You're listening to Giraffe King's Network.

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast. I did a poor job of managing the clocks earlier because I was headed out to Taylor in the other room, but we got I was distracted by John Reid's song, which all of you were locking when it started, but now I have heard you start singing during the breaks. John Reid just said that he is willing, in exchange for the $10,000 budget, to do something at a rodeo that is a music video at Las Vegas, that he's got to go and rework his song because he forgot his favorite shipping container member, he said. There's no Tony in that song. His ass. That Chris Cody was wandering around singing During the break. And John Reid wants his star turn. What I was telling you about Metalark Media is it's been hard to build this company. You've seen that Hollywood was shaking over the last couple of years, but it's about to take off. We're going to make a bunch of movies, and we're going to have a bunch of stuff that makes us a media company that people are going to want to be working for.

Taylor's here and moved his life like Karl has moved his life, and Jessica and Lucy have moved their life to create a career, to create an opportunity. Mike made a musical at the start of this, and John Reid I've made a music video, and now I want to be a country star. If I can just get out of that hot water I had in Iowa with the company, maybe I could parlay this into something that is a music career. You guys laugh at it, but when I tell you the following, because you've been singing this song, too, and there are others, we've got listeners who make songs for our show, and they're very good. Yeti Blanc sees an opportunity here with The Cody Show and everything else, make great songs in his spare time, just fooling around because it's fun because who wouldn't want to do that for a living? Russell Clay writes the following, You're not prepared for what I'm about to show you. Most total yards for a rookie wide receiver all time. Number seven, Randy Moss. Number six, Odell Beckham. Number five, Justin Jefferson. Number four, Anquan Boldin. Number three, Bill Gromen.

Number 2, Jamar Chase. Number 1, with 200 more yards than Randy Moss, and they haven't played the 17th game yet, Puka Nakuwa. His name is Cooper, good at running girls.

But when his hammy got a tear, he saw Puka standing there. His blade diminished. Hustle take over. Nekuah hopped into the car. Mcfay has maybe found a star. And then that staffer threw him 25 and two. Oh, there's a brand new kid in town. Out of B-Y-U, they call him Puka. Puka. Puka Nakuwa. Puka Nakuwa. Puka Nakuwa. His quarterback is not named Tua. Yeah. Where he is Puka. Puka Nakuwa. Fantasy assassin. It's the time to cash in. Yeah, it's Puka. Don't need the girl. Puka. Don't need the girl.

Tony's been singing that on the way into work.

I was. I was parked in the garage seat at the Metro Rental. I was like, Pooca, Pooca-na-coo, Pooca-na-coo.

His quarterback is not named Tua.

It's a cheap line, and it doesn't make a lot of sense. Well, it's not his quarterback.

It made it. It made the whole song.

Why are you glad that I said that?

I was thinking it, but I didn't want to say it.

It's a cheap line, but it's a catchy song, so you allow it. The thing that I wanted to say about this, though, because things happen fast in that sport. You react to the reaction, and the Lion's offensive coordinator is now We're going to get Belichick money, 15 million a year, because look at what he did with Jared Goff. But before McDaniel and before Shana Khan, there was this McVeigh guy who Belichick undressed in the Super Bowl, but he had Goff, and he's like, Get out of here. That was a mistake. Now what you have with Stafford is something that's going to be real confusing to your grandchildren, which is the crossroads of when the systems took over. Stafford is responsible for Calvin Johnson and Cooper Cupp and Puukunakuwa. That's three of the best seasons ever. It's not because Stafford is the best quarterback ever. It's because the first guy at this, McDane Emmanuel Shana-Hann buffet was this coach with this system who said, Wait, golf's okay, but Stafford's better. And now watch what I do. I'm going to make Pukenacua better than Randy Moss when, Get out of here. Like, Get out of here. In my lifetime, there will not be better than Randy Moss's rookie season when he was just faster than everybody and you could throw him jump balls.

But sure as shit, this guy numerically is better, and it's not because I think he's a better athlete than Randy Moss or a better wide receiver. It's because he also has the groundbreaking system.

We think of Matthew Stafford as over the hill because he's been injured a lot the last couple of years after the Super Bowl, but he's making throws this season that are insane. Yes, Cooper Cup is excellent. Yes, Pukunaku is a rising star. But Stafford is throwing balls off his back foot, fading away, 45 yards on a dot. He's incredible right now.

