The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: The Steph Curry of Sports Media (feat. Jemele Hill)

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Jemele Hill admits how much money she'd pay to watch Stephen A. Smith debate Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Proximo, cuervo.com, please drink responsibly. Cuervo. This is the Don Leventor Show with the StuGuts Podcast. Jamel Hill is gonna join us now, you know i insist i insist that we find the funny in this conversation of the stupid the silly uh... the nonsense in this conversation because i was explained before you came on here uh... just the wearying stupidity

of having any kind of discussion about whether jackie robinson was black or or I don't even I don't even know what the discussion is honestly or what the conversation points are that allow us to jump from Jackie Robinson to DEI and then just have the same arguments that we've been having for the last ten years publicly and privately and longer than that so thank you for joining us but what's the funny what's the funny in here? What's the part that you don't find dispiriting and you just say to yourself, okay, media members are fighting in the wrong way?

I guess probably the most, the funniest part to me was Stephen A. Smith, who I live for when he challenges people live on national television to some kind of confrontation. Be it, you know, I wouldn't necessarily say a fist fight, but like when he challenged Kevin Durant, like, you don't want to make good enemy out of me. Or this time around when it came to JD Vance,

the vice president, and Donald Trump, and all of a sudden, Stephen A. Smith is like, come on my show and tell me, explain yourself. And I was like, yes, Stephen A., more debate duels. Let's go full wrestling. That was the part that I found to be highly, highly entertaining is like, yes, forget about how we used to have celebrity boxing, let's just have debate, duel-offs all the time for the soul of humanity.

Let's do this. I'm in. The funniest thing I found from this entire situation was Robert Griffin III getting dunked on. That's it. Just him getting dunked on. Was that funny, Roy, or was that sad? Because I found that to be sad. I could find the funny and the sad in that situation. I thought it was highly hilarious

that what his take was that dumb. So obviously gets dunked on on that one. Well, I was more I guess, of all the characters, like whenever these debates in in suit, right, you have the usual cast of characters that you expect to be involved in some of these debates ensue, right, you have the usual cast of characters that you expect to be involved in some of these debates. RG3 was not one that I had on the bingo card. Then him just coming out of nowhere being like, oh, I long and pine for the days when all of sports talk was just about sports

and never about politics. And it was like, where did that come from? You know, so it was more the presence and the oddity of his presence in this debate that I found to be kind of strange, if you will. No, I totally expected that the fat black guy with the silly ass fedora would say something about it.

But he did not. I was really shocked about that. Well, see, if that would have happened, I would have been like, OK, this tracks. This is on brand, right? But you don't expect RG3 to, you know, come out of somewhere with a, with a, what he considered to be in his mind. And maybe this is sort of the dispiriting part is that in his mind, you could tell when he allowed, you know, when he left, let off his opinions,

that he actually thought he was given some kind of nuanced, intellectual take that was somehow missed in all these years in which we have dissected, embraced, celebrated Jackie Robinson's legacy. Here comes RG3, which is something we've never thought about before or something that is so unique to this discussion that he needed to tell the world that, no, no, Jackie Robinson wasn't in Major League Baseball.

It had nothing to do with politics, nothing at all. It had everything to do with the fact that he was just there as just a great player and that's it. It just completely just whitewashing the entire context of why this was so meaningful in American politics and American life period. I'm curious, Jamel know of your perspective on this uh... we came up with steven a smith and i love the wrestling characters in media and the the evolution of what it is

that we have done but it wasn't always wrestling characters and he has become rewarded through the way that he is on television the modern Howard Cosell and one of the most stunning stories in the history of media to go from not needed at ESPN and let go by ESPN to running ESPN so the wrestling character of it gets rewarded right?? Well, yeah, I mean, and I don't mean to make it sound as if Stephen A is at home, you know, sort of figuring out what should my character say today?

