The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: Thong Sandals, Uric Acid, and Evolutions (feat. Ron Magill)

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Ron Magill is here after his exclusive breakfast with the mayor to provide some real-time analysis on our turkey vulture problem and to tell Ethan he looks like a young David Cassidy. Then, is there a hierarchy amongst the people you could have a meeting with that changes the way you dress? Plus, Amin, Pablo, and David dive through the details of Nico Harrison's evolution in and around the NBA before the crew breaks down whether or not A'ja Wilson just hard launched her relationship with Bam Adebayo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is the Dan LeBattor Show with the Stugatz Podcast. This episode of the Dan LeBattor Show with Stu Gotz is presented by Smirnoff. We do game days. Please drink responsibly the Smirnoff company, New York, New York. So Dominique has been texting me topics that I should ask as the host of a sports show. Topics that involve the Lugedantia trade, LeBron James, how difficult it is to make trades when you have a reputation for being bad at making trades. And to that I say, welcome Ron McGill.

Ron. I have no answers for any of those questions, brother. Well, we have you on for a far more important reason. It's me, I mean, David Sampson, Jess, Jeremy, and Chris. What is David doing? They brought in the All-Stars. That's right. In no way is this a backup second string

substitute teacher scenario. This is definitely the first stringers. There you go. Ron, where are you right now? In a temporary office situation that we have here, we had a little bit of mold and asbestos in our administration building. So they had to mitigate the situation, so to speak.

So we were exiled. And thankfully the Zoo Miami Foundation has been very generous and put me here in a corner of the building where sometimes it gets a little loud, but it's a nice alternative to sleep with that. And for those of you who are not watching on the Dan Lebatard and Friends Network,

Ron does not have enough wall space. No. It is quite clear from the shot that there are pieces of art that are strewn on the floor, leaning against curtains, which you shouldn't do with art, maybe against a fireplace, Ron. I'm very concerned. Thank you, David, for throwing me under the bus.

Listen, I'm very appreciative that I at least have this room. I could have been outside on the grass under the rain, so I'm happy. Ron also looks like somebody who has just thrown Amin Elhassan out of the club. No, he doesn't. No, no, no. Way too tall. I had a breakfast that I attended with the mayor

this morning. Whoa! No, it wasn't just me and the mayor, it was me and a lot of people in the mayor, but it was just one of those breakfasts. You know, I try to be respectful when I attend those, power breakfasts, so to speak. Billy Corbin there too?

No? Okay. I feel like respect would have been one more button higher to the chain. Maybe just one more. Ron looks great. I'm saying the mayor. The mayor. For Sentinel you were a tie. No, I want the chain. You just made Ron McGill cover up the chain. No, he's not with the mayor anymore. He's with us. That's why it was Dan.

You should be unbuttoning buttons with us. I agree. That's how to look when you're doing Dan's show. Ron, Ron, we summoned you for an actual pressing concern, which is that me and Elhassen and I stay at this lovely building, the Elser Hotel. We stay near the top floors in the 40s. Oh, I know what it is already. We've encountered some vultures. That's right.

Can you explain what we've been encountering, please? Yep. That's the official start of really winter in South Florida, and that's telling you how late it's right. Can you explain what we've been encountering, please? Yep. That's the official start of really winter in South Florida, and that's telling you how late it's coming. Generally speaking, it was always judged by the turkey vultures that come to the courthouse. These vultures all come down here for the winter. They're coming up from up north. They migrate down, and they look for high buildings to perch on. There was a big issue at the courthouse for a long time because they released a lot of fecal excrement

that kind of stained the windows and made the courthouse look like a snow-covered mountain there for a little while. But this is a cyclical thing that happens every year in South Florida. Originally, like I said, was the label of the start of winter in Florida is when you see all these vultures.

People who go down to, for instance, Everglades National Park, there's a huge problem. What the hell is Samson doing? Picking his teeth in front of the camera? I know, it's really not great. Jesus Christmas. That's a video issue.

Talk about my cluttered office and you're picking this huge crap out of your teeth in front of the camera. That's an outrage, whatever just happened. I'm sorry, Ron. Back to the vultures. They will go down, for instance, if you go to Everglades National Park during the winter and. I'm sorry, Ron. Anyway, back to the vultures. They will go down, for instance, if you go to Everglades National Park during the winter and you park your car, let's say, down at Anhenga Trail, you'll see a bunch of tarps

that the National Park Service provides for you to cover your car. Please use them, because the vultures down there will literally strip your windshield wipers off and then strip the rubber seal all around your windshield and windows on the vehicle. Nobody knows why they do it. It seems like it's part of practice for them, kind of like stripping hard skin off of dead animals to start their feeding, but it's a big problem

that the National Park Service has been facing now for several years. So these vultures, you know, they become quite bold. They can be a little bit destructive, though they play a very important role. Let's face the facts. They take away these decaying dead animals that can spread a lot of disease. They have a couple of gross habits.

