The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: We're In the Air

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Today's cast: Dan, Stugotz, Greg, Chris, Billy, Jeremy, and Roy. Greg Cote is in a foul mood as he arrives late, and we have to get to the Knicks and Play-In teams having better title odds than them in just a second, but first, it's time to discuss the biggest event from last night: the WNBA Draft. Plus, Pablo Torre is here to discuss his investigative work on Pablo Torre Finds Out to find the video pitch the Knicks made to LeBron James back in the summer of 2010 including a revived Tony Soprano, Donald Trump, and a presentation from Donnie Walsh in a wheelchair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Never before head to Tim's and get yours today and participating restaurants in Canada. This is the Don LeBattor show with the Stookats podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. What happened? My head is spinning. Alright, executive producing the hell out of it right now where we can't get a open off of the ground successfully because everybody got stuck in traffic today.

Yeah, yeah. It was bad. The open's in traffic. Yep. Greg Cody's not here yet. He is stuck in traffic. Chris was in it. I was in it. It was bad. Alright. It's gonna be two hours not well i i have told people this i will continue to say it's miami is getting inundated with people from all over who are seeking refuge here are infrastructure is not built to require for the number of people have descended upon this place and made it the number one housing market least affordable in all of america because

everyone is coming down here to avoid the state income tax and we can all have guns. I think these are all things that are independent of each other that are all true though. Just one giant calamity. Are you saying someone moved down here because they can pack a gun? Yeah, yeah. Really? Of course.

Okay. But they're moving down here because they can get a gun but they want to buy an unaffordable house. Well Well, they didn't think it was gonna be an unaffordable But they've descended here in such mass that it has made the prices go through the roof and all we do now and God Bless the hurricanes are gonna get stronger and faster and more unexpected All we're doing is building straight up. You realize if a hurricane blows through here, all the damage is gonna be done

is just cranes banging into each other. So rich, gun-owning climate change deniers are the people who are ruining the infrastructure. I got it. I mean, it's been this way for years. It's just rotting faster now. It's been this way. Florida has been like this.

Man, we had such funny ideas at the start of this that we were going to do shows on a boat having seceded from Florida. Maybe like just live shows floating somewhere between Miami and Cuba in a safe space out there in the ocean. We have the NBA to talk about because the playoffs are started and and Jimmy Butler is on you know He's doing slam magazine interviews where he's just saying nobody wants to see us for seven games and stugots the DraftKings odds are such Yeah, that there are a bunch of playing teams that have better odds To win the title then your New York Knicks. The Warriors, the Lakers, and the Heat are all more favored to win the title, betting favorites, than the New York Knicks, the number two seed

in the East. That's amazing. They have to play their way in. The Knicks are already in. They're locked in as a two seed, but no one believes the Knicks, in part because Julius Randall is out and the Knicks. Okay, but wait a minute, Julius Randall being out, I think is good. It kinda helps him. Oh my God, the Heat were thrilled anytime he was on the court last year in the playoffs.

Thrilled, he's just an inefficiency monster. It's like when Marcus Smart was there for the Celtics. That city only loves him out of loyalty because he's been a part of building what it is now. It's not cause they're watching him play. And it must be because they're forgetful that they thought he was on vacation at the end of that Heat Series.

They thought he had already packed his bags because he was taking so many 23-foot jumpers and going seven for 23. It's amazing that those title odds are the way they are with teams having to play in, but it's an understandable situation with teams they've seen do it before that are built for the playoffs.

The Knicks obviously haven't been able to do it. I'm not saying that the Heat side of it. I'm saying even in the West, because you have all those young teams at the top that I understand why they would say, hey, the Warriors are a team that can't. I'm laughing at just the spot the Knicks are in. They have a great season.

