Transcript of David Samson Knew The Knicks Were Going To Win + Giannis To Miami Rumors Heat Up | Hour 1 New

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This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

This episode of the Dan Levatar Show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The crown is yours.

Now, I thought, Zaslo, that I had a good ticket guy, a good ticket guy who could get me good tickets to just about anything. But David Sampson has a ticket guy that is vastly, vastly better than my ticket guy. David Sampson seems to be able to get 2 tickets to every single thing. And he had last night— how many rows into that arena were you? Like, you were behind the Spurs bench, and how many rows back were How close were you last night, David, in one of the toughest tickets in the history of New York sports or sports anywhere, anytime, any part of the world?

4 rows back, Dan. And the incline is not nearly enough for a 65-incher. So I was standing more than I would have liked. And at the end of the game, I was standing on my chair.

I thought of this when I thought of you having good seats. You having good seats behind the Spurs bench was like me having good seats at a heavyweight fight one time. And then Shaq came and took his seat. Seat in front of me, and I was like, there go my good seats. I can't— all I'm looking at is his back. Uh, you behind a basketball team, 4 rows deep is not quite deep enough. You needed to go 8 or 10 rows deep, did you not?

Yeah, I needed to be incline. But don't worry, I was sitting right behind Chris Mad Dog Russo, and so we got to speak a lot during the game. And right in front of me, sadly, was a person who was in a wheelchair who couldn't stand up during the game. And so I was able to see for the majority of the game facing toward my right, toward the opposite basket, until he left because the game was such a blowout. And then people came to replace him who were not in a wheelchair and very tall and stood up.

Okay. I want to know how this works for you, David, because I mean, not, not that I would expect you to be in the first row, like celebrity row, but you're going to get really good seats. So when you put in to get these seats, are you saying, hey, I need to be this close to the floor? Like, what were the parameters that you were looking for?

No, no, I'm not a parameter guy. I actually was in tickets that were given to me by Jeffrey Loria, the former owner of the Marlins, who wanted to get me a distraction and get me into a game because we've been looking going to Knick games for 50 years. He was, you know, 33 when the Knicks last won the Finals. And we were counting people with Chris Russo who were in the Garden when Willis Reed walked out of the tunnel in Game 7 in 1970. And we were having the conversation with Bill Bradley. How many of us were there? I wasn't one of them. We figured there's maybe 100 people who had lived through this sort of decade-long, half-century-long malaise. And the feeling at the Garden last night—

100, 100. You think there are 100 people in their late 50s who have experienced this malaise? It's more than 100, David.

No, no, Dan. 100 people who were at Game 7 in 1970 and then at Game 4 in 2026.

Okay, maybe.

That's Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier were 2, and then Jeffrey would be 3. And it wasn't Russo, it wasn't me. I was not there in '70. I started going to games in '74. So I missed the 2 titles and I lived through all the dreck. And then once I got into baseball, I stopped being a true Knick fan. And now I've crawled my way back.

Were you feeling it last night? 'Cause you were having a hard time getting into it. Did you feel it last night?

It's impossible not to. It's impossible. It was impossible not to be distracted by what went on at that game. But I will tell you, Dan, one thing you got wrong in the first hour. It's not that nobody thought the Knicks were going to win because our entire area thought the Knicks were going to win at the half when we were down 27 because we were examining field goal percentage and there's no way San Antonio was going to keep shooting at that clip.. And so we knew that it really wasn't a 27-point game. It was not 76-49. We viewed it as more of a 14 or 15-point game and that those games are easily, easily changed. Okay. And then as we saw—

That's just made-up numbers, made-up math, made-up, uh, revisions.

Hold on.

I'm gonna stand up for David here. I think he's right because when they were shooting, when they were shooting in the first quarter and it was like 27-12, it was like, this game is really like 18-12.

No, it was 27-12.

No, it was like 18-12.

Regardless, 18-12. If it got down to 12, said that Tony's over smart. Real hoopers know about what the score is because you can't shoot 80% from 3 for a game. You can't shoot 75% from the field for the game. So you have to look at where the field goal percentages are and that's how you can judge where the game is.

