The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: The Best Point Guard Ever

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Crowd noise and gambling have become bigger talking points in golf, and the crew is confused why golfers can't handle the noise. Then, the NBA news cycle is moving, so it's time for us to dive into the latest with Lonzo and LaMelo Ball and the best point guards ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunlabor Tarshall with the Stugat Spatcast. As much as I've been gambling with my life a little bit by, I guess, insulting Juju, noting that the gifts he gave to you were a little lower. This shit, Kyle and I, how this shit, Kyle and I, that's what I was saying. We can't, we can't, look. If I'm gonna spend my hard on money on something and I feel like it's a hater in the presence, I'm a power that hater out. I love you, Israel, Gucci, area, Salute to you. Salute to you, I love you too,'re my brother. But as much as I don't, as much as I gamble with my life with you, I'm not a gambler.

And it's probably not great to say on DraftKings Network, I support gambling of all kinds. But I don't, I'm not a big gambler. And so, when I read this story yesterday, it was John Rom, the golfer, talking about, it's sort of a reaction, because I think Max Homa got somebody yelling during I got three foot, or a short putt. Max Homa? Max Homa. Oh, Homa.

Max Homa at a shot, I don't know. Max Homa had a short putt, somebody yelled, he made the putt anyway, but it turns out the guy who yelled, got kicked out, he had like a $3 bet on whether or not he'd make that putt. And so the amount of bets that are just available to make are just more and more. And so if you feel like you have, can't have an impact on your money making, you're going to do that at a golf tournament.

And so you're going to hear people, you know, on backswings, on putts and everything else. And it just got me to start thinking about possible solutions. Well, this did actually happen at the American Century Championship that we were all in on the 18th hole. As Steph Curry was trying to complete a dramatic comeback, Marty Fish had a lead, and on the approach of the final hole, someone yelled during his swing,

and when Aparah ended by the people on site, he said he had a bet on Steph Curry. Steph Curry ended up winning that whole and the tournament. And so if you are okay with dealing with some embarrassment, right, getting kicked out, which I'm sure you have no shame, like you're fine with it, you'll be able, you'll be willing to get kicked out of a tournament, right? So self-policing isn't the answer to this.

Wait a second. Wouldn't they just, why would they tell the truth though I had a bet on it? Why wouldn't they just be like, Oh, sorry. That's a heavy season. Bless you. I mean, it was obvious what was happening there and the person just volunteered thinking

that, you know, it's a looser. It's not the PGA. This is a, but they care about this. There's a trophy on the line. A fish and stuff play every year. They want to win this thing. There are wagers taken on site on that property. And yeah, the guy when one caught up thought

it was just like he was having a laugh. He's like, oh, I was betting on stuff. He very clearly didn't see the big deal in it because he actually did that. Actually, what do you mean is nothing out? You know, I mean, you know how you could fix this, right? This is very easy. Isn't it? Hey, golf, get over yourself.

Dance, make noise. That's where I'm going with this. That's exactly where I'm going with this. Because self-policing doesn't work because people are shameful. They're ashamed of free. They'll just do their thing. I don't care if I'm getting kicked out. I just want $100,000 because of that.

And John Rom had mentioned that it's not always like negative or as people just trying to affect it. They'll just tell you, hey, I got 20 bucks on you making that. And so and and John Rom had mentioned that it's not always like negative or just people just trying to affect it. They'll just tell you, hey, I got 20 bucks on you making that put. Good luck. You know, and then just like that. So the gambling is constant. And so to me, it's just like there's always going to be people willing to make that sacrifice for a few bucks. So just let them talk the entire time, make every whole party, make the golfers have to focus just because that's what they do when it's quiet So just focus with a little bit when we were talking the other day and somebody was telling me it's a solution for my shy bladder Just a bunch of noise everywhere. So the same thing for the golfers just have noise all the time, right?

It's it solves the problem effectively. Can you imagine like the World Cup final comes down to PK's Guys, it's the ball before Before he goes up to kick it, he said, can we give it to everyone? Everyone just be quiet until I kick this. How do you guys feel about that fan like in the crowd that starts doing that? Oh, the office is on the field. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's gosh. Gosh.

