Transcript of Amin Elhassan's World Cup Observations | Hour 3 New

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Start of the day, start of the day, it is the start of the day. Star of the day, star of the day. It is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day. It is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day. It is the star of the day. Zazz, I wanna know which of these stats, these 4 stats, do you believe are, is the best of all of the stats I'm about to give you? The Spurs led by 12+ points in every game and led or were tied in the final 2 minutes of every game. 12 points separated the Knicks and the Spurs. 12 points. It's the closest NBA Finals there's ever been, and it was decided in 5 games. The Knicks lost 3 times by a combined 6 points in the postseason. One of the most dominant runs through a postseason there's ever been. And the rest of the NBA, when down 15+ points this postseason, was 6-58. The Knicks were 3-1.

It was so much you gave me there. I don't know how I'm supposed to remember all of that, but I think the third one that you gave me, which was the Knicks, just 3 losses by a combined 6 total points this postseason, I think that's my favorite.

It's one of the greatest runs we've ever seen, punctuated by one of the most confusing finals you will ever see because of what I gave you at the front end of that, which is The Spurs were up 12+ in every game, and in the last 2 minutes of every single game were either leading or tied. And they lost in 5.

I mean, I'll tell you how it happens. It's sometimes not that complicated. Number 1, your star player was terrible in the 4th quarter and with the game on the line the whole series. Your veteran point guard, who's got the ball in his hands, was terrible in the fourth quarter all series long, and your head coach, your young head coach, was terrible decision-making with the game on the line.

Wemby's net rating in the Finals: in the first quarter, he was +43.1, which is crazy. In the second quarter, he's -11.3. Third quarter, -4.1. Fourth quarter, -14.3. Just a disaster late in games. Amin has been texting me all weekend saying that it is Capitulation Monday. He is telling everyone who will listen that he was right, even though he said that the OKC Thunder were inevitable?

I think the Thunder are going to destroy them.

So, Amin, where are you today on everything that happened over the weekend before we get to your weekend observations?

Well, I'm exactly where I thought I'd be, which is correct. And you guys are such losers, you put my Thunder prediction inside your parade of gasbags, even though I had nothing to do with it, because again, the Thunder lost 2 of their 3 ball handlers, and that explains things. That's how things happen in the world. When we say something's going to happen, we're assuming regular conditions. I'm not saying, hey, this day at the beach is going to be awesome, and then a hurricane comes unexpectedly. So I thought you said it'd be awesome. Well, yeah, I didn't expect a hurricane to happen. So it's all right. It's okay. I understand that you can't say, damn, I mean, you were right, and just leave it at that. You have to kind of find a way around, like, to undercut it one way or another. But there's two things. One is I told you that young teams get— I don't care how talented they are, they run into the pain of experience at some point. And two, you lump me in and say, oh, Ameed said that a small guard could never— I never said that. I was never on the Jalen Brunson's too small to win a championship train.

Do not put that on me. I never said that. I never said, well, the championship is this Western Conference Finals. I never said that either.

Where are you on Brunson and how we're going to have to rewrite some of our impressions of him? Because the immortals don't get to sneak up on you.

I mean, there have been immortals that have sneaked up on us though.

I mean, snuck.

Is that me or?

Snuck.

You guys hear that echo?

Nope.

Okay. Just hearing some conversation somewhere in the background, but no. Jokic was a second-round pick. You can't hear that? Really? It's like, it sounds like people having a conversation. You're doing a bit. No, it's not like a—

it's just you. None of us, none of us can hear that. In fact, let's put Amin down for a second. Okay. Yeah, it's nice.

Jokic was a second-round pick and nobody thought he was going to be what he was. And he, he, he snuck up on us, uh, to use your term, snuck. Uh, you know, there have been guys before, but yeah, Brunson, Brunson is special because because of the gas bag montage, right? Because at the time of the signing, there were a lot of people who didn't understand it. And I won't say that I was one of those people who didn't understand it, but I also won't say that, oh, I knew he'd lead them to a championship. I thought he was a pretty good player, and that was a smart use of their money at the time.

I mean, the reason that Jokic is different is because—

Now I can't hear anything.