No one wants to play them, and he could be MVP of the league, and you're right. You don't even understand how his body has withstood everything that it withstood. But thank you, please, in the other room, let's put this camera now on Taylor because I've been remiss in getting to this. I've been wanting to get to this for a couple of segments because Taylor, like Fuentes and like some people on mystery crate, very eager to get a chance around here, wants a chance, and knows a lot about sports, knows more about sports than some of the other people who are talking a lot at microphones. He had a very strong opinion earlier today when I He said, Man, Steven A Smith is about to write his own ticket in whatever he wants from sports stardom or late night stardom. He has leveraged everything perfectly. And in 18 months, because he's already underpaid, Steven A Smith is going to be able to either have his own thing outside of ESPN or do whatever the hell he wants at ESPN, making more money than McAfee. And Taylor had strong opinions on Steven A Smith saying that he was more famous than most of the New York Knicks, and that's a damn shame.

Taylor's a Knicks fan. I'm not wrong when I say Steven A. Smith is more famous than all Knicks players. Am I, Taylor?

No, that's correct. The problem with Stephen A. Smith, no self-respecting Knicks fan like Stephen A. Smith. He perpetuates the narrative that the Knicks are a joke. When you listen to him talk about the Knicks, you could tell he's not watching the games. And that's why I call him Stephen A. Sparknotes, because he's not watching. He just has a producer filling him in on everything. And yeah, it's very clear he's not watching this team outside of the times they're on the national stage.

When you express this opinion, Mike Ryan told you, be careful. This guy's got a lot of power, and I can hear the fear in your voice while you're giving takes. Is it because you're afraid of Stephen A. Smith or you're afraid that everybody on the show is- This is more afraid of being on the Mike, and Chris is petting my back. Chris Elliott, Tinyhans, yes. It's a little bit... That's unfair to put him in a fight against Steven A. Smith because what happens around here is, you know what happens? I'm going to get aggregated on saying, Fake Nicks fan, and then this stuff is going to stick to me, and he's going to come at me on his show and keep building his platform, and I'm going to get hit with lebitard calls Steven A. Smith a fake Knicks fan. You know that's what's going to happen, right?

I will take the bullets for you. Yeah. He said Ogie Ananobi, the Knicks just traded for him. He said he didn't move the needle or he's not impressed by the move. Steven has to realize that Ogie Ananobi is the move before the move. Since Ogie Ananobi has been on the Knicks, the Knicks are 2-0, they're plus 54 in Ananobi's minutes.

He's scared. You're all right there?

There's so much going on around here for the audio audience. I don't even know what's going on. I'm getting dunked on. Chris Cody's petting me with little hands. I just want to give Knicks takes.

You've got 90 seconds to I'm giving you the floor, 90 seconds. Try not to sound scared.

With another cute little nickname like Steve and A. Sparknotes. That was good.

The Nick's are more athletic.

I think I use everything I have.

That's it? You're out of material?

That's the worst possible thing that could have happened. I think I have. You just quit?

We're a team that's building. We're a superstar away. Steve and A. Smith just wants to keep pushing the Donda Mitchell narrative.

Go ahead, throw him in jail. Get him out of here. Fuck. Get him out of here. John Reid is ready for this moment more than you are. John Reid, give me that John Reid song because he just came to me and John Reid said, You watch. They make fun of me. But when I rewrite this with Tony, they're going to be singing this by the pool in Vegas. They're going to be singing it. The whole crowd will be.

Viva Out in Vegas. Here we come. Hey, hey, hey, who is that Dan? Is that Steve? Is that Mike, Ryan, Billy, Gil, Chris, and Greg, too? Is that you, Out in Vegas. Oh, boy, oh, boy, is that Roy? Is that Roy? Talking hockey at the bar? Look, you didn't took it too far. Out in Vegas. Roy to the penalty box. Aviva, my house, Vegas. I hate, I hate, I hate, who is that Jessica, too? Is that Lou? Is that Lou? See the foot, girls, cool. I'm just playing, I'm just saying.

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Dan Lebatard. I actually thought you looked good. Stugatz.