That can I just, this is, I'm not trying to throw shade or until anyone. That's most definitely Chris Cody in this group, right? Like Chris Cody 100 presents stand up in the crowd. Like, he turns around and he's like, Hey, hey, make some noise. Yeah, yeah, they're on the feet. They're on the floor. That's definitely the second one. Definitely the one trying to make the sports cliche though. Like sometimes you need that guy

because who else is gonna do? Like you have to have the rules. Somebody can go ahead and set the rules. Like, you know, who's the perfect sports cliche is Patrick Mahomes. If you watch the quarterback doc, he has 1000%. Like, if you were to just draw up like a, a, a, absolute perfect sports cliche, the way he goes about his work, the way he talks about stuff, you need that sometimes because he makes for a great sports figure. Everything but his voice. That's what I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I think you're the only person in talking to you about QB on Netflix that came with the takeaway that his wife should have a reality show. I think she said ever enough. That family, no, but that's exactly what I say about every family that does a reality

show. Not that I would watch it, but I think she has an appeal. No, no, no, that entire family has a cliche sports wife to be honest, like everything about them is just like, it's exactly what I thought they would be. The brother is the brother. I just can't even know about that. That's fine. It's legal issues right now. Does he?

Yeah. She should child her own show like football queens. Like basketball wives. Football wives. Yeah, they have a football wide show. I didn't want to say that. I don't want to reduce her to a wife. She's a queen.

I'm on an NFL wife TikTok and I love those videos. Really? Oh yeah, it's like there's a community of them and they take you through their outfits and their game day routine, I love them. Sounds like an rush, except Richard. Yeah, pretty much is. Because badminton rush the one, they all, they all.

Wow, he actually did it twice, exactly the same way. That's amazing. Because I watched it before, right? No, I think of it. You have something else. Something else. Yeah. But the guys who were at Tahoe, and I'm sorry, Chris isn't here to be sad.

But the idea of noisy golf at every hole, and not necessarily like hardy noise, just anything is fine, just whatever's happening and just force the golfers to prepare for anything. Is that something you see as possible? Well, Mike and I is veteran golfers who have played and with crowd noise before. I think we can both tell you it's not that big a deal. You have a bunch of people talking in the background and there's a lot of noise happening and you're right. I think that's the big thing. If everybody's supposed to be quiet, then you're gonna have issues with this. But if everybody's loud, it's really not that bad.

I also take it a step further and it's not a golfer, right? But I also have played sports where you're supposed to be quiet or it doesn't really affect me that much. I think that these golfers, when they hear it, use it as an excuse. It's like, I absolutely, but you know what's funny, it's not just golf. It's tennis too. Tennis ones, they also do the shaming of people

for making noise in the crowd. Silence plays, silence, they're in service. Shut up, man. They can't, they've been doing this entire lives. They were plucked out of their families when they're five years old. They sent to academies and stuff. All they do is hit a ball all day long against machines, against other people. Now all of a sudden, they're five years old, they sent to academies and stuff. All they do is hit a ball all day long

against machines against other people. Now all of a sudden, they're on the big stage and ice needs are like, silence. They're like, silence, silence, silence, you're so high. Silence, remove him. Is this though, the ultimate test of how far it was, I saw it. How dare bully the ass off.

No, it's silence. Oh, that's the test for how far we're going to allow gambling to get into our sports, because we've already gotten some confusion, placed in the NFL, you're getting people suspended out at I, but are you willing to basically break golf, to introduce the craziest thing, noise, into golf, just so you can eliminate this questionable gambling and keep the sort of ethics of gambling good and just make golf just a little bit different and that the player say, hey, you'll live with it. This is why, surprisingly, I am against your suggestion, because in the great city of Phoenix, we have

this thing called the waste management moment. And it is the, the red headed stepchild, the black swan of the golf circuit. The people's majors, the people's championship, right? You go out there, everyone's drunk, everyone's loud, they're DJs when people hit, I wonder if you love this place. Yeah, people hit hole in ones, they spray beer and champagne and stuff onto the, onto the green. They boo, the deer when guys hit the sand trap. It is awesome.

