The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: "Breaking" News

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Today's cast: Dan, Amin Elhassan, Mike, Izzy Gutierrez, and Tony. It's the "Real Hoopers Know Show" as a combination of sickness and vacation have left us with an unusual staff for the day. Dan and the crew kick things off with a tease of some news we'll break later in the show, deep fake Snoop Dogg, and tainted meet swimmers before Amin shares why he'd rather work a little bit every day than be on extended vacation. Then, Mike Ryan's journalism*** on the Charles Barkley TNT story, Colorado football and the ongoing list of people mad at our show, and Draymond Green's out-of-breath and sweaty lessons for high school basketball players. Plus, Ronnie "B Boy Ronnie" Abaldonado is the NBC Sports commentator on Breaking at this year's Olympic Games. He is here to explain the ins and outs of the art, how it will be judged, and why it's unlike most of the other sports you'll see at this year's games. ***eavesdropping on a conversation Dan was having on speakerphone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Trademarks owned by Becle. SAB, the CV. Copyright 2024. Proximo. Jersey City, New Jersey. Please drink responsibly. This is the Dan Lebatore Show with the StuGuts Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. The show is playing hurt today. We've had a sickness outbreak around here

and it allows us to have a great blessing in August, the real Hoopers Know Show of Tony, Amin Elhassen and Izzy Gutierrez, not Mike Ryan. What, not Mike? Mike Ryan has announced that he is incapable of an interesting Miami Heat opinion. He does not have anything interesting to say on the Miami Heat.

You have to announce that. He did announce it. It was about six months after the rest of us realized it. Hear ye, hear ye. He is out of opinions on the Miami Heat. I am excited though, because we've got Izzy Gutierrez, we've got Amin Elhassen, and we have the ability to talk about an assortment

of things today, basketball included, and the rare thing of in an hour, we're going to break news. And I want to know the enthusiasm of the group. I don't want to over-tease it. I want to under-promise and over-deliver, but we have a news-breaking item that will be interesting to a certain segment of people in an hour. How would you guys help me classify this

without ruining the surprise and over promising so that I'm not teasing people with expectation who are expecting something that is too big a news, but for this show and for this show's obsession with a certain thing, what we're announcing in an hour is gonna be pretty interesting to our constituency. Well, I've seen several things aggregated about this one topic,

and I will say that people forget. People forget that several years ago, a promise was made from one artist to another. That something was ours, and today we rightfully take it. Tell the tale. Okay, not- Tell the tale, we're not storyteller. We take it. Tell the tale. Okay.

Tell the tale. We're not storytellers. We're not going to tell the tale right now, but in an hour. No. Just the idea of climbing to a mountaintop and seeing this old, wise, you know, hermit of a monk, and he looks into your eyes and he says, I give this to you. It is. It feels a little religious and a little spiritual, what is being given to us in an hour to share with the world exclusively?

It's also a beautiful thing in that in a complicated world of digital video and rights issues and whatnot, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, that this is just as simple as one word was given and it is being honored again from one artist to another and that's important in this crazy age where lawyers want to get involved in everything we kept it simple and today this tree bears fruit it's a bit of a treasure and it's adjacent to one of the things that I wanted to start with we'll get to Olympic coverage in about a half hour when Andrew Siciliano will join us. And we're gonna make a foray, hopefully,

if the video works and the technology and the sound, and we're going to talk to a breaker, B-boy Ronnie, who is going to explain to us some things that we absolutely need to know as breaking begins at the Olympic. He's bailing you out again, because you're the one that should be telling us about breaking. And I haven't heard not one update from you on breaking.

By the way, I have an update. The U.S. meddled in weightlifting for the first time since 1984. Wow. So that is my beat. Consider that covered. I have not covered breaking at all, never mind well. I consider it covered for you I did see that the Jamaican relay team lost to the Chinese because they screwed up the baton that has to hurt when you train you train that way for once every four

years and then you don't qualify in in the breaking and no in the end of it's not it is not the four by four relay and breaking. It's track and field. I am, I'm gonna wade into these waters because I'm worried about this take. Because there have been certain moments in sports where I'm like, how are they doing this? Sometimes it's during the Tour de France, sometimes it's during the World Cup, where Spain is trying to outpass Russia,

but Russia seemingly has six lungs per player. Something's going on over here with China. You know what I feel like, Mike, with regards to that, during these Olympics, the one person no one seems to be asking that question about, Snoop. How's he doing this? That's very true. How is he at every event?

