The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: Mike Says Shane Larkin Can Beat Jokic

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

We continue the conversation on Luis Rubiales and Spain's World Cup kissing scandal. Then, we have the Suey Nominations for Best Back In My Day. Plus, we discuss Noah Lyles comments on being the World Champion in the Olympics vs. the World Champion in the NBA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunluba Tarshall with the Stugat's Podcast. Things are so fractured in how it is that people consume these days that, Stugot, you know, I've been used as for a long time, by Breitbart a long time ago, as a bit of a political weapon whenever I have opinion that black guy in sports likes to dance, and we should let him, you know, during celebrations, 15 years ago, I was surprised by sort of the tea party niss of people coming and weaponizing my words again and again and turning this into

a show that now many people associate me with that I have left ESPN and now I am the most of all the wokest sports people and wok goes broke and all of that stuff. And when you listen to the last segment, which I am assuming, if you're in our audience, you're probably largely aligned with, hey, don't kiss a woman who doesn't want to be kissed and then not apologize when she says Please don't do that like it's a fairly simple decent human thing that we don't have to turn into Arguments that are viewed as political because men feel threatened or white men feel threatened or Just the power feels threatened that if you keep saying equality equality equality

This is what it's gonna look and feel like it's gonna be women telling you hey don't do that here's where my boundary is and you can just say I'm sorry you can just say hey I grew up in a Latin culture and we're kind of dopes about this and my you could just be sorry if someone says you've infringed upon my space and I don't think that's woke. I just do appreciate when Ryan Clark cares about his job, his profession and hurting to his feelings enough that he just says it's okay for a media member to apologize.

It's okay. You can do it the way Steven A. Smith recently did it to Lonzo Ball where you say you can't sit in a chair and then he shows you sitting again and again in a chair. He calls you out on that. And the engagement of that works for Stephen A. Smith. It's attention. That's not a bad thing. But Stephen A. Smith didn't apologize. He then said, you're not healthy. He said, I know your doctors. You're not healthy. So the initial claim of you can't sit in a chair, Lonzo Ball reacts to it, gives you the engagement you want, gives you the attention, gives you the back and forth that you want at this point.

Stephen A Smith is bigger than Lonzo Ball. He's more famous than most of the people that he's covering. You can just apologize, or you can move the goal posts and say you're not healthy, which is more accurate than you can't sit in a chair. Ryan Clark apologized. Stephen A Smith did not apologize. Why is it so hard to just say I'm sorry in today's climate? Is it because you get rewarded for not saying I'm sorry? Is it because you don't leave yourself vulnerable? You put up your fists, you fight, quote unquote, like a man, you fight for the things that you're about. Does it cost you that much? The vulnerability

of like, man, I just, I screwed up. I didn't know. My bad. Thank you for pointing that out for me. And that is a press release that you show in this recent press conference. You didn't actually mean that you were sorry. But why wouldn't you just mean that you're sorry? What's so hard about that? The decent thing to do, the Ryan Clark situation is different though. That's just a joke that fell flat and he apologized for a bad joke. And this is serious, serious stuff here, okay?

And so you first off, do you think the apology is enough for her? Okay? Well, he simply wants an apology and secondly, he doesn't feel like he did anything wrong. That's the thing, he's not sorry very clearly. So he's not gonna apologize. So even if he apologizes, what's the point? But he did apologize.

He did apologize to the meaning. Okay, but my point is, why can't you just mean it? Cause you're like, it's, what? Cause it doesn't mean it. But why can't you just pretend like you mean it? No, why? Which in that country would have been enough i just don't know that these are serious allegations who he's defending himself unlike ryan clark who made a bad joke got all all i'm saying i mean serious allegations in that he would have to resign his job but we saw what happened that's not

that's not a giant contract like my guess is you if you were actually a decent person who wasn't flouting his power who was actually genuinely sorry for having a blind spot or being foolish about this instead of an arrogant person who's clearly fighting to be right instead of just being morally kind. Like yeah, you could fight for your job and protect your job at every turn, but if a a woman tells you I didn't want to be kissed by you in that spot Most people listen to this wouldn't they just say yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that got carried away emotion Just won the world cup ice. I'm sorry What's so hard about that like okay? You don't have to be sorry

But what's so hard about being sorry? Could you infringed upon someone else they objected and now you want to fight now? You want to be a political crusader now you want to fight for man's right after he wins a championship the kiss whoever The fool he wants like that's what you want to be okay? But like there's huge arrogance in that that comes from the power and privilege of the powered and privileged and It descends into everything and who gets trampled there women and minorities and and everybody everybody who gets trampled there as Many men claim that they're oppressed because you're simply saying to them Hey, can we be equal the answers? No the answers I'm threatened by that. No, you can't be equal. I will kiss who I want.

