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Welcome to The Big.

Suie.

Presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show? The podcast.

That seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry. I'm not going to apologize for that.

In fact, the.

Only difference.

Seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys?

I've done it.

And.

Now here's The.

Marching.

Man to Nowhere, Fatface, and The Habitual Liar.

Good work telling Tony. You were right on it. I appreciate that the job has been made more difficult for you today. It is unwieldy. That thing also looks heavy on your head. Is it also heavy? I'm reminded of the movie Pop Star, the DJ having the difficulties with the head because it was too heavy.

It's not that it's heavy, it's that the neck hole is going around. The problem is it doesn't have a place for your chin to sit. Inside of my teeth right here that obviously you can't see, there's a steel grate. The problem is my chin rubs against the steel grate part, and it hurts.

Put it on the pole, please, because the comedy has died a little bit here. Is Pop Star one of the great comedies of the last 10 years? Yes or no? Because I don't know whether it's regarded that way, but I think.

It would be. That better come in at 100%.

I think it has to be. I think it is so well done that I do believe that it's something that should endure, but I don't think it's going to be remembered as one of the great comedies.

No. Number one is House of Gucci.

I.

Swear to God.

I thought it was The Lighthouse.

That one's a laugh.

Riot, too. It is great.

All right, one and two.

I want to talk, Stugart, about what is happening in the NFL that I think is smart. If the player empowerment is somehow going to leak into football where the bodies are really disposable and they can make from one year to the next, running backs, disposable according to money, if it's going to be like that, then of course, the powerful player, the star player in that sport who has value, will also manipulate the system in order to get where he wants to get to and do the work the way that he wants to do the work. I've told you how much I enjoy that Jetavion Clowney every year just skips training camp, just negotiates so that he doesn't have to go through all those practices and says, Hey, I'll get there when I get there, and I'll get to the quarterback in 2.4 seconds all season. I'm in because I want to do it my way and I don't want to get hurt and my body is my economy and I need to protect it. But I just saw this happen with Shaq Leonard. I'm like, Why doesn't he get with the team? First of all, the coldness of how Shaq Leonard left the cult, he's given out turkeys in the community as a multi-time pro bowler there, and they wave him while he's giving out the turkeys.

He's hurt by it. The reason they're waving him is because his body's hurt. His body is not as explosive as it was because football's done.

That to him. That's a bad time to wave someone, though. You can't have him go out in the community, hand out turkeys to people in need, and then cut them while he's doing it. It's a.

Terrible job. Stugat, you came up with the single most obvious point anyone could have.

I just wanted to point it out. I mean, what a terrible job of the cult.

Someone had to. Yeah.

I mean, jeez.

It's true. Pull someone out.

It's the reason I brought it up because, yes, it's terrible and everyone can agree with it. That's truly terrible timing.

I just wanted to hammer.

Home the point. You know what? Let me do it differently to give you another chance so it can be even better. You're not going to believe this, Dugald. But Shaq Leonard, while he was in the delivery room, the birth of his child, he is craddling his baby, and the Colts called him and told him he was cut.

You know what? That is such a terrible job by Jimer, saying the Colts, I mean, you are about to give birth, give life to someone, and you kill someone's career. You can't do that. What a terrible job by the Colts. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Well, they didn't kill his career because what he did is the Cowboys and Eagles wanted him, and so he spent two weeks not playing and negotiating with them so he could get the best deal. The Eagles are now the expendables. They have eight defensive linements, Stugatz, that they've been rotating for a few seasons. That past rush is so good, at least because they can bring the fresh, not broken guys or the less broken guys in with the Fletcher-Coxes, who have been there for 180 some odd games.

They also have this great strategy where they draft guys from Georgia.

That also helps. That's why their GM is considered a genius. That helps as well. But the latest player that they're talking about joining them is Endomic and Sue, who hasn't played all season, played for them last year. Basically, at this point in his career, I mean, he won a championship with Tom braided. At this point in his career, Endomic and Sue is going to decide where and when he recs his body for how many games at what time of the season, how hard he practices. You really have with the Eagles and throughout football, if the bodies are going to be that disposable. The guys who have some remaining power left are going to say, Okay, I'll sell you my body at this price, but it's only going to be for six weeks. I'm not going to do it. I'm not buying in on everything you guys are doing. I'll be a mercenary and only that.

