The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Best of DLS: Tony Reali Spreading Joy

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We celebrate 2026 with the happiest guy we know: Tony Reali. We take a trip back to June when Reali came to our studios to spread cheer in the wake of Around the Horn ending. In this hour, he crashes our studio after making every single person in Downtown Miami happy, and forces Dan to do the show with a giant bounce house behind him. There is no better way to start your year with a smile. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats podcast. Happy New Year, everyone. And now the holiday blues set in. Jeremy, I'm instantly sad on this day. It's just like all the holidays, we're so fun, Christmas, New Year's. And now we're just like, we're to the new year. And I know it's like happy, but there's just like a sadness to the end of the holidays for me. I get more sad tomorrow.

I'm still not the happiest today. And so in turn, you know what I think we need a dose of? What? Tony Realli's energy. That's some happiness. Now I'm happy again. That's what we're going to bring. See, now you're happy again.

You're about to hear some of that. So remember Realli marching through the streets of Miami talking to people, just being everything that Tony Realli is. As happy as anyone has ever been on this show. Yeah. He was so happy to be here. And what a wonderful kind, just. ball of energy.

The best. The best. And so we're going to do two things today. We're going to start with that because great, happy, awesome. And then we're going to show you maybe the most angry I've ever seen anyone on the show ever, which is your dad being absolutely enraged when you took his laptop from him and exposed where he was going to have the dolphins in his preseason rankings. Well, I don't think, like, you know, I don't want to spoil the segment, but I don't actually

even reveal it. I just threatened to reveal it. have the laptop and I'm like I'm just yeah exactly everyone's heard this already this is already happens it's fine I'm not defending myself but like yeah I mean my dad was being a little sensitive but judge for yourself yeah judge for yourself everybody happy new year uh enjoy the dichotomy of the dan levitart show dichotomy I know what that means but Roy doesn't could you explain it to him I should tell people because I do know stuagatz that we've gotten to such rarefied air with the trades that Kevin Durant still in play with suitors is something that will

garner a lot of attention beyond where we talk about Devers and Bain. Devers and Bain are players with a future. Kevin Durant is a player with a past. However, playing for a one-year contract and extension at his age, I know everyone has looked at what happened in Phoenix, and And because we were even talking about the last embers of Steph and Jimmy and LeBron last year, Kevin Durant didn't even make the playoffs. And so people are doing something now to Kevin Durant that they ought not do because Kevin Durant will be able to hit that jumper until he is 60. Kevin Durant still is a player, even at his age, 15-time All-Star.

When you talk about 26 points a game, six rebounds, four assists, one block, and this stat over 14. percent from three, over 50 percent from two. That's just him and Yokic. Only two players in the league can do that, where it's like, I will give you efficient scoring still. You can say what you want about his age. You can say what you want about his defense. Don't tell me that somebody can't use that for a year. Well, someone can use it for a year or two years, for that matter. He's a great score. No one has ever said otherwise. You have to factor in the age. He's 37 years old. What makes it strange is why a team. team, if he wants to win NBA championships, why the heat would remain on the list.

I understand the Rockets, the Spurs, that's the team I would choose. If you could take Wemba and go win him a title, that's going to change a lot of people's opinions about you moving forward. So I'm just confused as to why the heat are so high on his list. Durant would be telling you, I'm guessing, that that's previous flirtations with them. I've told you the story before of Eric Spolstra explaining Pat Riley explaining to Kevin Durant before he chose to go to Golden State. If you come here, we think Oklahoma City's been using you inefficiently.

We think that you can, with some support, be better than you are right now. If we stretch the floor and get positionless basketball and have guys shooting threes, and Kevin Durant was like, great idea, I'll do that in Golden State. And that's where they lost him the first time. They've liked each other back and forth for a long time. time. He has respect for the organization or whether you believe it or not, this would be Durant signaling to everyone that he knows it's toward the end of his career and he thinks he could win here. He thinks he could win here with Bam. That's what, he's not signaling I just

want one last contract with the teams he's choosing because he wanted to be on, New York wanted to be in the game for Durant and Durant was like, ah, or no, it went the other way there, didn't it? No, no, they made an offer. The Shams reported that the Knicks had an offer to acquire Kevin Durant at the deadline. Also, would it be foolish to say that I think we're all assuming, all right, it's this heat roster, we trade picks for Kevin Durant and we're done. That can't just be the plan. I think they're a little further away from just adding Kevin Durant and being seriously considered in the Eastern Conference conversation. One would assume there's a plan, would they're not? I mean, usually, I don't think it's just that. Miami needs to do something.

