The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: Rachel, Uh...Nichols

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Rachel Nichols is here in Miami and joins the crew in-studio for today's Big Suey. First, Rachel was at Game 1 of the World Series and shares her experience in the bleachers during Freddie Freeman's walk-off. Then, Rachel was ALSO at the unveiling of Dwyane Wade's statue yesterday, and after discussing the details with Dan, Stu, and the Shipping container, she explains why this immortalization was about more than the man Wade is on the court. Plus, with the news of the Washington Post not endorsing a candidate for President, Dan and Rachel discuss the slow death of Journalism at the hands of a potential new administration. Also, let's talk basketball... J.J. Redick, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, and the Boston Celtics take center stage with an actual basketball expert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and other important details. Sponsored by Diageo Americas, Inc., New York, New York. Welcome to the Big Sui. Presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? A podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna 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.

Let's get some real expertise in here, some real sports expertise. Rachel Nichols has been covering Sturgats, the important things in sports for a long time. It sounded like I almost forgot her name there, didn't it? It sounded like Rachel Nichols. That's because when you first met me, I was not Rachel Nichols. That is correct. That is why that just happened. That is my married name. Yeah, it's 30 years ago. I used to be Rachel Alexander. Yes, when she worked down here in Fort Lauderdale. She covered the NFL for a long time, sideline reporting. She did college football at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel,

the NHL at the Washington Post, the Masters, four tennis grand slams, half a dozen Olympics, more than half a dozen World Series. And she was in the bleachers when Freddie Freeman hit this home run and she got her own video so Rachel put us there and tell us where this ranks in terms of energy that you have felt. This was one of the coolest things I've seen in baseball. It felt an awful lot like exactly what Kirk Gibson

did as a huge underdog against the Oakland A's. What were you thinking, feeling, experiencing as this happened? And thank you for being with us, by the way. Well, first of all, a lot of people asked me if I took this with a camcorder. My phone is fine, thank you. So I'm just saying. But yeah, no, so I love sitting in the bleachers

at Dodger Stadium. I feel like you and I sit in so many sterile press environments, and so the bleachers at Dodger Stadium. I feel like you and I sit in so many like sterile press environments and so the bleachers at Dodger Stadium, it's a great building. The fans are awesome and it's a lot of fun to be out there. The problem is that you have to use your phone to get this view because you're far enough away. So I always have my phone out if I really want to see what's going on at the plate and then once it happens of course it is an absolute madhouse there. And then once it happens, of course, it is an absolute madhouse there.

And you see at the end of this video why I like being in the bleachers so much. I mean, look at these people. Would you not want to hang out with these people? You want to hang out with those people. Yeah, it's a little different than the antiseptic press environment. Raise your microphone just a little bit there.

Well, actually, I have another technical question for you. They gave me these headphones and they did not plug them into anything. That's a good question. That's the metal arc way there. Well, hold on, Dan. I got it. Any Bluetooth, maybe? Yeah. I'm not certain how we do that. I've been thinking about the Dodgers and the Yankees series. What a terrible job by Aaron Boone. You cannot put Nester Cortez in that spot when he hasn't pitched in September

Yeah, I got Freddie Freeman an MVP. You can't do it Yankees fan and by the way, my husband's Yankees fan. So he and I went to this game I'm in all my Dodgers gear, right? He's in all his Yankees gear the other people in the bleachers not so excited to see him But he was he was a good foreign fan quote unquote, right? But yeah, no, there was a lot of, oh look at that. Now I can see him. That's the piece that's in adapter.

That's just excellent work by you. I love this. That is just excellent work. No, it's great. People who are only listening are just like, what the hell is going on here? But why can't you put Torres in that situation? He's great for them, he's a starter, he's left handed.

He hasn't pitched in so long. Right, since September, I mean. The mood of the game there at that point, you have to remember the Yankees had been ahead by a little bit, but you know, off and on for much of the game, they were ahead there. It was the top of the 10th. They scored runs.

It felt like if you were in the stadium, it felt like, man, I can't believe we're gonna lose game one in our own building like this. And so I think some of the explosion of emotion you saw was of course, it's the first Grand Slam walk off in World Series history, but it was also the tension that had built up. I have to say, I've been to a ton of World Series,

as you mentioned, I've been to all kinds of championships and other sports. It was one of the best of that level of games I have ever been in any building for, and that's really fun. One of the quiet things about what is happening with Freddie Freeman, he described this earlier in the playoffs, Dugats.

He's heavily medicated because if this were the regular season, he would not be playing, probably. He's injured. And among the prop bets before the game, I was looking for a long shot because Freddie Freeman's one of the few hitters in baseball that I never expect him to make an out because he's just such a good hitter. I took Freddie Freeman at good odds

to hit a double in the game because I didn't like the odds on triple and grand slam, which he also had in the game. A triple, I mean, get out of here. A triple to me felt more unlikely than a grand slam. He can't run. Like he's hurt. He wouldn't be. But he has the good drugs, Dan.

