The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Greg Cote Launches a New Website | Local Hour

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

"But Tati's Llamas went 10-6 in Week 1." Chris introduces Trysta to the concept of the PFPI, Dan rummages for pennies, Greg shares his comfort with low PSI in his tires, and Zas, Roy, and Tony dismiss Pablo's long-winded & self-aggrandizing question to Adam Silver. Today's cast: Dan, Greg, Trysta, Roy, Chris, Tony, and Zaslow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has before it kickoff. Zaslo already knows how the game is going to end. Tony has studied every possible matchup and Chris Cody is convinced his fantasy team is unbeatable. Then the game starts, everything immediately goes off the rails and suddenly nobody remembers making any of those predictions. That's why a legendary game day starts with an ice cold Miller light. Whether I'm at a tailgate, watching with friends, or settling in for a full Saturday of college football, Miller Light is the beer I can depend on. It's crisp, refreshing, and has a clean finish that hits perfectly during a hot South Florida game day.

Miller Light is the original light beer with great taste, and beer lovers have trusted it for more than 50 years. Make game day legendary. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 caps. calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Let me give you a true story.

I was at my favorite bar. Guy working behind the bar, a good friend of mine, huge Bills fan. I opened up the game time map and a spur in the moment decision, let's go to Bill's Lions, home opener at the brand new stadium. And game time delivered,

as it always does for me. It makes finding tickets incredibly easy, even when I decide at the last minute that I need to be at a game, even if it's not even in the state I'm in. I can see a panoramic seed view before I buy. The price shown includes all fees. What you see is what you pay, period.

GameTime also has zone deals. You choose a section, they choose the seats, and you save money. Plus, every purchase is backed by the GameTime Guarantee, including on-time ticket delivery and their lowest price guarantee. Get your friends together, get your tickets, and tell them, it's Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Dan for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and use code D-A-N for $20 off. Chris, I'm concerned about your father and his next steps here over the next week

because he's asking me very basic questions about substack and he's about to jump off of a cliff a little bit. And I'm just concerned that he hasn't paid the proper attention to the details of business that are required so that he may. may provide a playground for you and Yeti to continue making money in the future off of his business. I don't think he's quite prepared for the modern age. Have you noticed any of this in the shadows? Because I've been pushing him on. You've got to be meticulous and you've got to do special things.

And what he says is why don't you write something for my substack? I've noticed he's got a lot of thoughts, but not a lot of action. He doesn't really, like, Yeti. He's got a meeting in terms of getting his podcast. And he's just like, Yetty, take care of this. We got this meeting on Friday. We're good to go on that? He's a delegator.

I am a delegator. That's all the best minds. They know how to delegate. All the laziest as well. No, you got to delegate. Greg, if you need help on Substack, I can help you. I have a substack. I actually knew something out right now.

What is Substack? Tony can write, Zaz. Tony can write. Tony's a good writer. Thank you, Dan. I appreciate that. Anyways, Greg, me and you can offline. Okay.

50-50 split. What does that mean? That means that all of your words, work, Tony's going to get half of. Do you charge money on substack? Are you serious? This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. This is the- Greg, we need to meet. He's about to jump off a cliff and he's got no parachute. And he's like, get it. Get me a parachute while he's on the way down. Yeah, it costs money. That's the whole point of it. It costs me money to be on.

Oh, my Lord. It's free for you. I haven't charged it yet. No, no, listen to me, Greg. What is substack? Don't worry about it. You don't do much of it. Listen, what you do is very simple. You get on it. It's free for you. But you can charge. other people basically behind a paywall to see what you write. So you make some money off that. How do you not know what you're about to embark on? It's like cameo, but instead of making videos, you're right stuff. It's like the early days of the Miami Herald probably.

Right. Except there was no paywall then. But it was paper to your door, but you had to pay for the paper to your door. It's like the new age landing on the lawn. Right. Sometimes it's $7.99 a month. Sometimes $6.99 a month. Sometimes people package writers together. Jake Fisher, who's an NBA insider, another Marks,

die another NBA insider. They put their powers together like Avengers. $9.99 a month, or you can pay for a year in advance $50 a year. Like a bundle. Did you just cough? One thing I'll never do is end anything in a 99. I hate that about gas prices. Why can't I just pay $4 a gallon or $5 a gallon? Nah.

