The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: Known Buffoon James Dolan

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

It's not a silly opinion. It might be an outrageous opinion that nobody agrees with, but it is not a silly opinion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Proximo. Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. Cuervo. Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry. I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries. That if they're just there, that hasn't happened to you guys.

I've done it. And now here's the marching band to nowhere, fat face and the habitual liar. This segment is presented by LinkedIn jobs. Post your jobs. to you guys? I've done it. And now here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face and the habitual liar. This segment is presented by LinkedIn jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash d l s terms and conditions apply. I asked us to pace ourselves over these playoffs. I don't know if we have. Greg Cody does look a little bit relieved to not have had to do heat at the same time as Panthers. He looks better at the end of this run than he looked at the end of the last run. But he just spent the entire break with pretty righteous indignation at both me and at the

disrespect of White Hat because he's still saying, Greg is still saying that this is an act of cowardice and of great insult to be someone who doesn't have his journalistic pedigree and is very comfortable being disrespectful enough to call him a senile old man. Yeah, I mean, unless you're my age and hear somebody without credentials referring to me as that, someone who's never met me, by the way and and probably has never read me or never heard me in his life to to be referred to as a senile old man it it it cuts on a very personal

level fifty years a writer fifty years covering sports a half a century covering game says senile old man that's just disrespectful uh... the in in plain fact now the cowardice comes from those two doing a show yesterday Talking about me and about what I wrote and not having the decency to have me on which I was under the impression They would have until white hat didn't want to because he said I would rather put knives in my eyes or whatever It was which they pointed out you'd still be able to hear the box. So we have we hear I hope he does He heard it. He would be screaming which wouldn't be all

that bad. But he's a senile old man. People should have to follow through on that. You'd rather put knives in your eyes and have Greg Kody on. Well you didn't have Greg Kody on. Knives out baby. That's right. By the way I have never I have yet to write an entire column calling McDavid McOval rated. Last year and again this year I wrote about four paragraphs in a longer column. What is the record you want to set straight? You were talking throughout the break, you wanted to set the record straight on two things. Okay I think superstitious hockey fans like

Mike and others and they referred to this on the on the hockey podcast yesterday they're like why would he do it now and rile everybody? The bulletin board is dead Okay, nobody is placing my headline in the Edmonton locker room The most pathetic athlete on earth is the one who can't really get fired up for the Stanley Cup final and he needs something really get fired up for the Stanley Cup final and he needs something outrageous that was said by a Miami columnist to get all excited about it. The bulletin board has been replaced by the group text now that just gets sent around to their group like okay but again the point is there was a big article out of

Edmonton last year that McDavid apparently was aware that somebody in Miami had called him McOwen. His dad! Okay well guess what? How'd that work out for him? He didn't get all riled up. He won the Con Smythe. Yeah yeah did he win the Stanley Cup? I understand your point but like the guy can't do more than be the most outstanding player in the playoffs. That's just the league. Yes he can actually. Somebody should write the McUnderrated column. That's also the league and the media trying to kind of cover their own asses on that one like oh look he lost again here's a participation award the cons my and I'll go a step further if he wins a Stanley Cup the narrative might well be now

he's got to win another one and another one and here's why if he wins one that's if you're McJesus you win one Stanley Cup in your tenth year that's not enough all of a sudden you're Aaron Rodgers but i don't better win zero than one if you're him better to well no i i would never say that i'll thank you uh... if is the but put on the pole at levitard show is the bulletin board dead and i just don't think that we can say in this particular story greg that you can say the bulletin board

is dead when you as a media personality were the epicenter of last year's finals because of what you said, so silly in saying it, that it reached Connor McDavid's dad who was at the elbow room and was telling others that he had no use for you. And this was the highest of indignance that was being expressed by a classy Canadian person.

To be enraged by how classless you were, This was the highest of indignance that was being expressed by a classy Canadian person. To be enraged by how classless you were, it got to McDavid's father. You don't think it becomes personal then? You can't say the bulletin board is dead when your words wounded his father so much that he's spilling drinks over at the elbow room and crying his heart out about,

why is this quote unquote senile old man? But he's a senile old man going after my great son who's clearly the king of all kings have you met uh... connor mcdavid's dad i'm just curious why how you know he's classy uh... when just canadian you don't know that is okay i i just want to make that well but uh... and and and

it's not a silly opinion it might be an outrageous opinion that nobody else agrees with but it's not a silly opinion Look, I'm using an American standard here. I don't know how they think in Canada. You did that in the column I don't know how you guys do it David did the three weeks three days a week podcast You gotta win something to be a goat. You have to win something to wear a crown. All I've ever said was he's a great player who hasn't won the big prize yet. Win it and then you can be McJesus.

