The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: The Peanut Gallery (feat. Tony Calatayud)

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

"Do we want to do the ignorant show?!" Dan begins the show by revealing his own despicable behavior after being called out by Mike Ryan. Tony is out at Give Miami Day, and he's reporting live from where The Cecil Fielder plays at loanDepot park. Amin is forced to defend the NBA from Dan, Zas, and Mike's complaints about players missing games. Again. For an hour. Again. If you'd like to donate to Give Miami Day, visit http://givemiamiday.org/ Today's cast: Dan, Zaslow, Chris, Amin, Jeremy, Mike, and Roy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey friends, Jeremy here. The NBA on Prime is back tomorrow with another great Emirates NBA Cup doubleheader. The night starts with Pascal Seaccom and the Indiana Pacers meeting Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. A matchup that if Tyrese Halliburton was healthy, probably would have been a potential Easter conference finals preview. Instead, you got Donovan Mitchell who's averaged at about 30 a game and the Pacers who are struggling, but those games on Prime are always intense. And then it's down to Texas as Nikola Yokic in the Denver Nuggets, as Big Honey plays some of the best basketball of his career,

which is certainly saying something, get their first look at Kevin Durant and the new look, Houston Rockets. If you're not a prime member, that's not a problem. Just sign up for a 30-day free trial to get started today. Pacers, Cavs, Nuggets, and Rockets. Coverage starts tomorrow at 6.30 p.m. Eastern, only on Prime. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. I'm not totally sure Zazz, as we begin today, if in 21 years of doing this, I have ever felt exactly the way that I do right now starting this show today.

And it's going to be honestly hard to overcome the way that I'm actually physically feeling. No, it's not exciting for this reason. Do you guys make any distinctions, any distinctions at all between feeling embarrassed and feeling ashamed? any distinctions between the two things yeah so shame is much worse right feeling ashamed feels worse than embarrassed even though embarrassing feels plenty bad right like embarrassing will go away a lot quicker than shame i i have felt embarrassed any number of times doing this show over 21 years i've never started it feeling this kind of ashamed why you shamed i uh i was uh just throwing peanut shells all over the floor of the parking garage and I got caught and I got caught by Mike Ryan and I got caught by Mike Ryan who called me out in front of the entirety of the group

and then a mean looks up and it's like I was wondering who was doing that and I had no moves away from that I was simply throwing peanut shells on the floor of the garage and expecting someone else to pick them up there's a little stairwell thing like by the elevator

sometimes you take the stairs up and I come up the stairs sometimes and I'll see the shell there. And I'm just like, man, who are these people? I just, in my mind, it's like two or three kids probably who work at the hotel in their like early 20s. They sit around. They crack wise. And they eat these peanuts. It's a peanut gallery pretty much. And then they just leave the shells. They're like, come on, guys. Every day. And then Mike comes in here. And he's like, Dan, we got to talk about these peanuts. And I'm like, well, the fact that they knew it was me. First of all, this is a hotel. Like, it could have been anybody. It's a park. It's a parking garage. But the fact that both. of that, well, the fact that Amin didn't initially know it was me, but the fact that Mike immediately knew it was me, this is the source of my shame. I don't want

to be seen that clearly. That could have been any number of culprits. This is Miami and it's a luxury hotel. I mean, Amin, you thought it was some squirrels? Who could have been? Secret squirrel. I don't believe that everyone here would have assumed that was me. Oh, come on. Really?

I mean, Amin didn't? Nah. Like, if you hadn't said, if you said, someone here, Amin, eats peanuts. It's not the squirrels. It's not people work in the hotel. It's people here who are eating peanuts and selling them. I don't, before I got to Dan, it would have been a while. Dan, Dan, you get after those peanuts. This was an opening shut case. Let me explain to you the peanuts are tapping into, I'm not kidding you, when I tell you, the

peanuts are absolutely beyond them being delicious and great and Hampton Farms being a great sponsor. The peanuts bring a childhood memory to me that has nothing to do. It's a little early for Dan Bingo. With the taste of the peanuts and everything to do with the freedom of, wait, I can just throw these things on the floor in a ballpark? This is not a ballpark. The freedom of making trash and not have to pick it up.

This is a shared garage. There isn't, I mean, you, you've seen. My parents came from Cuba. Not Texas Roadhouse. This is not something. Why is the gacky saying that? I like that. of Castro's just being like, don't eat those peanuts.

