The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The Bada Bing Scene

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

"You wanna make some love?" Zas watched Inglourious Basterds with his son while he was home sick Monday, and it features a cast of eight men discussing the "necessary" nudity in movies. Plus, is the tide turning on Luka in L.A.? And who is the worst type of person to play pickup ball with? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats podcast. Good time for me to mention as well. My friend Trista Crick is going to be on Zaslo Show 2.0 today. All right. If anybody wants to give that a whirl, all right, you can hear us talk a little bit of MBA. What's she say? Find out. I'm going to let you get away with it because it was part of like promotion.

Exactly. Now you get it. Promotion. It was a part of promotion. All right. So, you know, you're okay. I'll allow it. Quick shout out, by the way, to Tats.

Did anybody else observe that he's going Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct there? A sweater, a V-neck sweater with no T-shirt underneath? Yeah, brother. Bold. Oh, man. What a movie, by the way. Okay, Jeremy, you've definitely never seen Basic Instinct, right? I have not.

Wow. But I will. What a movie? Yeah. Hey, Football America, as long as we're talking about Levitard universe-related shows, Football America is doing because this is one of the worst sports weeks ago. going, we're going to have Amin and Zaz. It's our movie show in advance of the Oscars.

I'm looking forward to that. We're going to do a Tarantino character draft and beyond. I, yesterday, I got home. My older son stayed home from school yesterday because he wasn't feeling, well, he caught whatever I had. And I was like, hey, you want to watch a movie? And he goes, yeah, sure. And so for the first time, I showed him In glorious Bastards. Wow.

What a movie. What a movie. What a movie. That was, we, and it's one of those deals, Quinn Tarantino is my favorite. And so it's one of those deals where I really need him to like it. I want him to like it, you know. And of course, he did like it because it's a great movie.

It's a sick movie. Like, the movie's great. It's a great movie. A good sick movie. Best scene of this millennium, this is a bold take to say about any scene. It's the best scene in any movie, this century, the tavern scene. The seller scene, that 20 minutes. The Mexican standoff.

Yeah. Yes, as Tony points out, yes, when the guy, the spy, the Gleza. The British spy holds up the wrong version of three. And it's caught by the Nazi. That's a great scene. Yes. I'm wondering. If it's the best scene of that movie?

Yeah, because I'm thinking about the first scene where we see Christoph Waltz and he comes in and he does the whole thing in French. And he's like, hey, is it easy? It's just easier for me to do it in English. I just love the exposition. You're hiding them under the floorboards, are you not? But like that whole... You're hiding any milk. Oh, the milk here's the best.

And I've heard of it. Oh, my God. He, like, walks it down. So I remember being in that scene or watching that scene and being so in trans, like, oh, my God, what's happening? He doesn't know. Oh, he does know. He does know.

He's doing it to him on purpose. And then how he says, now I'm just going to walk out of here. And we're just going to pretend everything. Okay, I'm going to suspect the friends. And then like it was and then Shoshana runs away to Awwa Shoshana like that scene right there to me. It's a great scene. By the way, that French dairy farmer looks exactly like PGA or I don't know,

live golfer, John Rahm, identical. It's weird. It is a dynamite scene, but I'm going to stick with the tavern scene. I also just was caught by Zaz. I think this is a compliment to you. You just tried to do the. Christoph Waltz. Oh, wow, Shoshana! And you did a horrible job at it, which means you can't portray

a Nazi. That's great. That ultimately reflects well on you. That is a compliment. Do it again. Give it one more line. Give it one more line. Let me second here. It gets a character. Be better at being a Nazi. O'ois, Shoshana! Hey! That's a lot better. I was a better Nazi?

Question about that movie. All right. And my son asked me while we were watching it. When Hans Landa, Christoph Walts' character, Shoshana has the meeting with Gerbils, and then Hans Landa shows up. That's a great scene too. And they had the strudel together.

Way for the cream. And my son turns me and he says, does he know? Does he know it's her? And it's pretty ambiguous. Does he know it's her? As long as you understand that she, Shoshana, sitting in that chair, would be afraid

that he might know. That's what you're supposed to experience. Through her eyes, oh my God, this is the guy who killed my whole family. And I think he knows. Because he's a great detective. And he orders the milk. Right. He seems to know everything. The milk to me.