$999 just feels so much cheaper than $10. I know, but it's not a trick that fools me. I don't like that. But I'll look into this pricing thing. Part of me wants to just give away my writing. Where are you going to look? I don't know. I'm going to talk to Tony.

He's my new expert. Thank you. My substack editor. Do you see why I'm concerned? What do you think? And double what Tony charges? I don't know what he charges. I charge zero.

Mine's free. There you go. It's a role model. I'm sitting here begging the audience to support the Cody things, support his podcast. You should see what Zaz's podcast has become because he's put a bit of effort into just making it a little more special

than it used to be. Zaz's podcast is exploding, and Greg just wants all the work done for him, and I really want our listeners to support the YouTube channel and support the Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody with the podcast, and I want it to be made more popular, but there's no way for us to get this substack working the way your dad is presently doing things where he doesn't know anything about what he's doing. I mean, Greg, if you write something, this is where we can come into agreement and alignment. Are you ready?

You can write stuff, and then I can handle it. the back end of your substack, make things, you know, put pictures in, do certain things, and then we make it happen, babe. Hmm, okay. You know. I don't trust him to do this at all. What do you mean? You're doing yours for free.

If you were making money and this is a solid enterprise on substack for you, I would feel much more confident. You and I both know that you got to start somewhere. You can't start asking people for money right off the bat. You have to establish a brand. You have to establish an identity. Greg has all those things, so he could maybe charge right off Rip, but for me, a lowly writer, please.

Trista, as our substack expert, do you think that Tony's allowed to allege that he's on substack when he wrote his first post in 2022 and he has seven total posts since then? No. What is substack? Greg Cody is here with us again today. I am hoping that he's around here more often and we are trying to come up with ways to make his substack have. a bit of a splash and I'm excited about the possibilities of Greg Cody in the second part of his career here. Splash. But I don't actually know if he's going to do this successfully because he has gone super micro on where his me maximum interests are.

And so he won't shut up about the PFPI. Trista, I was just going to ask you, do you have any idea what the PFPI is? Chris, you want to try and explain? Actually, Greg, why don't you explain? Trista, what the PFPI is. Yeah, it stands for Pro Football Predictions Incorporated, which is a $10 phrase for a little family enterprise that I began in the late 60s when I was just a kid. It's a family pick-em, an NFL pick-um pool, but it's family only.

Straight up, no spreads. Yeah, we now have eight members in our league. Oh, big burgeoning business. Yeah, and we started it. It went in the late 60s to mid-7. and then it disappeared for decades. It returned in 2004, and we've been going at it ever since. This is the 23rd year of our modern era that just began.

I did a video on it, and we're very excited about it. All right, let's check out the video here. Sounds excited. Yeah, he sounded totally bored, ran out of both breath and thoughts at the end. I'm sure there will be a lot more enthusiasm in this video. Hey, y'all. This is Greg Cody. I'm the founder and commissioner of PFPI, the Cody family tradition, dating back decades.

Guess what? We just began our 23rd season of the modern era, and Christy's Ferraris, Tati's Llamas, and Dick's Roughwriters have the week one lead out the gate. Three other teams, including reigning champion Chris's critters, are tied. two games back and Greg's Lobos AMFFFF FFT is three back after a bit of a rough start

Oi Tati's Lamas scored the week's only unique hit, cashing a coooskin for 49ers over Rams so we're off and running

the marathon climb to the Dad's Dynamics Cup Championship Trophy has begun. Now, this is special. For the first time, PFPI, the Family Pickham League, has a website. If you haven't checked it out yet, why not? What's the matter with you? It's at pfPI.m. me.

That's pfpi.m.m. Check it out. Come back all season long. Follow us all along the journey as PFPI enters its 31st season overall and 23rd of the modern era. I'm Greg Cody, PFPI Commissioner. I can hear the dog crap that you're stepping in in that backyard, the piles of dog crap. And I just want to be clear, I believe that Greg Cody's second career is going to be an abject failure. Boy.