They win 50 games and they're like, shit, we get in beat or Jimmy Butler in the first games, and they're like, shit, we get him beat or Jimmy Butler in the first round. Like, they're scared, right? Is this just the Heat fan perspective on this, or are you legitimately scared? No, I'm scared, but I will tell you this. When you doubt Tom Thibodeau,

Thibes has you right where he wants you. And people are doubting Tom Thibodeau, and all of a sudden, Thibes has you locked up in 78, 76, you know, late in the fourth quarter, and you're playing his type of game. I mean. But come on. Thibs has always been doubted, and Thibs has never actually

won. I'm trying, Dan. OK. And I understand why Knicks fans love him. I don't think you're tactically outmatched by leaps and bounds against Eric Spolster. I think everybody listening to this, even if you don't understand the machinations,

the technicalities in coaching, would look at Thibodeau and look at Eric Spolstra and say, those people know how to coach the hell out of people. Always get good defensive basketball, fundamental basketball, and Thibodeau isn't gonna be outmatched too much by anybody in the seven game series. You got confidence with that even if you don't know anything about coaching but last night's story isn't that stugots we will get to

the nba we will cover it throughout this hour pablo tories going to join us here in twenty minutes to god so i think you're going to be super interested and what he's releasing today on pablo tori finds out uh... he is basically releasing how the next recruited lebron james in two thousand and ten by video uh... for uh... in a ten minute video that the next prepared for lebron james like they were going to change the future of basketball by getting lebron james in new york in two thousand ten here lebron

here's our pitch. We've got 10 minutes. Pablo has secured the video and the audio of that presentation. Was it JD and the straight shots performing? Like, I just like the idea of playing with what that 10-minute video would be. Well, what it is going to be is played on PabloToryFindsOut. If you want to guess what it would be without having known what it is, at the time, they did a recruiting pitch do you remember how mad stugatz was that

uh... that pat riley was doing all the magical mystical things of pouring rings on a table while uh... who was the g i mean else and i mean wall sure was it nelson uh... that and somebody came into the recruitment of the next in a wheelchair but it wasn't a wheelchair From anything other than a recent accident. There's Donnie Walsh by the way Donnie Walsh my bad fine. Yes General manager

Donnie Walsh Donnie Nelson, you know Nelly yeah couple of's, cutting it up. St. Lunatics. $2. Chris, your father, how is he doing? Can we call him on the phone? Can we get him agitated as he drives in? Do you need to tell him that he's on the air?

Just we can commit a crime of just, well, no, I'm scared. But the YouTube police are different than you. You should be scared. I'll tell them about that. Probably a bad idea. This man is grumpy, he is coming off a Las Vegas trip, he's in traffic. Hey, dad.

Las Vegas. I just got here. All right, we're in the air, how's your mood? In the air. I'll be in a minute. That's his mood. Good job, Chris, we're in the air. Excellently handled. We are.

Are we not in the air? First day back, dude. I'll be on a plane. He's going to get here in a second. He's going to run through the doors. And we have to be careful with all of this, because sometimes Greg Cote gets so self-involved that he will arrive here while we're already broadcasting,

but lose sight of the fact that we're already on the air, because he doesn't think any show starts until he gets there Do you think he's gonna walk directly in front of the camera? To barrel in here no one's gonna be able to stop him. He's gonna run right into the studio, but he's gonna be huffing and puffing He's gonna be breathless He's not gonna ask for permission of anybody and he's gonna sit down and then not put his headset on or do something Simply broadcasting wrong that he could have learned at any point in the last 20 years and has simply refused Are you trying to get him upset when he comes in or do you want to disarm him so that he's not upset?

Cuz I have a line you can give him that I was gonna give him but I'll give it to you if you want All right, if you want to show people behind as soon as he sits down If you wanna show people behind the curtain. As soon as he sits down, Dan hit him with a head drifter. We don't. Okay. Disarm him immediately. Okay, all right, look, all right, look, he's barreling in right now.

All right, let's just do show here. The WNBA was the story from last night, Stu Gotts, because the draft was held and it felt like a seismic event. It felt like. I watched it. It felt, I can't believe it. You all did. Chris Cody's here.

He's a free agent. He's saying I've got to pick a team for next year. I think I'm going Chicago to top five. No to top six picks. They get Andrew Reese. They get Cardoza. I mean, they probably are pretty bad to have two high picks like that. Well, not anymore.

