Transcript of Amin Reacts To His TERRIBLE, NO GOOD, AWFUL Prediction | Hour 1 New

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This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

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Let's bring in Amin El-Hassan now. We'll do the weekend observations with him in a second, but play that sound again, and I want to see if it makes him wince in any way. Here, the Amin sound from a couple of weeks ago.

I think the Thunder are going to destroy them. Okay.

I love Amin no-selling that. He was wrong. Get over it. I think 2 weeks ago I said I've never been more certain in the eventual champion of both sports, Colorado and OKC.

How do you watch the last few minutes of that game? Are you actively rooting to be right? Just rooting for OKC to win because you want to be right on— or less wrong, I should say, because you weren't going to be right.

Okay, he got so mad at you there.

We'll see if we bring— put up his middle finger and left. So that was a good appearance by Amin, one of his best yet.

Officially, like, I feel like, I feel like we can learn some things from how quickly it is that Amin got in and out.

Uh, yes, Amin, go ahead.

Sorry, what was the question?

Yeah, just play the sound for him again.

I think the Thunder are going to destroy them. Yeah, I mean, things happen, things changed. Two of their three ball handlers were injured for most of the series. Like, I, I don't understand. Like, people act like I'm supposed to be like a cleric who can just see into the future based on— first of all, hats off to the Spurs. Incredible series, well played, well coached, uh, and the effort was phenomenal from everyone not named Wemby. I know everyone wants to focus on Wemby. The— there were great contributions across the board for that team, so hats off to them. They, they deserve to win that series. But it's undeniable that the tenor of the series shifts when you don't have two guys who are the main ball-handling responsibilities outside of Shea Gildress-Alexander. Remember, Dan, a few years ago we questioned the Thunders like, oh, what's going to happen in the playoffs when everything focuses on Shea? They don't have anyone else who can create for them. Well, it turned out the other person who created for him was Jalen Williams, and that— they led that to a championship. How many left-handed layups did he make in last year's playoffs?

When you take him off the board and you take AJ Mitchell off the board, now it's just Shay. And you saw how San Antonio was able to guard him, loading up 1, 2 people on him, and then Wemby's behind that. And, you know, at that point it becomes a very difficult proposition indeed. I mean, I have no qualms about what I said.

I mean, hold on a second.

Hold on, hold on. Okay.

'Now it's just Shea.' You're the 2-time MVP. 'Now it's just Shea.' Like, what do you—

Wait a second. Wait a second, Dan. Are we talking basketball? Are we talking hot takes? You want to do hot takes? He had 35 and 9 in a closeout game. I don't think anyone looked at that game and said, 'Oh, Shea, you need to be better.' Nobody said that. So don't talk to me about 2-time MVP because you're just yelling out hot takes. The reality is basketball is a game of strategy, and it's a game of 5 guys on the floor. And if you have one guy who's the ball handler and there's nobody else, who can reliably bring the ball up against that kind of pressure, which again, hats off to the Spurs. Vassell, Johnson, Castle, those guys were absolute dogs putting pressure on the Oklahoma City, uh, ball handlers. But once you take those other two guys off the board, Shea has to do everything, and he did. And they had a chance to win that game, by the way. Like, it's not like, oh my God, oh, Shea did this. Now, if you want to have a conversation about Shea Holmgren, I'm here for it. But I don't know anyone today or yesterday or at any point this weekend said, oh, Shea, I thought you were the two-time MVP, I guess I was wrong.

No, I'm just saying that, uh, now it's just Shea at home in a Game 7. Uh, you're the 2-time MVP, and I was told— I was saying all of last week, man, that Spurs bench not as deep, they don't go as deep, they keep playing these long series, these long games, they're going to be tired by the end of the series. Like, now it's just Shea. That's supposed to be enough. You're the 2-time MVP and you're the defending champion. I understand, I understand that you, you're 71-14 against everybody but the Spurs.

He had 35-9 in a closeout game. And they were guarding him with 2 on the ball and, and Wemby the 3rd guy behind. I don't know what you— who, who in the universe is capable of doing better than that? Like, if he had 2, if he was 2 of 17, he only had 12 points. I hear what you're saying, Dan. You're the 2-time MVP. You're supposed to make it happen. He had 35 and 9, and the game was, was in question until basically the last minute and a half.