I mean, one of the grossest habits that vultures have is to cool themselves off. They literally poop all over their legs. So then they crap on their legs and as it evaporates, it cools them off. That's part of the way to cool them off. Another really kind of unfortunate habit that they have is if you corner them, instead of trying to peck you, what they do is they projectile vomit to you like an exorcist

type thing where it just comes out. Smart. And you know, vomit by itself is already bad, but vomit of decaying dead animals that they have been eating, that'll make you an instant gag reflex. Their stomach acid is a little stronger than ours, right? Because they eat so many, you know, things that have been decaying dead, right? They have a lot of natural tolerance, natural resistance to all the bacteria

and effective elements that are found in dead and decaying animals. So, but they pay a very important service to us. I mean, I don't want to go out there and have to pick up that raccoon off the road. If the vulture is going to eat it, it's a win-win. But you have to be dead or decaying, or is there a risk if I go on the balcony

that the vulture will just take me? No, it'll never take you, David. They don't want anything to do with anybody alive. They will fly away. You won't be able to get it. You can get close to them. They're up on that balcony on the top floors there because that's where they're safe

from any predators on the ground, cats, dogs or anything like that. So that's a natural instinct. Plus also they really don't fly well until they get the thermals. Yeah, they're gliding, Ron. I see them glide. That's right, they glide.

As a matter of fact, just recently something happened that is a phenomenon that doesn't happen all the time, but it has happened in the past, where they just rescued like 40 vultures out of the ocean, out of the bay, because they were flying and using the thermals, and then there was a big temperature change, all of a sudden came in the front, the thermal disappeared,

and all the vultures literally plummeted to the ocean. And once they hit the water, they couldn't get out of the water again. Several of them drowned, several of them were saved, but this is a phenomenon that happens rarely, but it is an incredible phenomenon when all of a sudden, all these vultures just fall out of the sky.

Ron, what do you think, you're a man of science. I remember you with the Eagles, you had a camera up there to like, capture all the important things that we could learn. What do you think about us putting a camera outside of Pablo's balcony, putting a little chum out there and just seeing what happens,

seeing if they'll come and bite? Well, the fact of the matter is it's illegal to purposely feed wild animals. Well. That would not be a legal thing for you to do to bait vultures with something out there. Now hypothetically, yeah, purely hypothetically, I just forgot. Hypothetically, if a raccoon happened to die on the 36th floor of wherever you're staying and was on the ledge, oh, the heck, I think putting your camera there would be cool as heck.

I just left my this raw meat out on the balcony. I forgot it out there. But, but hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. There's a lot that I'm processing here. So the vulture, just to get back to where they came from and why they're here. So these turkey vultures, the fact that they're turkey vultures, is that right? Am I saying it or no?

Turkey vultures, there's also the black headed vultures too. There's two species that we find out here, the black headed vultures and the turkey vultures. Okay. Uh, you know, initially it was just turkey vultures, but now we're seeing a lot more of the black headed vultures. And what you see the most is if you drive down the turnpike and you drive some of these landfills, the dumps,

you'll see them like by the hundreds, flying over the dumps looking for, you know, for food. Right. So let's just say hypothetically, if we were to put some garbage and raccoon carcasses on our balcony, if we were, in fact, can we bring Ethan in here? Ethan, get in here. I wanna just run an experiment.

What is the filet mignon of these trash mountains for them? Like, what do they find where they're like, nothing beats this? Great question. Oh man, I guess, you I guess people who throw out rotten food from their refrigerator, that they're spoiled, that's the ultimate buffet for these vultures. The worse it smells, the more rotten it smells,

the more delicious it is for them. And also, understand when meat rots, it becomes much more tender, so it's easy for them to eat. Ron, I've never imagined birds having a sense of smell. Where do these, like, where do the olfactory? Oh, if you look, if you look at a vulture's bill, you'll see they have a very large nasal opening that actually can go all the way through.

So their sense of smell is phenomenal. Having said that, they also depend on each other. Because once a vulture has pretty decent eyesight, they see a bunch of vultures circling over a certain area. They go, hey, hey, hey, something happened over there. We gotta get over there. So that's when you see them all start congregating and circling.

Yes, like a crowd outside of a club during Super Bowl week, the vultures have been circling my balcony. And on that balcony, I would like to put David Sampson and Ethan, who's here. Say hi, Ethan. David, stand up next to him for context. So, Ron. Look at those nasal openings, guys.

Yeah, look at those things. So between the two of them, if we were to slather both of them in maybe meat juice or a raccoon carcass, who would the vulture be more likely to take away? David's on his tippy toes. Listen, I'm gonna go not with David, but what's the, Ethan, is that his name?