I know. That's what I'm saying. I think they're a fun team. I like I'm thinking where would I like to go if my WNBA team makes a final? Chicago's fun. Billy, you wandered away from the children late at night and Marlins baseball to sniff around the WNBA draft?

Yeah, I was following it. Well, I was following it on my phone at first and then it was only the Spanish feed, which I was really confused about. And then I finally figured that situation out. I was watching it in English. I could understand it in Spanish, but it was a bit of an inconvenience,

and it was a little difficult. And I was trying to take it in. I wanted to see what's gonna happen. I thought, what if Katelyn Clark doesn't go to Rome? It'd be hilarious, right? Which obviously we knew wasn't gonna happen, right? And then I was watching it, and it was unlike any draft that I normally see because I think, you know,

NFL draft is coming up, pretty good news on that, coming in days, but the NFL draft is coming up and I'm used to like teams being on the clock, I'm used to different networks being there, broadcasting it, and then I saw that this was like in a theater in New York, it seemed like all the tables with the players and their families were on the actual stage. And then the ESPN broadcast was being broadcast

to like the entire theater. So I was thinking, wow, this is kind of different. They can all hear what you're saying about the players before they get drafted. Like they hear all of it. At one point, Kaylin Clark smiled because she heard them talking about her. And I just thought it was a little weird for what I was used to seeing because of the fact

there's no clock that you could follow. It's just basically when ESPN was done talking, hey, the pick is in and then the draft is made. So then I dared to say that in our meeting today saying, hey, it was a little different than what I'm used to seeing. And I was immediately accused of hating women. And I was like, okay, well. That is how that went.

Dangerous game. All right. Let's go ahead and aggregate Billy saying, WNBA draft, colon, it was a little weird. Because Billy did think the whole thing was a little weird. I just, it felt like a performance, it felt like a show, which is fine.

I just said, it was a little different than the drafts I watch. And it was like, well, you hate women. I was like, okay, well, I guess that's that. I thought the performance element of it was really cool though. Like the idea that the broadcasters were being broadcast throughout the building that they were in

and that everybody could hear all of the analysis as it was going on, it led it to feel like I was watching something that was contrived for TV, which is what these are all supposed to be. I need a clock, I need the idea of chaos ensuing. It could have been way more awkward than it was. that was contrived for TV, which is what these are all supposed to be. Right? It was awkward. I need a clock, I need the idea of chaos ensuing. It could have been way more awkward than it was. Like I thought that all of the women who were drafted

handled all of that really well. Listening to people break down their game in front of them. And then they were all, all the sound bites afterward with Holly Rowe were great. It was really funny seeing the difference in height between Cameron Brink and Holly Rowe as she was literally cut off of the screen as she was trying to interview Cameron Brink

after the second pick. But I thought all of it was really, really well crafted. I thought it was awkward at the beginning when they're doing 10 minutes on Caitlin Clark while trying to show other players and they can hear it. So you're looking at another player sitting there kind of like, fine more on Kaitlyn, you wanna do 10 minutes on Kaitlyn, but show me.

He's right, you can tell all the players were annoyed because Indiana picked a second player and the first question asked was, well, you're playing with Kaitlyn Clark, and she was like, well, what about me? I mean. All right, so there are a handful of interesting things here.

If you stop for a moment to genuflect at the moment that we are in, People will complain about whether Caitlin Clark is too famous, whether she deserves Saturday Night Live or South Carolina should be up there, but at this moment in history that woman who has acknowledged at every turn very gracefully all the pioneers who came before her. All of the pioneers because they are many. That woman now drags this sport to unprecedented heights that we've never seen where holy shit we're watching on Monday night a made-for-television extravaganza about looking good, feeling good, presenting good, like putting on a show for the people

because your sport has arrived. But what it really was is, holy shit, these women are underpaid. Let's celebrate how we have now finally reached. Male equality, you'll celebrate our bullshit draft events on television, we'll turn these into national holidays, it'll be fashion show, all of it off season bullshit where the leagues can control the players

because Caitlin Clark should be available to go to wherever the hell she wants to play, anywhere she wants in the world, but she has to go to the first team that drafts her in an unfair draft that would be eradicated if sports were truly fair. I think you'd choose Indiana. I mean, remember Iowa, same market, Dan.