The answer's no. And I just don't know why we can't be sorry for that. I really don't understand why men can raise their hand and just say, yeah, you give us a lot of power and we're often dipshits with it. I'm not gonna do the myopic thing here, but the European way of doing things is ages behind what the MeToo movement brought along here

several years ago where there was a very public reckoning. It, if it hit Europe, it touched on it. And people are so set in the ways. This is a part of the world in which in Italy, I know it's a different country, in an apology for racist behavior towards its players, the league put together an art campaign where they painted the faces of monkeys

in the colors of the crest of the leagues. This is, it is, it is bewildering when you apply American logic to this, but it's game. Mike, it's recent American logic. What's happening? And you do understand, right? Everyone listening to this does understand that that's what our women's team actually was.

It's a political symbol. This is where they were pioneers and this is where they are leaders. And yes, the world caught up in soccer, not everywhere else. And that's what you know about. There was a team that I would really implore our audience to look up what the players of Magic Jack FC had to go through. Magic Jack, the first ever VoIP phone, okay?

It was a banner team in the league of the time and the owner just moved the team to Boca Raton to play in an empty field in FAU. I'm talking hope solo played for this team, making Rapinoe played for this team, Wombock played for this team, and he put them up in nice condos, and he made them scrimmage against his daughter's team. He didn't have a trainer on his team. He had a chiropractor. He would take someone who was bleeding from their broken nose to a chiropractor, and in a full kit just fly him out to Atlantic City to party with him.

And then forced him to go to Mara Lago for Easter. Like this is, I know, this is not far removed. Hell, if the Joe Nameth thing happened today, with the Susie Colbert, I want to kiss you incident, it would be viewed as a totally different thing. Back then it was a source of comedy. Yeah, we knew it was inappropriate, but Joe Nameth kept on living. He apologized and he moved on. I understand it's a totally different thing. Back then it was a source of comedy. Yeah, we knew it was inappropriate, but Joe Neymeth kept on living. He apologized and he moved on. I understand it's a recent thing,

but art prism right now is so far removed from the one that is specifically in the sporting culture too, which is if there are cavemen in Europe just generally, imagine the sporting culture over there. But Mike, this is what the war in our country is about, along that fault line of you're saying, think about Joe Neymar a few years ago and how different we are. People don't want men in power, don't generally want the change that has come over the last

14 years that allows any man who gets drunk to not kiss a woman and risk the consequences of losing his job. No man in power making the rules wants to be subject to the idea of a woman or a minority or a gay person or someone else can take my job and my superiority, not my equality, by making a claim against me that might be false or overstated. That's why you get all these arguments whenever you have any of these rape conversations. You get all these, you get a whole bunch of cavemen defending the male viewpoint. The man has been in power for a long time,

comfortable in power for a long time. There's so far away, just from the men's game, and look at what Venetius has to deal with on a gaming, game out scenario for Real Madrid. He's constantly battling racist abuse, and the LaLiga president, who is constantly asked to do something about this, repeated a racist slur in press conferences about it, and asked like, do you actually have any black people

in the offices of LaLiga to help you inform these decisions? I'm not gonna tell you the number of black employees that we have. I've seen them around. We do. There is just a different culture over there. And hopefully the pressure mounts so much

and they turn the heat up so much and they threaten the things that they actually care about. Men's professional soccer over there, the club division and internationally, you're going to get penalized for the men's international competitions too. Hopefully the flames get so high that it's going to force a correction in behavior, but so far they have navigated poorly. They have navigated every single one of these controversies, and there have been several scores of them. Dan, I just wanna be clear,

because naturally an apology works if you actually mean what you're saying in the apology. But if you feel like, not even always, because people can be so cynical that they say that no apology is good enough, but if you feel like you've done nothing wrong and you truly feel like that,

I don't care what country we were in, I don't care what we already apologized to. I know, but if you feel like you've done nothing wrong and you truly feel like that. I don't care what country we were in. I don't care. We already apologized. I know, but it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it wasn't a heart. I was, I was lying when I apologized, but now I'm showing the truth. So I just want to clarify, these aren't now like, we saw this. This played out in front of the eyes of the world. He was on Instagram.

