The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Dan's Great Analogy

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Can Dan resist the siren's call? Today's cast: Dan, Amin, Roy, Billy, Jeremy, Jessica, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow in it. Shadow in it.

Amin just hit me with a voice that was kind of between on the spectrum, lecherous and seductive. And he said to me, by way of good morning, and I'd be curious what you guys would guess, he was talking about, he's like, Dan, are you going to be able to resist the siren's call? Are you going to be able today to resist it? Do you guys have any guesses on what the sirens call is? Opening day. That's what Jeremy whispered to me.

That was a different conversation. Oh, I can't wait. It's gonna be a fast opening day. It's gonna all be. It's gonna take an hour and a half. What'd you say, Billy? I didn't hear you, Jeremy. You said I might earn my bonus tonight.

Would've been a funny joke. Yeah, you know, it's fine. Move on. What do you think the sirens call is? Hmm. There's a number of options. Riley, could it be, oh, I know what it is. I absolutely know what it is, I think.

I think? Yeah, well, yeah. The LeBron on McAfee. That's what I, that's what my guess is gonna be, LeBron on McAfee. No, well, it's adjacent. Stephen A. I love the confidence, I love the confidence

of I absolutely know what it is I think. That should be a life principle for you. Like to peter out at the end with I think, I absolutely know something I don't absolutely know. Well I thought we were talking about Jimmy or something, but there's a bet going on, so I don't know if that's what was in play. But then I remembered, you know,

there's, I mean there's a number of LeBron things. LeBron started up his podcast again, Sands, JJ Reddick, he was doing it with Steve Nash. Then LeBron was on with McAfee for like an hour and a half or something. There's a number of things there. I mean, let me check the trades, see if anyone signed a media deal.

Hold on a second. That's the sirens call for Dan. Check the trades. Variety. Hollywood Reporter. Where do you get your media news these days? Where do you get the trades? What are the trades?

Awful Announcing? Ryan Glashfegel, right? Awful Announcing has someone on staff just to write about this show, right? Like that seems to be the case. Several people, I think it's Ryan, I don't think it's Brian. I said Ryan. Oh did you?

Okay, I'm sorry. He also said Obama yesterday. Is that Osama? Now that one you missed. Yeah, you missed that. That was a $600 million fine, that should have been crazy. Crazy, man.

Venmo can just retire. They're like, hey, I mean, pay that one fine that one time, we're good for life. He called us on Vin Laden Obama. I've never felt more like, oh, this is what happens when you live in a red state for too long. And SEAL Team 6 killed Obama. This is the Dan LeBattor Show with the StuGuts Podcast. I don't know when Russell Wilson's professional career began, but if you had told me in 2010, if you had come up to me and said, you're not going to believe this, but in 2025, you're not just

going to be talking about what LeBron James said, you're going to be talking about what he did in 2025, 15 years ago, while a Russell Wilson signing makes you profoundly sad. I would not have had the ability to understand what you were talking about. Because Russell Wilson going to the Giants, I saw that happen, I'm like, oh, two lonely people met and are not gonna find love. That's not gonna end in the way that anyone thinks it's going to end, and it just made me sad. But then, isn't it on some level, two lonely people

who know there's nothing going on tonight. So it's 3 a.m., the lights are coming on. Like I don't have anything. You lock eyes. Yeah, and it's like, hey, were you my dream partner, the person I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with? Not really, but maybe tonight. Almost like one of those pacts that people make on TV shows

where they're like, hey, if we're not married by the time we're 40, you wanna just go ahead and get married? It feels like one of those where both of them have just kinda reached a space in life where it's like, all right, we could settle for this. Are they getting married? It's a one year deal.

