The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: The Ever-Inflammatory Dan Le Batard

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

"SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING BAD ABOUT TRYSTA!" Dan is back from L.A., and he's shit-stirring with his very first words on the mic. After recapping the events from his time away, he asks why no one in the South Florida media has come for Pat Riley or Erik Spoelstra's job because of the lack of Kel'el Ware minutes alongside Bam Adebayo despite the Heat coming off a GREAT win over the Rockets where Ware and Adebayo played important minutes together and got everyone in America back to believing they can make some noise. (Yes, this is Jeremy writing this description.) Today's cast: Dan, Zaslow, Chris, Jeremy, JuJu, Mike, and Trysta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can I get an honest appraisal from all people involved on and no sugar coating? How does everyone feel about Trista's dog, Ali, being here, pretty non-obtrusive. Like, compared to all the other dogs, couldn't wait a second before you started some shit. I mean, I like dogs, I guess, but I like my dogs. You know? So you, I feel, I feel that way when people. show you pictures of their kids. I feel like that's how people feel about kids. They like their kids. They don't want to hear your stories about your kids. But I tend to love all dogs,

especially dogs, though, that are this non-obtrusive. I'm the one who allowed the dogs in the office, and there have only been a couple of complaints. It's Amin mostly, right? A mean is the one who complains the most about dogs in the workplace, and he believes it makes it a hostile work environment for him. But what is the appraisal from everyone here? Does anyone, do we know if anyone here has any objections that they have shared

about Ollie? Because Ollie seems lovely. Your first word. I mean, it's remarkable. Oh my God. Your first words, trying to get people in the office to fight. And I was worried you might miss a step coming back. We have a guest in this week, Trista. It's like, someone say something

bad about Trista. I'm not saying, I'm not saying for anyone to say anything about. climbing all over you before the show. Do you like that? That's weird, right? Not what I said. I didn't say any of that. You guys are putting all these words in my mouth.

I'm pretty good with words. The words that come out of my mouth, I'm generally aware of what they are, what they should be. Are you an inflammatory guy by nature? Yes. I mean, look at them. I just want...

He's inflamed. I just want honesty. I want honesty in the workplace. You're like that little girl where she's smiling and the whole house is on fire behind her. That's you. Juju always gives it to me straight. Juju, what is the appraisal here?

Have you heard anything? What kind of feelings have you gotten from the room in general about the appearance of Ollie the dog? Silence works typically in an audio format. In Jew's defense, he pressed on. It wasn't his problem. But is the fader down? That's usually where I would look first if someone speaks in microphones on and the faders down on the board is probably. No, you look like you're all over it.

The fader's up. All right, good. Good start. So, Gugi's not going to be able to speak for the whole show or what? This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats podcast. So I go away for a few minutes and we're at war with Iran. Stephen Hawking is in the Epstein Files with photographs. The U.S. hockey team has given up all of its goodwill in five minutes. Bain's arms are too short.

Tyler Van Dyke's career is over as a quarterback. What else did I miss? What else do you guys have for me that changed while I was gone for a week? You were gone for a week. You're just going to list everything. Like, things happen. I know things happen, but these are some substantive things that have happened. I appreciate

the appraisal that things happen. I didn't have Ruben Bain's arms being too short. Like, they were the same size. They were the same size all of last season is what I'm saying. I saw him in the backfield all the time with those short arms and they didn't get any shorter. You wouldn't put them as too short, but you would put them in the same tier as that's as

as Biggest story as War with Iran. Yeah, all of that is in the same class of stuff. I put all of that in the same place, especially Tyler Van Dyke's career being over. He went straight to coach. When I saw SMU gets new assistant former University of Miami quarterback, I thought it was Ken Dorsey. Like, I didn't think it was going to be Tyler Van Dyke. They actually have Deerick King on staff as well over there too.

Yeah, Tyler started a game for a second. Wisconsin against Alabama was actually moving the ball quite well against him in his first drive. And then he just totally tore up his knee. And you thought, okay, this will be the standard ACL thing. And then photos came out of his knee in recovery and it looked jacked up. Like I know they usually say Tyler Van Dyke had a successful surgery. This, I mean, his knee looked bad. There were photos of him smoking cigars from the SMU locker room after they had defeated Miami last year.