Like, I don't want to insult him by, you know, sort of, I'm just sort of politely making, you know, making fun of the whole, you know, kind of theater of it. Because what Stephen A does understand the performance element of television. And because he understands that performance element and because he does it so well in a way that is very unique to him

and in a way no one else in the industry can actually do it, that it is able to evoke reaction. You know, we live in an attention economy, Dan, as you know, and he's able to create a tornado of attention with everything that he says. And for a media company like ESPN, this is extremely valuable. It's why he got the big contract.

His roots are in journalism and for a long time he was a very good and one of the best, if not the best, NBA reporter that was out there. But I think he's tapped into something that is easily monetized so when it's not just you know this reporter saying something is steven a smith and the weight of his name is bringing something extra to any discussion and he is and i just find it

uh... really more fascinating the political turn that he's making while still be at the sb and is still representing uh... yes being because as you know that is not something that is naturally embraced by this company and so uh... i think seeing his turn his dramatic turn into politics is really quite stunning given the breath of his career to call it a wrestling character does uh... diminish it because it is just

knowing the value of performance on television but what when you say you find that part of it interesting what is most interesting about it to you not just not just the espn park just the slalom course that steven a has to uh... ride in in increasing audience between fox any espn because he's using both platforms for his own game so that's the in increasing audience between Fox and ESPN, because he's using both platforms for his own gain.

So that's the part that I do find to be interesting is that he is embraced in a way in conservative circles that you don't often see by people in his position. Now some of that is just based off some of the opinions that he shared about, you know, things that he said about the Democratic Party and being very critical of them, which naturally will get you embraced by conservative circles. But very few people can vacillate between two wildly different networks.

ESPN is not a political network at all. Fox is the most conservative, or maybe they're not the most conservative because you do have Newsmax and you also have OWN, but they're at the top of the food chain, certainly when it comes to conservative networks. It's the value pinging that is very interesting to me to see him going back and forth between these two circles. And at least from, I think I read this some time ago,

like he's doing some kind of live event with like Chris Cuomo. So I just wonder where all of this is going. And so it'll be fascinating to see the arc of his career, I think. And this is just based off things that he said publicly. I mean, I think his ultimate goal is to be the number one media mogul in all of television and as a personality while you know maintaining obviously working on some some projects that give him ownership over things of course but I think his goal

is just kind of media world domination so we're seeing this unfold in real time and it's really quite a master class into how if you can drill into the performance part of this what lay ahead for you? I mean, because the thing with me is that, while certainly I'm comfortable on TV, comfortable in formats like this and virtually any format, at some point, like I can't perform. Like this is what you get and this is all there is.

So I can't every day sort of create this level of enthusiasm and fight and all these other things to sort of sell the natural opinion that I have. Like that's just not a talent that I have. And he has that talent to such a incredible degree that I guess the downside of it is that I feel, I worry that for younger journalists,

that this is becoming sort of like a Steph Curry effect in the sense that Steph Curry started, you know, shooting these logo threes and shooting these completely ridiculous and banana shots. And now every NBA player thinks that they can do that or young kids coming up learning how to play basketball, you know, they're firing off 60 footers thinking like, this is how you play the game,

not realizing that that talent is reserved to one player who can do that. And so my, I guess my larger concern is that what is, and I don't mean to make it sound like it's a bad thing, like he's negatively influencing younger journalists, but I know a lot of them are watching him and thinking, I can do that very same thing. And so right now they're drilling into persona as opposed to work. So that's sort of like the long-term

64,000 foot view that I'm I'm a little bit more concerned about Well, I'm not sure if you saw over the weekend But and it's like not a huge story just because not that many people care about it But they had like a producer from Sports Center that got caught that many people care about it, but they had like a producer from Sports Center that got caught kind of ripping Stephen A a little bit saying that they bring him on to Sports Center just to like get this reaction and even said like they just bring him on to be the angry black man. He doesn't actually care about these things. Then he goes on Fox News and he talks about Gaza. What does he know about Gaza? He was talking about LeBron two hours ago. What do you make of that? I mean, cause it's a weird situation where

this producer was taped, I don't know if this was on a date or like a social outing, and it was kind of like set up, right, and I don't know what state this was in. Like. Is this another though, there's been this gotcha journalism that isn't journalism, going out on dates and all of a sudden just recording people and, you know, embarrassing them. Like this has embarrassing them like this has been a this has been a

journalistic lane recently has it not. It has it's a second move and wait maybe I need to retract everything I said this is actually my favorite story from the last couple of days. Because OK there's so many things with this story like one you have this producer who as you mentioned may or may not have been on the date. Like, I don't know how much people have listened to this, but if you haven't, I encourage you to listen to it.