Or like a two year, whatever it is. It's not like, oh, it's seven years. Russell Wilson's a quarterback. No, it's like, all right, damn, man, we need somebody. Like, I'm dating, I've kinda just met this person named Jameis, but like it's not- named Jamis But like I say three lonely people not to It's not really serious with the be a javis either like hey you maybe like maybe maybe Well, but I think I think it's a fling that you regret though at the beginning

You don't regret the fling before you before you partake in the fling You don't regret the fling like I think it's something that you're in your house afterward and you're a little bit of You're you don't like how all staring in the mirror like I shouldn't have done that. I don't think this is sad. I think this is someone who's towards the end of their career finding a place to play and continue their career because he doesn't want to retire. I don't think that anyone believes the Giants are going to be Super Bowl contenders. Exactly. Their wins total I think is like three and a half next year if you were to bet on that, they have one really good rookie wide receiver. They have a good, a couple good defensive players, but a good player on defense if you're Zazz or Witty

or Mike. But like decades of like not a great old line and just kind of not making great front office decisions. And so he wants to keep playing they were the one team that needed a quarterback still I don't think it's sad like this is just sort of how sports work towards the end okay except for he's not old like he's not an old person like I Russell Wilson to me if you give me word association, that's a vibrant, spry, athletic personality that plays the position differently than a lot of people do. How old is he?

Is he? He's 36. I mean, for a quarterback? That's young. That's young. Young for a podcast or perhaps. Ready to play another 10 years. But.

It's not young, but, you know, the Giants just took Russell Wilson over the 42-year-old guy who might be your quarterback in pittsburgh that's the only remaining door that's open that how do you feel as a steeler fan about what just happened there where you lose russell wilson who gave you a winning season it would appear that the only option left the only musical chairs left for aaron rogers and the pittsburgh steelers are the loneliest of lonely meetups because they uh Russell Wilson and the Giants just paired up leaving them no options.

Um how do I feel about Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers? I feels like it's been inevitable for like three weeks now so I've just accepted it. I don't like him as a person, but I do think the Steelers have done a lot of good stuff in the draft in the middle to later rounds that make their own line pretty good. Their receivers have gotten better over this offseason signing DK Metcalf. I don't know, the defense should still be really good. This is not the best option, but again, as we've talked about for the last three months, really bad year to need a quarterback. And Giants still also could draft a quarterback, I think, even though they signed Russell Wilson. So I wouldn't rule that out either. They could just cut Tommy DeVito and say, sorry.

And by the way, three lonely people, Tommy DeVito is not lonely, he has his agent. That man has family all around him. Look at me, you'll never be lonely as long as I'm around. The Vikings also haven't completely closed the door on the Aaron Rodgers situation. There was a report yesterday said, hey, we're still interested, possibly maybe,

in Aaron Rodgers. Yes, Roy, that was an Italian impersonation, but he only did it with his fingers. You couldn't tell from his voice. My culture is not your costume. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Is my culture your costume? And also-

I think, Jess, you need to make a Sudanese accent now, and then that'll make- That's a good idea, Billy. You're always helpful that way. Excellent work by you. Always helpful, Ally. I'll work on it. Yes.

Luckily, there's a lot of source material you could go off of. Exceptional. You wanna try that one, Billy, since you're so helpful? No, I mean, I didn't make fun of Italians. No? Okay. He was celebrating though. I was.

Taylor was in the kitchen, and I know I said Les Taylor, but Taylor had an opinion that I wanted to put on the poll as well, because he's like, smoothies are fruit. He didn't like that there were green smoothies over there so just put it on the poll at LeBotard show smoothies are fruit yes or no because the greens are still out there like I saw that all the smoothies all whatever the colored smoothies were. Whoa. Smoothies are for everyone Dan. You already accused me of segregation yesterday. Now I don't even want to say fruits.

I don't know, maybe Russell Wilson is sad. I'm telling you, man. I can't decide. I don't think it's sad though. Here's the thing, what's the sadness? I know, he's married to Sierra. I will never feel sad for him. Hey, here's many more millions of dollars to do this thing that you enjoy doing. 21 million.

Yeah, just do it again, man. One more time. So you guys do this one all the time. I wanna ask you about this, because I understand when people have a lot of money or are married to someone that you think is wonderful, how it is that we arrive, that person can't be sad because they have things. Hold on, Dan.

Let's break this down. This guy, you say, oh, he's getting a lot more money. Like, well, it's not always about money. He's married to this beautiful woman and I have a great family. It's not just only about love. It's about professional fulfillment. He gets to do the job one more year. This job he loves.

