The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Best of DLS: HEEEEEELLLLLLOOOOOOOOOO

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

On the last day of 2025 we feature what may be the best sounds of 2025 and they both come from the legend himself Greg Cote. The first one is his best Ethel Merman impersonation that he blessed us with for seemingly no reason. That was just part of an absolute heater that Greg was on back on November 11 that included the tier of tears, a hilarious interaction with Jumpin' Charlie, and kissing the tip. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats podcast. Hop day. New Year's Eve. How about that? It's, you know what that means? Maybe we should have done this yesterday, but we're not. We're doing it today. End your year with Greg Cody.

Not a Greg Cody Tuesday, but a Greg Cody Wednesday. We've got a couple hours coming at you here. Chris, what would you say are maybe two of your favorite sounds that you're? your father made this year. I mean, I need your support. That's one hour you're about to hear. And then, hello. Wow, you nailed it right off the bat.

It's the, I mean, those two sounds. I mean, he brought it this year. All time. Great year for Greg. Great year for Greg. Great year for Greg. Great 2025. Looking forward to having them in 2026.

We'll get all your Greg Cody Tuesdays and some Mondays and probably some Wednesdays and Thursdays. Greg Cody all the time, forever. Happy end of 2025. everybody. We'll see him next year. Chris, you should know better than to agitate your father as soon as we're starting what we're doing here. You come into the room and your dad has limped in with a cane and you're badgering him about you get emotional these days about anything. And you say you weeped on the podcast. And I really thought your father was going to correct you there

and say it's wept, kid. I'm a writer. I thought he was going to be offended. He didn't he didn't do that he said weeped is too strong fought back a tear or two is how he would phrase it so why are you getting so emotional and fighting back tears but not weeping okay there's an obvious line there everybody knows it when you when you weep you're like openly almost sobbing weeping is the neighbor of sobbing it is it might be the neighbor of sobbing but it's not a synonym with sobbing weeping is to stop before sobbing okay i think they're neighbors i think they're They're exchanging cups of sugar. End of the cul-de-sac.

They're friendly. They're on the same street, but end of the cul-de-sac. Okay, weeping and sobbing to me of the... You're going, uh-huh. That's sobbing. Okay, well, to me, that's weeping. That's been a sussie. To me, wept.

I weeping is just like... I wept. Weeping is silent to me. Sobbing is loud. A few breaths. Weeping is just a few breaths. You know I'm crying. Okay.

At any rate... Sobbing has shoulders shaking. It's a bit uncontrollable. Weeping is single-tearves. sobbing is a flume of tears. I don't agree with that at all. There's no such thing as a single tear. I think weeping requires several tears.

Weeping is stronger than crying. I said weeping is single tears, not a single tear. It's just a tier or two or three or four, whereas sobbing is just a river of tears. You can't control it. Weeping is the stop before sobbing. Weeping is a single file line of tears, one at a time, whereas sobbing, it's like, they're everywhere.

They're just pouring down my face. You're given sobbing too much credit. Weeping is about as emotional as you get. When you weep, there's nothing left. Like, weeping is, I almost said worse. Weeping is more than sobbing, in my opinion. No. Oh, yeah.

This is wild. Sob is bad. Okay, well, can we get to the answer to the question, please? I forgot. What was the question? Why are you getting emotional? Why are you fighting back tears, weeping, sob? I mean, a couple of things came up on my podcast that made me emotional.

I mean, you know, I do find the older I get, the more prone I am to weeping, not sobbing, but weeping. Where's bawling on the list? Oh, bawling, please. See, now that, now sobbing and bawling, neighbors. They might even be like an apartment, in the same apartment building. I'll tell you who's balling Norman Powell. Yeah. You know about that Norman Powell's ass?

That's my gimmick, yo. When I, by the way, I lauded the Norman Powell trade. That's another thing I predicted right. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Another thing you predicted right? Are you going to take credit for the dolphins today? Well, yeah.

I mean, you saw the game Sunday. The dolphins showed up. It took them until mid-season, but they showed up. My dolphins. Another thing you predicted right? Yeah. I lauded the Norman Polly. I called it a pickpocket for Pat Riley.

He got Norman Powell for nothing. Now Norman Powell, you know, ranks on everyone's early season MVP list. He was an all-star last year, wasn't he? He was an all-star, correct? So just to confirm, right from the get-go, you thought it was a good trade, Norman Powell, and just giving up Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson.

