The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: I Hate This Game

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

"Hey movie theater, we're already in you!" We open with the segment that is sweeping the nation after last night's livestream: Back In My Dave. Dan tries to reignite the Samson and Trysta beef before the gang enters a discussion on whether or not the coverage of the NBA from legacy media is too negative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stucats podcast. Dave, you have a back in my Dave for us here? I do. I do. Sorry for stepping on the Cody family toes here, but here we go. This is a movie-specific back-in-my-dave movie tropes used to mean something. You know what I miss? I miss the scene when the two guys are wrestling for the same gun and then it goes off. And you don't know who got hit because they both make that same stunt stroking.

face at each other and hold it for like seven seconds until finally after like uh uh those seven seconds go by then somebody finally falls down but really it's a wasted seven seconds because we already knew it's going to be the bad guy who died what they're they're going to kill the good guy mama didn't raise no fool and i miss when zombies were at least nice and slow at least i could rest easy with the knowledge if there ever were a zombie attack they wouldn't be able to catch me because you can't eat where you can't catch now though i feel like i'm living on borrowed time because of the fast zombies. And I miss when a semi-regular cause of death in movies and only in movies

has never ever happened once in man's recorded history. We've talked about this before. But like dying while fighting on top of a moving train. No one's ever actually died that way on the planet Earth. But hundreds, nay thousands of characters lost their fictional lives while throwing hands with an action hero. The death toll among just Bond villain henchmen alone has got to be in the figures. And I miss how the bad guys at a high-speed chase were just good enough shots.

They could always hit the back windshield, but just inaccurate enough to never actually hit anybody in the car. That's some seriously bad luck. And I miss when anyone would die in a movie, it would always be with their eyes open. And I don't mean it just like a little bit, but their eyes were there. When people would die, their eyes would be all the way open. But then someone would come along and they would take their index finger and their thumb, and they would close the eyelids on the dead person. But then movies being informed by older movies, they were like too much with the like specific digits using it.

And then it just became like a whole hand. And they just like will rub the hand and then magically the eyes would be dead, would be close. And then they were just like, you know what? This whole thing is taking too much time. Let's just throw a sheet over them and move on. And I know a lot of people are with me on missing the days when movies weren't preceded by a half hours worth of commercials. but the one that's plumb inexplicable and therefore deeply vexing is the one for the movie theater itself.

Come see your movies at blank movie theaters. Hey, movie theater, we're already in you. Let's chop chop and make with the show, eh? And when the movie ended, it was over. You didn't need to sit through the credits unless you wanted to see the name of a family member who was a key grip or something up on the big screen. Now I've got to sit there for an extra five, ten minutes watching this scroll in small fun to see if there's some leftovers to share, and I like leftovers, but still, and I miss when

fraudulent Hollywood marriages were buoyed by public displays of assaulting Wiseacre Oscar host. It's like being a beard in exchange for a list status has lost all meaning. And I, and this one, even, it's not as bad as it is in con, but still, I miss when the Oscars didn't require 27 standing ovations over the course of the night. I'm not against honoring enduring achievements, but come on. He who starts the standing ovation is really honoring himself for being a great guy as much as the person they're ovationing. So somehow clapping from a seated position now makes you a jerk if the person in front of you stands. And no one wants that.

So now you've got to get up. And you know what that means for the person behind you? So now we're all standing here clapping like a bunch of jackasses, potentially wasting valuable seconds that could have been used to get a little further away from the fast zombies that are going to be here sooner rather than later. That's how it used to be back in my Dave. Wow. Very good, Dave. Great disband out there, Dave.

That was excellent. Greg Cody has a challenger to his throne. We should play that for him tomorrow to see if we could elevate Greg Cody's game at all. David, I did want to talk to you about the Oscars. It's the funnest day of the year for you. And Mike Ryan, you won a bet, okay? You won the bet when you said Robert Redford would be the best. the last dead person honored by the academy.

