The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Dan Le Batard Threatens The University of Miami Athletic Department | Hour 1

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

"You could win a championship if he were healthy..." After Dan issues his threat against his alma mater, the crew discusses their disdain for watching the three-point chucking Boston Celtics and why the Philadelphia 76ers may no longer be Joel Embiid's team despite his stellar night. Plus, how would YOU feel if TMZ were sending photographers into YOUR private life? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levitart show with the Stucats podcast. This episode of the Dan Levitart show is presented by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Worst pitcher name, Homer Bailey. Greg Cody, during the break, Mike, I don't know whether you would have felt bad for him, the way that I felt bad for the immortal Hulk Hogan watching the documentary on Netflix. Nah. Because Greg Cody is an immortal, and you would have heard him

during the break, just muttering to himself, and he said this out loud, I heard him. Even my inner voice is against me. I can't win around here. He muttered it sadly, and you would have been, this, he deserves more honorable punctuation to his career than that. That seemed like a setup. We weren't setting up, but we were going for a sit further away. I'm also not aware of the clock.

Okay, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. It makes sense that the inner. monologue would also have no idea where the clock was on the end of the hour. Yeah. Okay. Unfortunately, we will not be able to get to Greg Cody's catchphrases

because we already did that on Monday. They pulled the emergency rip cord on Monday. We weren't here on Monday. Me, you or Mike weren't here. How do we know what they were? I know. It's not right. But they took our months-long joke. That is Greg Cody's successful, months-long joke on the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Cody. With show.

And so that's we are with things at the moment. He is mad. I didn't get to any of what I wanted to get to in the local hour. Radicovic, the University of Miami Athletic Director. There was some heat stuff I wanted to get to, and now we've lost our opportunity. Yeah. What can you do? Not a breakdown of Jansen Junk's new kick change? Nobody wants to talk to Marlins with us. What about the angle variation on his fastball? It was that fan graphs approached him and said, hey, your velocity's higher when your arm angle's a little bit lower from 53 degrees to 49 degrees. and then he went to the folks over at his pitching staff in the offseason, and they said, all right, there is validity to this. And it's really impressive. His velocity's up a whole mile and out. I have top five things found in junk drawers if you want that also.

Just put that in your back pocket. Actually, no, I like that. Let's do that here. Because am I alone here? I don't know what this polling is doing. But the junk drawer is a positive thing. People think of the junk drawer is a positive thing. It's got the stuff you need.

I can learn so much about you by looking in your junk drawer. It makes a house a home. It makes a house a home. I would love to peruse your junk drawer. All right. Put it on the poll at Levitart show. Does a junk drawer make a house a home? Can you learn a lot?

It's true. You don't. At your Airbnb's, you're probably not as homey and comfortable as knowing where your things are in the junk drawer. But I look forward to seeing this because I know everyone. You cannot get consensus about anything in this country, but I am sure everyone's got batteries in their junk drawer. Damn it. Number five. Number four.

scissors. Number three, matches. Number two, pens without a cap. Yep. Oh yeah. And number one, takeout menus. A lot of those in there. Multiple judges. Where's my chef shit? I have a 2002 Marlon's schedule magnet in there. All right, this is what we should do. We should. The thing is you guys won't actually do this. You'll edit it beforehand. I think we should send out on social media today. Everybody should a guided tour of their junk drawer. I'd rather show you my belly button. I'll do that. I'll take

the condoms out because I don't want to embarrass anybody. Paper clips is another thing I would have some screws. Screws. Yeah. I got a lot of spare keys. A lot of them I don't know where they belong. Chapstick. I think one of them is for Bukshambi's old apartment

in New York City. It's an old used chapstick that you won't actually use anymore. I use it if I use it. I'm not going to use somebody else with a chapstick. I ain't touching that chapstick. A lot of cables. Where do these cables go? Those leaflets that end up in your door from like the roofing company that has a discount

on it. They're like, I might need this one day. The junk mail. The male ends up in the junk drawer. Pushpins. Double your junk. You guys were listening so poorly while sort of rummaging around in the junk drawers of your

lives that you missed that Cody said that he keeps condoms in his. I heard it. There was no reaction to that. I missed that. Everybody knows it. Magnum. Gotta be safe.

