The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: The Future of the Thunder

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Pablo Torre's most recent episode of PTFO blew the minds of our hosts, and it's time to discuss the reality around the OKC Thunder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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 man to nowhere, fat face and the habitual liar. This episode is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

What was the hump there? The train, what are you doing there? Just working it. Zant one. True, true. I like them. You know what's funny? When you guys do that now,

I don't know when you're playing the clip. Or when I'm talking. Or when anyone, like everyone's gotten so good at doing that one impression. Yeah. Just limited fake hawk. I love it man. I like them.

That means I'm truly a part of the family and I appreciate it man. Regardless if people think my name is Walter, I'm okay with that. Walter? I've actually started to embrace the name. I looked up t-shirts this week that said, hi my name is Walter.

But they wouldn't have got here on time for me to wear it to the studio, so. I could see you as a Walter, you give off a little Walter. Do I give a Walter? Sure, you could be Walter. 90s tactical. It wouldn't be Walt, but Walter. I feel like it has to be Walter, as a black man.

There's no way I could be Walter and not be called Walt. What, Williams? By the way, we got a note from our producer, Taylor, during that last segment, and I think he hit the nail on the head here. As far as the style, style the vest Jeremy versus Hawk This is a two America's thing nothing Jeremy wears could look cool and nothing Hawk wears would not look cool Yeah, that's a good point. I think it's totally fair from another I try I try so hard go brother

from the other goat of racially Hawk when you walked in you were like Angle that hand are we going this way? Where are we here? What's the angle? That's a big one man meeting that Incoming thing also with take you point out Taylor's last name is Vipal is that even even makes it more confusing. What is that, Greek? I don't know. I don't know what it is. We don't know. But Taylor, the mention of Taylor reminds me of something.

It reminds me of North Carolina, which reminds me of the one and only. We got Michael Jordan. Well, no, no, Bill Belichick, close. Oh, okay. Michael Jordan, Jordan maybe. Have you talked to Michael Jordan recently? Not since Hall of Fame, when he... So when he recently? Not since Hall of Fame when he...

So when he got inducted into Hall of Fame a decade ago? No, no. He'll talk to him at his funeral when Mike Van Dago's when he says a couple words. Not since Jay Adande going into the Hall of Fame and I... Like, oh, this is a meme? That's what Michael Jordan's... 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, I wish I wish it would like that. I wish it was like that. We played this game. Yeah, I love playing it It's my favorite. I wish MJ knew me less

Hey, all I gotta say is I didn't try to talk to him he stopped me Look at me. Hey, you know what? Shout out to MJ man. Are you wearing Jordans right now? Of course? I'm wearing Jordans right now. These are Team Jordans not team Jordan. Oh my gosh He's never met you in his life. He's a not team Jordan, sir. You don't even know what these are exactly What are those? These are exactly you just showing your ignorance right now you don't go wait in line a finish line for your pair Oh god, yeah, I've got finish line

Can we show the audience? Action yeah Zooming in on it right now. What are they seriously? They're sp1s. I want to say what are sp1s? I like to worry about you don't need to worry about what's happening a high level. I like how you keep it vague it's like I'm not telling you because if you know,'s like, I'm not telling you because if you know, you know, or I'm not telling you because nobody likes him. You remember when it was in the playoffs? And it was, I know it was the Warriors, and someone was complaining, and I was like,

you don't need to concern yourself with things that are. Durant said that to CJ McCollum. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I knew I was gonna get there sooner or later. SP1. By the way, I'm looking at the Hawk's screen. I swear to God, he's got the SBJ 40 under 40 invite on the screen.

That's not an invite, that's a retreat. Okay, whatever. That's a retreat. You guys have the honorees. Yeah, apparently I haven't gotten around to signing up. Where at? And I'm one of those people that keep the tabs open till I'm like, okay, I just,

it's my to-do list. Like all my tabs are my to-do lists. So before we got sidetracked on this whole micro drones my best friend thing I want to talk about Pablo who is taking this investigation into Jordan slash Belichick To another level so we remember the video of Belichick leaving this house with no shirt on.

I listen to it every day. Right? Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly. Why was that a big deal? Well, it's great audio. It's great audio for one. But for another thing, they keep trying to deny, right?