Frank Zapa.

Not bad.

Is that better than Jean Shallet? All right, put it on the.

Poll, please. Or the guy from Ghost.

Put it on which one?

The coin guy.

No, that's Jeffang Gandhi, Willy Lopez.

I would like, JuJu, for you to put photographs of all these people on a poll and ask them who I look most like, please, at Lebitard show, because my vote is for Jean Shallet, but you're doing well. Are you engaging the YouTube community on this? Because I would like this to be slightly more interactive with our community. If they have any nominees, someone should be monitoring the YouTube. In fact, Tony, I would love if you were our social media coordinator who monitored the YouTube while wearing that ridiculous mouse head and told me what the good stuff was on the YouTube comment, sift through it and find the two % that's not poisonous acid.

Dan, I was trying to actually look up the Shaq Leonard deal, and I realized I had to sit this close to the screen because I can't really see. Right now, he's in a one year, $1.08 million deal.

That'll make.

You.

Perfect for the job. The best part is that Tony's not taking it off during the breaks. I just saw him responding to a text last break. It was just funny watching him look.

At his phone. I have to hold it really close to my face. Right around here is good.

Yeah, that at two %, huh?

It's not even that good, probably. No, internet. Okay, put that on the pole as well, JuJu, at Lebitard Show. Can you find even two % of positive commentary on the internet? Power, helpful, not even positive. I know you're going to say no to positive. How about just a helpful commentary?

I don't want tank Zapa considering that he's more slender.

Could I add Joseph Stalin to the mix?

Whoa, why are you bringing politics into this?

I'm not. I'm bringing a mustache.

Into it. No, this is... But Jeremy might be more political than anyone around here. That's right. He wants to do a show with George Santos. Him and Mike are arguing off air about, We need to get George Santos for a podcast. Mike, that liberal snowflake, and Jeremy, this- Also a liberal snowflake. -also a liberal snowflake who apparently likes George Santos because the lies are so transparent that he's morphing into Stugach right in front of our eyes.

That's exactly it. George Santos is the funniest person in America, maybe in the world. I think that these lies, he lied about being Jewish for no reason. I believe in his statement for Dian Feinstein's passing is how he announced that he had a husband. He is straight up the funniest person in the world. I don't understand why we wouldn't give him a giant platform to continue to spew lies. We already have Stugats.

He's on cameo. He said he was Jewish to please the Jews in that room. Correct. He changes based on what room he's in.

Yes, correct.

It's amazing. I'll concede that it is funny, but I think the greater problem that I have with us all laughing at George Santos now is it's indicative of the big plague of American politics right now in which you can be shameless. You're not governed by shame. I think if you double down how funny George Santos is, or you fund his legal defense team by getting a cameo, you continue to normalize people that represented a party and a party line because not all Republicans are January sixth insurrectionists. But a lot of them are. A lot of them end up on dancing with the stars or running for president again, and it's all so normalized. These people should be ostracized from normal society. We shouldn't be funding their legal defense. This is shameful behavior that we reward and after the fact, make a punchline. It's pretty serious what's happening in November, and I'm just not down with all laughing at it. However, it is funny with George Santos, and I'm willing to make that one exception, but please let it stop there.

Dan, somebody in the chat says he looked like Gallagher.

Also, yes, Gallagher. Thank you, Tony. I think Gallagher's brother did become Gallagher, too. I think once Gallagher's career was over, his brother just took over the act as Gallagher's.

Pretending- Like the number two or two?

That's a heady play. No, that's a good question, Chris, because I believe he was touring the world as Gallagher, but not because he was his brother. He wasn't actually Gallagher. But in a place where politics... Tony, I can't tell from your face. Did you want to talk again?

I was going to say like the prestige.

Yeah, I wish you hadn't said it.

I mean, file, great film.

You went.

To it. I know because it looked like he wanted to go, but he's been raising his hand, but now the computer is in his hand and the eyes were red. So I was confused by the mixed messaging. I have in front of me, Stugat, though, speaking of politics, a series of details about Chris Christy's niece.

Okay.