Ethan, yeah. Ethan. I'm gonna go with Ethan David but what's the even is anything? Yeah, Ethan Yeah, I'm gonna go with Ethan. He's got less facial hair There's less obstruction to go through even kind of looks a little bit like a young David Cassidy He didn't know who David Cassidy was Okay. Yeah figured he's too young but then he looks like it's a compliment. It's no idea. Ron, he didn't know who David Cassidy was. Okay, yeah, I figured. He's too young, but then he looks like- It's a compliment. It's a hell of a compliment.

David Cassidy got it done. Hey, David Cassidy's a good looking guy. He did just have a birthday yesterday. Happy birthday, Ethan, by the way. Oh, I thought you meant David Cassidy. He's not that young anymore. Am I right? Ron, I got a question for you.

You often talk about how animals, when they're around places with humans, they begin to learn certain habits, like oh, this is where we can find food because the humans leave them here. Come on, excuse me, but look at that picture. Doesn't that look a little bit like them? Not really. I see it.

No, I see it. The eyes, it's in the eyes. Cheekbones, it's in the cheekbones. I was gonna say smile. Them cheeks. Those pukas were so big. I had those pukas. I had those very same pukas, man.

Thank you, Nicole. So Ron, the animals pick up on human behavior activity and adjust accordingly to their lifestyle. Why is it birds keep flying into windows? Don't they ever learn? Aren't there any rumors through the bird world? Like, hey guys, it looks clear. You hear what happened to Steve?

Yeah. Understand they're flying into windows because they any rumors through the bird world, like, hey guys, it looks clear. You hear what happened to Steve? Yeah. Understand, understand they're flying into windows because they don't realize the window's there. What they're seeing is a reflection of the habitat behind them. So they just think it's continuing. And they think it's another bird in front of them until it gets too close where they can't stop.

Joke's on. There's another bird here, but I'm not stopping. Someone's gonna get there. I'm catching up to them, I'm catching up, oh jeez, it's over, okay? And in the vulture's defense, Mina Kimes walked into a glass door at Dan's wedding. Oh. For similar reasons. That's a good point, man. I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him,

I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him,

I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him,

I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to him, I'm catching up to It's not until it's too late, and that's why they hit the windows. But we should be glad that the vultures are here, is what you're saying. We should be embracing them, as much as they might projectile vomit the remains of roadkill. They would only do that if you tried to grab it, if you tried to bother it.

It's a matter of self-defense. They don't do it like, oh, this is my everyday thing. Let me just projectile vomit on your car for no reason at all. No, that's not what they do. Vultures are actually pretty clean animals, believe it or not. And the role that they play is so important man. I cannot tell you

You know the diseases they prevent from spreading just by what they do Ron I've been waiting for this moment, and I'm gonna ask you the most important question because I it's a boba meister I think the white that we see on the balcony from the vultures or bird poop that gets in your hair or on your clothes I thought it was urine not poop or bird poop that gets in your hair or on your clothes. I thought it was urine, not poop. You're right, it's uric acid. It's the bird's form of urine. The white is the uric acid.

Birds don't produce a fluid urine. Same with reptiles. If you see an iguana poop, you'll see this big clump of brown, which is the fecal material, and it's surrounded by some white spots. That's the uric acid material. So that's the urine phase of things like birds and reptiles so you're very smart in that so when people say

I can't see Ethan's face if you light up his face Come on man if you put The nose the nose The nose, the nose. There you go, he's got it all going on. That's David Cassidy, brother. Ron nailed this. And usually Ethan has puka shells on. Today he doesn't, but usually he does.

And he's got the hair thing going for him too. He could feather that hair out. Special dude out there, special dude. Brother, let me tell you, back in his day, David Cassidy was, he scored. There was no one bigger. Look at him, big. Look how cute Ethan is.

You know what, I'm hitting this thing for him. And happy birthday to him. I don't care. Good luck. That's the guy that edits our audio every day, him and Jeremy. Our handsome little man. Good job.

There you go. A remarkable thing. Hey, you know I think you guys should dance and stay away for a while. You guys are pretty good. Thank you. You know what? Many such cases.

You're right. Think about what Ron just said. That's a compliment, I mean, a compliment truly from- From Ron McGill, of course. I'm super despondent that Ethan doesn't know who David Cassidy is because he doesn't understand the level of operant. Ron, David was telling us a 10 minute story

about Alan Alda before. And now we've moved to David Cassidy. So thank you for actually- Alan Alda is a legend. He's a freaking legend. The guy is a legend. Wait, what was his nickname? Hawkeye is a character. Haw all it's a legend. He's a freaking legend the guy What was his nickname? Hawkeyes a character I not as a mash. Do you not know this you had never heard of Hawkeye?