We know what the ceiling is, and I don't think it's a sustainable business model to be like, let's get in as a 10 seat and fight our way through the plane and get high. hot at the right time. I think that's proven to maybe be a mistake. I think there's a few things here. Kevin Durant probably has a relationship with Eric Spolstra for their time at Team USA. That stuff's important. Durant and Bam, from what I understand, they are close friends as well. There's that. And we don't know a ton about Kevin Durant personally. It's been this league forever. And we don't know anything about him personally other than basketball is his whole life. And that person with that personality, that aligns with what the Miami Heat are about. So he probably looks at that and says,

yeah, that works for me. And the fact that the heat Stugats aren't even in this. When you look at the other teams who are, A, better right now, and B, have a ton more assets to offer, that to me signals Durant's first choice is the heat. The fact that the heat are even in the mix here to me must mean that his first choice is Miami. Mark Stein reported this morning, by the way, that the Sons are not committed to necessarily sending him to one of those teams. So, like, they could consider it. That's nice. That's where you want to go.

But if it doesn't make sense for us, you're not going there. Well, this is where the Lillard thing was the crossroads on player empowerment where the Ishpias of the world. Guys, go, please, go listen to what Pablo Tori finds out, did on Ishbia, and just do a little reading about what now runs the Phoenix Suns, how impetuous it is, how meddlesome and basketball matters it is, and how big a swing and a miss. The whole Kevin Durant thing was in Phoenix where they're now stuck with Bradley Beal as well. Is there audio or do I really need to read? You can do both.

There is audio on Pablo Tori finds out, though. He's not reading anything. That's a quick download on just the competition between him and Dan Gilbert in the mortgage industry and in basketball. But Ishbiyah's rich guy toy, embarrassed, came out, did the Stevie Cohen thing of don't

care about taxes or whether I'm going to make any friends here. I'm here to win. There was no bigger calamity in the sport than that one last year and that it happened to Kevin Durant's feet probably not the way he wants to end his career with the added

disgrace of whatever was happening in the shadows there that he wasn't being informed of when 15-time All-Star not unlike three-time All-Star Devers or Devers. Tomato. Billy, I've been I've been remiss, and I'm sorry, welcome back from vacation.

Thanks. But I've been remiss because I've gone here for a couple of hours. Whenever you come back from vacation, you always come resplendent with sort of a bag full of vacation stories, observations from vacation. You had time to think. You weren't on the treadmill all the time. You went places. You discovered things. And so you usually come back with something.

I haven't gone to you for two hours on any of your vacation meandries. There's a lot of people in today. Tony Reality is spreading positivity. Zaz is here. The Panthers are doing their thing. Breaking news moments ago, Darren Ravel puts out after a year absence, Joey Cheston will be back to Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest this year. I mean, things are happening in the world right now. Joey Chestnut is back. Who would have thought? We thought it was impossible. We thought we'd never see him again, Dan. After last year, he signed that deal with the vegan dogs or whatever it was, and they banned him from the competition. And then what happened? We all tuned in on July 4. and we saw the hot dog eating contest and honestly it was kind of a joke if we're going to be honest with you they didn't come anywhere near joey chestnut's record joey chestnut then did something on netflix with cobiashi that no one watched and they said you know what we got to bring them back jack and now guess what he's back god bless america well but the last part that you said did something

on netflix no one watched that was where hot dog eating is a competition was about to soar into the sky with the brands the individual brands of joey chestnut and kobayashi and then the whole sport fell apart because nobody wanted to watch unless it was on 4th of July. No one watched either. At a specific time, there's nothing else in sports going on. If you want to gorge yourself on hot dogs in the middle of the day, none of us are working. Okay, but we don't want to watch this at any other time. I think I'm probably misremembering this, but I was watching the hot dog eating contest on the 4th of July,

and it felt like they were like 10 short of the record or 20 short. Like, it wasn't even close to what Chestnut was doing. And then the Netflix thing happened against Kobayashi. And I think everyone just didn't know it was on or forgot. It was a whole thing when the news came out. It was like, wow, this is huge? And then the day of, I remember looking for it. I'm like, is that today?

And I couldn't find it. And then the next day, I was like, yeah, it was yesterday. But we didn't know what time. It was like on Labor Day or something. It was just like, no one cares about Labor Day. If you're going to be honest, right? Dad, you care about Labor Day? Haven't given it a lot of thought.