He knows everything. Yeah. I think she doesn't. I think he doesn't. But the, you know, he loves milk. The movie has mythologized his abilities so well up to that point that you understand from Shoshana's point of view that she has to be paranoid. He knows, he knows.

Dave's absolutely right. It's more about the, hey, if you're Shoshana, you absolutely think, oh, he knows. But he loves milk, man. That wasn't like a bit that he was doing. He actually really likes French milk. So shout out to him. Compliments to your daughters and the cow. Yes.

It's such a good movie. You ever heard about how they cast him? Because Tarantino wrote... He was like a nobody before that, right? Tarantino wrote the character and he was like, where are we going to find a dude who speaks German, French, and English? like fluently. Also Italian.

And also a good actor. Like they were like, this guy doesn't exist. And then they found him and it changed his life. Couldn't have been Zaslo's. We just found out three minutes ago. Couldn't pull off the German side of it. Zaz could have been one of the Americans. Dominic de Koko.

Golami. Golami. When you're 12 years old, basic instinct's a great movie, Dave. Yeah, I think that's a sweet. But I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to watch it with. instinct at 12 years old for the very year time. But not with your dad. No, no, not with my dad. Come on. It was with my friend. We were left home alone. They have basic

insured. Like, all right, it's basic instinct viewing time. And we watched basic instinct, the two of us. And you went wild. Has there ever been anyone now 12 year old Zaz saw Sharon Stone? Has there ever been someone who has rivaled her? Like that scene, that excitement, because everybody knew that that scene was coming. There has to be, if I think about it. There has to. to be something similar to that, right? This reminds me while you think of it of me and my dad, the first time

I remember as a kid watching something where he was uncomfortable, it was Sunday nights, Sopranos. Back in the day of when I was like in high school, us watching that live on Sunday night and he did not like the scenes when there was nudity. He didn't like the Bada Bing scenes with me. Oh, see, it's funny. I would assume it's the

other way. I would assume it was you who was uncomfortable. I loved it. Is the erotic thriller dead? I feel like we don't get any more erotic thrillers. Like the 90s is a big decade for Echinamax. Skinimax. Well, not Skinnamax. Cinemax is a step too far. Erotic thrillers are like basic instinct. The hand that rocks the cradle. Like all those like

what's the one where... Fatal attraction. I will not be ignored. Yes, there you go. Hornynoy. What's the one with the pool scene? Come on you all know what I'm talking about. Yeah, presumed wild things. See, Roy knew exactly. Presumed denizens. Presumed denizens. I knew so fits that. These are all movies that were like, yeah, we're going to have a lot of sexually charged scenes.

and also someone's going to die. I'm glad. I think we're better off without them. I think Red Shoe Diaries, like, why do we need the element of the backstory of like that there's some, you know, detective mystique to lead us into soft core pornography? I don't like gratuitous sex scenes and movies that don't require just so let's know that there's a romantic connection. But I do miss a movie where the premise is there's a sexual connection and then there's a murder that happens.

Well, but it was, but even worse, though. It was a weird element that used to be included in comedies in the 80s and 90s. Like Caddyshack, why do they're sex scenes, their bosoms? Do we need those? Bare breasts. We needed giant popos and everything. It gets the Numbies up. Got to have it.

Got to have it. Jamie Lee Curtis in trading places. Had to have it. We needed the bare bosoms. Airplane. That was actually funny. They actually did it to great comedic effect, right? Like the.

Cadyshack need. Caddyshack needed the lovemaking scenes. By the way, that's an interesting subject. Greg Cody, I bring to you. Our movie guy. Has anybody in real life in the last 50 years referred to sex as making love? Or was that just propped up by movies and TV of the day? I find it jarring now when you watch a movie and they talk about let's make love.

Yeah, I don't think people say that in real life I don't think anyone has ever said that You've never said that? If I were having a conversation in that vicinity with my parents and I was in my 20s I might have said make love

because I didn't want to say anything more vulgar I don't think a guy has ever seen it. In the 20s or you were in your 20s? When I was in my 20s I say it often. Yes. It's how I broached the subject with my wife. Would you like to make love?

