not realistic. And I think. Too many people are unwilling to have those conversations because they just don’t want to lose the 50 bucks an hour or the 75 bucks an hour or whatever it is that they’re making. And so you have to get yourself in a position where you can, you can tell, you can tell the truth and that that’s when you’re really going to, again, as you said, a bunch of times, you want to provide value to the people that you’re working with.

And if you can’t do that, then it’s not a good situation for anybody because in the long term, as a trainer, you’re not going to have a good reputation if you’re not doing those things. And then the kid’s not going to have a good experience. If they’re not getting what they what they paid for that everybody’s not on the same page.

So I think that’s all well said and good advice for parents who may be out there looking for a trainer, let’s jump to the AAU side of it. Somebody who’s anywhere in the country and is looking for a good AAU program, a good AAU coach in your mind. What characteristics should they be looking for on that side of the business?

[01:26:41] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Well, again we go through this all the time. Right. It’s finding the right fit. Right. So what’s the right fit. Is your son or daughter looking to play in college? Right? Are they a sophomore or junior? And they’re good enough they need to be quote unquote seen.

Right. I hate that word. I need to get recruited. I need to be seen like parents that like, like people, like they travel, like why aren’t we traveling in eighth grade? Because no one’s watching your kid play exactly. Why are we spending all of this money to travel all over the country when they’re not going to watch you play?

Right. Like, I can’t stand programs that do that. Like I did a little bit in seventh and eighth grade with the program I had because I wanted them to experience it. Like we went to the Pitt jam Fest because I wanted to experience because I knew as freshman they were going to have to experience and I didn’t want ’em to be like, like, wow.

Oh my God. Look at all these teams here. Right? So like gradually go into it. But we’re not traveling across the country and spending all this time. You parents, I tell that there’s good enough competition. Especially in this Cleveland market, you don’t need to travel right away. Like see how your son does here and there and you have to find the right fit.

So I talk about the right fit, right? Where what’s the goal for my kid because so many parents I want ’em on the 18th. Well, here’s the problem. You can go sit on the A team and you can pay me $700. And he’s probably not going to play a lot again, having the truth and the conversations, being honest with people, you can pay me.

I can put him on. He is going to be the 10th man. He is not going to play a lot or he can play in this team. He’s going to start. He’s going to have the ball in his hands. He’s going to get a lot of touches. And that’ll help him develop better than playing against his team, being on this team. And we’ll lose a lot of parents, be a lot of kids because they want to play on the A team somewhere else.

Even though I feel like probably some of our B teams are better than that, but they don’t care. Right. I want to be on the top team. Right. For sure. It’s not about that. Right? Yep. Like, so if I’m a parent, like, and I’m going, I you know, number one, what, what level what’s, what’s the cost? Where am I traveling to?

You know why are we traveling? And you know, who’s the coach, what’s his background in coaching? Is he, is he certified? You know, all of our coaches are gold certified by USA basketball. So what does that mean? Well, that means they take a bunch of tests, so we don’t just hire everybody. Like I can tell you that and you probably know this, it’s all about how you work with the kids and and kids don’t how much you’d know until they know how much you care. Absolutely. If you really care about the kids and your heart’s in the right place, kids will run through the wall for you. I remember when I was training Nene, he went out to Denver and the man the general manager was Kiki Vandeweghe and Nene’s like, I don’t like this guy that’s working with me.

Gosh, I can’t remember his name and guy. He was an NBA all started. He was his coach. Adrian Dantley. Okay. Yep. And Nene’s like his agent called me, he said, Hey, Nene wants you to go out to Denver. I go, why? I just started TNBA. Like, I don’t have time to go to Denver. Like, I’m sitting here in front of my computer, so they’re like, no, you have to go out there.

So I went out there, it was Denver paid for my hotel and then they paid me weekly to be with him. And so I remember Kiki calling me in his office. He’s like, what the hell are you doing here? And I’m like, oh, I’m scared. I’m going to scared of the crap. I’m like, what do you mean? He’s like, why are you here?

I go, look, I talked to Nene he doesn’t like his coach. And I go, I watched practice and I go, I don’t like him. He goes, well, why what’s his problem? I go, well, he’s got no rapport with Nene. He’s showing him moves. He did that were his. You can’t do that. Right? You have to find out what the Nene’s strengths and weakness are to work with him on that, to the uniqueness to his game.

Like you can’t show him what you did when I play. I don’t go out there and show kids. Here’s what I did when I played. And you know, no one wants to hear that crap, right? Like if you don’t have rapport with the kids or with the person that you’re training to, I don’t care what it’s never going to.

So, like I told Kiki, I said, Kiki, I watched two practices and he’s got no rapport with Nene. He doesn’t even rebound for him. Like that was before they had all these ball boys and stuff. Like he was making the Nene like, go get rebounds and stuff. Like, he didn’t even rebound for him. like, I rebound my butt off for kids.