He doesn't get, we're going to be fun. I'm going to marry one of our players. Like, this isn't like he said, she said type of thing. He doesn going to be fun. I'm going to marry one of our players. Like, this isn't a he said she said type of thing. He doesn't get to decide, Stugots, whether he's right, he gets to decide whether or not he wants to defend himself and give us a real apology. Ah, correct. I would just simply point out to you

and whatever the scandal of the day is and the noise of the day is and the noise of the day is. We love playing the sound of CEP Blatter, the president of corrupt FIFA saying, I am the president of everything. These people have been powerful for a long time and what I will simply say to you about our women's national soccer team, whether people realize it or not because they became a political tool as well Megan Rapinoe being laughed at for ending a legendary pioneering career by missing a penalty kick and losing the world cup you do realize in this time somehow

that these women are the equivalent of our modern Jackie Robinson right that we're living the history of empowering not just women in this country or girls in this country, all over the world to not have to tolerate shit like that anymore. Like, that we are living right now in historic times for true legends in that fight. Don't lebertard. You know what a razor is, Dan? I do not know. I don't know what a motor roller razor is. You don't know you I bet you you had one I did not have one really look let's walk through your phone history. What kind of

I never had a motor a razor. I did not have a motor a Phone oh not a motor a machine after that the Motorola razor Dan was the one that was like really really thin that it flipped over But it was like as thin as like a razor blade That's why they called it the razor. What is a telegraph machine? I don't know they had one in down nabby still got the Titanic stop has sunk in stop John take a bastard stop is missing stop You think that was my phone you think that my first phone was the Titanic's emergency signal. This is the Don Lebathar show with the Stugat.

Oh, damn. Guess what time it is. I don't know what time it is. It's time. Go sit in the penalty box. Oh, wow. nobody was saying anything. I'm not helping you. Yeah, I'm not.

You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not.

You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You'reAR. Yes, Billy, continue, please.

I'm here trying to set up our awards. I saw Oscar some people say, guys. I don't know if you know this. Did you know that? It's time for another Sui category, Dan. And just want to think might be your favorite one yet. What day is today? Today is Tuesday.

That's right. And today, Sui, that we're going to play right now, is best back in My Day. And now the most popular award of the ceremony, the sui nominees for Best Back in My Day! Allergies! As someone who's been coughing non-stop for five years, I see so many doctors I earned a medical degree by osmosis allergies Back in my day, we didn't have hypersensitive immune systems and if we did we didn't know it or care ignorance was bliss Yeah, he ate a bag of peanuts at a ballgame had no idea why it made you itch and sneeze and didn't give a crap because it tasted good now

I once got one of those credit card-sized bag of peanuts on a plane and read the label because it's what I do. Labels said warning, make-entained peanuts. We're afraid of everything. A lurchic to our own shadows. Now we're so worried we need organic food. Can't have gluten. Please. Nelly Dugie used to say you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die. Four runner to the five-second rule. A peck is about 256 ounces or two gallons. Imagine eating the contents of two empty gallons of milk filled with various kinds of dirt. I want to drink two gallons of gluten straight. I was fine. That's not true. We did everything devil-made care back in the day. Everything gigantic cars barreled down the highway before the advance of seatbelts.

You smoked in the car in restaurants on planes in bathrooms. Doctors smoked, babysitters smoked, babies smoked. While Bill Cody started giving me sips of beer when I was 10 and look how I turned out. Content. We used to be content to just be. Now we're only content if our lives are producing content. Time was you'd be at the zoo having fun and that was enough. Maybe you had a camera around your neck but you wouldn't see the film for weeks till you had the role developed at Eckers. Now everybody is taking selfies they can admire instantly.

One after another add nauseam. We only see the animals with our back to them as we pose. You know what the giraffe is thinking as we human tourists do that? Assholes. Really existence. That's right. That's right. The giraffe is thinking yes. Put it on the pole. Juju does the giraffe thing. The people taking selfies are assholes. Letters. The handwritten letter that a postman hand delivers to your mailbox is all but dead nowadays. It says, that is the letter, sweater, which I last saw somebody wear when Archie and Jughead were banging around the halls of Riverdale High.