Extra large. That's what your inner voice just said. It just said magnums. We got a huge hammer. You're so clearly lying that you don't know the name of the condom. Look at the size of my wrist. It's a good tell. When I hear Magnum, I think Magnum P.I.

The guy was keeping Hawaii's safer. Vainy. And you know it. Vaney? The anginoid goes to vainy, or were you not listening to what it is that he was saying? It's very vascular. I thought that. Small balls, though. I can hear Roy's laughter through soundproof glass.

Don't make it right. Roy came in here pissed off. I did not think that the antidote to the things going on in America. He's pissed off because TMZ is chasing around Rabel's wife, and he's pissed off because Trump wants his face all your passports. Yeah, we're going too far over you. Why are we chasing around Bable's wife like that? She's just shopping. Now we've gone too far. Oh, yeah. Also, Your Mark is a trigger for Roy. Oh, my God. This man sent the Panthers back 15 years we was here.

Have a free tickets, remember? University of Miami, listen to me. You better not. Not Your Mark again. We already did that in this town. Don't do it again, University of Miami. I'm threatening you. I'm threatening my alma mater. Just the reputation. The reputation, just the reputation. is known. You don't have to do one conversation with him while he'll do the business dance of snake oil. The reputation's known around here. Very few people have ever come through here and blazed guns that way and had less success. There is one thing interesting happening with the pro-Yormark propaganda is a lot of people assume, well, he can bring in corporate deals. He's a dealmaker. And at least 20 years ago, no, he wasn't. Right. No, he was historically bad at making corporate deals.

And for whatever reason, that seems to be the driving force here. He presents very well, and he's convinced people that he is some top-line dealmaker. When in the history of sport, at least 20 years ago, people can grow, people can change, he was the antithesis of that. Put his face in all our passports. Since we're celebrating dealmakers now in our passport. We're celebrating patriotism, Dan. I wanted to get to Roy's point here, though, about following around Vrabel's wife.

I didn't know this. Well, so there's a lot here, right? Because everyone's just really skipping past the pain for the photos part of this, which isn't journalism, okay? It's just the only two entities that have ever done that are the National Inquirer in America, National Enquirer in TMZ. And they've won. Like, whatever that is has won because the standard has been cheapened throughout. And so you may hurt for Vrabel's wife or kids that are involved in all of the of this that have to go to school and of course nobody's thinking about them but this is just a

horror for everybody involved and uh TMZ succeeds at doing this they're willing to have a different standard that is cheapening and it has worked and no one cares about the it seems to me that no one cares about the cheap and standards because no one cares about the paid photos they're entitled to the information we're entitled to their private lives we've lowered the standard the country has on where and when we're willing to go to reward entities for shaming people. Like if the internet exists to make a joke and dunk on people, all of us laughing at one person, that standard has seeped into what is now passable news coverage

on what it is that we're doing. But Roy's objecting to what she do. Like, why are we taking pictures of her to make her famous, to make her life harder? And the answer is, it works. TMZ has been rewarded for it. TMZ is one of the few modern media entities that can succeed in the cheapen standard.

Right. I mean, Mike Vrable is a public figure of the extreme, of the highest order. His wife shouldn't be. She didn't sign up for any of this. But you can object with the line. The line's only going to keep moving, and you will either feed it or you won't, is what I'm saying.

Like, you could be appalled by this if you want, but it sells. It is the thing that is one. It works. If newspapers got left behind because they're throwing yesterday's news in your bushes, and the internet is instant, the internet standard has won here. Because go look at what this does for numbers all over the internet. This story that's not being covered this way elsewhere.

But people crave it. And something's going to emerge that will give it to them. If it's not TMZ, it'll be someone else. like the cheap and standard will be fed. It's a mirror. Like you can only complain about that so much. They'll keep pushing the line to see, well, when won't you watch? When will you get outraged enough?