And it looked pretty jarring. So I'm not surprised that his career is over. He was basically on the staff as a coach in uniform for them. I imagine you guys talk plenty about everything that happened with the U.S. hockey team, but how are you guys feeling about Inter-Miamy going to the White House? Because now Inter-Miams is going to do that, right? Leonel Messey gets knocked down on the court or on the pitch, I should say, in Puerto Rico. And now they're headed.

These things cannot be done quietly anymore. They're not just photo-ops anymore. It's side-taking now is what it is where. it is that we've, for the U.S. Olympic hockey team to do something it hasn't done in nearly half a century, and I remember what it was like the last time they did it. And to give the goodwill away that quickly, it's rare that I've ever seen a sports team of any kind, do that, give away that kind of goodwill, the best goodwill, patriotism. It's the easiest goodwill in sports. The easiest. Everybody, no matter how they feel about the flag, they can wrap themselves in it because something

silly happens in sport. Now, enter Miami, you're champion here locally. You've got, locally you've got the Panthers are finished that's a quiet end to a two-time championship reign the heat are arguing with former legends Dwayne and Bam are arguing about whether they are or aren't a play-in team they are thank you Tristan technically for now they they are and they have been the last couple of seasons but they're Dwayne and Bam are arguing about it BAM is saying that Khalil Ware doesn't listen to Spowe but he does listen to me that's something that just happened yep that's strange

Is it not? Do you guys want to see Ware playing with Bam? Like they, if Ware doesn't play, they're not very good, like statistically. I like the idea of Ware playing next to Bam, especially when Bam comes out and says that Ware listens to him. So I like that dynamic. If Bam is supposed to be a leader, he is the captain. I like the idea that they're next to each other if Ware listens to him. Also, I saw Barry Jackson put out this number a couple days ago that when Keller Ware plays less than 15 minutes a game, the heat, at least at that point, were one and nine on the season.

My God. I thought it was worse than that. I thought it was like one in 15. But let's get BAM. I thought this was interesting from BAM. I was surprised by it, right? Because BAM is being unfiltered honest here. I don't generally find BAM to be that interesting,

but I thought all of this was hugely interesting. He usually doesn't say publicly interesting things. But listen to what he has to say here about playing with Khalil Ware. But he wants to learn. He wants to figure it out. And, you know, for Spoh, man, you just got to give him the opportunity to make mistakes. Now, sometimes the mistakes be crazy. But as you can see, he's a talent, man.

He can get a double-double with his eyes closed. And when you have that type of talent and he's activated, you know, he doesn't do anything but help our defense, help our offense. And Bigfeller can make plays. He also said he doesn't listen to Spoke. He listens to me. Like that sounds not there, but I was surprised to hear that sound. I go to the workouts with him at 6 a.m. What is that?

Saying out loud, I don't listen to Spoe. He doesn't listen to Spoe. He listens to me. I think it means that Spoh is really tough on him. Probably the same way that he was really tough on BAM, you know, seven, eight years ago. Spoh's been talking smack about Khalilware since Summer League, Calel's first Summer League, and just burying him over and over and over again. At a certain point, I think talents need to be led in different ways.

And Spow does not care. he is going to continue to give Khalil a tough love. And Kalil went to Oregon, transferred out of there because he didn't want Dana Altman in his ear. So this is not new, I think, for Khalil. Well, I remember the very first time, the very first time I ever spoke to Spoe as the head coach, what he made clear right away is,

I do not care if the players like me. It's no part of my job description. Do the players like me? However, when I hear the leader of this, team for better or worse, that's the leader. It's not Tyler Hero. The leader on the court of this team is Bam Out of Bio. When I hear him say flatly, young player doesn't listen to coach. I've never heard a heat player say it about their coach. And I don't think that's good. Like, I don't think there's a way to frame any of what's happening between Spoh and Khalil