Right, exactly. Yep. No rapport, no effort. Like then they’re like, I don’t like this. I don’t respect the guy who he doesn’t respect him. So he is not going to work hard for him. That’s why he won me out there as someone who, who I made him work hard. I made him blah, blah, blah. So, but you know, going back to AAU, like I don’t like resumes yeah.

To take it or leave it. Like I can teach basketball. Like we, we do coaching clinics. Right. So everyone comes in and we talk about, Hey, We have a philosophy like we want this is how much everybody should play. This is how much, this is what we’d like to run on offense, but I can’t make you do that.

Because you might not be comfortable with it. Right. I was never comfortable with the Euro offense. Like that side ball screen offense. I hated it because I didn’t know it. Right, right, right. After I ran it for a couple, I can’t make people run with like what I want to run because so as a program, it’s hard to say, this is what we have to run.

We show it. We, we say, we want you to run this. But we can’t make you right. Do what you’re comfortable with as long as you’re good with kids. Right. And you’re motivating and you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re a good person and you show up on time and, and, and you have the best interest of the kid at heart.

It’s always going to work out. It’s always going to work out. You know, so. Like, that’s what I would tell parents, like find out who the coach is. Can we meet him? Can we train with him a little bit, see what his rapport is? Like if he acts like, I don’t even want be here right now, it’s probably not the program you want to be with.

Right. Don’t waste a bunch of money traveling across the country when you don’t need to. You know, is my daughter you know, my kids, my kids want are playing AAU. They went through it all. And my son’s a whole different story, but you know, my daughter, I’m looking at her like, do I even want her playing AAU?

She’s playing soccer. Like, I don’t feel her skill is where it needs to be. She’s a phenomenal athlete, but like I might hold her out of AAU. Yeah. Because I want her more skilled, like it’s, it’s hard to weight. skill, develop and play AAU if you’re doing it seriously, it’s really hard to do that. Like it’s a balance of getting in the weight room and then you’re traveling on the weekends or you’re playing games on the weekends.

You’re so tired. You have to take Monday off. Right. You know, Tuesday, you might get in the gym a little bit, the Wednesday, you got AAU practice there. So when are we working on our skills? So we mandate that half hour of every practice. First practice is all skill development, ball handling getting to the rim, working on different finishes you know, and AAU too, as you know, it’s tough to change your shot.

So, so like for me, like I remember Aaron Conley and what’s OUM like two guys. They never played AAU in the spring. They only went and traveled for big tournament. Because they just worked on their game.

[01:33:46] Mike Klinzing: Right. You can, you can make that argument for sure. You can make that argument all day long that the kids almost play too much.

[01:33:50] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Now I’m in that business and I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve seen it really benefit kids. We only really travel to when there’s college coaches like our program, if there’s college coaches, we’re traveling, or if there’s a really, really good tournament that I can drive to, like in Fort Wayne or whatever, with a ton of like really good players and really because I want those guys to see that then we’ll go there, but I’m not flying all over the country.

You don’t need to. If, if you’re good enough, you’re in today’s age, you’re going to go. But but yeah, I mean, are we focusing on skilled semi practice plan? If I’m apparently you see me at practice plan, what are your practice? You know, what do you guys do at practice? Is it throw the ball out, play five on five because that’s probably not going to get us any better least.

I feel better doing a half hour skill development, even though that’s not enough. So. So, yeah, I mean, I’m sorry. I just keep on going on and on.

[01:34:44] Mike Klinzing: No, no, man. Listen, I think you made the, the, the best point I think you made is that one, it comes down to, does the coach care about the kids and do they have the best interest of those kids at heart?

And look, there’s all different levels of how much basketball somebody knows or doesn’t know. And obviously part of that comes down to what level are you coaching at as well? But if, if the person who’s up there in front of your kid’s team cares about your kid and is knowledgeable about the game of basketball, then you’re going to probably have a pretty good experience.

And if you don’t have those two things, I don’t care how good the organization is around them or whatever. It ultimately comes down to. What kind of, what kind of coach do you have and that’s, and that really, I think dictates a lot of the experience. And then I think I love your point about the travel because.

I think about the number of people. And you’ve obviously probably had more conversations about this than I have, but talked to parents and you know, they’re talking about, Hey, our, our fifth grade, team’s going here, our fourth grade, team’s going there. And because we’re going to, there’s going to be Scouts there looking at you and this and that.

And, and I just know from, from my experience with, with my son, especially over the last couple years that for a long time, he just played for me because he wasn’t necessarily good enough to be able to play anywhere else in, in, in a situation where as you described where he could have been on some team and been the 10th man and never played and never got the ball.