And since we're already here, Shannon Epstein was charged. I was reading the details and they kept getting better and they kept getting worse. Shannon Epstein, 26, was charged with one felony, resisting police by force and two misdemeanor counts of disturbing the peace by public intoxication in connection with an incident on Thanksgiving, November 24th, 2022, on an airplane. The saga began aboard a Spirit Airlines plane as it taxied to the runway at New Orleans International Airport, according to nola. Com. Now that sentence right there, Stugat, is per square foot where you find more drunkenness than anywhere in America. Spirit Airlines headed in and out of.

New Orleans. Anything could happen.

Seriously, yes. Anything. Then when Epstein allegedly asked the Hispanic family seated nearby if they were smuggling cocaine. After being booted off the aircraft, Epstein allegedly screamed at airline employees and refused to leave the jet bridge. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office said it eventually took seven deputies to restrain Epstein, who had to be strapped to a wheelchair. She allegedly bit, spat at, and kicked the deputies, and she ranted about knowing Donald Trump, threatening the deputy's jobs and saying, Do you know who I am? I'm Chris Christy's daughter, and you're so bleeped.

The lead deputy in that case, George Santos.

Go sit in the penalty box.

Oh, wow.

Deserved it. He's polluting everybody around here with his desire to get Santos on the air, even though it's dangerous. You will do anything for clicks, Tashay. It's why you're an Emmy winner.

He is not dangerous. He didn't have any real power. He's just funny. We can't find the funny, please. It's all effed anyway. The ship has sailed, Captain Hook.

Okay, but which part of get out of here did you not understand? That felt a little bit like a mutiny. You do not want this hook in your ass. What? Hell, yeah. Maybe What can we do? Who wants a hook in their ass? I don't know, man. Go look at the internet and things that… No, you say this, but-.

Let's not play that game.

Go look at the Internet. I don't want to. What happened there?

What.

Just happened, Tony?

I can't see.

Tony, what did.

You break? Nothing. My water bottle fell. My ear hit the water bottle. You can tell my ear is.

Really big. What a great sentence.

I was trying to look at something on the YouTube chat, but then I realized that there's a lot of space up here. So as I tried to lean in.

All right, you stay on this. Even though we're not even… I want you to keep… This is what I want you to do, okay? Because we're not going to be live anymore in a second. The YouTube chat is not going to be live, but I want you to stay in there looking for Nuggets throughout, even though no one's there.

As we wrap up our live, let me tease something. We've got a huge secret announcement coming up later in this show. Don Lebertard. Don't let me toward. Don't let me toward. Don't let me toward. He was ahead of Tom braided, who also won a playoff game.

A couple, yes. That was literally the most confusing list we've ever done on.

This show. Ceebo's got a better shot of coming back.

Give him a chance.

He's got to be angry. I'm mad.

I'm angry. I want to leave.

Still got to. This would have been your day. You should own the sports media landscape.

Right now. I am. I am. Top seven guys. I would not want.

The judge.

No, no, no.

No, I'm.

Not allowing it. Give them a chance, guys. Number one, no. No, I'm not giving them a chance. I've given them 20 years.

It's a hard for you.

I've given him my prime.

This is the.

Dan Levator Show with the Stugat.

Stugat still has a smile on his face because he is made happier when others serve their punishments. He's not great at serving his. What do you mean? But he enjoys when the segment is about to start and all of us are putting our headsets on and Tony is fumbling around with his head, his mousehead. And just so I can explain this to the audience because I don't know, because I'm an old person, Dead Mouse Five or whatever that it-.

Oh.

Boy. You're so old.

It's.

Just Dead Mouse. I know. Okay, he.

Plays at the- I can understand the confusion.

It's a five instead of.

An S. He DJs at Liv. Look, this part of it, I'm done trying to conceal, okay? I don't know why it is that that person is popular beyond being a DJ who wears. Do people know what he actually looks like? Yeah. The celebrity is just not always costume. It's not.

Like- He's now unmasmed more often than he's masked and put it on the mask is now more of a.

Nostalgic bit. Sounds like.