I mean, you are going to try with Tadis Llamas and Dick's Rough Riders. Let me bore you to death. To recreate the 54-year career that you had at the Miami Herald. You're creating websites, all these websites, right? Didn't you have a World Cup website? That's what inspired this one. How are you going to monetize that, babe? Well, yeah, like, what is the point of me wanting to get on this,

except for the fact that I just was told, hey, you should log on to this? Yeah, I do that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your support. Yeah. There it is. Okay, but nobody's going to go to this website after this. I don't think so.

It's not going to have any sustaining. I should say. It's not going to have any sustaining power. It's too self-involved. I don't think people want to know how Toddy's llamas are doing. It's very niche. It was hilarious because Yeti and my dad, when we did this for the World Cup, the excitement that they would get, guys, 450 people have looked at it.

And it's like over the course of the entire World Cup. And they're like, we need to keep, we need to ride this way. and go to Pfbi.me. Greg, I don't like what he did there. 450. He's just more than that. He's just being honest. Just being honest. Much more than that. PfPI.mee.

already has more than 600, and we've only been open for a couple of days. Open? Yeah, open for business. He's checking website views the way that, like, YouTube view. And his mom's like, Dad, these are not the same thing. Here's the thing. What's the business model?

The business model is I want to do it. Still being figured out. Me! No, yet he's good at website-type development. Uh-huh. You know, that kind of thing. Is he? He thinks he's opening a store.

Well, it's a website. He's in big trouble. He's in big trouble. He needs some help here. I'm here to help. I'm hoping that some young people can help him because I know our listeners will support whatever it is he's doing. They always do.

And now more than ever, but this is a hard ask. No, because there's going to be an amazing variety to my substack. The first thing will be a retrospective on my career and what, transition I'm making from the Miami Herald to this new frontier. But we'll include PFPI stuff. No. You can't include my NFL picks. You can't include this.

Yes, I will. Wouldn't that go on the PFPI website? Yeah, you can't include this. It'll be included on Substack. Why can't he include this? There's nothing special, unique, or riveting about this content. It's terrible. No, it's great.

But Tati's Lamas went 10 and 6 in week one. No, they went. Why do I care? Who is Tati? and why do I give it's my daughter-in-law it's my other son's wife but here's the problem though okay you're you're trying in the modern age okay you're a bit of a caveman arriving at the computer okay in the modern age at 72 years old you're trying to get in the young people game and you for 54 years have had a very good antenna on what's interesting to others that's what a columnist's job is and you've got a

young person telling you here this ain't it it's not it it's not it but this is just one element of my substack. I don't think you should put it on your substack. What's the matter with you? It could be it though, Greg. Like there could be a part of the substack where it's like, hey, every Monday, about 4 p.m., you get the PfPI straight to your inbox. All of a sudden, people that really want to see it.

Oh, wow. Tati's Lama's in third place. Yes. Who is Tati again? That's my daughter-in-law. The one that Chris thinks about. No, no, no, no, no. That's my wife's sister. Whoa.

She's in our fantasy league, but not in. in the original PFI. She's in Chris's fantasy list. PFPI fantasy and PFPI are different things. How many views did that video get that you posted that was like three minutes too long? Well, it was a minute. It was a minute and 50 seconds, so it couldn't have been three minutes too long. It was.

It felt like three minutes. It felt longer than it was. My favorite part of the football season is the confidence everybody has before a kickoff. Zazlo already knows how the game is going to end. Tony has studied every possible matchup, and Chris Cody is convinced his fantasy team is unbeatable. Then the game starts, everything immediately goes off the rails, and suddenly nobody remembers making any of those predictions. That's why a legendary game day starts with an ice cold Miller light, whether I'm at a tailgate, watching with friends, or settling in for a full Saturday of college football. Miller Light is the beer I can depend on.

It's crisp, refreshing, and has a clean finish that hits perfectly during a hot South Florida. to Game Day. Miller Light is the original light beer with great taste, and beer lovers have trusted it for more than 50 years. Make Game Day legendary. 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. Game time is Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Down Levitar! This is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it Greg Cody.