That good. I have a beard growing out a little bit. I got a little life in my face, I feel like. Little tan, Colorado, San Francisco. I had a great time.

You got life on your face.

You got death on your face.

I think you got 40 to life on your face. This is the Don Lebatard show. With the Stugats.

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Lebron is not speaking to the media. He does not do that very often. After the Miami heat, drag a game into the mud with all their young people. And let's go heat chance breakout around the Lakers. Lebron, at this point in his career, at any point in his career, grows tired of coaches quickly when there is trouble. Shams is now reporting deeply disconnected is the phrase Shams is reporting about Darvin Ham and his rotations. Lebron is the oldest player in the league. Lebron is used to being on top of the league and the league's story lines. It's pretty rare for him to not talk to the This story coming out at the exact same time as LeBron not talking to the media when the West is upside down, the Lakers are sub-500, and they're not good enough. He's going to put pressure on the organization again to make whatever changes need to be made so that he and Anthony Davis can be contenders.

This latest news drop from Shams affords me the opportunity to apologize to you and the audience because I'm very clearly wrong about something. I wanted to believe in the in-season tournament, but given how little that's bought, Darvin Ham, I'm willing to admit maybe it's not that important.

Even furthermore, there may be an IST curse. You win the IST, you have some dissension in the locker room. All of a sudden, something happens. The coach is worried more about the IST than he is the actual playoff.

I think you got to wait till at least a second IST.

Jessica, I don't think I've seen that much palpable disgust on your face directed at Tony in the entire history has been here. Was there something happening there? Was it that he stumbled on the furthermore, that he was that eager to Can you think of a curse involving the in-season tournament?

I was thinking of a ham pun the entire time, and I got nothing. That was disgust at myself.

Okay. I thought it was with the toilet seat.

Tony was really hamming it up.

Oh, for the love of God. Shut up. Go outside. I was hoping.

Nobody learned from the toilet because I just went to the bathroom and both seats were up. Stop it. I walked in, I was like, Which one am I going to go? I looked right, I left them there both up. By the way, they're messing with their neck.

To be honest, if I walk into one that it's down the other one's got it up, I'll go to the one that's up.

You don't want to touch anything in there, right? Correct. This is all with your foot. Correct. If it's already up, you don't want to be anywhere near someone else's toilet seat.

If it's up, then I can go. If it's down, I'm out.

How have we already outgrown this studio? How is that possible? That two bathrooms is not enough.

After Barry Sanders was on the cover of Madden, and then he decided to retire, nobody came out the gate saying, Well, that's a curse. They had to wait till the second one. Yeah, that's true.

I've never touched a flush with my hand in my entire life. Always I use my foot.

In any toilet? Anywhere. The one at home?

You always use your what?

No. Foot. The one at home, even the one at home, you will not touch with your hand or you're saying outside- The one at home is an exception. Outside of home. That's my home. But all others, if you're in a fancy hotel, if you're a pristine, clearly clean, pristine restaurant, that's a hard and fast rule. Foot. Okay. Foot. Every time. We agree.

Foot.

Foot. Foot. Foot. Foot. Foot.

Foot. God, I missed that.

I will put my foot at eye level to get that stupid lever down if I have to, Dan.

Understood. I don't think a lot of people want to be touched on.

I don't think I can even do that. I bought fancy I. G. Jeans that Joe Rogan threw kicks in.

Really?

You're throwing some hard-ass kicks, Dan.

I don't want the problems.

Let me segue from LeBron James aging to- The twerk on the- Those The jeans are loose.

Dude, those hips are open. Yeah, he does.

Let me segue as people look for aging tips from Joe Rogan.

So as soon as I got the jeans, I damn near dislocated my hip trying to throw a kick. I haven't thrown a kick in a while. How'd the jeans feel, though? They could handle a kick at least four times better than I threw.

You're now doing advertising for Joe Rogan.

I didn't mention the jeans.

Anyway.

Can you whisper him?

I'm so lost.

They're too baggy. I could have gone a true way size, but I always up size because I hate the game.

You could be a punter in those jeans.

That is quite the kick.

You know those Victorian toilets that have the string above the... Yeah, you could grab that with your foot around the toes. Pull it down.

I did see the Rockets recently. You could use what a production.

You could use your foot like a hand.

Oh, always. That's how I change the channel.