It literally sounds like that they're on a podcast. I mean, the sound quality is so crisp. I'm like, was my man wearing a lavalier? Like, why is the sound quality so good? And the other thing too, I mean, I agree with you, Dan. Like this is ultimately despicable. Like regardless, a lot of people are caught up in what this producer said and how he characterizes Stephen A. Smith and more or less how people view him at ESPN.

Like to me, that's like irrelevant. The most relevant part of this is that you could be in a social setting and if you work at ESPN, wind up being taped, and then somebody else giving that to the media. But it also kind of reminds me of a rule I used to have when I was dating. And, you know, a long, long time ago,

when I was a single woman out here in the wild of dating, I had a rule that if I was on a date with somebody or in that kind of initial interaction, where it's like, okay, you know, this guy's cute, you know, there's some level of flirting that's going on. If they ask me about Stephen A. Smith of Skip Bayless, immediately that dude was canceled, immediately. Like, no, I don't want anything to do with you

because there is nothing more unsexy and unflattering than when you're talking to, you know, somebody who's a potential love interest, and you're like, oh, yeah, you know, so what are your hobbies? What are you, you know, trying to get to know them? And they're like, so what's Stephen A. Smith like? I'm like, do you want to be on a date with Stephen A. Smith?

Because this is doing nothing for me. Like, whatever arousal point that I had in this conversation just immediately went to negative. So it kind of reminded me of that rule that I used to have when I was dating. Like, who does that? Can we play douche or no douche with her, please? I'd like to transition out of,

I do find all of that interesting because it really is a story unlike any other. And Jamel, you and I, there's a sort of inevitability in if we're talking about some of the stuff that we were trying to push along at ESPN with great gratitude for ESPN deciding for no good reason at all to become a journalistic company or decide that they wanted to try and mix sports and difficult things to cover in sports and try and do it journalistically the the the fascination I have with the evolution of everything Stephen a

into somebody who kid uh Have a better presidential curating then Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama because he's famous rating then kamala harris and michelle obama because he's famous do you believe that they have like seriously i don't believe it i i i personally don't like i i really do not believe that's true i mean there's a lot of stuff happening that i don't believe it's true and maybe that's may perhaps the polling in the numbers are accurate but i have read that the polling suggest

that he would be likely to be of fourth best betting favorite as a Democratic party representative. I do not believe this. I have to say, listen, I realize right now, we're in, if we did a tournament of top, dumbest times in America to have lived through, I truly realize we're in a time where this could be a number one seat. I get it.

But I refuse to believe that the average person out here would look at Stephen A Smith and say, of all the candidates that are possible in the Democratic Party, that this one is the fourth most viable that they have. And I just, I don't believe I know that I'm probably going to regret saying this. I don't. And this is again, no reflection of Stephen A. Smith. I don't believe America's that stupid. Despite the fact. What if you were asked that on a date,

not the question about, tell me about Stephen A. Smith, but it was like, would you vote for Stephen A. Smith? Do you think he'd be a good president? Does that then automatically cancel the person on your date with? Or is that kind of like a gray area? That's a better conversation. You know what, that's actually actually to my single ladies out there,

that might be the one, you know, cause we hear all these reports that one of the reasons, or you want to talk about things, whether or not you believe or don't believe, but one of the things that's messing up the dating game is that like a lot of men who have expressed support for Donald Trump is turning off the lights, okay?

And so that this is part of the reasons that social scientists and experts say that men are living in the loneliest time that they've ever experienced because a lot of women are choosing to stay single. One of the top reasons is our political beliefs, the differences, especially among college educated women. And so maybe that is now the ultimate dating test.

