The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: Tipping With Stan Van Gundy

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Dan wants to know what everybody's tipping habits are in the modern era of food service. The discussion continues with Stan Van Gundy who joins the show from Oklahoma City. He and Amin dive deep into basketball analysis while Dan is in the penalty box. Stan also shares his thoughts on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Aaron Rodgers, as well as how he separates art from artists. Then, Dan wants to know if the Bucks are any better than they were two years ago, and Stan thinks the Celtics are nearly unbeatable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Don Lebatore Show with the StuGuts Podcast. I mean, are you like Chris Cote? I'm looking in the other room and I'm trying to imagine who is like Chris Cody where he feels pressure when the server is sort of hovering over him when he has to leave a tip and I think it's a good move for servers to stick around and not leave because the tip I'm imagining gets smaller if the server isn't watching or can get smaller if the server's not watching. Chris, do you over tip when the server's watching?

I've never experienced them lingering with the old fashioned sign the check. Oh. What I'm talking about specifically is these modern machines. The screen where you flip it around. Where it's like, you come up, you give the card, and they do the whole transaction right in front of you.

Where it's like like card gets inserted It's 18 percent 20 percent 22 percent 25 percent if you're lucky they start at 20 then it's like 23 25 20 It's like then I feel like a jerk picking the lowest option So it's that's the part where it's like put your machine down and and go do something else come back for the machine in 30 seconds I hate the pressure of, because I am a good tipper, the bottom for me is 20%. But this has nothing to do with how much I tip,

it's just, I don't like the feeling. Put the thing down and walk away and come back. By the way, these modern machines have been around in Europe for over 10 years. This is how the rest of the world's been doing, paying for a bill. You don't the rest of the world's been doing, paying for a bill. You don't have to tip over.

For a while. Yeah, exactly, it's already included in their VAT, so. Just saying. But no. The technology's been around. I'm gonna tell you this, Chris. That machine, the old fashioned, I don't mind. But for some reason, like when I go to like,

let's say a Starbucks or whatever, and they flip that screen around, that's when I feel like, cause deep in my heart I'm like, why am I tipping? I just got it here and I ordered and I picked it up. I feel like a jerk in those spots, because at coffee shops, look,

I don't generally tip 25% on those. Those, it's like, for me, dollar. You get a dollar. Is that bad? I feel like at a coffee shop, I'm buying a $4 coffee, I'm gonna add a dollar. I always do custom, dollar.

That's my move. Custom dollar? Cause I don't want like 129, like 250, like I just, custom, dollar action. I just don't like the spin around and the spin back. It makes me uncomfortable. What do you do with the old school receipts when they already have the gratuity added?

Oh, the auto gratuity. The old like seven party or more, you know, automatic percentage. Or if you're on the beach where they do auto gratuity automatically, right? Or some places in Brickell as well. No extra for me. Roy, I'm gonna tell you, it depends.

If I like the place, I'll leave extra and I'll like circle it to let them know by the way. Like I'll circle the auto gratuity and then I'll leave extra, let them know. I saw it and I'm giving you extra because I like you with the hopes of getting better service next time I come there. If it's like, I'm never coming back here again,

I'm on vacation, yeah, I just put a line and then I just sign it. Don't round up to the nearest number on that one. I feel like that's more insulting. You're gonna add 62 cents to this? Zero roundies. Big spender. I always, I have a thing, I keep the cents the same.

If it is one of the old school ones where you're writing it in and it's like 65.82, I would never, there are people who add the like, 18 cents, my dad does that. I was gonna say 22, so thank you, Chris. My dad does that. So that it's zero, zero, I always keep the numbers

in the cents. This is the man keeping us down because we're taking all of our time talking about tipping etiquette. Just pay the servers a minimum wage. Or a living wage. Yeah, tipping. What are we doing?

