The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: We Made You, We Run You

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

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Cuervo. Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo, cuervo.com, enjoy the tequila that started it all. Quervo. Quervo. The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo, quervo.com, please drink responsibly. Quervo. Billy, do you have any advice for me on the better place to start today that Stugatz is here? And we have some New York radio sound to play for Stugatz

in the audience now that some of the poisons from New York are trickling in. But we also have a feud between Pablo Torre and Bill Simmons. I mean is this his thing now, Pablo, just feuding with people for attention? Jeez Louise. It's Nick Wright one minute, it's Bill Belichick's girlfriend another minute,

it's Bill Simmons, I mean, I only got a minor in journalism, so I guess maybe to get the major, you miss like the classes on making yourself the center of every story and debating with your subjects. He is going up though, it's elevating right now. He's at Bill Simmons, like mogul of the industry. What's next?

How much higher can he go? Us. But he's already feuded with me. So that's the kind of already done. But you can end that real quick. I could? All of it. Yeah.

All your feuds. No, the Pablo situation. Billy, what is the God's agreeing with? I don't know. All the feuds. You have me ending all of Pablo's feuds? I'm just saying, if Pablo feuds with you, I mean, you're the boss, you sign the checks,

you can say, you know what, this feud is over. I don't sign the checks. Oh, who does? It's electronic at this point. I don't have anything to do with the checks, like you guys keep blaming me for the checks and I'm not in charge of the money. Who do we blame for the checks then?

Skipper! He's gone though. He's still here. What are you doing? Whoa, what? What responsibility do you have? I do believe I can be found. What I'm doing right now. It's not the money

Oh you cash you I do cash them. I do cash some of the checks. Yes. So do you though? I've cashed a few so does everyone around here I who who is on the checks whose signature is actually on the checks because I get direct deposit Yeah, me too. It's like a squiggly line for me. I can't see whose name it is We all have you Dan for reason, going to the ATM. Same. Depositing the check. I gotta get it in before five.

That's how he likes to do it. I mean. With a burlap sack with a dollar sign on it. You know what's funny about this? This is what's funny about this. Just yesterday, because I knew it. No, listen to this. This is great.

This was so Miami. I'm not kidding you when I tell you I walk into the bank Okay through the rain and why it's a pretty harsh rain because I want cash I want more cash than the ATM will give me so I'm the rain you needed that bad I it was just before five o'clock you requested more cash than the ATM had I Requested more cash than the ATM gives per day. Oh Limits there are limits. Yes, it seems nefarious. I shouldn't have limits. What do you mean? It's nefarious I hit man. Yeah, what do you need all this? I'm with you though. Why is the bank limiting me? Hey my money

I don't like any limits on my cash, and I enjoy giving my cash to whomever I like without any paperwork involved with the giving of that cash. I prefer to have it in my hand old school Miami style. And what just happened at the bank yesterday that was funny is that I run in, why are you holding your hand in front of me when we're doing this?

We're only doing audio though. We're not on video right now. You're making a video. I was hoping you would paint that picture for us. You were also waving at everyone like a prom queen because you don't know when we're on the air. This was a very Miami thing though yesterday. So I run inside through the rain

and the lightning strikes are so strong and crazy that people are gasping and running very quickly inside. The bank had been otherwise empty. Now there are a whole bunch of people running in. They give me my cash to take outside in a garbage bag Wow power move so that it won't get wet was it spilling over how much This is the down labor tour show with this two guys podcast This is the Don LeBattor Show with the StuGuts Podcast. The headline is Bill Simmons Trashes Pablo Torre over Bill Belichick Jordan Hudson reporting.

I will read some of these quotes for you guys in a second. Pablo Torre will be appearing on Bill Simmons' podcast here. The quote is, Pablo Torre would have done a long podcast about Leo Farnsworth trying to practice with the team and then done a media tour about it afterwards, Simmons said, shocking his co-hosts. I've never seen anybody dine on a stupider story for a week and a half while pretending you're a journalist. dine on a stupider story for a week and a half while pretending you're a journalist. What the bleep was that? Seriously.