Yeah, but a triple normally requires some sprinting. You're right about that. A home run is just a trot. I mean. I thought that that game was magical. It was so great. And I thought something else that happened this weekend that got buried by everything is the oldest player

in the league, LeBron James against Sacramento, not only going for a triple double, but getting so hot. hot i just can't believe he's doing any of this at this age i really can't but getting so hot that he does this that he's made ten in a row or he feels like he's made ten in a row he can't believe that teammate is out there taking a contested two-pointer instead of just feeding in the ball Yes. Swing that mother f***er to me. You're gonna make dinner or you're gonna pull up the 50-2. Swing swing mother f***er to me. Swing swing. He scored 16 points in three minutes. I mean that's just insane.

And he's 100. When is that? He scored 16 points in three minutes. What is anybody on that team doing not passing the ball to him? Exactly. Although you know what? He comes out and he's like, I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball.

I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball.

I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. I'm gonna go get the ball. When is that? When he scored 16 points in three minutes, what is anybody on that team doing not passing the ball to him? Exactly. Although, you know, he comes out after the game and he's like, oh no, no, no, it wasn't me. It's a team game, it's the Lakers. So he made a big deal about the fact that, you know,

we're a team and all this stuff, which is funny coming after that overheard over there. You were, we were making fun of the statue while you were walking in. I don't know if you saw this. You're in town because very few people have a better relationship in the media that you do with Dwayne Wade.

You have covered his story from start to finish. And he's, I mean, he is genuinely, you know, beyond sports heroic. Some of the stuff he stands for is heroic and makes him as beloved an athlete as South Florida's ever had. Right up there or above Marino, and those are the two at the top of the list. Alonzo Mourning and all the others

have to go into a second tier because those two guys are the most important in South Florida history. The statue has teeth. I did not. It has a lot of teeth. Yeah, it has a lot of teeth, actually. Freddie statue has teeth. I did not. I said that. Yeah, it has a lot of teeth actually. And Freddie Freeman's teeth.

I was gonna say, it's exactly what I was gonna say. How do you feel about how it looks here? Does it look to you like Dwayne Wade? I mean, look, I think it looks clearly how Dwayne Wade sees himself. That's how I could, that's what I can say about him. Oh shit. That's a good answer.

Well no, that's not a dig. It's that because he had the most input on this. And in the end, it's for him. So he said he visited the statue maker four different times. He said that one of the visits he told me, he said, oh yeah, he's like, they didn't get the distance between the bottom of my nose and my lip correctly, the ratio was off. So I had the measure in between the bottom of my nose and the lips.

They could get that exactly right. So if he's doing that level of detail, it tells me that the rest of it, he was like, Oh yeah, this is it. So if this is what he wants and how he sees himself, I'm gonna, Jessica has been swayed. Jessica, I can see on her face that Jessica has been swayed both by your, the spin room did not help her do it, but you and seeing it up close made her feel

like it looks more like him now. I mean, first of all, if Dwyane Wade is happy with it, I'm happy with it because who am I to judge? If this is how he wanted to be depicted forever, then good. But I'm not gonna lie, and I'm not just saying this, I'm not just saying this, Dan, the more I stare at it, the more I am starting to kind of see it. If you just give it a glance, it's not him,

but if you stare at it for like maybe five or 10 minutes, it's just starting to look more like him. This angle that you guys are showing up right now, the head-on, straight-on, that no one's tall enough to see angle, looks much more like him. This angle that you guys are showing up right now, the head-on, straight-on, that no one's tall enough to see angle, looks much more like him. It's when you're standing below it, which we all are, because none of us are 13 feet tall, you just see the jaw, right?

That's all you see. So I think that's part of it too. But Jess, thank you for the backup, appreciate that. I actually brought a little experiment in here so that you guys could see how hard it is to make someone out of bronze. So I don't know if you are familiar with this photo. Yes, one of the classics.

Who are those guys? Put it on the poll please, Juju at Levitard Show. Does Dwyane Wade get to decide whether Dwyane Wade's statue looks like Dwyane Wade? All right, so this is y'all, right? Yeah, that used to be me. I fed this into, because we're all AI now, right?

So I fed this into ChatGBT, and I was like, can you please make a bronze statue out of this? So I don't know if we can go back to it, but here's what ChatGBT came up with. That doesn't look anything like us. It looks so much better. The hat, they got Stu gots a shirt.

That's why we need to fund the arts. Right? Yes. They're facing the same direction also as the other picture. Look how tall you got. Look how tall you got. All right, so then I was like,

well that's not quite right, right? So let's try again, right? So then I was like, okay, do a second one. Well, there we go. There it is. That's us in the 1920s. There you go. Again, you've grown. And then I was like, all right, this isn't working,

so I'm gonna try Photoshop. What can Photoshop do? And that's what you guys got. Yes, that's not great either. Photoshop. And I wanna show you your face here, Dan. There. Good, grisly, haunting, yes, a bit, a shade of demonic.