And Pablo, when he came out with that story and they said he was wrong and false and all that stuff, he came with a very cryptic message like, yo, don't let me go back into the archives and pull some more. Well, here's why it was a question, right? And I didn't get this either. It's like, if it was, as it was reported, that this was Jordan's house, then why would she leak the Ring Cam footage, right?

Ah, that's sad. But if I just listen for a second. But if she, so why would she leak the ring cam? It all seems pretty contrived. And then, so this is where Pablo kept doing some digging. Kept doing some digging, and guess what, guys? He done dug. Let's let him tell you.

Dug's funny? Not that dug. Okay, I was about to say, Jeremy. Exclusively, for the first time, is the other video. Oh my God. He has a satchel. Yeah, it's got a little, uh, mers. Or bag, right?

He is very shirtless. He has like a leather satchel. Okay, so he's still topless. Absolutely yum-yum delish. Great. A bag with a leather strap that he's clearly not figured out how to tighten because it's looped in a way you definitely wouldn't be choosing. At this point, I decided to take a trip.

You went to the town. Shut up, Pablo. You've been to this house. Shut up, Pablo. If you show me a Ring Cam video with you. Oh, Pablo! No! Pablo, what the fuck?

Pablo at the house. Pablo, what the fuck? This is crazy. This is crazy. I don't understand why. This is the craziest part right here. I don't understand what podcast you're in. Is this Truman. I don't understand what podcast. Is this Truman Show? Oh my god.

Where are we? What's going on? Recreation of the Belichick ring cam video by Pablo. But he's wearing clothes. Unfortunately. He should have done a shirtless. OK. I need a lot of answers now.

He should have committed. Pablo's a crazy person, man. That's insane. Level of pay. I was never in on this story. It bothered the hell out of me because it's just like, man, why do we need to go inside these personal lives

of these folks regardless of, you know, how many generations of gap there is between them? But Pablo got me into it. And I don't know if it was just the little detail of he's the highest paid public employee in the state of North Carolina. Which by the way, that's standard in most states that the highest paid employee is the football coach.

But don't tell me he wouldn't be as intrigued if he was still working for the private New England Patriots and had this situation. But then, you know, the idea of this person that we've known for so long as the do your job guy, the no distractions guy, is bringing a heck of a distraction with him to UNC, and then on top of everything else,

despite the fact that she is doing all these things, like basically controlling all of his interviews, she's still denying things that are being reported, still sort of mocking Pablo, because he retweeted somebody who said that Pablo needs to get a hobby, when Pablo reported that she's been around the Patriot since 2021.

And so when they're denying all this stuff, trying to mock him, you think that's gonna make Pablo want to do more reporting or less reporting? If you think that this story is interesting, you have to listen to this episode of Pablo Fuck. Yeah, I don't wanna give too much of it. Because he talks, he goes, obviously we just saw,

he goes to this Airbnb, he talks to the owners, he interviews them about Belichick and Jordan being there. It's just very interesting, they didn't even recognize Belichick at first, they were like, is this a... He's got a couple of gotcha moments where they sort of deny something and he's just like, nope, there's evidence that this is true. That's not a violation of HIPAA laws.

I mean maybe, they weren't revealed. They did it anonymously. What's the HIPAA law on what we're looking at? We don't have Airbnb HIPAA laws? No, they said to the owners of the place said that in the description there is a line that says there are ring cams outside so you're aware. So you will be recorded in that situation.

This is my thing about this whole thing. Like, if we were dealing with a case of like, pick someone else, right? Like, pick anyone else who doesn't have a public nature of their relationship, right? Then it's different, right? Like, then it's like, hey man, you guys, but they invite, they open the doors,

they come look at my private life. Yeah, Bilbelce goes from the most private person ever to doing weird photo shoots and putting that out on social. And you're thinking, how did Pablo figure out where the Airbnb was, where like, there must have been some insight. They essentially found it, maybe I'm giving away too much, go watch the episode.

Yeah, watch the episode, yeah. But they found it from the comments, like she gave a review of the Airbnb, yeah. But they found it from the comments. Like she gave a review of the Airbnb. That's how they found where the Airbnb was by just like, oh, someone named Jordan on this date wrote, great spot, very, you know. Great deal. Here's the deal, like, they,

you kind of are doing, courting this, right? They court it, they look for it, and this is where it's found. And you know what it's like? It's like when Britney Spears, I watched that Britney Spears documentary, and she was complaining about like, man, I went to Starbucks, and then I got,

I'm like, baby girl, you can't go to Starbucks anymore. Did they not tell you that? Like you've reached a point where going to Starbucks, someone goes to Starbucks for you. You don't go in the drive-thru anymore. Same thing here, it's like. No, you gotta call him Baby Boy. Baby Boy, hey Baby Boy.