How does he have custom clothing? He had Noah Lyles winning the gold? Where? There's a deep fake, Snoop. Come on. They've got to be carbon copying him, right? He's in a fencing costume, he's in the equestrian costume, he's in a Greco-Roman costume, he's in a beach volleyball costume.

Some of these shots may be pre-taped. He's sitting next to Asia Wilson at the USA game. No, it's not because I'm telling you,'m telling their things that's like holding up a newspaper he's at the u.s.a. game with asia wilson then he's somewhere else wearing a team u.s.a. jacket that has no allows winning the gold and the hundred meters like how is that possible you want him to hold up a newspaper to prove that it's the same date that he is there like in a hostage video i'm saying he's already doing that with his actions i'm saying that we have a pootie tank situation

where they hired a bunch of lookalikes for Snoop and then they just insert him in different places. Pootie tank. Tracking back quickly to the China thing. This is very clearly my American superiority complex speaking here and also the fact that contextually there is a tainted meat scandal. The US always takes the gold in that relay, always. Not this year because a bunch of tainted meat scandal. All right, the US always takes the gold in that relay.

Always. Not this year because a bunch of tainted meat swimmers decided to crash the party. And if I were afraid of Chinese bots, I'd say off of X altogether. But what I'm saying here is, we're gonna revisit all of this. I'm taking mental notes.

Okay, very good. Mike Ryan has threatened you with mental notes are being taken, China. He's not afraid of whatever your retaliation is to his mental notes. I'm not on TikTok for a reason. No, you don't have my data. When you say tainted meat swimmers,

do you mean these are swimmers who have eaten tainted meat or are they meat swimmers who are tainted? Meat M-E-E-T. Oh, nevermind. I didn't even consider that. So they tested positive for elevated levels of things that help them in the pool I think that is the actual term what gills What are things that help you in the pool why are we still talking about swimming swimming is over

I've got this Olympic fever and I'd like to talk about a couple of events But I'm a little thrown off here and I say little is because and those looking on the screen is I've never felt smaller than I feel right now sitting next to Tony. Tony does this this you know bully move or he stands up and wants to sort of you know I mean look you do look tiny you look like Billy sitting next to Derek Henry but now watch me stand up. It's not any better. I'm still tiny. We gotta Tony Scott this. Get an apple crate for Tom Cruise.

I don't know what to do here. I just feel like a gymnast compared to, I don't know, a catholite or a decatholite or something. He does look giant. I'm surprised because we've been hurt by sickness here today to hear something that Amin said right before we turn the microphones on because some of its sickness and some of it is August vacation. Amin said something I've never heard before. He said he hates extended vacation time. I've never heard anybody

say that. What does he mean by that? What do you mean by that? So, I am a creature of routine. I crave the routine. I like doing, I get up, I do this or that, whatever, right? And so my elite version of a vacation is, it's not really a vacation, it's just I work less. I don't stop working, but I do a little bit every day. When I go off the grid, as I did for the last couple of of weeks I Find it so hard to get back into the route I don't want to do any of this ladies

I don't want to be here today like on the way to the airport that is not the way to sell Danny's weren't a t-shirt that says day drink. I just look I need the vacation from the vacation. It's a real thing I in a perfect world. I would go on vacation and never come back That's it. That's not a vacation. It is a vacation. That's that's the ultimate vacation ultimate vacation the real vacation, right? But I put it on the pole juju is death the ultimate vacation the I'm not I don't want to make it seem like oh I hate being depends on where you're going Wait, you made it sound like you hate being here. No, no. I just hate working after I haven't worked. I like working.

If I had just been coming all along, I'd be fine. But the fact that I tasted what freedom is actually like, and then I was like, all right, back to the salt mines. Like, oh, no, not this again. I'd rather just be digging a little less salt and then more salt. You cannot be describing what you are presently doing as back to the salt mines. Like you cannot, there's no. Copper.

No, I mean come on. Cobalt. I'm a little salty. What are you doing? There are people watching and the people listening to this, many of whom have real struggles in real jobs, have to be looking at you and be saying, like what is he talking about?