Emails and texts. Boom! Quick message and hit send of the unundited murderers of not only the handwritten letter, but a curse of penmanship itself. It's true. Which they used to teach in school. Ah, memories. Yes.

You laid a sheet of blank paper on a table. And for just that split second, you were Renoir, poised before a bear canvas in the 1880s, a French field of chrysanthemums bidding your bonjour. You lifted an ink pen and cradled it in your mitt and began the melodic, unhurried pace of cursive, flowing like a gently babbling brook. Curse of what's that, Grandpa? Snorts the preteen.

Make that lad watch and see for himself as you roll back the decades and fashion a letter, long-hand. roll back the decades and fashion a letter long hand. Give the page a crisp trifold, then tuck it into an envelope with the address and return hand scrawled as well. Then the best part, carefully lick the gum to seal the back of the envelope. Careful of a paper cut now, and do the same with the postage stamp.

Go out of your way to issue the envelopes and stamps with the peel-off stickers. If you're taking the time to send a handcrafted letter, buy gum, favor the recipient with a piece of you. Don't only your hand prints, but your DNA as well. Memberships! Just about every retail business I deal with nowadays has some form of club or membership involved.

It's unnecessary and annoying. Quit asking me if I'm in your rewards program. I don't need a reward. What am I a dog? You're gonna give me a little tree if I spend at least 20 bucks? I don't want a reward and I don't want to accrue bonus points. All of a sudden I can't just be a customer buying on my terms, buying what I want when I want. No. I'm apparently subscribing now, buying on your terms. You know I want, when I want. No, I'm apparently subscribing now, buying on your terms. You know in the late 1940s,

Groucho Marx resigned from the Fires Club, and in his resignation letter famously wrote, I don't wanna belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members. They used to say the customer is always right. Now the customer is always screwed. Look, I'm a free agent customer. I'm out to spend, not be bought. Am I in your rewards

program? Quit asking me that, it's all a reward I need. I'm Greg Cody and that's how it was back in my day. Salt and Pepper Shakers, where did you go? Oh Twin Centuries of the dinner table. You were always there, reliable and regally silent as the Queen's Guard, looking over the plates and cutlery as diners receded at a restaurant. What happened? Walk into a restaurant nowadays, and you're more likely to find salt and pepper sitting at your table singing chup than you are to find a shaker of sodium chloride alongside another offering of alkaloid piperine.

Restaurant industry, I'm not asking for expensive Icelandic lava salt or blue Persian rock salt or even kosher salt. Just make available please. Avessal containing your standard Morton's table salt. So I might heroically rescue an underperforming steak when needed or spray a dust of those magic crystals to wake up some dozing asparagus. The first known salt shaker is traced to 1858 and credited to John Mason, yes, the Mason jar guy. S&P's shakers were their revolutionary design of epic simplicity. They began a twin staple of restaurants and homes. Salt Bay may be an Instagram celebrity for his flourish and using salt,

but our ability... Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. How you think you... Oh my gosh. I mean, getting all choked up, talking about salt. Seeds. I had a slice of watermelon lately.

Popped a few grapes in your mall. Then you'll probably notice seeds are disappearing from fruit. And you'll probably see this as a good thing just because it makes life a little easier. We love us some convenience. In fact it's a terrible thing, the deceding of us. Symbolically alone the seed is the king of life. Adam gave his to Eve and here we are, if you believe the story.

If they take the seed out of humans the way we have watermelons, we're all dead ducks. Beans. Peas. Rice. Coffee. Corn. All seeds. Flower and oil started as seeds.

All hail seeds. So what the hell is happening? In exchange for convenience we are not valuing the seeds impact on health, biodiversity and our food system. Incis to your local grocer that you'll take your watermelon seeded please and the grapes too. I'm Greg Codian, that's how it was back in my day. Wallets. You want a good laugh on Christmas morning or wherever presents are unwrapped? Hand a gift to someone under 30 and watch them open it to find a wallet inside. The hesitation, the quizzical look. What is this mysterious bifold lump of leather the look will say?