Yeah. Back in a few minutes, I'll think about it. Fourth of July. You care about the Fourth of July? Put it on the poll at Lebitonardtog. I don't know how we got to. Do you care about Labor Day from me asking you about your vacation me and drinks? but I am assuming we're going to get there at some point.

Well, I'm just, you know, breaking news. We have to address the news as it comes out. Yeah, we can get to them. I'm ready. I thought about it, by the way. Yeah? Big holiday. You care? Or not a big holiday? Or not a big holiday. Which one?

Wait a minute. Hold on a minute. We don't have imaging for this yet. Right now, he's a judge. He's a doctor. Big holiday? Journalist. He's a journalist. Well, a doctor with prejudice? No, no. You never want to be prejudiced when you're a doctor. So what are you, what are the job titles you now have along with

producer for our little production here. Judge Dr. Journalist. I don't think it's ever dressed up. The imaging is provided by Zaz with the suspense being whether something is... Correct.

So what's the question again? Labor Day. Big holiday or not a big holiday? Labor Day. Falls on a Monday. Yep. September. Yeah. Football season. Please. Please. Not a big day. Oh. Not a big day.

Not a big day. You love that Monday all off. That's it. It's over. But we're Labor. Not a big day. We are labor. There's no arguing. Listen, he's saying you take the day off, enjoy your day, but it's not a big holiday.

Hold on a second. Hold on. I've been told that we now have video from Tony Reilly. These are the remains of his career post-E-SPN. He was a Titan 25 years entertaining people, and now he's in the parking garage, wearing some sort of costume entering the studio. Tony, we go live to Tony Reilly now. What do you have?

Yes, Dan. Positivity is what I have, Dan. Feels like there's not enough positivity in the control room right now. You don't even respect Labor Day, all right? So what we're bringing in here is a bounce house, Dan. And we're going to get bouncy up in your space right now. No, what is this? Let's go around this board.

Where is he going right now? Is this a good idea? This seems like a bad idea. I love a good bounce house. This doesn't seem like a good idea. Okay. Why do we own a bouncing? I'm just going to put a bounce house.

This is Realli's entrance here. fighting guys I saw in stores. Some bit with Tony that we never did. Oh, it's nice to see you. Okay, this is the big entrance for Raleigh. Did the guy dunk on you or did he not dunk on you? He did dunk on me. We have video.

Okay, we will, okay. All right, so you have your own private video because the video here didn't work. Yeah, yeah. We made it work. All right. Okay. He has the video.

He's sending it to our video team. What are you doing? You're going to plug it in right here. What are we doing here? A bouncy house. By definition, must bounce, Dan. Okay, so you're just going to come in here and bouncy house. That is positivity.

Put it on the poll at Levitard show. Does a bounce house make you feel more positive? Yes or no? Roy, why are you looking around as if you're not in control of your own show? I'm not because they can find an electrical outlet out in the office. You had to go inside the studio to play it up? I think it's because Realee is actively trying to make a mess the way that Billy likes to make a mess of things.

So he's brought him an out-bounce. Where'd you get a bounce? Why do we have one? It's a bounce house. Well, I couldn't find any Panthers fans out in the street, but I couldn't find a guy who was giving me a bounty house for rent-book. A true Miami experience. 50 bucks an hour.

So you bought a bounce house out there while you rented it while trying to find panther fans out there and only finding Big Mac from the carport. Okay, this is very loud, right? Who had no idea who Marsham was? The Braslar Gianni spectacularana. Man, what do you say? 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 light.

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. Well, it's crazy because, like, they've basically been partners with a and Lebitard 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?

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see dkng.com slash audio. Limited time offer. Don Lebertard. Lightning. Panthers. What do you think? Stugats. Look at this face while I tell this to you. Okay, because I don't want there to be any kind of confusion.

You look me right in the eye. Panthers are going to take that ass, man. This is the Dan Lebertar show with the Stugats. Okay, this is not respectful enough. This seems like something Tony Rehally is doing. because he's hopeful that the bounce house will press against me, and it doesn't work if it just inflates behind me. That one looks like it has like a rock wall in the back of it or something, a slide.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's good, helpful. Yeah. Oh, that's a water one, Dan. I'm looking at that. That is a water cannon on it. Yeah. I don't know why, Tony.

That's a good one. Did you just use Metal Arc expense account money to rent a bounce house? Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, no. Don't break things. That's, oh, now you've got Rose with you. Careful, there's a pen up there that might fall at any point in time.