Yes. I need your support. Norman Powell was not an all-star. He was a snub last year. He was just on the outside looking in. But the heat saw something. All right, so the Norman Powell story, just to be clear, you figured out the way to make that about you? Well, I mean, you know, nobody else

was applauding the Norman Powell. Everybody was. No. Greg. Greg, Mike Ryan went from being out on the heat to, never mind, I cancel all my opinions based on nothing but the acquisition of Norman Powell. The thing about that is he's got such a plain name. There's never been a Norman Powell that excites you.

There was never a moment you thought Kevin Love, Carl Anderson, too much. Nobody thought that. Yes, he's kidding. There are pieces of driftwood. Give me the greatest norm ever in the history of sports norm. Sports Norms. Nixon. Is that going to be the best?

The third guy on the champion Lakers? The fourth guy on the champion Lakers team? The fourth guy on a champion Lakers team, Norm Nixon is going to be the game. I know who Norm Nixon is, but tell Tony. I want Norman. Norman, not Norm. Norm outranks Norman. I'm looking for a great Norman.

So Norm outranks Norman and sob doesn't outrank, weeping outrank, sobbing outrank. Weeping has an emotional level to it that sobbing does not. All right, we're off to a roaring start here. That was a really great basketball game last night, and Greg Cody insists that he's right about the dolphins. And I will get to those things in a second. But I have to start with our old friend, Greg Cody, limping in here with his trickney and a cane, a cane that has made him emotional for good reason. Jeremy asked me during the intro, is wailing atop, bawling, sobbing, and weeping? Because I think, wailing is, if we're talking about being in tears, I think weeping is the beginning of the highway, the highway toward your falling apart.

Weeping is the beginning of that. I think it goes weeping, sobbing, bawling, wailing. Where's crying? Crying's the starting point. Crying is ground zero. But where do you have blubbering? on that list. Because blubbering, I don't know if that's above whaling, but it's right there.

Blubbering has to be above sobbing, doesn't it? Although sobbing has some blubbering, does it not? Blubbering's a cartoon word. I think hysterical is obviously that that's a very deep cry. I think whaling is the deep cry with like, that's a wail, okay? And blubbering, you also have snot bubbles. Blubbering is the... Yeah, that's snobbering.

No, that's snobble. That's sobbing as well. That's sobbing too, though. So what are we calling this? We're calling this the tiers of tears? Ah. That's what we're doing, Roy. We're doing the tiers of tears.

An important tier, the No shot Moreno during the National Anthem tier. Where does that rank? Because that is a massive tier. That's the fight in Detroit. That's what that is. All right, you guys got to figure out how it is to get me to the best of the ugly criers you've ever seen in sports, because now we have to. get to who classifies for wailing, bawling, sobbing, weeping in the history of sports?

A good, good crier in sports, Thomas Hill, after Christian Leitner makes the shot. Thomas Hill, ugly crier. Can you guys think off of the top of your head of some time you have seen an athlete just sobbing? Oddly enough, the image that the image that surprises me as we talk about it is Eudanis in the Heat locker room in 2006. I don't think that's something that was public. But I just was startled by it because it's someone since I've covered since high school

and all of his emotion never looked like that. Like obviously you know how much he cares. That was sobbing. But yes, that was sobbing and I was just caught off guard by it. I think sobbing has a volume to it. Like I don't think you sobbed quietly. I think if you're sobbing, someone else with their eyes closed knows it. That guy's sobbing, because sobbing is a heaving.

I think everything after weeping that we described here has a sound to it that you can hear with your eyes closed. How about Nancy Kerrigan? But that was more pain inflicted. Okay, but that was sobbing. That's whaling. That's whaling. Whaling Jennings. I knew that was coming.

He's right about that. As soon as we said whaling. Yeah, I have to. Anyway, the emotion that we were talking about with your cane, you come in here in a cane, your son told us yesterday. I also want to get to jump in Charlie because you were complaining about his weight gain and how generally unruly he is, your dog. But Chris is alleging, the reason we're talking about wailing, sobbing, and gnashing and all of these things is because Chris is alleging that you get more emotional now than you ever have and you get emotional he's claiming over some small, small things like him just telling you that your granddaughter went to soccer practice. So what's happening with your cane right now?