That's not true. That is actually, really? I have. I mean, I got a lot of moves, Damashek. He's a romantic. I got a lot of moves, but one of them is. He's got a deep bag. He's got a deep bag.

I throw, I throw, I do the head knot. Hey, you want to make some love? Oh, well, okay. It always comes with a head nod. I'm uncomfortable for you with your old man sitting here. I like to approach politely with a tap on the shoulders. Excuse me, if it's not too much of a bother. Do you mind, can we, can we?

It's love making time. Can we make some love in the other room? Shall we adjourn? So your father was the one who was uncomfortable with the Sopranos. He would, like, walk out sometimes. Have you ever been uncomfortable watching something with your father? Not offhand. Because I remember for me, I remember it very well.

I watched, I was probably 14 maybe, and we were watching, I was watching with my parents for the first time, the Silence of the Lambs, which, of course, is a great movie. but then I'm 14 years old and Buffalo Bill takes off the robe and shows everyone as mangina and I didn't even know what to do it myself and I was so embarrassed sitting there next to my parents

couldn't eat any ham that's for sure that wasn't an option is that the movie where it's like art dreamery yeah that's it it puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose and everyone's done that right

at one point or not so the 14 year old Zaza looks Ronan's like, uh, guys, my bad. I was, I was, that was very upsetting for me. I wish more movies had women's boobs in them. Oh, besides you're back. It is time to talk to you, kind folks, about one of our best partners, one of our longest tenured partners, Miller Light.

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It's all about me. Stugats. Wee. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. So last night in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers lost at home to the Orlando match. This Lakers team's not even good.

Like they are, maybe they could beat a Houston team in the first round. No. Probably none. No, but I feel, the reason I say is because I feel like that's the only team that they could potentially be matched up with or it's like maybe they could beat. This Laker team is first round and done. The roster is not good. And last night, you know, you get, you get like the perfect fodder for all the TV shows, right? Where, I mean, you saw the end of this game against, it.

It was a wild finish, right? Absolutely wild finish. There was, I mean, I don't know how far back you want to go. Do you just want to go to that last? It was like three possessions back and forth. Back and forth, right? You get a big shot by the Lakers over here. You get Desmond Bain hits a three because the Lakers' defense collapsed on Palo Bancaro.

No one's playing backside over there. LeBron tries to close out, and that's when he really looks 40 years old when he has to close out. So Bain hits that three. Lakers come back. Great under out of bounds play to score right at the rim. A dunk by LeBron. Yes, the dunk by LeBron. Magic comeback, and you get Palo.

Magic played? Oh, the team? Sorry, sorry. Paolo is one-on-one against the Andre Aiton. He puts up the shot, misses, but because Aiton is pulled out, and no one's there to rebound. So the Orlando match, you grab the offensive rebound laid up. And then the Lakers called timeout.

And they got. And here's the moment. Good time. It's not like a 0.5 second. You got multiple, multiple seconds. They call the play. They get it to Luca. Luca takes one dribble and picks up his dribble.

For what reason? I don't know. Well, by the way, when he caught the pass, I mean, he was a good eight feet behind three-point line, but wide open. And it's a shot that he takes all the time. Yes, but they had a lot of time. They had time for a screen to come up against the screen set. The guys obviously trap him off the screen, the defenders.

He picks up the dribble. I'm like, why don't you keep your dribble alive? LeBron is kind of like weird angle, try to carve out a passing lane to him. But after he gets the pass. Well, Luca throws him a grenade. Yeah, because he picked the. up his dribble, he has nothing. He's dead in the water. LeBron's his only outlet. He passes it to LeBron, but LeBron's got his back to the

basket from the three-point line, so he's got to take this fadeaway three, and of course it misses because that's not a good shot. But it all goes back to why did Luca pick up the dribble? Why didn't you either aggressively attack him? They did get doubled. Only after he passed up the wide open shots. So let's hear it from Luca, all right? So here's Luca Danchich after the game on why he didn't take the shot. I know I was open, but I just thought I was looking far. I tried to take one more real closer. Probably shouldn't pick the ball.