Ware. She could file it under tough love. That's the most generous assessment. But if he's tuning out tough love, then it stops being love and it's just tough. Is him not listening to Spoe? Is Bam saying that as something that, like, does that make Spoe look bad or does that make wear look bad? I think it makes Spow look bad. Honestly, like, at a certain point, you have to change the way that you coach. If somebody is tuning you out and it's a talent who is to the point where Bam is saying,

like, this guy makes plays, yeah, the mistakes he makes, sometimes are crazy. but he's a young player. He's very talented. He has all the tools. He's a seven-footer who can do all these different things. Like, it behooves Spoh to adapt to a certain point if you want to get the best out of your talent. When he's listening to Bam out of Bile more than the coach, I think that's a bad sign. So this is an interesting thing that she's bringing up here because I have talked to people who are now in their 50s in charge of things, and they don't understand how the young people in meetings are always in their phones. The young people, when you're having meetings about important things, they have no reference point for these people who are 30 years younger than me, they're in their phones. And their

choices to either ban it and lose them or adapt. And I think most people listening this are probably saying, Spoh doesn't need to adapt. Kalilware needs to learn. The entire pressure of the entire system is falling on Kalilware to get better, no matter whether the environment is supportive or not. But the best executives I know say to their young people, hey, look, I understand that things have changed. I'm not going to do a hard and fast rule on your phones, but please, in these instances, be paying attention. I need you to adhere to the general outline of some rules that I'm going to change a little bit for you, but I don't see why and how Spowe would change. Why would he? There's nothing in the culture of what the Miami Heat are that would suggest to Spow that

he has to change. Except that, they're just a play-in team all the time. And he kind of needs that player to be great if the architecture of this team is going to be such that they're not going to get him better players. Right. First of all, Spoke, what have you done for me lately? Like, I don't see no rings on them fingers lately. At the same time, I think he should take the advice and the example from how Steve Kerr handled Kaminga. Because Kaminga is good enough. If you put him in the right system, as you see, he's good enough if you're willing to work with him. Your irresponsibility and just trying to work with the young gentleman, I think is kind of wrong. If I was on Spow.

Can't there be an argument made that they've handled him exactly right this season because he's gotten better and better and now the minutes alongside Bam are productive? Like, he was struggling so much defensively in those matchups with Bam because he was shot block chasing. And now those times where they're out there together over the last four or five games they play together, they're like plus 80 when they're on the floor together in limited minutes. So while I understand, like, Kalele has been frustrated, there's also an argument to be made that they have handled him the right way because he has only improved in the ways they've needed.

Well, he's not being handled the right way if he's not listening to his coach. If I've got BAM saying out loud, he doesn't listen to Spoe. He said, I want big fella out there. I feel like he listens to me and sometimes he kind of ignores Spoh. I've banked so much equity with him throughout the summer. And then he later on says, like, I feel like he gets better when he's out there with me. It's a semantics here. Right. Like, well, but I think I'm going to take the opposite side of the semantics then it sounds like you are. It feels a little bit like a throwaway line to be perfectly honest what Bam is saying there.

Like, does he not listen to his coach sometimes? Definitely. Like, I think it's why he slipped in the draft and he's such an incredible talent. Like, there was a reputation that he had when he was in school. And I didn't even know the part that Trissa just said about Oregon. Okay. So clearly there was a reputation of the player kind of feels a little bit like a throwaway line from Bam. he's never offered that in the way of a throwaway line before and I've never heard someone say that about someone who's coaching the heat before like never buying going back to Kevin Lockrey I've never heard it say I sometimes ignores the coach especially a player who's sitting there fighting for minutes well but I think while maybe it wasn't said out loud I think we can all agree Hassan White's likely not listening to Spow all the time okay and Bam didn't say so right well but maybe he's going more tenure now it was understood it was understood yeah we all understood we all understood we all understood we all understood we all understood we all understand

that he wasn't listening to Spowe. I want to get Mike's reaction to this Barry Jackson tweet right here. Spow said recently the Heat is simply better than its record. Riley said the Cavs playoff series isn't reflective of what this roster is. For what this roster is. For several years, key heat people have felt the roster is superior to the record. One reason they've stuck with it. Wins like this against Houston and this season versus OKC, Denver, two versus the next versus Detroit fuel the continued internal belief in this roster. no doubt that the Miami Heat believe in themselves. No doubt whatsoever. And I have no doubt that it will play out the way that it has recently in which they're wrong about the roster construction and

they'll try to get an impact player outside of the lottery and we'll swing for the fences yet again in the off season. And hopefully this time, like we've been saying far too often recently, hopefully this time they'll get it right. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is one of those months where we talk about celebrating women and it's very, very deserved because when you actually look around a lot of women in our lives are carrying a ton, work, family, relationships, expectations, nobody notices or sees. I start thinking about the women around me, my wife, my mom, my sister, my friends, my coworkers, people who somehow take care of everybody else while still trying to hold it together themselves. And it's a ton to carry. Therapy can be a place to put

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Hey, it's Mike Ryan, and I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends. Maybe it's an NBA game. You get a text, hey, come over, you want to watch the game, and maybe you're like, I don't know, I kind of just wanted to stay home. And then you think about it. After your buddy hits you up, and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game into a special time, into a Miller time.