No, you don't have to do that. What you can do in that circumstance and say, because I'm going to say it again and it's why I didn't get it wrong. The Spurs had the best half that a road team has ever had in a Finals game. In order to come back, uh, from that deficit, you have to be as better than the Spurs in the second half as the Spurs were better than you in the first half, which means you have to be historically great in the second half in terms of what the point differential is to be better than what they were in the first half Largely unlikely. It's why Michael Wilbon says he's never been more surprised by a result that David Sampson, of course, says, oh, I knew it was going to happen.

So, so again, that's not right. The Knicks outscored them. What did they score, 58 to 30 in the second half?

Yeah, the Spurs scored 30 points in the second half after scoring 76 in the first half. I cannot tell you how unlikely that is. It's so unlikely it'll never happen again, and it's never happened before.

Well, I certainly would never say never, given how the NBA is this day and age. But my point is slightly different, which is that the crowd level— you asked me how it felt to be at the game when OG goes in, and that was right on the side of the court where I was. And I was watching that play with Brian Wright. And I just want to tell you the story of Brian Wright, who runs San Antonio's basketball operations. He was standing behind me, and when I stood on the chair, I got a tap and I didn't know who it was from. Like, hey, you're standing on a chair, you short guy. I turned around. It's Brian Wright. Turns out to be the nicest guy in the world. And we watched the last 2 minutes together. What he said, as I complimented him for building the team and the young players, etc., he was so despondent about the Fox play. He, while it was happening in real time, was yelling back, back, back, meaning pull back. And when he didn't, he just put his hands on his head, exasperated, because understanding that it was slipping away.

However, after the OG tip, his reaction was not despondency. His reaction was not the series is over. He was very, very even-keeled and very confident given his team. So I'm not sure that this series is as over as everyone thinks it is, including me. And but for spending time with Brian, who I'd never met, I would have not believed what I witnessed, the way he took in that historic collapse.

You guys think what when I say there's no way at halftime Knicks fans actually believed they were going to come back and win this game?

I, from watching on TV, that arena seemed like it was full of belief. Anytime they got a stop and had one bucket followed by another, the, the crowd was dying to get into it. They never left. So I, I definitely thought that that was a situation in which they could get back into it. And the credit to the crowd— I thought Wu-Tang had a really difficult assignment at halftime.

Oh, Wu-Tang gets a lot of credit for that performance last night.

But they, they, they were dying for reasons to believe, and they just got enough to keep that momentum going. And by the time that Wemby was on the free throw line, that was an absolute crescendo fever pitch.

That's the loudest it was, Mike. 1:47 left in the fourth. Wemby on the line. That was deafening. Louder than even with 1.2 seconds to play. And the thing about fans and what we were thinking at halftime, our whole section, we were not despondent. We were sort of shocked, like We can't see that again. The Spurs can't keep doing that again. It's going to be okay if we can get it within 20. Let's start with that. And then when it was 90-75 at the end of 3—

when you get it to 12, the game's—

it's a wrap. It's a wrap when you get it to 12.

It's great. Even at 15, though, at 90-75 going into the 4th— 12. That's not what the score was at the end of 3.

At 12, it was a wrap at 12. When you get it down to 12, it's a wrap.

Everyone knows that.

Everyone knows. I don't know what you are saying. I'm— I don't know what a wrap at 12 means. I don't wrap 12. I'm telling you that I wrap 6 and really not since my third child. What I'm telling you is that the third quarter ends. The fans are everywhere saying we're winning. It's like we've got this. It was insane. And I was watching the Spurs bench and I feel like they knew it too. It was like they were recognizing the momentum of the game and the collapse, which is why their shot selection was so mediocre. Every time they chucked a 3, the way Barkley described it with their 8 straight 3s, and we couldn't believe the lack of plays that were being called or executed. And the Knicks would get a rebound. And I loved Mike Brown's rotations, which were out of the ordinary last night's game, letting Alvarado play instead of Bridges in crunch time at the end. He adjusted very well to what was happening at that time. And I just— I can't believe what we saw. Meanwhile, after the game was a total nightmare, the egress of the ballpark. But the game itself, I will never forget.

Was there violence? Like, was it— was it messy outside the arena?

I was scared. I was walking with an 86-year-old and they funneled us through. We left the Garden, the 7th Avenue exit, east of the Garden. You couldn't leave, you had to walk south on 7th Avenue down to 28th Street, and they funneled all of us right to the Spurs team hotel, which I could not believe. The Spurs stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Nomad on 28th Street, just west of 5th Avenue, and the crowd got funneled to the front door of their hotel, and there were tons of people around. You say everyone stayed in the arena. Well, the streets were packed with people who are coming out of bars, etc. And they were— let's just say I was quite nervous. And there were plenty of cops. But I did think to myself, I would not want to be there if the Knicks win a championship.