Imagine how old man. Imagine had America lost World War I but then they get best war participant award. David Samson's Nothing Personal podcast is now double the David. If you have not seen, he is now starting at 7am because he is a maniac Eastern, going 7 to 9 and giving you Sports Business Lane. He is doing it stronger than anybody. I think I can make that argument. I don't know that even Ravel would have much objection to the idea

that David Sampson is owning the sports business lane right now, but his podcast is a lot more than that. And now it's twice the size. David, how is the first week of that experience gone? Because now you're talking to yourself two hours a day, and that'll make a human being crazy 10 hours a week. You will be an echo chamber inside of your own head. You will be insufferable to people who love you You will talk too much all the time What's different it's twice the David nothing personal and He has he has gotten a great gig have any of you seen it. He's doing a great job

It is thank you, but I don't feel like do you feel like you have the support of the company? I don't feel like you and Pablo feel in any way connected to the shows that that you guys are doing in our network I say Pablo and I connect more often than anybody else within the company as we're talking about Topics and shows and what's happening? But no, I feel very much a part of metal arc I feel very much that nothing personal is a part of your network, your lineup. Really, really happy to be partners with DraftKings. They've been amazing as we've gone to two hours, just totally supportive.

And they have me doing a bunch of other things related to like club World Cup. And I just, I love being a part of your team. So no, I'm enjoying it. It's a weird thing to toss out there, Dan, during his weekly hit. Greg Cody is still indignant. Before anything else, and it's taken me too long to get here, and forgive me for this, so I think if you were to tell me what could be the most talk piece firing that could have happened in employment

yesterday, where you would just get people talking about the importance of a coach in the value of a coach is fire one guy yesterday in and give me you guys might have another but if you do it to tebidow when he's made your team better than it's been in twenty five years and anyone can assemble the argument that doesn't deserve to be fired it's better than you have ever been it makes for just a classic New York sports radio argument of was this unfair or is it not unfair when the new standard in sports is you better get it done within five years man they've sped up the curves on it was a long time ago

with the Knicks and that Derek Fisher and Steve Kerr were deciding who were going to coach that team and they set a standard of five million dollars a year of a coaching standard on the Knicks. Derek Fisher chose the Knicks, Steve Kerr went on to greatness. Thibodeau is the best thing that team has had at the top of its food chain since Pat Riley. This is their best coach, Jeff Van Gundy included. His success speaks for itself, but the criticism is fair on no bench and stubborn about minutes for the six guys and then they burn down at the end and management is

entrusted with fixing the future when they've given up the five first-round pitch picks for bridges so the only kinds of changes you can make are at coaching positions because you're locked in with 93% of your salary on six guys and Dan you said that the most important part he got five years, right? Like the the Knicks were were getting better every season But with getting better every season the Tom Tibbitt away grinds on you and grinds on you and grinds until your best players like hey This is kind of a lot right you've got his dad also lurking in the background. You got worldwide West

You've got Leon Rose. You've got all these different players James Dolan at the top at a certain point It's like the Mike Malone situation in Denver. You grind on people so much that it's like, you know what, it's better. Okay, thank you for taking us to the Eastern Conference Finals, but we're gonna try and move on to the next coach that can probably take us over the hump. David, his dad, his son, like what are we doing?

I have a top five list if you're interested because I've been thinking about it a lot. What announcement yesterday would have been more surprising or more newsworthy than Tibbs getting canned when he did. And I've got a top five firings that would be even more shocking had they been announced yesterday. All right, so you're undercutting my point.

You have five, I'm an idiot. I've said this was the most shocking. You thought one? You fool. I'm a prisoner of the moment. You've got five better than this that could have happened yesterday. All right, let's see.

Number five. Number five, Rick Carlisle on the eve of the NBA finals. Okay, fair enough. Good point. You got me. I'm cornered. Gotcha. Wait till I'm just getting started.