And part of what makes it awesome, I think is because the rest of the sport is so repressed. And that, I don't even have to be buttoned up and quiet everywhere else. This is the one place. If you let every tournament be like this, then it kind of loses its magic and some of that kind of, it's up release tension. Shocking that a mean wanted to keep fun golf for his one hole in his hometown. Amen. I will say I get what you're talking about in terms of like the world baseball classic,

right? If baseball was that way all the time, it might not be as special as when you get to see here in Miami, all of these teams internationally coming in and competing in that different type of energy that you get where they allow instruments into the ballpark and things like that where they don't normally do that on a day to day basis and major league baseball. So it's sort of, it would take away some of the shine if you were getting exposed to that constantly everywhere with the deluded product. But this is where I'm talking about, like obviously the gambling element is helpful for golf.

If you can gamble on it, you're going to watch it, et cetera. So when what sort of compromise are you going to make to keep this from happening because you're not going to stop the gambling on the golf, you're not going to stop the gamblers from showing up. And so unless you've got some greater problem for these people who are trying to make money and affect their bets, then yeah, you're probably gonna have to do something like this, and if that means, okay, so maybe that one hole

won't have the sort of novelty that it has in the past, at least you have a different element to other parts, and you can create stadium holes if you want for a different golf course is the way the 16th hole is and I think it's got a bunch of potential. I don't know if it's the only answer because I don't think there's going to be enough noise at every hole per se for somebody to not affect a golfer but I think it would just get them more used to the idea and they wouldn't have to worry about that as much. Science. Constant noise isn't an issue,

but in a sport where you're supposed to be quiet and you use that time to focus and you hear a wayward voice on your backswing, all that stuff does actually affect you. So if you have just blanket rolls for everything, then I think it's fine. I do find it funny about how sports weight-during is becoming more and more legal, state-by-state

in this country. Those gambling partners are sharing information with their leagues, and that's how we're finding out about the Calvin Ridley's of the world. The most recent lion scandal, the Iowa, both Iowa state schools being embroiled in controversy. This is the new normal, and just because it's the United States of America, they're not going to be immune to it. For more regulated, more mature markets, such as Europe have these all the time, be it the Juventus gambling scandal. Even recently, Paqueta, Lucas Paqueta, this great Brazilian national team player that plays for West Ham.

He was poised to make a move to Manchester City, the current European champions, and all that stuff got put to a halt because there's an investigation pending that he bet on himself to get a yellow card in a match last season. But hear me out. Hear me out. I love that. If you can train at the great bat, I'll punch it, percent controllable. Not only controllable, but also like the downside if you don't get the yellow card,

but like you got to talk all that shit for an entire game. You call the ref every name. We got a piece of somebody on a foul. That's just a profile. If you can pump in noise to train for a football game, you could say get a tape of DeMar de Rosens daughter. Oh, that's of Demard de Rosenthala. Oh, that's a lie. Match potatoes or something like that. And you just practice swinging through all of that. So you have no concern once you're actually out there. You're prepared for everything.

That's a distracting phrase. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's mashed potatoes. It's the popular one. But I feel like Demard de Rosenthala is like there's an entrepreneur availability here. Like she can make a business out of this just by yelling at people.

Don Lebertard. Earlier in the show, the question was asked, what would Stugat to do with one invisible dish? Stugat's. One day where he could be invisible, we decided that during banking hours, he would choose a week day, he would rob all the banks in the universe from eight to five. And then at night, he would alter sporting event results by being an invisible man in games he had better on. VCC Don Lebatar Show with his two guards. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ and pick the right winner, I picked the heat to win. And I also, yes, as a mean, is telling me, I can't go continue without saying that I did not pick the heat

and the nuggets through the playoffs. I just picked them in the preseason, I picked other teams to win, so it's not a real predict. It was a great predict, I mean, it's no Geno Smith line, but you know, it's pretty good though, as far as predictions go. Pretty good.

This year, we're at the time of NBA season where they're asking for all these things and I've already made my pick. And I don't think it's up on uspn.com, a spoiler alert, I picked heat and warriors in the final. Wow. I love you. When's the last time you didn't pick the heat? The year before the heat nuggets. So 2022 is the last time. But we are at this point where there's not a whole lot of news going on. And one of the news stories in the NBA cycle right now is Lonzos obal who's reportedly gonna miss the entirety of this next season recovering

from a nasty knee injury that they just sort of figured out what was what it was this past year and so steven is a small is a very tight in the in the mba circles and uh... it was to talk about lawns obal and mentioned that sources are telling him that he lawn Lonzo Ball, was having difficulty standing up from a seated position. And that would, there were indications that maybe his career is over. And to me, that's something that, I don't know about you and me, and like, I would hear

that, and I would say, if I'm that player, I'd be like, I don't really mind if they're saying that about me, but Lonzo Ball went next level and went an entire video response to Stephen A Smith here at his. Stephen A, who are your sources, bro? Please tell me who your sources are. Come on, man. Come on, man, you gotta stop the appish.