I've never seen mash you know my gosh if you heard of the book the last of the Mohicans I have the character name in the book. I'm gonna guess it's Hawkeye. I'm gonna guess you haven't read it. It's all good We're all good here. There's nothing to see here You haven't read it. It's all good. Okay. We're all good here. There's nothing to see here Suicide is painless. Well, that's that's that's a show, but I was singing the I was singing the the Blast of the Mohicans. Oh, you guys Daniel Day Lewis. Yeah, you guys are killing it Ron. We appreciate it We not only are we killing it We are then going to pick the bones of the things we have killed and continue to spray our uric acid all over everything.

I thought his name was Bruce. Bruce Cassidy? Nope. David, there's also a Sean Cassidy who played the Hardy Boy. He was handsome too. Very handsome. It was rumored that David Cassidy had a little thing going with Shirley Jones on the departure channel.

Oh, his middle name is Bruce. How come I knew his middle name and not his first name? Notably different from Bill Cassidy, who did cast the deciding vote to approve as the director of Health and Human Services, a guy who also loves roadkill as much as vultures. That was yesterday. Today on the news, sorry Ron, but thank you.

Keep doing the work of God, we need it. Ron, thank you so much, as always. Always a pleasure guys and gals to take care. That's right. Just one gal. Still just gal. By the way, wrong ass, but we're all good. Did you guys catch Ron, say Winders?

He turned into a prospector there for a second. You gotta get him away from the winders. And I was like, oh. He knows everything about everything. He's the best. I said that three times during that. There's nothing we can throw at him. You can throw him an alley-oop that's 50 feet in the sky

and he will dunk it. Cause he's so tall or cause he knows so much? Both. He's that kind of presence. He looks a little like Scarface though today. He doesn't usually dress that way. I love that look, great look. I want Ron to dress like that all of the time.

I feel like- With the white suit? And the sleeve? And the chain? I like how he was like, I was meeting the mayor. And it's like, of course, this is what the mayor of Miami should be met like. Isn't there a hierarchy of who you're gonna meet with and how you dress? If you were with the senator,

I would think that he'd go a button up and maybe in a tie. If you go meet the president, you'd definitely wear a cravat. And if you meet like someone just in the city council, you can do a collared shirt with no jacket. I think that there's a hierarchy for dress code with who you're meeting. What is the lowest rank of person that would make you wear a tie?

So I don't wear ties anymore. So I don't wear them to funerals. I don't wear them to weddings. Yeah, I do not wear ties. This is also a post divorce. No, it's post Wall Street. And post, I moved to Florida and I changed the dress code with the Marlins.

I made everyone go and wear ties every day. And someone said to me, you're going to live here. Someone said to you, ugh. Close. You had to have immediately become the most hated person in the entire organization. Logan Morrison was like, that's bullshit. I wanted there to be a level of professionalism

with all of our employees. And they said in Florida, here's the problem. And I was coming from Montreal in New York. They said, your first summer, it's not going to last for a week with you wearing a tie. And I didn't know, I'd never been here during the summer. And I changed the dress code, summer number one. David, let me ask you something.

Was this universal, like baseball, excuse me, baseball ops, everybody or just? Everybody. You're in the office. Imagine if Dan made us wear a suit and tie every day in the office here. David also mandated that fans wear a suit and tie. That's why no one showed up.

Would you call that standard in baseball, or was that you putting your own little twist on it? That was me trying to bring Wall Street to base. That was you cosplaying as the New York Yankees. No, but the Yankees don't. No, it was not, actually. I like where you're trying to be funny, but no, it wasn't that. Most sports franchises, the guys, at least in ops,

maybe the other, like marketing, whatever, but for ops, everyone's wearing team-issued sweats, or like the polo or whatever. Like, that's what we wore every day. College shirts, standard issue. Were you forced to pay for your college shirts? Hell no, man. They gave them to you free?

First day of training camp. Like you go down there, the equipment manager hands you this suitcase, you know, like the duffel bag, the team issued duffel bag. Of swag? And it's just there. Because back then it was Adidas. Adidas was just sending us stuff.

So it's like, okay, you get this. We got shoes. The shoes weren't cool shoes, but they were shoes. Like now they're Nike and they're getting Tech Fleece and they're getting Air Maxes. And I'm like, oh, you guys get great deal. I used to get these ugly Adidas sneakers that I would never wear. So you got here.

I want to tell you a story. I'm serious here. My wife and my two daughters, they begged me to buy a Peloton. So I bought a Peloton and then I watched that Peloton sit in my office and stare at me. So you know what I did one day? I looked at it and so I decided to get off my ass and I jumped on the Peloton sit in my office and stare at me. So you know what I did one day? I looked at it And so I decided to get off my ass and I jumped on the Peloton because no one else was using it And I paid for it I mean so why not then I realized eventually that they bought it for me and I got to tell you way more

Challenging than I could have ever imagined Peloton coaches are walking the walk. I love the coaches. I do the Grateful Dead one It's fantastic. They have a sub three-hour marathon runner the Grateful Dead one. It's fantastic. They have a sub three hour marathon runner, military trained athletes, a former college basketball player, and so many other well-rounded coaches on their team. All this experience really shows in their classes, which are never short of challenging, especially for me. So I jumped on it that first time, it was challenging, more challenging than I thought, then I wanted to beat the bike and so I kept jumping on it and I absolutely love it. I mean, I'm the only one who uses it. But again, they got it for me.

