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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 just 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.

Welcome to The Big Suie, more national in scope. But last night was a pretty terrible night down here in South Florida sports. I'm glad you asked. There was a heartbreaking close loss in Kentucky for the Blueblooded Miami Hurricans. That'll happen. It's a slight bump in the road. That'll happen to Blueblood programs. Yeah. You lose a close game in Kentucky, you move on with.

Your season. You cost me money.

Credit to Kentucky. They made all their shots. Did you know that Reed Shepherd's parents were at that game? I had no clue.

Man, did the entire storyline, and I imagine Kentucky. Do they love just the look of Shepherd? Just the look of him.

Yeah, but a lot of upside down news. But again, close loss. You can't hold that.

Against them. Twenty-two points, Mike.

I mean, that's a couple of possessions. Florida Panthers, a tough one north of the border. They get a point. That's difficult. But they had actually won the game on a penalty shot. But there was a video review that ruled, I think, correctly that Rodriguez hit the buck twice. You can't hit the penalty shot twice. There's a Rodriguez with an S at the end. Then Toronto goes on to win.

It still counts. What does? Tony, it still counts.

What's the matter? Zido, something about an Seta.

Put it on the pole, please. Is there something about an Seta.

But the national T&T game featured a local team in the Miami Heat. I cannot tell you the grudge that I am now harboring against Jimmy Butler for not toughing it out for the in-season tournament.

He should be ashamed of himself. Seriously, a game that big with all those stakes, an IST game and he sits out.

I think yesterday, with everything that was going on with the in-season tournament, showed why it's not a bad idea. Because you can hate on it all you want. Last night in the NBA was made vastly more interesting because of the internment stakes that we have assigned to it. Because you know, yes, this is not only a loss against the Milwaukee Bucks, which God, I hate going up against Damian Lillard in Crunch Time when I'm throwing Josh Richardson at him. That is just not the future I envision for myself entering this season.

That was a great basketball game. That was a fun basketball game. That game had a ton of energy on it. Bam is playing out of his mind.

I'm very happy with my Defensive Player of the Year ticket. There is not a lot of big men that can come out to the top of the three-point line and ISO up Damian Lillard.

That was crazy to watch that. Mike, I know he's done it. I'm not going to get used to it. I'm not going to normalize that Bam makes it so that Damian Lillard can't get a shot off when I'm already disoriented by the lack of normal and Shaq's yelling the last seven minutes of the game. Here is when you go through Lillard. Giannis, get out of the way. Lillard, Lillard, Lillard the rest of the way. And then they put Bam on him. That game was exceptionally fun and on top of everything else, because this part to me, symbolically, is just for our times, amazing. The idea that you have to incentivize with yet more money for these guys to play with an intensity that isn't load management and that brings the crowd fever to a place where it feels like something between playoff basketball and regular-season basketball because it's a playoff game Jimmy Butler would have been playing.

Well said.

Again, to focus on Bam, because we have become accustomed to him being able to do that. This is in our lifetimes, one of the greatest clutch performers ever in Damian Lillard, a guy that is known to be able to get his shot off from anywhere on the court, especially in those moments. For him to not be able to get a shot off to have it stuffed by Bam, who picked him up at the three-point line, crazy, athletic. I don't understand when I look at the odds of defensive player of the year, how he's like fourth or fifth. It just boggles the mind. But that was a great game. Haques got some national recognition. Everyone knows that this kid is a little bit older than your standard rookie, but this kid has got a ton of promise, has a big body, fits the heat culture, quotes quite well. But I was really pissed off that we didn't see Jimmy Butler there. I thought for sure he'd turn it on and rub some dirt on it for this big game. That really stunk. Also, you should fear the Bucks because Chris Middleton becoming their third player, their third best player in those moments is killer.

Mike, I'm glad you brought up.

Hymnahawkaz, Junior. He has the Zeta.

He has the Zeta. But he has something else. I'm ready to make an announcement here and now for Real Hooper Nation.

Okay. What is that?