Would you vote for Stephen A. Smith? And whatever the answer is, ladies you have, you can decide if you found your man or not found your man. Dan, fourth best odds, Stephen A. Sprinkle something on that. Sprinkle definitely a little something on that. Definitely a little something on that. Sprinkle a little something. Tony and Zaz say that that debate that you wish for,

Jermell, would be Super Bowl numbers, they say. Between Stephen A and Donald Trump? Yeah. Okay, I can believe that. I can believe that. I would believe that. I would sprinkle something on that. Could you pay for it?

I'd get the police on that. Would you pay five bucks for it? I got five on it. I got five. I'm gonna hate myself. I'm gonna hate myself. You Could you pay for it? Would you pay for would you pay five bucks for it? I got five on it. I'm going to hate myself. I'm going to hate myself. You know you're going to do it. You know you're going to do. You're going to call the girls over.

I want to have a watch party. Come on now. Come on now. I am disgusted with myself in this moment. So five bucks. Yes, I would pay five dollars. OK, all right. Steven A. Debate.

I'm not going to lie. All right. I would, I would, I would pay, I would pay five bucks for that. I would not, I did not want, you know, if the Mike Tyson fight, uh, with Jake Paul had been, had you had to pay for it? I mean, I already had Netflix or whatever. I would 99 a month for it, but right, right. I already paid for it. Like, but if that were available to pay for in the traditional pay-per-view model, I would have never paid for that. But Stephen A. versus Trump.

Stephen A. Smith versus Donald Trump. I would pay for that. I might even pay $10 for that. I'm not going to lie. Can I get you 20? Can I get you 20? 20 bucks? Can I get you 20? You write the girls over, everybody splits five, you bring a couple bottles of wine, you get on the charcuterie board. If you're going to pay 10, you can pay 15, Jamel.

You can pay 20. Pay 15. I've got to 20. All right, $19.99. Okay, sold. $19.99 is as high as I go. Sold. $19. You could pay 20. Pay 15. I've got to 20. You could pay 15. All right, $19.99. $19.99 is as high as I go. Sold. $19.99 is as high as I go. Wow.

I'm not going past that. How about a loser-lease town game? Would you pay 50 for that? Oh, wow. Would you pay 50 for that? Oh, ooh. Loser-lease town game. 49.99.

40.99 for a loser-lease town game? Yeah. I mean, for the possibility of getting rid of Donald Trump I mean I pay 50 bucks. Look at America coming together everybody's coming loser leaves town game as Jeremy has the appropriate $65 and the loser has to shave their head Wow Alright, let's play douche or no douche here leaving stickers on your flat brim hat douche or no douche Leaving stickers on your flat. I'm gonna say no do no morning routine videos on social media I'm gonna say douche

media? I'm gonna say douche because that's just that's just a tint like way to attention seeking like I don't I don't care that much about what you're doing in the morning. Speaking of which bathroom selfies. Oh that is you know what that's no douche because I don't consider that I think that's just kind of sad like I don't think you're a jerk for doing that I just think you you probably haven't quite evolved yet. Like those things should be out. I think a bathroom selfie's okay. That's cause you looked in the mirror

and you liked what you saw and that's such a nice thing that you could feel confident about yourself and go, you know what, I'm gonna take a selfie in this mirror and I'm gonna show the world that I feel good about myself. I think a bathroom selfie's good. Nobody wants to see the legs sticking out of the stall behind you. That's fair.