And you also won the bet that Barbara Streisand would introduce him and then sing. You were moved by it, I would imagine. Mike Ryan burst out laughing, called the whole thing weird and burst out laughing when the moment Barbara Streisand broke into song. It felt like an impersonator doing a Barbara Streisand impression during the whole thing. It was like for like her her to send it to the orchestra was about. her like her whole entire connection point to Robert Redford was the Babs nickname I guess that's a famous story I don't know but it felt very self-involved and I was like that's that was kind of

really self-involved that was more about Barbara Streisand than Robert Redford then the orchestra starts up so I'm like I guess we're going to get a montage and then nope Babs started singing poorly for Babs she and it's just not tuned correctly it was it was like it was kind of like sad and funny and awkward. She's not young anymore, so let's give her a small break, recognize the fact that she's basically mourning the loss of

someone on her level, realizing that she's like next. That's what happens when you're that age. I wasn't viewing it through that way. I was also upset there was no James Vanderbeak tribute. That's what I said last night, but then the counter was that he hasn't been in enough movies. He's a TV guy.

I was more upset about Bud Quartz. They have publicists get honored in I don't want your life. The idea that Mike Ryan would say that Babs is self-involved when she's like the original diva. I know. She's like the OG. Have you ever heard her duet with Donna Summer? They're legit fighting throughout the entire song.

Your thoughts in general about last night beyond the awkwardness of, we honored the dead for a full 30 minutes. It wasn't 30, but it was necessary. There were a lot of dead people. I thought there were going to be several deaths during the length of that. No, the show itself, I thought, moved well. 1030 was over, right? Yeah, 1032, 1033. In time to watch the 8th and 9th.

That's because it cut off Brody. No, I think it was, I think it moved fine. And did you watch the end? I don't know if Dave did. There was a Conan sketch at the end. Post for Life. Sean Penn happened to win, and it was a, I'm forgetting that his name's character, throwjack, blowjack, um, um, Thunkjaw.

Lockjaw, thank you. Throw Jack. You were close. Blowjack. Blowjack is a totally different character. He's actually Bob Nutting. Throw Jack, blowjack, lockjaw. Okay.

It was right there. I'm sorry, Bill Nutting. So Conan's the host for life, which he'd love to be, but now he's dead. They killed him at the end. That thing had me for like 30 seconds. I'm like, are they just announcing that he's host and then the bit came in? See, that's so it worked. Did you defeat Adnan in your annual rivalry of who will get more of the selection

correct? Yes. You only had one difference in your selections. Yours ended up coming in? Yeah, I had the documentary correct. It was Mr. Nobody Against Putin where everybody was picking the perfect neighbor. But Mr. Nobody Against Putin was a better documentary, more important, allowed for there to be a political discourse, which is what I told you would happen.

And out came the star of the show in Russian talking about what needs to happen, what the issues are. Meanwhile, Sean Penn's publicist said, hey, it's not that I can't vape here. It's not I'm too cool for you, but I'm going to go to Ukraine, which would be, in theory, more important than going to the Oscars. So there was a lot going on. So I was able to beat Adnan, and he texted me after that he wanted an immediate rematch.

And I said, you got to get off your couch for a rematch. Well, you can't have an immediate rematch until next year. We want to get you. Basically, this is about you. It was, can you agree to and approve a show earlier than 10 days out? next year we will do it with both you and adnan in the same place if you want to check out what we did last night we enjoyed ourselves it's on youtube and you can relive any of that with us if you'd like at your convenience but what were the standout things from last night because we actually before a lot of stuff was decided we finished the evening yeah there were really no surprises everyone had the four major categories you had one battle after another as best picture and winning the most Oscars how was Amy M Madigan's speech. So it was perfect. She's 75 years old.

She had never won, and this was her opportunity to get up there. But she had, people were curious whether she'd win because it had gone back and forth. I guess that she'd never even been nominated, right? I don't know that. I don't want to be like Sid Thrift. No surprises, though. Sid Thrift, for those of you who do not know, he's decided to mention a 1980s general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates for some reason, thinking that anybody would know that reference.

