The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Dan's Civic Duty

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

"Sounds like a sucka move." After the greatest single-season turnaround in Men's College Basketball history, the Miami Hurricanes' season has finally come to an end, and the crew is already concerned about Jai Lucas' future. Plus, after the Heat's 7-game win streak, they're now on a 4-game losing streak, so they're, you know, back in the play-in. Today's cast: Dan, Zaslow, Amin (eventually), Chris, Jeremy, Mike, Roy, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Folks, I'm getting hungry, and you know my favorite part of any meal, snack, or game day app? That's right. The goat, or should I say the greatest of all time? Frank's Red Hot! It's got the perfect blend of flavor and heat that elevates all foods from wings to Buffalo chicken dip to even ice cream. That's right, I said ice cream. And with a roster of flavors from OG to sweet chili, you can put that shit on everything.

So make every dish the greatest and eat the goat. Chris Cody, are you expecting Amin today because I thought he was doing the show with us today? And I thought I wasn't doing the show today. I was at jury duty and I ran out of there. Why are you making that sound? You don't need to do that.

What do you mean? I don't need to do that. By there's on jury duty. What? Have you been summoned? I don't know. If I have, I threw in a garbage. What are you doing? What am I doing? It's a civic duty responsibility and honor. somebody to be a jury of your peers is a symbol of freedom. What are you doing?

So I have to go sit on a jury instead of doing things that I want to do. Sounds like a suck a move. Or that. I thought it was a civic duty and you just don't show up and there's been no consequences. I'm right. You're living my life, Dan. What are they going to do, Dan? Seriously, what are they going to do? You're going to ask this government that?

If you ever got the letter, you could see what they would threaten to do at the very least. but here I am. I don't think it's certified male so you can always say, never got it. That's right. It comes down to the character of the man. Put it, or woman,

put it on the poll at Levitard show. I'm an ally. Ken. That was really helpful there and hateful for Mike. No one knew what he was talking about, so I'm glad we stepped up. Put it on the poll at Lebitard show. Are there any consequences to not going to jury duty?

because if there aren't consequences, Zaz. Nobody would go. Okay, but am I not living proof? Well, I don't know how many times you've gotten something that you've actually thrown in the mail, thrown in the garbage can. I don't know. Like, the notice looks very official,

and they do threaten you with a fine. Yeah, but hold on a second. So I just purchased a house, and they send you so much crap in the mail that it's like, if you don't pay this, you're going to be in really big trouble. you know what I do, rip it up and throw it away. Because half it is an absolute scam.

The other half may be different, but I don't know. Yeah, where does it say that the stuff that comes in my mailbox, I have to open? And good luck calling me for anything. 100% of my calls. They got to be scam. I'm never answering the phone ever again. Never. Put it on the poll at Levitard show.

Have you gone weeks lately without answering your phone? Because I don't use my phone as a phone anymore. It's a computer. But when you mention mail, you guys will like this update. from my leading the local news squatter story. I went by the house yesterday that had that squatter in it. Seven packages he had delivered to the front of the house. Was he my wife?

While he's in jail. One of them. Did you open him? One of them a saw of some sort. Oh, Jesus. Luckily you got him. Who knows? He was planning on doing a lot of stuff to the house, apparently.

You need to do some work on the house then? Yeah, some renovating. There was some under cabinet lights. Like, there was all sorts of stuff. He was, look, man, I avoided a terrible situation. I'm thinking by very little amount of time. Because once he changes the doorknobs and he's got the keys to the house, I'm talking to the officer and I no longer have the keys to my own house.

And he had the doorknobs already. Like, he was planning a full scale renovation. Yeah, I don't know how much I'm allowed to talk about. this because there are victims here and I want to be careful of that. I'm very mindful of that. But also, Squatters' rights is one of those Fafo things. Like, I know that they're technically protected by law. I'd test that. I'd drag somebody out to the lawn and let's see who the law decides was right here. Or I just take off the doors and say, I'm sorry, I'm making some renovations. Purdue was a number one seed as? Kurt Cousin look like JCPenney.

Looks long. Does Jim chat? Northwestern is gone from the tournament. Jim Harbaugh looks like a casket salesman. Fairley Dickinson, 16 seed, rep by. Mike McDaniel looked like a college student on the four-ride scholarship for e-sports. What a run. They were down four.