Right, so if this was your statue, what would people be saying about your face? Yeah, it wouldn't be good. It would be fiery depths of hell type stuff. You got more muscular. Mm-hmm, I have lost 10 pounds. Have you? Yeah, using my Peloton.

I've had the Peloton in my house So my daughter she wanted me to get a Peloton I did she used it a couple of times endorsement But once she left to college and the Peloton was just sitting there in my office and it wasn't being used I said, you know what? I got to use this and I have lost 10 to 12 pounds Billy So I started using Peloton as a bike. Obviously, that's like what they're known for but recently I discovered all of the other classes that they have.

They have like a series of weightlifting classes, they have programs, which for me the programs is great because I don't have to think about what I'm doing. If not, I just go and I pick a class at random and I don't know that I'm actually accomplishing anything. I would like some recommendations on classes because I keep going to the same class. It's the Grateful Dead class, by the way.

You do like a four week four program with Emma Lovewell. I would recommend that one. Anyone can do that. Any level starts out easy and then you work your way up. And then there's like a core program two that you can do after core program one, if you wanna do that. Yeah, if you graduate.

Wait a second, you have to graduate course one to get to course two, the harder course? Well, you can start a course two if you want, but I eased my way in. I did course one first. Then you can do some strength classes with Andy. Love a strength class with Andy. He really puts me through it.

I get up and I'm like a sweaty mess and I'm kind of disgusting and I love it. You know anything about Peloton, Stugats? What? Peloton coaches, they walk the walk. Really? Yeah. Do they talk the talk? They have sub three hour marathon runner coaches.

They have military trained athlete coaches, former college basketball player coaches, and so many other well-rounded coaches on their team. All this experience really shows in their classes. You're never short of challenging. You can do some resistance band classes. I got some resistance bands lately. You're my teacher. Am I? Yeah.

You know, no I'm not. Well, I just go with the program so that I don't have to think because I don't know. Okay, there you go. I don't actually know what I'm doing. Anyways, what's the Mr. Olympia, right? Is that what it's called? Yes. The one where you go and you're like lifting atlas Boulders yeah, we should talk to Magnus again. That's mr. Olympia. Yeah. Yes. What did I say Olympus? Did I I don't know anyways find your push find your power with peloton at one peloton.com

Don LeBataard we got a free knee heart away Don Lebatard we got a free knee hard away I was trying to read fast you do is on the team Luke Jackson Bobby Jones the matrix on Marion Stu guts so shacks which Parker Chris Quinn D Wade Jason Williams they're all right I mean stacked roster This is the done libertar show with the Stu gods Speaking of Stu gods, you said you used to look like that I don't know whether you saw some of the commentary as you released your Stu you got pics for the weekend No, I didn't I know I'm on fire. That's what I know. And you're all welcome, I mean.

Woof, he's never looked worse. Does Metalark have healthcare or what? He's got five years left at best. Oh thanks, I'll take it. Can someone please set Stugats up with a different camera and lighting that doesn't make him look like a bridge troll gremlin? Wow.

Did that from home. Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. Yeah, seriously. Appreciate it. Dwayne Wade statue is looking pretty good compared to that commentary. I don't think so. I think the internet was making some good fun of Dwayne Wade's statue.

I think, don't you agree, Stugats, that Rachel and Jeremy are the only two people defending this today? Yeah, it's an odd thing to defend. It looks nothing like it. No, no, no. I'm not defending the statue. I'm just saying that Dwayne likes the statue. And so as Jess notes, there's a point where I have to say,

it's his statue. He had a huge hand in it. In fact, he had the biggest hand in it of anyone. So at some point, who am I to say, oh, that's not good enough for you. But there is a moment before every statue unveiling where you imagine like the worst case scenario. And I imagine everyone at the statue unveiling

was thinking, ooh, what if this is terrible? And then you see it, and you're like, mm. Mm. Yeah, polite golf applause is what you get. Polite golf applause. Did you have any thoughts on, and I'm going to get serious here for a second, I don't know, I've been wanting to talk about this since the weekend. I understand to God's that the newspaper endorsement is not something that matters anymore in the

modern age. Nobody cares anymore, it would appear, about journalism and its need to call truth to power. But at the LA Times and the Washington Post, there have been two things that have been deeply unseemly where we've always separated the money from editorial and now editors are resigning because the rich people at the very top of the newspaper chain, the people who own the LA Times

and Bezos who has all the F-U money in the world and is still scared of Trump, all the F f you money in the world is still scared of trump all the f you money in the world and they never say that few now you've got the fairly unprecedented in the modern age situation where the l a times in the washington post are not putting out endorsements because they've got billionaire owners who are handling the truth

for what are supposed to be objective newspapers who give you these endorsements based on a vetting of the facts. They're not just sloppy endorsements because your paper has liberal politics. It's supposed to be a vetting of the facts. And at a time that it's more obvious than ever that it is time to choose sides, the rich people with the F.U. money are strangling their editorial departments and making their editors resign because there's not a separation of the money

and the content as there has been in our 30 years in this business. Yep, yep. But to me, it's even less about this particular endorsement in either of these cases, because as you point out, honestly, if they had just endorsed the way they normally do, no one would have paid attention.