What happened to the Murdox after they got all their money is people got outraged because they were hacking phones and they let a family feel like because they were hacking phones that their dead daughter was still alive because messages were being retrieved. And that's what caused the Murdoch family after they had made their money, breaking news all over the place that everybody was like, how'd they get that? Well, they broke the law. That's how they got that, and no one cares, because we want the information. And that appetite is greedy.

It is endless. We want, we absolutely want this. So you can complain about it, but you're lonely on an island waving a flag as the ocean has rushed past you and swallowed the island. Yeah, I don't complain about it. I think whatever Mike Vrable has done in his private life on some level is newsworthy. And I hate to say it, but I think it is. But again, his wife and all this is a victim, so are his children. And they shouldn't.

You say it's newsworthy, but historically it hasn't been. Like, that's not something you've read in sports very much of, where you have coach is not faithful to his wife, allegedly. You see it with players. But we don't do a lot of lists. You say it's newsworthy. I'm like, okay, give me all the examples of one coach. I mean, this show did a lot of laughing at Rick Petino and continues to this day. Look, even like Eric Sproldster getting a divorce, it was in the news.

We know about that because it was in the news. Patino wasn't the infidelity, Mike. It's 17 seconds of sex in a restaurant. You dress up as Bobby Petrino. That one was. Our show has done a fair amount of laughing. And the reason why we're not laughing so much is this one hits close. closer to home. Oh, but immorality and infidelity in marriage is not something the news covers.

Like, unless Tiger Woods' wife is putting a golf club through the back of his car and then the law is involved. But it depends on your stature, right? Like, Mike Vrable, by proxy of all of this stuff, has opened his family to be collateral damage with TMZ. Like, that's what it is. When you do something like that and you are that noticeable, you open that door. Alex Rodriguez, Madonna, all over the tabloid. So it is something that goes along with sports. over, take a jaunt across the pond and see all the scandals that have been with managers and players alike over there. But this does, I'm going to keep stopping you guys on, in America, this has not been the

kind of news story that engulfs a coach. This is kind of unprecedented. Well, but it paid photos to take pictures at long range that don't prove anything. And then the denials make everything worse. the moment, it became news for the mainstream, the moment they started speaking about it in any way. If they don't address it, it's not news. Like, it's not something that classifies, passes the vetted standard of how it is the journalism, journalism. Right, but it was embedded in the gambit because they were sitting on the photos and confronted them.

And look, it's been reported that Robert Kraft tried to squash a story because they had lead time here. Within the story were statements, statements that you just said made it work. Hey Roy, buddy. You know that energy shift when the game gets good and everybody altogether in unison knows to stand up on their feet? Oh, absolutely, Mike. Yeah, you've been at many big time sporting events.

You know that moment quite well. That's what it's like when you take your first sip of Cuervo. Oh, delicious. It's the signal that says, we're not checking the time anymore, pal. It's when small talk turns into stories. Quervo, man. It's at high five a random stranger effect.

That's right. The game is popping. You're hugging people you never met before. That's the kind of energy that Cuervo brings. It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Cuervo effect. Keep it, Cuervo. The other night I was staying in. At least, that was a plan.

Then the text from my buddy Eagle Eye comes in. Mike, we've got the games on. I say, yeah? I grab a pack of Miller Light, and immediately my plan's gone. Now it's playoff basketball. Every possession feels huge. baseballs on another screen and I somehow care about that too. Everybody's got takes flying. Nobody's watching just one thing.

And we're all way more into it than we ever expected. It was one of those nights that you take a sip, you look around and you think, yeah. This was the right move. That's why I reached for Miller Light. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, root for taste with simple ingredients. Just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975. and it still hits different.

Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere. They sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories,

3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. The NBA playoffs are here in draft king's sports book and official sports betting partner of the NBA brings excitement to every game, postseason long. When the lights are brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round and Draft Kings turns it up with them from the first round through the finals.

Bet player props, bet live, and stay in the action the entire time. New Draft Kings customers bet just five bucks and you'll get $100 bucks in bonus bets instantly. Download the Draft Kings sportsbook app and use code Dan so you're ready for the moment. That's code Dan. Turn five bucks into $100 bucks and bonus bets instantly in partnership with Draft Kings. The crown is yours.

Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or 1-800-Mye reset. New York call 8778-8-8-8-Hope-N-Wire. Text, Hope and Y. Connecticut called 888-78-9-777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Bootho Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states, void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expires seven days after issuance.

Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook. Dotgings.com slash promos. Limited time offer. Don Libetard. This is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest. It goes. Stugats.

Everybody, this is the quickest it goes. Yeah. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. Is there a world where Brable is not the coach of the Patriots next season? I don't feel like given the information that we have now that that has been at risk. But I am telling you right now that the problem that he faces is not the immorality. It's to go from laughable to family counseling and what that does to your credibility as a leader. It's his reaction to it that's the problem.

I will tell you again, you know nothing of the personal lives of coaches, legends, people who are much more famous than Vrable. Like you just don't know. I'm telling you the stuff that you can say about legends that like Amin knows, for example, that would never be uttered on the show because it's just not what we do unless you turn it all into gossip. Unless you turn it all into the internet will be rewarded for this because they're talking about this in a way that ESPN won't or can't and there are rewards in that because people do want

that sugary candy. Well, how much of a role does it play? And this has been the case of the bunch of the situations that you've mentioned as well, Mike, that this became public. Like, it wasn't digging into his personal life. They have been photographed out in public. That's how it becomes a story. And also, there's a reporter here and that is extra salacious. But no, there have been plenty of coaches in that sport that have had something not quite similar with a reporter, but have had these things and there are no photos of it. Right. It wasn't in public. It goes away. If Mike Rable is photographed with a female who is totally anonymous, nobody knows who she is.

Mike Vable is not in as big a soap opera as he is now. I don't think these photos were purchased. I don't think they get purchased under those circumstances. And I want to go back to the purchasing of the photographs because you guys keep going the next step on this, which is, well, he was photographed in public. Yes. But the starting point is photographs were taken by somebody from a distance that were then paid for. And the reason I bring that up is because any of you in our audience right now, you good with the standard of journalism of I put a private investigator on you because I don't like you. I embarrass you. I then sell those photographs that embarrass you and sell those to a newspaper or a publication that publishes that.

That's journalism. You're good with that? Are you good with that? Somebody putting an actual hit on you and then money transacting because it's not about fairness and truth. It's a transaction that's super slimy. Okay, but we keep getting to the last part without, it seems to me, do I have this wrong? No one's identifying the first part. of this. Like, do you realize that the standard's cheapen and it's not whether about two people

are immoral or not. It's about how we're covering this. Yes, but no one's seeing that on their timeline is saying, this isn't journalism. Yeah. That's not how people think. That's how journalists think. I know, but that's how it dies. That's how the importance of it dies and that's how the standard gets cheapen. Yes, agreed. Agreed. Journalism is losing. And I know that you mentioned a PI potentially. I've seen so many different reports. The most reason, that this was some random couple. That's what I saw. That spotted them and someone recognized what was happening.

I'm simple. That wasn't specific to them. And thank you for the correction. I'm just saying, are you good with that as a thing that happens? Because you're like, well, he's a public figure. They're public figures.

That's public. Do any of you want to make it you here? On somebody is, let's say somebody's help. See, it does seem as though they've benefited plenty from photos not being public. There was a photo from six years ago that people dug up only now. There was reportedly, I saw plenty of photos of Jake Glazer's pool party with 28 head coaches.

Despite what Pablo said, we're going off of what Pablo said. There are no photos of Mike Grable and Diana Rusini's alleged pool party that happened just across the way. They've been out in front of cameras. They've been out at a casino. I saw a photo of that. So they have benefited over the years, apparently, of not having photos published. Getting to the sports of the evening last night, I really do hate watching the Boston Celtics when they're missing all of their threes. They missed their last 14 shots of the game.