I know, you're just gonna get started. Okay, very good. Number four. Mike Tomlin gets fired yesterday without Aaron Rodgers having signed. All of a sudden they can him. wait so i'm some just i know i just gonna get started okay very good number four mike tomlin gets fired yesterday without air rogers having signed all of a sudden they can maybe it's a big it's not going to be a much bigger story there's more but not new york not new york not the beloved team coming off the bed okay but for now he's tom london number three

andy reid getting fired by a Chiefs yesterday. Okay, very good. Oh yeah. All right, you know what? What are we doing? Like leap off. No, he's being an asshole. Do you want to switch to drafting oilers and cats? You know what?

I do. I have a top 50. Two more. Is it Mark Dagonal next? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Major asshole. Yes, David gets five minutes. Whoa! We are going Panthers-Oilers draft. David gets five minutes for being an asshole here. Absolutely. Go ahead, Panthers. So, Dan, this was impossible because I'm doing it based on current form.

The Panthers have been so even in terms of stat distribution this season that it's really hard. So I'm going to go based on current form, these are the best 15 players in this series. In order. In order. Top to bottom. Roy, have you notarized this list? I did not get to see it. I would love your opinion on this.

Wait a minute, oh now after the fact? No, no, no. I'm busy over here. There's been no collaboration. I approve of this list. I haven't seen it yet though. I ran it by the Duke. I ran it by the Duke and he gave me some feedback.

I trust Mike. He didn't like where Sam yet though. I ran it by the Duke. I ran it by the Duke and he gave me some feedback. I trust Mike. He didn't like where Sam Bennett was placed. Bob better be top five. Based on current form, you might be right. Number one, Connor McDavid. Yeah, obviously. You would even acknowledge that, Greg.

Yes. I think it's debatable. He's had more two point playoff games than zero. It's debatable? What's debatable? I think it's debatable because he's not an all-around player in the way that Markov okay so when I draft McDavid first yes but I don't think it's a no-brainer okay well he leads the playoffs in points and has more two-point playoff games and zero point

play anyone can get hot yeah Greg are you simply any time anyone says anything positive about Connor McDavid going to be there with yeah but so that you can become Skip Bayless to LeBron. No, I respect Connor McDavid's game. But they just asked you to acknowledge he's the best player in the series, correct? And you're like, do you mean complete player? He said he'd take him number one.

I won't give it a shaky yes. Really wasn't expecting pushback from number one. A shaky yes. No, no, I agree. For this number one. I sanction drafting him first. Well then you're going to be mad about number two because number two is not Sasha Barkov. Number two is Leon Dreisaitl.

This is where we disagreed. The former Hart Trophy winner. Look, Dreisaitl is a very underrated defensive forward and I don't believe the gulf between, even though Barkov is a once in a lifetime defensive talent, especially with smooth skating and all that, but the gulf between their offensive games is pretty wide. Dry-Subtle is a more complete, better well-rounded offensive player, and that's not to take a shot at Barkov's game.

We're talking about a former MVP of the league in Leon Dry-Subtle. That's fair. Okay, notarized. Sanction, wait a minute. Is sanctioned, is Greg Cody sanctioned better than a conferment? Is there a level higher than conferment where we can get Greg Cody's sanctioned better than a conferment? Is there a level higher than conferment

where we can get Greg Cody's sanctioned action? Because he's just giving you- I vote no on that. I think conferment is better. So far so good on the top two? Shaky. This isn't even the best conferment. I think Ethan's conferment is number one,

and then Mike's, and then whatever's next. Number three, Sasha Barkov. That's fair. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Number four, Sergey Babovka. Yep. Yep. You're gonna get a lot of Panthers here, folks. All right, now this is based on current form.

Royce, can you please get for me, just Barkley, can you knock these through the, I just wanna hear Babovka every time as a note as he goes through one through 15. Sergey Babovka! Ha! Number five, Sam Bennett. Sergey Babovka!

That's a shocker. A head of Rhino, a head of Chucky. That is not a shocker. A header, Rhino. A header, Chucky. He's a team leader in goals. I agree with that. In this postseason, Sam Bennett has been a force and he's making himself a lot of money. Hopefully not too much. Maybe take a little hometown discount. Sam Bennett is built for the playoffs.

His hand does not shake. I watched the departing last night. Yeah, Sam Bennett's great. Also, do you know during the NHL Combine. Yeah. I watched. Yeah, Sam Bennett's great. Also, do you know during the NHL Combine, zero pull-ups were accomplished by Sam Bennett? Zero. Don't need them.