So there's something to be said of how much does it really matter. What it's really about to me is you have a presidential candidate who is openly threatening to go after the people and institutions who in a democratic process decided, huh, of these two candidates and what is supposed to be a free and open election if you support the other one and I get elected I will come after you and there's precedent for this when he was president last time that there were businesses media organizations he didn't like and he sort of made things more difficult I know there was a incident with CNN where he was trying to do something to Time Warner and all of that stuff so I think that what this speaks to is less about an endorsement or not an endorsement.

It's about, hey, this looming idea of the country is going to change drastically. And I don't mean the flavor or mood of the country. I mean what we have built this country on. He is specifically saying, I would like to change this drastically. And people can decide if they want that or not, but for those of us who like a free press, who like the Bill of Rights, who like the Constitution, and we say, huh, we are already seeing before the election even happens, we are already seeing this start to go away, that is terrifying. And it's not even political over which candidate you like.

If you like this country, if you like the United States and you like the fact that we have freedom of speech, and you like the fact that we have free elections, and you like the fact that you can print or put out a newspaper that says anything pretty much you want, that is already going away before the election even happens. That is a harbinger of something much bigger and scarier and I think that's why it struck a chord with so many people. You and I care about the journalism. We have to be honest. Most people could give

a crap about the journalism, but they do care about the fact and this has touched such a chord with so many people because it is about is this country going to fundamentally change? Is democracy going to fundamentally start to go away in this country in a way that we just haven't seen in 200 something years? I do think Washington Post subscribers do really care about it or else they wouldn't be spending their money on the subscription. And there has been a huge backlash from a lot of people either canceling subscriptions from employees of the Post who are like really upset about

this decision and from people like writing letters to the editor and just like voicing their disdain for what is obviously a like unconscionable choice this close to the election. So while like the maybe the vast majority of people are like, yeah, this doesn't affect me. Like, why would a newspaper choose a candidate anyways? I don't really understand why this happens. I do think among the people that do care, this is like a huge betrayal of trust. And so I don't know how they're like, as a company, as a brand, as like a trusted institution,

I don't know how you sort of recover from that. Well, I think again, that's symbolic though of a bigger thing, right? I think that even the subscribers of the Washington Post who are canceling the subscriptions, I don't know how many of them would have actually leafed to page three and read that editorial. I think it's more about what does the Washington Post stand for. I worked at the Washington Post for almost 10 years and one of the things that you are most

proud of when you walked in the door is this is an organization that speaks truth to power, right? This is the organization, this is a newspaper that brought down Nixon with Watergate, this is a newspaper that brought down Nixon with Watergate. This is the newspaper that published the Pentagon Papers when the government was threatening, we will shut you down if you publish classified information and of course sued them and all of that stuff. And the idea that this organization would crumble

in the face of something that really is, feels, he's not even president at the moment. Benign, benign, like this is cowardice of the highest order that you would have Bezos money and you would run scared from Trump when you own the Washington Post. And all you're doing is the most basic of journalism. It's not even the hard journalism.

Like that's not, that's not the, that's not what the Washington Post is built on. And endorsement is nothing. It's like, it's the flimsiest thing your newspaper can do. Yeah but journalism can be bought and Bezos owns that newspaper and Bezos wants out there what he wants out there and so I know it hurts you guys because journalism has been dying a slow death and continues to die. Thanks for bringing that up. I mean I'm sorry it's just the reality that we're in but he bought the Washington Post and he wants I don't agree with it but he wants to put out the message he wants to put're in. But he bought the Washington Post, and he wants, I don't agree with it,

but he wants to put out the message he wants to put out there. Understood, but he had stayed out of these things, and now he's not staying out of these things. Reportedly, I wanna read something to you from Caroline Kitchener, who works for the Washington Post. It's so funny, I was just gonna bring this up, so please read it, Debra.

So she says, my mom just told me she canceled her subscription to the Washington Post. She reads every one of my stories. It was a heartbreaking call. I understand why she did it, but I asked her to reconsider. To anyone who has canceled or is thinking about canceling, here's what I said. Post reporters had no part in this decision.