Oh, wow. Wait a minute. I'm just.

Announcing something.

Hold on. Wait a minute. What is that? What is that? Wait a minute. Are you the President of Real.

Hooper Nation? Tony and me are definitely.

In it. Real Hoopers, no. Has a nation, and I am probably the spokesperson for Real Hoopers Nation on this national platform.

Co-chair me.

Mike can maybe be a co-chair. I have to see some of his credentials. The Wemby take is obviously not.

Helping him. Well, I got a take for you. I'm hoping you got the same take as co-chair.

What I was going to say is, Jorge Haques Jr. Is saucesy.

Same take, Mike. He is saucesy.

I co-sign on that, but here's my take. Okay. Jorge Haques Jr. Is the rookie of the year.

Come on.

I love that Mike said he's not your standard age for a rookie because he played four years in college.

That's.

Correct. He's the exact age rookie he should be.

That's.

Changed. 1997, yes. No, not so much. When he drove to the middle of the paint.

He remembers new metal.

He's 22. Behind the back, little step.

Away fade. Twenty also.

That was beautiful. Saas. R rookie.

Of the Year. No, come on. What do you mean, come on? I don't think you can call that. He's a rookie of the Year.

Thank you, Billy. In your honor, I threw it out there.

I've been onto this Evan Rodriguez, by the way, from Canada. I'm looking into this.

I mean, you can be Latino from Canada.

His dad's from Europe.

Well.

Is he Spanish?

Is he Spanish?

Wait, hold on. Hold on. It's Hispanic? Tony, are you saying no, you cannot be?

I'm saying that the chances of you having a Rodriguez with an S, it's more likely that you're either Brazilian, Portuguese, somewhere in that nation, right in that nationality, more so than it is Hispanic. Okay. Because you need.

A Ceta. But is he Native American the same way that that five-year-old... Is he Hispanic the same way that that five-year-old-.

Well, he's from Canada, so he's not Native American.

Yeah. That is not what you want to fumble your way through, Dan. I'm Googling Evan Rodriguez, Native American. I don't know what you're.

Going for. What I was going for is a callback on the joke to the five-year-old at the Chief's game.

At least it wasn't a dangerous one.

I was looking for his actual name because they're claiming he's Native American, but his first name is actually Holden. I was confused by that.

I have no reason not to believe the parents and everything like that. This whole thing makes me so sad and depressed because it's just internet rotbrain and it's not a real discussion. Also, we were in a group chat with Pablo, and he correctly pointed out that headdresses in that stadium have been banned since 2020. How do you get it in? The pivot from the people that have been holding up, and I do agree that the fact that this kid has become the face of something, the kid, a five-year-old, allegedly, or whatever, child shouldn't be the face of really anything. I find it wholly unfair. But the franchise and the NFL had banned that garb, regardless of... Maybe he applies a context at gate check-in like, No, I'm actually Native American and I'm celebrating my heritage. I don't really care. I don't know how this has become a thing in the year of our Lord 2023, where Deadspin is back in just because it was a headline grabber and you get associated with it because it was a retweet. I'm very confused by all of this. It's all very dumb to me.

Well, but this is the thing about the word dumb, because I found that a lot of these discourse is descend into the following, right? Whenever it is that you say internet brain rot or stupid or dumb, whenever someone feels that headed their way conversationally, the defensiveness starts. The fight starts when you start telling them that their belief system is dumb. And the other thing that's in play here is whenever you throw the word racist around too, that something is racist. The part that's confusing to me about some of this, if you want to actually discuss it honestly, if you want to not do this in bad faith. I remember in the 1990s, at the beginning of the 1990s, I'm at the Atlanta Braves Minnesota Twins World Series. And outside of that World Series, about nine or 10 people, Native Americans, are protesting the Atlanta Tomahawk chop. And I went over there to just talk to them and then was just made sad that they weren't being heard. And so when this conversation gets this angry, this divisive, when it is being used as a platform for victimhood, Stugart. You have right now, in Donald Trump, you have somebody who the one thing he hasn't had as a white person is victimhood.