I mean, I had no idea. That's a little passive aggressive that you think. Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.com. Hey, folks, it's Mike Ryan and I need to talk to you about something that I use religiously. Anytime I'm hosting a big dinner party, I want to impress people and I get food from some of the most iconic, famous places in the country. You know what helps me do that? Gold Belly!

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Don Lebatard. Chris Cody does an impression, just be careful. Dangerous game, this is a dangerous game. I don't wanna play this game. No, he was saying, man, I could do such a great Kendrick's No, I don't wanna play this game. He's like, man, I can talk to you, it's like a- This is who we're gonna trust with this.

I mean, you do it, let's let Amin do it, I think. Stugatz. I think you could do it, Chris, cause you did a great Charles Barkley, you're one for one there. Did no one just hear the segment we just did with Amin? We cannot be taking counsel from the local drunk on whether or not you should do the impersonation

of a black man stumbling over his words. Like, you don't see the bad judgment in that. There it was. Moe's a moody, moody Moses, Moses, moody? Don't, don't, don't, you need that, it sounds worse. Be careful, man. We gotta, like, we cannot do this. It's too close to the line.

This is where the line is. Something legitimately funny can't be funny because we're scared our ginger's gonna do something racist by accident. Carry the hell on, Dan. Rachel. Dan, the line is where we feel racist by accident. Carry the hell on, Dan. Rachel. Dan, the line is where we feel alive though.

This is The Dan Lebatard merch from levitardaf.com would you wear it every day on the show? Absolutely. If we had the uniform that it would be Levitard different merch from the merch store? Maybe like 12% of my wardrobe as far as t-shirts and stuff is stuff that I bought. It's all free stuff. It's all like- 12% huh? No, but I'm asking for this show. Yeah, if you get would you wear if the dress we had a dress What the shirts be made by Robert Graham? No, they'd be available on lebatardaf.com

Pablo, but I'm asking having a uniform, but it has to be comfortable No, but you get to choose you you'd get to choose it would be issued by the company and you would get to choose anything on the website, and you'd have a- It's a little casual. I feel like I'm also the only person here that actually dresses nice. I was gonna say, yep, sign me up.

I'm offended by that. And Jer Bear wears the occasional nice cardigan, I will give him credit for that. Today's going button downs. Today's going with the Dan look. Yeah, just got a t-shirt. I'd like to think about that, because I'd like to do more promotion,

not just during the video breaks. I'd like us to wear what we want our audience to wear. For sure, if I got free merch, I would wear the free, this is free, I'm wearing free merch right now, not from Levitard, but I'm wearing merch. I wear, and look, where's my camera? If you have a business and you wanna promote it, just send me merch, I'll wear it.

Now, make sure it doesn't look ugly, but like if it looks good. You hear that, Viori? Yeah, I'll wear it. I'll wear anything. I mean, for what it's worth, David, I asked you once for a free shirt of my own with my own face on it,

and your response to that was no, and the only reason we have it is because of Dan, not your face, so you don't get anything for free. And I was trying to do what it is that you're asking right now. No, I agree, but as we're looking toward the future, we're trying to think of new things, new ways to promote what we're doing.

And I agree that I said that to you, and I don't want to apologize. I want to say that I've evolved. All right. And I'm looking at a new evolution. You've evolved into a new evolution. I've evolved into the new I'm sorry. Jeremy, this is his version of getting rid of the tide.

Yeah, I'll take it. Wait, wait, wait. I'm not sorry. The past version of me that I no longer am is sorry. But me, David Sampson, I have evolved. That is what he said. That past version doesn't apologize either though. But you know what?

Credit for evolving because some people don't evolve. I'm trying to evolve. I'm trying to be better. I appreciate it. Listen, and I'm not perfect. I was not perfect in my last life. I'm not perfect right now some people don't evolve. I'm pro evolution. I appreciate it. Listen, and I'm not perfect. I was not perfect in my last life. I'm not perfect right now in what I'm doing. I'm trying to be better.