Aaron Rogers. Tony is trying to do the show this way, and there are legitimate difficulties with it. Stugart, you'd think, would be mad because he can't see Tony's beautiful face, but he's not mad because he gets to laugh at Tony. But Tony, I now want to make fun of you underneath that head because I believe that all of us can accuse you of being simply a volume shooter when it comes to quarterbacks you love, that your evaluation of quarterbacks, and he might be ahead of the game here, Stugat, five years from now, teams might just draft all six quarterbacks because it's such a valuable position.

It's what the Bear should do.

And they're going to get injured. So just draft six of them and see if you figure it out one time. But, Tony, every time a quarterback plays on Sunday and doesn't look like Tim Boyle, Tony falls head over heels in love. It's like the guy who goes to the strip club and leaves every time falling in love. On Sundays, Tony finds any quarterback that throws, that completes nine passes, and he's like, I'm in love.

I can't help it.

This time it's different.

You see something, right? I'll get you guys to understand this point one time. All you need to see is a flicker of light. That's it. For there to be a spark.

She really.

Likes me. I told everybody in week two of Tony's top five, take a look at Sam Howe. There's something there. He threw a very special pass to Bryan Robinson. Sidearm, Dan, I know you remember that pass. It's because you were watching.

And you agreed with me. She told me her real name.

Sidearm across his body, fit through a window, through two defenders. I was like, keep an eye on Sam Howe. All of a sudden, commander said, You know what? This is our guy. We're going to sell everybody. Sam Howe is our quarterback. Last week on Monday, I told you when I gave you my all squint team, Hey, take a look at Jake Brownie. If you squint, he looks like Joe Borough. Then all of a sudden, Mike, I have video evidence of Mike saying, Yeah, the only thing that they're similar is that they're white. All of a sudden, Mike likes Jake Browning.

She stayed after her shift.

And the initials.

I don't think it's the initials. Oh, yes, it is something they have.

In common. You also said that he had a similar swag. I don't think anyone has a swag like Joe Borough.

I didn't say that. The announcement during the game said he had the same vibe.

Yeah, thank you for the correction. Browning looked good in college at Washington. His first NFL start was against a pretty good defense. But yeah, I hope that Tony's game, as we all know, Rec League basketball player, I certainly hope that his basketball game is more efficient than his QB evals because, yeah, he is a volume shooter when it comes to that. Say everybody is good, and then in the event that one of them actually catch on, he gets to be, I was right guy about that.

Do you guys want content or not? I could tell you one guy for the rest of the season and then just be boring. Or do you want.

Every week somebody new? I want.

A new guy every week. Somebody new. Tony, you don't bore me. I don't want you to change. In fact, I'd like you to sink in deeper to this character. But I also don't want to ignore the fact that you're a volume.

Shooter when it comes to this. Everybody's a volume shooter in the contact game, Mike. Nobody puts out just one thing and then lives for the rest of their lives. Every single week, we make something happen on Tony's top five. We prop up a quarterback that needs propping up. I think I... Looking at back in 2012, Washington picked who? Robert Griffin and Kirk Cousins. We're going to take both. We'll figure it out later. Great coaching staff that said that. I'm just telling you now, in 2023, keep an eye on a lot of quarterbacks because the next 2-3 years, Aden O'Connor might.

Pop up somewhere. He's just proved he's a volume shooter. I'm just telling you, keep an eye on all the quarterbacks.

I can't wait for Tony's top five later today where you're still stuck wearing.

That mask. But Tony's right. San Fran did the same thing. They took Tray Lance, they took Brock Bertie, they figured it out. That's what you do. Just take quarterbacks, man. I've been saying it for years.

You have been. At the end, Stugatz is going to win. It's all going to be what Spencer Hall says that America has always done the dumbest thing and then does something slightly less dumb. Football is that. Football is we won't go forward on fourth down. Now even Mike McCarthy is a renegade. It's so strange to see Mike McCarthy on fourth and two.

Back on.

Browning, he looked- Let's go!

We're going for it.

I'm so with Dan. That is, of all the coaches, the one where it's like he's faking it. He doesn't want to be going for.

It right now. Well, trust me, we'll find out together when the games get more important. It's easy to be fourth and five on my own 40 against the Commanders.

Let's go. This weekend against the Eagles. Let me see him.

Do it. But we'll get tight on the road in the playoffs. He will.