Well, and the difference here is like, these are grown adults, right? So like Britney Spears, she was a young girl. Well, no, by the time that happened, sure, but she was a young girl by the time she was granted celebrity. She never got the chance to make the decision. She never got a chance to make the decision.

She never got a chance to make a decision. These are two people who have actively made the decision in their adult lives. This is what we want to bring on. We wanna bring on this public spotlight and people are gonna have questions and go down a rabbit hole, particularly if you have a complicated relationship.

It's not that it's complicated. To me, the age is the least of it. Oh yeah. It's at Belichick, it's the least of it. It's not that it's complicated. To me, the age is the least of it. Oh yeah. It's at Belichick, it's the least of it. It's where it started. It's at Belichick. Yes. It's always been.

I don't know, it's the least of it. It's the least of it to me. Oh my God, the least. To me. 1960s. Here's where, to me, this is where the question marks come in. Any relationship.

She was. Okay, she was 19. In 2021. In 2021 she was. Any relationship you have, what are the first questions, one of the first couple questions? Hey, how'd you guys meet and of course you tell the story usually right when you shut that down immediately We're not gonna talk about that. It sounds sketchy

This is this is why I think it's particularly weird because Belichick has always been this Fortress you can't get to know this dude at all right we hear stories that always actually really funny we don't know that his players not because right always been inside so now all of a sudden the most secretive man in the sport is with i'm seeing his whole life of course that that

at best questions the other part of it is when you get this is what i learned that when you get caught this is what I've learned, man, when you get caught, just like, hey man, you got me. The protesting and all you don't know what you're talking about, turns out we do know what we're talking about. That's the part where you ask the question, you think that's gonna make Pablo report more, report less. I think it's... It's one thing to be like, yeah, man,

but this is kind of an invasion of privacy, in which case I think Pablo will probably get shamed and back off. But when you say, you're wrong, that ain't true, Pablo's like, oh, you don't think it's true? Oh, you wanna see this? Like that? I'm gonna go recreate the video. Exactly.

He should have been shirtless. We all agree, right? Can we agree that Pablo's a dick? Yeah, oh, for sure. That is a good journalist. Good journalist. Great journalist. Most journalists are.

Great journalists, but yes, he's a dick. Just so smug walking through that house. Oh, like the turn and wait. Wait till this drops. The turn and wait, exactly. So obnoxious. That's a, I Like the turn and wait till this drop. Turn and wait exactly. So I'm not. That's I can't wait for this shit to drop. Wait till we transition from the BTS view

right to the ring. I can't, I don't want to give away too much. I want to say, I feel like this isn't even the most insane level of research he did for this episode. Yeah, it's great. There's another level of something that he did that'll just make you say this dude's crazy. Cause taking a trip to a nice little spoiler alert, beach town in Boston, you know, not

that difficult, especially when you know you're gonna get that, right? It's a small area. She definitely picked that Airbnb. A really small Airbnb, by the way. That's not the area I would expect Bill Belichick to be in. Hawk, there's so much of this. It's just outside of Boston, apparently. There's so much of this whole thing that's always screamed to me small time trying to do big-time things

Well, I think she's young Reviews with your name Trying to do big time, you know, you're not you don't know the game and doesn't like it's like okay bill But and she's convinced this older gentleman and I don't want to make it sound like bill Belichick the victim That's not what I'm insinuating. But she's like, okay, no, in this world, you have to have a public image. You need to be using it,

this is how you get the opportunities. This is, and so now he's like, all right, I'm gonna give it to the expert, but the expert is 24. So when she eggs on Pablo, you don't realize, it's like a kid, like when when they're lying and they're like, I think this will get over and they're 12 and you're like, I've been 12. But that's also business strategy.

This is easy to see through and here's why, because I've done this a million times, Pablo and her, oh, you don't think I can go get more information? Hawk, this is why I say it's small time trying to do big time things, because the mentality the strategy through all of this It's kind of like what? Instagram influencer I've got 300,000 followers would do but she doesn't doesn't understand or

doesn't or refuses understand that like he has a Something that's bigger and that's what a lot of the like, what I find younger generations right now, they can't imagine, right? Like it's a type of people who say like something like, oh, you know, Sabrina Carpenter is the biggest star there's ever been. I'm like, dog, you haven't seen Michael Jackson.