Why is it our responsibility? They get paid below minimum wage. I don't know how many people know this. They get paid below minimum wage because the expectation is, you'll make it up in tips, which is insane. I was a server for several years

and I would get my actual paycheck and it would be like on a good day, $3.52. Like you're not making anything from that. One of the most traumatic serving experiences I ever had, I was at, I was working at this restaurant and somebody left me a 72 cent tip. Hurt my feelings, it was a $73 bill and this person, I kid you not,

hold up, they needed a drink refill. So, Charlotte, I'm gonna take your glass. They did the little shaky thing at me, but no, no, no, hold up, hold up, you wanna save that gasp. To get my attention to do the shaky thing, I was taking another table's order. I was turned to the table, they're right here,

and I kid you not, this man kicked me in the back of the leg. No! I turned around, he turned, I turned around because I'm like, what's going on? He goes, and then he left me 72 cents on like an $80 meal So please for the love of God tip your servers because that happens so much not the kicking thing that only happened me once But you get stiffed so often or like you'll just think you don't know what you did wrong, and I'm a great server

I have such great like energy and people like oh my God, look at you, you're so cute. And I'm like, I'm saving up to make my dreams come true. And they're like, oh, what a great angel. Lucy, it was nothing you did wrong. No, I didn't do anything wrong. It was nothing you did wrong. It is people who are miserable and take it out on other people.

Did you get this fellow's name? I did not. I was in shock when it happened because you just don't expect- Because if you had his name, we could light him up right now. I wish I had him. John Weiner.

I think that. Greg Cody. I think that this is Lucy, I'm sorry, but I have a lot of questions here, a number of different questions. One of them. Is it how old Lucy is or how much she weighs? No, it was gonna be how old you have to be

to refer to someone in a rage as this fella. That's Charlotte specific. This fella. I have probably never said that before in my life. I have no idea where that came from. He deserved it. This fella seems a little older than it should be. But the question.

He was young, by the way. He was not an old guy. Guess her age and weight. 82 years old. The questions I have. It's a reasonable question to ask how much Grammy weighs when she's sinking to the bottom of the sea.

Not, it's not an unreasonable question. Totally unreasonable. To wonder how those guys, we still don't have the answer. The video's two years old, how those guys fished out a woman who was panicked, had to be panicked and sinking to the bottom of the sea. The video is two years old how those guys fished out a woman who was panicked, had to be panicked and sinking to the bottom of the sea. The Croatian Sea! The Croatian Sea which is salty which means she is more buoyant so the weight in the water isn't really even as much of a thing. Run that video back please. Let's eyeball this woman's weight and Dan thinks she might be about

350 pounds apparently. Don't think... Come on man. I just want to know how they fished her out. We still don't have the answer. They pulled her out. They pulled her out. Regardless, the questions I have about what we're asking are the following. One, somewhere along the line, the cash tip of $1 for me became insufficient for...

That drinks, remember? No, for valet. No, you guys tell me a giving a dollar you tell me whether you feel comfortable someone gets you your car giving that person a single dollar does that does it feel like enough that somewhere along the line a dollar became not a sufficient tip to give people on stuff like that and I can't exactly trace when it is that that was that that happened in the other thing that we still haven't answered

how many of you are shamed into a bigger tip because the server is standing right there over you and i can imagine people getting shamed it happens to me if the tip if the server pulls the machine toward me i'm hesitant to hit the lowest number I'm hesitant to hit other I I I would advise servers to hover among the meek and shame them into bigger tips what is the pay for a server you guys mentioned this is it two dollars an hour two dollars in

seven cents an hour For what it is that a server makes below minimum wage because I think it's about two dollars something It depends on what state you live in like if you're in a state like, California You're gonna make a much higher minimum wage, but in North Carolina. I was making like a dollar an hour Jesus Christ, I don't know what the number is we can probably look it up But I think it's almost always below minimum wage by several dollars. Here we go. This is from the Bureau of,

the Department of Labor, excuse me. Minimum wages for tipped employees. Federal, the federal basic minimum cash wage is $2.13. Oh my God. The maximum tip credit against minimum wage is $2.13. Oh my God. The maximum tip credit against minimum wage is $5.12. The basic combined cash and tip minimum wage rate is $7.25. Any of you shamed into bigger tips