Well, here it is here. It's a lovely wooden cane that... Are you going to cry now? Because if you are, like, I've got to mentally prepare it. No, no, I'm not. I would prepare yourself. No, I'm not going to cry right now. But this cane, I believe it was bought in a deep south general store, like in North Carolina or someplace.

And it was my dad's late in his life when he used a cane. And this cane had not been touched for more than a decade. I did use it as my first foray as the owner of the cyclones. That's true. You did. You're right. But outside of that, it hadn't been used. Is that desecrating it or no?

I think it is desecrating it or no. I think it is desecrating it. I think that's honoring it. I think, wait a minute. What do you think? It fit the character. We need the judge. We need the, is that honoring him or is it desecrating?

It will get to the rest of the story. But let's make Zaslow. Give me the details again. Make a ruling. Greg Cody was alleging that this cane of his father's wild Bill Cody had not been used in 10 years. It had been in the garage or somewhere else? It had been on two nails on top of a door in the garage. Okay. So, it's not been used by me in more than a decade. All right, hold on a second. Before we go down this path, that garage is an atrocity. If there is anything being

honored, my atrocity. It is your atrocity. That garage has been an atrocity for 40 years. It is dirty. It is, it is out of saw. It is awful. But if there is anything being honored in there, I might think that that's the only thing because there's nothing else that you put up on a wall to that's been above the door in your garage since your father was alive, I feel like. Correct. Yes, absolutely.

When did he pass away? 2006. Okay, so that's the only thing in your garage that is an honor of any kind to anyone. Yeah, right. All right, so he's saying that it hadn't been taken off for taking. years but one day old parasol wielding owner of the cyclones comes in there and says i need something

funny as an outfit for my owner of a highlight team and he reaches up there it's probably dusty right it's probably got because i don't see your father cleaning that a whole lot you reach up there and you grab what you think is a gimmick to uh to give to give your ownership of the highlight team some personality. And so the question before Zaz is, was Chris Cody honoring Wild Bill Cody or was he desecrating what was happening with Wild Bill Cody? All rise. The honorable Jonathan Zaslow now presiding with prejudice. I need one final piece of information and it comes from Greg Cody. Did you know that Christopher was taking the cane for this event. I don't believe I did. Now, with that said, how would you have felt if you knew that

he was taking it for this event? I would have been taking aback a little bit. I would have been surprised. I made my ruling. Whoa. It's a disgrace. Oh, my God. With prejudice. Unforgivable. That's all I needed to hear. That's the only information I need right there. That's a disgrace. I support the ruling. If it's true, if it is indeed true, and I'm not sure it is because I can see Greg forgetting. But I can also see his son not asking permission because he knew that permission was going to be, no. That you ask for forgiveness. Learn that from around here.

Ask for forgiveness, not for permission. I was trying to teach that the entire time at ESPN. They never really believed in it. So tell us the story then. forgive us for interrupting you excellent ruling tony good work by you uh in fact you know delayed penalty on chris cody for desecrating uh wild bill cody's uh cane do a penalty for that minor penalty two minutes asshole it's two minutes for asshole it's not two minutes comma asshole like i don't know why they read it like that it might be because they don't know how to do

comment who did that it's too man come on you know it's two minutes for b Being an asshole, and it should be five minutes. Anyway, tell us the story of the cane, please. I'm just curious, though, in the history of the show, who is the previous person penalized for desecrating a cane? I'm just curious how common that particular ruling. I was once disrespectful of Warren Sapp. Come on, that's a good joke. I saw what you did.

Come on, that's a good joke. In the local hour, a cane joke? No, that wasn't bad. Prejudice. Thank you, Roy. The bad breath joke. It wasn't bad. Oh, man, it's a legendary joke that's got me in trouble with Warren Sapp for saying that he had chronic halitosis.

Did he? Yeah, but I told him that privately. The truth is the best offense. Hey, Jeremy, happy holidays. Happy Junuka. I want to toast you. Actually, I don't. I will toast with you.

Okay. We're co-workers. Mm-hmm. Friends, you could say. No, we cannot say that, but we both enjoy an ice cold Miller life. That's true. Especially around the holidays. You know, it's a 50th anniversary of Miller Light.

It's really amazing. Every time we say that, I can't believe it. Well, it's crazy because, like, they've basically been partners with the Dan Levitard show for half of their existence. Wow. When I put it to you that way, we got an old-ass show. Yeah, we do. That's crazy. Hey, let's look around at our friends, not each other, and our family, even though they're not here.