Played 44 minutes too. So it's like not like he played 27 minutes and he did this. It's like 44 minutes. And when they weren't— when he wasn't in the game, it was like, oh my God, what is happening here offensively?

Yeah. I mean, Dan, you're the 2-time MVP. I'm like, yeah. And he played like a 2-time MVP. I don't— again, I don't know anyone other than you, Dan, honestly, who's sitting here today and being like, oh, I thought Shay should have done more. You're at home. No, no one's saying that.

I'm not actually saying that Shay should have done more. I'm saying you're the defending champion Thunder and you're saying now it's just Shay. And I'm like, they went 10 deep all season.

Like, then Dan, you have a pretty nice car, right?

Yeah.

You got a nice car?

Yes.

Yes. Nice stereo system, the top drops, all that stuff. Uh, if your stereo didn't work for whatever reason, could you still drive your car?

Well, no. Look, I took an Uber today that smelled like feet because I had a flat tire. I couldn't drive my car because I had a flat tire.

But you have a luxury car, Dan.

What do you mean?

What do you mean a flat tire? Yeah, exactly. That's the point. It's like, hey, this thing can be a massive machine that's capable of winning incredible amounts of basketball games. But if we remove wheels, that kind of— that's a problem. That's a problem. AJ Mitchell and Jaylen Williams, it could have been any other two guys or just one of those guys and maybe someone else. And I think the Thunder depth and all that would have kicked in. But when you talk about, hey, these are the only other two guys that do this thing, dribble and create for other people, it becomes problematic.

And even with that, this is the thing. Even with that.

That they still had a chance to win the game in the series. They could have won in 6, they could have won in 7. They didn't because the Spurs were awesome. I don't want anyone to be like, look at me, and you could never admit he's wrong. The Spurs were amazing. They won. They did it. Congrats to them. I'm just saying that does have an impact, and if you pretend like it doesn't, then we're just doing hot take basketball.

Uh, let's briefly change the energy. I'm sure Dan will get us back to fighting in a little bit, but this is a great NBA Finals. I mean, you've been a caretaker for this sport And I think this is a fantastic final because the, the one valid criticism is from the casual NBA sports fan, it's like, why aren't these guys playing? They don't, they don't seem to care. And that is not at all an issue with Wemby. Was really the great miscalculation I made when he entered the league. I thought everybody was going to hate this guy, but he's a joy to be around, he's a joy to watch, he cares so much about this sport. And the energy in Madison Square Garden, that's going to be full of people that care. So how pumped are you for this final, just from an emotional perspective?

Yeah, from, from a business and marketing standpoint, this is exactly— this is the NBA's dream, right? On the— in the East, you have the Knicks, who have the largest fan base in the nation outside of the Lakers, pretty much. You know, people are talking about, oh my God, the Knicks fans travel so much. Shout out to Jason Jackson, said, no, they don't. They're already there. Like, every city in America has a bunch of people from New York who are not ashamed of letting you know how much better New York is at everything, right? So They don't have to have like zip codes or area codes to keep them away. They're already living in all of these towns, are embedded cells. So you have the Knicks who have this— it's almost tantric drought of success, right, in terms of a championship waiting to explode. Right. And on the other hand, you have the most marketable name and face in basketball right now in Victor Wembanyama. This is when LeBron and Steph are gone. We're going to be like, we're fine because this guy, just by virtue of being freakishly tall, brings attention. The number of people I've talked to in the last few days, it was like, my mom never cares about basketball, but she keeps asking about Victor Wembanyama.

Like, that's, that's pretty insane. That's exactly what every sport is looking for. We're looking for that name and face that can crack through to the casual fan who otherwise wouldn't care. And so in many ways, even better than the Thunder repeating, you have Victor Wembanyama. As far as him caring, I heard Jeremy say this earlier. Other guys care too. It's just, you know what it is about Wemby? He doesn't mind letting you know he cares. And that's the big difference, because there are a lot of guys who care immensely, but they act too cool for school. Remember a few years ago, Nikola Jokic win the championship and got the parade on Monday. Oh, we have to go parade. I want my horse. Like, he cared. Obviously he cared deeply and immensely, but He wants to project this, oh, I don't really care, I just want to ride my horses kind of thing. And I said at the time, I said, yo, when you're a superstar, it is your responsibility to sell this game. That is part and parcel of the benefits of being a superstar is you have to sell this game. I didn't think Jokic did a good job of it 3 years ago.