You're talking.

Now Dan's talking. I see his lips moving.

All right, put him down, please, so that I can come back to him when we've got functioning audio. Thanks. That's the way to go on that one. The reason that Jokic is different is because Jokic was somebody who was drafted in the second round, but he wasn't doubted when he got to the Finals. He wasn't doubted deep into the playoffs. Can this person—

Was that year his first MVP?

Was the year that he won the championship was— and he wasn't doubted whether we knew how great that player was. The part of it that was surprising was the front end. Of course, you don't normally get a guy drafted in the second round in that sport who turns into an all-time great. But, uh, I believe that this Knicks team was doubted throughout, and I believe Brunson was doubted throughout, at least in part because of the history of you can't win with someone that small as your best player.

To your point, Jokic, before winning the NBA championship, was already a 2-time MVP.

That wasn't what we just experienced. What we just experienced has no precedent that I can recall in the history of the sport. Honest to God, where a guy who empirically, without question, is a killer in the fourth quarter, like you can measure it. Is it an overreaction for me to say, I mean, second most clutch player we have ever seen? I know people are hyperventilating. I know there's a prisoner of the moment. I know emotion gets involved, but numerically, this person can score no matter what's happening in the fourth quarter and has done it now for 4 straight seasons. In a way, that doubles up the MVP. Shai and Jokic have done less close and late by half than what Brunson's done the last 3 years of the playoffs.

Yeah, I mean, I, I think it, it's tough to say anything is, unless you felt like that before this run, you can't say now this run makes him the second most clutch ever. If you said that before, if you said, oh, he was third before, now he's second, I'm with you. But you can't come from unranked on your most clutch of all time. To second behind Michael Jordan.

He's unranked as best player in the game. He's— he never gets in that conversation.

Never. I, I don't— I don't think he's the best player in the game. I think he's an amazing player, and I think he had an amazing playoffs and amazing finals, obviously, and he deserves all the kudos. I heard you earlier say he's better than Allen Iverson. I think in order to be Allen Iverson, you gotta— you gotta put together a career of that, right? Allen Iverson had a career of all of those moments. And Brunson has had, as we said, 4 years of it, which is again nothing to say that it won't continue. If it continues, sure. But at this point, I couldn't put him above—

You don't put him above Iverson because of the efficiencies?

No, because again, the game was a different game, for one, in terms of how the game was played, how the game was looked at. Number 2, I think Iverson played on a team where he had to shoot like that. He had to play like that. You know, this team that Brunson plays on, he's got Karl-Anthony Towns, who's Many of us have called the best shooting big man of all time. Zach Harper says he's one of the best shooters in the league, period.

Don't—

don't—

let's not qualify with a big man. Uh, he's got OG Anunoby, obviously, who's a great talent. He's got a talented team. Iverson was playing with Eric Snow and Dikembe Mutombo, Tyrone Hill, and, and George Lynch.

None of those guys— Aaron McKee.

Aaron McKee. Aaron McKee. Billy's own Aaron McKee. So none of those guys were really offensive juggernauts or guys like, oh, on any given night can give you 30. Iverson had to play that way for that team to have a chance.

I want to play some sound here of a CNN reporter getting engulfed in the streets of New York here. I don't know whether Amin has gotten to feel the flavor of New York here in the last couple of days, but look at what is happening in the streets here as this CNN reporter tries to stay calm.

You saw everything. It was his final, like, just release of all these things that are finally and here we are today. And this is just how it is.

That Wemby pack.

It's like we said, Omar, it is a party atmosphere. Wemby, we gon' fuck you up. Yeah, and we're just gonna take you a little bit of this. I love you, Pierre. You got some great haircuts.

You a winner.

You're a true New Yorker.

See, all right, Marc Morales is getting a taste of the people right now. Up close and personal with people clearly smoking on that San Antonio Spurs pack right now.

They were blowing smoke in his face, marijuana smoke in his face. I will never get used to New York streets being filled with people just walking around smoking weed.

Multiple bliffs, Dan.