They were down four points with 52 seconds left. I really fell in love with that basketball team because of how tough that basketball. basketball team is for the University of Miami. And they end up losing to Purdue. And the reason they lose to Purdue's as is because while they were going one for eight from three at the start of the second half, Purdue's shooting 75% from three for the second half after losing their three-point shooter to an injury. Purdue was ripe to be taken down. They played a very poor game for Purdue. Miami forced them into some of that. But they lost Cox, a player that, um, they needed, but they just kept making threes.

And they crushed Miami the best season in terms of feel good, I think, that Miami has ever had, even though it didn't go as deep as some other seasons have gone, because it's the biggest turnaround in Division I history. Last season was the worst season in program history, and they turned it around, and it's the biggest turnaround ever. and I really grew to like that basketball team, and they just got beat by randomness at the end. Oh, I don't think it was randomness.

I thought Purdue executed at a much higher level, and they were better, which is, you know, they were the number two seed for a reason. They had a little mid-season hiccup and found their form in the tournament. They killed Miami on those high screens. And I thought Jay Lucas did the right thing and having Shelton Henderson try to guard the Big Ten's all-time leading assist leader. And he just ate them up. Miami had no answers for it all game long.

It helps that they had a shooting guard that flatly did not miss. But there's no taking away the feel good from this season. That was the single greatest one-year turnaround in that sports history, beyond proud and excited for next year with a five-star coming in. And proof of concept to show the entirety of the transfer portal, Miami's headed in a great direction. It'll be fun to watch Henderson's growth once he learns to shoot because he is still young. And you learn in some of these games that these guys are just learning how to play basketball. The defense of Florida, we can give Iowa the credit for a really wonderful play with eight seconds left. But Florida can't allow that to happen that way.

And then the end of the St. John's game. It's just people learning how to play basketball that we're treating like professionals. Can you guys tell me? Did they start this year with the halftime interviews of players? Because we're treating them like professionals, and they're all just learning how to play basketball, even though some of them are making $2 million a year. But I have found strange watching players interviewed during the game.

They started doing some of that in college football last year. When did this start happening? Like, when were player interviews part of the media package? Did it come with the pay? out to an SID because I had never seen it before. Now granted, I just jump back in because the last two seasons of Miami Hurricanes basketballed really crushed my passion for the sport. But they've replaced coaching interviews at halftime with player interviews. I'd never seen it before. It's all new access for the NCAA tournament. So when Mike says those as, look, Purdue is better. They're the two seed and their execution was great. But even with what I told you, Miami won for eight from three and Purdue 75% from three. the second half. They're still down four with 50 seconds left. Yeah. And the three-point shooting, the free throws as well. Too many fouls. Purdue was on the free throw line a lot. I thought late in

the first half, I'm watching, you know, Kansas will win this game. You know, they were up like seven at the time, just so physical, you know, and they just couldn't make shots. Miami was more athletic than them, but Purdue undersized on the perimeter, still found a way to stay in front of the opposing player. Miami didn't feel comfortable, really attacking the basket. It was weird. They're looking for fouls, but they're also looking for contact and they're terrified to go to the line. Malik Renew, who I think we have a photo of him at the concession post game in full uniform here at the concourse. By all accounts, was super nice to anybody that approached him in full uniform, waiting for some pizza in the concourse. You don't really see that often. Not big time in anyone,

just waiting his turn. Yeah, he was a little timid, which we saw a little bit of that in the first half against Missou as well. I think ultimately just ran into a team that's better, and this is year one with Jay Lucas building. It's a bummer, but Purdue kicked their ass in that second half. And I think at a certain point you've got to tip your hat to the opponent. That first, like, six minutes of the game against Missouri was brutal. It was a brutal stretch of basketball.

Miss, clank off the backboard. Missouri get it. Turnover. Miami got it. Clank off the backward. Missouri got it. Put it in the stands. We knew what this Miami team was.

It was a muck-it-up kind of team. They're not a fast-paced team. They're not a team that can shoot. And you talk about it, Dan, one for eight in the second half, and they went, what, 75% whatever that was. It was like, that's the game right there. It makes it really easy to play basketball when you can shoot threes, and the other team can't.

I felt a little bad, too, on Friday night. Now, granted, you know, the game was in Missouri, so you know you're going to have a Missou crowd there, but there was no one there all weekend for the Keynes. Like, there were no Keynes fans there. Zero. That's why it sucks at it. They put it in St. Louis,

and the next round would have been in San Jose. Hey, it didn't get a break from that perspective. But again, they ran into a team that kind of kicked their asses in the second half. You wear it, and then you get super excited for where this program is. Purdue is always in the Sweet 16. Like, they're really good every year. They played a really good team. They get beat by a bad team in the Sweet 16 that goes on a run or they get beat early.