Well, it's not that, well, what is it? Also, he won a Super Bowl. Like, he was very successful in his career. I'm saying to you. Showed him one too. I'm saying to you, as he sits on his couch, he knows the year he had last year. He's not sitting there like, okay, here we go.

The Chiefs are gonna bring me in to replace Mo. He knows who he is at this point of his career. he's got a job a starting job right most likely and they're paying him 21 million dollars and his family life is great yeah I'm gonna say it's not sad it's pretty happy and if you're the Giants again like just said they're gonna be one of the worst teams in football next year so it's not like oh my god oh okay I could put Patrick Mahomes on the Giants. It's still not good enough. It's still, as I said, eight win, maybe nine wins,

maybe nine wins. You guys are assuming that I'm sad for Russell Wilson here. Just the whole thing made me sad. The whole thing made me sad. That something has to exist in the sport to feed at the bottom of the standings in that division that is only existing to lose to everyone else, that a champion's career ends

with that as the punctuation, bums me out, but not for him, just for everybody involved. I mean, but his career could have ended two seasons ago, right, like his career could have ended after the Broncos, but he got another chance with the Steelers. And he was fine, like he was okay, like I really think it was not, it's overstated how bad he was at the end of the season.

I think the whole team fell apart at the end of the season. I think he was part of it, but I don't think you 100% put it on him. This is good for him. Like, this is a good time. Like, pad your stats. Like, ensure that you're gonna make it into the Hall of Fame because people said that you've played your way

out of the Hall of Fame. Now it's time to start compiling. Go out there, take that starting job and start racking up TDs, yards, whatever you need to do. Dan, you would say Russell Wilson had a well above average NFL career as a starting quarterback, yes? Yes. And I think he still wants to be great

and it's not possible. And I think that part, when anyone is afflicted with it, is something that when you're a champion and have had that kind of confidence, is a hard thing to overcome. But the reason that I wanted to tie it back into a conversation that we were having yesterday that we just sort of skipped past,

because you guys are like, well, gets his money, gets his things, what difference does it make? We were talking about what I thought was the very particular awful pain of Ezra Edelman going from making the OJ documentary to having to meet the expectations after the OJ documentary, spending years with the Prince documentary,

and then not being able to show it to anybody, probably got a sum of money. Do you think that money makes him feel okay about what happened there? Like, do you think, do you think there, I'm guessing that if I talked to Ezra Edelman, he would say there was no amount of money that would keep him from releasing that to the world,

and you guys were all like shrugging your shrug. That seemed like a particular kind of imprisonment for a creative person to spend years obsessively, compulsively working on something, to know that it is great and to not be able to show it to anybody. Release it then. Can I?

Well he can't. Why can't he? Because it'll be a lawsuit. Okay, well if you believe in your work and what you put out there is not litigious, then put it out there. Then there is a sum of money that would stop him from doing it.

It's the lawsuit. It's whatever they would sue him for. This is the $50,000 hedge all over them. I'm saying there's not an amount of money he could get to not release that, that he could get. There's an amount of money you can take away from him. Let me, can I say, can I do the unpopular opinion here? The unpopular opinion is Ezra,

you knew what estate you were dealing with before you even started. How did you not get like, hey man, if I'm gonna do this, you guys can't say shit to me. Dot your I's and cross your T's before you waste all the time doing it. You're not gonna have it see the light. What do you think, you're gonna do it like,

you know what, they're really gonna like what I did with OJ, so they're gonna say okay after I actually finish the project. I mean, also like, it is not a great analogy because Russell Wilson is someone who's getting older and can't continue to do the job because of his age. As Rattleman's 50, he can still make other documentary. It's not quite a great analogy, is all I'm saying.

I'm not trying to make a great analogy compared to Russell Wilson. I'm tying it to an incomplete conversation that we had yesterday about the ways that you guys dismissed pain because someone gets Something in return for the pain as if the pain is not pain just because you get a few dollars What is Russell's pain? I don't understand. I'm not doing that anymore I transitioned already pain is Jamis. Jamis is the one with a gripe I mean I was never thinking he was gonna start.