America. This is for America. I just treat every place like it's Texas Roadhouse. This is the Dan Levator show with the Stucats podcast. Chris Cody just asked me a question, and it's a good one, I think. Is basketball a winter sport? Yes or no? Because I don't consider it one, even though they play during winter. I consider the winter sports to have ice around them, cold around them. And so by the calendar it's a winter sport,

but I don't think of basketball as a winter sports to just put that on the poll. But as we get started today, I need people who may not know the entire history in this market in South Florida as we do something to help South Florida that Zaslow and us and our show have been friends for 20 years,

started a radio station in my... Miami that we were very proud of. And Miami means a lot to us. And Zazlo, as a literal friend of the show, is obviously someone that I like and respect. But over the last 20 years, the way sports commentary has changed, there's everyone at the trough now. It is a democracy. Everyone's giving their opinions.

And everyone has to have an opinion that stands out from the other opinions to climb out in this business. And Zaz is a rising star. but I believe he's over the line when his analysis of last night's sporting event is to walk in and be like Jimmy Butler's a dick and the Warriors are bullshit and I'm like okay that's strong and I understand it but that's probably not the takeaway from last night's game for me I'm more interested in the fact that we are in 2025 in a place where the champs don't have to play if they don't feel like it and that's bullshit for the paying customer.

Like, Steph Curry, we've got only so many more chances to see him in person. And while I am braceletload management and taking care of your employees and I can make all the arguments on behalf of both pace and, yeah, travel must be really hard. That's bullshit last night that the Warriors just shout for a month. Hey, we're going to take that day off in Miami. And then it's Draymond Green out with an illness. Steph Curry, my ankle sore and he decided it was going to be sore four days

ago and Jimmy Butler's not playing either and then leaving after the game without shaking anybody's hand without six years of relationship. That bridge is like so totally torch that he doesn't have anything to say to anybody but it's too far. It's a bridge too far for

Zaslow to come in and just be Jimmy Butler's a dick and the Warriors are bullshit. I mean you and I are on the same page. I was just a hell of a lot more efficient with it. Like everything you just said is the Warriors are bullshit and Jimmy Butler's a dick it's a co-sign

the behavior of a dick yeah we don't take personal attacks we just call out behavior but look the economy is well chronicled people literally circle that game on their calendars try to make plans and this is the plight of the NBA fan

right now you make plans you spend the money you want to see the superstar Steph Curry is an icon to younger generations and Dan is absolutely right they come to Miami once a year we're running out of time to see this player and Jimmy Butler's return on that court with Steph Curry is something that people would save money to see.

And the NBA has a huge problem because the Warriors kind of totally punted on the notion of playing this game, probably when the schedule came out and fans decided they were going to spend their money on that one. It's a huge problem and no one seems to care to fix it. Like we all talk about the ways that you can fix it, but no one actually wants to do anything to fix it. I do wonder, though, maybe Jeremy can answer this without me getting him in trouble. Do the heat still charge, like, is there, and the heat are not the only team that used to do this? Do they still do the tiers package based on, depending on what team you're playing, it's a little bit more expensive by tickets? Are you talking about sobbing or whaling?

I'm talking about price tiers. I have no idea. Because they at least used to do that. And if they do, then the NBA is stealing money from fans. Let me do this because I would say there is no one around here who loves basketball more than a mean. He dedicated the entirety of his life to that as a profession. He cares about movies a great deal. He cares about his family a great deal.

But I think he cares about basketball the most. Every time we start ripping his sport, he gets pretty defensive about it in protection of it because he really loves it. I mean, you come into town, at least in part, because you love the energy and buzz of, I want to go see Steve Kerr and the champs play the heat in a building I respect with an organization I respect and you get there last night and it's a G league game. I kind of knew.

I knew. Like they're on a six game road trip. Right? They've been talking, right? What Cleveland did wrong was their guys played one night and then two days later in the same city they're like, everyone's out.

But this guy can get on a plane and go to Louisville versus Kentucky, right? Meanwhile, the Warriors, what they did was were on a six-game road trip, and early on, they start talking about, ooh, so-and-so's under the weather. Ooh, he's dealing with an ankle. He's dealing with a bat.