Everybody, this is the quickest it goes. Yeah. This is the Dan Levitar show. I want to bring back something that Greg mentioned in The Shatter Show. He says he's objecting to the idea of things being on the bill 99 cents, something 99. He doesn't like it. He's just rounding it up. The penny is now obsolete, and I've got a funny story to tell you guys.

You guys would have really enjoyed this the other day. I went to Puerto Saguay, the oldest restaurant on South Beach the other day, to get my father some black beans. Oh, I love that place. Yeah. He loves the black beans there. And so I went there, right? And I realized when I got there that I did not have my wallet, okay? And I was stunned.

They charged me, I mean, the prices are just crazy everywhere now, but they charge me 1550 for two things of rice that had to have cost them like 30 cents to make. Like nothing. But I get there, right, and so I don't have my wallet, and now I have to go through my glove compartment and pay in change. Okay. You don't have Apple wallet on your phone? I didn't have my phone either. I was just, I felt naked.

I felt completely naked. Were you naked? Boy. Yes, I was naked. Okay. And so I walk into the place with just my hands filled with change. Why do you have that much? Change in your glove box.

Fair question. To put air in the tires at the gas station to just have change. If I happen to need it. To buy rice and beans just in case. And any time that I get change that I'm not giving it to a cashier or something, I'm just throwing it in the car. And so over time, what are you shaking your head about, Roy? Why don't you just buy an air compressor from Amazon?

I mean, okay. I could do that, but I'm not putting air in my tires that much. You should check the air in your tires, brother. No, my car does that for me. I don't. I know. Love that about cars. And when it's, why am I answering these questions? What's the PSI before you put air in your tires? Oh, don't play this game with my dad. Dad, admit how a low yours is right now.

He doesn't go under 32, does he? Yeah, my front right this morning when I left the house was 10. Get out of you. What? Explain his justice. Listen to his justification. By the time I drive on it for 40 miles, whatever it takes to get to this show, it's 13 or 14. So it's fine.

What's the reason? Tell us about your tire. What's the detail about your tire? The reason you feel it's safe. Okay, my car happens to have very expensive tires. They're run flat tires. He thinks that that's what runs flat. They don't go flat.

Greg, it's not at all with that means. They run flat for like 40 miles so that you can get a new tire so that you can just get home. Like, you're not supposed to be driving around hundreds of miles on a run flat. It works for me every week. But when it stops working, you've got a real problem on your hands that might conclude with your death. We don't have to worry about the substack anymore. That's a point. Oy.

Anyway, I'm sitting there in Puerto Saguan. The thing that you guys would have enjoyed is I'm stacking dimes on top of each other. Oh, man. No, no. No, no, this is the funniest part about this is at the very end. I'm stacking nickels on top of each other. No, no. No, I got there.

I did get there, but that's the part that's the funniest. A tiny woman in Spanish. comes by. I'm already at the center of my shame. Okay. And she comes by, she works in the restaurant, she says to me in Spanish, we don't take pennies. Just would not

accept pennies, even though, because I just came in with two handfuls of change. You guys are looking at me. You can't believe that I even have that I'm using any kind of cash at all anymore. Do you not know who you are? Do you not know who I'm a disorganized person? That I agree with. But more importantly, people don't know

that from seeing you. somebody's walking by and being like, oh man, that's Dan Levitard. What is he doing? He's paying with change. Like, I guess he's falling on hard times. I haven't seen him on ESPN anymore. I don't know what he's doing. He's paying for rice and beans with change.

What's the matter with you? Why couldn't you just say, hey, I forgot my wallet and my phone. I'm just going to pick up the rice and beans. I'll call you as soon as I get home and give you my card. Yeah. In Miami? Yeah, it doesn't work that way. Maybe in Portland.

Not for Dan Levitarton? No. You've probably been there. A bazillion time. It's your dad's favorite spot for being, so they know you. They know your face. And they're like, nah, you got to pay for the 1550 right now. Right.

You got to play the Do You Know Who I Am card, just like you do when a cop stops you. Yeah. That's worked for you often. Work for Justin Timberlake. Right. The best move with the cops is to let them do it for you, not to have to tell them. If you have to ask them, do you know who I am, the answer is no. So don't do that.