That's right, this happened to me just last week. I grabbed a six-pack of Miller Light, said I was on my way, and next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a miss call, and the game's coming down to the final possession. It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call. And my friendship's stronger for it. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Light.

Great taste, 96 calories. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Don Lebertard. All these high-paid analysts.

I don't want to mention names. TNT, ESPN, you know, oh, yeah, they are dead. They're not going to make it, you know. Even if they win in, if they lose it in Miami. I need to calm you down. That's right. They lose in Miami. They don't got a chance in Boston.

Oh, they are going to. have their ass, you know what, in Boston, you know. Stugats. They were wrong. Are they going to lose their job? No. Are they going to get a cutting pay? No.

What are they going to do? Keep predicting what is the obvious? They're going to say, oh, the nuggets are going to win. Oh, Denver, the altitude. And you know what? The hit are going to win at all. This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats. See, that's the kind of stuff that bothers me.

Is that, you know, sourced quote. Because, man, back in the day, the heat have a bad loss team looks like it's not a championship caliber team and Pat Riley goes in his office he trades everybody it's like this is not acceptable

okay and now it's now for the fourth year in a row we're gonna be a playing team but we think we're better than our record is like that's not that's not Pat Riley that's an old man getting soft in his old year

what happened I'm just listening to like some of the same stuff that we're never really talking about man Kloa where was outstanding last night usually all our Calaware conversations are like, hopefully this guy can put it together. That's how I know about Calell Ware because I haven't really watched much of them because

I'm not watching much Miami basketball these days because I don't think the team's got a chance in hell. Everyone can see it though, Mike. When he's out there, everyone can see both sides of it, the extremes. He's a unicorn athletically and he does a lot of dumb stuff. Well, that's Cominga. That's the same situation as Juju is saying about Cominga. And now we see him thriving in his role where you've got Dominique Wilkins.

screaming on the broadcast, like, thank you Warriors for gifting us this unique talent. And I'm going to tell you this, I wouldn't be surprised of this happen with Cleo Ware and he thrives somewhere else. I'm surprised it didn't happen, which is, I hear this. I'm like, that should have been Phoenix's problem. It should have been Milwaukee's problem. It's not, I mean, Eric Spolster is one of the greatest coaches of all time. When it comes to Colell Ware, I'll side with him on how to manage this talent.

Do you look back at this and wish that they traded Ware for Durant? Yes. Yes, I do. I mean, I was saying that. Yeah, I'm not as bullish on where. I understand why there are aspects to his game that you're like, man, if this guy can put it all together, but there are guys like that in the league. Look, if there was ever an instance for Miami to kind of change its ways and adapt to a certain talent, that Michael Beasley had a lot of tools. Michael Beasley is a tremendous score. They had him, number two. They did the rare thing where they try to lose intentionally for a shot at him, and they capitulated on that too. So I don't see, like, Kelle Weir's ceiling being like that kind of level. I just thought he would be a piece and I wish that they would develop him a little bit more. And quite honestly, maybe stop dragging his name through the mud so his value can kind of stay high. Because look, you cite Kaminga, there wasn't much of a market for him. And the player had talent and he probably should have fetched more than what he got, given what we've seen recently.

And he didn't because they mismanaged that. Just like the Miami Heat recently mismanaged the Jimmy Butler situation. So my trust in them to be able to maximize the assets that they do have on the roster is kind of waning. Let me ask you this, though, as it relates to the things that Zaz is pointing out about Pat Riley and his age. And what we're talking about is the generational, multi-generational gulf between Pat Riley and players who are 20 years old and Spoh and players who are 20 years old. Because Spoh doesn't get to be the young person anymore. The leaders of this team are young people. It's not Khalil where young, but does Tyler Hero look to you in any way like something that represents Pat Riley?