So they're setting up the alibi. And by the way, they don't announce the rosters. I went to Steve Chris pre-game press availability. He was asked directly, have you guys released what the lineup's going to be tonight? He's like, no, and I'm not comfortable sharing that. Zaz broke that story. For those of you who do not know and we're not listening,

And if you want to make money around here on the Draft King's network, Zaz basically gave you about six or seven points yesterday in the morning when he reported as a journalist that none of those guys are playing, and I saw that line fly. But it was long after Zaz had reported that because the Warriors were still protecting that. There were lines as if those guys were all going to play, and then none of them played. Draymond Green illness, what is that?

Is that another weather, Dan? No, no, no. Draymond Green out, in parentheses, Steph Curry not playing. that's what it is. Like if Seth Corey's not playing dreamt like I play, that's what it was. That's why he was out.

Well, let's explore this for a second because I know it's been a topic of conversation for a while, but I just so that everyone understands, because I know it's the last dying, flaming embers of this dynasty. But for 10 years, that traveling road show has been the most important thing in the league not named LeBron. And over the last 10 years,

that guy as a shooter has been the biggest road draw there is in that. sport and if you want to sell out your arena the traveling circus champions of this important team that has dominated a decade led by someone who shoots like no one who you've ever seen and you want to make sure your kids are there so they can see him play the last two times that team has been in miami he has not played and yesterday they gave the game away and told you 10 days ago with all their comments that they were going to give the game away so i ask you amine when everyone laments the problem. The paying customer who expects to go see the giant rock band doesn't

get a bunch of impersonators then afterward without feeling somewhat hurt and betrayed and hurting the relationship you have with that league when that happens because that's just simply a rip-off. What the Golden State Warriors did yesterday in Miami was ripping off the customer. Say it. It was bullshit. Say it. Warriors are bullshit. I will not say the Warriors are bullshit. I will not say Jimmy Butler is a dick.

I will say that the Warriors have exhibited the behavior of bullshit and then Jimmy Butler has exhibited the behavior of a dick. Six-game road trip. It was the last game of the road trip, and it was coming off of a back-to-back against Orlando. There's no inherent advantage to them sacrificing their bodies for that night. Why wasn't this an issue back in the day then? Nothing. They used to do four games in five days.

There's a lot of, I mean, I don't, do you really want the TED talk about, like, I don't want to do that whole show again that everyone's been doing about fixing basketball for the last 18 months. But I do want to make it personal because it's right next door. And something else that I want to make personal is this, this telethon donation fest, this charity help that we're trying to do in Miami. Because I will tell you that Dave Lawrence, the former publisher of the Miami Herald, is, an epic monument of a charitable man, and the Miami Foundation has helped raised over $190 million for more than a thousand local non-profits. These are real difference makers in our community, and there are not a lot of people at this tough economic time taking care

of a whole lot of folks that can feel helpless and not have the feeling that anyone's caring. So as part of Give Miami Day, where asking you to go to give miami-day.org and help with some of the things that we're doing today in partnership with the perez family foundation we as a show will be giving 10 grand to an assortment of charities locally here and we want to get you involved in in the cause but i but i mean i want to get because as someone who cares about basketball you go across the street here this would normally be over the last 10 years of what you felt down here in miami around basketball and you could be the mayor of miami basketball when you walk into that arena because

People associate you with talking up this team since it traded for Goren Droghage. You go there yesterday and feel what in your heart about Miami's playing Golden State, and this is nice, Norm Powell, and that's a nice fourth quarter against the Golden State uniforms. But that's not Golden State. So from a Golden State perspective, again, I get it like with eight of their 10 games in November, since November 1st, have been on the road, right? They're traveling. They're an undersized team.

I was talking about this yesterday with some people like, look, this is a team that's built for April, May, and June, but you've got to get to April. And the problem with that is, they have a small team, they have an old team. They have the oldest team in the league. So it's like, you've got to choose your battles, man. And when you got to schedule like that the way it is, that's just the reality of the NBA. It behooves nobody for them to try out their guys, and then their guys get hurt for real and are out for extended amounts of time. And they're like, oh, why is everyone getting hurt? You got to make decisions along the way that makes sense for your organization,