But when you cancel, you're hurting us, not our owner. I feel lucky to work at a place that doesn't tell when I need. I'm sorry that I've got this here wrong in the wrong place. I feel lucky to work at a place that doesn't blink when I say I need to fly to Texas to meet a woman whose life has been changed by an abortion ban to document the impacts of Dobbs up close I can only do that if we have subscribers who support us reporters in the post newsroom will continue to do our jobs we will report fearlessly on whoever becomes president and so many

other things that really matter because we are independent and care deeply about holding the powerful to account. I completely understand if you've lost faith in our owner but please don't lose faith in us. It's just a weird time for Bezos to make his only appearance as someone who's power brokering here. And I just think that that's such an important message from the reporter and I've heard that from my reporter friends at the LA Times and now with the Washington Post. It's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're hurting the wrong people,

especially with Bezos, especially with the Washington Post. Are you brave enough to cancel your prime subscription? Because that's where you're going to hurt him. Is your Amazon use going to go down? Is your prime subscription going away? I mean, Thursday night football. No, well, but all of that, right? And so if you really want to put your money where your mouth is. Jets in away. I mean Thursday's like football. No, well, but all of that, right? And so if you really wanna put your money

where your mouth is. Jets, Jets, Jets and Texans coming up on Thursday. You might be better off not watching that game, actually. I'm a little nervous. So you might wanna cancel. Say it's in protest of this decision, but actually do it to protect yourself. By the time Thursday comes around,

I will have talked myself into the Jets could still win the AFC East. Oh my Lord. Yeah, I will. But right, so that's actually, if you really wanna hurt Jeff Bezos, that's the choice that actually would affect his bottom line. Don't hurt the reporters.

It's a heartbreaking scene. I think it's a good time to celebrate and give proper attention to the billionaires that aren't afraid of endorsing a political candidate. Take Rupert Murdoch, for example. There is a courageous billionaire right there that is not afraid to use his media entities to make a point.

What were the highlights from last night, Rachel, and the Dwayne Wade ceremony, beyond everyone making fun of the statue? Your left turns are one of my favorite things about listening to the show. Well, Jessica wanted to get in here with something related to this conversation, and I cut her off.

Did someone say left turns? Did anyone watch what Tyler Reddick did on the final lap? Oh my god, it'd be insane. Blaney left the top open and Tyler Reddick, who at one point led this race by 23 seconds, all of a sudden had to climb back into it after an ill-timed bit, and then he makes homestead his home yet again, 23XI into the final four.

You know what, nevermind. Go ahead, Rachel. Tell us about the statue unveiling. It was a lovely moment, obviously. You know, look, as you point out, Dwayne is so beloved here, and the energy in front of the building with all the fans who came by was so cool to see, and the idea that, as he put it,

he went when he was in Chicago growing up, that, you know, he's like, we didn't have the internet, right? So I didn't know that statue of Jordan was down there. He said, in the first time, I got to go to the arena and saw that there was a statue of my hero,

Michael Jordan. I couldn't believe it. He told me, he's like, I thought statues were only for sort of old Greek people and presidents. He's like, I didn't know they made statues for athletes. So to see something I did, basketball, could result in a statue of you,

he said was such an eye-opening moment, and the idea that some kid could come up and see his statue and feel that way and sort of imagine what is possible. I think that stuff has incredible power. As someone who has covered him since the beginning, you know just how improbable the odds are of someone who has shared the most vulnerable parts of his story with us.

There is no amount of odds that can be overcome in sports larger than Dwyane Wade coming from what he came from to statue outside of the arena, given that his childhood is filled with no maps. It's got a lot of crud in it that is hard to get out of. Yeah, and just any one of those things that we've talked about about him could have failed him, right, I mean we've seen athletes taken down by all kinds of not only sort of environments,

and oh he grew up around, oh, he grew up around guns or he grew up around the wrong people and he's got them around him now, to just the mental toll it takes on you to figure out how to get out of that situation. Ron Artest said something to me once. We were doing a story on him and I was living in New York and we were talking about where he grew up in Queensbridge and he's like, Oh yeah, when I was a little kid, we used to duck at the gunshots across the projects. But, you know, by the time you're 10 or 11, you just kind of stopped ducking because like you can't you're bigger and you can't hit the ground that much anymore.

And so he goes, you just kind of go through from 10 to 18, hoping that as you walk through and you hear gunshots, one of them doesn't hit you. If you grow up like that, you cannot imagine what it is like to grow up any other way and those of us who didn't can't really fully picture that. And the fact that Ron Artest struggled with his mental health throughout of his career is in some part, and he has talked about this extensively, that he learned from therapy in some part, it's because of what he grew up with. Dwayne was able to manage all of that stuff, and that is remarkable, and frankly,

as much worth the statue to me as what he did on the court. So why did PJ Tucker get one? I mean, you know, the shoes. The shoes. I've seen Keith Bogan's Antoine Walker and PJ Tucker all resemble this statue more than the person you were just waxing poetic about. It does mean something though, Rachel.

You're here because you're celebrating an epic career from start to finish, one that does heroic work after playing as well. Like you're flying across the country because? Yes, yes, look. The way he has been a dad is something that obviously has been the biggest part of his post-playing career.