And now he wants victimhood too, as a platform. When you start trying to take away the power from the powerful that they've already had by simply saying, Hey, I object to this. Can you hear me out on this? And they hear it as, This is offensive. This is stupid, this is racist, and they hear it as an argument. We get to the point where we are now where no one actually wants to discuss this stuff anymore because they're not equal and fair fights. They're not honest fights. They're not honest debates or disagreements.

Wait a second. You were at the Jack Morris game?

I was.

What?

Yes.

Oh, my God.

One of the all-time great starts in Major League Baseball history. Perhaps the greatest start in Major League Baseball history. The stakes could not be any higher.

That was your takeaway. I'm going to share my personal experience with this story. I saw it online and I didn't even notice the face paint. I swear. I just assumed that it's fan colors. I just noticed the headdress because I saw two stills, the end zone, which said end racism and a child wearing a headdress, which is loaded. I thought that that was the entire thing. Then a couple of days later, I find out that the people that are holding this kid up and making him a victim, which I agree he is a victim in all of this, they're ignoring the headdress, which is the only thing that I really saw the first time. The only time that they're actually paying attention to the headdress, and they don't understand this is, Okay, let's take everybody for their word. The child is of Native American ancestry. Well, that absolves it. You actually see what the issue is here, right? Yeah. Wait, now it's convenient that someone is Native American. Well, how could it be offensive if he's Native American? Then you're already conceding that the headdress is an issue if he's not.

The part, though, that is frustrating conversationally about this, and this is the part I won't get to Stugart. If somebody, anybody tells you, Hey, I'm sensitive about this. This is to my people. This is something that's objectionable. I'm not yelling at you about it. Those people protesting outside. This was 30 years ago, Stugart, outside the Jack Morris game. They were asking.

They were requesting- He tossed 10 shutout innings, man. It was incredible. Not nine. Not the standard nine. Jack went 10. He tossed 10 shutout innings in a game seven and won the twins of the world series. That's when baseball was baseball. Damn right. Jean Lark at a little base hit. I mean, wow.

Jean Lark. Don Lebertard. Were you guys building out the A-rod bathroom of your imaginations? Is that what I heard you discussing during.

The break? Towels with an A on them.

You know the thing you slide the toilet paper on? That's a baseball bat.

Hey, I like that. Stugatz. You think he actually calls it the throne? Probably does.

I think it's an.

Actual throne. An actual throne?

There's got to be a full-length mirror in there somewhere.

I imagine somewhere in his house, he has a replica of David, but with his head on it. This is The Dan Lebertar Show with.

The Stugat.

The crew from oddball has thundered into the room. You've got the star of the show Charlotte Wilder, and also is here. Audball is every day except for Monday. Stugats, why were you giggling to yourself before the microphones came on here? You were just… Were.

You looking-Just a meme was moving your pants. There was a belt. I was thinking about belts. I don't wear belts anymore. I don't need a belt. I don't like belts. Belt's getting in.

The way. When you say you don't wear belts anymore, are you saying have you transitioned to drawstring pants?

No. Listen, I've arrived at an age where I don't care. If the pants fall down, they fall down. A belt is one extra thing I don't need. They're not making 35-inch waist anymore like they used to. I probably need a belt, but I'm not wearing a belt because I've stopped caring about myself.

Can I give you a suggestion where the pants have a belt in them that you never take off. Get out of here. You just keep the belt in there. Really? Wow. That's the move I have. I have multiple belts. They're already in the jeans. So when I pull out the jeans, I put them on. They already have the belt. I'm not looping any belts anymore.

I'm really embarrassed to say this is killing me, but I wouldn't be an honest journalist if I didn't say I also do this. Jess is about to be so disappointed. It's good to be back. You just take your pants off and just leave them there with the belt on? Yes.

I do, too.

What have you to do? There it is.

There are dozens of us.

Amazing.

Me, too.

What? I have separate belts for separate pants.

