This is the down labor part, sure, this still got Sparkasse. Finish them and give us the series that Miami wants, even though I'm not sure how much I actually want there because it's going to feel bad, I don't know.

I don't know how often this happens to an emotional fan base where you want your team to win, but you don't think it's going to win. I don't know how much fan bases do that.

That's interesting at this point. I think the Heat fanbase probably feels like he can win any series. I think, you know, obviously the Lakers are the best team in the NBA. They have the two best players. But I think they he'd have three, four or five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 that. But what you just said on the front end, they're almost always wins in basketball. The two things that you said, the Lakers are and have been better outside the bubble, outside the bubble.

And it's not a small thing. Right, because this distortion makes it hard to analyze some of this stuff. But before we came on the air here, Stewart said something under his breath during the open where he was saying or alleging during the open that he was saying to Jay Crawford lovingly that he was wearing too much makeup. And I think you said you could carve stuff in his face, but that you meant that lovingly and while that was playing.

You said under your breath and here I say everything lovingly, you said I did. I don't dislike anybody. I said that. And it reminded me of something that happened yesterday, and I need to have like a press conference here, I need to officially tell America this, because I have been bombarded over the last couple of days with our not the last couple of days. It's felt like days. It's been 24 hours since since the All the Smoke podcast came out with Allen Iverson, where he was very strong, starting a statement, I don't hate anybody.

And then he did. And he said, no, I do hate somebody, actually. And then he went very hard without saying who that person was. And at the end he said and his daddy, too. And once he said and his daddy, too, I'm like, oh, no, here it comes for me, because how many people do you want to go after on Daddy? And I thought, what did my Golic say to about Allen Iverson?

I thought, what a great Codey or Chris Codey say about Allen Iverson started going through the Rolodex of dad.

Well, because this is why I was getting all the texts and everything, because people think it's me and it's not me. It is. I don't have any issue with Allen Iverson. I've never had an issue with Allen Iverson. I've wrote flattering things about Allen Iverson. I don't know whether my dad has any issues with Allen Iverson, but I had not heard the expression. And his daddy, too, if they're not talking about daddy. So who is he talking about?

The Internet is positive that he's talking about Jason Whitlock. So the daddy is Clay Travis.

I don't know who the daddy is. It might be his actual daddy. Right. Sort of like bleep you and the horse you rode in.

OK, but it's not his actual daddy then. It's not the horse that he rode in on. And either me or Whitlock rode in on a horse that horse would not be riding. That horse would be dying.

But I just want everyone to know. Everyone needs to know. I am not the person Allen Iverson is going after. Please stop bombarding me with questions about that. They really thought it was you and I got.

Well, Allen Iverson came very strong after this person.

Oh, I thought he was hired about Dan, too, because I saw that clip. I'm like, he's got to be talking about someone who famously has another dad in media. I'm like a Jeremy Schaap, like, what's going on here? But then like all the mentions where it's Jason Whitlock and they started posting helpful videos as to why it might be Jason Whitlock. So I'm fairly certain that it's Jason Whitlock.

OK, we've talked too much about this already. One of the things I have to call myself out on, because Billy called me out on it at the end of the local hour, you could get our local our and the big Stewy, wherever it is you get stuff on your devices.

Check out the big city today. Bomani was exceptional. Really? Well, I know that's sort of commonplace whenever we talk about Bomani because he's always exceptional. But this was strong. Yes, it was 40 minutes of just very strong stuff from Bomani Jones in general and just basically factual and illuminating in a way that he is that I've never seen in sports media all the years covering sports media. I've never seen someone who could take complicated issues and make them bite sized and digestible for people in a way that doesn't allow you to refute, really.

So check that out, the big sweep. But the thing that Billy pointed out to me, because I did this trick and it's a rhetorical trick and no one's ever called me on the rhetorical trick and it's a rhetorical trick. I see all the times to gods in college sports when people are talking about college football games. I just said that the kicker for the University of Miami, Miami, is playing FSU this weekend, and I've been saying Miami has a quarterback and a kicker, and I'm delighting in the fact that the University of Miami has a kicker, has a player, an important player named Jose.