So Pablo Torre was made indignant by this because he has 11 sources. My favorite part of the article though was Simmons also discussed the NFL and the 1978 film Heaven Can Wait on his podcast. It's a good pod. It's a good movie. It was the rewatchable, it was supposed supposed to be a movie pod the weirdest part is why they were talking about Pablo I guess it's a movie podcast and why Pablo was going on Bill's podcast. What do we get out of this?

Yeah, it's a big a fight with Bill Simmons you get him on your podcast So you get the clicks doesn't sound like Pablo's doing a lot of know these days We can we can talk about Heaven Can Wait though, right? Warren Beatty, football player, right? Yeah. You guys have to. You've never seen it? Go ahead and just search YouTube there

so you can see Warren Beatty as a quarterback. It's throwing motion. This was a movie star for the Times, and I want you to see just the general lack of arm strength and skill involved. I've told you before that Adam McKay said that it took a full year to teach Danny McBride how to throw a baseball in eastbound and down.

It took a year because he was so unathletic. I have seen very little funnier than John C. Reilly trying to catch a foul ball as a catcher in the movie Love of the Game. John C. Reilly cannot run and certainly cannot do whatever athleticism is required from going from the catcher's position to running backwards, flipping off your mask.

Popping up the mask? Oh! There it is! In terms of difficult things that people don't know how difficult they are, catching a foul ball as a catcher isn't the most difficult thing, but only because punt returning exists. Dan, did they take John C. Reilly to like catcher school?

They're like, all right, here, here's, you gotta flip up the mask or your pop time. What's your pop time? Can you imagine John C. Reilly having any athleticism? Tell me, I mean, there have to be, what is it? Is it DiCaprio? What was the basketball movie that DiCaprio did where he was very young?

Basketball Diaries couldn't couldn't dribble a basketball basketball Diaries. Although I almost said love and basketball You have seen any numbers we could open it up to the audience Give me the least athletic thing that you have seen in the movies from an actor Charlie Sheen and thing that you have seen in the movies from an actor Charlie Sheen and Kevin Costner have been celebrated for at least having a high school baseball ability to move around in a way that doesn't look ridiculous but no no and Costner has done some stuff with golf where his swing doesn't look horrific but most actors cannot recreate athleticism in a way that's realistic. Well it's easy for Costner because at a base level he looks like he could be a baseball player or a golfer He does so it's an easy role for him. I think of him as shorter though. Is he smaller?

I don't think he's a short guy, but if I got the net the one for you and no one's gonna beat me on this Kevin Bacon the air up there Him dribbling a basketball Michael Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf. Oh, that's a good one. That was believable. Kevin James was an MMA fighter in a movie. That's a great one. Kevin Costner, 6'1", by the way.

Wow. Yeah, he's a tall guy. Air Bud? Sneaky tall. Put it on the poll at LeBretard Show. Is Kevin Costner sneaky tall at 6'1"? Let me get to what it is that I missed yesterday, and it's nice to see you, Stu Gotz,

but you denied us yesterday the ability to really be a vibrant, forward-looking show. I wasn't on the schedule. Well, I think that you probably negotiated being out after bad Knicks losses. I thought that that was part of your negotiations. Someone told you? Somebody mentioned that there were some addendums

in your contract after Jets losses and Knicks losses. But thankfully, we have a number of New York gas bags at our disposal who was saying all sorts of things yesterday. And perhaps you will take us on a path how it is that it felt to see not just Indiana win, but Indiana then did the thing that is the most fun in these three days for a fan base before you get to the finals, which is,

Indiana just trolled New York and its fans on social media for the last couple of days. Just the organization itself, Halliburton, all making fun of New York because winners get the last word. Yeah, Halliburton got Stiller with a good one because Stiller was like, oh, that duffel bag because he's flying back to New York. And Halliburton, now we're just trying to pack y'all up.