When I tell you like, yo, people were fainting. They were fainting at his shows and crying and ripping their clothes off. It's like you don't know what that looks like because your metric for fame is, I got a bunch of likes and follows and all that. And it's like, so that's the kind of thing. She's approaching it from a very like Instagram famous thing

which is like, yes, you do leave a comment on the thing because that's how you gain the clout. Like, ooh, but you don't understand. No, no, no, man. We don't leave paper trails around here. We don't wear Jordans from the finish line, like rack. I've been searching your Jordans for the last 10 minutes and have not found them.

Can't find them. The mosquito Valentine ones. SP1, nothing showed up. I think you're lying. I'm not lying, hold on. All right. Well, no, you keep the show going. Yeah, I wanted someone to-

You're in the main chair. We gotta- All right, so to all of that, I say, look man, when they got you, the easiest play for her from the beginning was, this is a gross invasion of our privacy. Like look, we're private citizens, we're allowed to post on Instagram,

we're allowed to like, any different from you or whatever. This part where you dig into my life? It's kind of uncomfortable Yeah, that's the way you do it not that shit ain't true because then of course you go cat We're not talking about this But if you're trying to be famous right like she's doing all the things that she's doing to try and get famous you leave a Review on an Airbnb website when you don't think you're gonna be famous five years from now and then all of a sudden five years from now people are looking back and saying oh this is the Airbnb because you said this and

this and that. The idea just like what's the point of lying never mind that like okay you don't want to talk about it because they met when she was 19 and it might be a little weird but you're going to get exposed if you lie about it because I'll say look I'm just gonna say it, I'm sorry Pablo. There's actually cameras, fan cams, at these Gillette Stadium, where if you put in your seat number for a game and a date,

you can get a high-res image of you. So that means that there are cameras everywhere you go, everywhere, and that's sort of what got her busted as being associated with the Patriots from 2021. So it's not even about you. Pablo finds out. Now that you stepped on his episode, I can't imagine what he's gonna do you in his next episode.

But yeah, look, it doesn't even matter so much what you do to expose yourself. Like even that review, if you're doing things that are wrong or inconsistent with the truth, It doesn't even matter so much what you do to expose yourself, like even that review. If you're doing things that are wrong or are inconsistent with the truth, it's going to come out if you're a public figure because of people like Pablo.

They're the MA2s, not SB1s by the way. Okay, yeah, so that was so different. So in the know. Entirely different numbers and letters. Different numbers, different letters. You have no idea who Michael Jordan is. These are the what, the MA2s? The MA2s, man.

MA2s, man, y''s? MA2s, man. Y'all ain't up on it so good. You ain't up on it, and they're up on you. What are you? It's ridiculous. What else we got? You're pretty good on that strategy of how you, you know, put a scandal under the carpet.

I was gonna let him just talk. I was starting to like, oh, is he incriminating himself right now? What big name person have you worked with to know that strategy so well? I'm a big name person. What you talking about? Oh, okay. Come on, man. This is all first hand. First hand.

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Bet must win to receive reward. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance for additional terms and responsible gaming resources see DKNG.co slash audio Don LeBattard Sugar daddies these things I'm telling you love sugar daddies. I like tucking your teeth. What can't chew them They're like impossible to chew. They're impossible. That is every day stew guts This is the Don LeBatar Show with the StuGuts! Hey, um, I don't know about you, but there's something that I watched yesterday, a clip, and like-

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Was it the conference finals that we- You're doing too much watching I'm not supposed to be Don't look oh my gosh, that was good. Don't look now presented by smirnoff the world's number one vodka, please Drink respond boys if you're looking don't okay. I got a couple NFL subjects a couple NFL topics I'm gonna turn around for the team, right? Lions defensive end Aiden Huntington cleared for full return after his broken leg Wow. What do you think about that?

I'm excited about it, man. I was hoping he played in the Super Bowl there was no way he was gonna be able to do it, but it was a Motivating rallying cry for his teammates to try to get a little bit of an unfathomable Yeah, those look like glasses that actually go with your outfit. This is now you could like go to those. You look like jodesy in the way you're looking like. No, of course not. The coolest star trek. Yeah. How do you ever see anything looking like? I need you to be my eyes closed. I'm just envisioning. Oh no. I'm right now. Look great. 2025 Star Trek is what you

look like. How do you know Chris? Trek. Yeah, Trek. All right, the Tush Push Lives proposal to ban the NFL play fails. Yeah. The Tush Push Lives. You know what? You know what I read, Tony, before I could not look.