Nobody wants to see that. That's fair. Right, yeah. You gotta think of the aesthetic, good. Nobody wants to see the legs sticking out of the stall. That's fair. Nobody wants to see that. That's fair. Nobody wants to see that, right, yeah. You gotta think of the aesthetic, okay. Solo bathroom, okay. Driving a Cybertruck, douche or no douche? You're a douche. And I live in LA, so you imagine how many that I see

on a daily basis. There's also a Tesla dealership that's walking distance to me. No one's vandalized anything by the way in case anyone cares Jamal nice seeing you. Thank you for being on with us. It's always good seeing you now I gotta die gotta go and Feel bad for myself the rest of the day because you guys got me to admit that I would See Donald Trump debate Stephen A Smith you think that's the part that's gonna be aggregated

You know good and well that's right You know good and well that ain't the part that's gonna be aggregated you know good and well Folks listen up they're here and they're hot get ready because Jimmy John's is turning up the heat after years of perfecting the cold Sandwich toasted sandwiches are finally here try one of their three all new toasted creations. The toasted chicken bacon ranch, all-natural chicken, creamy homestyle ranch, applewood smoked bacon, melted provolone, fresh veggies, all on a perfectly toasted French bread. Good God does that sound delicious. Or the toasted roast beef and cheddar, premium roast beef, melty cheddar, creamy horseradish sauce, crispy fried onions, fresh veggies, golden toasted French bread. It just keeps getting better. And the toasted ultimate Italian salami, capicola, smoked ham, applewood smoked bacon, melted

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Because I would never ever joke about a 5G network that has invested billions building 5g towers across the country Not even once not even if mr. Boost mobile himself asked me to there is nothing funny about it Boost mobile is now a legit nationwide 5g network and also provides coverage across 99% of America seriously visit provides coverage across 99% of America. Seriously. Visit BoostMobile.com or your nearest BoostMobile store location to learn more. The Boost Mobile network, together with our roaming partners, covers 99% of the US population. 5G speeds not available in all areas. Don LeBretard! Are the stakes that high that if Angel Reese loses to Katelyn Clark, you need to start

over again as a race? Stugats! I don't know that we have to necessarily start over, but it might have to be, it will be a black people's meeting, an important one that will be called the next day, but we might have to put some things on the agenda and get it on the table. This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugarts. ["The Stugarts Show Theme"] Jeremy, what do you have to update there?

Yeah, I really hate to put a damper on this one for you guys, but according to McLaughlin and Associates, in January of 2005, they did a poll thinking ahead to the 20... 2025. 2005. Thinking ahead to the 2028 Democratic primary election for president, if that election were held today, among the following candidates, whom would you vote for?

So, in terms of percentages, Kamala Harris had 33, Pete Buttigieg had nine, Gavin Newsom had seven, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had six, Josh Shapiro, Tim Walls, Gretchen Whitmer, and Amy Klobuchar all had three. Stephen A. Smith down at two. So, you know, not gonna happen. If we get any better odds now, even better odds, he sprinkle a little bit more. It goes a long way. I would do anything to not have Stephen A. Smith be the president. Anything. Except for Donald Trump being the president. So I guess I'd rather him than Donald Trump,

but like he's a Republican. I don't want him running for the Democratic primary. You're in a catch-22 here, Jeremy. Losing the least time game, you're paying 50 bucks, sorry. No, I'll just vote for the far left candidate. I mean like, that's what we'll do, right? If Stephen A is the Democratic nominee, the Democratic party doesn't exist anymore. No, we're all just cool with that.

The guy who's always said all I care about is money, and he's just gonna be the, all right, that's fine. I'll shut up. I heard presidential. There's something on it. There we go. What are you, the salt bae? Like, what are you doing there?

You wanna? I'm sprinkling a little something on it. A little sprinkle, Dan, a little sprinkle. I'm just trying to win some money. A value proposition? Yeah. You can't have your moralities around my value propositions, it's just gambling.

I can't have just be both. With our freedom and our democracy. We'll be fine. But if you lose it, you might as well win money right you probably lose that too if you lose figure that out once we get there but you win on a long shots I mean how does that feel it's something to brag about it's something to brag about for the rest of your life hey I you know I spent a little bit you know I saw I took it early yeah that's right and I took it early. Yeah, that's right, and I took it early.

Nobody likes the person who gives the morning routine, right, that's not something that we, that's something that everyone's going to respond, I don't wanna watch your morning routine on social media. Depends how interesting it is. I honestly don't know what this is. But what is? My morning routine?