even if it may be quote unquote selfish for the greater business good. From the standpoint of the Miami Heat, I think like it's concerning to me, not concerning because I don't think the expectations for this team are high. But the concern is, man, what's it going to take for you guys to take care of business against the teams that you should? because ultimately at the end of the season we're going to be looking at whether you're five, six, or seven

based on did you blow that game against Cleveland on a Wednesday night when nobody played because what's his name? Tomlin got bust your ass and nobody even never heard of that guy did you blow that game Wednesday night against Golden State because you had no answers for Quentin Post

in the post? These are the things that separate good teams from teams that do this. Now though, because what Zazz is saying is correct when he's saying, why wasn't any of this being talked about 15 years ago when teams went to the championship and weren't just protecting their play? Pat Riley ran all his men into the ground. He wasn't doing any of this. So, okay, so I think we had this conversation earlier this week, but the nature of the injuries that we're talking about, these soft tissue

injuries, groin strains, calf strains, hamstring strains, back strains, right? It has nothing to do with, oh my God, they were like physical and they were hitting gut. No, it's about mileage and it's about Pace, I told you guys this yesterday. Ten years ago, forget about the 90s, 10 years ago, the fastest team in the league was 100.5 possessions a game, and there was only one team doing that. Ten years later, with that pace, you were in the bottom ten. I mean, what you're saying is all these guys are Ferraris now. They're not built to be 300,000 mile cars.

It's not even that. Except don't they take better care of their bodies now than they've ever done in the history of man? I have a question, though, in terms of possible solutions. in Major League Baseball, something similar happened, and they just put pitchers on pitch counts. Why is the solution for these NBA teams to sit players out entirely rather than just get deeper and rotate more players in? This is what I'm saying. I mean, why couldn't those guys play the second half last night? Why couldn't Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler play in the second half last year?

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Why do they have to sit out the whole game? Why can't – I'm being serious. Why can't they play just the second half of last night? And we all know the answer. We all know the answer. No, we do.

We know the answer. I know the answer, but it's different than the answer that you want. No, no. We know the answer. And we're on the same page here. It's because their averages would be lower. That's right. That's right.

Their average takes a hit if they only play a second half. You're right. I'm glad we're on the same page, damn. And that's why they won't do it. It's because their stats will hurt. Folks, the leaves are turning. The weather's getting a little chillier. That means a football games are more important.

That means football. Football time should be Miller time. Game day hits different with a Miller light in your hand. From jaw-dropping touchdowns to fantasy heartbreaks, my fantasy season's over already, but you know what makes that better? Miller time. It's the beer that's been there for every moment. 50 years of great taste, simple ingredients, and then iconic golden color you can spot from across the room. And here's the kicker. It's just 96 calories. 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. the original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later. So whatever your game day looks like, remember Miller Time is always a good time.

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We could do it in Buffalo or Baltimore, Eva. They said you could do it where? Anywhere. Oh, whoa. Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. He said he could 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 Levitar show with the Stugats. Also, the geography of basketball, right? Whereas, again, in the 90s, throw the ball to Patrick Ewing, I either have to hard double or I got to stay with my man. If I hard double, Patrick Ewan kicks it back out. He's not kicking it back out to 23 feet, nine inches.

He's kicking it back out to Charles Oakley who's 15 feet away. That's an easy closeout. The amount of ground basketball players have to cover now is so much more. It's faster, it's further, and it's intense, and that's not even counting, again, the immense mileage that they put on their bodies prior to them even shaking the commissioner's hand. I mean, it is super interesting the way that you make the nuanced argument against the outrage of the emotion of, I pay, I want to see my stars play. The things that you're saying are accurate about everything in terms of wearing these guys down. But there's no solution to this problem. If everyone keeps getting more athletic and all of that athleticism means more pace and all of that pace means everyone's as disposable as an NFL running back

because we're going to run through these bodies faster than we ever did. And LeBron, with a 23-year career, if we just keep spreading the game out, we're going to make that a 12-year career because there are only so many miles you can put on all that tissue. They're basketball players. They spend all their free time playing basketball. I don't think they think it's disposable. I actually think it's the opposite. But too often, I want to learn from history here, too often we put a mean in the position

where he has to defend the merits of the game. This has gotten worse as the league has put a focus on trying to solve this problem. That's bad. It's bad enough that it's a problem to begin with, but it's even worse that the league is trying to impose sanctions on teams, levy fines, take away personal 65 game limits take away awards and actually hit the player's

wallets if they decide to do this and it's still not working and it's getting worse. So what do you say about that and what is an actual solution here? So I don't like the 65 game limit. I think it's ridiculous because the main reason is the voters have shown the ability to discern hey that guy didn't play enough games already. Nikoliyokic's first MVP.