I think Wemby does an amazing job of selling our game.

Dan, how much do you think the get-in price is? Game 3, Madison Square Garden. First Finals back in New York City since 1999. Get-in price for Game 3 at the Garden.

I mean, just to get into the—

Yeah, like worst ticket, worst seat, lowest price.

$500?

$500? That's how you play the game. $4,500. $4,500 is the get-in price.

$500, huh?

Don't ask me about the price of a milk gallon. I'd guess $35.

I'm playing the game the way I wanted Stugatz to play it.

I find— Zazz is playing the game correctly.

Oh, now he's gonna talk about us again.

The price to get into San Antonio Game 1?

$500.

Closer.

There you go.

$1,200. So, if you're a Knicks fan, don't you have to get on a plane, get a hotel, and go to Game 1 in San Antonio? Be half the price for the ticket in New York, right? You have to get on a plane and go to Game 1 in San Antonio, right?

Uh, no. I don't— I— you're just gonna get— you're gonna get on a plane so that you can be in the worst possible seats? You're gonna have terrible seats that are gonna be worse than watching it on television.

Well, if you wanna go to a game. Like, if you're resigned to watch it on TV, fine.

No, but you don't want to go to a game and then be surrounded by San Antonio. You want to go to a game and be surrounded by New York.

Who the hell can afford $4,500 get-in price?

I think he's just making the point that you can fly to San Antonio— and hotel— get hotel, get a ticket, and it's less than just the get-in price.

He is making that point, but he's asking—

but it's half the price!

But he was also asking me, should Knicks fans do that? And the answer is no.

Yeah, that's a financial price of going to San Antonio, but the emotional price—

yeah.

The toll that takes. Summer always hits different once the big games start stacking up. Now you've got finals games on every other night, baseball's rolling all week, racing on the weekends, and suddenly everybody's looking for an excuse to get together. The other night, a buddy texted me, "We've got the game on, come through." I figured I'd stop by for maybe an hour. That was optimistic. Next thing you know, everybody's locked into the game and we're all part of the coaching staff. Somebody's yelling at the ref, somebody else is suddenly an expert on pitch strategy. And nobody's even pretending they're leaving early anymore. It's one of those nights where you take a sip of Miller Lite, look around, and realize, yeah, this is exactly what summer is supposed to be. That's why Miller Lite is always part of these nights for me. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink when it's hot outside, and perfect for long nights hanging with friends, watching games. An all-American summer starts with an all-American beer. Miller Lite. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan. To find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time.

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Don Lebatard.

Doesn't matter anywhere.

We could do it in Buffalo or Baltimore.

Either.

You say 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.

We're going to do weekend observations with Amin in a second, but I want to ask him a couple of basketball questions first. What do you make of Zach Lowe saying of Stephon Castle, quote, he's a meaner, more aggressive Dwyane Wade?

He's mad at you again.

Yeah, he abandoned us.

I am also speechless.

Yeah, that's a crazy thing to say.

It felt like a crazy thing to say.

Meaner and more aggressive Dwyane Wade.

To be fair, that was, that was off the heels of him trying to think of another player and he really couldn't. So then he's like, Bill Simmons kind of was like, is he like kind of D-Wade but like stronger?

I mean, was angry at you, but now he's back.

A, a meaner, more aggressive Dwyane Wade, uh, Zach Lowe says of Stephon Castle. Your thoughts there?

More aggressive than Dwyane? Dwyane Wade was like averaging 25 as a rookie, wasn't he? Like, I can't imagine.

No, he wasn't averaging that, but, uh, It's, it's a comp. He's, he's basically saying better than a first ballot obvious Hall of Famer, one of the best shooting guards to ever play.