Is there anything that Tyler Hero is giving off to you that suggests to you that Pat Riley understands load management and understands players not playing all 82 games? And it's just looking at Tyler Hero and saying, yeah, that looks like Magic and Kareem to me. That looks like Larry Bird to me. Let's listen to Tyler Hero here talking about the back and forth with Kevin Durant, where they were just calling each other names during the game. Nothing crazy. I know Kev a little bit. It's competing.

I feel like as a team, we didn't have an edge to us in Milwaukee or Philly. So I was just trying to bring a little edge to it. I mean, we won. the team responded. So we were down 14 to 4 at the time, I believe. I was able to just get some fire going. I feel like we're at our bets when we got guys in here at our own edge. I think that's stuff that you have to say 60 games into a season,

that you're going to win some of these home games when Houston is tired and traveling all over the place. Oh, Jeremy, yes, give me faces after you said you were going to sit it out after there are two losses and now you've got a lot of opinions. You know what you did last week. Yeah, I know what I did. And I lied. I lied. This team is number one in the east in points per game. They're number one in the east in defensive rating.

They're number one in the east in rebounding. And that's because you have been able to spread out the minutes between Kalawa and Bam and Abio. Now, while the two guys play together, you're playing really well, which unlocks a different level of ceiling for these guys because you have Bam Roam on the wing. You have Andrew Wiggins playing the best season of his entire career and he was locked down over that stretch on Saturday. This team has potential to be better than what's, their record says there is, and I think it would be wrong to just dismiss it because we're talking about quotes from Spoe on BAM from a month, on Kelle from a month ago, rather than what he's been talking about lately, which is that effort is there. The going and getting rebounds is there. Playing on the defensive end and having awareness and communicating in the zone is there. This team is playing better. Okay, but potential to be better than their record is, what does it even mean?

So they're going to face Detroit in the first round of the playoffs. How do you think that's going to go? They're going to get smacked. That's what I told Jeremy before we started this show. And by the way, Detroit has the number one defensive rating in the East. Second, second. Not the Miami Heat. But it's a rating off.

I just want to be accurate because Jeremy is an accuracy. He says things. So I just don't think that this means anything. You take the Heat who are basically the playing team. You know, talk about Draymond is like, oh, it's the Golden State Warriors invitations. That's what the Miami Heat should say about the playing tournament. And you'd also know the thing about the old days is them the old days, bro. Welcome to the new century.

Back to you, Dan. Thank you, Juj. In this new century, I didn't realize that there is an ability to unlock a new level of ceiling. Is there multiple stories in this house? I want to explore this a little bit. The ceiling when Kelle Weir doesn't play alongside Bam is different than the ceiling when he does play alongside Bam. I don't think that that's a crazy thing to say. It's not a crazy thing to say, but you know what's crazy is?

We all think, and Spoke keeps saying, nah. Like that part, that part is a little confusing to me. We're all like, yeah, this seems easy. Why don't they do this? In the last two regular season games where they play together, they outscore people by 66 when those two giant people are out there together. But the coach keeps saying, no, I'm good, I'm all right. I want to keep motivating him to be better.

I think that part's weird. I think we're not going to trade him under any circumstances, but also not going to play him very much. It's, like, what are we doing? What, how, how is it possible that I'm sitting here, okay? And I'm listening to Tristan Juju say, yeah, Spoh's got it wrong. Spoh knows less than us. And I'm like, I don't think that's right.

I think he's got more information than we do. And I think he probably knows a little bit about what he's doing. And I think maybe we have, maybe there's something here we're not understanding. Is Kelle where worth any of this? And I include the 20 minutes we've discussed. They could have had Kevin Durant for him and decided not to trade for Kevin Durant. because they wanted to keep him. So they think so, but they don't play him.

Right. So clearly they were wrong about that in the offseason, which means that that goes back to the original point. It's not even like the superstars that they're missing out on. It's guys that can help your roster and just dig yourself out of this weird purgatory that Miami finds itself in. They'll play hard. There'll be a couple moments in the season where Jeremy thinks we can win the east and we'll get into the play-in. and hell, hell, we might even get into the playoff. And then what happened last year, they got swept in historic fashion and the biggest beatdown

in NBA first round history. And I think that's kind of, I think that's kind of their fate here. We know that they're not good enough. We know that they're not going to be bad enough. And we're just going to keep with this playing. And hopefully we can get the whale in the off season. Rince repeat. What I remember about the last postseason is that that is where Zaz got a job with us

because it started not with the historic beatdown by Cleveland that represents a greater beatdown than any that there's been in the playoffs. And the last one was by 60. I think the last game they lost by 60 and just started their vacation. But right before that, they beat Atlanta in a game that ended up with Zaz securing this particular job. And Pearl Jam tickets. But the thing that I want to get to that Jeremy just did there, and I don't know if he's trying to trick me or he's trying to trick himself.