People are not going to remember this because he's so great now. But when he won his first MVP, it was kind of like, yeah, I mean, he's the only one who actually played. Embed was hurt a lot and hard and missed some games. That's how he won that first MVP. It was a default decision. And there was no rule that had to force people say, now you know, Mbid only played 51 games or whatever. People knew the voters know. So I thought the rule, what it does is actually counterproductive because what happens is now you've got guys who are like,

like, shit, I got to get back on the floor or else I'm not going to hit the minimums in order to qualify for these awards. And obviously the money and the incentives that are tied to a lot of these awards makes the incentive for a guy to rush back, hurt. And ultimately, what we want is players to play. We don't want healthy scratches, but I think we can all agree. We don't want a guy getting hurt because he's hobbled out there because I got to prove everybody actually want to play.

I believe, and there's no way, again, it's I believe there's no way to prove this. but I feel like now in today's NBA if a guy is dealing with something and he's at 75% he doesn't play when back in the day it's like all right I'm not 100% but like I can play but I guess that's my thing it's like we've conflated like people getting hurt with like oh the guy just doesn't feel like playing yes and this is where it is that I'd like to put in front of everybody

the facts of the problem as Mike tries to advance them okay and Amin tries to give you the context that makes you understand there's a fault line here in this league. Like this is an enormous crack like a fracture on what's happening between the customer, the emotion of the customer, the customer thinking the player doesn't care when these are the facts.

Was DeAntony your coach with the Sons? Yeah, he was one of them. All right, the seven seconds or less Sons would be last in pace today. By far. Last? By far. They'd be last.

And Haberstro is saying that NBA stars have already missed 200 games this season due to injury or illness. That's double what it was a year ago at this point. So in the opening month of the season, the star players used to miss one out of every nine or ten games. Now it's one of every three. That's a fracture in your product. If you keep trying to correct it and it's just growing. Like if the commissioner is throwing everything at this, they've already got their league money. Their business is fine, but they've got the customer feeling like,

you can't keep ripping me off this way. So there's a couple of things. Number one, I've said this for a while. I think the NBA has a bigger PR problem than they do have a player's don't play a problem. I think they did, they failed to control narratives, and they failed to hold their broadcast partners accountable. Look, I love Chuck and Shaq and all those guys, but every time they got up on TV. Oh, that they're a fan in the flames.

They're like, oh, my God. guys don't play and they don't care, whatever. Every time Perk and Stephen A. Smith do that stuff, all they were doing were on company airways, right? It's one thing if some blogger... But you don't want them to be honest, then is what you're saying. Do you think the NFL coverage guys are honest? Ask them

about CTE. You think they're honest? They don't do that. They don't mess up the product. Now, it's one thing if you're like, if Gilbert Arenas does it, man, Gilbert is an independent product. He takes no money from the league. He has no business sense or not business sense but business obligation to it but when you are a broadcast

partner bro David Stern wouldn't let that shit happen like you got to keep these people in line he also wouldn't let players just sit out so the second part of this dan is do you know what water poisoning in have you ever had of water poisoning no right water poisoning is this thing happened there is such a thing as drinking too much water and water poisoning the symptoms of water poison. Do you guys know what the symptoms of water poisoning are? I've heard of it. I've got to pee. So much water. The symptoms of water poisoning are almost

are almost exactly identical to dehydration. So this happens to a lot of marathon runners. They're like, I got to hydrate. I got a hydrate. So they drink and they drink and they drink and they drink and they actually drink so much to get water poisoning but they feel like oh my God, I'm dehydrated. I feel dizzy. I feel like so then they drink

more. And I think sometimes some of these rules that people are trying to do like we're going to do this to get them to play. You're acts exacerbating the problem rather than solving it. The problem doesn't have any kind of fix the way that we're framing it. And I will again tell you as part of what we're doing all day today, it may feel to you like because of the economy of things and inflation and the world run amok, that there is no help out there for you financially and there is no one who cares.