I do miss your brother, though. Yeah, I know. I'll bring him back. And take that first sip. Look around and know that we made the right decision. When it comes to a domestic light logger, Miller Light. is the best. And it's a holiday season, as we mentioned. Why don't you enjoy that holiday season by drinking a beer that won't weigh you down? The original light beer since 1975 still hidden

different 50 years later, brewed for flavor with simple ingredients like malted barley, rich, balanced coffee notes and that iconic golden color that you can see from across the room. The best holiday beers are the ones you don't expect. Miller Lite, great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tis Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. The stage is set. The college football playoffs are here. Every snap, every drive, every touchdown, Draft King Sportsbook, the number one sportsbook for live betting, puts you

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tax may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. Limited time offer. Don Lebertard.

Is there back in my day? There is, actually. Are you not going to tell anyone? In one, wait a minute. You guys, it's a Tuesday. It's a Tuesday. Stugats. Here's your guide.

Greg Cody, with Bagging My Day. I hope my head. Okay, here it is. Sorry. Adeltery. Oh, wow. We are back. We're waiting for this one.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats. Anyway, the story of your cane Okay, I didn't realize how much this cane meant to me until I started actually using it as a cane and it just made me think of my dad a lot and sometimes if I do get emotional on my podcast I say things that are embarrassing and that I instantly wish I hadn't said

but I admitted on my current episode that dropped yesterday that, and I'm embarrassed to say it now but I was alone in my house one day and I kissed the cane. and embraced it and it just it felt good to do that why would you be embarrassed to say that because I'm kissing a piece of wood it reminds you of your late father though like you have very little very few things that keep him alive this would be one of them that very few material things that would keep him alive certainly and so that's a beautiful story you should

you shouldn't be embarrassed by that thank you that in fact I would say that after a lifetime of knowing you to be somewhat repressed with your feelings, it's not surprising to me that late in life, as you consider your mortality, you consider your dad's frailty when you didn't know him to be a frail man, but at the end he needed to walk with a cane, and you stubbornly tell your son that you don't want to use this cane, but you come in with it today. So you changed your mind here in the last couple of days. Something happened because he said that Erlene was very frustrated with you because you weren't using the cane at home. Right. Yeah. I, you know, I think, my knee's fine. I don't need anything.

But she, and I saw the physical therapist yesterday for my first session, and he said I should use the cane a little bit longer as well. So I'm pleased to use the cane, you know. The Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody. With, yeah. Does it have any other things in it that are teasable, things that would make people go over there to hear about an old man hugging his wooden walking stick. I mean, kissing the shaft.

I talked a lot about your father. Desecrating again. He's desecrating again. I'm giving details to the audio audience. They don't know. Could have been the tip, could have been the handle. I don't know. If I'm listening, if I'm only listening, I don't know where he kissed it. There is a funny exchange

on the podcast. He says, did you kiss the tip? Come on. He just did the shaft joke. He was thinking about it all night. And he He said he saved that one for here. The tip was an exclusive. Thank you, Chris. Nothing is sacred.

You're doing great work. The tip was an exclusive when you're executive producing the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Cody. Nothing is sacred. You turn it into the shaft when you're in here. Yes. Your father's talking about what your grandfather means to him, and you're talking about kissing a shaft. I need your support. Thank you, Zaslo, for the support of, thank you for this.

Thank you for that clarification. Thank you for the support that is needed around here because that's disrespectful. We'll get to the heat game in a second, and we'll get to Greg Cody being right in a second. But why has jumping Charlie gotten fat? How old is he? He's three and a half. Silly young dog, fully grown, but somehow growing. No, I think he's pushing 100 pounds now, 90, 95.

And he just doesn't get enough exercise. We tried taking him to the dog park. He won't have it. he does run like a maniac in my backyard but you know that's only so big and so he gains a little bit a little bit of weight but there was a funny aside in the podcast when I'm trying to have a serious conversation with my granddaughter about her betrayal on on her uh punishment powers vote and in the background what does that mean what what did you just say no every what did you just I need your support.