You have one belt for a specific pair of pants? Yes. I love it.

This is so lazy. You can't even unloop the.

Beltfrom the belt from the belt buckle? No, absolutely not. Like Sugat said.

You can't fold them and put them away if there's a belt on. You know what? You actually can. Well, actually, no, I do have one pair of pants. I have to hang because the belt is too stiff. But the other ones, those fold up real nice. You just drop trowel and that's it. Yes. Actually, this morning, I put my sneakers on before I put my.

Pants on. Oh, wow. I was like, Something.

Feels off. You say they're.

Overworking me.

Hotball every day except for Monday. So hold on a second. When did you notice? When in the proceedings did you notice something feels off?

Please tell me when you walked outside, please. I got.

Both shoes on, and I walked over to the bathroom to check that my face is okay. I was like, It's cold. It was cold.

I had Charlotte patting her pockets to make sure she's got her phone and her keys. Wait a second, where are.

My pockets? Just under pants.

It's just skin then it becomes… You're checking your pockets. You realize you don't have pants on because you're like, Wait a minute, I feel skin. The Stugat's admission here, though. The legs were out. The Stugat's admission that I find a little practically impossible to believe is if indeed they're not making 34s and 35 wastes the way they used to, and you're not wearing a belt, then your pants have to be falling off. Your shorts have to be falling off because if you've outgrown this, your body shape is going to make it. So if you're walking around, the practical purpose of the belt, I know you weren't using it for fashion. No. The practical purpose of the belt.

Is needed. It's to hold your pants up. Needed.

Yes, yeah. Were you guys like me when I was younger, and this is a weird admission, I didn't need a belt. My body held my pants up. I did. If they were going to go down, there were things that stopped them from.

Going down. So I don't need a belt until later in the day. Maybe hips.

Yeah.

Hips. I'm fine without the belt until we hit noon, 12:00, 12:30, one o'clock. Then if I start walking upstairs, which I never do, I try to avoid stairs at all costs, the pants start falling down. I'm good until about noon, one o'clock. Then in the afternoon, as the jeans start to stretch out a little bit, I wish I had.

My belt. No, it's not the jeans stretching out. It's that you're seated here for five hours, not walking around long distances. If you had to walk more distance, your pants would start falling.

I do really like Dan being so concerned with the belt while he's dressed like this.

He's.

Like.

It's a- Dressed like what? What?

Dressed like what? I don't notice anything different.

Stugart is making an admission that I did not think that he had in him. I don't know when this started to just... Because he did say to us just moments ago, I'm done with belts. He made an announcement. I don't know how you can be if your body is changing in a way that makes your pants fall down.

The pants are changing, Dan. I'm not changing.

This is also, by the way, where pockets are not your friend. If you load up your pockets, they.

Really start.

Working.

Against you.

I hate it. You got to be judicious. How much and what you can put in your pockets.

Very lights. I have not been able, and none of us have been able to talk. What is.

Wrong with these people? What do you mean, stuff in your pockets are pulling down your pants?

Oh, no. No, wait. That video of me that they always play that makes it look like I'm chasing after an ice cream truck because I'm just sprinting. I am wearing shorts there that have the microphone in the pocket. The packet is so heavy. People think that I have to run holding up my shorts because the packet for the microphone that's so heavy, so you could hear my heavy breathing, makes it look like I run while holding up my shorts, which makes me look even less athletic than I am.

I had a phase when I was in college. It's actually when I was interning here that I took the drawstring out of my pajamas pants and was using that as a belt on jeans.

No. No.

Billy what? It was.

So.

Comfortable.

You were using the pajamas drawstring on hard pants?

Yeah, it was a solid...

That's what I call jeans. It was a solid gray.

I used to use a shoelace. I'm with Billy.

On that. What a shoelace. Get out of here. Tony, a.

Second ago you just said, What is.

Wrong with all of you? Again, different phase, different time. This was probably around what, 2012, 2011, somewhere around there.

Were you guys riding the railroads? What are you, hobos? Did you have.