And I actually like you, man. I don't even know you like that. But I like you. I'm coming back, man. Come on. even know you like that. But I like you. I'm coming back man, come on. And what the audio audience couldn't see there is that he was standing up and sitting down over and over again just on one leg. I'm assuming the injured leg, right?

I didn't actually double check that. That would be quite the move by him. But he's just going back and forth and saying that, oh, I'm coming back, I'm coming back. To me, I'm Lonzo Ball. I'm more concerned about my recovery. I'm morezo Ball. I'm more concerned about my recovery. I'm more concerned about how I'm its entire year. He's going to miss again, essentially.

I was a little surprised by the effort he put into the response, but it made me way happier because the Lonzo Ball story was going to be really sad if what Stephen A. said was the truth. How do you know what Stephen A. said is in the truth? Not about being able to sit down and stand up, but about his career being over. He underwent something called cartilage, a cat of recordilage transplant. That's, they took cartilage from a dead person, very much, and implanted it into him to kind of stimulate the growth of cartilage there. It's happened a couple of times in NBA history,

there's never been a person who's recovered from it. The last guy was Festus Ely, I wanna say. And- Feels like I was a while ago, at least a decade ago, sorry. Yeah, probably, you know, looking at it, probably like 20, you know, it was after, it was more of a thing.

Because he played for the Warriors and a couple of championships. Not quite. So maybe like five, six years ago, and Festus never played again. Like he tried, but he couldn't. And so for Lonzo's sake, for all of us sake, I hope we're all wrong. I hope we're all wrong. I don't think Stephen A is out of question and saying something that has been said in

NBA circles by a lot of people is that this career might be over, but I'm glad he can stand up and sit down. Yeah, I be over, but I'm glad he can stand up a sedentary. Yeah, I'm not knocking on Stephen A for breaking that news. I'm just happy that the opposite or whatever it is that Lonzo is telling us is true. And like, I do, I mean, it's a good test for medicine and the investment of all that. But like Lonzo Ball, particularly is just one of those stories that you just kind of want to see play out a little bit, right?

Because you've got, you know, the father with him in Lame him in Lamello. And I was right. By the way, his father was right. Yeah. The poor ball about his sons. Well, he said, I mean, he said, Jello was, what, well, I mean, what was he right about? He said, he said his son was better than Steph Curry right now. Well, that, that was not right. Yeah. Well, the thing that I was right that they're good NBA players. That's, I don't think anyone ever doubted that. Hmm. The thing that I was excited about Lonzo was, so you remember that draft. It was Markel Fultz I, right?

And it was Lonzo II, and then it was Jason Tatum III. And, you know, people just kind of gave up on Markel Fultz. Obviously, still doing some good things, or now doing some good things in Orlando. And I feel like Lonzo had been given up on, even when he left the Lakers, but he adjusted his shots to the point. And he got to a point with the bulls or he was playing us or shooting it especially well.

And I'd like to see the end of that story. And I'm more intrigued by him than even by Lamello, even though Lamello is a little fancier, a little nicer with it. He plays for the Charlotte Wilders. He's just, I don't see the same sort of intriguing storyline from Lamello. I feel like Lamello is going to, or plays out to be sort of maybe somebody who underperforms in the long term versus Lonzo, who's pretty much the opposite where it's just like, oh, this guy can't shoot.