No, Jamis is fine. Look, that dude is the most positive dude in the world. He came up with like three rhyming sayings in the time between he found out that Russell Wilson was signing and like, whenever he told him. Jamis Winston also is a player who probably would've loved to have Russell Wilson's success in career, in his career.

He did not have any of that. Russell Wilson won a Super Bowl. Russell Wilson had a very long and successful career before things went sour with the Seahawks. I would venture to guess that when all is said and done, Russell Wilson retires from the NFL and he's probably like, I made a lot of money, I won a Super Bowl, I'm good, I'm fulfilled, I'm happy.

You know what I don't understand about- I have a great family, fulfilled, I'm happy. You know what I don't understand about- I have a great family, I have a hot wife. You know what I don't get about Ezra Edelman? So he's not allowed to show the movie, but he's showing it to all his friends. So like, he still is. Why didn't he just do a series of one-on-one screenings? Like if you wanna come watch my movie,

like come over to my house, I'll show you the movie. And then you get the fulfillment of people watching the movie that wanna see the movie. And then- It charged like a million dollars for me.. No, not even let's be honest, right like real artists They don't care what the masses. Yeah, these people are stupid cattle is what they think is like but they're friends their peers That's who they care. So like Billy said just invite your friends over They'll all tell you was awesome and then you still got your money who cares and then and you know, what's the best part? Here's the best part? Here's the best part.

All we're gonna do for the rest of time is whisper about, yo, Ezra made the craziest documentary about Prince. It was the best documentary ever made, but no one ever saw it. Oh wow, and now there's like this urban legend that goes around. The lore. The lore grows, he becomes even greater

as a result of this, right? Like, you know, years and I've like, Ezra Edelman, grandpa, tell me about Ezra Edelman. Like, oh, let me tell you about the one work that he never got to release. Like, what? And then we're gonna make a movie about this, 30 years from now, but the hunt for the Ezra cut. And then they're gonna go and they're gonna break

into like Fort Knox, where it's hidden in the thing, and lasers come on, and Prince's family, and the lasers are purple, cause Prince, and Prince's family like, haha are purple because Prince. And Prince's family like, ha ha, we knew you were coming and then a big guy scrams. Falls down. Yeah. You gotta run away from it.

He needs like an artist stunt. Starring the cage. You know, like he needs to pull some sort of grand stunt and say that it's for the art and get sued or get arrested or whatever, right? Like I think that you have to have like a blimp that you projected on that's just flying around towns. You have to be following it around

if you wanna watch the whole thing. Or you just have like a water machine that you projected on that's just flying around town, so you have to be following it around if you wanna watch the whole thing. Or you just have like a water machine and then like, what I mean was saying, you light it up purple, and then you're just projecting the movie on the screen. Like you just do stuff like that. You need a big artist like to do. That's what's missing here, is the passion from Ezra,

I think. Billy, let me ask you a question though. Would you be worried that that would reduce from, because whatever the Imagination of what it is is always better than what it is. Yeah, the movie probably sucks I mean We're just setting the expectations up to this level Pablo said it was the greatest thing he's ever seen Smoke up his friends asses like get out of here like Pablo just likes to be friends with famous people and talk about how he's

Friends with famous people and that's my famous friends like so we get it your friends with famous people and talk about how he's friends with famous people and that's my famous friends like childish can we get it your friends with childish can be in a problem we get it exactly right like enough of that the expectations are so high and if we're gonna be honest about the oj one let's be honest we all thought we did it oh wait like an editor editor edelman is what we needed there eight episodes way too long. Could have been six at best. I don't agree with you anymore. Weather is starting to warm up. Regular season is starting to wind down. Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up.

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Get an expert now on TurboTax.com only available with TurboTax live full service real time updates only on iOS mobile app. See guaranteed details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees. Don LeBattard. You don't remember the idea. It was probably like that kind of thing! Something? Okay, no. The home run call was, that kind of swing, that kind of thing! Stugats! Oh. It's a good call.