just because the server is hovering? Uh, no. I usually give a pretty big tip though. So I'm the wrong person to ask. If you're at, yeah, if there's someone who's cheap and doesn't usually give a big tip though so I'm the wrong person to ask. If there's someone who's cheap and doesn't usually give a big tip and they are meek as you are saying Dan they perhaps would be shamed into it. I'm proudly a big tipper. I always go five dollars for valet and then one dollar is for like at a coffee shop if I'm just buying like one little drink. Sorry it's 20% plus for me doesn't

matter if they're not. What is that? What the hell is that? You're just, come on. Wait, do you pay $5 even if you have to pay for the valet? Or is that just when it's free valet? I feel weird giving a couple dollars to a valet. Five sounds like too much though. Me and my dad have gotten into arguments

because my dad thinks two or three dollars and I'm always like, give five. But I'm just saying, if you have to pay for the valet. It wasn't like comp valet. You still tip $5? All right, let's figure this out. What is the going rate? Put it on the poll at Levitard Show.

How much do you give the valet, $5 or $1? Because I feel like it should be in between there, but don't give that as one of the options. I feel like $5 is the new $1 thanks to inflation. Put that on the poll as well. Wow, you really amused me. Couldn't even get through that. This fella really amused herself.

Good call on fella, Dan. That was a f***ing weird shower. I don't know where it came from. I've literally never said that before in my life. But it felt like, no, you know what it was? You're doing like a Joe Biden impression. It wasn't fellow, fella. But it felt like the no, you know what it was? It was like a Joe Biden impression. It wasn't fellow, fellow. But it felt like the person, in my mind,

the person, the guy who kicked Lucy looked like someone who would call other people fellas. And so I did it to him before he could do it to me. He sounds like someone who's some folks across the aisle. That's what it sounds like, some folks across the aisle. We say fella, fella's some folks across the aisle. They're the same people. No, he was a very young, like, yeah, he was a young.

A young douchebag. Really? A young whippersnapper. Then I would have called him much worse than a fellow. Douche. I mean, what is the correct amount to give the valet? If I'm paying for valet, I'm not tipping more than a couple bucks.

I feel like, rightly or wrongly, I just feel like, and it's not like being a server where there's, you smell like food and stuff. You're just driving nice cars all day. I want to ask you guys how much this has changed because I really do feel very often like I'm one of the few people on Earth wandering around with cash anymore.

But when I was in Vegas, I told you this, I'm like the baggage handlers and the valets must have had crushing dents in their income When I was in Vegas, I told you this, like the baggage handlers and the valets must have had crushing dents in their income because people moved to electronic. Do you guys, as people who don't use cash very much, do you insist every time on getting the Venmo or the Zelle of the valet so that you can then tip them?

Do you ever get in your car, drive away, pretending like you will, and then don't do it? No. I think if you're working in that kind of industry, you need to have the barcode on your person, like a necklace with the barcode. You're just hurting your own bank account. If you're doing that type of work

and don't have a barcode, you should be ready to any person that's like, oh, you're not to, I would just be flashing it, like, yeah, anyone? No, no? I do it right in front of them so they know that I did it. Especially if it's a bartender, oh yeah, and I'll show them how much I tipped them. Amin circles the tip on a written thing

and holds his phone in their face if it's digital. He writes, you're welcome at the bar. It's always awkward when you have to ask someone, what's your Zelle? And then all of a sudden you're exchanging phone numbers with someone just because I want to give them $3. Bar codes, it's all bar codes. No, but I'm saying if they don't have the bar code,

you have to then, what's your phone number? What's your PayPal? OK, I'm handing them my phone, they're typing in numbers. It's just awkward. Stugats definitely gets in the car and forgets the numbers forever. TurboTax experts make all your moves count, filing with 100% accuracy and getting your max refund guaranteed.