You explain its purpose. Wait, what? They say. It holds actual photographs? An old-timey cash money? Currently, the old trusted friend I have under my left cheek is a black guest brand trifold I've had since I think the late 80s. As an experiment, I check the contents of my wallet to find a loan $20 bill, three credit cards, a debit card, a license registration, and a triple-a card. Card from Home Depot, Duffy's, Panera Bread and Barnes & Noble.

Amerriot rewards card valid through February 2015. Also, a medical insurance card. Three business cards I never hand out. A voter registration card they never ask for anymore. And four photos, including my wife from around when we got married in the early 80s. Every self-respecting walletet should have a hidden gem, an artifact, mine, my original birth certificate from the mid-50s, with a childless signature

that hasn't looked like mine since I was 12. Millennials, and especially the Gen Z crowd, they're too good for wallets. They're letting the tradition of our forebears wither on the vine as the wallets softly weeps the cashless tap and page generation with their sleek and slim card cases in their photos stored in phones or slow murdering the iconic wallet. It's cherished place gone from the dairy air to the dumpster. Bring back the bill foes! Start using cash again! Store and credit cards you never use!

Have photos! Developed at the drugstore! Save the wallet! I'm Greg Cody and that's how it was back in my day! Cars! I miss crank windows! Too many unnecessary convenience is now, cruise control. Please, I've got cruise control built in. It's called my right foot. It controls how fast the car goes. No buttons were steering wheel lever needed. Power steering, there's another one. Why don't I wanna give my power to the car? The power that I once had, the car is a ton of metal.

I'm a damn college graduate. Seat settings at the push of a button for the love of God. My wife's car beeps at me when I get too close to the middle lane And automatically breaks if I get too close to the car in front of me. I can't even be a bad driver if I try I'm in a restaurant last week and the guy on wood starts his car remotely from the boot We're sitting in as we ask for the check Sunroofs moonroofs panoramic roost how about you just get a damn convertible blue to HD radios satellite I'll take AM please with Wolfman Jack talking through the static and I'll crank the windows down so everybody can

hear I'm Greg Cody and that's how it was my day Yes. I don't know what's funny is there just how old all of it is How wonderful it is the comedic timing of you a single word each time how much pleasure he takes in hearing his own voice Oh my god him running out of breath at every turn He takes in hearing his own voice. Oh my God, him running out of breath at every turn. Billy, what were your thoughts on what you just heard? It seemed like you were moved. I felt like I was a church, honestly.

I mean, I don't know how you select a winner there, because it's not even a contest. It's just statements of facts from Greg over and over again. Thank you, Billy. Thank you. What are you proudest of there, Greg? You never know. This is a new and unimproved down lebertar show with the Stugatz,

gamble on by draftkins. Down lebertard. So like, there was a time that, and I'll tell you who this person is that I admired, and I said, that'd be a great career for me. Ryan Seacrest. Stugatz. And then to take it a step further, That'd be a great career for me. Ryan Seacrest. Still gots.

And then to take it a step further, you know, just a couple weeks ago, James Corden was stepping down and he said, you know, it'd be a great replacement for him. Me, I could do that. I could replace James Corden, right? I actually agree with you on that. If I don't have to move to LA

and I could just do this somewhere near the Tammy Emmy area, like they have an old theater that's kind of abandoned right now, maybe we do something there. I mean, people like to come to my band, right? They came out into your late, late, late, just studio. Yeah, so I didn't even think about that. Wow, that's a theater right there. This is the Don Lebatar show with this two cats.

What's your favorite song? Chris Cody, how often do you find yourself feeling bad when a no-alials says the thing that many people on social media probably did not even know who no-alials was perhaps because they're not following track and field the way that they follow basketball. And so he just got dunked on from every corner of the universe. track and field the way that they follow basketball. And so he just got dunked on from every corner of the universe. How often do you feel bad for that person who says the dumb thing

and then everyone gets to defend USA, USA, we're great at basketball, we invented basketball. Why is he criss how he feels when someone says the dumb thing? It feels very targeted. It's not odd choice. I was too dumb to pick up on it. I'm like, why is he going to me on this Billy? Did you feel bad for no allowance at all?