Yeah, no, that's shout out to legality, right? No, look, I haven't been, I was in San Antonio obviously for Game 5. Been in communication with everyone in New York. But really funny to, you know, look at one of those aggregator accounts, League Alerts, and they're talking about fires and destruction. And in one of the pictures, I'm like, that's my cousin. So like that, that was weird. I'm going to go to the parade and see what that's about.

Really?

On Thursday. Yeah, I'm going to go. I just— I want to be around my, my cousins and my friends and stuff, and, and I want to see what it's like. You know, the parade, I think, is going to be a lot more tame. Than Saturday night must have been. Saturday night looked like the apocalypse, uh, and the amount of people in the streets for the game— because I didn't know this— in many neighborhoods they were projecting the game onto the sides of buildings. You're never going to get— there's no other city in the league— I've said this a million times, but usually in reference to LeBron becoming a Knick— I said if you win one in New York, it's worth a thousand anywhere else. And sometimes I thought to myself, I mean, you're, you're overexaggerating, it can't be worth a thousand. Then watching people watch an NBA Finals game on the side of a building as they crowd the streets, like, no, that's, that's worth a thousand.

They don't do that anywhere else.

I mean, they don't do that in Boston.

I'm sitting there watching the entire time behind Tony, there's a guy hanging from a traffic light who then grabs onto the top of a double-decker bus. Like, there's—

yeah, it's like when you hang on the rim.

Yes, you see the guy, the guy doing the pull-ups from the traffic light. With nothing underneath them.

Yes.

He did pull-ups. I'm like, what are you doing? Well, your fingers get sweaty, you slip. That's it. You're in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.

I did have a moment.

I did have a moment on Saturday night, like seeing all that party, realizing now I get why people make fun of our little party at the Elbow Room.

Because while it does feel big to us, it's just like a few hundred people where that's blocks and blocks of people.

Guys, they decapitated Elmo and put it on a spike and put a sign that said traitor on it.

Pick a side, Elmo.

I'm sorry, they don't do that in Dallas. They don't do that in Phoenix. They don't do that in Chicago, Milwaukee, any of these other towns. Hey, we've got the best sports fans. No, you don't. They don't do that. That's next level.

And Dan, like they took over that building in San Antonio. We've never seen that in the NBA Finals. Like I don't think I'm exaggerating.

Daz, Daz, I took the— pictures and a video of the upper deck, and the upper deck was almost exclusively orange and blue.

That's crazy.

That's crazy.

That's never happened before.

Lower bowl was more mixed. Now, lest I believe that maybe I was just tripping, when they win the championship, you know, they bring it— they have to build that stage out. So it takes some time for the stage to get built out before Ernie Johnson and Adam Silver can present the trophy. And shout out to Ernie Johnson, by the way. Class act, Hall of Famer, all this stuff. Was still giddy afterwards that he got to hand the trophy out. Like, that was his first time obviously doing the NBA Finals, him and Charles and the rest of them. And it was so amazing to see people who are so accomplished still be like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening to me, uh, even though, you know, they're Hall of Famers. But yeah, so as they're building at that stage, obviously all the Spurs fans are leaving, they don't want to watch this. So all that remained was just the Knicks fans, and it looked like the arena was still full.

Yep.

There was still— I mean, I'm talking about, I don't know if you could see it on TV, that entire lower bowl was full of Knick fans, and then upstairs was more scattered. So yeah, I can agree with you there, Zazz. We've never seen that. We'll never see that again, I don't think, where a road team will take over the opposing arena like that.

They did it in Philadelphia too. Zazz, how did you feel about the trophy being handed, as is the custom in the NBA, to James Dolan?

I'll never be able to get past this. I won't. And we saw it this weekend where it was 2 consecutive nights. It was Saturday night and then it was Sunday night. And Saturday night, the NBA champion, the New York Knicks, the very first thing they do on that stage, they hand the Larry O'Brien Trophy to the owner, James Dolan.

Hey, New York!

Sorry it took so long! They hand it to Jim Dolan. —and he gets to talk first. And then the very next night—as if anyone wants to hear from the owner—and then the next night, the Stanley Cup gets awarded to the Carolina Hurricanes, and who gets the trophy, the cup first? The captain, Jordan Staal. No owners in sight. Like, I'll just—I'll never understand giving the trophy to the owner first before the captain.