Well, you listen to it. You listen to it on a podcast. There you go. Someone said, you know, they play the Packers. I want to say week 10. They need to tush push like the entire first quarter. Just every play. Can rugby scrum the entire way down the field?

I love how a mean thing's just looking in a different direction. It's not looking. It's not looking. I'm not looking. Like your eyes are clearly open. You said don't look. You said don't see.

Yeah, exactly. Don't look at Stephen A. Smith right now. All right. Last one. Now I want to bring us, I'm grabbing the steering wheel. Oh, I couldn't see you there, my bad. I want to do a visual thing'm grabbing the steering wheel. I couldn't see them I bet I want to do a visual thing here for don't look now It's a will levis picking his nose in this video of cam ward where we can't

Man there's is a you look there's a whole studio of people And we're Tony's daughter who can't see the screen cam ward And in the background, Will Levis. I'm gonna have to go Tony Reale slash Jerry Seinfeld and say not a pic. Is he picking? I don't think so. Is Will Levis picking his nose in the background here?

You have Will Levis scratching the outside of his nose. It could be anything. I put my finger to my nose all the time. Not for what you're thinking, but I put my finger to my nose like if I'm thinking or something like that. I know that form better than anybody. He did here. It was coming down. It was on it It was like not a golden no

What if he was doing what a golden cuz it was like it was on the way down before you saw upward Scratch like at the end. No, you know why because this is how I scratch my nose like this. Yep Maybe he was signaling for someone to take out camwards knee. I got three of you in there I need it pick or no pick not a pig not a pick for Izzy pick No pick Wow to me Jordy LaForest Last one here on don't look now. I hope nobody's looking Brock Purdy happy about his new deal with the 49ers

Yeah, I'm looking mofo. I'd be happy to. Top 10 now, right? Top 10 paid in the in the position? Ever. I guess everyone's always ever. And now you can look. All right. One thing I did look at. Hawk is black. Yeah, we got a Walter shirt. I want to do we find one. I need a I need a shirt. There it is. Hello. My name name is Walter if we can get that sent ASAP I will wear it at whatever next big event you hear that t-shirt How about the the retreat I wear to the SPJ 40 under 40 retreat? Which is gonna be very confusing if I wear that shirt, but whatever Walter my name's Andrew It's actually Andrew. You know who I sort of turned on a little bit the other day was Nick Wright.

And this is, so he went on this whole rant about SGA and how he is the foul baiter and how specifically the way OKC is allowed to play defense, people who defend SGA are not allowed to play defense because he flails and all of a sudden gets the call. That sounds real familiar. Where do you think Nick Wright got that from? Was it me?

No, it was from Chris. Well, number one, yes, always. It's always stolen off someone. Number two, it was from Chris Finch. We played that on Oddball the other day. Chris Finch back in February. Am I gonna lie for a second there? I was like, did I say this?

It's gonna be awesome. Well, the annoying part is that the clips that they showed of SGA driving to the rim and had people contacting him and yes, him then falling, and other people just sort of against a standing Anthony Edwards, sort of taking hacks at him. That's a different level of fouls, right? You're going to the rim, of course,

you're going to get more credit for being fouled because you're attempting a shot or at least attempting a drive. If you're just standing there with the ball, you're probably going to get hacked a couple of times and they'll let you get away with that. But the most important thing about it, I immediately thought back to 2006 and Mike, who's not here, thank you for not being here. I don't want to get into it, but him saying that the 2006 finals were rigged and I'm pretty sure he's like combining memories because he said there was a ref there

that was like clearly on the take. And I'm like, no, it wasn't. It was just Mark Cuban saying a bunch of shit because Dwayne Wade was getting fouled all the time. And I don't like him and Nick did a great job as he always does of sort of telling his story, making his, giving his take and setting his narrative. If I'm an Oklahoma City Thunder fan and my team wins the championship,

get that conversation the hell out of them away from my team my star like this dude is the MVP of the league and Ten years from now new fans are gonna be like he was just a foul baiter wasn't very good I'm just like we need to slow down with no no they want because no one will remember this no one will remember It's it's a main conversation That's what Mike remembers from the 2006 finals of Dwayne Wade and that's not what really happened. So I do think people are gonna remember that, especially if he goes to the finals

and gets like 16 free throws a game. The losing team always has a reason why they lost. Like it's all like, their fit, like it always is like, oh, this is why we lost, not because we got beat. There's always a specific conspiracy against the things that happen to them. You know what I think about when I think about the 2006 NBA finals?