You wear a pirate hat almost every show. idea who that is. Oh my. What bothers me is that why do you wear a pirate hat? For skeins? I like the pee. So you even wear it because of the pirates. Correct. Outrage. There is a very famous story of a GM who commented on a player who is not a real player. And I learned early in my media career with you, Mr. Levitard. Do not say that you know something when you don't know it because it's not right. I don't know the answer, whether Amy Madigan has been nominated, so I'm not going to fashion a guess. Hello listeners and friends. Boy, the feedback on that night that I had with my good friend Mochetta while we were drinking Miller Lights watching Hoops.

It's been outstanding. So much so that we've decided to do it again. That's right. I'm going to pick up the phone and call up my good buddy Mochetta and say, hey, this college hoops tournament is still roaring. Why don't you come over? And on your way over, pick up some Miller Light anywhere they sell beer, and let's put those bad boys on ice. I'm going to take that first sip. I'm going to look at Mochetta and say, you know,

what, we made the right call. Next thing you know, we'll be fully locked in, somebody's pacing, someone else is doing their live bracket math like it's a job. That's why you reach for Miller Lite. 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 Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. 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 stuff. 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 Quervo brings.

It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Quervo effect. Keep it, Quervo. Don Lebertard. Tatas. Stugats. Tatos? This is the Don LeBatar show with a Stugats.

Amy Madigan was nominated in 1966. for best supporting actress for twice in a lifetime. You just saw, though, David's general discomfort with publicly acknowledging he doesn't know something. You saw it play out in real time. He had a movie question for him, and you felt and saw David's shame in not knowing the answer to every single movie question

that is asked by anyone anywhere in the world. I don't know, Tristan, pretty much just that I don't know. I'm not throwing you a lifeline. No? I really was hoping. was the moment. This was going to be our moment right there. You started the day today by saying she looked like she was wearing PJs.

You're not going to recover from that ever. It's in ours. That's a first impression. No, that was not our first impression. That's the first time you guys have been around each other where you've insulted her. I mean, Trista, saying a girl looks like she's wearing PJs, that like conveys like sloppiness, right? Yeah, slovenly behavior.

Have you not seen beautiful PJs before like sexy, beautiful PJs? That's lingerie. So I'm wearing negligee to the Dan Levittar show? That's what you were saying? That's what you meant. No.

I'm done here. A nighty? Teddy? Nighty is like for old people. A teddy? Yeah, a teddy. Teddy's better than 90. I told them back here, I said, I think David's been making a lot of eye contact with me.

I think he's trying to form some sort of rapport and I'm not giving it to him. I'm not doing it. I can't. He's going for rapport and repair. I'm also going for trying to be good with Dan because this is part of me getting better at what I'm doing is engaging with everyone in the room and looking around now I'm being criticized. Well, it's where you started. I mean, that's an amateur mistake by you. I don't understand how you don't understand that that's not something you could do upon seeing the way that a person is dressed.

I saw her last night. That was the first time we met. And I introduced myself to the dog named Ollie. Oh, good, good save there. Good save. No, we saw it. We saw you thinking all of us. Why did you not? That's not love. I was hoping that you would drown in it. Wait a minute. Who said anything around here was about love? God knows it's not. You better have some thick skins. This teaches you all to be executives in sports. Speaking of which, okay, I want to play something for you here because one of the criticisms of basketball announcing and one of the,

the reasons I believe Jeff Van Gundy now works for the Clippers instead of being a voice for the NBA as he had been for about 20 years is because Adam Silver felt like Jeff Van Gundy didn't do a good enough job of accentuating all of the positive that

is sales in basketball. All of the things worth celebrating. And I've noticed over the last few years, in fact, since Shaq got there, inside the NBA, the single best studio sports show there has ever been. Inside the NBA has Shaq telling everyone that they should play the

game he played down low and telling everyone that the way they play now isn't the right way, telling big men to be like him and just basically complaining about things. I've noticed this with Wilbon and Kornheiser as they've gotten older. You age, you get more conservative. You start complaining about more things. And it's a little startling to see inside the NBA be the old person's show where generations now, plural, of athletes, I've heard this a number of times. Man, bleep Charles.