And wow, he's a 40% three point shooter and, you know, recovers from this devastating knee injury. The part with Lonzo that's interesting, right, is like, he was the face of everything that his dad was projecting onto the sun. And so, Lamello gets to live in this sort of almost post-Lovar ball world where by the time he came into the league, we'd all sort of exhausted most of the jokes that existed about Big Baller brand and everything else, where Lonzo had to sort of wear the brunt of that as he came into the league. You know, there were arguments that he could be the number one overall pick that he doesn't

go number one. Then obviously everything happens with the Lakers the way that it does. He's had to wear a lot of struggle out there in front of the public in a way that Lamello hasn't had to one because he's seemingly a better and more polished player as he comes into the league. But two, he ended up in Charlotte with a team that nobody expected to be all that good. He didn't need to be a piece. He wasn't the first example of us needing to pile on to somebody because of Lavar, where

Lonzo, like I root hard for Lonzo Ball because of all of those other circumstances. We're going to have to wait a year to see him play again, but the Lamello thing is interesting because he did go to a place where, sorry, Charlotte, relatively anonymous. Charlotte, I just called you Charlotte. Oh, right behind you. Oh, sorry. It should be a five. It should be a five.

He just tried to believe you. He said, I did. It's all, he just paid it the same. I'll let you know, because I blame something else. He paid me the same amount of money. I'm doing the math. I had to, I think I owe two more. Lavar still out here selling five thousand dollars.

Neakers. I'm no one's a brand. Yeah, there's a pair. His son told the world that they were part of his injury problems. The golden ticket shoe which looks like it's autographed by Lavar ball is five thousand dollars. It's out of my Lavar. It looks like it's autographed by Lavar. It feels like an investment. Quite the decision.

Hey, Melello or none. There's also what's called elephant in the room. Elephant in the room. Elephant in the room. I miss LaVore. Can I say that? I'm on BigBollarBrandinc.com and LaVore is in the photo. There's a big banner.

Yeah. I don't know who he's surrounded by. No, it's not his children. That's some 200 hour brothers right there. That's you get them off of Craig's list. The one on the left when you're looking at it looks like an AI younger LeVar, right? Maybe. Oh, what if he did that?

What if he just had AI formulate? Oh, younger version. They got shout-outs. I mean, where are you on Lamello? Because these TV fans. He was in Charlotte. He's kind of anonymous there. And you're talking about Anthony Edwards

who was picked ahead of him now becoming the unquestionable guy on Team USA. And it almost feels like nobody's really looking at Lamello and being like, you should probably be better than him. What's going on there? He's not the unquestionable guy. He's unquestionably the guy. Yeah.

Lamello, here's the problem with Lamello. Lamello is obviously very talented. He's been an all-star. He's exciting. He's a great passer. The parts of his game that are underdeveloped, which was the things that were always the concerns about him, haven't gotten better. And I don't know if Charlotte is the environment where guys get better in terms of without any structure, because it

haven't had a lot of structure there, particularly in the way of consequences. So if I don't want to do something, and I'm Lamello Wall and Charlotte, Steve Clifford doesn't make him do it, I don't do it. And so that, to me, is an issue whereas if he had landed somewhere else. But the issue isn't not making somebody do it. The issue is not wanting to do it because you could be a hard worker that lands in a, you know, cruddy situation

and you end up finding ways to train. You end up doing it on your own. And I think what you're saying or maybe implying is what I am just gonna say right here is he's not a hard worker. Wow. I think maybe he's in the wrong culture. There were a lot of him exactly.

Oh, there you go. Hey, maybe he should be on TV or say so spoke. It's a you remind me of a young shong living. He had you. He had a. Do keep on. Yeah. He would sell him so hard on the nicks.

He need to go to the New York. Don't worry about us down here. We're good. Your boy Anthony Edwards. He might be in the town. So I won't say he's not a hard worker, but I think what happens in a lot of players is they like working hard at things that they like to do.

And they don't like working hard at things that they're bad at because when you work hard at things you're good at, you get that instant feedback of like, yeah, work so much on, I'm better at doing this. But like when you work on things that you're not so great at, you're terrible at it. So when you first start doing it, you're not going to be good. And so that feedback doesn't come to you.

Like, oh, this is dumb anyway. As much as I said, I want to sort of watch the Lonzo Ball story play out. Like in terms of who's the more fun basketball player to watch, I don't think it's even a question. But I think Lonzo's a more of a winning player. Yeah. In terms of doing the right things that we need in order to win basketball games, like Lonzo is the best of the family.

Well, we were talking about, or not, we were talking about, but Steph Curry was talking about, or with Gilbert Reenis about, you know, who's the best point guard of all the time they got into the conversation about magic. And they were saying basically that, hey, you can't be, not a whole lot of kids couldn't be six nine, so they didn't try to be magic. But Lamello, even though he's not six nine or what, he's a big guard, passes with that type of same sort of smoothness, with the no look and everything else. He could be that guy that everybody loves and embraces if he was in a winning situation.