And I don't know what the danger is here. I don't want to be the one sounding the alarm on it because I do enjoy the playoffs and I enjoy basketball. But these games not being close unless the teams are shooting in the 30 percent. And then the two teams that are looking like they'll be representing the conference are both teams that nobody wants to watch. aesthetically? Like, you're not going to make the games close and you're going to make Boston's really distorted everything where they're just going to make more threes than you, four out of seven games, and on the two games that they can't shoot at all, they missed the last 14 shots last night and then have us talking about Joelle and Bede all of a sudden,

because he's a pretty important player if he can stay healthy, but the last part of that sentence cannot be extracted from the first part. It's the worst team to watch. They're just a math team. They're a math team. If they make more threes, did they make more threes last night? No, okay, they lost. The game before that, did they make more threes? Yes, okay, they won. And it's not like that in the other games.

It's only the Celtics. If they make more threes, they win, if they miss more threes, they lose. They're the worst team to watch. Nicks, Sixers, it's going to be a good series. Funny enough, we would talk up and lauded this team for like, they're reinventing the game. They're just putting up more threes. Three or four years ago, we were talking about them like they were the next generation. The dullest team these Celtics.

And now four years later, after a championship from a Hurt Mavs team that Luka carried on his back, with all that, it's like, all right, now we're tired of them when three years ago they were the next thing. I will tell you what was honestly my experience last night, and I'm somebody who I didn't even told you guys this, but like in the 80s on network television, like the Sixers were a team that I loved before the Miami Heat even had a basketball team. Like I fell in love with Mo Cheeks as a player and Moses Malone. And watching something like Sixers Celtics back then, the child in me would have never imagined all of the distortions that would have to happen so that last night after the first quarter, Sixers are three for 13 from three. The Celtics are like one for nine from three.

And Beads missing all his shots. I'm like, goodbye. No more interest in this. The Celtics are going to win that series because they're going to make more threes. In one of these games, it doesn't matter whether they are home or on the road. You turned off the game? Yes, turned it off. Turned it off after the first quarter because I was so disgusted by three for 13 and wide open.

The three for 13, one for nine. And it's like 23, 21 after the first quarter. And you can't even make the argument that it was good defense. It wasn't good defense. It's just make the threes. Don't make the threes. But what the Celtics are doing when he says they're playing with calculators in their hand, Brad Stevens is executive of the year,

of the last three years because they've distorted the whole thing. If Tatum's healthy, you can't guard him. Like, he'll get his shots from out there and he'll take 30 of them and, you know, whatever. Like, it's not fun to watch, but you can't guard him from out there. You can throw all your dorts out of him, all your Carusoes, anybody you want to, you can't guard Jason Tatum. He's always going to get his shot because how do you stop that length from getting those jumpers? But it was excruciating to watch for the one quarter that I watched it yesterday.

And they're kind of X factor of being Derek White when he's off. He's been bad this whole series. I think he's like seven for 30 something from three. And it's like he's such an important piece to what they do because he's the one that glues everything together. You got Jason Tatum, you got Jalen Brown playing a lot of one-on-one ball, spraying it out to shooters when they can. If Derek White is not being assertive in the offense, it's like, oh, this is a big problem

for the Celtics. Everyone on the Celtics tip. I mean, this is the team you think is winning the Eastern Conference. I'm sorry, man. Like, I don't see it. I know when I talk about the three-point shot in basketball being an epidemic, I'm just the old guy harking for the good old days, but it is an epidemic, and there are easy ways to prevent it.

And here's one, and I'm being serious here, you can't take more three-point field goal attempts than you do two-point field goal attempts. Okay? You have to take more twos. Well, teams don't do that. We can't legislate the game like that, right? Yes, it does happen. That never happens.

happens a lot. I mean, the Sixers Celtics last night took 52 point attempts and 39 three point attempts. Okay. It doesn't happen, but it does happen. Greg, it doesn't happen very often. Getting back to Derek White, he is 7 for 33 in the series

from three point range. He's averaging eight points game, 29% from the field, 21% from three. That's as bad as the Celtics can play and they'll throw those stinkers out there. The thing I'd like to talk about for second, though, is Joel Embed because this guy has been sort of playoff cursed. He is going to be

one of these people who people say about, I don't know how much he cared when last year he's playing through Bell's palsy in his face. The year before that, he had some orbital bone. This year, he has an emergency appendectomy. Like, those sound very painful. Like, if you're, a regular appendectomy is bad. An emergency one. suggests that you were in a lot of pain and had to be taken to the hospital. Well, they all emergency. I don't think there's any other kind. Yeah.