Greg. I needed her support, and she didn't give it. Greg. What? You can't say my granddaughter. You've got to give the audience more than it. You can't assume that everyone listening to this listens to every episode of the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Cody

and knows what your granddaughter's betrayal means. What was the phrase you used after that? The punishment powers. We had a PFPI commissioner proposed a punishment power in which repeated. offenders on the weekly deadline to submit picks would go through a series

of warnings leading up to an eventual one game penalty. Tony has a question. Dan, when he talks about the PFPI and talks about the commissioner, isn't he the commissioner of said league? Yes, I am. So why didn't you just say I put together a vote instead of the commissioner? It feels

like that's more grandiose. I'm speaking in the third person because I'm honoring the office of the commissioner. You know, Whenever I refer to the league, it's uppercase L. I always turn in my picks late, so my dad, the commissioner, proposed, hey, if you're late more than one, more than a few times, you get punished. And we went around, everyone voted on whether this was fair. And it all came out, it all came down to my daughter.

Wow. And we needed a 5-3 majority vote. It ended up being a 4-4 vote. And I was betrayed by my youngest son, Michael, and by my granddaughter. I anticipated both of their support and got neither. I need your support. Exactly. Yes, I did.

And she didn't give it. And so I was... I need your support. And so I was asking her on the podcast why she voted like she did. And in the middle of that serious conversation, the dog and the cat are hissing and clawing and just acting like animals in the background. I mean, they are. I know, but they don't have to act like it on my air. Okay.

Well, they act like animals. at least in part, because the cat is untrainable as a cat, and you've poorly trained Jumping Charlie. You sent him out for boot camp, and he learned a few things that he does when he's at boot camp, but then he does whatever he wants at your house, and I've seen, like, this dog is unreasonable, and what's happening here in between,

like, I'm surprised that this doesn't escalate. Let's see, does this have sound? Because the video's great, but here is the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Cody. You will see in the foreground, you will see his beloved cane that he hugs while weeping or sobbing or wailing. And you should, you know, you should not call that the tip or the shaft.

It's his beloved uncle. His father, Dan. It's wild, wild Bill Cody's cane. That's in the foreground. This is a work of art what's happening right here in terms of look back into the past. And here's what the 1950s looked like. Somebody in the league. Charlie and the cat.

Hold on, dad. We're getting a free show right here for our YouTube channel. Okay. That's two hisses from Charlie, I mean, from Ollie. No. Hey, Charlie, no, no. That dog is not trained. That is not a trained animal.

What did he tear up there? He goes, look at this jerk. What did he tear apart? There was fluff all over the place. He just, like a blanket that stays on that couch. Yeah, it's a dog blanket. It's fine. It's fine.

He's got fragments of blanket in his mouth. No, he's a dog. That dog will kill me one day. I thought about that walking on a cane the other day. If that dog unintentionally runs into me and knocks me off my pins, I'm in trouble. That has happened to me at the dog park with my dog, where he hits me in the legs, and I go straight down face first. I fear that. Which is you don't want to have happen at a dog park, because face first is just shit and you're it.

You're like, isn't that Dan Lebitart? right yes it was me doesn't he hire a dog walker he gets up he's got shit on his face I mean I could have I think that's Dan I could they could have absolutely

happen like but there but for the grace of God do I not have shit all over my face as my dog has taken out one of my pins as he called it so where are you on the cane so you've come around and now because I got to tell you

you walked in here today and you looked regal I don't know I have very rarely in my life felt softer toward you than watching you walk in here. You don't like to show weakness. You don't. You're a stubborn old man. Didn't the doctor tell you you're holding the cane with the wrong hand? Yes.

No, not the doctor, the physical therapist yesterday. In the first five seconds of seeing me, he says, you're holding the cane wrong. We're going to get to that right away. Well, it is funny. It's your right knee, correct? Yeah. You've been holding the cane in your left hand the entire. Well, that's the correct time.

The correct way. It is it? Yes. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Look it up, as I like to say. You're saying you had it in your right hand when he told you you were doing it correctly? I thought I thought that you're keeping weight off of the leg.

I thought so too, erroneously. No, all the cane people out there, all my canes stand up, but carefully. They're all saying. The cane is in replacement. Exactly. Thank you. It's a golden cane. No, everybody's nodding like a bobblehead because I'm right.

The cane is in replacement of the leg. All I can tell you is I know what I know. I think you've got a quack. According to Google AI, Greg Cody is right. Thank you. You hold it in the opposite hand of your weak or injured leg. Hello. I need your support.