I just love that in this heavily Latin market that we have, that we've got a Hosie going out there and kicking for the University of Miami. He came through FIU Billies program and I did the trick. And you tell me whether you hear this on broadcasts all the time.

He's one of the best in college football at his position, and they're talking about like a guard or they're talking about an outside linebacker and you hear it and you're like, this guy doesn't actually know whether this is one of the best players in college football at his position, but he's saying it because he could get away with it because we don't know all the linebackers and all the guards.

He's to check them on it. Exactly.

Well, Billy checked me and he came after me and he said, Dan, that is not well. He accused me of saying this was the best kicker in college football. I purposely said one of the best because I don't know all of the kickers in college football.

And unfortunately, that kicker last year from a thirty to thirty nine yards was six for 11. That is not good. Now, I happen to think because they trotted them out there against Louisville, he kicked a fifty seven yarder and they had the confidence in him to kick a fifty seven yarder. That's the part that surprised me. I'm like, OK, any college kicker you throw out there? Because I just think of college kickers as being erratic and I think of FSU as having been cost several championships even after recruiting great kickers because college kickers tend to be erratic.

You also set those down some weird rabbit hole where you were asking if this was the first OSI to ever play the University of Miami. I scrolled through every year, year by year and finally got to your year. You're going to be excited. Nineteen seventy two to nineteen seventy four.

Jose Gonzalez, thank you much. That seems like an extraordinary waste of your time. It has been fifty years. Fifty damn years, half a century since the University of Miami could lean on a hosing, a thank you. Unfortunately that Hosie was six for eleven from thirty to thirty nine yards last year.

Chris, to answer this question for me, as someone who loves the Miami Heat, do you want Denver or the Lakers? Oh, my. My mind is telling me that I want the nuggets, but my heart and my guts tell me I want the Lakers bring them on, that doesn't really make sense. I want the Lakers.

I know it does make sense because Mike Bryan's in the same place as you are where you would think that the Nuggets would be the easier road. You would think that Miami Heat fans would want the best chance to win the title. But Mike Ryan wants LeBron James. I think it's a bad thing to want.

Why win one title when you went to you get LeBron and the Lakers? It will feel down here like the Heat have won two championships. I am with the guys. Listen, I'm neutral. I'm not a Heat fan. You want that series. You want the best team. You want LeBron James. That's what you want.

We want the smoke. I want it all at this point in a year where the title can probably be put with an asterisk because all these talking heads will just do that. You go through the two time reigning MVP, your hated rival, and LeBron James inside that bubble. Just just beating LeBron James means so much. Six years after he leaves the Miami Heat, potentially find themselves back in an NBA finals, overcoming the blood clots that might have made this match up, something that we saw in the Eastern Conference finals.

To be honest, man, this would be so sweet, especially for Pat Riley.

Oh, man. Well, I'm interested because Dan has a very unique, great relationship with Pat Riley.

What do you think Pat wants? That's a good question. It's going to hurt, though, Mike, a little bit extra if you lose to him and you will be a big underdog expected to lose to him even as the bubble makes all this stuff really tough to predict, you would lose to him outside of that bubble. You would lose him outside of that. But I'm not certain they'll be here outside of the bubble. So, again, I think we're just attaching what we saw in the regular season to what we're seeing in this bubble.

I think this is a different season. You're seeing that with the leaps that Bam! Adebayo has made and Tyler Heroes made. I know there's a viral screen cap making the rounds throughout he Twitter that 538 actually favors the Miami Heat in that matchup. Now, I think some of that has to do with the timing that it came out and the fact that the Lakers had a smaller lead in their respective series. But this is a whole new ballgame. There's a whole new ballgame.

And I don't think LeBron wants to see Miami. I'll guarantee you that this is a team that that LeBron James wants to see the least because he doesn't want any of that attached to it.

I don't think at this point in his life, given the confidence that LeBron James should and does have at what he does for a living. And he was right the other day, by the way, to guards for all the people have been talking about him on television for 10 years. He said that all of us, all of us would poop our pants if we were in his pressurized situations.

And he's absolutely right about that. Like he that is what he said. Well, he didn't say poop, right? He said that we would all if we face the pressure that he faces right. Playing in these games, we would all poop our pants.