Maybe, but here are the numbers and they are shocking. She will make $76,000 this year, Caitlin Clark, her rookie deal, four years. And she's well paid. Brittany Greiner had to go to Russia because of how poorly we pay and have always paid in this sport. Four years, $338,000 so she gets in 2025, $78,000. 2026, $85,000. 2027, $97,000. So she would qualify for low-income housing in San Francisco.

She'll be paid less than the average salary of a union nurse, teacher, or cop. Pay the teachers. They're gonna be paying her $23,000 less than James Harden's fine for calling Darryl Morey a liar. It's why that big three thing, honestly, five million for like eight games. She needs to opt out of that fourth year now, right?

She was wearing a $17,000 Prada outfit last night. That's about a quarter of her first dress outfit. It was the first time Prada dressed anyone for the draft. So it was another like very, very cool moment to show that this event had arrived and ratings were coming. Hey, it's Mike. And I know you were hoping for an update on those fishtail palms in my backyard. Well, have I got news for you. I actually got lighting installed and I can change it with an app. Beautiful fishtail palms lit up red, depending on my mood. If I'm my hockey team wins, we like those suckers red. Anyways, I like being outside. I like looking at those fishtail palms lit up red depending on my mood. If I'm my hockey team wins, we like those suckers red

Anyways, I like being outside. I like looking at those fishtail palms You love hearing about it, but what's in my hand other than my app change in the lighting a Miller light is in my hand That's right, because I know when the Miller light is in my hand. I make a good time Miller time I take that first step. I know immediately I made the right call Nothing goes with my fishtail palms, quite like a Miller Lite. It makes everything so much better. And I'm gonna have some people over. I'm gonna toss them that beautiful white can.

They're gonna say, heck yeah, and they're gonna have that first sip and know, just like me, that they made the right call. Times change, but you can always enjoy the great taste of Miller Lite. Tastes like Miller time. To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door, visit MillerLite.com slash Dan,

or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces. Don LeBattard. I heard that as a woman faking pain. I didn't think that sounded real. I really didn't, you know. It was not fake. It was in no way fake. You can spot a woman faking it. Stugats! Yes I can, Jess. Expert. I've been married 40 years. This is the Don LeVatar Show with the Stugats! Greg Cody has arrived. Howdy, Drifter.

Hey, Drifter! We do understand that her WNBA salary is a fraction of what her income will be, right? I mean, we're acting like she's only making $70,000. No, I'm not acting like anything. Yes, she will make plenty of money, but not because her sport pays her fairly. The salaries in this sport are criminally low. Again, look at where Brittany Greiner ended up

because one of the biggest stars in American basketball, look at where she ended up in a hellhole of a prison in the middle of a war of a world gone mad Stu got Because she couldn't play in this country The salaries were too low That's what Caitlin Clark Changes last night and whether you want to give her the credit or everyone who came before it it almost doesn't matter Holy shit What a celebration of that sport arriving that your championship was just done and now the fun starts We're gonna get into the transactions Chris Cody's gonna watch and say I gotta pick a team like to watch fandom

Birthed in real time because you care about the personalities and the stories in the time of brand n i l independence for the athlete it's super cool to see it birthed i can't believe angel reese dropped all the way to seven last night to chicago i can't that is a steel steel the draft she was the third best player i saw in in women's college basketball this year she was you don't know what you're talking about what do you mean you watched for the who were the other two uh... will caitlin clark of course of course, and the kid from South Carolina.

The kid. Cardoza. The kid from Yukon was pretty good, too. Paige Becker's. Name drop. Grown women. I will say, in that level of infancy that you're talking about of sports fandom, Dan, I remember as a kid watching the 2003 NBA draft, which was LeBron and Wade and Bosch and Mello, and it was the first time that I as a kid

had watched a number of those players through college in Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony, and LeBron James had the crazy hype that now Kaitlyn Clark has going into this WNBA draft. And so, as someone who's now just in the last couple of years started to follow college basketball a little more, seeing these players go through their college experiences, seeing them go to championships, winning championships, it felt like that same level of infancy of fandom of like, hey, this draft is going to

change a lot about this league with all of these star players. Stu, you mentioned it. Angel Reese all the way down at seven. Can't believe it. A really deep draft. It was just a, it was an exciting time as a sports fan to watch something that felt like the beginning of a new stage of a league. Dad, you just mentioned Paige Becker's.