A pen? Yeah, if you look above you, there's a pen that's lodged into the ceiling. Mr. Crate, the mystery crate. Yeah, we were celebrating something. I think we were ranking our top 10 podcast, and there's a blue pen that's just sticking out of the ceiling. Look over to your right a little bit, Dan. It's just sticking down a little bit, yeah. It got lodged up in the ceiling above your head.

We're worried that it's going to fall on you one day mid-show, and you're going to wonder where it came. I'm glad that I now have the story. Now we'll fall on the bounce house. It was because we're doing blind ranking as a podcast host, and Mad Dog. out, but I heard you giving away my number one. Yeah. So he had to go down to number six. It is for positivity. We need this. In these difficult

times, I would say that Realeigh bringing fun and positivity to the proceedings, even though this seems dangerous. Like, at this point... Worryed about the lights. Well, I don't think the bounce house is going to be... Like, I think Realli's going to actually break things here. Positive, right? Okay, but... Yeah, be positive.

It's working out fun. Okay, but I don't... Why did you decide to put a bounce house in here, Realli? I don't understand how that... Who doesn't like a bouncy house? Yeah. Would you like a bounty house at your party? Put it on the poll at Levitard show.

Does your party get made better by a bounce house? Does every party get made better by a bounce house? Billy, in your travels, did you have any hotel room observations? Was there anything in the hotel rooms or outside of the hotel rooms that you happened upon? No, I found out. I didn't know this. It was probably dumb of me. I found out you couldn't just stream things

wherever you want, whenever you want. Like, there's different Netflix in different countries, and there's different, like, I wanted, and I know they're, I think, a partner of ours. Peacock, I had a show I wanted to watch on Peacock. I found out unavailable outside of the United States, which really threw a wrench in my plan.

It was going to be my evening viewing habits after the children went to sleep. I couldn't. Riali, sit here. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, sit here. I brought this in for a reason. I'm sitting here. Okay, but it's not inflated.

didn't succeed. What happened? Why did you stop? There's no bounce there. Why did you stop? And why doesn't a bounce house only works if it stays inflated? I think our company has bounce houses, but not extension cords is the issue. Welcome. I want to hear the story of how that is an entrance. It is an entrance, but it, yeah, well, I mean, we were out of air. It's the apartment. I mean, I'm not running out of air for you guys. I'm here all week, baby. He is all week. We are excited to have him. Mike, though, I will say at the beginning, I was sort of disappointed. You came in here, you hugged Roy. He told you he was tired.

Mike, soon after you left, said that your positivity and your peppiness was a little too much for him on a Monday morning. That's okay. And Stugatz also said that's a lot for a Monday. I did not say that. Mike said that. I said if there was a

master class to be given in small talk, Tony would teach the master class. He did say that. He did say that. But Mike grew tired of the small talk. talk, hearing it for the third time with the third person. You're just spreading compliments. They were calling you phony butoni. So you didn't feel it was genuine, is what you're telling me.

I just couldn't match that energy on a Monday morning. Okay. You'll get there, though. You're hellbent on making sure. It's a marathon out of sprint, though it always is a sprint for me. When I did long races, always try to take the lead those first 100, 200, 300. Of course. It's the best thing in the world. The turkey trout, five miles.

I did it every Thanksgiving, yeah. But nobody remembers really where you finish if you don't win it. But if you're in the lead, those first. The first 100, 200, everybody notices. It's great. Yeah. It's good stuff. You're right.

Why are you agreeing with a turkey trot as if you're a turkey trot expert? I've told the story. You've never done a turkey trot. Nobody hold on a second. No, hold on. Every year. Yo, kick it thong. That's all right.

I do it every year. Every time. You have to turkey trot. Nobody believes you. What are I done to my career? What are you doing? Perhaps every year was a stretch, okay? But the last time I did it, Tony is right.

I sprinted. I was the leader after like 100 yards. I would recommend it to everybody. I like your monitors here. I feel like I'm an NHL coach looking up at that. Raleigh's a runner. Did you run in South Florida? It's too hot to run here.

I just got in. I was surfing in Malibu. I went to zero. You ever see point break? Five foot walls at zero. No, we've never seen it. I've seen three foot walls at zero. What's this movie you speak on?

Yes, of course. So I just got back. So I didn't get a run in yet, but I'm sure. You got a workout in. The wheelhouse of Mike Ryan and Stugats, who have been waiting for a guest to sit that chair. So we want a guest to sit down and do point break and others. You know what, guys? I mean, we're here all week.

Let's get it. Let's get around the popcorn. Let's go. Let's go. We'll do movies. We'll have a game segment. Around the popcorn. Around the popcorn.