You can use your foot as a hand.

Some people would pay very good money for this. I'm just telling you right now. You probably know this.

Some people have a right wing grift pivot in their career. I always have the foot thing to fall back on.

I've had this discussion with my wife.

Dude, I swear to God, my wife, less than a month ago, was like, Could we do this?

I think now we're at a point where every 30-something married couple has had the discussion. If we ever get on hard times, we got to whip out those dogs.

Here's the thing about that, okay?

The dogs park.

If you do that, people just don't stumble upon that. You have to go out and promote that you have a link to view feet.

My wife's like, Can I do it without anyone knowing it's me? I was like, I think we can do this.

We've had the conversation. I'm like, I'm pretty sure Steak Sauce would do it. So there's like, You can charge him whatever.

Chris, I think you should do it. I think the one who should profit off of foot is you and your dad should do it. I believe you should.

My dad?

You and your father should absolutely the most-So my wife's cut out of this? I mean, whatever.

However, look, if you did- We did seriously consider doing OnlyFans for Sue where it was just ingest. But I think- Call it Only Dance.

Everyone would recognize Greg's feet. They're too famous.

Do it as an income supplement and allow me to have the show back to talk about aging of basketball players. Do it. Figure out how to do it.

Have you had the conversation with Valerie yet? No. You guys are doing pretty well.

No. I can't believe Chris Cody is having that conversation. What are you doing? You're worried about an apocalypse. You're worried about Metalark Media falling into a ditch?

My wife is She's just a little tired of her job, so she's like, Hey, you think this is an option for me? I can be home a lot.

It'd be nice. It'd be nice to have a whole supplemental income.

But if you don't have to work?

If steak sauce is going to spend 300 bucks, it's 300 bucks.

Who cares, though, if you don't have to go out of your home in order to do it, who cares about whether someone else knows that your wife is doing that for money? That seems to be the pride of that or the shame of that. The only thing keeping you from doing it is the fact that people will know that your wife did it. But who cares? I'm not going to tell my wife to do this. What's the shame?

You're right.

It's not much. What's the shame?

The shame is that you know that I have probably people out there diddling themselves to your wife's foot.

What if people are like, Oh, those feet aren't nice? She shouldn't have her on like that.

I'm not worried about my wife's feet.

Let me tell you something. Those in the audience, my wife's feet, very nice.

Oh, mine too.

Very nice. Delightful. You will diddle yourself to my wife's feet, no doubt.

What is the shame here? I don't understand. It's why I thought Footgirls was such a funny thing. In fact, I was- That's not connected to.

My wife and I have a thing where sometimes when she's sleeping, I'll pick up her foot and answer it like it's a phone. Hello?

Hello. It That's a great bit.

This is your wake-up call.

It's cute. I learned- I'll take a photo of that.

That will be the first post.

I'm going to reveal too much here. I'm probably going to make my wife mad at me. We'll bleep it. I love it. Tell me. I just can't believe it happened the other day. I was I'm shocked by it, by all of what I'm about to express here. I feel dirty because we shame the hell out of Rex Ryan here. We really did. We still shame Rex Ryan here. Fj? No. What are you doing?

What is he doing there?

What are you doing? What are you What are you doing?

Rex Ryan didn't deserve that, by the way.

Not even in Salt burn. Yeah, that was too far for salt burn. They didn't cross that line.

He's on the right side of history.

He is. Rex Ryan, we shamed him for being a freak when he should not have been ashamed this way. But also what you just did to me, Chris Gody, with your lack of subtlety.

What workplace in America?

No.

It's just a co founder of a company, FJ.

Yeah, that's what just happened. That is what just happened. I'll say it to Skip. You will not. All right, let's do it. No, not doing that.

That was a joke.

No, we're going to do that on air.

Can I say it to myself, me being Skip?

No, we're going to do it on air. When John Skipper comes in here, I'm going- I beg your pardon. No, you're going to sit across from him and you are going to ask him that question, and we're going to build a whole company around that. I do believe that's inappropriate.

Just give him a thumbs down, too.

Going back to using the foot as a hand- You and your wife. Not an FJ. The thing that happened with my wife in Los Angeles, and I learned this about my beautiful wife, she comes back from a trip all day around Los Angeles wearing boots, and she comes home at 6:00 at night and says, These feet don't stink. I'm like, I don't believe you.