Thank you. And plus, it doesn't matter who's hitting it, like you're not tailing it to a particular name. Correct. You know, all that jazz, you know, you don't gotta do that. Oh, that would be a great call. That kind of swing, that kind of thing. This is the Don Lebathorpe Show with the StuGats. So Amin said in the middle of that, Amin said, who cares?

And my answer to that would be, he does. I would not. He cares about the cattle? He cares about working on something for many, many years and not being able to show it to people. While people journal, I will tell you that when I write, I don't write to put it in a drawer, but I want a small, I want to stop for a second

and just ask, as I often do too much, way too much about origins, why is there smoke blown up an ass? Like what is happening there? Does it? Does. I don't, I don't. You ever had smoke blown up your ass? I don't yuck someone's yum, man.

I don't know whether that is yuck or yum. Tingles. I'm unfamiliar. You are the king of yucking other people's yums, Billy Gill. I'm very pro-yum. I would say that that is exactly the kingdom that he rules over, yucks and yums. King Yum, that's me.

And he just makes them collide together. So yesterday, and this was interesting to me because we have seen over the years sort of the morphing of sports reporting and sports entertainment and big stars merging so that whatever the entity is, in this case it's ESPN and Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James, and I cannot resist the sirens call. This is all great content for the machine. It is funny to me that everyone here is being more childish than Bronnie, because Stephen A. is calling LeBron a liar,

which I have not seen him do a lot of. That seems like an escalation. Stephen A. calling anybody a liar, which I have not seen him do a lot of. Like, that seems like an escalation. Stephen A calling anybody a liar on television, I don't think that's something he does all of the time. I think that is very strong as we continue to push the boundaries on these relationships and as Stephen A gets rewarded for all the things that he is. And as LeBron goes on McAfee and they create content

between all of the shows and try to get integration between all of the shows, you get LeBron saying, yeah, sure, Stephen A wants to sit this out. So he says he didn't want to talk about it, sure. And then he puts him in Tidy White, he's eating ice cream, enjoying that LeBron confronted him during a game. But the childishness in it,

beyond I would have swung at him and he would have kicked my ass and all the nonsense that men do when they're being silly around the soap opera, the idea that LeBron is mad and that Stephen A. thinks he's mad and keeps coming at him with, you're not my goat, you're not the best. You're the second best

Shannon Sharp thinks you're the best It's seven-year-olds. That's how seven-year-olds would do all of this and it is passing for content. I cannot resist You can't resist it. I can I I was ashamed yesterday All of it all of it both. Everybody. And then the things, and seeing the reactions. Man, this is quite possibly the biggest journalist who covers the sport and the biggest named player who plays the sport. And if I'm Adam Silver, you get him on the phone and say enough, enough.

This is embarrassing. This does not represent our sport. And by the way, LeBron said a lot of stuff yesterday that I was just like, what are you talking about? Giannis has scored 200 in a game. He said, oh, Brian Winhurst says he's my friend. I'm like, I've known Brian Winhurst for at least 10 years personally,

and I read his work for 10 years before that. I have never heard him say, insinuate, like hint, try to act like, not even close. Damn, I've never heard Brian say that about people who he's actually friends with. So for LeBron to say that matter of factly to tee up a McAfee lame-ass Photoshop, oh he was your teammate, oh there he was, oh and they Photoshop him like it was so because LeBron had a problem that Brian said the reason why he signed with Nike whatever and my thing was like okay so say he was

wrong. He's never said he was your friend never acted like he was your friend it was all of it was just so odd he called him weird I'm like that's weird dude thinking that someone's your friend or whatever so the thing Dan I say to all of that it's like LeBron has a responsibility just like Stephen A has a responsibility. That when they say things, yes they're human, yes their feelings get hurt, yes they react and lash out. But the problem is, when you're at that place,

you can't do that. Because your words hold more credibility than a regular person just lashing out, or say, oh man, that dude thinks he's my friend, whatever. In the same way, Dan, that a week ago, two weeks ago, whatever, you said, why can't, why aren't people asking about LeBron using PEDs? And I said to you, Dan, you can't say that.