I, I don't— I wouldn't put it in those terms, but I'm trying to— I'm trying— I know Zach, so I'm trying to give Zach the benefit of the doubt of what he's thinking about. I think Dwyane Wade was pretty mean and aggressive. Yes. Maybe I have this wrong. So like, it's, it would— it's a weird comp because you kind of would want to use a comp for someone who wasn't as aggressive. Right? If we were talking about, like, for instance, if Cassell were a big— I would say he's a meaner, more aggressive Chris Bosh. Chris Bosh, first ballot Hall of Famer, awesome. But I think we would all understand, yeah, Bosh was sometimes like a little too nice out there, you know, he didn't have that kind of nasty streak. But like Dwyane Wade, I don't think about that about him.

Who's the comp? Who's the comp? Where would you go with the comp?

Oh, uh, I mean, like, D-Wade is a nice comp for sure. I wouldn't put meaner or aggressive put taller. That's what I would put. But you know, he's an incredible on-ball defender. He's great slashing. He's great in the mid-range. His one weakness is he's not a good 3-point shooter. And I guess that's where, that's where the Wade comp comes in. He moves great off the ball like Wade. Uh, I, I like the Wade comp. I just wouldn't put the other adjectives in there.

Chet Holmgren, uh, yeah. So do you change your team if you're OKC? And do you agree with my assessment? It doesn't sound like it if you say there are two ball handlers were out. Do you agree with Is my assessment that the Spurs have passed OKC, given that, uh, the Thunder were 101— I'm sorry, the, the Thunder were 71-14 against the rest of the league and 4-8 against the Spurs.

They're—

I don't think they can beat the Spurs if the Spurs are going to continue to get better with the core they already have.

I mean, I think it's a very even-matched, uh, proposition. I, I think— and the thing about the Thunder you got to remember is they always have guys that we don't know about because they just haven't been playing, but they might be down the line. So AJ Mitchell So for example, if this— we had this conversation a year ago, none of us would be saying, well, AJ Mitchell hasn't been playing. Like, who? And then this year, now it's, it's a problem that he can't play. And so I don't think the gap is, is like so, uh, large or, or even getting bigger enough to say that, oh yeah, it's done. I think the bigger problem with the Spurs is that— excuse me, with the Thunder— they have a lot of financial issues coming up. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren's extensions kick in this upcoming season, and then Hartenstein and Luke Dort are both, uh, on team options. So they're gonna have to be changes financially because otherwise Oklahoma City is going to have the highest payroll in the league. And we know that's something that they've never really embraced as far as spending money. That's also why they have a great development system.

The Spurs, on the other hand, are set up beautifully because all of their guys are cascading. Like, Wemby doesn't get even an extension until this summer, and then it's another year before Castle, and then another year before Harper. And so they've got this thing on subsidy for at least the next 3 to 5 years.

Like, Dan, when you say that the Spurs have passed the Thunder, like, does that mean the Thunder can't beat them? They play again next season, like they can't beat them?

Uh, no, just they were the defending champions. They've got a Wemby problem, and I think that the Spurs 3 players are so young that all 3 of them are going to get appreciably better in the way that Shea Gildress-Alexander isn't. That, that the 3 guys, their core of 3 young guys have another step to take. OKC has some of that, not as much as the Spurs do, and so I think they've got a structural flaw in that And I know this is one game, right? They lost one Game 7 at home. They're the defending champions. But I just think that Presti is smart. And I'll ask him in here, do you think he goes after Giannis? Because it's not something I would have said before the series, but it is something I'll say now.

I, I agree with you. I— that's something that I didn't really imagine because Giannis is so much older than the rest of the roster. You know, like, Jay is the old guy at 28. And then you got Williams is 25 and Holmgren is 24 and Dort is, you know, 27. Like all those guys are around the same age. And then Giannis is a guy who's 30-plus, it would seem, and also expensive right now. But look, the way I saw Chet Holmgren scared in that game, I've never seen an NBA player scared like this. So tall Jalen Williams is trying to feed him at one point in the fourth quarter. And he's like pump faking the pass because Chet wouldn't make eye contact. He literally— he was worried that if I make eye contact, he gonna throw me the ball. I don't want— I just don't want the ball. Let me, let me just stand over here. I'll set a screen or whatever. That is— I've never seen an NBA player so terrified of getting the ball he wouldn't make eye contact in order to get a pass. Every time he dribbled at Wembanyama, he seemed to lose his balance and fall again, presumably out of fear.