Just to bet. They'll either say so or they'll either say so, or they'll. won't. I have gotten out of tickets in this city, no other city, but in this city because of that, because police officers in their cars a lot. And so they are often listening to radio and so, or now podcasts. And so over the years, they do find out who I am sometimes and I do get out of stuff occasionally. What is substack? I wanted to get to a couple of different things here in the local hour. And I want to ask the local audience again to please support the things that Greg Cody is about to do because I imagine it's a little bit of a scary

time. Over the last few days of this overwhelming outpouring, Greg, what are the most moving calls that you have gotten? Who have you heard from that has made it special outside of what you told us yesterday, the former publisher of the Herald David Lawrence? Actually, I got a call yesterday from Tony Cornheiser, which I was very pleased to get. And it wasn't just a quick token, hey, sorry to hear that, I got to run. We were on the phone like 10 minutes. It's the longest I've ever spoken with him. He hates the phone. Yeah, I was shocked that he called me and I was very gratified and, you know, he's obviously mourning, you know, he was with the Washington Post for how long and he's obviously mourning the death of newspapers as I am, as many are, and I appreciate him calling.

How many minutes into the conversation did you ask him to come on your podcast? I resisted the urge. You should ask him. He doesn't do that. We've had him on once. That's why he's the number one. On our top 100 guests of all time, he's number one. Yeah, he was number one. Levertar just missed the top ten.

I think he was, where were you, 12, 13? 11. 11 was he? Wow. I'm willing to accuse Tony Kornheiser of being really weird at friendship because I've stopped asking him, but he hates doing those kinds of favors. He does not do the podcasts of others, even as Greg Cody and I have been on his show thousands of times.

But does that extend to other things in his life or he just doesn't like doing things for people? The only reason he came on our show is because me and my dad made like a year-long bet of me saying you'll never get him on. And my dad basically sent him the audio. I was like, please, my son says this. So he gave us like an audio clip and that was him being on our podcast. I do feel like the grand majority of people are in the mic camp of,

hey, sorry, in capitalism, you either keep up with the moderns. or you get left behind. Not going to be sad for you, Tony Kornheiser, and the death of this particular dinosaur. The internet and substack have taken over. You lose newspapers. Stop being so sad about newspapers. It's like being sad that the dinosaurs are extinct.

It's survival of the fittest. Yeah, I think that there's a real disconnect with media members, not just ones that are dinosaurs like you, Greg, respectfully, but ones that are in their 30s and 40s where they think that the platform that they have is good enough. And it's just clearly not because layoffs continue to come. And if your face and your voice don't matter to an audience and you can be replaced and you haven't done anything to build your own on social, I mean, you're kind of screwed. And so I think this is your time to, you can pivot

at any time. I think this is your time. No, I agree with you. And I do feel bad for people half my age who are still hoping that newspapers live on and become something. Or TV. Yeah, the weird thing to me, isn't that print journalism is dying because print journalism deserves to die. Nobody wants to read something that they already know about because you're literally reporting yesterday's news.

But the transition to online like they just haven't figured out a way to do that either. Well that part was interesting right because I've told you guys this story several times but it's a great story. My friend still gets the Sunday

paper. He's reading it at a his kitchen table on a Sunday morning, his 10-year-old son comes out with his 10-year-old son's friend. And the friend asks, as the dad is holding the newspaper, what is that? But the next question is the great question, because my friend starts to explain what it is, and the kid asks, how did it get here? And when it's explained that it was thrown into the bushes, yesterday's news thrown into the bushes. Think about this as a business model if you want to lament what happened the newspapers. We'll throw yesterday's Bushes, yesterday's news

into your bushes for a price tomorrow or we'll give it to you for free on the internet right now. That's where it is the dinosaur fell apart. And it's, when Greg Cody says, it makes me sad, but when Greg

Cody says, yeah, it deserves to die, if you can't figure out the business model, you're going to die. I mean, young people obviously don't understand it, but I loved waking up in the morning, opening in the front door and knowing the newspapers to be right there on the doorstep and reading about the games that took place last night. Oh, but this is the thing, though, that gets lost.