Well, like what I would say to all those people is, first of all, thank you for your service. Where's my camera? Thank you for your service. We really appreciate everything that you do for us as a society I don't know what you do, but I appreciate you're making it less personal. No, this is very bomb speaking to the camera I know but you're saying I don't know what you do pretend like you do know what they do I know what you do and I appreciate it and so does everyone else here what I'm saying is this I would rather be doing My job, whatever my job is Continuously and then in a vacation time just do it a little less So you're speaking specifically to salt miners right now just that portion of our audience

Absolutely and the cobalalt miners too, right? I just don't want to be off completely and then be asked to come back on because it is so hard to train my body and my mind back into a let's get work done mentality. Put this on the poll as well, Juju, please, at LeBotardShow. Do you find yourself needing another vacation as soon as you return from vacation? A lot has changed over the years audience as you've been so kind and pointing out my shirt size has changed over the years Look, I started this show as a 19 year old boy. Now. I'm a 38 year old dad But along the way one staple of my life has been Miller Lite and those of you that have been listening to us know this I've been a Miller Lite guy since day one. I have been pretty honest about that. So let's get down to the nitty-gritty What is the best thing about the original light beer Miller Lite? It sparked this debate way back in 1975

And we still haven't settled it. For me, it's the undebatable quality It's great taste and it's less filling whether you're out with your friends, at a game, at a bar, in the shower, Miller Lite delivers Miller Time every time. You don't have to choose what's best about Miller Lite. It has great taste and is less filling. Tastes like Miller Time. To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door, visit MillerLite.com slash Dan, or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer cows and carbs than premium regular beer. Don LeBretard! Again, started on the breakfast flaunt. Oh man, I've been singing the song to myself all morning while I'm...

Breakfast flaunt, da-da-da-da-da. Stugats! Have you never heard the breakfast flaunt song? No, hit me with it. Okay, I wish I had some breakfast flaunt, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Breakfast flaunt, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Where can I find some breakfast, Flon. Da da da da da da da da da da. Breakfast, Flon. Da da da da da da da da da. Where can I find a breakfast like that? Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da the thing that i wanted to talk about with you guys that is basketball related to couple of different topics actually one is uh... in charles barkley's return that too uh... to tn t which surprised me did it uh... it it did

surprise me that i think that he returned to tn t yet because i can have games they're not look man, I understand that the people, Stu Gott suggested this, oh, just do it without the games. You need highlights, like you need the rights, you need to have to be able to play basketball video that you can talk about. You can think you can do a four hour show without that video?

You cannot do a four hour show, basketball show without that video. Well, couple things. One, it wasn do a four hour show without that video. You cannot do a four hour show, basketball show without that video. Well, a couple of things. One, it wasn't a four hour show. It was a little bit here and then they play the game and a little bit of halftime. Like a means vacation. Exactly, exactly.

That's exactly how it is. Number two, you can't do a show without basketball video or basketball highlights. Someone hit this guy to a little thing called oddball. Every day but Monday, right? Here on DraftKings Network. We do it every day, but Monday right here on draft Kings Network We do it every day and the point that you're making is a valid one But that also sounds like Turner's problem because Charles is just gonna honor this contract

But they're gonna create reportedly a show around some of the other sports that they're doing there and what I'm saying I mean, I'm not saying you can't do a basketball show without video. I'm saying they can't do that show without video and without being able to react live to all the things that have just happened in a basketball game and then be able to show them to you. First of all, I would disagree with that also because if you think of many of the best moments of Inside the NBA, it's them just sitting around riffing,

or interviewing someone, remember the Dwight Howard interview that went like 12 minutes long, which is unheard of on TV for a post-game show or for a live basically event like that. They did it because they have the freedom and they have the chemistry to have those kind of conversations and they hold viewers. And so I think they can absolutely do it

because all you really need is Ernie, full screen, still shot of like LeBron going like this, Lakers lose another one, and then let him rip Charles and whoever else is on. But more importantly, I'm not here to argue the logistics of how you do a show without showing any video. I'm here to say, do you really believe Charles Barkley is going to do like seven more years of non-NBA coverage?

Well, yeah, but he doesn't have to just do non-NBA stuff too because without highlights you can still, first of all, it's a show on TNT, they're gonna get rights to a 15 second clip, right? And when you watch the highlight shows, they're reacting to one moment from the game. They're not reacting to a series of moments from the game. And then even if you don't show the moment, fine.

Quick explanation, maybe even have people act it out. Maybe that could be their thing. But in terms of talking about it, they don't need much video. That's a Kenny Smith thing. Don't give away the goods. Christ, man, season two, down the drain. That show in sports history,

there have been very few shows ever. I know that the stars get a lot of credit for that show that has had better production than that show. So I would trust them to be creative with incredibly funny things like reenactment of a play because they don't. I'm talking about reenactment. I've watched that before I watched the highlight.

I would watch the reenactment first. Will you stop talking about this please? You guys have done a great job in highlighting some of the challenges that face Turner and Charles, the whole cast and crew of that show. But at the heart of the matter is Charles will never retire as long as there's huge piles of money around. We told you this before. He's talked about retiring longer than he's actually been doing this stuff. It's crazy. He just doesn't retire and I know for a fact because I've overheard him. He seriously considers these things. I don't doubt that but it always comes back to I'm not retiring. I'm taking this easy money. What do you mean you've overheard? I've snuck around people

on the phone with Charles Barkley and I've eavesdropped and yeah I'm reporting this exclusively. Charles Barkley he means it when he says he seriously considers these things and I mean it when I said bullshit you're never retiring, you're taking that easy money. I don't know how I feel about Mike eavesdropping on my phone conversations. They didn't teach that in journalism school, I gotta tell you Mike, that is some sketchy journalism. I was just legitimately hurt by the fact that Mike revealed something that he overheard

in a conversation that I was walking around. Whoa, I didn't reveal my sources, you did. And I would say, just as a caution to anybody, stop talking on speaker phone for everybody to hear you. That's weird. He's got a good point. I was in a private room you walked into. And I overheard it and I am but a journalist.

That's butt. Speaking of which, at some point here today, please remind me because Colorado football is really mad at us and I wanna get back to something we've done the last couple of days. Let me say right now, the list of people who are mad at y'all is very lengthy

and I'm having to put out fires. I'm not gonna say about where or who, but I do know that I have received communicates saying what's the deal? And I say, hey man, that's just them. I've had to smooth over some things. Why don't you wanna tell us what some of those things are? Unlike you, Dan, I am not leaky.

Unlike Mike Ryan over here, I am not snitching all over the airwaves. I know what the value of discretion is. I am discreet. The listeners would love to know in your discretion, because what you've done now is just tease the listener and then not giving them information. The listener would like to know who's mad at us.

You're gonna tell me during the break and then I'm gonna leak it or talk to somebody and Michael overhear it and he'll leak it. So it'll get leaked somewhere around here. But just remind me before we get out of here today to talk about everything that's happened with Colorado because it reminds me so much of everything that happened 30 years ago with the University of Miami. It's the modern version of us against the world in Colorado where they think they have this

precious thing that the rest of the world doesn't understand and it just makes them all their all the stronger in their unity. Minus the success. Now Mike I want to ask you hearing that does that feel like the ultimate like victory over Florida State is that Deon Sanders went and stole you guys's culture and brought it to Colorado? I understand how people get defensive Lord knows I'm a very defensive Miami hurricane. It wasn't, forget about kneeling. It wasn't a fumble. Not enough people talk about this. That's also true.

But what I will say is, Colorado, if you're struggling with this, you gotta toughen up. Like there was a report out there that spoke to anonymous people. You're lucky, mainstream, we're like the most mainstream entity that picked up on this story. Networks have their journalistic standards, maybe it didn't meet that, that's totally fine.

But like this is not anything close to what Miami endured. Everybody was pretty unified in this is, this program has to go, it goes on the cover of magazines that mattered at the time, they need to end this. If you're having difficulty with this, I wish you luck this season because you actually meet real adversity and you're getting sensitive about this, maybe you're not cut out for it. We will get to all of that because Miami got cut out for it after 20 years of enduring it and it, you know, Dennis Erickson with all the winning in the world was still throwing up into buckets before games with fever blisters because once you have everybody on your neck rooting against you and you

lose it doesn't feel very good. But it's also a fallacy. I kind of feel like most big media companies are rooting for Colorado because they benefit from the prime bump Everyone saw this ratings were up across the board anytime anybody did anything with Colorado as long as they were winning it meant Bucu rating so there isn't this huge Conspiracy of people gathering around if anything They're trying to shoo this story away because no one's actually covering it so I don't think that argument holds water at all It's the Floyd Mayweather thing right like Shoo this story away because no one's actually covering it. So I don't think that argument holds water at all It's the floyd mayweather thing, right? Like it

everyone where it feels like there's a large loud contingency that wants to see failure, but The it all hinges on him being successful in order for us to root for failure No one wants to root for failure for a failing organization or a failing, you know an entity It only works when they're really good. If you dig into any program that maybe is high profile, that maybe is struggling a little bit, doing worse than they expected, getting a lot of transfers, you'll probably find a lot of stories about this. You'll probably find stories dotted with guns.

You'll probably find some stories about violence, you know, teammates butting heads. I don't think it's unique to Colorado unless Dion's allowing this stuff, but I think what's unique is that he brings all the attention and so there are people, even Athlon Sports, digging in. We will get to that, but where I would stop you

is the objection is it runs along a really interesting journalism fault line to me. They're not objecting to it being covered. They're alleging that it's all made up, that it's not overblown, that it's all made up, which is a different way of doing it in 2024 when you simply don't understand how journalism vetting works. But this particular reporter and Athlon Sports, is from a dot a different time doesn't have the credibility you need to withstand what is presently hitting it will get to that

later of the guns thing is interesting though because i do remember watching with butch davis uh... one of the university of miami movies on the e s p n where butch davis was revealed on the screen to have said, he gets here and says he's gonna change the culture and he says, I want all the guns, I need all the guns. And I remember I'm sitting next to him in the theater and he leans over to me and says,

I didn't even get half of them. Yes! Shame on you, that was a private conversation. It was, I just leaked it. I wanna play some Draymond Green sound for you guys because I can't believe this is the messenger on this particular message. Listen to this. But y'all chasing the game like all young dudes do. Come down I need to get a three

and they nobody Steph Curry. But everybody want to get to three. Shoot me well. But you took three battles in a row or you took two one of y'all took another one right and then y'all cried about every call that was called I get a lot of text so I'm actually fucked up on that part but it's also cost me two and a half million dollars which is more money than probably everybody in here pairing to make that ain't a risk you it's probably 50 times the amount of money my mom made in her life so it'll cost you and also what have y'all done to get calls I was this close from by the way not giving y'all one and there's nothing any of y'all can say so why we crying about cause it's pick up he ain't say nothing about a foul. He ain't say nothing about a foul.

Say, yo, we still had the ball. And y'all crying about every call. Why? Who's done something? I just want to know which one of y'all done something. Quite frankly, I don't think any of y'all have done anything, but that's just me. I mean, it's amazing to have him talk about crying about calls and he's explaining to you why he thinks he's entitled to it. It's just because he's done something. Yes. I mean, like, I don't, I don't think he said anything until, by the way, what the done

something he's talking about isn't winning four championships, winning defensive player that you're being an all star, being all-Defense team, all those things. It's I'm an NBA player. You're in high school. Did he just finish an NBA game by the way? Because he was sweaty and out of breath and he's coaching. What is going on? He was watching cops.

Man, let me tell you something. Playing with kids, man, that shit is tiring, man. Because they just have pools of energy that aren't natural. I'm like, how do you keep doing, what is this, you're just running around and it has no rhyme or reason to it. Juju, put it on the poll, please. Who has more energy, NBA players or toddlers?

Or kids? Kids, kids. Kids. Yes, but I was thinking, I was thinking toddlers are even more exhausting than just kids. Am I wrong about that? That might come back 100%, might be the first one ever. I also wanted to get into what Draymond said

and his dedication to hating, just saying of Rudy Gobert, you cannot be an NBA player and benched by an Olympic team that isn't Team USA. That is, that's a bar. It is a bad look Evan Fournier is playing a ton on that on that a French team and love ones the last time he saw the NBA floor Dude, it seems like the adjustment for France was let's get some of these NBA players out of here Can we do what I asked and make the in season tournament truly?

International and bring it like just make that an actual in season tournament We're like you like a leagues cup would you bring in another league from another country Hockey's doing this with the four nations. NBA is talking about doing that too. We may have a breaker from Paris next Howdy folks we're in August now It's the dog days of summer but the summer tours are still crescendoing and really consequential Major League Baseball games are going down. It's a great time to get Major League Baseball tickets. Where do you get them?

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tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code DAN for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. hassen stugats this is the down levatar show with the stugats i was assigned the task of covering breaking on behalf of the show uh from the olympics i have failed i have not had the bandwidth to get as updated as i should have gotten but we're bringing in an expert i do know you're not supposed to call it breakdancing that's about all i know you're supposed to call it breaking and b-boy ronnie ronnie

a baldonado is with us he's a legend in the scene has been breaking for three decades he's he's a judge she's been a judge for the sport and he's going to be one of the official commentators for nbc sports are there any curiosities the room has on this because i uh... i mean i'm sure you is is new york and cardboard on sidewalks before your time or that's like the new york of my childhood okay that's the new york of your time and so this is where i was introduced to to break dancing and the evolution of it obviously

Athletically is a total insanity Mike learned the other day that you don't know what song you're gonna break crazy Which is which seems crazy and he says, you know It's odd if they throw a you can call me Al at you before you're expecting it I don't think you're allowed to do that But Ronnie's link or Ronnie is here Ronnie is here to explain it to us. So thank you, Ronnie, for joining us. And I'll begin with how much ignorance are you confronted with? People are about to be delighted

when this finally starts on Friday and they discover what is a novelty sport because it's not gonna be at every Olympics, but it is at this Olympics. And this has to be exciting for people like you and people from this community. Yes, definitely. Thank you guys first of all for having me. Yes, breaking, you know, this is a milestone for the breaking community.

We're very excited that it's finally going to be in the Olympics. I feel like it should have been a while ago, but you know, everything's about timing. And now that breaking is going to be in the Olympics, we have like the best of the best from around the world representing. What is gonna stun people? What are they gonna be surprised by? One of the great things about the Olympics has been all the awe and discovery and wonder of people like being, holy shit how do those water polo people survive playing that sport? Well you know it's very close to gymnastics you know we took a lot of inspiration from you know, it's very close to gymnastics. You know, we took a lot of inspiration from, you know, gymnast from martial arts and vice

versa. If you were to watch some of the floor exercises and gymnastics, they actually got inspired from some breaking moves. We have a move called the air flares, which they now do in the Olympics and they actually give credit to breaking and vice versa. We took the Thomas flares, which they now do in the Olympics, and they actually give credit to breaking, and vice versa, we took the Thomas Flares, right? So I think breaking has evolved so much in the past 40, 50 years, and it's just undeniable

that it's gonna be groundbreaking, and it's definitely a breakthrough for the hip hop culture. Ronnie, speaking of the culture, when you think about breaking, like Dan said, it's something that originated on the streets. It was free, it was unencumbered, unregulated. And now you bring it to something like the Olympics, which is the epitome of the establishment,

and people are gonna score it and grade it and all that. How does the culture react to that transition from this is our thing to this is something that we're going to be basically calculated on. Yeah, well, you know, we're at the elite level now. It's not confined to the streets. They're almost graduated to sports and to the Olympics.

And there is a structure behind breaking. It's not like breaking just jumped onto the Olympic stage. You have huge competitions that have been going on for like the past few decades you have competitions like freestyle session, battle of the year, Red Bull BC One and these are world-class events and they have different point systems specifically for the Olympics it's a comparative judging system that they're using that's judged on five different categories. So it's very structured. They're gonna be judging on technique vocabulary execution

Musicality and originality and of course you have professional judges on the panel. Well walk me through that though. What does music musicality mean Musicality is obviously rhythm if you're on beat, you know, you're not dancing with two left feet right so you have to be dancing because it's really important that you know everyone understands that even though they're doing acrobatic moves that this is still a dance at the end of the day and it's part of a hip-hop culture so it's there's a bigger picture you know breaking is the dance element of the hip-hop culture along with DJing, MCing and graffiti. What does vocabulary mean? Vocabulary? Like what does that mean?

Vocabulary is like your quantity of moves. You know, because there is a structure in breaking, like I was saying, there's the foundation of breaking. You have your top rock, footwork, power moves and freezes. So essentially in the battle, you have to be able to showcase all those four elements. And those are like the fundamentals of breaking. So when you say originality, though, how surprised like how surprised do you ever get by anybody's originality as someone who has been watching judging and has expertise about this that goes back three decades? Exactly. So you know, judges, they definitely have an eye for originality because a

lot of these breakers, especially the breakers that are going to be competing at the Olympics, they have signature moves. So, you know, a lot of them that have created their moves throughout, you know, these 30 years, we know their moves, but it's also, you know, creating unique patterns, unique transitions and innovating a lot of the foundational moves. So that's basically what originality is, is just stage presence, just having a very unique style. Charisma could be part of that too. Someone that just has a very unique stage presence, right?

Like character is very important as well. Ronnie, I'm curious. There's a lot of people around here who think they can do more than they actually can. A lot of people who think they're like Olympians in just a couple of months of training. I'm wondering what it would take for you, how easy or difficult would it be for you to teach somebody

not to be an Olympic level breaker, but to kind of look like they know what they're doing? Yeah, I mean, I actually have a dance studio in Las Vegas, so we do teach lessons, right? So you have to just start from the basics. It's starting from ground level teaching your top rock, just like I was mentioning, and that's easily a two-step, right? And from there, you go to the floor, you start to teach footwork, which one of the most basic

footwork steps is called the six-step. And then from then on, you start elevating, right? That's why with breaking, we always talk about before you learn how to fly, you gotta learn how to crawl, walk, run, then you could fly. What's the training regimen like outside of actually practicing how to dance? Outside, well, you know, back then,

there was really no regimen, because competition really wasn't that big. But now that it's an Olympic sport, you know, breakers are training like athletes, but creating like artists. So I think there's, you know, how can I say this? There's like two different types of breakers. You have your artistic breakers and you have your athletic breakers. The athletic breakers, the breakers that are competing for a competition like the Olympics, you know, they train every day, day in, day out.

They have, you know, a diet that they go by. But then for those that literally just break because they love it, they don't count the hours, you know, they just break every day. We call it a cipher, right? So they'll just go to the club and then they'll just have fun. It's more leisure, you know? So there's different types of breakers.

That's a beautiful thing about breaking too because there's different avenues for breaking. Yes, there's the competition world, but as you know, breakers perform in shows. Like if you go to Las Vegas, there's a breaker in almost every show. You have a breaker in Magic Mike. You have a breaker in Cirque du Soleil.

You have tons of breakers in the Jabuaki show. So and if you watch music videos, you'll always see that there is a breaker. You know, that's a backup dancer for an artist or a breaker that's in the movie acting. And this is not new because in the 80s, breaking was huge. It was everywhere in the 80s. I mean, there was even breakers at the closing ceremony at the 1984 Olympics performing with Lionel Richie. So this is nothing you guys. Ronnie, respectfully, if I see a break dance cypher going on to the

club, I'm probably going to leave. But I did want to ask you one question. It's like a musical. No biggie, but respectfully, but as a as a B-boy novice, when you guys start doing this move right here, kind of before you start, like you start doing the dance moves prior to getting on the floor. The capybara fighter in Tekken. Right. Yeah. You look like a couple at a... Come on. So when you start doing these moves, are you setting up a move or is that just like you warming up the body? Like,

what, what's the idea with that? It's a combination of both. Well, yeah. So like I said, it's, it's, it's the top rock, right? The top rock is the dance elements, the introduction to your set. So some there's actually, uh, people that don't even go down to the floor, right? They'll stay up top the whole time. You know, is there an approved uniform for this? Like in the eighties, it was track suits and the Adidas shoes. Is there like a standard uniform that people have for this or can someone get bonus points for doing this in jeans?

Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, fashion is very important. I think everyone has their own style, right? So sometimes the way someone dresses kind of defines their style and like I was saying you have breakers that dress like athletes that wear tracksuits and then you have the breakers that you would never know that they were breakers you know they look like they could be skaters so yeah fashion is crucial specifically for the Olympics I believe there is a dress code obviously everyone's gonna be representing their countries but I'm not quite sure what they're gonna be wearing but the most comfortable are usually yeah like a track suit is definitely comfortable. Something light would be comfortable to wear in a competition. Any tension between the artists and the athletes?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, when it was leading up to the Olympics, cause they announced this like in 2019, so like five years ago is when they officially announced that breaking was going to be in the Olympics. And yeah, there there was a little tension between the purists, right, the traditionalists in the scene. But I think when they see that this whole culture is bigger than us, that most of them have turned their heads and they're definitely supportive. But obviously there's going to be a few that are just, you know, cynical about breaking being in the Olympics. But definitely we've been getting a majority positive feedback.

Ronnie, what can you tell us about the music? Because music choice is hugely important. And we learned earlier that these answers are going to be surprised by this. Is there a hypothetical where there is a song that gets played that is very difficult to break dance to? Yeah, I mean, there's cases where, you know, breakers, they're very specific about the type of music that you listen to. So you'll definitely have the advantage if it's a classic or if there's a song playing that you know well.

And what's beautiful about the Olympics is they cleared like over 300 songs. So there's gonna be like classic breaks, hip hop. So, and that's a beauty about breaking too is just an improvisation right like listening to the music and just adapting to it you know you have to you have to let the music kind of dictate your moves and everyone has a different style there's some breakers that have a set from beginning to end and there's some

breakers that just freestyle and they're that are in the moment right and you know that's what breaking is about too. It's about creating those moments, creating those moments that could not be recreated. So that's going to be the funnest thing to see is just hearing the music and seeing how the breakers adapt to it. So they cleared 300 songs. That was a big concern because break dancing and music, they go hand in hand. Do you know all 300 songs? I'm not asking you to tip it. I'm just asking you to let me know if

like Bobby McFerren's Don't Worry Be Happy is in here because the idea of a wild card song like just all of a sudden boom chamber music go. No no it's I think they're specific genres right like funk hip-hop and soul you know because we grew up listening to like songs from like James Brown. So I'm hoping they have some of those songs cleared. I don't know specifically what songs, but I definitely know it's,

there's gonna be a curated playlist and a lot of it are songs that are from our breaking community. And you know, we have a very tight knit breaking community of breakers that have been competing at some of the same events annually, and they play the same tracks. So we're hoping that the DJ actually

are gonna be playing at the Olympics. Ronnie, I got a question for you. Before you came on, I looked at your name and I went to Dan and I said, bet you 20 bucks, he's of Filipino descent. Am I correct? My last name? I am Filipino, yes.

Okay, why is the Philippines the source of all the best break dancers in the world? That's my unofficial, like not an expert opinion, but from what I've witnessed throughout my 45 years on this world is the Philippines is always incredible. And what nation is favored to win in men and women? Well, he's a judge. I don't know if he's allowed to say that.

It's like that in karaoke. Music and dance is just in our DNA. It's encoded in our DNA. And boxing, we have Manifakio, right? There you go. You don't think he's allowed as a judge to say who's favored like I you don't think I think that's I think that's incredibly prejudicial well but I mean I think that there would be common knowledge within the expertise of

the sport of if there's a champion or if there's some in all the sports that we're watching there's a favorite yeah but I don't know if the judges like you think you think like a referee like Kenny Maurer can say oh, I think Can you say or can you not say wait? What are we talking about right now? Don't try to get my man in trouble All right fine women are we talking? Who's supposed to win like what country is supposed to historically who's the best at this? Well, there is a Filipino American that's going to be representing Team USA.

There you go. And yeah, she has a good chance. I think obviously USA has a very good chance to win. It started in the US, so we're hoping that someone just brings home the gold. But Asia is doing really well. Japan, Korea, there's a competitor from Korea. And I think that's what's beautiful about breaking in the Olympics too, is like we're bridging the age gap.

You have teenagers there and you have breakers that are like in their 30s and one specifically from Korea. He's like pushing 40, he's 39 and he's like a three time Red Bull BC One World Champion. His name is Hong Tan and he's an amazing breaker and he just pushing the envelope right now. Appreciate you illuminating us. The women start Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern on Peacock and the men are Saturday at 2 p.m. You can check out Ronnie's video on YouTube at Red Bull BC One. We appreciate the insight, sir. Thank you.

Thanks, Ronnie. Thank you guys for having me. insight sir thank you thanks Ronnie thank you guys for having me a lot has changed over the years audience as you've been so kind and pointing out my shirt size has changed over the years look I started this show as a 19 year old boy now I'm a 38 year old dad but along the way one staple of my life has been Miller Lite and those of you that have been listening to us know this I've been a Miller Lite guy since day one I have been pretty honest about that so let's get down to the nitty-itty. What is the best thing about the original

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