The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: Zaslow's Football Fetish (feat. Rachel Nichols)

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

"This is a weird thing for a friend to ask another friend to do." Do you need to go to an ass hole's party even if he's displaying the behavior of an ass hole? We bring Rachel Nichols in to discuss Chris Paul's PR battle, but she reveals some information about Zas that stops the show in its tracks. Tracks that he probably has a thing for because he likes feet. So, okay, that's the reveal. The guy loves feet and HATES to be cucked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See official rules at program website. This is the Dan Levator show with the Stucats podcast. That's right. It's Thursday Thunder, and it's brought to you by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Juju, what do you got? Congratulations to everyone out there who became billionaires last week, because Thursday Thunder hits again. Yes, sir.

So tonight, we're going to up it to a little boat piece, you feel me? First leg, Kobe Parkinson, over 25 yards receiving tonight. With Devante Adams out, he's going to have to find more people to toss that field to. Getting a big target chair over the last few weeks, Juju. Yes, sir, 25 yards should be Scooby Snacks. Next leg, the villainous, Puka, Nakua, for seven receptions tonight. He going to be the only one out there. Too-too-at-Well, I see you, but not tonight on.

this Thunder ticket. Next leg, I'm going with one of the coolest names in the league, man. Rashid Shaheed, man. My boy will have at least three catches tonight for Seattle. And the last leg, Davis Allen, two catches. Whenever they happen. Lock it in. Juju, you've had, I would say, a hell of a year picking correctly. You haven't, you've hit a lot of two of three parleyes, but you've hit the last two thunders? After tonight? Yes, sir, we will. Congratulations, though,

because he's had some heartbreakers, half a yard, some ridiculousness has crushed his parlays. I wanted to ask the group here, because of endings and getting endings right, whether it's Tua or Chris Paul.

Chris Paul has had a truly majestic career of excellence, playing at a time where he didn't get on the banana boat with Carmelo, or he did get on the banana boat, but he didn't go the places that Wade and Bosch and LeBron took the league. But a truly excellent player, an all-timer by any definition, one of the greatest we've ever seen. And now the reporting on him feels lonely, like feels like Chris Paul has been wandering the earth the last few years without a recognizing of his greatness in a proper way. And then he gets to the Clippers and

tries to hold people accountable and nobody comes to his parties. And the reporting on this, what's happening here with the reporting on this as you read between the lines, I mean, because this is not the ending that Chris Paul's excellence deserves. Yeah, and I don't even think it's the ending that the clippers wanted out of this. Everyone kind of feels badly, I think, of the situation. But it was a great piece of journalism by Ramona Schellberg. She really dug deep, talked to people behind the scenes and gave us some great blow-by-blow perspectives of things as they happen, including Chris Paul on the plane, grabbing Brooke Lopez to come prove whatever point he was trying to make about like, oh, no, I didn't mean it like that.

So I think whenever you read these deep dives, you can kind of tell based on the storytelling who was the person or which side was the one that was more giving with information. And in this one, it was clearly Chris Paul's side, but the irony is, I walked away reading and be like, oh my God, like Chris Ball really doesn't take a hint, right? It doesn't come across as complimentary to Chris Paul as I think he would have liked it to be based on the things that were said in it. My favorite story, like I said, is him getting, we talked about this where he got into an argument with Jeff Van Gundy about did you change the coverage or not?

And he said, I didn't change the coverage. I merely suggested a change of coverage. And they're like, well, you change the coverage, whatever. And so he literally goes and grabs Kwi Leonard and, like, one other. guy, John Collins, I want to say, as character witnesses. Guys, did I change the coverage? Did I change the coverage? And they're like, no, he just suggested the change of the coverage. And I'm like,