And then making matters worse, when Wemby wasn't even in the game, you would think, okay, now he'd feel comfortable. He was letting Keldon Johnson Devon, the guy's much smaller than him, eat his lunch, grab rebounds from him, like block him at the rim. And so at some point I'm thinking, wait a second, man, like, is this— is there some psychological thing that's bigger than just I had a bad game? Is this your Ben Simmons moment? Because remember, Ben Simmons was on his way and then Game 7, it's Trae Young under the rim and he passes it and we're like, what the hell? And so to me, it's a crossroads for Chet Holmgren this summer is Either this is a deep psychological wound that I will never recover from, like Ben Simmons, or this is the thing that makes me stronger and I come back next year a monster. And so what Sam Presti has to weigh is if I trade this guy, am I trading away a 24-year-old perfect complement to my superstar because I'm worried about basically his mental makeup?

We're going to get to Amin's weekend observations in a second. But the last time I felt what I felt watching an NBA game as I watched Chet Holmgren was the last 5 minutes of Game 6. Miami is about to lose the championship to Dallas, and LeBron is passing the ball 1,000 miles an hour around the perimeter because he knows that we're all watching him. And we all know that he was scared and failed and needed to develop a post-up game. But the problem with that is LeBron went, suffered, and then came back better. Chet Holmgren's not going to come back better enough to not be scared of Wemby.

We don't know that, Dan. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, we're all playing armchair psychologist saying like, oh, he looks scared out there. We don't know. But I think with every player, every person, really, we all have failures. And at that moment, we, we have the opportunity to give them the benefit of the doubt. Like, look, you know, you failed. What are you going to do about it? And some people come back better as a result, like LeBron did, right? He took it to heart and he expanded his game. And some people just kind of crumble under that, like Ben Simmons. He just never was the same. He couldn't even go back to being the regular Ben Simmons, let alone get better. And so for Chet, Regardless of whether he denies it, he says, oh, I think I have room for improvement. I'm like, yeah, no shit, Sherlock. But it's at the end of the day for him, either this is going to be a moment in time where he's going to build off of it or he's going to crumble against or under the immense weight of expectation.

It is time for Amin to share his game notes. No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy Amin.

Weekend Observations is brought to you by Miller Lite. Legendary moments start with a lite. Then it's over. Pack it all in. There's no use anymore. He's too big. His defense is impregnable. It's Luke Kornet's world and we're all just living in it. LeBron on Andre Iguodala. Tayshaun Prince on Reggie Miller, D-Wade on Carmelo Anthony, LeBron on Tiago Splitter, and now we have Luke Cornett on Isaiah Hartenstein.

Let's play the game.

That, that, that saved the game and saved the series for them because they were crumbling. All that stuff I was talking about, poise, and they were crumbling. They were doing the, the young guy thing of panicking. That turnover happens, Hartenstein's going coast to coast, and we're like, here it goes, here we go, oh, it's gonna be and one, and nope. Cornett gets in there, probably offensive foul if anything, because Arsene trying to wave him off. And that block was amazing. Geldon Johnson and Lou Dort had a contest to see who could shoot their team out of the playoffs. Lou Dort won because he shot his team out.

Chet Holmgren, he was shooting from far away. Yes, every time he shot, I said, don't shoot that, don't, don't, that's not going in.

Same thing for Keldon Johnson until those 2 threes in the fourth quarter. I was like, oh, this guy. Chet Holmgren, witness protection. Chet Holmgren, milk carton. Chet Holmgren said in his exit interviews that he could have gotten more attempts up and that that's an area to improve. That's like Jeffrey Dahmer saying, I could have had a better diet. Is my internet Working or not?

Yes.

Okay. I heard Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson.

Oh, damn it.

Sin.

As soon as he asked, as soon as he asked, it goes down.

I can continue if you want.

You're going to just do it for him? Yeah, go ahead and do it. You have his notes?

Just keep—

you can do both.

Hit the— I got it. I got it. I'm back. All right. All right. I heard Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson clear his throat in the postgame presser. Somehow it got worse. Mitch Johnson sounds like Doc Rivers doing a Doc Rivers impersonation. Hey, wimpy, wimpy. I can't even do it. Oh my God.