Do you believe she was drafted last night? I think he was just naming another name that he knew. She's back for another year at UConn. Unless you know something I don't. We were back for another guy. Just you kind of know something I don't we're talking at words draft last night. You're like that you can't players now They're saying the best players they saw last year I was interested that Kate Martin of of Iowa got drafted I wasn't sure whether she would or not and it's good because other than

Caitlin she's like the only player who stood out on that do you otherwise one woman do you believe and I don't want to call Anyone like you believe that she has just here for Caitlin. I was happy I got drafted, but I wasn't I wasn't here for that I was just here for Caitlin Billy. Tell me how else it was weird. I mean that's that's it. That's all it was weird I know that you're trying to take me down this path All I said is I like a clock and a draft and I thought it was weird that the TV broadcast was being played in the entire arena. You've said enough.

That's all I said. It was odd seeing like they would cut to Caitlin and she was like looking up watching the broadcast and then she'd pan back like, oh, this is awkward. They're talking about me. It was convenient that every time the analysis stopped, the pic was in, just the timing was impeccable. Okay, look, it takes a minute.

I should show you initial ESPN drafts on ESPN so you can see how this stuff is born and how these things require a great deal of production that costs a lot more than whatever they're paying Caitlin Clark this year to throw these events in a way that is giant and meets the moment. You do understand they met the moment last night, right?

People were watching and they kept your attention and it's all that they have to do in order for this sport to be the oil well of revenue and eyeballs that it's been, where we've never done this before on a monday or tuesday talking about a show after the w n b a season i'd say that purposely a show because that the next evolution of what all of this power is going to be in brand management

as a league explodes in front of your eyes, Stugatz. Because it's not just, this minor, the minor league of college basketball is now going to be this giant pipeline. The WNBA has been sponsored, fed by the NBA for years. A money loser because it's hard to run a league. I mean, go look at, read some of what it is that Ice Cube has had to do in business dealings on trying to just form what that league is.

But I would argue that all of what you're saying explains the salary situation. If you're saying the league's a money loser for all these leagues, it would explain why it is that salaries have been lower. But now here come the television ratings and the thing that all of sports in the streaming age is built on. They have a revenue stream now that can make these salaries explode.

Yes, those salaries are what they are for a reason, but again, Brittany Griner had to go to Russia. That's one of the biggest stars in America. Like Caitlin Clark, before Caitlin Clark you could have made the argument, well no, maybe Brittany Griner's the best there's ever been and she had to like a lot of the stars in this country she had to play elsewhere in dangerous circumstances because this country wasn't valuing that talent that's the history of this game funded supported by the n b a

and now finally because it's been so thatKatz, this was hard, how many years is the NBA trying to get, look man, it's viewed as our most progressive league and nobody has done this, what I'm just presently saying. And this is not to celebrate the men on a woman's day, but the NBA was dedicated to this cause and now it has exploded

into something that's going to get everybody paid because the dirty secret in sports is all of this is made for television all of it so if you get eyeballs the money will fall out of the sky now more than ever because the streaming services are all competing against each other to see whether they can get you behind the paywall. I need to say that the WNBA is exploding through very little help from the NBA. The NBA and the NBA Players Association for years now could have taken it upon themselves to make sure that minimum salaries in the WNBA were decent so that Brittany Grindle didn't

have to go to Russia to play. I mean they could have done more. Could have done a hell of a lot more. It's embarrassing the WNBA start and I don't mean to demean anyone on a living wage who's working their ass off for $70,000. That's a good wage but not for pro sports. It isn't. It's embarrassing. You mentioned the history of drafts on ESPN.

I'll tell you when ESPN figured it out with their draft production. And they added that. That's it. I mean, that's all you need. And they had that last night. So I was hooked. It made it feel legit. That's good.