Which is pretty hard, but also, it would've been cool if he said it before the game. Like, the way to after the result. The Pacers themselves as an organization were making fun of Knicks fans. But let's just get some sound here. We've got Gio here, and Stugance, you know what this is. After that Knicks loss, WFAN is 20 shares all day

because everyone is just screaming and yelling and blaming. Now, it's a weird thing because Amin is correct when he says this was a good Knicks team. Exceeded expectations, I would say. Exceeded the average expectations has to be considered a positive season given that it's the best season in a quarter century for the Knicks franchise. The Knicks franchise does not win playoff series, does not win playoff games. That is a recent phenomenon. And so I'm sure New York radio

hosts will be totally reasonable about this. Let's hear from Gio of after, immediately after the single greatest Knicks season this century. Talking about Carl Anthony Towns. And they went and they traded for him and he's making 50 million dollars a year and at the core he's a loser That is their biggest problem the guy is a loser. He's a losing player. He complains He is soft he shows you flashes where he's the best player on the court not enough He doesn't play enough defense he bitches and moans. He is up until this point in his career a loser Hmm. I mean that one that's hard to argue with until this point in his career, a loser.

I mean, that one, that's hard to argue with. It is, it's well done by Gio. You have to stay on the front end before you call a guy a loser that he's making 50 million per year. Okay, this is not fair commentary to call Carl Anthony Towns a loser. I don't know how both of you are like, that's fair. Well, he didn't win, I mean.

What has he won? Right. He's probably won more games in his career than he's fair. He didn't win I mean. What has he won? Yeah right. He's probably won more games in his career than he's lost. Those Minnesota years were really bad. Some lean years man. College and pro you believe this is a player that has lost more than he has won? Wait now we're extending it to college? He only played one year of college. High school too Dan he was probably undefeated in high school, you're right. Elementary, I mean, he was crazy. I would just argue there's little gymnastics being done there. That is just like, he's...

You can't argue with that, he's lost. You can argue with calling a human being a loser who's top 1% of the top 1% in a very competitive field at making money. You can argue with that, yes. You can't, it's not an, Gio did not close down the argument with a truth we can all agree with by saying the factual statement, Carl Anthony Towns is a loser. Uh oh, record for a career, 317 and 328. Loser! What did you call loser the other day? You call the college year gets him over the top. Let me take a look.

They were more than 11 games over 500 in Kentucky. They were more than 11 games over 500 in Kentucky. That's why I included the college years. He's over 500. Thank you. Also, greatest shooting big man I've ever seen. You know, Mike Conley lost more home games

in his first like week in the NBA than he did his entire life before that including high school AAU college everything He lost like five like something like four games at home and lost five games in a week Yeah, yeah with the Grizzlies when he was a rookie damn it. They were 38 in one That was a good team. It's a good team. They win an addy? No, that was a one. Loser! Loser, yeah.

Speaking of losers, the Rockies beat the Marlins yesterday to be the last team to get to 10 wins. How? Terrible. Speaking of losers, the Rockies had, in their last 31 games on the road, won three of them. Not how, more like who was there to see it? There was nobody there. It was a rainy day.

You were mentioning it, there was people gasping in banks at the lightning. Gasping at this picture. This is during the National Anthem. There was a good four or five minutes before first pitch. This is a misleading photo. How many people jumping in? There were 5,000 people there. The concession stands look packed. That's the thing is this park good concession stands you want to yeah

hang out there's probably checking out the bobblehead museum that's a thing did anyone get the alligator hot dog y'all doing that done that what they got an alligator hot dog at Marlins Park yeah really the gator dog gator dogs yeah yeah put it on the pole at LeBittard. Would you like to eat a hot dog made out of alligator at Lebatard Show? I know people say alligator tastes like chicken. Put that on the poll as well. That's just a thing that you say though.

To get people to eat it. Hey, it tastes like chicken. It doesn't taste like chicken. If it tastes like chicken, I'd eat it. It does kind of taste like chicken. It's like a mix between chicken and calamari is where Gator lives. It tastes like a chicken that's been swimming.

That's the best way I could put it. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Does Gator taste like a chicken that's been swimming? When you say that though, when you say that it's a mix that includes calamari, all of a sudden you're making the texture gamey in a way that even if it tastes like chicken, I am going to be reminded I'm eating alligator and now my thoughts are getting in the way of my

taste. Why would your thoughts get in the way? I might want to be present with my thoughts. When I eat alligator the first thing I do before I take the first bite I was like yeah you thought you were top of the food chain guess again and then I take a big bite and I want to savor every like this guy thinks he's the apex predator guess what buddy little bit higher than you there's an apex over the apex it's called man but when you think of the animal you're eating it ruins the experience a bit right when i think of a turkey and i'm eating a turkey sandwich i think of the poor turkey and it ruins my experience i think of turkeys are very aggressive

yeah asshole type birds i'm like oh you thought you were just a big bully on the block guess what? Now you're my sandwich. What's the animal you feel the most guilty about eating? None. I mean, it's kind of evolution. Lamb for me. Yeah.