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Dan Le Batard. Taitas. Stugatz. Taitas.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show with the Stugatz.

I just want to clarify what you have, uh, surmised for us here to make sure I have it accurate. After the game, you couldn't believe what had happened, but at halftime you thought it was going to happen.

Of course, both things can be very true. You can believe that something's going to happen and look at the numbers and say It's possible to happen. And then the likelihood is that it won't happen and you're going to give it up. But no, but just— but for the record, when they win, you look back and say, oh yeah.

But for the record, after it had happened, you couldn't believe that it had happened. But at halftime, before it had happened, you believed it would happen.

Exactly. Perfectly said. Thank you, Dan. Do you want— do you want to do that one more time for the audience who's not paying attention?

After it happened, You couldn't believe that it had happened, but at halftime you knew with great belief that it was going to happen.

God, that is exactly correct.

Okay, because it's not— it's exactly incorrect. Like, that's— none of that stuff is allowed to make sense together. You should just spill into the street with an 86-year-old and spin into the sea, because that's as happy and confused as you will ever be in your life, even though you knew it was going to happen.

Okay. So, so, Dan, I don't understand what you want me to say. We were sitting there at halftime, not leaving. Believe me, we were live on Nothing Personal.

You can't leave because of what you paid. You can't leave because of what you paid for those tickets. You've got to stay there.

Not how season ticket holders look at it. It's just not. So I hear you. It's great narrative. But when you're sitting around season ticket holders who have devoted decades to the Knicks, it would not occur to you to leave down 29, having nothing to do with the price. It's because you so badly want to see what you believe could happen, but normally doesn't.

What's going on with Dolan and the NYPD and everything there? What are you reading about and what's being reported in New York about this?

Well, let me tell you what I experienced last night. Number one, during the game, the Knicks went out of their way to honor the police department in a very bizarre move because of what Dolan has been doing against Commissioner Tisch, who's the police commissioner. Yes, the same Tisch as the Giants family. During the game, it was a love fest for the police department. Pregame, accessing the Garden, there were police everywhere and they were in good moods. The fans were only allowed if you had a ticket into a certain part of the city and everything was fine. What wasn't fine was outside of the secured area where that's where people were congregating. There was no official watch party because Dolan is a baby and the police Commissioner and the mayor of New York are standing on ceremony and they can't work together to figure out what to do. And they're both lying about permitting, etc. But outside of the perimeter, it was like standing outside of a wall, like in Berlin, and you're looking over and you're saying, oh, is that freedom? Is that what rich people do? Because we're here on this side of the wall where we have nothing.

But the problem is, to get home, you have to leave and go through that part of the wall. And that's when it gets dicey.

I want to get to what's going on with Giannis because this is getting louder and louder locally and nationally, where it seems like all of the momentum is moving toward Miami. But I'm assuming Boston at some point is going to get in the mix here and see if they can offer something more than Tyler Herro. Zazz, what are your thoughts here before I ask David Sampson how much pressure is on Pat Riley to trade for Giannis? On how loud this has gotten the last couple of days because it has— there appears to be more people know more things, and we all know the Bucs have said this, they want this resolved before the draft, and the draft is in less than 2 weeks.

Yeah, it feels like there's a lot of chatter online, and I mean, look, you take this for what it is, you see this kind of stuff all the time, but Tyler Herro is now posting cryptic messages on his Instagram and the brother and Hero's brother responds with a GIF of a buck. And it feels like something is happening. So I think the reality of it is these deals, when like we get the alert that the trade happened, a lot of times the trade's been done for like several days and the parties involved know this. Like, David, that I'm, I'm correct when I say that, right?