Put it on the poll at @LevittardShow. I'm sorry, I mean, go ahead, go ahead.

Put it on the poll.

Why not? Yeah, you got that? You got that poll? Go ahead.

I'm sorry, I mean, go ahead, go ahead.

I'm sorry, I mean, go ahead, go ahead. Yes or no?

Dylan Harper is the truth. Kayson Wallace went out like a real one. French Open. That's Wemby anytime the ball's thrown in 3 feet over the rim. French Open. Francis Tiafoe putting clowns in their place. Coco Gauff struggled and lost in the third round. Coco off. She's not on anymore. Yeah, new season of Bar Rescue, we got you covered at Here's the Science of Bar Rescue podcast hosted by real-life bar restaurant consultant Chelsea Reynolds, commercial kitchen and food truck vet Colin Cassard, and two guys who— I don't know, just me and Zach, wherever you get podcasts. Uh, speaking of two guys, Abdul Carter and Jackson Dart Said they ironed out their differences. How? It's like, oh, we had a conversation.

Like, what, really?

PSG saved the world from insufferable Arsenal summer. Ici c'est Paris. Can PSG save us from insufferable Knicks summer? Because I think that one might be impending. Oh, it's like hell. Speaking of hell, why does Sidano have a plate of pretzels at the spa? It's like 2 glasses of champagne. Okay, all right, there's, uh, what is that, some tea? Got it. Lemon slices. And then there's pretzels, a bowl of pretzels. The hell, Sidano? Those are the weekend observations.

Don Lebatard.

But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly.

Stugatz. He said titties. It like shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for cities.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show with the Stugatz.

The reason that I bailed on the poll is because I couldn't quite remember whether you had said, uh, was Mitch Johnson, uh, did he sound like Doc Rivers doing a Doc Rivers impersonation? That's what you said. That's right. Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. Does Mitch Johnson sound like Doc Rivers doing a Doc Rivers impersonation? Can you guys get for me the sound of an uncomfortable Jackson Dart showing us all that he wasn't quite ready for what it is?

Who, the New York media got him?

It looked like it. He seemed, he seemed a little nervous. It was a lot of prepared statement. I've got to salute him for really looking like a quarterback. He looks unbelievably like a quarterback, but he was clearly nervous. And listen to what he said. That was very carefully structured and thankfully He met with everyone he needed to meet with so that Abdul-Kader and he no longer have any differences.

Jackson, respectfully, do you understand why introducing that president would be something that some of your teammates would have a problem with and why it's viewed as controversial? Okay, I respect the question. I understand the question. You know, my statements all that I have for you guys right now And, um, that's just, that's, that's where I'm at. Do you think you made a mistake? Uh, like, I, I just gave my statement, so, uh, ask that, you know, we can all respect and understand that. That's where I'm at right now.

New York media didn't have to do it. He caved with those questions like he didn't have anything. He could— no, he just couldn't do anything after the statement. I'm gonna be out here scared as Chet Holmgren. I'm gonna just, uh, read what they told me to say. And then I'm not confident enough to say anything else here that's not going to get me in trouble. That's what that was. That's crazy. I mean, that's like you have all weekend to prepare and you can't get out a sentence on what you believe that you're not scared of.

Well, Dan, I don't know if you read Abdoul-Kader's statement, and it's very, very obvious that the same person wrote both of those statements, and that same person would be someone in the Giants PR department. These are young guys, young players, only a couple of years in the league. Week. What obviously happened is they told him, hey, we got to get past this, this is the same statement, stick to the statement, don't say anything else. This isn't— I don't think this is him scared of the question so much as he's been instructed very directly how to handle this because he's scared of the question.

And here's Abdul Carter not quite being the same kind of scared.

So first off, I'm going to say that some things are bigger than football, and this is one of those things. Jackson is one of our leaders He's the face of our franchise. He not only represents himself and what he does, but he represents all of us. And that goes for anybody who wears a Giants uniform. But if he chooses to align himself with a man like President Trump, it's my responsibility based on what I believe and what I stand on to not only show my teammates that I'm against that, but to show the world. And that doesn't mean that we have to spread hate. It doesn't mean that me and Jackson hate each other or we have beef. Beef. I sit next to Jackson every day, every team meeting. We close, we talk, you know, we just— as long as we make sure we got the same goal as a team and our goals align, which they do, and I feel like that's all that matters.