He wrote a book on it, he's gone on the Today Show about it. It's not, it's two-fold. Obviously we talk a lot about Zaya, the support he's given her, the example he has been to so many other dads and parents of how do you go through this, how you can be proud of your daughter in these kinds of moments,

which I think there wasn't really an example of. So I think that has been tremendous. But just as a dad and this entire generation of NBA players sort of decided, and it was Chris Paul and it was Dwayne and it was LeBron and it was Mello, we want to be different public dads than the generation before us in basketball. And remember what we heard about those guys all the time. It was,

oh, he's got 16 kids by 13 women or oh, can he even name all his children or all of that stuff. They came out and said, no, no, no, here's my son at the press conference. I am a dad, see me as a father. And that sort of redefinition of black fatherhood was an actual talking point for them. It was something they discussed and wanted to put out there during their playing careers. And I think that is amazing that they really showed a generation,

no, you can put this forward. You don't have to be ashamed of this. This is something that you should not only strive for, but that you should put right up front. And I think all of that stuff is what makes people so drawn to him and why for me covering him throughout his entire career, literally from the day he was, you know, stepped on an NBA court and really before that at Marquette to now has been, it's just been fascinating to watch.

Most guys don't have that kind of impact in any sense. The odds are totally against everything that we just witnessed here and Dwayne Wade seems hell-bent on having a bigger more Impactful post career than he did Basketball career I I would say that you will see him more on national television than you ever have before Coming up in the next few years because there's a lot of these new NBA broadcast partners bidding for his services And so if he decides to I think you will you will see even more Dwyane Wade in a lot more areas. He seems to want to get good at that stuff. And if he wants to get good at something, we've seen the will that gets applied to that. Like it doesn't it doesn't

seem to be making statues. We were all like tripping over each other. Should have applied it to statue making. Hi, I'm Ben Stiller from the Academy Awards snub movie, Dodgeball. You know, this election is a lot like dodgeball. Kamala Harris is the average Joe underdog and... No, this isn't a time for jokes. You know what? It's way too important.

Donald Trump wants to terminate the constitution. Project 2025 will give him nearly unlimited power. We can't let him get anywhere near the White House. So vote for Kamala Harris. Yeah, see that was better. The serious version was much better, right? Paid for by Harris for president. Mama, look at me. I'm going really fast. I just got my license. Can I borrow the car, please? Well, kids go from zero to 18 in no time. You'll be relieved. They have 24 seven roadside assistance with intactact Insurance.

Mom, can you go to Nana's house tomorrow? I want to go to Jack's place today. I'll just take the car. Don't wait up, okay? Kids go from zero to 18 in no time, don't they? At Intact Insurance, we insure your car so you can enjoy the ride. Visit Intact.ca or talk to your broker. Conditions apply. Don LeBattard. Let's go to 80. His name is Bo. Wow. I think Billy typed an eight instead of a B. Fine. It's the clearest day of my two dollars.

Stugats. Number eight. Hits Chris Corner on the line. It's easy. This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugats. Los Angeles sports team Stugats are undefeated since Thursday. The Rams over the Vikings, the Kings over the Sharks, the Dodgers over the Yankees twice, Lakers over the Suns,

USC over Rutgers, Lakers over the Kings, Clippers over the Nuggets, Kings over Utah, Galaxy over Rapids, USC over Gonzaga, Lakers over the Kings, Clippers over the Nuggets, Kings over Utah, Galaxy over Rapids, USC over Gonzaga, Chargers over Saints, Clippers over Warriors, and LAFC over Whitecaps. That's an entire weekend of winning and Rachel Nichols works in Los Angeles and the thing that I wanted to ask her about. You went Sacramento, so you said all of California, I'm guessing, did not lose this weekend.

That's northern California. Okay, yeah, my bad. all of Los Angeles is what I meant thank you for the correction JJ Reddick how is that going as the coach of the Lakers it's it's actually on the court it's going great and JJ of course it's like got ten years of ideas it's sort of like a guy with his first novel or first movie. You can see all the 10 years sort of building up and the beginning of this season. The players love him and have really responded to him. So that's all great. We see the little things that he's still learning

how to be a coach. And that stuff will obviously fix itself, but just like little funny things. So after the first game, he's complaining about the basketballs. He's like, I'm gonna send, I'm gonna write into the NBA tomorrow. I'm gonna tell them we can't's complaining about the basketballs. He's like, I'm going to send, I'm going to write into the NBA tomorrow. I'm going to tell them we can't be playing with new basketballs. Anyone who's been a shooter, you know, you have to have worn in basketballs.

And people sort of laughed and he goes, I'm not joking. You guys know me. I'm not joking. Like this is a problem and I'm kind of, you know, neurotic about this stuff. And then someone clearly had to explain to him that the team provides the basketballs. So someone in his own organization was the one who was like, oh, it's a new season. Here's some new basketballs. So he comes out the next day and he's like, oh, you know, I was just joking around. And I'm like, but you said you weren't joking. But that's the kind of, that's the kind of thing where I mean, even his first press conference, he curses

during his first press conference for emphasis. And then someone has to tell him, you know, you're on the local radio and TV with the children listening at three o'clock in the afternoon. We can't do that. So just little things. There was a story yesterday about how he's watching game film at a car wash. He was at a car wash around the area. Baron Davis, who also lives right around there, saw him at the car wash and saw him watching his laptop and game film. And I think part of that is, you know,

the story is told, he's so dedicated, Dan, he's watching film at the car wash. And that is true. However, also it is learning that as an NBA coach, you can't spend three days getting ready for a game that happens that night. It all comes at you kind of fast. So I think he's learning all that stuff.