It's like, oh, oh, God. You think that's not like, hey, let me get this preventative one. Usually like, what's that up? So that's the only time that's, it's only emergency surgery. Yeah. The only time that you know there's a problem is when it's about to explore. Is that right? Well, because I've been getting MRIs recently.

How many times I tell you, man, you got a bad appendix? It's not something I've actually considered before, right? an eye on that thing. Put it on the poll at Levitard show. Is there any other kind of appendectomy other than emergency appendectomy? But wait a minute. You guys are laughing at me for, okay, wait a minute. Going to get that preventative appendectomy.

Take my not a thing. What do you got for June? It's like wisdom teeth. Don Lebetard. He has been great. He's made great hires. I said old. We've said all.

He said all that. He said all that. Everyone is. Everything. Everything you're saying. Everything you're saying has all been said. Okay, you've got to understand one thing. Stugats.

Me maximum. That's right. Until I say it, it hasn't been said. Boom. Okay, understand that. You're the mayor. Until I say it hasn't been said. Me Maxxum.

Me Maxim. Me maximum. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. You guys are right. Then every time I'm reading emergency appendectomy, it's redundant. Yeah. You guys are saying. ATM machine.

Okay. But there's no reason. That's right. That's what it is. Yeah, I can be fully honest with you. Like, you may be right. There may be precautionary appendectomies. I have never heard of one.

Every time I hear appendectomy, the word emergency is before it. It's an emergency when an organ explodes. But appendectomy is sufficient, is what I'm saying. It would appear that emergency appendectomy is something they're throwing in there to suggest an urgency. that appendectomy by itself does not. Can't eat after midnight tonight. I'm going to get my appendix removed tomorrow.

Yeah, I think it's a lot like the the collapsed lung, Dan. Yeah. It's not like, you should watch out for that lung. It might collapse on you one day. Hanging on by a threat. Yeah, it's one of those things that, you know, when it happens, then you go.

Again, though, collapsed lung is not redundant. Collapsed lung. There are any number of things that can happen to the lung. What about punctured lung? Standardly, emergency appendectomy. But sometimes, while they're rummaging around for some other stuff, they'll just go ahead and remove the appendix.

Yeah. That's another stuff category, though. When you're cut open, they realize, hey, this thing's about to burst. It's like in the juncture. No, it could be a healthy appendix that they remove because it's useless. Okay. Okay. Question. What is the appendix for? Appending.

Let's look up the appendix app, the AP. Put it on the poll at Lebitard Show. Do you know what an appendix does? Also, put it on the poll. Does an appendix do anything? Why does it explode? It acts, according to Google AI, so take it with a grain of salt, as a safe house for beneficial gut bacteria, allowing them to repopulate the digestive system after illnesses like diarrhea or antibiotic use.

So then what happens when you're, sorry, Dan, when you remove it, that gut bacteria is just float. You got the new house in the way. They're all just chilling in there. But then they got those probiotics. That's probably what that's for. Getting back to Embed, a cursed basketball player. And I don't know if you guys know this.

San Antonio wins rather uneventfully. I think San Antonio against OKC is going to decide your championship. But last night, this is a fairly shocking thing to say, I think. The Spurs are winning their first playoff series since 2017. Like this is one of the winningest franchises over the last 30 years, and they've done none of it over the last 10. So the Spurs are sitting there getting past a playoff round, as we are talking about the failures of the Miami Heat. But the last time those two teams competed at the top of the mountain, it's been eight years since the Spurs had anything that had a reasonable chance of advancing past the first round. So you have that game.

the Sixers, no matter what you think of Maxi, will go nowhere if Maxi's their best player. Like, they just won't, it doesn't, and this is not, I am not disparaging Maxi by saying that. I'm saying they need him beat for the process of those seven years I was just talking about with the Spurs. He's the process. He's the thing that you have to get in order for you to knock off the Celtics and he misses half the games. So he will be remembered, I think, as someone who did not care when I think the guy has played through things that tell me he cares way too much and his body just keeps betraying him.