In certain instances, you do let the players know that they're in the midst of a trade talk. There are other GMs who do not want to to tell the player anything and they learn about it, you know, through leaks, etc. But the commissioner's office has to be notified whenever there's a trade agreement that would involve money or picks the way this does, at least in baseball. That's the case. But I'm more interested in Pat Riley because I look at that trade. I'm not really excited for it in any way as a Heat fan. And I do love the Heat having lived there so long, guys. I just don't like giving up that many picks for a guy He's 31 years old. I do not believe that he can be the centerpiece of a championship team anymore. I can— I'm concerned that him and Adebayo will not be the tandem that you think that they will be in terms of catching teams in the Eastern Conference. And I worry about his, his injury, his age, his performance. And it's a heavy package to give up. And I just don't think he's the savior. If Pat Riley makes this deal, He's only doing it because of you guys.

He's doing it because he finally is giving in to the pressure. I can't—

I don't think the real Pat Riley— he's doing it because Giannis is an uncommon basketball player that there's not a lot of precedent for.

Pressure that we're applying? They're a playing team perennially. The, the pressure that he's feeling is he— the league has passed him by. He has to watch the New York friggin Knicks win a title potentially. That's way more pressure than us saying like, what are you doing, Grandpa?

Well, but let me, let me just take this a step further. I'm just not willing to live in a sports marketplace where a team isn't excited to get Giannis, period. Like, that's not— I don't know what you're doing there. You can have your questions about injury. You can have your questions about age, I suppose, although 31 is not exactly old. You're playing for the next 4 years. You're playing for whatever is left of Pat Riley's tenure at the— as the hood ornament on this thing. But David, not being excited about Giannis— any team in the sport has to be excited about Giannis. Like, if the Celtics are willing to consider this, given what they've done the last couple of years, um, if any team in the sport needs to be excited about Giannis being added to their team—

in what felt like a down year for Giannis this year, he averaged 28 points, 10 rebounds, 5.5 assists. Down year.

Yeah, so that— those are great stats, but Giannis on Boston will have a bigger impact than Giannis on Miami. Giannis is not a number one piece anymore. It's a number one name, don't get me wrong, but don't get suckered into trading for a name. You're trading for the quality of the player at that moment, that particular year with the particular teammates that he has. David, what do you— Giannis as the central figure doesn't work.

David, Giannis is still a number one player. Like, what are you talking about? He's still— he's 31. He's not 41.

Yeah. The best part about these discussions, Dan, is that they can be remembered because the Heat will play their season and then you'll know whether or not. Yes.

But all they have to do is be better than they were in the last few years as a play-in team. It's not much of a— yes, that's all they have to do.

Front offices do, Dan. Oh, let's just be better than the mediocre that we were last year. No, you're trying to build to win a championship. You're not trading those picks, which are gold in basketball. You can only trade them once. You're not trading them to just be a little better than a play-in team. You want to win a championship.

Well, but David, here's the thing. Here's why they're not gold, those picks to the Miami Heat, because the Heat are not one of those teams that is willing to tank and then they're super high picks. Those picks for teams to do that, those are gold. The Heat refused to do the tanking, so their picks are always 13, 14, 15, and that's not gold.

Yeah, I think that that's going to change a little bit going forward. I think that what's going to happen as Pat Riley gets older and phased out and as Nick Arison continues to put his finger on the— at the top of the organization, which I think is much more at the top than people realize, I think that that will have to change because it's been proven in basketball as well as some other sports that if you do it right, You're going to be bad for a period of time and then you may get lucky and then be great for a period of time. But being mediocre doesn't help. And trading away picks right now to get out of mediocrity for Giannis, I'm just saying that's not the answer.

So when you say, though, in terms of front office philosophy, that the goal is to win a championship, obviously you're not wrong about that. But the daily goal. Is just get better. Like, that's the daily goal— get better. And so if you want to make an argument that you think Khalil Ware will be somebody over the next 10 years that is going to have more value than the next 4 years of Giannis, I'm willing to listen to you. But you can't say that Giannis doesn't make the Heat better. And I don't think that you can question whether or not Giannis and Bam work together well. Like, that's— that seems like an easy one, Zazz. I, I don't think there's going to be any problem with Giannis and Bam working together well because Giannis will be your number 1 and Bam will be your number 2, and you'll continue to be really good at defense because Giannis and Bam together gives you an enormous amount of length against people the size of Jalen Brunson.

I, I also— I'm stuck on the picks again. Like, I want to reiterate, okay, the Heat would likely give up their pick this year. They would draft someone for Milwaukee because they can't actually trade this pick. But then the first tradable pick for Miami is in 2031. I'm not going to cry over a pick that we're giving up in 5 years from now. You know, like, I just—

I—

the picks are— they're just not— I don't think they're that valuable, David.