Apparently, if you at your car wash want to start looking at game film of how things could improve with the headphone situation here, then maybe that could be good. That was embarrassing. On my hands and knees next to you trying to figure out how to work the headphones. Are you surprised that JJ goes to the car wash?

Because for me, he comes off as a guy that has the car wash come to him. You know? I mean, you know, maybe he's out of the house too early. I don't know. It's a good point, though. Stu Gott's At LeBotard show, Juju put it on the poll, does JJ Reddick look like somebody who goes to the car wash

or has the car wash come to him? What do you make of Stephen A. Smith calling Kawhi Leonard the worst superstar in the history of sports when you juxtapose that against Kawhi's trainer last week suing the organization for if not malpractice, malfeasance? Yeah, I mean look, it's, Kawhi is a mystery wrapped, what's the mystery wrapped in an enigma,

wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in a whatever? I don't know what's going on with him. A cannoli, yes. A cannoli, exactly. Nailed it. I don't know what's going on with him. Do you know what's going on with him? I don't, but I find interesting the appraisal

that takes him out as if he doesn't care when I don't think that's what's going on with him. Oh, I don't think he doesn't care. But I think if you say that someone is load management, if he's ground zero of load management and he's ground zero of players don't care that much, I believe hitting him with that person is careless is probably an appraisal I'm willing to reject. Nobody who has spent this many years trying to get back from various injuries doesn't

care because guess what? He has all the money. So if he didn't care, he would have a perfect out to say, you know what, my body's just too broken. I've been trying for years. I'm out. I'm gonna go play with my toy trains or whatever it is that he spends his money on.

But instead he keeps doing this. So look, you can think a lot of things about how he manages his body, but doesn't care to me is not really on the table. The thing with Kawhi Leonard you have to remember is he load managed his way to an NBA title. And I don't just mean during that season with the Raptors where he did sort of this, oh I'm not gonna play

in this game, I'm not gonna play in that game. During the NBA finals, during games, he would load manage the games. So for three quarters, he would just be sort of on the court doing some things and then in the fourth quarter he would play. So if you're a guy who has managed to get it down to that much of a science that you can load manage minutes within a game, of course you're gonna be doing this during the season and I think he's just doing it all to extend his career so he can play as opposed to the opposite.

Can you give us some insight into how the Jimmy Butler story is going to end in Miami? No, I mean, I am very eager, along with the rest of Heat Nation and everyone else, to see how both sides play this out this year, right? Because I thought it was smart of the organization not to extend him. I think that he has to decide if he's all in with his team or not. If he is, I have a feeling, and you've watched this team much more up close than I have, that they're going to figure out a way to work it out.

Or if by the middle of the season it's just not working anymore, then maybe they decide, okay, let's trade him and see who's interested. He's 35 years old, and he's never been a three-point shooter in the way that the NBA is going right now. And you have to sort of take stock and say, okay, do we want him here because of the heart and soul that he

gives to the team and therefore it's worth us paying him but not as much as he wants or do we say, okay, it's time for a new era in the heat. Why are the Celtics so disrespected a team that won a championship did so in pretty dominating fashion and yet no one takes them seriously. It's weird. Yeah, I find this completely bonkers. I mean, look at how many times this team has been in the NBA Finals just in the last five years.

Look at what these guys have accomplished. They're still so young, right? It's ridiculous. Do you think it's just anti-Boston hate? Mike, do you hate Boston? Me? No. Don't know where you would get that from. Circling back to a franchise that has won more championships

in my lifetime than Miami Heat, historically for Jimmy Butler, when he breaks up with a place, it usually ends ugly. Do you think he's at a different place in his life now where this could at least be a little bit, well, less like the previous stops, or will this be headed to ugly town? I know that he didn't speak to the media one day already.

He showed up late to media day. This seems like it could head in that direction. It could for sure. Look, Minnesota was ugly, right? I think Chicago was more just, they didn't want him anymore. I mean, that is crazy to me about Chicago. They were like, ah, we want to see what we can get for him. And it was, cause we don't want to pay him.

And then it was like, oh wait, you're drafting to hope you can maybe get a Jimmy Butler, and then of course they never have. It could get ugly, because obviously nobody likes it when someone says actually we don't love you as much as you thought we did. I mean that's kind of what he did to him, right? And told him to shut up.

Right, they were like, oh no, no, no, you don't get flowers and chocolates from us, sorry, we don't like you that much, like that kind of thing, so I don't know. Stu Gatz, what was your worst rejection by a girl? Oh wow, Janelle Giagu back in high school. That was a tough one. We still haven't forgiven her.