Your belongings?

It was so comfortable. It was the vibe.

-it.

Was so comfortable.

Little bag attached to a stick.

It's like a waist hoodie.

A bindle.

Were you struggling with poverty? Could you not afford a belt?

Did you go to Braddock?

No, I went to Killian, stand up.

Was it a fashion style?

It was a fashion choice at the time. I've actually sworn off belts. I don't wear any belts ever.

Thank you.

It was a fashion choice at the time. It was a popular thing to wear a shoelace.

There's no way a shoelace is fitting around a pair of pants.

It did. Well, not your waste since you say that it's no longer a 34 or 35. I thought of Billy the other day because he is, more than anyone around here, reality show obsessed. I had to stop on a television show simply because of the name of it, because I didn't think it could possibly be about what the name of it suggested that it was about. The name of the show was Airplane Repo.

I'm in.

Sounds great. And it.

Is what you think it is. It's basically Dog the Bounty Hunter for retrieving—and this is the episode I was watching—in this case, a helicopter. It wasn't even an airplane, but I was still curious, and I would imagine that this show would become redundant after time. And it had a little bit of that South Beach towing feel to the show where it's.

Field felt- Bernice was a legend.

It felt like it might have been a little bit fake and stuff. But I'm actually curious as to how you go about repossessing in modern America in 2023, when you can absolutely scam your way into an airplane and then have it repossessed, I was actually curious whether Billy would follow that show or whether that's a one-time watch.

No, I'm looking it up right now.

So there's.

A- Four seasons.

There's four seasons of this?

Yes. How do I.

Watch this? As someone very into both transportation and reality shows, this feels right up my alley.

Well, how into transportation would you say you are?

Pretty into it.

But that's all she's got on the matter. We're doing-.

You seem very passionate about it.

She doesn't have any more information.

On this. On the topic of reality shows, there is a new reality show that's coming out on Fox that I just find completely staggering. The title is We Are Family. Have you.

Guys heard of it? Oh, yeah. It's another.

Singing show. It's another singing show. But this isn't, Hey, let's discover an unknown singer, like on the voice. This isn't, Hey, let's figure out who this person actually is, like the mass singer. This is people come up, and then they sing, and then the judges have to guess, based on the way they're singing, who they're related to.

Yes. You have to guess, based on the sound of their voice, who they might be related to. They did a dating.

Show based on this, too. What was that one? It was the celebrity. Your third cousin would be on it. You have to guess who the celebrity is that they're related to. What is up with this trend?

This is what I believe. I believe that these celebrities, these big time singers and stuff, they have hangers on. They have people who are mooches. And they say, You know what? You got to get off your ass and make your own money. I'm done bankrolling you. And the cousin or the third cousin or whatever says, You know what? I think I've got an idea. And this is how they generate their own income. They're still mooching off of the name of the celebrity, but the celebrity doesn't have to actually give them any money. They're making their own money. Big difference. This is right upthe belt. Yes, it is. This is so.

Stew, guys. I did.

Not.

Think of it. There was a story that I saw recently that I think goes with Dan's reality show. I read that someone had recently purchased Elvis Presley's private plane. The most interesting part about it is the private plane has been untouched for several decades. It's just been decaying in the middle of the desert. Someone paid $4.4 million for this plane. We have a photo of it right now. The inside is all red velvet, and it's a time capsule. You see this TV with turning knobs on it, and you almost buy it to see what mystery. What did Elvis Presley hide inside of this plane?

Airplane rehab. Me and Billy go out to the desert, rehab this airplane, make it fly again.

Tony, somebody already bought it with it.

Right, but they need to rehab it, right? It's in plant.

City, Florida. Yeah, they're going to definitely hire you.

I think you should team up with the Property Brothers because-Those hacks. No, not hacks.

No, it.

Means friend. It's my friend now, Jonathan.

You think?

No, I know. I know. He reached out.

Wait, what? Hold on a second. After you met him just milling about the.

Airplane terminal- After you talked about meeting him.