I don't know what he's doing because it's one thing to say last week after they lose two in a row that he's not talking about him anymore and then they beat Houston at home and he's like they're back in the game. No, but this is what I want to know. When you say, because Trista corrected you on the defensive rating, but when you say they're number one in points scored and you're using that bogus stat of points when their pace is faster than everyone and they're about 14, 15 or 16, and offensive efficiency, you know better about which number to use. why are you using points instead of efficiency? Is it to trick me or is it to trick yourself?

It's to trick you and the pace being number one is maybe more noteworthy. Yeah, but I can't trust you on any stat now. Because that's what has changed this team from last season. What a liar you've turned into. Number one in points, fifth and defensive rating. They know how to slow down overall. They know how to slow down other teams. They rebound as well as anybody in the conference.

I'm just telling you, like, those underlying numbers, when you ask why do they believe those things? That's why. Because you could see a team that's different in terms of what it was from last year. I'm not saying the result is going to be any different. They might lose in the first round. But it's a different roster in terms of who's playing. It's a different structure in terms of the way that they play offense. It's a different team.

And everybody wanted this overhaul. They acquired an All-Star Guard, and they're playing things differently. It is what it is. Don Lebertard. Team mates can't shoot from three Now they're gonna see a different Jimmy Now he's just Just playing nickel back in the locker room

And Stugats They'll play D and show threes As they chase the Nats for the six seed These five words in his head Scream are we winning games yet? This is the Dan Levitar show With the Stugats You say it is what it is

but I think one of the things that always gets lost in the discussions about these teams, going back to even LeBron, Dwayne, and Bach. Spos' whole thing is defense. It's not offense. His whole thing is defense. And Bam and Ware out there together harm them defensively. And Hero being out there with them harms them defensively. Like his, he doesn't care about anything else.

He doesn't care if they go out there and they go over 20 for three as long as, they're spacing the floor because all he cares about is are we playing hard defense because it's one of the only things he can control and make better than other teams. How hard are we playing on defense? We've had in the history of this show stretches with very middling teams. Panthers perpetually five points out of the final playoff spot. Miami Hurricanes, oh, this is going to be the year and then they'll lose like three ACC games. Miami Dolphins. We've been doing that one for a couple of years. And with all those teams, usually, have the point to go, including the Marlins, whenever they do their peaks and valleys thing,

you could always go to the front office. Managers got to go. GM's got to go. They got to shake things up. That conversation never surrounds the Miami Heat, ever. We are never saying anything like, has Spoloss's touch? I mean, not being able to like develop and reach this young man, usually that falls on a coach. Not here. Like you made the point, but no one's saying like, well, should we consider shaking things up over here? Like, they keep telling us. They keep telling us that they want to get a superstar, they keep failing. Should we get somebody in there that is good at this? That's better at this? Never a conversation around the Miami Heat. I understand why, but us as content creators, I do find them being such a challenge to talk about locally because

the top line of this franchise totally off limits in terms of holding accountable. There's only one other time I've seen it happen and it's when Shula was doing all the winning and none of this engulfed Shula until Jimmy Johnson's available. So unless you're going to show me, future pop out there, unless you've got something out there where people are looking at it and saying, that's available. Oh, is Brad Stevens available? Can we get him? Unless you're saying there's a guy, the only time it ever happened to Shula was not only

that Jimmy Johnson was available, but Jimmy Johnson was sitting there in the keys saying, that's the job I want. I'd like to have that job. And then all of a sudden, you can turn it over. In the history of South Florida sports, there's never this kind of stability. And I do think that Zaz and everyone in here would acknowledge that while Juju and Trista are comfortable saying, yes, Spoh's probably got this one wrong. Nobody's saying Spos should be fired.

Like, no one's going to say that. There's no one in this market who's going to say out loud, get this group of people out there. But there is an embarrassing moment, though, that I can point to Chris and Jeremy attended the event. Pat Riley was like, I got the harpoons. I got the whales. Can't talk a big game like that. Someone's watching the whale. I got a guy.