That is not the case today in Miami. It is give Miami Day. and Tony is out at Lone Depot Park as are, well, I'm not going to say a lot of people based on that shot, but there are people there gathering in the name of giving. Tony, what can you tell us is going on out there? Hey, Dan, oh, great to hear from me. Today is give Miami Day, Dan, and yes, as I'm, you know, standing here in front of the second base, where second base would be right there.

The event hasn't started yet, so people are still filtering. in about an hour, this place is going to be absolutely jam-packed. There's like a lined down Bobby Maduro way of like 6,000 people. So there's going to be a ton of people here later on when we check in. But to give Miami super cool, Dan, it's a opportunity for Miami to love itself, to give to over 1,400 nonprofits. There's going to be millions and millions and millions and tens and maybe 20s and 50s of million dollars being raised for nonprofits all across the city, doing all sorts of important work. Whatever you can think of a nonprofit, profit. They probably have one and you could donate to it.

Not 50s yet. We're going to be here. Hang it out. Not yet. Not yet 50s. Last year nearly 40 million from over 50,000 donors and we're looking to top that today. Give Miami Day.org is where you go. I know our listeners are always very strong here. Sorry to interrupt you. I just did. I want your facts right. Nobody's been giving 50s of millions of dollars.

Well, hopefully this year's we break the 50 mark is what I was forecasting there, Dan. Kind of like an analyst, you know, I'm forecasting what's going on. For people just listening, Tony is standing on the field where I used to think Cecil Fielder was. Remember I said, I admitted before, that I used to think Cessel Fielder was a position. What? The Cessle Fielder.

And Tony is standing where I thought the Cessor Fielder would put. Yes, that is. The floating area, shallow center. That's awesome. Tony, I know I feel this every single time I'm on an NBA court. It happens to me every time where I'm like, holy shit, this is a lot bigger than it. looks on television. Where you're presently standing,

you are impressed by the size of the infield. Are you not? Yeah, the infield's definitely big. When you get down to the field level, what looks bigger is obviously like everything in the background. When you look at the field, they look okay, third base is 90 feet away.

I see it there, but I'm kind of like in the hole almost here between second and it's, it's big. It's big, I'm not gonna lie to you. It's big. What else do we need to? right now like go ahead I'm sorry my bad no things are happening here Dano my bad my bad so I'm thinking of sitting here

at second base getting ready to can you guys see me I can see you taking a lead poorly yes yes I can see you're twerking there yeah you're taking a lead it's good work baseball fields I had to get back baseball teams take their field so serious like why can't like the game till April there we can't step on the dirt so you think that they should allow like weeds to grow I'm just like having it rope off seems like a strong. You've got to look Major League.

Your field has to look year round like it's manicured in Major League. Play-O-April. April. You can't have browning in the grass. I'd say water it, but- Chris is 100% right. Guys, we didn't frame Tony's appearance with enough

noise and celebration and color here. Give Miami-day.org. Yes, give Miami-day.org. Tony, we will check in with you later for your top five. Thank you. I will say that the Perez Family Foundation in honor of my brother is giving $10,000 to an assortment of Miami charities, including NABJ, South Florida, Comic Kids, Inc., young art aid, a number of different art-related charities here in South Florida. The website is givemi-miamiday.org.

Don Libetard. It's not my favorite region. Context needs to be applied now. I was going for a joke and... I thought the context was a plug. We'd like to rip that out of context. I was going for a thing. And I have a family.

You're going to pretend here that you don't love Matthew Kachukchuk more than you love anybody you've ever loved? I don't love Matthew Kuch more than my daughter. Stugats! Now it's pretty damn close. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. I know you're brushing me aside with the second half thing, but why can Lino Messi enter an Intermi game and play in the second half? And NBA players can't do that.

I am mocking you for the take on just have them play second half because you know too much about sports and the way these athletes train and take care of their bodies to treat them as a gas bag who just thinks you can get out there three minutes before tip off with a bag of chips and you don't have to prepare your body for two hours before the game in order to play the entirety of the game or half of the game. The ask or the request of whatever is rest and healing on that day gets ruined if you have to test your body for 20 minutes or 40 minutes. It's not a rest day.

You're running through the body. The impact is different. And the league is shown, hey, if we make shots at the end of halves and quarters not count, we've incentivized these players to take them, and the players are taking it. You've noticed everybody loves chucking the ball now at the end of the quarter. So get rid of points per game as a metric and make it points per 48. This is a new league universal standard. We are doing things to combat this issue, which is grave.