I'm just trying to attack. It's kind of weird, though, that he's saying he thought he was too far. He takes that shot all the time. I mean, I don't blame him. Like, it did look far, but my thing is, once you know I'm putting it on the floor and a screen is coming, you don't know what the defense is going to do. We talked about this yesterday as a video coordinator. We break down in the games.

What do these guys like to do? and they would know that the magic like to double a good player when he's coming off a screen because they don't want to deal with this do you switch do I switch or any of that they're just going to say hey do players actually know that in the moment yes because a will have talked about it in the film session before the game B will have talked about it on the bench right before we go out there hey this is going to happen if this happens et cetera et cetera

and then we talk about great players like Luca Donchich or lebron james those guys know just from muscle memory of how many times they played against different coaches, different teams, they just know, oh, they like to do this. So I know when this happens, I'm going to already have my plan B and my plan C ready. But the bigger question for me is that was a rare close loss for the Lakers. A rare close loss for the Lakers. Typically when they lose, they get blown the ever-living F out. To what degree you might ask?

I looked up. Research. In losses. The team with the biggest. margin of loss is the Washington Wizards. We would expect that. One of the worst teams. They're a bad team days.

Almost 19 points per 100 possessions and their losses. Mine is, right? Number two, the Lakers. Wow. Which is unheard of for a team. So when they lose, they get killed. They get killed. It's like they stop playing, though, right?

Yeah. And those losses, they're just like, ah, whatever. That checks out. I'm with Tony. Yeah, they understand that they're load managing in real time. Yeah, this one's done. Sit them down for the rest of the game. Here's the curiosity.

you look at the other teams, number three, the Brooklyn Nets, horrible team. Number four, the Sacramento Kings, the worst team of the league. Number five, the Utah Jazz. Yeah, why aren't there other good teams who are waving the white flag? The next good team, and this is a stretch, is Milwaukee at six. Then you go, seven is Chicago, bad. Eight is Portland, not good. Nine is Phoenix.

They play hard, but... A decent team. Toronto would be the next... They're good team. Good team. So why is that? I think it's because they're not athletic. So once it starts to go downhill for them.

It snowballs, right. And then the counterpoint of that is like, not athletic, but surely they got great three-point shooters. No, they're not good at that either. When you're not great at three-point shooting and you're not athletic, things can get out of hand really quickly. As a relative casual, I disagree with what Zaz has said now a couple of times, which is that it's not a good roster.

I'm applying probably an outmoded standard. Ten years ago, though, the minimum standard to be a contender was most seasons that you had a big three. They have a big three. Yeah, it's not like that anymore. I got it, but it doesn't really add up. What NBA teams out there, their trio of best players would you prefer to have over what the Lakers have? I mean, let me just say it's real quick, and then you could tell me if I'm right,

it's more, the league has gone in a direction over the last few years. It's really about having two really good players and having a deep roster is much better than having three great players. Well, I think there's also kind of a misnomer there in the idea like, oh, all you need is three great players, and it doesn't matter who they are. It didn't used to. You could cover all the other war until you had the big three. It always mattered that the big three were complimentary.

That's the part. People just, give me three, give me any three. Like, no, it doesn't work that way. It's not just blindly give me three. They have to fit in some way. So if you tell me big threes of your, of like, yeah, he doesn't. this, he does this and he does this. Versus for the Lakers, you've got three guys.

What, if we're going to call Austin Reeves, a big three, by the way, which I think, that's a big leap. But I'm going to, for the purpose of the exercise, say yes, he is. What do they all do? Oh, they're really good at playmaking and shot making. And none of the three play defense. None of them can defend their position. None of them rebound. So it's like, why are we calling, why are we saying, well, this will just erase everything?

Basketball is a very simple sport that people like to overcomplicate. You have to have, it doesn't matter who does it, there have to be certain things that are taking care of. We need someone who take care of rebounding, or people to take care of rebounding. We need people to create plays. We need people to terminate plays. So these are finishers, whether at the rim or whatever, we need people who are incredible shooters, just not even to actually shoot it, just to keep the defense honest. And so, and we need individual.