I think about them being up two zero and they blew it. That's what I think about Dallas. Dallas being up two zero and blew it. I think about Avery Johnson midway through the series deciding they need to stay in like, in Aventura or wherever they moved the. Yeah, the informed basketball person remembers those things. But the person who might not be informed

and they look up SGA and all they're flooded with is, oh, foul merchant and these phrases that just came out of nowhere that people just want to attach to these guys. It's just, look, does he, I mean, do people remember that strictly about Paul Pierce? Because if you go back and look at the footage, it's him like, no, they think of that 2008 team

as one of the greatest teams ever, right? And so people didn't talk about that enough with Paul Pierce. Then now it's all people are talking about with SGA. See, I'll take that. I appreciate you bringing it here though, Izzy, because I made the comparison to Dwayne Wade the other day where it's like, this is a guy who's capable

of splitting double teams and driving to the hoop like no one else in the NBA and his ability to hesitate. Like there was a call last night against Rudy Gobert where Gobert was called for a foul against SGA and everybody lost their minds. But it was because what SGA was able to do was get into the lane, slow himself down enough to get Gobert to bite for a second.

Then he speeds immediately back up and puts the ball low to the ground. So what does Gobert do? He reaches there and SGA is able to come up. That's a foul. Show me the clips where he's not getting fouled. That's what I say about Dwayne Wade. Dwayne Wade, show me the clips from 2006 finals

where he wasn't fouled. I'll wait. And that's the part that I think is frustrating is people are conflating the art of what it is that he's doing with what they think a narrative is supposed to be. I watched the game without Twitter last night, and it was incredible,

because I got to just watch the game through the perspective of how is this game going, and not being worried about what the narratives were online. And when I finished it, I was like, well, this was an evenly refereed game, this is a guy who's getting the line, Anthony Edwards also got to the line, and then I turn around and I go to Twitter,

and all of a sudden the entire narrative that I see on Twitter is just people saying he's a foul merchant. I really it's it's so frustrating. I wish people would take a second to just watch these games without worrying about the group think that's on social media because it makes the sport that much better. It allows you to appreciate the art that you're watching. That's so straight. That is such a my gosh, bro. That's so straight. That is such a great take.

Powering through to this is so difficult. You look like Shannon Sharpe. I am crying because of the fact you look exactly like Doug Funnie. You look like Doug Funnie growing up. It became a media personality, man. A little mustache, a little more hair. And the fact that you keep playing that music, it really, personality, man. Oh my gosh. A mustache, a little more hair. And the fact they keep playing that music,

it really, like, damn. Doug, it's good to see you've done well in life, man. Yeah, this whole show has made me realize that my success that I have had is a f***ing miracle. Hey, Mary Patty, congratulations. Oh my gosh. Tears are wild, aren't they? You were just really happy and all of a sudden

salty water started dripping out of your eyes. What the hell is that? It's just, but. What's the deal with tears when you're loving? I got the better. I can make another comparison here with SGA that is. You all right, Chris? It's sort of like him getting calls all the time.

It's sort of like a great starting pitcher in baseball earning the corner. So if you can consistently hit the corner over and over and over and over again and always be hitting your spot as a pitcher The further the game goes on you might get an extra inch or two off the plate called a strike And it's because you've shown that you're capable of it if you're SGA and you're capable of drawing legitimate fouls Yeah, there are gonna be the occasional moments where you get a foul called on you. That, man, the blurred picture of me and Doug

at the same time. I'm trying to power through, but this is becoming increasingly difficult. Jeremy, to your point, there's two things. Number one is the reason why people can't fathom it is because SGA, like Luka Dantzic, like James Harden, like a lot like Jalen Brunson, they're all great at something I don't think people

are used to thinking about, which is deceleration. Everyone always thinks about first step, being fast, being explosive. Their ability to stop while you keep moving and using your momentum against you, it's almost like Jiu Jitsu. It's artful. That's what people don't understand.