I'm trying to help the company. We have a lot of money. You're trying to make us dress like a break dancing squad. Like, why are we all wearing the same stuff? Have you ever been to an NBA game? Have you looked at the bench of an NBA game recently? I don't want to wear the same thing Dan Levitard's wearing right now I love Chris Cody I love what's happened there's some people guys wearing the same exact I love it there

people complain like I missed a day so no because the coach who makes seven million dollars a year and has a deal with the local and copyrighted three Pete he gets to wear the nice stuff and everybody else has to scrounge up whatever they got and be Doug Mo Oh, yeah, no, no, man. I like I like Yeah by that explanation like you and Dan should be dressing the nicest of all of us You're our executives that make the most money. Hmm our money I don't feel I don't I dress nicely for every show when I'm in New York I wear a blazer and shirt for every nothing short and for every leprechaun shorts and sandals

You do see what I am every Wednesday. I'm in a blazer thong sandals What are they sandals they're? Thongs I call them thongs. I wish you wouldn't thongs of memories. That's what they're wearing the same thing to work And now I need a David parody of Thong, the thong thong thong. Oh, Jeremy get on it. Not that one. Why not?

But it's about sandals. All right, let me get to work. Speaking. Drawing the line. Jeremy, here's the word for you, sandalus. Ooh, sandalus. Yeah, see? Dominique's texting me that I need to take control of the show again.

Can we bring it back to this Nico Harrison thing for a second, because we're talking about what we're supposed to call things. And I feel like, I mean, on the internet, people have misinterpreted something that was reported by Ethan Strauss at ESPN and the most clicked article on ESPN.com at the time. Is this the Nike Steph Curry presentation?

Yes. What is the truth here? So people online have been saying that Niko Harrison called Steph Seth. He did not. And that's not what the story is. No. Amin, can you help clarify what the actual story is?

Cause it's one of the great stories in sports business that now comes back because Nico harrison is the aforementioned formally anonymous guy who is now a thing that everybody has an opinion on right so first of all this is the most read article in the history of the s p n more than the flake gate more than tiger woods crash in his car on thanksgiving more than any of those things this was the most read article in the history of the s p n dot com ethan strouse wrote it was

and it's twenty sixteen in twenty sixteen it's the example I bring up when I say the difference between news and transactions. If you tell me, look at Dodger got traded to the Lakers and I didn't get a news breaker, Shams doesn't report it, I don't see it on Sports Center and there's no press release and the agent doesn't say anything and the player doesn't go on to social media. How would I know that it happened? When I turn on a Laker game like that what's the dodge is doing there that's how i know so it's not news i was going to find out one way or another to me news is stuff that we

never were going to find out when we found out that tom brady and bill belter k they actually hate each other right because of the great uh... reporting sense wicker sham news right there is something to the idea of when news is breaking, it'd be nice if it was breaking out of a thing that wanted to keep it contained. Exactly. Stuff that, were it not for the work of these intrepid journalists, we would never know.

So Steph Curry goes from Nike to Under Armour and everyone says, oh, you know, like that happens all the time. Upstart company comes in, bunch of money, stock options, whatever, and guys make the switch. But then Ethan wrote about how that came about. And it's a long story. It starts with Kent Basemore of all people, who's a virtual unknown NBA player. But a friend of Steph Curry's.

A friend of Steph Curry's. And an Under Armour client. Yes, and he's the one that led the recruiting pretty much to bring him over. But the nail in the coffin was when Nike was presenting its kind of, of hey this is our vision for your sneaker and your brand Nike had to argue that Steph should stay with Nike and this was in August I mean the second floor of the Oakland Marriott yep beneath the practice facility of

Golden State and notably missing were the people who actually had power at Nike. So this guy, Lynn Merritt, who was a shadow, I mean, not even a shadow, he's just known as the guy. He's a power broker within Nike, right? Like, so all the, David, you would know, right? If you walk into what you perceive to be a big meeting and then you walk in and it's like, these are all subordinates, these aren't the big dogs.

You can't meet with non-decision makers. There you go. It's a big mistake that people make. If you have a decision maker against a non-decision maker, you have a waste of time. So the person who was there running the meeting instead of Lynn Merritt, who was famed for being a power broker, a LeBron James advisor

at the time, happens to have been Nico Harrison, who was a sports marketing director. That was his title. Not like Grand Poobah, but sports marketing director. I'll give Nico some grace here. It's not like he was like the intern or entry level. No. At this point, he is pretty elite within Nike.

He's Kobe Bryant's rep. He's Anthony Davis' rep. Anthony Davis. Like a lot of the big names. He's not a Schlepper. Yeah, he's not a elite within Nike. He's Kobe Bryant's rep. He's Anthony Davis' rep. Anthony Davis. Like a lot of the big names. He's not a Schlepper. Yeah, he's not a Schlepper. Oh, and he would go on to be the VP of North America Basketball Ops for Nike,

but he was not the number one guy. He was not the number one guy. He was not the VP at the time, but also I just wanna make sure he was not like the entry level guy. He wasn't the intern. Yeah. It wasn't Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.