Yeah, that's why you're not running the team. And I mean that with love, Zazz, because '31 is tomorrow. When you're operating a front office 5 years from now, I can't tell you how soon that is. Think about 2021. It's like, to me, it's like yesterday when you think about who's on your team and what that team is like. And so you do think about 5 years from now. And Dan, don't misquote me. Bam and Giannis, it's nice. That's a nice one-two. But are you saying that's a championship one-two?

My answer? No, I'm saying that it gives you a better chance the next 3 years than the one you presently have with what your roster is, even if allowing for the improvement of Jović and Jaime Jaquez and Ware and all their young players. The reason you develop those young players is not so they play for you. The reason that you develop those young players is so that you have the assets to go get the player who's better than they are.

Yeah, if you're trying to lose 20 pounds, I don't really celebrate when you lose 3. So I, I understand why you would have that intermediate.

That's the first step. I take offense to that.

Yeah, what's a— what's the best way to eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

That's right, David Sampson, former team president of the Miami Marlins.

One bite.

And why are we eating elephants? I don't think we are eating elephants. I think that's a crime to eat elephants.

You see how far the Heat are? In this whole arms race that's eaten an elephant.

I don't know what you're doing there, Sampson. I really don't know what you're doing. You're muting enthusiasm for a star player when—

I get what he is saying. I— he's making— he's making sense. I'm kind of like somewhere in the middle. Yeah. Once the Heat got the pick that they did, I'm all in on we got to improve this. This is a franchise that has been without a bona fide superstar in quite some time. Proof of concept for this franchise means we kind of need that superstar to, to get to the very highest level. Giannis improves it and it gives you a great base to build and add on to that. There are plenty of questions about Giannis. I'm afraid of it. Yeah, 31 is not old, old biologically speaking, but for a dude that is so huge, that has limits to his game, that is already injured, that is the number 1 player right now on a team that sucks.

Yeah, they're questions, but there is option for other people once Giannis gets in the building. They're talking about Bobby Portis at a middle-level exception as part of the trade. You're talking about Kawhi. Could he be out there in a trade? And then all of a sudden you start putting these pieces together. You got Kawhi, you got Giannis, you got Bobby Portis, you got Bam.

Look at us taking bites out of an elephant.

When Mike is saying, though, that there are questions, this kind of player throughout history is never available unless there are. Why would he be available unless there were a couple of questions? The Miami Heat is banking on the fact that it will be able to not only assemble around him but rehab have, uh, what would be as a talent, just strictly a talent, top 5 Heat player ever. And if you get a chance to get as a talent a top 5 Heat player ever with a roster that can't get into the playoffs no matter what's on that roster, the fact that you can get it without trading Bam is damn near a miracle. Like, that you can get it without having—

it's a no-brainer.

Like, it, it feels like you don't have to have a brain to do this?

Well, top 5 player of the Heat. You mean in Giannis's prime?

I'm saying now, I'm saying a skill level player, the name on the back of the uniform. What I'm saying is the name on the back of the uniform. Look, David, don't make him 41. I understand the questions about whether or not his body's going to hold up. That is a risk everyone in the sport is breaking. He's not 41. Skill level, I'd put this right with or nearly above Wade on skill level. Like, right next to Wade on, on what you're talking about. I'm not here for that. Talent. Just talent.

Athleticism.

Yes, I'm just—

talent.

I'm late.

Zazz, any objection? Like, best skill levels in the history of the Miami Heat are—

look, the numbers that he put up this year in a down year, I don't think anyone in Heat history has put up those You're in skills.

A crazy way to describe things. LeBron, Wade, Bosh. Yeah.

Skill, talent, more talent.

Just talent. God-given gifts.

Different conversation. Guys, guys, this is a top 5 Heat basketball player of all time. The moment that he puts the uniform on for the first time.

Shaq, Wade, LeBron. Yeah, yeah, top 5.

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

We're arguing back here about Bosh versus Giannis and skills.

Whatever, guys, guys, it's fine, whatever.

This is mud-worthy, Dan. We need to get in the mud here. I need to know, is it skill or is it talent? You're talking about athleticism?

Jump shooter?

Yeah, I want to be in the mud right now. Don't get me out of the mud.

Just— we can all agree the Dwyane Wade thing was crazy and we never need to say it's kind of right.