Yeah, absolutely. By the way, Gilbert is completely out of line because basically every player who's six nine or taller taller who doesn't play back to the basket under the paint, you should say thank you to Magic. That's Magic and Larry. That's the reason why we even allow six, nine guys like Durant or whoever to play any other style of basketball other than to be a big. So that's erroneous to say, oh well, I don't see the guys doing it.

First of all, all the tall guys who doing perimeter stuff because of those two guys. But the other thing is, yeah, it's hard to find a six-nine dude. Who's that? Like, yeah, it should be hard. It's magic Johnson. We'll get to the sound of that on the other side and talk about that a little bit because I do think it's intriguing to see where Steph Curry places himself when you think about watching him at Davidsonid's in for example and then thinking about where he was going into the draft and

whether he could be a point card in this league and all of a sudden even use putting himself as one of the top ever but it is the contrast between london lamella still find crazy intriguing and i think with uh... brand and miller it in charlotte and the importance of having him develop as a great player when, you know, when when Benyambo is there and the Thompson's were there and you chose this guy over them, I think Lamello's responsibility this year. It's going to be sort of the first of the ultimate tests for him.

This has to be the year where you get rid of a lot of those mistakes. And if they welcome that rookie in and work him in really well, Lamello could have a phenomenal year. Don Lebatard. Let's go to 80. Boom. He was bow. Wow. I think Billy typed an eight instead of a eight.

Five's a clearest day. All right. Good on you. Stugats. Number eight. It's Chris Conor on the line. C.C. V.C.C. Go ahead.

VCC Don't Liberty Show with this two-gats. So I want to play that sound real quick, up, Steph Curry on the Gilbert Arena's podcast, discussing who is the best point guard of all time. Are you the best point guard ever? Yes. I have to, yes. It's me and Magic, that's the conversation.

Yes, that's true. Like you're just... You know, because, you know, as us, we can look at stats all day, right? You know, we can look at stats and try to judge. I wasn't around with Magic. I know. I know. Right. So I know there's not a lot of six nine point. No one's trying to. I'm thinking about the 90s growing up. There was nobody trying to be a six nine point guard. Right. I mean, it's just

but I can witness and watch every kid trying to be curried. Steph Curry has to be the only guy who like run through the finish line, break through the tape and then just kind of run backwards. So let me back this up a little bit because he started off by saying I'm the greatest. He's like, yeah, me and Magic. Yeah, that's the conversation. And then he just backs up off all of it, right? Have you view these conversations historically because yeah, you look at a depth chart.

He's listed as point guard, but positions and basketball have evolved so much over time that if someone wanted to argue, LeBron James is actually the best point guard of all time because he initiates all the offense. And he'll then defend the best player on the opposing team. And he has been listed as a point guard prior to in his career. How do you view these conversations, me? I think despite the evolution and all that, they still shake out pretty much like LeBron initiates offense, but a lot of times he's on the wing and someone else initiates and then he gets it and then a bunch of other stuff happens. So I think most people are very comfortable saying he's a small forward, just like we're

very comfortable saying that, you know, Michaelael jordan was a two and and uh... tim duncan was a center despite being playing power forward for stretches of his career uh... ultimately i think i honestly these conversations are all kind of ridiculous just all they do is exist to allow us and gilbert and everyone else at these conversations and talk about it and fill time so when they go as I continue to fill time,

when they say that a six nine guard, you know, you can't mimic a six nine guard. You can't be that tall, but wasn't the appeal of magic just the fast break and run because before that earth 70s, there wasn't a lot of fast break basketball. I wasn't the highlight basketball as was with showtime. They played up test. They played a lot more of tempo. They they they seated a lot of the play calling because 70s. Here's the thing. 70s NBA prior to the merger of with the NBA was incredibly like every player scripted and very regimented. And that's why I always say if you watch basketball 1974 NBA and ABA and I ask you which

one looks more closely like what we see today? You point to ABA every time. As a three point line, it's a blend of scripted and improvisational. It's athleticism, it's up and down and all that stuff. And meanwhile, the NBA was like set plays and guys are playing very kind of strict version of basketball. But obviously, the influx of the ABA guys started to make the tempo go up higher and higher and then you get to the 80s and Magic and Bird.