And so I keep going. And so the meeting begins. I mean, and they it was he mispronounced his. Yeah. So that's what it was. So the thing again, Nico is running the meeting, but the reporting is, and this is according to one of the unafraid people who ended up being a source for Ethan, a meaningful source who was in the room. Del Curry, Steph's dad,

who said that one Nike official accidentally addressed Steph as Stefan, Stefan Curry, Stefan Curry, not his actual name, but the mispronunciation. So the meeting begins with them mispronouncing the name of the person they are recruiting. Not great.

It's not gonna end well. That's the part where I couldn't remember, but I don't think Nico was the guy that mispronounced it. He's not credited as the guy who accidentally addressed him as such. But people have taken that story out of context and turned it into Nico Harrison. What, which people, now?

Yeah. Oh no. Why are we telling this now? Because it's become, because of Nico Harrison being the guy who was again, credited and discredited with the Luka Dantius trade, erasing the owners of the team, incidentally. He's credited as the guy who called Steph Seth. But the funnier part of the meeting-

Maybe Seth was there. That's irrelevant to what we're doing. Keep going. The funnier part of the meeting though, David, which I think you might appreciate, is that this meeting that was again, run by Nico Harrison, right? So what does he get discredited for here?

Maybe it's the fact that the meeting has a PowerPoint presentation, and the PowerPoint presentation is clearly for Kevin Durant. His name is left on there by accident, because they're repurposing a thing. Yes. For someone that they actually cared more about for this guy that they're basically doing the theater

of caring about. And that is an incredible thing. I've seen that a million times. Have you guys not, when you're in sales, we got, I got resumes sent to me many times saying it is really be my honor to work for the Rangers. Oh. And are they because it's someone who forgot to.

I've gotten resumes like that too. I was working at SB Nation. It was like, I'd love to join Bleacher Report. And we immediately threw them out. Immediately. Any spelling mistake, put a P in my name. Or there was one that was like dear sirs. And I was like, out.

I, you know, I once threw one out. Well, actually I didn't throw it out. I almost framed it, I kept it in my desk. But he said, his opening line was, I'll never forget this, I am writing to you on the advice of Pat Riley and Eric Spolstra. And I said, I've never spoken to either of these guys in my life, you're telling me the things,

you're gonna get it. Reach out to Amino Hass. Reach out to Amino. Reach out to Amino Hassan, he's the guy. I'm like, get the, but then I was like, I threw it away, then I was like, no, I'm keeping this one, because it was just so ridiculous. Who knew 10 years later,

I'd be on Speaking Terms with Pat Riley and Eric Spolster. Mm. Yeah. Joke's on me, I guess. No, the joke's on him for calling you 10 years too early and not getting a job That the reason why he went to under armor has nothing to do with Kevin Durant hasn't the miss the miss name or the mispronunciation Or the fact that it was Nico instead of you know, Lin Phil Knight

it's simply what under armor was doing back then as they were doing irresponsible deals and And startup companies and one did this a bunch of times there's a bunch of companies and one oh I'd love to wear no it's it's just old enough to be in my sweet spot but but David yes except that one was the one that was the right deal like you're right but that one you know like a broken clock it turns out they hit yeah on that one and you know, like a broken clock. It turns out. They hit perfectly on that one. And you know who else hit perfectly on that one? Kent Basemore, who's rich beyond everyone's wildest dreams now because of, he had Under Armour's sock.

Yes, because Steph Curry and that shoe became, if not next to Kyrie Irving's shoe, the most popular shoe among young people. It was the number one selling basketball sneaker, like for the first- It was a sensation. It was the number one selling basketball sneaker like for the first. It was a sensation. For Under Armour. Yes.

No, no, the most, the top selling basketball sneaker. Including Air Jordan. Including Jordan's because it was every, like all these youth teams, Under Armour was spot on. Oh, this was, again, going back to the idea of dynasties and villainy, this was the Warriors at their heyday. Wrists hit right at the peak

and then the Steph Curry twos came out and that's where it kind of. Right, their stock was like doing really well in the mid 2010s, but it's not doing so hot anymore. So that to me is what I wanted to mention is that you can get all the players and get all the excitement and have the great press conferences,

but if you speak to Kevin Plank or others who own Under Armour stock, they're despondent beyond repair. Well yeah, if you look to Kevin Plank or others who own Under Armour stock, they're despondent beyond repair. Well, yeah, if you look at the curve, 2021 peak and then it's been a lot of value. And that's four years later and the market has been going up, up, up until the tariffs started and then disappeared

and the market rebounded, which is ripe for insider information. But- I've been thinking the same thing. Oh, God, don't kid yourself. You gotta buy the dips when they dip because of something Trump does, you buy that dip, buy, buy, buy,

because he's just making it up as he goes along. Except if this is finally it. No, but you know, this is not investment advice obviously, but Jessica, you can't think that when you're doing something that this is it. I'm not playing the market daily like that. To quote an And One shirt, grab a notebook, you're about to be schooled.