Charles is from another time. Bleep Charles. I'm done. I'm not going to genuflect before Charles. Those are old guys who are just spending all their time complaining about the game. So let's listen to this sound here. Zaz, do we have some context here

that you'd want to put on this particular sound? Yeah. So I'm actually all my. way home on Saturday night from the heat game, all right, heat and magic. And I'm listening on the radio to the end of Lakers and Nuggets, which was a great finish. All right, incredible finish to regulation. They got a call wrong at the end of that game as well. The NBA has announced that they got a call wrong and all they do is announce that. It doesn't change the result at all. It doesn't make everyone feel better when they do that? I thought it makes me feel better.

So Austin Reeves misses a free throw on purpose, gets the rebound, lays it in, they go to overtime. That shit never works and it worked okay and then in overtime luca danchich hit a shot right before the buzzer and the lakers win i mean sounded like the most fun regular season game uh they've had this year and so here is inside the NBA because the game i'm listening on radio but here is the game esPN on ABC and here is barclay who who has made his stance clear really for the last several years when it comes the lakers not a championship team doesn't want to hear about them being a contender so here this is immediate reaction after the game from Barclay. My worst nightmare is the Lakers winning tonight,

and I have to listen to all the crap on Monday on all the talk shows how the Lakers are contenders. If they get a home corner advantage, will it make them a contender? No. If they get the three-seed, are you telling me they wouldn't be a... They're in the four-seat right now. They're not. They're not a contender.

What makes you a contender then? Please don't have them win. I'm going to be nail-biting all night tonight because they're going to be talking about all. day Monday. Thank God I'll be in Dayton. So look, I love inside the NBA. We all love inside the NBA. But I think for the first time, I am a little bit concerned that it's a little too negative toward the game. Because what I'm talking about is like, okay, not everything has to be big picture where all right, the Lakers aren't a championship contender, but that was a really

fun game we just watched. This was a fun regular season game. This is a fun night. Like, not everything needs to be about the destination. This doesn't matter tonight because this is not a championship team. I'll tell you, if that was the heat, if the heat won that regular season game, we all know the heat are not a championship contender. And then just the entire conversation afterward was about how who cares about this. They're not going to win a championship. Like, I don't know.

I think it's a little bit too negative. Let's play some secondary sound from this broadcast as well because I do want to get into this conversation. And if you have to rely on the heavy diet of that, you're not going to want to. win and you're not going to be a contender. I'm used to playing for coaches that wouldn't be happy with that game. Yeah, we won the game, but when you're up 15 early in the game,

Chuck and Kenny knows this, that's when you've got to put teams away, especially if you're... I said them by Nuggets, though. Would you be happy beating the Nuggets? No, but... I mean, if you did that against the Wizards. You're up 15 at home, you've got to beat them by 15 at home. Don't let them come back. Don't let them win.

But on the other side of that, though, Shack. That's not the league anymore. Like, who cares that you're up by 15? That feel, it feels like, and I know this is a trope about that show these days, that they don't watch, they don't actually watch, but that really does feel like Shaq doesn't watch. That's the league now. Everybody comes from behind in a double-divage deficit. Hasn't that always been the league? It's actually like less the league now because there's just crazy blowouts happening in the league right now.