I took Odin over at Durant because Durant couldn't do 185 on a bench press one time. I think it was 135, by the way. Not 185. 185's a lot. I think it was 135. Dan, I'm curious. Your feedback?

This is where it got really hard for me. But I know he's battling an injury. And he's not been the same player in that high slot offensively, but defensively Sam Reinhardt has been a titan, so I'm going Sam Reinhardt, number six. Sergei Bobovkov. Then number seven, I'm going Evan Bouchard. We got Evan Bobovkov.

The Bouchy Bombs are just so important to what it is that they do. They have guys over there cleaning it up. Now Zach Hyman isn't there to clean it up. It'll be interesting. Hyman probably would have made this top 15. He's a series changer. He could help, certainly.

There's a lot of movement I'm noticing. There's some back and forth there between seven and 11. There is. Number eight, Anton Landell. Sergei Babanka? Yeah, baby bar key, two way player. I mean, you wanna look at Brad Marshon's success and Lucy's success.

You look at the center man on that line. Anton Landell has been super consistent. Folks, we haven't said Chucky yet. Haven't said Chucky yet. Number two, David. Number nine, this is going to be shocking, because I'm still not going to say Chucky. Luster Island.

Aaron Boone. Sergey Babakov. He's been incredible. A little bit of a down series towards the tail end of that Hurricanes series. You could have said he's been Florida's best player entering that Carolina series. Then we're gonna go with Matthew Kachuk.

Sergei Babovka. At 10? This is not projecting for their future career. He's very clearly hindered by this injury. He is not the same player, but he's still top 10. A lot of cast in a row. But he's not the person that has probably fallen off the most based on current form,

because if I was doing this last year On current form Gustav Forsling would have been a top five player. I'm going Gustav Forsling number 11 We're going Ekholm 12 We're going Swaggy 13 We're going Nugent Hopkins 14 And this may shock you Brad Marchand, congratulations Woah!

A shocker at the end. I get the dirt line in. Stan. Samson, what is fair on Thibodeau? And for the record, that's five Oilers and 10 Panthers. Yeah, don't care. Just wanted to bother David for five minutes. David would only look more annoyed right now

if he was theatrically looking at a watch. Thibodeau, your thoughts. He did that already. Samson, you already did this for two hours on Nothing Personal. This is the talk topic of the day. You have a couple of exceptions, but Thibodeau being fired, your thoughts.

Well, number one, don't believe that it wasn't Jimmy Dolan who did it. Obviously, Leon Rose, the president, is saying in consultation with James Dolan, but that's just horse hockey. The owner makes this call, not Leon Rose. The fact is the Knicks are doomed unless James Dolan stops making the decisions.

And I could argue he has not stopped with the trades they made, including Cat, Randall. Everything is done with Dolan. He is super controlling, super meddling, like many other owners. The problem is he's never won a ring of any kind. And to get rid of Tibbs is fine. You look at Tibbs, he looks angry, grumpy,

and despondent on the sideline. You question their defensive schemes. You question the fact they couldn't deal with Indiana's full-court press. You look at the makeup of the team and realize that Leon Rose isn't doing his job either as they were outmatched by Indiana and certainly would have been my Oklahoma city.

As far as I'm concerned, move right along, find someone else, but if it's still Jimmy Dolan running it, the Knicks will never win a title in my lifetime, and that bothers me greatly. How do you know all of this? How can you speak with such absolute authority? Can I, let me just- Because I used to run a team that had an owner just like it.

All right, so let me ask- Though I get it. Okay, so I want to ask the group here though. When I say that David Samson has an uncommon sports business lane, he is talking about things with an authority from the insides of a sport in a way that are super cold, but also accurate. How can you say with such conviction all the things you're saying when that requires reporting David it requires In order to know that James Dolan made that decision is to know the inner workings of the Knicks and the Knicks have changed

How they were doing management the new management of the Knicks was being allowed by James Dolan To do what it is that they wanted to do. I'm sorry, where did you get that information? That's from Pablo Torre. That's what's been reported, David. What do you mean from Pablo Torre? You understand that I could get anything reported. All I have to do is get it out there. Hey, George Steinbender let Brian Cashman and Joe Torre run the Yankees. And that's why they got successful after my suspension.

And that's when everything changed. Oh, wait a minute. We had Jeter, Passada, Pettit, et cetera. And a few guys doing steroids. There is not one owner out of any of had Jeter, Posada, Pettit, et cetera, and a few guys doing steroids. There is not one owner out of any of the top owners, top leagues, who is not involved in a coaching change. It just doesn't work that way. And did I report it?