When they're already saying that if he doesn't make a deep run, they say he's going to get fired. That's how your coach is going to have to play in the playoffs. Still, guys, my hat fell off again. Let me go get it.

What is a deep run? What does that constitute? Is that championship game? Is that Super Bowl? It's a.

Different for.

Every team. I know you win the division. You have to win one home game to get to the.

Championship game. I can take the snake vibes now from Dan.

It's a pretty good one, too. I think that's just hair, though.

Jake the snake. It's hair and the stash and the fact that you're next to a snake.

Hey.

Or that I'm wandering around through life with a snake draped around my neck.

Yeah. Can we get Stugass draped around your neck? I would love to.

Be draped around your neck, guys. Can you replicate this photo? Can you take the hat off again, Ben? And Stugats, can you pretend to be the pretend to be. This is your pretty method when it comes to this. I'll be a snake.

Wouldn't I have to carry him on my shoulders? That's right. I'd have to try.

Yeah, torturac.

Lex Lueger's torturac. Cody could do it.

I'd have to get up. How much are you- Do.

It sitting. No, you can... Now, well, I don't think that chair can barely hold stand.

You want me to stand up with Stugats on my shoulders and then.

Sit down? Already be standing and had Stugats try to climb on your back.

Isn't there a table to your left? He stands on the table and drapes.

Over you. That table is a little flimsy.

I'm 155 right now.

No shots.

Yeah, in your brawl. All right, Mike. Let me do this then while I am trying to do this because this is going to take some physical exertion.

Chris, go in there and help him.

But while we're doing this, I wish for you and Jeremy, please, to help me because I want to very badly embrace FSU as this show's team as a champion because FSU is really going through it right now. I want to support what's happening at FSU in a way that's prolonged and over the next couple of weeks that we make a show of FSU has been wronged here and the Miami show is going to weirdly defend FSU.

Well, it is an eventful week for FSU for obvious reasons and not so obvious reasons. I don't know how deep into portal season our audience is or all the rumor and innuendo surrounding recruiting. But let's begin with the threatening of lawsuits and how their week is going just from a CFP perspective. There are calls to ban, to boycott the Orange Ball. I got it. Wow, you did it.

Oh, my God.

All right, I'll do the show like this.

For a while. You can? A while. All right, so let me talk about the latest developments. 155? Going on with FSU.

How many cigarettes did you smoke this morning?

155.

So Patrick Payton is an edge rusher for FSU, a real good player. He posted on social media that he is entering the portal. And this is the type of player that you'd want to keep if you're FSU, especially a team that is losing so much talent in the next year. There's all sorts of rumors that it's an NIL problem that the bag that he was expecting to be there wasn't there. This is a very dangerous and precarious situation to be in. For all the talk about John Ruiz and Miami and all that, they haven't given this ammunition to the masses. You don't have kids saying they're not getting paid. Jeremy, as you probably already know, being a UCF football fan, this is a really dangerous, slippery slope, and they can go from CFP contenders to it all unraveling.

Well, that's the thing with FSU is Mike Norville obviously built something pretty special with this team this season. But so much of what's going on with the portal not only allows teams to get into the game of trying to get to the playoff whenever they're building up a team through the transfer portal. But you also have the opportunity for teams to completely fall out of contention when, say, a quarterback graduates or moves on and the rest of your team is leaving via the portal. One of the funniest things, and it's not funny, but one of the funniest things I saw in response to 247 tweeting out that Patrick Payton was heading into the portal was an FSU fan responding and saying, This week has been like 100 September 11th.

That's the right perspective, I think, right?

Oh, come on. From college football. I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about Stugatch's breath. What do.

You mean? It's so bad.

You smell good. I mean, come on, though. It's breakfast time. I know. You smell like an ashtray.

155 heaters for breakfast.

What is that, Mike? 109, 11s? What are we doing? Well, to.