That's just basketball. I don't know what era that he's speaking on. Well, but Shaq specifically, okay, has told you as recently as last year, I can't name any of the Pistons who are. now the one seed. There's all sorts of stuff these guys are missing. And Shaq and Barclay are there to just be Shaq and Barclay. That's their job. And let me explain to you how hard it is to get these people to do these shows. I heard all weekend Robert Ori not making any sense on the broadcast that he was doing because they had him doing like 70 big 10 games because it's hard to get someone of even Robert Orry's stature to do the work for what these networks are now paying for this stuff. Like there is a

universal philosophy across sports media these days. And sports media is some of the cheapest media you will see televised and broadcast anywhere. Pay the Eagles, starve the turkeys. It's it. I hear it all the time. And so a few guys get paid, but Robert Orie's got to do like 20 basketball games over the course of the weekend because of the few amount of jobs that there are. And when you look at this particular broadcast, Shaq and Barclay are either approaching. 60 or over 60 years old. So entertain me on the conversation of what is their job, David, because Jeff Van Gundy doesn't

have one right now, even though he was excellent, because the commissioner of the league thought that he was too negative. And before recently, the only person I had ever heard talk about a sport dynamic like this is your beloved Scott Boris, when he used to talk about baseball during times than ever Everyone was fighting over money and collective bargaining. And he said, baseball is the only sport in our business world that spends all its time kicking the can down the aisle of grocery food, kicking the can, kicking the can, and then putting it back up on the shelf and telling the customer to please buy it. This is super negative. What they have been doing for a while as they've aged has been negative.

It's not a celebration of sports. They have fun, but they don't love what they're watching the way that they used to. They sound a little bit like Wilbon when they're complaining about the 53s a game, and specifically two of the experts you have loved playing in the post. They were better playing in the post than most human beings are in the post. So they're watching a distorted version of basketball. They don't like what they're watching. It's not what made them great.

It's why their days are coming to an end because life goes on. Pat Riley's watching a game of basketball. not like the days of Red Hullsman and the old days. It feels like it. It's done and you're never going back. And when you cannot adjust to the new game, the new people, the young people, that's what being a dinosaur is. That's been going on forever. You age out of the role. That's what Barkley and Shaq have done. I'm a little confused and I'll have it with a sound on for the postseason, but wasn't it just like six months ago where the entire NBA world couldn't live without this show? Oh my God. They did. I mean, the entire All-Star game last year was a

tribute to inside the NBA. That was the whole show. But it was a joke because that was part of the business transaction that happened with Warner Brothers because, remember, they had signed these guys to these contracts. And once the NBA rights went away, they forgot to put in the deals with Shack and Barkley. Smart move. Forgot to put in, by the way, if we lose the NBA, sorry, we can get rid of your deal.

Oh, crikes, what do we do? We don't have any games. No one's going to watch a pre- or post-game show without the actual game. we got to get someone to pay their salary. Who's paying it? Who's paying it? ESPN is, right? Yes, Disney. That's who's paying their salary.

So that's how that worked. Well, I think the whole thing has become a bit reductionist where they just want to distill everything down. And I think that's basketball sports media in general, which does not happen with the NFL, where it's like if this team is a contender, we talk about them. And like if you're not a contender,

it's kind of like an ancillary type of thing that you see with Mike in the heat, where it's like we can't be excited about any games about the heat because I know this team's not going to do shit when it matters. And like I've already, and Yankee fans are this way as well. Like you just go down this spiral of negativity because everything is championships or nothing. It's just ring chasing. And it kind of takes a lot of the fun out of the 82 game season. There's a generational difference here, though, on how this infection permeates the rest of the league.