Yes, I don't know what this is. Roy is suffering at the moment. We'll get to that in a second. Roy is, and this is a good character, actually. I would like to develop this character with Roy. Roy feels like this is well beyond the sad report that Chris Cody is producing. The slow report, excuse me, not the sad report.

That's a different report. That's mine. That's also mine. That's the one I do, yes, I'm sorry. The slow report is Chris Cody. Mine's the sad report.'s mine that's the one I do yes I'm sorry the slow report is Chris Cody mine's the sad report but Roy is feeling these days like he is the very last to know anything that that anything going on on social media that is viral that for whatever the reason is it's getting to him last he feels like he's arriving at things that others are talking about and

they've already talked about it yeah and as much as I'm on Twitter or X as it's currently known right now, I've yet to see whatever this morning routine thing is. Like zero percent knowledgeable. I don't know what it is either. I think as you have an android it just gets to you slower. Yeah. God damn it. It is not because I have an android. It might be. Like I guess it's guess it's not in the algorithm, I guess. Well that's why Zazz is here telling you sprinkle a little something on Stephen A now. Like that's getting to you early. Take note of this.

Yeah. The morning routine, Billy, that you're obsessed with? Well, so there's this morning routine video that's been going around. There's lots of morning routine videos. We do some with Nicks, kind of. That's something that we do. But there's a morning routine that's going on

and it's, I don't know what this guy does if he's like an influencer or whatever, but like his day starts very, very early and people are catching on to the fact that times are not necessarily adding up when he's doing things. Because it's playing now, I guess there's no sound on this.

But it starts at like 317 a.m., by 401 a.m. he's out on his balcony doing pushups as you know, as one does. That lasts until about 404 a.m. he's out on his balcony doing pushups as you know, as one does. That lasts until about 4 or 4 a.m. Then he sits down. That's not a morning routine, that's a middle of the night routine. Well no, no, well it starts at three,

look, rise and grind, early bird gets the worm, you know what I mean, Zaz? So he's up there. Zaz, that was you for like 20 years, dude. Yeah. Well, eventually I had to take a step back, but yes. Well he's there, he then puts his face in a bowl of ice water for some reason.

That's good for you. He puts on his running things, a $20,000 watch While he's there, he then puts his face in a bowl of ice water for some reason. He puts on his running things, a $20,000 watch from what Tony says. He's there walking you through this video. Then at 6.20 a.m., he leaves his apartment and goes into the elevator at 6.23. At 6.38, he's on the treadmill until 6.52, 7.30. He's going outside for a swim. 7.31, he's there, he takes off his shoes, and whoa, there he goes! 7.37, he jumped. At 7. off his shoes, and whoa, there he goes, 7.37, he jumped,

and 7.40 a.m. he landed in the pool. So he was floating in the air for about three minutes there. Then he goes back upstairs, takes another shower at 8.28 a.m., 8.35, he dries himself off, he now is rubbing some banana on his face for some reason. Whoa, what was that about? Sits down, oh, his face is back in a tub of ice,

and now he's having an important meeting where I think he just said like, give me 10,000 or something like that, and now he has someone making him breakfast, and he's eating breakfast at 9.26 a.m., and you can watch all that with sound on the social medias. Probably would have been better or worse with sound. Worse, that was way better.

Billy had good play. Yeah, Billy killed it. I'm working on my play-by-play skills. It's getting better. The more I. Yeah, Billy killed it. Okay. I'm working on my play-by-play skills. It's a professional broadcaster. It's getting better. The more I do it, the better it's getting. The doing of the morning routine and what do you, so Roy, you don't feel like you've missed anything, right?