All right. We got parents here. Let's go around the baby Bjorn. This is going to be different for Dan. Around the Bjorn. We got Ron McGillenhouse. Dan, you got a guy who's been hosting a show. Around the horns.

See, I know. This is what he told me. This is what he told me. This is not your show. Sit back, man. He's not used to the back seat. No, no, around the horns with Ron McGill, though. Come on. Kudu or Orix, who you got? That's what I want. I like it. He came up with me, Mike.

Come on now. It says Tony's takeover. Nobody told me they were doing Tony's takeover. That explains why there's a bad... I like that. That's a great pose. Okay, but why was there a bounce house? Did we buy a bounce house just for that?

I don't know what that was. One hour rental. It's okay. Is that the target? No one... That's beautiful. I like that. Can I take that home? I saw on David Samson's show. He's got scrolling across the bottom an infomercial number that makes it look like graphically.

The worst number. It's so great. The whole thing looks like QVC. David Samson giving you sports opinions with a QVC font. But this is what's happening here, Mike. I can't wrangle the giant personality of 23 years of Star Daily on ESPN. He has his own show. He's not a team player. I got nothing to do, guys. I got nothing to do. I don't think we can listen to us, even.

Oh, I hear every word you're saying. It's active listening, though. It's, you know, a wordy page on one side. And Bill Plashky in this side, doinks and dinks and binks. I take it all in. David Cohen to the J's was a great deadline acquisition. That is a good. That is a good one.

That is a good one. It's an all. Are we doing that? Well, Brad Marcheon. C.C. Sabathia. Yes, we were talking about. Randy Johnson to the Astros. Great one.

10 and 1. We didn't do Randy Johnson, but we were talking about how they're all in baseball. We're talking about how. So when you get one in hockey or you get Rashid Wallace, we did Rashid Wallace in basketball. How many others are there in basketball? Somebody, God, almighty, there are many of those, right? You guys tell me every year, Drexler! George Hill, and it's never George Hill.

Drexler! It's been George Hill, relax. It has never been George Hill. Baseball was the one that had trade. NFL didn't have trades for 50 years, it felt like. They insist on making it George Hill. George Hill, did he win a championship somewhere? Did he win one?

Did he get one somewhere in there? You're a lock to lose in the East Finals with George Hill. Easter Conference, yeah. You say, of course, I don't think he did. George Hill has won a title. The last San Antonio, the last quiet San Antonio year. I don't know if George Hill's got a title or not, but Mike and Stugats were telling me every year at the trade deadline

that George Hill was the missing piece. That is a great logo you got. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. I had a little too much color in the outfit, but everything else we're working with. I loved on Realie's website, his glam shots. So good.

Like, no, they're so good. Thank you. Where are we going to find your live stream with Izzy Gutierrez? I was hoping you were going to help with that. I don't know. But where are we going to find it? Our studio and our people are going to do it around the horn live stream with you and Izzy. So I had this idea, guys.

You know, I like this movie, you know, this boyhood by Richard Linkletter, okay? And it's the passage of time in a man. And to see it, to me, was very emotional, right? You know what I'm talking about. Yes. Yes, yes. So you saw, he shot it over 20 years. and you saw somebody grow over 20 years.

I want to be able to sit and watch. Why am I looking at pictures of myself doing beefcake things? Because the glam shots are great. The glam, thank you video for being so quick with this. You had to be self-conscious taking these pictures. Yeah, you notice I don't look at the camera often. I don't, that's not my.

No, but I've, look, you've been good at this since I've known you. Stugats, Tony, as a lifetime television person when I saw him at the very beginning of his career. I was just explaining this to Rosie, yeah. that he fell very naturally into this might not be a natural thing to pose for the camera this way but I will do it exceptionally well he did it from a very young age prodigy well we don't we don't but appearance and and give people the laughter so that they can get just the right shade on your face so that you look so that you ring eternal for kids and people of all ages George Hill has never won a title. Oh, Big El.

Damn, damn, man. But you feel like he has because every trade deadline, he's a missing piece who's never a missing piece. Well, Dennis Schrooter is that guy now. He's been on half the teams in the NBA. Am I about to put Brad Marchand in the all-time category here? Because 10 goals, 10 assists in 22 games. Now he's continuing the final, too. I mean, that's everything, right?