When Greg Cody talks about the connection you make with readers, this is the coolest thing, I think, about how it is that you end up reaching a community through what sports provide. All of you, when your team wins, sit there and just watch all of the highlights. You just watch it again and again. But the ability to relive something magical by reading about it the next day from an assortment, of different perspectives, that's what dies with killing this thing in the sports section. The fact that 12 hours later, you still have that feeling, you couldn't sleep, you're all excited about everything that happened, and now you get somebody else's perspective where you get to

relive the whole thing and see if they saw something that you didn't, that the immediacy of the day makes it so that marination disappears in a way that makes me sad the same way. You know, when you cook something and you take time to cook something, you appreciate with the taste. You appreciate what it took to bake that. It dies, right? That's over now. We losing the recipes?

We are losing the recipes. Yeah. Well, it's on something. Tony, you know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up.

Everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Quervo. I'm walking like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this.

is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby. Dan Levitar. Hello, this

is not Greg Cody. Greg Cody. That kind of thing. And you know it. This is the Dan Levitar show. You know what? Deadlines also killed the newspaper because if I'm writing a column off a Sunday night game, hell, a 4 p.m. Sunday night game. At kickoff, I'm already past the deadline for Monday print. If I'm covering a 4 p.m. Dolphin game, it's not going to be in the paper in the newspaper until Tuesday. Can't work like that.

Well, let me ask you what's happened here with Pablo Torre because Pablo is trying to modern. what is an artifact, an heirloom. In our case, I guess I could say a family heirloom. Pablo is trying to do it in the modern age as a provocateur, an entertainer, learning all of the things that get learned everywhere from Sports Illustrated to ESPN on how to cover sports. And yesterday, were any of you surprised that he showed up at the Adam Silver press conference the first time that Adam Silver was speaking? and he's got to be the only podcaster who had cameras on him and the commissioner so that you could get a video that's this sharp of both question and answer

where Pablo's got his own video team following him around to ask the hard questions. It's got to be a weird spot. I mean, I don't know. If I was Pablo, I would think that right when I walk into the room that everyone's looking at me. Everyone's looking at me and everyone's thinking about me. He loves it. That would make me really uncomfortable. I imagine he got someone.

like the way Aladdin would be carried in somewhere. Like that's how he entered that. Well, you know what? At the Moss event, this was a funny side to see of Pablo. You guys remember that he crowd surfed at a Moss event? While keeping his hands in his pockets just in case. Yeah, he crowd surfed and he crowd surfed and he said, the entertainer in me from kindergarten on has always been dying for something like this. And so this is the stuff.

This kind of clip is what Pablo has dreamed about since. he was seven years old. Hey Adam. Pablo from Pablo Torrey finding up. Given the ongoing federal investigations into the clippers and dectronics and aspiration as well as the investigation

to Mark Walter, there has been a growing concern that wealthy individuals and entities are using the approval of the NBA to purchase credibility in the eyes of the public, meaning the fans. And I'm just curious

if that growing concern is something that you share when it comes to the due diligence that follows the application of an owner or a sponsor and if you plan on changing anything about MBA due diligence processes because of that. I mean, interesting the way you put it, I've never heard it quite that way. I understand that with team ownership comes a platform both for individual owners and helps them become widely known, but I also think it imposes responsibilities on them in their communities. It's my opening. It's one of the things we talked about today in terms of what comes with team ownership.

I would only say, you know, and this has even come up in your reporting, just as there are limits to what a reporter is able to do. In some ways, reporters can do things that traditional investigators can't because you can, in some cases, keep all your sources, is confidential. I think there's different transparency obligations on leagues and also maybe a different set of actors' willingness to talk directly to leagues. But we take the vetting process very seriously. A lot of what we do is intensive database searching.