Isn't that guy in Portland?

That's, that's the deal, guys. The guy paid for everything. That's the deal. I don't like him, but he won and he paid for everything.

No, but it doesn't have to do with James Dolan. Like, like, it's, it's, it's every year.

It's every year. And that's, that's what I always say. It's the owner. The owner gets to get the title first, the, the trophy first, because they paid for everything.

So lame.

They paid for everything. I'm just saying, like, like, it's, it's kind of like if we order a pizza, I pay for the pizza. You better believe I'm gonna get the first slice. What are you talking about? Like, it's my— you are welcome to feed after I do. You get the big piece of chicken, whatever the metaphor you want to use. Man, I love a slice draft.

When you get a pie, a couple pies at the house, like you go in hierarchy.

All right, I'm gonna go first. Let me get this one with the bubble. Call it a pie. I see it.

My son got so mad at me the other day when— because I'm paying for the pie and I'm gonna order the kind of crust that I want, Dan. And so I like the pan. Pan crust is the best crust. And I got pan, and my younger son, he— it was like I ruined the night. He was devastated and angry with me. Pan's a little greasy. It is, but that's okay. If we're going slice draft, you drafting the bubble piece? Nah. No, I'm okay with the bubble piece. I love a pizza bubble. I'm okay with it.

I love a pizza bubble.

Yep, I'm okay with it.

Put it on the poll @LeBittardShow. If you're going pizza slice draft, do you take the piece with the bubble first?

Bubble piece is a second round pick at best, if not third round pick. Pan—

First round pick. Pan crust.

Is the way to go.

We're gonna get— I'm with you on pan pizza. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Is pan pizza the best of the pizza? When we get to talking about owners though, I thought about this the other day. We didn't comment when Silver was talking about Trump being at Madison Square Garden and you saw sort of the broken body language of Shaq and Draymond and Charles Barkley sitting next to Silver and sort of having to eat the things that he was saying that were positive. It made me think of— what was the name of Diddy's butler who just walked around him with a parasol.

Farnsworth Bentley.

Farnsworth, yes. Silver has become Farnsworth Bentley. He should just walk around the owners like Dolan with a parasol in the event that it rains. That he should just be a glorified butler at this point, given what he's doing. Just walk behind Balmer and make sure that all of Pablo's spitting doesn't land on the top of his head.

From G's to Gents, you guys remember that show? That was a fun show.

I do remember that.

Hey, it's Greg Cody's inner monolog. You know, every friend group has that one person who's somehow better at summer than everybody else. Weekends? You'll never see me without a beer in my hand. Straight up. That time is Miller time. As soon as I finish the column, I'll say a little something, head over to the garage, crack open a nice cold Miller Lite, and I'll stay there for a good 90 minutes, listen to my own voice, watch back some videos, see some feedback of people loving me. Then I'll, uh, I'll send a voice note to Yeti or something, and then—

Ehehehe.

More, you know, about myself. More talking about myself. That kind of thing. Legendary moments start with Miller Time, and they're made even better by a Miller Time MVP. Like me. We all have that one friend who makes every game better. Now it's time to give them their moment. Head over to any of Miller Lite's social media pages and learn more about being a Miller Time MVP. You can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Hey, that's what I'm talking about.

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Doesn't matter anywhere. We could do it in Buffalo or Baltimore, either. You said you could do it where? Anywhere.

Oh, whoa.

Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy.

He said he could do it anywhere.

That's crazy, Murda. Murda, tell him. Stugatz. I had no idea Mean had that in his locker. That might be his best.

That's crazy.

I'm not kidding. That's crazy, Killer. It's two Americas, Dad. You don't get it? This is the Don Levitar Show with the Stugatz.

Give Amin the, uh, give Amin the, uh, weekend observation and World Cup observations music, please. Yeah.

Just put everybody to sleep.

It is time for Amin to share his World Cup game notes. No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy Amin. World Cup Observations is brought to you by Miller Lite. Legendary moments start with a Lite, folks.

Dan?

Yes?