I think we found an answer for greatest deadline acquisition ever. Cohn? No, it was 11 days before the dead. deadline and it was in the NFL and people forget it, but Christian McCaffrey. Oh, wow. That's a good one. That is a good one. Did he get the W though? Do you see what's happening behind you? Mike Jason can't be controlled anymore and now he has made this a medium Mike Monday even though I wanted to go to all of Billy's thoughts on his vacation travel. Here's the question with Marshawn. Are the Panthers still in the

Stanley Cup if they don't have Marsha? Yes. How big of a deal is it? Doesn't matter. I love your take I'm right now. That's not how those things get remembered. I don't know. I'm not willing to just shout out yes immediately. Yeah. They had a seven-game series earlier. There's nothing sadder than a bounty house without air. I mean, really, you and this is the place you sometimes occupy in my life.

But what happened? Why did? You are the literal bounty house without air. Why didn't it stay up? What happened? Well, I was worried about blowing out your lights here. That's, I mean, so I made a tactical decision there that rather than take down the whole, I wanted a couple hits in your face, and I wanted the jump, but I didn't want to take down the studio. That would have been funny, though. I didn't clear this with you guys.

That would have been funny for five minutes, yeah. It would have been funny right up until glass star shards started breaking down and we couldn't then broadcast on a medium mic Monday. Mike, what is happening behind you there with Jason, the director who is going off script and doing whatever he wants with the imaging because you were jealous of Billy's Wild Willie Wednesday? This is how you're framing it and it's not true. I don't like it. It's not how I'm framing it. It's how Jason's framing it. Jay Ajai was a good one.

Really healthy. Oh, in Philadelphia. That was a good one. Oh, my goodness. That was eight good touchdowns, and we thought he would run that way forever, and it was just those eight games. So Zazzo going to have to pick which one of his kids he likes the most to go to this game? How do we do this?

Tony, what about this? Where we are? Okay, around the board. Help us with the game show that we're going to create here. Yeah, yeah, it's a parenting game show. Around the Bjorn. No, this is not around the Bjorn, but it kind of is around the Bjorn. I just want to say it. Billy, what is your idea for how we raise the stakes around Zazlo and put

him to attest for one of his children, but also allow him to get tickets to a majestic game for all time. Dan Lebatard. The judge coach, sweetie. Stugats. I should say hello. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. Okay.

this. How about a guarantee that you will go to game six or seven? Now here are the options. Game six you have to choose, hold on. Game six, you can go but you have to choose which of your children you love more and you only get to choose one and you will scar the other one for life. Game seven,

you get to take both children so you don't have to admit which one you love more. However, you have to get on a plane and fly internationally as far as you possibly could for a game and you will be surrounded by people who hate you. Yeah, I'm not into going to game seven man.

You'd rather tell your child which one you love more than go to a game seven with both children. Yeah. Yeah, I'd rather have to choose. I'd rather have to do Sophie's choice with my kids for game six. That's how you create, you know, serial killers. Then go to, then go to, I'm not, my boys wouldn't even want to go to Edmonton. They're not interested in that. Not real Panthers fans.

No, I don't, I don't like the idea of being around 20,000 people at one time who are rooting for me to be devastated. I don't like the concept of that. I don't want to go to Edmonton. That's a $5 fine for Tony Realli. What is the sound on your phone? That was the weather channel somehow just started popping up. You're entirely happy phone. Ray Biotta from Goodfellas.

Yeah, so that was the weather channel. Sorry about that, guys. I would choose game six. How old are the children? 16 and 13. Love the Panthers. Love the Panthers. It'd be hard.

Dad, you might have to sit this one out. It'd be bad. Wait, no, no, I'm saying you don't go. Right. You drop them off. That's what you do. That's a drop off. My dad did that for me.

My brother, Islanders. He did it. I wrote about it. Really? Hadn't even considered... Yeah. Butch Goring. 91.

91, butch goring, yeah. You always done it. I'm not even going. It's the day after five happened. Wait, how about this? How about this? Had your day yesterday. Two tickets.

One for you, one for your favorite child. Or three tickets. One for each of your child and one for your wife. You stay home. You're out now. You're completely checked out. Both your kids get to go. You had your day yesterday.

yesterday yesterday. I hope you enjoyed it. You got the house to yourself. You can't go. So all you're asking me is, do I want my boys to go to the game or do I want everyone in my family except me to go to the game? Yeah, I think we've decided. What kind of proposition is that? I think we've decided. You haven't been able to decide.

The tribunal has to sell. I would like to more examine the idea that you just readily, the day after Father's Day, slid so easily into the position of not even considering giving both tickets to your boys. Like, it wasn't anywhere on your purpose. 16 and 13. Doesn't everyone know what I did for this team? I ended my vacation in North Carolina early. I came home.

I put the family in the Zaslo Mobile, and we drove straight through. Okay, Zazlo has wanted echoing eternal praise for his sacrifice here, and he doesn't feel like he's getting it. He fired the coach. Okay, he fired the coach. Two years ago. Get over it.

Zaslo, what praise have we not given you enough for what you believe to be a legendary, enduring sacrifice on behalf of your team. It's not about giving me praise. I just did what any of us would do. We're doing our part for the team. It's not about me.

It's about the collective. I did my part. That's what it's about. He called Paul Maurice the murderer of fun. Two years ago, I apologized already. There's fun. He murdered it. He's allowed to apologize for you to acknowledge that. You know, some people, they dig their

feet in and they still think Brad Marchand doesn't belong on the team. No, I'm telling you I was wrong. What would be your ruling as an around the horn veteran host of people's, judging people's opinions? How egregious is it that Mike

Ryan, before the playoffs started when the Panthers acquired Brad Marchand, called him a bad player that he did not want on the team? He preferred him to be a healthy scratch in every game. Rotational winger. In my defense, you have no idea how good Mackey or Jesper would be playing in this spot. In terms of all-time bad takes on Around the Horn, how would that one hold up against the all-time?

That'd be in the minus 50s. It wouldn't be Pablo Tori. I've walked that one back. I've walked that one back. I apologize for that. It's not a flip-flop. It's just, you know, a renaissance of opinion. But everyone is so insistent that I turn around the other way and say, okay, I like this guy now.

I'm never going to like him. He's a bad person. I'm not wrong about that take. He's a bad person. Bad person. Bad guy. this part to me is always super interesting. And I know I tease me. Hey, it's personal. I don't have to like them. It's personal. You know how you are with Crosby? And we're all just supposed to lay out

and say, well, this is rational. That's how I am with Brad Marchette. But he and played for the Panthers, Sidney Crosby. I'm entitled to this. Look, you may not know what loyalty is. I care about the name on the front, not the one on the back. I know you're not telling me that. Spicy Mike Monday. Let's ask Roy, how would you feel about the Panthers getting Sidney Crosby? How would you feel about that? I would not be happy, but I would have to swallow it. There you go. That's what's happening.

I'm swallowing my medicine. Everyone now all of a sudden loves. Jason Taylor's over there banging the drum, even though everyone forgets. He signed with a Jets, and he was welcome with open arms because everyone there is wearing a Bradmarshan jersey. So yeah, come here. You traitor, you're more than welcome here. Okay, so this one's interesting, though, because I will say for all the virtue signaling that we and others get accused of in sports. Mike actually gave up his allegiance to the Cleveland Browns because he thought to Sean

Watson was a bad person and literally stopped watching the Browns, stopped caring about the Browns, stopped talking about the Browns. Marshand was just a Bruin. Marshand was a Bruin, but also someone who Mike hates, and it made me think as he said this, I wonder who it's been most difficult in the history of sports for a fan base to come to grips with, oh, the guy who won me the championship,

and maybe the MVP, I don't like him so much, never liked him, and now have to separate all this feel good from it feels slightly less good because this guy's doing the winning for me. I don't have a lot of... It's not bad. That's probably the best one. Brett Farr, going to Minnesota,

getting him a game from the Super Bowl. Yeah, but two years with the Jets, right? But still, they played against him for 15, Green Bay, Minnesota. It's not a lot of times that something like this happens where a fan, what he's articulating, Zaz Swallows easily.

Mike, you heard Roy say, Sidney Krazzi, who he hates, I'll swallow it. Mike's swallowing it reluctantly. I think Rodman with Chicago is probably a good one from those years against the Pistons. You had a good one that we were workshopping here. You also said a Raldus Chapman. Right. When he's on the mound in the World Series with the Cubs, they win the World Series. You did some bad things.

Ben Rathesberger, too. That one was a difficult one for Pittsburgh fans, and now they missed that they haven't had as good a quarterback since. And they missed the days of all of Ben Rothelisberger's seven-yard slants at the end, running out of the pocket like a skyscraper with legs. They year for those days. Yes. Longing desperately for that refrigerator with legs to roll out of the pocket and not hurt himself. Not sports, but I did, I'm reluctant to admit this.