It is a huge problem. We've tried everything. It's not working, so we are going to change the metrics entirely. Points per game is a thing of the past. You're providing a solution to a. problem that Zaz has decided that's the problem. The problem is their averages. That's not the problem. Dan actually told you what it was.

It's like if you play half a game that still you played, right? Like the act of getting ready to play an NBA game. I went there last night. I'm watching DeAnthony Melton warm up and Steph Curry comes out and everyone loses their mind because everyone was like, oh, we're going to see the step through the dribble thing and the thing when he shoots

from the tunnel. And he didn't. He just like shook hands and kissed babies and took photos of fans and stuff like that. And then he went back inside. Because that's the definition of rest. If he has to go out there and break a sweat and do all that stuff and then take it a step further and play a half of basketball, whether it's the first half or second half, you've completely ruined what was supposed to be a rest and recovery day for someone who's ailing. But I mean, you've been around these players. Like the only time they are not playing the game is when the games are playing and they decide to rest then.

They spend all their time perfecting their craft by playing. It's not football. It's not hockey. But you're, again, you're saying it's not football, it's not hockey because you're thinking about, where are you guys so good? Concussions are not? Like, again, look at all the major injuries. Read that Habistow list, the number, Janus, and Wembeenjama, and people that you guys all can recognize.

These are guys that like play. Achilles, these are all injuries that are non-contact injuries. These are all soft tissue injuries. Guys, this part is really interesting. when the business and the most valuable assets are being stressed to the point of breaking. Stress, and when I say stressed by the broadcasters yelling about this, by the pressures to play, by the economic pressures of their life position, and by the disrespect, even Zaslo, 20 years in this market, shows when there's the feel or assumption that these guys eight hours a day aren't finally tuning their bodies,

trying to make sure that none of them break. Like, that's what they're doing for eight hours every day, twice a day in the wait room, drills meant to be non-contact. They don't go full intensity in practice, but everything around the practice. They never practice. No, but everything around the practice

is meant to keep these machines from not breaking. It's not even during the season anymore that much about how much better can we make you. That's training camp and an assortment of other things. By the time the season, arrives is how do we get our most valuable pieces to not

break in the post season? Why are they breaking more? I don't know. I mean, is explaining to you, wow, we're putting a stress on the bodies here. Guard more, guard farther, go faster, and the bodies are breaking. Like, that sounds like a pretty good

explanation. Nobody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to hear it because they're like, what do you mean? Charles Oakley ran up and down. It's like, not like that. Not being asked to take threes and not running twice as much. Why is it only an NBA player thing like why why doesn't the hockey player need a night off have hockey has hockey changed in terms of I don't know I'm not gotta be more physical has to be you keep saying physical and that's the and that's the that's the problem where this conversation really is not

going to advance because you guys keep thinking about like someone hit me and that's not what's happening okay so compared to soccer the as Zaz did sports are similar in terms of strain that it puts on your body messy's old but instead of not playing he'll go out there in the second half so the road crowd can see him. I know you checked out on Inter Miami, but there was a big controversy in that league with Messi playing international duty, but not playing for his club.

He missed games. He missed games. And for Messi, in particular, that is a huge thing because he's bigger than the sport of MLS. But there are plenty games where the soccer player checks in for just the second half because they don't want them playing the entire game because of a load. So let me try to answer

Zaz's question. Zaz, has the long ball and particularly stopping the long ball increased in soccer like like like insert a style of play yeah I mean they're playing from the back a lot more right but I'm just talking about like hey we've got we've got to defend up more I think no in terms of cardio people are high pressing you mean the high press yes yes because people are playing out at the back more because the long goal kick the analytics said that that's a dumb play why give up possession play out the back so you have what the Germans call the Gagan press where they go up and it's more cardio for

the fords they have to be more defensive minded in the midfield but it's still straightaway running like it's not like again the dimensions of a basketball court you're all where i'm standing like one foot in the paint and then my man is over here i've got to run to the top and then my my guy that i helped over here he's got to sprint out over there and close and close and close and then stop short because you can't just keep running through them. It's all relative. The playing surface is bigger. There's 11 players, so you shrink it down to five with a smaller course.