Like, that's their MO. They always get lose early. This is the second time in history that everybody in the Sweet 16 is represented by a power conference. Oh, really? Yes. And the previous time was last year. Texas and Iowa are your Cinderella's. It's a little bit different.

No, you can't call Texas Cinderella. You can't do it. One of the other great teams in Miami history, the Tim James team, also lost to Purdue, Gene Cady. I was not aware that Matt Painter, the Purdue coach, has coached the 21 years since Katie. I was not aware that Katie was gone for 21 years, and they just simply replace them. It's a little hard to replace the legend, correct? but he's just stayed there for 21 years. You guys have seen this Calvin Sampson sound, right?

Purdue doesn't have any preordained right to be as good as they are. And Kelvin Sampson was giving some sound for Houston where he's explaining that they're good despite what is in today's day and age, the biggest handcuffs you can have in college sports. We have a very poor athletic department. We're poor. We're poor when I got here, and we're still poor. We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in power for. And the way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point

because we don't have enough money to keep bringing in really good players. And that's not easy for us to do. People ask about recruiting. Teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money. as to where it is today. That's simplified. In case you heard the loud thudding sound about 90 seconds ago, that was Amin trying to sneak into the show quietly

and dropping his computer on the floor. So Amin's first contribution to our work week is failing to sneak in quietly. And he's in the worst seat possible. His computer is right in front of the mic. I can't get to the mic. I can't even see him. All I see is the camera that's in front of. of me so I simply can't see Amin.

The camera that's in front of me. Got that obstructed view. No, it's not just an obstructed view. It makes it look like the camera in front of me has a human body and is wearing a sweatshirt, but the camera is right where Amin's faces and it knocks out the entirety of his face. So I can't tell while I make fun of how he walked in. I can't even tell if he's laughing or if he's bothered by this, but he is indeed in the worst seat. I'm the spaceship from 2001, a Space Odyssey.

Hello, Dan. You're having a wonderful show today. You just made it better. Thank you for being here. I want to update our tournament some because I got to get rid of a whole bunch of teams, but I don't want to just skip past what this University of Miami season was just because they lost at the end. We don't get many opportunities to sell. This would have been in the last.

five years, their third appearance to the Sweet 16, if the last 50 seconds had been a little bit different, and sandwiched in there is the worst season in program history. And you don't get a lot of opportunities to have someone knocked out a little earlier than you'd like and still do the craps roll thing of good season, good role, good season, hell of a run, because what they did was really impressive to watch. And I really just found myself enjoying the way they played basketball because they played so hard. They were clearly trying all the time. Let me ask you this question before we get to our tournament. Dan, are you like me? I had to learn to like this style. Because obviously, I'd prefer making free throws. Nothing makes a sports fan rip their hair out more

than a team that just can't make free throws. It's like the easiest bit of banter that a sports fan can yell from the stands. Why don't they practice a free throw? Yeah, make your free throw. I could not shoot. The game is involved to a point that people shoot from the outside, but this is another reason why I've kind of gravitated to college basketball on that. These teams have identities. We're in the pros. Everyone kind of plays the same style. That's one of the things I'm really enjoying about the tournament too. Like they'll take mid-range jumpers. They're using the floor, you know? Yeah, I don't have delusions of grandeur, right? I know what my team is. I had to get used to it. I'm like, all right. Well, Jay says we're going to throw it at the shot clock and go get it and try to be

more athletic and rebound these? That's who we are. Let's get a shiv and get after these guys. And this team made me adapt. I underestimated their talent and, man, thank God for them, injected this program that felt a little lost after Jim Laranaga, knew that the time was right to step away. I'm so excited for the future. I hope we can keep our coach. But this team was really, really fun. And honestly, it's so random. This was one of the best regular seasons ever. And Miami's not a joke of a basketball program, Dan. especially in the 21st century, they have some bona fide As they went to an elite eight,

they went to a final four, they've won this conference, they haven't won it in football, they've won it in basketball. Folks, this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Listen, money stress. I feel like nobody really teaches you how to deal with it. You just kind of wake up one day, you look at your bank account and you go, oh, cool, that's not ideal.