Lamb, are you kidding me? That was delicious. Lamb, this is what I think about when I eat lamb. It's like, oh you thought your mommy was gonna protect you and everything, like, guess again. Gotcha! We found a picture of Later in the Game if you wanna see it.

That is not accurate. Wait a second, I told you guys. The flag is still up too. We found a picture of later in the game if you want to see it Doing that photoshopping and just changing fake news all the people playing. It's pretty cool. It's nice they did that last night. Visual joke there to exclude the audio audience. You're always producing in a way that is inclusive for everybody. You too, you know. It's the wave of the future. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show, please. Does something being gamey ruin eating for you?

Yes. Because I don't want gamey and chewy with my protein. I love the game. I love the game, man. The love of the game. Love of the game. So we had Gio's opinion given on Carl Anthony Towns. Chris Cody said it's inarguable and a fact.

Carl Anthony Towns is a loser. No more words need to be expressed on this subject. The subject is closed. No one's need to be expressed on this subject. The subject is closed. No one's allowed to disagree with the assessment that the greatest shooting big man there's ever been and someone paid at the top 1% of the top 1% of a pretty competitive field is simply a loser. No other submissions on opinions will be allowed by Chris Cody, who says that the entire committee has closed, gone home, it's over. Carl Anthony Towns is a loser,

and it's forever more, you're saying, right? This is not even- Zagacki. It totally wins, I mean. Right, right. For this season. For this season, until the next season starts, loser. Okay, but he won more than all the teams,

but four in the sport. He won more, but still a loser. According to Thibs, did you guys see what he did in his press conference? We made the final three because their series was still going. I love that. He made the final four. He's just like, we made the final three.

You know what? Good point by Thibs. I did math poorly there. They were one of the final three teams. By schedule. Their season was eight game longer. Third place! Minnesota's.

They are the bronze medalists on playing games. Bronze medalist, either the second loser or just a loser, but we can agree the bronze medalist is a loser. Put it on the poll at Levitage Show. Is the bronze medalist a winner or a loser? Clearly ahead of Minnesota. Well, depending on how the finals play out, they may, I'll look into it,

they may have played more games than one of the teams in the finals based on how quickly the series goes. So they could be a silver medalist in terms of games played this season. No. Yes they can. Put it on the poll at LeBittard Show. Go ahead, StuGott, ask the poll question.

Did the Knicks finish in third? Yeah. Let's play the sound here of Sal being more Sal than Gio is. He is talking about Tyrese Halliburton and he is contorting himself in order to give New York the credit for Halliburton being relevant.

New York put you on the map. You don't run bleep. We put you on the map. You don't run bleep. We put you on the map. Whether it's Wally Zerbiak saying he's overrated, whether it's his performance against the Knicks a year ago, whether it's the Knicks choking one in game one, allowing him to again be the villain with the choke sign. Without New York, nobody gives a crap about you, Tyrese Halliburton. You don't run squat. Here's what you better hope you run. You better hope you don't run into a buzzsaw in the Thunder in the finals.

Because beating the Knicks is not the trophy that you should be trying to get here. You've done that now a couple of times. So stop with the I run New York stuff. Stop with your girlfriend on social media. Go New York, go New York stuff stop with your girlfriend on social media go New York go New York go home Enough without New York you're nothing we made you We run you To what he shares yeah

Now I by the way, I get it like you know, you know Tony you played basketball growing up, right? You played pretty high-level high school you played in college But as you go older, and you got to play against people you know NBA players right? You start to see oh my god like there's such a gap there's levels. There's levels to this I heard that Dan I know a lot of people my group chat were like laughing and some people were angry whatever and I was like Man that guy's good at this radio Thing huh Wow, I don't think that's good at this radio thing

What because I don't think that after the New York Knicks have lost that way This is a sentence that could come out of your mouth. We made you We won you That's the dismount though. Dan, what a dismount. Musical, you know you always talk about this thing being like music, that's music right there. He had to go to break there and be like, I sound ridiculous.