You fans are an emotional bunch, and I have to say, they were wrong. They were wronged by the CFP. I think that they should be in the college football playoff. It's also hilarious. It's the fan base that would be the funniest for this thing to happen to, considering how vocal they are in social media. Laying all the cards out on the table. You know, my ties to the University of Miami and how that rivalry is with Florida State. I want to give as many qualifiers as I possibly can. I rate Mike Norville. He proved a lot of people wrong. He developed Jordan Travis into a Heisman worthy contender to the CFP, told you how important he is. Jordan Travis, not withstanding, this is a team that was built on a house of cards, very heavy through the portal. Now, in this day and age, there's nothing wrong with that. You saw how you can microwave a national contender. However, when they all leave, you need to hit home runs right away, and you're off to a real bad start if Patrick Payton is leaving because in recruiting and in portal season, perception is reality. It is a momentum game.

If they cannot come through and retain their players, players will see that and just totally cross them off a list. This can turn real ugly real quick for Mike Norvel, who again, irate as a coach, that staff has proven in-game adjustments are great. They can develop the quarterback. But the rest of the roster, all portal guys pretty much. Very few roster development outside of a few exceptions. This could go away real quickly. That's unfortunate considering they don't even have the CFP to hold up as a reward for it.

I'm tired of FSU fans. I really am. Enough of FSU fans complaining, bitching, moaning about what's going on or what just happened to their team and their school. Get over it. Your quarterback got hurt. Then your backup quarterback got hurt. Now you're down to your third-string quarterback. The committee sat there and watched you score three points against a Louisville team in the ACC tournament. You know what? In the ACC final, I want more committees. I want a committee to decide who makes it to the NFL playoffs.

I do. I thank God Dan picked his head up because I thought he just got.

Choked up. Yeah, he looks.

Like he's dead. I mean, I do. He's saying he's tired of F. S. U. I am physically and awfully tired right now because I will tell you, Stugart's during the pandemic, has gained 70 pounds.

Don Libertard. This is largely performative, but we need to establish at least some reasonable doubt. Yes, exactly.

I don't think he was a choice of the P-Storie. Hold on. P-storie is.

To top everyone with a story where.

He pays more than you do.

Stugatz. I always like leaving a hand on the chicken. I hate the chicken. Because he's so vulnerable, I just unfairly fade down the chicken to just leave him by himself.

This is the.

Don Levitard show with the Stugats.

I am already, Mike, getting a whole lot of people who are criticizing me because I'm breathing too heavily into the microphone.

Yeah, and occasionally, if you listen real close, your body will make a sound like an anaconda digesting food. Yes. I don't know if that's.

Stress- No, I've been seeing doctors.

-or sadness, gurgling.

This is what I imagine you look like after sex.

Right now. What you look like. Have you been doing a lot of imagining.

Of that? Not never till now, but.

Now I am. Only with the costumes.

Winded and, yes, crazed- Apologizing.

You know what? When you see it.

An animal in the frame.

Yes, everything Mike said is so... It's funny because I'm trying badly to avoid a surgery. I don't want to have a surgery.

Toughening it.

Out, gutsy. Yeah.

Like Tony.

What's happened is that I'm making some sounds that are unpleasant every once in a while. But this, how I feel now and the breathlessness of this particular segment only happens because, and Chris Cody, I'm going to need your help here because you're the one who puts Dugats on my shoulders. I hurt my back. That was hard. He is not light anymore. He used to be… We could throw him around the studio and treat him like a stuffed animal. He is not a person who is light anymore. What you just threw on my back, this is the Steph Curry backpack, Draymond Green fight. It's what my life has felt like for 20 years, but never has it made me that winded to have it just happen that overtly on having the snake constrict my breathing is not something we've ever done quite like that, even though we've built the entire company around that.

I've lifted Stugats before, and you are right. There was, it felt like there was.

Two of them. How much weight do you think I've gained?

Like 50? I'm not throwing stones because I'm right there with you. But it's been a rough go.

Of it for all of us. You don't have to throw stones, but I just feltto that. What I'm telling you is that what I felt on my neck was a good deal heavier. If my eyes had been closed, if I could squint to see it, and you asked me who was on my shoulders, I would have said that's Whitlock.

Huh.

Like if I had to guess.

I'll take it. I got to be honest with you. Not a compliment. I don't know. I feel like I'm in worse shape than he is right now. I do. He's skinny. He lost some weight. I saw him recently. What? I did.

Check it out. Are we going.

To do a- Concerned you're.