No, he said a dumb thing. All right, let's listen to the dumb thing that he said that allowed all basketball players everywhere to make fun of him. And get everyone chanting USA behind him because you fool. How dare you think anybody but the NBA plays the best basketball there is. You know the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA finals and they

have world champion on their head. World champion of what? The United States? Don't get me wrong. I Love the US at times But that the world that is not the world we are the world We have almost every country out here fighting thriving putting on they flag to show that they are represented They know flags in the mba

you guys tell me because there wasn't anyone who defended his viewpoint i thought uh... you mean you can you can certainly make an argument that the world has caught up but the world plays in the mba unless you think there's another do you think there's another dot get somewhere out there that isn't playing in the net uses the play the mba Do you think there's another donkage somewhere out there that isn't playing in the United States? That refuses to play in the NBA. I don't think there are a lot. I don't think there are a lot of those.

But what is the opposite viewpoint on this? Because I simply felt bad for him because everyone just dunked on him. Am I going to have to do this? He's right. Ah! He's not just technically, right? But they do play basketball professional basketball

That's of a top level and while you may dismiss what is Shane Lorcan gonna beat us out in turkey You're not traveling to turkey so you don't know how it works and in and in other you know No, no, no, no, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not gonna beat the NBA champ. No, I don't know No, no, no, I don't know because I haven't actually seen it happen. I haven't seen an NBA team travel to play a series of games. And yes, well, we're laughing about it. They can't stand. They don't stand a chance against the NBA. But you know, we haven't actually seen it happen. And it's the same kind of bravado that we applied to international basketball. And saw international basketball so yeah, maybe the first couple of times say

hypothetically they do what we have in soccer where you actually can find a world champion because not just do you have their own domestic league champions when someone wins the English Premier League they don't call themselves world champion and that's essentially what we're doing here in the United States we're taking the most well-known league and dubbing them World Champion. When they don't do that in soccer. Oh, I get to be an English champion. You know what my next step is? I get to go to Champions League and I get to call myself a Champion of Europe.

And then after I'm a Champion of Europe, I get to go to something called the Club World Cup. We're then they crown a true World Champion. So technically, he's right. USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA're being Canadian team, but that's like saying you don't know that they're going to beat the Tammy Emmy Colt 11 and under team because they never played What you you asked it if there's another donkage out there Where do you think Luca played before he came to the NBA? He played every Al Madrid? Yeah, but Mike the champion plays here. Yo, it's just from another country

He came here to play because he wanted to play against the best I'm not even saying that the US wouldn't win, especially in the early goings, but if you say, you say, you say, you say, you say, but if you, you say, go say, you say, you actually have, if you actually have an international competition called the Olympics and US wins all the time. No, we said, but we said, no, we said, you say, you say, you say, you say, they don't win all the time. They're not going to win this time. Just to be clear, because I understand that all media members need to age. You have been taking a lot of paths trying to be an insider, being a mover and shaker, a legitimate movie executive,

and media, a hobnobber. You just to be clear clear in the debate age you have said uh... just i want to quote you properly that all of these nba players who are laughing today saying how could you possibly say that the united states and the mba isn't the best league in the world your counter is but come play shane larkin and turkey right eventually and, over time, it may be embarrassing at the start,

but over great take. All right, you guys, you want? Shane Larkin in Turkey. All right, let me ask you a question. If you do this in baseball. There's a reason he went to Turkey. Let me ask you a question. If you do this in baseball, how certain are you?

I'm not. That in baseball. Baseball is a different sport though, right? Yeah, it's a college team in the spring training can be a pro team sometimes. It's a it's a but you have to start somewhere. And if you don't actually have the competition to where Europe can identify whatever this perceived golf is, it might be not it might. It's an actual golf, but over time that golf will shrink because it'll make them

more competitive. Well, you're essentially making the argument on behalf of the group of five for college football, right? Like, that's the closest comparison that we have where we've had this debate before, where it's, oh, can these teams that don't have the same level of funding that shouldn't theoretically have the same level of athletes that don't have the same level of preparation can they compete with these big monster programs? No. The argument had been yes from a lot of people, and Mike, you're actually making that argument really well right now.