No, whatever, I'm gonna call up Jimmy. Hey, Dolan, that was you, not Leon. No, they're gonna say it's Leon, so the owner can have plausible deniability. But I'm here to tell you, there's not one coaching change that's ever happened where an owner was like oh I didn't know that you were thinking that. The Dan LeBataille Show with Stu Gotz is sponsored by Liquid IV. Alright so I'm

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All right, y'all. The Super Bowl is in the rearview mirror. The draft has come and gone. So now what? Now it's time to get the crew together. You keep the fandom energy going. It doesn't stop when the Super Bowl is gone. We gather. Exactly. And look, just because the pads are off doesn't mean game day stops. Around here, we do game days. Even in the off season. And what better way to do that than with a cold drink and your people around. You've heard it all season long, football is not a solo thing.

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Please drink responsibly. Smirnoff number 21 vodka distilled from grain. 40% alcohol by volume. The Smirnoff Company, New York, New York. Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Don LeBretard. You have some hot takes today. Joe Chestnut's a fraud.

Oh, he's on fire. He called Connor McDavid overrated before the show Yeah, no, I love it. Stoogats. Roy let me explain it to you And not that you need to you know more about hockey and this is coming from a guy that's watched Connor play six times Right if that This is the done libertarar Show with the Stu Guards. How are you feeling, David, about the fairness or unfairness of firing Thibodeau after five years? It is absolutely within the owner's right to do anything he wants.

Fairness. Thibodeau has been a coach, he did five years. It seems like he could be the patino of coaches where stick and move, stick and move. Five years in Chicago, three in Minnesota, now five in New York. There are a bunch of managers and coaches whose voices get drowned out after a certain number of years

because they come in hot, stay hot, and leave. But more success than a Knicks franchise has had in 25 years, like that's not up for dispute. Is it the results business or is it not? Well, exactly. To me, it's the results business. And I don't think about the money, which I certainly could have.

You guys haven't even mentioned the fact that Jim Dolan is willing to give Bibidot 30 million on the way out the door. He just got extended, which shows you how extensions that are given to coaches and managers are really meaningless to owners. Samson, what happened here? What does this mean that somebody with more success than a Knicks coach had had gets bought out at the end when most Knicks fans could say that's not the reason they lost? You think that most Knicks fans today are, that's not the reason they lost. Like that's, you think that most Knicks fans today

are happy that Thibodeau's out? There are plenty of Knicks fans who look at the way that he got out coached by Rick Carlisle in the conference finals. There's plenty of Knicks fans who look at the makeup of the team and say, listen, you cannot run your guys ragged and expect to lead the league in minutes with two guys who don't play defense, Brunson and C and Cat and end up on top in a playoff round where defense matters and the coach is supposed to be

defensive minded. I think there's plenty of Nick fans who go look at it that way but Frank I don't care the way they're looking at it. Jim Dolan looked at it and said hey I hear the noise. We came one home game short of the maximum in the eastern conference and then we still could have had three more home games where he prints millions of dollars by loyal fans who don't care about mediocrity and losing and at the end of the day they they actually reward him for his behavior because they continue to pay and pay more and more money it's the most profitable home game there is in all of baseball. David, do you think Thibodeau is now a hot hire

in the NBA at age 67, or do you have doubts about that? I think, and this is gonna be a little ageism, and I don't want it to be given who I'm talking to and me, Greg. I would like to believe that he would be able to have one more run with the team, but the way that coaches are being hired now like managers, it's not as many reach reds. The Ron Washington's are really drowned out by some up and

coming bench coaches who like a Joey Espada who gets an opportunity finally, or a Brandon Hyde obviously he's been fired since. But I think that the Knicks will be very telling. Jim Dolan will want a name, he'll want a retread. If Leon Rose is good at his job, he'll find the next Oklahoma City Thunder Coach, and I don't want to butcher his name because I do it every time.

But someone who you've never heard of, who likely will be a way better coach for a bunch of guys, but impatient owners normally don't want that. Way better, way better, a way better coach for a bunch of guys, but impatient owners normally don't want that. Way better, way better, a way better coach. Than a retread? They're gonna go get somebody who's way better than Tom Thibodeau. Oh, I think that just somebody different is what they want.