But when he played for his dad on a team that wasn’t quite as good, he had more opportunities to improve and get better. And then as he’s gotten better you try to find him a team that’s going to be that’s going to be a little better. And we played on a pretty good team this spring and yet, and yet.

when I went to our tournaments, most of the, most of the college Scouts were not watching our team of going to be juniors mm-hmm they were watching the going to be seniors because you and I both know that the kids who are, who are high level division, I players, those kids have been identified long before they get to be a junior in high school.

Like people know. I mean, again, don’t, don’t get me wrong. They’re obviously sleepers and whatever, but people know who those kids are when they’re in eighth, ninth grade, because of the athletic potential that they’ve shown. And then the rest of the kids who are trying to get an opportunity maybe to go and play division three basketball or division two, or go play NAIA.

Those kids are not really even being looked at you. Like you talked to division three college coaches that are like, yeah, we don’t even have the 2024’s on our radar right now because we’re looking at the 2023’s. So my advice to a parent would be just relax as your kid is younger and eventually you’re going to get to, you’re going to find the right. You’re going to find the right place for ’em. If, if you’re with a good organization, that’s going to get ’em the exposure and the opportunity to play in front of coaches when the time is actually right. And I think you did a good job of explaining that.

[01:37:47] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. I mean, I had a really good team this year I mean, we just had our AAU party. We had ’em all over the house for the, for the win, because I mean, that’s just kind of families we got, we just got lucky, right? Sometimes you get lucky, just have good mixture and we traveled the last two years and, but like, as freshmen I’m like, parents are like, why don’t you travel? I’m like, no one cares about our freshman. We don’t have a major division one kid. And, and if so even this year, like we played in front of a ton of college coaches and division one division, two division three, I always said like, we’re in trouble if I see a bunch of major division ones coming to our court, we’re in trouble. Cause we’re about to play someone really freaking out. Right. Right. Exactly. Yep. Yep. So, but like, I and I don’t, we, you talk for an hour just on like the, the port the port hole, right? Yeah. And all that, how that’s and the extra year of COVID is really hurting these kids for sure.

You know, so, so like it’s, it’s been where in a normal year, I told my parents this, I think with my 10 guys, I would’ve had five with offers. I have two with offers in a normal year before COVID I would’ve had five for sure. Because I know it. But now I only have two just because they’re, so they get that extra year and then the transfer portal.  And I mean so, it is what it

[01:39:10] Mike Klinzing: I mean, the recruiting piece it’s going to take a couple years, I think, for it to normalize back out and you know, just because of the way that it, it it’s fallen for this particular, whatever, 2, 3, 4 year stretch of high school, seniors is going to be a lot tougher to certainly to get a scholarship.

Now you may get opportunities at lower levels in college, but to be able to get, to be able to get a scholarship offer as a high school player over the next couple years is going to be again, far more challenging that’s ever been.

[01:39:38] Shane Kline-Ruminski: For sure. You talk about you talk about, then you got prep, school kids and y’all and post grad kids, and then you got kids from going overseas and then you got Juco kids.

It’s tough and I’m living it right now. Right? I’m live. I’m that age group right now. Yeah. It’s just, we’re all. And it’s, it is so hard right now, but I always tell kids if it’s meant to be, it’s going to be.

[01:40:02] Mike Klinzing: You have to find the right fit, right. I mean, you have to find the right fit.

And for everybody that right fit may end up being different than even what you, even, what you think it is. And so you can have a great experience. I think at any level, it’s one of the realizations that, oh, over the course of time, I’ve, I’ve come to again, when I think back to myself as a player it was, it was, I’ve have to be a division I player, and now you look back on it.

And I was, I was really lucky that I just ended up in a place where I got an opportunity to play, but things could have certainly turned. Things could have certainly probably turned out different for me. And now you look at it and just say, man, you could, you could have just as great of an experience playing division three college basketball as you could have playing division one basketball.

[01:40:42] Shane Kline-Ruminski: For sure. When parents tell me their kids, a division one player they want to play in college. I okay. Okay. Do me a favor. And this is even before John Carroll got good. I mean like when they have all these studs now I said, right, exactly. Go watch a John Carroll game or a BW game and then call me and tell me your son can play college basketball.

Absolutely. Yep. Like, like division three is still best of the best. The difference between a division one kid and division three kid is probably a little bit of size and athleticism. Yep. And I would tell you that some of the D three kids are probably more skilled because they have to be, cause they’re a little bit slower.

They’re a little bit smaller. I mean like Steve Fleming was one of the best players I’ve ever played with and played with him all the time in the summer. You remember Steve? For sure. He was a division three guard at had a great career at, at Hiram. Steve was an amazing basketball player.

And had a great career and probably loved everything about it and played division three basketball. Who does? I don’t like take the divisions out, go play basketball. If you love it, go play. How many guys are going to play in the NBA?