If you can convince people to play two-dimensional or one-dimensional ball, I always think about Rick Fox as the personification of that. He wouldn't have been a rotational guy on bad teams or maybe borderline. He wouldn't have been a starter. He was a really good player in Boston that was a bad team. When he came to the Lakers, he actually took the step down. That's what I'm saying. When you're willing to accept that I am going to be in the starting five,

I'm just not going to be looked at as a score at any point of any game. If you're willing to accept that, it seems like that's the secret sauce. But also, but it's a combination of willingness and ability. Some people are willing. They're just not able. So I remember the, when Russell Westbrook got to the Lakers. And they said, well, Russ is going to come off the bench. And I had no doubt that he was sincere in his desire.

But it's like if you played basketball a certain way for 15 years on the professional level at that time. And two more years before that, the collegiate level. And then all of a sudden, today we're like, and now you're going to do it completely differently. like that's not easy that's not an easy transition unless you're dealing with something that's why i go back to tatum i think it is gonna be easy because he's got a built-in excuse that forces him if he was just like all right i'm 100% healthy what are we doing here maybe but as a guy who's kind of compromised a little bit it's like yeah i do need to take it slow but when you look at the lakers i'm with zas it is a flawed roster because you know we talk about you the one thing you can't do is be in between in terms of being bad or good or whatever

my thing is you can't be in between like either we're super athletic we can't shoot but we're going to run up and down the court we're going to lock everybody down like Detroit is a great example of that or we're kind of slow and unathletic but man we are going to kill you basketball wise with our shooting with our IQ

and like the Lakers are neither they got like some smart good shooting players with high IQ they've got some guys but they don't have the overall athleticism to make up for the shortcomings nor the shooting to make up for them so before we wrap up that part of the game, I do want to hear from LeBron after the game where, yeah, Luka gave up the shot.

He made a mistake picking up his dribble. Like I said, LeBron was kind of handed a grenade there, had to shoot it because he caught the ball with like two seconds left. Here's LeBron after the game. I'm not sure. I mean, obviously, you have to ask Luca what he saw on that, but I thought he had a good look and it looked like he kind of just lost his balance, you know, didn't have a rhythm with the ball, whatever the case may be.

and it kind of allowed him to get back in front of him. You know, I was kind of off balance when he gave it to me. I thought he had a great look, but that's what I looked. That's my POV. Love a POV. I like POV, too. Different kind of POV than he's talking about. I like a little surf term.

You know what I'm talking about. He's got it in the lingo, though. Gonzo. I do wonder how, so Luca's the man in Dallas for all of these years. He could do no wrong. He's their guy. They drafted him. He has spent his entire career there.

He's their franchise. player. Being in LA, now is a little bit of a different story. Okay, number one, it's the Lakers, all right? It's one of the most prestigious franchises in all professional sports, and he's not their god. Like, they traded for him. They traded for him with expectation, major expectation, as opposed to someone who we draft and your homegrown, we love you forever no matter what. Like, that's not the case. I do wonder how that could possibly affect Luca's mindset because he's never had to deal with that before. Like I said, in Dallas, no matter what, you are the guy.

We love you no matter what. The Laker fan doesn't love LeBron, no matter what. He's not their guy. It is, I will say that is to push back a little bit as somebody who's there and, you know, the transient nature of the population in Los Angeles is reflected in the Lakers. That's their whole MO. Kareen came from somewhere else. Shack came from somewhere else.

Will Chayorley did. Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. But their model of four success is bringing me. No, you got to win. And like I'm saying, even in Dallas, like Luca could have went his whole career, never winning a championship, beloved, no matter what in Dallas.

If Luca spends the rest of his career in L.A., and they don't win, he's not going to be a beloved Laker. Oh, of course not, yeah. There's a mercenary at that point that he just got lucky, right? Like, look at how long it took Dirk to get a championship, right? How old was Durk? But he'd have been beloved no matter what? 32?

Yeah, so it was 2011 and he got drafted in 1998. He was like 18 years old at that time. So, yeah, like 14 years. 32, 33, wherever it was. Like that could have been Lucas trajectory. And Dallas would have been okay with that knowing at some point maybe the Cooper flag thing happens if they don't trade Luca, right? Like all of a sudden, Luca's there. They get lucky enough to get the number one pick.