Nobody's 7 feet tall, does the stuff that Giannis does.

Dwyane Wade's the second greatest shooting guard in the history of the NBA.

I'm so muddy.

I'll give you a third.

He made the greatest sacrifice in the prime of his career in the name of the team. He could have gone to another team and had a different career and had more MVPs. They gotta talk about James Harden being better than him because of the sacrifice that he made?

No, I'll be ahead of him.

Look at Chris, he's covered in mud!

Covered in mud! I'm so muddy!

Dan Le Batard. Go pee pee.

Stugatz.

Go pee pee.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show with the Stugatz. This is what I'm saying. Perhaps I didn't use the right words. Sometimes the right words elude me, so perhaps skill level and talent isn't what I should have said. What I should have said, this is a top 5 of all time player who can dunk when he's standing on the free throw line.

That he wins.

Agreed.

Bosh wishes. Wait, wait, what? When he's standing still? Because Brent Barry was a member of the Miami Heat and famously won a slam dunk contest.

Terrible trade for the—

that was a— Ike Austin.

Yeah, let him walk in free agency. Terrible trade.

Yeah, Brent Barry was bad.

You needed Ike Austin that year.

He could dunk from the free throw line. Ooh, Harold Miner. I don't know if he's a free throw line guy.

He could dunk.

Yes, he could. Let me try and phrase it another way because I'm bad with words. I'm going to try it another way. This is a top 5 Heat player of all time who, while standing on the free throw line, can just reach over and dunk without jumping or running.

How about Keshad Johnson?

Without jumping or running? He needs to jump and run.

I already forgot his name. I had to ask Tony, who's that guy that won it for us? Was that this year?

Morning. I'm not going to do this with you guys anymore.

I'm so over.

I'm not going to. Giannis is more skilled than Zo.

I do want to ask, though, whether because it is a giant international event, the biggest sporting event anywhere on earth, is America about to embarrass itself? Are the games going to be able— about to— to cover the amount of embarrassment that is coming with how poorly tickets are selling? Some of the things that are happening, are we going to be able in any way, David, to avoid what seems like American embarrassment about hosting the world's most important sporting event?

My fingers are crossed for some kidnappings in Mexico City. Sheesh. Because I think that's our best shot.

You're going to go ahead and want to take that— take that back.

No, let me explain.

You have until the end of the segment to retract.

There are protests going on in Mexico City right now. Because of all the people who have been disappeared by the cartels. It's beginning to leak out and get press in North America and across Europe and Asia. Canada has been very clean here. No one's saying anything. America was in the pole position for bad press going into the World Cup, but Mexico is hot on their tails. And there is rumors that there will be major protests for today's Mexico-South Africa game. Which is in Mexico City, starting at 3 PM. And if these major protests actually happen, which could delay the start of the game even, there is a chance that America will not be in the position to be the most embarrassed of the host countries. So what I'm hoping for is obviously not the actual kidnappings or the actual death of people, but just the fear of it, which leads to the protests which will take the pressure off the insanity that exists in America right now.

You guys have to understand what just happened in here so I could take people behind the scenes of the dangers of doing any of this stuff live. We've been doing it all live for the last 2 weeks. That's just a test run, so I'm sorry to disappoint you guys if next week we go back to not doing all of this live, but it's in the effort to eventually make all of it live. But as something was happening here, I'm whispering to Chris Cody, go into the other room and 'If you can reappear covered in actual mud.' And he starts to walk out, and I, and I'm saying to him, 'Yeah, be careful with where it is that we put the mud on your body and the makeup, and be careful about all over.' As, as he's walking out to do this, I'm like, 'Be careful about that.' While David's saying, 'Fingers crossed, I'm rooting for kidnappings in Mexico City,' which is something I have never heard before. Put it on the poll at Levittard Show: have you ever crossed your fingers hoping that someone gets kidnapped? Because David, I need you to retract that statement before the end of the segment.

We've got a rule around here. You got to take something back. You offered context. I need you to just take back the statement.

My fingers are crossed that everyone will be safe in Mexico and in America, but I'm still hoping for protests in Mexico in order to possibly cover how big a shit show it is around the U.S. with the World Cup.

Chris, I believe we can explain in these times to an international audience that you were going for mud face. I believe that we can explain that and we would be okay there.