when I talk about the example of Scott Boris saying that once upon a time baseball was taking a can of food, kicking it throughout the off season, when we're talking about money, and then when the season starts putting it back on the shelf. The way these guys are talking about even a great regular season game is absolutely infected by the fact that nobody seems to care about the regular season anymore. So there's nothing that can happen in a regular season game unless it's controversial that's going to get anybody talking about the single result because we all know now more than ever that any single result doesn't matter. It doesn't. If you're playing 82 of them or 81 of them, it's too many. Well, as someone that is trying to correct my relationship with the NBA,

because I default on that all the time, I was watching this game. It was a big game in the standings. It matters. It gives the Lakers now the three. seed. You had all the stars playing. You had everybody caring. You had a finish that you never see. It does feel odd to me. And something that I would say in years previous, when I, back when before I try to reshape my opinions on this thing, it seems toxic to the sport. It doesn't seem like you're helping. And look, I can understand that maybe at TNT. But you're with a

new partner. They saved your show. You're doing it out of the same studio in Atlanta. You're working with all the people that you love, maybe just maybe, like, throw a bone to the NBA and the new partner? You say this, Mike, but I'll remind you that we started the show today with Zaz, who's younger than Shaq, saying he'd seen it all and he's old and tired. Zaz is saying, I've seen it all, I'm old and tired, Shaq. Shack's played in some important games. He's sitting here watching a regular season game saying,

oh, the Lakers are the three seed. Congratulations. Lakers, my standard is we are winning. the championship every year. That's my standard. Well, but I guess the difference is one of us, it's their job. And the other one is just I can make a choice whether or not I want to watch this or not. That has a weird standard to have when you're covering the league as a whole. Not everybody has that standard. I can understand a jaded fan like a Spurs fan of 20 years being like, man, man, this really sucks. This is a throwaway season. It's the NBA. Like, you're covering teams that

absolutely shooting for a championship. Those are two of them. Levatard. I've never stepped foot on that campus. If you told me right now, your life depends on it. Go to Santa Fe University and just take a picture. Stugats. I would die. I don't know where it is. This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats. Yeah, they're trying to be genuine though and they're trying to react to what's happening around them, which is people not caring. So they're leaning into that. But now what you're saying is

you lean into it so much that now you become the focus of the not care. But don't forget. that ESPN and Disney, they're really all about, as they should be the playoffs. They're about when people are really focused, and Shaq and Barclay are focused when it comes playoff time. But what's happened to the infection, as all do, is they spread. So now you see some first-round matchups where all of a sudden they're not as engaged. They're the blowouts you talked about with Miami-Cleveland. So now you're seeing regular season bleed a little bit into first-round of playoffs. And before you know it, that's how you lose your sport.

Let me talk about something here, though, that I see happening in, whatever is the new media of all the smoke and Draymond Green and Pat McAfee and younger-ish former players who have the complaint about what ESPN specifically has been over the last 20 years is why do these people who did not play the game get to have the same standing as I do when they're not as expert as I am on this? of the complaints that I've heard McAfee and others have is that the Pablo Torres of the world or the mees of the world that we don't care about sports the way that we need to care about sports. I'm always more fascinated by the sociology of sports than I am by sports. But when you get to the

age of Shaq and Barclay, do you know how hard it is for basketball to move them at this point? Like anything meaningful to happen at any point in basketball, given the amount that they've seen and they've done. Never mind in their playing careers, just in their broadcasting careers. But that finish wasn't one of them? No, not a regular, there is no finish I can give them in a regular season game that they're not going to yawn at given the way the business of all of this has infected everything. How much do you think they actually love the sport the way it's presently being played? Well, that's the question. Like, how much do you actually think they love this version of the sport? They obviously long for the time. What they're

game was. But I remind you that on an airplane, when you go through turbulence, pilots are fine. They've done it, and people in the back of the plane are freaking out. These guys have seen it. They've seen every finish. They've experienced it. It is March. You say it's a big thing for seating right now. It's not. But turbulence isn't enjoyable. Turbulance is never enjoyable. Basketball is supposed to be enjoyable. I don't want to take it to the top line issue that's been facing this league for years, but like the stars are miserable. No one seems to be enjoying the regular season. That plays a part. And we can't be that surprised when the analysts covering the sport follow the lead of the people guiding the direction of the league. Steve Kerr loves telling you how there

are too many games whenever you're willing to listen. There is no bigger league that is in more need of a culture shift. That's a good point. I think we need to get rid of these former player analysts. Like I just think we have way too many of them. I think we've gone completely the wrong direction. We're spending a lot of money. And David, I'd love to get your thoughts on this. But Like the R-O-I outside of Chuck and Shaq and this crew, like the R-O-Y on a former athlete analyst cannot be that high based on how much you have to pay them. And you're not bringing any enthusiasm or knowledge or preparation to the goddamn sport.