It's true that Japan just beat the United States in the World Baseball Classic. It's true that you could make an argument that internationally the hockey is just as good as it is in the United States and Canada. You could make an argument for sure. It's a certainty that the MLS champion is not the best team in the world

you could even but but the nba is the one sport where you cannot make an argument well what about for a american football because they're really are incomparable leagues but yes i'll i i didn't even consider football because it's pretty much still but you're but you yourself are conceding that all the other major leagues here in the united states would actually run into legitimate competition but it's a lot of it often the mba and we should and that's why it's weird that no one else is picking the mba to say his

claim because that's the one league where there's no question that the mba champion is the best team in the world but i might as a strong when he says that we have seen our dream teams go play internationally by international rules and lose because they're not as good at that style like it's not now imagine if they played Shane Lorkey that's the thing that's the thing if all of a sudden can you imagine if that Barclay MJ team had to deal with Shane Larkin and Turkey well where did who is the number one pick in the NBA this year?

Where was he playing? Where's he playing now? I understand where he's playing right now, but you wanted to dismiss. I didn't play in the NBA yet. But you wanted to dismiss, these are teams that play well-drilled basketball to just laugh off and say, well, but they're the superior athletes of America.

And it sounds ridiculous that they would travel to Turkey and lose to to to Shane Larkin. I'm not saying but they have certain ways that they play that are fortified. You don't believe that the Denver nuggets are going to lose to a Turkish league team. Not in your by Shane Larkin. Not in don't believe it. Do you think Shane Larkin wishes he was in the NBA? Yeah. Of course. Why? Well, he's American and he's had a lot of success over there. No, but that entire Turkish team would probably take a year. All of them.

Yeah, you have it. It would bail on Shay Clark. Here's the thing, you guys are taking the easy side of the argument and I'm even conceding to you that early on, probably the US or the NBA asserts its will. But this is just an NBA centric thing too, because if we did it in the WMBA, I imagine the European teams would beat WMBA teams So what I'm saying is if you don't actually have the competition to Set forth what the goal is you're not giving Europe any chance actually

It's just silly to laugh at it. You sound like a fool He sounds like a fool God bless America somebody get me an American flag it's gonna turn into the slim reaper what's on what's unfair is this is going to have Shane larket on yeah it's already happened with this is going to turn into Mike says Shane larket can beat yokeach and that's not what I'm saying no that's not what I'm saying I'm saying we don't know what would happen. We can assume what would happen. Shane Larkin, what would happen?

But over time, those are not bad teams I play in Europe. Like Barcelona is on a bad team. Real Madrid, these aren't bad basketball programs. Mike, I appreciate your bravery in the face of no a liles being an internet joke that I began this segment by asking Chris Cody. Why me? I still don't know why. Did you feel bad for someone just in the face of public scorn being laughed at from every

corner of the internet for an invalid sports opinion and you took up its cause, you wrapped yourself in the flag and Shane Larkin. A Turkish flag. A Turkish flag. A Turkish flag. Yeah, traitors. Just an example and guys are not gonna let me forgive you're not gonna forgive the Shane larkin What I'm saying you may know what liles a Joe when he is 100% right No, that was Michael Pee Triss

No, that was Michael Petrus. Let's go turkey chant. Why did you make it turkey? Why does Shane Larkin play? Does he still actively play in turkey? My plate. Oh, turkey. What, you're seeing the seeds of stuff? Like the, the antichoumbou yesterday,

or yesterday I saw a story of... The tree's would kick everyone's ass if he played for them. Well, that's the thing. If you actually have this competition, you have these international players say, I don't have to, I don't have to travel now to play in the top flight. If I have an opportunity to call myself a world champion, I'm look at Donchich. I'm way more comfortable in Spain than I would be in Dallas, Texas. We have the Olympics, but you have the Olympics.

You have that in the Olympics in the US. Doesn't win all the time. You would probably have it. If you had an NBA franchise in Greece, like NBA rules, if you had an NBA franchise in Greece, I imagine Anjita Tacumpo would want to play for that. But that's the thing. Billy, you're absolutely right.

You nuke Mike Ryan's 100% argument saying, no, you know what? We play American games in America by America's rules. Damn right. Then what do you have? Shame on you. If we brought soccer over here, we started playing with our hands. American rules.

That allows everybody in the NBA to dunk on porn. Alliles and everyone on the internet because Dremon, Green and Bam and everyone else, you fool. You say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say you say outside of the united states if they open this abroad you'd have players less likely to leave to the mba know that they had a chance to compete against the best larket average ten points per game in turkey he's a natural i said to some reason icon and icon