Always. Greg, this is an easy position for you to take. And I don't know. You're going to have to walk me through some of the facts on some of this. I don't know what salaries can be. Yes, I can complain about these salaries being too low. But if the NBA tells you the WNBA was running at this kind of loss for this long and you're just

saying pay the players more. Yes, of course, we would all argue, please play the pay the players more. But at what continued cost to your business, it's easy for a sports writer to say i'm wondering as a as a c e o of the n b a how much loss am i allowed to bring to my owners because i can't get salaries up i need to get fan attendance revenue ups in order to get salaries right but yeah but some of it is chicken and egg if you increase w n b a salaries all of a sudden some of the women playing overseas

are playing uh... in the american league uh... which not all of them are now uh... but but i i think that it's long overdue for some equity in in pro basketball salary taking an easy argument is what you're doing and i'm not saying it's the wrong are there players pay the pay you're saying that but it's there though and it was fair before caitlin clark now it's only fair though if the if the piles of money are the same okay but they never are the pile of money for an nba team is a mountain it

is not a little tiny uh... you anthill like it is in the w nba nba teams can afford to give this is a new and improved that let us show with the stugas gamble on by draft keene's don levatard surely every time you're watching this you recognize that your wife is laughing that she married she married larry dana i'd i'd do it with you it one of the great characters in the history of television in My Humble Opinion and and to my credit my personality... In My Humble Opinion

followed by To My Credit. To My Credit. It's amazing. My personality does predate Curb Your Enthusiasm. Stugots! Oh wow. I'm not gonna say Larry David patterned himself after me. You copy, alright put it on the pole please Jude. You did Greg Cody copyright being an asshole long before Larry David This is the down libertar show with the two gods We have told you a number of different times and you have helped make public Torrey finds out something that in a very crowded field of podcasts is standing out because every episode has a lot of care in it, an unusual amount of care.

And so the latest Pablo Torre finds out, Stu Gotz, I think will be particularly interesting to you, as I was saying before, because I don't know how Pablo got this video. I don't know what the story behind it is. figuring stuff out here and dot yeah so this is uh... pablo what you've on earth is the ten minutes that the nicks uh... were presenting it as video to lebron james when they had the chance to run the last fifteen years in the sport when lebron ran the sport for fifteen years if he if they convinced him in these

ten minutes all of basketball is different the last fifteen years yes first of all first of all steve thank you i did this for you steve gotts well thank you did this for you know uh... dan has framed is correctly there's a crossroads in basketball history when everybody in new york city thought of course lebron james you guys remember him i believe of course lebron james would come to New York City. New York City has everything. New York City

is the greatest city in the world and the question that James Dolan had to answer was how do you convey this in a room when the door closes and you're sitting there with Mike D'Antoni and Alan Houston and your executives from the garden and you have an allotted time to convince LeBron that New York City is the only place where you could be the best version of yourself and they made a video that had been long rumored forever it has been like this mythological artifact that people have talked about because there were rumors like they got James Gandolfini three years after the soprano said ended with most controversial debated

endings in television history they got him to do a special like bar mitzvah video basically for lebron james hold on hold on hold on us to got to fight told you right now this isn't just reporting if i told you right now would you like to see just that stood out of of the sopranos is the number one most impeccably made television show and pop culture phenomenon on earth hasn't been seen in three years gandolfini is like this

mystery shadow figure super interesting and they got him on behalf of the next to produce a video that pablo now has in where who are you presenting this video to pablo what's the clip we're throwing to I'm gonna present to you the clip that LeBron James saw himself no one has ever seen this okay this is the thing no one has been able to prove this is real the people have talked about it and so the lights go down James Dolan is at the table with LeBron James and Maverick Carter and his then agent Leon Rose in Cleveland, lights go down and this is the video that begins.

["Take It Down"] Tony, I'm so glad we moved to New York. Life is so much better now. Yeah, life's good here, Col. Even if we are in the witness protection program. Now we just gotta find a place for your friend LeBron to live. What's he like? He's a modern guy, but he respects tradition.