Let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. How about Coté-Bois? Incredible goal in the 90th minute to defeat Ecuador. Get it? Because they're called the Elephants. The Elefantes. Yeah. It's still early. It's still early for Ecuador. But with Germany also in their group, you could also say the hopes of their nation are on the line. Ecuador's hopes are on the line. Because of the equator.

I like it.

I like the equator. Yes, I like it. Speaking of Germany, they beat Curaçao, or as Wayne Gretzky likes to say, Curaçao, 7-1, which absolutely gave me PTSD from 2014. The sad part is you could argue that Curaçao did better than Brazil did because at least they tied it up early. Brazil was down like 5-0 before they scored one. God. I learned pretty quickly on Saturday having World Cup games during the NBA Finals is an exhausting proposition. I was spent before Game 5 started because I was sitting there watching Brazil play against Morocco a few feet away from Mike Brown's pregame presser. And I yelled audibly because Vini Jr. scores on a freaking Jericho missile to earn the draw against Morocco. I was like, look! And everyone turned around and looked. Is everything okay? I'm like, oh yeah, I just held up my phone.

How bummed were you by that as a performance though? Like, what is that from the greatest soccer historians the world has ever known?

Well, Dan, there's a lot of doubters out there. There's a lot of haters. There's a lot of people thinking that this is the worst Brazil side in quite some time. I'm not one of them. Morocco is a really good team and they started out very aggressively. And then the rest of the game, Brazil, controlled. I was surprised that Hendrick didn't play. I was surprised that Cunho came in in the second half as opposed to starting the game. But I'm not worried. We got things under control.

I'll tell you something, Dan. I watched a lot of that Brazil game. They got some great fans.

Good fans.

Great fans.

Oh man. You know about those Brazilian fans, Des?

Great fans.

Yeah. Morocco is the first team to field an entire starting 11 born outside outside of the nation they represent. All of their starters born outside of Morocco. Not to be outdone, the USA has a guy who was born in the USA while his parents were on vacation. I wish that was a witty joke that I wrote. That's real. Guy scored twice. USA beat Paraguay 4-1. The dude that was born on vacation scored 2 of their goals. USA beating Paraguay 4-1. Paraguay. Which is the soccer equivalent of Wemby hitting that deep 3 in overtime. It gives you a false sense of security that will come back to haunt its fan base. Mark my words. Netherlands and Japan. Game of the tournament so far. Last time I had that much fun watching something that involved the Japanese and Netherlands, I was using a VPN. My VPN users know what I'm talking about. Time for another edition of the show within the show within the show. It's Back in My Day, World Cup observations on Dan Levitard Show. Back in my day, refs wore only one color, all black. In the odd chance that New Zealand was playing on that day, which they almost never do during the World Cup, the refs would wear yellow.

That's it. Stop giving me refs wearing every color under the sun. All black. Everyone else adjust. Get out of my face. Also, I don't need the ref's name on the back of the jersey. I didn't come to see them. Ref— what are we selling, ref jerseys next? Looking ahead to tomorrow, two games I'm really excited for. France versus Senegal. Colonizer versus the colonized. It's a little bit of a Hatfields and McCoys because there are like 4 or 5 players on the Senegalese team were born in France and chose to play for their native Senegal. By the way, the French postal service is called La Poste. La Poste. It's yellow.

Please.

And, uh, Tony, unlike you, I love female workers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I don't judge. You like the male workers. I like the female workers.

Were you as appalled by our lack of stamp knowledge as the audience seemed to be?

No, I'm not, because the audience are all liars. First of all, the question was, who has stamps at home? Nobody. That's why we go to the post office. If I had stamps at home, I wouldn't have to go to the post office. Second of all, Dan, when you said it was 98 cents or whatever— 36 cents.

Well, how much is it? 38 or 36 cents is what I said. Yeah.

It's not— but no, but what is it really?

Well, they said it's 78 or 79 cents, and I think they're looking in the wrong place. I don't, I don't believe that that's real.

I think so too. 38 cents was, was what I thought it was as well.

It's not.

Uh, I know it's okay. I'm just saying like, that's what I thought it was. But to to hear that it's as elevated as it is, it's pretty shocking. But again, how many of us are mailing things, physically mailing things? What are you mailing?