I've done this.

Oh, Dan got the smell to us.

This is not possible. You can't be in leather boots with no socks for 12 hours and tell me that those feet don't stink. No socks?

That's Blister Central.

It didn't smell like anything. I lost the bed.

It was too early in your marriage.

I couldn't believe it, though. I was scared of the foot.

Give it a year. It'll smell.

You lost the bed, but you won the foreplay.

You're not stunned by this. I am.

This I'm going to have to smell those dogs.

You will not smell my wife's dogs.

And over the piggies.

Come on. Fj.

Let's find out which one went to market.

Let's get to that Clay Thompson sound, please, because- Why Clay Thompson sound?

Transition. I asked Louis while I was in the penalty box if I missed anything with no taking. Hey, did we talk about anything other than wives feet? And he said, No, we did not. Great workplace.

We started with LeBron, and we started with- His feet.

Wolf, he's got bad feet. You haven't seen that photo of him walking on the dock.

All basketball players give up their feet. You can't do that for a living like that without wrecking your feet.

Yeah, it's his tools. Yeah, it's like football players with dislocated fingers. To jam football.

Do you think most people know that? Do you think most people listening to this know that one of the things that LeBron James pays for what it is that he gets is his feet forever will be a mangled mess that will cause him problems? Like, obviously. I would trade that for what he has.

Mangled feet? Yeah, I think- Because he could wear shoes.

But Clay Thompson was talking about aging here with rare, rare. Oh, you put his feet up on.

An action shot on a foot is just always tricky. It's moving.

The three middle ones are holding strong. It's really just the pinky and the big toe.

It's called a hammer toe, by the way, ladies and gentlemen.

Why did you do the ladies and gentlemen there?

For everybody in the audience. Over and out.

Over and out is what I thought of there, too. You know what happened? The ladies and gentlemen The thing was, he took the show, he had it, he had the spotlight, and he went and offered us something that wasn't useful.

No, it is useful. When a toe is displaced like that, it's called hammer toe. For those people that need to have an answer for what it is, there it is, hammer toe.How.

Is that useful?How is that useful?

My Grammy had one of those.

Nasty. What's she charging?

You don't want to see those feet. They've been decomposing for a while.

Oh, a whole new category.

Some people do want to see those feet.

I'm not saying she was cremated.

A whole new category of kink. Grandma's dead feet.

For steak sauce has spent $200 on. Deep. Don Lebatard. Getting started on the breakfast lawn. Oh, man.

I've been singing a song to myself all morning long. Breakfast Flaw. Stugatz. Have you never heard the Breakfast Flaw song?

No. Hit me with it. Okay.

I wish I had some Breakfast Flaw.

Breakfast Flaw.

Where can I find a breakfast like That's what I'm doing. I'm going to get that. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

The point I was trying to make before we derailed into a grandmother's skeleton dead feet that were cremated. I was talking about aging and LeBron James being the oldest player in the sport, being impatient. All the competitive young people are coming now, right? He's the oldest guy in the sport. He's dominated it for 20 years. He's given his feet to the cause, exceeded every expectation somehow, and Skip Bayliss is still chasing him. Still tweets last night, You're 17 and 18, Bron. You lost to a high school algebra teacher. That's how it will end for LeBron after being the most relevant at the hardest thing, most competitive thing in sports. Here come the heat with their young people and the Timberwolves and OKC.

Again, the IST buying him nothing.

Nothing. They're 17 and 18, and the warriors are now vulnerable and aging. What I was going to say to you about Clay Thompson is this part's rare, right? If we can stop for a moment and just celebrate greatness in sports. The warriors were a dynastic thing. They fought at the top of that with LeBron, and sometimes they won, and LeBron won, and they had to do different ownership architecture on how much power players will have so that Kevin Durant and LeBron James, this could be the hardening of our lifetime in this sport over the last 10 years, them wrestling for the top of this sport. Clay Thompson now realizes, and this feels like concession to me, okay? I was surprised earlier last week when I said to him, Yeah, the Warriors are done. And he's like, Mmm. And I think he was doing that just out of respect for it's really hard to be a champion like that for 10 years. Wait till Draymond gets back. No, they're done. Clay Thompson, they needed him to be the best two-way player in the world in order to win championships, and he's washed. I don't know what's happened to my algorithm.