No. No way. Are you kidding me? He's like, got him. They applauded like NASA when they got the guys back from Apollo 13. Standing ovation, yes. We made you! Yeah.

We won you! The producer in the back saluted him. The Knicks presently lead the NBA in games played We won you! We won you! The producer in the back saluted him. The Knicks presently lead the NBA in games played this season because they had longer series in each round than the two teams that made the finals. However, their lead is only two games. So they will finish, even if it's a sweep, two games shorter than the longest.

Yeah, but it's close. Stugats, finally. Yeah. Way too late after the parade float has left, leaving only Litter behind, can you please give us your exclusive New York Knicks thoughts as someone who just experienced the best Knicks season in 25 years,

raising the expectations to a place where of course New York fans, and we knew this was gonna end this way, if the next season was going to end, it wasn't gonna end with Brunson being blamed for anything. If the next season was going to end and it was gonna be a product of failing to meet expectations, the place where you're gonna put the most expectations is on the big guy that is bigger than everyone else and has one

block in the entire series and now you read all the reports surely I mean you've read these reports as well that all of the Knicks were frustrated all season about Carl Anthony Towns doesn't know how to play defense doesn't know when to do what doesn't know assignments, and all of that unraveled toward the end of the season when the wheels fell off because all of the Knicks were exhausted because they were only playing six players. So it was incredible reporting by Fred Katz

and by James Edwards III for the Athletic. A lot of people were like, oh, so they just had this ready to go? I said, yes, this is how journalism works. We have the autopsy written as soon as a team is entering elimination phase, you gotta have this ready to go. I said, yes, this is how journalism works. We have the autopsy written. As soon as a team is entering elimination phase, you gotta have it ready to go, because that's the number one time people wanna read

about what went wrong that season. And so in it, they're talking about a lot of things. It's not just about towns. It covers almost everything. Everyone's got a little blame in there. Probably Brunson's the only one who goes off unscathed. But with regards to towns, it's that attention to detail. Now you gotta remember, they're coming from a year ago,

they were exact opposite. They were scrappy offensively, but defensively, they were elite. This year, they were an elite offensive team, but the defense kinda waned. And you remember on the show, I was telling you guys, I'm not confident in this defense. It's good enough for the 82 game season

where nobody cares and we're Milwaukee tonight, tomorrow we're in Cleveland, the night after that Chicago. But when you get to the playoffs and people are game planning and they're attacking weaknesses, there were just too many. And one of them was Carl Anthony Towns. His either non-desire or non-ability to execute defensive schematics, right?

And that's exactly what we saw Indiana attack. If you think about game six, that run in the fourth quarter where they started blowing wide open, what was it? It was Tyrese Halliburton, high pick and roll, cat is sagging in the paint, and Tyrese is like, okay, I'm just gonna go and hit this floater that I'm excellent at.

And he hit it again and again and again. Those floaters though, God almighty, they're just killers. Backbreakers. They're just, those floaters, he hit three straight floaters, and each of them was like, that's got to bounce off the rim, like that shouldn't go in clean. It's a terrible job by those players for holding on to that, that Carl Anthony Towns was not

willing to play defense, that he's soft until after the next loss. Say it while the season's going on. Well, I think they may have actually said it to the reporters and the reporters just held it. Well, then a terrible job by those reporters. I mean, what are we doing? Well, but Amin's telling you that it's standard operating procedure. That everyone's got their autopsy for the things that went wrong when you start blaming people. Allow me to be the one to criticize Jalen Brunson, okay?

Because he's our best player. He's the guy, he's the reason because Dallas didn't think he was very good. The Knicks thought he was going to be good, not this good, but he's turned out to be great. He got them to the Eastern Conference semifinals a year ago. Eastern Conference finals this year. We also, you know, conveniently forget that Jason Tatum got hurt in the series against the Knicks for Boston. But Jalen Brunson is the leader of that team. He is the leader. Jalen Brunson, how about you work on your defense? Because when they see the

leader, because he's a defensive liability for that team, when the rest of the team sees the guy who's the leader, who's never going to be criticized, working hard to improve his defensive game, the rest of them will fall in line. This is on Jalen Brunson. You can blame Carl Anthony Towns all you want. Jalen Brunson is their best player. If he wins, he gets all the credit.