You can't say that. And you're like, why not? I'm not saying he is, I'm saying why isn't, why aren't more people asking? I said, Dan, because when you say that, there is a credibility behind that that leads millions of people to be like, oh see, the number of people I had, friends of my life,

finally someone's saying the quiet part out loud, no. I had a lot of NBA players texting me and I couldn't like say that. Because I saw it, I saw it, You thought you were just doing this intellectual exercise and I'm telling you, no. When you say that, people take it as gospel because Dan Lebatard is someone whose opinion is held up here.

Stephen A. Smith is someone whose opinion is held up here. LeBron James is someone whose opinion is held up here. And when these guys talk flippantly in that way it hurts our sport it's embarrassing. You're interesting in this respect because two things are in play that have been interesting watching you in this world over the last several years make a career the career that you have as you like all of us have aged. You're not wrong in saying that this is shameful but you are protecting your beloved sport and asking the Commissioner to step in on famous people

doing what is the natural evolution of everything we've been doing over the last 15 years in media with and around LeBron. This is all part of the game for the last 15 years on what these two human beings have wrought near and around this sport and when you say it's bad for the sport and the commissioner should step in I think you're wrong. Now it could be bad for the sport in that you're tired of storylines that we're talking about drama instead of that as the oldest player in the league, he makes the last shot against Indiana on the road last night at the buzzer and we're going to talk about all the other garbage instead of that,

instead of the game. You'd be right there, but you sound like you're clutching rosary beads in protection of your sport as the media and game evolve around it. And as those two aging superstars steven a and lebron try to keep up in the modern game of attention is currency steven a she is insane steven a is never younger than he is fine wine get out of here so i don't crack st the commission of personal the steward of the game the steward of the game and and that is part and parcel of making sure

that it doesn't cross a line. Is the attention currency, oh yes. But now you're crossing lines, both of them, where it threatens the very structure upon which this whole business is built, which is that people believe that it is all real and all based on fact. LeBron also said, oh yeah, you know,

the NBA made sure I went to Cleveland just like they made sure Patrick Ewing went to, like he's just, look, I can do dumb shit like that on Basketball Illuminati, me and Tom and Anthony Mays, because we're not the biggest player who ever played the sport, or we're not the biggest journalists who ever played the sport, or we're not the biggest journalists who ever covered the sport. It's a niche.

Yes, sometimes there are things that I see people doing elsewhere. Like, I wish I could do that. I can't because that's stuff that, you know, for instance, the kind of humor that some comedians on podcasts do, I wish we could do that here all the time. I can't because I understand I'm not in that space. And if I make that joke, it doesn't land the same way as when a professional comedian does. Billy wanted you to make it, Billy wanted Jess to make it earlier in the show.

Trust me. That's not the joke that anyone wanted. But the point is then it's, there has to be like, you can't just say, well, this is how it goes because that first of all it assumes a falsehood of which is this is the only way to get that kind of attention this is the only way to get everyone talking and i don't believe that it's the easiest way okay why do we have to do it the easiest way like as far as a as a sport right again i don't see Pedro Martinez fighting, well, I guess not Pedro Martinez wouldn't be the guy, who's a, uh, Bugshanbi having an argument with Jazz Chisholm about, hey man, you should just man up. Who cares if they cut up your cleats or whatever.

You really on opening day, you showed your baseball ignorance there. Jessica thought I had a bad analogy. Bugshani against Jazz Chisholm is not Stephen A. Smith against LeBron James. You know, if you're ignorant about baseball, you might want to go to a game. You know, today, Sandy Alcontra, Paul Skeens at Lone Depot Park, and if you want to go to that game.

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Game Time, ooh. So, Dan, I don't see this happen in any other sport. Where, like, yeah, there's always gonna be the curmudgeon, the old guys, like, man, these young guys didn't do it like us. Yeah, there are gonna be young guys, who are like, oh man, I wish I could pitch to Babe Ruth. I would, you know, I'd strike them out in two pitches or whatever. Right?