Chris, that's the point. The point that you're sitting here being the locker room lawyer and getting character witnesses or whatever, that's exactly what they're talking about. The semantics of whether you actually change the coverage or merely suggested a change of coverage is what they're talking about. It's just like

we don't need you to be a lawyer here and with the legal terms in the great area. But it's what he's always been. Yes. Yes, Dan, but I think they had an expectation and they talked to him about it before they signed him and they reiterate several times now Chris, this is the kind of role

we want you to be and he's like, yeah, I'm totally cool and then like of course he couldn't help himself and he became himself again. I think the thing that when you're a tree shaker you're always going to be a tree shaker and that's what makes Chris Paul great right and yeah he agreed to having a reserve role on the court

but you're never going to be able to take the Chris Paul out of Chris Paul. And that's sort of silly that the clippers, who are a downright disturbingly embarrassing team in terms of team culture over time, would poo-poo, would dismiss, would besmirch Chris Paul trying to increase uplift the culture of the place by, I don't know, throwing a party, trying to get the group chat all together, throwing another party. How dare Chris Paul try to bring the team together? So we talked about this on Basketball Luminati.

The episode is out this week about specifically that. And I think the part that you can't look past is he has the behavior of an asshole. So, like, throwing a party, we all know like a real asshole you don't get along with. Would that person throw in a party making, you know what? He means well. I'm going to go. No, you'd be like, the hell out of here. Mike, what are you doing the night?

Read the room. Mike, what are you doing the night? I'm going home. Oh, so you're not coming to the holiday party? No, I'm going to college station early morning. This is my last show of the year. Dan, if I threw a party, you'd go, right? You're not coming to the holiday party because you're going to go be with that cult,

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But in my case, there have been some years. I haven't been able to be around, mostly because of work. lucky to live near my family, but I know for some of you, that might not be the case. And if there's distance between you or even if it is a work conflict, you don't have to feel disconnected from your family during the holidays. And a great way to stay connected is 1800flowers.com because they make it easy to bridge miles, to bridge distance, to bridge time with gifts that just say, I'm thinking of you. So that the people who have always made your Christmas's magical still feel close, even when they're far away. As I recently ordered the peppermint rose bouquet for my wife,

It was gorgeous, super vibrant, looked freshly picked, and it instantly brought this burst of holiday cheer into our household. It was really wonderful. It made it really happy. Beat the holiday rush and save up to 40% off Christmas bestsellers at 1,800flowers.com slash Dan. That's 1,800flowers.com slash Dan for up to 40% off Christmas bestsellers. It's a holiday season and the 50th anniversary of Miller Light. The holiday is all about spending time with first.

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Giamino acid. This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stucats. I'm surprised to see Chris Paul go out this way, and I'm surprised to mean that anybody would expect Chris Paul to be anything other than formed superstar. The Van Gundy say the hardest thing in sports to coach is the aging superstar, requesting self-awareness of Chris Paul at this.

point in his career when he's always thought he's leader guy, and I'll bring everybody together. I've got 20 years of proof on my resume that says I'm a formed leader. Wait a second. You made the point about an asshole throwing a party, and your first question was to me? Oh, that was this coincidence. I just thought of a party and like, hey, what are you going to be doing tonight? Dan, here's a problem. You can be a leader, but it has to be within the kind of like, again, the auspices of what we're doing here, right? And when we talk about that staff, the very veteran staff of coaches, right? Tyler. lose. He's a great coach.

Jeff Van Gundy, one of the greatest coaches the league has probably seen, Larry Drew, former head coach. Brian Shaw, I have former head coach. So they don't need you to do things that are deviating from what they're doing. A great example of this is Eudonis has them. Udana's has them tough guy. Udana's has them,

confrontation, right? Not afraid of confrontation? Holds people accountable. But Eudanis never said, yeah, I know that's what Spow and Quinn and all of them. I'll do my own thing. Half the player that Chris Paul is doesn't have the experiences that a bunch of other organizations

that Chris Paul has champion. And Carmelo Anthony refuses to come off the bench because he's not going to be somebody who shoots threes for the rockets. Chris Paul is an aging superstar. He's five years past where Carmelo was. I need to stop you because you're talking about Carmelo and Carmelo was playing

and expected to be a starter. Chris Paul, when he was signed with the Clippers, they were abundantly clear. Now, Chris, you're probably not going to play a whole lot. I'm not talking about minutes. I'm talking about games. You're not going to play that much. We want you here to be a steadying force, be a locker room voice, a leader, all these things.