Whoa! That's very good. Speaking of signature shoes though, Asia Wilson's signature shoe is coming out in May and it looks phenomenal. Can I say? Sure. Did Nike drop the ball?

On what? On waiting. A May release? Like it should be out now? All-star weekend. The shoe does look good, if we can show that. I think the league, like the first game though is May, so it's gonna be right when the WNBA starts.

It's the start of the WNBA season. All-star weekend of what, the NBA? Yeah. Oh, I think it's based on the WNBA season. But I know, but it's a high-profile kind of marketing. It's like the Super Bowl. Her jersey was just retired this week, this past weekend too.

So there's, it doesn't really matter when they launch it. Regardless of- Yeah, it's easy. I feel like there's a lot of hype around the shoes. Regardless of what season we're talking about, WNBA, NBA, you should get Game Time. Oh.

Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code Dan for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. What time is it Jeremy? Game time! Thank you David. I feel like it'll be really cool when she walks out on the court for like the Aces first game in the shoe

and it goes on sale. And all the other stuff that they're releasing with it, I just, I want all of it. Is the BAM stuff because of the shoe? Am I mixing stories? Okay, so her jersey was retired at South Carolina this past weekend and she, that's where the video was of her talking about BAM that some are calling a hard launch. It's a hard launch. I disagree, but we'll listen.

Good EPing. Tell for herself. I wouldn't be who I am today without the love, support, and sacrifices of so many people. And what a blessing to have those most special to me courtside today especially my favorite Olympian from out of town Oh come on It's the shimmy She's Chris Coded Jessica if it were any harder of a launch she'd be pregnant

That's what I'm saying No a hard launch is like you're like you don't post anything on social media for two years and then all of a sudden you post a picture and you're wearing an engagement ring. That's a hard launch. That felt fast. We already know that there's like,

obviously something going on with her and Bam. And the camera, whoever the camera person is, I know they didn't see this coming, but you gotta cut to Bam. You gotta cut to Bam. You gotta have a Bam cam the whole time? Bam cam, thank you, Bam, absolutely. So excuse me, they've been dating a long time,

this was not news, the rumor had been out. Well, this is the whole thing, the degrees of launch. Is she launching it coincidentally with the shoe and with the announcement of the shoe? Well, that's what everyone was saying, that Bam needs to wear the shoe now, right? This is what I was trying to ascertain, because that would be a PR strategy,

a business strategy to have the shoe announced, to have the relationship announced, to have Bam wear the shoe. It would be a... They're just gonna keep doing stuff like this and not let us see any canoodling. That's my point. That's my thing with the-

A canoodle is a hard launch. I agree. We have not seen them even, I mean, so yes, they've been in the same photograph together, but it's been sort of in that paparazzi way, which is a soft launch, if anything. Were they holding hands? That's the thing. In pairs.

Were they holding hands though? Well, no, there was another- Were they canoodling? There was an event here, I think, was it Udonna's? The mayor. No, is it- I think it was the Dwyane Wade statue, was it not? I thought it was something that's-

Yes, it was statue related. She has been also like court sided several heat games throughout the season. Or is it medal related when they got their medals? I think it was when they got their medals. Several is understating it. Like there was a point, I found out because I'm like, why is Asia Wilson in every heat game?

And someone was like, you idiot. She's dating them? She's a big Duncan Robinson fan. Oh. I think it was an Olympics related, like Miami giving the key to the city thing. Oh, the key it was. They met in the village?

It was the key to the city. No. Did they meet in the Olympic village? No, it was before the Olympics. Yeah, they were together before that. Or at least that's what the students saw on the internet. Is that a report Jeremy? Is that a Miami Heat report from you? No, that is not an exclusive report from me.

Wait, yeah, Jeremy. That is not what I'm saying. You can get the gossip on this. I am not reporting that. I will confirm to you, they were dating well before the Olympics. I don't know what you're confirming because there was no report. That's an amine report, not a Jeremy report.

That's an amine report. Dude, he played at the Suns in Phoenix. I'm taking my kid to go meet Jason Jackson and then Asia Wilson was like, oh, take a picture of Asia Wilson. I'm like, why is Asia Wilson here? But I'm like, oh, Vegas, Phoenix is close enough. Sweet summer child.

Dude, it took so many times. I felt like Dan finding out that John Amici was gay. Right, like, what do you mean? It's like you're going to gay bars with him and stuff and Dan still doesn't get it. Do you sit here with your kid when you're bringing the kid to the game, cut, cut. Like when to meet, photo, photo.

Are you directing everything? No, not for that, but I just say, oh, that's cool. You should get a picture with Adrian Wilson. Oh, okay. yeah, but I do I we do when we're watching it You see you see how he cut see see that right there. That's we do that a lot I would draft Asia Wilson and Bam out of bio's child right now That kid's not gonna play basketball Hey folks, it's Mike Ryan It is big game week and I've got just the thing to make

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