I mean, you would think in this day and age, with AI and everything else, that everything is centralized. It's not. Many cases, you're going state by state. In certain cases, people are part of industries that are regulated state by state. So you have to look there as well. You know, we also talk to as many people as we can find

and, you know, who have knowledge about these people. And we do interviews. But beyond that, you know, I will say we're always reassessing to see if we can do more. But in fairness to the parties involved, even Mark Walter, as we sit here today, I know more about him than I did when we've edited him. I read newspaper articles, but in fairness to him,

I don't know where those. investigations are going to come out. I don't know where any government inquiries are going to come out. So, again, I guess we're always seeing if we can do things better. But I don't see a trend or some widespread issue, certainly among our principal owners that gives me cause for concern. Zaz, if you were Adam Silver, how would have you answered that? Don't ask me. I don't know what the hell that question was. I don't know what Adam Silver was saying. We started about talking about AI and state's choice.

What was he on? Processes. Can we talk a little basketball? I thought you guys were just going to make fun of how nervous Pablo's question was and how long Pablo's question was. He was a long question. He had him? Pablo from Pablo Torre finds out.

Yeah, that's also douche, by the way. Pablo Torre from Pablo Tori finds out is like the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Oh, you have to. Do I love that flam? No, I love it again. I love that. Pablo from Pablo Tori finds out. You have to say that.

Yeah. Well done, Pablo. Me and Zaz were looking at each other and were like, what are they saying? What is that question? The question didn't make sense. I don't know what the question was. And then Adam Silver starts talking. I'm like, what is he talking about?

No, the question makes sense. It just seems like the commissioner's not familiar with sports washing, which seems odd. He said, oh, I've never heard it put that way. I honestly thought the most interesting part was like in between the end of Pablo's question and the start of Adam Silver's answer. answer, they cut to Adam, and you just see him, he's like swaying back and forth. So you could just see overall, he's like, oh boy, Pablo's here. This is a question. I'm going to, everyone's going to be dissecting this answer. I got to bring it here. What was the question?

He was asking, are you concerned about the growing concern that owners are using your league to establish billionaires are using their league to establish money to credibility, whether they have money or not? Gotcha. Or whether they have, you know, ill-begotten money or No. I don't know. Tell me what place you think the heat are going to finish this year. Good question. I think Silver should have cleared his throat and said to Pablo, could you repeat the question, please? That's what I think should have.

Tony, sports washing, the practice of using sports to improve a tarnish reputation, distract from unethical behavior, that's Mark Walter, or divert attention away from human rights abuses, which... Did Pablo say sports washing? Did he say the words? No, he did not. Saudi Arabia invented that, I think. I'm sure other people did before. them. I don't know who invented sports washing. Maybe you guys can look it up for me. I did realize it for the first time with everything that was happening with Live, although long before that, the time that I

remember, I've told you guys this story. Back when no one knew what Cutter was or had ever heard of it, at the Olympics, I'm going to say the Atlanta Olympics, early 90s, they're just buying weightlifters from other countries, all of whom are running out of the Olympic village with terrible diarrhea because they're using so many diuretics to get out all the steroids that they're using. And that's how, that's legitimately the first time a lot of people had heard of that as a nation because they decided to just buy some bodybuilders who were cheating at the Olympics in order to sportswash the credibility of their country. Didn't like Nazi Germany host an Olympics?

Yes. Sure that's pretty sports washing. They're like, hey, we got Hitler in the stands. Yes. Watching your run. That feels a little more like propaganda than the formal definition that Trista gave us of sports washing. But when you hear everything that Adam Silver said there, it's a vacuum cleaner bag filled with debris and dust that he just blew in everybody's face. He didn't say much of anything there.

you love that sport, you love that league. What else did you take from the entirety of the Adam Silver press conference? Well, behind Pablo was a Portland reporter, and he asked Adam about the prospect of Portland maybe relocating. And I thought Adam Silver's response to that was pretty incredible. And what was his response to that? Because I did not hear it. I mean, that was a toss.

Yeah, it was a toss. but if you don't tell them in the microphones that are in front of you and in the talkbacks that you're going to toss it. They just can't read your mind on where it is that you're going. That's my bad. But you did it with such effortless grace as if like, watch this. I'm dribbling between my legs. Watch this. Watch this alley-up and you threw the ball into the stands.