After I talked about meeting him, hes sent a message and he sent a message, and he was like, How? He thought it was funny. I was like, Oh, thank you. Now me, him, and Zoe dechaunel, we're all going out.

You were making fun of them when you were talking.

About it. Not of them. I was making fun of the gate agent who said, and I quote, Every second counts. Every second counts.

Give me a break. Now you are like, Stugat, you consider yourself friends with one of the property brothers because they reached out via DM?

I learned from the best.

That's all it takes.

That's all it takes, man. I'm going to parlay it all the way into a show called.

Airplane Rehab. Airplane Rehab.

There it is.

That airplane is only going the one that we just showed for $4.4 million because it belongs to Elvis. It has no other way. Of course. You don't think.

Anyone else would buy it? I would pay five for a normal plane.

Like that. That plane does not look like something that has any possibility of flight or any.

Possibility of rehab now. Why has it just been there the whole time?

In present state, no. But once the airplane rehabers are done.

Let Tony spend some time with that plane. Exactly right.

It's the opportunity to turn it into a club, I think, or a chic cafe.

Stugach, you got a new business, buddy. Just sell things you say belong to Elvis. Don't live a tard. You're getting.

Started on The Breakfast Flan.

Oh, man, I've been singing a song to myself all morning long. Breakfast Flan. Stugach. Have you never heard the.

Breakfast Flan song? No, hit me with it.

Okay. I wish I had some Breakfast Flan. Breakfast Flan. Where can I find a breakfast like that?

Da da da da da da da.

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugats.

It.

Does not matter what it is that I say to Stugats about the in-season tournament. Hey, you need to watch Rudy Gobert guarding Chet Homegrown and how much Chet Homegren needs to learn. You have to watch this Sacramento Golden State game and the way that played out last night. Some of these games.

Do have- Golden State choked.

That's all you care about, right? That you could come over here and.

Just-in-season tournament and must-win game for the Golden State Warriors, and they.

Lost it. Another reason for you to like this tournament, instead of keep saying you're bored by it, more opportunities to accuse people of choking.

That's a fair point by you. Mike and I were discussing, though, before the show started, that we think LeBron is using this as a way to catch Michael Jordan. He thinks if he wins a couple of these, he has as many championships as Michael Jordan.

He's wrong. No, for sure, because this is what's going to happen 25 years from now. Whoever Stugats is, the new version of Stugats is going to be saying, How many NBA Cups did Michael Jordan win? Zero. That's how many. Completely dishonest with the reality.

Of course, there is one little plot hole in this. It's not that Michael Jordan never had the opportunity to win this. It's that what if the yet to be named corporate sponsored in-season tournament is then named after Michael Jordan?

Checkmate. The Michael Jordan in-season tournament.

The interesting thing about, first of all, you guys know what the script is, right? It's going to be Nicks versus Kings because it needs the two fan bases that are most entitled with no success to justify said entitlement. It's like, Sorry, Lakers and Celtic. No, get out of here. It's going to be and Kings and whoever wins it will not shut the hell up about it.

Forever for all time.

It.

Needs to be Nicks, though. I think more so than Kings, it needs to be Nicks. I think the Nicks fans will say, because Nicks fans will say, We don't care about about it and then care about it so much. While caring, yes. They're going to be like, Oh, but we won the in-season tournament. That will give them hope through until they don't make the finals. Then they'll be like, Well, but we have to. Adam Silver needs a fan base who is going to care about this. The Knicks fans are going to care. It's so perfect. It's so perfect.

Is this banner worthy?

For them? For the Knicks? For the Knicks? For anyone else? No, the Knicks, well, they'll have a parade.

I'm telling you, Charlotte, what you just described, that's not a hypothetical. Outside this door right now, Taylor, our intrepid producer that works with Lucy, goes on the road with her, does all this great content. He sat there and he said, In-season tournament is dumb, but if the Knicks win, though, and.

Now I'm all in. That's what the banner should say.

This is dumb.