So whether you worked a side hustle to afford season tickets or move states and adopted a new team, switch to TurboTax and make your moves count. See guaranteed details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees. Experts only available with TurboTax and make your moves count. See guaranteed details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees. Experts only available with TurboTax Live. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs.

LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. As Metalhead Media continues to grow as a content studio and as a multimedia company, we strive to hire only the best and most qualified candidates. Thankfully, with LinkedIn, they've made it easy for us to find them. LinkedIn isn't just another job board. LinkedIn has a vast network of more than a billion professionals, which makes it the best place to hire.

It gives you access to professionals you can't find anywhere else. LinkedIn does all of that while making the process easy and intuitive. Hiring is easy when you have that many quality candidates. So easy, in fact, that 86% of the small businesses get a qualified candidate within slash prep to post your job for free terms and conditions apply Don libertard punctuate this segment with what is your strike three call strike one would be strike and then you stand up and you give a good point to the right stugats that's same for strike two but strike three you get down low you got your hands behind the catcher, alright, the right arm goes up into the air, and then you finish it with the punch. The right arm flings way up into the air. I wish I could see that. It's terrible.

The audio is great. This is the Dunn-Levatar Show with the StuGats. We failed last time with Stan to get him to jovially laugh enough so I am putting pressure on the shipping container. We have to get this man to laugh. I miss his weekly laughter around here. Before you came on we were talking about tipping, the correct way to tip. You strike me as someone who still like me carries cash and is offended when you walk into a coffee shop and they will not take your God-given hard-earned American

cash in this country. How do you tip when a tipper or a server is hovering over you? And do you feel pressure to tip more when a server is hovering over you with one of the machines? Do you tip in cash? How much do you tip valets? Take us through the tipping etiquette of Stan Van Gundy. Well, I'll try to tip in cash, but I've unfortunately become in like a lot of people, Dan. I don't always have, well, especially I don't have

smaller bills with me. A lot of times all I've got's 50s and things like that. And if my driver's taking me on a 10 minute drive from the airport to the hotel, you'd be like a good boy. You think it's look at me, Louis, to say I only carry 50s? 50s, my driver.

Yes, it is a position of wealth. I'm a 50s athlete. Well,. Yes. He is. It is a position of wealth in the 50s. Well, I'm not arguing that. I'm not arguing. I've said many times that I am the poster boy for white privilege, so I'm not arguing any of that. All right. Put it on the pole. Did you please is Stan Van Gundy the poster boy for white privilege, is $1 sufficient anymore to give to a valet as a tip? Are you kidding me? Well, that sounds like a Stu Gott's question.

Not a Dan Leventhal question, come on now. I'm trying to be in every minute. No, no, no, no, no. No, this isn't me, this isn't me. No, no, no, no, no, listen, you can't tip a valet less than $5. That's what I'm saying. Stan, would you agree that $5 is the new $1?

Yes. Thank you. At least as far as it goes. Yeah, that's the minimum you've got to tip a valet. Yeah, absolutely. Do you tip when you have a to-go order? Do you tip when you go pick up a coffee? Yes, I tip all the time. I mean I

Tip in almost every situation. Look, I'm really you know all seriousness. I'm really lucky really fortunate and so yeah, I I'm gonna tip and tip well every chance I get. You also know a thing about tip-offs, am I right? Oh, for the love of God. Send her, I mean, get out of here. What? Get out of here. Transition, come on.

You said make him laugh. I mean, I did say that. You know what? You know what? You know what? He's laughing. I'm gonna go. I did laugh, where's that going? You don't have to go. Where you going? No, no, that's the rules.