Now it's Cooper and Luca. And all of a sudden you have this revolutionary thing at the position or at the team for, Dallas, but it's like, now what is you going to do? Don Lebatard. Baker Mayfield tearing up Tampa Bay, 38 for 45. Stugats. Shred him!

This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. So I do wonder if the conversation in L.A. is going to begin to take a little bit of a different turn. And Grant, look, he's been there for a minute, all right? He was there for half

of last season and we're, you know, halfway into this season. And I do wonder if the conversation in LA is going to shift a little bit because give this a listen. This is from the Laker television broadcast last night, right? This is the home broadcast. This is the Lakers broadcast here. Give this a listen. This is one of those plays where Luca doesn't score, doesn't get a foul.

He's on the floor arguing with referees. Here it is. Luca, one hand again. He's complaining. Got to get back on defense. It's five on four. Underneath, they're going to put it up an end. And one.

And the foul. That is a home broadcast, tired of watching that. Experated. It's happening again. This is me talking to my kids. You better get that thing. If you don't clean up, you're not going to be able to have any dessert. And then I'm going to eat it all myself.

And then you're going to be upset because I'm going to eat. That's how you do that to like a kid to let them know the consequences are coming. Can we play the previous clip again? Like now that we all know what to listen for, like, You're going to hear the exasperation in their voices. This is the Lakers television calls. On the other team, it's the Lakers television call. Luke up, a little one hand.

Again, he's complaining. Got to get back on defense. It's five on four. Underneath, they're going to put it up and in. And one. And the foul. Yeah, that was a tone of voice that said, this defense has been bad.

We've seen this before. We've seen this play before. We've lost like this before. Crazy. Don't we want to wish our way? I mean, basically what we're talking about here, this has all been an exercise to try and ignore reality, which is your big three or however you want to couch it,

Luca, your star, your primary, and your 1A is LeBron. Again, they can't defend their positions. LeBron used to obscure that with the calves, even before the heat days. He would not just defend his position, he could defend pretty much any of the five spots on the floor. he also would rebound his position at a wild rate compared to his peer group. None of those three guys are doing anything on one side of the floor. That's what dams them forever, right?

Gotta get back on defense. All right, you can clean your room. I'm going to McDonald's. I'm walking to the door. Underneath. I'm opening the car door. But Zazz, that's right, right? I mean, isn't that the, isn't it accurate then?

like this was a foolish proposition to begin with. What was the foolish proposition? Yes, you get Luca. If Luca's available to you, you absolutely make that trade. Every time. But now him and LeBron and Austin Reeves, I mean, look, the idea that that he would win the title would win the title was never in play. It was never in play unless you live in the greater Los Angeles area, in which case, oh my God, we got a great player, whatever. Everything's going to happen to us.

Everyone gives us everything because that's been the experience of Laker fans for their entire life. But the reality is it was the moment when they brought in DeAndre Aiton, all of us in basketball, like, good luck with that. And all the Laker fans were like, we got a former number one over all pick. And he ever this. And this is how we're going to pick. Man, no. Like, that's the problem. The problem is it is not the expectation is not commiserate on day one, let alone like, oh, somewhere along the lines expectations got out of hand.

Like, day one, you should have known. It wasn't good enough, but they didn't know. That's why when Rich Paul said, if I were the Lakers, I trade awesome research, Jared Jackson, Jr., everyone fainted. And I was like, that's a pretty good deal. Like, if I'm the Lakers, I would want that deal too. But you're suggesting that management is playing to the fan base? That's what you just insinuate, which I don't think is the case.

I'm suggesting that building a championship caliber roster is a lot harder than just getting a great player. I know, but you said everyone in Los Angeles as though what the first. fan base is pining for when they're not the experts making the personnel decision. Well, I don't think they, I guess let me, let me be clear here. I'm not saying, oh, Rob Polinka, you messed up. I think he's done the best with what was available to him at the time. Remember, they couldn't trade picks and all. They were really hamstrung up until this point.