This is done, but we won. They're going to put it next to the Harry Stiles and Billy Joel ones. They'll be like, I know it's not. It's like that tier of banner.

They're putting it right next to Willis Reed. Who are you kidding?

The thing that I wanted to talk with Amine about, though, regarding the Warriors, Stugats, because you've got now reports that warrior players are annoyed that Andrew Wiggins is not in shape. You've got a lot of people talking about, Man, Clay Thompson, because he doesn't look very good, looks like he's lost confidence, also looks like he's unhappy because... And they're making extrapolations. His body has been broken, he's aging, and it looks like he's the one that's going to get left out on values. He's got on cashing in all the things at the end. Hey, the company cares about me, right? The company cares about what I did. I helped build that arena. I made you a business that functions because for 10 years, we built a thing that Draymond got paid, and Steph got paid, and Durant got paid. And what about me? But his body's not working, and he's clearly diminished, and he's coming off of injury. I could feel, and I mean, you could speak to how sensitive he is or isn't because he has been cool and confident his entire career, but he would have reasons not to be now, Stugaz, and one of the worst things that can happen to not just an athlete, but an employee, is to be lacking confidence, and now your employer seems to lack confidence in you, too.

Right, but he did so much good for that franchise, so much winning for that franchise. I'm not saying that I would do this, but I am asking you, would you take care of that guy at the end of his career? Would you give him a kiss at the end of.

The career? The reason that I want to talk to Ameen about this is because I don't think that you run your businesses on the emotion fuel. You do take the customer's money in the emotion business that way. But Clay Thompson right now is going to get left out in the musical chairs, as far as I can tell. I think it would be dumb for them to reward the loyalty, even though I always want loyalty rewarded.

The problem is there is ripple effects, right? It's not just, Hey, we can just say, 'Hey, Clay, you don't have it anymore. Good luck. ' And then Steph and Draymond will show up to work happy and okay with it. I remember when Anderson Verjow, I believe, got cut, that impacted Clay tremendously in a way that they didn't expect. It turns out that was his best friend on the road. And him getting cut, a guy who barely plays, end of the bench, impacted one of their best players at the time. And so now, years later, now it's Clay. If something happens to Clay, I think that would impact people on the team that aren't suffering right now.

But you think they'll give him money based on the feelings of.

His teammates? It depends. It depends. Because it's not a binary, right? It's how much money? This much money, okay, it's worth it. This much money? Max? Absolutely not.

Do you understand those two guys? When we talk about how hard it is to keep some of these things together. To me, it's weird that Durant would even leave there. Hey, it was so easy for you guys. You guys were winning. Wasn't that fun? Wasn't that great? We don't know what the internal pressures are, but clearly there's something about that intensity from game to game and day to day that fries people, and they're at the end of this run.

Right. This is the part where I think every time people get confused, I'm like, Look around. Which one of these things ever lasts? It's so hard to continue to do it because it's what Pat Riley talked about years ago, the disease of me. You're constantly fighting all of these pressures, both internal and external, that make it impossible for everyone to say, Let's just come back and do exactly what we did the last time. Beyond the fact that, Hey, the ball might bounce this way. We might not get this call. This guy might get hurt, and that's why we didn't win. Even if everything was perfect, people don't want to do the same thing. They say, I sacrificed it. Now it's my turn, right? Then vice versa. What's happening now is, Okay, your turns over, and Claytombs is like, No, it's not. You see him bristling against reporters. They say, Hey, do you think there's some goodwill that's bought because of what you've done? He snears at that like, Oh, so now I got goodwill. That's why I'm playing?

Well, he still thinks he can play. Of course he does. But he's not as good.

But in his mind, that's not that.

Far off. I don't know if we're realizing it, but I'm excluding the Celtics from way before my time. The 18s. Is this the longest one of these cores have been together?

They are the longest tenured team. When you talk about guys who have been with one team, the longest, Lillard was at the top of the list, and it was a bunch of warriors.