A locker room voice. Krista, a locker room voice that is not in contrary to what the coaches are talking about. But what if they're wrong? Then that's a different story. But you can't have a situation where you got a guy who's actively basically subverting everything we talk about. Hey, guys, let's go left. I think we should go right. Hey, guys, let's go up.

I think we should go down. Like, whenever you do all that stuff, I don't give it to them what your resume is. I don't give it. Especially when you were, if he was the star player, if it was Quy Leonard doing this, then that's a different story, right? You were signed to be the 15th man, the 15th man. Even if you're right, keep your opinion to yourself or at best, try to reach a common ground with the coaches so that when we're communicating to the team, we're all lockstep. I told a story about Boris D.L. on the basketball alumni podcast. about him being exactly like that

like just kind of a contrarian but also right a whole lot of time because he's a basketball genius but the reason why we have schemes and we have systems and ways of doing things is not because this is what's going to make the basketball genius the best it's because not everyone on the roster

is a basketball genius and so if we have one dude saying let's do it in this different way you got guys like wait are we doing it this way are we doing it that way and that's the kind of discord that a team cannot abide by even if they're as awful as the Clippers have been this year. I totally disagree, though, that this reporting makes Chris Paul look bad. To me, I think it makes the Clippers look really, really bad and really out of touch.

If you think you can quell and silence Chris Paul ever, despite you're the 15th man off the bench, I mean, what are we doing here? That is just delusion. I think, again, one is when that's the framework of why you're even here, I think that changes things. two, I could think of a lot of great players who did like and were accomplished and everything and they went along with it. They didn't, they did not buck against this. And the biggest thing for me in the story is multiple times, they made it clear to him, dude, you got to chill.

Like that's not your role right here. And including there's one time where he's like, yeah, can I address the team and apologize to the team? My bad guys. I was out a lot. It's like it was being told to you. So at some point, and I'm big on this. from just a regular, whatever type of business you do.

When someone makes mistakes, you don't say, get his ass out of here. You have a conversation. You have multiple conversations. Hey, man, you keep doing this thing. It really is an issue. I need you to really cut back on it. At some point, when they don't, what do you do? What's your next step?

Do you just let him keep doing what he's doing? So my question is, is why wasn't there a problem in San Antonio? He started all these games. They welcomed him back. He would have been there again. San Antonio is a consummate, professional, well-run organization, and yet, Chris Paul, not a peep about him being a problem. Oklahoma City Thunder. He ends up going there, has this great relationship with Shea.

She becomes an MVP. It really is like the beginning of the, again, another well-run organization. To me, it's like, well, if Chris Paul is in diversion to you as an organization, then you need to take a look in the mirror at what you're doing that might not be working. So two things. Number one, both of those organizations, both of those teams, what do they have? A shit ton of young guys. Not guys who have won championships, not old vets, not guys who have been around the NBA block millions of times. These are all guys who are like, Chris Paul's teaching me about the game.

I never knew these things. That's a big difference when you talk about that energy coming into a locker room. Nicholas Batum is not over there saying, I can learn some things from the old fellow. Also, again, coaches, younger coaches, right? Mitch Johnson for most of last year because Pop was sick, right? Mark Dagnall at the beginning of his NBA, so I'm a young coach, I'm a sponge, give me more. Ty Lou is not looking for, like, guidance from a guy like, he knows what he's doing, right? And Jeff Van Gunney, even more so.

The second thing, and this is really important to notice, and this is something I think people in league circles know, but I don't know if the common fan knows. He was so great for San Antonio, right? Why isn't he there right now? He wanted to come back to L.A. He was so great for Oklahoma City, right? Why wasn't he there more than a year? Trying to get the bag somewhere else. Goes to Phoenix.

We can play this game for, why do you leave Phoenix? Now you're starting. Why do you leave Houston? Why do you leave the clipper? Like, this is who he is, guys. Dry heat. Like, Jeremy started with, this is, like, what were they expecting? And I'm like, yeah, on some level, yes.