They're moving into next offseason a ton of cap space and at least three first round picks to play with. They're building to a point where they can build around this. But as far as going into this year, Tony, I don't know how much better they could have done. No, absolutely not. But also, when you look at what they were trading, obviously when you have somebody of Lucas caliber, like you trade for him no matter what, but you had just seen Luca drag a Dallas team that was not that good through the Western Conference into the NBA finals. And I know, I know there's a lot of new guys.

I know there's a lot more nuance to that, you know, to that take. But when you get the guy, you figure he's good enough to drag. you to a championship, even if you don't win, to at least drag you to a Western Conference finals and to an NBA finals. The reality is you get the guy, and then you say, well, figure it out. In the same way that Miami got Jimmy Butler

and everybody on this show is like, where are we good on him? I'm like, you get, when they got Jimmy Butler, when they got Jimmy Butler, when they got Jimmy Butler, I just realized. There was a lot of like, oh, what, I'm like, what's the big? I'm like, he's, first of all, he's a superstar, second of all, this is the first step.

You can't just say, well, I'll be awful until everything comes to me all at once. It doesn't work that way. Got to get back on defense. So, five on four. Underneath. The narrative, I feel like it's sending it a little bit of a different direction right now for the first time with Luca on the Lakers.

No, you don't agree with that? No, it's, look, let's be clear. The new direction is LeBron won't be here next year. That's the direction, right? I just mean the conversation around Luca. No, I mean, look, this is an example of, and this is a lot of people. people are victims of this.

When you, particularly if you work for a team, like in broadcasting, but even if you're a fan of a team, a lot of, you just watch your team. You don't really, you watch other team. Yeah. Oh, he's really good, he's really good. But you're, it's like, it's like, when I would say when you're in college, you be friends with somebody,

like, ah, that's my boy, that's my boy. And they're like, we should be roommates. And then when your roommates, he clips his toenails on the bed and on the coffee table. And oh, my God, he never does dishes. You start to notice all these idiosyncrasies that were never hidden, it's just you weren't around them all the time. Luca complaining the refs since day one.

We talked about it yesterday on the show. He's always been this. But for them, it's like at first, like, I got Luca. Yes, Luca Don's his place for us. Oh, my God. And we got him for nothing. He's amazing. Oh, my God.

He had 50. Oh, my God. And he really is complaining to wrestle a lot. And then after like the 10th time. He hasn't gone back on defense in a month. It's like, oh, my God, stop doing it because now this thing becomes very top of mind. in the way it wasn't when you saw him four times a year. Well, you're right, and now you have national, you know, broadcasters, podcasts, what have you.

Zach Lowe, everybody knows Zach Lowe, right? Zach Lowe, formerly of ESPN, is he with... The Ringer. The Ringer. Okay. And here is Zach Lowe apparently freaking out about Luca. What do you say? The whining is back at just peak slash Nadeer Dallas levels.

It's every fucking play. Just play, man. Not everything is a foul. and it's almost like, are you playing to draw a foul or are you playing basketball? Like, which one are you doing? Are you playing one-on-one and like with the refs?

Or are you playing a game? It's every single possession now. It's completely out of control. It's back to Dallas levels. It's just unwatchable. So you hate playing with that guy that in pickup games or in a league or whatever, it's always trying to call the foul.

What do you do? The guy who calls offensive foul. Dad. Guy that calls any foul whatsoever, just every single time down the league. I wasn't a big, as you can tell by looking, not a big streetball guy, but I played some rec basketball. Dad, you remember those days? I would love, I was a shooter. I could shoot a little bit, but if I went to the hole, I was just looking for contact. And I had so many

missed layups where I was driving to the hole and like, oh, I'm going to get fouled. And then I just don't get fouled and I missed the layups. You were just trying to draw foul? I'm not a finisher at the hoop. Wait, wait, wait, Chris, I got to ask. Charge. Because that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the guy that, like, does what you did. No, I never call foul. And pick up. Right. But in pickup ball. Because I reckon you have a ref.

Yeah, we're talking about the guy that, like, Tony, you know this. The guy will go up for a lay-up, he'll miss it, and then we're running back. My ball, my ball. Sometimes he doesn't even say anything. He just stands there. He just stands there. And we're like, okay, 5-4, like, no, no, I call foul. What?