He'll do something classy on the East Side. Is he big enough? He's gonna be entertaining a lot of people in New York. It's very expensive. That's not gonna be a problem. You gotta find something magnificent. Something that's nothing in the world like it, one of a kind, like he is. Well, here's a place. It says it gets really loud there.

Take a look. Oh yeah. Oh no. Yeah, that's it. That's gotta be perfect for him. Allow me to reintroduce myself. Oh my god. The Knicks made the Sopranos bad.

How did they do that? Oh my god. Tony's alive. Tony's alive. Allow me to reintroduce myself. Oh my god. The Knicks made the Sopranos bad. How did they do that? Oh my god. Tony's alive. Tony was alive.

The Knicks solved it. They got James Gandolfini, a man who refuses to do anything. He's a recluse, as Dan alluded to, a guy who refused to do anything like this. They got him to do this privately for LeBron. They expected that no one would ever see it. And now that we see it, we have a couple of answers as to like what happened at the end of the greatest television show

of all time, and also, very crucially, what the f*** are the Knicks doing? And why LeBron chose Miami? Well hold on a second though, this is, I'll just send you over to PabloToryFindsOut so that you can get the other nine minutes that were in that video because this is a wholesale pitch. Where would you rank that little clip, where would you rank it from among the best that you think you have if you had to rank the best of what this had to make fun of the Knicks from every angle on how they were mismanaged 15 years ago?

What I need to tell you is that this video and all of its 10 minute long glory does not age well and so that I actually really enjoyed that when I first saw it. I really did enjoy it. Where it goes immediately and I don't want to spoil this because you just got to come watch the video guys support the fact that I'm hustling to get these artifacts for you. It's it gets bad immediately like really bad immediately. And the thing about what this video was, as Dan has been sort of framing it,

it's how do you convince when you have the privacy, the presumed privacy of this room with the closed door, how do you, as one of the most iconic teams of all time Convince the biggest free agent ever to come play for you And so it's a window into how James Dolan thinks who are the Avengers he summons to come through the portal to convince LeBron James that the Knicks are the place not screw Pat Riley. We know what Riley did right Pillowcase full of rings. We know that story. That's how you get them. This is the alternate history.

This is what the Knicks tried to do, and this is why it very obviously did not work. One of the things that's amazing about whatever it is that'll be unearthed in this 10-minute video is it's not just it changed the fate of the sport and obviously Miami sports over the next 15 years. But the fact that now we can see the videos, Stu Gotz, that would make us better understand, it's not going to be a complete version of, wait a minute, LeBron to New York was the biggest

slam dunk ever. How could he have not just- He was wearing a Yankee hat. Yes. ever how could he have not wearing a Yankee hat. How could he have, like LeBron, how do they botch LeBron to New York? The Knicks were on the doorstep of everyone saw, yeah the most obvious thing is do what the Knicks are doing now which is oh look, we've got the agent crews running our shows here, the Knicks management team, Stugats is basically just what LeBron's management team is now running clutch and Leon Rose the president of the Knicks and the Knicks of course are really good now right to see all of that the guy who's running The team Leon Rose was in the room for this. He was LeBron's agent

He got to see this and so it's almost like he got a reverse blueprint for what not to do and The question for the strategy here was initially and and Stigatz, you're totally right. LeBron wore a Yankee cap to a Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees playoff series. Teased us. He was wearing, he was more than teased. It was the surest thing. It was the most obvious thing. And we were wondering how do they botch this?

And what you're telling us is you've got ten minutes of them botching it. What I'm telling you is that go to this video and I will further spoil it because there's even a worse face and I'm gonna mention but the first face you see because I can't have myself after the Sopranos secret ending reveal is Donald Trump. So just know that it gets worse from there. It gets worse from, hey, guy you would feud with famously over racial issues in America, famous black, LeBron James athlete, iconic figure.