But, like, on some level, you expect someone to take inventory of like, hey, man, I don't have it. Here comes a word again. the leeway that I once had to act like an asshole all the time and wear people out when I'm the 15th man. I can do it when I'm an all-star. I can do it even when I'm the aging vet

who's come here to teach Victor Women Yama and them boys how to play. I can't do it from this seat right here. And that's why I'm saying, Dan, when you compare to Carmelo, Carmelo is still like a year removed from being an all-star. Like, Carmelo is still a guy who thought I could play.

You're telling me that you think that Chris Paul, Hall of Famer, should have some sort of self-awareness that I would not think he would ever have after a lifetime of overcoming odds. You're right. Being the tiniest of players and being someone who can always disprove everyone, you think he's going to have an awareness

of, oh, the clippers have this right. Not me. Not me who's a Hall of Famer. The clippers are doing things correctly. When I got Strip Club James and Kauai who never wants to play out here, they're the ones who are doing it correctly. In the middle of a scandal about caps aversion as well. But Chris Paul has no bearing on any of those things.

That's the point. But self-awareness is the one. He's showing up to, he's throwing parties that no one's attending, that no one on his team is attending. And if I'm an asshole to everybody, right? Like he had, not nobody. Some people showed up. Some staffers, a couple of players.

But the idea was it wasn't like 100% attendance. That should tell you something. It's like, remember the movie Draft Day? The guy had a birthday party and nobody showed up. Like, it tells you something about, you guys are like, oh, how dare them? Like, you think. It tells me something about. about the clippers, really.

I feel like they- Hold on, hold on, so we can make this about the clippers because they've been a brand of ineptitude, right? Been known for ineptitude. Even the last year they had a really good season and won the best defenses, they pushed the nuggets to seven games, all those things. We could throw that out and say overall,

the clippers have been kind of a little bit of a laughing stuff, right? If we look at those individual players, are we saying now that like, hey, this, like, what's his name, Zubosh, you're suss. Are we saying, Bones Highland, and like, oh. Definitely Bones Highland's suss. I'm just saying to you like this.

They have a roster of players that have been around the league and have been successful in this league, whether it's individually or on the highest level of winning. At what point do we take a look at the guy who was known for his whole career being kind of an irritating asshole that, hey, the reason in the show isn't because of a lifetime of us being an inept franchise, but it's because you're a jerk and I don't like being around you. Well, but the thing that I don't get is if his wisdom was so poor, then why? I mean, obviously, Victor Wambiama is a huge piece of San Antonio's success, as is Shea in Oklahoma City. But if his wisdom was so bad and they were soaking it up, then you would think that they wouldn't improve or they would at least stagnate.

Well, it's not that the wisdom is poor or bad. Again, I'm going back to its incongruent sometimes. So there's many ways to skin a cat, right? You could say, oh, I'm going to do it this way, and you'd do this way. And it's not like this way is the best way or this way is the worst way to do it. It's just these are different ways. but when you're in a team environment and we've got a system of doing things

we want to do it this way. Coaches will say this all the time. If I draw up a play or drop a scheme and the scheme don't work, that's my fault. If we don't follow the scheme, then whose fault is it? So that's the thing. They want you to do it that way

just so that we can be consistent in the way we approach it. Are there that many ways to skin a cat? Why are we skinning cats? Why are we skinning cats? So it dates back to 1678. English natural. John Ray provided the earliest written version in his collection of English

Proverbs. There's more than one way to skin a cat. But it also says there are more ways to kill a dog than hanging. So apparently, there's more than one way to skin a cat was to be sort of an equal opportunist animal abuser. You know, speaking of dogs, I got a thing about people bringing dogs on vacation. Or on trips, I should say. Rachel Nichols next.

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You're going to get good gifts. You're not going to be lazy. You're not just going to get gift cards. And this year, guys, I have news. I pulled it off. No panic. No sad little card. You know what I gave?

I gave an aura frame. Like, why is it so hard to find a personal gift these days? It's for the people I'm closest to, my parents, my wife, my in-laws, my kid, the most important people in my world, I have no idea what I'm supposed to get them as a gift. But one thing I know, people light up when they get photos. People love photos. So I loaded up my aura frame with all the moments I know they'll love, my daughter being adorable, random selfies. Group pictures where none of us are looking in the same direction. I kept adding them because aura lets you send unlimited photos and videos right from your phone anytime.

And the best part, you can preload the thing before it even ships. So when it's open on Christmas morning, all the memories are already there. I'm telling you guys, this is a great gift. And folks, for a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visitingoraframes.com to get $35 off Orr's best-selling Carver Matt Frames, named number one by wirecutter, by using promo code DLB. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frame sell out fast to order yours now and get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

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only in theaters Don Lebertard You're getting started on the breakfast flan Oh man I've been singing a song to myself all morning long Breakfast Flan

Stugats Have you never heard the breakfast flound No hit me with it Okay I wish I had some Breakfast Flan Breakfast flound Where can I find a

Breakfast like that This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. She's an Emmy Award-winning journalist, long-time NBA reporter, host analyst, all the smoke, Fox Sports Illustrated, too many things to mention a resume. that has climbed over all sorts of obstacles, none bigger than the one I have in front of her today. She is not the size of Victor Wembeyanma. They are making players too big for the sideline reporter. It has become a thing.

It's embarrassing. She looks like David Sampson everywhere she goes around Wembe and others. Seven foot six. What are you shaking your head about it mean? She was never. She's always been way too short. So, like, they could make them eight feet tall. It's not going to matter.

They all looks the same thing. No, but they are now officially two. tall for her to get the microphone in a place where the audio can be good no she's got a box that she travels with she's a little i do not you don't have no box what happened there's no crate there's no box there's no crate i do have a trick but with wendy he's even too tall to make it work first of all ameen's favorite magic trick with me is when he gets me around to other people he suddenly in the middle of an arena a street corner he'll be like take her shoes off take her shoes off. This is a weird thing for one friend

to say to another, why I mean do you ask me to take my shoes off in public places? Because her height drops from whatever short she is to a lot short, to Brad Williams. You accused her of using a crate? I've seen the crate. I've seen the crate. Not every time, but I've seen the crate.

Maybe one. Maybe seven or eight times. But only when we were setting up for like a bigger thing. Yes, I wear a very large platform kind of heel situation when I'm basketball because I'm 5'4- as that picture you guys just threw up showed wendy is seven-foot-six though and my trick with players like shack when he was in miami would be if you are a foot or more taller

than me and we're doing a sideline interview i would make the guys come to the scorers table and they would sort of sit lean on the scorers table and i would stand so there's a bunch of pictures of like lebron and me and miami or a couple other places where like the player is sitting on the scorers table and i'm standing and that's how you can do an interview where you can look at other at least someone in the eye. Rachel, you just changed my life. This is incredible news. Collelle Ware has made life very, very difficult on me.

I look shorter than I ever have and you just made things a lot better. You're gonna wear- Are you gonna wear shoes like De Niro and Al Pacino doing the movies where they're wearing like these five- Robert Downey Jr. Have you seen what he wears? I have not. The famous photo I've seen is De Niro and Pacino walking around on like stilts for shoes. go go look at google google robert downy junior's feet and i don't mean that in the way

that zazlo might mean i just mean whoa i thought brad williams caught the more stray this segment she just accused you of a foot fetish i mean she's not wrong but i don't know that like that's ever been disclosed before how does she know that that was not canon unlike the fact that your number one thing we should know about you is that you don't want to be a cuck yeah it's true We do know that. Big J journalism. How does she know this about you? How does she know from looking at you?

She can tell you have a foot fetish? Yeah. Explain yourself, Rachel. I want you to explain yourself. Some contradictory things in the last couple of segments. Do you or do you not have a journalism degree? Because you applied you did. And then it was sort of glossed over.

Yeah, of course. Of course. Yes, absolutely. Of course, yes. From where? University of Florida. Santa Fe. That's not true, Mike.

You're confusing, Rachel. Let's just give her the important information. A lot of people confuse Florida with Santa Fe. You went to Santa Fe. No, I did not, Rachel. We're getting bogged down here. You went to Santa Fe. Okay, next question.

All right, Robert Downey Jr.'s feet. Has anyone found them yet? They're looking for it. You just threw it at the video department. They can be slow. They're looking for it. All right. I'm just telling you the platforms are real.

But yeah, that's what you have to do. If you're a sideline reporter, you have to implement. sometimes because some of us are small and as a mean likes to tell people I am Hershey's Kissed eyes and you know you got to have your tricks I don't know what to do with Wemby though you guys saw the photo

it is a difficult thing to figure out how to get him in the same frame as me or even hold the microphone up that high Rachel I'm looking at you guys to think about two feet above your head Rachel I'm looking at Robert Downey Jr., his platform shoes and I mean they're rather large

Thank you. Thank you. I knew you'd find them. Of all the people, I knew you'd find the feet first. He's a journalist. I wanted to include you on the conversation we were having before you came on here. I feel bad that Chris Paul is getting this as punctuation, I think, as the most popular clipper ever, the one who helped restore the franchise to something of relevance. I think that he thought he was going to get the big tour at the end. And now it's just the punctuation of Zubotches at the holiday party rummaging through pretzels. And there's no one else there. like what it's it makes me super sad to see this go going out this way first of all the pretzels are super good over there so don't feel too sad because that is their main claim to fame i know their main claim to fame on the clippers right now is that the pretzels are really good if you go to the arena the pretzels are excellent and i don't know what that says about the rest of the team that that's the most

exciting thing we can say right now you have an organization under investigation you have an owner being sued externally, and it sounds like possibly, you know, that there's, there's more coming. You have a losing team. You have a franchise star that is never, is there, not that often. And you now have the Chris Paul situation. You got to celebrate the pretzels. I would have expected differently. Everybody who says, oh, they know what they were going to get with Chris Paul. I think sometimes the reality is different from the expectation, even if you had a player before, having a guy at the end of the bench who's trying to stick his nose into what the coaches are doing or who are as critical of other players is a lot different than having

your lead point guard on the floor. And I think that's what they didn't quite expect. But I also think it could have been handled differently. I don't understand a situation where it was better to have this PR nightmare in a season of other PR nightmares than it was to get a few more wins in a season where it's not really going to matter that much anyway. But you know the real stuff about what people think. about people behind the scenes. Chris Paul has always been viewed as a bit of a politician. So you bring him into the organization and he starts telling people this is how I would do it. How surprised are you allowed to be by him not having self-awareness when everyone in the league

who knows anything about Chris Paul knows that he thinks he's a superstar because he always has been. Not just thinks he's a superstar but knows all the details of how to do something the right way. And by the way he often does and that's part of what's knowing also is not just that he's so sort of of forceful in his opinion about every little thing you might be doing. It's also annoying sometimes that he's right, right? That's what gets on players as well. But here's the thing I would say about Chris Fall, and this is where

the Clippers made the biggest mistake. It wasn't bringing him in. It wasn't how they handled it. You know that line in the Princess Bride where it's like never get in a land war with a Sicilian? Is that what they say, right? I know it, but Chris Cody might need some elaboration. Why? Because he's 12?

What? You haven't seen the Princess bride? I don't know what you're talking about. I'm sorry to reveal to everybody, Rachel, that I don't know what you're mentioning. You don't know the Princess Bride? Oh, my God. The Lord. Rob Reiner would be ashamed of you. Go home, watch the Princess Bride.

I don't need that today. That's one of the same. No, you should feel that. You should feel that. That is troubling. There is a line where he's like, is my guys shipping, am I right? Is it never getting a land war with the Sicilian, right? With an Asia, in Asia, never getting the land war in Asia?

That was good confidence, good conviction there. I mean, good. I was strong, strong confidence. Don't deflect. Don't know what she's... I'm not defensive about not watching the Princess Bride. How do we know that Zazza's a footballer? You should be. You should be defensive about that.