What are you mailing?

I guess if you, if you had a wedding, but then they're doing the postage by the pound, right? They take all the invites and they weigh them and then you get the, the, the automated thing. You're not doing lick and stamp like George Costanza or some shit, right?

I believe they're wrong. I believe the internet is wrong. I believe the people looking things up on this show are wrong. I believe that stamps are still closer to 38 cents than they are to 78 cents. Sense.

I think you need to send Jeremy to the post office right now to go mail something, anything, doesn't matter what it is. Go find out, Jeremy. Hustle back, report tomorrow.

Jeremy, I want you to go to the post office and find— get to the bottom of this question that we have. Yes, terrific.

Thank you for that, Amin. You're welcome. The other game I'm looking forward to is the feel-good story of the World Cup so far, Algeria. Dan, you know about that?

I'll I do not.

So Algeria is doing their camp in Lawrence, Kansas. And unlike any other team in the World Cup, they've really embraced their local community and shout out to the people of Lawrence, Kansas. They've embraced them back. They bring like Algerian singers to play and the community comes out. The little kids came and played with the Algerian players on the pitch. It's really, really touching stuff to see all these Kansans very excited that a team chose their home to be the training ground. And now they're all buying Algeria jerseys and they're supporting Algeria. It is a great, great story for a team that is a pretty good team. Remember, they did pretty well in the last World Cup or two World Cups ago. And so that's a feel-good story. They're taking on the feel-bad story of every World Cup, and that's Argentina. Argentina could go to hell. Speaking of hell, Argentina.

Those are the World Cup observations. Well done. Looking forward to these next few weeks. The United States, it can be plausibly argued that that's as good as U.S. soccer has ever looked. It's not just winning 4-1. It's that you consistently attacked after taking the lead. Our teams are boring. They're plodding there. They have never been a team. I know it's, it's merely part of why—

Que pasa?

Why are you shaking your head?

I'm just saying this is, this is everyone's reaction after Wembley hit that 3 in the conference final.

No, I'm just— I know. No, we have the result. A result. I'm not projecting anything. Anything from it. I'm just saying that's about as good as soccer has felt since Landon Donovan, uh, you know, scored a goal. 4 goals is not something that we do.

Da Libetard! I feel like we need to normalize saying these scientific terms for organs on the air. Like, if someone— yes, you know what, if someone takes a foul ball to the penis, we should just say he took a foul ball to the penis.

Stugatz! That free kick hit him right in the cock-a-doodle-doo!

This is the Don Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

Speaking of Landon Donovan, incidentally, I'd like to get those pictures. Yeah, I'd like to get those pictures. Landon Donovan as a soccer ball, as a soccer player, had a head that was like a soccer ball. He was bald. He was soccer bald. And he was obviously, as even a young man, bald. And now he's got a full head of hair.

Good for him.

That it's not— it's the way Wayne Rooney did it, where you go— it's like how my dad would do dye jobs when he was the boss, where he'd be totally gray and then he'd come in the next day and everything was painted chababote black, and he was just unbelievably black eyebrows.

Like Brian Urlacher, one day was like bald and then it was like, boom, hair.

You can't really do that, I think. I think you have to catch it before you've lost it all. Otherwise we're going to be doing what we're doing here to Landon Donovan. But I wanted to show you something. Yes, I mean, go ahead.

Yeah, I wish noted soccer enthusiast and hair expert Mike Ryan was on the show today to talk about this in more detail than I can. But I know this because I followed Landon Donovan and there's a whole journey and he flirted with the idea of going to Turkey and then he decided against it because he felt like that's just too much downtime. So he has what they call a hair unit, which is they shave this part of your head, they put some glue down. And then they put hair on top like a fully formed toupee. They glue it on and then they style it afterward. And he was very open about that process on his social media about a year ago.

Glued on, you're saying?

Yeah. It's like, so if you grab the front of his hair and you pull back, it would just be bald. Like, like the boxer. Paul Finebaum.

Like the boxer.

Yeah, like the boxer. You know, exactly. Where is that guy, by the way?