For why and for what? Seriously, what was that? Well, the sharing it or having one? You labeling this a morning routine, this is like a man performing masculinity on the internet for other people to consume. This isn't isn't like oh I'm brushing my teeth and I'm washing my face and then I'm going to work I think that's supposed to be motivational like you're supposed to see like how to grind rising grind and you

see how much like oh wow well I'm sleeping you know this guy's doing push ups on his balcony at 401 a.m. for three minutes. What's the point of waking up before 4 a.m.? You could have ended the sentence at waking up. Yeah. Jeremy, can you find for me the Mark Wahlberg routine where I would imagine it is where this started because he's famously someone who gets up at 2 30 in the morning because you want to rise faster

and grind harder than the person. You wake up before anyone. You're so cool, you wake up before anyone. You're accomplishing so much. 2.30 a.m. wake up, 2.45 a.m. prayer time, 3.15 a.m. breakfast, 3.40 to 5.15 a.m. workout, 5.30 a.m. post workout meal, 6 a.m. shower, 7.30 a.m. golf, so I don't, an hour and a half long shower.

8 a.m. snack, 9. 30 a.m. cryo chamber recovery, 10 30 a.m. snack, 11 a.m. family time slash meeting slash work calls, 1 p.m. lunch, 2 p.m. meeting slash work calls, 3 p.m. pick up kids at school, 3 30 p.m. snack. 4 p.m. workout number two, 5 p.m. shower, 5 30 p.m. dinner slash family time, 7 30 p.m. bedtime because his life sucks. I'm sorry, you're going to sleep at 7 30 because his life sucks. I'm sorry you're going to sleep at 730

Yeah, you're right Your life sucks you're going to sleep at 730. What are you doing? What could agree anymore? 730 who wants to do that? Hey any any it's like a story. It's got lots of money. It's going to bed at 730 Waking up at 230 don't over yourself No one cares Like is there anyone who you say, I wake up at 2.30 in the morning, like, wow, it's awesome.

I wake up at 2.30 in the morning every morning, by the way. I do think there are people that are impressed by a military lifestyle of discipline, yes. I'm not saying that I am one of them, but I don't think that Mark Wahlberg is showing that to people because he doesn't think they're gonna be impressed. But military guys don't wake up at 2.30, they wake up at oh Oh 600 hours. You know that 6 a.m. That's 6 a.m

That's military time Oh 600. I want to confuse anyone Inclusive show Tony what do you have for us Dano? I'm glad you asked obviously we've talked a little bit about the Dano, I'm glad you asked. Obviously we've talked a little bit about the, is that a find there? No, it was a video of someone just sent me a Willow sleeping out there on the couch. Aw.

Just making sure. Willow, just making sure. We've got a bracket update, Dano, and today's bracket update is brought to you by The Toasted Bracket by Jimmy John's. Jimmy John's is sponsoring The Toasted Bracket. They're finally here and they're finally hot, those toasted sandwiches, by the way.

Very exciting. Try our new toasted sandwiches, by the way. Very exciting. Try our new toasted sandwiches at Jimmy John's. Order one today. Dan, it's been a very chalky bracket, right? If you look in the Midwest region, you got one, two, three, four. A lot of ones, a lot of twos, except the two that I picked. Which of course was St. John's.

I had them in the final four. I had them beating Florida in a very exciting, you know, run for the Johnnys. Then they continued to go for, what did they go, four for 41 on three. Well, combined. Combined. Look at how cute that is, come on. I could not click play on that.

Look at her. Shouldn't be here in the office. Zaz, do you agree with that? Whoa. That the dog shouldn't be in the office? Dog ain't bothering anybody. Yeah. It's bothering somebody.

I was at a brewery yesterday and there was a dog right next to me at the table right next to me drinking beer sitting in the chair That's right like next to my chair lying down right you know right up against me. It was like yeah bother anybody whatever How do you feel so you're okay with dogs? I am I did this the first time hearing the Tony's not okay I'm in line with the mean on the fact that the dog needs to be doing a little we're doing we're doing the show as long as the dogs not bother anybody. I know problem Anyways, we've got number one still alive across the board. I got Duke winning it all so I'm still in in you know in good graces There when it comes to the national championship Why this wouldn't be in the top ten places to visit we've gone over. Oh, that's right

I don't want to hear about the dog being an emotional support animal though. Like, that's garbage. Like, everybody has a dog to emotionally support you. You have a dog because having a dog makes you feel good. Alright? That's everyone. So, the fact that you could bring your dog anywhere because it's an emotional support animal, that's bullshit.