Think like James Harden, probably the first person to really perfect it. Like deceleration like that, yeah. The other part of it is, what you're talking about owning the corner, to me, that's Oklahoma City Thunder defense. Yes, they're physical as hell. Yes, they get away with things.

You know who else does? Every other great defense in the history of the NBA. That's right. They talk about that constantly. There's never been a great defense. You know what I like about them? They do it clean. They do it right.

Everyone who plays great defense in our league has a benefit of the doubt with the referees and are allowed to be more physical like that. And like Hawk said, you know who complains about it the most? The losers. The losers are the one who complain about it the most. I mean, you have a great, you you know working knowledge of NBA history and stuff have

you ever seen a collection of such good individual defensive players in a collective like the Thunder? Yeah I mean I would say like the the 0-4 0-5 Pistons that like era of the Chauncey, everyone defended that was what made them so so terrifying was that like Rip was probably their worst defensive player and he wasn't bad, right? So the- He was annoying defensively. The part that makes them different

is that everyone's an offensive threat. Not only are they all great defensively, they're all offensive threats. Sound like you're talking about the Panthers right now. Isn't that the evolution of the game though? Because I thought about this the other day with like Aaron Neesmith. Like it used to be, if you wanted that kind of crazy comeback,

like it's gotta be all on Tracy McGrady. Hey Tracy, you're amazingly talented. You go, now it could be any of these guys because you can't really have a deficiency without it being exposed when you're out there, right? So not only do you have to be a good defender, but you gotta be able to shoot because otherwise they're just gonna leave you

in the corner. It just ruins everything when you have an obvious shortcoming, like even, you know, the Miami Heat where the Cleveland Cavaliers say, oh, just pick on Tyler Hero. It bleepin' works because he's not a, you know, two-way player. And so the game just evolves and evolves and evolves, and then you have so many of these guys who don't have any holes in their game, and they're all in the thunder. And a few are on the paces. This is what I would say. Much like what people say,

oh, you know what's in now? Big threes. What does that mean? Because people thought, oh, because they had a big three, everyone wanted. Oh, big three. I think I'm at like the architecture. Sorry.

So, and when they say that, I say, no, that's not a thing that's in now. We've always wanted as many great players as we can. It's just, it's really hard to do that. Same thing here. Yeah, I don't think this is an evolution so much as, yeah, we always want it, but it's like, it's really hard to field an entire roster like that.

To your point, the guy who would do what Niesemit did back in the day, if it wasn't Tracy McGregor, it'd be someone like Eddie House. Meaning, like, this guy can catch fire at any moment, but also, Eddie's not gonna be able to lock up the best player on the ground. That's what I mean by the evolution. There's just more of them.

That you can literally fill an entire roster of players like that and still have more for the other teams in the league. I mean, forgive me, because I'm obviously the novice NBA fan, but isn't the Oklahoma City Thunder roster composition in large part because of the Paul George trade? That's SGA.

That's a million trades, good trades that they made. Yeah, it's been a while. Good drafting, too. There's a lot of stuff. So the short answer is yes. The longer answer is yeah, but it took a lot of steps. So was it like, did they have, because in football, it's like you build a roster,

it's either did they have, you know, cause in football it's like you build a roster, it's either you draft like great or you have a bunch of draft picks. And it's like, your ability to, did they have the increased draft picks or like? So the way it happened, they traded Paul George for Sabonis and Victor Oladipo. And then Sabonis was then traded for Tyrese Halliburton. They also got a picture from that Russell Westbrook trade.

How you gonna say? So there's a lot of stuff Indiana did over time to get us to where we are here. But yes, you could point to Paul George, like them trading Paul George as the start of what got us here. But that was, again, that was what, eight years ago? But they also had the luxury of being like,

in the NFL you're not saying, hey, we'll take these guys, we'll see if they work out, we're gonna be terrible for a couple years, that's fine. They were pretty bad for a little bit, and then sort of picked out. They did make good picks, because they weren't all like strikeouts and only a few of them worked out.

So they make more good picks than they didn't, but it was all about just having the options. Hold on a minute. Were we just talking about the Paul George trade with Indiana or the Paul George trade with Oklahoma City? Because you brought up Sabonis. I'm talking about, he's asking me how Indiana got here. I thought he was talking about how the Oklahoma City Thunder got here. Oh my bad.