We're supposed to have that guy. Yeah, we've been trying to get him for a couple of months. We failed. So get him. Oh.

Also, shout out to my guy Tyler Murray. You guys accuse him of plagiarism. To hell with you, man.

No, we accused him of inspiration.

You said he stole it. You said he was a thief.

Inspiration.

Nah. Nah.

Okay, but what, you're just gonna shout him out? Do you have any other objection? Because I felt like I hinted that Zazz was suggesting that it was stolen, but Zazz denied that.

No, Zazz went right along with it. And then at the end of that little portion of the conversation, he said, "Oh no, it's inspiration." Yeah, after you called this guy everything but a child of God. Shout out to Kendrick Perkins. I stole that one from him.

Not worth stealing from him, I don't think. So let's— Good play on. Let's play for Ameen here. Let's show him something that happened. And this is something that happens around here sometimes, which is why celebrities and their publicists do not allow people to come on with us. When Hank Azaria was on with us, I thought that what he said was fairly harmless. It was nice storytelling. We found out that Rainn Wilson and Jeremy Strong and Aaron Judge were all sitting in the rafters of MSG because it was such a popular ticket. And look at what the tabloids did to Hank and his publicist. And Hank's not on today because this is what the tabloids did to Hank and his publicist. The headline is, Hank Azaria bashes Taylor Swift as he name drops A-listers rejected from Knicks celebrity row. I feel like that's a very unfair appraisal by the New York Post and all Murdoch-related news organizations that they just took something that was really easy to do to Hank and made him a Taylor Swift basher for the clicks on getting the Swifties mad at Hank. I mean, we didn't bring up Taylor Swift. Agreed.

You know what he said to me afterward? Because he did. He felt it this weekend. He didn't feel good about that. He's like, man, I've got to remember to do that as Brockmire because nobody takes anything he says seriously. I can get away with anything as Brockmire. If I had just made one of the voices, that wouldn't have happened.

To me. Also, they weren't in the rafters. I mean, yes, they were in— they were in a suite. Uh, they had a special suite up there. I walked by it on the way to my media seat today. Like, that looks nice in there. Like, they had— it was all the cool people were in there, and they had food and they had drinks and stuff like that. So don't feel bad for Jeremy Strong, who, by the way, everyone's saying is going to do a great job as Mark Zuckerberg in the new Social Network. That movie looks good. Yeah, he sounds just like him. It's crazy. He don't look like him, but he Sounds like them. And I think that's, that's the key to doing a good Zuck.

Where are you on Windhorst's latest reporting on Giannis and the information coming forth now that Giannis has targeted Miami as his preferred destination?

Hell yeah. Well, Dan, if you believe the whispers and the murmurs in the back rooms of the NBA Finals, this deal is done. The only reason it hasn't been done yet is because they were holding for the end of the Finals because Time-honored tradition. You do not hijack the Finals. You do all your big transactions afterwards. So I imagine we're going to see something in the next week or so. But it sounds like— I'm not reporting. I'm just a guy who hears what other guys are talking about. But it sounds like Giannis is going to be a Miami Heat. And if he is, that'll mark the second time he instantly becomes the most famous number 34 in the franchise, stealing it away from Ray Allen.

Uh, this is why I'm hesitant to do that. The last time it felt exactly like this was Lillard, and then—

Well, Lillard, Lillard was different because remember, there's two things. Number one, it's drug out all the way into August, right? We— it was a long thing that did not resolve itself. Second of all, there was open animus between the Portland front office and Miami, and in this case, I don't get that feeling from Milwaukee. I feel like, yes, they're trying to get a great deal, But it's not like, oh, hell with those guys, anywhere but them, which is what Portland felt like. The other thing I want to address, you guys said, oh, maybe they're, they're holding out because they don't want to take Thanasis. Thanasis is absolutely going to be part of this deal for two reasons. One, he makes minimum. So it's not like, oh, I can't take on that salary. But the other part of it is you want Thanasis on the team when you have Giannis.