That's where the young Craig Savage got his start. Okay, anyway, my point is that I would never get in the PR war with Chris Paul, ever. Because here's the thing. The minute they had that meeting, did Chris Paul wait until the next morning to start putting out his side? No. 233 in the morning we got... They sent me home. Right? That was the message we got. The Clippers did something to him. Then who's the loudest voice in NBA circles right now in terms of news? The biggest news megaphone right now is Shams over at ESPN. There is a phone call made to someone from someone that got the message to Shams. And this was the quote. It was he was holding teammates and coaches accountable and they didn't like it. That was the sentence. Not he was being a dick. Not he was.

embarrassing people in front of the locker room. By the way, I'm not saying he did any of these things, but you could use the same action and describe it in two different ways. Man, Chris Paul really putting his nose in other people's business and being critical of players and like being a pain in the ass and the coach's side. Or the story could be, Chris Paul is holding people accountable. Guess whose version got out right away. Chris Paul, holding people accountable. That's why he got sent home by the Clippers. I wouldn't get into the PR battle with this man to save my life. And I don't think the Clippers have recovered from that one sentence.

And I think a lot of the people who come here in Los Angeles to see the Clippers play, yes, the pretzels are very good, but they were coming for Chris Paul's Farewell Tour. And now I think they're going to sell less tickets just around the whole country and certainly here without Chris on the floor. I would not get into a PR war with Chris Paul or

a land war with an Asian or a movie war with Dan Levitart, apparently, because he hasn't seen any of the good ones. You should absolutely get in a movie war with Dan Levitart because he's going to lose every single time. Him and Zazlo. They're terrible. I'm a great movie guy, how dare you? Does sports movies. Rachel, you mentioned, and so did Dan. Like, everybody around the league thinks or knows that Chris Paul is an asshole or a dickhead or whatever.

But he's also known as a winner and how much you can skew the same action into two different narratives. Like, from what you know, what is the real story? Is he a winner? Is he a consummate pro? Or is he an asshole that gets on everybody's nerves and he gets kicked out the door every place he goes? Yes. Well, look, he is definitely a winner. There's no doubt about that.

I know he hasn't won a title, but there's a lot of people in NBA history who haven't won a title. If you look at all of the other things he has done, he is definitely, he's a first ballot Hall of Famer. Also, he can be a pain in the ass. By the way, Kobe Bryant is someone who was celebrated. Michael Jordan, what did everybody think about

after they watched that documentary? Man, that guy was an asshole. Isn't that great? Right? I mean, how much of an ass did Jordan come off of him in that documentary? and everybody thought it was the best thing they had ever heard when you are a winner you can be the biggest dick in the world if it is getting results if you are doing it in a way that makes other people you know amused and oh man do you see how he tore that guy apart it's when you're at the end of the bench at the end of your career on a losing team with guys who maybe have heard your act before and don't really want to hear it anymore that's when it's harder so both things are true it's a great question both things are true but it just really depends on where and when you all of how people feel about those things being true. Rachel, is it fair for Heat fans like myself to be frustrated with Adam Silver seemingly

unwilling to do something in regards to the Terry Rozier Miami Heat situation? No, I mean, look, I was in the room with Adam, was it yesterday or two days ago, when somebody asked him, Tim Reynolds from the AP, he asked him about the Terry Rozier situation. And he basically gave a version of, hey, what are you going to do right now? I think the NBA is a little stuck because Roger hasn't been found guilty yet from this federal investigation. It does feel to me that you could compensate the heat

in some way for this time going by, whether it's the way the salary cap relief is, even if they have to keep paying him, it's the way what counts and what doesn't count. Obviously, whether this traffic conveys or not is going to be an issue, but it's, if I'm a heat fan, I would want more familiar. I just feel like the commissioner's,

throwing his hands up. It's like, there's no precedent, so I don't know what to do. Literally, literally what they are doing. But there isn't. And I think doing nothing is always easier, right? Yeah. Isn't it? Yep. I want to play for you or show you a controversy that you're in the middle of here with Asia Wilson and Bam out of bio. Now, you didn't ask this question of either of them. Zazlo got, Zaslo's telling us that Bam and Asia are being too sensitive. I mean, Can you offer the context, please, to this story? Because you were defending Rachel very, very fervently. Yeah, so Rachel, I mean, Rachel can speak for herself, obviously, but she's...