You're bringing knowledge, but not preparation. John Skipper on the sporting class with Pablo. He will talk to us about, I don't know who that was. Keep it moving. That was Zaz. Keep it moving. You got, you know what? Minor penalty, two minutes, delay a show.

It's a shame. I was really interested in knowing what he was going to do. I was too, but you can't. You can't react. Can we explain the bit once? No. It's the marbles. Minor penalty, two minutes for explaining the show.

He didn't actually explain the show to him. He thought about explaining the show, and that is an intent that he had, and so he's out of here on the intent. I need to break him of this habit because he's behaving poorly when it comes to show explanation. It's Mike Ryan. Yeah, it's beginning to be a theme. I should not open my mouth on the NBA.

It's crazy. Every time I'm penalized whenever I give an opinion on this sport. It wasn't the opinion on the sport that got you banned. It was the desire to explain that Zaz has an inside joke bit that David doesn't understand. So we're going to stop and explain the show to David so he can play along with the others, because he's behaving like an outsider by stopping the show in its tracks to ask a question about an inside joke that we keep it moving on. If Adam Silver and the NBA's goal is to get more people to watch at all facets of the season,

regular season, play in-season tournament, then you need more people excited about the sport. You need more people to inject enthusiasm and life into like, this moment was awesome. Like this intentional miss free throw from Austin Reeves never works. That's all I'm saying. And then this step back from Luca, like he had it going. He felt the stakes. He felt something about the standings. Like I don't care whether it means that the Lakers are a real contender or not.

Like that moment was awesome. And these executives need to hire people who at least pair with these miserable to make them happy and excited as well. I'm as cynical as anyone these days about the NBA. I used to love the NBA. I'm very cynical about it these days. But like I said, coming home Saturday night, listen to that game. I'm like, this game's pretty awesome.

Well, the thing that I want to discuss as it relates to what Trista was saying is that given the present position of Shaq and Barclay specifically, never mind the stature of that show, they're not going to fake enthusiasm for anybody. And at their age, they're not going to be enthusiastic about very much, given what their resumes are. Listen, put me in that dress I was in last night with the nipple covers. I knew it was just you angling for a job. This is what this was. And get me excited. Not me specifically.

It is you. No, no, no. You can put Taylor Rooks there. You can put Taylor Rook there. Allupe has this. Alloop Show.com, DLS, hoops, YouTube, right after the show. You and Juju give positivity and enthusiasm about what you're watching. But the old people are still in charge.

and these are the game's biggest power brokers. This is an untouchable show with guaranteed money, with people on it who have been doing it a long time, watching for a long time, and this is how all this stuff ages. Like, not everyone's Dickie V. Like, Dickie V is not faking that in his 80s. Not everyone's Lee Corso.

But Dickie V and Lee Corso were failures as coaches, as they became media personalities because they were grateful to, who be able to become media personalities. Shaq and Barclay have taken a demotion on what they used to be, and they've been doing what they're presently doing, marching to an office to talk about games that they're not that interested in, and they're not going to fake the enthusiasm for you.

All they're going to bring you is will be Shaq and Barclay. That's what you get for your paycheck. It ain't going to also be, and I'm going to sell your sport the way you want me to. Hell, do you think you can tell Charles Barkley anything about how to do this? Certainly not, but I think Ernie, at least the onus is on him to at least steer the conversation to. Wasn't that kind of fun to watch, though, like, as we're watching a bunch of games? And maybe he did. I mean, those were only a couple clips to play.