Because both teams traded Paul George and it made both of them better. It was confusing. Yeah Jeremy back here were like the Sabonis on the Thunder. I don't remember that. Sabonis was on the Thunder. Yeah Halliburton. But yeah okay so to go back. OKC, yeah.

OKC, yes, absolutely the Paul George thing set it off because Paul George, first of all, gave him SGA. Let's just start there. Yeah. That's how they got SGA. But then they got a zillion picks, which by the way, not done yet. We're still getting picks.

Five first rounders. Yeah, okay. And so it's absolutely helped them tremendously. And they hit on both of them, right? Like great draft picks and more draft picks. It's crazy that they have draft picks that they hit on that aren't there anymore. Well, they won the Paul George trade,

both by your saying, by the draft picks and the player. Right, because SGH. And that's the rare one, where it's like, we traded for a better player. They hit on so many good draft picks that they were able to trade Josh Giddy, who's a really good and productive player for a role player in Alex Caruso,

because they knew they could just fill out the rest of their roster. Who fits even better on the team. He fits even better, that's why they made the move. But that's what I think part of the reason why people are so frustrated with Oklahoma City and SGA and the whole thing, is it not only feels like, man,

they didn't really have to like suffer through the post season. They had to suffer as a franchise because they were horrible for years. But this specific group of players hasn't really had to suffer suffer in the postseason. And we know that they've got all these future picks too, so they're gonna be good for all of these years

in the future. And I think there's a lot of fans looking at it that might be, whether you're the Knicks, whether you're Minnesota, and you're looking at your team and you're going, man, we got a lot of guys in their prime, they're like, we're only gonna be good for so long. Where's his theme music?

Where are they gonna go? So I was gonna say his takes hit a lot harder when there's no Doug theme music playing over top of them. Yeah. They also get a lot less tolerable. I realized, I was just trying to cut you off, because I'm talking. You don't wanna sit in his lawn.

But if the music was playing, I would've let you stop forever. I was ready to go. But I think, so for instance, I'll give you exactly what they got for them. They got Danilo Galiari that they didn't flip somewhere else. They got Shea. They got a first round pick that turned into Trey Mann who's really good for Charlotte now.

They got a first round pick that turned into Jalen Williams, All-Star. They got a first round pick that turned into Jaime Jaquez who's in Miami now. I don't like him. oh, and a first round pick turned into Dylan Jones, who in a couple of years is gonna be good. And then they still have the option to flip flop picks this year, and then they also have a first round pick next year,

coming from that trade. You know, I asked Amin this yesterday on Oddball, Monday through Thursday. Would Oklahoma City Thunder fans rather, right now obviously their favorites for the next two rounds are, this is the best position they've been in to win a championship.

Maybe since 2012, you could argue they were favored going into those finals or not. Or go in a time machine to 2016 and KD never leaves. Because the projection being, they're probably gonna win a championship or two if he stays, maybe that's a more fun team to watch. You got, still got Russell and KD and there's no guarantee you win it this year. Are you just going to be favored? Do you think Thunder fans would stick with what they have now or go back to

them? Because me as a fan of that basketball, I had a hundred percent. I think they keep, I think they keep this iteration. That's what, that's what I mean. I think KD Westbrook and Harden was the sacrificial lamb to get them to where they are. That's almost exactly what I mean said because you look at what they have going up in the future too. And the players that they already have kind of underneath in the, in the program. It's like, why, why would you go back and keep KD for what reason?

There was already a lot of tension in 2016 is what I talked about. Like it's already was starting to feel like, man, I don't know if this is ever gonna work because of that collection. Yeah, but those Thunder fans would say, if you give me anything, my choice, let me keep KD. Take everybody else. We'll build around KD. Go ahead, Russell Westbrook.

Go ahead, Billy Donovan. I got another 15 years of maybe the most talented scorer ever. That guy's gotta win a title. I also think KD's evolution, personality-wise, over the years versus what we see SGA now, they're like, I think I like this guy better. If you're Oklahoma, if you're Oklahoma, just from a personality, like this is a guy who's.

Oklahoma fans are still NBA fans, they love drama, man. I think they'd love, I think they'd love KD. They all wear the same shirt, you think they love drama? I hate that. They all wear the same damn shirt. You think they would rather have a Canadian or an American? In Oklahoma? I think we know the answer.

So there you go. At least I know I'm free. I don't know, I think you guys have the opinion. I'm gonna break the show anytime you'd like to, please.