Yeah, he's out of here. Get out of here. That's how it goes. That's all right, it's just me and you, Amin. There you go. My old coach got me ready for an American Ninja Warrior. Stan, we were having a conversation. I know Dan would love to ask you this question,

but the concept of you have to have playoff pain in order to have playoff success and with regards to the Thunder and the Timberwolves being relatively young teams. I told Dan the Timberwolves have had playoff pain both as the Timberwolves in recent years, last couple of years and also individually when you talk about Mike Conley, when you talk about Kyle Anderson, Rudy Gobert, they've all been in the playoffs, deep in the playoffs, and had that heartbreak. Is that a prereq though,

to have gone through the heartbreak together in order for it to count? Yeah, you know, I don't really think it is, but it usually happens that way. I mean, you know that because what happens is, is that normally is part of your progression is when you first start in the playoff run, you're just not good enough. And so, you know, you lose somewhere along the road and then you get better and hopefully

go a little further. And that's part of the progression. I just think that's all part of getting better. Look, with Minnesota, they've got plenty of experience, like you said, with Gobert and Conley, Carl Anthony Towns has been there, like they're fine as far as experience. And with Oklahoma City, the only thing that identifies them as a young team is their birth certificates. Like all the things that we look at, I mean, that you would say, yeah, that's what a young team does. You know, they turn the ball over a lot.

Well, not this team. You know, well, they take a lot of bad shots. Not this team. They're one of the highest efficiency teams in the league. Well, young teams don't really defend. Well, not this team. They defend very, very well. Well, they teams don't really defend. Well, not this team. They defend very, very well. Well, they're not poised. This may be the most poised team in the league under adversity

in games and things. So nothing that you see on them on the court, you could sit and say, well, that's what young teams do. I mean, nothing. There's just nothing that identifies them as young, again, other than their chronological age. So I think they're not getting enough respect from people. They've got a chance, along with Boston, to be the 25th and 26th teams in the last 28 years since NBA.com's had it on their ratings to be in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency in the same year. Less than one team a year. Like, come on, I mean, this is a great basketball team and I don't hear them talked about enough.

People talk about Denver, deservedly so, and then the Clippers, Phoenix, and even New Orleans ahead of Oklahoma City in Minnesota It doesn't it doesn't make any sense to me It does from this perspective though Stan all the time we do the analysis of I haven't seen them do it therefore They can't do it. We did it to Denver last year and we were talking before you came on I know he set it up this way that not not since the early 80s, if OKC wins it, will a team like that have won it, where you're not used to seeing them lose for a little bit beforehand? You just never go from what OKC has been this season immediately to winning the

championship when that's not how we were discussing you before the season. Yeah, and I get that, but I don't think we have precedent for teams like this. Normally, what you will have seen is the first time they get in the playoffs, they're a lower seed in playing on the road. And then maybe they're at home for the first round and then on the road. This team could be the number one seed. This team could be playing at home all the way. Like, where's the precedent for that? You know, we don't have that precedent.

So this team has made a huge jump. They're one of the best teams in the league. You know, look, I get it. And I'm not going to say that's the team you've got to bet on because I think them Denver, Clippers, Minnesota, if they can get healthy again, you know, all have great shots. But you know, to think that I had somebody tell me that Oklahoma City in the first round would be an underdog against the Lakers or the Warriors, like I don't buy that.

You gotta be kidding me. Like those two teams aren't close to Oklahoma City in terms of talent. Yeah, they've got an experience edge, but the talent is just, there's a huge discrepancy. Dan, Dan, Stan, Stan, Stan and Dan, Ryan. I'll ask the question. So when you've got Oklahoma City and the Lakers

and someone like Amin was telling me earlier this season, Stan, I'm like, hey, Golden State's done. This is all over. The young people are taking over. People are holding onto their memories with Golden State and the Lakers, but they're not paying attention to what's happening this year. You say what to the tide has turned the old

people are going to get out of here the young people are going to get them out of here this year yeah I mean I listen I will say this there isn't a single series in the West that I would call a major upset no matter what happens because you do have teams like the Warriors with you know they're going to line up Steph Curry on one side and the Lakers are going to have Anthony Davis and LeBron James. There's nothing I would call a major upset in the West but to think that those teams would be favored over Oklahoma City just doesn't make any sense to me and they won't be.