That sounded scared to you?

I mean, he said it with a little bit more bass in his voice, but it's the same thing. It's like, hey, we talked, and it's like, I know this guy, I've known him for almost 2 years, I know what he represents, I know our goals align. Just because we have a disagreement doesn't mean that there's something more than that. It's just a disagreement. And Dart said, we just talked, me and Abdul came here at the same time, we shared a lot of similar experiences. We expect like Like they're saying the same talking points. They said they put it behind them, but I asked that in the Wiccan Observations. I was being serious. How? Because that doesn't seem like something that's pretty simple. It's not like, hey, I voted for so-and-so. Like, no, I introduced this dude on stage, man. That's another level of like 10 toes down into this, you know, cult, I guess. And so it, to me, it's kind of difficult to understand how they're like, oh, let's just, let's just be friends. I, I don't know how that happens. But, you know, kudos to them. I'm a Giants fan, so obviously I want the team to do well.

So if they can put it behind them and play well, I guess that's got to be good enough for me.

I thought Abdoul-Kader also had a probably a better moment when he's like, he can say what he wants, but when I do, that can't be an issue, taking aim at some of his recent detractors. I was satisfied with the pound of flesh, like, okay, Jackson, you welcome that in. Go ahead and tout the great city of New Jersey and show everybody your ass during this speech. But when it was all over, I was more than satisfied and realized this was all super silly because we're talking about Jackson Dart and Abdul Carter more than the chairman and co-owner emailing with Jeffrey Epstein directly about quote "working girls." Uh, thank you, Amin.

Uh, good seeing you. I'm sorry your prediction was so wrong. Uh, Shai shot 28% from the series— for the series from 3, 40% from the field. Uh, that's not very good.

35-9 in a closeout game.

I can't believe you're using counting stats though. He was 28% from 3.

3. From 3, 28%. Dan, I have to use counting stats because I don't know what you're watching. If you watch that Game 7, I'm like, oof, tough one from—

No, I just object to the idea.

Counting stats, counting stats is the language of the layperson. I could sit here and break down how the, the, their offense worked and how the defense was loading up and how all these different schemes and stuff and how a secondary ball handler would have really helped in a situation like this, but I don't know if you're going to understand or even pay attention to all that. So I have to go to accounting stats because you went with accounting stats. Say 2-time MVP, all right. 45 and 9 games.

I just gave you 40% from the field for the series, 28% from 3. Those are percentage points that are 10% lower than his regular season averages.

Actually, a lot—

he shot 55% from the field, from 3. I'm not actually being— other people fight, I'm not ever in this. I'm not actually being a critical of Shea here. I was critical of the idea that you're saying, and now all they had left was the 2-time MVP. That's what I'm— that's what I'm mocking.

Game. I'm just saying, like, again, given the, the responsibility of creation of plays, you kind of need someone else. Otherwise, the defense that the Spurs ran will work incredibly. It's the reason, by the way, the Knicks are so much better, because they used to be give it to Brunson, and then Brunson does everything, and everyone else just stand in the corner and wait. And that works. That can win you 60 games, and that can win you a couple rounds of the playoffs. But at some point, you're going to run into someone who's going to run a defense defense that's going to exploit that, right? And what changed the Knicks dramatically from the years they've played, and even this season, was Mike Brown bringing those Golden State, uh, esque offensive sets where they're running the ball through Cat at the high post and Brunson is now off ball, and it makes it so much harder to guard, right? That's why, that's why you do it. Because if you just give it to one guy and say, just save us, you're an MVP, right? At some point the defense is just too good. The Spurs defense is elite as is.

If you run just this guy's gonna dribble into them and make things happen, that's not going to be good enough. And it wasn't good enough in, in this series. And that's, to me, that's the story. And I have no problem not losing sleep. Oh my God, Thunder— not losing sleep. I understand how basketball works. And like, that is a very logical reason for why the game ended the way it did.

See you later, buddy. Yeah, he hit me with a dog.

Mm-hmm.