I don't know if I got witlocked, but I get so much Clay Thompson information. I get tons and tons of Clay Thompson stuff. I don't know why. More than almost any other athlete. Now, I really like him. I find him quirky. I think he's one of the best shooters I've ever seen. I've admired He tired his game and his surfer, stony way of being around Steph and Draymon and also being great. At one point, he could have been traded for Kevin Love in Minnesota. His career would have gone differently. But he settled into Superstar-dom, Hall of Fame or probably should be a top 75 player, gets hurt when you tell him he's not a top 75 player. Here's Clay Thompson talking in uncommon terms for a champion, talking to Steve Kerr, also a champion, about like, Yeah, I'm washed at work, and I'm negative about it because I'm super competitive. And here's where I am in life when we're not quite good enough right now.

Well, Steve and I had actually a great conversation yesterday, and that helped me relax a lot. Sometimes I forget just how successful and how lucky I've been to be a part of the Championship teams and All-Star Games and gold medals. When you want to get back to that level so badly, you get in your own way. Rather than forcing it, we had a conversation about just enjoying this last chapter of my career and how lucky I truly am to still be playing this game and do it at a high level and being a better mentor for these young guys, lean by example, and having my energy right every game. And he helped me realize that I do have negative energy, how that affects the team in a poor manner. So we had a great conversation That just helped me change my whole mindset and forget about shooting splits or points per game or all-star games, and just to enjoy being in this warriors uniform and appreciate what we built because it's such a rare opportunity for any professional athlete to be a part of so much success and to try and pass that torch to the younger guys and keep this thing going.

He's a great champion. He's a lot younger than LeBron James. Lebron James beat that out of trying to keep up with LeBron James and the injury, right? His body betrayed him in a way LeBron's never get.

Playing lots of minutes and deep postseason runs, ultimately facing LeBron James. So, yeah, indirectly so. But that was really honest and revealing sound there.

It's not only vulnerable and interesting, though. I ask you just for a moment, right? I get it. Sports move fast. You got to have your takes. We're more engaged than we ever are. Criticism is everywhere. Blame is everywhere. This guy is a great champion, fighting LeBron James across this decade for the top of that sport. Do you know what it is for Charles Barkley to say in a series that involves LeBron James, that Clay Thompson is the best two-way player in the world? That's what Clay got, being at the center of that champion. But then money, glory, Fame, who gets the touches, makes Draymond Green be what he is right now and punch Jordan pool in an argument about money because everybody wants to get paid now. And Clay Thompson, built an economy in that city with a stadium that makes that organization light years ahead of everyone else because they've got such a thriving business that's actually at the center of an economy in a city. Clay Thompson built that. He wants his money. Sometimes when you're chasing championships, you forget the joy along the path. You punch your teammate because staying up there is hard.

It's super competitive. It seems to make Kevin Durant unhappy. He fled that whole thing. It got so hot in that furnace. I thought winning would be fun forever. How would you not be there and be like, Yeah, I'm Kevin Durant. I'll play with Steph. We will dominate. No, too much. Clay fit there. Clay saved them one time against OKC with a third quarter making shots from half-court. But now it's the end, and he knows it. An athlete The leads never look in a mirror like that at 33. Your coach and your organization have to be so strong for you to be the one who doesn't get the money at the end, isn't going to get the minutes, isn't going to get the touches. You're going to be the odd man out in musical chairs. Everyone else there is going to get their payments. You You could have gone to the Lakers, you could have played with LeBron, but his body broke. Now at the end, he's like, Yeah, why would I bring negative energy in here? He says the last chapter, what is he, five years younger than LeBron? Lebron's 39, and Clay's telling you there, I'm done.

I'm going to keep trying, but what I'm going to do now is I'm going to hand the mantle over to Wiggins and whoever else, all these young players on that team. Wiggins also got paid. Everyone got their money. Did Clay get... I know this stuff is silly, right? It's tens of millions of dollars. But Clay is going to lose the musical chairs there, right? The ending for Clay isn't going to be, you get your big contract and get to play another four years.