Like there's always going to be those, but you don't hear it at the pinnacle. At the pinnacle, we don't do that. And again, this is tied into every conversation we've had about, oh, the NBA ratings, NBA PR, whatever. Like man, at some point the commissioner's office, you can't control everybody. You can't control Gills Arena, you can't control oddball, you can't control those fringe places. You can't control Stephen A. Smith either. Yes you can!

Yes you can! Because that network broadcasts your stuff. I can't call in everybody. I can call in everyone from ESPN doing their NBA stuff. I can call in the best player in the game. I can call in Steph, I can call in LeBron. He can. You know how I know he can, Dan?

Because David Stern did that all the time. Yes, but it's a different age and the two people, no. Is it still money? Is it still money? It is still money, it still money it is still money but I will tell you having run into these clashes at ESPN with Rob Manfred who was trying to control what I was saying that ESPN could not do that to me and while Stephen a is the only person at that company who has told me

on the phone after a conflict with that company, hey Dan, you can't go against the company. I would say that Stephen A's present power is such that he could absolutely buck the people involved and if Adam Silver calls him, i'd say he's got a responsibility to report that that he's got a responsibility to tell people that adam silver has called him and tried to mute the conflict as a journalist i'm curious about the way let him let let it let it be out let me know who cares like yes yeah i said it i told them this is shameful

i told the bond This is shameful. I told LeBron, this is shameful. Yeah, if I'm Adam Silver, yeah I called them. That's my job, that's my job. I'm curious, I'm curious, maybe we should call Skipper and ask him. I wonder what kind of language is in the broadcast deal. Because it's not just, here's money, you guys do our stuff, have at it,

say whatever the hell you want. There's language in there where it's not just, here's money, you guys do our stuff, have at it. Say whatever the hell you want. There's language in there where it's like, hey man, you want us to take you to court on this? ESPN is a good corporate partner, Stephen A is a good corporate partner. But we disagree on what's good and bad for business here and we disagree on what it is Adam Silver should do because you think this is bad for the game

and you're not actually wrong but it's good for their television partner it's great for their television partner in fact I'm gonna say that LeBron James went to McAfee like that's Indiana LeBron James doesn't do that LeBron James LeBron James is it play the pace I know but I'm saying LeBron James doesn't get into a car and go somewhere into a warehouse away from where it is that the arena is in order to do an interview for an hour unless you're trying to please a corporate partner. That's not doing a favor for him.

Corporate partner? Dan, you are so naive sometimes, man. Yo, you think he went there because he's like, I need to do a solid for ESPN. Do you think he did that or did he do, want to take a shot at ESP at Stephen a on his ground right he went to McAfee show remember the same show that when he was like F this Adrian Wojnowski guy what am I gonna do I'm gonna be Sham Sharani who doesn't work here every week right it's not an accident it's not an accident

like Pat McAfee is the space if you want to take a shot at someone at e-s-p-n this is the same space on e-s-p-n's airwaves where they don't let you say whatever you want so because we were asked man lebron why did he go to gilz arena gilz's guy he trained his son why did he go there to say those things why did he go to

uh... all the smoke uh... steven jackson mad barnes those guys they got a great relationship why didn't he go to uninterrupted why didn't he go to all the smoke? Steven Jackson, Matt Barnes, those guys, they got a great relationship. Why didn't he go to Uninterrupted? Why didn't he go to Knuckleheads with Q Ridge? Why didn't he go to Shannon Sharpe? Why did he go to the white guy, Pat McAfee? And I said, guys, it's not about white or black. It's not about who's his boy, who's his not.

He wanted to do the nuclear strike from inside the building, not from miles and miles away. I recognize that, I like doing that. So that's why he went there, right? And I know they'll say, oh, me doesn't know what he's talking about, but man, like some of these things are pretty obvious. You say it's obvious and you say that I'm naive,

but what I did assume, because that's what happened when we got LeBron in that time slot, is they give you like there is the 10 to 1 they give you some things to play with so that you could create a bigger entity that becomes the thing after first take that you need it to be like you cannot say that that is not all good for ESPN all of it it's good for ES being in the short term right other than whatever internal politics now that they have to uh... trad traverse based on

well however cd might feel about friendly fire all those things it's not good your corporate partner whose rights you you look like they are making up money off of comes to us as what the F? What are you guys doing? That's when it ceases to be good,

in the same way that everything is great as long as nobody complains about it, right? Sure, oh yeah, no, I cheat on my wife all the time. How does she feel about it? Well, she doesn't know, but she's fine. But then when she finds out, you're like, oh man, that was a bad move. Yeah, of course it was a bad move.