No, no, no. I like it. Me, help me out. Okay. She's interviewing Shegildes is Alexander. Shegles, Alexander plays for the Thunder. And obviously, Sam Presti is not only, you know, very shrewd or whatever, but also they have 8 billion picks forever. So Rachel makes a joke about, you know, do you think San Presley has already scouted?

It's a funny joke. The future child of Asia Wilson and Bam out of bio. And I guess Asia and Bam felt a certain type of way about that. Does that cover it? Yeah. But I mean, by the way, it wasn't even my joke. I don't want to take credit for it. It was already going around the internet.

And so we thought it would be funny to ask Shay. Oh, by the way, with a long interview about other things also, but at the very end, this is sort of a fun throwaway. Like, did you see this? And we showed the, because I don't take credit for other people's jokes. Lambertarer. Did you see that this sort of, you know, who's going to make it its way around the internet?

Why did you say my first and last name there? She's right. Why both my first and last name there is if I was somebody who did that? Because if you said Dan, they might think Danny Benitez. It's important that you know that Zaz went to Santa Fe though. That's the most important one. My point is I was like,

oh, this is a funny thing that's out there that you might have already seen what has been your reaction, right? And apparently, you know, it's one of these things that got aggregated differently than it was quite asked and then got, you know, listed strewd and all of those things. I didn't really dive in on it afterward because I do, I just felt like there was a lot going on over the weekend while this was what was being commented on that was pretty serious. And it was actually happening pretty simultaneously. And I felt like while there were kids being shot at, I wasn't going to start getting into parsing, you know, this is funny. this isn't funny can you guys take a joke like obviously if somebody's upset about a joke that by the way someone else on the internet told that we helped you know sort of get more into

the zeitgeist i'm sorry about that i definitely don't ever want to upset anyone over something small but also i'm not sure i'm not sure given the larger scope it was the thing that i really wanted to dive in and argue about because it's just joking about a GM being a really good scout and, oh, my God, he's already scouting people's babies. I already lived that there don't exist. I covered tennis, Dan, you may remember. And when Andre Agassi and Steph Schraff got married, it's not like there wasn't a million jokes about their kids

and what kind of players they were going to be. That was a shitty apology to them. I'm sorry there were important things going on in the world. Like super insincere apology. You're not actually sorry. Am I? I'm sorry. Was this supposed to be an apology?

That was also sorry. That sorry there was also insincere. You did say I didn't want to get into a back and forth. with them publicly. That's why we didn't talk about it. She didn't want to clap back. She wasn't going to bow down. No, she said right now she wanted to clap back,

but unfortunate things were happening in the country. She wanted to clap back. I'm explaining why I didn't get into it at the time. I'm happy to get into it now. I am always, like, legit, 100%. If I say or do something that upsets someone else, even if I'm right, they're wrong. If they're right, I'm wrong.

I am sorry. I don't want to go through my day and upset someone. That sucks. Who wants to be that person? Well, maybe some people in that room, but I don't want to be that person. And so I am 100% sincerely sorry if I and when I make someone upset. And in this case, it appears from the internet that BAM and or Asia was upset. I am legitimately with no reservation.

Sorry about that. I don't want that to happen. I don't know Asia that well, but I like her. I know BAM pretty well from covering him. I know his family. It is not something I would want to do. Dan, you know about that clapback? Better apology there, Rachel.

More sincere there at the end. But I have a question for you guys. Do you think that something like that? Hey, Cephy Graf and Andre Agassi are going to have a kid. Do you think someone's already going to sign them up for World Team Tennis? Or do you think, I don't know, I'm trying to think of other couples that have had celebrity couples. Do I think that Bam and Asia would make Olympic babies? Yes.

Play the David Sampson clip. See you later, Rachel. Good talking to you. How'd she know about the feet? It is weird. It is weird.