And when they lose, he deserves at least a portion of the blame. Let me ask you this, Amin, because I remember the most common criticism of Shaquille O'Neal was some form of work on your free throws. And all I would see Shaquille O'Neal was some form of work on your free throws and all I would see Shaquille O'Neal doing was working on his free throws. It's not that he didn't care about his free throws, it's that he wasn't good at it. When Stugat's demands Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson be better at defense, I don't think they can be.

I don't think they know how to be. I don't think that they have the footwork and speed and quickness and size, both of them, to be what they have to be I don't think that they have the footwork in and speed and quickness and size both of them to be what they have to be on defense I think they're limited there and no amount of will will make them better at defense do I have it wrong so first of all for Shaq you're absolutely right you know I obviously I was with him for a year and a half in Phoenix and he shot something like 80 to 85 percent in the practice court you and it's not just that he made them his form looked different. So whatever anxiety he felt at the free throw line

was so crippling that it changed his form, it made him look like he was just kind of shot putting it. When he's on the practice court, he's shooting jump shots. He's pulling up off the dribble, he's mimicking other players. It was pretty intense to watch, to see someone go from so confident to just something completely different in game

Scenario, but to answer your question. I disagree. I do think so for Brunson. There is a physical element He's small so there's only so much he can do he was one of the league leaders I believe in charges taken so that's good He's good in that sense and I but I think like he can do more if he's doing less offensively because that's the other part of it. He has to carry so much of the offensive burden. What we did was praise how great he was in fourth quarters in his clutch time.

That energy comes from somewhere and he's borrowing from a defense reservoir probably. As far as Towns goes, I don't see anything physically preventing him from being a good defensive player. It's literally just mental focus, right? What we're talking about is, like for instance, those Halliburton floaters, you know what he wants to do. You gotta go up and greet him up there.

You gotta meet him at the screen level, and you can't sag, you can't play that drop coverage. You know this, you know what the defensive game plan is. This is just a guy who either is forgetful or doesn't care, one of the two. Man, I just. I forgot to play defense. I have a hard time.

It's hard to say he doesn't care. I have a hard time believing that the problems with Karl Anthony Townes aren't matchup problems. When they bring to him matchups meant to exploit the fact that he's very big and he is graceful enough offensively for that size but can be slow-footed on defense and is only good on defense

when he's gotta go bear next to him or a Mitchell Robinson because I mean it's crazy to say that someone that size had one block in the Indiana series and had one block the last time that they were in the Western Conference Finals. At the core, he's a loser. Dan, I'm gonna tell you what it is, right? Tom Thibodeau, his staff, they're under no illusions

of what he is capable of doing and not capable of doing. So they designed the defensive schemes to take that into account. It's not like, hey, you gotta switch on to Halbert and guard him like you're Evan Mobley. They know he's not that, they know he can't do that. But they do have schemes that they wanna do. Now this is what coaches always say.

We're gonna draw up the scheme, you do it this way. If it does not work, that's our bad. If you execute the way we told you to do it and we still get beat, we're still getting scored on, that's our bad, right? execute the way we told you to do it and we still get beat, we're still getting scored on, that's our bad, right? We got to go back to the drawing board and figure out something else. But if you'd never do the scheme that we told you to do, how can we ever know? And it sounds like from the reporting, he wasn't doing the schemes.

Okay, but let's do it this way, okay? Because you can make the arguments that this is a person that is mentally deficient on defense, they will have more information than us on that. I can say resolutely and flatly, can I not? Carl Anthony Towns is not a good rim protector. Yes or no? You agree with that or you disagree? Carl Anthony Towns is not a rim protector. I agree. He wasn't this season though. Yes or no? He's a good rim protector. Yes or no?

Not this season though. He said no. Fees? Overdrafts? Waiting forever for payday? No thanks. That's why I'm all in on Chime. Set up direct deposit and get paid up to two days early.