But that's not the same thing. Like, how much better? That's why changes get made. Okay, but David, yes. Can you explain to me why you'd get such glee out of the fact that James Dolan is one of the worst owners and he has this power and he flings it around and he continues to make money and win

even though he's a buffoon? Well, you say I get glee. Remember, I started my life as a Knicks fan in 1974. Uh-oh, I missed it by a year and I've gone my whole life without seeing the Knicks win a title. So I don't know what glee you have and them losing in the conference finals.

It seems like you like that, James. You're taking a certain delight in telling us, hey, guys, this is just the owner wielding his power all over the place, making a mess, being sloppy, because he's gonna remind everyone that he's in power, and there are never gonna be any consequences, even though he's a a mess, being sloppy, because he's gonna remind everyone that he's in power, and there are never gonna be any consequences, even though he's a buffoon,

because he's got the most expensive ticket in sports. And Thibodeau, honestly, great for business the last couple of years. Like, spectacular for business. The Knicks, people cared about him. Hey Thibes, get out the door. Like, you can't say that's results-based. You just can't.

I'm sorry, did you say he's a buffoon for having the most expensive tickets in the sport? No, James Dolan is a known buffoon. Okay, so that's two different things. He's doing great business at the Garden, and he's got fans who are loyal and who pay money to see him. Now, notwithstanding the network's going bankrupt,

but that's not actually his fault. So I would just argue this on behalf of Dolan, and it's hard to argue on behalf of someone who is like perceived the way he is, but he looks at that and says to the fans, I want you to have a title. He doesn't really mean that because he wants more home games

and himself to have a title, but he says we failed, therefore a change is coming. I'm not gonna fire Leon Rose because it makes us look too disorganized. So we'll fire Tibbs. We'll bring in someone with the hope of we're going to get you where you want to be next year. It makes perfect sense to me. And from a basketball standpoint, it happens quite often where you let go of a coach who did well. And then another coach comes in creates a different culture.

Look what Steve Kerr did. Mark Jackson. I brought this up on the alley oop a couple of weeks ago last week Is this a situation where we could see? Tom tibetot get to the Easter conference finals lose and then get fired the way mark Jackson did where he took him to the playoffs He was right there at the edge They have the same identical record 51 and 31 mark Jackson's last year and now Tom tibetot's last year where you look at that And say can another coach get us to the next echelon and get us to the NBA finals?

They worked with Steve Kerr, they went on a dynastic run. Now you're looking for the next guy. Could it be Johnny Bryant, the guy they have on their own bench who they blocked from having Phoenix take a look at him? Could he be the next name? Could Jay Wright come in and be the savior for New York? Like there's a lot of options here.

All right, so this is Kat on the second team now that Tibbs ends with, right? This is the second time this has happened to this particular pairing. What are you smiling about, Sampson? Because that's a funny narrative that the media has. It is not that Kat is the downfall of Tibbs because he's been there, Minnesota and now New York when he got canned. It's just that's just a coincidence.

David, we're not going to be doing a lot better than Thibs. We can agree on this. Like we can argue in the margins and I'm not saying there can't be improvement and I'm not saying in the results business you can't go cutthroat about getting improvement. And we can say voice is tired in the locker room and can only change so much of the players. But you can change the players. Cat could be available. Like you can't- They do need to get better, but you're looking for five more wins. I think that's the way that the teams look at it, who lose in the LCS or lose in the ECF or WCF,

is you try to figure out how do you make up the increment, or if you win, you figure out how do you stay it on top. And you don't know how many opportunities you're gonna have. You look at the construction of your team, the way the Knicks are put together, they are not able to win those extra five games. You start with a new coach, but you can't stop there. You got to change out those players in some way, shape or form, because otherwise you will not ever get those five games with this group.

The other thing too is I think the McKell Bridges trade was foisted on to Tom Zibito. Like there was internal issues between him and Michael Bridges throughout the entire season. And now you're looking back and saying, OK, the front office gave five first round picks to get this guy to figure to be their piece, their missing piece to beat the Celtics, to go on to the finals. And that never gelled with Zibito.

Let me get, David, let me get some sound here, not just of jd in the straight shots james dolan's great band i don't know if i can play that music without getting in licensing trouble you can't i'm talking out the answers there uh... okay so in the absence of that perhaps i can borrow just some mad dog talking about this firing in a way that i if i had to guess my guess is that mad dog is not going to agree with David Sampson at all. This makes the Knicks a laughing stock.