I told him to get it. And he gets. it and he didn't. So it's just your, your grandpa yammering at the Thanksgiving dinner table? When he did that that night, I was like, that's either going to age fantastically or horribly, and we see how it aged. I mean, look, usually to get drastic change and approach, because we keep batting our head against the wall thinking that we're going to expect something different.

And look, maybe on the eighth time we bat our head against the wall, a Jana Saints at Takumbo will appear on this roster. But usually to get the kind of change that we kind of want to see, we have proven commodities here. And I don't know if the answer lies in them. Now, I'm not saying Firespo and I'm not saying Pat Riley. I think both those guys, lifetime contracts here, I understand I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth a little bit.

But inside that room, maybe Nick Garrison gets a little bit more power. Maybe we say, you know what, this isn't going to go the way that you want it. This isn't going to go the way that you wanted. What makes you think different? What makes you think that's not already so? Nick Garrison is Pat Riley's boss. That's not something that people know. but it's so. It's been so since the beginning.

Well, the reason why I don't think it's so, and it's that we've just continued to tread water. I haven't seen the drastic thing that really surprises me out of this. In fact, every season for the last four seasons, I've been able to kind of accurately forecast how it's going to go. Can you imagine Nick Harrison, former ballboy firing Pat Riley? Like, could you imagine Pat Riley getting anything other than how he wants to go out, period? I will respond to your question with another question.

Can you really wrap your head around Pat Riley ending his time down here with a six-year whimper of not being able to deliver a superstar? While he does the post-season press conference and he goes up to Chris Cody saying, I got the harpoons, we've been doing this every year now and it's starting to sound borderline kooky when you keep failing. Well, but this is the thing, though. I'm going to move off of this subject, but you saying six years of fail, failure when there are two finals appearances in there is not six years of failure. It's just not. We brokered a piece deal. You no longer get to mention the NBA finals against the Denver Nuggets.

And I will not mention that Cooper Flag was taken with our draft pick. Let's rule that that's been a wash. No. Because you can have that as an example of it working out. And I got a very shiny, more recent example of tanking work. I'm such bullshit. I'm not going to ignore two finals appearances in six years when it's something that I can't even say of Denver. Thank you.

Who's got the best player in the world, and they haven't been to two of them in the last six years. But they have a championship. Yeah, they got the championship. Miami does not. They got the championship. And you'd have ruled out. We've all put the Dallas Mavericks in our rearview mirror, and they were in an NBA finals far more recently. That might be Pat Riley's standard, either win the championship or its failure.

It's not my standard. My standard is not second place is a failure. My standard is not I'm better than all of the teams but one, and therefore I'm a failure. What is Pat Riley's standard? That's the standard. It's winning or misery. No, I just said that that's Pat Riley's standard. He put it there for you.

It's why it's your standard. It's not my standard. I'm not going to say two finals appearances in six years is a failure. When's the last time Sacramento was in the finals? When's the last time Atlanta was in the finals? It's funny that you mentioned the NBA finals appearance because they also made that from a play-in. The standard here, as it has been, even with that finals run, has been, play in and that's okay

the last few years play in is where it has been and I will grant you that it tricked them when they beat Janus into believing it a little bit more the same way that it tricked them the last year of Dion Waiters and Hassan Whiteside that they went 33 and 13 down the stretch

and then re-signed Dion Waiters and Hassan Whiteside because they thought they had to run that back because they had a good second half of a season. Too many comies If you're not first you last then I'll remember that This is a bit exasperating to me because I would just ask the all of you, like, seriously, if you finished second place competing against the world, would you feel like a failure? Like, I know we do this around here.

Bronze medal and silver medal, that's first and second loser. I know we do that around here. But if you finished second in the world at anything, would you be a failure? Yes. Do you know how different the world was when they finished second? They're not finishing second. They're finishing 10th. What are we doing?

Stop saying they're a runner-up when they're 10th. You were saying this when they were second. No, but even when they finished second, they came out of 10th. The standard is 10th. In the East. Oh, so now the regular season is the standard. Even when your shiny finals appearance, it was born out of the play-in. The standard is 10th.

One of their shiny finals appearances. Also, they never had a shot in either one of the. these finals, they were never... That is not true. Do not say that about the bubble. That is not true. Are we going to just say, oh, because Goren Droghage's ankle was limp? And bam. And we were a game away from a game away. All right. Okay.