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Expedited delivery requires a turbo fee. See MoneyLion.com. Hey, Roy, buddy. You know that energy shift when the game gets good, and everybody, altogether, in unison, knows to stand up on their feet? Oh, absolutely, Mike. Yeah, you've been at many big-time sporting events.

You know that moment quite well. That's what it's like when you take your first sip of Cuervo. Oh, delicious. It's the signal that says, we're not checking the time anymore, pal. It's when small talk turns into stories. Quervo, man, it's at high-five a random stranger effect. That's right.

The game is popping. You're hugging people you never met before. That's the kind of energy that Quervo brings. It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Quervo effect. Keep it, Quervo. Don Lebertard. If Daniel Day Lewis did it, you'd be jerking off all over yourself.

Oh, come on. Yeah, I would be. Aggressive description. I mean, what is it? What is that? I'm just saying. You know what? That's me.

That's me. Daniel Day Lewis does something. I see that photo of Daniel Day Lewis looking like Lincoln before he's about to start filming Lincoln. And you know what I do? I mean, Stugats. I jerk off all over myself. That's what I do. Lincoln, who you outed the other day?

Don't make this a rejoin. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. You mentioned you're hoping that they can keep their coach. I mean, we'll probably learn something today or tomorrow about Hubert Davis and UNC. I think they're going to get rid of him. You're not worried that Jay Lucas, he's been a head coach, not just in Miami and a Power Force school. No, but, I mean, he's been a head coach one year in his life.

Like, UNC can't hire that. Bon voyage. A head coach for one year can become the head coach at UNC? Bloodlines, baby. He's the son of John Lucas, man. He's got, coaching is in his blood. He's been to coach his whole life. They're going to say all those things.

Do you think it stops him at all that he went to Duke and wouldn't want to coach at North Carolina that he was a Duke guy? I understand it's a great job. I understand that. And one of the reasons, by the way, Mike, that I bring up the randomness of some of what happened because the hurricanes had three halves

where they shot three as well and then didn't. But Miami when leading at the half was 18 and 2 and Purdue had only won two games all season when they trailed at the half. That was the third one all season that they won after they had trailed. But what do you think?

or the camera that seems to indicate that Amin is here. You think that Jay Lucas would forsake Duke? That is the job that you would do it for, but it's also the job that would test that allegiance the most because of how much Duke and North Carolina hate each other. Like, if you're going to betray Duke... But he's not a Duke alum. No, he was just an assistant there.

His loyalty is not to that program. And let's just, for the sake of argument, let's just assume he was a Duke alum. there's only a handful of these jobs that are on that level, right? It's North Carolina, it's Kansas, it's UCLA, Kentucky, Kentucky, I throw Duke in there. So, yes, absolutely. Forgetting about the fact that Miami is a smaller program compared to just regular powerhouse basketball programs.

But then when you talk about among the powerhouse basketball programs, this is the elite of the elite of the elite, the blue blood, this is the thing that, you know, money aside, just recruits all name alone. you can never pass up that job if you're at Miami or any other kind of smaller program like that. Unless you thought that the Duke job could be available, but it doesn't seem that way with the job that John Shire has been doing. Jeremy, would you do me the favor of looking up the origins of blue bloods and why royalty is known as blue bloodline? Because we use that phrase all the time, and I'm not actually sure where it comes from or what its origins are. When I mention that the hurricanes play really hard and are a tough basketball team,

Eric Spolstra says of his present four-game losing streak, we're going through a little bit of pain. It's going to make us better. Is it? Like, I feel the heater kind of topped out on pain and achieving. And when I think of tough and playing hard, this isn't a problem of playing hard. Like this is, like, how much better is this team actually going to be through anything that he can do or any effort that can be applied? Like when he says, I generally agree with that statement. Going through pain will allow certain people willing to embrace it to grow and certain teams to grow.

But what's, how is this going to make them any better losing on a tip shot there on the day that Kevin Durant passes Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list? It's a classic spohism. is really what it is. It doesn't mean it's not true, but it's a classic thing that Eric says. Well, I think it's not true, though. I'm saying it's not true. Like, I'm saying in this instance,

they've suffered all the suffering that they're going to suffer. You're right, because as a result of the current four-game losing streak, it's looking pretty likely they're going to finish in the 9-10 in the play-in, which, of course, means the best you could do is finish 8th if you wind up winning in the play-in.