On that algorithm. Are we going to do a decathon? We've done so… Stugass, we've done so much damn work to make this an echo chamber.

Get out of the algorithm. I'm afraid to even google him right now to find out because I don't want him in my algorithm.

I know how I got onto his algorithm. He had a great video taking out Deon Sanders on not knowing his backup center's name. I was like, Whoa, this is making a lot of points. Then I'm like, Damn, I hate my ally. How beta of him.

Stugart, I wanted to ask you because I don't want to get too far from this because I don't know. The way that we cover sports now is so poisonous and judgmental that LeBron and KD played yesterday in a marketing game that the NBA invented that is a huge amount of fun. And it's just great and amazing and artistic to see the Pacers care about beating the Celtics. The thing that's.

Artistic about it- The Celtics not caring.

But Celtics caring. You're not-.

Bigger fish to fry. -you're not.

Please admit to me you're not watching. I'm not. There you go.

The.

Artistic. I can tell who's not watching by their takes.

On this. It is fun, indisputably fun. One of the fun things about it, and also funny, Jeremy, because this part is funny, you see how much the guys care in a way that you don't usually see during the regular season. You see that it's at least in part because they can get the other guys on the bench some money that is real money. All of a sudden, all you've added to the NBA is by throwing more money at the bench players. By the way, if we talk about the collective bargaining agreement and where it is the players have gotten screwed here, it's largely because a lot of times in these meetings where Chris Paul is doing the arguing on behalf of his players, the decisions that get made instead of being made for the value of the superstars end up getting made for some of the guys on the bench who have not as much power but can use the money a little bit more than the Chris Paul's, and that's where the owners take advantage of shit on these players because they're human beings at the end of the bench. The idea that the in-season tournament is something that matters because they're playing for money in the fringe is for the little guy in that sport, the little guy.

And that at the top of it, LeBron and KD would still, Stugat, be fighting near the top of that sport after carrying us for 20 years through this sport. I do think we need to appreciate for a second what these human beings are doing. I know we've poisoned Kevin Durant. I know he is now bitter because of whatever the internet has done with him. I know that LeBron is still corny Dad, but he's also a science experiment, unlike any we've ever seen. The idea that he's still doing stuff at the basket that outphysicals people 15 years younger than him is totally nuts. But I want to ask you within this, I want to play some Kevin Durant sound while we appreciate the fact that LeBron and Katie are still great at this. Now we're having the discussion that they deserve, where Kendrick Perkins is saying, Kevin Durant is the greatest scoreer ever. We're putting these people in the context. We spent 20 years saying, This one's not as good as this one. Kevin Durant is not as good as this one, but they're two all timers, Stugats. You've given Kevin Durant no rings. Lebron James has four of them and somehow is viewed as an underachiever.

Like somewhere. You can see him trying to change the math. He did it with one title in Cleveland. If he gets this new trophy that's invented, you see that. It manifests itself on the screen in a game that feels way more important than an early December game should ever feel. So kudos to the NBA for this wonderful idea.

I'll give you that. He had a great game last night, had five steals. He's into it. Certainly, this has helped. It's helped guys be more into regular-season games than they normally would. But we're playing for Christian Wood, who's making $5 million a year. That's the thing behind it. No, there are a lot of.

Guys who aren't you as a sports fan, should say. They're playing for a trophy, which should matter. It doesn't have any value or social currency right now, but through performances like LeBron's and Halliburtons and seeing the emotion at the end of the bench, then this trophy will start mattering when you can attach emotional.

Moments to him. But it doesn't matter now. Winning an IST does not bring LeBron closer in terms of resume to Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan doesn't have one of those.

I can't wait for that to age into two or three in-season tournaments turning into rings. But the cool part has really been, like last night, LeBron James has this huge performance in a game that matters, and he says, I'm trying to defeat Father Time. You get to have these type of moments and these type of quotes that only come from that playoff type atmosphere. What you saw the other night in Indiana was a playoff atmosphere. It was spectacular to see how the end of that.

Game went. What we saw, Sugars did.

Not see right. I didn't see it, but I'm not going to allow you guys to give a win in game 20 of the regular season and make it some meaningful win.

Indiana Pages have 10 guys who make less than three million. They have three two-way contracts on the team. You saw the excitement from that bench.