Hello. You don't trust me. I've been walking this earth for 70 years. I mean, in our defense, you were wrong yesterday. Gaining information every step of the way. I want to get that off the ground. ground as a celebration when you are maximum right about something you you summon some ethel merman some shirley temple and you just say hello yeah and if you want to make the e and a i don't object

hello you know he's going to be done an hour too right he's got nothing left after this what a heater Like he has given us 25 minutes of flames He's throwing 107 out of the bullpen I've missed him so much He's never been weaker or stronger I don't have eyebrows I mean he's singed me

He is totally on fire Can you tell me the hello That's as victorious as I've ever heard you It's the world's strangest victory lap And I can't believe you're right about this I believe that the audience sides with us in thinking that the cane is something that is put on the side of the body so that you're not making the leg that is surgically repaired weight bearing. I thought the exact same thing. For days, I was walking like this because it was my right knee.

And that does keep pressure off it. It makes it hurt less to walk that way, right? The other way, you're putting full weight on your right. me that's what i would have thought but the that's the first thing the physical therapist said he identified a man using a cane in his wrong hand and instructed me and and sure enough it's accurate it doesn't make any sense to me either it doesn't make sense to me either uh we get to get a physical therapist on the line to explain the the who's and what force but uh but i know now i'm i'm walking correctly with a cane Cleveland clinic says that if you have an injured or weaker side you hold your cane

on the opposite or stronger side. And presumably, that's because if you're going to be exerting force on that cane, you're going to be needing to support yourself. You're using your stronger side to do so, despite the fact that seemingly it doesn't allow you to take the weight off of that leg. Don Libotard. I heard that as a woman faking pain. I didn't think that sounded real.

I really didn't, you know. It was not fake. It was in no way fake. You can spot a woman faking it. Stugats. Yes, I can, Jess. Expert. I've been married 40 years.

This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. I'm very confused. As am I, as I imagine the audience is. And when Jeremy mentions Cleveland Clinic, it was Miami's clinic last night. Cleveland had it fall on their head at the end of the game. What a Segway. What a Segway. Wow. Can you guys tell me, even understanding that Eric Spolstra had the worst season of his life last year,

calling a timeout at the end of the game that he doesn't have, just costing his team the game. His percentage point rating with the GMs in the league who vote on such things went down because Eric Spolstra had a bad year last year. The results were bad and he had a bad year. Everything that Eric Spolster was about sort of got torched from the inside. on the last flames of Jimmy Butler, have fun with that Golden State. What Miami has done in the interim is what it usually does,

which is, guy you thought was nothing, gets here and is better than that, or guy you may have thought was underrated, gets here and becomes a lot better than that. Norman Powell must be frustrated, snubbed for the All-Star game last year, that he had to be in the shadow of three guys with the clippers

who now flail with. without him. They lost last night to Atlanta at home. They're relying on James Harden to be the center of that team. And Norman Powell has been given the opportunity in Miami that Tyreek Hill was given in Miami. Hey, cared about basketball all your life? Care the way Udonis Haslam cares when he's sobbing in the locker room? Care to be the number one here? And wow, more points through seven games by a lot than any heat player. You trust him because he can do all of the things offensively, like all of them. It's not just Hockes now

who's not giving you necessarily threes. Powell can do all of the things. Offensively, you're playing Cleveland and you're holding off at the end, a barrage from Sam Merrill and Donovan Mitchell making the most ridiculous of shots. No, cheating on that last play, though. I can't take that play away from Donovan Mitchell,

even if he had been behind the bench. Like, if so far out of bounds, like I have to give him that shot because to not give him that shot would be wrong. That's Khalil. We're coming at him. And Andy's just, That whole sequence at the end was ridiculous.

I believe Cleveland's the best team in the East. I'm not saying anything shocking there. For the last couple of years, I felt like they have been, except they can't beat New York. They don't have a chance against New York because every time they play New York, New York matches up well against them. But Donovan Mitchell is a special player. And at the end of what that game was yesterday, he made a special shot that had former Heat member, Thomas Bryant, on the Cavs bench, making the face we were all making, which is like, how the hell did he make that? That's the tallest player on the court, one of the most athletic coming at him, arms outstretched.

He's got his back to the basket, and he turns around and just throws up a shot that's a good deal higher than the average shot. But he was out of bounds. Okay, but the flight, are we in agreement that the flight of the ball was not even a normal jump shots flight? Like, this is a punt landing in the basket, and you're going to keep doing out of bounds? Well, yeah, because if you go out of bounds, that's cheating. Twice it looked like he went out.