They opened the doors. But again, it's crazy to me that you say, hey man, there's only been one of this kind of guy. See how great could he be? Yeah. Isn't that the very definition of greatness? Well, it's like, no one could even try to be like me? Yeah, I don't think of what makes Steph Curry greater

is because I can shoot a three. No, I mean, he does it greater than anybody that's ever done it, but I am almost probably more impressed with what Kevin Durant does at his size because it seems like nobody else can do that. Magic played 12 years in league. He went to the finals nine times. But then, but then here's like, oh, he went nine times

to 12 years. Okay, but also that means we're counting his second year when he only played 30-some odd games because he had that injury that we're seeing in winning time that he's trying to recover from. Also, we're counting the last year when he came back off of HIV positive land to come and spur the lakers to get to the playoffs

in about 30 games or so. Spuller right. So yeah. So really you take out the two seasons where he played 30 some odd games. He went to the finals nine out of 10 times. And then that 10th time they lost in the conference finals. It's one of those things where it's insane that anyone would make this comparison. I'm not even saying like magic is a better point guard as in like, oh, doing the duties of a point guard better than stuff. I'm saying, magic is a better player. So we measured the results then or because, I mean, any, any metric you use three time MVP, three time finals MVP, right? All star MVP, all NBA, first team eight times, right? Again, if we take out the two years or clearly he wasn't going to get it because he

was hurt eight times out of 10 years, he was first team all NBA. Unless you start saying, oh, but you know, like the game different, the dude won finals MVP as a 20 year old. Mm-hmm. Well, the place that people are going to go is, and this is unfair because it's not a one-on-one sport, but having to play one-on-one. Give Steph Curry the ball first. See if magic ever gets the ball back.

What do you think? Give magic the ball first. See, Steph never gets the ball back. So that's not a good enough kind of argument. I think when you talk at Magic Johnson, you're talking about a level of success and winning an excellence in the game that nobody, very few people, if any, can even approach what's magic go to in the half court. Oh, shot.

Hook shot. Yeah. The junior, junior, junior, junior sky hook. He hit enough of those. Or did he just hit some signature ones? They was part of his office. I mean, look at his, look at his field goals. And the guy was incredible.

Like, I'm asking for, for memory, by the way. I'm not questioning the greatness of magic. That's it. I mean, like he was dominant. He was a dominant player and people often point to the scoring. Mm-hmm. That's not what they needed him to do. He had a year we average like 24 points again. He could average 28.

He could average 30 if he wanted. Now, this is in no way like I'm trying to dump on. Steph's amazing. Like the year he won unanimous MVP, he led the league and scoring, shooting 50, 40, 90 from the field. 50, 49. Now here's the crazy part, right? I say he led the league and scoring.

I was like, yeah, he shot 50, 40, 90. He's like, wow, it's amazing, but he is a great player. Okay. He led the league and steals that year. Nobody ever talks about that. I remember that. He led the league and steals that year. Nobody ever talks about that. He led the league and steals per game. When they asked the question, we all kind of conceded,

well, there's only two people in that debate. Most people, when you ask, who's the best point card of all time, that's a consensus, it's those two. Who's on the metal sand, like asking, hoping that they could be talked about in this discussion with Gilbert Arenas and why is he Mario, Chambers? Well, what's Oscar Robin listen? talked about in this discussion with Gilbert Arenas and why is it Mario Chalmers?

Well, what's Oscar Robinson? Daly. What's the big O? Daly. I see like an little abroad conversation where he's not a point card, but he is a point guard. I think then it gets really blurry, right? Like with those two guys, they are so great, it like it doesn't really matter, right? But then after that, you then you start getting, and also they both played in eras of incredible competitiveness, right? Like magic played in the league

when there was a bunch of teams that were stacked at Hall of Famers, right? Steph obviously playing in this era. Oscar, again, like I'm of the belief that, hey, when we talk about players, we're trying to compare players. If you played before the merger, we love you, we respect you, you and Jim Brown and everyone who played pre AFL NFL, you guys, we respect the hell out

of you, but you sit over there because I can't gauge what they're doing versus like what's happening in the sport past that past that merger when the game changed as a result. So I leave Oscar out of it and I go to you ask who else is that middle stand? Yeah, who else is on the middle stand? Isaiah Thomas, Jason Kid, Steve Nash. There you go. I was going to say Jason Kid before Nash. I mean, Nash has as many MVP's as South Korea. I know. I know. And Amazing. And look, I owe everything to Steve. I think Jason being a better defensive player and obviously a bigger guard and rebounding made him a better player in a way that Steve obviously was a way better shooter.