We're in the weeds. No, but this is where everyone wants to be, or we're just going to say ignorant things. Okay. Like, which do we want? Who I have the ignorant show? I can do the ignorant show. Soccer players are soft. They flop all the time.

Like, we can do that. I'm sorry, we put them in a corner. I didn't want to put you in a corner. I'm just saying, like, I'm trying to balance. Are we trying to have like a smart conversation that we're trying to do show? I'll do show. So how would you get players to play more? Give me just two solutions.

How do we get the stars to play more? Well, first of all, we got the, again, you're saying the problem is they need to play more. I said, my problem is, how do we get them not to get hurt? No, I've got to answer to that. More consistently. The stars to play more consistently, not more. Do you make it fewer games? How do we avoid families, how do we avoid families saving money to spend on tickets and not be able to see the stars that they're

trying here is the problem as chris cody is saying we're in the weeds on this is catastrophic for this business because what amina is shouting here at everybody you guys want to just complain about the problem or you want to hear what the problem is the problem is seven foot seven's not meant to play that way that pain those feet those knees those ankles those are big bodies rudy gober's body and feet are going to be messed up you can't make him run around that much you've got a structural problem at the core of your business because you're stretching the athlete physically, mentally, emotionally, through travel

beyond the extremes of the human body's limits. Like, you're breaking your products by what you're asking them to do. And the answer is, play fewer games. And the answer is, from the league, bleep you, we need the TV money. We need all the money. We need the gate. And by the

way, the money goes across everybody. It's not just the leagues, they went to the players, okay, so I got all 30 owners, they've agreed to take less. We're going to give money back to NBC, ESPN, and all these guys, because we're going to go down to a 72 game season. We're going to get rid of back-to-backs and all that. But also, you guys need to take a pay cut as well.

Players are going to be like, bleep you, too, or the coaches. Believe you, everyone who is eating at the Trot to use Dan's time. So the only people get screwed are the fans. That's it. That's correct. And it's going to keep happening with streaming dollars and everything else. Yes, get used to, and more people are going to be charging you. Jeremy, give me some hard data here.

because what Amin is doing Don't forget to circle back on Amin solutions, please, because it was bleep you, there are no solutions. Stata better be hard. The average speed of the top 10 players per game in 2013 and 14, it was between 4.67 and 4.8 miles per hour. But now this season, that top 10 has moved up to 4.99 and 5.6 miles per hour. So the top player in 2013-14 wouldn't even be in the top 25

in sprint speed this year. If you look at it, players are running about 9% more distance per minute on the court than they did a decade ago. Tyrese Maxi is running just under three miles per game when he's playing on the floor. And V.J. Edgecombe of the Sixers is just underneath him. So they're like running those guys into the ground. And to put that in perspective, again, Jeremy's comparing numbers from 10 years ago. You know what 10 years ago was?

Steph Curry hitting the half-court track of Oklahoma City. Oh, the Cavs come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the fight. That's not like, oh, Michael Jordan was playing against plumbers. That's guys that are playing in the league right now. We're playing 10 years ago. Like, it's changing guys. You guys are not accepting that things are changing. The style of play is changing.

And the demands on the player bodies are changing. And as a result, we're getting more injuries. And so what teams are trying to do is like, how do I make sure I don't kill my best player? Because as sad as everyone is, that Steph Curry didn't play last night? How much sadder would they be when they say Steph Curry's not going to play the rest of the goddamn year? They ran Tibbs out of the sport, man,

because you got to keep up with how the sport changes, and it's all changing. So to Mike's question, because I don't know, how do you save poverty? How do you save helplessness? How do you save a league where they've got a structural problem that simply can't be fixed? There's not a solution to if you're going to keep being greedy, if you're going to keep needing the same amount of money, and if you're going to keep competing at a way that's going to keep stretching, everybody's limits, Chad Holmgren's going to break down, even though he's the young one, and OKC doesn't have this problem.

But they're taking those fourth quarters off to Zaz's point, because they're getting up by 30 points. They're going to take over a different part of the league healthy because they're younger and they don't have the mileage on their bodies that the Golden State Warriors have, When they're coming to Miami and they're like, we need rest. We need to get some sunshine. I totally hear everything you're saying. I'm still Team Warriors of bullshit. 11 in front of the hour. Returning, I'm Mad Dog Unleashed.

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