Yeah, he was definitely out of bounds. I have no idea if they can or if they did review it, but he was out of bounds. That's it. The parabola of the shot was like Steph Curry versus Wembe-ish, right? Remember when Steph had to throw it up, basically, because Wemby, who's 19 feet tall, was like standing over him, lording over him, that's kind of the same thing. And if you don't think that I was going to be pissed off if the heat lost that game, and they didn't call the out of bounds, you don't know me.

You should file a lawsuit. Well, no, I don't have to. They won. It's okay. But if they lost, could have been a problem for a lot of people. But the end of that game, when I'm talking about Eric's Bolstra, I really don't know. Like, Kenny Atkinson's a good coach. He has helped the Cavs become a lot better by unlocking the usage rate of Evan Mobley, who's a beast on the offensive boards.

It's a really good basketball team. And what happened at the end of that game is just, a coaching surgery and now you need your players to execute okay and and sam merrill blew the assignment i'm not even sure he should be on the floor in that spot i don't think he should be on the floor but okay sam merrill sam merrill as a kind of specialist like duncan robinson i actually miss that kind of guy that he don't have one of those but that kind of guy that will just spot up and shoot threes and we'll shoot 12 a game and we'll get you back into a game quickly what happened at that at the end of that game surgically cannot happen to a coach

cannot happen to a team. You cannot allow that shot to be that easy at the basket when there are only four-tenths of a second left in a basketball game. We all knew that's what they're going to try and do. Like, you'd have to figure Kenny Atkinson had a clue. That's what they were going to try and do. It's the only thing you cannot allow. Even if you have to put five guys,

if you have to put five guys under the basket, the thing that you can't let that happen there is that game to end that way with four-tenths of a second left. Kenny Atkinson might have had a clue, but he was in the locker room because he was ejected earlier for his second technical. So it was the Cavs assistant coaches who were trying to defend this play. And they seemed rattled a few times.

There were multiple moments. Look, unlike baseball, you're not expecting to be without your head coach, particularly in a close game late where there's all these shots being made. They kept showing the assistants. They were constantly huddled up on the side like being in game. Yeah, they were constantly like figuring things out while the game is going on. A hierarchy the way that the heat do. And it actually wasn't even air.

Eric Spolster, who drew up that play. He has had this play on his list for the last several years, he said, for I believe four years. He's had this play sitting on his list. Didn't they win a game with Jimmy Butler like that recently? Yes, against the Rockets a couple of years ago. Labelled CQ for Chris Quinn. And he said, rather than articulating the play himself, he just, I was 10 feet away.

I watched him hand the clipboard off to Chris Quinn, and he was able to diagram that play himself, articulated to the players. You happen to know that's what happened? I watched it happen. Look at me who is 10 feet away I'm standing right there The 10 feet away was not necessary I think it was

It added a lot It took me there Thank you Jeremy You're very welcome Everyone's standing If you really want the picture painting Everybody is standing I'm standing in the tunnel

Getting ready It's me and one of the ushers Who I always get to see And he's always like I don't know why you're here You're gonna give me a heart attack Because pretty much every single game That I call for whatever reason

It ends up being a really close game late And so everyone is standing I'm standing just behind Standing just behind the front row of folks where a couple of people have already left after regulation. And I have a nice view of Nico Jovich ahead of me on the opposite side line, right? And he's standing there and you could see it. Evan Mobley is defending him as this play is about to start.

But then for whatever reason, those assistant coaches that we said, you know, we're really struggling, they take Evan Mobley off of the inbounder. They put him with Jaime Hakez on the opposite baseline. Donovan Mitchell now defending the inbounder, and he's facing backwards, just looking for that inbound pass because with 0.4 seconds left, of course, you can get a shot off. Norman Powell's been hot all game, so they've got him running from the baseline up toward the top of the key. When that happens, you see Mitchell sort of shift that way. You see Sam Merrill defending Davion Mitchell. You had to know that was coming.

Inevitable. Rambling. She's breaking down the play, Your Honor. Objection. He's breaking down the play real quick. Yeah. Real quick? Yeah. I'm painting a picture. Who were you wearing? Express. Thank you.