The sports books I'm sure will not favor them over Oklahoma City. Stan, is the league throttling scoring? Well, the scoring's going down and pretty significantly right now. I mean, you know, over the last month or two, I mean, you start looking at the scores every night. You're seeing multiple teams every night under 100, everything score. Unless you get to play against Dallas, scores are going down.

Do you believe it's a referee and conspiracy to keep the scoring down? What do you believe is happening there? No, I think what's happening is we're almost seeing what we see in the playoffs. We've got so many close races for playoff seeding and everything. The games are taking on a real sense of urgency right now, which I think is good. Teams are playing harder The defense is is better. The pace is slowing down like it does in the playoffs No, I don't think the refereeing has anything to do with it whatsoever Let's play for Amin and Stan the video of Stan coaching Amin

for what remains the single most viewed clip in the video of Stan coaching Amin for what remains the single most viewed clip in the history of American Ninja Warrior. This is some of the finest acting I've ever seen, not just among among thespians, but at ESPN and beyond. I believe that all of this acting, Stan Van Gundy teaching Amin how to get ready for American Ninja Warrior, some of the best thespian work that has been done anywhere. Unfortunately, we don't have audio to this. We only have B-roll, which sort of, you know, some of the drama is lost in this, but you can just see through the acting here,

the two of them together, Amin and Stan preparing for American Ninja Warrior. This is great. Well, and to give a meeting that a little more credit there he was not only the lead actor he was also the director uh... this is this is great fun because

i would i didn't you know i'm used and we've done work together but i don't know stay well known as i said is he gonna reject the side of the list is ridiculous you know who i am stan goddamn van gundy but he went along with the you are great sport and it was it was such a fun day I said, is he gonna reject this idea? He said, this is ridiculous. You know who I am, I'm Stan God damn Van Gundy. But he went along with it, you were a great sport, and it was such a fun day of recording. Jessica has a question though. Are you contractually obligated

to bring up America Ninja Warrior every time you come on the Dan LeBattard show? Let me tell you something, Jessica. If you're part of something as successful as I was, you'd bring it up every single time. Wow, there you go. Whoa. There you go. Whoa. There you go.

It was sort of successful in its failure. Right. But I mean, it was a success though. That's the first word. No, exactly. It all depends on how you, we measure success in a lot of different ways. Amen.

But usually not with failure. Which is why Amin is so special. I mean, I feel like of all the different ways you measure success, it's almost never measuring success by stacking a mountain of failures on top of each other. It's a solid point, but proof is in the pudding, Dan-o. Don Lebatard! Mustard mixes with mayonnaise better than ketchup does. What?!

Yes! No. What you've just said is appalling. What you've just said is an offense to anyone who's ever eaten. Stugats! Ketchup, oh my god. I don't like it on anything, but... What?!

Ketchup?! You're un-American! This is the Don Lebatardard Show with the StuGards. Where are you, Stan? I'm in Oklahoma City. Ouch. No, he's about to watch some great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, about to watch some great, great. Very nice hotel here. One of the best in the league now.

My friend lived there and she said it wasn't that bad. Is it the haunted one? You're not at the haunted one, are you? No, that's what I'm saying. They built a new one. I mean, they built an Omni right across from the arena and it's beautiful. It's got three really nice restaurants in it. I mean, a nice park right next to it.

I mean, it's really, really nice. How far from the arena? Literally right across the street. Oh, perfect. Yeah, no, it's great. This is the best setup in the league. I thought the haunted hotel was in Milwaukee. Milwaukee's one of them.

Well, Milwaukee's got one. I also thought it was in San Diego. Yes, Coronado. Coronado. We stayed up there for training camp. There you go. And the players were scared. You can let, ask Patrick Ewing,

he'll give you the whole list of haunted hotels. And he honestly believed every one of them. We had players. Patrick Ewing, right? Yeah, we used to walk by his room and make ghost sounds and stuff. On the road. Stan is joining us from a haunted

or near a haunted hotel in Oklahoma City. He's not staying at the haunted one. He's staying across the street. Let's just play please the video and audio. Stan, I need you to lay out here and be quiet for a second so that you don't interrupt the coaching of Amin Elhassen before American Ninja Warrior. Do it and help with my diet.