But it was also kind of... What about the Denver series? Kind of funky. It was also kind of funky. He were ahead with under a minute to play game five on the road. We were coming back to Miami for game six. Fool's gold is a thing. Fool's gold is a thing. in sports. Just got to box out Bruce Brown one time! I bet you the Cincinnati Bengals thought that

they were going to be running stuff in the AFC. Things happen. The Patriots feel today like a failure. They're not. I'd kill for that roster construction. A superstar that I know is going to keep me relevant for 10 years and get me one of those lottery tickets. Yeah, this is not the Patriots. It's a Patriots in that they used to be a regular part of the conversation. Patriots went away. they got bad and they built their they totally reshape their roster and brought in some new blood. Yeah, maybe they should be the Patriots

because the Patriots had Bill Belichick, someone who won plenty over there and wasn't living up to his own standard. And they brought in some new faces and look where they are now. Second place. Over the course of the weekend, I don't know how you guys received this news

because some of this stuff, obviously, in sports, no matter how securely you think you've built something, It can be undone by something like the health of Chris Bosch. So I saw this weekend that Chris Bosch mentioned that he just woke up in his own blood and that it was a life or death circumstance. I think I can make the argument on behalf of what Chris Bosch's game is that if he had stayed healthy, he'd still be out there shooting jumpers from the perimeter. I don't know how. Maybe he's a little too old for that. but he could have been playing, like, many of the last 10 years,

he could have still been playing as the centerpiece of this team, and I believe would have been better than any of the players that they have if he had stayed healthy over those 10 years. He'd have been on that team and still effective when Jimmy Butler was here. Like, that would have been fun, you know? I mean, he would have been better than Jimmy Butler. I think he's a better player than Jimmy Butler is, even though he's one of the few who had zero as a great player,

zero points in a game seven because – Oh, but the defense, Dan, come on. Because LeBron and Dwayne got all the usage rate. When you think of Chris Bosch and excellence, like in the history of the Miami Heat, where do you place him? Because I think he's better than Jimmy Butler, and I think he's better than Bam. And I think he, and it's no slight on either Jimmy Butler or Bam. Where do you put him in the pantheon of greatest heat players there have ever been? He's certainly better than Bam.

I don't know that I would say he's better than Jimmy. So I think with Bosch, we're talking We're talking top six or seven The reason I say he's better than Jimmy is because I saw what he was doing solo with Toronto finishing as an eight seed and he too could have put up 40 and 50 points a game if he was getting all the ball handling

the way that Jimmy was getting the ball and would have been an unstoppable thing as the primary number one but they would have been a seven or an eight seat. Yeah, but like what Jimmy did in the playoffs you know, the Milwaukee series and certainly in the final against the Lakers.

No, we already established the playoffs don't matter. The regular season is where it's at. Like, I think people may not want to hear it today, all right, but like Jimmy's ahead of Chris Bosch. I don't all of Chris Bosch. Yeah, I think he's even outside of that Tim Hardaway, Alonzo morning, Shaq run. He's definitely behind Alonzo.

Yeah. Is he behind Tim Hardaway? I think he's above Tim Hardaway. Killer crossover. I think you nailed it. It's like six. It's like six or seven. That's where we are with this basketball team.

Rushmore's season. That's where you're at. Well, what happened to you? So the Houston, you win? You beat Houston by 10 and you go from. Get advice to you with Kevin Durant? Don't let it. Come on.

What did Jeremy announced last week after their two losses? Did he say? Before. Yeah, before I said, don't let the heat win two or I'm going to be really annoyed come Friday. And they didn't. And then they lost both games. And I said, hey, my bad. I won't do that anymore.

And then they beat Houston on Saturday. And I'm all the way back in. Brutal performance. I'm citing pace. Defensive rating. Oh, man. We have two in a row against the Nets, right? You're going to say it?

So real disgrace. They've won a couple there. They've won 15 games. Walking in here. Don't let there you win two in a row this way. I didn't. Okay. Gives wrong facts.

That was a rough one. Oh, man. Sorry. Not first, but second in defensive rating by a percentage point. My bad. Also, you saying first in the league in points per game when their 15th in offensive rating is really, really disingenuous. Pace matters, Trista.

Pace matters. Different team from last year, guys. Totally different.