OK, we're not world class athletes. I mean, he is LeBron is very calculated with everything he puts out. I'm convinced he tweets something about Joe Brown as a heat are playing. This is a reflection on LeBron James, his greatness. If the Miami Heat make it to an NBA finals six years after he left. When you consider what a tire fire the Cleveland Cavaliers organization is every time he leaves, when you consider that the Lakers, yes, they're the actual comp.

When we talk about who goes to the NBA finals within the span of fifteen years with a different core there. Twenty years, but they're the closest comp. But they missed the playoffs last year. It was a struggle. Magic Johnson thing was a national joke. It reflects poorly on LeBron James at the Miami Heat. Find themselves back in there. And if they eliminate him, there's something to be said for culture.

Again, this is all an interesting conversation below. Where do you side on all of this stuff? You've got the skeptical billi face, and I always want to hear what comes out of the skeptical billi face. And we can't because your microphone is not working, but we will come back to you at another time because this conversation, what I was saying earlier you got about. I don't know, given the emotion of fan base. Fan bases throughout the country, right?

I don't know how often if you have a team good enough to get to the final game, how many people expect to lose? I don't know if emotion works that way because I am sitting here and telling you that I love all things Miami. I want my city to feel good. I love the way a championship chasing team seems to unite a sports community, even at a time where we seem more divided than ever. It feels good and I want my city to feel good.

Civic pride is one of the things that that uniform ends up representing in sports in a way that's pretty cool all the time.

But my knowledge of basketball throughout history saved for Chauncey Billups and a disintegrating Shaq and Kobe is if you have Shaq and Kobe, you're the one that's going to win that series. Right. And so if you have Kobe and Paul George, you're probably going to win that series. They lost a series like Strange Things are Happening in the Bubble. But when you're coming at Kawhi and Paul George with Jokic and Murray, it's different than what the heat are going out there with like the heat.

Don't have anyone in that class in the class of what you're seeing dominating playoff game. Jimmy Butler would be the third best player on both of these teams right in the Western Conference.

Jimmy Butler may be the third best player on this team, given what we've seen from him out of the top, taken away from him out of Iowa.

He was an all star during the regular season pre pandemic, and he's made another leap.

Mike, whoever the Heat's best player is, OK, because you're right, it's debatable. You can argue a couple of guys, but that guy would be the third best player on either of the teams in the Western Conference. Tyler here is their best player. There I said it. Oh, come on, Major jerk. Billy, does your microphone now work test test.

Does it work? Yes. What are we saying so.

Well, I just I don't know. How much do you think LeBron actually thinks about Miami? Right. Because at this point, we're like two weeks ago. Right. And LeBron is the one that broke up with Miami, not the other way around. And then he went to Cleveland and he won a title, I believe. I don't think he fears anyone else.

I remember when LeBron was a cab. Now, a lot has changed since then. He finally won his title for Cleveland. He's moved across the country and times have changed, especially for the Miami Heat organization. But when they're there chanting, LeBron is scared at the Heat games because he doesn't want to dress out and give Miami fans in attendance that joy. And he points to his ring. He's shown time and time again he'll say the wrong thing in the media, like it'll get in his head.

And I just don't think he wants this matchup given his history.

We're two X's away. We're maybe not his most recent X, but we're the only X left at this party, baby. And he is noticing us and he wants to avoid us.

I say you walked away from I see the fear in your eyes as you think this conversation is premature. You think you're going to go back to pooping your pants if the Celtics win tonight.

I'm marking all of this sound. If the Celtics make a comeback and Roy Roy is also afraid. And what the image we conjured in your head was what?

Roy, I absolutely do not want Dion Waiters win a championship over the heat. I hold that thought. Let's sell some at the Real Bad Boy series.

Can you imagine if Dion Waiters is holding a trophy over culture and a sweep?

Turn it up, baby, this is the diesel, Vin Diesel, this makes Chris happy, this makes Billy happy. It's good. He's got a great deal of production help there. He is a pretty universally terrible singer.