He got caught in the middle. He's trying to say Dan, and then he says, I think you deserved it.

I think he said it with bass in his voice for a reason. He knew he could school you and then let you off the hook.

What?

He knew he could school you with his basketball knowledge. Defensive scheme. Said dog and then went, you know what, let me back up. And he let you off the hook rather than just doing it. He said, Dan, I could do this, but I'm not going to.

Wow. So I was schooled. Put it on the— no, at LeBretard. Could have been schooled. Was Was Dan about to be schooled at Levitar?

You're not gonna like that result.

Uh, no shit, comma, dog. Sherlock. No shit, Sherlock.

Uh, can you guys tell me why it's Sherlock?

Is there— is there— is that the only shh that we have in terms of names that you can go to when he said no shit Sherlock? Uh, you can't go to Shy, you can't—

it's got Sheldon.

Well, there's Shirley, but don't call me Shirley.

It's because he was a famous investigator. Oh yeah, like you say that when someone says something pretty obvious and you're doing doing.

Thank you, that is why that happens. That ignorant of me, another time.

No shit, Shay would be weird.

Yeah, that's right.

You know about that layperson?

Going back to what it is that we were discussing with Donald Trump and what is now falling apart on July 4th, a musical celebration in which all of the musical acts were told what it was and then started dropping out. Can you guys tell me what musical acts are remaining because I have read only a little bit about this celebration and the one thing that I read I simply didn't understand, which is Milli Vanilli was supposed to perform. And this was confusing to me on a number of fronts. If you don't know who Milli Vanilli is, they were a couple of guys, I think they were from England, and they couldn't sing at all. They were bad singers, but they looked good. And so they were busted for lip-syncing. They didn't have singing talent or not not great singing talent.

And should we give this Grammy back now?

And so one of them, though, when they said Milli Vanilli was performing at this, one of the members of Milli Vanilli committed suicide, at least in part, it was reported, because of the shame involved with it. Was fairly scandalous that they had hit songs and they weren't singing them and they were lip-syncing. So when you say Milli Vanilli is performing at that celebration, given that one of the members— I don't know whether it was Milli or Vanilli— one of the members does not— it is not alive to sing anymore. How was that going to happen even if— I think also Milli Vanilli has now dropped out, so I don't know whether it was Milli or Vanilli.

There isn't a Leonard and a Skinner. The name was Milli Vanilli.

I was doing that for comedic effect. I thought it would be funny to keep wondering whether it was Milli or Vanilli that was still going to perform, but it doesn't answer my question.

There's a lot of these legacy acts where there's like one surviving member. I saw the, the dance act Lime. I don't think either of those two people were the originals.

Uh, I think I saw Boyz II Men one time in, uh, the Bahamas, and it was just one. It was just one of them. So it wasn't even—

which one?

I don't know.

It was actually two. No, no, it was Boyz II Men. It was the member 2.

Hey, see that?

Boyz II Men.

I still want an answer to my question, which is how —does Milli Vanilli perform today? Was it—

The surviving member sings now. Oh, he doesn't lip sync anymore. Like, he— there was a whole— it was one of the famous episodes of VH1's Behind the Music, and there was a whole redemption arc to them trying to get in the studio, perform together, uh, and perform live. And the, uh, the surviving member has his spin on it. It doesn't sound like the original, but it's still, you know, the same choreography.

And obviously only one of them is still around, but performs the hits that they had and then also sings with one of the female vocalists who originally backed the lip syncing. So that's how you end up with Milli Vanilli.

Uh, what acts haven't dropped out?

To the best of my knowledge, Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida, and CNC Music Factory, which I don't believe is a music factory. From what I saw, it's just one guy, and he went to Facebook book and did like a 30-minute rant from what was very clearly his toilet.

I saw here People magazine says that Donald Trump is now the headliner for the Freedom 250 Festival.

He's gonna sing? I read his statement, he's like, I'm getting an act that's bigger than Elvis. I will headline. What's the setlist there?

What is he doing?

He's not a boss, right?

He's gonna headline?

Yeah, he's headlining.

Wait, just him and Vanilla Ice are gonna be out there and one member of Vanilli?

Oh, as long as the check is cashed and Flo Rida will