It was so cool. I can understand why you're arguing that it's not the playoffs. It's not headed toward a championship ring. But to act like these games don't matter at all when there's clearly an extra motivation behind them and the fan bases are leaning into it where you're getting playoff type basketball at this point. I think the reason why this is so exciting is normally because November and December don't matter in this way. People are only paying attention to the NFL. People are only paying attention to college football. These games in the regular season aren't as relevant. Now, these games matter in a way that has been so much fun to watch.

Phoenix is out. The Lakers are still in. And Stugats, I am surprised. I'm not surprised that you're not watching, but I am surprised that we can't get you interested in the idea of these guys are pretty overtly playing for money. They're playing for extra money. I would think that if I put a TV show on hosted by any celebrity and people get to play for money and I tell that he could have an emotional interest involved in somebody winning more money because the contests care a little bit extra, I would think that that would be a game show that you would want to watch. Or in general, any game show like that that gives away money. This is your wheelhouse. Here you have it in sports. Except it is offensive to the hardened sports fan, really? I've got to give them more money to get the emotion out of them? I have to give them more money to get them to not load, manage, and not care? Not look like they don't care?

But it may be bigger than that. I might have to give them more money in this trophy to keep my superstars by giving them moment. Look how Halliburton is bursting onto the scene. Look at the Pelicans who are a play in team presently that since the moment he was drafted, felt like they were fighting for their life to keep Zion Williamson. They're in this final four now, and they'll actually have something at the end of the road, a mark of progress, a piece of hardware to show Zion it's working. Please buy in. I think it's a wonderful thing, and I hope that the NHL learns from it. There's a lot of NHL B-Riders that are taking up this cause. Make the winner classic, the big culmination of an in-season tournament. These are exciting things over in Europe to have your little fledgling club be alive in something that actually matters. I think you're seeing it in stories with Indiana and New Orleans.

I feel like we're turning Stugats a.

Little bit. You're not. Beat the playoffs.

Do it there. I saw your face. I was.

Like, I think we broke them a little bit. But they can't. In all reality, it's going to be hard for Zion and the Pelicans to do something meaningful in the playoffs. I mean, really meaningful outside of the first round. Some of these teams can't do it in the playoffs, but they can do it here in these one-game samples. I think that's going to be cool going forward.

Tires Halliburton, he's the perfect example of this. He has become an NBA superstar in the last couple of weeks, where people have been.

Like, Oh, man. That would have happened anyway, Jeremy. Really? No- It would have.

Happened in any way. No one would have been watching the Indiana Pacers if not for these nationally televised games where they take down the Boston Celtics at the end of a game. He is playing spectacular basketball. But you know what? You would have just said, do it in the playoffs. Everybody would have just said, do it in the playoffs. Nobody pays attention to the regular season. Now, in these couple of weeks, you've given him this platform to turn into the superstar that he rightfully deserves to be, and that is spectacular.

Has this expanded the audience? Are more people watching these games? Because I've been taking a million viewers. I thought they got a million viewers. They got a million viewers. But it became a.

Door to door anyway, guys. Indiana Boss and got over a million viewers going up against Monday Night Football, which is a good story to tell. Imagine if there weren't IST stakes on it, it would be a much lower number.

You would have only had local broadcasts for it, right? Obviously, I work on a local broadcast. I'm grateful for the numbers that we get. But when you look at nationally televised games to build up the narratives for players that you're looking to establish all year long, Bam and a Bio is we're always talking about, he's going to be a defensive player of the year candidate. He doesn't get that love until there's a nationally televised game where he shuts somebody down. Tires Halliburton has taken advantage of this stage. He now gets to do it against the Bucks and Yanes. I mean, this is everything that we want at this time of the year. And to get it in the middle of the regular season, this has been a huge success.

Tony, why are you laughing? Are you playing to the.

Camera there? Yeah, I was playing to the camera there. It's a mask. It was looking at me. So Chris has been talking to my ear like, Hey, you're on camera, nod. When Mike was making a point, I would go like this. Tell us how the.

Sausage did.

Give away the bit. But then I looked up and I was like...

I know, but you distracted me. Oh, sorry.

No one cares about that.