He did. He did. He did do some of that. And he knows, like, he's a, but he's also older. Like, this is how this stuff ages. I think it's a fair criticism of the people who cover sports to say the gatekeepers have always been, the older people who have all the longevity. and lifetime jobs. And now you're seeing the democratization of it as people develop their own

audiences on YouTube and elsewhere, where the enthusiasm is carrying the day for other young people who have grown tired of it. But I'm going to tell you, again, I've heard a number of complaints from people, man bleep Charles, his time is past. Like, I don't think that. I don't think the grand majority of the audience thinks that. But they are tired for a long time of him being a critic in a way that feels to them like filled with more old man than the average critic. And you mentioned the democratization of content and media. And it's really the people who have these independent voices that are the groundswell. I mean, you want to talk about, oh, maybe my besmirching isn't great for the league. But at least when you have enthusiasm on the lower end, you're lifting

the tide that Charles Barkley and all the traditional media is bringing down as an anchor. But yet, the league, even though they want enthusiasm, they want to keep these people who have free voices out. I don't think it's very easy the task in front of Adam Silver, because you can fire Jeff Van Gundy if you don't like it, but you can't really do anything with the chief voices on this sport are old. Like, just help me with, give me who it is that are the biggest voices in young enthusiasm on basketball, the ones with the largest audiences, not the Shams who is just an information guy. No, opinion voices.

But no, enthusiasm voices. Like, I love this game. Like, you remember, that was the slogan throughout the 90s. The slogan on all the nostalgia around NBA, on NBC, is, I love this game. I forgot that. No, now the slogan should be, I hate this game. I'm not kidding you.

It should be among the gatekeepers. old voices. Why would they have any enthusiasm for how it's being played? Why would Shaq and Barclay like to see 53-pointers a game? Show me how many threes Shaq took in his life. Tell me statistically, career shots, Roy. Look up for me, please, how it is. I want to guess. Let's take a guess on how many made threes there were in Shaq's career. What are you going to guess? Oh, I think he's made one. One in his career? Yeah, and I actually...

I actually can remember it in my head. I'm going over. I think it's one. It has to be more than one. It's a big career. Over under three and a half. Under. How many do you think he took in his career? Ten.

Ten in his entire. That isn't it four then. Are you guys for? Young, skinny, shock. God, he was. Shot clock running down, you know, running down the court. You're on one for ten. One for ten for career.

Yep. One for 22. Wow. It's pretty good, right? You remember the one three that Shaq made? Did it look like his free throws? It's like one-handed, you know? Shot put it.

He really has seen everything. It was the 1995-96 season in all-in. Yeah, of course it was. Yeah. Oh, stop it. I don't get credit yet. I just got everything right. I don't get credit about yet.

31 years ago. Yeah. Name the team. No, that I don't know. But I remember where it was on the court. Behind the three-point line? Well, yes. It was on the left wing.

I can't with you, Zas. I remember watching that Shaquille O'Neal, and it's literally, unlike anything I had ever seen to that point, watching someone that size, he was skinnier, but watching him go coast to coast driveling the basketball was like, what the hell is happening there? Oh, that was the first game against the heat. Yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy to watch someone that side go coast to coast, that size go coast to coast. and now he hates basketball and why wouldn't he? Where'd you say it was, Zaz?

Left wing. I'm watching, I assume if he only has one, I'm seeing a three-pointer, it's like he's, it's like a buzzer-beater and it's not the left wing. It wasn't on the, like the left angle? He's at the elbow. Fraud!

He's just passes half court and he's like approaching the three-point line on the right side of the court. You got it right and then you got it wrong! Mike, you know, I have a lot. one rule to live by, right? Don't place parleyes on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero.

Always drink your Yeagermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion. Everything else? Everything else. Wearing clean underwear every day? Well, that's just a personal decision. Brushing your teeth?

Obviously smart, but not a rule. Never pee-p. on an electric fence. Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Yeagermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly.

You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur 35% alcohol by volume imported by mass Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York.