It sounds like I'm encoding it as the loser there, your lack in the perspective that I think Clay Thompson showed there, because Clay Thompson won. He's the ultimate winner. I mean, one of the greatest shooters of all time would arguably be called that if he didn't share the same backcourt with the greatest shooter of all time. So he won. He's a historic winner.

He also made $43 million this year. He signed a five-year, $189 million contract.

He got one huge contract there that, obviously making $43 million this year to, based off of what he's saying, essentially in some ways, play the role that like Udonis, Haslem was playing before he literally played zero minutes when Haslem was playing like 8 to 10 minutes a night and mentoring guys. But it'll be interesting to see with Clay Thompson, whether or not he's willing to just hang it up because he's no longer getting a huge contract somewhere and just would want to play with the Warriors, or whether he'll try to find new life as a guy that probably gets a veteran's minimum or a couple of years at 20 million or something like that with a team that is trying to take that next leap or is always competitive.

Do you ever hear the 33-year-old guy, like Cam Newton at the end of his career, obviously different sport, but at the end of his career is still fighting to tell, No, I can do for the Patriots. This isn't my body being done. This isn't me spent at 32, 33. In the modern age of Tom braided and LeBron James, isn't one of the things that's refreshing about that vulnerability that he's looking in the mirror and telling you, I don't have much left here.

One of the most interesting comparisons you can make now is actually Kevin Love, who was involved in all of those finals, too. He got to a point with Cleveland where he wasn't playing on that team. He wasn't playing any minutes. He was just the veteran guy who was there adding to those young guys who now have turned themselves into a better team alongside other young players they've added. But he essentially just left Cleveland for nothing and now has had new life, breathed into him with the Miami Heat playing a role there. Clay Thompson may try to do the same thing where he's in this leadership role on a team where now it doesn't make any sense for him to not be playing the same type of role he's been used to, but with a different franchise at some point. Maybe he can get a few more years as a role player contributor somewhere else.

Dan, I'm interested to see your thoughts here. If Kerr wasn't his coach, do you think he would be talking this open and honestly about his struggles?

I don't know the answer to that question. I know that Kerr seems to care about these people in a way that extends beyond just employee-employment relationships. He was a player that knows how hard it was to be a champion because he lived all of this with Michael Jordan. I would think that Clay, having grown up some in the sport around Steve Kerr and everything that he is, like grown up, because some of these guys can be overgrown children. If you're that good at shooting, something else is lopsided and hasn't been tended to. They can be kids, and Steve Kerr can be in that role, disciplinarian teacher, professional father. I don't know if Mark Jackson was that to those guys before that when he was telling us that they had the greatest shooting backcourt of all time. But I would imagine that Steve Kerr, who doesn't mind DJs at practice, even though he's yelling about T-shirt canons and noise. Steve Kerr wants a player-friendly atmosphere. I would imagine that Clay Thompson bringing negative energy to work is something that he would notice and then just tell him, Hey, I don't need you to be super sad guy.

How are you helping me? It could be as simple as the perspective that Mike's giving there with, How about we do joy while we're living joy as opposed to the pressure of the next competition that you have to win that keeps you from joy? How about we accept who we are at this point with some self-awareness in our career?

Yeah, and you saw the type of energy that he brought to the press conference post that conversation with Steve Kerr. What did it look like before? Yeah, I can only imagine what negative energy Clay might have been like.

But can you imagine if you've been that great and the other guys that... I mean, Steph's older than him. You're looking around and your body cannot do what it did. Lebron's still out there doing it with gnarled feet and stuff. Clay has to look at his body and however he self-identifies for the 30 years of his life that have brought him all the rewards and be like, Oh, this shit betrayed me. This betrays me at the end. This was best two-way player in that league, and now it doesn't work the same way anymore. Now I've got to live the rest of my life with the grief of who I used to be as an identity. That's a hard shit to see in a mirror at 33. But Steve Kerp probably lives something similar toward the end of his career next to Jordan.

That would be helpful. Or you can evolve into what Ray Allen was down the stretch. Just be the guy that nails big-time threes and be a role player. Jason Kidd was one of the greatest point guards ever, made plenty of contributions towards the end of his career, won a championship.

There's a great lane for that, and it's quite rewarding. You say that, though, but Carmelo didn't want to do it, and he was a lot older than Clay. Clay's young for this conversation.