You don't fire this guy. How do you fire a head coach who took the team to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in a quarter of a century? The team needs a new voice. Now how the hell does Jim Dolan know? Dolan doesn't know anything about basketball. What are you kidding me?

Jim Dolan? I mean, come on, Jim. Let him go build spheres in Vegas, in Paris. That's what come on, Jim. Let him go build spheres, you know, in Vegas, in Paris. That's what he's good at. Let him go figure out a way and, you know, rip us all off with optimum. How about we have Jim do that instead of sitting there worrying about who is going to head coach is going to be. This is a guy who's won the Knicks since one, the mid-90s, and essentially has done absolutely nothing. Nothing. And then he sits there with his dopey hat on, you know,

on the baseline and he sits there and because they lose to Indiana, because Towns and OG miss free throws with big leads in the fourth quarter of game one. And that's the reason why they lost the series. They lost the series because Naismith went crazy in the last minute of game one and OG and Anthony Towns miss free throws. If either one of them makes both free throws, the game is over and the next poppy is still playing. Known buffoon. That's who you want to side with in the legend of buffoonery. It is a dopey hat. Yes, stupid ass hat. It is a dopey hat. Put

it on the poll at Levitard Show. Is it a dopey hat? Again, known buffoon James Dolan. The man does not deserve any kind of sports respect. He shouldn't have firing power over anyone in sports. Known buffoons win. They can, they can win in sports. You can get lucky. I'm just saying- Jeffrey Luria.

If sports were fair and business weren't dirty, known buffoon James Dolan of JD and the Straight Shots would not get to win by saying that Tom Thibodeau is not good at his job when Tom Thibodeau is only miles and miles better at his job than James Dolan has ever been at anything other than the dirty politics of how you make money in New York, even if your product actually sucks because you just have an arena in the center of town that will make profit forever because people want to love the Knicks so much that they don't care that their owner is a buffoon. They tolerate it. A known buffoon. Yeah, but you're the greatest, Dan. You're the greatest

economist I've ever come across. You just made the exact argument for why Dolan is not a buffoon. You made it word by word. Yeah, but the closest he's come to winning wasn't even with the Knicks, it was with the Rangers when they lost to the Kings in the Stanley Cup final. He's never won anything and is again, He made the sphere, which was a win. a known buffoon.

Billionaires are going to. Can I give you my number one that would have been way bigger news today than Thibs being fired? He's a nepo baby. I mean, how did he win? What did James Dolan do to be one billion? He won the gene lottery What are you talking? You don't want to be James? He acquired his dad's team. Okay, and but you said he's a billionaire as if like he achieved something He just climbed out of the womb achieved or not. That's still a win. Okay. All right. Thank you cool

It's not easy being a billionaire There's a room full of people that think that billionaires are losers and Pete whatever the hell his name is White hat put on the pole. Nice hat Y'all had to get in with the ass. Yeah, you just heard the word ass everybody's like, I've got my signature for that, ass hat. The sons are aggressively looking to trade Kevin Durant. I'm ready to get my heart broken one more time. Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. I need you to trust me. One last time. You want Durant for the Heat? Yes, I wanna see one of the game's greatest scores in the history of the game play in a Miami Heat uniform as I've been edged by this franchise

for 17 years on acquiring this guy, it feels like. My information is, I'm gonna say two months old or three months old, but the only way you get Durant is it's gotta be picks, it's gotta be picks. We got some of those. Let's make it happen, come on, we've seen this team. Not enough. We've seen this team.

4.0. Give me Kevin Durant. I wanna have a franchise that had LeBron, James, Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Durant play for it. That'll be cool. David, your thoughts? He is old. He's not the Kevin Durant that he was.

He's not the centerpiece of a championship team anymore. You signed him too, right? He can't be the third piece with Bam and Tyler and form a threesome that in any way would get Miami a title. It's dangerous to overpay for a name that used to be. You want to pay what he's worth. I think he's. And what he's worth is not the package that the sons want.

Cause remember you're dealing with an owner there, Ishbia, who doesn't want to wear egg on his face, who created this team in Phoenix that has failed, and now he wants to get out of it, but without looking bad. This is a team that very clearly needs a player better than Tyler Hero and Bam Adebayo, and I think today, at his age, Kevin Durant strolls in with that head coach and is that.