Yeah, 100%. Like even we saw that in Kansas, right? When he was in college, he missed a bunch of time with the foot injury, got drafted. But with his whole thing and with the emergence of Tyrese Maxie and him being a legit all-star and potentially superstar in the years to come, like I think this is Maxie's team right now. I think Joelle Embed is the biggest X factor in the NBA because when he's in there, he'll give you a smooth 39, 9, and 7.

And then you're like, oh, my God, that guy's great. But then he'll also do the thing of him floating around the three-point line and having 12 and 7. If it's Maxie's team, it goes nowhere. It goes nowhere. It was Maxi's team this year, and they're in the playoffs. Yeah, but they're in the playoffs, and they're going to lose the team that makes more threes because they're not as good as Boston because basketball, for however much they distorted on the math, that Knicks game at Hawks game is how that one goes throughout the history of time in game five after five.

when the higher seat is playing at home and the superstar has the superstar game. No, you're right. It's Maxie's team only because it's not Embedd's team. Correct. Like they wish it were Mbeed's team. But it can't be. Which is why Mbeed has to be your best player for them to go anywhere. You say it can't be.

It must be. But the thing that has, this guy, the way that he plays basketball, okay, if he were healthy, he would be one of the best players there's ever been. if he were out there all of the time. He's trying to get out there, but every year in the playoffs, he's wearing a mask. His face is shattered. And this year, it's an appendectomy.

But when I talk about what the Spurs haven't done for seven years, everything the Sixers have done for the last how many? Twelve years? Has been about that guy playing in these games, playing like that in a game on the road at Boston, because it's his team. And Maxie's how you build around him. Maxi is how you get the secondary player.

If I'm not kidding you when I say, I think that Embed at his healthiest, and this is an oxymoron, but at his healthiest, that is a player that I can win a championship with if I could get him to stay on the courts. A hundred percent. Like he's a functional big in a way that we've rarely seen where he can back to the basket. He can shoot threes. He can get to the hoop. He can shoot.

He can drive, he can defend, he can do all those things. The problem is he can't stay on the floor, which is a major piece. Tyrese Maxie Dan runs the most miles of anybody in the NBA. So when you talk about the building of what the Philadelphia 76ers are, I think we're looking at it from two different paradigms. The one I'm looking at is if we can build everything around Maxi, Edgecom, a lot of wings, a lot of defenders, Quentin Grimes, and then add the X factor of Joel NB when he's healthy

and get him healthy for a playoff run, that's how you build that team. you can't build it around Joel Embedd playing 65 games. If that. Embed was doubled right off the go last night. He wasn't even near the basket and they went and doubled him. And he says correctly, quote, I feel pretty good about my chances of going one-on-one against anyone in this league.

I don't think I can be stopped. Only by himself, only by his own body. It is interesting to me to see a player who's playing with a mask, who's coming back early from an appendectomy, whether it was an emergency or not. gut receptacle, that this person is always playing some form of hurt, damaged, and is going to have a reputation forevermore as someone who can't be counted on and doesn't care enough. Well, that part I do think is justified, especially when you consider his resume, is laundry lists of injuries. The book on him is that he doesn't put himself in the best position physically

because he doesn't take care of his body. And that's a preventative measure that could help Yes, there are some guys that take all the preventative measures in the world and they're just brittle. He happens to be brittle and he also has a bad diet and is not a conditioning guy. Yeah, he's one of those guys that in the playoffs has had unbelievable moments like that one, but then has also had several series where late in games he's getting run off the floor because he's exhausted. Oh, but wait a minute, that's where you need maxi. Like that late in games, like that's how you build a champion. Like, late in games, that's how you make Maxi a superstar, real superstar.

Not someone playing as a seven seed for the rest of his life because that's what his team is going to be if he's the leader of it. That's precisely what it is that San Antonio has in Deerrin Fox. Like, they don't need Wembe to win the games at the end. Well, they also have Stefan Castle and Vassell. And, like, they have a laundry list of guys six men of the year in Kelton Johnson. Like, they've built that team around Wembe, obviously, but they've done everything around him to keep the Wembe, non-Wemby minutes okay with the Luke Cornett. signing like they've put together an extremely extremely good team um it's just the sixers have always had this thing of like if we can build enough behind and bead will be okay and like it looks with the

vj edge come uh drafting with maxi stepping up with paul george being somewhat better quentin grimes off the bench like it's it's there they have it man by yeah i have a three point update did you hear that though you didn't did what was that you looked around the room as if you what is this man by yeah Somebody mispronouncing Wembenyama? Who's doing that? Mambaya. Pat Riley.

Mambaya. Ouch, that had to hurt. He said he'll only trade BAM if he gets eight picks and. Mambaya. That would be. He's abbreviating the name. He's saving a syllable. I give Pat credit for that.

He's saving his breath. Back to the stats. It would help our point. Okay. And it does. You can bend stats, as you know. Okay. The percentage of three point attempts in the NBA has increased for an 11th consecutive

season. And so have the percentages of games where three-point shots outnumbered two-point shots. So I am being foresightful when I say that the NBA at some point needs to limit three-point shots and that there's an easy way. I don't want to change the rules, though, in the first round of the playoffs. I don't love doing that. No, I agree with that. But just I don't love it as a conversation point. I think it's, you don't love sports enough if this is what you're doing. But in Greg's defense, the Celtic in particular last year became the fourth team ever to take more threes than they did twos in the regular season. Really?

Thank you, Billy. That is my man right there. Why Brad Stevens is executive of the year. You guys do understand. And Missoula, I will remind everyone listening to this, that when Missoula got down 3-0 to the Miami Heat not that long ago, everyone here thought that. that he might get fired, and everyone here wondered after that season if he was a good coach. And the reason he's a good coach, as these guys become more and more middle managers,

and Brad Stevens leaves the job Missoula has because he doesn't want to be a middle manager. He wants to be the guy who's actually the one with the power. The way that he wins executive of the year is by creating a distortion with the assets that he has that allows them to shoot from distance 40 and 50 times a game. and they're very good at it. And when you say they're playing with calculators and it's math, yes, four out of seven games because they're very good at it, because they've got very high draft picks,

and Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum together, if they cave in your defense, the shooters are going to be over, going to be open for the rest of time. Like that's not going to stop. Is it good coaching? Or did they just break the system? And they're now creating something that we're complaining about

where they can beat OKC2 if those. are the four games that they make their threes. It's less likely the way that OKC defends, but still, in four of seven games, when you distill it to that small a thing, isn't that why Brad Stevens is your executive of the year and viewed as the guy who's the smartest in the league and why Mike Ryan is saying of Sam Presti over here,

he needs to replace Jerry West as the logo because these architects have replaced the middle managers as the most important thing. What you're saying is not wrong about it? Brad Stevens, but I think he wins executive of the year this year because they weren't supposed to be good. They traded away big pieces. They added other pieces and they were really good. But is that not a Missoula conversation of getting the most out of guys that were just okay and average and then also not having your best player for an Achilles? Or it's having two first

round picks, top of the draft guys who cave in your defense and you can find three streuces now. You can find them wherever it is. You go looking for struces. But that's the development of the entire franchise, right? Missoula has a big part to do with that. They cut strews. They got more struces. They got a Peyton Pritchard. Give me that strews, truce, truce.

The other night I was staying in. At least, that was a plan. Then the text from my buddy Eagle Eye comes in. Mike, we've got the games on. I say, yeah? I grab a pack of Miller Light, and immediately my plan's gone. Now it's playoff basketball. Every possession feels huge.

Baseball's on another screen, and I somehow care about that too. Everybody's got takes flying. Nobody's watching just one thing, and we're all way more into it than we ever expected. It was one of those nights that you take a sip, you look around and you think, yeah, this was the right move.

That's why I reached for Miller Light. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, root for taste with simple ingredients, just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs, the original light beer since 1975, and it still hits different. Cheers to legendary moments with 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 Lite pretty much anywhere. They sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.