I know the Spurs unit was together for a while, but I think in terms of... They're over close to, what, 13 years with.

These guys? Yeah. Tony Parker was drafted in 2003, and that was the year both him and... Oh, no, excuse me, Tony Parker was drafted in 2001, and him and Manu and Tim won in 2003. That went for 15 years, I want to say.

They're those three as the core.

That's the blueprint. But again, they evolved. All three of those guys went through a transformation of, Oh, I can't do it the way I was doing it when we were winning before. Tim was like, Okay, I've got to be more of just a defensive guy and focus on that end. Manu was like, Okay, I'll come off the bench. Tony, okay, I'll reduce. Luckily for them, they had Kwai Leonard to ascend and take them to that last championship.

I don't know how it's going to end, but I don't think it's going to end quietly. It's not with a bang, but with a wimper. It's not going to be with a wimper, but with a bang. I think you have Draymond, his emotional response to these things. There's a lot of emotion here, and there's a lot of emotion they're showing. When Clay said, What? You want me to bench me? It's like, Oh, okay, this is a tough... We're hitting a bunch of nerves here. And I don't see how you can hit that many nerves on that many different people and have it be like, Okay, one guy's gone. That's fine. I don't know what that looks like, and I don't know how practically that works, but it seems like it's more of a powderkeg situation.

Even think about the Bulls, the Last Dance, we keep talking about six championships, six championships. The reality is it wasn't six championships. It was three championships with Mike and Scottie and a bunch of guys.

It was six for Mike and Scottie, though.

Yes, Mike, Scottie, and Phil. Yes. But then the other three champions were completely different people. Steve Kerr, Randy Brown, Jeff Bushler, Dennis Rodman. None of those guys were around for the first three.

Well, the core for the first three included Horace Grant. The second three was Rodman.

Was Rodman. But even the supportingcharacters. Kival Luno hasn't been there the entire time, but he's been there long enough. So when you have this many people together that long, at some point, it has to flame out. It cannot continue.

It's not just that when you say this many people were there that long. You saw how quickly Durant got tired of Draymond. Draymond, under these conditions, these particular conditions, you got your money. We paid you after you punched Jordan Poole. You turned Jordan Poole, a champion, into an echoing joke. We all watched Jordan Poole win a championship. I mean, we did. I mean-.

Man, I love the algorithm that I'm on IG.

All I get is Jordan.

Poole stuff. It's old wrestling videos and.

Jordan Poole. I dig it. All I get is Jordan Poole and the Wizards- And hats, I can wear the pool. -being the most chaotic, reckless team in the NBA.

You got him as this general patent champion. Serious. I do things the right way. And then I was punched by Draymond Green, and my life turned into shambles.

That's his villain, Arjan Stryker.

That's not. This is who he was. They just had him behind closed doors, and now the doors.

Are open. You say that, but you get a whiff of the inner circle in a way. Man, you know the gloss up that people get when we start covering them in championships? Jordan Pool's reputation was someone that you could trust in the finals. You could say it was a clown show in basketball, but a lot of people watching Jordan Poole would have been willing to give him money.

I always viewed Jordan Poole as a guy who was just lucky to play with Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green. To be honest with you. I never thought of him as a guy that I could trust.

And fight with. I think Draymond would.

Agree with you. All right, but what did you think of Andrew Wiggins?

You thought the same thing? A guy who was lucky to play with Steph and Clay and Draymond Green.

Well, but his reputation has changed. Andrew Wiggins changed his.

Reputation there. By winning, yes.

Yeah, but winning with them, you're saying that he's not responsible for it, but he changed. Andrew Wiggins arrived there as Jordan Pool.

Well, Dan, it's what I've been saying about Kevin Durant forever. The Warriors won before Durant got there. Durant was a luxury. They won after he got there, but they also won before he got there and were the best team in NBA history.

Stugott, shop for your life. Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Pool. Oh, wow.

Wow. Those are my only two choices? Funeral arrangements.

I intend. I think Wiccans gets it off before the shot clock expires, so I'm going with them.