Gone. I miss O.J. Simpson's Twitter contributions. Put it on the poll at Levitart Show. Do you miss O.J. Simpson's Twitter contributions? Yes or no. Strange. Do we have any thoughts as a group about Stephen A. Smith getting caught playing Solitaire during game

four of the final. Tony, the floor is yours. I'm going to step away. I've been playing my own form of solitaire for a few weeks, so that's enough for me. If anyone's shown us, they could spin multiple plates over the last few months. It's been Stephen A. He's a man of many hats. I will say this. You can go ahead

and do that and play Solitaire and multitask during the game, especially when you're someone who knows what's going to happen already, so you don't have to pay attention. But you can't lie about it afterward and say you were just doing it during timeouts. Like, if you're going to be the journalist, this guy, you've got to

be honest about that part, I think. Does he? I think he's prime for politics, actually. This was also hours removed from first take where Molly was trying to help him, like, hey, the cameras can see your screen, and he wasn't having it there. And then hours later, we see his screen

to reveal he's playing solitaire during the final. You've got game five tonight, and the thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about, because I did think it's been interesting strategically, right? Stugatch, you don't often hear me say ever around here that someone was outcoached because I don't have what I believe to be the working knowledge of the intricacies of what goes into a game plan often to know what adjustments were made in the third quarter that I missed because all of their scouting reports said that they had to do

something defensively different on rotations and I wasn't paying close enough attention to watch that way. Carlisle is outcoaching Oklahoma City. Well, it's 2-2. But let me just explain to you what's happening in the game that can't happen, right? Oklahoma City just won a game that no team ever wins playing that way. Having that many turnovers, that few assists, and having that shooting percentage from three, every time that team has been played, that game has been played in playoff history,

every time. That team loses. OkC just won it, and the reason I say that Indiana is doing a better job here, it's because I know OKC is better, but OKC has played three games in this series, unlike any games they have played this season where they can't get any assists. They're turning the ball over more than they're getting assists, and they've played three of their worst four games. It's happening to them, and the only reason they lost game four is because they went over eight from three in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, they would have beaten OKC. That wasn't done to them. They went 0 for 8 from 3, not because

OKC is great at defense at the end, though they are, but because they just missed 8 3s in the fourth quarter. But the reason I say what I say about Carlisle is... It's specifically because when you get the other team to do what you want and they're better than you and you're even in the

series, you might out-coach the other team and still lose because it's what happened in game 4. Mark Daganall. Thank you. That's a great one. Lost it. It's the spelling the trick. It's the spelling the tricks me. I was trying to help you about it.

An A-U-L-T, right? Thank you. Yes. Is it Dagnolt? Oh, does it? Dagnolts. It should be Dagnol. The T is not sound like.

My larger point, though, in that series, do guys, did you see how close Indiana was to being up 3-1? They should be up 3-1. They were outscored 31 to 17 in the fourth quarter. And I understand what you're saying about this is not their style, lack of assist, lack of distributing the basketball. You have to do what. what you have to do against the opponent once you make it to the NBA finals.

If you change your game a little bit, you change your game a little bit, and that's what happened. You know what I was happy to see, Dan, SGA in a big spot, down 2-1, his team facing a 3-1 deficit to the Pacers. He stepped up in that fourth quarter like one of the all-time great. I needed to see that from him. Took four steps. One point in the last three minutes from Indiana, one field goal in the last five minutes from Indiana. OKC does some of that. They don't do all of that. Also a terrible job by the NBA last night. How do we have Father's Day? We have that fantastic finish of the U.S. Open. And then you don't have an NBA game. It's Father's Day. How am I not sitting down

Sunday night, 7 o'clock, 7.30 Eastern, watching a little NBA finals game five. They're a terrible job by the NBA. Terrible. Be ashamed of themselves. Drop the ball. Yeah. Egregious error. Zadzloh, holiday. Big holiday or not a big holiday? Father's Day. It's a Sunday. Father's Day. The day for fathers. That's a big day. Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. The big day ball of us. Give me some hopes. So big. You don't need to go to a hockey game the next day. You just allow your children to go in your place. Are we doing this? What are the stakes? What has to happen? It should be the stakes should be tonight's game. Shouldn't it not? For the basketball? Well, just because you want to go to game six, right? Like what it? We've got to make a game. I'm all in on OKC tonight.

Yeah, but that's... Oh, what am I supposed to see? You don't like my pick? You got to give them like an alternate spread. You have to, yes. Series is 2-2. SGA's over under for points. It's 34 and a half, something like that.

Oh, that could be fun. Okay, that could be fun. Let's go there. Right. Over under. Dagonal. Dagenoff. There's a tea.

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