So that's the thing. It's like that it's incumbent on Adam Silver to be the spouse who does not allow Tom Foolery in the house, does not allow it. You don't wanna make an enemy out of me? Yeah, and there's that, sure. I mean, look, I don't want, as this is an exciting end to our season,

we're going into playoffs, legitimately, nobody knows who's gonna win the championship. There are a lot of like real contenders. I actually booked my hotels. We did a bit on the show. Ooh, which one? I booked them all. I do this every year.

I booked my hotels for the finals, guessing where the finals might be. And this year for the first time, I had like nine different cities. And because I don't know who's gonna be the number one overall seed or who's gonna have home court advantage, I had to do multiple permutations. It's really, that's what's great for the sport.

That's what's great for the sport. And all of our big players are in play. Steph Curry is back in play. LeBron James is in play. Nikola Jokic is in play. All of these things, the Celtics, everybody. Instead we're going to do this and I know what people are going to say. I mean, well you guys could just talk about that right now.

Why are you talking about this? Because I know all of the talk today is going to be about, man I can't believe Steven they say he was It's not about what they said it's the fact that they're saying it like hey Group chat it go do that behind the scenes you understand though what I'm saying to you You're saying what you're saying is me is if it bleeds it leads like you're doing you're doing trash Kind of like most common denominator stuff When you say it's good. I am doing what ESPN is doing, which is what do the people want?

What do the people want? Not what's good for the sport. Like, this is the conflict is, your television partners with somebody, but this is dream scenario on a Wednesday when there's not a lot going on your big guy is fighting the league's big guy in a way that makes for good media that I guarantee you the ratings go up on when McAfee is interviewing LeBron and he is saying those things and also, so, but this is the conflict in the partnership.

It's the conflict and it's the conflict in the world happening around the partnership as the sport feels like it deteriorates a little bit, cause it's storylines and highlights instead of games. Like, you're not wrong that it can be a poison. You're not wrong in that ESPN is like, I'm in the money, I got a lot of money. They're doing that for sure.

I'm telling you, Adam Silver should not be doing that. Adam Silver should be like, no, in the same way that someone who cheats on their spouse could be like, yo, I'm having sex everywhere, why are you so mad? This is great for me. It's not great for me, the spouse is getting cheated on. It's not a good analogy. It's not great for me. The spouse is getting cheated on. It's not a good analogy because there's not a lot of money being made

by your corporate partner while you're having sex with other people. What do you mean? Depends on the industry. The sex is the money here, Dan. The sex is the currency, right? I'm getting more of this currency of sex. Your corporate partners with somebody and what is bad for your game?

Is good for you. That's the conflict and my point is the person it's bad for can open their mouth and say hey This is bad for me. Stop doing it. That's the point. I don't know what There's been so many voices there was a a German accent before. The grandfather was German when you asked about the story of Ezra. The grandpapa. Where do we land on the shake situation? Can it be shakes if it's green or no? Oh, smoothies.

We made it a poll question. This is a democracy, the people decide. Which one are you having? You're having, you're certainly. This one's peanut butter, which I also think is not a smoothie because it's not fruit nor green. Yeah, that's a milkshake. It's peanut butter. It's got banana in it though smoothie, because it's not fruit nor is it peanut butter.

It's got banana in it though. No, it's a smoothie. That's the rule. Play Stephen A again with the haunting threat. You don't want to make an enemy out of me. Weather is starting to warm up. Regular season's starting to wind down. Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up? I know what you're gonna need by your side. It's by my side already. Miller Lite. Yeah that's right. I'm making my springtime a Miller time. I'm making my sports time Miller time.

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