I agree. I also have Michigan State in the final four, so the Spartys are looking good, Dan-o. That's the Toasted Bracket Update brought to you by Jimmy Johnson. Thank you. Zazlo, how do you feel about Florida being a favorite as someone who is a proud Gator? And the best Florida run there's been was Joe Kim Noah andford, and Billy Donovan. This is the best team since then, is it not? Yeah, and by the way, you know, we had the Cooper flag conversation earlier.

All those guys were projected lottery picks and they all came back the very next year. Like that's all them. Horford, Joe Kim Noah, Corey Brewer, they all came back the next year. Jeremy, what are you rolling your eyes out? I wasn't rolling my eyes as much as, it's just, it was a different time, right?

Like, and those guys were not all freshmen. It wasn't the time of one and done. It was a different time in college basketball where those players all going back was ultimately good for them. And look, all the power to Cooper flag, if that's what he decides to do, if all of those lottery picks at Duke maybe win a championship and say let's go win another one maybe that happens.

We were talking about an individual player where I'm expecting that his teammates are going to leave too. But if you tell me that some Duke booster, you know, swoops in and is willing to give however many millions to all of those lottery picks to stick around. Maybe it happens. But you're right, UF is like the ultimate, that was the ultimate example of a perfect college basketball. It was a different time, but doesn't that make it even more shocking that those guys all stayed?

Yeah, passing up on the money, you're right. And Joe Kim Noah, there was talk he was gonna be the number one pick after 2006. He stayed, he ended up going like number nine or whatever it was. Well, that would be my test case if I was trying to make the argument against you guys as you correctly assembled so much more money is the thing if you went and asked Joaquin Noah and Al Horford now and Corey

Brewer now with whatever money they made, hey that second year that you guys got together where you got to do it again, what was that worth? What would you pay for to have that year back? I think it in the case of those three it's an extraordinary amount of money all their teammates might not have that money though And they might have a different answer. Yeah, I I think they certainly liked it because they they gave up the year and They accomplished exactly what they set out to do like it worked out exactly the way that they wanted it to. Well, because they were better than everybody. This team's supposed to be better than everybody

except for Duke. Like it's the best offense in the sport in 10 years when people aren't, I mean, you can say people are good at offense, but this is, by percentage, this is inefficient basketball. This is crude basketball. It's not even that you're never, you know the cost of what we're talking about

in making college what we've made it is? That Florida team will never exist again. Like it's not even a thing that's possible. Even if Phil Knight decides he wants to make Oregon something bigger, the pros are always gonna be the calling. That's dead. It's dead forever.

And a portion of college basketball gets killed with it because Cooper Flag is the name that you know, but you don't, you're never, the Duke team of Zion Williamson where Zion was the third best recruit, that's not gonna play together for three years the way it would have at UNLV once upon a time. It's also dead because we just generally have more of that get that bag mentality, right,

in America than we did, you know, 18 years ago, right? It was still pretty shocking back then. It was surprising, but it'd be way more surprising now because the kids that are playing college basketball right now were being born around then. And the way that we've shifted our conversation about individually going and getting the bag, no matter what that takes, is different than it was then. So you can motivate, hey, you guys just won a championship, there's this collective bond over whatever. I mean, you see it in the individualistic-

I think it's a better chance if you lose the championship. Like, if Cooper, Flagg, and Duke win this year, I don't think you even consider staying. I think if they fall short and it's like, I came here to win a championship, I'm going to stay another year. There is no consideration anymore Right. This isn't even a conversation anymore. Even though you can stay in college and get millions of dollars It's ceased being a conversation Everyone agrees that it's dumb to go back. Someone's going to do it. I don't think it's gonna be Cooper flag Someone's going to do it and like at Duke this year. No, no, no, no, no, I don't think it's gonna be this year. But once someone's going to do it one day where, wow, I make enough

money here, I'm not trying to play for the win. That is a bold prediction that we'll never be able to call you on. I'll market it down.