[01:41:41] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, not many. So not many. Yeah. Just get out. If you could throw, if you could throw every kid, every high school player into just one open gym at a, at a vision three school for 10 minutes, you could, you could break some reality in real fast.

Let’s put, let’s put it that way. Well,

[01:41:55] Shane Kline-Ruminski: I don’t know. Hey, I scored on him. I scored one point. You go pregame don’t during warmups this and that’s. You have to hold onto something.

[01:42:05] Mike Klinzing: All right. Well, Shane we’ve blown. We’re approaching. No man. We’re approaching.

I think we’re approaching a record length. So I want to chase is probably sleeping. No, he got booted out. He got booted out for a while and then he had to, he, he had to come back in somehow his, his internet dropped him off, but anyway,

[01:42:05] Jason Sunkle: I’m here. Come on now.

 Honestly, you’re here, but I’m just saying we lost you for, we had to get, we had to get you back in man.

Come. So I’m going to wrap up with final two part question. My favorite, my favorite wrap up question. So, part one, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge? And then number two, when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy?

So your biggest challenge and your biggest joy,

[01:42:53] Shane Kline-Ruminski: You mean personally or in the business? I’d say in the business. Yeah. Just how to grow. Right? I mean, like we I’m going to Tampa for a summit, just with myself and Steve and Jack and this guy named Eric, who all orders in the company.

And, and our biggest thing is how do we recruit good people? Like good basketball people that like, that, that’s our biggest thing. I mean, we want to grow, we have visions of growing. But we can only grow with good people. Like, we won’t hire bad people. So like, how do you figure out, like where are these people?

Do we start ’em in college, do we call college coaches and go get ’em? So, I mean, growing the business with good people is, is our biggest issue right now. So, and then the thing that I wake up every day and look forward to be honest with you and people think I’m crazy that I still love being on the floor.

I mean, I was on the floor three hours today. I love like working with kids. I worked with a, a sixth grader today who is very average. I worked with a girl who’s coming back from a knee injury as a sophomore. And then I worked with two really good high school players that are probably going to play in college.

And I don’t care the level of kid. Right. If they really want to work and they want to get better, I know I can help. ’em right. And, and then like I got a letter sent home. My daughter goes to Gilmour and, and one of my AAU players is there and I’m not going to mention his name, but he wrote me a letter and I got kids don’t write letters anymore.

And he’s just like coach for the last seven years, I’ve played AU for you. And like, I can’t just kind of just an outpouring of like his experience and thankful, like I impacted that kid’s life. And like, that’s what gets me going every day. Like I know that I can have that. I, God gave me a gift impact kid’s life and not even on the basketball floor.

It’s so much more about that. Right? I like, basketball’s a vehicle that we use to have an impact on kids’ lives. Like it’s something that we do and we love, and I’m really, we can teach and all that, but ultimately all the life lessons that we learn in basketball are going to affect them as, as human beings and as kids on how to deal with adversity and how to overcome stuff and how to be coachable and how to be a great teammate, because all of that, we’re all going to be work for someone.

So we have to be coachable. We’re always going to have to be a great teammate. So you’re, you’re going to have to work with other people so you better learn it now. And you’re going to have to work hard. Cause if you don’t, someone’s going to outwork you. Right. Everybody’s going to work hard for that spot. So those are the lessons that I use basketball as a vehicle to teach ’em to be successful in the rest of their lives.

And I am so lucky I get to have an impact on kids’ lives. Like I, I get excited thinking about it. I get passionate. Like sometimes tears come to my eyes like because, because I know I’m doing the right thing. I know. All of our, the people that work for us feel the same way I do, or they wouldn’t be working with us.

So that’s what gets me going every day.

[01:45:58] Mike Klinzing: That’s good stuff. Shane it’s well said. I think anybody who’s listened to this, you can hear the passion that you have for what you’re doing is clear, comes through the mic loud and, and very clear that, that you care about what you’re doing. And that’s, that’s 90% of the battle right there.

If you care, then you’re going to figure out a way to make it work and, and make it work in a way that’s going to benefit everybody. So before we get out, I want to give you a chance, share how people can reach out to you. Find out more about what you’re doing at TNBA, social media website, whatever you want to share, and then I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:46:28] Shane Kline-Ruminski: Yeah. You know, I mean TNBAbasketball.com, our website @TMBA_CLE is our Instagram and same with our Twitter. And you can just research us on the, on the web. You know, and, and give us a call or an email or whatever, and tell us, tell us what you’re how we can help, like we do anything with basketball.

So whether your kid wants to just have more confidence in themselves, or they want to play at the next level. I mean, we, we do all, we work with all range of kids.

[01:47:02] Mike Klinzing: Perfect. Cannot thank you. Enough Shane for taking the time out of your schedule. Like I said, this was long overdue, appreciate you and everything that you shared tonight and to everyone, who’s a part of our audience out there listening.

Thank you. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.