No! We talked about this! This event's all about toughness! Nobody tough eats a kale salad! You want the impossible! I just want you to win! Ready? Go! To work me out. Oh, now we're talking.

Yeah, he's top notch. he's one of the most famous, he's the most highly paid coaches in the world and he agreed to do it for me, practice, so you know, I got to save money on the side as well. I mean, you're gonna have to pay him and diet Pepsi at least. All right, good job. Nope, that one's gonna cost ya.

Ass on. No, that's great, man. Just tremendous acting all around. Ass on. No, that's great, man. Just tremendous acting all around. Ass on. Oh, wow. No way, Jessica, you're being disrespectful. Be respectful. You can catch Stan Van Gundy on everything

that the Thursday night TNT and TBS basketball crews are doing because they cover basketball as well as anybody has ever covered basketball. Our thanks to Stan Van Gundy for for joining us before i get back to some basketball questions with you though because we like to dabble in some politics with you i'm just curious what you make of all of the latest surrounding the fringe candidate robert kennedy and the idea that he would have jesseura or Aaron Rodgers very high

up on his list of vice presidential candidates. Well I just think it really emphasizes what a clown Robert F Kennedy jr. has become. I mean this guy was one of the preeminent environmental lawyers in the country doing some good work and then he went off the rails as an anti-vax person and not just anti-COVID vaccinations. I mean, you know, this is one of the idiots who spreads misinformation about vaccinations everywhere. His entire family has disavowed him as a political candidate.

He's an embarrassment to an iconic political family, albeit with their own, you know, they have a lot of problems throughout the family on some personal things, but an iconic political family who all just want us to ignore this guy. I mean, this is a this is a joke. I mean, you know, at least Jesse Ventura has some political background, I guess. But look, Robert F. Kennedy knows Junior knows damn well he's not going to be president. He's just trying to gain attention. And certainly this is the way that he can get some attention saying he's going to have a guy like Aaron Rodgers as VP so he got attention. What precedent do you have for what has

happened with the public persona of Aaron Rogers where you go from State Farm Insurance agent to the kind of internet brain rot that changes the way that a whole lot of people think about you. Yeah. I, you know what? It's just so interesting. I think that these people, you know, this is, you know, whereas connection with RFK junior is some of these anti-vax people. Look, I think there were legitimate issues on making the COVID vaccination mandatory, things like that. But then some of these clowns have just taken it

so ridiculously far that, you know, Dan in Florida, we're trying to bring back measles. You know, we're trying to bring back measles. Like, you know, kids, you know, everybody was vaccinated and all of that. And now we got people that don't want to vaccinate their kids. Most people took it as fact that measles had been eradicated. As one columnist in the Orlando paper said, Florida took that as a challenge.

You know, and so it's people like this who, you know, are spreading misinformation, have no regard for science, and they can find people out there and get people to believe them. The ignorance of a lot of people in our country is astounding, and it's led us to where we are now. What is your greatest daily frustration on this front where you throw your hands up because you are somebody who has tried to advocate for equality and decency? Like what is the single most consistent thing that's going to send you boiling over,

you know, talking to your loved ones about, can you believe this again? Yeah, it's every day. It's something. But I think it's the overall ignorance of so many people. Like we've always had fringe people out there. We always have. You know, they're there but they couldn't command 35, 40 percent of the population to believe them when they're spreading blatant lies. Now you can. I mean, John Stockton is now suing because somebody wouldn't let him spread COVID misinformation. I mean, there's mind boggling stuff going on where we used to argue about solutions.

We used to argue about policy. It doesn't seem to me that even into my 30s and stuff that we were arguing about facts. Now we argue about facts. People don't believe science. They don't believe blatant facts. I mean, it's astounding. Who is the athlete or celebrity that your viewpoint has changed so much because whether it be John Stockton or someone else, you can no longer separate message from messenger.