I didn't know you were going to me on this topic. I got nervous because I thought you were talking to me. And I'm like, what is she talking to me? You just stop talking. You're like you're just, you were so proud of yourself on how well you did the toss and they weren't any kind of ready for the toss. I wasn't ready for you. I wasn't ready for you. Play the toss. It is my hope and belief that the Portland Trailblazers or the Trailblazers can be successful in Portland, Oregon. That it is important at the same time that Tom Dundon reaches a deal with the city officials and the state elected officials that makes operating in Portland viable for the long time. term. So that's what we're focused on. I, you know, to me, you know, I understand, you know, whether it was under David Stern or under other leagues, there are times when it becomes necessary

for teams to relocate for various circumstances. So I don't want to make that a point of pride for me, and that would, to me, be prejudging the situation. But I want to be very direct about it. I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland. Now I speak for our WMBA team in the market as well. We need a state-of-the-art arena. I mean, I think by any objective measure, now the current building there is in the bottom measure

of any arena in the league. And I think everyone in the community acknowledges. I do not acknowledge. I am in the community. I am there. I'm from there. I remember when Modo was built. Also, sorry about the toss.

That was horrible. I'm embarrassed. It was funny. Keep it going. I love when somebody smart gets caught up in the air. and can't find a word like he did there, that makes me feel good. Pablo from Pablo Tori finds out.

That stadium's in the bottom measure of all the stadiums. Oh, that makes me happy. Any objective. Any objective measure, they're bad. They're just really bad. I don't think that's true. I actually walk through Moda. I cover the Portland fire there.

I cover the Blazers there. I go to games. I go to concerts. And I don't think the Motor Center's that bad. I think there's many, many other arenas that are objectively worse. Your voice somehow went higher saying that. Many arenas. I mean, you've got smoothie king in New Orleans.

You've got, that one's just awful. I mean, I think that was 99. The facilities are a dump. Where the Rockets play, the Toyota Center is a dump. Also at the bottom of the measure. FedEx Forum, objectively bottom of the measure. Nobody's talking about how bad the United Center. is just because it's the Chicago Bulls and they're iconic.

Is that true? It's bad? United Center. It's stuck in the 90s. Really? You're going to name every arena? Capital One, where the Wizards play, where the 76ers play. Yes, they're all getting renovations.

But the problem to me is that many of them are not being asked to have the city give $600 million and then have this new owner decide everything about where the money goes, deciding who is the construction company that he is using. He's not keeping it local. He's hired a Canadian company to do it. It feels like Adam Silver is ready for the Blazers to leave. And it's like, I think it would be a failure, but like the motor center stinks. And everybody acknowledges.

I do not acknowledge it. Well, I did think that the interesting part of that is that he's saying, I don't want them to move. It would be a failure to move, but we need a new facility. Usually the move is to hint or threaten that they, might leave so that you get your new facility. You usually don't negotiate publicly that way, where you say it would be a failure if they left, I want them to stay, but also give us a state-of-the-art facility. Did you mention Memphis in there? Because some of the arena names these days confuse me because they change so often. Tony, would you do me the favor of looking up for me some information

about the data centers that Elon Musk is putting in Memphis that is literally choking citizens with its smells, that the people of Memphis, what these billionaires are doing all over the place, and in his case, trillionaires are doing all over the place, is they are just covering poor people in a smell. I think Elon Musk, the people of Memphis, are complaining that these data centers, which are very dangerous to the environment and use up a lot of things that people need, I believe there's a smell now in Memphis associated with AI and data centers and some of these, you know, bunkers of information that these billionaires are keeping through themselves. Yeah, some Memphis residents say that they're already grappling for clean air after Elon Musk's AI company began pumping out plumes of pollution to power its gargantuan data center.

It said it smells like raw cabbage. Put it on the poll at Lebitard show. Are you disgusted by the smell of raw cabbage? Guess what the racial makeup audacity is. You know what's weird about that, not to derail. Raw cabbage has very little smell. It's cooked cabbage that has an off-putting smell. You're right.

And fermented cabbage. Yes, exactly. That needs to be made clear. Thank you, Greg, for making that clear. Raw cabbage? Almost no smell at all. You are... Take a swig.

You earned it. Just reading the quote. You are at the... No, it's not your fault. Well-read. Not really. I struggle. You are at the top of it.

the measure. Thank you. I'm Greg Cody, PFPI Commissioner.