What's to stop the diesel? Vin Diesel bringing it. Billy, feel it in your soul. I heard you during the break. You are an unusual sports fan in that Billy's got a big, big weekend coming up and he wants to fast forward through it because he's scared of everything and he is filled with fear. We will. It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it. We'll get back to Billy in a second. But first, we'll hold on a second.

I don't want to go to Christine yet because I'm just enjoying the dulcet sounds of Ben deciles there. Stay with it and then go to first. Let's listen to this for a while.

This is what we needed to get through all of this guy's. Tweeter writes, and listening to the labor show and hearing the confidence and gentleman sweep talk, it would be hilarious listening on Monday if the series was three three. You're absolutely right, sir.

And finally, about 47 million years ago, whales had legs and lived both on land and in the sea.

No, no, no. Speaking of, you know. Oh, I like that. Of whales can walk around a little trip up by Murray. I heard it, but I'll let it go because you just delivered a beauty. Oh, nice and exciting the other day.

Stop yelling at her. I am a little aggressive. All right, Billy, explain this to me because I find you fascinating as a study of the sports fan, because here we are. The Marlins can get into the playoffs today. The Marlins can clinch a playoff spot in the weirdest season you've ever seen on the four year anniversary of José Fernandez's death. OK, a very emotional one, the saddest moment in club history. Jose Fernandez, with so much promise, dying four years ago.

They could clinch a playoff spot today. Billy has been a Marlins fan since he was his earliest memories are of the Marlins and he wants to just fast forward through the weekend so that he doesn't feel stressed. And I'm just really confused by it. Is it weird?

Why is that weird? You like being stressed? Do you like having heart palpitations? Do you like thinking? Is this chest pain stress or am I having a heart attack? Listen, I've been hurt before, OK? And I want to avoid being hurt again. I'd like to just fast forward because we came into this week sitting pretty thinking this is guaranteed. We're playing for the division now and three days later, we're fighting for a playoff spot. Let's just get me to Monday and see how this whole thing played out.

All right. Maybe Tuesday, the off day, we can go back and say, wow, tomorrow we're going to have a playoff game or you know what, what a happy little season. But I did it without the stresses of the weekend. I don't need it in my life right now.

One of it plays out poorly, though. You just want that news on Monday like that and you'll be sad and upset and disappointed and have a bad week. I mean, don't you want to enjoy the weekend?

No, that's exactly what I want to fast forward through, because if I was just about going into something that's going to be fun and exciting, yeah, I want to see this happen. But I'm guarded. I'm trying to protect myself from disaster, which could be happening because the Yankees haven't clinched the two yet.

For you American, I knew tune yesterday their ability.

You are several exit ramps beyond guarded.

I have never heard of a sports fan going to a weekend that's got a lot of possibility and want to just fast forward to the other side of it so that he doesn't feel pain or fear like this is a level of fear I've never heard before in a sports fan.

It's just I'm trying to protect myself. Adel said it best and hello from the other side. But we're not supposed to be here.

The Heat, the Marlins like this is all bonus stuff. We're exceeding expectations. Relax, man. Enjoy it. Enjoy this weekend.

I will not enjoy this weekend. And that's what I'm trying to avoid. OK, this is unbelievable. Goodell said I'll put it on the pole at Le Batard show. Without some sort of trauma in your life, have you ever gone into an exciting weekend when your sports team can clinch and want to fast forward through the weekend? Because honest to God, I know that you have voices in your head that are always telling you to be afraid, but they're actively getting in the way of what could be joy tonight.

Like, if they say say they win tonight without fast forwarding through the week and they win tonight and they clinch, you will be denied the joy because you are afraid of of the consequences. That's right.

And you want to hear it. Even SEGRA thought that's gone through my head this week. So this is really want to make the playoffs, because if they make the playoffs and then lose in the first round immediately, the hopes are going to be up and then they're just going to be crushed immediately. And then next year, there's going to be this expectation all the Marlins made the playoffs are going to be so good this year and then they fall back down to earth because it becomes a normal season.

And then was what was it all for? What was all the excitement and stress for? Thank God for Vin Diesel, am I right?

What a perfect time for him to put out that song. It's a banger. And if Calvin Harris had put out that song, Dan, that would win a Grammy. There's no doubt about that.