Now, I can still separate it with all of them to be quite honest. I mean, I have incredible respect for John Stockton as a player. I've got great respect for Aaron Rodgers as an athlete. No, I can separate it. We probably make the mistake in not separating it with things. I mean, you can look and say, you know, John Stockton is one of the greatest point guards of all time, Aaron Rodgers,

one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but I think their political views are clownish. You know, we should be able to do that. It shouldn't be, wow, Aaron Rodgers is a great quarterback. Yeah, I'd love to have him as a vice president. I mean, come on. In Georgia, they ran Herschel Walker for Senate, the United States Senate. And people, there was a large part of the population there voting for him, even after they listened to this guy. I mean

Like you can say the guy was a great running back You can even say the guy was a great role model, but these ideas are Buffoonish, you know, I don't understand why we can't make that distinction. I really don't coach. How do we fix it? Well, I don't know. I mean, I think it's up to us. I have said for years, we get the leaders that we deserve. Like if we don't want to take the time to learn things, if we don't want to hold the people on our side of the ideological divide accountable, if we are just going to be ignorant followers of total lies and deception, then we deserve what we get. So the solution is for more people to wake the hell up, but I don't know if that's gonna happen or not.

Let's segue effortlessly back into Bucs basketball and ask Stan Van Gundy the question, is this Bucs team in any way, the roster, better than the one from two years ago? Well, the only way they're better, in my opinion, is they've got a huge weapon now at the end of games, at the end of close games. I mean, Damian Lillard has not had a great year by Damian Lillard's standards, but he's still one of the scariest guys coming

down the stretch of a close game as there is in this league. And with Chris Middleton's decline, because Chris Middleton, not Giannis, was their go-to guy at the end of close games in that championship run. He's not the same guy. Now they have that guy. So they are better in that sense. But defensively, they've taken a major step back. That's one of the worst defensive backcourts in this entire league with Tien Beasley.

It'll be interesting, but they've got a great player in Giannis and a great closer in Damian Lillard. I mean, I think they're a threat to everybody except Boston in the East. You can't win playing that defense, can you? There's no precedent for actually winning everything playing the defense that Milwaukee plays, is there? Well, it gotten better now. I mean for all the people that you know Wanted to discredit doc and everything else. They've gotten better defensively

I mean, they're a they're a middle of the pack even a little bit better defense Since he's been there that'll play If they can do that, I think that was built on the back of some dominating performances against some really bad teams so you know we'll see what happens look at in the east to me something major would have to happen in injury or

you know something absolutely crazy for anybody other than Boston to not come out of the East. There's no one close to them. I'm not sure there's anyone close to them in the league, maybe Denver or Oklahoma City, but in the East, there's no one close. If Boston doesn't win the East, that I would be shocked with. I said nothing in the West, no series in the West would shock me.

Anybody beating Boston in the East would absolutely shock me. Just to answer Dan's question quickly, the Milwaukee Bucks are middle of the road, they're 16th defensively. The Lakers in their second championship of that three, Pete, they were the 21st defense in the league. But that was a case where we knew this was a great team

and they just took their foot off the gas in the regular season. That's exactly right, I mean, because they had been, I believe, first defensively the year before that, the Lakers, and then were very good the year after, and they played great defense in the playoffs. Now with Milwaukee, it's a little different because different coach, different team,

not a lot of continuity. But for Giannis and Chris Middleton, Lopez, Portis, Conaton, those guys have been together on a very good defensive team. So they do have an idea what it takes. They certainly, Damian Lillard has never been part of a decent defensive team. I don't know that he has any idea what it takes or that he's even capable of being a really good defender. Stan we're going to let you go but not without showing you

what your coaching produced at American Ninja Warrior. Go ahead. Dan Levatard was actually offering encouragement. He better get further. Explosive on the outside. So successful. Most watched clip in history. Great success.