Like, the idea of- You waited for the ball to go out to call foul? Give me a break. But also the assumption that, like, everybody knows it was a foul. I don't even have to move. Is that you did damage him? No, no, no. That's the second, that's the second worst guy to play.

pickup ball with the guy who every time he goes up with it before see my experience is not so much you're running back the other way it's the guy who while the ball is still in the air got it got it got it but you know whether it goes in or not it's already

a foul established the worst guy remains though the guy who's a little bit older than everybody else there who pulls his socks all the way up high and defend you 32 feet from the rim like will you get out of my face What do you think I'm going to do?

That guy's turning back the clock. Get away from me. The second worst guy is not that guy. The second worst guy is a guy I like to call basketball martyr, which is clearly got mauled on the play. And then we're like, hey man, that's a foul. He's like, no, no, no, he ain't foul me. I'm like, I didn't call foul.

Dude, what are you proving? I mean, now you want both sides. You're complaining about the guy that calls Olive Fells and the guy that does. Yes, yes, exactly. I'd rather have the guy that doesn't call any foul. Oh, I'm complaining about the North Pole and I'm complaining about the Sahara. Wow. Oh, it sounds like I complain about the weather all the time.

That guy also does it at the worst possible time. It's 10-9, game 11. You get killed. We're at game point. No, no foul. What do you mean? No foul. You guys are talking at both sides.

Then they go back and hit a three and the game's over. I don't wait six games. Give a break. One of the worst guys is the my bad guy. Because the my bad guy, never my bads on something that's ambiguous. It's always like, hey, we're playing three on three and two of the three foes are defending you again, 28 feet from the rim. And for some reason, you decide to look it and,

jack it up from there instead of passing it to me under the rim and you airball it. My bad guys. Yeah, it wasn't in doubt who's bad it was. You jackass? We all knew. My bad. My bad. You want some credit?

You're a great guy. You're being a good fellow to everybody. Like, I just want everybody here to know this is officially my bad. Yeah, we already made that decision. Okay. I have a solution for all your problems. Challenge system and instant replay and pickup basketball. Now you're talking.

You set up a phone right there at the edge of the court and then you record everything. Hold on. Let's go. Wouldn't it be amazing if there was a rec park wherever you lived where that specific park has the challenge system? No, every game would last 17 hours. Exactly. It's already bearing for this. You know what?

You don't want it in MLB but you want it here. That's my point. We have a challenge system in basketball. It's called shoot for it. The ball will tell us. Ball online. Defense shoots. That's interesting. Yeah, see, Greg Cody,

what the fear mongering that you're doing is because of people like Luca. If it were left to Luca to decide, I have been violated here, then the game would take 17 hours. You're right. Well, that's why the players cannot be the ones turning to the officials. I wish to challenge that because if you were letting Luca unlimitedly challenge things, the game would take seven days to play. Another terrible guy in pickup, the Tunnel Vision guy,

the guy who's just putting his head down, driving to the hoop, and it's like, buddy, there's nine guys in the lane. How about you kick out and actually play basketball? It's like, no, I'm going to the live. If I decide I'm going to the hoop, I'm going. But that means you're a bad player. I know. What about the guy that thinks he's a great point guard?

Like, you're playing in a game. And so he's just going to run. He thinks. Trying to do no look passes or behind the back because he thinks that he knows how to run an offense and he's playing with you for the very first time, but it's just constant turnovers. Just play basketball.

Hard foul guy, too. We don't need you. If you want a hard foul, stay home. Prison rules guy. Prison rules guy. Fast break. Going to find me on a fast break to try and pin the ball. It's like, worst. Undercutting you on the press.

Exactly right. If it doesn't draw a blood, it's not a foul. Like, I didn't show up here for that. I'm not looking for any blood to be drawn. What are you showing up there for? Collegial vibes. I miss pick up basketball. You know, I was looking up Michael Douglas because you guys said,

I reminded you of him with the V-neck sweater, but it's not the only thing about Michael Douglas that's similar to me. It's me. Coxman? That's awesome. Draft King Sportsbook puts you right in the middle of basketball's biggest star-driven moments. Bet player props, bet live. And when the game turns fast,

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