He's—

Contrary to popular belief, he's not there just to be a cheerleader and kind of get in and do wacky things in garbage time. Thanasis is the only person Giannis listens to. Like, he's his older brother and still respects him as his older brother. And whenever Giannis is out of line, it's Thanasis who delivers the message to say, hey, get your head back into this or whatever. So you absolutely want Thanasis. He has a great value to the acquiring team, whoever gets Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Can you tell us, Amin, the history of transactions like that? Goran Dragic did some of that for Zoran, but give me the— No, he didn't.

Well, He did. Gora told me, Gora told me, I didn't have nothing to do with that. They, they did it because they thought, oh, this will make him happy. But he's like—

They checked with him before waiving him, okay? They didn't— they don't do that normally.

Of course. Well, after you— after you do the transaction, sure. But the, the acquisition of Zoran to make Goran feel better, that wasn't a Goran request. That was just—

But give me the other examples that are like that. Those are valuable positions. There are very few of them in the world. Giving a spot on a bench for a guy because when you trade for him, you're basically trading for 2 roster spots because you need somebody who is caretaker, babysitter, comfort blanket, whatever. Give me all the examples in NBA history that you have of something like that.

Chris Smith, J.R. Smith's brother, was on the Knicks. He's probably the one that I would say, man, that guy's not an NBA player. And then also, J.R. Smith wasn't exactly the franchise player, so why are we bending over backward for him? And then obviously Bronny is the one that everyone's going to say. But I think all those examples pale in comparison to Thanasis, right? Because all those comparisons are younger brothers slash, in the case of Bronny, a son, right? And Giannis has another younger brother, Alex, right? But that's different. It's like all those guys are like, oh yeah, it's my little brother. I'd love to have him around or whatever. Thanasis, I think, plays a role, a Giannis Haslemasque role, I think. But in this case, for the best player in the franchise. Yeah. And that's— and that's Giannis. And so to me, I think Thanasis is different in that regard from any other nepotism kind of, you know, exceptions being made.

Give us some final thoughts here as your season, your basketball season has concluded. The most interesting observations that you have from what it is that we just witnessed in the finals and how rare a story, a basketball story the Knicks are.

Yeah, uh, oddly enough, I would start with Victor Wembanyama, who is so much better than I think any of us believed he'd be this quickly. Um, that this team— that he got his team to be winners this quickly is, is fairly remarkable. And that he burnt out almost all of his goodwill this quickly is, is pretty fascinating to watch. I think the Knicks season is tremendous, and it is a, a testament to teamwork and continuity. And also a big shout out to Mike Brown, a guy that a lot of people questioned as the hire, a guy that a lot of people questioned. And I'm talking about people in New York. I'm not talking about the national people, the people who are now carrying around on their shoulders. I remember the whispers. I remember all the stuff that people said at the beginning. Oh, why are we hiring this guy? Oh, he couldn't win with LeBron. That stole my point that I've been making for years, which is, hey, we let players grow? Why don't we ever let coaches grow? The idea that Mike Brown is the same guy in 2026 as he was in 2007 is patently ridiculous.

And so I'm very happy and proud for Mike Brown that he showed his value in many of the same ways Steve Kerr showed his value 11 years ago in Golden State. And I think the Giannis move is going to trigger a series of other moves around the league, as we're going to see, especially in the Eastern Conference. The arms race start to heat up. And one last thing, I'll go to my dying grave, the Oklahoma City Thunder. If they don't get hurt, they're probably the champs today.

What other kind of grave is there other than a dying grave?

Uh, you could be buried alive. I don't know if you've seen that. Biscuits and Graves, great point. No, I think the Thunder are going to destroy them. Yeah, and then two guys got hurt. Like, it's— it would be like if two of the Knicks' best players— the Biscuits Yeah, I liked it, Chris. I thought it was a good try. But yeah, it would be like if the next two best ball handlers for the Knicks got hurt as well. Like if, if Hart and, and, and Anunoby get hurt.

Yo, they lost.

I don't understand. I don't understand why people cannot fathom, cannot grasp that. Yeah. When someone makes a prediction, it's based on the available information and not secret information that no one knows because it hasn't happened yet. Here's what you said. I think the Thunder are going to destroy them.

Mm-hmm.

You can't— I said that before the series.

You can't be right.