Yeah, it was tough. So that's you know. First game as a. Thank you for bringing it up though. I'm just saying that that's sort of what's going on now. The first week since then I haven't thought about it. And we'll have to see. You're just beginning to heal

and you just reopened that wound. You're welcome, you're welcome America. Thank you very much. And by the way, I wanted to say one more thing. I know how frustrating it is to be the fan of the team that has Kawhi Leonard. I'm not making an excuse for that and that experience. I'm just saying I don't think you can say he doesn't care.

I just assume that his body has betrayed him and it must be very frustrating in that sport to have your body betray you but I want to know what your analysis is of Clay Thompson gets to the Mavs, immediately sets a record for threes in a game with six of them as a Mav and then Buddy Heald with the Warriors sets a record with the Warriors making 12 threes in two games. Your thoughts in general? That's too many Dan. It's too 12 threes in two games. Your thoughts in general. That's too many, Dan. That's too many threes.

He's just got it at that point. It's just too many. It's kinda tacky, right? Means you're shooting a lot of them. Right. And I saw Nick Wright kinda pick up on this. We've been talking about this, that there needs to be an evolution.

Even baseball got around to, we have to change the rules because we're losing folks. So you want a four point line? What do you want? I think we should make the courts a little bit bigger. I think that that might just naturally change some things. But I think that the NBA... Do you understand how an arena is built? Yeah, yeah. With the courtside seats. I understand. They can maybe reconfigure. But the three has become too easy. That's your point?

Yeah. I think that the athletes have outgrown the courts. I think it's kind of absurd, playing so on and so on. I think that's true in hockey, actually, no lie. I do think that ice rink has to get bigger. It's in all of the sports, football too. What if you take out some of the middle of the court and add it on the outsides? Yeah, smart.

Look, they need to come up with how they're gonna replace this by making a bigger court. That's their job. He's like, I don't have an engineering degree, people. I'm just proposing something ridiculous. What if you make threes worth two and you make twos worth three? Huh?

Mid-range jumpers. What's the math then? I mean, the low post gate. I know where this segment's gonna go and it's just gonna be us putting pawns in the middle of a door. No, no, no. What if you do like an LED strip on the three-point line

and at different points in time it changes color and it's worth different points? Or traffic cones. You could put traffic cones that guys had to get around. I like that. We do like the thing that they do in the All-Star game with the starry sponsored spot that's worth four points. We do that for the regular.

Me and my cousin George, we used to have dunk contests in our grandparents' backyard where we'd jump over things to dunk, so what if you jump over things to dunk and then it's worth more points? Like a Kia. Yeah, like George. That's a good comeback guess. Rachel's pretty plugged in I was actually curious if she's heard any good solutions. Same. Or if the NBA itself kind of feels a pressure to actually do something. No because fans love scoring. I mean we've seen this in football too right where you can't touch the quarterback. Fans love scoring. I mean, we've seen this in football too, right? Where you can't touch the quarterback. Fans love scoring. And so fans eat this stuff up.

And if it gets to the point where fans don't like how the game is going, they'll just change the rules and they'll be like, oh, now we can bring hand checking back. Well, this is what's happening right now is I'm asking her about the Mavs and the Warriors and you guys are extending the court and taking away all of their prime court side seats that are worth a lot of money.

And those are the last seats that are gonna be moved. I'm just trying to bring back the low post game. That's all I'm trying to say. That's all I wanna do. Dan's like, all I wanna do is talk basketball and you with your nonsense. Stugats doesn't have a terrible idea though if you're going to change it.

I mean, it is a terrible idea, but make the threes were two and the twos were three you don't have to take away the court side seats Everything stays the same That's right the closer you are then what are free throws worth the same what the closer you are to the basket I think you should have an option on free throws. You should be able to take it from the charity stripe, go a step back, it's worth two, go to the three point line, it's worth three. How about that? You yell bank, it's worth four.

Oh! In all this talk about changing the rules, the NBA is experimenting with the G League, and one of the crazy thoughts that they're coming up with is if you get fouled on a three point shot, you don't go to the free throw line and shoot three shots. You shoot one for the value of the shot that you attempted. So you get one free throw that's worth two points, one free throw that's worth three points and that maybe speeds up the game a little bit too.

Interesting. I don't know, man. I want the differentiation because when, say, you're in an overtime situation or something really crucial at the end of the game, how many free throws of the time allotted can he make? Oh, he only made one if he had made that second free throw. I don't know, I don't love that rule. I do think with Clay, not that you might wanna get back to what you asked me.

One of the things I love that he said is that, he said, I just needed a fresh start, I needed a change. And part of the reporting was, oh, he's gonna go to the Lakers, his dad played for the Lakers, he grew up, he still has a house in LA, all that stuff. And he was like, he thought the Lakers were too much like the Warriors.

I didn't know what your take was on that. Yeah, right. What if you, instead of shooting three shots, you shoot until you miss if you get fouled on a three? Ooh, wow. Wow. Steph set the free throw line. I was gonna say,

Larry Bird would never leave. Too bad Steph got hurt last night. Why are you wasting this woman's time?