Yeah, I don't know that you will get Durant without giving up one of those two, however. No, but that's, no, I'm that it was that's not what the sons wanted two months ago i'm not i know you got to make contracts match up but what they wanted two months ago was pics they did not want players they look i think you've seen enough in pablo tori finds out and elsewhere to know that ishbia when you talk about mental some management and whatever is a thomas is doing in the shadows there it's a giant epic fail for one of these owners who spilled money all over the place and now like I

Can't tell you how epic a fail that Beal contract is and they went for it didn't come close and now it ends with Durant Slinking out a side door. This is not what you want for an all-time great score This is it been a disaster and've got, as of two months ago, the information I had is that they were going to rebuild it with picks. It's not about getting bam or hero. And the Heat didn't want to go down that path because that's what it was going to take. And there are other teams that will have enough to... Kevin Durant's an economy.

Whether he's old or not, we can agree, yes, that Kevin Durant... We can agree that he's old, but we can agree yes that Kevin Durant this we can agree that he's old but we can also agree that he's still good I think a lot of people would say terrible at defense and how good is he really if that Sun's team can't even get into the playoffs because he can get yes of course like McDavid he'll be able to score 28 a game on 48% shooting for the rest of his life on jump shots but what else dude the best player right now is atrocious on defense. Your all-star is atrocious on defense and would get picked on more than Kevin Durant would because Kevin Durant is a seven footer. Even at this age, I'd rather have Kevin Durant's long ass out there than Tyler Hero.

It's also just a name, right? Like, he just needs to sign a name at this point in time after swinging and missing so many. Like, they just need a win whether or not it's going to lead to wins on the court. We need to say we're going after someone and then we get them. Yeah, exactly Chris Cody and while Bill's right on the money we need a player that is better. We need better players. Well no, then you also have him forever

as part of your franchise's history moving forward and then when the heater and another downswing, oh guess what we're gonna do? We're gonna retire Kevin Durant's jersey and we're gonna sell the nostalgia stuff and one of the all time great greats was wearing a heat Jersey Like that's what they need him for at this point in time because the fan base is kind of out on what they're doing I mean does Kevin Durant at his age make you a

Championship contender in the first year or two now if the answer is no then why would you go for I like the ingredients better If he's a part of it. Well, they're not a championship contender in the first year or two now All right, hold on. They're not but championship contender in the first year or two now. All right, hold on. No, they're not, but they have to be. Please, David Sampson, before we get to the review, this part is new information. And you're gonna have to look up for me this

because I wasn't prepared to say this and I was meaning to check up back on this, but now that this is gonna heat up a little bit, I can tell you that, and you guys are gonna have to explain what this means to me, because I don't know who the five guys are but the heat would believe to be in play for whoever the five guys are that have had you that they would have to

reach out however it is that these things happen where on to to compose people or Joelle and beads people I've even asked who the five people are but you guys could probably tell me who would be the Anthony Davis would be Among them we're ranking disgruntled superstars. Just fuck I got I got Zion Williamson fifth stars That would one out who block is a little hot on that one. I don't know if you've seen the news Yes, that one I I didn't think it would have been Zion But whatever it is that the what would the five tray young? What would the five calls have to be because Embiid would be one of them would the five? Trey Young? What would the five calls have to be? Because Embiid would be one of them, would they not?

Man, I think we're ready. Giannis has to be number one. Are we ready to call that Joel Embiid thing? Are we? It's cooked, I think the call is cooked. Wow, all right, we got less than a minute left here, Samson. What are you reviewing for us this week? Oh, less than a minute.

We needed to talk about Brett Favre. There's an untold that you can watch on the fall of Brett Favre. Stinks. My God, it doesn't happen often. I hope somebody out there watched it. It's only 63 minutes and it goes into pretty big detail that as good as you can be on the court,

if you are a complete buffoon off the field and you commit crimes, take advantage of people and do things that basically ruin your reputation permanently, then you're just Brett Favre and he's spending the rest of his life trying to make good for not having stolen money from people who are on welfare, trying to prove that he didn't do any of it, but he's gonna have a hard time proving it.

And it's quite a story. It's called The Fall of Favre on Netflix, Untold. It stunk. Oh. 63 minutes. It wasn't a great documentary. I'm talking about the story, Dan. I'm asking people to learn the story.

It's been told. No, it's untold. No, it wasn't untold. New series, been told. We didn't get David's number one. Done been told. And Dan, not that you need help with Five Guys in your life, but I got Greek freak Katie, Joel Embiid,

Trey Young, and Zion Williamson.