And no one's going to say, hey, remember when we lost all seven of those games, because they're going to, all seven of those games in that stretch after the seven-game win-string against good teams, it helped us. Like, we're better off for it. Well, no, you're just lost in the playing. Like, you're not going to be better for it.

Well, but one of the stats, though, that lets you know that their effort is sort of maxed out as is their achievement is the quote that he says, our defense for the season is top four, top five. But against playoff teams, it drops out of the top 15. Because they're doing the most they can with the people that they have, and this is maxed out, and it's going to lose to the better teams on the road. Isn't that how all stats work, though?

You beat up on the bad teams and you... No, the good teams are good against the good teams too. But I would bet even they are better against the bad teams and just do fine against the good teams. Right. I'd like the heat to do fine against the good teams. They've beat the best team in each conference for what it's worth. Okay, but like Spoh just said there, their defense is completely... average 15th when they're playing the good teams. Like, yeah, they got some good wins.

That's not bad. That's the point. But they're elite against the bad ones. Right, that's what makes an elite defense. Every season-long stat is built on the corpses of all the bad teams you beat up, right? And so if we were to create the ultimate strength of schedule where the heat only play the best teams all the time and never play the bad teams, and he told me they're 15th, as compared to everyone else's defense

who get to play the bad teams, well then that's pretty good. I mean, I don't, I'll ask this out loud. I don't know the answer to it. The heater playing the Spurs tonight's on national TV, so I'll use the Spurs as an example. Do you think all the Spurs numbers are just average against the good teams in the league?

No, but... It's probably significantly better than that. There's a reason why the Spurs have like the third best record in the league. I don't think anyone is saying this is one of the best teams in the league. We're just saying that, hey, being 15th against all the elite teams, not bad when that 15th comes in the context of everyone else's rating includes playing bad teams. And so, you know, the idea here is you guys are like,

oh, they're going to end up 9-10. They're a game and a half behind five. I know, but in this stretch here, they have three more games tonight, San Antonio, back to back against Cleveland. Like, they're going to lose seven in a row. Minnesota went to Boston yesterday and without Anthony Edwards, and they won the ads.

I was like, there's no chance. There's no foregone conclusion. There's no foregone conclusions. about two weeks ago we're making jokes about the Atlanta Hawks have been 500 for the last five years and now they're on like a 12-game winning streak a week ago we were talking about the best records post-all-star break the heat and the magic were on that list

but then a four-game losing streak it changes it but the standards are so condensed in the background the heat are sitting in ninth in the eastern conference like you're making some great point about the heat they're ninth yep the ninth the take of like take don't play any of the bad teams just play the good teams

that take didn't make any sense The things that are plaguing this franchise at present are something that Stan Van Gundy always used to point out and people would ignore. He's like, why do we ignore the upcoming schedule? Why with these winning streaks do we ignore who they've played during the winning streak when they're beating Brooklyn twice and the Wizards? And now this last one, I'm trying to. to think, okay? You go to Houston and you lose on a tip-in buzzer-beater. You are a team that has blown 33 double-digit lead since last season, more than any other team in the sport. And yet that one felt worse to me than anything that I could remember outside of that Utah

loss at home this season. Because when you lose at the buzzer and you're reeling and you've got tough games coming up. I'm trying to think this season, regular season, give me one than hurt the way that one did, where you're playing a team you know is good, you're trying to get right, you're

trying to get better in the middle of a losing streak, and you make the stop against the guy who's now fifth passing Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list, but a tip-in beat you. But also, you got to leave out

The worst part of it is the possession right before it was a miracle. The he'd have no time out, and they stole the inbounds pass and scored with five seconds left to take the lead. That shit never happens. And then you get the final play where you ask, bam, incredible defense on Durant, and you still get the tip in at the buzzer. In a 30-20 game. That shit never happens. They stole the inbounds. Give me one that felt worse than that one this season for you, Jeremy.

Give me one as someone who cares and wants to be right about, because Mike's saying a lot with that smirk. There's a lot being said with that smirk back there on. Mike's staying absolutely quiet. I know, but that smirk speaks volumes there. Your silence is, you're enjoying that silence in a way you normally don't enjoy silence. That's right. They missed a three that could have won a game in Boston on a Friday night where they lost by two and they had mucked things up with Boston.

But this one's more deflating because now you just see where the standings are, right? Like if you get that win, you win against Houston, you snap the losing streak. Even if you lose tonight, it's not five in a row. It's okay, a loss against the spurs. You could feel differently. And that one game may make the difference and you could see it play out that way. when really the games that make the difference are the losses against the jazz or the kings earlier in the year. Those are the ones that hurt.

Like losing at the buzzer to the rockets, it sucks, but it's like, hey, it was a coin flip. Losing to, was it the magic a few nights ago? All right, close enough game. Losing to the Lakers, even though that wasn't a coin flip game. But you were there. You were competitive up until the end. It's, we lost to the jazz when they were actively trying to lose. That's the one that keeps slow up at night.

night. Dan, I had the dumbest experience watching this Heat Rockets game. So Saturday night, I'm watching Villanova, Nebraska. Instead of watching the Heat game, I'm recording the Heat game, which by the way, that Villanova, Vanderbilt, excuse me, that Vanderbilt, Nebraska game was as good a college basketball game I have ever seen. That game. You put the cassette in to record it? What'd you do there? That game was incredible. So I'm recording the Heat game, and I'm really tired after the college basketball. So I'm just going to watch the heat in the morning. All right. Not knowing who won, of course.

Why would I want it spoiled for me, right? I wake up in the morning. I don't know what happened in the heat game. You all know at this point the heat loss the buzzer. I wake up in the morning. I put on the heat game. I put the cassette in the VCR. I press the play button.

And I'm watching the heat game, okay? And it gets down to the end. The heat, make that steal. They score. I'm excited. I jumped off the couch. I called to my son, Jordan. Come down.

Come check this out. And he comes and he comes to the room. and I show him the replay. I hit the rewind button. And I show him the replay of the heat scoring. I go, look, they stole the inbound pass. And he goes, is that the end? They got the end. The game's going to end right now. It's five seconds left. The rockets have the ball.

And then the rocket score. And he just laughs and walks out the room. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Don Lebertard. Doesn't matter anywhere.

We could do it in Buffalo or Baltimore, Eva. He said you can do it where? Anywhere. Oh, whoa. Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. He said he can do it anywhere.

That's crazy, murder. Murder. Tell him. Stugats. I had no idea of Mee and had that in his locker. That might be his best. That's crazy. I'm not kidding.

That's crazy, killer. It's two America's dead. You don't get it. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. I just realized at the end of the story, you tape games without the knowledge of what happened in the game? You tape games and get the knowledge and then watch it? Yes. No.

The result is secondary. I want to see what happened. No, I want to see what happened and watch it with the same suspense that I would the previous night, which makes the experience even dumber because I spent my whole morning leading up to the heat losing at the buzzer. You avoid the news and avoid everyone? Yeah. We'll avoid everyone at my house. I got people coming in and out.

No, your son does it? Your son maybe say, Dad, what was a crazy game last night? They know. They know not to say anything. You don't go on social media? No, I stayed away from it. I thought he was going to tell you how they lost anyway. And then before it actually happened and that crushes you, that's what I thought was going to happen.

Why would I record a game, know what happens, and then watch it? Especially if my team lost it the buzzer. To find out how it got there. No. No. I mean, I'm assuming watch his games the way a scout would watch some games. Like if a means taping something and rewatching it, I'm assuming that that's the way he's doing it, especially if he insists on being armed with the result before he.

starts. I watch Heat and Panther games hours later all the time. Never knowing the result. Like living in a bubble where you're immune from reality. Yeah. I told you Hank Azaria does that in order to exercise. He avoids all social media for often days trying to make sure that a Knicks game he can watch it two days later without knowing. I mean, that's son's game? Like much. I mean, days later?

Yeah. Is he watching Nick's Wizards from last night like next week? Like, come on, guys. I have a couple of questions, though, for you. I mean, before I update our tournament real quick, you mentioned that Celtics lost, Jeremy. Two of those, again, I'm going to say it again. The heat have blown since last season, 33-digit leads.

It's more than any team in the sport. Two of them are against the Celtics, who can erase leads quickly because of how they make and take threes. 22-point lead against the Celtics, 19-point lead against the Celtics. What do you make of that, I mean? Like, what is that? Is there something telling about that?

Well, I mean, you could argue, you got to be good enough to get those double-digit leads. That's a good point. You were a bad team. You wouldn't be good enough to be up double digits in order to blow the double-digit lead. No, I mean, look, this is the part where Mike being smug, I'm like, I don't get what your point is. They should have a better roster. No shit, we all know they should have a better roster. But, again, my point has been consistent against Mike for the last couple of years.

You act like it's a choice. They're like, no, no, this is good enough. Most of the time it's not. You're trying to actively improve your roster with other trade partners who are not willing to go along with what you want to do. No, I'm not saying ever that they chose this. The one thing that they are making an active decision against is, you know, packing it totally and we got no shot, let's tank.

That's not what this organization does. I have to, as a heat fan, I have to understand that. No, they're not that good because they failed in the process. pursuits of upgrading the roster. Yeah. I feel like his smugness is at Jeremy, because Jeremy thinks they're good enough. I'm not smug. The season's playing out the way that we all thought it would.

Well, most of us thought it would after the trade deadline, where they kind of stood Pat, their playing team. I don't know. Maybe we can get excited depending on the matchup in the first round. But, I mean, five games ago, Jeremy was demanding an apology. Well, that was also because BAM scored 83 points. No, but I also knew the schedule. Like that's a real tough schedule against teams that are better than them and that's played out.

And now they have Wembe. I'm not going to demand an apology. This doesn't make me happy. You know, we'll go into the offseason, try to upgrade and play for the things that this franchise typically plays for. What do you do a mean with the fact that Norman Powell is now coming off the bench? He's got a totally redundant skill set and stats as Tyler Hero. And he's saying, look, I'm a starter in this league. I'll do what they want me to do.

but in terms of making them better, he's not making them better if all you're doing is the redundancy of hero will get the numbers or Powell will get the numbers and they're going to be similar numbers. Yeah, I mean, that's a tough part when you have redundancies.

Like, is it the role or is it the person? And the reality is, suppose always been a tinkerer. He's not a guy who's married to, this is the lineup and that's it. So this is part for the course that guys move in and out of the lineup. It's part for the course,

but that's an all-star that's on your bench. Sure. I mean, but it's not on your bench. It's just not starting, which is... Like, these are the semantics of basketball, right? Very rarely does starting ever have anything to do with them more than just the honor that I got to hear my name called? Every once in a while, you get...

There are players that... I remember we had this with Grant Hill when I was in Phoenix. Grant Hill, his second season with us, we're going to bring him off the bench and let Matt Barnes start. And what Grant Hill discovered is, like, I'm 100 years old. I warm up before a game, tell me to sit on the bench, I lock up. And so now when I get back in the game, like, my body's completely cold and I couldn't do it.

It had nothing to do with the ego of it. It's just that he physically could not go through the process of warming up, cooling down, and then go out there and be effective. But for the most part, what Norman Powell is talking about is the pride of being, hey, man, I'm a starter in this league. How can I come off the bench? And the reality is, hey, man, we're trying to make things work. We're trying to figure out something that works here.

and like other than hurting your feelings, like Jeremy said, you're playing big minutes. It's not like you're playing 22 minutes a night. You're closing a lot of the times. So it's like, so what are we talking about? You didn't hear your name called? But moving forward like into next year because Norman Powell is obviously going to be a free agent.

You can't pay Tyler Hero and whatever Norman Powell is going to cost moving forward when they're the same guy. Even if you could. Even if like, no, no, we have all. No, I mean, you could. No, you could, but you don't want to. Well, yeah, it just doesn't make sense. Right.

That's what I'm saying. you can either do one or two things. You can either engage Norman Palin to sign a trade deal and see what happens out there. Or you say Tala Hero, under contract with now a very decent looking number. When he signed, everyone lost their mind. Now it's like, oh, this is actually a really good deal. You go out there and you see what you can get for him. Absolutely.

That's a prudent thing to do. But it's kind of foolish to sit here and say, well, I'm going with this guy or that guy. You've got to see what the options are. Actually, the thing that they should have done, like they should have had the foresight. and it would have been a ball's move, but they should have had the foresight to say, you know what, we could sell really high on Norman Powell

at this trade deadline. Like, that's, if they, like, it would have been a ball's move, but that's really what they should have done. It's a ball's move, but you know what, end up doing, it sends a message that, like, we are not all in on competing this year.

And so, and like Mike, that goes back to what Mike said. This organizationally, the decree is, we don't tank, we don't, we don't circle the wagons. We continue to fight, and no matter wherever at land, We take our chances as long as we got a shot in the postseason. People felt the same way about Andrew Wiggins at the deadline, right?

Which was you have a guy with a player option at 30 million going into next year. Boy, he never plays. And he, well, he hasn't played for the last four games. He's been their second best player this season. He's had a career year. He's been really, really good. And without him over these games, you've missed him as a wing defender and another offensive threat. Also, Blue Blood, it stems from Spanish nobility.

So for the folks who did not have to go out and work, their skin was lighter and you could see their blue veins in turn blue blood. That's interesting. I have a question for Dan, Jeremy, and Zaz. In that order? Collectively, you can answer it. Like, again, I don't want to be a tanking franchise. I don't.

I think that there is a difference in one isolated year to know that, all right, we don't have it this year. Let's kind of pack it in, reassess. You can couch it by saying let's develop some guys. I don't think that's tanking. If they looked at this year, said, we're not really going anywhere that we want to go. Let's try to build up some assets. I think that's a mid-season evaluation that you make.

And for the better of your franchise, you try to develop these other pieces. I don't think that makes you a tanking franchise. I really don't. I don't think that's counterculture. I just look at the success that they've had with the guys that they've drafted where they've drafted them. Like I heard Tony say in the background, like, oh, it's a good draft. Every draft is like, oh, you can get this guy here. You can get this guy here.

if you're drafting at 11th or 12th because you decided to tank after the deadline, I don't know the difference that that's making for the heat in particular from, say, drafting 15th. You know, that's where they've acquired all of these guys who have overachieved or are really talented young players. Colo Weir is very, very talented.

Casper's Yakichonis has looked really good for a 19-year-old point guard. So I don't know the difference between those two things. And personally, whether it's from, you know, someone who covers a team, but really even just from the fan perspective, like I'd rather watch the rest of the season knowing my team can win on any given night. That game against Houston's entertaining. It doesn't matter what the fans want.

The person who runs your franchise is 82 years old and over his dead body. Like he's not going to tank. Like he's not going to spend this portion of his life trying to build something for five years from now. Like he wants to see if they could do what they did against Janus in the first round again and he's going to be wrong. But you've got to blow out Pat Riley if you want to lose

on purpose or if you're not going to try. Right. But I guess the disconnect for me is I'm not suggesting something that's an affront to your franchise's DNA. Just rather than do this for three years, I'm saying let's do this for a couple of months and put yourself in position where you can be more aggressive this offseason and take into a consideration in the fact that you are 82. You're on a treadmill. mill right now. Let's hop off. I think that's a quicker way to get to where everybody wants to go. I do wonder how much did the experience, because they have tanked before. Okay, they did in 2008. And I wonder how much the experience of that resulted in Michael Beasley, which flat out did not

work. Like, I wonder how much that changed their MO, that they're never going to do it again. I'd say it's something else. I would say that greatness usually doesn't have very much. self-awareness about decline. Greatness has overcome so many odds that it always thinks that it can overcome the next ones. Like, I don't generally think that there's a lot of self-awareness where Pat Riley is saying, no, I can't do this. I don't have a chance because he's always had a chance. When he was a player, when he was in college, when every role he's ever had, he's thought he's had a chance. Why would he be someone who would have self

awareness about my team isn't a team that can win when they won as an eight seat against a one when it was Janice? Isn't Blue Bloods the show that Stan Van Gundy watches like every Tuesday night on CBS? No, that's the CSIs and the Chicago.

I'm with Amin. He's definitely a fan of that too. Donnie Walbert. Tom Selleck. I think I saw J.B. on it. Jalen Brown was on an episode. Yeah? I think so. By the way, I think we need to give Stan Van Gundy a shout out here because we all rolled our eyes last week when he told us the best shooter

in the league is Luke Kinnard. And Luke Kinnard drilled that three at the buzzer against the magic on Saturday night for the Lakers. I sent Tony a video of Luke Kinnard hitting the side of the backboard earlier in that game with a shot from the corner. He also said that Bam out of Bio was like

the 13th best center in the NBA. He did not say that. It was attributed to him by somebody here who betrayed you him no i didn't do that it was somebody sure it was scalabrini came up to stand and said you said that because you guys lied to scalabrini and said that stan had said that mike you know i have one rule to live by right don't place parleyes on multiple long shots don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero always drink your yeagermeister ice cold that's the rule everything else is merely a suggestion everything else everything else wearing clean underwear every day.

Well, that's just a personal decision. Brushing your teeth. Obviously smart, but not a rule. Never pee-pee on an electric fence. Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Yeagermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all.

Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Yagermeister liqueur 35% alcohol by volume imported by mass Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York.