All right. Look. Let's just get the video or just the visuals of Jeremy after the game. His enthusiasm. This is not me. Tony, you are correct. That was the correct ruling to make.

as someone who was there in the action, the describing of the play at the end with maximum information is the way to go. But I have to be honest here. I've been hovering over that button for about two minutes as I always am when he starts talking. I'm glad you found it. And Roy was smiling the entire time

and the only show Roy was doing was watching me hover over this button. And as I do this, Lewis puts in cue journalist Jeremy. And what I get to see on the screen is the same giddy guy who walked in today with the strut. was waving a paras all around. Heat are good. Heat are good again. And so look at him here in the middle of the action. That's closer than 10 feet away. Look at Jeremy's face. I want you to

close up on the side of his face. That is not a journalist. Eric Reid called him the team's good luck charm when he threw it in there. Look what's happening right here. And so that happiness, who would want that? He's been eating it for about a year because of how bad the heat were last year and what a messy conundrum they were last year but this heat team scores and i will tell you that while this is very exciting and i do get excited about norman powell as a number one in a week east it's still norman powell is your number one and i'm like this season is going to be the miami heat are going to be better than we thought they were going to be norman powell's going to be a good number one if he is healthy um but it's not where heat actually

expectations are the franchises. Like, I understand that it's small-minded and, man, oh man, like, it's almost cruel the standard that they've set, but number one is the standard, not eight-seed, not six-seed, but this team is good enough to be a four-seed in the east. Baby steps, man. Like, why can't this year be similar to what 2004 was, where it was this unexpected team, this unexpected season with a lot of really good young players. And guess what? Now we're going to pool these really good young players and we're going to get a super duper star.

Jeremy's calling them the Pacers from last year. So that's where he's going. Well, I am just wondering like why we can look at this team. Like you say Norman Powell is the number one. Norman Powell was brought here to be their number three option offensively because the offense often runs through Bam at a bio. And then Tyler Hero has been their lead score. Either way, even if you want to make them 1A, 1B, C and what they're doing offensively. He's their best offensive. Their pace and the way that they're playing off. They only set nine picks yesterday, nine picks in an overtime game where they had a 123 offensive rating.

That is insane. That is not something that happens in basketball. And with this free-flowing offense, it doesn't really matter who your number one per se is. What matters is that you have several different options and several different playmakers, which they have, whether it's Jaime Hakez, Niko Yovic, these guys coming off the bench. They have mismatches, and they're going to continue as they get healthy. That's great. But when the playoffs come, and it's a half-court game, and you're not running in pace,

and you're not scoring 140 points a game, who's your dog? Who's your alpha guy who's going to go get you a bucket in crunch time? Beheed have Tyler Hero? Jaime? Like, Norman Powell? Like, they'm out of bio? This is the place that I would just stop you. This is the place.

And this is the cutting edge that I would say, it's fair to say the heat have been pioneering on on the revolution of basketball over the last 15 years of positionless basketball. The reason to be excited about this heat team, you can use all of those old metrics and they're fair

because they've always been fair throughout basketball. Who's your end of the game guy in the playoffs has been a true thing throughout the playoffs since we've been watching basketball. However, with the pieces they have that they were unwilling to trade for yesterday's star in Kevin Duran, a basketball culture franchise, and I'm not going to, let me take

back culture because it annoys people, just what these people do in revolutionizing whatever the future looks like. To take the offense and be like, no picks, we're just going to go after Jimmy Butler ball, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, Jimmy Butler, bounce, bounce, bounce, like to go from that to we don't care who the star is, I'd love to believe in that. It's just no time in history except when the Pistons beat the Lakers because Kobe and Shaq hated each other

has that ever won? And what you'd be trusting here is that the heat know more about how to evolve their maximum pieces than other teams do but the reason they didn't trade these guys is because they knew

it looked like this. Like we didn't know but they absolutely knew that this is what it would look like. Like they had no... Also Jeremy knew. That's right. That's an interesting thing

though. When you think of the architects of like, okay, now we got Jimmy out of here. And man, that ear hurt. Like everything about what that did to us hurt. Anybody want to play here where we don't care who the number one is? Anybody want to play here where we do not care because Norman Powell is coming from the perfect situation. Are you kidding me? The shadow of Hardin and Kawhi and nobody knows how good that guy was last year. Nobody knows. Like, how do you get that for Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson? And then, of course, you put him in this. You put him in this cauldron and it gets better. Great. You like that trade right away. I did. I was all over it. Thank you. Really appreciated that trade.

Biggest reason for Clippers fall off. Losing Norman Powell or Pablo Torre? Oh, Pablo, no doubt. I need your support.