And I talked to the team, you know, did you talk to me? Had some big— got all the bigwigs together and, uh, put the mud in your nipples. Oh, no bad ideas, Tone.

Uh, I think it's a bad idea to cross your fingers rooting for kidnappings. I do think there are bad ideas. You say there are no bad ideas. I think we were just in the middle of two of them, that one of them was walking through the back of the room as the other one was speaking at a microphone.

Lewis says we're good, by the way.

Yeah, that's good. I think we should follow his judgment straight into unemployment.

Yeah, how does Spanish television get away with this.

We're gonna embarrass ourselves, right, Mike?

We've already embarrassed ourselves. I actually think there's an opportunity here for the tournament to get going, um, some of that stuff to quiet down, uh, and then the matches speak for themselves. Usually the game, you know, transcends that stuff. And look, this country, things weren't going great during the Winter Olympics either. In fact, politicians controversial ones, made overtures to the team, and the team cosigned this administration in many ways that felt icky. And still, one beautiful Sunday morning, we were all screaming USA. So the best thing that could happen here is for the US men's national team to surpass what are admittedly low expectations for this team, give a nation a reason to believe and feel good about this country.

To be fair, anytime I watch Twitter, there's some European telling me America rocks.

Yeah, I think it's a psyop.

You could, you could believe that, but everybody's saying, hey, you guys have ranch? What is— why don't we have this in Luxembourg?

And I'm like, yeah, ranch rocks. It's great to be reminded, yeah, being able to add cherry to any type of soda is incredible.

You guys have ice?

Yeah, air conditioning. Yeah, no, there's a Chick-fil-A in the stadium. Yeah. No, go to Chick-fil-A. You don't know what Chick-fil-A is? In the stadium.

I meant the—

I meant frozen water.

Yeah. Uh, thank you for that information, Mike.

That Chick-fil-A, when you have it in the stadium, they can't serve it on Sunday games.

That just tells you the appetite for it when they have events like the World Cup and Atlanta United, the college football match days that don't land on Sunday.

I just realized what you guys are watching on Spanish television. We're having fun I mean, Spanish television is wonderfully stuck in the 1990s.

They don't do exposed shoulders anymore here. There, I said it.

Here, but there they still do.

Well, that is here. They're here though.

Yeah.

Tejas.

I love the World Cup. There are just dancing women wearing not a lot of clothes on Spanish television. Oh, wow. Samson, what's the movie you're reviewing for us this week?

Well, now it's just perfect segue. Michael Jackson: The Verdict, Netflix documentary. I forgot so much stuff that happened. I didn't watch the movie Michael. Not yet. That's available. I'm talking about the documentary on Netflix, but we're close. And apparently I had forgotten all about the suit and the child who he had been accused of molesting and how it all went down during that long trial. I didn't remember that it was over 30 days of testimony. I didn't remember Macaulay Culkin testifying at this trial.

Did you remember him saying in an interview, Michael himself saying, yeah, I sleep with that boy, I share a bed with him, volunteering it during an interview?

That was during a documentary by Martin Bashir, and that he's a big part of this documentary called Michael Jackson: The Verdict. It talks about the Martin Bashir documentary where he actually— no, still not that one. Where he, um, for those of you listening, you're not seeing what I'm seeing, which is the video department trying to give you the thumbnail of the movie I'm talking about and not getting it right. But Martin Bashir did a documentary where Michael Jackson said, yeah, it's not sexual. I sleep with boys and they're in my bed. And for those of you who think it's sexual, you're out of your mind. And what's amazing is the jury bought that. He got acquitted on these charges because there was not enough physical evidence and him simply saying, I sleep with boys in bed, and the boys saying, yeah, but he's like my father. It's outstanding. I was yelling at the TV, but he's not your father. It's not acceptable. It's absurd. You should be imprisoned. Now, of course, it doesn't matter because he croaked, but I found it's just horrible. And then I was listening to Michael Jackson Thriller, feeling guilty.

It's a good album. Yeah, there it is. Put it on the poll at The David Pakman Show. Do you feel guilty when you're enjoying Michael Jackson's music? We will let that— we will let David go. Nothing Personal is his podcast. He continues to do it exceptionally well, no matter what the difficulties are in his life. Happy for him today. He had a joyous moment of relief last night. First one in a long time. Thank you, David.

Yes, thank you. Bye-bye.