If Calvin Harris put out that van, if that Vin Diesel banger, it would win a Grammy. It sounds better. I mean, I Billy, I can't tell you like, how confused I am by your sports fandom and just the general arguments that break out inside of your head, because this should be an informant. You should be like buoyant all day to day about the idea that your team playing the Yankees can can magic number two.

I mean, magic number two, that captain, that's where they won the last four. Oh, I can't tell you.

Is this Dan, just thank your lucky stars that you only have to deal with what's going on in my head for three or four hours a day and not twenty four like I have to.

Interesting story from the ringer here, because you've seen a difference between the freedom the basketball players have, the power that basketball players have, the partnership that basketball players have with their sport, and the way the football players have the relationship that they have with the commissioner who represents the owners, that they don't trust owners, that the Miami Dolphins came out on opening day and put their approved coaches stamp on. We don't trust our owners to be really about this social cause stuff that we care about.

And the article in The Ringer. The headline is The political donations of NBA owners are not so progressive. And it continues, NBA teams and owners have publicly pledged their solidarity with black players in the fight against racism and police brutality, but the political donations of many franchise governors have overwhelmingly favored Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

What does it mean for a league to send one message with statements and another message with money? Now, this is interesting because some NBA players also don't trust that this partnership about this particular issue isn't just lip service. You've had players put their name Kyrie Irving Iguodala on.

Well, I'm going to wait and see if my owners are actually riding with me on this stuff or if they're just saying so because it's easy now, but the fracture will be worse because for as bad as it is in football that the owners castigated Colin Kaepernick and then beyond that, that they were on the wrong side of history for four bleeping years, putting institutional pressure on he and his peers on the labor to not do this thing that they believed in.

That's one kind of hurt. But if you go back to the bubble after protesting and you go back to the bubble with the support and partnership of your owners, and then you read that, you know, Steve Ballmer, I'm sorry, not Steve Ballmer, because he's not one of the guys who's here on this list. But when you read all of these guys that they have, you know, you've got the difference in donations from James Dolan being two million dollars to the Republican Party and one hundred and seventy five thousand to the Democratic Party.

When you it's all there. It's all public. You could read this article for yourself and you should read the article for yourself so that you see how the money aligns in in a way that you might not trust the words coming out of mouths, that it's easy for them to do that. Even as Woj is reporting that some of the owners weren't down with the idea of Black Lives Matter being on the court during the playoffs.

But you're right, it will be worse if the players arrive at a point where they think the owners, because they have said it, because it's an easy and convenient thing to say right now where they think the owners are partners with them and want to help and instigate change if they get outside of that bubble and the owners going back to being being the owners.

Do you agree with me, though, right, that that when you look at in terms of the hurt of what this would be. Basketball players have gotten in line with the commissioner that they respect who represents these owners in a way that makes it feel to all of us that these people are partners in a way they're not in the NFL, it would hurt more. I would think, at least for whatever it is that the NFL is doing with owners mostly hiding in the shadows, at least you could see where it is.

Their position is like it's not there's not like a disingenuous position in the NFL on this. They're just hiding. Their silence says a lot. Yeah, but they're but they're hiding and they're not doing this. They're not doing so. When you look at some of these numbers, you're going to be like, man. And I and I get that, by the way, I get that money supports that party like money supports not wanting to be taxed the same way.

So I sort of get that portion of it. But I'm not a player. Like, I'm not somebody who is just put down my principles to get back in the bubble to make a statement. I might be and not, you know, I might want to make in the streets instead of while playing basketball to distract people. I would think that this if you're reading this, you'd find it more hurtful than even what the NFL did if something like this continues.

Now, Goodell has shown support. Right. So it's going to be interesting to see if that continues, because I think the NFL, part of the NFL players, more so than ever, feel like they're partners with Roger Goodell. No, no, no more so than ever.

The bar's but separate and oh, no, Goodell is come out here and done the public relations thing on behalf of owners who remain in hiding like. No, he think these are just words. We saw what that was about for four years. Like that doesn't get erased with. I'm sorry. Tim Kurkjian is going to join us next.