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or chasing a long shot from the back of the pack, NASCAR is always wide open. Fire it up on DraftKings, where NASCAR is full throttle all season long. Don LeBattard. I'm just here to say one thing. The Knicks are f***ing back. Stugats. throttle all season long. The Panthers not trying to capture Lord Stanley's cup starting tomorrow. Why are we talking about Cat and his rim protecting ability? Jeez, Louise.

He is up until this point in his career, a loser. I have in front of me, there is only one player in the entire league to win a game in the conference finals last year and win multiple conference finals games this year. His name is Carl Anthony Towns. The only player in the conference finals last year and win multiple conference finals games this year. His name is Carl Anthony Towns. It's the only player in the sport. Loser. A loser.

How many Larry O'Brien's does he have though? Zero. I don't believe that rim protecting of Carl Anthony Towns is something that he's deficient at because he doesn't care about being good at it. Do you understand how insulting it is to say that of somebody? Do you understand how little it regards

what athletes have to do when someone's not good at something and you say, well, they don't care enough to be great at it? Dan, I'm not using a blanket statement here because he wasn't good at it, it's a fact that he doesn't care. I'm telling you, based on the reporting, his own teammates felt that he doesn't care. I'm telling you based on the reporting,

his own teammates felt like he didn't care. And that's different, right? That's a very different thing. We're not doing sports talk radio, just calling him, oh he doesn't care, whatever. We're going off of very good reporting from very good reporters who are tapped into that team. And when we read that and we know that,

like this is how they feel about him internally, that's where the launching point for all of this is. He's a loser. Dan, what do you do with the fact when a guy has all the physical traits, all the physical ability to be a good defender at the rim and yet he's not, what do you do with that? What do you do with Shaq being good at free throws in practice and then he gets in front of the game and he's not good at free throws?

Like, Carl Anthony Towns has never been regarded by Anybody is a good defensive player and and it just is wildly It's wildly insulting to assume that that's so simply because someone doesn't care enough about being a professional Loser Dan I made them want to count He didn't said it there was a Detroit series where he didn't make any of the ones that needed to count. There was a Detroit series where I did. You forgot about that one. Could the answer be that he's just slow?

Loser. Right, and that's the reason why he's a bad defender. He's just really slow and plotting. That's the thing, if you work on your agility, your quickness, maybe you can be a better defender loser the Interesting thing about you saying slow is that his teammates are saying it's mentally slow loser That the teammates aren't even saying that it's physically slow It's that he doesn't understand what their what his assignments are on

defense how many times in that series, Stugats, were you frustrated because the seventh pass the Indiana was making at the end of the shot clock was the one that was wide open in the corner for the most efficient shot wide open because they were taking it right before the shot clock because he wasn't doing whatever he had to do on some sort of rotation. Loser. I was frustrated the same amount of Carl Anthony Towns as I was at Jalen Brunson for playing. I will tell you that I think this is what's happening here

I mean, and I think it's what's also happening with his teammates. They're just doing this physically. Jalen's trying hard because look how small he is. Of course. Look at how good Carl Anthony Towns. Optics factor into it. Yeah, but perception's not reality.

Reality is reality. Like, OK, optics factor into it. Yeah, but it's but perception is not reality. Reality is reality. Like, okay, optics factor into it. They lost and therefore you call him a loser. I generally am not willing to say that somebody at the top of their profession doesn't care about their profession. But Dan, when you have a guy of that size with those physical traits with ridiculous ability, he does. For a guy who was that tall in the last three seasons, he's.6 blocks per game. You have to start questioning some things. I'm saying that he's not good at block shots. That's cement footed.

He was though. But also Dan, like not caring comes in many different forms. Not caring could be like, man I don't care. Like that's I think how you're taking it. But there's another form where it's like, hey I really need you to lock in. All right, cool, walk out there and he forgot what we're doing.

That's a level of not caring. It's not a dismissive not caring. It's not like he doesn't feel remorse for it, but it's still a level of you didn't care enough to execute. I would argue at this point, if you're having trouble with the playbook, it might not be caring.

It might be some sort of mental deficiencies that make for difficulty with what the playbook is. And perhaps that is also insulting, but I'm simply. Yeah, would you rather be told you don't care you're dumb? I mean. I'd rather be told I don't care. If I'm dumb, but I do care and I'm trying then you know There's that hmm. There is that with you. I

Mean your thoughts here on which one's more insulting because I do believe we can just have the assist the assessment It's allowed. He's not good at this loser I would definitely not want anyone to question my mental ability to do anything. I would rather you think that I'm just lazy or I don't care or I'm dismissive a million times before I have anyone call me a dumbass out there. Put it on the poll at LeBittard Show. Which would bother you more,

people thinking you're lazy or people thinking you're dumb? I get both, so. Turns out Shaq won four NBA titles, not a loser. Not a loser. Not a loser, doesn't matter about his free throws. Three straight, I think. Four times. Hit him with a cone.

You said that Carl Anthony Towns is a loser. I skated in with the math and from my math friends of he's slightly over 500 since his college career. What do you imagine the Knicks record is over the last 25 years? Is Carl Anthony Towns the loser or is the organization the loser? Do you think the Knicks have won more

than they've lost the last 25 years? The funny thing about this entire conversation, he's six wins away from being the savior. Ridiculous. I understand why we call athletes losers in no walk of life or occupation Does the way that that man is measured end up with any other person of comparable skills being called a loser? Knicks are 869 and 1139 between June 3rd 2000 and June 3rd 2025

They run Halliburton. Losers. New York runs Halliburton from watching the next round. Watch. New York is running Tyrese Halliburton. Loser. Sal is right about that though, right? Loser.

We don't talk about Halliburton when he's playing the Bucks. We don't talk about Halliburton except when he plays the Knicks every year in the playoffs. We about haliburton when he's playing the box we don't talk about haliburton except we play the nicks every year the playoffs we made haliburton i have said before i myself that new york when it comes to the math of things is always time squaring everyone's importance including the failed realtor that's now president of the united states because when you are a fraud there you can be a fraud anywhere. We made you

we run you such a great this not. It's a what played again we made you we run you it's it's it's that it's that rhythm. Yeah. It does have song in it. It does have the the Quenessential New York arrogance that you want it just doesn't allow for the fact that your season is over. We made you We run you their season being over is what made him in yeah Did he have like two seconds left on the clock and he's like we? Run you and then he's like shit. I got two more seconds

I got to say something else just like it just fell force like quick on his feet though you dismounted and then you did something else We made you oh shit two seconds left. We run you We've all been there though. It's so good though in How empty it is we made you? We run you for two they lost after he's eliminated We made you. We run you. Before two they lost. After he's eliminated you. We made you.

We run you. The Pacers are one of the great underdogs to ever make the finals. The Pacers would be if they won the championship, the single most surprising team to ever win the championship in that sport Hmm ever no not ever 75 Warriors who? Who was on that team I've had that one he's had that take the al Adels

Best player you say in the last 50 years that Nate Thurman Rick Barry what were the arch nemesis. I mean Nate the Great. What were the 75 Warriors in terms of record? What were they as an underdog before the season? And what were they as a seed? I think the answer to all those things are gonna confirm what I'm saying, which is because this was a team that was designed to fail.

They wanted to tank that season because they were trying to move the team. And Al Adels was given control and they said, hey man, go wherever you want. And he actually went out and loaded the roster with black players, which was at the time unheard of. 48 and 34 in their season in 74, 75. Rick Berry, 30 points a game.

Rick Berry was killing. He was a baller. Six assists. And the Pacers won how many this year, 50? Yep. Yeah. This, I don't know if I can say that it is more surprising to have a black team that we weren't expecting to be black win the championship.

Well, led by a white guy. Yeah, but you just said something about the 75 Warriors that suggested that when they were white, nobody expected anything from them, and then they became a black team led by Rick Barry, and then they won the championship. No, what I said was, what I said was, the team was designed to fail

because they were trying to move the team, and so they told Al Adels, get whoever you want, and so you got a bunch of black players, and they're like, yeah, whatever, knock yourself out. And the idea was, this is going according to plan. This was a team that was planning to tank the season. So you asked me, what were they before the season, what were before the finals, all that stuff.

Though throughout the whole way, everyone was like, this team is gonna fail. Even as they got to the finals, they're playing the Bullets, and everyone said, okay, that was a nice little Cinderella run you guys did but you're gonna get your ass beat now and then what they end up doing Tony sweep they swept them