We say before step, like Steve's the best. Did you say Stockton? I don't think Stockton is, I think Stockton is behind those guys. Great player. Great player. You consider defensively too. Great player, but I think he's behind those guys. I think, I think, you know, like what Jason did for a team offense isn't quite as good

as what Steve did for a team offense, but Jason also brought the deal. Is there anything Chris Paul can do with the rest of his career to give him this conversation? Six championships straight. Even then, I've done. But yet in terms of ability, in terms of basket ball ability, because like people, like Andre Guadalu, put Kyrie Irving maybe on the top of the list of the greatest ever, but Chris Paul

without some of the unlucky injuries and maybe he's on the right, like he was on the path to be top two with magic. Was he not? Not top two. Really? No, I don't think Chris Paul's on the path to be the greatest or magic was you know, not top two. Really? No, I don't think Chris Paul's on the path to be the greatest or second greatest boy guard.

Like, like to me, Chris was on the path of being with Jason, with Steve Nash, with a starberry. Um, Steph was on that path, but then like, you kind of, you know, I think he was revered to the point where, especially when he got to LA, it was almost discussed as an inevitability that he would become maybe top three. He had all the classic point guard skill, all the classic point guard skills,

such a floor general like every element that you want from a point guard, except for maybe the extra height. And I'm pretty sure like a lot of people, fish are I remember reading a story that say, he might be the greatest point guard of for maybe, you know, the extra height. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure like a lot of people, that, fish, I remember reading a story that say he might be the greatest point guard of all time already. And that was like six years ago. You think, so when Chris got to LA, what year was that? He was, what year was he in the league?

He was, it just does also feel like with the guys like Chris Paul, there is a issue that he's going to have with Steph Curry being in the league at the same time. So like there's some baseball players who had this same sort of issue where Albert Pueho has played a majority of the beginning of his career when Barry Barnes was doing all of the unbelievable things that took away from it. 2005. Yeah.

So that was... I was watching a video of that, you know, that chef that reacts to people doing dumb things. It's this guy that... Steph reactions. Yeah, he's my guy. He was on Cinephope. He's made he's watching. He's watching someone make soup in a hotel bathroom. Yeah. It's in a sink. It's weird. Yeah. Paul arrived in New Orleans. And 05 was there till 2011 and then moved dead Los Angeles in 2011. And it was in Los Angeles for six years.

I don't think anyone ever looked at Chris Paul as perhaps the best player in the league at any point of his career. And maybe that's what Jeremy's referring to is like, yeah, like you're great, but you happen to play because I mean, he led the league in his five times. He led the league in steals five times. He got in the league in 05. Yeah, LeBron got in the league in 03. Yeah, there's probably only one MVP to go around.

No, I get it. Who's the best player ever to play at the wrong time? Charles Broccoli. The play at the wrong time. That sure seems like an example of being sandwiched between the beginning of LeBron and then the beginning of Steph right after that. That's not great for me. Barkley played at a pretty great time considering he couldn't shoot. Yeah, I would say Tracy McGrady. I would say Reggie Miller and Mitch Richmond shoot from the outside. I mean, Lucy pretty money mid range player. Lucy, we got 20 seconds.

Do you have a top five point guards, Everliss? No, but this ball did go to my high school. What? Yeah, he would come back in. There's no basketball in Carolina. Yeah, before it's baseball, he would come back and he would do like a Q&A. And if you answered questions right about him,

he'd give you money. What? That feels like a violation. I don't know what that is. Kids' haps, I don't know what that is. There's no way that that could be legal. Somebody investigate Chris Paul. What?

That feels like a violation. I don't know what that is. Definitely. Kids' hamp's, I don't know what that is. There's no way that that could be legal. Somebody investigate Chris Paul. Will you give him kids money? That's crazy.