That guy is the first face that you meet coming out of that in the darkness of a pitch room. And it is bad. Pablo, since you've seen the entire video, how long into the video do you think LeBron told himself, I'm not coming here? I would like all of us actually, Stu, to answer that question for ourselves. I don't want to lead the witness. I'm actually fascinated. We held a focus group in the episode with Jason exception and worldwide

Wobb Rob Perez because I wanted to simulate. Okay. Here are guys who are not like Anti Knicks by nature. They want the best for this team, right? And when you watch this pretend it's a great way of framing this to pretend you're LeBron You're a famous guy with access to everything. And by the way, here's another funny bit about what we just played through, just that little bit, right? They play Jay-Z public service announcement, that song,

as like the outro into what becomes like a segue into this procession of what I call like the, basically James Dolan's recruiting hostesses, almost like college football style. You meet everybody in order. They're trying to convince LeBron to come to New York. The song that they play, Jay-Z, that's the guy who, quite literally,

it's absurd to have him this way, Jay-Z was pulling out of the parking lot because he was selling LeBron on the nets as the Knicks were coming in. So immediately you're like, okay, I don't think the Knicks necessarily anticipated this correctly because they're selling him on the guy who just pitched him to Brooklyn. All right, and that's first one minute. That's the first minute of this. I will send people over there. Pablo Torre finds out, he says he is hustling for those artifacts.

It's very, very long weeks unearthing, trying to unearth. Everyone's at this trough trying to grab the interesting stuff and he found a bit of a treasure here. This is a great one. Well, it's a treasure for a number of reasons, especially as the Knicks head into the playoffs now with like real loud hope for the first time in a quarter century. But before we go any further, where would you like to go because there's no more time,

so you have to pick one of these three topics you've got the w n b a you've got the playoff starting are you get the draft the playoffs the n b a playoff starting and you've got a united states president uh... facing felony charges of first time ever in a criminal court that's ever happened take your shot what do you want weirdly i think the episode today we've just been discussing actually hits on the last part, the president thing, so I'm gonna punt on that

for the purposes of this. And just marvel, and just marvel. Truly, when you say WNBA, the first thing you think of is, wow, that ratings monster. We have not seen this, dad. Like I had Morgan Murphy on my show on Friday to talk about what it's like actually when you've been rooting and watching and consuming and trying to evangelize people on your favorite sport. She's one of the she's the biggest women's basketball fan I know in my

life and she's been trying to convince people for 20 years this is worth it and it's finally happening and there's comedy right and not merely you being proven right but also the dynamic of what happens when everybody starts like Gentrifying the thing you love and so I was a bit of this with Lucy and Iowa but the way it's happening at scale here with Caitlin Clark women's basketball is funny because You have to handle this unprecedented problem a deeply unpopular thing seemingly overnight is now popular and now you are both vindicated and infuriated that everybody has takes delivered with the confidence of people who've been there for as

long as you have and that is both a sign that you've made it and is also your personal hell. Like a genie cursed you with a wish that they granted with the footnote of and by the way now Stephen A is going to have takes about Caitlin Clark that are going to make you infuriated. Like that's it's an amazing thing we've just never seen before in American sports. I can't believe the Sparks took Cameron Brink that is not the play you take it number two. They need offense they took defense they went offense. You got to go offense there you have to go with Cardoso from South Carolina exactly I mean what are they thinking could not be more wrong hey it's Mike and I know you

were hoping for an update on those fishtail palms in my backyard well have I got news for you I actually got lighting installed and I can change it with an app beautiful fishtail palms lit up red. Depending on my mood. If my hockey team wins, we light those suckers red. Anyways, I like being outside. I like looking at those fishtail palms. You love hearing about it. But what's in my hand other than my app changing the lighting?

A Miller Lite is in my hand. That's right, because I know when a Miller Lite is in my hand, I make a good time Miller time. I take that first sip, I know immediately I made the right call. Nothing goes with my fishtail palms. Quite like a Miller Time. I take that first sip, I know immediately I made the right call. Nothing goes with my fishtail palms. Quite like a Miller Lite. It makes everything so much better. And I'm gonna have some people over. I'm gonna toss them that beautiful white can. They're gonna say, heck yeah, and they're gonna have that first sip and know, just like me, that they made the right call. Times change, but you can always

enjoy the great taste of Miller Lite. Tastes like Miller Time. To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door, visit MillerLite.com slash Dan, or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces.